Ashes In Your Mouth
By An Orc
Based on The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling, but purely a fan fiction and not for commercial purposes.
[AN: A similar concept to my story Fireworks but humbler.]
Chapter One: Burrow to BotherWhere our hero, Harry Potter Won the War. But there are a couple of things that need to be taken care of.
Harry leaned against an apple tree at the Burrow, Ginny under his arm, looking up at the scudding twilight clouds.
"We made it" said Harry.
"Yeah we did" replied Ginny, leaning her head against him "I still don't understand what you did on the last day, Or for most of the war really."
"Dumbledore swore me to secrecy" admitted Harry "But Voldemort's dead now, so I can tell you, but you'll have to swear to never tell of it. It's, well it's terribly dark magic that he did."
Ginny nuzzled up to Harry "I promise" she said. "You're the greatest, I promise"
Harry frowned at being called the greatest. Fred was under an oak tree, and Harry didn't feel very great at all. He sighed "Voldemort wanted to be immortal. There's a way, I won't say it's name. He ended up with bits of himself in things. They kept him tied to life. He was sort-of immortal, I guess for a while."
Ginny poked him "Well, tell me, what was going on then?"
"So we had to find the things keeping him alive, destroy them, then and only then I could fight him. Pointless otherwise, like first year, he didn't die, just into a sort of ghost and flew off."
"You killed him in first year?" asked Ginny.
"That teacher who went missing. He was possessed. I, well it's complicated and the possessed teacher died and Voldemort flew off." Ginny had gone awfully stiff.
"It's all right, I saved you" said Harry, kissing her hair. Ginny whimpered unhappily.
"That diary, it was one of the things. So I'd already killed one" said Harry.
Ginny shivered and Harry held her close, finally she said "So that's what you and Ron and Hermione did, went and found dangerous dark things and… destroyed them" asked Ginny. "While we fought the Carrows and Snape at Hogwarts."
"Yes" said Harry, leaving out the Hallows, dying and that last fluke with the wand.
"Harry" said Ginny quietly "I'm George's little sister. I've heard lies my whole life. What really happened?"
"That's what happened Ginny. Well, and on the last day, we'd destroyed the lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, and then Neville killed the giant snake." said Harry, hoping she'd buy it.
"Harry!" said Ginny sternly.
"Voldemort, the things he made to stay alive, he made too many, and he accidentally made one." admitted Harry "Nobody knew where it was. I went to the forest and tricked Voldemort into destroying it."
"Harry!" said Ginny sharply "He bragged about killing you."
"Well… the thing was … it was in my scar" admitted Harry. Ginny tensed in his arms. "In your scar?" she asked.
"Yeah. That's why I had nightmares, could see what he was doing, had headaches" admitted Harry.
"But you didn't … hear him did you?" asked Ginny.
"Only in the dreams" admitted Harry.
Ginny dragged Harry back to the burrow, where Hermione sat at the kitchen table, looking wild-eyed and making a small keening noise.
"Cheer up Hermione" said Ginny "You're alive"
Harry took the glass of firewhiskey Ginny handed him and drank it. Hermione had a bit of firewhiskey in a mug and folded herself into the couch, staring at nothingness. Harry kept drinking, the room getting a bit blurry. Ginny hiccuped and blinked "I'm going to be sick" she said, and ran awkwardly outside and threw up noisily.
She came back inside "The chickens will clean it up" she said drunkenly "I'm going to bed."
Harry nodded groggily and followed Ginny upstairs to collapse onto the truckle bed in Ron's room and pull the sheet over himself. And if he grabbed Ginnys bum… well she'd have made a noise and woken up her mum. So no risking that.
Harry woke up in the morning with a headache, but feeling good… he didn't remember any nightmares. He cleaned his face and braved the kitchen.
Mrs Weasley was cooking. Harry drank tea, washing the taste of his own tongue out of his head.
Hermione got off the couch, waving a letter "Letter" she said incoherently.
Harry blinked.
"Blimming fence sitters want to suck up" Hermione said angrily.
Harry took the letter and read it. It was on really nice parchment in green ink.
'From the desk of the house of Greengrass
Dear Sirs,
Our house has a requirement to celebrate the end of the war with some fireworks.
We recall that Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes have a line of most excellent fireworks displays.
The fireworks to be exhibited at Diagon Alley on the next suitable night.
Appropriate permits have been secured from the ministry. See attached parchments i-i.
All care to be taken that the fireworks while grand are invisible to muggles outside the Alley.
Perhaps a ten-minute display depicting the vanquishing of he-who-shall-not-be-named by the chosen one.
It is required that the display be coordinated with the Daily Prophet.
It is Expected that the display will make the front page on the next morning's edition.
The Greengrass'
Then below this a hastily sketched word 'Greengrass'
A smudged wax seal below the hastily written word; it was evidently a signature.
Harry blinked. Someone rich was indeed sucking up.
"Hermione are you drunk?" he asked.
"Potions" she said and giggled. Harry noticed a square sided potions bottle near her, lying open on the floor.
He picked it up. Wincing as his hangover pounded. 'Cheering draught' was hand-written on the homemade label stuck to the bottle.
"Hermione how much cheering draught did you have?" asked Harry.
"All of it" she said, nodding.
"Mrs Weasley!" Harry yelled "How much cheering draught is too much?"
Mrs Weasley bustled into the living room and eyed the empty bottle. "Harry dear, how much did you take?" she asked.
"Hermione drank… whatever was in the bottle I think" said Harry.
"Oh" said Mrs Weasley and her lips moved silently for a moment as if working something out. "Hermione dear, I've got a little potion I'd like you to take" she said loudly and dashed for the pantry.
Hermione knocked back the teaspoon of whitish potion and blinked "What isssit?" she asked, still sounding awfully weird. Like she was happy and sad at the same time.
"Purging potion dear. It will take effect in a moment" said Mrs Weasley, pulling Hermione outdoors. The sound of energetic vomiting began, then crying. "I pooed myself" Hermione yowled.
"Yes dear the potion does that, don't worry, I'll get you all cleaned up once you're – "
Loud vomiting noises blocked out Mrs Weasley's voice.
Quite a bit later, An unconscious Hermione was floated into the house by Mrs Weasley, holding her wand out "Harry dear, I'm just putting Hermione to bed. She should be all right tomorrow."
Harry went to the pantry and found the still partly full bottle of firewhiskey and had a half mugful. His headache stopped bothering him, and he put the bottle away. There was tonight to sleep after all.
That night he and Ginny went out to talk again.
"Harry, do you love me?" Ginny asked.
"I um... I think so" said Harry awkwardly.
"You went off to die, didn't you" she asked, lips white.
"I had to, it was the only way to beat him" said Harry. "Dumbledore told me most of it, but in the end, Voldemort had to cast a killing curse on me to kill the bit of his life in my scar."
"You didn't think you'd survive, did you?" asked Ginny, sniffling.
"No" admitted Harry, eyes watering.
"You utter inconsiderate bastard. Not even a kiss goodbye" said Ginny, tightly "TO GO AND DIE. DO I MEAN NOTHING TO YOU" she yelled.
Harry was suddenly struck by the resemblance between angry Ginny and angry Molly Weasley.
"I… I could barely go as it was" admitted Harry "I had to use the stone to… to see my parents, to get help."
"What Stone" asked Ginny angrily.
"The Resurrection Stone, it's one of the Deathly Hallows" explained Harry.
"THAT IS A CHILDRENS STORY YOU UTTER BASTARD" yelled Ginny, face white with rage, her hair red like fire.
"They're real, I've had them all" said Harry dully "They helped at the time."
"Well, where is it?" asked Ginny "This magical stone?"
"I dropped it" said Harry.
"And If I WANTED TO TALK TO MY BROTHER" yelled Ginny, and she cried.
Harry swallowed, bit his lip and apparated away.
Harry reappeared in an all-too-familiar clearing in the forbidden forest next to Hogwarts. It was twilight and strange animal noises echoed through the leafless trees.
He drew his wand 'Accio Resurrection Stone' he cast and a muddy lump jumped into his hand. He crushed the mud one-handed… leaving a small black stone. Harry looked at the stone, sighed and put it in his jeans pocket. The little pocket that's too small for anything but keys... not that Harry had any, he thought. He apparated away; reappearing at the Burrow next to the tree with a crack.
Ginny looked up from where she'd been pulling wildflowers to bits. "You came back" she said.
"I do that" said Harry.
Harry pulled out the small black stone and explained "Here it is" he said, holding it out on his right palm.
"That's just a stone" said Ginny dismissively.
Harry rolled it on his palm with his left index finger and the twilight darkened suddenly as if a cloud had gone in front of the moon, then the twilight deepened and blobs of darkness flowed up from the ground, forming three indistinct human-sized blobs. Harry poked his finger onto the stone and the dark blobs changed like they'd taken off a cloak into three ghostly figures. The smell of leaf-mould and apples had changed, now there was a sickly stench to it, that reminded Harry of the inferii from the lake. Harry looked over at Ginny, who was staring wide-eyed at the ghosts. One of which was clearly a Weaseley twin;
"Hi Ginny!" said Fred cheerfully "How's snogging Harry in the orchard?"
"Fred" said Ginny and burst into tears.
"So he's a really lousy snogger. You should have stuck with that nice Michael Corner. Speckey gits make lousy kissers" said Fred, and grinned cheekily at Harry "Nice rock four-eyes. It's pretty disgusting seeing you snog my little sister" said Fred.
"You don't have to watch!" yelled Harry.
"Harry" said another ghost, who solidified into the likeness of Remus Lupin, complete with cardigan and hangdog expression "We care about you, we like to know how you're doing."
The third ghost who turned into a woman with a silvery punk hairdo simply said "I blame myself. I should have taught him how to kiss, like this," and kissed ghostly Remus as a demonstration, lifting one foot off the ground dramatically behind her.
"Oh get a room you two" said Fred "honestly, they're all 'Teddy did a poo, Teddy burped isn't he great', when…" and fell silent.
Ghostly Tonks let go of Remus and slapped ghostly Fred "My Son is the handsomest, most talented child ever born, and you're not allowed to talk about the next adventure. It's the rules."
"Well he'll be popular later when he makes his willy bigger" said Fred, and got a kick in the ghostly balls from ghostly Tonks.
"Ugh!" groaned Fred in evident agony, and he fell over.
Ginny snorted "Ghosts can hit one another. Hey Tonks, can you kick his arse for dying" she asked.
"Not really Ginny" replied Tonks "It's not his fault."
"IT IS SO" yelled Ginny.
"She really is like her mother" observed Remus mildly.
Harry sighed "So I used this stone to see my parents, and Sirius, and they helped me and repelled the Dementors, so I could get to where Voldemort was." he explained tiredly. "You can talk to Fred, you know."
"Fred" asked Ginny "When I was six, what did you give me when mum took us shopping?"
Fred smiled "I gave you…." and stopped talking, frozen.
"HARRY!" yelled Ginny "I asked Fred a question he should know the answer to, and he freezes up"
"Fred, mate who funded the shop" asked Harry.
"You did mate, a thousand galleons" said Fred, moving normally; if a bit ghostly.
"Gin, ask Fred something you know that I don't" asked Harry.
"Harry you shouldn't do this" said Remus.
"Fred, what did you call me when I was really little" asked Ginny.
Fred smiled and said "I called you …." and froze.
"Shit" said Harry. "Gin, do you have a verification question for Tonks or Remus that I don't know?"
"I do" said Ginny nervously "Tonks, what was the advice I got from you at Grimmauld place?"
Tonks smiled "Oh Ginny I told you to just…" and she stopped talking.
"They're fakes" accused Ginny.
"Made from my memories" said Harry, going very pale. "Oh shit." he swore, and rolled the rock backwards, the ghosts vanished. The air cleared, the smell of leaf-mould and apples suddenly clear in Harry's sinuses. Harry rolled the stone again and two ghosts appeared, solidifying into a man who looked a lot like Harry and a long haired woman who reached out for Harry.
"Harry, my dear sweet baby" she said plaintively. There was a smell like rotting bacon mixed with the scent of compost.
"This is my parents" Harry said to Ginny "Ginny, meet mum and dad."
"Hello Mrs Potter" said Ginny "I'm Harrys' girlfriend, Ginny Weasley"
Lily Potter smiled and said "Oh, that's lovely, and isn't that cute, she's a redhead too"
James Potter spoke up "Good work Harry, we really love you, and want you to be happy."
"Mrs Potter, is there anything I should know about baby Harry? An embarrassing story maybe?"
Lily looked pained "I… I can't say dear."
"Can't say or don't know?" asked Harry. "Are you really my parents, or just apparitions made from my mind?"
"Harry…" said James awkwardly "We love you very much"
"How do I find the house dad?" asked Harry. James shook his head "I can't tell you that my son."
Harry rolled the stone backwards "They're fakes" he said quietly. "Made from my memories, my hopes." The scent of rot faded.
"That stone is… really quite a cursed thing" said Ginny "You'd go mad if you believed it"
Harry sat there and thought about his walk to his death. How his parents and Sirius had helped. Had… helped him walk to his death. Harry wondered, just how narrowly he'd escaped death. His gorge rose and he choked it down.
They walked back to the burrow quietly, thinking about life, school and quidditch.
And if Harry might have accidentally on purpose drunk a mug of firewhiskey, well he just wanted to NOT dream. And certainly not think about that last walk to Voldemort. Never think about that again.
Ron took a hung-over Harry out for a walk after breakfast. Hermione hadn't gotten up yet.
"Harry Mate, you're drinking an awful lot" said Ron as they passed the chicken coop.
"I'm having nightmares Ron. Getting drunk helps" replied Harry bluntly. Trying to ignore the bit where Ginny yelled and screamed, far too much like Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia. With all the other things going on it was just one more thing Harry wanted to just ignore.
"Oh, well… what are we going to do?" asked Ron.
"We're… going to be Aurors, right ?" said Harry. They walked along towards the pond.
"We haven't got NEWT's" said Ron. "Do you think they'll you know, make exceptions for us?"
"Dunno" Harry replied, looking at the green, reedy pond. "It's funny" said Harry cautiously "It was almost easier, when there was still a war."
"Yeah, we just had to find the next you know what" said Ron "Course, if we'd known what the hell we were doing? Or you'd had a plan other than wander around hoping for the best."
"Ron, we were just kids" Harry sighed. "Stupid kids."
"You thinking we should have got the order to help?" asked Ron.
"In hindsight… yeah" admitted Harry.
"Well Hindsight is twenty-twenty, and you're a specky git" joked Ron.
"Ron, I'm worried about Hermione" said Harry slowly. "She's acting weird."
"It's not my fault" said Ron hurriedly.
"I'm not saying that" said Harry. "She hasn't ever done well with the fighting. Though… I'm still having nightmares about Cedric, so I can't talk."
"I still have nightmares about those bloody spiders. Follow the spiders, that was mental" said Ron.
Harry chuckled "Oh if I could turn time back" he chuckled, and sighed.
"It's been more than a day, and the time turners broke when we … you know" joked Ron.
"Yeah, and we know how it turned out." said Harry.
"Yeah" sighed Ron, and he sat down on the little wooden jetty, his shoes just above the water.
"Um, Ron, I need to go off on my own for a while... Twenty minutes say" said Harry.
"Yeah, not in my bedroom" replied Ron. "And not the loo, there's too many people home."
"Just off into the orchard" corrected Harry. "Not that. I don't even do that."
"You're weird" said Ron. "I'll be here."
"Yeah mate" mumbled Harry and he walked off. The apple orchard was lighter today, and smelt of dirt and rotting apples.
Harry pulled his invisibility cloak out of his hoodie and put it on, then got out the Resurrection Stone and rolled it.
A ghostly young man appeared, tall and handsome. Harry suddenly smelt something rotting. He glanced around, wondering if someone had left an inferii around as a trap?
"Harry?" asked Cedric's ghost. "You've got old" he said.
"Hi um, Cedric" said Harry. 'Muffliato' he cast. "You um, doing all right? You can talk here."
'I'm dead" said Cedric. "But Mum was pleased to see me, and I met this girl…."
Harry listened to the Hufflepuff Prefect make polite bullshit conversation.
"I'm really sorry you died" admitted Harry.
"I'm sorry I died" contradicted Cedric "I was looking forward to some things, you know."
"Don't you… now?" asked Harry.
"I mean having a family, my own and watching them grow up" explained Cedric "But what happened, happened. You didn't kill me. Peter Pettigrew did."
"You can kick him in the balls, it still hurts" suggested Harry.
Cedric blinked "Not over on our side it doesn't"
"It does here" explained Harry. "Some of the people I brought over with the stone have been more… embarrassing than others, or funnier. It's just I still have nightmares about you dying."
Cedric… dammit he blushed "That's… cute, I suppose" said Cedric awkwardly "But I um… I like girls."
"Not like that!" protested Harry "I feel guilty."
"Well don't. I'll see about kicking Pettigrew" Cedric replied.
"There might be a queue" quipped Harry, and rolled the stone backwards. Suddenly Harry could smell elderflowers, sweet and fragrant.
Harry took off the cloak and bunched it back into his hoodie. Cedric didn't blame him. That's something. Harry knew it was all probably fake, made from his memory, but… surely this would help with sleeping. They said if you talked about your problems, confronted them, they get better, right?
Harry woke from nightmares about Cedric dying again that night. So much for talking about it, he thought, snuck down to the kitchen and drank the last of the firewhiskey.
As he staggered drunkenly back to Ron's room, he realised his dad had the cloak at Hogwarts. What sort of mischief had he got up to… had he looked in the girls showers? Come to think of it, why hadn't he, Harry Potter, boy with invisibility cloak looked in on the girls showers. The Griffindor girls dorms were protected by that slide spell… but there were three other dorms. A brief thought of watching the evil Slytherin girls all wet and covered in bubbles and well, nobody'd notice at this time of night if he used the loo, right? Harry went to bed drunken and sated.
The hangover in the morning was getting to be a bit of a tradition, too, he thought.
Hermione turned up to breakfast in a dressing gown, looking red eyed and flinching at loud noises; and this was the Burrow so were plenty of those.
After breakfast Harry tried to floo to Grimmauld place but the fireplace refused to go green.
"Harry dear, is the floo connection paid up?" asked Molly Weasley.
That was news to Harry. Probably it's like the gas bill. The order might have been paying it...or something.
Harry walked off to the boundary, towing a grumpy Hermione and a tense Ron.
"I really don't feel like it" complained Hermione, her hair an absolute disaster birds-nest.
They apparated to the door of Grimmauld place, which was as black and forbidding as ever.
Harry pushed the door open, and noticed the door hadn't been latched.
The hallway had been burnt by some stray spells, the old carpet had massive holes burnt in it.
"Oh" said Harry "They did come."
The portrait of Sirius's mother started screaming "Thieves, vandals!"
Harry walked over, about to pull the curtains shut.
"You" yelled Walburga Black's painting angrily "Where were you when the house was being burgled?"
"On the run" said Harry "I was undesirable number one with the ministry."
"He had a two hundred thousand galleon bounty" added Ron unhelpfully, Harry thought.
"You useless half-blood, the house has been burgled. They took all our precious things!" snarled Walburga's painting.
Harry nodded "Anything else I need to know?" he asked.
"You're a disgrace to the house of Black" she added. "And bringing a mud-blood into the house."
"Shut up" said Harry sharply "I've killed your great Lord Voldemort, and she helped. So shut it, or I'll work out something nasty to do to you."
Walburga looked enraged, but Ron pulled the curtains shut. "At least they weren't dumb enough to steal the curtains" said Ron.
"Shh" whispered Hermione.
They explored the rest of the house and most of the soft furniture had been cut open.
"Looking for hidden things" suggested Hermione.
All the mattresses were wrecked and the drawing room cabinet had been left door ajar, empty of everything.
"You've been burgled" said Hermione. "By Death Eaters."
Harry sighed. More problems.
They apparated down to the kitchen, which had been looted too, leaving a mess of broken things from the shelves on the floor.
Ron and Hermione picked through the broken china and rubbish, finding a battered pot, and the kettle, but someone had pierced a hole in it.
"We can't even boil water" said Hermione.
"I've got a pot, but no kettle. My inheritance from the Blacks" said Harry, frowning.
"Harry's Pot" said Ron.
"And there's his kettle." said Hermione, repairing it with a careful repair charm.
"They're both quite black" said Harry, and he was quite proud of that.
"The Pot called the Kettle Black" said Hermione "You're Potter and Black, officially aren't you?"
"I think so" admitted Harry. "Sirius did it"
Ron cleared his throat and did a silly voice "I'd like to introduce Mr Pot-Kettle-Black, he might not have much, but it's mostly crap."
"That rhymes" said Hermione, sounding surprised. "Well, Kettle, got any ideas?"
Harry felt the dig about his belongings being crap was a bit rich for someone who lived at his mums house and had Chudley Cannons posters up on his bedroom walls.
"Lunch?" asked Harry "There's clearly no food here; but we can go back to The Burrow?"
"We should re-light the fire" said Ron "Probably it's just off" he reasoned reassuringly.
Harry threw a broken chair in the fireplace and lit it with a jab of his wand. Like Hagrid had done, he thought to himself proudly.
Then Harry noticed the small pot of floo powder on the lintel was missing.
"They took my floo powder!" Harry protested "Who does that, honestly!"
He drew his wand and cast the most perfect summoning charm he could on the lintel. The pot shimmered into place.
"Bloody hell, you did that perfectly" exclaimed Ron.
"Language Ron." snapped Hermione, on reflex, Harry assumed "That was rather good" she acknowledged.
Harry threw a pinch of glittering powder into the fireplace and it flared green "The Burrow!" he called out and stepped in. And stood there, like a berk in the green flames as nothing happened.
"Networks been cut off" suggested Ron.
Harry stepped out of the fireplace, and for once, didn't fall over.
"We'll have to apparate" said Hermione.
The Daily Prophet had arrived at the Burrow, announcing a new provisional government with Kingsley Shacklebolt as Minister for magic.
Harry was eating some chicken casserole for dinner when Mr Weasley arrived by floo looking weary.
"Harry, did you say you wanted to help?" he asked, after a few bites "The Aurors are horribly understaffed, and Kingsley said they'd take anyone reliable" he stared at Harry; making 'reliable' clear; politically reliable.
The next morning, though Mrs Weasley protested, Ron, Harry, and Mr Weasley headed off to the Ministry.
Harry was told to follow Auror Dawlish, given a red cloak and a brass badge, and told to let Dawlish do the talking. He and Ron spent the day moving prisoners from cells to the Azkaban ferry.
After the fourth prisoner spat at him, Harry started body-binding everyone and levitated them like parcels. Parcels that swore and bitched, till he silenced them.
Ron followed suit, and after the second trip they had to do the ferry escort ride to Azkaban as well.
As the ferry arrived at Azkaban, the cold wind ate into Harry's bones.
As he and Ron rode the ferry back out of the apparition barrier Ron said "Mate, this is rough" Harry nodded. It was rough but compared to the year on the run, it was pretty easy work.
Hermione was sitting looking out the window when Ron and Harry finally got home to the burrow.
She turned and stared at Harry unblinkingly. Harry shook his head, and Hermione sighed.
Ron walked over and sat down next to Hermione and wrapped her in a hug. She lowered her head onto his shoulder, but looked plaintively at Harry.
Ginny arrived by floo just as dinner was starting. She'd been at Hogwarts working on the clean-up.
Ginny chattered happily and Harry found it difficult to act happy. Mrs Weasley handed out dreamless sleep potion after dinner.
George still hadn't left his room. Still missing Fred, Harry supposed. Ginny was all positive till dinner, then looked at the two empty chairs at the table and burst into tears.
Harry was starting to enjoy the mind-mumbing tedium of the job, four days later.
Even the cold of Azkaban was a change from the rest of the day.
Then their badges squealed, so they apparated back to the ready room and Head Auror Dawlish was there "Portkey to the site: multiple death eaters" he said, and held out an old boot.
Harry and Ron and Dawlish portkeyed away, and Harry drew his wand. They'd landed in a street near a warehouse where some people in black cloaks were firing curses at another Auror from the wide door of a warehouse. Harry ducked down, Ron shielded and Harry, feeling the terror of fighting, his heart pounding, fired a blasting curse at the group, and they scattered like ninepins. "Go go GO" yelled Dawlish and Harry and Ron ran left and right, trying to get some cover against the walls.
Harry crashed against the wall and caught his breath, Dawlish right beside him "Good instincts Potter" gasped Dawlish. "The problem with portkeying to an Auror in distress is getting taken out as you arrive."
"You could have told us beforehand" hissed Harry, sliding along the wall.
"You were less worried this way" explained Dawlish.
It seemed like ages later, but the Death eaters fight never really recovered from Harrys first blasting curse, and they were eventually all stunned, searched, bound and port-keyed back to holding cells. Ron had a broken arm and Harry had one eye stuck shut, but they'd won. Perkins, the Aurors they'd come to assist had two broken legs, but had quickly cast a bone-binding spell on himself so he could fight. That was going to see him in a bed for few days while the healers fixed that properly.
St Mungos fixed them up quite quickly. Dawlish explained as the Healer poured something in Harry's eye "Aurors get priority, so we can get back out and get hurt again."
Then Harry was taken back to the Auror office and introduced to writing after-action reviews. An essay. About a fight. His hand was killing him as the lights started going off that evening, and he finally flooed back to the Burrow.
Mrs Weasley had food waiting for him and Harry ate, while Ginny talked about something they were doing at Hogwarts. Repairing the staircase maybe, and the repair works were counting as practicals for NEWTs.
Harry fell onto the truckle bed, nearly unconscious already, the sounds of Rons snoring a familiar, almost soothing sound. Harry fell asleep. To wake an hour later, heart pounding, covered in sweat, reliving his adventure in the graveyard again, Cedric dying. He lay on his back and tried to work it out. Twice a night, for three years. About the two thousandth time he'd had that particular nightmare. He was too keyed up to sleep, there was no firewhiskey left, Harry took his wand and cast a stunner on himself. He woke up hours later, with a headache. He lay for the rest of the night, fitfully sleeping.
Finally, Harry got to a rostered day off. He had things to do. First, to get some money.
The Auror office and the Ministry in general were a bit short of money right now, but would pay some wages really soon.
Harry walked toward Gringotts nervously. He had no money left and really need to go visit his vault. Visions of piles of galleons soothed his nerves.
As he approached the Goblin guards outside Gringotts they stood up and crossed their long pointy pole things, blocking Harry's way.
"Halt, Thief" rasped one Goblin.
"Er" said Harry. 'Oh, they were still sore about that incident with the dragon.'
"It's just I need to visit my vault" explained Harry.
"Thieves aren't welcome at Gringotts" growled the left hand side goblin.
"We're keeping you here, and you better not run" explained the right Goblin "Or you'll be stabbed in the back." and smiled toothily. Well, they were awfully sharp teeth too.
The left goblin took a horn from its belt and blew it; making a dull, groaning noise.
A while later, a goblin in a suit came out, looked at Harry and asked simply "Key Please?"
Harry took out his vault key and handed it over. The goblin nodded and spoke "Gringotts acknowledges you have returned your vault key. You are banned from Gringotts for life for theft. Gringotts thanks you for your business and will be taking your vault contents as fines for theft in accordance with Section eighty-one, paragraph six, sub-paragraph eight. Which states that in the event of theft from Gringotts, Gringotts may fine the perpetrators for the cost of loss, loss of Gringotts equipment, namely one dragon, fully grown, damage to the building, seventy-five thousand galleons, loss of goblin lives… one million galleons per life, for a total of thirteen million galleons, and the value of the lost customer property; which Gringotts cannot establish; so under Section one hundred and thirteen, paragraph eight, Gringotts has assessed the value of the object as one million galleons. As the value of the fines exceeds your balance with Gringotts, we have no further business with you. As a gesture of goodwill, Gringotts will not ban your get. Your accomplices did not have Gringotts vaults, but they and their get are banned from ever having one. As a Gringotts customer, in line with Gringotts customer relations policy, a copy of Gringotts decision in this matter had been owl-posted to you. Goodbye human and may we never see your ugly face again."
The guard goblins put their big pointy pole things down and applauded.
Harry left. Bother.
