CHAPTER TWO. Nesting.
Ronald Weasley married Hermione Granger, his school sweetheart, shortly after she passed her N.E.W.T's with honours. They combined their honeymoon with a trip to Australia to retrieve Hermione's parents from their 'exile' and then began their lives together in an idyllic cottage on the outskirts of Ottery St. Catchpole, not far from the Weasley's family home, The Burrow. It was also just a short apparate from their old school friend Luna Lovegood and her father's rebuilt house.
Ron had joined his brother George (following his twin Fred's tragic death) in the running of the booming joke shop business at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley. Hermione got her 'dream job', as a trainee archivist and librarian at the Ministry of Magic, having decided not to wait for the Senior Faculty Building at Hogwarts to be completed and go on to do any further education after leaving school. It seemed even Hermione had a limit to her appetite for study and wanted to enter the 'real world'.
The Ministry of Magic where Hermione began to work had undergone rapid reforms and improvements since Kingsley Shacklebolt took over permanently as Minister. It was now a dynamic and rapidly changing environment, the old hidebound and corrupt regime had been rooted out and it was a very different place. Indeed it was a place Hermione loved to be working. She happily went off by Floo Network each working day and felt she was doing a worthwhile and fulfilling job, something she'd never previously thought the Ministry could offer her.
Harry Potter and Ginevra Weasley were also married, just after Ginny's eighteenth birthday, once she had finished studying for her N.E.W.T.s. Harry was initially worried they were both still too young for marriage but Ginny gave him one of her loving but forceful 'talking to's'. One such as those that she used to give him after they'd got together in school and had reserved for moments when he was being stubborn or needlessly hesitant.
When Harry expressed his worries to her about an early marriage she said, "Why wait? Ron and Hermione haven't! I thought I'd lost you forever more than once whilst you were off fighting Voldermort and I think I can honestly say that I suffered just as much as you did! It nearly ripped the soul out of me when I thought you'd died! Your not getting away from me again Harry Potter!"
With that she fell into his arms saying, "We both know we are meant for each other and it would be easy for me just to start crying and using emotional blackmail to twist you arm into agreeing to marriage. But you know that's not me, I'm not some scheming little girl. If a little more time is what you need then I'll wait, if that's what it takes for us to be together for ever."
Hearing this however Harry finally saw sense and agreed, realising of course that it's was what he'd really wanted all along as well.
Ginny's parents Arthur and Molly were delighted to give their blessing to their union and the wedding was held at The Burrow. It was kept secret and they had a small low key private ceremony, with only close friends and family invited, since neither Harry nor Ginny wanted a huge wizarding world media event, which it would have undoubtedly otherwise degenerated into.
Harry commenced undergoing Auror training for the Ministry, as this had been his career of choice for some years. Initially being based a lot of the time in the Auror's Department in the Ministry for his preliminary training he was often able to meet up with Hermione for lunch in the Ministry's staff canteen, when not out on 'field duties', accompanying fully qualified Aurors to gain experience. Harry proved a very capable student and became the first winner of the Moody Memorial Shield, as best Trainee Auror in his class at graduation.
On finishing her exams Ginny had also began working in London, as a Trainee Healer at St Mungo's and with her honours N.E.W.T. status they were delighted to have her. She had initially held ideas of playing Quidditch as a pro after leaving school and certainly had been skilled enough to do so. In fact she'd had an offer from a Holyhead Harpies talent scout. She spent a couple of weeks at their training camp, but soon found she could not bear the thought of being split up from Harry again. Luckily both Harry and Ginny found they could still get their 'Quidditch fix' by playing with an 'ad hoc' amateur 'Sunday League' side they formed along with Ron and George Weasley, George's girlfriend Angelina Johnson and a couple of Harry's work colleagues.
Harry and Ginny began living in a vastly improved 12 Grimmauld Place, which had been transformed from it's former dismal self into a thoroughly modern, roomy and comfortable town house. Harry was initially reluctant to move in, fearing bad memories of the loss of Sirius, but Ginny persuaded him it was only sensible as he owned the house and Sirius had obviously wanted him to have it. In any case once modernised 12 Grimmauld Place in no way resembled the gloomy old relic it had once been and for Harry proved to hold only happy memories of his late Godfather.
Their neighbours had initially been surprised that the previously 'missing' number 12 property seemed to have suddenly re-appeared in their midst, but as it was no longer necessary to hide the house the security spells had been removed and the application of mild memory modification spells made the neighbours forget all about it's previous apparent absence. As far as they could now remember the newcomers had simply inherited the house, moved in and done the place up. The charming new young couple were viewed as a friendly and popular addition to the neighbourhood.
The house makeover had brightened up and refurbished nearly all of the old property and all Harry and Ginny's friends who visited them, (particularly those who remembered it in it's previous state whilst it had been the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix), were hugely complimentary on the transformation wrought on the place. This was mainly due, as Harry himself admitted, to Ginny's superb taste.
The only exception to the general modernisation was just one room, which still held the immoveable Black family tree tapestry, (the damage to which Harry had had restored) and which was permanently stuck to the wall. The room also now contained the relocated painting of Sirius's mother. This had been moved into the room and set into another wall. Although to do so had meant calling in some expert wizard builders to move a section of masonry from it's previous location, due to the painting's permanent sticking charm. It had been a noisy and costly job, but at least it now made possible getting in and out of the entrance hallway easily, without being exposed to a tirade of abuse from the picture of Walburga Black, former mistress of the house and 'pure blood' fanatic.
In addition to the painting the preserved heads of the Black family's previous house elves, Kreacher's ancestors, plus as many of the old Black family heirlooms as possible, (which Mundungus Fletcher had stolen), were retrieved and were on display in the room. This was now clean, tidy and comfortably furnished, but still held some of the atmosphere of the old house. The reason why this one particular room had been partially 'preserved' was that it had been given over to Kreacher, the ageing Black family house elf and was now his 'bedsit'. This was a massive step up from the manky old kitchen cupboard he had previously lived in and he was delighted with his 'des res', where he was happily able to live surrounded by his favourite familiar things.
Kreacher had been given this special room of his own in gratitude for his help in tracking down Lord Voldermort's horcrux locket and his bravery in leading the house elves of Hogwarts into battle against Voldermort's dark forces at a pivotal time, which helped tip the scales of the fight. Harry and Ginny had also tried to give Kreacher his freedom for his heroism, but he would have none of it. Indeed he became offended at the very suggestion and refused their offer outright, threatening to go off on one of his tantrums and only calming down again when Harry and Ginny formally accepted his pledge of permanent allegiance.
However, this state of affairs was much to Hermione's initial annoyance when she visited and first heard of it. She still, (if somewhat less militantly), harboured ambitions for the emancipation of all house elves. Indeed she eventually hoped to set up a branch of S.P.E.W. in the Ministry itself one day and lobby for elf rights from the inside when she'd got a bit more Ministry seniority. However, Harry pointed out to her how far Kreacher had come towards Hermione from his previous position of hostility. This was shown by the fact that he now happily accepted her presence as a regular house guest of Harry and Ginny and that he was obviously pleased to see her and to serve her when she and Ron stayed there for their frequent weekend visits to London.
"It just goes to show that you can 'teach an old dog new tricks' Hermione," Harry said. "I don't even have to order Kreacher not to call you a mudblood any more," he laughed. Although to be fair Kreacher and Hermione had already begun to come to a bit of an 'understanding' whilst the trio were hiding out in the house prior to Voldermort's downfall. Kreacher, as it turned out, wasn't such a bad old stick after all.