Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself in her books.
LOVE CONQUERS ALLAuthors Note. It is my intension to post one chapter of this story every two days, so I suggest you add my name to your Author Alerts facility, the story will conclude immediately prior to the release of book six.
Chapter 4 They're Always Shopping.After coming downstairs Harry and Hermione went into the kitchen and took some soft drinks and then they went through to the lounge and sat on the sofa. The young couple started practicing their kissing and were getting quite good at it, they were already quite good at cuddling and the pair of them had been very good at chatting for years. After about an hour the others came down to the lounge to join the lovebirds, Harry seemed a bit brighter, Ron asked them what they had been talking about?
"We were talking about where we should go and what we should do so that you would learn the most." Hermione then passed Ron a copy of 'Great Expectations,' she had 'Pride and Prejudice,' for Parvati and Ginny had 'Anne of Green Gables' she told them to try reading these and see what they thought.
All of them went out to the kitchen, Hermione and Tonks started teaching Ron, Parvati and Ginny how to cook the Muggle way, but being as how Ron had never ever watched his mum cook, he didn't really know the difference.
Harry sat, out of the way, on a stool, he took the inventory he had brought from the vault out of his pocket and went through it, really it wasn't much use at all it was far too imprecise. Although there was one entry he wanted to check up on as soon as possible Harry had come to the conclusion that he would have to put aside a day or three to go through the contents of the vault thoroughly.
During dinner they discussed their OWL results, Parvati said that she had earned twelve and was happy with that, Ron thought that he had done about as well as he expected. Harry said that he was very pleased with his results and that he had done much better than he first had thought he would, although looking at them he should have supposed they were what he ought to get.
Although Hermione had set an all time record, she still was not satisfied with her performance; she thought that she should have had at least another three. She had only one for History of Magic and none of them received an OWL for Astronomy, because of the ruckus caused by Professor Umbridge's assault on Hagrid and Professor McGonagall, she believed that she should have had two for each of those. She had nineteen that would of given her twenty-two. Although they could tell that she wasn't really happy with any subject where she only had two instead of three, but then this was Hermione.
Tonks and Hermione asked Parvati if she would be coming everyday, also whether she had many Muggle clothes?
Parvati told them that she didn't have many Muggle clothes at all and half of what she had on belonged to her sister, who didn't have many either. The answer to the other questions was yes as well, she would like to come everyday if they didn't mind and she was assured that she would be most welcome.
After their dinner, Tonks asked Hermione if she should make a Portkey to carry her and Harry between their houses, Hermione thought it was a good idea and suggested that they should arrive in her bedroom.
"Not unannounced though," she said blushing.
Tonks went up to Hermione's bedroom to make the Portkey she was soon back down and Harry asked her if the Floo blocking spell also blocked communication, she told him that it did. Hermione said that she thought they should all meet tomorrow at nine thirty in the Leaky Cauldron to go and do some more Muggle shopping, but this time in Knightsbridge, so it's smart Muggle, they all agreed, Harry gave Hermione a kiss goodbye, picked up the bag of Muggle snacks for Arthur, then the five of them said goodbye to Hermione and Flooed to the Burrow.
x-x
Molly hugged Harry when they arrived at the Burrow, Arthur shook his hand as Harry gave him his bag of goodies, he was delighted and he immediately started asking Ron and Ginny about what they had been doing all day.
Harry went over to where Molly and Tonks were talking quietly and said, "Hello Mum," Molly gave him a big smile, "we will possibly come tomorrow evening to leave presents for Ginny's birthday on Friday."
"That's all right love, I've explained to Tonks that Friday being the 12th of July is Ginny's Birthday and about what we want to do on Friday evening."
"Good, do you think we should be going now?" he asked Tonks, she agreed and he called over to the others telling them that they were leaving, he also warned Arthur not to let Ron eat everything while he was supposedly explaining what it was, Parvati promised to keep an eye on Ron for them.
Then Tonks came and whisked Harry away to Privet Drive.
They immediately went down to his aunt and gave her ten pounds telling her that they would need to use the phone, but only for local calls, and that should more than cover the cost, she agreed. Harry phoned Hermione then he and Tonks went up to his bedroom and used their new Portkey to Hermione's bedroom. Hermione was in her room waiting for them to arrive and smiling impishly she gave him a kiss and then they went downstairs. After they had said hello to Mr and Mrs Granger they went out to the kitchen where Tonks explained to Hermione what Molly was planning for Ginny's Birthday on Friday.
The girls decided that the best place to go the next day would be Harrods because they sold virtually everything.
When they had finally decided what they were going to do the next day Harry asked Tonks what time Gringotts Closed. She told him that it would not shut until ten thirty so they went back to the lounge and said goodbye to Hermione's mother and father. Harry having practiced kissing Hermione again, several times, they Flooed from the dining room to the Order's room in the Leaky Cauldron.
While they were walking down Diagon Alley, Harry decided to go into Quality Quidditch Supplies to buy Ginny a decent broom, having had a good look around the shop he bought her the new Nimbus Flash, it was not quite as quick as his Firebolt but it was much more precise in its handling. He had it gift wrapped and he put it in Tonks bag, he asked her to keep it there until Friday and she agreed, then they continued on to Gringotts.
He handed Sirius's old vault key to the goblin behind the counter and told him that he wanted to go to vault seven one four, another goblin was called and they were taken to the vault and it was opened.
On the way down he had explained to Tonks that they were looking for the deeds to an apartment, they went into the vault and quickly found a pocket file with Apartment, written on it, he looked in it quickly and found some papers that looked like deeds and some keys. They took the pocket file with them and climbed back into the trolley, whilst the Goblin locked the vault, returned his key and then he took them back up to the surface.
It was nearly nine thirty and the light was beginning to fade, so they decided to Portkey directly home.
When they were in Harry's room they examined the documents they had collected from the bank vault and they found that they were the deeds to a top floor apartment. It was in a road called Overcliff Drove, which was in a place called Chudley Salterton that appeared to be in Devon, so they put the papers safely back into Tonks bag.
It was getting late so they decided to call it a day and Tonks went to her room.
As Harry lay in his bed trying to go to sleep, he knew that he no longer blamed himself for Sirius's death, he was and always would be very sad that Sirius was dead, that he felt would never go away, but he didn't blame himself for it. The blame he now believed lay Eighty Five percent with Voldemort, Ten percent with Bellatrix Lestrange and Five percent with Kreacher. He also became determined that he would work extremely hard to ensure that Voldemort would pay when their paths crossed again. Sirius's death would not be in vain.
x-x
The next morning they all met in the Leaky Cauldron as they had arranged, then they went out into Muggle London and hailed a Taxi to take them to Harrods. Harry gave Hermione some money to buy herself some clothes and made sure that all the others had enough Muggle money and reminded them, not in front of her, that Friday was Ginny's birthday.
As they were driving along Parvati, Ron and Ginny were amazed at all the huge shops and the tens of thousands of people, milling around this part of London.
"There are a lot of people here," said Ron, not being one to avoid stating the blindingly obvious.
This must of appeared to be an open invitation to Hermione who immediately switched into information mode. "There are about sixty-five million people in Britain and only three-quarters of one percent are magical, that's about half a million witches and wizards of varying degrees. There are about ten million Muggles in London alone, don't for one minute doubt that Harry was wrong with what he was saying yesterday."
"A proper little ray of sunshine you are," said Ron, wishing, not for the first or last time, that he had kept his mouth shut.
Harry ignored him and totally changing the subject said, "If you want to buy yourself or anyone else something, just do it, you don't have to ask anyone's permission but if you have any problems ask."
"Right," said Ron. Harry still wasn't confident that Ron was relaxed about the money.
A bit later Tonks said, "Ok you two stop smooching in the corner, we're here. Parvati you pay the driver please," Tonks helped her with the change and the tip then they went into Harrods.
They looked at the floor guide, "Where are we going then?" asked Ron."
"I want to look at the lingerie," said Hermione.
"I want to look at fashions," said Parvati.
"And I want to look at the nightwear," said Tonks.
"I want to look at everything," said Ginny her eyes wide and her face glowing.
"But we don't want to spend all day looking at ladies unmentionables," moaned Harry.
Pointing at the store floor plan Tonks suggested, "There are men's clothes here, here and here, there's a sports section there and the food is over there. Why don't you two look around there first then come and find us and tell us where you are going?"
Harry agreed and he said to Ron, "If we get separated ask one of the staff the way to ladies underwear and we will all meet up again there. Ok?" he then told the others again that if there was any thing they wanted for themselves or friends they were to buy it, they were to learn about Muggle money and the easiest way to do that was by practicing spending it, then after he gave Hermione another kiss, the girls set off.
Moving through the ground floor Ron bought and had gift wrapped a beautiful manicure set for Ginny's birthday present, then he bought his dad some aftershave, that had started him spending a bit and after that they both bought themselves a lot of things they needed, or just wanted Ron was loosening up. Between them they had socks, shirts, vests, T-shirts, trousers, pyjamas, etc and Ron had bought some other things for his dad.
Next Harry bought himself a new wristwatch it occurred to him then that this was what he could buy Hermione for a Birthday present. As the time was being set on the new watch he realised that they had been over three hours so they set off in search of the girls and soon found the others.
Tonks told them that the girls were nearly finished, as they put all of their bags into her magic bag. Ginny was buying herself a new pair of slippers and she couldn't choose between a fluffy warm pair and a hardwearing leather pair, she asked Harry and he told her to buy both, it gets cold in the castle in the winter. So she bought both pairs and when she paid Harry could see that she, like Ron, was now perfectly at home with Muggle money.
Keeping Ron without food for very long is difficult to say the least, so they went for something to eat and the pureblood wizards realised that there was not a lot of difference between wizard and Muggle food. In the main it was that the wizards did not have the variety of junk food the Muggles had and all of the children's sweets were completely different.
When the time came Parvati paid for the food and Harry noted that she was perfectly happy with Muggle money as well.
Their shopping was complete so they went down to the ground floor and as they were working their way towards the exit they had to go through the perfume department. By the time they reached the other side, each of the ladies had bought themselves two lots of perfume, Parvati had bought some for Padma and their mother, also Ginny, Ron and Hermione had bought some for their mothers, this had been at Harry's suggestion.
When they left the store through a side door Tonks put out her hand and a Ministry car appeared as if by magic, they all clambered into it and it took them to the Leaky Cauldron.
The evening before in Hermione's house the three of them had decided that they were all going to go to the Burrow, but Padma, Ron and Ginny didn't know this. So the trio pretended to decide again in the car and when they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron they Flooed to the Burrow where they were welcomed once more by Arthur and Molly.
x-x
Arthur immediately collared Ron and Ginny again to tell him where they had been and what they had seen and while they were busy Molly and Tonks went up stairs, Harry started talking quietly to Hermione.
In a couple of minutes Molly and Tonks came back down and Tonks said, "Isn't, that an expensive shop but their stuff is beautiful. Why don't you two show your mum and dad what you have bought for them?"
"This bag is cleverer than I thought," said Ron peering into it, "I can only see what I put in it."
He started taking his stuff out as Tonks said, "These bags are charmed that way, I am the only person that can see everything that is in it," as Ginny came over and took her things out. Ron and Ginny gave their mum and dad the presents they had bought for them, they were very pleased.
Then Molly said, "And who's money paid for all this?"
Quickly Harry answered, "No ones Mum. It was special practice money and it never belonged to any one."
Molly turned to Arthur, "I think my new son is twisting me round his little finger," they all laughed, including Molly.
Harry continued, "Tonks show Arthur what we found yesterday."
"Arthur, Harry found this, yesterday evening, in the vault that Sirius left him, you can see that it is for a property in Chudley Salterton, what's the easiest way for us to get there, so he can find out about it?"
Tonks passed Arthur the folder, he thought for a few minutes and said, "Well you can Floo from here to the office in Exmouth, if you leave here at about half past nine I will make sure that a car and driver are with you for the day and you should take Molly with you for extra security."
"Well I think that that sounds fine, so we will gather here before half nine tomorrow, ok gang?" they all thought it was a brilliant idea.
Harry took about twenty, twenty-pound notes out of his pocket and said, "Mum, I want you to put these in the bottom of your purse you never know when you might need them, these will more than pay for a Muggle taxi from Hogwarts to here and you never know when that might be the safest way to travel."
"But I don't understand Muggle money dear."
"It's easy, if you had asked these three, two days ago they would of said the same thing, if you need it we will take you shopping and teach you."
He looked at Arthur for some help and he said, "You know he's right dear."
"I suppose so," she said taking the money and giving him a nervous smile.
"I think it's time we all went home and got some rest, we may well have a very long day tomorrow, and you two say goodnight now you've been together all day," said Tonks.
"Thank you for a wonderful day, darling," Hermione said, giving him a kiss.
"Thank you for letting me share it with you, but now we must go," he said, giving her a kiss and standing then helping her up.
Then they went out to the kitchen, Hermione gave Harry another kiss said her goodbyes to the rest and then she Flooed home. Tonks took out the Portkey and Harry said, "goodbye all," he touched the Portkey and with the now familiar hook behind the navel, he and Tonks went back to his room in Privet Drive.
"We're venturing into the unknown tomorrow," said Harry as he went to his trunk, took out his invisibility cloak and put it in her bag, then he took out all the things he had bought and started to put them away in his drawers and the wardrobe.
"Good thinking about the cloak Harry and goodnight," she said.
"Goodnight Tonks," he replied, as she went to her room.
Harry finished putting his new things away and changed for bed, when he lay down he was peacefully asleep dreaming of bushy hair and kisses in no time.
x-x
By twenty past nine the next morning they were all gathered in the kitchen of the Burrow so they all started to Floo to the Ministry of Magic's Exmouth office. Tonks was the first to go and Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Parvati and Molly followed her in that order.
The party had all arrived in a square room about twelve foot to a side, it had no furniture and a single door in the centre of the wall opposite the fireplace, the room had no windows and the door had no handle. Harry and Tonks had taken their wands out, Hermione, Parvati, Ginny and Ron had followed their lead when the door opened and a middle aged wizard said, "Hello Tonks a bit jittery this morning aren't we?" he was looking at all the wands pointing at him.
"Most of these were in the Ministry battle, not the ministers wife of course," she said, "everybody this is Rodolphus Jenks, how's the wife Jenks?"
"You know I am not mar…""Stupefy!" Tonks shouted, everybody had their wands ready as the wizard fell over stunned, "that was the wrong answer," said Tonks, picking up and passing Ginny the stunned wizard's wand, Ginny nodded and put the wand in her pocket.
Harry looked to the right, down the corridor, which was about twelve foot wide, "To the right, It runs for about ten feet or so and then there is a blank wall, the only window is directly in front of the door and I can see a courtyard and further off a road. So we only have to worry about what's to the left," he described it all very quietly.
Tonks moved them all back a bit, she put her head out and pulled it back very quickly, there were some mixed yells and three beams of light flew passed the door.
"There are four of them, lets rush out and try to stun them."
"No!" said Harry firmly but quietly and passed her the invisibility cloak from her bag, she put it on as he continued still speaking quietly "We will follow when you fire your first shot."
Tonks fired a stunning spell from the far side of the corridor and they all rushed out into the hall and started throwing stunning spells. Harry hit one of the Death Eater's with a full body bind and he went down. Then there was a cry of 'Crucio' and Ginny started screaming Harry could see the green beam of the curse, he yelled 'EXPELLIARMUS' with all of the power he could muster and his spell hit the Death Eater who was firing the unforgivable square in the chest. Her wand flew over their heads, it hit the wall behind them so hard it broke and she flew backwards half hitting the doorway behind her, she spun and landed half way across the hall, at an odd angle, unconscious and bleeding. Hermione and Tonks had stunned the other two Death Eaters so this fight was over.
Harry went to Ginny she was crying, he knelt and took her in his arms then held her tight. "It's all right, it's all right," he kept repeating, "has anyone any chocolate?"
Ron gave her a chocolate frog from his pocket, "Sorry it's the only one I've got," he said as she ate it, soon her sobbing subsided then Harry helped her stand and she went to her mother.
Tonks checked the hall where the female Death Eater had come to rest, in a small pool of her own blood, it was about twelve foot square with one window, one outside door and one other door, "This woman is just unconscious and I think she has a few broken bones," she put her in a full body bind and moved her to the end of the corridor, the others had collected all their assailants wands, body bound the other four and also lined them up at the far end of the corridor. There were three men and two women.
"You guard these with mum," Harry said to Ginny as Molly was cuddling her.
The others all moved into the hall surrounding the inner door, Harry and Tonks were at the front, she pointed her wand at the door and said 'Alohomora' the door swung open.
The room was twelve foot by twenty with two windows in the far wall, it had three filing cabinets, two desks with chairs and half a dozen spare chairs. There was nowhere to hide in the room but on the floor there were three stunned bodies, one of them looked like the other Jenks they had seen.
Tonks pointed her wand at the one who looked like Jenks and said, 'Enervate,' he woke up.
"Hello Tonks," said the wizard, he was still a bit dazed.
"How's the wife Jenks?" asked Tonks.
"She's still got two left feet, you know?" replied the wizard.
"That was the right answer, Everybody this is Rodolphus Jenks," said Tonks, helping him to his feet, pointing at the other two bodies, she continued, "are these ours?"
Jenks looked at the two stunned wizards and nodded, "The tall one is fairly new his name is Smyth, the other one is in charge of this office, he's been here for years his name is Hardy."
Harry checked the left arms of both the stunned wizards, Smyth was a Death Eater, Tonks put a full body bind on him, then she pointed her wand at Hardy and said, 'Enervate,' Hardy woke up.
"Thank god your alright," he said as soon as he had recovered, the whole episode had taken about ten to fifteen minutes. Hardy was shocked to learn that Smyth was a Death Eater.
"This Jenks is changing!" Ginny's voice came from the hall.
So Hermione levitated Smyth to join the other prisoners and Harry pulled all the captured prisoners left sleeves up, confirming that they were all Death Eaters.
Hardy went to the fireplace and threw in some Floo Powder then said something and almost immediately two Aurors one of whom was Kingsley Shacklebolt 'Apparated' into the Floo room. At the same time there was a pop from outside as a coach appeared in the courtyard and two more Aurors entered the building through the front door.
Tonks told the story of how the Death Eaters had been overpowered, including the unforgivable curse that had been cast on Ginny.
"Ok, shall we take care these for you?" said one of the Aurors who had come through the front door.
"Yes please." said Kingsley, "Do you still want your trip?" he asked the group.
"Yes, I think we do," said Ginny, putting her arms around her mum and getting another hug in return.
"Then I will stay with you, if you don't mind Molly?"
"I don't mind Kingsley, but I think we could all do with a cup of tea."
"Bones you go with the wagon," said Kingsley.
The Auror who had arrived with Kingsley went and helped the other two Aurors load the six prisoners into the coach and with another pop the coach disappeared.
Those remaining went into the office and they all had tea, except Ginny who was given a cup of hot chocolate.
Tonks filed a full report of exactly what had transpired from the time they arrived through the Floo.
Then Kingsley asked Jenks to bring the car around to the front of the building and he told Molly that they would have another cup of tea in the car as they all left the building.
x-x
It was about six miles from the Ministry Office in Exmouth to where the unexplained apartment was located in Chudley Salterton. Overcliff Drove ran along top of the cliffs, the seaward side of the road had an open view and all the buildings were on the landward side of the road.
Without any traffic it would take a normal Muggle car about ten minutes to drive between the office and the apartment building. With the holiday traffic it would take the same ordinary Muggle car about three quarters of an hour for the same trip, they made the journey in twelve minutes.
Whilst they were riding along in the car Molly, Tonks and Kingsley had their promised cup of tea and the other five had Butterbeer.
Being a popular place there were no spaces to park along the cliff top, but the ministry car, as was the way with such vehicles, worked itself into a nonexistent parking space.
The building that the party were interested in was four stories high with a panoramic sea view over the wide bay and the coastline in both directions. From the details in Harry's folder they were evidently interested in the top floor flat so they all left the car and walked up the side of the building to the only entrance.
Harry examined the set of keys that were in the folder, he unlocked the outside door and they all went into the foyer of the building. There was carpet on the floor, which looked almost new, a lift, stairs, and one door that looked like the front door to an apartment; there was one picture of an old man looking out to sea on the wall facing the outside door.
Harry called the lift and it was there in a few seconds.
"Wait one minute before you come up," said Kingsley then he and Jenks went quickly up the stairs.
The others entered the lift, Hermione showed Ginny how to select the top floor, the lift went up and when the lift door opened Kingsley and Jenks were waiting in a rather plush entry hall as they all exited the lift.
The hall was nicely carpeted, besides the lift and the stairs it had a single door, there could only be one apartment on each level and Harry thought that they must be rather large. There was a portrait on each of the side walls one looked like a very young handsome man the other was of a young rather attractive lady, "Hello Harry, my name is Arrabella," said the portrait of the lady, "we have been expecting you, you had all better go in."
All of them looked at each other and again drew their wands.
Harry went to the front door and examined it, it was a very nice door and it looked like a perfectly normal Muggle door, he unlocked it with a key and opened it, whatever he had expected to find it certainly was not the Headmaster, Dumbledore.
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