Dressed in fresh jeans and T-shirts, Harry and Ginny stood at the apparition point outside the Burrow at a quarter to five. Harry had Teddy in his arms and his bag slung over his shoulder.

"Hold tight," he said looking down at Ginny.

He spun on the spot and the three young wizards appeared at the end of the lane in Godric's Hollow. Teddy was sleeping again by the time Harry handed him over to Andromeda. They gave her a brief account of the day, Harry kissed Teddy as he lay sleeping in his crib then he and Ginny crept out.

"Which way?" Ginny said. "To the cottage or dinner?"

"The cottage first. I need it to be daylight to get a good look at it."

Ginny and Harry walked through the village to the other side of town. There were few people there when they drew near to the cottage this time. Those that were there took one look at Harry and scurried away.

"What was that all about?" Ginny asked.

"No idea. I wonder how we get in."

He stood looking at the gate which looked as though it was rusted shut. There was a chain and padlock around it reinforcing their impression that it was intended to keep people out.

Alohamora Harry whispered and he tapped the lock with his wand. It didn't budge. Considering this an idea occurred to him and he repeated the charm modifying it a bit.

Alohamora Potter House. The gate swung open. Harry turned to Ginny. "I guess we can go in?"

"I guess," she said.

Harry stepped through the gate. The weeds were waist high, but there once had been a path that led to the front door. After a bit of searching Harry found a large flat stone that had been part of the path. He stepped on this, and then he could see another. Picking their way carefully like this they made their way to the front door to the cottage. The memory of the vision from Voldemort's mind from when he'd been there flashed through Harry's mind. That pale white hand on the frame as he'd looked through the window at baby Harry and James, pushing through the door, firing the curse…Harry shut his eyes and swayed on the spot, trying to force the memory back. He would never be able to do this if he didn't concentrate on the present.

"Harry, are you okay?" Ginny asked. She had rarely seen Harry like this. Hermione had described it to her, those times when visions from Harry's past threatened to overtake his present.

Harry shook his head, trying to shake it off.

"Yeah Gin, I'm fine," he said.

He didn't sound fine though. His voice shook unsteadily and Ginny took his hand. Harry had his other hand clutched tightly around his wand.

"Okay let's do this," he said, a bit louder than he normally would have as he forced his voice to be calm. "Okay." He said again and pushed against the front door. It didn't move.

Alohamora, Ginny whispered it this time, tapping the door handle with her own wand. With a click the door swung open.

Harry stepped inside and looking around. He wasn't entirely certain what he'd been expecting but the room looked entirely normal. There was no physical sign of the violence that had happened there. Of course there wouldn't be Harry reminded himself. The killing curse doesn't leave a mark, except on me. The room itself was the one he'd seen in the torn photo he'd found in Sirius's house. This was the room he'd zoomed around in on his toy broom when he'd been only a little older than Teddy, with his father chasing him. His father! Harry felt that old sense of pride flow into him, that old sense of longing of wanting to connect with his family. He looked up at the ceiling remembering why they were there.

"Let's go into the kitchen," he said.

He didn't know how he knew where it was but his feet guided him there directly. Harry stared at the room. He couldn't really remember it, but he knew this room. It was familiar in a way he couldn't quite explain. And he'd been right, it was yellow. It was a shade he associated with sunlight and happiness and laughter. Hungrily Harry's eyes absorbed the details of the room, trying to remember, hoping to awaken some bit of memory of something pleasant that had happened there. He thought there might be something buried in his subconscious, but it wouldn't quite come. His eyes found the glass cabinet he'd had in his memory, and then…he remembered!

Harry no! We don't put your bear in your cereal! Lily said. Here James, put it away. His mother retrieved the bear from beneath the table where he'd thrown it when she scolded him. They were having breakfast, all of them on a normal sort of day. Lily handed it to James, who put it in the cabinet up behind the table.

Harry stared at the place. The bear was still there. He went to the cabinet and opened it. The bear fell into his hands. He felt it, crusted in places from dried baby food. Staring at it as he held it in his hands, Harry started to shake uncontrollably. He sat down on one of the chairs trying to steady himself.

"Harry?" Ginny said in a small voice coming to stand beside him and placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Ginny," he whispered. "I remember this. My dad put it up there while my mum was feeding me." He held the bear up to his nose. It was dusty and smelled old, but also there was a smell Harry could barely remember. It smelled like her! It smelled like his mum. "I don't remember anything else though, just that bit. I wonder if that was the day it happened."

Harry stood and put the bear back, his hand bumping up against a cut crystal glass bowl with a lid as he did. Harry stared at the bowl. Aunt Petunia had one just like it.

"Let's look at the hall," Harry said gruffly. He slammed the cabinet door shut and left the kitchen.

There were stairs in the hall that lead to the upstairs but this was definitely unstable so they didn't go any further. Harry cast a charm to help stabilize the structure overhead but that was all he felt comfortable trying to do. Casting an impervious charm over the outside, they made their way back up the path to the gate, relocked it and left.

Harry let out a deep breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"That was…." Ginny searched for words to describe her sense of the experience. "That was just so…." She sighed too. "Are you okay Harry?" she asked at last.

Harry turned, surprised by the touched look on Ginny's face. He'd expected it to be difficult experience for himself, but he'd hardly expected it to be that way for Ginny.

"Ginny, what?" he started to ask.

She shook her head.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked.

Ginny frowned. "I never expected it to be like that," she said.

"Like how?"

"So normal. I mean it looks as though a regular family could live there."

"We did live there Gin,"

"Yes, I know that. I know that you did live there Harry, but somehow one expects the scene of extraordinary events to look….well extraordinary," she explained.

"But it didn't did it?" Harry said. "It was just really, really ordinary. But my mum and dad… They were alive there."

Ginny stared at him. "That's a good way to remember it Harry, instead of the place where they died."

Harry nodded, smiling. Finally, after all this time he finally had that, a memory of his mum and dad simply living there in that house.

"Thank you for coming with me, Gin."

"Did you get what you needed from there?" she asked.

"Yeah. I didn't think it was a place that I'd ever want to try to use to live in, but I needed to be sure," Harry said. "I'll submit the paperwork tomorrow to have it converted to permanent historical status." They walked on for a bit. "What do you feel like having for dinner?"

"I saw a little café on the square that looked good. Why don't we eat there?"

"Okay."

Harry smiled as he allowed Ginny to lead the way, thinking of her. He hadn't intended the evening as a date, but as they sat down together at the table the waiter led them to, Harry realized it was after all the first time they'd had a meal, just the two of them out together. The pressure of it being a planned date wasn't there, but by the end of the evening they both found they had enjoyed it immensely.

On Saturday, three days later and a week before Dudley's birthday party in London, Mr. Weasley stood eagerly in the kitchen of the Burrow wearing his muggle bombers jacket and a blousy sort of shirt, fairly bouncing on his toes with anticipation as Harry came down the stairs.

"Are we ready Harry?"

"Let him eat Arthur," his wife admonished as she hugged Harry at the foot of the stairs and Ginny came down behind him.

"We're eating breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron Molly. Bill is meeting us there," Mr. Weasley explained.

"Oh yes, so you said. But you will at least have some tea first won't you?" she fussed. "Can't have you starting out for London on an empty stomach."

Harry smiled resignedly at her. Sometimes it was better to just go along with Mrs. Weasley rather than to argue with her.

"Mum," Ginny said in exasperation as Harry sat down. "We need to be off."

"But the stores aren't even open yet!" Molly objected.

"No but she's right Mrs. Weasley. By the time we've eaten and I've finished all the paperwork for Bill they will be," Harry told her.

"Oh alright, if you'd rather eat there then to have a home cooked meal."

"Molly," Arthur stopped her before allowing her to get into her stride. "You know that has nothing to do with it. Harry has errands to do today and we're going to help him. Right, Harry?" Mr. Weasley grinned.

Harry smiled back but privately he wondered if it wouldn't have been simpler to simply do his shopping by himself. "Er, right Mr. Weasley. Shall we go then?" Harry asked.

"After you Harry!"

They all trooped out to the apparition point. Ginny apparated with her father, and Harry met them there, just inside the door to the Leakey Cauldron.

"Hello Harry," Bill called once they'd landed. "Passed your test okay then?' he asked.

"No problem, though I didn't think there would be quite that many people watching me," Harry said.

"That's what comes of being a celebrity Harry," Mr. Weasley said.

Harry grimaced. He'd never liked being famous or living his life in the public eye.

"Shall we have breakfast Mr. Weasley?" he suggested.

"I have a table already. Right over here." Bill lead them to a small side room where they could eat away from the curious eyes of the general public and where he could conduct his business with Harry undisturbed. A money bag filled with wizard gold and muggle pounds changed hands while they ate. Harry completed the documents which were required by the bank releasing the assets that would be used to pay his fine and releasing himself from responsibility for any further damages. Once Bill was satisfied and their breakfast complete Bill walked with them out to the street.

"Where do we go from here Harry?" Mr. Weasley asked eagerly. "Are we taking the tube?"

"No a bus Mr. Weasley. Look I see it coming. Keep up!" Harry called and he dashed from the corner to across the street where he joined the short queue to board the city bus. He paid their fares as they boarded and found them all seats, trying not to be embarrassed by Mr. Weasley's tendency to point excitedly at perfectly common muggle things. When they reached the shopping district, Mr. Weasley kept jumping up out of his seat trying to read all the signs that were in the windows.

"Dad, please sit down," Ginny said. "You're embarrassing us."

"I am?" Mr. Weasley said looking crestfallen.

"It's okay Mr. Weasley," Harry told him. "We're getting off anyway."

He directed Mr. Weasley to the rear of the bus and showed him how to activate the doors so they could exit.

"Which one are we going to Harry?" Mr. Weasley asked excitedly clapping his hands together.

"That one," Harry pointed to a multistory electronics store about a half block down the street. He walked along with Ginny trying to behave as though it were perfectly normal to be accompanied by such an overexcited older man, but couldn't quite manage it. People were staring at them.

"Harry, the muggles are staring. I think they recognize you!" Mr. Weasley told him.

"I don't think that's quite it Mr. Weasley," and he hurried them into the electronics store as quickly as he could.

It had been a long while since Harry had been in one of these stores. He knew what everything was of course, but he still wasn't familiar to all the most current models and upgrades. Having never had money available to him while growing up Harry had never actually bought anything for is cousin for his birthday before, so he wasn't really sure going in what he was going to get him. And so they wandered about looking everything, with Harry trying to explain what they were seeing as they looked.

The first area of the store they visited was the video department. There the rows and rows of televisions on display, all tuned to the same program fascinated Mr. Weasley. He had rarely encountered one operating before so to be confronted with so many simply delighted him, though he grew disappointed as one by one when the three of them approached the pictures on them became filled with static and fuzzy. Harry, who had some experience with muggle televisions, knew that they worked perfectly well in the presence of only one wizard and so he allowed Mr. Weasley to pull ahead of himself and Ginny as they walked in order to give him a better view of what a television actually did.

Ginny studied the sets thoughtfully as they walked by, noticing the difference in reception when both she and Harry were present.

"What causes that?" she asked.

"Televisions depend on an electrical field to operate," Harry told her. "Magic interferes with that when present in high enough amounts." Ginny looked at him curiously. "Look at the sets as your dad walks by each of them."

Ginny watched critically. "The pictures do blur just a bit, but not like these," she pointed to the sets she and Harry were in front of.

"Draw ahead of me a bit," Harry told her. "See what happens."

Ginny did as he said and the pictures near her started to clear again. She glanced back at Harry in amazement, then when to join her dad. The picture on the sets nearest them showed signs of electrical interference again, which got worse when Harry joined them.

"You see?" Harry asked. "The effect is additive. That's why most of this stuff can't generally be used in wizarding households I suppose."

"Do you think it would if the family were small enough?" Ginny asked.

"Probably," Harry said. "My aunt and uncle have all this stuff, and it works when I'm there. But usually I'm the only one so I'm not sure how many it would take to make it completely inoperative."

"I am sure there are far too many of us in our household," Mr. Weasley said as they moved on past the televisions and came to a monitor playing a recently released movie on DVD.

"Oh look!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed as he watched, "The muggles have learned to make pictures move."

"That's a movie Mr. Weasley," Harry told him. "Not a photograph."

"I've heard the term. Moving pictures yes?" he asked. "Like our photographs?"

"Well yes and no. They are a picture that moves, but they're called a DVD and they're considered a form of entertainment, like cinema" Harry tried to explain. "They tell a story, usually."

"Do they really?" Mr. Weasley asked.

Harry nodded. "They store them on these," Harry showed Mr. Weasley the racks featuring the boxes holding the silver discs. "They put them in a player and the picture forms on the screen."

Mr. Weasley picked up one of the boxes and began to read the synopsis information on the back. He picked up another and read it too. "These are different," he told Harry.

"Look at the title," Harry said.

"The title? You mean like a book?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"More like a play I think," then Harry paused He couldn't actually
remember seeing any live stage entertainment in the wizarding world, but Mr. Weasley seemed to know what a play was.

"What are these Harry?" Ginny asked as she picked up one of the cell phones on display.

"It's a cell phone. Muggles use them to communicate." Harry nodded towards a man who had one up to his ear. The man was talking as though to thin air.

"He's talking to someone on his phone," Harry explained. "They can hear what he says on their phone at the other end."

"A bit like radio then?" Ginny asked.

"Like two way radio," Mr. Weasley said proudly. He considered himself an expert on some muggle things.

After a couple of hours looking at all the computers and video and audio equipment and related accessories, Harry decided on his purchase paid for it and tried to persuade Mr. Weasley it was time to leave. He'd collected brochures and samples of several new types of plugs and couldn't have been happier with his visit there.

Their next stop was to a muggle clothing shop where Harry replenished his wardrobe. He also bought Ginny a muggle dress for the party and Mr. Weasley a new muggle shirt (without any pleats), then suggested they start home.

Harry boarded a bus intending to take the Weasley's to a part of town that might be more appropriate to apparate from when the sign for a cross street caught he eye.

"Mr. Weasley," he asked as the bus started to slow for the next stop. "How about if we take the flue back from Grimmauld Place?"

"Grimmauld Place Harry?" Mr. Weasley asked. "Is that near here?"

"We just crossed it. It should be a short walk if we get off here."

Mr. Weasley glanced out the window round at the neighborhood.

"Yes, that's a good idea Harry. I think we should."

They got off the bus and walked three blocks back, then down to the corner of Grimmauld Place. They turned onto the street and walked two blocks until they came to the block with numbers ten through nineteen. Harry waited in front of numbers eleven and thirteen for number twelve to reveal itself. Sure enough, the neighbor's houses began to move aside as the missing house popped into place.

"Mr. Weasley, do you know if any of the Order has been here since the end of the war?"

"They've had no reason to Harry. We have no need for headquarters now that the war is over."

Harry nodded. That might be so, but Death Eater had gained entrance to Sirius's old home the last time he'd been there, and he wasn't at all looking forward to discovering what sort of shape they'd left it in. Harry lead the way through the door then waited. He felt Ginny jump as Mad-Eye's voice rang out and the tongue-locker curse was applied. He'd gotten used to this ritual last year while living here with Ron and Hermione and hadn't thought to warn Ginny about it before bringing her here.

"Was that…Mad-Eye?" she asked wide eyed when it lifted again.

"Yes," Harry said. "I wish I could find a way of removing that."

"Oh, I expect I could do that," Mr. Weasley said. "I was with Moody when he put that in place."

"That'd be great Mr. Weasley," Harry said. "Can you do something about old Dusty as well?" he pointed to the figure of Dumbledore that had risen from the dusty hall floor.

"Yes of course Harry. Just give me a moment." Mr. Weasley with drew his wand as Harry took his packages, looked thoughtful for a moment then waved at Dusty muttering the counter-spell. Dusty glowed momentarily then disappeared leaving a man-shaped clean spot on the carpet of the hall floor. "Now for the curse," He waived it again and the curse was lifted.

"Thanks," Harry said.

"No problem. Now down to the kitchen?"

"You go ahead Mr. Weasley. I think I'd like to look around here for a bit."

"Is there anything else I can help you with Harry?" Mr. Weasley said.

"Not yet. I'm just trying to figure out what I'm going to do with this place."

"You're not thinking of living here are you?" Ginny asked.

"Why, don't you like it?" Harry said trying to keep a straight face.

"It's a bit creepy, don't you think?"

"Just a bit. I'm not sure if there is anything I could do about that short of tearing the place down and trying to build something new."

Ginny looked around her with a frown as if trying to visualize that. "You know, the house it self isn't the problem Harry. Well it's dark and a bit old-fashioned, but in theory you could fix that. It's just…"

"All the dark stuff," Harry finished for her. He frowned walking towards the curtain that concealed Mrs. Black. "We could try gutting it I suppose. Leave the structure but take out most of the walls?"

"That would be a big job Harry," Mr. Weasley said. "Too much for one man."

"Do you think I could even get her off if I tried to do that?" Harry asked nodding towards the hidden portrait.

"You'd have to take down the wall I think. Sirius considered it, but with the war going on it didn't seem quite like the time to remodel," Mr. Weasley said.

Harry considered the wall with Mrs. Black then walked around to the room on the other side of the wall. It was a dining room but too small to be useful for large groups and too far from the kitchen to be practical for a family.

"That would destroy the dinning room," he said coming back.

"It would at that," Mr. Weasley agreed. "You could sell it Harry," Mr. Weasley suggested.

"Who would buy it…except possibly another dark wizard?" Harry asked. Mr. Weasley looked stumped.

"That's what I thought. I don't think I want any other dark wizards living here. I think the best thing would be to clean it all out – eventually," Harry said. He closed the door to the dining room with a snap. The sound woke up Mrs. Black who started screaming at the top of her lungs. Harry shut the curtain across her as quickly as he could.

"Shall we go?"

They made their way down to the dark basement kitchen, lit a fire to go back to the Burrow. Mr. Weasley went first, followed by Ginny. Harry looked around him one last time, stepped into the fire and shouted 'the Burrow'.

The contrast of the Burrow kitchen to that of Grimmauld place was striking. There was Mrs. Weasley warm and welcoming, happy to see them, in a house that though worn felt like a home. Even when full Grimmauld Place hadn't felt that way and Harry wondered if it ever would.