For disclaimers, warnings and pairing notifications, see Chapter 1.

Author Note: Well here is the old chapter 3 rewritten. The main criticism that I responded to in this chapter was made by MDR, who stated that my original method for getting Harry back together with Hermione and Ginny was just too unbelievable. He also commented that several of the reactions by Hermione and Ginny were not in keeping with their established characters. I have to admit that MDR was definitely right about the reactions, some of them were embarassingly off-key, especially for Hermione. On the other hand, I'm not so sure that the 'incredible coincidence' factor can really be taken away from the idea that Harry just happens to run into two of his best friends on the one day he visits Knockturn Alley. I've done what I can to make it seem less unlikely, but ultimately I think that's just one of those things you have to accept about stories like Harry Potter, that sometimes that one-in-a-million chance is just going to happen to bring the right elements together to move the story forward. I also added the scene of the crafting of Harry's wand in response to accusations that I had used the wand-crafter idea to give Harry an 'uber-powerful' wand. His wand is a little unusual, but it's hardly out there. The only reason it's not a carbon copy of his old wand is that I wanted to illustrate the fact that Harry is a changed man compared to how he was six years previously, magically changed just as much as anything else. Anyway I hope you approve of the changes I've made, and it would be nice if someone could leave an opinion.

Elphias Doge was an old man, that was one of the great things about his position. Voldemort's lackeys consistently underestimated him based on his age and his lack of duelling skills. He would not last two minutes in a duel with even the most novice of Sentinels, let alone the trained Auror corps, or the Death Eaters themselves, but that did not mean he could not fight against the Dark Lord and his regime. His contribution to the good fight was to supply the Order with wands.

He had not hesitated, therefore, when Remus Lupin had contacted him to set up a crafting appointment, nor had he protested when the younger werewolf demanded absolute secrecy for the appointment. That was not uncommon for Order members who wanted wands crafted for them, but usually they simply hid in his medium sized stockroom in the back while their wands were being crafted, and he let his assistant, Laylia, take the counter while he did the crafting work in the back.

This time Remus had asked him to close the shop altogether and have no one else present but himself. He knew the werewolf well enough to know that he would not ask for such precautions unless they were warranted, so he guessed that he was going to be crafting for one of the members of the Order that was still on the run from Voldemort, and probably one of the higher-up ones at that. His money was on Ronald Weasley. The red-haired ex-best friend of Harry Potter ranked highly on Voldemort's most-wanted list, and the last Doge had heard Remus was a member of his cell.

He was therefore understandably momentarily surprised to see two dark-haired figures standing before his shop door. He unlocked the door and beckoned both in, closing the door and redrawing the blinds directly behind them. He then cast strong locking charms to supplement the wards that had already snapped into place as a result of the closing of the door. Only then did he turn around to look at his guests, and promptly came within inches of having a heart-attack.

His eyes traced over the thin face that had been revealed when the shorter of the pair had cast back the hood of his cloak. It was the face of someone who had endured unthinkable torments and had still not yet gotten over them, the cheeks slightly hollow, the set of the jaw-line hard and grim. The shocking thing, however, was the eyes. Vivid green, but hard with what looked like pain. The colour was a dead give-away, the one thing about the man that stood before him that was no different from his picture in the 'Wanted' posters that continued to be circulated up and down the country despite the six year difference in age. Doge was looking at Harry Potter, even if his famous scar had somehow been hidden. That was easy enough to do, simple glamours would cover such an obvious mark.

"Great Merlin," he breathed, "It can't be!"

The boy turned to his elder companion, a tall man who could easily have passed for his father or elder brother, were it not for the fact that his eyes were icy blue rather than green. He too had a haunted look to him, although it was much less noticeable than on the boy. Doge thought he looked familiar, but could not quite place him.

"I'm going to get that a lot, aren't I?" the boy asked with a touch of sardonic humour.

The elder man barked a laugh, which suddenly jogged Doge's memory. Sirius Black was an ex-convict, ex-Auror and Harry Potter's godfather, which reinforced the idea in Doge's head that the boy was indeed Harry Potter.

"Yeah, Harry," he replied, confirming Doge's suspicions, "You probably are."

Harry sighed and turned back to him.

"Yes, Mr Doge, I am Harry Potter. Yes I recently escaped from Azkaban with Sirius' help among others. Yes I'm going to be fighting the Dark Lord. Is there anything else you wanted to know?"

"I assume you're the one Remus Lupin asked me to craft a new wand for?" Doge asked, after recovering himself and assuming a business-like manner once more.

"Yes, he is," Black answered.

"Very well," Doge replied, "If you'll come with me into the back, we'll get started."

Harry and his companion followed him through the shop and into the back room, where the walls were lined on one side with jars, and on the other two sides with long wooden poles. In the centre of the room was a large bench which had on its surface a bubbling cauldron and several tools, only a few of which were recognisable, such as the long knife, the small saw and the ladle.

"Please sit down, Mr Potter, and we'll get started," Doge said, conjuring up two chairs side by side in front of the bench with a wave of his wand.

Both Harry and his elder companion sat, while Doge himself hurried over to check the cauldron. It was nearly at the right stage. He conjured three clear glass vials, each about the size of a thumbnail.

"I'd like you fill these three vials for me Mr Potter, one with blood, one with saliva and one with tears if you would."

"What for?" Harry asked, somewhat warily. He knew enough about magic to know that someone with samples of his blood at least could track him anywhere. Was Doge planning to betray them?

"They're vital fluids, Mr Potter, they contain very specific signatures of your power. Together with a scan of your magical aura, a precise reading of them will allow me to determine the wand components that will match you best."

Harry complied, filling the vials with the requested fluids and handing them over. Doge then poured the three liquids into the cauldron and stirred them in before setting the burner to simmer for the next two minutes. In the meantime he took out his wand and did the aura scan. Touching the tip of his wand to a specially treated quill, the results of the scan were transferred from the wand to the quill. Then they had to wait for the potion to be finished, after which, Doge poured some of it into a vial, and then immersed the quill fully in the potion. The quill appeared to be absorbing the potion, for in seconds it was the only thing in the vial. Doge pulled it out and set it point first on a fairly large square of parchment, where it at once set off, writing out various series of complex equations and formulae.

Even though the quill was a blur across the parchment, it took a good two minutes to finish writing out whatever results had been yielded from the examinations. When it was done, however, Doge picked up the parchment and scanned it.

"Tell me about your last wand, Mr Potter?" he requested as his eyebrows climbed higher and higher at whatever he was seeing.

"It was from Ollivander's," Harry replied, "Eleven inches, made of holly and with a phoenix feather core."

"I see," Doge said, frowning, although whether it was at what Harry had said or whatever he was reading, Harry had no idea. At last however he lowered the parchment and looked at Harry.

"Well, Mr Potter, it would appear that you've changed in the years since you got your first wand. The length of your wand will be the same, which was to be expected, a wand's length is determined by the ratio of certain measurements on a wizard's body, including wand-arm length, overall height, distance from heart to brain and a few others. Your ratios have remained absolutely constant as far as I can calculate.

"Holly wood also appears to be unusually suited to you, as my calculations indicate that your ideal wand will be constructed from a mixture of seventy percent holly, thirty percent oak. I had expected that to change, most wizards change woods at least twice in their lives before settling on a good match. Also, although both of those are common woods for the making of wands, it's quite unusual to see a wand that requires more than one kind of wood.

"Your core, however, Mr Potter, your core is the most interesting part of all. Again Phoenix feather continues to suit you, but according to my calculations it will have to be mixed with Basilisk venom and unicorn tail-hair. Again combined cores are not unheard of, but to have three components is unusual, especially given the mix of Light and Dark creatures there. Also I'm quite surprised that your own blood is not on that list. It's generally taken as writ that crafted wands will contain blood from the owner, it's part of what makes them so personalised, but apparently this is not so in your case. It could mean that you are out of tune with yourself, strange as that may sound. I think it may be the result of your lack of education meaning that your magical core's integration into your body has not been fully achieved yet. You may have to return and get a new wand crafted in a few years if you truly want a wand attuned completely to yourself alone."

Harry nodded. He was not surprised to learn that his wand was unusual in nature. He had been an oddity for one reason or another for the first eighteen years of his life, why stop now?

"What now?" he asked.

"Now I get to work," Doge replied, "It will take some time, perhaps an hour or two, the Basilisk venom is quite volatile and I'll have to be careful in handling it, but your part in this is essentially over now. You're free to wait in here and watch or to go outside and peruse my collections while I work."

Having never seen a wand crafted before, Harry opted to remain. Sirius, being over-protective as was his godfatherly prerogative, refused to let Harry stay alone, even with a member of the Order. What followed was the strangest and most incomprehensible piece of magic either man had ever seen. Doge did absolutely nothing with his wand, everything was done by hand or with tools. He took down two poles from the many that lined the room in racks, and carefully measured out an eleven-inch section of each before sawing them off by hand. He then planed the two eleven inch sections down to the diameter of a wand, again by hand.

This done, he laid aside the two lengths of wand wood on the workbench, and crossed the room to the shelves that contained the many jars. He took down three, unscrewing two straight off and pulling out what looked like a long piece of silver string and a long, slender golden feather that had red edging on one side. Doge then pulled on a pair of dragon-hide gloves and cast a modified Bubblehead Charm over himself and over Harry and Sirius as well. Instead of merely covering the head, the shield encompassed their entire bodies. Then he proceeded to unscrew the third jar, which presumably contained the Basilisk venom. Using a pair of tongs, Doge dipped a vial into the jar and raised it up, bringing up with it a small amount of thick, black liquid. He then carefully lowered the feather and the tail hair one by one into the vial with a second pair of tongs. There was a sharp sizzling sound and clouds of grey fumes rose from the liquid when the three materials came into contact, proving the need for the Bubblehead Charm.

While the feather and the tail-hair steeped in the venom, Doge returned his attention to the shafts of wood he had laid out. Neither Harry nor Sirius could quite explain what he did to them, except to say that he used his sharp knife to incise several runes into each shaft, and then appeared to crush the two shafts together between his hands until they melded into a single wand shaft. The wand shaft was then sawed in half and hollowed out with saw and knife. Finally Doge used the tongs to remove the feather and tail-hair from the vial of venom and placed one in each half of the wand, folding the tail-hair lengthwise until it fit and flattening the feather against itself until it was slender enough to fit into the half of the wand shaft. Then for good measure, he poured five drops of raw venom into each half of the wand, causing more clouds of grey fumes to escape into the air.

Finally the two halves of the wand were brought together and Doge carved a few more runes into the shaft. Once the sequence was complete, the runes glowed with blue fire and disappeared, leaving smooth wood. The join between the two halves also disappeared, leaving what appeared to be a single piece of wood where there had previously been two. Doge laid the completed wand down on his bench, took up his own and cast a spell that created a strong breeze through the room to clear out any lingering fumes from the Basilisk venom. Only after letting it run for a good five minutes did he end the breeze and cancel the Bubblehead Charms around the three of them. Then he picked the newly crafted wand up off the workbench and presented it to Harry.

The moment Harry touched the wand he knew that it was his in the same indefinable way that he had known his first wand was his as well. He felt tingles go up and down his arm and something stirred within him. The only difference was that whereas his first wand had given off a feeling of warmth and shot out red-gold sparks, this one gave off chills as well as warmth, an odd sensation when combined, and the sparks given off were red, gold, silver and green. There was also an odd roaring in his ears, and it was a few moments before he realised that a strong wind seemed to be blowing through the room once again.

Harry was interrupted from contemplating the feel of his new wand when the door suddenly burst inwards with considerable force.

Hermione Jane Granger kept her wits about her as she and her partner walked down the street that formed part of their assigned patrol route for this evening. Sentinel duty was an often boring, but no less deadly job, that involved lousy pay, awful hours and constant danger, especially patrolling the Knockturn Alley district, which was the roughest all-wizarding area in Britain bar none. It was, however, what she did, not because she actually had any interest in keeping the peace for Voldemort's government, quite the opposite in fact. She had been placed in the Sentinel corps by her cell of the Order of the Phoenix, it was useful to every cell to have at least one person in with law enforcement, in case there was a sudden need to know the times and places of assigned patrols, or just in general to know who was being watched, whose houses and businesses were to be searched this week and other similar titbits of information.

"Wait," her partner hissed beside her, nudging her ribs slightly for emphasis.

She turned to look at her partner, a red-haired woman about four inches shorter than herself with warm brown eyes, countless freckles and a figure generous enough that she was occasionally envious of it. Ginny Weasley, who never ever went by her full name of Ginevra unless you wanted a swift kick or a hex to a sensitive area, had been one of her best friends since they had attended Hogwarts together, and was now the last of that small circle to remain alive and free. Now they were fortunate enough to have been assigned together as permanent partners in the Sentinel corps, taking patrols and watch assignments together as a matter of course. It was pure blind luck that had brought them together, since they were affiliated with different cells of the Order of the Phoenix, and communication between cells had been shaky at best since the fall of Hogwarts.

"What is it?" she asked in concern. She saw nothing, but sometimes the younger girl seemed to have a sixth sense about danger.

"Look," Ginny said, pointing across the street, "The window above Doge's shop is smashed in."

Hermione saw it, and she saw something else too.

"And isn't it a little early for closing time too?" she asked rhetorically, pointing to the drawn blinds in the shop itself.

Even if it was nothing, it was worth checking out. This was Knockturn Alley after all, and besides that Elphias Doge was Hermione's link back to her cell of the Order. The two women crossed the street and walked up to the shop front. Hermione flicked her wrist, bringing her wand from forearm holster to hand, and reached it out to tap on a runic symbol engraved into the doorframe, the equivalent of a doorbell. An audible chime sounded within and the pair waited for someone to answer, but no one did. After about thirty seconds Hermione tried again. They listened for the chime. Again there was no response.

"One more," she said to Ginny, who took out her own wand as she spoke, "Then we break it down."

Ginny nodded and Hermione tapped the rune again. Meanwhile Ginny was muttering softly under her breath while running her wand up and down the hinge-post of the door. Her eldest brother was an expert Curse-Breaker who had once worked for Gringotts. During the Siege of Hogwarts he had taught some of the basic methods of his own arcane craft. Now she examined the wards that surrounded this shop. Almost at once she smiled, Doge was a crafty old so-and-so. His wards were as solid as a rock, but she recognised the design as one of her brother's commissioned solely for the Order. They were as strong as anything going, but a simple runic password would dissolve the entire casting temporarily.

There was still no response from within, so she cast a glance at Hermione, who nodded a little tensely, fingering her wand nervously as she was wont to do when she knew a fight was in the offing. Then she used her wand to draw the runes Išātu and Iṣṣūru, literally fire bird, on the doorpost, the wedges and lines of cuneiform script appearing briefly in blue fire before being absorbed into the wood with no trace as the wards accepted the password.

There was a tingle in the air as the wards dropped. Hermione's booted foot was already raised and driving for the door-lock. One of the great things about magic was the ability to undo virtually any damage done to an inanimate object with a selection of relatively simple spells. If they were wrong a simple Reparo would put the lock back together, and if they weren't wrong then the surprise effect of the door being kicked in was a good distraction for any potential enemies inside. The lock splintered and gave way, allowing Hermione to duck through the doorway, moving in a half-crouch to present a smaller target, a lesson she had learned the hard way during the Second War. No hostile response appeared to be forthcoming, however, and so she stood up, cautiously and keeping her wand out and ready. Ginny, who had mirrored her movements except for going left through the door rather than right followed her lead in standing as well. The pair swept the room with their eyes and found it empty, dark and quiet.

She looked at Ginny and Ginny looked right back and they shrugged at one another slightly. At least no one was here to see their mistake, and in all honesty, Elphias probably would have understood. Knockturn Alley was one of those neighbourhoods in which 'better safe than sorry' was a truism for survival. A brilliant flash of light from the back of the shop caught the attention of both women, and they both ducked instinctively, thinking that it might be a curse coming their way. No spell seemed to be forthcoming however, and so they raised their heads cautiously to see what had transpired.

The sight that confronted them was strange, which worried both of them. The door that led to the back-room of Elphias' shop was framed by a halo of many colours which flickered, as though something was going on behind the door. It was not quite the same effect that would be produced if an intense duel were to be going on behind the door, since this nimbus of light wavered but never vanished altogether, which would happen intermittently as spells exhausted themselves if a duel were going on behind the door. Nevertheless it was close enough that it warranted examination, just in case.

As they got within feet of the door, they noticed that there was a strong draught pulling air towards the door, but for the moment it was just another odd thing to chalk up to whatever was going on behind the door. As with the front door to the shop, both women stood to either side of the door for a moment before Hermione kicked this one in as well, and the pair moved swiftly to enter the room.

Sirius' head snapped up as the door slammed open and he saw two figures illuminated by the light of the sparks of Harry's wand and the glow of the torches that lit the room. He only had time to register two things, the fact that they were wearing black uniforms and the telltale flash of silver on the right side of each figure's chest. He did not need a second look to know that the silver was the emblem of a coiled serpent; its jaws wide open as though to strike: the emblem of the Sentinel corps, Voldemort's more mundane policing force.

At that point instinct took over, he used one hand to pull downwards on Harry's shoulder, forcing him off the chair and onto the floor, where Sirius hoped he would have the sense to stay put or seek cover. His other hand was already moving forwards, a simple flick of the wrist bringing his wand out of the holster strapped to his wrist and neatly into his palm. He cast the first offensive spell that came to mind, a Reductor Curse, but was compelled to leap away as one of the Sentinels brought up a shield that reflected his curse back at him. The curse hit his chair instead, shattering it into splinters. He rolled along the floor, coming up to one knee about a yard from where he had started, a second spell already on his lips, this time a powerful Stunner. Stunners had the advantage of not bouncing off shields. Instead they simply impacted, and the shield had to absorb the full energy of the spell or else collapse.

He vaguely heard Doge shouting something, but his attention was on the battle, so he ignored it, although he dimly felt puzzled that Doge was not joining in the duel. Did the old man not realise that Harry could not fight? Perhaps he had lost his wand, Sirius could not recall whether he had been holding it when the door slammed open. It did not matter anyway, the Sentinel not maintaining the shield was sending curses his way, and he was forced to dive to avoid them. This time he got all the way to his feet, firing off another Stunner as he rose.

Harry watched from the floor as Sirius dove away and traded spells with the two people who had come crashing through the door. Doge was yelling for them to stop, but no one seemed to be paying him any heed. Harry was not sure who these new arrivals were, but Sirius seemed to think that they were a threat. Doge thought otherwise, but they certainly seemed to be going all out against Sirius, and Doge was doing nothing to help. Harry was not sure what spell Sirius was using, but the only spell he knew that was of use in a duel was certainly a non-lethal one, the Disarming Hex. If he could disarm these newcomers then they could sort all this out. If they were friends as Doge seemed to think, then it would be fine, if not, they would have the upper hand with the newcomers disarmed.

He got to his feet and raised his new wand.

"Expelliarmus!" he cried, putting all his effort into the spell since he figured he would probably be rusty from so many years without practice, a brilliant jet of red light leaving his wand and streaking towards the newcomers. He could have no way of knowing that he had overpowered the spell by an incredible amount, and that the jet of light was virtually pure magical force rather than an actual spell.

Hermione, on the other hand, perceived exactly the nature of the light streaking towards her and Ginny, and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the bolt of pure power would be more than enough to destroy Ginny's shield, already weakened from the other person's spells impacting on it. She raised her own shield, and watched in fascination as the bolt of light hit it. Her shield collapsed, but it was enough to remove most of the force from the spell, what reached Ginny and herself was only enough to make a few of their hairs stand on end. She was amazed that anyone would pour so much power into a simple Disarming Hex. Who was this person?

She raised another shield as she tried to get a better look at this novice dueller, but could not quite make any features out on his face. Then suddenly he was illuminated by a spell from Ginny, a simple Knockback Jinx. The white light passed within inches of his face, and Hermione gasped in shocked surprise. She stood transfixed by the sight of messy black hair and vivid green eyes, both starkly illuminated by the white spell. The messy black hair was not all that remarkable; she had seen it on many other people in the last six years. Those eyes, however, were one of a kind, and very familiar to her because, even though she had not seen them in person in nearly six years now, they had nevertheless stared at her out of countless Wanted posters up and down the country for the last two years now. Her eyes flicked up slightly, to the man's forehead, searching for the other great identifying mark, but she was met by a wall of black fringe that prevented her from confirming her suspicions.

Ginny, however, heard her gasp, and on instinct looked over to see what had so surprised her best friend and partner. By this time, however the light of the spell had faded and the man's face was in shadow, so all she could tell was that Hermione had frozen up when facing this second man. The second's distraction cost her, however, and the man she had been duelling managed to get off a Stunner that made it most of the way through her shield, causing her to become groggy. A jet of red light from the second man caused her wand to go flying, and after that things went dark as a second Stunner put her out like a light.

Hermione registered Ginny's fall and turned her wand towards the man casting the Stunners, but her wand too fell victim to a Disarming Hex, and then she too was put down by a quick Stunner. Sirius moved forwards to finish the two Sentinels off while they were still down. It was not that he felt malice towards them, they were soldiers of a sort, but he could not risk Obliviation for them, not when they had possibly seen Harry. Memory Charms could be broken, and if the Dark Lord ever got wind that Harry was back and in action then he would put everything he could into finding them. That was something they could not afford, at least not yet. So there could be no witnesses, certainly no witnesses that actively worked for Voldemort.

Doge however, had other ideas and interposed himself between Sirius and the fallen women.

"That's enough!" he exclaimed, holding out his hand to command Sirius to halt, "These two are friends of mine. You can't harm them."

"They're Sentinels, Doge," Sirius ground out, "They work for Voldemort, and they may have seen Harry. We can't afford to have any witnesses to his return to report back to Voldemort."

"Miss Granger and Miss Weasley are no more Sentinels than you or I, Black," Doge fired right back, "They're both Order members, and they work in the Corps as spies and double-agents when we need law-enforcement to look the other way. Miss Granger is a member of my cell as a matter of fact."

"Wait a moment," Harry interrupted, feeling as stunned as though he had been hit by a sledgehammer right between the eyes, there was no way that he was that lucky…or maybe there was, maybe, just maybe karma was evening out a little here by giving him his friends back, "Granger and Weasley, not Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley?"

"Yes, the very same," Doge replied, "Why?"

Sirius appeared to have caught on as well, because it was he who answered.

"They're both supposed to be dead," he said cautiously, "Are you certain they are who you say they are, Doge?"

"Well, yes," Doge replied, "Who said they were dead?"

"Ron Weasley," Sirius supplied, "Ginny's brother and Hermione's boyfriend. He is under the impression that they died in the Siege three years ago."

"Then he was mistaken," Doge said, "Although in fairness, they both believe him to be dead as well, I think, at least they do talk about him, but always in the past tense. They probably assumed that when they never heard of him again he must have died."

"Our cell has been forced on the run," Sirius said, "We can't operate in the open at all for fear of being picked up."

"That would explain it then."

"Can we wake them up?" Harry interrupted abruptly, somewhat impatient with the two older men talking while one of his best friends in all the world lay unconscious and possibly hurt on the floor, but also excited by the prospect of catching up with the two girls once again.

Sirius shrugged.

"Well yes, but the question is do we want to?"

"What?! What do you mean? Of course I want to!"

"Harry, just think about this rationally for a second, they're both Sentinels. Sentinels undergo Legilimency scans as a matter of course when they come back from patrols. I'm assuming both Ginny and Hermione are decent Occlumens to have fooled those scans as far as their identities and membership of the Order goes, but we can't take any risks on this one. We're going to have to Obliviate them before we leave here, and the less they've seen of you, the less we'll have to wipe."

"Hermione and Ginny would never betray me," Harry stated coldly, his voice oddly high, "They would die first."

Sirius was not perturbed by the change in Harry; it was not the first time it had happened in the last month. They had agreed that it was probably an artefact of his time in Azkaban, he knew that he himself had not escaped that place without a few side-effects, and if this was the worst of the lasting effects of that terrible place on Harry then they should all be very thankful.

"It's not that they would betray you, Harry," Sirius argued, "All it would take was for a Legilimancer to get one glimpse of your face in one of their memories and the report would be out there faster than you can believe. The price on your head is enormous, Hermione and Ginny would be tortured without mercy for any information on your whereabouts. Is that what you want for them?"

"No, I guess not," Harry said, his shoulders slumping, but then he brightened a bit as a new thought came to him, "But it won't matter."

"It won't?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Harry affirmed, "They won't be going back, they'll be coming with us."

"What?!"

"Come on, Sirius, you honestly think that if we wake these two up and tell them that Ron is alive and well they won't demand that we take them with us? Or that if we tell Ron his sister and ex-girlfriend are alive that he won't come down and see them both?"

Sirius hated to admit it, but Harry had a point. There was no way they could not tell Ron about this, and there was equally no way that they could expect Ron not to try and see his sister and girlfriend if he found out that they were alive. One way or another, both girls were going to be dangerously close to the knowledge that Harry was alive and free, so perhaps it might be better for all concerned if they came with them.

"Fine," Sirius sighed, "But if this blows up in our face, you are going to get one heck of an 'I told you so' out of me, understand?"

Harry just rolled his eyes as he nodded. Sometimes Sirius acted too much like a little kid, but Harry suspected that it was his way of dealing with the horrors of Azkaban, whereas his was to just pack it all up and push it away. The pair of them had grown closer in the last month by sharing their experiences from inside, but it was clear that Sirius' way of dealing with it would never work for Harry and vice versa. Sirius was just not the brooding type, and Harry was simply not as happy-go-lucky as his godfather. He watched as Sirius pointed his wand at the two women.

"Ennervate!"

Hermione's eyes snapped open as she was returned forcibly to full consciousness in an instant. She sat up swiftly and took stock of her situation, which from her current position did not look particularly promising as she took in the three men standing over her. Then recent events came flooding back, and she looked up searchingly at the three men. She focussed instantly on the shortest of the three, Harry had always been on the petite side for their age. From her current angle, however, all three faces were frustratingly shadowed.

Because of her reasoning, she was rather surprised when it was the middle figure, both in position and in height, who knelt down to meet her eyes with his own green ones. He evidently saw her eyes flick to his forehead again, because a slender hand came up to lift the black fringe and reveal the famous lightning-bolt scar that defined Harry Potter for the majority of the Wizarding World.

"Hello again, Hermione," he said in a quiet voice that seemed rather choked up.

Purest joy was her first reaction at seeing her onetime best friend alive and well again, and she wasted no time in flinging her arms around his neck and pulling him to her, unheeding of the tears that were spilling down her cheeks.

"Oh, Harry! I can't tell you how happy I am to see you again!"

As a general rule, Harry did not like being touched. It was a side-effect of his upbringing; his aunt and uncle had never hugged or comforted him. In his early life, touching had usually meant getting beaten up by Dudley and his gang, sometimes by his uncle when he did prominent displays of accidental magic. His vicious beating at the hands of the Finch-Fletchleys combined with the solitary nature of Azkaban had done nothing to change this fact. It was therefore a mark of how glad he was to see Hermione that he did not attempt to squirm out of her embrace, but rather relaxed into it and held her just as tightly.

"I'm glad to see you again too, 'Mione," he assured her quietly into her ear.

He felt a second pair of arms slide around his chest, and turned his head to see a head of very dark crimson hair before a pair of bright brown eyes met his.

"Welcome back, Harry," Ginny said softly.

"It's good to see you again as well, Ginny," he said to her, unwrapping an arm from around Hermione and encircling Ginny's shoulders with it. Doge and Sirius both backed off and left the three of them to it, sensing that their friends and godson respectively needed this.

For a long minute and a half, none of the three said anything. Hermione was simply lost in the happiness of being close to Harry again, Ginny was virtually enraptured by the fact that she was holding and being held close by her girlhood hero and crush and Harry was still marvelling at the fact that, for once, Fate seemed to be doing him a favour. Eventually, however, cramps set in, and all three had to move.

Harry was first to get up, compelling both girls to release their holds on him, and then he offered each of them a hand up in turn. For a moment they simply stood there in silence, then quite suddenly Hermione let out a small laugh.

"You know, I thought so much about what I would say when I saw you again, Harry. Now I can't think of any of the things I thought of. There's so much I want to tell you, I don't know where to begin."

Harry could not help laughing himself at this.

"Well I can't really say that I have a lot to tell you," he replied, his gut twisting with bitterness slightly as he was forcibly reminded of just why that was, but he pushed that away, with his friends here literally within arms reach this was not the time for angst, "But I do think I know what you mean. I never exactly figured on seeing you again, either of you, so I'm not entirely sure what to do either."

"I think you'll have more to tell us than you think," Hermione admonished, "Like how you got out of Azkaban, and when. And what you've been doing since then, and how it is that you came to be here in Elphias' shop."

Harry had to smile, Hermione had evidently not changed a bit when it came to her incessant need to know everything.

"Perhaps you're right," he allowed, "But not here. There's somewhere we need to go, someone who you both need to see."

"Who?"

He had clearly piqued both girls' interests as he was now the subject of two piercing brown stares, but he shook his head to indicate that he was not going to reveal his secret just yet.

"And you're not going to tell us anything else until we go?" Hermione demanded, her hands going to her hips as she became frustrated.

Harry could not help but smile at the familiar gesture, even in his hazy memories the image of Hermione stood with her hands on her hips as she upbraided himself and Ron for something was a very clear one.

"Trust me, 'Mione, when you see who we're going to meet, you'll probably be scolding me for making you wait as long as I did."

"Then I say we go now," Ginny cut in, recognising the warning signs of a serious rant in her friend, "Unless you're not finished here?"

"No, we're done I think," Harry said, then turned to Sirius for confirmation, "Are we done, Sirius?"

"Yes," Sirius confirmed with a nod of his head, "I've handled the payment details with Doge."

He held out a small pebble to Harry, a Portkey. He took it and instructed the two women to take it as well. Sirius would follow on after he had Obliviated Harry's identity from Doge. Sirius had insisted that they could not risk anything in this, and Doge had agreed in advance, and probably even more so after he learned exactly who he was crafting for. The now-familiar jerk behind his navel tugged Harry into the whirl of colours that was the space through which Portkeys travelled to reach their destinations, whisking them back to Primrose Valley and the Shell Cottage.

So, there you have it. Please leave me a review to let me know what you thought!