CHAPTER TWO

GRIMMAULD AGAIN

It was four days after his trip to Hogwarts that Harry laid his fork down beside his plate of breakfast food and announced, "I think I'll move back to Grimmauld Place soon." Everyone was at the table with him: Mr. Weasley was buried behind the Daily Prophet, Mrs. Weasley picked at her food and drank tea, and George pretended to eat. Only Ginny ate with any sort of gusto.

He very carefully kept his eyes off Ginny. This had been the topic of discussion over the last few days, and it still tore him up. But Harry felt — really felt — that his presence was detrimental to the Weasleys's grieving process.

"I think that went well," Harry said later, as he and Ginny did the dishes. They did them by hand. Ginny still had the Trace on her, and both she and Harry had taken to following the rules as closely as possible in order to not put added pressure on her parents.

"Mm," said Ginny. Harry looked down at her. She still wore her pajamas and dressing gown, and had a bit of flour on her cheek. He was going to miss seeing her like this, miss seeing her at all moments of the day. It was why he had ignored his own instincts for days. The older Weasleys needed privacy.

Ginny interrupted his thoughts by grabbing the front of his shirt with soapy hands and pulling him closer for a kiss. "You're a good man, Harry," she said when they pulled apart.

The annoyance the Weasleys felt at having someone not related to them live in their house for months while they were trying to grieve the loss of their own bothered Ginny much more than it did Harry. Harry, however, felt like he'd be a brass hypocrite if he judged anyone their grief. He'd been a right prat after Cedric, and he'd destroyed Dumbledore's office after Sirius. "I'll miss you," Harry said honestly, "but I think I've got to move out."

"You're moving out," George said flatly. He leaned against the door jam. It was the first time Harry'd seen him fully in weeks, and he very carefully kept the wince off his face. George had lost weight, was wearing one of Fred's old Christmas sweaters, and had clearly not had a wash in quite some time.

"Er, yeah," Harry said belatedly.

George nodded without making eye contact, grabbed a bacon sandwich from the ice box, and walked out.

"You could thank Harry for making the bacon sandwiches!" Ginny called to his retreating back.

George made a rude gesture in reply, and disappeared up the stairs.

Later, Harry and Ginny were taking advantage of the privacy of the Weasleys's small orchard. He had one hand in her hair, and the other lay lightly on the smooth, warm skin just above her stomach. When he tickled her ribcage, goosebumps erupted on her skin. Harry was debating whether he had the courage to move his hand a little higher... he'd touched her there a few days ago during a heated snog behind Mr. Weasley's shed, but this was far more blatant...

"OI!" yelled a familiar voice.

Harry jerked his hand away from Ginny as though burned. She sat up with a jolt and tugged her shirt down. They exchanged a quick, heated look that told Harry she would not have minded at all if his hand had wandered to her curves. He itched to test his theory, but sighed and pushed it from his thoughts when he heard Ron call again.

"We're over here!" yelled Ginny. She stood up and brushed herself off.

"Ginny!" cried Hermione.

The four of them met in the middle, and it was as though the sun came out from behind a cloud. It was with great relief that Harry hugged Hermione, and slapped Ron's back. They'd been gone nearly a month... they were supposed to be home two weeks ago. Harry took a step back and eyed them. They looked healthy, though they were dressed in heavy winter robes. Harry supposed that was only to be expected, since it was winter in Australia, he remembered.

"Where are your parents?" Ginny asked.

Ron and Hermione exchanged a tired glance. "Well," said Hermione, "we couldn't actually—"

"Ron!" shouted George, sounding rather more alive than usual. He strode out the house, his mother on his heels, and leaned over the garden wall. Harry watched the two come, feeling a pang in his stomach at how much happier they looked. He exchanged a small, open smile with Ginny, and stepped out of the way.

George gave him a look Harry took to mean he'd rather have some privacy while greeting his brother, and Harry nodded. "I'll be upstairs," he whispered to Ginny.

Harry ended up spending the next hour or so packing and thoroughly cleaning Ron's room. His trunk and rucksack were placed by the door, and Harry freshened the sheets, tucked his camp bed under Ron's, gave the family of frogs Ron kept in a tank their daily meal, and even conjured a bouquet of sweet-smelling flowers.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" Ron asked, aghast.

"Too much?" Harry asked. He Vanished the bouquet.

"No, why are you leaving? We just got back!"

Hermione and Ginny followed Ron into the room, Hermione making similar noises of displeasure. "I just think it's better if I go to Grimmauld Place," Harry must have told them thirty-six times. Neither one would let it go, until Harry told them firmly he was not going to discuss it any longer.

"But tomorrow's your birthday!" said Ron.

"I'll stay one more night," said Harry. "That'll be good. But now I want to hear about your Australian adventures."

Ron blew out a breath. "It did not go as planned, that's for sure." Ginny settled down next to Harry, as they listened to the story.

Hermione and Ron had left a few weeks ago, taking an International Portkey that Kingsley Shacklebolt and the Australian Ministry had set up. Arrival there was uneventful, but, as Ron said, "Of course they had questions. The world's mad for an inside view of what happened." So they were delayed almost three days by the "well-meaning but very inquisitive" Ministry. Then, when they went out to the small town in the outback that Hermione had directed them to, they found her parents had moved.

"Oh God!" said Ginny. "What'd you do?"

"Made some inquiries," said Hermione. "I'd placed them near the Australian wizarding school... thinking that would be the best option, but turned out they both hated it."

Ron muttered something under his breath. Hermione nudged him.

"We finally found them on the other side of the continent, and, well..."

Hermione's voice broke off.

"What is it?" Harry pressed. "They're... all right, aren't they?"

"It turns out the Steve and Monica Wilkins decided they no longer wanted to be married. They weren't — aren't living together — Dad's got a new girlfriend, and Mum's..."

"Got a friend, too," supplied Ron.

Harry's mouth had fallen open. He was unable to believe that Hermione's parents had undergone so many changes in just one year. Hermione's hands were over her eyes, and Ron threw his arm over her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

"I think when I did the memory charm, I did it wrong," Hermione said. "I must've did something wrong. They were married just after they had me, they were married so long, and I think by changing who they thought they were, I must've messed with how they loved each other."

"That's awful, Hermione," said Harry, heartfelt. "What did you do?"

"I took it off them—"

"We were hoping it would fix everything," Ron put in.

"Except it didn't," said Hermione. "They were so confused! It was awful."

"They were right hacked off at her," said Ron. "I had to step in."

Hermione gave him a grateful look. "He did, and he was brilliant. He told them all about how awful last year was, how so many people were dying... how hard it would have been to protect them if they'd stayed."

"We finally got them convinced not to keep Hermione in the wringer, but they aren't convinced they want to leave their new lives," said Ron.

Harry was stunned. It was only a year ago that Hermione had performed the memory charm. It seemed unbelievable that her parents would change so much in so little time. He could not help but feel responsible; if—

"Don't even think about it, mate," Ron jabbed a finger at him. "'Sides, we'll get this sorted. It just needs a bit of time."

Harry rolled his eyes and sighed.

Ginny laughed.

"So did you get your acceptance to the Auror program?" Ginny asked her brother.

Ron patted his robes proudly. "I did. Came at just the right time, too, blimey, we needed a pick-me-up."

It was Harry and Ginny's turn to catch them up on the events of the last few weeks. And there was precious little to tell. "I went up to Hogwarts, to see if I could help. They didn't need me, but something odd — all the ghosts are missing, and something's wrong with Peeves. I don't know what, they didn't say."

Their attention was caught on this for several minutes; Hermione fired off question after question. Harry was forced to tell her that he had not gleaned all the information that he could, and had, in fact, inwardly decided that it would be up to someone else to solve the mysteries at Hogwarts. "Like Ginny," he said, "Ginny can figure out where the ghosts went, and then she'll tell us."

"And me," said Hermione with a small smile.

Harry's mouth fell open. "You're going back?"

It was quite some time before the four had caught each other up with everything. Harry could hardly believe Hermione was going back to Hogwarts. "I want my NEWTs, Harry," she said. Harry thought inwardly that she just didn't want the stigma of being on a probation period for any amount of time, but he did not say this out loud. Their conversation lasted the entire afternoon, and through dinner — the other Weasleys hardly spoke at all. It was only as the others were heading off to bed that their conversation wound down.

The floorboards creaked under Harry's feet as he made his way back up to the room he shared with Ron. By unspoken agreement, the four had split up into pairs after the older Weasleys had gone up to bed. It had still been rather early, and Harry'd been glad for a little private time and night flying with Ginny. But now it was very late, and Harry needed to be very quiet. He tiptoed up a short flight, past the twins's room, and—

—jerked to a halt.

"No," whimpered George. "No, no, no!"

Harry's heart constricted.

"NOT HIM!" George shouted.

A wave of sympathy swamped Harry. He could not even imagine the loss George was going through. Fred had not only been his brother, he'd been his twin... they'd been Fred-and-George... more of a set, than two individuals. There was a part of Harry that wanted to go in there, but he knew George would be mortified if he knew Harry had heard him crying out in his sleep.

He stood outside George's door for another moment.

"Oh God!" George shouted. "WHAT WAS THAT?!"

A door downstairs opened, and Harry knew it was Mrs. Weasley, knew that she would come comfort her son. He retreated silently up the stairs.

"Oi, what was that?" Ron mumbled sleepily.

"George had a nightmare," said Harry.

"Ah," said Ron.

Neither one of them fell asleep right away. Harry tossed and turned and finally slid into a dream about the forest, except this time he was all alone, running through the brambles, trying to escape. His heart thumped madly.

"Oi, between you and George, does anyone get any sleep around here?" said Ron. Morning light filtered through the curtains. Harry felt like he'd not had much rest at all. He groped for his wand — his phoenix-and-holly wand, the other had been packed away in his trunk — and was relieved to find it right where he left it. In his dream, he'd not had his wand...

"Happy birthday, mate," said Ron.

"Oh! Right!" Harry sat up with a jolt. "Thanks!"

It was one of Harry's better birthdays, as any birthday that did not happen at the Dursleys would have to be. He and Ginny, and Hermione and Ron had breakfast together, then went to play two-a-side Quidditch. Harry smiled a lot, remembering how much time they'd all spent together the summer before his sixth year, and how nice it was to return to that... except with more kissing, and less bickering.

After lunch, the four of them went over to see Andromeda Tonks and baby Teddy. "I think he might be starting to recognize me," Harry told Ginny, beaming. Teddy was still a tiny little lump, but he was picking his head up and looking at everything with bright, inquisitive eyes. "Maybe he'll roll over for you," Andromeda said, several times during the visit. Teddy never did, but was content to be passed around like a Quaffle.

Even Ron seemed to enjoy it.

The other three left before he did, wearing secret smiles, and exchanging looks. Harry was glad for the extra time with his godson. "Thanks for letting me come over," he said, looking over at Andromeda.

"You are quite welcome," she said. Then her face fell. "They said — they said you would make an excellent godfather," she said sadly.

"I'll do my best," Harry said quietly. He and Ginny had spent quite a bit of time talking about this. It seemed like years ago that Remus had swept into Shell Cottage and presented Harry with this precious responsibility. Instead, it had been less than four months. Teddy was still so tiny... he seemed to weigh about as much as a potato.

The memories of Remus and Tonks were so vivid here in this room, with Teddy. Harry found himself blinking rather rapidly. "I'll make sure to remember them to him," he said quietly. "He'll know everything I know about them. I'll make sure he knows how brave they were."

Harry thought he might have seen a tear in her eye before she brushed it away.

He left not too much longer, after another cup of water. Teddy began to get rather fractious. "He'll be needing his nap... thank you so much for coming by to see us, Harry, and on your birthday!"

Harry passed his godson to his grandmother's waiting arms, waved his goodbyes, and left the house. He did not leave immediately, but wandered off across the house's untidy lawn, and over to the pond in which he and Hagrid had crashed a year ago. He thought of Hedwig, and felt a pang. She'd been his first friend that belonged to the wizarding world, from which Harry had been exiled through no fault of his own, at the age of one.

Tearing himself away from his memories, he Disapparated on the spot.

Ron was waiting for him at the Apparition point just beyond the Burrow's little gate. His grin was wide and cheerful. "Hey, mate, we've all just had a fantastic idea," he said. He reached into his pocket and drew out tiny-sized versions of Harry's trunk and rucksack. "I thought instead of being here with all the old people, we could head over to Grimmauld Place and get you set up."

Harry looked at him. Ron's face, but Hermione's words. They'd practiced this. "Sounds good," he said thickly. "I've always thought of Grimmauld Place and being a particularly festive spot…"

Ron barked out a laugh. "Hermione's already there, she brought along your present."

"You didn't have to get me anything," said Harry, as Ron grabbed his arm and Apparated them both to London.

Harry'd not been here since the day they'd stolen the Horcrux from around Umbridge's neck, and he was nervous at what they would find inside. As he recalled, it had taken the Order of the Phoenix months to make the place livable… but what if in his absence, the house had reverted back to its uninhabitable state? His imagination conjured up all sorts of magical vermin.

But his worries were in vain. If anything, the house looked better than when he'd left it. "Kreacher," Harry breathed with a sigh of relief.

"Master called?"

Kreacher's sudden appearance startled Harry so much that if Ron hadn't caught him, he'd've gone flying back down the front stoop. "Er, yes," he said, as Ron laughed. "Yes. The house looks wonderful," he said. "Thank you for keeping it up."

Kreacher's little chest swelled with importance. "Kreacher was doing his duty," he said in his bullfrog voice.

"And you were excellent at it," said Harry. Once Kreacher had bowed and popped out of sight, he mumbled to Ron, "I forgot how he sort of just jumps out at you like that." He slapped Ron on the arm. "It's not that funny."

Ron's laughter set the tone for the rest of the evening. Harry could not remember the last time he'd had so much fun. He gazed around the table – Hermione'd gone and retrieved hampers of food from the Leaky Cauldron, Harry'd have enough to eat for an entire week – and Ginny'd used the absence of her parents to create a mouth-wateringly delicious cake out of a few ingredients. He did not even mind that they made him wear an absurd little hat they'd found in one of the cupboards… probably from the Christmas they'd spent here during Harry's fifth year…

"This is brilliant," Harry said, looking round at them.

"We have presents for you, too," Hermione said. Ron erupted from the table, knocking over his chair.

"I'll get it!" he said eagerly.

It turned out to be a rather magnificent set of armbands. "The Australian Aurors use these," said Ron. "Look – you can see where you can holster your wand… and they're made with – with – I forget what kind of leather. Australia has all sorts of mad things that want to eat you."

Ginny laughed. "That goes perfectly with my gift," she said. With a twirl of her wand, a small package whirled into existence on the table. Harry opened it, and found a curse-o-meter, one of the instruments he'd need during his Auror training.

"Thank you! This is brilliant!" Harry said again.

The rest of the evening was just as full of merriment. They played a high-stakes game of Exploding Snap, and Ron taught them all how to play Wizards at War, which was about an hour and a half of him explaining the rules, and then fifteen minutes of him destroying all of them. Harry would definitely have to play again after he'd picked up a rulebook of his own. It was after midnight before Ron and Hermione, still not used to the time change from Australia, and both yawning hugely, Flooed back to the Burrow.

Ginny lingered after Ron and Hermione left. "I have another gift for you," she said, a little shyly. Harry smiled at her.

"Is it a repeat of my seventeenth? Because I really enjoyed that one," he pointed out.

Instead of answering, she kissed him until they were both trembling and breathing rather quickly. Harry could not help but wonder at how brilliant she was, and how lucky he had it. All too soon, it became evident that they could get into serious trouble being left alone in this big house. With no small amount of regret, Harry broke apart from her, helped her refasten her shirt, and put his back on.

"We… shouldn't," he said.

Her eyes were dilated in the low light. "I know," she said reluctantly.

He kissed her again before he walked her down to the kitchen. "Thank you for the wonderful birthday," he told her.

"See you, Harry," she said.

Finally, she left, and Harry wandered the house and up to Sirius's room, in which he had most often slept. He laid down on the bed, still wearing his clothes, and fell asleep reliving the birthday gift Ginny had given him.