75: In Which Alhanna's Haven Is Prepared
Harry apparated with a loud pop onto the grounds of Alhana's Haven. He saw Ginny, George, Angelina, Deirdre, Molly, and Arthur which told him he was the last one to arrive. Bill, Fleur, and Andromeda Tonks had the kids for the next five hours.
Between then and now, they had to get the house and chapel ready for a party.
Ginny called them all together. "We're here to get this place spiffed up. Hermione and Snape are getting married in twenty-one days, and tomorrow they are going to come here to start getting it ready for the wedding. They are expecting a mountain of work. We're going to give them an engagement party!
"George, since you did such a good job with the plant life for Bill's wedding and mine, you're on garden duty. Deirdre and her ten green fingers are with you. Mum, since you've forgotten more about cleaning spells than the rest of us ever learned, you've got the inside of the house. Angelina and I will provide you with back up. That leaves Dad and Harry with the chapel. The most important part on the chapel is to get the stained glass sparkling clean. They want to see colours streaming though those windows when the sun sets, so we're going to get it for them!"
The Weasley's broke up into their teams and got to work. Harry and Arthur surveyed their job. The stone was in beautiful condition. Its lines were still sharp; the carved details were vivid. However, Harry had the sinking suspicion that it probably didn't originally come with those distinctive black smears.
Once upon a time, the stained glass had been bright and beautiful. Ruby, amber, emerald, and sapphire hued glass had depicted flowers and angels. Now, hundreds of years of water spots from tens of thousands of rains drying had left them covered in a gray film.
But, no matter what Ginny said, what needed the most work was the wood. Harry could see the pews and altar had been lovingly carved by a master woodworker, but centuries open to the weather had left them tattered and rotting.
"You want the glass or the pews?" Harry asked Arthur, who was looking critically at the ceiling.
"Are we supposed to fix the roof?"
"Ginny didn't say anything about it."
"I don't like the way it looks. How about you start on the pews? I'm going to get a broom. I want a better look up there. The last thing we need is the roof coming down during the ceremony."
Harry walked up to the front of the church. There were twelve pews, two rows of six, and each one of them badly needed help. He sat in front of the first one and began the restoration spell. It was a complex spell that erased the effects of time on a specific non-living object. Each piece of wood needed to be restored individually, and each pew had a lot of pieces. Harry figured that the next three hours would get the pews done. Three less then fascinating hours of near total concentration.
Arthur found his broom, kicked off the ground, and began to really look at the roof. The part that had survived was a masterpiece of slate roofing. Four colours of slate worked into an intricate geometric pattern. However, he didn't like the way the beams under the roof looked.
He swooped down to George and told him to take a look and give him a second opinion.
George was back in a minute. "You're right Dad; the only thing holding that roof up is habit. The beams that aren't rotted all the way through are serving as a termite feast. That's the first thing that needs to be done, and fast. You get started. I'll get the others."
Arthur grabbed Harry. "We've got to get the roof fixed first, probably in the house as well. Grab your broom. We're restoring the beams."
In a matter of minutes, all seven of them were flying under the roof, working on restoring spells or levitation spells. Molly and Ginny kept the roof up while the other five brought the beams back to life. Between the seven of them, it took half an hour.
The roof of the house was in better condition. The interior walls had protected more of the beams, so only the bits open to the weather were in need of salvation. That took Molly, Angelina, and Ginny ten minutes. Once more, now without the danger of the wedding site collapsing on them, the Weasleys got back to work.
Arthur spent several moments eyeballing the floor of the chapel. He wasn't certain if it was a dirt floor, or if centuries of rotted debris had made it look like one. He started with a tentative vanishing spell in one of the corners, which confirmed that there was a stone floor under the dirt. A scourgify caused him to inhale sharply. He aimed another one at the wall a few inches above the floor.
"Harry!"
Harry looked up from the plank he was restoring. The spell was rather fiddly, and if he didn't pay close enough attention to what he was doing he'd end up with a tree sitting in his lap instead of a brand new plank. "What?"
"Come here."
"Hold on." Harry finished the piece he was working on. "I'll never get these done at this rate," he muttered as he joined Arthur.
"Look," Arthur said. Harry glanced at the site Arthur pointed to. He inhaled sharply.
"Wow. That's beautiful."
"I'll say. The cleaning job just got bigger though."
"You can say that again." What Harry, and all the rest, had thought were streaky gray granite walls and a dirt floor, was in fact white marble with light pink and blue streaks.
"Harry, if you can get the pews and the altar off the floor, I'll get it cleaned up." Harry set to levitating the wood work, and went back to restoring his pew from atop his broom. Arthur began the task of vanishing centuries' worth of debris.
Harry had finished the second pew when he became aware of what was occurring beneath his feet. Arthur had finished the vanishing spells that had removed several inches of dirt off the floor and had scourgified the remaining stains off of the floor. Now he was using a polishing spell.
Most of the chapel's floor was the white marble, but down the aisle was an inlaid pattern of twining roses depicted in green, pink, and pale yellow stones.
"Who built this place?" Arthur asked in hushed awe as he looked at the shining clean floor.
"I don't know." Harry responded with an equally reverent voice. "Snape's got a story to go with it, but who knows if it's true?"
Arthur looked at the floor for another moment and then blinked hard. "You want help with the pews, or should I move onto the walls?"
"I'll take the help, this is rather dull work." Harry lowered the two finished pews to the floor, and moved onto a third one. Arthur walked to him, and took a place on the far end of the pew. They worked in silence for a few minutes.
"We heard about Sybil's prophecy over at the Ministry."
Harry made a non-committal grunt, as the leg of the pew he was working on slowly went from rotted hunk to shining wood.
"What do you think?"
Harry looked up. "That whoever let you guys know is not doing anyone any favours." Arthur cocked an eyebrow at him. "I'm not an expert in these things, but from what I can see the only reason prophecies work is that they set the future in motion. They don't predict. They create. So these days, I hear a prophecy; I ignore it."
"It was worth ignoring?" Harry looked exasperated. "Look, I know you know what a real Trelawney prophecy sounds like. I also know that what you said makes sense. And, I also know that eight different kids sent notes to mum and dad about what they heard after the Sorting, and that there is literally no way to go about ignoring the damn thing, so to keep those mums and dads feeling safe and happy, I ended up with the job of investigating it. But, if in the course of my investigation, the only person who is currently alive who ever heard a true Trelawney Prophecy tells me it's a load of Leprechaun Gold, then I can report that, and it can go rest in peace."
"For the record, it's a stinking heap of Niffler dung."
"How about between you and me?" Harry had known his father-in-law more than half of his life. He could see the older man's concern for yet another horror on the horizon. He felt it himself when he heard Trelawney begin to speak.
Harry looked intensely at Arthur. "Embrace your inner Mad Eye. Constant Vigilance!"
Molly had levitated the carpet. Ginny and Angelina had set spells to beat the dust out of it. "Your brother Flooed yesterday. He had some news."
"Which one?" Ginny asked, squinting through the cloud of dust.
"Percy."
"What's Perce up to?" Angelina asked and then vanished the dust.
"He says Shackelbolt's talking about retiring at the end of his next term, and that he's on the short list of candidates to take his place."
Both of the younger women stopped moving and looked dumbfounded.
"He really did it?" Angelina asked, shock in her voice.
"2012. Percy could be Minister of Magic in 2012?" Ginny looked numb.
"It's not guaranteed, but it's possible. He'll be the youngest Minister ever if they do select him."
"He always talked about doing it, but I never thought… I mean, I just thought it was talk… No one thought he'd actually do it…" Ginny continued to ramble while Angelina refocused on Molly.
"How's Penny taking the news?"
"Over the moon, as you can imagine."
"I can imagine. She's wanted this as much, if not more, than he did."
"But he's too young," Ginny said, finally getting over some of the shock.
"He'll have been in eighteen years by that point. That gives him seniority on almost everyone."
"Not on dad."
"Your dad wouldn't touch that job with a ten foot pole."
"Can't say I'd blame him," Angelina said. "Bad hours, lots of stress, and not nearly enough power to make it worthwhile."
Molly let the carpet fall gently to the floor. "You can say that again. I never understood why Percy wanted it so much. But I'm glad it looks like he's going to get it."
George and Deirdre stood between the house and the chapel. He put an arm around his wife, kissed her on the cheek, and said, "Trust Snape and Hermione to pick a bloody wilderness for a wedding."
He wasn't far off in his description. Waist-high-grass tangled with weeds and brambles spread between and around the buildings. The trees may have been far off at one time, but the years had allowed the forest to come within ten meters of the buildings.
"What do you think? Leave the trees close, or clear them out a bit further back?"
Deirdre turned to look at the entire property. "Leave them for now, we can clear them out if need be. Let's see what's under this mess first."
They stood back to back and cast spells that sent the grass flying. Ten minutes had cut the grass back to a manageable length, and let them see what else needed to be done.
"If we reseed it, and the weather is helpful, this might just look like a lawn by the time they get married," Deirdre said, while poking a patch of naked earth. The ground around the buildings was no longer overgrown. It was mostly dirt, pocked with tufts of dry looking grass and very small trees.
"Or we could paint it green. It'd probably look about the same and be much easier."
"It's not that bad."
"It's not good." He grinned at her. "But we'll make it grow. Show me to the seeds, love."
Angelina thought she'd never get the dust out of her lungs. They'd been at it, one room at a time, for what she thought was hours, but she had the sinking suspicion that not quite as much time as she thought might have passed. But, as little as she enjoyed cleaning, she had to admit the company was pleasant, and they were making headway. The floors gleamed. The carpets were bright with their original colours. The cobwebs, dust bunnies, mice, and other less desirable creatures were gone. All in all, it was starting to look like somewhere you might, as long as you didn't mind the huge, gaping hole in the west side of the house, like to live.
Molly opened a new door. Ginny sneezed. Angelina coughed. "How you two keep house with such tender constitutions, I don't know," Molly said.
"The fact we both clean more than once a millennia might have something to do with it," Ginny quipped.
"Oh, it's been at least a millennium since I last cleaned. I cook and shop. George cleans. Deirdre's in charge of baby wrangling. Everyone's happy."
"So why is he out there with the weeds?" Molly asked Ginny.
"He said he wanted some outside time."
"Besides it's not like I hate to clean, but I prefer to cook, and George is better at it than either of us. Possibly something to do with growing up in your house." Molly looked pleased at the compliment.
"Speak of the Devil," Ginny said, gesturing behind her. George and Deirdre entered the house.
"Where?" George looked around franticly.
"Need another set of hands?" Deirdre asked.
"Always, pet." Angelina walked over and embraced both of them.
"What, aren't we going to show off our handy work?" George asked, looking faux alarmed.
"Yes, come take a look. See if you can tell you're in the same place."
Looking out the wrecked wall, Molly sharply inhaled, Ginny let out a low whistle, and Angelina gave both of them an extra squeeze.
"Lovely, just lovely," Molly whispered.
"It's not that much better, mum." George was looking a little embarrassed at all the praise.
"But it will be." She was smiling at him. "I know how it'll look when it comes in fully. By the time of the wedding this will be a lovely meadow ringed by flame leafed trees."
Snape balanced a book of cleaning spells on his arm. Hermione held his broom.
Molly looked at the book and sniffed. "Severus, there's nothing in there I can't show you how to do three time better. No need to bring that along." He smiled at her and put the book back on its shelf.
"I want to thank all of you for agreeing to help us with this," Hermione said to her adopted family.
Harry smiled at her. "No problem. You helped us with our wedding."
"And us with ours," Deirdre added.
"And what kind of Best Man doesn't help get the wedding site ready?" Arthur chimed in.
"I'll warn you, it's in pretty rough shape," Snape said.
"How bad can it be?" Molly asked with a grin.
"You'll see, Molly. It's pretty grotty," Hermione said with a sigh.
"Well, it's not getting any cleaner by us dithering here. Let's get going," Arthur said, herding his family toward the Portkey Percy had set up for the day.
A moment later, they arrived. Hermione looked around, blinked, and looked around again. The chapel was a soft white color instead of the gray she remembered. The grounds were patchy and bare in some places, but the weeds were gone, the tree line was tamed, and as she looked closer, millions of tiny blades of grass were beginning to poke through the soil. The house looked almost liveable, and sounds were echoing from it. She looked at Snape and saw what she imagined was a very similar look of shock to the one she was wearing. She noticed all the others holding their faces very carefully. George broke out laughing first.
"I wish you two could see your faces."
Harry hugged Hermione, and Ginny hugged a rather stiff Snape. "Happy wedding you two. There's one more surprise. Come into the house." Ginny pulled the unresisting couple toward the house. Inside the rest of the Weasley clan waited.
"Happy Engagement!" they chorused.
"We wanted you to have an engagement party," Harry said, his arm around each of them.
"And we wanted you to have a very nice wedding present," Ginny added.
"So we came here yesterday and got the place cleaned up," Deirdre said while handing them each drinks.
"It's not perfect, yet, but you've got a lot less to do than you did yesterday," Angelina told them as she walked past them to the food.
"Come see the inside of the chapel. You won't believe what we found under the dirt." Arthur gestured.
"Let them have a moment to breathe, dear. We've given them a bit of a shock." Molly pushed the rest of the crowd back from Snape and Hermione. Almost thirty faces stared at them, waiting for a response.
"I… Thank you. This is just… Thank you." Snape still looked a bit flustered, but he was doing better than Hermione, who had started to cry softly.
She calmed down while Snape talked about how much work this must have been and how grateful he was. When he quieted she said, "I love you all. Thank you for making me part of your family. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for this, and for everything."
What followed would have been an enormous hug. But with almost thirty people, many of which were children, the group settled for many individual hugs. And eventually, after everyone was thanked, and hugged, and a few drinks were downed, and the tale of the proposal was told, Arthur was able to show off the new and improved grounds.