A/N : Co Writer: Darklord331,Tyler Nator

Beta reader: Arwrite, Luke Knight, LadyLucius

Chapter 7

Tuesday afternoon, Mrs Weasley had gone to Diagon Alley to buy some potion supplies. Ginny had just put down Teddy for his afternoon nap. Harry and Ron were playing chess in the dining room when there was a loud crack just outside the wards of the Burrow. Harry sat closest to the door so he was able to reach it first.

He was just able to see Hermione before being bowled aside by Ron. By the time Harry got up and walked outside he saw Hermione and Ron kissing each other.

"Ahh, I didn't want to see this!" Ginny shouted, covering her eyes from behind Harry.

This was enough for them to pull apart. Both of their faces were matching Ron's hair colour.

"Hello Ginny, Harry," Hermione smiled though she looked tired.

"Hello to you too, Hermione." Ginny proceeded to hug her.

"Good to see you back." Harry smiled, as Hermione gave him a brief hug as well.

"Why are your faces all scratched up?" Hermione noticed all the marks on Ron and Ginny's face.

"This?" Ginny nonchalantly waved her hand towards her face. "This is thanks to Harry's bloody Phoenix."

"Come on, Ginny, I know Harry doesn't have a Phoenix. Dumbledore was the only person in the country to have been able to domesticate one," Hermione huffed.

"Well, now Harry is the second person to repeat the achievement," Ron replied

Hermione looked at Harry in surprise. Harry just nodded to confirm Ron's statement.

"H... How did you manage to acquire a Phoenix?" Hermione asked after she recovered from the shock.

"Come inside first. It's a long story."

Harry guided Hermione towards the door. Once they were seated at the kitchen table, Harry proceeded to tell her the story of how he found the Phoenix.

"She was able to glide in two days after the burning day. Since I found her on her burning day I named her Ignis," Harry explained.

"He said, 'I'm going to keep it until it grows back to full size', at first but he lied and now it's making our lives hell," Ron grumbled.

"Hey, I didn't intend to keep her forever. If she stayed after growing up then I am not complaining," Harry said in his defence.

"But why is she attacking you?" Hermione asked in confusion.

"Because she's possessive of Harry," Ginny replied. She put her fingers on her temples and rubbed them .

"If you guys stop sneaking up on me then she would stop attacking you. Anyway, she's less aggressive now," Harry stated.

"I never snuck up on you. I just came to wake you up the other day," Ginny huffed.

"Yeah, if you call pouncing on me, waking me up," Harry responded with a glare, a smirk on his face.

"What? I can't wake up my boyfriend with a kiss?"

"Yes, you can, but you need to be subtle about it. No pouncing on me is allowed, especially when I'm sleeping."

With a burst of flame, Ignis appeared near Harry She glided towards the wizard and sat on his shoulder. Hermione was surprised.

The Phoenix was not as big as Fawkes, her feathers were bold red with tiny specks of gold. It looked like tiny flames on her body. Her eyes were bright yellow and she had a sharp beak and talons. When she sat on Harry's shoulder her chest puffed out as if showing she was proud to be sitting there.

"S- She's beautiful," Hermione stammered after she overcame her surprise.

The Phoenix stared at Hermione as if measuring whether she was a threat or not.

"Yes, I know she is beautiful. She's intelligent as well," Harry said as he caressed her lovingly.

"That's true. She protected Harry in the hospital, as well," Ron replied.

"Wait. Hospital? What am I missing here?" Hermione asked, looking from Harry to Ron to Ginny.

"Well… there was an attack on Tonks's house when Harry visited Teddy." Ron looked nervous, expecting Hermione to shout at him.

"What? There was an attack on Harry and no one thought to inform me?" Hermione shouted angrily confirming Ron's suspicion.

"Harry stopped me from sending you an owl about the attack," Ron raised his hands in surrender.

Hermione rounded on Harry. "And why did you stop him, Harry?"

"Go on. Go on. She's shouting at your precious little Harry," Ginny said to Ignis, gleefully but the Phoenix didn't move an inch.

"Because you were already worried about your parents and I didn't want to add more burden on you. Besides, you were in Australia and you couldn't have been able to do much from there." Harry looked directly at Hermione.

This was enough to calm her down.

"What was that you said to Ignis? What did you mean by, 'shouting at your precious Harry'?" Hermione asked.

"That little bugger hits anyone for as much as raising a finger towards Harry. I can't even kiss him without his permission," Ginny said grumpily.

"Only mum gets away with it," Ron agreed remorsefully.

"That's because she helped me raise Ignis, unlike the both of you who made fun of me."

"Ah, it's because Ignis knows I have Harry's best interest in mind when I shout at him," Hermione replied cheerfully.

"Yeah and we just want to kill him as soon as we get the opportunity," Ron stated sarcastically.

"This is not fair," Ginny folded her arms over her chest.

Harry just smiled and pulled Ginny towards him, which she allowed happily.

"Okay tell me everything about this attack in detail," Hermione snuggled with Ron on the opposite chair.

Harry, with the help of Ron and Ginny, told Hermione everything about the attack.

"Can you please help me find out why I'm suddenly able to do wandless magic? I asked Kingsley about it but he didn't have an answer." Harry asked Hermione at the end of the story.

"I don't know if anything like this has happened previously but I will try."

"Now tell us about your tour of Australia," Ginny said.

It turns out that Hermione has taken two port keys to Australia, stopping at Brazil for a few hours. Kingsley has been able to get her help from the Australian Ministry of Magic. It took Hermione a few days to find her parents and reverse the memory charm.

"You said you found your parents," Harry said, "How do they feel after knowing what you did?"

"Yeah it took a while to track them down, but once I went to their house and reversed the charm. They were angry at first but after I explained everything, they were sad that they couldn't protect me from the danger."

"Even if they wanted to, they couldn't have been able to protect you," Ginny thought solemnly.

"They understand that and that's why they are even more sober ,"

"How did you explain to your neighbours about them being missing?" Ron asked.

"I gave them the cover story that my parents were moved out under witness protection, which is kind of true,".

"Have they come with you?" Ginny asked.

"No, they will be here in a few days. They have lots of packing to do and loose ends to tie up. I helped as much as I could," Hermione said, there was a yearning in her eyes. It was clear that she was already missing her parents.

The four friends kept on chatting until Mrs Weasley came back from the market and put them to the task of various household chores much to the annoyance of Kreacher.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

On Friday, Harry was at another council meeting. Hermione and Bill were sitting amongst the other nominated candidates in the middle of the courtroom.

"Today we have gathered here for a council meeting to fill the remaining seats and to elect the Minister of Magic," said the new Undersecretary to the Minister, who was also acting as coordinator of the council.

"The first order of the day should be to elect the members of the council and for this only existing members should be allowed to vote," Mrs Parsons stated, something that was quickly agreed upon.

Bill was called as 3rd candidate against an old grizzled wizard with long bread.

"Those in favour of William Weasley, please raise your wands," the new Junior Undersecretary called. Almost immediately all the existing members raised their hands.

"William Weasley is elected as Council member," the Junior Undersecretary declared, not bothering to call the votes for Bill's opponent.

Bill after giving a nod to Kingsley and Hermione took the seat beside Harry.

"Congratulations," Harry muttered.

"Thanks," Bill whispered back.

The voting continued for the next one hour before Hermione was called upon for the last seat.

"This is going to be tough for Hermione to win," Bill said very softly so that only Harry could hear him.

"Why?"

"Because her opponent, Wyatt is a pure blood."

Before Harry had a chance to react the junior Undersecretary called.

"Raise your wand if you are in favour of Mr Belius Wyatt."

Almost half of the councillors raised their wands and the junior Undersecretary counted them.

"Those in favour of Miss Hermione Granger."

This time remaining members raised their wands and the junior Undersecretary counted them too and declared the result.

"Miss Granger has won by one vote and now is a member of this Council."

"We will continue the session after lunch in an hour," the junior Undersecretary announced, after voting for vacant seats were over.

"That went nicely," Harry said as he came out of the room with Bill and Hermione.

"Honestly speaking, I had some doubts about you, Hermione, considering your blood status," Bill thoughtfully said.

"Well, I did win only by one vote so you weren't far off the mark," Hermione replied.

"We have an hour break. Let's go out for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron and leave these politics for some time," Harry said.

Both Hermione and Bill agreed to this. After the break, every council member, including the newly appointed, gathered in the courtroom.

"Now, we will vote for the new Minister of Magic. Does anyone want to nominate a candidate to go against the temporary Minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt," the junior Undersecretary announced.

"No suggestions," one of the councillors said, while some nodded in acceptance.

Kingsley was appointed as permanent Minister of Magic unanimously to the surprise of absolutely no one.

"Does anyone else have anything else to add," The Undersecretary asked, when voting for Minister of Magic was concluded.

"Yes, I would," Hermione stated, hand raised.

"The floor is yours, Miss Granger."

"Er… We, I mean Harry and I won't be able to attend any further meetings as we are going to Hogwarts to complete our seventh year," Hermione blushed a bit for all the attention she was getting.

"You can take the leave from school or have someone else attend the meeting on your behalf," Parsons told her.

"I would like Bill to attend the meeting in my stead," Hermione said at once.

"I will take leave from the school," Harry said, not looking towards Hermione. He was sure that as soon as they were out of the ministry walls she was going to lecture him.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

For the rest of the summer, Harry spent his time either cleaning Grimmauld Place or taking care of Teddy. Ginny and Hermione were helping Harry while Ron spent most of his time at George's shop. Both Ron and Harry had started their studies for seventh-year with Hermione.

"Don't tell Hermione, but for the first time I enjoy studying," Harry said to Ron one day.

Harry was also trying to control his extra power, but so far his attempts were unsuccessful.

"I can't find anything about how you are able to do wandless magic. All the books I have read so far state that Sorcerer-ship is by birth, not achieved. And all sorcerers are different from each other, there is nothing common between two sorcerers, except for the fact that they can do wandless magic," Hermione told Harry.

By the first week of July, Hermione had completed the article about their adventures of the last year, though it didn't contain any information about Horcruxes or the Deathly Hallows. She had briefly mentioned the Elder Wand and that Harry had destroyed it.

"When are we going to publish this?" Ron asked when he had finished reading the article.

"I don't know. When do you want it published, Harry?" Hermione asked as she turned towards him.

"Whenever you want, but it won't be published in the Daily Prophet," Harry replied with a scowl. He was not sure if he would ever be able to forgive them for the lies they printed during his fourth and fifth year.

"Let's talk to Luna and see if she can publish it in The Quibbler," Hermione nodded.

"Harry scribbled a note on a piece of parchment for Luna, asking her about publishing the article and sent the note with Ignis.

As soon as Ignis left, Harry received an owl from Kingsley, stating that there will be an awards ceremony held at the Ministry on the first of August at eight-thirty in the evening.