yeah so sorry about not updating in forevs! well this chap does have some fluff in it so.. enjoy i guess!


Every Second Counts

Chapter Four: Draining

"It's me mom, its Percy. I just wanted to wish Bill and Fleur a happ…oof!" Percy Weasley was stopped short of his rambling as Mrs. Weasley abandoned precautions and rushed out and hugged her son. Harry sighed and put back his wand, only Percy; he relaxed again when he saw no minister behind him and watched as all the other Weasley family tensed where they were. Not one of them was very happy with Percy at the moment and to have him here, in there home, on Harry's birthday, was something they were also not too happy about. Once Mrs. Weasley let go of him and did a thorough investigation of how he looked Percy was given a chance to look around. He was surprised to not only see the whole family in the living room, but some Hogwarts professors as well. He didn't say anything, just stood there, and everyone else just stared back.

"Well I think I better be off now, getting late you know, coming Tonks?" Remus Lupin got up and grabbed Tonks' hand too, making a hasty escape wishing Harry a happy birthday again on the way out. The rest of the non-Weasley's too made an excuse and got out of there as quick as possible, they all knew that there would be an explosion soon. Harry wished he could go too, but Ginny had a firm grasp on his arm and so he was stuck. He snuck a glance at Hermione, who was to the right of him, and found her beside Ron holding his arm, as if to keep him put.

"Percy, glad you could make it to the wedding. Your old room is there for you if you need it." Bill was talking to him now, and tensely with great strain, he smiled at him.

"No problem, Bill, but I have my own room, its alright. I just wanted to say hello and well, I guess I wanted to say sorry." Percy still held his haughty expression on his face so the people in the room where finding it rather hard to find it in them to want to forgive him, at the moment. The twins were the ones to explode first.

"Oh! You wanted to…" Fred said, standing up.

"…just waltz right in…" George said, standing up in unison.

"…and apologize and we…"

"…would just welcome you…"

"…with open arms like nothing happened?"

"Fat chance." They said together.

"Now boys, be nice, he came to apologize, right Percy." Mrs. Weasley said, looking at her son, she had already forgiven him but it would take a lot more for the rest of the family to forgive him as well.

"Right, I wanted to say that I was out of line, and that I shouldn't have done anything that I did, and that I'm really sorry that I didn't believe you, when you told me about You-know-who and all that and, I just hope you can forgive me." Percy had lost his expression of haughtiness and it was replaced with one of outmost guilt. The Weasleys' eyes were all on Percy, no one spoke and Percy was feeling as awkward as ever.

"You think that we can forgive you just like that for what you did? Honestly, would you forgive us if we switched positions? You insult dad, you call Harry and Dumbledore liars, you send back a Christmas jumper, you bring the minister here to bother Harry and you haven't spoken to us in so long that I don't think I could remember what your face even looked like if you weren't here." Ron was huffing, he was angry. How could Percy expect them to just forgive him?

"Look Perce, its going to take some time, we wont hex you, but we won't bring you here with open arms either. It's hard to forgive you, I know you're our brother, but you hurt us real deep, it's just going to take time." Charlie spoke for the first time that night. Percy nodded, he knew all this, and he was actually rather pleased that nothing worse happened, so far so good. Everyone seemed to accept his presence for now but they weren't going to make any extra efforts to cross the barrier yet. After a long awkward pause, Mr. Weasley stood up and stretched.

"Well, we have a big day tomorrow, and everyone is probably tired from tonight so off to bed with the lot of you. We have some things to discuss so I don't want to catch anyone out of bed, understood? Good." Arthur and Molly both made there way into the kitchen and Percy followed. Everyone else slowly got up and made there way to their separate rooms.


The twins suggested extendable ears but no one even tried, they probably had put an imperturbable charm on the door anyways. The twins went off on the second landing and the four of them made there way up to the girls room. The boys stopped then and Hermione gave Harry a birthday hug, and whispered that they needed to talk tomorrow. Harry was confused but he hugged her and nodded just the same. Ginny gave him a hug too and daringly caressed his jaw line with her lips while Ron was watching, thankfully he didn't seem to notice, but he did look uncomfortably between the two of them. They said goodnight and now it was just Ron and Harry left. They reached Ron's Chudley Cannon's decorated room and stripped down to there boxers and undershirts. They went straight to their beds, Harry had had a good birthday and the day had left him thoroughly exhausted, not to mention that his stomach still felt stiff.

"Harry?" Ron asked, breaking the silence of the night. It was nearly midnight and Harry was just starting to feel tired.

"Yeah?" Harry replied. It must be important if he was asking now.

"I was just wondering, do you, I mean, how long do you think we'll be gone?" Harry sighed; it would be hard to answer the question. Ron was seeking reassurance; he wanted to know if they would be able to complete the task ahead.

"I don't know Ron, but the faster we start, the faster we finish, it won't be easy, we haven't got anywhere yet, but we will, it just takes patience. We'll get them though, all of them, and we'll win, we have to." Harry said. He was trying to encourage Ron, it was hard to feel enthused when they hadn't progressed any but he had to keep their spirits up.

"Yah, I guess, I just wonder sometimes if we will be able to do it, and I know its harder for you, but I just want to make sure we all come out of it alive, you know? No matter what, we'll be there for you mate, and we'll get this fucking bastard no matter what it takes!" Ron turned over, it had satisfied him for that night, but Harry didn't find it so easy. He turned over on his other side, away from Ron. Normal, I only wish I knew what that was like. Harry couldn't really picture a world without Voldemort and fighting but he didn't really want to, that would be getting his hopes up, for now he was just going to take it one step at a time. Harry lay in his bed for a long time before he drifted into a restless sleep, filled with nightmares and horrors beyond any muggles' imagination.


Seconds later, it seemed, Harry was jolting awake. Just a dream, only a dream, I'm still at the Burrow. Five in the morning, is what the clock said, five hours of restless sleep. Harry got up and crept to the washroom to have a shower, he wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. After his shower he went downstairs he thought he might as well start breakfast for Mrs. Weasley, he wasn't a freeloader, and besides, she needed a break. Harry was making his way into the kitchen and one thing he had not expected was to find Hermione sitting at the table with a book in front of her and tea in her hand. "Hermione? What are you doing up?"

"Oh! Harry, you scared me. I was just researching, I can't do it in my room, just in case Ginny wakes up and sees, and I thought that the kitchen would be empty and, and, what are you doing down here?" She raised her eyebrow at him.

"Nothing, I couldn't sleep, so I thought that I should just start breakfast." Harry made his way farther into the kitchen.

"Oh! Let me help you. I probably won't find anything anyways; the book looks darn useless so far." Harry got out the eggs and some bread while Hermione got out the sausages and bacon. They started cooking in silence, just paying attention to the food. Harry had caught Hermione looking at him out of the corner of his eye ten times in the span of three minutes. He finally sighed and turned to her.

"So, are you going to keep looking at me or are you going to say something?" Harry asked tiredly. She looked surprised for a second but then recovered.

"Oh well, I was just thinking…about a couple of things actually. What do you think about the Order? I mean joining it of course, because well, they have been working in secret for a while now and I was just wondering if maybe we should join and then see if they know something that we don't, what do you think?" Kind of out of place, Harry didn't really know what he thought she was going to talk about. He was just relieved that she wasn't bringing up Ginny. He had an inkling that Hermione knew about them getting together secretly and he really wasn't looking forward to the lecture.

"Oh. Uhh, well I guess we could, it couldn't hurt, right? I mean, at least we would get a better outlook on what was going on, but we're still leaving," Harry said quickly. ",so, I guess we would have to let them know that we will only be present for meetings and nothing more, unless we think that it will benefit our task. But, Hermione," she looked up at him then, "I hope you know that we can't include anyone in this, right?"

"Oh of course I know Harry, I'm not stupid! I'm glad you agree, but that's not all I wanted to talk to you about. It's only thinking but, there is another reason that I want to join the order. I, well…" Hermione turned the sausages over in the frying pan, "I think that there might be a traitor in the order." To say that Harry was shocked was an understatement. His eyes grew large as he stared at her and he lost focus on the eggs and ended up touching the frying pan with his hand. He jumped back and yelped.

"Ouch! Oww, shit! Oww, Hermione are you serious? How? I mean like, what did they do? And how did they do it? Well I guess it wouldn't be as hard the second time, they wouldn't have been the only one. But please, what do you mean?"

"Well, remember how we were leaving your house before you turned of age? Well I knew that V-Voldemort probably knew your birthday so he was probably going to be ready the second that your protection ran out, but we went outside before you turned of age, and the plan was perfect, but death eaters still came! So that means, that they either knew our plan, or they just knew where you lived. And if that's true, both pieces of information are impossible to know unless you are part of the order, so that means that someone leaked out the information. On purpose, or by mistake, I don't know yet, but I think we should really look into it, Harry. If there is a traitor in the order, it could ruin everything!"

"Yeah… I guess things just got a bit more complicated. We absolutely can't tell anyone else what we know. Not even the Weasleys." Harry turned away and began placing the food on some plates before preparing to make more. Hermione watched him for a second before she started dishing out sausages and bacon onto a platter. She kept her eyes focused on her task as she spoke.

"Harry, I agree with you, we can't tell anyone about…about the stuff we know but I think that you should really consider telling Ginny. And before you protest let me explain. She was your girlfriend, yes I know that you broke up with her, but she cares about you, I think she at least deserves to know the prophesy. You owe her that much, she's involved in this whether you want it or not. So…for her sake, think about it. You don't want to end up losing her forever because you wouldn't tell her something." Hermione looked at him at last, and he nodded slightly. He had no intention of telling her, he had thought about it before and it would just bring her more grief, even though the thought of Ginny leaving him panged him.

At that moment Mrs. Weasley came down. She looked surprised to say the least. "What are you two doing down here?"

"Making breakfast, well, starting it at least. We both couldn't sleep, so, we thought we ought to help you out a little. Go ahead and eat, we'll join you and then you can take over if you'd like." Hermione said handing her a plate, Mrs. Weasley looked from one to the other and then smiled at them. She looked tired and they both knew that she would appreciate the little break that they had offered her, even if she wouldn't admit it. They ate in silence and when they finished, Harry and Hermione went upstairs to prepare for the busy day before everyone else got up.


Harry stumbled out of the fireplace and into the busy Ministry Atrium coughing up a storm. Seconds later the lot of them were all gathered up together and were on their way, shaking ash off of their clothes on the way out. Harry looked around at the busy Ministry to find it looking the same way it did before the incident in fifth year. He hadn't been here since then and he noted that the statue had returned to its rightful place in the centre of the Atrium, still spewing fake admiration of wizards and witches. He vaguely wondered if anyone would look at a wizard like that if they knew that they were capable of murdering people like Voldemort was.

They were winding through people as fast as possible to get to the elevator, Harry was trying his hardest to not get recognized but he still found people taking double takes and whispering from the sides. He pushed on and the rest of the company followed around him. They reached the elevator and luckily all got one together, it was really crowded though. Mr. Weasley, Tonks, Bill, Remus and then the four of them were all pressed together so compactly that it was a relief when the doors opened to reveal the Magical Transportation Department, which took care of brooms, the floo network, apparation, portkey and any illegal forms of transporting. They all stumbled out at once and Harry looked around nervously.

"Nervous? I am, this is my second time round too." Ron said looking around. Harry nodded, truthfully he wasn't all that worried, and he had apparated before. The only thing he was worrying about at that time was that the Minister would show up to harass him again. Mr. Weasley led the way down the hall this time and Harry rushed to catch up to Ginny and the others. They stopped after a while of passing door after door at a reception area that said 'Apparation Tests and Information Centre'. Ron gulped loudly as he and Harry made it up to the desk.

"State your name and business and present your wand for identification." Said the blonde lady sitting behind the desk in a business-like tone. Ron looked too nervous to answer so Harry stepped up, gave her his wand and said,

"Harry Potter, taking an apparation test." She accepted the wand with a raised eyebrow and tried to sneak a peek at his forehead, which was covered by his messy hair. He caught her looking and frowned, why did people always insist on doing that? She put the wand on a scale-like device and a little slip of paper came out, she read it off and he confirmed the make of his wand. Then she told him to sit down and that it would be ten minutes until he would be called in and given further instruction. He nodded, took his wand and sat down, Ginny and the rest followed him as Ron sputtered about.

"Aren't you nervous Harry?" Ginny asked him curiously. He turned to her and shook his head; he was still looking around for the minister. "Don't worry about it; I don't seem to see him here." Harry looked at her again as she picked up a copy of Witch Weekly. It was funny how she always seemed to read his mind. Ron came then and sat beside him, he was trying to tell Hermione that he wasn't nervous at all and she was humoring him by agreeing with him for once. Remus and Tonks were keeping a watchful eye out and Mr. Weasley was talking to some co-worker that stopped to talk. All they had to do now is wait, and hope that they finished before the Minister would find time to stop by. The seconds ticked by slowly and Harry was getting impatient, he was just about to shift in his seat again when Ginny started laughing quietly.

"What's so funny?" Harry said looking at her strangely; Ron and Hermione stopped their conversation to look too. She continued to laugh for a little while before she turned to Harry and showed him what she was reading. It was a list in Witch Weekly from this month's issue and it had a bunch of names placed in some sort of order. Harry looked from the bottom, and was shocked to see Draco Malfoy's name at number two and then he looked up and found his own name at number one! He looked at it for a second and then looked at the heading at the top and his eye's bulged out. Hermione started laughing too and Ron chuckled and said,

"Looks like you beat Draco at everything, Harry." The headline said 'Top 10 Rich Bachelors that any Girl Would Want'. Harry looked disgusted; really, you would think there wasn't a war going on.

"Oh, loosen up Harry!" Ginny said, and then she leaned in and whispered so only he could hear, "And I guess I should count myself lucky that I snagged the hottest and richest bachelor of them all." Harry smiled at her then, but before he could find some sort of witty remark to shoot at her, his name was called by a rough looking man in a doorway. He looked at the man and then stood up.

"G-Good luck mate!" Ron said quickly before he went back to worrying over his own test. Ginny, Hermione and the others wished him good luck as well and he walked on into the room after the rough-looking man. The man introduced himself quickly and Harry was instructed to apparate to the other side of the room onto the green 'x'. It was a little abrupt but Harry closed his eyes, stepped forward and seemed to spin into himself. When he opened his eyes he was on the 'x' and he smiled. The man made a check and then continued to ask him to apparate to random places in the room, and he somehow managed to complete them all perfectly. The last one was going to be the toughest; he had to apparate to three rooms down without ever having seen the place. Harry shut his eyes again and hoped that he would make this one.

A couple minutes later Harry came out of the room smiling and supporting a tiny card sized paper that said he passed. Hermione and Ginny hugged him and Lupin patted him on the back.

"Congratulations Harry! Well done! That's one thing that your father didn't do, he had to take the exam twice!" Remus was laughing and patting him on the back more. Ron on the other hand, looked totally white, he was so nervous.

"Come on, Ron, cheer up! You'll definitely pass!" Harry said to him, Ron looked up and gave a small smile, but the next second it was gone as the rough man called him in. He gulped and went in after a chorus of good lucks. The door shut behind him and the others all sat down to wait again, they were going to go to Diagon Alley right away so they had to be ready to leave. A few minutes ticked by, with no incident, Hermione and Ginny chatted about shopping in Diagon Alley, they were clearly excited. Harry was only half listening, he was still happy about his accomplishment and he was thinking. He was wondering what would happen, after the wedding and all. He was also half listening to the argument between Tonks and Lupin; something about him being a prude and Tonks moving in, or something along those lines.

Harry's peace didn't last though. As soon as he was starting to relax, he spotted an all too familiar face. People were clearing the halls; it couldn't be more obvious that he didn't come down here too often. The minister of magic was looking through the halls desperately for a certain young man with dark hair and glasses. Harry tried to blend into the white walls, a useless battle. The others didn't seem to have noticed him yet but Harry was just waiting for the inevitable confrontation.

The minister finally spotted Harry and made a direct beeline for him. Rufus Scrimgeour stopped directly in front of Harry and Harry made no attempt to make any recognition that he had seen him. All the others, beside Harry, had finally realized he was there and they looked up at him in shock, and then anger.

"Harry, my boy. Happy Birthday! Well I know it was yesterday, but I thought I would wish you one anyways…"

"What do you want this time?" Harry had interrupted all the unpleasant small talk and just got to the point. He had no point for useless chatter. Rufus frowned.

"Pleasant as ever, eh? Well why don't we step into my office? Have a little talk, it won't take long." Rufus made as to move in the other direction but Harry stood his ground. Hermione and Ginny had gotten up and stood on either side of him, crossing their arms, unlike Harry, they were a little nervous to be talking to Rufus. He had a lot of power after all and he could almost do anything he wanted to make Harry's life better or worse.

"No thanks, we can talk right here, or not at all, I don't know about you but I have a lot of stuff that I have to do today and time is short. So, if we can speed this up, it would be just great." Harry was slowly growing angrier and angrier he had no time for politics.

The minister huffed and spoke in a low voice. "Look, we have to keep up images and if you don't like me that much then at least let's have a conversation in private."

"No, here is fine. If I walk with you people will get the idea that I like what you're doing and that would be totally off the mark. You see, I believe Stan is still in jail, and I haven't heard of any recent progressions on this little war we're having here, so if you'll excuse me but we have to go." Harry had made a move to leave but Rufus stopped him with an arm on his shoulder. Harry turned back and was going to tell him to shove off, when Ron came out smiling like a buffoon.

"I passed! Hey, guys I…oh," Ron's face fell when he was the minister there and regarded the minister in interest.

"Congratulations Ron! Nice one, now if you'll excuse us minister…"

"No, Potter I can't expect you to understand my position but…"

"Actually I very much understand what you got yourself into. You're ministry is in a mess, you don't have any leads on death eaters, you're stuck with what to do so you lock up common criminals and pretend they're death eaters, and you want me to look like I've joined your fight as if I don't have any of my own worries and I support everything that you spit out. Look, I'm not your guy. I'm not going to tell you again."

"Are you threatening me?"

"No, just giving you a warning." Harry was angry now and Ron and Hermione were fidgeting behind him. The minister stared at him for a while before deciding to change his approach.

"And what if I said that I could get you into the Auror division without completing school or going through training? And I'll triple the salary and keep you safe! What do you say?" Rufus tried to smile at him, but it came out as a sort of sneer.

"No thank you." Harry said stiffly, he was trying to be nice, but was finding it really hard to calm down.

"I really think that you should reconsider, given the present times and such, I think that the offer is more than…"

"Look! He said no, that means no. End of discussion!" Ginny had finally put her foot down. Harry looked down at her and couldn't keep the smile from his face when he saw her huffing beside him. Rufus frowned.

"Well who is this? Your girlfriend? We can keep her safe too."

"Look, I said no, I don't want to talk to you again, ever. I'm going away now, and if you send someone to tail me, I will find out. I don't think you'll be very happy if I find out." Harry turned to the rest of the people who were gathered behind him and were looking slightly out of place. He led the way to the elevator and when the door shut on an angry minister's face, Harry let out his breath.


"Wow mate, that was brilliant! Fucking brilliant!"

"Ronald!"

"What? It was!" Harry smiled at them, he was just glad that the minister was gone and was just hoping that the evening prophet wouldn't hold any surprises.

"Well Harry, now that you splendidly got rid of the minister we can finally get along on our business, we have about four hours until we need to go to the bank so, we'll split into groups." Lupin was saying to everyone.

"We'll all apparate to the Three Broomsticks and then in four hours, we'll all meet in front of Gringott's Bank. Hermione and Ron will go with me, Ginny and Harry will go with Lupin and Bill and Mr. Weasley will follow each pair a little farther behind." Tonks was saying in a hurry, she was in auror mode, and was making sure that they would be safe on their little shopping excursion. "Do you have your cloak Harry? Good. Well let's go then, Ginny just grab onto either Mr. Weasley or Bill for side-along apparation and we'll be off."

"It's okay, I can do it, I've done it before." Harry spoke up, Tonks looked confused.

"You sure?" Harry nodded; he didn't really feel like explaining when he had used it before. Tonks just shrugged and began to count to three. "One, two, three!" All of them apparated, except Harry, Ginny looked at him and stopped squeezing his arm.

"Look Gin, I just want you to promise me that if something happens that you won't fight, you'll take the cloak and run. Please?" Harry asked her pleadingly.

"Fine, but you have to come with me." Ginny said indignantly. "Come on, what could happen? Let's just enjoy today, alright?" Harry looked at her for another second and then just grabbed her waist tightly.

"Take a deep breath." A second later, the squeezing sensation was gone and Harry opened his eyes to reveal the sign of the Three Broomsticks in front of him. He let go of Ginny then and walked towards the others.

"Alright there you two? Thought you got lost or something." Harry just nodded at Bill. "Okay then, remember, four hours and then we'll go to Gringott's. Stay safe, and if anything happens just get out of there." Ron rolled his eyes and Hermione hit his arm lightly. Everyone made there way in and when they tapped the bricks on the wall in the correct order, it opened to reveal a strained group of shoppers. It seemed that a lot more shops were boarded up then before, and more stands had picked up around the edges. The two groups split up here with a wave and Ron was dragged into Flourish and Blott's in a second.

Harry and Ginny laughed at the two, they started on there way down the streets. Harry looked around the shops to see if anything caught his eye. Harry and Ginny weren't being open about their relationship so Harry had his arm slung subtly around her waist and Ginny didn't seem to mind at all. Lupin followed in their wake shaking his head lightly. Oh Harry, you never knew your parents, yet you unknowingly are so much like them, in your actions and in the girls you choose.

They ambled along the shops, buying quills, a new dress robe for Harry, and stuff from Mrs. Weasley's list. Ginny helped Harry pick out a wedding gift for Fleur and Bill and since Harry wasn't planning on being there for Ginny's birthday in August, he kept his eyes peeled for anything that caught her eye. They ambled in and out for a long while before they decided that they would get some owl treats for Hedwig. The door bells jingled as they stepped in and the old shopkeeper looked at the three of them from behind large spectacles that made his eyes as large and round as the owls around him. Ginny and Lupin looked around at the owls around them on their way to the counter. Harry grabbed the owl treats from beside the desk and placed them onto the counter. The old man looked up at him quietly and smiled. For once, Harry thought that someone didn't recognize him, but that might have been due to the fact that the man was probably blind.

"One sickle please." He croaked at Harry. Ginny fidgeted at his side as Harry reached into his money pouch to get it out. As Harry slapped the money down onto the table, the old man spoke again. "Well, you look like a nice young lady, are you interested in seeing a kitten, I only have one left." Harry was going to open his mouth to say 'no' but before he could, Ginny exclaimed excitedly.

"A kitten! Oh of course!" She smiled at the old man and he went into the back room. When he returned he held out a small black kitten for her to see. She thought it was the most adorable thing she had ever seen. She smiled at its wonderful green eyes and realized that it had a little sliver of gold in its right eye. It was all black and short haired and it cocked its head at her and regarded her with interest. "Aww, it's so cute! I wish I could take you home with me right now!" Ginny picked it up carefully form the old man's arms and it purred when she petted it.

"Well, he seems to like you. He's a feisty one and that eye, I think, is why he hasn't gone too. He's only six weeks old and just to warn you, he's half kneazle."

"Really? That's pretty cool, and I like his eye, it makes him stand out. What's his name?"

"He doesn't have one. You can give him one if you like. I need to give him away though, he scares the birds. I haven't found anyone who will take him yet though. Too bad." The old man looked at Harry knowingly. The cat really seemed to like Ginny and Harry saw how much she liked him. It made him smile, to see how happy she was. The old man knew Harry would get it before he did.

"How much?" Harry asked the old man, looking at Ginny and the purring cat. Ginny looked up at him with surprised eyes.

"Really Harry, you don't have to."

"No don't worry, consider it a birthday present. Besides I feel bad for the little guy, and he seems to like you." Ginny hugged him then and transferred the kitten to Harry; it regarded him with wide eyes and settled itself in his arms.

"We'll take it! Thank you so much Harry!" Ginny grabbed a green ribbon from one of the racks and some small bells and placed them around the cat's neck.

"You know what? You guys can take him for free, since he likes you two so much. Consider it a gift." Ginny smiled happily at the little kitten and took him in her arms again. Harry thanked the man on the way out and put a few galleons on the counter anyways.

"Come on Harry, let's go show the twins what you got me! And we need to think of a name too!"


Hermione sighed in exasperation. They were sitting at a table for two beside Tonks at a small café near the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Hermione was a little annoyed at the moment. She got to go to her book store and managed to buy her books without too much complaining from Ron, but then she got dragged into the Quidditch store for a long time. And now, they were stopping to eat because Ronald was hungry again. "You only ate a couple of hours ago, you couldn't wait until we got to your house?" Ron was currently chewing a large mouthful of turkey sandwich. He took a long moment to chew and gulp down the sandwich chunk in his mouth.

"Sorry 'mione, but I'm a growing man, and a growing man needs to eat. And besides, it'll still be awhile before we get home." Ron pouted at her and continued eating.

"If you're still growing, I'm worried. Imagine what we'll look like together?" Hermione said thoughtfully, and then she blushed at the indication of her words. Ron swallowed quickly and coughed because he hadn't chewed enough. When he returned to normal posture his face was a little red, from choking and from the comment, it seemed. Ron shifted a little in his seat and Hermione looked down at her lap. He took a deep breath in and looked around him, there was no one around. He would do it now, what he had been preparing to do for a very long time.

"Umm, Hermione? I was just wondering, if, if umm…" He coughed again, and Hermione looked up at him expectantly. Could it be? "Well, what I'm trying to say is, wouldyouliketogototheweddingwithmeasmydate?" Ron said it so fast that Hermione had no idea what he had said. She could guess, but just to be sure.

"Sorry? I didn't really hear you." Hermione held her breath. Ron cursed under his breath and looked up at her again. He looked right in her eyes and spoke again.

"I know you are already going to the wedding but, I was wondering if you would like to go with me. As my date." Ron looked at her for a few seconds, she was silent with shock, but Ron took it the wrong way. "Oh, well I mean, sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"Ron! I would love to go to the wedding with you as your date." Hermione was smiling. Ron was shocked into silence for awhile and he pointed at her and then at himself in confusion and Hermione nodded. Ron and Hermione both let out the breaths that they were holding back and smiled at each other again.

"Well that's great! I guess, I look forward to it. You don't have to you know, I mean if you have someone else then…"

"Ron, I want to." Ron looked at her again, he couldn't believe his ears. It must have been a dream because for some reason he found that he was leaning in, slowly towards her, and she was leaning towards him too. Over the table, they were getting closer and closer, before...

"Ron! Hermione! Look what Harry got me!" Ron and Hermione jumped apart faster than you could say 'darn'. The two of them looked at Harry and Ginny with the deer in the headlights look before Hermione broke into a smile at the kitten Ginny had pressed into her face.

"Oh Ginny it's so cute! Harry that's so sweet of you! What's its name?"

"Albus! It was Harry's idea, I know, isn't he the cutest kitten you have ever seen?" Ginny was talking excitedly to Hermione as both girls crooned over the kitten. Harry looked over at Ron who seemed to be slightly out of it, he had a disappointed look on his face. Ron looked up at him with a weird look on his face; Harry thought he must be sick or something.

"Coming boys? It's time to go to Gringott's!" Harry and Ron both looked at the girls and walked quickly to catch up.


Gringott's was busy as always, the group entered the hallway together amongst another mob of people. It seems that the war doesn't stop banking ever. Harry felt his pocket to make sure that his vault key was still there; he felt it and sighed. He was nervous now, he had no idea why the head goblin would want to see him here. The other goblins were going about their business as usual and Albus was watching with interest from the comfort of Ginny's arms. Bill walked up to the Goblin at the end of the atrium and told him that Harry was here to see the head goblin. The Head Goblin looked over Bill's head at Harry and beckoned with his finger to come closer. Harry gulped, he walked right up to the podium-like desk and looked up at the goblin.

"Name, key, and wand. Security is tightened so we need to make sure that you are, who you say you are." Harry nodded.

"Uhh, Harry Potter, and umm, here's my key and wand." Harry placed it on the podium as the Goblin inspected it with his eyes and his hands. After a few moments the Goblin gave Harry back his wand but he held the key up.

"You won't be needing this anymore. I'll take care of it, for now, you will go with Griphook, he will take you to the head Goblin and you will get further instructions from him. Griphook!" The Goblin called and rang a bell, Harry was confused as ever but a shred of memory stirred at the mention of the Goblin's name. Shortly, a short little Goblin walked into the hall and inclined his head slightly.

"Harry Potter sir, you will follow me please. As this is confidential information we ask that only you accompany me. We will travel to the Head's office by cart, and I will explain on the way."

"Oh! Now I know why you sounded familiar, you were the Goblin that took me the first time that I went to Gringott's! Umm, if you don't mind, I don't have secrets, I trust my friends. I think that they should come to." The Goblin was a little taken aback at Harry for remembering him, but he nodded at the young man's request anyways.

"Alright, grab the lantern, follow me please." Griphook walked along at a fast pace and the others looked at each other for a second before following with lantern in tow. They reached the tracks and Harry was slightly excited at the thought of riding one of the roller coaster-like carts down into the caves. Griphook snapped his fingers and three carts pulled up loudly to stop in front of them. "Alright, everybody in, keep your hands and feet inside the cart at all times, you don't want to loose a limb."

"Sorry Harry, but I have to go, I'm honored that you trust me and all, but I have some business to attend to. I'll see you all at dinner, you can tell me all about it then." Bill said to them all. He waved and turned away.

The rest of them turned back to the carts and started climbing in. Griphook, Harry, Ginny and Albus all clambered into the first one, Ron, Hermione and Mr. Weasley climbed into the second one and Remus and Tonks went into the last one. As soon as they all settled in the cart moved, it went along the rails slowly at first and then suddenly dropped at high speed as they went through a series of spins and hills. When the cart finally came to a stop in front of another long hallway, Griphook got out of the cart, and the others all had mixed expressions on their faces. Ron, Harry, Mr. Weasley, Ginny, Tonks, and Remus all looked wind-whipped and gleeful. Hermione on the other hand was clinging to Ron's arm as if he were her life line, and Albus had only just stopped yowling, he didn't seem to enjoy the ride much.

"This way, hurry please." They all stepped behind the little Goblin again and looked around them as they walked up an extremely long and poorly lit hallway. The walls looked damp and you could occasionally here a drip of water hit the floor. "I suppose I should explain now, I'm the first cousin o' the head Goblin and so I've been given the honorable job o' taking care o' all high security vaults. As you Mr. Potter, have recently come o' age, you are now old enough to take on adult responsibilities. The vault that you had before was only a small investment 'or education purposes, as soon as all the paperwork is filled out, the rest o' the gold will move to your other vaults." Harry was listening intently to what he was saying, as were the others.

"Other vaults? What do you mean?" Harry was in shock. Vaults, as in plural?

"Yes, I was getting to that. You come from an old family, the Potters. As you might know, they are a pure blood family that goes back probably to 'bout the same time as the Weasleys here. From what I know, they were once nobility, and because of that, they have gathered a lot of gold and other valuables o'er time. The head member of the Potter clan always inherits the Potter vaults, which are kept in the highest security possible, 'o course that is almost automatic, they are our greatest investors 'o course." The enormity of it was hitting Harry with such great force. He was rich, he knew, but richer? Greatest investor? The rest of Harry's company was sort of in an awed silence.

"I knew James was rich, but not that rich." Lupin had spoken up finally; he seemed to be in a sort of shocked silence until then.

"I thought it might be something like this though, you being the only living member left. Oh sorry Harry, that sounded a little harsh." Tonks said looking at Harry apologetically. Griphook nodded at Harry then and continued his speech.

"The head Goblin sees very few non-Goblins, but since you're our highest investor he has decided to honor you with his presence. Another dimension to this is, the land that you own, and Black family vault. You are already the owner of the land but now you can officially own it as well as the vault. You are named the Black family heir even though you aren't a Black solely because your godfather, Sirius Black, was the heir to the fortune. This adds quite a bit of gold and other possessions to your vault. That's another reason why we're calling you here, we need you to tell us if you would like to keep it in its current location, or place it in your Potter vault. I have to tell you though, that this is an extreme honor, and that you have to show our head the highest respect. I will ask you to reconsider your decision though, this is all private information and up 'till now, only Potters and Blacks have ever seen the vaults. Do you still want to bring them?" Harry was having a hard time sinking all the information in but, he felt slightly insulted that Griphook would question his friend's loyalty.

"I trust them with my life." Harry said simply.

"Ahh, but do you trust them with your gold? Men have gone mad with greed you know, it wouldn't be the first…"

"I trust them with everything I own and more. I don't question their trust." Harry said this evenly and the others behind him glowed. "But, I have to ask you guys not to tell anyone this alright?" Everyone nodded behind him. Albus gave an impatient meow and Griphook took this as a sign to open the doors.

"I'll wait for you here Mr. Potter." Griphook watched them shift nervously into the room until the doors shut with a bang behind them.

The room was dark except for a stand of candles at the very end of the room which lit up the end of, what looked like, a desk and a very wrinkly Goblin sitting there. He looked like he might just fall over and die any second.

"Come in! Sit, sit, we need to get to business." The Goblin's voice was very strong for one so old looking. He must have been as old as the bank, and Harry thought he probably was. Everyone shuffled in quickly as more candles lit up the rest of the desk suddenly, Harry sat down closest to the Goblin, on his right hand side, and Ginny sat beside him quickly, Hermione and Ron sat beside her. Albus transferred from Ginny's lap to Harry's quickly and settled to sleep peacefully. The room was filled with hushed silence and tense apprehension as they waited for him to speak. "I trust that Griphook had explained everything on the way here?"

"Uhh, yeah, yeah he did."

"And you trust everyone that is in this room?"

"Yes." The Goblin regarded Harry for a long time and then he finally looked away and placed some papers in front of Harry.

"If you could please look over that, it's the papers for the Potter vault, as well as the property that is yours known as Godric's Hollow. Your parents lived in the town where Godric Gryffindor himself called home. Your clan has been living there themselves ever since a Potter by the name of George married the Daughter of Godric Gryffindor, Elizabeth. The town is yours, but I assure you that it runs just fine on its own. The house that you lived in I'm sorry to say, was destroyed and is unfixable. However, upon receiving this property you also inherit the old Ancestral Graveyard of the Potter's and the Griffindor's. The second paper there, is for the Black estate, it includes the vault, the house elf and the property known as Grimmauld Place. I would like to ask you what you would like to do with that vault, it's located right beside the Potter vault but if you would want, we could put all its contents inside the Potter vault."

Harry stayed silent for a little while and he thought over all the massive information that was being given to him. "Sorry, it's just a little overwhelming to be given all this stuff, if it's alright with you, I'll check it out later."

"Alright then, we just need to discuss the passing on of the estates, and we need three people to volunteer themselves as witnesses and safe keepers. We weren't expecting you to already have them with you since we never told you until now. We thought that this would take a couple days you see. But, since you did by chance, you can use this knife here to prick your finger and you will use your blood to seal the passing. The three other people will be witnesses and will keep your secret safe. I would suggest having three different people for each estate; it will keep the information from being in one place."

"Okay, umm, well this is all pretty sudden so I guess, for the Potter one, I would just use Ron, Hermione and Ginny if they don't mind and I guess I'll use Remus, Mr. Weasley and Ginny again for the Black estate." Harry looked at them all and they nodded silently. "Sorry, Tonks, it's just…"

"Don't worry about it, I prefer it that way, I don't really want to have anything to do with the Black's anyways, no offense to Sirius or my mom, but you know." Harry nodded and turned back to the Goblin who pointed to the sharpened knife that was placed onto the table. He picked it up and gave a quick and sharp jab to his pointer finger and placed it on each page. They watched as the page absorbed the blood, and his name appeared in dark red on the page. The others followed his movement and it was soon taken care of. The Goblin smiled a in his goblin sort of way, showing all his pointed teeth, and clasped his hands together.

"Would you like to see your vaults today? We can take you immediately if you like."

"No thanks, I really think I couldn't handle it right now, it is too much for one day. If it's alright with you, I think we'll go home now." Harry looked at the Goblin and he nodded.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Potter. Hope to see you soon, and are we're glad that you trust us with such treasures." Harry nodded and as they all got up to leave, Harry thought of something.

"Actually if I could do one more thing, it would be great. Go on ahead guys, I'll be there in a second." Harry waited as they left the room, Ginny was last to go and she looked back at him before she closed the door.

"Something you wouldn't like your friends to hear?"

"Well, I don't want to worry them; you see, I want to make a will."


Harry felt drained. As soon as they all walked out of the bank, he felt the tiredness from waking up early, and the energy leaving him as all the information he received was sinking deeper and deeper into his brain. The rest of them looked just as tired as they made their slow progress to the Three Broomsticks so that they could apparate back to the Burrow for dinner. The sun was just beginning to set and it made the sky tint with warm hues. They trudged on in silence, no one really wanted to talk. They were all too busy processing what they had heard that day. No one was paying any mind to the passers-by or to the shops slowly closing for the night.

They had made it half way to the Three Broomsticks, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were lagging behind the others. The weight of everything was starting to weigh on him. His chest was starting to feel heavy, and the sky seemed to be getting darker along with his mood. His head jerked up sharply. Wait! It couldn't get dark this fast, could it? Harry knew why instantly as dread crept into his heart. Albus started hissing, and the signature rattling breath filled his ears. He did the first thing that came to mind: protect Ginny.

He whipped out his invisibility cloak and threw it over her as she gasped in realization. "It's dementors! Run, get out of here!"

He shoved Ginny out of the way, pulled out his wand and turned around. He wasn't fast enough though. He was their favorite meal, the dementors; they loved to feed off of him. Before he could even yell out, he heard the screaming of his mother as she died over and over in his mind, but her screams where mixed along with someone else's. Another woman was screaming in his head, and he placed the voice almost right away, he wouldn't save her this way.

He mustered up enough wits so that he could picture Ginny's face clearly in his mind and he yelled "Expecto Patronum!"

A brilliant stag erupted from his wand and forced back the dementors in one brilliant swoop of its antlers. In that moment he caught sight of Ron and Hermione, who were feebly producing shields of white mist. They wouldn't hold much longer. To the back of him was Mr. Weasley, Tonks and Remus who were holding them off on that side, but not for long. As soon as he pointed to his patronus with his wand, another one erupted right beside it. It was a glorious and beautiful doe, it joined his patronus and in a couple of seconds, the two patronuses had made a few graceful leaps and jumps and the dementors were gone, the setting sun again visible on the horizon.

The two patronuses stood there before them for a few more dazzling moments and then they too faded away. Ginny was there beside him, it was her, it was her patronus. He couldn't help himself, he hugged her in front of everyone.

"I'm glad you're safe." She said in his ear. "But you pull something as stupid as that again and I'll have to kick your ass." Harry couldn't help but smile especially when a jealous Albus leaped in between them. They laughed weakly, relieved, they walked to the others who were a little frightened at the whole ordeal. Normally Harry probably would have fainted, but the subconscious thought of Ginny beside him calmed him in a way that nothing else could. He needed her, he just didn't know it yet.

Well that's that. so feel free to comment, flame, suggest, ask questions, the works. thanx a lot to those who review i love it when i get feed back! :D and sorry again for the long wait!