CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: Calm Before The Storm
Fred and George had spared no expense when it came to the party they threw in honour of their father's promotion. They had special firecrackers that kept setting off that took the form of Mr. Weasley's face or said things like "Congratulations Minister of Magic." In between all that they kept showing Tonks and Ginny some new inventions still not available to the public. For the first time since Harry had known her, Mrs. Weasley seemed to appreciate the controlled chaos going on around her, instead of reprimanding Fred and George like she had so many times in the past. For his part, Mr. Weasley was enjoying every part of the celebration being thrown in his honour. All the Weasley's were present, including Bill, Charlie, and even Percy. However, Harry knew Percy was only there at the request of Mrs. Weasley. He knew that there was no way Fred and George or any one else would have invited him. Harry was actually shocked he had showed up after the fiasco at Christmas.
It was the first time in as long as Harry could remember that they had all come together and were as completely happy and care free as they were. There was no talk about immediate threats or dangers, or even any mention of The Order. While Harry wanted to enjoy himself as much as everyone else, it was those thoughts that kept him from doing so. His gut told him this would be one of the few times they would be all together before the war took a turn for the worse.
He had quietly detached himself from the group somewhat, but not enough that anyone would really notice. The last thing he wanted was to ruin Mr. Weasley's party. If anyone deserved this kind of happiness it was the Weasley's.
Mrs. Weasley had just apparated a dozen or so plates of pastries that filled the two tables set up outside. By now, mostly every one was standing up, clustered in groups, talking and enjoying their dessert. Harry stayed where he was, watching Percy and Mr. Weasley have what looked like for a serious conversation.
"I'd be careful which one of those you eat," said a voice from beside him.
Ginny had joined him at the table.
"Fred just told me they switched a couple of the pastries with their own stash."
Harry knew well enough to take Ginny's warning seriously. He pushed the plate away from himself, not wanting to be the latest gag victim of the twins. As he was doing this a loud gasp followed by howling laughter could be heard. He and Ginny followed the sounds, seeing Bill sprouting rabbit ears. While the twins were doubled over with laughter, Bill tackled them down, demanding they fix his ears. George could barely be heard through his laughter but it sounded like it wouldn't wear off for a couple of hours and there was no reversal spell.
Harry's eyes were watering with laughter, and when he looked over at Mrs. Weasley she was having a hard time wiping the smile off her face as she scolded the twins.
"Wow, I can't believe that's mum," Ginny said in shock. "She's not even raising her voice."
"Maybe Fred and George slipped something in her pastry," said Harry.
"Not that I would put it past them," she said, turning back to Harry, "but I think mum's trying to make up for all but disowning them when she found out they dropped out of Hogwarts. I guess now that Percy's back she wants to make amends with the twins as well. It's strange he showed up without Penelope. After Christmas I would have thought he wouldn't want to be alone with any of us. Except for mum and dad of course," she added.
They grew quiet for a bit, before Harry said in a low voice, "Penelope's not the only one missing."
Ginny understood what he meant by that, but couldn't quite believe Harry was even bringing it up. She stayed quiet – she didn't want to interrupt or worse, scare him off from talking about it further.
"I keep thinking it's strange that Sirius isn't here," he said, looking off into the distance. "It's been almost a year and I'm still expecting him to be here. Does that make any sense?"
She nodded. "It doesn't matter that he's been gone that long. It doesn't mean you're supposed to care about him any less."
"Sometimes I wonder if he's really dead," he said, his green eyes meeting hers. "There was no body, he just fell through that veil." He shook his head as if trying to clear it. "Is that normal to think that?"
He didn't look to be expecting an answer because he turned away almost immediately after saying it. Even if he had wanted one, she didn't think she had an answer to give him. Somehow she didn't think the usual speech that it was normal to want someone you love to still be alive would be very comforting to him. She wasn't even sure how to comfort him. Though they had grown closer over the last two years, he had never been this open, this vulnerable with her before, except that time during her first week at Lupin's.
"Do you want cake?" She said before the silence between them could stretch on for too long.
He gave her somewhat of a puzzled look before shrugging his shoulders. She took that response to be a 'yes' and stood up from the table to lead the way back into the house. On the way they passed a very red faced Bill, who kept sending deadly stares in the direction of the twins.
When they made it into the kitchen, Harry's eyes widened at the amount of food he saw there. If he had thought there was a mountain of it outside, there was almost as much sitting on the table and counters of Lupin's kitchen.
Harry watched her slice a piece of chocolate cake first for himself and then for her. "You sure your mum won't mind?"
"As long as we don't touch the one she made especially for dad, we'll be fine," she told him.
Sitting on the table, Harry could see a large rectangular cake with the face of Mr. Weasley on it, drawn with what was obviously magical icing, since it would alternate between ginning proudly and winking.
"Here," she said, handing him his slice of cake. She rummaged around in the top most drawers, saying, "I think mum's taken all the cutlery outside. She must have thought we were having a hundred people over instead of fifteen."
"That's fine. I can use my hands," Harry said without concern. He picked up the cake and took a mouthful. "What's the matter, Ginny? Never eaten with your hands before?" He teased, seeing that she was undecided between using her hands and going outside and grabbing a fork.
She stuck out her tongue at him and picked up the slice of cake.
"Why don't you let me help you with that," he said, and put his own plate on the counter.
"Harry, I'm quite capable of feeding myself," she protested, as he took the cake out of her fingers.
She didn't even have time to react before he forced the cake into her mouth, with the majority of it landing on her face. He took a step back from her, barely able to contain his laughter.
"I can't believe you just did that," she said in complete shock. She had never witnessed this kind of playful behaviour in Harry before. "You're going to pay for that, Harry Potter," she said, picking up the slice of cake he had left on the counter. She lunged for him, and probably because he wasn't expecting her to retaliate, couldn't get out of her line of fire in time. The problem was, Harry was quite a bit taller then her, so he was able to keep straining his neck to keep his face away from her hand that held the cake. It was a no-win situation, so she decided to turn the tables on him and change her plan of attack. She took the cake and mashed it against his chest. Then she backed away from him, laughing uncontrollably.
"Hey, that's not fair," he said staring down at his cake covered shirt.
"I didn't know there were rules," she managed to get out between fits of laughter.
"At least all you have to is wipe your face off, I'm going to have to go upstairs and change," he complained. "You Weasley's fight dirty."
"That would have done you good to remember that before you started this."
"Potter's are dirty fighters too," he said and then attacked.
"Harry, no!" She shrieked and moved as far away from him as she could in the small confinements of the kitchen. Harry was much too fast for her. All those weeks of Auror training combined with his natural Seeker abilities, made her an easy target. When he had her backed up against the counter, he grabbed what he could of the cake she had smashed on his shirt and tried to do the same to her. She managed to grab a hold of the hand that was close to her, but now Harry's face was so close to hers everything seemed to change. The playfulness was suddenly over. She was still gripping his hand tightly, and neither one of them made any attempts to break free.
The way he was looking at her now, made her forget she was standing in Lupin's kitchen where any one of a dozen people could walk in – including her parents – made her forget that was already involved with someone, and made her forget she was supposed to be over Harry. Then she just seemed to forget everything as Harry's lips came crashing down against hers.
She wondered how she could ever forget what kissing Harry was like and at the same time think this was a million times better than the first time all those months ago. Using the hand that wasn't covered in cake, Harry placed it against the small of her back and pushed her closer to him. Every rational thought seemed to erase itself from his mind, not that he was able to think rationally around her to begin with. He almost had to take a step back from her it was so intense. It had never felt like this before. Everything – the feelings, the sensations were intensified a hundred times more.
Someone clearing their throat made him pull his lips away from Ginny's and the two of them separated faster then was humanly possible.
Charlie stood in the doorway, his face wearing a look that Harry had seen on Ron's face many times when he was struggling to control his temper.
"I thought I'd come in and grab some cake, but it looks like you two have already helped yourself," he said in a deadly calm voice.
Ginny knew she has some serious damage control on her hands. "Charlie, what you saw – "
"Ginny, I don't need you to explain to me what I saw," he cut her off. "I'm not blind – though I kind of wish I was now."
"This isn't any of your business," she said sharply.
Charlie ignored her. "Gin, mum's looking for you, you should go outside."
She didn't believe him, even if her mum was looking for her she wasn't going to leave so her brother could do bodily harm to Harry. "I'm not a little a kid anymore," she said, placing her hands on her hips, "you can't tell me what to do."
"Ginny, it's all right," Harry said, not taking his eyes off Charlie. "Go outside."
Reluctantly, she chose to leave, but not before throwing her brother the iciest glare she could muster.
Charlie didn't speak until he had heard the back door shut behind her. "It's scary how much she looks like mum when she's angry."
Harry didn't say anything. There wasn't a single word he could say that would help him out of the mess he was in.
"Contrary to what Ginny thinks, I'm not going to beat you to a bloody pulp," Charlie said, still glaring at him. "As far as I know, she's still dating that Dean Thomas bloke, right?"
Harry's inability to answer confirmed that.
"Of course if I never would have guessed it by what I walked in on. I don't know what the hell you were thinking but be glad it was me that caught you and not another Weasley who happens to call himself your best mate," he said, losing some of the glare on his face. "Look, Harry, I'm not going to give you the over-protective brother speech, because you already know what would happen if you hurt my baby sister and her six other older brothers were to find out about it."
Harry didn't even need to hear the threatening sound in Charlie's voice to know the threat was valid, but he wasn't going to allow himself to be intimidated by Ron's older brother either. Charlie would do good to remember that he was an Auror in training.
"You might want to change before you go back out there," said Charlie before he walked out of the kitchen and back outside.
Harry trudged upstairs, taking extra care to change his shirt and make sure the rest of him was presentable before heading outside. He got one last warning glare from Charlie as he joined the others at the table, where Mrs. Weasley was handing out pieces of the cake with her husband's face on it, and then the older Weasley didn't look at him again. For that matter, Harry couldn't bring himself to look Ginny again that night either. The same mistakes he had made with Cho, he was starting to make all over again with her.
To his credit, he would be moving out of there tomorrow and that would create some distance between them before he could do something stupid and impulsive like that again.
"No offense, mate, but I'm really glad you don't have a lot of stuff," said Ron, walking into the house, which currently had boxes stacked up along the kitchen and living room walls. "Where do you want these?" He was carrying two large boxes marked 'Hogwarts' on them.
They were probably his schoolbooks and Gryffindor Quidditch robes. While Ron had been happy to bury anything to do with school at the back of his closet, Harry preferred to keep his stuff around. Hogwarts had been his first real home and most of the best moments of his life had happened there that he couldn't bring himself to throw any of it away.
"Just leave them in the hallway outside of the second bedroom," Harry told him from where he stood in the living room with Lupin, dropping down his own set of boxes.
"Do you need a hand with that?" They heard Hermione ask him.
"Oh right, I forgot, you're carrying practically nothing," said a sarcastic Ron.
"You were the one who insisted on showing off and taking more than you could carry," she said evenly.
"More than I could carry?" He said in indignation. "I could carry you along with these two boxes."
"Is that your way of saying I'm fat or something?"
Ron looked passed her and over to Harry and Lupin for support, but the two of them were too busy trying to contain their laughter.
"Sorry, Ron, you're on your own with this one," Harry said to him. He was most certainly not going to let himself be roped into this quarrel.
"Right, I'll remember that next time you ask for my help," he said, and took off down the hall towards the bedrooms.
Hermione turned and winked at them before following. She had just been playing with Ron. She knew she shouldn't, but Ron was so easy to get a rise out of sometimes she couldn't help herself.
"Ron certainly seems more cheerful these days," Remus noted, listening to the two of them carry on down the hall. "Malfoy finally stopped giving him a hard time, has he?"
"I don't know about that," replied Harry. "But I think Malfoy's seen enough of what Ron can do that he knows not to push him too far or he'll be sorry."
Lupin nodded his understanding. "What about you? Is Malfoy making things difficult for you as well?
"I ignore him most of the time. It's harder for Ron though because Mackenzie likes to pair him up with Malfoy."
"How is it? The training I mean."
Harry shrugged. "I knew it would be tough, but it's even harder then I imagined. I'll get through it though," he added because he didn't want Lupin to think it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. The extensive training was more difficult then his encounters with Voldemort had ever been.
Lupin bent low and picked up one of the boxes he had brought in earlier. "You might want to unpack this one first. Consider it a house warming gift."
"What is it?" Harry asked, pulling off the top.
"It's some of your parents things," said Lupin, his voice somber. "Before they went into hiding after you were born, they had some of their more personal effects put into storage. Sirius and I had been planning to go through it since he got out of Azkaban, but we never got the chance."
Harry swallowed hard. Aside from his invisibility cloak, the Marauder's Map, and the one photo album, he had little else to remind him of his parents. Now Lupin had presented him with an entire box full of their belongings. As he pulled out photos and some letters written on parchment, it became clear that most of these possessions were from their school days at Hogwarts.
"What are you looking at?" Came Ron's voice as he and Hermione joined them in the living room.
"It's some of my parents things," Harry said, his voice low.
"Oh," said Ron and went silent.
"Do you mind?" Hermione said gently, reaching inside the box.
He shook his head. If anyone understood what these things meant to him it would be her. She pulled out what appeared to be a yellowing folded piece of parchment. She immediately passed it to him.
"It's a program for a play," she said.
He wasn't sure why they would have kept that. Maybe it had been some important moment for them that he would never know about.
"Read what it says on the cover," She said to him.
He wasn't sure what she was getting at until he read it first to himself and then out loud to everyone else. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry proudly presents Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, with James Potter as Romeo and Lily Evans as Juliet."
Lupin smiled wistfully. "I don't know how I could have forgotten about that. It was the beginning of seventh year. Dumbledore thought it would be fun to make the Head Girl and Boy bring the school together for something other than Quidditch. Your mother, Harry, thought it would be a brilliant idea to put on a muggle play. Dumbledore supported her idea, while James hated it. I believe his exact words were no real man would prance around a stage wearing tights. Lily argued he was too afraid to try out for a part, and your father never being one to back down from a challenge tried out for the part of Romeo. Needless to say, things finally began to change between the two of them during all those weeks of practice."
Harry remembered how upset he had been to learn what his father had really been like during his school days when he had looked into Snape's thoughts using the Pensieve. Sirius and Lupin had both tried to tell him that he shouldn't judge his father based on what he had been like during fifth year, and that his mother really didn't despise him. Besides their word, he now had the proof in his hands that things had finally begun to change between them in seventh year.
"I think I'll go through the rest of this later," he said quietly, putting the program back in the box.
"We could go back to the house and get some lunch," Lupin suggested, "since I think it's safe to say you don't have anything to eat around here yet."
The idea of lunch sounded good to all of them. He left the box full of mementos of his parents where it was, knowing it would be there waiting for him when he was ready to go through it again.
Hermione and Ron led the way out of the house, Harry followed behind them, stopping just inside the doorway to look around at his new home. He couldn't help but think that this time last year he had been on his way back to the Dursleys. It felt like he was starting over somehow. He might not have going back to Hogwarts to look forward to, but he had five months of training left before he would become a full-fledge Auror, and he could finally spend an entire summer seeing his friends whenever he wanted. Perhaps it was a sign that at least for the next little while everything would be fine – that everything would be as close to normal as he would ever get.
End of Part I
A/N: I've already started work on a sequel to this, so I hope to start posting chapters for that in early August. That fic will not include anything that happens in the Half-Blood Prince in order to correspond with the events in this story.
Once again, huge thank-you's to everyone who reviewed this fic, and I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it.
