Chapter 2: Back to the Burrow.
As the sun shone through the window, little Ginny Weasley was slowly opening her eyes. As she woke up, she scanned her surroundings, she saw the yellow walls with green Holyhead Harpies memorabilia, she saw her Weird Sisters poster in another wall. The freckled redhead got up and looked herself in the mirror, she jumped in celebration and whispered, "I'm back!"
Then the little redhead asked herself if Harry really returned, she knew that Death didn't lie, but didn't want to risk it. She remembered that Harry always got up early, so she flew down the stairs and there he was, Harry was sitting on a couch in the living room. She approached Harry and whispered to his ear, "Which animal is more macho?"
Harry smiled and answered, "A Hungarian Horntail. What was Ron's tattoo?"
"A pygmy puff, but I didn't say where." Replied Ginny playfully, before kissing him.
"I ordered a special birthday present for you, something we can use to justify our friendship to your brothers, when you open it, you'll know." Harry said.
"I'm glad that now we are back, we can get rid of those false friends and avoid so much tragedy." Ginny cheered.
"We need Snuffles to discuss the next plans, we need to free him. I'm sure that he is going to be sent to St. Mungo's. He is officially my magical guardian, even imprisoned because he wasn't convicted, so he can legally designate someone else as my guardian if the ministry becomes an obstacle. I remember he told me he would send me to his cousin Andy if he were forced to that." Harry commented.
"I think that Andy would be a good option of someone to ask for help in this timeline. She was very close with us, because of Teddy. About Teddy, will we make him exist in this timeline?" Ginny said.
"I think I won't interfere in a possible Remus and Tonks romance; I won't try to set them up either. But I'll make sure they both find happiness during this timeline, even if it isn't with each other." Harry said.
"I agree, we should make sure that all our loved ones find happiness. I have a plan for Percy, this plan will make him rethink about his worship of the ministry, and it has to do with certain rat. Make sure you bought me a book about animals." Ginny replied.
They both a final kiss and they took the routine they did since Harry arrived at the Burrow with Ron and the twins.
The next day was Ginny's birthday. The party started with a big lunch that had all of Ginny's favorite meals, then it came some leisure time where everyone swam in the pond and played games. Then the time of the cake came, and that also meant the opening of presents. Ginny excitedly opened all of her presents leaving Harry's as the final one.
"Hey Harrikins, we hope you don't disappoint our Gin-Gin." Said Fred.
"If you hurt Gin-Gin, you'll be very sorry." Continued George.
Ginny on the other hand picked up the big box that was Harry's present and slowly opened it, first she saw a jersey of her favourite team in the Quidditch league, the Holyhead harpies, then she took a book about animals and magical animals, but when she saw what was the rest of the present, a mischievous smile was drawn on her face.
"Harry, what did you do?" Asked Fred.
"You awakened a monster!" George exclaimed.
Harry laughed and explained, "Ginny told me she wanted to take revenge against you for not letting her play quidditch."
"Are you serious? and you decided to help her?" Yelled the twins.
"Yes, and it is going to be funny." Harry replied.
Then a dung bomb was launched to the space where the twins were, then a paint ball was splashed to Harry. Ginny decided to prank Harry first, until Harry plead an alliance with her. Then Harry invited Ron to their alliance and started a prank war against the twins, that lasted hours. Ron got bored after a while and went to play chess with Percy, while the time-travelled couple focused their efforts on the twins. The prank war gave an opportunity for the young couple to be alone and talk.
"That was a good one Harry." Said a laughing Ginny, "We think exactly the same, the twins didn't see that coming."
"Now they need to let you play quidditch and see how great of a player you are." Replied Harry.
"Don't sell yourself short Harry, you were already flying at a professional level by your second year. We need to show our talent to the stupid Slytherins." Said Ginny.
The young couple climbed the stairs to Ginny's room. As Ginny touched the door handle of the door to her room a pink puff of smoke covered them, and the young couple then appeared tied together in ropes.
"Look what we have here, my dear brother." Fred said to his twin George.
"It looks like our Gin-Gin is digging her claws in our little Harrikins." His twin replied.
"Look at this Harry, you'd think that gifting our sister a box full of Zonko's prank products would make her match our genius, but it doesn't. Zonko's are a bunch of amateurs compared to the genius of us, the handsome Weasley twins." Fred gloated.
"Fred, we should leave the lovebirds here, so the rest of our family can rejoice on their love." George said to his brother.
"First we should make them cuter." Fred took some makeup and applied it to both Harry and Ginny, so they looked like they were constantly blushing and put on them some very funny hats. Then they retreated to their room.
A while later Ron left his room and went down the stairs, when he passed Ginny's room, he burst out laughing.
Ron said, "Mate! I should have told you to never mess with the twins." Then he paused a little looking at both Harry and Ginny. "I see that you are comfortable here with my sister. I feared that her admiration of you would spook you. Ginny is a good girl, I approve. Just, don't hurt her. And you Ginny! Don't hurt him." Ron then continued his way to the kitchen.
A while later Molly came, she found out that Harry and Ginny were tied up for two hours. She scolded them for starting a prank war with the twins. She relieved them from the bindings and sent them to shower. By the end of the day, the family had it clear that Harry and Ginny were becoming close friends.
The next day was the key day for Ginny's plan. Ginny arranged her hair in some cute pigtails and put on her cutest outfit, so she had her most innocent look. She took the book Harry gave her, then went to outside's Percy's room and knocked on his door. Percy opened the door and said, "Oh! It's you Ginny! What Happened?"
Ginny using her most childish voice said, "Harry gave me this book about animals, it said that rats only lived two years, and that magical animals only lived twice as long as their muggle counterparts."
Percy took the book from Ginny's hand, "hmmm, interesting I'll see about that." Percy then thought about all the moments where Scabbers acted unlike a normal rat. "I see you suspect about Scabbers, now I'm worried as well, you were a baby when I found that rat and it is still alive. Go find our mother, I'll go for Ron and Scabbers."
Ginny came down the stairs to the kitchen where she found her mum, "Mum, Percy and Ron want to show you something."
"Ginny dear, I'll go soon."
Five minutes later, Ginny and her mum climbed the stairs to Percy's room. There Percy, Ron and Harry were already there. Molly noticed that Scabbers was in his cage.
"Kids, what happened?" asked Molly concerned.
"We find suspicious that Scabbers has lived too long for a rat, I also remember that he sometimes had behaviour that wasn't consistent with a rat. We may suspect he is an animagus." Percy explained.
Molly would have dismissed that claim, but it was her more academic oriented son the one that made that claim. She decided to humour him.
"This is the animagus revealer charm, something that is taught at N.E.W.T level transfiguration. If the animal glows blue, is a normal animal. If it glows red, it's an animagus." Molly explained before casting the charm on Scabbers, her eyes widened in shock when the rat glowed red. She then cast the charm on Hermes and it glowed blue.
"Ron and Harry, please go play outside. Ginny, call the aurors and then go to play outside."
Ginny went down the stairs and walked to the fireplace, she took a small portion of floo powder and called to the Auror department emergency line.
The operator asked, "Little girl, why are you calling the emergency line?"
"My mum found an unregistered animagus that was posing as a pet."
"What is your floo address?"
"The Burrow."
"Good, aurors are on the way. Please leave your fireplace so the aurors can be dispatched."
Ginny left the fireplace and went with Ron and Harry.
"I'm going to get sick. I slept with that rat for a year. Percy must be puking right now, he had that rat for ten years." Ron said.
"Do you want to see the aurors? I snagged Harry's cloak. I know a good spot." Ginny asked.
"Harry, you are already sharing your cloak with our Ginny? Just don't snog in front of me." Ron teased.
"Let's go!" commanded Harry.
The trio sneaked to an out the way corner in the second floor where the door to Percy's room could be seen.
A while later two aurors appeared, one of them Harry and Ginny recognized as Kingsley Shacklebolt, one of the few fair order members, the other one was Gawain Robards, Ginny recognized him from newspaper headlines.
"Mrs. Weasley. What do we have here?" asked auror Robards.
"My children were suspicious of why this rat lived so long when they had read a book Ginny received yesterday for her birthday. Percy here, requested me to use the animagus revealer charm, I cast it and it resulted that the rat was an animagus." Answered Mrs. Weasley.
"Let's check." Kingsley drew his wand and cast the charm on the rat, with it glowing red. The dark skinned auror then stunned the rat and took it out from its cage. Then he cast the charm that made an animagus return to his human form. The three adults' eyes widened in surprise when they saw Peter Pettigrew.
"It looks like the official story was incorrect." Robards commented, "let's see," Robards approached Pettigrew, grabbed his arm, and pulled back his sleeve revealing his dark mark, "I'm correct, it looks like there is someone innocent in Azkaban. We are going to take him for further interrogation."
Kingsley and Gawain took Pettigrew and cuffed him with anti-animagus cuffs and left.
After the aurors left, Percy commented, "I'm going to get sick. If you want to find me, I'll be in the bushes after the orchard vomiting." Then he stormed off.
A while later when everyone was sitting for lunch, Percy and Ron didn't have a lot of appetite, while Harry and Ginny were eating normally. Suddenly the floo flared up and Arthur Weasley appeared. "Good afternoon family, my boss sent me home early." He observed the mood of Percy and Ron and asked, "What happened here?"
His wife answered "Is a long story."
Molly then explained to everyone in the table what happened to the rat, what happened with the aurors. Then she explained the story of Halloween 1981 and how Sirius Black was arrested and how Pettigrew's arrest puts some doubts in the official story. Molly then told Harry about how he should be vigilant to any letter and newspaper article, because he was in the center of all of this. Harry of course faked learning about everything for the first time.
After the family lunch, Harry and Ginny went for a fly on Harry's nimbus, happy that the first part of their plan was already in motion.