AN- Some text taken straight from HBP for the Slughorn memory and adapted to fit the new situation.

Sirius sat back in the high back chair in Dumbledore's office, his feet crossed at the ankles.

This powerful man in front of him had been keeping a lot of theories to himself. And that was understandable, they were just theories after all. Xenophilius Lovegood didn't keep any of his theories to himself and he was thought of as a complete loon. If Dumbledore went around claiming he didn't believe Voldemort was dead then he could have possibly lost his position at Hogwarts, and on the Wizengamut. But here he was with the proof of the lengths Voldemort had gone to, sorry, his name was actually Tom Riddle as Sirius had just found out. Way less foreboding. But still, it would be too much to let people know the truth. The reign of terror they went through because of this man, people would descend into panic if they knew he was still around.

Dumbledore was now asking that Sirius attempt to become on friendly terms with his old Potions Master, and it was an odd request. Slughorn had been a collector of sorts. He went through his whole life wanting to be 'famous by association'. Anyone that showed promise in sport, politics, business or anything really, then he wanted them to be on the best of terms with him. Lily had been in the Slug Club, his self-named gathering of such people, but none of the Marauders had.

"You think I have enough notoriety for old Sluggy to be interested?" Sirius asked dubiously. Yes, he was known all around the wizarding world now as the escaped exonerated prisoner of Azkaban, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

Dumbledore was holding something back. "And..." He hesitated.

Sirius frowned and gave him a hard stare. "And Harry." He finished for him.

The old man tilted his head in assent. "Lily was one of his favorite students, and there is certain acclaim behind Harry Potter."

"To what end?" Sirius shook his head. "What does Slughorn know about all this." He indicated to the locket and the diary on Dumbledore's desk. "That you don't?"

"The number." Dumbledore said sadly.

Sirius brow knit together. "He knows how many would have been made?"

"I believe he knows how many would have been the end goal." Dumbledore had a resigned look come over his face. "I believe I need to show you this in order for you to fully understand." He rose from his seat and led Sirius over to a big stone basin, collecting a glass decanter with a swirling silver liquid. He removed the stopper from the decanter and poured it into the basin.

"Is this a Pensive?" Sirius asked. He'd heard of them, but never seen one before.

"It is." Dumbledore turned to his display case and took a vial from the second lowest shelf. "And this is a memory from Horace Slughorn." He pulled off the top and poured that too into the basin.

"So, how?" Sirius looked down over the bowl.

"Simply place your face in it."

Sirius felt weary about sticking his face in a bowl full of an unknown potion on the word of one man, even if that man seemed sure that nothing untoward would happen to him. Sirius was a rather vain man, admittedly, and if something should happen to his handsome face that meant Amelia or any other woman would suddenly find him repulsive, well, that wasn't going to happen. "After you." He challenged.

Dumbledore said nothing, he simply went to the bowl and placed his face in the liquid and his body followed.

"Magic is so weird." Sirius sighed. Sometimes he thought Muggles had it better than them. At least the laws of science were straight forward. The laws of magic were all over the place.

He shook out his hands and shoulders to ready himself for possibly doing something quite stupid and leaned forward. A falling sensation came over him, and he... landed wasn't quite the right word, but he found himself in another part of the castle with a scene before him.

It was a much younger Horace Slughorn. Sirius had been so used to remembering him as bald that he found the sight of Slughorn with thick, shiny, straw-colored hair quite disconcerting; it looked as though he had had his head thatched, though there was already a shiny Galleon-sized bald patch on his crow. His mustache, less massive than it had been in his school days, it was gingery-blond. He was not quite as rotund as the Slughorn Sirius knew, though the golden buttons on his richly embroidered waistcoat were taking a fair amount of strain. His little feet resting upon a velvet pouffe, he was sitting well back in a comfortable winged armchair, one had grasping a small glass of wine, the other searching through a box of crystallized pineapple.

Sirius looked around at Dumbledore beside him and saw that they were standing in Slughorn's old office. Half a dozen boys were sitting around Slughorn, all on harder or lower seats than his, and all in their mid-teens.

'Sir, is it true that Professor Merrythought is retiring?' A boy asked.

"That is our young Mr. Riddle." Dumbledore told Sirius. Sirius observed this boy closely. His was the most handsome face and he looked the most relaxed of all the boys. His right hand lay negligently upon the arm of his chair.

'Tom, Tom, if I knew I couldn't tell you,' said Slughorn, wagging a reproving, sugar-covered finger at Riddle, though ruining the effect slightly by winking. 'I must say, I'd like to know where you get your information, boy' more knowledgeable than half the staff, you are.'

Riddle smiled' the other boys laughed and cast him admiring looks.

'What with your uncanny ability to know things you shouldn't, and your careful flattery of the people who matter- than you for the pineapple, by the way, you're quite right, it is my favorite-'

As several of the boys tittered, something very odd happened. The whole room was suddenly filled with a thick white fog, so Sirius could see nothing but the face of Dumbledore, who was standing beside him. Then Slughorn's voice rang out through the mist, unnaturally loudly '-You'll go wrong, boy, mark my words.'

The fog cleared as suddenly as it had appeared and yet nobody made any allusion to it, nor did anybody look as though anything unusual had just happened. Bewildered, Sirius looked around as a small golden clock standing upon Slughorn's desk chimed eleven o'clock.

'Good gracious, is it that time already?' said Slughorn. 'You'd better get going, boys, or we'll all be in trouble. Lestrange, I want your essay by tomorrow or it's detention. Same goes for you, Avery.'

Slughorn pulled himself out of his armchair and carried his empty glass over to his desk as the boys filed out. Riddle however, stayed behind. Sirius could tell he had dawdled deliberately, wanting to be last in the room with Slughorn.

'Look sharp, Tom,' said Slughorn, turning round and finding him still present. 'You don't want to be caught out of bed out of hours, and you a prefect…'

'Sir, I wanted to ask you something.'

'Ask away, then, m'boy, ask away…'

'Sir, I wondered what you know about… about Horcruxes?'

And so it happened all over again: the dense fog filled the room so that Sirius could not see Slughorn or Riddle at all; only Dumbledore, smiling serenely beside him. Then Slughorn's voice boomed out again, just as it had done before.

'I don't know anything about Horcruxes and I wouldn't tell you if I did! Now get out of here at once and don't let me catch you mentioning them again!'

"Well, that's that." Said Dumbledore placidly beside Sirius. "Time to go."

Sirius took an unnecessary gasp of air upon finding himself standing upright in Dumbledore's office once more. "So that's what he looked like before?" Referring to the young Tom Riddle. "Was it creating the Horcrux? Is that why he looked so... well, ugly, at the end?"

"Perhaps." Dumbledore had an amused twinkle in his eye, no doubt due to that being Sirius' first concern. "When the soul is ripped apart piece by piece, I can assume that he becomes less of a man."

Sirius let out a shiver of disgust. Who really wanted to live forever? Particularly at that cost. He had ripped his soul apart at least twice, that had to have some health side effects as well. Possibly having an adverse effect on one's magic as well.

"Back to my reason behind showing you the memory." Dumbledore led off and returned the memory to the vial, putting it back in the cabinet, then going over to sit back down. "It has been tampered with."

"Thought it was odd." Sirius agreed. "You think he did fill him in on Horcruxes?"

"Yes. And I really need to know. We, really need to know." He corrected, including Sirius. "What was actually said."

Sirius thought over the problem. Slughorn was an interesting individual, and he'd never taken to Sirius. But Harry. He had the history and the link to Lily. "I'll talk to Harry." He decided. "If he's going to be helping us out with all of this, then he'll need to know everything."

There was some thought that had passed quickly through Dumbledore's head. Something he was holding back. "You can tell him everything you've learned."

"I wasn't actually looking for your permission there. More informing you." Sirius told him snidely. "What aren't you telling me?"

"There are a few things I was hoping to not inform Harry of until he was of age." He pointed to the objects on his desk. "These have just accelerated the timeline for that." He said sadly.

"Is this about the prophecy?" Sirius asked, suddenly remembering.

Dumbledore's eyebrows went up in surprise. "You know of it?"

"Not everything, but James and Lily did tell me the reason they had to go into hiding was because of a prophesy about their son. I thought that was done and over with." He felt some panic now. Was Harry still in danger? Voldemort was out there, sure, but he wasn't a proper being at the moment, and had no influence so far as they knew. None of the 'reformed' Death Eaters had tried to make a move against Harry in the fifteen years since the supposed downfall, he should be safe to live as he pleases now.

Dumbledore sighed, this time in somewhat defeat. "I truly wish it had ended there that night, but with him still being alive, in one form or another, it isn't fulfilled yet."

"Well, what exactly does it say?" He asked angrily then put up his hand. "You know what? Don't tell me right now. How about this. You need Harry to get that locket open, then how about you do something for me?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out several folded papers and lay them out flat in front of the man. "Back me on this."

Curious, Dumbledore looked down at the papers, his jaw going slack slightly. "You want to adopt him?"

"Yes. And I need someone of stature to back me in my decision. Someone who knows both Harry and I." Sirius sat back again, crossing his arms with a determined look on his face. He really had no say over Harry's choices right then. But if he was his proper legal guardian then he would have some say to speak on his behalf. Granted he wouldn't be offering him up as sacrifice or anything, obviously he'd consult Harry on anything major or minor for his involvement, but at least this way everything in the eyes of the Ministry would be on the up and up.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair. "There are certain protections in place at his Aunt and Uncle's home."

"You mean Harry's home." Sirius corrected. "Those horrible Muggles have been mistreating him since you left him on their doorstep." He growled. "I don't care what extra wards I have to put around Grimmauld, he will not be going back there."

"Mistreated?" He asked carefully.

"You didn't even look in on him, did you? He had no one actually caring for him. Do you have any idea how hard it was to see that? It was the first thing I did when I got out of Azkaban, was track him down. I had no trouble, so what possible protections could there be around that house?" Sirius challenged.

"Anyone wishing him harm would have-" Dumbledore started, but was cut off by a scoff from Sirius. "There was someone looking in on him." He tried to assure. "One of the neighbors that looked after him from time to time. She informed me of is disposition but couldn't prove any mistreatment. Simply told me that he was a sweet and polite boy."

"To a fault to be sure." Sirius countered. "He was deprived of love Albus." He refused to give in to the decorum behind calling him by his surname at this point. "It's amazing that he's turned out the way he has. I for one know what it's like to be surrounded by family that hates you. It changes you. You could have done some serious damage mentally to him, you know that?"

Dumbledore did look remorseful, but Sirius had worked himself up to be too angry to feel the slightest bit forgiving. "Sign the paper. I will take care of Harry. He and I will work out what's best for him."

"This would require the Dursley's to sign it as well." Dumbledore pointed out.

"No, it wouldn't." Sirius stated pointedly. "I am his godfather and have the paperwork to prove it. There was nothing stating that he belonged with them, that was something that you decided."

"It was what was best for him at the time. What alternative would you have had me take?" Dumbledore asked honestly. "Everyone was clamoring to know what became of him. I thought it best to keep him out of the limelight, to not grow up with all that."

"Instead he grew up in misery! Was there really no one in the Order that you thought could have done a good job of making him feel part of the family? What about Andromeda? Or the Weasley's? And Augusta Longbottom may have had to raise young Neville all by herself after what happened to his parents, but those two could have been raised as brothers. Any of these options would have been preferable." Sirius argued. He'd thought over what could have happened in lieu of Harry being stuck with the Dursleys several times. Yes, hind sight was 20/20, but really. There were so many options.

"All I can do now is apologize. I never claimed to have all the answers, but you must understand that I had to make a quick decision. Petunia Dursley was the closest blood relative of Harry's, and she was Lily's sister. There was a blood ward protecting him at their residence, I did what I thought was right at the time."

Sirius' anger about it wasn't going to go away simply because he apologized and explained his reasoning, however logical it was at the time. Whoever the neighbor was that was reporting back on Harry's well-being was deluded or an idiot, he should have been removed from that home well before his eleventh birthday. "Sign it." Sirius told him again through clenched teeth.

To his merit, Dumbledore did look humbled and rather ashamed of his poor choice. He took up his quill and put it to the paper, signing his backing to have guardianship of Harry James Potter placed in the hands of Sirius Orion Black.

Sirius didn't thank him, he simply picked up the papers from the desk and put them back in his pocket. "Now then. What shall we do about these?"

"When do you believe the Goblin's will be done cataloging the rest of the items in your vault?" He asked delicately.

Sirius shrugged. "They usually are fairly quick about their business, but there is a lot of items in there. It would be helpful to know what it is that I might be looking for once I have the list."

"It would most likely be a relic, something of significance."

"That diary wouldn't have stood out to me as a significant item had I not known what I was looking for." Sirius pointed out.

"True, but it was his childhood Diary, with his name on it."

"Which neither Remus nor I knew by the way." Sirius exasperated. "I don't know that I've ever heard reference to his birth name, why is that? Was he so feared that somewhere along the way everyone just forgot what it was?"

"I believe when he was in his mid-twenties he disappeared for a bit, by the time he re-emerged into society he looked nothing like his childhood self and was called by the name Lord Voldemort. Only a few knew they were one in the same."

"Then it was probably in his missing years that he created these Horcruxes." Sirius sighed. "How do you plan on destroying them? What method?"

Dumbledore observed them closely once more. "The Diary we may be able to deal with right now. It can be opened."

"And written in." Sirius stated through clenched teeth. He still couldn't believe Ginny had done that, she should have known better.

Dumbledore's eyes flashed to his. "You wrote in it?"

"Not me." He shook his head. "Someone else, and they have already been yelled at over it." He assured him testily. "But the diary did write back."

The old man looked curiously back down at the book. "What did it say?"

"That it was Tom Riddle and asked how they came into possession of his diary."

Dumbledore picked up the diary and turned it over in his hands. "Perhaps we could learn a thing of two from the piece of soul inside it."

"You think it's going to tell you how many were made?" Sirius asked dubiously. "If you're just going to keep it as is, then I'll take it back and destroy it myself."

His mouth pursed at the prospect. "We don't know what it might be capable of."

"Yes we do." Sirius stated. "Evil. It is capable of evil. Nothing 'good' could possibly come from sitting on top of a piece of Voldemort's soul. If you don't do something about it, then I will assume you won't do anything about the locket either. Don't make me regret letting you in on this." He said honestly. "They are my property, and I will take them away from you if you don't swear to destroy them at the earliest opportunity."

Dumbledore squared his shoulders and looked Sirius dead in the eye, going over his options before conceding. "The diary we can destroy right now, the locket we will need Harry for. Also, I would like some time to find a way to destroy the piece of soul encased in it but keep the locket intact. It is a priceless heirloom after all, belonging to one of our founders."

Sirius nodded. That was fair enough, though he could easily supply him with a hundred priceless lockets just like it. Not one having belonged to Salazar Slytherin, but still priceless jewelry none the less.

"Alright then. Let us head to a secure place in the castle. I believe Fiendfyre will be the best course of action."

Sirius didn't let on that he found that to be rather drastic, but it would be the easiest at the moment. At least it was getting destroyed right away. He'd never seen Fiendfyre in action, but heard the stories of the damage it could incur, and had been witness to some of the aftermath of its use during the last war, it was not controllable but by the most determined and powerful of casters. During the last war it had been used several times to burn down the homes of enemies of the Dark Lords, those casting the spell then weren't concerned about the destruction it would cause.

Dumbledore rose from his chair and led the way out of his office and to the staircase leading up to the fourth floor. Silently, Sirius followed him all the way to the seventh floor, wondering if they would be going all the way to the Astronomy Tower, but the man turned down a hallway away from the tower. As they were down an abandoned hallway, that didn't lead towards anywhere particular that Sirius could call to mind, Dumbledore turned abruptly and back tracked, then turned towards where Sirius was standing. He walked right back up to Sirius again before turning around once more. Three times he did this before a door appeared.

"What?" Sirius' jaw dropped. He'd mapped out the entirety of the castle in his seven years of attendance, never before had he seen this door.

"The House Elves call it the 'Come and Go Room'." Dumbledore explained with a smile. "I only discovered it's existence a few years ago by accident." He chuckled. "I was in desperate need of a toilet and forgot for a moment which way it was to the closest one, then the door appeared. Low and behold, behind stood a room full of commodes."

He opened the door and revealed an empty room. It was roughly the size of the Headmasters office and had nothing but the castle walls and stone flooring with four torches for light. Dumbledore moved to the center of the room and placed the Diary on the stone pedestal that suddenly appeared there. He flipped the pages open to roughly the middle and took a few steps back.

"Please stay behind me at all times."

As if that even needed to be stated. Sirius had no intention of burning to death in an inferno. He would rather have stood on the other side of the door, however he wanted to be witness to this. He would have liked Remus to be witness to this as well, but as tonight was the full moon he'd excused himself to head to his father's house for rest. Now at least Sirius knew he could show what happened through the Pensive.

He held his breath waiting for Dumbledore to cast the spell, moving back towards the wall behind him.

Once the flames erupted from the tip of the man's wand the entire room temperature began to go up. It was a winding ribbon of flames that wound its way around the diary, the power with which the Fiendfyre was created caused a dull roar in his ears. He lassoed the flames, pulling tighter around the middle like a rope growing taut. Ink began to run from the corner of the pages from where Sirius could see. The closer the flames grew to the center of the diary the more ink began to pour down the sides of the pedestal. A scream erupted through the room over the roar of the fire and a plume of dark smoke rose from the crease in the diary, disappearing entirely when the flaming lasso tightened entirely.

The diary was charred when Dumbledore extinguished the flames, but the leather binding was still in one piece. The old man leaned down, resting his hands just above his knees and struggling to regain his control. It had been an impressive feat of magic to master the flames and command them to do as was requested. No doubt he would be quite exhausted after that.

Sirius himself was shivering despite the hot temperature of the room. It was more like a dry sauna in there now. His heart rate was high, and he was trying to keep a steady rhythm to his breathing. It had been both awe inspiring and terrifying.

()()()()

"Yeah, but you've been moping around for about a week now. Knock it off or I'm going to kick you."

Ginny's pissed off voice greeted Harry when he came through the Floo into the Burrow sitting room. He'd been invited over; an open invitation was essentially extended to him by Mrs. Weasley the first time he'd been here. But yesterday his girlfriend had asked him over to play some Quidditch with her and her brothers today, he was just not given a time frame. Nor had he remembered to ask before essentially kicking her out of the house.

He was still cringing over that. He shouldn't have asked her to leave. She would have stopped her ranting if he'd only asked. And now she sounded irritated in the other room.

"Leave off." Ron retorted, still sounding upset. He'd been in okay spirits on Christmas, Harry reflected, not knowing whether he was generally more excitable on Christmas day than he had been.

"No. You're pissing me off with your attitude, and mum is annoyed with you hiding up in your room the whole holiday."

"You don't understand."

"That's right, I don't. You've just been a complete downer for a week. I know I'd be gutted if Harry broke up with me, probably pissed to holy hell actually and planning how to make his death look like an accident, but Hermione didn't break up with you. She just said she wanted to take some time and think it over. Have you even been doing that?"

Ginny's voice was carrying through crystal clear from the other room and Harry had to chuckle to himself at her argument. He didn't doubt she'd find a way to make him pay dearly for breaking up with her, not that he had any plans of doing that. Even the thought of it left a hollow feeling in his chest.

He'd like to be able to help Ron out with this situation. As uncomfortable as it would be, he thought that he should maybe offer to be a sounding board of something for him.

"Shut up, Ginny." Ron complained. Smack. "Ow."

Smack. "Ow!"

The sounds of hitting and grunts of pain escalated. Chairs scraping across wooden floors and Harry finally saw the duo fall to the floor in his line of sight, tussling and shoving. He didn't know what to do, so he just stood there, witnessing. Intervening seemed like the wrong choice, but what if they got hurt? More, what if she got hurt.

Ginny pinged her head off the side of the stairs when Ron shoved her, Harry flinched at the noise. Unfazed she punched Ron in the face, hitting his cheek and Harry's jaw dropped open. They normally got along really well, now they were completely at each other's throats and being physically violent.

A door opened up the stairs and feet thundered down to the main area quickly. The twins appeared and went straight to their siblings pulling them apart. "Alright. What's he done now?" One of the twins asked at the same time as the other one, with the 'she' inflection aimed at Ron.

Both Ron and Ginny started talking over each other in response. Harry caught the words 'miserable' and 'annoying' and 'bitch'.

"Hey!" Harry cut in at the last one. "Don't call her that." He said angrily to Ron as he walked over to them.

"Harry!" All four of the Weasley's greeted him with smiles.

He was taken aback at how jovial they all seemed to be. Not two minutes ago they were fighting. "Uh. Hey." He dialed back his temper at Ron insulting Ginny like he had.

The door to the kitchen swung open and Mrs. Weasley came in with a basket. "Alright, if you're all just going to be sitting around." She started. "Ginny! What happened to your hair? Ron. Your lip is bleeding." She set down her basket of what appeared to be freshly killed chicken and put her hands on her hips to scold her children, then her eyes landed on Harry. "Oh!" She smiled. "Hello dear."

Harry smiled awkwardly back in greeting and the Weasleys, save for the Matriarch, broke out in chuckles.

"Right then." Mrs. Weasley cut through. "Fred, George, since you're staying the day you can go out and get more wood for the fireplace cut and piled by the back door. Ron, keep out of your room today understand? Go out and clean up the mess in the chicken coop." Ron groaned. "Ginny, laundry first. Towels and bed sheets. Properly." She enunciated the last word. "You can take Harry with you, but no flying or anything until it's done." She aimed her wand over at Ron and quickly healed up his cut lip with no more questions before turning back to dealing with the poultry.

The four kids all hopped to their feet and Ginny came towards Harry with a smile on her face and bright eyes taking his hand in hers and pulling him upstairs behind her.

"No closed doors." Mrs. Weasley called out as a reminder.

For someone that was just in a fight Ginny was happily skipping up the stairs. Her messy braid swinging behind her with each step. They bypassed her room and went straight to the top of the house, to Ron's room. He spent the trip up the stairs trying not to admire the way her bum moved from side to side in her snug jeans right in front of his face.

She spun around to face him once they were situated in the orange space of Ron's bedroom. "Hi." She grinned up at him and stepped in to wrap her arms around his waist.

"Hi." He smiled down at her and leaned down for a quick kiss before pulling back and hugging her closer. "So, was that just a day to day occurrence? You and Ron fighting like that?"

Ginny snorted. "Well, he has been extra annoying lately. But we haven't gotten into it like that for a few months. Think we were due a brawl."

His brow knit together. "That's so weird to me. You two get along so well."

"We do, and us fighting like that doesn't mean that we don't. He was annoying me, I was annoying him, things just went from there." She stated as though it was completely normal. "You saw how much it took for us to calm down." She shrugged and twisted a piece of his hair between her fingers gently. "Maybe it's a ginger thing."

Ginny pulled back from him and went over to Ron's bed and started pulling off the sheets. Harry went over and took the pillows, tugging off the pillowcases.

"What part of that did you arrive for?" Ginny asked while tugging the fitted sheet free from the last corner.

Harry grinned at her. "Sometime before you threatened to make my death look like an accident if I chucked you."

"And don't you forget it." She told him in a sultry voice with the sheets bundled into a ball and hugged in front of her.

"Not going to happen." He kissed her nose and picked up the towel on the back of Ron's desk chair and followed behind Ginny back down the stairs.

There was an add-a-room off the kitchen and Ginny showed him how to clean the laundry with magic. It was wicked faster than the muggle way. A quick dunk into a sudsy bucket, and quick spell and rotational movement with your wand, then string it up and hit it all with a drying charm.

He helped her through Ron's room, then the twin's room where they had to be very careful lifting the mattresses. Ginny swore to him that if there was some booby trap under their bed that hit either of them with something then he'd be witness to another Weasley Smack Down show.

Once they got to her room she asked about the Deed.

"I, um. I'm okay now." He started. "I'm sorry if you thought I was, like, sending you away or something." He offered. She made no response, just continued tugging her sheets off the bed. "I was sad about it for sure. Still am, but I wanted time to figure out what I wanted to do about it, without input from anyone else." He came up behind her and pressed himself against her back, kissing her neck. "No matter how much I appreciate that persons input." He said quietly.

Ginny leaned her head against his in response. Harry had the feeling of her contentment with his actions. She didn't seem angry over it, she hadn't yesterday either, not at him anyways. He hadn't yelled at her to get out or anything yesterday, but she'd been pacing and ranting about 'those people' and it wasn't helping him feel any less dejected about it. He'd tried asking her to head home early in the nicest way possible and felt awful doing it. She'd looked surprised at his asking her to leave, but hadn't argued against it.

"Did you come to any decisions?" She asked carefully.

His head was still buried against the crook of her neck when he shook it side to side. She smelled so good. It called up the scenario he'd woken up to for the second time yesterday and his body reacted. He let out a groan, not because she was so arousing but because he wished there was a less obvious way for his body to deal with that arousal.

She turned around and put her arms around his neck. "Not the ideal location or time right now." She teased.

Harry sighed. "I know. I just can't help it." He pulled back from her and went to her pillows. They too smelled like her. He cleared his throat. "Sirius and Remus had a few ideas for how I could deal with the Deed."

"Which one was the most amusing?" She grinned.

"Well, Remus actually said he could probably think of a spell to make the house disappear altogether one day while they were all out." They chuckled. "He was pretty elaborate about it actually. He wants to send them an invite to some showy posh due and then put the house under the Fidelus Charm, then when they got turned away from the posh due because of their fake invite they wouldn't be able to find their house."

"Oh!" She had tears of laughter forming in her eyes. "That is good! I'd want a front row seat to that! I'll bring the popcorn."

Harry was laughing too. "Yeah. That would be quite the sight." He got the pillows off and waited for her to grab the sheets. "But. I mean. They've been living there forever. If I just signed the Deed over to them then I could just make a clean break, you know? Not have to live with the guilt of having put them on the street."

Ginny sighed. "That is because you are a wonderful person." She kissed his cheek and they headed back down the stairs with their load. "You don't want vengeance at all?"

"Well." He reasoned. "If they were actually expecting some pay out for whatever they've spent on the house over the last fifteen years, that I don't think they deserve." He said as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"What's that dear?" Mrs. Weasley looked up from her chopping block as they passed through the kitchen.

"Actually." Ginny turned to Harry. "Mum's the right amount of vengeful. Want to talk it through with her a bit?"

Harry was surprised with the suggestion. His first reaction was to decline the offer, but there was something in the back of his mind saying it might be a good idea to get a mother's perspective. From Sirius and Remus, he knew what his dad would probably have to say about it all but getting Mrs. Weasley's opinion couldn't hurt. "If you don't mind?" He asked, feeling a little bashful about it.

"Of course not dear." She wiped her hands on her apron and Ginny took the pillow cases and such out of Harry's hand, leaving for the add-a-room, while her mum took two cups from the cupboard, filling them up with tea and handing him one and they both took a seat at the table.

"Well." Harry started, telling her about his visit to Gringotts and finding out about his family vaults and the Deed. Then he told her about how his relatives had been less than kind to him over the years, basically ignoring the stipulations in the Deed and only keeping a roof over his head. Then he offered up the option he was leaning towards.

He'd been alternating between staring out the window between the door to the add-a-room and down at his cup. Once he was done, he looked up at her face and saw her sad smile. She'd said nothing during his diatribe. He may have only been telling her point of fact and it only took a few minutes to get it all out, but there hadn't been any gasps or growls from her.

She stood up and came around to him, leaning down to give a loving kiss to his forehead. "Your mother would be so proud of you."

Harry was struck by that. The maternal kiss to the forehead had felt nice, but the comment about his mum was not expected.

"She'd also want to blast her sister across the Chanel." She patted his cheek and pulled away, moving back to her cutting board. After a sniffle she picked up her knife and resumed cutting up the vegetables. "I think you are a very sweet boy who's been dealt a bad hand in life. But you have made the most of it, finding joy where you can." His brow furrowed. "And I think simply giving them the house, no extra, like you say. It would stop you feeling any kind of guilt down the line." She scrapped the chopping's into a pot on the stove. "You don't need that kind of stress keeping you up at night. It'll make you old before your time."

Harry felt a warmth of vindication. Sirius, Remus and Ginny might want vengeance, he just wanted the Dursley's out of his life. This was the fairest way to do that.

He stood up and moved his cup to the sink. "Thank you." He said honestly.

"Any time." She told him sweetly.

Ginny came back into the kitchen with her clean sheets with Ron close behind her, smelling quite ripe from cleaning out the chicken coop.

Harry followed the two of them up the stairs, Ron continued on to the bathroom for a shower, Harry and Ginny went into her room to put the sheets back on the bed. "Thanks for suggesting that."

"You feel better about it now?" She asked agreeably.

"Yeah. I'm just going to give them the house." He said decidedly. "I still have two others anyways, and I certainly don't want the Privet house for myself." He said tucking her pillow into the case while she tugged on the fitted sheet.

"You are too nice." She shook her head, but there was still an approving look in her eyes when she looked up at him. "Alright." She stood and tossed the top sheet and blanket on. "Just one more room and then we can go for a fly if you'd like."

"Err. I feel kind of weird about going into your parents' room. Maybe I should just wait here?" He hadn't had an issue with Ron or the twin's room, but her parent's room seemed like an out of bounds area.

Ginny walked around him and headed for the door across the hall. "Don't be silly. It's no different than all the other rooms you've helped me with. What do you think is going to happen?"

"It just feels like I'm overstepping my welcome or whatever." He said awkwardly.

She rolled her eyes at him and took his hand, pulling him into her parents' bedroom behind her. "There's nothing in here that you shouldn't see."

There really wasn't much more to the master bedroom than there was to any of the other rooms. It was just larger, and the bed was centered against the wall. Their closet was larger, and they had a tiny ensuite with a toilet and a sink to themselves. It felt really cozy.

Ginny went straight for the bed and tossed the pillows at him. He started pulling the cases off and looked at the photos on the walls of all the Weasley kids at different ages. This was his first time in any master bedroom. His Aunt and Uncle made it very clear that he wasn't to enter their bedroom, even Dudley's bedroom was off limits to him, but his door had been regularly left open, whereas the Master bedroom door was always closed. Even while doing the tour of Grimmauld Place, Sirius had simply indicated to the door of the master bedroom rather than showing him the inside.

"Is this you?" Harry grinned at the baby photo of a tiny little thing with a pink dress and a bow in her hair. She was staring wide eyed at the camera, blinking with a wonderous look on her face.

"No. That was Percy." Ginny lied. "He was a cross dresser from an early age, he just hides it better now." Her snicker at the end made that all the less convincing.

He took a step back and took in all the baby photo's. There were eight of them, one probably being Kenneth. It was such a large family. Seeing them all there brought up something deep inside him that he hadn't even realized about himself.

He wanted to have a wall full of his own family one day, just like this. He could picture a wall full of a mix of messy black mop hair and delicate ginger babies and one's of them all playing with their cousins at different stages in life as well. It warmed him to fantasize about it.

"Come on, we're almost done." His potential future wife encouraged as she went back into the hallway with her armload of sheets.

When they were back in the laundry room, he brought up Ron. "So, he's still really down about it, eh?"

"Yes." She sighed. "And unfortunately, my sympathy for him has deteriorated drastically with every passing day."

"Right. Well, I thought I might lend my own sympathetic ear." He told her. "See if maybe he could use a sounding board that won't punch him for being annoying."

"We'll see how much self-control you have after ten minutes." Ginny scoffed. "Alright. You want to go up now? He's probably done in the shower and was told not to hide up there all day, but I'll let mum know what's going on."

"Thanks." He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek before heading back through the kitchen and up the stairs.

"Hey Ron?" He knocked on the door to his room.

It swung open inward. Ron was clean and dressed running a towel through his wet hair. "Hey mate."

"Hey. Uh, so. I wondered. If you... needed to talk." He said awkwardly.

Ron stopped trying to dry his hair and stared at Harry with a confused look on his face. Harry was feeling weirder about it with every passing second and staring back at Ron with a growing blush over how much of a girl he'd sounded like, well, it wasn't making it any less awkward.

"What?" Ron asked finally.

Harry started laughing at himself. "Uh. Yeah. That sounded really stupid. But what I meant was." What the hell did he mean? "Look. I know you and I don't really chat about anything but Quidditch. But I know you're upset about Hermione and I thought you might like it if someone lent an ear." He said quickly.

"That's really weird mate." Ron stated.

Harry leaned against the door jam and hit his forehead against it gently. "I know. That sounded so stupid." He looked back over at Ron. "You ever get a decision in your head and then when you give it a go, you don't know how the first part is supposed to happen?" At Ron's look of concern for Harry he rolled his eyes. "Look. You want to talk about Hermione, or not?"

Ron chuckled at him. "Yeah, alright. Come on in." He stepped back into his room and tossed his towel at his hamper. "Ginny didn't send you up here, did she?"

Harry snorted. "No. She seemed to question my judgement as well."

"Why would you want to hear about it anyway?" He asked. "I mean. Hermione's been your friend for years, wouldn't you be taking her side."

"She wouldn't be like that." Harry assured. "If you guys do call it quits then she would still want to be friends, and even if you can't manage that because it's too weird then she still wouldn't stop me from being friends with you."

"Yeah." Ron sighed. "Because she's so great." He sat back on his bed and nodded over to his desk. "I started making that pro/con list."

Harry went over to the desk and saw the list.

Should we break-up

Pro- Could salvage a friendship now. Could tell her my honest opinion. Less time in library. Other girls
Con- I'll miss her

Harry frowned at the only con. He looked back up at Ron. "Other girls?" He asked.

Ron blushed. "Well, I mean there are a lot of pretty girls at school. Hermione was the first one I saw, and I was attracted, am attracted to her." He corrected. "But... I mean. How do I know if she's it for me?"

"You'd know." Harry said automatically, then blushed furiously. "I. I mean. Uh." He cleared his throat. Just because he couldn't possibly imagine being in love with someone other than Ginny doesn't mean he was the voice of experience on the subject. "What I meant to say was, you probably wouldn't be thinking of other girls if you thought Hermione was 'the one'."

Ron smirked at him and raised a single eyebrow.

Harry swallowed his embarrassment. "Well, you did welcome me to the family when we first met." He said smugly.

Ron barked out a laugh. "Yeah. I guess I only have myself to blame." He grinned. "I'm glad you and Ginny are working out so well. And honestly, I'm a little jealous. You guys are so close and sappy, but also cool to hang out with, you know." He sighed and rested his head back on the wall. "I think we should break up." He sadly admitted. "If she's having doubts now, then I don't want to push and have her hate me or something. And really, I think we could be good friends."

"You sure you're okay with that?"

"Yeah. I mean, you guys have been friends for ages and it's not weird."

That had Harry confused. He'd never thought of her as anything other than a friend. Nor had Neville to his knowledge.

"It'll probably hurt if she finds someone else though."

"Well. Maybe you'll find someone else too." Harry offered. "Anyone in particular you might have in mind?" Ron blushed at that. There was definitely someone that had caught his eye. "Well, go on? Who is she?"

"Eh. it's not going to happen. It's just someone that I couldn't help looking at a few times." He looked out the window and chewed the corner of his mouth. "I mean. There's. There's a house rivalry." He offered up hesitantly.

"You mean she's a Slytherin?" Harry asked with a chuckle. "Which one? In our year?" He thought through all the girls in their year from that house at Ron's nearly imperceptible nod.

Pansy Parkinson was the loudest of the bunch. She was alright to look at, but her prissy attitude was a major put off. Plus she was always hanging off Malfoy's every word as well, so that was some questionable decision making there. Millicent Bulstrode wasn't the best looking girl, nor the brightest. Honestly Harry didn't know her very well, maybe she had some redeeming qualities, but from what he recalled from gossip she was keen on Goyle.

Daphne Greengrass was a pretty girl, seemed to have a rather logical sense of intelligence, and she wasn't a giggler.

"Daphne?" He guessed. From Ron's bashful reaction he could tell he'd hit the nail on the head there. "She seems alright." He offered. "Don't really know much about her. We've never been seated close to each other in classes, and I can't remember a time when she was outright prejudiced against... you know."

"Yeah?" He asked hopefully. "I mean. I've just sort of noticed her. She's got really nice eyes, and seems to be pretty laid back, for a Slytherin."

"Nothing wrong with her being in Slytherin. I mean, I know they all come off as sort of. I dunno, 'better than', but that doesn't mean they're all like that." Harry offered his opinion. "You know, the sorting hat told me I'd do well in Slytherin. I only went to Gryffindor because I asked to be put there."

"Really?" Ron asked curiously. "I didn't really give the Sorting Hat a chance to say anything. It just went on my head and said 'Another Weasley' before I thought 'Gryffindor'." He looked far-off. "Wonder what it would have made of my head if I had let it have a look?"

"Where do you figure?" Harry wondered. Ron was a pretty brawny guy. Smart enough, but nowhere near top of the class. "Gryffindor is probably where it would have put you anyways." He thought aloud.

"Yeah." He shrugged. "Not smart enough for Ravenclaw, not stealth enough for Slytherin, and too brash for Hufflepuff."

Ron looked like he was feeling better about his decision. He had another girl in mind, so he couldn't have been too invested in his relationship with Hermione. Sure, Harry had noticed if other girls were pretty, but none of the other girls had ever lit up a room for him like his Ginny. He was relieved really. Ron had become a pretty good friend, if he and Hermione could still spend time together and not have any animosity then that would be a load off his mind. "Any idea who Neville's been seeing?" He asked suddenly.

"He hasn't even told you?" Ron asked surprised.

Harry shook his head.

"Why would he want to hide it? Think he's embarrassed?"

"I've no idea." Harry shrugged.

"I was going to send him an owl and see if he wanted to come over."

"Really?" Harry perked up. "That's be fun. I bet he'd love your orchard." He certainly did.

AN-On the Dursley front. You know that Harry wouldn't follow through with a vindictive act like kicking them out of their home. No arguments, you totally know he wouldn't. The guilt of making them homeless would weigh on him.

They will still get theirs, just wait and see what happens.