Chapter 26 – Moving Ahead
The Hogwarts Express pulled in to Kings' Cross Station and everyone got up and started to get all their things together. Once they stepped onto Platform 9 ¾ they looked around for their families. They spotted Mr and Mrs Weasley standing next to Sirius and Hermione's parents. They started making their way through the crowd towards them. Draco gave Rachel a quick kiss and told her he'd see her soon and walked off towards his parents.
"Sirius!" Harry and Rachel said together as they reached him, he was hugging Tina. He turned to them smiling.
"Harry, Rachel," Sirius said hugging them at the same time. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah lots, but it's over now," Rachel said sadly.
"I know, I was sad when I had to leave as well," Sirius said. Rachel turned to face Mr and Mrs Weasley.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you both," Rachel said to them as Tina finished saying Hello and went to talk to Hermione's parents. Mrs Weasley pulled her into a big hug.
"No need for formalities dear, you're one of the family now," Mrs Weasley said. Mr Weasley shook hands with Rachel and she smiled at both of them. "You should come over soon and meet the rest of the family". Rachel nodded and agreed to come over very soon and then she went to say hello to Hermione's parents and saw Tina talking to Jack's parents. Rachel saw Draco saying bye to Blaise and then he waved at her and disapparated along with his parents. Blaise and his mum followed suit. Hermione said bye to everyone and then left the station with her parents. Mr and Mrs Weasley said bye next and disapparated, Ron put his arms around Ginny and disapparated after them.
"All right let's get going," Sirius said to Harry, Rachel and Tina. "Tina, Rachel, you both don't know where we are headed so side-along apparition is probably best." They nodded at him and he took out his wand waving it over their luggage sending it home first and then put his arm around Tina and Harry put his arm around Rachel and they disapparated home.
---
"Here read this, both of you and memorise what it says," Sirius said handing a small piece of parchment to Tina. She looked at it with Rachel looking over her shoulder. The parchment said in big loopy writing:
The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.
Rachel and Tina both looked up as Sirius took the parchment and set alight with the tip of his wand. They saw a number ten, eleven and thirteen but no twelve.
"Where's number twe-" Rachel began but stopped when number twelve suddenly appeared in front of them pushing the other houses, but the residents in those houses didn't seem to notice. "The fidielus charm, of course." They walked through the gate and up the steps to the door of their new home.
"You restored the door," Harry stated looking at the now brand new looking mahogany door in front of them with a silver number 12 on it. The silver door knocker was now a phoenix instead of the serpent it was before. Sirius unlocked the door and they walked inside.
"You'll be able to apparate inside of the house now," Sirius said as they all looked around.
"I see you've been busy Sirius," Harry said looking around and the cream colour walls and all the restored furniture. "You got rid of the umbrella stand?"
"Yep, Tonks wasn't the only one tripping over it. The living room is through the door at the end on the left, the other one leads to the basement where the kitchen is," Sirius explained. "Come on let me show you your rooms." They walked up the stairs and reached the first floor landing. "On the first floor we gave the Drawing room and in it are my big plasma TV with my PS3 as well. There are also a couple of guest rooms on this floor and a bathroom." They walked up to the second floor and stopped yet again. "I have sort of added a few things to make the house more comfortable for all of us. If you go through the right you'll find your room Harry, I've changed it a little. Through the left you girls will find your rooms. Third floor just has a few guest rooms and my room as well. All of our bedrooms have our names on them. So go on and let me know what you think." They all left to go to their rooms. Harry walked over to the door that said 'Harry's Room' on it and walked into the familiar room. The room looked bigger, in fact it was bigger. Harry looked around and saw that he now had a king size four poster bed with scarlet hangings. There was a set of drawers, which had Hedwig's cage on it and a desk as well. He walked over and let Hedwig out. On each side of his room there was a door. He went to the one on the left and saw that it was a walk in closet and his trunk was in there. The door on the right turned out to be an en suite bathroom. There were photographs of his parents, Sirius and Lupin around his room. He walked out to thank Sirius.
Both Tina and Rachel had and en suite bathroom in their rooms as well. Their rooms were next to each others, they were extremely happy about the walk in wardrobes. The layout for their rooms was the same as Harry's. They had a king size four poster bed as well, but Tina's hangings were red with gold Manchester United logos all over it and Rachel had green hangings. Rachel had the same photographs in frames around her room as well. Tina had some of the same photographs but she also had photos of her mum and some of her mum with Sirius. Tina and Rachel walked up to Sirius and gave him a big hug.
"I'm glad you like your rooms," Sirius said hugging them back and smiling. "All right let's head down to the kitchen, Kreacher has prepared a wonderful dinner for us." The four of them made their way down to the basement where they could smell the delicious food. They greeted Kreacher happily and sat down to eat their dinner together.
***
"Come on Harry," Tina said pulling at his arms to get him out of his seat at the dining table.
"But I don't want to," Harry said looking for help. Sirius had already left work at the Ministry, where he worked with the Aurors helping them to find criminals having once been one.
"Please Harry," Rachel said and pouted, Tina joined in.
"Fine, let's go," Harry said getting up and making sure he had his wand.
"Kreacher, we'll be back for dinner," Rachel said walking over to the house-elf. "We'll see you later."
"Kreacher hopes you all have fun," Kreacher said bowing at them. They nodded and then disapparated to Diagon Alley.
"Ok first things first, we're going to Gringotts to exchange wizard money into muggle money," Rachel said happily as they walked over to Gringotts.
"Yeah and then it's off to Muggle London to get Harry a new wardrobe," Tina said and dragged Harry along with her. Harry groaned knowing that this was going to be a long day.
***
Sirius apparated into the hallway of his house and walked downstairs to the kitchen. Harry was there helping Kreacher with dinner.
"Hello Harry, Kreacher," Sirius said walking over to them. "Need any help."
"No we're done now," Harry said.
"Tina and Rachel still out?"
"Yep, I don't know if they'll be home for dinner or not," Harry said. "I was with them and the others in the morning but then I went out with Ginny."
"Don't worry about it, the girls are probably still shopping," Sirius said laughing. They sat down and had their dinner and then helped with the dishes. Harry and Sirius then walked upstairs to the first floor and went in the drawing room. The room had a big Plasma TV against the back wall with a PS3 underneath it. There were big cushions in the centre of the room. The back wall still had the Tapestry on the wall, which Sirius had agreed to keep by making a deal with Kreacher about it. Sirius sat down in front of the TV as Harry went to the DVD shelf on the side to pick out a movie to watch. With the help of Tina and Rachel Sirius' collection had grown immensely and so had Harry's.
It was around about 11 o'clock when Tina and Rachel finally walked through the door.
"Hey," Rachel and Tina said together entering the drawing room.
"Hey, did you girls have fun?" Sirius asked as they walked over and sat down next to them.
"Yeah it was great," Tina said. "You're watching 'At Worlds End', I love Jack Sparrow."
"Me too," Sirius said agreeing and they watched the end of the film before calling it a night and heading off to bed. Sirius said good night to them and walked up the stairs to the third floor. Harry and Tina followed Rachel to her room.
"How did you both end up coming home at the same time?" Harry asked sitting on Rachel's bed along with Tina and Rachel.
"I told her to let me know when she was done," Tina explained as Rachel looked through a bag that was on her bed. "Then we met up and came home together."
"Is that from Draco?" Harry asked pointing at the silver chain around her neck that had a silver 'D' attached to it. The 'D' had emeralds and rubies on it.
"Yes, it is," Rachel said smiling. "The emeralds and rubies represent Gryffindor and Slytherin."
"Very nice," Tina said.
"Sirius is gonna see that," Harry said indicating the necklace again.
"No he won't, I put a concealment charm on it," Rachel explained. "With Hermione's help, we readjusted it so only people who know about us can see it."
"Ok, am glad you had fun," Harry said getting up. "Well, good night." Harry walked out of the room.
"What did you get Draco for your 1 month anniversary?" Tina asked.
"A watch, that has a 'R' just like this 'D' on it," Rachel explained. "It's behind the face of the watch."
"You're not gonna celebrate every month that you're together are you?" Tina asked curiously.
"No, we decided that the first month was important," Rachel said as she put all the bags she had away in to her wardrobe. "We're just gonna celebrate when we've been together six months, which will be 6th December and then after that every year."
"Why is it the 6th, I thought you got together on Draco's birthday?"
"We did, but it was after midnight when the party ended, so it was the 6th of June," Rachel said coming back over to the bed.
"Oh ok, I get it," Tina said getting up. "Well good night Rach, sleep tight."
"Good night, Tina,"
R: Good night Harry
H: Good night Rach
***
"Good morning," Sirius said as Harry, Rachel and Tina entered the kitchen sleepily. "Waking up early paid off today." They looked up at him as he pointed to the three barn owls sitting on the table. They quickly ran over and took the letters addressed to them. They quickly opened them up to read them.
NASTY EXHAUSTING WIZARDING TEST RESULTS
Pass Grades: Outstanding (O) Fail Grades: Poor (P)
Exceeds Expectations (E) Dreadful (D)
Acceptable (A) Troll (T)
HARRY JAMES POTTER HAS ACHIEVED:
Charms O
Defence Against the Dark Arts O
Herbology E
Potions E
Transfiguration E
RACHEL LILY POTTER HAS ACHIEVED:
Arithimancy E
Care of Magical Creatures O
Charms O
Defence Against the Dark Arts O
Herbology E
Potions O
Transfiguration O
TINA ISABELLA BLACK HAS ACHIEVED:
Ancient Runes O
Care of Magical Creatures E
Charms O
Defence Against the Dark Arts O
Herbology E
Potions O
Transfiguration O
"Well done all of you," Sirius said looking over their results. "I'm so proud of you." He hugged them all and they sat done and had breakfast before Sirius had to leave to go to work. After that they went to the living room to use the floo network to talk to the Weasleys. Harry grabbed some floo powder of the mantel piece and threw it into the fire, he crouched down in front of it and stuck his head in and said 'The Burrow'.
"Hey Harry," Ginny said seeing Harry's head floating in the fireplace. Ron walked over to the fireplace to talk to him.
"Hey Ginny, Ron," Harry said as Ron took a seat in front of him. "How did you do Ron?"
"Not bad, I got four Exceeds Expectations and an Outstanding in charms," Ron said happily. "What about you?"
"The same, except I got an Outstanding in Defence Against the Dark Arts as well," Harry replied. "So both of us qualified for Auror training." Ron smiled nodding his head.
"Well done Harry," Ginny said. "What did Rachel and Tina get?"
"They got 5 Outstandings and 2 Exceeds Expectations, one in Herbology," Harry explained. "The other one for Tina is Care of Magical Creatures and for Rachel its Arithimancy."
"Well, tell them I said well done," Ginny said.
"Yeah same here," Ron said. "Oh and mum said to tell you that all of you are invited over for dinner tomorrow to celebrate our results."
"Ok, we'll be there,"
"Good, cause Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Percy and his girlfriend Audrey are coming over," Ginny explained. "So they'll finally be able to meet them."
"Ok, I'll see you guys tomorrow then. Tell your mum and dad we said hi," Harry said getting ready to pull back.
"Ok, will do," Ron said.
"Bye," Ginny and Ron said together as Harry pulled his head out of the fireplace.
"Hey, what did he say?" Tina asked as Rachel sat on the floor writing.
"Same as me, but only one Outstanding in Charms," Harry explained sitting down on the floor. "Oh and we're going over to the burrow tomorrow for dinner to celebrate our results."
"Cool, we just got a letter from Hermione," Tina explained pointing at the letter on the floor. "She got all seven Outstandings."
"Figures," Harry said smiling.
"All right, here you go Hedwig take this to Hermione," Rachel said tying a letter to her leg. Hedwig spread her wings and flew out the open window. Tina approached the fire place next and talked to Jack and found out that he got three Exceeds Expectations and Three Outstandings. Then Rachel talked to Draco and found out that he got four Outstandings and two Exceeds Expectations in Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts. After that they decided to talk to Neville, then Luna, Dean, Seamus, Lisa, Hannah, Susan, Mandy, Millicent, Pansy, Claire and Daphne. Once they were done talking to everyone, they sat down on the couch and relaxed. Then an official looking owl swooped in through the window and dropped a letter into Harry's lap. He opened it and read it out loud.
Dear Mr Potter,
After receiving your NEWT results we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Auror training, which will begin in August.
We would like to ask you to come to the Ministry of Magic tomorrow at 12 o'clock to finalise everything. At reception ask for Sirius Black.
Yours sincerely
Kingsley Shacklebolt
Head Auror
Auror Department, Ministry of Magic.
"Well done, Harry," Rachel said and hugged Harry along with Tina. "Told you you'd get in."
"Ask for Sirius Black?" Tina asked amused. "What did he forget you live with him."
"I think they just send the same letter to everyone who got in," Rachel said. As she sat back down two grey owls flew in through the window and dropped a letter into Rachel's lap and one in Tina's as well. They opened their letters and Harry read Rachel's over her shoulder.
Dear Miss Potter,
We received your NEWT results this morning and after looking over your impressive results we are pleased to inform you that you will begin your Healer training in August.
We would also like to ask you to come in tomorrow at 11 o'clock to finalise everything. When you come in report to Healer Monica Stewart.
Yours sincerely
Emma Burke
St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
"Mine's the same as well," Tina said looking at Rachel's letter.
"Well done both of you," Harry said. "Hey why don't we go out for lunch today?"
"Sure sounds good to me," Rachel said getting up, followed by Tina and Harry.
***
Rachel and Tina followed Healer Stewart along with others who were due to start their healer training as well. They walked into a room and took seats around the table that was there. Healer Stewart handed out forms to everyone and told them to read through and fill in all the information. Once that was done she collected all the forms from them.
"Now that the paper work is out of the way, let me explain what is going to happen," Healer Stewart said to all of them. "Your training will begin on Monday 3rd August. You will be expected to arrive at reception by 9 o'clock every morning. You should leave at about 6 or 7 pm every evening but you may be asked to stay late from time to time. You will get Sundays off, so use that time to relax as the rest of the week will be hard work. The first couple of months will be spent in all departments and after you get through that successfully, then you can specialise in a particular department. That is all the information that I need to give you. Are there any questions before I take you on a quick tour of the Hospital?" No one raised their hands so Healer Stewart stood up and indicated for them to follow her. They walked off to the elevators to go to all the different floors.
---
"Hey, there's Hermione and Draco," Ron said to Harry as they walked over to them in the Atrium of the Ministry.
"Hey guys, how did everything go?" Harry asked them.
"Pretty good," Hermione said happily. "The both of us start work in Magical Law Enforcement in a week's time."
"That's good, our training doesn't start till August 10th," Harry explained.
"That's great, you get plenty of time to enjoy summer," Draco said bitterly. "What do you guys wanna now?"
"Hmm let me think," Ron said with a thoughtful expression.
H: Hey where are you guys?
R: We're in the Pizza Hut that we went to during work experience.
H: Oh yeah I remember where it is. Ok we're on our way.
R: Cool, T said to make sure Jack and Blaise know, they're at the Ministry as well.
H: Ok will do.
"We're going to Pizza Hut," Harry explained. "Rach and Tina are already there." Jack and Blaise walked up to them. "Hey guys, we're going to Pizza Hut, what do you say?" Harry asked and both boys responded by nodding their heads.
"Did you guys get everything sorted out?" Hermione asked as they walked over to the apparation spot.
"Yeah, we start work in about a week," Jack explained. "We're working in the Department for International Magical Co-operation."
They disapparated to Muggle London to meet the girls.
---
"Oh come in dears," Mrs Weasley said ushering Harry, Rachel, Tina, Hermione, Ron, Draco, Blaise and Jack in. "Everybody else is already here, they're all in the backyard." They said their hellos to Mrs Weasley and walked out to the backyard where quite a few tables had been put together to make one long table. Mr Weasley was already sat at the table conversing with Sirius, Remus and Percy. Severus was talking to Lucius, while Narcissa was talking to Andromeda and Tonks and had Teddy in her lap. Narcissa smiled at Teddy and he changed his hair colour, so that it now matched hers. Fred and George were on the grass entertaining Maddie and Ginny along with Ted. Bill and Charlie were talking about Romania as Fleur talked to her sister Gabrielle about school. They walked over to join everyone with Ron in the lead.
"I'll introduce you to everyone you don't know," Ron said as he walked over to where Bill was sat. "Hey guys, this is Rachel and Tina. Tina's boyfriend Jack and our friends Blaise and Draco and of course you already know Harry and Hermione." He pointed at everyone as he said this and then turned to introduce his brothers. "This is my eldest brother Bill and his wife Fleur. My brother Charlie, who works in Romania and that's Gabrielle, Fleur's little sister. That's Percy over there with his girlfriend Audrey." They all greeted each other warmly and Tina pointed out to Rachel and Hermione that Gabrielle was eyeing up Blaise. Mrs Weasley and Sandra bought the food out and asked everyone to take a seat so that they could eat.
"So what are all of you doing now that school iz over?" Gabrielle asked in a French accent.
"Well me and Rach are training to be healers," Tina began. "Harry and Ron are training to be Aurors."
"Me and Draco start work in Magical Law Enforcement soon," Hermione added. "And Jack and Blaise here are going to start work in the Department of International Magical Co-operation."
"What about you?" Rachel asked. "You're still in school right?"
"Oui, I just finished my sixth year," Gabrielle explained. "One more year left."
"You go to Beaubatons, right?" Blaise asked and Gabrielle nodded. "You were at Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament, Fleur's underwater hostage. Am I right?"
"Oui," Gabrielle said.
After dinner was over, the tables and chairs were vanished to be replaced by comfy lawn chairs instead. Everyone sat around talking to each other enjoying the summer. Rachel walked inside to go to the bathroom. Once she was done she headed back downstairs and made her way back to the backyard but was stopped by Draco. She placed her arms around his neck and smiled at him.
"When are you gonna tell Sirius?" Draco asked her and pulled her closer to him.
"I don't know yet," Rachel replied.
"You do wanna tell him, don't you?"
"What of course I do, I'm just thinking when it's best," Rachel replied. "A time when he can't overreact. But I will tell him, don't worry." Draco smiled at her and pulled her face towards him and kissed her.
"You're dating Malfoy?" They turned their heads to see Sirius standing there with Remus and Tonks. Rachel nodded in reply.
"That's wonderful," Tonks said to them both happily. Remus said nothing and just smiled at them.
"Remus, did you know about this?" Sirius asked him.
"Well, yes I did," Remus began. "They made sort of obvious at the dance."
"Sirius, can I talk to you?" Rachel said and Sirius nodded. The other three walked outside to join the rest. "Ok look, I wasn't sure how you were gonna react so I was trying to find the perfect time to tell you. So yeah I'm dating Draco and I really like him, so could you be nice please?"
"Define 'really like'?"
"I love him Sirius and he loves me," Rachel answered, Sirius looked a little shocked.
"Oh well then I guess I could try to be nice," Sirius said to her quietly. Rachel hugged him tightly.
"Oh thank you Sirius, you're the best," Rachel said happily and Sirius hugged her back. They walked back out to join the rest. Everyone looked up as they arrived waiting for the verdict, Rachel gave them all a huge smile and they understood. Sirius walked over to Draco and talked to him. Draco then walked over to Rachel smiling.
"He threaten you like Harry?" Rachel asked walking over to the chair she had previously occupied.
"Yep, and now everybody knows," Draco said smiling happily and sat down next to her. Rachel entwined her fingers with his.
H: Everything is ok now
R: Everything is perfect
Rachel looked over at her brother who smiled at her and she smiled back.
The End