Disclaimer: Ok, just repeat after me, Not mine, no matter what that dream said last night. and erm...ferrets don't talk...even plot ferrets...they just giggle and bite...OW! Gerroff! Sheesh.
A/N: This chapter will be a bit different from the rest, as it will be focus more on the recipients of the letters Harry has sent out.
Surprises:
Hermes and Hedwig soared into the air to deliver the letters Harry had written, both secure in the knowledge that they were once again doing what they felt they were meant to do. Hedwig always loved spending time with her person (as she thought of him), and keeping watch over him. However, she also enjoyed the sense of purpose that having a letter or package to deliver gave her. She was just glad to see that he left the guilt and self-hatred of his past years behind him. After all, it just didn't become him.
A relatively short time later, with the magic peculiar to their kind, the two owls found themselves arriving over the British Isles. Hermes broke off over London, and spirraled down to arrive at an open window in the sitting room at 12 Grimmauld Place. Alighting on the coffee table in front of the couch where Remus Lupin sat with Nymphadora Tonks, he gave a short hoot, to let them know he was there. Remus started a bit, as he was engaged in a bit of a snog with his fiance, and wasn't expecting any distractions. He turned to see who had hooted at him, and smiled as he recognized the owl in front of him. "Hermes! Got some news from Ron and Hermione, have you?" He reached to take the letter with his name on it from the outstretched leg in front of him. The wizard was surprised to see that the writing on the envelope wasn't Hermione's neat script, or Ron's slightly messier one, but Harry's, instead. Before opening it, he said to the owl, "Stay here a moment, please." He went through to the kitchen to retrieve a couple of owl treats, and brought them back to give to Hermes, telling him, "I see you have another letter to deliver." Scratching the owl's head for a moment, "You'd better get on with it then." Hermes took to the air again and soared out the window, to rejoin Hedwig, and soar into the sky, off to the Burrow.
Tonks, looked at Remus, and asked "A letter from the happy couple?", referring to Ron and Hermione. Remus scrutinized the outside of the envelope and shook his head. "No, actually. Not unless one of them has started forging Harry's writing." Tonks asked "It's from Harry? Open it! See what it says!" Remus gave a slightly nervous laugh. The young witch might be a little past her mid-twenties already, but was so like a teenager at times. It was one of the things that had drawn him to her. "Alright, alright. Just give me a moment. Can you blame me if I'm just a bit anxious about what he might say?"
She gave his arm a quick squeeze in reassurance. "Of course, he'll say yes. Why wouldn't he?"
"I don't know, Dora. I guess it just feels like everything that's happened lately, you agreeing to marry me, getting my old job back, the end of the bloody war, just seems so unreal. I keep feeling as if it's all just an incredibly good dream, and I'm going to wake up any moment and it'll all be gone."
A playful gleam came into Tonks' eyes just then, and she reached over and pinched Remus on the arm, quite hard. "Ow! What on earth was that for?" he demanded, rubbing his arm.
"Have you woken up yet? No? Well then, it looks as if you're not going to." A soft look replaced the gleam in her eyes. "If it is a dream, just enjoy it. I know I am. Heaven knows we deserve some happiness after everything we've both, hell, all of us have been through." Her eyes shifted to the still unopened letter in his hand. "Now open it. Please. I want to see what he says, too."
Remus turned his attention back to the envelope, and opened it. His eyes scanned the page, and he chuckled a bit as he reached the comments about Sirius. As he came to the final paragraph, he finally found what he was looking for. The last of the Marauders jumped to his feet and let out a huge whoop. "Yes! He said he'll do it!" He pulled Tonks up into his embrace. "He also said to do this.", and proceded to hug her like he'd never let her go.
As the young couple celebrated, two owls spirraled low over an unusual home just outside the village of Ottery St Catchpole. It wasn't a grand manor, but did have a quiet dignity to it, despite the quite obviously lived-in quality it also posessed. This was the Burrow, the home of the Weasley family. It had been the home to this family for more generations than anybody had bothered to keep track of. The way the house looked, an observer would have sworn that the only thing holding it up, and together, would have to be enough magic to rival that of all the wards surrounding Hogwarts.
The two owls flew in the kitchen window, landing on the large dining table. The four people sitting there having a cup of tea, turned to see them. Molly Weasley gave each the birds a piece of toast, while taking the letters from their legs. "Well, it looks like Harry wrote back to all of us." She handed the other two letters to their intended recipients. "Let's see what he has to say, why don't we."
The four of them opened their letters and started reading through them. Ron chuckled over what Harry has to say about Quadpot. "Nutters, the lot of them." he mumbled. He rolled his eyes a bit at the part of the letter directed to Hermione, laughing at Harry's assessment of how long it would take his fiance to make that drive. He told her, "He's got you pegged, love.", with a grin. She gave him a quick elbow in the ribs at that. As they reached the last few lines, they could each feel the blush creeping over their cheeks. After a moment, they looked at each other with small smiles, and Hermione murmured, "I guess he's got us both pegged." She gave her boyfriend a small kiss on the cheek, and sat back in her chair.
She folded the letter back up and laid it on the table, marveling at the changes Harry had made over the past few years. When she had first met him, he, as she had been, was very young. She remembered how shy he was, though very polite. Unlike Ron, he had taken pains not to say anything to anybody that would cause them to take offense. She also recalled how amazed he had seemed at the little spell she had done to repair his broken glasses. She had heard about the famous Harry Potter, from some of the other girls on the train. However, she had to conceal her shock when he said his name, and she realized that the quiet, self-effacing boy sitting across from her was the legend of the wizarding world that the train was buzzing about. Later on, after she, Ron, and Harry had become best friends, she saw her friend start to go through a host of changes. She saw, along the way, the true Gryffindor courage that quickly became his hallmark. Along with that, she also saw the other changes in him. A lot of them had worried her, because she saw what all of it was doing to him. When he started sinking into despair at the end of fourth year, and especially after the disaster that was fifth year, she genuinely thought they would lose him. He had withdrawn so far from everybody, and wouldn't allow anybody to get close to him. He was trying to protect his friends, thinking that, if he kept them at arm's length or more, they wouldn't get hurt, in the conflict to come. Thankfully, Ginny had finally broken through to him, and made him realize that, despite what he thought, they were all targets for the Dark. Ron, due to the fact that his whole family were well known as opponents of the Dark Lord and his followers. Hermione would have been a target in her own right, as she was the most powerful witch of her year, and muggle-born to boot, and Voldemort couldn't risk her getting further involved. Ginny was a definite threat to him, because of the link she had with him, and the knowledge she had of him, due to the events in the Chamber, during her first year. It had taken a while, but Ginny had finally gotten Harry to listen to reason, and he had started open back up to them, starting with telling them about that damnable prophecy, made by Sybill Trelawney. That had all but opened the floodgates, and soon, they were back to being an active part of each other's lives. The biggest change was that Ginny was now a part of that group, and knew everything that went on. Ginny was the one who had pulled Harry back from the abyss, and there was no way she was going to let him go back. That had been the start of a healing process for Harry, and had bound the four of them even more tightly together. When Hermione and Ron had started to realize their feelings for each other, they had worried how he would react to their developing relationship. They needn't have worried.
One night, when a study session between the couple had turned into a snogging session, they heard a throat being cleared. Startled, they both turned toward the stairs, only to see Harry leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. "It's about bloody time you two figured it out. You've been driving the rest of us mad, lately. Honestly." Tentatively, Hermione had gotten up from the couch and approached him. "You're not upset about this? We had no idea how to tell you."
Harry had looked at her with a slight frown and said, "Well, just a little bit. I mean, Seamus won the pool. I was off by almost a week. That's five Galleons I'll not see again. The git's going to be insufferable for some time to come." The last was said with a rueful shake of his head, and she could now see the glint in his emerald eyes that said that he was teasing.
Hermione said, "Listen you..." and made as if to slug him. Harry pulled her into a hug and told her, "Mione, I'm just glad to see that you two are happy together." Walking over to where Ron still sat in shock, he told him, "You just make sure you take care of her. At least as much as she'll let you." Ron had stood up to shake his friend's outstretched hand. Harry pulled him into a quick hug. "Just remember, hurt her and you answer to me. If she leaves anything for me to get to, that is." They had grinned at each other in understanding.
As the relationship between Ron and Hermione had developed, Harry and Ginny had spent a lot more time on their own. Ginny had discovered the Marauder's Map and the fact that Harry had an invisibility cloak, and proven that she was truly the sister of Fred and George. She had seen the prank potential for these two items, and immediately started planning things to do with them. In the next year, she and Harry had pulled some pranks that had made most of what even the Twins had done pale in comparison, with the exception of their final dramatic exit. Nobody would ever be able to top the swamp, without destroying a large part of the school. The only thing that truly amazed Hermione was the fact that, with the possible exceptions of Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, nobody had seemed to twig to the fact of just who was pulling these pranks.
By the end of the of seventh year, with the final confrontation looming on the horizon, Harry had come to a point where he had accepted what he would have to do. While he hadn't liked it, and definitely hadn't looked forward to it, he had at least accepted the neccessity of it, and had known that he would have the support of his friends, as he entered the final battle. It was a bloody time, and everybody involved was forced to do things that they would never have imagined otherwise. They had lost all too many friends, who would never be forgotten. They had also, by working together, quite literally saved the world from one of the most evil creatures to ever walk the earth. A slightly dramatic way to look at it, some would say, but also absolutely factual.
Ron nudged Hermione, and she looked up, as he looked toward the mother and daughter sitting at the other end of the table, reading their own letters. Molly had a slightly shell-shocked look on her face, with a couple of tears rolling down from the corners of her eyes. At the same time, she had a proud, happy look on her face. She sniffed loudly, folding her letter and tucking it into the pocket of her apron.
As Molly bustled around gathering up the tea things from the table to take to the sink, she thought over what Harry had said in his letter. She was as proud of him as if he really was her own. To think that he actually thought of her as his mum! She hadn't known Lily well, but what she did know of her made it that much more of an honor to be compared favorably to her. Molly offered up a silent prayer, hoping that Lily knew how good of a man her son had become. She rather thought that his mother would be at least as proud of him as she was, even apart from everything he'd accomplished. Harry had grown into a very honorable, respectable, and handsome young man. She was amazed at the feelings he had expressed in his letter. Certainly, she had known that the waters within him ran deep, but had never known him to actually express any of it. This looked like a good sign for Harry and her daughter. She knew that Ginny's crush had indeed ended years earlier, only to be replaced by a genuine love and respect for the man Harry had become, not just the legend of the Boy Who Lived. She had also seen the look on his face when he was around her little girl, the protectiveness that he probably didn't even realize he was exhibiting. Molly knew that he would go to the ends of the earth for Ginny. She just hoped that he would realize it soon, as well. She saw the speculative, slightly hopeful look on Ginny's face as she read her own letter, and fairly itched to know what was in it.
Ginny read through her letter from Harry, seeing what he had written, not daring to believe it. Did this mean what she thought it might? What she hoped for? Her heart lept for joy as she read. She thought to herself, "Down, girl! He hasn't actually said it. He hasn't said the 'L' word." Yet, at the same time, she couldn't help but hope. After the embarassment she had suffered in the wake of the fiasco on Valentine's day in her first year, she had made a decision that she would do everything she could to quash that ridiculous crush. No more elbow in the butter dish for her, thank you very much. As she slowly rid herself of that crush, however, a strange thing had happened. The more she saw of him, how he treated other people around him, his courage, the joy he had in flying, the more she came to realize that she was genuinely falling in love with him. Harry, not the legend, not the hope of the wizarding world. She saw how gentle he could be, how true he was, and how fiercely he would come to the defense of those he considered friends. She had pushed these feelings savagely back when he had needed somebody to bring him back from the brink. She thought that those were the darkest days of her life, even worse than her first year. She really, genuinely loved him now, and it had torn her heart to pieces to see him that way. He thought that he had nobody to turn to, that he had to deal with all of this, and with Voldemort all by himself. When she had finally broken through to him, shown him that his friends would stand with him, no matter what he said or did, her heart had soared when she saw the first smile in a long time touch his emerald eyes. That was the first time she had seen life in them, in entirely too long. He was still near the edge, but she was able to slowly draw him back, with the help of Ron and Hermione. That smile, and every one since, had made everything worthwhile. Seeing the sparkle in those green eyes was the only 'Thank You' she would ever need. Anything else he was willing to give would just be the topping. With the words in his letter, she allowed herself a spark of hope that there could be something more. It would be interesting to find out what this talk would be all about, when he returned. Folding the letter up, she looked up to see her mother giving her a little grin. Raising an eyebrow at her mother, Ginny got up and walked upstairs to put her letter away. As she passed Hermione, she saw the look on the older girl's face, and knew there would be questions later. Now, if she just knew what the answers would be...