A/N: Well I'm back from vacation! And here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it! And I think I have a MUCH better idea about what I'll be doing with this fic in the future.
Chapter Six: Jobs and Surprises
Still more weeks passed, and life was slowly progressing forward. Deaths became slightly easier to speak of, nerves were less on edge—watching for hiding Death Eaters, and more concrete plans were being made for the future.
Hermione had been offered a job at the Ministry of Magic, despite the fact that she was missing her final year of studies—though this hardly seemed to matter to anyone but herself. In a few weeks, she would be settled into her new job at the Department for the Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures. Though she no longer had any delusional ideas of setting all the house-elves free against their will, she still had many ideas left over from S.P.E.W. that she planned to incorporate, to "better the relationship between wizard and house-elf."
For the Ministry, under the leadership of Kingsley, was now a very respectable place to work, though there were certainly many much-needed changes still to come.
Ron's idea of returning to Hogwarts remained in the back of his mind, but it was slowly being pushed further and further back. With the help of Hermione (of course) he'd been researching possible jobs for his own talents, and somehow this had re-kindled his idea of being Auror. This surprised Harry, for previously he'd only assumed Ron liked that idea because of the glory, or even simply because Harry was interested in it. But now he seemed genuinely sincere, despite the fact that this would take several more years training.
Of course there was the matter of only six-years Hogwarts education, but according to Hermione there were ways to test out of the last year if there were extenuating circumstances. And the three of them were fairly certain that "helping to destroy the most evil and powerful wizard of all time alongside the famous Harry Potter" counted as an extenuating circumstance. So Ron was hoping to join the Auror Academy come next fall.
Harry, though he continued to think of a future career in Quidditch, had to suppress a strange feeling in his stomach as Ron progressed towards becoming an Auror. For over three years, Harry'd been planning on that same path once he'd left Hogwarts. It felt strange to simply give it up. Though admittedly, he had not mentioned his new idea to anyone since telling Ron.
But oh well. That was life, wasn't it?
Besides, even if he did still want to be an Auror—which he didn't—there'd be no way to take care of Teddy and do the extensive training required for the dangerous field.
He shook his head. Quidditch would be a fine career. He'd always loved Quidditch, and he was fairly certain he could do that and father Teddy at the same time.
Speaking of Quidditch, he, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione were outside playing a make-shift game. Harry had been slightly surprised when Hermione expressed an interest to play. Up until this point, she had followed Neville's lead of keeping both feet planted firmly on ground. But as she explained to Harry, she just wanted to try something new. So she'd borrowed George's broom and shakily mounted. (It had felt wrong to use Fred's broom.)
They were fairly evenly matched: Harry and Hermione against Ron and Ginny, though quite often the teams were forgotten and it turned into a game of air-borne keep-away rather than Quidditch.
It was about an hour into their game that a short burst of red sparks erupted over the Burrow. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny looked at each other, but Harry was still watching where the sparks had disappeared and didn't see.
"What was that?" he asked as casually as he could, trying to mask his worry.
Ron shrugged. "Mum probably found something from the tw—from George's shop," he said. "Er, listen I'm getting kinda hungry. Anyone wanna go in for some food?"
The others agreed so quickly that Harry was slightly suspicious, but didn't say anything. He wanted to check it out anyways, so it was a nice excuse to head in without looking paranoid.
The house was strangely silent, but the others didn't seem to think anything of it. They strode confidently into the kitchen. Harry lingered. Something wasn't right here. He pulled out his wand and held it tightly. He didn't want to be caught off guard. Then he followed the others into the kitchen. Surely if something was wrong in there, he'd have heard something.
It was pitch black in the kitchen, and deadly silent. Harry tightened his grip on his wand. "Ron?" he asked softly. "Ginny? Hermione?"
Suddenly the lights turned on.
"SURPR—!"
"Stupify!" Harry cried, swinging his wand up. Red light flashed and it took everyone a couple of seconds to realize that Bill had just been stunned. "Uh oh," Harry said and hurried over to regenerate him. When he did, Bill laughed. Hard.
"That was excellent, Harry," he said, standing up again.
"I'm so sorry, Bill!" Harry exclaimed. "I thought maybe…I dunno."
"Oh relax Harry. I'm not hurt." Laughter ensued by everyone else, as well, Harry included.
"We're sorry, Harry," Mr. Weasley said with a chuckle of his own. "We should've realized you might still be a little jumpy after everything that's happened."
Harry shook his head. "I should've waited to see what I was shooting at. But what's going on, anyways?"
Everyone blinked at him, as if he should already know. There was the entire Weasley family, minus Charlie who was in Romania again. Even George had come down, though there were dark circles under his eyes. Neville and Luna were there as well, though Harry couldn't imagine why. So was Mrs. Tonks. And McGonagall, of all people.
"Harry birthday, Harry," Luna said in her usually dreamy voice.
Harry blinked slowly, too. "Birthday?" he said, confused. "But my birthday's not until…" then he stopped. He'd been at the Burrow for over two months now. Today was July 31. It was his birthday!
"You forgot your own birthday?" Ginny said, laughing. "Harry, Harry, Harry. What are we going to do with you?" Mrs. Wealsey steered him to the table, where there was a tall pile of presents, where she picked one up and shoved it into his hands.
"Go on Harry, open your presents!"
A/N: Next chapter should be coming soon. I'm fairly certain I know what I'm going to do with it. Please R&R!
