Summer 1998

Harry sat at his desk in the open-plan office that belonged to the lower-level Aurors. He was watching the clock; only an hour left and he could go home. He didn't mind the late shifts as a principle, but the truth was, after the war things had quietened down quite a bit and the late shift was usually the quietest, and therefore the most boring. He shuffled some paperwork around his desk in his attempt to look busy before giving up and heading towards the office's kettle for a cup of tea.

"Ah, Harry. I was just looking for you" Robards appeared beside Harry "Come into my office."

Harry briefly wondered if he'd cottoned onto the fact that Harry hadn't actually achieved anything for the last hour before realising that he was being led into the middle of a meeting.

"I think you know Kingsley Shacklebolt" he said, Harry noted the humour behind the formal introduction. "I think you've also met Hestia Jones?" Harry nodded and she smiled at him.

"We were just discussing your aunt, uncle and cousin Harry" Robards said as he sat himself back in his chair.

"Um, ok" Harry wasn't quite sure where this was going.

Kingsley chuckled, seeing his discomfort. "We were discussing whether we thought it was safe for them to move back to Little Whinging. They are your family, we thought you should have a say."

"Ok" Harry still wasn't sure why he was there, he'd only been an Auror for a few weeks and while the rest of the team appreciated that he, and others, deserved a place on the team without training, he was still a junior member of the team and did not feel it was his place to offer advice to his boss. Robards on the other hand appreciated his take on things, both as 'The Boy Who Lived' and generally as a younger member of the team.

Hestia continued from where she had left off before Harry had joined them, summarizing that Mr Dursley was unhappy with the arrangement (although it was fair to say he had never been happy with it) and now that news that the war was over had reached them, he and his wife wanted to go home. It was agreed by the end of the meeting that they would move the Dursley's back into Privet drive in 10 days time, when the Auror Office had had a chance to scout round the house and surrounding area for any booby traps or Death Eaters lying in wait.

As Harry walked to the Floo Points at the entrance to the ministry at the end of his shift he thought back to the last time he was in the house. Trying to pull his thoughts away from Mad-Eye Moody and the fight that had ensued as he left he thought he ought to fetch the last of his things from his room before they got back. Hermione might want some of his books he rationalised.

One week later Harry waited until after ten pm before Apparating to the end of Privet Drive. He didn't want any of the neighbours seeing him and either assuming the whole family was back already or, worse, telling Aunt Petunia they'd seen him. He'd gathered from his meeting the week before that the neighbours and Uncle Vernon's colleagues had been told they had taken an extended holiday – Vernon's office had even received postcards from various exotic locations to back this up!

Harry checked the immediate area for anybody who might see him go into the house or any lingering Aurors who might question his motives or report him to Robards before Apparating directly into his old bedroom so as not to disturb the rest of the house - God forbid it wasn't exactly as Aunt Petunia remembered it!

Not wanting to flick the electric light and alert the neighbours Harry light his wand silently. Looking around at his old room he tried to decide where to start first. He started by Banishing the old newspapers – Aunt Petunia would never be able to put the moving photographs into the recycling bin! He then started to assess the contents of his trunk, when he heard a creak in the hallway. Thought he heard a creak in the hallway he corrected himself, there was no-one else here, he reminded himself.

Muttering to himself he packed up the contents of his case – Andromeda had taught him the wrist flick that Tonks had missed out when showing the 'pack' spell.

OK – there was definitely something or someone on the hallway. Harry spun with his wand raised as someone pushed open the door to his bedroom.

Dudley looked more than a bit surprised to have a wand pointed at him. Harry quickly lowered it.

"What are doing here?" he asked his cousin

"I was about to ask you the same question" said Dudley "I live here, why are you here?"

"I thought you weren't coming back for a few days yet. I thought I'd grab the last of my stuff" Harry explained.

"Yeah, Dad didn't want to wait so the wizards that were looking after us dropped us off here earlier today – I think they were glad to be rid dad's moaning" he said smirking.

Harry smiled too, knowing exactly how they felt.

"How have you been?" he asked Dudley.

"Good, I guess. It's been a fairly quiet year; we've been cooped up indoors for most of it. I was able to stay out of the way during the day doing school work – the wizards managed to enrol me in Sixth Form College on a distance learning scheme so I have my A-levels. I got straight A's – mum was so proud. Said she was happy the war hadn't disrupted my studies! Just to prove she never paid attention to my school reports!" Dudley was grinning broadly, and Harry couldn't help but smile back "What about you? I'm sure one of the wizards mentioned something about you dying but obviously you're still here!"

Harry shifted uncomfortably "It's complicated" he said, his good mood gone.

"What? It's true? How?" Dudley exclaimed sitting on the bed in shock

"It's hard to explain," Harry sat on the bed next to him as he tried to get his thoughts in order "I guess the short version is when Lord Voldemort, the wizard that killed my parents, tried to kill me it backfired on him because mum sacrificed herself for me. A part of his soul became detached, because murder tears your soul, and it attached itself to me. When he tried to kill me in May it killed that part of his soul, not me. It knocked me out though so everyone thought I was dead for while. Like I said it's a long story – there's more to it than that, but that's the basics."

Dudley seemed a little lost for words but decided a change of subject was in order. "Where are you living?"

"At The Burrow. Sorry, my friend Ron's house, where I used to spend the summer holidays."

"You like it there?"

"I love it." Harry couldn't help but smile. "It always just, felt like home, I can't explain it. Its nothing like this, Aunt Petunia would freak! Its loud and messy and chaotic, but its home."

"I've only seen people smile like that when there's a girl involved." Dudley teased. Harry blushed. "What, there's a girl too isn't there?"

"Ginny, Ron's sister." Harry's smile got bigger, he just couldn't help it. "We were together for a while at the end of my sixth year. We broke it off when the war started properly, but we've always been friends and I think things are heading in that direction again, I mean I want them to, I can't imagine the rest of my life without Ginny in it."

"Wow, so it's serious then?"

"I guess so. When I was heading towards Voldemort, for him to kill me, like I said it's very complicated" he responded to Dudley's concerned look "she was the last thing I thought about, she was always on my mind the whole time I was on the run."

"I'd like to meet her." Dudley surprised Harry with this.

"Umm… ok."

"I'm off to university in September – I got into UCL, you'd think I'd gotten into Oxford the way mum goes on about it, but you should come visit and bring Ginny. I mean I'd like to stay in touch, you're my family and, I dunno, I - I thought you'd died and we never had a chance to make up, I didn't want to end up like mum, bitter about something I didn't have any control over."

Harry nodded, agreeing. He grabbed a spare bit of parchment and wrote out what he knew of The Burrow's address. "I don't know the postcode, but I can always send it onto you. I'll send it by Royal Mail, not by owl!" Harry grinned.

Dudley smiled too. "I have to get to bed. I'm glad we had a chance to talk."

"Me too" Harry smiled back. "I'll be in touch soon."

"Yes that sounds good." Dudley let himself out as Harry grabbed the last of his stuff. "I'm glad you're ok Harry."

"Yeah, me too. That you're ok I mean!"

As Harry gave the room one last glance over, he noticed the glass shards in the bin. He pulled his bit of mirror from his mokeskin pouch and put it on the bedside table. Pointing his wand at it he muttered "Reparo" – whether it was down to the increased power he felt as the bearer of the Elder wand or because he had confidence in his spell, the shards of mirror rose up and re-attached themselves to the mirror. Aberforth had recently returned the other mirror to him and he had a vague idea about giving it to Ginny when she went back to Hogwarts.

AN:

I know I should be writing my dissertation, but this idea has been floating round my head for ages and it came to me very clearly the other night and I knew I had to get it down before it disappeared!

1,656 words in one afternoon – if only I was this productive when writing my dissertation!

Lou Lah

xxx