A/N: I AM CHANGING THE NAME OF THE STORY! THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY IDEAS THAT I AM GOING TO FIT INTO JUST ONE YEAR, THE SCHOOL YEAR, AND I AM GOING TO WRITE THE STORY TO THAT POINT.
AFTERWARDS, I WILL START WITH THE STORY AFTER THEIR GRADUATION FROM HOGWARTS AND GO FROM THERE.
THE NEW STORY TITLE WILL BE ………..Harry Potter and the Eighth Year I DON'T KNOW IF THAT WILL AFFECT THE ALERTS, BUT PLEASE BE WARNED. THANK YOU. AS ALWAYS, KEEP THE REVIEWS COMING.
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life. I know you'll be a star…
In somebody else's sky, but why? Why? Why can't it be? Can it be mine?"
-Pearl Jam
She Comes of Age
She sat down next to him like she always did. She didn't say much, like always. Neither did he. He pulled George's letter out first. "Do you know what this says?"
"I have an idea." She didn't grin. She wasn't trying to be secretive or teasing, and Harry appreciated it all the more. He slowly edged the envelope open to reveal a piece of parchment. It was only a third the size of a normal sheet and only contained a single sentence.
Harry,
I figure if we closed, I would have to give you the thousand galleons back, so Lee is going to help me out from now on.
Thank you for everything Harry,
Forge
Harry loved the way he signed it. It was like he was keeping that part of Fred alongside himself from this day forward, and that part would also help power the best idea in all of Diagon Alley!
After the thoughtfulness of George's letter had sunk in, Harry had to resign himself to opening the other gift. He didn't seriously believe that she would have left him alone tonight, but all the same, he felt like the pressure would be on his reaction to her gift and not the gift itself. "It's ok, Harry, there's not an Exploding Charm on it." She joked, but only half smiled, as if she was just trying to break the tension, but not really meaning it.
"Ok." He peeled off the little piece of wrapping paper to reveal a small jewelry box. He was confused. He never wore jewelry. He gave her a quizzical look before returning his attention to the now open box. He gasped quietly. "Gin." He didn't know what to say. There were two rings inside. They were simple, yet elegant. Pure gold, round with beveled edges all around, they just sat there, shingled one of top of the other.
"Um, I wrote to your Aunt awhile ago, and she sent these to me." He looked up at her to see she was nervous. "I knew you weren't selfish enough to ask for things that are rightfully yours, but these are two things that you have to have." She paused while Harry made no response except staring back down at the rings. "I just thought that –"
"Ginny." He interrupted and stared at her again. "This is amazing." At that moment, however, she released her hand from his shoulder and began to walk away. "What? Where are you going?" If anyone in the world was going to be around him right now, it would be her. He wanted to know what she was thinking. How long had she planned this? Why did she feel the need to make it a birthday gift? Would the smaller one fit on her finger? Well, that last question was a little forward, Harry thought.
"This isn't my place right now. That gift was for you and your parents." Her nervous was ebbing, and the confidence that he cherished was bubbling to the surface again. "You deserve some time alone with those." She walked off as he dropped the rings out of the box into his palm, the male ring resting on the female. He had no idea what time it was, what day it was, what month it was, or what year it was. He was staring at the rings and thinking about every little memory of which his parents had been a part.
At first, it was a blinding green light and a flying motorcycle, but that was quickly replaced by a young boy sitting in front of a mirror in the dark, waving as two people in a crowd of many relatives smiled back at him. He saw their faces saving him in a dark graveyard. He remembered them walking beside him through a dark forest into certain death.
He wanted to be with them.
With Ron and Hermione already beginning their hunt for a house after Hogwarts, jobs after graduation, and the new arrangements at school, no one noticed that Harry was practically robotic for the next week. However, during breakfast one morning, a conversation broke him out of his stoic stupor, "…her birthday is in three days. I mean, she comes of age. I think that is important enough." Arthur continued. "All our other kids were at school for their seventeenth birthday, and Harry's was, well, there were other things going on."
Ginny's birthday was the eleventh. How could he have forgotten?
However, his thoughts were interrupted as his two best friends burst through the door. They had wanted to let everyone know how close they were to closing up on a flat in London. "We got a great deal. They'll hold it for us if we put down a down payment, and it's close to everything. As long as we have jobs lined up before we graduate, there should be no problem!"
"Hermione, slow down and catch your breath." He gave her a quick peck on the cheek which made Harry and Ginny cringe. It wasn't disgusting that they kissed, but it always reminded them that somehow Ron had gotten married at the age of eighteen. "Mate, um, I ran by the Ministry and talked to someone in the Special Underage Department."
Harry had no idea what that meant. "And?"
"Well, they told me, since they know I know you well, that Madame Pomfrey has been taking care of Ted Lupin for the last couple months." Harry had a better idea now. "Anyways, as Godfather, he is legally your responsibility. They know that you're still in school, so they don't expect anything right now, but he can't stay at Hogwarts once school opens in a few weeks, so they need to know what you want to do with him."
"Er, I mean…" He had no idea.
"Might I make a suggestion, Harry?" Arthur spoke up.
"Of course."
"If Molly is agreeable, we would be more than happy to look after him until you graduate. In fact, it might be better to have an experienced mother and father before Teddy is left to a "Sirius-like" godfather figure." He said the last part with a smile, and Harry understood it was in good fun. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny even started laughing as stories of Sirius and Snuffles began ringing through the Burrow so loudly, Harry was sure people across the Channel could hear them.
He smiled.
The next day, Harry and Arthur took a trip to the Ministry, with a quick stop at Hogsmeade, and signed all the paperwork involved in the temporary "adoption" of Ted Lupin. The matter took no time at all. In the aftermath of Voldemort's downfall, the world had obviously welcomed Harry Potter, The-Boy-who-Lived (twice), back with open arms. There wasn't as bad of a celebrity note in peoples' voices as Harry thought there could have been, but the standard double-take to his scar and back continued to flourish.
When he got back to the Burrow, he found it almost completely empty. The only inhabitant was Cedrella who, Harry noticed for the first time, seemed to be floating in mid-air in her cage, as if lying down on some invisible pillow. The door was open. Harry always left her free to fly around if she wanted to, and the loyalty between the two of them had been the subject of many interested discussions with various visitors to the Burrow.
The Weasley family, a few Aurors, and the new Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebot, even noted that he had never seen such a relationship between a wizard and an owl after such a short period of time. Harry was reminded painfully, during one visit from Dedalus Diggle, that Nagini seemed to react to Voldemort in the same way, but Harry repeated to himself that he couldn't speak owl-tongue or anything.
When he noticed this strange phenomenon, he merely credited it to his extraordinary bird. "Hey, Ced. You feeling ok?" She hooted. Turning herself, in midair, upright. Now, she appeared to be levitating herself until she slowly lowered her body down onto the perch and tilted her head at Harry, plainly saying 'huh?'
Harry didn't mention this to anyone when the family showed up that night. Apparently Molly had decided to make it a family affair only. Harry learned that they had been shopping all day, which served two purposes. It gave Ginny something special to wear on her birthday, and also it was an early present from her parents to take a little shopping spree at Madame Malkin's.
Ginny gave him a little look before leading her mother up to her room to make sure all the new outfits were put up properly. Later in the evening, dinner was relatively quiet. Harry thought that maybe the family knew something about tomorrow that he didn't because it was as if no one wanted to ruin anything tonight that might happen tomorrow.
And tomorrow came. The sun rose beautifully in between roaming clouds the next day, and the breeze that fluttered throughout the countryside made this typically hot day absolutely gorgeous. Harry awoke first, stole down to the broom shed, and pulled out Ginny's Comet 260.
He flew and flew and flew.
He had no idea how long he had been flying around until he finally zoomed back by the house and hearing someone calling him down. Upon hovering closer to the ground to talk to Molly, he saw that everyone was rummaging around in the kitchen preparing the birthday lunch for Ginny.
After taking a quick shower and changing, he grabbed her gift he had gotten in Hogsmeade the other day, flicked his wand (wrapping appeared and stuck), and made his way down to join the rest. He saw the entire family waiting and watching the stairway. "Er?"
"It's not Ginny. Hurry up, Harry, we want to see her come down the stairs in her new dress." Charlie hissed.
"What?"
"It's traditional. If possible, a woman who comes of age has to 'present' herself to her family on that day." Bill added.
"Ok." Harry took up his spot among the family and waited.
What happened next almost stopped Harry's heart.
