Chapter 2: Fame
"She's an interesting witch." Harry said as they passed the tall willow tree in Bathilda's frontyard and made their way through Godric's Hollow towards the graveyard.
"She most definitely is." Remus smiled. "And she was very fond of your parents, but I think you have noticed that."
"Kind of." Harry said, smiling too. Bathilda had spent a big part of their visit talking about what great neighbours Lily and James were and how sad everyone in the village was when they were killed.
They reached the wooden gate of the graveyard. Harry and Remus grew quiet as they walked towards the graves of Harry's parents.
"Do you want me to give you a minute?" Remus asked softly as they stood before the white tombstone.
Harry gave him a weak smile and shook his head. "No, it's okay." He kneeled before the graves and softly touched the cold stone. Tears were burning in his eyes as he thought about the life that he never had. Somehow, it now seemed even more unfair than ever. When Voldemort had been alive, a normal life with his parents had seemed like something from another universe. Now that he was dead and the war was over, Harry would finally be able to live a normal life. The life that he could have had if his parents had still been alive had never seemed closer, but still it was something he would never have.
Remus kneeled beside him and put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "They are proud of you, you know."
"I hope so." Harry said softly.
After visiting Sirius' grave, they made their way back towards the gate. When they got there, they were met by a young man. He was wearing a black suit and he didn't seem to be much older than Harry.
"Good afternoon." Remus said friendly.
"Good afternoon to you, sir." the man said. "I see you visited the grave of Sirius Black. Are you relatives of him by any chance?"
"Not by blood, I'm afraid." Remus said.
The man nodded and looked at Harry. His mouth opened slightly and his eyes drifted to the lightning shaped scar on his forehead.
"You're a wizard." Harry said.
Remus looked at him warningly, but the man smiled. "I'm a Muggle, I'm afraid. But I know all about you." He smiled when he saw their confused expressions. "I'm the new reverend in town. My father retired a couple of months ago and I succeeded him."
"Then you must be reverend Thompson's son!" Remus said.
"Call me Angus." the reverend smiled. "You know my father?"
"I do." Remus said. "Lily and James Potter were two of my best friends. They introduced me to him."
"Then you must be Remus!" Angus said excitedly. "I heard a lot about you, growing up. It's a pity my father is travelling at the moment, he would have been delighted to see you again. But why don't you come inside for a bit?"
He led them towards a big, white house next to the church. He offered them a cup of tea, but Harry and Remus both declined politely.
"My father came upon something a while ago." Angus said while he was rummaging around in the top drawer of his desk. "He left it here somewhere. Aha!" He pulled out a large picture frame. "We've been looking forward to seeing you here." he said to Harry. "We thought you might want to have this."
Harry took the picture frame from Angus and smiled when he saw what it was. Lily and James were smiling and waving at him. Lily was looking absolutely beautiful in a long, white wedding dress. James was smiling broadly next to her, his hair as untidy as ever. Behind them Harry recognized Sirius as the best man and Remus and Peter Pettigrew as groomsmen. Next to them, there were three young women, who must have been the bridesmaids. Harry recognized a much younger Andromeda, but when he saw who was standing there as Lily's maid of honour, he was rather shocked. He had only seen that face once before, in an old photograph of the original Order of the Phoenix. It was Alice Longbottom, Neville's mother, who was now in St Mungo's. She looked happy for the couple in front of her and was smiling widely. Harry felt sick when he thought about what happened to her later. What happened to all of them. Remus and Andromeda were the only two people in the photograph that were still alive and they had both lost more than anyone should be able to bear.
"Why did you think he was a wizard?" Remus asked as they arrived back at Grimmauld Place.
"He recognized me." Harry said. "It's the first time I was recognized by a Muggle."
"Well, to be honest, he has some wizard blood." Remus smiled. "His father was a Squib." he explained when he saw Harry's confused face. "He took the job as reverend in Godric's Hollow to assure that the magical and Muggle community would live in peace. There are a lot of magical families living in Godric's Hollow."
After a delicious lunch, prepared by Dobby, Harry and Remus sat together in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place and discussed Harry's plans for the future. After about an hour, they were interrupted by the arrival of Ginny Weasley, Harry's girlfriend. Remus tactfully looked the other way as the two teenagers greeted each other as if they hadn't seen each other in months.
"Gross." came a voice from behind Ginny.
Harry looked up and grinned when he saw his best mate stepping out of the fireplace.
"You're one to talk." Ginny shot back. "You're the one groping Hermione in the middle of our living room. You'd think that you would have the decency to go to your room."
"Yeah, like mom would let us." Ron laughed. "How are you, mate?" he asked, shaking Harry's hand.
"Fine." Harry grinned. "Everything alright with Hermione, I hear?"
"Yeah, it's great." Ron said. "She's coming here too. I told her you'd be okay with it. Hi, Remus."
"Oh, hi." Ginny said shyly. She hadn't seen that Remus was in the room until just now and felt rather self-conscious about kissing Harry like that in front of him.
"Good afternoon." Remus said, suppressing a grin. "How are your parents?"
"Pretty good." Ron said. "Dad is rather busy at the Ministry. We don't see him that much."
Mr Weasley had gotten a promotion at the Ministry of Magic after the war. Kingsley Shacklebolt, the new Minister had appointed him as the new Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The Department had been so corrupt during Voldemort's reign that Mr Weasley had had a difficult job cleaning up the mess from the last year and with Death Eaters still on the loose and all the trials of those who were captured, he hadn't been home much lately.
"Mum wanted us to invite you all for dinner though." Ginny said, smiling at Remus. "And she won't take no for an answer."
"We wouldn't dare to decline." Remus smiled. "So, what are you guys up to today?"
"We thought about going to Diagon Alley." Ron said. "We haven't been to Fred and George's shop since last year."
"You want to come with us?" Harry asked.
"I can't." Remus said. "I have an appointment this afternoon."
"An appointment?" Harry looked at the werewolf surprised. He hadn't said anything about an appointment before. "Something for the wedding?"
"Kind of." Remus said hesitatingly.
"What are you hiding?" Harry asked.
Remus opened his mouth, but didn't seem to be able to come up with something to say. Luckily for him, everyone was distracted by the arrival of Hermione. Ron had his arm around her, the moment she had stepped out of the fireplace.
Ginny rolled her eyes at Harry. "All summer. They're worse than Bill and Fleur when they first started dating. Thank Merlin we're going back to Hogwarts in a couple of weeks."
Harry laughed. "You'll be around them at Hogwarts too."
"Yeah, but at least you'll be there too." Ginny said softly so only Harry could understand her. "I'll be too occupied to be annoyed by them."
Ron and Hermione finally let go of each other. Hermione reddened slightly when she saw Harry and Ginny's grins, but she quickly walked towards them and embraced them both. "It's so good to see you!" she said.
"It's great to see you too." Harry smiled.
After chatting for a while, the four friends were getting ready to leave for Diagon Alley.
Remus urged them to be careful. "I'm sure Diagon Alley is perfectly safe, but don't let your guard down. You never know. And keep your D.A. coins close."
"Sure." Harry said. "See you later, Remus. And good luck with your… appointment."
"What do you mean, appointment?" Hermione asked as she had followed Harry out of the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron.
Harry shrugged. "He didn't want to say what it was."
"I thought he said it was wedding stuff?" Ron said.
"He was lying." Harry said simply. "You don't think he would – you know – cheat on Tonks?"
"No way." Ron said. "Remus would never do that!" He looked at his three friends who didn't seem so convinced. "Would he?"
"I don't think so…" Harry said slowly. "But he never lied to me before."
"I'm sure there's a good reason." Ginny said reassuringly. "It's Remus we're talking about here. He's like the nicest guy in the world."
Harry nodded, but before he could say something they were interrupted by a gruff voice. "Are you coming in or are you just going to keep blocking the Floo?" They looked up and they saw Tom, the barman of the Leaky Cauldron glaring at them. Then he recognized them and his frown disappeared instantly. "Mr Potter and his friends!" he said excitedly. The moment he said the name Potter everyone in the tavern stopped talking, they were all looking at them for a moment and then they all crowded around them.
Harry was strongly reminded of the first time he had come to the Leaky Cauldron. Then too, everyone had wanted to meet him and shake his hand. The only difference was that he wasn't the only one to get attention now. Ginny, Ron and Hermione had all been recognized too and seemed to be almost just as popular as Harry. It took them nearly half an hour to get outside.
"Bloody hell." Ron said as they walked through Diagon Alley. "Why didn't we Floo directly to Fred and George? Those guys were mental."
"That was surreal." Ginny said. "How do you do it?" she asked Harry.
Harry laughed. "You get used to it." he said. "But I must say I'm glad I'm not the only one anymore."
"Yeah, what was that about?" Ron asked. "It was like we are famous too."
"You are famous too." Harry said simply.
"How's that?"
"You really should start reading a paper once in a while, Ron." Hermione said. "They have been writing about us rather frequently since the war ended."
"Really? About us too?" Ginny asked, who seemed to be just as surprised as Ron was.
"Yes. About a lot of D.A. members actually. Of course, they don't know everyone who was a part of it, but a lot of people have seen us fighting during the final battle. And being Harry Potter's best friends, it's not really hard to guess."
"We're here." Harry announced. They had reached number 97 and looked at the familiar, colourful window of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
The shop was as crowded as ever and the four teenagers had to squeeze their way between all the people to get to the back of the shop. There they ran into George.
"Hi guys!" George said happily. "We didn't know you were coming. It's great to see you!" He embraced all of them. When he let go of Harry, he winked at him and said: "Actually, we just got something new today. Come to the back, I'll show you."
George led them to a door in the back of the shop, Harry had never been through before. When George opened it, he saw that it was the twins' storeroom. They were pleasantly surprised to see Luna, who was gathering boxes to stock the supplies in the shop.
"Oh hi, guys!" Luna said happily when she saw them.
They greeted her enthusiastically. "What are you doing here?" Ron asked.
"I'm working here for the summer." Luna said.
"Fred hired her." George said meaningfully when Luna had gone back into the shop. "But she's actually quite nice to have around." He was searching one of the bottom shelves of the nearest rack. "Aha." He took one of the boxes and turned back to his friends. "Remember those Patented Daydream Charms we had?"
They all nodded. "That was really advanced magic." Hermione said. "You didn't make those yourselves, did you?"
"No, we didn't." George said. "If we did, we would have come up with something better than the soppy love stories they gave us. Point is, we have been working on developing our own Daydream Charms and we finally succeeded. We just made it a little more interesting." He opened the box and pulled out four little phials of potion. He grinned when he saw that they were all looking at it warily. "Trust me, it's completely safe. I'll even do it with you." he added when he saw that they were still not convinced.
They all drank the potions and they immediately started daydreaming. The first thing Harry saw was himself. He was shocked to see Voldemort, but then he realized what this was. It was the final battle. Harry and Voldemort were duelling each other, but for some reason their wands were connected by a golden beam of light. Harry watched as Voldemort broke the connection. He saw how both of them were thrown backwards, how Voldemort was quicker than Harry and was pointing his wand at him. Then he heard the beautiful song and he saw how Fawkes arrived and dropped the Sorting Hat at his feet. The sword of Gryffindor, Voldemort's surprise and then his shout of fear and pain as Harry stabbed him with the sword. Suddenly Harry startled as if he had been woken up out of a deep sleep. He looked around hem and saw that the others were slowly coming back to their senses too.
"Wow." Ron said.
"That was really…" Hermione said slowly.
"Realistic." Ginny added.
"I hope you don't mind, Harry." George said, looking at his friend with an uncharacteristic hint of concern in his eyes. "We aren't selling them yet and we definitely won't if you don't want us too."
"No, I think it's great." Harry said. "It's a great way for people to find out what really happened, so they won't have to believe some of the rubbish they have been writing." There had appeared stories that told how Harry had chopped Voldemort to pieces or how he had cut his heart out with the sword.
"Exactly our thoughts." George said, clearly relieved by Harry's reaction. "And you probably noticed that we – er – altered it a bit.
Harry nodded. The duel between Harry and Voldemort had been very lifelike and it had been shown exactly how it happened, but the twins had excluded some of the more horrid details. There had been no dead bodies or body parts on the ground and Harry was sure that he hadn't looked so good during the battle as he had in the dream.
George led them back to the shop and left his four friends to explore the products, while he went and helped some customers. Harry was happy to see some of his other friends from the D.A., like Neville, Parvati and Lavender. They were all excited to start their N.E.W.T. year, but they were also sad as they realized they wouldn't be complete anymore. Dean Thomas, their friend and classmate, had given his life during the Battle of Hogwarts. Mrs Weasley had done everything she could to save his life, but it had been too late.
"How's Seamus doing, by the way?" Ron asked.
They all looked at Lavender. She and Seamus weren't officially dating, but there had been something more between them for quite some time. "He's still at St Mungo's." Lavender said softly. "He's recovering quite well, actually. He's allowed to have visitors since yesterday."
"We'll go and visit him soon then." Harry said.
Lavender smiled at him. "He'll like that. He says he's already bored at the hospital and he'd rather go back home today than tomorrow, but… I'm worried about him." She swallowed and held back her tears.
Parvati put an arm around her shoulders. "Seamus is really taking it hard… you know."
They all nodded. Seamus and Dean had been best friends since their first day at Hogwarts, much like Harry and Ron. Harry didn't want to think about what it would feel like if he had lost Ron. He loved Ginny more than anything and he loved Hermione like a sister, but Ron had been the first friend he ever had. He had helped Harry to find his way in the wizarding world and he had been the first one who showed Harry what it was like to have a family. He could only imagine what Seamus was going through now and he swore to himself that he would visit his friend as soon as possible.
"Harry?"
"What? Sorry." he said quickly.
Ron was looking at him with an amused expression on his face. "We lost you there for a moment." he grinned. "Anyway, we were discussing who McGonagall would appoint as Head Boy and Girl. Hermione thinks she might have a shot at the Head Girl position."
They all laughed at Hermione's flustered face. "Might have a shot? She's kidding right?" Harry muttered to Ron so only he could hear it.
"You know, I really don't think she is." Ron mumbled back.
"So Neville, you think you might have a shot for Head Boy?" Ginny asked.
"Not really, no." Neville grinned. "But I don't really care that much about it." They all laughed again when Hermione looked at him unbelievingly. "I really don't. I just want to enjoy my last year."
"Hear, hear." Harry said. "It'll be nice to finally have a quiet year at Hogwarts."
"There's no such thing as a quiet year at Hogwarts." Ginny grinned.
"Certainly not with us there." Ron added.
When Neville, Lavender and Parvati had left, the four others decided to go back to Grimmauld Place. Tonks and Jacinta would probably be home already. When they said goodbye to the twins and Luna, Fred recommended them to take their Floo instead of going back to the Leaky Cauldron.
"Why?" Hermione asked.
"Haven't you looked outside?" Fred asked amused. He led them to the front of the shop and when they looked through the window, they saw a small army of journalists and photographers. "They must have found out you're here. If you'd rather face them, be my guest, but they'll crush you like doxies."
"Bloody hell." Ron muttered as he looked at the crowd before the shop. "You're right. I'm not going out there."
They used the twins' fireplace to Floo back to Grimmauld Place. When they stepped out of the fireplace of the kitchen, they were met by Remus and Jacinta.
"Tonks is changing." Remus said. "We'll go to the Burrow soon."
When Tonks arrived in the kitchen, they saw she was wearing her hair long and she had changed the colour to a flaming red. She looked like she might be Ginny's older sister. "I'm already in Weasley mood!" she said happily as she joined them at the kitchen table. "Oh Remus, I forgot to ask! How did your in – "
"Fine!" Remus said quickly. "It was fine."
Harry looked from Remus to Tonks, confused. He was quite relieved Tonks knew about Remus' appointment this afternoon. Surely, that meant that Remus couldn't be cheating on her? The werewolf was carefully avoiding Harry's eyes, afraid that he might see something in his mind. Harry knew he would probably be able to find out what Remus was hiding without him noticing he was using Legilimency, but he didn't feel quite right about that. Remus had done so much for Harry, it would feel like a terrible betrayal to invade his mind to find out something he didn't want Harry to know. Instead of asking about it, Harry changed the subject to their trip to Diagon Alley today.
"I pretty much expected that." Remus said when they told him about the reporters and photographers in front of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. "They all want to hear the story about the war from Harry Potter. And they all want to be the first one to publish an interview with you."
"I don't do interviews." Harry said grimly.
"I know you don't like the publicity, Harry, but maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to consider it." Tonks said calmly. "I'm not saying they would leave you alone if you do it, but you would at least be able to appear in public without getting smothered."
"But they'll just change everything I say." Harry protested. "Just like last time."
"Maybe there's one magazine that won't." Ginny said meaningfully.
Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are." – Erica Jong
