Chapter 4

Harry found himself stepping out of the Weasley's Floo into the kitchen, an hour later than the time he was supposed to arrive, courtesy of his surprise guest. He was quickly spotted by Mrs. Weasley, who was alone in the kitchen, and was promptly pulled into a bone-crushing hug.

"Harry! Finally, you're here! What took you so long? I was quite worried. I was just about to send Ron to check-"

"Oh, I er- overslept, Mrs. Weasley. Nothing to worry about." He replied quickly, as Mrs. Weasley surveyed him and dusted soot off his robes.

"Alright then, everyone's in the garden, off you go! And take these with you." She said, handing him four goblets and ushering him towards the back door.

Harry was greeted with the smell of freshly made food, and a thump from Ron, who seemed to have been standing right by the door.

"What took you so long? Hermione's been going barmy, can you believe Mum actually invited that git – " Ron said, stopping suddenly as Harry caught sight of Hermione rushing towards them, followed by a tall figure, that Harry couldn't really make out in the slowly fading light of the evening. It didn't take him long to realize that Hermione was towing Blaise Zabini towards them, who seemed to be voluntarily touching her.

He looked sideways at Ron, who looked a bit pink around the ears, but taking the goblets from Harry's hands, quickly walked away.

"Hi Harry, I suppose Theo dropped by then?" Hermione said without preamble, as Harry raised an eyebrow at Zabini behind her. The dark-skinned boy nodded once, with what could be a hint of a smile, but Harry was almost sure his eyes were deceiving him. Since when did Slytherins smile instead of sneer?

"Yes, he did. We need to talk about that, Hermione." He muttered, looking unsurely at Zabini, who smirked at him lightly, "Weasley's already done with the death threats. Please tell me you will get to the point." He said, his eyes moving to fix on Ron, who was watching them from the table in the way Crookshanks often watched his prey.

"Let's get out of here for a while." Hermione said meaningfully, nodding towards the old shed where Mr. Weasley usually kept his favorite muggle automobile parts hidden from his wife. It was out of the way from the where the table was set, and seemed like a good spot for a conversation.

"First of all, I'd like to know why exactly you trust him." Harry said as they entered the shed, casting a faint lumos so he could see their expressions. He saw Hermione roll her eyes, as Zabini chuckled, "Because I'm actually a secret muggle lover and just couldn't come out and say it right away before? Now let's get to the part that matters – do you understand the offer they're making?"

Harry blinked at Hermione's 'yeah' expression for a while, processing that information, then finally nodded, "Yes, I understood it. They want to make sure I'll vouch for them at the trials before they come out of hiding."

"No. That's not it. Is that all he said?" Zabini said exasperatedly, and Harry found himself nodding confusedly, "Yes. Why? What else?"

"For fucks' sake, you'd think the idiot would know to state all the facts when making a deal. But no, he just can't handle anything but numbers. Bloody fuckin – " Zabini was saying, looking at Harry like he was supposed to understand all he was saying, but Harry could only raise his eyebrows at Hermione, as she interrupted the wizard's tirade.

"The point, Blaise." She said, closing her eyes, and Zabini stopped momentarily, looking at her. "Yes yes. So listen Potter, here's the deal – the Malfoys know that you'll vouch for all of them but Lucius. So they want to strike a deal that you vouch for Lucius and in exchange, he'll give you every single detail about every Death Eater he knows. Everything – secret hideouts, strengths, weaknesses, everything. Only condition is you vouch for him in front of the complete community."

Harry realized that this was too good an offer to deny – what they could do with all that information was invaluable. On the other hand, that would include a serious breach of his morals because he knew Lucius wasn't capable of a pardon. He should be serving time in Azkaban with his mates, but he was going to help the man avoid that, and most possibly buy his way back into the Ministry ranks. Was the risk worth taking?

He looked towards Hermione for advice, she shrugged her shoulders, "They asked me first when the Malfoys proposed it but I told them it was ultimately your decision." She said, exchanging a glance with Zabini, who looked at him carefully.

"Okay, how about you think on it Potter? Just remember one thing – if there's one quality that Draco's family has that makes them redeemable, it's that they'll go to any lengths to protect each other." He said, folding his arms in a relaxed way, "I'd just like to warn you that there's a possibility that you won't catch the rest of them without Lucius Malfoy's help."

Harry considered that and nodded, realizing that was probably true. "I'll think about it. Hermione will let you know I suppose?"

"Yeah, cool. So you sleep on it, and I'm going to leave before Weasley comes here and blows up in my face again." He said, looking at the table in the distance, which had colorful lights hanging around it now, "I swear if looks could kill, I'd be six feet under right now."

Harry chuckled as Hermione shook her head, and Blaise turned to him, extending a hand, "So see you around, Potter?" he said, and Harry found himself reluctantly shaking his hand, swallowing his surprise at the gesture.

"See you tomorrow at 12, Hermione. Good night, ya both." He said giving Hermione a one-armed hug, before walking away quietly to the apparition spot outside the Weasley garden. Barely anyone seemed to have noticed that he had left, except maybe Ron.

"Bit of a surprise, isn't he?" Hermione said, as Harry entered the old shed, lighting a few lamps with his wand so that the place was ablaze with light. He could see Sirius' motorcycle propped up in the back, Mr. Weasley had apparently still been tinkering with it.

"Yeah, I guess. Both Zabini and Nott. I'd expected them to be more like Malfoy, to be honest, all nods and frozen expressions." Harry said, and Hermione chuckled beside him.

"They're not that difficult to understand, you know. They've gone through the same things as us, just from a different perspective. Only difference is we could express ourselves, and they couldn't." She said, melancholy in her tone, as she inspected one pair of plugs.

"I guess I would have to agree to that. There's one thing I still don't get though – why are they helping us communicate? What do they get in return?"

"That's easily answered Harry. Blaise is only doing this for Malfoy – apparently only Theo knows where they are hiding, and Draco's pretty miserable in the place, along with his mother and father, no doubt. They're desperate to come clean, and when I happened to mention that you were upset we couldn't track them down, Blaise saw an opportunity and took it." Hermione explained, moving on to inspecting the several wires in the shelves.

"And how does Theo fit into this?" he asked, moving along with her, frowning at the back of her head.

"Blaise knew you saved Theo's life, who is a very proud individual apparently and he knew Theo had information you needed. Two plus two."

Harry hummed in understanding – it was still very much confusing for him but he figured it was far from him to understand how the Slytherins' inner circle worked. "So Nott's a pretty useful man, I guess, huh?"

"Looks like it – oh! That reminds me Harry – Blaise knows George Gliniecki's assistant. He said he could fix up an appointment right away at his personal quarters so you don't have to go to the Ministry."

George Gliniecki was the Head of Magical Location Concealment in the Department of Magical Law and Enforcement. The moment Harry had decided that he wanted to rebuild Grimmauld Place, Hermione had presented him with the required people he needed to meet. Kingsley had refused point blank to let him be seen near the Ministry as it would call in hundreds of questions from the Prophet. That reminded him –

"Hermione, what do you think Kingsley will have to say about this offer?" He said turning to face her as she walked behind him. She frowned for a moment before answering, "You think that's a good idea – telling him?"

"Well, I don't think the Prophet's going to remain quiet when I wrongly support Lucius Malfoy. I'll be contradicting my earlier statements and the Prophets going to have a field day and Kingsley will have to deal with the mess later. I think it's best if we prepare him first. That way the Auror force can be already prepared too." Harry rambled off, his mind spinning ahead – he needed both Kingsley and Percy's advice on this. While Mr. Weasley would obviously find out soon enough too, Percy's take on the matter would be beneficial to check out the public response to him acting de facto.

"Um… Harry, I don't… I'm not sure you should do this but if you think it's a good idea-"

"Why? Why do you think it's not?"

He looked as she bit her lip slightly in thought and leaned against Sirius' bike – it was propped up on bricks and Hermione was too light to disturb it, "Well, it's just – you'll have to tell this to Blaise and Theo too – that Kingsley knows about what's going to happen. If you tell him, you're going to have to make an elaborate plan with the Auror office so that they can stage a heist. OR we don't know if the Malfoys will agree for a heist – what if they just want to surrender? That'll make the aurors look bad. It's going to get complicated if you involve the Ministry in this plan… so just think about it."

Harry decided to sit by the bike for a while, thinking it all over and arguing with himself over and over again as to which the right course of action would be. Hermione left and returned after a few minutes, saying that Mr. Weasley was looking for him – Mrs. Weasley had accidentally counted Fred and laid an extra plate for him. She had broken into sobs and ran into the house and George had apparated away somewhere.

George had just got out of his shell – this was the first time he was meeting everyone outside his room and now suddenly this. Harry quickly got up and jogged after Hermione and they both ran into the twinkling garden.


"Fleur's preganant." Bill whispered in the darkness and Harry stared at his silhouette, shocked, "That's – Wow! That's amazing! Congratulations!" Harry had trouble keeping his voice down as Bill shushed him with a chuckle.

"Yeah, we were gonna tell everyone after dinner but well, I figured now's better than anytime." Harry felt Bill shrug in the darkness as they crouched behind a trashcan in the alleyway.

George had pulled a few disappearing acts like these over the past month and a half and had always ended up in a new place everytime. It was mostly a pub around England or just the Hog's Head but he had also visited the shop once. After getting everyone together at the dinner, Kingsley had divided them off in pairs and sent them in different directions.

Harry had ushered Ginny in to look after her Mum before she could revolt, though she had given him a filthy look before stalking inside the house. Bill had ferociously denied Fleur the chance to join too and she had left in a similar manner as well – and Harry now knew why. Arthur was home with Molly, along with Charlie, Ginny, Teddy, Luna and her father and Hagrid. Andromeda and Augusta had stayed to serve them a slow dinner inside, while waiting for the others to return. McGonagall and Ron had went to search Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, Kingsley, Percy, Neville and Hermione would look in the countryside and other villages and Harry and Bill were at the shop in Diagon Alley.

They had spotted George on the ground floor of the shop and quietly sent a patronus to the others to go back home and stay put. It had been an hour since they had found him and had been hiding since, to make sure George did nothing wrong. He had simply been exploring the house upstairs since then, and Harry's legs were so cramped that he doubted he would be able to walk anytime soon.


It was 11 in the night when George agreed to come home with them – oddly enough, he was talking even less than he had been before the dinner but they were just thankful he had agreed to come along quietly.

Mrs. Weasley was red in the face when she saw her son, her expression was a mix of upset and relief but did she look ready to shout indefinitely. Before she could even start though, George spoke.

"I'm going to start the shop back up."

It was almost like someone else had spoken, but everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath and stare at George transfixed as he continued, turning towards Hermione and Ron, "I'll need your help to catch up and figure out the time we've - I've missed out on. And I'm sorry that I didn't have the guts to finish this phase sooner, Mum. I'm sorry."

With that he strode to Mrs. Weasley and hugged her tightly, tears streaming down his face, and she too seemed to have lost control again and was sobbing into her son's shirt. There was a faint murmur as everyone else left the room too – leaving the Weasleys to themselves. Harry went to seek out Kingsley at once, he looked around for Hermione to accompany him, but she was trying hard to contain herself after looking at Mrs. Weasley, her head buried in Andromeda's shoulder.


The week after the Weasley's dinner was the most progressive one Harry might have seen. Kingsley and Percy were both in favor of the plan, and thankfully, he had handed the matter over to Hermione soon so they could meet with Zabini and Nott and lay out the intricacies of the matter. All he needed to do in the end was give his statement and brave for the people's reaction – not that it mattered much to him anymore. All he cared about what getting Hermione to Andromeda's place four times a week so they could have their sessions and make sure that she kept as busy as she could. Even Andy had admitted that projects would keep Hermione busy and distracted, which was all they wanted to do right then.

McGonagall had provided the happy news that Hogwarts would be finished and ready to shelter people in the last week of June, such a large taskforce headed by Neville, Zabini and Hermione had helped a lot. That night was the first time he had argued with Hermione after the war, she had wanted to move to Hogwarts, insisting that she didn't want to intrude on him anymore. Harry had tried to threaten her but she still hadn't budged. So then he had to do the unspeakable thing he mostly avoided doing – he had to flatly tell her that she was the nearest thing he had to a sister, a family right now, and he couldn't handle if she decide to leave him now. That had shut her up permanently.

Neville had also had much publicity after the war – but nothing made him happy more than the fact that McGonagall had entrusted him with the duty of gathering the wizarding students for the first year. The job that previously Dumbledore had entrusted to McGonagall was his now, as their strict teacher had told him, that she saw great potential in him and he was sure to make a great Head of House one day. Neville had invited everyone for drinks at The Leaky Cauldron – Dean, Seamus, Ron, him, Ginny, Luna, Hermione and surprisingly, Zabini and Lavender Brown as well. That party, however, had to be moved once people had started recognizing Harry. Before much chaos could reign, they were having drinks and chatting away in a snug little flat that Dean and Seamus shared, Zabini included, something that Harry found he cared less and less about as the evening progressed.

The flat was a typical muggle place but with surprisingly lots of space to sit around – if one counted the kitchen counter where Blaise was chatting up Hermione. Ron and Harry were sitting side by side watching the interaction with narrowed eyes, when suddenly Hermione walked towards them.

"Harry, Ron – have you decided your NEWTs yet?" she chirped, settling between them, and Harry and Ron exchanged a bewildered look before both turning to Blaise simultaneously. The man looked honestly guilty as he held up his hands in a what-can-I-do gesture. Hermione followed their gaze and giggled, "Isn't he cute?"

It was panic in Ron's eyes as they looked at each other this time, but Harry spoke before Ron could – "Uh, no Hermione. We haven't decided if we'll go to Hogwarts this year or not. I mean, Kingsley said the Auror programme-"

"Oh come on! Not that again – wait, I can't do this today." She said crossly, and admittedly a bit drunkenly, and turned to the others in the room.

"GUYS!" She shouted, and Harry and Ron shifted away from her as she stood up, calling everyone's attention to herself. Lavender and Seamus seemed pretty cozy on a couch and Dean and Luna were very deep in conversation. Neville and Ginny seemed to be sitting idly though, and looked up to Hermione with a smile, clearly seeing she was a bit drunk.

"I just wanted to ask who of you are going to go back to Hogwarts this year, because I AM!"

There were loud barks of laughter around the room as Hermione giggled at herself too and Blaise smirked from the kitchen. Dean and Seamus were the first to answer with a positive, saying they had applied for internship at the Prophet, so needed a complete Hogwarts qualification to join.

"Seamus at the Daily Prophet? Are you sure that's a good idea?" Ron said conversationally, and Dean frowned, "Why?"

"Well, it's only that you've been blowing shit up since first year – who's to say you won't burn your Boss' office down?"

There was a roar of laughter and Dean thumped his fist on the sofa, while Seamus went red but didn't say much as Lavender pinched his colored cheeks.

"I guess the Headlines would be 'Intern Burns Down Headquarters'." Dean chimed in and there was a fresh squeal of laughter from Luna, who was holding her sides. Her reaction lead to another five minutes of mind numbing laughter, which slowly ended when Neville talked.

"I'm going to have to complete the year too – I plan to apply for the Herbology post at Hogwarts and I'll need two years' training for that, which can only start after clearing NEWT level Herbology. So I guess I'll be attending too."

"My Mum's told me to attend too – even if I get a job in the muggle world, she wants me to finish my education here." Lavender quipped from beside Seamus.

"My Dad says once our house is rebuilt and The Quibbler sales are back to the level they used to be, we can go on a world tour to look for Crumple Headed Snorkack. But that could take years so I'll finish Hogwarts in the meantime." Luna gave her useful input, which had Hermione twitching in her seat, before Ginny spoke, drawing the attention to her.

"I have no other choice than to pass time because I want to be a professional Quidditch player and I'm not of age yet. So I'll just suck up to old SLuggy in the meantime and hope he gets me a meet with Gweneg Jones sometime this year."

Everyone chuckled at this as they turned to Blaise, who just shrugged, "I'll probably just go to college."

"Muggle college?" Ginny questioned, and Blaise nodded, walking towards the living area and coming to sit beside Hermione, "Yep. I have an interest in muggle Bioscience. Genetics to be more specific."

"Isn't it fascinating?" Hermione beamed, as everyone seemed rather shocked by this declaration, Harry included, though he got over it fairly soon as he heard Ron grumble under his breath, "No it isn't."


Firstly, thanks for all the amazing reviews guys. They're food for the soul. All those who follow and favoriate - I owe you guys something. That's another chapter.

So how was this one enjoyed the development? What do you think's gonna happen next?