They apparated in pairs, with Harry and Ginny going first to tidy up a bit. They hadn't been living at the Grimmauld Place house at all for several months, so it surely needed a dusting at the very least. Harry had spent the summer after Voldemort's defeat renovating it, just for something to do. It was simple, clean work, that took his mind off of the atrocities he'd witnessed the past year. He painted walls, tore up carpet older than he was, and drove out pixies until he barely knew his own name. He picked out furniture with Ginny, spending happy hours finding just the right chairs for the dining room. They laughed, they cried, they sanded baseboards til their fingers went numb and they were covered with dust. The house was just about done, barring a few spare bedrooms. Once the summer was over, almost every memory of the Blacks was erased, and replaced with a good one.
The whole time, Harry had been trying his best to convince Andromeda Tonks and Teddy to move in with them. Understandably, she had doubts. The Tonks house was her true home, and she didn't want to leave it to return to a place she had been so unhappy. She couldn't bear to pack up her family's things, to leave the place her daughter had called home all her life. It was all still too raw. As a compromise, Harry and Ginny had rented a small flat within walking distance of the Tonks home, and visited every chance they got. Since then, Grimmauld Place sat empty.
"Kreacher!" Harry called out, opening the heavy front door with a smile. The house was blessedly silent. The nasty portrait of Mrs. Black may have been stuck to the wall with a permanent sticking charm, but it was no match for a muggle knife. Even Kreacher seemed happy to see her go the day Harry savagely cut the canvas out of the frame.
"Yes, Master?" The decrepit old elf appeared out of thin air in front of him.
"Kreacher, do you mind giving the house a dust? We're going to be staying here a while."
Kreacher almost smiled. "No need, Master, Kreacher has not neglected his duties."
"Thank you, Kreacher, that's wonderful. In that case, do you mind making up a guest room? We have two guests coming to stay with us. They'll need a room with a double bed, and preferably their own bathroom. Actually, does Sirius' room fit the bill?"
"Yes, Master." Kreacher looked like he had sucked on a lemon at the mention of his former master.
"Perfect. We'll put them there, then. Thank you Kreacher." Kreacher nodded, and disappeared once more.
"Well, I best put the kettle on, then." Harry remarked to Ginny.
"Ooh, yes, and I'm going to put together some sandwiches. I think we missed lunch."
Just then, there was a pop on the other side of the door, and Lily and James came through the door.
"Wow, Harry, this looks great! Nothing at all like it used to." James turned around himself, taking in the entrance way. The warm cream walls were set off by polished mahogany baseboards, and where the horrible portrait of Mrs. Black once hung, there was a large moving picture of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, posed in front of the Hogwarts castle.
"Yes, just lovely, darling." Lily looked around briefly as well, not as familiar with the space as her husband was.
In the kitchen, the kettle was finally whistling when Ron and Hermione finally appeared.
"Where HAVE you been?" Ginny roared in her best impression of her mother, which was not quite as scary as intended with Harry giggling behind her.
"Sorry, Mum, we were putting up wards." Ron took a seat at the new kitchen table and pulled a sandwich towards him. "Thank Merlin, I'm famished!"
Hermione accepted a cup of tea from Harry and joined him. "And we packed some clothes for you, as well. We were just about to leave when I realized you had nothing but the clothes on your backs!" She pulled out the ever-faithful beaded bag.
"Good thinking, Hermione. Kreacher!" Harry called out once more, and Kreacher appeared next to him. "Will you take these things up to our guest's room?" Hermione began to unpack tidy piles of folded clothes as Kreacher tried not to stare at Lily and James. When she finished, nodded to Kreacher, and with a snap of his fingers, both he and the clothes vanished.
"Thanks, Hermione, we appreciate it." Lily said. James was quietly staring at the spot where Kreacher had vanished.
"I can't believe he's still alive, that nasty bugger was old when I came here when I was in school." He took a sip of his tea, clearly weighed down. "So, when were you going to tell us?"
Harry wiped the counter top, avoiding his father's calm stare. "Tell you what?"
"That Sirius is dead. That's why you have this place, isn't it? That's why you're Kreacher's master." Harry stopped wiping, but didn't look up. Ginny, Ron, and Hermione traded glances, and all got up at once, each finding an excuse to let Harry and his parents have the kitchen to themselves.
Harry sighed, and finally met their eyes. "I tried to save him. I loved him too, you know? He was my father, my mother, my big brother, and my best friend, all rolled into one. He didn't have a happy ending, and it's one of the greatest regrets of my life. Are you sure you want to know?"
Lily nodded. James stared into his cup for long moment, and finally responded quietly, "I have to know."
Outside, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione sat in a small courtyard at the back of the house. The backyard had been one of the most exciting discoveries of their time renovating the house. What they had both thought was a hall closet had turned out to be the door to a creepy brick tunnel, which lead to the sun-filled courtyard. Beyond the courtyard, there was a rickety old shed full of antique broomsticks, and a gorgeous Victorian greenhouse that was still somewhat overtaken by feral magical plants. The courtyard itself was now home to a comfy set of outdoor furniture, protected from the sun by a cheery octagonal wooden gazebo.
"How was it, Ginny?" Hermione asked, blowing on her tea.
"Hmm?" Ginny had been staring at a rose bush, lost in thought.
"How was it, in the bubble? Was I right about the spell?"
"It was fine. Everything went fine." She took a tense sip of her fire whiskey, returning her attention to the rose bush. "Only thing I didn't expect was that Lily and James got older when we left. I'm sorry, I have got to prune that bush." She pushed out of her chair and began to rummage through a crate of gardening tools.
Ron and Hermione exchanged concerned looks. "Wait, they got older? How old did they look when you were down there?" Ron asked.
"Maybe twenty, twenty-one? However old they were when the spell was cast. They didn't realize any time had passed. Aha!" She found the shears, and strode over to the offending bush, fire whiskey still in hand. Hermione hurried to follow her.
"Really? Ginny, would you mind sitting down a minute and telling us more? I think that bush will be fine. I really want to hear more about the spell." Ginny was on her knees, attacking dead branches with one hand, nursing her whiskey with the other.
"No, I just need to fix this, it's bugging me. And really, nothing happened!" Ginny gestured so emphatically that she spilled some of her drink on the plant.
Ron moseyed over to join them, and had barely gotten out, "Ginny, are you sure -" when Ginny exploded on them.
"Am I speaking French? What part of 'fine' do you not understand? Will the two of you please just let me fix this fucking bush in peace?" She knocked back her head, finishing her drink, and returned to hacking at the rose bush.
"C'mon Hermione, let's go see how Harry's getting along." Ron pulled a shocked Hermione back into the house.
"Fucking Merlin, I forgot what a terror Ginny is when she's stressed out. Something happened in there, alright," Ron muttered once they were inside.
"Fucking Merlin is right. I don't think she's ever spoken to me like that. I don't think anyone has, except maybe you." Hermione shook her head, hurt and confused.
"Ah, it's nothing personal. She just needs some time alone, then she'll really explode, and then she'll be back to normal. Aw, Hermione, I think this means you're officially a Weasley! Ginny isn't that degree of rude to anyone besides family. Congrats, luv." Ron pulled her into a warm embrace, and they both laughed.
They returned to find Harry a bit of a mess in the kitchen. He was shaking, eyes rimmed with red as he accepted a handkerchief from his mother and blew his nose. Lily had tear tracks marking her face, and James was stark white, looking into the fire with an ancient stare.
"How's it going down here?" Hermione asked with forced cheer. Lily smiled shakily at her.
"Could be better!" She patted her son's hand with a wet laugh. Ron and Hermione leaned in the doorway with sympathetic smiles.
"I don't understand why he was even there in the first place. Why were you there?" James mumbled hoarsely, gaze still fixed to the fire. Harry looked at his friends pleadingly.
"I have an idea," Ron said, rubbing his hands together. "Why don't we take a quick breather, regroup, then just try and bust through the whole story. Just get it all out. That way, you'll be all caught up, and Harry'll only have to go through it once."
"And we'll be here to help, if you need it." Hermione walked to Harry and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He looked back at her with a grateful smile. "In fact, why don't we go ahead and have dinner, then reconvene in the family room?" Harry nodded, and called for Kreacher.
"Thank you, I think that's a great plan. I think getting it in little bursts here and there is hard on all of us." Lily got up and walked with Hermione to the cabinet, and they started pulling out plates. "I hate that so much of Harry's life seems to be painful to recall."
"It's not a problem at all. Harry was there for me last summer when we had to do something similar with my parents. They're muggles," she explained briefly, "I obliviated them and sent them to Australia during the war to protect them." Lily's smile widened.
"I knew there was something I liked about you. That was very clever of you, although, I'm sure, very difficult." Kreacher shooed them out of the work space, Hermione jerked her head in a 'follow my lead' gesture. They ducked through an archway and emerged in the dining room, refined and elegant in deep scarlet, with gold accents. The walls were a deep blue that seemed to twinkle with distant night stars.
Lily inspected the wallpaper closely, and remarked, "Beautiful! Your handiwork?"
Hermione's smile spread slowly. "Thank you, it is. How did you know?"
"Ginny may have let it slip that you were, quote, 'The Brightest Witch of Your Age,' and this is a complex bit of magic. I had a hunch." Hermione snickered.
"Well from what I've heard you're no slouch yourself! Slughorn still talks about you in hushed and reverent tones after all these years." This elicited a full belly laugh from the older woman. Ginny suddenly appeared in the doorway at the other end of the room.
"How long til dinner?" Ginny asked tersely, wiping sweat and dirt from her forehead.
"I think about twenty minutes," Hermione answered hesitantly. "How'd it go with the bush?"
Ginny grunted in response, and ran towards the stairs, presumably to take a shower.
"What's gotten into her?" Lilly muttered to Hermione. "She seemed so cheery when we were in the basement."
"Ginny's a bit…unpredictable, to say the least. That reminds me," Hermione fixed Lily with a serious look. "Did anything unusual happen while you were trying to break the spell? Something seems to have upset her, but Ron and I couldn't get a word out of her." Lily wracked her brain.
"No…well, that's a lie, I'm not exactly sure how it was supposed to go in the first place. We had to try it a few times, but once Ginny pulled Harry aside, we got it on our last try."
"She pulled him aside? What was wrong?" Hermione shook her head, confused.
"I'm not sure. The spell gave you a glow once you were believing hard enough, and let go of your doubts. Harry was the only one who wouldn't glow, so Ginny pulled him into our bedroom to talk. After that, he seemed much happier, we all glowed, and then the doors burst open."
"Fascinating…" Hermione murmured. "I wish I'd been able to examine the bubble more thoroughly. I'm thinking of writing a paper on it, in fact. But anyway," she shook her head, getting back to business. "I think something happened in that bedroom that upset her. I wonder if has anything to do…you know what? Never mind! I'm too nosey for my own good sometimes, I'm going to go check on dinner!" Hermione's voiced climbed through the octaves as she slipped back through the archway to the kitchen. Lily watched her, mouth agape. Hermione wasn't telling her something. And if it had something to do with her son, Lily simply couldn't allow that.