Chapter three: Home Sweet Home
Harry stepped gratefully out of the Knight Bus. The ride had been a bit bumpier then he had recalled. The new driver needed a little more practice.
The yowling of a cat brought Harry to the present. Startled for an instant, his mind congealing the shadows into the looming faced of a masked Death Eater. He blinked and the figment vanished.
"Harry?" Ginny was already half way up to the front steps of Grimmauld place. "You all right?"
"Yeah." Shaking his head vigorously Harry moved quickly up the steps, pulling out a rusty ring of keys he inserted the largest of the lot, with some difficulty, into the lock. The lock gave a loud squealing scream as he turned the key, and he reminded himself that he should probably fix that, eventually.
Harry had originally offered residence to all the Weasleys but with Bill and Charlie too far abroad, Fred and George living so close anyway right above their Diagon ally shop, and Percy still not talking to anyone to do with Harry, the only ones who excepted his offer were Ron, Ginny, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. The eldest of residents were probably still at the ministry, tying up some loose ends for Ron and Hermione. Compensation for injuries sustained during active duty, reward for assisting in the annihilation of a threat to wizard kind and all that.
"Good-night then Harry." Ginny yawned hugely as she stepped through the front door, her voice constrained to a low murmur as the threat of waking Mrs. Black still loomed over the inhabitant's heads.
"Good-night." Harry watched her climb the steps till the small pinpoint of light, which was her wand, disappeared into the thick darkness. He was not at all tired.
Making his own way up the stairs Harry made his way to his own room, a small closet like space at the very top of the dilapidated old building; it would have been some kind of servant's quarters if it had been a muggle structure. It was far away from any rooms that Harry had been in during his first summer at Grimmauld place, he only vaguely wondering where Kreature was.
Lighting a candle Harry pulled out a few thick tomes from what had once been his school bag and dropped down to sit on his bed.
He, Ron, and Hermione had talked a lot about life after the war, all having heartily agreed they did not want to live off of whatever popular attention they might receive if, in the end, Voldemort was the one who would die and they would happen to live on past these days, no matter how unlikely that had seemed at times. Now that that had happened, he had a lot of studying to catch up on. He had completely skipped one year of school, and if he wanted to pass his N.E.W.T.s… How much would he remember from before? It felt like a lifetime ago.
He began the laborious task of reading the seventh year History of Magic text. Despite the great strain on his nerves, the quality of text, and the time that kept getting later and later, it took till sunrays began to peak under his window blinds before Harry's eyes fell shut.
Thestrals and the corpses of loved ones haunted Harry's dreams.
"Harry?" A sharp rapping at his bedroom door finally drew Harry out of his nightmares. "Harry?" Mrs. Weasley's voice came again.
"Yes?" Harry's voice was harsh, his throat dry.
"It's three o'clock dear, I wondered if you wanted breakfast." Mrs. Weasley sounded rather anxious as she explained.
"Yes please, thank-you." Harry replied quickly, his words falling over one another in sleepy haste. He heard the shuffle of footsteps walking away from his door, and then down the steps. The twenty-one year-old yawned and stretched. Changing out of his severally rumpled clothes of the day before he pulled on clean muggle attire and quickly followed after Mrs. Weasley, his stomach rumbling encouragement.
"Would you like eggs, toast, pancakes, oatmeal?" Mrs. Weasley fluttered anxiously around the kitchen as Harry took a seat at the table.
"Toast and eggs please." Harry replied, it seemed somewhat childish to have your breakfast made for you, especially at three in the afternoon, but it felt nice; he was not one to complain.
"You're up Harry." Ginny entered at that moment and swept up beside her fiancé, sitting beside him. "It's three o'clock." She noted after a minute, after glancing at her watch, and after Mrs. Weasley had delivered a hot steaming plate of food in front of Harry.
Harry nodded accent after a few minutes of chewing silence.
"You alright?"
"Yeah." Swallowing, Harry accepted a glass of orange juice. "Got a good night's sleep?"
Ginny nodded absently, watching him consume the rest of his breakfast. "Harry." A flicker of light caught the young man's eye and moved to the right of his plate where Ginny's fingers were playing with the small ring that bedecked her left ring finger. "I thought we could look into getting Mrs. Black removed, Dean thought his uncle might have removed something a similar portrait from a similar situation."
A slight twinge pulled at the edge of Harry's mind at the mention of Dean Thomas. Accompanied by an abrupt intake of breath a slight smell of flowers caught in his nose and he coughed, sending the egg he had been chewing all over the table top.
A/N: My apologies to not updating at all quickly! I do hope you enjoy it, and I do hope of posting more soon, now that I am back into the swing.
Thanks to Paris, Syd, Past-the-point, and lunafan for reviewing