The first week of summer break was more hectic than usual. Riya had to unpack and I had to finish up the house, and go to work. Then Riya decided to learn how to better defend herself. Her reasoning was that if Harry was going to get into more trouble, he would need someone with more experience to get him out of it. We quickly discovered that her wand would only perform the simplest of offensive magic, although her defensive magic was really strong.

So here I was, standing in my new gym/training room, preparing to teach Riya muggle dueling. As a child I had coerced McGonagall into letting me take martial arts classes. They had greatly improved my coordination, so she let me continue, as I made a better keeper because of it.

I was dressed in training clothes, a simple tank-top, and black yoga pants. While I was waiting for the girl I unrolled the training mats. Riya arrived in her usual whirlwind of activity. I smiled, and then waved her on to the mat.

"The first thing you need to learn is the proper stretches. They help improve coordination and flexibility, while limbering up your muscles so you don't injure them. Now watch what I do and follow me."

I showed her the stretches and corrected her forms. She picked them up quickly, and to her credit, she didn't complain at the slow progress. She seemed to understand that I knew what I was doing. I counted myself lucky that she wasn't nearly as impacient as most teanagers her age.

Riya advanced well, she seemed to have a natural affinity for the finer points of dueling. She was adept at reading her opponents, and excelled at strategy. Apparently pranking comes in handy in more than one way. Still, I kept things simple. Just hand to hand. When she went back to school, I would give her books to read on defensive magic. It wasn't a lot but it would be enough.

We didn't spend all our time training. It was summer break after all. I took Riya to Remus's a week after the full moon. Riya practically hero- worshiped the Marauder. He may not have believed us about Sirius's innocence, but he loved reliving his days at Hogwarts. I let Riya distract him while I stocked his pantry, and tended to his still healing wounds. It was amazing how stubborn he was, but Riya could get even the toughest nut to crack.

Our visiting didn't stop there. We had to pop in on McGonagall. I didn't see her all that often, and she did raise me. She claimed that it was annoying, but I knew the truth. It was the highlight of her summer.

We spent the last month of our summer at the Weasley's. Molly had been honored when I asked her for cooking lessons. I didn't have all that much free time. Work had picked up quite a lot, so Molly had invited me to stay over with Riya, who was staying with the twins.

It had been a week when Riya woke me up at midnight. "Via, Via, get up," she whispered hurriedly. "The twins and Ron are planning to go rescue Harry. They've been worried since he hasn't woken up."

I nodded sleepily. "I'm worried too." I sighed and then rolled out of bed. "Go stall them while I get dressed. There's no way I'm letting the twins rescue him, there's too many things that could go wrong." Riya quickly ran out of the room, while I pulled on my auror outfit, just to be safe.

I was in the front yard minutes later. Fred, George, and Riya were having a whispered argument, and Ron was sitting in Arthur Weasley's flying Ford Anglia. "Where do you think you are going?" I asked, stepping out of the shadows.

The Weasley boys gaped at me. They had never seen me in black leather, and I daresay, I looked good. I could feel the shock roll through them. Riya felt oddly satisfied. "Ron was the first one to speak, "We are going to rescue Harry, what do you think we're doing?"

I sighed, exasperated. "And your plan was to fly an experimental car all the way to Surrey and back? You could be seen, and arrested for breaking the International Statute of Secrecy. Or worse, your mother could find out! No, there are better ways to rescue my nephew."

"Great, so what's the plan?" asked Ron.

"You four are going back to bed. Molly would have my hide if I took you someplace in the middle of the night without her permission."

"But…"

"At the most I'll be gone an hour. It'll be much quicker." They stopped arguing and headed inside.

I apparated to the street corner that I remember so clearly from the night Harry and I were separated. I snuck over to number four. It wasn't hard to figure out which room was Harry's. It was the only room with bars on the window. Unfortunately, I couldn't use magic around Harry without getting him in trouble with the ministry. I had to 'kidnap' him the muggle way.

Getting in was easy. i didn't even have to pick the lock. The Dursley's were cliche enough to hide their key under the welcome mat. I was silent as I crept up the stairs. 'Usually sneaking in the middle of the night led to something very different,' I thought with a chuckle. Still, the skills are useful.

I reached Harry's room with little trouble, and picking the lock was easy. I snuck into the room and closed the door behind me. Harry was already awake thank goodness.

"I'm here to rescue you. Where are your things, Harry?"

"Their locked up in the cupboard under the stairs."

Get Hedwig, and follow me. We have to be quiet."

When we got to the bottom, I ussured Harry out the door, and picked the lock to the cupboard. I got his trunk easily and hauled it outside. The last thing I did was leave a note so that they wouldn't call the police. I locked up the house and led Harry to Arabella Figg's house. She let us use her floo. I took Harry and his trunks with me, as it was his first time. I couldn't risk him getting lost. I took Harry up to Ron's room, and then headed to my own bed in Ginny's room. We could deal with Molly later.

I was up early the next morning. As I helped Molly with breakfast, I filled her in on the events of the night before. She shook her head over the twins' antics. It didn't exactly surprise her, but it was still unnerving. "I'm glad you went and got him instead, who knew what would have happened to them," she noted.

"Well, I'm glad that's over. The Dursley's put bars on his window! Honestly, you'd think he was some sort of criminal!" Molly sighed and turned back to the pancakes. There was nothing we could do. The kids piled into the breakfast table, and Arthur got back from work. The kids got their supplies lists. Unfortunately, I couldn't go with them to Diagon Alley, I had work.

I didn't hear what happened at Diagon Alley till that evening. In true Harry fashion, my nephew had ended up flooing to Knockturn Alley, a foul place, where all sorts of dark objects are bought and sold. Then they ran into Lucius Malfoy, and his son Draco. Artur ended up in a fistfight with Malfoy, and Gilderoy Lockhart, a pompous arse with an ego the size of Asia, announced that he would be teaching at Hogwarts. I was never so glad that I wasn't going to Hogwarts anymore.

Meanwhile, I spent several hours treating a bad outbreak of dragon pox in a group of whiny six year olds. Then I had a three hour shift at the law office filling out the paperwork that the last shift 'forgot' to do. I almost wished for a little bit more adventure.

Overall, the summer was a good one. But it came to an end all too soon. I was unable to see the kids off to school, because I had to work the night shift at St. Mungo's the night before. I spent the afternoon of August the 31st talking with Riya and Harry. Harry and I talked about his parents. He didn't have many adults in his life who could tell him all about James and Lily. He needed it. Riya and I actually talked about a similar issue. She had heard that her parents were wizards, and she wanted to know who they were. It was understandable. I would have felt the same way. I promised to search harder, and the conversation turned to lighter matters. As a parting gift, I gave Riya the book 'Wards, Shields, and Defensive Spells; An Intensive Guide to the Ultimate Defense.' She promised to study it over the year, and I felt certain that I had taught her enough for the summer.