Chapter nineteen

Harry woke slowly, the first thing he noticed was his wife cuddled up to him. The second thing he noticed was how he felt, which was great. He never realised the soul behind his scar made him feel weighed down and also made him tense. Now he felt…light. It was the only way he could describe it.

'You look happy,' Connie said as she smiled up at Harry.

'I am and I feel great. I feel healthy and whole for the first time in my life. I have you, my beautiful wife and my head feels better than it ever did. So, did everything go okay?'

'With you, yes, perfect. I haven't left the room to find out what happened at the ministry.'

'Well, let's have a shower then go out and find out what's going on.'

Harry and Connie ended up making love in the shower before they got around to washing themselves, or each other. They kept their arms around each other as they left their room and made their way towards Remus. Ginny hurried over and went to move towards Harry, but Connie stepped in her way.

'You are not speaking with my husband Weasley, so back off or I might have to arrest you.'

'Ginny,' Arthur quickly grabbed his daughter's arm and pulled her away, 'Go help your mother pack our things, we're returning to the Burrow.'

'Harry's mine,' Ginny yelled.

'No, I'm not and never was. I'm married to Connie,' Harry gave her a glare before he and his wife joined Remus, Tonks, Bill and Fleur.

'Andy and ted went to the bunkers. They are working on removing the bodies, Astoria and a few others are going to be returned to their parent's. Tracy and Daphne do want to see both of you but they were anxious to see their families,' Remus said.

'I don't blame them. I also know they wanted to get away from the looks they were receiving from Molly,' Harry said.

'Hermione and Ron are sticking close to Ginny, Hermione isn't happy with your relationship but Ginny is Ron's sister,' Tonks said.

'Even though we were close for a while, both of them let me down. I stopped trusting them years ago. The only reason we stuck together in this was because they already knew about it because dumbledore made me explain. I tried to tell Hermione we had to do things different, we had to work on things that Dumbledore wouldn't think of. He confided in Snape, so any plans he told Snape was out.'

'We should have remembered that when we went to pick you up from the Dursley's,' Remus said.

'You would think Mad-eye would have thought of it, he was always paranoid and he never trusted Snape,' Tonks said.

'I don't think any of were really thinking about Snape or Dumbledore when we went to move Harry. It was all about his safety since the wards were going to fall.'

'Whose idea was it to use seven Harry's?' Harry asked.

'Mundungus Fletcher came up with the idea and told Mad-eye,' Remus said, 'That's fishy just there. He only thought of what he could get out of it, not for others.'

'Snape must have used the imperius curse him or something since all of them including Voldemort was waiting for me to leave. Anyway, what happened at the ministry?' Harry asked.

Remus explained what happened and even though it meant a lot of deaths, Harry nor Connie cared that nearly a hundred people died. They made the choice to join Voldemort and get marked. Everyone knew Voldemort could not be trusted, yet the death eaters did by allowing him to mark them with the dark mark.

'Kingsley is going to release a statement about why they died so the families will know it was all Voldemort's fault. He does want to talk to us in a few days. He's gathering everyone who suffered because of Fudge and Voldemort to help make the ministry a proper government for all the people. Now since you only recently married, he said Connie could take a month off. He just wants a meeting first.'

'We're all going to be busy and even though I'm pregnant, I'm going to help at the auror office, but only desk duty stuff. Some of the people that died were aurors and some we lost before, so Kingsley will need me there even if it's just to work on who does what.'

'Who was head auror when Scrimgeour became minister?' Harry asked.

'Gawain Robards, he was killed a few weeks ago. Kingsley may contact some retired aurors who could step in to help for a while until we can recruit more,' Connie said, 'Have you heard anything about Tim?'

'He's fine, in St Mungo's. Got hit with two cruciatus curses at the same time. He'll be fine, it just takes a while to get over the affects. He has some other smaller injuries, I'm sure they have been healed for now,' Tonks said.

'Who is Tim?' Harry asked.

'An auror who would be about Kingsley's age, he's a senior auror and one of the good guys. He sent his wife and kids out of the country the moment we got word that Voldemort returned. He would sneak away to see them. He knew how many death eaters were inside the ministry, he wasn't risking his family,' Connie said.

'Did Fudge have any family?' Harry asked.

'Yes, a wife and two grown children,' Remus said, 'I think he had a grandchild, I'm not positive of that. Why do you ask?'

'He was willing to risk his family's life, I don't get that.'

'For all we know Harry, he didn't. None of us ever saw his wife, I doubt I would know what his kids looked like. For all we know he made them leave in case you were telling the truth,' Tonks said.

'Okay, he might have sent them away but he could have been killed.'

'Malfoy was able to control Fudge, keeping him alive worked for them and against us,' Remus said.

'Yeah, I guess you're right. So how come you two haven't left yet?'

'We weren't going to leave you alone while you were getting over the effects. Molly tried to get to your room a few times, Griselda stopped her. She brought Ginny here who also tried to get to you. She threatened me which made me laugh, which just made her angry. I finally threatened to arrest her, since I am an auror. She finally realised what could happen. Ginny and Molly were whispering the whole time you were in there. Arthur is getting them packed so when they leave, we can.'

'Okay, and thanks,' Harry gave Remus and Tonks a smile before he turned to his wife, 'Um, we haven't really talked about where we will live. I really don't want to go near the house Sirius left me.'

Connie smiled, 'I have a house, my parents bought it for me when I was accepted into the auror training program. They knew how independent I am, so as long as I promised to visit them once or twice a week, they didn't mind me moving out. We can stay there and talk it over, see if we want to stay or get another place.'

'Do you like your home?'

Connie smiled, Remus and Tonks chuckled, 'Yes, I do, very much.'

'Then that will be our home. All I need is you babe and a bed.'

Tonks, Connie and Remus tensed and stood when Molly and Ginny began to hurry towards them with their wands in their hands. Harry just sent a couple of stunners at them which not only shocked them, it shocked Arthur, Ron, and Hermione. Bill and Fleur just kept shaking their heads. They decided to stand with Harry to show their family just who's side they were on. Bill was already sick of the way his mother and sister treated his wife. He was not going to put up with it again.

'Take your wife and daughter home Mr Weasley or Tonks and I will be forced to arrest them. Even if they got off, they will have that arrest on their records for the rest of their lives,' Connie said.

Arthur went to say something, but he realised the auror was right, he also knew why Harry did it. Harry had put up with a lot over the years, he wasn't going to allow it to continue. But looking at the group around Harry, which included one of his own sons, they would all make sure Molly and Ginny ended up coming out with some type of record or bad reputation.

Ron looked over at Harry and shrugged. He didn't look angry or upset, which surprised most of them. Harry just gave Ron a small smile and a nod. The moment Arthur, Molly, Ginny, Ron and Hermione left Harry turned to the last red head.

'You didn't need to do that Bill. They are your family.'

'They are, but the things they were saying about my wife was getting worse. I had already decided I won't be visiting anymore. When they learn to treat my wife with respect then I might visit. Mum has never had anyone really stand up to her before. Hopefully when she realises her oldest son won't have anything to do with her, she might wake up. Dad knows how bad mum can get, hopefully he can get through to her. Anyway, we'll leave, but we'll get together soon.'

'We'd like that,' Harry said. He shook Bill's hand, then hugged Fleur who kissed him on both cheeks. Fleur also hugged Connie, then Bill did which made Harry smile.

'We've got the mirror Cub, if you need anything, use it.'

'We will, thanks,' Harry and Connie hugged Tonks and Remus then watched them leave, 'I'll tell the elves to pack up all the food. But I might get them to check it for any type of tampering.'

'Why would you think someone tampered with it?'

'Mrs Weasley used a love potion on Mr Weasley to get them to date. Now he did find out and knew why, he was a very shy boy back then, so he let it go. Now I saw Ginny with some of the twins love potions and she did glance at me a lot so I wouldn't put anything past her.'

'Now I understand. Let's go do that, but I think you should write something for the Quibbler. You said your friend's father owns it.'

'Yeah, Luna Lovegood and her father. Why would I write to them?'

'Let the world know about us and how it was love at first sight. Everyone brought up in the wizarding world knows what that means. The two people involved will feel it straight away. Ginny might believe it was love at first sight for her, but since you didn't, then it wasn't true love. I believe she wants the boy who lived more than you.'

'I think you're right. Her mum has been telling her stories about me since she was little.'

'So she basically was brainwashed from the time she was small. Going on what I've seen and heard from Molly Weasley, she probably told her daughter she would be perfect for the boy who lived. You also saved her when she was eleven, so that would have enforced her belief that you were meant to be with her.'

'I think you're right. It was the following year that Ginny continuously stared at me, sometimes she followed me around. When I stayed at the Burrow I would find her outside Ron's room, which is where I stayed. If we were down in the orchard flying, she would be spying on us, or me. She's basically a stalker.'

'Exactly, but one that was told you would be hers from a young age. Let's go speak with the elves, then you can see our home.'

Harry and Connie spoke with the house elves. All three of them began to cast spells over the food, two things glowed. One was the jug of pumpkin juice and the other were the mince pies. Harry never made them, but he knew who did, Mrs Molly Weasley. She also added some type of potion, probably a love potion. Connie was furious, she took one of the pies and she was going to speak with whoever ended up the head auror. The elves got rid of the things that had been tampered with then packed up the rest. Connie told them where the house was, so they left before she took Harry by side-along apparition to their new home. She would give it until tomorrow then she would introduce her husband to her parent's.