A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews! My long-fic doesn't get nearly as much feedback as this has, so it's quite refreshing to see how everyone is reacting.

I had plenty of positive comments, and a few critical ones. I appreciate all of them. Everything you tell me has been noted down. What works, and what doesn't. Pacing issues, etc. While I disagree with what some of you have said (Positive and critical alike), I have gained something valuable from each and every one of you. So, thank you.

I don't plan on making this a long story. I don't plan on doing anything with Harry and Ginny's kids. What I do plan on having is a full arc for both of these characters. I've laid extensive groundwork over the last thirty thousand words, and yes, I agree it's time for some action and for the plot to move forward. While my long fic is full of action and suspense, this is definitely a more… introspective journey. At least, that's what I have planned. As Harry and Ginny embark on this quest to find Andromeda + Teddy, they'll discover themselves and learn to accept and cherish what they have, all while growing as individuals, and as one within their relationship.

In other words, this is a Travel!Hinny fic.

Thank you for reading, here is chapter six.

Chapter 6:

Reparations

"Right, well… what now?" Ginny asked with a sort of nervous excitement that spilled over into Harry's own emotions.

He froze up for a moment. Staring at Ginny with absolutely no thoughts running through his head. Then, spurred on by her nervousness overpowering her excitement, waved his wand and summoned Andromeda's muggle letter from his bag. He struggled to unfold it correctly but eventually got his thumb under the longer edge and opened it up.

There were two pages. The first was the letter, which held an explanation for the muggle mode of delivery along with why they'd gone into hiding the way they did. Harry closed his eyes and screwed up his face in concentration. He thought of the first page of the letter. Its implications. He focused on the bridge between their magic, and let those thoughts travel through, unhindered.

Ginny, who had been looking up at him with a crease between her brows, blinked and nodded. "It makes sense, really. I mean… they ought to have taken every precaution necessary. For all we knew, Hogwarts may not have been the final battle,"

"Not to mention the fact that it was far from a guaranteed win,"

Ginny nodded in agreement. "What's the second page?"

Harry slid it out from underneath the letter and looked at it. It was a series of black lines, connected by small black circles, which formed one, long, continuous line. It was absolutely useless to Harry. He had no idea what it meant. There was no writing, no arrows. Nothing. He silently handed it to Ginny and folded the letter up into his jeans pocket.

She inspected it carefully. Running her finger along the line. "Well… it's a map, probably,"

"What makes you say that?" Harry asked, feeling a bit stupid having not thought of that himself.

Ginny shuffled closer to him and pointed at the circles that connected the lines. "Those are points of interest, I assume. The rest is… well… a road of some sort,"

Harry's eyes widened. "Or a train!"

Ginny looked up at his jubilant expression, then, back to the map. She didn't seem convinced. "Train maps don't look like this,"

"Not in the Wizarding World they don't," Harry pointed out. "Granted, we've only got one train, but still,"

Ginny tapped her foot on the dirt path as she thought of what to do. "Well… do we know what line it is?"

"Sorry?" Harry asked, distracted by how quickly the mystery of Andromeda and Teddy's whereabouts was being solved. Compared to the Horcrux hunt, this was a walk on the Hogwarts grounds after exams!

"Which train line this'll be. I mean, my dad loves them, and… I'll admit I'm interested as well," her cheeks pinkened slightly, "But I don't know muggle Europe's train lines off the top of my head. Hell, I don't think I've ever seen a map of the thing,"

Harry hummed to himself, thinking. "It's getting dark… do you reckon King's Cross is still open?"

Ginny nodded. "I'm sure it is, but…" she bit her lip. Harry could feel her determination dying down, being replaced by doubt.

"What's wrong?"

She scratched the bridge of her nose. "I think we should… take a minute to really think this through."

"What do you mean?" Harry said, crossing his arms over his chest.

She batted his arms and rolled her eyes. "Don't get like that. I'm just saying we should sit somewhere and… really plan this out. Try and figure out as much as we can on our own,"

Harry, who'd run out of the burrow on an impulsive whim, was beginning to realize that Ginny was right. "I don't want to go back to The Burrow," he admitted. "It's not your family or anything. I just… can't. Not right now,"

Ginny smiled sympathetically. "Don't worry. I'm not planning on going back. Not for a while, anyway. Would be a bit…"

"Anticlimactic?" Harry finished for her.

She nodded. "Have you got anywhere we can hold up for a night or two? Grimmauld Place?"

Harry pursed his lips as he thought over the idea. Kreacher was a right ray of sunshine since Harry stopped acting a prat to the poor thing, but the fidelius was compromised nonetheless.

"We'll need money," Harry remarked. He'd rather face the Goblins of Gringotts than step foot in Sirius's old home again. "Gringotts doesn't close at night so I reckon we could go there before making our way to Grimmauld,"

Ginny nodded again and held out her arm. "Diagon Alley?"

"Yup," Harry replied, interlocking his arm with hers. Before Ginny could do it herself, Harry turned on the spot and disapparated from the darkening sky around The Burrow.

They reappeared in a side alley and naturally fell into step, hand in hand.

"Just thought I'd say," Harry began conversationally, as they stepped onto the deserted street. It seemed Diagon Alley hadn't fully recovered since Voldemort's fall. "I doubt the goblins will be particularly enthused by my arrival,"

Ginny shrunk away from him. "What?" she said in mock horror. "I can't imagine why! I mean, all you did was break into a high-security vault, endanger and fatally harm their employees, and fly out on the back of a dragon right after causing mass destruction within the establishment itself,"

Ron had filled her in on the details of that particular adventure. He was tight-lipped about the rest of it, but he seemed respectably proud of his plan to hop on a dragon's back, so he'd blabbed a bit.

"Ha-ha," Harry deadpanned. "Yes, well, I have a very bad feeling about going in there, and I'm half-tempted to send you in with my key and let you deal with it,"

Ginny looked up at him in complete disbelief. Before she got a chance to rain verbal hell on his body and mind, he quickly defended himself. "I said half-tempted,"

Once he noticed her visibly backing down, he said, a little quieter this time, "But still tempted,"

Ginny gave him a soft, though nearing painful, cuff over the back of his head. "Tosspot,"

Together, they marched up the steps, and just as Ginny was going to walk through the doors, Harry held her back.

"Oh, come on Harry. They haven't contacted you yet, so clearly, it isn't that bad," said Ginny tiredly.

Harry nodded. "Yeah… yeah… see, I get what you're saying," she raised an eyebrow, "And like… sure, I-" Ginny cut him off by pulling on his arm and stepping into the remarkably clean, not to mention repaired lobby of Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

Ginny looked up at his bewildered facial expression. "I take it this was not the state you left it in?"

Harry shook his head, his eyes traveling from the ceiling which, in the aftermath of the dragon incident, had been a bit of a… well, non-existent mess, to the bank teller at the end of the hall.

Ginny really was pulling on him now, and he was practically tripping over his own feet, stalling to avoid the inevitable.

"Ah, Mr. Potter," the goblin at the front desk greeted. His long fingers curled over the edge as he peered through his crooked spectacles at Harry. "I was wondering when we'd next see you,"

Harry laughed awkwardly and Ginny tried her very best not to cringe as the goblin's less-than-welcoming smile turned sour.

"What can I do for you today?"

Harry was at a loss for words, it would seem, so Ginny filled in for him. "He'd like to take a withdrawal from his vault,"

The goblin turned his twitchy stare to her instead, and Ginny found herself questioning Bill's sanity for wanting to work for these things. They made her feel incredibly small.

"Of course," he said after a long look at Ginny. "Right this way,"

Harry was still in complete shock. Ginny reached up and closed his mouth for him. "Come on," she said, "There's no point in standing there,"

So, Harry and Ginny followed the goblin to an available cart.

"If you could seat yourselves behind me, I know Mr. Potter knows how this part works," the goblin's tone had an edge to it that suggested that much like Harry, the goblins were not likely to forget the dragon incident soon.

Ginny had ridden these countless times, but Harry's vault was significantly deeper than hers.

Harry's permanent grimace, which he'd worn since they entered the bank, was still on clear display. She didn't really have anything else to say to him, especially since he wouldn't be able to hear her over the wind, so instead, she reached within herself to find the bond.

It was noticeably more apparent in her magic now. She found it with very little effort and poured a single thought through it with as much power as she could muster.

"Relax, pansy,"

Harry turned to her, ostensibly offended.

"It's true,"

"It most certainly is not,"Harry thought back to her with much less struggle. "I'm just paranoid,"

"Pansy," Ginny grinned, and Harry rolled his eyes, a reluctant smile brightening his expression.

The cart came to a shuddering halt that would've taken out anyone over the age of forty. Ginny's back hurt for Merlin's sake.

"Right this way," the goblin said again.

Ginny felt a building nervousness on Harry's end and again reached for his hand.

"Excuse me, but I think you've got the wrong vault," said Harry apologetically.

The goblin shook his head. "You, as a married man, have gained access to your vaults. Your personal vault is many levels above, but I took the liberty of assuming that you'd be interested in taking a look at your inheritance,"

A brief smile flickered on Harry's face like he was waiting for the punchline or something. Then, he changed his stance and blinked down at the goblin. Laughing nervously, he asked, "What exactly are you referring to?"

This was a great deal kinder than the variety of questions that ran through Ginny's head.

Now it was the goblin's turn to appear confused. "Is that not why you've come?"

"Well, yes, we came to withdraw gold, but…" Harry trailed off, throwing a pleading glance in Ginny's direction.

"I think we're both a touch confused on the marriage part of things," Ginny explained helpfully, trying to keep calm. She had that feeling in the pit of her stomach, the kind you get when you just know your mum found something she wasn't supposed to find.

The goblin chuckled. "Your name is Ginny Potter, correct?"

Ginny shook her head. "No, my name is Ginny, but it's Weasley. Not Potter,"

Harry nodded vigorously.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, Mrs. Potter, but that just isn't true. Not anymore," the goblin said without any aura of apologetic behaviour. In fact, the goblin seemed to be enjoying the fear-mongering. "You were wed in the early hours of the morning of May the second, 1998,"

"How early?" Harry asked. In Ginny's delightfully panicked opinion, this was the wrong question to ask. Really, she wanted to know what in the ever-living fuck was going on, and why her surname was not her surname.

The goblin sighed in annoyance and waved his hand, bringing up some sort of scroll. "Give me a moment," he grumbled.

"Harry, I don't think he's lying," Ginny thought.

Harry nodded. "It would explain why you're magically of age,"

Ginny shuddered and closed the connection again, waiting for the goblin to come up with some sort of verdict.

Only when she turned to the goblin, she found nothing standing there at all. "Harry?" she called, turning on the spot.

"I'm right here," his voice came from far away. Like he was inside another room. "Are you seeing this too?"

Ginny looked all around her. Everything had an ethereal red glow to it. "Erm, what is it you're seeing?" she asked.

She felt Harry shrug like it was her performing the motion. "I'm where we just were, alone, except everything is red… sort of. Oh, and the goblin is gone,"

Ginny nodded, but it felt like there were two of her. "Yeah, we're seeing the same thing,"

Harry sighed. "Brilliant."

Then, a sound louder than either of their voices or the room combined rose from the silence.

The sound of a tree creaking in the wind.

"Fuck," Harry commented uneasily. Ginny felt a spike of fear hit Harry's system, and she didn't like it. Not at all.

She didn't know why, but she was compelled to look at her feet. She yelped in surprise when she noticed that her shadow didn't match her body.

The shadow was that of a large, hooded figure with wings stretched out on either side.

Harry's anxiety was building, and Ginny felt hers rising alongside it. What was going on?

Then, like two gemstones turned to their polished edges, eyes appeared on the shadow. Two, pale red dots.

Ginny took a step back, and her shadow didn't follow her. It stretched. The sound of voices, a hundred thousand of them all speaking at once broke the near silence. The creaking of the tree in the background subtly added to the growing panic flaring in Ginny's chest.

She was having difficulty bringing enough air into her lungs. Each breath felt inadequate.

She couldn't back up any further, or else she'd fall deep into the hollows of Gringotts.

"Harry?" she called, but there was no answer this time.

"Don't you know he's already gone?" a voice uttered from the void. "He's a dead man walking."

Ginny wouldn't dare close her eyes, not when she felt so incredibly vulnerable. Instead, she pulled on an ability she'd been forced to develop many months ago.

She steadied her breathing. It was slow going, but it worked in maintaining her heart rate. She could focus this way.

She could feel confident this way.

"Harry?" she asked again, listening to more than just the area around her.

"Dead man walking," the voice repeated itself, but it was quieter this time.

It feeds off fear, she realized feeling the conviction in her chest swell with the knowledge that she could gain an upper hand.

"Harry?" she sent the question through the bond and felt it meet Harry's mind.

"Ginny," he replied, his voice coming off more relieved than anything.

The thousands of voices quieted, and the tree groaned in reverse, like a reparo charm mending a shattered vase.

With a breath that felt like a drowning man coming up for air, Ginny's palm landed on the rocky floor, bracing her body for the impact of a fall she hadn't seen coming.

Nothing was red anymore. Everything smelled wet and old, as it should.

"We'll talk about it later," Harry's voice practically shouted through the bond.

Ginny, in truth, had absolutely zero interest in putting this off. She could feel a burning on the side of her neck and was more than certain that it had something to do with the triangular mark Harry bore in the same area, and the visions he kept encountering.

"Potters?" the goblin sneered. "What's gotten into the two of you?"

Ginny pushed herself back onto her knees so she could stand properly. Harry was dusting himself off beside her.

"Just an… allergy," Harry explained hastily.

The goblin rolled his eyes, evidently not buying into whatever Harry was dreaming up.

"Allergy? Seriously?" Ginny thought to Harry.

"Come up with something better," he replied snidely.

Ginny scoffed, causing the goblin to again look over his shoulder as he led them to one of six vaults. "You really think I couldn't come up with a better cover story? Do you know who I am?"

"This is the Potter vault, as you have likely deduced," the goblin introduced them to the large circular door without much gusto. He seemed bored and annoyed with his clients. "Inside is a pair of resizable leather pouches. They belong to you, and you alone. Do not lose them, there is a hefty fee for doing so,"

"We can lose them though, right?" Ginny asked suddenly. The goblin wrinkled his nose at her. "I only ask because I have a… history of…" the goblin's face remained set in stone, "losing things," Ginny finished sheepishly.

"Don't lose them," he grunted, and raised a single finger to the iron door, beginning the process of unlocking it. "As you can see, we've been forced to heighten our security,"

"Git," Ginny thought crossly, ignoring the, in all honesty, fair jab at Harry and his friends.

"I don't mind paying a fee," Harry's voice told her gently. "You know, if you lose it,"

Ginny felt an annoyingly familiar kind of fondness for Harry that hadn't presented itself so strongly in quite some time. She squeezed her hands into fists to try and get the blood to go anywhere but her face.

The sound of gears working from behind the door ceased, and the door swung open.

Ginny was rarely made uncomfortable by the material side of life, but this had her palms sweating.

"What the fuck," she found herself saying, without necessarily meaning to.

Harry winced in the golden glow that emanated from inside the vault. "Well, that's a bit much," he admitted, taking a step inside without waiting for the goblin's instructions.

Harry was quick to use his wand to fill the small, seemingly bottomless leather pouches that sat within. He had no desire to stay and explore his newly acquired vault, in fact, he was quite against the idea of ever returning, if Ginny was interpreting his emotions correctly.

With both hand-size bags full of more gold than Ginny could ever imagine spending in ten years, Harry nodded to the goblin to close the vault.

"Come on," said Harry curtly, walking back towards the cart.

Ginny furrowed her brows together. She wasn't hurt, per se, just a bit lost.

"Did I do something?" she thought through the bond as the cart hurtled back up to the Gringotts lobby.

Harry took a moment to respond. "No, you didn't,"

"Harry, I'm not with you for your money. Even before this stupid bond, I wasn't with you for your money, or your fame," she felt like this was a tired point to make, and she'd never expected Harry to need to hear it.

It was rather disappointing, really.

"I know that. That's not what's bothering me," he sounded exasperated, and Ginny felt both relieved and alarmed.

"Is it the vision?" she asked, though she didn't want to push the subject. Not here, where privacy was most definitely absent.

Harry's silence was answer enough. The cart came to a stop, and they disembarked carefully.

"Have a good evening," the goblin waved goodbye, but Harry didn't leave. Instead, he followed the goblin to his desk. "Can I help you?" he asked, peeved by Harry's refusal to leave.

Harry lifted one of the two pouches onto the desk.

"What do you want me to do with this?" the goblin asked dryly.

"For reparations," said Harry flatly, "I don't know why you didn't strap me to a chair and demand that I pay you the moment I walked in, but I'm urging you to take this,"

The goblin watched Harry curiously. "I'll preface this by saying that under no circumstances will I take this gold," Harry made a sound of protest, but the goblin overrode him. "You are young, foolish, and ignorant of the world around you. That does not change the fact that you defeated Lord Voldemort and his forces,"

Harry sighed and brought the pouch off the counter and let it hang from his left hand.

"Besides," the goblin bared his teeth in a feral grin. "We already took the liberty of paying for the reparations from your personal vault,"

Harry stared at the goblin in disbelief for a few tense seconds before he nodded, smiling slightly. "I suppose that's only fair,"

"I'm quite glad we're in agreement on the matter," the goblin, relieved for the conversation to be over, sat back in his seat. "Good evening,"

"Thanks!" said Ginny, grabbing hold of Harry's wrist and dragging him out of the bank before he could prolong their already shaky relationship with the goblins. "You've got some explaining to do,"

"Yeah, about the visions…"

"About the visions?" Ginny practically shrieked. "You said they were nothing to be concerned about!"

"They weren't… not until you had one too," Harry shrugged, the money pouched held tightly in his hands.

Ginny sighed exasperatedly. "We're in this together, Harry,"

He looked at her and nodded slowly. "I know, I just… I thought they were daydreams. Night terrors,"

"No, you didn't," Ginny told him without a shadow of a doubt. She could feel his emotions relating to the matter. The fear in him when the shadow came. When she too saw what he did. "You knew there was more to them, and now I'm involved,"

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't be," Ginny interrupted again. "Whatever this is, we'll fuck it up,"

Harry chuckled. "Goodluck fighting a death shadow,"

Ginny laughed. "Such a dignified term,"

Harry nodded with a sort of superiority Percy used to display when he'd first got his job with the Ministry. "Yes, well, I think it paints a clear picture and gets the point across quite nicely."

"Quite nicely indeed!" they said together, erupting into a ridiculous fit of giggles in the middle of the street.

"To Grimmauld Place?" Harry presented, extending his hand like a man asking for a dance.

Ginny tucked her hand daintily to her chest. "Yes, of course, but first I'd like to make something clear,"

"And what might that be? Fellow death shadow target?"

Ginny scoffed and raked a hand through her hair nervously. She knew it was stupid to care and to bring it up, but it was eating away at her. Finally, she blurted, "I don't care what the law says. We're not married until one of us proposes,"

Harry stared at her; his teasing smile frozen on his face. She could feel the hint of panic swelling through the bond and hastily added. "Otherwise, the two of us are a great sack of doubled-down cowardice,"

Harry straightened up and bit his bottom lip. "I think I agree with you on that,"

"You think?"

"Right, well," Harry scratched the side of his face absently. "Nah… I… I reckon… Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you,"

Ginny snickered and laced her fingers with Harry's. "Oh, and we aren't done talking about those visions. I want to know what you've seen, and what we can do about it."

Harry nodded, leading her down a side street. "Agreed,"

Ginny looked up at him with a reassuring smile. She leaned into his body and found that she fit quite nicely pressed up against him. Not that she hadn't already known that, of course, but it was nice to feel the fluttering in the pit of her stomach rather than the erratic nature of the supposed Soul Bond.

"Right then," she whispered into his chest, "To Grimmauld Place,"

A/N: Sorry for taking so unbelievably long to update! The next chapter is Grimmauld shenanigans, including a One-Bed-Trope-Fest, so that'll be fun. I'll try and have that out sometime next week.