Two days later Harry had been bed ridden long enough for him, "Poppy, really, I'm fine."
"Says you who never knows if he's really fine or not." She argued, "You may get out of bed but I want you to only move around if someone is with you. No going up or down stairs on your own. No walking from one room to the other on your own. I don't even want you going into the bathroom alone."
"But…" he tried to interrupt.
"If I catch you out of bed on your own I will put you in a full body bind and tie you to the bed." She threatened, "For a week."
"But…"
"It's only for a couple days Harry." George snickered, "I'll babysit you like you did for me."
"I don't think actually sitting on him is what Poppy has in mind." Fleur smiled at George's evil laugh.
"Merlin help me." Harry huffed.
George helped Harry into the bathroom. Fleur and Poppy giggled as Harry yelled at George who was helping too much. They could hear George laughing joyously as he wrangled Harry. When they emerged Harry was clean and dressed and just a little grumpy. George was cackling as he left to get himself ready for the day. When Bill entered the room Harry stood.
"You have got to help me."
"Why?" Bill asked.
"They are letting George take care of me." Harry grumbled, "They told him I'm not to do anything alone and he thinks it means anything. He wouldn't even let me shower without him in the room."
"Actually that's a good idea." Bill grinned, "We wouldn't want you to fall and hurt yourself. You have a lot farther to fall now than you did last time you were up and around."
Harry grumbled under his breath until George returned. He and Bill helped Harry down the stairs and into the library where they sat him in a chair. Minerva, Molly and Arthur were already in the room and chuckled as the two older males forced him into the chair.
"Don't I need to walk and move to get used to all the changes?" Harry asked as he collapsed into the chair.
"Later, first thing is recovery then relearning to balance and walk." Poppy informed him, "Then you get to work with your new magic."
"I wonder what this will do to your flying ability." George looked thoughtful.
"No flying." Poppy declared before any more could be said, "Not until I clear you. I will confiscate your broom if necessary."
Before Harry could protest an owl arrived and dropped a red envelope onto his desk. Harry eyed it with trepidation as Bill ran his wand over it, "No spells other than the one to make it a howler. It's from Ginny."
"Better open it then." Harry sighed.
He opened it and the letter jumped into the air and Ginny's voice screamed out filling the room, "Harry James Potter, how could you! Haven't you ruined my life enough already. I had just gotten back together with Dean and now you have to go and pull this. I hate you! I will make you regret this for the rest of your life. You had better meet me by five pm today or I will not be responsible for the outcome."
"What did you do?" George asked.
"I didn't do anything that I know of." Harry threw up his hands, "I couldn't even get out of bed before today."
"She was fine last night." Molly offered, "I talked to her over the floo."
"I think I will go find out what's going on." Bill offered, "I know you haven't done anything. Wait… what if it has to do with the rings? She said she just got back with Dean."
"If that's what it's about we can clear it up in two seconds." Harry said, "But I want to know what she means by ruining her life enough already. Maybe you should bring her here since I can't meet her deadline."
"What if Dean is with her?" Fleur asked.
"Bring him too." Harry said, "I want him to know I'm innocent in this. George you're in charge of security for me. You promised Poppy you would take care of me so you get to stand between us."
"This is payment for the shower thing isn't it?" George grumbled.
Harry only grinned as Bill left via portkey. Harry had given him the portkey that would bring them directly into the library. The fire was to his back so he would be in a shadow when they arrived.
At five that evening the portkey arrived with Bill, Ginny and Dean all attached to it. Ginny was already ranting and she hadn't even seen who was in the room yet.
"Why do we have to come to him?" she demanded, "He's the one that pulled this he should be coming to me to apologize."
"Ginny you really need to wait until you find out what's happening before you go off." Bill instructed.
"I know what happened." She yelled, "Where is he I want to give him a piece of my mind."
"Ginny dear, calm down." Molly interjected as she and Arthur entered the room followed by George.
"I will not." She turned on her mother, "He is a piece of scum and deserves to be taken down. He thinks he's so high and mighty just because he killed someone. I think it's stupid. Now give me my wand back Bill, I want to hex him but good."
"No, not until you calm down." Bill kept both of the guest's wands in his cloak pocket.
"Oh believe me I am calm." She ground out, "I won't be getting any calmer any time soon."
Harry sighed and with a wave of his wand Ginny and Dean found themselves sitting on a loveseat facing the fire and Ginny found she had no voice. Harry sighed again before asking, "Will everyone find a seat please." Once everyone else sat he continued, "Now Ginny would you please explain to me exactly how you came to be wearing my ring."
"You know how." She growled after he had lifted the hex.
"Please for the sake of everyone else here explain." He insisted.
"Last night around midnight I woke up to you sneaking into my room. You froze me and put this ring on my finger then stunned me and I assume you left after." She stated harshly, "Now I want to know why."
"I didn't." Harry replied calmly.
"Don't lie." She tried to get up as she screamed at him, but she was still firmly stuck on the love seat.
"I'm not lying." He replied, "George would you please let Ginny know where I was last night from ten until one."
"We were in your room playing chess because you felt like you had slept enough lately." George replied, "Bed rest for three days will do that to you."
"Why are you lying for him?" Ginny turned a hurt look on her brother, "You know what Dumbledore made me do."
"I don't know what Dumbledore made you do." George shrugged at his sister, "And I'm not lying."
"What did he make you do?" Harry asked quietly.
"He told me I had to break up with Dean and date you so you wouldn't go dark." She sneered, "You ranted and raved at him that you wanted me and would side with You Know Who if you didn't get me."
"What?" Harry gaped, "I did no such thing."
"Everyone knows you were watching me." She said nastily, "Tell him about it Dean."
"You did watch her a lot." He shrugged, "But I didn't think it was anything more than brotherly concern until she broke up with me."
"I did have a small crush on you at the beginning of the year." Harry agreed, "But when Ron and I found you in that stairwell with Dean I realized it wasn't anything. After that I watched to make sure Dean didn't step out of bounds. But that was only because Hermione kept telling me your relationship was so rocky and you were fighting all the time."
"We weren't having any problems until you started butting in." Ginny growled.
"Hermione even pointed out times around Christmas and a bit after when you would return to the common room after a fight with him." Harry claimed, "You always had red rimmed eyes."
"I wasn't fighting with Dean, I was arguing with Dumbledore about you." She ground out.
"Ok so she was lying." Harry nodded, "Not a big stretch to believe that. Sorry they caused you such problems. I really didn't know about it nor did I insist you break up with Dean."
"That doesn't solve my problem nor does it get you off the hook about this ring." Ginny waved the back of her hand at him.
"Have you tried to take it off?" he asked with a smirk that she couldn't see as his back was to the fire and she was looking into it still.
"I can't you imbecile; it's a permanent bonding ring." She started off softly but ended up yelling.
"Try anyway." He instructed.
"Potter." She growled and glared menacingly.
"Try." He told her again.
Ginny continued to glare but reached down and gave the ring a tug. To her utter surprise it slipped right off her finger. She gaped for a full minute before she looked up at him, "How?"
"Long story short, I found out someone was trying to get my permanent bonding rings so I moved them out of my vault and into a separate higher security vault that takes blood to open and I left copies in that vault. When I was at Gringotts a few days ago for another matter a security goblin approached me saying someone who was polyjuiced to look like me had entered the bank." Harry smirked, "I told them to let them do whatever they wanted and we'd stop them on their way out."
"They took your rings." Dean nodded.
"They took the copies and two hundred galleons. They tried to take two thousand but that vault has a daily limit." Harry stuck with the lie. He saw no reason to give them everything, "I wanted to know who they were going to stick me with. So the person who stole the rings, or an accomplice, snuck into your room and placed it on your finger."
"What happed to the one that was meant for you?" Dean asked, "Did they have to sneak in and put it on you too?"
"No, for permanent ones it would have shown up on my finger. I didn't want to get freaked out so we had it just return to my vault." Harry smirked, "Now Ginny I have a question for you. Why did you participate in the lawsuit?"
"How do you expect me to believe that?" she tried to keep the attention off herself.
"I was there Ginny." Bill pointed out, "It happened just as he said, now the lawsuit?"
Ginny frowned but complied, "It was to get you back for making me break up with Dean."
"What about my will?" Harry asked.
"What about it?" she asked.
"When did you know about it?"
"Dumbledore said you had made a will after Ron's birthday scare that year." Ginny shrugged, "He said it would be nice of me to date you since you felt so strongly that you made a will and gave me a fourth of everything."
"Just so you know I didn't make a will until after the battle." Harry announced, "The goblins discovered that will was a fake because the magic in the two signatures didn't match when I made a new one."
"Why did you let them put me through this? Why not just have whoever it was arrested when they left the bank?" Ginny grumbled.
"I wanted to know if the girl getting the rings was in on it or not." Harry shrugged, "Besides, after the lawsuit I really didn't know what to think about you."
"You know I just don't know what to think of all this." Ginny sighed, "I mean I thought you forced me to date you. Then you forced Ron and Hermione into all those dangerous situations. Percy said you were always such a snob to him."
"First of all I never forced anyone to do anything." Harry corrected, "As far as Percy goes I can't ever remember being a snob to him. George, do you know of anything I did to him?"
"You were friends with me and Fred." George stated, "That was probably enough."
Harry nodded before continuing, "As far as Ron and Hermione go I didn't force them to do anything. They just happened to be with me when things happened. I mean we were always together after that troll incident so it was hard for me to get into situations alone."
"They didn't want to go on the run last year." Ginny sneered.
"I didn't want them to go either." Harry offered, "I tried to slip out the night I arrived but Ron made me come back. He said everyone had just risked their lives to get me and I shouldn't run back out just to get killed. He and Hermione kept a close watch on me until we left so I wouldn't slip out on them again."
"You know Gin that sounds more like the Harry I know then the one Ron and Hermione are talking about." Dean pointed out.
"But he was always running off to Dumbledore's office." She pointed at Harry, "We all saw him go and he was looking worse and worse as the year went. That's why we finally broke up, he just looked so bad."
"I wasn't meeting Dumbledore about you." Harry waved her off, "He was teaching me everything he knew about Voldemort."
"Like what?" Ginny pressed.
"I know who his parents are and how they died. Where he grew up, trips he took and even people he knew." Harry shrugged, "Ask me anything and I'll try to answer it."
"Why didn't he die the first time?" she asked.
"He performed some very nasty dark magic that kept him alive." Harry said, "We spent the last year undoing all the steps he took trying to make himself immortal."
"What was the spell?" she pushed.
"Stop Ginny." Bill ordered, "No one should need to know that information. It will give you nightmares. I know because when I found out what he did it gave me nightmares. You don't want to know this."
"But…" she started.
"No." he glared at her, "Harry has been used as a pawn in all this and Dumbledore was pulling the strings. We were sure Ron and Hermione stole the rings but after hearing how they got into your room we know it had to be them. The house is warded against anyone else and right now that even means Harry."
"But they always did anything for him." Ginny tried to argue but she knew it was a lie. They had already proved that.
"Like keep secrets from him and tell lies to him and about him?" Bill sneered, "How about help Dumbledore write a fake will or not tell Harry about seals that had been placed on him."
"They really put seals on you?" Ginny asked, "I thought they were just saying that to get me to marry you."
"No that part wasn't a lie." Harry tried to push himself to stand and George had to jump up to steady him. Harry stepped away from the front of the fire and over to stand between Bill and George. George moved away once Bill had him.
Dean jumped up and went to the side vacated by George, "How much did you grow, eight inches? When did this happen because I know you weren't this tall at the battle."
"The seals were removed a couple days ago." Harry said, "I grew six inches that day and I've grown two more since. I don't really have any balance right now and I'm pretty sore, growing that much that fast is painful."
"I understand that." Dean chuckled, "I grew five inches one summer and had pains in my arms and legs for a while. Harry I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it." Harry let Bill guide him back to his seat after Dean shook his hand, "Kreacher would you serve the tea."
The elf popped in and the group settled in for tea. Before he left the elf stated, "Dinner will be at seven Master Harry, how many will be staying?"
"Everyone I think." Harry glanced around and found all heads nodding except Ginny, "Do you want to stay Ginny?"
"What?" She looked up.
"He's asking if we want to stay for dinner." Dean smiled.
"Oh sure that's fine." Her face resumed a thoughtful expression.
"What has you thinking so hard?" he asked interrupting her again after a while.
"Trying to find a good enough prank for Ron and Hermione." She snarled.
"Don't do anything for now." Harry said, "George and I are cooking something up and we'll let you help."
"Harry, why don't you just have them arrested?" Dean asked.
"Basically we have only circumstantial evidence." Bill huffed, "The aurors wouldn't be able to keep them more than overnight."
"But they stole from your vault." He turned to Harry.
"I let them so I could see how far they would go." Harry said, "They didn't steal from me if I said they could have it."
"Why are you letting them off?" Ginny asked her voice was full of confusion.
"They were my friends and they helped me defeat Voldemort. I couldn't have done it without them." Harry shrugged, "I don't think I should just toss them to the side even though I know they have done that to me at this point."
"You're a better man than me." Dean shook his head, "I would want them to pay for their treatment."
"Oh they'll pay alright." George grinned evilly, "They'll be paying big, just not Azkaban."