Chapter 3

Peeling Potatoes

Harry had to let Ginny fly because she was in front. He was starting to wonder what was wrong with her. He knew she flew very well, but she wasn't doing a very good job, and she was making it hard for him to keep his balance without hurting his back. Then he saw her head fall to her chest, before snapping back up again.

'Of course, she hasn't slept, she's exhausted.' His face turning bright red, Harry carefully reached around Ginny's waist and took hold of the broom in front of her. She turned her head and looked at him questioningly.

"Go ahead and sleep. I'll fly."

"Are you sure?" she asked, and he could see she was struggling to keep her eyes open.

"If you're not afraid you'll fall." She leaned back against his chest and closed her eyes.

"I know you won't let me," she muttered. She fell asleep instantly.

Harry swallowed hard. He had to work to keep his mind on flying as she laid against him. Sally laughed. "It's not funny," he whispered, afraid to wake her.

"Yess, it iss."

He had to fly much slower, keeping himself and Ginny balanced on the broom. But he really wasn't in a hurry to get there. That thought made him blush again.

"Sal," he said after about an hour.

"What?"

"What am I going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

Harry kept his voice to a whisper. "I'm going to be living in her house. Her brothers are all gone. Her mother is sick, her father will be at work. We'll be alone most of the time. What am I going to do?"

"You're going to handle it, that'ss what. There'ss nothing to do for it, you have to sstay and help."

"I know that, but, still."

"You are jusst going to have to deal with it, Harry."

It took a few more hours before they reached the home that Harry knew so well. He flew above the house, and let the invisibility cloak fall to the roof. Then he flew down and landed softly in the grass, Ginny falling against him.

He picked her up carefully, leaving his broom and belongings where they were for the time being. The door to the burrow opened, and Harry saw Mr. Weasley, Charlie, and a girl that had to be Sandy run out. Behind them in the door way stood Bill and a young woman holding a baby.

"Harry!" Mr. Weasley shouted. "Is she okay?"

Harry waited for Mr. Weasley to reach him before he responded. "She's fine. She fell asleep on the way over."

"The way over? From where? Why are you here?"

Harry glanced at Charlie, than looked back at Mr. Weasley. "She came and got me. I'll explain in a moment, but I would really like to let her sleep.

"Dad, why don't you go tell Mum she's back, and I'll show Harry to Ginny's room." Harry was about to say that he knew where her room was, but he caught the look that Charlie gave him.

They started back to the house. Mr. Weasley rushed away to tell Mrs. Molly that Ginny was back. Charlie started to lead the way up the stairs.

Harry climbed slowly, half due to his back, half due to trying not to wake Ginny. Once they were a floor up and safely out of earshot, Charlie spoke. "She told you, didn't she?"

"Couldn't have you spending your honeymoon in your parent's house, could we?"

Charlie smiled slightly and shook his head. "She shouldn't have done that. It's not fair to you."

"I don't mind, really," Harry said quickly, unable to stop a blush from creeping up his cheeks. They reached the third floor and Harry entered Ginny's room quickly so Charlie wouldn't see his red face.

As Charlie watched from the doorway, Harry carefully laid Ginny down on her bed and pulled the covers up over her. Sally slid down off of his neck onto the bedpost. Harry switched to Parseltongue so Charlie wouldn't understand. "Watch her for me, and come get me when she wakes up." Sally nodded, and Harry glanced at Ginny.

At the end of last year, he had noticed a change in the way she slept. Before, when she slept, she looked exactly how she did when awake. Then he had noticed that she had changed, and now when she slept, she looked more relaxed, less stressed. Now, that difference was even more noticeable. She was even more tense and stressed now. He sighed before turning.

"You see it too?"

Harry jumped slightly; he had almost forgotten Charlie was there. "S-see what?" Sally looked up at them.

"The difference in how she sleeps now. Or rather, the difference in how she looks awake now."

Harry stared at Charlie, then glanced back at Ginny. "Yes, I do. And I think it's my fault. In fact, I think all of this is my fault."

Charlie grinned. "Now you sound like her. Or at least what she used to sound like before you came along." Harry stared. "Come on, before we wake her up."

Harry followed Charlie out of the room and shut the door behind him. They started to walk back down the stares. "You know, she used to tell me everything. She keeps things from me now." Harry looked up at Charlie, but Charlie just looked ahead. "I'm closer to her then Ron in many ways. I worry."

Harry looked down at his feet. "They're my secrets. That she's keeping from you. I'm sorry."

Charlie glanced at Harry out of the corner of his eye. "But you're keeping something from her too."

"No, nothing. I tell her every-" Harry cut off, remembering exactly what secret he was keeping from her. He looked up at Charlie, who smiled at him.

"See, I knew it."

Harry looked back down at his feet. "You're not mad? Ron would be."

"Ron's always mad. He's still mad that Bill got married. He'll be mad at me as soon as he finds out that I'm married too."

"Are you going to tell everybody?"

"Well, if we have to, yes. If not, we might wait a little while."

They reached the first floor, and fell silent. Harry walked back into the kitchen where Mr. Weasley, Bill, Lynn, Sandy, and baby Mary were waiting. Harry looked over at the baby, than smiled at Lynn. "She's beautiful."

Lynn blushed but smiled proudly. "Thank you."

"Harry, Molly would like to see you. Down the hall, to the left."

He walked down the hall to the bedroom. Mrs. Molly looked up at him when he entered. Harry fell down to his knees beside the bed. He could see the effects of the treatment right away. There were dark circles under her eyes. Her cheeks were hallow and pale. He could already tell she had lost weight, and it had only been a day. Her hair had lost its normal shine.

"Harry, we should have known that's where she'd go."

Harry smiled. "She told me that there was an open bed here, so I could get away from the Dursleys if I wanted."

Mrs. Molly smiled. "Liar. She wants you here to baby sit me so Charlie doesn't have to."

Harry snapped his fingers. "Dang, you caught me."

"Well, if you don't mind, I won't object. Charlie and Sandy deserve some time to themselves now that they are married."

Harry blinked. "They told you?"

"What? Oh no, they didn't. They didn't tell me that they were engaged either. He should know that he can't keep things from me. I also think that Sandy may be pregnant, am I right?"

Harry grinned and nodded. "Yes. You are. But don't tell them I told you so."

"I won't. Secret is safe with me." She yawned.

"Go to sleep Mrs. Molly."

Harry walked out of the room and shut the door. In the kitchen he found everybody waiting for him.

"Why?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"Why am I here? Rose came and got me. She said that she would need some help taking care of her mother."

"You? But, why-"

"Why not?" came Ginny's voice from the top of the stairs. She rubbed her sleepy eyes as she came down. "He's been taking care of himself for years. The two of us can do it easily. Then you don't have to ask Charlie to stay, Dad."

"But," Mr. Weasley looked at Ginny, with an odd expression. Harry suddenly understood.

"Mr. Weasley." Arthur turned to look at Harry. "I'll take care of her," Harry glance meaningfully at Ginny to show it was not Mrs. Weasley he was talking about. "I promise."

Mr. Weasley relaxed with a sigh. "Well, I know you could, but still," he faded off.

"Dad, the reason Harry and Ginny are doing this is Sandy and I just got married." Mr. Weasley jerked around to look at his son, as did Bill. Lynn smiled. "We were going to wait to tell you we were engaged until after Mary was born. But then Mum was attacked, and Sandy found out she was pregnant, and so we just got married last night. We didn't want to tell you, so you wouldn't feel bad asking me to stay here and help out. Ginny didn't want that to happen."

Mr. Weasley opened and closed his mouth a few times. "I- I need to sit down."

Harry pulled out a chair for him, and let him sit. Ginny walked over to stand with Harry. "You should have woken me up. I don't even remember falling asleep. I can't imagine it was easy flying like that."

Harry shrugged, a small blush on his face.

"You should go tell your mother," Mr. Weasley said.

"She knows," Harry answered. "She told me that she did. She says that you can't keep things from her."

Charlie grinned. "No, us boys never could keep things from her. Only Ginny could do that, and she has no reason to."

Ginny looked up at Lynn. "Can I hold her?"

Smiling, Lynn carefully handed baby Mary to Ginny. Harry looked over Ginny's shoulder at the baby. Bright blue eyes stared back at him, and Mary smiled.

"She likes you Harry," Ginny said grinning.

With a start, Harry took a large step back away from Ginny. "No, I'm sure she doesn't."

"Do you want to hold her?" Lynn asked.

"No, no that's okay. I was kicked out of parenting class."

"Harry, don't be stupid. You dropped parenting class because you had too much work. You're great with children." Very carefully, Ginny placed Mary in Harry's arms. Harry didn't move, afraid that if he did, he would hurt her some how.

Harry looked down at her and couldn't help but smile. He hadn't been sure last year if he would want children, but now he was. Mary looked up at him, than closed her eyes. "I think she's asleep," he whispered.

"See, what did I tell you?" Ginny asked. She turned away from her niece and back to her two older brothers. "Bill, you and Lynn should go. Lynn, you shouldn't be up and moving about like this. Charlie, I flew the whole night through so you wouldn't have to stay here, now get."

"You sound like your mother," Mr. Weasley said with a smile.

Bill took Mary from Harry and before too long he and Lynn were gone, with promises to visit.

"Well, Sandy, should we go?"

"Where?"

"France of course. That's where we planned to spend our honeymoon."

A grin spread across Sandy's face. She had obviously thought that trip was off. She turned to Ginny and hugged her. "Thanks sister."

Ginny smiled at the nickname. "Anytime."

Sandy then turned and hugged Harry. "I was great to meet you, and thank you very much."

"No problem," Harry said, not letting the pain the hug caused his back to show in his face or voice. Ginny cringed for him.

Charlie picked Ginny up to hug her. "You continue to be my favorite sister."

"I'm still your only sister."

"Not true. Lynn's my sister now. But you're still my favorite. Just don't tell her I said so." Ginny never said that Charlie was her favorite brother, she couldn't, but he knew. Charlie put her back down then turned to Harry. "Take good care of her." Once again, it was not Mrs. Weasley they were speaking of.

"I will, I promise."

"Good. Then I'll never be mad. Watch out for Ron through. Ginny, let him have my room." Charlie and Sandy disappeared with two simultaneous pops.

"What did he mean by that?" Ginny asked.

"Nothing," Harry said, blushing.

"All right then. If you kids think you'll be okay, I should really get back to the office."

"Dad, you haven't slept either."

"I'll be fine, Ginny. Watch yourselves though. I'm going to talk to the investigators again, and see if they turned anything else up. Don't answer the door. Stay inside."

"We will, as soon as we go get Harry's stuff of the front lawn. Bye Dad."

Mr. Weasley disappeared with a pop. Ginny helped Harry bring in his belongings, including the invisibility cloak from the roof.

"Charlie said you could have his room. That makes more sense then Ron's, his is all the way up top. Charlie's is across from mine."

As they walked up the stairs, Harry mentally cursed Charlie. He only said that to make Harry squirm. Ginny opened up Charlie's door and walked in. Harry set his stuff down on the floor. The room was a pleasant blue, which beat the neon orange of Ron's room any day.

"Might as well unpack," Ginny said sitting down on Charlie's bed. "You're probably going to be here for the rest of the summer. I can't tell you how thankful I am."

"Thankful? After all the stuff you've done for me? I feel great that I have a chance to help at all."

Ginny was silent for a while, and Harry was afraid for a moment that she had fallen asleep again. "Harry, what if they attack again?"

"I won't let anybody attack you. I swear it."

"No, not me Harry. My brothers, my father, or Lynn, or Sandy, or even Mary. Then what? The ministry is still trying to pretend that Voldemort hasn't returned, so they are going to have a hard time tracking down the culprit."

"Don't worry, Rose. If the ministry doesn't do anything, then Dumbledore will know what to do. Or I could get Sirius to help."

"Thanks Harry, you always know what to say to make me feel better."

Harry didn't respond. He turned his back to her so that she couldn't see his face. She was quiet for a moment, but then spoke again. "Harry, is something wrong?"

"Wrong? Me? No, nothing's wrong. What would be wrong?"

She didn't answer at first, but when she did, she must have been facing away from him because her voice was farther away. "It's just, you've been acting kind of strange. And when I showed up, you hardly touched me. All your notes were really short, and unsigned. You seem really quiet, and you act like you're not telling me things. Harry, you're not," she paused.

Harry looked down at the floor, his eyes closed, wishing he could beat his head against something. 'She knows, she bloody knows.'

"You're not, mad at me, are you?"

His head jerked up, and he turned around, but she was laying down with her back to him. "It is my fault that Voldemort got away. I wouldn't blame you if you-"

Harry sat down on the bed beside her and placed a hand on her arm, causing her to stop short. "Rose, I could never, ever be mad at you. I told you that. We stopped Voldemort together, and he didn't get away because of you. And even if he did, I wouldn't care, as long as you are okay."

Ginny sat up and smiled at him. A tear fell from her eye, and she wiped it away quickly. "Look at me, getting all worked up about this. It's so stupid."

"No, it's not." Harry looked over at the door. "I guess I have been acting strange. I'm sorry. It's just," he felt his face heat again, "you know, everything."

Sally slid up the bedpost. "You're not upsset are you Rosse?"

Ginny smiled. "No, Sally, I'm fine."

"Good, I thought I might have to bite ssomebody," she said turning to look at Harry. She slid back down of the bed and into her cage. "Now, I'm going to get ssome ssleep."

Harry went back to his unpacking, thankful that Sally had interrupted the conversation before it could get worse. By the time he turned back around to face Ginny again, she was sound asleep on the bed.

He sat down very carefully beside her, careful not to wake her up. She had pulled her hair out of it's normal pony tail, and it was sprawled out on the pillow. She smiled slightly in her sleep, and Harry wondered what she was dreaming about.

He wasn't really sure how long he sat there and watched her sleep, but soon he reminded himself of the whole reason he was here. He went down stairs and checked on Mrs. Weasley who was still sleeping.

Trying to find something to do with himself, he decided to write to Ron. Ginny had said something about how she had wrote to all of her brothers to tell them what had happened, but there was no way Ron would know that Harry was there.

Once he had wrote a long letter to Ron and Hermione telling them everything, well almost everything, that had happened since Ginny showed up on his door step, he sat at the table and tried to find something else to do.

His eyes fell on the many cook books piled on a shelf. It occurred to him that he had never cooked edible food with magical ingredients. So he picked out a book at random and started to read.

He found himself more interested then he thought he would be. Some of the dishes described sounded very good once you got past the fact that they contained things like boiled squid eyes and frog blood.

He started to pick out recipes that he would like to try. He got so wrapped up in what he was doing, he didn't hear Ginny come down the stairs.

"Mum can't make that one," Ginny said standing behind Harry and looking over his shoulder.

Harry nearly fell out of his seat, and Ginny giggled. "You didn't hear me coming?"

His face turning red, Harry muttered "No."

Ginny took a seat beside him and looked at what he was doing. "We have all of this stuff, but we don't have half of this. I think we're low on lizard legs too."

Harry realized something that he had never really thought of before. "Rose, where do you go shopping for things like these?"

Ginny turned to look at him, then smiled. "It's sad how little we know about each other's worlds. There are lots of places to chose from. Mum has favorites. Common stuff you can get at a common store. For some of the things you picked out though, you might have to go all the way to Diagon Alley."

Harry turned to look at the books. "Common stuff? Things like crushed philipin plant and spot of leopard are common?"

"Well, crushed philipin is about as common as salt. Spot of leopard isn't, but sometimes you get lucky and a regular store will stock it."

Harry closed the book with a snap. "That's it, I'm making potato soup." Ginny laughed at him and followed him over to the counter.

Harry started to look into drawers and cabinets until he found at cutting board. Ginny brought out the potatoes and a knife and started to peel them.

"I don't even know how to light the stove," she said as she dropped a potato into a bowl of cool water. "But I can cut potatoes."

Ginning, Harry sat down beside her and started to do the same. Neither said anything as they worked.

Harry stared intently at current potato. Unable to fight temptation any longer, he glanced up at Ginny, then looked quickly back down again, his heart racing.

Ginny glanced up at Harry who was looking at the potato he was peeling with a burning stare. She stopped peeling for a moment to watch him as he concentrated completely on what he was cutting.

Harry glanced up again, only to find that Ginny was looking at him. She jumped, and her knife slipped.

"Ouch!" she yelled, dropping both the knife and the potato, which both landed on the floor.

Harry jumped out of his seat, throwing his own potato and knife on the table and ran over to her. "Are you okay?" He took her hand in his to examine the cut on the pad of her thumb.

Ginny hissed in pain. "Damn, that was stupid of me. It hurts a lot for such a little cut."

Harry closed Ginny's hand in his, and closed his eyes. "Hold still, I've never done this before."

She looked up at him with curiosity, and then she started to feel something of what he was doing. She could feel the blood in her finger pull back away from the cut. She could feel the skin magically bind itself to the other broken side. She could feel the nerves heal, and the pain fade.

He let go and backed away all at once. She pulled her hand back and examined where her cut had once been. "Wow," she breathed.

Harry shuddered. "That was stupid," he muttered. "I didn't have any idea what I was doing."

Ginny sat back down and picked her knife up from the floor. "Did it hurt?" she asked with concern.

"No," Harry said sitting down again. "I just realized half way through how many things I could do wrong."

"Well, thanks.

Harry sighed deeply and went back to work, keeping his mind occupied by thinking about what he had just done. Healing magic was very involved, and he knew it wasn't taught in school until seventh year, and even then only basics. You had to seek more schooling to specialize in it. It was something he was mildly interested in.

Working together, though more Harry then Ginny, the two managed to cook the soup without any further incident. They took some to Mrs. Weasley when she woke, and then waited for Mr. Weasley to come home.

A pop in the family room announced his arrival. Weather the smell of the soup or the sound of conversation brought him into the kitchen is hard to tell.

Harry was standing by the stove, keeping the soup warm without scalding it, and Ginny was sitting at the table talking to him. As soon as Mr. Weasley walked into the room, Harry spooned out three bowls and sat them on the table.

"Hi dad, how was work?" Ginny asked passing out the spoons.

"Work, fine. Did you two do this all by yourself?"

"Well, Harry did most of it. You know I can't cook. But he's promised to teach me this summer so when I take parenting class I'll have some idea what I'm doing."

Harry sat down at the empty seat. "I know it's not much, but I haven't tried working with new ingredients yet."

Mr. Weasley stared at the bowl. "It's more then I can do," he muttered.

"That reminds me. Dad, can we go up to Diagon Alley tomorrow? We have to get some stuff. We promise to be careful. Please?"

Mr. Weasley stared at his daughter. He glanced at Harry, who was carefully avoiding looking up at them. He looked back up at Ginny. "Stay with Harry, and be careful. We don't know what's going on yet."

"We will, I promise. Can you do me a favor, Dad?"

Ginny started to describe what books she wanted from the Ministry library and Harry tuned it out for a moment. Mr. Weasley trusted him. That had to be a good thing.

They would be going to Diagon Alley together, alone. He felt his cheeks heat again. Sally was coming weather she wanted to or not.

That night, all the Weasleys slept like rocks, but the one Potter in the house, sat awake for a long time.

He was twisting a lot of things over in his head, and as a result, sleep just would not come. He tried to count sheep, but lost interest in them after nine. He tried to relax his mind, but it just wouldn't listen to him.

He pulled out a book. Reading might help. It just happened to be the book Ron had given him for Christmas, that he had wanted to read so bad, but had just never gotten around to. The book that had a chapter on the Sword of Gryffindor.

He turned directly to that chapter, suddenly completely awake.

The Sword of Gryffindor, sometimes talked of as only a story. How much is true and what is false, we really can no longer tell, because the sword, if it did once exist, has long since disappeared. The descriptions and information we still have is unreliable, and there are a great many holes.

Harry skimmed through the next couple pages, until he came across something that caught his eye.

The Healing Stone. Healing stones, are very rare, and none today are known to exist. They can not be created by man. A female phoenix will only lay an egg once in its life time. Very rarely, this egg doesn't hatch. When she becomes aware that her egg isn't hatching, the mother will start to cry on it. She will continue to cry her healing tears in hopes that she will save her unborn child. Sometimes it will work, but if it doesn't, the mother will continue to cry until she eventually dies on top of her egg. She will bust into flames one last time, but rather then a baby phoenix, in the ashes will be a healing stone. They are golden and red swirled together.

There was said to be a very large and very powerful healing stone set in the back of the hilt of Godric's sword. It was a family treasure that was passed down until he had it put into his sword. If this is true, or if the stone ever existed, is unknown.

Harry stopped and looked over at his chest where he sword was. Sally, who had been reading from his neck, also looked over.

He didn't need to get up, he simply called the sword over to him. He sat up slowly because of his back, and grabbed the sword out of the air. He threw the sheath to the floor and flipped the sword to examine the back of the hilt.

He had noticed the sword before, but he had never gave it very much thought besides a pretty stone. There were many in the hilt and sheath. If it really was a healing stone, how did it work.

Carefully, he pricked his finger on the tip of the sword. Only a tiny droplet of blood appeared. He waved it above the stone, but nothing happened. He touched it, then jerked away with a hiss. It burnt. But when he looked back at his finger, the tiny cut had completely disappeared.

"Do you think it would work on your back?" Sally, who had been watching carefully, asked.

"I don't know," he answered. "I can't try it because I can't reach behind me. It hurts too much to do that."

"Well then, jusst wait until morning. Ginny will help you, and if it workss, that ssavess you a lot of pain and trouble."

Harry nodded, staring for a moment more at the stone. He sheathed the blade in one swift motion, then laid the sword under his bed.

"I'm going to ssleep, Harry. Goodnight." Sally left Harry's neck to go snooze in her cage. Harry laid down once more on his stomach. He was tired, yes, but even more now sleep was hard coming. But when it finally did come, at least it was peaceful sleep.

(A/N: I'm sorry this took so long. I was in Canada for a week, and then I was away for another week. Then I came back and started my first day of highschool, ninth grade. New school, and I'm an baby freshman. *Shakes with fear* The school is so big, I keep getting lost! The homework is back, and there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day, so the chapters might slow until I get used to what I'm doing. And I'm gone all weekend, so bare with me! But the next chapter, VERY FUNNY!)