Harry Potter, Heir of Gryffindor

Aftermath

That night, as Harry lay resting in bed in the moments before sleep took him, Hedwig and and a second snowy owl flew in through the open window and perched on the headboard of his bed. The second owl remained silent (in deference to this being Hedwig's domain) and waited patiently for her to rouse her master. Hooting softly in his ear, Hedwig brought her master back from the edge of slumber. Hopping down she landed on the pillow next to his head and gently nipped Harry's ear until he came fully awake. Then, as her master sat up on the edge of his bed groping for his glasses, she took flight, soaring across the room and coming to rest moments later on her master's desk.

As soon as Harry found his glasses he put them on and stumbled tiredly over to the door. Turning on the light he turned around and saw who he at first thought was Hedwig perched on the headboard of his bed with a note tied to her leg. But then he saw Hedwig perched on his desk and took a second look. Upon closer inspection he noticed that the markings on this new owl, although strikingly similar, were slightly different. "Henry?" he asked.

The new owl hooted happily and hopped down, gliding the length of the bed and coming to rest on the footboard. Harry untied Ginny's letter and sat back down on his bed to read. Hedwig flew over, landing on the bed beside him and let out a welcoming hoot. Henry hopped down and waddled across the bed to stand on Harry's left while Hedwig stood guard on his right. Harry looked at them, noticing that Henry was slightly smaller than Hedwig, and said, "What? Do you two think I need body guards while I'm reading a letter from Ginny?" Hedwig and Henry both turned to look at him and hooted their agreement. Harry couldn't help but grin, shake his head at their loyalty and laugh softly to himself. "Some people." Them stroking each of the owls asked, "What am I going to do with you two?"

Hedwig and Henry both turned their enormous amber eyes on him and hooted impatiently as they waited for him to open and read Ginny's letter. Shaking his head in amusement at their seemingly united front Harry broke the simple wax seal and unrolled Ginny's note.

Dear Harry,

Remus, Tonks and Kingsley filled us in on the battle in Diagon Alley this
afternoon. They said that you and Neville acted like you had been working
together for years. They said that they had never seen anything like it.
Kingsley says that all of the Ministry aurors who were involved in the battle
were very impressed and that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is
going to be keeping their eyes on you two. Needles to say, Mad-Eye Moody was
very impressed with their reports. It's a good thing Remus' senses told him
that something didn't feel right. Otherwise they might not have had any
warning. It is also a good thing Neville was there so you could team up with
your training partner.

Yes, they told us about your training, Harry. Ron was a little jealous at
first but he got over it pretty quickly when Mum reminded him that he is still
working with the Department of Mysteries on the brain thing and doesn't have
time to train. Professor Dumbledore promised him that there will be plenty of
opportunities to train at school next year. Do you know what he is talking
about?

Mum is disappointed that I didn't make Prefect but Gred and Forge are happy for
me. They say it will give me more time to cause trouble. Mum almost went
ballistic when they said that and started telling me how to booby-trap the
sinks. Honestly, I don't know what Mum is worried about. I would never do
anything like that (wink, wink).

Thank you for buying Henry for me, Harry! He is a wonderful owl. I hope he
turns out to be as smart as Hedwig. I hope they - Henry and Hedwig - get
along.

Please write.

Love,

Ginny

Harry laughed at Ginny's feigned innocence and hoped that he was never on the receiving end of one of her pranks because if Fred and George were going to be feeding her ideas he doubted he would survive. Getting up and walking over to his desk he pulled out a fresh piece of parchment and a quill and opened the bottle of emerald green ink he had started using to respond to Ginny's letters when it became apparent that she was going to be one of his regular pen pals this summer. He didn't know why he started using this special ink for her letters. It just felt right somehow so he didn't question it.

As he settled down to start crafting a response (for some reason he also felt that Ginny's letters deserved a little more attention so, rather than simply writing to her, he tended to look upon it as crafting a letter to someone who deserved the best he had to offer) Hedwig and Henry flew over and took up positions on either corner of his desk and turned to watch him as he began his response. Harry looked up at them and shook his head, "Alright you two," he said. "Give me some room so I can write or we are going to be here all night." The two owls scooted back slightly but still watched him intently as he began crafting his response

Dear Ginny,

I don't think you have to worry about Hedwig and Henry getting along. They
are ganging up on me to make sure I read and respond to your letter. While I
was reading it Hedwig was on one side of me while Henry was on the other. And
right now they are perched on the back corners of my desk watching to make
sure I don't make any mistakes. Somehow I get the feeling they like each other
and that my life will never be the same.

So I guess the cat is out of the bag. Yes, Neville and I have been receiving
additional training this summer. I couldn't tell you before because I wasn't
supposed to say anything to anyone who didn't have an absolute need to know and
unfortunately you didn't absolutely have to know. I'm sorry.

According to Professor Dumbledore all students will be taking additional
laboratory classes in Defense Against the Dark Arts next year. I will be
teaching one of those classes because he wants me to continue with the D.A.
I guess that means you, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna and the rest of them will
be in my group. I hope you guys will be ready to work and learn how to defend
yourselves because with everything Neville and I are learning you are going to
be learning a lot more than a few simple spells. You are going to be learning
how to move and fight.

The only thing I can say about any pranks you might be pulling over the next
couple of years is please be careful. You don't want to go pranking the wrong
people. For example, I really don't think you want to prank me because while
you may have Fred and George on your side I have all of the experiences of
Padfoot, Prongs and Moony (the three true Marauders) on my side.
Sirius was Padfoot; my dad was Prongs and Remus is Moony. And from what I
have seen so far this summer you don't want to mess with Moony.

I'm glad you like Henry. Like I said, I wanted to buy you something to let you
know that I am sorry for ignoring you for so long. You really are a wonderful
human being, Ginny, and I don't think I will ever be able to look at you as
Ron's little sister ever again. There is more to you than meets the eye,
Ginny, (not that what meets the eye is all that bad to begin with) and with
your permission I would like to spend some time getting to know you better
when we get back to Hogwarts.

I don't know if Professor Dumbledore will tell you everything but you can
still ask. All I can say for sure is that I am going to have to stay here as
long as possible this summer. I hope we will be able to see each other at
least once or twice between now and September first but . . .

Love,

Harry

Harry read the letter over and even though he didn't like leaving the last thought unfinished he felt that under the circumstances it was appropriate. Then he looked at the way he had signed it and wondered if he really did feel that way about Ginny. The more he thought about it the more he realized that it must be true. He found that he cared about her in a ways he had never expected to care about anyone. He wanted to get to know her for herself. He wanted to protect her without being a prat and trying to dominate her life. And, most of all, he found that he felt comfortable around her and wanted to share his life with her. He didn't want to force anything because he wasn't sure how Ginny felt about him. Oh, sure, he knew she had had a crush on him in his second year (her first) but he was pretty sure she was over that.

Not knowing what else to do and not wanting to start over he decided to leave the letter alone and send it on its way. With an almost fatalistic air about him he rolled the parchment up, sealed it with a few drops of wax from a rose scented candle and tied it to Henry's leg. "Take this to Ginny," he told the smaller of the two snowy owls. Then turning to his owl he said, "Hedwig, I want you to fly escort for Henry because I don't want anything happening to this letter."

Both owls hooted their reassurance and took off through the open window. After watching them disappear into the night Harry walked over and turned the light off. Five minutes later, after checking to see that the wards around his thoughts and memories were still in place, and reinforcing them ever so slightly, to make sure Tom would not be able break in and discover his feelings for the youngest Weasley, he was asleep and dreaming about a certain young redhead who had captured his heart.

As Harry, Neville and Remus entered the clearing the next morning Mad-Eye Moody hobbled over and looked the two teenagers over from head to toe. "Not bad," the retired auror said after a prolonged silence. "I hear you boys think you know how to fight. I heard about that little scuffle in Diagon Alley yesterday and I must say that I am impressed. It wasn't much but then I guess you have got to cut your teeth on something. But you are nowhere near ready for an all out war. You have proven yourselves against a few rookies but now that they know what you are capable of they are not going to go quite so easy on you. So from here on out you are going to be working twice as hard and will be learning twice as much so that you will be ready the next time they come looking for you."

Harry and Neville looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders, smirking at the not unexpected response to their achievements.

During breakfast Harry read the Daily Prophet account of the fight in Diagon Alley and was pleased to see that Rita had kept her word. Their names did not appear anywhere in any of the many articles and there were no pictures or descriptions of either himself or Neville anywhere in the paper. Whenever they were mentioned they were simply referred to as either "the boys" or "those boys." Harry suspected that Dumbledore must have gotten to the editors and convinced them to keep their names out of the paper.

After breakfast they went through their regular warm-up exercises and then spent the next three hours running, jumping, spinning and leaping through a magical obstacle course that Moody had devised to test their agility and sharpen their reflexes. Not only were there physical obstacles to overcome but there were many magical traps as well. To make matters even worse, or "more realistic" as Moody liked to say, stunners were fired at them from every conceivable angle at random intervals throughout the exercise. When they were finally given a few moments to rest Harry and Neville, dripping with sweat, collapsed to the ground, exhausted from their ordeal.

As they lay sprawled out on the ground Tonks walked over and stood over them. "Whew!" she said, wrinkling her nose. "You two stink! But I'm impressed. I had to stop after only one hour my first time through Moody's maze."

Neville glared up at the impishly smiling auror. "You mean we had a choice?" he asked.

Tonks just smiled and laughed. "Not really, but you could have asked."

Harry groaned while rubbing his aching arms. "I ought to hex you, Tonks," he groaned. "Why didn't you tell us we could ask for a break?"

Tonks smiled down at him and sweetly said, "Because you didn't ask."

"Neville?" Harry asked flatly.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think it's time we taught Tonks here a lesson?"

Neville was silent for a moment then as they both rolled over and sprang to their feet, casting a variety of harmless charms at Tonks, he said, "Yeah!"

The effect was both instantaneous and hilarious to behold. Tonks' clothes were transfigured into a ballerina's tutu; her shoes were transfigured into heavy wooden clogs; her hair started waiving wildly about, as though it had a mind of its own; her ears started flapping wildly back and forth; and she started running around the clearing flapping her arms and squawking like a chicken. Remus, Kingsley and Mad-Eye, who were sitting at the table, looked up to see what all the commotion was about and couldn't help but laugh at Tonks' predicament. "Remind me never to get on your bad side!" Remus gasped out between fits of laughter. "Padfoot and Prongs would be proud."

Harry and Neville released Tonks after a few seconds because they didn't want to incur her wrath. But as they removed the last of the charms they looked at each other and nodded, satisfied that they had taught their teacher a lesson.

"You two are a force to be reckoned with." Kingsley chuckled, his deep, rich voice booming with laughter. "I would hate to be a Death Eater on the receiving end of one of your joint pranks."

Moody even looked to be smiling but when Kingsley made the comment about pranks his eyes took on a determined glint as he looked thoughtfully around the clearing. Almost a minute later he looked over at his fellows and said, "Lupin, I think the time has come for you teach these boys how to prank their enemies into submission." The others looked curiously at the retired auror but he ignored them. "Most of the Death Eaters you will face," he explained, "will be expecting you to try to disarm them with a variety of curses, hexes and charms. None of them will be expecting a prank attack. I understand you were pretty good at it while you were in school, Lupin. Do you think you can teach these boys the finer points of being a prankster?"

Remus looked up and thoughtfully studied the two boys standing across the table from him for a few seconds then, as an evil grin spread across his face, said, "Yes, Alastor, I think I can. In fact I have recently come into possession of a trunk filled with the prank notes we took while in school. I'll have to look through it but I think they are fairly complete and some of them could be quite useful."

For the next three hours Remus lectured Harry and Neville on the finer points of pranking and began teaching them how to combine a variety of spells into cohesive units which would be unexpected yet highly effective in disarming their opponents. He also taught them the theory and practice of spell modification giving several examples, from his days at Hogwarts, of how spells could be tampered with and modified to meet a variety of needs. By the time he was finished Harry and Neville had a new appreciation for the genius that went into creating an effective prank.