A/N: Sorry for the long wait between chapters. I was working on NaNoWrMo and at the time of writing this I had one day's worth of work left to finish and I completed the challenge. I want to thank everyone's patience and I hope you ready for an update. Will be doing an Ounce of Privacy soon too, so if you also following that, check it out. I also already updated my PJO redo fic, that chapter went up earlier this week.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny would have been a tight fit under the invisibility cloak even now. Over the years, they had developed their Disillusion charms to be as strong as Dumbledore's had been. They cast their charms inside the Weasley house. Arthur took two of them at a time to Grimwald Place and set them just inside the privacy charms.
Once all four of them were on the doorstep, Arthur discreetly stepped out onto the sidewalk when no one was watching. He would wait for them to complete their task. Harry took his wand out and tapped the door to Grimwald place. The spells the Blacks had put on the place would prevent the Ministry from sensing any magic they did within its walls. Harry sighed as the door opened and he investigated the house that become his and Ginny's home. He felt Ginny take his hand as they stepped into the house and removed their charms. Ron and Hermione were right behind them.
What Harry noticed right away was while the place was still messy, it seemed someone had started trying to clean it up. It was strange, given that Siruis was still on the lam and Kreatcher should still have been mourning his Mistress. They could hear the elf banging and swearing from the kitchen. As they approached, he could make out the House-elf's words.
"Master Harry will be so sad if he sees his home in this state. Disrespectful, took Kreather months to clean up the place completely last time. I would have to punish myself if Mistress Ginny saw the state of her kitchen."
"Kreather, no punishing yourself." Ginny commanded as she put her hands on her hips. The elf turned around, tears in his eyes.
"Master and Mistress have come home. I see you brought company. Sadly, the Potter home is not fit for human habitation at the moment."
Ron rolled his eyes. "I'm very glad Kreatcher came from the future with us. Would have complicated things if he hadn't."
Kreatcher smiled and tossed down the rag he was trying to polish rust with. "Thank you, Master Ronald. If Master Harry would be so kind as to set the house back to order?"
Harry smiled and lifted his wand. He had perfected Dumbeldore's clean-up spell and then improved it. The spell flowed through the house, removing all the dust and pests. The dark items were moved into a large pile in the center of the kitchen floor. Ginny looked around and nodded her approval.
"Looks much better. Sorry Kreatcher, it must have been hard to see your years of hard work lost."
The elf waved this off. Kreatcher was worried that Master and Mistress would not remember him."
Harry nodded. "Sirius is alive again, Kreatcher. I promise, I'll try to keep him from being as mean to you this time, as long as you promise not to hold his past sins against him."
The elf nodded. "Kreatcher will try, Master Harry. The bad blood between Kreatcher and Master Sirius was due to his mother. Kreatcher has known a truly kind Mistress. He will let this feud go."
"That's all I can ask. We need to safely dispose of the dark objects in this pile. For now, though."
Harry flicked his wand and moved all the various cursed objects aside. "Here we are." He floated the locket up. "Hermione."
She took out her wand and summoned the pocket dimension. Harry carefully floated the locket into it. "That's one down." She smiled at him. "I'll vanish these dark objects to the basement for now, does that work?"
He nodded and wrapped an arm around Ginny. "Yeah. Then let's get back to the Burrow. You coming with us, Kreatcher?"
The elf nodded as Hermione vanished the objects. "Yes, Master Harry. If the Dark Lord is back, you may have need of Kreatcher. There is a thing or two Kreatcher would like to do before joining you, however."
He nodded. "See you back there, then. Come on guys, we got what we came for. Let's leave."
The four of them stepped out of the house and onto the shielded step. They waited for the right moment and each of them stepped out one at a time to join Arthur who was reading a paper. Finally, Harry threw on the invisibility cloak and walked over to join them. Arthur took Ron and Hermione back first and then returned for Harry and Ginny.
As they returned to the Burrow, Harry saw Charlie and Bill had joined them. Bill was looking upset and Harry could not blame him. His wife, Fleur, was not with him.
"Bill." He said to his brother-in-law.
"Harry." Bill pulled him into a hug. "Fleur told me to tell you hello. She wants you to know she looks forward to doing the Triwizard together again. She also said you might want to hold off on saving Gabbi this time."
Harry blushed as Ginny scowled. Gabrielle had made several attempts to start a polygamous relationship with him and Ginny. They had a serious talk about it, after Ginny's rage had cooled. They had sat down with the girl, as she was still underaged at the time, and explained that while they were flattered, they would not be pursing such a relationship. Gabbi had been sad but had accepted their reasons. Harry had heard she was dating a girl back in France right before they were sent back in time.
"I would rather avoid that, if possible. Not that I have anything against Gabbi, I would prefer to have her a sister, then have to break her heart a second time."
Bill patted his shoulder. "For what it is worth, Fleur and I respected and supported your choice. I don't know how I would have reacted had you become a throple, but Fleur seemed interested in the idea. She said if you decide to go that route this time, not to start hitting on her until she is seventeen."
Harry blushed and looked away. Ginny spoke up for him, wrapped her hand in his. "If you write her back, tell her we won't dismiss the idea out of hand."
Harry looked at her in wonder and she just winked at him. "We have five years before she is of age. Who knows what people we will be by then. Maybe we'll have extra room in our hearts for a blonde part veela girl. Maybe not."
Bill smiled and patted him on the shoulder. Harry wondered what the family would have thought about them if they had accepted her before all this happened. Likely not with as much favor as they would have looked on it now, given that most of them had time to wrap their minds around it.
"Bill, we will need the goblet in Gringrotts destroyed. If you need the memories, Ron has volunteered his."
Bill then winked at him. "Oh, I took care of that little detail on my way here. Even a suggestion of a dark object like that is grounds to unleash the spell on a vault. The goblet was reduced to nothingness an hour ago. I witnessed it myself. The goblins are very angry at Belltrix."
Harry shuddered and snuggled into Ginny's side. He remembered too well how terrifying the goblins could be when angry.
"At least that is done." His wife spoke calmly. "I think we should arrange a meeting with Dumbledore next. Though I suspect it will need to wait until after the Quidditch World Cup."
In all their planning and scheming, Harry had forgotten about the Cup.
"I guess we will need to go again. Because we were there last time?" He asked the others.
"I mean, we could likely skip but there is a chance things could be changed. Barty Crouch Jr needs to steal your wand and summon the Dark Mark after all."
He nodded. A good enough reason to go. Fred was rubbing his hands together.
"No spoilers now, I want to see who wins on my own. I'll bet on the team we did the math on would win, Georgie."
George blanched. Fred frowned and responded. "Let me guess, we lost?"
Harry shook his head. "No, you didn't. Still never got your winnings though."
Fred sighed. "Well, at least I knew we were right on our estimates. We spent a month doing the figures on what was likely to happen."
Harry saw Molly roll her eyes. "I wish you had put this energy into your studies but I know the joke shop was a success."
Fred beamed at his mother. "It was? We really got it going?"
George wrapped an arm around Fred's shoulders. "Going? We were rolling in gold. Come, let me, Angelina, and Ron tell you all about it."
The business partners headed off for a private room. Harry grinned at the others. "Feels right. All of this. Arthur, can you contact Dumbledore for me? Tell him that I had a nightmare about Riddle and would like to tell him in person?"
Arthur smiled. "Can do, Harry. Having Albus on our side will be a nice card to have in our hand."
He nodded even as Ginny grimaced. "We'll find a way, Gin. We will beat him, even easier this time. You'll see. For now, let's go out to our spot in the garden and enjoy the sunshine."
She smiled and took his hand. "I'll take you up on that, Mister Potter."
He kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you, Missus Potter."
They headed out together in the light to enjoy a quiet moment. Many things were left to do, but they could wait for another day.
