Standard Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story; they all belong to JK Rowlings. This is a work of fan fiction, produced solely for enjoyment. No infringement of rights is intended.

– CHAPTER SEVEN –

The Will Reading

Seconds later, or so it seemed to Harry, he was woken by what sounded like an explosion as the door was thrown open. Sitting up, he heard the rasp of the curtains been pulled back: the bright sunlight seemed to be trying to force itself through his eyelids. Shielding his eyes with one hand, he fumbled around with the other, trying to find his glasses.

'Wuzzgoinon?'

'Harry, get out of bed! We have the apparition test in half an hour!' said a loud, worried voice. Harry jumped at this.

'What? Why didn't anyone wake me up?' Harry asked, jumping out of bed, almost colliding with Ron.

'Mum thought you needed your sleep, and we didn't notice the time.' Harry finally found his glasses and straightening up, said.

'All right, I'm up. I'll just go take a quick shower and we can go.'

'Ok, but make it quick.' Ron said, running out the room, 'We need to be there five minutes before the test to register.' Harry ran to the bathroom, took the fastest shower he'd taken in his life, and scrambled back to his room to get dressed, almost colliding with Ginny on the way, who was just coming out of her room bleary eyed.

'Watch it Harry! You almost knocked me over.' She said angrily.

'Sorry Ginny, but I'm kind of in a hurry.' He rushed on, yelling over his shoulder. 'Apparition test in twenty minutes.'

'Oh, good luck Harry! I'm sorry, I forgot.' She apologised.

'It's alright, I forgot too!' He replied as he slammed the door behind him. Ginny smirked.

A few minutes later, still pulling a T-shirt on, Harry sprinted down the stairs, almost tripping over Crookshanks on the last step. Mrs. Weasley turned around, smiling.

'Hurry up and eat up Harry. You can't take a test on an empty stomach.' She said jovially. 'Your breakfast is on the table.' She continued, pointing at a huge plate of food on the table. Harry ran over, and started shovelling food into his mouth. Hermione, who was reading a book, looked up disapprovingly, and was about to say something.

Before she could say anything though, Ron walked in, and seeing Harry, said, 'Harry, come on. No time to eat, you can eat when we come home. We have to go now!' Eating his last mouthful, Harry got up, and grabbed some Floo powder. Ron pointed his wand at the fireplace, and called out 'Incendio!'

Walking up to the flames, he threw some powder into the fireplace, and marching into the emerald green flames that roared up higher than before, he yelled out 'Ministry of Magic!'

Harry hurriedly followed him, and a few minutes walked out of the fireplace in the Ministry's Atrium. Wiping the soot of his shoulders and out of his hair, he followed Ron who ran up to Eric. They deposited their wands, and ran to the elevator. Pushing their way in, they dropped down two floors to Level Six (the cool female voice rang out again. 'Level Six, Department of Magical Transportation, incorporating the Floo Network Authority, Broom Regulatory Control, Portkey Office and Apparition Test Centre'). They sprinted out, and hurried over to the Test Centre, finding Neville there and a few other students, mostly Ravenclaws. They all looked very nervous, and Neville was pale; it looked like he was about to throw up.

Harry was about to greet Neville, and tell him that there was nothing to worry about, when their instructor, Wilkie Twycross walked out of the office. The frail looking wizard looked around, and pulled out a roll of parchment. 'Right,' he said, 'you're all here to take the apparition test, so let's not dally around. Come with me.'

He led them to a large room, which had padded walls, and told them to space themselves out, with at least five feet of space in front of them. The students all nervously jostled around, Harry and Ron staying as far back from Twycross as possible.

'Now then,' he waved his wand and old-fashioned wooden hoops instantly appeared on the floor in front of each student, 'the test comprises of two parts. There is a short distance apparition, and a long distance apparition. For the short distance apparition, I want you to apparate into the hoop in front of you. For the long distance apparition, I will choose a place that you will know, and I want you to apparate there. You will apparate there with me holding on to your arm, one at a time, that way, if you miss the spot, you will not be lost. While we are gone, I don't want any of you,' he pointed at everyone, 'to practise. We will not be gone more than thirty seconds, unless of course someone splinches themselves. If that happens, we will be gone a bit longer.'

Everyone gulped, desperately hoping that they would not splinch themselves, remembering Susan Bones, who had left her left leg behind in their first lesson.

'Now then, on my command, I want you all to apparate into the hoops in front. Now … one, two, THREE!'

Harry closed his eyes, and concentrating harder than he had ever done upon his destination, stepped forwards into that feeling of horrible compression.

He was unable to breathe for a millisecond, the pressing feeling so short lived that he barely felt it, and he opened his eyes. He was standing in the hoop, and all his limbs were still attached to him. He looked up, and saw that with the exception of Neville, who had landed half-in, half-out of his hoop, everyone was fine.

Twycross was walking around, inspecting everyone, checking for any missing body parts. Shaking his head at Neville, and telling him that he'd have to take a few more lessons before trying again, he paused at Ron, and checked his eyebrows. Ron looked very uncomfortable, but Twycross nodded and smiled, and Ron left out a breath that he hadn't realised he was holding.

He grinned sheepishly at Harry, who gave him a thumbs-up. Twycross moved on to Harry, and smiled warmly, nodding approvingly of his perfect apparition. Harry smiled back, a bit more confident that he could pass. Moving away, Twycross said,

'Right, apart from Mr. Longbottom, you all apparated very well, so we will now move onto the long distance apparition. When I read out your name, I want you to come forward, and I will tell you where I want you to apparate. Now then,' he said, looking at his roll of parchment, 'Terry Boot, come forward.'

Terry walked forward nervously, and listened as Twycross whispered in his ear, telling where to apparate to. Terry nodded, and gripped Twycross firmly. He gulped, and taking out last look around, he stepped forward, turning on the spot. With a loud Crack, they vanished, and everyone stared nervously at the space Terry had occupied a second beforehand.

They waited, hoping that Terry was alright. About twenty seconds later, they returned, Terry smiling nervously. 'Pass. A perfect apparition Mr. Boot.' Twycross announced happily, everyone let out a sigh of relief. 'Here is licence,' he continued, conjuring a certificate, 'have a nice day.'

Terry left the room in a hurry, grinning sheepishly at everyone as he passed them. Twycross called for Mandy Brocklehurst to come forward, and the whole process was repeated. She passed too, and two more students were called up, before Harry was called. There were only two others left in the room, Lisa Turpin, and Ron.

He smiled weakly at Ron, and approached Twycross, trying to look confident. Twycross looked up at his, and leaned into his ear and whispered, 'Right Mr. Potter, I'd like you to apparate us to a nice quiet spot, you don't want any unneeded attention now, do you?' Harry nodded uncertainly; he was suddenly uncomfortable of the idea of apparating to an isolated spot without his wand.

Twycross continued, 'How about apparating to inside the Shrieking Shack, I heard from my dear friend Professor McGonagall, that you know the place very intimately.' Harry grinned, thinking of McGonagall recounting the story to Twycross over a cup of tea.

He gripped Twycross' arm, and remembering the bedroom, with a magnificent four-poster bed with dusty hangings, he took a step forward. A moment later, he opened his eyes to the room where he'd discovered that Pettigrew was his parents' traitor, not Sirius.

He remembered Sirius saying that Harry could live with him once his name was cleared, and thought, 'It's too late for us now Sirius, but at least you will no longer be remembered as a traitor.'

He was brought out of his reverie, when Twycross started prodding and poking him, checking that he hadn't lost any body parts on the way. Muttering, 'That's right, nothing missing there,' and so on. A few moments later, he took a step back and told Harry that there was nothing wrong with his apparating, and that with practise, he'd be able to reduce the sound that he made.

Harry smiled, and let Twycross grip his arm firmly, before who apparated them back to the Test Centre. Harry received his certificate, and told Ron that he'd wait for him outside. A few minutes later, Ron stepped out grinning, and proudly holding out his certificate.

'I passed! Isn't it great? Now we can go wherever we want.' Harry smiled at Ron's enthusiasm, and led them back up to the Atrium. They retrieved their wands, and apparated back to the Burrow.

They told everyone that they'd passed, and received congratulations and hugs from Ginny, Hermione and Mrs. Weasley, before being forced to wolf down three plates of bacon and eggs, accompanied by toast and kippers (well Ron didn't need to be forced, just told that there was food on the table). They ate slowly, recounting where they'd been asked to go, Ron had been asked to apparate in front of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and he'd nearly apparated on top of a pretty young witch. Hermione and Ginny collapsed in a fit of giggles upon hearing this.

When he finished, Harry asked Hermione for the time; it was ten to eleven. Excusing himself, he told them he needed to return to the Ministry of Magic for a reading of Dumbledore's will, and that he would probably need to go to Gringotts afterwards.

Hermione and Ron offered to go with him, but he declined, saying that he needed to do this himself. Ginny was about to argue that he needed to stop shutting himself off, when he walked out the back door and apparated away. Everyone looked at each other nervously for a few minutes, before going their own way.

Harry walked up to Eric, who muttered that he shouldn't have bothered retrieving his wand if he was returning so quickly; but took his wand and issued Harry with a slip of parchment all the same. Harry asked him where he needed to go to hear a will. Eric muttered something about the Wizengamot, so Harry entered one of the lifts, and dropped down to Level Two, heading over to the Wizengamot Administration Services.

On the way, he met Shacklebolt and Mr. Weasley, who were both invited to hear Albus' will too. They walked in silence, and when they reached a desk behind a pretty witch stood, they asked for directions to Dumbledore's will reading. She led them to a conference room, which was already half-full and left them to find seats.

Harry saw Professor McGonagall, Moody, and some other people from the Order and school that he recognised. There were some wizards and witches that he didn't know, and Remus and Tonks sitting together. He walked over to them and sat down next to Remus. Remus greeted him, smiling weakly and quickly explained how a will hearing was carried out. As he finished, an old goblin walked in, and sitting at the head of the table, pulled out a few pieces of parchment.

'We are here to hear Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore's last will and testament.' He began, 'My name is Earguf, and I will be reading out his last wishes. He has also instructed that some letters be distributed today to certain persons; I will be carrying out this instruction too.'

He looked pointedly at Harry at this comment, and Harry wondered what Dumbledore had left him. Maybe some clues as to where the last Horcruxes were, or what they were, or better yet, how to destroy them. Harry had been wondering how he would destroy the Horcruxes, even if he managed to find them. He couldn't realistically find another basilisk to use its poison.

He was disturbed from his thoughts when Earguf started reading out Dumbledore's letter to everyone, telling them how he was sorry that he couldn't be with them to continue the fight against Lord Voldemort. Everyone shuddered apart from Harry, Remus and Earguf, who continued reading without a pause. He wished them all good luck in their fight against the Death Eaters, and hoped that the Order would not be dissolved, and that it would keep fighting Lord Voldemort's forces.

After a few more words, Earguf started reading out the allocations of Dumbledore's possessions. Everyone in the Order had received something (Mr. Weasley receiving his share, as well as Mrs. Weasley's, and Bill's and Charlie's, both of whom were too busy working to come), usually some money, or a valuable or rare possession. Harry had received Gryffindor's sword, which Dumbledore had written was his anyway, as he had pulled it out of the Sorting Hat, Dumbledore's Pensieve, and Fawkes. Dumbledore had also left some possessions to his brother Aberforth, and some friends, mostly members of the Wizengamot.

Finally, Earguf read out, 'these are all my worldly possessions. May all the recipients enjoy these donations and live a long and full life as I have. Signed, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Dated May 30th.'

People started to stand up and leave, when Earguf called out. 'Excuse me sirs and madams, there are still some letters that need to be delivered.' The people who had got up blushed slightly, and returned to their seats quickly.

'Professor Minerva McGonagall, you have a letter from the late Professor Dumbledore.' McGonagall leaned forward and collected her letter that Earguf had pushed down the table to her. 'Mr Alastor Moody, you have a letter, as do you Mr Remus Lupin.' They both leaned other and received their letters. There was one letter left in Earguf's hand. 'Mr Harry Potter,' He said, looking up at Harry, 'this letter if for you.' He finished, handing him his letter. 'Thank you ladies and gentlemen for coming today. This will reading is completed.'

People started to get up and leave. Harry was itching to open the letter, desperate to find out what Dumbledore had written to him, but he knew this was neither the time nor place for it. He needed privacy to read this letter. He opted to read it when he returned to his flat, not wanting to be disturbed by anyone; but then remembered that he needed to go to Gringotts.

He shrunk the Pensieve and Gryffindor's sword, put them in his pocket and send Fawkes to the Burrow. Saying his farewells to Remus, Tonks, members of the Order, and teachers from school, he returned to the Atrium, where he retrieved his wand from Eric. Eric warned him not to return for the rest of the day, or he'd hex him into oblivion.

Chuckling, Harry apparated to Diagon Alley.