"You did what?" Mum bellowed as she and dad sat opposite me at the kitchen table. The sound rickashayed around the room almost like the howler she sent me back in second year.
"We hunted the things tying You-Know-Who to the world. The things that were keeping him here. Harry is speaking to the Aurors at the ministry, and helping Madam Bones with the cases as he can." I sighed.
It felt different talking to my parents, like it was them but it wasn't. When George had gone to Diagon Alley with Ginny and Charlie, I knew that it was time to talk.
"Start from the beginning. I mean it Ronald." Mum's voice cracked slightly as she took dad's hand. Briefly I wondered if we had any calming draughts because I knew she'd need them.
"First year, Harry faced Quirrell for the Philosopher's Stone. We had to get past a three headed dog, some traps and things like that. I got knocked out by a piece of flying debris from a giant chess board we had to play our way across. Hermione and Harry got to the potions where Harry went through some magical fire and defeated him. At the time Professor Quirrell was possessed by You-Know-Who." I ignored the gasps from both mum and dad.
"Second year you know of the Chamber of Secrets. What you didn't know was that Harry and I went to that git Lockhart for help. Only thing was he was packing and running. Harry opened the chamber in the girls bathroom where we had brewed polyjuice to sneak into the snake pit. Anyway, Lockhart got my wand and tried to obliviate both of us to get out, only my wand was broken so it backfired and caused a cave in. Harry was on one side and me and Lockhart were on the other. Harry got in, killed the basilisk that was in the chamber and got Ginny out.``
"Polyjuice potion? You were only twelve for Merlin's sake."Mum muttered, "Hermione. That girl is too smart for her own good sometimes. I'll be having a word with her about that when I speak to her."
"Third year," I cleared my throat and got her to stop. "You know about Sirius and the whole Petagrew thing. But I doubt you know that he broke into the Gryfindor common room and dorms, and trashed our room. Or that he ripped the portrait of the Fat Lady. Hermione had a Time Turner and she and Harry were able to go back in time to save Sirius."
"Fourth year, we had the Triwizard tournament. I was a git; and I turned against Harry at first. For the most part it was about helping Harry to get through the whole thing. The dragons, the lake and the maze. You know that Moody wasn't really Moody but that Crouch guy, and you know about Cedric's death."
"Fifth year, we broke into the Ministry. Well, a few others joined us but we broke in after You-Know-Who kept sending messages to Harry through that weird link. It was how he knew that dad got bitten by that snake. Harry and Hermione tricked Umbridge into going into the forest with them… where Hagrid's little brother was hiding. Me and the rest were stuck in Umbridge's office with Malfoy and that. We tricked them and got out, and flew to the ministry on brooms or Thresals. We broke into the hall of prophecies and there was Mr. Malfoy and his group waiting for us. We ended up in this room with an arch where we had to fight to get out. In the end the Order came and saved us but Sirius died and Harry chased Lestrange."
"You, but you and them survived." mum whimpered.
"Sixth year, well, me and Hermione didn't believe that Harry was right about Malfoy. And there was this book but that's nothing. Harry was told by Dumbledore that he needed to get some memory from Slughorn so that they could find a way to stop You-Know-Who. And he did and they did. Only Dumbledore died before they could actually plan how to go about it. Harry tried to talk me and Hermione into not going with him, but it didn't work. We couldn't leave him to do it by himself.`` I shrugged as I looked up finally to meet their eyes.
"You were meant to be safe. You were meant to be protected. Why weren't we told about all this? Why didn't you tell us about it? Ginny was in that chamber, but who put her in there? Nobody really explained all that to us."
"I did." Ginny sniffled as she stepped into the room.
"What? How could you get down there?" Dad asked, finally passing one of the draughts to mum before taking one himself.
"The diary that I found was dark. It possessed me and took over me. I still don't really know what happened or what I did. But Harry and Ron saved me in the end." I watched as mum stood and rushed over to Ginny before hugging her. As I turned to the rest of the room, I noticed that everyone was there. How much they heard was irrelevant, they were going to hear it all regardless.
"Right, this calls for something stronger than Butterbeer." Bill said as he stepped past the rest of them and headed towards the small cupboard above the fireplace. There he pulled down the bottle of firewhisky that dad had saved from the last war.
"What happened after Fleur's and my wedding?" Bill turned and handed me the shot of whisky.
"Well at first we were in the middle of London. This was before the taboo was really known. But what Hermione could work out was that the minute they took over the Ministry they placed the taboo on his name. We were in this coffee shop for only a minute before a few of them Death Eaters came in. Afterwards we headed to Grimmauld Place. We found out that Umbridge had one of those things we were hunting. So we planned and snuck into the Ministry again. We saw you dad, and Harry tried to warn you, but he forgot that you wouldn't know it was him."
"Runcorn. That was you three. Who were you?" he asked.
"Some guy called Reg Cat something." I shrugged as he nodded.
"So you got the thing from Umbridge then, what did you do then?" Charlie asked as he sat down beside dad, taking the small glass and refilling before giving it back to me.
"We tried to get back to Grimmauld Place, but someone got hold of Hermione's leg. So Hermione grabbed us and we disaperated. In the end we stayed all over the place. Anywhere Hermione could think of we went there; only staying for a day or two at a time.`` I downed the rest of my glass, the burn actually helping the memories from flashing through my head.
"And then you turned up at Shell Cottage." Fleur nodded as Bill pulled her closer.
"Not my best moment." I muttered as I started at the now empty glass.
"You left them. But you got back to them." George murmured as he sat beside me.
"Those things we were hunting. They can see into the very deepest part of you. They take your fears and deepest desires and twist them. Turn you into something completely different to who you are. Harry wasn't too affected by them, and Hermione could justify her fears because it was saving her family."
"You're talking about dark objects. So dark it's almost forgotten. Horcruxes." Bill spat, the growl rumbled in his chest as others looked on. "He split his soul by killing his victims as part of a ritual. How many did he make?"
"Too many. The diary, Hufflepuff's goblet, Ravenclaw's diadem, Slytherin's ring and locket, the snake that Neville took out, the part that was left; and…"
"Harry…" Ginny whispered as she lent into Dean's arms.
"And Harry. Though we don't think he meant to do that one. It's how he had that connection to Voldemort. There's more but it's not up to me to tell you."
"Where were they?" Bill asked, turning all attention to him
"The diary we now know was held by Malfoy senior. The ring Dumbledore found in the Grunt shack. The locket ultimately was in Grimmauld Place. The diadem was at Hogwarts. The cup was, ah it was in Gringotts. I'm pretty sure we'll not be allowed back in there."
"Wait, you mean to tell me you broke into Gringotts! And you survived." Charlie yelled.
"We had to break out too. Flying a dragon is no 've been told that no-one survived. Voldemort killed everyone that was on the floor that day. Witches, wizards and goblins alike."
"You and I are gonna have words after you finish." Charlie shook his head as he jumped up onto the bench.
"You got rid of them right? All of them. He's not coming back again." mum whispered as she nursed the small vile that I hadn't even seen handed to her.
"He's gone for good. Harry really ended him at Hogwarts. There is no coming back for him ever again."
"How do we thank him? Any of them? Gold, medals, nothing seems enough." Dean wondered out loud.
"You don't treat us any differently. We're family, or soon to be family. We did what we had to do." Harry muttered as he and Hermione stood at the door.
"How'd it go?" I asked as they slowly walked into the room.
"I'm standing up for Draco and Narcissa. I doubt they will be pardoned, maybe a lighter sentence." he shrugged.
"Right, that's enough talk for tonight. Go on, out of my kitchen so I can cook dinner. You will be staying tonight." She didn't wait for anyone to answer before she turned back into the kitchen as pots began floating from the rack to where she wanted them.