A/N: nope to the owning of Harry Potter.

Chapter Nine: The Return…

The day after Ginny's birthday, Hogwarts letters arrived for the Weasleys, Neville, Harry, Luna and Annie. Gran had left the night before like, Lady Longbottom, Claire and Brianna had, leaving Annie and Neville to spend the night. I bet Gran planned that so the fleet of owls would arrive at breakfast.

Also arriving then was the order of Lock-brain's books. The delivery guy couldn't say who'd paid for the books just there was a note about getting the books on discount and sending the books back would help no one. There was no name to thank and Uncle Ted, Harry and I kept our silence. Quite literally in my case but Hermione was giving me side glances and trying not to smile about the good deed done.

I did feel bad for the delivery man, he had basically flee Mrs. Weasley when she came after him with a rolling pin in her hand (she'd been making breakfast rolls) demanding to know who'd bought the books. The man disapparated at a run as he jumped over the Weasley's fence. I held up my board with a solid 10. He hadn't cocked that up, so full points for difficulty, height of the jump and not leaving bits behind.

It was around noon when Uncle Ted, Aunt Andy, Hermione and I finally left. Harry wanted to stay for a while longer and Neville got permission to stay via Jubilee's messenger service. Thus it was decided that Harry, at least, would stay until it was time to go to Diagon Alley in a week. After that would be another discussion.

….

That week after Ginny's part flew by somewhat quickly. Aunt Andy wasn't as distant as she had been but she also wasn't telling me why she had been. She'd taken the time to get caught up with Healer Strout about my hand during my weekly visit to St. Mungo's. Jubilee went along this time and made the amused healers show her how to redo my wrappings.

As for my hand it was still gross looking and stiff. We were given another satchel filled with potions and bandages and the empty satchel from before was returned. I finally got a letter from Angie. She'd spent the summer in the very southern part of France visiting her mum's family and only had recently returned. Why was everyone having a better summer than me?

Angie actually freaked out after she'd read my letter and the one that George had sent her that had more info than the one I'd sent her, and she came to my house! Aunt Andy and Nym were very amused by Angie's arrival and the bubble wrap that Angie brought with her. They helped her wrap me in it; then Mr. and Mrs. G got a laugh when they and Hermione arrived for movie night.

….

Finally it came time to go to Diagon Alley. Ugh! This couldn't have come sooner? After this was two more weeks of summer and then we'd be off to Hogwarts; beautiful and hopefully boring as hell Hogwarts. The Grangers arrived early because they'd decided to take up the offer of using our floo instead of driving into London.

Aunt Andy apparated with me to Diagon directly as I still couldn't speak and going through two at a time could risky. We went directly into Gringotts because there was some business that Aunt Andy wanted to get out of the way before we met up with Nym (who'd gotten the day off) and the rest of our party.

Griphook didn't ask about my hand and he only raised an eyebrow when I answered via dry erase board. They had me looking over investments and other things I really didn't understand but I still had to give my approval about because I was heir and Sirius was in Azkaban. First thing I approved was the investment in a small broom shop who wanted to try using a different spell to make brooms go zoom. Second was to approve a small investment in an apothecary in Pairs that wanted to expand to Rome because Aunt Andy said it was a good deal.

It was harder to cut investments, like one to a company that we'd been investing in for decades that had books that were starting to look shadier as the more they were looked over. I just gaped when I learned that Malfoy Inc. had bought that business in question and that when the books went wonky. Aunt Andy was very firm on doing as little business with her brother-in-law as possible.

Maybe that's why her grip on my good hand tightened when we came out of Griphook's office and was hailed by a smooth drawl "Andromeda, I was hoping to run into you."

Lucius looked way too pleased with himself as he and Draco ambled over to us. I waved to Draco and smiled, the blonde boy just gave a small wave back and glanced at his father to see if the man had noticed. He hadn't because he was too busy in a glare-off with Aunt Andy.

"Lord Malfoy," Aunt Andy's tone was cold and I wondered what had prompted that, I looked to Draco for a clue but he refused to look at me "you'll have to excuse us, we're on a time constraint to meet up with my husband and daughter. Good day."

She tried to push us past him but the blonde man blocked our path with a cane across my chest "now, is that any way to treat family?" he asked smoothly "especially when we've business venture in the works?"

"I already told you that wasn't happing," Aunt Andy hissed dangerous "after what you did you're very lucky to walking properly and that you're a lord!"

Lucius just smirked and looked to me, I was pinching the cane between my thumb and forefinger to remove it "maybe I should be talking to the heir instead of the proxy."

I raised an eyebrow at him and just blinked, that was a dumb thing to say "I have all the same powers as Sirius would," Aunt Andy growled "talking to Athena wouldn't get you anywhere but to smart remarks."

The blonde man dismissed Aunt Andy as he smiled at me "perhaps you are smarter than your daft aunt," he almost sneered but held his face to a polite pose "Malfoy Inc. is looking to break into the dragon manure trade. We want to work with the Blacks invest and breathe life into this shipping endeavor. It would be very lucrative for both our families."

I sighed heavily and quickly wrote on my board 'sounds like a shitty smuggling job. I'm not dumb I know criminal keywords. Lucrative = illegal and shipping = smuggling', I smirked at him when I held the board up. Draco's eyes bugged out and Aunt Andy actually laughed while Lucius's face turned a nasty shade of red.

"How dare you insult me like that!" he growled and moved to slap me with his cane but Aunt Andy stopped him, she'd caught the shaft of the cane before it could hit me.

She got right into his face and snarled "don't you ever try that again or I will castrate you! I thought you were smarter than that, Lu-Lu," she taunted treacherously "what would Wizengamot think when I drag you before them for hitting my niece and the future Lady Black?" Aunt Andy laughed at him as Lucius ground his teeth "I can guarantee you that Athena already has more friends on that council than you do, Malfoy. You ever try to touch her again and what I'll do to you would make Bellatrix swell with pride at the viciousness of it; she'd only be disappointed that she didn't get to do it herself."

I didn't know that Lucius Malfoy could look any paler as Aunt Andy shouldered pass him and pulled me with her; I gave a quick wave to Draco over my shoulder. It was interesting, I thought, that was probably the first time that Bellatrix being my mother was a positive in an argument. I kind of liked that and I looked up at Aunt Andy, who was still huffing, and grinned.

Hermione was waiting out on the steps with her parents, Uncle Ted and Nym. Before we could get to them, Hermione suddenly shouted and raced down the steps towards a dirty dark haired boy and Hagrid. I followed slowly behind with my hands in the pockets of my jacket wondering where the Weasleys were and what happened to Harry's glasses.

"Hullo, Athena," Hagrid greeted when I was close enough "now we just need Ron and Neville for a full house."

I waved to Hagrid and fell in beside Hermione as she fussed over Harry "how'd you get so dirty and where's the Weasley."

"Oh! I see them," Hagrid called and pointed with his unburden hand towards the crowd, he was carrying a tin jug in the other "there!"

"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley arrived first, scowling when she saw the saw the state of the messy haired boy "oh, look at the state of you!" she started brushing at him with a small brush from her purse.

"Where'd you end up, Harry?" Mr. Weasley asked as the group up the stairs started towards us

"Knockturn Alley," Harry said before looking my way (the twins were geeking out over this and being glared at by their mum) "saw the Malfoys at Borgin and Burks."

"Really? That place is dark artifacts central," Mr. Weasley was very fascinated by what Harry had "buy or were they selling anything?"

Harry shrugged "just selling but it was just Mr. Malfoy and Draco."

"They made it here ahead of you, Harry," Aunt Andy sighed before she drew her wand and fixed Harry's glasses with a flick of her wand "we are seriously going to have to get you into St. Mungo's for a checkup. Wizard your age shouldn't be needing glasses, even if it's genetics."

….

We split up then, not sure why the parents left us to roam on our own but they did with a strict order to meet them at Flourish and Blotts in an hour. Not that it mattered because all Harry and I needed were our text books and robes. So, as it stood, Mr. Weasley went to have a drink with Uncle Ted and the Grangers (the Weasley Patriarch was a little to fascinated with them being muggles), Aunt Andy went with Mrs. Weasley and Ginny. Percy went with the twins and I dragged Nym with Harry, Hermione, Ron and me.

"Where's Neville?" Hermione asked reading the question I'd written down for her

Harry looked back he stepped towards the ice cream shop "he wasn't able to come today, something about his Gran. Not sure."

I just nodded as Nym linked her arm with mine and asked in a whisper what flavor ice cream I wanted. Strawberry with chocolate sauce and banana bits was always the best; Nym knew this was my favorite. Which is why I just rolled my eyes at her and gave her a look that made her laugh. Harry paid for the ice cream despite Nym's protest.

Slowly we made our way round the shops, finding trashcans once our sundaes were finished. Hermione got her new quills and notebooks while Ron drooled over brooms. We did make it to the robe shop and then it was time to head to the bookstore. I groaned when we got there as there was a sign there that announced that Lock-brain would be doing a book signing for his autobiography.

"Oh my!" Hermione squealed "we actually get to meet him!"

Ron, Harry, Nym and I gave Hermione very big frowns as she hurried in past a very harassed wizard. This was going to suck and both Ron and Harry agreed when I wrote this out to them, Ron actually smirked when he seen what I was calling the writing fraud. The three of us took big breathes and waded into the chaos.

We found Mrs. Weasley first, Nym had wondered off, as she was waiting in line to have a copy of Magical Me signed. She just sighed when Ron got walked over top of by a bloke carrying a camera and saying he was with one of the newspapers. The matron just sighed and told us to go find our other text books and she'd meet up with us in the stacks, or the other parents rooming the store would find us.

We turned, I was sniggering at Ron a little that his mum fancied Gilderglow, of course I'd written this down. He knew it was playful just like I knew the little shove he gave me was playful. The heavy and grasping hand that landed on my left shoulder as I eluded Ron's shove back to the other side of Harry, however, was not playful and neither was my response.

There was no room to push the hand away and take a big step to get of the reach of the person touching me. I really wasn't liking this touching thing and after the summer I had, I took option B for getting out of it. I brought up my right hand, locking the intruding hand in place as I lifted up my elbow in a tight grip.

My motions were a blur then, as I twist and wrapped my left arm around the grabber's arm and took my right hand to the bigger person's shoulder. The move forced the grabber to bend with his arm in my hold, trying to get away as I was straining his elbow and shoulder. A little more force, I really didn't like being touched at the moment, and I dislocated the blonde man's shoulder.

"Huh," my voice was scratchy and a little uneven from disuse "Fraser was right," I smirked as the man went to his knees with a gasp, his blue eyes wide and looking at me in disbelief "that will dislocate a bloke's shoulder. Maybe you shouldn't grab people, yea?"

"ATHENA!" Uncle Ted cried from nearby and I let the man go. He was shoving through the crowd to get to me, when he got to us his eyes flicked from me to the man. Uncle Ted growled and literally picked the blonde man up by the front of his robes "what did you do to my niece?" he demanded with a snarl, his brown eyes flashing with deadly intent. Lockhart's arm hung weirdly and loosely at his side.

"He grabbed my shoulder," I said rubbing at my throat, it felt itchy now that it was returning to usage "surprised me."

My family and friends looked stunned that I had spoken but Harry recovered quickly "I think he was reaching for me, Uncle Ted."

Uncle Ted lowered the fearful man, setting him back on his feet "here's an idea, Lockhart, why don't you keep your hands to yourself, eh?" Uncle Ted was very menacing and very intimidating at the moment as he was at his full height with his muscles bulging, though all he did was to reach out and straighten Lockhart's robes "shouldn't go grabbing kids, yea, some of us might take offense to that. You should probably get that arm looked at," he said before leaving the trembling and dumbfounded man to usher Harry, Ron and me away from the gawking crowd.

"What was that?!" Ron hissed as we go further from the crowded area of the store, heading to where most of the Weasley family had gathered ahead of us "what did you do to him?"

I shrugged "instinct and joint relocation, hummm…so weird, talking feels weird. Like it's a rumbling in my throat."

Uncle Ted turned me to face him as he knelt down to look me in the eyes "are you really alright? Are you hurt?"

I looked to my hand and found the bandage clean, so I said "no, I'm fine. He just startled me is all and I got my voice back."

Aunt Andy had made her way over by now, grasping my chin gently to make me look up at her "how do you feel?" she asked

"Meh…a little scratchy of the throat but better than Lock-brain." I shrugged and grinned when she chuckled before pulling me to her in a tight embrace.

Uncle Ted stood and ruffled my hair as he suggested "why don't you and the others stay here and we'll go get your books. If we'd know that wanker was here I would have said a different day for this," he scowled slightly "this is nothing but chaos."

….

The section of the store that we'd taken up residence in for the moment was the section for magical creatures, specifically water beasts and spells. Why the spells were here was beyond me, of course it's not like the magical world does the Dewy Decimal System. I'd found several that I wanted, including one on creatures of the Scottish Lochs and another that was about the history of water spells (everything to do with water magic in general).

I was looking through one about spells and water when I heard Lucius Malfoy's smooth drawl. That wasn't good. I snapped the book shut, added it to others that I handed to George on my way past to get to Harry. Lucius had him by the arm and was touching him with his cane; Draco watching from the stairs beside them.

"…increases fear of a thing itself," I caught the last bit of Hermione's brazen proclamation as I came to stand beside her.

"Lord Malfoy," I scratched out before looking about at all who was gathered, I was really going to have to do something about that "what were we talking about?"

"Voldemort," Harry smirked when the elder Malfoy growled at him "we were talking about how Lord Malfoy can't believe I defeated the man."

I inhaled deeply "oh," I said letting the breath out "is that all? Chatting about the Dark Ass-hat," I shook my head, Lord Malfoy growled lowly "I thought that pathetic bag of sand was old news," I raised an eyebrow at the very irate lord "don't we have better things to do with our time than to dreg up failed, self-centered, poorly educated, racist, psychopathic serial killers?"

Uncle Lucius looked like he was seriously looked like he wanted to smack me, his knuckles were turning white on his cane. Leave it to me to be making someone cross within an hour of getting my voice back. It was worth it, though, to see the look in his eyes; man was a total Death Eater.

What I hadn't counted on was the fight it'd cause between Mr. Weasley and Lucius. Maybe the if blond lord wouldn't have insulted Ginny and her second hand books that she'd gotten, taking them out of her newer cauldron and lazily tossing the books back in. I was so rooting for Mr. Weasley as I pulled Ginny and Hermione back when Mr. Weasley cold cocked Lord Malfoy; just sucker punched him.

Uncle Ted and Mr. Granger tore the two men apart when they started rolling around on the floor, using swear words and badly coordinated punches. These two were better off sticking to wands and not fists. There were no words between the two before Lord Malfoy wiped the blood from his chin and left, pulling Draco with him.

I broke the silence left in the wake of the disappearing lord, I had an arm over both Ginny and Hermione's shoulders "go Mr. Weasley! That was wicked. Though, next time keep your wrist straight and your hand loose. Lucky you didn't break your hand."

"Of course you'd know how to hit someone," Hermione scoffed folding her arms across her chest and Ginny giggled "and you'd give that advice with the first dozen words or so you've spoken."

I just grinned at her and shrugged. Uncle Ted just rolled his eyes at me and ushered me to him. The man really wanted to get out of the bookstore; he scowled playfully when I retrieved my wanted books from George. Everyone else was filed out the front door as Uncle Ted seen me to the checkout.

Healer Strout and Gran were very happy to learn that I'd gotten my voice back, maybe not because of the how but they were pleased none the less. Gran found out because I'd written her and both women had found out what I'd done to Lockhart because it'd been in the paper. Showed him grabbing my shoulder from behind and then me doing what I did.

I was back at St. Mungo's with my hand in its weekly vortex bath while Strout was checking my throat. The healer was a bit worried that my vocal cords had tightened up from disuse or had been damaged because of the different magicks I'd experienced this summer. When she was satisfied there was no damage then she and Aunt Andy moved off to start talking about how my treatment would work once I was back at Hogwarts. I ended up reading one of the medical tomes that was in reach of where I was setting because I got bored waiting for them.

….

Hermione and I finished out the last bit of summer the same way we had the summer previous. Except that Hermione read Harry and me Lock-brain's books because I refused to, she loved reading aloud. The girl took great delight in that. I was almost jealous of Harry when he was allowed to escape to the Weasley house for the reminder of the holiday.

It felt different to be packing to go back to Hogwarts, Hermione had gone home by now to do her own packing. Nym came by to help on the last night before we were to leave for King's Cross. Once the trunk was packed, both to Jubilee and Aunt Andy's satisfaction, Nym had snuck in my broom and Quidditch gear and a small record player with a shrunken box full of records (stupid magical world for not liking modern tech, a CD player would have been easier and took less space).

Nym stayed up late with me with junk food and soda whilst hiding in the blanket fort that was becoming a permanent fixture in my room. The older girl used magic to bring to life stories using little different colored sparks morphed into the various characters. We made our own sound effects.

Jubilee woke us the next morning and rushed us all (the elder Tonks included) through breakfast so we could get to the car. It was then I realized that I had no idea where Tiberius was. I had the feeling that he wasn't in trouble or I'd be freaking out and feeling a lot guiltier than I already was; it was very possible that the cat was with Hermione. Aunt Andy promised to keep an eye out for the Roman cat.

We arrived not too far behind the Grangers, Uncle Ted was able to snag the parking spot next to their car. I frowned a little when I saw that Hermione didn't have a cat carrier with her. Nym whispered that the cat would show at some point and Gorgo trilled in agreement from her cage on top of my trunk on the trolley.

I was about to respond when a blue Ford Anglia (probably the 1966 model) pulled in beside us in the last empty spot. Nym, Hermione and I gaped as the Weasley family plus Harry exited the car like they were professional clowns doing a trick. The greatest bit was when they started unloading trunks and cages from the boot.

"But that's not possible," I complained pointing a lazy finger at the car "right?"

Nym chuckled and whispered in my ear "magic, little cousin."

….

Nym walked causally with me through the barrier to Platform 9¾. She had an arm over my shoulder and made it seem like we were just crossing from one side of a platform to the other. We were demonstrating to Annie, who was with Roger and Jem (Brianna had taken Amanda to the states for school), and Luna; who was with her father. Mr. Lovegood was a strange man, he kept asking me if I could see some creature that appeared to those had known true rage. Luna looked apologetic so I didn't turn on the man.

We found Izzy standing beside a shorter man than I was expecting to Daniel Holmes to be. He was a willowy man with sandy brown hair and blue eyes, his chin would have just reached Bridget's shoulder. He asked me to call him Uncle Danny or just Danny would work as he knew I was having trouble calling Bridget aunt at times.

When nobody was looking, Danny grinned and slipped a shrunken box of those rare Chocolate Frogs into my pocket and whispered to just give it a tap with my wand. Seems his whole department where his works had pitched in for the extra-large box after seeing the Daily Prophet and how I'd handled Lockhart. They all thought it was brilliant. I was really starting to like Danny.

Our conversation was ended when the train whistle was blown. Between the Weasley twins, their father, Nym, Uncle Ted and Mr. Granger all the trunks and animal cages were aboard train just like we now needed to be. We waved one last goodbye and I felt like something was missing other than my cat.

"HEY!" I leaned out the door of the train when it started moving, holding on to the hand rail, the group of adults looked back "WHERE'S HARRY AND RON? THEY DIDN'T GET ON THE TRAIN WITH US!"

Started comprehension dawned on the faces of the gathered parental units. I saw them starting to look around and calling about for the boys. The shout hurt my throat and I was rubbing at it as I headed worried towards the compartment Mal had chosen for us. It was a tight squeeze with the Holmes twins, Annie, Luna, Ginny (who was holding a strange looking cat), Hermione, Neville (who'd finally decided to show) and myself.

I had just sat down and was running over our time on the platform to try and remember if I had actually seen the two boys at all. They'd been at the back of our little pack for some reason. I was rerunning it when I happened to look up at the cat in Ginny's lap. It was a black cat with gold markings but they were the same style of markings that Tiberius had had and in the same place but his had been silver.

"Tiberius?!" I asked loudly, very much confused

The black cat looked smugly and meowed at me as he leaned into Ginny. He was purring loudly and kneading the girl's thigh. I just gaped at the cat and forgot about Harry as I was trying to think back to what changing colors meant. Why the hell didn't I read that book? I've read every other book I could get my hands on sans Lock-brain's.

"Is he your cat?" Ginny asked catching my attention "he showed up the day after my birthday, lounging on my bed with a book about shadow cats. His markings turned gold and the book says that means he's chosen his human to be a familiar too."

Hermione looked just as flummoxed as I did "he chose you, Ginny."

"You little traitor!" I cried and started laughing when Tiberius hissed at me "I knew I should have read that damn book!"

"Do…do you want him back?" Ginny asked and yelped when Tiberius sunk his claws into her thigh in protest "hey!"

"Pfft…" I shook my head "like that'd do us any good, you're his human now. Just know that his name is Tiberius the Roman cat and I was apparently a bad pet owner."

"You are very accepting of this," Neville frowned "why?"

I frowned sheepishly "well, it wasn't until this morning that I actually remembered that I owned a cat. The events of this summer sort of made me distracted, I just remember Gorgo because she makes noise and delivers letters and steals my bacon," as in agreement with me, Gorgo shrieked from her cage above us. I smirked and pointed to her as if this proved my point. The compartment descended into laughter.

It was fun as Neville, Hermione and I bestowed what wisdom we'd learned last year to these upcoming first years. Telling them about the ghosts, the best way to avoid getting too far into Snape's ire and how best to avoid Peeves. This was keeping my mind of worrying about Harry and St. Weasley.

"You know," Luna was scratching at Tiberius's ears "I would have thought Harry would have joined us."

"Yea, and my brother," Ginny frowned "they just decided to spend the ride with someone else?"

"Err…yea, that's it," I nodded, snapping my fingers and pointing to Ginny "they decided to ride with some other Gryffindors."

Neville and Hermione saw through my misdirection and got looks of concern. Hermione leaned over and asked in a whisper "what's going on?"

"I think they missed the train," I whispered back "I don't remember seeing them on the Platform before we boarded the train. The parents know because I shouted it to them as we were pulling out."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Hermione hissed

I shrugged and breathed back "what can we do but worry? You know that they'll be found with that group looking."

That seemed to make sense to Hermione because she leaned back and started talking about proper study habits earning more points for the house cup. I answered Neville's questions via dry erase board that I'd gotten use to carrying everywhere. That evolved into tic-tac-toe and then into hangman with the rest of the compartment.