Chapter 10: Jobs

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Harry Potter. Shame. Wish I did though. Brilliant Stuff.

A/N: Heres the next one. Sorry it wasn't up sooner, school has a lot to answer for. So enjoy! I'll update next week, probably. Next one's nice and long... Remember, no reviews, no updates!!! lol

pippaStef

Over the next few months Harry's job became very demanding. He had guessed that it would become very difficult because of all the clean up work from Lord Voldemort's reign. There were still Death Eaters milling around evading capture and the top dogs, were demanding constant reports everyday whether they had discovered anything new or not.

Harry was also having to study for his exams which would allow him to become a fully qualified Auror. He was not alone in this studying however. Ron had decided to join Harry in the Aurors office and they often went to Ron's flat or Grimmauld Place to write reports, study and test each other well into the night. On the occasions when they stayed up well past midnight, Hermione and Kreacher found it in themselves to make the two boys midnight snacks. One night they were studying in Ron's living room, while Hermione was asleep in the spare bedroom, cramming as much information as they possibly could before they fell asleep.

"I'll be glad when all this is over," Ron groaned, his head in his hands as he tried to read their set text book on Concealment and Disguise, taking notes so he could run through the entire thing the night before their exam.

Harry who was making notes on Stealth and Tracking, merely grunted and scratched his forehead with his quill. He was just noting down the preferred method of tracking a Death Eater when Hermione came in to the living room, her robes over her night dress. She looked at them sympathetically, and went off into the kitchen.

"Here," She said five minutes later, placing a cup of steaming hot coffee in front of Harry and Ron, "You could use one," She added when she saw Harry's face. She flicked her wand towards the kitchen and a plate of Mrs Weasley's home made biscuits flew onto the table.

Ron launched himself on the biscuits, while Harry drank down the scalding hot tea.

"Thanks Mione," Harry gasped as the heat of the coffee hit the back of this throat.

"Fnks!" Ron said through the biscuit he had crammed in his mouth, giving Hermione a vague thumbs up.

"I've never seen you studying so hard," Hermione said, bemused, sitting down next to Ron as he leaned back in his chair.

"First time for everything isn't there?" Ron asked, putting his empty cup down with a crash. The cup shattered under the force. Hermione rolled her eyes slightly, whipped out her wand and muttered "Reparo!"

"These are exams we actually want to pass," Harry added, taking a biscuit, "And we don't have you to copy off of this time do we? I mean you don't have any notes that we can read."

"It's probably a good thing though," Ron said, glancing at Harry and then at Hermione, "I mean this will be our job, we can't use someone else's brainpower, can we?"

Harry looked curiously at him. This new Ron, who was saying he'd rather not read someone else's notes was all Hermione's influence. Ron had never been so … so…

Harry's over flowing brain couldn't find the word he wanted, but he knew that Hermione's influence and the importance of her in Ron's life had changed Ron more than maturing could ever have done.

Desperate for sleep, Harry rested his head in his hands and stifled a yawn.

"You should go and get some sleep Harry," Hermione's voice registered in his brain, "You'll probably have another long day tomorrow and you're already exhausted."

"'Salright Mione," Harry muttered, "I've gone longer without sleep!" He yawned again. He could distantly hear Ron's soft snores

"Harry," Hermione said again, more forcefully, "You should go and sleep." Harry tried to protest but found Hermione gripping hold of his upper- arm and steering him towards the fire. She pushed his books, quills and parchment into his hands, took a handful of green Floo powder from the tin on the mantle piece, chucked it into the fire, pushed Harry forward, so he stumbled, stuck her head in after him, and said loudly, "Number 12 Grimmauld Place!"

Harry felt himself twirling round and round in the warm green flames. He was dimly aware of slowing down, and when his feet slammed into the kitchen grate, too sleepy to act with his usual reflexes, born from his Quidditch days, he fell forward onto his face. His ink bottle smashed on the kitchen floor, the parchment fluttered out of his hands, and he landed on his books.

He heard Kreacher's surprised croak as he tried to open his aching eyes.

"Master! Master! What is the matter? Master!" Kreacher's bony hand was shaking Harry's shoulder. Harry groaned, he became very aware that his glasses were now in two pieces and that there probably a very large crack in one of the lenses.

"Kreacher," He heard Hermione say from her station in the grate, "Will you put him to bed please? He needs to sleep."

"Yes Miss," Kreacher croaked, shuffling around, tidying up all the mess Harry had made.

"Thank you Kreacher," Hermione said, "Night, Harry, Kreacher," She said, sounding tired herself. There was a small pop, and Hermione's head was no longer floating in the grate. Harry slowly got up, heaving himself up off the books, groaning. He felt around blindly for his glasses and felt the broken frames under his fingers.

He reached inside his jacket pocket and brought out his wand.

"Oculus Reparo!" He muttered sleepily, and his glasses repaired themselves. Kreacher was watching Harry with all of Harry's study materials in his arms.

"Master is to go to bed," Kreacher croaked, as Harry put his glasses back on, "Miss Hermione told Kreacher so. Master is to go to bed now. It is very late and Master has to go to work tomorrow," Kreacher put Harry's books and quills on the table.

Harry yawned, nodding. Somewhere in the back of his head, had registered that he was taking orders from his house-elf. Before he stumbled out of the kitchen, Harry waved his wand at the broken ink bottle on the cold flag stones and muttered, "Reparo."

"Night Kreacher," Harry said, as the House- Elf gave him a firm push at waist level out of the kitchen, "Sorry about the ink."

"Night Master," Kreacher croaked, shutting the kitchen door forcefully behind Harry, cause Harry to stumble. Slowly, yawning widely Harry climbed the stairs until he reached his bedroom. Without undressing, Harry fell onto the bed and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

(Authors Note: I got the spell he uses from the movie- chamber of secrets- when Harry meets Hermione in Diagon Alley. It's not in the book but I hope you don't mind too much. If it bothers you, reviewers I'll take it out. Pippa- Stef)

While Harry was sleeping, dreamlessly in a state of near exhaustion, like the one which had gripped him in his fifth year at Hogwarts, Ginny was also in bed.

Her training with the Holyhead Harpies was draining in every sense and today had been no exception. They had been in the air for three and a half hours, going over tactics, practising and the A and B teams had played each other. It had taken Ginny a long time to even spot the snitch for the first time. She had streaked after it, only to loose it, when one of the beaters, in true Quidditch fashion and on orders from Gwenog, had made her swerve to avoid a bludger, which meant she had had to take her eyes off of the snitch for a few crucial seconds in which it had disappeared.

Gwenog had apologised for that, but had told Ginny that the teams opponents would do exactly the same thing and she needed to see how ferrous and un caring the other team would be. Ginny had had to hold her tongue. She wanted to tell Gwenog that she had some idea of how a professional match would work. She knew from watching the Quidditch World Cup when she was thirteen and if the Slytherin tactics had been any indication, the match would get dirty.

Ginny stared listlessly at the ceiling on her room. Everyday, after practice, Ginny returned to the Burrow. It was beginning to irk her that her parents had so readily allowed Ron to move into a flat in London with Hermione, and that they maintained that for the moment they'd feel better if Ginny came home at night.

Ginny had raised this topic with Hermione who had suggested that maybe Mr and Mrs Weasley weren't ready to have an empty house, because all their children had grown up and that the boys, who Mrs Weasley had let go, grudgingly it had to be said, she hadn't really felt like she was loosing her children. Hermione had pointed out to Ginny at this point that because Ginny was the only girl, and the youngest of the Weasley children, that Mr and Mrs Weasley weren't quite emotionally ready to let their baby girl go, and grow up like her brothers. Ginny hadn't said anything, because there was too much truth in this to wave away and scoff.

She had hardly seen Harry at all this week. He'd been busy with swatting for his exams and she had been equally busy with training. The last time she'd seen him was Sunday lunch, which Mrs Weasley insisted that everyone comes home for. Andromeda and Teddy had come as well. Teddy had been very happy to see her, even though she was dripping from head to toe in mud, just having finished a last minute training session and having dived bombed the snitch just so they could go home. She had ended up catching the snitch, but had managed to send herself face first off her broomstick.

Ginny yawned widely, thinking to herself that she should be getting some sleep. She had training the next day. Turning over she looked at her bedside clock and sighed restlessly. She wanted to see Harry. That was what was truly bothering her. Ginny wanted to talk to him, listen to him, and kiss him more than ever. She had these feelings attacking her continuously during her sixth year at Hogwarts when Harry was searching for the Horocruxes. They had been worse then, knowing that there was a chance that she would never see him again. This time it was different. He was in no immediate danger, but it didn't make the feelings any less painful. It was enough to nag at her.

Ginny was just thinking that she would write to Harry tomorrow morning, when the clock beeped two in the morning. Groaning, Ginny stretched and then huddled under her blankets and tried to concentrate on sleep.

Harry poured himself coffee the next morning before attacking breakfast, which Kreacher had laid out. IT was rather a large breakfast. Scrambled eggs, sausages, baked beans, toast, mushrooms, and bacon.

"Thanks Kreacher," Harry said as he swallowed his mouth full, "This is really good."

"Master must keep up his strength," Kreacher said, hurrying over and adding some more rinds of bacon to Harry's plate and placing a goblet of pumpkin juice down. "Master works too hard, and sleeps too little. The least Kreacher can do it feed him and clean his house. Kreacher does not like seeing Master so over worked."

"I'm fine Kreacher," Harry said, wiping his chin, as some ketchup trickled down it, "I just want to pass these exams and then the whole thing sort of eases up."

Kreacher eyed him suspiciously.

"Honest Kreacher," Harry said, stuffing a fork full of scrambled eggs into his mouth.

Kreacher eyed Harry, as he finished the plate full of food.

"I'm just going to get Ron, then I'm off to work Kreacher," Harry said, standing and stowing his wand inside the pocket of his robes, "Don't know what time I'll be home, but I hope it won't be too late. Anyway, it's the weekend tomorrow, so I'll probably save all the revising 'til then."

"Yes Master," Kreacher said, bowing, "Does Master want his bed changed?"

"Umm, yes please Kreacher, if you can find time to change it," Harry said, swinging his cloak over his shoulders.

"Yes Master, thank you Master," Kreacher said bowing again as Harry took from Floo powder from the box on the mantel piece.

"Bye Kreacher," Harry said, chucking the powder in the empty grate.

"Goodbye Master," Kreacher said, bowing once more.

"You don't have to keep bowing, Kreacher," Harry said, just before he was whooshed out of sight.

He landed a couple of seconds later her found himself in the grate at Ron's flat.

"Hello Harry," Hermione's voice chirped from the table, "Sorry about last night but you are working too hard." She said, as Harry climbed out of the grate.

"Hello Hermione," Harry said, brushing himself down.

"Harry! The carpet!" Hermione said, shocked as the soot fell off Harry onto the new carpet.

"Sorry, sorry," Harry muttered, pulling out his wand and giving it a wave. The soot at his feet disappeared.

"Ron awake yet?" Harry asked, stowing his wand back into his robes. Hermione nodded.

"Yes he is," She said, "Took me a good half an hour to get him up, but he's deffently up."

"Walking dead?" Harry asked, grinning.

"Yes," Hermione sighed, hearing Ron thundering about in his bedroom, "He's had an awful lot of coffee though," She added as there was a crash and a lot of swearing. Harry nodded slightly, trying to hide a grin.

"What did you do to get him out of bed?" Harry asked sitting down next to Hermione.

"Weasley Wizard Wheezes Decoy Detonators, and one of their punching telescopes," Hermione said, trying to hide her own grin.

"I take it you've got rid of the bruise," Harry said mildly, remembering the time Hermione had gone around for at least half a day with a black eye from one of Fred and George's Telescopes.

"Well," Hermione said, blushing, "Not yet," She added truthfully, "I told him to get dressed and then I'd give him the antidote."

"Remind me never to cross you, Hermione," Harry said laughing as Ron finally stumbled out from his bedroom, with a black eye and his robes all over the place.

"What happened it there?" Hermione asked him as he nodded to Harry.

"Fell over that dresser Mum and Dad sent yesterday," Ron said, grabbing a piece of toast from Hermione's plate, "Forgot to move it last night before I went to sleep, and fell over it just now." He bolted his toast.

"The Antidote, Hermione," he said, as Harry stood to leave. Hermione grinned and handed it over, smiling. Harry adverted his gaze as Ron gave Hermione a kiss.

"Lets go then," Ron said standing in front of the grate. Harry grinned.

Ron stepped into the warm green flames and said loudly and clearly, "Ministry of Magic!"

Harry followed suit, after saying goodbye to Hermione.

Ginny yawned widely as she and the rest of the team trooped out on to the practice field, once Gwenog had talked them through new tactics.

"Tired Ginny?" one of the older Witches asked as they mounted their brooms.

"Just a little bit," Ginny said, nodding.

"You should go to bed a bit earlier," said another witch. Both of the witches were beaters.

"I do!" Ginny protested, "I just can't get to sleep!" She added, "Honest."

"We believe you Ginny," said the first witch, Jacobina Earlheart, picking up her beaters club, "It's not easy getting to sleep even if your exhausted, is it Savina?" She asked the other witch.

"It's not," Savina Blinkman agreed, grasping her beater firmly in her hand, "Even Gwenog's speeches couldn't make you go to sleep if its one of those nights."

"You've tried it?" Ginny asked.

"yeah, I've tried it," Savina said, nodding, "The thing is, you tend to think about what she's saying so your brain won't slow down so you can go to sleep."

"You're not perchance trained to be a healer are you?" Ginny asked as they kicked off from the ground.

"Yeah," Savina said, as Jacobina raced off to the other goal posts after a bludger, "But Quidditch is my passion. I can be a healer when my Quidditch days are over, not the other way round," She smiled, "You'd better get moving, Gwenog'll freak if you're not looking for the snitch."

Ginny grinned and shot off, her eyes eagerly scanning the stadium for the tiny golden snitch.