Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Harry Potter, I only own this plot!
A/N: I'd like to thank Lady Kiara Skywalker for being my FIRST REVIEWER! Thank you sooo much!
--- Chapter Two ---
Back in the Burrow
'Hey guys!' Ron said when Harry and Hermione arrived. 'How are you?' He gave Harry a one-arm hug and hugged Hermione, though this hug lasted a bit more than usual. Hermione realised this and was beaming, but the hug ended forcefully when the ever cheerful twins remarked this.
'Hey you two-!' Fred said.
'you should get,' George added.
'A ROOM!' Both twins said roaring with laughter as Ron and Hermione blushed in a deep shade of red. Everyone in the house started to laugh, even Mrs Weasley, who, in spite of herself, let out a small giggle, and tried, ineffectively, to scold the twins, who were doubling themselves with laughter.
Harry looked around the room and immediately sobered up when he saw Ginny. She wasn't laughing as the rest of her family, and Harry had a strong feeling that he was responsible of that. Harry walked to the place where Mrs Weasley was standing and hugged her. This made Mrs Weasley cry with joy nad hugged him also. Harry greeted each one of the Weasleys, Ginny included although tension was palpable. Harry was very sad about this and followed Ron and Hermione upstairs. He suddenly was filled by sorrow, grief and sadness. Harry went to the twins' bedroom and broke down there. He managed to maintain his cry silent. Memories of Snape saying the killing curse flooded his mind, followed by memories of the funeral, Bill's new state and his break up with Ginny. People that were close to Harry died or were injured. Guilt invaded every inch of his soul. Harry was crying openly now, but nobody seemed to bother, to his own relief. Harry wanted to disappear of everybody's life, just for their own safety, but he wouldn't be allowed and the Order would be alerted instantly. He stopped crying and only some sobs came out of him. He lied down on his bed and the door opened, Ron came in.
'Hey Harry come to-,' he stopped right in his tracks and closed the door. 'What's up mate?'
'Oh nothing really, I'm fi-'
'You are notfine Harry,' Ron said while he sat beside him in the bed. 'Does my sister has anything to do with this?' he asked.
'Ye- No!' Ron gave him a strange look. 'Er, kind of, but it's mostly Dumbledore's' He choked a sob. 'death you know...'
'You should take it more easy you know... That greasy bastard will pay with his life, I'm sure that you will have your chance to take revenge on hi-'
'You don't understand Ron! He trusted him, he trusted him with his life. When the bastard entered in the room, Dumbledore expression changed, HE PLEADED! HE SAID "SEVERUS... PLEASE!"' Harry roared and imitated Dumbledore's tone.
Ron looked as if he had been hit with a well placed Stunning spell. He didn't say a single word, but reached out his hand and gave Harry a reassuring squeeze. Harry felt more relieved now that he could let out some of the things that were bothering him. He went to the bathroom and washed his face. He was about to come down to the kitchen when Ron told him,
'She'll come round eventually, you just give her some time'
'I hope so.'
Harry and Ron went to the kitchen to wait for dinner. There was nobody in that room. Harry found this suspicious and pulled his wand out his pocket. Suddenly, the door connecting the kitchen to the dining room bursted open and all the Weasleys plus Remus, Hermione, Mc Gonagall and Tonks entered singing "Happy Birthday". Harry was very moved by this greeting and, as he thanked everyone, the twins let out some of their brand new Fireworks from Weasley Wizard Wheezes. There was a pile of presents brought by Remus.
Ron and the twins pushed Harry to the pile and shouted 'Open them!' Harry pulled out the first present. It was from the twins. A huge box filled of products from the store was their present. He pulled out another gift, that was a wand holster from Tonks. Harry immediately pulled up his sleeve and put on her gift. Mr and Mrs Weasley gave him a new black cloak with emerald green borders. Charlie gave him a dragonhide armour, and dragonhide boots also. Harry thanked him and found this gift very useful, just like the wand holster. Remus' gift was a whole collection of Defense Against the Dark Arts written by Armando Dippet. Bill gave him a Foe Glass that he found in Egypt, Ron's gift was a Golden Snitch ('Wow Ron! Thanks!'). Harry passed on to Mc Gonagall's gift which was a book on Animagi. Hermione gave him a perch for Fawkes, Neville gave him a knife just like the one Sirius gave him on his fourth year's Christmas, Luna gave him a necklace of Butterbeer chaps and Hagrid gave him a book on how to take care of phoenixes and a bag full of owl and phoenix treats. The last, but definetely not the least, gift was Ginny's. It was a small, handmade necklace with a tiny emerald charmed to keep the owner hot if needed. It also had a Protean Charm, so that the one who wore the other could be called at any time.
Harry looked up, but Ginny was no where to be seen. His expression darkened and looked back down immediately. Mrs Weasley, Remus and Hermione realised this but none of them said anything.
Mrs Weasley took the cake out of the oven and placed it on the table. Everyone chanted "Happy Birthday" again and, when Harry blew the candles, he asked only for one wish, to come back to terms with Ginny again.
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'Harry, Harry!' Ron said. 'C'mon mate wake up! We have a Quidditch match to play!'
Harry bolted up and sat down on the edge of his bed, quickly looking for his Quidditch robes. Ron was laughing madly, and Harry suddenly realised, there is no Quidditch match during holidays, least of all so early in the morning.
'You bloody bastard!' Harry said, anger evident in his voice. 'D'you know hoy early it is?'
'Oh, about 8 in the morning I reckon.' Harry's groan made Ron laugh again so he added. 'Well, honestly Harry, you didn't expect me to get up and go down earlier than you, didn't you?'
For the first time in the day Harry looked at his watch. His expression changed completely.
'Oooh I can't believe that you dared to do this Weasley,' Harry said playfully. 'So you just wanted to have a good time and decided to interrupt my beloved sleep with the excuse that you didn't expect me to get up and go down earlier than you, when you already went downstairs, and even tricked me with playing a Quidditch match at 8 o'clock in the morning, when it is really 11? They say that revenge is painful...'
'We'll see to that Potter!'
The two best friends came down laughing and had breakfast. Mrs Weasley hugged them both and told them that Hermione was outside studying and the others, except Bill and Fleur, were in the garden organising a Quidditch match. Ron smirked at Harry when his mother mentioned Quidditch and Harry just chuckled. They both went to their rooms to get their brooms. They went out to the garden and saw all the Weasley clan, except Percy, Bill and their parents, and Remus and Tonks were there also. They decided that the Seekers should choose their players. Charlie chose Ron first, Harry chose Fred, then Charlie chose George, Harry didn't know whether to pick a Chaser (Tonks or Ginny) or to pick a Keeper (Remus). Harry decided to pick the smallest redhead and Charlie picked Tonks, so Remus went to Harry's team. They decided that there wouldn't be Seekers, so Harry and Charlie passed on to be Chasers. Beaters also were allowed to use the Quaffle as Chasers also. They agreed also that they should set up a limit, first team to get to 200 points would win the match.
The match started and it quickly turned to be an action packed match, the Quaffle didn't stop for one second since everyone was playing superbly. Harry saw that he was a pretty good Chaser, 'Must be a family talent' he thought, remembering that his father's family had a knack for Quidditch. After twenty minutes of play the match was 50 – 30 for Charlie's team. Harry was doing a good job as an organiser, he made vital pinpoint passes and Ginny and him made a good team, but Fred clearly wasn't a Chaser, he made too many mistakes but, in the same time, he made the whole team laugh with well placed jokes. The one was suprising everyone was Remus. He made an excellent Keeper and, in Harry's opinion, he could give Ron a run for his money. When an hour of play passed by, the score was even at 120 each, with a superb display from the Keepers, who kept saving impossible shots, and a perfect match of Ginny, who was Harry's team star player. In Charlie's team, the three Chasers were playing well and they could keep up with Ginny's production. At this point, Harry asked for a Time Out so that they could have a drink. Harry landed and went to talk with Remus.
'Oi Godfather!' he shouted, 'How come you are that good as Keeper?'
'So you didn't have much faith in me, huh?' he laughed. 'I was the Gryffindor Keeper in my time, I always played with James and Sirius and we were pretty good.'
'I didn't know, I thought my Dad was the only Quidditch player...'
'Hey Remus, Harry,' Ron shouted. 'the match is about to resume!'
As they went back to the "pitch", Remus said. 'Note that Ron always looks fixedly at you when you are about to shoot, when he does that, just feint shooting to one hoop and pass the Quaffle to Ginny or Fred, Ron will be misplaced and we will score easily. When Ron gets used to this, you should do exactly the contrary, feint a pass and shoot. Then you should alternate. I used to do the same thing Ron does.' He chuckled and added, 'And Sirius took advantage of this during practice!' Harry laughed and prepared to play a "new match" against Ron.
They all climbed to their brooms and bolted upwards. The match resumed and it was as competitive and well played as before the time out. Five minutes later, after a combination of passes between Harry and Ginny, Harry did exactly as Remus told him and Fred scored. As Harry started to play better, the team started to distance from Charlie's. Tonks, Charlie and George had great teamwork, but Ginny's talent and Harry's new strategy were too much for them. Furthermore, for thier annoyance, Fred was getting better as time passed by and turned to be a great defender, he snatched the Quaffle from George as if he knew which would be his next move. Obviously George saw this as a challenge and they ended up both in the same broom, laughing and looking for the other broomsick. Remus wouldn't show any kind of mercy to Tonks and he stopped every shot she sent to his hoops. He used the Starfish move every time he could just to annoy her, so she decided to tease him a biy and morphed her appearance to look exactly as Snape.
They played for twenty minutes more, and the match ended 200 – 150 for Harry's team, with Ginny as the top scorer with 11 goals. Harry scored 5 and Fred four. As soon as the match finished, Mrs. Weasley announced that lunch was ready and they all went to the table, which was moved outside so that they would have more space. Ginny's performance was the main topic during lunch, but she wasn't very talkative. The food was as good as always, but Harry wasn't hungry, he felt as if he had a pit in his stomach. He looked at Ginny, but she wouldn't look back. He felt both bad and disconcerted. Remus noticed his mood and held him back when everyone went upstairs to change their robes.
'Harry, what's up?' he asked. 'You don't look very well...'
'I know,' Harry sighed. 'I think that can't cope with everything, this is too much.'
'Sometimes it is better if you talk with someone about this,' Lupin said softly. 'People say that bad things are better outside than inside, and I strongly back up that assumption. I also had very bad moments in my life but the diference is that I didn't have somebody to talk about it. I had to spend more than ten years to come to terms with it and I would have killed for having someone to talk.'
Harry was shocked, he didn't expect Remus to open up as he had just done but he didn't know what situation was he talking about. Anyways, he decided to try and talk about his situation, it was the best he could do.
'Er, Remus? Maybe we should talk...'
'Sure thing Harry, I am all ears.'
'I am feeling worse than after Sirius died ya know,' he said sadly. 'I loved Sirius a lot, more than Dumbledore obviously, but I feel worse, and if you add up Ginny...'
'I do understand Harry,' the werewolf said. 'It is too much, I wish I could help you, but every one grieves in their own way, and I can't show you how, since it depends on your relationship with the one who died. In my case, Dumbledore's death was a great shock and I'm very sad about it, since he was the one who gave me the chance to learn, to go to Hogwarts despite my "furry little problem" as James put it, but I, at the same time, had the opportunity of finaly accpeting Tonks, which helped me a lot.'
'I guess that my situation is diferent, Professor Dumbledore was a great person, he did hide the prophe-'
'I already know the full content of the prophecy Harry, Dumbledore told me its content when I was designated your new Godfather.'
'I'm glad,' Harry managed a small smile. 'I started to see Dumbledore as a grandfather or something of the sort since that same night he told me the prophecy, he understood me and encouraged me to do better in every task concerning Voldemort. But the most shocking thing he told me was some minutes before that greasy git killed him, when I was about to Apparate him back to Hogsmeade, I told him not to worry, and he said he wasn't because he was with me!' Harry was sobbing now. 'And less than one hour later he was killed!'
Neither Harry nor Remus said anything. Harry was looking fixedly at the floor and Remus was looking at him with a mixture of pity and sympathy and, all of a sudden, he hugged him fiercely. Harry returned the embrace with a smile and thanked him.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Weasley had been eavesdropping and couldn't stop some small sobs.
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Days at The Burrow passed by very fast between the preparations for the weddings, and the usual commotion in Ron's house. It was very difficult to get bored, since Fred and George pulled pranks on everyone at all times, the only one who had survived was Mrs. Weasley, since they didn't like to bear her temper.
Harry seemed better than the day he talked with Remus, he discovered that Fawkes could be a great companion, he would sing a tune to make him feel better, and he would appear next to him to help him out with anything.
Ginny was still hurt and she would talk the minnimum with him, but she wasn't avoiding him any longer. Harry liked this, he expected her to be a good friend when he broke up with her. He knew he had to talk with her as soon as possible, but he also dreaded that talk, he wasn't sure that he would be able to control himself and not hug her and kiss her right away.
Bill's wedding was only a week away and Mrs. Weasley decided to send the teenagers to Diagon Alley to buy new dress robes. Ron and Harry were waken up by Hermione, who had to use Levicorpus on the redhead. Harry shooed Hermione out of the room so that they could put on their clothes. Harry changed and grabbed his new wand holster and put it. He noticed that it was charmed to be invisible for other people and for being comfortable. Harry and Ron went downstairs and had breakfast. Mrs. Weasley was clearly nervous.
'Boys, please be ready in ten minutes time,' she said.
'Who will-' Ron tried to say but he was interrupted by his mother.
'Swallow before you talk Ronald!' she said glaring at him.
Ron rolled his eyes and, after he swallowed, he said. 'Who will be coming with us?'
'Remus, Tonks, Mad-Eye and Kingsley will be your guards.' Mrs. Weasley said. 'Remember to spend as little time as possible out there, all of you take your wands with you and if there is the slightest problem, you come back. Each of you will have an emergency Portkey that will bring you back here.'
All the teens nodded and they waited for the guard to arrive. Meanwhile, Hermione was trying to talk sense to Ron, who said that his mother 'had gone bonkers'. Harry decided to stay out of the argument, and let them be. He summoned Fawkes and started stroking his feathers. The phoenix gave a low musical cry and snuggled next to Harry's arm. He turned and found Ginny looking fixedly at him and Harry couldn't stop the smile that formed in his face. Ginny blushed and looked out of the window. After some minutes, Harry stood up and went to his room to leave Fawkes, he didn't like to make him appear in there alone. As he went back down, he couldn't help thinking that Fawkes was another good friend, someone who would throw in the middle of a Killing Curse aimed at him, but would revive and provoke no grief.