A/N: Hello my dear minions, ahem, I mean readers. I know that you guys have waited long and patiently for this chapter (my word, has it really been over a year?), and here it finally is. I am so sorry for taking so long with it. I had ended up losing a large portion of what I had written before, which then gave me a massive case of writers block for it. But now I have gotten over that. In fact I actually like what I have here far better than what a I lost.

Now I can't promise that updates will be quick. Life has been hectic and crazy.

Think of this chapter as my Christmas present to you!

Also it is not beta'd yet as I am still having problems with downloading the files she is sending me back. As my computer is majorly broken right now I am going to wait until I get a new one (which will hopefully be soon) and then try again.

On a random note, I currently have a poll going about which of my one-shots is your favorites, so go and vote. Also please check out my new stories.

Disclaimer: "No I don't speak gobbledygook, how could you accuse me of such a thing. I don't even know if it is supposed to have an e or a y in it... oh wait, we're not talking about that are we? Oops." Starts grumbling in gobbledygook and storms away, "Nope, I don't the Harry Potter verse, the goblins refuse to sell it to me, something about it being illegal..." Continues grumbling and leaves the scene.

The author of this story is not responsible for goblins hunting down said stories readers. There are no goblin secrets hidden in the words of said story. If any goblins come interrogating said readers about the whereabouts of said author, said author has disappeared off of the face of the planet and will not be returning.

Chapter 5

A man wearing a hooded cloak, with the hood hiding his identity, strode through the dark hallways of a very old mansion. The mansion gave off a gloomy air, even though it was clean everything seemed to not have been touched for years. It didn't even appear to be lived in. All of the hallways were dark, and only a couple of the rooms had lights on in them. There was an eerie silence throughout the building, causing the man's footsteps to echo, adding to the eeriness.

He paused before a doorway at the end of the hall, seeming to steady his nerves, before pushing the door open and entering the room.

"My lord," he said, bowing low as soon as he was in the room. "I have news from Hogwarts."

"What is it?" hissed Voldemort, more of an order than a question. He did not turn to face his Death Eater.

"It appears that the Potter boy, and the Weasley brat have returned, my lord," said the Death Eater, standing up from his bow.

This caused Voldemort to turn to his servant, "Has your source confirmed it?"

"No my lord," answered the Death Eater.

"When you receive proof that it has been confirmed send out my orders," hissed Voldemort.

"Yes my lord," bowed the Death Eater, preparing to leave the room.

"And Lucius, send in Wormtail."

"Yes my lord," Lucius Malfoy bowed one last time before leaving.

Shortly afterward Peter Pettigrew scuttled back into the room, "Yyy-yes m-my lord?" he stuttered, bowing so low his head touched the ground.

"You know what to do," was all Voldemort said.

"Y-yes, my lord."

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Fleur Weasley, previously Delacour, sat at her kitchen table. She was lost in thought. Bill had come home late the previous night, and he had told her everything he knew about Harry and Ginny's return. He was so excited and happy about it that he was nearly bouncing off the walls. She was very pleased as well, but it left her in a dilemma. She knew where they had been; though, she had never met either of them, she knew of the people they had stayed with. The problem was she didn't know what she should tell Bill, or even if there was anything she could tell him, but she didn't want to lose his trust. She knew he would find out eventually. Oaths were a perilous business, but often an unavoidable one. She could only hope when the time came he understood. Unless...

She sighed and placed the letter that she was holding down on the table in front of her. She got up and started to make herself some tea as she thought about it.

The letter was rather unusual. It wasn't made from parchment or paper, but some other material that was very delicate and elegant. It gave off a silvery hue, rather like Fleur's hair. It was pure white in color. The ink that was used to write on it was the color of gold, so close that it looked like real gold and not just any old gold color. Everything about it just seemed unnatural, unearthly. It had no signature, the only thing that marked it was a stamp of a winged red rose.

Fleur's mind was bouncing back between her husband, Harry and Ginny, their return, and what the letter told her. It contained orders from the very same people whom she had sworn oaths to that had prevented her from telling her husband many things. They were instructing her to befriend the Potters, do whatever she could to stay on good terms with them. If she failed there was a high chance of it ending in her death, and many others.

She sat back at the table sipping her tea. She knew exactly what she needed to do. First things first, she needed to have a long talk with her husband, and hoped to death that he wouldn't hate her by the end of it.

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Amelia Bones was sitting in her office in the Ministry of Magic, going over the reports of the most recent disappearances. There was a total of five within the last two weeks. Three of them were junior Aurors. One of the other others was a Healer at St. Mungos. The final one was a young girl, no more than eight, who had disappeared when out for a walk one night. One thing that most of the Wizarding World didn't notice was that there was also an increase of Muggles disappearances as of late. Amelia only knew this because she had made an effort to find out what was happening in the Muggle World at all times, she felt that perhaps one day they might reunite their worlds.

She was distracted from her thoughts by her assistant, Olivia Woods, walking into the office.

"There is a letter here for you ma'am, from your niece," Olivia offered her the letter.

"Thank you Olivia," she said, taking the letter.

Olivia nodded and left the room.

She opened the letter, and began to read it. She usually only got letters from her niece once a week, starting the second week of term. For her niece to send a letter so soon, and for her to receive it at work something important must have happened, so she didn't delay in opening it. She quickly read through it and promptly dropped it. Nothing in all of her years had shocked her so much. She picked up the letter and read through it again. She knew her niece would never dare to make something like this up.

Sighing she placed the letter down and began to rub her temples. This was going to be a lot of paperwork, but it needed to get done. She reached into a drawer and pulled out several various forms, and parchments. She started to get to work, thinking all the while that she had to visit Hogwarts and soon.

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Seamus Finnigan was searching for the blond girl that had stood up in front of the Great Hall the morning of Harry's and Ginny's return. It was nigh-impossible to find her. He didn't know her, as she was a year younger than him and in Ravenclaw. He had spent all of his free time so far trying to find her, but she didn't show up in the Great Hall for meals when he was there. He had even talked to several Ravenclaws about her, they had all called her Loony Lovegood. Not one of them were willing to help in his search. They just laughed at him, thinking he was crazy for wanting to talk to her.

He knew that Ron and Hermione knew her, but they had been spending all of their time with Harry and Ginny, and the one time that he had managed to talk to them they had told him that they had no clue where she could be found either. They didn't know what her class schedule was, nor what she usually did her free time. They had said that she really didn't seem to have a normal routine that she followed. They apologized for not being able to help.

He had checked everywhere he could think of, the Library, the Kitchens, but nothing. The House

Elves said that she visits occasionally, but that was it.

He sighed, his assumption of her was turning out to be rather accurate. He remembered hearing about her, just like everyone else. He had never given her much thought before, thinking that she was crazy along with everyone else, but now he knew she wasn't crazy. She just knew things that so few others did, and if he was right, he was one of those few.

He knew her father ran the Quibbler. He had never read it, but after the they way she acted in the Great Hall he had found a copy and knew that there was more to it than all of those nonexistent creatures, something familiar about it that made him think of the stories that his Grandad used to tell him. He knew the only way that he was going to get his answers was from Luna.

He currently had free period, he was using it to his full advantage, searching for her again, and ignoring his slowly building mountain of homework. The only thing he was concerned about was finding her, in his mind was the most important thing that he could do. He wasn't sure why exactly, but it went beyond finding answers.

He had researched the Library again, with no luck. What his search did tell him was that the fifth year Ravenclaws were also out of class. That had encouraged him to double his efforts in trying to find her. He didn't think that she spent all of her time in her Common Room, what with most of the other Ravenclaws attitudes towards her. The question was where did she spend her time.

He decided to take a break, and was currently leaning against a window letting his eyes wander over the grounds. It was a beautiful, warm day. Many students were already outside taking advantage of it.

His eyes fell upon a head of long, dirty, blond hair walking towards the Forbidden Forest. He knew immediately was her, and he was soon running down the corridor taking the shortest route he knew outside.

Once he made it outside, he paused for breath, looking around. There was no sign of her, but that didn't deter him. She was heading towards the Forbidden Forest, so that's where he headed. Almost running he made his way quickly to the Forbidden Forest. Pausing for breath again he looked around, still no sign of her.

Just as he was about to enter the forest a dreamy voice spoke from behind him, "You really shouldn't go in there alone."

He spun around to find the source of the voice only to find the girl that he had spent the last two days tracking down with no luck.

"Luna Lovegood?" he asked, shocked, amazed, startled at finding her so suddenly.

"Who else would I be?" she asked, smiling at him with her dreamy smile. "And you're Seamus Finnegan."

He stared, how did she know that? Shaking it off he said, "I have been trying to find you for the past two days."

"I know," she replied simply, her eyes getting a far away look.

"You know?" asked Seamus, startled. He stared at her trying to understand her, but not succeeding, "How can you know?"

Luna smiled, her eyes focusing on him for a moment, "I have my ways."

When she focused on him for the first time, he felt as though she could see right into him, down to his very soul and was analyzing his very being. It was a creepy feeling but not altogether unpleasant. He shook his head trying to clear it and focus on what he was wanting to talk about.

It wasn't easy, there was something about her eyes that he found very distracting.

He opened his mouth to ask her a question, but she cut him off.

"The answer is yes," said Luna, plopping onto the ground and leaning against a tree. She closed her eyes and started to hum.

Seamus sat beside her, feeling very confused. "But you don't know what I was going to ask."

"Actually I do," said Luna, opening her silvery gray eyes and staring into his.

"How?" he asked, his voice was very quiet as he stared back into her unblinking eyes.

She didn't reply, just smiled at him dreamily.

He blinked, and she was back to staring off into space with her normal absent expression. "So the stories are true? All of the ones me granddad told me?"

She nodded.

"So they are returning?" he asked shocked. He had always thought what his grandfather had told him was just that, stories, and now he was finding out the truth. He didn't know what to think.

Luna smiled. This smile wasn't dreamy like the others, it was a true smile. One of happiness and joy. "Yes they are!"

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When Percy Weasley arrived at work the morning after his family's unexpected reunion, the first thing he did was head straight towards the records department. Being the personal assistant of Bartemius Crouch, head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, he was allowed access to whatever files that were stored there. He goal was the records of all known marriages within the past four years. His main focus was the countries, organizations, groups, etc. that encouraged or even allowed the marriage of those as young as Harry and Ginny were at the time they said to have gotten married.

His search proved to be less than fruitful. There was no record of anyone getting married with in that time frame that fit Harry's and Ginny's description at all. He had even gone as far to broaden his search to include all of the places that he had previously excluded. This led him to multiple conclusions, and none of them were good. There was always the possibility that they were lying, but why would they lie about something like that? None of the answers were good. In fact they all led him to the same conclusions to reasons that he couldn't find records of the marriage for any other reason. He knew his sister wouldn't make something like this up for laughs.

Sighing he placed everything back where it belonged and headed back to his work station. The only possible reasons that they could come back claiming that they were married when the Ministry had no record of its existence and not lie about was for them to have been married by people who were against them, leading to the belief that they had either been brainwashed or were traitors.

Everyone knew that was You-Know-Who was dead. The fact that they claimed that he was back just proved all the more that they were not to be trusted. It was a lie to cover up something else, and direct their attention elsewhere so that their real enemies could attack with little or no hindrance.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't see the inter-departmental memo addressed to him until it hit him in the face. Shaking his head to clear it, after sending a glare at the memo. He unfolded it and read it, promptly dropping it in shock. He picked it up to read again, and again, and again. After reading it for a fifth and final time he placed it on his desk and stared at the wall in front of him. The Minister wants to see me! He crowed silently in his head.

He quickly made his way to the lifts, and waited impatiently for one to arrive. When it finally did, he pushed through the small group of people exiting it, ignoring all of the annoyed exclamations that he received in response. He was too focused on all of the reasons that he would have been called into see the Minister of Magic himself. 'Perhaps the Minister is pleased with my work and want to offer me a promotion.' That thought elated him as he latched onto it, 'Yes that must be it.' He sped up his pace, the sooner he made it to the Minister's office the sooner he would have his promotion.

Not quite as quickly as he desired he reached level one and the outer office area to the Minister's office. Sitting behind the only desk in the room was the Minister's personal assistant. The name plate at the desk read Audrey Watson. She was a somewhat pretty witch with mouse brown hair, a heart shaped face, creamy white skin and light blue gray eyes.

He tapped his foot impatiently waiting for her to take notice. She didn't look up for several minutes, and when she finally did it was with a bored expression. She looked him over. "The minister will see you now," was all she said before returning to her work as if he was unimportant.

He scowled at her disrespect, but didn't say anything as the excitement of being called to see the minister himself returned. As he entered the office all thoughts of Audrey left his mind.

"Ah, Mr. Weasley," said Fudge jovially, "Do have a seat. There's a good chap. Now you must tell me, is it true? Are the rumors true? Have Potter... and of course your sister, returned? Live and whole?"

Percy frowned, the thought of Potter ruining his mood. "Yes. But-"

"Ah excellent! Excellent!" said the minister, rubbing his hands together thankfully. "Thank you Weatherby. That will be all." With those words he turned away from Percy mumbling about needing to give awards, and how best to introduce himself to Potter.

Percy stared at the other man dumbstruck. He couldn't believe that he had been brushed off as if he was completely unimportant. The minister hadn't even gotten his name right, all he cared about was Potter. Potter, everything had to be about "bloody Potter." Scowling he stormed out of the office of the oblivious minister, not noticing the eyes of the assistant on his back.

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Audrey absolutely hated her job. Most of what she had to do was boring paperwork that would make anyone's head spin. Plus her boss was a complete idiot, please that man only ever made it anywhere because of help from people like her, and taking from the pockets of certain individuals of high society.

She might hate the job but there were certain perks to it, firstly she enjoyed watching the stuffed up peacocks chuck full of their own importance come in here every day. It was was one of her greatest pleasures to treat them as most of them deserved, like bugs under her shoe. She knew that Fudge wouldn't fire her for it, he needed her too much. There were the few that she had to treat with complete indifference (as it couldn't be anything more or it would be too suspicious), like Lucius Malfoy, but for the most part Fudge actually encouraged her to do it as he thought it increased in everyone's minds his own importance. She snorted, quietly to herself, as if.

Another of the best better perks was all the little tidbits of information she could pick up. If Fudge knew one tenth of things that she knew about him, he would have disposed of her a long time ago. She was careful that he didn't find out, and even if he did she had a contingency plan in place. She smirked at her desk, it would serve him right to have all of his dark secrets sent out so the entire world could read them.

Her favorite part of the job, was the reason that Fudge had hired her in the first place. He wanted her to get the dirt on certain people, and that was something that she was damn good at. There was a reason that the sorting hat had almost put her in Slytherin instead of Ravenclaw. She never did give him any of the more interesting things that she learned, Fudge was too much of an incompetent to be allowed that kind of power. Knowledge was power, and power was dangerous in the wrong hands, and Cornelius Fudge was the wrong hands for any kind of power. Especially being Minister for Magic, but that was another story entirely.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Percy Weasley, stormed out of the office. She watched him go with a slight frown on her face. She was actually kind of disappointed in him. She had gone to Hogwarts with him, being only two years ahead of him, and saw that he had great potential. He was very intelligent, and yet he had his head stuck so far up the ministry's arse that he could give some of the higher up employees a tonsil examination from the backside. Plus he came from a family she held great respect for. The Weasleys were known for having bright and talented children. She also rather liked that even though being a pureblood family, they didn't follow many of those idiotic ideals that most purebloods had. It was rather sad to see one of them get swallowed up by those same ideals his family abhorred.

As he went out of sight, she had a thought. Maybe she could help him see what was under his nose, and get on a road that would lead him somewhere other than pain and misery. For yes she knew exactly where Percy was heading she had seen many go down that same road, it never ended well. He thought that he was important and of use to the ministry, well most didn't see him that way. He was of use, yes, but that use was only temporary, and would only end with him being thrown out on his arse. Sure, the more sucking up he did the longer he would be of use, but the ending would still be the same.

Hmm, yes indeed Percy Weasley would make an excellent pet project. After all, she always enjoyed a challenge. She thought as she got up from desk to see what her boss needed.

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Bill was pacing back and forth in his office, he had many things on his mind. Though the most important things were is his sister's return and everything that included, and the fact that his wife was hiding something from him.

She hid it well, but he knew her well enough by now that he could tell when was. She rarely hid things from him, and practically only when it came to veela secrets that she wasn't allowed to share with humans, even her husband. Which he understood and accepted when her married her. What worried him about it though was that he was almost certain that it had to do with his sister. He was afraid that whatever it may be would put a strain on their relationship, and considering what it appeared to be about, it might just be an irreparable one. He didn't want anything to come between them, but if she was hiding things about his sister he didn't know how what he would do. He could only talk to her and hope things would work out, it might be strained, but he would try. He loved her, and nothing could change that.

Thoughts of his sister brought the guilt that he felt about it. He was her brother, he should have been there for her. At the time that she needed him most he should have been there for her, but he wasn't and he would never be able to forgive himself for that. He could only be thankful that Harry was there for her, and had remained there for her over the next several years and always would be. He couldn't thank Harry enough for what he had done for Ginny, there was nothing that would ever repay the debt that his family owed the young man, but he would damn well try.

He wished that was his only reason to feel guilt, but it wasn't. He hadn't believed that they would return, he had thought that Ron and Hermione were nuts for thinking they would. He had fallen prey to the belief that his sister was dead. He and Charlie had returned to work in England, so that they could be closer to home. He had even taken a desk job because of it, even though he desperately craved adventure. He could only pray that they would forgive him for his mistake, he should have had more faith in them.

Yes indeed, he had many things to feel guilt over. Yet guilt was not the only emotion he felt about this, there was also a lot of relief for obvious reasons, and confusion. Confusion because for as many answers that Harry and Ginny had brought with them, they had brought even more questions. They wouldn't say where they had been all this time, but he had noticed certain things about them that had him puzzled.

Firstly, while they both wore wedding rings, he had noticed signs of Celtic wedding bands being tattooed to their fingers under the rings. Since Celtic wedding bands were only very rarely used anymore, the only real thing that he could gain from them was that were closer than they let on. Celtic wedding bands were especially the magical ones were known to be used only by those who were already very close and who wanted to become closer still. While they connected the couple more closely after the marriage, first the couple had to already have a strong emotional connection. Without that connection the magic wouldn't work. Marriages such as those were always special, and the couple was respected for having such a close connection, and yet they seemed to be hiding it.

Then there were other things about them that baffled him. While they didn't look older than they should be, and it was more than just having experienced more than others their age. It as if they actually lived longer, like the five years that they had been gone was not five years to them, but closer to ten.

He had always considered himself good at puzzles, after all becoming a top of the notch curse breaker was no easy thing, but seemed that Harry and Ginny were enough of a puzzle to give even him a headache.

"Weasley!"

Jumped somewhat at the sound of his name, and looked to see his boss scowling at him. Having a goblin mad at you was never a good thing, especially when you were working for them, so he quickly answered, "Yes Master Gornuk"

The Goblin scowled at him, "Ragnok wants to see you."

Bill stared at the goblin dumbfounded. Rarely did the Director request to see anyone, especially humans. "When?"

"Now numbskull or is your brain full of mush!" snapped the Goblin, which Bill ignored. Insults were practically required when it came to gobins, it had something to do with honor. Which was one of the things that Bill felt he would never understand about the other race.

Getting to his feet he quickly made his way to the office of the director of Gringotts. The goblins might hire humans for certain things, but that did not mean that they liked them. In fact they practically hated them. What was not commonly known to those outside of Gringotts was that the Director, Ragnok, practically despised everything to do with humans. If he needed something done by his human workers it was almost always relayed through another goblin. It was almost impossible to get a meeting with him if you were human, but what Bill had never heard of happening before was Ragnok actually requesting a meeting with human. Which told Bill this meeting was very important, and if he wanted to keep his life, wasting time was not an option.

He stopped at the tall, intricately designed gold doors that led to Ragnok's office. Doors, that he had never passed through before. He could not remember a time in his life when he had been this nervous. Not even on his first assignment was he this nervous.

As one the two bodyguards on either side of door, opened it for him to enter, he wondered if he was going to make it out of this meeting with his life. Taking a deep breath he walked into the office.