Consciousness crept back to Harry slowly. His mind woke up, but his eyes didn't open. There was this incredibly satisfied feeling through-out his whole body, but for his left arm. Something was wrong with it.
Did he injure it? What happened that he might have injured it? Yesterday was Christmas and he'd had a great time with Sirius and Remus, and then at the Burrow. Last night had been crazy with the elves and Dumbledore, and this morning he'd woken up and had breakfast with Sirius and Remus before they took Kreacher and Dobby with them to Gringotts, then he went back to his room for a nap.
Ginny!
His eyes snapped open and he looked to his left side and got a face full of her hair.
That was real. That actually happened.
It was incredible. No wonder there were so many songs about sex and poems and stories.
But now his arm was entirely numb and it was kind of painful because she was cuddled hard into his side with her head resting on that shoulder.
Naked.
He could feel her skin pressed up against his and it was a dream. But his arm really needed to move and get the feeling restored. Also, who knew how long they'd had a nap for or when Sirius and Remus would return.
"Ginny." He whispered.
She hummed and cuddled harder into him. She moved her head fully onto his bare chest and that alleviated the pressure on his arm. It was such an odd sensation regaining the feeling to it. Like his arm had been filled with sand and somehow water was now trickling down to his fingers.
And then it was painful.
He tried to lift his arm. It raised a bit, but it was like he somehow had telepathic ability to control it but it wasn't actually attached. Bending it at the elbow he then flexed his fingers and rolled his wrist. It was cold too.
Using his other hand he reached under his pillow and found his wand, casting the Tempus charm to check the time. It was getting on near eleven. If they stayed in bed much longer they were really just asking to get caught.
"Ginny." He whispered again, coaxing her out of her slumber.
She hummed again and buried her face in his chest, nuzzling him there, then giving him a few kisses. He smiled and ran his good hand through her hair. She rested her chin on his chest and looked up. "Hi." She smiled lazily.
"Hi." He was struck again by how he was so in love with her. If he could wake up like this every day for the rest of his life, then that would be great. "We should probably get up. Sirius and Remus could be back at any minute if they aren't already."
A crinkle formed between her eyes. "I thought they were just sleeping off a hang over." She shifted up to lay beside him. His numb side.
"Uh, could you switch sides?" He asked her awkwardly. "My arm is kind of just regaining feeling."
Ginny paused in her shifting, propped up on one elbow. "Oh! Did I cut off your circulation?" She looked down at his arm and bit her lip in humor. "Sorry." She leaned down and gave a few quick kisses to his bicep. "There, that should help speed things up." She grinned and shuffled the covers a bit so she could move over to lay on the other side of him but paused while she was right on top. "By the way." She started in a low voice. Her nose tracing a line on his cheek.
Harry's heart picked up again at their position. She was flush against him. She must know what that would do to him, I mean, her breasts were right against his chest and her legs were straddling his. "B-by the way?" He asked, meaning for her to continue.
"In case you couldn't tell. That was so much better than I could have ever imagined." She told him, looking deeply into his eyes. Meanwhile her bottom half was squirming a little bit, rubbing up against his growing manhood.
"I was worried it had been some amazing dream for a moment there." He admitted.
She grinned. "So did I."
He rolled onto his side, taking her with him so they lay facing each other. His hand trailed down her side. "Ginny. I want to lay here with you all day, but we're really tempting fate as it is." He told her half heartily, lowering his head to kiss her shoulder.
"Mmhmm. Yes, you're being very convincing about this whole putting our clothes back on bit." She pulled at his arm so he would lay on top of her once more and shifted down so their sex's were lined up with each other again. "I mean, one more time wouldn't be pushing things all that much further would it?"
Harry collapsed on a very satisfied Ginny a few minutes later.
"Okay." He panted. "Now we need to get dressed."
"Right." She caught her breath. "We need to be responsible horny teenagers."
Harry chuckled and started to get into a sitting position, unsure about how to actually get from the bed to his dresser. He was naked, and she was right there. It was one thing to be naked under the covers, even though she'd seen him before, but never all at once. He had been partially covered when they went swimming, and even that one time in his dorm bed he'd been partially covered. However now he would be standing up completely naked and felt shy about it.
Ginny came up behind him and hugged him from behind in their seated position. "While you're up, do you mind passing me my clothes?" She kissed his shoulder.
Harry swallowed and felt some heat rising to his face. "Sure." He croaked. He could feel her laughing through the vibrations of her chest on his back. "Why are you laughing?" He asked, trying not to laugh at himself a bit now.
"Just. You." Her hair brushed along either side of his back as she shook her head. The mattress then jostled around as she got out of the bed and began picking up her own clothes.
It seemed she did not mind him getting an eye-full of her in her birthday suit. Then again, she was an amazing work of art bearing all before him. He was just a lanky boy with the beginnings of body hair and muscles that had yet to be defined. Plus, he was hardly going to be making her swoon when he was flaccid.
He was a grower, not a shower.
She was basically putting on a show for him though. Ever so slowly shimmying her knickers up over her thighs, and she even turned away from him so he could watch the soft material slide up over her bum.
Okay. He had to be brave about this. She was turned around. If he was quick enough then he might be able to get to the dresser and start pulling his pants on and all she'd see was his scrawny arse.
Harry took a steadying breath and got up, trying to walk quickly and casually the few steps it took to get to his drawers and set his mind to think only about the process with which one gets dressed in the morning. He did that every day with-out having to think about it. Why did having his lovely girlfriend behind him require all of his brain power to remember which way his pants were supposed to be pulled on.
Once he managed to pull his pants on he grabbed socks and a pair of jeans before turning and seeing Ginny fully dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed with a very amused look on her face.
"What?" He asked holding back a nervous laugh.
"You know I've seen you naked. Right?" She tilted her head at him.
His shoulders sagged. "Yes. I know, but this is... different. I'm not. I wasn't. It doesn't look as impressive when-" He cut himself off at the horror of what he'd just said.
Now she burst out in laughter and fell back on the bed. "Oh Harry!" She wiped the tears of mirth from her eyes and sat back up. "Harry, you just shagged me three times in the span of, what, two hours? I'm plenty impressed."
Well that was a very effective way of settling his nerves. "Really?" He asked wryly. He could stand to hear a little more of this. "What was your favorite part?" He felt success when a blush rose to her face, and he knew exactly what it was she was thinking about then.
He'd studied pretty hard to figure out how that trick was done. Once they'd talked about it he wanted to figure out exactly how one went about satisfying a woman with use of his mouth like that. It had required knicking Seamus' stash one magazine at a time until he found an article that discussed it thoroughly and had actually consulted women about what exactly they liked as well. He thought about that for a week every time he'd needed to wank. It was all worth it to see that blush on her face.
He gave her a cheeky wink and turned back to his dresser to grab a shirt.
Ginny cleared her throat. "Anyways. You said Sirius and Remus had gone somewhere with the House Elves?" She asked.
That brought the crazy end to his Christmas Day flooding back. It had been so confusing.
"Where did they go this early on the day after Christmas? And should I be insulted they forgot I was coming over, or just celebrate the fact they weren't here?" She waggled her eyebrows at him.
"Actually. Something really weird happened last night."
()()()
Ginny knew she was just staring at Harry with a blank expression as he finished his story. That was a lot of information to pack into the twenty or so minutes since they'd gotten dressed and sat down in the library across from his room. It was really too much to process properly in the space of time it took to hear it.
"Ginny?" Harry called her attention.
She blinked. While her eyes may have been on his, she wasn't actually looking at him and seeing the concerned look on his face. He was waiting for her reaction clearly.
"So your awful relatives have been living in your house, not the other way around." She managed.
Harry blinked in surprise at her response. He'd told her all about what had happened with the House Elves and Dumbledore the night before, including that Sirius and Remus were with said Elves at Gringotts right then, which is also why they didn't remember that his girlfriend was coming over and they would have been unsupervised. It was all important information, but she was still wrapping her head around it. But he'd just told her about his meeting with the Gobins too.
All that other stuff didn't rile her up of the injustice of Harry being abused by people who had been so enriched by his presence.
"I. Uh, I haven't really been over the deed or anything. I mean, I have it and was going to go over it the night I got it, but then I was kind of putting off going over that stuff until after Christmas. I just was focusing on getting to know Sirius and, you know, happy stuff." There was a pull at the corner of one side of his mouth as he finished explaining.
"I get that." Ginny nodded, still feeling rather numb and lost in thought. "This is." She paused. "Do you want some lunch? I brought food. It's in the kitchen."
Harry was taken aback by that. "What?"
"I'm just processing." Ginny explained. "I've found it helps my thought process to do something manual. Dishes or the like usually." She gave him a weary smile. It was just an idiosyncrasy of hers. Doing something mind numbing helped her map out things like feelings or Arithmancy problems.
"Um. Okay." He stood up and took her hand. "Lunch it is then."
He led her down into the kitchen and leaned back against the counter while she explored the cupboards in search of crockery.
So Voldemort wasn't dead. Not entirely. And he'd made a few... fail safe's that would prevent him from perishing entirely. Looking into his life now seemed a better idea than for the simple purpose of adding a chapter to Hermione's book. Ginny thought over it all.
"Will you be telling Hermione?" Ginny asked, looking up from portioning out the leftovers for the two of them.
"I thought about that." He nodded. "I really want to. She's really good at brainstorming this stuff and thinks things through a little more thoroughly than anyone I know. Plus, you know she'd be really ticked at me if I knowingly kept information from her."
That made Ginny snicker a bit with understanding. "Can you imagine the silent treatment you'd receive?"
Harry had a simple smile playing about on his lips, he was thinking hard over all of this, it was easy to see. "Thing is. I don't even know if I should have shared that with you." Ginny raised her eyebrow a bit. "What I mean is. I don't know if Dumbledore had meant for me to keep this all tucked up under my hat. He'd been keeping his theories to himself this whole time, and with what we now know about the whole Death Eater movement, it could be potentially dangerous information."
"Like if any of the loyal Death Eaters that bribed their way out of Azkaban caught on, then maybe they'd go searching for him?" She cottoned on. "I hadn't thought of that bit."
"Well, I have had this information for a little longer than you." He displayed a little humor over that.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "And I'm sure you spoke to Sirius and Remus about it a little more this morning?" She came to her own conclusion on that. Yes, he was intelligent and could have come to his own conclusion there, but it was rather likely that there had been some talk over breakfast about the whole situation as well. And there was no way that Harry hadn't gotten up with them before they left and he went back to bed. His breath had still held some of the mint of his toothpaste when she'd first kissed him that morning.
"Yeah, maybe." He admitted coming forward to accept his plate of lunch and kiss her temple.
They settled down at the table in the kitchen. "So, I guess now we're just waiting for Sirius and Remus to come back and let us know what they found?" Was there really anything else they could do, she wondered as she ate her cold turkey and stuffing.
"Yeah." Harry sighed. "Oh. I didn't tell you this bit. Apparently it's uncommon and I just didn't know. I'm a Parselmouth." He told her nonchalantly and took another bite.
Ginny was surprised by that information. She knew what it was, and how it had been associated with Dark Magic. But Harry was far from a Dark Wizard. "Huh." Was the only response she could offer.
"Yeah. So that means that I may be needed to be present for them. Er. Killing the things?" He sounded so unsure of how to word that that Ginny just shook her head at him.
"Congratulations?" She offered, not knowing what the correct response to that was.
Harry shrugged and finished off his plate, taking it over to the sink.
"So they've been gone for a few hours now. He must have a lot in his vault for it to take so long." It certainly didn't take long to navigate the Weasley vault. There wasn't anything but a few Galleons and Sickles in there. Huge pile of Knuts though.
"Yeah. When I went in to see about what there was in the Potter name I asked about getting an inventory list of the vaults. I guess Sirius didn't do that."
"Well, what should we do until they get back?" She asked, polishing off her own plate and taking it over to the sink.
"Well." Harry drew out as he moved to stand behind her at the sink and put his hands on her hips.
Ginny bit her lip at that. But as much fun as that had been, it wasn't on offer. She turned around in his arms and gave him a short kiss. "I think I need a little bit before we do that again." She Eskimo kissed his nose.
"Are you okay?" He pulled back and searched her face in worry.
"Fine." She told him honestly. "Just a little sore. I promise you it felt fantastic, but I need a little recovery time."
He nodded, still looking concerned.
She rolled her eyes. "Honestly Harry. I'm fine, you're just packing something...impressive." She teased.
He blushed at that, but grinned sheepishly. "Okay. So how about we just go to the sitting room?"
"Oh! Can we look through your dad's detention slips?" She asked excitedly.
"You didn't read them?"
"No. I wanted to, but it didn't really feel right. I mean. I caught a few of them, not going to lie, but I didn't read through all of them." She'd been too curious and intrigued by the size of the file. "I did see your mum's file though."
"You did?" He asked curiously, probably wondering why he hadn't received that one too.
"Yes. And let me tell you, she had a clean record until your dad corrupted her. The only four slips in her file will also be in James Potter's file." She waggled her eyebrows at him.
Harry grinned, then his grin faltered a bit. "They involved broom closets, didn't they?"
()()()()
"We should have brought lunch with us." Sirius said in a sigh. He looked over the vastness that was his family vault. Really, people wondered how much was too much. Well, this was just too much. It wasn't an easy thing to sort either. He couldn't just snap his fingers and have all coins in this side of the vault, all jewelry on that side, and all dark objects easily organized by their ability to kill or bring back deranged evil doers.
"Why did you have to be so rich?" Remus asked rifling through a chest of drawers, sounding as tired as Sirius was feeling.
It isn't like it was particularly hard work, and Dobby and Kreacher were doing a good job of moving things around for them. The elves levitation charms worked just fine down here. It didn't interfere with Goblin magic, where as if Sirius or Remus were to try the same thing they wouldn't have earned any results. But it was a rather tedious and mentally draining task going through and cataloging.
It must have been going on hour three and they weren't half way done.
Sirius ignored Remus' comment. It would have been the height of pretentiousness to complain about his own wealth. "We should have taken up on Molly's offer of left overs. I could have done with that right now."
"Oh shit." Remus groaned and ran a hand down his face. "Ginny was coming over to yours today."
Sirius took a moment to recall his own memory of the girl telling them she'd wanted to see his house, then he snorted. "Well then, I'd say Harry's having a better time than we are right now."
"Shouldn't you be more concerned?" Even though Remus himself sounded more mentally strained than concerned.
"What can I do about it right now?" Sirius asked him. "We're down here, they're all the way back at the house, and have been for a few hours now probably. If they were to have got up to anything we'd be too late to stop it. Plus, you now. I don't want to do anything to get Ginny farther away from forgiving me." He shrugged and turned his head away from Remus. She hadn't been cold with him yesterday, or when he'd seen her just after they'd arrived at the Burrow after returning from Hogwarts, but she wasn't as... 'Ginny' with him as he knew her to be. She'd been guarded and a little tense. She'd still smiled and engaged in conversations with him, but it just wasn't the same.
"Being a parent figure to Harry means you're going to have to do things that neither of you particularly like." Remus lectured him.
They both seemed to have realized that slacking time was over and started sifting through a new pile of whats-its and do-dads that were centuries old and priceless.
"Yeah." Sirius frowned. "Which I have no experience in, but saw plenty of what that entails at the Weasley's. And I have to wonder if Harry even needs the sex talk at this point in his life? I'm pretty sure it's too late for that."
"He's a sixteen year old boy with his very first girlfriend. I think that even if they're having sex he might appreciate having someone to go to with questions that isn't also a sixteen year old boy. Because as much as I like the boy, I don't think Neville Longbottom has much advise to give, and Seamus Finnegan sure as hell won't have the right answers."
Sirius didn't know who Seamus Finnegan was, but from Remus' tone he assumed it was a randy kid in Harry's dormitory. "Fair point. And he's never come to you about this?"
Remus sighed, and Sirius could hear the frown on his face and the disappointment with himself. "I told you. I was keeping him at arms length, trying to remain the 'friendly professor' role. I wanted to have a closer relationship with him, and if I'd known what his home life was like." He paused. "Well, I probably would have tried to find a way to be in his aunts backyard during a full moon." He only half joked.
"That horrible bitch." Sirius shook his head and opened another drawer in the cabinet he was going through. "Books!" Remus came quickly to his side. "Dobby!" He called out loudly.
Crack
"Dobby is here sir."
"Take a look through these please." Sirius gestured. "Any of them look like the diary?"
They were all hard bound leather books with dark spines facing out at them. Dobby climbed up on a golden anvil beside the cabinet and looked in. His ears started flapping and he bounced on the balls of his feet. "It is the evil diary master." Dobby pointed at one of the spines. It had faded gold lettering reading out 'T.M. Riddle'
Sirius looked over at Remus hesitantly before turning back to Dobby. "Do you know if it will do anything just by my touching it?"
"No Master." Dobby shook his head. "The evil is inside. My old master could touch it with his bare hand."
"Okay." Sirius sucking in a breath, steeling himself for anything that could happen with direct contact. He reached out quickly and snatched it from the drawer. Holding it in his hand he paused. There wasn't a burning sensation or a need to use the Cruciatus curse or anything. He looked over to Remus. "Did I grow antlers or anything?"
"Nope, still just your ugly self."
"Good." He looked closer at the book. "T.M. Riddle." He read aloud and checked the inside of the back page. "Winstanley's Bookstore & Stationers. Vauxhall Road."
The wrinkles on Remus' forehead deepened. "That would be a Muggle shop if it's on Vauxhall road."
"Hmm. Not so into blood purity that he wouldn't take to the Muggle world of retail it seems." Sirius commented and turned back to Dobby. "You're sure that this is it."
"Positive master."
"Good enough for me." He pocketed the book. "We still have to find a way to check through Bella's things."
"And we have no idea what we're looking for." Remus said wearily.
"Food first?" Sirius suggested with a weary optimism.
The goblin that had been assigned to wait outside the vault door seemed eager to lead them back up to the lobby. He'd had literally nothing to do while they'd searched for three and a half hours.
Once at the lobby the wizards each took the hand of an elf and were apparated to Grimmauld Place.
The home had been warded against apparation, but that did not include House Elf apparation. They truly were the most powerful of magical beings, why they were compelled to be bound to humans was a history long lost, all that was known was that their magic increased exponentially when tied to a witch or wizard.
A surprised yell greeted them when the four landed in the sitting room.
Ginny and Harry had been sitting on the couch right beside where they landed. Pages of detention slips had been tossed into the air from the surprised jumps of the two teenagers.
"Merlin!" Ginny exclaimed. "You need a bell or something before you do that."
"Oh good. You're dressed." Sirius grinned cheekily, causing Harry to blush and Ginny to narrow her eyes slightly. "Er. I mean, we're back for lunch." He added awkwardly under Ginny's eye.
The corner of her mouth twitched and she lowered her eyes. "Mum insisted on my bringing leftovers from dinner last night. They're in the kitchen." She stood up and nodded at Remus in greeting.
"Dobby will make up the lunch master." The elf squeaked.
"Just two please Dobby. Ginny and I already ate." Harry asked the elf nicely who nodded and left the room, meanwhile Kreacher actually started cleaning up the sitting room unprompted. "Did you have any success?" Harry asked the men. The older men eyed Ginny first before looking at each other. "Um. I wasn't told not to tell her." Harry said uncomfortably.
"Harry." Remus started cautiously.
"Just Ginny. I swear. I know that this is sensitive information. I get that, really. And I'm not going to just go around school running my mouth, I promise." Harry looked worried that he'd overstepped.
"And I'm not going to tell anyone." Ginny told them honestly.
Remus and Sirius checked with each other once more, each looking like they believed the kids.
"Okay then." Sirius said. "Kitchen?"
Dobby already had two plates dished out and set at the table in the kitchen, the two men dug in immediately groaning at the delicious taste. Remus wiped his mouth with a napkin. "We found the Diary." He told them.
"So are you going to call the Headmaster to check it for. For that." Ginny started and turned to Harry. "What was it called again?"
"Horcrux." Remus answered for him.
"We will." Sirius said after drinking down a glass of water. "We're going to go back down into the vault after we finish eating and have a bit of a rest. Bloody tedious this is." He dug back into his meal.
"You mean you were down there for that long and there's still stuff you haven't gotten to?" Ginny asked with her mouth agape. "Just how big is this vault?"
Sirius rolled his eyes, not at Ginny, nor the question, but at the answer. "You don't want to know. It was unnecessarily large before I closed out my cousin's vaults and transferred their contents, now it is very cluttered."
He could see Ginny wasn't affected by his mention of his wealth. She looked to be picturing it, but not enviously. That was another characteristic of her that Sirius really liked. She wanted for nothing. She'd had love and adventure her whole life and knew that there was no amount of money she would have traded it for. It was because of that that he knew she would be able to forgive him for his deceit, given time.
"What do you think it could be?" She wondered aloud. "One was a locket, that probably belonged to Slytherin's descendants and the other was a book."
Sirius pulled it from his pocket and placed it on the middle of the table. "One belonging to T.M. Riddle."
Harry reached over and pulled it closer to examine it. He flipped it over and quickly leafed through the pages. "It's empty." He stated the obvious and read the inscription of the makers address on the last page. "It just looks like a journal that had never been used."
"And the locket looked like a necklace." Remus pointed out. "Dark objects can be anything. There was once a book that if you started reading it you could never stop. Once you finished you simply started reading it all over again. It sounds like a prank object, but it was a curse."
"Huh. I hope it was an interesting read at least." Ginny commented dryly. Three pairs of eyes turned to her and she shrugged in response, not regretting her joke not landing. She turned behind her and grabbed a self inking quill off of the ledge behind them and flipped open the first page. "My name is Tiffany." She wrote quickly before anyone could stop her.
Sirius' heart jumped into his throat at that. "What are you thinking?" His voice thundered out and he pulled the diary across the table towards he and Remus. "You don't write in a possibly cursed book."
Ginny looked up at Sirius in shock, her hand poised where it had been over the page and mouth slack, looking like she'd just been slapped. "I." She started. Her brown eyes were wide staring at him with a touch of fear.
Everyone was frozen in that moment.
"Look!" Remus was staring down at the diary as Ginny's words disappeared and were replaced with meticulous cursive writing.
'Hello Tiffany. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come into possession of my diary?'
Sirius read the writing and looked back at Ginny. She'd started playing a very dangerous game. He flipped the page of the diary closed and put it back in his pocket.
Ginny lay the quill down on the table and looked down at the wood. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "I shouldn't have done that."
Sirius was vibrating slightly. Not with anger, but with terror. What if she'd done that and found herself possessed or cursed or something. She could have been stuck writing in that diary unable to stop until she died of old age. Anything could have happened to her.
"No more writing in enchanted diaries. Okay?" He asked tersely. She didn't look at him but nodded her head.
"Who's Tom Riddle?" Harry asked, looking back and forth between his girlfriend and Sirius.
"Don't know." Remus answered, seeming grateful to move the discussion forward and away from what just happened. "Probably someone important. I can't imagine Voldemort would have just used any old thing to store a piece of his soul."
"Perhaps Dumbledore will know." Sirius said and got up to put his dish in the sink. He looked back at the table from where he stood, eyes on Ginny. She had an embarrassed blush on her cheeks.
He'd seen her scolded by her parents and her brothers a time or two, but she had always stood her ground or grumbled about it. None of those times were for anything particularly dangerous. He'd been witness to her talking to's over two of her broken bones, and while there had been tears over the pain, she had her eyes and jaw set at the lectures. This time it was plainly apparent she realized what she'd done was dangerous, but he wasn't going to brush it off. If she was going to keep holding him at arms length then he'd let her, but he wasn't going to give her a pass over this just because he wanted to be in her good graces.
"I'll be back in a few." He headed for the door. A nap was not out of order really but there wasn't time for that. Hopefully in another three or four hours they'd have found another item. They could have gotten the goblins to look over everything, but they don't open items. The diary was found in a drawer, something else might be found in a trunk or something.
He'd reached the second floor landing when he heard quick steps behind him. He turned around and saw Ginny half way up the stairs, coming at him in a hurry. "Ginny?"
She came at him full impact and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight and pressing her cheek hard into his chest. His heart melted a bit. This was what he'd been hoping for nearly two months. Real emotions from her, no farce to make everyone else more comfortable.
He brought his arms around her too and rested his cheek on the top of her head. She used to hug him close all the time. He loved when she'd scratch his ears, call him a good boy and then plant a kiss right between his eyes. She was important to him and he wanted his Ginny back.
He heard her sniffle. "We're okay?" He asked her.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" She whispered.
He sighed. "I've been in some pretty bad situations in my time, but I can't think of a time recently when my heart stopped like that."
"I'm sorry." She buried her face in his shirt, and it felt to him like she was wiping away a few tears.
He ran a comforting hand through her hair. "Not crying are you?" He teased softly.
"Well I normally wipe them off on my dogs fur but he's not around anymore, so your shirt will have to do." She loosened her hold and pulled back to look up at him. "I'm sorry I've been distant with you too."
He cupped under her chin and looked directly into her eyes. "No more careless moves with potentially deadly objects?"
She smiled in relief. "I'll do my best."
"Good." He pulled her in for another hug.
"Thank you." She told him endearingly
His eyebrows knit together a bit at that. "For what?"
Ginny pulled back with a soft smile on her face and her eyes shining. "For working to adopt Harry. He's really touched, and he deserves it."
Sirius swallowed down some of his own emotions then. He'd been close to tears when he and Harry had spoken the night before. The only reason he managed was because he reminded himself that he was the adult and he had to be strong for Harry. Ginny's empathy for his godson was bringing that all back up.
He wanted to thank her for loving Harry as much as she obviously did, but there was no way he would be able to get the words out. Instead he hugged her closer and kissed the top of her head once before removing himself from her grasp and turning back up the stairs.
Not with out seeing a knowing look on her face.
()()()
With Remus and Sirius taking off after kicking around the house for an hour and taking the Elves with them Harry and Ginny were once again left alone.
Ginny assured him that she'd been appropriately humbled and apologetic to Sirius about her stupidity, and they'd cleared the air between them in regards to more than just her writing in a Dark object with out thinking through the potential consequences. She and Sirius had mended the bridge in their relationship and could be friends again.
It had startled Harry when Sirius yelled at her for writing in the journal. His godfather had looked absolutely horrified about her writing those four little words. But he was right to have told her off like that. Really, anything could have happened and he'd been worried about her safety in that instinctive moment above anything else. Had Harry realized all that could have happened by her doing that, he would have yelled at her too then.
Now she and Harry found themselves once again in the sitting room laughing with James Potters disciplinary folder between them, she held the last slip to her chest as she sat cross legged on the couch alongside Harry with all the humor twinkling in her eyes. "I really don't think you want me to read this one." She stated playfully.
"Come on now. I've seen the three about he and my mum getting up to no good in the broom cupboards."
"I didn't say anything about this one being about your mum." She tried and failed to play off.
"You did however say that there were four slips in my mum's folder and they all involved my dad. We've been through all of his slips save for that one. Thus, I deduce, my dear Watson, that it is the Potter and Evans in a broom cupboard caught red-handed." Harry joked.
"Who's Watson?" Ginny laughed, not understanding his Sherlock Holmes and CLUE references.
He held his hand out. "Just give it here, or read it out."
"Well." Ginny cringed lightly, still trying not to laugh.
Harry snatched it out of her hands and read it over quickly. "Urgh! They were actually caught! Gross."
Ginny moved the folder from between them to the coffee table and settled herself in his lap. He stretched his legs out on the couch for her to settle back against him comfortably. "At least now you know they weren't the 'save yourself for marriage type'." She offered. "Means if they had any problems with what we've been up to then they're hypocrites."
"Yay. Silver lining of reading about my parent's sex life." He mock celebrated.
Ginny reached up behind her and patted Harry on the cheek sympathetically. "If it helps, my parents have forgotten a silencing spell a few times and I've-"
"Ginny. Please don't make me push you off the couch." He cut her off. He added the last detention slip to the folder and hugged her closer to him. "What do you want to do for the rest of the day? It's only just after two."
"Well. We're in London right?"
"You want to explore the neighborhood a bit?"
"I did bring my lovely new coat. And I'd suggest we just head back to mine and play some Quidditch, but I thought I might be able to convince you to do that tomorrow."
"That sounds great. Yeah, lets go for a walk."
()()
"My goodness. For such a prestigious area there really isn't anything more than houses and little dinky parks around here, is there?" Ginny commented once they'd found their way back to Grimmauld Place after an hour of wandering.
"Yeah. And I didn't want to go too far, what with not knowing the layout of this area, but the only off license for getting crisps is a twenty minute walk? There must be one closer." Harry complained. "Shall we see if there's any hot chocolate?" He kicked off his boots and headed for the kitchen.
Ginny groaned. "That would be great. And I want to see some of the Quidditch equipment Sirius got you." He'd told her about it on their walk around the neighborhood. And had noticed the clothes he'd gotten were already put to use. She was tempted to check his drawers and chuck any stray hand-me-downs she found from the cousin of his.
"Deal." Harry chuckled excitedly.
They each went through the cupboards starting on a different end in search of hot chocolate mix in the kitchen. "Success!" Harry exclaimed getting to the small cupboard over the stove. "Only problem would be if we found out it's been here since before Sirius' incarceration."
Ginny went over and sniffed. "Still seems good. container looks new-ish." She regarded the cardboard looking outside of the container.
They got the kettle going and carried their warm mugs up to Harry's room. He set the fireplace aflame and they sat on the floor in front of his multi compartment trunk and opened it to the Quidditch gear which they admired over it for a bit. Once done they put it all back and he opened the rest of the compartments due to Ginny's curiosity.
One of the compartments turned into a desk. This had been where Harry had left the paperwork that he'd received from Gringotts, and he'd already sorted out his school work and text books as well.
"Someone was keen to play with his new toy." Ginny teased a bit.
Harry blushed, but grinned. "Yeah. It's really cool. I just had the impulse to start using it." He pulled out the Gringotts business. "These are the properties that I apparently own." He plopped them down on the floor between them and they leaned back against the trunk.
"You don't mind me seeing them?" She asked. It was his own private personal information after all.
"No." He completely dismissed any potential reason not to share this with her. "I haven't even looked into the two other properties."
Ginny gave him an incredulous look. "Is there a specific reason why you haven't?" He'd had this information for five days now.
"It was just a lot." He admitted and nudged the paperwork. "And there's more surprises to come."
"Harry." She said sympathetically. "I'm trying really hard not to call you a poor little rich boy." She patted his hand. He looked up from the floor to her face and she cocked an eyebrow at her, so he'd know she said it in jest. His face cracked and he looked suitably embarrassed about his situation. "Want to go through them now? See if maybe there are some accompanying pictures of the other two houses you haven't been to?"
His brow furrowed a bit at that. "I do. I also want to see how it is that my relatives are living in a house with my name on the title."
"Well, that'll be this pile." She had sifted through the paperwork in a cursory manor, separating it out. "4 Privet Drive, Surrey." And they found the slip of paper with those details right on top.
Agreement for Deed
Contract subject to Arbitration
This Agreement for Deed is entered into on this 1st day of November 1981 between Harry James Potter, Lord of hereafter known as the "Title Holder" and Petunia Rose Dursley nee Evans hereafter known as the "Receiver."
Witnesseth that if Receiver shall not fulfill their obligation stated in the covenants hereafter described said Agreement for Deed is void.
1. Title Holder hereby agrees to hand over full Title to Four Privet Drive, Surrey to Receiver upon their age or majority date of birth.
2. Receiver is to act in a parental capacity to Title Holder until said age of majority including upkeep of health and welfare.
Upon the age of majority birth date of the Title Holder the Deed will automatically pass to the Receiver in full including back paid expenses incurred for upkeep of said property for the duration of years in which the Title Holder was a resident under the Receiver's care.
If for any reason the Title Holder is not in the Receiver's care for their date of majority date of birth the Agreement is void.
Ginny looked up at Harry with wide eyes. He was staring down at the piece of parchment with his mouth agape. This would mean if he wasn't living there on his seventeenth birthday, then they could be kicked out.
"That's the only reason they kept letting me come back." He whispered. "So they could keep the house?"
"Those bastards don't deserve you." She was fuming inside
()()()
Sirius and Remus returned to Grimmauld Place after another three hour scouring of the massive Black vault to find only Harry occupying the couch in the sitting room. They were mentally drained and Sirius had admitted defeat after two and a half hours there and ordered the house elves to open every drawer and trunk in sight. He was going to get the Goblins to do a full inventory listing every book, necklace, sword, chalice, and whatever else they came across. There was just too much and he couldn't tell if Bellatrix's belongings had gone in a specific location or Narcissa's and Regulus'.
"And?" Harry asked them.
They shook their head. "No idea." Sirius answered and rubbed his eyes before giving out a yawn. "What did you two get up to here?" He didn't ask at lunch time, he didn't really want to know now, but Ginny wasn't around and Harry was his responsibility. He should have a proper talk with him about women.
He was certainly going to be talking about it in the broadest sense of the word. He really didn't want to start off with 'when you're in bed with Ginny, there's a few things you need to know'. Remus and he had discussed how he needed to bring this up with Harry, and they'd certainly grown close over the last few days. He was sure Harry felt comfortable with him now.
"We went for a little walk around the neighborhood." Harry shrugged. "Not really much of interest in this area."
That gave Sirius pause. He hadn't told Harry not to leave the house, and he'd been taking care of himself for the last few years, but there was a matter of safety now that there hadn't been yesterday. They had proof that a man who'd tried and failed to kill him when he was a baby was still out there.
"We also took a look at some of the information I got from the goblins." Harry held up a piece of parchment for he and Remus to take a look at.
He skimmed the Deed Agreement he was handed, his eyebrows raising with each line.
From beside him he heard Remus' mouth drop open. "They get the house when you turn seventeen? And a bit of gold too?"
Sirius was shaking slightly with rage at this information. They were keeping him not out of familial obligation, but because they'd get a paycheck and a house at the end of his adolescence. Well, he'd just make sure that didn't happen.
They only had him for two and a half months during the summer for the last five years and still they had put no effort into his upbringing. He'd had a good heart to heart with Harry about how they treated him. Neglect was the biggest issue, closely followed by depriving him of adequate nutrition and giving him excessive amounts of chores. And that was only if he took what Harry had told him as gospel.
"Well then. It'll be interesting to see how they take it when they loose custody of you before you're of age then, won't it." Remus smirked.
Yes.
Remus. Smirked.
Remus was not the malicious sort, so seeing him react like that calmed Sirius down dramatically. "You're right." Sirius grinned evilly. "They are going to lose their shit. Like. Actually lose their shit." His eye's flashed at the prospect. "I wonder if they've been banking on this as well?" He pondered. From what he recalled their home had a nice upkeep about it. Fresh flowers, fresh paint and a new car.
The men turned to see Harry's reaction. He was looking between the two men seeming rather lost in thought and a bit downtrodden.
"Hey." Sirius took a seat beside him on the couch. "What's going on in there?" He tapped him on the head.
"I've just been going over it. I was floored when I found out, and Ginny was pissed." His eyes went wide, no doubt remembering how that girl could get when she was angry. "I guess I'm still just processing. Its... sad. I guess I'm more upset about it than angry right now."
"Is she still here?" Remus asked, checking around the room for some sign of her.
"No. She wanted to stay at least until you guys got back, but I told her I just needed some alone time. To, process."
"She was okay with that?" Sirius asked dubiously.
"No." Harry blushed. "But." he shrugged one shoulder. "She didn't argue."
"Are you still processing?" Remus asked. "Want to talk about it now?"
"Nah. Can you tell me what happened at Gringotts? What's going to happen with the Diary?"
"It's still in my pocket." Sirius patted his coat. "I'll send a message to Dumbledore about it. We can't keep looking through the vault. I almost never want to look at gold ever again." Remus nodded with wide unseeing eyes in agreement. "I'm paying the Goblins to do a full inventory list. It'll cost near 1000 galleons, but I've seen too much proof of how I can afford it."
"1000 galleons?!" Harry asked astounded. "So that means you're four times more rich than me?" He grinned.
Sirius made a show of breathing on his finger nails and 'polishing' them on his shoulder that made the other two chuckle.
"Come on. I'm hungry. Any more of Molly's left overs in the ice box?"
()()()()
Dumbledore stood in front of his pedestalled curio cabinet. It contained several memories from over the years that he felt would someday hold importance. The second lowest shelf had a row dedicated to memories relating to Tom Riddle taken from several witches and wizards, and even a House Elf.
He had gone over all the different methods that Tom could have used in the past five years. It had been most likely that it would be a Horcrux. He just had no proof. His wishing for it not to be true may have been why he hadn't gone out in search of them after his encounter with Quirinus.
There had been no signs of him since. No mysterious deaths, no Death Eater movement to revisit the past. He still suspected he was hiding out in a country on the continent, as that was where he suspected Quirinus may have encountered him.
Quirinus been travelling through the Balkan Peninsula before returning to Hogwarts for his teaching position, and hadn't been wearing a turban before the trip, during the interview.
He recognized the locket the House Elf had been hiding right away. It had been Salazar Slytherin's and he'd seen it three times before in the memories on his shelf; around the neck of Marvolo Gaunt, being sold by a very pregnant Merope Gaunt, and from Hepzibah Smith's own House Elf, Hokey. If Tom had gotten the locket, then he must have taken Hufflepuff's cup as well.
He would want important objects to hold his soul.
Dumbledore reached into the display and took the memory from his previous colleague. This would have contained the memory that would confirm his theory, but it wasn't accurate. Horace Slughorn hadn't realized at the time of the event that he was encouraging the evil young wizard to make such terrible steps towards indestructability, he'd realized after though and managed to alter his own memory at the time of its retrieval from his mind.
Three or Seven.
That was what he really wanted to know.
If this locket was one, and Sirius would inform him that they had located the Diary, then if Hufflepuff's cup showed up, were they done locating them? Had he continued on to try for seven? Had he succeeded in getting to seven or did his life get interrupted somewhere along the way?
So many questions.
And Harry.
His formative years may not have been what his parents had envisioned for him, but since coming to Hogwarts he had been living in this lovely little bubble with his friends and his studies and nothing else to really be concerned about. Now it looked like it was time to tell him what his prophesized future may be.
Or should he stay off that conversation until he is seventeen, as he'd intended?
Harry's being a Parselmouth caused more questions as well. It was not in the Potter line, and it certainly wasn't part of the Evan's line either. But it was an inherited trait.
Perhaps probing down that rabbit hole should be left until another time. For now he was just going to be grateful that Harry would be able to assist them in opening the locket to destroy what was inside.
Dumbledore picked up the vial with the memory of Bob Ogden's visit to the Gaunt family home. That was the memory of Marvolo Gaunt wearing the locket. In this memory there was another heirloom as well that Tom could have gotten his hands on.
A tapping at the window pulled him from his reminiscences and he opened his window with a wave of his wand to allow the owl in.
Got the Diary. SOB
He let out an adolescent huff of amusement at Sirius' signature. No doubt that was Sirius' intention.
This left him with the last question. Destroy them as they are found, or all at once?
Tom may be able to feel if one of his pieces of soul were destroyed, and that could call him out of hiding.
Then again, that might be for the best.