Chapter 7

Harry lay on the sofa and stared at the ceiling. He had gotten very little sleep due to his lack of bed and Ron's snore didn't do much to help, so he had spent most of the night reminiscing. He thought about his time at the Dursleys, and how Hagrid had brought it to an abrupt (and thankful) end by telling him he was a wizard and whisking him away into the magical world he now calls home. His thoughts soon wandered to Hogwarts, and how McGonagall and Kinsley were coping with the repairs. Harry decided then that he was going to go back to the school and help in any way he could. He wanted to give others what the school had given him.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud snore as Ron turned in his sleep. 'Typical,' thought Harry. He looked at his watch the Weasleys had given him as his previous and saw that it had just turned 8.30. Harry smiled to himself, "That's enough sleep for you," he muttered quietly as he propped himself up on one arm. He lifted one of the pillows from under his head and flung it at Ron, who immediately woke with a start.

"Whatwazzat?" he grumbled as he rubbed his eyes. He looked and saw the pillow lying a few feet away, then turned to Harry, who was smiling mischievously, "What the bloody hell was that for?" he yelled.

"Shut up or you'll wake the rest of the house!" Harry said, "It's time to get up."

"What time is it?" Ron asked fumbling with his own watch, "My ass it's time to get up! What was the point in waking me?"

"It's a wonder you didn't wake yourself with all that snoring," Harry replied, "It's kept me up all night, along with this sofa. It's not the most comfortable place to sleep. Tonight, I'm having the camp bed."

"You are not," Ron retorted, "That's the first good night's sleep I've had in ages."

"I heard," Harry said.

"It's a wonder I haven't slept on this before, this thing is way more comfortable than my bed. I think I'm going to make a permanent swap."

"Well not while I'm here, because I'm sleeping on the camp bed now," Harry said matter-of-factly.

"We'll see about that," said Ron rather determinedly. Just then, the door to the sitting room opened and in walked Hermione and Ginny, both looking very tired.

"What's with all the yelling?" Ginny yawned.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you didn't wake the entire house," Hermione said.

"But I suppose we are above you," said Ginny, staring at the ceiling, as though to look through straight into her room, "We probably got the most of it."

"Ron was snoring, so I shut him up," Harry smiled.

"Not very well if you woke us," Hermione countered, "But there's no denying he does snore."

"Hey!" shouted Ron.

"So," said Ginny, "Now that we're all up, what do you want to do?"

"Eat," said Ron, almost instantly.

"Typical" said Hermione, "What do you guys want?"

"Toast will do," said Ginny.

"Same," agreed Harry.

"Let's see," said Ron, stroking his chin, "I'll have an egg and bacon sandwich."

"You can make yourself that then and I'll make the rest of us toast," said Hermione, walking through the door.

"Fine," groaned Ron, "Hey! Wait up!" he said, running out of the door to catch her up. Ginny and Harry followed suit and sat down at the kitchen table next to Ron, while Hermione put some bread under the grill.

"I'm going to go back to Hogwarts," said Harry absent-mindedly.

"What? To study?" Hermione asked, turning the grill on.

"No, to help rebuild it," he replied.

"That's a good idea, they could probably use some help," agreed Ginny, "I might come and help as well."

"Yeah, me too," said Ron, not wanting to be left out.

"But Harry, you have to remember that you are the single most famous person in the Wizarding World now," Hermione reminded him, "Everybody will want a piece of you, including some of the Death Eaters that are still at large."

Harry hadn't considered this. He mulled over the thought of which Death Eaters were still roaming free and his mind wandered to the Malfoys. Bubbling rage started to form in the pit of his stomach as he remembered that night at Malfoy Manor, and how much he wanted them to feel what they did to Hermione.

"Malfoys," he murmured, his mind still wondering.

"Exactly," said Hermione, as her hand travelled to her forearm where the word 'Mudblood' was etched with such force, Harry was sure that it would never truly vanish. She was gazing into space, face pale, until Ron said, "Toast's burning."

"Sugar," she said, snapping back to reality and turning the grill off. Ginny got up and lifted the plates and butter and set them on the table as Hermione set the down the toast and pulled out a chair for herself. Everyone ate in silence. Harry started at the Weasley's family clock on the wall and saw that all the members of the family pointed towards the 'home' symbol apart from Mr Weasley's, who was pointing towards 'work'. He had left for the Ministry after dinner last night and hadn't returned home yet. As Harry stared at the clock, Mr Weasley's hand moved from 'work' to 'travelling', then from 'travelling' to 'home'. The familiar 'pop' of Apparation could be heard just outside the back door as the hand ticked to 'home' and Mr Weasley soon appeared at the back door.

"Morning Weasleys!" he said cheerfully, though he looked very pale and very tired. He sat down at the table and took a piece of toast and began eating, before remembering something, "I got the Daily Prophet and it looks like your interview yesterday with Kingsley has been published." He placed the paper on the table and they crowded around it.

'VOLDEMORT DEAD: THE BOY WHO LIVED LIVES ON" the cover page read. Harry had been expecting something like this; the public love a good story.

"Typical," Ginny muttered. She had obviously been thinking along the same lines a Harry.

He read on, "Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, has done it again. He, along with friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, has once again defeated the Dark Lord during the Battle of Hogwarts. An on-looker gave us the story,

"We thought he was dead at first," said Ernest Macmillan, a former classmate of Mr Potter's, "Hagrid was carrying him, and we thought he was dead. Suddenly he disappeared and the fighting started again, but no one was getting injured, well, apart from the Death Eaters, but they were never a match for us!

"We continued fighting and ended up in the Great Hall, but this time Voldemort himself joined in. From out of nowhere, Harry appeared, and they started duelling, which resulted in Voldemort's death."

You can read the full story of the Golden Trio on pages 3-7.

Ron snorted, "'The Golden Trio'? Is that what they're calling us now?"

"At least they included you," countered Harry, turning to pages 3 and 4 and scanned through the text. He was glad that it wasn't just him name in the lime-light, and was pleased to be sharing it with Ron and Hermione. Harry knew one thing though, however much Ron appeared annoyed, he was pretty pleased with himself at making the front page, even if it was only a mention. Hermione on the other hand, was a little harder to read. Harry wasn't sure whether she was happy at being mentioned, or slightly embarrassed by the whole concept. He finally arrived at the conclusion that she too would be glad at how the information was shown to the public, and was probably okay about having her name attached to it.

"Kingsley did a pretty good job by the looks of it," said Mr Weasley, still munching on his toast.

"Looks like it," agreed Hermione, now sitting down to read the rest of the paper.

Crying could be heard from further up the house, "Sounds like Teddy's up," said Ron, looking towards the ceiling.

"Sounds like you're right," agreed Harry, who all of a sudden wanted to go up and comfort the child.

"Look," said Ginny, reading over Hermione's shoulder, "There's a list of escaped Death Eaters in here. No one we know… wait… 'Lucius Malfoy' and 'Draco Malfoy' are here… no Narcissa though."

'How is Narcissa not there?' pondered Harry, 'She has to be a Death Eater; she was in Voldemort's inner circle. He would never allow someone in with him who hadn't pledged their allegiances to him, would he?'

Harry was pulled out of his wave of thought by the presence of Mrs Weasley and Andromeda who were now sitting at the table with Teddy.

"Morning love," said Mr Weasley, getting up and kissing his wife on the cheek.

Harry also stood up and walked over to Andromeda, "Do you need any help?" he asked.

"Would you love? I need to go and get his food," replied Andromeda, handing Teddy to Harry. Ginny caught his eye and smiled.

'He really would make a good dad' she thought.

Harry walked over and sat back down on his chair while Mrs Weasley bustled around the kitchen and prepared food for the rest of the family, muttering inaudibly as she went along. Harry gently rocked Teddy back and forth in his arms, the happy child clapping his hands while changing the colour of his hair to all colours of the rainbow. Harry smiled.

"Breakfast," called Andromeda, re-entering the kitchen holding a bottle of milk.

"Can I do it?" asked Hermione, finally looking up from the paper.

"If you want," smiled Andromeda, who was obviously glad of the help everyone was so eager to give.

Harry got up (somewhat reluctantly) and handed Teddy to Hermione, "Here you go, Hermione's got your dinner," he said.

"You can do it if you want," said Hermione, seeing Harry's face.

"No it's okay," he smiled, "Just as long as he gets fed, that's the main thing."

"If you're sure," said Hermione, cradling Teddy in her arms as she fed him. The truth was, Harry had become very protective over his Godson and knew that he would never let anything happen to him. He was family.