Disclaimer: Last time I checked, I was not a fabulously wealthy and beautiful lady author. I am, in fact, an overly hairy, somewhat disturbing looking man, who has distressingly little money. As such, the characters contained herein that you might recognize are, obviously, not mine.

Payback:

The howls of laughter that echoed up and down Diagon Alley that night lasted until the wee small hours of the morning. It was interspersed at random interval with comments like, "Bloody 'ell Harry!", "Remind me to never make you mad!", and "Blimey! I'm just glad he was on our side." By the time they were done, they had filled almost a dozen scrolls with ideas, and had decided to spend the next day narrowing the ideas down to just a few. Most of Diagon Alley and a few in Knockturn Alley had heard the sounds emanating from the Weasley's store overnight, and wisely decided that it would be best to just pretend that the store didn't exist for the next day or two. Some of the things the Twins had tested lately were a bit worrisome, and nobody really wanted to try their own hand at product testing for them.

The next morning came fairly quickly. Harry and Ginny awoke in the Twins' apartment above the store, wondering for a moment where they were. Harry gave his girlfriend a quick but fervent kiss, then got up, to prepare for the day. After showering, he wandered out to the kitchen to start making some breakfast. He was almost surprised at how barren the cupboards were. When Fred ambled his sleepy way out there, Harry asked him about this.

"Alright then, Fred, how are we supposed to have breakfast, with no food around here?"

"Well, we usually just nip down to the Leaky Kettle for something, whenever we get hungry. Neither one of us is really much for cooking. You've never seen one of our efforts at the culinary arts, have you?" When Harry shook his head, Fred replied, "Well, trust me. You wouldn't want to."

Ginny's voice came from the sitting room. "Harry, he's right. Anytime these two cook, it's best to have a medi-witch on stand-by." She came out to join them now, and gave her boyfriend a proper good morning kiss. By the time they finished that kiss, both Gred and Forge were wide awake, and looking a bit uncomfortable. They were, however, impressed by the stunning display of breath control the two had shown. As the couple's lips finally parted, the Twins were holding up large pieces of cardboard with numbers on them. The one on the left said '10', and on the right was '10.5'. Harry and Ginny smirked, and took mock bows. Ginny spoke up again, grinning. "Anyway, even Charlie's dragons wouldn't eat whatever it was they tried to cook last time. We tried. They just looked at it and whimpered." As they all laughed at this, she had an idea. "Why don't you nip out and get some of the food we had on the road, love. I think there's one not too far from the Kettle."

Harry nodded and said, "Good idea, Gin. It'll be quick, and we shouldn't have to worry about turning into something large and feathery when we take a bite." He paused a moment, thinking. "Though that gives me another idea." He grabbed one of the scrolls from the night before and scribbled something down. "Back in a bit." A quick kiss for Ginny, and he was off.

The three Weasleys sat down, pulling out the parchment from the previous night, and started going through them. After a couple of minutes, George spoke up.

"Gin-Gin, what really went on over there, on your trip? Harry seems like a completely different person now."

"Yeah, sis, what did you do to him?" Fred waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

She laughed at the two of them, then her face became more contemplative. She thought a moment before answering. "Well, I think that part of it is that all of the pressure is off of him. The Harry we knew was the product of everything he was going through. His childhood," both Twins growled a bit at this. "Being thrust into the limelight the way he was, all that power he never knew he had, that damned prophecy..." She paused again, for a moment. "Losing Sirius the way we did. How can it not have an effect? Not to mention that crush I had on him. That would have driven anybody barking mad. And you two.." They both tried to look innocently angelic under her stare. It didn't work at all. " 'Eyes as green as fresh pickled toads'? I still owe you two for that." She shook her finger at them, with a stern expression. "He still has a habit of bringing that up at awkward times." They were trying to stifle their laughter, and failed miserably, again.

"As to the change in him, I think it's because he can finally relax, now the pressure's off. The fate of the wizarding world doesn't rest on his shoulders anymore. Now, he can just enjoy being Harry. Just Harry. He made a decision after the final battle, that he wanted to have some fun, just enjoy himself. That trip was really good for him. It let him see what the fight was for, why we were actually doing it. It gave him the perspective he needed to get on with his life." She gave a wry grin now. "Knowing Harry, I doubt that there will be anything ordinary about it. I have a feeling it'll be a lot of fun though."

They went back to perusing the ideas from the night before, keeping some and dropping others. They worked this way for a while, before Harry returned with three large bags with golden arches on the outside. "Breakfast is served." He started handing out the contents of the bags to everyone.

"What's this, Harry? Smells pretty good."

"They call them Egg McMuffins. They just opened a new location down the street from the Leaky Kettle. We noticed it when we got here last night. We had a lot of these when we were traveling."

They enjoyed their breakfast, while going over the ideas they thought would work the best. The pranks that would be used in the end were the ones that caused the most chaos in the least obvious ways. That way, nobody could get in trouble for muggle-baiting, as most of the jokes would be almost impossible to trace. George started off.

"Personally, my favorite is the idea you had Harry, about the bars. I love the idea of invisible bars suddenly just being there, across any door or window at random. That way, they won't know where they can go through, or when. The only clue will be when they run headlong into them, and they hear a clang. I love it." His grin became something almost evil. "Just imagine, those two fat lumps not being able to get into their own kitchen. Might do 'em some good, come to think of it." He waved it off. "Oh well, every plan has it's flaws."

Fred was next. "I like the idea of a rotating floo connection. If people suddenly appear in their fireplace, when they're supposed to be somewhere else, they won't be happy. Just imagine the hexes that people would toss at them, the moment the Dursleys start insulting wizards and witches. I quite like the idea of old Petunia ending up as a flower pot. It'd be an improvement, really."

Ginny had a positively feral grin spreading across her face, as an idea came to her. "Remember the wards that surround the house? I was thinking, that with a bit of effort, we could change them to something else. A Fidelius charm. They're almost impossible to break. Nobody, save the three of them and us, would be able to even see the house. Think about it. No mail, no dairy deliveries, they'd have to cut their own lawn, as none of the neighborhood children would even be able to find it to ask them. They wouldn't even know that nobody else could see the house. They're so worried about what the neighbors think all the time. Let the neighbors forget they even exist."

Three male jaws dropped. When the Twins were finally able to speak again, Fred turned to George and asked, "How did our sweet little Gin-Gin become a mastermind at revenge?"

"Dunno, but she's a genius."

Harry paid her the deserved accolades, in the way he knew best, with another olympic-calibre kiss. "That's just a down-payment, Gin. You can collect the rest, later."

"Better have your bankbook ready then, because I will." She grinned impishly at him.

"Fred, I think I know how our dear sister is going to exact revenge on us for that valentine."

"How, George?"

"By making us watch the two of them snog at every possible opportunity." They both cringed, while Ginny had a look on her face that plainly told him he was at least partly correct.

Ginny asked her boyfriend, "Now what was the idea you had before? I saw what you wrote down, but it didn't make any sense. 'You are what you eat?' What does that mean?"

"Well, it's a combination of two things. The first comes from when Hagrid came to personally deliver my first Hohwarts letter. You remember what he did to Dudley?" The other three laughed, recollecting the mental image of Harry's fat cousin with a pig's tail. "The other part of it was directly inspired by you two." He pointed at the twins. "Your Canary Creams are brilliant, and I think the idea could be used in another way.

"The phrase 'You are what you eat' is a common muggle saying. It's supposed to be a reminder to anyone on a diet, that they should watch what they eat, so they don't gain even more weight." They all nodded at this, following the line of reasoning. "Well, I thought why not make sure they really do become what they eat? We could charm the kitchen with a variation of the spell you came up with for the Creams, so that, at random intervals, they would transform into whatever they took a bite of. A hamburger, you're a cow. Bacon, you're a pig. Pasta, you're a plate of linguine." He thought a moment, then grinned. "It could really get interesting, when Dudley tries to go off his diet. Just imagine him turning into a huge jam donut."

Fred and George shared another look. "George, if these two ever team up to prank us..."

George gulped. "Bugger. Never thought I'd have to write a will this early in life."

They both shuddered, as the happy couple across from them laughed. Ginny said, "No more valentines then, or you'd better talk to a solicitor."

Harry finished the thought with, "Better be a good one, if I'm any judge."

After a suitable period of groveling from the Twins, along with a wizard's oath that no more dwarfs would deliver dodgy poetry from them ever again, they all settled down into an extended planning session.

A week later, on Privet Drive, as the sun faded from the sky, there were four people standing on the sidewalk under an enlarged invisibility cloak. A young, very pretty redheaded girl had her wand out, casting the final enchantment that would ensure that the house would be hidden from the view of anybody who wasn't directly aware of the Fidelius, and hadn't been given the location by the secret-keeper for that charm. Ginny had been tempted to make a passing cat the secret-keeper, but decided at the last moment that she would retain that duty herself. Harry had pointed out that he thought it might belong to Mrs Figg, and those cats had enough to be going on with, as it was. He had ended up having to cast a silencing spell around the interior of the cloak, so the giggling of the Twins at what they were doing wouldn't give them away. They were across the street from the now disappearing number four, having been in the house earlier in the day, to cast the other spells they had decided on.

The four made sure everything was in order, after the house disappeared with a soft popping sound. They collected everything they had brought with them or conjured, and made ready to leave. It was Harry's idea to walk carefully over to the park a street away, then remove the cloak under cover of darkness. They then walked over to Mrs Figg's house, to let her know what was going to be happening. She offered them tea when they arrived.

"Harry dear, how have you been? You haven't visited since last summer. Have you been keeping busy, besides taking care of him, that is?"

The young wizard chuckled at this. Trust Mrs Figg to get right to the point. "I've been doing very well, thank you. It's been a busy summer for us. You know my girlfriend, Ginny, don't you?"

"Of course, dear. I just didn't realize that you two had finally connected. Not before time, I daresay." This was said with a firm nod.

As the three redheads laughed at the look on Harry's face, he said, "Was I the only one it wasn't so ruddy obvious to?"

After a pause of just a beat, four voices chorused "Yes!"

The old lady then asked, "So what can I do for you? I know you didn't just come to visit some crazy old squib who keeps cats?"

Harry explained what they had done earlier in the day, delighting as her laughter echoed around the room. He said, "We'll be back in a couple of days or so, to pick up the pictures. We left a few cameras concealed in various places in the house. We want to make sure we get to see the fruits of today's labors." He grinned. "If you'd like, I could drop off a few copies." She nodded eagerly, and the four younger people stood up to take their leave. "We'd best get back. Mum will be wondering where we all are, and she's expecting us for dinner." They all said goodbye, promising to return with the copies in a few days time.

Upon reaching the Burrow, they were pleasantly surprised to see Professor Dumbledore, Tonks, and Remus in the sitting room. Harry and Ginny sat down and started catching up with Remus and Tonks, while the Twins handed the Headmaster a box of their newest inventions. He tried to demure, but they insisted, saying that he should at least have some experience with what would surely be showing up on the list of banned substances and devices outside Filch's office. Presented with this convincing argument, he finally consented.

While Ginny and Tonks were discussing wedding plans with Molly, Dumbledore and Remus took Harry aside for a few moments.

"Harry, I understand there was something you wished to ask me about, concerning your award ceremony."

"Well, yes. I was wondering if we could hold it in the Great Hall at school. As you can imagine, I don't have the best memories of the Ministry. The school on the other hand, is where I grew up. It's where I found out what I was, what I would have to do, and it was my refuge, from everything. Apart from the Burrow, it's the only other place I've ever called home."

The old wizard peered over his half-moon glasses at the younger one. His eyes were twinkling at full strength. Harry was glad to see this, but felt a bit uneasy. He had a feeling Dumbledore was about to spring something on him. He wasn't far wrong, either.

"I would be delighted to have the Great Hall host this ceremony. It is only fitting, that the conclusion occur at the same place that it all started. I would ask one thing of you in return, Harry." The twinkling now went into overdrive, making Harry sure that it was time to bolt, and not look back. At a look from the Headmaster, Remus stood behind the young man, his hands on Harry's shoulders, effectively pinning him in place. "I would like you to consider coming in as a guest lecturer, for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. Remus, or should I say Professor Lupin, will need some assistance, at the time of his monthly transformations. A substitute, if you will. We have also given some thought to restarting the Dueling Club, again. It could be monthly meetings, at the same time as the full moon."

With this reasoning, Harry was pinned like a flobberworm to a dissection tray. Throwing his hands in the air in defeat, he said "Why not? Maybe we can train a few people to actually know how to defend themselves. We'll also need to reinforce the lesson that, just because the Tosser is gone, along with most his his idiots, that doesn't mean that we can completely let our guard down. Like Moody always said, 'Constant Vigilance'."

With this, they fell into earnest discussion about the fall curriculum.

A/N: Once again, thank you to those of you who have been reviewing. All of your kind words have really encouraged me to continue. One thing I want to correct. When I mentioned, a few chapters back, that it looked like this story would be winding down soon, that didn't mean that the story would end. If I do wrap this one up soon, there will be a sequel. I just see too many possibilities inherent in the direction this one has taken, and I'd like to explore them at some point. It could be a lot of fun. Please indulge me for a moment, as I respond to a couple of reviews.

Lady S: Thank you. I agree, when it comes to cutting stories. There are a few good ones out there, but for the most part, they just get too depressing for me. Just my personal opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

Byron245: Thanks. I thought the fireplace was a great way to allow Harry to make a most appropriate toast to his two best friends.