In theory, now that I'd finally started using the raths again after two years of avoidance, I had the whole of the British isles to choose from. My godmother had given me an annotated road atlas and everything. In practice, I hadn't really committed any of those spots to memory, because I didn't intend to do what she wanted and shake loose any more Nevernever monsters to maraud across the countryside.

I was kind of hoping, a little, that something nasty had popped out on top of the vampires and possessed animagus.

So since I was such a poor student of interdimensional geography, I basically remembered that there was the rath in the park in west London that I'd accidentally landed in the first time I'd used these, and that there had been a rath really close to Hermione's house that I should have used to get home that time.

When you have a split second to figure out where to go, sometimes your friend's house seems like a pretty safe option.

And that's how a pajamas-wearing Jean Granger, cricket bat in hand, found me on his doorstep at nearly three in the morning on the first day of 1994. My brand-new tuxedo was all torn up and it had taken me the better part of an hour to limp the half mile to their door. "Sorry. Got attacked by vampires. Didn't mean to wake you," I apologized, a little out of it. I vaguely remembered being let in, shown to a bed, and collapsing into sleep.

I came to some time later to a surge of guilt followed by a blast of confidence.

"Oh, yeah, I guess that would wake you up," Penny apologized from the foot of the Granger guest room bed I was sprawled on. "I hit you with the excoriatus and the libertas just in case they infected you with something, but I think you're clear. Did Black bite you on the leg? We probably need to get Madam Pomfrey to give you the magical equivalent of a tetanus shot. The Grangers bandaged it up and I healed it the best I could."

"Thanks," I told her. "Hermione called you? You didn't have to drive all the way down here?"

"No, I apparated to the public floo and then took that most of the way. Can't quite apparate all the way from the Leaky Cauldron to here without going off course, so I had to do some walking. How did you make it all the way here?"

"Made it to the rath next to Hogsmeade," I explained. "I should have gone somewhere closer, but this was the one that came to me in the crisis."

"What happened?" she asked.

I explained the basics of the previous night: Mavra being at the party, and everything that happened after I entered the fireplace at the Malfoy's.

"Only you, Harry," she shook her head. "McGonagall's not going to let you out of the castle for the rest of the year." I groaned. I'd managed to forget that issue. "What?"

"She's my grandmother, apparently. Nobody wanted to tell me except Rita Skeeter."

"Huh," she said, thinking about it. "That makes the blatant favoritism make more sense." I must have scoffed, because she pointed out, "Strict disciplinarian Minerva McGonagall lets you get away with all the skiving you did our OWL year, constantly backs you up to the headmaster, probably awards you more points than anyone else in her house, and doesn't she buy you Christmas presents?"

"Still would have preferred to know I had family," I grumbled.

Penny sat down on the edge of the bed and said, "How old is she? I know we act like she's ancient, but she barely seems old enough to be a grandmother of someone who's 18."

"According to Rita, she had my mom right after Hogwarts. There was a local boy, they forgot to use protection, next thing you know she has to become a teacher because that's easier as a single mother than working at the Ministry."

"Oh, yeah," Penny winced. "Gosh. I can only imagine how much it would derail my life if Percy and I had a kid soon, and he'd stick around and we would be able to get the rest of his and my families to help. Maybe… maybe don't take it too personally. She could be terrified you'll reject her."

That was definitely a more generous perspective than my godmother's long-maintained hatred of her best friend's distant mother.

Before I'd had time to think too hard about it, a giant ginger ball of fluff leaped on top of my chest from the doorway of the guest room. "Oof, hi Crookshanks," I told the cat, who accepted a few scritches before walking down to inspect my leg, headbutting my foot in apparent approval of Penny's healing job.

"Harry! You're up!" Hermione yelled, padding down the hall just behind her familiar. "Dad said vampires attacked you?"

"Unfortunately. Let's just say that I guess I need to stop taking the floo for granted as a safe point-to-point travel method. They managed to dump me out over in the ruins of the Shrieking Shack instead of the Three Broomsticks."

She gasped, "I read about that kind of thing! It's one of the reasons for the Hogwarts Express. That type of attack used to be a lot more common, after they invented the floo system. I wonder if the Shrieking Shack ever had a fireplace that was connected: they might have been able to reactivate the connection and trick the network."

"Great," I said. "At least the faeries apparently aren't working with Voldemort, so maybe they won't also know that trick. But Mavra was–," my geas cut me off from finishing the thought. I wondered what the extent of her double-dipping was with her dealings with both Death Eaters and the fae. "Yeah. I guess I could apparate back just in case."

"I don't know, Harry," Penny objected. "It's lucky you didn't splinch yourself as it was, and I don't know how to test for magical exhaustion. Maybe you should just take the train back with us tomorrow."

"It's bad enough that I imposed already. I can't for another night," I told her.

"Nonsense," Helen Granger walked in, putting a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "You're more than welcome to stay another night, Harry. I just wish we had some way of telling the school where you are. They must be worried sick."

"Already handled, Dr. Granger," Penny explained, holding up her hand with the ring I'd made. "I messaged Mathilda and she sent an owl to the school. Also she sent back, 'He had ONE mission!' and I don't know what that's about?"

"She told me to get home safe," I winced. I realized I was probably going to get an earful about somehow managing to get into another fight with no backup.

"Trouble does seem to find you," Helen nodded. "Professor McGonagall must be constantly worried about you."

I winced. Penny told her, "Sore subject."

"What?" Hermione asked.

I guessed it was going to be in the paper or Teen Witch Weekly soon enough so I explained, "Rita Skeeter found out that McGonagall's my grandmother. I don't know why she never told me."

"Ha!" Hermione laughed in vindication. "I knew she was too nice to you for some reason. She doesn't let anyone else in Gryffindor get away with nearly as much as you do!"

"That's what I told him," Penny agreed.

I kind of felt like it was pick-on-Harry's-obliviousness day. Hermione's mom said, "Jean almost has lunch ready. Why don't you girls head down and we'll be down in a minute." After they'd nodded and left, the dark-haired dentist leaned against the doorjamb and asked, "Is she your only family?"

"As far as I know," I told her. "I guess my dad might have had relatives that the orphanage never managed to track down. But for two years nobody's been willing to tell me about my mom's people."

"And then you found out that you had one right there who wouldn't tell you," she nodded. "With everything else you're going through, that's a lot. Don't let the girls convince you that it should have been obvious. They've only ever had a whole family. We worked hard at it for Hermione. I lost my mother young, too. And none of her family really had much to do with me after she passed.

"But maybe just think of whether you feel like she didn't want you to know, or just didn't know how to tell you. The adults that look like they have it all together are often the ones that have the hardest time figuring out how to fix it when they do mess up."

"I guess it's good that I'm getting so much experience fixing my mistakes, and nobody would think that I have it all together," I joked.

"You don't even see it," she gave me a motherly smile. "I know Hermione idolizes you, Harry. Probably her friends too. No rational adult thinks they look like they have it all together. Being a grown up is just one crisis after another that you're not ready for. But, I mean: just last night. If I'd been attacked by vampires I certainly wouldn't have escaped with nothing worse than a dog bite and be joking about it a few hours later. You have it together more than you think."

"Thanks, ma'am," I told her, though I wasn't sure I was sold. We headed down to lunch, me only hobbling slightly. Penny did good work. Hopefully the Department of Mysteries would let her work on improving healing spells on the side.

As we sat down to a nice New Year's Day lunch of dentist-approved dishes, I thought Jean Granger was going to give me a third grilling on the evening, but he'd apparently heard enough secondhand and instead asked, "So another date with Mathilda, huh, Harry? I hear that's getting serious." Hermione's father was a big fan of my current relationship, since it was proof that my intentions toward his daughter were entirely big-brotherly.

"They have the same patronus," Hermione gushed. "And get dressed up and go to New Year's balls together." The highly-practical witch was probably about to hit the age where she was also annoyed that Hogwarts didn't have fancy dances.

"And Harry met her parents on Boxing Day," Penny grinned, scooping over a mound of potatoes.

"Didn't Percy spend it with yours, too?" I winked back. "And I hear his parrot patronus is starting to look a lot like your eagle…"

"It's an augurey, not a parrot," she corrected, but then gave a small smile, "But, yeah. They were similar enough birds to start with that it's hard to be sure, but I think so."

Jean and Helen shared a look that was part enthusiasm about the young love, but part finishing some conversation. Helen decided to point out, "In the muggle world, you'd both have university to think about it, but magicals basically make you go full adult as soon as you finish school. Have either of you given consideration to what your living situation is going to be with your significant others in a few months?"

Both Penny's and my eyes widened. Graduation was coming up a lot sooner than either of us really liked to think about. "Mathilda will be in school again next year," I hedged.

"But she'll be 17? And want to stay with you over vacations?" Helen pushed.

"And last summer, I heard Molly talking about planning to make you up a room at the Burrow, Penny," Jean grinned.

Both Penny and I groaned, basically simultaneously, and I summed up our issue. "We gotta figure out how to get an apartment!"