Returning to Hogwarts from the excitement of Charlie and Tonks' wedding was disappointingly dull. Classes were no harder although the teachers reminded them constantly about end of year exams. Forms were handed out for their new optional modules with as little explanation or time to consult trusted adults as they had been warned. The upper years continued to insist on escorting the lower years anywhere. Quidditch was exciting and knackering in equal parts. No more solo detentions were served with Professor Lockhart who instead had sixth years supervise mass tutoring sessions once a week.
The first morning Lavender and her second year friends gossip was loud enough to draw in most of the table.
"Mum dragged me over to the ministry to drop off some stuff from nana's at the amnesty and you'll never guess who we saw." Lavender announced as she sat down.
"Who?" One of the second year girls who wasn't Katie asked.
"Mrs Malfoy, with this grungy old house elf. It was clutching this locket she was depositing. It through was complaining the entire time. She had to deposit the elf as well." Lavender giggled.
Percy cut in, "Mr and Mrs Malfoy have been major supporters of the amnesty. Today's prophet has announce that they opened Lestrange vault to the amnesty."
Oliver flicked through Percy's discarded Prophet. "Is your dad supporting this proposal, Percy?"
"No," Percy replied. "This is the first I've heard. It should reduce house prices and it'll be safer than just letting the wards on abandoned properties drop and let muggles wander in."
"Dad was busy for months the last time it happened." Ginny said. "He had to miss Luna and the twins birthdays."
Returning home for Easter held none of the excitement of the summer or Christmas holidays. The only thing of any note was yet another visit to the healers for Harry and Hermione. Rather than their normal healer who operated out of a small clinic above the local apothecary they were taken to St Mungo's where they were examined by a lime green robed healer who introduced himself as "Senior Healer Phineas Maccabee, specialist in the consequences of ritual magic," and a grey robe gentleman who Healer Maccabee called Specialist Croaker.
Both Healer Maccabee and Specialist Croaker filled a roll of parchment with the results of their diagnostic spells which neither Harry nor Hermione could help but notice were different for each of them. Healer Maccabee and Specialist Croaker then withdrew to a corner and quietly spoke for about ten minutes before returning to them. "I am afraid I will need to contact another specialist about Mr Potter's scar." Healer Maccabee said to Mrs Weasley. "I will contact you once an appointment has been arranged." She nodded and glanced at Hermione. "As expected, young Miss Weasley's confused magical signature is a result of a violently broken adoption bond. The only solution is to repair the bond and then dissolve one of the two competing bonds willingly. However her records were sealed by the Chief Warlock. Specialist Croaker will attempt to discover who the original adoptive parents were but it must be noted that the procedures are followed unless the adoptive parents are unavailable or unable to dissolve the bond. It is unlikely that this will have changed, do you wish to proceed?"
"Of course." Mrs Weasley sounded horrified and swept both Harry and Hermione off the gurney they had been seated on and out in to the corridor. She stepped back into the consulting room for a few moments before hurrying them back through the floo to the Burrow.
She then sat them all down at the dining table. "A confused magical signature is the same as not existing in the magical world. You can't get a bank account, a job or sit your OWLs or NEWTs. It makes it harder to find a wand that will accept you and can damage the development of your magic. It is vital we solve this even if it leads to our adoption of Hermione being dissolved." She kissed Hermione on the head. "We will fight to keep you."
The DADA tutoring sessions were to be honest more useful than Lockhart's classes all though from Percy's face they weren't supposed to know some of the more interesting spells Slytherin Prefect Elsie Bulstrode taught them. They were eagerly looked forward and attended by all the second years as the sixth years alway put on an exhibition duel at the end. Showcasing spells and principles they had learnt that session.
It was during one of these exhibition duels that Luna and Ginny were cursed. The topic of the tutoring session was shielding spells and the exhibition duel was fought in three parts with three differing shield charms demonstrated. The last spell of the second part was cast by Adrian Pucy at Elsie Bulstorde. The spell was black and looked greasy and rather than letting it splash on her shield or dodging it, Elsie dodge the spell and used her shield to bounce the spell away from her. It ricochet off the wall and across the room towards the watching students.
Harry grabbed Hermione and pushed her to ground covering her, next to him he saw Ron do the same to Neville and just behind the Ginny push Luna to the ground. Luna screamed and seconds later Ginny started screaming too. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville were pushed to the side as Elsie and Adrian rushed forward.
Luna and Ginny were floating out of the room still screaming before Tabitha Bainbridge had begun calling order. She kept them for a full fifteen minutes after Luna and Ginny were taken before releasing them. Harry, Hermione, and Ron raised to the Hospital Wing but by the time they got there Ginny was sitting outside chewing her lip.
"Madame Pomfrey fixed me up in a second but she kicked me out and Luna was still screaming. I tried to make her let me stay." Ginny said in a rapid stream not taking a breath.
Ron and Harry sat down close on either side of her and Hermione knocked on the infirmary door. There was no response so she slid down to sit on the ground next to in until Percy and the twins arrived with Professor McGonagal.
Percy pulled Hermione to her feet as Professor McGonagal entered the infirmary closing the door behind her. She quickly returned and ushered them in. Luna was propped up in bed, her skin so pale it was almost blue. Madame Pomfrey wouldn't let them touch her or stay for long but she let them Percy leave Luna's birthday book, The Fundamentals of Wandlore as suggested by Master Oakham.
Luna wasn't allowed to leave the infirmary for two days and she was frighteningly pale for the next month. Hermione crawled into Luna's bed every night for the rest of term curling close to her with their cat purring at their feet and Percy was inescapable until end of year exams pulled him away.
She led them via a winding route stopping at various muggle shops on the way to the Leaky Cauldron and through the Floo to the cottage she and Charlie shared. "It'll be a tight squeeze. We've put the Percy and the twins in the second bedroom and you five are in the loft." She pointed the twins and Percy up a flight of stairs. "Second door on the left." And Ron, Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Luna up a ladder on the other side of the main room.
Beyond the scary thought that their family would be torn apart the spring and summer terms alternately dragged on with oppressive boredom sending them stir crazy or raced at breakneck speed towards the freedom of summer and the promise of a holiday for all the family in Egypt with Bill after Mr Weasley had won the Daily Prophet's Grand Prize Draw. Which left them far too much time to brood and wonder who Hermione's first adoptive parents had been.
Draco Malfoy of all people confronted them on the train to "offer my deepest condolences. Mother heard from Aunt Andromeda of your difficulties. It's a more common problem in our social circle; my family is searching for my cousin Catherine Andromeda Black. She was kidnapped after the war."
After that unsettling conversation it was with a deep sense of release from some prison that they stepped off the Hogwarts Express on to Platform Nine and Three Quarters bid a boisterous goodbye to Neville and greeted a glowing Tonks.
"There was a werewolf roving Ottery St Catchpole last night. Your mum's busy with the clean up and asked Charlie and I to keep you lot until after the moon." She said grabbing each of them in an affectionate hug and ruffling their hair as they tried to pull away.
"How is everyone?" Luna asked concerned leaning into Percy's comforting bulk.
"No confirmed human casualties but lots of damage to livestock." Tonks ushered them through the barrier to the muggle station. " The ministry is providing compensation to all the affected land owners, Muggles included."
The loft was a half height room covering half the main room and all the kitchen. It had a small window which looked over the dragon reserve and once they had unshrunk their trunks contained five trunks of varying states of disrepair, five camp beds made up in mismatched bedding, one empty owl cage, one wicker cat basket with scratch marks inside and one large ginger cat spread out across the bottom of the girls bed. After a few moments bickering Luna, Ginny and Hermione succeeded in claiming the three beds in the row closest the window pushed them together into one large bed and found space for three trunks along the window wall. Shrugging Ron and Harry placed their trunks at the end of their beds like their dorm room.
"Here for two days." Ron commented kneeling on one of the girls trunks to look out the window. "Cool."
"We won't get home until after Egypt." Percy's head peaked over the edge and they could hear the twins urging him to hurry up. Scrambling up the ladder he plonked himself down on Harry's bed and waited for the twins to join him. "The international Portkey is at 8am on the 7th and it's the 5th today. I asked Tonks. Mum is going to bring our holiday clothes over tomorrow and take our uniforms back with her. Then we're meeting in at the Cauldron on the 7th to catch the Portkey."
He rubbed Crookshanks' belly pulled out a book from his pocket and stretched out Harry's bed. "Charlie and Tonks have got to work tomorrow so I'm responsible for you lot."
"What about seeing daddy?" Luna asked.
"We'll be back four weeks before Hogwarts starts. In time for Ginny's birthday, Hogwarts letters and a fortnight before your dad gets back from his South America trip." Percy said in the particularly pompous tone of voice he always used when he wanted to comfort someone but wasn't sure how. "Mum and Dad made sure of that. We'd never stop you seeing your dad unless it was unsafe."
"Are Crooks and Hedwig coming with us?" Harry and Hermione asked over each other.
"As if you could get rid of either of them." Percy laughed. "We're going long enough that mum and dad have arranged for Errol, Hermes and Scabbers to come with us. And no Aunt Muriel didn't have anything to do with the clothing mum's bringing Ginny." He opened his book and determined to ignore the disorder around him as Luna and Ron fought for the best position in front of the window, the twins began plotting pranks and Harry, Ginny and Hermione tried to quietly continue their attempts at the Animagus transformation.
Early the next morning Tonks and Charlie piled the table in their kitchen with a simple but filling breakfast of porridge, toast, jam and fruit. Once everyone was clearing their plates Charlie broke the peaceful silence, "I've asked my boss. He said it would be alright to take you lot on my rounds provided you mind me. Stay outside the fences and do what I tell you." He looked at them still seated. "So scram! I want to see sensible shoes and robes before I've got the dishes done."
He stood with a swish of his wand and gathered the dishes in a haphazardly balanced floating pile that followed him to the sink. Tonks looked up at the time squawked and almost fell through the floo. In a clatter of gangly teenage bodies the twins were racing each other up the stairs as Percy followed slightly more sedately. The quintet climbed up to their loft room so close they were almost touching and pretty much threw on robes and shoes before jumping further than was really safe down to the floor below.
Charlie chuckled, "I guess I will be on time for work then." As he dried his hands off and picked his own robe up. "Come on you lot."
The house Charlie and Tonks lived in was surrounded by the houses of other keepers on the outskirts of the reserve. The reserve was surrounded by sea on three sides and the keepers accommodation on the other side. There was a single controlled floo connection in the medical building and an anti-apparition jinx on the reserve and keepers accommodation. To walk in to the reserve you had to pass through the guarded fence that surrounded both the reserve and keepers accommodation and the separate guarded fence that surrounded the reserve. This second fence was guarded both by the keepers and the dragons. There was a single entry gate to both fences.
As they walked up towards the gate to the reserve they couldn't help but gasp in awe despite knowing from Charlie's guaffaws of laughter this was planned. On either side of the gate perched on massive stands were two welsh greens and a sensible distance from them closer to the gate were two keepers with wands at arms.
Charlie nodded to both the human guards as he lead them through. Tapped a clock on the side of the gate and picked out a roll of parchment with C. Weasley on the outside. Quickly unrolling it he said, "I've got a treat for you. Three friendly welsh greens to check and feed before I have to take you back."
With a brisk step he set of along a path that lead them clockwise round the reserve and what felt like dangerously close to the welsh green guarding that side of the gate. Charlie didn't seem to blink and the welsh green just moved her tail out of the way.