"What have I done?" Harry whispered quietly, dismay painted on his face. The others had already Portkeyed away as soon as the scene had unfolded, and only he and the Headmaster remained. Professor Dumbledore gave him a solemn look and put his old, wrinkled hand on Harry's shoulder.
"You have been needing to get that out for quiet a long period of time," the Headmaster told him. It was as he told Harry this that he looked as old as he was.
"I'm so sorry...I shouldn't have yelled at him," Harry trailed off.
"He should not have baited you," said Dumbledore with a raised eyebrow.
"I suppose so..."
"Anyway, to raise this to a happier scale, we now have some reasonable control over the ministry. We should be able to shut down the more nasty departments..." Dumbledore began. He would have continued, had a tiny grey owl not bashed into his forehead swiftly.
"Ah, what have we here?" he mused, taking the newspaper from the owl. It fluttered away in a flurry of wings before he could pay the cute little bird.
The Headmaster began to read aloud.
"Gringott's attacked again. Today at four p.m., a member of the bank's goblin staff came across an open vault, which rarely or never occurs due to necessary precautions. But today, items were found thrown askew along with Galleons outside of the Potter Family vault. Inspections were administered, and while they could find nothing missing, they suspect that the intent of the break-in was to steal something.
'We suspect Death Eaters, of course,' said Arthur Weasley, head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office.
When questioned about the means the Death Eaters used to break into such a highly guarded vault, Weasley answered by simply saying he didn't know since he was not a member of Gringott's staff.
Harry Potter, 15, the premature owner of this vault, has not yet given any comments in regards to this event. We promise an interview with Potter as soon as the opportunity presents itself."
Harry just sighed resignedly and looked out a nearby window, now seeing the brilliant red and violet clouds in the sky as the sun began to set.
"It figures it would be my vault. Probably stupid Voldemort trying to steal something to use against me," he mumbled incoherently.
Dumbledore had lost the twinkle in his eyes and his face adopted a somewhat worrisome face.
"Harry, I know what he was searching for, and I must ask you not to overreact when I tell of which he would seek," the aged professor said. Harry nodded wearily in reply.
"He was looking for the Green Flame Torch, Harry."
Harry just looked puzzled.
"I don't know much about it, other than it is carried by all members of the Monroe family. Usually, the holders are the only children and are male, but your grandfather was orphaned at a young age and never learned of his heritage. And due to a case of severe amnesia, he could only remember the first part of his name, Alexis Evans. His full name, of course, was Alexis Evans-Munroe. And further, due to his supressed magical ability, the blood magic that caused all of the heirs to be male and to stop all ability to have children after the first was dissolved, and the blood magic would only be recovered in the case of another magical child being born of his blood. Instead, he had two female children. Fortunately, your mother managed to have magic blood in her, and was given the Green Flame Torch. But, I'm afraid I have no knowledge as far as what the torch is or what it does. The answer is probably in your vault," the professor explained.
Harry just shrugged nonchalantly and motioned to the door.
"Yeah, I'm sure that's great and all, but I'm starved," Harry told him, but there was no need because before he finished that statement, his stomach gave a loud rumble. Just as fast as it had left, the twinkle returned to the old man's eyes before he gave a quiet chuckle.
"Ah, yes. I suppose a growing teenager would need food. I live in dread that you grow into a man like your friend Ron; it seems that he eats the same amount as an underfed dragon," said the Headmaster dryly. Harry grinned as the wizened fellow pulled a seemingly innocent lemon candy which Harry attached his hand onto. Within seconds, they felt the familiar pulling and saw the whirl of colours as they soon found themselves at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.
All it took was one look and Harry knew the place had changed. Gone was the awful hag Mrs. Black's portrait, and gone were the cobwebs. The wooden furniture now stood polished and shining, while the marble floors sparkled in cleanliness. The carpet that led up the stairs was no longer stained the colour that suspiciously looked like blood. He was snapped out of his reverie as a blaze of red came blasting into him and wrapped its arms around him. It was Mrs. Weasley.
"Oh, Harry! I've been so worried about you," the redheaded woman cooed lovingly. "After...after..."
"Sirius?" Harry said weakly.
"Yes, dear. Now, now, I've just finished dinner and I wouldn't want your appetite to be ruined. Goodness knows what they've been feeding you at that awful place," she tutted, dragging Harry by the hand into the dining area as Ron and Hermione both groaned simultaneously from inside the house.
"She's gone into super-mum mode," Ginny whined.
"Oh, no! That means we'll be going to bed early!" Ron complained, while Hermione just rolled her eyes as always and muttered something about selfishness of teenagers.
"Well, you're one too!" retorted Ron as she rounded the corner.
There were about twenty people at the table, including Tonks, the Metamorphmagus; Mad-Eye, the Ex-Auror; and Remus Lupin, the werewolf. Everyone noticed that as usual, Severus Snape was not present.
"That man," Mrs. Weasley scolded to an invisible Severus, "we all know he needs a good feeding and what does he do? He never shows up. Ever! And I always make sure there's enough food for everyone, and that includes him! Humph."
Harry looked sideways shamefully and Hermione coughed softly. But no one explained what happened. Mrs. Weasley gave a sharp glare over in Arthur's direction, one of those what-happened-and-why-didn't-you-tell-me? glares.
"So!" Remus piped up jovially in attempt to break the silence. "Will we be deprived of your excellent cooking or are we going to eat tonight?"
With that, everyone began dishing their plates with mashed potatoes and roast beef.
"Did you get your OWL scores, Harry?" Mrs. Weasley asked kindly. Harry blushed slightly and told her his marks, and when he finished she was beaming like a proud mother.
"That's excellent dear. At least you did better than Ron here," she said quite rudely, and at the comment Ron promptly looked at his plate.
"Now, Molly," Arthur chided, "he did much better than the twins, you know."
Molly shrugged and sighed and continued to eat her meal.
Everyone indulged in second helpings, and sometimes even thirds, but when it was all said and done it was time for everyone to leave and say their goodbyes.
"Well, it was nice seeing you Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Weasleys. Thanks for the dinner Mrs. Weasley, it was very good." Harry smiled at all of them and gave them each hugs in turn, however it was quite awkward when he hugged the two girls.
"Oh, it was my pleasure, Harry, dear," Mrs. Weasley replied.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked. Hermione rolled her eyes and answered in place of Harry.
"He's going to the Muggles', genius."
Harry smirked at this.
"Actually, I'm not." Everyone's eyes widened except for Albus Dumbledore's, whose were still twinkling.
"Where are you going, then? You can't stay anywhere else!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Actually, I can, and I'm not going to tell you where. It's a surprise." Harry grinned sheepishly as Hermione shot him a 'look', scooped up the Floo powder, and nearly threw it into the fire until his professor coughed gently.
"I assume you're taking a wild guess at what it's called?" the man questioned.
Harry blushed and looked at his feet. 'Stupid, stupid!'
"It's called Godric Place. Now, off you go."
With that, Harry dropped the powder into the fireplace, stepped in gracefully and shouted out, "Godric Place!", and found himself in his home once again.