CHAPTER 14 – COMING TO THE SURFACE

By the time Harry had returned to Grimmwauld Place he had thoroughly gone over the encounter with his aunt in his mind. Uncle Vernon would always be horrible in his opinion but the family had risked a lot to take him in, even though his aunt was probably the only one who knew how much. Harry suddenly found himself smiling as he stepped into the house. He was greeted by the twins who were sitting in the kitchen, seemingly awaiting his return.

"Have a good visit then?" Fred asked, noticing the grin on Harry's face.

"What'd you do? Did you have to curse Dudders, cause I would have paid to see that," George added.

"No," Harry replied, unsure of how to describe his visit. "It was just…nice. I guess."

"You alright mate?" asked George.

"Yeah, never seen you happy to see your relatives." Fred said.

"It was different this time," Harry told them. He was really didn't think this conversation needed to be dragged out any further so he changed the subject. "What was it you wanted to show me?" The twins smiled and exchanged a look with each other.

"Getting right down to business eh?" Fred said.

"Never one to fart around, that one," George said.

"Follow us," they both told Harry as they turned to head towards the library.

When they entered the library Harry saw a decent sized tent had been erected in the middle of the room. He wondered how large it was inside. As a normal person he would have guessed that it would fit two uncomfortably but as a wizard he knew that it could probably fit a large number of people with plenty of room to spare.

"This-"

"is a present-"

"that we thought you could use" The twins were speaking rather excitedly, finishing each others thoughts. Harry knew that this had to be one of their newest inventions and wondered to himself what would happen to someone who stepped into it.

"On your travels," they both finished.

Harry stepped up cautiously to the entrance flap and peered back at the twins, who were beaming with pride. He didn't know if he trusted them completely to wander head first into one of their pranks. "What's it going to do to me?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing," Fred said.

"This is from our serious line of products," George added, "seriously."

Harry turned back to the tent and pulled the flap open to reveal quite a large inside. He could see two bedrooms and the other rooms of an adequate house such as the kitchen, living room, dining room, and even a small library with bookcases (which were, of course, empty considering this was Fred and George's).

"This is amazing," Harry said as he backed his head out of the tent.

"That's not the best part," George said.

"Yeah, we borrowed a page out of your dad's book for this one." Fred was pulling out his wand as he said this. He pointed it at the tent and said, "Secrets in the dark."

The tent vanished. Harry, who was standing right next to the tent, let out a grunt of surprise and jumped back a foot or so. The twins were smiling largely at their invention but Harry didn't quite know what to make of it. He walked slowly up to where the tent had been and reached out his hand. He grasped a hold of something and pulled on it. It was the flap of the tent and when he pulled on it he got the full view of the house he just peered in before.

"Completely invisible to anyone," George said.

"Yet still completely the same," Fred said.

"We took the idea from your cloak, and applied it to a tent like we had at the World Cup," George said.

"That's brilliant!" exclaimed Harry. Some of his sleep troubles when he was on his own occurred because he was afraid someone would stumble upon him. This certainly settled that. "But what if I forget where it is?"

"Ah, that's the key though innit," Fred said through a smile. George pulled out his wand this time and, pointing up in the air, said, "Show me yours and I'll show you mine." The tent reappeared right next to Harry, who again took a startled step backwards.

"The activation/deactivation phrases we took from the Marauder's Map," Fred explained.

"The normal revealing charms won't work on it," George continued.

"But the incantation will work for anyone so be careful," Fred finished.

"This is great," Harry said. "How much do I owe you for this?"

"Nothing," George replied.

"This is yours," Fred added.

"It cost us a lot of money to develop," George said.

"But we'd hope that it would repay the debt we owe you," Fred said. "We don't fancy being in debt to anyone."

"And it would make us feel a lot better if you accepted," George finished.

"Of course the debt is paid," Harry said looking at the twins. "And then some. But can you do me one favor?" The twins nodded. "Can you not sell any of these until we're… finished with whatever? I think it would be better if random people weren't aware of the incantation."

"Of course Harry," the twins said. They spent several minutes discussing the tent and the different anti-detection and concealment charms that were on it. All of a sudden they heard a scream from the kitchen followed by Harry's name. They stood dumbfounded until they heard rather quick footsteps approach the door, which was swung open with such force that it hit a bookshelf behind it, knocking a row of books onto the floor. Hermione came running into the library completely unaware of a large tent and dashed straight to Harry.

"Where did you get this?" She asked in a hurried voice which was also rather loud.

"Oi, Hermione!" Fred exclaimed poking a finger in his ear.

"Quit shouting before you give Sirius' mum a heart attack," George said.

Hermione ignored the two and shoved something into Harry's chest. After rubbing his chest he looked down. It took him a couple of seconds to recognize the book that he had just received.

"I got it from my Aunt," he told her. By this time Ron, Ginny and even Mrs. Weasley had shown up in the room to find out the source of the commotion.

"Well this is exactly what can help us. I never even knew a book like this existed. Oh I should've known. I'm going to--" She stopped talking as quickly as she had started and stared up at Harry.

"What?" he asked, slightly alarmed at her expression.

"Harry," Ron said from the doorway, "did you say you got that from your aunt?"

"Yeah, she gave me this book and this picture." He fished the picture out of his shirt pocket and everyone crowded around to see it. Ginny was by his side and let out an "ohh" as she realized what the picture was. She seemed to be very drawn to it, almost as if she missed these people. Harry, whose eyes moistened every time he saw it had trouble to find his voice.

"That's my grandparents, my mum's parents. This was taken at Christmas. My mum's two months pregnant here." He heard Mrs. Weasley give a sniff and Ginny wrapped her arm around Harry's back. "I never really heard too much about my grandparents. Sirius said he lived for a while with my dad's parents and that they were very kind to him." He was beginning to get that feeling in his stomach and knew that if he kept talking he would start crying. And that was something he never wanted to do again.

"Your dad's parents were kind to everyone," Mrs. Weasley spoke up. She was staring distantly at the picture.

"You knew my grandparents?" Harry asked her.

"Yes," she replied. "The Ministry runs a day care for single parents and such. Before the twins I used to help out there for a little extra money. It helped pay the bills and I could look after Bill and Charlie at the same time.

"Anyway, your grandmother used to run that day care. Your grandfather was the Head of Family Services at the time and used to come down a lot. They were wonderful with the kids. Your grandfather used to sneak them candy behind your grandmother's back, although I think she knew. He would tell them wild stories and make up games for them to play. She would read them books and get them started on reading. I never met two nicer people than them. They truly enjoyed working with kids. Sometimes when the kids were napping they would just sit and stare at them. Smiles as big as could be."

Tears had started falling down her face and Harry could feel the first one running down his cheek. He had never heard anything about his grandparents but as he looked back at his family he never felt prouder to be a Potter. Mrs. Weasley continued.

"Both of them did as much as they could to help out any family who needed it. In fact, your grandfather pushed through a lot of Ministry regulations that allowed them to take in kids even if their families couldn't afford it. They were truly two of a kind."

Harry felt so many emotions at the same time; pride, sadness, longing, happiness, and anger. He was angry at Voldemort. His grandparents dedicated their lives to keep families together and all he did was break them apart. His muscles started to tense and all he wanted to do was end it.

As if she knew exactly what he was thinking Ginny wrapped her arm around Harry's. She stroked his forearm with her other hand and rested her head on his shoulder.

"We'll get him," she said in a quiet voice. "Don't worry. It'll end."

"I know," Harry said. "I want to make sure that he never does this to anyone ever again."

They all stood in silence for a long time. Harry was pretty sure that the Weasley's were realizing how lucky they were but he was not jealous of them. He was happy for them that they had such a great family. And that they considered him a part of it.

"Love will always conquer evil Harry…it is something that you possess… it was your heart that saved you."