Chapter four: Grim recolections
They arrived in a dingy square that Harry recognised as Grimmauld Place, he looked around for number twelve but couldn't see it. Hermione handed him a scroll, Harry unrolled it and saw messy angular writing that Harry assumed was Moody's saying the residence of Harry James Potter is at number twelve Grimmauld Place, London Harry looked up and saw numbers eleven and thirteen move sideways and the house that now belonged to him appear. Hermione walked up the stairs pulled out her wand and mutter "Expecto Patronum" and a silver otter streaked out of her wand and through the closed door. A minute later the door opened and Harry saw Mrs Weasley usher them inside.
As soon as Harry was through the door Mrs Weasley pulled him into hug,
"I heard what they had to do to, you poor boy" she pulled away from Harry and held him at arms length and said "You do look much better though, but still too thin, come into the kitchen and I'll make you some lunch, everyone else has already eaten, how about you Hermione, you haven't eaten properly since breakfast and according to Ron you didn't manage to hold that down."
"Yes thank you Mrs Weasley, I am rather hungry" Hermione said as they walked as quietly as possible out of the entrance hall and into the stone floored kitchen that Harry had last seen through the fire place and heard Kreacher muttering 'Master will not come back from the Department of Mysteries' a hot wave of anger rolled through him.
Mr Weasley and Lupin, now wearing a new set of robes, were in there talking seriously Harry heard Lupin say
"We really didn't need that Azkaban raid." Mrs Weasley coughed loudly to announce their presence and Lupin fell silent at once as Mrs Weasley walked to the long bench along the wall and started ladling pasta into two bowls, but Harry was in too bad a mood not to follow up on his curiosity,
"Why didn't we need the raid, it got rid of three dangerous Death Eaters, or that's what the Prophet said."
"The Ministry forced the Prophet to put a good spin on it, what they didn't say was that we lost two Aurors in the attack"
"Who?" said Hermione quickly.
"Dawlish, he was one of the best, and Madam Bones' brother Andrew"
Mrs Weasley tutted as she laid bowls of pasta in front of Harry and Hermione and said,
"The others are all up in the drawing room, we'll have dinner in about two hours, then tomorrow morning you'll go and see your aunt and uncle Harry." Harry nodded and turned back to Lupin
"But at least we're starting to get some real Death Eaters, I mean we got three then, Bellatrix before that and four when they attacked Hogwarts and about ten when they broke into the Ministry."
"But at what cost, in that time we've lost Sirius," Harry blanched hearing his godfather's name reverberate in the stone kitchen, "As fine a warrior as I ever knew, Two members of the Bones family, both extremely powerful, Dawlish, Olivander, Emiline Vance countless innocent people and Dumbledore." This sobered Harry and he finished his food silently and he left the room as he finished without even waiting for Hermione.
Harry stepped out into the entrance hall and instantly tripped over a large trolls foot, the ensuing crash caused a set of curtains on the other side of the room to fly open and instantly a terrible screaming and wailing filled the hall way. "Mutants, Freaks, Blood traitors, Scum," The portrait of Mrs Black spotted Harry disentangling himself from the umbrella stand and her yells re-doubled
"YOU, HOW DARE YOU CLAIM THIS, THE HOUSE OF THE NOBLE BLACKS AS YOUR OWN, FILTHY DESPICABLE SPAWN OF FILTH AND BLOOD TRAITORS."
Lupin rushed out into the hall but before he could do anything Harry had got to his feet , pulled his wand out of his jeans, jabbed it at the life sized portrait and yelled "Silencio," the woman continued to open her mouth wildly and gesticulate in every direction but no sound came from her portrait.
"Good idea, Harry, should have thought of that one earlier" Lupin yelled over the screams and yells coming from all the other portraits "But you shouldn't have done that, you're still under age for two more days," Harry waved his hand at Lupin to show that he really didn't give a damn and leaving Lupin to silence the other painting and walked up the long stairs flanked with house elf heads and onto the landing, every step bringing with it uncomfortable memories of Sirius. He remembered Sirius saying not long after Harry had first arrived at this house "I don't like being back here, I never thought I'd be stuck in this house again." and now Harry fully understood what he had meant and felt the exact same way.
Harry walked into the drawing room and saw Tonks, Ginny and Ron all sitting around talking Quidditch when he entered. Ginny stopped the moment he entered the room and Jumped up and ran over to Harry and threw her arms around him, Harry hugged her back and grinned over her shoulder at Ron who had also stood up,
"You're early mate; the healer said you wouldn't be awake until late tonight." Ron said grinning back Ginny let go and Tonks said,
"Wotcher Harry, how you feeling?" Harry couldn't find words harsh enough for the way he was really feeling so said,
"Fine"
"Good, well if you'd like, I could give you a training session"
"Yeah that would be great, but don't you have to work"
"I am" Tonks said brightly "I've been stationed here to guard you" Harry scowled to learn that Scrimgeour was still guarding him even though he had expressed his desires to be left alone.
Tonks waved here wand and the writing desk sawed over to the wall and crashed into it falling to pieces on the floor "Oops" she said and fixed it with another wave of her wand, "Could you two just get out of the way please, you're welcome to stay, it's just that we might need a fair bit of space and you might want to be ready with a shield charm in case a spell goes off target."
"Tonks wait, wont you get in trouble for this, Harry's still underage" Ginny said
"Well the Ministry won't ever find out will they? And if they do" she waved her wand and a small card appeared in her hand, she passed it to Harry, "Then you were having an official Ministry training session, any ones aloud to have one, so long as it with a grade three Ministry representative." Harry looked at the card,
Ministry of Magic Official Training Session
Official in charge: Nymphadora Tonks
Training grade: four (Auror)
"Right then Harry, ready to begin?"
"Just before we do, Tonks is there a way to block Avada Kedavra?" Tonks looked at him confused,
"No Harry, You're an N.E.W.T. defence student you should know that"
"Well, I think I might have found one," Harry looked around the room and saw a large blowfly buzzing around "Use it on that fly, and I'll try to save it" Tonks looked at him sceptically but raised her wand and said
"Avada Kedavra" straight away Harry raised his own wand and concentrating hard on Ginny, muttered,
"Expecto Patronum" his silver stag shot from the wand and charged across the room, it lowered its head as it drew level with the curse and threw it's great antlers sideways, just as it had on the night that Bellatrix had tried to kill him the curse vanished and the stag turned pail green, after a second Harry waved his wand and it vanished. Tonks spoke in a husky voice,
"Merlin's beard, you have Harry," She Ron and Ginny all stared at him. After a moment Tonks said "Every one need to see this!" And she ran out of the room and returned a minute later with, Lupin, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Hermione and Moody. She organised them into a row and raised her wand again, the curse shot from her wand and Harry sent out his patronus again and just as before the curse was stopped. There was another stunned silence punctuated by Tonks jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. Moody broke the silence
"Well I'll be... when did you find this out Potter?"
"The night Bellatrix attacked the carriages, she used Avada Kedavra on me and I couldn't move and my patronus, I had conjured it to get rid of the dementors, ran passed and just stopped it"
"The Ministry should be informed of this; I'll be surprised if you don't get an Order of Merlin for this Harry. I'll go and tell them that now" Mr Weasley said running forward
"You sure that's a good idea Arthur? Might be better to keep it dark from Voldemort," Mr and Mrs Weasley jumped but Ginny and Ron only twitched slightly, "That we've discovered a counter curse to his most powerful weapon" Mr Weasley looked angry,
"People will die though, when they could save themselves Alistair"
"How many people can cast a fully formed patronus Arthur, people who aren't in the Order or Ministry wizards?"
"Some people, and if that means that some people won't die, at the cost of us losing our element of surprise, then they should know" Mr Weasley retorted back angrily, Harry had never seen him this angry before his whole face had turned bright red and he was stamping his foot on every major word in his sentence. Mrs Weasley, obviously realizing that they were headed for a heated argument intervened,
"I think Harry should have some say in this, he discovered it after all."
"Well, I think that people should know but we should try to keep it from Voldemort that we know"
"Potter that's impossible" Moody barked
"I think that we should tell the Minister, but advise to only tell level three officers and above. That's Magical Law Enforcement and Aurors," Tonks said aiming the last sentence directly at Harry
"Yeah that sounds good," Harry said enthusiastically, Moody looked annoyed but Mr Weasley said,
"Well I suppose that's good enough, for the moment, I'll give the news to the Minister right away, my shifts about to start anyway." Mr Weasley left the room in a rush, Moody followed him more slowly muttering under his breath, Mrs Weasley said something about dinner and left too.
"So," Lupin said with a smile, "The boy who lived is turning into quite the defence master, its not often that a Professor learns something about his subject from a seventh year student,"
"Hmm," agreed Tonks "I was supposed to be teaching you defence but so far it's only been the other way around. So let's get on with it shall we."
"Now I know you can use all of the stock standard defensive spell, but as you would have noticed, Death Eaters are very accomplished at blocking these simple spells, on those occasions you need to have a few tricks up your sleeve, like that spell I used on Bellatrix, that one didn't work out so well, but sometimes you've gotta take a risk, so what I'll be teaching you is some of these more complicated spells. This first one's a powerful little bit magic, can be very useful in a sticky situation"
She raised her wand and drew a sideways figure eight and said "Incendiverberis" a long tongue of bottle green flame spat from her wand, but stayed attached to the end of it, now she gave her wand a violent flick, the green flames lashed like a whip in front of Harry. "Now you have a go, you wave your wand like this" she demonstrated the gesture again, "And the incantation is "Incendiverberis."
It took Harry quite along time to master this spell, he could get the long flame to emerge from his wand, but it would always either go out, or fly off towards the wall. After half an hour however Harry was able to hold the flame on his wand and was starting to learn how to use it like a whip, when though he managed to hit himself across the cheek, sending himself sprawling sideways and leaving a black mark across his cheek and nose, Tonks conjured an ordinary muggle whip and told Harry to practice with that for 'homework'.
"Ok I think we can move on now, this ones quite useful because it can't be blocked by Protego, we might need something to demonstrate on, Serpensortia" a long snake erupted from the tip of her wand and looked around angrily, holding her wand out, she spun it expertly once between her fingers and then said "Poliltrium." a wave of cold air rushed at the snake that was rearing it head, when it connected the snake was instantly covered from fangs to tail in a thick sheet of ice. "That one was invented by a student when I was at Hogwarts, it was really popular, until someone got left in a dormitory, frozen, and nearly died of hypothermia they banned it after that."
This spell took a lot less time to learn that the previous, on the first attempt his snake had it's head firmly encased in ice and by his fourth go he was able to completely cover it, Tonks was delighted with his progress and was about to start teaching him the impersonal shield charm, a spell that was similar to the normal shield charm but could be use to protect other people instead of just yourself, when Mrs Weasley's voice called up the stairs announcing dinner. After dinner Harry went straight up to his bedroom with Ron and had just realised that there was only one bed in there when Ron asked, "What are you doing in here Harry? You said you wanted to go to bed, your rooms upstairs. The master bedroom"
Harry left and continued up a large set of stairs that Harry had never been up before, it came as a bit of a shock therefore when Harry found a huge snake waiting for him at the top, it was a moment before Harry's over excited brain could realise that it was made of stone with large emeralds for eyes. Harry walked up to the closest door and pushed it open, it led into a vast library that probably covered most of the fourth floor, Harry walked among the shelves for a while, he noticed titles like
The Stronger Side of Magic, Great Dark Wizards of Our Time, and Outsmarting the Aurors. Harry didn't bother to read any of these books, all of which would have been put in the restricted section of Hogwarts library, if that is Madam Pince decided they weren't to dangerous even for that.
When Harry had first discovered this room, he wondered why Hermione, had not been spending all her time in there, or even mentioned its existence, but now Harry knew why and didn't question her judgment at all. He left after noticing that there were a series of books called The Muggle Hunters Companion volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4. He then walked across the landing to the only other door on this floor; it had a small note stuck to it were Mrs Weasley had written
Harry,
As
owner of this house you naturally get the master bedroom.
Unfortunately,
a spell that denies everyone but the owner himself from entering has
meant that we have been unable to clear Sirius' possessions away.
You may wish to go through them, as they are now yours, but if not
then go to sleep for tonight and we may be able to clear it out at a
later date.
Harry pushed the door open and walked inside. It was clear to Harry that nobody had entered this room since Sirius died as his few possessions were scattered around the room in a mess, the draws that his robes were in were still hanging out, their contents spilling onto the floor, as if the previous occupant had got dressed in a tearing hurry and left as soon as he could, which Harry remembered Sirius had, in order to rescue Harry from the Department of Mysteries. Harry nearly threw up at the thought. Several Daily Prophets, over two years old, were scattered about on the floor and a copy of the Quibbler lay open on a very bad cartoon of Sirius standing on a pile of human bones. Harry realised that the room was filled with a disgusting smell and looked around and saw a large blood stained sack, which presumable contained Buckbeak's preferred meal of dead rats, now presumably over two years old. Unable to resist any more Harry threw up all over the bed, from a mixture of terrible memories of Sirius and the terrible smell that Harry now wondered why he hadn't noticed as soon as he walked in.
Just when Harry was straightening up wiping his mouth, Mrs Weasley and Ginny walked in the room, both gagging from the all powerful odour of decayed rats. Mrs Weasley pulled out her wand at once, and vanished the bag, but the smell hung around, so she summoned a large bowl of flowers which did nothing to overcome the smell, so instead she performed a complicated wave of her wand and sprayed perfume out of it's tip all around the room, Harry was pleased when he realised that the perfume was an imitation of Ginny's excellent perfume. Then Mrs Weasley looked around and saw the pool of sick on the bed and vanished that as well. Then she said, "Well that's better, I suppose the spell must be removed if you're in here Harry, well is there any thing else that you want done Harry dear?"
"No thank you Mrs Weasley," Harry replied.
"Well, good night then Harry. Ginny you'd better go to bed too dear." Ginny made a noise of agreement and made as if to follow her mother but as soon as Mrs Weasley was out side she closed the door, pulled out her wand and muttered "Colloportus" there was a squishy sound as the door locked.
She turned to Harry and smiled at him, but the smile slid from her face when she saw the look on his face. "What's the matter Harry?" she asked tenderly "Are you still sore from the treatment today?"
"No, not really, it's just being here, seeing this room just as Sirius left it," Harry gestured around the room at the large bed and the huge mat next to it that had presumably been Buckbeak's bed.
"I know Harry; it must be awful for you." She said as she walked forwards and folded him into her arms. Harry held her tight taking strength and determination from her warm embrace for a long time, before Ginny looked up with a grin, "Oh I forgot what the healer promised you could have once you'd been treated," she said with a smile and while Harry was still thinking about what she meant she kissed him, long and tenderly. No burning pain in his mouth this time to force him away from her so they stood locked in each others embrace for what felt like an hour, until there was a rattling at the door and Mrs Weasley's voice said "Ginny are you in there? Its defiantly time for bed now dear." Ginny went bright pink and looked around for a way of escape. Harry pulled the invisibility cloak from inside his trunk and threw it to her then pulling out his wand he thought hard Alohomora the lock clicked and Harry opened the door wide for Ginny to slip, invisibly, by them and said,
"Sorry Mrs Weasley, I didn't quite catch that"
"I was just wondering if Ginny was up here but it doesn't look like she is so I'll just go, Good night again Harry" Harry closed the door and heaved a sigh, he wasn't sure why Ginny didn't want Mrs Weasley to see them together when she had seen them kiss in St Mungo's but for what ever reason they had done it. It took a moment for Harry to realise what he had actually done, he had non-verbally unlocked the door. He had used a non-verbal spell! Then Harry realised how very tired he was and he got into the king sized bed, feeling not only the lump that a tall, broad figured human might leave but another indentation that felt like a dog had been sleeping there as well.
The next morning Harry woke early and was dressed and ready to leave before Ron or Hermione were even awake. After a while they both came down stairs yawning, Ron grinned when he saw Harry, "Bit keen to get to the muggles aren't you?"
"No just keen to get away from here" Harry said bluntly "This place reminds me too much about Sirius about his last miserable year alive." Ron clearly did not know what to say to this and instead said,
"So, how are we getting to, what was it called again, Privet Drive?"
"Portkey, that's easiest and safest, the ministry have allowed the order to use as many as we want" it was Moody who answered "And I'll be coming with you, I've been looking forward to meeting Dursley again" Moody said pulling out his wand and hipflask and muttering "portus" the flask glowed then went back to normal, "Right then every thing ready, don't want breakfast before you go?"
"No we'll eat at the Dursleys" Harry saw Ron who was sitting at the table look around and was sure he would have argued if Hermione hadn't given him a look that would have silenced a roaring lion.
"Ok then, Potter, Weasley, Granger come here and touch this," Moody said holding out the flask "three two..." there was a distraction in the form of Ginny who entered the kitchen saw the four people standing around the hipflask and said,
"Whats going on?" Moody dropped the flask as he turned to face her,
"We're going to visit Potter's relatives," he barked.
"Well then I'm coming too," she said rushing forwards and standing between Harry and Hermione.
"I don't remember that being part of the arrangement" Moody growled looking from Ginny to Harry.
"Change of plan I guess," Harry shrugged
"All right then" Moody said and picked up the portkey, "Every one touch it. Three, two, one"
Harry saw Mrs Weasley walk into the kitchen see Ginny standing with them but before she could say anything Harry felt the usual jerk that meant he had left Grimmauld Place.
A/N After strenuous adding (every thing from Harry leaving the kitchen after lunch to him waking up next morning was added in the second go) I feel I have made this chapter a lot better than it was originally. We've almost caught up with my back log of chapters so posting may slow a bit from now, though I am on school holidays now (finally) and will be able to do more work on this story so basically expect the unexpected. By the way I have a nice plot theory coming up in the next chapter so stay tuned folks.
Thanks to Lirael Ellimere for the latin traslation and beta reading.
Can I also ask that people please reveiw, and if you like it alot , advise it to your friends.
