HOMECOMING

Harry finished the wards at the Malfoy's and then left with the divorce papers signed by him and the Malfoy family. He sent them off to his office and then apparated into number twelve Grimauld Place. He landed in the hallway, invisible, and almost laughed when he saw one of the Weasley twins looking through a hole in the wall, spying on the Order. He walked through the wall and looked around the room there were several people he knew and even more that were unfamiliar to him. He waved his wand and a piece of parchment appeared in front of Moody. He listened to the end of Dumbledore's speech and left the room again. He walked up the stairs and entered the bedroom he shared with Ron the last time they were there, only to walk back out of the room again.

"Yuck. I never want to see that again if I can help it," he said trying to shake the image out of his head as he walking back down the hallway. He walked into Sirius's old room and found a lovely looking redhead lying on the bed, reading a book. He waved his wand in the room and a piece of parchment appeared on the bed beside her. He left the room with another wave of his wand and walked back downstairs. He reached the doorway and a smile graced his face as he saw a portrait of an old woman. He pointed his wand again and crept up to the portrait and whispered. "This is for Sirius, you old bat." Her eyes sprung open and she began to scream as the paint in her painting started to melt away, being burned by a magical fire.

He apparated away once more, leaving a note behind as he left, singing, "Ding Dong, the witch is dead, the witch is dead, the witch is dead," over and over again. He arrived at his house and scanned the for Moody's traps. There was nothing to troublesome so he set a few more traps and some for Moody too keep them on their toes when they arrived.

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The Order ran from the room, following Dumbledore, who was the first to break out of his trance after the scream. When the got to the hallway they saw a note lying on the floor underneath the burnt ashes of Sirius' mother's old painting. Dumbledore opened the note and read it to himself a few times before the rest of the Order asked what it said. He slowly passed it to Remus, who it was addressed to.

Remus opened the letter, slowly recognizing Harry's handwriting, and began to laugh at the message that appeared on the parchment.

"You have received this message because you were once a legendary marauder. If you still have the spirit and you think you can keep up, use the new password and hold on tight!"

He spoke the password to the paper and was gone a second later in a flash of red smoke. As the dust disappeared from the room everyone looked around staring at each other, mouths hanging wide open.

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Ron and Hermione came running around the corner when they heard the scream from downstairs, passing Ginny who was coming out of her room, camera in hand.) She smiled at them as they passed running downstairs with their wands drawn. She walked down behind them and waited as Remus read a letter in his hand. He disappeared in a puff of red smoke and a few seconds later the whole Order of the Phoenix was standing there with Weasley red hair. A couple of camera flashes later and she was heading back upstairs to finish reading her book.

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Ron and Hermione were standing there stunned until they saw the first camera flash. They turned and saw the mischievous smile on Ginny's face before she walked back up the stairs to her room. They followed her up the stairs and walked in the room after her. Ginny took one look at Hermione before she burst out laughing.

"What is so funny and why does everyone downstairs have red hair?" Hermione said as she put her wand back in her sleeve and sat down on the bed next to Ginny.

"It isn't only the people downstairs who have red hair," she said through her laughter as Ron sat there staring at his girlfriend's hair.

"What!" Hermione screamed as she ran to look in the mirror on the wall.

"Well it's not your natural color but if you're trying to make a statement your doing an excellent job," the mirror said, looking back at the girl in front of it.

"Wait a minute! How did you know that was going to happen? You where completely calm when we were running downstairs, and you had a camera instead of your wand out! What is going on here?"

"That is what we all would like to know, Miss Weasley, if you would care to enlighten us," said Professor Dumbledore walking in the door, followed by her parents and the rest of the Order.

She smiled as she noticed the Order still had red hair, and some of the members were trying to get rid of it still with their wands. "Well Harry came to give us all letters today and he decided to remove the painting from the wall before he left. I will have to thank him for that next time I see him. I was getting tired of hearing it every time Tonks came in and tripped over something."

"Hey it's not my fault that ugly umbrella stand tries to bite my leg off every time I come in the door," Tonks yelled in her defense. She, too, couldn't change her hair color back to the purple it was earlier in the day and was getting very pissed off.

"And how did you know all this was going to happen before hand?" Albus said sitting down on a chair, trying to get his now red beard and hair back to normal.

"Harry told me in the letter he dropped off before he left. I am sure he was going to tell Ron and Hermione too but he left their letters with me for some reason," she said handing Ron and Hermione their letters.

"And was there anything in his letter about where he was or where the Dursley's have disappeared to?" he asked looking into her eyes.

"No, Sir, but he did say that he was safe and his family was well protected now, though."

"Very well. If there is anything in your letter to tell us where he is, we would like to speak with him and if he contacts you again, please let one of us know. He has left the protection of the Dursley's and we can't find him at the moment. I only hope that Voldemort can't find him as well," Dumbledore said as he left the room followed by the Order.

As the adults left the room Ron looked at his sister and then around the room. She had claimed the room as soon as they arrived there and said it was now hers, and because Remus didn't have a problem with it, nobody else did either. His eyes slowly focused on several dozen red roses spread out on the bed and the desk next to his sister. "Where in the hell did all those roses come from? DEAN, I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!" Ron yelled his face turning purple with rage.

"Actually Dean and I where never going out, these are from a friend of ours that has finally realized he likes me." She said smiling at her brother. He looked confused before he noticed the letter still in her hands. "Harry? Harry! You can't go out with Harry? FRED! GEORGE! GET UP HERE NOW!" Ron yelled down the stairs to his brothers.

They apparated in with a load crack just as Ron was turning around and he fell on his arse before he picked himself up, sneering at his brothers.

"No need to yell, little brother," Fred said as he smiled at his brother on the floor. "We were only in the next room and we heard everything that you have been talking about. What seems…"

"To be the problem," George finished for his brother.

"If you heard everything then you should know what the problem is. Harry thinks he can date our little sister that is the problem."

"And what exactly is wrong with that my dear brother Ron? Can you think of anyone else you would trust our baby sister with?"

"We think it's a smashing idea actually, and after we have our little chat with him about how to treat a lady we will not hinder their relationship further."

"And I suggest you do the same Ronald," Hermione said from the bed where she was sitting by Ginny, who had her wand leveled at Ron. "Because right now everyone in this room is free to do magic now without consequence and you look very close to being on the receiving end of a nasty hex."

Ron looked around at his girlfriend in disgust as she started talking until he noticed a wand leveled at him and the fact that his was still in his back pocket. "Very well, I agree with my brothers, but we will definitely be talking to Harry about how to treat a lady when we see him next."

"I'm glad to hear you say that Ron," said a voice from over by the dresser causing all of them to jump and pull out there wands. "Well if someone would pick up the mirror on the desk we can talk face to face, instead of me looking at the ceiling," Harry said from the mirror on the desk.

"Harry," Ginny said as she ran across the room to get the mirror.

"Hello Beautiful," Harry said as he saw Ginny's face in the mirror turn bright red. "Hermione may I say you look ravishing as a redhead, and Ginny I hope you took pictures for me," he said with a smile.

"Yes, I have several pictures for you," she smiled back at him, "and Remus I'm glad your supporting the 'Weasley for Minister' campaign but I don't think red is your color."

They all laughed and Remus started grumbling about bad pranks and all the traps he had to crawl through before Harry took pity on him and let him in his dining room. He smiled as he looked at his best friend's son with a tear in his eye and said, "Your father would've been proud, as well as your godfather."

"Well I just wanted to make sure you got the pictures for me Gin, and now me and Remus need to finish our chat. If you want to talk to me later I'll be around. All you have to do is say my name into the mirror and I'll answer it."

"Ok," she said as she put the mirror back on the desk and went back to her book.

"Wait!" Hermione screamed. "You have to tell me how to fix my hair."

Ginny smiled at her and Ron put his hand around her shoulder and whispered in her ear for a few seconds before she went bright red and walked out of the room, Ron in tow.

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Remus was surrounded by pink smoke he felt himself being pulled by a portkey, but he didn't know where he was. He looked around the room and found two doors. He saw a light under one of them so he headed for it. As he reached for the handle a spark shot out at him and he fell backwards on the ground. He stood up and knocked on the door and it unlocked and opened. He walked through the door and was hit by a bucket of water. Out of nowhere came a blast of purple feathers and then a wave of cold air hit him and he fell backwards through the door.

He smiled to himself as he remembered pulling this prank on Sirius just after they graduated from Hogwarts. He turned around and knocked on the opposite door and heard the click again as the door swung open and he was blinded by a bright flash. Harry burst out laughing as he saw Remus come through the door with pink hair and purple feathers all over his body.

"I've never seen a werewolf that color in all my life. Are those purple feathers on your body? And what happened to your hair?" Harry asked through his laughter.

"That was an excellent prank young man, but you know when one a marauder pranks another marauder it is a declaration of war," Remus said smiling at Harry.

"Why yes I remember reading somewhere about the rules regarding a prank war but, it can be called of if the offended marauder is humbled enough to ask for the counters for all the curses placed on him." Harry smiled as he watched Remus go through every counter curse he knew, nothing working to get rid of his feathers and hair.

"Alright, alright, get rid of these damn feathers," Remus said after ten minutes of trying to get rid of them. Harry waved his wand and the feathers were gone. He smiled as Remus sat down at the table after giving him a brief manly hug. "And the hair?"

"Well that wasn't part if the original bargain. You only asked me to counter your feathers," Harry said smiling at Remus. "It will wear off in a couple of hours though," he said still smiling.

"Fine," Remus said throwing up his hands in defeat. "Now what is going on and where are we?" They sat there for several hours talking about what had been happening since school ended and what Harry had planned for the immediate future. Halfway through there conversation Moody came in with pink hair and purple feathers. They both laughed as Harry reversed the feathers' curse and told Remus and Moody about his plans. Remus laughed several times at how Harry had somehow snuck up on Moody and was glad to hear he would be close by if Harry needed him over the summer and would be helping to train Harry's friends. Several hours later they left to report back in to the Order on Harry's condition and well-being.

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Deep inside a large house in Little Hangleton, Lord Voldemort sat on his throne torturing several death eaters at a time. He was very pissed off that morning when he heard about the press conference Harry gave and the betrayal of Minister Fudge. His rage was building all morning and when that sniveling little rat approached him he let his rage go. Wormtail suffered for several hours that morning before his other death eater joined him for their punishments.

"Master, we came as soon as we could. How may we serve you, master?" Bella said as she kneeled before him kissing his robes. Several hundred of his followers came forward as well but a few hesitated and he noticed there were several missing from his group, including his loyal spy Snape.

"You doubt my power," he yelled at the few who didn't bow before him when they arrived. "You will die at my feet, then," he said casting the killing curse at ten of his death eaters, killing them instantly. "Who else doubts my power and my place as your lord?" He sneered at them, they were all weak, his most loyal were in Azkaban and all he had were these new recruits that were as worthless as Wormtail.

"The other races have not responded to my calls and even the dementors have hesitated to return to me, but we will show them. We will show them to fear Lord Voldemort again, tonight we attack, all of you will attack Diagon Alley tomorrow. You will kill all who stand in your way and you will fire my mark into the sky for all to see. When you meet resistance you will come back to me and report in. I expect at least ten dead from each of you. Wormtail you will lead this attack and prove yourself to me, and you had better not fail me tomorrow, rat, or you will wish I killed you this morning.

"Bella you are to stay behind. Everyone else is dismissed. Get ready for the battle tomorrow." He waited for all of his servants to leave the room before a crooked smile appeared on his face as he turned to Bellatrix Lestrange. "Tomorrow Bella we take Azkaban while my followers create a distraction. Tomorrow, we gain back my most loyal followers."