The Prophet smiled, recent events were unfolding very much to his advantage. Voldemort was dead, so he didn't have to contend with the dark wizard, not that it would have been much of a contest anyways. With the British Ministry still reeling from the war he could slip in, using the rampant chaos to his own ends and enact his plan unnoticed. The only lament he had was the weather, he hated the English Weather, it was far too wet for his liking.
But he thought, as awful as the weather was the opportunity was too good to pass up. There were too few wellsprings in existence today and most of them were closely guarded by the wizarding governments of whatever territory they fell under. He watched as down bellow one of the acolytes led the newest initiates in the creed; affirming their vows and devotion to the Brotherhood.
He didn't need to hear them to know what they were saying.
"Together we pledge our lives in service to the Brotherhood.
Together in brotherhood we are all equal.
Together in equality we find strength.
Together we pledge this strength in service to the Prophet.
Together in service of the Prophet we find purpose.
Together in purpose we find victory.
Together in victory we achieve ascension."
Humanity had always had a penchant for fanaticism he mused he had always found it… useful.
# # #
Ginny's mouth was agape; Harry had just finished relating his story from over the last year. Ginny had stayed silent mostly, only asking for clarification on some minor things. "You're sure you got all of them right? You did destroy all of those Horcrux things?" She asked.
"Yeah, pretty sure" Harry said. He would have given her a reassuring hug if both of their arms weren't full with clothes for him and a handful of muggle items that had caught Ginny's fancy.
"Good." She murmured. She couldn't help but shudder at the thought that Voldemort might still be around in some way.
For a few minutes they lapsed into a contemplative silence as Ginny tried to process everything she had been told. Eventually she piped up, asking "So what do we do now?"
Harry shrugged carefully as he said "Dunno." They still had an hour or so before they were supposed to meet, after a few moments he added "Ohh yeah, we can go check to see if Grimmauld Place is still standing."
Ginny wrinkled her nose, remembering the dark and unpleasant house she said "They might have done you a favor."
"You might be right."
Walking into the pub, they started crossing the bar towards Tom's location when they saw Ron and Hermione sitting at one of the tables. Ron and Hermione saw them too. Standing up they both made a bee line towards Harry and Ginny and once he got in earshot Ron said with a smile "Ah, there you are. We were wondering if we would have to wait an hour for you."
"How'd you get done so fast?" Ginny asked suspiciously looking at her brother.
Ron shrugged as he said "Dunno, the Goblins worked fast. Then we just started hanging out for a while, eventually ended up here." After a pause he added "You guys ready to go?"
It was Harry's turn to speak this time, saying "No, but you can help carry everything." As he started to lever some of the items off the top of the mountain in his arms and into Ron's surprised grip.
The look on his face said that he clearly wasn't interested in being helpful. As Harry went over to Tom to retrieve the Firebolt from behind the bar he said "I still need to go to see if Grimmauld place is still standing."
Ron started grumbling under his breath as Harry retrieved the broom from Tom and after a few moments argument about payment for his trouble Harry surreptitiously added a couple of Galleons to the tip that one of the bar goers had just left. Walking outside they found their way back to the alley they had apparated in and after a few moments held hands and were gone.
Appearing down the street from Grimmauld place they slowly made their way up the sidewalk. The trip was easier now that the load Harry was carrying half the load he had been. Walking up to the spot between numbers 11 and 13 they watched as Grimmauld place slowly showed itself to them.
Watching as it appeared Ron said "Well, Harry. If you wanna finish the job nobody'd blame you." The house had obviously been ransacked since they had last been there. Windows were smashed everywhere and a bricks and odds and ends were lying in the smal garden in front of the house. Harry could cleary see a couple of the drapes in the windows had been burnt. Starting to make his way up the path and into the foyer beyond, Harry tripped over the door that had been knocked off of its hinges he yelled instinctually. And as soon as he could he clamped his hands to his ears, expecting Mrs. Black to start screeching at the top of her lungs at them.
When he realized that there wasn't any noise Harry carefully removed his hands from his ears. Turning around he found the others standing in the doorway carefully leaning in and looking at everything. "Blimey." Ron breathed, turning around Harry could see why. The hallway was a mess, and he could only imagine what everything else was like. But he couldn't help but smile as he saw the portion of wall where Mrs. Black's portrait used to be.
"How come nobody ever thought of that?" Harry asked.
"Don't know." Hermione said in a bemused tone, everyone else was starting to smile a little bit. Nobody could remove the portrait from the wall because of the permanent sticking charms. But for some reason nobody had ever thought of removing the wall. There was a large jagged hole where the portrait used to be and you could see plain through to the kitchen on the other side. Which itself was in a deplorable condition.
"Serves the old bat right." Ron said under his breath.
'ow, Hermione.' Ron said a few moments later, turning around to look at him he saw that Ron was vigirously rubbing his arm where Hermione had punched him as he said "You know that old hag was mean to you and me both."
"It still isn't nice Ron." She breathed. Ron rolled his eyes as he turned away, grumbling under his breath again about how she seemed to always stand up for everythingeven if it was trying to kill her.
"You want to look around?" Ginny asked.
"Sure," Ron said. The two couples split up beginning to look at whatever rooms took their fancy. Leaving their things at the front door they made their way slowly through the house. The first place Harry searched was Sirius' old room; surprisingly it was in relatively pristine condition. Just as messy as last time, but nothing was actually damaged in here.
For some reason that he couldn't really put his finger on he slowly began collecting the books and papers and other things that had been left on the floor, taking the opportunity to collect his own thoughts as he worked. He didn't know how long he had been at it, but a hand touching the small of his back as he was bent over startled him back into reality.
Turning around he found Ginny looking at him, a slight tinge of concern on her face. "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Harry said, she slowly ushered him over to the bed and they both sat down. For a while neither spoke, not knowing what to say.
Eventually she broke the silence, saying "I'm sorry about the way I've been acting." Silence resumed for a few moments before Ginny clarified "Whenever I see that scar." She said, pointing towards his chest.
"No, its okay, I understand." He lied.
"No, it's not." Ginny said slightly exasperated. "Just let me explain myself, okay?" Harry stayed respectfully silent as she continued "I'm sorry for the way I've been acting around you." She repeated, she paused trying to find the right words before she said "In my head I thought I knew the score. One brother and innumerable family friends dead, two brothers horribly scarred. A family that will never be the same again," She paused to take a ragged breath. "And then I see that," Pointing in the general vicinity of Harry's heart and the scar over it "and I have to rethink everything. The war is over and I thought I had everything sorted, seeing that make me wonder how bad things really are. How many people are still so hurt."
Ginny couldn't help it, she started crying. Harry quickly wrapped her up in his arms, trying to soak up the pain she was still obviously feeling. In the back of his mind he wondered whether or not this had actually helped her in any way. The way she ha acted earlier today, after he had told her about Bill and when they were buying the broom still scared him.
Harry didn't know how long it had been but he started as he heard someone knocking on the door "Oi, you two. Stop yer snoggin' and get ready or we'll leave without you!"
Ginny giggled a little bit at the sudden outburst as she tried to wipe her eyes. Pushing herself up quickly they made their way towards the door. Beating him to the door she turned towards him, blocking it. As he got closer she launched herself lightly at him, giving him a huge hug she whispered "Thanks for letting me get that off my chest."
Harry hugged her back, and was about to say something when the banging came again "Oi, were leaving!"
Harry sent a rude hand gesture in the direction of the door and hoped that in some way Ron got the message. A few minutes later they were trying to find a way to maintain contact as they held everything. Eventually they figured it out, and were able to apparate back to the Burrow.
Authors Note: First off thanks to everyone who actually reads this and reviews. YOU GUYS ROCK! As always check back and reread the older chapters, when I have the time I'll make corrections on spelling errors and stuff as I find them. As well as generally improve things. Also let me know how I did introducing the Brotherhood and their leader… I really need feedback on this, I'm going to be doing my best to up the scary factor on these guys and I need to know how I'm doing. Also i apologize for the relatively small size of this one. I was going to make this entire chapter into the introduction of the Brotherhood but I didn't really know what the reaction would be yet. So I smushed it and the next planned chapter together.