It's late so i'll just get right into it...

LAST LINE OF PART 10

"Come on, she'll send us a howler if we don't get down there soon."

PART 11 OF 'FLYING THE NEST'

In the kitchen Mrs Weasley was throwing eggs at the frying pan and grumbling to herself about overtly skinny boys who needed beefing up, listening to her husband's report of his patrol for the Order which he had taken with Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"...muggle shop -up an escapator Molly! It was turned off of course but I knew it right away-"

"YES Arthur," said Mrs Weasley, shovelling the eggs onto some toast and bashing the plates down on the table, "oh where ARE those boys?"

"Remus, Kinsley told me he's got a tip off -anonymous of course- that the aurors should focus on Lucifer's Creek on the 12th -probably another false alarm but it being your patrol with Severus...?"

"Of course we'll look into it, Arthur, but if it's another set up I doubt there will be an awful lot either of us can do," said Lupin, making notes on a long roll of parchment, "ah, Harry, Draco, we were despairing."

Harry and Draco stepped into the kitchen just as Lupin shrank the parchment to the size of a postage stamp and tucked it into his top pocket. Mrs Weasley did a double-take.

"Harry -I -don't you suit that jumper well," she said. "Now come on!" she cried, grasping them both by an ear and steering them into spare seats, "your eggs will be stone cold!"

"Harry! Good to see you!" said Mr Weasley's head from the fireplace, "good morning young Malfoy, don't you both look well?"

"Good morning sir," said Harry (I dunno why -is that in the book or just in the movies? he always seems to call Mr Weasley 'sir'). Draco prodded his egg with his fork and the yolk spilled across the plate. Suddenly they heard a lot of voices, seemingly from behind the fireplace: "Is that Harry?"

"Da-ad! I want to speak to him!"

"Ask mum if I left my jumper there!"

"Dad we need to tell Harry-"

Mr Weasley's head turned to the side so that he could see the people accosting him before he disappeared to be replaced with Ginny.

"Hi Harry, we heard about you leaving," she said, "you should've come to stay with us- Oh! Mum there you are, have you seen my jumper? -hello professor Lupin."

Harry noticed Draco looking at Ginny. And not in a sneering manner either.

"Yes dear, it was on the cat," said Mrs Weasley, stooping to give Ginny a kiss on the crown of her head. Ginny noticed Draco watching and blushed prettily.

"Then where's the cat?" she said. Mrs Weasley shrugged. "And mum! Fred and George have been trying out their new stock on me and they- ow!" Ginny's head was replaced by George who said,

"Don't listen to her mum, we're thinking of buying up the shop next door but I thought you might want a look in first -hey Harry!" he noticed Draco and his grin dropped. "Malfoy," he nodded, and was quickly replaced by Fred.

"Spiffing to see you, Harry old chum," he said cheerfully. Harry chocked on some crumbs. "Good, Good," said Fred, carefully avoiding Draco, "hi mum, we've got to make an offer by next Monday, so if you can swing by the shop -you can meet George's girlfriend- hey!"

There was a muffled shout of "She's not my girlfriend!"

"She IS," said Fred, "Ouch! OK! She's an assistant who -oh, right sorry Ron..."

Ron's head was the last to appear in the grate. "Mum I'm head boy!" he said happily, proudly.

"Oh RONNIE!" Mrs Weasley whipped round and started pinching Ron's cheek, showering him with kisses.

"Mu-um! Geroff! I want to speak to Harry!" he complained.

"Congratulations Ron," said Lupin.

"Oh- cheers professor," Ron grinned broadly, "got the letter this morning!" he frowned suddenly, "poor ole Hermione though -she reckons Pansy Parkinson's got head girl. Of course, she said she's already got enough on her plate but I thought she'd get it for sure-"

"Pansy's almost as smart as Granger," said a voice. Ron's head jerked in the fireplace. He stared at Draco for a second.

"I thought it would be you and Hermione, actually Malfoy," he said. Draco shut up.

"I knew you could do it," said Harry confidently. Ron beamed.

"Yeah that's what Hermione said," he blushed. Harry raised and eyebrow. Ron gave the briefest of nods. Harry grinned at him. "So, that's about it- I'm meant to be working at the shop right now anyway, I'm late for my shift and Fred might make me try another new invention -see you mum -come home for a bit, Ginny's a right pain!" he mouthed 'I'll owl you,' at Harry and disappeared from view.

Harry mopped up his egg yolk with the last of his toast while Lupin and Mrs Weasley talked about how hard Ron had been working and how glad they were that Dumbledore had noticed and rewarded this. Lupin remarked that Hermione had probably been quite truthful in her assurance that she would have been far too busy to take on any extra responsibilities. Mrs Weasley gushed that she always knew Ronniekins could be the third head boy in the family, and that he was growing up to be so much like Bill.

Harry saw that Draco was listening to their conversation but nothing in his countenance betrayed resentment. If anything, he looked rather relieved. "Congratulations, Mrs Weasley."

There was a pause. Draco scraped at the yellow patches left on his plate. "Thank you, Draco dear," said Mrs Weasley. "Well- I'll clear up these plates shall I?" She got up and began bustling around the kitchen again just as they heard the stair creak. Hortense entered, followed by a large owl carrying three letters and a parcel. Hortense glanced between Draco and Lupin and stayed standing. The owl dropped its charges onto Harry's lap and zoomed up the chimney. Two fat envelopes sporting the Hogwarts crest proclaimed Harry and Draco's names. Harry pushed Draco's across the table. The last letter was addressed to Lupin, and the parcel was for Mundungus Fletcher, c/o Mrs M Weasley.

Lupin scanned his mail, frowning, while Mrs Weasley prodded the parcel cautiously. It emitted a series of puffs before whatever was inside went 'jibb rabba! jibber bib babba! jibber jabber!' She conjured a small cage to put it in. "Severus wants me to go up to Snape Manor. He's concocted something for combination with wolfsbane."

"Vill you go?" asked Hortense, summoning a cup of coffee.

"You certainly will NOT Remus," said Mrs Weasley crossly, "doesn't he say when he's going to bother checking in on the boys? Albus was adamant that they should have occlumency lessons as soon as possible, I-"

"Molly calm yourself. I'll floo over there this morning and bring him back if I can."

Harry saw Draco's eyes glimmer with hope.

"I'll be back for dinner Molly, there are a few matters to be discussed," said Lupin, straightening his shirt and checking for his report absent- mindedly. He took a handful of floo powder from the pot on the mantelpiece and hollered "Snape Manor!" before disappearing into the green flames.

Mrs Weasley returned to the study where she had been holed up working when she wasn't cooking. Harry was about to strike up a conversation with Hortense, who had been largely ignored, when Draco muttered, "c'mon," to him, and slouched up the stairs.

They sat in their study in companionable silence for a while, Draco gazing unseeing out of the window again, Harry writing to Ron. Here is what he wrote:

"Hi Ron,

Congrats I really did think you'd make head boy! have you seen Hermione? You could both stay here; the house feels massive with just Draco for company -you know I think we've come to a truce? I dunno what it will be like at school though...

Anyway, what's going on? Any news--? There have been no meetings etc here but Lupin's stayed since we arrived and Hortense -she's Draco's 2nd cousin and very fit (you'd drool!) -got here yesterday. She and Lupin are an ITEM! Can't say more cuz I was kinda under the cloak...but Draco was livid, I thought he was ready to kill Lupin.

Anyway, I never saw that coming -should I see what else is going on? Snape is meant to be coming because I'm meant to do more occlumency (don't tell Hermione, she thinks I mastered it the first...three times. hmm.) but I really can't be arsed with that oppressive wanker.

Anyway, fill me in about you and Hermione!-?? What's happened? I'll try and get your mum to let you stay here,

write back, I'm bloody bored

see you soon (hopefully)

Harry.

ps- just realised I called Malfoy 'Draco' all the way through this cuz he said this morning to call him that -he's well confusing -very odd! -Do you know how his mum died??

Draco sat down at the desk and started doing a potions essay. Harry marvelled at his enthusiasm while he settled down to transfiguration, or rather tried to. He reflected for a while on the Animagi pages of his text book. He noticed he was still wearing his dad's jumper. "What use is a stag?" he said, out loud. Draco frowned at him.

END OF PART 11.

hey that was a bit long.

ok in this part I meant to explain how Hortense can be Draco's 2nd cousin and also have the surname Lestrange (as it probably wldnt be a common name), but I couldn't find anywhere to put it, so I'll just explain briefly:

Ok Hortense is Lucius Malfoy's cousin, that makes her Draco's 2nd cousin. However, she is Hortense LESTRANGE. Her brother marries Bellatrix Black ( did a lot of checking using page 105 of the order of the phoenix -chapter called the noble and most ancient house of black) and so she becomes Bellatrix Lestrange. As it happens (as we know), Narcissa Black marries Lucius Malfoy.

Thus these three wizarding pure-blood families (Black, Malfoy and Lestrange) are interlinked, just as Sirius remarks to Harry at the start of the Order of the Phoenix: " The pure-blood families are all interrelated."

ps- just also found that Bellatrix's husband is called Rodolphus. That means that Hortense has a brother called Rodolphus.

ok feel free to slap me for doing too much research.

and please review!!!