Disclaimer: As usual, don't own and everythin'.
Harry stared at Sirius, an uncomfortable lump in his throat. Andy was looking between them, "Sirius" she began hesitantly "have you thought about this?" "Yes, Andy" Sirius sighed, he shot a somewhat apologetic look towards Harry "I have thought long and hard. This is our best option. Too many people are taking a curious amount of interest in Harry's life. And I don't have any legal standing to protect him from the politics. Besides, Harry doesn't need a guardian, he has turned out to be a better person than most with a full family." He shot Harry a proud look that did much to calm him down. Harry returned a small smile.
"What Harry needs however" he met Andy's eyes, "is someone who he can talk to when there's trouble, for which I'll always be there, and someone who can stand beside him when he needs it and the wizarding world would listen, and I want you to take that role." Andromeda nodded seriously. "I also want a safeguard in place in case something happens to me. James and Lily had the right idea, but it didn't work out as they hoped. I can only hope that this time it will be different."
At Harry's questioning look, he elaborated, "Lily had insisted in naming potential guardians in case of their demise. I was their first choice, of course, but they also named Frank and Alice Longbottom, Edgar and Patricia Bones. You know what happened to the Longbottoms, the Boneyard was decimated three weeks before the attack on Godric's Hollow, only Susan, their daughter survived, Patricia had her hidden away with their house-elf. I wouldn't blame Dumbledore for placing you with your aunt, if not for the fact that he had already decided to keep you there, even before I was arrested and the Longbottoms were attacked. He probably has his reasons to keep you there even now, but he has no right to force it, and we certainly don't have to listen for him when we have other ways to keep you safe. "
Harry nodded, "Ok then, how do we do it?" Sirius gave him such a relieved smile that he felt bad for doubting him in the first place. Sirius clapped like an excited child, "Last order of serious business. Andy, if you please?" Andy shook her head in amusement, "You planned to for all this to happen simultaneously, didn't you? Very clever." Sirius almost preened at the compliment. She soon extracted another scroll of parchment for the three of them to sign. Sirius sighed as they finished, "Ah, now the first part of our mission is done. Now we begin training Harry." But he was interrupted by a tinkling sound that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. Sirius stood up immediately, his wand slipping into his hand so smoothly that Harry almost missed it, "That's someone trying to cross the family line. Let's go. We'll talk another time."
Mrs. Weasley was waiting at the third floor landing, wringing her hands anxiously. Her expression changed to confusion and relief as she spotted Harry with Sirius and Andromeda. "Harry dear, there you are. I was coming to call you for lunch." "Oh thank you Molly" Sirius cut in, "We're starving, come Harry, Andy, I'm sure Ted can spare you this once." Mrs. Weasley looked at them for a moment and then led them downstairs.
The usually chatter trickled into a halt as Andromeda joined the lunch table in the kitchen, but resumed soon after. However once in a while someone or the other would peer at her subtly, or that's what they thought. Harry was surprised to notice the unhappy glances Mrs. Weasley was shooting Sirius and Andromeda, but he decided to keep silent until the need arose. He was not disappointed. As soon as the main course cleared from the table, Mrs. Weasley turned to Harry with a smile, "Harry dear, where are your things? I went to call you earlier from Ron's room and your trunk was missing."
Harry grinned at her happily, "Oh, don't worry Mrs. Weasley. I have moved to the same floor as Sirius. I'll stay in the room opposite his." Mrs. Weasley opened her mouth to object, but Hermione beat her to it. "Oh Harry" she gushed happily "Congratulations! I know how long you have been waiting for this." Mrs. Weasley closed her mouth slowly, eyeing Hermione curiously. Harry's cheek had turned a faint pink, he opened his mouth to refute her statement, but Hermione swatted him lightly in the arm, "Oh hush you, I saw how down you were when Sirius had to go on the run. I know how much you wanted to live with him. I'm so happy for you." She gave him a bright smile. Harry returned the smile and nudged her shoulder, "Thanks Hermione." He said gratefully, surprised but pleased with the unexpected support. Nobody tried to oppose his move after that; it looked as if Hermione's passionate assertion of how desperately he wanted Sirius' company had stopped anyone from saying something for fear of alienating Harry. Lupin gave a discreet thumbs up from Hermione's other side.
Soon lunch ended, Andromeda gave an elegant bow to the table and swept away with a billow of her dark blue cloak. Sirius retreated to the drawing room, which Mrs. Weasley was trying to rally everyone to clean up. As the pots and pans were clear from the table, Hermione came back in with a tottering tower of books in front of her. Ron turned to look when she stumbled in the doorway and moved like lightning to lighten her load. They both came back together, pink in the face. Ginny smirked at them from behind her Prophet. Harry raised his eyebrow with interest, he was unaware of that development, though now that he thought about it, Ron's tantrum at the Yule Ball made a lot of sense. Soon however all thoughts left his brain as Hermione started to interrogate him about the summer homework. He raised his hand in surrender, "I'm sorry, I haven't started yet. My trunk got locked away for the summer." Hermione didn't let that stop her, "Well, nothing stops you from starting now, does it?" Ron rolled his eyes behind her back. Harry went upstairs to fetch his Transfiguration books and rolls of parchment. Of course Hermione was not going to be satisfied with just the assigned book, she seemed to have at least two reference books per subject. Ron grumbled a bit, but started as well and was rewarded with a smile from Hermione which turned his ears pink.
Soon there was only scratching of quills and turning of pages to be heard in the kitchen. It was second time in his life that he was free to study as he wished, Harry mused as he finished his first draft for the essay. The first time happened when he stayed in the Leaky Cauldron before the start of his third year. He remembered with some amusement, that even then it was because of Sirius that he got that opportunity. The minister would surely have sent him back to the Dursley's if it wasn't for the fear of Sirius being on the loose. He stretched, cracked his fingers and took a fresh roll of parchment to start on his Charms essay. He asked to borrow Hermione's book, who merely hummed and pushed the pile towards him, too absorbed in her own essay to speak. Harry shook his head fondly and cracked open her textbook, it had her name written on it in her neat loopy script, and there were scraps of parchment wedged between pages crammed full of notes she had made. Silently impressed but not really surprised, Harry took special care to handle her books and notes and started on his own essay.
It was Ginny who threw down her quill first. Harry's vision was already starting to blur and the letter in the book stopped to mean anything. He looked up, relieved that he wasn't the only one. "I can't do this anymore." Ginny announced and stood up scraping her chair loudly, Hermione huffed, but kept her head buried in her books. Ginny look around and spotted Harry who couldn't suppress a smile, she said, "Well, are you coming?" and without much ado walked out of the kitchen. Harry put the Charms book carefully on Hermione's pile and followed her out. She did not go upstairs as he expected, but ducked under the staircase and after some fiddling, managed to open a door that was invisible in the dark. Beyond the door was a small backyard that was as dilapidated as the house itself. Surrounded by houses on all four sides it hardly seemed to receive a ray of sunlight and was overgrown with weed. But Harry had spent the last most looking at the mechanically perfect lawn of the Dursley's and his very soul seemed to breathe easy at this display of chaos.
"Careful" Ginny said, "There may be some Devil's Snare somewhere around here." Harry nodded and stepped out a little, confident that he would be able to spot a Devil's Snare easily enough after his close experience in first year. Ginny hesitated for a second, and then followed him out.
Harry opened his mouth to say something and closed it slowly, having no idea what he wanted to say. He had never talked with Ginny much, not only that she used to get tongue-tied at the sight of him, but as he had recently discovered, he himself did not talk to many apart from people he already knew. He had no idea what kind of a person Ginny was, though he got the idea that she took more after the twins.
"What did you mean last night, about Flourish & Blotts being muggleborn shop?" Smooth Harry, real smooth, he told himself after the question shot out of his mouth against his better sense. Ginny blinked at him, "Well, it is to impress muggleborns. It's like two different countries, isn't it?" Harry stared at her, he had never thought of it that way. "What do you mean?" He asked, interested. Ginny tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, "I don't really know all the facts, only some when dad and Bill will get into debates. Ever since the Statute of Secrecy, wizards and muggles have developed differently and now it's like two different countries, only, the muggleborns have no choice but to come to Hogwarts. So it's like having to welcome a bunch of foreigners into your country. We try to impress them, Diagon Alley is mostly to impress muggleborns, the Ministry strongly regulates what you can stock in the shops, make sure it's safe and everything. But also they are overcharged; the exchange rate is high for muggle money. You get things a lot cheaper in the side alleys." Ginny shrugged.
Harry nodded thoughtfully, looked like he knew about his world about as much as the average muggleborn. But he had another question, "Why didn't you tell this to Hermione, surely she would have appreciated it." Ginny shrugged, but she looked uncomfortable, "Mum said they don't treat muggleborns right, they would never sell anything to Hermione and knowing her she would insist going there herself and demand equal treatment or something." Her ear-tips had gone pink, same way Ron's did when he was embarrassed. Harry felt sorry for Hermione, knowing that she had to spend more money than required to buy the same supplies, but he knew Ginny was probably right about her reaction. He remembered that the Weasley's seemed to split up every time they had gone shopping together and he now thought it may not have had to do with saving time alone.