Disclaimer- I wish these characters were mine. They aren't though, they belong to Jo Rowling.

Hey guys, here is the next chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Three- News of the World

Harry did not wake the next day till late morning. Looking over to Ron's bed he saw that it was empty, which surprised him. Ron never got up earlier than Harry if he could help it. Harry could only think that either Ron had never made it back to his room last night, even though the bed looked as though it had been slept in, didn't mean it hadn't a constant annoyance to Mrs Weasley. A pile of clothes on the floor however told Harry otherwise, as Harry recognised them as the clothes Ron had been wearing the previous day. The only other explanation Harry could think of was that it had something to do with Hermione, and even as he thought this he spotted the book, "12 Fail-safe ways to Charm a Witch" open on Ron's bedside table.

Smirking to himself, Harry rolled out of bed slowly and shuffled over towards the bedside table, his hair was sticking out more than usual, he found as he ran his hand through it. Not even bothering to attempt to smooth his hair down, Harry picked up the book and looked at the opened page.

"Chapter Eight- Making the perfect meal

One of the ways to secure the greatest positive result from you witch, is the surprise of a well cooked meal. Whether it is breakfast in bed, or a romantic meal for two, she will surely be impressed at the effort that a good wizard has made.

How much you want to impress your witch however depends on whether you cook the meal with magic or not. If you are really trying to impress, a well cooked meal, made the muggle way- specifically, without magic, will impress most witches more than if made with magic. This is something that must be considered with the feelings of the witch in mind towards muggles, and also whether or not you have all the necessary equipment.

If you are going to cook the muggle way, you should make sure that you do everything the muggle way, including all the collection of ingredients, and the tidying up afterwards.

To make the perfect breakfast, you should first consider what your witch would like. Does she want a full cooked breakfast, or does she just like a bowl of cereal? Also consider what she would like to drink.

Before you start you need to make sure you have all the ingredients required, a tray to put the food on, cutlery and glasses for the drinks, and preferably a small vase with a freshly picked flower- preferably the witch's favourite."

Harry didn't need to read any more, he had figured out what Ron was planning to do, or had already done, he didn't know. Harry couldn't wait to find out how it had gone, knowing how Ron was with cooking, unless Hermione wanted cereal, he can't imagine it would have gone well, and even with cereal, something would go wrong. Chuckling to himself, Harry pulled some clothes on eagerly. When he reached the door however he paused. If it had of worked, and it made Hermione happy, would Ginny expect the same thing from him? At least he knew he could cook a breakfast, so many years of cooking for the Dursley's would perhaps come in handy.

Harry entered a full kitchen, but saw that neither Ron nor Hermione were present in the large group of people squashed around the small kitchen table.

"Ah Harry, good morning, would you like something to eat?" Mrs Weasley asked him.

"Yes please," he replied, and Mrs Weasley started preparing some toast for him.

Harry looked at the table to see where the easiest to sit was, but there were no gaps. Seeing Harry looking towards them, Bill and Fleur, who had finished eating stood up and offered him their seat.

"Thanks," Harry told them, taking their vacated spot.

"Zat is no problem 'Arry, we 'ave things we should do anyway," and Fleur and Bill thanked Mrs Weasley and left the kitchen.

Harry now found himself sitting next to Mr Weasley, who was deeply engrossed in The Daily Prophet. Harry could see the headline, 'We Are Free at Last!' above a picture of Kingsley Shacklebolt, and further down he read, 'Final Death Toll- 54 Fighting for our Freedom, 42 Fighting for You Know Who."

Reading this, Harry thought it was extremely unfair that they had lost more people fighting for the good of the Wizarding Community, than those who were fighting for oppression and control. Harry was bought out of his thoughts however, by Mrs Weasley, who had placed a plate of toast, bacon, sausage and eggs in front of him, along with a glass of pumpkin juice.

Digging in, Harry saw that now Bill and Fleur had vacated the small table, the only ones left were Mr and Mrs Weasley, Charlie, Percy and George, the latter three were still tucking into the large mounds of food that piled the plates in front of each of them.

"Mrs Weasley?" Harry said.

"Yes dear?" she replied.

"Where are Ron, Hermione and Ginny? Have you seen them today?"

"Ron and Hermione went out this morning, I think they went for a walk into the muggle village, and Ginny is still in bed. It's about time she got up really; maybe I should go and wake her."

"I'll do it!" Harry said eagerly, "after I finish my breakfast I will go and get her."

"Are you sure, Harry dear? Don't feel like you have to rush through your food."

"No, it's no trouble at all," and Harry started shovelling food into his mouth as fast as he could.

Within a few minutes he was done and he thanked Mrs Weasley for the food as he scrambled out from the table and clambered up the stairs to outside of Ginny's room. He couldn't wait to see Ginny's face when he woke her up. He knew she would be glad to know that he was still there, and he wanted to show her that, even though they were separated at night, he would still be there for her every morning when she woke up.

Softly, he knocked on the door; there was no response, so he quietly opened the door to the small room. It was almost exactly the same as it had been the year before, with the desk by the window and a Holyhead Harpies poster on the wall. The only difference was the small camp bed that was set up on the floor for Hermione. With the camp bed on the floor, there was very little floor space to manoeuvre, but Harry managed to silently creep over to Ginny's bed, where she was curled up under the covers, still fast asleep.

For several minutes he stood watching her, he just couldn't get over how beautiful she really was. Her long, dark red hair trailed across her pillow, with a few stray curls creeping around the corner of her pale face. Her breathing was soft and every now and again her nose crinkled up for a few seconds.

Pulling himself out of his trance- like state, Harry knelt down at the side of the bed and lent over Ginny and blew softly into her ear. This obviously tickled Ginny, and still asleep, she rubbed her ear against her shoulder, before settling back on her pillow again. Harry blew on her ear again, this time a little harder, and this time Ginny's arm rose and she rubbed her ear with her hand, her eyes slowly fluttering open.

"Harry?" She asked softly.

"Morning or good afternoon should I say," Harry replied.

"Afternoon? I feel like I only just went to bed," she rolled over in the bed to face Harry.

"Did you have sweet dreams?"

"Mmm, I did," and she propped herself up on her elbow, making her and Harry's eyes level, "I gotta say, that's the nicest way anyone has ever woke me up. Usually someone just comes in here yelling and opening the curtains, this is much nicer. I could get used to this," she added.

"Yeah, well don't get too used to it just yet, I can't guarantee I won't come in here and wake you up by chucking water all over you."

"Hey! You wouldn't dare!"

"Wouldn't I?" He dared.

"I'd like to see you try, and then get away without me hexing you too oblivion."

"Well, if the punishment is a bat-bogey hex, maybe I won't be doing that anytime soon," he said thoughtfully, "if the punishment was a big kiss from my girlfriend however…"

"In your dreams Potter!" She playfully punched him.

"Hey!" He exclaimed, rubbing his arm where she had hit him, "anyway, that already is in my dreams."

Ginny's retort to their banter was cut short by Mrs Weasleys voice shouting up the stairs, "GINNY, ARE YOU UP YET?"

"YES MUM!" She replied rolling her eyes to Harry.

"WELL HURRY UP AND GET DOWN HERE FOR YOUR FOOD! AND YOU HARRY, KINGSLEY IS COMING OVER TO SEE US IN 15 MINUTES."

"Kingsley's coming over?" Harry asked her, and she shrugged her shoulders at him.

"Why don't you go and find out, while I get dressed," Ginny told him.

"Well, I'd much rather stay here, but I 'spose I can go and find out," he got up slowly and started to drag himself out of the room, his feet dragging along the carpet, Ginny giggling behind him.

"Hurry up Harry," and he soon found himself bombarded with pillows, from the direction of the bed.

"OK, OK! I'm gone! And before he shut the door to Ginny's room, he blew her a quick kiss, which she caught smiling.

Harry re-entered the kitchen and saw that Ron and Hermione had returned from where ever they had disappeared to, and also saw that the rest of the Weasley's were crammed into the small kitchen.

"Ah Harry, is Ginny on her way down?" Mrs Weasley asked from over by the sink, where she was pointing her wand at a cloth, which was scrubbing a frying pan.

"Yes, she will be down in a minute," Harry replied, and as he did so, he caught Ron's eye, and saw that his eyebrow had risen.

"Ah good, I had better get her some food on then," and she busied herself with the oven.

Ignoring Ron, who obviously wanted to ask why Harry had been upstairs with Ginny, Harry turned to Mr Weasley and his other sons and asked, "Kingsley is coming? How come?"

"Honestly, I don't really know, he just sent a message saying he would like to visit, he should be here soon." Mr Weasley replied.

Almost as soon as he had said it, there was a knock on the open back door, and Kingsley was standing there, "good afternoon," he said smoothly.

"Good afternoon to you Minister," Mr Weasley responded, standing up to shake his hand.

"Please, call me Kingsley, I may be Minister for Magic now, but we are still friends first, after everything that we have been through together. And that goes for the rest of you as well," he added, looking around at the group that were crammed into the kitchen. "Why don't we move outside for this? I have quite a few things that I would like to say to you all, and it's rather crowded in here."

"Yes, yes of course," said Mr Weasley, "come on, everyone outside. The benches from last night are still out, we can reuse them."

Ginny appeared at the door to the kitchen, slightly breathless and her hair was dishevelled, she had obviously rushed as not to miss anything, as the group started to file outside, led by Kingsley. "What did I miss?" She asked.

"Not much," Mrs Weasley told her while passing her a heaped plate of food, "he is going to update us on what has been going on within the Ministry. Now take your food and join the others outside," and she followed Harry out the door carrying her plate to the spaces beside Ron and Hermione at the table.

As they sat down, Harry whispered to Ron, who was sitting next to him, "You have a nice breakfast?"

Ron went bright red, "what do you mean?"

"You left the book on the bedside table, and I used my super-smart brain to figure it out."

"Oh, well, it went alright actually! Oh, I'll tell you later," as he was shushed by Mrs Weasley, Kingsley was about to start.

"Well, firstly, I would like to congratulate you all. With our combined effort, we have managed to overcome the oppression that has been unwillingly forced upon up for the last half- century. We haven't come out of this battle scar-free, physically, or mentally, but, hopefully now we can look towards a brighter future. And for that brighter future, I need the help of every witch and wizard in Britain to help re- build." Kingsley's speech had captured his audience at his first words, and they all stared, transfixed on what he was saying.

"Anyway, one of the first steps I have taken within the Ministry is to find out who was working for us, and who for Voldermort. Anyone who was willingly working for Voldermort, or knowingly providing information to Death Eaters has been sent straight to Azkaban. The Dementors have, of course, been removed. Those people who were unknowingly forced to do Voldermort's work, those under the imperius curse for example, and those who were blackmailed, are been taken on a case by case review, and we shall be sorting that out in the coming months."

"What's happening to the Dementors? You say you have removed them, but can you limit their growth and keep them contained?" Asked Mr Weasley.

"Well, we are still working on rounding them all up, some have evaded our capture, but we have Ministry workers attempting to find them even as we speak. They will all be held within a magical jail, and the Ministry will never be using them again. Any other questions so far?" He asked.

Everyone shook their heads, which prompted Kingsley to continue. "Within the Ministry, Gawain Robards remains the head of the Auror office, and he and his team are working hard to track down and capture any Death Eaters that were not caught at the Battle of Hogwarts. As I said before, all of the ones who have already been caught are in Azkaban awaiting trial. Coming onto the subject of trials, we, the Ministry, may require some of you to give evidence from what you witnessed."

"When will the trials start? Would we have to take time off school for them?" Harry asked.

"Possibly. We will be starting them as soon as we can organise a full Wizengamont, it shouldn't take too long. Unfortunately, there are such a large number of people that need to go on trial, at this point, I can't even begin to guess at how long it could take though. We have a lot of people willing to give evidence though, so, with everyone's cooperation, we will get it over as quick as we possibly can." He paused. "Any more questions?"

"What about Hogwarts? Will we be given the chance to go back and re-take the year? Also, what about the damage to the school, will they manage to fix it?" Asked Hermione.

"As many people as we can spare are working on it. They're finding it easier than we expected to re-build thought. It seems the castle wants to be fixed. Many of the enchantments on the castle are ancient, so we don't really understand all of them, but we are just working with it as best we can. As far as going back to finish your schooling, as you have probably already heard, all students are being given the opportunity to go back if they want to. The teachers are going to have their work cut out for them this year getting everyone up to scratch, but I place my highest faith in all the staff that they will do brilliantly. Of course, once again, a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher needs to be found, along with a Transfiguration teacher and a Muggle Studies teacher, but I am sure we will manage to find them."

"You can tell them that the Defence Against the Dark Arts position is no longer jinxed. Voldermort jinxed the position when Dumbledore refused him the post. Now he is gone, it will have been broken," Harry informed Kingsley, who raised his eyebrows at this information.

"Well that's interesting, I will be sure to inform the appropriate people of that piece of news. Well, does anyone have any more questions? I wish I could stay longer, but there is a lot to get sorted at the Ministry. I do need to tell you though, one week today, there will be a memorial service for all of the people that we lost, not only during the Battle of Hogwarts, but in the fight against Voldermort. If anyone would like to say any words during the service, then please let me know. It will be held at Hogwarts, and we are expecting a huge turnout, and as you all were greatly involved, I am sure a lot of people would like to thank you and show their gratitude, especially for your loss."

Mrs Weasley was crying again. Kingsley smiled sympathetically at her and stood up to leave. "Thanks again for you time, I shall see you soon."

"Thank you Kingsley," chorused around the table.

Kingsley started walking away from the table to apparate back to the Ministry when Harry stood up and called out his name. Ignoring the questioning looks from around the table, Harry rushed over to where Kingsley stopped and turned at the sound of his name.

"Harry? Everything ok?"

"Yeah, things are great, I just wondered if I could have a quick chat?"

"Of course, what's on your mind?"

"It's Snape."

"Snape? What about him?" Kingsley looked puzzled.

"I have evidence that he was working for Dumbledore all along. I'm sorry I haven't told you sooner, but I haven't really had a chance."

"What's the evidence? Everything always seemed to point towards him supporting Voldermort."

"He did, originally, but he switched sides before my parents were killed. It's quite complicated, but he and Dumbledore had a plan the whole time. Snape was supposed to kill Dumbledore, because Dumbledore was already dying. I have everything you need to see here," and he held out the small vial that contained Snape's memories, "I think you should watch this."

Kingsley took the vial from him and looked at it closely. "Are you sure they were not tampered with?"

"Positive, Snape gave them to me personally after Nagini bit him. I have seen a tampered memory before, and this isn't." He paused, "It's going to take people a while to accept what Snape did, me included, but people deserve to know what he did to aid in Voldermort's demise, including his sacrifice, he should at least deserve that."

Kingsley nodded, "OK, I will take your word for that. I will take this back and have a look, is that ok?"

"Yes."

"Thank you, for everything Harry. Now, I must head off, but I will keep in touch about this," he waved the vial, turned and walked away. As he reached the boundaries, he turned and disappeared into thin air.

Harry stared at the spot where Kingsley had stood for several second, and then headed back over to the table where everyone was still seated. They had evidently been watching Harry closely, as all eyes were on him as he returned to his seat at the table.

Answering their silent questions, he told them, "I was talking to Kingsley about Snape."

"Professor Snape?" Mr Weasley asked.

"Yes, I received evidence that Snape had been working for Dumbledore all along," and he proceeded to repeat what he had just told Kingsley.

Confused faces were his response at the end of his explanation, "Snape? Good? Are you sure?" Bill asked him.

"It's true, even though it's hard to believe. That git was working with us all along." Ron told him.

"My ear! He cut my ear off!" George cried, "How can he be good?"

"That was an accident; he was aiming for a Death Eaters hand behind you. Unfortunately he missed," Harry told him.

George didn't look convinced, but didn't say anything else.

"Any more bombshells you want to drop on us Harry?" Charlie asked him.

Harry exchanged a quick glance with Ron and Hermione and softly shook his head. "I'm sorry, not yet, but I promise, we will fill you in on everything soon."

"OK, but we will hold you to that promise."

"I know."

Mr Weasley stood up from the table, "I think I am going to head into work. I want to keep up with what is going on. I promise I won't be long," he said looking at Mrs Weasley.

"I'll join you dad," said Bill.

"Yeah, me too, I feel like I could do more to help there than here. I just hope my resignation doesn't still stand," Percy added.

"You mind if I tag along?" Charlie asked them.

"Not at all," Mr Weasley told him, before hugging Mrs Weasley goodbye, "we will be back soon," he told her, and the four men headed off to the boundaries to apparate out.

"I am sure there is cleaning I could be getting on with, we really did leave this house in a state," Mrs Weasley hurried off towards the house.

"I'm going to see if she wants any help," said Fleur, and she followed her into the house, leaving Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and George sitting at the table.

"You mind if I stick with you guys for a while? I don't fancy being alone," George asked them.

"Stupid! You don't need to ask," Ginny told him, and she got up, went and sat next to him and hugged him.

"Thanks Gin," he smiled at her.

Harry was looking at Ron expectantly. Ron noticed and turned bright red again. Harry couldn't wait to find out what had happened that morning at breakfast.

"So," Harry asked him.

Ron looked at Hermione who giggled, "Well, breakfast didn't go so well, I'm not a very good cook." He looked embarrassed.

"Ron tried to cook breakfast! Ha!" George interjected.

"Yes he did, and he's really not a good cook," Hermione added. "He sent me a paper charm inviting me down to breakfast, as I couldn't have it in Ginny's room, she was still asleep. When I made it into the kitchen, it looked like there had been an explosion."

Ron hung his head, "it was a disaster, nothing went right, and I burnt everything!"

"Yes he did, but he made up for it!" Hermione said smiling.

"I took her into the muggle village. There is a little tea shop there that does great breakfasts."

"It was lovely! No one has ever done anything so nice for me before. It was really romantic."

Ron blushed even harder, "I have promised her that I will learn how to cook her a proper breakfast eventually."

"But hopefully he will have lots of time to perfect it," she said looking at him with a happy look on her face.

Ron responded by giving her a kiss on the lips.

"Ewww! Gross!" George was laughing at them.

"Grow up!" Ginny told him.

"Never!" And he leapt out of the bench, picked Ginny up and threw her over his shoulder.

"Let me down!" She cried, but he was running around the garden, oblivious to her punches on his back. Harry, Ron and Hermione stood up and joined the pair who had ended up lying on their backs on the long grass.

The five of them lay there for most of the afternoon, chatting, laughing and remembering until Mrs Weasley called them in for food. After everything they had gone through, it was nice to properly relax, unfortunately, all of them knew, there were still many more tough days to go until everything would be perfect.