Chapter 26. – a short rest.

a/n: so there is some plotting in this chapter and a minor character death (not one to cry over), but other than that kinda fluffy. Just setting some stuff up.

Charlie awoke late in the night to the sound of someone slamming cabinet doors. He looked over and saw Gwen was awake and sitting up in bed. He ran his rough calloused hand down her arm in a reassuring way as he stood to find his wand and shorts. The wards hadn't been breached, so this was not a true intruder…unless someone found some way through them without triggering them, but more likely this was one of Gwen's girls or someone who had access to the flat. He found a pair of jeans and padded out still shirtless while Gwen was still trying to find her knickers. Charlie walked into the kitchen and was surprised at what he saw. There sitting at the table with one of his firewhiskey bottles was his big brother Bill. There was no glass, bill was drinking the stuff right out of the bottle, which was already half drained.

"Bill, what in the bloody hell…"Charlie said

"Drink, Charlie, you're gonna need it." Bill said, handing over the bottle.

"What, did someone die?" Charlie quipped.

"Yeah…but they got better." Answered Bill dryly.

"Bill, is that you, what's going on?" came Gwen's voice as she made her way down the hall. She was wearing one of Charlies t-shirts, this one a Dragonscale beer t-shirt with a scantily clad witch straddling a dragon's back with the slogan 'Ride the Dragon.' She had neglected pants as the shirt came down mid-thigh. Charlie just hoped the girl had knickers on, sometimes she decided to go without.

Bill waved his wand and three glasses appeared and he poured the remaining whiskey into each one. "Drink, you're gonna need it.

The two lovers glanced at each other and downed the whiskey before staring at Bill, willing him to continue.

"Voldemort's back." Bill said flatly.

Gwen gasped, and Charlie reached over and shook Bill by his shirt. "This isn't fucking funny Bill. What do you mean he's back? He's fucking dead."

"Charlie, Gwen, the fucker came back. He used dark magic to keep part of him alive…and Harry, the Triwizard cup was a port key. He used Harry's blood to come back…."

"Bill," Charlie gasped. "Harry, did he…"

"they were dueling when we got there. Harry and Cedric reached the cup at the same time. They both grabbed it. Harry made Cedric go back and warn everyone. Our Gin Gin gave Harry a compass that told location on it as well as direction, so we knew where he was. I went with Dumbledore, Sirius Black, Hestia Jones, Remus Lupin and Tonks."

"TIA! OH SWEET MERLIN IS SHE…"

"She's fine, Gwen. By the time we got there, Harry and you know who….they were dueling. Their wands share a core, and you know, priori incantatem, regurgitated the spells. We captured some death eaters and Voldemort retreated. But Charlie. Ginny had snuck along. Voldemort tried to kill her, fired a killing curse at her."

Charlie took a deep breath. "What happened, did he miss?"

"Harry jumped in front of it…"

"NO!" Charlie shouted. "Oh God no, poor Ginny she's crazy about him. Fuck Bill."

"He's not dead Charlie."

"What?" Gwen asked, confused. Bill explained the theory about Harry's blood and the horcrux.

"I had to tell you Charlie…. the kids will be home tomorrow afternoon."

The two brothers and Gwen sat in silence for a few minutes, pondering the near death of Ginny and the death and resurrection of Harry James Potter.

"Damnit Bill, you know what this means?" said Charlie, with a hint of a grin on his face.

"What Charlie?"

"When those too start shagging she'll be able to hold the fact that he ate the killing curse for her. It will be hard to kill him if he already died for her, won't it?"

Bill snorted. "Charlie, please don't put that image in my head, I don't need to think about my thirteen-year-old sister getting in on."

"Why not?" Gwen pipped in. "She's almost fourteen, her tits are almost as big as mine, and I assume the pitch has grass."

"Merlin Gwen," Charlie said, spitting out his drink he had just refilled from a second bottle.

"Men," Gwen said, rolling her eyes. "They're fine with popping their girlfriend's cherry when they are fourteen or so, but if that girl is your sister, well damn that's different. Relax though, Ginny's probably going to be the one to seduce him. And while I doubt he hasn't caught the snitch, I'm sure if he hasn't already handled her bludgers he will soon. Speaking of snitches and bludgers though, I'm going back to bed. I had a rough game last night and your brother gave me a good post game workout. Night boys." And with that Gwen sauntered back to the bedroom, swaying her hips.

"Bill, that woman's going to be the death of me."

"Death by shagging? I'll put it on your grave 'Here lies Charlie Weasley, he died doing what he loved.' Course I'll have to tell mum that a dragon killed you, so she doesn't kill Gwen. Though that might make it difficult to explain the hard on.

"Shit, only if she doesn't break it off first. I'm telling you Bill, I've never been with anyone so enthusiastic. Anyone in your life?"

"nah, but Merlin Charlie, that French bird from the tournament, I was talking to her after we got back. She said she was going to be working for Gringotts and wanted me to help her with her English."

"You mean the Veela? Go big or go home Bill."

"Hey, you're the one shagging an international quidditch star. Is it worth leaving the reserve?"

"Bill, honestly yeah…I mean, I miss Romania, but being home is nice. And the Welsh reserve…while there are fewer species we do more research. But more than that…Bill I think I love her."

The two Weasley boys sat in silence for a bit, as Bill pondered Charlies confession.

"Well Charlie, if you ever decide to make it official, I'll be there to support you. I think mum would come around too. Scratch that, if you made it official she'd be thrilled. Of course, Ginny would be insufferable, having Gwen as a sister in law."

"Bill slow down, I said I think I love her, I'm not buying rings yet."

"Whatever you say. Well I need to get home. See you later Mr. Jones." And with a crack Bill disapparated, missing the bat bogey hex his brother sent his way by half a second.

Back at the school the teachers were having an end of term meeting. The topic at hand was a professor acting in an inappropriate manner in front of students.

"I mean really Sirius, not only were you there at a student party," said an irate Minerva McGonagall, "But am I to understand you gave your godson, your fourteen-year-old godson, firewhiskey an then proceeded to get fall down drunk and dry hump your girlfriend in front of the students?"

"Oh yes, Black acting like an ass, I'm shocked," said Snape silkily.

"First of all, please keep your voices down," replied a still hung-over Sirius. "Secondly the boy just took a killing curse, I think he can have a single drink. Thirdly about getting drunk and making out with Hestia…I can see how that would be a problem, but I've been talking with Albus, I'm resigning anyway."

Snape looked like Christmas had come early, McGonagall looked surprised and the rest of the female professors looked crestfallen. Just because he was taken didn't mean they didn't enjoy looking.

"That's too bad Sirius," squeaked Flitwick. "The students seemed to think you were one of the two best DADA teachers, along with Remus."

"Well, I didn't need the money and I was doing it as a favor for Albus…and we have a new teacher lined up. She was recently an auror but was sacked by Fudge and that cow Umbridge for dating someone with a furry little problem."

"no, you don't mean." Said Snape looking like someone had killed his pet kneezle.

"Indeed Severus," said Dumbledore, "Nymphadora Tonks will be taking over as DADA teacher."

"Oh excellent, another Hufflepuff!" Professor Sprout beamed.

Snape sat back sulking. "of all the insufferable, frivolous examples of…"

"Come now Severus, she's highly qualified and if I recall she got an O on her DADA and Potions N.E.W.T., despite her less than stellar performance in your class." Dumbledore said, looking sternly at his potions professor.

"What about the wolf?" asked Snape.

"Remus will be sleeping here of course," said Sirius, "but he's got a 9 to 5 in the real world, and he'll stay at the doghouse for his time of the month. Besides, Sevvie, we found some of Lily's old notes, we might have an improved wolfsbane ready to go anyway. Sluggy is going to brew it up for us."

"Lily? You have her notes on that?" asked Snape surprised.

"I'm sure you can meet with Slughorn to discuss the potion," said Dumbledore, "so other than Miss Tonks' new job, I should mention that a professor Grubbly-Plank will be standing by to fill in for Hagrid who has some personal business to attend to this summer. He should be back before term, but I like to be prepared. So on to head boy and girl selection and fifth year prefects. I was going to make Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff head boy and Colleen O'Donnald from Ravenclaw head girl. Both have outstanding grades and are well liked, and Cedric is a Triwizard champion as well. Any objections? Good now on to prefects. I'll ask Professors Sprout and Flitwick to submit new prefects to replace the heads by August 1st. Who were you all thinking for 5th year prefects. Severus?"

"Malfoy and Parkinson. Malfoy is recognized by all in his year as a leader and Parkinson has better scores than Greengrass, Bulstrode or Davis."

"Really Severus? Malfoy? That boy should not be trusted with anything close to authority." Snapped McGonagall."

"Regardless, it is Snape's choice and the boy has decent makes. Pomona?

"Easy choice, Macmillan and Abbot. Bones is close in marks, but Hannah has the edge and is on the house quidditch team already, so is in more of a leadership position."

"Very well," continued Dumbledore, "Filius?"

"Padma Patil and Anthony Goldstein. Padma is the only witch who rivals Miss Granger and Tony is a very bright boy."

"Right," said Dumbledore, who then turned with some hesitation to McGonagall, "Minerva?"

"Well Granger, that's obvious, and Potter."

"Of course you would choose Perfect Potter. He's mediocre at best." Snape said rolling his eyes.

"He outscores Malfoy in Transfiguration and Charms, especially these past two years that he's had proper guardians." Shot back McGonagall.

"I would hardly call a drunken lecher a proper guardian," snapped Snape.

"Fuck off Snivious," Sirius said as he rose to his feet. "James is dead. I wish to Merlin he wasn't, but he fucking is. He is just as much Lily's son as he is James' and you would see that if your head wasn't so far up your…" and at this point Sirius' mouth kept moving while no sound came out, as Minerva put her wand down.

"Language Black, though I agree with the sentiment. Honestly Severus, the only class Potter struggles with is yours, and may I note there is a discrepancy in your marks of non-Slytherin students and their O.W.L. scores. I will be curious to see how Potter scores next year with an objective test."

"Are you accursing me of something Minerva?" said Snape silkily.

"Enough, Severus it is her choice, not yours. But Minerva, don't you think the poor boy has enough on his plate as it is?"

That's horseshit, Albus," said Sirius, who had regained his voice. "Look as much as I think being a prefect isn't all that much to be proud of, Harry can do it. Who else would you put in that role?"

"I was thinking Weasley might flourish with some challenges…" speculated Dumbledore

"Weasley? Albus his work ethic is poor, I don't think giving him more responsibilities will help," exclaimed McGonagall.

"Ron's a good kid and he could do it," said Sirius defending the boy, "but Harry is the clear choice. That, and Ron needs his free time to be groomed for the captain's spot his sixth year. Minnie, I know you're thinking Johnston for this year and I agree, but Ron is a quidditch genius. The kid works part time for a professional team for Merlin's sake. The Canon's had, well not a winning record last year but they had more wins last season than they did for the last five."

"Back to the point," said Dumbledore, "I suppose if you are sure…"

"And I am," said McGonagall."

"Very well, Potter and Granger. Now on to start of term items."

Harry was thoroughly enjoying his first week of summer. After a bit of an embarrassing arrival at Kings Cross, receiving a bone crushing hug from Mrs. Weasley, Hestia Jones and to his embarrassment Tonks, Remus had rescued him from the mother and older sisters/aunt figures in his life. After saying goodbye to his friends, including a goodbye kiss to Ginny that Mrs. Weasley had sniffled during, no doubt planning the wedding, Harry had gone out to dinner with Remus, Tonks and Hestia. Over pizza he was told about Sirius resigning and Tonks taking his place. Apparently, Dumbledore had plans that would keep Sirius occupied during the school year and he had been less drunk than he appeared at the party, wanting a plausible reason for resigning. Dumbledore had reformed some kind of group to fight Voldemort, and Sirius was going to be assisting in this group in a big way.

He also learned that Fudge had tried to deny Voldemort's return and protested Malfoy's innocence, but the Aurors, including Madam Bones, had intervened and Voldemort's return was front page news on the daily prophet. Furthermore, Malfoy was being held in the ministry without bond with a trial to be held post haste, and Wormtail, having escaped custody once before, was sent to Azkaban to await trial. They returned to the doghouse and were watching the tele when Sirius came into the room and scooped Hestia into his arms and then slung her over his shoulder.

"And now, my dear fiancée, we are going to continue what we started in the common room."

"PUT ME DOWN" Hestia shrieked, though her protest was mixed with laughter. Sirius swatted her playfully on the bottom as they disappeared into his room. Remus quickly shot a silencing charm at the door.

"I don't think anyone needs to here that." He said. Harry whole heartedly agreed. He has seen enough of Hestia and Sirius before the Yule ball when he had entered his godfather's office and found them at it on the desk.

To say Lucius Malfoy was angry was an understatement. More accurately he was incensed. He raged at the injustice that he was in jail while mudbloods and halfbreeds roamed free, he raged that Potter had somehow escaped the Dark Lord, he was enraged that the fool Dumbledore had arrived and managed to capture him. They would all pay, as would Fudge. After all the bribes and grooming, that pathetic man had done nothing to save him. Well he would not go down alone, he would take Fudge with him. He had been pacing in his cell. All was not lost. He would be found guilty, but not before taking Fudge down. Then he would be in Azkaban for a few weeks before the Dark Lord raided the prison, and he would be out again. He would kill Dumbledore, oh yes, the old man would die. As would Black, and Lupin, and all of them save Potter who was reserved for the Dark Lord. He looked out, for some reason his guards were out of the cell block. He heard a door open and a short, plump woman dressed in a pink cardigan with a black bow on her toad like face strode in the room, followed by two dementors.

"Madam Umbridge, a pleasure as always," said Malfoy. This creature was Fudge's stood pigeon, what was she doing here? "Do you have a message from the soon to be ex minister for magic?"

"Lucius, Lucius, Lucius," she said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Is there anyway I can convince you to leave Cornelius out of this? After all, it wasn't he who sent the aurors. It was that…slut niece of yours. The one who is…involved with that monster."

"Not a chance, I paid good money for Fudge and he hasn't delivered. I hope you enjoyed your position…all of them including the one on your knees before your precious minister, because it is about to end."

"Is it now? Cornelius is concerned someone might try to break you out, so you are to be transferred to Azkaban…but dementors…they don't take kindly to prisoners caught trying to escape. Good by Lucius." And with that she unlocked the door and the dementors glided in. As she left the holding cells, she heard the last scream that would ever leave Lucius Malfoy's throat.

The next morning Harry was eating his breakfast alone, both Sirius and Remus had had a lie in, no doubt induced by their girlfriends, when the daily prophet owl swooped in. Harry paid the delivery owl a knut and looked at the front page and gasped.

LUCIUS MALFOY KISSED BY DEMONTORS WHILE TRYING TO ESCAPE by Arcturus Pyle.

London, England. At approximately 10:04 last night, dementors from Azkaban arrived at the ministry of magic to transport Lucius Malfoy to the prison fortress, as he had been deemed a high-risk prisoner. Apparently, Malfoy had attempted to run and administered the kiss. Amelia Bones, the head of the DMLE, was shocked and outraged by the attack, and demanded an inquiry. As was previously reported, Malfoy was planning on cooperating with prosecution to plea down to life imprisonment instead of the kiss and was prepared to implicate several members of the ministry for corruption and bribery. It was suspected that the embattled minister himself was a target of the investigation. Fudge, who was attending a banquet at the time of the attack, denies any ministry involvement in the kiss, claiming that dementors have a standing order to kiss any escapees from Azkaban in the wake of Barty Crouch Junior's escape, and that the dementors were doing their job.

Harry set down the paper. He had mixed feelings about what had happened. One the one hand, Lucius Malfoy was guilty as sin and deserving of punishment, but to have his soul sucked out? In addition, he was going to testify against the minister, and maybe they would find out who had attacked Mrs. Weasley two years ago as well. Harry was staring at the paper when Sirius walked in wearing pajama pants and a sleeveless t-shirt, seeming pleased with himself. His smile faded when he saw Harry's expression.

"What's wrong pup? Somebody die?" he asked casually.

"kind of…read this." Harry replied, handing over the paper.

Sirius started to read. After a minute he threw the paper down. "That cocksucker!"

"Language Sirius," Remus said, who had just left his room with Tonks trailing behind.

"Read this Moony, that bastard fudge had Lucy killed. I just know it. The best witness against Fudgepacker is a fucking zombie."

Remus frowned as he read the paper with Tonks reading over his shoulder.

"Honey, do I need to tell Molly how you talk around the kid?" Hestia said a minute later. Thankfully she had dressed fully, Harry still had a hard time looking at her without picturing her…involved with his godfather.

"Read this Tia," said Tonks.

After a few minutes Hestia gasped, "Fuck me sideways."

"later dear, later," Sirius said, winking towards Harry. "Anyway, I need to get dressed. So do you Harry, we need to pick up Ginny."

This immediately caught Harry's attention. "What's going on? Not that I'm complaining."

"We set the date." Hestia said smiling. August 26th. We figured that way we don't miss much of your summer break, and you'll be going to stay at the burrow then before the start of term. Tonks and Remus will be at the school setting up and we'll be in Greece. Today we are going to be getting you and Ginny measured for dress robes."

"But I have dress robes, so does Ginny…" Harry said confusedly.

"Well yeah, but not in the wedding colors, I mean, you have to match the rest of the wedding party."

"Huh?" Harry said, looking even more confused.

"Didn't Sirius ask you, he said he would before the end of term." She said with an edge on her voice.

"Ask me what?" replied Harry.

"Oh yeah pup, do you want to stand with me at the wedding? Remus is best man, you and Charlie will be groomsmen. I'm closer to Arthur honestly but he'd be walking Charlie's bird down the isle and that would just be weird, and Tia and Nymmy both are good friends with Charlie."

Tonks shot a stinging hex to her cousin who was now shaking his hand. Nodding her thanks to her best friend, Hestia turned to Harry. "I'm sorry, he was supposed to have asked you weeks ago…will you stand with us?"

"Of course, that's brilliant. I mean, you two mean a lot to me and well…if my dad were alive…"

Without another word Sirius gave Harry a tight hug. A minute later Remus joined in. No one commented on the tears in all three men's eyes.

Harry, Remus and Tonks had arrived in the Rolls-Royce Sirius had bought and magically expanded. It was agreed that Sirius would go with Hestia in his motorbike as they had more stops to make, so they went on ahead, and they would meet Charlie and Gwen at the Leaky. They were just a few feet from the door when Ginny came bounding up to Harry and threw her arms around his neck, giving him a firm kiss in the process.

"I missed you too Gin….do you know why I'm here?"

Ginny looked at him sideways, "of course, to be fitted…"

"So, you knew we were in the wedding?"

"Yeah, Hestia wrote me to ask, saying Sirius had already asked you…didn't mention it cause of the tournament."

"My idiot cousin never got around to asking Harry, but he agreed anyway." Pipped in Tonks. After being assaulted by Molly and fed a great many baked goods, the two teens and two adults left. They had invited Ron along, but the idea of going dress robe shopping without Hermione sounded about as much fun as extra lessons with Snape, so they made there way to London. The floo would have been easier but Remus said it wasn't every day he got to drive, and with the enchanted car they made there way to London in forty-five minutes. Harry quite enjoyed cuddling Ginny in the spacious back seat and tried to ignore Tonks' innuendos she would make towards to two teens in the back seat.

They spent over two hours getting measured at Madam Malkin's. Apparently, Sirius had originally wanted the wedding colors to be Gryffindor red and Gold, but Hestia pointed out that it was their colors, not his, and she had been a Ravenclaw. Furthermore, there was no one left in Sirius's family to piss off. In the end they had decided on gold and royal blue, as it was combination of Hogwarts house colors, hinted at Sirius' family's French ancestry and it went well with Hestia's blue eyes and dark hair.

Meanwhile at the ministry Fudge was furious. He had called Dumbledore into his office to show him his latest legislation, educational decree twenty-two giving him the power to appoint any teacher to a vacant slot should the headmaster fail to find an appropriate person. He had explained that as his last teacher had to resign for inappropriate behavior, he would be appointing Delores Umbridge in the position, only to be told that the position had been filed by one Nymphadora Tonks.

"But you can't do that…she's not qualified!" Fudge barked.

"oh, you must be misinformed Cornelius. She scored an outstanding on both her O.W.L and N.E.W.T. exams, as well as serving for a time as an auror.

"But she was sacked!" protested Fudge.

"No, she was made redundant," pointed out Dumbledore. "and had good reviews from both the head of the DMLE and the Auror department, so she left in good standing.

"But she's involved with a werewolf!" sputtered Fudge.

"Cornelius," said Dumbledore coldly. The twinkle was gone from his eyes and they looked at the portly minister sharply. "Who Miss Tonks chooses to date is none of your, or my, business. There is no law that prevents Miss Tonks from serving in this capacity and due to her exams and her time as an auror, she is the most qualified candidate we've had in decades. Good day." And with that Dumbledore strode out of the room.

This was a disaster. Not only was Umbridge not the DADA teacher, but someone loyal to Dumbledore was. It was only a matter of time before Dumbledore turned his students on the ministry. This wasn't about staying in power, this was about preventing a revolution. Delores was right, the aurors were against him. You-Know-Who returned, what nonsense. This was all part of a play for the throne, either by Dumbledore or Bones. He would have to move quickly. He wrote a note to Delores to come see him. They would develop a plan as soon as she helped him relieve some stress. He started to get hard just thinking of Delores' talents. She didn't have a great body but Merlin she had a mouth.

A/N: gross I know but I can't see why he would keep her around if she wasn't doing something for him, and I hate them both so fuck 'em. I really enjoyed writing Bill and Charlie's dialogue.