Chapter 29 – Who Pranks the Pranksters?

The four Weasleys were greeted in the Potter's Main Reception Hall by an odd combination – Draco and Remus Lupin. While Arthur and Molly greeted Remus by name, they were all surprised by the presence of the Slytherin.

"My mother and Sirius sent me to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and inform you that the meeting their having is being held in the dining room. Hello Fred. Hello George."

Fred and George looked at Draco very suspiciously. Draco rolled his eyes a little bit. "Oh come on guys, I'm not that idiot anymore. My last name is Black now and I certainly wouldn't try anything sneaky and dishonest in Harry's house. He'd banish me someplace I wouldn't be able to get back from."

Fred nodded. "We suggested that once…"

"… it was a tossup between you and our brother Ron when he was being a git toward Harry and Ginny."

"Well, I'm glad you two weren't successful in that. Can we call a truce? Look, I've even made it easier for you when we get back to school."

Draco turned around and pulled up his shirt. His undershirt had a couple of red circles painted on it like a target. Fred and George laughed as Draco pulled his shirt back down

"I'm not going to worry about being pranked as long as you get everybody else. And maybe you could include Harry too?"

Mrs. Weasley tisked loudly but Mr. Weasley had smile on his face. Fred and George were nodding at the new attitude of the traditional Slytherin git. Draco held out his hand and George and Fred nudged each other forward to take it. Fred was the one to take it and then he yowled and took his hand back shaking it. He and his brother glared at Draco and Mr. Weasley reached for his wand to prevent a violent hexing in retaliation.

Draco held up his hands in surrender and then pointed to something on one of his palms. "I'm afraid your sister and Sirius have been a really bad influence on me while I've been visiting here. It's called a joy buzzer and it's a wind up muggle device. Here, you can have it. Sirius bet me a half dozen sickles I wouldn't dare try it on you. I can go collect on that bet now."

It was hard for the twins' parents or Remus to contain their laughter. It wasn't often that anyone got a prank in on that pair that had witnesses. Eventually they both saw the humor in the prank but warned Draco that he was now owed a prank as well as Sirius. Draco took a half bow and then started talking to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley as the three headed out of the hall.

Remus came over and clapped one of the twins on the shoulder. "Have you ever thought about creating a pranking squad at school? Young Mr. Black would be a prime candidate for it. Nobody would suspect he has a hidden sense of humor."

Fred was still looking at his hand. "Well, that's certainly true. It is a thought though; having witnesses seeing us respectable blokes doing nothing remotely prank-like while other 'accidents' happen."

George put the joy buzzer that he had taken from Draco in his pocket and looked around. "So where's our sister and her better halves? Or is it better thirds?"

"In the library doing research" Remus replied.

"Hermione" the twins replied sadly. "She's the one that's the bad influence. Harry and Ginny could be off having fun and instead our sister-in-law has them with their noses buried in books trying to ed-u-cate themselves to death."

"I don't think it's quite that bad" Remus said as he led them through the corridors to the library. "Harry likes looking up new and old spells and your sister was looking up speech training for our latest version of Gracie."

"The Potter library has books like that?"

"The only family library I know of that's bigger than the Potter's is the Black's. And that you really wouldn't want to get too deep into; lots of books on the Dark Arts. Sirius says he's going through and sorting those out one of these days but he hasn't yet."

"Well, if Sirius would like some help some weekend with that, we'd be available" said Fred.

"Just to satisfy our magical curiosity, of course."

"Of course." Remus chuckled but opened the door to the library. "Lady G, your family's arrived but only the troublemakers came along this afternoon."

Ginny yelled back. "That's okay, Professor Lupin, we've got some things to talk over with them anyway."

"We're outside the classroom, young lady."

"Force of habit. Sorry Remus."

Remus walked in and picked up the book he had been reading and settled back in a chair. The twins however were stuck with one foot in the doorway and trying to make sense of the scene before them

Their sister was here of course and so was Hermione, but there was no Harry. In fact the two girls were curled up on the arms of a chair and talking up – Lord Gryffindor?

Robb Loxley looked up he heard the gasps from the doorway. "You must be Ginny's brothers – the ones that have a lot of fun at school. So which one of you is George and which one is Fred?"

"He…he is" the twins pointed to each other in their standard answer. They looked at each other and then looked back to the library. George scratched his head but Fred rubbed his eyes trying to remove the view he couldn't believe he was seeing.

"Come on in guys." Hermione pointed to a couple of chairs next to them as she played with the hair on Lord Gryffindor's head.

George and Fred made their way to the chair as Ginny squirmed a little on the arm of the chair and did everything but move to the big man's lap.

"Gi….Ginny where's Harry?" asked Fred.

"Oh, he's around somewhere I guess. Robb, did you hear where Harry say he was going?"

Robb Loxley looked up from the book he was leafing through. "I thought he said something about checking the pantry to see if he could whip us up some Nachos for later."

Robb was going to rise and shake hands with the twins but Hermione put a hand on his chest to hold him down. "Don't bother getting up Robb. They are not ones to stand on formality."

George and Fred were standing there with their jaws heading closer to the floor with each passing second. George suddenly straightened up and poked his brother. "I've got it now. It's Tonks again and they are all having a bit of sport with us. OK, Nymphadora, you can change back. The jokes over."

Remus spoke up from behind his book. "Sorry guys, Dora had duty today at the Ministry. I'm supposed to go meet her about six so we can out to Diagon Alley for supper."

The perplexed look came back to the twin's faces. Hermione stood up. "I'll go fetch Harry; he wanted to talk to you two about making sure you had enough potions ingredients for your inventions."

Hermione disappeared from the room with a small pop. She came back about 10 seconds later and her eyes were wide open in shock.

"What's wrong Hermione?"

"Oh my goodness. Ginny, we've messed up and badly. We asked Robb's wife to 'inform' our husband about certain things."

"Yes?" Ginny said.

"She must have said something that upset Harry. Harry… he's got Turah over his lap in the kitchen and he's… spanking her! Sorry Robb."

Robb Loxley erupted out of the chair, almost pushing Ginny to the ground. "That… poor excuse for a man. How DARE he lay hands on MY wife? Kitchen, you said? I'll wring his scrawny little neck!"

Lord Gryffindor disappeared with a small roll of thunder and Ginny and Hermione rushed to hug each other.

"He'll kill him! Harry's no match for Robb. I'm going too." With that Ginny disappeared from the study.

Remus dropped his book and stood up. "Hermione, you better go fetch Sirius. He might be able to stop everyone before someone gets hurt."

Hermione disappeared but, no sooner than she had vanished, Harry appeared suddenly in the chair. "He missed me. Don't tell him where I am."

Before the twins or Remus could react, another occupant appeared on Harry's lap in the chair. The twins mouths dropped again as a woman with grey hair piled up impossibly high struggled to get off Harry's lap. "Harry you have to explain to him. It was a practice, we were just kidding around!"

"Can't take the time. I don't know where he got that axe from. You explain it to him; he's your husband." Harry disappeared and then Robb Loxley appeared in the room and rushed over to George and Fred. It was an awfully big ax he was holding casually in one hand.

"You're hiding him or know where he is. Tell me where Harry blasted Potter is!"

The twins stammered and pointed in different directions. Lord Gryffindor turned and saw his wife. "You've got some explaining to do too Turah. What did you say to him?"

"Robb… Robb, I was just helping Ginny and Hermione." That didn't seem to placate the angry young man. With a small shriek, the woman with the tall grey hair and too tight bodice disappeared.

Robb turned toward the twins. "Choose your mates wisely or you will end up like this." He snarled and vanished. George was going to run and find Sirius but Remus held him back.

"Don't go rushing around. With at least four or five people transporting themselves around the house you might be dropped on or, at worse, have somebody appear exactly where you are. That's awfully messy. I've seen it once."

"That well-endowed female?" Fred asked. "He said Turah. As in Loxley?"

"Yes – Turah Alurra Loxley. All Irish and all spitfire. I hope your sister or Hermione don't go chasing after her and blame her for this mess Harry's in."

"It looks like Harry was to blame…"

Just then Hermione popped in and asked if anybody had seen Harry or Robb. The twins were too stunned to answer but Remus said they had all been here and gone again. Just then Turah re-appeared in front of Hermione and before she could say anything the two girls started arguing and then pushing at each other.

Harry came running in the door, slammed it behind him and separated Hermione and Turah. He was breathing hard but before he could say anything else there came a roar from the hallway outside. "Potter! I'm going to get you Potter!"

Diving behind a chair for cover Harry, Harry waved his hands frantically and told everyone to say he had gone.

Footsteps got closer and closer from the hallway. George and Fred went over and put themselves in front of Ginny. "We'll protect you Gin."

All eyes were on the door. Everyone held their breath as the doorknob rattled and turned. The door opened slowly and everyone noticeably sagged in relief as Mrs. Weasley appeared. "What is going on around here? People popping in and out – all willy-nilly. And running around? We can hardly concentrate with all the racket going on."

George and Fred looked at each carefully and felt a small push in their backs from Ginny. Fred struggled to find words. "I think Harry did something inappropriate with one of his other guests, Mum."

"We're not exactly sure" George said.

"So you're saying that Harry's totally to blame for this mess." The familiar voice behind them caused both twins to turn around slowly. Ginny had disappeared again but staring at them with her familiar glare was – their MUM?

Fred and George's necks should have developed a serious crick from the back and forth revolving they did as they looked at their two mothers.

"Mrs. Weasley?"

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley?"

The two females stepped closer to each other. Both tilted their heads sideways a bit staring at each other. One finally nodded.

"That fixes it. I definitely need to lose a little weight."

"No, you're perfect Mrs. Weasley."

"Thank you Mrs. Weasley."

"You're welcome Mrs. Weasley."

One Mrs. Weasley walked out of the door whistling a little tune. But she came back a few seconds later. "They're going to need a bit of firewhiskey for this Molly."

"I thought so Molly but thanks for the permission anyway."

"I'll go fix it for them" Remus said. He stepped up to a sideboard and poured out a couple of shots in two small glasses. He brought them back to where the twins were sitting stupefied on a couple of chairs.

"What's happening around here?" Fred finally said.

"That depends on who you ask" Molly Weasley said sweetly.

"If you asked me" Turah Loxley said as she smiled at the twins. "We're getting back at a life time of pranks."

Another voice chimed in. Hermione. The twins looked over at her. "From my perspective, we're letting you know something important that only Dumbledore and a few other people know."

"If you ask me" Robb Loxley appeared suddenly, making the twins jump. "I'm recruiting people for an important mission."

"If you're asking me." A different voice came from another couch across the way. A very tall thin witch with black hair and tall platform shoes in stood up. "We're guaranteeing we won't ever be a target again."

"Who're you" George finally got out.

"Bethesda Merrilynne Mitty. Lady Slytherin. I'm very close with your sister boys."

The twins' eyes couldn't get any wider. Lord Gryffindor walked around the two chairs the twins were in and held out his hand for his wife. Turah nodded gracefully and reached up to kiss her husband on the cheek. Robb Loxley held out his other hand and Lady Slytherin came over to take it.

"Is Lord Slytherin going to showing up too?" asked Remus from the side. He was holding up a small glass of firewhiskey himself and smiling.

"He's unavoidably detained I think" said the middle person of the trio. He laughed then and both George and Fred started. They knew that laugh!

"I think they've finally got it hubby."

"Okay, masquerade time is over." The three took one step closer to the twins and bowed. Lady Slytherin, Lord and Lady Gryffindor all bowed deeply together but it was Hermione, Harry and Ginny that stood back up.

"Now's the time for the firewhiskey guys" prompted Ginny.

The twins nodded and downed their drinks. They coughed a bit and then stared at their sister and in-laws. "All this time, you've…"

The Potters nodded

"… and we've thought.."

The three Potters chuckled.

"And the Ministry doesn't suspect a thing?" Harry and the others shook their heads 'No'. "Except for Madame Bones."

"You can't be serious!" both twins said together.

"No, that would be me." The twins looked to see Sirius Black come in with both their parents following close behind him.

"Mum? Dad? You two knew about this?" The twins seemed offended that their parents had put something over on them.

"In bits and pieces" Mr. Weasley said smiling. "They wanted to break it to you in their own time and style."

"Well that certainly had a bit of dramatic flair about it." George looked at his brother and started chuckling. "They got us."

"And they got us good" Fred finished. He shook his head but then started chuckling himself.

"You should have… seen the look on your faces… when Robb Loxley came up on you." Harry was laughing so hard that he had trouble getting the whole sentence out. Both Ginny and Hermione were holding onto each other to keep from rolling off the sofa with their crack-up.

Pretty soon both Fred and George were having trouble breathing as they hurt from laughing so hard. Ginny finally got off the couch and went over to give a hug to her brothers. "That was so good."

Hermione took off and went and hugged her mother-in-law. "Thanks for playing along Molly. I think it drove them both round the bend for a second or two."

"It was a little weird seeing myself but when Ginny winked at me I understood the enormity of the prank. I was actually coming down to tell Harry what the decision was."

"Decision?" asked George.

"About what's going to happen to Gracie while we try to find her family" Mr. Weasley said.

Fred held up a hand. "Before we go over that topic, would you three mind telling me how you did all that changing around? Otherwise I'll be awake all night wondering about it."

"Yes, me too. Was that the bond magic or not?"

Harry looked over at Sirius who shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, we'll tell but you can't tell Percy or Ron about the three of us yet."

Both brothers nodded at that and said that keeping those two in the dark was one of the things that they did best. Harry smiled and went back to chair he had originally sat in before the great chase started. Ginny sat on his knee and Hermione went back and settled on the arm like she was previously.

Ginny started the explanation. "You can blame part of what we just did on the bond magic but most of it is just our humble little husband."

"You guy remember when I found that spell that could turned me into Jamie Evans so I could go out and about in public without fans or Death Eaters seeing me? Well over time it got easier and easier to use that spell and eventually all I had to do is think about it and I could change without using my wand or saying the spell."

"Wandless magic - that's a neat trick Harry. Care to teach us?"

Harry cringed a little. "We'll try to get the DA to pick-up on that knack this year. If Dumbledore or Professor Remus would allow it or help teach us."

"Not everyone can do that Harry" said Remus. "But we'll see."

"Anyway, back to the tale" Hermione said. "The reason that Harry had an easier time going those transformations was because he's a metamorphmagus. On top of all those other nice traits he has."

"Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Hermione knew almost from the first and had me try more and more difficult transformations. They eventually got around to telling me and had Tonks train me up a little."

"Well that explains Harry" George said. "How about the lovely Mrs. Potters?"

"That you can blame on the bond magic" Ginny said. "When we all merged together, Harry transferred a little of that ability to us. We can't change into anybody else but we have some limited control of our bodies. That and some glamour spells make us able to transform into the two other ladies you saw today."

"Wow" said Fred.

"Wow indeed" came from Sirius. "But there's one more disguise they've been carrying around since Harry rescued Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets."

"Correction – we all rescued each other in the Chamber." Harry looked to Arthur and Molly as if asking permission. They both nodded and Harry huffed a bit as he got out of the chair. Ginny and Hermione stood by their husband again and looked directly at Fred and George.

"The bond magic enhanced a lot of our characteristics – mental, emotional, and magical of course. We've tried to stay physically close to our classmates but that's our choice. This is what we really look like guys."

The air shimmered a bit and Fred and George slumped back in their chair. Instead of the early teens that the married Potters appeared to be a moment before, the three now appeared very different. All were taller, a lot more developed and looked to be much closer to graduating Hogwarts than three third year students.

"Merlin's beard, what's left Harry?" George said.

"That's all of it. We can't tell you everything about the bond magic because even Dumbledore or we don't know the full extent of it yet."

"Mum did you know about this? Ginny looks…"

"Ginny is a happily married lady now and her appearance is not something you two should worry about" Molly said.

Arthur smiled at the twins. "I'm happy to know that Ginny turned into such a marvelous looking lady. I'm proud of her."

"But she's got…"

Ginny sprang off her husband's knee and came over to stare at her brothers. "Yes, I have boobs. I would have got them anyway you dolts."

"Sorry Gin, it's just hard to see you as our younger sister with … all that."

"Harry and Hermione like 'all that', thank you very much" Ginny growled. "You will NOT make jokes about or to Harry or Hermione about our real appearance or what we do together."

Both Fred and George tried to recover from their red faces and shock. "Sorry Gin, no offence intended at all. Can we have another firewhiskey Harry?"

Harry looked to his mother- and father-in-law and got a "No" in return. "Sorry George, I can't go against what your mum and dad say. There's plenty of butterbeers down in the dining room though. You might as well come along and hear what else is going on."

The twins stood a little shakily as Harry and his wives reverted back to their school ages. "Why change back?"

"Narcissa and Draco don't know about all this yet. So keep it quiet, okay?"

The adult all had left the library before the three Potters and the two Weasleys. The group of teenagers had just got to the first turn in the corridor leading to the dining room when Fred spoke up.

"Can we at least be around when you shake 'all that' in Ron's face Ginny?"

The five leaned against the walls laughing for a long time at the question.

Xxxx xxx

Rog was outside fixing a loose board on the front steps when a small paneled black van came pulling up the driveway. He read the faded white lettering on the side of the van as he straightened up. "Loral N. Hardee, Esq. Chimney Sweep, Floo Repair, Anvil Salesman".

"Moraina" he called. "There's another lost driver out here again. Probably missed the connector over to the main road to Oban."

The front door to the house opened up and an older lady with grey hair came out came out drying her hands on her apron. "What did you say Rog? I was all the way in the kitchen cutting up potatoes for the stew tonight."

Rog just pointed out the van in the driveway to his wife. She looked on as a small man with semi-clean overalls climbed out of the driver's seat and walked over to the front steps.

"Can I help you with something? Mr. Hardee?"

The man consulted his clipboard before responding. "Yes. Are you two Roger and Moraina Bletchley?"

"That depends on whether you have a bill, summons or warrant" Rog said a little good naturedly.

"Nothing like that. I 'ave a delivery fer ya."

"You don't look like our normal postman."

"Doin' a favor fer a friend. He had something that was passed along t'him to deliver but I was coming more in this direction than he was."

"Well, in that case, I'm Rog and this is my wife Moraina."

Mr. Hardee tipped his hat to Moraina. "Nice to meet ya folks. Ones of ya' needs to sign 'ere for the delivery." The driver held out the clipboard and a pen for Roger and watched as he signed the delivery sheet.

"Stay right there and I'll be right back." The driver went to the back of the van and opened the doors. He rummaged inside for a bit and then came back around the side of the van. Roger and Moraina both gasped and Moraine jumped down across the broken step to rush up to Mr. Hardee.

"It's a puppy. Who'd send us a puppy?"

"I don't know about that ma'am. There's no return address on the paperwork but I do have a note I'm supposed to give ya." Mr. Hardee handed the leash over to Moraina Bletchley and rummaged through his many pockets. He eventually came up with an envelope that he handed to Roger.

Rog watched as his wife got down on her knees to play with the puppy. It appeared to be a Border collie and had a nice collar and leash that came with it. "It's a little girl Rog" his wife said in glee.

Rog opened up the note and read it aloud.

Rog and Moraina,

This is my little way of repaying your kindness to a pair of storm-tossed travelers. Thanks for everything and never worry about finding who thought of you this kindly. You deserve a little set of paws around the house and I hope your days and nights are a little better for the company.

Seriously in your debt. A friend

Roger looked down as the puppy jumped up on his legs. "Since we can't return him, I guess he stays."

"She Rog; it's a girl."

"Right."

Roger shook Mr. Hardee's hand and thanked him for delivering the puppy. The man got back in his van and honked his horn and waved as he backed up the driveway to the road. Rog continued waving until the black van disappeared down the road and then turned to his wife.

"Do you know what the note means? Or who it's from?"

"Not a clue Rog, but she's a fine little doggie. How about we name her 'Wondra' in honor of our unknown friend?"

"I'd prefer 'Buddy' but that name sounds good to me Moraina. Here Wondra. Oh good girl!"

Xxxx xxxx

The twins were still chuckling when they got to the dining room. They stopped however as Harry and his wives continued on. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were just sitting down at the dining table and Sirius had been greeted by a young girl that they didn't know. It was the other witches and wizard at the table that gave them pause though.

Madame Bones, the head of the DMLE, was chatting with Professor McGonagall and what had to be Draco's mother, Narcissa, on the side of the table closest to them. Professor ("I am so not going to call him Remus")Lupin was chatting to Neville who had his grandmother, complete with the vulture centered hat, sitting by his side.

Everyone paused in their conversations to say hello to the twins, except for Madame Bones. She glared at them for a second waiting for a reaction and then turned back to the others with a smile. The twins, having just been through a severe shock and prank, didn't notice much. They were looking at Sirius' pretty companion who was looking at them confused.

"There's two of dem" she said.

"TH-em. Them" Sirius corrected gently. "There's two of them."

"There's two of them. Why?"

Ginny came up chuckling at that and laid her hand on the girl's arm. "We've wondered about that for years Gracie. These are my brothers Fred and George. Guys, this is Maggie Grace Churchbright - Gracie."

George went first and offered his hand. "Nice to meet you, Gracie. I like you better this way. You don't drool a lot now, do you?"

Gracie shook her head shyly and smiled at him. "Not so far but thank you."

Fred gently elbowed his brother out of the way. "Don't listen to him Gracie. I'm Fred and I'm the nicer one. If you need any help with anything at all, just tell Ginny and she'll come fetch me."

Gracie glanced at Ginny with a confused face. She shook her head a little. "It's okay Gracie. They won't be much of a bother to you; they are going back to school in a couple of days with the rest of us."

"That's bad."

"I know. We won't be here much. I wish we could be but you'll have Sirius and my mum and lots of other people come and visit you."

Sirius smiled. "I have a surprise for you later Gracie. I hope it will make things a little better not to have Hermione and Ginny a few doors away. Let's go sit back down and tell Harry and the others what's been decided."

Sirius held out his hand and Gracie took hold of it and tugged him back toward the dining room table. Ginny led her brothers over to the hutch which held a chilled bucket of butterbeer bottles. They each grabbed one and Ginny grabbed one for herself and her mates. When everyone had settled back down, Sirius stood up. "Harry had some 'entertaining' to do with his in-laws this afternoon so he begged off the discussion about Gracie. Not that he didn't want to be involved but he thought he would keep a low profile about anything that had anything remotely to do with Death Eaters."

"The bad guys" Gracie said as she frowned.

Fred held up his hand. "I thought the Headmaster would be here since Gracie's obviously school age."

Professor McGonagall responded to that. "Dumbledore is investigating an urgent matter that concerns one of the other professor's at Hogwarts."

'The Case of the Broken Unbreakable Dark Mark' Ginny broadcast to her spouses.

Harry rolled his eyes at that but spoke up. "So what's been decided?"

Sirius felt a tug on his arm. "Can I tell them? Please?"

Sirius chuckled and sat down. "Evidently discovering somebody that hasn't talked for a while means that they want to catch up with all they've missed. The fact that it's a teenage girl makes it twice as bad, I think."

Three water balloons erupted over Sirius' head and he sputtered for a second or two. "My apologies. I forgot my audience here. No insult intended. By the way, daughters-in-law, you best not be teaching Gracie how to get back at me once she gets her wand."

Gracie lept up and hugged Sirius. "I'm really getting a wand? Like everybody else?"

"Not until Molly, Amelia and Remus all sit down and talk to you about magic and controlling it."

"Darn."

"Gracie" Harry said, "it's really important to know to learn about magic and how to control it. You don't want to turn back into Spotty again without understanding it."

"Spotty, Harry?"

"Well I had to come up with something for your Landseer form. The human is Gracie, not the dog."

"Okay, Spotty is fine."

"So what have all these smart people decided about you? And do you think it's okay?"

"Yes Hermione. I got to talk and answer questions that almost everyone had. The important thing is that I'm going to stay here with Sirius until things get figured out. That's what I wanted."

"So what else?" Harry asked.

"Amelia is going to put an announce in the papers…"

"Announce-ment Gracie. Announcement."

"Thank you Ginny. An announcement in the papers asking for anyone that knew me to contact the Ministry."

"An ongoing investigation of past Death Eater activities" Amelia interjected. "Nobody is to know that Maggie Churchbright is alive."

"We told Ron and Percy this morning" Arthur said. "We'll tell them to keep it quiet when we get home."

Good" said Amelia. She looked over at the twins "I don't have to warn you two do I?"

"No sir, ma'am, not us…"

"..our lips are sealed."

Gracie furrowed her brow as she tried to follow the twinspeak but Sirius patted her hand and told her to continue.

"I haven't met the next man yet but Lord Griffindork…"

Almost everyone snickered at that but it was Molly that corrected Gracie this time. "That's Lord Gryffindor, Gracie but I don't think he would mind if you got his name wrong by mistake."

Draco spoke up then. "He's got a really wicked sense of humor. It's like he's just a big kid."

"Wicked?" asked Gracie nervously.

"Sorry Gracie. It means he's really a fun loving guy. Not at all like most lords you will meet."

"That's certainly the truth" George whispered to his brother. Fred looked over at Harry but he was concentrating on Gracie.

"You don't have to call him be his title Gracie. His first name is Robb."

"Like steal?"

"No, it's just a name Gracie."

"Anyway, this Robb fellow is going to make me his ward temp… temp.. Oh shoot. What's the word?"

"Temporarily" came from down the table.

"Thank you Nevevil." Neville was going to raise his hand to correct Gracie but his Grams just grabbed it and shook her head. "Next time you meet."

Neville nodded and concentrated back on Gracie.

"I'm a ward of his until whatever trouble Sirius has gets fixed or some family comes to claim me. I'm not sure I like that part. Strangers."

"Maybe just family you haven't met yet Gracie. They might not be too bad once you get to know them."

"Okay Harry. I'll wait and see. But I get to stay here at the Manor and Molly and Amelia and some others will help me with words and reading and things. I might get to go to Hogwarts someday."

Professor McGonagall spoke up. "I think Miss Churchbright that you may come and visit Hogwarts if it's okay with Sirius and the three Potters don't mind showing you around."

"Sirius, can I go? Ginny and Hermione wouldn't mind showing me around I think."

"Hey what about me?" Harry asked with a grin.

"Sorry Harry. I don't think about boys much yet."

"Thank Merlin for small favors" Sirius muttered.

"What did you say Sirius?"

"Nothing Gracie. You did a good job explaining things to the ones that weren't here before."

"Good, I'm sorry everyone if my words aren't right yet. I'm trying to catch up and be right for everyone."

"You're doing just fine young lady. But I should be getting back to my duties. School starts day after tomorrow. There's still a lot to do."

"Thank you for coming professor." Gracie was a little sad when she saw most of the people at the table stood up and said that they would have to get home also.

Sirius and Harry thanked everybody for coming also. Harry called for a couple of the house elves to take all the people home. Everyone went by Gracie and said goodbye to her. She nodded and said her goodbyes a little sadly.

Molly pulled a couple of shrunken books out of her pocket and enlarged them back to normal. She gave them to Gracie and said that they were beginning primers and Ginny knew them by heart. Gracie looked up to see Ginny and Hermione coming around the table to sit next to her. She reached and opened the top book and then the three girls were pointing and whispering together.

Harry and Sirius looked up at each other and nodded. Steps were starting.