California Dreamin'

By: jenorama

Fandom: harry potter

Summary: Harry and Ginny have struck out for new territory in California. Hoping for a quieter life, Harry has quit the Aurors to teach, but he may not get his wish.

Status: Completed

Fic type: Books/Harry Potter

Pairings/Main char.: Harry P., Ron W., Hermione G., Ginny W.

Published: 2017-12-23

Last updated: 2017-12-28

Words count: 301,367

Chapters count: 39

Converted using www.FF2EBOOK.com
Date: 2017-12-28

1. Chapter 1

"So, Harry Potter," Artemis Ashborough said warmly, shaking Harry's hand.

"Artemis, good to finally meet you in person," Harry said, following the older man into his office. Artemis motioned for him to sit in one of the visitor's chairs while he sat behind his desk. Looking around the office, Harry thought it seemed relatively neat and organized with only a few stacks of papers on the desk. We'll see how long that lasts, he thought.

Compared to Dumbledore's office, this one seemed rather sterile with none of the fabulous magical devices that had populated the late Hogwarts headmaster's office. Along with a Wizarding photograph of the St Ambrose Academy's founder, he saw several framed certificates and diplomas along with framed pictures of sailboats.

"Welcome to St Ambrose's Academy. We are very excited to have you here." Artemis had the look of someone who spent a lot of time outdoors and he did indeed seem very happy, a wide smile creasing the corners of his eyes. Harry wondered if one of the sailboats pictured was his.

"I'm excited to be here, sir," Harry said, smiling in response.

"I tell you, when Hermione Granger slipped through our fingers, we were absolutely crushed, but then here you come, looking for your next big adventure! I do hope you don't find us lacking!"

"I hope you don't find me lacking," Harry said, only partially joking. It had been a long time since the DA and he hoped that he could pull this off.

"Oh, I very much doubt that!" Artemis paused and smiled at him again, drumming his fingers against the desk top. Harry knew what he was going to say before the words were even out of his mouth and he forced himself not to groan audibly when the headmaster practically crowed, "You are the Boy Who Lived, after all!"

"Indeed," Harry said, crossing one leg over the other to hide his discomfort. "I'm sure you've heard of the difficulties Hogwarts had in keeping a Defense professor over the years. I trust St Ambrose's doesn't have the same issue?"

Artemis shook his head emphatically. "The troubles Hogwarts had in the past with that position even reached us way out here. No, you don't have anything to worry about on that front. Your predecessor, Herbert Grigsby, finally decided to retire. Said he was getting too old to keep up with the kids."

"That's very good to hear."

Artemis nodded and looked at him, head tilted to the side. "Does Hogwarts still have the same…problem with keeping a Defense teacher?" he asked.

Harry shook his head. "No, that seems to be done with now. They've had the same one for several years running now. Another ex-Auror."

"Ah, very good."

"My predecessor, did he leave behind any sort of lesson plans?"

"He left behind a whole classroom full of things you may or may not find useful. As to whether there are lesson plans, I don't know." Artemis chuckled and slapped his hand down on the desk. "You've got your work cut out for you, I'm afraid! Shall we go take a look?" Harry stood with the headmaster and they walked out into the office, Artemis pointing out the staff mail room as they left the building.

Outside were several low-slung buildings arranged around a grassy quad with a fountain in the middle. Behind the buildings Harry spotted the towering Quidditch goalposts silhouetted against the golden, oak-studded hills and he smiled, glad to find one familiar thing in all of this newness. Artemis continued chattering as they walked, giving him some of the high points of the school's history and Harry only listened with half an ear, turning his attention to his surroundings.

Everything's so spread out, he thought, automatically looking for defensible choke points and hidden nooks and crannies. If it really came down to it, this place would not be the easiest to defend. A brief memory of the suits of armor defending Hogwarts came to mind and he shook his head. They've clearly never had to deal with any threats, ever.

A moment later they stopped in front of a door with the number 35 on it. "And here we are," Artemis said grandly as he unlocked the door with his wand and opened it. Stepping inside, Harry turned around, taking it all in.

It was a large room, at least as big as he remembered the Defense classroom at Hogwarts. The teacher's desk, with a cavernous fireplace behind it, sat at the front of the classroom with about twenty-five student desks arrayed neatly in front of it. An enormous chalkboard took up almost one whole wall while another wall was divided evenly between windows that looked out to the Quidditch pitch and bulletin boards, currently bare.

Low bookshelves stuffed with all manner of things lined the wall underneath the windows and bulletin boards. In the back of the classroom there was a wide expanse of floor with a grayish low-nap carpet only slightly singed in places and two large cabinets. The floor area looked like it would be excellent for practical demonstrations and Harry nodded. "This looks great," he said, making Artemis beam happily again. He walked over to the desk and cautiously pulled open a few drawers, alert for any surprises.

"I think you'll do quite well in here." Artemis looked around the classroom, raising his eyebrows at all of the stuff left by the previous occupant. "I daresay you'll be busy for a few days getting set up."

Harry closed a drawer and a puff of dust from summer disuse made him sneeze. "I certainly will. I have some of my things from London arriving directly here. Who do I see about that?"

"That will be Sherman Keller. He's head of custodial and sometimes it seems like he's the only one keeping us going. I'll ask him to deliver any boxes for you directly to this room." Artemis and Harry stood awkwardly in the room, looking at each other before the headmaster finally nodded and said, "I should be letting you get on with things. Don't forget to see Lucinda for your badge. Do you have any other questions before I go?"

"Regarding lesson plans…when we had chatted before I decided to take the position, you indicated that I would be free to design any curriculum I see fit. I assume that still stands?"

Artemis spread his hands wide. "Of course! I want all of our students to benefit from your knowledge and experience as much as they possibly can."

Harry nodded. My experience indeed. "Glad to hear it. I can promise you that St Ambrose Defense students will be the envy of the whole country."

"With you teaching here, they already are!" Artemis laughed as he left the classroom. Harry heard him exclaim, "Harry Potter!" to himself and shook his head.

Turning his attention to the desk, he sat down in the desk chair, taking his digital music player out of his pocket and untangling the earbuds. A moment later, the Clash were ringing though his ears as he started a more thorough survey of the contents of the desk drawers. Soon he had several papers and objects sorted into "keep", "maybe", "rubbish" and "what the hell?" piles. One drawer was full of things obviously taken from disruptive students and Harry was glad to see that there were no Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes items.

Setting a shrunken head in the "what the hell?" pile, he unearthed a notebook of indeterminate vintage. Sitting back in the chair, he opened it and quickly leafed through it. Ah, looks like he did write down some lesson plans, Harry thought as he scanned the neat writing. It seemed to be more of a general outline of what skills were taught at which grade level and he noted some glaring omissions. No non-verbal casting and no Patronus. We'll have to remedy that. Nothing about the Unforgivables and nothing about Horcruxes, either. Well, I don't think I'm going to get into Horcruxes, but they definitely need to know about the Unforgivables.

Putting the notebook into the "keep" pile, he checked the remaining drawers, finding the desiccated remains of a Doxy and other assorted bits of rubbish including what looked like twenty years' worth of toffee wrappers. The Doxy went into the "maybe" pile.

Harry felt a tap on his shoulder and he quickly turned to see a tall black woman with a mass of dreadlocks standing next to him. "Sorry," he said as he pulled the earbuds out of his hears, music still pouring through.

"Sorry to disturb you," the woman said with a warm smile. "I'm Juanita Okefor, Worldwide History of Magic. I have the classroom next door."

Standing up, he dusted his hands off on his jeans and shook her hand. "Good to meet you. I'm Harry, the new Defense teacher."

Juanita shook his hand and smiled again. "It's okay. You can say 'Potter' to me."

Embarrassed, Harry chuckled. "Sorry, old habit."

"I totally get it. I think you'll find yourself flying a bit under the radar here."

"That's what I'm hoping for."

"It doesn't look like old Grigsby took a lot with him when he left, does it?" Juanita said, looking around the classroom.

"Well, his desk was stuffed full, that's for sure," Harry said, gesturing to the piles of papers and objects on top of it. "I still have to go through all of the bookshelves and those cabinets." He picked up the notebook he'd found and paged through it again. "This looks to be a sort of lesson plan and I notice that neither non-verbal casting nor the Patronus Charm are in here." He decided to not mention the Unforgivables for now, not completely sure what the status on those were here in the States.

Juanita took the proffered notebook and thumbed through it with a frown. "Not usually, at least not at this level of education," she said, handing it back to him.

"Why not?"

"There's not really a need to. If students choose to go on to higher magical education at one of the Universities, they learn those there," she said with a shrug.

Harry frowned and set the notebook back down on the desk. "But what if someone without that higher magical education finds themselves in a situation where they could really use those skills?"

"Harry, this is America. We haven't had to deal with the sorts of threats you've faced." Her barefaced complacency shocked him and he didn't know quite what to say, so he just nodded in agreement. "Have you had lunch yet?"

Checking his watch, he saw that it was after twelve and he shook his head. "No, I haven't. I didn't have much of a breakfast, either. I just got in late last night."

"Well, let me treat you to lunch, all right? I know a great place not too far away."

"Sounds good," Harry smiled. He was finding he liked her easy friendliness a lot and her mention of lunch suddenly had him ravenous. He shut off the music player and coiled the earbuds around it, knowing they'd be hopelessly tangled in minutes. "I can drive, if you like."

"Ah, is that your car out in the parking lot? Very nice."

"Thanks." Harry locked his classroom door and headed over to the parking lot, smiling when his new car came into view. He'd chosen a wagon this time, reasoning that as a teacher he'd likely be hauling around more stuff than usual.

"Oh, brand new," Juanita said approvingly as she slid into the black leather seat.

"I bought it when I was out here week before last," he said as he started it up, finding the thrumming purr of the engine exhilarating.

"So you knew for sure you were going to be staying?"

Harry thought of Ginny and smiled as he backed out of the parking spot. "Definitely."

After lunch, he was back in his classroom, music blasting through his ears again. He decided to attack the bookshelves which were stuffed full of dusty old volumes and other assorted bric-a-brac. He pulled a square of some sort of soft, grayish-brown fur out from between two books. It was obviously very old, the hide cracked and brittle. Turning it over, he nearly dropped it in horror. "Werewolf pelt," the label on the back said. All Harry could think about was Remus and the gentle nature at his core. Utterly disgusted, he took it outside and tossed it on the pavement, setting it on fire and burning it until it was just a pile of ash that blew away in the breeze.

What the hell else am I going to find in there? he wondered as he headed back in after scouring the black mark from the pavement. The bookshelves yielded more books which he sorted into piles. In addition to outdated text books, he found an old Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual of all things. What in the world? he thought and set it in the "keep" pile along with a few of the older text books.

A jar acting as a bookend was labeled "Pixie Dust" and Harry shook the jar, watching as the gold sparkles slowly settled down to the bottom. Hm, I wonder if I'll fly if I sprinkle some on me? he thought as he set it into a "keep" pile. Scouring the dust from the shelves, he quickly put the much-reduced amount of things to keep back on them and turned his attention to the cabinets.

They were pretty good-sized, about five feet wide and taller than he was. Harry sighed and opened the first one, half-expecting a cascade of junk to fall down on him. Nothing fell out, however, and he stepped up to it for a closer look. More books and papers of course, naturally covered in dust, making Harry sneeze again.

On a middle shelf he found several jars and pulled them out. "What in the hell?" Harry said out loud, peering at the label of a jar full of a grayish, pearly-looking dust. "Vampire dust. What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" Shrugging, he set it aside to keep, figuring he'd ask the Potions teacher if he had any use for it. Another jar had what looked like several Vampire teeth. These I'll keep.

Along with odd bits of Dark detecting devices, he found a stuffed Chupacabra and a Grindylow, the Grindylow looking rather surprised at its current situation. Keeping an eye on his door, he saw a middle-aged wizard with what looked like his crates floating behind him and he shut off his music player, silencing the Stones.

"Hello? Are you the new teacher?" the wizard asked, coming into the classroom.

"Yes, hello," he said, dusting his hands off on his jeans as he approached the door. "Harry Potter," he said, shaking the other man's hand.

"Sherman Keller. I have some crates for you."

"Excellent. Those'll be my things from London." Harry stepped aside to allow the older wizard to float the half dozen crates into the classroom, directing him to set them down by the shelves. "Thank you so much for handling those."

Sherman nodded as he looked around the classroom, taking in the piles of stuff all over Harry's desk and the floor. "I'll bring a big trash can for you and set it outside. Just fill it up with whatever you don't want and I'll take care of it."

"Thanks. My predecessor was here for a long time and had built up quite the collection, it seems."

"Yeah, Grigsby was old when I started and I've been here twenty years!" He nodded at Harry again and smiled. "It's good to see someone new in the position."

"Well, I'll do my best to live up to your expectations," Harry said, making Sherman laugh.

"There's no doubt there's a lot of expectations on you. I don't envy you at all," he said, shaking his head. "I'll bring you an extra-large trash can in a bit."

"Thanks again," Harry said, watching from the doorway as he walked away. "Great expectations indeed," he murmured as he turned to his crates. Activating a spell that lit up the wards on the boxes to his sight, he checked for any disturbances, finding none. He then went through a careful trap deactivation sequence, listening for the telltale pop that told him the crate was safe to open.

Using his wand to lift the heavy lid, Harry shoved aside the packing material until he found the Pensieve. The stone basin was empty and he picked it up, checking it carefully for any cracks and setting it down on a nearby desk after verifying it was all in one piece. Back in the crate, he dug around until he found the Unbreakable jar of pearly fluid he'd drained from the Pensieve before packing it in the crate. He swirled it around, random images catching his eye as he opened the jar and carefully poured the fluid back into the shallow basin.

Picking it up in both hands, he moved very slowly toward the recently emptied cabinet and set it on a shelf, sliding it back until it was almost at the very rear of the cabinet. Main task complete, he took the rest of the things out of the open crate, including his Invisibility Cloak and Malfoy's former wand, which he'd kept all of these years.

Releasing the wards and traps on the other crates, he quickly sorted through the books in them. Some of them were his own and some had been Dumbledore's that he had made a special trip to Hogwarts to collect. McGonagall had been keeping them in the Headmaster's office for him until he decided he would bring them to California. All of Dumbledore's books and some of his own more interesting volumes went into the cabinet and the others onto the shelves.

He heard a rumbling outside on the pavement and looked outside, seeing the truly huge bin that Sherman Keller had put outside for him. Taking the opportunity to go through the piles again, he did some further sorting until he was pretty well satisfied and floated the piles of rubbish out to the bin.

Turning to the last cabinet with a sigh, he put his earbuds back in and scrolled through his music player, settling on Led Zeppelin for the last push. This cabinet didn't have any books, but seemed to be full of samples of various things. He was developing a picture of Herbert Grigsby as a man of very eccentric tastes and the first item he pulled out of the cabinet, a dead snake from the head of a Medusa, only furthered that perception.

Filled with trepidation, Harry pulled a heavy box out of the cabinet, setting it carefully on a nearby desk. No label. What could this be? Cautiously opening the box, he drew back in surprise at the eyeball staring at him through a jar of cloudy fluid. Lifting the heavy jar out of the box, he saw the label at the bottom. Basilisk eye, juvenile, he read with a shudder. Thank God they can't kill or Petrify anymore once they're dead. Peeking back into the box, he spied two fangs and a section of cured skin, the colors still vibrant. Just to be extra safe, he put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar before putting it back into the box with the other items.

A jar of sloshing green fluid proved to be Poltergeist ectoplasm and Harry smiled, thinking of Peeves and the wet splats he left everywhere that were the bane of Filch's existence. In addition to a preserved Acromantula egg and Banshee hair, he found an old Ouija board and wondered what the former teacher could have possibly used this for because it did look used. Shrugging, he set it aside and got down on his hands and knees to get at the bottom of the cabinet.

Spying what looked like a large box, he brushed aside a bundle of crow feathers and dragged it out, sighing at the sight of more sample jars. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he took them out, checking the labels as he sorted them. Cockatrice beak and feathers? Interesting. A jar containing a few bits of gaudy costume jewelry had a red label on it that read CAUTION: CURSED. Another jar declared itself to be full of Thestral manure. Looking back in the box, Harry froze, his hand in midair.

At the very bottom of the box was an object he hoped to never see again in his entire life. A Black Quill? The scar on the back of his right hand throbbed, making it feel like his skin was crawling and he rubbed it with his left. What is this doing here? Where did it come from? Very gingerly, using only his index finger and thumb, Harry picked it up, wanting to touch as little of it as possible.

The Black Quill shone in the late afternoon sunlight, the razor-sharp point reflecting a beam of light into his eyes, making him turn away. "You have no place here," he said out loud as he stood up and took it outside. Setting it on the pavement, he set it on fire as he had the Werewolf pelt, a feeling of deep satisfaction coming over him as it withered to ash. He caught the scent of burnt feathers and blood as it burned and he shook his head. Well, it looks like it was well-forgotten. Maybe Grigsby had gotten it as a curiosity years ago. I hope he never used it.

Harry stood in the sunlight for a few minutes, the warmth on his shoulders eradicating the chill brought on by finding the Black Quill. He saw Juanita come out of her classroom and lock the door and he waved. "Taking a break?" she asked as she walked over to him.

"Yeah, needed some fresh air," he said, shutting off Led Zeppelin.

"What was that?" She pointed to the pile of ash on the pavement.

"Oh. That was a Black Quill I found in an old box in one of the cabinets."

"A what?"

"A Black Quill." Harry held up his right hand and showed her the scar, watching her face change as she read the words.

"Oh," she said quietly.

"Mm." They stood looking at the pile of ash swirling away on the wind.

"Well, it looks like you've been busy," she said after a drawn-out moment. "I'm heading out. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yep. See you." Harry watched as she walked toward the administrative office. Things aren't as bright and sunny as you thought, are they?

Back in the classroom, he surveyed the mess. There were still several piles of books and other things scattered around, but most of the obvious rubbish had been put into the bin. He looked over the books once more, deciding to pack up the ones he didn't want and take them over to the school's library and see if the librarian wanted them. Sorting through the specimen jars, he set aside the ones he thought would be interesting to the Potions teacher and put them in another box.

Standing in the middle of the room, he stretched his arms high over his head and gave an enormous yawn. Hands on his hips, he decided that he was done for the day. Looking in the cabinet he'd stored the Pensieve and other things in, he took out the Invisibility Cloak and put it in the crate that had the rest of his clothes and other personal items. Closing the cabinet, he engaged an elaborate locking and warding procedure, completing it with a drop of blood to ensure that only he could open it.

Satisfied, he levitated the heavy crate out of the classroom and locked the door, walking behind the crate to his car. He had to fold the rear seats down to fit the crate in, but it did fit. Remembering Artemis's admonition regarding the identification badge, he went into the office, looking for Lucinda.

He found her on the telephone, which struck him as odd. He hadn't really seen a non-Muggle use a telephone in ages and he shook his head as he headed into the staff mail room to see if there was anything for him while he waited for Lucinda to finish her phone call. In the mailroom, he found a wall of neatly-labeled cubbies and he saw one with his name on it stuffed full of papers.

Pulling out the papers, he leafed through them. Class schedule, student list, announcements…a magazine? "Welcome to St Ambrose's Academy, The Best Choice For Your Child's Magical Education," Harry read aloud, going back out to the main office. Lucinda was still on the phone and he caught the word "Boggart." Feeling bad for eavesdropping, he listened closer.

"It just showed up last week, I don't know where it came from. Yes, I know. The attic, but it's getting bolder. Yes. Well, Riddikulus just makes it skitter off and hide and then it shows up again." She gave a long sigh. "I'll have to call someone to get rid of it, I guess. Okay, well, I've got to go. Yes, thank you. Bye." Hanging up the phone, she turned to Harry with a smile. "Sorry about that. Mothers."

"No worries. I couldn't help but overhear that you're having trouble with a Boggart?"

"Yes. It just showed up in the attic, but it's not going to stay there. I'll have to call Martin's Magical Pest Control."

"I could clear it out for you. I'd love to have one for my class."

Lucinda gave him a wide smile. "Oh, would you really? That would be great!"

"Yeah, definitely. Would tomorrow be all right?"

"That would be perfect." She jotted her address down on a piece of paper and handed it to him. He saw that she lived in Emeryville. "Now, I imagine you want to have your picture taken for your badge."

Harry hated having his picture taken, but he nodded anyway, following her over to where an elaborate camera was set up in front of a plain blue backdrop. As instructed, Harry had his picture taken straight on and in profile, the machine spitting out a slim card a few moments later. Lucinda looked at it first and he saw her quickly school her features into stillness before handing it to him.

"Oh, no," he said when he got a look at the picture that transitioned between the straight on image and the profile. He managed to look both surprised and supremely annoyed in both of them.

"Do you want to try again?" Lucinda asked solicitously.

"No, it won't be any better." Harry took the blue and gold lanyard from Lucinda and clipped it to the badge, hanging it around his neck. "Do I look official?"

"Very. It's so good to have you here, Harry. When I heard we'd lost Hermione to Hogwarts, well, we were all so disappointed."

Harry fought the urge to groan. She means well, he thought as they settled on a time tomorrow morning to sort out the Boggart in her attic. Taking his leave, he heaved a huge sigh of relief as he slid into the driver's seat of his car and started the engine. "Well, that's one day down," he said as he headed home.

Harry lounged on the sofa, occasionally sipping from his mug of tea as he perused the documents he'd picked up earlier from St Ambrose's Academy. He'd already read through his class schedule, list of students, and was now working his way through "Welcome to St Ambrose's Academy, The Best Choice For Your Child's Magical Education." It was a thick, glossy magazine packed with information for students, parents and instructors. From it, Harry learned that the school had been in operation for over seventy-five years, a fact that made him raise his eyebrows and smile.

He glanced at his watch, noting it was four-thirty and hoped Ginny would be home soon. He'd gotten in so late the night before that all he'd been able to do was undress and get into bed with her, fitting his body to hers and falling asleep almost immediately. Harry had slept so deeply that she was already gone by the time he woke up, leaving him with a vague memory of Ginny smoothing his hair back and kissing his forehead. Sighing impatiently, he looked at his watch again, willing the hands to move faster, and finished his tea.

He was rinsing the mug out in the sink when he heard the crack of Ginny Apparating into the flat. Abandoning the mug, he swept her up into a huge bear hug and kissed her soundly. "Gin! Finally, you're home!"

"Harry, you're awake!" Ginny returned the hug and kiss and gently broke away to set down her school bag and collapse on the sofa.

"You look exhausted. Tea?"

"Bless you, tea sounds lovely." Ginny smiled at him and Harry felt his heart swell. The week he had spent in London making the myriad of necessary arrangements had been intensely busy and he felt all of the tension he had been carrying slowly drain from his body and mind now that he was back home with her.

Settling down on the sofa next to her, he handed her the mug and stroked her short hair as she sipped the hot tea gratefully. "What time did you leave this morning?"

"Well, not that you noticed, but I left at eight." Ginny ruffled his hair and kissed his cheek. She glanced at the coffee table and saw the St Ambrose's welcome magazine and picked it up, thumbing through it. "How'd it go today?"

"Good. I met the headmaster in person, finally."

"Yeah? How is he?"

"He's nice. Got my ID badge." He showed her the blue and gold badge with his terrible picture.

"Oh." Ginny looked at the picture and Harry could see her trying to repress a smile. "That's ... good."

He took back the badge and dropped it face down on the coffee table. "You can laugh, it's terrible."

"You do look a little ... surprised." Ginny swept her hair back and continued looking through the magazine, reading the staff biography page. "They don't have you on here."

"No. Not enough time to reprint the whole magazine just for me." Resting his head on her shoulder, he looked at the page with her. "I met her today." He indicated one of the professors.

"Juanita Okefor." Ginny read aloud. "She looks interesting," she said, indicating the mass of dreadlocks.

"Yeah, she's really amazing. She was born in Nigeria, but came here really young. Her dad is a Healer with a speciality in Spell Damage at San Francisco Thaumaturgical," Harry said. "We had lunch today. She's the Worldwide Magical History teacher."

"Oh? You had lunch with her?" Ginny looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "Back in town one day and already at it, Potter?"

Harry grinned and shook his head. "I thought about it, but she's not really my type. I seem to have a thing for red-headed overworked medical students," he murmured in her ear, pleased to see a pink flush creep up her neck.

"And I seem to have a thing for untidy, young, sexy professors." Harry drew her to him and kissed her deeply, relishing the feeling of her soft lips against his after an unbearable week apart.

"I spent far too much time this last week thinking of you," he said when they broke apart.

"Did you? What did you think about?" Ginny tossed the glossy magazine onto the coffee table and turned to look at Harry, frank interest in her gaze.

"Lots of things," he said, swallowing around the sudden lump in his throat.

"Such as?" She raised an eyebrow, one corner of her mouth turning up in what had to be the most Weasley-esque expression ever and Harry felt a warm flush course over him, positive he had to be blushing.

Determined to not let her get the better of him, he leaned in close and seized her earlobe with his teeth, nibbling lightly. She gave a squeak and squirmed, trying to get away. "I thought about that," he whispered, darting his tongue out to trace the shell of her ear.

"That can't be all," she said, her voice a warm purr.

"Definitely not." Warming to his subject now, Harry slid his hand underneath her tee shirt and jumper, drawing a finger lightly across her stomach. "I thought a lot about how soft your skin is, just there." Using the lightest touch, he traced a circle around her navel, delighting in her shivery sigh.

"What else?" Ginny asked, her voice barely audible. Her eyes had that cloudy, faraway look that let Harry know he was getting to her.

Keeping one hand under her jumper sweeping slowly across her stomach and ribs, Harry pulled the neck of her top down to uncover the hollow of her throat. "I definitely thought of your scent."

"My what?"

"The way you smell. Your perfume, your soap," Harry kissed her softly right between her collarbones, flicking his tongue out for a taste. "Your skin."

"Oh," she said faintly.

"What about you? What did you think about while I was gone?" Harry pulled the neck of her tee shirt and jumper further down, trying to get at more of her freckled skin.

"I thought about how the first thing I did when I saw you would be to throw you down and have my way with you," she said, driving her fingers through his thick hair to pull him up for a kiss.

"What makes you think I'd let you do that?"

"I know you secretly love it." Ginny kissed him again, sucking on his bottom lip and the feeling went straight to his cock, making it throb in time with his heartbeat.

"You know me much too well," he murmured against her lips. He had both hands underneath her top now, rubbing his thumbs over her hard nipples through her bra.

Ginny put her hands against his shoulders and pushed him over on the sofa, pausing a moment to remove her top before laying down on top of him. "See, I've got you on your back already," she said with that Weasley half-smile.

"Now what are you going to do with me?"

"I can't tell you, that would just ruin the surprise." Ginny placed soft kisses down his neck, occasionally nipping with her teeth and Harry let out a long breath. He loved the feeling of her stretched out on top of him and he swept his hands over her back and shoulders, unfastening her bra and pushing it out of the way to allow uninterrupted access.

"That's hardly fair," Harry said moving his head to the left so Ginny could get at the right side of his neck. "I told you what I thought about while I was away."

Ginny drew back and looked at him, her brown eyes full of mischief. "So you did." She leaned her head to the side and smiled. "Well, if I'm going to have my way with you, this needs to go." She straddled him and tugged the bottom of his polo shirt from his jeans, pushing it up and over his head, tossing it behind her and following it with her bra a moment later.

Pulling her back down to lay against him, Harry closed his eyes at the feeling of her skin against his. "What happens next?"

"I thought we'd kiss for a while," Ginny said, doing exactly that. As they kissed, Harry slid his hands down her back and over her arse, kneading the firm flesh, pressing her hips into his so she could feel his hardness. Taking his cue, she began to rock her hips on top of him, kissing him harder as she did.

The feeling of Ginny grinding against him was incredible, even through their layers of clothing, but Harry wanted more. He thought briefly of Vanishing the remainder of their clothes, but he knew he'd never hear the end of it. Sliding his hands underneath the waistband of her jeans, Harry squeezed hard, loving the feeling of her soft skin against his hands. A satisfied hum from Ginny vibrated against his lips. "You like that?"

"Mm-hm," she hummed again, pressing her lips against his throat. "We've got on a bit too many clothes, don't you think?"

"I do think. I thought about Vanishing…" Harry pressed her hips into his again, gratified to see her eyes close.

"Don't you even dare. These are my favorite jeans and I would never forgive you if you made them disappear."

"Never?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Never."

"Guess I'll have to get them off the old-fashioned way then." Harry gently pushed Ginny up into a sitting position, running his hands over her bare breasts and tweaking her nipples before trailing his fingers down her stomach and unbuttoning the top button of her jeans, drawing down the zipper to expose her knickers. "Red. Nice," he said, looking up at her with a smile.

"I thought you deserved something nice for coming home to me," Ginny said with an answering smile. "You know, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking of us on this sofa." She carefully stood up and took his hand, drawing him up from the sofa and to the bed a few steps away. Harry let her push him down to land on the bed with a bounce, watching as she shimmied out of her jeans, leaving her in those red knickers.

"Those are nice, but I think they'd look better on the floor."

"You think so?" Ginny hooked her thumbs into the waistband and slowly pushed them down, Harry groaning at the sight of her completely starkers in front of him. Hands on her hips, she looked at him critically. "We need to do something about those. Off," she said, deftly unbuckling his belt and almost before he knew it, he was starkers as well. "Much better."

Harry's breath hitched into another groan as she ran her hand up and down his hard cock. "I missed you so much."

"How much?" Ginny asked, breath hot on his skin.

"So, so much."

"Let's see how much that is." Harry watched as she trailed her tongue from his bollocks all the way to the tip of his cock, feeling like his brain was slowly coming undone. Meeting his eyes, Ginny gave him a wink, swirling her tongue around the head of his cock before moving up to straddle him again. Hands on her hips, Harry closed his eyes and sighed as he felt her guide him into her wet warmth, resting her weight on him for a moment before moving slowly.

Ginny rested her hands on his shoulders, pushing him further down into the bed as she leaned forward to kiss him, red hair falling in a curtain around her face. "I missed you," she whispered between lingering kisses.

"I'm not leaving again," Harry breathed as Ginny increased her pace, grinding her hips in a circular motion. He never tired of watching the play of expressions on her face as they made love; the way a look of fierce concentration could give way to a beatific smile in a split second never failed to thrill him.

Kissing his forehead, Ginny pushed off his shoulders and sat up, leaning back and resting her hands behind her on his thighs as she moved up and down, giving him a whole different sensation. He closed his eyes as a wave of pleasure swept through him, making his breath catch in his chest and his heart skip a beat. He opened his eyes to see her looking down at him with a smile. "Like that?"

"Oh God, yes," Harry said, sliding his hands up from her hips to her breasts, the feeling of her sweaty skin against his palms sending him to new heights. Using the extra leverage, Ginny increased her pace, the sound of their bodies crashing together filling the room. Abruptly she slowed, leaning forward again and Harry crushed her to him, kissing her as she came, swallowing her cries.

Lazily moving her hips again, she looked down at Harry, sweeping his hair back from his forehead. "Why am I doing all of the work here?"

Harry stretched his arms above his head and grinned at her. "Because I'm a lazy bastard?"

Ginny nipped his neck and climbed off him, leaving him feeling deserted until she wrapped her hand around his cock, pumping slowly. "What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?" she asked with a wicked smile. She sighed happily when Harry rolled over on top of her, rubbing the tip of his cock over her clit before slowly pushing into her.

Her fingernails digging into his back spurred him on and soon they were both panting hard and bathed in sweat. Harry groaned when he felt her fasten her mouth on his jumping pulse point and suck hard, sure he would have a bruise there. "Gin," he panted, "how is it going to look if I show up to my first day at school with a love bite?"

"I don't care, just as long as those other teachers know you're mine," she said, raking her fingernails down his back, sending a ripple of ecstasy through him. Running her hands down his firmly muscled back, she squeezed his arse, holding him still as she came again with a satisfied hum. Opening her eyes, she smiled at him. "Continue," she said sweetly.

"Thanks." Harry felt he was nearing the end of his rope and he moved into Ginny harder, grinning when he heard the breath explode out of her. Arms trembling with the effort of holding himself up, he increased his tempo and closed his eyes, concentrating on the incredible feeling of being with her once more until he felt like his heart was going to jump right out of his chest.

"Harry, let go, let go..." Ginny crooned, digging her nails into his back once more and he knew he was lost. He gave one final push and a long exhale that ended in a wheeze when he felt her legs wrap tightly around his waist and pull him deeper into her as his orgasm swept through him, leaving him feeling completely drained.

Fighting to get his breath back, Harry groaned and collapsed on top of Ginny, feeling her heartbeat echoed in his own. She wiggled out from under him after a moment and poked him until he lay on his side, gathering her close until they lay nestled like spoons. "I missed you," Harry said quietly, kissing her ear.

"I could tell." Ginny sighed and pressed her body harder against Harry's. "Let's never do that again, okay?"

"What, have incredible sex at five o'clock in the afternoon?"

"No, be apart for so long. I understand that sometimes we might have to be, but if we can help it..."

"Yeah." They lay together for a time and Harry became aware of the fact that he was very hungry. "Gin?"

"Hmm?" she said sleepily, turning her face towards his.

"Hungry?"

"Starved. I didn't have time for lunch today. I had a bag of crisps at eleven and that's been it."

"Chinese?"

"No."

"Go out?"

"No."

Harry snorted. "Well, you don't have anything here. I looked."

"I haven't had time to do the shopping with orientation and counselor meetings and I had some meetings at SF Thaumaturgical and now classes have started."

"Well, if we're going to eat, we should get going. I saw a pub that looks decent a few blocks away."

Ginny made a reluctant sound and turned around in his arms to face him. "We have to shower. It smells like a brothel in here."

"How do you know what a brothel smells like?" Harry asked as she disengaged herself from his arms.

"The more important question here is how do you know what a brothel smells like?"

"Being an Auror gets you into some interesting places," Harry said with a grin.

Ginny snorted and grabbed his hand, pulling him up. "Come on. Let's get clean after being so dirty."

After a shower that almost turned into something else, they walked through the oddly chilly summer afternoon and found the pub reasonably empty and quiet. Harry went to the bar and got a Guinness for himself and a cider for Ginny, bringing them both back to their table in the corner.

"Boy, I bet you haven't had one of those since yesterday, hm?" Ginny observed wryly, sipping her own cider.

"Actually, I was too busy yesterday." He reached out for her hand and held it on top of the table. "I didn't even ask you about your day. First day of classes. How'd it go?"

"Oh, quite well. I have a lot of work ahead of me. The school divides things up into these block things and right now I've got the Prologue block. So in the next two months, I've got to hoover up a ton of information about anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, molecular and cellular biology and I'm sure a couple of other things I'm forgetting about. Then I've got to spit it all back out on an exam." She took another drink of her cider, looking rather glum.

"Poor baby." Harry patted her arm and grinned, sitting back in his chair. "So, you figure anatomy and physiology, you've already got to know a lot of that from your Healer training and work. Pharmacology sounds a lot like Potions. You've got this sewed up." He snapped his fingers for emphasis and saw her relax. "Still, you're going to be very busy and I'm not going to see much of you." He made his best attempt at a pouty face and was rewarded with a smile.

"Hey, let's talk about something else, okay? How's Mum and Dad?"

"They're great. Worried about you, of course. I didn't tell them about ... us." He looked down and reached for her hand again, squeezing it.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I don't blame you. We'll tell them together. Safety in numbers, right?" She looked at the menu on the table and passed it to Harry. "Curry and chips, please." Harry nodded and looked quickly at the menu before heading up to the bar to put in their order, getting a steak and ale pie for himself.

Back at the table, Ginny asked, "Did you tell Ron and Hermione?"

"Well, I hadn't planned to initially."

"How'd he get it out of you?"

Harry paused for a moment, replaying his conversation with Ron in his head. "Well, he's worried about you of course, out here in California. Can't do his big brother thing and stop by unannounced. You know how he goes on, so I finally told him that you'd be safe because I was moving in with you." He took a big gulp of his Guinness, remembering Ron's gimlet eye.

"Oh dear. And then what?"

"Well, then he went on about how we're both adults and can make our own decisions–"

"Generous of him."

"Right? Anyway, he gave me the old 'I'm her brother and if I hear you've broken her heart again, I'll snap you in half like a fucking twig,' speech," Harry said in a fair approximation of Ron's deeper voice. "And then he said if I did break your heart, he'd tell your mum and then she'd really go to work on me."

Ginny laughed aloud, causing some of the patrons at the bar to glance in her direction. "That sounds exactly like what he would say." She shook her head, a fond expression on her face. "And Hermione?"

"She was happy. Said she knew it was coming. Wish she'd clued me in." Harry grinned at Ginny and she shot him a sour look.

"You're not that funny, Potter. Don't quit your day job." Just then their food came and they dug in, trading bites of each other's dishes. "Did you see your classroom today?"

"Yes, I did. Unpacked my books, cleaned out some cabinets and shelves. The professor before me left some odd stuff in there." He decided not to tell her about either the Werewolf pelt or the Black Quill. "I went through a lot of it and threw a lot out, but I've got to do another sort. The man was an absolute pack rat." He took another drink of his Guinness and grinned at Ginny. "I have a line on a Boggart."

"You do? From where?"

"The office manager was complaining to her mum about one that's taken up residence in her attic and I said I'd sort it out for her. I'm going to her house tomorrow morning."

"Very nice, Potter. Such a go-getter. What about your other stuff? You didn't bring much with you last night when you came in."

"That came this afternoon. I'll have to enlarge the closet," he mused, taking another bite of his surprisingly excellent pie and stealing a couple of Ginny's chips. Feeling content for the first time in a very long time, he remembered his lunchtime conversation with Juanita. "Hey, there's a reception going on at the school Friday night. Is my girlfriend free?"

Ginny looked like she was mulling over Harry's question. "I don't know, what sort of 'reception' is this?"

"I think it's just sort of a staff get together before the school year begins. I think alumni and board members come too. Some parents. Meet up, meet the new guy. I think the headmaster gives some sort of speech."

"Are you going to be on display?"

Harry grimaced and shook his head. "I hope not. I mean, Artemis, the headmaster, kind of gave me a bit of a speech about how they have high hopes for me. But I haven't met all of the staff yet, so we'll see how the rest of them react. I just hope that I didn't take the job away from someone already there. I hate it when I make enemies before I've even started."

"I'm sure you'll be fine. Do your classes start Monday?"

"No, Tuesday. Here the Muggles have a holiday called Labor Day where they celebrate work by not working." Harry shook his head and took a deep drink of his Guinness.

"Oh, that's right! Then I'll have Monday off, too. We should do something."

"Or we could just stay in all day, shagging and eating Chinese," Harry said with a wolfish grin, making Ginny giggle and blush. They finished their dinner in companionable silence and headed back to their small flat, enjoying the cool evening air after the close atmosphere of the small pub.

Back at the flat, Harry unpacked his crate, enlarging the closet so he could hang up the dress shirts in Ginny's already full closet. Finding drawer space for his other things was a little bit more problematic, but he was eventually able to get everything situated while Ginny did some reading for class. He got out his laptop and opened it with the idea of starting on lesson plans, but he realized that he was very tired, even though it was barely dark outside. He sat on the sofa, staring at the blank screen until he heard Ginny softly call his name. "What?" he asked, shaking himself out of his daze.

"You must be completely knackered. Go to bed."

"What time is it?" he asked yawning and stretching before closing the lid on his machine and setting it on the coffee table.

"Eight-thirty," Ginny said with a smile.

"It's like four-thirty in the morning to me. No wonder why I'm exhausted." He quickly undressed down to his boxers, laying his jeans on Ginny's old school trunk at the foot of the bed. He lay down next to where she sat cross-legged, taking notes on her reading. "Good night," he murmured, turning over onto his stomach. The last thing he remembered before falling into a very deep sleep was Ginny gently stroking her hand down his back and the deep feeling of finally being home.

2. Chapter 2

Looking in the mirror on the back of the closet door, Harry adjusted the blue-and-gold striped tie. He wasn't a hundred percent satisfied with the knot, but he hadn't worn a tie regularly in years and he supposed no one would even notice that his Windsor knot was just a little lopsided and the dimple wasn't quite right. The light blue oxford button-down shirt fit him nicely and he was absurdly proud that he could still fit into a slim cut. Sitting down on the bed, he slipped on his old Docs, pulling down the legs of his dark jeans. They maybe weren't the most stylish choice but they were still hands down the most comfortable shoes for standing around for hours and hours on end.

"Gin, you ready?" he called through the bathroom door. What is she doing in there?

"Almost," she responded, opening the door a minute later. Harry could see that she'd made an extra effort with her makeup for tonight. The burgundy skirt and cream blouse set off her coloring nicely, drawing an appreciative smile. "Thanks for that. You're not so bad yourself. Did you comb your hair?"

"Yes," he said defensively, smoothing it down with his hand.

Ginny sighed and came at him with a comb. "Here, let me." Harry endured her attack with resigned stoicism, knowing it wouldn't really make any difference but that she wouldn't be satisfied until she'd tried. She stepped back and looked critically at him, then met his eyes and shrugged, tossing the useless comb onto the bathroom sink.

"Are we Apparating or are you driving?"

"Can't Apparate onto the grounds and it's a bit of a walk to the campus," Harry said, glancing down at the high-heeled sandals Ginny had chosen, "so we'll drive." Grabbing their jackets, he held out his hand for Ginny and Apparated them to the garage on the edge of the City where he kept his new car.

Sinking into the rich leather seat, Ginny sighed in appreciation. Looking over at Harry, she smiled. "I do love having a hot, rich boyfriend."

"Let me know when he shows up, yeah?" Harry smirked as he started the car and backed carefully out of the parking spot. He'd chosen this garage because of its proximity to the Bay Bridge and they were soon across and heading toward the golden California hills. "You'll like this campus, Gin, it's tucked way back in the hills up there and really secluded. They can have flying classes without being seen."

"Oh, we'll have to bring our brooms sometime. I haven't had a good fly in ages."

"Mm, neither have I." He looked at her quickly and smiled. "We'll do that at the weekend. Sound good?" Ginny nodded happily and turned to look at the scenery flashing by. Harry hadn't had time yet to fully apply his usual augmentations to the car, so he was taking it easy on the curving road, enjoying the feeling of the finely tuned machine.

Soon enough they approached the gates of the academy and Harry saw that there were a few other cars in the small lot and surmised they were from the parents of Muggle-born students. He'd meant to ask how magical children were identified here in the States, but he hadn't gotten around to it yet.

Ginny got out of the car and looked around. The September setting sun was at the perfect angle to showcase the golden grass covering the gently rounded hills surrounding the campus. "It's beautiful out here." She shaded her eyes and looked west. "Oh, I can see the water!" Harry stood next to her, looking in the same direction. He could see a shining stripe of silver and the barest suggestion of what might be a bridge.

"Come on, let's have a little walk around before we have to go in." Taking her hand, he led her on a short tour of the main buildings. The administration office, a small theater, the gymnasium, all-purpose room and clusters of classrooms surrounded a wide grassy area that held a sparkling fountain in the center. "Artemis told me that some of the buildings were designed by Julia Morgan."

"Oh? Who's that?"

"A really famous lady architect back in the 1930s. Did a lot of buildings around here. They've all lasted so well because she was a witch and used strengthening spells on them for the earthquakes."

"Clever."

"Yeah. She designed a castle down the coast. We'll have to go check it out sometime." They completed their circuit and stopped at the theater. Artemis said the back-to-school gathering was being held in the reception area of the theater and Harry could see a large group of people crowded around inside. He glanced down at the feeling of Ginny's hand squeezing his tighter.

"Come on. Buck up that Gryffindor courage."

"Indeed." Harry saw a couple coming up the walkway and they gave him a friendly smile and nod as they passed on their way into the theater. They followed the couple in and were immediately engulfed in a swirl of noise and chatter. Lucinda welcomed them warmly and took their jackets, motioning them toward the group. A floating tray of drinks passed by and Harry deftly plucked two glasses of wine from it, handing one to Ginny.

They circulated around, Harry nodding to the other instructors that he had met so far during the week he'd spent frantically preparing his classroom. There seemed to be a mix of school personnel, board members, alumni and parents. He took a moment to introduce Ginny to Juanita. "Ginny, this is Juanita Okefor, our World Wide Magical History professor. She's got the classroom next to mine. Juanita, this is my girlfriend, Ginny Weasley." It still gave him a thrill to finally be able to introduce Ginny as his actual, for real girlfriend.

Ginny nodded and extended her hand, shaking Juanita's confidently. "Yes, Harry mentioned you had lunch together the other day. So good to meet you!"

"Likewise. Now, Harry said that you are already a fully-qualified Healer, but now you're going to Muggle medical school at UCSF?" She wrinkled her nose playfully at Ginny's nod. "Madness! Whatever possessed you to do a thing like that?"

"Well, a long time ago, my father was attacked by a really awful snake..." Harry was glad to see that the two women seemed to be hitting it off and let his gaze wander around the packed room. It was getting uncomfortably warm even though the sun had fully set and was no longer shining through the glass doors. Plucking at his collar he wished he hadn't decided to wear a tie after all.

He felt the wine making its presence felt and excused himself to go in search of the toilets. Mischief managed, Harry was quickly buttonholed by a venerable wizard that he was pretty sure must have been from the very first class to graduate from the academy. Another floating tray provided another glass of wine, white this time, and he tried not to gulp it straight down as the old man went on about how things were back in his day (blast first, questions later) and how wizards these days were getting too soft and how all this business about being in touch with your feelings was a quick road to ruination. "What this generation needs is a hard lesson in what it really means to be a wizard out in the world!" he said thunderously, raising his wineglass high in the air.

Just then he felt Ginny's touch on his arm and glanced at her, overjoyed to see her again next to him. Turning his gaze in the direction she indicated with a twitch of her head, Harry saw the headmaster of the school, Artemis Ashborough striding toward them. "Harry! So good to see you again!"

"Hello, Artemis," said Harry, shaking the headmaster's hand. He felt relieved to see a familiar face, even if it was one he'd only met a few times before.

"Sorry, Orson, but I need to steal Harry away for a few minutes," Artemis said to the older wizard.

"All right, as long as you don't take away this delightful young woman," Orson said, patting Ginny on the shoulder. She gave Harry a reassuring smile as he was led away by the headmaster to the dais and podium at one end of the room.

Harry half-listened to Artemis pointing out different people on the way, feeling the dread well up inside of him. Making a speech to a large group of people he didn't know was not one of his favorite things to do and he was not looking forward to doing so tonight. He knocked back the rest of his wine and set the glass on a passing tray.

Artemis mounted the dais and stood at the podium, employing the Sonorus Charm to amplify his voice above the chatter in the room as he called for attention. When all eyes in the room were on him, he smiled.

"Welcome and thank you all for coming tonight to St Ambrose's annual back-to-school celebration. I know for some of you, having your children return to school is indeed a time for celebration!" This drew some laughter from the group and Artemis rocked back on his heels, visibly pleased by his audience's reaction.

"I am very happy to see so many parents and alumni along with our esteemed faculty and board members tonight," he went on and Harry began to tune him out, allowing his eyes to roam around the large room. He had already marked all of the exits when he first arrived with Ginny and now he took the opportunity to take a closer, covert look at the assembled group of people. Most of them seemed at ease in an environment that had floating trays, rather than waiters, distributing food and drink, and Harry was easily able to spot those that stared around in amazement at the magically maneuvering trays and floating globes of blue and gold that cast the school colors around the room.

Those will be the parents of the Muggle-borns, he thought, smiling inwardly as he watched a husband and wife bemusedly take canapés from a tray that had stopped to hover in front of them. So far no one seemed to be staring at or taking an undue amount of interest in him beyond the usual curiosity that surrounded a new face and he felt himself begin to relax a bit.

Flicking his eyes back to the podium, he saw that Artemis was still talking and gauged that he had a few more minutes of anonymity. Turning his gaze back to the crowd, he noticed that there was indeed someone looking at him. A tallish man with salt-and-pepper hair and dark eyes was not really staring, but looking at him more intensely than Harry felt strictly comfortable with. Meeting his eyes, Harry raised an eyebrow in silent question, and the man raised his wineglass to Harry in a sort of salute before turning his attention back to the headmaster.

"And now without further ado, I would like to introduce you to our new Practical Defensive Magic and Theory instructor, Harry Potter!" boomed Artemis from the podium. He indicated Harry with an outstretched hand and Harry heard more than a few astonished gasps from the assembled throng who hadn't yet heard of his addition to the staff along with the wave of applause as he mounted the steps. Shaking his hand one more time, Artemis stepped away from the podium, smoothly maneuvering Harry into position behind it.

Harry looked down at the large group in front of him; several were still clapping and he could see a lot of whispering going on. He caught sight of Ginny's bright smile and he felt his heart race for a few beats before settling back down. When the applause finally died down, Harry cleared his throat.

"Thank you for the very warm welcome. I am looking forward to teaching here at St Ambrose's and I thank you and Mr Ashborough for allowing me the opportunity and the wonderful welcome." Harry gestured to Artemis standing next to him on the dais and paused for a moment. "I'm sorry, I'm not very good at these things, but I just want to let you know that even though times here are peaceful, there is still a lot of dangerous Dark magic in the world and I will do my best to teach your children how to defend themselves and their families."

More thunderous applause followed and several people started moving up toward the dais. Led by Artemis, Harry stepped down and into the throng, spending the next hour shaking hands, smiling, nodding and exchanging pleasantries with people he knew he wouldn't remember the names of. Another glass, champagne, was thrust into his hand and he forced himself to take small sips.

As Artemis moved him around the room, Harry tried to look for Ginny, finally catching sight of her by the wide windows that faced the school's athletic fields, talking with the salt-and-pepper-haired man. As he watched them, Ginny caught sight of him and gave a little wave. Harry looked back at her and stuck his tongue out in a parody of someone who was dying of boredom. Ginny laughed and the tall man turned to look at the source of her amusement, saw Harry and leaned over to whisper in Ginny's ear. Ginny nodded and they both started walking toward him.

"Artemis, are you going to keep Mr Potter to yourself all night?" the tall man asked, deftly interrupting the headmaster's conversation with the Muggle parents of an eighth grade student.

"Oh, Jacob! I would have gotten to you eventually! Harry, meet Jacob Green. Jacob, Harry Potter." Harry shook hands with Jacob, finding his hand warm and dry. "Harry, Jacob is one of the best businessmen in our little community. Runs a thriving import-export firm."

"Artemis, you exaggerate as always! Pleased to meet you, Harry. I've already had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Miss Weasley." Jacob took Ginny's hand and guided her to Harry's side. "I must say you've done quite well, Harry, quite well."

Harry took Ginny's hand and squeezed, feeling her squeeze in return. "I have to say I agree with you." Another tray floated by and Harry finished his champagne, trading his empty for a full.

"Jacob is one of the biggest donors to our school and one of our most active alumni, even though he has yet to contribute to our student body," Artemis said, beaming with pride.

"If you keep going on like that, I'll think I'm the star of this reception instead of Harry." He sounded modest, but Harry could tell that he was pleased by the attention and praise.

"Harry, Jacob is interested in becoming a distributor for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products," Ginny said. "The first one in the US."

"Yes, I'm always on the lookout for new business opportunities and I've been hearing about these amazing products for some time now. So sorry about your brother, Ginny." Jacob touched her arm and Harry stopped himself from slapping it away.

Ginny looked nonplussed for a moment before Harry saw a brief look of pain flash in her eyes. "Oh, yes. Yes, thank you." Harry squeezed her hand again and she leaned against his arm. Reminders of Fred's death were few and far between these days, but still upsetting when they did come.

Artemis clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Well, Harry, I have my own rounds to make. Don't stay out too late!" The Walters had wandered away, leaving Harry and Ginny standing with Jacob. Harry drank some more champagne and faked a yawn.

"Jacob, it's been a pleasure meeting you, but I'm afraid we've had a very long day and I've still got work to do on my classroom this weekend." He held his hand out and accepted the business card Jacob handed him.

"Of course. You have my card. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you are ever in need of anything. I deal in many different things, both Muggle and magical and I have contacts all over the world." He inclined his head to Ginny. "Miss Weasley. Truly a pleasure. I look forward to doing business with your brother George."

"Oh yes. He will be very pleased to break into the American market."

Jacob clapped Harry on the shoulder, an overly familiar gesture that irritated him. "Well, you two have a good night. I'll see you soon, Harry."

"Yeah," Harry said as he watched Jacob walk away. The man had been perfectly nice and charming, but he exuded that kind of casual intimacy that Harry hated. It reminded him of how everyone back home thought they knew him, just because they'd read the latest profile of him in Witch Weekly.

Looking around the room, Harry noted that the crowd was beginning to thin out a little. He finished his champagne and squeezed Ginny's hand. "Take a walk with me?"

"Where to?"

"It's a surprise."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "What if I don't like the surprise?"

"Oh, I think you'll like this one," Harry said, passing her a glass of red wine as he got one for himself. Mentally counting his drinks, Harry realized that he was more than a little buzzed and decided it would be an excellent idea to leave his car parked here overnight. Unnoticed, they slipped out of the reception area of the theater and into the cool night, walking slowly down the covered walkway. "Ta-dah," he said, stopping in front of a closed door with the number 35 on it.

"Is this your classroom?"

"Yeah. Come inside." Harry touched his wand to the doorknob and heard the quiet snick as the door unlocked. Stepping inside, Harry showed her the bright, well-organized room with a large fireplace at one end. "You should have seen it when I got a hold of it. I dunno what sort of man the previous professor was, but he had loads of old junk everywhere. It took me most of the week just to sort through it all."

"You've done a very good job. I thought you said you had more work to do in here?"

"I was done talking to that Jacob fellow. Did I cut your conversation short?"

"No." Ginny walked around, admiring the neat rows of desks, the target dummy and the thumping cabinet in the back. "I see you got that Boggart."

"Yeah. Lucinda was so happy to have it gone that she even offered to pay me." He didn't feel like sharing the fact that his Boggart had changed and it wasn't a Dementor anymore. Harry watched Ginny as she moved slowly around the room, sipping her wine. Her burgundy skirt seemed to float around her as she stood looking over the bulletin board he'd decorated with the five most common Dark creatures indigenous to the San Francisco Bay Area.

"I didn't know Hinkypunks were so common here," Ginny said, turning to look at Harry as he stood next to her.

"Yeah, there's a lot of marshes around here." He took her wineglass from her hand and set it on the shelf underneath the bulletin board. "You should be careful when you're out walking around."

Ginny turned to him, a mischievous light gleaming in her dark eyes. "Maybe you can give me a refresher on how I can defend myself against such a dangerous creature?"

Harry's heart began to speed up and he felt his face grow warm, buzzing through the alcohol haze. "Well, they can't really hurt you themselves, so your best defense is being aware of your surroundings."

Ginny leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth, the contact sending a tingling jolt through his body. "I believe we are currently in your classroom."

Bringing his mouth down to hers, Harry kissed her again, pressing harder against her. "Very good, that's the first step," he murmured, breaking apart from her.

"What's the second step?" Ginny's face was flushed a lovely pink and her eyes were half-closed.

"You must be aware of what's happening when you see the light dancing in front of you." Harry put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her against the wall, molding his body to hers as he continued their kiss. Breathing deeply through his nose, he could smell her perfume rising from her heated skin.

"Harry," Ginny whispered, breath hot against his ear, "take me home." The sound of her soft voice sent a shiver all through him and he leaned into her, tracing the shell of her ear with his tongue.

"What about your shoes? It's a bit of a walk to Apparating distance." Harry traced the dip and rise of her collarbone with the tip of his finger.

"You've got your car."

Harry chuckled and nipped at the hollow of her throat. "I'm not in any shape to drive and I don't have my potion pack anymore." Ginny gave a loud whoop and dissolved into giggles as he picked her up and carried her out of the classroom, securely locking the door behind them.

They walked hand in hand toward the campus entrance, passing the reception hall on the way. Almost everyone was gone now and Harry winced when he heard Artemis's voice call out to him.

"Harry! Are you still here?"

"Oh, uh yeah. I was just showing Ginny my classroom. We're on our way home now," Harry said, turning to face Artemis.

"Ah, excellent! What did you think of it, Miss Weasley?"

Ginny gave him a wide smile. "I absolutely adore Harry's classroom, Mr Ashborough!"

Taken aback by her enthusiasm, Artemis looked a little confused. "Well, that's wonderful to hear, wonderful! Harry, you have a good night. I'll see you Tuesday!" He turned on his heel and walked back into the reception hall.

"You're going to get me in trouble," Harry said quietly.

"I promise I'll come visit you in detention." Ginny smiled sweetly up at him, laughter dancing in her eyes. Reaching up, she put her arms around his neck. "Come on, Harry, carry me home."

As promised, Harry and Ginny went flying on the school grounds at the weekend, choosing Sunday afternoon to chase around after a Snitch on the school's immaculate Quidditch pitch. It was a glorious, sunny day and Harry felt like he was fourteen again and flying for the sheer pleasure of it.

"You got lucky with that one," he yelled across the pitch when Ginny came up with the first catch.

"I did not. You fell for my feint. That was skill, love, not luck," she yelled back tartly.

"I'll give you luck. Best two out of three, then." Ginny released the Snitch to fly off and they retreated to opposite ends of the field for a count of thirty before flying high up into the air, searching for a glint of gold in the sunlight.

They ended up going best four out of seven, neither of them willing to give up supremacy to the other. The sun was beginning its slide below the horizon when Harry saw Ginny take off almost straight down, unable to catch her before she raised the struggling ball triumphantly above her head with a yell.

Harry raced over to her, smiling broadly. He was able to admit to himself that he was competitive enough to be disappointed that he didn't win the contest, but since it was Ginny, he told himself he was okay with it. They flew down to the grass and Harry wrapped Ginny up in a hug and kissed her soundly. "Well done, love!"

"Thank you!" she said with a bow, still holding tightly to the struggling Snitch. They walked over to the bleachers where Harry deactivated the golden ball and stuffed it in a pocket. The bleachers faced west and they sat quietly, watching the sunset, the golden light creating in Harry a feeling of unreality.

"Sometimes I still can't believe it," he said quietly, resting a hand on Ginny's back.

"Believe what?" she asked, sweeping a lock of hair behind her ear.

"That I'm here, with you. About to do this teaching thing."

"Which you'll be brilliant at."

Harry took a deep breath. "God, I hope so."

Ginny looked at him speculatively. "You know, if you really don't want to do it, you don't have to. I could use a research assistant." She grinned at him and her eyes lit up. "I could use someone to carry my books. Take notes for me. Get me lunch. Be my chauffeur."

Harry snorted and pulled Ginny closer to him. "I think dealing with a bunch of hormonal teenagers every day would be easier than following you around all day."

"You think so? We'll see what you think after a few weeks, then." She leaned her head on his shoulder as the shadows lengthened and Harry felt a feeling of contentment wash over him. The sun finally dipped below the shining silver of the bay and Harry stood, drawing Ginny up with him.

He took another look around the school grounds. At the classroom bungalows, the administrative building, theater, gymnasium…So different from a giant castle, he thought as they walked toward the parking lot, brooms in hand. I think I'll like it here anyway.

Tuesday morning, Harry was up before the sun. He lay quietly for a while, staring at the ceiling before sliding carefully out of bed so as not to wake Ginny and dressing for a quick run. Pacing through the chilly neighborhood, Harry let his thoughts run rampant.

I am going to make a complete mess of this, he thought as he darted across an empty street. They are going to take one look at me and laugh. I must have been mad to think I could do this.

His breath harsh in his ears, he recalled the conversation he'd had with Hermione when he told her he was going to take the position. They were having a cup of tea in the kitchen while he took a break from sorting through his things and deciding what to take to California. "Harry, that is wonderful! You will be an amazing teacher," she said with a warm smile.

"You think so?"

"I do. You're a natural at it," Hermione said, raising an eyebrow at Harry's disagreeing snort. "You don't think so? What about the DA?"

"We were all kids, weren't we?" he said through a mouthful of biscuit.

"Which makes it twice as hard. It's always tougher to manage a group of peers. Back at the Institute, I used to just want to bang my head against the table during some meetings."

Harry grinned, visualizing Hermione doing exactly that. "I'm surprised Ron and I never made you completely lose it."

"Not that I let you see. Believe me, Parvati and Lavender saw me completely lose it several times," Hermione said with an arch look.

"I worry they won't respect me. Why would they? I'm just some tosser, yeah?"

"You're their teacher. They have to respect you."

Harry shook his head, thinking back to some of his teachers. He certainly hadn't had much respect for Trelawney. "How do you do it?"

Hermione took a sip of her tea and thought. "Well, to be honest, sometimes I'm not sure that I'm entirely successful myself! I suppose I model myself after McGonagall. She was tough, certainly, but also very fair. And she was very good at Transfiguration. She could really walk the walk, so to say." She looked up at Harry and smiled again. "And I don't know anyone better at defending against the Dark than you."

"Hm, I suppose that's true." He crunched through another biscuit and shook his head. "What if they just don't like me?"

"Who was your favorite teacher?" Hermione asked, leaning her elbows on the kitchen bar.

"Lupin," Harry said without hesitation.

"What did you like about him? As a teacher."

Harry thought back, thinking of the man that was his father's best friend and the father of his godson, Teddy. "He didn't talk down to us, but he didn't really treat us like equals either; he was definitely in charge." Hermione nodded in agreement and Harry went on. "He didn't just give us the answers, he guided us and allowed us to figure it out for ourselves."

"Empowerment and self-reliance."

"Yeah," Harry nodded, "he really made us believe that we could do anything, even cast a Patronus."

"Exactly. Now, who was your least favorite teacher?"

"Do you even have to ask?" he said, holding up his right hand. I must not tell lies still shone silver and Hermione winced.

"Well, I didn't want to make assumptions. Putting aside any personal issues, what did you not like about her as a teacher?"

"Oh, God. Let's see," he said, counting off on his fingers. "She knew nothing about Defense, she actively sabotaged learning, she managed to make my favorite subject utterly boring, she was cruel as well as stupid…shall I go on?"

"No, I think that just about covers it. So there you go. Be like Lupin and not like Umbridge and the kids will love you," she said, sounding supremely confident.

"Be like Lupin, not like Umbridge," Harry said as he turned around and ran for home. Back in the flat, he saw Ginny was still asleep and he took pains to be quiet as he undressed to shower and was completely surprised to see her awake, sitting up on the bed waiting for him when he got out.

"Good morning," she said with a wide smile as he leaned down to kiss her.

"Good morning." Harry dropped the towel around his waist and pulled on a pair of boxers, shifting hangers back and forth in the closet until he settled on a shirt. Turning around, he saw a large box in Ginny's lap. "What's that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her excited grin.

"Happy first day!" she said, handing him the box.

"What could possibly be in here?" he asked, sitting on the bed next to Ginny with the box in his lap. The box was plain and gave no clues as to what was inside.

"Open it and find out," Ginny said, practically bouncing on the bed in eagerness.

"All right." Harry lifted one corner of the lid and stopped. "Am I going to like what's in here?"

"I hope so."

He lifted another corner and stopped again. "What if I don't like it?"

"Harry, open that box right now," Ginny growled, whacking him on a bare shoulder.

"Okay, okay," he said with a grin, finally lifting the top of the box off. "Oh my goodness. It's beautiful." In the box was a brand-new brown leather satchel. He ran his finger over his initials stamped in gold on the butter-soft flap, nearly speechless. "You didn't have to get me anything."

"I wanted to. Your old bag is a bit tatty, isn't it?"

"Me and that bag have been through some tough times together," Harry said, lifting the new satchel out of the box and looking inside. It was very roomy with a padded sleeve for his laptop and looked like it could carry his computer, about a ream of paper and a couple of books besides. "This is marvelous. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome." Ginny leaned forward and kissed him. "Those other teachers are going to be so jealous."

"Only whenever you show up to pick me up." He looked at the bag again before setting it on the bed. "I hope it wasn't too expensive," he said, standing up to put his shirt on.

"Don't you worry about it. I'll take it out of your hide," Ginny said, giving him a sharp smack on his arse before darting into the loo.

Fully dressed, Harry refused Ginny's offers of breakfast. "I'm too nervous. Just some tea will be fine."

"All right. This is my toast, then. No stealing," Ginny said as she generously buttered two slices for herself.

A moment later, Harry finished his tea and pulled on his blazer, swinging his new bag across his chest. "Well?" he asked, arms spread out to either side.

Ginny looked at him with a wistful smile, stepping forward to adjust his tie and blazer. "You have got to be the handsomest teacher that school has ever seen," she said, running her fingers through his hair in a fruitless attempt to get it to behave. She put her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes with a serious expression. "Don't let them scare you. They're just kids and you're the one in charge."

"I took down the scariest Dark wizard in generations. These kids will be a snap," he said with a smile. At least I hope so, he added silently. Glancing at his watch, he saw it was time to go. "I've got to get going. I need to have my classroom open and the Floo active."

Ginny put her hand on his cheek and went up on her tiptoes, drawing him into a lingering kiss. "I'm going to remember that all day," Harry murmured against her lips.

"I'm counting on it." She adjusted his tie again and smiled up at him. "Now, go get 'em."

"Yes ma'am!" Harry said with a salute before he Apparated out of the flat, reappearing about a quarter mile down the road from the front gate of St Ambrose Academy. Making sure his badge was around his neck, he walked at a fast clip, keeping an eye out for any cars.

Stopping by the office to check his mailbox, Harry ran into Juanita. "First day!" she said with a wide smile. "Are you nervous?"

"Oh God, yes, I couldn't even eat anything this morning," Harry said, glancing through the announcements that were in his box.

"You'll be fine. Come on, I'll escort you to your classroom." They walked together and Juanita looked at his bag. "Nice bag. Is it a Glaser?"

"Um, I don't know, actually. Gin gave it to me this morning. Said my old one was a bit 'tatty'."

"Well, that one should last you a lifetime if the price is any indication," she said with a raised eyebrow.

"Hm, I might have to talk to Gin about her spending habits." When it came down to it though, he wasn't really surprised. She had a history of giving him extravagant gifts; his watch was ample evidence of that.

"All right. This is where I abandon you. I'm right next door. If you get into any trouble or need anything, don't hesitate to ask me, okay?" she said, hand on his shoulder.

"Okay. Thanks." Harry took a deep breath and unlocked his door, stepping into his classroom and making sure that everything was as he'd left it the night of the reception. Lighting the fire in the fireplace, Harry set down his new bag by his desk and prepared to welcome his first students.

The bell rang, signaling the start of the last class of the day and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. One more class. I can do it. His last class, Juniors, sat arrayed in front of him, watching him expectantly. "Good afternoon, class. Welcome to Practical Defensive Magic and Theory, level five. I am your teacher, Harry Potter." As in the previous classes, this introduction caused a susurration of whispers to move through the class.

Immediately, a hand went up in the middle of the students. "I know you all have questions, but we need to get through roll call first. When I call your name, you may ask me one question, all right?" More whispers greeted this announcement and Harry gave them a moment to get their questions ready.

"Okay. Mia Adams?" Harry called, reading from his class list. A dark-haired girl in the second row raised her hand.

"Are you married?" she asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"I am not." Why is that always the first question? he thought. It was about the fourth time he'd been asked today. She opened her mouth again and Harry raised a finger. "One question," he said and she subsided with a look of disappointment. "Carrie Borregas?"

Raising her hand, Carrie asked the question Mia had obviously wanted to. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"I do have a girlfriend. Her name is Ginny." And that's always the second one. "Malcolm Davis?"

"Do you still have the scar?" Malcolm asked after raising his hand.

"I do," Harry said, pushing his hair out of the way so the students could see it, smiling inwardly as the boys all muttered variations of "cool".

Michael Flores, a cheeky-looking boy with a mop of curly hair asked, "Hermione Granger was a total babe. How come you didn't date her?"

This is a new one, Harry thought, momentarily taken aback. "Oh, wow. I never saw her that way. She was more like my sister, yeah? Besides, Ron would have beaten me senseless." I'll have to tell Ron about this one.

Finally, Harry called the last name, a boy called Robert Torres. "Do you still talk to your cousin?" he asked. What is in that history book? I'll have to get a copy from Juanita.

"Well, I'm not ringing him up every Sunday, but I keep an eye on him. Christmas cards, that sort of thing." Everyone present and accounted for, Harry set the class list on his desk and picked up the syllabus he'd created for them.

"All right, here is what we'll be learning this year. Please take a moment to review it and then I'll answer questions about it." So far he'd been impressed that most of his classes had actually reviewed the syllabi he'd passed out and asked relevant questions.

Mia raised her hand again. "Yes, Mia?"

"Mr Potter, are you really going to be teaching the Patronus Charm?" she asked, sounding skeptical.

"I am."

"But my dad says it's really advanced and really hard," she said with a frown.

"It is and not everyone here may be able to cast one, but I want each and every one of you to learn the way of it." He paused for a moment and gathered his will, moving his wand in the prescribed circular motion. His stag materialized at his side amid a roar of amazement from his students. "A Patronus is the only known defense against what?"

Pointing his wand, he sent the stag trotting soundlessly around the room, pacing up and down the rows of desks. Some of the bolder students reached out to touch it, seeming disappointed when their hands went right through it, leaving trails of silver smoke. "Yes, Ian?" Harry said, calling on the boy with the raised hand.

"Dementors?" he asked as if he wasn't quite sure.

"Yes. What else? There is one other Dark creature that absolutely cannot be defended against any other way." Harry sent his stag around the room once more, smiling as he saw every eye glued to it.

"Amy? Do you know what else a Patronus can defend you against?" he asked, calling on a girl that seemed very dazzled by the pearly silver stag.

"Um…a Lethifold?" she asked hesitantly.

"Very good!" Harry pointed his wand and the stag Patronus nudged her shoulder with its nose and promptly exploded into a silvery mist, drawing another amazed gasp from the class. He took a deep breath, wishing he'd thought to bring a chocolate bar. That was his sixth Patronus of the day and directing it around the classroom for even a few minutes was exhausting. Trying to look like he meant to do it, he sat on the corner of his desk as a wave of vertigo passed through him.

"Now, I'm not going to teach you how to cast a Patronus today, as you can see that will be later in the year. For now, I want you to open your books to the chapter on Curses and Intent. I know this may be a little bit remedial for you, but a bit of revision never hurt anyone," he said, raising his voice over the chattering students. "Please read over the chapter and give me at least five paragraphs on Intent and how the caster's intent governs curses by the end of class." He glanced at the clock on the wall as the class bent their heads to their books. And that way Mr Potter can have a quiet twenty minutes or so to recover, he thought as he moved to sit behind his desk.

A few minutes later, Harry felt some of his energy return and he pulled over a stack of essays from his Freshman class. He'd assigned them a short essay on the differences and similarities between Imps and Quasits, something which had forced him to do a bit of revising himself.

Buried deep in the essays, the sound of the last bell of the day startled him and he shook his head at himself. I'll have to get used to that! He stood up and stretched as his last students of the day gathered their things and trooped to the front of the room, dropping their short essays into the tray on his desk.

Looking at the group of kids in front of him, Harry raised an eyebrow. "Yes?" he asked.

"Um, can you activate the Floo?" a boy called Zach asked politely.

"Oh! Sorry! Yes, let's do that right now," Harry said, completely embarrassed. Ignoring the chuckles from his students, he quickly ignited the fireplace and stepped aside, bidding each student good bye. Finally, only one was left, a boy called Thomas. "Do you need something, Thomas?" Harry asked as the boy stood next to the fireplace, looking down at his feet.

"Um, could you…" he mumbled at his feet.

"Could I what?"

He dug around in his school bag, pulling out a small card. "Could you sign your Chocolate Frog card?" he asked, handing it to Harry.

"Oh goodness. I didn't know they had those here. Ron still collects these, you know," he said, looking at the picture, remembering the day it was taken. The photographer had been both patient and persistent, resulting in an image that even Harry thought was pretty decent. "I haven't seen this in years," he mused, looking at the information printed on the back.

"They have different ones here with American witches and wizards. I have a cousin in Wales. We trade," Thomas said as Harry signed the card with a flourish.

"Well, now you definitely have one up on him, yeah?"

Thomas nodded, looking at the signature on the card, finally looking up at him. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Why did you quit being an Auror and come to teach?"

"Oh, well, I'd had enough of having curses and such thrown at me and decided it was time to take it easy and come teach you lot instead," he said easily. That wasn't a question he'd have expected he'd be asked today, but he realized he should have as Thomas nodded in agreement.

"I want to be an Auror. Me and Richard want to go into the academy as soon as we graduate," he said eagerly.

"All right. I'd better do my best to prepare you, then!"

Thomas gave him a sunny smile and put the Chocolate Frog card back in his bag as he prepared to Floo home. "Thanks, Mr Potter! I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Yep. See you tomorrow." Finally alone in his classroom, Harry collapsed into his chair, leaning his head back and covering his eyes with his hands, trying not to groan out loud.

"Oh dear. You look like you had a hard day," Juanita said from the doorway.

Harry uncovered his eyes and looked at her, squinting in the light. "I don't look that bad, do I?"

"You look exhausted." She came into the classroom and sat on one of the desks. "What did they do to you?"

"Nothing too terrible. I never realized how much energy it takes to keep a group's attention for an hour. Well, that and cast six Patronus Charms."

"Six? Who do you think you are, Superman?"

"It's not like I was casting six at once," Harry said, gathering together a stack of essays to take home for grading. "I should have brought some chocolate with me. Didn't even think of it." About halfway through the day, he'd found himself unconsciously reaching for his Auror potion pack, which always had a few squares of chocolate in it.

"If you ever find yourself in serious need, Lucinda always has some," Juanita said, hopping down off the desk.

"That's good to know." Shoving the papers into his new and apparently very expensive bag, Harry stood up and extinguished the fire in the fireplace, walking out of the room with Juanita. Outside, he locked the door securely and tapped the metal numbers on the door. "Just think," he said with a grin, "we get to do this all over again tomorrow!"

"Harry, you're home! How was your first day?" Ginny asked from her perch on the bed. She was sitting cross-legged, surrounded by her books and papers with her laptop balanced precariously on one knee.

"Terrifying," Harry said, sitting gingerly on the corner of the bed, trying not to disturb her arrangement.

"Here, let me get those." Deftly marking her places in the books with a flurry of yellow slips shooting from her wand, Ginny closed and stacked the books, giving Harry more room on the bed. Taking advantage of the space, he collapsed dramatically onto his back with a loud sigh. "Oh, poor thing," she said, running her fingers through his hair. "Why was your first day terrifying?"

"Well, maybe terrifying isn't quite the word," he admitted, taking off his tie and sending it back to the closet with a flick of his wand, "but it was definitely daunting."

"Well, you've done the DA. How different could this be?"

"The DA wasn't nearly as many people and well, with one notable exception, you all wanted to be there." Harry yawned and stretched, glad to be home.

"Tired?"

Harry nodded. "Exhausted. Keeping that many kids engaged and under control takes a lot of energy. I don't know how McGonagall managed it."

"Any 'Famous Harry Potter' nonsense?"

"A little, mostly from some of the older kids that have already learned about me in their history class. They asked some questions, but nothing too terrible." He smiled up at her, trailing a finger on her arm. "You should see the picture of me in the history book. Bloody awful."

"Is it a match for your badge picture?" Ginny asked, flicking her finger against the plastic rectangle that lay on his chest.

"Shut it, you. Anyway, the other teachers have been pretty cool about it."

"That's good."

"Had some lookie-loos. Teachers that stopped by 'just to see if I needed anything'."

"Oh, they were just being nice."

"They were just being nosey," Harry snorted. "They had a special lunch for me in the staff room. That was a nice welcome."

"See? Did you show the kids anything cool?"

"I demonstrated my Patronus," Harry said around another yawn.

"No wonder you're so tired. How many did you have to cast?" Ginny asked, closing the lid on her laptop and setting it aside as Harry pulled her down to lie next to him.

"Six," Harry mumbled into her shoulder. "Did I tell you that they don't teach it here?"

"They don't?" Ginny asked, sounding surprised. "Why not?"

"Juanita said that it's taught at the University level for those that go on."

"Well, what about those that don't?"

"That's what I said." Harry turned onto his side and pulled Ginny closer to him. "They've never had any sort of threat here, Gin. You saw the campus. Wide open, nowhere to hide."

Ginny snuggled deeper into Harry's arms. "Are you going to teach it?"

"Yeah, to my Juniors and Seniors. I know they may not all be able to cast it, but they should at least know the spell and methodology. Sometimes need can provide the necessary inspiration," Harry said, thinking back to that terrible night with hundreds of Dementors bearing down on him.

"Well, if they don't teach it, won't you get in trouble?"

"They told me when they hired me that I could do what I want, so I'm going to do what I want."

Ginny turned around to face him and kissed his cheek. "Well, I guess that's that. Are you ready for tomorrow?"

Harry closed his eyes and groaned. "No, but I'll have to do it anyway."

"Fake it till you make it," Ginny said, stroking her thumb over his temple.

"Juanita liked my new bag. Asked me if it was a Glaser."

"Oh, she has good taste."

"Gin, I looked them up this afternoon. You can't be spending that kind of money on me."

"Harry, I am a grown adult person and I can do what I want, including buying ridiculously expensive things for my boyfriend."

"But you're going to school now, not working," Harry protested.

"Look, between the grant from St Mungo's and Sirius, it's taken care of. I'm not destitute, all right? Besides," she said, sitting up on an elbow and pushing Harry onto his back, "I have a line on a really hot roommate to help out with the rent on this place."

"How hot is this roommate?" he asked with a grin, allowing himself to be distracted from the subject at hand for now.

"Scorching," Ginny whispered, leaning down to kiss him, the feeling of her soft lips against his making him shiver all over.

3. Chapter 3

After a hectic first couple of weeks, Harry felt like he was slowly gaining control of the whole teaching situation. He found that he very much enjoyed guiding his students to answer their own questions and found their energy and enthusiasm infectious. The day he introduced Expelliarmus to his eighth grade class was memorable when a student in his eighth grade class accidentally set fire to one of the bulletin boards, forcing him to move quickly to put out the fire before any alarms were set off.

He was surprised to find himself dealing with a bit of trouble adjusting to what he thought of as "civilian life". More than once, he'd found himself wide awake in the middle of the night, certain he'd heard something in the flat, which was ridiculous because between the Blood Seal and Unbreakables, the place was practically a fortress. That didn't stop him from prowling around in the dark, however, trying not to wake Ginny.

One night he startled awake, convinced that he was receiving a Summons and that did wake Ginny. "Harry?" she mumbled, looking up as he sat bolt upright in the bed, breathing hard. "Are you all right?"

Exhaling a long breath, Harry nodded. "Yeah, fine."

Sitting up, she put a hand against his forehead. "You're all sweaty. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just thought I felt something, that's all."

"Like what? Are you having any pain?" Fully awake now, Ginny swept her hands down to his neck, checking his pulse. "Your heart's going like a rabbit's. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Harry said, taking her hands in his. "I just felt…like I got a Summons."

Ginny reached out and ran her palm over his tattoo. "Phantom pain?"

"I don't know," Harry sighed, leaning into her touch. "I didn't expect this."

"You were under a lot of stress for a long time, love. I'm not surprised you're having some difficulty adjusting."

"I suppose I should have known. Ron had his own adjustment period. One night he stumbled into my room, completely starkers and convinced we were being attacked." Harry shook his head and smiled, remembering that particular event.

"That must have been a sight."

"It certainly was. I'm just glad Hermione was up at Hogwarts. I don't think she would have dealt with that very well." Harry sat quietly, feeling his panic subside and his heart slow down as Ginny continued to stroke his back.

"Do you want to talk to someone?" she asked quietly.

"Not yet. It's only been a few weeks, yeah?" he said after a few moments of consideration. "I'll be fine."

"All right," Ginny said, lying back down and holding her arms out to him. Harry laid down next to her, resting his head on her shoulder and closing his eyes as she ran her fingers through his hair, finally feeling the last vestiges of the phantom Summon drain out of him.

In addition to waking up in the middle of the night for no reason, he found his trousers getting tighter, a fact which bothered him more than not being able to sleep through the night. Along with Quidditch, the school also had a cross-country running team that competed in regional meets against Muggle schools, so Harry approached the Care of Magical Creatures teacher who doubled as the coach about running with the team on practices.

Terry Chau was a slight woman but hard as iron, wrestling with a reluctant rust monster as she coaxed it back into its enclosure. "What can I do for you, Harry?" she asked, wiping her hands down her jeans after locking the gate.

"Well, I wanted to ask you if it would be all right if I went running with the cross-country team when they're out for practice," he said, keeping an eye on the rust monster in the all-wood enclosure. "I don't want to be a distraction."

"I don't think you'll be a distraction," she said, looking him up and down. "Have you ever run cross-country before?"

"I've done most of my running in cities, not too much trail running. Well, unless you count chasing people across the occasional field."

"We do a mix of roads and trails. I think you'll do fine. Practices are at 4 o'clock daily." She raised her eyebrow at him. "This won't be a free ride, though. I've been looking for an assistant. Congratulations."

"Okay then. What do I need to do?"

"Just keep an eye on them. I'll be towards the front and you'll stay towards the back. Watch for injuries, horseplay, that sort of thing."

"I can do that. Thanks," he said, marveling at how smoothly he'd been manipulated into this new role.

His first appearance caused quite a stir among the assembled boys and girls. "Woah, Mr Potter, are you going to run with us?" Michael asked, giving voice to the amazed looks on their faces.

"I am. Try not to leave me in the dust, all right?" Harry grinned as they set out in the warm afternoon, following Terry as she set a five-mile course through the nearby hills. Arriving back at the Quidditch pitch, the groaning students collapsed on the grass before finally getting back up to go through the cool-down stretches Terry led them through.

After the run and stretching, Harry felt fantastic and pulled off his itchy, sweat-soaked shirt, the late afternoon sun warming his shoulders. "Wow, wicked tattoo, Mr Potter!" Thomas, the aspiring Auror called. "Richard, check it out!"

"What is it?" Richard asked as he and Thomas came for a closer look.

Feeling a bit like he was on display, Harry resisted the urge to put his shirt back on. They're just kids and they're curious, he told himself as he let them look. "It's a phoenix feather. Have you ever seen one?"

"No way," Richard breathed, "where did you see one?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore had one. He was a good bird; saved my life a couple of times."

"What's the tattoo for?" Thomas asked.

"All Aurors have one."

The two boys looked at each other, mouths open in delight. "That is so cool!"

"We're going to get totally awesome tattoos, dude!" Richard crowed, high-fiving Thomas.

Oh, but wait until you learn what they're used for, Harry thought as he headed toward the staff showers.

Between the regular running, finding his teaching groove and being home every night with Ginny, Harry felt like life was finally settling down for him. The regular activity not only helped him fit back into his trousers, but with a bit of yoga in the evenings, he was sleeping better, too. While she didn't come right out and say it, Harry knew Ginny was very glad at this turn of events.

One morning toward the end of September, Harry woke up and it seemed like his eyes just wouldn't focus properly. Sighing, he started looking in all of the dresser drawers, shifting things around and making a general ruckus.

"What are you doing?" Ginny asked sleepily.

"Looking for my glasses. I don't remember where I put them when I unpacked."

"Oh." Ginny stretched and yawned. "I'll help you look."

"Never mind, I found them. They were buried under my socks." Harry took them out of the case and put them on, the room coming back into focus. "Well, at least they're not round anymore," he said with a sigh, sitting back down on the bed.

"That's going to take some getting used to," Ginny said with a smile. "How's the prescription?"

"It's good enough for now. We'll see how it ends up once the Vision Impairment Charm finally wears all the way off."

"I could maintain it for you, if you want," Ginny said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"No, I need to let it go. I don't need it anymore. I'm not running through fields and throwing hexes at the same time these days."

"And I'm so glad," Ginny whispered in his ear, kissing his cheek softly.

October brought a spectacular Indian summer to the City with crisp mornings, mild sunny days and beautifully clear nights. Harry had been wondering what Terry would do when the sun started to go down earlier and he found out one afternoon when she handed him a little device to clip to his waistband.

"What's this?" he asked, looking at the oblong silver device.

"It's a LightCaster. You'll see what it does," she said with a smile as she handed out more of the devices to the kids from a big box.

Shrugging, Harry clipped it on and followed the group as they headed for one of the hill trails rather than a road. As the group ahead ran, he saw lights coming on as the runners approached and he ran backwards to see the ones behind them turn off as they moved out of range, so they seemed to run along a constantly-lit pathway.

"Huh, that's pretty neat," Harry remarked to Thomas who was running next to him as was his habit.

"You've never seen a LightCaster?"

"No, we don't have them in England, at least I don't think we do."

"Yeah, they're pretty cool. Magical Materials makes them. I think Serena's dad works there," he said offhandedly. The merging of the magical and technical was one thing that Harry found endlessly interesting about the American Wizarding world and he was learning that the San Francisco Bay Area was Ground Zero for the burgeoning Magi-Tech industry.

"You should see some of the things they have at SF Thaumaturgical," Ginny said over dinner when he told her about the device. "Vijay took me on a tour through all of the various departments during our first meeting and they have some really advanced equipment for imaging and such. I understand it's really exploded in the last fifteen years or so."

Harry shook his head. Voldemort really set us back, didn't he? he thought, contemplating all of the energy diverted to survival and rebuilding during those terrible times.

The next day, Harry waved to the departing cross-country runners in the deepening twilight on his way to the office before heading home. Checking his mailbox, he grabbed the pile of papers and shoved them into a pocket of his bag, nodding to Lucinda on the way out.

Harry walked through the early October evening far enough off of campus to Apparate home, hoping to find Ginny already there. When she wasn't, he sighed and changed into jeans and a t-shirt, glad to finally have a chance to relax. Might as well get a start on these, he thought as he sat down on the sofa and pulled out the stack of papers from his satchel. A small white envelope fell out of the stack and onto the floor.

"What's this?" Harry said aloud as he bent to pick it up. The envelope was very fine and the flap on the back was embossed with "Jacob Green, Green Imports and Exports, London, San Francisco, Hong Kong" in dark green. Curious, Harry slit the envelope and pulled out the note inside.

Harry, I hope this note finds you well. I want to tell you again what a pleasure it was meeting you and your charming young lady during St Ambrose's back to school reception. I confess I have already begun to take advantage of our meeting to contact Miss Weasley's brother. I do hope none of his products find their way into your classroom!

As you may have heard, I host what is recognized as the best Wizarding Halloween extravaganza in the entire state and I am hoping you and your dear Ginny will be able to grace us with your presence on the evening of Saturday the 28th of October. We Americans do love dressing up, so costumes are required! Please send your reply to the address below.

Yours truly,

Jacob Green

Harry racked his brain for an image of Jacob and finally remembered him as the salt-and-pepper-haired man that had saluted him at the reception a few weeks ago. He hadn't cared for the vibe he got from the man when he saw him in the crowd and cared for him even less when he saw him chatting up Ginny. Halloween isn't one of my favorite days anyway. No thank you, Mr Green. Tossing the envelope and letter aside, Harry uncapped his red pen and pulled the stack of papers in front of him, wading through his Senior students' essays on the intersection between the Patronus Charm and pure-heartedness.

Deeply engrossed in the essays, Harry gave a startled jump in his chair when he heard the crack of Ginny Apparating home. "Goodness, look at you, Mr Potter! Up to your elbows in corrections!" She leaned down and gave him a peck on the cheek, dodging Harry's grab as she swung her pack off her shoulder and onto the floor.

Scrubbing his hands over his eyes, Harry stood up and stretched. "You came home at the right time. I needed a break." He looked out of the windows, seeing that it was now fully dark. "Aren't you late?"

Ginny paused in her cupboard rummaging to look at Harry. "Oh, yes, sorry. I spent some extra time in the library with Ben. We have a big test coming up next week."

"Who's Ben?" Harry asked, hugging Ginny from behind and kissing the nape of her neck.

"I've told you about Ben before. Do you pay attention to anything I say?" Ginny spun around in his arms and gave him a playful smack on his shoulder.

"Of course I do. When we're in bed together, I pay attention to everything you say," Harry said with a grin.

Ginny rolled her eyes and extricated herself from his grip, resuming her rummaging, emerging with a box of crackers. "Well, I don't talk about Ben in bed, so I guess I'll have to repeat myself. I met him the first day of class and we've really hit it off, so we've been studying together."

Shoving the cracker Ginny offered him in his mouth, Harry narrowed his eyes. "Hit it off, eh? I should probably meet this 'Ben', yeah?"

"Don't you dare! He's a Muggle and as gay as they come!"

"How do you know it's not an act?"

"You jealous thing! Trust me, it's not an act."

Harry snatched the box of crackers away from Ginny and took them back to the sofa. "I guess I'll have to take your word for it," he sighed heavily in mock displeasure and sat down.

"Yes, you will. And you'll like it." Ginny leaned over his shoulder and picked up the envelope and note. "What's this?"

"Oh, you remember that guy that was chatting you up at the reception? He's invited us to a Halloween party."

Ginny read over the note with a frown. "Halloween? Harry, doesn't he know?"

"I'm sure he does. I'm going to send our refusal tomorrow, if that's okay with you?"

"Of course it is." Harry felt Ginny's reassuring touch on his shoulder and felt some of the anxiety he'd been holding on to since reading the note fade away. "I can't believe what a big deal the Muggles make out of Halloween here. There are giant shops with nothing but costume stuff."

"Yeah. You should see some of the yard displays outside of the City. I saw an advertisement for a maze in a cornfield."

Ginny took the forgotten box of crackers from Harry and sat down on the sofa, curling her legs underneath her. "One thing I can get behind though are those giant bags of candy in all the shops. Can we get one?"

"What? To give away to the kids that come knocking?"

"Oh no. Those kids can get their candy from someone else. I want a bag for myself!"

Ginny frowned at her notes, trying to decipher her hurried chicken scratches and cursing every professor she'd ever had that talked far too fast. I'm going to have to start recording these things, ugh. Looking across the crowded library, she spotted her friend Ben making a beeline for her table.

"Girl. Have I got some news for you!" Ben said in an excited whisper as he sat down across from her.

Setting aside her notes, Ginny leaned closer. "Oh? What's going on?"

"Well. You know Dorothea? That skinny mousy thing in biochemistry? Looks like she wouldn't say boo to a ghost? I was just in Admin and I heard she's on academic probation!" Ben sat back to watch her reaction, arms crossed over his chest in satisfaction at being the first to know such news.

Ginny sucked in her breath. "Academic probation? She's brilliant! What happened?"

Ben leaned forward again, his eyes lit up with delight. "So, word around campus is that Dorothea isn't quite the demure gal she puts herself out to be. I've been hearing stories that she can get quite rowdy at times," he said, miming someone drinking from a bottle.

"No! I never could tell anything on her!"

"I know! Me either! Anyway, last weekend there was that raging house party over in the Western Addition—I thought about going, but it's not really my scene, you know—and I heard the cops were called and she was," Ben paused dramatically, looking to see if anyone was listening in before leaning closer to Ginny. "Arrested! Marijuana!" he hissed.

"What?" Ginny gasped, louder than she meant to, drawing irritated glares from nearby students. "You heard all of this in Admin just now?"

"Oh no, I knew about the arrest on Monday."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Ben shrugged. "It didn't seem that important. Academic probation now, that's another thing!"

"From now on you need to tell me these things when you hear them! You can't be withholding information from me. It's not fair when you hear all of the good gossip!" Ginny sat back in her seat, contemplating the unfortunate Dorothea. She would lose her grant if something like that happened to her. And then her parents would kill her. She shook her head. "Poor thing, I hope she gets her act together."

"Well, she won't really have a choice. She's got to spend the next two quarters on the straight and narrow." Ben pulled out a thick sheaf of papers and started organizing them.

"Got any other news?"

"Hmm, well, Jackie and Tom broke up."

"Ugh, again. Those two." Ginny went back to her own notes, shaking her head. Jackie was one of those girls that had a plan and Tom was one of those guys that attached themselves to girls with plans and tried their best to foul them up. "Maybe she'll finally see the light and be done with him for once and for all."

"You think she'll do it? Then I can finally put my master plan into place and catch the attention of those glorious blue eyes!"

Ginny giggled and rolled her eyes. Including Tom, Ben had a crush on about ten other guys at school and talked about them constantly, bemoaning their straightness. When she pointed out that they were in the middle of San Francisco and that he was spoiled for choice, he frowned at her. "Ginny, the gays around here are some thirsty bitches and hardly a challenge." They worked in companionable silence for a while and she gradually became aware of her stomach growling. As she was fishing around in her bag for the packet of almonds she knew was in there, she heard Ben gasp.

"I think I've just seen my future husband," Ben breathed, eyes riveted to the entrance of the reading room.

"Oh?" Ginny said as she turned around to see who had captured her friend's attention. "Oh!" Harry stood in the doorway, scanning the room for her. Still dressed in his work clothes with his satchel slung across his chest, Ginny surmised that he'd come straight from St Ambrose's and waved, catching his attention.

"Ginny! You know him?"

Ginny turned to look at Ben and suppressed the urge to laugh at Ben's shocked face. "Yes, I do. That's Harry. I've told you about him."

Ben's eyes went completely round. "That's Harry? When you said your boyfriend's name was Harry, I envisioned one of those little hipster nerdy guys that like to be called Harry ironically. I definitely did not envision…that," he said, gesturing to the approaching Harry. "You really need to be more descriptive."

"Oh yes. He grew up very well." Ginny moved her book bag off of the chair next to her and Harry sat down, kissing her on the cheek. "Hello, love," Ginny said, ignoring the high-pitched squeak emanating from Ben's position. "Surprised to see you here! How did you find me?"

"I have my ways," Harry said with a smile. "Are you going to introduce me to your friend?"

Ginny looked over at Ben, who was looking at Harry with stars in his eyes. "Harry, this is Ben Frye. Ben, this is Harry Potter."

Ben extended his hand in front of Ginny to Harry and they shook hands. "So nice to meet you, Harry. I haven't heard nearly enough about you," he said, cutting his eyes at Ginny.

"Oh, so you're Ben!" Harry smiled warmly at him and Ginny felt Ben kick her under the table. "Ginny's always telling me something you said. I hear you know all of the best gossip."

"I apparently don't know everything," Ben murmured, glaring obviously at Ginny, delivering another kick to her abused shin.

Kicking him back, Ginny turned to Harry. "What brings you here?"

"I got hung up at work and I thought you might be hungry. Decided I'd treat my girl to a night out, yeah?"

"That sounds wonderful. My brain is so tired I don't think I could remember how to fry an egg." Ginny started packing up her books and papers, glancing over at Ben who was doing his best to stare at Harry and not look like it.

Casting a glance at Ben, Harry stood up. "I'll meet you outside, okay? Ben, really good meeting you. I'm sure we'll see each other again."

Once Harry was out of earshot, Ben leaned in close to Ginny. "How dare you keep that from me?" he hissed.

"Keep what? It's just Harry! I've known him since I was eleven."

Ben sighed heavily and shook his head. "Why do all of the good ones have to be taken?"

Ginny patted his hand in sympathy. "Poor Ben. Look, I'll answer any questions you want tomorrow, okay?"

"Anything?"

"Anything within reason," Ginny amended. "See you tomorrow!"

Outside she found Harry leaning against the library steps railing, obviously deep in thought. "Hey, you," Ginny murmured, giving him a proper greeting-kiss.

"Hey. Ready to go?"

"Yes, I'm famished! Where are you parked?"

"I didn't drive today. What do you feel like for dinner?"

"Anything but Chinese!" Living above a Chinese takeaway had its advantages and disadvantages, Ginny mused as they walked toward a nearby stand of trees to Apparate. "Surprise me."

"Feeling posh?"

Ginny looked down at her ratty jumper and jeans. "Well, you're dressed better than I am, but no, not in a posh mood."

"I think I know just the place then." Harry grabbed her hand and Ginny felt the split-second squeeze of nothing followed by her eardrums popping as they emerged into a semi-dark alleyway. Stepping out, Ginny saw they were in North Beach.

"Oh Italian sounds lovely," Ginny said, smiling up at Harry. "It's like you read my mind."

"I did study Legilimancy, you know." Harry gave her a smug look.

"Hmph. Like you need to read my mind to know I'm always up for Italian." A few minutes later, they were situated in a booth at one of their favorite tiny places that was ignored by tourists, both magical and Muggle alike. Harry sat with his back to the wall and an eye on the main entrance.

"Expecting trouble?" Ginny asked casually as she dipped a piece of bread in olive oil. Their waitress set a glass of the house red in front of each of them and she watched Harry take a long drink. Something was up.

Harry took his eyes off the door for a moment to look at her. "No, why?"

"You've got something on your mind and you're watching that door like a hawk. What's going on?"

Harry sighed and grabbed a piece of bread out of the basket. "I had a conversation with Artemis after work."

"Oh? Is he not happy with your performance? Have there been complaints from the students or parents?"

"I wish it were that simple. No, he is insisting that we go to Jacob Green's Halloween party." Moodily shredding the bread into pieces on his plate, Harry dipped the crust in the oil and ate it.

Ginny frowned. "Why would he care if you go to the party or not? How does he even know you were invited?"

"You remember when he introduced us at the back to school reception, talking about what a huge donor Green is to the school. I'm sure that smarmy bastard had told everyone I was on the list and he wasn't too pleased when I sent our refusal." Another piece of bread was steadily being ripped apart. "I got the idea that Artemis had gotten an earful from him."

"Did you tell him that you don't do Halloween? Doesn't everyone know why?" Ginny took a sip of her own wine, watching Harry over the rim of the glass.

Shrugging, Harry finally shoved the bread plate out of the way. "I told him that I was sorry, but I don't celebrate Halloween. I didn't feel the need to trot out the Dark Lord and dead parents story, you know?" Picking up his own wineglass, Harry stared at it moodily before taking another drink.

"Well what did he say?"

"He just kind of said that was all in the past and there are no dark lords here and wasn't it time I just let all of that go? And then he reminded me how much money Green had donated to the school over the years."

"God, what is it with Americans and money?"

"I dunno." Harry shook his head and leaned back against the seat, closing his eyes and taking off his glasses.

"What are you going to do?" Ginny hadn't seen Harry this upset in a long time and certainly not since relocating to California.

"I'll have to go. I can't see a graceful way to get out of it." He opened his eyes and looked at Ginny, giving her a small smile. "We'll go and leave early. Put in an appearance and then get out of there."

Ginny took one of Harry's hands in hers and squeezed. "You could just explain—"

"No. I'm not going to waste my breath. I don't really have a choice, yeah? I just need to suck it up and do my duty." Harry looked at a painting of a ruined tower next to their booth. "Still fucking 'Famous Harry Potter'," he muttered.

"Harry, that's enough," Ginny said gently. "We'll get through it." She was rewarded by a nod and smile from Harry as he squeezed her hand back. They sat quietly, each lost in their own thoughts until the runner came with their dinner, which served to brighten the mood quite a bit.

"Feeling better?" Ginny asked as Harry plowed through his pasta.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I wanted to take you out for a nice evening and give you a break from your studying. Didn't mean to be such a prat."

"It's all right. I understand." They were quiet for a moment, focusing on their dinners when Ginny said with an impish smile, "Besides, if anyone's fucking Famous Harry Potter, it'd better be me."

"Too right." Harry flashed her a grin and she was relieved to see that he did seem to be in better spirits after all. "So that was Ben, huh?"

"Yes. He's a real sweetheart. He wants to be a pediatric surgeon. Kids love him." Ginny savored her chicken parmesan which was definitely her favorite dish at this restaurant. "Does he have your approval? Can we still be friends?"

Harry looked at her with a furrowed brow. "Gin, you know you can be friends with whomever you want. I don't control you."

"Harry, I know you don't. That's not what I'm trying to say. Some blokes don't like when their girls are friends with other blokes and we've never..." she said, trailing off, not really too sure what she was trying to say. She'd meant her comment as a tease, but Harry seemed to be taking it very seriously.

Harry shook his head. "I don't...I mean..." He stopped and took a deep breath and another sip of wine. "Listen, I was just such a twat when you and that Hudson got together and I treated you so terribly. I want you to know that you don't need to worry about who you're friends with, all right?"

Ginny was shocked to hear that Harry was still troubled by his poor reaction to the news that she was seeing fellow Healer Matthew Hudson, but not altogether surprised. He carried those sorts of things with him for a very long time. "Honestly Harry, the thought never even crossed my mind. It was a joke, okay?"

"Yeah, all right," he said moodily and picked at the remnants of his dinner.

"Besides, Ben is as gay as they come. He about fell off his chair when you walked into the library."

"Yeah? I could tell something was up with him the way he was looking at me."

"Oh yes. He accused me of hiding you from him."

"He did, did he?" A slow smile spread across his face he chuckled. "Well, we might have to invite him over to the flat for some Chinese."

"So you can parade yourself around? Honestly, you're the worst."

Harry signaled for coffee and dessert and gave a mock hurt expression. "I can't believe you would say that. I never 'parade myself around'."

"Oh, it's cute that you think that. What about that time when we were all stuck at Grimmauld Place? I distinctly remember several times when you took your sweet time walking from the loo to your room in nothing but a towel. Your hair all dripping wet."

"Well, the shower was all the way at the other end of the hall."

"And then back at school you'd come in all sweaty from Quidditch practice and spread yourself all over an armchair in the common room."

"That's hardly parading," Harry protested mildly as he doctored his coffee. Ginny attended to her own and took a sip. "You're making as if I was constantly walking around Hogwarts half-naked."

"If you had done that, then that would have driven all of the girls mad, instead of only most." Their spumoni came and Ginny scooped out a bite, savoring the sweetness against the bitter coffee.

Harry quirked an eyebrow at her. "Most?" he asked around a bite of ice cream.

"Well, maybe most is an overstatement. Certainly several. Why do you think the DA was as popular as it was?" Ginny giggled at seeing Harry take pause at that.

"I thought everyone was there to learn how to defend themselves against Death Eaters," he said introspectively, licking more ice cream off the back of the spoon.

"I definitely was," Ginny nodded as she finished the dessert.

"So you weren't there, hoping to catch my eye?" Harry leaned forward with a grin. "Hoping that I'd notice you, my best friend's little sister?"

Ginny snorted. "Oh please. I was going round with Michael, wasn't I?"

"Michael who?"

"Michael Corner. Well, until we beat Ravenclaw so terribly and he couldn't get out of his sulk, anyway."

"And then you moved on to Dean."

"What are we doing here? Rehashing over my past love life?" Ginny leaned forward as well. "I think we were talking about you swanning all over Grimmauld Place and the Gryffindor common room."

"But this is so much more interesting." Harry's green eyes glittered in the candlelight and Ginny felt a swooping sensation in her stomach.

"It can't be as interesting as finding out which girls had crushes on you in school."

Harry waved his hand dismissively. "That's old news."

"Is it? I guarantee I know of at least one that would surprise you," Ginny said with a challenge in her voice.

"I bet I already know who you're going to say," Harry said smugly, looking at her over his coffee cup.

"Oh you don't know this one."

"Who was it then?"

"Morag MacDougal," Ginny said, grinning in satisfaction at Harry's open-mouthed expression.

"Wait, who?" She could almost see Harry flipping through index cards in his head, looking for this girl. "Describe her."

"Your year, Ravenclaw. Started out pudgy but lost weight before fifth year and got quite pretty. Brown hair, blue eyes." The index cards were slowing down and Harry let out a sigh.

"Yes, I remember her now. She came to the DA and always needed extra help, yeah?" Harry shook his head. "I always thought that was odd for a Ravenclaw. How did you find out?"

"The girls toilet is always gossip Ground Zero. I was in a stall one day when she came in with a couple of friends and they started talking about boys they fancied. You were top of her list." Ginny sat back in satisfaction. "There. I surprised you."

"You did indeed. I haven't thought of her in years. I wonder how she turned out?" Harry said musingly before looking back at Ginny. "Do all girls have a list?" Ginny nodded and he gave her his most winning smile. "Where was I on your list?"

"I think we've already established that you were below Michael and Dean," Ginny said, fixing him with a saucy look.

"Cheeky." Harry paid the check and Ginny nodded that she was ready to go. She heaved her book bag up on her shoulder and followed Harry out of the restaurant into the cool night. She took the peppermint he dug out of the stash in his pocket, choosing to suck on it slowly rather than crunch into it right away like she usually did.

Holding Harry's hand, they ambled toward the approved Apparition point for the neighborhood, passing several storefronts that were already decorated for the upcoming holiday. She noticed his eyes lingering on the jack o'lanterns, black cats and ridiculous witches on terrible broomsticks. Even when they were at Hogwarts the holiday had been bittersweet for Harry and he usually just let it pass unmentioned. Here though, everyone was crazy for Halloween and bought massive bags of candy to give to costumed children and there was just no getting away from it. And now this Halloween party.

"All right, Harry?" Ginny asked softly as they turned into the darkened alley.

"Yeah. Just thinking. Ready?" Ginny nodded and held tight to his arm as he Disapparated them in the silent Auror fashion. She was still miffed that he refused to teach her the way of it.

Once back in the flat, Ginny reluctantly turned her thoughts to her schoolwork. She had a biochemistry lab report due in the morning and still had to manage to fit in a couple of chapters' worth of reading for study group in the afternoon. She saw Harry had his satchel open and was bringing out a large stack of papers.

Arranging herself on the bed with her books and papers arrayed around her, she tried to lose herself in the work, but Harry was fidgeting on the sofa and distracting her. She watched out of the corner of her eye as he tried to focus on the student papers and failed, his gaze drifting to look out of the windows that faced the street. He sighed and mumbled to himself, shifting around and now sat with his legs crossed which only lasted for about thirty seconds before he shifted again and put both feet flat on the floor. Ginny was about to say something when Harry finally stood up, shoving the papers back into his satchel.

"I'm going for a run." Relieved that he was finally going to find an outlet for his nervous energy, Ginny nodded and watched as he quickly changed into his running tights and a light tee shirt. "You need anything while I'm out?" he asked, hopping on one foot as he tied a running shoe.

"No. Go on and get your busy head right." Harry bent over to kiss her and before she knew it he was out the door and she could hear his hurried steps on stairs outside. She shook her head and focused again on her lab report, hoping he'd work out what was bothering him.

Harry ran, the sound of his footsteps on the pavement rhythmic and soothing in the brisk nighttime air. He wanted to set a faster, more punishing pace, but with the run earlier in the day, he knew that would not end well so he forced himself to keep to a fast jog, trying to look like an ordinary man out for an ordinary evening run and not like someone desperately trying to run away from his own ghosts.

Damn Artemis and damn Jacob Green, he thought, making a right turn at the bottom of the hill. Bloody Americans and their bloody parties. Why can't they just leave me the hell alone? Even as he thought it, he knew why. He was still famous Harry Potter, savior of the Wizarding World and even though he wasn't quite the household name here as he was back home, his name still carried weight and prestige and having him at any function was guaranteed to catch a write up in the local Wizarding rag.

As Artemis had pointed out to him, Jacob Green had a lot of money to spread around and the headmaster of St Ambrose's had a vested interest in encouraging Mr Green to spread as much of it around the school as he could. "I'm sure you can appreciate how expensive operations are in this part of the country," Artemis had said when Harry had done his usual post-run cruise through the office. "We can't expect parents to shoulder all of the burden, especially when it comes to our less well-to-do families."

"Sir, I can definitely appreciate that and I'm very grateful for how generous Mr Green has been to this school in establishing scholarships and upgrading the library, but—"

"And I think it would be only right to show your appreciation by taking Jacob up on his invitation," Artemis said, cutting Harry off. He gave him a fatherly look and Harry was forcibly reminded of Rufus Scrimgeour. "Think of it as an opportunity to be introduced to the who's who of the Bay Area Wizarding community."

Harry had to give it one more try. "Artemis, I'm sure you're aware of what happened to my family on Halloween?"

Artemis waved his hand dismissively, the motion almost making Harry's blood boil. "Yes, that's all in the history books and that's just what it is, Harry, history. It's over and done. Time to move on, don't you think?"

Stifling the urge to choke the life out of the man, Harry took a deep breath and counted to ten before allowing himself to speak. He could see now that there was no way he was going to get out of this and it would only get worse if he let it go on and he nodded. "Okay. I'll message him and let him know I'll be accepting his invitation."

"Excellent!" Artemis smiled and shook Harry's hand companionably. "I think you'll find the Wizarding crowd around here very interesting, Harry."

"I can't wait," Harry said under his breath to the headmaster's back.

Now, running along the dimly lit streets, Harry felt his upset rise again and he thought about just leaving and packing in the teaching business. This thought lasted for about half a second before he shook his head and ran harder, glancing to each side as he darted across a deserted street. I can't do that. Then what would I do? Sit around the flat all day, getting fat? Besides, it wouldn't be fair to the kids. He thought back to the revolving door of Defense Against the Dark Arts instructors he'd been treated to and how crushed he was when Remus hadn't been able to return for a second year.

As he ran and thought, Harry realized that he actually loved teaching. He'd loved being an Auror as well, at least in the beginning, but this was different. He'd had an inkling when he'd led the DA sessions in the Room of Requirement, but now he thought he finally had the whole picture. Leading his students in drills, reading over their assignments and putting up with their mischief was all worth it when he saw the aha moment dawn in their eyes.

It's just like Hermione said it would be, he thought ruefully, I'll never tell her that though. I'd never hear the end of it. He checked his watch and saw he'd already been out for half an hour and he slowed down, taking stock of his surroundings. He was still getting to know the City and he found he was in an unfamiliar area that looked a bit run down, but still all right. He spied a little shop half a block away and jogged toward it, intent on getting a bottle of water.

The small shop was crowded with just about everything residents of the neighborhood could possibly need and was deserted except for the man at the counter idly watching television news in a language Harry didn't recognize right away. He went to the wall of coolers at the rear and grabbed a bottle of water, fishing in his shoe for the dollar bills he kept stashed in there for times such as this. Stepping outside, he uncapped the water and quickly drank about half of it, noticing an older man on the opposite corner looking straight at him.

Wiping his mouth, Harry studied the man without appearing to. He looked to be in his 60s with long white hair and a long white beard, both clean and well-kept. He was dressed like a lot of people out here were in jeans and a fleece jacket and was obviously out to walk his dog. From this distance he couldn't tell eye color or jewelry, but there was something about him that made Harry think Wizard. Just as he raised the bottle to finish the water, the man saluted him and walked away, tugging on the dog's leash.

That was weird, Harry thought, throwing the empty water bottle in the bin. It was the first time he'd been recognized out on the street since relocating. I guess I'm not as under the radar as I thought I was. Mentally shaking himself, he thought about just Disapparating back to the flat but decided to run back instead, still feeling the need to clear his head. He set a faster pace back to the flat and was pounding up the steps in what seemed like no time at all.

Ginny was still on the bed, papers and books scattered around while she typed in her hunt and peck fashion on her computer. She looked up and smiled at him when he came into the flat and started stretching. "Good run?" she asked.

"Yeah, pretty good," he answered, bending one leg over the other in his favorite stretch. He got another glass of water and drank it down. "I think I was recognized."

"You were? Where? By who?"

"Outside a little shop where I stopped for water by some old bloke out walking his dog." Harry took off his sweaty tee shirt and tossed it toward the bathroom door.

"How do you know you he recognized you?"

"He stood there staring and me and then he saluted and walked off." Harry shrugged. "I dunno, maybe people just go around saluting people here, but I could tell he was a wizard."

Ginny frowned as he kicked off his shoes and peeled off his tights. "That's weird. How did he recognize you, I wonder?"

"Dunno. I figure he was too far away to see my scar. I guess word's gotten around." Harry blew out a long, frustrated breath and swept his hair back with both hands. "Right. I'm going to shower and then I have a pile of work to do," he said firmly. "And then we're going to shag and I am going to sleep."

"Oh we are? So nice of you to fit me into your evening plans," Ginny said wryly, raising her face to receive Harry's lingering kiss.

In the shower, Harry let the hot water needle his shoulders and scalp and tried to let the day's frustrations flow down the drain with the water. They don't know. They can't know, he thought. I wanted to be in a place where everyone didn't know my history and I can't complain now, that's for damn sure. The water was beginning to cool and Harry quickly washed his hair and scrubbed down. Dry again, he slipped on a pair of trackies and decided the night was cool enough for a fire.

Take two. He brought out the stack of essays from his Sophomore class on Shielding Charms, settled his glasses on his nose and started reading. His mind felt much calmer with the run and the shower and he soon fell into the work, reading, writing comments and notes in the margins and assigning point values to the students' work. He was getting a reputation as a tough grader and he'd noticed the uptick in quality over the last couple of weeks.

Gradually he became aware of Ginny packing up her papers, books and computer. "All done?" he asked, leafing through the essays he had left. Only a few. I can do those during lunch tomorrow. "What time is it?"

"After eleven," Ginny said with a yawn. She stood up and stretched, making the bottom of her shirt ride up, exposing a section of pale, freckled skin. Harry took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, gathering up his own papers. The fire in the hearth had burned down to embers, casting a dim glow when Ginny shut off the lamps.

Sinking down into the bed with a groan, Harry gathered Ginny close and breathed deep, inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo. "Thank you," he said, voice muffled by her hair.

"For what?"

"For putting up with me."

"Well, that is a pretty big job. Nice to know I'm appreciated." Ginny said, kissing him playfully on his collarbone and making his stomach tremble.

Harry kissed her temple, moving down to her cheek and finally her lips, feeling a flash of heat at her soft sigh as he pushed his tongue into her willing mouth. He loved kissing her and had told her quite honestly that she was the best kisser he'd ever encountered, something he knew pleased her immensely. He continued downward, kissing her where her jaw met her neck and nipping at her earlobe. "Harry," she said breathlessly.

"Mmm?" he moved further down, following the pulsing vein that ran down the side of her neck, feeling her heartbeat on his lips. She'd told him the name of that vein several times, but he could never remember what it was called.

"I have an idea."

Harry stopped kissing her and looked at her. The dim firelight made red sparks in her hair and her eyes were very bright. "You what?"

"I have an idea. For that stupid Halloween party."

"Gin. Do you mean to tell me that while I've been kissing you, you've been thinking about that sodding party?"

"Only this one thing," she said sheepishly. "I'm multitasking. Anyway, I had an idea about costumes."

"I am about to shag your brains out and you're thinking about costumes for a party neither one of us really wants to go to?" Harry flopped on his back next to her. "I know you won't give it up, so let's hear it."

Ginny sat up eagerly and pushed her hair back behind her ears. "Okay, you know that movie we watched last week? The Princess Bride?" Harry nodded. They had both enjoyed it a lot and had spent the next couple of days repeating their favorite lines to each other and laughing hysterically. "Well, how about if you dress as Dread Pirate Roberts and I'll be Princess Buttercup!"

Harry rolled his eyes and groaned. "Really, Gin? That's what you've been thinking about this whole time?"

"You're not hearing me out. Listen, if you dress as Dread Pirate Roberts, you'll get to wear a mask and even though you'll have to go to this party, no one will get to see your face."

"Oh. Oh my love, you are devious!" The thought of being able to stick it to Jacob Green and obey the letter of the law and not the spirit had an enormous appeal to Harry. He pulled Ginny down on top of him and held her face in his hands, kissing her on the forehead, tip of her nose and lips. "You are brilliant," he whispered.

"I know," she whispered back before kissing him deeply and tracing her own path down his neck, swirling her tongue in the hollow of his throat and making him gasp. Her hand traced a line down his chest and stomach and she slipped it into his tracksuit bottoms, squeezing the head of his cock lightly. "Now," she whispered against his lips, "what do you say we put that to good use?"

Harry felt his insides tremble and jump at the feeling of her hand on his cock and her soft breath against his lips as he captured her mouth with his. "As you wish."

4. Chapter 4

Harry contemplated his Auror rig spread out on the bed and looked back at the computer screen. An image of Carey Elwes as the Dread Pirate Roberts in the middle of his duel with Inigo Montoya was frozen in place and Harry studied it carefully. Wand in hand, he carefully visualized the full-sleeved black pirate shirt as he worked the Transfiguration spell on one of his old black tee shirts, pleased to see it come out exactly as he'd envisioned. The trousers were fine as they were and he doubted anyone would notice the extra pockets. The boots, however...

Picking up his old Docs, Harry looked them over critically. They looked just about done in, but they were still the most comfortable shoes he'd ever worn and he'd had them resoled a couple of times already. Not really pirate-y enough though, he thought as the scrolled through the video, looking for a good shot of Westley's footwear. All right, so they fold over and they're a bit baggy at the ankles. I can do that.

He had just finished when Ginny finally came out of the loo. "Oh, those look great," she said happily. Harry turned to look at her and the words he had been about to say promptly flew out of his brain. She had been in the bathroom for about half an hour and Harry was starting to wonder exactly what she was doing in there. Apparently what she had been doing was a bit of her own Transfiguration. In place of her usual chin-length red bob was a cascade of loose blonde curls that fell down past her shoulders and to the middle of her back, making her look like a completely different person.

"Holy shit," Harry murmured making Ginny laugh and clap her hands.

"Oh Harry! That is the best reaction I could have hoped for." She turned and looked back at the mirror in the bathroom. "I didn't think I was ever going to get it right. Transfiguring your own hair is quite a chore."

"I know. You should have seen all the trouble Ron had with it. Almost made himself bald once." Harry stepped closer to her and surveyed her job with a critical eye, noting that the color was not all one single color but rather varied with light and dark strands like a real blonde. He took some strands near the end and rolled them in between his fingers, noting the texture. "This is really good, Gin. Full marks."

"Thank you, Professor Potter." Ginny gave him a quick peck on the cheek and picked up the billowing pirate shirt he'd created out of the old tee shirt. "Very nice. You still need a sword and a belt though."

"Easy enough. Give me a butter knife." Ginny handed him one and he couldn't resist showing off a little as he quickly transformed the humble knife into an exact replica of the Dread Pirate Roberts's sword, giving it an experimental swish through the air. He noticed the balance was off just a bit and it wouldn't really hold up to any real fighting, but it was fine for hanging off of his hip for an evening. Another moment and he had a passable black leather belt with the appropriate buckle. Black gloves, a mask and a headscarf completed the look.

Glancing at his watch, Harry saw it was almost eight o'clock. The invitation said seven, but they were planning on arriving fashionably late and leaving unfashionably early. He still didn't really want to go, but he'd resigned himself to the fact that in order to make nice and keep everyone happy he had to at least make an appearance. The kids had helped some too. Their excitement over the holiday had been a nice change from how he usually thought of it. Even the older ones who were too old for trick-or-treating were excited about costume parties and the chatter the last few days had been about who was dressing as what.

"What's that for, Mr Potter?" one of his students, a girl named Eleanor in his eighth grade class had asked yesterday afternoon, pointing at his mustache.

"This is for my Halloween costume," he said, smoothing it down with his finger. "What do you think?"

"I think it looks weird," she said, giggling and looking down at the carpet.

"Well my girlfriend disagrees with you. Shouldn't you be working on your Bigfoot paper?" She nodded and scooted back to her desk and Harry saw her put her head together with her best friend Jeannie, the two of them giggling madly behind their hands.

Now he looked at his own face in the mirror, the mustache reminding him of when he'd grown both a beard and a mustache and Ron's burning jealousy over it. Holding the image of the Dread Pirate Roberts in his mind, he carefully trimmed his mustache down to approximate The Man In Black. Satisfied, he fixed his reflection with a stern look. "We are men of action. Lies do not become us."

"What was that?" Ginny asked, poking her head around the bathroom door.

"Nothing." Harry turned around and spread his arms. "Well?"

"Very nice!" she said, grinning appreciatively. "Who are you?"

"No one of consequence."

"I must know."

"Get used to disappointment." Ginny's hug almost knocked the breath out of him and he hugged her back just as tight, delighting in her laughter. He knew she was working very hard to keep him upbeat and he loved her all the more for it.

"Now we just need to get dressed. I've just about got my dress done." She'd chosen to wear the red dress from when Buttercup and Westley are first reunited, reasoning that it was a simpler dress thus easy to Transfigure and very recognizable from the movie. She put a few more finishing touches on it and pulled it on over her head, cinching the jeweled belt tightly. After some deliberation, she'd decided to add a tiara. It wasn't exactly movie-accurate, but Ginny thought it would help people recognize who she was dressed as. With the hair and the red dress, she was the spitting image of Princess Buttercup out for an afternoon ride and Harry smiled in admiration.

"Now you." Ginny sat down on the sofa, spreading her skirts wide to watch him dress. Shedding his tee shirt and jeans, Harry quickly pulled on the billowing shirt and the black trousers, noting with some pride that the waistband was a little looser than the last time he'd worn them. The calf-high boots came next and then the mask and headscarf. Belt, sword and gloves completed the look and he turned around in a slow circle so Ginny could see the entire outfit. "Very nice," she said standing up on her tiptoes to kiss him. "You look like you could really sweep a girl off her feet!" Her sentence ended in a whoop as Harry scooped her up and held her up against his chest.

"Like that?" Harry asked, grinning down at her flushed face.

"Rather!" Ginny glanced at the bedside clock. "We should get going." Harry set her down on her feet and clapped his hands over his pockets, making sure he had everything he would need for the evening. Ginny had renewed the procedure on his eyes so he wouldn't have to worry about managing both mask and glasses.

"Ready?" he asked after Ginny had wrapped a shawl around her shoulders. At her nod, he took her hand and Apparated them to a spot he had scouted out a few days previously. It wasn't on the approved list, but it allowed him to approach Jacob Green's ostentatious mansion from a less-obvious direction while he was able to have a good view of the other two streets the house was on the corner of.

Perched on top of one of the high hills in the City, getting to the front gate was a bit of a slog. Just outside of the gate, they stopped and turned to look at the lights of the city spread out below. Another couple, costumes hidden beneath their cloaks, stepped around them and went through the gate and up to the front door.

"Well, we came. Let's go now," Harry said, trying to quell the uneasiness in his stomach.

"Harry, come on. We'll go in, be seen, have a couple drinks and a bite to eat and then leave. One hour, tops."

"Ugh, I just hate this so much," Harry groaned, dropping his head to stare at the dark sidewalk before taking a deep breath. "Okay. Let's go." Ginny opened the wrought iron gate and pulled Harry up the walkway, ringing the doorbell when he made no move to do so.

A woman dressed as what Harry could only think of as sexy demon opened the door. "Oh, who do we have here? A princess and a…?"

"Dread Pirate Roberts, at your service." Harry bowed, flourishing the rapier-cum-butter knife.

"Oh, of course! Welcome! Happy Halloween!" The sexy demon motioned them in and took Ginny's wrap. As they crossed the threshold, Harry felt the unmistakable tingle of a Blood Seal and he wondered who'd created it. Blood Seals were excellent home defense magic, but they'd fallen out of favor due to the blood magic aspect and were viewed as old-fashioned these days. Maybe the colonies didn't get the memo, Harry thought. Party sounds echoed in the high-ceilinged foyer which was decorated in the manner that Harry had learned was typical for Americans during Halloween, with grinning Jack-o-lanterns, cobwebs, spiders, bats and an assortment of skulls. Lurid purple and orange lights twinkled everywhere. Halloween, American-style, he mused.

Mentally girding himself, he looked at Ginny and grabbed her hand. "Let's go." They followed the sounds of the party down a hallway into an enormous room with windows that looked out onto the city lights on one end and a grand staircase on the other. "Oh my," Ginny breathed as they took in the rich dark wood paneling, beamed ceiling and richly appointed furniture. They could tell that they were indeed a little bit late as the room was already quite populated with chattering groups of costumed adults, all sipping a variety of brightly-colored drinks.

A house-elf dressed as what Harry thought was supposed to be Frankenstein's Monster paused and mutely offered his tray of drinks—a glowing green, bubbling concoction. "Ooh, this looks interesting," Ginny said as she took one and handed another to Harry. Once the house-elf departed, Harry took a sniff of the drink and raised his eyebrows, the smell of the alcohol stinging his nose. Ginny had already taken a sip. "This is really good, Harry! Try it!"

"Be careful with that Gin, it's stronger than it tastes," he said, confirming his statement with a cautious sip.

"We won't be here long enough for me to get in trouble. Let's go see what's to eat, okay? I'm starving!" All around the room were small tables set up with a variety of foods. Harry noticed traditional Samhain apples, nuts and even loaves of barmbrack along with the requisite candy and other assorted savory nibbles. As Ginny was making a plate to share, Harry scanned the room. He recognized Juanita right away. She had charmed her dreadlocks to move around like snakes. She was talking to someone he didn't immediately recognize and he stared at the man before realizing it was Artemis in a Wild West cowboy outfit.

"So, see anyone you know?" Ginny asked, holding out a plate piled high with tasty bits.

"Well, over there is Juanita, you remember she's the Magical History teacher. She's talking to Artemis the Headmaster." He looked around the crowded room and spotted another fellow teacher. "That gladiator over there is Richard Parker. He's the flying instructor and Quidditch coach."

Ginny looked at the well-built man dressed in the barest suggestion of a Roman gladiator costume and back at Harry. "You will definitely need to introduce me!"

"I already did. He was at the back-to-school reception, remember?"

Ginny looked again, squinting a little. "Oh, yes, I remember now. Well, he was wearing a lot more clothes then. Let's go have a chat."

Harry snorted and took another sip of his drink. "Not bloody likely. He's dead boring."

"I don't think that's the proper answer. What does Westley say to Buttercup when she asks for things?"

"As you wish."

"That's more like it," Ginny giggled and popped a piece of fruit in her mouth. Taking Harry's arm, she pulled him out of their corner. "Come on, let's get you seen so we can leave."

Harry guided them over to Juanita and Artemis, pleased that they didn't know who he was until he told them. "Wonderful costume, Harry," Artemis boomed, whacking Harry heavily on the shoulder. Harry wondered how long he'd been here and how many of those curiously strong drinks he'd already had.

"Thank you, sir. Have you seen Jacob? I want to thank our gracious host for inviting us." He'd been looking around trying to spot him, but Harry barely knew the man and it was doubly hard with everyone dressed up.

"Jacob won't be down for a while yet. He likes to make a grand entrance," Artemis went on, oblivious to Harry's muttered "Brilliant". "Every year he has to top his costume from last year. Juanita, do you remember who he was last year?"

"I think he was Louis XIV last year."

"Oh yes, the Sun King." Artemis chuckled, taking another drink from a circulating house-elf, this one dressed as a zombie. "That was quite spectacular. He claims to be descended from him, but I didn't think there was any Wizarding blood in the French royal family. What do you think, Juanita? You're the magical history authority here!"

"Right. Well, it was good seeing you, sir. We're going to mingle a bit." Harry nodded to Juanita and allowed Ginny to pull him in a direction. He went to take another sip of his drink and found he'd already finished it. Setting the empty glass on an end table, he took another one from a passing Dracula and greeted another group of people he vaguely recognized from the back-to-school reception.

He was pleased that people weren't recognizing him right away, but he wanted to make sure people knew he was there and explaining who he was over and over again got old fast and he wished Jacob would just show up so he could leave. He found a group of parents that were alumni themselves and they confirmed that Jacob didn't usually show up to his own party until it had been going for a couple of hours at least. "Although you can count on him to be busy behind the scenes. Jacob insists on perfection," one of the fathers dressed as a Muggle policeman said. His wife was also dressed in a police uniform, but her costume had considerably less fabric than her husband's, a trend Harry had noticed for women's costumes in general.

"I can understand," Ginny said, gesturing to the room with her drink. "All the planning that must go into this. The food, the drink, the decorations. I can't even imagine trying to put something like this together."

"And there's always entertainment. Jacob put it out that there's something special tonight," the scantily-clad policewoman said.

Glad Ginny had captured the group's attention with party planning talk, Harry disengaged and surveyed the crowd. All of these people dressed up in costumes had him on edge and he had decided that his second drink would be the last for the evening. He didn't like not being able to immediately identify people and he was beginning to get a massive headache.

He felt the tingle of concentrated attention and slid his eyes to the left. There was a short man dressed in an old-fashioned parti-colored doublet and hose with a mask on and Harry could see that he was looking intently at him. When the man saw Harry had seen him, he leaned over to the taller woman with him and whispered something, causing her to look at Harry too. With a shock, Harry realized it was the old man with the dog that had saluted him that night he went for a run to clear his head. With an inward groan, he realized they were going to come and talk to him.

"Harry Potter," the man said, sticking out his hand for Harry to shake, "Ignatius Weatherbee and my lovely companion, Esmerelda." Harry dutifully shook Ignatius's hand and clasped Esmerelda's, wincing at the man's posh Mayfair accent. Why does the only other Brit in the room have to spot me?

"Good to meet you." How is he going to play this? Do I pretend that salute never happened? "May I introduce Ginny Weasley?" Ginny extended her hand to Ignatius who took the opportunity to kiss it.

"Arthur Weasley's daughter? I remember when you were born! Arthur was over the moon at your arrival, my dear! The first Weasley girl in generations and the seventh child to boot!" Harry shrugged at Ginny's questioning look and Ignatius laughed. "Don't worry, you haven't met me before! I left the ministry shortly after."

"Oh? What department did you work in?" Ginny asked politely, sipping at her drink.

Ignatius rubbed his ample belly and took a tidbit off of the plate he held. "Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, same as your dad. Decided the Ministry was getting too stuffy for me, so I struck out for the colonies," he chuckled. "Enough about me! Harry, the last I heard you were the star of the Aurors!"

Hearing a couple of murmurs from the parents they had been talking to, Harry gripped his glass tighter and shrugged. "I decided it was time to teach the next generation of Aurors," he said. What's he playing at? What's his game?

"Well why not go to Hogwarts? I'm sure they would have fallen all over themselves to have you! Is Dumbledore still in charge over there?"

Harry felt a cold flash. "No, Dumbledore passed away several years ago. Minerva McGonagall is headmistress now," he said shortly.

"Oh yes. Animagus, isn't she? Turns into a cat or something." Ignatius nodded to the gathered parents. "Well, their loss is certainly our gain! I'm sure they're glad to have—" Don't say it, don't you dare say it "—The Boy Who Lived teaching their children!"

The parents all murmured agreement and Harry wished that a giant black hole would swallow Ignatius up. I could make it look like an accident… Harry glared at the shorter man and saw an answering glint in his eyes. Taking a swig of his drink, Ignatius gave him a nasty grin. "Speaking of, isn't Halloween usually a somber time for you? I'm surprised to see you out at a party."

Harry heard Ginny's sharp intake of breath and he ached to blast this man with his knowing smile into next week. Inclining his head at Ignatius, he said, "It's true I don't usually celebrate Halloween. As you know, it's not a big deal at home. Since Jacob was good enough to invite me, I thought Gin and I would come and see what an American Halloween party was all about."

"American Muggles do love their things that go bump in the night! I wonder what they would do if they knew how many things there really are that do bumble about in the dark?" He looked at the gathered witches and wizards and gave a hearty guffaw, which was answered with a few uneasy chuckles. Harry did not find much humor in Ignatius's statement however. Years spent waiting in the dark had taught him exactly what and who goes bump in the night.

Before Harry could say something terribly rude, Ginny came to his rescue. "Harry, I think I've had a little too much of that green drink. Care to join me outside for a bit of air?" she asked, fanning herself with her hand.

Relieved at her diversion, Harry bowed to her. "As you wish, my lady," he said, holding out his arm for her to take. He nodded to the group of parents. "Ladies, gentlemen. Ignatius."

"I'm sure we'll have another opportunity to speak again tonight, Harry. I look forward to hearing all of the news of the motherland," Ignatius said, stepping aside for Harry and Ginny to pass. Harry didn't respond.

Outside, the cool air felt wonderful and Harry took off his mask, scrubbing his hands through his hair. "Oh God. Thanks, Gin. If I'd had to stand there another minute, I'd have done something really awful."

"That man was horrible! The things he was saying, Harry!" Ginny looked outraged and he smiled, drawing her to the stone rail of the terrace.

"He's on about something. You remember that man I told you about? On my run?" Ginny nodded and Harry continued, "That was him. He knew me, seemed to know all about me—my former career and what I was doing now. If he knew that, then he knew Dumbledore had passed. He was just playing dumb to see if he could get a reaction out of me." Harry leaned against the rail and looked down at the City. This was really a prime spot, offering views of both the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate.

"And then bringing up You-Know-Who and your parents." Ginny leaned on the railing with him and shook her head. "You know who he reminds me of? Rita Skeeter. You know how she would ask the worst questions and feign ignorance and all the while she was twisting the knife."

Harry grunted in agreement. "I'm going to have to call up some information on our friend Ignatius Weatherbee." I wonder why he really left the ministry? The timing of his leaving is interesting. Not too long after Gin was born... He turned to look at Ginny, appreciating the effect the low lights scattered around the terrace had on her face, still jolted by that blonde hair. "You think you could mention him in your next letter home to your parents? See what your dad has to say about him, yeah?"

"All right. I'm about due to write another one anyway. You know how Mum gets if I don't write on a regular schedule," Ginny said with a wry smile.

"Do I ever. Come here." Harry pulled her into a hug and held on, resting his chin on top of her head. They stood quietly for several minutes until he felt Ginny shift in his embrace.

"Feeling better?" Ginny asked, her voice somewhat muffled by his chest.

"Mmm, but I don't want to go back in there."

"What time is it?"

Harry checked his watch and saw it was later than he'd thought it was. "Almost 10."

Ginny wormed out of his arms and straightened her hair and dress. "How about we do some exploring? We'll just keep an ear out for the 'grand entrance', say hello and leave. He's got to be coming out soon." She helped him get his Dread Pirate Roberts mask back in place and held out her hand. "Come on."

Harry followed her as she went around the corner of the terrace to another set of French doors that opened to an unoccupied room. It looked like a small retiring room with uncomfortable, ornate furniture. He followed Ginny from room to room as the sounds of the party grew fainter.

Ginny paused to gaze at a Wizarding painting of a pastoral scene complete with frolicking lambs and a sleeping shepherd. "Why does someone need a house this big?" she whispered.

"I dunno," Harry whispered back. They seemed to be in a library and in addition to the books, there were several glass-fronted cabinets full of objects d'art tastefully displayed. "He does have a lot of stuff. I guess the import-export business is good for this sort of thing." One of the items in the cabinet caught Harry's eye and he moved closer to get a better look at it.

"Why are we whispering?" Ginny asked, her breath hot on Harry's ear.

"So we don't get caught!" Harry whispered back with a smile. "Look at this." He pointed to the tiny oval portrait of a young woman with dark hair and a teasing smile on her lips.

"Ooh, who's that, I wonder?" Ginny said, leaning in closer. "It's not moving, so it's Muggle. It looks really old." She paused a moment, cocking he head. "Do you hear something?"

Harry listened and shook his head. "Just a bit from the party. All right?"

"Fine," Ginny said, "I guess those drinks were stronger than I thought."

Harry turned back to the display case. "It's definitely Muggle, but there's something about it," he mused, reaching for the handle on the door of the display case.

"Harry!" Ginny hissed, reaching out to stop him.

"I'll be careful; I just want to get a closer look at it." Harry slowly opened the door, alert for any rattling of the objects inside. Squatting down, he looked closely at the image. The girl looked to be in her late teens and she was dressed in what seemed like a Victorian-ish fashion with a mass of dark hair piled in what looked like an elaborately sloppy updo. Up close, he could see that in addition to her tart smile, her eyes snapped fire at the observer. It was a very fine piece considering that it was thoroughly Muggle.

Something about the piece bothered him, however. It wasn't out of place. There were several other fine miniatures in the same case, but something about this one…

Reaching out a finger, Harry touched the edge and felt a sharp pain run down his arm and come to rest in his Auror tattoo, becoming an insistent throb that echoed the rapid beat of his heart. Feeling like he was briefly outside of his body, Harry heard himself give a loud gasp and he broke the contact with effort, falling flat on his arse onto the hard parquet floor.

Ginny had her wand out and looked ready to fight. "Harry! What happened? Are you all right? You looked…strange."

Now that he was no longer touching the portrait, Harry felt the pain in his tattoo begin to fade. Standing up, he carefully closed the door of the display case and grabbed Ginny's arm, pulling her out of the room. "Harry! What—"

Harry shushed her with a motion and pulled her into a powder room, closing the door and locking it with a bit of wandless magic. Taking the mask off, he ran cold water in the sink and splashed his face. "Harry, what happened in there?" Ginny asked, concern plain in her voice.

Shaking the water droplets off his hands, Harry looked at Ginny in the mirror. "Gin, I think that portrait is a Horcrux."

"What?" Ginny's eyes met his in the mirror, completely stunned.

"Yeah. When I touched it, it was like I was being electrocuted or something. I felt it right here." He motioned to his shoulder and wiped his face with a towel.

"Your tattoo?" she asked, reaching a hand out to it, frowning when he shied away. "It's not active anymore now though."

"I know." Harry shook his head and felt his heart slowing down. Taking a deep breath, he examined his face in the mirror. Do I look like I just found a Horcrux in the home of one of California's wealthiest wizards? "What the hell is that doing there? Does he know what it is?"

"Not everyone can tell what a Horcrux is right away. You can because..."

"Because I was one?"

"Harry..." Ginny said reproachfully, rubbing the nape of his neck. "That's not what I was going to say." Harry closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of her hand rubbing his neck, gently massaging some of his stress away. His shoulder still throbbed a little bit and he felt like he could feel the exact borders of the ink in his skin.

He was about to open his mouth and suggest that they just leave when they heard a gentle knocking on the door. "Hello? Harry? Are you in there?" It sounded like Juanita and Harry unlocked the door, opening it to see her standing there, dreadlocks still twitching around.

"Juanita, hi. Ginny and I were just—"

"I think those drinks were stronger than I'm used to and I started feeling a little bit queasy," Ginny cut in deftly. "Harry found this loo just in the knick of time!" She flushed the toilet for emphasis and Juanita looked a bit taken aback.

"Oh, are you okay? Do you need to lie down?"

"I'm fine now. Sometimes alcohol and rich food don't quite mix. I stick mainly to cider at home," she said conspiratorially.

Juanita nodded sagely. "I see. Well, if you feel you can stay a little longer, I just wanted you to know that Jacob should be joining the party soon."

"Thanks! We'll be over there in a sec." Ginny fanned herself and gave Juanita a silly grin. "No more of those green drinks for me!" Juanita smiled and headed back to the party, shaking her head at Ginny's giddiness. She closed the door again and sighed. "Sorry, looks like I just roped us into staying longer."

"Don't be sorry. We need to put in our appearance still." He slipped the mask back on and made sure it was straight. Ginny made some adjustments to her hair and dress and nodded that she was ready. Rather than go back through the library, they chose a different route back to the party which was in full swing and joined the edge of the people clustered around the grand staircase.

Almost as if by magic, a hush descended on the assembled throng and everyone looked up expectantly. Just when Harry was beginning to wonder what they were all waiting for, a short fanfare came out of nowhere and Jacob Green finally appeared at the top of the stairs eliciting a loud cheer and lots of clapping. Next to him, he heard Ginny gasp and say, "What in the world...?" echoing his own thought.

Waving his arms expansively, Jacob slowly descended the stairs wearing a full Hogwarts Slytherin student uniform including badges for Prefect and Head Boy. His robes, tie, jumper and slacks were all spot on and Harry had no doubt in his mind that the whole rig had come from Madame Malkin's right on Diagon Alley. Reaching the lower landing, he turned around, giving his clapping admirers the opportunity to see him from all angles.

Facing them again, he moved his hands in a quelling motion and the claps and shouts gradually trailed off. With a benevolent smile, he surveyed the crowd and Harry had the feeling that Jacob was searching for him and Ginny. He felt a surge of satisfaction that the both of them had drastically changed their appearances for this ridiculous holiday such that their host couldn't easily pick them out in the crowd. "Thank you all so much for joining me here tonight at my little soiree," he said with a deprecating chuckle, eliciting a laugh from his admirers in response.

"Tonight we celebrate Samhain, the end of summer, the night the boundaries between our world and that of the Aos Sí are lessened. Has anyone seen one flitting about tonight?" Murmurs abounded as people looked around and asked companions if they'd seen any stray fairies. Jacob clapped his hands for attention and continued, "Well, if you haven't seen one yet, keep a sharp eye out and you just might! I hear it's good luck to catch one." The twinkle in his eye faded and his manner turned somber as his eyes settled on Harry. Damn. How did he recognize me? Someone must have told him who I was dressed as.

"Tonight is also the night that many say the souls of those dearly departed from us return." He waved his right hand and branches of candles on either side of him lit up. "I would like to light these candles in remembrance of those lost souls." Again, his eyes were on Harry and he began to have a sinking sensation in his stomach. I've held the Resurrection Stone, you bastard. My dearly departed have already returned to me. Harry felt Ginny's hand clasp his and he squeezed it tight.

Jacob turned somber as he looked out into the gathered witches and wizards. "We have been very fortunate here in that Halloween has always been a time of celebration, rather than a time of sadness as it has been for some," he said, glancing at Harry again. What are you planning? Harry thought, an uneasiness forming in the pit of his stomach.

"I have a very special announcement in remembrance of two very specific souls that were lost 25 years ago." Harry heard a roaring in his ears and a cold sweat broke out all over his body as he squeezed Ginny's hand even harder. Unrelenting, Jacob's voice carried on, "I would like to announce the endowment of the James and Lily Potter Memorial Scholarship for worthy students at St Ambrose's Academy of Magical Studies."

Suddenly Harry was blinded by a very bright light and he took a startled step backwards, shoving up against someone behind him. "Harry," Jacob boomed, "why don't you come up and say a few words?" And then Artemis was there, holding on to his arm and pulling him through the crowd, up the stairs and away from Ginny. A wave of chatter and applause pushed him up step by step until he was standing in front of Jacob and shaking his hand.

Numbly, he turned to face the gathering, all eyes glued to him but he could see only Ginny and then he was able to breathe again. "Thank you, Jacob, for your kind consideration," he said, fighting to keep the fury out of his voice. "I'm sure your generous endowment of this scholarship will be beneficial to all the Wizarding community." Jacob looked at him expectantly, clearly anticipating a much longer, more effusive speech, but Harry was done. "Thank you," he said again, shaking Jacob's hand once more. He bowed to the crowd and stepped down the stairs, the bemused partygoers moving out of his way as he made a beeline for Ginny.

Behind him, he could hear Artemis gushing about the scholarship and how wonderful it was that Jacob kept their little school so near and dear to his heart and how he was most eager for the very first applicants and oh my, this scholarship would ensure that financially-challenged magical students would be able to get the very best magical education that they deserved. His voice faded as Harry and Ginny left the gathering, stopping only to grab her wrap from the sexy demon in the foyer. Not even bothering to leave the mansion, Harry pulled Ginny close and Disapparated without a sound, loud applause over Artemis's speech ringing in his ears.

5. Chapter 5

Harry spent most of the Sunday after the Halloween party brooding, which was a shame because it was a beautiful, glorious day and Ginny would have much rather been out in it than cooped up in the little flat with a moody Harry.

"Gin, go on, you don't need to stay here with me," he said from his prone position on the sofa. He had been in the same position on the sofa since getting out of bed that morning and hadn't eaten anything save for a bit of toast and some tea.

"I have loads of work to do, too. We're in the home stretch on the prologue block and I have two lab reports and an essay due next week," Ginny said. This was certainly true and she did indeed have her books, papers and computer out, but she wasn't actually doing anything. What she was doing instead of working was alternately staring at Harry and looking longingly outside.

He had been in a high dudgeon the night before immediately after returning to the flat from the party, pacing around the small studio, railing about Jacob, Ignatius, Horcruxes, Voldemort, Slytherin and posh Americans who felt the need to rub their wealth in other people's faces. Ginny wisely refrained from pointing out that Harry himself could almost equal Jacob in wealth.

She knew that when he was in a mood like that the best thing for it was to let him wind himself down, so she sat on the bed, working on Transfiguring her hair back to normal, relieved to get the heavy weight of it off her neck and watching Harry pace around.

"And that outfit! Did you see? It's genuine, straight from Madame Malkin's!" Harry ran his fingers through his hair. "And the badges! What does it mean?" he muttered to himself. "Was he a Death Eater? I didn't hear about him gathering any supporters in the States."

"Maybe Jacob fancies that would be his house if he'd gone to Hogwarts? He does seem terribly ambitious." Ginny shook her head, combing her fingers through her now much shorter hair.

Harry shook his head. "I don't know. He's about the right age to be a Second-Waver, so…Gin, are you going to write your dad about Ignatius?"

"What? Right now?" Harry looked at her expectantly and Ginny frowned. "Harry, it's almost one in the morning. I'll get a letter off tomorrow." She stood up and moved over to him, holding her arms out. "Come here." Harry moved closer and she wrapped her arms around him tightly. "Listen, I know you're upset and you've a right to be, but there isn't anything we can do about it right now."

"But that Horcrux—"

"Probably isn't going anywhere." Ginny smoothed his hair away from his brow. "Why don't you get out of that costume and put on something more comfortable and I'll give you a massage?"

"Gin—"

"Harry," Ginny said warningly and Harry nodded.

"All right. You're right." He hugged her tightly and started undressing. Ginny could almost hear the thoughts whirling around in his head and she hoped that this would settle him down enough that they could both get some much-needed sleep. Soon he was in a loose pair of shorts and bare to the waist.

"Lie down on your stomach, please." Ginny patted the bed, searching in her bedside table for the scented oil she kept there. Harry stretched out on his stomach, shoving a pillow under his chest. Using a small bit of wandless magic, Ginny warmed her hands as she rubbed the oil on them. She started out with broad, sweeping strokes, feeling where the knots were before moving in for more targeted pressure.

As she worked, she admired Harry's tattoo, smearing oil on it to make it shimmer even more and remembering that time at the Burrow when she'd drawn the design for him. Idly she wondered if he still had the original drawing. Gradually she became aware of Harry's breathing slowing as she worked on some particularly stubborn knots in his neck. She gave a final stroke from neck to bum and he shifted under her touch.

"Better?" she asked, leaning close to his ear. Harry mumbled and nodded, looking at her with sleepy eyes. After washing her hands, she slid into bed next to him, pulling the covers up over them both. She felt like her mind was also going in a thousand different directions, composing the letter to her parents, thinking of the best way to approach the question of Ignatius without setting off any undue alarm.

Resolutely putting the events of the night out of her mind, she turned on her side and snuggled up close to Harry, falling back on a Healer's ability to take advantage of any available opportunity for sleep.

And now on this beautiful Sunday, rather than frenzied agitation, Harry was seized by a crushing lassitude. Unable to sit on the bed any longer, Ginny put her books and computer aside and stood up. "Are you hungry?"

"No."

"Are you sure? You've only had tea and toast."

"Yes."

Ginny shook her head and started to get dressed, trading her pajamas for jeans and a tee shirt. "Right then. I'm going to head out to the market. Do you need anything?"

"No."

Practically fleeing out of the flat, Ginny ran lightly down the stairs to the sidewalk. She was sure she'd get to the market eventually, but she really felt the need to get out of the flat. Harry's mood was starting to become quite suffocating. It was hard for her to resist her natural impulse to fix him, but she knew that what Harry needed the most right now was time to think things through in his own way.

And what I need right now is some sunshine and fresh air, she thought, heading in the direction of Lake Merced, hoping she'd get a glimpse of the water horse that lived there. He was very shy and since it was such a beautiful day she was sure the walking path around the lake would be very crowded, keeping the water horse in hiding. Reaching the lake, she walked along the path, relishing the feeling of the sun on her face. The light breeze made her glad she'd grabbed a jumper on the way out.

As she walked, she turned over the events of the previous night in her head. When Harry told her that the portrait was a Horcrux, she felt like she'd received the shock of a lifetime. Harry's going to be like a dog with a bone with that, she thought, smiling at a young couple with a baby in a pram. She wondered if he was going to resort to his old Auror tactics. If he does, I'll have a decision to make, won't I? She had promised herself a long time ago that she was done waiting for him, wondering if he was going to make it back to her in one piece.

I love him with all my heart, but I don't know if my heart could bear that again. Lost in her thoughts, she was around the lake almost before she knew it with no sighting of the water horse. Disappointed but not really surprised, she headed off to the market where she took her time, going through the whole shop and carefully making her selections. Looking at her watch, she realized she'd puttered away most of the afternoon. Hoping Harry had worked through his mood, she headed back to the flat to find it empty.

"Well that's the last thing I expected," she said aloud as she set the shopping bags down on the kitchen counter where she found a note scrawled in Harry's messy hand. Out for a bit. Be back soon. —H "Who does he think I would think the note was from?" Ginny mumbled as she put away the shopping.

Now feeling at loose ends herself, Ginny sighed, deciding she might as well get back to her schoolwork. Soon she was cocooned in her books, papers and computer, turning on the lamps as the sun went down outside, wondering where Harry had ended up. She was starting to think of putting something together for dinner when Harry Apparated into the flat without a sound.

"There you are! Where did you go?" Ginny asked, looking up from her computer at his appearance. He looked completely wrung out, his shirt soaked clean through.

"I found a hot yoga place and decided to try it out," he said, stripping off his shirt.

Ginny wrinkled her nose. "What's that?"

"It's yoga, but the room is 40º." Harry took off his shorts and tossed them with his shirt to the loo. "I'm going to shower."

"All right. Hungry?"

"Starved," Harry said and Ginny was relieved to hear him sounding more like his normal self. She put together an easy chicken and rice dish while he was in the shower, setting their plates on the kitchen bar. Out of the shower and dressed in a clean tee shirt and shorts, Harry looked in the refrigerator, coming up with a Newcastle for each of them.

"Feel better?" Ginny asked as Harry opened the bottles.

"Yeah." He took a long drink, Adam's apple bobbing up and down. He sat down on the stool next to Ginny and kissed her. "I'm sorry I was such a shit today."

"Last night was tough. Finding that…thing, that awful man, the announcement…it's a lot for anyone to take in."

"I know, but that's no excuse."

"Don't worry about it. Tell me about this hot yoga." She knew Harry practiced to help cope with stress, but she'd never heard of this variation.

"I'd heard about it—one of the other teachers does it—and thought I'd try it out. You're in the room or studio or whatever and it's hot as bollocks and you do it for an hour and a half straight," Harry said. Ginny noticed he was shoveling the food in and she was glad she'd made extra rice.

"Sounds delightful."

Harry snorted. "Hardly, but it got my mind off things a bit. How about you?"

"I went for a walk around the lake. Too many people around so I didn't see the water horse." They'd spotted him one night eating reeds during a full moon and had been hoping to see him again ever since. "Then I went to the market. Got some work done."

Harry nodded and was quiet, plowing through a second helping of chicken and rice. Ginny let him be and worked on her own dinner until Harry spoke up again. "Gin, what do you think about learning some Occlumency?"

"Occlumency? I don't know, do you think there's a real need for me to?" She turned the idea over in her head. She could see how it would be useful, but from what Harry had told her of it, learning it wasn't exactly pleasant.

Harry looked thoughtful before he spoke and she knew he was picking his words carefully. "Finding that Horcrux last night and running into that man scared me, Gin. I know this shouldn't be news, but not everyone here will have our best interests at heart and I want you to be able to protect yourself in every way possible. That includes being able to keep your secrets safe from prying minds."

Hearing Harry admit that something scared him made Ginny feel a tingle of fear herself. This was the man who had vanquished the worst Dark Wizard in she didn't know how many years as a mere seventeen-year-old boy. And then he got a job chasing down even more Dark Wizards. "Do you think I can learn?" she asked, hoping she didn't sound afraid.

"I think so. You may not be able to learn Legilimancy, but you ought to be able to learn to protect yourself." He smiled warmly at her and Ginny felt some of her fear dissipate.

"All right. If you think I can learn, I'll give it a try. When do we start?"

"I need to do some reading. I've never taught anyone Occlumency, but I've got some books in my classroom. Some of Dumbledore's. Give me a couple of weeks, yeah?"

Ginny smiled back at him and kissed him on the cheek. "Okay. Should I pencil your class in on my calendar?"

"With your schedule, that's probably not a bad idea." He looked down at his empty plate. "What's for pudding tonight? I feel like I haven't eaten all day."

"All right, Gin. The core of Occlumency is being able to hold a thought in the forefront of your mind and keep it from a Legilimens." Ginny nodded. "You must be able to do this while keeping eye contact with me and eventually while holding a conversation."

"That sounds really hard." Ginny shifted her position on the bed. They were sitting cross-legged directly across from each other.

"It is really hard, but you can do it," Harry said reassuringly. Ginny wished she were as confident as he was. He led her through some deep breathing exercises with her eyes closed to get her mind centered. "Right," Harry said, voice low in the dim room, "I'm going to count slowly to three. I want you to think of something, it can be anything, open your eyes and look at me. Ready?" Ginny nodded. "One. Two. Three."

Holding a memory in her mind, Ginny opened her eyes and focused on Harry's green eyes right in front of her. She concentrated very hard on blocking him out, but she felt a strange tickling in what felt like the front of her brain and Harry smiled.

"Your first time on a broom. Bill took you up and you were so scared, but he told you he wouldn't let you fall. You were six."

Ginny's mouth fell open in astonishment. "You got all of that in a split second?"

"It's fast, Gin. That's why you've got to be always ready, always guarding your thoughts. You never know when someone will try to get into them." He snapped his fingers for emphasis. "Just like that and you've given away your secrets."

"Sounds exhausting."

"It is at the beginning, but eventually it'll be second nature."

"I felt something, almost like a tickle. Is that how I'll know?"

"No. In a real attack you won't feel anything. I wasn't being subtle," Harry said, arching an eyebrow. "Ready to go again? Close your eyes, breathe. One. Two. Three."

Again, green eyes boring straight into hers, the tickle coming quicker this time and the sensation of something being stolen. Ginny gasped.

"Good! I had to work a tiny bit harder on that one. Your eighth birthday. You cried because Ron ate your slice of cake."

"I still haven't forgiven him. It was strawberries and cream."

"You all right so far? Let's have a bit of a rest, yeah?" Harry stood up off the bed and stretched, giving Ginny an excellent view of his flat stomach. She followed suit, padding to the kitchen for a glass of water, looking out at the gray, gloomy day. It was the first day of gloom in what had been a spectacular San Francisco Indian summer.

"Well this weather is perfect for what we're doing," she said as she sipped her water.

Harry stood behind her, resting one hand on her shoulder. "Yeah. Well, at least you're not learning to guard your thoughts in an old dungeon with a man that hates your guts." He tapped her shoulder. "Come on, let's give it a few more tries."

They settled down crossed-legged on the bed facing each other again. Ginny closed her eyes and thought of a memory. "All right, breathe...concentrate...one...two...three." Their eyes met and Ginny concentrated fiercely, visualizing an enormous wall, but she couldn't block out that damned tickle that said Harry was invading her mind. She saw a blush spread across his cheeks and smiled triumphantly when she felt the tickle abruptly stop.

"Get more than you bargained for, Potter?" she asked sweetly.

Harry blushed even harder, scrubbing his hands over his face. "Right. We'll say no more about that one. That was good, though. If you suspect Legilimancy, you can bring up something that will throw your opponent off."

"Are we going again?"

"I, uh, need a moment."

"That was a good one, wasn't it?" She had summoned the memory of the first time she saw him completely starkers. The night they'd decided to start "practicing" together.

Harry looked at her contemplatively. "I had no idea you saw me that way."

"I see you many ways. Are you ready now?" At Harry's nod, she closed her eyes, taking several deep breaths. Let's do better than that one, she thought, I want to show him how it feels. Harry's voice counted down and she opened her eyes, falling into the green depths of his. He held her there for a breathless instant before he struck, no longer merely a tickle but a hard, insistent pressure. She had a sensation that he was bypassing the memory she held in the forefront of her mind, going deeper and she felt a surge of panic.

No! she thought, desperately trying to eject him from her thoughts but he was too strong, too well-trained. Eye contact! She shut her eyes tightly, almost painfully and immediately the pressure of him in her mind was gone. Heart hammering in her chest, she slowly opened them again, seeing the shock in Harry's eyes.

"Gin," he croaked, "why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?"

"What?" That was what he found rummaging around in her mind? Not the memory she had so carefully prepared? Her memory of an airless summer night, of his weight pressing her down, the sweet ache in her hips from holding his lean body between her legs, the sensation of being completely filled by him.

Harry reached out and took her hands in his, and she met his eyes briefly before shying away again. "Gin, look at me," he said, his voice low and intense. "I'm not going to do anything, just look at me!"

Slowly Ginny turned her eyes to look at Harry, wincing at the hurt she saw there. "Harry..."

"Why, Gin? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Harry, it was nothing. I never even did the spell to confirm."

"But you felt it. Gin, you felt it."

Ginny tried to swallow around the lump in her throat. Of all my memories why did he find that one? "I don't know what I felt, Harry. It could have been anything. It was probably indigestion!"

"Don't. Don't joke."

Ginny sighed and shook her head. "Harry—"

"How? How could I have been so fucking careless?" Harry let go of her hands and stood, pacing around the small flat. "I never— I always—" He ran his hands distractedly through his hair, making it stand almost straight up.

"Harry, don't blame yourself. You weren't thinking straight. I wasn't thinking straight."

He stopped his pacing and looked straight at her. "That's no excuse. I don't get to have that excuse.

The look on his face and the anger in his voice shocked Ginny to her core. "You don't get to have that excuse? What's that supposed to mean?" She felt her own anger rising in response to Harry's.

He gave her a look of complete incredulity and spread his arms. "I'm goddamn bloody fucking Harry Potter, aren't I? Do you even know how many witches have claimed that I got her pregnant? How many false children have been paraded in front of the press? No, Gin, I can't be careless."

Ginny got up off the bed and stood, feeling her body shaking all over. She couldn't believe Harry was talking to her like this, especially after invading her mind and her memories. "Oh, so I suppose that means that I can just skip around all lah-dee-dah because you've got it covered? Little Ginny doesn't have to worry about a single thing because Harry-fucking-Potter has it all sorted out?"

"No! Listen to me, goddammit!" Harry seemed to realize his fists were clenched and he looked down at his hands, flexing and relaxing them. He looked back up at Ginny and she saw that all of the anger had run out of his face, leaving him looking exhausted. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Ginny's anger was replaced by a feeling of sadness that almost overwhelmed her. "Harry, it's like I said, I never even knew for sure. You remember that Sunday at the Burrow? When I asked you to my flat after?" He nodded slowly and she continued, "I got home and saw I'd started my period. There was literally nothing to tell, so I didn't."

"So you miscarried, then."

Ginny shrugged. "I don't know. Spontaneous abortion is about fifteen percent. It could have just been an irregular cycle."

"But you thought you were ... and you thought it was mine."

Throwing her head back, Ginny looked up at the ceiling. "There's no way to know for sure," she said, looking at Harry on the other side of the bed.

Harry folded his arms almost as if he were hugging himself and puffed out a breath. Shaking his head, he looked back at Ginny. "We can't ever do that again."

"Fine! We'll never fuck again. What is it those Amish people do? Bundling? We'll lay a bloody broomstick between us! So we were careless! Once! Nothing happened!" Ginny threw her hands up in exasperation. Why is he so stuck on this?

"Ginny." Harry stared at her as if he didn't even know who she was anymore and shook his head, rubbing his forehead. He bent over and picked up his trainers, putting them on quickly.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know. Out. I'll see you later, yeah?" He grabbed his hoodie from the rack by the door and was gone. Ginny stepped to the windows to see if she could see which direction he went in, but she couldn't see him anywhere.

Harry trudged up the wet driveway in the rain leading up to the school. He wasn't exactly surprised to find himself at the closest Apparition point to St Ambrose's what with his subconscious being what it was. He let himself into his classroom and walked straight to the locked cabinet in the back of the room, ignoring the pounding of the Boggart in the cabinet next to it.

The shallow basin with the runes inscribed on the edge was exactly where he put it months ago. He carefully took it out and walked slowly to his desk, mindful of disturbing the fluid in the basin as he set down the Pensieve. Sitting down at his desk, Harry took a deep breath, concentrated and extracted a very specific memory, watching it swirl and be incorporated into the rest of the memories stored there.

"Well, here goes," he whispered, plunging himself into the basin of memories.

A falling sensation and then he was there in Ginny's old London flat. He'd entered the memory shortly after she'd walloped him a good one right across the face for making her think her brother was dead. He watched himself confess to killing the man with his knife and being glad of it and then falling apart in Ginny's arms. He watched her, watched her face as she held him and stroked his hair. God, how could I have missed that? How could I not have seen that love?

He watched their conversation, heard again her reassurances that he was a good person for the simple act of taking a life to protect one that he cared about, watched her draw him to her again and saw as he kissed her.

Harry kept his eyes on Ginny, seeing her initial startled reaction to his kiss then saw her lean into him, kissing him back, kissing him hard, driving her hands through his hair. Heard her breathing quicken, saw her throw back her head as he kissed her neck, heard her soft exhalation, "Harry..."

She was working at his belt and trousers, normally deft fingers made clumsy by lust before finally winning through and freeing his cock. He winced as he watched himself turn Ginny around and yank down her bottoms before pushing into her. God, what an animal. Disgusted with his memory-self, Harry walked around the sofa so he could see Ginny's expression, looking for any clues that he'd forced her. Her eyes were closed, her brow furrowed in complete concentration, the tendons in her neck standing out as she pushed back against his urgent thrusts. His eyes widened as he saw himself biting Ginny on the shoulder hard enough to leave a red, crescent-shaped imprint as he came. I don't even remember doing that.

Still watching Ginny, he heard his own voice mumbling apologies and saw the moment she remembered her boyfriend and he felt even lower. He had just used her like a rutting animal to relieve his own turmoil, causing her to be unfaithful to her boyfriend, and she was apologizing to him. I'm a complete shit, he thought as he watched himself leave the flat. The memory ended and he was back in his desk chair in his classroom at St Ambrose's.

Nowhere in that memory did he detect a moment of hesitation in either of them. He hadn't bothered to cast the charm that Arthur Weasley had taught him and Ron in the garden shed, hadn't even thought about it even though he could do it wandlessly. The only thing he'd thought about was being inside of Ginny as soon as he could.

She said she was going to tell me, but there was nothing to tell. Another concentration, another thread of silver added to the basin and he found himself at the Burrow on that Sunday. Again, he focused on Ginny, watching the way she held herself, the way she moved, the way she watched him. There was definitely something different about her now, something that hadn't been there when they had rutted on her sofa a few weeks prior.

Harry felt his stomach plummet as he watched their awkward interaction, heard himself apologize again and listened to Ginny smooth over his feelings. She invited him over to her flat after dinner and he cluelessly accepted. Harry saw her briefly touch her abdomen as she followed him back into the house. She knew...and she wanted me to know.

The scene shifted and he was back in her flat and Ginny was there, but she was different now. She seemed...diminished, somewhat less than she had been previously and he knew. What they made together was gone now and she was just Ginny again. And finally, the realization of just how fucking stupid I'd been. His memory-self stood rooted to the spot and Harry actually saw himself turn white. He focused on Ginny again and saw it plain on her face as she reassured him that everything was fine, that they'd both dodged a bullet. If he had been in his right mind, if panic alarms hadn't been blaring in his head he would have seen it, too.

Harry came back to himself in his classroom once more and pushed the basin gently aside. She was honest. There was nothing to tell. She wasn't hiding anything from me. He covered his face with his hands and sighed. "I am such an idiot."

Ginny watched the gray skies darken while she waited for Harry to come back. Waiting again, she thought sadly. She wished that the whole sorry afternoon had never happened, that she had been better at Occlumency, that Harry wasn't such a good Legilimens... Might as well wish for a damn unicorn that poos rainbows while I'm at it. She didn't know how she was going to fix this, didn't know if there was anything to fix.

Sighing, she turned away from the windows and caught sight of her computer humming quietly on the coffee table. "Might as well get some work done," she said as she sat on the sofa and settled the machine in her lap. She logged into her email and saw that Ben was online.

BenKenobi1138: Hayyy gurl!

GWeasley81: Hello, lovely!

BenKenobi1138: What are you up to? How's my future husband?

GWeasley81: Just checking on assignments. Your future husband is being a git right now.

BenKenobi1138: A git? That's bad, right?

GWeasley81: Yes, very bad.

BenKenobi1138: What happened?

GWeasley81: We had a fight. He left to go clear his head or whatever. Sometimes when he gets upset he goes for a run.

BenKenobi1138: Feel like some company?

GWeasley81: Well, I should probably wait for him to come back.

BenKenobi1138: What for? He's a grown man and can take care of himself. Come out and meet me for a drink!

Because that's what I do. I wait for Harry, she thought. It was a sobering thought. But not anymore. That's why I'm here. I don't wait for him anymore.

GWeasley81: That sounds like a great idea! Where can I find you?

BenKenobi1138: Meet me at Last Call on 18th.

GWeasley81: What should I wear?

BenKenobi1138: Honey, you're straight. No one's going to care if you come in a paper bag.

GWeasley81: I'll class it up and get a plastic bag then. See you soon!

She closed the lid of her laptop and stood up. Pawing through her drawers turned up an old jumper with a large "F" on it. She pulled it over her head and ran her fingers through her hair before shoving her feet into her old trainers and shrugging into her jacket. Assuming the Last Call was in the Castro district, she thumbed through the well-worn Magical Visitor's guide to find the approved Apparition point for the area, quickly memorizing it and was gone with a crack.

A few minutes later, she walked through the door, looking for Ben. It was a light Sunday night crowd and she had no trouble finding him in the darkened bar. He'd scored a prime spot on the sofa near the roaring fireplace. There was a pint of cider already on the table for her.

"Hello, my darling," Ben said, greeting her with an air kiss aimed at her cheek.

"Hello!" Ginny settled next to him on the old leather sofa and took off her jacket, damp from her short walk in the rain. She took an experimental sip of her cider and nodded to Ben. "It's good, thanks!"

"You're welcome. You've got the next shout. Did I say that right?" Ginny nodded and smiled when he clapped happily, her mood starting to lift. "I'm becoming so cosmopolitan! Now, tell me what's troubling you."

Ginny sighed and took another sip of her cider. "Oof, where to begin?" She thought it over and took a deep breath. "Well, I guess some background is in order. See, back home, Harry is a little bit famous."

Ben's eyes went round. "He is? For what? Oh, is he a movie star? Or television? Oh, no! I know. He sings and just hasn't made it big in the US yet!"

"No, nothing like that at all." How to explain... "You remember I told you he's former law enforcement?" Ben nodded, expression rapt. "Well, he had a rather big case several years ago. Really bad guy."

"Bad how?"

Oh dear, how to describe Lord Voldemort? "Um, sort of a cult leader with some murder on the side."

"Sounds like a real Charles Manson type."

"Well, anyway, Harry got him and he's been famous for it ever since," she said, filing the name away for later research.

"All right. What does this have to do with today?"

What indeed? "So I told you that I've known Harry since I was 11, that we grew up together, right?" She took a long drink of cider in preparation for running down her history with Harry. "We were together for a little while in school, but it didn't really work out, so we ended it, but we were still friends. And then after school, when he was at the academy and I was in...nursing school...we were friends...but with, um, you know." Ginny could tell she was blushing and was very glad that the bar was barely lit.

"Benefits?" Ben asked with a grin.

"Yes, benefits." Ginny sighed and realized she'd already drunk half her pint.

"Did you see other people?" Ginny nodded and he sucked in his breath. "Ooh, girl. That's tricky."

"Well, he never seemed to mind too much. The others never lasted long for either of us."

"And what about you? Did you mind?"

Ginny swirled the remaining cider in her glass and shrugged. "Well, I suppose I was a bit jealous when they seemed to start getting too close. I never did anything on purpose to break them up, though." I let the Aurors do that.

"Why weren't you together before?" Ben finished his pint of beer and Ginny drank down the rest of her cider.

"Hold that thought." Ginny went up to the bar, thinking over Ben's question. Drinks renewed, she sat back down. "His job was incredibly dangerous."

"Was he going undercover?" Ben's eyes had gotten big again.

"No, nothing like that, but he was truly going after the worst of the worst. My brother was his partner and I was always so afraid for them both."

"Is your brother...?"

"Oh, he's fine! He's studying law and engaged to be married to his school sweetheart. He got a bad injury and decided he was done." Ginny had a flash back to Ron lying in that bed in St Mungo's all trussed up like a Christmas goose and took a deep drink of her cider. "Anyway, I just couldn't bear the thought of being with Harry while he was in such a dangerous job. He was already famous by this time."

Ginny fell silent, looking into the dancing flames in the fireplace. "But...?" Ben prompted.

"But we couldn't stay away from each other. Every few weeks, there we were. I think my brother suspected, but he never said anything to either one of us. And then I met Matthew."

"And Matthew was?"

"Matthew was a young doctor at the hospital I was a nurse at. He was dashing, smart, kind...and safe." Ginny had a brief vision of Matthew's blond good looks and she shook her head. "So I cut it off with Harry. No more benefits."

Ben gasped. "How did that go over?"

"Oh, not well at all. He said some really awful things and almost completely ruined our friendship. This all happened after he and my brother had done a case here in the States, in New York. When I learned later that he'd been shot, that just confirmed that I'd made the right decision not to be with him." Harry had been so lucky that the wizard that shot him was completely unfamiliar with Muggle firearms and unprepared for the recoil that spoiled his aim, making him shoot Harry through the meaty part of the arm instead of the heart or lung.

"Oh my God. Is that what the fight was about today? When he used to be a cop?"

"No. This is all just still background." Ben took a long sip of his beer and looked at her over the rim of the glass, his amazed expression making Ginny smile. "So I'm dating Matthew and one night I'm at my flat alone and it's late at night. I get a knock on my door and there's Harry, white as a sheet and I just knew something was wrong."

"He just showed up at your door?"

"Yeah, I'd do little patch jobs for him. He never liked going to hospital, so I helped him out all the time. He complained about how the press always seemed to get wind of when he was injured in the course of duty when he went to hospital. He came to see me because he knew I wouldn't tell anyone."

"So was he hurt?"

"No, not that time. He was in shock though. I brought him into my flat and gave him some tea and got the story out of him. He and my brother were chasing down a whole den of bad guys, just some of the worst, and they were holed up in this big old house and they got separated." Ginny gulped her cider. Even now, the memory of briefly thinking Ron was dead was hard. "So they got separated and when Harry found Ron, that's my brother, he was on the floor with this man standing over him and Harry thought he was dead."

"Oh my God," Ben said, placing a hand on his chest.

"And Harry said he just went berserk. Saw red and everything. Ran at the guy and killed him with his knife."

"What?"

"Yeah."

"Wow." Ben was quiet for a moment and sipped some more of his drink. "So that's what the fight was about?"

"No."

"No?"

"The fight was sort of about what happened after."

"Sort of? What happened?"

"Well, Harry had just come from a life or death situation and I had just thought my brother had been killed..." Ginny said, her voice trailing off. Ben's eyebrows climbed higher and higher until she thought they would just join his hairline.

"Ginny!" he said in a scandalized voice.

"And we didn't use any protection."

"And you're still with the doctor at this point?" She nodded and winced at his gasp. "So what happened? What did you do?"

"Well, at first I thought it was okay, but maths was never my strongest subject."

"You got pregnant?" Ben whispered.

"I never took a test, so I don't know for a hundred percent. One morning I woke up and I felt ... different. You know how some women swear they know the second it happens."

"And you never told him about this?"

"Well, I was going to and then right before I was, I got my period."

"Oh my God. Oh. My. God. So you didn't say anything?"

Ginny shook her head and shrugged. "What was there to say? I either was never pregnant in the first place or had just miscarried and in any case, I wasn't even in a relationship with Harry."

"If you were pregnant, are you sure it was his?"

"Yes, quite."

"So he just found out about all of this today. Why did this even come up?"

It was times like this that Ginny really wished that she could tell Ben everything and she scrambled for an explanation. "He found an old journal I'd forgotten about and didn't realize what it was at first."

"So he was snooping?"

"Well, not on purpose. More like he stumbled upon it." More or less.

"Now, where does the being famous fit in here?"

"Harry has had several women claim that he got them pregnant and there has even been a supposed child or two put forth by awful people. None of them have been true, of course. The other part of it is that he's an orphan himself and was raised by an aunt and uncle who were really terrible to him. I think what happened was he just went into panic overload."

"Sounds like my future husband has some baggage."

"Does he ever. Anyway, he's just very afraid of putting a child of his in the same situation or he's worried that the child will be a target of someone upset with him. So finding out about what happened between us has got him more upset at himself than at me. I hope that's the case anyway." She drank some more of her cider and stared into the fire again, wishing that the flames would suddenly turn green and Harry would pop out in front of her.

Ben sighed sadly and patted her shoulder. "I'm sure it'll work out. And if it doesn't, I'll gladly take him off your hands!"

"Aw, that's sweet of you, Ben." She leaned her head against his shoulder and felt a weight lift from her own. Sharing a problem always makes it easier to bear, Mum always said. I guess she was right.

Harry climbed the stairs up to their flat. He'd noticed the windows were dark and wondered if Ginny was asleep already. He'd chosen not to Apparate directly into the flat to avoid startling her, but it looked like he could have done it anyway. Unlocking the door, Harry stepped quietly in. "Gin," he called softly into the darkened room.

No response. He turned on the lamp next to the door. The bed was empty and the bathroom door was open, showing that was empty as well. Ginny's computer sat quietly on the coffee table and nothing looked disturbed. He spotted the Magical Visitor's Guide laying open next to the computer and picked it up. The Castro? Ah, yes. She's with Ben. He thought about how he felt about that and decided that he was okay with it. I'm glad she has a friend she can talk to. She shouldn't just be stuck with me.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to check on her, though. He went into the loo and picked up her hairbrush, picking out a few shining red strands and winding them around the tip of his finger. He studied the guide for the Apparition point in the Castro and was soon standing in a damp alleyway, being hissed at by a surprised cat. In the alley, Harry unwound the strands of Ginny's hair from his finger and held them in his flattened palm. "Locus," he whispered, blinking rapidly when the strands disappeared in a bright flash. A few seconds later, a sparkling band of golden light led off down the alley and Harry followed.

Last Call? Harry stood outside the bar, listening to the music that spilled out. There was a group of young men standing outside smoking and he nodded. "All right?" he asked.

"More than," one of them said, looking him up and down.

Harry approached the young man that had spoken to him. "Can you do me a favor? Go inside and see if there's a young woman with red hair inside. She's probably with a blond man."

"Honey, do you know where you are?" the young man said, taking a long drag from his cigarette.

"Yes. It's my girlfriend in there. We've had a bit of a row."

The group of smokers collectively rolled their eyes. "And now she's out with her gay boyfriend. Got it." Stamping out his butt, he adjusted his jacket and ran his fingers through his hair. "Redhead?" Harry nodded. "Wait here." Hands jammed in his jacket pockets, Harry waited. The Locus spell indicated that she was still in there, but he still wanted to be sure. A moment later, his messenger returned.

"Yeah, she's in there with her gay. They've got their heads together. Looks pretty deep," he said, looking at Harry with narrowed eyes. "Must have been some fight."

"It wasn't good. Thanks. What's a pint cost in there?"

"A martini is $13."

Harry winced and handed over a twenty. Whatever, it's worth it to know she's safe.

Feeling a bit at loose ends, Harry nodded his thanks to his messenger and walked off back toward the alley. He still felt jittery and thought about going for a run, but he hated running in the rain, ironic for having grown up in England. He finally decided to head back to the flat and wait for Ginny. God knows she's spent enough time waiting for me.

In the flat, he built up the fire, shrugged out of his damp hoodie and kicked off his trainers before collapsing on the sofa. After the afternoon's Occlumency lessons with Ginny, all of the emotion and two trips into the Pensieve, Harry was exhausted. His stomach rumbled, reminding him that he'd neglected dinner, but he couldn't be arsed to get up off the sofa and ignored it. I'll just close my eyes for a minute and get up to see what I can find.

The next thing he heard was the loud crack of Ginny Apparating back to the flat and he was instantly on his feet with his wand out and pointed straight at her before fully coming awake. Seeing her in front of him he lowered his wand and moved very quickly toward her, almost jumping over the coffee table in his haste to grab her into a crushing hug. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he whispered into her damp hair.

Hugging him back just as hard, her mouth searched out his to quiet his apologies and he picked her up, carrying her to the bed, lying down next to her. Ginny shifted around, putting her back to him and he curled around her, burying his nose in her hair, breathing her in, finally feeling the knot of tension deep in his gut slowly unwind. They lay quietly, listening to the rain falling outside, the firelight painting shadows on the walls. Finally, Ginny spoke.

"Where did you go?" she asked quietly.

"School."

"Did you work out?"

"No." Harry took a deep breath and hugged Ginny tighter. "I used the Pensieve."

"Oh?" Ginny was quiet for a few moments before asking, "When did you go?"

Harry sighed against her neck. "That night. And then that Sunday."

"What did you see?"

"That you were right," he whispered. She shifted around in his arms again, turning to face him. He saw no triumph in her serious brown eyes at his declaration of her correctness. "I still can't believe how careless I was. I meant it when I said earlier that I can't ever do that again."

"Do you want to move out?"

Harry's heart froze. "No. Unless you want me to?"

"Of course not." Ginny kissed him softly, the touch of her warm lips reassuring. "There are Muggle things I can take. There's a jab..."

The thought of an injection made Harry shudder. "No. What happened wasn't your fault, yeah? I was a complete animal that night and my head wasn't right. I should have known better." He moved down to lay his head on her breast. "I just have to make sure that I don't get swept up in emotion like that ever again." He lay quietly, listening to Ginny's strong heartbeat and thought about what he would do if it ever stopped. Pushing away that chilling thought, Harry spoke again. "I guess this whole business with finding that Horcrux has got me rattled. I don't want to put you in danger."

He closed his eyes as he felt Ginny's fingers in his hair. "Well, that's why I'm learning Occlumency. So the bad guys can't pick my brain about you. Don't forget, I'm pretty good in a fight, too."

"Mm, that you are," he said, remembering her whirling and casting in the Department of Mysteries all those years ago. He closed his eyes again, finally feeling somewhat at peace and was almost asleep when his stomach gave its mightiest grumble yet.

"Did you eat anything?" Ginny asked with a trace of amusement in her voice.

"No. You?"

"I met Ben at a bar. We shared some appetizers. Come on, get up." She wormed out of his embrace and went toward the kitchen, shifting things around in the refrigerator.

"How is Ben?" He felt a momentary flash of guilt at not telling her about his tracking her to the bar, but he pushed it down. "Does he think I'm a complete arsehole now?"

"Hardly. You're still his future husband." Ginny laid out sandwich things and quickly made two, one obviously larger than the other.

"That's reassuring. Are we still summering in the Hamptons?" Harry sat on the sofa and bit into his sandwich, almost moaning in satisfaction.

"He didn't say. I assume so." Ginny opened a bag of crisps and sat down on the sofa with him, putting the bag between them. They ate quietly, illuminated by the firelight and Harry winced when he caught sight of the time on his watch.

"It's after midnight. Tomorrow is going to suck." Harry thought of what he had planned for the day and immediately started making modifications to make things a little easier on himself.

"That break is coming up soon isn't it? What's it for...Thanksgiving?"

Harry nodded and dug a few more crisps out of the bag. "Yeah, next week. You're off too, right?"

Picking up their empty plates, Ginny put them in sink and rinsed her hands. "I don't have class, but I still have some projects due."

"Let's get away. Do a long weekend somewhere."

"Sounds marvelous. You're in charge." Ginny stood in front of him and held out her hands. "Up," she said, pulling him up off the sofa.

Lying under the covers, Ginny squirmed closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder as Harry lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling, listening as her breathing slowed into sleep. It was a long time before he was finally able to follow her.

6. Chapter 6

After what was possibly the worst Monday in the history of Mondays, Harry's Monday only got worse. Rather than the drills he'd originally planned with his Sophomore and up students, he had them reading Advanced Defensive Theory, which had only resulted in a lot of shifting around, sighing, note-passing and other general restlessness; he was sure he would have expended less energy leading them through the previously-planned drills.

His lower classes hadn't been much better with all their wiggling around when all he wanted them to do was sit quietly and read so he could spend quality time with his headache. The only class that had been halfway decent was the one right after lunch when they were full and sleepy.

The afternoon run with the cross-country team sorted him out a little thanks to the extra endorphins generated by the activity, but Harry was still eager to get home and went directly to the office at a fast clip to pick up his mail before getting the hell out of there after practice. Sitting right on top of the pile of flyers, memos and announcements was a fine, cream-colored envelope. "Oh fuck me," he groaned out loud, drawing a look from Janet Hopkins, the Ancient Runes instructor.

"Bad news?" she asked, glancing at the envelope he held.

Harry shook his head. "Unwelcome, let's say."

She shrugged. "Mondays, am I right?"

"That you are. Well, I'm off. Let's hope Tuesday is better."

"One more week, Harry! Keep remembering that!" she called after him as he left the staff mailroom.

Harry walked off the school grounds, waving absently to students calling out to him. What does Mr Green have up his sleeve this time? he thought moodily as he reached Apparating distance from the school. A breathless second and he was back in their flat, letting his satchel fall to the floor and shrugging out of his blazer. Tie loosened, he rummaged in the refrigerator for a beer, popping the cap off a Newcastle and taking a long drink.

Well, let's see what Mr Green wants this time, he thought, taking the envelope out of his bag. Slitting it neatly open with a minor bit of wandless magic, Harry pulled out the letter, hand-written on fine, heavy paper.

Dear Mr Potter,

I hope this letter finds you and Miss Weasley well. It was such a delight having you both attend my Halloween soiree and I hope you had an opportunity to meet the luminaries of our little Wizarding community. I am sorry we didn't get the chance to have a conversation face-to-face and thus the purpose of this invitation.

As you know, our Thanksgiving holiday is nearly upon us. If you are not familiar with it, Thanksgiving is usually a time spent with families eating oneself sick and it comes to me that both you and Miss Weasley are far away from your families during this holiday. I host what I like to call "Orphan's Thanksgiving" and invite those who are not able to travel to be with their own families to my home and spend the holiday with their greater Wizarding family.

I do hope you and Miss Weasley will consent to join us for drinks at 4 o'clock followed by dinner at 5:30 on Thursday, the 23rd of November.

Warm regards,

Jacob Green

Harry read the note over three times, looking for some sort of hint or clue of an ulterior motive and finding none. He did notice that Jacob made no mention of him having left the Halloween party directly after the announcement of the scholarship in his parents' names and supposed Jacob was too polite and posh to bring attention to his rude behavior. I imagine he's already told Artemis about inviting me, he thought moodily, taking another long swallow of Newcastle.

He tossed the note and the fancy envelope on the desk and folded himself into the sofa, laying his head back with his eyes closed. He did some deep breathing and focused on relaxing his muscles one by one, starting at the top of his head and ending all the way down to his toes, feeling the stress of the day and leftover stress from the previous day gradually drain away.

Jacob, Jacob, Jacob. What am I going to do with you? What are you hiding? Why do you have a Horcrux in your house? He knew there was only one way he was going to find out. I have to get back inside of that house. That Blood Seal makes it impossible to just Apparate into it, no matter how silent I am. He drank some more Newcastle, holding the nutty taste in his mouth. He also had to find out who had laid that seal. If it was Jacob, there was a chance the man knew more about blood magic and that might make him someone to reckon with.

Blood magic, so tricky. Everyone these days thinks it's more trouble than it's worth. You'll never catch me without one on my threshold though. If Mum and Dad had had one... Harry sighed and sat up. Might as well get it over with. He sat at the desk and fished around for paper and a pen.

Dear Mr Green,

Thank you so much for thinking of Ginny and me for the upcoming holiday. It's true that we are very far away from our families and while we could travel via Portkey, there wouldn't really be any point because it would just be an ordinary Thursday back home. We have heard a lot about this Thanksgiving holiday and we are both very keen to see what it's all about.

We both found your home very enchanting and I confess that we did a bit of wandering around during the party. You have the most marvelous collection of painted miniatures and I would love to chat with you about them. Perhaps we'll have the opportunity during drinks on Thursday?

Respectfully yours,

Harry Potter

That ought to satisfy that plummy bastard, Harry thought as he folded the paper into thirds and sealed it with a tap of his wand. Glancing outside he saw that it was already dark and he headed out the door for the short walk to the closest Wizard post drop site. He opened the red door on the fire alarm call box, tapped the alarm handle with his wand and pulled. A letter-sized slot appeared and Harry said "Jacob Green" in a clear voice and slid his note into the slot. A short whoosh and it was gone.

Satisfied that it was safely on its way, Harry walked slowly back to the flat, thinking about how in the world he would bring up Horcruxes during a casual drinks conversation. When he opened the door he found Ginny home from school and finishing his beer. "Hey, that was mine," he protested.

"But it was just sitting there, so lonely." She took another drink, giving Harry a satisfied smile. "And it's just the perfect temperature, too." She motioned to Jacob's letter still laying on the desk. "What's that about?"

Harry got a new beer from the fridge and sat next to Ginny on the sofa. "Jacob. Invited us to Thanksgiving at his place. He says he has a bunch of people with no family over for the holiday." He clinked his bottle with Ginny's. "Congratulations. We're both orphans."

"Did you accept?"

Harry nodded. "Just got back from posting the RSVP. If I want to find out about that Horcrux, I'll need to get into the house, yeah?"

Ginny took a contemplative sip of beer. "Are you sure you want to? Find out about that Horcrux?"

"Gin, I have to. I can't let a thing like that go by."

"You could tell the local Wizarding law. You have contacts from your consulting."

"I could, but..." Harry drank more beer and thought. She had a very good point. He wasn't an Auror anymore and even if he had been, it was out of his jurisdiction. Put plain and simple , the Horcrux in Jacob Green's house wasn't his problem. He thought again about the curious timing of Ignatius Weatherbee's leaving the Ministry and England. Arthur's comments about Weatherbee had not been very enlightening. And then there was Jacob in full Slytherin regalia. Am I being provoked?

"But you can't," Ginny said with a sad look. "Well, if I'm not going to give you away, I have some hard work in front of me, don't I?"

"I'm sorry, Gin. You don't have to come."

"Oh, like I would send you into that place alone. Besides, how would you explain my absence? It would just look suspicious." She tipped her head back and finished the beer. "Let's see what's for dinner. Maybe we'll do better on full stomachs."

Later that evening as they took up their positions on the bed across from each other, Ginny looked at Harry and took his hand. "Harry, you are about to go poking around in my mind. You may not like what you find, but I promise you that I love you. I have never lied to you. Well, not a big lie anyway. I might have told you that I like yoga."

"What? You don't like yoga? You said you did just last week!"

"Sweetie, I was being nice. Besides, that was hot yoga and all that sweat. Ugh. My point is that I love you and I want you to know that whatever you find in there doesn't matter, okay?"

"Yeah." Harry took a deep breath. "Look, sometimes when you're just learning, you can accidentally cross over into the other person's mind. If you feel that happening, just close your eyes, quick as you can."

"You don't want me in there, do you?" she said, placing a fingertip on his forehead.

"Believe me, you don't want to be in there." She looked like she was about to argue and he put his finger against her lips. "Listen, I'm not trying to keep secrets from you and I'll tell you whatever you want to know, but I've seen some things that I would rather you don't, okay?"

"Okay."

"I love you, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"All right. Close your eyes. Breathe with me...one...two...three..."

"Harry, if you keep taking me to posh places, I'm going to need to go shopping," Ginny said, looking through her closet. "I don't have anything to wear."

Harry was lazing on the sofa still in his trackies and tee shirt. His computer was balanced on his chest and she saw that he was still reading up on miniature portraits, cramming in as much information about them as he could in the time they had left. "Wear that skirt and top that you wore to the back-to-school thing. You look great in that," he said.

She felt a hot blush spread across her face at the memory of what had happened when they got home after the back-to-school reception. "I can't wear that same outfit. I've already been seen in it, haven't I?"

"No one's going to care, Gin."

"Well, I'll care." She came across the green dress she'd worn when Harry told her that he'd quit the Aurors and that he loved her. Hmm, that's a bit too fancy. "Let's see, there's going to be a lot of standing, I imagine. Drinks are usually standing and chatting." Her eyes fell on her knee-high suede boots. They were incredibly comfortable, so those were necessary.

"Gin, look at me," Harry said from the sofa. Ginny poked her head around the closet door and made deliberate eye contact with him. "Good, Gin. I couldn't even get in."

"Oh were you trying? I didn't even notice." She stuck her tongue out at him, proud that she had managed to block him out. It had been a difficult, exhausting week and a half for the both of them and she was still working on keeping it up automatically, but Harry had decided that she should be safe from anyone trying to casually pick her surface thoughts. "But remember, if you think someone is having a serious go at you, look away."

She went back to rummaging in her drawers and pulled out a pair of dark indigo jeans. "Oh, hello. My arse looks fantastic in these." She tossed them onto the bed. "Now to find a top to go with." More rummaging yielded a deep plum button down that was cut close to the body with a deep vee that showed an appropriate amount of cleavage. "You'll do nicely," she said as she went into the loo to shower and get ready.

Harry Apparated them Auror-fashion to the same spot they'd used for Halloween and they set out toward Jacob's enormous house at the top of the hill. "You were right. Your arse does look fantastic in those," Harry said from behind her.

"Why Harry Potter, are you staring at my bum?"

"Yes I am. Those boots make your hips wiggle more too. You should really wear them more often." Ginny purposely slowed her pace, exaggerating her high-heeled sway. "Keep it up and you'll find yourself bent over a bin," Harry growled.

"Is that a threat?"

"You keep doing that and it'll be a reality." Ginny laughed the rest of the way to Jacob's front gate, her walk getting more and more ridiculous.

They stood in front of the ornate wrought-iron gate and faced each other. Out of long habit, Ginny straightened Harry's tie and collar and made a fruitless attempt at smoothing his hair. "It's so strange to see you in glasses again after so long," she said softly, sweeping some fluff from the shoulder of his dragonhide jacket.

"It's strange to wear them again. Look at me." Ginny met his green eyes and swiftly readied her mind and Harry nodded. "Good." He bent to kiss her and she tasted the peppermint from the candy that he habitually kept in his pockets. He hefted the bottles of wine they were bringing and opened the gate, motioning for her to go first. "Once more into the breach," she heard him mutter.

This time the woman that invited them into the house wasn't dressed as a demon, though Harry noted she was still sexy with short dark hair and a wide, generous mouth. Her dark eyes sparkled when she wished them a happy Thanksgiving.

"We weren't formally introduced last time," she said, holding out her hand to Harry. "I'm Evelyn Jones, Jacob's assistant."

"Very good to meet you, Evelyn. May I introduce my girlfriend, Ginny Weasley." Ginny shook Evelyn's hand and he could see her taking the other woman's measure. Harry looked around the foyer as Evelyn stowed their jackets in a closet. Instead of jack o'lanterns, black cats and spiders there were explosions of fall foliage and tasteful displays of what he supposed was Indian corn along with apples, turkeys and horns of plenty.

She graciously accepted the bottles of wine, raising her eyebrows at the labels. "Very nice. I'm sure Jacob will want to serve this with dinner. Follow me, everyone's having drinks in the library." Harry walked a little more slowly than the girls, his senses on high alert and trying to absorb as much information about his surroundings as possible.

He heard Evelyn compliment Ginny on her boots and Ginny return the compliment on Evelyn's skirt as they walked through the echoing ballroom the Halloween party had been held in. Other than the tingle of the Blood Seal on the threshold, he hadn't felt anything else unusual in the house. It seemed like a regular house, if an absurdly large, ornate mansion could be considered a regular house.

"Jacob, Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley are here," Evelyn announced when they reached the library. "Look what they brought us." She showed Jacob the wine and he raised his eyebrows.

"Open that up and let it breathe. We'll want that with dinner." Evelyn gave Harry an I-told-you-so look and left the library. "Harry, Ginny, come in, come in! I'm so glad you could join the rest of us 'orphans'!"

In the library were about half a dozen other people, none of whom were familiar to Harry and he breathed a sigh of relief that Ignatius Weatherbee didn't seem to be here. He'd been half-expecting Artemis to be here too, but he had plenty of family locally so there was no reason for him to be.

He took a deep breath and walked over to Jacob, reaching out to shake his hand. "We're glad to be invited. We weren't really too sure what we'd be doing over the holiday until your invitation came," he said with an expansiveness he didn't feel. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the cabinet the Horcrux miniature was kept in.

"Well, I do try to gather the strays at least once a year! Here, try one of these." Jacob handed Harry and Ginny each a glass that looked like it had sugar around the rim. Harry took an experimental sip and found the drink was very strong and very good and he nodded his thanks.

"Let's get you introduced." Jacob led them over to an intimate seating area and Harry saw there was a Wizard chess board set up and two men were in the middle of a game. He could see that white was in serious trouble. "These two men playing chess are Octavian Kemp and Ernest Clattenburg. They run one of the most feared law firms in the Bay Area. Oh dear, Octavian, it looks like Ernest will have you in three." Judging by the empty glasses on the table at Octavian's elbow, it didn't seem like he cared too awful much.

Next, Jacob brought Harry and Ginny over to a group of two men and a woman, the only other woman there save for Evelyn and Ginny. They were introduced as two brothers, Gerald and Nathaniel Browning and the woman was Sabrina Belshaw. They all worked for Jacob in his Hong Kong office and they were here over the holiday to coordinate a shipment of fine goods back to Hong Kong. "They love anything American over there. Antiquities, new Wizarding manufacture, it doesn't matter. It's like printing money," Jacob said and the four of them laughed.

"And this serious young man is Guy Dubois out of Paris and here on business for another couple of weeks. Guy, this is—"

"Harry Potter!" the man exclaimed in heavily-accented English, shaking his hand enthusiastically. Harry glanced at Ginny and saw she was just as confused. "Ah! I am from Beauxbatons! We visited your Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament, no?"

"I'll be damned," Jacob said, "I had no idea you already knew each other!"

"Oh, no, Harry doesn't know me. I was lucky enough to visit Hogwarts for the tournament, but the Goblet didn't pick me as one of the champions."

"I remember you," Ginny said, "you went to the Yule Ball with one of the Durmstrang girls."

Guy gave a gallic shrug. "International magical cooperation, no?" he said with a smile, making Ginny and Harry laugh. He found he was warming up to Guy and realized they were standing right next to the cabinet that held the Horcrux.

He took another sip of his drink and made his opening feint. "Guy, I see you were looking at these miniatures. I ran across these when I was here on Halloween and they are simply stunning. Do you know more about them?"

"Ah, oui. It is my specialty. I am working with Jacob on curating his collection."

"He is indeed! I've recently become obsessed after purchasing an estate. I had to keep the best ones for myself and Guy is here to help me figure out exactly what I've got." Jacob said, gesturing to the cabinet with his drink.

Harry felt Ginny touch his shoulder and he nodded at her as she walked over to join the import-export trio. He noticed Guy watching her walk away too and he felt his opinion of the man drop. "Well, I've never seen anything quite like these before. I mean, Hogwarts had paintings all over the place. The entrance to Gryffindor tower is covered by an enormous painting of a fat lady in a pink dress. What's the point of these?"

What followed was a discussion of the history of portrait miniatures, noted artists, subjects and differing styles. He learned that there weren't too many magical portrait miniatures because it was viewed as cruel to put a Wizarding subject in such a small space. "We do like to spread out," Jacob observed with a laugh, gesturing to the huge room in the enormous house.

"Yes, I noticed that these are all Muggle and it's damn fine work," Harry said, increasingly glad that he had spent the last week reading everything he could get his hands on about the blasted things. He pointed to the portrait miniature Horcrux. "This one especially. The girl looks like she's about to start speaking and if I'm not mistaken, it looks like it's on ivory."

Jacob looked impressed and nodded at Guy. "Harry, you have an excellent eye. That is indeed the prize of my collection."

Guy nodded in agreement. "That one is 18th century French by Françiois Dumont and it is on ivory." He looked at Jacob and asked, "May I?" Jacob nodded and Guy opened the cabinet. Harry held his breath and felt his whole body tense up as Guy reached in and gently took hold of the frame, drawing it slowly out of the cabinet.

He's not reacting at all. Did I imagine it? He mentally shook himself and tried to concentrate on what Guy was saying.

"We don't know who the subject was, but you can see she is a young, saucy girl. We think that this was painted to present to a fiancé. You can see how Dumont captures the light falling on her face here," Guy gestured to the painting, his pinky barely brushing the painted surface.

Nothing, Harry thought. Either he has incredible control or he can't feel it. "Yes, the light and shadow on her face were what initially caught my intention." He shook his head. "My eyes have gotten so bad lately. Jacob, the light is a little better there where you are. Would you mind?"

"No problem." Harry noted the complete lack of hesitation in Jacob as he gently took the miniature from Guy and held it carefully for Harry to get a better look at. He edged closer and he began to feel a burning in his tattoo, from his shoulder to the middle of his ribs, beating in time with his heart and he leaned back from it.

I didn't imagine it. It's definitely a Horcrux and neither Jacob or Guy know it. "Yes, it's beautiful. Thank you very much for taking it out, Jacob."

"Happy to! It's always a treat to find someone who shares an appreciation for beautiful things," he said, passing the piece carefully back to Guy. As he did so, Harry made an effort to make eye contact with Jacob and got nothing but an impassive blank. Occlumens. Damn.

"There are several others, while not quite as fine as this one, that have managed to capture a bit of their subject's spirit," Guy said as he closed the cabinet again, "but I think you will agree that this girl has the most spirit out of them all!" Is that a joke or does he really know what it is? Harry made eye contact and came away with an image of himself during the Triwizard Tournament, triumphantly flying away on his Firebolt, clutching a golden egg.

"My ears were burning when I overheard you talking about beautiful things," Ginny said as she joined them again, handing Harry a fresh drink. He realized he was holding an empty glass and gratefully sipped the new one. In addition to the burning pain in his tattoo, his mouth had gone completely dry.

"None of these things could match your beauty, my dear," Jacob said, indicating the various objets d'art scattered around the library.

"Flatterer," Ginny said impishly, casually placing her hand directly on Harry's tattoo and stroking the length and breadth of it. Instantly the burning stopped and he breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Anxious to move away from the cabinet and the terrible Horcrux, Harry asked Guy about a bronze sculpture across the room and listened to him natter on about bronze, the casting of it and the artist, none of it sinking in. Lost in his own thoughts on solving the mystery of how a Horcrux ended up in this house, Harry was startled when Ginny gripped his shoulder tight.

He looked toward the entrance of the library and saw Evelyn had brought another guest. "Ah, our last wandering lamb," Jacob said, greeting Matthew Hudson.

Harry winced as he felt Ginny's fingers digging into his shoulder like an owl's talon and he gave her a quick glance. She was very pale and her freckles stood out in sharp relief. "All right, Gin?" he murmured and she seemed to realize what she was doing and let go.

Matthew was exchanging pleasantries with Jacob and Harry's lip curled to see the way the late afternoon sun shining through the window caught his blond hair and made it look like he was wearing a halo. God, always so fucking perfect, he thought.

Looking up to take in the room and the rest of the people in it, Harry saw him see Ginny, saw the wide smile that showed his perfect teeth and before he knew it, Matthew Hudson was in front of him, catching Ginny up in a rib-cracking hug. Unable to stop himself, Harry uttered a low growl and pushed Hudson's shoulder, shoving him forcefully away from Ginny.

Everyone in the room froze, Hudson gaping openmouthed at Harry and he felt a surge of satisfaction at the stupid look on his face. A moment later, the smile was back and he was offering his hand to Harry. "Harry! I didn't see you there!'

Aware of the eyes on the three of them and Jacob watching avidly, Harry took Matthew's hand and shook it, being sure to squeeze hard, but not hard enough to make Hudson's knuckles grind together. That was too obvious. "Hullo, Hudson," he said, faking a calm he did not feel, "what brings you here to San Francisco?"

That was the moment Jacob chose to pounce. "Well, well! It seems as if we have another guest that already knows Harry! Guy, do you know Matthew as well?" Harry glanced over at the small Frenchman and saw that he looked rather like a deer in the headlights as he cautiously approached, looking closely at Matthew.

"I do not remember you from the Triwizard Tournament. Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?" Guy asked, shaking Matthew's hand.

"Ah, no, I was eligible, but I chose not to." He gestured towards Harry. "I let the more heroic types put their names in," he said with a laugh. That laugh made Harry want to slug him. Like most of the school, he believed Harry had gotten around Dumbledore's age line to put his own name in the Goblet when it had really been Barty Crouch Jr in the guise of Mad Eye Moody.

Matthew turned to address Jacob, inclining his head in thanks at the drink Jacob handed him. "Actually, I know Ginny more than I do Harry. We used to date."

At this bombshell, Harry knew every eye in the room was looking at Ginny and he put his arm protectively around her shoulders to shield her from the oppressive attention.

"Oh, this sounds like a story that needs telling!" Jacob said, his eyes alight with interest.

Ginny finally found her voice. "Not much to tell, really. We dated until he got a fellowship at Oslo and decided that long-distance was too much work," she said coolly. "Excuse me," she said and headed straight to the powder room she and Harry had found right after discovering the Horcrux.

They watched Ginny storm off and Harry winced at the sound of the powder room door slamming shut. Hudson raised his eyebrows at him and let Jacob lead him away to make the rounds. Giving Ginny a few minutes to collect herself, Harry stood where he was and sipped his drink, trying and failing to not feel awkward. Jacob was introducing Hudson to Octavian and Ernest and he could hear them laughing about something, convinced they were laughing at him.

He had a brief thought of grabbing Ginny and Disapparating right out of there and getting far, far away from Jacob and Hudson and this whole bloody business with Horcruxes, but he refused to let Hudson chase him off. She's mine now, you bastard, he thought as he approached the powder room door. He tried the door and found it was locked, so he knocked gently. "Gin?" he called, "All right?"

"Yeah," she called back, "just had to go, you know." Harry frowned at the lie and listened to the running water in the sink and the flush of the toilet. A few moments later, Ginny opened the door and smiled at him. Her eyes were a little pink, but it didn't look like she'd had a major breakdown. He gave her a questioning look and she nodded. "I'm okay." She took his hand and led him back to the library.

They stopped by the sideboard where a fresh tray of drinks was waiting. There was a steaming pot of mulled wine that smelled heavenly and Ginny ladled them each a squat mug. Harry spent the next hour gently steering Ginny around the library, keeping as much distance between them and Hudson as possible.

It wasn't all terrible. Old Octavian was a wealth of Quidditch knowledge and they spent some time debating the merits and demerits of the American rule changes, some of which had been quite controversial. In the 1950s they had tried a season where catching the Snitch didn't end the match, but still added 150 points and another Snitch was released, but the first match that lasted a solid week put an end to that.

He found Jacob's employees to be full of interesting information about Wizarding Asia and he steered the conversation a little bit towards the portrait miniatures and did a bit of probing to see if they knew anything about Horcruxes, but he came away empty handed in that respect. As they chatted with the other guests, he was glad to see Ginny regain some of her spirit. He was sure it was partly due to the excellent mulled wine they each had two more helpings of as he could see that her cheeks had become quite pink.

His stomach was starting to seriously complain when Evelyn finally announced the dinner was ready. Ginny squeezed his hand as they moved toward the huge dining room and he felt his face fall when they found their seating assignments. Whether or not Jacob had known about Hudson and Ginny's previous relationship, he'd seated them right across from each other along with Evelyn, Jacob's assistant.

Determined to not let Hudson ruin his and Ginny's very first American Thanksgiving, Harry looked everywhere but directly across the table. The enormous table was covered in displays of chrysanthemums, multicolored Indian corn, pyramids of apples and elaborate silver candelabra. He almost couldn't see Jacob where he sat at the head of the table.

Once they were all seated and their wineglasses filled, Jacob stood and raised his glass. "Welcome to this year's Orphan's Thanksgiving. Every year I try to gather the strays to me who would otherwise be left alone during this family-oriented holiday," he said, gesturing to those seated at the table. He felt Ginny elbow him and he had to suppress a laugh.

"I want to thank Harry and Ginny for bringing this wonderful wine that we are about to toast with." Jacob nodded at him and Harry nodded back, trying to look like someone who knew about wine. It was Ginny's Ben that had told him what to buy. He'd have to make sure to let him know that his host was impressed with his choice.

"Now, as some of you may know, Thanksgiving in America often involves family fights and it seems that we've already had a bit of that!" Harry felt the heat bloom on his face and Ginny squeezed his knee. He turned his eyes quickly to see Hudson's reaction and he was smiling away like it was some kind of big joke. Git.

"The other thing Thanksgiving involves is eating! So, with hopes for a bountiful and profitable year, let us have a toast!"

Harry raised his glass high and echoed "Hear, hear!" with the rest of the table and took a drink of the wine. It actually was pretty good. Ginny elbowed him again and he looked at her. She held out the menu card to him and mouthed, "Oh my God." Harry looked at it and raised his eyebrows. Soup, salad, turkey, ham, two sorts of dressing, sauce, gravy, three vegetables and four kinds of pie.

"Too bad Ron's not here," he whispered, leaning over and nuzzling her ear, glad to hear her giggle in response. Movement across the table caught his eye and he looked over to see Hudson try to cover a frown with his wineglass.

Let's see if we can find out what Hudson is doing here, Harry thought as the soup course was served by rather oddly dressed house-elves. He thought some of them were supposed to be Indians and he guessed that made the ones in black Pilgrims. Interestingly enough, he'd learned that house-elves here were paid and actually had a strong union.

"So, Hudson, what brings you to the west coast of the United States?" He tried the soup and found it was excellent with a nice, velvety texture.

"I might ask the same of you," Hudson said, "but as for me, my time in Oslo was done and I was looking for a new adventure, so I got a fellowship here to the San Francisco Thaumaturgical Clinic."

"Are you still specializing in Accidental Magic Reversal?" Ginny asked and Harry was glad to hear her speak up.

Hudson nodded. "Most definitely. It's fascinating to see the new and interesting ways witches and wizards manage to muck up even the most basic of spells. I had a witch once who was trying to whiten her net curtains completely drain her own color instead!" He shook his head and sampled some more of his soup. "That was a tricky one to restore!"

Next to him, Evelyn smiled and mentioned her uncle who'd once tried to use a Depilatory charm on a cat and had it backfire on himself instead. "They were never able to restore his eyebrows," she said with a laugh.

"What sorts of magical accidents are you seeing here?" Ginny asked over the salad course.

"I had a love potion gone very wrong last week, but we didn't know at first that's what it was. It could have gone very bad, but we got it sorted in the end. I'm sure once I've been here a while I'll have some very interesting stories to tell. San Francisco is a unique place!"

"How long have you been here?" Harry asked with a forced casualness.

"I've been here for a little bit over a month and my fellowship is for two years."

"And how did you meet Jacob?" How in the fuck did you get invited here?

"Ah! Jacob is on the board of San Francisco Thaumaturgical. He was on the committee for my fellowship and was good enough to approve me!"

Because of course he is, Harry thought. What others pies does our Jacob have his fingers in?

"Enough about me, though. Ginny, Muggle medical school? What inspired that?" Matthew pushed the salad aside and leaned forward, making Harry glad that the table was as wide as it was.

"Oh, well. I've always been interested in how Muggles manage to do the things they do with healing completely without magic. I find it very fascinating," Ginny said and Harry felt his heart swell with pride.

"But don't you find it awfully...remedial?"

Ginny shrugged. "There are definitely aspects of that." She grinned at Harry. "I aced anatomy, that's for sure, but I'm learning so much. Pharmacology for example. It's a lot like Potions, but the reactions are not magical at all, though some people think they are."

Hudson didn't look convinced. "But what are you going to do with all of this? Is it really going to be worthwhile?" Harry could see that he was staring straight at the caduceus pendant she never took off and he felt himself bristle at his patronizing tone.

"New knowledge is always worthwhile. You never know what will be the inspiration for a new magical treatment or if there is a Muggle treatment laying around tailor-made for tough magical cases," Ginny said coolly. Harry knew she was thinking of the Longbottoms, minds practically obliterated by the Cruciatus Curse.

"If you say so." The main course had arrived, a heaping platter of slices of turkey and ham, two sorts of potatoes, stuffing, carrots and something called a green bean casserole. Pots of cranberry sauce and gravy were placed by each plate along with baskets of bread and butter.

Harry turned to Ginny and beheld her wide eyes. "Is this real?" he asked and Evelyn laughed.

"Oh yes! My brothers used to hardly eat in the week leading up to Thanksgiving and then stuffed themselves silly! Mom always said they'd make themselves sick, but they never did." Harry watched as she spread cranberry sauce on her turkey and dove right in. Giving a mental shrug, he did the same.

"What about you, Potter? When you quit the Aurors it was news all the way over in Oslo. I hear you're teaching now?" Hudson asked around a mouthful of ham.

"Hm, I didn't know that it was all that big of a deal." Hudson gave him a skeptical look and Harry amended his statement. "Well, I mean I guess I didn't know the news had traveled that far." How much do I tell him? he wondered and then decided the Hudson deserved only the bare bones. "I got tired of all the bollocks in the department and decided to leave," he shrugged.

"To teach? Why not go to Hogwarts? I know old McGonagall would have made a place for you there."

"I don't need handouts, Hudson."

"Well, I didn't say it would have been a handout, I'm just curious as to what would make you leave England and come all the way out here." Hudson looked at Harry, then at Ginny and back to Harry.

He's fishing to see if I moved out here just for Ginny. "I thought it was time for a change is all. America is so young and refreshing and that carries over to the Magical community as well."

"Jacob said Artemis was heartbroken when Hermione Granger turned down the Charms position to go to Hogwarts instead," Evelyn said eagerly, "but then you turned up and losing Hermione suddenly didn't seem so bad."

"How are you liking teaching, Harry? I mean, I know you did the DA back in school days, but that was just for a little while," Hudson said.

"I love it. It's all together different than trying to teach fellow students how to survive Wizarding genocide," Harry said frankly, taking another swallow of wine. "It's not like the school had been taken over by a complete madwoman or anything." He saw Hudson's eyes flick down to his right hand where he still bore a very faint scar. I must not tell lies...

Matthew shifted a little in his seat and Harry felt a flash of triumph that he had cracked that smooth facade. I was ready to die. What did you do? Harry cocked his head. "You know, there was a lot going on during that time and I was out of touch for a lot of it. You obviously came through all right. How did you manage that?"

Harry watched with interest as Hudson took a long drink from his own wineglass and visibly collected himself, smoothing over the cracks as he smiled pleasantly at Harry. "I spent that year abroad, doing a residency in Amsterdam."

"Seems you missed all the fun, then," Harry said, sharing a glance with Ginny as she squeezed his leg.

"So, you've been to Amsterdam? What's it like? I've never been, but it's on my list," Evelyn cut in. "Jacob has been looking to get his hands on some real Delftware and has promised a trip soon." She'd been watching Harry and Matthew like she was at a tennis match and seemed keen to break the tension that had been building up at their end of the table. Harry was more than happy to have Hudson focus his attention on someone else for the time being.

I wonder, did Gin know he was a coward when they were dating? He knew he would never ask her that. What purpose would it serve? It would seem like I was just calling her judgment into question. He looked down at his plate. It didn't look like he'd eaten anything at all even though he felt like he was about to burst open. Ginny looked like she was about done in as well and he couldn't believe there was still dessert to come.

Glad of the break in the conversation with Hudson, Harry looked around at the other diners. He saw that Guy had cleaned his plate completely and wondered where the slight Frenchman managed to put it all. All of the drinks he'd had were making themselves known and he excused himself, heading toward the loo he'd seen on the way to the dining room.

Business taken care of, Harry found himself in a part of the mansion he hadn't been in before and he hesitated for only a split second before heading off down a hallway to see what he could see. Harry peeked quickly in some of the rooms with closed doors. There wasn't really anything interesting in them save that they all seemed full of more of Jacob's huge art collection. He took a quick look up the stairway at the end of the hall. It seemed more utilitarian and Harry surmised that it was meant as a servant's stair.

Giving in to temptation, he went up one flight and turned left at the top of the landing, trying the first door he came to. As soon as he touched the doorknob, he felt the repelling shock of another Blood Seal. What's this? What's in this room, Jacob? Knowing he'd already been gone too long, he filed away another mystery and headed back down the stairs, absently glancing out of a window in the stairwell and got another shock. There, gamboling quite happily on a patch of green grass surrounded by high hedges was a young Thestral.

What the fuck is going on here?

Ginny was starting to wonder where Harry was when he finally reappeared in the dining room. As he settled back down in his seat, he took a long drink of his wine, draining the glass as Ginny frowned. He seemed agitated and she wondered where he'd been. She gave him a questioning look and he shook his head, mouthing "Later," silently.

So he did find something wandering around loose. Interesting, she thought. Their main course plates had been cleared and now coffee and tea were being brought out in preparation for dessert. Ginny welcomed the respite from the never-ending parade of food and gratefully sipped some tea. She hadn't drunk this much alcohol in a long time and she was definitely feeling the effects. That plus the stress of having Matthew sprung on her plus trying to keep her mind shielded with Occlumency had all combined to give her one corker of a headache.

She was quietly sipping her tea, trying to stay awake and listening to the buzz of conversation around her when she heard Matthew speak, addressing Harry. "So, I heard Halloween was pretty exciting," he said, instantly banishing her torpor.

She shifted her eyes to Harry as he continued adding cream to his coffee. "Oh? What did you hear?"

"I read in The Uncanny Examiner about the announcement of the James and Lily Potter Memorial Scholarship to St Ambrose's. The reporter said you were so overcome with gratitude and emotion that you left soon after." Matthew raised his own cup of tea and took a sip.

Ginny held her breath, ready for any number of reactions from Harry, but he merely smiled, his green eyes cool and collected. "Yes, I suppose that's what it looked like," he murmured as he sipped his own coffee.

"What an honor," Matthew went on despite Ginny's best efforts to will him to shut up. "A scholarship with an endowment like that will endure for years and years."

"Yes, well, I guess it's a good thing that Voldemort killed Mum and Dad so Jacob could feel good about himself twenty-five years later," Harry said mildly.

Ginny saw Evelyn's eyes widen and her eyes dart to Jacob at the head of the table and then back to Harry. Is she worried Jacob heard? She looked at Matthew and saw Harry had finally been able to get him to shut his damned gob and she smiled sweetly at him. See what happens when you try to fuck with Harry James Potter?

A few moments later, the house-elves trooped in bearing dessert—huge slices of pie with heaps of whipped cream and Ginny groaned. She chose a slice of pumpkin out of politeness but was only able to pick at it. Harry chose apple and left his virtually untouched, the whipped cream melting into a puddle. He had his hand on the back of her neck, massaging gently and she could tell his thoughts were a million miles away.

Closing her eyes, Ginny savored Harry's touch, wondering how much longer they had to stay. All she wanted to do was go home and go to bed. Dimly, she became aware of Harry gently shaking her and she realized she'd dozed off.

"Sleepy?" Harry asked as he kissed her temple.

"Mmm, yes. Are we leaving soon?"

"Soon. I have to ask Jacob about something. I'm going to see if I can get him out on the terrace," he said quietly. "Give me about ten minutes and then come to get me, yeah?"

Ginny nodded and drank some more tea in an attempt to wake up. The diners were standing and stretching after their marathon eating session and she did the same. "There are brandy and cigars in the library if you would like to join," Jacob said to his guests, gesturing back the way they came. Harry nodded at her and she headed off to the loo, watching as Harry approached Jacob.

"I could use a bit of fresh air. Care to join me on the terrace, Jacob?"

"But of course, Harry! Where's your lovely Ginny gone to? I wanted to update her on the status of my business dealings with her brother, George! I wager you'll be seeing Skiving Snackboxes in your classroom before too long!"

"Wonderful," she heard Harry murmur before she turned the corner and went into the loo. The thought of Harry having to deal with her brother's products made her smile. In the bathroom she carefully splashed her face with cold water, taking care to not muss her makeup. She took her time combing through her short hair and sorting out some wrinkles in her blouse and when she judged enough time had passed for Harry to talk to Jacob about whatever it was he needed to, she opened the door to see Matthew standing there, waiting for her.

"Oh, sorry," she said, stepping aside for him to enter the bathroom.

"I wasn't waiting for the loo, Ginny. I wanted to talk to you, in private."

Ginny felt a wave of apprehension in her gut, upsetting the delicate peace she'd made with the contents of her stomach. "Oh?"

"Yes, come here," he gently took her hand and led her to an intimate group of plush chairs a few steps away. Feeling somewhat numb, Ginny sat facing Matthew. He still looked great, that blond hair that hinted at a Veela somewhere way back in his family tree and those blue eyes with just the right amount of crow's feet. He leaned forward and took her hands in his. "How've you been?"

"I've been fine. Great, actually."

"That's good to hear. When we left it, I confess I was worried about you."

Not worried enough to ever send a letter or a note. "Well, that was a bit of a shock, but I recovered pretty quickly," she said, thinking back to how she had immediately run to Harry to seek their kind of comfort. She found she wasn't a bit embarrassed about it.

"You certainly seem to have made a full recovery. Are you and Harry here as friends...?" he asked, letting his question trail off.

"We're living together if that's what you're asking," Ginny said brashly, a feeling of satisfaction rising at Matthew's look of surprise.

"You are? But I thought—"

"You thought what? That you could just waltz in here and we could pick up where we left off? That me already being here would save you the trouble of finding someone new to occupy your time while you're here? Oh, brilliant! Ginny's here! Hey, I can just send her some flowers and she'll come running back and she'll understand when I'm off to Botswana in a few years!" Ginny was surprised at the depth of feeling that Matthew was stirring up. She'd never had the opportunity to give him a proper telling-off and getting out the pent-up anger and hurt that she'd harbored over the years like a slow poison felt wonderful.

"No, that's not—"

"Matthew, listen to me. You only ever think of yourself and I just can't go on with that. I'm surprised that I went on with it as long as I did. I enjoyed our time together, but that's done now and I'm where I'm meant to be with Harry. You had your chance but you didn't want to put in the work and now you're on the outside." She broke Matthew's grasp on her hands and stood up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm full and tired. I'm going to go get my boyfriend and go home. Please leave us alone."

She turned on her heel and walked briskly to the french doors leading to the terrace she and Harry had stood out on during the Halloween party. The sun had long since set, but the garden below was lit with tasteful spotlights setting off the gazebo in the center. Ginny had no trouble seeing Jacob and Harry standing at the railing of the terrace, looking down into the garden and the small herd of Thestrals there.

7. Chapter 7

"So, Thestrals?" Ginny asked once they were on the highway.

"Yeah. Not strictly illegal, I checked last night, but definitely weird," Harry said, guiding the car carefully through heavy traffic.

"What are the regulations on magical creatures like that?"

"You have to have a license, they need to be inspected regularly, there's a limit of four but I noticed Jacob has five with that baby."

"What about the secrecy statute?"

"You have to have them well-hidden or Disillusioned. Jacob has all of those high hedges around his property, so that's probably how he gets away with it."

"But they fly," Ginny said, looking out of the car window at the green hills speeding past.

"Jacob says he has them trained not to. I'm going to do a little asking around and see if there have been any reports of odd flying creatures by any Muggles." Harry sighed and shook his head. "Horcruxes, Thestrals…our Jacob is an interesting fellow."

Ginny thought about yesterday afternoon in the library and how Harry had maneuvered Guy and Jacob into handling the portrait miniature Horcrux. She'd known immediately when it started to hurt Harry, but what she hadn't expected was to sense something from it herself. She'd been turning the thought over in her mind ever since, trying to think of way to broach the subject without alarming him.

"So, about that Horcrux…"

"Mmm?" Harry finally got out from behind a slowpoke apparently out for a Sunday drive and accelerated, the powerful engine responding to his request.

"I think I sensed something from it yesterday afternoon." Ginny braced herself for Harry's reaction and was a little disappointed at his nod.

"I figured you might. You spent a whole year with that diary. It was bound to affect you," Harry said mildly, looking straight ahead at the road. "What did you feel? Any pain? Uneasiness?"

Ginny thought it over, trying to recall just what she had detected. "Well, I definitely felt when you started to hurt, though I don't quite understand why."

"That wandless Soothing was clutch, by the way. Good job."

Ginny inclined her head and smiled. "Thanks. Anyhow, when I got up close to it, when Jacob was still holding it, I don't think I really felt so much as heard something."

Harry glanced quickly at Ginny. "What did it sound like?"

"It sounded almost like someone screaming from very far away," she said with a frown, remembering the high, thin sound.

Harry grunted. "Interesting. I wonder if you heard the moment it was created?"

Ginny shuddered. "I can't even imagine what goes into creating one of those awful things or what drives someone to do it."

"I wish I didn't," Harry said quietly.

Reaching out, Ginny put her hand over his where it rested on the gearshift and squeezed. "Well, I think that's enough doom and gloom. Let's not spoil our getaway, shall we?"

Harry smiled at her and raised her hand to his lips for a kiss. "That sounds like a wonderful idea."

They had decided to get away to the Wine Country that everyone seemed to talk about in the City and Harry had made arrangements at a spa resort that catered to a Wizarding clientele in a little town called Calistoga. Ginny was looking forward to some time to relax and not think about brains or lungs or hearts or muscles or nerve endings. The only muscles and nerve endings she wanted to concern herself with for the next three days were her own, preferably while being massaged.

Ben had given Ginny a list of wineries to visit if they were so inclined and expressed jealousy at their getaway. Harry had looked at the extensive list and smiled. "We'll see how much time we spend out of bed, yeah?"

Spending time in bed with Harry was definitely something Ginny was looking forward to. They had both been so incredibly busy these last months that most of their time in bed was actually spent sleeping. She sighed contentedly at the thought of long, languid mornings with Harry and settled her hand on his thigh. "What was that for?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Just thinking about being lazy with you in bed all weekend."

"Well, we don't have to stay in bed all weekend you know. They have hiking trails, there's all those wineries, cute little towns to Christmas shop in…they even have a flying field."

"Oh, flying does sound fun. I don't know about all that other stuff though. Seems like it would cut into our shagging time."

"Indeed," Harry said with a grin.

"Harry, this is wonderful!" Ginny said, laughing as she jumped on the bed to land next to him, nearly making him fly off it.

Gathering her into a hug, he kissed her temple. "I'm glad you like it, love," he murmured into her ear. The room really was something else. It was spacious with an enormous bed, a sofa and two chairs, coffee and end tables, a small dining table with four chairs and a large terrace with a hot tub and patio seating for four. The en suite featured a giant shower with jets that seemed to come from every direction and a bathtub that was almost as big as the hot tub outside. The decor was very rustic with knotty pine paneling and colorful woven blankets on the walls to lend a warm, cozy feeling.

"I do like it," Ginny said, bending her head to kiss him, her lips soft and warm, "and I like you." Harry deepened the kiss, opening his mouth to her explorations. Her hand was on his chest, tracing circles over his pounding heart that he was almost sure she could hear.

"Gin," he whispered as he broke away from her kiss, "why don't you go down to the gift shop and see if you can find something to wear in that hot tub?"

"I have to wear something?" she whispered back, lips next to his ear.

Harry paused thoughtfully and looked at her. "I suppose you don't have to, but it's definitely more fun to take something off of you," he said with a wolfish grin, making Ginny giggle.

"What about you? What do I get to take off of you?"

"I've already packed my swim trunks."

"Or maybe I'll find you one of those tiny men's swim trunks in ye olde gift shop?"

"Come on, you need to leave something to the imagination," Harry protested. He had to admit that while he did look pretty good, the thought of parading around in something that small just gave him the shivers.

"I've got plenty of imagination," Ginny purred, kissing him on the cheek before sitting back up. "All right then, looks like I have an errand." She looked outside. It was a clear blue day with just a bit of crispness in the air. "Is it going to be warm enough to be in that tub thing out there?"

"The water is heated. It'll be like a bathtub. Besides, we can do Warming Charms, yeah?"

"You know, I've become so used to being around Muggles at school and doing things the hard way I'd almost forgotten," Ginny mused. "This'll be a nice respite." She got up from the bed, bouncing Harry around again. "Okay, see you in a bit," she said, leaving the room with a wave.

Ginny successfully sent on her errand, Harry sprang into swift action. Out on the terrace, he looked around, checking the privacy situation. Satisfied, he set up a few Warming Charms to blow warm air around the hot tub, almost in a curtain-like effect. Checking the temperature of the water, he turned on the jets.

At a knock on the door, Harry opened it to find a young man holding an ice bucket in one hand and a magnum of champagne in the other. Behind him was another young man with a tray that held two champagne glasses and a half dozen enormous chocolate-dipped strawberries. Harry showed them in and directed them to set up outside on the terrace before quickly shooing them back out.

He didn't know how long it would take Ginny to pick out a swim suit, but he figured it would be better to err on the side of caution. Quickly stripping down, he dug in the suitcase for the plain blue swim trunks he'd put in without Ginny noticing and pulled them on. Out on the terrace he checked privacy again and got into the hot tub to wait for Ginny.

"Oh, this is nice," he sighed, putting his back against one of the jets and leaning his head against the built-in headrest. Closing his eyes, he thought about how he'd been feeling on edge since Halloween when he found that damn Horcrux and tried to relax and let the tension drain out of him.

Thinking about Halloween also made him think about Ignatius Weatherbee. He hadn't had another run-in with him since and he was almost starting to think he'd imagined the man's peculiar brand of nastiness. Maybe he'd had too much to drink? Some people do get that way, he thought without really believing it. What other reason could he possibly have to bring up Voldemort killing his parents on Halloween other than sheer unpleasantness? Besides, Ginny was there, too, and she heard every word. Resolving to put these thoughts aside for now, Harry did his best to relax and unwind.

The sound of the door to the room slamming shut woke him out of his doze and he sat up to see Ginny standing on the terrace with her hands on her hips. "Were you asleep?" she asked accusingly.

"Surprise?" Harry said, spreading his arms wide to encompass the champagne, strawberries and burbling hot tub.

"You're lucky you're cute," she said teasingly, sampling a strawberry. "These are delicious."

"Go get changed and join me, then," Harry said, flicking water at her and making her duck away with a laugh.

"All right, all right! Impatient, aren't we?"

"Yes." Ginny stuck her tongue out at him and Harry watched as she disappeared into the en suite, emerging a few minutes later in a voluminous cover-up.

Stepping out onto the terrace in bare feet, Ginny looked around cautiously. "It's private. I checked," Harry said. "Let's see what you bought me."

Giving him a saucy look, Ginny let her coverup fall away from one shoulder, revealing pale skin dotted with freckles. Harry could see a turquoise strap going behind her neck and he shifted around a bit in the water as his cock began to harden. Ginny turned around and allowed the coverup to slip further down, showing the smoothness of her back, broken only by the turquoise straps of her bikini top. Finally, she let the coverup fall to the terrace, showing Harry her trim backside clad only in a clingy bikini bottom.

"Turn around, Gin. Let me see you," Harry said, his voice low. Ginny slowly turned around and he immediately felt his heart beat faster at the sight of her in the turquoise bikini. Thin fabric triangles covered her breasts and her nipples were two hard points. The bottoms rode very low on her hips and Harry was having trouble maintaining his composure. "Come here," he whispered, watching as she walked across the terrace to him, leaning over the edge of the hot tub to kiss him. Harry put his hand on the back of her head, pressing her mouth harder to his, feeling dizzy with what must be all of the blood in his body rushing to his cock at once.

"Oh my God," Ginny whispered when they broke apart. "If I thought I'd get that kind of reaction, I would have bought one of these a long time ago."

"Here, get in. It's nice." Harry held out his hand to help her in and get settled, smiling at her look of wonder at the force of the jets.

"This is nice! And there's already little seats built-in." Ginny settled down and leaned back against a jet, closing her eyes in bliss. "I think I just found where I'm spending the rest of my weekend."

Harry chuckled as he took the champagne bottle out of the ice bucket and popped the cork, pouring them each a glass. "Now this is what I call Thanksgiving," he said as he touched his glass to hers.

"Definitely better than eating yourself sick and arguing, that's for sure," Ginny said as she sipped her champagne. She reached for the strawberry she'd been nibbling on earlier and took another bite. "How did you get this set up?"

"I had it arranged ahead of time. I just needed you to get out of here for a few minutes so I could get it set up." Harry took one of the strawberries himself and bit into it, savoring the sweetness with the dry champagne.

"So crafty, Mr Potter. Neglecting to tell me to pack a swimsuit in the first place and then sending me on an errand." She licked a bit of strawberry juice from the corner of her mouth. "Premeditated."

Harry had to stop himself from gulping down the rest of his champagne at the sight of her pink tongue sweeping away that bit of juice. He moved closer to her, putting his arm around her shoulders to draw her close. The late afternoon sunlight turned her hair to molten copper and lent a golden tone to her skin. Harry found he was having a hard time catching his breath.

Ginny looked at him with her warm brown eyes and Harry almost felt that he should pinch himself. All those long years spent not being together, all those things unsaid…It doesn't matter now, he told himself, we're here now and this is real. "I love you so damn much," he whispered, leaning in to kiss her again, feeling her fingers trace a path along his jaw. She tasted of strawberries and chocolate and champagne and Harry felt like he couldn't get enough of her.

Breaking the kiss, Ginny took Harry's champagne glass and set it on the edge of the hot tub along with hers and turned back to face him. "Now, where were we?" she asked, leaning closer to Harry. They kissed again, the combination of the bubbling water in the hot tub, the outdoor setting and the taste of strawberries giving Harry what was possibly the hardest erection he'd ever had in his life.

Eyes closed, he felt Ginny's fingers tracing a line down his neck to his chest, her palm resting briefly over his crazily beating heart before sweeping down over one nipple, leaving it hard in her wake as she moved down his stomach. "What have we here?" she asked, running her open palm up and down the full length of his erection.

"If you don't know by now, I haven't been doing my job," Harry murmured against her lips. Mimicking her movements, he trailed his hand down her neck and over the dips and rises of her collarbone, bringing it to rest on her breast, feeling the hardness of her nipple against his palm. He moved his hand in small circles, trying to see just how hard he could make her nipple get. Ginny answered by gently squeezing the head of his cock, making him moan into her mouth.

Nipping at her bottom lip, Harry pushed aside the small triangle of fabric on her bikini top, exposing one of her breasts to his fingers. "Harry," Ginny whispered as he moved his lips down her neck, tongue licking briefly at the hollow of her throat before moving down to capture her hard, pink nipple with his lips. She retaliated by undoing the drawstring of his trunks and slipping her hand inside to grasp him firmly, moving her hand slowly up and down his length.

Groaning against her skin, Harry bit down on the swell of her breast, making Ginny gasp and clutch her hand in his hair, causing a wave of prickles to radiate out from his scalp. Wanting to feel more of her, he snaked a hand down to her bottoms, slipping a finger underneath one of the leg openings, biting down on her nipple when she spread her legs for him. Skimming lightly against her sex, Harry smiled when he felt her jerk her hips against his touch.

Leaving her nipple, Harry raised his head to look at Ginny again and had his breath stolen when her mouth crashed down on his, her tongue demanding entrance. He felt her begin to stroke him in earnest and his own hips began to respond to her touch. Determined to not let her win, he slid two fingers into her, using his thumb on her clit and turning the tables on her with their kiss.

They continued their fight for dominance until Ginny broke away from Harry, burying her face in the crook between his neck and shoulder, panting softly as she came. She seized his earlobe in her teeth and bit down sharply, making Harry jump. "What was that for?"

"For trying to make me be indiscreet out here in front of God and country," Ginny said archly, soothing the bite with her tongue.

"I like it when you're indiscreet." Harry closed his eyes, relishing the feeling of Ginny sucking lightly on his earlobe. He pulled her over on top of him to straddle his lap and exhaled slowly as he felt her grind her hips, sliding back and forth over his erection. Head leaned back, Harry reflected that it couldn't possibly get better than this and then immediately amended that thought when he felt Ginny lean in and trace her tongue over his Adam's apple as she continued to rock her hips.

"Gin," Harry gasped, fumbling at his swim trunks with clumsy fingers, trying to simultaneously push them off and maintain contact with Ginny's body.

"What?" she asked teasingly, running her thumbs over his nipples.

"I want…God, what are you doing to me?"

"I'm driving you crazy," she whispered into his ear, tickling the small hairs there with her warm breath.

"It's a short drive," he laughed breathlessly, opening his eyes to look at her. He raised an eyebrow inquiringly. "Have you…um…?" he asked, thrusting his hips against hers.

"I have."

"And?"

"It's not my favorite…but if you want…"

"Not if you don't like it. I'm not in the habit of doing things you don't like," he whispered against her lips. "Hold on." He grabbed his wand from the edge of the hot tub and concentrated very hard, visualizing exactly what he wanted to happen and a second later, Ginny gave a whoop as they landed on the bed with a bounce, completely dry.

"Harry, how in the world did you do that?"

Unable to resist a smug smile, Harry tweaked her nose. "I Apparated us, not the water."

"But how?"

"If I told you, I'd have to shag you," he said, pushing her backwards to land on her back.

"You're going to do that anyway, so you might as well tell–oh!" Harry cut off her words with a nip on her collarbone before moving his mouth down to the breast he'd neglected while they were in the water, lavishing it with attention now while Ginny threaded her fingers through his hair. Kissing his way down her flat belly, he took hold of her bikini bottoms and pulled them down, tossing them across the room. "Thanks for not Vanishing those," Ginny said pointedly.

"You're welcome," Harry said as he dipped his head down to taste her. He loved the feeling of her slickness on his tongue, the sweet, salty tang of her and he especially loved hearing her soft cries as he made her come again. Finally freeing himself from his damned swim trunks, he slid into her with a low grunt, seizing her mouth with his again. He tried to go slow, but his body just wasn't cooperating and soon he was hammering into Ginny at a breakneck pace, shifting her legs up on his shoulders and holding on to her hips for dear life. Their cries and panting breaths mixing together in the room, Harry felt his climax rise and finally crash over him like an enormous wave and he lost his breath for a moment, collapsing on top of Ginny and driving the air from her in a whoosh.

Balancing his weight on his elbows, Harry looked down at Ginny's flushed face and smiled. She looked at him with wide eyes and kissed the tip of his nose. "Goodness, where did that come from?" she asked with a grin.

Feeling a little embarrassed at his enthusiasm, Harry felt himself flush. "I'm sorry."

Arching her eyebrow, Ginny wrapped her legs around him and locked her ankles together, squeezing him with her thighs. "Don't be. We haven't had a go like that in a long time. Are you all right?"

Harry twisted in her grasp and flipped them over, causing Ginny to giggle in surprise. "My arms were getting tired," he said by way of explanation.

"I like this better anyway. You're harder to squish." Slipping off him, she laid her head on his shoulder and ran her palm over his chest, tickling the hair there.

"So, why don't you like doing it in the water?" Harry asked, resolving to not think about who she might have had the experience with.

"Well, the water tends to wash away a lady's natural lubricant, so if you don't have anything else handy, it can quite literally be a pain. But there are things we can do if you really want to try it."

"We'll see how the weekend goes. Maybe we'll be too tired from hiking and flying and shopping and wine tasting to get another shag in?" Harry teased, hugging her close.

"If that's the only shagging I get this weekend I'm going to be very disappointed," Ginny said, pinching one of his nipples.

"It's all about quality, not quantity." Harry lay quietly, feeling a welcome lassitude overcome him as he enjoyed Ginny's closeness. Glancing outside, he saw that the sun had almost fully set and his mind turned toward dinner. He looked down at Ginny, seeing that she had her eyes closed and realized that she had been fully as busy as he had been since the end of the summer with her schoolwork and learning the ropes of navigating through the Muggle world with their myriad of technologies that they used in lieu of magic. "Gin," he said softly, sweeping a lock of hair away from her temple.

"Mmm?" She stretched like a cat in his arms and kissed his cheek.

"Hungry?"

"Hmm, yes."

"Want something to the room or do you want to try the restaurant here?"

Ginny thought for a moment, a speculative look on her face. "Let's try out the restaurant. I heard some ladies talking about it in the gift shop and it's supposed to be really good."

"We'll need to get dressed again," Harry pointed out judiciously.

"I know. And then I can undress you again later." Ginny got up on one elbow and gave him a long, slow kiss and Harry felt himself start to get hard again. "I get the bathroom first," she said with a playful nip at his lower lip and bounded from the bed, running into the en suite and slamming the door shut.

No, I don't reckon it gets much better than this, Harry thought, putting his hands behind his head and closing his eyes to wait for his turn.

After dinner, they strolled along the walkway that bordered the lake at the resort. The night was clear and would have been quite chilly if it weren't for the strategically placed Warming Charms. The walkway was lit with floating lamps that swayed in the light breeze coming off the lake. Ginny thought it was all very enchanting.

Dinner had been very interesting. Harry had ordered from the prix fixe menu for the both of them and Ginny ate things she'd never had before, including steak tartare, foie gras and caviar. Harry told her he'd had steak tartare before in Romania that time he and Ron had tracked down a particularly nasty wizard that had had a penchant for kidnapping young Muggle girls.

"What other unusual things have you had?" Ginny asked, sampling her own dish.

Harry pursed his lips in thought before snapping his fingers. "I had horse once in France."

"Horse? What?"

"Yeah, it's a delicacy over there." When Ginny continued to look aghast, Harry laughed. "Come on, Gin. They eat snails—you can't be too surprised."

Now, walking and holding Harry's hand, she felt a swell of contentment. The only thing that happened to mar their evening and it wasn't even a bad thing, was a wizard that sent them a bottle of very fine wine.

"I'm sorry, we haven't ordered any wine yet," Harry said when the wine steward approached their table and filled their glasses.

"This is from the gentleman over there," the steward said, motioning to a gray-haired wizard with a rather extravagant beard. When Harry looked at him, the man inclined his head and then turned around to carry on with his dinner companion. Harry had looked uncomfortable at the attention initially, but seemed to shake it off as he sampled the excellent wine and the rest of the meal continued without further interruption.

"So, have you decided what spa treatments we're having?" Harry asked, nodding to another couple walking in the opposite direction.

"I'm trying to decide between the Calistoga Cure and the Sensuous Soak. The first one they scrub you all over and then you get to have a mud bath."

"So they scrub you, and then you get dirty again?"

"And then you get clean again."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

"How about the Sensuous Soak then? You get wine and desserts."

"I like the sound of that already. Any mud involved?"

"No, but you do get a massage."

"Let's do that one then." Ginny nodded while squeezing his hand and was about to ask him a question when he raised his hand in a shushing motion. "Keep walking," he whispered, not changing their pace. Ginny nodded and instinctively went to look behind them, but Harry squeezed her hand hard. "Don't look back."

"What's going on?" she whispered back.

"Probably nothing. Come on, let's turn here." Ginny followed as Harry guided them casually to the right at an intersecting walkway, coming to a stop behind a hedge. Pulling out his wand, he put her behind him and crouched down into a ready stance.

Feeling her pulse race, Ginny wondered what was going on and got out her own wand as she stood behind Harry in the shadow cast by the tall hedge. About a minute later, she heard two voices talking quietly and saw the man that had sent them the wine walk by with his companion, a lady about the same age, on his arm. Neither one of them seemed to notice Harry and Ginny crouching in the shadows as they strolled past, their pace unhurried. Once they had gone, Harry stood up straight and put his wand away, taking her hand again.

"Sorry. I felt this weird sort of attention and I didn't know what it was," Harry apologized, looking down the path the wizard and his lady had taken. Ginny couldn't see them anymore.

"It's okay. Is everything all right? Who is that man?"

Harry shook his head. "I dunno, but you can bet I'm going to find out."

The next morning found Harry a bit sore in some unexpected places. I haven't had a night like that since…well…never, he thought, looking over at Ginny next to him. If I'm sore, I can only imagine how she feels. Ginny looked like she was still down for the count, so Harry slowly got out of bed and grabbed a pair of trackies, pulling them on carefully.

How do I get breakfast sent up? He looked through the literature on the table by the door and found the room service menu. Okay, so I mark my choices, tap with my wand and shoo it out the door. All right. Harry ordered up a selection of pastries, yogurt, fruit and tea, opening the door to send the slip on its way. As soon as he opened the door, another note shaped like a paper airplane zoomed in and hovered in front of Harry, reminding him vividly of the Ministry.

What's this? he wondered as he plucked it out of the air and unfolded it. The note was written on the resort's stationery in a compact, economical hand.

Dear Harry, the note started, I hope my gift of the wine last night wasn't too forward. I have been a great admirer of yours for a long time and I wanted to show my appreciation for your sacrifices as you pursued your efforts to protect our world from the greatest threat it has ever seen. Will you and your charming young lady be free to join my wife and I for lunch this afternoon? If so, please join us poolside this afternoon at 1pm.

Sincerely yours,

Archimedes Douglass

Who in the hell is Archimedes Douglass? Harry wondered as he set the note down on the table by the door. I did say I'd find out who he is, so I guess we'll go to lunch. One of the magazines that touted itself as the ultimate guide to the area caught his eye and he took it over to one of the chairs to page through while Ginny slept, but found he was doing more staring into space, turning recent events over in his mind.

He wasn't completely surprised that he was recognized here at this resort given their clientele, but it was still a little unnerving. And to be contacted directly by someone who said they were an admirer of his and to reference his defeat of Voldemort…Curiouser and curiouser. Unbidden, his thoughts turned to that portrait miniature Horcrux. I wonder if this Archimedes knows Jacob? Maybe I can find out what estate the portrait was part of.

Hearing Ginny stir in the bed, Harry turned to watch her wake. "Hey, sleepyhead," he said when she opened her eyes.

"Mmm, good morning," she sighed, drawing the blankets tighter around her. "What time is it?"

"A little after nine. Did you sleep well?"

"When you finally let me sleep, yes."

"Oh, when I finally let you sleep? You little minx," Harry said, a vivid memory of her mouth on his cock last night waking him out of a doze coming to mind. "Breakfast should be here soon. Hungry?"

Ginny nodded and sat up, stretching her arms wide, giving Harry an excellent view of her bare breasts in the process. Just then there was a knock at the door and Ginny quickly snatched up the blankets to cover herself.

"Just a minute," Harry called as he made shooing motions at Ginny, grinning widely as she jumped out of bed and ran into the loo completely starkers. Opening the door, Harry let in the young man maneuvering the floating trolley with their breakfast, directing him to the dining table inside the room. "He's gone," Harry called to Ginny through the bathroom door.

"That was a close one!" she said, coming into the room wearing one of the resort's fluffy robes. She sat down at the table and Harry noticed a little wince.

"Sore?"

"A little. You?"

Harry gave a little shrug as he spooned up some strawberry yogurt, feeling a blush break out at Ginny's slow smile. "So, uh, we have an invitation to lunch today," he said, changing the subject.

"Oh? Who from?" Ginny asked as she spread jam on a croissant. Harry noticed she still had the traces of a smug smile.

"The bloke that sent the wine last night. Archimedes Douglass."

"That's a serious name." Ginny poured tea for them both, closing her eyes in bliss at the scent.

"Isn't it? Says he's been an admirer of mine for a long time and while he didn't come right out and say, 'Thanks for defeating Voldemort,' he might as well have."

"So another one, then?" Ginny said and Harry knew she was thinking of Ignatius Weatherbee at the Halloween party.

Harry nodded and took a long drink of his own tea. "Well, I get the feeling Ignatius wasn't exactly glad I was the winner, yeah?" Spearing some pineapple chunks from the dish, he chewed thoughtfully. "Thought I'd see what he knows about our friends Ignatius and Jacob."

"Are you going to…?" she asked, wiggling her fingers.

"I might. We'll see if I can get him to talk first. By the way…" Harry looked at Ginny and made eye contact, nodding when he was presented with a blank featureless wall in his mind's eye. Ginny smiled sweetly at him as she ate her croissant. "Good. Probably not a bad idea to keep it up this weekend."

Ginny nodded. "It still makes me tired. It's a lot of work."

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. I probably should have been doing it all along, even though we weren't strictly together. It'll get easier, like you said." Harry looked through the sliding glass door at the trees that surrounded the resort and didn't respond. "Harry, don't you get moody on me."

"I'm not getting moody on you, Gin," Harry sighed, picking up a pain au chocolat. "I just wish you didn't have to mess around with Occlumency or any of that other stuff."

"I know. You are rather a pain in the arse sometimes, but you do have a few redeeming qualities."

Harry arched an eyebrow. "Do I?" Ginny nodded and spread jam on the other half of her croissant, nonchalantly taking a bite. Determined to wait her out, Harry finished his pain au chocolat and tea, pouring himself another cup. Ginny started on some fruit, nibbling a strawberry and staying maddeningly silent. "Well?" he finally asked.

"You have nice hair," Ginny said judiciously.

"That's my one redeeming quality? My hair?"

"I didn't say that was your only one."

"Right. That's it, then." Harry rose from his chair and approached Ginny, scooping her out of her chair and into his arms.

"Oh, I would have mentioned your hair sooner if I thought this would have been the result," Ginny said teasingly.

"Yeah?" Harry carried her to the sliding glass door, opening it with minor wandless magic and carried her out to the terrace.

"Harry what are you—oh, don't you dare!" Ginny shrieked when she finally realized Harry was heading straight for the hot tub. She grabbed his neck with both arms and clung tightly. "Harry James Potter don't you dare drop me in that cold water!"

"Or you'll do what?"

"I won't tell you your other redeeming qualities," she said with an arch smile.

"Is one of them my eyes?"

"Maybe."

"In you go." Harry moved as if he was going to drop her unceremoniously into the unheated water and she shrieked again, clinging even tighter to his neck.

"Wait! I thought of another one!" Harry looked down at her with a smirk and she licked her lips in that endearing way she had. "I like the way you walk. I like the way you sound when you sing in the shower. I like the way you look at me when you haven't seen me for a couple of hours." She pulled herself up in his arms, bringing her face closer to his. "I like the way you say my name when you're fucking me," she whispered, drawing his mouth to hers in a deep kiss.

Harry gently set her down on her feet, taking care not to break their kiss. He was just starting to think of picking her up again and carrying her to the bed when he heard a knock on the door followed by, "Housekeeping?" Ginny started giggling and then, unable to contain herself, bent over and laughed as hard as Harry had ever heard her.

"Come back later!" Harry shouted in the direction of the door as he and Ginny walked back into the room to finish breakfast. Sitting back down, Ginny continued giggling. "Yeah, ha ha," Harry grumped, "you don't have the world's worst case of blue balls to deal with, do you?"

"You can't possibly have anything left in there after last night, can you?"

"My resources are endless," Harry said with an air of superiority. He tossed her the glossy area guide magazine. "Take a look at that and see what you want to do today. I'm, uh, going to use the loo." He stood up with as much dignity as he could muster with a raging hard on and walked slowly to the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind him, Ginny's peals of laughter following him in.

To his surprise, Ginny had decided on a short hike before they were to meet Archimedes Douglass and his still-unnamed wife for lunch. "I've spent so much time in the City just around buildings and pavement, I've almost forgotten what countryside looks like," she said by way of explanation. They found an easy three-mile hike nearby and they both agreed that the fall countryside was gorgeous.

There were several other people out enjoying the trail, many of them with dogs and Harry was pretty sure Ginny was determined to pet every single one of them. He thought of his experiences with dogs, from terrible Aunt Marge's awful bulldogs to the three-headed Fluffy, and decided to sit back and watch while Ginny petted as many dogs as she liked.

They reached the end of the trail at an old mill and stood quietly, taking in the scenery and Harry took a deep breath, feeling fully relaxed for the first time since he'd left the Aurors. There had been several times in these last few months when he'd wondered if he'd actually made the right decision in leaving. Most of those times were when his classroom was in absolute chaos and he felt like he was making a total hash out of being a teacher, but those times were becoming more and more infrequent. He looked at Ginny standing next to him with the sunlight glinting off her hair and smiled inwardly. Yeah, I made the right decision.

"Ready to head back?" she asked, taking his hand.

"Yeah. We don't have to hurry though. We have some time before we need to see what this Archimedes fellow is about." They ambled along the trail, hand in hand, Ginny pointing out medicinal plants she recognized. There were even a few magical varieties scattered about and Harry loaned her his pocket knife so she could gather some.

She came back with a fistful of dark green stems with oddly-shaped purple flowers on the ends. "Mum always swore these made the best Doxycide with some vinegar. I didn't know these grew here," she said, looking wistful.

"You missing them?"

Ginny nodded. "Yeah. Seems funny, doesn't it? I spent the first twenty-five years of my life wanting to get away from my potty family and now I miss them like crazy."

"We'll see them soon," Harry said, taking her hand again.

"That brings to mind a question. What are we going to say?"

"About?"

"About us. Living together. Being together."

Harry shrugged. "Dunno. Haven't given it much thought, really."

"Well, I think it's time we did. We have to get our story straight, don't we?" Harry crunched through some fallen leaves on the trail. He honestly hadn't thought about what he would say to Molly and Arthur when he saw them again at all. "For example, where are we staying during the hols?" Ginny asked him.

"I thought we'd stay at my flat?" Harry answered slowly, not sure if that was the right answer.

"See, that's what I thought too, but since I don't have a flat in London anymore, you know Mum is going to expect me to stay at the Burrow with her and Dad."

"But I don't really want to stay at the Burrow and sleep with you in your old bed."

"If you did stay at the Burrow, you wouldn't be sleeping with me. You'd probably be stuck in Ron's old room or George's," Ginny said.

"So what should we do?"

Ginny sighed. "I don't know. I know that they'd be happy for us, that's for certain. Mum's been trying to get you into the family since she clapped eyes on you, but they're so old-fashioned." She looked up at Harry and wrinkled her nose. "I hope she doesn't think I'm still a virgin!"

"That is definitely not a Howler I'd like to get. Should you write them a letter? Sort of prepare them?"

"That seems so impersonal. I'll have to think about it." They walked in quiet companionship, Harry thinking about the change in their relationship. On the one hand, they had just gotten together, but on the other, it was like they had been together most of their lives.

What is it the kids say? It's complicated.

They found Archimedes and his wife at a table for four by the resort's enormous swimming pool, currently devoid of swimmers. It was a sunny day, but there was just a bit of a chill in the air, so the sun's warmth was very welcome.

"Harry Potter," Archimedes boomed, taking Harry's outstretched hand in both of his. "So wonderful to finally meet you, my boy." Before Ginny knew it, Archimedes had moved in for the full hug and she saw Harry's eyes widen in alarm. Letting go of Harry, he shifted his attention to her and she found herself similarly engulfed.

"Please sit down and meet my wife, Sarah." Ginny sat and nodded to Sarah. She looked of an age with her husband, the sort of blonde that mellowed rather than aged, and Ginny found herself hoping that she would be as lucky.

"Looks like you're going to make a batch of Doxycide," Sarah said, motioning to the flowers she'd picked on their hike.

"We don't have any Doxies at the moment," Ginny said. "I think I picked them mostly because they remind me of Mum. I didn't know these grew here."

"Oh yes and many other things besides. We'll have to get together sometime and I can show you my garden in the City," Sarah said warmly.

Their waiter came by to get their drinks sorted. Harry asked for a Guinness or a Newcastle, whichever they had on tap and Ginny asked for lemonade. Archimedes and Sarah both had iced tea, something that Harry and Ginny were still trying to like. Wondering if the food by the pool was going to be as fancy as dinner had been, she perused the menu, relieved to find a simple turkey sandwich.

"So, Harry," Archimedes said once drinks had been delivered and orders taken, "what made you, the star of England's Aurors, decide to throw it all over and come to America to teach?" He gave a pointed look at Ginny and she felt a blush spreading across her cheeks.

Harry took a swallow of his Guinness before answering. "Well, I don't know that I was the star," he said deprecatingly, "but you know how it can be in a large organization. It was time for me to go."

"Well I do know how it is in an organization like that. I myself am recently separated from the San Francisco regional Auror office." Ginny thought Harry hid his surprise at this statement quite well.

"How long were you in for?"

"Forty-five years." Archimedes leaned back in his seat and put his arm around Sarah. "My brave girl put up with all of it for forty and now I get to putter around in my garden and workshop like any other doddering retiree." Ginny thought he was anything but your typical pensioner. He had long, iron-gray hair tied in a ponytail and a luxurious white beard that he was fond of fiddling with. The body underneath his polo shirt and slacks was anything but soft and he looked like he could still hex a body six ways from Sunday without even breaking a sweat.

"But you, Harry. You're what, twenty-six? In the prime!"

"I just decided that I had other things I wanted to do. I've done my time shivering in the heather and running headlong into danger." Ginny knew that there were things he wasn't saying, of course. He wouldn't talk about the burden of essentially being the face of the department or how the pressure to take more and more risks had increased exponentially once Ron had left and Harry had no one at his back.

"How do you like teaching?" Sarah asked and Harry seemed glad for the opportunity to talk about something other than his Auror career.

"You know, I wasn't a hundred percent sure about it when St Ambrose's approached me, but I've found that I really love it." Ginny smiled when she saw Harry's face light up the way it did when he talked about teaching. "It could very well be that by the end of the year I'll have a completely different view, but right now it's going great."

"What do you think about Artemis?" Archimedes asked, stirring some sugar into his iced tea.

"He seems all right. He means well and has the school's best interests at heart."

"I heard you got an invite to Jacob Green's Halloween party."

Harry nodded and took another swallow of his Guinness. "We did."

"And I also heard that you initially refused the invitation, but Artemis badgered you into going."

Harry quirked an eyebrow at Archimedes. "How did you know that?"

Archimedes waved his hand dismissively. "One hears things."

"Mm. What else has one heard?" Ginny could see Harry beginning to tense up and she laid a hand on his leg reassuringly.

"I've heard that there is a new scholarship available at St Ambrose's, courtesy of our friend Jacob." Archimedes looked at Harry seriously. "You don't have to let him do that. He can't just use your parents' names that way."

Ginny felt Harry relax a little under her hand at this statement. "I don't think he really meant any harm with that. I think he sees it as something I'd be honored by, but I didn't appreciate having it sprung on me in public like that."

"Jacob is often under this misapprehension that others will like his grand ideas as much as he does. Something that isn't helped by people like Artemis who tend to look at him with dollar signs in their eyes."

Harry looked speculatively at Archimedes and something seemed to pass unsaid between the two men. "How did Jacob come into his money? Pure business? Family?"

"He had an inheritance from his father, but he is a shrewd businessman and he's built his import-export empire on his own. He's very rich, very grand and mostly harmless."

Ginny thought about the Horcrux lurking in Jacob's library. I don't know about all that, she thought, squeezing Harry's leg.

A moment later, their lunch arrived and they settled down to the business of eating, all talk of Jacob and dead parents put aside. "Ginny, Archimedes tells me you're going to UCSF Medical school. How are you finding that?"

I guess one certainly does hear a lot of things, Ginny thought before answering. "It's really fascinating. I already know the physiology of course, but seeing everything through Muggle lenses, as it were, has been very interesting. It's made me think of things in a few different ways."

"How are you getting on with all of the technology? I find so many of the things they use quite confounding."

"Ginny's a whiz with that sort of thing," Harry cut in, smiling at Ginny, "gets it from her dad."

"Growing up he was always messing about with Muggle things. He even enchanted an old car to fly," Ginny said in explanation, feeling a warm glow from Harry's approval. Growing up with Muggles, he always seemed to know instinctively how technology was supposed to work, but it had been a bit of an uphill battle for her.

Dragging the last of his chips through a puddle of ketchup, Harry asked Archimedes about the portrait miniatures in Jacob's house, affecting a casual curiosity. "We were just at Jacob's yesterday for Thanksgiving," Harry said, "and he has the most fascinating collection of art I've ever seen. He has all of these little painted portraits that I guess people used to carry around like photographs and they're just exquisite. Have you seen them?"

"I haven't had the pleasure of seeing them myself yet, no, but I hear there are some stunning examples. Naturally, Jacob keeps the best for himself," Archimedes said, finishing his iced tea.

"There is one portrait of a young girl. Jacob's curator, Guy, said it was painted by a master as a betrothal portrait. I found that one to be the most striking and it just about knocked me down flat." Ginny had a brief remembrance of Harry literally falling on his arse after breaking physical contact with the portrait Horcrux.

"I have no doubt. Jacob has a rare talent for finding unusual and wondrous objects. He usually turns them into great sums of money, too!" Ginny watched Archimedes as he spoke, looking for any indication that he knew the portrait's terrible secret. He seemed completely calm and at ease, giving her no clues either way.

"Did you know he has Thestrals?" Ginny asked. "We saw them yesterday."

"Oh, Jacob and his Thestrals. How many is he up to now?"

"Five," Harry said. "Looked like one had recently foaled."

"Huh. He started with two five years ago. Well, I'll have to pass the word along to the proper individual."

"What does he do with them? I can't imagine that there's all that big of a market for Thestrals," Ginny pondered as she took a last bite of her excellent sandwich.

"There are a few collectors around the world. They are a rare creature and there will always be those who are attracted to the rare and unusual." He looked at Harry. "I understand Hogwarts uses Thestrals to pull the carriages. When did you start to see them?"

"Beginning of my fifth year at school," Harry said shortly and Archimedes nodded. Does he know about Sirius? Ginny wondered. After a brief silence, Harry asked, "What do you know about a fellow called Ignatius Weatherbee?"

"He's one of yours, isn't he? Ex-pat here since the 80s," Archimedes answered, signaling the waiter for refills on their drinks. "How did you run into him?"

"I was out on a run and he was out walking his dog. I thought it was odd because he seemed to recognize me and I haven't gotten that much out on the streets here. And then we saw him at Jacob's Halloween party. He knew Gin's dad and mentioned my parents," Harry said offhandedly with a casual shrug. Ginny watched Archimedes and he seemed a little bit bothered by Harry's account in contrast to his relaxed easiness when talking about the cursed portrait.

"He's definitely not the most pleasant man to be around, that's for sure. He did some work for the Bay Area Council and tried to run for a seat, but didn't make it and I think that's served to make him a little bitter." Archimedes used the arrival of fresh drinks to turn the conversation to the differences between Wizarding America and Britain and they spent the time until their spa appointment in pleasant conversation, with Sarah inviting Ginny over a second time to see her garden.

They took their leave and headed to the spa facility, walking hand in hand. When they were far enough away, Ginny said, "Well, that was interesting. I wasn't expecting an ex-Auror."

"Neither was I."

"Did you?" Ginny asked, waving her fingers.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, though once he said he was an Auror I didn't really expect to get anything. Occlumens."

"Bad luck. He seems nice, though."

"He does," Harry said thoughtfully. "Did you catch how he was about Ignatius? No reaction when talking about the Horcrux, but he does not like our friend Weatherbee."

"I did. Either he really doesn't like him or there's something suspicious about him."

Harry sighed. "Well, now I have another person to check out."

Ginny squeezed his hand tightly and smiled up at him. "Well you can stop thinking about all that for the rest of the weekend. Right now we're going to soak, get massages, drink wine and eat desserts. And we have loads more shagging to do."

"Gin, you always know exactly what to say to make me feel better," Harry said with a wide grin.

8. Chapter 8

Ginny walked quickly down the hallway of the administrative wing of San Francisco Thaumaturgical, hurrying a little because she was already a bit late for her meeting with her advisor. She'd been delayed in the emergency room, helping out with an unfortunate splinching and now she was trying not to run.

Turning the corner, she saw Vijay Malhotra's office and breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't going to be too late after all. The door was closed and she knocked softly, opening it at his call. He stood up from behind his desk and greeted her. "Ginevra! So good to see you again!" He always insisted on using her full name and she found it very charming.

"How've you been, Vijay?" Ginny asked as she sank down into a chair across from him.

"I've been very well, thank you for asking." He leaned his elbows on his desk, tenting his fingers in front of him and looking at her with his keen eyes. "So, you came through your prologue courses with high marks and now you're on to organs, correct?"

"Yes that will take me through most of February along with my regular clinic rotation," she said eagerly. Vijay was working as her liaison between the Muggle and magical medical worlds and her grant from St Mungo's required regular updates from him regarding her progress. She had expected to chafe under this requirement, but that hadn't been the case so far. She liked Vijay; meeting with him was a good way to keep her hand in the magical medical field while learning about the American system.

They chatted amiably about her coursework, her marks and the differences between the American and British magical worlds. "Have you given any more thought to spending some time here at SF Thaumaturgical over the holiday break?" he asked as they concluded their meeting.

"I'm definitely interested, but I'll have to see first what sort of school projects I have to do over the break and then Harry and I were planning to travel back home for at least part of the holiday. He has to be back at school right after the new year, but I have that first week of January off, so we'll see how it goes."

"Well, I can only ask you to think about it. It would be really great to have a Healer of your talents on staff, even if only temporarily. Oh, by the way, I've been meaning to ask. Do you know Matthew Hudson?" Vijay asked as they both stood.

Ginny worked to keep a neutral expression her face. "Yes, I do. I worked with him at St Mungo's. The last I heard he'd gotten a fellowship to Oslo. How do you know him?"

"He's doing a fellowship here now. Some research as well as putting in hours in the Accidental Magic Reversal clinic. Quite a talented young man."

"Yes, he's always been clever," Ginny said. Too clever by half.

"You should meet him for lunch or something, do some catching up." Vijay said, opening the door of his office for her.

"Maybe I'll do that. All right, so I'll see you next quarter, then. Have a good holiday!"

"You too, Ginevra. Tell Harry I said hello. Oh, I wanted you to know that you're both welcome to the SF Thaumaturgical holiday party as well."

"Thank you, that's very sweet of you," Ginny said, smiling. Not bloody likely if Matthew is going to be there. "Bye."

Vijay closed his office door and Ginny walked away down the hall, shaking her head. There was no way she was going to get into her past history with the dashing Accidental Magic Reversal fellow with her liaison advisor. Checking her watch, she saw it was a bit after one o'clock and she decided the she had enough time to get over to the hospital canteen for a quick bite before her next class at two-thirty.

Ten minutes later she was seated at a table in the basement canteen with a steaming bowl of soup, a hot mug of tea and a ton of crackers. The fall had been glorious, but now at the second week of December things had taken a turn for the dreary and it seemed like she just couldn't get warm. Even indoors here she didn't dare remove her thick, woolen scarf. She had just added the proper amount of crackers into her soup when she heard a familiar voice.

"Ginny, I certainly didn't expect to see you here!" Matthew said, sitting down in the empty chair across from her. I knew I should have put my book bag in that chair.

"Oh, hello. Lunch break?" Ginny saw that he had a sandwich with crisps on a plate.

"Yes, the first chance I've had to sit down all day." He made himself comfortable, looking like he didn't plan to move for a while and bit into his sandwich.

Determined to not let him spoil the first thing she'd eaten since a hurried breakfast bagel, Ginny ignored him and started on her soup, savoring the heavenly warmth. She pulled out a text book and started reading about the organs involved in the respiratory system, resolutely ignoring Matthew's crunching noises.

"What's that you have there?" Matthew asked, pointing with his sandwich. Ginny showed him the cover of the book and he made a face. "Ginny, darling, you know all of that already. Why are you putting yourself through it again?"

Ginny shook her head and sighed. "Yes, I know it, but I don't know how Muggles see it and how their medicine interacts with all of the body's systems. It's more than just learning the names and functions of things."

"But what does it all matter?" He seemed genuinely curious and not just trying to irritate her, so Ginny gave his question careful consideration.

"It's like I said at Thanksgiving. There is a wealth of information in here," she said, tapping her finger on the book, "and if we can access that information and add it to what we already know, then the sky's the limit, isn't it?"

"Some would say that the sky is the limit now," Matthew said frankly, munching through his crisps.

"Well and good for them, but they didn't run into Frank and Alice Longbottom or poor old Gilderoy Lockhart, did they?" Ginny thought of the visits she would have with Frank and Alice whenever Neville came by to see them and shook her head sadly.

"Everyone knows magical healing can only do so much."

"Yes. Everyone knows, so no one tries to find out more. That is why I'm here." Ginny finished her soup while Matthew chewed on that, finally starting to feel a wee bit warmer. The tea definitely helped and she'd have to remember to start carrying around a heated flask of it with her.

Matthew shook his head. "Well, I wish you all the luck then."

Ginny inclined her head as she sipped her tea, holding the blessedly hot mug in her chilled hands. "Thank you."

"So, what are you doing for the holidays?"

"Harry and I are going back to London to spend time with family." At the mention of Harry, Ginny noticed Matthew's good humor fall down a couple of notches.

"You mean your family since Harry hasn't got any." Ginny started packing up her things and cleaning up her tray, finishing her tea faster than she'd wanted to. "Gin–"

"No. You are being nasty and unpleasant for no good reason other than the fact that you don't like Harry and me being together." Ginny picked up her tray and looked at Matthew. I can't believe I used to think that he hung the moon, she thought. "Well, you're going to have to get used to it. You dumped me, remember?" She turned away from him and walked back to the dish return station, forcing herself to walk slowly and calmly rather than throwing the tray at the rack and running away as fast as she could.

Once she was out of sight of the canteen seating area, she picked up her pace until she was almost sprinting down the hall toward the elevators. Reaching the hospital Apparition zone, she Apparated to her favorite secluded spot on campus and headed to the library for the thirty minutes she had before class, unwilling to spend them outside in the cold gloom.

Inside the reading room, she found Ben at their favorite table in front of the window that faced the Golden Gate and sat down in the chair next to him. "Hello, you look like you've had a bad day," he said, moving aside a couple of books for her.

Ginny shrugged and shook her head. "I was at my advisor's and got surprised by someone."

Ben's eyes went round and he closed his book without even marking his place. "I'm listening," he said, leaning in closer.

"There's not much to tell. I was just trying to get some lunch and he sat down and started talking at me."

"Now who was this?"

"Matthew," Ginny said quietly.

"Oooooooohhhhhh. Is he the one...?"

"Yes. That one," she said, smiling at the astounded expression on Ben's face.

"Girl. Girl. Girl! What in the world is he doing here?"

"He's on another fellowship."

"Does he know? About you and Harry?"

"Well, he knows we're together now, but he still doesn't know about...the other thing."

"And we're keeping it that way, right?" Ben said, nodding at her.

"We are definitely keeping it that way," she said, nodding back.

"Did he do something to upset you?"

Ginny shrugged. "Not specifically. He asked what we were doing for the hols and I said we're going back to see family and he made a snide comment about how Harry doesn't have any and it's just him being nasty for no reason."

"Ugh, I hate people like that," Ben said in commiseration. "Some people exist just to bring other people down."

"So true." Ginny got out the book she'd been trying to read when Matthew interrupted her and tried to focus on it, feeling better now that she was with a friend and was pretty sure there was no way Matthew could surprise her here.

Harry stood in front of his Junior class, leaning easily against his desk with his arms folded, looking completely relaxed. The students sat in their seats still getting organized and he waited patiently until they stopped arranging books and papers. Gradually the whispering, shifting and shuffling stopped. All eyes were focused on him. His wand in his right hand, Harry silently cast Reducto at a small glass ball he'd hidden on a shelf earlier, making it explode with a spectacular shower of glitter. The entire class gasped while some students yelped and Harry noted that a few even had their wands out, ready to fight.

"What happened there?" he asked when the students calmed down after no further explosions happened.

A boy, Malcolm, raised his hand and Harry nodded. "Something exploded."

"Yes it did. Do you know why it exploded?"

"Um...someone made it explode?"

"Who? Who made it explode?" He gave them what Ginny had started calling his 'Teacher Look'. "Do we have a troublemaker in here?" They looked around at each other suspiciously until one girl raised her hand. "Yes, Carrie?"

"You made it explode."

Harry nodded. "Very good! How?"

She thought for a moment. "Reducto, I think."

"How do you know? Did you hear me cast it?" Carrie shook her head. "Did anyone hear me cast the spell that caused the explosion?" Everyone shook their heads in the negative. "And that is why you were surprised. Silent, non-verbal casting is the best way to protect yourself." He looked at them over his glasses. "Can anyone tell me why?"

The children looked around at each other. I seem to have spooked them, Harry thought. Good. Finally, one girl raised her hand. "Allison?"

"You keep the element of surprise."

"And why is that important?"

"It doesn't give your enemy time to prepare."

"Very good. What else? Thomas?"

"You can't be counter-spelled," Thomas said confidently.

"Excellent. Now," Harry slipped off his blazer and undid his cuffs, rolling his shirtsleeves up to his elbows. The class began to shift around in anticipation, knowing that when the blazer came off and the cuffs went up, things were about to 'get real' as the kids said. "I want you to pair up. We are going to be using Expelliarmus only," he said with emphasis on 'only'.

Eagerly, the students paired off and Harry moved the desks out of the way with another silent cast. Normally he preferred these sorts of drills outside, but it was a cold gray day and they couldn't cause too much damage with Expelliarmus.

Satisfied with the pairings, he nodded. "Right. Now, you all know what's coming at you. I want you to just let it happen and don't counter. The point of this exercise is to cast your Expelliarmus silently and that's going to require some extra concentration. It's almost like trying to cast for the first time, but not quite as hard." He smiled, remembering his own first fumbling attempts at making a feather float. "Remember, focus your will." He looked them over again and made a few kids spread out. "Ready? On my go. One...two...three...go!"

Harry had to exercise all of his control to keep from bending at the waist and laughing until he cried. His Juniors were generally a pretty sharp bunch, but making the transition from verbal to non-verbal casting was tough, make no mistake. He heard several shouts of "Expelliarmus!" and a variety of mumbled, muffled versions of the word.

"No fair! You said it!" Malcolm said to his partner. "Mr Potter, Ian said the spell!"

"It's all right, Malcolm, let Ian try again," Harry said, standing behind Ian. "Take a moment, think about the spell and how it feels when you cast it verbally, yeah?" Ian nodded, his wand held straight up in front of his face. "Got it? All right, deep breath…and…go!" Ian pointed his wand at Malcolm and Harry saw Malcolm's wand go flying away.

"I did it!" Ian shouted, completely astonished.

Harry clapped him on the shoulder. "You certainly did! Now let's see if Malcolm can do it. Focus, remember the feeling of the spell and cast. Don't overthink it." Harry watched as Malcolm focused and cast, moving his lips. "Good! Now, don't move your lips next time!"

Leaving the boys to get on with it, he circled the room, watching Mia and Lily giggle their way through their attempts and he had a brief memory of Remus Lupin and the Boggart lesson. Lupin was hands down the best teacher he'd ever had and he still held him as his teaching ideal. Thinking of Lupin reminded him of Teddy, so he made a mental note to write to Andromeda and get Teddy's Christmas list.

The rest of the lesson went well, with only a few minor mishaps. A couple of his cheekier students tried to use Petrificus Totalus and Harry told them off appropriately while secretly admiring their initiative. That was indeed an excellent spell to cast silently.

Ten minutes before the end of class, Harry wound down the lesson, making sure everyone found their wands and set the classroom back in order. A few things had been knocked off the shelves and one of the class announcements on the bulletin board had was singed, but nothing was broken nor anyone harmed, which was the whole point of using Expelliarmus.

At the front of the class again, he looked at his students' excited faces. A whole new world of possibilities had opened before them. "All right. That wasn't bad for your first attempt. I will tell you that silently casting Expelliarmus will be part of your Midterm Practical." He raised his eyebrow. "You will have to successfully disarm me." He laughed inwardly as twenty pairs of eyes went wide and clapped his hands. "Now, anyone have a last question before I let you go?" Twenty hands shot up into the air and Harry nodded at a young witch in the back row. "Rebecca?"

"When will we learn silent Apparating?"

"Oh, well depending on how the Auror training works here in the States, you'll learn that in your second year of training." The entire class looked crestfallen and Harry laughed. "Listen, I'll teach you to cast spells silently, but I'm not going to be responsible for teaching you how to sneak out of your house!" The bell rang, signaling the end of the class and Harry watched the kids shuffle out, talking excitedly about the day's lesson.

Glad to be done with the last class of the day, Harry collapsed into his desk chair and leaned his head back. He tossed his glasses onto the desk and put his arm over his eyes, savoring the quiet after the chaos of the day. A moment later, he heard a light knock on his classroom door and sat up to see Juanita walk in. "Hey, Juanita. What's up?"

"Not much. Heard your Juniors. Non-verbal casting, huh?"

"Yeah. I had them using Expelliarmus. It was pretty hilarious." Harry put his glasses back on and ran his fingers through his hair. "By God, teaching takes a lot of energy."

"Yes it does," Juanita chuckled before turning serious. "I wanted to give you a heads up. We're going to have your lesson tomorrow."

"My lesson?" Harry asked, confused. Was she going to teach non-verbal casting?

"Yes. The one about you? Dark Lord?"

Understanding dawned on Harry. "Ah, right then. That'll be eighth graders, yeah?"

"Yes. And I'm sorry, but they have my class right before yours." Juanita looked genuinely apologetic.

Harry sighed and leaned his forehead on his hands. "All right. How deep do you go?" Harry spent some time before cross country practice going over Juanita's lesson plan with her. He corrected a few things and filled in some blanks, mentally rearranging his own lesson plans for his eighth grade class tomorrow. At least it'll be Friday, he thought. They'd have all weekend to get used to the idea of him and he'd be back to being regular old Mr Potter on Monday.

Juanita gathered up her notes, looking at Harry with a little bit of awe. "No. Juanita, not you too," Harry groaned.

She made an effort to compose herself. "I'm sorry, Harry. It's just…all of that was over there and didn't really affect us over here. Reading about it is one thing. And you…"

"Juanita, I'm just Harry, yeah? I talk funny, I like tea, I occasionally drive on the wrong side of the road?"

"I'm sorry. Yes, you're just Harry," she said with a smile and he was glad to see some of the starriness in her eyes fade. She glanced out of the windows at the darkening day. "Looks like it's going to rain. I'm getting out of here. I apologize in advance for tomorrow."

"No worries. You're probably the only Magical History teacher with the straight story."

"Thanks again." Juanita headed out and Harry headed out to the staff locker room to change for practice, frowning at the clouds gathering overhead. Running in the rain was not his favorite thing and he hoped that it would hold off for the next hour or so.

Luck was with him, however, and it didn't start to actually rain until he was in the shower. After making a final check of his classroom, checking the locks on the cabinets that held the Pensieve and the Boggart, he quickstepped to the office to check his mailbox.

"Harry! There you are! I was just coming to see you," Artemis said as Harry rounded the corner to the mailroom.

"Artemis. What can I do for you?"

The Headmaster put his arm around Harry's shoulder and walked with him to the mailroom. "As I'm sure you're aware, the Winter Formal is just around the corner and I fear we're a little bit short of chaperones. Would you and your charming Ginny be willing to pitch in and help ride herd on a group of hormonal Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors?"

Another bloody dance, Harry thought with an inaudible groan. "I'll have to ask Ginny if she's available. She's pretty busy at school herself."

"Well, that's all I can ask for, then. If you could let me know tomorrow or Monday?"

"Sure," Harry nodded.

"Excellent! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some parents in to see me about university entrance exams and letters of recommendation."

Finding his mailbox blessedly empty, Harry started the walk in the rain to Apparating distance from the school grounds, hoping he'd find Ginny home already.

Ginny Apparated into the flat, waking Harry who had obviously been dozing on the sofa with his computer on his chest. She picked it up and put it on the coffee table before it could slide off and fall to the floor, kissing him on the forehead. "Tough day?" she asked lightly, setting her heavy book bag down.

"Mm, not too bad. Just very busy. Did non-verbal casting today with the Juniors," Harry said as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Oh, non-verbal casting. You'll have your hands full until that trick gets old and they find something else." Ginny picked up Harry's feet and sat on the sofa, putting his feet in her lap.

"I know. Cheeky buggers. They've never taught it here. I've got to bring my Seniors up to speed tomorrow." Without his glasses on, Harry squinted at the clock. "What time is it?"

"Six-thirty," Ginny said, rubbing his toes through his socks.

"Stop that, it tickles." Harry yawned and stretched. "How was your day? Cadaver lab, right? How's old Ernie doing?"

"Ernie is literally falling to pieces over me. Today I took out his lungs, weighed them and chopped up bits for pathology slides. You could say I've left him quite breathless."

"Oh, Gin. That's terrible," Harry groaned, covering his face.

"Thank you! I'm here all week!" she said, dodging his swipe at her hair. "What's for dinner? I'm starved!"

"I can't believe you can spend all afternoon cutting up a bloke and come home hungry."

"I can't believe you can face down teenagers all day every day. Ugh."

"Me either." They sat quietly for a moment until Harry yawned again.

"Get up. Let's go foraging." Ginny pushed Harry's feet off her lap and stood, waiting for Harry to get his act together. He quickly changed into jeans and an old jumper and shrugged on his dragonhide jacket. Leaving the flat, they headed to a little Mexican place they'd recently discovered. Soon they were sharing chips and salsa along with a margarita each.

"So, apparently my lesson is coming up tomorrow in Worldwide Magical History. Juanita was good enough to come by and give me a heads up this afternoon," Harry said as he loaded up a chip with salsa.

"Oh, sorry," Ginny said sympathetically. She remembered Harry's first day of teaching when it'd seemed like he'd spent all day talking about himself with the kids that already knew who he was through their history lessons. "That's not your favorite thing to do."

Harry shrugged. "It'll be all right. Tomorrow's Friday and they'll have all weekend to think about it. Maybe I'll give them some extra work over the weekend and then by Monday they'll be back to hating me."

"They don't hate you."

"Seems like it sometimes. I think the parents may hate me after today, though," Harry mused as he crunched through tortilla chips. Ginny laughed and drank more of her margarita. They made them nice and strong here. "What about you? You saw Vijay today, yeah?"

"I did. Everything's going well. My overlords at St Mungo's are pleased by my progress. Oh, we're invited to the SF Thaumaturgical holiday party."

"Ooo, sounds fancy. When is it?"

"You know, I didn't even ask."

"I take it you don't want to go, then?" Harry fished around in the dish for a whole chip, but there were only crumbs left. He looked hopefully at a passing waiter and Ginny put the dish at the edge of the table.

"Not really. I mean, what with Matthew and all…"

"Talk about He Who Must Not Be Named," Harry said derisively, digging into the new dish of chips.

"I ran into him today at the hospital after seeing Vijay," Ginny said noncommittally, dipping her own chip in the delicious salsa.

"Oh? Everything all right? Did he hassle you?" Harry asked, suddenly on high alert.

Ginny shook her head. "No, I was having a bite in the canteen and he was there on lunch. We chatted a bit, he got nasty and I left." Their dinners came and Ginny put Matthew out of her mind, determined to not let him ruin her favorite enchilada dish. She noticed that Harry hadn't started on his smothered burrito, but was sitting there with a frown on his face. "Eat," she said with her mouth full.

"Gin, I don't–"

"No. You stop right there. I can take care of myself, all right? Matthew is harmless and this is a big place. I don't go to the hospital often, so don't worry about it."

"I just wish–"

"Harry," Ginny said warningly and he nodded, finally turning his attention to his dinner. They shared a flan for dessert and walked slowly back to the flat. It had stopped raining and the pavement shone with light reflected from the streetlights. Walking with her head on Harry's shoulder and holding his hand, Ginny felt very content. This is where I'm meant to be.

"Oh, so I forgot to tell you at dinner. Artemis wants to know if we're free to chaperone the Winter Formal for St Ambrose's," Harry said, pulling off his jumper and pulling on a long-sleeved running shirt.

"Winter Formal? What's that? A dance?" Ginny asked distractedly, already absorbed in her homework.

"Yeah, but really fancy dress. Only the older kids." Jeans off, Harry rummaged in the drawers for his favorite cold weather running tights and slipped them on.

"When is it?"

"Um, I think the sixteenth? Yeah, last Saturday before break." Over his long-sleeved running shirt, he pulled on a dark sweatshirt.

"Let me check my calendar. When are we leaving? The twenty-second?" Ginny was quiet for a moment as she perused her school schedule. "That should be fine. Sounds like it'll be fun." She looked at Harry and raised her eyebrows. "What are you doing?"

"Going for a run," Harry said, tightening the laces on his trainers.

"At this time of night? And on a full stomach? You'll puke before you've gone a mile."

"You know I like a challenge." Making sure his wand was handy Harry bent and kissed Ginny on top of her head. "I won't be too long. Just need to work off some energy, yeah?"

"Go on. See you," Ginny said, squeezing his hand.

Harry nodded and left the flat, jogging quickly down the stairs. Mindful that Ginny was likely watching for him, he ran in front of the windows of the flat and turned the corner, jogging easily to a secluded, dark area between two buildings. Taking a quick look around, Harry concentrated and Apparated, coming out not too far from SF Thaumaturgical.

When Hudson had shown up at Jacob's Orphan's Thanksgiving, Harry had done his due diligence and discovered that Matthew had taken a flat not too far from the hospital in an upscale neighborhood that was close to the Wizarding center of the city. It was only a ten minute walk from the hospital which was handy for an on-call Healer like Hudson. Harry jogged over to Matthew's apartment, checking his watch. It was only eight-thirty, so if he were home, he was likely to still be awake.

When Harry got to the building though, he saw that all of the windows were darkened in Hudson's second-floor flat. Taking care to look like a casual jogger out for the evening, Harry went to the end of the street and made a left, doubling back to the hospital. To Muggles, it looked like one of any number of the old, disused buildings in the city and thanks to the Muggle-repelling charms, no one ever thought to ask why it wasn't being redeveloped into new and exciting condominiums like so many of the other crumbling buildings around. It had been conveniently forgotten by everyone from the man on the street to the mayor.

The only entrance available at this time was Emergency, so Harry strolled in, still feeling the shivery effects from the Disillusionment Charm he'd cast on himself. He wished he'd thought to bring along his Invisibility Cloak, but that was buried way down in a drawer and it would have been too obvious to get out. Moving slowly to ensure he blended in with his surroundings, Harry looked for Hudson, finally finding him as he was finishing a patient update with the resident on staff.

Even at the end of what was obviously a long day, Hudson still looked perfect and Harry felt his irritation with the man rise. "All right, then. I'm out for the night. Message me if there's any trouble with Mr Harris. That Fixing Charm should wear off in a few hours. It's most important to keep him calm and quiet so he doesn't do any more damage to himself," Hudson said, handing the resident the unfortunate Mr Harris's patient chart and heading off to the staff locker room. Harry followed him with long-practiced Auror stealth, not making a single sound on the linoleum floor of the hospital.

The locker room was deserted and Harry waited for Hudson to change into street clothes before dispelling the Disillusionment, seeming to appear out of thin air at the end of the row. Harry stood leaning on one of the lockers with his arms crossed, looking for all the world like he was waiting for a mate to finish up so they could go out. "Matthew," Harry said quietly, making Hudson jump.

Wand out, Hudson spun around. "What the hell–Harry? What are you doing here?"

Taking a page from his lesson earlier that day, Harry easily disarmed Hudson, catching his wand as it flew toward him, inwardly delighted by Hudson's surprise and outrage. "So I believe on Thanksgiving Ginny told you that she wished to be left alone, is that correct?"

"What do you think you're–" Hudson began, taking a step toward Harry.

"Ah, ah, think about that," Harry said, coming out of his relaxed stance and standing up straight. Hudson pulled up short and stood, staring at Harry, fury evident on his face. "Now, Ginny told you that she wanted to be left alone. Is that correct?"

"She may have said something to that effect, yes," Hudson said grudgingly. He had flushed a deep red color.

"And did you honor that wish today?"

"No," Matthew said, biting out the word. "Listen, Potter–"

Tired of hearing him yammer, Harry cast Silencio at him. "Now, if you are any kind of gentleman, and I know you're the kind of bloke who thinks he is the gentlest of all gentlemen, you know that when a lady makes a request of just such a gentleman, the gentleman goes to great lengths to honor it." Harry kept his voice quiet and calm as he closed the distance between them, quietly impressed when Hudson didn't back away from him.

Standing nearly nose to nose, Harry summoned up his best steely-eyed Auror glare, the one that tended to make men start babbling uncontrollably, feeling a vicious satisfaction as the red drained from Matthew's face. "A gentleman will honor that request or the lady's ex-Auror boyfriend will find that gentleman and clarify the lady's request. You get me?"

Hudson stared defiantly at Harry for a moment before nodding. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." Harry lifted Silencio and motioned for Hudson to speak.

"Yes," he said through clenched teeth.

"Yes what?"

"Yes, I will leave Ginny alone."

"Excellent. Because if I hear you've ruined her day again, I will come down on you like a fucking ton of bricks, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Harry handed him his wand. "Good talk." Turning on his heel, he left the locker room, nodding to the surprised medi-wizard that was just coming in. Quickly leaving the hospital, he Apparated to the Great Highway down by the zoo.

Might as well really get a run in, he thought as he took off down the dimly-lit walkway, running hard as the adrenaline from the confrontation with Hudson coursed through him. He ran from the zoo to the Cliff House and stood looking down on the moonlit ruins of the baths at the bottom of the cliff while he got his breath back. He felt pretty sure that Hudson would back off and quit bothering Ginny, but he was glad that she wouldn't have to see Vijay for a few more months and wouldn't really have any reason to be at the hospital.

As he felt the wearying aftereffects of the adrenaline and run, he Apparated to a spot about a quarter mile from the flat and jogged slowly home. Ginny was still working and looked up when he came in. "You look windblown! Good run?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah not too bad," Harry said, getting a glass of water and standing by the fireplace to warm up and stretch.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Vijay asked if I'd be interested in putting some time in at the hospital over the break."

Harry almost choked on his water. "Oh?"

"Yeah and I figured since you have to be back at work right after the new year and I still have another week off I'd go ahead and poke my head in. I can't forget everything I've learned, can I?"

Pasting a smile on his face, Harry set down his glass on the mantle and began stretching. "No, I suppose you can't. That's great, Gin." Bugger.

9. Chapter 9

"Harry, may I have a word with you?" Artemis called as Harry walked past his open door Monday morning.

"Yes?" Harry asked, poking his head into the office.

"Come in. Close the door." Uh oh. Harry did as he was asked and sat in one of the chairs in front of the headmaster's desk, crossing one leg over the other, waiting for him to start what was likely to be a weighty conversation.

Artemis seemed uncomfortable at Harry's calm and shuffled some papers around on his desk before speaking again. "I was contacted by some parents over the weekend. There seems to be some concern about your teaching the students non-verbal casting."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Apparently several of your Juniors and Seniors decided to practice by playing pranks on their families. One mother was so distraught at the unexpected explosions that she had to spend the weekend out of the house," Artemis said with a genuine look of concern.

"Whose mother was that?"

"Roger Hill's mother."

"Ah. He's a handful, that one."

"Yes, well, be that as it may, your teaching the students non-verbal casting has upset many of our parents."

"It's quite likely that my teaching them non-verbal casting will save their lives one day," Harry said mildly.

"Perhaps that sort of teaching should be restricted to higher-level learning when the children are no longer so prone to mischief," the headmaster said in a conciliatory tone.

"I disagree."

Artemis looked at him from over his glasses. "Harry, not everyone has had to live with the degree of fear that witches and wizards in Britain did."

Harry cocked an eyebrow at him. "I think that's to their detriment."

Artemis sighed and took off his glasses. "Listen to reason, Harry. There is no Voldemort here. I don't think non-verbal casting is appropriate to teach at this level of instruction."

"Artemis, I can appreciate that parents are upset about flashes and bangs going off unexpectedly. It's a new thing and it will wear off like everything else does. Being able to cast spells effectively non-verbally made a lot of difference to a lot of people when faced with Voldemort's Death Eaters." Harry leaned forward with both feet planted on the floor.

"The last thing I want is to hear that one of my students died because I withheld knowledge that could have saved their life." Artemis drew a breath to speak and Harry raised a finger to interrupt him. "Now, when you hired me, you told me I had free rein to design my own curriculum and I promised you that my students would receive the best instruction possible. And now you're trying to hobble them?"

"Well, but…the parents…"

"If they continue to complain, feel free to direct them to me. If the parents really don't like me, then I'll finish out the year and find another situation." Harry was satisfied to see Artemis actually blanch at this statement.

"No, I don't think we need to do anything too…extreme." Artemis sat, contemplating Harry's calm expression, chin in his hands before he heaved a breath. "Let me talk to some of the more…strident ones. In the meantime, if you could impress on your students the right time and wrong time to practice their non-verbal skills…?"

"Of course. Anything else?" Harry asked, standing up from the chair and shouldering his satchel. He felt a little sorry for the man, knowing he was in for a long day.

"Did you ask Ginny about chaperoning the Winter Formal?"

"I did. We'd be delighted to help out."

"Well that's one thing that's gone right today. Thank you, Harry. Please do talk to your students about…" he said, trailing off and waving his hands around.

"Certainly. Have a good day," Harry said as he let himself out of the office and continued on his way to the mailroom where he ran into Juanita.

"Good morning, Harry. How was your weekend?" she asked as she riffled through her perennially overstuffed mailbox.

"All right. Yours?"

"Not too bad. I heard you get called into the office."

Harry sighed and shrugged. "Seems that some of the parents are a wee bit upset at my teaching their kids how to cast without making a sound."

Juanita laughed out loud and shook her head. "I imagine there were a lot of surprised dogs and cats this weekend. They'll get over it." Shoving the accumulated papers back into her mailbox, she turned to face Harry. "My eighth graders didn't give you too much grief Friday?"

"Nah, they were all right. We had a good question and answer and I gave them a load of reading for the weekend with the promise of a quiz today because of the time we spent talking about me on Friday. I'm sure that cooled some of their hero worship."

The class on Friday had started out awkwardly when the kids came into his room completely silent instead of with the usual chatter. They all sat quietly, staring at him with wide eyes. Oh God, what did Juanita tell them? he wondered. They all looked a little shell-shocked and Harry cleared his throat before writing his name on the chalkboard as he had on the very first day of school.

"All right, class. Now you know a bit of the history behind that name. Is there anything you'd like to ask?" It was as if he'd blasted a dam wide open and could only stare at the wall of water hurtling toward him. The questions ran the gamut from questions about his parents, Quidditch, Voldemort, Dumbledore, Basilisks, Fawkes, Hogwarts, Ron and Hermione (the girls all giggled when he told them they were engaged to be married) and life in Wizarding England in general.

He was relieved that there were no questions about the Deathly Hallows or Horcruxes. He hadn't seen anything regarding those in Juanita's notes and he certainly wasn't going to volunteer any information about them. As he got into it, he was surprised to find that he was actually enjoying answering questions from his students. They were just kids and asked questions that were relevant only to them. All in all, it was a lot of fun.

"Okay, that's enough about me," he said, clearing the chalkboard of the sketch he'd done of the Hungarian Horntail he'd faced down in the Triwizard Tournament a lifetime ago. "Let's talk about you and what you'll be doing this weekend. Specifically, the chapters you'll be reading on trolls and giants." The class groaned as one, growing louder when Harry told them of the quiz they'd be having on Monday.

The bell rang and the students packed up to move on to the next class, many of them smiling shyly at him as they left. One girl stopped by his desk and stood looking down at her shoes. "Yes, Claire?"

"Mr Potter, I just wanted to say that I'm glad you won," she said, still looking down at the floor.

Harry smiled. "I am, too. You better get going. You know what Mrs Peterson does to tardies."

The school's all-purpose room was decorated to look like a winter wonderland. There were snowbanks, evergreen pine trees complete with moving woodland creatures in the branches and animated snowmen that waved to the dancers. Artemis had even hired a few of Jacob's house-elves to wear Christmas elf costumes and serve at the refreshments table.

The students were completely delighted by the decorations and the boys kept trying to push each other into the snowbanks, bouncing off of the protective forcefield instead. The lighting was school dance-dim; dark enough to make the kids think they were getting away with something and light enough that the chaperones could see everything that went on. Oh dear. An actual disco ball, Harry thought, seeing it hanging from the ceiling. The ceiling itself was enchanted to mirror the sparkling clear winter night sky outside. It rather put Harry in mind of Hogwarts and he felt a surge of nostalgia for the old castle.

He stood near the entrance of the room, watching the kids as they arrived to gasp in amazement at the normally dull room's transformation. Ginny stood next to him, wearing her beautiful green dress with the matching wrap. She smiled at him warmly, seeming to have caught some of the students' excitement.

"Did you do all the decorating, Mr Potter?" a boy asked, approaching Harry and Ginny.

"Hello, Steven. No, I did not. I understand Headmaster Ashborough did the snow and the ceiling, Mrs Peterson did the snowmen and Mr Keller did the trees and the little creatures. Good work, isn't it?" Steven nodded, seemingly disappointed that Harry hadn't had anything to do with the transformation of the room.

"Looks like you're not living up to your legend," Ginny remarked when Steven sloped off to join his friends.

"Hm, my legend. Megan Peterson is who they hired for Charms when Hermione turned them down to go to Hogwarts. She's really good. If I had done the snowmen, they'd probably be giving kids the V rather than waving," Harry said, smiling as more students entered the room.

"Who is Mr Keller? What does he do?"

"He's an interesting one. He's head of custodial, but he's a dab hand at artificing. Every time I see him it seems like he's carving something. He carved all of the little animals in the trees and charmed them, too."

"Impressive."

"Rather." The room was full of students milling around everywhere but the dance floor. Harry thought they had all cleaned up very nicely, the boys in somber dress robes with a splash of color to match their dates' outfits, and the girls in dresses ranging from sophisticated to ostentatious. Artemis had tried to get him to wear his Auror dress robes, but he'd demurred, saying that they were packed away in London, which might have been a lie. He chose to wear instead a charcoal gray ensemble, setting it off with a green tie that matched Ginny's dress. He felt rather Slytherin, but there wasn't anything for it; Ginny didn't have a red dress.

He touched her on the shoulder, motioning towards a group of kids across from them. Bowing to tradition, Artemis had agreed to have a few bunches of mistletoe floating around and Harry had to fight the impulse to laugh out loud as he watched the girls try to steer their dates to stand underneath and the boys just as assiduously steer the girls away.

"Oh, bless them," Ginny said fondly. "Should we set an example?" she asked, looking up at Harry with a mischievous smile.

He checked above their heads and saw that they were in the clear. "Looks like we're out of luck," he said regretfully.

"I'm sure you can arrange something," she whispered in his ear and Harry gave a little jump when he felt her hand on his arse.

"You are going to get me in trouble," he murmured.

"My offer to visit you in detention still stands."

Harry shook his head and kissed her temple, turning his attention back to the room. The band were set up on the stage at the opposite end of the room. Artemis had promised that they were very good and just what the kids were into these days. Harry had found that the Bay Area had quite a thriving Wizarding music scene that crossed over a little bit into Muggle society. Muggles tended to think that these bands just had really good pyrotechnics.

Harry took Ginny's hand. "Shall we make the rounds outside?" Ginny nodded and they walked out, nodding to students who were still coming up the walkway. It was chilly outdoors and Ginny pulled her wrap closer around her shoulders.

"It's a lovely evening," she said, looking up at the cloudless sky.

Harry put his arm around her and pulled her close. "Not as lovely as you in that dress."

"Flatterer." They walked slowly around the building. A few boys were still outside, horsing around by the fountain in the grassy quad.

"Better get inside," Harry called to them, "band's going to start soon." They called back and shuffled off toward the all-purpose room. "Stags," he said with a smile. "That lot were convinced that the girls were going to ask them, so none of them got dates."

"That'll teach them to wait on girls," Ginny said archly. "Anywhere else?"

"Let's go over by the classrooms." They ambled slowly down the well-lit walkways toward the bank of classroom buildings, checking the dark corners for any stray students and finding none. They passed by Harry's classroom with everything looking in order and headed back to the dance. Inside, the music was going full blast, but the dancing was not. All of the Seniors were on the floor dancing, but most of the Juniors and almost all of the Sophomores were standing on the sidelines.

"This is just sad," Ginny said, tugging on Harry's hand. "Come on, let's give them some encouragement." He followed her out onto the dance floor as the band swung into a fast song. He felt a bit awkward at first, likely because just about the whole school was indeed watching him, but he focused on Ginny and the music, losing himself in the movement.

She's so beautiful, he thought, watching as the dress flared around her as she spun, her hips swaying to the fast beat. Mindful of their audience, he didn't pull her as close to him as he wanted to. We'll have to go out sometime when we're not being watched so closely. As the song came to a close, Harry looked around, seeing that the dance floor was definitely more populated.

"Look at that," Ginny said with a smile as she held both of Harry's hands, "it seems we've had some effect. One more?"

"As you wish," Harry said with a bow. For this dance, he saw more kids coming out onto the floor and even a few members of the faculty, including Artemis and his wife. I had no idea he was that agile, he thought as he watched the pair move around the floor, perfectly in sync. At the end of the song, Harry picked Ginny up and swung her around in a circle, kissing her soundly and making her laugh out loud.

"We should really do that more often. I'll have to ask Ben for where to go." Ginny fanned herself and moved toward the refreshment table. "I need something to drink!"

They surveyed what was available and Harry chose a couple of red fizzy drinks for them both as they made a circuit of the room. Everything seemed to be going well; the kids were having fun and there was a lack of troublemakers so far. The photographer was still setting up in front of a backdrop of actual falling snow with boys and girls already lining up to get their pictures taken.

"Are we going to get our picture taken?" Ginny asked, sipping her drink.

"Do you want to?"

"Of course I do! We have to document our first school dance."

"Technically this isn't our first school dance. There was the Yule Ball at Hogwarts we chaperoned last year," Harry pointed out, finishing his own drink.

"Well, that hardly counts. We weren't really together then, were we?"

Harry leaned down and nuzzled her ear. "We're together now," he whispered, feeling her shiver next to him.

She looked up at him with bright eyes. "Come on, let's queue up." They got in the queue and chatted amiably with the students. They seemed to be surprised that Harry had a girlfriend or even a life outside of the school and they peppered Ginny with questions.

"Are you from England, too?" a Sophomore girl named Katie asked.

"Yes, I am!" Ginny replied, amused by the attention.

"How old are you? How did you meet Mr Potter?" Another girl, Melinda, asked. Harry knew she had a bit of a crush on him that he tried his best to discourage.

"I'm twenty-five and I met Harry at school."

"At Hogwarts?"

"Yes," Ginny nodded.

"Did you know who he was when you met him?"

"Of course I did. Everyone back home knows who Harry is," she said, smiling up at him.

"Do you have a job?"

"Well, in England I was a Healer, but right now I'm going to medical school."

The questions went on and on with Ginny showing remarkable patience in answering them all until it was finally their turn to pose in front of the falling snow backdrop. The photographer moved them around several times until he was finally satisfied with the way Harry was holding Ginny's hand and took the picture, saying that the photos would be sent to the school by next Wednesday.

"Maybe we can give one to Mum and Dad for Christmas," Ginny suggested as they walked away from the photographer.

"I guess that would be one way to tell them about us, yeah?" So far, they hadn't come up with what they felt was a good way to tell Molly and Arthur that they were living together without being married. Harry thought that Molly would have a harder time with it than Arthur, but Molly had surprised him in the past.

While they were in line for pictures, the band had finished its first set and gone on a break, leaving the kids to wander around, chatting and eating. Harry saw the other chaperones circulating around and groaned when he saw Artemis making a beeline for them.

"Harry! I'm so glad you and your lovely Ginny were able to come and help us out! Please allow me to introduce my wife, Diana."

Harry squeezed her offered hand and bowed. "Wonderful to finally meet you, Diana," he said. Diana was much shorter than her husband and where Artemis was hearty and bluff, she was delicate and refined with sparkling dark eyes and a mass of dark hair.

"I've heard so much about you," she said warmly and Harry noted that she didn't even look at his scar, something that immediately endeared her to him. "So wonderful to finally meet you. Artemis says the children love you."

"I don't know about all that," Harry laughed. "Ask them after they've had their midterm exams!" He brought Ginny forward. "This is my girlfriend, Ginny Weasley." The two women shook hands and exchanged warm greetings.

They were chatting amiably when Harry felt a warning tingle in his tattoo. Turning his head ever so slightly to the left, he didn't see anything amiss. The band was starting up again and Harry took the opportunity to wind down the conversation. "Looks like the music is starting again. Did you and Diana get your picture taken yet? It looks like the queue has gone down."

"We do this every year. We have quite the collection!" Artemis said. "Thank you again for chaperoning tonight. I'll see you Monday."

"Till Monday, then," Harry nodded, taking Ginny's hand and heading toward the doors that led outside.

"Where are we going?" Ginny asked. "Another circuit outside?"

"I felt something. Someone set off one of my wards."

"You have wards out here?" Ginny pulled her wrap tighter around her shoulders as the cold air from outside hit her.

"I do. On my classroom. I have the Pensieve in there, Dumbledore's books, a few other things that I don't need anyone to get their hands on." He stood still, letting his eyes adjust to the lower light outside and he caught sight of two figures out by the fountain. He grinned at Ginny and gestured toward the couple. "Busted," he said quietly.

"Oh, Harry. Be nice. They're just kids having a snog," Ginny admonished with a smile.

"I'll be nice. Wait here for me, all right? I'm going to check out my room and make sure everything's okay."

"All right. Be careful."

Harry nodded and walked quietly toward the couple in the heated throes of a serious make out session. "Good evening, Richard," he said heartily, laughing inwardly when the two sprang apart as if propelled by magnets. "And Carrie," he said with a bow, looking discreetly away as she hurriedly adjusted her dress.

"Mr Potter! I thought you were inside!" Richard stammered, "I mean, I thought you were dancing … with your girlfriend …"

"I think it's time the two of you got back the the dance, yeah?"

"Yes, sir," Richard said miserably, holding his hand out for Carrie. Harry watched as they walked back into the all-purpose room, ducking their heads to Ginny as they passed.

Shaking his head, he headed over to his classroom door, wand out and ready. He didn't see anyone outside of his classroom and the windows all looked intact. He approached the door, silently casting a spell to make the ward pattern on his door and windows glow for his eyes only. Looking closely, he saw where one section by the door handle had been disturbed. Someone had tried to defeat his Locking Charm. The person who tried though didn't know that Harry rejected the simple Alohomora and used a much more complicated spell. Getting through the door would require a curse breaker of Bill's caliber.

Hmm, a prank? Something more? Harry repaired the damaged ward section and unlocked his classroom, going inside to make sure nothing was disturbed. He walked immediately to the locked cabinet that held the Pensieve, Dumbledore's books and other artifacts, making sure it was still locked. The Boggart's cabinet was also still locked, the wards on both intact.

For good measure, he also checked the fireplace. It was cold and didn't show any recent Floo activity. The Floo was only active during school hours anyway and Harry had put additional restrictions on the fireplace in his classroom. Anyone who tried to Floo into his classroom when he wasn't physically in the room would be redirected to the fireplace in the main office.

Making sure everything was in its place once more, Harry shook his head and closed up his classroom again, jogging back to where Ginny waited. "Everything all right?"

"Yeah, nothing wrong inside the room. Someone did try and get in, though. The wards by the door handle were disturbed."

"You think it was a student?" Ginny asked as they walked back to the dance.

Harry shook his head. "I don't know. The only people that are here tonight are students and faculty chaperones."

"Well, those are the ones we've seen."

"You would have made a good Auror," Harry said, hugging her with the arm around her shoulders.

Ginny snorted. "I think your suspiciousness is rubbing off on me."

"That works too." He opened the door to the all-purpose room, bowing Ginny in. "Well, unless something else happens tonight, I guess there's nothing to worry about. Want another dance?"

Ginny put her arms around Harry's neck and drew him close. "I'd love to dance with you all night," she whispered.

Harry spent the rest of the evening in a state of heightened awareness, alert to anything even the least bit suspicious, resulting in the bust of a group of Senior boys in the toilets that had smuggled in a pint of vodka and were in the process of getting roaring drunk. Ginny quelled a few arguments that sprang up between a group of stag girls over some of the stag boys, but all in all there wasn't a whole lot of trouble which Harry thought was quite remarkable given all of the hormones flying around.

It was getting close to midnight and the dance was almost over, the band playing a slow ballad. Harry held Ginny close as they swayed slowly on the dance floor, her head resting on his shoulder. He closed his eyes, a sleepy contentment washing over him at the feeling of Ginny in his arms pressed up close to him as the music swirled around them. Opening his eyes again, he caught sight of one of his students, Mark Preston, giving him the thumbs up and he shook his head wryly.

Casting his eyes around the room, he felt a shock reverberate through him and he stopped dead in the middle of the floor, causing Ginny to look up at him in alarm. "What's going on?" she asked with a frown.

Harry cocked his head in the direction of the refreshment table and Ginny turned to look, taking a sharp breath. "What in the world is he doing here?" she said in astonishment.

"I don't know. Let's go see if we can find out," Harry said grimly, watching Ignatius Weatherbee deep in conversation with Artemis and Diana. "Ignatius," Harry said as they approached, "what brings you out here tonight? Surely a school dance isn't all that exciting!"

"Harry Potter! A Gryffindor in Slytherin's clothing!" Ignatius said heartily, shaking Harry's hand.

Harry inclined his head toward Ginny with a smile. "I had to match my lady and she doesn't have a red dress."

Ignatius took Ginny's hand and bowed over it, kissing the air above the back of her hand. "You look simply stunning tonight, my dear."

"Harry, Ignatius was just telling us about his bid for the open seat on the Greater Bay Area Wizarding Council."

"Is he now? I didn't realize a seat was open," Harry said. He had only the barest understanding of how the magical local government functioned and vowed that he would find out more. He wasn't even sure if he or Ginny could vote in the upcoming election. "What brought this on?"

Ignatius smiled and drew a gold coin out of his pocket, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger as if it were some kind of talisman. Harry could tell it wasn't a Galleon, but he didn't know what kind it was. "Well, you may have heard that I've run before, but I wasn't able to gather enough votes. With Rutherford retiring from his seat at the end of his term, I feel the time is right."

Harry crossed his arms across his chest and tried out an interested look. "What's your platform? What are you hoping to do for us?"

"Well, I'm glad you've asked, Harry!" Ignatius walked the coin across the backs of his fingers without even looking at it. "You see, I feel that witches and wizards here in this paradise have become a bit too complacent and lost their way a bit. They need a strong, guiding hand, a voice that will advocate for Wizardkind in the greater council. A voice that focuses on our needs."

Harry cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. "I thought that was the whole council that did that?"

"You would think so, wouldn't you?" Ignatius asked, nodding sagely. "No, the council of late seems to be more concerned with the various doings of Muggles and other lessers. We need to bring the focus back to us." He was really warming to his topic now, the gold coin flashing in his hands. Harry found it distracting as he tried to pay attention to what the older wizard was saying.

"I'm sorry, but I have to ask. What sort of coin is that? I can see it's not a Galleon," Harry asked, indicating the coin that was flipping end over end as Ignatius tossed it in the air and caught it.

"This?" Ignatius asked, holding it up so Harry could see the profile of a woman engraved on it, then spun it around to show the eagle. "This is what's called a gold double eagle. It used to be worth $20, but it's worth a rather lot more than that these days! This one was minted during the Gold Rush, probably with gold from these very hills." Below the profile of the woman, Harry could see the year 1850. Ignatius tossed and caught it again. "I think of it as my lucky charm."

"I'm certain it will bring you all the luck you deserve," Harry said with a forced friendliness. Next to him, Ginny shook her head sharply as if to clear it and he gave her a questioning look, receiving a small head shake in return.

The dance began to wind down, the band announcing their last song to a mix of cheers and sounds of dismay from the dancers. Harry saw the chaperones fan out into the crowd and he turned to Artemis. "Looks like we're about done. What happens now?" he asked.

"Harry, I wonder if you would be so good as to open up your classroom so students can Floo home?" Artemis asked. "I'll manage the Floo in the office."

"Of course," he said, noticing how Ignatius's eyes lit up at the prospect of Harry opening his classroom.

The band finished their last song to copious applause and some yells from the kids. The band had been really good and Harry thought he'd have to make an effort to see them sometime when they weren't playing a school dance. Artemis mounted the stage, announcing that the Floos in the office and Harry's classroom would be active for those who wished to Floo home and the students started to shuffle out of the all-purpose room.

Taking Ginny's arm, Harry headed toward his classroom. "Harry, do you mind if I take a look around your classroom? I'm interested to see what a modern Defense classroom looks like. It's been a while since I've seen one!" Ignatius said with a deprecating laugh as he followed Harry and Ginny.

Feeling his hackles rise, Harry nodded. "Of course. I'm afraid you might not find it too interesting, though."

"On the contrary, I find seeing how people arrange their environments very interesting," Ignatius said, "almost like looking into their minds. Is it cluttered? Is it neat and organized? These are all important insights."

Students were already crowded around his classroom when he approached and he greeted them warmly, silently releasing the locking charm on his door. Ginny sat on top of one of the desks, her feet swinging back and forth, catching his eye and tilting her head at Ignatius, who was making a slow circuit of the room. Harry nodded, knowing she would keep an eye on him while he marshaled the kids through the Floo.

Quickly kindling a fire, he lined the kids up and sent them through one at a time, irritated at the explosions of soot and extra Floo powder that accompanied each transport. As he worked, he stayed aware of where Ignatius was in the room, tensing up when he was by the two locked cabinets. Finally, the last student was through and Harry extinguished the fire, banishing the soot and Floo powder that had gotten all over him. He looked over to where Ginny stood with Ignatius. They were chatting quietly, standing in front of a bulletin board that showcased student drawings of various sorts of ghouls and ghosts along with their vital statistics and vulnerabilities.

"So Ignatius, what do you think of my classroom?" Harry asked as he joined them, putting an arm around Ginny's shoulder.

"It's very nice. Not quite like the dank old classroom at Hogwarts! Now, that was a Defense classroom. I do see you have a genuine stuffed Chupacabra, though. Where did you find that?" Ignatius smiled widely at him, but Harry detected an undercurrent of irritation in him.

"Ah, well, I can't take credit for that, I'm afraid. It's a leftover from the previous instructor."

"In my experience, Defense teachers acquire all manner of strange and wonderful things. I've heard you have an actual Boggart. Is that true?"

"It is. I've got it in that cabinet over there," Harry said, indicating the rocking cabinet with a twitch of his head. "Would you like to try your hand at it?"

"Ah, I don't think so. Maybe another time; it's been so long since I faced one, I'm not even sure what my Boggart is, these days." He looked at Harry speculatively, and then at Ginny. "I wonder, Harry, what's yours?"

Harry gave a noncommittal grunt and began walking toward the door of the room. "Well, it's very late, Ignatius. It was good to see you again. Please feel free to come by and sit in on my class one of these days." He looked straight at him and smiled mirthlessly. "It's never too late for a refresher and you might learn a thing or two."

Ignatius returned his smile in equal measure. "Indeed. I might take you up on that offer." He bowed to Ginny and took her hand again. "Miss Weasley, delightful as always," he said before walking out of the door, whistling tunelessly.

Harry made sure he was well away before resetting the locking charm on his door. He hadn't had any warning from his wards on the cabinets, but he double-checked the ones on the outer door and windows, finding them still intact. Taking Ginny's hand, he walked with her towards his car.

"So?" he asked quietly.

"He never got his wand out, but I saw him try the knobs on both cabinets. He looked very closely at your books on the classroom shelves, but I think he was disappointed in those," Ginny said.

"Yeah, those are pretty run-of-the mill. Some of my old school books and such." They reached the car and Harry unlocked it with the fob, helping Ginny into the passenger seat. "Anything else interesting? He say anything?"

Ginny shook her head. "Not really. We talked about some people back at home. He asked how my family are. Oh, there was one thing that was sort of odd. He seemed very interested in my schooling, but not the actual academic aspect. More like, 'how can you stand being around all those Muggles every day?'" she said in a good imitation of Ignatius's voice.

"Hm. Seems our friend isn't a fan of the non-magical among us." Harry sighed and started the car. "Well, as long as he keeps away from my kids." Harry turned the car for home while Ginny looked out of the passenger window. She seemed pensive and Harry frowned. "Something wrong?"

"That coin," she said, turning to look at him, "did you notice anything…off about it?"

Harry thought for a moment as he guided the car down the dark, twisting road. "No. He seemed very nimble with it and it's a bit odd to carry around such a valuable thing. What did you notice?"

Ginny shook her head. "I'm not sure. I mean, I suppose it could have been because of the music, but when he had that coin out, it was almost as if my ears were ringing."

"What about in the classroom?"

"No, nothing."

"Well, hopefully we won't be seeing him anytime soon, but if you hear that ringing again, let me know, yeah?"

"Yeah," she said with a yawn.

As Harry drove, he turned the conversation with Ignatius over in his mind. Muggles and other lessers, he said. Not a good sign.

"Oh, Harry," Ginny said, breaking into his thoughts, "can we stop for a hot fudge sundae?"

"Hungry?" he asked with a smile.

"Got a bit of a sweet tooth," she grinned sheepishly.

"Now I'll have to get one," he said as he pulled up to the drive-thru and ordered, amending Ginny's with no nuts and an extra cherry. He parked in the darkened parking lot as they enjoyed their late night treats.

Ginny heaved a great sigh as she savored her sundae. "I'm so ready for this break."

"Me too," Harry nodded. "What else needs to be done before we go?"

Lips pursed around her spoon, Ginny thought for a moment. "I think we're done with the gifts. You got everything on Teddy's list, right?" Harry nodded and Ginny went on. "We've got Mum and Dad, Bill, Fleur Charlie, Ron, Hermione, George, Percy and Penny and the littles…oh, I thought of another thing for Victoire."

"What is it? I can pick it up for you."

"That would be wonderful. I'll write it down for you."

As they finished their sundaes, Harry's thoughts turned to their impending visit and how they were going to handle telling Molly and Arthur about them living together and he found he was starting to feel a little anxious about it. "Have you given any more thought to how we might…tell your parents?"

Scraping out the last of the hot fudge from her cup, Ginny sighed. "I have and I haven't come up with anything good." She licked the sweet from the spoon and shrugged. "Divide and conquer, I guess. You take Dad and I'll take Mum."

"Hm, I think I've got the easier end of the deal, there."

"You certainly do. Just goes to show how much I love you."

10. Chapter 10

Loaded down with far more bags than he thought was possible, Harry squinted in the winter afternoon sunlight that blasted him in the face after leaving the dark Portkey arrival hall, wishing he'd thought to switch out for his sunglasses. The first thing he saw was Ron, leaning casually on the front fender of the car and he heaved a sigh of relief.

"Ron!" Ginny called, running forward to embrace her brother.

"Ginny!" he said, hugging her tightly and lifting her from her feet, making Harry smile.

"What, no hug for me?" he asked with a raised eyebrow when he reached them.

"I'm saving a fat, wet kiss for you, Potter!" Ron said, grabbing him in a hug as tight as the one he'd given Ginny. Harry returned Ron's embrace just as strongly, glad to see his friend again.

They broke apart and Harry looked at the car, checking for dents or scratches. "You taking good care of her?"

"Of course! Just did the oil change thing a week ago." Ron wiped a bit of dirt off the shining blue fender with the sleeve of his jacket. "Come on, we're blocking the pavement. Let's get this lot loaded up."

Harry helped Ron load the trunks and bags they'd brought with them from California into the curiously spacious boot of the car. "What is all of this?" Ron asked as he heaved one particularly heavy trunk into the boot.

"Ask your sister. It's mostly her stuff."

"Harry! That's not fair! It's almost all Christmas gifts!"

"There better be something good in there for me," Ron said as he thumped down the lid of the boot.

"Maybe there is and maybe there isn't. You'll have to wait to find out!" Ginny teased. "It's so wonderful to see you again!" She hugged him again, kissing him on the cheek. "I've missed you so much." When she pulled away, Harry was surprised to see tears in her eyes.

"It's only been since August, Ginny," Ron said, gently swiping away a tear with his thumb as you would for a child. "Besides, isn't that lummox enough company for you?" He pointed his thumb at Harry and grinned at him.

Ginny swatted him on the arm and wiped at her own tears. "Shut it or I'll keep everything for myself." Ron laughed and patted her on top of her head.

"Let's get out of here," he said, tossing the keys to Harry who tossed them right back.

"She's yours now. You get to drive her around this madhouse."

Ron looked stunned. "What? Mine?"

Harry nodded, smiling at the dumbfounded expression on Ron's face. "Yeah. I've already moved on to a newer and younger model," he said with a grin as he got into the passenger seat. Ginny slid into the back seat behind him and squeezed his shoulder. Ron sat behind the wheel, still looking like he hardly believed Harry had given the car to him. "Happy Christmas, git."

"Fuck off, tosser," Ron returned as he started the car. "Everyone in?" He carefully navigated the crowded streets toward their shared flat, Ginny chattering away in the back seat.

"Everything looks so flat here! Where are all of the hills? And I never realized that everything here is so old! Look at that building, Harry! It has a plaque that says 1631 on it!"

Harry shook his head and turned around in his seat to look at her. "Ginny, you realize that the whole city of San Francisco was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire, right?"

"Yes," she said indignantly, crossing her arms, "but I guess I never really thought about what that meant. Where's Hermione?" she asked, changing the subject.

"She's still up at Hogwarts. She's coming down tomorrow," Ron said.

"She won't have to stay at the school over the holidays being head of Gryffindor and all?" Ginny asked, leaning forward between the two front seats.

Ron shook his head. "No. McGonagall is going to keep an eye on Gryffindor for the hols this year."

"That's wonderful! I can't wait to see her. Is she staying at the flat, too?"

"Yeah. If that's all right?"

"Why wouldn't it be? It's pretty much your place now, mate," Harry said. He didn't know what he was going to do about the flat just yet. I'll probably have to talk to Ron about it sometime soon, he thought as he looked out the window. Places that were familiar passed by, but they looked a little different now. He saw some soaped-over windows and "to let" signs in unexpected places, including his favorite chip shop.

Soon they pulled up in front of their building and unloaded the boot, surreptitiously making the luggage substantially lighter as they hauled it up to the flat. Ginny collapsed dramatically on the sofa. "I'm completely knackered!"

Ron pushed her feet to the floor and sat down next to her. "How are you so tired? You carried up one bag!"

"But it was a very heavy bag! Harry, are you making tea?"

Harry got up out of the armchair he'd just sat down in. "I guess I am!" He busied himself in the kitchen, listening to Ginny and Ron's conversation in the lounge. They were chatting mostly about family news. It seemed that Bill and Fleur would be at the Burrow for Christmas with little Victoire. That'll be nice, I haven't seen Bill in ages, Harry thought as he put the kettle on the burner and looked for the tea. It wasn't in the usual place and he suspected that Hermione had arranged things more to her liking.

"So, have you told Mum and Dad you're staying here with Harry?" he heard Ron ask, causing him to come on full alert.

Ginny sighed. "Well, I don't have to be staying with Harry. I could be staying with you."

"Ginny. You need to tell them."

"I know. I don't want them to be angry."

"They won't be angry. Come on, they love Harry," he heard Ron say consolingly.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, mate!" Harry called from the kitchen as the kettle began to boil. He put the tea things on a tray and carried it into the lounge, setting it down on the coffee table.

"You know they won't like it," Ginny said as the tea steeped in the pot. "Besides, it's not fair. You and Hermione stay together here and they probably don't say anything."

"Yeah, but we're engaged," Ron pointed out.

"But not married." Ginny looked at Ron and grinned. "Or are you trying to tell me that all you do in that bed is sleep?"

Ron blushed a deep red and cleared his throat, reaching for a cup and the pot. He carefully poured a cup and added milk and sugar, studiously ignoring them both. "I don't have to tell you anything," he said after he'd taken a sip.

Harry shook his head and made his own cup. "Gin and I have decided to divide and conquer. I'll talk to Arthur and she'll handle Molly."

Ron shot Ginny a sympathetic look. "Give me some warning, yeah? I don't want to be anywhere near Mum when that conversation starts."

"Thanks for backing me up," Ginny said tartly.

"Hey, what are brothers for?"

The next morning, Harry padded out of his bedroom in search of coffee. Ginny and Ron were both still asleep, so he was surprised to find Hermione wrapped up in a thick flannel robe, in the kitchen with coffee already made and reading the Daily Prophet.

"Good morning, you," he said, sweeping her up in a huge hug. She held on to him fiercely and he felt like she was going to squeeze the air out of him before she finally let go.

"It's so good to see you, Harry! I've missed you so much." She kissed him fondly on the cheek and Harry felt a warm glow of friendship radiate out from that spot.

"When did you get in?" he asked as he made a cup of coffee and sat at the breakfast bar next to Hermione.

"Late last night. McGonagall let me leave last night rather than this morning when she heard you were here."

"So she's not entirely heartless, then."

Hermione swatted him on his bare shoulder. "You know her better than that. She's a great headmistress and it's been wonderful working with her." She looked at him intensely for several seconds, causing him to raise his eyebrows in a question and she shook her head. "Nothing. You look great. You look…at peace."

"Huh. How did I look before?" he asked, taking a sip of the heavenly coffee.

"Like the last man on a sinking ship."

Harry cocked his head and looked at her. "Really?"

Hermione shrugged and took a sip of her own coffee. "Well, maybe not that bad, but you usually looked exhausted and you were getting circles under your eyes. And you were much too pale."

"I guess the California sun has done some good for me, yeah?"

"Don't make fun. They were really running you ragged at the end there."

Harry nodded, remembering that stretch of time after Ron left the department when it had seemed like every time he turned around there was some new crisis that needed his immediate attention. He thought of his students and smiled. "Now I have a bunch of teenagers running me around."

Hermione smiled warmly at him. "How do you like it?"

"I love it. More than I thought I would, actually."

"I knew you would. When I saw how you were with the DA I thought to myself, 'He's going to teach one day and he's going to be brilliant at it.'"

"Do you know I just got into a bit of trouble over there?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How did you manage that? I figure they would have given you carte blanche."

Harry nodded. "They did and then they regretted it."

"Now this is intriguing. What did you do?"

"I taught the older ones non-verbal casting."

Frowning, Hermione finished her coffee and got up for another cup. Harry put his out for a top up. "What's wrong with that?"

"Well, you know kids. Apparently at the weekend there were a lot of explosions and surprise flashes and other things around the house. Some parents complained and then Artemis came down on me."

"I assume you set him straight?" She sat back down next to Harry and moved the Daily Prophet out of the way.

Harry nodded and became aware of his rumbling stomach. "Toast?" he asked and Hermione nodded. "We had a nice little conversation where I reminded him that he told me when I came on board that I could design my own program from the bottom up and that if the parents really didn't like me that I'd finish out the year and then find another place." Harry set about making toast for them both and leaned against the worktop, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

"How did he take that? Artemis Ashborough seemed like he was…"

"A starfucker?" Harry said with a smirk.

"Goodness! Do you have to be so crude?" Hermione admonished. "But yes. A starfucker."

"He wasn't happy to hear me say I'd leave, that's for sure. Said he'd talk to some of the worst complainers and I asked the kids to tone it down and stop scaring the dogs and mums." The toast popped up and Harry buttered slices for them both, putting them on a plate. "They're good kids, just a bit…exuberant."

They ate in silence for a little while and Harry had a thought. "Question for you. Did you ever meet someone called Jacob Green while you were out there interviewing?"

Hermione thought for a moment, chewing slowly. "No, I don't think so. Who is he?"

"He's a businessman out there. Runs a Wizarding import-export business and is an alumnus of St Ambrose's. He donates a ton of money to the school and Artemis loves him for it."

"Why do you bring him up?"

"I've met him a few times and he seems…I dunno. I can't decide what his game is." He told her about the Halloween party and Jacob coming down in a bona-fide Slytherin uniform.

"Harry, not all Slytherins are like Draco or Tom Riddle," Hermione said.

He nodded and finished his toast. "I know, but it was weird, you know? Why Slytherin? Was it a jab at me? And then there was that scholarship."

"What scholarship?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"Well, you know this last Halloween was twenty-five years since…" he said with a wave of his hand and Hermione nodded. Harry blew out a breath through his nose before continuing. "Our Mr Green has decided to establish the James and Lily Potter Memorial Scholarship Fund." He heard Hermione suck in a quick breath. "And he announced it in front of everyone. And called me up to make a speech about it."

"Oh, Harry," Hermione said, reaching out and taking his hand, squeezing it tightly. "What did you do?"

"What could I do? Everyone there, watching, Artemis dragging me up the stairs. I said a few words, then I grabbed Gin and got the hell out of there." Harry shrugged, thinking back to that night. Should I tell her about the Horcrux? No, not yet.

"I'm so sorry that happened. This Jacob Green sounds like an awful person."

"That's the thing though. He's not. I mean, he's definitely full of himself and loves to associate with those he perceives as rich and powerful, but I haven't been able to detect any malice in him." Harry sighed and squeezed Hermione's hand back before withdrawing from her grasp. "He invited me and Ginny over to his mansion for Thanksgiving. That was an experience. Found out he has a herd of Thestrals."

"Thestrals? Whatever for?"

"Right? I don't know. I guess he breeds and sells them. I chatted with the Care of Magical Creatures instructor at school. She'd asked Artemis to buy one from Jacob and he just went ahead and donated it." Harry shook his head. "He's got a Blood Seal on his threshold, but that's just good security."

"But not commonly known," Hermione said thoughtfully, swirling her coffee in its cup.

"Exactly," Harry said, pointing at her. "And I found another one on an interior room."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "Were you snooping?"

"I was taking the long way back from the loo, all right? Anyway, the school uniform, Thestrals, Blood Seals, scholarships…oh and he's working with George to distribute Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes in the States." He knocked back the rest of his coffee and shook his head. "I dunno. It's all too weird."

"What's weird?" Ron asked, sleepily trudging into the kitchen. He bent and kissed Hermione. "Morning, love."

"Morning. Harry was telling me about someone he met in San Francisco," she said, getting a mug out of the cabinet for him.

"Oh yeah? Who?"

"Jacob Green. Rich guy, donates loads of money to the school. Kind of weird and I'm having trouble figuring out his deal," Harry said.

Ron took a long drink of coffee and shook his head. "Sounds like his deal is to annoy Harry Potter," he said, leaning his elbows on the breakfast bar.

"Who's annoying Harry Potter?" Ginny asked, coming into the kitchen in her pajamas. "Oh, is there any coffee left?"

"Apparently Jacob Green is annoying Harry," Hermione said as she started a fresh pot.

"Oh! Hermione! I didn't see you there!" Ginny exclaimed, hugging Hermione tightly. "When did you get here?"

"Late last night. You and Harry were already asleep."

"And you get to stay the whole holiday? That's wonderful!" Ginny hugged Hermione again and kissed Harry. "Good morning."

"Good morning. Sleep well?" he asked, feeling only slightly awkward kissing Ginny in front of Ron and Hermione. Better get used to it.

Ginny nodded and got her own mug out of the cabinet in anticipation of fresh coffee. "Who were we talking about? Jacob Green? Did Harry tell you about—"

"Ron, I'm going to go for a run. Want to come along?" Harry said, cutting Ginny off before she could finish her sentence.

Ron shrugged. "Yeah, could do. I can still kick your arse even with all that sitting around in classes." He finished the rest of his coffee and put the mug in the sink, following Harry down the hall to get dressed in winter-appropriate running attire.

A few minutes later they were ready to go, interrupting the girls deep in conversation in the kitchen for goodbye kisses. "Where are you going?" Hermione asked.

Ron looked at Harry questioningly. "Hyde?"

"Yeah, all right. Should be pretty quiet." They Apparated to a deserted corner of the park near the Albert Memorial and took off at an easy jog down Rotten Row toward the Queen Elizabeth gates. Their easy jog didn't last long as Ron slowly increased their pace until they were pelting down the deserted park road full-out, the frigid morning air like knives in Harry's lungs. He felt a wild exhilaration overtake him and he ran harder, passing Ron as they streaked past the Boy and Dolphin fountain, making the sharp left turn onto the Serpentine Road.

Harry heard Ron coming up on him, sounding like a freight train, and he tried to squeeze more speed out of his legs, but the blistering pace had taken its toll and he had to console himself with the fact that while Ron did pass him, it wasn't easily. His time with the cross-country team had done wonders for his endurance, but not so much for his speed and Ron's longer legs made the difference. They slowed their pace until they were down to an easy jog again, both of them breathing hard as they approached the Serpentine Bar and Kitchen.

"Wanker," Harry said as they stopped in front of the entrance and he finally caught his breath.

Equally out of breath, Ron could barely laugh as he bent over with his hands on his knees, heaving for air. "I thought you had me beat, but I couldn't stand looking at your arse."

"You love it," Harry said, holding the door open for Ron and following him in. "Macchiato?"

"Double. Ta." Ron went in search of a quiet table and Harry was glad he'd thought to shove a tenner in his shoe before leaving the flat. He brought the drinks over to the table and took a long drink. Sweeping the sweaty hair from his forehead he sat back with a groan.

"I'm sort of the assistant coach on the cross-country team, but haven't run like that in ages."

"Neither have I," Ron said with a snort. "I still get out every now and then, but not like before." He took another sip of his double macchiato, eyes closed in bliss. "Now. What was it you didn't want Ginny to say?"

Harry sighed. "I was hoping you'd miss that."

"Fat chance. Spill it, Potter."

"So that Jacob Green guy, yeah? We were there for Halloween and there were a couple of odd things that night. One of them was I found a Horcrux in his library." Harry took another sip of his own macchiato, watching the play of emotions on Ron's face at this revelation.

"You what?" Ron had gone pale and his blue eyes were wide.

"He's got a collection of little miniature portraits. They're all Muggle and one of them's a Horcrux," Harry said simply.

"How do you know?"

"I touched it and it hurt like bloody fuck all in my tattoo." Ron narrowed his eyes and Harry could see the wheels turning in in his head.

"Not your scar?" he asked, motioning to his own brow.

Harry shook his head. "No."

"Why not? Why your tattoo?"

"Dunno. The scar was from Voldemort, yeah? This Horcrux is clearly nothing to do with him."

"How do you know?"

"Because he's dead."

"Fair enough." Ron drank some more and thought. "But why your Auror tattoo? It's not active anymore." Harry shifted in his seat and looked out at the river. Despite the cold day, there were a few hardy souls walking along its length. "Harry. Do you mean to tell me that thing is still active?" Harry shrugged noncommittally, still not looking at Ron. "Jesus. Does Ginny know?" Harry shook his head in the negative. "How did they let you get away with that? Why in the world do you still want it active?"

"They did deactivate it. I might have reactivated it myself." Ron's eyes actually bugged out at this and Harry couldn't help but smile.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, mate?" Ron sat back against his chair, a look of genuine concern on his face.

"Nothing. I just…I dunno. I feel like it needs to be active. You know it's more than just the Summons," he said, glad to see Ron's nod. In addition to allowing the targeted Auror to Apparate instantly anywhere he or she were Summoned, the spell laid on the tattoo functioned almost as a sixth sense, enabling a low-level awareness of potential danger and even a bit of Dark magic detection.

"I can't really explain, but there's just some weird shit going on and I feel better with it." Harry took another drink and wished he'd thought to get some biscotti to go with. "Ginny heard it."

"Heard what? The Horcrux?"

"Yeah. Said she heard a sort of screaming. I think she hears the creation of it."

Ron frowned into his cup and sighed. "Stands to reason she'd be sensitive to that sort of thing after that diary. Does this Jacob know what he's got?"

"I don't think so. Says he bought an estate and kept the best for himself. The Horcrux really is the best of the lot. I got him to hold it when we were there on Thanksgiving and he had no reaction. He's got a specialist helping him curate the collection and he didn't react either. Get this—it's one of the Beauxbatons blokes."

"Really? Small world." Ron was quiet for a moment, staring out at the river himself. "So you've told the local Aurors about it?"

"No. Haven't decided if I'm going to yet."

"Bugger. It's not your problem, mate."

"You sound just like Gin."

"That's because we're both right. Fuck Horcruxes, Harry. It's not your fucking problem, yeah? Make it someone else's!" Agitated, Ron drummed his fingers on the tabletop and fixed Harry with a look. "Let it go."

Harry let out a long breath and shook his head. "I can't until I know more. You know I can't. There's another thing, too. I think they're connected, but I haven't figured out how yet." He told him about Ignatius Weatherbee and how he'd recognized him when Harry had been out for a run that evening. "I didn't know who he was that night, just that he was a wizard and knew who I was somehow. And then, he was there at Jacob's Halloween party."

Ron grunted, frowning. "What happened at the party?"

"It was weird. He introduced himself and he knew Gin—said he worked with your dad in the Misuse department when she was born—and then proceeded to play dumb about Dumbledore. Asked if he was still Headmaster."

"Well, he's been in America, hasn't he?" Ron said reasonably.

"Come on. Albus Dumbledore is killed by one of his own professors and it doesn't make worldwide news? That funeral was huge."

"When you put it that way…"

"So there's that. And then he goes on about what Halloween means to my family, or rather lack thereof." Harry shook his head and finished his macchiato. "There was just something very unpleasant about him. Plus, he left England not too long after Gin was born in 1981."

"You think he's a Death Eater?"

"I have my suspicions."

"Fuck me sideways. Harry, you've got to tell someone over there."

"What am I going to say? 'Hello? American Aurors? There's a guy over here—he's one of ours—but I think he's a bad guy doing bad things even though he's been in your country for a quarter century with a clean record.' That'll go down a treat." Harry sat back in his seat and crossed his arms, watching a dog outside run around after a ball.

"Don't you have any contacts over there? You did some consulting, didn't you?"

"Actually, Gin and I ran into an ex-Auror at a resort up in the Wine Country Thanksgiving weekend. Bloke called Archimedes Douglass. He knew me too and sent us a bottle of wine and invited us to lunch."

"Sounds like you're not as anonymous as you were hoping you'd be, eh?" Ron chuckled, finishing his own coffee. "Listen, I know you feel like you need to do what you need to do, but I'm telling you, be safe, right? Don't get Ginny involved. I wasn't kidding when I said I'd break you in half." He stood up and stretched his arms high over his head with a groan. "Ugh, I stiffened up sitting there. Come on."

Harry rose from his chair, turning Ron's words over in his mind. He knew that he absolutely should tell the American Aurors about the Horcrux along with his suspicions about Ignatius Weatherbee, but he hadn't yet figured out how to share his suspicions without seeming like a paranoid crackpot. He still vividly remembered how he'd been treated when he tried to get the word out about Voldemort's return and he did not want to go through that again. Well, Archimedes did invite us over for a visit. Maybe I'll start there.

They went back out in the cold air, running slowly up the Serpentine Road to warm up, speeding up as they got closer to the bridge where they would cross and run back to the Albert Memorial. Not racing this time, they chatted easily, Ron telling him about his classes and time spent with Hermione and Harry sharing classroom stories. "Oh, hey, guess who's showed up in San Francisco?" Harry asked as they ran across the bridge.

"Who?"

"Hudson."

"Fuuuuuuuck."

"So how are things going at Hogwarts? How're Neville and Hannah?" Ginny asked Hermione over coffee and toast.

"Things are going very well. I love my classes. Neville and Hannah are doing great. Their little girl…well, I guess she's not so little any more, is she?" Hermione said with a smile. "She can't wait to get her letter and Neville has really come into his own as the Herbology professor."

Ginny smiled at the news that her old friends were doing so well. She still remembered Neville as the awkward boy who'd asked her to the Yule Ball during the Triwizard Tournament. Talk about growing up well, she thought. "How's being head of Gryffindor?"

"Completely mad. I don't know how McGonagall did it and stayed sane. The things those children get up to! We definitely weren't that bad," Hermione laughed. "It seems like I spend half my time in there breaking up pillow fights or fist fights. Right before the holidays I had some seventh-year boys sneak in some alcohol from God knows where. And the drama. It never ends."

"Oh come on. We definitely were that bad."

Hermione sighed and rested her chin in her hands. "It was different times, then. We were bad because we were trying to survive." She shook her head as if trying to dispel bad memories. "Sorry to be so maudlin. Tell me about your classes! How are you getting along with the Muggle technology?"

"I'm doing better than I thought I would. When I first got that computer from George, I didn't know what in the world to do with it, but Harry has helped me loads." Ginny smiled at the memory of him buying her a whole pile of compact discs and showing her what to do with them. "It's fascinating seeing what they've come up with to get along without magic."

"I've looked into the UCSF medical program; it's very intense. How are you handling the workload?"

"Pretty well. A lot of it, especially right now, is stuff I already know—gross anatomy and things like that—so it hasn't been too bad. I got accused of ruining the grading curve by some of the other students."

"They're just jealous. Are you making friends? What's your cover story?"

"I've made a few. I have a gay boyfriend called Ben. He's very entertaining and completely smitten with Harry. Calls him his 'future husband'," Ginny giggled, remembering the first time Ben had seen Harry in the library.

"How does Harry like that?" Hermione asked, finishing her second cup of coffee.

"You know him. He's a good sport and goes along with it. I think he really likes Ben and that I have someone that's not him to talk about things with. As for my cover story, I'm a former nurse who's decided to go all the way and become a doctor. Explains my familiarity with anatomy."

"That's a good idea. How are things with your St Mungo's grant?"

"Pretty good. I have an advisor I have to meet with at San Francisco Thaumaturgical once a quarter. He reports back about my marks and things. I thought it would be a pain, but he's really nice and it's good to talk to someone who's on my own level every now and then," Ginny said, swirling around her now-cold coffee in the cup.

"And how are things with Harry?"

Ginny felt a blush spread across her cheeks and she smiled, blushing harder when Hermione raised her eyebrow. "Really good. I love having him there every day, knowing he won't be Summoned away to possibly return in a box."

Hermione sighed. "I know what you mean about that. When Ron was still in the department, I could hardly stand it. He got called away once while we were in the middle of…things…and it was just the worst thing ever."

Ginny looked up at the ceiling, mentally ticking off the situations Harry had been called away from her in. "Let's see…yes, once during sex, several meals, a few times at the Burrow—that first time was a hard one, Mum about lost it when they both had to go—shopping, drinks…oh! Once we were out driving in the country. He had to pull over and park the car and I had to Apparate home."

"And he always came back to you?"

"Usually, even if he wasn't injured. I think he did it mostly to decompress and apologize. Make sure I knew he was okay." Ginny shook her head. "I'm so glad that's over."

Hermione smiled and put her hand on Ginny's arm. "I'm glad things are going well for you two. I've always had a feeling about you."

"Well, we're not perfect. We had a pretty good blowout right before Thanksgiving."

"Oh? What happened?"

"Well, there are a few weird things going on right now over there, so he decided to teach me Occlumency and we were practicing and he found out about that one time…" Ginny said, trailing off and looking away from Hermione's frown.

"That one time…? Oh! He didn't know?"

Ginny shook her head. "No, I'd never told him. There wasn't really any reason to, you know?"

"How did he take it?" Hermione asked softly.

"Not well. He thought I was trying to hide something from him, but I honestly wasn't. Before that afternoon, I hadn't even thought of it in ages. So he flew off the handle at me, I shouted right back at him and he went to go clear his head and I went to hang out with my gay boyfriend. By the time I got back to the flat, he was back. He'd gone into the Pensieve and saw that I was right and there was nothing to tell."

Ginny looked down at her hands, remembering the feeling of being more than just herself. "I think he was just terrified that it happened in the first place. Gave me a whole speech about how he can't be careless."

Hermione nodded in understanding. "I get where he's coming from. I saw a few articles in the US Wizarding news about false children. Have you been…careless?"

"No. The next day I went to the student health center and got a prescription for pills. Just in case we both get caught up and forget again."

"Really? Does Harry know?"

"I haven't told him. I haven't decided yet if I'll keep taking them."

"Do they work?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Our biology isn't significantly different, so they should. I hope to never find out for sure!" Ginny hopped off the stool and got a bowl for some cereal, hunting for the cornflakes she knew Ron always had on hand. "Listen, enough about me and Harry—how are you and my dumb brother? Why aren't you married yet?"

Now it was Hermione's turn to blush. "I don't know. No particular reason, I guess. Molly keeps dropping hints, but we're not in any real hurry. When we do get married, we just want something small. My family's all Muggle and since my parents…well, I haven't really kept in touch."

"What's that ring he's got on? You haven't gotten married on the sly, have you?" Ginny poured herself a generous bowl of cereal with just the right amount of milk.

"That's my dad's ring. I wanted him to have it. I like seeing it worn again."

"Oh, that's sweet, Hermione."

Hermione got up and made her own bowl of cornflakes. "I was worried he'd think it was too strange to wear it, but he's been wonderful about it." They ate quietly, each lost in their own thoughts. "Now, what are you going to tell Molly and Arthur?" Hermione finally asked.

"Oh God, I have no idea," Ginny groaned. "We've decided on the divide and conquer strategy. He'll take Dad and I'll take on Mum. I'm definitely not looking forward to that."

"I don't blame you on that one. Your parents are quite traditional; I wonder if it would be better if Harry came to them? I imagine that's what they'd expect," Hermione reasoned.

"He's not asking to marry me! We're just informing them of our relationship and living arrangements, that's all!" Hermione fixed her with a look and Ginny had to fight the impulse to run away and hide. "What?" she asked defensively.

"Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Want to get married to Harry?" Hermione rested her chin in her hand and focused on Ginny, making her feel like she was a bug pinned to a board.

"I don't know. We haven't talked about it. We're still getting used to being together after so long and so many other…things."

"You've thought about it, though."

"Of course I have. When I was a little girl!"

"But not now? Why not?"

Sighing, Ginny put her empty cereal bowl in the sink and leaned against it, crossing her arms. "It was the Aurors, wasn't it? He was married to the department—how could he ever be married to me? I got very good at keeping him at arm's length over the years and I stopped myself from trying to imagine a future with him."

Hermione nodded and gave her a sad smile. "You lived with him in the now."

Surprised to feel the prickling of tears, Ginny nodded, wiping her nose. "I never thought of it that way, but yes. And now…"

"Now you can have a future with him and you don't know what to do?"

"Sort of. It's a little bit scary." Hermione enveloped her in a warm hug and Ginny rested her head on the other woman's shoulder, breathing hard and trying not to sob. "Oh, I don't know what's come over me," she said, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her long-sleeved tee shirt while Hermione rubbed her back.

"Shh, it's all right," Hermione murmured quietly as Ginny calmed down.

"I didn't realize how much stress I've been carrying around over all of this," she said, exhaling shakily.

"We'll get it sorted out. Molly and Arthur love you both and I know they just want you to be happy. Ron's getting to be quite good at presenting arguments and you know he's on your side," she said with a smile. She glanced at the clock above the cooker. "They should be back soon. What time are we going to the Burrow?"

"Mum and Dad think we're coming in today around lunchtime, so a bit after that I think."

"Good, that gives us more time to talk. Now, what's this about Harry teaching you Occlumency?'

11. Chapter 11

The morning of Christmas Eve, Harry stood in the freezing cold garden at the Burrow, looking east. The thinnest strip of light showed underneath the clouds, heralding the coming of the day. He looked over at Ron, shivering next to him. "I thought we were done with this, yeah?" Harry said with a grin.

Ron snorted and shook his head. "I told you what would happen if you got yourself mixed up with my sister."

"You said nothing about this. You just threatened to break me in half."

"You're really bad at taking hints." Ron grinned back at him and punched him in the shoulder. Harry knew what was coming and he still didn't dodge. I am bad at taking hints, he thought as he rubbed the sore spot.

"What happens next?" he asked, looking back towards the house.

"Dunno. Never seen one of these done before. They're really old-fashioned."

"Mm, so's your Mum and Dad."

"Yeah." They stood quietly as the light grew stronger, outlining the winter-dormant garden in pale sunlight. There hadn't been a big snow yet, but there were little patches here and there in the shaded areas.

As he waited in the cold, Harry thought back over the events of the previous day. They had arrived at the Burrow after lunchtime, Molly and Arthur assuming that they had come straight there from the Portkey arrivals in London. After effusive greetings and many hugs from Molly, Ginny, Hermione and Molly fell into chatting and Christmas cooking in the kitchen, their old rhythms firmly established.

Bill, Fleur and Victoire would be arriving the next day and even Charlie was making an appearance this holiday, tearing himself away from his beloved dragons to see his baby sister. The house was going to be almost as full as it had ever been and Harry overheard Molly talking to Ginny about sleeping arrangements.

"I'm going to give Bill and Fleur Fred and George's room since it's the largest and Victoire can stay in there with them. Charlie hasn't said if he's bringing anyone, but in case he does, she can stay with you in your room…" Harry heard her say and he quietly left the house, looking for Arthur.

Unsurprisingly, he was in his garden shed, tinkering with his bits of Muggle technology. He had gotten ahold of one of those robot dogs and was trying to make it work, planning on surprising the grandkids with it on Christmas day.

"I've just about got it, but it doesn't last for very long. It needs to work for longer than five minutes at a time to keep the attention of the kids," he said when Harry came into the shed.

"Yeah? What have you tried so far?" Harry took a closer look at the thing on the workbench. He didn't think it looked too much like a dog and shook his head, listening to Arthur as he described the various spells and charms he'd tried on it in his attempts to get it to behave like a real dog. The work with the robot dog put Harry in mind of Mr Keller at school and the clever animation charms that he'd put on his little carved birds and animals. What Arthur wanted though was something much more advanced than simple movement and they put their heads together.

An hour later, it was responding more naturally but they had only managed to increase the useful life to about ten minutes. "Well, I guess that's the best we can do for now," Arthur said, patting the robot on the head absently. "Thanks for your help, Harry."

"No problem. We should let Hermione have a crack at it. She'd probably have it jumping through hoops in no time." He stood watching Arthur put away various tools and implements, feeling awkward and he took a deep breath. "Arthur, there's something I need to talk to you about."

"All right." Arthur sat down on a stool and turned to Harry, giving him his full attention.

"It's about Ginny."

"Are her studies going well?"

"Oh, yeah. She's brilliant." Harry paused, unsure how to continue and he decided to just plow through it. "She and I…well…we're together. Living together," he said in a rush.

Arthur nodded sagely. "I see." Harry stood mutely in front of him, feeling like the world's biggest idiot as Ginny's dad continued to look at him expectantly.

"And, well, um…we just thought you and Molly should know," he finished lamely.

"Have you told Molly yet?"

Harry shook his head. "Nooo…I thought maybe Ginny would talk to her."

Arthur reached out and squeezed his shoulder. "I don't blame you. Now," he said, settling back on his stool and crossing his arms, "what are your intentions towards my daughter?"

Ginny concentrated on chopping the mountain of onions in front of her, trying to ignore the burning in her eyes. "Mum, how many more of these do you need?" she asked, chopping up what felt like the thousandth onion of the day.

"Oh, let's see," Molly said, glancing over at the pile of onions. "Hmm, three more of those big ones should do it."

Hermione looked over at her in sympathy. She was currently engaged in cracking eggs into a massive bowl and Ginny envied her. As she cracked an egg, Hermione raised her eyebrows at Ginny and cocked her head at Molly.

She took a deep breath and regretted it when the pungent onions made her cough. "Sounds like you and Dad are going to have quite the full house this holiday," she said once she got her breath back.

"Oh yes! All of our little chicks are returning to the roost," Molly said happily, peeking in the oven at the bread she had baking. "Bill's family, Charlie and a possible guest, Percy, Penny and their two, George…Andromeda is even going to let Teddy stay over Christmas Eve. He and Victoire do get on so well." She took out two loaves and set them on a cooling rack. "And here you are, all the way back from California!"

"Well, Mum, I was thinking I could stay with Harry and Ron at their flat. I don't want to make any extra work for you," Ginny said hesitantly. She was finally on the last onion and attacked it with a vengeance.

"Nonsense! You're no extra work at all! Hermione, are you done with those eggs?" Hermione nodded and passed the bowl over to Molly. When Molly turned away from her, she looked at Ginny and mouthed "Tell her!" to Ginny.

"Mum, Hermione and Ron are staying in London and I haven't really had time to catch up with either of them."

"You're going to be here until New Year's! There'll be plenty of time to catch up!" She began adding flour and sugar into the bowl of eggs. Hermione shook her head at Ginny and raised her eyebrows. Ginny scowled in response.

Pushing aside the last of the chopped onions, Ginny tried again. "Mum, I guess what I'm trying to say is I want to stay at the flat in London. With Harry." She braced herself for a storm from her mother and was surprised when Molly simply started adding brandied fruit to the cake batter.

"What exactly do you mean by 'with Harry'?" Molly asked calmly.

Ginny knew that calm voice. It was the same voice she used when she would confront the twins about their latest escapade. "Well, I think it's only fair since we stay together in San Francisco."

"Did you move flats and get one with two bedrooms?" Molly opened up the cabinet and poured a generous measure of rum into the batter.

"No, same flat," Ginny said, scooping the onions into an enormous bowl. She spied the pile of washed potatoes and started peeling.

"I see." Molly started beating the batter with a large wooden spoon and Ginny thought she was putting some extra energy into it. Ginny and Hermione exchanged a look.

The silence continued and Ginny tried to wait it out, but she couldn't. "Mum, I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions."

"That is true." Molly set aside the bowl of batter and set to greasing and flouring two cake pans.

More silence. Hermione looked at her and shrugged from the other side of the island worktop, picking up a potato and a knife to start peeling. Ginny sighed in irritation. "Mum, aren't you going to say anything?"

"Ginny, dear, what is there for me to say? You're clearly an adult and you've clearly made your own decision without feeling the need to consult either me or your father. I'm sure whatever you decide will be fine," Molly said, pouring the batter slowly into the two pans.

Ginny cut her eyes at Hermione and shook her head. "Mum, it's Harry. You love Harry."

"Oh yes, we all love Harry." Molly was now putting the cakes in the oven, closing the door tightly. She wiped her hands off on a dishcloth and looked at Ginny. "Ginny, dear, I know you and Harry are adults and I am aware of what adult relationships involve."

"So you don't mind, then?"

Molly frowned and picked up her own knife and potato, peeling quickly and efficiently. "Of course I mind. Will this interfere with your studies? Is Harry a distraction? Are you being careful?" Ginny blushed and looked down at her potato at her mother's tacit acknowledgement of her sex life.

"Hermione and Ron stay together," Ginny said defensively, earning a playful glare from Hermione.

"Yes, but they're engaged," Molly said.

"And Ron's a boy, is that right? He can do whatever he wants? And what about George and Charlie?" Ginny looked down at the potato she held, realizing it was much smaller than it should be and she set it aside.

"Ginny, that has nothing to do with it. I've already said if Charlie brings someone, she will be sleeping separately."

"And what about when he's not at home?" Ginny felt her irritation rising and she seized another innocent potato, peeling it with gusto.

Molly sighed and put down her knife, looking at Ginny. "I can't control everything my children do. Fred and George were examples of that. You are going to do what you want to do and all I can do is hope that I was able to give you the right sort of lessons growing up." She looked back down at the worktop and shook her head. "I just wish there was more of a concrete commitment between you two. You're so far away from us and while I'm happy that Harry is there with you, I know how things can happen and before you know it, you'll be all alone and so far away from home."

Ginny was surprised to see her mother wipe at her eyes and she shared a horrified look with Hermione. "Mum, Harry's not going to up and leave me."

"How do you know that? Has he said he wants to marry you? How do you know he's not with you until someone else catches his eye?"

"Mum!" Potatoes completely forgotten, Ginny put her hands on her hips and stared at Molly.

"Ginny, you know he's dated around! He never stayed with anyone very long and only brought one girl by…what was her name?"

"Helena. That was because of the Aurors, wasn't it? Most girls can't handle being with a man with such a dangerous job. He's a teacher now, all that Auror stuff is done." Is it, though? she thought, thinking of the Horcrux. "And if we're going by that measure, what about Ron? He easily dated ten times more girls than Harry ever did," Ginny said, wincing when she heard an irritated snort from Hermione. She shot her an apologetic look and saw Hermione waving her hand at her in a 'never mind' gesture.

"I just don't like that there isn't any kind of commitment between you. If you're going to be living together as man and wife—"

"Who said anything about man and wife?" Ginny cut in, aghast.

"What else would you call it? I don't like to think that I've raised my daughter to be a scarlet woman," Molly shot back, hands on her hips.

"A scarlet woman? Is that what you really think of me?" Ginny said, folding her arms across her chest.

"What am I supposed to think? The fact that my own daughter won't be able to wear white at her own wedding!"

"Mum, that ship sailed when I was eighteen." Silence fell as Ginny and Molly stared at each other. Hermione cleared her throat to speak when Arthur and Harry walked into the kitchen.

Harry took one look at Molly and Ginny, his eyes widening in horror at their confrontational positions. Ginny felt her face grow hot, tears springing to her eyes and she pushed past Harry and her father, practically running through the back door into the garden. She spied Ron across the way in the woodlot, splitting firewood. He was the smart one, staying out of all this. She walked over to him, arms wrapped around herself. "Hey," she said as he split a length of firewood with a hard swing of the axe.

"Hey," he said, setting the axe down and wiping sweat from his brow.

"Why aren't you doing that with magic?" Ginny asked, eyeing the sharp axe.

"Oh, that would be far too efficient and fast. I need this to take a while, yeah?" Ron smiled at her and put his finger under her chin, tilting her head up to look at him. "How'd it go in there?"

"About as well as you'd expect. Mum thinks I'm a scarlet woman."

Ron sighed and set up another length of wood on the block. "I was afraid of that," he said with a grunt, swinging the axe and splitting the wood cleanly down the middle.

"It's all well and good for you and Hermione because you're engaged, but me and Harry…She's convinced that Harry is going to leave me for the first thing that catches his eye because we're not committed like you two."

"Do you want to be?" Ron asked, taking off his jacket. Ginny took it from him and put it on, glad of the warmth.

"I love him," she said simply, looking up at her brother, "I've loved him for what seems like forever. I don't know if you know, but Harry and I have…"

Ron rolled his eyes as he bent to pick up another piece of firewood, balancing it carefully on the block. "I know. I've known for a long time."

"Thanks for not killing Harry."

"Anything for my baby sister." Ron split the wood and let it fall from the block, surveying the large pile of split lengths. He'd clearly been at this for some time and Ginny noted their dad wouldn't need to split wood for a while. "Come on, help me stack this up." They piled up the wood into some semblance of order, the physical work helping Ginny feel more in control. Finally, Ron stood up and stretched. "Well, you think he's still alive in there?"

"Hermione's with him, so probably."

"Come on. Let's go rescue our loves." Ron put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed reassuringly as they headed back into the house, entering through the back door.

The kitchen was empty, low voices coming from the lounge. Ginny was relieved at the general lack of shouting and she gave Ron a hopeful look as they went in. Molly and Arthur were seated on the sofa with Harry and Hermione in the two armchairs across from them. A tea tray was on the table between them and everything looked quite civilized.

Ginny perched on the arm of Harry's chair, setting her hand on top of his head and running her fingers through his soft hair. He took her other hand in his and smiled up at her. "All right?" he asked and Ginny nodded, looking at her parents. Molly and Arthur sat on the sofa and she tried to gauge their emotions. Her dad smiled at her and she smiled back. Her mum quietly sipped her tea, not looking at anyone in the room.

"So, what are we all talking about?" Ginny asked as the silence continued to spin out.

"I was telling Molly and Arthur about our lives in California," Harry said. "About your studies and your friend, Ben, and about my work at St Ambrose's."

"It's very interesting to talk about the differences between the American school and Hogwarts," Arthur said eagerly. "Did you know that the students actually pay tuition there?" He shook his head and chuckled. "If we'd have needed to do that for you seven, I don't think we would have been able to manage!"

"Well, they do use a sliding scale and there are scholarships that various alumni have set up," Harry said, making Ginny wonder if he mentioned the scholarship that Jacob had set up in his parents' names. She rather doubted it.

Glancing over at Hermione, she saw that Ron had seated himself on the floor next to her, leaning against her legs and she felt a wave of jealousy sweep through her. It's not fair. Why do I feel like me and Harry are on trial here? Just then, her mother cleared her throat and put down her teacup on the table.

"Well, I'd better see to the things in the oven," she said, rising from the sofa and moving into the kitchen. When Ginny got up to follow her, she made a shooing motion toward the lounge. "No, dear. I can manage just fine for now."

Ginny looked at her dad and frowned, getting raised eyebrows and a shrug in return. Harry squeezed her hand. "Come on, let's go for a walk." She followed him out the front door, still wearing Ron's jacket and glad of it because the air had become decidedly chillier while she'd been inside.

They headed toward the old oak tree, now covered in dead leaves rattling in the breeze. "So, how'd it go in there?" Ginny asked as they crunched through a light layer of snow.

"Well, your dad's pretty okay. We talked in the shed while you were in the kitchen."

"What did you tell him?"

"That I love you and that we're living together," Harry said, squeezing her hand again.

"How'd he take it?"

"Pretty well. I think he knew already or suspected, at least." They reached the oak and stopped, Harry taking both of her hands and turning to face her. "He asked me what my intentions are towards you."

Ginny looked at him, standing in his jeans and jumper in the waning afternoon sunlight. He looked very serious. "Which are?" she asked.

"I love you very much and I want to see you happy. Whatever that means," he said and she felt as if the ground beneath her feet had dropped away, leaving her breathless.

"Oh. Oh, my." She stood quietly, mastering her emotions. "Harry, are you proposing to me?"

"If it's what you want."

She looked down at their joined hands, his hands half-covered by the too-long sleeves of Ron's jacket. Her heart was racing and her first impulse was to jump and shout, but she forced herself to slow down and consider what Harry was saying. Looking back up at his serious expression, she smiled, seeing him relax a little bit. "Are you asking me just so you'll have a place to stay in San Francisco?"

"Gin, you know that's not it. Come on, I'm being serious."

"I know." She was quiet for a moment and then shook her head. "I don't think I'm ready for that just yet." Ginny took two steps forward and hugged Harry, feeling his arms wrap around her tightly. "It's like we'd be doing it just to please Mum and Dad, not because we really wanted to."

"I thought that was how you'd feel," he murmured against the top of her head.

Ginny let go of him and took a step back. "I mean, we haven't been together very long. We're still getting used to each other. It's only been four months, hasn't it?" Harry nodded, managing to look both relieved and crushed. "What about Mum?"

Harry took a deep breath. "She's not quite as sanguine as your dad. She's not so much angry as…I dunno…disappointed?"

"Sounds about right. She made a remark about me not being able to wear white at my wedding." Ginny snorted. "I didn't think it was a good idea to point out that Bill's birthday is only seven months after their anniversary." They started walking again, heading for the hedgerow at the edge of the property. "She's worried that you're going to dump me for the first bit of fluff that passes your way."

"She said that?" Harry said, sounding surprised and a little hurt.

"She did indeed," Ginny nodded. "She's worried that since there's nothing definite between us, that we're bound to break up and then I'll be all alone five thousand miles away from her. I don't think she means anything bad about you, she's just worried about me." She looked sidelong at Harry and smiled. "Besides, who's to say that I wouldn't be the one to throw you over?"

Harry gave a short bark of laughter and pulled her closer, putting an arm around her shoulder. "I live in fear of that very thing every single day."

"Do you really?"

"Well, maybe not every day, but yeah, I worry about it." The idea made Ginny feel a little bit sad and she apologized, making Harry snort. "Nah, it's my own insecurities, yeah?"

"So is that our only choice, then? Engaged or live apart?"

"Your mum brought up handfasting."

Ginny wrinkled her nose. "Handfasting? That's awfully old-fashioned."

"I don't know much about it. What exactly is it?"

"It's a very old ritual. Two people would declare themselves together before witnesses and there was some business with cords and knots. It could be used as a proposal, a marriage, a temporary marriage…all sorts," Ginny explained. "Back in those days, it was a way to declare an exclusive relationship in places where documentation or official marriages might not be so accessible."

"Sounds more extreme than an engagement, to be honest," Harry said, coming to a stop.

"I sort of like the idea of it," Ginny said, pulling Ron's jacket closer around her. The sun was just about down and the chill in the air had become a bite.

"You do?"

Ginny nodded, looking up at Harry. "Being engaged has all of these other connotations and expectations with it, but handfasting…it just seems different, doesn't it?"

Harry shrugged. "I guess so. Is it permanent? Is there a magic component?"

"It can be permanent or not. Most of the ones I've heard of are for a year and a day and after that, it's dissolved and the parties are free to go or establish a more permanent association," she said, thinking for a moment. "I don't think there's any magical component. Like I said, it's mainly symbolic."

They turned back to face the house. Lights inside made the windows glow comfortingly and they started walking slowly back. "Is that what you want then? A handfasting?" Harry asked quietly after a little while, his hand on her back.

"Is that okay with you?"

"I said whatever you want, Gin. I mean it."

They had reached the oak again and Ginny stopped, turning to face Harry. "I love you and I want to be with you without getting weekly Howlers from Mum." She put her hand on the back of his neck and drew him down to her, kissing him slowly, his lips soft on hers. "Let's tell Mum together."

And now here he was, freezing his arse off while he waited for the sun to come over the horizon. He heard a sound from the house and turned to look, seeing Ginny and Hermione walk out, well bundled-up. They brought steaming hot mugs of coffee with them and Harry gratefully took the mug from Ginny, warming his freezing fingers on the outside of it as he drank.

"Where's Molly and Arthur?" he asked when he could talk without shivering.

"In the attic. Mum swears she has the cords from her great-great-great-great grandmother's handfasting," Ginny said, sneaking her cold hands underneath Harry's dragonhide jacket.

"Sorry you had to wait out here so long," Hermione said to Ron. "Molly didn't want to let Harry into the house before the ceremony was done."

"S'all right. If someone had the right time for the sunrise and hadn't been so antsy to get here, we wouldn't have waited so long out in the cold," Ron said, looking pointedly at Harry who shrugged laconically and drank more coffee.

"Looks like they're finally coming out," Hermione said and Harry felt a thrill shoot through him when he saw Molly and Arthur coming out of the back door. Molly had what looked like a double handful of white cords and he looked at Ginny with raised eyebrows.

Setting his mug on the ground, Harry stood up as straight as possible when Ginny's parents finally stood in front of them. He was vastly relieved to see Molly smiling. The previous evening, she had been a bit frosty, even after he and Ginny told her they would do the handfasting.

With her typical efficiency, Molly soon had them arranged to her satisfaction. Harry and Ginny stood facing into the rising sun with Ron on Harry's right and Hermione on Ginny's left as their witnesses. With Molly and Arthur, they all formed a circle. He felt his nervousness increase as Arthur stood in front of them, surveying the height of the sun critically. "Well, we're a couple of days off from the solstice, but I think we'll do fine," he said with a smile, his words making white clouds in the frigid air. He turned to look at Molly holding the cords. "Ready, dear?" At Molly's nod, he clapped his hands. "Right. Let's get started."

Harry and Ginny faced each other and he clasped her left hand with his as instructed, feeling oddly detached from his body, almost like he was an outside observer. Molly came forward and started wrapping their hands with the white cords in a very elaborate pattern as Arthur spoke, his words seeming to come from very far away.

"You are bound with white, so that you may have a clean beginning," he said solemnly when Molly had completed the wrapping. Harry noted that it was snug, but not overly tight. Arthur looked at Harry and smiled. "Will you, Harry James Potter, take the time of binding to learn what you need to know, to grow in wisdom and love, that your love may last in this life and beyond?"

Harry's mouth had gone completely dry and he had to swallow a couple of times to get his voice to work. "I will," he said, glad when his voice came out stronger than he thought it would.

Turning his attention to Ginny, Arthur smiled even wider. "Will you, Ginevra Molly Weasley, take the time of binding to learn what you need to know, to grow in wisdom and love, that your love may last in this life and beyond?"

"I will," Ginny said with a nod and Harry felt a dizzying sensation of relief sweep through him and he very nearly leaned against Ron.

Arthur took a Galleon out of his pocket and Harry could see that there was a very deep score mark exactly through the center. He held it out to them and they each held on to either side of it. "Accept this gift of a broken coin, symbolizing the two halves of your whole," he said, motioning for them to break it. To Harry's surprise, it snapped in half easily with a ringing sound.

"Now you are bound one to the other. May you be healthy all your days," Arthur said, spreading his arms wide to encompass them both, hugging them tightly before stepping aside for Molly who hugged Ginny first.

Turning to Harry, she smiled and pulled him close to her, giving him what was possibly the most forceful hug he'd ever received in his entire life, made slightly awkward due to the fact that his left hand was still firmly wrapped with Ginny's and he was holding half of a Galleon in his right. "Welcome to the family, Harry," Molly said, kissing him on each cheek before finally releasing him.

Feeling completely dazed, Harry looked at Ginny, seeing that she looked a bit disoriented as well and he realized he was grinning like a fool at her. A wave of giddiness overcame him at her answering grin and he leaned in to kiss her, mindful of their audience. Looking over at Ron and Hermione, he saw that Ron had his arms wrapped around his fiancée and she had a wistful look on her face.

The sun had fully risen by now, but it was still very cold. "Um, so…do we stay like this all day?" Harry asked, indicating their bound hands. He put his half of the Galleon in the pocket of his jeans for safekeeping.

"Oh, no, dear. Here, let me," Molly said, wiping away tears. She took their wrists and directed them to relax their grips and slide out of the cords, leaving a sort of basket shape that reminded Harry of Ron's tattoo. She gave it to Ginny. "Keep this and don't cut it or untie the knots. Be careful with it; it's very old." Ginny took the bundle carefully and cradled it close to her chest.

"Now," Molly said briskly, "it's terribly cold out here. People are going to start arriving soon and there's no breakfast ready. Hermione, I need you to check for eggs. Ginny, help Hermione with the eggs; you know all of the places the chickens hide their nests. Arthur, the fire needs tending—there will be a lot of Floos today. Harry and Ron, I need you to find the leaves for the table and bring down extra chairs from the attic." Orders given, Molly walked quickly back to the house, leaving her bemused troops in her wake.

Hermione grabbed Ginny and then Harry in crushing hugs, sniffling and wiping away tears. "I'm so happy for you," she whispered in Harry's ear as she kissed him on the cheek. She took Ginny by the arm as they headed off toward the chicken coops, chattering away about the ceremony and how beautiful it was.

Shaking his head as the girls walked away, Harry stumbled forward a step when Ron whacked him firmly in the middle of his back. "Welcome to the family," Ron said with a smile. "Don't think this means I still won't break you in half."

12. Chapter 12

"Harry!" the little boy shouted as he tumbled out of the Burrow's fireplace, completely coated in soot and Floo powder.

"Teddy!" Harry quickly caught him up before he could make too big of a mess on the carpet and hugged him tight for as long as he could before the boy started squirming to be put down. Setting him back down on his feet, he hit Teddy with a Scouring charm, sending the soot and powder shooting off of him with a blast of air, making him laugh.

"There, now that you're properly clean, I can get a look at you!" Teddy stood still as Harry put his arms behind his back and made a show of walking around him, nodding and grunting. As he did, Teddy put on his own show, changing the color and length of his hair, the shape of his nose and the number of fingers on his hands. He caught a look at Ginny out of the corner of his eye as she watched them, covering her smile with her hands.

"Well?" the eight-year-old boy asked impatiently, crossing his arms over his small chest, reminding Harry of Tonks.

He stood in front of him, tapping the side of his nose with his index finger as if he were deep in thought. "Three quarters of an inch," he finally said.

"Ha! Inch and a half! I had Gran measure before we came," the little boy crowed, delighted that Harry had incorrectly estimated how much he'd grown.

"Did you now? I might have to take a look at what your gran is using to measure you with!" Teddy looked like he was about to argue, but Harry held up his finger. "No arguing at Christmas, all right? Victoire and the others are in the back garden. Go on with you!" He hugged Harry again before running through the house to the back garden, closing the back door with a slam.

Shaking his head, he went into the kitchen to apologize to Molly for his godson, finding Andromeda sitting at the worn kitchen table with a cup of tea, Teddy's overnight bag at her feet. "Happy Christmas, Andromeda," Harry said, leaning down to kiss her cheek.

"Happy Christmas, Harry," she said with a bright smile, motioning to the chair across from her. As he sat, Molly set a cup of tea in front of him and he nodded his thanks. "How have you been? Are those Americans treating you well?"

"Well enough. I haven't run screaming yet," he said, picking up a biscuit that Lucy must have decorated. Father Christmas had only one eye and a demented smile. He looked at Andromeda and raised an eyebrow. "An inch and a half?"

"I may have fudged a little," she said with an impish smile.

"A little," Harry snorted, dunking the biscuit in his tea. "How's he doing?" he asked, eager for news of his godson. Being away from Teddy had been the only sticking point in his decision whether or not to undertake the move to California and he had a few ideas of what he would like to do to mitigate some of the separation.

He was deep in conversation with Andromeda about Teddy's schooling when Ginny sat down at the table next to him with her own cup of tea. "Happy Christmas, Ginny," Andromeda said, squeezing her hand. "I heard you two have had an interesting morning." Harry felt his face flush and he was suddenly aware of his half of the Galleon in his jeans pocket. He glanced quickly at Ginny saw she was pink as well. "Congratulations to you both. I have a little something for you."

"Oh, no, we don't need anything," Ginny protested as Andromeda dug around in her voluminous purse.

"It's nothing grand, just a little token, love. I know I put it in here…ah, here we are," she said, pulling a small box wrapped with a white bow out of the bag and giving it to Ginny.

Ginny took it, looking at Harry questioningly and he shrugged. Taking off the ribbon, she opened the box to find a small silver figurine of a cat sitting at attention with his tail wrapped neatly around his feet. "Oh, this is wonderful! Thank you so much, Andromeda," Ginny said, standing up to kiss the older woman on the cheek.

"You're welcome, dear. That will guard your hearth and home." She looked at the two of them and Harry saw the shine of tears in her eyes and he reached out for her hand, squeezing it in both of his, keenly aware of the loss of Tonks and Remus. Pulling her hand out of his grasp, Andromeda took a deep breath and dabbed at her eyes. "Now, Ginny, tell me all about this school you're going to."

Harry sipped from the mug of mulled wine, savoring the spices on his tongue. The fire crackled and popped and he sighed, glad for the opportunity to finally relax. Ginny snuggled next to him on the sofa, sipping from her own mug. The fire and the fairy lights in the tree were the only illumination in the lounge at the Burrow, lending the room a dreamlike quality which was a nice change from the chaos of the day.

It seemed like the whole of the local wizarding population had made its way through the doors of the Burrow, Molly and Arthur welcoming them all with open arms. Most just dropped by to wish a Happy Christmas or drop off a bottle of wine or a gift of food, but several of them managed to make their way to Harry and Ginny, separately or together and push small gifts into their hands. They now had a collection of figurines of cats, dogs, owls and even a tiny broom which Ginny had raised her eyebrows at.

"What's that about?" Harry asked when they had a brief moment alone.

"It's a fertility symbol," Ginny said with a grin at his blush.

"Well. Let's just set that one aside, shall we?" In addition to the figurines, they had received a gift of honey, a beautiful preserved butterfly and a pinecone, which was another one that Harry didn't quite understand but was afraid to ask about.

Ginny burrowed closer to him and sighed. "All right?" Harry asked, kissing the top of her head.

"Mm hm. Long day. Ron and Hermione had the right idea." Those two had gone back home to the flat as soon as the last bolt on Teddy's new bicycle had been tightened.

"Hm, I'm sure they're not sleeping yet," Harry said, squeezing Ginny tight.

"What makes you say that?"

"Didn't you see how they've been looking at each other all day?" He had gotten an unpleasant shock when he went looking for them in Arthur's shed to see if they wanted any lunch.

"Oi, mate! Don't you know how to fucking knock?" Ron had yelled when Harry poked his head in, only to get an eyeful of a topless Hermione.

"Sorry!" he shouted back, closing the door firmly with a shudder. Back inside, he explained to Molly that they were at a critical point with the robot dog and would get something in a little while.

"Oh, no. She was topless? Were they…?" Ginny asked with an impish smile.

"I don't know. Didn't stick around long enough to see," Harry answered, taking another drink of the wine, trying to banish the vision of Hermione's breasts.

"She always did have a nice rack. I've always been jealous," Ginny mused, gazing into the fire.

"Ugh. Please stop," he groaned, closing his eyes and leaning his head back on the cushion, smiling at her giggle. "They were in the shed. I shouldn't have to knock to go into the shed."

"Sorry about my brothers," Ginny said after a few moments of silence.

"Ah, they're just doing their jobs, yeah?" Harry said with a chuckle. At some point during the day, each Weasley brother had come to chat to Harry on some pretext. Bill had wanted to talk about his lessons on curses, Percy was interested in which California wines were considered the best, George wanted to know the best places to stay in San Francisco and Charlie asked about the water horse Ginny had mentioned, but each and every one of them had managed to convey the message that Ginny was their baby sister and woe unto him if he displeased her.

"I know, but they don't have to be such bloody gits about it," she groused, still chafing under the "baby sister" yoke.

"They're just keeping me in my place." Harry set down his mug on the table with a yawn. "You think we've given them enough time?"

"Let them have their privacy; they spend so much time apart. We can stay here tonight. Charlie didn't bring anyone, so my old room is free."

"But that bed is so tiny," Harry whispered, lips against Ginny's ear.

"You're a wizard, I'm sure you can come up with something," she whispered back, turning her head to kiss him.

"I didn't bring anything to sleep in," he murmured, pushing aside her hair to get to her neck.

"Neither did I. I guess we'll have to sleep in the nude," Ginny said with mock sadness.

"Could be cold."

"I'll keep you warm." She stood up and held out her hand to him. "Come on."

"What about the squeaky stairs?" Harry asked, hugging her close to him.

"Aren't you an Auror?"

"Ex-Auror, love. Hold on," he said, muffling her giggles with a kiss as he Apparated them to her old bedroom without a sound.

The next morning, they were up when it was still dark, throwing on yesterday's clothes before Apparating to the flat to beat Ron and Hermione to the shower. Harry wanted to be there when Teddy woke up and he had a stop to make. "Are you sure you don't need me to come?" Ginny asked as she pulled on a festive holiday jumper.

"No, love. It'll just take a minute. I'll see you over there, all right?" Ginny nodded and held her cheek out for his kiss. As he walked down the hallway, the door to Ron's room opened and Hermione stepped out in a bathrobe. Harry froze and covered his eyes for a moment before lowering his hands and grinning at her.

"Harry," Hermione said with a rueful smile as he hugged her.

"Happy Christmas," he said, kissing her cheek.

"Happy Christmas. Are you going to your cousin's first?"

"Yeah, just going to drop that off," he said, motioning to the enormous gift basket on top of the dining room table. It had a sampling of just about every sort of food California had to offer including olives, garlic, cheese, wine and sourdough bread.

"All right. See you over there," she said, disappearing into the loo.

Harry hefted the basket and concentrated, Apparating out of the flat and into a dark alley behind a row of dustbins. The eastern horizon was just beginning to lighten as he cautiously stepped out of the alley into a neighborhood very much like the one he'd grown up in. It wasn't the same neighborhood, but Dudley hadn't moved very far from his roots.

Walking down the deserted street, Harry peered at house numbers until he spotted the right one. Unsurprisingly, it looked just like the others on the street. He'd been hoping for something—a splash of color on the shutters or some exotic plants in the garden—but he knew deep down that Dudley was basically a carbon copy of Uncle Vernon and that strange colors or flowers had no place in his cousin's orderly life.

The house was still dark when he came up the walkway and set the basket down on the welcome mat. Harry paused for a moment before deciding to go ahead and ring the doorbell, Apparating away to a hidden vantage point a second later. He watched as a light came on upstairs, followed by another one downstairs and the door slowly opened, Dudley cautiously poking his head out.

He saw the huge red-ribboned basket and bent over, picking up the card and reading it, looking up and down the street. Harry saw that it looked like he'd slimmed down some since the last time he'd seen him a few years ago, but he was still a big man. Hands on his hips, Dudley took another look down at the basket and nodded his head, seeming to come to a decision. Looking up, he waved vaguely and Harry smiled, happy to see his cousin pick up the basket and bring it into the house.

"Happy Christmas, Duds," he murmured as he prepared to Apparate to the Burrow.

"Here, have some of this," George said, handing Harry and Ginny each a mug of hot chocolate covered with lashings of whipped cream. Harry looked at George with a raised eyebrow, trained from long years to not simply accept anything given to him by the prankster. "So suspicious! I promise it's safe. D'you want me to drink first?"

Harry took an experimental sniff and the strong smell of Ogden's hit him through the chocolate. "Smells great," he said with a smile. "Ta, George."

"Oh, that's exactly what I needed," Ginny said, smiling at her brother and Harry had to agree. He surveyed the wreckage of the Burrow's lounge. A few short hours ago it had been the perfect Christmas wonderland with the tree standing majestically, surrounded by the colorful bounty of gifts. Teddy's new bicycle and Arthur's magically-enhanced robot dog stood front and center, shining in the twinkling fairy lights.

Now, shreds and balls of paper were scattered everywhere and mountains of unwrapped gifts stood in teetering piles, topped by jumbles of clothing, toys and half-eaten boxes of chocolates. Percy's youngest daughter Lucy skipped past, trailing ribbons her older sister Molly had tied around her waist. The robot dog trundled after her, tail wagging like a metronome.

George made his way out of the lounge to deliver his cups of Christmas cheer to other members of the family and Harry let his head sag back on the sofa, closing his eyes as he savored the whisky-augmented hot chocolate. "Good Christmas?" Ginny asked, tucking a stray lock of hair behind his ear.

"Yeah, you?" he looked at her and smiled. She still had her new stethoscope around her neck and that, combined with the bows she'd stuck in her hair, made for a very interesting picture.

"It's not over yet," she said, leaning in to give him a whisky-tinged kiss. Harry was starting to think of relocating to Arthur's shed when he heard the sounds of Teddy and Molly thundering down the stairs and into the lounge.

"Ginny! Listen to my heart now! I bet it's going real fast!" Teddy said, completely excited by the prospect of having the stethoscope pressed to his chest.

"Oh, I bet it is! Let's see!" Ginny said, obligingly giving the boy's heart a listen. Harry caught a brief frown before she smiled at him. "It's going so fast! Do you want to listen?"

Teddy's eyes went round as she put the earpieces into his ears and let him hear his own heart. "I want to listen!" Molly said and Ginny gently fitted the earpieces into her ears. "Now I want to hear mine!" And then of course Teddy had to listen to Molly's before they were finally satisfied.

Heart beats verified, Teddy jumped up into Harry's lap, nearly upsetting his drink. "Harry, are you going to teach me to ride my bike?"

"You can't learn to ride in your pajamas! And have you had any breakfast?" Harry said, gently shifting the boy to a less sensitive area of his lap.

Teddy shook his head vigorously. "No, but I had lots of chocolates!"

"I can tell! Listen, get dressed and have some real breakfast and then we'll go out, yeah?"

"Yeah! Come on, Molly!" The two ran out of the lounge and galloped back up the stairs, stray bits of wrapping paper flying in their wake.

"What was that look about?" Harry asked Ginny as she stood up from the sofa and stretched with a yawn.

"He's got a little heart murmur. A lot of kids have them and they resolve themselves. I'll tell Andromeda about it."

"Are you sure? Should you do something about it now?" Harry asked, worry for the boy evident in his voice.

"He'll be fine. It'll probably fix itself by the time he hits puberty. If it hasn't, then we'll do something," Ginny said confidently, heading toward the kitchen.

Harry followed her, reassured by her confidence, but still a little worried. In the kitchen, the majority of the family crowded around, talking and laughing as they picked up bits and bites from a buffet-style brunch Molly had laid out. Ron and Hermione sat at the table and Harry wandered over, snatching a piece of bacon from Ron's plate. They had their heads together over the Hugo Magnussen watches they'd each gotten each other for Christmas.

"You still haven't figured those out yet?" Harry asked, picking up the instruction booklet for Ron's.

"Harry, these are very complicated devices," Ron admonished, carefully turning a dial and listening to the clicks.

"Oh, I think you've turned it the wrong way, love," Hermione said, looking up from her own, a much more delicate but no less complicated version of Ron's.

"What? But the book said…" he said, casting around for the booklet before grabbing it out of Harry's hands and paging furiously through it, "…oh. Anti-clockwise. Shit. Now I have to start all over."

Teddy loped into the kitchen followed closely by Molly, both wearing their new Weasley jumpers. "Harry says we have to have breakfast before he'll teach me to ride my bike," he solemnly informed the senior Molly.

"Well, he's right," she said stoutly. "You sit over here with Victoire and Lucy." They were soon digging into eggs, bacon and toast with hot chocolate to drink.

"Hey," Ron said, nudging Harry in the side.

"Mm?"

"You didn't let Ginny spend too much on that bag, did you?" he asked quietly, referring to the black Glaser satchel he'd opened earlier. He'd been bowled over by it, marveling at the sky blue silk interior lining.

"Ron, you know I can't "let" Gin do anything. Besides, I paid for it," he smiled at Ron's look of dismay and took another sip of his hot chocolate.

"Paid for what?" Ginny asked, joining them.

"My bad decisions," Harry said smoothly.

"Oh, which one? The one where you decided that it was a good idea to drive a flying car all the way to Hogwarts?"

Harry grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close. "The one where I decided I love you. Worst decision ever," he whispered in her ear.

"Ugh, get a room," Ron mumbled, pretending to look at the instruction book for his watch.

Ginny stood out on the porch of the Burrow and watched as Harry coached Teddy on how to ride his new bike in the lane in front of the house. The other children clustered around, jumping with excitement. Molly already had a bike of her own and took the role of experienced rider, giving Teddy somewhat dubious tips.

Teddy looked nervous and held onto the handlebars with a white-knuckled grip, his face serious as he listened to Harry. "You've already been up on a broom, so you know how to balance, yeah? This is a lot like that," Harry said as he held on to the bike.

"You're not going to let go, right?" Teddy asked tremulously. Ginny couldn't fathom how he could be fine being several feet up in the air on a broomstick, but a bicycle was a daunting task.

"Not until you tell me to. Ready?"

Teddy took a deep breath and nodded. Molly stepped up and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, if you get scared, just stop pedaling and fall. Try to roll, okay?"

Harry shook his head and Ginny could see him smiling. "Molly, why don't you step back and give us some room? You can be next, okay?" She nodded happily, red curls bouncing and magnanimously stepped aside, taking her little sister Lucy's hand.

"Let's go," Harry said, giving the bike a push and encouraging Teddy to pedal. Soon he was jogging along as Teddy pedaled faster, gaining confidence.

"Let go, Harry!" he called, legs pumping.

"All right, it's all you!" Harry let go of the seat and Teddy sped off down the lane, wobbling only a little bit and Ginny felt a swell of pride for the boy. She heard the door open and turned to see Hermione coming out of the house.

"He's already on his own?" she asked, handing Ginny a mug of hot tea.

"Harry just let go," Ginny said, returning Harry's thumbs up at her. Teddy was a good distance down the lane when they heard him yell, "How do I turn?"

"Oh dear," Hermione said as they watched Teddy start to wobble more erratically. Harry started sprinting toward him, the other children following after, Molly yelling "Tuck and roll, Teddy!" helpfully. Just as Teddy began to topple, Harry winked out of existence, Apparating to catch the boy, landing with a loud grunt on his back in the dirt lane. This was apparently an invitation for the girls to dog pile on both of them with lots of shrieks and laughter.

Ginny watched with a wistful smile as Harry gradually emerged from the pile of children and righted the bike, encouraging Teddy to get back up on it and guiding him through the process of turning left and right. "He's really good with them," Hermione said.

"Especially Teddy. I was a little worried about how Harry being out in California with me would affect their relationship, but they seem to be doing all right," Ginny said. "Oh, he's trying it on his own again." They watched as Harry let go of the bike again to let Teddy go under his own power, but this time he jogged behind, a line of children stretching out behind him. Ginny and Hermione waved to them as they passed in front of the house, laughing when Harry ran back to pick up a flagging Victoire and held her on his hip as he ran after Teddy.

At the end of the lane, Teddy slowed down and executed a careful U-turn, scattering his followers as he gained confidence and sped up, hurtling down the bumpy dirt road. This time he was able to wave back as Ginny and Hermione cheered for him when he passed in front of the house a second time. Harry watched as Teddy turned again and came back towards them, giving him a thumbs up as he passed.

"Looks like he's got it," he said as he walked up the steps of the porch, Victoire sound asleep on his shoulder.

"I'm not surprised," Hermione said, "he may not be a werewolf, but I'm sure Remus gifted him with some extraordinary agility."

"Well, he didn't get it from Tonks," Harry said, making Ginny think of Teddy's mother and how she would entertain them during those dark times when they were stuck at Grimmauld Place.

"Here, give her to me. I'll take her in to Fleur," Hermione said, reaching out for the sleeping girl and settling her on her own hip before disappearing back into the house.

Harry put his arm around Ginny, his warmth welcome though her jumper in the cold Christmas afternoon. "All right?" she asked, kissing his cheek.

"Yeah," he said, sounding distracted.

"What's on your mind?"

"Teddy. I miss him."

"Sorry," Ginny said, feeling guilty for taking Harry away from his godson.

"What for?" he asked, looking down at her.

"For taking you away from here."

"No, love, you didn't take me away. You gave me a place to go." Harry kissed her and Ginny felt a flood of warmth, beating back the chill of the day. "What do you think about Teddy staying the summer with us?"

"We'd need a bigger place. Have you asked Andromeda?"

"Not yet. I wanted to ask you first."

"I think it would be a good idea. Expose him to other cultures and places. We could even do a split holiday, half here and half in California," Ginny said, sensing Harry's relief. "Did you think I would say no?"

"Well, I didn't want to assume. We don't know yet what your summer is going to look like, yeah?" he said with a shrug.

"I will make time for Teddy, never you worry," she said, kissing him again.

"He's going to get his letter in a couple of years," he said musingly, waving as Teddy passed them again.

"What are you thinking?"

"Well, I dunno. If I'm still at St Ambrose's…"

"Oh, that'll be a hard sell. I don't know if Andromeda would let you do that."

"If Andromeda will let you do what?" Ron asked, coming out onto the porch. He shaded his eyes from the setting sun and waved to Teddy as he rocketed down the lane.

"Harry wants Teddy to go to St Ambrose's instead of Hogwarts," Ginny said, smiling at Ron's surprised expression.

"Oh, I dunno about that one, mate," he said, wincing as Teddy narrowly avoided running over Molly. Lucy had apparently gotten bored and was playing with a stick she'd found in the grass, pretending it was a wand.

"I have time. I'll start laying the groundwork," Harry said confidently.

"Good luck. Anyway, Mum said to tell you dinner's ready." They watched Teddy as he turned around again at the end of the lane. "Does he know how to stop that thing?" Ron asked.

"I knew I forgot something," Harry said with a snap of his fingers as he jogged back out to the lane.

The evening of Boxing Day found Ron and Harry in the Leaky Cauldron, sitting at what was probably the loudest table in the crowded pub. Seamus, Dean and Neville formed the core of the group and there was a constantly rotating round of friends dropping by to wish them Happy Christmas, many of them also bringing shots of Firewhisky to toast with.

"So, Harry, got any "California Girls" to tell us about?" Seamus asked with a grin on his face. Dean and Neville broke off their conversation to look at Harry with interest and he felt a stab of embarrassment at being the center of attention.

"Yeah, Harry, go on and tell them all about your California Girl," Ron said with a Cheshire Cat grin, lacing his fingers together behind his head and leaning his chair back on two legs.

"Wanker," Harry muttered as he took a sip of his pint. "Sorry to disappoint you all, but no California Girls for me," he said. "Gin and I are living together."

Seamus, Dean and Neville all looked at Ron and then back at Harry who shrugged. "Well it's about bloody time," Seamus said, raising his glass high.

"I was starting to lose hope for you guys," Neville said. "Where is she, anyway?"

"She and Hermione are having a night out with some of the girls," Ron said, "the girls" being Parvati, Padma, Luna and Susan.

"So you're out completely unsupervised, then?" Seamus asked, rubbing his hands together. Harry raised his eyebrows, thinking of one particularly epic pub crawl through Soho Seamus had led them on several years ago. He had a vivid memory of trying to climb over a fence, having completely forgotten he could Apparate.

"Oh, no, none of that," Harry said, shaking his head. He was buzzing enough already from all of the toasts from the constantly rotating cast of characters in the pub and very much did not want to puke tonight.

"You mean you want none of this?" Seamus asked, heaving a truly enormous bag of dice onto the scarred table.

"Blimey," Ron said, setting his chair back on four legs with a thump. "We haven't done this in ages!" He grabbed the bag of dice, opening it and spilling out the multi-colored bounty, picking through them like a magpie. "Did you buy more?"

Seamus shrugged and passed around decidedly tattered sheets of paper. "I can't help it. I pass a shop and I have to go look."

"I can't believe you kept these," Dean said, picking up the character sheet in front of him. "Delvnar, half-elf ranger. Oh, that's right! I forgot he had that wolf companion!"

"That you rescued from that hobgoblin stewpot," Neville said with a grin. "We barely got out of that one, but you wouldn't let that wolf be eaten."

"A lawful good ranger must stamp out evil wherever it's found, no matter the consequences to one's life or limbs," Dean said loftily.

"Or to their companion's," Ron said bitterly. He still harbored a grudge over that fight that resulted in the loss of his precious plus two throwing hammer.

"Well, if you had just listened to me instead of charging in like a giant twat," Dean shot back.

Ron sighed, picking up a couple of twenty-siders and rolling them experimentally. "I'm a half-orc fighter, charging in is what we do, all right?" He frowned at the dice and picked out two different ones, rolling them to see if they gave a better result.

Harry picked up his character sheet, re-familiarizing himself with his elven sorcerer, Bragthor Brightblade. When Seamus had first introduced them to the game, he'd been hesitant about playing a magic-user, reasoning that he did that every day anyway, but the group had insisted on keeping to a format of fighter, ranger, cleric and magic-user, but he'd drawn the line at playing a wizard. Something about the sorcerer's intuitive spell casting appealed to him rather than all that studying wizards had to do. Well, that and that high charisma score, Harry thought, smiling at the memory of one adventure where that high charisma had gotten him into a bit of trouble.

Seamus huddled behind the screen depicting a Muggle's lurid idea of might and magic and they all came to attention. "All right. You are four weary travelers trying to shelter from a storm at a…" Seamus paused, looking around the Leaky Cauldron, "somewhat ramshackle inn. The beer is terrible, but the stew is hot and the serving wenches hotter, so you aren't complaining too much. Ron, make a perception check."

Ron surveyed the dice in front of him and picked out a clear twenty-sider and rolled, wrinkling his nose at the number. "Fifteen," he said after he took a look at the modifier on his character sheet.

"Useless. Harry, make a perception check."

Harry chose a green and gold die and rolled. "Thirteen," he announced.

"Ugh, even more useless. Dean."

Dean already had his die ready and rolled with a flourish. "Eighteen," he called over the noise in the pub.

"Finally. All right, Dean—"

"Delvnar," he corrected.

"Delvnar, your wolf under the table nudges your leg. Tearing your attention away from the serving wenches, you hear a sound coming from outside. Gentlemen, roll for initiative."

Ginny lay in Harry's bed at his flat, wondering when he was going to get home. She'd thought she and Hermione were getting home late at midnight, but here it was half one and both Harry and Ron were still out. She was exhausted, the frenetic pace of the last few days and the late night tonight all catching up with her, but it was one of those times where she just couldn't shut off her brain. They said they were just going to the Leaky to meet some of the guys for drinks…I hope that Seamus didn't get them into any trouble, Ginny thought, remembering that one time Ron had dragged Harry to her flat. He was as sick as she'd ever seen anyone and that had been a long night for everyone involved.

She was finally starting to doze off when she heard noise out in the front room and got up to investigate. As she came down the hallway, she heard Ron's voice in a loud whisper, "Shh, Harry, you'll wake up the girls!" followed by a loud giggle.

"They've got to be asleep by now, yeah?" Harry said in an equally loud whisper. She saw he was trying to set a large bottle of Ogden's Black Label Firewhisky down on the kitchen worktop and get out of his dragonhide jacket at the same time, missing the worktop with the bottle completely and sending it toward the floor.

Ginny caught the bottle with a perfectly executed Wingardium Leviosa, floating it gently up to the worktop. Harry and Ron stared at her, open-mouthed, Harry still wrestling with his jacket. Taking pity on him, Ginny helped him get it off, throwing it across the back of one of the barstools.

"Where have you two been all night?" Ginny asked as Ron opened the bottle and searched for glasses in the cabinet.

"We've been at the Leaky with Seamus, Dean and Nev," Harry said, giving her a sloppy kiss on the cheek. Ron gave him a glass with two fingers of Ogden's and he nodded, handing one to Ginny.

Ron picked up his own glass and they clinked them together, Ginny not really too sure what they were drinking to, but she savored the slow burn of the alcohol down her throat and the fire blooming in her belly. As they drank, she kept a close eye on her brother and Harry. They were both very flushed, the tip of Ron's nose rosy pink and she knew that a glorious buzz could turn into horrifying nausea in a single sip. They both seemed to be doing all right and Ginny relaxed, glad to have them home.

"So what have you been doing all night?" she asked, setting her glass of half-drunk whisky down.

"We've been fighting for glory and treasure!" Ron said, hitting his glass against Harry's, nearly knocking it out of his grasp.

"Were you playing that Dungeons and Dragons again?"

"Yes! Seamus brought all of our old characters!" Harry said with a grin and Ginny shook her head. She'd watched them play a few times years ago when they played regularly and she had to confess that she just didn't get it.

"We fought a Hill Giant! And won! And took his shit!" Ron exulted, raising his arms above his head.

"Yeah we did!" Harry crowed drunkenly, giving Ron a loud high five.

"Shhh, you'll wake Hermione!" Ginny hissed, wincing when she heard the door to Ron's room open.

"Too late," Hermione said with a yawn, tying the belt of her robe as she joined them in the kitchen. She took the glass out of Ron's hand and finished the Firewhisky that was left in it.

"Sorry, love," Ron said sheepishly, bending to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"It's all right. I wasn't really asleep anyway. Did you have a good time?"

"We did. We killed a Hill Giant," Ron said, hugging Hermione close and picking her up off her feet.

"You did what?" she asked, looking completely at a loss.

"Dungeons and Dragons," Ginny said, lest Hermione think that Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville had really gone hunting for an actual giant to kill.

"Oh," she said with a dawning look of understanding. "I thought that game was played by…"

"Nerds?" Ron said with a smirk, setting her back down on her feet. Hermione shrugged her shoulders and gave him an enigmatic smile.

"Seamus got them into it years ago. I think you were still at the Academy, right?" Ginny asked Harry and he nodded, finishing the whisky in his glass.

"I see. Get anything good?"

"Bracers of Defense," Ron said, letting go of Hermione to flex his arms.

"I'm sure they're very nice. What about you, Harry?"

"Wand of Polymorphing. I can turn people and creatures into sheep."

"Well the next time I want lamb chops, I know just who to call," Ginny said, smiling up at him. She was glad they'd had the opportunity to have some fun with their old friends tonight. They'd all been through so much together that sometimes it was hard to believe that they could do things like spend the evening at the pub playing a silly game.

Harry bent to kiss her and swayed into her, almost pushing her back a step. "Okay, you need to lie down," she said, taking his hand. "Say goodnight."

"Goodnight," Harry said with a cheeky wave at Ron and Hermione as Ginny guided him into the bedroom and closed the door, sitting him on the bed. She took off his glasses and set them carefully on the bedside table. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, pulling up her tee shirt to kiss her on the stomach. "Did I tell you I'm a level seven sorcerer with an eighteen charisma?" he murmured against her skin.

"Oh, are you, really?" Ginny smiled, running her fingers through his hair as he traced a pattern with his tongue.

"Mm hm. I can cast Fireball five times a day." He was now fumbling at the drawstring on her pajama bottoms and Ginny pushed him to lay back on the bed and took off his shoes. "The last time a wench did that for me, I had to pay her five silvers," Harry giggled as she moved on to his jeans.

"What wench was this?" Ginny asked, unbuttoning his shirt after pulling off his jeans.

"I can't remember," Harry sighed, closing his eyes. "I'm really drunk," he said a moment later.

"You feel all right?"

"My mouth's sort of dry."

"You get your shirt off and get under the covers and I'll bring you a glass of water, all right?" Harry nodded and Ginny went back out into the kitchen, relieved to see that Ron and Hermione were no longer in there. She filled a big glass for Harry and returned to the bedroom, glad to see that he'd managed get himself safely undressed and under the blankets.

She helped him sit up and gave him the glass. "Drink it all or you'll feel really terrible in the morning."

"Thank you," he said, handing back the glass and falling backwards onto the pillow, asleep as soon as he hit it. Ginny smiled and curled up next to him, finally able to relax.

13. Chapter 13

"I never thought I'd be so glad to see this tiny place again!" Ginny said, setting her heavy bags down on the floor.

Weighed down by more bags and a full trunk, Harry sighed and set down his burdens before collapsing on the sofa. Still woozy from the aftereffects of intercontinental Portkey travel, he closed his eyes and waited for the room to stop spinning. "Sorry we couldn't stay for New Year's Eve," he said, listening as Ginny bustled around the small flat.

"That's all right, we'll have a nice quiet one tonight with just us two," Ginny said, settling down on the sofa next to him, putting her hand on his brow. "All right?"

"Yeah, just Portkey travel, you know?" He opened his eyes and glanced at their mail drop which was full to bursting. He got up with a groan and pulled it out of the box, sorting through the assorted messages. There were several Christmas cards, including one from Jacob Green. Harry opened it, quickly closing it again when it started to play music.

"Oh, look at this. Archimedes and Sarah have invited us to lunch at their place," he said, sitting back down on the sofa next to Ginny.

"When?"

"Looks like tomorrow. Archimedes says if we're back in town and feel up to it."

"Well?" Ginny asked, looking at the letter over his shoulder.

"Yeah, let's go. I wouldn't mind talking to Archimedes again," Harry said, thinking about his late-night conversation with Hermione just a couple of nights ago. He'd woken up out of a sound sleep, muscles tensed and ready to fight. Heart pumping, he lay still, relieved that he hadn't woken up Ginny.

I haven't done this in weeks, he thought, concentrating on slowing his heart and wiping the sweat from his brow. After a few minutes of trying to get back to sleep, he gave it up as a bad job and slid carefully out of bed, pulling on a pair of boxers and grabbing his wand, knowing he wouldn't be satisfied until he'd checked the entire flat.

There was a light on in the lounge and he was surprised to see Hermione curled up in the armchair with a book, quiet music playing in the background. "I'm sorry," she said when she saw Harry come into the lounge, "did I wake you?"

"No. I have trouble sometimes," he said, settling onto the sofa and putting his feet up on the coffee table. "Why are you up?"

"Ron's tossing and turning. I usually have to get up until he settles down." Hermione slipped a bookmark in her book and set it aside.

"He still having a hard time, then?"

"Not as often. At least when I'm with him. When he's alone, I don't know, but every now and then he has a bad night. What about you?" she asked, a look of real concern on her face.

Harry shrugged, not really comfortable talking about the occasional trouble he had with sleeping. He'd thought he'd gotten it under control with the extra activity, but he'd been slacking on his pre-bed yoga since he'd been away from his usual routine. "I do all right," he said, crossing his arms over his chest at Hermione's raised eyebrow. "I haven't woken up like this in weeks," he protested.

"What woke you? Do you remember?"

Closing his eyes, Harry took a deep breath, trying to reconstruct the dream he'd been having. All he could come up with was a flash of gold. Why would that wake me up? he thought with a frown. "No. Maybe it was the music in here." They sat quietly for a few moments, lost in their own thoughts before he spoke again. "So McGonagall won't let you two stay together at Hogwarts, eh?" he asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"No, not without being married," Hermione said with a shake of her head.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Harry spread his arms and raised an eyebrow, smiling at Hermione's blush. "You're worse than Molly," she chided, primly adjusting the blanked on her lap before looking up at him again. "I don't want to get married in the winter. I want to be married in the spring, when everything is green and growing again."

"What about staying somewhere other than Hogwarts?"

"You know I can't do that with being head of Gryffindor. I have to be available at the drop of a hat." Hermione grinned at Harry, her eyes sparkling. "You know how we always used to wonder how McGonagall got into the tower so quickly? There's a secret passage into the common room."

"No, there can't be. We looked behind all of the tapestries!"

"It's a bit like the entrance to Diagon Alley. It looks like a regular stone wall on the common room side, but on the passage side, there's a door. There's a password of course and it comes out behind a tapestry, so it looks like you've just magicked yourself into the room."

"It's not on the map," Harry mused, thinking of the Marauder's Map created by his father and his friends.

"Well, because they never found out about it, did they?"

"I suppose Hogwarts had to keep a few secrets from them," Harry said with a smile, lapsing into silence, thinking about his father, Sirius and Lupin as young men, intrepidly mapping the castle.

"Ginny told me about the Horcrux," Hermione said quietly after a few moments of quiet.

"I figured she would," Harry sighed.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to worry."

"You mean you didn't want me to tell you to leave it alone." Hermione leaned forward in the armchair, looking at Harry closely and he shifted his eyes away.

"I can't, Hermione. You know I can't."

"Harry, you're not in charge of saving the world—"

"Anymore."

"Well, I wasn't going to say that, but yes. Tell the Americans and let them deal with it."

"What if they fuck it up? What if there's another Voldemort lurking over there?" Harry looked back at Hermione. "Horcruxes aren't made by granddads in case they don't live long enough to see their grandchildren leave school. Bad people make them."

"I know what sort of people make them," she said gently. She got out of the armchair and joined him on the sofa, spreading the blanket over the both of them. "You're not the Chosen One for this."

"I have to keep them safe," he said. It felt odd to finally give voice to this feeling he'd been carrying around inside for years, almost as if he'd discovered a heavy rock in his pocket he hadn't known was there.

"Who? Who are you keeping safe?"

Harry pulled the blanket up over his bare chest, suddenly feeling chilled. "My students. Gin. The people of San Francisco, California…the United States…everyone."

Hermione put her hand on his cheek and he leaned into it, closing his eyes. "You can't, love," she whispered, stroking his temple with her thumb.

"And that's why I can't sleep sometimes. Same with Ron," Harry murmured, laying his head on her shoulder.

"I know. You both have that look in your eyes. Always assessing, searching, evaluating. You don't even know how many times Ron has changed tables in a restaurant because the one we were given left his back exposed or didn't have a good enough view of the exit." Her fingers trailed lightly through his hair and Harry finally felt himself start to relax. "Once we left entirely because he didn't like the look of the bartender."

"I believe it. I do the same thing to Gin. I've tried not doing it, but I can't stand it. Sitting there, feeling the skin on my back crawl, just waiting for something to come at me." Harry shuddered, remembering one dinner where he'd tried so hard to pretend that sitting in a crowded, noisy restaurant with his back exposed didn't bother him at all. That had been an especially sleepless night.

"She knows. We all have our issues," Hermione sighed, making Harry wonder what kept her up at night. "But you don't have to be alone in this. I know it's useless telling you to leave it for someone else because when have you ever listened to me?"

"I've listened to you plenty," he said with a smile.

"If you won't leave it alone, then get help with it. Who's that retired Auror?"

"Archimedes."

"Yes, him. Tell him about it and then go from there. I don't want to see you on the front page of the Prophet again, all right?"

"I don't want to be on the front page of the Prophet or any newspaper ever again." Harry closed his eyes, warm under the blanket with his head still on Hermione's shoulder. He was finally feeling like he could sleep again and he kissed Hermione on the cheek before getting up off the sofa. "I'll check on him for you, all right?"

Well aware of the penchant Ron's door had for squeaking when you least wanted it to, he Apparated into Ron's room, silent as a ghost. Standing still in the dim room, he listened for any signs of restlessness but there was only the deep breathing of true sleep. Back out in the lounge, he gave Hermione the thumbs up and shut off the music and the light in the lounge before picking her up and Apparating them both into Ron's room. "Sleep well," he whispered before Apparating to his own room where he slid back into the bed next to Ginny, curling his body around her sleep-warm one.

I'll meet with Archimedes when we get back. Maybe I can pick his brain about who he thinks it might belong to.

Ginny followed Harry up the seemingly never-ending stairs, completely annoyed that he had yet to breathe hard while she was huffing and puffing as they climbed. "How much farther do we have to go?" she asked, trying not to sound like a whinging child.

"Not too much, I think," Harry said easily. "Are you all right?" he asked, turning to look at her with a frown.

"I'm fine," she said, blowing out an irritated breath. "I need to stop for a moment, all right? Some of us don't run endless miles."

Harry leaned against the wood stairway railing and smiled. "Sorry."

"Prat." Ginny leaned against the railing next to him and concentrated on getting her breath back as she looked out at the City spread before them. It was a sunny day and if she craned her neck just a little bit, she could see the Ferry Building and the blue water of the bay behind it.

"It's beautiful, yeah?" Harry said quietly. Ginny nodded in agreement, leaning against Harry's warmth. Even though it was sunny, it was just New Year's Day and cold out. "You picked a good place, Gin."

"I'm glad you think so," she said with a smile. When I decided to come here it was mainly because it was the best school and coincidentally the farthest away from you, she thought, knowing she could never tell him that.

"You ready for a bit more climbing?"

Ginny took a deep breath and nodded. "Why couldn't we have Apparated up to Archimedes and Sarah?"

"We Apparated as close as we could have. Our friend Archimedes might be more paranoid than me. He's got a huge anti-Apparition ward up here," Harry said as he started climbing the steps again.

"Merlin preserve us from paranoid Aurors," Ginny muttered as she followed Harry again. A few more sections of steps and Harry stopped at a wooden gate.

"I think this is it. You ready?" Harry asked, a hand on the gate.

"Give me a minute. I don't want to go to the door all blown out," Ginny said, looking around. The front garden was literally a garden, full of thriving plants. She was able to pick out Australian ferns, naked ladies, a huge bougainvillea and what looked like a banana tree. The rest were all a jumble of green that blended all together. "All right. Let's go."

Harry opened the gate and stepped into the garden, ducking his head as something green shot out of a nearby tree and dive-bombed him. "What was that?" Ginny said, wand out.

"I think that was a wild parrot," Harry said, squinting up into a tree. "Yeah, see it?" Ginny looked where he was pointing and made out a smallish green bird with a bright red head perched on a branch.

"A wild parrot? Here?"

"Yeah. Archimedes warned me about them. There was an earthquake back in the eighties and some pet parrots got loose and they started breeding. Now there's a whole flock of them around here." Harry shook his head with a smile. "Sarah feeds them."

"Well. Will wonders never cease?" Ginny said, taking Harry's hand as they walked to the door. He rang the bell and a moment later, Sarah opened the door.

"Harry, Ginny! Welcome, please come in," she said, stepping aside. As they crossed the threshold, Ginny felt the tingle of the Blood Seal they passed through. "Here, let me take those for you." She helped them take off their jackets and hung them up on the rack by the door. "Archimedes is in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on lunch."

Sarah led them through the house to the kitchen at the rear. Ginny looked all around, quietly impressed at what she saw. Paneled walls and stained glass accents in the windows lent a timeless look to the cozily-furnished rooms they passed through. The walls were crowded with art and family photos and Ginny really wanted to stop and look at them all. Maybe I can ask for a tour after lunch, she mused when they entered the kitchen.

Unlike the rest of the house, the kitchen was surprisingly modern with an enormous cooker and a double-width refrigerator. A hanging rack crammed with shining pots and pans hung above a huge stone-topped island. Archimedes stood at the island, tossing a large bowl of salad with wooden forks.

"Ah, there you are! I hope you're hungry!" he said, leaving the forks in the bowl and shaking Harry's hand.

"Thank you very much for having us over," Harry said with a smile.

"How did you enjoy that walk up?" Archimedes asked as Sarah handed them each a glass of wine.

"It was very beautiful," Ginny said, cutting her eyes at Harry and daring him to say anything different. "I didn't know there were parrots up here."

"Yes! Not too long after Loma Prieta, a small flock of them settled here and they've been here ever since," Sarah said, smiling brightly. "They can raise a ruckus, but they are just the dearest little clowns."

Smiling fondly at her, Archimedes shook his head. "Sarah and her little strays. She feeds them all; birds, cats, it doesn't matter."

"You like them, too. I've seen you in the back watching them." Ginny watched the playful interaction between the long-married couple and felt like the half of a Galleon in her pocket had gained weight. Will we be like them when we've been together thirty years? she thought wistfully. She caught Harry's eye and squeezed his hand, getting a squeeze in return.

"Well, I'm sure you're hungry after that climb. Let's get to it, shall we?" Archimedes picked up the salad bowl and led the way to the dining room, the farm-style table already set for the four of them. Setting down the salad bowl, he went back into the kitchen, returning with a pan that smelled delicious. "Paella," he said as he set the warm pan on a trivet and took his seat across from Sarah.

"It smells wonderful," Ginny said with a smile.

"I hope it's as good as it smells. This is the first time I'm trying out this recipe." Archimedes served them as Sarah passed around the bowl of salad.

"You made this?" Ginny asked Archimedes who nodded.

"Archimedes loves to cook," Sarah said. "Does Harry cook at home?"

"I do all right. One good thing to come of living with my aunt and uncle," he said with a rueful smile.

"Excellent! It must be nice to have a warm dinner waiting for you after a long day of classes, Ginny," Archimedes said with a grin.

Ginny looked at Harry with a grin of her own. "Yeah, Harry, where are my warm dinners when I get home?"

"We live right above a Chinese. Just say the word, love," Harry said with a raised eyebrow, making Archimedes laugh.

He raised his wineglass for a toast. "Thank you so much for coming today. I've always felt it best to celebrate the new year with friends and I have a feeling that we will all be very good friends. Happy New Year," Archimedes said and they all reached to clink glasses together, echoing the sentiment.

"How was your holiday?" Sarah asked as they started eating. In spite of Archimedes's fear, the paella was delicious.

"It was wonderful," Ginny said, taking a sip of wine. "I haven't seen any of my family since I moved here in August, so it was great to see Mum and Dad again. And all of my brothers and their wives and children." The house had been just about packed to the gills and anarchy had ruled the holiday.

"And are you back to school, Harry?" she asked, catching him with his mouth full.

Chewing quickly, Harry nodded. "I start back tomorrow, but Ginny has another week off."

"Well, not really off. I'll be putting in some time at SF Thaumaturgical this week."

"Oh? Doing what?" Archimedes asked curiously.

"Helping out here and there, probably mostly in Emergency. I'm looking forward to it," Ginny said. "I've been tied up in theory for months, it'll be nice to be hands-on again."

They spent the rest of the lunch chatting about holidays, family and the goings-ons in both magical and Muggle San Francisco until they were all stuffed full of salad and paella. "That was very good, dear," Sarah said with a smile. "Bookmark that recipe for sure."

"Thank you, my love. That's high praise coming from you." Archimedes looked at Ginny and arched an eyebrow. "She's definitely my toughest critic." He looked at his watch and nodded to Harry. "Harry, would you care to join me in the den for that great American pastime of yelling at the television, also known as watching football?"

"I would be delighted," Harry said, rising from the table to follow the older ex-Auror to the den, brushing a hand on Ginny's shoulder as he passed.

"I guess it's left to us to clean up!" Sarah said, smiling at Ginny as she rose from the table. A few minutes later she'd set the pans and dishes to washing in a sink full of soapy water. Dusting off her hands, Sarah surveyed the kitchen, looking for anything else out of order and finding nothing. "Let's go take a look at the garden, shall we?"

"I saw part of it on the way in. You do it all yourself?"

"Well, Archimedes helps out sometimes, but his talents lie in other areas," she said with a laugh, leading Ginny back out into the front garden. She took her on a tour of the garden which held both common and magical plants, many of them with healing properties. As they chatted, Ginny felt herself very much at ease with the older woman. She had an open friendliness that Ginny found irresistible.

Sarah pointed out a vine with bluish leaves that crawled along the ground. "That's good for stomachaches and will even take care of some poisons. I planted it when my middle boy, Alan, turned out to be a colicky baby."

Ginny looked around the garden, spotting several other medicinal plants. "You have a lot of medicinals here. Do you have a special interest?"

"Oh, it's more a hobby, I suppose you could say. Being the wife of an Auror for so long, well, you learn to keep certain things on hand." She bent down and pulled some dead blossoms off another plant, putting them carefully in the pocket of her jumper.

"How did you stand it?" Ginny asked quietly after a moment.

Sarah stood quietly, looking up in the trees for more parrots. "It was hard, especially in the beginning when I was left at home with the babies. He would get that Summons and I didn't know when or even if he was coming home." Ginny nodded, remembering feeling exactly the same way. "But just like anything else, you get used to it."

"I could never get used to it. Every time, it was like a knife in my heart," she said, unburdening herself to this woman who understood exactly how she felt.

"Have you and Harry been together very long?"

Ginny shook her head, rubbing the velvety petal of a purple flower between her fingers. "Well, Harry and I have had a complicated relationship for years. We'd been…" Ginny said, casting about for the right word, "…lovers before, but actually being together is new." She felt heat rising to her face and desperately hoped she wasn't blushing too hard in front of this woman she hardly knew.

"And you weren't together before because he was an Auror?"

Ginny nodded and let go of the flower. "I couldn't do it. He was in danger his entire life and then he goes off to chase more?" She shook her head. "I feel sometimes like that makes me a bad person."

Sarah nodded sympathetically. "We all do things to protect ourselves. Maybe Harry became an Auror because deep down that's how he thought he could best protect himself and those he loves."

Ginny smiled wanly, thinking of how excited he was when he got accepted into the program with Ron. She had been happy for them both in the beginning until she started to learn more about what Aurors did and the daily dangers they faced. "You're probably right."

"Come over here, I want to show you my greenhouse," Sarah said, leading her to the small side yard. Inside the greenhouse was a hot and humid riot of plants including orchids and even some vegetables and small citrus trees. Ginny took off her jacket as Sarah led her around. An enormous white tomcat lounged on a table and she scratched him behind his ears, smiling at his rumbling purr.

It seemed that almost every plant had some sort of use whether food, medicine or simple ornamentation. "This one here makes a nice infusion for helping the uterus contract after birth," she said, pointing to a plant with vibrant pink flowers. The tom had followed them and was busily rubbing his face against Sarah's legs, leaving white hair everywhere.

"Oh? Do you do midwifery?" Ginny asked, peering closely at the plant. It wasn't one she was familiar with and she wished she had a sketchbook with her to capture its characteristics.

"Here and there. Not as much as I used to, though I did help my daughter with her two," Sarah said, stroking the leaves fondly.

"My mum still does for nearby witches. I used to go with her when I was little. I think that's one of the things that got me interested in Healing."

"Well, if you're ever interested in attending a birth, let me know," Sarah said, leading her out of the greenhouse, shooing the cat though the door and outside.

"Thank you. I just might one of these days."

Harry followed Archimedes down a hallway whose walls were covered in framed photographs, both Muggle and Wizarding. He caught glimpses of their hosts at different ages with varying numbers of children and grandchildren and smiled. One day, he thought as he passed one of a beaming Archimedes standing between what must have been two grandchildren on carousel horses.

"My inner sanctum," Archimedes said, opening a door at the end of the hallway. The room beyond was dark and Harry could see the red lights of electronics on standby. Picking up a device from a table, Archimedes pressed a button and several things happened at once. Lights in the room came on, several devices on the low entertainment center clicked and whirred to life and a truly enormous television clicked on.

"Wow," Harry said admiringly as the television displayed what looked like a serious action-adventure movie with the hero driving a motorcycle through a crowded marketplace.

Archimedes smiled sheepishly and motioned for Harry to sit on the well-worn leather sofa. "My indulgence. Sarah doesn't care much for Muggle technology, but lets me do what I want in this room. I suppose you'd call it my 'man cave'," he said with a chuckle.

"Indeed." Harry's eyes roved around the room, taking in the bookshelves crammed with books and papers, the neat desk and the bar cart in the corner. There were several framed photographs on the walls and he knew that these wouldn't be of children and grandchildren.

"Scotch?"

"Please." Harry rose from the sofa and moved over to inspect a black and white image of a much younger Archimedes with a group of men all smiling and waving. Accepting the glass Archimedes handed him, he gestured to the picture. "Graduation?"

"Yes," he said with a smile. "1961. Seems like it was just yesterday."

A framed certificate caught Harry's eye and he leaned forward to read it. "Presented to Auror Archimedes Douglass for Extraordinary Service to the San Francisco Regional Aurors Office, July 4th, 1968," he read aloud.

"A very tumultuous year here," Archimedes said, taking a sip of his own scotch. "That was for breaking up a Wizarding drug ring that had taken up residence in the Haight."

"Yeah? We've had a few of those. Were they selling to Muggles?"

"They were. Bad stuff. Supposed to induce euphoria of course, but it had the unfortunate side effect of causing witches and wizards to lose access to their magic for anywhere from a few hours to a few days."

"That's horrifying," Harry said with a shudder. "What did it do to Muggles?"

"It gave most of them the gift of seeing auras for a few hours and I know of one or two that it had given the True Sight to and were driven mad by it," Archimedes said, shaking his head at the memory.

"So they violated the Statute of Secrecy in addition to the drugs. We had one nutter that turned all the cows on a dairy farm purple. Mostly harmless, but a huge violation of the statute."

"Well, this was a bit more serious than rainbow-colored cattle," Archimedes chuckled. "I had to go undercover for that one. Sarah and I were still newlyweds."

"That must have been tough," Harry said, thinking of Ginny.

"It was. Almost lost her over it." He stood quietly, looking at the certificate before shaking his head again. "Anyway, the game's almost on. You ever watch football, Harry?"

"I have, but I think the football I watch is a bit different than yours," Harry said, resuming his spot on the sofa. He took a sip of the scotch, finding it smoky and mellow, watching as Archimedes scrolled through an impressive list of channels in search of the game. He noticed two full pages of news channels and figured that the former Auror still kept up with current events in much the same way he did.

"Here we go." On the television, two large, impeccably-dressed men wearing headsets chatted about the two team's chances for making it all the way to something called the Super Bowl. "They don't know what they're talking about," Archimedes grumped, sitting back in the sofa and gesturing with his scotch.

As Archimedes criticized the commentators, Harry let his mind wander. There were things he wanted to bring up with him, chiefly Ignatius Weatherbee and his run for the Wizarding Council. "I ran into Ignatius again," he said, using a commercial as his opportunity.

"You did? Where?"

"St Ambrose's Winter Formal of all places."

"He wrangled himself on the board a few years ago and likes to pop in every now and then, I hear," Archimedes said with a snort.

"He said he's making another run for the Council. I guess someone called Rutherford is stepping down and there's an open seat."

Archimedes nodded thoughtfully and took a sip of his scotch. "Yes, Aidan Rutherford. He's been a fixture for nearly twenty-five years. He'll be missed."

Harry took a sip of his own scotch, savoring the taste. "Well, apparently Ignatius thinks he can win his seat."

"Huh! That would be a poor trade."

"Why do you say that?" Harry asked, intrigued by the statement.

"Well, I suppose you don't know Aidan Rutherford, but you've met Ignatius a couple of times now. What do you think about him?" Archimedes asked with an appraising look.

"I think he bears watching," Harry said, savoring another sip of the excellent scotch.

Archimedes raised an eyebrow at his statement. "What makes you say that?"

"The first time I met him, he pretended to not know that Dumbledore was dead and has been for nearly ten years." Harry nodded at Archimedes's grunt of surprise. "And I find it curious that he left England to come here in 1981. Maybe around November?"

Archimedes sat quietly, swirling the ice cubes in his glass. The football game was underway, but neither of them were paying any attention. "You think he was one of your Death Eaters?" he finally asked.

"If he was, he wasn't a notable one. A lot of them were swept up and put on trial in the aftermath, but he escaped. I have my suspicions." The older man nodded thoughtfully and got up to renew his scotch. "I had someone try to break into my classroom the night of the dance," Harry said when Archimedes sat back down.

"You think it was him?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't have any concrete evidence, but he was the only non-student or faculty there that night."

"Why would he want to get into your classroom?"

"I have some things in there he might be interested in."

"Such as?" he asked and Harry just looked at him, taking another sip of his drink. "Fair enough," Archimedes said with a smile and a nod.

"Why don't you run?" Harry asked. "You've got the time, yeah?"

Archimedes gave a short bark of laughter. "Oh, no. I'm not an administrator. I like my boots on the ground, thank you very much!"

"Do you know who's running against him?" Harry asked, hoping there was someone opposing Ignatius.

"There's a couple so far. It's early; the election isn't until the summer, so a few may still pop up." There was a loud roar from the television and Archimedes turned to watch the replay, pumping his fist when one of the teams scored.

Harry took another sip of his scotch, wondering how he could bring up the Horcrux lurking in Jacob's library, Ron's words over the holiday coming back to him. He said it wasn't my problem and when he's right, he's right, he thought, the roar of the crowd on the television washing over him.

"I heard Jacob had a Christmas party," Harry said during another commercial.

"He did, yes. Can I freshen that up for you?" Harry nodded and handed him his glass. "He invites just about the whole Bay Area for it," Archimedes said over the clinking of ice.

"Did you and Sarah go?"

"We did. Jacob's parties usually get on my nerves with his grandstanding and the tiresome people he surrounds himself with, but sometimes it's good to be seen at these things." Archimedes settled back onto the sofa with a grunt, handing Harry his renewed scotch.

"Did you get a look at those miniatures in the library?" he asked, savoring the drink. I have to find out what this is.

"Yes, after hearing you talk about them, I wanted to get a look for myself. His curator was still in town, finishing up with the cataloging, so we had a very enlightening conversation about them."

"Which one was your favorite?" Harry asked, trying to sound casually interested.

Momentarily distracted by the action on the screen, Archimedes turned back to him, a thoughtful look on his face. "Hmm, there was one of a girl with dark hair that seemed particularly fine," he said.

Harry looked at him, trying to tell if Archimedes knew more than he was letting on and he took a drink to boost his courage for what he was about to say. "Did you know that portrait is a Horcrux?"

After the garden tour, Sarah took Ginny back into the house and showed her around the rooms on the ground floor, the white cat sauntering into the house as if he owned the place. Over the long years of their marriage, they had traveled extensively and made a hobby of bringing back one or two pieces of art with them. "Nothing too grand really. Just little things that really remind us of where we went and the fun we had there."

She pointed out one that was a simple watercolor of a beach with a vibrant blue sky and a cluster of white buildings. "We got this one in Mykonos from a little street vendor, but it's one of my favorites." She looked at it for several moments and smiled. "Have you and Harry traveled much?"

"One summer before school my family visited my brother Bill in Egypt where he was working as a Cursebreaker for Gringott's," Ginny said, smiling at the memory. "Matthew—my ex-boyfriend—and I used to go on little holidays around Europe. We were always so busy with work that it was hard to get away." She was quiet for a moment, thinking that she must seem too provincial to Sarah. "Harry's been loads of places, though. Romania, France, New York, Sweden…anywhere there was something weird going on, they'd send Harry and my brother."

"Well, you're still young. There's plenty of time to see the world together."

As Sarah showed her more family pictures, Ginny let her mind wander to thoughts of seeing the world with Harry. She thought back to that long-ago summer night when they had that book of questions and she expressed the desire to spend Christmas on the beach in New Zealand. Maybe we can do that next year, she thought, a vision of Harry in nothing but a very small swimsuit lounging on the beach feeding her fried chicken occupying her mind's eye.

"Sorry?" she said, giving her head a little shake when she realized Sarah was addressing her directly.

"Shall we see what the boys are up to? Archimedes has his own little room here at the end of the hall. Calls it his man cave," she said, sounding amused. She knocked twice on the door before opening it. "Hello? May we come in?"

"Of course," Archimedes called, getting up from the sofa. "It's almost halftime anyway."

Ginny followed Sarah into a room that was very different from the rest of the house. In here, technology and masculinity ruled, dominated by what was possibly the largest telly Ginny had ever seen. It was almost difficult to discern what was going on amid all of the bright colors and she had a brief feeling of vertigo, putting her hand down on the back of the sofa to steady herself.

Harry put his hand on top of hers and squeezed, patting the cushion next to him with his other hand. Ginny sat next to him on the old leather sofa, kissing him briefly. "Have a nice visit with Sarah?" he murmured quietly and she nodded.

"Ginny, do you drink scotch?" Archimedes asked, standing by the bar cart.

"Scotch sounds wonderful, thank you," she said, taking the glass he offered.

"And a vodka tonic for my girl." Archimedes kissed Sarah on the cheek as he handed her the glass before sitting down in a well-worn armchair. The tom jumped up in his lap and he patted it distractedly. "So, did Sarah show you all of her plants?"

"She did. The garden is beautiful and it has so many useful things. She was generous enough to invite me back to gather some samples and make some drawings. Some of them are new to me and I'm interested in their uses," Ginny said, taking a sip of the scotch, pleasantly surprised at its mellowness.

"You didn't have a garden in London?" he asked.

"No, I just had a small flat. I did some herbs in window boxes, but that was about it." Ginny looked around the room again and grinned at Archimedes. "I didn't expect a room like this in this house."

"Oh, well, Sarah is generous enough to let me do what I want in here," he said, reaching out for Sarah's hand.

"You know boys and their toys," she said with a grin of her own.

"Now, dear, I've seen you in here yourself, keeping up with your 'stories'," Archimedes said teasingly and Ginny was surprised to see color rise to Sarah's cheeks as she smacked him lightly on the shoulder.

As they chatted in the cozy room, Ginny felt herself sinking further down into the sofa against Harry's warmth and she fought a losing battle to stifle a yawn. "I'm sorry," she apologized, feeling terribly rude.

"Don't apologize, dear. You just got home yesterday, didn't you? You're still on GMT. We should probably let you get home to rest," Sarah said with a look of concern.

"Harry, get your girl home, she looks done in," Archimedes said with mock seriousness. "We can continue your football education another day."

"I look forward to it," Harry said, rising from the sofa. Ginny put her hands in his and he pulled her gently up.

"Thank you very much for the wonderful lunch. I wouldn't mind giving that paella recipe a try myself," Ginny said to Archimedes who beamed happily.

"I'll send it over soon," he promised, walking them to the front door and handing them their jackets.

"Thank you so much for having us over," Ginny said, hugging both Archimedes and Sarah.

"I hope you'll keep in mind what we talked about," she said, hugging Ginny more tightly than she expected.

"I will. Thank you again." Harry and Archimedes shook hands and they waved once more as they stepped out onto the garden path.

Walking hand in hand, they headed toward the multitude of stairs and Ginny was glad they would at least be going down this time. "What was that about?" Harry asked as they started down.

"Sarah does a bit of midwifing and asked if I would be interested in going along with her sometime."

"Yeah? You going to?" Harry asked, sounding surprised.

"I might. I used to go with Mum before I started Hogwarts."

"Really? When you were little?" he asked, sounding a little shocked.

"Yeah," Ginny said, looking at Harry with a raised eyebrow. "Is there something wrong with that?"

Harry shrugged, seeming embarrassed. "I dunno. I guess I never really thought about how witches go about having babies. Muggles always go to hospital for it."

"Well, sometimes if there's trouble a witch will go to St Mungo's, but transportation can get tricky around that time, so most women stay home where they're most comfortable."

"And you weren't, I dunno, shocked by the whole process?"

"No," Ginny said with a giggle. "Mum never let me be in the room when things were getting serious until I was ten, but by then I pretty much knew what happened anyway. What about you and Archimedes? Did you have fun watching football?"

"It was all right. The rules don't make a lot of sense and I really don't understand why they call it football because they spend most of their time carrying it or throwing it. It's more like rugby that way."

"Did you talk shop?"

"A little. He's got a bunch of awards for different things."

"Feel jealous?" Ginny asked, giving him a sidelong look.

"Not really. I mean, after forty-five years he ought to have something to show for it," Harry said with a shrug.

"I just want to make sure you're happy," Ginny said, squeezing his hand.

Harry squeezed hers back and leaned in to kiss her. "Love, I am very happy."

14. Chapter 14

Ginny shook out the Healer's robes that had been hanging in her closet since August, using her wand to freshen them and take care of any wrinkles. Ginny Weasley, Healer, St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies, she read with a smile, running a finger over the embroidery on the breast.

It'll be nice to get back to doing something practical again, she thought as she slipped them on over her simple scrubs, even if it's just temporary. Glancing at her watch, she saw that she had just enough time for a quick bite before she had to leave.

"Haven't seen you in those in a while," Harry said as he came out of the loo, hair still damp from his shower.

"What do you think?" she asked, executing a twirl as she waited for her toast.

Harry smiled and enveloped her in a crushing hug, kissing her cheek. "Just as I remember. Hot as hell," he whispered in her ear, making her giggle.

"Oh come on. You can't even tell what shape I am under these," she said, spreading her arms wide.

"That just adds to the mystery, love," Harry said, buttoning up his shirt. "Do you know how late you'll be?"

"I shouldn't be too late. I think I'm going to be in Emergency today, so it sort of depends on what happens there. Why?" The toast was ready and she buttered the slices generously, handing one to Harry.

"There's no practice today, so I thought we'd do something tonight. A nice dinner, yeah?"

"Sounds good," she said, finishing her tea. "Oh, I've got to go. Don't want to be late on my first day!"

Harry finished tying his tie and bent to kiss her. "Nervous?"

"A little," Ginny admitted as she picked up her purse, feeling a bit odd heading out for the day without her heavy bag crammed with all of her usual books, papers and computer.

"You'll be great. Think about where you want to go tonight and we'll celebrate your triumph, all right?"

"All right." Ginny took a deep breath and prepared to Apparate to SF Thaumaturgical. "See you!" A moment later she was at the designated Apparition point for the hospital and headed toward Vijay's office.

"Ginevra, thank you so much for agreeing to spend some time helping us out while you're still on your break from school," he said as he answered her knock on his office door.

"I'm glad to do it. Gives me a chance to poke my head out of my books," she said with a smile, sitting down at the chair he gestured to.

"You'll start your clinical rotation this quarter, correct?" he asked, sitting back down behind his own desk.

"Yes," Ginny nodded, "not too much hands on, at least not right away. Taking patient histories, basic blood pressure checks, temperature. I'll have to get used to using more Muggle technology."

Vijay steepled his fingers under his chin and nodded. "Unless you'd rather just come work for us?" he asked hopefully.

"That's very sweet, Vijay, but I've started this and now I've got to see it through," she said with a smile, flattered that he was trying to tempt her with a permanent position.

"Ah well, I had to try, didn't I? Shall we get to it?" he asked, rising from his seat. Ginny rose from her seat and walked next to him down the hallway. "You'll be working in Emergency for now, covering for some Healers that needed some extra time off." He showed her the locker room where she could stash her purse and she made sure to put a packet of almonds in a pocket of her robes, past experience telling her it would be a very busy day.

Thankfully the Emergency area was quiet this early in the morning and Vijay introduced her around to the other Healers, medi-wizards and -witches on staff. Ginny took pains to pair names with faces, secretly glad that most of them seemed to be wearing name tags. "Ginevra has graciously agreed to volunteer her time during a break from school to help us regain our footing after the busy holiday season. I trust that each of you will make her feel welcome and like a part of the SF Thaumaturgical family," he said to the group gathered in front of the main desk.

Everyone nodded and some even smiled, helping Ginny to feel a bit more at ease and she smiled back, hoping that she was projecting a calm, self-assured air. "All right, Ginevra, I'll leave you to it," Vijay said with a small bow.

"Thank you for the introductions. I'll see you later," she said, shaking his hand before he headed off down the hallway. Almost immediately a clipboard was thrust into her hands. "Bed five is presenting with acute abdominal pain," the medi-wizard said, pointing toward what she figured was the curtained bed five.

Ginny nodded and looked over the paperwork as she moved toward the wizard with the aching belly. "Good morning, Mr Braithwaite," she said brightly, sweeping the curtains aside. "What seems to be the trouble today?" Soon she was lost in a never-ending parade of patients, a situation she found comforting and familiar as she palpated abdomens, soothed burns, closed up cuts and made copious notes in charts.

She had just finished fixing up a little boy's knee and calming his overprotective mother when another clipboard was handed to her by a medi-witch with a smiling face. "Broken arm, bed seven," she said.

Ginny nodded absently as she looked through the paperwork, running through a mental checklist as she walked toward the curtained bed. "Sorry?" she said, looking at the witch when she realized that she was still being spoken to.

"You know Matthew?" the witch said and Ginny looked closely at her. She looked very young, possibly just a couple of years out of school with long dark hair and dark eyes. Her name tag said "Amanda".

"I do, we used to work together at St Mungo's," Ginny said cautiously, slowing her walk.

"You used to do more than work together, I think," Amanda said. There was a tone in her voice that Ginny didn't like, one that said that Amanda knew more than Ginny thought she did.

"We used to date, if that's what you're asking," she said, speeding up again. She didn't care for this particular young medi-witch.

Matching her strides to Ginny's, Amanda kept up. "And now you're sleeping with Harry Potter," she said with an unpleasant smile.

At these words, Ginny stopped dead in her tracks, forcing a harried medi-wizard to step around her. "I'm sorry, but how is who I sleep with any of your business?" she asked, summoning her very best Ward Supervisor glare, happy to see the look of unease on the other woman's face.

The unease was only momentary, however, as Amanda took a deep breath and fixed her with a haughty look. "Well, when your boyfriend comes over to a hospital and makes threats to one of our Healers, I think that makes it everyone's business, don't you agree?"

Ginny felt like she'd been dashed in the face with a bucket of ice water and struggled to keep her astonishment from her face. Digging deep for a calm she didn't feel, she stared straight into Amanda's eyes and smiled. "You can bet if Harry spoke to Matthew, he'd done something to deserve it. My personal life is no one's business but my own and I'll thank you to keep your thoughts to yourself, all right?" Not waiting for Amanda's reaction, Ginny spun away from her and continued toward her next patient, her thoughts completely unsettled. Oh, Harry, what did you do?

As she cared for the young man with the broken arm, she turned over the encounter in her mind. I need to find out who this Amanda is and how she knows Matthew and I need to find out more about this threat, she thought after she'd sent the young man on his way as good as new with the admonishment to be more careful the next time he attempted to slide down one of the Seward Street cement slides while standing up.

Right. A little reconnaissance is in order then. Through a series of discreet questions with a variety of people, Ginny was able to piece together the story. It seemed that Harry had taken it upon himself to visit Matthew as he was getting off work one evening and let him know in no uncertain terms that there would be trouble if Matthew were to bother Ginny again. The phrase "like a fucking ton of bricks" was involved.

That was right before the holiday break, when I was here for my meeting with Vijay, Ginny realized as she made notes in a chart. When he sat down with me at lunch and was nasty about Harry's family. She also learned that the young Amanda Rossi was very taken with the debonair Accidental Magic fellow and that they had lunch together most days. And if I know Matthew, I know he loves having an audience. It wasn't hard for her to imagine him telling Amanda all about the encounter, the young medi-witch hanging on his every word. As she went on with her day, she became aware of sidelong glances and conversations abruptly cut short as she approached, even catching her own name a few times and she felt like she was suffering from a permanent blush.

The last straw was when she approached the main desk to drop off a chart for a patient that had come in with a migraine. Three people were at the desk with their heads together, only to break apart and head in different directions when she approached. Completely mortified, Ginny nearly threw the chart into the basket, struggling to keep her voice even as she told the receptionist that she was going for a walk outside for a moment.

In the outdoor courtyard the air was cold, but the sun was shining and she pulled her Healer's robes more tightly around her. There was a small lawn with some benches along the walkway and she sank down gratefully on one, cradling her head in her hands. I can't believe he's gone and done that, she thought, feeling a headache coming on. I can't believe he'd come over here and actually threaten Matthew. No, wait. I can believe it. This is exactly the sort of high-handed thing he'd do.

The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she got. Who does he think he is? He thinks he can just waltz in here and threaten someone because they've said something to me. Like I can't handle my own life. Like he needs to handle it for me. Like Matthew being a jerk is something I need to be rescued from.

Suddenly, she sat up straight and gasped. Oh no! Does Vijay know? Not only was the thought of a professional colleague learning of this embarrassment horrifying, but now she worried that it could interfere with her grant. If he finds out, this could go very badly for me. He might report it to St Mungo's and I might lose my grant. Without that, I might not be able to continue at UCSF! It was a sobering thought and she felt her head start to pound again. I can only hope that the gossip hasn't reached him. I need to talk to Matthew and find out exactly what happened. Matthew does tend toward the dramatic; maybe it wasn't that bad.

Decided on a course of action, Ginny took a moment on the bench to calm down. Trying to talk to Matthew while upset would be counterproductive and getting into a shouting match in the middle of the hospital would only add to her embarrassment. Just the facts, she thought as she sat with her eyes closed, well, the facts as Matthew sees them, anyway.

Feeling the pounding in her head start to fade, she took a deep breath and went back inside the hospital, heading up to the Accidental Magic Reversal floor where she hoped to find Matthew alone. When she found him, he was with a patient, so Ginny scribbled a quick note, folding it and asking the receptionist on the floor to get it to him. It simply asked him to meet her for tea in the canteen at three o'clock if he was free, so she wasn't really too worried about the receptionist reading it.

Back in the emergency room, she focused on avoiding Amanda as much as possible as she dealt with a constant stream of patients, trying not to keep looking at her watch. Finally, at three o'clock she told the receptionist she was going for lunch, though food was the last thing on her mind; she had felt like her stomach was tied up in knots ever since her conversation with the young Miss Rossi. In the canteen, she saw Matthew seated at an out-of-the-way table, two mugs of tea in front of him. Gathering her courage, she took the seat across from him, noticing that he looked a little uneasy as he drank from his own mug.

"Hello, Matthew," Ginny said, picking up her tea and taking an experimental sip, a little surprised that it was exactly the way she liked it.

"Ginny," he said with a nod, sitting quietly.

"How were your holidays?" she asked, trying to get past the awkwardness she felt.

"Good. Yours?"

"Fine." They sat and drank tea, looking all around the canteen as the silence between them continued to grow. Finally, Ginny took a deep breath. "So I heard you had a visitor a few weeks ago."

"I did," Matthew said with a nod. "Who told you?"

"Amanda Rossi. She seems quite taken with you."

"Indeed."

Matthew was silent again and Ginny felt her irritation with him rise. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"Your boyfriend came down here and threatened me," he said cooly, shrugging as he took another sip of tea.

Ginny tamped down the desire to hex him, certain he was enjoying himself. "Can you be more specific, please?" she asked, careful to keep her voice even.

Matthew crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. "Well, I was finishing up after a long day and he appears out of thin air and Disarms me, saying I'm to leave you alone from now on or things will go badly for me," he said, amusement in his eyes at her discomfort.

"He didn't curse you or jinx you?"

"He Silenced me," Matthew said, sounding completely affronted. "Listen, Ginny, I don't know if you're aware, but Harry can be one scary bastard."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at the "bastard" comment, but silently agreed on the scary part. She'd seen it herself up close a few times. "But he didn't actually harm you?"

"I had my wand taken from me and was left completely defenseless," Matthew said indignantly, seeming to forget that he had two perfectly good hands to defend himself with. Not that he would get far against Harry with those, Ginny thought as she drank more tea.

"Who else have you told about this?" Matthew looked away and Ginny knew then that he'd told practically everyone that would listen. "Did you tell Vijay?" she asked, a panicky feeling rising in her chest.

"I haven't, no," he said and Ginny felt her panic subside a little.

"But someone else might have? Or might still?" Matthew shook his head in a yes or no gesture. "What is Amanda Rossi to you? Are you dating?"

"No, we're not dating," he said in a tone that said they weren't dating…yet.

"What have you been telling her about me?" Ginny asked with narrowed eyes.

"Nothing. Why would I tell her anything?" Matthew said with his best innocent expression.

"She seemed to know an awful lot about my personal life—that we used to date and that Harry and I are together—how would she have learned that? You and Vijay are the only ones here at SF Thaumaturgical that know me and Vijay doesn't know we used to date." Ginny leaned forward and frowned at Matthew. "Are you trying to mess with me or get me kicked out of UCSF?"

"What? No, of course not! Why would I want to do that? If you want to go around with Muggles all day, more power to you," he said, sounding genuinely affronted.

"Then why would you say those things to her? Why would you tell her about us and about Harry?" Wasn't leaving me enough for you?

Matthew sighed and ran a hand through his hair in a gesture that Ginny remembered from when they were together. "I was embarrassed, all right?" he said, a flush rising up his neck. "I know that I bothered you that day and I truly didn't mean to. It's just that sometimes…sometimes I say things without thinking them through." He shook his head when he reached across the table for her hand and she drew back. "I guess I deserve that."

Ginny sighed and looked down at the table. "I apologize for Harry's behavior. I swear to you that I didn't run crying to him just because you were an arse to me that day. I had no idea that he would even do something like that."

Matthew snorted and quirked an eyebrow at her. "Come on. You never thought that Harry would come after anyone that gave you a bad time?"

"Well, someone that tried to mug me, sure. But you?" Ginny smiled and shook her head.

"He's never made a secret of how much he dislikes me. To be perfectly honest, I was half expecting him to show up on my doorstep when we broke up," Matthew said with a shudder. He looked at her and tilted his head. "I also expected you two to get together much sooner. Why didn't you?"

"That's the eternal question, isn't it?" Ginny sighed, thinking back to that terrible wonderful night and the morning that followed. "I couldn't take him being in the Aurors, constantly running headlong into danger."

"Huh. So I was the safe choice, was I?"

"Maybe," she allowed with a shrug. They sat quietly, sipping their tea as Ginny turned their conversation over in her mind. She was still furious at Harry for going completely over her head and confronting Matthew over his little bit of unpleasantness and very grateful that he hadn't actually hurt him. She needed to make sure that Harry knew that sort of behavior would not be tolerated, but she needed to do it in a calm, reasoned way. She subconsciously rubbed the half a Galleon in the pocket of her scrubs as she thought of their impending conversation.

"I've got to get back," Matthew said, checking his watch. "Listen, I'm sorry if I've caused you any trouble here. I'll talk to…some people and make sure that Vijay never hears of this, all right?"

"Thank you." Ginny finished her tea and stood up, surprising Matthew with a brief hug. "I'm glad we finally talked," she said, feeling like a deep ache had finally subsided.

"Me too," he said with that perfect smile, the one that she had once thought was only for her. She watched him walk away, still vexed that he could still make shapeless Healer's robes look magnificent. And now I need to talk to Harry.

Harry sat at his desk, trying to smother a yawn as his Juniors had their heads bent over their desks, writing furiously. He knew they hadn't believed him when he told them that he would be setting a quiz on the first day back and they had been very vocal in their protests when he sent the quiz papers flying to their desks when the class was half over.

"Those of you who actually did the reading over the break should have no problem at all with this little quiz," he said as the class groaned as one. Since it was the first day back and they were the last class of the day, he was having mercy on them and letting them leave as soon as they were finished with the quiz. So far, five students had finished and left for the day and he glanced at the clock, praying for it to move faster.

As he waited for them to finish, his mind turned to the upcoming evening. I wonder where Gin is going to want to go tonight? I hope somewhere that has a good steak, he thought, idly doodling a golden Snitch on a sheet of paper.

"Cool drawing, Mr Potter," said Thomas as he dropped his quiz in the basket on Harry's desk.

"Thanks," Harry chuckled, embarrassed to be caught out by the young man. "All done?"

"Yeah. Did you have a good Christmas?"

"I did," he said, smiling at the memory of standing with Ginny in the dawn light. "How was yours?"

"It was great, thanks. I got my own LightCaster, one of the new ones that can change the color of the light. I can't wait to use it!" he said enthusiastically, making Harry smile.

"I can't wait to see it, then. You ready to go?" Thomas nodded and stepped to the fireplace, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. "See you tomorrow, then," Harry said as the young man tossed the powder into the fireplace and whisked away, leaving a cloud of soot in his wake.

Gradually, the other students finished their quizzes and dropped them in the basket with a final rush just as the bell rang. Harry had been hoping his little trick would get him out early as well, but it didn't look like that would be the case. The last student gone, Harry stretched and let out the yawn he'd been holding in, gathering the stack of quizzes and shoving them in his bag for grading later.

After a quick stop by the office during which he managed to avoid being accosted by Artemis, he walked through the chilly January afternoon toward his favored Apparition point, still thinking about dinner with Ginny. Maybe I can get her to put on that green dress…and then take if off her later. Glancing at his watch, he saw it was much too early to expect Ginny home so he wasn't surprised when he Apparated into an empty flat.

Changing into jeans and an old black tee shirt, Harry grabbed a Newcastle out of the fridge and sat down on the sofa to grade the quizzes he'd set to his kids. He was working through the last batch when Ginny Apparated into the flat with a crack. Setting the papers aside, he stood up to hug her, frowning when she stood stiffly in his arms. "What's wrong?" he asked as she stepped away from him, setting her purse down and shrugging out of her Healer's robes, hanging them in the closet.

She didn't answer right away and Harry raised an eyebrow, automatically thinking of Matthew. "Did something happen at the hospital? Is everything all right?" Her back was to him and he saw her square her shoulders before turning to face him. Uh oh, he thought when he saw the look on her face.

"Why didn't you tell me you went to hospital and threatened Matthew?" she asked in a deliberately calm voice, arms crossed across her chest.

Ah, shit. Can't he keep his bloody mouth shut for once? "Um, because I thought you'd be really hacked off about it?" he said with a shrug and a smile, keeping his tone light.

"You're right about that. Harry, you can't be doing that sort of thing."

"Listen, you'd asked him to leave you alone and there he was, bothering you again. What do you expect me to do?" he said, spreading his arms wide.

"I expect you to let me run my own life like the grown adult person I am." Agitated, Ginny turned away from him and looked out of the windows that faced the street.

"Gin—"

"Harry, I'm not a little girl. I'm not someone you need to be saving, all right? I can handle things on my own."

"And you did such a brilliant job of it, didn't you?" Harry said, crossing his own arms. He wanted to go to her and wrap his arms around her, but felt that wouldn't be exactly welcome right now.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked, whirling around to face him again, a scowl darkening her face.

"You asked him to leave you alone and he didn't. He's never respected your wishes, has he?" Harry thought back to when Ginny had been with Matthew and how she had changed in unexpected ways. He remembered her talking about Matthew picking out where they were going to go for a holiday one Sunday at the Burrow. They were going on an opera tour through Germany, Italy and France and he'd almost said something about how much she'd always hated that sort of thing, but stopped himself.

"That's neither here nor there. What I don't need is you trying to go in and fix everything for me!" she said hotly.

"I just wanted him to leave you alone, is all. I was just trying to help, all right?"

Ginny pointed a finger at him and Harry was glad it wasn't her wand. "I don't need that sort of help from you. In case you haven't noticed, I'm quite capable myself."

"Oh, so if you're so capable I suppose I should have just left you in the Chamber of Secrets, then? Let's go get a Time Turner and change that, all right?" As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew that was exactly the wrong thing to say.

She stared at him, freckles standing out starkly on her pale face. "Is that how you think of me? A little girl, lying there completely helpless?"

"No, never!" Harry protested, desperately wishing he had a Time Turner in that moment so he could take back his stupid words.

Ginny stood quietly in front of the window, hugging her arms around herself, looking at Harry as if she didn't quite know who he was. "Are you with me out of some sense of obligation or duty? You saved my life once and now you feel like you need to stick around in case I get into some sort of other trouble?" she said after several moments of silence.

Harry felt like the floor had dropped out from underneath his feet and he was falling into a deep, dark pit and he shook his head to get rid of the dizziness he felt. "No! Gin, that's not it at all!"

"Then what is it? What does this really mean to you?" she asked, pulling out her half of the split Galleon. It glinted there on her palm, a golden accusation. "Was this just another obligation? Another duty for Harry Potter to undertake?" Her eyes narrowed. "Did my parents make you do this?"

"What? You know they didn't. You're not an obligation or a duty," Harry said, taking a step toward her, heart plummeting when she took a step back, keeping the distance between them. "I love you, dammit!"

"Then why? Why would you do such a thing without even thinking of the damage you could have caused? Did you even think about the repercussions?" She stood up straight and crossed her arms across her chest. "I can see that you didn't. You've been part of law enforcement so long that you don't even think about how your actions have consequences. Matthew could have very easily reported you and had you investigated. I could have lost my grant because of what you did. I could still."

The realization that he could cause Ginny to lose her St Mungo's grant hit him like a slap in the face and he stood rooted to the spot. It was true, he hadn't thought of the consequences of his actions. All he wanted was to scare the shit out of the despised Matthew Hudson and give in to his irrational jealousy of the other man. "That's not what I was trying to do," he said, feeling completely at a loss as to how he could possibly salvage this situation.

"What were you trying to do, then? Are you trying to control me? Because if you are, you better think twice about that!" Harry could see that she was very angry indeed, every muscle in her body poised for fight or flight.

"I'm not trying to control you. I know I could never do that in a million years," he said softly, seeing the shine of tears in her eyes. He felt like the lowest of the low that he had brought her to this.

"Then what were you doing over there? Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to have some slip of a girl that has a crush on Matthew come up to me and accuse me of setting you on him, like you're some kind of attack dog?" she said, her voice sounding shaky and breathy. "All day long I've been getting looks and catching whispers and then this little…bitch just waltzes up to me, bold as you please, and starts asking me questions about my personal life!" She swiped at her eyes, clearly irritated at the tears that spilled over and slid down her cheeks.

She stood still, breathing hard and Harry could see her fighting for control before she spoke again. "And then I find out it's because of you. I thought I was getting away from my controlling family by coming all this way, but here you are, still trying to control me! I'm still the goddamned baby!" she shouted, her voice full of betrayal and Harry winced to hear it.

Harry felt terrible that he had acted so rashly without any thought for how his actions might affect Ginny, thinking only of his victory over Matthew. Cautiously stepping closer, afraid she might either hex him or turn away, he drew her to him, holding her close as she shook with anguished sobs.

"I'm so sorry, love. I didn't think—"

"We've established that," she said, voice muffled by his chest.

"I didn't think that Hudson would blab all over the place about it."

"You never stopped to think that maybe it wasn't a good idea in the first place?" Ginny shifted and he was glad to feel her arms wrap around him and hold him tight.

"Nope. I would have blasted the shit out of him if I thought I could have gotten away with it," Harry said, completely honest.

"What did you do? Matthew told me his side of it. What's yours?"

Harry felt a wave of frustration go through him at the thought of Ginny talking to Matthew after his efforts to prevent that very thing and took a deep breath before answering. "I went over there and we had a short chat."

"He said you appeared out of thin air and Silenced him after Disarming him."

"That would be accurate," he said, deliberately keeping the irritation out of his voice.

"But that was all?"

"I didn't lay a finger on him, all right?" Ginny nodded and rested her head against his chest again. Harry closed his eyes and held on to her, listening to their breathing in the quiet flat.

"You're not trying to control me, are you?" she asked in a small voice some time later.

"No," Harry whispered, lips against her soft hair.

"Then why?"

Harry sighed and shook his head. "I'm a jealous man, Gin. I've never been able to stand you being with someone else. I thought you knew?"

"Did you threaten any of my other boyfriends?" she asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"No," he said, smiling when she gave him a doubtful look. "I swear, never. I may have given a few dirty looks, but that was it."

"Then why Matthew? Why do you hate him so much?"

Harry blew out a long breath and hugged her back to him. "Because you told me you loved him," he said simply. "And…" he had to pause for a moment, throat working against a sudden lump, "and you'd never said it to me."

At those words from Harry, Ginny's heart broke. An image of him the very first time she ever saw him swam before her eyes; a scrawny little boy, trolley piled high with his trunk and an owl cage, lost and completely alone in the busy train station. Not for the first time, she felt an awful surge of loathing for his horrible aunt and uncle who had raised him, withholding even the tiniest shred of affection.

"No," she whispered, stricken by the look in his eyes. "It was you, it was always you." She put her hands on either side of his face and pulled him down for a kiss. His lips were warm and soft against hers at first, then pressing harder, demanding more of her and she felt her heart quicken. His hands were suddenly everywhere, stroking down her neck, across her shoulders, down her back and then underneath her top, pushing the scrubs and long-sleeved shirt she wore underneath over her head.

As she drew back to toss the shirt aside, she saw Harry's eyes were nearly black, only a thin rim of shimmering green showing around the edges and she felt a tremble come from deep inside her as he pulled her up on her tiptoes to crash his lips to hers again. She pulled at the worn cotton of his shirt, sliding her hands underneath to run her palms against the soft skin of his back, the heat of him taking her by surprise. "Get this off," she murmured, pushing the shirt up, watching avidly as he took it off in a smooth motion, tossing it across the room.

He seized the waistband of her scrubs, pushing them down along with her knickers as she quickly divested him of his jeans and boxers, stroking her hand up and down his hard cock as they continued to kiss. Drawing back, he raised his eyebrow in a question and before she fully realized what was happening, he hoisted her up and entered her in a smooth stroke, making her gasp out his name. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, clinging to him as tight as she possibly could as he thrust roughly into her.

"You're mine," he growled, voice harsh in her ear, the raw emotion in it making her shiver. She responded by biting down hard on his shoulder, marking him, a feeling of triumph rushing through her when his rhythm faltered at the sensation of her teeth sinking into his flesh. His kiss was bruising and she welcomed it, wanting to possess as much of him as she could, striving to let him know that he had always been the only one for her.

His hands on her bottom tightened almost painfully and she knew she would have bruises, but she found she couldn't muster up the need to care as he pushed into her one last time, filling her completely as he came with a shudder, exhaling her name. Distantly aware of her aching legs, she tightened them even more, seeking her own release from the tension and emotion of the day until she trembled in her own right.

Kisses gentle once more, Harry carefully lowered her to her own two feet and Ginny continued to cling to him with her arms around his neck until she was certain her shaking legs would support her. An unaccustomed shyness overtook her and she buried her face in his chest, listening to his rapid heartbeat, unconsciously counting as it slowed.

"All right?" he asked, his voice a rumble against her ear as he squeezed her tighter and she nodded, looking up at him.

"You?"

"Yeah." He pressed his lips to the top of her head and sighed. "I'm sorry."

Ginny nodded and hugged him tight before stepping away, feeling chilled at the loss of his warmth. "It'll work out." She bent and picked up her discarded top, pulling it back on over her head.

"I wasn't too rough, was I?" Harry asked shyly as he pulled his boxers back on.

"No," she said with a smile. "Reminded me of that time at that club. Do you remember?" She nearly giggled at the flood of red that came to his face, telling her that he did indeed remember. "What about me?" she asked, tracing the tip of her finger over the twin red crescents on his shoulder.

"I've had worse," he said, kissing the palm of her hand.

"Want me to take care of it?"

"No, leave it. It'll be a good reminder of how stupid I can be sometimes."

Ginny's eyes lingered on the red mark, a little surprised at herself for having done it. She felt suddenly exhausted, the stress of the day at the hospital and the argument with Harry finally catching up to her. It must have shown on her face because Harry reached out for her, looking concerned.

"All right?" he asked, hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, just tired. Long day," she said, smiling at Harry reassuringly. "I'm going to take a shower. You're in charge of feeding us."

"What do you want?"

"Surprise me. No Chinese," she said quickly when he opened his mouth.

"As you wish," he said with a bow, looking faintly ridiculous standing there in his boxers, jeans still puddled around his feet.

In the shower, she turned the water up as hot as she could stand it, letting it pound her shoulders, willing the turmoil of the day to wash out of her and down the drain. She thought about the whole incident between Harry and Matthew and judged that if Vijay didn't already know about it, he likely wouldn't, especially once Matthew talked to that Amanda. I bet she'll do anything he says…sort of how I did… The water started to run noticeably cooler and she sighed, turning it off and grimacing at the groaning of the old pipes.

Dressed in her favorite pajamas, she left the loo and found Harry in trackies and a tee shirt, lounging on conjured cushions in front of the roaring fireplace. The smell of animal-style chips came to her and she smiled, sinking down on a cushion across from him. "You know exactly how to cheer a girl up," she said, leaning in to kiss him.

"Well, one girl anyway," he said, handing her a cup decorated with palm trees. She lifted the lid, delighted at the sight of the neapolitan milkshake. Along with the chips, a cheeseburger on a plate waited for her and she dug in, suddenly ravenous.

They ate quietly in front of the crackling fire, Ginny finally beginning to feel settled. "Not exactly what you had in mind tonight, is it?" she asked, drawing a chip out of the pile.

"Not quite," Harry said, popping the last bite of his double cheeseburger in his mouth with a grin. "I was looking forward to getting you into and then out of that green dress."

"You keep feeding me like this and I might not fit in it anymore," she said with a slurp of her milkshake. "Sorry about the shouting."

Harry waved his hand and picked up another sauce-covered chip. "Nah, you were right. I was incredibly stupid and I could have caused you damage. I need to get over myself, yeah?" He was quiet for a moment and then spoke again. "So, are you and…Matthew friends now?"

"I don't know if we're exactly friends, but we seem to have come to an understanding. Are you going to have a problem with that?"

"If I do, I promise I'll keep it to myself," he said lightly and Ginny frowned.

"Harry, I can't be walking on eggshells. I don't know if you've noticed, but medicine is a very male-dominated field. I don't want to constantly be wondering if I'm going to set you off by talking to male colleagues. They can't all be gay like Ben," she said, trying not to sound stroppy.

"I know," he sighed, stretching out on the cushions. "I told the truth when I said I was jealous. Even at school, I could have happily torn Dean limb from limb and he's one of my mates. I don't expect you to ignore half of Earth's population just because of me. I'll be fine as long as you keep coming home to me," he said with that adorable lazy smile Ginny loved best.

Finishing her milkshake, she set aside the cup and crawled over to join Harry, curling up next to him with her head on his unbitten shoulder. "Besides, I saw some of those other teachers looking at you when we were at that Winter Formal," she said, lacing the fingers of one hand through his. "Maybe I'm the one should be jealous?"

"Hardly," Harry snorted, stroking her thumb with his.

"I don't know about that. Who was the lady with all the blonde hair? She wore a red dress."

"Oh, Megan Peterson, you mean? Charms?"

"Yeah, her. She almost couldn't take her eyes off you all night."

"Really? I hadn't noticed," he said musingly. "She's married."

"Married isn't dead, you know. Then there's all the mums. I bet they all do yoga out here and are super bendy."

"I do need to schedule some conferences," Harry said with a grin, laughing at Ginny's scowl.

"I'm glad you think you're funny, Potter."

"I'm fucking hilarious," he murmured in her ear, turning her onto her back and straddling her. "And I'm going to do my best to keep your mind off of half of Earth's population if it kills me."

15. Chapter 15

At the end of a long, trying day, Harry groaned when he spotted the thick, cream-colored envelope in his box. What does Jacob want now? he thought as he slid it out of the cubby. Slitting the envelope open, he pulled out the thick paper and unfolded it, quickly reading over the contents.

Harry—

I hope this invitation finds you and your wonderful Ginny well. As I'm sure you know, I have become the sole US distributor for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products. I am having a kick-off gathering and reception on Saturday, January 21st and I would be delighted if you and Ginny could join us for an evening of fun and amazement. Drinks are at seven o'clock and a buffet dinner will be served at eight.

I am very much looking forward to your attendance.

—Jacob

Well, I guess that's our Saturday night sorted, Harry thought as he slid the note back into the envelope. This will give me another opportunity to see if I can find out more about that Horcrux, at least, Harry mused as he left the office, blessedly unmolested by Artemis. It seemed like every time he was in the office, the headmaster had something he needed to speak with him about. Walking through the late winter afternoon to his favored Apparition point, Harry composed his reply to Jacob in his head, resolving to send it as soon as he arrived home.

At the flat, he dropped his bag by the desk. Quickly composing a reply to Jacob, Harry sealed it and was about to leave the flat to walk down to post it when he heard the whoosh and thunk of something sliding into their own Wizarding mail drop. Curious, Harry looked in and saw a single letter addressed to Ginny. From George, Harry thought, raising his eyebrows.

He checked the time and saw it was just coming up on five. He knew Ginny had her late night at the clinic tonight and wouldn't be home until sometime after nine. I'll bring this over to her, give her a little bit of a surprise, he thought with a smile. I'll bring her a little bit of dinner, too.

Having decided on a course of action, Harry changed out of his teaching outfit and into street clothes before jogging down the stairs. At the fire call box, he tapped the handle with his wand, said "Jacob Green" clearly and the missive was sent on its way. Knowing Ginny likely wouldn't have a lot of time for sitting and eating, Harry went by a sandwich shop, getting her a turkey, bacon and avocado sandwich and an Italian for himself.

Apparating to the closest spot to the clinic, Harry walked in, surprised to see how crowded the waiting area was. He approached the reception desk and leaned against the counter, putting on his most winning smile. "Hello," he said to the harried nurse on duty, "can you please page Ginny Weasley for me?"

She looked suspiciously at him, narrowing her eyes. "Who are you and what do you want with her?"

Protective. Guess my smile isn't that good. "Tell her it's Harry and I've brought her some dinner."

"Harry who?"

"Harry Potter?"

Still frowning, she picked up her phone and pressed a few numbers, murmuring some words Harry couldn't quite catch in the noisy waiting room. A moment later she hung up the phone and pointed to an out-of-the-way corner. "You can wait over there. Next?" she said, dismissing him.

I guess I know where I stand with her, Harry mused as he went to stand in his prescribed spot. He didn't doubt that there would be dire consequences if he stepped so much as a toe out of line. He was staring at the television mounted on the wall that was showing some sort of children's program when he heard Ginny call his name. Turning towards her, he saw her walking down the hall, stethoscope hanging around her neck. He supposed the dark blue scrubs were supposed to make her look frumpy and sexless, but to him she always looked fantastic.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here," she said as she hugged him tightly. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. I know tonight is your late night and I thought you might be hungry," he said, showing her the bag with the sandwiches in it.

"Oh, perfect timing. I have fifteen minutes and I am starving. Come on." She took his hand and led him down the hallway she'd just come down, turning several corners until they finally arrived at a small break room. There was one other person there, a young man with his head propped up in his hand, sound asleep.

"Should we be quiet?" Harry asked, cocking his head at the slumbering young man.

Ginny shook her head. "No. You'd need dynamite to wake David up at this point. He's been up for twenty-four hours. Now, what did you bring me?" she asked, taking the sandwiches out of the bag.

Harry pulled the letter from George out of the pocket of his dragonhide jacket and handed it to her. "What's this?" she asked, turning it over. "Oh, it's from George!" She quickly opened it and read it. "Harry, he's coming for a visit! He'll be here on Thursday!"

"I figured as much," Harry said, telling Ginny about Jacob's invitation.

"That's marvelous! I'm so glad this is working out for him!" Ginny set the letter aside and started on her sandwich. "Bless you, Harry. My lab ran late and I had no time to get anything before starting clinic."

"You need to start taking better care of yourself, Gin. The last thing I need is for George to report to your mum that I'm letting you be run off your feet," Harry said, only half in jest. He'd noticed that some of her clothes were fitting more loosely than they had before.

Ginny waved him off. "It's just the start of the quarter. It's always like this. Things will settle down."

"It seemed really busy out there tonight."

Ginny nodded, her mouth full. "Yeah. Colds, aches and pains, sick babies. It's the season," she shrugged.

"Maybe you need to dose them with Madame Pomfrey's Pepper Up Potion," Harry said with a grin.

"Maybe," Ginny agreed, wrapping up the other half of her sandwich. "You didn't even eat yours," she said in dismay.

"I'll eat when I get home. Hey, who's the lady out front?"

"Oh, that's Jessica."

"She doesn't like me at all."

"She doesn't like anybody. That's what makes her so great." Ginny looked at her watch and sighed. "I've got to go." She leaned in and Harry kissed her, mindful of the sleeping man in the corner. "Thanks so much for bringing me something to eat," she said, cupping his cheek. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You wouldn't have delicious turkey, bacon and avocado sandwiches, that's for sure," Harry said with a smile.

"Cheeky. Come on, let me show you out." Harry followed her through the rabbit's warren of hallways. Back in the waiting room, she led him to the receptionist's desk. "Jessica," Ginny said, pulling Harry forward, "this is Harry. He's allowed to see me anytime."

Jessica smiled and extended her hand and Harry shook it bemusedly. "It's very nice to meet you, Harry," she said, releasing his hand.

"Good to meet you too, Jessica."

"My Starbucks order is a double mocha frappucino, venti," she said with emphasis on double and venti.

"Perfectly understood," Harry nodded, well acquainted with the ways and means for getting the gatekeepers on one's side.

Beaming happily, Ginny went up on her tiptoes and presented her cheek to Harry. "Don't let me forget to write George back when I get home," she said when he kissed her. "See you in a few." She waved at him and headed back towards the treatment rooms, a definite spring in her step.

Glancing at Jessica, he saw her looking at him over her glasses and he waved awkwardly. "Right then. Venti double mocha frap. Got it." A few minutes later, he was back with the aforementioned offering, earning a wide smile and nod in return. Certain that he and Jessica were now fast friends, Harry headed home to a pile of essays.

Thursday arrived and with it, Hurricane George. Ginny had stayed up extra late all week to get a little bit ahead with schoolwork and called in a favor from Ben to cover one of her clinic shifts so she could spend some time with her brother. "Are you ready?" Harry called through the bathroom door.

"Almost!" Ginny called back, opening the door a moment later. Harry had become so used to seeing her running around in scrubs or jeans and tatty jumpers that seeing her in a cream blouse, dark jeans and knee-high boots was quite an adjustment. "See, I can still clean up nice," she said, arching an eyebrow at him.

"Very nice indeed," Harry said, kissing her on her forehead. He grabbed his dragonhide jacket and shrugged into it, adjusting his shirtsleeves and tie. Once Ginny had on her own jacket, he took her hand and Apparated them to a secluded spot by Union Square and walked hand in hand the rest of the way to the Sir Francis Drake hotel, where they were meeting George for drinks in the bar.

Harry spotted George right away, the brightest thing in the bar with his red hair and garish, purple suit. Ginny ran forward to hug him, their laughter ringing in the posh setting. Catching sight of the striking figure in the seat next to George, Harry's eyes widened and he rushed forward himself, catching up Angelina Johnson in a crushing hug.

"Angelina! Oh my God! What are you doing here?" Harry said, stepping away and looking at her from arm's length. She looked amazing in a white blouse that set off her dark skin and black trousers.

"Harry! I'm here with him," Angelina said, cutting her eyes at George who had turned around and leaned his elbows on the bar.

Ginny's eyes were wide and she grinned. "Looks like I wasn't the only one that was keeping some news from Mum!" George had the good grace to blush a little and he gave a one-shouldered shrug.

"Oh, don't blame him," Angelina said, "I didn't want to say anything yet. We'd just gotten together right before Christmas and well, you know how the hols can get." She looked back at Harry and smiled that Angelina smile Harry remembered so well. "I heard you two had an interesting Christmas."

It was Harry's turn to blush and he unconsciously fingered the half of a Galleon that was always in his pocket. "Yeah well, just think—you could have been there in person to witness it."

"Yeah, love, just wait until you get sucked into all of the Weasley drama. We're like a whirling vortex, just looking for somewhere to touch down," George said with a laugh, putting his arm around her shoulders. He picked up his pint and hopped off the bar stool. "Come on, let's find a place to chat."

Soon they were all seated in a cozy banquette, talking, laughing and drinking. Stories about Quidditch games long past, old teammates and what they were all up to now dominated the conversation and Harry couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed so much.

Ginny's face was flushed and her eyes sparkled as she recounted a locker room conversation she'd had once with Demelza Robbins about Dean Thomas. "She asked me if he was as 'good with his quill' as everyone said and I swear to you, I didn't have the faintest idea what she meant! It was about two months later that I finally realized what she was talking about!" She shook her head at her younger self as her brother laughed uproariously. "So innocent!"

"That's a good thing. I always liked Dean and I would have hated to break all of his fingers," George remarked, downing the last of his pint. "Hungry?" he asked, pointing to each of them in turn. They all nodded in the affirmative and moved their party to the hotel's restaurant where George proceeded to run the staff ragged.

He looked over the menu and asked myriad questions about the offerings, wanting to know about the smallest detail. Were the oysters fresh-caught this morning? Was the salmon wild or farmed? Was the chicken free-range? What about the duck? Has the steak been dry-aged for twenty-eight days? After getting all of his questions patiently answered, George nodded and sat back in his seat.

"Right," he said, "I'll have a steak and kidney pie, Harry will have bangers and mash, Ginny will have a shepherd's pie and Angelina…" he turned to look at her, squinting before snapping his fingers. "Angelina's a classic. Fish and chips." Angelina inclined her head at George with a smile as the waiter stood mutely, absolutely dumbfounded. George looked at him in consternation. "Aren't you meant to be writing all of this down?" he asked, making shooing motions at the poor man.

As he wandered off, Ginny leaned in towards her brother. "George," she hissed, "you can't do that! It's not polite!"

"What's not polite is how much they're charging me for two suites in this place! You really should have warned me about how expensive this city is, Ginny."

"Two suites? Whatever for?" Ginny asked.

George leaned over towards Angelina and rubbed noses with her. "One for business and one for pleasure," he intoned with all seriousness. Harry saw the look on Ginny's face as she turned beet red and couldn't hold back the laughter that exploded out of him, earning him a sharp kick on his shin from her. This only served to make him laugh even harder.

Huffing, Ginny looked at Angelina and communicated in that wordless way women have and the both of them sauntered off to the loo. Harry wiped the tears from his eyes and took a deep breath, unable to look at George for fear of starting up all over again. "It's good to see you laugh again, Harry," George said quietly, all traces of the jokester gone.

"It's good to be able to," Harry agreed, taking a welcome sip of his Lagavulin.

George leaned closer across the table to Harry. "So, what's this Jacob fellow like?"

"You haven't met him?"

"No, not yet. Been dealing with a London associate of his, Roger Paine. When he initially contacted me about distributing over here, he said he'd met you and Ginny."

"Oh, well then." Harry sat back in his seat and thought for a moment. "Well, he's very rich. Donates loads of money to the school. He has an eye for what's unusual that will make him gobs of money—Muggle and Wizard both. I wouldn't be surprised if you were already on his radar and Gin served as a convenient opening. He's generous, but likes to be seen being generous."

"So not the altruistic type, then? Gives money and wants his name on the library?" George said, sipping his own whiskey.

Harry nodded affirmatively. "He's a sharp dealer from what I've heard. I'm not going to say that you'll feel cheated, but I understand he drives a hard bargain."

"Well, that part's all done anyway. There's a few things to sign, but it's mostly formalities at this point. I've had my firm look everything over from the start and I've retained one here to make sure that everything else proceeds without incident." George grinned. "Well, unless I cause the incident, that is."

"And here I thought you'd turned into a serious businessman," Harry said, shaking his head and smiling. "And Angelina! George!"

"I know! We ran into each other at a Christmas party, well, more than ran into if I'm being honest, and then she owled me out of the blue and asked me did I have anything for her brother and I said, well I dunno, let me look into it, maybe there's something at the Hogsmede shop and then she said, what you have nothing in Diagon Alley and I said, well I'm looking to expand with another location around York, what kind of skills does your brother have and she said, why don't we have dinner tonight and I'll tell you all about him?" George said, all in a rush.

Harry chuckled and patted George on the arm. "Sounds like you got taken for a ride, mate."

"Did I ever. Still don't want to get off it."

A moment later Ginny and Angelina came back and George signaled for a fresh round of drinks. The maitre'd came to their table and advised that their meals would arrive shortly and that he was very sorry for the delay. George nodded magnanimously and waved him off, supremely confident that his requests would be honored perfectly. Where did this George come from? Harry wondered as he watched brother and sister talk, hands flying in every direction. They had seen each other not too long ago, but apparently a lot had happened in the intervening weeks.

Shaking his head, he caught Angelina's eye and they shared a look that simply said, "Weasleys."

When their food finally came, there were more drinks, more talking and more laughter until Harry felt like he was back at the Auror academy, his stomach sore from doing endless crunches. The staff were cleaning up around them when Harry finally looked at his watch and immediately wished he hadn't.

"Hey, none of that!" George said, swatting at his wrist.

"Ugh, it's a school night," Harry groaned, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

"What time is it," Ginny asked apprehensively.

"Two in the bloody morning," Harry said, wincing along with Ginny.

"I have class in six hours," she said sadly.

George threw back the remains of his whiskey and clapped the empty glass on the table with a ringing sound. "All right then, get off with you. Me and Angelina will find something fun to do without you."

"You have early meetings tomorrow," Angelina cautioned.

"Angelina, the voice of my conscience. Fine then. We'll go to bed," George said, nuzzling her ear and murmuring something Harry couldn't hear that made Angelina giggle and slap him on the arm.

Ginny hugged George again. "I won't be able to see you tomorrow, but we'll see you Saturday for the big unveiling, all right?" she said, putting on her jacket.

"And it's going to be big," George said, rubbing his hands together in glee. This made Harry fear for the structural integrity of Jacob's mansion and he shook his head.

"Angelina, can't you do anything?" he asked as he hugged her good night.

She shook her head sadly. "No one can. Many have tried, many have failed."

"Right, then. We'll see you Saturday," Ginny said, taking Harry's hand. They left the restaurant, Harry feeling terrible that the maitre'd was still standing at his station. Once they had cleared the lobby, she grinned up at him. "Angelina Johnson!"

"I know! I never would have thought in a million years! Did you learn anything in the loo?"

"They ran into each other at a friend of a friend's Christmas party and she said it was instant fireworks. She had come off of a bad breakup and thought it was just a rebound shag, but she couldn't stop thinking of him, so she made up stuff about her brother looking for a job." Ginny smiled wistfully. "I think it's terribly romantic."

Harry squeezed her hand as they approached the Apparition point. "Well, our Angelina always did have a way to get what she wanted. She apparently wanted your brother, God help us all."

After a completely shit Friday where Harry seriously contemplated running away and joining the circus, Saturday was a welcome relief and he spent a good part of it in his pajamas while Ginny was at her Saturday study group. Anticipating more talk about portrait miniatures, he spent some time reviewing the information he'd gathered on them previously until he felt like he could fake his way through a conversation relatively well.

I need to find out where that miniature came from. Who had it before Jacob and how did he get hold of it? Harry thought with a frown. I need to seem interested, but not too interested. I wonder if I can finagle my way into that room with the blood seal? He wished Ron were here to bounce ideas off of and sighed, closing the lid of his laptop.

Glancing outside, he saw it was a bright, sunny day. Might as well get a run in, I guess. Dressing warmly, he Apparated to the Presidio and set himself a ten-mile course through the park, over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito, where he rewarded his efforts with a cappuccino and a sandwich. He had an amusing encounter with a student out with his parents, reminding him of the times he would glimpse his professors out and about on Hogsmeade weekends, completely amazed that his professors had lives separate from Hogwarts.

Seven o'clock found Harry and Ginny on the steps of Jacob's mansion. The front garden had been decorated with purple and orange fairy lights and an enormous "WWW" was suspended over the front door.

"Well, this all looks very festive," Harry said as he knocked on the door. A moment later, Jacob's assistant Evelyn Jones opened the door.

"Harry! Ginny! Please, come in," she said with a wide smile, stepping aside to allow them into the foyer, the telltale tingle of the blood seal running along Harry's skin. Still need to find out who did that.

As on previous occasions, the foyer had been transformed. Purple and orange were everywhere, making the foyer look as if it had been the battleground in a fight between crazed aubergines and demented pumpkins. Paper streamers came down from the ceiling, fluttering independently from any breeze. A mannequin that mimed eating a Canary Cream and turning into a human-sized yellow bird over and over, complete with chirps stole Ginny's attention and she laughed, clapping her hands at the cleverness.

Taking their jackets, Evelyn said, "They're in the library. You know the way?"

Harry nodded and took Ginny's hand, helping her hop over the portable swamp in the doorway to the rest of the house. In the library, they quickly spotted George, drink in hand and deep in conversation with Jacob. He was in an electric blue suit of some sort of shiny material that almost hurt to look at. Angelina stood close by, looking amazing in a clingy cocktail dress in an army green color.

"Ginny!" George crowed from across the room. "I'm so glad you could come to witness my triumph!"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Ginny said, taking the drink Jacob offered to her.

"Harry, good to see you again," Jacob said, handing Harry a drink as well. The strong alcoholic scent drifted up and he looked at George with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh no, I had nothing to do with these!" he said, shaking his head emphatically. "You may drink without fear!"

"Come now, George! A little bit of fear is a healthy thing, especially when drinking at one of my parties!" Jacob looked like he'd already been at it for a while. Harry noticed he was looking quite flushed. "Now, George, as I was saying, I think you can easily translate your products to fit the Japanese market…" he said, pulling George aside to a table that held a display of Pygmy Puffs.

Seeing Angelina and Ginny were engaged in a very animated conversation, Harry took advantage of the opportunity to get a look at the library. There were various Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products displayed on tables all over the room with bright, flashing signs that said, "Try Me!" Along with the Pygmy Puffs (Take One Home Today!), there were displays of the Skiving Snackboxes, or "Class Cutters" as they had been renamed for the American market, baskets of Canary Creams, Extendable Ears, trick wands, boxes of Portable Swamps and a whole display of joke cauldrons.

Harry saw the "Wonder Witch" line of products had been expanded and wondered if that was Angelina's doing. Along with the Daydream Charms and pimple vanisher, there was a mascara that was guaranteed to never run and an eyeliner that was advertised as giving the perfect "smoky eye" effect with one swipe.

A display of blue-and-white cans caught his eye and he walked over to take a closer look. "Canary Cream Soda, the drink that gives you wings!" he read on the display. It looked to be a can of some sort of fizzy drink with an animated illustration of a winged boy flying up in the sky and performing loop-de-loops.

"Harry, you've spotted my newest creation!" George said, looking over his shoulder. "I saw a Muggle advertisement for one of those energy drink things and thought to myself, 'Bugger that! I'll do it for real!' and here you are." He picked up one of the cans and handed it to Harry. "Try it! It lasts about ten minutes!"

"Mm, no thanks," Harry demurred, shaking his head. "I'll take my drinks like this," he said, sipping the drink Jacob had handed him. It was fruity and not what he was usually interested in, but it was wet and alcoholic, so that was fine with him.

"Suit yourself," George said with a shrug, setting the can back on the table. More people were trickling into the library and some were even trying out the products. Harry noted the buckets and tissues discreetly placed in strategic areas in case anyone decided to try the Puking Pastilles or Nosebleed Nougat. There was a loud burst of laughter as a man suddenly turned into a fat yellow bird and George grinned.

"You know you're giving me nightmares right now, don't you?" Harry said as he watched the fat yellow bird turn back into a very surprised man.

"Come on, Harry! When did you turn into part of the establishment?" George looked at him and raised his glass. "In truth, you only have yourself to blame."

Harry snorted and clinked his glass with George's. "You would have gotten here eventually."

Just then, Jacob sailed over, looking very excited. "George, I need you to come over and meet Marcus Tompkins. He's the Southern California purchasing manager for Braxo's Emporium and is very interested in what you have to offer!" With that, he pulled George away from Harry and toward the man that had so recently been a canary.

For once I'm not the center of attention, Harry mused as he continued his circuit of the increasingly crowded room. He passed by a group of mannequins wearing what he assumed were Headless Hats as not a single one had a head on their shoulders, angling towards the cabinet that held the portrait miniatures.

As he approached, he felt his heart seize up. It's gone. Keeping his face impassive, he drifted closer to the cabinet, hoping that he'd simply missed it or it had been moved to a different position, but no such luck. The portrait of the dark-haired saucy young woman with fire snapping in her eyes was not there. In its place was a miniature of a rather fat, dull-looking fellow in a white wig. It's really gone. Is it still in the house?

Feigning interest in the display of Instant Darkness Powder and Decoy Detonators, Harry thought. I wonder how close I have to get to it to feel it? I can do a bit of wandering—I doubt I'd be missed. There's that room with the seal…

"It's gone," Ginny murmured in his ear and Harry turned to her with a frown.

"I know. I just saw." He scanned the room. So far no one had really noticed them standing by the cabinet, but he didn't want to arouse any curiosity. He took Ginny's arm and strolled over to where Angelina was demonstrating a Daydream Charm to a group of middle-aged witches. One of their group was obviously in the middle of a good one, her face turning redder by the moment as her friends hooted and clapped.

"What are you going to do?" Ginny asked quietly, disguising her words in her glass.

"I don't know yet." Harry felt frustrated and he really wanted to grab Jacob and shake the information out of him, but he felt that would be considered rude to throttle the host in the middle of his own party. "I'm hoping I can get loose of this and wander around a little, see if I can feel it."

"Well, let me know if you need a distraction. I'm not above playing tipsy," Ginny said with a smile.

The room had grown even more crowded with excited adults acting like children, shooting sparks at each other with fake wands, throwing handfuls of Instant Darkness Powder and walking around without heads. The addition of the alcohol served to make things rowdier than they had ever gotten in the Gryffindor common room. Harry saw one young woman sprout enormous wings after finishing a can of Canary Cream Soda. She turned around several times, trying to get a look at them, almost knocking the people around her over before they started to flap of their own accord, causing her to shriek as she rose several feet in the air.

"Good evening, Harry," Artemis said, drink in hand. "Can you imagine having to deal with that in your classroom?" He shook his head and grinned at Ginny. "Your brother is going to drive us all to an early retirement!"

"I apologize for my brother, Mr Ashborough. My mother did her best, but he was just too strong for her," Ginny said with a smile.

"Artemis, I didn't expect to see you here," Harry said, only slightly dismayed.

"Jacob saw fit to invite me so I could advise the other teachers about what to look out for. Get some first-hand experience, as it were."

"Good of him. Is Diana here, too?" Harry asked. A house elf in a purple-and-orange-striped toga passed by with another tray of drinks and he swapped his empty for a fresh one. It looked like a martini this time and the tang of brine told Harry it was a dirty one.

"She's over there somewhere," Artemis gestured vaguely toward the group of women clustered around the Wonder Witch products table.

"Very good." They stood awkwardly, sipping their drinks and surveying the madness around them. Harry was sure they were each having the same thoughts of dread at these products being unleashed on the unsuspecting staff at St Ambrose's. He patted Artemis on the shoulder. "All right then, I'll leave you to it. Try one of the Canary Creams," he said, leaving Artemis to wander toward that table.

Ginny close beside him, he made another circuit of the room, hoping that maybe the Horcrux had been moved to a new location in the library, maybe one that showcased it apart from the other portrait miniatures, but no such luck. He looked over to where it had been and felt an electric jolt when he saw Ignatius Weatherbee standing by the cabinet.

Harry heard Ginny groan quietly. "Oh God, him again? Why does this awful man keep showing up?"

What I want to know is why he's standing next to that cabinet, Harry thought grimly. "I'm going to go talk to him, all right?" Ginny nodded and squeezed his hand before letting go to casually wander over to Angelina and her product demonstrations.

"Hello, Ignatius," Harry said with a friendliness he definitely didn't feel. "Beautiful, aren't they?" He inclined his head to the display of portrait miniatures.

"Harry," Ignatius said, inclining his head graciously. He motioned to the cabinet. "Yes, Jacob does have an eye for pretty things. I didn't know you were interested in Muggle artwork."

"Well, not usually, but when we were here on Halloween, there was one that caught my attention," Harry said, watching Ignatius for any telltale reactions.

Ignatius sipped his drink and looked over at the cabinet. "Which one caught your eye?" he asked, his face betraying nothing beyond casual interest.

Harry made a show of looking at the miniature paintings in the cabinet. "Hm, I don't see it…" He leaned down and looked closer at the bottom shelf. "No, it's gone," he said, standing back up and shaking his head in dismay which he found he really didn't have to fake. "It was one of a girl with dark hair."

Ignatius raised an eyebrow. "Ah, I think I know the one you're talking about. Young girl, very saucy-looking? Looks like she'd spit on you as soon as kiss you?"

Interesting. I gave the barest description and he knows the exact one. "Yes, that's exactly it. I take it you've seen it?"

"I have. It's a very fine example, painted on ivory if I'm not mistaken."

Harry nodded and smiled. "She just looked so…spirited."

Ignatius huffed out a bark of laughter and took another drink. "Indeed! I'd say that young miss had a surplus of spirit!"

Harry felt a chill creep slowly down his spine, making his fingers itch to grab his wand and blast the older wizard to the moon. He knows, but does he know that I know? "I'll have to ask Jacob what happened to her." He gestured to the portrait of the fat man that was displayed in place of the girl. "This bloke isn't quite the same," he chuckled.

"No, not the same at all," Ignatius agreed. "If I know Jacob, he's found a way turn beauty into money. I'm sure if you ask him, he'll tell you all about it and how much he got for her down to the penny."

"That's too bad," Harry said, shaking his head. "She kind of livened the place up a bit."

Ignatius laughed again and Harry could see the rush of blood to his face. "That she did."

"Harry," Jacob said, cruising over to where he was locked in his detente with Ignatius, "I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that the first applications for the James and Lily Potter Memorial Scholarship are coming in!" He gave Harry a wide smile and inclined his head at Ignatius.

"That's good. Congratulations."

"Jacob, I do hope you're keeping in mind the criteria for acceptance that we discussed previously," Ignatius said with a smile. He had a hand in his waistcoat pocket and took out his gold coin, absently rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger.

Jacob frowned, looking uncomfortable. "Now Ignatius, we did talk about how the scholarship would be available to any deserving student."

"Yes, any deserving student. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am of a mind to sample some of these wondrous wares!" Ignatius tossed the coin into the air and caught it, secreting it back in the waistcoat pocket before heading off in the direction of the crowd around the Canary Cream Soda where a young man was hovering on madly flapping wings.

Harry watched him go with narrowed eyes and turned to see Jacob staring at the man's back as well. "What was that about?" he asked.

"Ignatius has some ideas about who the scholarship should be awarded to. He wants me to change the criteria," Jacob said, taking a sip of his drink.

Harry frowned. "In what way?" he asked. He had a very educated guess, but he wanted to make Jacob say it out loud, make him realize how awful it sounded.

"He wants Muggle-born and half-bloods to be excluded," Jacob sighed.

"I see." Harry took a sip of his own drink, not really tasting it. Jacob was looking toward the crowd around the hovering young man. "Jacob, look at me." The older man turned toward him with an inquisitive look. "If you restrict that scholarship to purebloods with my parents' names on it, I will sue you into oblivion." Harry made sure to keep his expression pleasant in case they were being observed, but the steel in his voice left no question as to how he felt.

Jacob looked at him helplessly. "Harry, he's on the board. What can I do?"

"Withdraw the scholarship," Harry said immediately.

"I can't do that. I've announced it, applications are coming in. I really do want to support students in need, but Ignatius…"

"Make me one of the reviewers, then," Harry said quickly. It was the last thing in the world he wanted to do; he wanted nothing to do with this man's feel-good bullshit, but he'd be damned if he'd let his parents' names be attached to something so prejudiced.

"I would need to get the board to vote on it. I'm sure they'll all vote for it. Who better to help administer their memorial scholarship than their son?"

A son that wouldn't even qualify for it if certain people had their way about it. "Do it. I would hate to see such a wonderful opportunity for students tied up in the courts," Harry said quietly. Jacob nodded, seeming internally distracted and he took the opportunity to bring up the portrait. "I notice the Dumont portrait is gone?"

It seemed to take Jacob a moment to realize what he was talking about and then he nodded. "Yes! The girl! You know, it was the damnedest thing. You remember Guy?" Harry nodded and Jacob continued. "He contacted me a couple of weeks ago, saying he had a buyer interested in the portrait."

"Oh really? Who bought it?"

"I don't know," Jacob shrugged, "things like this in the art world are usually done anonymously, you know."

Damn. "That's too bad. How did the buyer know you had it?" And how can I find out who the buyer is?

Jacob made a sweeping gesture with his drink. "The art world is very incestuous and word gets around when choice pieces turn up."

"So I gather the Dumont made quite a stir?"

"Oh yes. It had been thought lost for a long time before turning up in that Muggle estate."

"It's a known piece, then?"

Jacob nodded and finished his drink. "Definitely. I can show you the documentation I have on it listing previous owners. Provenance."

"That would be wonderful." If I can see who had it before, maybe I can figure out who has it now.

"I never would have figured you for an art collector, Harry." Jacob looked out at the crowd and glanced at his watch. "Almost time for dinner. Listen, let's get together after the festivities and we'll go into my office. I'll make copies of the documents for you, all right?"

"Thank you, Jacob, I appreciate it." Behind him, Harry saw Ginny approaching, looking like she'd tried her hand at the Wonder Witch eyeliner. Holding his hand out to her, he returned her inquiring squeeze.

"Ginny, you look smashing as always," Jacob said, inclining his head at her. "I need to check on the status of the buffet. It's time to get something more than alcohol into these people!"

They watched him walk away, making sure he was well out of earshot before speaking. "Well, what did you find out?" Ginny asked quietly.

"It's been sold."

"Sold? To who?"

"Jacob says an anonymous buyer. I gather it's very common in the big-ticket art world. There's something else, though." Holding her hand, Harry moved a few steps away from the Extendable Ears display. "Ignatius knows what the portrait is."

"He does?" Ginny asked. Harry noticed that she resisted the impulse to look at Ignatius who was currently occupied with a Headless Hat. "How do you figure?"

"Well, he was over by the cabinet, yeah? So I gave the minimum description of it and he knew right away which one I was talking about."

"That doesn't mean anything. Maybe he just thought the girl was pretty."

Harry shook his head. "No, I think he definitely knows what it is. There was a look to him when he talked about it and a few things he said…I feel it in my gut."

Ginny poked him in the stomach with her finger. "You and that gut of yours. My gut is telling me I'm hungry. Shall we investigate what's being offered?" Harry followed her lead out to the ballroom which had been set up with serving tables that had house-elves behind them ready to serve. He saw that there were several tables meant for small parties of five to six people scattered around. Another team of house-elves manned what looked like a very well-stocked bar.

"Does this man ever do anything by halves?" Harry whispered to Ginny, thinking back to the elaborate Thanksgiving dinner they'd had here.

"Doesn't look like it. Shall we queue?" They made their way around all of the stations, accumulating two plates each on their travels. Harry kept a sharp eye out for Ignatius and took steps to choose a table as far away as possible.

"Drink?" he asked Ginny as she sat down.

"Surprise me," she said with a smile, so Harry came back with two bottles of Newcastle. "Oh, well done, you." They clinked their bottles together with a grin and set to the business of eating.

"Mind if I join you?" Angelina asked, her own piled plate in her hands.

"Of course! Where's George?" Ginny asked as Angelina sat down next to her, primly spreading her napkin in her lab.

"Somewhere over there," she said, waving her hand toward a large knot of people. "Making deals, being charming and witty."

"Sounds exhausting," Harry said, barely able to catch the flash of George's red hair in the crowd.

"You have no idea. He's going to sleep like a baby tonight, that's for sure."

"When do you go back?" Ginny asked.

"Week after next. George said this week was for business and the next would be for pleasure." Beneath her dark skin, Harry thought he could detect a blush and he smiled.

"Well, if you need a recommendation, there's a place Gin and I stayed at Thanksgiving. Wizarding resort up in the Wine Country," Harry said, feeling a blush spread across his own cheeks at the memory of Ginny in her turquoise bikini.

"A resort sounds wonderful. I'll get the name from you for sure. Don't let me forget," Angelina said, taking a sip of her martini.

Harry looked up to see Artemis and his wife standing next to their table, balancing plates and drinks. "May we join you?" Artemis asked and he nodded, motioning to the empty seat next to him.

"Angelina, may I introduce my boss? Artemis Ashborough, Angelina Johnson. Artemis, we were on the Gryffindor Quidditch team together. Angelina, this is Artemis's wife, Diana," Harry said, nodding to her.

"So good to meet you. I have to say, these Weasley products are simply amazing! George comes up with them all?" Diana said, admiration plain in her voice.

"George, and his brother Fred, came up with them when they were at school," Angelina said with a smile, pride evident in her voice.

"Oh. Where is Fred? Did he not come as well?" Diana asked innocently.

"No, Fred died in the Battle of Hogwarts," Angelina said smoothly. Harry admired her calm and her ability to make such a statement without making poor Diana feel like a fool.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Diana said, turning to Ginny with a sympathetic look.

"It's all right, Diana. It was a long time ago," Ginny said with a neutral smile.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, concentrating on their dinners when Angelina spoke again. "Diana, what did you think of the Daydream Charms? We're thinking of expanding the line. Right now, it's mostly centered on school-age girls, but I've had an idea for something a bit more…mature…for the mums."

The three women put their heads together, discussing the Daydream Charms and how they might be customized for the "Mummy Market" and Harry shook his head, taking a long drink of his Newcastle, scanning the room. Ignatius was still where Harry had last spotted him, having what looked like a very intense conversation with a middle-aged wizard, gold coin flashing as he danced it across his knuckles. Filling his ear with poison, no doubt, Harry thought glumly.

"Sorry?" he said when he realized Artemis was talking to him.

"I said we're very lucky to have never dealt with what you had to in England," Artemis repeated, shaking his head dolefully. "There have been some rumblings back east, of course. Every now and then something makes the news across the country, but nothing on the scale of…"

"Voldemort," Harry said quietly so only Artemis would hear the name.

"Exactly. People actually dying."

Harry sighed and pushed his plate aside. He was done with food now. "I was ready to. I thought I was going to," he said, remembering the sight of the ghosts of his loved ones surrounding him.

Artemis shook his head. "I can't even imagine something like that happening here."

Harry looked at the headmaster and raised his eyebrow. "You've practically got it happening right under your nose right now," he said, tilting his head toward the table where Ignatius held court.

Brow furrowed, Artemis shook his head in denial. "Oh, old Ignatius? He's got some odd ideas, sure, but he's harmless."

"Have you heard what he wants to do with that scholarship? How he wants to limit it to purebloods?" Harry asked, glad to see the shock on Artemis's face.

"No, I hadn't heard that. How did you hear?"

"Jacob, just tonight. I was chatting with our friend Ignatius when Jacob joined us and the subject of the scholarship came up. He told Jacob to make sure it went to deserving students and when he left, Jacob said he means to restrict it to purebloods."

"I…I was not aware of this. Thank you for bringing it to my attention." Artemis looked shaken and Harry felt a little bit awful for having to say these things at an event that was meant to be an exciting kick-off to a new venture, but there was no way he could let the headmaster of the only Wizarding school in Northern California remain ignorant.

Leaning in closer, Harry lowered his voice. "You need to look at getting him off the board. That man and his ideas have no place on the board of St Ambrose and you know it."

"It'll be tough, Harry. He has a lot of name recognition in the area. A lot of support."

"I wonder how much he'll still have when his supporters learn how he feels about some of their children?" Harry reached out to the older man and squeezed his shoulder. "Artemis, don't let this man get his poison in the school."

Artemis nodded and gazed toward Ignatius, a faraway look in his eye and Harry left him to his thoughts. Glancing at the women, he saw they were still fully engaged in their discussion about capturing the Mummy Market with daydreams of musclebound adventurers and he finished his Newcastle. Excusing himself to get a fresh one, he ran into Evelyn Jones on his way to the bar.

"Enjoying yourself, Harry?" she asked, sipping from a glass of red wine.

"I am, thank you. Jacob always knows how to entertain, doesn't he?"

"He certainly does," she said with a giggle, making Harry wonder how many of those glasses of wine she'd had so far. "Listen," she said, placing a hand on his arm, "Jacob told me that you want copies of the papers for the Dumont miniature. I'll be putting them together after the buffet is over and Jacob wants you to meet him in his office after the festivities have concluded."

"All right. Where is his office?" Harry gently took her hand off of his arm and crossed them over his chest.

"It's the first door at the top of the stairs down the hall from the bathroom. You can't miss it."

"Thank you. Let Jacob know I'll meet him there. Sorry to make you work tonight."

Evelyn waved he hand that held her glass. "Oh, that's the way it is around here. Always on the clock."

"Indeed. Thank you." Harry nodded and continued toward the bar. Well, now I know what's behind that blood seal. A few minutes later, he returned to the table with fresh Newcastles for himself and Ginny, glad to see everyone laughing, including Artemis.

"What did I miss?" Harry asked, putting his arm around Ginny's shoulders and hugging her.

"Angelina was just telling us the most ridiculous story about a shared Daydream Charm engineered for hen parties! They were testing it and…well…things took quite a turn!" Ginny said, barely able to get the words out amid gales of laughter.

"I knew this was going to be the fun table!" George said, plopping himself down in Angelina's lap and kissing her. "Hello, love. Having a good time?"

"Absolutely smashing! Harry has a recommendation for a getaway for when we're done with business."

"Does he now? I guess our Harry isn't all work and no play after all!" George looked at Artemis and Diana, extending his hand. "Hallo, George Weasley, purveyor of all things Wizarding Wheezes."

Artemis and Diana each shook it in turn and Harry introduced them. "George, this is Artemis Ashborough and his wife, Diana. Artemis is headmaster at St Ambrose's."

George winced theatrically and grinned. "I'm sorry, did I say I was George Weasley? I really meant Greg Westerly and I have absolutely nothing to do with students making their teachers miserable."

"Quite all right, George. Forewarned is forearmed, after all," Artemis said generously.

"Well, don't take it out on poor Harry, here. He has enough to deal with from that one," George said, jerking his thumb at Ginny and earning himself a sharp rap on the head from his sister. Rubbing the top of his head, George grinned at her. "Listen, I want to thank you for coming. It really means a lot to me." He checked his watch, an ostentatious Hugo Magnusson, and said, "The grand finale will be coming up shortly out on the terrace." He stood up from Angelina's lap and held his hand out to her. "I'll see you out there, all right?"

Harry watched as he led Angelina away into the crowd, shaking his head, amazed at the ease that George moved through life with. "I wonder what the finale will be?" he asked the table.

Ginny shook her head and took a drink of her fresh beer. "With George it could be anything."

A few minutes later, Jacob used the Sonorous charm to raise his voice above the buzz of conversation, inviting them to gather out on the terrace for, "what should prove to be an incendiary send-off!"

What followed was an amazing display of Weasleys' Wild-Fire Whiz-Bangs. Harry hoped the Thestrals were quartered somewhere safe and quiet as he watched spinning balls of multicolored fire rocket around the back garden. Giant fountains of glittering silver and gold sparks shot up from the ground, causing the gathered crowd to gasp in amazement and then cheer as the fountains began to move of their own accord, weaving gently back and forth, twining the two colors, before fizzling out. Up in the sky, two fiery knights ran at each other in a jousting contest before a giant dragon swooped down upon them and breathed fire, causing both knights to run away. The display culminated in enormous orange and purple Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes logo that seemed to fill half of the night sky.

Ginny was completely delighted at the display, jumping up and down and clapping her hands enthusiastically, her shouts blending with the rest of the crowd's. Harry was impressed. George's work had come a long way from when the twins had left Hogwarts, showing Umbridge their backsides.

The last sparks faded away, the crowd erupting in a roar as George leapt nimbly up on the terrace railing, spreading his arms wide and waving. "Thank you all for coming tonight. I am counting on you all to make Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes a success here in the United States! Please, take home samples tonight! Tell your friends! Tell your families! Tell everyone!" George took a bow as the crowd roared and jumped back down to the terrace, shaking hands like mad.

Everyone headed back inside to raid the sample tables, save for Harry and Ginny. He was leaning against the terrace railing with his arms around Ginny, enjoying the feeling of the Warming charm blowing warm air on them in the chilly night. His eyes were closed, luxuriating in Ginny's body pressed close to his, resting his chin on the top of her head.

"What time is it?" he heard her murmur.

"Dunno. Ten, maybe?"

Ginny yawned and turned herself around in his arms, laying her head on his chest. "I'm knackered. One of us wasn't able to laze around the flat most of the day."

"I went for a run. I didn't just lie around." Harry tilted her head up and kissed her, surprised when she parted his lips with her tongue. Opening his mouth to her, he pulled her tighter to him, wishing that they were anywhere else but Jacob Green's terrace.

"Let's get out of here," Ginny whispered against his lips and Harry groaned. "What?"

"I have to meet Jacob to get the papers about the portrait. Shouldn't take too long."

"All right, let's see if we can find him and get it over with." Ginny moved to step into the house, but Harry held her still and she looked up at him, confused.

"You lay a kiss like that on me and then you expect me to be fit for polite company?" Harry asked, grinning down at her. "Give me a minute, okay?" Ginny nodded and turned her back to him, nestling her bum right over his erection, moving her hips to subtly rub against him. "Gin," he choked out, "what you are doing isn't helping."

"No? What about this?" she asked, pushing against him harder, looking at him impishly over her shoulder.

"Oh God, that's bloody fantastic, but no, it's not helping." Ginny's grin caused sparks to fire in his brain and he began to have thoughts of finding a dark corner somewhere when he heard Jacob's voice.

"Yes, thank you so much for coming tonight. We'll be in touch. I'm very interested in the St Louis market," he said, shaking hands with a very well-fed looking wizard, causing Ginny to immediately stop her seductive movements. "Harry, there you are. I was looking for you inside. Shall we attend to those papers?"

Clearing his throat, Harry nodded. "Yes, let's do that. I need to get Gin home. She had an early morning study session and she's just about all in."

"Well, we don't want to keep your lady waiting then," Jacob said, smiling at Ginny. "Follow me." Glad his erection had deflated as soon as he heard Jacob's voice, Harry took Ginny's hand and followed Jacob up the stairs to the room that he'd discovered with the blood seal on his previous visit.

The door opened easily at Jacob's touch and he stepped in, turning around to invite them into his office. The tingle of the blood seal ran through Harry as he crossed the threshold. "A blood seal, Jacob?" he asked, looking around the richly-furnished room. Two things dominated; the enormous, ornately-carved desk and the striking Wizarding portrait of a young woman directly across from it. The young woman currently reclined in a chaise lounge, eyes closed.

"This is where I conduct all of my business. You can never be too careful," Jacob said, picking up a sheaf of papers from the leather blotter on his desk. "Here you go. I think you'll find the history of the Dumont piece very interesting."

Harry nodded, paging through the sheets. Lists of names and dates, dealer comments, sale prices. The piece seemed to have been mainly in Muggle hands for most of its existence, which Harry thought stood to reason since it was a Muggle piece of art. I wonder, is it back in Muggle hands or still with a wizard? "Thank you so much for sharing this, Jacob. I find it all very fascinating."

"We'll make a collector out of you yet, you'll see."

Harry folded the papers and put them in the inner pocket of his blazer, holding his hand out to Ginny. "We'll see. Looking at the prices for this piece, it looks like an expensive hobby." He gestured to the portrait. "What did that run you? It's amazing."

"Ah! That I inherited. That is my great-great-great-great grandmother, Coretta Maxwell," Jacob said with pride. "Her father Cornelius was very successful in the Gold Rush and built this house."

Harry shook his head and looked at Ginny. She was peering closely at the portrait as if she were trying to memorize every detail. "It's very beautiful," she said, "you look a lot like her."

"I hear she was the spitting image of old Cornelius, so I suppose I look a lot like him," Jacob said, escorting them out of the office and past the library which was in utter shambles. It looked like the Running of the Bulls had taken place with at least one table overturned. Harry winced and Jacob waved his hand. "It'll all be set to rights by morning." At the front door he handed them their jackets. "Thanks again for coming. Harry, I'm taking what you said earlier under serious consideration."

"Good. I meant what I said, too." Harry reached out for Jacob's hand and shook it. "Good night."

"Good night, Harry. Good night, Ginny. I think your brother and I are going to work very well together."

"What was that about?" Ginny asked as they walked briskly back to the Apparition point.

"So Ignatius is on the board for St Ambrose's and he wants to restrict Jacob's scholarship to purebloods."

"Harry! He can't! Your mother—"

"I know. I already told him I'd sue his arse off and keep it tied up in the courts if he tried to do that."

"Good," Ginny said fiercely as they reached the secluded Apparition point. A moment later, they were in their flat and Harry bent down, kissing her hard. "What was that for?" she asked with a smile when they broke apart.

"You give me the worst hard on I've had in ages and then you ask me what that's for?" Harry asked, seeing the mischief in her eyes. He picked her up and swung her around bodily to land on the bed, her peals of laughter making his heart swell.

"I knew what it was for, I just wanted to see if you did," Ginny said, sitting up and reaching for him, pulling him forward by his tie, meeting his warm lips with her own.

16. Chapter 16

"Oh my goodness. This is grand, isn't it?" Ginny said as they approached the sweeping steps up to the Legion of Honor.

"Very," Harry murmured as he took in the stately marble building flanked by two stone lions. The fountain in front and subtle lighting lent the museum a dreamlike quality in the early February San Francisco night.

"How in the world did Ignatius afford this place?" Ginny wondered, looking all around.

"I have my suspicions." Harry held out his arm for her and she took it with a smile as they mounted the steps. He nodded to the other witches and wizards entering the stately building. Everyone was turned out in their very best finery and Harry privately thought that none of the witches could hold a candle to Ginny. She was decked out in a beautiful midnight blue dress that did amazing things for her cleavage and legs and Harry found he was having a hard time paying proper attention to his surroundings.

"You think Jacob?"

"I do." They reached the top of the steps and paused before the doorway. The sounds of conversation and laughter reached them and Harry took a deep breath.

"All right?" Ginny asked, adjusting his tie and smoothing the shoulders of his Auror dress robes. "What made you decide to wear these?" she asked curiously.

"They go better with your dress than my other dress robes," Harry lied smoothly. In truth, he knew this fundraiser of Ignatius's would get a writeup in the Uncanny Examiner and he felt the need for the extra armor the imposing robes provided. Maybe if I look threatening enough, no one will come talk to me.

"Well, I've always thought you look bloody amazing in them, so you'll get no complaints from me." Ginny kissed his cheek and linked her arm through his again. "Ready?"

Harry nodded and they entered the museum, following the other attendees to the Rodin Galleries where Ignatius's reception was scheduled to take place. Leaving their cloaks with the attendant, they showed their tickets to the wizard at the entranceway and entered the gallery vestibule area, dominated by an enormous bronze statue. Several witches and wizards milled around with drinks in their hands, their conversation a dull roar in large room.

Letting Ginny take the lead, he followed her into one of the side galleries which was full of more people and statues. Floating trays of drinks and canapés circulated around and he plucked glasses of white wine for Ginny and himself from one. Senses on high alert, Harry sipped sparingly from his wineglass as he assessed the room and the people in it.

He immediately spotted Artemis and Diana talking with a tall, middle-aged wizard Harry vaguely recognized from the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes kickoff party. Businessman, he surmised, putting the man on his mental non-threat list. As his eyes roamed around the room, they passed over Jacob's assistant, Evelyn. Jacob's not too far away, then, and unless I miss my guess, Ignatius will be close by him. Evelyn also went on the non-threatening list.

He saw Ginny glance up at him and give a small shake of her head before she took his hand and led him around the room, ostensibly to look at the art. Following Ginny around the gallery in this manner enabled Harry to catalog the features of the room and the people in it. He spied a young wizard with a camera around his neck and steered Ginny away from him, certain he was from the Uncanny Examiner. The last thing he wanted was his picture in the local paper.

"Good evening, Harry, Ginny," Artemis said, inclining his head to them both. "Ginny, you look smashing."

"Thank you, Artemis. You and Diana have turned out well yourselves," she said with an impish smile.

"It's always wonderful to be complimented by one so young and lovely as yourself. Harry, are those your Auror dress robes?" Artemis asked, looking Harry up and down.

"They are. I brought them back from London after the holiday," Harry said, feeling only a tiny bit terrible at lying to his boss.

"You look very dashing in them," Diana said, fingering a bit of the braid on one shoulder.

"Thank you," Harry said with a small bow. "Sometimes I feel a bit ridiculous in them, but I felt they would be appropriate for tonight. Have you seen Jacob or Ignatius around? We'd like to pay our respects."

"The last time I saw them, they were in the gallery across the way," Artemis said, gesturing with his wineglass toward a doorway.

"Very good. We'll see if we can catch them before we sit down for dinner and speeches." Artemis nodded and smiled as they took their leave, passing through a large room with several long tables set for dinner. A high table with a podium dominated the front of the room, another large bronze piece standing behind it.

"Let's see where we're sitting," Ginny suggested and they scanned the place cards for their names, finally finding them about halfway down the long table on the left side of the gallery. They were surrounded by names Harry didn't recognize and he let out a sigh.

"Hey, let's see if we can find where Archimedes and Sarah are, yeah?" Though he hadn't yet seen the ex-Auror and his wife, he knew that they had both been invited to the event to kick off Ignatius's run for the Greater Bay Area Wizarding Council. Searching quickly, they found their names all the way on the other side of the room.

"Shall we switch places?" Ginny suggested with a raised eyebrow.

"Let's do it." Harry went back to their original spots and took their place cards, bringing them over and swapping them out with the ones already there. "Sorry, Ravi and Khushi. I hope you like this spot just as well," he muttered as he put the place cards in his and Ginny's old places.

"So naughty, Mr Potter," Ginny whispered in his ear, "shall I go tell your headmaster what you've just done?"

"I'll just tell him that it was your suggestion and I was acting on orders," he murmured, bending to kiss her before they moved into the second sculpture gallery. This one was a lot more populated and noisy, the sound reflecting off the stone walls and beating on Harry's ears, causing an instantaneous headache.

Eyes scanning the room, he quickly caught sight of Jacob's salt-and-pepper hair and next to him the shorter figure of Ignatius. They were having what looked like a jolly conversation with two other wizards in sumptuous dress robes and Harry caught the flash of gold in Ignatius's hand. I've got to figure out what the deal is with that coin, he thought as he took another sip of his wine, still only half-drunk.

Ginny led him around the gallery as she had before and Harry kept half of his attention on Ignatius, trying to hear even a snippet of his conversation. Across the gallery, Harry spotted Archimedes and Diana and he squeezed Ginny's hand, indicating the pair with a tilt of his head. She nodded and shepherded them in that direction.

"Harry," Sarah said with a smile as he bent to kiss her cheek, "you look very grand tonight."

"And Ginny looks lovely as always," Archimedes said, taking her hand with a bow. "How have you both been?"

"We've been well, thank you," Ginny said, returning Sarah's smile. "Sarah, you look amazing. I love that gold color on you."

"That's kind of you to say, dear. Sometimes it's nice to have an excuse to get all dressed up. Have you been here before?"

"No, this is the first time either one of us have been here. It's a beautiful building and the artwork I've seen so far is quite impressive."

"I studied a bit of art in college. Let's go take a look around, shall we?" Sarah asked and Ginny looked at Harry.

"Go ahead. I'll see you for dinner, all right?" Harry said, giving her hand a squeeze before letting her go. He watched the two women walk away for a moment, admiring the sway of Ginny's hips, before turning to Archimedes. "I wasn't sure you'd come."

"Mm, indeed. I can think of ten other places I'd rather be right now, but I felt like I should know what we're getting into with this man." Archimedes reached out and fingered one of the medals on Harry's chest. "Order of Merlin."

Harry shrugged. "Kill a Dark Lord and they just throw them at you. Ron, Hermione and Neville all have one, too."

"I should like very much to meet Ron and Hermione someday," Archimedes said, taking a glass of wine from a passing tray. "How long have you been here?"

"About an hour. You?"

"We just got here. Shall we mingle?" Harry nodded and followed Archimedes through the crowd. He plotted a circuitous route to where Jacob and Ignatius stood near the center of the room, shaking hands and greeting people he knew. It turned out that Archimedes knew a lot of people and Harry had given up on trying to remember names as he was introduced to what seemed like the whole of the Bay Area Wizarding population.

Harry tried to sound polite as he answered, "I love it," over and over to the questions of how he liked it here in California and how did he like teaching. Several of the ladies seemed determined to reach out and touch him and he began to think that wearing his full Auror dress robes was a mistake.

After what seemed like forever, they were talking to a group of wizards standing next to Jacob and Ignatius, the flash of that gold coin catching Harry's eye once more. He watched, nearly mesmerized as the older wizard made the coin dance over his knuckles and disappear into one hand, only to reappear in the other. He could almost hear it chiming as it turned end over end as Ignatius flipped it, only to catch it again and start the sequence of events over.

He touched Archimedes lightly on the shoulder, flicking his eyes towards the coin. Archimedes gave an almost imperceptible nod and approached Ignatius, holding his hand out for a handshake. "Ignatius! It's been a long time!" he said, interrupting his rhythm with the coin. Harry chose that moment to gather his will and push, sending the coin tumbling out of Ignatius's grip and down to the marble floor where it landed with a sharp ping.

Bending swiftly before Ignatius could react, Harry picked up the coin, a cold fire settling in his tattoo and he had to stifle a gasp. Turning it over in his hands, he looked at the front and back, seeing nothing remarkable. It looked like any other gold double eagle coin he'd looked at online, but the longer he held it, the worse it hurt. There's something familiar about this, he thought, breathing through the pain. I've felt this before. It's not like my scar…

"Harry, thank you for rescuing my lucky charm," Ignatius said with a smile, holding out his hand. Harry placed the coin in the middle of his palm, breathing a sigh of relief when the cold pain stopped burning the shit out of his tattoo as soon as he stopped touching it.

"No problem. I'd hate to see such a beautiful object get trampled underfoot," Harry said, focusing on keeping his voice even. He watched Ignatius's face as he took back the coin, noting the look of satisfaction as he made it disappear and reappear in his other hand.

"Harry, so good to see you here," Jacob said, shaking the hand that still tingled from contact with the gold double eagle coin. "Are you here alone or did the beautiful Miss Weasley come with you?"

"Ginny's here. She and Sarah are looking at the sculpture." He turned to Ignatius, reaching out to shake his hand against his better judgement. "This is a beautiful choice of venue."

"Oh, I can't take any credit for choosing this place. It's all down to Jacob. I would have been fine renting out a much less … grand place, but he wouldn't hear of it!" Ignatius said with a deprecating shrug.

"Now Ignatius, this isn't just some suburban city council seat you're running for. A contest for a seat on the Greater Bay Area Wizarding Council demands some grandeur." Jacob winked conspiratorially at Harry and Archimedes. "Consider this my campaign contribution."

"Speaking of contributions, this is a fundraiser. Can I count on the two of you?" Ignatius asked with raised brows.

"You can definitely count on us," Archimedes said warmly and Harry noted that he neglected to say just what exactly they could count on them for.

"That's all I can ask for," Ignatius said, looking at Harry again. He saw the other man's eyes finally take in his full appearance in his Auror dress robes, settling on the Order of Merlin on his left breast. "Order of Merlin, I see," he said, meeting Harry's eyes for the first time in their conversation. "I imagine the Wizengamot were falling all over themselves to pin one on you, eh?"

"I suppose they felt I'd earned it," he said with a shrug. "Well, we'll let you get on with shaking hands, all right? Jacob." Harry nodded and moved off through the crowd, eyes searching for Ginny. He spotted her toward the rear of the gallery, head together with Sarah's as they stood in front of a large, vaguely man-shaped statue.

"So?" Archimedes said softly next to him.

"There's something odd about it. When I touched it, it didn't feel good." Harry kept his voice low as they pushed through the assembled bodies towards the girls.

"How?"

"A burning feeling, but cold."

"Like a Summons?"

"No, but I've felt it before. I've been trying to remember when."

"I see. I appreciate it if you keep me posted."

"Of course," Harry murmured as they reached Ginny and Sarah. He pressed his lips to Ginny's bare shoulder, making her jump in surprise.

"Oh, hello! Where have you been?" she said, eyes bright at seeing him again.

"We were chatting with Ignatius and Jacob," Archimedes said, putting his arm around Sarah's shoulders. "Did you have a good time telling Ginny all about these lumps of metal?"

"Archimedes, they're so much more than just 'lumps of metal'," Sarah admonished. "See how that arc there flows into the main body and then is echoed again just there?"

"Not at all, my love. Have you had anything to drink yet? I haven't had nearly enough to get through this. Let's see if we can remedy that, shall we?" He nodded at Harry and Ginny. "See you at dinner."

Harry watched as the older couple moved off, Archimedes making a beeline for a full tray of drinks. "So, what did you chat about?" Ginny asked, drawing his attention back to her.

"Nothing really. Found out Jacob did pay for this place."

"As you figured. What else? Did he have that coin out again?"

"He did. Archimedes distracted him and I made him drop it and then I picked it up."

"And?"

"And it hurt like bloody blazes," Harry said, a phantom tingle running from his shoulder to his ribs.

"Are you all right?" Ginny asked, concern in her voice as she ran her hand over his shoulder and back.

"Yeah, fine. It stopped as soon as I let go of it," he said, leaning into her soothing touch.

"What did it feel like? A burn? A sting? Did it throb?"

"No, not like a sting at all. Like a burn, but cold, like I'd touched something that had been frozen for a hundred years," Harry said. "There was something familiar to it…"

"Was it like a Summons?"

"No. There's nothing else like a Summons. No, this is something I felt more recently…" Harry frowned, racking his brain for when he might have been in contact with something that had that same cold, frozen feeling. Something Dark… He snapped his fingers and looked at Ginny. "I've got it. That ill-wish that cursed the dryad."

Ginny's eyes were wide with surprise. "What? You think that coin and whoever cursed the water horse's dryad were connected?"

"I think more than connected. I think the same person had something to do with them both."

"You didn't say the ill-wish hurt."

"I didn't handle it all that long. I threw it down as soon as I realized what it was, but yeah, I felt that same cold burn," Harry said, remembering the day they'd spent looking for the water horse's missing dryad, only to discover that she'd been cursed to remain in her hibernating tree form by an ill-wish buried next to her trunk. Ginny had been crushed at the revelation and had yet to make contact with the water horse and break the news to him.

"Well, now we really need to talk to the water horse and see if he knows who might have cursed his dryad," Ginny said thoughtfully.

"If he's forgotten his own name like you say, I don't have much hope he'd remember this one, but you never know." Harry sighed again and looked around the crowded room. "You want another drink?" He'd finally finished the glass of wine he'd picked up when they first came in.

"Sure, there's a tray over there," Ginny said, taking his arm and moving towards it. Halfway there, she grinned up at him. "You're making quite a stir in those robes."

"Oh?" In spite of himself, Harry found his curiosity piqued.

"Mm-hm. When Sarah and I were looking at the statues I heard a few ladies talking about you."

"Really? What were they saying?" Harry asked, looking down at her.

"Oh, there's that Harry Potter," Ginny said in an over exaggerated, breathy voice, "I had no idea he was so tall."

"Is that all?"

"Oh my goodness. Is that the Harry Potter? I thought he was just a scrawny little kid!" This was in a high falsetto and Harry snorted at her mimicry.

"Scrawny indeed. What else did you hear?"

"There goes Harry Potter. I certainly wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating crackers," Ginny said in a low, sultry voice.

Harry wrinkled his nose. "What does that even mean? Eating crackers?"

Ginny shrugged and grinned up at him. "I suppose if you were eating something in bed that made a lot of crumbs, you're just so adorable that you wouldn't get kicked out of bed for it."

"I know what I like to eat in bed and it isn't crackers," Harry whispered, lips close to her ear.

"Naughty," she murmured, turning to kiss him, her lips lingering on his longer than what was usually appropriate for a public place. Harry didn't mind. "There. That's shown them."

"Staking out your territory?"

"Yes. Now, what about that drink you promised?"

Harry plucked a glass of wine for each of them from a passing tray, handing one to Ginny with a bow. Sipping slowly, he looked over to where Ignatius was still holding court. He couldn't see the coin and supposed he must have put it away, wary of dropping it in the crowd again. I hope he couldn't tell it was me that made him drop it. Pushing wandlessly like that isn't the most subtle thing.

"Harry Potter! Can I get a picture of you and your date for the Uncanny Examiner?" The young wizard with the camera he'd spotted earlier stood in front of him and Harry groaned inwardly.

"Uh, sure," Harry said, settling his arm around Ginny's waist. He tried to keep a pleasant expression his face and it seemed as if he'd succeeded because the young photographer smiled and nodded at him.

"Can I get your name for the caption, Miss?" he asked Ginny, pulling out a notepad and pencil stub.

"Ginny Weasley," Ginny said and Harry saw the photographer's eyebrows shoot up as he thanked her.

"What do you want to bet it turns out that I'm here with Ronald Weasley's sister?" Harry said after he'd been absorbed by the milling throng.

"I've heard of her. I bet she thinks she's too good for the likes of you." She grinned up at him, sipping from her wineglass, giving him an expression that made him want to sling her over his shoulder and find someplace private.

Just as Harry was plotting escape routes, a gong sounded throughout the gallery, causing the roar of conversation to cease. Ignatius's amplified voice echoed in the cavernous space. "Ladies and gentlemen, that's the signal for dinner. Will you please join me in the next hall?"

Chatter resumed as the throng started moving toward the tables in the gallery next door. Harry and Ginny let the crowd get well ahead of them before moving in themselves, glad they'd already scouted out their spots.

Archimedes and Sarah were already seated when they took their seats across from them. "Hello again," Sarah said with a grin.

"What a fortuitous arrangement." Archimedes raised his glass to the two of them with a sardonic look.

"Yes, isn't it funny how sometimes things work out?" Ginny said, adjusting her skirt as she sat. They shared a laugh and Harry took the opportunity to survey the room while everyone was still getting settled.

Unsurprisingly, Ignatius and Jacob both were seated at the high table at the front of the room, along with what he supposed were other Bay Area Wizarding luminaries. "So, he didn't come after all," Archimedes said in a low voice.

"Who were you expecting?"

"Aiden Rutherford, the outgoing incumbent. I know he was invited, but I didn't expect him to come. It would have been seen as a tacit endorsement of Ignatius and very bad form," Archimedes explained. "I do see Janus Smith up there though. That's interesting."

"Who's he?"

"Janus is another one like Jacob. More money than sense," he said derisively. "Word is that he's got some political ambitions of his own and it looks like he's hitching his wagon to Weatherbee." Archimedes had a calculating look in his eyes and Harry shook his head. This sort of politicking is exactly why I left the Ministry, he thought. The last thing I need is to get dragged back into all of this shit.

Getting his mind off of politicians and their ambitions, he saw most everyone was settled in their seats and house-elves, undoubtedly hired from Jacob, began to file in bearing trays of covered dishes. Dinner turned out to be either steak, chicken or vegetarian pasta. Harry chose steak and Ginny had the chicken. Sharing bites from each other's plates, they passed the time in pleasant conversation with Sarah and Archimedes, deliberately avoiding all talk of coins and politics.

"Ginny, Melissa Moore is approaching her due date," Sarah said as she sipped from her wineglass. "Are you still interested in attending a birth?"

"I am. When is she due?" Ginny said, cutting a piece of chicken and putting it on Harry's plate.

"Should be sometime in the next couple of weeks. I'm not her midwife, but I've been asked to be there when the time comes. She's a childhood friend of my daughter's and this will be her first."

"Are you sure she wouldn't mind me being there? I don't want to intrude or get in the way."

"Oh, no dear, you won't be in the way at all. I daresay that house will be full to bursting when Melissa's time comes." Sarah reached out and took Ginny's hand, squeezing it gently. "I know her mother will be glad to have a fully-qualified Healer on hand in case things get out of hand."

"Well if I can, I would definitely love to come. Message me when it's time." Ginny smiled up at Harry as he finished his wine. "Would you have a problem if I went?"

"Why would I have a problem?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You're not going to bring one home, are you?"

"I rather think not."

"Then I don't have a problem," he said with a grin, tweaking the tip of her nose and making her rub it vigorously. As Ginny and Sarah continued to talk about babies and the mechanics of bringing one safely into the world, Harry looked again at the head table. There's that damn coin again. Rolling his head on his neck, he looked up at the ceiling. God, give me the strength to get through this evening.

Dessert came and with it a good, strong coffee to perk the attendees up for the inevitable speeches. The man Archimedes had called Janus Smith got up and delivered a speech extolling Ignatius's virtues as an upstanding citizen and twenty-five-year San Francisco resident. "A member of the board for St Ambrose's Academy and a man of absolutely unimpeachable character," Janus said, throwing an arm wide to where Ignatius sat, looking humble.

Unimpeachable, my arse, Harry thought, narrowing his eyes at Janus who was now introducing Jacob. Well acquainted with how long and eloquent Jacob could wax, Harry tuned him out and allowed his eyes to roam over the diners, trying to gauge their mood. He wished he was more familiar with those present and had more clues as to who might be Muggle-born or Half-Bloods and thus subject to Weatherbee's prejudices.

He saw a few parents of students and he caught sight of Isaac's parents, his father's distinctive white hair shining in the lights of the room. I know he's Muggle-born. I wonder what all he knows about this man in front of him, asking for his money?

Thunderous applause intruded on his musings and he saw Jacob was finally done and now the man of the hour was getting up to address them all. Harry saw the coin was nowhere to be found as Ignatius placed both hands on the sides of the podium, basking in the applause. When it finally died down, Ignatius smiled. "Thank you all for coming to my little get-together. I want to thank Jacob Greene for securing this wonderful venue." Gesturing toward a modest-looking Jacob, he waited for more applause to die down before continuing.

"I've always thought the Legion of Honor was one of the most beautiful buildings in this most beautiful city in what I think we can all agree is one of the most beautiful states in the country." More applause and Harry shared an eye rolling glance with Archimedes. What followed was quite possibly the most flowery load of bullshit Harry had ever heard. Ignatius nattered on at length about his long history in the City and his work record. Harry realized he'd never known what he'd done for a living and it turned out that Ignatius had stuck close to his roots, working in the local Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office.

Once he was done extolling his own virtues, he went to work on extolling the virtues of the crowd, calling out specific people. Harry saw him looking over to the left of the room and smiled. He's looking for me. Keep looking, you bastard. When he failed to find Harry, he settled on Artemis instead, harping on the school's college admissions record under his guidance.

"I think together we can do many great things. With your votes, I will focus on making the Greater Bay Area the envy of the entire state and once that is accomplished, the entire country! Let's bring the focus back to us!" he said, smiling and waving at the deafening applause.

Harry looked across the table at Archimedes, noting his squarely unimpressed expression. "That seemed very general," he said, finishing his wine.

"Indeed. Right now he's positioning himself as the everyman candidate. I expect there will be more events that will reveal what he really stands for. What did you think, my dear?" he asked, putting a hand on Sarah's shoulder.

"He said a lot without really saying anything. There was no substance, nothing concrete; just a bunch of hot air," she said, looking up at the head table where Ignatius and Jacob were busy shaking hands.

"Brilliant as well as beautiful, my love." Archimedes turned back to Harry. "I'll keep you posted if I hear of anything of interest."

"Excellent." Harry stood when Sarah did and gave her a brief hug across the table. "Wonderful seeing you again, Sarah."

"You must come by for lunch again soon. Archimedes has been itching to try out a traditional Sunday roast. Ginny, I'll let you know about Melissa."

"I'm looking forward to it," Ginny said warmly.

Harry shook Archimedes's hand. "Harry," Archimedes said with a nod before putting his arm around Sarah's shoulders and guiding her through the mass exodus.

Taking a deep breath, Harry took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. Next to him, Ginny sighed and opened her purse, taking out a compact and checking her reflection in the mirror. Closing it with a snap, she turned to Harry and put her hand on his shoulder. "All right?"

"Yeah, just tired. Let's get out of here, yeah?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Ginny stood, offering her hand to him and he took it, settling his glasses back on his nose. Taking care to avoid the head table, they headed back to claim their cloaks and stepped outside.

Harry took a deep breath of the damp, chilly air and felt his lassitude dissipate. "Oh, that's so much better. I didn't realize how stuffy it'd gotten in there," he said, walking toward the lighted fountain.

"Me either. The grounds are so beautiful and I'm tired of sitting. Take a walk with me?" Ginny asked, linking her arm in his. Harry was careful to match his pace to Ginny's with her high heels as they walked down the pavement toward a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, lit up for the night. "It's so beautiful," Ginny sighed and Harry smiled.

"It's the most beautiful bridge in the most beautiful city in the most beautiful state," Harry said, mocking Ignatius's speech. Ginny hit him on the arm and he laughed, releasing the tension generated by the events of the evening.

"You're incorrigible," she said, shaking her head.

"And you love me."

"So I do."

Harry saw a stone bench under a tree that had an excellent view of the bridge and he grinned, swiftly picking Ginny up in his arms. "Harry! What are you doing?"

"There's a bench over here and I don't think those shoes of yours are any good for grass," Harry said, stepping off the pavement and onto the grass. Two steps away, he froze in place, his tattoo burning with that cold fire again.

"Harry? Are you all right?" Ginny asked, sounding anxious.

Shaking himself, he continued on to the bench. Another two steps and the burning stopped. Setting Ginny back down, he turned and went back to where he first felt the burning start. "Harry? What's going on?" Concentrating, he raised his hand in a quelling motion to Ginny. He stood still when he felt the burn again and walked around, mapping the area that resulted in the pain.

Looking down, he realized the dimensions were roughly that of a gravesite. A grave? Who could possibly be buried there that has a connection to the coin and the ill-wish? I can see the person who laid the curse being buried there, but what does that have to do with the coin? Lost in thought, Harry jumped in surprise at the feeling of Ginny's hand on his shoulder.

"Harry?" she asked quietly, "Are you all right? You're scaring me." Her voice sounded small and he turned to look at her, taking her in his arms.

"No, love, I'm fine. Nothing to be scared of, yeah?"

"Then what's going on?"

"This bit of ground," he said, drawing a rough rectangle in the air over the grass, "when I stand on it, I feel that burn again."

"You do?" Before he could stop her, she went and stood square in the middle of it. "I don't feel anything."

"Gin, get away from there!" he hissed, taking her hand and pulling her to stand next to him.

"Why is it all right for you to walk all over it but I can't?" she asked, hands on her hips.

"I don't know what's under there and I don't want you to get hurt!" he said, his voice rising.

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't you yell at me. You step on some stupid grass and freeze up, then dump me over there and then don't talk to me or hear me calling you for five minutes? What the hell am I supposed to do? Sit there all pretty and wait for you to acknowledge me?"

Harry winced, remembering their recent argument that had resulted from the last time he'd tried to do something he thought would protect her. "Sorry, sorry. I was just surprised. I wasn't expecting something like that out here, all right?"

She blew out a breath and nodded. "Fair enough. Now tell me what you found."

"I think it's the ill-wisher's grave," Harry said, seeing Ginny's frown.

"What makes you think that?"

"It feels the same as the ill-wish and the coin."

"And why do you think it's a grave? How do you know there isn't another curse laid there?"

Harry paced off the border of the affected area, showing Ginny the size and shape. "It's about the same size. If it were just another curse, then I'd expect the area to be smaller." He stood next to Ginny again. "I think if we were to dig down, we'd find bones."

"Well, we can't go digging this spot up. We'd be arrested in seconds."

Sighing, Harry took her hand in his. "No, we sure can't. I'll have to do some research on the Legion of Honor and see what was here before."

"Obviously a graveyard."

"Yes, but which one and who was buried here? Was it all Wizarding? Mixed? Are all of the bodies still here? If they were all moved, why is this one still here?" Staring at the innocent patch of grass, he felt Ginny's hand on his shoulder.

"Come on, let's go home. It's late and it's been a stressful night. We can talk about all of this tomorrow," she said, massaging the nape of his neck.

"Yeah, all right." Harry took one last look at the grassy area, fixing its position in his memory and resolutely turned his back on it, facing Ginny and the illuminated bridge. Gathering her close, he concentrated and silently Apparated them home.

Harry lay on his side, his body curled around Ginny's as he waited for sleep to overtake him. He was just beginning to drop off when he felt her shift around, turning to face him. "Harry," she said quietly.

"Mm?"

"Are you still awake?"

"Mm." Harry sought out her mouth in the dimness of the room and kissed her, stroking a hand down her arm. "All right?" he murmured against her lips.

"I've been thinking."

"About?" Fully awake now, Harry moved his lips along her jaw and down to her neck, sucking lightly on her soft skin.

"About that coin. And the grave."

Frowning, he pulled back and looked at Ginny. Her face was very serious and he raised an eyebrow. "What about them?"

"The whole thing worries me." Harry waited a moment to see if she would say more and when she didn't, he sighed and sat up.

"What about it worries you?" he asked, running his fingers through his hair.

"That you're not going to let it go," she said, sitting up to face him.

"The coin, the grave and the curse are all connected somehow. I have to find out how."

"I know, but I don't want you to get caught up chasing after it. I don't want you to keep putting yourself in danger," Ginny said with a shrug, looking down at the duvet.

Harry put his finger under her chin and lifted her eyes to his. "Love, anything I might find is bound to be over a hundred years old. It won't be all that dangerous."

"I know you, though. Any whiff of Dark magic and you're off."

"Listen, you know I told Archimedes about the Horcrux and Jacob doesn't even have it anymore." What he didn't say was how much it irritated him that the Horcrux had slipped through his grasp. His attempts to find out where it had ended up had been unsuccessful so far, but he was still working on it.

"Yes, but…" Ginny said, trailing off.

"But what?"

She took a deep breath and put her hand on his cheek. "I need you to promise me that all of that Auror stuff is done. No more chasing after the Dark. No more leaving me alone, waiting and wondering."

"Gin—"

"Promise me, Harry," she said, her voice low and intense.

Surprised at the depth of her feelings, Harry nodded. "I promise. I told you last summer, I'm out." He reached out and ran the pad of his thumb down her cheek. "No more Auror, no more chasing around." Unless something happens, he thought, his reactivated tattoo tingling. He kissed her as her scowl faded away, replaced by a smile of her own.

"Good," Ginny said, pressing her lips harder against his. "I should hate to punish you for lying to me."

"Oh? What would you make me do?" Gladdened by this turn of events, Harry allowed Ginny to push him onto his back, raising his arms above his head as she pushed off his shirt. She straddled his legs, dipping down to his neck and nipping him on his pulse point. "Would you make me write lines?"

"Hm, what should I make you write?" she whispered, tracing a path down his neck with her tongue.

Harry swallowed as Ginny blew on the trail she'd left, making his skin prickle. "You keep doing that and I'll write whatever you want."

"Lines are too easy." She sat up, placing her palms against his chest. "You demand something more…creative."

"I like it when you get creative, Miss Weasley," Harry said, slipping his hands underneath her tee shirt and running them up and down the smooth skin of her back. He felt his pulse pound when she pulled it off over her head, letting it fall down to the floor. His hands shifted around to her breasts, sweeping his thumbs over her hardening nipples.

"I could make you do the dishes for a week," she whispered, her breath tickling his ear.

"Mm, then I'd get dishpan hands and you like mine nice and soft," Harry murmured, tracing the tip of a finger down her spine, making her arch her back like a cat.

"That's true." Ginny's lips came down on his again, her tongue demanding entrance into his mouth, which Harry was only too happy to grant. Wrapping his arms around her, he rocked them until she was stretched out underneath him. "How did this happen?"

"Magic?" Harry dove down, grasping a nipple with his lips and sucking hard, making Ginny gasp. He felt her hands on his back, alternately raking his skin with her nails and soothing with her palms, the dual sensations making him shiver.

"Maybe I would punish you by refusing to fuck you?" she said after a few moments of silence, sounding markedly breathless as he continued his ministrations on her breasts.

"Ha, you wouldn't last a week." Harry grinned up at her and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"I could last longer than you could."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You think so?"

"I know so."

Harry swept a hand down from her neck, over her breast and down her stomach, bringing it to rest at the juncture of her thighs over her pajama bottoms. "Are you saying that you could go without this," he said, pressing his hand down as she spread her legs, "for an entire week?" Ginny rolled her hips and he pressed harder, seeking out her clit with his fingers.

"Easily," she exhaled, eyes glued to Harry's.

"An entire week with none of this?" He ran the flat of his tongue over her nipple, moving up to kiss her deeply, gratified at her groan. Drawing back to look at her, he had to catch his breath at the sight of her in the moonlight through the window. Her hair was a burnished bronze and her skin was limned in silver, making her look like a creature out of a fairy tale.

"And you think you could go a week without this?" Harry swallowed when he felt her hand grasp his stiff cock through his boxers. "Think about it," she captured his mouth again and this time Harry was the one to groan.

Redoubling his efforts, Harry slipped his hand inside Ginny's pajama bottoms, sliding his fingers through her slick folds as she continued to roll her hips. "I have a will of iron, but you on the other hand…"

"You've got something like iron, that's for sure," she said teasingly, nipping his bottom lip. "It would be terrible to see you in this condition for a whole week, no relief in sight."

"I've suffered worse."

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you."

"No? All right then." Harry grinned down at her and took his hand away from her wet heat, gratified at her sound of dismay. She let go of his cock in retaliation and he slid off to the side, giving her a chaste kiss on her forehead before turning his back to her and settling his head on his pillow as he snuggled deeper under the duvet. "Good night, love."

He took several deep breaths, hoping they didn't sound too ragged and gritted his teeth against the deep ache in his bollocks as he counted off the seconds in his head. At thirty, he felt the soft thump of Ginny's pillow hitting him in the back of his head and he grinned. "Hey, what was that for?" he said, turning to her in mock outrage.

She was sitting up, bare breasts on tantalizing display and that Weasley half-smile on her lips. "How dare you leave me like that? I'm the one meant to be punishing you, not the other way around."

"Punishing me? I haven't done anything wrong," Harry protested, putting a hand on her waist and stroking her soft skin with his thumb.

"Yet."

"Yet," he agreed, pulling her close to kiss her.

17. Chapter 17

Tired from a long day, Harry walked down the corridor between classroom bungalows, looking forward to a hot shower in the staff locker room. There was a meet coming up at the weekend and Terry had pushed the team on both speed and distance. He hadn't had a hard time keeping up with them, but the trail they were running was dark and even with the LightCasters providing constant illumination, keeping an eye out for hazards was still a chore and one of the runners in his group had twisted an ankle. It wasn't bad and he was able to patch her up, but it was still an extra stress.

Just as he was rounding the last corner, he heard voices up ahead and he paused. It sounded like students having an argument. I'll let them sort it out for themselves, he thought tiredly as he continued on toward the promised shower.

"Mudblood!" The word made Harry's blood freeze and he stopped dead in his tracks. What?

"You can't call me that!" came another angry voice.

"I can too! It's true! Your mom's a Muggle! And your dad is Muggle-born! That makes you a Mudblood!"

"You take that back!"

"Or what? You'll curse me? My dad says Mudblood magic is weak! You probably couldn't even Stun a fly!"

"Yeah! He probably couldn't even Disarm a target dummy!" said another voice, goading Harry into action.

Employing long-practiced Auror stealth, he sidled down the corridor, peering carefully around the corner to get a look at the antagonists. There were four of them, all boys Harry knew were in the Wizard Chess Club. Two of them were bigger and older, Freshmen by the look of them, facing two smaller boys that Harry recognized as seventh graders. They all had their wands out and Harry decided that it was time for action.

Wanting to make sure he got their full attention, he roared "Expelliarmus!" as loud as he could, his voice reverberating in the corridor. All four boys stared at him, completely shocked as their wands flew out of their hands to land on the concrete about twenty feet away. The expression on his face must have been terrible because as he approached, the boys all shrank against the wall of the corridor.

Feeling faintly ridiculous in his running attire, he drew himself up to his full height and crossed his arms, staring silently down at the boys. He was about to speak, when one of the seventh graders recovered from his shock. "Mr Potter! Jason said—"

"I heard what he said, Caleb," Harry said quietly, noting the look Jason and his accomplice, Taeho, exchanged. "Jason. Mind telling me where you heard that word and why you decided to use it in reference to your fellow classmates?"

Jason's eyes darted around the corridor as if he were looking for an escape and swallowed. "I heard my dad talking about them," he said in a near-whisper, looking down at the ground.

"Talking about whom?" Harry asked, shaking his head at Taeho, who looked like he was about to stroll nonchalantly away.

"Mudbloods," Jason said miserably, still not meeting Harry's eyes. Harry saw that the boy was practically shaking in his shoes, but he squelched the brief flash of sympathy.

"I see." He was horrified to hear that word on the school grounds and he felt a rolling in his gut at the thought of these impressionable children being fed this sort of hate at home. He knew Jason's family was Pureblood and he had a good guess as to whom they were going to vote for come council election day. Ignatius has been busy. "What did your dad have to say?"

The boy met his eyes for a split second as if he were pleading with Harry to relent before looking away again. Harry stood silently, waiting for Jason's answer. "He said they're weak and don't deserve wands or to learn spells," he said in a shaky voice, swiping at his nose.

Heaving an internal sigh, Harry closed his eyes. Damn you, Ignatius. "Jason, look at me." When the boy met his eyes, Harry smiled, hoping his white-hot anger didn't show. "What do you believe?" he asked gently. Jason shrugged and looked away again, the picture of shamed misery. "Do you really believe that a Muggle-born or a Half-Blood has weaker magic than a Pureblood?" He looked at Taeho, who was staring at him with wide eyes. "Do you?" Taeho quickly shook his head.

Determined to get a response out of Jason, Harry tried again. "Did you know that by some people's standards I'm a Half-Blood?"

Jason looked at him, mouth falling open in surprise. "But you're Harry Potter!"

"My mum was Muggle-born and was regarded as one of the most talented witches of her age. My friend Hermione Granger is Muggle-born. My friends Seamus and Dean are Half-Bloods. Seamus can cast a corporeal Patronus and Dean is one of the best duelers I know."

"My dad says—"

"I'm sure your dad has his own opinions about things, Jason." Harry put his hand on the boy's shoulder and looked him in the eye. "You do not need to have the same opinions as him or your mum. You are old enough and smart enough to take the evidence presented to you and formulate your own opinions, yeah?" Jason nodded, looking abashed. "Now, do you really believe that a Muggle-born or a Half-Blood has weaker magic than a Pureblood?" he asked again.

This time Jason shook his head. "No, sir. Marissa is way better at Transfiguration than I am," he said, naming a Muggle-born classmate.

"Exactly," Harry said, relieved to hear Jason admit that he had been merely parroting his father's stupidity and that he himself didn't truly believe it. He crossed his arms again and looked at all four boys sternly. "Now, that doesn't change the fact that the four of you were preparing to use potentially harmful magic on each other on school grounds. Pick up your wands and come with me. The Headmaster should still be in his office."

Ginny climbed the steps to the door of the flat, juggling several awkward shopping bags in her hands. Looking up, she saw the white cat sitting poised by the door, tail wrapped around his feet.

"Hello, Puss," she said as she set down her shopping bags to scratch him behind the ears. "Are you the cat that was in Sarah's greenhouse? I think you are." He was very handsome and she noticed that he had one green eye and one blue eye, lending him a rakish look. Giving him a final pat, she fished her wand out of her handbag and unlocked the door. The cat followed her in, taking his time as he sniffed in all of the corners.

"Harry's not home yet, that's surprising," she said, setting her shopping bags down on the worktop and turning on a lamp in the dark flat. "Something must have held him up." The cat jumped up on the bed, sniffing the pillows. "Why am I talking to you?" Ginny shook her head and continued putting things away.

Tired of being in her scrubs, Ginny changed into a pair of sweatpants and an old tee shirt of Harry's, settling her hands on her hips as she looked at the cat, now having a bath in the middle of the bed. "Now, what am I going to do with you?" The cat seemed genuinely unconcerned as he stuck out a rear leg and carefully cleaned between his toes.

I suppose I should contact Sarah and see if she knows she's missing a cat, she thought, kindling a fire for a Floo call. "Hello, Sarah?" she called, throwing Floo powder into the fire and sticking her head in.

"Oh, Ginny! How are you?" Sarah said. She was sitting on the sofa, reading a newspaper. "I was just about to contact you. Melissa has started her labor and I'm going to be heading over soon. Do you still want to come?"

"Definitely! I just got home and wanted to let you know one of your cats has shown up here," Ginny said, her mind racing. I need to get dressed again…do I have everything I need in my kit? Almost as if he knew she were talking about him, she felt the cat bump his head against her bottom.

"Is it the white tom?"

"Yes, with the different-colored eyes." She waved her hand behind her, hoping to shoo him away.

"That's Stuart," Sarah said with a laugh. "He's a wanderer. He'll probably stay with you a few days and then come back, if that's all right."

"Do I need to feed him anything special or do anything else for him?" she asked, thinking of a litter box.

"Just leave a bit of cat food out for him. He'll let you know when he needs to go out. Are either of you allergic?"

"No," Ginny said, thinking of Crookshanks and long afternoons in the Gryffindor common room with Hermione's cat purring away in her lap.

"Well, I thank you for letting him stay." Sarah smiled at her warmly and she couldn't help but smile back.

"We'll see how long he stays with us. I just thought you should know in case you were missing him, but it sounds like he does this pretty often."

"I appreciate it. I would have wondered." She closed her newspaper and set it on the sofa next to her. "I'm going to leave in about the next half hour. I'll have Archimedes add you to our Floo so we can go together."

"That would be great. I need to get a few things together myself. I'll see you soon!" Ginny withdrew and sat on the rug in front of the fireplace, glad she wouldn't have to climb all of those stairs again. The cat bumped her elbow and she lifted her arm, smiling as he made himself comfortable in her lap, kneading her leg with thunderous purrs. "Well, Stuart, I guess you're going to be staying with us a little while," she said, rubbing him behind the ears for a few moments.

Pushing him out of her lap, she stood and brushed away a multitude of white hairs. "Right. Clothes, food, kit." She quickly slipped out of her sweatpants and stepped into a pair of jeans, sliding a cozy jumper on over Harry's old Gryffindor tee shirt. Realizing she'd left the shopping on the worktop, she put it away as she made a quick sandwich.

"That paella will have to wait," she said to the cat who was sitting on the breakfast bar and watching her with those mismatched eyes. Sandwich quickly consumed, she turned her attention to her Healing kit, digging the large bag out of the bottom of the closet.

Scanning the contents, she picked up the vial of Blood-Replenishing Potion and gave it a shake. "Seems all right. I should make a fresh batch soon, though." Wound-cleaning, sleep, calming potions all look in order. Oh, I should put some of that massage oil in here. She opened her bedside drawer and took out the bottle of lightly-scented massage oil, skillfully decanting a small amount into a vial and stoppering it with a cork.

Stuart came by to investigate, whiskers twitching and Ginny shooed him away as she closed up the kit bag. "Almost forgot shoes! And a note for Harry!" She tied her trainers and grabbed an old receipt, scribbling a note for Harry on the back.

Melissa is having her baby and I'm going with Sarah. I don't know how late I'll be. Love you! P.S. The cat is Stuart and will be staying for a while.

"That ought to do it." She pointed her finger at the cat curled up in the middle of the bed. "You be nice. Harry's late and that means he's probably had a hard day." She threw on a hoodie and hefted her kit onto her shoulder. A moment later she was gone in a swirl of soot and sparks.

"Gin?" Harry called as he Apparated into the flat, expecting to find her home and frowned when he didn't hear a response. A moment later he saw the note on the breakfast bar and read it, raising his eyebrows. "Today's the big day, then. And a cat?" Harry looked around the small flat, finally spying Stuart fast asleep on his pillow. He shook his head and dropped his satchel on the sofa, heading into the kitchen for a beer. He had to push aside several packages of chicken and shrimp to get to it. "Someone had big plans for dinner," he said to the cat as he opened his Newcastle.

"Looks like it's just us, then." Harry undressed and changed into a tee shirt and trackies, immediately feeling more relaxed once he was out of his school kit. It had been a difficult afternoon with confronting the students, delivering them to Artemis to mete out their punishment and then talking with him afterwards.

"This isn't good, Artemis," he'd said once the boys had shuffled dejectedly out of the headmaster's office. They had all been assigned to scrub cauldrons for a week and do any odd jobs Mr Keller needed done. In addition to the manual labor, Juanita had been charged with setting them to researching and writing an essay on the history of intolerance in the Wizarding community and how it'd never led to anything good.

"They're just young boys, figuring out their place in the world," Artemis said with a sigh.

"But they're getting it from their parents, who ostensibly know their place in the world," Harry countered, leaning one shoulder against the office wall. "You know where the parents are getting this rhetoric from."

"Harry, I can't control what they're exposed to at home, that's their parents' jobs."

"No, but you can have a say in who's on the school board."

Artemis shook his head tiredly and looked at Harry over his glasses. "It's the middle of the school year. Having a vote now would just throw things into chaos. We'll sort it out over the summer break."

Harry nodded and took a deep breath. "All right. If that doesn't happen, though, I'm not sure I'll be able to stay here if that man continues to have any sort of influence over the school."

The headmaster looked and him and Harry returned his gaze steadily, arms crossed over his chest. "Are you trying to blackmail me, Harry?"

"No sir. I'm telling you the truth. That man is trouble and if he continues to exert his influence over this school and community, dark times are ahead. I can't be part of that."

"What do you expect me to do?" Artemis said, a pleading note creeping into his voice.

"Reduce his influence. Get him off the board. Make sure he doesn't get elected to the Council. Once they're beaten, creatures like that always scuttle away. They rarely have any sort of fight in them." Harry felt sorry for the headmaster, caught in the middle of a worsening situation. "Allow me to teach my students what they need to know to protect themselves and their families."

Artemis sat quietly, looking around the room at the pictures of sailboats and students past and present. Harry took advantage of a brief moment of eye contact to exercise his Legilimancy, delving for any hint that his boss harbored any beliefs that Purebloods were above all, relieved to find no trace.

Finally, he sighed and sat back, tossing his glasses onto his desk. "You've given me a lot to think about. You have to realize that I can't simply start calling for Weatherbee's ouster without anything to back it up."

"I understand, sir. People like him usually hand you the rope to hang themselves with, so I think it's only a matter of time. But when that time comes, you need to be able to execute. I'll stand with you, you have my word on that."

"Hm. I wonder how many people have been so privileged to have you stand by them?"

"Not as many as I'd like, sir," Harry said seriously, thinking back to the time he spent on the run, hunting Horcruxes as Wizarding Britain was ravaged by Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

They were both quiet for a moment, thinking their own thoughts until the headmaster blew out a breath and picked up his glasses. "All right, Harry. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll see you tomorrow."

Glad to finally be dismissed, Harry headed off to the staff locker room and his long-delayed shower. I could just go home, but ugh, I feel disgusting. Afterwards, he stopped by his classroom, unlocking the cabinet at the back and picking out several books. A bit of light reading for the evening, he thought wryly.

And now he was apparently alone for the evening. Unless you count a sleeping cat as company. "Well, guess it's the perfect opportunity to get started on my project," he announced to the empty flat. Making a quick dinner of leftover lasagna and a salad, he opened another Newcastle and settled himself on the bed with his books and computer, pushing the cat off his pillow.

He didn't seem to bear Harry any ill will, giving him an experimental sniff and licking his outstretched finger as he moved to curl up on Ginny's pillow instead. Looking through the music on his computer, he settled on Pink Floyd, nodding his head along with Another Brick In The Wall.

All right. Blood Seals. Let's go. He cracked open the first book, a volume he'd found in Prague when he and Ron had been sent on an assignment to investigate suspicious activity in and around the Strahov Monastery, uncovering a conspiracy to discredit one of the local Wizarding Magistrates.

While in Prague, Harry had taken advantage of the opportunity to snoop around in the multitude of old bookshops, both Magical and Muggle, looking for volumes of particular interest. This one, Bloode Magick And The Proper Usage Thereofe, he'd found in a Muggle shop for almost nothing. It was hands down the best resource he had for anything related to blood magic and he started reading through it, taking notes on what he wanted to introduce to his class.

Glancing at her watch, Ginny winced at the time. Oh dear. It's after two in the morning. It didn't feel like it, though. She felt completely energized, like she could be up for several more hours yet, but she knew that was just the adrenaline and endorphins flying through her brain and body. Certain Harry was asleep, she chose not to Apparate directly into the flat, coming in off the street instead. As she approached the flat, she looked up at the windows, seeing dim light on inside.

He can't possibly still be awake, she thought, jogging lightly up the steps to the door and unlocking it with her wand. Stepping quietly inside, she smiled at the sight of Harry on the bed. He was sitting propped up on pillows, surrounded by books with his laptop on his lap, sound asleep. At her entrance, Stuart the cat jumped down from his spot at Harry's side and sauntered over to her, rubbing his head against her leg in greeting.

"Have you been keeping Harry warm?" she whispered, rubbing the top of his head. Setting down her Healing kit on the sofa, Ginny filled a small bowl with water for him. "I bet he didn't give you anything to eat. Let's see what we have." Being as quiet as she could, she found a can of tuna in the cupboard and opened it for him, serving out about half of it in a dish.

"There. We'll get you something more appropriate tomorrow." She watched him eat for a few moments before turning her attention to Harry. What have you been up to? she wondered as she gathered the books scattered all over the bed. Bloode Magick? What in the world? Stacking them neatly on his bedside table, she carefully closed the lid of his laptop. As she picked it up, he woke.

"Hey, you," he said, voice rough with sleep. "You're home. What time is it?" Taking off his glasses, he gave a mighty stretch, causing the hem of his shirt to ride up to his bellybutton.

"Almost two-thirty in the morning," Ginny said, bending to give him a kiss.

"How'd it go?" he asked, sounding more awake as she put his laptop carefully on the coffee table.

"Really well for a first birth." Hanging up her hoodie on the rack by the door, Ginny ran her hands through her hair, giving herself a little scalp massage. "She was scared and nervous, but her midwife was very good. I didn't really have to do anything."

"That's good, right?"

"It's very good. An uneventful birth is a good birth." Now that she was home, she felt the adrenaline and excitement of the night starting to drain away and she quickly undressed, slipping on flannel pajama bottoms and taking off her bra underneath Harry's tee shirt she was still wearing.

"That's my shirt," Harry said, reaching out to grab the hem.

"Possession is nine-tenths of the law and since I have possession of it, that makes it my shirt," she said, dodging his grab and jumping into bed, pulling the duvet up high as she snuggled close to Harry's warmth.

He gathered her close and she closed her eyes in contentment as he kissed her forehead. "What did she have?" he whispered.

"A little girl. They named her Emily," Ginny said, a surge of happiness coming over her. "Came out with a full head of hair so blond it was almost white. Ten perfect fingers and toes." She snuggled closer, wrapping her arms tightly around him and resting her head on his chest.

"Are you all right?"

"Mm-hm. Tired, happy, excited. I'd forgotten how intense a birthing party could be."

"A birthing party?" Harry asked, his voice a rumble against her ear.

"I don't know what else you'd call it. The house was full of people, mostly women. Talking, laughing, telling stories of their own children's births or ones they'd attended. They cook so the new mother won't have to for a while, do laundry, cleaning." Ginny snuck a hand under his shirt and rubbed her hand on his flat stomach, feeling the prickle of his hair against her palm. "When I was little, I was in charge of doing the dishes. It's a very big responsibility, you know."

"I'm sure it was very important," Harry said, the smile evident in his voice. "Where was the father?"

"With Melissa the whole time. They're very sweet together. He was so excited when Emily came out—I think he cried more than Melissa did." Ginny fell silent, thinking over the events of the night when she heard Harry sigh quietly. "All right?"

"Yeah."

Ginny shifted in his arms, propping herself up on one elbow to look down at him, sweeping his fringe out of his eyes. "Are you thinking about them?"

Harry nodded, closing his eyes at her touch. "A little. Who was with them when … you know?"

"I could ask Mum. If she wasn't there, she probably knows who was."

"No, it's okay. It won't change anything, yeah?"

"No, love, it won't." She bent down to kiss him, lips soft against hers. "Rest assured though, when it came time for you to be born, they weren't alone."

Harry leaned on the corner of his desk, idly rubbing the tip of his index finger with his thumb as he watched his Senior class approach the door to his classroom. He was finding it very difficult not to grin in anticipation as the first student, a boy called David, attempted to cross the threshold and found himself completely unable to. The girl behind him, Maddy, bumped into him, causing them both to be rebounded into the students piling up behind them.

"Mr Potter," David called from outside, "I can't get into the classroom."

"You can't? Why not?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. I was just walking like normal and it feels like something's blocking me," David said, reaching out with a finger to push against the invisible barrier. Maddy joined him, flattening her palm against it.

"It tingles," she said, snatching her hand away.

"Here, let me try," a burly boy said, pushing her aside. Henry was a Beater on the Quidditch team and was built like a fire plug. He made a show of limbering up his shoulders and neck as David stepped aside out of his way. Lowering his head, he plowed into the open doorway with his shoulder, only to shout in surprise when he was repelled back, the kids behind him scattering so that he fell onto the pavement.

Crowding around the doorway, the kids all started reaching out to touch the invisible barrier, voicing several theories about what he'd done to prevent them from coming into the classroom. Harry let them chatter as the bell signaling the end of the passing period sounded. He listened to their theories which ranged from the completely crazy to one or two that were on the right track.

He decided that they could use a clue, so he stood up and exited the room, standing on the pavement with them, hands in his pockets. "It's a nice day. What's for lunch?" he said casually as the students gasped and the chatter increased. Squinting up at the sun, Harry frowned. "Actually, it's a bit too cold out here for me. I'm going back inside." He went back into the classroom, turning around to watch a few students try to follow him in only to be rebuffed.

More arguing as his Seniors put their minds to work on his little demonstration. "Mr Potter, I think I know what you've done to the door," one girl finally said when the chatter started to die away.

"Do you? What makes you think I've done anything, Elizabeth?"

"None of us can get in when we could yesterday, for one thing. There's a definite barrier, but it doesn't seem to be completely physical. Sound passes through. There's nothing to feel, other than a tingle when trying to come into the room." She paused for a moment, probing the threshold with her finger. "The feeling doesn't intensify with prolonged contact." She crossed her arms and looked at Harry. "You can pass through just fine, so you've obviously done something that doesn't apply to you."

"Very good, Elizabeth, excellent reasoning," Harry said with a smile. Privately he thought she would have given Hermione a run for her money back in the day and she was one of his favorite students. "Do you have any ideas on what I might have done?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "There are lots of spells that could have produced a similar effect, but this seems different."

"What about this?" He stepped up to the doorway and said, "Elizabeth, please come in."

Looking at him dubiously, she hesitated a moment before stepping into the classroom, turning around quickly to look at the other students still outside. Fixing Harry with a look, she turned to David. "David, please come in," she said confidently.

David strode forward and smacked face first into the barrier, bouncing back and looking at Elizabeth in consternation. "Why didn't that work?" Elizabeth murmured. Harry could see the wheels in her head turning and he smiled.

"Maybe this will give you another clue," he said as he bent and touched his wand to the strip of metal that defined the threshold of the classroom, dispelling the Blood Seal in a flash of red. The students right in front of the door gasped and Elizabeth looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "Come on, find your seats," Harry said, returning to the front of the classroom.

He gave them a few minutes to get settled, twirling his wand between his fingers until the chattering and shuffling stopped. "So. What happened?" he asked his class. "Let's break it down, shall we?" He stood at the chalkboard and wrote the word 'Observations'. "Did you see anything in the doorway that would have prevented you from coming in?" The class shook their heads and Harry wrote 'Invisible'.

"Did you smell anything?" Again the negative. "Did you hear anything? Taste anything?" Some kids giggled at the notion of tasting and Harry made a mental note to introduce them to the concept of testing for magic in a person by seeing if they could taste Octarine. "Did you feel anything?"

This time there was a chorus of, "Yes," from the kids and Harry pointed at David. "What did you feel?"

David thought for a moment before he finally said, "I felt like I was being pushed back when I first walked into it. And then there was kind of a tingle, almost like a very low electric shock like when you lick a battery." Harry wrote 'tingle/shock' and 'pushed back' under 'Feel'.

"Henry, what about you?" he asked the Quidditch Beater.

"It was like I crashed into a wall," he said with an embarrassed flush.

"Did you feel any give? Was it stretchy?" Harry asked, writing down 'wall'.

Henry thought for a moment and shook his head. "No. You remember those forcefields that were up for the Winter Formal decorations? Those were squishy and nothing else. This was just hard and I have to disagree with David. That felt like more than just a little shock."

"Interesting," Harry said with a smile, bouncing the chalk in his hand, "why do you think that is?" Henry shrugged and shook his head. "Anyone? Why do you think Henry felt more of a shock than David did?" Looking around the class, Harry ignored Elizabeth and called on Maddy instead. "Maddy, why do you think Henry felt more of a shock than David seems to have?"

She looked at David and then at Henry, pursing her lips. "Well…" she said slowly, "David just kind of ran into the door where Henry was trying to break through on purpose. He ran at it pretty fast, too."

"So you think they may have had different intentions as well as a difference in the force applied?" he asked, writing 'intent' and 'force' on the board. Maddy nodded and Harry noted a few "aha" looks around the classroom. "All right. You have a barrier that you can't see, hear, taste or smell, but you can feel," he said, pointing to each note with his wand. "It doesn't have any give, and you get a bit of shock, depending on your intent and how much force you apply." He held up his finger. "But, I could pass through without any problem." He crossed his arms and watched them chew on that.

"But that's because you cast the spell," Elizabeth said.

"So? If I cast a forcefield that doesn't mean I can walk right through it."

"I was able to walk through it, though," she pointed out, crossing her arms.

"Yes, but after what? What allowed you to walk into the classroom?" Harry had found this to be one of his favorite parts of teaching. Not giving them the answer, but asking the questions that helped them figure it out for themselves.

"I was able to come in after you…invited me."

"Very good. David, were you able to come in when Elizabeth invited you?"

"Nope. Smacked right up against whatever that was," David said, grinning at Elizabeth who flushed and looked down at her desk. Harry had suspected there was something going on between the two and it looked like his hunch was right. Juanita owed him five dollars.

"So, I can go in and out, people I invite can come in, but a person I invited in couldn't invite others. How does that happen?" Harry looked at his class. Most of them looked engaged and interested with Elizabeth paging furiously through her textbook.

A student in the very back row raised his hand and Harry smiled. "Yes, Isaac?" Isaac Hernandez was very bright but also very shy and rarely spoke up in class and as a result, Harry tried to take advantage of every time he volunteered.

"Blood," Isaac said simply, causing the class to gasp and look from Isaac to Harry.

"What makes you say that?" Harry sat on the corner of his desk and crossed his arms.

Isaac shrugged and pushed his glasses up. "It's obvious. You could pass through because your blood was part of the spell. You could invite Elizabeth in, but she couldn't invite David because her blood wasn't part of the spell."

"Very good, Isaac!" Harry said. He'd expected they would eventually figure out the blood angle, but he didn't expect Isaac would be the one to figure it out first. He glanced at Elizabeth who looked like she was about to burst, her hand high up in the air. "Yes, Elizabeth?"

"Mr Potter, there's nothing in our textbook about any spells like that involving blood," she said accusingly, almost as if she thought he was trying to pull a fast one on her.

"You're right, there isn't." Harry went back to the chalkboard and erased what he'd written down earlier, writing BLOOD SEAL in all capitals. "What I did was place a Blood Seal on the threshold of the doorway. It's not a very complicated spell, but it does need a little bit of blood, about a drop." He held up his right index finger to the class. The injury wasn't even visible anymore, but the kids in the front row leaned forward anyway.

"How come it's not in the book?" Elizabeth asked, sounding annoyed.

"Magic of that sort isn't really taught anymore. It's regarded as tainted by the Dark and has fallen out of favor," he said.

"Then why are you teaching us?" she asked in a challenging tone.

"That is an excellent question. What might you use a Blood Seal for?"

"Home protection," Henry said immediately and Harry nodded.

"Yes. What else can you use for home protection?"

Several students spoke up. "Muggle-Repelling Charms." "Unplottable." "Anti-Apparation Wards." "Unbreakable Charms on your windows and doors." "Alarm spells." "Trap spells." "Fidelius Charm." Harry nodded at each one and waited for the kids to quiet down again.

"Let's look at some of those. Muggle-Repelling Charms. It would keep Muggles away, but what about a wizard? Alarms and traps are all right, but those could be dispelled. Aurors can dispel alarms and traps without a second thought. Unbreakable Charms are great, but it's no use if you leave your door unlocked, yeah?" Harry walked back and forth in front of the class. "Unplottable isn't very practical if you want to get your mail. Anti-Apparition Wards will stop anyone from Apparating, but what if they just walk up?"

"What about the Fidelius Charm?" Maddy asked hesitantly.

"What indeed? That requires you to hand your security over to someone else. To your secret-keeper. You become completely dependent upon that person to keep your secret and if they don't…well…" Harry spread his arms and raised an eyebrow as the class shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

He returned to the chalkboard and wrote down the incantation for the Blood Seal, gratified to hear the scratching of pens on paper as the class took notes. "With this, no one is getting in unless they're on your seal or you invite them in. I could give you the key to my house and you would not be able to get in."

"What about getting out?" David asked.

"You don't have to invite people to leave, they can just leave, but once they've crossed that threshold, they must be invited back in."

Elizabeth had raised her hand again, still writing furiously and Harry called on her. "Why does it need to be on the threshold?" she asked.

"Another good question. Anyone have any ideas?" To his surprise, Isaac raised his hand again. "Yes, Isaac?"

"The threshold of a home has traditional magic of its own. Crossing a threshold is crossing into another domain, one that is ruled and governed by the magic of the person that lives there," he said. Harry thought that must have been the most words he'd ever heard the boy speak in class.

"Exactly. The threshold of a home is very potent and the intrinsic magic is what helps make the Blood Seal so effective. Even Muggle homes have a bit of threshold magic."

Elizabeth's hand was in the air again and Harry sighed inwardly as he called on her. "What if someone dispels the seal?"

"The good and bad thing about blood-related magic is that's it's very tamper-resistant. If someone were to try to modify a blood seal I'd laid, they would be in for a very frustrating time and I would be alerted immediately." Harry smiled at the expressions on his students' faces as they imagined his wrath.

David raised his hand this time and asked, "What if the person who created the Blood Seal dies?"

"That's a bit of the down side of blood-related magic. It's dependent on the caster being alive for it to work. There's a sympathetic bond created between the blood used in the spell and your own living blood," Harry said, quietly impressed at the questions he was getting from the class. "It also needs to be refreshed periodically, depending on how busy your threshold is. About three months if you have a lot guests, but for a standard home, it's usually good for six months."

Elizabeth raised her hand and asked, "How often do you renew yours?"

"Once a month," Harry said, smiling at the chatter this revelation generated.

Glancing at the clock, he saw that they had about fifteen minutes left of class time. "Right," he said, clapping his hands, "as Elizabeth observed, your textbook doesn't have anything about Blood Seals or anything related at all." He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a stack of packets, handing them out to be passed around. "So, I've taken it on myself to put together a mini-textbook."

Harry found he was actually a little bit nervous about how it would be received by his students and he thought back over the time he'd spent on it at the weekend.

"So," Ginny said, hefting one of his books in her hand, "what is this all about?"

"I'm going to teach my Seniors about Blood Seals," Harry said distractedly, looking over the notes he'd taken on his reading.

"That seems a pretty heavy subject. What for?"

"Well, given what's going on lately, I thought it would be a good idea for them to be aware of the concept of the seals and how to keep themselves safe from someone trying to use blood magic against them."

"Don't their schoolbooks cover it?" she asked, moving another book out of the way to sit on the sofa next to him, peering at his computer screen.

"Careful with that one, it's fragile. No, they don't. Blood magic has fallen out of favor, which is understandable given the Dark associations with it. We weren't taught anything about blood magic at Hogwarts." Harry sighed, scrolling through his copious notes, wishing he'd thought to ask Dumbledore about it when he was still alive. The knowledge lost with that man is a loss for us all.

"So what are you doing?"

"I'm putting together a sort of mini-textbook."

"Want some help? I can help you organize the information and proofread."

Harry looked at her and smiled. "That would be a godsend, Gin. I've got all of this information and I feel like I don't know where to even start."

Ginny held her hands out for the laptop and he handed it over. "Well, let's see what you've got so far, shall we?" Her experience writing loads of papers had been instrumental in getting the information into a coherent format that didn't completely overwhelm the reader. True to her word, she'd proofread it for him and he really hoped she'd caught all of the mistakes. They already gave him trouble for his British spelling, but he refused to budge on that.

"Give that a read. I want at least five hundred words on the pros and cons of Blood Seals and how intent relates to them tomorrow." The class groaned collectively and Harry smiled. "Now, Friday, you are going to cast your own Seals on the door. We'll see how well you do." Excited whispers commenced as he sat down behind his desk, pulling a stack of eighth grade quizzes over to grade.

He answered a few questions for some of the kids as they read through the new material before the bell rang, signaling lunch. In what seemed like seconds, his Seniors were out the door and he was alone with his own stomach rumbling. Locking his classroom, he headed over to the teacher's lunchroom, spotting Juanita at one of the tables. Nodding to her, he filled a plate with lasagna, green beans, salad and a hunk of sourdough.

"You owe me five dollars," he said, sitting down across from her.

"I do? What for?" she asked, setting her book aside and looking at him over her glasses.

"Elizabeth and David. I think they're going out," Harry grinned, tearing into the bread.

"Do you have proof?"

Harry shrugged. "Nothing beyond the fact that they were making eyes at each other in my class just now."

"I'll need more than that before I part with that much money," she said dubiously, going back to her book. Glancing at the cover, Harry saw it was one of the 'bodice-ripper' variety and he smiled.

"Historical research?" he asked, taking a bite of lasagna.

"Shut it, Potter."

Harry chuckled and gave his attention to his lunch, looking up when the door opened and Artemis stepped in, pausing to look at him. Raising his eyebrows, Harry swallowed and said, "All right, Artemis?"

The headmaster shook his head and sighed. "Blood magic, Harry?"

"A Blood Seal is the best defense for a home around."

"But we've—"

"Never taught it, never needed it. I know. I told you before, Artemis, I'm not going to keep life-saving information from them."

Artemis nodded, holding up his hands in a calming gesture. "I know," he sighed, "I just wish you'd give me some warning, next time."

"It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission, yeah?" Harry asked, grinning at Artemis's snort as he went to get his own lunch. Harry turned back to his plate to see Juanita looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"Blood magic?" she asked, setting her book aside again.

Harry shrugged and finished his lasagna. "Blood Seals at the very least. The concept of blood magic and how to protect against having it used against them. Witches and wizards are altogether too casual about their blood these days."

"Don't you ever get a blood test?"

"Not if I can avoid it."

"What if you get injured and bleed?" Juanita asked, looking genuinely interested.

"That's not so bad. To be really effective, the blood has to be fresh and it starts to degrade the second it leaves your body, making it useless for magic after about fifteen minutes unless it's preserved." He used the last crust of his bread to mop up the remainder of the sauce on his plate. "Now, if someone came running after me with a vial, then I'd suspect something was up."

Juanita frowned and shook her head. "What got you so interested in all that blood magic stuff?"

Harry looked at her, confused. "You don't know? Oh, I guess that's not in the books. Voldemort used my blood to resurrect himself. Once I had it used against me, I decided I'd do well to learn as much as I could about it."

"I see," Juanita said faintly, returning to her book. Harry shook his head and went to investigate the pudding options, eyes lighting up when he saw the pile of chocolate chip cookies.

"Harry, I heard you're teaching the Seniors Blood Seals," said a voice on his left and he turned to see Sophia Brown, the diminutive Herbology teacher.

"I guess word gets around fast," Harry said with a wry smile. "I am. Did you have any questions?" He picked up two cookies from the platter and contemplated a third, but resisted.

"Can you teach me?" she asked nervously.

"Of course. Are you going to be around after practice?" She nodded, seeming relieved and started to turn away, but Harry put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "Is everything all right? Is someone bothering you?"

Sophia shook her head. "No, nothing quite like that. The neighborhood is a little rough and I think I'd feel better if I had some extra protection."

"All right," Harry said, not quite convinced by her explanation. "After practice, then." He watched her rejoin the Transfiguration teacher, Anthony Jones, who nodded at him. Looking back at the plate of cookies, Harry defiantly took a third.

That afternoon, Harry walked over to Sophia's classroom that adjoined the school's large greenhouse. He'd been thinking about her all afternoon, trying to pin down his unease about her request. He wasn't bothered that she was asking to be taught. He thought everyone should know and would happily teach anyone who asked, but her nervousness didn't sit well with him. Gin would say that's my protective instincts kicking in, he thought with a smile. She'd be right.

The door was open and Harry breathed deeply of the smells of rich earth and green growing things, the scent taking him back to his own school days in Professor Sprout's greenhouse. He knocked twice on the door jamb, calling out, "Sophia?"

"Harry, I'm in the greenhouse. Come in," she called. Harry followed the sound of her voice into the greenhouse where she was soothing a plant laden with giant pink pods. "I'm just getting this Puffapod to settle down for the night." She stroked the dark green leaves which gradually stilled their quivering, finally relaxing, the pods drooping down with them.

Sophia put her finger against her lips and shooed Harry out, following him on tiptoe, carefully closing the door. "There. It's close to harvest, but they're so messy if the pods fall and burst." She washed her hands at the small sink and dried them. "Thank you for coming, Harry."

"Of course. Sorry I'm still in my running kit; I didn't want to make you wait longer for me than you already have."

"Oh, it's no problem. I'm often here until past six. Some of the plants need rather specialized attention."

"So, you want to learn how to put a Blood Seal on your threshold, right?"

Sophia nodded, looking nervous again. "Yes. My neighborhood is…up and coming…as they say."

"You have Unbreakables on your windows?" Harry paid attention to the Muggle news and was well aware of the bullets that flew around nightly in some neighborhoods. Again, she nodded. "All right. It's pretty straightforward. A bit of blood, the incantation and your will."

"Blood?" she asked with a frown.

"Just a drop. You know how to draw it? If not, I can do it for you."

"No, I'll do it."

"All right. I'll take your blood and put the seal on myself to demonstrate it. It wouldn't be any good for me to use my own blood here as I don't have any association with this threshold." He stood in the doorway and waited for her to join him.

She made a face and used her wand to prick her finger, drawing forth a small bead of dark blood. "What do I do?"

"Just drop it there on the threshold. On that metal is fine." She crouched down and the blood landed with a splat onto the shiny metal. Harry said the incantation clearly for Sophia, touching his wand to the threshold, smiling at the flash and fade of red.

"Oh!" Sophia said, looking up at Harry in surprise. "That's it? Did it work?"

"Let's find out." Harry left the classroom, already knowing it had worked when he felt the tingle pass over him. Turning around, he tried to get back into the classroom, but was stopped by the Blood Seal barrier.

"How do I know you're not faking?" she asked skeptically.

"I can't even put a finger in. Watch." Harry tried to stick his index finger past the threshold and couldn't do it. Sophia still looked a bit dubious, but she nodded. "Invite me in. Say my name and then, 'Please come in.'"

"Harry, please come in," she said, stepping aside.

Harry came in and nodded. "Good. Now, you go in and out." She did so, remarking that she didn't feel anything. "You don't because it's your blood. Now, I'm going to dispel it and then I want you to set it, all right?"

"Okay." Sophia watched closely as he crouched down and dispelled the seal in another flash of red, scouring the old blood away. She made another face as she drew another bead of blood and let it fall to the threshold, saying the incantation and touching her wand to the threshold. There was no flash of red and she looked up at Harry. "Did it work?"

"No. Try again. You really need to focus your intent." Harry cleaned the old drop away, motioning for her to put another drop down.

She squeezed the tip of her finger, causing another bead to fall. She took a deep breath and Harry could see her focusing as she said the incantation carefully. This time she was rewarded with the flash of red that faded away and she looked up, smiling at Harry. "Well done!" he said, standing up. "Let's see if it works." He left the classroom and turned around to go back in, running right into the barrier.

Sophia smiled, looking relieved. "Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you so much, Harry. This will make things a lot easier," she said after Harry had her cross the barrier herself.

"Don't forget to dispel it or else you'll have to invite your whole class in tomorrow." He watched as she dispelled the seal with a flash. "You'll need to renew it every so often, depending on how many visitors you invite past it. It's usually good for six months. I recommend every three months to be on the safe side."

"How often do you do it?"

"Once a month," Harry said, smiling at her raised eyebrows. "Are you sure there's nobody bothering you? If you need anything…"

He saw her flush and look down, shaking her head. "No, there isn't anything specific. I've been hearing a few things here and there and thought it would be better safe than sorry, you know?"

"What have you been hearing?" Harry asked with a frown.

"Just…some things." She looked up at him and took a deep breath. "My dad is Muggle-born and lately…well…" she finished with a shrug.

Harry nodded. "Are they nearby?"

"No, they live by Chicago."

"Good."

They stood quietly for a moment. "How do I add another person?"

"You add their blood and execute the spell again. You can't take off an individual, you need to dispel it completely and start over. You got it?"

"I do. Thanks again, Harry."

"You're welcome. Listen, if you ever feel threatened, don't hesitate to contact me, okay? Can you summon a Patronus?"

"Yes," she said with a nod, surprising Harry. "It's a badger."

"Send it to me and I'll come as soon as I can, all right?"

"All right," she said with a nod.

Harry walked back to his classroom, his thoughts troubled. Looks like Ignatius's poison is spreading. Dammit. Well, if anyone gives me shit about this Blood Seal business, I can just point to that, I suppose.

"So, how did it go?" Ginny asked after dinner that evening.

"I think it went quite well," Harry said, stretching out on the sofa.

"How long did it take them to figure it out?" Taking advantage of his prone position, Ginny laid on top of him, resting her head on his chest.

"They actually got it faster than I thought they would. They're a pretty sharp bunch. Isaac figured it out first," Harry said, putting his arms around her and squeezing tight. He felt the cat settling himself on her bum and gave him a pat.

"Which one is he again?"

"He's the one that's really quiet and shy. Almost never speaks up. His dad is Muggle-born. Did I tell you I saw his parents at that fundraiser?"

"No, you didn't mention that. Huh. Well, I guess they'll figure out what Ignatius is all about sooner or later." She looked down at Harry from her position of power, sweeping his hair away from his forehead. He closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of her fingers running along his scalp. "So I was reading in one of your books," Ginny said, sounding hesitant.

"Which one?"

"Um…Harnessing The Power Inside I think."

"That's a deep one. What did you find?" Harry opened his eyes, surprised at her serious expression.

"Can you really use blood magic to seal a witch or wizard off from their own magic?"

"It can be done, yes. It's not easy and it's definitely one of the reasons to keep a close eye on your own blood."

Ginny was quiet and Harry let her think it over, stretching his arms to pet Stuart where he was perched on her bum. "Can it be done without your knowledge?"

"No. First, you've had blood taken from you and you should definitely be aware of that. Second, the spell has to be cast in your presence—it's proximity-based, yeah?"

"The book said something about a symbolic binding?"

"Mm-hm. Like a lot of blood magic, there's a sympathetic component, sort of like voodoo. An effigy is sprinkled with your blood and bound with cloth, usually linen or something natural, representing the binding of your magic."

"And afterwards, you can't do any magic? At all?"

"None."

"And you're aware the whole time?"

"Yes. It's a requirement of the spell."

"Sounds brutal," Ginny said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

"Blood magic is generally pretty brutal," Harry said quietly. Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, echoed in his memory.

Ginny was quiet for several moments before speaking again. "Can it be reversed?"

"I'm not sure. There are some disagreements on that and as you can imagine, there isn't a lot of research being conducted on that front these days." He rubbed his hands up and down her arms. "Are you worried?"

"Not exactly. I mean, how many witches and wizards know about this sort of thing?" Harry cocked an eyebrow at her, glad to see her smile. "Present company excepted, of course. And my blood doesn't exactly go wandering off. But…"

"But?"

"I'd just never heard of such a thing and the idea that it even exists scares me a little."

"Well, like you said, it's not well-known. I've only run across it in that one book and I found it in a dodgy shop in Swansea."

"Swansea? What were you doing there?"

"You know, I don't even remember." Harry thought back and realized that was when he and Helena went on holiday together, trying to salvage their failing relationship. "You know what the true key is to keeping safe from blood magic?"

"What?"

"Constant vigilance!"

18. Chapter 18

"Tell me about cemeteries in San Francisco," Harry said as he sat down across from Juanita in the teacher's lunchroom. Ever since Ignatius's fundraiser-cum-campaign kickoff, he'd spent his spare time online doing some research on San Francisco cemeteries. Dissatisfied with what he'd been able to find, he decided it was time to pick the history teacher's brain.

"Cemeteries?" Juanita repeated, setting aside her book. Harry saw it was another one of her 'historical fiction' books and smiled.

"Yeah. Is it true that there aren't any in the City?" he asked as he dipped a hunk of crusty sourdough bread in his bowl of beef stew.

"Well, not exactly. There's one at Mission Dolores and the military one at the Presidio."

"What about wizarding cemeteries?"

"Past or present?"

"Both, I guess." He made a mental note to ask the head cook if the bread was made on-site or if she got it from a supplier. Either way, he needed more of this bread.

"In the past, witches and wizards have been interred with regular people. Dead is generally dead. There is a small wizarding cemetery over by Candlestick that's still in use, but most of our people are buried in Colma, like the rest of the City."

"Was that always the case?"

"Oh no. People didn't start making noise about moving out the dead until the early 1900s when land started getting really scarce."

"So until then, if you died in San Francisco, wizard or Muggle, you'd be buried there?"

"Yes." Juanita looked at him over her glasses. "Why the sudden interest?"

"Gin and I were at the Legion of Honor a few weeks ago and someone said it used to be a cemetery. I realized that I hadn't seen any the whole time I've been in the City and I wondered what the deal was," Harry said easily.

"Oh, yes. The Legion of Honor, Palace of Fine Arts and the golf course over there used to be a huge cemetery. The Golden Gate, I think," Juanita said with a faraway expression.

"What happened?"

"It was closed sometime in the early 1900s, after the earthquake, I think. Supposedly they moved all of the bodies to Colma, but in the early 90s they were doing some work on the Legion of Honor and found a whole bunch of them." She chewed thoughtfully on her bread, shaking her head at the disrespect.

"Huh. So they didn't really move them at all?"

"Looks like not. Probably just knocked down the stones in the 20s and called it good."

"Were any of the bodies they found wizarding?"

"I don't know if they were or not. I know that witches and wizards have been in the area since at least the Gold Rush."

"So if someone were to find a body around that area, it would likely be from the Gold Rush?"

"Likely. Do I need to check the trunk of your car for a shovel?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Harry laughed and shook his head. "No, like I said, I was just curious. I find the history of the Gold Rush era fascinating. Gin and I were walking down the Embarcadero a few weeks ago and we found a plaque in the pavement that said there was a ship buried in the ground underneath."

"Oh yes. During the Gold Rush, ships would dock and their whole crews would just desert and head for the gold fields, hoping to strike it rich. The harbor was filled with so many ships, you could walk from one end to the other and never touch water," she said, warming to her subject. Harry listened, turning over what he'd learned in his mind as he finished the excellent stew.

Well, I know of at least one wizard grave still in San Francisco. Now I just need to find out who's in there. "One more question about graves and then I swear I'm done," Harry said, interrupting her explanation of where the term "Shanghai'd" originated from.

"Yes?"

"How can I find out who might have been buried there under the Legion of Honor?"

"You can't," she said, shaking her head. "Most of the records were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire."

"Well shit," Harry said, checking his watch. "Time to get back. Thanks so much for the info."

"Anytime. It's always more fun to talk history with someone who isn't in danger of falling asleep!"

On the way back to his classroom, Harry waved distractedly to a group of students clustered around the fountain, deep in thought. When she said all of the records were destroyed, was that just Muggle records or wizard? Do wizard records go that far back? It might be time for another lunch with Archimedes and Sarah…

"In conclusion, I don't think the Muggle author of "Twilight" had a personal experience with or any knowledge of real vampires." Harry read with a smile. He was working through a pile of essays that compared and contrasted the reality of vampires with their fictional counterparts and this was about the fifth one he'd read that chose to focus on the insanely popular book. It looked like most of the girls in his Sophomore class had gone with that book, while a few had chosen Anne Rice's Lestat, which was a welcome change. The boys were tending to focus on popular cinematic adaptations while a few had chosen the Bram Stoker book. One boy had even chosen Stephen King's Salem's Lot.

He added his remarks to the bottom of the last page in his usual scrawl and set it down in the finished pile, picking up the next one. He looked over toward Ginny sitting cross-legged on the bed, absorbed as usual in her own books, papers and computer. She had her headphones in and her head was slowly nodding along to the music only she could hear. Stuart the cat curled up next to her, purring contentedly. The sounds of the crackling fire and the rain outside combined to make him feel very cozy.

He was halfway through the next essay, one that used the silent classic "Nosferatu" as the comparison basis, when he felt it. What the hell? His tattoo burned. Sitting straight up on the sofa, Harry looked around quickly, seeing nothing amiss in the tidy flat. The burning ratcheted up a notch and he stood up, ungraded essays falling to the floor. What the fuck is going on? Who's doing this?

Ginny looked up and popped out an earbud. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I don't know, Gin. My tattoo…it's a Summons."

Ginny frowned and cocked her head. "It's not active. How can anyone be Summoning you?" The burning intensified again and Harry quickly put on his trainers, wishing he had his old knife handy. "Harry? It's not active. How is this happening?" she said, a note of fear creeping into her voice.

"Gin…I reactivated it," Harry said with a wince at the horrified expression on her face. "I can't explain right now. I'll sort this out and be right back, yeah?" He grabbed his dragonhide jacket and shrugged it on, making sure he had his wand securely in hand. Stepping over to the bed, he bent down to kiss Ginny, but she moved away from him, holding her hand up in front of him.

"Just go, all right?"

Harry's heart plummeted at the sound of the anger, hurt and disappointment in her voice. "I'll explain, I promise," he said, hating the pleading note in his own voice. The burning came on even stronger and he hissed in pain. "I'm sorry, love. I've got to go." Concentrating on the Summons, he closed his eyes and Disapparated, Ginny's hurt expression seared into his vision.

A second later he was out in the hard rain and he crouched down, presenting as small of a target as he possibly could, quickly assessing his surroundings. He rolled behind an outcropping of rock that turned out to be a low stone bench as the corner of it erupted into shards and splinters. Harry sent out a Stupefy in the direction the other spell had come from and saw a gleam of light as the spell ricocheted off a Shield Charm.

"Good!" called out a voice that Harry recognized as Archimedes's and he stood up. He saw he was at the Twin Peaks overlook, San Francisco glittering in the rain below him.

"Archimedes? What the hell?" Harry yelled at the older man's approach.

"I needed to have a chat with you, Harry," Archimedes said as he stood in front of him. Harry noted that he was dressed for the rain in a hooded raincoat and wellies.

"And you can't send a fucking email or an owl? You have to Summon me out here in the fucking rain?" Harry fought the urge to hex the ex-Auror into oblivion.

"Sorry about the rain, Harry, but I had to see if what I thought was true." Archimedes gave him an appraising look and Harry had no doubt that the man was ready for whatever he might throw at him. The raincoat and wellies looked clumsy, but he had no doubt that Archimedes could move very well in them all the same.

"What's that, then?"

"That you still want to be an Auror."

"Nothing could be further from the truth. That's the last thing I want to be. You think I like this?" he asked, spreading his arms wide, indicating the cold rain. "You think I like being Summoned away from Gin at the drop of a hat? Speaking of Gin, she's going to kill me when I get back."

"Why is your tattoo still active, then?"

"Why's yours?" he shot back furiously.

"A fair question," Archimedes said, inclining his head. "I might not have been telling the full truth when I told you I was retired."

"Brilliant. Another goddamn liar. Fuck you, Archimedes." Harry turned away and prepared to Apparate back to the flat, already frantically trying to formulate a coherent explanation to Ginny as to why he'd reactivated his Auror tattoo.

"You're right," Archimedes called to Harry's back, making him pause, "about Weatherbee."

"Wonderful. He's all yours, then," Harry said bitterly.

"Listen, if you hadn't mentioned him to me, I would have never looked into him." The older man looked at him and nodded. "You've been asking questions," he said, the statement making the hairs on the back of Harry's neck stand up.

"So?"

"You're asking questions none of us have ever thought to ask."

"Have you been spying on me, Archimedes?" Harry asked, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"Spying is such a dirty word, Harry. You have instincts. Instincts we can use."

"You mean I have a face and a name you can use. No thanks."

Archimedes held up his hands placatingly. "I'm not going to lie and tell you that your notoriety doesn't matter, but you have much more value than just that to us."

Harry ran his hands through his soaking wet hair and fought for a calm he didn't feel. "Archimedes. I'm done, yeah? I'm not chasing the Dark anymore, okay? I'm wet and I'm in a lot of bloody trouble thanks to you, so I'm just going to go home now." He turned away again, hoping against hope that Ginny would be inclined to listen to him rather than curse him into next week.

"What about that Horcrux, Harry? Don't you want to find out about that?" Harry's blood turned to ice in his veins and he turned slowly to look at Archimedes. The American Auror looked like a cat that had just caught the biggest, fattest mouse in the house. "Come with me. Let's have a talk someplace dry."

Two hours later, Harry Apparated into an empty, dark flat. It took him a few moments to realize that Ginny wasn't simply in bed and asleep, but that she was just not there. He turned on a lamp and saw a packed bag and his school satchel with his school blazer laid neatly on top. Stuart was fast asleep on top of it, helpfully covering it in white hair. "Shit," he whispered, closing his eyes in dismay.

He'd sent out his stag to her with a message that he was fine and with Archimedes, hoping she'd take the Summons as a sort of prank, but she didn't send her hummingbird with a response and Harry knew that he was in for it. But he didn't expect an empty flat and a packed bag. Scanning the flat, he looked for any clues as to where she might have gone. The guide book was no use—they knew all of the Apparition points in the City by now—and without knowing where she'd Apparated to, Locus wasn't going to be a lot of help.

Sighing in frustration, Harry grabbed an old receipt and scribbled quickly on it. Going to Fairmont. Please come. I love you. —H

Quickly checking the bag and his satchel, he found everything in order. Ginny apparently expected him to be away for several days. In the lobby of the hotel, he hoped he looked like an ordinary traveler to the City with a late check-in rather than a boyfriend that had been kicked out by his righteously angry girlfriend.

Once in his room, he tossed his bags down and collapsed on the bed with a sigh, staring up at the ceiling. Digging in his jeans pocket, he brought out the half Galleon and looked at it moodily before putting it safely away. Well, this is uncharted territory, he thought. He had been witness to Ginny's anger several times and had even had it directed at him, but he never would have thought in a million years that she would actually put him out.

I was only trying to protect her. Once I can explain, she'll understand. I hope she'll let me explain. God, Gin, please let me explain.

"Just go, all right?" Ginny heard herself say over and over again as she stared at the spot Harry had so recently occupied before Disapparating without a sound. She found her fists were clenched tight, her fingernails digging into her palms painfully and she opened her fists with effort, working to maintain deep, even breaths. Rage, fear and sadness swirled through her, making her stomach flip over, threatening to send her to the loo to throw up her dinner.

"Nononononononono," she said aloud, closing her eyes and willing herself not to be sick. I am not a child. I will not puke my guts out over him! A cold sweat broke out all over her body and she felt shaky and faint. She put her computer to the side and bent at the waist, trying to even out the blood flow to her head and stop hyperventilating.

He lied to me. He said he was out of the Aurors. But he just got a Summons! Ginny recalled their conversation after the event at the Legion of Honor.

"Promise me, Harry."

"I promise. I told you last summer, I'm out. No more Auror, no more chasing around."

Feeling like she wouldn't immediately fall over, she sat back up, removing the other headphone from her ear and went into the loo to wash her face. I'm white as a sheet. Drying her face with the towel, she felt the tears come and she let them, sitting on the toilet as she was racked with sobs, screaming with all of her might into the towel.

Finally, the storm passed, leaving her feeling drained and exhausted, her throat raw. He lied to me, he lied to me, he lied to me… she thought over and over, feeling the tears starting up again. "No. Enough." Ginny took a deep breath and slapped her knees with her hands, standing up to wash her face again, exiting the loo to see the silver stag standing in the middle of the flat. Her heart leapt at the sight and she reached out to grasp one of the antlers, Harry's voice clear in her mind.

I'm all right. I'm with Archimedes and we're going to chat for a little bit. I'll see you soon. I love you. Message done, the stag collapsed into a pearly fog before dissipating away.

Archimedes? He's getting back in. He can't stand it and he's getting back into the Aurors! That's what this has all been about with that stupid Horcrux and that awful man! He's just not happy being here with me—he has to have something to chase down!

"Well he's got another think coming," Ginny said calmly to the empty flat. She pulled out Harry's overnight bag and began filling it with enough underwear, socks, undershirts, shirts and slacks for several days, his work shoes and a selection of school ties. Gathering up the scattered student papers, she put them neatly in his school satchel along with his computer and toiletries. On top of the two bags she laid his school blazer.

Looking down at the bags and blazer, Ginny felt the tears coming again and she looked up at the ceiling instead, blinking rapidly. "Right. I've got to get out of here," she said, patting Stuart on the head. She packed up her things, checking the time. UCSF library is open for another hour. After that, I'm sure I can find a coffee shop or a diner or someplace.

The rest of the evening was useless as far as getting any work done. Her time in the library was spent listening to music and staring off into space while her laptop ran out of battery. When she was shooed out of there, she walked down to a late-night coffee shop where she sat, listening to music and drinking coffee while she stared off into space. At least this time she had the good sense to plug her laptop in so it didn't run completely out of power.

Thoughts of Harry and their life together swirled in her head. Am I not enough for him? Is he really that unhappy with me here that he has to go chasing off after more Dark magic? Does our life together bore him? Ginny was not accustomed to feelings of inadequacy where Harry was concerned. For all of their ups and downs over the years, she had always felt reasonably secure in knowing where she stood with him. Part of it was the fact that she had always kept him at arm's length and never gave in to the true depth of her feelings for him. He was always her shagging buddy, good for a tumble or a fun night out and that was it.

That's why I never stayed the night, Ginny thought, switching to a different song on her music player. The one that had started was definitely too upbeat for the way she was feeling. Staying the night would have made it too real, like we were actually trying to be together. She snorted and finished her coffee, setting the cup on the edge of the table to indicate she wanted a refill. If we weren't together, then it wasn't so bad when he was being taken away from me. Intellectually, she knew she was kidding herself. Every single time that damned Summons came when they were together it was heartbreaking and terrifying.

The waitress refilled her coffee and brought more cream. Ugh, that doesn't change the fact that he lied to me. He told me he was out of the Aurors and done and happy teaching. And now he wants to get back in. I didn't want to make him choose, but it looks like he's already chosen and I didn't make the cut. She sighed and closed her eyes, visions of Harry on a constant loop in her brain. His smile, the way he always seemed to be aware of where she was when they were in the same room, his eyes automatically seeking her out. The early dawn light on his face, his breath visible in the frigid air as he said the words. The look on his face as he Disapparated away from her a few hours ago.

Fresh tears sprung to her eyes and she angrily wiped them away, blowing her already raw nose on the paper napkin. I'm exhausted and tomorrow is a busy day, she thought, looking at the time on her music player. It's after one. Harry should have been and gone by now. She reached into her pocket for cash for the bill and she touched the half of a Galleon she carried with her everywhere now. Taking it out, she looked at it. I wonder what this means now? Are we done?

Leaving cash on the table, she packed up her things and decided she'd take her time and walk home. Home, to an empty flat.

She saw the first stag of the day when she opened her eyes after what seemed like mere minutes of sleep. The silvery apparition loomed over her as Stuart tried in vain to rub up against it and she sighed, placing her hand against its shoulder. Harry's voice filled her mind. Gin, I'm so sorry. Please message me back. I need to know you're okay. I love you.

The stag imploded, silver swirling over the bare wood floor before disappearing. When she'd arrived back at the flat in the wee hours of the morning, she'd seen right away that the things she'd left out for Harry were gone and there was a note for her on an old market receipt, telling her that he was staying at the Fairmont.

Glad to know he's roughing it, she thought wryly. His hotel room is probably larger than this whole flat. After tossing and turning for hours, Ginny finally managed to get a couple hours of sleep, only to wake up with a stag's face in hers.

She saw the second stag around lunchtime as she walked across Parnassus from the library to Health Sciences West, catching sight of it as it sidled around the corner of a building, almost beckoning for her to follow. She obliged and set a hand on its haunch, Harry's voice exploding inside of her. Gin, please message me back. It's not what you think. I can explain everything to you. I love you.

The third and final stag of the day was waiting for her in the flat when she got home long after dark. Ginny sighed at the sight of it lying on the bed, the cat curled up next to it. What will this one say? Heart thumping painfully, she reached her hand out, placing her fingertip on the Patronus's nose. Gin, Ginny, Ginevra…I love you I love you I love you… reverberated through her, shaking her to her core and she collapsed onto the bed amid the silver smoke. She almost sent out her hummingbird, the cast on the tip of her tongue, but she stopped herself. No. He lied. He chose.

The next day Ginny awoke feeling perfectly wretched, almost expecting to see Harry's stag waiting for her. When she opened her eyes to an empty flat, her heart turned over in her chest at the thought that Harry might have just given up on communicating with her. Stuart's demanding head butts drove her out of bed and she dragged herself into the shower. As she was rinsing the shampoo out of her hair, she shrieked out loud at the sight of a silvery nose pushing the shower curtain aside, luminous eyes looking straight at her.

She reached out a trembling hand, placing her palm right between the stag's eyes, her own eyes widening as the sound of Harry's heartbeat thrummed through her. Unconsciously she counted and found that it was faster than his usual resting rate of fifty-five beats or so and she wondered what he'd done to quicken it. How in the world did he manage to get that into a Patronus? Feeling her mood lift at the contact from Harry, Ginny felt decidedly less wretched as she left the flat for class that day.

"So, what are you and Harry doing for the weekend?" Ben asked at lunch. It was another rainy, gray day, so they were indoors getting a quick bite before going into their clinic rotations for the afternoon.

"Um, I don't think we're doing anything," Ginny said awkwardly.

"What? Do I need to have a talk with my future husband?" Ben said, sounding genuinely offended.

Ginny shook her head, feeling the sting of tears at the corners of her eyes. "No. We're a little bit on the outs right now."

"What? When did this happen?"

Sighing, Ginny set down her sandwich, knowing Ben wouldn't let it go until he got some sort of story out of her. "A couple days ago."

"What happened? Are you okay?" he asked, leaning in closer and putting a hand on her shoulder.

Unable to hold them back, Ginny let the tears come, dabbing at her eyes with a napkin. "I found out he's been lying to me."

Ben sucked in a breath. "Lying? About what? Is he seeing someone else?"

"No, nothing like that." Ginny took a deep breath, formulating an explanation that would make sense to her Muggle friend. "Do you remember when I told you about how he used to be in law enforcement doing all sorts of dangerous things? Going after the worst of the worst?" Ben nodded and Ginny continued. "Well, I found out the other night that he's apparently wanting to go back to that."

"Would that be so bad?" Ben asked with a frown.

"Ben, the kind of law enforcement Harry does isn't just giving out speeding tickets. I'm not kidding when I say that he used to risk his life every single day." She shook her head. "I can't do it. I can't sit at home while he's out there risking his damn neck." Taking a deep breath, she willed herself back under control, dabbing at her eyes again. She did not want to go into the clinic looking like she needed help herself.

"So what did you do?"

"I packed up some of his things and left. His bags were gone when I got back."

"Girl, you mean business. Have you heard from him?" Ginny nodded, sweeping her eyes around the crowded cafe. If Harry held to his pattern from yesterday, there should be another stag lurking nearby. "What did he say?"

"That it wasn't what I thought and that he can explain."

"What did you say?"

"He left messages and I haven't responded yet," Ginny said, listlessly picking at her crisps.

"Honey, you're miserable. You should at least hear him out." He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him, his blue eyes serious. "Promise me. You will talk to him tonight. You can't let this go on; you'll just make yourself sick."

"I promise," Ginny nodded. "I promise. I told you last summer, I'm out," echoed in her mind and she felt her stomach churn. She pushed aside the rest of her sandwich and crisps, glancing out the cafe window. She thought she caught a brief flash of pearly silver and her heart sped up. "I'm going to get going, okay?" Ben nodded and squeezed her shoulder again.

"What is it you Brits say? Stiff upper lip?"

Ginny smiled and shook her head, heading off in search of her messenger. I must have imagined it, she thought when she didn't see it anywhere near the cafe. Disappointed, she headed over to the clinic and went into the locker room to change into scrubs. She opened her locker and had to stifle a yelp when she saw the silver stag had somehow stuffed itself into it. Quickly glancing around the room to make sure she was alone, she put her hand on its forehead, Harry's voice seeming to come from inside of her.

I know you're getting these. Please respond. I need to see you. I need to talk to you. I love you, Gin. He sounded calm and a little bit irritated at her silence and Ginny wondered how much longer he would honor her wishes and stay away before he just showed up in front of her. He had an uncanny knack for finding her, sometimes.

The stag gone, Ginny pulled out her scrubs and changed out of her jeans and jumper, trying to put Harry, his messages and her promise to Ben out of her mind and immerse herself in the job in front of her. One thing at a time, Ginny. Several exhausting hours later, Ginny was back at her locker, changing back into her street clothes. She'd managed to put her current predicament out of her mind and did pretty well at taking patient histories, having to ask for repetitions only a few times, but it had been hard work and she felt like her brain was going to start running out of her ears.

When she reached her preferred Apparating spot from school, she wasn't exactly surprised to see the stag waiting for her. Where is he getting the energy to send all of these? she wondered, touching the Patronus on the neck.

Gin, I know tonight is your late clinic. Will you come to me tomorrow? Please. I love you. I need you. Ginny conjured her own Patronus, the tiny hummingbird zipping off into the dark rainy night with a simple message. Yes.

Harry sat at the bar in the Fairmont hotel, leaning his elbows on the polished dark wood. His expensive scotch sat in front of him, ice cubes melting into oblivion while Arsenal played Hull City on the silent telly above the bar. He'd been sitting in the same place for two hours, waiting for Ginny to walk through the doors of the bar.

He wasn't quite sure yet what he'd do when he saw her. He'd run several scenarios through his mind as he waited and drank watered-down scotch. In one, he waited calmly for her to approach him, in another he launched himself at her as soon as he caught the glint of her red hair in the dim lights, Apparating them directly to his room in front of everyone. He'd even imagined himself simply ignoring her, but he knew he could never do that in a million years.

When he sat down at the bar at six, he'd slipped the bartender a twenty and asked him to keep an eye out for a redhead, but so far his investment had failed to pay off. He looked at his watch and sighed, signaling for a fresh scotch. Almost half eight, he thought. Maybe I should just go to the flat… The bartender, Rudy, put a fresh glass of Lagavulin in front of him. "That her?" he asked, nodding his head toward the entrance of the bar.

Turning on the barstool, Harry felt his pulse race when he caught sight of Ginny framed by the doorway. She was wearing what he was pretty sure was called a 'little black dress' that hugged every curve and left her shoulders bare. She'd done something different with her hair and it looked bouncier than it usually did. Her lips were an amazing color of red Harry wasn't completely sure existed in nature but looked stunning on her and her high heels did wonderful things to her legs. "Wow," he heard Rudy say as Ginny walked toward him.

Feeling light-headed, Harry stood up and held out his hand to her, helping her get settled in the seat next to his. Ginny nodded at Rudy and gave him a wide smile. "I'll have what he's having." Harry settled back down on the chair, watching as Rudy set down the measure of Lagavulin in front of her and she took a sip, the action of her throat as she swallowed the heady liquor making him ache to kiss her. "That's good," she said, smiling approvingly at Rudy who had the decency to blush. Casting a glance at Harry, Rudy also had the decency to move farther down the bar and give them some privacy.

Finally turning to face him, Ginny gave him a small smile. "Hi."

"Hi," Harry said, feeling as if all of the cells in his body were vibrating uncontrollably. He took a sip of his scotch to steady his nerves. "How have you been?"

"Terrible. You?"

"Awful."

Ginny raised an eyebrow and looked around at the opulent bar. "I find that hard to believe."

"It doesn't matter how good the bed is if you're not in it with me." Harry was pleased to see her cheeks turn pink at this and her reaction made him feel like all was not yet lost. He leaned in closer to her. "Can I come home?" he asked in a low voice.

"We need to have a talk first," she said softly.

"We can go up to my room."

Ginny shook her head and gave him a wry smile. "No. We need to actually talk."

Harry signaled Rudy for the check and signed with his room number, wincing inwardly at the reminder of the price of three half-drunk Lagavulins. "Come on, there's a place over here." He helped Ginny down from the high stool, savoring the feeling of her hand in his again and led her over to a small lounge area and a banquette in a private corner. He sat in a spot that assured him a good view of the main entrance, Ginny sliding into the banquette next to him.

There was a small plate menu on the table and Ginny picked it up, looking over the choices. "Hungry?" she asked him and he grunted noncommittally. He hadn't been eating much the last couple of days, spending most of his evenings in the bar hanging out with Rudy and Lagavulin. When the waiter came by, she asked for the cheese and charcuterie plate and sat quietly, sipping her scotch.

Harry had already determined that he would let her control their meeting for all that he longed to take her into his arms and kiss his apologies, so he sat and drank, feeling his stomach perform slow flips at her every move. He glanced over at the telly and saw Arsenal were up two to one over Hull City. Looking back at Ginny, he saw she was looking at him and he raised his eyebrows in inquiry, taking another sip of his scotch. She shook her head and looked away as their share plate came.

Shaking his head when the waiter asked if they needed anything else, Harry took a deep breath, readying himself for the conversation he knew they had to have if they were going to move beyond their current difficulty. She seemed determined to make him wait as long as possible and he watched as she carefully layered fig spread, prosciutto and brie on top of a small square of sourdough bread and handed it to him, making another one for herself. Bemusedly holding the small bite, Harry finally ate it when Ginny gestured at him.

Dusting off her hands and taking another sip of scotch, Ginny turned to face him. "So. What happened the other night?" she asked, her expression serious.

Harry closed his eyes and swallowed. He'd rehearsed this a thousand times since coming back to an empty flat, but he found that all of the words he'd prepared had fled. "I got a Summons."

Ginny nodded. "From whom?"

"Archimedes."

"Why?"

Harry sighed and shifted in the banquette. "He wants to recruit me."

"For?"

"The Aurors." Ginny nodded and looked away from him. "Gin, I—"

"Do you want to? Be an Auror again?"

Harry's breath exploded out of him and he shook his head. "No."

"Then why is your tattoo still active?" She picked up another piece of cheese and nibbled it slowly, waiting for his response.

Here we are at the crux of the issue, Harry thought. "I…had a feeling that it needed to be. That I needed to be ready."

"For what?"

Harry shrugged helplessly, raising his eyes to the ceiling. "For whatever might happen. To protect you, to keep you safe." He saw her face cloud at this statement, but she didn't comment on it.

"When did you reactivate it?"

"The day after we found the Horcrux." Harry's memory flashed back to that afternoon Ginny had left and gone for a walk, leaving him in his sulk on the sofa. He'd felt the terrible lassitude and depression that being in such close contact with a Horcrux for even that short amount of time caused and realized that meant it was a very strong one. That realization frightened him deeply and keeping Ginny safe was in the forefront of his mind. So he'd reactivated his tattoo, the searing burn settling into his skin almost comforting, making him feel like he was ready for anything.

"How did Archimedes know? I thought he was retired?"

"He's a really good Occlumens to be able to lie to me. I guess you'd think of him as sort of an Auror emeritus. He doesn't exactly have an official role in the organization, but he's still associated. Kind of a consultant, I guess," Harry said, reaching across the table for Ginny's hand, relieved when she didn't pull away. "When we went for lunch on New Year's Day and I told him my suspicions about Weatherbee and about the Horcrux? I think that's when he began to think about recruiting me."

Ginny sighed and drank more scotch. "Do they want you or your face?"

"A bit of both. Archimedes complimented my instincts," he said, running his thumb over the back of Ginny's hand. "Ignatius wasn't even on their radar before, but he is now. And remember how Jacob doesn't have the Horcrux anymore?" Ginny nodded and Harry took a deep breath. "The Aurors have it. They bought it under the guise of an art collector. Jacob and Ignatius don't know."

"Good. They can take care of both then and do their damn jobs. They don't need you," Ginny said, squeezing his hand hard. "They don't need you, right?" she asked when he didn't respond.

"Gin, it's affecting the kids."

"The Horcrux? What's affecting the kids?"

"Ignatius. He's going after the Muggle-borns."

"Well, we already knew he didn't like them. What's he doing now? How is it your problem?"

"You already know what he wants to do with that damned scholarship. He's been talking up a caste system and restricting magical instruction to Purebloods," Harry said, watching the play of emotions on Ginny's face shift from concern to disgust.

"How do you know about this? Have you been meeting with him without me knowing?"

"Out of the mouths of babes," Harry sighed.

"Your students told you this?"

"Yeah. Some of the younger ones. Not in the exact same words, of course. I ran across some Freshmen teasing some seventh graders—Muggle-borns, of course—telling them that they didn't belong at the school. That their magic was weak and they didn't deserve wands or to learn magic." Harry closed his eyes, remembering the shouts of the word "Mudblood" that he hadn't heard in years. "Gin, it's coming from the parents who are listening to that bastard."

Ginny was shocked speechless for a moment, her brown eyes wide. "I can't believe that. Here? Things are so much more…integrated." She was quiet for a moment and then asked, "Does Artemis know?"

"After I talked with the kids about where they came up with this idea, I sent the older ones on to Artemis for discipline. I talked with him after and told him that he's got to get Ignatius off the school board."

"Does Artemis share his ideas?"

Harry shook his head. "No. I worked him over pretty good with Legilimancy. He's an open book as far as that goes." He sighed and nibbled desultorily on a piece of cheese. "I told him that if he didn't get him off the board that I'd be done at the end of the year."

"You did?" Ginny asked, looking completely taken aback. "How'd he take that?"

"He asked if I was blackmailing him," Harry snorted, taking another sip of his whiskey.

"Are you?"

"No. But I was dead serious."

Ginny sat quietly, looking down at their entwined hands before withdrawing from his grasp to fish around in her handbag, setting half of a Galleon on the table between them. "What about this?" she asked, looking into his eyes.

Harry pulled the other half of the Galleon out of his pocket and set it next to hers, the halves lining up perfectly. "That doesn't change, unless you want it to." He leaned close to her, lips next to her ear. She'd used a new perfume tonight, one he wasn't familiar with, and the smell of it on her skin dazzled him. "I love you and I meant every word," he whispered, gratified at her quickening breath.

Ginny took another drink of the Lagavulin and turned to look at Harry. He could see the shine of held-back tears in her eyes as she cupped his cheek with her hand, sweeping her thumb over his cheekbone. "I don't want it to change, either, but I can't keep waiting up nights for you to come back after you've been called away."

"It's done, then. I'll deactivate it tonight. Archimedes will just have to learn to live with disappointment," Harry said, leaning in to kiss Ginny softly. He almost physically felt all of the tension from the last few days leave his muscles when she leaned into the kiss instead of away from him as she had that night. "I missed you so damn much," he whispered against her lips, fighting against the sting of tears in his eyes.

"I missed you, too," Ginny whispered, cupping his face in both hands before letting go to wipe delicately at her eyes. "Oh, no, all of my hard work," she said with a watery smile. "I should have known better."

"You look fucking fantastic," Harry murmured, pulling her close and wrapping his arms around her. I am never letting her go, he thought, reveling in the feeling of the heat of her body close to his once more. He glanced over toward the bar, catching Rudy's eye and waved his hand in the universal pantomime for "check, please". Rudy waved him off, inclining his head toward the doors out of the bar.

Scooping up the Galleon, Harry took her hand and slid out of the banquette, giddy with relief. "Come on," he said, leading her to the bank of elevators. Inside, he slid his keycard in the slot and pressed the number six. As soon as the doors closed, he pushed Ginny up against the mirrored elevator wall and molded his body to hers, kissing her urgently, parting his lips for her tongue.

All too soon, the elevator ride was over, forcing them to come apart as the doors opened. A man and a woman about Arthur and Molly's age stood outside, waiting to go down. "Good evening," Harry said, giving them a cheeky grin, more than certain that Ginny's red lipstick was all over his face. The woman gave a sniff of disapproval, but her husband inclined his head and gave Harry a slight smile in return.

Outside of his door, Harry struggled to get the card into the tiny slot until Ginny finally huffed and took it from him, quickly unlocking the door and pushing it open. Once inside with the door closed, he fairly attacked her, sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her to the bed, kissing her everywhere he could reach. He gently tossed her onto the bed, his heart feeling liable to burst at the sound of her laugh.

Tossing his glasses on the bedside table, he quickly rid himself of his blazer, throwing it carelessly on a nearby chair and he was about to take off his tie when Ginny sat up and grabbed it, pulling him down towards her. "You are mine tonight," she whispered fiercely between searing kisses and it seemed as if those words went straight to his cock.

Ginny put her hands on his shoulders and reversed their positions, pushing him down onto his back on the bed, looming over him in that fantastic dress. "When did you get that dress?" he asked, admiring the way it clung to her curves in the low light of the room.

"This afternoon, after class. Ben helped me pick it out. Do you like it?" She struck a modeling pose, her disarrayed lipstick making her look sexy beyond belief.

"Oh God, I do," Harry sighed as she ran her hands over his chest, the feeling of her warm palms through his shirt making his skin tingle all over.

"Good. You paid for it." Her clever fingers made quick work of his tie and the buttons of his shirt, spreading it open to bare his chest to her touches and kisses.

"How did I manage that?"

"I forged your signature," she said with an impish smile. "Ben was scandalized." Harry laughed and reached out for her but she drew back, shaking her head. "No touching."

"No?" he echoed, sounding completely out of breath.

In answer, Ginny took him by the wrists and put his arms above his head. "Do you remember our conversation about punishment for lying? These stay here," she said with a sultry smile, those red lips making him shiver.

Oh bloodyfuckgoddamn, he thought as she lowered her mouth to his neck, nipping him on his pulse point. "What else are you going to do with me?" he asked, gritting his teeth against the sharp pain as she sucked hard enough to leave a mark.

"You'll have to wait and see," she whispered, tongue darting out to trace the shell of his ear. She continued her assault on his neck, nibbling on his Adam's apple to make him squirm, dipping her tongue in the hollow of his throat to make him sigh, running her tongue along the cords in his neck as he gasped out her name.

When she was sure he was a shivering mess, Ginny got off the bed and walked over to her handbag, taking out her wand and looking at him speculatively. He saw her cast a spell and closed his eyes reflexively, opening them again when he realized his shirt was gone. Harry looked at her in surprise and she smirked at him. "You Vanished my shirt."

"You've done it to me often enough, haven't you?" She held up her hand, counting on her fingers. "Knickers, bras, shirts…brand new jeans. Never saw any of them ever again."

"Fair enough, I suppose," Harry laughed as Ginny approached him again, taking off his shoes and socks. "Thanks for not Vanishing those." His arms were starting to ache a little bit and he moved them closer to the top of his head.

"Keep those where they are," Ginny warned, pointing her wand at him.

"They'll stay right here, I promise." He watched as she pulled off his trousers, leaving him in his boxers, his erection in plain evidence. He felt mildly embarrassed at his enforced passivity and did a short deep breathing exercise, focusing on Ginny as she nodded in satisfaction, setting her wand down on the bedside table. Reaching behind her back for the zip on her dress, she let it fall to the floor and Harry swallowed at the sight of Ginny in a matching bra and knicker set he'd never seen before. In fact, he didn't think she'd ever even had a strapless bra, but she was wearing one now, a black one that set off her pale skin perfectly. The knickers were the merest suggestion and rode very low on her hips, making him wonder if she'd used a Depilatory Charm on herself.

"Did Ben help you pick those out, too?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I offered, but he declined. Said he wanted to keep his gold star gay status," she said with a wicked smile, hooking her thumb in the waistband of the barely-there knickers. Harry's arms ached with a fierce need to pull those knickers off and toss them across the room, but all he could do was watch as she climbed back on the bed, straddling him on her hands and knees.

"Now, what am I to do with you?" Harry groaned low in his throat when she placed delicate kisses on his biceps, the feeling of her heated body over his and not being allowed to touch her slowly driving him around the bend. Which I'm certain was her intent all along. He closed his eyes, absorbed in the sensations Ginny was creating and gave a jump when he felt her blow into his armpit, tickling him with his own hair. He opened his eyes to see her smiling down at his reaction. "I've always wanted to do that," she whispered, flicking her tongue out to his earlobe, drawing a shudder from him.

"Why?" Harry asked breathlessly.

"I don't know," she said with an enigmatic smile, bending to run her tongue along a pale blue vein that ran along his left bicep.

Moving further down his body, she ran her thumbs over his nipples, making them stand at attention and giving him a shivery feeling in his belly. His breathing was becoming more ragged and he did some more deep breathing, struggling for control. The last thing he wanted was to come in his boxers like an inexperienced teenager, but that was exactly what she was making him feel like. Aching to take that bra off, he clenched his fists, feeling the throb of his rapid pulse in his hands.

"Am I getting to you, Harry?" Ginny asked with an arch smile.

"Oh God, yes."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to take that bra off," he growled.

She sat up and considered his request. "All right." Quickly unfastening the clasp, she let it fall away onto the floor, revealing pale, freckled skin and delicate pink nipples. "Better?"

"Not really. Now I want to touch you even more."

"Oh, bad luck." She leaned back over him and kissed his stomach right above his belly button, making him jerk and quiver again, anticipating the feeling of those red lips wrapped around his cock. Almost as if she'd read his mind, she reached for her handbag again, drawing out the lipstick, looking straight at him as she applied a fresh coat.

"Oh fucking hell," he whispered as she pulled his boxers off to expose his throbbing erection.

"Language, Mr Potter," Ginny admonished with a pout. His brain quietly exploded at the sight of her taking him in her warm mouth, those red lips wrapped tightly around his cock. As he watched, she paused for a moment, performing the wandless warming charm on her hands and sweeping them over his legs and up to his bollocks before drawing him back into her mouth and working his shaft with those hot hands.

Harry's mouth was bone dry and he was fighting a losing battle to keep his breathing steady and even, his breath coming in hitches and moans. Internally mortified at his reduced vocabulary, he resolved to stop listening to himself and concentrate on what Ginny was making him feel, instead.

He desperately wanted to reach out to her, to touch her hair, her skin, to feel her heat under his hands, but he didn't dare move his arms, settling for clenching and unclenching his fists instead. Eyes closed, he began to feel that dizzying rush that always heralded his orgasm and he suffered a moment of indecision, not sure if he should alert her or not as he had no idea what her plans were.

A second later and the decision was made for him as he felt her take her mouth off him, setting all of his nerve endings on fire at the abrupt crash of his climax. Narrowly avoiding a whimper, he opened one eye a crack when he felt her rise from the bed, watching as she removed the scrap of underwear and stood completely starkers in front of him. He could see that while she might not have removed everything, she had definitely done a bit of grooming.

Unthinkingly reaching out to draw her to him, Harry groaned when Ginny stepped back from the bed. "No touching. I meant it," she said, motioning for him to put his hands back over his head. Unable to do anything but comply, he did so, lacing his fingers together.

"You are going to be the death of me," he grated out between clenched teeth.

"Hardly. You look like you have plenty of life left in you yet," Ginny said, taking hold of his cock again and swirling her tongue around the tip. Harry closed his eyes again, trying to not sound like a freight train chugging up an impossible hill when he felt the bed dip again and Ginny's weight settle on his lower abdomen, the wet heat of her delicious on his belly. She leaned over him and wrapped her hands around his wrists, kissing him deeply. "Are you ready?" she whispered.

Harry concentrated briefly and looked into Ginny's eyes and nodded. "Yes," he whispered, raising his head for another kiss. As their lips met, she sheathed his cock inside of her warm wetness and Harry exhaled in profound relief. She paused for a moment and then began to move slowly, keeping her hands on his wrists and her eyes on his. Mesmerized, Harry could only look back at her, the dim light in the room casting half of her face in shadow.

"Ginevra, my beautiful Ginevra," he whispered, a flash of satisfaction rushing through him when her confident expression was momentarily upended into shyness. I can't touch you, but I can still get to you.

Speeding up her rhythm, she let go of one of his wrists to touch herself, setting off another explosion in his brain and he began to move in time with her, loving the way her breasts bounced when he drove into her with a grunt. She let go of his other wrist, placing her hand in the middle of his chest for additional balance as she continued to ride him. Her eyes were closed now and she had that pink flush that Harry loved so much all over her chest and neck.

The room seemed unbearably hot and Harry swept the damp hair off of his forehead, fighting against the need to take Ginny in his arms and flip her over to pound into her until they both broke apart into tiny pieces. She opened her eyes again and leaned down to kiss him, her hands on his shoulders, fingernails digging into his skin. Bearing down hard on his hips, she moved hers in a slow, circular motion, breath hitching in that way Harry knew so well as she came.

Motionless atop him, Ginny tossed her head back to get her hair out of her eyes and grinned down at him, eyes bright. "I think you've been punished enough, don't you?" she said, sounding out of breath.

Harry moved his hips, raising an eyebrow at her squeak. "If fucking me thorough the mattress is your idea of punishment, I might start cultivating more bad habits."

"You already have more than enough bad habits, believe me." She sat up and took his wrists, placing his hands on her hips, giving him the longed-for permission to touch her again. The feeling of her sweaty skin was amazing after not being allowed to touch her this whole time and Harry swept his hands up from her hips around to her breasts, running his thumbs over her nipples to make them hard.

"What bad habits do I have?" he asked, pinching one of her nipples and smiling at her intake of breath.

"Let's not get into that right now," Ginny said, arching her back and leaning into his touch. The movement of her hips made his cock twitch and he made a decision, gathering her close and flipping them over, covering her body with his.

Lacing his fingers through hers, he gave her a taste of her own medicine and held her hands over her head as he thrust into her. Having already been thoroughly worked over, he knew he wasn't going to last much longer and the sound of their bodies crashing together combined with the incredible friction drove him over the edge, pulling a groan from what felt like his toes as he finally came.

Exhausted from the tension of the past few days, the lack of sleep and then the incredible release, Harry collapsed on top of Ginny, his arms too tired from holding himself back to even hold himself up. Mindful of suffocating her in the cushy bed, he rolled to the side, delighting in the feeling of Ginny's legs still wrapped around his waist. Slowly, carefully, they disengaged, sharing small touches and kisses until she excused herself to the loo, coming back with a blessed glass of water.

"Thanks, love," Harry said as he drank it down. Throwing the plethora of pillows off the bed, they situated themselves under the covers and he pulled Ginny close to him, wrapping an arm possessively around her waist and placing his lips on her shoulder, delighting in her shiver. "Give me a minute and I'll deactivate my tattoo, okay?"

Ginny turned around in his arms to face him. "I've been thinking about that."

"When?" Harry asked with a smile. There were still traces of red lipstick on her lips and he felt his cock stir at the memory of those lips wrapped around him.

"Some of us don't have completely one-track minds, you know." Ginny took a deep breath and Harry felt a tingle of apprehension. "I want one of my own."

"What?"

"I want to be able to Summon you and I want you to be able to Summon me," she said, determination in her voice.

Harry was completely shocked. "Gin…you're not…you're not an Auror."

"Neither are you."

"That's true, but—"

"No buts," Ginny said, putting a finger against his lips. "I thought about this even when we were in London, but I didn't think you'd go for it since it's against the rules."

"Oh, it's very against the rules. I could get in a lot of trouble for it. We both could."

"But we're out here now and no one will know. Listen, if things are as dangerous as you say, then I want us both to have a reliable, foolproof way to get to the other. I don't quite trust those Muggle mobile phones and Patronuses can be intercepted," Ginny said reasonably and Harry could tell that she was completely set on this course of action.

"But—"

"Harry, if this is about protecting me or keeping me safe, you can shut it right now. How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not a delicate hothouse flower?"

"Gin—"

"Listen, you never cared about protecting me when I was a Chaser on your team with sodding Bludgers flying at me and nasty Marcus Flint trying to knock me off my broom. And I didn't care that you weren't swooping in to save me because I could save myself. So please, get over this, all right?"

Harry drew another breath to speak and she held up a finger. "Please, Harry. The coin, the curse, that Horcrux. I can't let you handle all of that alone." She looked at him, her expressive brown eyes sad. "Because I know you. I know you're not going to let it go and I will not sit at home, waiting and wondering."

"Okay. We'll do it at the weekend. It's going to hurt."

Ginny nodded. "I know. I remember you and Ron describing the ordeal." She turned around in his arms again and pressed her back to his chest, sighing contentedly. "Oh, I also want you to teach me silent Apparating."

Mother of God, what have I created? Harry wondered, looking up at the ceiling.

19. Chapter 19

Eyes closed, Ginny floated on her back in the enlarged bathtub, concentrating on the feeling of her body in the water. Harry had explained that the trick with silent Apparating was an intimate knowledge of one's volume, rather than weight, hence the enlarged tub and the floating. She felt extremely foolish at first when she put on her bikini and got into the magically-warmed water with Harry watching, but now she found she quite liked the feeling of floating in the dark.

"Did you and Ron have to do the same thing?" she'd asked when he first explained the concept to her.

"Yeah, only it wasn't a nice, warm tub but a really cold swimming pool with about ten other trainees," Harry said with a nostalgic smile.

"You really liked training, didn't you?"

"I did. It was fun, almost like Hogwarts on steroids, yeah? It was kind of nice to be able to learn without anyone trying to kill me."

So now she floated, trying to memorize and fix her volume in her mind and keep a rein on the random thoughts that persisted on caroming around her brain. What should we do for dinner? I don't know how tired this is going to make me. That new Thai place opened up down the street and we haven't tried it yet…ugh, focus Ginny!

She concentrated on the deep breathing technique Harry had taught her during Occlumency training and found that helped still her thoughts somewhat so that she could concentrate on the feeling of her body in the water and how much of that water she was displacing. After what seemed like hours, she felt Harry tap her gently on the shoulder and she opened her eyes, sitting up in the water. The return of light and sound was disorienting and she fought against a slight feeling of vertigo.

"All right?" Harry asked, sitting on the lid of the toilet, a concerned look on his face.

Ginny nodded and took another deep breath, focusing on Harry. "Yes, just had a little bit of a funny turn there."

"Yeah, it's weird coming out of something like that, isn't it?"

"Wish you'd warned me. How long has it been?"

Harry looked at his watch. "About twenty minutes."

"That's all? Felt like bloody hours!"

"How do you feel? You think you've got a good idea of how much space you take up or do you need another session?"

Ginny thought for a moment and then nodded. "I think I have a pretty good idea. I'd like to give it a try, anyway." Harry stood and helped her out of the enlarged bathtub. To make it deep enough to float in they'd had to raise the sides up quite a bit which made getting out awkward.

"Where are we going to practice?" Ginny asked as she dried off. "Here in the flat?"

"It's not really a big enough space for what we're going to do. It's fine for regular Apparating practice, but we need a bit more distance. Remember, you're going to be switching places with an equal volume of air and that's not really possible if you're just moving two inches." He brought up the website for Golden Gate Park on his laptop, scrutinizing the map critically. "I thought we'd head over to the park."

Ginny looked over his shoulder at the screen. "What about there?" she asked, pointing to a spot that didn't look to have any significant landmarks between Sunset Blvd and 25th Avenue.

"We'll check it out and if it's no good, I have a couple of other spots in mind." Harry glanced out of the windows. It was overcast and that was to their advantage. The park was usually overrun when the sun was out.

"We could do it at night," Ginny suggested, putting on dry clothes. Harry had cautioned against wearing anything too bulky for her first attempts, so she slipped into a pair of leggings and a light tee shirt, throwing on a light hoodie for warmth. She regretfully left her half of the Galleon on her bedside table.

"Nighttime is not a time you want to be out in the park, Gin. I've seen some interesting things a time or two in there," he said as he grabbed his own hoodie and zipped it up.

"Is that where you stopped that mugging that one time?"

"Yeah," Harry said, shaking his head at the memory. "You ready?" he asked, looking her up and down. She'd put her hair up in a ponytail, the combination of leggings, hoodie and trainers making her feel like she was going out for a jog.

Ginny nodded and reached for his hand. "Not this time," he said, shaking his head. "I want you to Apparate yourself. Pay attention to what happens when you disappear and reappear and think about how you're going to mitigate that, all right?" Ugh, when did I go back to school? Ginny thought as she nodded again. "You've got the spot?" Ginny nodded once more, starting to feel exasperated. "See you there," Harry said as he silently Disapparated in front of her. Now that she knew what he was doing, she felt for any telltale puff of air, but there wasn't one.

Concentrating on the Apparition point, Ginny winced when she heard the loud crack that heralded her departure from the flat and a split second later the second crack that announced her arrival. She looked at Harry standing a few feet away and smiled. "I never realized there were two."

"Yes. You're displacing air in both places—one is rushing in to fill and the other is getting out of your way. Being aware and being able to perceive that is an important step. Good job," Harry said, smiling at her proudly.

"Thank you, Professor Potter," Ginny said, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him. He grinned and took her hand, setting out from the hidden Apparition point to the park. For all that it was overcast, it was still nice to walk outside and they chatted amiably as they ambled toward their destination, keeping an eye out for likely spots to practice in.

"So, how did your meeting with Archimedes go?" Ginny asked quietly.

"It went all right. He wasn't happy to hear me turn him down about joining the Aurors and he really wasn't happy to learn how upset you got."

"Well boo-hoo," she said tartly, squeezing his hand. "Did you tell him about what we're going to do?"

"Definitely not. We'll be keeping that between us two, all right?" Harry was quiet for a moment and then spoke again. "There is one other thing."

"I don't like the sound of that. What is this 'one other thing'?"

"Archimedes has asked for my help with the Horcrux."

"And you agreed."

"Well, I told him I'd have to run it by you, first," Harry said, looking at her seriously.

"What sort of help does he want? Why don't they just destroy it?"

"They want to use it as bait."

"Bait for whom?" Ginny asked, already knowing the answer.

"For Ignatius. He's making them really nervous, but they don't have anything they can bring him in for. This is America and people hold their opinions and the freedom to voice them very dear. He can spout off all he wants about his stupid supposed caste system and restricting magical education to Purebloods, but until he actually does something illegal, there's nothing they can do." Harry sighed, sounding like all the weight of the world was on his shoulders. "So, if they can pin this Horcrux business on him, they can sink him."

"Well, what do they expect you to do?"

"I'm sort of a neutral third party. I can observe and act without arousing his suspicions. If Archimedes or another Auror starts getting involved, they're worried it'll spook him. Plus, I'm pretty much the only person around with in-depth knowledge about Horcruxes."

"Do they know who the Horcrux belongs to? Whose soul is in there?"

"No, they haven't been able to figure that out yet." Harry gave her a sidelong look and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"What?"

"Well, I might have mentioned that you can hear something when you're near it."

"You told them that? Whatever for?"

"We were talking about it and it just kind of slipped out," Harry said sheepishly.

"Did you tell Archimedes about why? About the diary?" Ginny said, feeling a chill come over her at the memory of that diary and how much trust she'd put into "Tom".

"No. That's not mine to tell, is it?"

Ginny sighed and shook her head, turning away from the memories of what a stupid girl she'd been, lovesick over Famous Harry Potter. "What do they want us to do?"

"Go down to the office where they have it and see if we can get any information from it."

"Well that sounds perfectly pleasant." Now it was her turn to be silent as she turned over the information in her head. "Well, I did say I wouldn't let you do this alone. I guess I deserve this."

"Gin, if you really don't want to, you don't have to. I can tell Archimedes to fuck off."

"But you'll still go and touch that bloody thing, won't you?"

"I have to."

"Then I have to, too." She stopped walking and too his other hand, squeezing them both hard. "Together, all right?"

"Together."

"Let's check over here," Harry said as they rounded a curve. There was a small hill with a stand of eucalyptus trees behind it and it looked like a good spot. The hill shielded a wide grassy area from the park road, while the trees shielded the main street along the southern border of the park. Harry turned a complete circle, eyes searching all around until he finally nodded. "I think this'll work."

Ginny felt a ripple of anticipation roll through her, raising the hair on her arms and she reflexively rubbed them. "All right. What do I do?"

Harry stood in front of her and took her hands. "I want you to just breathe for now. Close your eyes. I have you, so you won't fall." Ginny closed her eyes, breathing slowly in and out, matching her breaths to Harry's, feeling his hands holding on to hers to keep her steady.

"Focus on your body and how it feels occupying this space," he said calmly, his voice low. She stood still, counting her heartbeats until she felt she knew exactly what space she occupied. "Now, open your eyes and take out your wand." Ginny did and Harry walked to a spot about twenty feet away. "Apparate to me. Think about changing places with the air at your target."

Keeping in mind the three D's, she focused on a spot of ground right in front of Harry and Apparated, concentrating on switching places with an equal volume of air as she did. Even though she felt she'd tried her hardest, she still heard a crack on both ends.

"Good!" Harry said, gathering her up in a hug when she appeared in front of him.

"How was that good?" she asked. "That was so loud!"

"Well, you got here, didn't you? You didn't splinch yourself, even though you were distracted by an extra effort and you were a tiny bit quieter than usual."

"Only a tiny bit?"

Harry put his thumb and forefinger about half an inch apart. "Maybe that much quieter." He kissed her forehead. "Come on, try again." He took her hands again, telling her to close her eyes and focus on her breathing. Over and over she practiced Apparating twenty feet to Harry, feeling like she wasn't making any progress at all.

"Harry, I'll never be able to do this," she said, disheartened by the constant loud cracks of her Apparating.

Harry laughed and patted her shoulder. "It's hard, make no mistake, but you're definitely improving. Don't let him know I told you, but it took Ron a solid week before he could get down to even a small pop. You're definitely getting quieter. It's tricky getting just the right amount of air in both places."

Ginny heaved a sigh and looked up at him. "How long did it take you?"

"Well, I'd already had a lot of practice with Apparating what with the…hunt and all," Harry said modestly.

"Come on, you can tell me."

"I was silent inside of a week," Harry said with a small touch of pride.

"Ooh, well done, Professor," Ginny said, going up on tiptoe for another kiss. "What else can you do silently?"

"Hm, wouldn't you like to know?" Harry murmured, kissing the tip of her nose. "Come on, a couple more attempts before we quit for the day."

"All right." Ginny looked up at the sky and saw that it was getting dark, the already gloomy day becoming even gloomier. She watched as Harry paced away twenty feet and turned to face her expectantly, hands in the pockets of his hooded jumper. "Okay, Ginny. Destination, deliberation, determination," she whispered to herself. Focusing her attention on the air her body displaced, she Apparated, simultaneously changing places with what she felt was an equal volume of air at her destination right in front of Harry.

To her surprise, the expected crack was more of a pop and she jumped into Harry's arms in elation. "I did it! Harry, I did it!"

Harry swung her around in a circle, laughing loudly. "You did! Well done! Full marks!" Setting her back down on her feet, he kissed her soundly. "Think you can do it again?"

"Yes, I most certainly can!" Ginny motioned for Harry to move away to a different spot and jumped up and down several times, the thrill of accomplishment running through her. Narrowing her eyes, she focused on her body occupying space, visualized swapping places with an equal amount of air and Apparated with a pop, appearing in front of Harry with what she was sure was a ridiculous smile.

Harry looked incredibly proud as he seized her hands in his. "See? You're already beating Ron!"

"Well, it's hardly fair, isn't it? He's a foot taller than me and at least 5 stone heavier," she said, feeling the need to defend her brother. "But that was still pretty good, wasn't it?"

"It was indeed. Come on, let's get you fed. You've got to be starving with all of that work."

Ginny realized she was both hungry and extremely thirsty. "Let's try that Thai place that opened up by the flat," she suggested, anticipating a giant plate of pad thai and a giant glass of Thai iced tea.

"Do you want to go home first and change?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What's the matter, Potter? Don't you like my yoga bottoms?" Ginny asked, turning in a circle and shaking her hips.

"I like them very much. God bless whoever invented those things," Harry said with a grin, making Ginny giggle. "Come on, if you want Thai, I saw a place not too far away the last time I ran through here."

As they walked through the park towards the restaurant, Ginny thought over the day's lesson. "So, when we Apparate together, and you do us both silently, how do you manage?"

"I am very well acquainted with exactly how much space you take up, my dear," Harry said with a cheeky smile.

"What if you need to Apparate someone you're not familiar with? Like when you would catch someone?"

"Well, in that case you really just had to do your best. It wasn't like they were going to kick you out just because you made a sound." They came to the edge of the park and walked quickly across the street. "The most important thing was to arrive silently so you didn't give yourself away. Once you got the guy, you could make as much damn noise as you wanted."

The dinner rush was just beginning, so they had to wait a little while for a table, Harry graciously getting her a delicious Thai iced tea to slake her thirst while they waited. Finally seated, Ginny took a cursory look at the menu just in case something different caught her eye and when nothing did, she set it down in front of her and studied Harry.

He was reading the menu thoroughly as he always did, a small frown of concentration on his face. Finally, he looked like he'd reached a decision and closed the menu, setting it down on the table in front of him. "What?" he asked when he saw her looking at him.

"Are you sure you're okay teaching me?"

Harry took a drink of his Thai iced coffee before answering. "Well, you didn't give me much choice, did you?"

"No, I suppose I didn't," Ginny acknowledged with a nod, "but I want to at least know you're okay with it."

Reaching across the table for her hand, Harry held it tightly. "I'm okay with it, Gin. I rather like the idea of you being able to get around without any sound, especially here where the Muggles are everywhere." He looked at her over his glasses with his teacher look. "Don't think that this means you can go sneaking about after curfew, young lady."

"I wouldn't dream of it," she smiled. She had to admit to herself that she found his teacher look incredibly sexy and sometimes she provoked it on purpose. "What about the other thing? The tattoo?"

"That I'm definitely less thrilled about." Their waitress came and they placed their orders, Ginny asking for a fresh iced tea. "This whole business with the Horcrux and Ignatius is going to get ugly and I'd prefer if you weren't in the middle of it." Harry sighed and looked around the dining room. Ginny knew he was cataloging the exits and assessing threats. It made her sad that he still did this, but she also knew it was an essential part of him and wouldn't ever change.

"What are you worried is going to happen?" she asked, running her thumb over his.

"That he'll go after you and try to hurt you to get to me. Or just flat out come at me. Or my Muggle-born students. You remember that conversation at the dance. I'm just about certain it was him that tried to break into my classroom. He might know about the Pensieve or he wants Dumbledore's books and reasons I'd have them." He took another drink of his iced coffee and smiled at Ginny. "Or maybe he's just in real need of a Boggart?"

"I would feel better if there were a foolproof way we can contact each other. If things are heating up like you say, then this will be our best bet." Harry still looked doubtful and Ginny was suddenly struck by an idea. "Oh, we could develop a signal system! Like five seconds is 'how are you' and eight is 'I'm fine' or something like that."

"A pain Morse code. The Marquis de Sade had nothing on you, love."

"The Marquis de what?"

Harry shook his head and smiled. "We'll save that conversation for someplace more private, all right?" The look on his face had her very intrigued and she made a mental note to ask Ben about this Marquis fellow the next time she saw him.

"So, you said that if the Aurors knew we were doing this…tattoo thing…that we'd be in a lot of trouble. What would happen?" she asked, curious about the repercussions.

"Oh, well, let's see. I'd be sacked and lose my pension. My own tattoo would of course be deactivated. Your tattoo would be deactivated and probably removed altogether and then you'd be Obliviated from ever remembering you'd even had a tattoo or what was done with it." Harry paused a moment in recall. "I would also never be able to hold any position in the Ministry ever again since I'd displayed such bad judgement."

"What if I defended you and said it was all my idea and that I'd forced you?" Ginny asked.

Harry shook his head. "Wouldn't matter. I'm supposed to know better, yeah? You're just the innocent actor in all of this. I'm the one that made the bad judgement call and did the spell on you."

Ginny was a bit taken aback. She hadn't realized the level of consequence involved and how it would pretty much all be on Harry rather than her. "Oh," she said quietly, looking down at their joined hands.

"Still want to do it?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

She thought for a moment, exploring her feelings. I'm tired of being on the sidelines, of waiting and watching, being ready to pick up the pieces. "What will happen if Archimedes finds out?"

"Well, I don't work for him, for one. I don't think there's anything actually against the law about it out here, so I'm unlikely to be brought up on charges."

"What about the Ministry?"

"What are they going to do? Sack me?" Harry snorted. "As far as I'm concerned, the whole Ministry of Magic can go piss up a rope."

"Well, there's your pension to look forward to, isn't there?"

Harry looked at her with a mischievous smile. "Gin, the yearly interest on my Gringott's account is more than my entire pension. Now, if I'd stayed in for forty years, that might be something to consider."

Ginny nodded. "All right then. What time is the appointment tomorrow?"

"After lunch. Give us time for a bit of a lie-in."

"You mean time to give me second thoughts," Ginny said, wrinkling her nose. Harry shrugged and didn't disagree.

A moment later, their dinner arrived and Ginny dug in. Smelling everyone else's food had made her ravenous. She tried to be more like her regular self, but Apparating over and over was hungry work and she just wasn't having it. Harry watched her with an amused smile on his face as he ate his own dinner much more slowly. "What?" Ginny asked defensively, her mouth full of delicious pad thai.

"I don't think I've ever seen you eat that fast," Harry said, shaking his head.

"I don't think I've ever been this hungry!" She made a conscious effort to slow down and chew more thoroughly, being only moderately successful. "I'm sorry."

"Gin, don't be. You worked hard this afternoon and there's still a lot of hard work to go." He chewed thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded in response to an internal thought. "You should probably do a couple more float sessions. Get it more fixed in your head to take the guesswork out of it."

"So I don't have to do so much trial and error?"

"Exactly," Harry said, pointing at her with his fork. "You do a few more floats and I bet the next time you'll be even quieter."

"Can I try it when I'm just getting around normally? Like when I go out for class?"

"That might be a little more tricky since you'll be wearing more clothes and have more stuff with you. Books, computer—those will all add volume. You can try it, certainly, but don't be surprised if you seem to progress backwards the first time you try it with all your gear."

"Seems reasonable." Ginny looked down at her empty plate. "Are we getting a pudding? I saw they have coconut ice cream."

"To share?" Harry asked. He still had half of his dinner on his plate.

"No. Get your own. I'm the one that did all the hard work today," Ginny said haughtily.

"Indeed." Harry worked on his own dinner and Ginny finally noticed that he'd ordered Panang Beef. It looked good and she considered asking for a taste. "How's your design coming?" Harry asked, offering her a bite as if he'd read her mind.

"I think I'm just about done. I'll take another look at it tonight when we get home," Ginny said, trying to catch the eye of their waitress so she could order her ice cream.

"You decide where it's going to go?"

"I think up here on my arm." She put her hand on her upper left arm, just below her shoulder.

"You and Ron are going to have a matching set," Harry said teasingly. He'd finally cleared his plate and Ginny hoped that meant their waitress would be by soon so she could order her pudding.

"Can I have a coconut ice cream?" Ginny asked before their waitress could even open her mouth. Harry shook his head at the waitress's questioning look. "Now where did you hear about this guy from?"

"Mr Keller, actually. He has a few Wizarding tattoos and I asked him who he recommended. He said Brian at Inkstains was the best around here."

"He'd better be. I don't fancy having some punter's scribbling on me for the rest of my life." She looked at Harry and reached for his hand again. "What about you? You going to get another one?"

"You get yours first and then tell me if you think I should get another one." He nodded at something behind her. "I think that's yours."

The waitress set the dish of ice cream in front of Ginny along with two spoons. Handing Harry one, she smiled. "I guess you did some work today, too. You can share my ice cream."

"So generous, Miss Weasley," Harry said, scooping a small bite of the coconut ice cream.

"Let's get home and then you'll see how generous I can be."

Ginny had managed to maintain her quieter pop when they Apparated home and Harry told her it was quite an accomplishment, given how much she'd eaten for dinner, earning him a pinched nipple. Years of living with her brothers had blessed Ginny with quick hands and deadly aim.

She pulled out her drawing pad and pencils and sat on the bed, refining her tattoo design. Stuart sat next to her, disappointed that her lap was occupied and Harry took pity on him, settling him in the bowl made by his crossed legs as he sat on the bed next to Ginny, watching over her shoulder as she worked, still amazed at her skill. He'd looked through her sketchpad once when she wasn't at home. It was an old one and among the various anatomical drawings from her Healer training, he'd found drawings of daily life at Hogwarts. Among the sketches of teachers, Crookshanks and the Hogwarts ghosts, he'd found several of himself from various points in his school career. Feeling like he was reading a personal diary but unable to stop, he looked at them all.

There he was in one of the comfy chairs in the Common Room, looking half asleep. In another, he, Ron and Hermione had their heads together, looking like three schemers coming up with their latest con. Which we probably were, Harry thought with a smile. Turning the page, he found a drawing of him in his Quidditch uniform, holding the Golden Snitch high over his head, mouth open in a triumphant yell. Seeing that one made him feel like he was looking into the secret heart of the girl Ginny had been and he closed the sketchpad, carefully putting it back in its place.

"Do you miss your old one?" he asked as he watched her add color in quick, sure strokes.

"Miss what? My old Patronus?" She paused for a moment, looking at the graceful hummingbird she'd drawn, suspended in mid-flight. "A little, I guess. I didn't have that much time with it, really. Just a couple of years. Then Fred died…" She colored quietly, pencils scratching on the paper for a few moments and Harry left her alone until she finally sighed and put down her pencils.

"And then I saw this little hummingbird in the back garden at the Burrow the day after his funeral. I'd never seen one out there before—I don't think we have the kind of flowers they like—but this one came zipping almost right up to me and it was the first time I had been happy in far too long." Ginny wiped at her eyes and took a deep breath. "So, no, I don't really miss my old one. Every time I see this one, I'm reminded of Fred and his memory makes me very happy."

She worked quietly for a few minutes before speaking again. "What about you? You ever wish your Patronus was something different?"

Harry thought for a moment, considering. "I've never really thought about it. It just is what it is, yeah?"

"What if you were to try to be an Animagus? Do you think you'd be a stag like your father?"

"Now that's a question." Harry lay back on the bed, putting his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling. "McGonagall transforms into a cat and her Patronus is a cat. I wonder which came first?"

"Maybe one informs the other?"

"Maybe." Harry lapsed into silence, thinking about Patronuses and the happy memories necessary to conjure them. This made him think about Draco Malfoy and the fact that he couldn't conjure any sort of Patronus, corporeal or not. God, what kind of shit life must he have had, to have no memory happy enough to use to summon a protector? I hope he finds some happiness in his life eventually. Abruptly, he realized Ginny was talking to him and he shook his head, clearing away thoughts of Draco and the horrible, sad boy he'd been. "Sorry?"

"Woolgathering?" Ginny asked with a smile. "I asked if you've actually tried being an Animagus."

"Oh. Well, I looked into it. Chatted with McGonagall about it. It's dead complicated and there are a lot of rules and regulations. You basically have to apprentice with an established Animagus who supervises your training and then once you're successful, you have to perform in front of the Wizengamot and submit to a thorough documentation of what you turn into, your markings, the sounds you make…all sorts." Harry blew out his breath and smiled at Ginny. "McGonagall said she'd do it for me if I really wanted to, but I decided not to. Sounds like a whole lot of bother."

"It sure does. I wonder, how did Rita Skeeter manage it? She never did strike me as the fastest broom in the cupboard."

"That one. She's smarter than you give her credit for, plus when you've got enough drive and determination, you can do just about anything. Look at my dad and Sirius. What about you? You ever think of trying it?" Harry asked, genuinely interested.

"Oh no. Matthew told me once of a case he had where an attempt had gone horribly wrong and landed in the Accidental Magic Reversal unit. The poor man was stuck halfway and his Animagus master didn't know how to get him back. Matthew told me he couldn't even tell what he was in the middle of transforming into." Ginny shuddered and looked back at her drawing. "Put me off the idea entirely."

Sitting back up, Harry looked at the drawing. The colors were amazing; green and gold mixing together with black and white contrasts and there on the throat a flash of ruby red. "That looks beautiful, Gin."

Ginny turned her head to the side, contemplating her rendering of her Patronus in full color. "I need to put it away now. If I keep messing with it, I'll just ruin it," she said, closing her sketchbook and gathering up her pencils. Standing next to the bed, she stretched and yawned. "I'm exhausted. What time is it?" She looked at the bedside clock and groaned. "It's barely nine o'clock!"

"Feel like doing another float?"

"No. I'd probably fall asleep in there and drown like Ophelia." She started undressing, changing her tee shirt and yoga bottoms for looser pajamas. "I'm just going to sleep."

"Sounds good. You had a busy day today and tomorrow's another one," Harry said, moving over to make more room for her on the bed. Ginny was asleep in what seemed like seconds, the cat curled up and purring contentedly next to her, leaving Harry a bit at loose ends. Careful not to disturb her or the cat, Harry got off the bed and picked up his satchel, digging for the pile of quizzes and essays that still needed grading.

Ensconced on the sofa, Harry tried to focus on the papers on front of him, but he felt his mind wandering. I wonder if Archimedes knows any Animagi…

Sunday was as bright and sunny as Saturday had been gloomy and Harry was glad they weren't planning on finding a deserted spot somewhere in the City to practice silent Apparition. After the promised lie-in, they ventured out for a bite to eat before heading into the Wizarding section of the City for some window-shopping before Ginny's appointment with Brian.

They found a shop selling Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and Ginny bought a can of the Canary Cream Soda. "You could have had a dozen of those to take home, you know," Harry said.

"I know, but this way I feel more like I'm supporting George," Ginny said haughtily. They finally reached the door of Inkstains and she stood still outside.

"Ready?" Harry asked with his hand on the door to the shop. "You don't have to do it."

"Yes I do. Come on." They went in and let the receptionist know they were there. Harry was forcibly reminded of when he and Ron had gotten their tattoos. Even the receptionist could have been a copy of the one in the shop in Knockturn Alley. They checked in with her and she gave Ginny some paperwork to fill out, sending her over to the chairs by the window.

"What's that?" Harry asked as he sat down next to her.

"Looks like a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo. Did you have to fill this out when you got yours?"

"No. They just took us in the back and went to town," Harry said, reading the dense language on the paper Ginny had just signed.

"That's what you get for hanging around Knocturn Alley." Just then, a slight young man came into the waiting area. He was shaved bald and didn't look like he had a single tattoo on him, sporting several small silver rings through both eyebrows instead.

"Hello, you must be Ginny. I'm Brian and I'll be doing your work today," he said in a warm voice, clearly designed to put nervous clients at ease. "You have your consent form signed?"

"Yes," Ginny said, handing it to Brian who in turn handed it to the receptionist.

"I understand you already have art prepared? Can I see it?" Ginny handed him the rolled up sheet of sketch paper.

"It's the hummingbird, not the anatomical heart," she said when Brian looked back up at her.

"Okay. This is very nice. Did you draw it yourself?" Ginny nodded and Harry saw a pleased flush come over her face at the compliment. "This is really good. Are you sure you wouldn't like to train as a tattoo artist?" Brian asked with a smile.

"Oh, I'm very sure. Healing's my game," she said with her own smile. Harry narrowed his eyes at him. Don't get too cheeky, Mister.

"Well, let's get you in back and get started." Harry walked with Ginny to the work area, finding it very similar to the place he and Ron had gone for theirs.

Once Ginny was seated in the chair, she and Brian discussed size, placement, orientation and colors. Harry sat in the chair next to her and took her hand. "This will probably take a good four hours. Are you okay with that?" Brian asked.

"Oh yes. I'll be fine," Ginny said confidently and Harry raised his eyebrows.

When Brian left the cubicle to finalize the drawing, Harry leaned in close to Ginny. "Are you sure? Four hours is a long time to be in pain."

"Harry, I won't be in pain. I've got my entire upper arm numbed right now," she said with a conspiratorial smile.

"That's cheating," Harry said, a little bit annoyed. Here he was, worried about her going through the pain of having ink forcibly injected into her skin and she was just going to sail through without any discomfort at all.

"I'm just using all of the tools in my toolbox, love," she said, leaning in for a kiss.

"I should have taken you with me instead of Ron," Harry grumbled as Brian came back with the final art. Ginny looked it over, nodding her approval and he transferred the design onto her skin. The smell of disinfectant was the same as Harry remembered and so was the buzzing of the tattoo machine as Brian got to work.

If Ginny can make it painless, maybe I will get another one, he thought as he watched Brian bring the hummingbird into being on Ginny's pale skin. Maybe I'll get my own stag. Wait until Ron finds out that she cheated.

Several hours later, Brian was finally done with Ginny's tattoo and Harry could see that he did come highly recommended indeed. The bird was outlined extremely well with perfectly executed black lines. The colors were vibrant and the combination made it seem as if the image was about to suddenly start flapping its wings to fly straight off Ginny's arm.

Ginny stared at it for several moments before giving Brian a radiant smile. "It's beautiful. Thank you so much."

Brian had the good grace to actually blush, Harry saw. "Well, your drawing was a great starting point. And you were such a great sitter! I've never had anyone as rock solid as you, especially a virgin."

"Well, I might have used a numbing spell or two," Ginny admitted, making Brian shake his head.

"I'm not going to say that's cheating, especially when it made things so much easier for me," he said, picking up his wand.

"Oh, I'll say it. It's totally cheating," Harry said with a grin, squeezing Ginny's free hand. Ginny just rolled her eyes and he heard her mutter, "Jealous."

"Okay, if you think it looks beautiful now, just wait." Brian pointed his wand at the tattoo and Harry was impressed that he cast the spell non-verbally, causing the colors to swirl and flash on her skin. Green and gold, black and white moved and crashed together, the red at the bird's throat pulsing in time with Ginny's own heartbeat.

"Oh my God, that's amazing!" she breathed, looking up at Harry with shining eyes. "Harry, look!"

"I see. It's wonderful, love," he said, kissing her on her temple. He turned to Brian who was looking very proud of his handiwork. "Well done."

"Thank you. Do you mind if I get a picture for my portfolio?" Ginny agreed and he came back with a small camera, taking a quick snap of the fresh tattoo. He gave her the same aftercare instructions Harry had received all those years ago and he watched Ginny nod, knowing that she would probably have it Healed by the time they got back home.

Indeed, by the time they left the shop, Ginny already had her wand out and was slowly Healing the abraded skin bit by bit. "Why didn't you do that for me when I came to St Mungo's right after mine was done?" Harry asked as they walked down the pavement.

"You know, I didn't even think of it. I think I was so amazed by it that I didn't even think of it as an injury," Ginny said apologetically. "That wasn't me being a very good Healer." She kissed him on the cheek and smiled. "Well, if you decide to get another one, I'll do the same for you, okay?"

"I actually did think about that while we were in there," Harry admitted. They were headed towards the exit to the Wizarding neighborhood, a blank stone wall with a single door that opened up into a doorway to what looked like an abandoned building. Muggle-repelling charms kept the other side free of people and debris.

"You did? What are you thinking of getting?" Ginny asked, finishing up the last bit of Healing on her tattoo. She grimaced a little and Harry guessed she was releasing the numbing charms. "Oh, that stings a little."

"I dunno. Thought maybe I'd get my own Patronus."

Ginny smiled, her eyes lighting up. "That would look amazing. Oh, I just had a thought!" she said, giggling and covering her mouth. "Can you imagine if Ron went into a shop and asked for a little terrier tattoo?"

The vision of Ron rolling into the shop in Knockturn Alley and getting a tattoo of a tiny, far too energetic dog somewhere on his body made Harry shake with laughter and he had to lean against the brick facade of a bookshop before he fell over. "I'd pay good money to see that," he was finally able to wheeze out as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "Come on, we still have to get that thing activated." Harry had Ginny Apparate before him, noting that she was steadily making less sound.

Back at the flat, he had Ginny roll up her sleeve so the now fully-healed tattoo was completely exposed. "You ready?" he asked, looking at her closely.

"Yes."

"You sure you want to do this?"

"Yes."

"You're doing this of your own free will?"

"Yes. Come on, Harry," she said exasperation clear in her voice.

"Just making sure." Focusing on the activation spell, he touched his wand to the tattoo and concentrated, casting it non-verbally. He knew the instant it took from Ginny's sharp intake of breath.

"Is it supposed to feel like that?" she asked, touching her arm gingerly.

"That's nothing. You'll see what it can feel like in a minute. Then you might want to change your mind," Harry said grimly.

"What are you going to do?" Ginny asked, sounding a little afraid.

"I'm going to Summon you and I want you to stand there and ignore it."

"But won't it hurt worse if I do that?"

"Yes."

"Well why would I ignore it then? Why do I have to feel it hurt worse?"

"I need you to understand how serious this is. It's not a thing to be used lightly. Your idea of some sort of code between us is a good idea, but it's not like picking up the telephone and calling me because you forgot to buy milk at the market. It is deadly serious, understand?"

Ginny nodded, her eyes somber. "All right. I'm going to Summon you and you just stay right there." She nodded again and Harry focused his will, touched the tip of his wand to his right shoulder and enunciated, "Arcessitio," clearly.

Immediately Ginny's expression changed, her eyes widening and her mouth dropping open. "Ow. It burns!"

"Yes it does," Harry said, remembering the first time he'd been on the receiving end of a Summons. He'd been sure he would see blisters on his skin, but there was nothing. "You remember Andy? He was sick the first time."

"I can believe it. It just jumped a level…and again. Oh my God! It feels like my arm is on fire!" She reached out to rub it and Harry held out a hand to stop her.

"Don't. Touching it makes it worse."

"Harry, how do you—oh bloody hell!" Harry winced to see tears spring into her eyes and he relented, canceling the Summons and catching Ginny when she reeled from the sudden cessation of the burning pain. She took a deep breath, holding on to his arms tightly. "How long was that?"

"Less than ten seconds."

"Is it always like that?"

"Pretty much," Harry nodded, setting her back upright. "I'm going to do an urgent one now."

"That wasn't urgent?"

"No, that was just a regular one. Ready?" Ginny nodded and Harry said the incantation again, focusing his will on Summoning her with the utmost urgency.

Ginny's eyes almost bugged out and she went white as a sheet, her freckles standing out starkly on her face. Harry immediately canceled the Summons and stepped forward to catch her as she started to sag to the floor. "Are you all right?" he asked anxiously as he set her down on the sofa.

She nodded, her eyes glazed and she shook her head. Harry was relieved to see her usual sharpness return. "That was the worst pain I think I've ever experienced in my life. That's almost like what I'd imagine Crucio feels like."

"There are similar elements. It's almost like a combination of Crucio, Accio and Imperius."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "That's not something I'd expect from the Aurors."

Harry shrugged. "Aurors have a lot of secrets, Gin. They're not all nice." He let Ginny sit quietly for a few moments, thinking of his time with the Aurors. Some of the things he'd learned about the department and its history had shocked him to his core and he had to admit that some of those things had added to his disenchantment with the organization. They weren't evil by a long shot, but there were some parallels he'd grown to dislike.

"How do you not splinch yourself trying to Apparate with all of that going on?"

"It definitely takes some getting used to. We practice in a controlled place before actually being Summoned to the field." He looked at Ginny on the sofa and rubbed the back of her neck. "You all right? I want you to try Summoning me next." He went over the verbal component of the spell, making sure she got the pronunciation just right. "There's no wand movement, just put the tip of your wand on your own tattoo and focus your will on the person you are intending to Summon."

Ginny nodded, a serious look on her face. "What's the longest you've delayed answering a standard Summons?" she asked.

Harry stood in the center of the room and looked up at the ceiling. "Hm…well, there was that one time we were shagging, right?"

"Yes, I remember," Ginny said slowly.

"And…well…I really wanted to finish," Harry said sheepishly, feeling his face flush at the memory.

"Do you mean to tell me that you were in pain from a Summons the whole time we were shagging?"

"Not the whole time. More like the last minute or so," Harry said, thinking back to that incident. The release had been positively mind-blowing.

"I can't believe you," Ginny said with a sigh, shaking her head. "Okay, are you ready?" she asked, placing the tip of her wand on her hummingbird. Harry nodded and he heard her say the incantation, pronouncing the unfamiliar word perfectly. Instantly, he felt the familiar burn of a Summons, coming to him like an old friend.

"So where are we meeting Archimedes?" Ginny asked as she walked with Harry down Post Street.

"At the main Auror office. They've got the portrait in an underground vault."

"Where is the office?" she asked, looking around. They were approaching a plaza with an enormous Pagoda in the middle and she didn't see anything that looked like it might be an office full of deadly witches and wizards.

"Right there," Harry said, tilting his head at the Pagoda, grinning at her frown. "It's like Platform 9 3/4."

"So we just walk right up to it?"

"Yup. Come on." Harry took her hand and led her to a section of the Pagoda hidden from both the plaza and the street, striding confidently towards the wall. Ginny felt a sort of sizzle along her skin and found herself standing in a spacious, well-appointed reception area in front of a witch behind a desk.

"Can I help you?" she asked, unfazed by their sudden appearance.

"Yes, Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley to see Archimedes Douglass."

"It'll be a few minutes," she said, motioning them to a row of chairs situated against a wall. Ginny watched as she quickly wrote a note and deftly folded it into an airplane shape. She tapped it with her wand and it shot off, presumably in search of Archimedes.

"Some things never change," she whispered to Harry who smiled.

"Well, no need to reinvent the wheel, I guess."

Ginny smiled back and tried to relax. She wasn't looking forward to being close to that Horcrux again. It was bad enough getting close to it on accident and now I'm going to do it on purpose? I must be mad. Harry's leg was bouncing, making the change in his pocket jingle and Ginny smothered a giggle at the look the receptionist shot him. She took Harry's hand, squeezing hard and he shot her a sheepish look, stilling his leg.

A few minutes later, Archimedes appeared in the doorway, looking very dapper in slacks and a button-down shirt, his long hair in a neat ponytail. "Ah, there you are! Thank you so much for coming today," he said, shaking Harry's hand. "Ginny, you look stunning! You dressed like that just to come see me?" he asked as he helped her out of her chair.

"Harry promised me a night out after our meeting," Ginny said, smoothing down her skirt. It was a new one, flowery and floaty, skimming her knees and making her feel very girly.

"Oh, well then. I'll make sure not to keep you too long." Archimedes led them through the doorway and down a long corridor. Like most government buildings, it was very boring and unremarkable with neutral beige walls. At the end, he shepherded them into an elevator and pressed a button.

"So what are you going to want us to do?" Harry asked as the elevator began to move down.

"Hopefully find out whose Horcrux that is. Then we will want to find out if that person is still living. If they are living, then we can apprehend them under the Dark Magic statute. If they are dead, we can use that information to find out more about Weatherbee's motives and why he wants it."

"Are you sure he wants it?" Ginny asked, looking at Archimedes and Harry.

"He's ambitious. He wouldn't be the first to believe that he can harness the power inside such a terrible object," Archimedes said as the elevator came to a stop. The doors opened, revealing walls that looked as if they had been carved out of bedrock. The air was much cooler down here and Ginny drew her light jacket closer around her.

They followed Archimedes down the hall to another large door where a black-clad guard stood at attention. "Archimedes Douglass, going into the vault with Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley," he said, handing over his wand. The young guard inspected it closely, tapping it with his own wand before nodding at Archimedes and handing it back.

Turning to face the door, Ginny watched, fascinated as they went through a complicated pattern, tapping specific points on the door until it finally opened with a clunk and a hiss. The young man gave them a nod and resumed his post.

"Shall we?" Ginny gave Harry a questioning look and he squeezed her hand reassuringly, following the older man into the dark room beyond. A bank of buzzing lights came on at a wave of Archimdes's wand as the door closed behind them with more hissing. The room was nearly empty, with a large, stainless steel table in the center and steel cabinets along one wall.

Pulling out a couple of steel chairs, Archimedes gestured for them to sit and they did, Harry's leg jiggling again. He pulled on a pair of thick gloves and went through another complicated unlocking procedure on one of the steel cabinets. Slowly opening the top drawer as if he were afraid something was about to jump out at him, he carefully withdrew a metal box that seemed as if it were very heavy.

Archimedes brought it to the table and set it carefully in the middle of it. "Iron?" Harry asked, peering closely at the box.

"Yes, with a lead liner."

"Iron?" Ginny asked, looking at Harry.

"Iron, cold iron, is very good at containing magical energy. If you've got a really Dark object, you'll want to put it in something like this to keep it from affecting people," Harry explained. "The lead serves as an extra insulator."

"Exactly so. I imagine you've seen quite a few of these, Harry," Archimedes said with a smile.

"One or two."

Ginny studied the box and realized that as close as she was to it, she should be hearing something, but she wasn't. "All right, then." They all stared at the box for several moments for Archimedes appeared to shake himself.

"Well, shall we get on with it?" he asked, holding his wand in one gloved hand.

"Should we stay where we are? What do you want us to do?" Harry asked, eyes glued to the box.

"Stay where you are. I'll take it out and put it in the middle of the table. I would like Ginny to be still and listen. This room is completely soundproof."

Ginny gestured toward the lights overhead. "Can you do something about the lights? The buzzing is a bit loud."

"Ah." Waving his wand, Archimedes conjured a golden ball of light and sent it floating up toward the ceiling and turned off the overhead lights, quieting the annoying buzz. "Better?"

"Much." She watched as Archimedes performed another complicated sequence on the lid of the box, scooting her chair closer to Harry.

"All right?" he whispered, putting an arm around her shoulders and kissing her temple, both of which made her feel a bit better.

The lid of the box gave a hiss like the door and Ginny almost expected to see tendrils of smoke coming out of it, but there weren't any, leaving her a little disappointed. As soon as the lid was lifted, Ginny could hear a faint sound, like the wail of someone in terrible, never-ending pain and she huddled closer to Harry.

Reaching in with a gloved hand, Archimedes drew out the exquisite portrait, the golden light from the floating globe making it look almost ethereal. The girl still had that same expression, daring the viewer to just try her, but now Ginny perceived something almost sinister in the glint of her eyes and she had no doubt that the maiden's teeth were very sharp.

Closing her eyes, Ginny concentrated on the wailing that apparently only she could hear, part of her legacy from Tom Riddle's diary. Breathing deep, she focused all of her attention on the sound and realized that it was repeating. Counting along with her heartbeats, she got to thirty before it started repeating. It's a loop…all right. Now to find out what's on the loop.

The sound of her own breathing was loud in her ears and she slowed it down so the sound wouldn't interfere so much. It's a woman, she thought, a woman in terrible pain. Her own breathing was still distracting her, so she slowed it down again. Ah, okay…she's saying a word, just one word. Ugh, it's still too noisy in here. I wish that rasping sound would stop. There, that's better.

Free of that annoying sound, Ginny was able to fully concentrate on the sound. A woman, in pain, screaming a word…no, a name. What name? What—

"Ginny!" Ginny opened her eyes to see Harry above her, his face white with fear and she realized she was flat on her back on the cold stone floor of the vault room. Archimedes hovered next to him, his wand clutched in his still-gloved hand.

"Harry?" she said, confused at how she had ended up on the floor and wheezing in surprise when he grabbed her up in a crushing hug. "Harry, I can't breathe!"

"That's the problem, love, you weren't breathing," he said, letting up on the pressure of his hug a little.

"What? No. No, I was just listening." She shook her head. "I can't hear it anymore."

"I put it away as soon as Harry realized you'd stopped breathing," Archimedes said. "How do you feel?"

Ginny gently pushed Harry away and sat up, pulling her skirt down a little. "I feel all right. If I did stop breathing, it wasn't for long. What happened?"

"You had your eyes closed and you kept slowing down your breaths. I let you go on, thinking you were just doing some deep breathing to concentrate and then I realized you weren't breathing at all," Harry said, holding tightly to one of her hands.

"I've never seen anyone spring into action faster than Harry did. He had you on that floor and was yelling at me to "put that bloody fucking thing away" before I really knew what was happening," Archimedes said, sitting down heavily in one of the steel chairs.

"You must have gone into some sort of trance. Are you sure you're all right?" Harry's green eyes were full of concern and she nodded.

"I'm fine. Help me stand up, all right?" Harry stood and extended his hand, hauling her up from the floor. Her legs felt momentarily shaky and she did a quick mental inventory. No headache, heart rate seems all right, no restricted breathing. She sat down in the other chair and looked at the iron box that hid the Horcrux.

"Well?" Archimedes asked, leaning forward.

"Well," Ginny said, looking away from the box and focusing on Archimedes. "It's a woman, in great pain, screaming a name over and over again. It seems to last for about thirty heartbeats before it repeats."

"What's the name?" Harry asked quietly, hand on her shoulder.

"Cornelius."

20. Chapter 20

"What place are we meeting Ben at?" Harry asked as they walked back up Post, away from the Auror office and its terrible artifact.

"Someplace called Beaux, I think, but not until around 8."

"I assume that's in the Castro?"

"You assume correctly."

"What do you want to do for dinner?"

"You promised me a night out, so I want something nice."

"I see. All right, then." They walked along while Harry thought, leaving Ginny with her own thoughts.

Cornelius. Cornelius who? she thought. I feel like I should know that name. It's not exactly common these days, so if this Cornelius is the creator of the Horcrux, then he's likely passed on. Doesn't seem like it did him any good.

"What are you in the mood for tonight?" Harry asked, breaking into her musings.

"Well, after recent events, I want someplace that has a smashing martini," she said with a grin up at him.

"I know just the place." Holding tightly to her hand, he silently Apparated them and Ginny kissed him on the cheek at the sight of Harris'.

"Well done. You keep this up and you might even get lucky tonight," she said, smiling at Harry's snort as he opened the door for her.

Soon they were ensconced in a comfortable booth and Ginny had her promised martini. Harry had decided to stick with scotch and they both sat quietly, savoring their drinks.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, looking at her over the rim of his glass.

"Fine. You?" After her experience with the Horcrux, Ginny had left the vault and waited outside with the young guard so Harry could make physical contact with it again and not worry about her possibly going into another trance. Afterward, he'd looked a bit shaken.

"I'm all right."

"Any pain?"

"No, not since you did that Soothing," he said, taking her hand in his on top of the table.

"I wonder why it lingers like that?"

"It's a pretty strong Dark object. Whoever made that put a lot of their soul into it. Voldemort's by comparison had only tiny fragments." Harry looked into his scotch, swirling it around in the glass and making the ice cubes tinkle. "I don't think this Cornelius was very knowledgeable about Horcruxes or their creation."

"What makes you say that?" Ginny asked, intrigued.

"He put so much of himself into it, complete overkill. You don't need much and the act of killing…" Harry shook his head and took another swallow of the scotch. "That poor woman. She died in a lot of pain and it wasn't quick."

"How can you tell?" Cornelius echoed in her mind, a long, eternal wail.

"You say the woman screams for a good thirty seconds or so, right?" Ginny nodded, sipping her own drink, mouth suddenly dry. "You've seen Avada Kedavra used. It's instantaneous." Harry snapped his fingers for emphasis. "She wasn't killed with that, at least not right away. I have a suspicion that Crucio was used first."

Ginny sucked in a breath. "To kill her? Can that happen?"

"I don't think to kill her. I think this Cornelius thought that pain was an important element in the creation. But it's the act of a cold-blooded killing, the death of part of your own soul that does it."

She rubbed her thumb on the back of his hand as he fell silent and she wondered if he was thinking of the man he'd killed with his knife, the one he'd thought had killed Ron. Well, that was about as far from cold-blooded as you could get, she thought and that made her think of Voldemort and Harry killing him as well. Necessary. "So, you got all of that just from touching it?" she said, hoping to draw him back into conversation.

"Mostly just a gauge of how strong it is, how much soul is sort of packed in there. The rest of it is speculation based on your experience with it and some reading and conversations I've had."

"Who else have you talked to about these things?" Ginny asked, genuinely curious. If the Wizarding world had one definite taboo thing that was never spoken of, it was Horcruxes.

"Slughorn for one. A bloke from Durmstrang."

"Do they teach that there? At Durmstrang?" She thought about Viktor Krum, hardly able to believe that an International Quidditch star could be the possessor of such terrible knowledge.

"They do teach some of the Dark Arts there, but no, at least not the creation of them. Along the lines of what they are and how to identify one. They have a very interesting library."

"And meanwhile we just skip blithely along," Ginny said, shaking her head. "Are you going to teach your students about them?"

Harry sighed and took another drink. "I don't think I could get away with it. They're rare and they don't generally harm people unless someone tries to actually resurrect someone. It's more useful to teach them to guard their blood and educate them about the ways blood magic can be used against them." He looked at her and smiled. "I'm more than happy to let knowledge about the creation of these things fade off into the sunset."

But evil never truly goes away, Ginny thought, holding it in her mind, unwilling to drag down their conversation. "Well, as stimulating as this conversation is, I'm getting hungry. Let's see what's on offer, shall we?"

Perusing the menu, she decided on a filet piled with mushrooms accompanied by garlic mashed potatoes. Harry chose the ribeye smothered in bearnaise with scalloped potatoes. They both declined the offer of broccoli. A rich chocolate cake shared between them completed dinner, leaving Ginny feeling utterly content with her lot in life.

She looked at Harry across from her, the soft light from the candle on the table making highlights and shadows across the planes of his face as he looked off into the middle distance. He turned his head and she caught a glint of silver nestled among the black and she smiled. Turning back to her, he returned her smile. "What?" he asked, taking her hands in his.

"I think I've just spotted your first gray hair."

"You what? Where?" he said, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Right there." Ginny reached across the table and brushed him lightly on his left temple.

"Really?"

"Yes. Here, look for yourself." She took her compact out of her purse and handed it to him, trying not to laugh as he quickly opened it, turning his head this way and that, trying to see it.

"There it is. Little bugger." He gazed at it for a few seconds before sighing and closing the compact. "Well, that's one thing I've got up on my dad. I've lived long enough to start going gray," he said as he handed the compact back to her.

"And here I was feeling all warm and fuzzy," she said teasingly, refusing to let him get into a funk.

"Sorry," Harry said, sounding abashed.

"We should celebrate."

"Oh? What should we do?"

"You should take me dancing. Right now."

"I thought we were already doing that?"

"Are we? How convenient!"

A short time later, they approached the club, loud music already spilling out. There was a long line of people out in front and a burly-looking young man standing at the head of the line with a clipboard. Ginny was looking at the line of people, searching for Ben when he surprised her, touching her on her shoulder with a loud "Boo!"

"Oh my goodness! You startled me!" she said, hugging him as he laughed.

"Girl, you look uh-maz-ing in that skirt! Give me a little turn," he said, moving his index finger around in a circle as she spun around on the pavement, giving Harry a wink as she caught his eye. "And you," Ben said, turning to Harry, "woof."

"That's good, right?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow as Ben adjusted Harry's tie and pulled his waistcoat down with a sharp jerk.

"It's very good. Dapper is in this season." Harry frowned when Ben took off his glasses and looked at him, head tilted. "No, the look needs them," he said, giving them back to Harry who put them back on, the expression on his face making Ginny giggle.

"Is he always like this?" Harry asked her and she just shrugged, laughing at Ben's emphatic "Yes!"

"Come on, darlings. Drinks and dancing awaits!" He held out his arms, indicating that Harry and Ginny each take one and led them to the young man guarding the door. "Michael," he said with a nod.

"Ben," the guard said, standing aside and allowing them to pass. Ginny heard a few comments about "the straights", but she couldn't feel too bad with the loud music getting her blood pumping.

The interior of the club was surprisingly cozy with lots of brass accents and leather sofas scattered around along with tables and chairs. The bar was thronged with men of all ages and Ginny even saw one with a long silver beard that at first glance she could have sworn was Archimedes.

"What do you want?" Ben yelled in her ear over the music.

"Surprise me!" she shouted back and he nodded, motioning both Harry and Ginny to a nearby sofa that had just been vacated. Ginny sat down, sinking further into the cushions than she expected to. Harry wisely sat on the somewhat dilapidated arm of the sofa. Utterly enchanted, she watched life in the busy bar play out. There were couples making out, groups trying unsuccessfully to have conversations and individuals bent on giving each other smoldering looks from across the room. Brightly-colored lights and pulse-pounding music layered over all of this and she couldn't help but tap her toes along to the beat.

One young man caught her eye. He definitely fit the bill of tall, dark and handsome and he looked as if he were trying to stare a hole through Harry. Ginny nudged his hip and he glanced down at her with a questioning look. Tilting her head towards the intense young man, she giggled at Harry's flush and small shake of his head. The young man nodded and focused his gaze elsewhere.

"Oh, aren't you going to give him a try?" Ginny teased, bringing his ear down to her lips.

"He's not my type. You know I prefer redheads." Harry's breath was warm in her ear and it gave her a tingling shiver down her neck.

"Better not tell Hermione then—she's liable to be jealous!"

"You two look cozy!" Ben exclaimed, carefully managing to balance three drinks in two hands. He set them on the low table and sat down next to Ginny, handing her a glass. "Here, you get El Novio, I have James Dean and you," he said, handing a glass to Harry, "are the Heart Breaker."

"Appropriate! He's already broken one heart tonight!" Ginny exclaimed, taking an experimental sip of her drink. She wasn't sure what was in it, but it was good and strong and she savored the burn all the way down into her stomach.

"To breaking hearts!" Ben crowed, holding up his glass and taking a drink. "Now, Ginny, whose heart shall I be breaking tonight?"

As they shouted over the music, Ginny surveyed the array of men at the bar, looking for someone who seemed to have noticed Ben or looked like he wanted company. Her eyes kept going back to the young man that had been looking at Harry. He was standing near the bar, but a little apart from the increasing crowd and she'd seen him looking their way a few times. There was definitely something magnetic about him and she nudged Ben, cutting her eyes at the handsome young man.

"You think so?" Ben asked in her ear.

"I do! He was looking at Harry earlier, but I'm sure he likes blondes just as well. Besides, he keeps looking over here!" She nudged him again and he finished his drink.

"I have to make it subtle! Laugh like I just said something outrageous!" Ever the obliging friend, Ginny laughed uproariously, throwing her head back and hitting Ben on the shoulder. He gave her an admiring look. "You're good! See you on the dance floor!"

She watched as Ben headed back up to the bar, striking up a conversation with the young man, offering to buy him a drink. His offer was apparently accepted as they both entered the press around the bar. She held out her hand to Harry. "Come on. I'm tired of sitting."

With his help, she extricated herself from the deceptively cushy sofa and straightened her skirt, surprised when Harry's lips came down on hers and lingered for several heartbeats. "I'm not the only one being checked out tonight, love," he said, lips tickling her ear.

Ever curious, she swept her eyes over the bar and gave Harry a questioning look, raising her eyebrow when he tilted his head toward another couple at a nearby table. They were both utterly devastating with dark hair and Ginny found herself staring. The woman quirked her eyebrow at her in a question as she leaned over and said something in the man's ear.

"Maybe we should invite them over for some Chinese?" she said to Harry teasingly, feeling a hot flush ripple over her skin.

"You know I don't like to share," Harry, said, barely audible over the noise of the club, making Ginny feel weak in the knees.

She pulled him down for another kiss, feeling delightfully wicked as her tongue probed his willing mouth and she felt his hands on her bum. Breaking apart, she grinned at him and turned to the couple who had been watching them, giving them a shrug as they passed by. The woman acknowledged her with a nod and her own smile, hinting at what they would be missing out on.

Hand clasped tightly in his, Ginny led Harry out to the dance floor, creating a space for the two of them through sheer force of will. A new song started and while she had no idea who it was by, it was loud and the beat made her blood sing. Turning to face Harry, she let the driving music take her where it would, exulting in the movement.

Harry's hands on her hips made her think naughty things and she put her hands on his arse, pulling him into her, then taking his hand as she spun away, making her skirt flare out. He pulled her back to him, crushing her body to his and she ground herself against his leg.

The colored lights strobed, adding to the dizziness in Ginny's head. Closing her eyes, she focused on the feeling of the music pounding through her, the awareness of being surrounded by other dancers, the heat of Harry in front of her. Opening her eyes again, she looked up at him, admiring the play of the colored lights on his face. A flash of blond over his shoulder caught her eye and she saw Ben, dancing with tall, dark and handsome.

One song bled into another and Ginny felt the tension she'd been hanging on to since coming into contact with the Horcrux drain away, the woman's wail supplanted by the music. Focusing on Harry again, she concentrated on throwing him her best smoldering look, feeling a shiver in her belly as he gave her one of his own. Completely unable to keep a straight face, she dissolved into giggles and pulled him close, burying her face between his neck and shoulder, breathing deeply of his scent.

The DJ was excellent, seeming to possess a sixth sense for the crowd's mood, slowing things down when he felt they were all about to lose their minds only to amp them up again, taking them to the edge of reason. Ginny didn't know how long they were on the dance floor, slowly being pushed closer and closer together by the crush of bodies around them. The feel of Harry's sweat-dampened hair in her fingers as she pulled him down for a kiss made her realize how hot and sweaty she was. She felt a wave of vertigo wash over her and she shook her head.

"All right?" Harry shouted and she shook her head again, taking his hand to lead him off the dance floor and back toward the moderately less-crowded bar. She noticed the couple that had been eyeing them were no longer there and she briefly wondered if they'd found someone to take them up on their invitation.

"I need a break," she said, squeezing his hand.

"Drink?"

"Sex on the Beach," Ginny shouted with a daring smile as she went in search of the ladies' room, not really sure if this place would even have one. Thankfully, it did and she breathed a sigh of relief at the slight decrease in noise. She used the toilet and examined herself in the mirror, holding her hair up in her hand and fanning the back of her neck. She looked at it speculatively as she conjured a hair tie to put it in a ponytail. Should I keep growing it out? Harry likes it longer, but it's such a bother sometimes.

She was leaning forward to see if she could repair her makeup when Ben burst into the room. "Ben! This is the ladies'!" she said, shocked at his appearance.

"Have you seen the line for the men's? I'll just be a minute!" He disappeared into a cubicle, slamming the door shut in his haste.

"Lift the seat at least!" she yelled, shaking her head in wry amusement.

A moment later he joined her at the mirror, fluffing his sweat-flattened hair after washing his hands. "Question for you," he said as she was reapplying lipstick.

"Yes?"

"What's a 'Muggle'?" he asked, looking at her in the mirror with a quizzical expression.

Ginny felt a shock reverberate through her and fought to keep it from her expression, continuing to apply her lipstick. "A what?" she asked, employing her best confused look.

"I think that's the right word. I was on the dance floor so I might have heard it wrong? Moogle? No, those are the little guys in the Final Fantasy games." Ben shrugged. "Anyway, I went up to one guy to dance and he said, like, 'Get out of here, Muggle,' or something that sounded like that."

"That's a funny word. Who said it? Was it the bloke that was looking at Harry earlier?"

"Oh honey, he was five dance partners ago! Try to keep up! Anyway, I just thought it was a weird word." He made a few more adjustments to his short blond hair and puffed out a sigh. "Well, this is as good as it's going to get. Shall we?" He held out his arm and Ginny took it, still reeling over the use of the word 'Muggle' actually to one.

Harry will want to hear about this, Ginny thought as she saw him at the bar, eyes searching for her. "Hello, lovely. Do you have my drink?" she asked, kissing him on the cheek. Harry handed her the glass and she took a long drink, savoring the cool fruitiness. She saw he had Guinness in a bottle and she raised an eyebrow at him, grinning at his shrug.

Taking his hand, she guided him to an open table and sat down, Ben joining them a moment later. Well, I'm not going to bring up the 'M-word' right now in front of Ben. It'll wait until we're home, she thought as she and Ben had a shouted conversation about the surrounding men. As they talked, her eyes roamed around the bar, trying to spot who might be a wizard. While she did see several men looking at Harry while trying to look like they weren't, she didn't see any that looked like they might be wizards and gave it up as hopeless.

Finishing his drink with a gulp, Ben stood up. "I'm heading back out. Are you coming?"

"No, I think we're going to head home. It's a school night for both of us!" Ginny shouted back with a grin.

"Okay then. Thanks for coming!" Bending down, he kissed her on both cheeks and shook Harry's hand. "We'll have to do this again! There's a new place supposed to open up soon and I hear they're going to have hot bartenders in nothing but thongs!"

"Sounds amazing! I'll see you tomorrow!" she said, grinning at Harry's horrified look. Ben quickly disappeared back out onto the dance floor and Ginny heaved a sigh. I must be getting old, she thought, glancing at her watch, It's barely ten and I'm ready for bed.

A few minutes later they were home surrounded by blessed quiet and Ginny collapsed onto the sofa with a groan, kicking off her high heels. "Rub my feet," she said, putting them in Harry's lap as he sat down next to her. Stuart jumped up in her lap, dinner plate-sized paws kneading on her belly as she petted him.

"Are you all right? I expected you to want to dance some more," Harry said as he dug his thumbs into the arch of her left foot.

"I think the experience with that Horcrux wore me out more than I expected it to," she said, sighing happily as his talented fingers rubbed away the soreness caused by the cute but impractical shoes.

"They'll do that," he said, kissing the top of her foot and setting it down to work on the other one. She didn't doubt it, remembering how he'd told her the cursed locket had the three inseparable friends at each other's throats.

"So Ben told me something in the loo." Ginny had to hold back a groan as pins and needles started up in her right foot.

"Ben went into the women's loo?"

"Yeah. Said the line was too long for the men's. Welcome to my world. Anyway, he asked me if I'd heard the word 'Muggle' before."

Harry paused in his ministrations and frowned. "Are you sure you heard him right?"

"Positive. He wasn't sure if he'd heard it right because whoever said it to him did it on the dance floor where it was super loud."

"What exactly did he say?"

"He said he approached a bloke to dance and the bloke said, 'Get out of here, Muggle.'"

"What did you say?" Harry put down her foot and stood, loosening his tie and unbuttoning the top two buttons of his shirt.

"I put on my confused look," she said, demonstrating it for him, "and said that it sounded like a funny word."

"Did he say who said it?" The waistcoat was off now and Ginny started wondering if she kept him talking if he'd just remove all of his clothes in front of her.

"I didn't want to seem too curious about the word, so I asked him if it was the boy he was dancing with when we first came. The one that was looking at you. He said it wasn't, but didn't elaborate."

Harry grunted, taking his tie off and hanging it in the closet along with the waistcoat. "Too bad we don't know who said it. It's a minor violation of the Secrecy Statute and I wouldn't have minded asking this bloke a few questions." He blew out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Sorry. I'm not very good at interrogations."

"No worries," he said, unbuttoning his shirt and rolling the sleeves back down. "You're right, you didn't want to seem too curious." Sitting on the bed, he took off his boots, wiggling his toes in relief. He lay back on the bed with a groan and Ginny set the cat on the floor and joined him, taking off his glasses before kissing him.

"When do you go see the water horse again?" he murmured quietly, holding her close.

"First night of the full moon is the night after tomorrow." She wasn't looking forward to telling him that his dryad was cursed and dying.

"Think he'll be able to tell us about the curse?"

"I hope so. You think it might be connected to the Horcrux?"

"I don't know. It's definitely connected to that damn coin, but I don't know how the Horcrux figures in." They lay quietly, Ginny's head resting on his shoulder and her hand tracing patterns through the soft hair on his belly. The echo of the woman's scream played endlessly in her memory and she squeezed her eyes shut tight, trying to block it out.

Harry nudged her and she opened her eyes to see his concerned look. "You still hear it?" he asked quietly and she nodded. "Come on. I'm covered in club. Let's get a shower and get your mind on something else, yeah?"

Ginny smiled and sat up, unbuttoning her own blouse and slipping it off her shoulders. "I was right. You are going to get lucky tonight."

Sitting at her favorite table in the library, Ginny stared dreamily out of the window at the Golden Gate Bridge spanning the sparkling blue water. She could just barely make out tiny sailboats scooting back and forth like water bugs. Harry says Artemis sails. I wonder if we can wrangle an outing one of these days? she wondered as she smothered a huge yawn.

Ugh, being out late searching for dryads isn't doing my studies any favors. Forcing herself to concentrate on her notes, Ginny was finally able to get into a groove as she assembled her scattered notes on the sympathetic nervous system into something resembling coherence.

The thump of Ben's bag settling onto the table next to her brought her back to reality and she looked at him quizzically as he sat down with a sigh. "What's the matter? Boy trouble?" she asked with a smile.

"I wish!" he said, rolling his eyes as he brought out his computer and opened the lid. "No, I've decided it's better to be single right now. Too many other things to focus on."

"So what's got you all bothered?"

"You mean other than the fact that I'm single?"

"But you just said—"

"Honey, it doesn't matter what I just said. I'm single and it's spring in San Francisco. What could be worse?"

"I guess I don't know, since I am not single," she said, poking him in the shoulder.

"And how is my future husband?" Ben asked, paging through a textbook.

"He's great," Ginny said, thinking of how much help he'd been on her quest to find the water horse a new dryad companion. She wished so much she could tell Ben all about it. He loved science fiction and fantasy, something she was only starting to become familiar with and she knew that the tragic story of the water horse and his cursed dryad would captivate him. "Oh! He's teaching me how to drive!" she said, seizing on something she could tell him.

Ben closed his book and looked at her. "You didn't already know how to drive?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Living in London, there wasn't really any need. You either walk or use the Tube and there's loads of cabs." Or you Apparate everywhere, she added silently.

"Well. I grew up in LA where you learn to drive almost as soon as you can walk. What kind of car does he have?"

"Um…a green one? I think it's an estate car?"

"Estate car? Oh, you mean a wagon?"

"I think so? It's German."

Ben sighed and shook his head. "Not a car girl. I knew there had to be something less than perfect about you!"

"Well, if that's the worst thing about me, I figure I'm doing all right, then!" Now if he were to ask me about our brooms, I could give him chapter and verse. They worked companionably until it was time to head to their next class together, a lecture Ginny was hoping she could stay awake through.

"Oh, I heard that word again," Ben said as they left the library.

"What word?" Ginny asked, distracted by the smell of coffee from the nearby cafe.

"Muggle," he whispered, leaning in towards her. An electric shock ran through her, banishing her exhaustion and she looked at him. He didn't look especially troubled, merely curious. "I did some searching online and the only thing I could find is apparently back in the twenties it was used in association with marijuana."

Relieved beyond words that he hadn't found anything relating to the Wizarding use of the word, Ginny wrinkled her nose. "So someone was talking about marijuana, then?"

"No. I was getting off Muni on the way here and I passed by some guys just kind of standing around having a smoke break or something and one of them said, 'How can you stand living in this city surrounded by all of these Muggles?'."

"What did the others say?"

"I don't know," Ben shrugged, "I just walked on by. They looked a little rough."

"But none of them were that bloke in the club a couple weeks ago?"

"No. Hey, let's get a coffee. Dr Martinez always puts me to sleep."

As they stood in line, Ginny turned over this information in her head. I wonder if more people than just Ben are hearing it, too? She looked at her friend, flirting with the handsome barista behind the counter. I hope he's not in any danger because of me.

Later on that night, after the elation from finding an adventurous young dryad willing to meet the water horse had worn off, she remembered Ben's words. "Harry," she whispered, nudging his shoulder, "are you still awake?"

"Hmm?" he said sleepily turning to face her, kissing her on the forehead.

"I chatted with Ben today in the library."

"Mm-hm?"

"And he said he heard the word 'Muggle' again. Out on the street this time."

"Did he?" Harry asked, sounding more awake now. "Did someone say it to him again? Was he threatened?"

"No. He said he was walking past what must have been a group of wizards on the street and one of them said, 'How can you stand living in this city surrounded by all of these Muggles?'."

Harry propped himself up on one elbow, rubbing his stubbly cheek. "Hm. I've heard from Archimedes that Ignatius has been making speeches to small groups here and in the East and South Bay since his campaign kick-off. I think we can guess what he's been talking about."

"I guess some are listening. Harry, people are starting to get careless and I'm a little worried about Ben."

"Has he said if anyone has threatened him?"

"He hasn't, but … I mean, Ignatius isn't your biggest fan, is he?"

"No, no he isn't," Harry sighed. "I'll bring it up to Archimedes that some people seem to be getting careless about the statute. You let me know if anyone says anything directly to Ben or threatens to harm him, all right?"

Harry lay back down and held his arms out to her and she snuggled against his chest, feeling safe and secure with him. "All right."

"Cornelius Maxwell," the water horse said, the sound of the name blowing through Harry like an icy winter wind. He glanced at Ginny, but she was too entranced with the creature to take note of the name as the dryad plucked a single tail hair and gave it to her.

Holding it reverently, they both stood stock still as the water horse disappeared under the surface of the lake with his dryad, presumably to undertake his long-delayed journey to his new home far away from men. The name still chilled him and he drew Ginny closer, holding on tight to her under the stars, allowing the magic of the moment to fill him, trying to beat back the coldness of that name. Cornelius Maxwell, he thought, I finally have you.

The moment was destroyed by a dog walker with their bulldog, a breed Harry simply could not abide and Ginny laughed softly, going up on tiptoes to kiss him. "Come on, let's get home," she said, her eyes full of promise.

Once home, he built up the fire as Ginny carefully put the water horse's tail hair into a small vial, stoppering it securely and nestling it deep in her sock drawer. Task completed, she joined him on the rug in front of the crackling fire, wrapping a blanket around them both and they sat quietly, gazing into the fire, each seeing their own shapes in the flames.

Finally, she sighed and leaned into him. "That was the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen," she said quietly as he put his arm around her shoulders.

"That was pretty amazing." He kissed the top of her head and she raised her lips to his, taking him by surprise with her intensity as she opened her mouth to his, making him feel as if he was losing his breath. Her warm hands slid under his jumper and tee shirt, nails raking along his ribs as she pushed him over onto his back.

Feeling as if an icy core inside of him were melting, Harry responded, unwilling to let her take control as he cradled her in his arms and turned them over, pushing up her top to get at the smooth skin of her belly with his lips. The firelight cast shifting shadows around them as he made quick work of her jeans and knickers, suddenly ravenous for the taste of her. Her hands in his hair as he bent to his work were not gentle and the sensation made him as hard as iron as she cried out her climax.

Propping herself up on her elbows, she looked at him as he knelt between her legs with a raised eyebrow and a sardonic smile. "On your knees. Appropriate."

"Yeah? Let's see you on yours," Harry said, grabbing her hand and pulling her up on her knees in front of him, squeezing her firm bottom as he crushed her body to his. He felt the last bit of ice inside melt at the sound of her sigh as their lips met in a bruising kiss and she worked at his jeans and boxers to free his cock, running her hand along his length.

He started to push her backwards, but she stopped him, turning her back to him and grinning at him over her shoulder. "It's really no fair that you're so much taller," she said with a pout, spreading her knees further apart.

"Love, I'd cut my legs off at the knees if it meant I got to fuck you standing up more often," he said as he entered her wet heat, pulling her upper body back against his.

"That's the last thing I'd want you to do. I guess we'll have to kneel instead," she whispered, turning her head to kiss him again as he drove into her, hands on her breasts. Breaking apart from her lips, he fastened his mouth on her neck where it joined her shoulder, sucking as hard as he could and making her gasp. "No fair," she groaned as she pushed back against him.

"Totally fair," Harry gasped, short of breath as he tried to fight his onrushing climax, "I think I've still got one from last time."

"Good. I hope that Charms teacher saw it," Ginny said, the savage satisfaction in her voice sending Harry over the edge as he came with a long, low groan. Breathing hard, he finally pulled his jumper and tee shirt off, the air feeling blessedly cool on his sweaty skin. Kissing him again, Ginny pulled off her own top, fanning her face with her hands as she settled down onto the rug in front of the fire.

Kicking off his trainers, Harry finally took off his jeans and pulled his boxers back up, nestling down next to Ginny and pulling the blanket up over them both. The cat jumped down from wherever he'd been and tried unsuccessfully to get in between them, settling for curling up by their feet.

"Do you think he watched?" Ginny asked with a smile in her voice.

"I'm sure of it. Randy little bastard."

They lay quietly, Harry listening to the crackling of the fire as he felt his heartbeat return to normal. Far from cold now, Harry felt as if an inferno were raging inside of him, the cutting chill generated by that name completely banished and he blew out a sigh of relief. "All right?" Ginny asked, turning her head to look at him.

"Yeah." He took another deep breath and shook his head. "I'm not sure what came over me—"

"Us," she corrected.

"Us," Harry agreed, kissing the nape of her neck. "I felt this … chill and you were the only one that could make it go away."

"That name."

"I didn't think you'd heard it."

"I heard it and I felt like I was standing on top of the Astronomy Tower in the middle of winter."

"You didn't say anything."

"I didn't want to let on in front of the water horse. I didn't want him to know that man's evil still lurks beyond that ill-wish."

"Brilliant and beautiful," Harry whispered in her ear, her quiet chuckle making his heart stutter.

"What are we going to do?" Ginny asked after a few moments.

Harry sighed and closed his eyes. "We'll have to figure out who this man was. I'll have to tell Archimedes. Maybe there's an archive that wasn't destroyed by the fire that can tell us something. I'll have a chat with Juanita and see if she has any pointers, too."

"You think he's the one buried at the Legion of Honor?"

"Quite probably," Harry said, thinking back to the feeling of walking over that grave and trying not to shiver.

"And that coin. Could it be another Horcrux?"

"I don't think so. It's definitely Dark and I think it's got something to do with this Cornelius fellow, but I think it's something else entirely." Harry thought back over all of the Dark objects he'd encountered over the years. None of them had given him a feeling quite like the gold double eagle that was the treasured possession of a bigoted former Death Eater currently running for a seat on the Greater Bay Area Wizarding Council.

Resolutely setting aside all thoughts of coins, Horcruxes and long-dead wizards, Harry concentrated on the feeling of his lover lying next to him, of her hands skimming along his body and following the trail of hair that led down from his belly button. "Oh, what have we here?" Ginny asked and he opened his eyes to see her saucy smile. "So soon?"

"Sometimes I can still surprise you," Harry murmured as their lips met.

"What about the cat?" Ginny whispered as she ran her hand over his stiffening cock.

He looked at Stuart, the cat's odd-eyed gaze meeting his squarely with that inscrutable cat look. "Let him watch."

"Hey, Juanita, do you have a minute?" Harry asked, knocking on the doorjamb of her classroom door. He'd come in extra early that morning, hoping to find her with a few free minutes before the influx of students.

"For you, I have many minutes. What can I do for you, Harry?" she said. She was currently working on a bulletin board, putting up pictures of various American presidents. Harry figured there was a magical connection in there somewhere, but he had no idea what it could be.

"I wanted to pick your brain about wizards during the Gold Rush." Harry came in and sat down on top of one of the desks as she worked.

"Is this more graveyards?"

"No, not this time," he said, shaking his head. "I find the whole idea of it fascinating. One bloke finds a nugget in a river in the middle of nowhere and suddenly everyone thinks they're going to get rich out here. How did that impact the wizards of the time?"

"Ah. Well, it's definitely a very interesting time in history, both Muggle and magical." Juanita fastened a cutout of a man Harry recognized as Abraham Lincoln and turned around to face him. "As I'm sure you've noticed, wizards like money just as much as the next person and gold can't just be transfigured."

"Well, there's the Philosopher's Stone," Harry pointed out judiciously.

"Yes, and how many of those were there?" she asked and he held up one finger. "Exactly. So, wizards made their way out here, hoping to strike it rich, too."

"One would think that we have an unfair advantage though," Harry said, twirling his finger around in an imitation of a wand movement. "And what about goblins?"

Juanita sat on top of her desk, facing Harry. "Yes, goblins came out here, too. In fact, there were several conflicts between goblins and wizards out in the gold fields. Claim jumping, mostly, but also accusations of unfair gold buying practices. Wizards claimed that goblins gave a better gold price to other goblins while shorting them and goblins claimed the same against wizards."

"So the wild west wasn't just an expression, then?"

"Oh no. Once California became a state in 1850, things started to settle down, but for a while there it was very wild. There were even duels in the streets," she said, warming to her subject.

"Wizard duels?"

"Sure. Not right in front of everyone, of course. But if two parties had a beef with each other, they tended to settle them through force of magic rather than through the courts."

Fascinated, Harry glanced at his watch, realizing he had students trying to Floo into his classroom by now and being shunted to the office since he wasn't in the classroom. "This is amazing. Can we continue this at lunch?"

"Of course. Is there a particular person you're interested in? Anyone you've run across?" she asked, walking with him to her doorway.

Harry paused a moment. It's a gamble, but… "Actually yeah. Cornelius Maxwell. I've see his name pop up a few times," he said, bracing himself for a blast of cold at the sound of the name, relieved when there wasn't one.

"Oh, he's an interesting one," Juanita said, eyes lighting up. "Did you know that he's Jacob's ancestor?"

"No, I didn't," he said, struggling to hear past the abrupt ringing in his ears.

"Yes, in fact, he built that mansion and participated in one of the most famous wizard duels in San Francisco." The fireplace in the classroom flared to life, ejecting a student in a blast of soot. "I'll tell you all about it at lunch, all right?"

"Yeah, till lunch then," Harry said, mind reeling at this new information. It's almost too much to take in, he thought as he went into his own classroom and sat down at his desk. Jacob's ancestor was the creator of that Horcrux, cursed the dryad, had something to do with that coin…what the hell else has he done?

"You'll never guess what I found out today," Harry said when Ginny Apparated into the flat after her late-night clinic. She was pleased that she still managed a quiet pop even though she was completely exhausted.

"Oh? What did you find out?" she asked, tiredly setting down her heavy book bag as she tried to muster the energy to be interested. She loved him dearly, but right now all she wanted was to get out of her smelly scrubs, have a shower and eat in that exact order.

"Why don't you get a shower and get changed, all right? Hungry?" Harry said, taking in her bedraggled appearance.

"Starved. It's not a full moon, but there's something in the air. The clinic has been slammed all night," she said, taking her hair out of its messy bun and pulling her top off to drop it on the floor. "Is that red sauce I smell?" she asked, finally able to smell something other than the vomit she'd tried unsuccessfully to get out of her scrubs earlier.

"Yes. I started it when I got home. Get a shower, all right? This can wait." He kissed her on the cheek and went into the kitchen, pushing the cat off the worktop.

In the shower, she took her time, giving her aching muscles ample time under the hot spray. My shoulders and neck are so tight. Maybe I'll ask Harry for a massage tonight, she thought as she washed her hair. Ginny had been teaching him basic massage techniques and he was a very attentive student.

Feeling refreshed, she pulled on her favorite flannel pajamas and quickly dried her hair, putting it back in a messy bun and went out into the flat. Harry had built up the fire and had conjured up a low table and cushions on the rug in front of it, putting Ginny in mind of a Japanese tea house.

"This looks wonderful," she said, sitting down on one of the cushions. On her plate was a chicken breast on top of angel hair pasta smothered in red sauce and sautéed green and yellow zucchini. She leaned across the table and gave Harry a lingering kiss. "Thank you so much."

"Of course," he said, pouring her a glass of wine. "I'm just glad you're actually hungry."

"I get hungry," she said defensively, taking a sip of the excellent wine.

"Oh, no Harry, I can't even think about food right now. I'll get something in a little bit," Harry said, doing a fairly good imitation of her and she blushed.

"All right, you've made your point," Ginny said, digging into her dinner. "Now, what did you learn today that's got you all excited?"

"Eat first, then we'll talk about it, yeah? How was your day?" Harry had already made considerable inroads on his own plate and she was touched that he'd waited for her to have dinner.

"It was fine. Class was fine, but clinic today, ugh. It was nonstop and some of the people really should have been going to emergency at SF General. And then, to top it all off I had a baby sick up all over me while I was holding her during an exam," she said, shaking her head at the memory.

"Couldn't you have just done a Cleaning Charm?"

"Not really. Too many people saw it happen and there wasn't anything to change into. I just had to wipe it off the best I could and go on." She grinned at Harry across from her. Sometimes, she almost felt like pinching herself, convinced she was living in a dream. "How was your day?"

"It was good. I caught David and Elizabeth kissing when I was leaving after practice. I'll collect from Juanita tomorrow," he said with a mischievous gleam in his eye. Ginny shook her head at their silly five dollar bet as they chatted. She knew that Harry didn't welcome people into his life easily, but Juanita seemed to be worming her way in. We should make plans to do something with her. I wonder if she has a boyfriend? Or a girlfriend?

Ginny mopped up the last bit of sauce on her plate with a piece of crusty sourdough and sighed happily. "That was excellent. My compliments to the chef. And to Ben for picking out this wine." She took their dishes to the sink and refilled her wineglass as Harry dispelled the table and cushions. "Now, tell me what you found out today," she said, settling on the sofa with Stuart in her lap.

Harry sat down on the other end of the sofa, his own wineglass in hand. "Well, I found out that our friend Jacob Green is descended from one Cornelius Maxwell," Harry said, grinning at the look of shock on Ginny's face.

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yes. And he built that house."

"No."

"Yes! You remember, after the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes kickoff? We went into Jacob's office for that paperwork?" he asked and Ginny nodded her head slowly. "There's that big portrait of his great-whatever grandmother?"

"Coretta Maxwell!" she said with a gasp. "I knew I'd heard the name Cornelius before! Jacob mentioned him!"

"Just in passing, but yes he did. Cornelius was Coretta's father. And a right bastard if what Juanita has told me is accurate." He picked up the sheaf of papers from the coffee table and handed them to her. "She gave me those today. From the archives of the Uncanny Examiner."

"Something that wasn't destroyed during the earthquake and fire," Ginny said, looking the papers over, her mind racing with the implications of what Harry was telling her.

"Yeah, the old wizarding center of the City was far from the fire and magic saved a lot as well," Harry said, leaning forward. He was talking very fast and his excitement over the new information was plain; she was reminded of when he would have a break in a case as an Auror.

One of the headlines caught her eye. Shipping Magnate Cornelius Maxwell Duels At Sunrise "He was in a duel?"

"He was. Juanita said that was how they settled things in those days. That was 1869, right?" Ginny nodded and he went on, "He was only middle-aged and he won the duel, but he still died five days later."

"Do you think that's when he made the Horcrux?"

"No. I think the Horcrux predates that. Let me see those." Ginny handed him the papers and he leafed through them. "Here we go. Obituary notice for his wife, Esther in 1865."

Ginny read it over, her forehead creasing in a frown. "Natural causes. Leaves behind a daughter, Coretta, age eight. Beloved wife of Gold Rush pioneer and noted businessman Cornelius…" She looked up at Harry. "Do you think it's her? She's the one I hear?" A long scream echoed in her memory and she shook her head.

"I do."

"What makes you think that? It could be any woman. It could have been a woman off the street."

"I don't think so. Number one, she says his name, right? So it's someone that knows him. Not a great argument for a woman just off the street." Harry stood up and started pacing around the flat.

"Okay, so it was a woman that knew him. What about a maid or someone else that worked in the house?"

"No. Remember what I said about how whoever created the Horcrux didn't know much about them? Like they knew just enough to be dangerous. He put so much of his own soul into it, it's a wonder he was able to leave enough for himself to be getting on with." He stopped pacing and stood still, looking at Ginny but not really seeing her. "I bet he thought that there had to be an element of sacrifice to it."

"So you're saying that Cornelius thought he had to not only kill someone to create a Horcrux, that it had to be a sacrifice?" Ginny said, feeling a chill run down her spine.

"Exactly."

"And that's why he dragged it out with Crucio or something else? He thought the pain and the sacrifice were essential?"

"Well, either that or he was a complete sadist. Which is also a possibility."

Ginny turned over the information in her mind. What Harry was saying seemed to fit and she shuddered. What made him so desperate to hang on to life that he'd kill his own wife in some sort of bizarre sacrifice? His daughter was only eight! "He had to have an accomplice or a helper, sort of how Voldemort had Pettigrew. Any information on that?"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head and draining his wineglass. "I'm not sure yet how I'm going to find that out. I'll have to see if I can find any business records, names of any partners."

"Or you could talk to Jacob. Find out how much he knows about his ancestor."

"That's my last resort," Harry said with a frown.

"Have you told Archimedes?"

"Not yet. I wanted to tell you first."

"I feel so privileged that I get to hear information about horrible men who murdered their own wives so they might have a chance at a prolonged life," she said sardonically.

"I'm sorry, Gin. I thought you wanted to know," Harry said, sounding unsure. Ginny set the cat on the floor and stood up, joining him in front of the fireplace.

"I do want to know, I was only teasing," she said, putting her arms around his neck and kissing him. "Was there anything about the dryad?"

"No," Harry said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. "I imagine we won't find anything about that."

"So we have the information about the Horcrux. Now we need to find out if Weatherbee really wants it, what he wants it for and what that coin has to do with all of this." Ginny sighed and rested her head on Harry's chest.

"Piece of cake, right?" he said, kissing her on top of her head. She stood, feeling warm and safe in his arms, in their little flat in their little corner of the City while events and things swirled around them. "Gin?" His gentle shake made her realize she'd dozed off. I'm literally asleep on my feet, she thought dazedly.

"Sorry, love, guess I'm more tired than I thought I was."

"Come on, let's get you into bed." Ginny nodded and allowed him to lead her to the bed and tuck her in, kissing her goodnight on her forehead. I didn't get my massage, she thought before she fell into a deep sleep.

21. Chapter 21

"All right, we are going on a bit of a field trip," Harry announced, using his wand to send permission slips flying to the students' desks. The class, Seniors, started chattering with excitement and Elizabeth raised her hand. "Yes, Elizabeth?"

"Mr Potter, this says we're going at night to the Golden Gate Bridge?"

"Yes."

"What for?" she asked, utterly mystified.

"I'm glad you asked!" He clapped his hands to get their attention and smiled when all eyes were on him. "Elizabeth asked what possible reason we could have for going out to the Golden Gate Bridge in the dead of night. Does anyone have any ideas?" The students all looked at each other before one raised his hand. "David. Why do you think we're going out to the bridge at night?"

"Um, to study fog patterns?" he said with a shrug.

"No, this is not Divination. Anyone else?"

"Constellations?" Micah volunteered.

"Hmm, this is not Astronomy."

"Tidal studies," Maddy said confidently.

"Nothing Dark about the tides. How many of you have walked across the bridge?" Several students raised their hands. "What did you notice about it? As you walked across it on a bright, sunny day?"

"It's windy," one girl said.

"It's really high up."

"It's really cold."

"The cables are thicker than my arm," Henry the Quidditch Beater said, holding up a meaty arm.

"These things are all true," Harry said, pacing in front of the class, twirling his wand between his fingers. "But what else did you notice? Did you see the signs?" He had noticed them right away the first time he set foot on the bridge, along with the emergency telephones. Blue and white with CRISIS COUNSELING in big, bold letters. As soon as he saw those signs, he knew what he would find lurking nearby.

Elizabeth gasped and her hand shot up. Harry nodded at her with a smile and she practically exploded. "You're taking us to the bridge at night to practice our Patronus Charms on real Dementors."

The class gave a collective gasp and everyone turned to look first at Elizabeth and then at Harry who answered with his own Patronus, sending it on a lap around the classroom before disappearing with a poof of silver smoke. "Now, there are a few caveats. In order to go, you MUST be able to cast some form of Patronus. It doesn't have to be corporeal, but I absolutely will not allow anyone that is not capable to go." The class made a sound of disappointment and Harry raised an eyebrow. "This just means you'll need to practice very hard and if you can demonstrate to me that you can cast even a thread of silver, you can go."

He looked at them sternly over his glasses. "And if your parents don't agree, you may not go, even if you show me a corporeal Patronus." No one in any of his classes had demonstrated that ability so far as he knew, but there were a few that could do incorporeal ones. "I will be verifying all permission slip signatures, personally."

The bell rang, signaling the end of the class and the beginning of lunch. "You have two weeks, so get busy practicing. Your final chance will be Friday during class and if you are successful, you can come that Friday night."

Talking excitedly, the students made their way out of the classroom and into the bright noontime sun, leaving Harry alone in the classroom. Once they were all gone, he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Managing this outing was going to be tricky and he was glad that he'd already talked to Archimedes about getting a few off-duty Aurors for backup.

"You don't do anything by halves, do you?" he'd said over a pint. Harry had messaged him, asking to meet and they had ended up at a bar in North Beach.

"Well, I took a lesson when Voldemort was only half-killed, yeah?" Harry said with a grin. "I'll need the bridge to be closed for a bit, too."

"Mm hm. For how long?"

"Shouldn't be for more than a couple of hours, I don't think. I want the kids to have the experience of a real Dementor. I have a couple of students that I think are on the cusp of a corporeal Patronus and I think if they're faced with one, they'll make the leap," Harry said, leaning forward, thinking of the two students. Isaac and Elizabeth had both shown extraordinary promise in classroom practice.

"Well, I think a couple of hours late at night should be manageable. I have some strings I can still pull. Midnight to two a.m.?" Archimedes dug around in the dish of pub mix, a speculative look on his face.

"That would be perfect." Harry took a sip of his Guinness, relieved that Archimedes was going to help. "Now I just need to sell this to Artemis."

"Well, I can't help with that one, my boy!" Archimedes said with a hearty laugh, slapping him on the shoulder.

That night after meeting with Archimedes, he brought Ginny out to the bridge. He heard a distant church bell ringing midnight and it was very cold with streamers of fog spilling between the suspension cables of the bridge. "Harry, what are we doing out here?" Ginny asked, clutching his hand tightly as they ascended the pedestrian approach from the Sausalito side.

"Patience, love." He checked the cars rolling past on the bridge deck, glad to see that there wasn't much traffic tonight as they passed through the pedestrian gate and out to the bridge.

"Your ideas of what constitutes a romantic outing have become very strange lately," Ginny teased with a smile.

Harry was glad to hear that she could still tease and smile. He was already starting to feel the melancholy effects of the Dementors, but Ginny's smile lifted his heart. My living, breathing Patronus, he thought, squeezing her hand. They continued on, Ginny pausing at one of the signs posted on the bridge. "The consequences of jumping from this bridge are fatal and tragic," she read aloud, looking at Harry with a frown. "Harry, what's—oh," she said, looking over his shoulder.

Harry turned around and saw one, faceless and shrouded in black, floating high over the deck of the bridge, cars streaming blithely underneath. "I didn't know there were Dementors here," she said quietly, wand out and held ready in front of her.

"There's a few places. Here and I heard of a former institution down in the South Bay," Harry said grimly, looking around for others. Where there's one…ah, there we are. He spotted another one halfway down the bridge, rising up over the railing like a mote of black ash.

"Why here? This is one of the most beautiful places in the whole area." Ginny crowded closer to Harry, motioning with her wand to another one that was drifting over from the other side of the bridge as if driven by the wind.

"This bridge is a huge suicide magnet, Gin. Since shortly after it opened in 1937, people have been throwing themselves off it." Another Dementor drifted down from the nearest suspension tower, making a total of four.

"And the despair and tragedy draws them and then they generate more," she said softly.

"Exactly." He spotted another one coming towards them and he reached into the pocket of his dragonhide jacket, pulling out the chocolate bar he'd stashed there. He broke off a piece and offered it to Ginny before shoving one in his own mouth, glad to feel the despondency and gloom generated by the creatures abate.

"That doesn't answer my earlier question. What are we doing here? Are we getting rid of them?"

"No, they never stay away for very long. I'm going to use them."

"What would you use a pack of Dementors for?" Ginny asked, looking up at him like he'd gone completely off his rocker.

"I'm going to use them to help my students with their Patronus Charms," Harry said, keeping a close eye on the Dementors slowly approaching them.

"Can't they just do it in class?"

"We have been. I have some that can cast incorporeal ones, but I know I have at least two who could cast fully corporeal Patronuses if given the proper encouragement."

"And you think this is it?" Ginny pointed her wand at a sixth one that had joined and Harry nodded.

"I want to give them the opportunity to experience a dangerous, but controlled situation. Make them really stretch their magic and see what they can do."

"This is controlled?"

"Well, no, this isn't. But I've arranged with Archimedes for about a half dozen off-duty Aurors and for the bridge to be closed. I'll be here, probably some parents and…you?" Harry squeezed her hand and took his eyes off the Dementors for a split second to smile at her.

"You don't even have to ask. Like I'd let you come and do something this daft without me." She squeezed his hand very hard and touched her wand tip to his, keeping her eyes on the shrouded black figures coming ever so slowly closer. "Think that's all of them?"

"I think so. Archimedes said there were about six or seven and I count six."

"Ready?" Harry nodded and they moved their wands in a circular motion, a silver stag and hummingbird bursting into existence to bear down on the Dementors. Ginny's hummingbird appeared to peck the shrouded beings as it zipped around them at lightning speed, driving them away. Harry's stag lowered its head and charged as if it were trying to push them off the bridge and down into the dark waters of the bay.

A moment later the Dementors were gone, Ginny's hummingbird alighting on her wand before dissipating into silver smoke. Harry's stag stamped a hoof onto the pavement, collapsing in on itself, silvery tendrils mixing with the fog. Harry passed Ginny another square of chocolate and took one for himself, letting the sweetness linger on his tongue as his mood lifted.

"Well, it's a lovely night out," Ginny said, taking his hand again. "Shall we continue across?"

"As you wish."

Harry knocked on the doorframe of Artemis's office door at the end of the day, not completely sure what kind of reception he'd get. The headmaster sat at his desk, a stack of papers in front of him and as he looked up at his knock, Harry saw his lips settle into a thin line. "Harry. Come in, close the door."

Harry did so, sitting down in the chair across from Artemis and crossing one leg over the other, waiting for him to finish his business. Finally, Artemis set aside the stack of papers and sighed, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes tiredly. Resting his chin in his hands, he looked at Harry for several moments before finally saying, "Dementors, Harry? Really?"

"Yes. I have my Juniors and Seniors working on their Patronus Charms and I would like them to get a look at real Dementors in a controlled situation."

Artemis looked at him as if he'd grown a second head. "How in the world do you plan on 'controlling' a situation where there are Dementors?"

"I'm glad you asked. I'll be working with Archimedes Douglass. He will arrange for six off-duty Aurors to be present during the exercise. The bridge will be closed to all traffic from midnight until two in the morning," Harry said calmly, hoping that the tone of his voice would be enough to put Artemis at ease.

"In addition to myself, Gin will be there to provide an additional corporeal Patronus and any first aid that might be needed. Any parents that want to come are more than welcome, as are you, sir."

"But is all of this really necessary?" Artemis asked pleadingly.

Harry took a deep breath and considered his question carefully. The last thing he needed to do here was appear to glib or flippant. Careful, Potter. This one's more nervy than a hippogriff. "As you know, I have been in a few unusual situations over the years that pushed me in ways others hadn't been pushed before. It is my feeling that if I hadn't been forced to extend my skills, I would not have been ready to face down Voldemort when I did."

"But there's no Voldemort here," Artemis said, settling his glasses back on his nose.

"There isn't right now, no," Harry agreed with a nod, "but that's not to say that there never will be someone in the future. There will always be Dark magic and those that seek to use it for their own gain."

"Dementors, though? Don't you think that's a little…extreme?"

Harry shrugged. "Well, I suppose it could look that way, but I have a few students who are on the very cusp of corporeal Patronuses and I think that being faced with an actual Dementor would push them just that one necessary step." He leaned forward, looking the headmaster in the eye. "Have you ever faced one down yourself?"

Artemis looked away for a split second before focusing back on Harry and nodding. "Yes," he said quietly, "once."

"What happened? Obviously you were able to defend yourself or else you'd be a vegetable somewhere."

The headmaster regarded Harry silently before answering. "I was walking across the bridge with Diana. We were newly dating and I thought a moonlight walk across would be romantic. A Dementor started following us and we tried to run, but couldn't shake it. I put her behind me and…" Harry waited quietly as Artemis trailed off, lost in his memory of the event. Shaking his head, he continued. "And I froze. I couldn't get the spell off. I'd done it a couple of times before, incorporeal, but it just wouldn't come."

"Diana saved you both?"

Artemis sighed heavily and nodded. "It was the first time she'd cast it as a full corporeal. A deerhound." he smiled and shook his head. "Drove it off and we ran off that bridge so fast. I think I asked her to marry me right then."

"That's what I want to prevent, sir. I want them to be able to face down one of the most terrifying Dark creatures around, knowing that if they do freeze, there is someone to help. It's still terrifying and will push them, but they'll be safe." Please, Artemis, let me do this.

Artemis sat quietly, hands laced together over his small paunch, eyes moving around the room as he thought. "How many Aurors?"

"Six. Plus Archimedes, Ginny and myself," Harry said, a feeling of relief trickling through him.

"I'm assuming you've already checked out the bridge. How many Dementors are there?"

"Gin and I went the other night. We counted six."

"Hm, I've heard of as many as ten. I suppose six isn't too bad. What if a parent doesn't give permission?"

"Then the student doesn't go, simple as that. I told them I'd be verifying signatures personally. And they must be able to already cast some form of Patronus." Harry sat back in the chair, starting to feel like he just might pull this off.

"How many do you think will clear all of these hurdles?"

"I don't expect more than a dozen. Between both the Juniors and Seniors, there are about twenty that can even cast the spell. Figure half of those will not get parental permission."

Artemis shook his head and gave Harry a rueful smile. "Well, I must say you seem to have this pretty well planned out. If anything goes wrong…"

"I'll take full responsibility, personally and financially."

"I guess I can't ask for more then. When is this little outing planned?"

"Friday before break. The moon will be full, so the light will be good. And there's the lights on the bridge." Harry tried not to let his mounting excitement show on his face.

Artemis pursed his lips and nodded. "I know it's useless to stop you. You'd find some way to get around me. There seem to be ample precautions in place to protect the safety of our students."

Relief flooded Harry and he smiled. "I would not have done it if you were strongly against it, sir," he said. He wouldn't have done it as a school-sanctioned event, but he might have made it known that he was going to be at the bridge and if any students had a free evening… "And just think sir, St Ambrose's is the only non-university even exposing students to magic of this level. I wouldn't be surprised if applications start coming in from all over the state." A little stroke to the school's ego shouldn't hurt.

"You might be right, Harry. That's certainly something I haven't thought of…" Artemis trailed off, lost in thoughts of St Ambrose's impending notoriety in magical education circles.

"Will you be joining us?" Harry asked as he stood to go, settling his bag on his shoulder.

"I think I will. Maybe I'll be able to redeem myself, eh?" he said with a chuckle.

"I think you'll surprise yourself. Have a good weekend," he said as he turned to go. Out in the hallway, he gave a silent jump and a fist pump, surprising Anthony Jones, the Transfiguration teacher, as he came out of the staff mailroom.

"Good meeting with Artemis?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"An excellent meeting," Harry replied with an enormous grin. "Have a great weekend!"

Two weeks later, Harry ran back onto the grounds of St Ambrose's, running at the back of the pack as usual. The run had gone well and the team was looking in good shape for their first meet of the spring next week. As he ran toward the Quidditch pitch to join the team in their post-run stretching routine, a bright flash of red hair caught his eye and his head turned automatically to it.

Gin? No, Ron! What the hell? As soon as he saw Ron, he saw Hermione standing next to him and he practically sprinted straight for them, catching Hermione up in a huge hug, swinging her around as they both laughed out loud.

"Oi, I'll thank you to put my wife down, Potter!" Ron said with a laugh.

"What? Married?" Harry was more shocked by this news than he was by the two of them showing up at his school. "Oh my God!" He picked Hermione up and swung her around again, kissing her soundly on the cheek. Putting her down once more, he turned to Ron and grabbed him in a hard hug, thumping him on the back.

As they broke apart, Harry became aware of the fact that he was still covered in sweat from his run and he took a step back from both of them. "Oh, shi—shoot, I'm sorry! Let me get a shower, yeah? What are you guys even doing here?" he said, heading toward the staff lunchroom before they could be mobbed by the undoubtedly curious students.

"Sort of a combination birthday trip and honeymoon," Ron said with a grin. "We both have spring break, so we thought we'd come and see how you and Ginny are getting along."

"That's fu—bloody brilliant!" Harry opened the door to the staff lunchroom and ushered them inside. "I think there's some coffee, still. That sofa is decent if you want to stretch out." He looked at them again and grinned. "Married! Gin is going to burst!"

Cleaning up in record time, Harry dressed quickly, shoving his tie into the pocket of his blazer. As he approached the staff lunchroom, he saw about half a dozen students lurking outside, Richard and Thomas among them. Word about Harry's visitors must have gotten around because he saw a couple of students from the Chess Club in addition to the cross-country runners that were waiting.

"Good evening," Harry said with a raised eyebrow as he approached, wondering who their spokesman was going to be.

"Mr Potter, is that…Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger?" Thomas asked in hushed tones.

"Yes," Harry said with a smile. "Would you like to meet them?" The clustered students started whispering excitedly and he took that as a yes. "Hold on, all right? They've come a long way and I'm sure they're tired."

Inside the staff lunchroom, he saw Hermione on the old sofa, paging through a magazine another teacher had left, Ron looking sound asleep with his head on her lap. "All right?" Harry asked quietly, motioning to Ron.

Hermione nodded and set the magazine aside. "He had a late night taking an exam early."

"Well, you've got a bit of a fan club waiting outside. Feel up to meeting them?"

"Bless them. Of course," Hermione said with a smile. She ran her fingers through Ron's hair and he stirred. "Wake up, you have some people that want to meet you."

"Wazzat?" he said blearily, rubbing his eyes.

"Some of my students want to meet you for some reason. Get up off your arse and make yourself presentable, yeah?"

"Get stuffed, Potter," Ron said, sitting up with a wide yawn. Scrubbing his hands over his face, he stood up, holding a hand out for Hermione. "All right, let's go see what these kids are all about."

Outside, Harry introduced Ron and Hermione to the small group of students, some of whom looked on the verge of crying. He saw Elizabeth there, looking fit to be tied and he grinned. As expected, Hermione was amazing with them, patiently answering questions while Ron mostly loomed behind her until Harry clapped his hands. "All right. They've come a long way and are very tired. Some of you I'll be seeing later tonight, so get home and get a nap. Be ready!" he said, raising his fists.

The group muttered and broke up, walking away slowly. Several girls had their heads together, whispering away to each other. Two stayed behind and Harry wasn't surprised to see Thomas fishing around in his bag. "Um, would you mind signing your Chocolate Frog cards?" he asked hesitantly.

Ron's face lit up and he smiled. "They have our cards here?" he asked, taking his and looking at it.

"No, the ones here are American witches and wizards, but I trade with my cousin in Wales. He was so jealous when I told him I got Mr Potter to sign his!"

While Ron and Hermione were signing their cards, Harry turned to the other student that had stayed behind. "What can I do for you, Amy?"

She looked down shyly and seemed to gather herself. "Mr Potter, my parents have given permission for me to go tonight, but I haven't been able to cast a Patronus."

"I know you've been working very hard at it. It will come," Harry said encouragingly.

"Can I try one more time?" She looked up at him, her face set in stubborn lines. "I know you said that class was our last chance, but I've been working on it while you were at practice and I know I can do it!"

Harry could almost feel the determination coming off of her in waves and knew that she'd been absolutely crushed when she hadn't been able to cast one in all of their classroom practices. "All right. One more try."

"Right here?" she asked, waving her arm to indicate the gathering darkness outside. Thomas looked interested, Chocolate Frog cards forgotten for the moment.

"Of course. Listen, when it comes down to it, a Dementor isn't going to wait for you to get to a place you feel comfortable in. You need to be able to cast it no matter your situation," Harry said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, did Harry tell you about that time he cast Relashio underwater?" Ron said, coming to stand next to him. Amy seemed to shrink under their combined attention and Hermione gently drew Ron back a couple of steps to stand with her.

"Come on, let's go over here where there's a bit more room." Harry set his bag down on the pavement and walked several strides away toward the grassy quad, Amy following. He stood behind her, hands on her shoulders. "Breathe with me for a little bit, all right?" he said, breathing deeply through his nose, feeling Amy's shoulders rise and fall in time with his breaths.

"You have your wand ready?" he asked quietly and she nodded, continuing with her deep breaths. "Think about the time that you were the happiest, think about all of the things that made you so happy in that moment; the people that might have been there, what time of day it was, what you were doing. Everything."

Amy turned her head as if trying to look at him and seemed about to say something. "No, ssh, don't look at me. Focus, concentrate. Feel your memory." A few more deep breaths. "Ready?" Amy nodded again and he felt her gathering herself. "Cast," Harry said, taking his hands off her shoulders and moving a step back.

"Expecto Patronum!" Amy shouted into the gathering dusk, moving her wand in the correct circular motion. To everyone's amazement, a blast of silver erupted from the end of her wand and Harry heard Thomas shout, "Woah!"

Face transformed by excitement, Amy turned to him and surprised him with a fierce hug and he laughed, hugging her back. "I knew I could do it, Mr Potter!"

"Well done! Fully incorporeal!" Harry was stunned, finding he was grinning like a fool and schooled his expression into something more teacherly. "You have proven yourself able to cast the Patronus Charm, so you may come tonight."

"Thank you thank you thank you! My dad is going to come too, is that all right?"

"Can he cast a Patronus?"

"He can. It's a fox."

"Wonderful. We'll see you at midnight. Sausalito side, remember?" Harry said, walking with Amy back to where Ron, Hermione and Thomas waited. Hermione was smiling widely and he saw the girl blush and duck her head down. "You and Thomas both have a long night ahead of you, so you'd better get going."

He watched as Thomas and Amy headed toward the Floo in the main office, talking excitedly about the Patronus Charm she'd managed to cast. Hermione threw her arms around his neck and kissed him firmly on the cheek. "What was that for?" he asked in surprise.

"That was amazing, Harry! She wasn't able to cast one before?" Hermione said, her eyes shining.

"Well, she was close, but she just needed to get over that last hump."

"And that's what you're so good at."

Harry felt himself blushing under Hermione's praise and he glanced over at Ron, relieved to see him roll his eyes. "What's going on tonight?" Ron asked, putting an arm on Hermione's shoulder.

Bending to pick up his bag, Harry grinned up at Ron. "Field trip." Ron raised an eyebrow and glanced at Hermione. "Feel like messing with some Dementors tonight?"

"Okay, so begin at the beginning," Ginny said, taking a deep drink of her cider. The cozy dark pub made her almost feel like she was back home and having Ron and Hermione there only enhanced the feeling. It had been the best surprise ever when she Apparated into the flat to find the both of them on the sofa calmly drinking tea.

"Well, it was just very spur-of-the-moment," Hermione said, looking up at Ron with a smile.

"Obviously, since we didn't even get an invitation." Ginny narrowed her eyes at Ron and he shrugged, licking the Guinness foam from his upper lip. "What made you decide to finally do it?"

"I got bloody tired of sleeping alone," Ron said, grinning when Hermione turned to him with an outraged look.

"That had better not be why, Ron Weasley," she said in a teasing tone.

"Oh, it's definitely not the only reason," he said, looking her up and down and raising an eyebrow.

"Gross," Ginny said, sticking out her tongue. "Ignore him."

Hermione shook her head and went on, "I suppose we both got tired of waiting. What were we waiting for? We both knew we didn't want anything big, so what was the point?" She glanced over at Ron and smiled. "And I suppose that your handfasting at Christmas made me think of it more."

"Oh, that's sweet. Why didn't you just do it then?"

"You're going to think I'm being ridiculous, but I didn't want to get married in the winter. It didn't feel right."

"I don't think that's ridiculous at all. Springtime is all about new beginnings," Ginny said stoutly. Privately, she wondered what time of year she would want to get married and snuck a glance at Harry. They'd had a few rocky times recently, but she felt they'd come through stronger for them and she imagined she could feel a tingle in the tattoo on her upper arm. Hm, need to come up with an explanation for that, she thought absently. "Okay, so you decided to just do it. Then what happened?"

"Well, I had to tell McGonagall, of course. It was a Hogsmeade weekend, but I still had my duties as head of Gryffindor. She volunteered for us to get married right there in the Great Hall, but that just seems too grand, doesn't it?" Ginny nodded, allowing herself to imagine standing next to Harry in that Great Hall, the enchanted ceiling echoing a glorious summer sky.

"What did you wear? Did you shop for something or…?"

"Well, you know most of my wardrobe leans toward the utilitarian. Fleur loaned me a dress of hers."

"It looked way better on Hermione than it ever did on her," Ron said, leaning forward. "Of course, I might be a bit biased."

"Did you wear white?" Ginny asked with a grin.

"No, it was a pale blue." Hermione blushed and looked aside for a quick moment. "It was very pretty, very spring-y."

"And what did Ron wear?"

"Ron wore his Auror dress robes," Ron said, taking another gulp of his Guinness.

"Really?" Harry asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah. Still the nicest set of robes I own," he said with a shrug. "Want another?" Harry nodded and Ron slid out of the booth, heading up towards the bar.

"So you had it in the back garden of the Burrow?"

"Yes. Molly was wonderful. A few other ladies came and helped with the cooking, but she did the cake all herself. Fleur and Penny helped with the decorating and it was just perfect," Hermione said, a dreamy expression coming over her face.

Ginny sighed happily and relaxed against the back of the booth, glad to feel the solid warmth of Harry next to her. Part of her still rebelled at the notion of getting engaged—she didn't want to give her mum the satisfaction yet—but she found that she was coming around more and more to the notion of spending the rest of her life with Harry.

"Where are you staying?" Harry asked, one eye on Ron bantering with the bartender.

"The St Regis. It's very nice."

"And expensive. Let me pay as my gift to you."

"Pay for what?" Ron asked, setting a full pint down in front of Harry. When Harry didn't respond, he narrowed his eyes. "No. Absolutely not."

"Absolutely not what?" Harry asked with his best innocent look. Ginny shot a smile at Hermione at the stubborn look on Ron's face.

"You are not paying for our hotel, all right? I can afford it," he said, pointing his finger at Harry. Quick as a flash, Harry grabbed it and started bending it backwards, causing Ron to hiss in pain.

"I don't care if you're as rich as a sultan. You didn't even invite me to your wedding. I will damn well pay for your hotel room in this bloody expensive city if I want to." Ginny sucked in her breath as Ron's face got very red as Harry bent his finger further and further back before Ron finally wrenched it from his grip.

"Fine!" Ron winced as he moved his finger and Ginny resisted the urge to examine it. "Don't think you're getting off easy, mate. I'm emptying that mini bar every fucking night."

Hermione sighed and shook her head. "Boys," she said tiredly, sharing a look with Ginny. "So, tell me more about that water horse you mentioned at Christmas."

"That's Gin's story, not mine," Harry said, smiling at her, green eyes alight.

"Oh my goodness. It was so amazing!" Ginny said, leaning forward, suffused with the memory. "At Christmas, I hadn't been able to talk to him yet. I was just waiting and waiting out by the lake during the full moon and freezing before I was finally able to talk to him." She sighed, remembering the water horse's ethereal beauty.

"What did he have to say? Did he ask you where to find the best price on hay?" Ron asked, still massaging his abused finger.

"No, he didn't ask about hay, stupid," she said, sticking her tongue out at her brother. "He told me that he'd lost his dryad and that's why he was still stuck there in the middle of the City."

"Oh, poor thing," Hermione said sympathetically.

"I know! Anyway, I told him I'd find her for him."

"You did what? You made a promise to a magical creature?" Ron asked sharply. He looked at Harry. "You let her do that?"

"I wasn't there, was I? I don't understand why you think I can dictate terms to her," Harry said, taking a long drink of Guinness.

"I knew he wasn't going to hurt me. We did find his dryad, but she had been cursed to remain a tree and she was dying. So then I said I'd find him a new dryad," Ginny said brightly and Ron almost choked on his Guinness.

"So did you find him one then?" Hermione asked, thumping Ron on the back.

"We did! There was a grove of trees on campus that were going to be taken out and there was a dryad in one of them, so she agreed to go with the water horse. It was so beautiful," Ginny said, sighing happily.

"Tell them what you got," Harry said, nudging her in the shoulder.

"He said he wanted to give me something, so I asked for one of his tail hairs," she said proudly.

Ron gave a low whistle. "That's significant. That would make a powerful wand core."

"Funny you should say that," Harry said, leaning forward, "I was out for a run the other day and passed by the dryad-tree. I stopped to look at her and a branch fell down right in front of me."

"What? That's amazing! What kind of tree is she, Harry?" Hermione asked, expression full of wonder.

"Cypress, I think?" Harry asked, looking at Ginny for confirmation who nodded.

"So you have a core and wood," Ron said speculatively, "what are you going to do?"

"Thought we might see what Ollivander could make of it." Ginny finished her cider and picked up the food menu, checking out what was available. "And if it's not called to either Harry or me, well, maybe someone will come along later that can use it," she said, giving Harry a warm smile as she squeezed his hand under the table.

22. Chapter 22

Squinting up at the moon, Harry turned up the collar of his dragonhide jacket, wishing he'd thought to wear a scarf. The moon was on the rise and the bridge was mostly fog-free and he felt a bit of anxiety about the evening fall away. Ron stood next to him, taking in the sight of the bridge.

"That's certainly a bridge," he observed, hands in the pockets of his jeans. "And it's swarming with Dementors?"

"Well, not really swarming, but there's a few. Gin and I counted six two weeks ago, but there have been a couple of jumpers since, so there might be more," Harry said. He saw some temporary traffic signs indicating the bridge was closed to traffic and nodded to himself. He'd kept an eye on the Muggle papers for news about the bridge closure and so far, it seemed to be going off without a hitch.

Ginny and Hermione approached, both well bundled-up in jackets and scarves. Ginny had her small first-aid kit in one hand and opened it, pulling out a large bar of chocolate. She broke it into several pieces and handed them each one. "When did you learn silent Apparition?" Ron asked as he ate his piece.

Harry felt a jolt of panic shoot through him at Ron's question. Ginny had gotten quite good in the weeks since he'd taught her the trick of it and he nearly took it for granted that she was almost as quiet as he was. He thanked his lucky stars that Ron hadn't seen her tattoo yet. They hadn't had a chance yet to formulate an explanation for it.

"Harry started teaching me a few weeks ago," she said, closing up the kit. "We were starting to get some odd looks from the people in the Chinese under us. I think they were convinced that we were running a sex dungeon!" As Harry was sure Ginny had intended, Ron blushed and looked away and he felt his panic subside.

"Well, I think it's an excellent idea," Hermione said, "especially with living in the middle of the City with Muggles everywhere." Ron still looked skeptical, but didn't ask any more questions.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw a shadow detach itself from the visitor's center and he turned toward it. "Good evening," he said as the shadow resolved itself into the form of a lanky young man.

"Evening. I'm Mark Sutton, one of the crew for tonight," he said, extending his hand to Harry.

"Excellent. Thank you so much for being available tonight," he said, shaking the young man's hand. "May I introduce Ginny and Ron Weasley and Hermione…Granger?" He realized he didn't know if Hermione was keeping her last name or not and he smiled at her nod. Of course.

"Good to meet you," Mark said, shaking hands all around. "Archimedes and the others should be here soon. I came a bit early to check out the situation."

"How does it look?"

"Well, the recent jumpers have attracted a couple more, so it looks like we're going to have about eight of the damned things."

"We should still be able to handle that. What's the most you've seen out there?"

"Last year was really bad. We got up to a dozen at one point," Mark said, shaking his head and taking the piece of chocolate Ginny offered. He looked at Harry speculatively. "I didn't learn to cast a Patronus until I was at the Auror Academy. Why are you doing this?"

"Well, not everyone goes to the Auror Academy, do they?"

"Fair enough," Mark nodded and Harry was glad to see that he was disinclined to make a fuss. A moment later, Archimedes popped into view a few feet away and came over to join them, Harry making introductions all over again.

"Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger," Archimedes said, beaming happily at them. "You must come to my home and meet my wife, Sarah, while you're still in town."

"If you're making that paella again, I'll invite myself over," Ginny said, handing him a square of chocolate with a grin.

"You are always most welcome, my dear! Now, how are we looking, Sutton?" he asked, turning to the lanky young Auror and listening intently to his report.

Other Aurors started Apparating silently around them, keeping Ginny busy passing out preemptive squares of chocolate and Harry heard the cracks of arriving students. Some of them Apparated on their own and some with parents in tow and he spied Artemis among them. Soon, all of the students who could cast a Patronus and had parental permission were there.

Fourteen, more than I thought would be able to come, Harry thought, surveying the group, making sure that no one was trying to sneak in. He hopped up on top of the low wall in the middle of the parking lot, waiting for the chatter to die down.

"Good evening! Thank you all for coming tonight. I know you're all excited, but we must take care of some business first. I want you all to thank Archimedes Douglass and our volunteer Aurors," he said, motioning to them. They stood clustered in a tight group and Harry felt a small pang at their obvious camaraderie. The kids sang out a chorus of "Thank you!" and Archimedes performed a deep bow.

"You also need to thank our own Headmaster. He has been very generous in allowing us to undertake this exercise." Harry pointed to Artemis and smiled as he waved his hands deprecatingly at the effusive thanks from the students.

"And lastly, you need to thank your own parents, especially the ones that have come out tonight." He waited for the chatter to die down again before continuing. "Now. The rules. You are to stay together. No breaking off alone. If I see anyone trying it, I will personally Apparate you out of here." He fixed them all with a stern look, looking especially hard at Richard and Thomas, his prime suspects for sneaking off.

"There are about eight Dementors out there and fourteen of you. We're going to try to keep them coming one at a time so you all have at least one chance to try out your Patronus, but these are Dark creatures and they don't always behave the way you expect. If I think things have gotten too dangerous and I tell you to Apparate out, you Apparate out—no questions. Get home and get safe, yeah?" He saw the parents nodding in agreement.

"Do not cast until you are told to. I don't want any half-focused castings going off tonight. Emotions will be running high and Dementors will be drawn toward them. We don't need anything else to get them more excited. Do not try to cast anything other than the Patronus Charm at them. Nothing else will work and if you panic, you may cause them to rush you." Several of the students began to look a little frightened at the prospect of a Dementor bearing down on them.

"Stay away from the railing of the bridge. The bridge is closed to traffic, so we will be on the roadway itself. Miss Weasley is here as our first aid," he said, pointing towards her and smiling at her wave to the group. "She has plenty of chocolate and can help you if you get injured."

Just then, he heard another crack of someone Apparating into the area and frowned. Who could that be? Oh bollocks, he thought as he caught sight of Ignatius's pot-bellied form coming out of the shadows. He saw Ginny turn to look and then shake her head in resignation, leaning over to whisper in Hermione's ear.

"All right. Rules. Stay together. Apparate away immediately if I tell you to. Do not cast until told and cast only the Patronus Charm. Stay away from the rail of the bridge. Call for Miss Weasley if you need chocolate or if you are hurt. Questions?" Amazingly enough, there weren't any and Harry hopped down from the wall and headed toward the group of Aurors, determined to ignore Ignatius as long as he could.

Ron came with him and they huddled together, going over their strategy. Archimedes and the volunteer Aurors would go out onto the bridge first to attract the attention of the Dementors. Given the recent events, he expected they would be relatively well-fed and not very aggressive. Harry and his entourage would follow a few minutes later. He didn't intend for the kids to get very far out on the bridge and once they were in place, Archimedes would send up red sparks to indicate that they were ready for the first Dementor, which would be brought in range by one of the Aurors acting as a lure. He planned for two students to cast at the same time and was very interested to see if the students could cast the spell under the pressure and effects of a real Dementor in front of them.

"And you think you'll get a couple of corporeal ones?" Archimedes asked with interest.

"I think so. Maybe even more than that," he said, thinking of Amy's performance that afternoon. "Ready?"

Archimedes nodded and beckoned to his Aurors, heading off toward the bridge. As Harry watched them go, he became aware of Ignatius heading toward him and he stifled a groan, flicking a look to Ron who raised his eyebrows, glancing at Ignatius.

"Ignatius, what brings you out here on this cold night? Decided to join our expedition?" Harry said with forced cheer.

"I felt someone from the board should come along and make sure our youngsters are safe," he said garrulously, hitting Harry on the shoulder firmly.

"Oh, are you able to cast a Patronus?" Harry asked, refusing to move back as Ignatius invaded his personal space.

"I haven't had the need to cast one in a long, long time," he said, surveying the gathered students. "I see a few Muggle-borns and Half-Bloods here. Are you sure they'll be able to cast such an advanced spell?"

"Every single one of the kids here have demonstrated the ability to cast the spell in class. One of the ones I expect to cast a corporeal Patronus would be a Half-Blood by your standard, same as I am," Harry said, taking care to keep his tone even and his face impassive.

"Well, I don't mean any insult, it's just that in my experience—"

"In your experience what?" Ron asked, coming to stand shoulder to shoulder with Harry, forcing Ignatius to take a step back.

"Why, Ron Weasley, I do believe!" His surprise seemed to be genuine and Harry saw his eyes darting around the crowd until they settled on Hermione, deep in conversation with Elizabeth and her father. "And there's Miss Granger. Why, it looks like the gang's all here, doesn't it?"

He gave Harry an insincere smile and settled his hands in the pockets of his fleece jacket. "It seems I was worried for nothing. I didn't realize you'd be calling in the reserves for this, Harry!" He inclined his head and wandered off toward Artemis, whistling tunelessly.

"Hm," Ron grunted, looking after him. "Is that the one?"

"Yeah," Harry said, watching as he roped Artemis into conversation. He could see the fingers of one hand moving around in the pocket of his jacket, sure he was rubbing that gold coin he carried everywhere.

"Well, he seems pleasant. Wonder what he really wants?"

"Dunno, but he keeps turning up like a bad penny," Harry sighed, glancing at his watch. "Let's get this lot moving." With Ron's help he got the group corralled and ready to move. He lined up the students into two columns with parents on the outside. Hermione gravitated toward the rear of the group with Artemis and Ginny moved around, continuing to distribute chocolate to counteract the effects of the Dementors.

At the head of the group with Ron, Harry surveyed the group. Now that they were actually going to step out onto the bridge, they looked nervous and he gave them what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "All right. Remember the rules. Stay together. Listen to me. Cast only the Patronus Charm when told. Stay away from the rails." Turning to face the bridge, he saw green sparks hovering in the air. Archimedes and the Aurors were ready.

"All right. There's our signal. Let's go." Leading them out toward the bridge, Harry was very glad to have Ron there and he grinned at him. "This is just like old times, isn't it?" he said, thinking of the times they had gone out to lead exercises with groups of Auror trainees.

"As long as it doesn't end up like that time we all got stuck in that cellar," Ron said with a raised eyebrow.

"That wasn't my fault and you know it," Harry said, feeling a flush of embarrassment at being reminded of the incident.

"Reliving your glory days?" Ginny said lightly as she approached them, handing each of them another square of chocolate. Harry took it gratefully, already feeling the effects of the Dementors.

"At least one of us had glory days," Ron said, cutting his eyes at Harry. Mindful of setting a good example, Harry resisted the urge to shove him sideways.

"You let him talk to you like that?" Ginny said with an impish grin at Harry before moving back toward the middle of the group.

They stepped onto the deck of the bridge itself and Harry heard whispers behind him. Turning around to face them, he stopped walking and held his hands up, signaling them to stop as well. "What you're feeling is the despair and sadness Dementors generate. They feed on your happiness and leave you with nothing but misery and sorrow. They're one of the worst things you can face." He looked at them all, checking to see if any were showing any signs of panic. A couple of the parents looked more nervous than he liked, but his students all seemed pretty steady.

"But, you have a defense. Every single one of you has demonstrated the ability to cast the Patronus Charm and that can save you by driving away a Dementor and giving you the time to get away." Thomas raised his hand and Harry called on him.

"Can a Patronus kill it?" he asked.

"No. As far as I know, Dementors can't be killed. Are we ready to move on?" Everyone nodded and Harry turned around again, heading toward the spot where Archimedes waited for them.

"Ready?" he asked. "I've got Sutton ready to lure one right now."

"Almost." Harry quickly organized the group, bringing the first two students up closer to Archimedes and sending the rest of the group to stand twenty feet away with Ron between them. Looking at the two, Maddy and Isaac, Harry felt a mounting excitement over the Dementor-caused lassitude. Isaac was one of the ones he was hoping would be able to produce a corporeal Patronus tonight.

"Ready?" he asked, receiving tight nods in response and he nodded in turn to Archimedes who sent up red sparks from his wand.

"Incoming," he said, taking a few steps to the side.

"All right. Deep breaths, concentrate. Feel your memory," Harry coached quietly. He saw the lanky form of Auror Sutton coming out of the darkness, followed by a drifting black figure in tattered black robes. Next to him, Maddy gasped and he put a steadying hand on her shoulder, feeling her tremble.

Even though he knew they were blind, Harry knew the instant the Dementor's attention shifted from the young Auror to Isaac and Maddy, drawn by their youthful vitality. It paused for a moment, hanging in the air like an untethered, dirty spiderweb, cocking its shrouded head to one side before drifting forward. "Okay, get ready," Harry murmured quietly, feeling his own heart speed up. "One…two…three…cast."

There was the barest pause before Isaac and Maddy both shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" and moved their wands in the much-practiced circular motion. Harry's breath exploded out of him as he watched a fully corporeal Patronus erupted out of Isaac's wand, the snowy owl soaring over the Dementor before swooping down to drive it away. Maddy had summoned a thick silvery fog that looked like it was trying to coalesce into a form and the Dementor seemed to shudder as it was enveloped by it.

Isaac stood, wand still raised and mouth open, completely stunned at the sight of his Patronus. Maddy turned to him and hugged him tight. "Oh my God, Isaac! You did it!" she said, jumping up and down as she held on to him.

"Mr Potter…I…" Isaac said, eyes wide as he watched the Dementor melt away into the darkness.

"Well done both of you!" Harry felt like he was about to burst with pride and his eyes searched out Ginny, a warm feeling sweeping over him at her triumphant grin. The rest of the group were shouting in amazement and cheering for Isaac and Maddy. "Now, go see Miss Weasley for some chocolate, all right?"

They nodded, both still looking dazed at their accomplishments and headed toward Ginny, getting a "well done" from Ron as they passed him.

Archimedes looked at Harry with raised eyebrows. "Well, well, Mr Potter. What did you say that young man's name was?"

"Oh no you don't. I am not your personal recruiter."

"I just admire talent when I see it," Archimedes said with a smile.

Harry shook his head at him and called the next two students, Michael and Mia, forward. He nodded at Archimedes and they repeated the exercise, another Auror leading a Dementor toward them. Harry talked to the students, both Juniors, calmly as they stood with their wands up. Their eyes were big and they breathed very hard and he could tell they were being overwhelmed by the fear and despair generated by the terrible, shrouded figure.

Sensing their fear, the Dementor quickened its pace, its drifting becoming more purposeful. "It's all right, feel your memory," Harry encouraged, keeping his eyes on the Dementor.

"Mr Potter," Mia whimpered and Harry knew they wouldn't be able to do it.

"It's all right. I've got you," he said, casting his own Patronus, a feeling of grim satisfaction coming over him as he watched it bully the Dementor over the railing of the bridge. As soon as it was gone, Mia and Michael collapsed into tears, holding on to each other as Mia's mother came up to usher them back to the group. He watched them take extra-large pieces of chocolate from Ginny and smiled at her approach.

"All right?" she asked, handing him a piece.

"Yeah." The sweetness flooded him and he felt some of the darkness abate aided by the chocolate and Ginny's presence. "I wasn't expecting that. I thought Michael'd be able to get one off at least."

"Well, hopefully that's the only freeze-ups we have tonight," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll keep an eye on them."

"Thanks," Harry said, squeezing her hand. "All right, you two, you're up next," he called, motioning for Richard and Thomas to come up. They practically ran up to stand next to him, their faces the picture of pure excitement.

"Harry told me you two want to be Aurors when you graduate," Archimedes said with a smile.

"Yes, sir. We're both on the cross-country team and can already run for miles," Richard said proudly.

"Well, let's see how you do with this." The retired Auror sent up a red spark and they waited for the figure to approach, led by one of the volunteer Aurors. As expected, both boys had no trouble casting the charm, though neither form was corporeal to their bitter disappointment. Harry sent them back with words of encouragement and called up the next pair.

The exercise proceeded smoothly with Harry needing to intervene one other time when one student froze up and their partner could only summon the barest wisp. During Elizabeth's turn, she was also able to summon a corporeal Patronus as Harry expected. "Oh, it's a cat!" she said, full of excitement at seeing her Patronus for the first time. "What does it mean?"

"One's Patronus is something very personal to each individual. What it means is something you'll have to figure out for yourself, Elizabeth," Harry said. Privately, he felt the cat revealed the curiosity that formed the basic nature of her personality.

Finally, the last pair of students went against their Dementor, acquitting themselves well with strong incorporeal Patronuses and Harry sent them back to the cheering group. "Well, there's one more, right?" he asked Archimedes who sent up a flurry of blue sparks.

An eruption of yellow sparks further down the bridge came back and Archimedes nodded. "Looks like. Shall I have it brought up?" Harry nodded affirmatively and moved toward the group.

"Well, we've got one more that can be dealt with. Artemis, would you like to try your hand?"

"Oh, no, I don't think so," the headmaster demurred, only to be shouted down by the students crowding around him.

"Come on, Mr Ashborough! We all took our turns!" Thomas shouted, waving his wand in the air. Soon, they all took up a chant of "Headmaster! Headmaster! Headmaster!" erupting into cheers when he finally relented and walked up to stand next to Harry.

"Anyone else?" Harry's eyes settled on Ignatius, lurking at the back of the group. "Ignatius! How about you? Come on up!" Are you pure enough of heart to cast it or has that coin wormed its way into your soul? Let's see, he thought as he waited for Ignatius to make a decision.

"Yes, come on up, Ignatius. Let's show these youngsters how it's done, shall we?" Artemis shouted, waving his wand over his head. Amid much grumbling, Ignatius finally came up to stand next to Artemis.

"One Dementor, coming right up," Archimedes said, shooting Harry a look and then inclining his head slightly toward Ignatius. The man stood looking like he was about to run away, wand in one hand, gold coin in the other.

He's rubbing that thing for all he's worth, Harry observed. I wonder, does it burn him as well? All too soon, he felt the impending doom generated by the approaching Dementor. The last volunteer Auror scooted past, sweat shining on his forehead despite the chill night air. Watching the Dementor, Harry saw it pause and swing its head around as if trying to catch a scent in the air. That's odd.

"All right. You've got it in range. Whenever you're ready, gentlemen," Harry said quietly. Artemis took a deep breath, holding his wand straight up and Ignatius mirrored him, still rubbing the coin. Watching closely, he saw Artemis step forward and cast the spell verbally, Ignatius moving a second after him, moving his wand, but saying nothing.

A silvery rabbit flew from Artemis's wand and the students cheered loudly, but only Harry and Archimedes marked that nothing came from Ignatius's wand and they shared a look. The rabbit jumped at the Dementor relentlessly, pushing it further and further back until it was out of sight, taking its fear and despair with it. "Well done!" Harry said, slapping the headmaster on the back.

Artemis's face was alight with accomplishment and he grinned at Harry. "I did it! That was amazing!"

"It certainly was! Was that the first time you'd done it, sir?"

"No, I've been able to cast it before, but this is the first time in front of a Dementor. It feels completely different." Artemis seemed dazed by his accomplishment and Harry gently steered him toward the group, Ginny coming up to take him in hand. Turning to Ignatius, Harry raised an eyebrow. "Bad luck, Ignatius, that was our last Dementor."

Looking agitated, Ignatius shrugged. "It's been a long time since I cast it. Too long, I guess."

"Well, better luck next time, then." Ginny came up, smiling widely and he leaned in to kiss her. "Everyone all right?"

She nodded, a small frown creasing her brow briefly. "Yes, everyone's fine. I had to use a couple of Calming Charms, but they came through remarkably well." Harry hugged her and prepared to address the group of students still standing behind Ron when he saw Ginny's eyes widen.

"What—" Harry turned around to see another Dementor heading their way. "I thought they were all driven off. Archimedes?"

The retired Auror shrugged. "I suppose we could have missed one or one of them came back. Who knows with these creatures?"

"Harry, one o'clock," Ron called and Harry looked behind Archimedes. Another one was coming up over the railing, swinging its head in the same manner the other one had. Like it's searching for something.

"Mr Potter, over there!" Thomas yelled, pointing to the left where one was drifting down from one of the suspension towers.

"Bugger," Harry muttered. "Gin—" She already had her wand out and squeezed Harry's hand, moving back to the cluster of nervous students. As he watched, a fourth one appeared and he realized they all seemed to be heading straight for Ignatius. The man stood as if paralyzed, eyes bulging, gold coin still clutched in his fist. Why are they coming to him?

Not able to stand still and watch anymore, Harry cast his stag and saw Archimedes cast his greyhound, both of them rounding up the Dementors and driving them off. As they disappeared into the darkness, Ignatius seemed to shake himself awake and drew a long, shuddering breath, putting the coin back in the pocket of his jacket.

"Well, Harry. Thank you for the demonstration. I think I ought to be going." He walked quickly away, head down and did not acknowledge Artemis's farewell. Harry heard the distant crack of him Apparating away from the bridge.

Archimedes frowned at Harry as they walked back to the waiting students. They seemed rather subdued after the appearance of an additional four Dementors and Harry hustled them off the bridge, Ron and Hermione leading the way back to the visitor center at the vista point. Archimedes sent two of the Aurors ahead to make sure it was safe and kept another two behind them to make sure they weren't about to be surprised by more Dementors.

"What do you think that was about?" Archimedes asked quietly as they walked away from the bridge at the back of the group.

Harry shook his head, thinking the events over. "I don't know if those were new Dementors or the ones we'd driven off earlier coming back, but something about Ignatius was drawing them to him."

"That's what I think, too, but I can't think of why they would be particularly interested in him," the older man said.

"Well, you already know what I think of him," Harry said quietly.

"Indeed. I'll have to see if I can speed things up a bit with that portrait. Have you been able to find out anything else about that coin?"

"Not yet. I need to talk to Jacob and find out more about his ancestor."

Archimedes frowned, looking troubled. "I've never seen a Dementor behave like that before." He sighed and combed his fingers through his long white beard. "I suppose I have some digging to do."

They arrived at the visitor's center again and Harry shook himself, setting aside all thoughts of Ignatius and what might have drawn the creatures to him. Jumping up on the low wall again, he looked at the assembled group, feeling a swell of pride for his students. Spreading his arms, he grinned at them, seeing them smile in response.

"You have all done incredibly well tonight. Some of you were able to cast fully corporeal Patronuses and some of you cast incorporeal ones. All of you faced your fears and stood steadfast which is something too many witches and wizards never learn to do," he said, his voice carrying in the quiet night. "I hope the next time you are faced with something that frightens you, that you remember this night and how you faced one of the worst Dark creatures known to wizard kind and did not flinch."

Everyone shuffled around at his words of praise and he saw lots of smiles and fist bumps exchanged. "Now, I want to thank Archimedes and his team for their incredibly hard work tonight. I want to thank your parents, those that were able to come and those that allowed you to come. And I want to thank Headmaster Ashborough, for allowing us the opportunity for this successful exercise and for taking on a Dementor himself." He started clapping and the assembled students followed suit, adding cheers to the general cacophony.

"Now, it's very late and we're all very tired. We'll say good night and I'll see you Monday after the break!" Harry hopped down from the low wall and shook hands with several parents before they left with their children. The volunteer Aurors looked completely knackered as they Apparated away and soon only Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Archimedes were left.

"Harry, that went very well," Hermione said, hugging him. "What happened with that Ignatius fellow?"

"I dunno. I don't think he even tried to cast the spell. I don't know if he even can or if he once could but can't anymore," Harry shrugged. "And then when he was up there, those others came for him." He looked at Ron. "Did you see how they behaved? How they kind of looked like dogs, smelling around for a particular scent?"

"Yeah. Never seen one do that before in my life. It put me right off, that's for sure," Ron said with a shudder as he put an arm around Hermione and pulled her close.

"Harry," Ginny said, putting her hand on his shoulder, "I think the Dementors were looking for that coin," she said with a thoughtful frown.

"What could there be about a coin that would interest Dementors?" Ron asked, sounding mystified.

"It's too much to get into right now," Harry said, shaking his head. Holding out his arms, he wrapped them around Ginny, holding her tight and breathing in her scent. "But it's late and we're all exhausted. Let's worry about gold coins tomorrow, yeah?"

23. Chapter 23

"So, you and Hermione are finally married," Harry said, clinking his glass against Ron's. They were sitting in what had become his favorite pub in the City, in a spot where they both managed to have a good view of the door.

Ron shook his head and smiled, looking down at his pint of Guinness. Harry was surprised to see a flush of color on his face. "Yeah, finally. Seems like forever, doesn't it?"

"It does indeed," Harry said, thinking back to when he was just eleven, meeting Ron and Hermione for the very first time. Oh God, that's fifteen years gone. He shook his head and took a long drink of his pint. "This brings up a question though. What do you want to do with the flat?"

"Dunno, mate. It's yours, isn't it? I just stay there."

"What are you and Hermione going to do? You'll stay with her in her quarters, yeah?"

"Yeah," Ron nodded, turning a coaster over in his hands. "Head of Gryffindor, so she has to be on site. It's a nice little apartment she's got there."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "How do you know? I thought McGonagall didn't allow non-married couples to stay together?"

"I can be pretty persuasive, you know."

"You're also pretty sneaky."

"I am very sneaky." Ron grinned and tossed the coaster at Harry who dodged it easily. "But regarding the flat, don't feel like you need to keep it for me."

"You sure? I don't mind you and Hermione using it when you want some time in London."

"Nah. We haven't really talked about it, but I know Hermione would rather have a place that's ours, you know?" Ron said, looking away from Harry.

"Ah. Does it remind her of when she was…away?"

"She hasn't come out and said it, but I know it must. How can it not?" Ron sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't like leaving you in the lurch though."

Harry waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. I'll figure something out. I've still got Grimmauld Place for when I'm in London."

"When was the last time you were there?"

"I went by at Christmas. Left a few things for Kreacher."

"How is the old thing?"

"Dunno, he was up at Hogwarts, I expect." Harry shrugged, flipping the coaster at Ron like a frisbee, grinning as he batted it away. "Well, I suppose I can let the flat sit until the summer break and sort it out then. Probably put it up on the market, see what I can get for it."

"London prices are—what in the hell?" Ron said as a ghostly greyhound trotted into the pub and sat awkwardly in front of Harry. None of the Muggles in the pub reacted to it, completely oblivious to it.

"That's from Archimedes. Wonder what he wants?" Harry said as he put his hand against the top of the spectral dog's head.

Harry, Archimedes' voice boomed in his head, Ignatius is holding some sort of rally or speech tonight at Ocean Beach. Why don't you and Ron join me and see what he has to say? Come disguised.

"Well?" Ron asked, finishing his pint.

"Ignatius is making a speech tonight down at Ocean Beach. Archimedes thinks we should go." Harry said with a frown.

"This is the bloke that was at the bridge last night? What's he making a speech for?"

"He's running for a seat on the local Wizarding council."

"And he's the one you think is a Death Eater?"

"Mm." Harry drank down the rest of his pint and sighed. "Feel like freezing your arse off at a beach?"

"Why Harry Potter, you always know what to say to a bloke."

The lurid orange flames of the bonfire sent sparks shooting up into the black velvet sky. The wind off the water was ferocious and Harry pulled his dragonhide jacket closer around him. Surveying the crowd, he made sure he was well in the back, using the shadows cast by the fire to his advantage. Heeding Archimedes' warning, he'd done some minor appearance changes; coloring his hair blond and turning his green eyes blue. Leaving his glasses off, he'd noted that no one had really given him a second look, which was exactly what he was going for tonight.

He glanced at Ron next to him, standing tall and watching the flames. He'd darkened his hair to a muddy brown, but left his eyes and skin color alone. No one here knew him, but red hair tended to stand out.

Over to his left, he spied Archimedes, similarly altered in appearance. Nodding at him, Harry and Ron moved off through the cold sand, putting more distance between them and the Auror emeritus. Harry was surprised at the turnout for such a chilly night, but he supposed most people were curious and the promise of a night on the beach with a bonfire had proven strangely alluring. There seemed to be a decent cross-section of the Wizarding population present and he'd even spotted a few parents of his students.

Looking around for Ignatius, a flash of yellow caught his eye and Harry groaned. Oh God. What is he doing here? he thought as he saw the firelight reflected off Matthew Hudson's blond hair. Nudging Ron, he cocked his head towards Hudson and saw him roll his eyes. Matthew was chatting companionably to a pretty, dark-haired witch, gesticulating grandly. Harry could only imagine that he was telling her all about his latest case in the Accidental Magic Reversal unit.

Seeing Matthew put Harry on edge and he moved further into the shadows, taking Ron with him. The last thing they needed was to be seen by someone who knew their faces reasonably well.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Ron asked quietly once they were on the edge of the crowd.

Harry shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe he's just curious?" He looked at the pretty witch again. She was laughing and had a hand on his arm. "Or maybe he's making time?"

"What a twat," Ron muttered, shooting Hudson a dark look.

Harry made a shushing motion at Ron. Ignatius had mounted the makeshift platform, waving to the crowd, the orange firelight casting his face in shifting shadows. "Welcome! Welcome!" he said, his amplified voice carrying over the sounds of the crashing waves and ceaseless wind. "I'm so glad you could come tonight! There's nothing like a nighttime bonfire on Ocean Beach in San Francisco!"

He smiled and waved some more as the crowd cheered. "As you know, I'm hoping to convince you to vote for me in the upcoming elections for the Greater Bay Area Wizarding Council. I know many of you don't know me and I thought we could use this opportunity to get to know each other. It's true I'm not from here, but I've been living here in this beautiful place for twenty-five years and there have been some changes lately that are quite frankly alarming." He paused for a moment to survey the crowd.

"How many of you know what this is?" he asked, holding up a device Harry recognized as a LightCaster. There was a murmur from the group and Ignatius nodded. "Yes, a LightCaster. Very useful to keep you from stumbling around in the dark, isn't it?" He looked at it again and then threw it out towards the water, blasting it to bits in midair.

"This device and others like it are examples of how we are perverting ourselves!" he said with a sad shake of his head. "Merging, no, shackling ourselves to mere Muggle technology!" He spread his arms wide and gave the group a fatherly smile. "This is simply beneath us. We are better than this, ladies and gentlemen, and we need someone on the council that fully realizes this."

As he half-listened to Ignatius give his speech, Harry watched the throng, trying to judge those who were receptive to his rhetoric and those who were skeptical. He looked at Matthew again, seeing that he stood with his arms crossed, looking interested, but not completely taken in. Ron nudged him, inclining his head toward a couple Harry had pointed out as parents of students. To his dismay, they were nodding in agreement.

"Purebloods," Harry whispered and Ron nodded. Movement over to the side caught his eye and Harry groaned. A Golden Gate National Recreation Area ranger approached the group, shining his electric torch around.

"Hey, folks! I'm sorry, but it's past curfew time for bonfires. You'll need to put that out," the ranger said authoritatively, interrupting Ignatius mid-speech.

"What do we have here? A Muggle, trying to tell us what we can and cannot do. I ask you, is this the natural order of things?" he said, turning to face the ranger. Gold flashed and Harry's eyes tracked the spinning coin as he expertly flipped and caught it, holding it tightly in his fist. He was sorely tempted to blast it as Ignatius had the LightCaster, but he wasn't sure what he would be unleashing if he did.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm sure you heard me just fine, my good man." Ignatius turned back to address the murmuring crowd. "Do you see? They need to be managed and guided."

"Listen here, sir. You need to put this fire out immediately or I'm going to have to call it in," the ranger said, clearly irritated. Harry saw him reaching for his radio and held his breath, Ron standing coiled to spring next to him. Harry laid a hand on his arm, keeping him still.

"My good sir, I'm sure you'll find that we have everything in order for this fire," Ignatius said, pointing his wand at the ranger. Harry saw him freeze and knew that Ignatius had Petrified the man, causing several of the assembled witches and wizards to gasp in surprise and outrage. Where's Archimedes? Harry wondered, looking around for the older Auror, spotting him not too far away from Ignatius.

"Look at that! How easy they are to control! They're defenseless!" Harry heard swelling whispers in the crowd. Some people looked aghast and horrified at Ignatius's treatment of the poor ranger while others were nodding in agreement. Turning back to the ranger, Harry saw Ignatius Obliviate him. "Now, my good man. As you see, all of our permits for this evening bonfire are quite in order. On you go." He made a shooing motion and released the petrification.

The ranger shook his head, looking confused for a moment before seeming to come back to himself. "All right. Sorry to bother you folks. Have a good night. Make sure all of the coals are out when you leave, okay?" He waved jauntily and walked off, lighting the sand with his electric torch.

"Managed and guided," Ignatius said, turning back to the crowd. He was silent for a moment and Harry saw his eyes pass over him without a hint of recognition. "We are meant to be the leaders, not them. And if you vote for me, we can work towards a future together where Wizard-kind is not beholden to dirty Muggle technology, leading the way as is only right and proper."

Harry felt like his blood was about to boil and he desperately wished that he could smash Ignatius in his smug, smiling face as he waved to the cheering crowd. He glanced at Ron and saw that he was frowning, eyes darting around the gathering.

"I work at the company that makes those, you know," one man shouted. "We make a lot of things that are amazingly useful and have only enhanced our way of life."

Ignatius peered down at the man and frowned. "My dear boy, that device and others like them are merely crutches, making us dependent on Muggles and the advancement of their technology." He looked back over the crowd and smiled. "The more we subsume our own magic to these hybrid devices, the more dependent we'll become until we'll be no better than Muggles ourselves! Depending on things rather than our own innate magic!"

Eyes darting, Harry tried to gauge how many people were in agreement. More than half, he thought with a sinking heart.

"How many of you have children?" Ignatius asked from the makeshift podium and Harry snapped his eyes back to him. Several people called out, including the ones he'd already marked as parents of his students. "A good many of you, I see! Well, I had the privilege of attending a little field trip last night."

Harry felt his blood run cold and Ron's hand settled on his shoulder, fingers digging in hard. "Yes, out to the Golden Gate, led by none other than Harry Potter himself!" This statement kicked off more whispers in the assemblage and Ignatius smiled, tossing and catching the coin again. "The purpose of this trip was to practice casting the Patronus Charm on real Dementors!" A collective gasp sounded and Harry glanced around, relieved that no one was paying any attention to him whatsoever.

"Now, did any of your children participate in this field trip last night?" Harry was glad to hear the negative sounds and he shared a look with Ron. "Well, I was very disappointed in the results last night. Very disappointed indeed! Out of fourteen students, only two could cast corporeal Patronuses! This is an example of how far our magic has fallen!"

Harry strained his ears over the sound of the wind and the ceaseless waves, trying to hear some of the conversation around him. "That spell is very advanced! I didn't learn it until I was in college!" one man called out.

"Yes, I've noticed that here in the US some of the more advanced spells are kept back for so-called higher education. That doesn't change the fact that out of fourteen children, only two had enough magic to successfully cast it. A generation or two ago, all of them would have been able to!" He paused for a moment and shook his head sadly. "My friends, this just speaks to the dilution of our blood!"

Ron's grip on Harry's shoulder became harder and he winced, shrugging him off. Convenient how he doesn't mention that one of the two is a Half-Blood himself, he thought, the memory of Isaac's snowy owl coming to him.

"What about my wife?" another man shouted. "Her mother is Muggle-born!"

Ignatius shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry to hear that. It's a sad fact that magic can lie dormant and come out in the occasional Mudblood." Harry grabbed Ron's arm and held him still as he lurched forward at the sound of the hated word.

"No! Not now!" he hissed.

"Harry…" Ron growled, eyes fixed on Ignatius.

"I know. Not now, yeah?" Ron took a deep breath and subsided, crossing his arms over his chest. Harry looked at Archimedes and saw him watching them and he nodded to let him know they were fine.

"Are you saying that my wife is less of a witch because of her mother?" the man said, sounding completely offended. "She had top grades in college!"

"I'm saying that her blood has been diluted and your children will suffer because of it. Squibs are ample evidence of this dilution," Ignatius said reasonably. "St Ambrose's is a top-tier institution, a place good enough even for the likes of Harry Potter." Harry felt a surge of fury at the second mention of his name and had to work hard to keep his expression of mild interest. "Is it right that they should have to dumb down their lessons to allow for those of inferior innate skills? Should our own Pureblood children be held back?"

"My friends, in my time on the board of St Ambrose's I have found a general downward trend in talent for incoming students. Too many Half-bloods and Muggle-borns are being accepted. Our school should be for our Pureblood children and held to the highest standard as is only right." He looked out on the assemblage again, assuming what Harry imagined he thought a fatherly expression ought to look like. "Let these inferior students stay in Muggle schools where they can learn the reading, writing and arithmetic they'll need to get along in the Muggle world."

Harry felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cold wind coming off the water. Is he insinuating what I think he is?

The gathered crowd began to grumble and move restlessly. Harry looked over toward Matthew and the witch he was with. They were right where the crowd was thickest and seemed all right for the moment.

Suddenly, the sounds of a heated argument erupted closer to the bonfire and Harry heard shouts of "Mudblood!", "Racist!" and "Blood-traitor!" Turning quickly, he saw two men standing nose to nose shouting angrily with their wands raised. Harry didn't know which one sent the first hex, but before he knew it, the air was filled with flying curses and the cracks of frightened people Apparating away.

The rally had transformed into an all-out brawl and Harry and Ron quickly cast Shield Charms, moving around the edge of the crowd and non-verbally disarming the fighting witches and wizards. This had the immediate effect of turning a magic fight into a physical one that was quickly getting ugly. Harry looked to Archimedes for guidance and received a shake of the head. We're not officially here, let them fight it out until authorities come, his look said and Harry nodded.

"Keep them from hurting each other too bad, but nothing else," he said quietly to Ron, looking to the makeshift platform. Not surprisingly, Ignatius was nowhere to be found and Harry was sure he'd Apparated away at the first sign of trouble.

A flash of blond caught his eye again and he turned to see Matthew take a vicious hit to the side of his head and collapse bonelessly onto the sand. "Shit," he muttered, dodging around two burly men intent on doing grievous bodily harm to each other. One had picked up a piece of firewood and swung it in a wide arc, causing Harry to duck down. He heard the man's wail of pain as Ron laid a Reducto on the makeshift club and blasted it out of the attacker's hand.

Reaching Matthew's prone form, Harry dropped down on his knees in the sand and checked for a pulse, relieved to find it steady and strong. No blood, that's good. Pulling back his eyelid, Harry used Lumos to check his pupil response, patting Matthew's cheek when they reacted to the light. "All right, Sleeping Beauty. Let's get you out of here."

As he stood and cast Mobilicorpus on Matthew, Harry saw that it looked like the actual authorities were starting to arrive. "That's our cue," he said to Ron.

"Where to?" Ron asked as he put out the bonfire, plunging the remaining crowd into darkness.

"Back to the flat. The girls are there."

"What about him?" Ron asked, motioning to the unconscious Matthew.

Harry sighed. "He comes with us. I'll have Gin take a look at him." Releasing the Mobilicorpus, Harry heaved Matthew up on his shoulder and Apparated back to the flat, absurdly pleased that even with the addition of Matthew, he was still silent. A second later, Ron joined him at the top of the steps, taking Matthew from Harry so he could be invited in past the Blood Seal.

"Harry! What in the world? What did you do to your hair? Is that Matthew?" Ginny asked, getting up from the sofa when she saw Ron carrying Matthew in.

"Where do I put this?" he asked, standing by the open door.

Hermione scrambled up from the sofa and stood to one side. Ginny had her wand out and was already examining the unconscious Healer. "Lay him on the sofa," she said with a frown. "Harry, what happened? I thought you were out at the pub?" She wrinkled her nose. "Why do you smell like a campfire?"

Ron unceremoniously dumped Matthew on the sofa where he landed with a bounce and a groan. "We were at the pub," Ron said, moving to stand next to Hermione, "but then that Archimedes bloke sent Harry a message and said there was something going on at the beach we should check out." Harry watched him release the glamour on his hair which reminded him about his own and he quickly dispelled it, reaching into the inner pocket of his dragonhide jacket for his glasses.

Ginny knelt down next to the sofa and the prone Matthew, checking his pulse and pupil reaction as Harry had on the beach. She turned his head to the side and Harry saw a good-sized bruise and swelling on the side of his head above his ear. "This just missed his temple," she murmured, using her wand to reduce the swelling. Swiftly unbuttoning his shirt and pushing up his undershirt, she found a few more bruises on his ribs which she healed with quick efficiency. She ran her hand over his ribs, checking for breaks or cracks and didn't seem to find any.

"One of you help me turn him, I need to check his back," Ginny ordered and Harry went to the other side of the sofa, grabbing hold of the waistband of Matthew's trousers and his shoulder to turn him on his side. Ginny Summoned her stethoscope, listening to his breathing. "Sounds good," she mumbled to herself, nodding to Harry. He let Matthew flop down onto his back and Ginny covered him with a blanket. She stood up and crossed her arms, fixing Ron and Harry with gimlet eye. "Now, would you mind telling me exactly what the hell happened tonight?"

"Well, like Ron said, we were at the pub," Harry said, shifting uncomfortably under the combined gazes of Ginny and Hermione, "and then I got a message from Archimedes saying that Ignatius was having a bonfire on the beach and going to make some sort of speech. Said I should check it out, so we did."

Hermione frowned. "What did he have to say that got this poor man knocked out?"

"He's running for the Wizarding Council and I guess he was making a campaign speech tonight or whatever." Harry ran his fingers through his hair and blew out a breath. "Anyway, a park ranger came up to us and said it was after curfew for a fire and Ignatius made a big deal out of Petrifying and then Obliviating him."

"He was really nasty about it too, talking about how Muggles had to be controlled and guided," Ron said, putting an arm around Hermione. "And then he started going on about Half-Bloods and Muggle-borns."

"What knocked Matthew out?" Ginny asked, looking at Ron and Harry.

"Well, after he sent the ranger on his way and went on for a bit, one man said his wife's mother was Muggle-born and things just kind of went downhill from there," Harry said with an apologetic look at Hermione.

"I imagine my favorite word was said a few times," she said mildly. Ron hugged her tighter and kissed the top of her head.

"We disarmed as many as we could, but then they just all started hitting each other instead and I saw Matthew go down," Harry said, taking off his jacket and wrinkling his nose at the smell of smoke. "Figured I'd bring him back here so you could look at him."

Ginny took his jacket from him and hit it with a Freshening Charm, dispelling the smoke smell, before hanging it up. "Well, I'm not happy you went to that thing without telling me, but thank you for helping Matthew," she said, wrapping her arms around Harry.

They all looked back at Matthew lying on the sofa. He looked more like he was sleeping now rather than knocked unconscious. "Let's see if he comes around on his own in the next half hour. If not, I'll wake him up, but I'd rather not," Ginny said quietly.

Hermione moved into their tiny kitchen and set the kettle to heat up. Ron took off his jacket as well and stirred up the fire, throwing on more wood to get a good blaze going. With Matthew taking up the sofa, Harry conjured several cushions for them to stretch out on while they waited for their guest to wake up.

Ginny brought in a platter of assorted biscuits and they all lounged in front of the fire with their tea and biscuits, Harry feeling rather like they were back in the Gryffindor common room. He felt the adrenaline of the night drain away, replaced by a flood of lethargy and he felt his eyes slip closed as he listened to his friends chat.

"Harry?" he heard Ginny's voice and her light touch on his shoulder.

"Mm?" he mumbled, coming awake slowly.

"Matthew's waking up," she said, nodding toward the sofa where he was beginning to stir.

Harry sat up and ran his fingers through his hair, taking a long drink of his now-cold tea. He sat on the coffee table across from the sofa as Matthew opened his eyes and looked around the room.

"Where am I?" he asked, focusing on Harry. "Potter? What?" He sat up with a wince, touching the side of his head and feeling the diminished bump. "What happened?" He numbly took the mug of tea Ginny handed to him, looking at her like he'd never seen her before.

"You're at our flat," Harry said, watching as Ginny checked his pupil response again. "You got knocked out at that rally. Do you remember that?"

Matthew drank some tea and frowned. "I remember the beach and the bonfire…listening to Ignatius's speech and then some shouting…" he said slowly and then he froze, looking up at Harry with wide eyes. "Amanda. Amanda was there with me. Is she safe?"

"Is that the dark-haired witch you were with?" Matthew nodded and Harry shook his head. "I didn't see her. Did you, Ron?"

"No. She must have Apparated out."

Matthew's eyes widened in surprise at seeing Ron. "What are you doing here?"

"I always go to crackpot political rallies for my honeymoon. Don't you?" Ron said from his spot in front of the fire. Hermione had her head pillowed on his stomach and smiled up at him.

"I have to check on her," Matthew said, pushing the blanket off and making to stand up.

"Not so fast," Ginny said, pushing him back down on the sofa. "You took a pretty good knock on the side of the head. If it'd hit your temple instead you'd be in serious trouble. Just sit for a moment, okay? Let me know if you feel queasy."

"What were you doing there? Do you know Ignatius?" Harry asked, leaning forward.

"Amanda brought me. I've never met him before."

"What did you think of what he had to say? What he did to that ranger?"

Matthew frowned and shook his head, making himself wince. "That wasn't right. No one should be treated like that, Muggle or not."

"What about Amanda? Why did she want to come?"

"I don't know. He's running for council, so I suppose she wanted to hear him talk." Matthew drank some more tea and looked up at Harry, the light making him squint. "Why were you two there?"

"We wanted to hear what he had to say, yeah?" Ron said from behind Harry in a tone that did not welcome any argument.

"Ignatius has been putting some ideas around that have put him on my radar," Harry said, giving Matthew an appraising look. "Your family's Pureblood, right?"

Matthew shrugged and drank some more tea. "My mum's great-great grandmother on her dad's side was a Veela, but other than that, yeah."

"And you don't feel like Wizards should rule over Muggles?"

"Ugh, no. What for? Listen, I know I gave Ginny some flack over her Muggle medical school studies, but I don't bear them any ill will. They handle their business and we handle ours," Matthew said, glancing over at Hermione. He gently probed the side of his head, sucking in a breath. "Whoever whacked me sure did a good job."

"How are you feeling?" Ginny asked, peering down to check the swelling.

"I'm okay. I need to go check on Amanda and make sure she's all right." Matthew swept the blanket off his legs and set the half-drunk mug of tea on the coffee table.

"You don't have any queasiness? Dizziness?" Ginny asked, helping him to stand.

Standing still for a moment, Matthew shook his head slowly. "No, I'm just a bit tender. I'll be fine." Harry stood up and moved out of the way as Matthew finally realized his shirt was undone and buttoned it back up.

"You all right to Apparate?" Harry asked.

"Should be." Matthew stuck his hand out to Harry who shook it brusquely. "Thanks for getting me out of there."

"No worries," Harry said, waving his hand.

Matthew turned to Ginny and gave her a brief hug. "Thanks for your emergency medical care."

"Of course," she said, stepping back to stand with Harry.

"Aw, Hudson. No kiss for me?" Ron said with a grin from his spot on the floor.

"Not this time, Ron. Thanks again," Matthew said before Apparating out with a crack.

Once he was gone, Harry sighed and rolled his head on his neck, sitting back down on a cushion in front of the fire. "Ignatius is ratcheting up his rhetoric," he said quietly.

"How so?" Ginny asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well, a couple of things. He doesn't like technology at all. You know those little LightCaster things? He went on about how it's an example of the way we're saddling ourselves with Muggle technology and relying on their technology to advance."

"That doesn't sound so bad. I've found that Americans use a lot more technology here than we do at home," Ginny said, looking at Ron for confirmation.

"Yeah, but they haven't had to deal with Voldemort, have they?" Ron said with a frown. "Think of it. If all of that energy and talent hadn't been diverted to survival, how far along would we be over there?"

"Exactly," Harry nodded.

"Maybe he doesn't like it because that's not how things are at home? He's not used to it, so he sees it as a threat?" Hermione said, sitting up.

"Yeah, but he's been here for over twenty years. You'd think he'd have adjusted by now. Anyway, it wasn't just that. He brought up last night's field trip out to the bridge," Harry said, taking Ginny's hand.

"He did? What did he say?" she asked, squeezing his hand hard.

"Dropped my name a couple of times and then went on about how out of fourteen students only two could cast corporeal Patronuses."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Did he mention that one of them was cast by a Half-blood?"

"He did not. Instead, he went on about how a generation or two ago all of them would have been able to cast it."

"That's ridiculous," Hermione said derisively. "We're the previous generation, aren't we? How many of the DA could do it? A third? Maybe?" She nudged Ron in the ribs, smiling as he counted on his fingers.

"Anyway, he talked about how the incoming student quality at St Ambrose's has gone down since he's been on the board and how instruction has needed to be dumbed down so the inferior students, that's Half-bloods and Muggle-borns, can keep up, holding back the Purebloods." Harry picked up the teapot and poured himself a fresh cup.

"And then he said how the 'inferior students' should just stay in Muggle schools where they'd learn the skills they needed to get along in the Muggle world." He took a deep breath and a long sip of tea. "I think he's alluding to Binding them."

Ginny and Hermione gasped and Ron sat up straight, a quizzical look on his face. "What? Talking about doing what?" he asked.

"Binding their magic away from them so they can't use it," Hermione explained.

"What? That's not a thing!" He looked at Harry and frowned. "Is it a thing?"

"It's not a well-known thing, but yes, it's a thing," Harry said.

"How do you know about it?" Ron asked, sounding a little accusatory and Harry just shrugged. "Ah, you and that damned blood magic! And you, Hermione?"

"You know my interests are wide-ranging."

"And Ginny, too? Am I the last one to know about this?"

"I just learned about it myself. Harry had some of his books on blood magic for teaching his class—"

"Hold on," Ron said, holding his hand up, "you taught children about this?"

"Not about Binding," Harry said calmly, "Blood Seals and how to safeguard and protect their own blood. How it might be used against them."

"Well, that's all right then. How does this Binding shit work? You think he'd really do it?"

Harry blew out a long breath, wishing he still had the book in the flat, but he'd taken them all back to his class and the locked and blood-warded cabinet. "It's a little like Blood Seals. You make a sympathetic bond between the blood used in the spell and the living blood in the person. It's a ritual like the Regeneration spell Voldemort used and you need an effigy of the person being bound."

Swishing the tea around in his cup, he took a swallow. "I, uh, actually saw one done, once."

"What? When? Where was I?" Ron said, sitting up straighter.

"It was after you left the department. Remember when I had to go to Lithuania for a little while?" he asked and Ron nodded.

"Yeah, that was right after the new year."

"Yeah. Anyway, while I was there, I observed a Binding."

"Who was being Bound and why? I've heard of it being done ages ago as punishment for major crimes," Hermione said quietly.

"This wasn't a criminal, but a wizard that had dementia and couldn't control his magic anymore. It was the granddad of one of the Lithuanian Aurors I'd gotten to be friendly with. Granddad had been living with him and his wife and kids since he couldn't do for himself anymore and he was just becoming too dangerous. Setting fires, exploding things, stuff like that. He and his wife decided that to keep the family safe, they had to do it. I asked to be allowed to observe and they let me," Harry said, shaking his head at the memory.

"Oh, that poor man," Ginny said, rubbing his arm. "None of the treatments worked?"

"No, they'd tried pretty much everything. This was the absolute last resort," he said, leaning into her touch.

"But to take away his magic? Why wasn't he in a care home?" Ron looked utterly shocked and looked at Hermione as if he expected her to go back in time and fix it.

"They don't have quite the support system there that we do. If it's not acute, the family shoulders the burden. They had small children at home, so…" Hermione shrugged, looking up at Ron.

"Was it painful?" Ginny asked and Harry shook his head.

"No, at least not physically. Mentally, I don't know. But Granddad seemed to be all right afterwards. Just no more fires."

"If this Binding exists, why didn't Dumbledore use it on his sister?" Ron asked, looking thoughtful.

"I don't know," Harry shrugged. "As far as I know, it's irreversible and I guess Dumbledore was hoping she'd be able to eventually gain control of it, rather than locking it away from her forever."

"So do you think this Weatherbee would actually try to propose such a thing here?" Hermione asked, bringing the focus of the conversation back to what concerned them.

"He'll propose, but I doubt he'd get very far. No, what worries me is that he'd just go and do it or get people thinking about it—divide the community, yeah?"

"Dangerous ideas," Hermione said, shaking her head. She took Ron's hand in hers and kissed the back of it. He still seemed shocked that a wizard's magic could be taken away and looked away, eyes troubled.

"So anyway this is the kind of stuff he's spreading around and I'd really like to see him stopped." Harry finished his tea and stretched his arms high over his head.

"And what's your plan for that?" Ron asked, leaning forward.

"I took your advice and told the Americans about the Horcrux. They bought it under the guise of an art collector. Gave me a turn when I saw Jacob didn't have it anymore," Harry said, remembering how his blood had run cold when he realized it was missing.

"And they're going to destroy it?" Hermione asked.

"Not exactly. The portrait itself is a masterwork and had been thought lost by the art world. Archimedes and the Americans are working on putting together an exhibit for it to be included in."

"And what's that going to do?" Ron asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Harry nibbled on a biscuit, thinking. "Hopefully draw Ignatius out. I think they're hoping he'll try to steal it. If he does and he's caught, that'll pretty much destroy his chances for the council, especially if it's exposed as a Dark object."

"And then they'll destroy it?" Hermione said.

"If they don't, I definitely will."

Ron leaned back, stretching out on the cushions. "Where is it right now?"

"At the main Auror office in the City in an underground vault. It's being kept under guard in one of those iron boxes." Harry yawned, eyes feeling heavy.

"He's still got that coin, too. Don't forget about that," Ginny said quietly.

"What coin? Another Horcrux?" Ron sat back up, crossing his legs.

"No, it's not a Horcrux, at least I don't think it is," Harry said, banishing his tiredness. "I've touched it and it felt just like that ill-wish we found while looking for the water horse's dryad, but not the same as the Horcrux. I don't know what the fuck that coin is."

Ron scrubbed his hands over his face and sighed. "Blimey, I never should have let you out of my sight. You're out of England for less than a year and you're up to your arse in alligators."

"Ron, I've been up to my arse in alligators since you met me," Harry said with a laugh. "It's late. Get your girl to bed, all right? We'll deal with my alligators in the morning."

Just then, there was a swish and thunk as something landed into their wizarding mail drop. Ginny looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he shrugged, getting up to see what they'd received. "It's from Jacob," he said as soon as he saw the familiar cream-colored envelope.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense, what does it say?" Ginny said as he opened it.

"It looks like Jacob is having a reception for Ron and Hermione."

"What? Who's that again?" Ron asked, sharing an amazed look with Hermione.

"That's that rich bastard I was telling you about that's doing the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes stuff with George. Take a look." Harry handed the letter to Hermione and she read it with a furrowed brow.

"Harry, I hope this message finds you and your Ginny well," she read. "I am given to understand that your friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are newly married and currently visiting our fair city." She paused for a moment and looked up at Harry. "How does he know that already?"

"I dunno. Artemis, if I had to guess." Harry sat back down next to Ginny and put his arm around her, drawing her close.

Hermione shook her head and read on. "I hope you don't think it too presumptuous of me, but I've arranged for a small reception at my home to celebrate the union of two of our world's greatest heroes."

"He likes to lay it on thick, doesn't he?" Ron interrupted with a snort.

"Oh, you should hear him when he really gets rolling," Ginny said with a grin.

"Let me finish reading this," Hermione admonished, clearing her throat. "…greatest heroes. If you would be so kind as to join me tomorrow evening at eight to celebrate this next phase of your dearest friends' lives, I would be eternally in your debt." She handed the letter to Ron who glanced at it and tossed it aside. "Well, that's awfully nice of him."

"Nice, hell. He just wants to be able to say that he's had you over to his house." Harry thought for a moment and nodded. "Would you be all right with going? I've got some questions I want to ask him about a certain ancestor of his."

"Will there be alcohol?" Ron asked and Harry nodded. "Then I don't have a problem."

"Ron, you're the worst. You haven't even asked your own wife," Ginny admonished with a frown.

"Gin, her and Harry are two peas in a pod. If there are questions to be asked, they'll be fighting over who gets to ask them," Ron said, grinning at Hermione who had turned a little pink.

"We really should coordinate, Harry," Hermione said, smiling at him.

"What are you doing for breakfast?"

"Sleeping," Ron said with a yawn.

"Brunch?"

"What time is that? Eleven? Shagging." Ron grunted at Hermione's elbow to his ribs and kissed her on the tip of her nose.

"We'll meet you for brunch at eleven-thirty, all right?" she said, standing up and stretching.

"That should be enough time for a couple of shags, yeah?" Ron stood next to her and hugged her tight, almost lifting her off her feet.

"Ugh, Ron! You're disgusting," Ginny said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Get home, you two. See you in the lobby at eleven-thirty." Harry stood up, helping Ginny up from the cushion on the floor. He gave Hermione a hug and kiss on the cheek and clasped hands with Ron. "Thanks for being there tonight, mate."

"Of course. Someone's got to handle your Goddamned alligators. You do an absolute shit job."

24. Chapter 24

"Blimey, this bloke thinks a lot of himself, doesn't he?" Ron said as they approached Jacob's expansive mansion.

"You don't know the half of it," Harry said, opening the gate to the walkway. He watched Ron and Hermione walk up to the door, holding out his hand to Ginny.

They stood together in front of the door and Ron looked at Harry. "You will owe me so big for this, you know."

"Why? You're going to get free food and drink, two of your favorite things," Harry snorted.

"It's not free, mate. I'm going to be gawked at, chatted to, petted and fawned over, all by people who don't really care about me, but want it to be known that they gawked at, chatted to, petted and fawned over me," he said truculently.

"Boo fucking hoo," Harry said genially. "You know, there was a time not too long ago that you rather enjoyed being fawned over."

"You really have no sense of self-preservation, do you, Potter?" Ron said, cutting his eyes at Hermione, who shook her head at the both of them.

"Ron, honestly," she chided.

"Ugh, fine. But I warn you, Hermione, I'm getting extremely pissed tonight."

"Try and keep a few brain cells active, yeah? Arse? Alligators?" Harry grinned at Ron and rang the bell, smiling widely at Evelyn Jones when she opened the door.

"I see our guests of honor have arrived! Ron and Hermione, please come in," she said, stepping aside. "And Harry and Ginny, welcome!" Taking their jackets, she directed them to the library. "You already know the way," she said, giving Harry a conspiratorial wink.

As they approached, Harry felt his hopes fall for the intimate reception Jacob had promised. From the noise level, it sounded like the gathering was at least equal to that of the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes kickoff and he sighed. Looks like I'll have a job getting Jacob to myself for questions tonight.

Almost as if he'd been Summoned, Jacob came sailing down the hall towards them. "Ah, there you are! Evelyn alerted me to your arrival!"

Interesting. I'll have to find out how that works, Harry thought as he shook Jacob's hand. "Jacob, may I introduce Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger? Ron and Hermione, this is Jacob Green."

"I am so pleased to meet you," Jacob said, shaking Ron's hand. He turned to Hermione and bowed over her hand. "We can never hope to repay you for everything you've done for our Wizarding community. This little reception is the least I could do. Thank you very much for allowing me to help you celebrate your union."

"We are flattered that you would even think of us," Hermione said smoothly. Harry saw her give Ron a subtle nudge.

"Yes, flattered," he echoed.

"Oh, it's no trouble! I have this enormous house, might as well do something with it!" Jacob spread his arms wide, taking in the hallway lined with elegant tables, stained-glass lamps and world-class artwork. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to announce you to the group when you enter the room."

"That's an excellent idea," Hermione said, squeezing Ron's hand so hard Harry saw her knuckles turn white.

"Fantastic. Harry, Ginny, please go on ahead and get yourself something to drink," Jacob said, turning back to Ron and Hermione in dismissal.

"I guess we're old news," Ginny whispered as they entered the spacious library.

"Looks like," Harry chuckled, plucking two martinis from a house-elf circulating around the room. He did a quick survey of the gathered crowd, surprised to see Sarah and Archimedes and he nodded in their direction.

"Oh, I didn't expect them," Ginny said, sipping her drink. "Shall we?"

"I thought these things always gave you a headache," Harry said as he shook Archimedes's hand.

"Well, thankfully Jacob has plenty of painkillers on hand," he said, raising his own drink and making Harry chuckle.

"Too right. Sarah, you look lovely," he said, kissing her on the cheek.

"Oh, not as lovely as your Ginny," Sarah said with a gentle smile. "Archimedes tells me your students did very well against the Dementors on the bridge."

"They did indeed. Two corporeals and I think I'll get more next year," Harry said with a wash of pride.

"How are Melissa and her baby?" Ginny asked Sarah and the two women immediately started chatting about babies, breast feeding, nappies and sleep schedules, things Harry hoped to not worry about for a while yet.

"Where are Ron and Hermione?" Archimedes asked, glancing toward the entrance to the library.

"Jacob wants to make some big introduction of them. Should be any minute now." Harry took another sip of his excellent martini. "Have you heard anything about the rally last night? How long did you stay?"

"I left not too long after you and Ron took that young man. I've got my feelers out, but I haven't heard too much. I suspect Ignatius is taking steps to keep the fight quiet."

"Is he here tonight?"

"No. I thought he might be—look at all the money in this room," he said, gesturing to the various witches and wizards, representing the heights of the Bay Area Wizarding society.

Harry nodded. "Good. I—" he said, interrupted by a musical fanfare. He turned his attention to the front of the library where Jacob stood, looking tall and dignified as the fanfare faded away.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, hands clasped solemnly together, "I have the unique pleasure tonight to introduce to you two of our world's greatest heroes. When they were just teenagers, they were working steadily to defeat the greatest threat Wizardkind had ever seen." He took a deep breath and looked over the crowd. To Harry he looked like he was actually on the verge of tears. "Within them I have seen the hope for a new generation…" Jacob said and Harry groaned quietly, rolling his eyes at Ginny to make her giggle. She elbowed him in the ribs and he elbowed her back, almost upsetting her drink.

"Children," Sarah admonished in a whisper, a twinkle in her eye. Feeling like he'd been caught out, he cleared his throat and stood up straight to catch the end of Jacob's speech.

"May I present to you Mr and Mrs Ronald Weasley!" Jacob stepped aside and waved his hands mellifluously, ushering Ron and Hermione into the library to thunderous applause and a few cheers.

"Mr and Mrs Ronald Weasley? Jacob better watch his back," Ginny said in his ear, making Harry laugh.

"No doubt!" He watched as the horde of people surged forward, eager to shake his friends' hands and have a word or two with them, most of them likely just so they could say they had. Well, Ron always complained about being in my shadow. How do you like those bright lights now, mate?

Jacob was sticking close to the pair like a stubborn burr caught in thick fur as they circulated around the room, Ron shooting Harry the occasional glare. Since this was a supposedly 'intimate reception', there was no sit-down dinner planned and house-elves continued to circulate with trays of drinks and assorted savories.

Harry watched as Ron was seemingly interrupted every time he reached for a bite. "Gin, see if you can make a plate for them," he murmured to Ginny. "No one's giving them a chance to eat anything and Ron's already angry enough at me."

Ginny looked over at Ron and Hermione and raised an eyebrow. "Oh dear. We all know what happens when my brother is denied food. I'll take care of it." She kissed him on the cheek and approached Evelyn. He saw the two of them put their heads together and leave the library.

Once the majority of the witches and wizards had their fill of Ron and Hermione, they seemed to remember Harry and soon he had his own steady stream of visitors. The field trip out to the bridge to help his students hone their Patronus Charms seemed to be the hot topic of the evening.

"I heard there were two students who could cast fully corporeal Patronuses," said one man who'd introduced himself as Jonathan Harris.

"Yes, both seniors this year," Harry said, "Isaac Hernandez and Elizabeth Bernstein."

"Hernandez? Aurelio Hernandez's boy?" the man said with a frown.

"Yes, I believe so. Aurelio and Elena Hernandez." He knew that Elena's family was very old, dating from the ranchero era of California's history, but Aurelio himself was Muggle-born and the son of two very surprised immigrant parents.

"Interesting. I myself didn't learn the charm until college and here you are, teaching our Seniors."

"Are you able to cast a corporeal one yourself?" Harry asked with genuine interest.

"Ah, no. I can cast a silver mist," he said, looking away from Harry's eyes.

"Well, maybe you should come out to the bridge with me one evening," he said lightly.

"Ah, well…I think we'll leave that sort of thing to the youngsters," Jonathan said, backing up a step. "It was nice talking to you."

Feeling a perverse sort of pleasure, Harry held out his hand. "It was good meeting you, Jonathan. Please let me know if you're interested in coming along on next year's field trip."

The man shook his hand and scuttled off, absorbed into the crowd. Archimedes sidled up to him. "That wasn't very nice, Harry," he said in an amused tone.

"What? I just invited him along on our next outing," he said, smiling at the ex-Auror innocently. Archimedes just snorted and handed Harry another drink. "Listen, if he wants to start lecturing me on half-bloods and how their magic isn't nearly as strong, then he better be able to show me something, yeah?"

"Show you what?" Ron asked, taking a sip of his drink and nodding at Archimedes.

"I had a bloke come up and ask me about the Dementors on the bridge the other night. I could tell he was going to go into all of that half-blood nonsense and I shut him down by asking if he could cast a corporeal Patronus," Harry said, glad to see that Ron had managed to wrangle himself free. "Where's Hermione?"

"She's over there," he said, motioning with his drink over to where Hermione and Ginny were chatting with a group of other women, including Sarah. "I don't know what they're talking about, but I keep getting looks that give me the willies." A house-elf went past with a tray full of bacon-wrapped scallops and Ron grabbed a handful, practically moaning in delight as he chewed.

"I had Gin ask Evelyn to put something together for you two," Harry said, looking for Jacob's assistant. A moment later, there she was, holding out a whole plate of tidbits to Ron.

"Here, I know how hard it is to get something to eat at these things, especially if you're the center of attention," she said with an engaging smile.

"Thanks," Ron said, sounding utterly blissful as he stuffed his face. "So, what is it exactly you do for Jacob?"

"I am a high-end executive assistant and I assist Jacob with whatever he needs."

"And what sorts of things would those be?"

"Travel arrangements, arranging meetings, managing clients, household hiring and firing, party planning, security," she said, taking a sip of her drink. "A little bit of light body guarding."

"Really?" Harry said, completely surprised.

"Oh yes," she nodded, clearly enjoying his shocked look. "Who would ever suspect me, the pretty little executive assistant?"

"So it's you who's done the Blood Seals, then?" Again she nodded. "And you've been with Jacob for how long?"

"Ten years."

"And have you ever had to use your skills?" Ron asked. Harry glanced at the plate he held and saw it was now empty.

"Once. We were in Greece on a buying trip and Nikolas Christopoulos thought he could get some extra leverage by holding Jacob prisoner without his wand. He was incorrect." Her eyes got a faraway look for a moment and she nodded. "Gentlemen. It seems I'm needed."

Harry watched her walk away, moving easily through the crowd. Now that he knew, he found it plain to see the way she moved, very in tune with her body and its capabilities and he scolded himself internally for seeing only the sexy woman on the surface. He turned to Archimedes. "Did you know?" he asked.

"I had my suspicions," he said with a shrug. "Nice to see them confirmed."

"Hold on. Are you saying that Harry Potter missed something?" Ron asked, a gleeful smile on his face.

"I don't believe I've said any such thing," Harry said coolly, refusing to give in to his best friend's baiting.

"Teaching has made you soft, mate." He'd secured some more nibbles and continued to stuff his face.

"I'll show you soft. You keep eating like that and you won't be able to tie your own shoes."

Ron laughed and slapped his flat stomach. "Hermione likes me with a bit of meat on my bones anyway," he said, popping another canapé into his mouth. "Did you get a chance to talk to that Jacob fellow yet?"

"No, he's been too busy basking in your reflected glory, what little there is." Harry looked for Jacob, spotting him in the middle of a knot of people, laughing uproariously and waving his hands around. "I need to see if I can get him alone soon though or else this has been a waste of time."

"What do you need him alone for?" Archimedes asked.

"I wanted to ask him some questions about that Cornelius Maxwell. Do some digging and see if we can figure out more about that Horcrux," Harry said quietly. "I told you about Gin and that water horse, yeah?" Archimedes nodded and Harry continued. "What I didn't tell you was that when we were looking for the dryad, I found an ill-wish. When I touched that coin at the Legion of Honor, I got the same feeling as from the ill-wish. They're all connected somehow and I mean to find out how."

Archimedes nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. "I'll see what I can do. Please excuse me." He walked off into the crowd, stopping to share a few words with Hermione before going on in what Harry knew would be a circuitous route to Jacob. His eyes settled on Ginny looking amazing in her green dress and they shared a smile.

"Ugh, get a room," Ron groaned next to him. "I didn't come to this thing to watch you eyefuck my sister."

"No? Would you rather watch the real thing? It might take some fast talking, but I might be able to convince her," Harry said, dodging Ron's swing at his shoulder.

"Disgusting. Oh, great. Now they're all looking at us. See what you did?" Harry looked over and saw the group of women looking over at them, varying degrees of speculation on their faces. One of them, a blonde witch Harry didn't know, leaned over and said something to Hermione and they all erupted into gales of laughter.

"Hey, I didn't do anything. You're the one threatening violence on The Boy Who Lived."

"Oh, leave off, Potter." Ron took another sip of his drink and looked around the room. "Come on, let's get out of here. I need some fresh air, yeah?"

"Yeah. Let's go look at the Thestrals," Harry said, nodding at Ginny. He tilted his head toward the doors leading out to the terrace and she nodded back.

"Sounds great," Ron said with a definite lack of enthusiasm, grabbing fresh drinks for the both of them on the way out.

Outside, they both breathed a sigh of relief to be out of the crowded room, Ron loosening his tie and unfastening the top button of his shirt. They leaned against the railing, watching the herd of Thestrals in the garden below. Ron shook his head. "I'll never understand people with money."

"Me either," Harry said, noting that the Thestral that had been a baby on Thanksgiving was now almost as big as the adults.

"You should talk," Ron snorted, elbowing him in the arm.

"Well, it's different here, you know? Back home, millionaires are just as likely to be in tatty jumpers and wellies as they are in designer clothes. Out here…it's just so ostentatious."

"Malfoys would have fit right in, yeah?"

"Oh God. Draco'd probably be here already if he wasn't so afraid of the sun making him burst into flame," Harry said, making Ron laugh and shake his head.

"What a git," he said fondly. They stood quietly, drinking their drinks and looking at the lights twinkling on both the Bay and Golden Gate bridges until Ron let out a long sigh. "You doing all right out here, mate?"

Harry frowned, hearing the concern in Ron's voice. "Yeah, why?"

"Dunno," Ron shrugged, still looking out at the bridges. "This business with that Horcrux, that nutter running for council and on top of it all you have a regular day job. Seems like a lot on your plate. I could…take a semester off…?"

"Ron…" Harry began, completely floored at what he was offering. He looked at him, his best friend for fifteen years, knowing that he'd never find another like him. "No, you just got married," he said, his voice a little rough with emotion.

"Hermione'd understand."

"Hermione would kill me," Harry snorted. "Look, I'm not going to lie and say that there haven't been times when I wished you were here, but you don't need to follow me into this, too."

"I haven't followed you into anything," Ron said, finally turning his head to look at him. "I went into the Aurors because I wanted to, all right?"

"I know. That's not what I meant, yeah? All of that other stuff…when we were kids."

Ron reached out a hand and clasped his shoulder. "Listen mate, I told you already. Someone's got to manage your alligators because you do a completely shit job."

"Git."

"Wanker."

"Twat."

"Cockwomble."

"What? Cock what?" Harry said, breaking out into a laugh.

"Womble. No idea what that is, but I've heard some of the kids at school saying it and it's fun. Cockwomble," Ron said with evident relish, making Harry laugh again.

"What've you found out here that's so funny?" Jacob said, walking out onto the terrace to join them, followed by Archimedes.

"Oh, Ron was just keeping me up to date on what the kids are saying these days," Harry said easily. "What brings you out here?"

"Things are winding down inside and I wanted to chat with you about the applications for the memorial scholarship. The application period is over and now we begin the hard work of reviewing all of the applications and deciding who the worthy recipients will be," Jacob said, gesturing expansively with the hand that held his drink. Harry noticed it was scotch and wondered how he could wrangle one for himself.

"Yeah? How many applications have you received?"

"A veritable mountain. I don't know, I haven't counted them yet. Evelyn has been in charge of receiving them." He looked somber for a moment. "I haven't forgotten our earlier conversation, Harry, and I'd like to invite you to be on the review committee."

While he'd been expecting the request, given the threat he'd made during the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes kickoff, he found he was still surprised and flattered. "I'd be honored," he said with a nod.

"Excellent! We'll get started after Easter. I don't want to muddle up your week off, especially since you have visitors in town," Jacob said, nodding at Ron. "How do you like San Francisco so far, Ron?"

"It's brilliant. Harry and Ginny took us round to a few places today," he said, leaning back against the terrace railing.

"Did you go to Alcatraz?"

Ron laughed and shook his head. "Nah. Seen enough prisons in my day, haven't I?"

"I suppose so," Jacob said with a laugh of his own. "Where are you staying?"

"The St Regis."

"Pricey. Let me—" Jacob began, but Ron cut him off with a raised hand.

"You'll have to fight that one for it," he said, pointing at Harry with his thumb. "I'm getting quite a collection of tiny, expensive bottles of alcohol. We'll have to see what the maids have stocked the mini bar with tonight."

Harry shook his head and sighed. "You're going to rattle all the way back to London. McGonagall isn't going to let you into Hogwarts with all that alcohol."

"Shows what you know. I'm setting aside some choice bottles for her. Headmistressing all day is hard work and the old bird enjoys putting her feet up of an evening," Ron said, giving Harry a smug smile.

"Hmph. We'll see." Harry turned to Jacob who had been watching them like he was at a tennis match, seeming utterly fascinated. "So, Jacob. I've been doing a bit of research into the Gold Rush era and your ancestor's name has been popping up here and there."

"Oh, I daresay it has. Old Cornelius was quite the dealer in his day. What's got you interested in the Gold Rush?" Jacob said, managing to look both proud and humble at the same time.

"Well, you can't really escape it here, can you? Even the football team recalls the time. I find it fascinating and I can understand why Muggles would be on fire to come out here and make their fortunes, but what was the draw for wizards?" Harry said, hoping he didn't sound like an idiot. "What brought Cornelius Maxwell out here?"

"Ah! That's a rather long story! And an interesting one." He paused, seeming to murmur quietly to himself, his eyes gaining an unfocused look. "Listen, let's head into the billiard room and I'll tell you a bit of my family history, but I might have to skip some of the more scandalous parts! I can't have you thinking less of me!"

"What was it you were doing just now?" Harry asked, intrigued by Jacob's behavior.

"Oh, I was talking to Evelyn and asking her to ready the billiard room."

"Yeah? How'd you do that? You didn't use a wand."

Jacob's eyes lit up and he smiled, digging in his right ear. He placed what looked like half of an earbud from Harry's digital music player on his palm. Archimedes leaned forward to get a better look. "Is that from Magical Materials?" he asked.

"Yes! It's not on the market yet, but I'm lucky enough to be in the testing program."

"How does it work?" Ron asked, picking it up for a closer look.

"I'm not sure of all of the exact particulars, but you have the two devices and you have to kind of join them together with a spell and then you can just talk to each other," Jacob said enthusiastically.

"Huh. But you were talking to us just now. Was Evelyn hearing all of that?" Ron asked, handing the device back to Jacob.

"Oh no. That would get quite annoying, wouldn't it? No, there's an activation phrase you use. See, I say, 'Evelyn, come in' and then start talking and she'll hear me no matter where we are in the house. Here try it!" Jacob handed the device back to Ron and he carefully inserted it into his ear.

"Um…Evelyn, come in," he said hesitantly. "No, this is Ron. Yeah, Jacob's showing it to us. Uh, sure," he laughed, face turning red and Harry raised his eyebrows, wondering what Evelyn had said to him. "We'll be right there. Bye." Face fading to pink, he took out the earpiece and handed it back. "She came through loud and clear," he said.

"Looks like!" Jacob laughed, putting the device back in his ear.

"What's the range on that?" Archimedes asked. Harry could see the wheels turning in his head.

Jacob shrugged. "I'm not sure. We did a bit of roaming around when we first got them and so far, we haven't found any dead spots on the property."

"Interesting. I might be paying a call on Magical Materials," he said. Harry could well imagine what he was thinking. A communication device like that that didn't interfere with normal wand work or need anything special other than an initial spell would be invaluable in the field.

"Well, shall we retire to the billiard room?" Jacob asked, moving toward a different door off of the terrace.

"You know that Ignatius doesn't like devices like that, right? Says it's a mark of how we're hitching ourselves to and becoming dependent on Muggle technology," Harry said as he walked next to Jacob down a hallway.

"Oh, he'll come around once he sees how useful these devices are. He's just not used to them is all," he said airily, sliding open a richly-paneled pocket door.

The billiard room proved to be just that—a large room with an enormous billiard table in the center, along with comfortable-looking chairs. Harry was delighted to see a small bar at one end of the room with cut glass decanters full of promising amber fluid. Jacob went to the bar, pouring drinks for the four of them.

"Now, what drew my ancestor Cornelius Maxwell to California during the Gold Rush?" Jacob said, settling his tall frame into one of the chairs. "Well, certainly money, same as everyone else."

"Was he a prospector?" Harry asked, savoring a sip of the very fine scotch.

"Oh no. That was a bit too hands-on for Cornelius. Buying and selling was his game, same as mine. Buy low and sell high should be our family motto!" he laughed, swirling the scotch in his glass.

"So he was a…speculator? What did he deal in?"

"Whatever he could get his hands on! Food, clothing and tools at first. Then land and building supplies and eventually shipping."

"Did he deal with both Muggles and Wizards?" Archimedes asked, looking intrigued.

"Oh, Cornelius didn't care whose money he took, as long as he took as much of it as he could!"

"Sounds like a peach," Ron commented dryly.

"Yes, he made some real enemies in his time."

Harry's ears perked up at the mention of enemies and he leaned forward a little bit. "Yeah? Any significant ones?"

Jacob pursed his lips and looked up toward the ceiling. "Hmm, I believe there was a fruit farmer that accused him of being a cheat. The Chinese didn't care overmuch for him. I think there were more than a few angry husbands in there, too."

"Sounds like quite a scoundrel," Harry agreed, sitting back in the chair. What could make him so desperate as to kill his wife to create a Horcrux? "When did he build this house?"

"This house was built shortly after his marriage to Esther Fischer in 1860."

"So it survived the earthquake and the fire," Archimedes noted.

"Indeed. Newspaper accounts mention the 'miraculous' survival." Jacob laughed again, and Harry shared a look with Ron.

"What about friends? Did Cornelius have any trusted business partners?"

"Ah, this is treading close to the scandalous part of of my story!"

"Really? What's so scandalous about business partners?"

Jacob looked at him, one eyebrow raised. "I don't know, Harry. If I tell you…"

"What if we play for it?" Harry leaned forward again, gesturing at the billiard table. "Me and Ron against you and Archimedes. If we win, you tell us all about Cornelius, unedited."

Jacob looked at him, head tilted back. "And if I win…you tell me what really happened the night Dumbledore died." Archimedes let out a low, "Ah," sound.

Harry raised an eyebrow, putting an unsure look on his face before nodding. "All right. You've got a bet." He held out his hand and shook Jacob's once, firmly.

Jacob sprang out of his seat, looking invigorated at the prospect of getting previously unknown information straight from the source. "Evelyn, come in," Harry heard him say before he turned to Ron.

"Usual?" Ron mouthed and Harry nodded, standing up and stretching. He caught Archimedes's eye and grinned as he took off his blazer and tie, rolling his sleeves to his elbows, Ron following suit.

"I'm not throwing the game for you," he murmured, standing close to Harry as Jacob busied himself with setting up the table.

"You won't need to." Harry turned to see Evelyn entering the room, followed by Ginny, Hermione and Sarah.

"Ah, our cheering section has arrived! Excellent!" Jacob clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Ladies." He executed a courtly bow, waving his arm towards the cluster of chairs. "Everything settled out there?"

"Yes, everyone is gone and cleanup is proceeding," Evelyn said, taking a place behind the bar to freshen drinks.

"Harry, what's going on?" Ginny asked, kissing him on the cheek.

"Friendly game of billiards, love."

Ginny looked between him and Ron, eyebrow raised. "It's never a 'friendly game' with you two. What did you bet?"

"Going to get some more information about Cornelius. Jacob hinted at some sort of scandal, but won't say what it is," Harry whispered in her ear under the guise of hugging her.

"Well by all means then, carry on. The Usual?"

"Seems to work the best."

Ginny went up on her tiptoes and gave him a lingering kiss. "For luck."

"Evelyn, can you have Perri bring us some refreshments? It's likely to be a long night," Jacob said, testing the weight and feel of different cue sticks before finally deciding on one.

Harry chose one, catching a disapproving look from Hermione and he just grinned and shrugged.

"Hermione doesn't approve," Ron murmured, choosing his own cue.

"Hermione often disapproves. You all right?"

"Yeah! It's been ages since we've done this, mate!" Ron's eyes were bright with the prospect of pulling their old game once again.

"Now, since we all have…special abilities, in the interests of fairness, Evelyn will be the keeper of the wands," Jacob said, nodding at his assistant.

Evelyn came up to Harry and held her hand out, smiling when he handed her his wand. "Hm, holly." She ran her fingers up and down, grinning devilishly. "Supple," she said and Harry felt his face turn red at her laugh.

Soon, the table was racked for Eight Ball. Harry and Jacob threw rock, paper, scissors for the first break with Jacob winning. "All right, best two out of three then?"

"Let's go three out of five," Harry countered. The Usual worked much better with a slower buildup.

"Three out of five then," Jacob agreed, leaning over to take the break, scattering the racked balls, but failing to put any away. "Hm, a little rusty, I guess. You're up, Harry."

Harry surveyed the table. The one ball, his target, was an easy shot that he couldn't miss and make it look legitimate, so he put it away in one of the corner pockets without taking particular care to set up his next shot, giving him and Ron solids. He made a half-hearted attempt at the three and conceded his turn to Archimedes, who took the table with a raised eyebrow at Harry.

He managed to sink two more balls before scratching with a groan, bringing up Ron. Harry watched as he sank the three before bungling an easy shot at the five and shook his head at Ron's cocky grin. He wanted to make sure that Jacob won the first game, an essential opening gambit for Plan A, but he didn't want to make it seem like an obvious throw.

"Doesn't that college of yours have a billiard table somewhere?" Jacob asked Ron as he moved up to the table to take his turn.

"I'll talk to McGonagall about getting one installed up at Hogwarts," Ron said flippantly, sitting down on the arm of the chair Hermione occupied. The game progressed with Harry and Ron careful to keep the table in Jacob and Archimedes's favor without looking like they were doing so. In short order, Jacob sunk the eight with a called shot into the side pocket.

"Looks like the first game is to us," he said. "I've already got my first question ready."

"Don't count your questions before they're asked," Harry said, picking up one of the small sandwiches the house-elf Perri had brought. Jacob laughed and re-racked the balls, bowing to Harry and giving him the break. Harry broke and sank two balls, a stripe and a solid, drawing a whistle from Archimedes.

"What do you reckon, Ron? Stripes or solids?" The next phase of The Usual called for Ron and him to win, but to make it look close. Reading the table, Ron called out, "Stripes." After intentionally missing his next shot, he ceded the table to Archimedes who did better than he expected, causing him to trade a glance with Ron.

"Ah, always had trouble with those shots," Archimedes said as he missed his attempt to goose the five out from behind the nine with a three-cushion shot.

"Step aside and let the younger generation show you how it's done," Ron said confidently, drawing a snort from Hermione. Ron sank half of their remaining stripes before scratching and giving Jacob a free cue ball.

After a nervous round where Jacob cleared all of the solids save for the eight, Harry got control back and quickly sank the stripes, calling the eight in the corner for the win and breathing a sigh of relief. He glanced over at Ginny and she raised her eyebrow, giving him a nod of respect.

"That was a close one," Jacob said, racking the balls for the next game. "I still think I'll get to ask my questions and leave my scandalous family history in the dark, though."

"We'll see," Harry said, sitting on the arm of Ginny's chair as Archimedes took the break.

"Now what happens?" Hermione asked in a low voice, leaning in close to Harry.

"They win easily, making them overconfident in the next round which we'll take, putting us even," Harry whispered back.

"Does this really work?" Hermione looked at Ginny for confirmation and she nodded.

"Oh yes. I've seen them do it loads of times," she said, smiling up at Harry.

"Have you and Ron done this for money?" Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes at her husband. Harry shrugged noncommittally and she sighed. "Well, I'm not sure I approve, but it is fun to watch." She settled back in her chair and turned her attention back to the game.

As Harry said, Jacob and Archimedes won the third game by a wide margin, Jacob hooting his triumph as he took the balls out of the pockets. Archimedes merely looked at Ron and Harry, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Ron took the fourth break, sending the balls flying apart with an authoritative crack, giving them stripes again. Gone was the casual jokester as he focused on the table, putting away half their stripes before missing a shot and giving the table to Jacob.

"Well, well, it seems the lion of Gryffindor has woken up," he remarked as he sighted his first shot, making it easily.

Ron looked over to Hermione and gave her a smile that pinked her cheeks. "When the lioness is not on the hunt, the lion has no choice."

At Harry's turn, he put away a couple more of their stripes and missed, giving the table to Archimedes, who managed to down three more solids before scratching. Ron took control of the table, quickly downing the remaining stripes.

Lips pursed, he circled the table, looking at the position of the eight ball and the remaining solids, evaluating all of the angles. "Now come on, Ron. You've got a shot right there to the side," Jacob said, pointing out the obvious shot.

"Nah, that's a Hufflepuff shot. I need a true Gryffindor finish." Blue eyes calculating, he nodded. "Eight ball, right corner," he said, indicating the corner pocket that was actually behind the eight ball.

"Well, I'm not going to argue against that shot. If you miss, we win and I get to find out the secrets Harry's been harboring all of these years," Jacob said, leaning casually against the bar. Harry glanced over at Hermione and saw her leaning forward, looking very tense. He had supreme confidence in Ron's skills, but he'd also observed how many drinks he'd had over the course of the evening.

Ron leaned over the table, completely focused on his target. Sending the cue forward with the exact amount of force needed, he sent the cue ball crashing into the eight, causing the black ball to slide right past the easy side pocket, hit the cushion and bounce at precisely the correct angle to land in the desired corner pocket.

"Yes!" Ron shouted, giving Harry a thunderous high five. Hermione let out a loud cheer, clapping along with Ginny and Sarah. Like a conquering hero, Ron leaned down and gave his wife a long kiss.

Jacob stood staring at the table and then between Harry and Ron, realization dawning in his eyes before he started laughing. "Oh, you two are good. You had me taken completely in with your little ploy!"

Harry allowed himself a smug smile. "Do you want to concede the next game?"

"Oh, no. On occasion the hustler has become the hustled. Rack 'em up." Harry obliged and Jacob took the last break. The game that followed lasted nearly as long as the four previous games combined, each team conspiring to leave the other with the absolute worst shots possible.

Archimedes proved himself to be an endless well of trash talk, doing his best to break their concentration, but even so, Harry and Ron pulled steadily ahead, Harry sinking their last stripe. "Looks like I'll be the one getting my questions answered," he said as Jacob let out his breath in a huff of frustration. "Eight ball, left side," he said, putting it away easily.

"Well done, Potter," Jacob said with a nod. "I never would have pegged the two of you upstanding young Gryffindors as a couple of small-time pool hall hustlers."

"Have to do something to fill the time when you're not taking down the bad guys," Ron said laconically, pouring a fresh scotch for himself and Harry.

"Indeed." Jacob collected the cue sticks and put them away on the rack before pouring his own scotch and settling down in one of the comfortable chairs. "It seems as if I owe you the story of my family," he said, crossing one leg over the other.

Evelyn returned everyone's wands to them, using her own to arrange the chairs into a comfortable conversational grouping. Harry sat down next to Ginny, lacing his fingers through hers on top of her armrest. She looked at him, giving him a conspiratorial wink and his hand a squeeze.

"So, you asked earlier what brought Cornelius Maxwell to the California Gold Rush. In addition to spotting a good deal, he had an uncommonly good talent for making people angry with him." Jacob smiled and looked down at his whiskey glass, swirling the liquid inside. "He had been living in New York when he ran afoul of George Ludlow and had to leave town posthaste."

"And the Gold Rush provided a convenient escape?" Archimedes asked, leaning back in a love seat with Sarah.

"Exactly. He liquidated what he could and headed out here."

"Was he expecting to stake a claim and dig for gold himself?" Harry took a sip of his whiskey, watching Jacob carefully.

"Oh goodness, no. He had an aversion to manual labor. He got into the supply game as soon as he landed. Did you know that an egg, a single egg, could be sold for the equivalent of $25 today? And don't even get me started on how much fresh fruit and vegetables cost."

"Why didn't people just refuse to pay?" Ginny asked, sounding horrified.

"They had no choice. Everyone was off to the gold fields, no one was farming, so everything had to be brought in," Jacob said, nodding at Ginny. "Plus, you would get the occasional miner that had a good run of luck and come into town flush with gold, looking to throw it around." He shook his head. "Most miners were gamblers, really."

"So Cornelius fleeced the miners with overpriced eggs," Ron said, finishing his scotch.

"Before moving on to building materials, land and eventually shipping. Bought this parcel which was way out in the middle of nowhere at the time and built this house." Jacob stood and stretched. "Anyone want a refill?" he asked, taking the glass Ron held out to him. Harry demurred, preferring to stay clear-headed and learn as much about Cornelius as he could.

"Jacob, this all sounds like pretty standard business. Where does the scandal come in?" Harry asked.

"Soon enough!" He handed Ron his refilled glass and sat back down. "Now, let's see, yes. So by this time Cornelius was well into his forties and looking to settle down. The young Esther Fischer, daughter of Manfried Fischer, caught his eye. Where's the scandal there, you ask? Manfried was on the first Wizarding Council of San Francisco and Esther was only fifteen."

"Surely that wasn't unusual for the time, was it?" Hermione asked, leaning forward in her seat. Harry could tell that she was very intrigued by Jacob's story so far.

"It's true that older men often had much younger wives during those days, but Esther was already engaged to Reginald Campbell, a much more suitable young man in her own social circle. As always, new money is regarded as the upstart and Reginald's money was very old indeed. There were also rumors of a love potion, but they weren't clear on who might have used it on whom."

"So she broke the engagement?" Hermione was completely focused on Jacob now and Harry leaned back, content to let her take the lead.

Jacob's eyes glittered with glee. "Even worse. They ran off together!"

"Oh! I imagine that upset a few people!"

"It did indeed, Manfried most of all. Reginald challenged Cornelius to a duel and lost. It wasn't fatal, but he did lose an eye and left San Francisco shortly after." Jacob shook his head, looking off in the middle distance. "It wasn't all bad for Reginald, though. He did go on to found the town of Campbell in what is now Silicon Valley."

"All right. So far we have an elopement, a duel and a possible love potion. What else is your family history hiding?" Harry thought about asking if he knew of any involvement with any dryads or other magical creatures, but he didn't want Jacob to know about the ill-wish.

"That's far from the only scandal in this story. In due course, Esther and Cornelius had a daughter, Coretta. You've seen her portrait upstairs. By all accounts, they seemed happy, but in those days, wives looked the other way if their husbands were seen out with other ladies," Jacob said, smiling at Hermione's significant look at Ron. Or creatures, Harry thought privately.

"Then one day, Esther passed away suddenly. She was only nineteen or so and in perfect health. Manfried demanded all of the magical tests of the day, but nothing suspicious was found and it was determined to be natural causes. He washed his hands of both Cornelius and Coretta, which was a shame because Coretta grew up a lonely, solemn girl."

Harry felt Ginny's nudge and he glanced at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking about. "But people died all the time under the most ridiculous of circumstances. Cornelius continued wheeling and dealing, making friends and enemies in equal amounts until one day the pretty young wife of a shipping client caught his eye." Jacob swirled the scotch in his glass and took another sip.

"Cornelius seems to have had bad luck with women," Hermione observed.

"Indeed! This led to another wizard duel, of course and this one didn't go so well for Cornelius. He managed to vanquish his opponent, but took a fatal wound and died five days later."

"Do you know which curse was used?" Harry asked, racking his brain for what could have killed him so many days later.

"No, that has been lost to history," Jacob said, shaking his head. "By all accounts though, he was absolutely livid at the insult and there's a local legend that says at the exact moment he passed, a furious wind blew through the entire city."

"So what happened next? His daughter was how old at this point?" Leaning forward, Harry could see that Hermione was completely focused on the story.

"She was I think seven or eight by then. Well, Cornelius had named his business partner, Richard Langston, as her guardian." He looked at them all and smiled. "And the last scandal. Even though he was supposed to be raising her, Richard fell in love with Coretta and married her when she turned sixteen."

"That seems dodgy, to marry someone you've seen as a father figure," Ron commented with a frown.

"There were plenty of rumors that he'd married her only to gain access to the Maxwell fortune and plenty of San Francisco's high society shunned them." Jacob shrugged and finished his scotch. "But by all accounts they were happy together and had several children, the end result in front of you right now." Standing up, Jacob bowed before them with a sardonic smile.

"Well, that doesn't all seem so bad," Ginny said sympathetically. "It was different times, then wasn't it? Maybe Esther and Cornelius fell in love at first sight?"

"Even so, it doesn't reflect well on our family that our founding father was a double-dealing philanderer." Jacob looked down moodily and Evelyn patted his shoulder.

"Pardon me," Hermione said after letting out a huge yawn.

"No, I should let you get home. You must be exhausted after meeting so many new people." Jacob took her hand and helped her rise from the chair. "Thank you so much for allowing me to host this gathering to celebrate your marriage."

"Thank you very much for throwing us such a great party! Our wedding was a small, intimate affair and sometimes it's nice to have an excuse for a big party."

"Oh, Jacob hardly needs any excuse to have a big party," Evelyn said as they all rose and stretched. Harry picked up his tie, shoving it in the pocket of his blazer as he shrugged it back on.

"Thank you so much for sharing your stories of Cornelius with us," he said, shaking Jacob's hand.

"Oh, he would be delighted to know that we're still talking about him today, the old schemer." No doubt, Harry thought as they all left the billiard room, walking through the now-quiet house.

In the foyer, Evelyn returned their jackets and they took their leave, Harry and Ginny agreeing to meet with Ron and Hermione the next day for lunch. Back home in the flat, Harry groaned and collapsed on the sofa, leaning his head back on the cushions and closing his eyes. He felt Ginny taking off his glasses and he smiled, reaching out to grab her hand.

"So?" she asked as he tugged her down on the sofa with him.

"So what?" He pushed her dress off of her shoulder and kissed her.

"So what did you learn?"

"Hmm, well, I think we can definitely say that it was Esther's death that created the Horcrux. He certainly was an ambitious bastard and clearly took every advantage he could. Rather Slytherin." Harry ran his finger along her collarbone, now pushing her bra strap aside.

"You know, what he told us didn't really seem all that scandalous. I was expecting a lot more."

"I know, me too." Harry shook his head and frowned. "Different times, I guess? And Jacob does have a bit of an inflated opinion of himself so maybe it seems like a bigger deal to him than to us?"

"What about those duels?" she asked, turning to face him. "I wonder what was used on him that wasn't immediately fatal but eventually killed him?"

"I don't know. I've been trying to think of that ever since Jacob mentioned it." Leaning forward, he kissed her, trying to banish all thoughts of conniving businessmen.

"We still don't know what's going on with that coin, though," Ginny whispered, lips soft against his. Her hands were busy with the buttons on his shirt and he felt a slow burn starting in his belly.

Harry drew back, squinting a little bit to look at her. "Are you telling me you want to talk about Horcruxes and coins right now?"

"What else is there to talk about these days?" she asked with an innocent look.

"Hm, clearly I need some new conversation topics." He kissed her again. "What should we talk about?"

"Hmm, how about what I'm going to do to you on that bed?" Ginny whispered in his ear, making a ripple of goosebumps break out all over his body.

"Why Miss Weasley, that's my favorite subject."

25. Chapter 25

Hmm, that's the last time I let someone else take the lab notes, Ginny thought as she peered at the paper, trying to decipher the handwriting. She glanced out of the window at the Saturday afternoon sunlight, hoping Harry would be home soon.

"It's probably going to be most of the day," Harry said as he was getting dressed. "Jacob says there are a mountain of applications to sort through from all over the state and even a few from out of state."

"I guess St Ambrose's is getting popular," Ginny said with a grin. "Could it be that word of the hot new Defense teacher is getting around?"

Harry huffed and raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not going to say you're wrong, and I'm sure the names attached to the scholarship have something to do with it, too."

Ginny patted his arm. "Well, at least you have the chance to thwart Weatherbee in this, right?"

"Right." Harry sighed and tucked his polo shirt into his jeans. "What are your plans for the day?"

"I've got a pile of notes to organize. Exams will be here before I know it."

"Too bad you don't have Hermione here to draw up revision schedules for you."

"I should have had her do that before she left."

"You should have. She would've been delighted." Harry smiled and pulled on his windbreaker. "All right. I'll see you, but probably not until after dark, all right?"

"All right. Have fun!"

Harry snorted and Apparated out of the flat, leaving Ginny to squint at poorly-written notes. She loved Ben dearly, but his handwriting was atrocious.

"Look at this," she said, showing the paper to Stuart who nosed it. "See, you can't make heads or tails out of it either, can you?" She sighed and got up off the bed to heat some water for tea. She had just set the kettle on the burner when she heard a knock on the door.

"Are you expecting anyone? A lady cat maybe?" she asked the cat as she approached the door. He continued to lick his bottom, declining to answer. Ginny opened the door, barely able to contain her gasp of surprise at the sight of Ignatius on her doorstep.

"Good afternoon, Ginny," he said with a big smile that made him look like some sort of predatory animal rather than putting her at ease.

"Good afternoon," she said, keeping one hand on the door.

"Is Harry home?"

"No, he isn't at the moment."

"Ah. I was hoping to get an opportunity to speak to him. Do you know where he's gone?"

"He's at Jacob's. They're sorting through the scholarship applications," she said, chiding herself for not thinking faster a split second later. I should have made something up!

"Ah yes, the memorial scholarship. I have heard that applications are coming in from far and wide. Seems like young Mr Potter's fame is spreading even here." He drew his hand out of his pocket and she saw that gold coin, watching as he began his tricks with it. As he walked it across the backs of his fingers, she heard that odd ringing again.

Forcing her gaze away from it, she looked him in the eye, hoping she had a pleasant expression on her face. "Is there something I can do for you? Would you like to leave a message for Harry?"

"Yes, there is something you can do for me," he said with a grin that made her very glad for the Blood Seal guarding her threshold. He tossed the coin in the air and her eyes went to it, watching as it turned end over end, flashing in the afternoon sunlight.

Ginny felt as if she were holding her breath until a white blur crossed her vision and she saw Stuart plant all four paws in the middle of Ignatius's chest and push away, coming to land on his feet in the middle of the doorway, back arched and tail puffed out.

The afternoon sunlight was like thick honey, making it look like the coin was moving in slow motion. Ginny watched as the coin spun away from Ignatius, the ringing in her ears becoming louder as it landed with a bounce on the hardwood floor of the flat and rolled away underneath the sofa. Time snapped back and she spun around, dropping to her knees to look under the sofa.

"Bloody cat!" Ignatius growled out on the doorstep. "I'll have my coin back, all right?"

"Yes, it's rolled under the sofa. Just a moment," Ginny called, reaching for the coin. She slapped her hand on top of it and froze.

What do we have here? Someone new, someone…young! And powerful! Yes, I can use you…Ginevra. The voice in her mind was that of a man, a man that sounded like he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted and she knew that she was hearing the voice of a man that had been dead for nearly one hundred and fifty years.

No! You will not!

Oh, but I will! I can see there has already been one other here before me, opening the way. Ginny felt like her mind were a stack of index cards being ruthlessly rifled through before being casually tossed aside. She tried not to think of the name, but there it was, swimming to the surface of her memories. Tom! Yes, dear Tom. You told him all of your secrets, didn't you? All about…Harry…yes.

No! Get out! Get out get out get out!

You and I girl, we will be a team to be reckoned with. We will do the things Tom only dreamed of! With my guidance, you will bring me back and I'll be able to finish what I started as I swore with my dying breath! I will erase Richard Langston's betrayal. Jacob Green will be no more and Cornelius Maxwell will rise again!

No! No one uses me!

Ginny came back to herself at the sensation of Stuart head butting her in the cheek with an anxious-sounding meow. Digging deep, she applied her Occlumency training and shut out the horrible voice. Holding the coin with only her thumb and forefinger, she practically flung it at Ignatius who caught it with a visible look of relief.

Summoning up every shred of Gryffindor courage she possessed, Ginny faced Ignatius. "I'll let Harry know you came by. Good afternoon," she said and closed the door firmly in his face, turning her back and collapsing against it, feeling as if her legs had turned to jelly as she slid down and sat down hard on the floor.

Breathing hard, her mind whirled with her discovery of the coin's terrible secret and she felt cold all over, overcome by uncontrollable shaking. Stuart paced in front of her, rubbing his head on her legs, his thunderous purr going full throttle. The whistle of the kettle added to the noise and Ginny shook herself, slowly standing back up, moving in a daze to shut off the burner under the kettle.

That terrible coin. I've got to tell Harry, she thought, wiping a light sheen of sweat from her brow. She looked down at the tattoo on her arm and reached for her wand. "Arcessito," she whispered, focusing on Summoning Harry with the utmost urgency.

"How many more are there to go?" Harry asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly. He felt like he'd been doing nothing but reading through scholarship application packets for a week solid rather than a few hours.

"I've got ten," said Sheila Watson, one of the board members.

"I have eight left," Jacob yawned, tossing another one onto his reject pile.

"This is my last one," William Moore said, making some notes on the pad of paper next to him.

"And I've got five. All right." Harry sighed and pulled another one over. Vanessa Gonzales, father is Muggle-born…straight A's…excels at Maths, he read, looking over her standardized test scores from the Muggle elementary school she was currently attending. He'd learned that most magical children attended regular elementary schools for the ground work of reading, writing and Maths unless their parents had the time and resources to home school them.

He was deeply immersed in her essay when he felt the Summons. Shit. Urgent, he thought, stuffing down a rising feeling of panic. "Jacob, I just remembered something I said I'd do for Gin today while I was out," he said, setting Vanessa's application aside.

"Oh dear. I don't want to cause you any trouble with her, so I suppose I must excuse you early!" Jacob said cheerfully. "William, since you're done, would you mind finishing up Harry's?"

"Thanks. I've got to get to the shop before it closes," Harry lied, tossing Vanessa's application onto his "accept" pile and grabbing his jacket, tattoo blazing with pain. Not even bothering to leave the drawing room, he Apparated away, breathing a sigh of relief at the abrupt cessation of pain as he appeared in the flat.

A split second later, Ginny's arms were hard around him and her face was buried in his chest, body wracked with sobs. Alarmed, Harry put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her gently away from him, checking for injuries.

"Are you hurt? What happened?" he asked, trying not to sound panicked.

She shook her head and held him close again and he hugged her back, kissing her softly on top of her head as he made calming sounds. Stuart rubbed his body back and forth against their legs as Ginny's sobs gradually wound down. He looked around the flat for an open letter with bad news about her family, but didn't see one. What's got her so upset? Did someone die? Is Ben all right?

"All right?" he said quietly, keeping a tight rein on his own unease as she wiped tears from her face. "What happened?"

"Ignatius showed up here," she said shakily after taking a deep breath.

Harry felt a jolt go through him at her words that almost made the urgent Summons feel like the softest caress. "What? He showed up here? At the door? What did he want?"

"He said he wanted to talk to you, but I don't know what he really wanted." She took another deep breath and looked up at him, her brown eyes puffy and red-rimmed. "Harry, I touched it."

"Touched what?" he asked, a swell of dread filling him.

"That coin," she whispered, eyes haunted. "It's so awful!" She buried her face in his chest again, breathing hard.

"You did what? How? What happened?" He moved her over to the sofa and sat them both down, the cat immediately jumping up in her lap. "Tell me everything," he said, taking her hands in his.

He watched as Ginny visibly gathered herself and took a deep breath. "I was here, working on some notes. I went to put the kettle on and there was a knock at the door. I opened the door, and there he was."

A wave of rage swept through him and he kept his breathing even, not wanting to scare Ginny even worse than she already was. "What did he say?"

"He asked where you were and I said you were at Jacob's. Then he got that coin out and started his tricks with it and I couldn't look away from it. He said there was something I could do for him and the cat…the cat jumped at him and made him drop it. It rolled under the sofa and I went to get it and when I touched it…" she fell silent and Harry put his arm around her, pulling her close.

"Did it hurt you?"

"No, it didn't hurt. It talked to me."

Another shock reverberated through Harry. "What?"

"I heard a voice." Ginny pulled away from him and swiped at her eyes again. "I heard a voice and it…it read my mind, my memories." She looked up at him again, tears spilling over. "Harry, it knew about Tom!"

More sobs wracked her body and Harry held her close, stroking his hand up and down her back as she cried out her panic and fear. Damn you and that diary, Lucius. The gift that keeps on giving. Every instinct he had screamed at him to find Ignatius immediately and end him, but he forced himself to stay on the sofa with Ginny, mastering his emotions.

"And then it said it would use me, guiding me, said I was powerful," she said through hiccups. "Something about revenge on Richard Langston and…"

"And?" Harry prompted quietly.

"And Jacob would be no more and Cornelius would rise again," she finished, taking great gulps of air.

Harry exhaled a long breath. "Are you sure? Cornelius?"

"Yes," she whispered against his chest, sounding a little more in control.

"What happened to the coin?" he asked quietly when she settled down a little more.

"I gave it back to him. I didn't want it in here anymore. I had to use Occlumency to get it out of my head."

"How did you know that would work?"

"I don't know. Just a feeling I had. I gave it back to him and shut the door in his face. Then I Summoned you." She shook her head. "It happened so fast. It seemed like that voice went on for ages, but the kettle hadn't even gone off yet."

Harry rose from the sofa and opened the door, half-expecting Ignatius to still be standing there, utterly relieved when he wasn't. He went down the stairs and glanced in the windows of the Chinese. Everything seemed to be Ignatius-free. Back in the flat, he bent to kiss Ginny. "Come on, get your things together."

"What?"

"We can't stay here. Ignatius knows where we live and I can't have him showing up on you again."

"But, the Blood Seal and Unbreakables," Ginny said, rising from the sofa. She looked lost and confused, causing another hot rush of rage to run through him.

"I'm pretty confident that he wouldn't be able to get in past those himself, but there are still vulnerabilities. And what about going in and out, yeah? I don't need him loitering around the corner, waiting for you or me to walk by." He looked at her and took her hand in his. "Come on, love."

"What about Stuart?" she asked as she slowly started packing up her books and computer.

"He'll come with us. I think he did you a service today," Harry said, looking at the odd-eyed cat. He was sitting calmly on the sofa, tail twitching as he watched.

"Where are we going to go?" She started looking through drawers, pulling things out. "How much should I take?"

"Just things for a few days. We can come back for more if we need to, all right?" Harry took his half-packed go bag out of the closet and added a few more things for work. Turning his attention to his school bag, he made sure he had everything he needed in there, tossing in an extra power cord for the computer. Finished with his packing, he set his bags on the floor next to the door and put together a few essentials for Stuart.

"What about these?" Ginny asked, holding up the vial that contained the tail hair from the water horse and the branch from the cypress tree dryad.

"Those we'll take as well." She nodded and put them away in her first aid kit. Finally, they were ready, the cat stowed away in a carrier Harry had transfigured from a cardboard box.

Ginny stood in the middle of the flat, bags hanging from her shoulders, still looking a little bit lost. "Are we coming back?"

"I don't know, love," Harry said honestly, shouldering his own bags. "I can't have you here alone with that man knowing where we live." She started to tear up again and he stepped toward her, drawing her into an awkward hug. "Hey, it'll be all right. We'll pretend we're on holiday, yeah?"

Ginny nodded and wiped her eyes again. "Well, if we're going on holiday, it better be someplace posh," she said with a brave smile.

"Only the best for you. Come on," he said, holding his hand out to her. Half an hour later, they were setting their things down in their suite at the Fairmont. Ginny opened the cat carrier and Stuart ambled out to investigate his new surroundings, jumping up on the sofa and pressing his face into the pillows.

"Guess we'd better unpack," she sighed, opening their bags and putting things away in the drawers and closet. Harry watched her bustle around, trying to stay busy and keep her mind off of the frightening encounter.

So far he'd managed to keep a lid on his fury, but he felt his grip beginning to fade. Chased from my home. There is going to be hell to pay for this, Ignatius. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, counting down slowly from ten. I need to see Archimedes. I'll send a message and ask him to meet us here.

"Are you all right?" Ginny asked. He opened his eyes to see her concerned look and he smiled.

"Yeah, fine. Are you hungry?" She shrugged and shook her head. "I'll call down to room service and have some sandwich things sent up, all right? And then I'm going to send a message to Archimedes and ask him to meet us here." Ginny nodded and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him again. They stood quietly in the dim bedroom and he gradually felt some degree of control return. He was still incandescently angry, but he no longer felt like he was going to run out into the City and beat Ignatius within an inch of his life.

Finally, she let him go, kissing him on the cheek. "Send your message. I need to tell him what happened." She disappeared into the en suite, the cat hot on her heels and Harry heard the sound of the shower.

Closing his eyes again, he composed his message to Archimedes. Ginny had a run-in with Ignatius and has some information about the coin. Can you meet with us at the Fairmont in an hour? Suite 604. Patronus on its way, Harry turned his attention to room service and picked up the phone, calling down for a selection of sandwiches and fruit.

Thirty minutes later, Ginny was out of the shower, looking much restored and dressed in flannel pajama bottoms and a tank top. Room service had delivered a tray of cold cuts, cheeses and bread along with a selection of soft drinks. Harry had spent the time running through his yoga practice in an effort to calm down, feeling moderately successful.

"All right?" Ginny asked, curling up on the sofa with Stuart in her lap.

"Yeah, fine. Just going to take a quick shower. Archimedes and Sarah should be here soon." His greyhound had trotted through the door with a message to expect them in an hour as requested.

"Sarah's coming too?"

"Is that all right?" Harry asked, pulling off his shirt, relieved to see Ginny nod.

Dressed again in jeans and a tee shirt, he was putting together a sandwich when he heard a knock on their door. Wand out, Harry peered through the peephole, glad to see Archimedes's familiar face.

"Come in," Harry said, opening the door for the both of them and showing them into the sitting room. Ginny was still curled on the sofa, not looking like she'd moved at all. As soon as she saw Sarah, she stood up and rushed into the older woman's arms, looking like she was holding on for dear life as she sobbed into her shoulder.

Sarah held her, rubbing her back and making soothing sounds as Ginny gradually calmed down. Watching her so visibly upset again only stoked the fury Harry had worked so hard to dampen and he had to turn away. He saw Archimedes watching the women, his face unreadable.

"I'm sorry," Ginny apologized, wiping her face and running her fingers through her hair.

"Don't worry about it," Sarah said kindly, hugging her again. "Why don't we sit down and you can tell us all about what happened?"

Ginny sat down on the sofa, Sarah next to her holding her hand. Feeling a little awkward, Harry sat across from them in one of the armchairs, Archimedes taking the other one. Leaning forward, the ex-Auror smiled at Ginny. "So, I understand you had a visit from Ignatius."

"Yes. Harry was out at Jacob's doing the scholarship applications and I was at home, going through my notes. Finals are coming up," Ginny said quietly, eyes on the floor.

"Did he threaten you?"

"No," she shook her head, still looking at the floor. She took a deep breath and Harry could see her gathering herself. "He asked if Harry was there and I said he wasn't, that he was at Jacob's." She gave a small laugh and looked up at Harry, meeting his eyes. "I told myself that I should have made something up. I would have made a terrible Auror."

"Anyway, I asked if he wanted to leave a message for Harry or if there was anything I could do for him and he said that there was something I could do for him and he had that coin out again, doing those tricks he does." She paused for a moment, a frown of concentration on her face. "I heard a kind of ringing in my ears and I felt kind of strange, like I couldn't look away from it and then the cat…" She looked around for him, seeming relived when she spotted him curled up in a corner.

"What did Stuart do?" Sarah asked quietly when Ginny seemed disinclined to go on.

"I don't know where he came from, but he jumped at Ignatius and knocked the coin out of his hand and made it land in the flat where it rolled away under the sofa."

"Stuart did that?" Archimedes asked, giving the cat an amazed look. "What happened next?"

"Ignatius was yelling about getting his coin back, so I looked for it under the sofa and there it was, so I reached out to grab it and when I touched it, I heard a voice…" Ginny said, her own voice trailing off toward the end.

"A voice?" Archimedes prompted after a few moments of silence.

"Yes, a voice," Ginny said, taking a deep breath. "A man's voice. I have to tell you about…" Her eyes went to Harry's and he nodded.

"Ginny had an experience with one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, a diary kept by Tom Riddle when he was a student at Hogwarts," Harry said quietly, watching as understanding dawned on Archimedes's face.

"So, the voice said that someone had already been inside of my mind once and he knew about…Tom. And that he could use me, to get revenge on Richard Langston somehow after I brought him back," Ginny said, focused on recalling as much as she could. "He said that Jacob would be no more and he would rise again."

"Richard Langston," Archimedes murmured quietly. "Did the voice identify himself?"

"He did. He said he was Cornelius Maxwell."

Archimedes was silent, his face an inscrutable mask as he absorbed the information. Harry got up and brought a can of Coke over to Ginny, kissing the top of her head. "You're certain?" Archimedes asked.

"Yes. He said, 'Jacob Green will be no more and Cornelius Maxwell will rise again.' and before that, something about swearing with his dying breath that he would finish what he started," Ginny said, sounding much more relaxed now that the information was out in the open.

"And that's all?"

"Yes. I used Occlumency to get him out of my mind," she said with a quick look at Harry.

"You taught her?" he asked Harry, who nodded.

"I did. I wanted her to be able to protect herself after we met Ignatius."

"You and those instincts," Archimedes said, shaking his head before falling silent. They sat quietly, Ginny laying her head on Sarah's shoulder as the older woman stroked her hair. "So," Archimedes finally said, "another Horcrux?"

"Maybe, but I don't think so," Harry disagreed. "From the way Gin describes it, the coin seems to have a more active…sentience? Awareness? I've never known a Horcrux to behave that way. This is something different." And vastly more terrifying.

"It's not anything I've ever heard of. He mentioned his dying breath?" Ginny nodded again and Archimedes frowned. "Dying breath," he murmured quietly.

"How long are you staying here?" Sarah asked.

"For a few days, at least. I don't like Ignatius knowing where we live and waiting for me or Gin to leave the flat."

"Do you want me to see if I can get a watcher?" Archimedes asked, looking between Harry and Ginny.

Harry looked at Ginny. She looked a bit calmer now, but still frightened, her eyes a little too big in her face. "Gin, do you want someone to watch the flat?" he asked gently and she shrugged, not meeting his eyes. "No, at least not yet. I'll let you know if we change our minds." Privately, he thought they were done with the little studio flat above the Chinese takeaway. We needed a bigger place anyway.

"What about school and the clinic, Harry?" Ginny said, her voice quiet and small.

Harry sighed and took off his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly. "I've been thinking about that. I can't keep you locked up. Just try to never be alone and stay to public places and if you have to Apparate away in front of Muggles, do it and we'll take care of it, all right?"

"All right," she said with a nod. Harry was already planning on spending a lot of time in the clinic waiting room on her late nights. At least they have WiFi, he thought.

"Archimedes, that Horcrux needs to be destroyed. Ignatius won't stop until he has his hands on it and it sounds like he's being driven by whatever fragment of Cornelius is in that coin," Harry said, fixing the older man with a stern look.

"I'm counting on it," he countered mildly.

"I'm sorry, do you not understand what just happened?" Harry asked, feeling a cold thread of unease uncoil in his gut. "That Gin and I have been chased from our home? That she had some…thing invade her mind and threaten her? Archimedes, do you understand that Gin could be dead right now?"

"I'm sorry that Weatherbee has taken this…extreme action, but we still need to catch him doing something wrong."

Harry forced himself to rein in his anger and fear and speak calmly. "Bring him in on possession of a Dark object."

"And then what? 'Oh, dear, I had no idea this was a Dark object. I thought it was just a simple coin from the Gold Rush era. Here, my good sirs, take it away!'," he said, doing a passable imitation of Weatherbee's posh Mayfair accent. "Harry, listen, if what Ginny says is correct, that spirit has been inhabiting that coin for something like 150 years and undoubtedly has been through many owners." He looked at the both of them again and took a deep breath. "The two of you have been through extraordinary circumstances in your lives that have perhaps made you more sensitive to these sorts of things than the average witch or wizard. I doubt I would be able to tell anything if I were to touch it."

"But—"

"It's no guarantee that the mere possession of that coin would bring him down. He turns it in and goes on his way to possibly gain a position on the council where he continues to poison our community," Archimedes said in a patient tone that forced Harry to listen despite his mounting anger and disbelief. "We need to catch him in the act of getting the Horcrux or trying to use it."

Harry felt a jolt of absolute terror at the thought of Ignatius not only getting a hold of the portrait miniature, but actually trying to use it. Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, echoed in his mind. "No."

"Harry, we must," Archimedes said gently, reaching out to put a reassuring hand on his arm. "I understand you're afraid for yourself and Ginny, but please understand that this is our best chance of eliminating him as a threat. After all is done, then we'll destroy the portrait and the coin."

"Archimedes, you know as well as I do that it must be destroyed as soon as possible. I'll do it. We can go right now."

"All in good time," Archimedes said, sitting back in the chair.

"If you won't go with me, I'll go myself," Harry said, standing up with the full intention of Apparating to the Japantown location of the regional Auror office and the basement with the terrible object. The look on Archimedes's face brought him up short.

"May I remind you that you are no longer an Auror? That you have no authority here?" he said quietly, an implicit threat underlying his words. "No one will let you into that chamber, Boy Who Lived or not. If you had accepted my invitation a few weeks ago, this conversation might have gone very differently."

Harry stood, fists clenched, so angry he was almost dizzy with the feeling. He could feel his heartbeat pounding in his temples and he struggled to keep himself from leaping at Archimedes. He felt an electricity all through him and knew he was dangerously close to unleashing a blast of uncontrolled magic. Through his anger, he saw the older man was tensed and ready for him, expecting him to make a move and oddly, that helped Harry calm down a little. He glanced at Ginny and saw her looking at him, small and frightened curled up next to Sarah on the sofa.

The rage drained out of him in a rush, leaving him feeling faint and exhausted, his legs shaking. He thought he could smell a faint tinge of ozone in the air. "Thank you for coming at my call. I think it's time for you to go," he said quietly, watching as Sarah whispered in Ginny's ear. Ginny shook her head and Sarah patted her hand before rising to join her husband.

"I'll be in touch," Archimedes said, opening the door to the room.

"Fine."

As soon as the door closed, Harry collapsed into an armchair, holding his head in his hands and trying to sort out his feelings. He felt stung and betrayed that Archimedes would throw his refusal to join the US Aurors in his face like that. I guess I know your true colors now, he thought grimly. He still felt a strong urge to chase down Ignatius pulling at him, but he knew that would be just about the worst thing he could do right now. I can't give him the least little thing to use against me. In his eyes, I'm just a small step above a Muggle-born and he'd use me as an example of how dangerous it is to teach magic to those with 'tainted' blood. If Ron were still here, that man would be a grease spot by now.

As he sat, he felt Ginny's hands in his hair and he looked up. She gave him a hesitant smile and curled up in his lap, laying her head against his chest with her arms wrapped tightly around him. Harry held on tight, resting his chin on top of her head, focusing on the feeling of her safe and sound in his arms. Slowly, the desire to Apparate away into the night and chase down Ignatius settled down from a raging fire to a slow burn, but Harry knew that it wouldn't completely go away until the whole sorry business was done.

"All right?" Ginny whispered, looking up at him and running her thumb over his cheekbone.

"Yeah," he whispered back, kissing her gently. "You?"

Ginny shrugged and lay her head back on his chest. Stuart came nosing around and jumped up in her lap, turning around a few times before settling down. "Do you…" Ginny began after several moments.

Harry waited for her to continue and when she didn't, he prompted her. "Do I what?"

"Do you want to join Archimedes? The Aurors?" she asked, not looking at him.

"No, love. I want to shred Ignatius Weatherbee limb from limb. Being an Auror precludes that a little," he said, trying for a little levity, but he could tell it had fallen flat.

"But Archimedes said…maybe it would be easier for you if you were?"

"It would be easier for Archimedes. Then he could send me after whoever was irritating him that day, same as they did in London," Harry said, thinking back to his last months with the Aurors. The endless requests, special assignments and increased pressure to take risks once Ron had left, all with the dangling promise of future greatness.

"I thought you were going to go after him," she said, breaking the silence.

"I thought I was, too. He was ready for me to. Did I frighten you?"

"A little. You really frightened Sarah."

"I'll have to apologize to her," he sighed, feeling terrible that gentle Sarah had seen that side of him. "What did she say to you before they left?"

"She offered for me to come and stay with them." While not completely unexpected given what she'd seen, Harry still felt a flush of embarrassment.

"Thank you for staying," he whispered, her hair soft against his lips.

"I don't belong anywhere else." She hugged him tighter and he felt some of the anxiety he'd been feeling lessen. While not an actual, conscious thought, he realized he'd been worried that she would want to stay somewhere apart from him in fear of her own safety. "Matthew was right," she said, tracing one finger along a vein in his neck.

Surprised to hear that name, Harry snorted. "About what?"

"You can be one scary bastard."

In spite of himself, Harry smiled. "He said that? When?"

"When I asked him about your little visit."

"Fair enough. I was at least putting some effort into it." He was quiet for a moment, thinking of that evening and the fallout he'd suffered afterward. "Sorry."

"Don't be. That was rude of Archimedes to even say that. Are you quits now?"

"No," Harry said with a long exhale. "As much as I hate to admit it, he has a point. He could easily claim that he had no idea the coin was a Dark object. He could spin it and say that he got it from someone and say that they were trying to undermine his chances or claim entrapment. It's too easy for him to weasel out of." He shook his head and closed his eyes. "We need to give him enough rope to hang himself with."

"I'm worried about Jacob. The voice in the coin said Jacob Green would be no more."

"I think Jacob is safe enough as long as Ignatius doesn't get his hands on that Horcrux. Whatever that coin is, I don't think it's the key." What is that coin? The voice mentioned an oath sworn with his dying breath…I need to find out what that means. Well, I'll have time to go through Dumbledore's books, he thought, visualizing long evenings spent in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs at the clinic, waiting for Ginny.

"Do you think you should say something to him?"

"I've tried warning him off of Ignatius before, but he doesn't listen," Harry said, shaking his head. "I imagine Archimedes will set a watcher on him or have a chat with Evelyn." The mention of the man almost prompted him to send his stag out, but he decided against it. Mutual cooling-off period is in order, I think.

Ginny was quiet again and before too long, Harry could tell she was asleep. He shifted a little bit in the chair, getting more comfortable. He lowered the lights, setting a Cooling Charm on the room service items and took off his glasses, putting them carefully on the arm of the chair before settling his own head back and closing his eyes.

Dying breath…what can a wizard do with his dying breath?

"So what are we doing today?" Ginny asked, popping a strawberry into her mouth. It was a fine spring morning and she and Harry were out on the balcony of their suite having breakfast in the fresh air.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?" Harry asked, stirring his tea. She looked at him, the morning sunlight making highlights in his hair. The memory of waking up in his arms on the armchair in the middle of the night came back to her.

At first, she'd been disoriented by the unfamiliar surroundings, but then she remembered the voice in the coin and she shivered, waking Harry out of what must have been a light doze. Instantly alert, he raised the lights, making her squint at the sudden brightness. "All right?" he asked, putting his glasses back on.

"I'm fine. This can't be too comfortable for you though," she said, shifting around. The cat was still on her lap and he stood up and stretched, arching his back with a huge cat yawn.

"I'm comfortable," Harry insisted, hugging her tighter and kissing her on the temple.

Turning to face him, Ginny ran her palm across his scratchy cheek, taking off his glasses and drawing him toward her for a soft kiss. She still felt rattled over the events of the day, but kissing Harry always made those other things fade to insignificance. In the armchair, they made out like teenagers until her lips felt bruised and his five o'clock shadow had rubbed her face nearly raw. She felt like she'd been transported to her schoolgirl days, sneaking time with her boyfriend, filling the limited time with as much kissing as possible.

She had her hand planted on his chest, feeling his rapid heartbeat echoed in the dizzying pace of her own. "Let's go to bed," she whispered against his lips. Rising from his lap, Ginny bent and kissed him again, nearly ending up back in his lap. Feeling giddy, she disentangled herself from his arms and walked slowly backwards to the bedroom, hoping that she wouldn't bump into the doorway and spoil her seduction.

Watching Harry as he walked toward her, she flashed back to how he'd looked earlier when he'd been so incandescently angry at Archimedes, the barely-leashed power practically crackling around him and making all of the small hairs on her body stand up. She'd been briefly reminded of the way he'd charged the air around him as a mere seventeen-year-old boy, locked in mortal combat with the darkest of the Dark.

"Why do they put so many pillows on the bed?" she asked, throwing one at Harry who dodged it easily, catching her square in the face with one that looked like a Tootsie Roll.

"So we can have a pillow fight?" Somehow, he'd managed to shed his tee shirt and jeans without her noticing, slipping under the covers in his boxers. She got in next to him, nestling her back against his chest, trying to ignore the fact that the bed was too soft and the pillows were all the wrong firmness. Harry's arm was tight against her waist and she heard him let out a shuddering breath.

"What's wrong?" she asked, turning to face him. His eyes were shut tight and he shook his head, turning away from her. Delayed reaction, she thought, pulling him closer. We're safe and now it comes.

"You could have died," he said in a hoarse whisper. "God, Gin, he could have killed you where you stood."

"No, the Blood Seal—"

"It can't stop a curse. If he'd used the Killing Curse…" He closed his eyes again, letting out a low groan and burying his face in her neck. She held him as he fell apart in her arms, harsh sobs wracking his body. Ginny stroked her fingers through his hair, making soothing murmurs as he slowly regained control. Lying flat on his back, he took a deep breath and wiped his eyes, not meeting hers. She quietly got out of bed and brought him a glass of water, using her wand to get rid of the headache she knew he had.

"Better?" she asked, settling down next to him again, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah. Thanks," he said, voice still sounding rough. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize. You held it together while I fell apart." She rested her hand on his stomach, kissing his neck when he put his hand over hers. Turning back onto her side, she pulled Harry to her, secure again with his arm around her waist. "Let's get some rest, okay?"

It seemed as if Harry had other ideas, however, as he slid his hand underneath her tank top to caress her breasts, running his fingers lightly over her warm skin before pulling her firmly against him. His lips were fastened onto her neck, nibbling and sucking, tongue darting out to taste her, whispering disjointed words and phrases in between kisses.

A whirl of desire spun through her, making her stomach tremble and her breathing ragged. Harry chose that moment to fasten his lips onto the nape of her neck and suck hard, bringing forth a gasp at the sharp pain as he marked her. She started to shift around to face him, but he held her still. "No, stay right there," he said, whispered words hot in her ear as he swept his hand down her ribs and over the sensitive skin of her belly, coming to rest on her hip.

Pulling her harder against him, she felt his stiff cock against her bottom and her breath caught in her throat, another burst of heat coming from deep inside of her. Light as a spider, Harry's fingers traced a pattern on her hip as he continued to kiss her neck before slipping under the waistband of her pajama bottoms. "No knickers?" he asked, nibbling on her earlobe.

"Too much of a bother," she said, giving a little gasp when he made contact with her clit, touching her in the exact way she liked best.

"You should not bother more often." He exerted more pressure, sliding his fingers further down to tease at her entrance, making her gasp again and buck her hips, pushing back against him as he pressed his hips into her with a groan.

"Too uncomfortable with trousers," she said, working her pajama bottoms down and kicking them off her feet under the covers.

"True." Harry slipped his arm under her leg, lifting it up to rest on his thigh as he continued his explorations. Ginny closed her eyes, shutting out the foreign surroundings and the reason for them, focusing instead on the sensations of his fingers sliding around and through her wetness as he brought her to shuddering climax.

A moment later, she realized that his boxers were gone and she smiled. "You owe yourself a new pair of boxers," she said, turning her head towards him.

"They were old anyway. Had a hole in the arse," he responded, sighing as he slid into her. They lay still for a moment, Ginny enjoying the feeling of being filled by him in this way. This wasn't a usual thing for them and she remembered the first time they'd tried it, back when they were still learning how their bodies could work together. Nearly fell off the bed.

Unaccustomed to this sort of passivity in their lovemaking, she rocked her hips against Harry's, their movements unhurried, his breath soft and warm against her neck. Wanting to feel more, she took his hand from her hip, guiding him back to her clit and showing him what she wanted him to do until she felt that she would break apart into tiny pieces. As she came, she heard his own breathing change, beginning to catch in little hitches and she reached back, stroking her hand along his flank, feeling the little hairs rising at her touch.

A soft exhalation of her name and she felt him tense and then relax as he finally found his release inside her. Feeling like an owl, she turned her head as far as she could, searching out Harry's mouth for a soft kiss. "Love you so much," he murmured against her lips.

"Love you, too. I'm not going anywhere, all right?" He nodded, kissing her again and hugged her tightly before letting her go. She was very glad to lower her leg and she rubbed it surreptitiously, knowing she'd be a bit sore in the morning. Finally able to turn around, she ran her hands over his neck and chest before kissing him again. Relaxing onto her back, Harry rested his head on her breast and she held him close, stroking his hair until he finally slipped off into sleep.

And now this morning, he seemed to be back to his regular self as he read his usual newspapers and drank tea in the sunlight. She looked out into the City, the view completely different from what she was used to. "Let's get out of town for the day," she said, dipping another strawberry in her yogurt.

"Yeah? Where do you want to go?" Harry set aside his newspaper and looked at her.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I just don't want to be here today, you know?"

"I do." He sat back in the chair, sipping his tea and looking off into the distance. She finished her yogurt, letting him think until he smiled at her, eyes bright. "I've got it."

"That didn't take very long. Where are we going?" she asked as he bounced out of his seat.

"It's a surprise. Come on, get dressed and pack yourself an overnight."

"Overnight? I thought we were just getting out for the day? We've got school and work tomorrow."

Harry took her hand and pulled her out of her seat. "Love, I promise all will be revealed if you just get dressed and packed, all right?"

"All right," she said, catching some of Harry's excitement as she followed him into the bedroom. A glance at the bed reminded her of their late-night activities. "I still need to shower."

"What are you waiting for?" he asked with a grin as he dropped his trackies, standing completely starkers in front of her.

"Japanese-style then?" she asked, a slow grin spreading across her face.

Good thing the Fairmont has enormous showers, she thought afterward as she looked over the things she'd brought with her after fleeing their flat. "How should I dress?"

"You know what I prefer," Harry said with a wicked grin as he pulled a polo shirt over his head. "I dunno. Let's see, comfortable I guess?"

"Are we going someplace warm?"

"Hmm…bring a jacket, just in case."

"You're being very mysterious, Mr Potter," Ginny said as she pulled on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved tee shirt.

"It's just part of my charm."

"What about the cat?" she asked, catching sight of Stuart curled up in a chair. She heard Harry rustling around and the sound of far too much kibble being poured into the cat's dish. Stuart perked up and ran over to investigate. Ginny looked at the overflowing dish and frowned. "Harry, he'll get fat."

"Well you don't want him to starve, do you? Come on, it's just overnight. Aren't you ready yet?" he asked, putting out the "Do not disturb" sign and making sure the door to the balcony was secure.

She shook her head at his impatience and picked up her packed bag. "Yes."

"Let's go." He took her hand and Apparated the both of them out of the hotel room without a sound.

26. Chapter 26

"Oh my goodness," Ginny breathed as they entered the huge marble-floored station. "This place is huge!" People were swarming all around, every single one of them in a hurry to get somewhere and Harry put his arm around her shoulder, drawing her to the wall where she wouldn't be as much in the way.

"I told you," he said, smiling down at her. "Look up."

She did and gasped again. "Wow! Look at that!" She frowned after a moment and then grinned. "They're all backwards!"

"I know! Not sure if it was on purpose or accident and they just decided to leave it that way." Harry looked up at the ceiling himself, admiring the gold-painted constellations against the blue backdrop, remembering the first time he'd seen it all those years ago when he and Ron had come to New York on assignment.

"Well, who knew that Portkey arrivals for New York would be buried in Grand Central?" Ginny said, still looking up at the ceiling.

"Makes sense. It's already a huge travel hub." He watched her looking around, trying to take everything in at once and felt a welcome surge of happiness. "Are you going to gawk around here all day or do you want to see more?" he asked, taking her hand.

"Harry, don't be an arse," she said, sticking her tongue out at him and wrinkling her nose. "Lead on!" Feeling lighter than he had in twenty-four hours, Harry led Ginny through the echoing station toward the exit and the welcome sunshine. "Are we walking or Apparating?" she asked as they left the building.

"I thought we'd walk. It's only about a mile or so," he said, heading toward 46th St.

"Well, I don't even know where we're going, so I guess I'm all right with that," she said with a happy smile. Harry felt relieved that yesterday's events hadn't beaten her down; it was never a good time when she was reminded about her experience with that diary and "Tom".

"I promise you'll like it."

"I definitely like you," she said, sending another flutter of happiness through him. They headed up 5th Ave, Ginny still trying to take everything in at once. "It's really noisy here," she said as taxicabs blared their horns in a fruitless effort to get ahead in the congested traffic.

"Yeah it is. Drove Ron absolutely crazy the first time we were here," Harry said, wincing at a particularly enthusiastic blast.

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"Not so much," he said with a shrug.

"You'd think that of all places, this would bother you the most," she said, slowing down to look in a shop window.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, it's awfully hard to hear someone sneaking up on you when there's this much noise, isn't it?"

"That's true," Harry said, thinking over what she said. "It's the places that are too quiet that get me, I suppose. Here, shit's going on all the time and I'm already expecting something to come at me, but when things are quiet and I relax…then I get nervous." He shook his head. "Never really thought about it before."

"You're a creature of instinct," Ginny said, giving his hand a hard squeeze.

"Hm," he grunted, thinking of how he'd woken out of a sound sleep in the wee hours of the morning to prowl around the suite. He'd stood in front of the main door to the room, heart beating wildly, absolutely convinced that Ignatius was standing just outside, ready to cast the Killing Curse as soon as he opened the door.

No such thing happened of course. He flung open the door, praying he wouldn't wake Ginny, and jumped out into the hallway which was totally and completely empty save for him and one curious cat. Feeling foolish, he shooed the cat back into the room and closed the door firmly behind them, engaging the extra locks.

Next, he checked the french doors leading to the balcony and then the balcony itself, leaning over to get a good look at the balconies on either side. When no grinning madman presented himself, he sighed and scrubbed his hands through his hair, going back into the bedroom, watching Ginny as she slept. She had a frown on her face and turned over, mumbling indistinct words as she burrowed further underneath the covers.

Knowing he was done for sleep, Harry still slipped in next to her, gathering her warm body close to his and kissing her gently until that frown went away and she relaxed into deep, true sleep.

"Oh! A wedding!" Ginny exclaimed, bringing Harry back to the present and he looked up to see a large group of very nicely-dressed people on the steps of St Patrick's Cathedral. As they watched, the bride and groom came out onto the steps to loud cheers and a limousine rolled up to the curb. Ginny sighed happily as the newlyweds ran down the steps of the cathedral and into the waiting car, watching as it rolled away.

They made their way through the wedding guests and gawkers, continuing down 5th Ave. "See anywhere you want to stop?" Harry asked as she continued to peer into shop windows.

"No, I just like looking. Oh, what's over there?" she said, pulling him over to a window full of exquisite jewelry tastefully displayed. He watched as she eyed it critically, making sounds of agreement or disagreement for each piece on display.

"See anything you like?"

"Mmm, there's some nice pieces, but a lot of it isn't really my style. Too gaudy," she said, fingering the simple gold necklace Ron and Hermione had given her, the caduceus charm flashing in the sunlight. She flexed her fingers. "Can't have these weighed down when I'm cutting into bodies, you know."

"I'll keep that in mind," Harry said, taking her hand again as they walked away from the jewelry display. At the corner of 5th Ave and East 58th St, a gleaming glass cube caught his eye and he turned his head.

"See anything you like?" Ginny asked with a smirk.

"I've got what I like right here," he said, kissing her on the temple. "Come on, let's cross here." A few minutes later, they were standing in front of the Plaza Hotel.

"Harry, you can't be serious," Ginny said incredulously.

"Why?" he asked, stopping when she didn't follow him up the steps.

"Harry, it's the Plaza," she said, seeming at a loss for words.

"Yeah. And?"

She sighed and shook her head. "It's expensive!" she hissed, crossing her arms.

"You bet your arse it is. Come on." He turned and mounted the rest of the steps, nodding to the young man who opened the door for him.

"You are impossible," Ginny murmured behind him, following him into the sumptuous lobby.

He grinned and walked straight to the check-in desk. "Hello, yes, I'd like one of your Edwardian Suites for the night," he said to the well-dressed young man behind the counter.

"One bedroom or two?" the young man asked, tapping at the keyboard in front of him.

"One, please," Harry said, glancing at Ginny.

A few moments of tapping and the young man frowned. "I'm sorry sir, but it looks like all of our Edwardian Suites are booked for the night." Harry sighed and took out his wallet, dropping the black card on the counter in front of him. It landed with a metallic ring. "I see one just opened up. One moment Mr…Potter."

"Thank you," he said, grinning at Ginny as she shook her head at him.

"Do you have any luggage?"

"No."

"And just the one night?"

"Yes." Harry signed the slip and took the keycards, putting his credit card back in his wallet. He was glad to see their room was up on the nineteenth floor as they headed for the elevator. Ginny still looked a bit overwhelmed. "You all right?" he asked as the elevator doors closed.

"I read all of the Eloise books when I was little," she said with a smile.

"Who's that?"

"A little girl that lived at the Plaza with her nanny and her dog. Aunt Muriel got them for me." The elevator stopped and they got out, walking down the richly-carpeted hall toward their room. "I loved the idea of living in a fancy hotel, doing whatever I wanted…no brothers ruining everything."

"Well, there're no brothers here," Harry said, unlocking the door. He watched Ginny as she came into the room, stark disbelief in her eyes as she took in the sitting room, bedroom and enormous bathroom with the huge bathtub. Leaning against the bathroom doorway, he wondered if he'd gone too far in choosing the Plaza. "Is this all right?"

"Harry, you spoil me too much," she said, putting her hands on his hips.

"There's no such thing," he whispered, resting his forehead against hers before kissing her. He was starting to think of giving the huge bed a tryout when Ginny pulled away and looked up at him, brown eyes sparkling with mirth. "What?" he asked a bit breathlessly.

"We're only here for today, right?"

"Well, as you pointed out, we have work and school in the morning."

"What did you have planned?"

"Nothing. Why? Do you have something in mind?" he asked, leaning down to kiss her again, loving the feeling of her soft lips against his.

"As wonderful as snogging in a hotel loo doorway is, this isn't quite how I'd fancied spending my first time in New York."

"We could snog on the bed. Or the couch. How about the floor?" he asked, making his way down her neck, her soft sounds making him hard.

"But it's such a nice day outside," she said, running her fingernails over his scalp and making it tingle.

"We do have a terrace." He bit down lightly on the tendon in her neck, making her jump.

She laughed and backed out of his grasp. "Come on, Romeo. We have a whole city to see," she said, giving him a playful swat on his arse.

Outside, they walked along 5th Ave next to the park in the fine spring air. The tree-lined walkway was crowded with vendors selling anything and everything, the smell of sausages and pretzels filling the air. They'd basically just had breakfast, but here it was getting on toward lunchtime. It was as if the vendors were deliberately sending delicious scents his way and Harry felt his stomach rumble. "Hang on," he said, veering toward a cart.

"You just ate," Ginny said.

Harry shrugged sheepishly. "You want one?" he asked, accepting a hot dog piled with sauerkraut from the vendor.

"Honestly." She shook her head at him and looked at the cart's menu board. "Get me a pretzel, please."

"I thought you just ate?"

"Hmph," was all she had to say.

They continued along, taking in the sights and sounds of the city around them. Harry was indeed on high alert as he always was when surrounded by this many people, but the idea that Ignatius Weatherbee would suddenly appear in front of them was not something he was worried about. "So," Ginny said, breaking him out of his thoughts of what he would do to Ignatius the next time he saw him, "this is where you got shot?"

"No, I didn't get shot here. I got shot in Queens," he said, not really surprised to hear her ask the question.

"I see. And Queens is…?"

"One of the other boroughs. Over there somewhere," he said, gesturing vaguely to the east. I haven't thought of that in years, he thought, feeling a momentary twinge in his right bicep. The scar was just a tiny dimple now and if it hadn't been for Ron's big mouth, Ginny would have never even known.

"You never told me the whole story."

"With good reason. When you found out about it, I thought you were going to shoot me yourself," he said lightly.

"I thought about it. Would have served you right," she said, poking him sharply in the ribs. "So, what exactly happened?"

Harry sighed, thinking back. He didn't like to dredge up that memory, but she did have a right to know. "Well, you know Ron and I were sent here to get Maurice White, right? He was making the drugs and selling to Muggles." Ginny nodded and he went on. "He'd lit out of Manchester and we didn't know where he'd gone until we saw news reports of a few Muggles going mad in the streets and attacking each other here."

"But why did he shoot you?" she asked, not looking at him.

"We had him cornered and Ron had gotten his wand away from him. The gun was his backup. I guess a Muggle with a gunshot wound is less suspicious than a dead one without a mark on him." Harry shook his head, remembering his moment of absolute shock when Maurice had pulled the snub-nosed pistol out of his waistband and pointed it at him.

"I take it you weren't expecting it?"

"No, and I should have. Thought he was defenseless without his wand. Arrogant arse," he snorted. "Good thing he had terrible aim and wasn't expecting the kick." In his mind's eye, he saw Maurice, crouched down at the end of the alley with nowhere to go, saw him stand up, the gun appearing in his hand as if by magic.

I'm not going back, he'd roared, taking aim at his chest and firing faster than Harry thought possible, Ron's shout of GUN! still ringing in his ears. An explosion of pain in his right arm, fully extended to cast a Stunner, dropped him to the filthy pavement of the alleyway, Ron's Stunner sending Maurice White down a split second later.

"Never made that mistake again, that's for sure," he said with a shrug, shaking off the memory of lying bleeding and in shock with Ron hurriedly patching him up. Ginny was quiet as they walked and Harry put his arm around her shoulders. "All right?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded, finally looking up at him. "Thanks for telling me. And you're right, I probably would have shot you myself."

"So I've successfully dodged at least one bullet, then."

"Ha ha, don't quit your day job," she said, jabbing him in the ribs again, making him laugh. She was quiet for about half a block before she spoke. "Can you? Shoot a gun?"

"Yeah. Aurors go through weapons training. I can shoot a gun, swing a sword passably well, pull the pin and throw a grenade. Ron's a better shot than me, though. Not that I'd admit that to him."

"Oh, something I can blackmail you with," she said, her eyes alight with humor. Harry was glad that the subject matter hadn't brought her down and he smiled along with her.

"If that's the best thing you've got to blackmail me with, I don't have anything to worry about," he whispered, leaning close.

"You give me new material every single day," she whispered back, leaning up to kiss him. Intellectually, he knew they were on a busy walkway in the middle of a busy city, but found that he couldn't muster up the wherewithal to care about anything but the sun on his back and Ginny in his arms, her soft lips pressing against his. A long blast from a car horn caused them to spring apart, Ginny's face flaming.

"I guess we should move on then, yeah?" Harry grinned, reaching for her hand.

"I guess so!"

They continued their walk, Ginny chattering about the skyscrapers, the noise and all of the people. "How many people live here?" she asked as they waited at a crosswalk.

"Well, on the island of Manhattan or in all of New York City?"

"Just Manhattan. That's where we are, right?"

"It is. Hmm, it's been a while, but the last figure I heard was something like one and a half million or so?"

"Just here? How big is this island?"

"I dunno," Harry shrugged. "Not my area of expertise, is it?" he asked with a cheeky smile.

"What is your area of expertise?"

"Why don't we go back to the hotel and I'll show you?" he said, pleased when she blushed and slapped his arm.

"What's this building here? Oh! The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Can we go?" she asked, squeezing his hand in excitement.

"If they're open today, sure," he said, remembering long afternoons spent wandering through the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square when they had nothing better to do and then coffee in the basement of St Martin in the Fields afterwards. She had loved looking at the art; he had loved looking at her. They walked up the steps to the entrance. "Looks like you've got until 5:30 today."

"Oh, I'll have to go into targeted strike mode," she said with a little hop of anticipation. Once inside, she examined the map, leading the way to a gallery of drawings and prints. Harry watched as she walked slowly through the gallery, looking very carefully at some pieces while completely bypassing others.

As he watched, he saw her flexing her fingers and he smiled. "Be right back," he whispered in the quiet gallery. Focused on the piece in front of her, she nodded distractedly. He headed down to the shop he'd seen on the way in, looking around until he found a small sketchbook and a set of pencils. I know she left her drawing things back at the flat, he thought as he paid and jogged back up the stairs to the drawings gallery.

Tapping Ginny on the shoulder, he grinned at her jump of surprise. "Harry! What—oh!"

"I remembered how you always liked to draw when we went to the National Gallery," he said, feeling almost shy as he handed the sketchbook and pencils to her.

"Thank you, love," she said, bringing his mouth down to hers for a kiss. She looked at the sketchbook, fanning out the pages and looking at the pencils. She took one out and stuck it behind her ear, tucking the rest of the package in her purse. Harry settled himself on a bench and watched as Ginny approached a drawing and opened the sketchbook, taking a deep breath before setting pencil to paper.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a similar fashion with Harry and Ginny making their slow way through the galleries that interested them most. Where other people took photographs, Ginny sketched, shyly showing Harry her results. As he watched her enjoy herself, surrounded by nothing but beautiful things, he hoped the upsetting events of yesterday were fading away for her.

I'm going to have to make nice with Archimedes, he thought with a sigh. I've got to see this through to the end. Or, I could go after Weatherbee myself…and land in a whole bunch of hot water when that arsehole falls off the face of the Earth with zero explanation. He sat brooding, staring at a statue of a Roman Centurion not wearing nearly enough armor. That damn coin. Dying breath…I still need to figure out what that's all about. The way Gin described it, it's like there's some sort of consciousness in it. I wonder if that consciousness has…memories…?

"Knut for your thoughts," Ginny said, sitting down on the bench next to him and breaking him out of his reverie.

He put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. "Having fun drawing pictures of naked people?"

"As always. See?" she said, opening her sketchbook to show him her sketch of an exquisitely-carved young man. Harry looked at the drawing and then the sculpture, raising his eyebrows. "Artistic license," she said primly, shutting the book.

"I see. Maybe I should let you draw me in the nude, then?" he said, nuzzling her neck.

"Maybe you should." She turned toward him and kissed him, opening her mouth to his. They kissed on the bench, her hands threading into his hair, giving him a delicious shivery feeling.

"Excuse me," said a voice close to Harry's ear, "this is a place for families."

Harry turned to see a suited guard looking at them sternly and he felt a hot rush of embarrassment. "Ah, yes, sir. Sorry." He glanced at Ginny and saw her face was redder than he'd ever seen it before. Taking her hand, he stood up, trying not to walk too quickly out of the gallery, Ginny giggling beside him.

Laughing, they fled through another sculpture gallery toward the Great Hall where Ginny stopped. "No, wait. I want to see the temple," she said, pulling him away from the exit.

"What temple?"

She pulled out the map and unfolded it. "The Temple of Dendur, see?" she said, pointing it out on the map. "I want to draw some of the hieroglyphics on it."

"All right. They're almost closing though." A moment later, they entered the gallery with the temple. One wall was all window, filling the gallery with late afternoon light and making the ancient stones glow. A moat surrounded three sides of the temple, making it seem as if it were on an island.

Ginny took her time walking around the temple, looking like she was trying to absorb the carvings into herself. Harry caressed her shoulder and cocked his head over to the benches by the moat and she nodded.

This area was less crowded which was nice because he had been developing a bit of a headache from the constant pressure of people surrounding him in an unfamiliar environment. Ginny came into view again, sketchbook open, peering intently at a carving on the wall as she began to draw. The angle of the sun shifted just enough to catch her hair, making it look like living fire and his breath caught in his chest.

Again, the thought that he could have lost her came to him. It would have been so easy for Ignatius to use any of the Unforgivables, taking her away from him forever. If he'd commanded her to stop loving me, commanded her to leave me, to kill me…or driven her mad with pain… He suppressed a shudder, fighting the chill that threatened to trickle down his spine.

I can't lose her again, he thought, absently tracing the outline of his half of the Galleon in his pocket as he came to a decision. Feeling as if he were an outside observer, he stood up and approached Ginny. She was still intent on her drawing and didn't notice him until he pushed her shoulder-length hair aside and kissed her neck.

"Harry, what—" she began, turning to look at him, brown eyes full of mischief.

"Marry me." His heart felt like it was going to pound right out of his chest as she looked at him for a breathless eternity.

"All right," she said, allowing Harry to breathe again. Wrapping his arms tightly around her, he buried his nose in her hair, breathing deeply of her scent, feeling almost dizzy with it. Dimly, he heard her sketchbook hit the marble floor with a loud thwack as she hugged him back, nearly squeezing the air out of him again.

Taking a step back, he looked down at her, swiping a tear from her cheek with his thumb, feeling tears threatening in his own eyes. I don't care if this is a family place, he thought as he leaned down to kiss her, exulting as she kissed him back just as hard.

"Oh my God, I think they just got engaged," he heard a woman whisper nearby as they broke apart, grinning at each other like a couple of fools.

"I wouldn't say no to either one of them," her companion said, making him break out in laughter, Ginny following him with great guffaws of her own. Bending to pick up her sketchbook, he took her hand, nodding to the two women which sent Ginny into more gales of laughter, echoing off the walls of the gallery.

Holding hands, they giggled their way through the Great Hall and back outside, pausing on the steps as the noise of New York City rushed back at them. "Oh my God, I think we just got engaged," Ginny grinned, setting Harry off again.

"I need to sit down for a moment," he said, sitting down on the top step. Ginny sat next to him, sketchbook on her knees.

"Now what?" she asked, bumping his shoulder with hers.

"I don't know. Never gotten this far." He turned to look at her, feeling his heart swell again. "Don't girls have all of this planned out by the time they're thirteen?"

"Thirteen? I had this all planned out as soon as I saw you at platform nine and three-quarters," she said, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Precocious," he said, leaning in for a kiss.

"You don't know the half of it." They sat quietly as New York rushed all around them, Harry feeling as if they were in a little bubble where time didn't really exist.

"Do you want a ring?" he asked quietly.

"If you want to give me one."

"I do."

She looked at him, enigmatic smile playing on her lips. "I guess we'd better go shopping, then. Unless you've got one I don't know about."

Harry shook his head, briefly wondering if his father had given his mother an engagement ring. He'd never found any rings in their vault and had always presumed they'd been buried with them. "No better place than New York for jewelry shopping," he said, pulling her close to him.

Ginny laid her head on his shoulder and in that perfect moment, everything was right with the world. No crazy former Death Eater, no lying maybe-not-ex-Aurors, no Headmasters, no impending exams, Harry thought, kissing her on top of her head. If only we could stay right here and now. He sighed and nudged her. "Come on, I don't know how late the shops are open here today."

"Where are we going?" she asked as he pulled her up from her seat on the step.

"Um, well, there was that window you looked in earlier? How about there?"

"Oh, I don't know, that place is really expensive." Ginny took his hand as they ambled back down the walkway in the direction they'd come.

"Let me worry about that, yeah?"

Ginny made a non-committal sound, eyes going to some tables set up on the walkway near the museum. She wandered over to one young man selling photographs and began flipping through a bin, finally pulling one out and showing Harry. "What do you think?"

Harry looked at the photograph. It was a nice picture of one of the lions in front of the New York Public Library with springtime foliage behind it. "I like it."

"Appropriate for our first trip together, don't you think? A lion?"

"Definitely," he said as he paid the vendor. "Is this our thing now?"

"Well, Sarah was showing me the art she and Archimedes have collected on their travels and it seems like a fun way to remember where we've been," Ginny said, tucking the piece into the bag the young man gave her. "Just need to get it framed and decide where to hang it."

They walked away and Harry saw her smile falter a little bit. She sighed and looked up at him. "We're never going back to that flat again, are we?"

"No, love."

"Even if Ignatius…"

Harry shook his head. "Would you be able to live there again? Every time you opened the door, wouldn't you be wondering who was waiting out there for you?" Ginny looked down at the pavement and he put his arm around her shoulders. "Sorry to make you think about that, but I don't think I could stand it."

"No, you're right," she sighed. "Besides, we need a bigger place if Teddy's going to spend the summer with us."

"An actual bedroom with an actual door."

"Pure luxury," she said recovering her natural good humor. Soon, they reached their destination and Ginny paused outside of the ornate doors. "Are you sure about this?"

"Which part? Spending the rest of my life with you or spending ungodly amounts of money?"

"Prat," she said affectionately.

"Listen," he said, taking her hands in his. "I love you very much and you can have whatever you want in that store as long as it's something that communicates to each and every bloke out there that you're mine."

"If you want that, maybe I should get 'Property of Harry Potter' tattooed on my forehead?"

"Hm, if you move it to your arse, you've got a deal," he said, kissing her unmarked forehead. "Let's go find you something beautiful to wear."

Inside, Ginny took her time perusing the engagement rings, pronouncing the traditional, large-stoned styles too impractical for everyday wear. "I'm constantly putting on and taking off rubber gloves at the clinic and this would get in the way, don't you think?" she asked, looking at a ring with a heart-shaped diamond on her finger.

"That one's nice," Harry said, admiring the sparkle of it.

"It is, but I think it would just get in the way," she said, reluctantly sliding it off. She asked to see something a little simpler, but Harry noticed her eyes returning to the heart-shaped one and she put it on a couple more times, shaking her head each time and setting it aside. The saleswoman glanced at him and he raised an eyebrow, flicking his eyes down to the ring where it lay on the black velvet pad, getting an almost imperceptible nod from her.

"What do you think?" Ginny asked, showing him her hand with a rose gold ring that had round diamonds all the way around.

"It's beautiful on you," he said, kissing the back of her left hand. Seeing it on her finger gave him an undeniable thrill, cementing their engagement in reality. "Is it what you want?"

Ginny nodded, looking back at the ring and then up at Harry, looking like she might cry. "Yes."

"Then let's get it." Her smile was the most wonderful thing he'd seen all day and he found himself digging his black card out of his wallet for the second time that day. Outside it was dark and they walked in companionable silence back to their hotel. 5th Ave was as noisy as it had been during the day, but Harry wasn't bothered. He felt like he could handle anything the world could throw at him as long as Ginny was by his side.

She sighed happily, squeezing his hand and he looked down at her. "Happy?"

"Very. How are you?"

Harry pursed his lips and tilted his head. "Hungry."

"You ask me to marry you, I say yes and all you have to say is you're hungry?"

"I'm a simple man."

"Simple my arse," she snorted. "What do you want to eat? We're in New York, so the sky's the limit."

"Hmm, there was an Italian place Ron and I went to when we were here…"

"Was this before or after you got shot?"

"Before."

"Let's go there, then. You know I'm always up for Italian." She looked down at her clothes. "Is it a dress-up place?"

Harry looked down at his own jeans and polo shirt. "Yeah, a little."

"I guess we'll have to do a bit more shopping then?"

Ginny looked in the mirror, smoothing down the bodice of her new dress and straightening the straps. She liked the color of it, a teal blue jewel tone. I might have to wear this color more often, she thought, turning this way and that to see as much of herself as possible. The ring on her finger caught her eye and she looked at it, heart beating faster as the diamonds glimmered in the light.

Engaged! Mum is going to be over the moon. I'm over the moon! I can't stare at this all night, I have things to do, she thought, resolutely looking away from the ring. Leaning forward, she examined her face in the mirror. That boy at the makeup counter did a good job. Wiping away a stray smudge of lipstick, she ran her fingers through her hair and sighed.

"All right. Let's go meet the boy," she said, picking up the matching wrap and settling it on her shoulders. On the ground floor, she made her way to the Plaza bar, eyes searching for Harry. She heard his laugh before she saw him, turning toward the sound. He was sitting at the bar, leaning forward and having an animated conversation with the bartender.

My fiancé. Her heart leapt at the thought as she paused in the doorway of the bar, drinking in the sight of him. He was wearing a form-fitting suit and when he turned, she saw he'd left off the tie, leaving the top buttons of his white dress shirt undone. As she stood there, their eyes met and she felt an almost physical jolt and then a spreading warmth in her belly.

Hopping off the barstool, Harry crossed the room to meet her, Ginny acutely aware of the other people in the bar watching them. "You are so goddamn gorgeous," he whispered as he bent to kiss her. "I love this color on you."

"I love this suit on you," she said, smoothing the lapels of his suit jacket and spreading the collar of his shirt open further, getting a peek at the dark hairs on his chest.

"I told you I'd surprise you."

"And did I surprise you?" She held her breath as he took a step back, green eyes traveling all the way from the very top of her head to the tips of her toes in brand new high heels.

"Everything you do surprises me, love," he whispered in her ear, the buzz of his voice carrying over the conversations around them in the bar. "Especially consenting to marry me." He took her left hand in his and lifted it to his lips, kissing her fingers. "Ready?"

"Yes, I'm starved!" She linked her arm through his and walked out of the bar. They left the Plaza and headed west down 58th St to 6th Ave to 57th St. "Oh, I've heard of this place!" Ginny said as they walked past Carnegie Hall.

"I thought you might get a kick out of seeing it. Haven't seen a lot of landmarks on this trip, yeah?"

"That just leaves us more for next time." These new heels were so high, Ginny found she didn't have to look up as far as she usually did. She thought it was a nice change, but maybe not nice enough to wear high heels more often. A few more minutes and they were at the restaurant. "Patsy's?" she asked.

"Yeah. One of the American Aurors recommended it to me and Ron," he said, opening the door for her.

"Oh, did you two have an intimate, romantic dinner?" She gave a little jump when he pinched her bottom as she walked past him into the restaurant.

"Reservations for Potter?" Harry said at the maître d's questioning look.

"Ah, yes. Right this way," he said, leading them to a table for two along one wall. Harry, of course, took the seat that had the better view of the door.

Soon they each had a glass of red wine and an appetizer of roasted red peppers and mozzarella on the way. "So, what did you have that last time you were here?" Ginny asked as she looked over the menu.

"Hmm, what did I have? I think I had the sirloin."

"What did Ron have?"

"I dunno. Spaghetti, probably."

"Well I think I'm going to go with the Ravioli Trio," she said, setting her menu aside. She was tempted to look again, but stood firm with her decision. She looked at him as he read over the menu, carefully considering all of his options. The lighting in the restaurant lent his skin a golden tone and made his bright green eyes look dark and mysterious. He caught her looking at him and crossed his eyes on purpose, making her giggle.

"I am going to have the lobster," he said, closing his menu and setting it aside with finality.

"Oh, fancy, Mr Potter."

"This seems like a special occasion, doesn't it?" He reached across the table and took her left hand again, running the pad of his thumb over her ring.

"Rather," she said, feeling the warmth from his contact spread throughout her entire body. She took a sip of her wine and took the opportunity to just be with Harry in this place. No bigoted wizards, dodgy ex-Aurors or enchanted coins. Just us. Despite her best efforts, memories of yesterday's events surfaced, the voice from the coin coming back to her. It called me powerful, she thought, shaking her head.

"What's that about?" Harry asked, letting go of her hand as their appetizer arrived. He gave the waiter their orders and sampled a roasted pepper.

Ginny shook her head and took a bite of pepper with the mozzarella. "Nothing. Well, no, not nothing. Just yesterday, I guess."

"Sorry, love."

"It's not your fault. That man is unhinged. I have to wonder if that coin has done something to him," she said. That thought hadn't really occurred to her before, but the more she thought of it, the more it seemed to make sense.

"I'm sure whatever is in that coin has influenced him some, but he was probably more than a little cracked to begin with. Very few perfectly sane people become Death Eaters."

"You're probably right," Ginny sighed, setting those thoughts aside. "So, it looks like we'll be looking for a new place?"

"If that's all right with you. Like I said earlier, I don't think I could stand living there. I'd be too worried about someone surprising you. If not Ignatius himself, someone he sent." Harry sighed and sat back in his chair, eyes automatically checking the door. A large party had just entered, chattering excitedly about a show they were going to see.

"It's all right. Besides, when I let that flat, I never thought someone else would be living with me."

"Never?" he asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

Ginny leaned forward, giving him what she hoped was a sultry smile. "Never. Just me, a lonely medical student, toiling away."

"No dashing young doctors?"

"None."

"No overworked residents, looking for a place to crash?"

"You know I much prefer sexy Defense teachers."

"I never knew you were attracted to Gilderoy Lockheart," Harry said with a grin. Ginny felt herself flush. Like most of the girls, she'd been overwhelmed at the prospect of being in such close contact with the handsome wizard, but she'd soon realized what a fake he was and her enthusiasm cooled drastically. "Ah, so you did fancy him!" he said triumphantly. "I'd wondered."

"I never," she said, flustered. "So, are we going to stay in the same neighborhood?"

"Changing the subject, Miss Weasley." Harry took a sip of his wine before answering. "No, I don't think we ought to stay around that area. Somewhere entirely different, yeah?" Ginny nodded in agreement. "You have any ideas where you want to be?"

"Hmm, let's see," she said, chewing slowly on a bite of appetizer, thinking of the different sections of the City. "I want to be somewhere we can see the bridge."

"All right, the bridge. I'm assuming Golden Gate and not Bay, correct?"

"Correct."

"What about size? We'll need a room for Teddy."

"It would be nice to have an office, don't you think? I've been getting a bit tired of doing homework on the bed. Oh, and it would be nice to have a potions setup. I need to replenish a few things in my kit and I've been holding off because there wasn't a really good place in the flat," Ginny said, visualizing a cozy office with desks for the two of them and a worktable for potions.

"All right, so three bedrooms."

"And big windows. Sometimes the flat is so dark because it's only got those windows on the one wall."

"Windows, got it."

"And two bathrooms and lots of closets." She looked at Harry and saw his raised eyebrows. "What?"

"I feel like I should be writing this down!" He smiled at her and took her hand again.

"Is it too much? I can help with the rent from my St Mungo's grant."

"No, love. I think we're going to have to buy to find what you want."

"It's not just about what I want. You're going to live there, too."

"I trust you." He popped another piece of mozzarella in his mouth and squeezed her hand.

"Harry," she frowned, "I'm serious. Wherever we end up, we'll likely be there for three more years at least. I don't want to feel like I've forced you to live somewhere you don't want to live."

He turned his head away for a moment and looked back at her. "I want someplace secure. I don't want to be on the ground floor, so at least an upstairs unit. Might even make it Unplottable."

"Unplottable?"

"Yeah. I mean, it won't stop everyone, but every little bit helps, you know?"

"Do we need a Secret-Keeper?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't think so. We're not in hiding, we just don't want to be found so easily."

Ginny suppressed a shudder at the memory of Ignatius Weatherbee just showing up on their doorstep. How did he learn where we live? Did someone tell him? "Houses in San Francisco are really expensive," she said quietly.

"So are flats in London. Ron and I had a chat when they were here. He and Hermione are going to get their own place there and I'm going to sell the flat. Sale from that should cover most of this."

"Are you sure you want to sell the flat?"

"Yeah," Harry said after a moment. "We'll still have number twelve when we're in London."

"When was the last time you were there?"

"At Christmas. I left a few things for Kreacher. He keeps it up very well." Ginny remembered that summer spent at number twelve and the endless cleaning inflicted on them by her mother.

"Are you okay with that? You haven't lived there except for a couple of summers and a little while during…" She looked down at their joined hands for a moment and then back to him, meeting his eyes. "Not exactly the best memories."

"We'll just have to make better ones," he said, squeezing her hand again, the look in his eyes giving her another warm feeling.

Just then, their dinners arrived and they suspended all talk of real estate, turning their attention to the excellent food. They talked about other things, Harry telling her a funny story about one of his eighth-grade students managing to cast an Instant Scalping Hex on himself and that reminded Ginny about the scholarship applications.

"You know, I never did ask how the scholarship application review was. How did that go?"

Harry swallowed his mouthful of wine and nodded. "Pretty well. This was just the initial sort. We all had several to review and we put them on a yea or nay pile. Next step is we'll review all of the yeas and then the real arguing starts."

"How many can get the scholarship per year?"

"The endowment can handle three per year, Jacob says."

"Well that's not too bad. What's the criteria?"

"Grades, character and financial need."

"Did you see any you fancied before you were so rudely called away?" she said lightly, sopping up the excellent sauce with her equally excellent ravioli.

"I have my eye on a few. I'll have to get the applications back from Jacob so I can start marshaling my arguments."

"What did you tell Jacob when I Summoned you?"

"I said I'd forgotten that I had to run an errand for you and that I had to leave before the shop closed," Harry said, finishing his lobster.

"Fast thinker."

"I try," Harry said with a shrug. He sat back and finished his wine, watching her as she finished her own dinner.

"What?" she asked, finishing her last bite. He had an unreadable look in his eyes and she felt her heart speed up a little bit.

"Coffee and dessert?"

"Oof, give me a minute, all right?" she asked, patting her stomach and sipping her wine. Soon their plates were cleared and they each had coffee in front of them, the scent of it making Ginny think of dessert. A smiling waiter brought a trolley full of tempting things to their table and she looked over everything. "Hm, what do you think?"

Harry looked at the sweets on the trolley and smiled at her. "Whatever you want, Gin. I'm not too particular."

"Well, he's no help," she said to the waiter. "What do you like best?"

The waiter looked at the desserts and then at the both of them. "I think you will like the Napoleon."

"Oh, I've never had that," she said as he lifted what looked like a slab of cake covered in toasted almonds.

"Then you definitely must try this. You will love it and come back for more." He put down the dessert in the middle of the table, laying a clean fork beside each of them before giving them a short bow and wheeling away his trolley of delights.

"Well, all right then," Ginny said with a grin at Harry as she picked up her fork, sampling a corner of the dessert. Rich custard and puff pastry exploded in her mouth and she sighed. "Oh dear."

"What?" Harry asked around his own mouthful.

"I have made a terrible discovery. This is delicious."

"Why is that so terrible?"

"I'm going to want this all the time now," she said, another bite positively melting in her mouth. It was even better with the coffee.

"We'll find you one in San Francisco," he said, taking a sip of his own coffee.

"It won't be as good."

"We'll just have to come back then," he said, leaning back in his seat and looking at her over his coffee cup, his green eyes unreadable once more.

"You spoil me."

"Like I said, there's no such thing."

Ginny felt a warm flush spreading across her face and looked down at the half-demolished dessert. One more bite, she thought, slicing into it with her fork. As she slid it through the pastry, she ran into something hard. "What's this?" she said with a frown, pushing harder with her fork. "Oh my goodness." Peeking out from the wreckage of puff pastry and custard was the starlight wink of a diamond. "Harry," she said, looking up at him.

He was sitting up straight and grinning at her, looking like he'd just caught the Snitch and won the House Cup. He took his own fork and fished the ring out of the dessert, laying it on the table in front of her. Even covered in custard and pastry crumbs, it was beautiful, heart-shaped diamond sparkling in the soft light of the restaurant.

"I already have a ring," she protested, holding out her left hand.

"Yes, but you really liked this one."

"But it's too impractical for every day. I'm in labs, dealing with rubber gloves, seeing patients," she said, fingers itching to pick up the ring and put it on.

Harry took her hand and picked up the ring, wandlessly Vanishing the dessert remnants from it. Looking into her eyes, he slid it on her finger, resting it on top of the one she already wore. "I wanted you to have something as stunning as you are. I don't care if you don't wear it every day, that's what the other one is for, but when we go out and you are dressed as beautifully as you are now, I want to see it on you," he said, leaning closer and whispering the last words in her ear, making her positively shiver.

Looking at the two rings on her finger, Ginny felt completely overwhelmed, tears springing to her eyes. Steadying her breathing with effort, she looked up at Harry. He looked more than a little anxious and she put her hand on his cheek, drawing him towards her for a kiss. Their lips met softly at first and then more urgently as they leaned into each other. She felt Harry's hand move up her arm to her shoulder, fingering the strap of her dress.

"You're going to cause a scene in this nice restaurant in a moment," she murmured, pulling away from him. His face was flushed and his lips were red, eyes glittering in the low light. Even though she hadn't touched it, his hair looked more mussed than it had been a few minutes ago.

"I'm going to cause a scene?" he asked, signaling the waiter for the check.

"Yes. You keep kissing me like that, there's no telling what I'll do." Ginny leaned forward, placing her lips close to his ear. "And it'll be all your fault," she whispered, feeling a tremble in her belly at Harry's shiver.

In mere moments, the bill was taken care of and Harry rose from his seat, extending his hand to help Ginny out of hers. "I like this look on you," she said as they paused outside to get their bearings.

"Yeah?" He took her hand and they started walking back toward the Plaza.

"Mm-hm. Dress robes are so figure-hiding. This suit though. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, long legs." She looked up at him and grinned. "You're the whole package."

"I do love it when you go on like that," he teased, squeezing her hand.

The springtime night was cool, but Ginny felt warm with Harry beside her as they ran lightly up the steps of the Plaza, sailing through the door a liveried young man opened for them. "Drink?" he asked, inclining his head toward the bar.

"There's a bar in the room, isn't there?"

"There is indeed," he said with a wide smile, pressing the elevator call button. In the elevator, Ginny found herself pressed into a corner, Harry's body hard against hers as they made the most of the short ride to the nineteenth floor.

Walking down the hall, Ginny caught sight of the two rings again, feeling her stomach give a little jump. At the door, Harry managed to get it unlocked on the first try and they almost fell into the room, giggling madly. "These shoes must be trying to kill me," she said, kicking them off in the entranceway.

"They've been messing with me all night," Harry said, taking off his jacket and hanging it in the closet. He turned back to her and pulled her close. "It was nice not having to bend down so far to kiss you, though."

"Maybe I should put them back on? Would you like it if I came to bed with just those shoes on?" HIs eyebrow twitched and she laughed. "You've thought about it, haven't you?"

Harry gave a noncommittal shrug. "Who could that be?" he asked at the sound of a polite knock on the door. He looked through the peephole and then back at Ginny with a frown, opening the door. Outside stood an impeccably-dressed middle-aged man. "Yes?"

"Ah, Mr Potter. I didn't get the opportunity to welcome you earlier when you first arrived. My name is Graves and I am your butler," the man said, inclining his head.

"Butler?"

"Yes." He entered the room, nodding politely to Ginny. "Is there anything I can do for you? Perhaps your fiancée would like a bath drawn?"

"Oh, thank you, no," she said, feeling foolish as she stood in front of him in her nice dress and bare feet. He picked up her shoes and set them in the closet, making her feel even more foolish.

"Very good. Do you have any laundry that needs tending to? Shoes shined?"

"No, thank you," Harry said, stepping aside as the butler made his way further into the suite. He gave Ginny an exasperated look and she covered her smile with her hand.

Graves swept through the suite, making subtle touches on pillows, straightening lampshades and re-centering vases on tables. Bemusedly, they followed him into the bedroom where he expertly turned down the bed, carefully placing the extra pillows to the side and setting a wrapped chocolate on each of their pillows.

"Is everything satisfactory with your bar, sir? May I bring you some ice?"

"Uh, sure. Ice would be great." Ginny watched as Graves picked up the gold ice bucket and bowed to them both, sweeping elegantly out of the room.

"A butler?" she asked, barely managing to restrain a laugh.

Harry ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand up even more than it already was. "I had no idea." He stepped toward her, putting his hands on her hips. "I hope he comes back soon. I have plans for you, love."

"You do? Do those plans involve a foot massage and a nice glass of scotch?" she asked, putting her arms around his neck.

"Hmm, not quite what I was thinking of. I was more along the lines of that dress on the floor and—" he said, interrupted again by the polite knock on the door. Ginny laughed out loud at his groan of frustration as he opened the door to reveal Graves with a full ice bucket.

He entered the suite, placing the bucket carefully on the bar. "May I pour you a drink, sir? Would you like any fruit or perhaps a cheese plate?"

"No, thank you, Graves. That will be all."

"Very good, sir. Do you require a wake-up call?"

"No."

"Will you be wanting a bath drawn in the morning?"

"I don't think so," Harry said, walking slowly toward the door, clearly hoping Graves would follow.

"If you think of anything I can do for you, there is a button on your phone that will ring me directly. Just pick up the phone and push the button and I will be at your door in seconds," Graves said, trying to move toward the phone on the nearby table. Harry cut him off and put his hand on his shoulder, guiding him toward the door.

"Excellent. Thank you so much, Graves," he said, opening the door.

The butler stepped out into the hallway and turned around, opening his mouth to speak again. "Good night, Graves. Thank you," Harry said, shutting the door firmly.

Ginny finally let loose the laughter she'd been holding in, collapsing down on the sofa. "Would sir please pour me a drink?"

"What would my lady like?" Harry asked, smile playing around his own lips as he surveyed the contents of the bar.

"Scotch, please." She watched as he pointedly dropped two ice cubes into a glass for each of them, pouring out two fingers of golden scotch.

"Your drink, as requested. Is there anything else I can do for you?" he said as he handed her the heavy, cut crystal glass.

"I believe there was a foot massage promised?" Ginny wiggled her toes in anticipation as he sat down on the sofa, pulling her feet into his lap. She sipped the scotch as he got to work. "This is really good."

"It better be," he remarked, digging his thumbs into the arch of her foot. Ginny closed her eyes, savoring the smoky taste of the scotch and Harry's talented fingers massaging away the aches and pains that came with wearing such fancy shoes. "Knut for your thoughts," he said quietly.

Sighing, she took another drink of scotch. "Let's run away. Just…someplace where there aren't any Horcruxes or coins or exams or…" She trailed off, opening her eyes to look at Harry again.

"Do you want to? We could. Just drop everything and go," he said seriously.

Ginny shook her head. "No. That would be giving up, wouldn't it? We're entirely too stubborn for that." She raised her left hand, looking at the two rings. "Case in point. When did you get the other one?"

"When you were at the makeup counter getting your face done." He grinned at her, setting her right foot down to work on the left.

"Sneaky." She took them both off, settling the band on her right hand and sliding the heart-shaped diamond on her left. Holding her hands out in front of her, she admired them both. "How did you get it into that dessert?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets, love." Finished with her feet, he sat back and picked up his own glass, closing his eyes as he drank.

Ginny shifted on the sofa, cuddling up next to him and resting her head on his shoulder. "All right?" she asked as he put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.

"Mm-hm," he murmured, sweeping his hand up and down her arm. He slipped a finger underneath the strap of her dress, pushing it off her shoulder. Her bra strap followed in short order and she turned her head to meet his lips with hers.

Not to be outdone, she unbuttoned his shirt, slipping her hand underneath to caress his chest, smiling at his sigh. Soon, Harry's shirt was off his shoulders and the top of Ginny's dress was around her waist, bra tossed carelessly on the floor as he gently pushed her back on the sofa, kissing his way down her neck to her bared breasts.

"Harry," she said softly, luxuriating in the feeling of his soft hair between her fingers.

"Mmm?" he hummed, giving her a wonderful sensation with his lips around her nipple.

"I understand the Plaza has very nice beds."

"Maybe we should try it out? Graves did such a wonderful job turning it down for us." A moment later and Ginny was in the in-between place of Apparition before landing on softly on the bed.

She looked up at him, meeting his eyes with hers and grinned. "Oh, this is a nice bed. Let's see if we can break it."

"Always trying to spend my money," Harry murmured in between kisses.

"But I'm so good at it."

"That you are. Let's see what else you're good at, shall we?"

27. Chapter 27

"So, how was your weekend?" Ben asked, settling down in the chair next to her.

"It was good," Ginny said, moving her computer and papers out of the way as he pulled out his own laptop. "How was yours?"

"Eh, quiet. Nothing to write home about." He opened the lid of his computer and typed in his password. "I stayed at home and gave myself a manicure," he said, holding out his hands for her to see. The nails were all neatly trimmed and buffed to a high shine.

Ginny spread out her own fingers, wiggling them in front of Ben's face with a big grin. "I wish you'd said something. I would have had you do mine."

Ben grabbed her left hand, blue eyes wide. "Girl," was all he seemed capable of saying as he looked at the rose gold ring on her finger.

"Harry asked me to marry him yesterday!" she said, practically bouncing up and down in her seat.

"Tell me everything," he said, turning her hand to see the diamonds catch the light of the library.

"Well, we were at a museum," she said, omitting all mention of New York as she wasn't exactly sure how she would explain how they got to New York and back in the space of a weekend. She knew Muggles could do such things, but she didn't want to raise questions she couldn't answer.

"I knew my future husband was the classy type," Ben sighed, finally putting her hand down.

"And I was just minding my own business, sketching some hieroglyphics and I guess he just decided that was the right moment," she said, remembering her moment of complete surprise at the sound of Harry's voice in her ear. Marry me.

"Did he get down on one knee?"

"No."

"And what did you say?"

Ginny looked down, feeling a little embarrassed. "It was sort of funny. It was like my brain had short-circuited, you know? Harry comes up with this completely out of the blue and I'm just looking up at him in the middle of this museum and the only thing I can think to say is, 'All right'!" She covered her face as Ben let out a high-pitched squeak.

"That. Is. Adorable! Did he already have the ring?"

"No, we got it together." Ben took her hand again and looked at her questioningly. Ginny nodded and he slipped the ring off her finger, turning it around to look at all of the diamonds. Watching him, she half-expected him to pull out a jeweler's loupe as he looked at the inside of the band.

"Oh, Tiffany. Very nice." He slid it back onto her finger and she looked down at it, adjusting it until it felt like it was where it belonged.

"You should see the other one," Ginny said, smiling at Ben's gasp.

"There's another one?"

"Mm-hm. When we were looking at rings, Harry noticed I really liked one that had this huge heart-shaped diamond, but I thought it was too impractical. You know, labs, gloves, et cetera." Ben nodded, looking like he could hardly believe that Harry had bought her two rings. "Anyway, I chose this one because it was beautiful and wouldn't get in the way as much and the sneaky bugger went back and got me the other one. Says it's for special occasions."

Ben slowly shook his head. "Girl. That man is a keeper. But if you ever get tired of him, you just let me know."

"I haven't gotten tired of him yet, but you're definitely at the top of the list," she said, patting him on the shoulder and smiling at his mournful look. They turned to their studies and spent a companionable hour quizzing each other on the nervous system.

"You are going to ace that test. It's like you know all of this stuff already," Ben remarked as they packed up to leave.

"That's sweet of you to say. Where are you off to?" she asked, shouldering her bag. Glancing outside, she saw the Golden Gate Bridge shining in the afternoon light and she had to remind herself that she wasn't going home to her cozy flat above the Chinese takeaway.

"Well, I was going to meet up with some people at a bar—I think it's somebody's birthday or something—but I'm not feeling it. I'll probably just go home and have some sad, single man pizza and crash," Ben said, holding the library door open for her. "What about you?"

"I don't have any plans. We'll see what Harry feels like for dinner." She walked with him down Parnassus toward his Muni stop, chatting amiably. They were passing in the shadow of one of the medical buildings when movement in the corner of her eye caught Ginny's attention.

A man was standing half-hidden by the corner of a building, wand extended. Disbelievingly, she watched as he cast a spell, sending a jet of bright red light straight at Ben. "No!" she shouted, shoving Ben's shoulder, making him stumble. The curse shot past, hitting the trunk of a tree and leaving a black scorch mark.

"Ginny, what—" Ben turned to her, a hurt expression in his eyes.

She heard the wizard shout in dismay and she saw him start to cast again. Making a decision, she grabbed Ben's arm, holding tight and concentrated, Apparating the both of them to the suite at the Fairmont, not even trying to do it silently.

Heart racing, she took Ben by both shoulders, looking him over quickly for any splinching. His eyes were wide and he was nearly hyperventilating, sweat running down his face. "What just happened?" he said over and over, looking wildly around the room.

"It's all right, you're fine," she said soothingly, gently steering him toward the sofa. "Here, sit down and I'll get you something to drink, all right?" Ben nodded, obviously trying to process where he was and how he'd gotten there.

Tossing down her schoolbag, Ginny dove into the closet, searching frantically for her first aid kit. Digging down inside of it, she found a vial of Sleeping Draught and brought it to Ben. His breathing had calmed somewhat, but he was still sweating and obviously frightened. "Here you go, love. Drink all of this, all right?" she said, unstoppering the vial.

"What is this? What was that red light?" he asked, voice sounding much higher than usual.

"It's just a little drink to calm you down."

"Where did you get it from? Is it safe?"

"I made it, love. Come on, drink it down," she said, mustering up her most soothing voice.

Completely trusting in her, Ben took it and drank it all down, eyes immediately rolling up in his head as he fell into a deep sleep. He slumped sideways and Ginny caught him, laying him on the sofa and taking off his shoes. She got an extra blanket from the closet and spread it over him before collapsing into an armchair across from the sofa.

She ran her shaking fingers through her hair, breathing coming hard. "What in the hell was all of that?" she asked Stuart. The cat had jumped in her lap and was busily pressing his face into her breasts, purring up a storm. She closed her eyes, pushing the cat out of the way, trying to remember what that wizard had looked like. Brown hair…did he have a beard? Old? Young? She shook her head. "It's no use," she sighed, looking at Ben asleep on the sofa.

I've got to tell Harry about this, she thought, composing the message in her head. Looking at her watch, she saw that it was coming up on the end of the school day. Don't be too angry. She summoned her Patronus and watched it fly through the window, carrying her message.

Harry stood in front of his Junior class, shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows, watching his students as they dueled in the rear of the room. He'd enchanted the walls to absorb stray spells so they wouldn't ricochet around. "Ah, non-verbal casting only," he said, reprimanding Ian when he shouted Impedimenta at Malcolm. He turned his attention to Richard and Thomas, making sure the aspiring Aurors weren't going at it too hard. He'd stressed minor jinxes and hexes only, but those two tended to take things to the extreme.

As he turned to check on another pair, he saw a flash of silver zip into the room. Ginny's hummingbird hovered in front of him and he frowned, putting out a finger for it. As soon as it landed on his finger, her voice exploded into his mind. Harry, I was with Ben and there was an…incident. We're safe at the suite, but I need you to come soon. Message delivered, the tiny bird disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"What was that, Mr Potter?" Mia asked, breaking away from her duel with Carrie.

"Just a message from Ginny," he said, sending out his own Patronus to Terry Chau. I'm sorry, but I won't be able to attend practice this afternoon. Something urgent has come up at home. A moment later, he sent another one to Ginny, letting her know he'd be there as soon as he could.

"Oh. What did she want?"

"She wanted to know why you're not paying attention to your duel," Harry said, motioning for her to turn around with his wand. He was tempted to just end the class and get back the suite, but she'd said they were safe, so he forced himself to master his anxiety and finish out the class. Keeping a sharp eye out for stray spells as he brooded on Ginny's message, he absently cast a Shield Charm between two groups of duelers, sending a jet of blue bouncing into a wall where it was absorbed.

As soon as the bell rang, Harry dispelled the walls in an explosion of color and waited impatiently as his students packed up, chattering excitedly about the dueling session. On the way out of the classroom, Richard and Thomas stopped by his desk.

"Mr Potter, did you see that Jelly-Legs jinx I got on Richard?" Thomas asked excitedly.

"That was just a lucky hit," Richard snorted. "Too bad you couldn't dodge that Knockback."

"When's the next dueling session going to be? You know, we should really have a club!" Thomas said, completely excited at the prospect.

"Yeah! You should be the coach! I bet the headmaster would totally let you do it!"

Harry sighed inwardly and forced a smile at the two boys. "That's an interesting idea. I'll bring it up to Mr Ashborough at the next staff meeting, all right?"

"All right!" they exclaimed in unison, high-fiving each other. "See you at practice," Thomas said with a wave.

"I won't be at practice today. I messaged Miss Chau that I had something come up at home. I'll be there tomorrow, all right?" He slung his bag across his chest, shepherding the boys out of the room and locking the door.

"Oh, okay," Thomas said with a concerned look. "I hope everything's okay."

So do I, he thought as he nodded and headed off to Apparating distance, skipping his usual tour through the office. Jogging down the road, his thoughts were in a riot over Ginny's message. Incident? What sort of incident? Did Ignatius show up on campus? Did she get into an accident? Finally far enough off-campus to Apparate, Harry was in the suite in moments.

"Gin, love, are you all right?" he asked, seeing her in the armchair.

"Harry, thank Merlin you're here," she said, standing up and hugging him tightly.

"What happened?" He saw Ben fast asleep on the sofa and felt a jolt of panic. "Is he hurt?"

"No, we're not hurt, I just gave him a Sleeping Draught." She looked away for a moment and then back at him. "We were walking down Parnassus towards Muni and Ben was attacked. By a wizard."

"What?" Harry felt a flood of fear, his mouth tasting like old pennies at Ginny's words and he gripped her shoulders hard. "Tell me exactly what happened."

Ginny put her hands on his wrists and gently took his hands off her, holding them in hers. "We were in the library studying and we left—"

"Was there anyone unusual in the library?"

"No. Everything was fine. We were walking over to Muni and I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and it was a man, a wizard, pointing his wand at us. I saw him cast and I knocked Ben out of the way and it missed."

"Could you tell what it was?"

"No, just that it was red. Probably a Stun. Scorched the shit out of a tree, I can tell you that."

"So then what happened?"

Ginny took a deep breath. "I had to Apparate us here. That man was getting ready to cast again and we had to get away. I'm sorry!"

"No, love, it's all right. You did the right thing," Harry said, holding her close to him. "I told you, do what you need to do to be safe and we'll take care of it."

"But the Statute. What do we do now?"

Harry looked at the sleeping Ben, brow creased in a frown. "I'm not sure. How did he handle the Apparating?"

"He was freaked out; hyperventilating, sweating…I didn't check his heart rate, but it was probably up there." She sighed, looking down at her friend. "The only thing I could think to do was to put him to sleep until you could get here."

Harry ran his hands through his hair and sat down heavily in an armchair. He set his satchel down on the floor and rested his elbows on his knees, taking off his glasses. Ginny sat on the arm of the chair and they both looked at the sleeping Muggle who had just been exposed to the Wizarding world in a most spectacular way.

"I'm going to contact Archimedes," he finally said, putting his glasses back on. "He needs to know about this straightaway and he can help us decide what to do next." Composing his message, he sent his stag streaking out of the hotel suite. Sitting back in the armchair, he spread his arms, inviting Ginny to sit on his lap.

She sat down with a sigh, putting her arms around his neck and resting her head on his chest. He kissed her temple, running his hand up and down her arm, eyes resting on her hummingbird tattoo. "Sorry to make you skip out on practice," she said quietly.

"No worries. Terry can handle them for one run. Why didn't you Summon me?"

"I knew you'd still be in class and we were safe here in the suite, so I didn't think it would be appropriate," she said, voice muffled against his neck.

"I appreciate it. I had them practicing duels today." He shook his head, remembering Thomas and Richard's enthusiasm. "They want me to coach a dueling club."

"That could be fun. Are there any other schools that have one?"

"Mission Hills Magical down in LA does. Snohomish up by Seattle, too." Just then, a spectral greyhound trotted through the door, sitting down in front of them. Harry touched it on the tip of its nose and heard Archimedes in his mind. Harry, I'm sorry to hear of this incident. Please keep Ginny's friend asleep. I'll be arriving shortly.

"He's going to be here soon," Harry told Ginny. "Let me up. I want to change before he gets here."

"Sorry. I know you wanted to have more time away from him before you talked to him again." Ginny followed him into the bedroom, taking his blazer and tie to hang up for him.

"Well, there's nothing to be done for it, love," Harry said, pulling a Chudley Cannons tee shirt over his head.

"But does it have to be Archimedes? Is there another Auror you can talk with about this?"

"I'm out of the loop. I don't know what's going on over there in the Auror office about all of this. I could walk straight into a hornet's nest or really foul something up, yeah?" He dropped his slacks just as a knock sounded on the door.

"I'll get it," Ginny said, leaving the bedroom and closing the door. As he pulled on a pair of jeans, he heard her greeting Archimedes and what sounded like another person. He listened at the door for a moment as Ginny offered drinks.

"Archimedes," he said quietly as he entered the sitting room. The older man was seated in one of the armchairs and there was indeed another man in the other. Harry recognized him as the lanky young Auror Sutton from the Golden Gate field trip. "Sutton."

"Harry. I understand there's been a bit of trouble today," Archimedes said, motioning toward the sleeping Ben. Stuart was curled up next to their guest, purring away.

"Yes. Has Gin told you anything yet?"

"No, not yet." Both of the Aurors turned their attention to Ginny where she sat on the arm of the sofa, a hand resting protectively on top of Ben's head. Harry stood next to her, arms crossed.

"If you wouldn't mind," Archimedes said gently.

Ginny took a deep breath. "Well, school today was fine. I had a couple of classes and then went to the library to meet Ben for a study session." Harry noticed Sutton was taking notes.

"Did you notice anything unusual today?"

"No. Everything was fine. Regular Monday," she said with a shrug.

"Nobody following you? You didn't see anything suspicious?"

"No. So we were in the library for an hour or so and then we left."

"Did you notice anyone in the library? No one stood out?"

Ginny frowned as she searched her memories. "No, I'm sorry. I wasn't really paying attention as we left the library."

"It's all right. What happened next?"

"Well, we were walking down Parnassus toward Muni, just chatting. We were passing by one of the taller buildings and I saw this movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked and there was a man with his wand out."

"What did he look like? Can you describe what he was wearing? Did he say anything?" Archimedes leaned forward, looking at Ginny intently.

Eyes closed, she looked like she was trying to will herself to visualize the wizard. "He didn't say anything before he attacked, but he did shout when he missed. It happened so fast…brown hair, rather short. Maybe a beard?" She opened her eyes and shook her head. "I wasn't really looking at him, mostly at the wand."

"Did you notice anything about it?"

"No. I saw he was about to cast and it looked like he was aiming straight for Ben, so I pushed him and made him stumble and the spell flew past and hit a tree."

"Quick thinking."

"Can you show us the tree?" Sutton asked.

"Yes. There's a massive scorch mark on it. I had thought he was casting Stupefy, but now I'm not sure."

"So then what happened?"

Ginny looked at Harry and he nodded. "I saw he was getting ready to cast again, so I grabbed on to Ben and Apparated us here."

"I see," Archimedes said, sitting back in the chair. Harry saw Sutton raise his eyebrows as he wrote. They both sat quietly, processing the information about the incident from Ginny.

Harry put an arm on her shoulder, squeezing lightly. "Am I in trouble?" she asked in a small voice.

"Was there anyone else around?" Archimedes played with the end of his long beard, eyes far away.

"No. That stretch of Parnassus was deserted. I think that's why that wizard attacked there. I know I violated the Statute—"

Archimedes waved his hand. "I think it's plain that you were in fear for your lives and took appropriate action to flee the confrontation and get to safety."

"The real question is who was the target of the attack?" Sutton asked, reading over his notes. "Was it you or your Muggle friend?"

Harry looked at Archimedes with a raised eyebrow, getting a nod in return. "It could have been both of them. Are you up to date?"

"I know about the Horcrux and the little visit she had on Saturday," the young Auror said, inclining his head at Ginny.

But not the coin. Interesting, Harry thought. "So it's reasonable to assume that they were both the target."

"Or that Ben was the target because he's friends with me," Ginny said, running her fingers through his short blond hair.

"Well, unless we can track down the attacker, there's no way to know for sure. How did he take the Apparating?" Archimedes leaned forward again, looking closely at Ben.

"There was no splinching, but he was frightened. Hyperventilating, sweating. The only thing I could think to do was put him to sleep and then I sent a message to Harry."

"Sleeping Draught?" Sutton asked, taking more notes.

"Yes. It's going to wear off soon." As if he'd heard her, Ben let out a mumble.

"Well, standard procedure is Obliviating," Sutton remarked and Ginny looked up at Harry.

"I don't want to Obliviate him," she said. "He's a medical student and I don't want to mess with his memory."

"We may not have a choice, love," Harry said quietly.

Archimedes sat in the armchair, still stroking his beard contemplatively. "You two are very good friends, correct?"

"Yes," Ginny nodded. "I met him the first day of classes and we've become very close."

"So it would be unusual and unreasonable if you were to discontinue your association. It would look suspicious." Archimedes nodded to himself and looked at Harry. "We've no way of knowing if this act was perpetrated at the urging of a certain someone or if the attacker took the initiative himself. Either way, it would seem too odd if they suddenly stopped being seen together."

"I'm not saying we need to Obliviate their relationship," Sutton said, leaning forward, "just the facts of this specific event."

"But what if someone attacks him again and Gin's not there to defend him or get him to safety?" Harry said, hand on his chin. "At the very least, we've got a Muggle who's been attacked and doesn't know what to do. That brings up the likelihood that he'll go to the Muggle police and then instead of having to Obliviate only one person, now we've got to deal with a half dozen."

"That is a good point, but the rules—"

"I think given the current circumstances, it would be better if he retains his knowledge of our world," Archimedes said, interrupting the younger Auror.

"He will be safer being aware of the situation and able to stay close to Gin, just in case," Harry said, crossing his arms again. I'll have to find out when his late night at the clinic is as well.

"Exactly. So, he avoids being Obliviated."

"For now," Sutton said. Archimedes didn't say anything and he heard Ginny breathe a sigh of relief.

"Now what?" she asked, looking down at Ben who was beginning to show more signs of waking.

"Now we wait for him to wake up and try to explain things to him. I think he'll be in for quite a shock." Archimedes turned to Sutton. "Get down to the office and see who's available as a watcher. Have someone check out his place, make sure there aren't any traps. I'll message the address to you."

Sutton nodded and stood. Harry shook his hand. "Thanks for coming," he said.

"No problem. Just another day, right?" The lanky Auror nodded and left the suite, closing the door firmly behind him.

"Good man," Harry said, sinking into the vacated chair.

"Yeah, Sutton's one of our good ones. Reminds me a bit of myself when I was his age. He still tends to get a bit too caught up in rules and regulations, but I'm working with him on that," Archimedes said with a smile at Harry's snort.

"Indeed. Now, what is it you didn't want him to hear?"

Archimedes passed him a flyer printed on thick, glossy paper. "This is just a mockup, but I thought you'd be interested."

Harry looked down at it, feeling a short flash of surprise at the image of the Horcrux miniature, the young girl's dark eyes snapping back at him. "Exhibition of the lost art of portrait miniatures at the Legion of Honor. Interesting." He glanced at the date. "Opening Gala on Saturday, 5th of May?"

"That's the soonest we could wrangle it," Archimedes said, sounding apologetic. "Originally we were scheduling for June. The vote is in August, so that should have been plenty of time to lure our friend and shut him down, but things seem to be heating up, so it was decided the sooner the better."

Harry handed back the flyer. "And Sutton doesn't know about the coin?"

"No. I'm keeping that very close to my chest. The fewer that know about that, the better. It's bad enough that we have one Dark object floating around with this fellow." He looked at Harry and he felt a sense of trepidation. "How good is your wandless magic?"

"Why?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

Archimedes reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an object, holding it out to Harry. He heard Ginny suck in a breath as soon as she realized what it was. A gold double eagle shone with a mellow light and Harry had no doubt that the year would also be 1851.

"I don't hear anything," Ginny said, leaning a little closer.

"You won't. It's not the same coin. Bought this one from a local dealer," Archimedes said, passing it to her. She took it gingerly, turning it over and looking at it closely.

"What are you planning on doing with it?" Harry took the coin from Ginny. It looked newly-minted and he had no doubt it was a double for the one Ignatius carried.

"I thought we'd see if we could play a little trick on Ignatius," Archimedes said, accepting the coin from Harry and putting it back in his pocket.

"You want to switch them," Ginny said.

"Exactly."

"To what end?" Harry asked, afraid he already knew the answer.

"We need to find out more about how that coin was created. To study it."

"And you want me to perform the switch. Wandlessly."

"Yes."

Harry sat back in the chair, contemplating Archimedes's request. "I have to be close. I'll need that coin to practice."

"Done and done," Archimedes said, handing him the coin. The gold quickly warmed up in his hand.

"How am I getting close?"

"There is a fundraiser for the West Coast Wizarding Genealogical Society in a couple of weeks and Ignatius is scheduled to speak. I've secured you a place on the dais."

"I'm not giving one knut or cent or whatever of my money to that bastard," Harry said flatly.

"It's already taken care of. You and Ginny—"

"I'm not going anywhere near him," Ginny said from her spot on the sofa.

"You and I will be seated on the dais and you should be close enough to switch while he's making his speech," Archimedes said confidently.

"And then what? He'll notice it right away when he touches it, I'm sure."

"What's he going to say? Someone took my coin? But you've got one right there. Yes, but mine was special and has some sort of malevolent spirit living in it." Archimedes shook his head. "And as for what to do with it, I hear you have access to a Pensieve."

Harry felt his blood run cold and he stared at him. "You can't be serious."

"Harry, Ben's waking up," Ginny said quietly, drawing his attention. As he watched, Ben started to toss and turn on the sofa, making soft moaning sounds.

Ginny put a soothing hand on top of his head, smoothing his hair away from his forehead as he woke. "Ginny? What happened? Where are we?" he mumbled, opening his eyes and looking around the suite. "Harry? What are you doing here? Am I dreaming?"

"How do you feel, love? Nauseous? Headache?" Ginny asked, helping him sit up.

"Thirsty," he said, smacking his lips as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. His eyes fell on Archimedes. "Hello, I don't believe we've met," he said, holding out his hand.

"Archimedes Douglass," Archimedes said, shaking his hand.

"Ben Frye," he said, accepting the glass of water Ginny gave him. He started to drink it, but stopped, looking questioningly at her.

"It's just water, I swear," she said, smiling when he drank the whole glass. "More?"

"No. I do need the bathroom, though." Ginny showed him where it was, putting a steadying hand on his shoulder when he stumbled a little. A moment later, he was back on the sofa, petting Stuart and looking at the three of them.

"So," Archimedes said, putting on a kind expression, "I understand you had a bit of excitement this afternoon."

"I'll say," Ben said, casting a sidelong look at Ginny next to him on the sofa. Harry was glad to see that he was calm and wondered if Ginny had added anything extra to that glass of water.

"What do you remember?"

Ben pursed his lips in thought. "We were walking and then Ginny pushed me and then I felt like I was having everything squeezed out of me and then I was here. Where is here, by the way?"

"You're at the Fairmont," Ginny said. "Harry and I are staying here right now."

"I told you he was a keeper," Ben said, looking around the suite appreciatively and nodding at Harry.

"What you experienced was what we call 'Apparating'," Archimedes said.

"What? Apparating? Who is 'we'?" Ben looked between Harry and Ginny, brow creased in a frown.

"Us," Ginny said, gesturing to herself, Harry and Archimedes. "We're, um…well, we're…"

"Wizards," Harry cut in, leaning forward and taking hold of Ginny's hand.

Ben sat quietly for a moment and then started laughing. Harry glanced at Ginny and she shrugged, which only seemed to make Ben laugh harder. Eyes streaming, he patted Stuart, looking down at him with a smile. "And I suppose the cat is magic, too? Is your name Salem?" he asked, addressing him directly.

"No, he's just a cat and his name is Stuart," Ginny said gently, sending him into further hysterics. She put her hand on his back, patting him softly as he gradually wound down, wiping his eyes.

Finally done, he looked at them, eyes wide. "You're serious, aren't you? You don't mean 'wizard' the way some people insist they're 'vampires' just because they're pale and wear a lot of black?"

"We're very serious," Harry said, smiling at his 'vampire' comment. He'd run into a few of those over the years. "What happened today was another wizard tried to attack you. Gin pushed you out of the way and brought you both here."

"I was attacked?"

"That's what that red light was," Ginny said helpfully. "I saw this man out of the corner of my eye and he had his wand out—"

"A wand? Really?"

"Yes, really! I'll show you mine in a minute. Anyway, he was casting a spell and it looked like he was aiming right for you, so that's when I pushed you." She took out her wand and handed it to him. "Here's mine."

He looked at the wand with wonder, sliding his fingers over the smooth yew wood. "So you use this to cast spells?" He waved it around, disappointed when nothing happened. Ginny took it back from him and put it in the back pocket of her jeans.

"Yes. You won't be able to do anything with it because you're not a wizard."

"What am I?"

"You're what we call a Muggle," she said and Ben gasped.

"That word! I knew it!"

"Have you been hearing it?" Archimedes asked a little sharply.

"I've heard it a couple of times. Once at a club and another time walking from Muni," Ben answered, looking at Archimedes.

"When you heard it, was anyone threatening you?"

"No. At the club, a guy I tried to dance with said it and the other time I was just walking past a group of guys."

"And you haven't heard it since?"

"No, sir." Ben sat quietly as he absorbed all of this new information, still petting Stuart. "So, you and Harry and…Archimedes are wizards?"

"Well, I'm a girl, so I'm usually called a witch, but basically, yes."

"How come I didn't know this already?"

"That's because of the International Statute of Secrecy," Harry said. "It was enacted when Muggles started to seek us out and … punish us for practicing magic."

"So the Salem Witch Trials were real?" Ben whispered.

"Yes. And devastating. So we retreated into secrecy." Ben sat quietly, a troubled expression on his face. "Are you all right?" Harry asked, leaning forward.

"I'm so sorry," Ben said, shaking his head sadly. "That must have been a terrible time."

"It was a long time ago," Ginny said gently.

"So why are you telling me now?" Ben asked, looking at her.

"To protect you. If you're aware of the Wizarding World around you, you might see things you'd otherwise miss and you can tell us or get away to someplace safe if I'm not with you."

Ben nodded and looked at Harry. "So if a … Muggle finds out about wizards, you just explain everything to them?"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "Usually they're Obliviated."

"That doesn't sound nice."

"It doesn't hurt," Ginny said helpfully. "It's just a little spell to make you forget a few things, like the Wizarding World."

"Would it make me forget you and our friendship?"

"We could," she said softly, "but I would never let that happen." Harry watched the two of them, feeling a little bit of jealousy that he quickly stamped out.

"Now what do we do?" he asked after a few moments.

"I'm sending someone to check your home and make sure it's safe. May I have your address?" Archimedes asked. Ben gave it to him and stared as he cast the Patronus Charm, completely unable to see the ghostly greyhound running straight through the doorway.

"Did he just cast something?" Ben whispered, mimicking the circular motion.

"Yes, but you can't see it," Ginny said. Ben sat back, disappointed.

"So are you really a teacher?" he asked Harry.

"Yes. I teach Defense Against the Dark Arts or as they call it here, Practical Defensive Magic and Theory, at St Ambrose's Academy," Harry said with a smile.

"Oh, that rich kid private school up in the hills?"

"Well, it's not a 'rich kid' school, but yes."

"And what's Defense Against the…?"

"Dark Arts. I teach children how to protect themselves when someone wants to hurt them with magic, like that spell that was cast at you today," he said, going for the simplest explanation he could think of.

"And Ginny said you used to be a cop?"

"Sort of. A Dark wizard catcher called an Auror," Harry said, gesturing to Archimedes. "Archimedes is an Auror. I suppose it's more like the FBI."

Ben nodded and turned to Ginny. "And you?"

"I'm a Healer. Sort of a magical doctor. Witches and wizards can get all sorts of things Muggles can't."

"No wonder you ace everything! Why are you going to UCSF?" Ben asked, eyes wide.

Ginny shrugged and looked down, seeming a little embarrassed. "Well, I've always had an interest in Muggle medicine and I'm hoping to figure out some new treatments with what I learn."

"Research medicine, very lucrative," Ben nodded. "And did you two really meet in school?"

"Yes. We went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry together." Ginny smiled at Harry and he smiled back, reaching for her hand again.

"Oh my God, you are literally high school sweethearts!" Ginny chuckled and ruffled his hair, squeezing Harry's hand. Just then, a ghostly lynx sidled through the door, sauntering straight to Archimedes.

"Ah, that's from Sutton." Archimedes touched it on the head, his eyes going blank for a moment as he received the message. "He says your apartment is all clear. They didn't find anything inside and an Auror is watching your door."

"What if someone Apparates inside?" Harry asked, relieved that no one had planted anything nasty inside Ben's apartment.

"No wizards live nearby, so an anti-Apparition ward has been set up."

"What does that mean?" Ben asked nervously.

"It means no one can get into your apartment the same way you and Gin came here. You don't have to worry about anyone just appearing inside," Harry explained, nodding at Ben's look of relief.

"How are you feeling?" Ginny asked, putting a hand on his arm. "You feel like eating something?" Ben nodded and Harry stood up, stretching.

"I'll call room service and get something sent up. Archimedes?" he asked and the older man nodded. Harry called down for some assorted finger foods and a couple of pizzas. He put down the phone and Ginny touched his shoulder.

"Do you mind if Ben stays here tonight?" she whispered. "I don't think he feels safe going home right now."

Harry looked at Ben on the sofa. He was wrapped up in the spare blanket, still petting Stuart and staring off into space. He looked rather lost and he felt a surge of sympathy for the man. "Of course," he said.

"Thank you," Ginny said, kissing him on the cheek.

"Ben, you're welcome to stay here tonight, if you want to," Harry said.

"Oh, no, I'll go home. I'm sure I'll be fine," Ben protested, looking like he would very much like to stay.

"It'll be fine. I think this folds out into a bed. We can stay up all night watching terrible movies," Ginny said with a bright smile as she sat down on the sofa next to him.

"Well, when you put it that way, how can I refuse? And then I get to say that I stayed the night in a suite at the Fairmont!"

"Is there anything I can bring you from your apartment? I can make a run for you," Harry said, standing by the door to the suite. Ben gave him his key along with his requests for clean clothes and toiletries, telling him where he could find them. "All right, I'll be a little while. Archimedes, is there a password?"

"Expelliarmus," Archimedes said, making Harry smile.

"All right. Gin, you need anything while I'm out?"

"Can you bring me some more clothes, from the flat? I just brought a few things when we left," Ginny said, sounding apologetic.

"Anything specific?"

"No, just a bit of everything." Harry nodded and Apparated out of the suite, coming back about half a block away from Ben's apartment. He walked unhurriedly to his building, letting himself in with Ben's key and jogging lightly up two floors. At the end of the hall, he saw a young man leaning casually against the wall.

"Expelliarmus," Harry said and the young man nodded. Unlocking the door, he went into the apartment, feeling a little bit strange as he quickly put together the things Ben had asked for. The apartment, like most San Francisco living spaces, was small and he kept it scrupulously clean. Hmm, might be a good idea to lay down a Blood Seal for him. While I'm here, however… He checked the windows and cast Unbreakables on all of them as well as the door.

Making sure that he had everything packed into a gym bag he found in a closet, Harry left, locking the door and nodding to the Auror again. Back out on the street, he found a secluded spot and Apparated to the little flat above the Chinese takeaway. The air inside the flat had that stuffy, closed-up smell and he wrinkled his nose. He did a quick walk around, verifying that nothing had been disturbed in their absence.

Opening the dresser drawers, he started taking things out and laying them on the bed, making sure one of Fred's Weasley jumpers was one of them. "I should grab some more things for myself while I'm here," he said out loud, his voice sounding strange in the abandoned flat. In a few minutes, he had a good-sized pile of clothes for the both of them. Turning to the closet, he grabbed their brooms, laying them on the bed next to the clothes.

"Now just to get this all packed up." Back in the closet, he reached way back for the rolling suitcase he knew was back there, shocked when his hand closed on a sword hilt. "Oh bollocks," he said quietly, pulling the Sword of Gryffindor out of the closet. The rubies in the hilt glinted in the light of the lamps and Harry sighed, pulling it out of the scabbard. The silver blade shone, looking as it must have straight out of the forge over a thousand years ago.

Shaking his head, he placed it gently on the bed and found the suitcase, using the eternally handy Packing Spell on the clothes. Cinching the sword belt around his waist, the picked up the brooms and grabbed hold of the suitcase. He took another look around the flat and Apparated back to the suite, startling Ben when he reappeared without a sound.

"Oh my God! You scared me!" he said, hand on his chest. "You wizards are sneaky!" The three of them were at the little dining table, having a bite to eat.

"Aurors have a special kind of Apparating. It's not usually that quiet," Ginny said, smiling at Harry and taking the gym bag on his shoulder, handing it to Ben. She saw the sword hanging from his hip and her eyes went wide.

"I know," Harry said, "it was in the closet." He smelled pizza and he was suddenly ravenous. Ginny took the brooms from him and leaned them against one wall.

"What was in the closet?" Archimedes asked, turning in his seat at the dining table. His eyebrows rose very high at the sight of the sword. "Is that … ?"

"It is. I should send a message to McGonagall and tell her not to worry," Harry said, unbuckling the belt.

"May I?" Harry handed the scabbarded sword to Archimedes, who took it reverently. He examined the scabbard and pulled out the sword, looking carefully at the egg-shaped rubies and the inscription on the blade. "Looks brand new," he remarked, voice full of wonder.

"Always has." He saw Ginny whispering to Ben whose eyes had gotten very wide again.

"I've heard it will always come to a true Gryffindor in time of need." He carefully slid the sword back into the scabbard and handed it to Harry.

"Guess it feels it's needed."

28. Chapter 28

"Wilson?" Harry looked up at the sound of Ginny's voice, seeing her standing in the doorway to the examination rooms at the clinic. She was dressed in dark blue scrubs and holding a clipboard, smiling at the nervous young man walking toward her. He watched as she smiled at him to put him at ease, leading him into the rabbit warren of hallways as the door closed with a soft thump.

Sighing, he adjusted his position in the chair, trying to bring his right buttock back to life. His eyes swept the waiting room, looking for new faces. It was a quiet night and the room was only half-full. His eyes skated over the teenaged girl huddled behind a magazine. She'd spent the last twenty minutes staring at him while trying to appear like she wasn't. Not spotting anyone new or suspicious, he turned his attention back to his book. It was one of Dumbledore's that he'd inherited and titled simply Arcana with no author. Harry wondered if Dumbledore had written it himself.

He was still looking for information on the power of a wizard's dying breath and while he'd run across a couple of interesting things, he had yet to find out anything really concrete. Asphodel Dimmins and Cygnus Persoll both seemed to agree that, under the right circumstances, one could harness the power in a wizard's dying breath, but they disagreed on what those circumstances were. Is it the dying wizard that uses the power or a third party? If Cornelius enchanted the coin, did he do it or did Richard Langston? The two worthies disagreed here, too.

Staring at the spidery writing on the page in front of him, Harry let his mind wander. After spending the night at their suite, Ben had returned to his apartment the next day. Harry and Ginny went with him, Harry intending to set up a Blood Seal on his threshold. "You want what?" Ben asked when Harry took out his wand.

"I need a drop of your blood," he said patiently. "The spell is called a Blood Seal and it will prevent anyone you don't specifically invite from getting in here."

"But I can go in and out? What about things and animals? And pizza? Will it even work since I'm not a wizard?"

"Those aren't affected," Harry said with a smile at the pizza question. "And it should work. Threshold magic applies to everyone, magical or not."

"What about you and Ginny?"

"We won't be able to get in either unless you invite us. Or we add our blood to the spell," Ginny said reassuringly.

"I think I would feel better if you could come in. What if I can't talk for whatever reason?"

"Fair enough. All of us then," Harry said, holding out his index finger. Ginny followed suit and after a moment, Ben did as well. Efficiently casting the Blood-Drawing Charm, Harry dropped down on his haunches and let a drop of blood splash onto the threshold of the open door, gesturing for Ben to follow suit. Ginny added hers and Harry executed the spell, nodding in satisfaction at the flash and fade of red.

"Did it work?" Ben asked, sucking on his finger.

"Yeah. We can't really test because we're all on the seal, though, so you'll have to trust me. Now, here are some particulars. This will keep people you don't invite from coming in through the doors or the windows. It won't stop someone from throwing something at you or from casting a spell at you," Harry said, closing the door to the apartment.

"So what do I do if I open the door and there's a wizard standing there with ninja stars and a wand?" Ben asked nervously.

"You close the door and get out of the way. I've cast an Unbreakable Charm on your doors and windows, so you don't have to worry about someone breaking through them to get to you."

"Okay. How long is this going to last? Is it permanent? What if I move?"

"How many visitors do you have a month?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow as Ben counted on his fingers.

"On average or lately?"

"Let's go with an average, yeah?"

Ben looked up at the ceiling and shrugged. "I dunno. Three or four a month, maybe?"

"You told me you weren't dating right now," Ginny said with a catlike grin.

"Honey, just because I'm not dating doesn't mean I'm celibate!"

"You should be fine for around six months then," Harry said with a chuckle. "When you get a … visitor, simply say their name and 'Please come in' or 'Welcome'. Make sure that you are genuinely welcoming them into your home; your intentions count for a lot."

Ben nodded and Harry could tell he felt better. He and Ginny had indeed stayed up quite late on the fold-out bed in the sitting room watching terrible movies, talking quietly. "How is he?" Harry had asked when Ginny finally came to bed in the small hours of the morning.

"He's all right. Still a bit shook up. He asked why this happened, so I told him a little bit about Ignatius and his ridiculous ideas," she said, sliding her jeans off.

"How'd he take that?"

"Okay, I guess. He's still amazed that the Wizarding World even exists, so we had a good chat about that." She took her bra off underneath her tee shirt and slipped on her pajama bottoms, sliding into bed next to him. "I told him a bit about Voldemort."

Harry sighed and turned to face her, closing his eyes as she stroked his temple. "Any nonsense?"

"Well, I didn't get into the whole prophecy thing if that's what you're asking. Just that he was a bad guy that wanted wizards to rule over Muggles and you took him down." She kissed the tip of his nose and he opened his eyes.

"Nicely done," he said, kissing the tip of her nose in return.

"I don't need him to fall in love with you anymore than he already is." Harry could see her grin in the dim light of the room as she swept her hand down his bare flank, squeezing his bum hard.

And now he was hanging out in the waiting room of the clinic, keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the patients and staff, alert to the slightest hint of irregularity. He'd dutifully brought the venti double mocha frappuccino tribute for Jessica and sat in an out-of-the-way corner with his satchel. He'd corrected all of the quizzes and essays he'd brought with him and spent some time revising lesson plans on his computer, but when he found himself aimlessly surfing the web, he put the computer away and brought out Arcana.

The sliding doors opened and Harry raised his eyes from the book, keeping his head still as he watched the middle-aged woman approach Jessica at the main desk. Bellatrix Lestrange had taught him to never discount a woman out of hand and he felt the tingle of anticipation fade when Jessica smiled at her. Jessica rarely smiled at anyone.

He glanced at the clock. One more hour, he thought, shifting around again. Ginny owes me a massage for this. Sighing, he turned back to the book, restlessly paging through, eyes falling on random words and phrases. Wait, what was that?

Turning back a couple of pages, he read the section again, a chill trickling down his spine. A wizard's dying breath can contain the most potent magic. Even practitioners of middling talent have been observed to cast spells beyond their modest abilities at the moment of death. This phenomenon has not been observed in known Squibs, as they are utterly lacking in magic. Too often, death comes upon us while we are unprepared and the magic expended in one's dying breath is wasted, but when prepared, a dying wizard can be capable of some extraordinary things.

There have been some cases where ritual sacrifice of a wizard has taken place in order to purposefully harness the power of the dying breath, as in the case of the ancient Druids raising their standing stone monuments.

That's got to be it, he thought, reading the paragraph again. That must be how that coin was created. He closed the book, slipping in a sticky note to mark the passage, thinking over the implications. Those thoughts drew his mind to the coin, and he reached in his pocket for the gold double eagle he carried with him now, hefting it in his palm. He needed to know every little nuance of it if he was going to switch it with its brother.

I've got less than a month before I need to pull this off. He looked at the coin, counting the thirteen stars that circled the woman's profile, seeing the same thirteen stars around the eagle on the back. Thirteen colonies, I guess. He put the coin in one hand and closed his fist around it, feeling the milled edge hard against his palm. In his other hand he held his half of the broken Galleon.

Closing his eyes, he kept his breathing slow and even, focusing on the feeling of the coin in his hand. The weight of it, the contrast between the carved and the flat sections, the gold soaking in his body heat. Focusing, he willed the coins to change places, thinking of how the Switching Spell felt when cast with a wand, the rush of magic leaving his body. The coins steadfastly refused to leave his fists.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" Ginny whispered in his ear, startling him.

"Waiting for my fiancée to be finished with all of this nonsense," he said, opening his eyes and turning his head to kiss her. He noticed the teenage girl, who had been flipping through a magazine while pretending not to look at him, scowling. "Done already?"

"Slow night. Dr Quill said they could handle it without me for this last half hour of my shift." Ginny sat down in the chair next to him and frowned. "How have you sat in this thing for three and a half hours?"

"It hasn't been easy. I'll definitely be doing a Cushioning Charm next time." He leaned close, putting his lips against her ear. "You owe me an arse massage," he whispered, tongue darting out to trace the shell of her ear.

Ginny squirmed away and wiped at her ear, looking at Harry with a raised eyebrow. "An arse massage? Really?"

"I mean to have your hands on me tonight in some fashion." He grinned at her and waggled his eyebrows, pleased to hear her giggle. The last few days had been very intense and he was hoping to spend tonight a bit less intensely. Well, maybe a different sort of intense, he thought as he stood up, shouldering his satchel.

"Did you find anything out?" Ginny asked, picking up Arcana and handing it to him.

"A little. We'll talk about it later, okay?" He stuffed it into his bag and took her hand, walking toward the sliding doors. He nodded at the teenaged girl as they passed by, smiling at her blush.

"Good night, Jessica. See you next week," Ginny said with a wave.

"Good night, baby doll. Good night, Harry." Jessica winked at him and it was his turn to blush. A moment later they were in their suite at the Fairmont. Ginny collapsed into an armchair and sighed.

"Oh, God, I thought tonight would never end. I don't know what's worse—nights when it's so busy I don't have time to sit down or when I have too much time and all I do is sit down. Is one of those for me?" she asked as Harry looked in the refrigerator.

"Of course," he said, handing her an opened Newcastle. Getting another one for himself, he sat on the sofa and got out his laptop, opening the lid. "I heard back from that real estate agent Juanita referred me to."

"Fantastic! Anything good?" Harry moved over as she sat down next to him on the sofa, peering at his computer screen.

"A couple of prospects." He opened up his email and found the one from Rachel Robinson, the witch that had helped Juanita find her home. "There's this one," he clicked on a link and brought up a page showing a home with mature front garden landscaping. The exterior was a nice yellow with white shutters.

"A garage. You could actually park your car there," Ginny said, looking at the pictures.

"Nah, probably set it up for Potions. It's three beds, two bath. Want to take a look at it?"

"Is that the price?" Ginny gasped, pointing to a disturbingly large number.

"I think so."

"It's so much!" She looked completely horrified.

"Well, love, it's San Francisco. It's always been expensive here."

"But that much? Really? Just for a house?"

"Yeah. You want to look outside of the City?"

Ginny looked back at the web site, pursing her lips. "Well, let's not make that decision yet. Let's see what else is out there." They spent the rest of the evening looking at real estate listings and Harry could see her doing her best to not look upset over the prices. They decided on three they wanted to look at and he sent an email to Rachel.

Closing his laptop, Harry leaned back into the sofa, finishing his beer. He felt the tension from being on alert all evening finally fade away. And I have to do it again tomorrow night for Ben. "Now, I believe there was something about a massage tonight?" he asked, looking at Ginny curled up on the other end. Her eyes were closed and she looked almost asleep.

"Who told you that?" She opened her eyes to look at him, Weasley half-smile in full effect. Harry shrugged and set the empty bottle on the coffee table, leaning forward to take Ginny's. She hadn't quite finished it and he so hated to waste beer, so he tipped his head back to get the last swallow.

"Just something I heard while I was in that waiting room, getting my arse punished by those terrible chairs." He took her hand, looking down at the ring on her finger. "Have you written Molly yet?"

"No, but I probably will this week. Is that all right?"

"Of course. I'm surprised you haven't already." He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. "Come on, let's go to bed." He stood up and stretched, pulling his shirt off over his head. When Ginny didn't move from the sofa, Harry held out his hand to her. "All right?"

Ginny nodded and took his hand, standing up. "Yeah, I guess it's just those house prices. Are you sure you want to buy a place?"

"I think I'd rather buy than keep paying rent, don't you think? Besides, I've got the flat in London to sell and that should do well. Or I could rent it and that could pay the mortgage here."

"But it's so much money … and what if we don't stay here?"

"With the way prices are around here, I'm sure it'll be fine. Even if we leave the day after you graduate, I'm sure we'll still come out ahead."

"You'll come out ahead."

"We'll come out ahead." He pulled gently on her hand, smiling as she stepped forward, putting her hands on his bare chest. "Now, I believe we were discussing a massage?"

"Hm, I think it's you that should be giving me a massage," she said, poking him hard in the middle of his chest.

"Yeah? I don't know if I've learned enough. I might need you to give me a few more examples," he said, capturing the offending finger and holding it tight.

"You know plenty," Ginny snorted. "Come on." Harry followed her into the bedroom, kicking off his trainers and tossing his shirt toward the loo. He lounged on the bed, watching as Ginny undressed, something he never got tired of. Soon, she was wearing only her knickers and she looked at him on the bed, hands on her hips.

"What?" Harry asked innocently, admiring the bedroom light on her freckled skin.

"What?" she retorted in a mocking tone. "You know what. You're in my spot."

He rolled over to the other side of the bed, patting the side he'd been on. "And now I'm not."

She joined him on the bed, leaning over for a lingering kiss. "There's a vial of massage oil in my first aid tote in the closet," she said, lying on her stomach and placing her head on her folded arms, leaving her bare back exposed.

"I guess I have my instructions." Harry bounded up from the bed and shucked his jeans and socks, digging in the first aid tote for the vial of oil. He looked at the supplies in it and frowned. "Do you want to use the Potions classroom at the weekend to make a few things? You're looking a little low."

"That might not be a bad idea. I was thinking that I need to make some fresh Blood Replenishing Potion and a few other things," she said, voice muffled by the duvet.

"I'll ask Vivian tomorrow if it's all right. I don't see why it wouldn't be." He got back up on the bed, on his knees to straddle her legs. Pushing her hair to the side, he unstoppered the vial and poured a thin stream of oil on her back, making her squeak in surprise.

"You didn't warm it first?"

"I told you I still need lessons." He used the wandless Warming Charm she'd taught him to heat his hands and swept them down her firmly-muscled back, spreading the oil, smiling at her hum of satisfaction.

"I see you've learned a few things after all. Speaking of, how's the switcheroo coming?"

"I need more practice. Gold is tough to work with in this aspect," he said, working his thumbs into her neck as she groaned in appreciation.

"Why is that?"

"It's very stable, which makes it great for a lot of things, but terrible for something like this. It wants to stay exactly where it is and to complicate matters, I have to coax two of the bloody things." Harry started on her shoulders, pressing hard on the knots he found.

"Could you do it with a wand?" she asked, sounding very relaxed.

"Sure, but you know trying to affect something outside of yourself wandlessly is loads harder. You can heat your hands, but could you heat mine?"

"I don't know. Never tried to." She turned her head to the other side, nearly purring with happiness as he leaned over to place a kiss at the nape of her neck, the sweet scent of the oil filling his nose. Drizzling more oil in the small of her back, he went to work there, digging in hard at her urging. Harry found the sounds she was making very distracting and he pinched her bottom. "What was that for?" she asked, sounding mildly outraged.

"Listen, if you want me to finish this job, you better rein it in," he said, punctuating his statement with kisses between her shoulder blades and down her spine, making sure to pay proper attention to his favorite freckle clusters.

"Oh? Am I giving you a hard time, Mr Potter?" Ginny bounced her hips up and down on the bed, making her bottom jiggle delightfully.

"A bit." Harry smacked her arse lightly, grinning at her affronted squeal. She sat up on her elbows and reached blindly behind her, hitting him on his hip. Grabbing her hand before she could do him damage, he guided her to his half-erect cock, closing his eyes as she ran her hand lightly up and down his length through his boxers.

"I see," she said, smile evident in her voice. "Stay right where you are." Turning over, she sat cross-legged in front of him and smiled up at him, tugging on the waistband of his boxers. "You know, if you ever want to get another tattoo, this would be a good spot," she said, tracing her finger lightly over the pale skin of his hip.

"Yeah?" Harry looked down at the spot. "It looks painful. Not too much padding there."

Ginny pulled his boxers down a couple of inches. "You don't have to worry about pain as long as I'm with you." She gently kissed the exposed skin, raising goosebumps. "See, you get a stag, right here," she whispered, kissing him again, "and part of it will stick up above your waistband."

"And what's the point of that?" Harry asked in a low voice, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"It'll make all of the girls wonder what the rest of it looks like." She pulled his boxers down lower, allowing his cock to slip free, her voice sending a thrill through him. "And they'll just have to be sad because they'll never know. Especially that Charms teacher."

Harry laughed softly. "What is your problem with her? I think I've said maybe a dozen words to her all year."

"I don't like the way she looks at you," Ginny said, grasping his cock in her hand.

"And how is that?" He reached a hand out to caress her breast, lightly pinching a pert, pink nipple. She looked away for a moment and then looked back at him, flipping her hair dramatically and narrowing her eyes in what he surmised was supposed to be a smoldering look, making him laugh out loud. "She does not!"

"She does! You just don't pay enough attention."

"That's because she's not worth it," Harry whispered, leaning down to kiss her, opening his mouth to her questing tongue. As they kissed, she ran her fist up and down his hardening cock, squeezing him just right.

"Harry," she said, breaking away from their kiss to look up at him again, "leaning down like that's got to be terrible on your back."

"And my knees," he murmured, circling his finger around a dusky pink areola. "What do you suggest?" Her hand on his cock sped up and he bit back a groan.

"Why don't you lie back and let me take care of you?" She kissed him right below his bellybutton, giggling at his twitch.

"That's the best thing I've heard all day."

The next morning, he ran into Charms teacher Jeannie Peterson in the staff mail room. "Good morning, Harry," she said brightly, catching him a little off guard.

"Good morning," he said, feeling a bit awkward as he paid more attention to their interaction than he normally did.

"It's finally hump day!"

"Sorry?" he asked, feeling his face flush.

"Wednesday! Middle of the week?" She looked at him and cocked her head to the side. "Do they not say 'hump day' in England?"

"Oh, as in we're at the hump of the week. Got it!" he said, feeling like an idiot. "You've taught me something new today."

"Something tells me you're a fast learner," she said with a wink as she left the mail room, leaving him burning with embarrassment. Blimey, maybe Gin's right!

Shaking his head, he cleaned out his mailbox, spying a cream-colored envelope that meant Jacob had something to say to him. Deciding to open that later, he left the mail room, almost colliding with Juanita. "Sorry!" he said, stepping aside to let her through the doorway.

"Oh, I'm glad I ran into you! Were you able to get a hold of Rachel?" she asked, pawing through her overflowing mailbox.

"Yes, thank you for putting me in contact with her. She sent over some listings and Gin and I looked them over last night. We're going to look at three of them this week." They left the office and headed toward their neighboring classrooms.

"That's great! Let me know if you need another set of eyes. I love looking at houses."

"I'll keep that in mind. We'll see how these go; the prices are giving Gin a bit of a scare."

"San Francisco real estate prices are definitely not for the faint of heart. She'll get over it when she finds 'the one'. Just be careful that she doesn't try to throw more money at it; bidding wars can get vicious out here." She unlocked her classroom door and went in. Harry followed her.

"Question for you. Do you know anything about ritual sacrifice of wizards?"

Juanita paused in setting her things down on her desk and looked at him over her glasses. "Graveyards, the Gold Rush and now ritual sacrifice? What is going on in there?" she asked, whirling her index finger at her temple.

Harry shrugged and scratched the back of his head. "I was reading and ran across a mention of it, thought you might know more."

She raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "No, I'm not going to ask what you were reading. Yes, there have been a few examples of civilizations that practiced ritual sacrifice, including sacrificing the occasional wizard. Aztecs come to mind for one. Isn't this something you would have covered at Hogwarts?"

"Well, our History of Magic was taught by a ghost, which you think would make it more interesting, but it didn't. I probably wasn't paying attention," he said, remembering Professor Binns's dry, reedy voice. "D'you know why a wizard might have been sacrificed? I'm assuming it was involuntary?"

Juanita nodded. "Even ancient Muggle civilizations knew there was something different about us, so when they felt it was especially important, a witch or wizard would be captured and drugged for the sacrifice, so generally involuntary, yes. I have run across a few accounts where that wasn't the case however, but that seems to be mainly in conjunction with the Druids in Europe."

"Interesting. Can you point me to any more information?"

"Sure. I'll put together a reading list for you, all right?" She activated the Floo in her classroom, reminding Harry that he had to do the same for his own.

"Thanks. I look forward to it!"

"Only you would," she said, shaking her head at him as he left her classroom.

So, the sacrificers were harnessing the dying breath, probably without really knowing what they were doing. Curiouser and curiouser.

Once again, Harry found himself in the waiting room at the clinic, this time keeping an eye on things while Ben finished out his shift. When he'd shown up at the library to walk out with Ben and Ginny before she Apparated home to the suite, Ben had protested heartily.

"You don't have to do that," he'd said, managing to look both chagrined and flattered at the same time.

"I'll feel better if I do. You won't even notice I'm there."

Ben looked him up and down, frank admiration in his gaze. "Honey, that's a lie and you know it. Everyone will notice you're there."

"Look, I'm just going to be sitting in a corner, minding my own business. I've got loads of work to do," Harry said as they left the library.

"And sitting in those terrible chairs is just the place to do it." Ben looked at Ginny in mute appeal.

"I can't control him," she shrugged. "When he gets an idea in his head, it's best to just step aside and let it happen."

"I'm right here, you know," Harry grumped as they walked toward the clinic. A tree with a large black mark on it caught his eye and he turned towards it. "Is that it?" he asked.

"Yeah. What d'you reckon the spell was?" Ginny asked, looking at the tree with a frown.

"Awful hard to tell after the fact like this, but whatever it was, it wasn't good. It was definitely red?"

"Yes," Ginny said firmly. "Not green, so not—"

"Not what? What's bad about green?" Ben interrupted, sounding anxious.

"That means it wasn't the Killing Curse," Ginny said, placing a reassuring hand on his arm.

"What?" Harry readied himself to catch Ben as he looked like he was about to fall over. "There's a Killing Curse? As in it kills people?"

"Yes. It's very bad and you can get in a lot of trouble for using it," Ginny said in a helpful tone.

"Uh-huh. I see. Well, Harry, my shift is over at nine. I apologize in advance for the terrible chairs," Ben said with another lingering look at the scorch mark on the tree.

"All right, love. I'll see you later." Ginny went up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss and walked away with a wave.

"You're just going to let her walk off like that?" Ben asked as he and Harry stood watching her until she disappeared around the corner of a building.

Harry shrugged and sighed. "I have to. She can handle herself and she would never tolerate me hovering over her. Let me tell you about a thing called a Bat Bogey Hex…"

At least I thought to cast a Cushioning Charm tonight, he thought as he put away his computer in his satchel, taking another scan of the waiting room. It was busier tonight than it had been the previous night and Jessica had been surprised to see him with his mocha frappuccino tribute.

So far, everything had been quiet. He didn't see anyone that he'd seen last night and that made him feel a bit better. A young woman had walked by earlier, dropping a crumpled piece of paper and ignoring him when he tried to alert her to it. He smoothed it out and chuckled to find a phone number along with "Ellie" written on it.

Shutting out the noise of the television, he looked through his magically-enlarged bag for one of the books he'd borrowed from the library at lunchtime.

"Human sacrifice?" Polly Henderson, the librarian, looked at him skeptically and back down at the list he'd given her. Juanita had come through in spectacular fashion and Harry could almost see the librarian thinking about telling Artemis about this request and he smiled reassuringly.

"This isn't for lessons, more for professional curiosity." He leaned casually on the counter, trying to look as friendly and unthreatening as possible.

Still looking a bit doubtful, she nodded and opened a drawer, taking out a keyring. "All right, but if I hear about an altar in your classroom, I'm going straight to the headmaster." She led him to a glass-fronted cabinet in the very back of the library, unlocking it with an ornate key. "These will have what you're looking for," she said. "Take the ones you want and I'll lock up after you."

"Thanks, Polly," Harry said absently, already scanning the titles. Most of the ones Juanita had written down for him were there. He found a couple of others that looked interesting and he took them as well. Afterwards, he browsed a bit, picking out a couple of books about Druids and the ancient Aztecs.

Now he pulled out Wizard Life in Ancient Mexico by Terrence Weatherford and scanned the table of contents, turning to a chapter called "Co-existing With The Aztecs". He skimmed through the chapter, raising his eyebrows at the following passages:

Most witches and wizards in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica avoided contact with the Aztecs, especially at the height of the 52-Year Cycle. Trapped in their beliefs that only human sacrifice would appease their gods enough to allow the sun to rise and begin a new 52-year cycle, wizard-kind were considered an especially auspicious sacrifice.

The Aztecs were great monument builders and they did very well with their own primitive technology and techniques, sacrificing many of their own people as the priests decreed during the building of the monuments. There are accounts of a witch or wizard being sacrificed in order to complete a difficult building phase, but their reasoning is not known.

The sacrifice of a wizard pair was witnessed by Díego María de la Vega, the first wizard chronicler of the New World. In his guise as an ordinary Muggle in the entourage of Hernán Cortés, he shared his observations in The New World: Beauty and Savagery.

Our arrival had reportedly caused a lot of discord in the kingdom of the gods and it was decreed that only a special sacrifice would set things back to rights. I watched, horrified, as a drugged witch and wizard were laid upon the altar, still alive as their breasts were split open by crude knives, their living hearts thrown upon a brazier to burn and send the smoke to appease the gods. I vowed then to speak to Cortés and beg him to impress upon our hosts that no further sacrifices were needed or desired. I was not successful.

He closed the book, marking the spot with his finger, staring off into space as he thought. Well, Ancient Mexico was a terrifying place. I wonder if Bill knows anything about this stuff? I bet you he does…

Still lost in thought, the opening of the sliding doors caught his attention and he shifted his eyes to see a tall man in a long coat walk in and pause just inside the doorway. The man looked perfectly ordinary with brown hair and eyes and no facial hair, but something about him put Harry on alert. That coat's a bit much for tonight, he thought, setting the book down on the empty chair next to him. Glancing quickly at Jessica, he saw she was on the phone and was so far unaware of the man's entrance.

Focusing on the man again, Harry saw his eyes sweep the room, dismissing the Muggles waiting their turn for medical treatment. As his gaze swept over Harry, their eyes met and the stranger's went wide with recognition. The wizard turned abruptly and walked back out of the clinic. A split second later, Harry handed his satchel to Jessica. "Watch that for me? Back in a sec."

Not quite running out of the clinic, Harry paused for a moment, scanning the immediate area for any sight or sound of the retreating wizard. He heard a faint crack off to his left and shook his head, jogging that way anyway. A dumpster came into sight and he looked all around it, scanning the pavement with the lighted tip of his wand, hoping to find some physical trace of the unknown man. No hair. Dammit.

Puffing out an irritated breath, he went back into the clinic and retrieved his satchel from Jessica. I'm going to have to talk to Archimedes about a watcher for Ben. I can't be everywhere. He held the image of the man in his mind, willing himself to remember it. I'll have Gin sketch it tonight and get it to Archimedes.

Too agitated to focus on reading about human sacrifices, he pulled out his computer, hoping he might find Ginny on, but luck wasn't with him. He sent an email to Archimedes instead, detailing everything he could remember about the man.

I'm going to see if I can have Gin work up a sketch. Her friendship with Ben has really ruffled some feathers and I think he's going to need full-time protection until we can get things settled down. Please let me know how you would like to proceed.

Thanks

Harry

An hour later, Ben stood next to him, still in his scrubs and looking exhausted. He ran his fingers through his short blond hair and sighed. "All done. Are you my escort home?"

"It's your lucky night," Harry said as he put his computer away and stood with a back-cracking stretch.

"I hope it wasn't too awful for you."

"Nah. Here, sit down." Ben did so and looked at Harry with amazement. "It's called a Cushioning Charm," he said. Looking around, he carefully dispelled it when Ben stood up.

They walked out of the clinic and towards the Muni stop. "So are we going to…" Ben asked, waving his hands theatrically.

Harry smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Why do people always think magic is a lot of handwaving? Do you think you can handle it?"

"Well, if I'm expecting it, I think I'll be fine," Ben said, looking just a bit unsure despite his brave words.

"All right." Harry took his arm and led him around the corner of the clinic where it was dark. "Hang on to me." Ben squinched his eyes shut tight and took a deep breath, clutching Harry's arm so tightly enough that he was sure he'd have bruises. An instant later, they were down the block from Ben's apartment.

"Are we there yet?" he asked, eyes still closed.

"Yeah, it's safe to open your eyes," he said, chuckling when Ben opened first one and then the other. Harry walked with him to his apartment, inviting himself in for a moment. "Listen, there was a man tonight at the clinic. He came in and when he saw me, he went right back out again."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, my assumption is that he was there looking for you."

"In the good way?" Ben asked, sounding hopeful.

Harry shook his head. "I don't think so. I've emailed Archimedes and asked him to set you up with some protection."

"You use email?"

"For some things, yes. Now listen, until that's in place, I don't want you to leave your apartment unless me or Gin are with you, all right?"

"What about classes and labs? We don't have all the same classes."

"I think you'll be safe in classes, but let Gin get you to them," Harry said, copying Ben's handwaving gesture from earlier, glad to see his grin.

"When do you think I'll be getting, um, protection?"

"I don't know. It'll all depend on how quickly Archimedes can get it arranged. Are you all right for tonight? Is there anything I can get you?"

Ben sighed and looked around his apartment. "I don't suppose you could magic George Clooney up in here?"

"No, sorry. Okay, then. Gin will be here in the morning to collect you." Harry turned to go, but was stopped by Ben's hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks, Harry. I know you don't have to do any of this."

Harry smiled and shook his head. "Of course I do. Call the Fairmont and have them ring us if you need anything, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Harry left the apartment, standing in the hallway until he heard the locks engage and headed back to the suite. "How'd it go tonight?" Ginny asked when he appeared in the sitting room. She was curled up on the sofa, trying to balance both a large text book and Stuart in her lap.

Setting down his satchel, Harry sighed. "All right, but a man did come into the clinic. He left as soon as he saw me sitting there." He sat down on the sofa next to her, pulling the cat into his lap and petting him. "I need you to do a sketch if you can."

"Wouldn't the Pensieve be better? Then Archimedes can see him for himself," Ginny said and Harry stared at her, mouth open.

"Of course it would. God, why didn't I think of that? I'll email him and ask him to meet me at school after practice." He pulled his satchel over and took out his computer. He'd meant to check to see if there was a response from Archimedes regarding Ben's protection detail anyway. Opening up his email, he saw a response.

I agree with you about Ginny's friend. I'll get it arranged. Looking forward to the sketch.

Regards

A Douglass

"Good," Harry grunted, making Ginny look up.

"What's good?"

"Archimedes is going to set up some protection for Ben. I think he's going to need more than just me hanging out at the clinic."

Ginny closed her book and frowned, looking sad. "Maybe he should be Obliviated."

"No, that's the last thing we want. Besides, it would only be more dangerous for him if he was. If something were to happen, he wouldn't know where to turn and then it would be even more difficult to manage." He turned back to his computer, quickly composing a response to Archimedes.

I'm an idiot. Gin pointed out I have a Pensieve. Meet me tomorrow at five o'clock at St Ambrose's and we'll have a viewing party.

Thanks

Harry

He closed the lid of the laptop and set it on the coffee table, turning towards Ginny. "Until things are settled, can you keep an eye on him during the day? I've asked him not to leave his apartment unless one of us is with him."

"We have the same schedules tomorrow, but not Friday," she said thoughtfully. "Should be all right."

"Good. That's one thing handled at least." He rested his head on the back of the sofa and closed his eyes. He felt Ginny taking off his glasses and snuggling against him. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, enjoying the feeling of simply being in physical contact with her. She slipped her hand underneath the hem of his tee shirt, rubbing her palm against his belly. "I talked to Jeannie Peterson today."

"Oh?" Ginny said, pausing her rubbing momentarily.

"She winked at me."

"Did she, now?" He felt her hand move higher, now sweeping her thumb over one of his nipples and making it hard.

"I'm sure she meant it in a friendly way. Some friends do that." Harry felt her lips on his neck and he smiled.

"Except Ron. He can't wink. Have you ever seen him try? Pathetic."

"He looks like a demented owl. He's used it to pick up girls." He felt his heart beat faster when her tongue darted out to lick along his pulse point.

"Like I said. Pathetic," Ginny whispered in his ear.

Harry raised his head and looked at her. She still had a hand on his chest and had progressed to rolling his nipple between her thumb and finger, brown eyes bright. "I don't really want to talk about your brother right now," he whispered, lowering his head to kiss her.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"I thought we were talking about the Charms teacher," Harry said, breaking into a pained laugh when Ginny pinched his nipple very hard.

The next afternoon, as he jogged back on campus with the cross-country team, Harry spotted Archimedes chatting with Artemis. He nodded to Terry as he left the group and approached the pair, apologizing for his current state. "Let me get cleaned up and I'll meet you in my classroom, all right?" he said, shaking Archimedes's hand.

"What are you and Archimedes planning in your classroom?" Artemis asked, curious look on his face.

"Harry is going to show me a few of the less-common Defense spells they teach at Hogwarts," Archimedes said smoothly and Harry nodded in agreement.

"All right, I'll let you two get to it then. Good seeing you, Archimedes," Artemis said, walking back toward the office, whistling a tune Harry couldn't quite identify.

"Come on, you can hang out in my room while I get a shower." Harry led Archimedes to his classroom and unlocked the door, showing him in. "Sit wherever you want, read whatever you want. I'll be about fifteen, okay?"

Archimedes looked around, taking in the neat desk, book cases, bulletin boards and cabinets in the back. He raised an eyebrow at the Sword of Gryffindor sitting quietly in the corner near the fireplace. "Are you taking that with you everywhere now?"

Harry looked at the sword and shook his head. "No. It was in the suite when I left and then right there when I got here this morning. It's following me around, I guess. Anyway, back in a bit." He left the classroom, feeling only a little bit apprehensive at leaving the curious Archimedes alone. I think my Locking Charms can keep him out for fifteen minutes, he thought, jogging down to the staff locker room.

When he returned, Archimedes was in his desk chair with his feet up on his desk, perusing Harry's copy of Modern Defensive Theory, Third Edition. "All right, shall we get started?" Harry asked, rubbing his hands together.

"Yes. Let's get a look at this young man that seems bound and determined to harass Ginny's friend." He set the book aside and took his feet off Harry's desk, eyes bright and interested. Harry went to the cabinet in the back of the classroom that held the Pensieve and went through the complicated unlocking procedure. I'll have to change the pattern after Archimedes leaves.

Carefully, he pulled out the Pensieve and walked slowly to his desk, setting the stone basin down in front of Archimedes. He conjured another chair and sat across from the older Auror, contemplating the silvery surface of the fluid in the basin. Archimedes was scrutinizing the basin, running his finger along the runes carved into the stone.

"Have you ever seen one?" Harry asked, raising his wand to his temple.

"Once, a long time ago. Never gotten to use one though."

"It's … interesting." Concentrating, Harry extracted a silvery thread of memory, adding it to the memories already in the basin. "Ready?"

Looking a bit apprehensive, Archimedes nodded and Harry plunged them both into the memory. An instant later, they were standing in the waiting room at the clinic. "Well, this is interesting," Archimedes remarked, looking all around. "None of these people are aware of our presence?"

"No, they exist only in the memory and we won't be able to interact with them at all," Harry said, remembering when he'd tried to talk to a memory of Dumbledore at the trial of Barty Crouch Jr.

He saw himself sitting in the chair in the corner, looking bored out of his mind. The girl that had dropped her number on the crumpled sheet of paper earlier was seated behind him, staring at the back of his head. "And there we are," he said, nodding to the sliding entrance doors.

The man walked in and Harry looked closely at him. He looked to be in his mid-thirties with short brown hair and brown eyes. Harry saw that he had a small scar on his cheek under his right eye and his nose looked like it had been broken once or twice. "Bit of a brawler, yeah?" he remarked to Archimedes who was studying the man closely.

"Yes," he said distractedly, stepping closer to the man and bending forward to get a better look at him.

"Recognize him?" Archimedes shook his head as their mystery man saw Harry and whirled, long coat flaring around him as he hastened out of the clinic. Harry watched himself spring up and practically throw his satchel at Jessica as he quickstepped after the fleeing man.

"No, I don't." He watched the memory-Harry exit the clinic and the memory faded away, leaving them back in the classroom.

"Do you need to see it again?"

Archimedes looked at the silvery fluid in the Pensieve for several moments, lips pursed, before shaking his head. "No, I think I can describe him to our artist well enough."

"You saw the scar under his right eye?"

Archimedes nodded and seemed like he was about to ask Harry a question, but he shook his head. Harry knew he must be burning with curiosity to see more memories stored in the Pensieve, but iron discipline won out. He stood and carried the basin back to the cabinet, putting it away. "Any news on Ben's protection detail?" he asked, closing the cabinet door.

"Yes. Auror Gutierrez will be working with him. She's going to meet him at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Would you mind if Ginny came to Ben's apartment to meet the Auror with him? Put him a little more at ease."

"Sounds like a good idea. Thank you for doing this, Archimedes."

"Well, when it's one of our own causing the problems, we have to be part of the solution." Archimedes rose from the desk chair and shook Harry's hand. "Thanks for sharing that memory with me. I'll let you know when we track him down. Hopefully he's acting alone and not part of a larger group."

"Thanks."

Pausing in the doorway, Archimedes turned to him. "How are you coming on that coin?"

Harry pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it. "It's tough. The gold is being difficult, but I'll get it."

"Good." He glanced again at the sword by the fireplace. "I don't think we're the only ones anxious to get that coin away from Weatherbee." He nodded at Harry again and left, walking energetically through the grassy quad.

Harry looked at the sword and shook his head. "Quit hounding me, all right?"

29. Chapter 29

Breath coming in short gasps, Ginny woke, opening her eyes in the dim bedroom. It's okay, I'm okay, I'm safe, she thought, calming her breathing with effort. She looked over at Harry lying next to her, praying she hadn't woken him, reassured that he was still asleep by his deep, even breathing.

She wiped the sweat from her forehead, struggling to remember what she'd been dreaming about. That voice… Unbidden, the voice of the long-dead Cornelius Maxwell came to her. You told him all of your secrets, didn't you? You and I girl, we will be a team to be reckoned with. A spinning gold coin and then jets of red light, seeming to come from everywhere at once.

Stuart jumped up on the bed and clambered on top of her, setting his not inconsiderable weight right on her bladder in that unerring way cats always seemed to have. "Blasted animal," she whispered fondly, pushing him off of her as she got out of bed, trying not to wake Harry. Totally unconcerned, the cat followed her into the loo, watching her with his tail curled around his feet, putting her in mind of the little cat statue Andromeda had given them for their handfasting at Christmas.

Feeling better, but now completely wide-awake, she retreated into the sitting room, turning on a lamp by one of the armchairs. Might as well get some work done, she thought, opening her computer. Exam season was hard upon her and while she felt reasonably confident, she didn't want to get caught out by some Muggle curve ball. She pulled up her notes from a recent Microbiology lab, but found her mind wandering.

I'm glad Archimedes was able to arrange an Auror for Ben's protection. That's definitely a load off my mind. As requested, she'd gone to Ben's apartment Friday morning, not exactly sure what she was expected to do.

"I guess just act as a liaison between the Muggle and magical?" Ginny asked Harry as they were getting ready for their respective days. The Sword of Gryffindor glinted in the corner of the bedroom and he frowned at it as he tied his tie.

"Maybe a formal introduction thing?" Harry shrugged, pulling on his blazer.

"You're probably right." Ginny straightened his tie, pulling the knot a little tighter.

"What are you trying to do, strangle me?" Harry asked, swatting her hands away.

"There was a gap. I can't send you out looking like that. Your hair is bad enough." She ran her fingers through it, spotting another strand of gray. "I'll send you a message and let you know how the meeting goes, all right?"

"Thanks," Harry said kissing her on the cheek. "Finally Friday. I thought this week would never end."

"And we get to look at houses tomorrow," she said, feeling a thrill of anticipation. She'd never really had an opportunity to pick out her own place to live. Her flat in London had been chosen by her parents and an agency had chosen the studio above the Chinese restaurant, so she found she was quite looking forward to the experience. And to be choosing a place to live with Harry, well, that was just the best part.

Glancing at his watch, Harry grimaced. "Running a bit late, sorry. See you tonight, all right?"

"All right," Ginny said, turning her face up to his to receive his kiss.

"Be safe."

"Of course."

He cast another irritated glance at the sword and left the room, Disapparating soundlessly as always. A moment later, the sword followed him.

Ten minutes later, Ginny was knocking on the door to Ben's apartment. "Who is it?" he called through the door.

"It's me," she said brightly, smiling at him as he opened the door to her, stepping aside to let her in. "Has the Auror come yet?"

"No, but it's not eight yet." Ben looked a little apprehensive and Ginny smiled reassuringly at him.

"It'll be fine. Wizards are nice people. Well, most wizards I should say," she said, remembering the nastiness of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle.

Just then, there was another knock at the door, this one sounding brisk and authoritative. Ben looked at Ginny and took a deep breath, opening the door. In the hallway stood a woman barely taller than Ginny. She had on jeans and a leather jacket, long, dark hair tied back in a no-nonsense ponytail. "Ben Frye?" she asked.

"Yes."

"I'm Auror Angela Gutierrez. I'll be your protection."

A relieved look came over Ben's face and he smiled, stepping aside. "Please—"

"What's the pass phrase?" Ginny asked, interrupting Ben as he was about to invite her past the Blood Seal on the threshold.

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none," she said confidently and Ginny relaxed, nodding at Ben.

"Angela Gutierrez, welcome," he said, allowing the Auror access to his apartment. She stepped in, looking around the tidy sitting room.

"Do you mind?" she asked, taking out her wand.

"Not at all, do whatever you need to do," Ben said, waving his hands around as he closed the door. She nodded and stalked around the small apartment, checking the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Ginny exchanged a look with him, giving him a reassuring smile.

"So, you already have the Blood Seal on the threshold and I've detected Unbreakables on the door and windows. Good," Auror Gutierrez said when she was finished with her survey. "You live here alone?"

"Uh, well, usually. I do occasionally have company," Ben said cagily.

"Company is going to be excluded for now, okay?" she said in a tone that did not invite disagreement.

"Okay," he said, failing to keep the disappointment out of his voice.

"Let's go over procedures, shall we?" Ben and Ginny nodded and they moved over to sit on the sofa while the Auror took the armchair. Auror Gutierrez explained that she would be with him from morning until evening, escorting him to and from his classes and waiting for him at the clinic whereupon she would escort him home. "This is your safe place. No one can get in here to get to you and if you need to leave for any reason, contact me." She pulled a slim cell phone out of her pocket and Ginny raised her eyebrows. She handed both Ben and Ginny business cards embossed with the regional Auror's office logo, her name and a phone number.

"But what if it's late at night and I just want some ice cream?" Ben asked, smiling at the Auror.

"Then you call me, tell me what flavor you want and I bring it to you."

Ben blinked several times before nodding, looking overwhelmed. Ginny put her hand on his back and rubbed softly. "It won't be for very long. Harry took Archimedes into the Pensieve yesterday and showed him that man. They should have him arrested before too long," she said.

"But he may not be the only one wishing to do you harm," Auror Gutierrez said. Ginny shot her a glare as Ben swallowed and nodded solemnly.

They sat quietly, looking at each other until Ginny glanced at her watch, clearing her throat. "I have class in about half an hour," she said quietly.

"All right. Ben?"

"Yeah, we should go, too." He put her card in his pocket and stood, gathering his things. "So, uh, what do I call you … when we're in public or whatever?"

"You can just call me Angela," she said, giving him her first real smile, putting the both of them at ease.

I do hope they get on, Ginny thought as she brought her attention back to her notes, trying to concentrate once more. She had just gotten moderately successful when Harry came shuffling into the sitting room, squinting at her.

"What are you doing up?" he said, bending over to kiss her cheek.

"Did I wake you?"

"No, love," Harry said, collapsing onto the sofa and leaning his head back on the cushion. Stuart jumped up in his lap, kneading his thigh enthusiastically as Harry patted him. "I woke up and you weren't there and then I saw the light on in here."

"What woke you up?" she asked, thinking she already had a pretty good idea.

Harry shook his head and closed his eyes. "What time is it?"

"Half four," Ginny said, peering at the time on her computer screen.

"Ugh. Too late to go back to bed and too early to just get up."

Ginny closed the lid of her computer and set it on the coffee table, joining Harry on the sofa. She snuggled up to him and laid her head on his shoulder. "What time are we meeting Rachel?"

"One o'clock. We're seeing four properties today," he said, hugging her close. "Are you excited?"

"I am. Never gotten to pick out my own place."

"Never?" Harry asked, sounding surprised. "What about your place in London?"

"That was mostly Mum and Dad. I just went along with it so I could get out on my own." She wrapped her arm around his chest, squeezing him tight. "And the studio flat here an agency found for me." Rubbing her shoulder, Harry chuckled, his rumbling laugh loud in her ear. "What?" she asked, raising her head to look at him.

He looked down at her, smiling widely. "Looks like we get to have another first time," he said, laughing again.

"Goodness. Get your mind out of the gutter for once, all right?" Ginny swatted him on the arm, making him laugh some more. "Besides, you're not a virgin in this respect." She scooted up and kissed his neck. "Come on, let's go back to bed."

In the still too-cushy bed, Ginny snuggled up to Harry, laying her head on his chest and listening to his strong heartbeat. She felt his fingers in her hair and she sighed quietly. "Are you going to tell me what woke you up?" Harry asked softly.

"I had a nightmare. I heard that voice from the coin again and then I saw jets of red light," she said, running her hand over his warm skin.

He was quiet for a moment and then said, "Do you want me to take the memory from you and put it in the Pensieve?"

Ginny thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. "No, I don't want that, either. I'll be all right."

"We'll do some meditation before bed tomorrow, okay?"

"Or we could do something else to make sure we're both completely tired out," she said, trailing the tip of her finger up from his bellybutton to the middle of his chest.

"Now who's got their mind in the gutter?" Harry chuckled, kissing the top of her head.

Harry relaxed against the back of the booth, a fresh pint of Guinness in front of him. He took a long swallow and sighed. "I'd forgotten how tiring looking at places can be."

"I thought Rachel was going to keep going," Ginny said, sitting across from him, a pint of cider in front of her.

"She probably is. Unlocking random doors, going into strangers' houses, talking about 'contingencies' and 'pre-approval' and 'home inspections'," Harry said, licking the foam off of his upper lip.

"Or casement windows, crown molding and open floor plans," Ginny said with a giggle. She put her hand on top of Harry's and squeezed. "Did you see anything you liked?"

"I liked that last one."

"I thought your eyes were going fall out of your head when you saw the cooker."

"Well," Harry said with a shrug and another sip of his beer. "It is a pretty nice one."

"Six burners, built-in grill, double ovens." She leaned forward, tracing a pattern on the back on his hand and lowering her voice to a whisper. "Infrared broiler."

Harry grinned and leaned in toward her. "Why, Miss Weasley, are you trying to seduce me?"

"I'm seducing myself with thoughts of all the wonderful things you're going to cook for me." She wrinkled her nose and leaned back against her seat, taking a long drink of her cider.

"Is that the one you like?"

"Hmm, I don't know. I'd say it's on the list, but it's just our first time out, isn't it?"

"That's true." Harry looked at Ginny, catching sight of the ring on her finger. She was wearing the heart-shaped one today and he knew that Rachel had definitely noticed it. "How are you doing with the prices?"

She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "I've decided that I'm going to let you worry about that." She picked up her cider glass and looked at him over the rim. "How are you doing with the prices?"

"Well, I'm not going to lie, it's a lot to think about. I keep converting it to Galleons so it seems like a smaller number," he said with a laugh. "I need to write a letter to my solicitor so he doesn't have a heart attack when I drop seven figures on property." Harry sipped more of his Guinness as he thought. Where is that last statement? Probably at the flat somewhere.

"What else did you like about that one?" Ginny asked brightly.

"I liked the wood floors."

"Quarter-inch oak, hand sawn," she pointed out judiciously.

"Indeed. Lots of windows, but not quite a view of the Golden Gate like you wanted."

"That's all right. The closets make up for it. Hungry?" she asked, picking up the menu. Harry decided on a bacon burger and Ginny a chicken sandwich, both with chips.

"Question for you," he said when he sat back down with fresh drinks after placing their orders.

"Five feet, two inches right after I wake up," Ginny said with an impish smile.

"That's rather generous, don't you think?" Harry winked at her and took a drink of his fresh beer, grinning at her outraged glare.

"You think you're so funny, don't you?" Ginny narrowed her eyes and kicked him under the table, making him yelp.

"Anyway," he said, rubbing his shin, "I wanted to ask if you would mind if I got a telly in the new house?"

"Oh, goodness." Ginny looked at him in surprise, blinking several times. "I suppose it's fine. I've never had one and you didn't have one in London." She cocked her head and smiled. "Are you jealous of Archimedes's den?"

"Well, I don't know about jealous," Harry shrugged, "maybe more admiring."

"I don't have a problem with it. Then maybe I'll know what Ben's talking about half the time."

A smiling waitress brought their food and they were just about to dig in when a spectral greyhound darted through the doorway of the pub and stopped in front of Harry. Shooting Ginny a look, he put his hand on the Patronus's head, hearing Archimedes inside his head.

We've identified the wizard that attacked Ginny and Ben and have him in custody. Will tell you more when we know if he's acting alone. Thought you should know. Message delivered, the greyhound collapsed in on itself.

"Archimedes?" Ginny asked tightly.

"Yeah. They've arrested your attacker." Harry saw her relieved expression and squeezed her hand on top of the table. "They don't know yet if he's acting alone or if there are more of them out there, but we haven't heard anything about any other Muggles being attacked, so it's likely that he was the only one."

"Well, if others were being attacked, do you think Archimedes would tell you? You heard him when he said you don't have any authority."

"True," Harry said. Archimedes's words still rankled, but he didn't want to throw away a burgeoning friendship over some words said in the heat of the moment. "But I haven't read anything either in the Chronicle, Mercury, Tribune or Uncanny Examiner and if something were going on, I'm sure news of it would be out."

Ginny picked at her chips, looking downcast. "I'm sure you're right," she said with a sigh and shook her head.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know. I feel like I've dragged Ben into this whole thing. If I'd just minded my own business and focused on school, none of this would have happened," she said, still looking down at her chips.

"You don't know that. You haven't done anything wrong, yeah?" Harry squeezed her hand until she met his eyes and he smiled at her. "None of what happened is your fault. There's a nutter on the loose stirring up shit and another nutter has decided to take things into his own hands. When you think of it, it's a good thing that you were together because he could have been seriously hurt, all right?"

"All right." Ginny gave him a small smile and extracted her hand from his iron grip, finally paying proper attention to her food. They were almost done eating when another Patronus came into the pub, this one in the form of a falcon. It landed on the table, keen eyes fixed on Ginny who looked at it in surprise.

"Who could this be from?" she wondered as she stroked a spectral wing. Harry watched her receive the message and her face brightened. "It's from Sarah. Another witch has gone into labor and she's asked if I would like to come."

"Do you?"

Ginny thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes. It'll be nice to think of something else for a while." She looked up at Harry uncertainly. "Unless you don't think I ought to?"

"No! You should go. I'm not keeping you under lock and key," he said, pushing away a feeling of sadness that she felt she even needed to ask. "You'll be surrounded by a bunch of she-bears, I'm sure. Anyone who tries to mess with that lot will be in for a surprise."

"Too right," Ginny said, summoning her own Patronus and sending it zooming away with a message for Sarah. A few minutes later, Harry kissed her goodbye as she Disapparated from the suite, first aid tote on her shoulder.

"Well, now what shall we do to entertain ourselves?" he asked the cat. As usual, he didn't respond. Harry relaxed onto the sofa and kicked off his trainers, reaching for his satchel and pawing through the contents. He pulled out a sheaf of papers that needed reviewing and grading and sighed, putting them back. Picking up the remote, he turned on the telly, desultorily flipping through the channels, finding nothing to interest him.

Shutting it back off, he pulled the gold double eagle out of his pocket and looked at it, eyes tracing the contours of the woman's profile. "I guess I'd better get to work on this." He put the coin along with his half of the Galleon on the coffee table and went into the bedroom, changing into a loose pair of trackies. Digging around in his sock drawer, he found the feather he'd picked up from the Quidditch pitch at school the other day and went back into the sitting room.

Using his wand to move the furniture out of the way, he cleared a space in the middle of the room, sitting down cross-legged with the feather and two gold coins on the carpet in front of him. Setting his wand aside, he spent several minutes going through a deep-breathing exercise, concentrating on essentially nothing until he finally felt that peculiar aware-but-not-too-aware feeling.

Opening his eyes, he looked at the objects in front of him, focusing on the feather. You want to float. You like being up in the air. It's fun. There was a reason students were taught the Levitation Charm with a feather; it already had an affinity with being up in the air and was therefore easier to coax. Thinking about the simple charm, he concentrated and said, "Wingardium Leviosa," his voice sounding loud in the silent room.

The feather sat on the floor in front of him, steadfast in its refusal to move. Harry stared at it, keeping his breathing slow and even, pushing aside his frustration that it hadn't moved on his first attempt. He ignored the discomfort from sitting cross-legged on the carpet, keeping his focus on the feather. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he closed his eyes. Gathering his will, he concentrated on the spell and how it felt when properly executed, visualizing the end result. "Wingardium Leviosa," he whispered, straining to extend his will to the feather without the focusing help of his wand.

This time he felt the rush of magic leaving him and he opened his eyes to see the feather floating the barest inch above the floor, Stuart sniffing at it suspiciously. A flood of triumph went through him, breaking his concentration and sending the feather floating gently back to the floor. "Full marks, Potter," he murmured, settling his hands back on his knees. "Again." Eventually he was able to make the feather float nine times out of ten and move it around a bit to send Stuart into paroxysms of joy as he tried to snatch it out of the air, but the effort exhausted him and he lay back on the thick carpet, patting the cat on his chest tiredly.

Looking out of the window, he saw that it was full dark and realized he'd been practicing with the feather for several hours. Groaning, he sat back up and looked at the feather again. "One more time," he said, "this time non-verbally." It wasn't quite like going back to square one, but he was only able to coax it about half as high as he could when casting it verbally and he let it fall to the ground, picking it up before Stuart could shake it to shreds.

"Not too shabby, Potter," he said, picking up the feather and coins, putting the coins in the pocket of his trackies and the feather back in the drawer. Setting the furniture back to rights and feeling like he'd actually accomplished something, he rewarded himself with a Newcastle and settled on the sofa with a pile of student papers, the telly on for noise in the background.

Neck-deep in student essays, he was startled when Ginny Apparated into the suite right in front of him. She smiled at him radiantly as she set her tote on the floor, joining him on the sofa. "You look happy. Everything went well, I take it?" Harry asked after she gave him a whopper of a kiss.

"Yes, very well." She snuggled up next to him and he set his papers on the coffee table, wrapping both of his arms around her. He was vastly relieved to see her home safe, even though he'd felt reasonably secure about her being surrounded by protective witches. That didn't mean he was about to give up waiting for her on her late clinic nights when she was surrounded by oblivious Muggles.

"Did you have to actually do anything this time?"

"I did. It was twins and the second was just taking his time coming out, so I had to help him along a little bit. Other than that it was pretty routine." Ginny put her hand on his cheek and pulled him down for another kiss, pressing her mouth hard against his.

"So Mum was okay? How was Dad?" Harry murmured when they broke apart.

"It was two mums, actually."

"Oh? How did they…?"

Ginny smiled and shook her head. "I don't know, I didn't ask. Very charming couple called Claire and Tamara. Claire was the one having the babies. A boy and a girl they've decided to call Griffin and Antonia." She looked up at him and tapped her finger on his nose. "I expect you'll be seeing them in about a dozen years."

"I dunno, sounds like this Griffin is a bit of a layabout. Taking his time getting out of his mum." Harry tapped Ginny's nose in return, wincing when she grabbed his finger and bit down lightly.

"He was just warm and comfy in there, rather like I am now." She burrowed deeper into his embrace, wrapping an arm around his chest. "I have a client."

"You do? What sort?"

"A lady that wants me to help her when the time comes."

"When's that going to be?" Harry asked, feeling a tiny bit bad at his selfish thought of having his summer with Ginny and Teddy interrupted by a woman having a baby.

"She's only just found out, so not until October or November," she said, her voice muffled against his chest.

"You must have made quite an impression." Harry kissed the top of her head, breathing in the sweet scent of her shampoo.

"I'd say you made a pretty big impression too." She looked up at him with a playful smile.

"I wasn't even there. How'd I manage that?" Ginny waved her left hand in front of his face. "Oh," Harry said, seeing the heart-shaped engagement ring.

"I forgot I had this one on and Sarah noticed right away. She's very cross with you."

"Me? What did I do?"

"You didn't tell Archimedes when you saw him the other day."

"I see. But that makes it so she was the first one to find out, doesn't it?"

"And that's the only thing that saved you." Ginny yawned hugely, stretching her back like a cat. "What time is it?"

"After midnight," Harry said, squinting at his watch. She grunted in response and burrowed her face in between his arm and body, reminding him of Stuart. "Come on, let's get to bed."

"I don't want to move," Ginny protested, squeezing him tighter.

"You can sleep here, then. I'm going to bed." Harry began extricating himself from her surprisingly strong grip, ending up in a giggling wrestling match. Somehow she got her feet planted on his chest and she pushed, sending him tumbling to the floor to hit his head on one of the coffee table legs.

"Oh! Oh no! Are you all right?" Ginny slithered awkwardly off the sofa and onto the floor next to Harry, pulling his hands away from the small knot forming on the back of his head. She had her wand out and he felt a soothing warmth spread over the injured spot and in seconds it didn't hurt at all.

He pulled her over on top of him, running his hands up and down her back as he kissed her. "Thanks for that. I might have forgotten Maths."

"Maths you can live without. Defense, on the other hand…" She leaned down and kissed him again. He felt her hands in his hair, gently probing the spot where he'd hit his head. "Looks like you'll live. Come on." She sprang up, neatly freeing herself from his grasp and taking his hand to help him up from the floor.

"How did you occupy your time while I was gone? Grading papers?" she asked as they got ready for bed.

"A bit of that. I did some practice with wandless magic too."

"Were you able to make the coin do anything?"

"No, I practiced making a feather float." He pulled off his trackies and tee shirt, leaving on his boxers.

"And how did that work out for you?" She picked up her pajama bottoms and Harry snatched them out of her hand, tossing them across the room. She arched her eyebrow at him and reached up under her tee shirt to take off her bra.

"Pretty well. I got it to where I could float it pretty reliably. Stuart was delighted at his new magical cat toy." He got into bed, laying back with his hands behind his head, eyes trained on Ginny in her tee shirt and knickers.

"That's a good start. Now you just need to be able to switch a plain gold coin with one that's got some sort of nasty enchantment on it in room full of wizards without anyone noticing," she said, snapping her fingers. "Simple, really." She got into bed, resting her head on his chest.

"You have the best way of putting things."

Sunday, after a bit of a lie-in and a leisurely breakfast, found the both of them at St Ambroses's. Harry had arranged with the potions teacher, Vivian Aster, for Ginny to use her classroom to replenish her first aid stock.

"Oh, it's no problem at all, Harry," she said when he'd thanked her. "I know how difficult it can be to set up a proper space for Potions in a place meant for Muggles to live. Besides, I still need to repay you for the Vampire Dust you gave me at the beginning of the year." She'd generously and altogether too-trustingly given him the password to her classroom and Harry resolved to advise her to change it on Monday.

This classroom was nothing like Snape's old Potions dungeon. In here, gleaming cleanliness and bright light reigned and Harry wandered around a little while Ginny got set up at one of the tall tables. One of the bulletin boards caught his eye and he went over to get a closer look. "Advanced Potions Extra Credit" was at the top of the board and there was a signup sheet below for different potions. He saw sheets for Felix Felicis, Polyjuice, Wolfsbane and Mandrake Restorative. Not surprisingly, Elizabeth's name was on every single sheet.

He wandered over to the table Ginny was setting up at, raising his eyebrows at the five cauldrons she had set up. "Busy. Anything I can do?"

"You can chop up those leeches for me," she said, handing him a small silver knife.

"My favorite!" he said, grinning when she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Even chunks. I need them to dissolve at the same rate, so no sloppy bits, all right?" she admonished, bending to her own task of grinding up a bunch of flowers. They spent an hour companionably preparing potion ingredients, putting Harry in mind of classes spent with Ron and Hermione. At least there's no Snape to antagonize me here, he thought, remembering how he'd enjoyed Potions a lot more once Slughorn came back to teach.

Soon, the classroom was full of the warring scents of several different potions brewing at once. The classroom was outfitted with the latest self-stirring cauldrons, so Harry retreated to a less-smelly corner of the room, hoping the slight headache generated by the smells would abate.

Sitting on a stool at a high-topped table, he took out the double eagle and the half Galleon, looking at them. "Gin," he called as an idea struck him, "can I borrow your half of the Galleon?"

"What for?" she asked distractedly, checking the temperature of one of the bubbling solutions.

"I want to practice and I figure trying to switch two things that used to be one might be easier." He approached her table as she dug in her jeans pocket, pulling out the split coin. "Oh God, that's rancid," he said when he got a whiff of one of the potions.

"How do you know that's not Amortentia?" she asked with a sly grin as she held out the coin to him.

"Because I know what I smell when that's around and that's not it," he said, waving his hand in front of his face.

"And what exactly is that?"

He plucked the coin from her fingers and gave her a cheeky smile of his own. "Wouldn't you like to know?" he asked as he walked backwards, retreating from the stink.

"I would, actually."

"A man's got to have some mystery, yeah?" He laughed when she stuck her tongue out at him for the second time that day. Back at his table, he set the two halves of the Galleon in front of him, thinking back to that freezing cold Christmas Eve morning and how beautiful Ginny had looked in the sunrise.

Forcing his mind back to the present moment, he thought about the Switching Spell. It'd been a long time since he'd done anything with it and he took out his wand, setting the two halves of the Galleon on opposite sides of the table. He practiced switching places with the two halves, concentrating on the feeling of the correctly executed spell until he felt ready to try it wandlessly.

Closing his eyes, he set his wand aside and blocked out everything else in the classroom, including the increasingly noxious smells coming from Ginny's table. He fixed the split coin in his mind, visualized the end result and focused his intent. Opening his eyes, he murmured the incantation, experiencing a rush of triumph as the two halves twitched weakly toward each other. "Excellent. Again."

Over and over he performed the spell, progressing to where he could consistently get one of the halves to join the other on the same side of the table. Well, that's progress, but I don't want Ignatius to end up with two coins and me with none, he thought glumly. He shifted on the stool, pushing his hair back and looking up to realize that Ginny was watching him.

"What?" he asked, standing and stretching. He bounced on his toes to get some feeling back in his legs and brought Ginny her half of the Galleon. Her table was remarkably less smelly and he surmised her potions were nearly done.

"I don't think I've ever seen you that keen on something," she said as she pocketed the coin.

"Have you been watching me this whole time?" he asked with a tinge of self-consciousness. "Don't you have to focus on these?"

"I can brew these in my sleep. You, on the other hand, are something to see."

"I'm sure it was very interesting watching me stare at a couple of coins for hours," Harry snorted.

"It was a laugh riot is what it was. You sitting there, shaking your head, cursing at yourself and then when things did start to go right, I swear you tried to give yourself a high-five."

"Hmph, well anyway, I was moderately successful. I can get one of the halves to join the other, but not switch them simultaneously yet." He shook his head. "Why does that coin have to be gold? So intractable."

"Well, I'm sure Famous Harry Potter will get it eventually," she said with a reassuring pat on his arm. A device on the table chimed and she turned her attention to one of the cauldrons, turning off the flame underneath and slowing the automatic stirrer. "Blood Replenishing is almost ready. Help me decant?"

As the potion cooled, Ginny readied a rack full of vials and a small silver ladle. When she deemed the potion was cool enough, she started filling the vials, directing Harry to stopper them securely. Another device dinged and he turned off the fire under the Calming Draught as Ginny filled the rest of the vials with the last of the Blood Replenishing Potion.

They were absorbed in their work of decanting potions into vials as the various timers went off until Ginny finally sighed and sat back down on the stool, looking over the racks of filled vials with satisfaction. "There. Calming, Blood Replenishing, Wound Cleaning, Sleep and Essence of Dittany." She finished them off by conjuring neat labels with the name of the potion and the date.

"Well done, love," Harry said, kissing her on the cheek.

"Thank you. Now we just need to clean up so we don't hack off the teacher!"

"And that's where being a wizard is awesome," Harry said, sending the dirty cauldrons off to the clean-up sink to start washing. Another wave of his wand Vanished the mess of potion ingredients, leaving the table gleaming as if it were brand new.

"Aw, those bits of leech have gone to join all of those knickers and bras you've Vanished off me over the years," Ginny giggled and then frowned a little. "You know, come to think of it, you usually do that sort of thing wandlessly. Why are you having such a hard time with the coin?"

Harry flushed and looked away briefly, thinking of all the times he'd Vanished away bits of her clothing, beginning with her knickers at that disastrous Ministry party. "I dunno," he shrugged, looking back up at her with what he hoped was a sexy smile. "I guess it's because when I Vanish your clothes, I really want them gone."

"Oh, love. You are one for the ages," Ginny said fondly, caressing his cheek. He turned his head and kissed her palm, feeling a surge of happiness run through him. Glancing over, he saw that the cauldrons were done washing themselves and were once more stacked neatly with the rest.

"Let's get this lot home, yeah? I'm starved," Harry said, realizing how true it was the moment he said it. Stretching his wandless magic always made him tired and hungry and the thought of retiring to the suite to eat and relax was very appealing.

They looked over the classroom once more, making sure that it was exactly as they had found it. Locking the door with the freely-given password, they walked hand in hand off campus, Ginny's bag full of glass vials clinking faintly. Moments later, they were back in the suite.

Ginny plucked at her shirt. "Ugh, I smell like boiled leeches. I'm going to get a shower."

Harry nodded, momentarily distracted by the flashing red message light on the phone. "Uh, yeah, all right," he said, picking up the phone and pressing the message button. His first thought was that something had happened to Ben and he was relieved to hear Archimedes's voice.

"Harry, I wanted to invite you and Ginny over this evening for dinner," the recorded voice said. "I know how tiring being cooped up in a suite with nothing but room service can be, so Sarah and I thought you could use an evening with friends. Come by around seven o'clock and we'll have a bit of a cocktail hour. See you soon."

"Huh," Harry grunted as he hung up the phone, turning to see Ginny looking anxiously at him.

"Is everything all right?" she asked.

"Yeah, fine. That was Archimedes inviting us over to their place for dinner tonight at seven," he said, glad to see her face relax into a smile.

"Oh, that'll be nice. I've been getting a bit tired of room service," she said brightly. "In that case, I'd definitely better freshen up." She took off her shirt and threw it at him. "Care to join me?"

He looked at his watch, seeing that it was almost six. "Well, we do need to make efficient use of our time," he said, grinning at Ginny's shriek of surprise as he gathered her up into his arms.

"How should we dress? Cocktail hour sounds fancy, doesn't it?" Ginny asked as she looked through the closet after they were out of the shower. "All of my nice things are still at the flat."

"Don't you have nice jeans and a blouse here?" Harry asked, pulling a polo shirt over his head. "It's just Sarah and Archimedes."

"No, all I have are school clothes and scrubs. I don't want to go over there for a nice dinner looking like a ragamuffin. Can we stop by the flat before we go so I can pick out something decent?"

"Of course." He tied his trainers and stood up. "Are you ready now?"

"Really?" Ginny asked, hands on her hips. Harry looked at her standing there in nothing but her underthings and smiled.

"I don't see the problem."

"Impossible. Fine." She went out into the sitting room and grabbed her purse, settling it determinedly on her shoulder. Taking her wand out of it, she looked at Harry expectantly. "What are you waiting for?" she asked before silently Disapparating out of the suite.

Harry shook his head and followed her in short order, finding her rifling through the tiny closet in the flat. He wrinkled his nose at the stale smell of the air and checked the wizard post drop that was almost overflowing. "Here's a letter from Molly."

"That was fast. She probably has our wedding colors already picked out," Ginny said, voice muffled by the closet. Harry watched from under his fringe as she grabbed a few things and disappeared into the loo, emerging a few minutes later looking perfect in a fitted button down and dark jeans with heels. She spread her arms and bowed as he clapped appreciatively.

"Very nice. Shall we?" He set the pile of mail aside on the coffee table, pocketing the letter from Molly.

"Can we Floo over?" She stuck out her foot, wiggling it around. "I don't want to do all those stairs again."

"Will I be allowed through?"

"I guess we'll find out." Ginny shrugged, supremely unconcerned about whether or not Harry would be able to Floo into the Douglass home with her.

"Thanks," Harry said with a wry smile.

Ginny looked around the tiny flat with a sad expression on her face. "I miss this place," she said quietly.

"We'll find another one soon," Harry said, drawing her into a hug.

"I know, but this was our first place together."

"It was, but we didn't pick it out together, did we?"

"No, we didn't," Ginny agreed, giving him a smile. She looked around once more and sighed. "All right, let's go."

To his surprise, he was able to Floo into the Douglass home with no trouble, Archimedes handing him a martini nearly as soon as he stepped out of the fireplace. As Harry cleaned the soot and Floo powder off of his clothes, he realized there were several other people in the sitting room. "What's all this?" he asked as he saw Jacob, Artemis, Diana, Evelyn and Juanita, all with drinks in their hands. He looked at Ginny and she shrugged, as mystified as he was.

"Well, you and Ginny can't get engaged without a proper engagement party!" Jacob shouted, raising his glass. The others in the room cheered and raised their glasses as well and Harry nearly took a step back, overwhelmed by the noise.

"Holy shit! We weren't expecting this!" Harry said, turning to Ginny again. "Were we?"

"No, definitely not!" she said, narrowing her eyes at Sarah. "I think I know who to blame, though."

Sarah raised her hand and laughed. "Guilty as charged!" She looked at the both of them, her warm smile making Harry feel welcomed and loved. "Harry, you of all people should know that you can't get away with this without something to mark it."

"You're completely right, Sarah. In fact, I have a letter from Gin's mum in my pocket that I think we're both afraid to look at!" he said, causing a round of raucous laughter.

Soon, he and Ginny were separated as she was chivvied off into the kitchen with the ladies and the men gravitated down the hall into Archimedes's den where Harry's martini was replaced with a scotch.

"So, Harry, soon you'll be one of us," Artemis said expansively, swirling the ice cubes in his glass. "I have to say, I don't think you could have picked a better girl to spend the rest of your life with!"

"I'm sure she thinks so, too," Harry said, feeling just a little bit awkward speaking this intimately with his boss.

"Yes, she's everything you could ever want in a partner. Brilliant, beautiful and brave. What is it they say about Gryffindors over there?" Artemis said, turning to Jacob.

"Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart," Jacob recited in a singsong voice, surprising Harry as it was the same rhyme the Sorting Hat had sung out his first year when he was sorted.

He grinned at Jacob and nodded, raising his glass to him. "Those cunning folk use any means

to achieve their ends," Harry chanted, getting a delighted laugh out him at his recitation of the Slytherin rhyme.

"Well done, Harry! I have no doubt that if I had gone to Hogwarts I would have been sorted into that house. It's all that ambition burning inside of me!" He looked at Archimedes and Artemis with a sly expression. "What about these two? Sort them, Harry!"

"I'm not the Sorting Hat, but I'll do my best," he said with a grin, looking at the two men. He faced Archimedes first, eyes narrowed. He sat in an armchair, one leg crossed casually across the other, looking back at Harry calmly. "This one is too clever by half. Ravenclaw," he declared confidently.

"Where those of wit and learning will always find their kind," Jacob called out gleefully as Archimedes inclined his head with a smile.

Harry turned to Artemis who smiled back at him a touch nervously. "Now you, I can see you going two ways," he said slowly, thinking about what he knew about the headmaster. "Definitely brave to withstand teenage hormones all of these years. Hardworking and loyal above all. Hufflepuff, I think."

Artemis looked relieved and laughed. "I'll take it!"

"Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil," Jacob sang out louder than he had the others, making them all laugh again.

"Never got to go into the Hufflepuff common room," Harry mused as he sipped his scotch. "Got into the others. They're right by the kitchens, so that's bound to be convenient."

"Where is the Slytherin common room?" Jacob asked, eyes alive with interest.

"Part of it is under the lake. Makes everything green," Harry said, thinking of long nights spent in the cozy Gryffindor common room with Ron and Hermione.

Jacob looked like he was going to ask him more about Hogwarts, making Harry wonder just what his fascination with the school was, but Artemis interrupted him. "Harry, I understand there's some problem with your apartment?"

Harry shot a look at Archimedes and then back at Artemis, pasting a smile on his face. "The landlord needed to make some repairs, so we've been staying at the Fairmont until that's over with."

At the mention of the Fairmont, the headmaster's eyebrows shot up to his hairline and he took a sip of his drink. "Well, well, Harry! I know we pay well, but the Fairmont is a bit much, don't you think?"

"The Fairmont," Jacob snorted derisively. "You and Ginny should stay with me at my house. God knows there's plenty of empty rooms. We wouldn't even have to see each other!"

"Thank you, Jacob, but we shouldn't need to stay away for very much longer." He swirled the ice in his glass, looking down at the amber liquid. "Gin and I have been looking at places to buy."

"Oh, you are putting down roots here!" Jacob exclaimed, sitting forward. "Who are you working with? What neighborhoods are you looking at? Wait. Listen, let me call my property broker and he'll get you into a great place for practically a song!"

Not quite sure how to respond, Harry just nodded and sipped more of his drink, trying to follow the increasingly dizzying conversation about the San Francisco real estate market. He'd thought that he had a pretty good idea of what was what, but listening to Archimedes, Jacob and Artemis made him realize that he knew nothing.

They were deep in a conversation about the pros and cons of liability insurance and home warranties when there was a soft knock on the door and Sarah opened it. "Sorry to interrupt your undoubtedly weighty conversation, but dinner is ready," she said lightly.

"Thank you, my love. We'll be in shortly," Archimedes said, smiling at his wife. She nodded and retreated back down the hallway as he stood to collect their glasses. Harry hung on to his and lifted his eyebrow to where Artemis and Jacob were leaving the room.

"How did Artemis know that Gin and I aren't at the apartment right now?" Harry asked as he handed his glass to Archimedes.

"I haven't said a word. Have you mentioned it to someone else?"

Harry thought and then sighed. "Juanita must have said something. She hooked us up with the real estate agent she used and I must have said something about the flat."

"Well, no harm done," Archimedes said, setting Harry's empty glass with the rest on the bar.

"Except that I said we're staying at the Fairmont to Jacob and Artemis and now that information can easily get to Ignatius. Maybe we'll move to the St Regis. I can't exactly ask for blood from the entire staff, can I?" Harry said glumly.

Archimedes put his hand on his shoulder and smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure they've heard stranger requests. Listen, I wanted to give you some information on that man that was antagonizing Ginny and Ben."

"Oh?"

"His name is Marcus Thorne and he's been in trouble before. Mostly minor things, but always on the nasty side. Now we've got him on assault with intent to cause bodily injury to a Muggle as well as violating the Secrecy Statute."

"Has he said if he was working with anyone else? What about Weatherbee?"

"He says no one else was working with him, but that he's not the only one in the City that agrees with our friend that wizards should live more openly and force Muggles to recognize our superiority."

"Magic is might," Harry murmured, feeling a chill run down his spine.

"Indeed. How are you coming with that coin?"

"It's coming. The gold is being difficult, but I'll get it. When's the genealogy thing?"

"Next week."

Harry nodded and squared his shoulders. "I'll be ready." He followed Archimedes out of the den, fingering the double eagle in his pocket.

30. Chapter 30

"Hold still," Ginny admonished, hands on Harry's shoulders as she adjusted the drape of his dress robes. Harry fought the urge to fidget as she made minuscule modifications to his tie and shirt collar until she finally stepped back with a satisfied nod.

"Happy?" he asked sourly, glancing at his reflection in the mirror.

"Well, you won't shame me tonight at least." She reached out and tugged at the bottom of his waistcoat one last time. "And what's with the attitude?"

Harry sighed and shook his head. "Sorry, love. Nerves."

"I know," she said softly, running her hand down his arm. "You've got it down. You can do this."

"I hope so," he said, thinking back to the incredible amount of effort he'd put into his wandless magic. He was now able to make the gold double eagle switch places with either half of the Galleon and even other common coins, but the task had been far from enjoyable. Forcing his will upon the objects over and over without the benefit of his wand as a conduit left him tired and hungry with a raging headache. Ginny had been hard-pressed to maintain her usual cheerful attitude over his grumbling.

"I know so. When are you meeting Archimedes?"

"Half an hour," Harry said, glancing at his watch. He checked his left front trouser pocket for what seemed like the thousandth time, fingers searching out the milled edge of the double eagle. Reassured that it was there, he looked at Ginny in front of him. "All right. Plan."

"I'm going to go over to Ben's to play Scrabble and drink far too much wine. You are going to this bloody event, working your magic and then handing that blasted thing over to Archimedes." She leaned in closer to him, lowering her voice to a whisper. "And then you're coming to get me, we're going home and I am going to undo all of my hard work. Piece by piece."

Already keyed-up by the task in front of him, Ginny's words and the look in her eyes conspired to give him a completely inappropriate erection and he cleared his throat, taking a small step back from her. She looked confused for a moment and then she gave him a Cheshire Cat smile. "Oh, this is a thing I didn't know. Does that always happen when you're about to risk your life?"

Harry blocked her hand from coming into contact with his crotch and she gave him a pouty look. "Not always," he admitted as she took her hand out of his grasp.

"No, I suppose not," she said, looking up at him with that grin. "I seem to remember more of the aftermath." Remembering the times he'd practically battered down her door after particularly dangerous missions, he felt a hot flush run through him.

"We'd better get going, yeah?" he said in an effort to move things away from the embarrassing subject of pre-danger hard-ons and post-danger sex.

Ginny surprised him by grabbing him and pulling him tightly against her small, compact frame. "You be careful. If there's any trouble, you get out. I don't care about Archimedes or anyone else. You get out and you come back to me, got it?"

He felt her begin to shake in his arms and he rubbed her back softly, making soft crooning noises until she felt steadier. "Same for you, yeah? Ben's should be safe, especially with Gutierrez there, but if something should happen, get out. Ben is her responsibility. If you can't get out, Summon me." She wiped her eyes and nodded, smoothing over the front of his robes again.

She picked up her bag and nodded at him, holding out her hand. He Apparated them to the closest spot to Ben's apartment, walking hand in hand to his building and up the stairs to his door. "Who is it?" Ben called at Ginny's knock.

"It's Princess Buttercup with the Dread Pirate Roberts," she called, using the code names she and Ben had made up for them.

"Inconceivable!" he said as he opened the door, eyes going wide at the sight of Harry in his formal charcoal dress robes. "Just when I thought you couldn't possibly get any hotter," he mumbled as he stepped aside for them.

In the sitting room, Harry nodded to Auror Gutierrez on the sofa. She looked at ease, but he noticed she had plain water in her glass and her eyes looked sharp. "Anything of interest?" he asked and she shook her head. Nothing of consequence had occurred since she'd begun shadowing Ben, but that didn't mean they were out of the woods just yet.

"What time will the event take place?" she asked, and Harry knew she wasn't asking what time the Genealogical Society event started.

"I don't know yet. Probably not for a couple of hours. I don't know when or how he'll react, but be extra vigilant, yeah?"

"Of course."

Harry looked at his watch again. "Shit, I've got to get a move on." He held his hand out to Ginny and pulled her close, leaning down to kiss her. "Be safe. Be smart. Be fast."

"You too," she whispered, eyes shiny in the light of the sitting room. She squeezed his hand one more time and let go, pushing him gently toward the door.

Not wanting to draw it out any longer, Harry left, running quickly down the stairs and out into the cool evening. He was meeting Archimedes a few blocks from the San Francisco Masonic Hall to go over the strategy for the night. As he approached their meeting place, he saw Archimedes skulking in the shadow of a building and he smiled.

"You don't look suspicious at all," he said, joining him in the shadows.

"Hm," Archimedes grunted, looking him up and down. "And you look like a fine, upstanding young man, not at all like a wizard that's going to pull off the heist of the century."

"Century's still young."

"Indeed." Archimedes reached into the inner pocket of his dress robes, pulling out a folded invitation and handing it to Harry.

He looked at it and tucked it into his own inner pocket. "It doesn't say anything about the dais."

"They'll know. Now, you have the coin?" Harry took it out of his pocket and showed him.

"Care for a demonstration?" He handed Archimedes the coin and directed him to hold it in his open hand. Taking a deep breath, he focused on the coin in the older man's hand and extended his will to it, smiling in satisfaction when his half of the Galleon appeared in Archimedes's hand.

"Well, well! Very nice!" he exclaimed, looking at the split Galleon and handing it back to Harry. "What is that?"

"A Christmas gift." Harry put it back into his pocket, feeling it clink against the double eagle. "Did you feel anything?"

"No."

"Could you tell anything on my face?"

"You looked a bit distracted, but that was all."

"That's an improvement. Gin said I looked like I was trying to take a difficult shit," Harry said with a laugh. "So, I switch the coin and then what?"

"Well, we can't exactly run out right away," Archimedes said thoughtfully. "One of us could play sick?"

"Hm, that seems too obvious. I can have Gin send me her Patronus as an excuse."

"How will she know when to send it?" Archimedes asked skeptically.

"She'll know. Then I can say I've got an urgent message from home, yeah?"

"Yes, that would work," he said nodding slowly. "We need to get the timing of it right. I don't want to tip him off too soon."

"Do we want to do it during his speech? Or after?"

"I think during the speech. You've seen him when he's mingling; always has that damn thing out, playing with it. Toward the end, though," he said, his eyes distant. "Ginny is somewhere safe?"

"Yeah, she's with Ben and Auror Gutierrez at his place. We've moved to the St Regis as well." Harry was still angry with himself for casually mentioning they were staying at the Fairmont to Artemis and Jacob. He knew they wouldn't tell out of malice, but might let it drop in casual conversation and that was just a risk he couldn't afford.

"Good."

"All right. So, we mingle, eat dinner, listen to some speeches, I pull off the switch when Weatherbee is almost done, Gin sends her Patronus and we excuse ourselves, yes?"

"Yes, I think so," Archimedes nodded thoughtfully. "How are you feeling?"

"Nervous as fuck."

"Good. I'd be worried if you weren't."

"Let me send a message to Gin and we'll go." Harry concentrated and composed his message. I need a favor. I'm going to do a one second Summon and when you feel that, I need you to send me a message with your Patronus. What it says isn't important, but send it as soon as you feel the Summon. I love you. He watched his stag gallop off into the night and squared his shoulders. "All right. Let's go."

A few short blocks and they joined a group of sharply-dressed witches and wizards ascending the marble staircase of the Masonic. After a short queue, they showed their invitations to the wizard at the door and joined the throng inside. Harry was on high alert, the loud conversations bouncing off the marble walls of the reception room of the Great Hall making it difficult for him to tell who was close by and who was far away.

He plucked a glass of wine from a passing waiter, resolving to have only one drink tonight as he surveyed the crowd. There were a few passingly familiar faces that he recognized from past events, but not really anyone he could put a name to. "Big crowd," he murmured to Archimedes standing next to him.

"Yes, genealogy is popular among American wizards. We all want to know where we come from." Harry glanced toward the doorway of the reception room as a fresh wave of people came in, looking for Ignatius. "Heads up," Archimedes said in a low voice, nudging his arm.

Looking where the older man indicated, he saw an elegantly-dressed witch with a pile of white candy-floss hair coming straight for them. "Mathilda," Archimedes said, holding his arms open wide.

"Archimedes," she said in a high, sweet voice, "so good to see you again. How are Sarah and the children?"

"Not really children anymore! Grown and gone with children of their own." He kissed the air next to her cheek as they hugged briefly.

"Time does make fools of us all," she said, turning her sharp eyes on Harry. "But here is someone time hasn't touched at all." She held out her hand to him and he took it, bowing deeply. "Harry Potter," Mathilda said, a tinge of wonder in her voice.

"Harry, this is Mathilda Jameson, chairwoman of the West Coast Wizarding Genealogical Society," Archimedes said in a deferential tone.

"Wonderful to meet you, madam," Harry nodded, still holding her hand. It was warm and dry in his, her grip surprisingly strong despite her obviously advanced age.

"I should say the same to you, Harry. I am delighted at this opportunity to meet you at last." She withdrew her hand, taking a glass of wine from a passing waiter. "I've done a bit of research on you."

"On me? Really?" Harry said, curious in spite of himself.

"Oh yes. You're an interesting one. Father's family Pureblood going back generations, your mother Muggle-born from a Squib branch of an equally old Wizarding family," she said, her eyes bright and interested.

"No! Lily Evans, right?"

"Yes," she said, nodding emphatically. "In 1880, a Squib boy was born to Margaret and David Mathis, a great surprise because they had six other children, all of whom were magical. Now, back then, it was believed that the mother had the greatest influence on children while they are in the womb and Margaret was quite old to be a mother by that time, so that was put forth as the cause."

"That must have been difficult for her," Harry said, caught up in the story of his long-ago ancestor. "What did they name him?"

"They named him William and when it became apparent the child was not magical, they educated him in the finest Muggle tradition of the time and set him up with a small inheritance. He of course went on to marry and have children of his own, the end result of which is standing in front of me right now," she said brightly, clinking her wineglass against his.

"Born in 1880 and no magical children born of that line until 1960," Harry mused, taking a sip of his wine. "That's an awful long time for magic to lie dormant."

"It is a long time, but not the longest I've heard of."

"Well, that is simply fascinating. As you know, I didn't grow up with any close family and no one to tell me about my family history," Harry said, incredibly touched that this woman was interested enough in him to look up his history.

"I haven't told you the most fascinating part yet." She pointed her sharp-nailed finger at his chest and smiled. "You are descended from the Peverells on both sides."

"You're joking," Harry said, feeling as if a bomb had been dropped on him. She was wearing a lot of jewelry and he looked for the symbol of the Hallows among the dazzling display, mildly surprised to find none.

"I assure you, I am not." She fixed him with a playful look. "I put in my hours on you, boy."

"I'm not sure what to say," he said, still reeling from the news of his double Peverell ancestry.

"Say 'thank you'," Archimedes said with a short laugh.

"Thank you," Harry echoed with a smile at the old witch, amused to see the color rise to her cheeks.

"Mathilda, there you are! Flirting with our boy, I see!" Harry nearly flinched in surprise at the posh Mayfair accent of Ignatius Weatherbee.

"Ignatius! I would never!" Mathilda said with a theatrical gasp as he bent over her extended hand.

"See that you don't! I understand Harry's engaged now and his fiancée is quite the firecracker!" Ignatius said, meeting Harry's eyes with a challenging look.

"Engaged? To whom?" Mathilda asked, avid interest in her expression.

"Ginny Weasley, madam."

She didn't betray any recognition at the name, simply putting her hand on his arm and squeezing gently. "I see I have more work ahead of me!"

"I hope you don't find out we're related!" Harry said, trying to push down some of the anxiety he felt at the presence of the hovering Ignatius and the coin he knew he had with him.

"As I'm sure you know, most Pureblood wizarding families are related in some way or another, but you can rest assured that Ginny is probably not your auntie!" Mathilda said with a tinkling laugh. "At the worst will be a very distant cousin relation." She got a faraway look in her eyes for a moment, making Harry wonder just what she was seeing in her mind's eye.

Just then, a wizard in loud, multi-colored robes swooped down upon them, holding out his arms to Mathilda. "Ah, there you are! And Archimedes, too! It's been too long!" The wizard shook hands vigorously with Archimedes and turned to Harry, eyes widening when he spied the scar. "And Harry Potter! I'd heard you were here, but being up in Seattle I never thought I'd get the chance to meet you!" Harry found his own hand engulfed and pumped rapidly up and down.

"Yes, good to meet you, too," he said, acutely aware of Ignatius watching him.

"Sorry, where are my manners? Roger Bannister! I run the Seattle chapter of our little society." He turned to look at Mathilda again, looking like it took real effort to drag his eyes away from Harry. "I'm so sorry to interrupt your conversation, but there is a little, ah, situation that needs your attention," he said to her.

"Infighting already? We're not even done with drinks yet!" Mathilda sighed and took Roger's hand. "I bet I know who's at the bottom of it. Harry, it's been wonderful chatting with you, but duty calls." She sailed gracefully away into the swirling crowd on Roger's arm, leaving Harry and Archimedes with Ignatius.

"So, Ignatius," Archimedes said, "what are you speaking about tonight at this genealogical society event?"

"I've always had an interest in genealogy, tracing wizarding bloodlines down through the ages," he said, drawing that coin out and twiddling it in his fingers. Harry felt himself tense up, feeling like his own gold double eagle in his pocket had gained weight. "I think it behooves us all to know our family history, even if we haven't got any family left," he said, looking directly at Harry.

"I see. I've always thought that a thorough knowledge of history, familial and otherwise, can help guide us and prevent us from repeating past mistakes," Archimedes said, the lightness of his tone overlaying the steel of his words.

"And mistakes there have been! Starting with intermarriage with Muggles after the International Statue of Secrecy was enacted. Every single … relationship a wizard has had with a Muggle since that time has been a very serious violation and when that relationship resulted in a child, well, that just compounded the problem," Ignatius said, really starting to warm up to the subject now. Harry fought to keep a neutral expression on his face, suppressing the extreme desire to introduce the man's nose to his fist.

"It's only through careful, genealogical research and documentation that we'll be able to ensure that the purest wizarding bloodlines carry on into the future," Ignatius said, punctuating this statement by tossing the coin up into the air. Harry's eyes tracked it, watching as it spun end over end, tempted to simply snatch it out of the air and Disapparate.

Archimedes was opening his mouth to speak again when they were saved by Jacob of all people. "Ignatius! There you are! Hello Harry, Archimedes," he said, nodding to them both. "I'm sorry, but I'll have to take him away from you. Ignatius, I have some people that are very interested in speaking to you about your plans for the Council."

"Well, by all means! I feel terrible mixing politics up at a genteel event like this, but the election is coming up!" Ignatius exclaimed, his expression declaring the exact opposite. "Gentlemen."

Harry watched the two men walk off, their heads together in conversation and shook his head. "He's got an anti-Muggle angle for every situation," he said, finishing his wine. He briefly reconsidered his one-drink restriction and decided to stick to it. He wanted to be absolutely clear-headed for what lay ahead. "For parents it's the educational angle and the dumbing-down of lessons. For this lot it's history and research. Other groups, the importance of the Statute. Still others he rails against technology."

"He's a born politician," Archimedes agreed, still looking to where the two men had been swallowed up by the crowd. They spent the rest of the time chatting with various acquaintances of Archimedes's and even a few parents of Harry's students. The whole time, Harry was subconsciously tracking Ignatius's movements through the crowd, paying attention to whom he was talking to.

They were talking to an old Auror colleague of Archimedes's when a magically-amplified voice sounded over the chatter, inviting them all into the Great Hall to find their assigned seats for dinner and speeches. Harry found his heart quickening at his impending task and he took several deep breaths as he followed Archimedes to their assigned places on the dais on the right side of the podium.

"Let me switch with you," he said quietly. "I want to be as close as I can when he's up at the podium." He noted that the podium itself was between him and Ignatius with Mathilda sitting next to the aspiring councilman. This put Harry next to the seemingly affable Roger Bannister of Seattle and only one spot away from where Ignatius would be delivering his speech.

"Are you close enough?" Archimedes asked as he settled into the seat next to him.

"Yeah, I think so. I've done the switch from about twenty feet away before, but that was in a more controlled circumstance," Harry said, looking around the large room full of people.

"Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"No, unless you want to knock him down and go through his pockets yourself," he said, grinning at Archimedes's sour look.

"You're here so I don't have to do that." Harry settled down in his seat, watching as the hall filled up. He was surprised to see Jacob sitting out on the main floor; he'd expected him to be up on the dais with Ignatius as well, but it looked like that wasn't the case.

A waiter came by to fill his wineglass and he asked for his water glass to be filled as well. Soon, waiters were serving dinner and Harry was too keyed-up to do more than pick at his while continuing to abstain from the wine. He managed to make light conversation with Roger who it turned out worked in new magical spell development and had corresponded with Hermione on occasion while she was working at the Sonoran Development Institute in Phoenix.

"I tell you, we were just crushed when she left to go teach at Hogwarts," he said, sounding genuinely brokenhearted about it. "We had just had a new opening come up in my department and I was in the middle of talking my director around to making a play for her when we got the news that she was moving back to the UK."

"Well, you might have been upset about it, but Ron was very happy that she decided to come back and teach," Harry said, grinning at the memory of Hermione's first sight of Ron after seven years apart, dancing with some unknown witch at a house party in the country.

"How is she doing? She's teaching Transfiguration, right?"

"Yes," Harry nodded, "she's doing very well. She and Ron have gotten married, in fact."

"They did?" Roger's eyes got a faraway look and he smiled. "I'll have to send them a gift," he said and Harry had no doubt that they would soon receive a detailed family tree.

The rest of the meal went by with Harry working on ignoring the fact that the objective of his evening's task was not twenty feet away. He was conflicted about the podium between them. On the one hand, he was glad he didn't have to look at Ignatius, but on the other, he couldn't see what he was doing with the coin. I hope he doesn't decide to drag it out during his speech, he thought as he finished his dinner.

Dinner plates cleared, it was time for coffee, dessert and apparently awards. Harry had no idea that awards in a genealogical society were even a thing and he felt his interest piqued when Mathilda rose to the podium to introduce them. She was an excellent public speaker and Harry found himself wishing that he could take lessons from her as there were few things he loathed more than giving a public address.

After a short speech welcoming them all to the annual gala and giving them a bit of the history of the building they were in, she announced the first award of the evening. "I wish to recognize the regional organization with the best newsletter. We all know how challenging it can be in this day and age to keep current members' attention and attract new interest. A well-crafted newsletter is essential to both," she said, smiling around the room. Next to him, Harry saw that Roger's fingers were crossed and he patted him on the shoulder reassuringly.

"It was a difficult decision, coming down to the wire with our two finalists." She paused for a moment and smiled again. "This year, the West Coast Wizarding Genealogical Society wishes to recognize Rainier Bloodlines as the winner of Newsletter of the Year!"

Roger gave a great sigh of relief and stood, happily accepting the plaque Mathilda handed him. As he gave his acceptance speech, Harry turned to Archimedes. "This is serious business, isn't it?"

"Oh, you better believe it. I'm surprised there hasn't been at least one duel so far."

When Roger sat back down, Harry asked to see the ornate plaque. "Portland has beat us the last five years and last year I vowed that we'd take it back this year. I'd like to see that Rebecca Black's face now," he said with surprising vehemence.

Awards were given out for writing about family history, genealogical sources, distinguished service and even volunteering. Harry was just starting to wonder just how many award categories there were when Mathilda approached the podium once more.

"And now, our last award of the evening. This award has become my favorite," Mathilda said, somehow still managing to smile gracefully. "I feel that it is important to reach out to the younger generations and get them interested in their own history. We all come from somewhere and we can't let that knowledge die out the older generations. This year it is my pleasure to award the Golden Gate Youth Award to Isaac Hernandez!"

Harry was completely taken aback at the announcement of his student's name and he clapped enthusiastically as Isaac shyly approached the dais to accept his award. "Well done," he said as the boy passed him on his way to the podium. Declining to make a speech, he watched as he made his way back to his table where his parents sat, noticing a few pointed stares and whispers among the audience. Interesting. I know Isaac is Half-Blood … I guess some people here are more in tune with Ignatius after all.

"Please put your hands together for all of our award winners and participants tonight," Mathilda announced, leading an enthusiastic round of applause. "And now tonight, we have a special treat for you all tonight. Some of you may already know him, but I'm betting that several of you don't. He has been an asset to our community in his tireless work as part of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department. I know he'll continue to make an impact if we elect him to the Greater Bay Area Wizarding Council this summer. Please join me in welcoming Ignatius Weatherbee!"

Another round of applause and Harry felt his nervousness increase as Mathilda welcomed Ignatius to the podium, shaking his hand as he kissed her on both cheeks. He realized he was bouncing his knee up and down when Roger glanced at him and he stilled it with an effort. Up at the podium, Harry watched Weatherbee set his hands on the sides of it, fervently hoping he decided to keep them there.

He felt Archimedes lean in close to him and barely heard him breathe "Now?" He gave the barest shake of his head. Too soon. I need to do it when he's fully engaged in case I fuck up a little, he thought.

"Thank you so much for that wonderful welcome! As many of you know, I am not from around here," he said deprecatingly, exaggerating his accent a little and getting a laugh from the audience. "And though I may not exactly be from San Francisco, I have made it my home for twenty-five years and I like to think that the City and I have grown up together."

He paused for a moment and looked out into the rapt audience, his fingers twitching at the edge of the podium. Harry thought for sure that he was going to dive into his pocket and come out with the coin and he felt his heart stutter until Weatherbee gripped the sides again and continued with his speech.

"I believe the work you all do with research into our genealogical histories is incredibly important. I feel that as members of the Wizarding community, it behooves us all to ensure that we continue to be as vibrant and thriving as we possibly can." He paused again, seeming to gather himself. "When I left England, we had just gone through a trying time that no one was certain we would survive, but survive we did!" Harry kept his attention on Ignatius, but didn't fail to see a few looks directed his way.

"And genealogical research was instrumental in ensuring that the purest Wizarding bloodlines went on to help our battered community recover." Another pause and a wide smile that brought to mind the phrase "shit-eating" to Harry's mind. "I know that here on the west coast of the United States you've never had to deal with anything as horrifying as the rise of a Dark Lord, but that does not diminish the importance of establishing and maintaining the purest Wizarding heritage possible!"

Harry could see the color rising to his cheeks, his grip on the podium almost white-knuckled. He was falling in love with his own words, no longer seeing the audience, some of whom were shifting around at the continued mention of the word "pure". Slipping his hand into his own pocket, he felt the milled edge of the ordinary gold double eagle and he took a deep breath. He didn't dare close his eyes in front of all of these people. Keeping his eyes glued to Ignatius, careful to look like he was hanging on his every word, Harry shut out everything but his awareness of the coin in his pocket.

Don't rush it, focus, he thought, concentrating on the Switching Spell. Here goes. Another deep breath and he cast, letting out a sigh as he felt the surge of magic inside of him like a tidal wave. Beside him, he felt Archimedes give a little lurch. Surreptitiously sliding his hand into his pocket, he touched the coin, nearly jerking in shock at the cold burn. Keeping his eyes on Ignatius, he watched him, looking for any sign that the man knew what Harry had just done. If he knows, that's one hell of a poker face, Harry thought grimly.

Faking a stretch, he met Archimedes's eyes before turning back to Ignatius. "I haven't been back to my home country in a very long time, but the news I hear saddens me. More and more of our all-Wizarding families are dying out, formerly strong family trees degenerating to mere shrubs as more and more intermarry, resulting in a sad dilution of our once-proud heritage!" he said, his voice almost an exhortation.

Harry had heard about as much of this as he cared to and he bumped his knee against Archimedes's as he stretched again, surreptitiously taking out his wand and reaching around to briefly touch his phoenix feather tattoo, focusing on sending a short burst of Summoning pain to Ginny. Come on, love. Give me an excuse to get out of here.

At the podium, Ignatius was starting to sound like he was winding down, encouraging the gathering to continue their "excellent, necessary work" in documenting wizard family trees, "and future generations will only benefit!" Harry's knee began to bounce again when he caught sight of a flash of silver arrowing straight for him, resolving itself into Ginny's beautiful hummingbird Patronus.

A rush of relief surged through him as the Patronus landed on his shoulder and her voice burst into his mind. Okay love, time for you to go, her message said and he heartily agreed. He saw Ignatius look at him and frown briefly before continuing his closing remarks. Touching Roger on the shoulder, Harry leaned forward. "Urgent message from home. Please give Mathilda my regrets. Congratulations on your win," he said quietly.

Roger nodded. "Hope everything's all right," he whispered.

"My fiancée is a bit under the weather at home. It was good to meet you." Not waiting for a further response, Harry rose from his seat and quickly made his way off the dais. He didn't want to Disapparate in front of the entire audience as he had enough eyes on him already, so he walked quickly out of the Great Hall, feeling the back of his neck prickle with the attention. As he left, he heard thunderous applause as Ignatius finished his speech and he jogged the last few steps into the reception room, silently Disapparating as soon as he passed through the doors.

The cool evening air felt like a blessed relief after the stuffy, close atmosphere of the Masonic Hall. He walked quickly the rest of the way to Ben's apartment, senses on overdrive as his eyes darted around, checking the shadows for anything unusual. Nothing jumped out at him and he finally knocked on Ben's door.

"Who is it?" Ben called.

"It's Harry."

"Harry who?"

"Goddammit. Dread Pirate fucking Roberts, all right? Open the bloody door!" The door opened and Harry crossed the threshold, stepping directly into Ginny's arms. She hugged him fiercely, nearly squeezing the breath out of him and he hugged her back just as hard, feeling the anxiety of the night drain out of him. He felt her begin to shake and he rubbed his hands up and down her back. "Shh, shh, it's all right, it's all right," he murmured soothingly, feeling the sting of tears in his own eyes.

She stepped back from him, wiping at her eyes before swatting him on his arm. "I was so worried about you! That took forever!" she said accusingly.

"Sorry, love. I didn't know there were going to be any bloody awards at this!" He gratefully accepted the glass of wine Ben shoved into his hand and loosened his tie.

"Awards? What kind of awards do they give out at that sort of thing?" Ben asked.

"I don't even fucking remember," Harry sighed, utterly relieved to be away from Ignatius Weatherbee and his poisonous rhetoric. Handing his wineglass to Ginny, he shrugged out of the heavy dress robes, carefully draping the yards of fabric over the back of Ben's sofa before collapsing on it next to Auror Gutierrez. "How has it been here?" he asked after another sip of excellent wine, glad to be only in his waistcoat, shirt and trousers.

"Quiet. Just watching these two being completely unable to spell," she said, nodding at the Scrabble board and scattered tiles on the coffee table.

"Just because you don't agree with British spelling doesn't mean that I can't spell," Ginny said, sitting on the arm of the sofa next to Harry.

"Girl, she's right. You thought 'bean' was a good word," Ben said, sitting down cross-legged on a cushion on the floor.

"It was on a triple word score," Ginny said defensively and Harry smiled as Ben rolled his eyes, enjoying the simple sounds of their banter. He untied his tie, feeling like he'd had a very long, hard day and he closed his eyes, listening to Ben and Ginny rehash their game.

"Harry? When is Archimedes coming?" Ginny asked and he opened his eyes, realizing he must have drifted off.

Frowning, he looked at his watch, noting that it had been about half an hour since he'd made his exit. They had decided that Harry would leave early alone and Archimedes would stay until the end so as not to arouse suspicion. "He should be along at any moment," he said.

"But what if Ignatius …?"

"He's an Auror, Gin. I'm sure he can get away just fine."

"Wait, has that been there all night?" Ben asked, pointing to the corner by the telly.

Harry looked over and groaned. There, leaning against the stereo equipment was the Sword of Gryffindor. "Probably not," he said, turning his head at the sound of a brisk knock on the door.

Ben sprang up from the floor and Harry readied his wand although he was so tired he wasn't sure if he'd even be able to muster up much of anything. "Who is it?" Ben called in a singsong voice.

"Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die," Archimedes called back and Harry let out a breath of relief.

Ben opened the door and welcomed Archimedes in. "Do you have it?" he asked Harry, standing in front of him.

Digging in his pocket, he steeled himself against the malevolent cold burn as he drew it out, handing it to Archimedes in relief. Ginny eyed it warily, looking away when the older man turned it over in his hands, examining it closely.

"I don't feel anything," he remarked. "Are you sure it's the right one?"

"I'm sure," Harry said tiredly. "Look at the profile. Our coin had a small scratch by her nose. This one won't."

"Ah, I see," he said, still sounding doubtful and Harry saw him glance at Ginny.

"No. Absolutely not, do you understand? I'll not have that thing in her mind again," Harry said, feeling a swell of energy as he sat up straight, angling his body between Ginny and Archimedes. He assessed the room, mentally discounting Ben on his cushion on the floor and putting Gutierrez in the "unknown" category. He knew Ginny would fight with him if it came down to that.

"Okay, okay," Archimedes said soothingly, putting the coin away in a trouser pocket and raising his hands to show that he wasn't holding his wand. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ben blow out a breath and sag down on the cushion.

"Where are my manners?" Ben said to break the tension, standing up and pouring a glass of wine for Archimedes who accepted it and took a sip, nodding a compliment to him.

Harry allowed himself to relax back against the sofa, feeling Ginny's hand on his shoulder as Archimedes sat down in a battered recliner. "So, did he show any reaction?" he asked.

"Not that I could tell. He went on for a good ten minutes after you left. He does love the sound of his own voice."

"Did he do any gladhanding after? That's usually when that coin comes out."

"I didn't stay long enough to see."

They sat quietly for several moments, Harry's eyes drawn to the sword leaning against the stereo cabinet. "Well, shall we?" he asked, setting down his wineglass on the coffee table.

"Shall we what?" Archimedes asked, roused out of his own thoughts as he watched Harry stand up and stretch.

"Destroy that thing." He bent over and picked up the sword, sliding it out of the scabbard with a metallic ringing sound that sent a shiver up his arm. He could almost sense the sword's eagerness to destroy the Dark object.

"Destroy it? No, we need to study it. To find out how it was created and what exactly is inside it," Archimedes protested, looking at the sword in dismay.

"Study it? Archimedes, that coin is possibly the Darkest object I've encountered since Tom Riddle's diary. It must be destroyed before it can do anymore harm." Harry found he was having a difficult time keeping his voice calm and he saw Auror Gutierrez rise from the sofa. He carefully kept the sword pointed downwards.

"And it will be destroyed once we find out what we can about it."

"What could you possibly find out from that coin that would be of any use to you?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Well, for starters, we can see what we can find out about that Horcrux—"

"Another thing that needs to be destroyed," Harry said and Archimedes sighed.

"We need to find out why Ignatius wants that Horcrux. Is he planning on resurrecting Cornelius Maxwell? Does he have some other plan for it? Is there a danger to the community if he manages to release the soul trapped in it?"

"Listen, I understand that you want to find out as much about these things as you can, but they are incredibly dangerous. I don't think you've ever dealt with anything this bad, but I have." Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, to quiet the fight or flight alarm blaring inside his head. "It's worse when the object fosters an emotional attachment like that coin clearly has with Weatherbee," he said, remembering the terrible locket Horcrux and how it had torn him, Ron and Hermione apart.

Archimedes continued to look at him, face impassive. "Please. Let me destroy it. We don't know what Ignatius will do to get it back or what he'll do if he does." His eyes briefly met Ginny's and he saw that she looked frightened, but determined to back him up in whatever way he needed.

At the mention of Ignatius getting the coin back, Harry saw the older man's expression change slightly and he resisted the urge to keep talking, choosing to let Archimedes come to his own conclusion. After several tense moments, he nodded. "I'll let you destroy it," he said and Harry took a step forward, stopping when Archimedes raised his finger. "You can destroy it after we've had a look at it in the Pensieve."

Convinced that Archimedes had just taken leave of all of his senses, Harry let out a short bark of laughter. "What? After we what?"

"See what the Pensieve can tell us about it," Archimedes said as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world.

"Let me get this straight. You want to drop that … thing into the Pensieve and then go in after it? Like you're watching a memory?" Harry could hardly believe the words coming out of his mouth and as he said them, he had a thought. Would that actually work?

"Exactly!" Archimedes leaned forward and Harry could see his eyes were lit up with excitement. "Drop it in, follow it and see what happens. I've been thinking about this coin, Harry, and based on what Ginny experienced, I think there is a very powerful memory imprint imbued into it. I think putting it into the Pensieve will be very much like viewing a memory."

Harry suddenly felt lightheaded and he slid the sword back into the scabbard, sinking back down onto the sofa, thinking over what Archimedes had just said. "There's definitely something in there," he said slowly, wracking his memory for anything similar he might have read about or heard about. I wish I was at Hogwarts right now, chatting with Dumbledore's portrait, he thought. "What if we try an extraction on it?"

"Try to draw out the memory? Do you think that's wise?" Archimedes asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't think any of this is exactly 'wise'," Harry snorted, "but it might be safer than dropping that whole coin in. I know how extracted memories behave, but that thing …"

"All right. We'll try it, but not here."

"I agree."

"Thank goodness! If you destroy this place, I'll never get my deposit back," Ben said, clearly trying to lighten the mood a little bit.

"And no matter what happens, we destroy it after?"

"Yes."

"Harry, you can't possibly be thinking of going along with this mad idea!" Ginny said, sounding both upset and scared. "This is complete and utter madness!"

"Gin, it's the only way he'll let me destroy it," Harry said quietly, still looking at Archimedes, trying to see if he was being lied to. His Occlumency was too good, however, so he had to rely on secondary methods which he was certain he'd been schooled in defeating, the same as he had been during his own training.

"No it's not! Stun him, take the coin and destroy it! Right now!"

Harry watched Auror Gutierrez move closer to Archimedes, her wand out in plain sight. "I don't think that's advisable, love."

Ginny stood abruptly and whirled around, the door to the loo slamming shut a moment later. Ben looked stricken, hand held against his chest as he looked between Harry, Archimedes and the Auror. "You're on my list," Harry said to Archimedes as he got up to check on her.

Opening the door, he found her braced against the sink, head leaning forward as her breath came in short gasps. To his surprise, she wasn't crying but seemed incredibly angry. Whirling on him, she reached past him and closed the door with snap. "Just what do you think you're doing?" she snarled at him, forcing him a step back.

Before he could formulate an answer, she went on. "I have gone along with your fucking Auror bollocks for months! Ever since you found that damned Horcrux, I knew you weren't going to leave it alone! I thought, 'Oh, he's just curious about it, he'll let the Aurors here handle it and then that'll be that.' And then suddenly Archimedes is your best friend and he wants your help with it. 'But that's okay, they don't have any experience with these things. Harry will just do him a couple of favors and then he's done.'

Harry started to speak but she silenced him with a shake of her head. "And then there I am, touching the bloody thing! I swore I would never do such a thing ever again after that diary, but there I go. Letting that thing into my head! Do you even know what that's like?" She crossed her arms, glaring at him with a thunderous expression.

"Gin, I—"

"But of course you do! Because of your scar, you got to spy on Voldemort, got to have him inside of you. But that's over for you, isn't it? Voldemort's dead, your connection is gone and your scar is just a scar." He saw her eyes filling with tears and his heart broke. "It's not over for me, Harry. Objects like that coin, like that portrait, they can still get into me and it hurts, Harry." Her voice was barely above a whisper and she looked away from him as if she couldn't bear the sight of him anymore.

Feeling unsure, Harry reached out and tentatively touched her shoulder. "But Archimedes is set. This is the only way he'll let the coin be destroyed."

"You don't know what's going to happen when that coin goes into the Pensieve," she said quietly, still not looking at him.

"The Pensieve is just memories. They can't hurt you."

She met his eyes and shook her head. "Harry, Tom from the diary was a memory. Tell me, was he harmless?"

"No, of course not, but Gin, that was a Horcrux. A piece of Voldemort's soul was in there. We don't know what exactly this coin is."

"Exactly my point. You have no idea what it is, but you can hardly wait to drop it in the Pensieve and dive in after it." She shook her head and he saw the deep fright underneath the anger.

He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, feeling relieved when hers went around him after a moment. They stood there for a time, just holding on to each other until Harry felt like he was able to speak again. "It's out of my control," he said quietly. "You saw Archimedes. You think I'm like a dog with a bone, but I have nothing on him. This is his home, his community, so I understand his need to know as much about that damned thing as he can."

Ginny nodded and hugged him tighter and Harry continued, moving his hand up and down her back. "He's got a complete nutter on the loose, trying to bring about wizard supremacy and this coin is somehow encouraging him or something inside the coin is using him to its own ends. He needs to find out as much about that, too. I have a tool that might help him in that respect. So we'll use it, see what we find out and then I'll use the sword on it, all right? This is my best chance to get rid of that thing."

"I assume you're going into the Pensieve with him?" she said quietly.

"Yes. I can't let him go in there alone and face whatever's in that coin by himself."

Ginny sighed and pulled back a little to look at him, her brown eyes dry. "Are you doing this tonight?"

"I think so."

"Then I'm going with you."

"Do you think that's a good idea?"

"I'm not going into the Pensieve. I'm going to keep an eye on you two."

Harry could see she was as set on her course of action as he was on his and nothing short of Stunning her would stop her. He set aside visions of the Pensieve exploding as soon as the coin was dropped in, turning his classroom into rubble with Ginny in the middle of it and nodded. "All right. Let's go tell Archimedes and get this over with."

31. Chapter 31

Getting this over with took considerably longer than Harry had hoped. After exiting Ben's loo, Harry and Archimedes decided they didn't really want to go chasing around after a memory in their dress robes, so Harry proposed they change and then meet at the school in half an hour.

"Just make sure to have that coin with you, yeah?"

"Don't you worry. I'll bring it," Archimedes said as he left Ben's apartment.

"So, now what are you going to do?" Ben asked as he closed the door.

"We're going to go to my classroom. I have a device there that allows us to watch memories, sort of like you're watching a movie, but it's more like you're in the middle of it," Harry said as Ben shook his head in amazement.

"And you think there's a memory in that coin?"

"It seems likely." Harry picked up his dress robes from the back of the sofa and shrugged them back on. He noticed that Ginny did not adjust them this time, but stood watching him impassively.

Ben shared a glance with Ginny and she shrugged, giving him a hug. "I'll see you Monday, all right?" she said, picking up her bag.

"Yeah, all right. Um, give me a call? I guess? When you're done?"

Harry nodded to Auror Gutierrez and she nodded back. He was glad that she wasn't coming along on this expedition, but would be staying overnight with Ben in case Ignatius got any ideas of retaliating against a known Muggle friend. Harry didn't kid himself by thinking that Ignatius would have no idea who'd switched the coin.

The walk to Apparating distance was silent and chilly. Ginny walked alongside him, but with her hands folded across her chest, looking down at the pavement and rather than reaching out to him and Apparating together, she did it alone.

In the suite at the St Regis, Harry quickly stripped off his formal outfit, choosing well-worn jeans and a soft jumper over a tee shirt. He strapped the sword belt around his waist, making sure the Sword of Gryffindor was secure in the scabbard. He tied his trainers tight and stood up, looking around the bedroom to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. What does one bring to something like this, anyway?

Out in the sitting room he saw Ginny on the sofa, petting the cat. "Are you ready?" he asked softly. She nodded and stood, picking up her first aid tote bag. "Gin, love, aren't you going to talk to me?"

"You won't listen anyway. Why should I waste my breath?" she said, looking at him evenly.

Harry pressed his lips together, repressing a sharp response. Leave her alone. She'll come around. She's just scared. He held out his hand to her and to his relief, she took it and he Apparated them to his usual spot off the school grounds. Another quiet, chilly walk brought them to his classroom door. He was not surprised to see Archimedes already waiting outside, dressed in black tactical trousers, jumper and sturdy boots. Harry quickly disabled the wards and unlocked the door, reminding himself to change the lock after Archimedes left when they were done.

Ginny went in and Harry made to follow her, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "When were you going to tell me about her tattoo?" Archimedes asked.

"Never."

"I see. There's no law against it, but …"

"I don't work for you. Are you going to phone up the Ministry and tell on me?"

Archimedes shook his head and smiled. "No. I suppose you know what you're doing."

"She insisted. Besides, are you going to tell me that Sarah doesn't have some way of getting a hold of you?" Archimedes didn't answer as he went into the classroom, Harry following behind.

Inside, Ginny sat on top of a student desk, swinging her feet back and forth. Harry unbuckled the sword belt and leaned the sword against the desk she sat on. Looking around the room, he used his wand to move some of the desks out of the way and lit the fireplace to take some of the damp chill out of the air.

Looking at Ginny on the desk, he smiled and conjured up a squashy armchair much like the ones found in the Gryffindor common room. She gave him a small smile and sat down in it, resting the sword across her knees. Feeling marginally better, he unlocked the cabinet and took out the Pensieve, carrying it carefully to his desk and setting it down with a thump.

Conjuring up another chair, Harry sat down and looked at the cloudy fluid swirling inside the basin. "You have the coin?"

Archimedes dug in his pocket and set the coin on the desk. With a glance at him, Harry put his finger against the coin, pulling it back at that cold burn. "All right. Let's see if we can get anything out of this," Harry said, raising his wand.

"Harry," Ginny said, rising from her seat and setting the sword down. He watched as she approached him, looking almost shy. "I'm not angry with you. I'm just worried about what's going to happen."

"I know, love. I am, too," Harry said quietly, leaning up to receive her soft kiss. "We should be all right. I've never known anything in the Pensieve to harm anyone."

He closed his eyes as she ran her fingers through his hair. "Come back to me," she whispered in his ear, sending a shiver through him.

Archimedes cleared his throat, bringing Harry back to ground. He squeezed Ginny's hand as she went back to the conjured chair, Sword of Gryffindor back on her knees.

The coin sat on Harry's desk blotter, the gold somehow managing to look cold in the bright lights of the classroom. Raising his wand, he focused on the memory-extraction spell, hoping to see a bright thread of silver come out of the coin. When none did, he frowned and tried again, finally shaking his head. "It's no good," he said, looking up at Archimedes.

"Let me try." Harry watched as Archimedes tried several times before finally giving up. "It's like something in there is resisting."

"Yeah, I felt it too." He sighed, glancing over at Ginny. "Looks like there's nothing for it. In you go." Unwilling to touch it himself, he gestured for Archimedes to pick up the gold double eagle coin and drop it into the Pensieve. It went into the fluid with an anti-climactic "bloop" and sunk to the bottom, the gold shining dimly through the pearly fluid.

Harry carefully studied the Pensieve, alert for any sort of feedback that might indicate the device was rejecting the coin or reacting to it in any way. None of the runes inscribed on the basin lit up, no sinister sounds emanated from it and the fluid continued to lay quiescent, shimmering with the occasional ripple.

"All right. So far, so good," he said with a calmness he didn't feel. "Ready?"

Archimedes pulled a hair tie out of his pocket and gathered his long hair into a ponytail. As he did so, Harry turned to look at Ginny again. She was sitting straight up in the comfortable chair as if she were on guard duty. He noticed she'd taken the sword out of the scabbard, silver blade shining brightly. "I don't know how long this is going to take," he said quietly. "I'm still not sure how time passes inside and outside of the Pensieve."

She nodded, eyes fixed on his. "I'll be right here," she said and he felt a small knot of tension unclench in his gut.

"I love you."

"I know," she said, one of her eyebrows giving a little twitch at his grin.

Gathering his focus and concentration to the task at hand, he turned to face Archimedes, the basin between them. "Let's do this," he said, diving into the swirling memories.

A sensation of falling and then his feet hit hard-packed dirt. Looking around, he saw he was in the middle of a busy street, but instead of cars and buses, the street was thronged with pedestrians and a dizzying assortment of horse-drawn wagons and carriages. Disoriented, Harry perceived Archimedes standing next to him and he pulled him over to a walkway.

"Where are we?" Archimedes asked, sounding awestruck.

"When are we?" Harry countered, looking around at the clothing and buildings. The strong smell of manure almost knocked him flat. He spotted a young boy on a corner, selling newspapers. "Come on."

As they approached, they could hear the boy's voice over the noise of horses, wagons and shouting men. "Gold! Gold in California! Nuggets as big as your head free for the taking!" he cried, holding up a folded newspaper. "EUREKA!" proclaimed the headline.

"I'll take one of those," said a voice in a clipped British accent. Harry did a double take as he watched a man that looked almost exactly like Jacob Green buy a paper from the boy and stride away with it tucked under his arm.

"That's him," Archimedes murmured as they hurried to follow Cornelius Maxwell before he could get lost in the teeming crowd. "It worked!"

"Fuck me sideways, but it sure did," Harry said in wonder. "We must be in New York, then." They followed Cornelius for several blocks until he turned down a narrow alleyway littered with trash. Aiming a kick at an alleycat, Cornelius took out his wand and unlocked a door about halfway down. A small plaque on the frame next to it said, "C. Maxwell, Esq."

Inside, several small slips of paper littered the floor and there were even several papers cunningly folded into cranes flapping around. Waving his hand irritably at the hovering papers, Cornelius closed the door, using his wand to light a few oil lamps, revealing the decidedly shabby interior. Harry caught sight of one of the notes on the floor. "Dear Mr Maxwell, you are several months past due on your…" was all he could see.

Settling down at a desk that had definitely seen better days, Cornelius spread the paper open, reading avidly, muttering to himself. "Nuggets free for the taking indeed. Those fools. There's money to be made here, but not by grubbing in the dirt." Shoving aside the newspaper, he opened a desk drawer, spreading what looked like a map of the United States on top of the desk.

Harry and Archimedes leaned over Cornelius's shoulders as he traced a finger over different routes. That map had only a passing similarity to what Harry knew as the United States in the present day as the western states seemed to end with Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. Texas was about three times its current size and there were large swaths of territory marked simply as "Unorganized", "Oregon" and largest of all, "Mexican Cession".

"Portkey to St Louis, yes and after that …" Cornelius mumbled, eyes fixed on the map. He tapped his finger on the tiny dot marked San Francisco. Coming to a decision, Cornelius folded the map and rose from the desk, opening a door Harry hadn't noticed before into a very small bedroom. He pulled out a worn carpetbag and opened it, waving his wand and searching around the room, shoving different things into his pockets as clothing and personal items soared into the bag.

Closing the bag with a snap, the man looked around the room, lip curled in a sneer. When he left, he didn't even bother to lock the door as he strode away down the alley.

The scene changed and Harry and Archimedes stood in another dusty dirt street, but this time instead of stately stone and brick buildings, wood buildings with the unmistakable hallmarks of hasty construction stood around them. Taking a deep breath, Harry smelled the sea along with horse and unwashed bodies. Looking out toward the bay, he saw a virtual forest of ship's masts. He spied a sign that said Market St and realized that he was in what he knew as the Financial District, but as he looked down Market toward the water, there was no Ferry Building.

Archimedes nudged his shoulder and he turned to look where he was pointing. A building with a false front declared itself Maxwell's Emporium. "Everything For Every Miner!" "Sell Your Gold Here!" "Fair Prices For All!" screamed the various signs around the doorway.

"Let's go take a look, shall we?" Archimedes said, leading the way.

Harry followed and they entered the dim store bursting at the seams with tools, clothes, tent canvas, and stout barrels labeled as containing salt pork, hardtack, and beans. It looked like Cornelius was doing land office business as they had to walk through several memory figures, Harry feeling a cold chill each time. In the back, they found the man himself, looking much more prosperous now, arguing with a goblin.

"Those weights are not true," the goblin said in his harsh voice. Harry saw that he was dressed roughly, a wide-brimmed hat on his head to cover his large ears, making him look like a very short, heavily-built man. "You must let me touch them and assess them for myself."

"I'm sorry, but the weights are the same for everyone, verified by San Francisco Weights and Measures," Cornelius said, looking down at the goblin with his arms crossed against his chest. He'd gained weight and the apron tied around his middle accentuated his small paunch.

The goblin hissed at this, shifting from foot to foot as he strained to see the top of the counter. There was a scale with a pile of gold dust on one pan and several small weights on the other. "I have brought you five full ounces of gold, but you tell me I have only four and three-quarters."

"I can tell you only what I measure. You may have thought you had five full ounces, but I assure you it's not." Cornelius looked sternly down at the goblin. "Now, you are perfectly free to sell your gold somewhere else."

"There is nowhere else and you know this, wizard," the goblin said dangerously.

Spreading his arms wide, Cornelius affected a self-satisfied expression. "Then it looks like you're selling four and three-quarter ounces of gold to me, then."

The goblin stared at him malevolently before finally nodding agreement, watching closely as Cornelius carefully poured the gold dust from the pan into a metal strongbox and counted out coins onto the counter. As the goblin reached for them, the wizard raised a hand.

"Ah, there's the matter of your account with me," he said with a fake smile.

"Your prices are far too high, wand-user!"

"As always, you are free to deal somewhere else."

"Take your money and be done!" the goblin growled. Cornelius swept half of the coins he'd paid the goblin back into his own hand. The efficient cheating of the goblin fairly took Harry's breath away and he looked at Archimedes in amazement.

"Wouldn't Jacob like to know where his money-making skills came from?" he said, shaking his head.

Archimedes grunted, watching closely as another miner, this one human, approached Cornelius to trade his gold dust for coin. Harry saw the set of weights he'd used with the goblin neatly switched out with some expert sleight of hand and raised his eyebrows. As they watched him deal with the human miner, the scene dissolved.

Harry stood on top of a hill in front of the skeleton of an enormous house. Turning on the spot, he realized that he was standing in front of what would become Jacob's mansion. He looked at Archimedes, following his gaze out to the water and the bridgeless Golden Gate. "Huh," he grunted, "looks strange without the bridge there."

The sound of hoofbeats made them turn around and Harry saw a splendid carriage pulled by a pair of gray horses so well-matched that they could have been twins. The driver pulled to a stop next to the construction site and jumped down, opening the door of the carriage. A much older Cornelius alighted, dressed in a fine suit and carrying an elegant walking stick. There was more salt than pepper in his hair now and Harry knew what Jacob would look like with outlandish mutton chop sideburns. Harry's eye caught the shine of a pin on his lapel, the silver and green enameled shield embossed with the Slytherin serpent rode high and proud. That explains a few things about Jacob.

He surveyed the worksite with obvious pride before turning back to the carriage, helping down a beautiful young woman. "That must be Esther," Harry said to Archimedes, watching as Cornelius waved his walking stick around, pointing out various features of the construction to her. The couple stood, talking happily about the house and Harry felt a pang of sadness that Esther would live for only another four short years before being horribly killed by her husband to create one of the Darkest objects known to wizard kind.

Another shift and they were standing in a hallway, outside of a heavy door. Inside, they heard the sounds of someone in extreme pain and Harry shivered, his hand automatically going to his wand. Archimedes opened the door and they walked into an ornately-decorated bedroom.

On the enormous bed, Esther writhed in pain as Cornelius stood over her, wand extended. "Cornelius," she panted, "why?"

"It's the only way," he said, and Harry was surprised to see that his face was filled with sorrow. "Crucio!" he snarled, causing Esther to shriek and moan once more.

Stomach churning, Harry turned away from the scene, catching sight of the portrait miniature on the mantelpiece of the fireplace. He walked toward it, examining it closely, noting that it looked much the same as it did in the present day with the exception of the girl's eyes; they lacked the snap and fire that he had noted before.

On the bed, Esther's voice rose to a high, breathy shriek as she reached her breaking point. "Cornelius!" she howled, causing Harry to turn back around. Archimedes stood, frozen in horror as Cornelius sent a jet of green straight at her, finally silencing her screams.

As they watched, Cornelius seemed to recoil from the casting of the spell, his whole body shuddering as he moaned in what sounded like genuine grief. Breathing hard, he stumbled to the fireplace and grabbed the portrait miniature. Mumbling an incantation Harry wished he didn't know, a shredded black thing seemed to pass out of his nose and mouth before being absorbed into the ivory portrait.

"Oh my God," Archimedes whispered, eyes riveted on the scene. For the first time since meeting him, he actually looked old to Harry, his face white and drawn.

Once the thing was done, Cornelius seemed to recover and stood up straight, looking at the small ivory oval, stroking it almost lovingly before setting it carefully back on the mantel. He approached the bed and the small, still body laying upon it. Esther's eyes were still open, staring sightlessly up at the hangings and he winced as he closed them. "It was the only way," he said quietly.

The scene changed again and they were back in the bedroom, but this time Cornelius himself was the sole occupant of the huge bed. Propped up on several pillows and wearing a nightshirt, his hair was now completely white and he looked like he was slowly being drained of his life.

A little girl with dark hair stood next to the bed, a brave expression on her face. "Coretta," Harry murmured as Archimedes nodded.

"Papa," she said with a little quaver in her voice, "I don't want you to go."

"Coretta, my dear, there's nothing to be done. Be brave and listen to Richard. He'll take good care of you." Harry looked to where Cornelius nodded and saw a young man scarcely older than himself standing on the other side of the bed. The little girl looked doubtfully at the man and nodded slowly.

"Will you see Mama again?"

"Yes, I'll see your mother again. Shall I give her your love?" Coretta nodded again and went up on her tiptoes, leaning over to kiss her father's cheek before being led away by her governess.

As the door closed, Cornelius beckoned to the young man who drew up a chair and sat next to the bed, leaning in close to hear him. "Richard, you are ready? You are sure?"

"Yes, Cornelius, I am." He frowned as he looked at the older man. "Are you sure you don't wish me to call a Healer?"

"No, there's nothing to be done. It's that damn curse. I won the duel, but will die anyway," he said angrily, shaking his head. "Remember your promise to me. When she turns sixteen, use her blood and bring me back."

"Yes, of course," Richard said and Harry saw his eyes flick to the portrait on the mantle.

Cornelius sighed and settled back at his words, looking as if he'd nearly expended all of his remaining energy. "It's coming. You have it?"

Richard nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a familiar gold coin. Harry felt his heart skip a beat at the sight of it and he involuntarily reached out to take it as Richard handed it to Cornelius, who closed it in his fist.

"Keep this with you. It will guide you until you can bring me back," Cornelius gasped. It seemed as if whatever he'd been afflicted with was accelerating.

"Yes, your guidance has always been important to me," Richard Langston said, looking stricken.

Cornelius smiled, giving his drawn face a skull-like appearance as he closed his eyes, still clutching the coin. Harry and Archimedes watched as his breathing became more and more labored, a rattling sound seeming to come from somewhere deep inside of him. Suddenly, his eyes opened and he stared forward, looking right where Harry and Archimedes stood. Harry had a prickling feeling of gooseflesh all over his arms, certain that the dying man could actually see them.

As he watched with a horrified fascination, Harry saw Cornelius take a deep breath and exhale slowly, breathing out what looked like black tendrils of smoke that arrowed straight toward the coin in his closed fist. No, not completely black, he thought, seeing the slight iridescent shimmer in the dim light of the room.

"His dying breath," Archimedes murmured reverently and Harry nodded.

"I've seen this before," he said with a dawning realization, his memory flashing back to being in the Shrieking Shack with a dying Snape, capturing bright memories in a conjured flask. Archimedes looked at him sharply and he shook his head. "Later."

Long exhalation over, Cornelius's empty body slumped forward, hand relaxing to reveal the coin in the palm of his hand. A fierce wind blew through the room, making the drapes on the bed flap and the windows rattle in their frames. Harry imagined he could hear an angry scream as the wind tore past him.

Richard bowed his head in silent contemplation for a moment, then picked up the gold double eagle, rubbing the surface between his fingers reverently.

The scene wavered and Harry expected to be kicked out of the Pensieve, but there was still more to see. He watched, fascinated, as the scenes changed at a dizzying pace, showing Coretta as she blossomed from a pretty girl into a truly beautiful young woman, Richard watching from afar. Harry could see Richard losing his aloofness, no longer able to maintain his distance from his vivacious young charge as she attended the exciting parties and balls of her first season as an eligible young lady.

Abruptly, they were in what he recognized as Jacob's office, the newly-completed portrait of Coretta hanging on the wall. Richard sat at the desk, the coin on the blotter in front of him. "I can't," he whispered in a strangled voice. "I love her. She loves me!" He leaned forward until his forehead touched the coin, recoiling with a shout.

"No. I will not. You are nothing! Nothing!" He rose from the desk and took a handkerchief out of his pocket, picking up the coin with it.

"What do you think happened to it next?" Archimedes murmured quietly, nearly making Harry jump. He'd been so absorbed in the changing scenes he'd almost forgotten he was there.

"Dunno. Spent it, gave it away, put it away … hard to say." The scene faded to a white mist, reminiscent of when he met Dumbledore at King's Cross and again he expected to be kicked out of the Pensieve, but nothing happened.

"What's this? Is this normal?" Archimedes asked, looking all around them.

"It is not." Harry felt the prickle of attention and he took out his wand, Archimedes mirroring his action and moving to stand at his back.

Improbably, Harry heard brisk footsteps approaching, sounding as if the person was walking on a marble floor and the figure of Cornelius Maxwell himself stepped out of the mist. Surprised at his lack of surprise, Harry watched as the man stopped and looked at them both. This wasn't the threadbare lawyer or the prosperous, cheating shopkeeper but Cornelius as he must have seen himself at his height in a top hat, well-tailored suit and walking stick. The Slytherin badge shone proudly on his lapel.

"So, you are real," he said in his clipped British accent that told Harry he hadn't grown up in the best part of London. Spitalfields, maybe?

"You saw us?" Archimedes asked, turning to face him.

"I did. Right before I drew my dying breath, I saw two men at the foot of my bed. Quite nearly gave me a turn!" he said with a deprecating chuckle. "If I hadn't already been dying, I might have died of fright right there!" He surveyed them shrewdly, the look in his eye giving Harry a cold feeling in his gut. "Tell me, what year are you from? How long have I been dead?"

"2007," Archimedes said with a glance at Harry.

Cornelius shook his head in amazement. "2007," he echoed. "Nearly a hundred and forty years." He stood in quiet contemplation and laughed. "Well, I certainly didn't plan to be gone for that long. I figured eight years at the most. Long enough for my daughter's blood to reach its full magical potential. The best laid plans of mice and men…" he said with a trace of bitterness.

"How did your plan go awry?" Archimedes asked. Harry was content with letting him guide this strange encounter. He didn't want to divert his focus from the figure in front of them.

"The way most plans do. Love." He nodded at Harry and gave him a cold smile. "I imagine your young friend knows all about that." Harry kept his expression neutral, determined none of the shock he felt would show on his face. "My partner, Richard Langston, fell in love with my Coretta and rather than killing her and taking her blood to bring me back, married her instead."

"But you're still here," Archimedes pointed out. "How?"

"Are you familiar with the power in a wizard's dying breath?" Cornelius asked him with a sideways tilt of his head. "Ah, I see you are not. Often, as death approaches, one may feel the most alive they ever have, every faculty razor sharp. Sight, sound, smell, touch … and magic." Adopting a lecturing tone, the figure rested his walking stick on his shoulder, pacing back and forth in front of them, reminding Harry eerily of himself when he was deep in a lesson.

"But all too often, we have no idea when we're going to die, so this heightening passes unnoticed and the power of the dying breath is wasted. But if one is prepared, one can do extraordinary things!"

"Like imbue your awareness into a coin," Harry said quietly.

"Exactly!" Cornelius said, delighted at his deduction. "It wouldn't do to simply have a shred of my soul embedded in the coin. I'd already done that, but to have something more, an active awareness that could provide the proper guidance until my resurrection."

"And it's worked out so well for you," Archimedes murmured.

"Ah, but it's not over yet. I have another to guide."

"Ignatius. Tell me, how did you meet?"

"It was a very long and winding road, let me tell you. Richard callously gave my coin to the head housekeeper for household expenses and I changed hands more times than I care to remember, always ready for someone that had the necessary qualities." Cornelius looked off into the middle distance, his handsome face introspective. "I don't remember much about that time and I went into a kind of dormant state until one day he picked me up."

"And when was this?" Archimedes asked in a tight voice.

"I'm not certain. I just now found out what year it is!" Cornelius laughed and Harry found it a strange echo of the laugh he'd heard so often from Jacob. "I eventually found out from Ignatius I'd been in some sort of locked up room full of objects that had been seized in a law enforcement action."

"Misuse of Muggle Artifacts?" Archimedes guessed.

"Just so," Cornelius said, beaming like a proud teacher at his favorite student. "With Ignatius, I immediately sensed a kindred spirit, someone with ambition to match my own. With my guidance, he insinuated himself into the life of my many times great grandson and soon I will take his place."

"And how are you going to manage that?" Cornelius simply smiled and rocked back and forth on his heels, both hands planted firmly on his walking stick.

"There's one small problem, though," Harry said. "Ignatius doesn't have you anymore."

"I was aware of that the moment you magicked me out of his pocket and into yours, Harry Potter." The figure looked at him, a knowing smile playing on his lips. "Yes, I know all about you, all about your trials and tribulations with that so-called Dark Lord. What was his name? Tom? Voldemort? If I ever meet him, I must remember to thank him for opening the way into your lover's mind for me."

At the mention of Ginny, Harry felt a jolt run through him and he schooled himself to stay relaxed. He can't hurt her here. "Then you know I mean to end you," he said and as he did, he felt the heavy weight of the Sword of Gryffindor settle on his hip.

"How—" Archimedes said, clearly startled.

"Ah, so the stories are true! You must be a true Gryffindor indeed for that sword to come to you!" Harry stood, senses on high alert, utterly focused on the figure of the dead man in front of him. Eyes glittering in the strange light, Cornelius chuckled to himself. "So, it's to be a duel then. As the challenger, you do have the right to choose your weapon."

Harry thought furiously, sparing a quick glance at Archimedes. The older man stood, balanced on the balls of his feet, ready to move in any direction. The weight of the sword pulled at him and he made his decision, drawing the sword out of the scabbard with a ringing sound that echoed oddly in this place.

"I see." Cornelius grinned and twisted the head of his walking stick, drawing out his own sword and tossing the rest of the stick aside. "I trust we're all gentlemen here?" he asked, looking at Archimedes. "Alas, I have no second, so you'll have to serve for us both."

Harry looked at Archimedes and nodded. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"I'm sure," Harry responded. "I set the rules," he called out to Cornelius who nodded his assent. "No wands. Archimedes holds them."

"Fair enough. Anything else?"

Harry took a deep breath. "We fight to the death." He honestly didn't know what would happen to him if he took a mortal wound here in this place, but he knew that he had a good chance of destroying the spirit that inhabited the coin right here and now.

"Harry …" Archimedes said warningly.

"Listen, if things go … poorly, I want you to get out and destroy that coin, yeah? Tell Gin …" Harry swallowed, her face swimming into his vision, "tell Gin to see my solicitor in London, all right?"

"All right," he said, taking Harry's wand. Harry watched carefully as Cornelius handed him his wand and moved to stand about thirty feet away from them. Raising the sword, he gave it a few swings, getting used to the weight of it in his hand. He found it had an exquisite balance, not surprising for something goblin-made. He caught Archimedes's troubled expression and smiled, getting a head shake in return.

"Ready?" Cornelius called, sounding utterly confident.

"Almost," Harry said, taking off his jumper and tossing it to Archimedes. He limbered up his arms, bouncing on the balls of his feet, thinking back to Auror weapons training. Long time ago. "Ten paces?"

"I don't think we need to be that formal." Cornelius had removed his top hat and jacket, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He raised his sword in front of his face in a salute, Harry mimicking his action. "En garde."

He felt an electric thrill go through him as he closed the distance between him and his opponent. They made a wide circle around each other, eyes searching out any weaknesses, assessing each other's stances and possible speed. Quick as a snake, Cornelius's blade darted out, clashing against Harry's in a test, the ringing sound strangely muffled in the white light.

Feeling the vibrations shooting up his right arm, Harry dropped back a step, willingly giving up a little ground, trying to lure Cornelius into overstepping, but he was too canny for that and he held his own ground. Watch his eyes, Harry reminded himself as Cornelius tested him again, easily parrying the quick stroke.

As they circled, Harry caught sight of Archimedes on the sidelines, looking coiled to spring into action and he took his eyes off of Cornelius's for a split second. Cornelius sprang lightly forward, aiming a slash at his body and Harry managed to spin away at the last second. A ribbon of fire down his ribs made him gasp as he skipped back several steps.

"Well, well, looks like first blood goes to me," Cornelius said with a vicious grin. Harry looked down and saw that he was indeed bleeding. Curious, he touched it and licked his finger. That's blood, all right. If I can bleed here, then I can probably die. Guess I better stop fucking around then.

Raising his sword again, Harry closed the distance once more, shutting out everything but the dead man in front of him. They had several more clashes, Harry getting more and more of a feeling for Cornelius's sword fighting style and strength. He didn't know if either of them would get tired, so he couldn't rely on that. He felt dried blood on his side and figured he wasn't going to bleed out, so he thought his best chance was to draw him into complacency and he had a brief memory of him and Ron doing just that with their billiards game.

Hoping to lure him into being sloppy, Harry decided it was time to have a chat. "So, Cornelius, you've had an interesting life."

"I have indeed," he said, sounding as if they were having a friendly dinnertime conversation rather than trying to kill each other.

"You made an awful lot of money, cheating goblins."

"Goblins," Cornelius spat as if the very word tasted foul. "Dirt-grubbers."

"Magical beings who have their own place in our society." Harry made an experimental lunge, subsiding when his sword was swept aside.

"Not every magical being deserves a place in wizard society," he said, continuing to circle.

"Magical beings such as dryads?" Harry saw a flicker of something in his eyes and he pressed. "Yes, what in the world could an innocent dryad have done to you to deserve to be cursed to remain a tree for all her days?"

"It seems you know an awful lot about me, Harry."

"It's not hard to find things out when you leave ill-wishes laying around for anyone to find and destroy." Harry felt a brief surge of triumph when Cornelius's step faltered just a little bit and he took the opportunity for a slash, smiling tightly when Cornelius was hard-pressed to parry his attack and dropped back a few steps.

"Ah, so it's been destroyed. Well, no matter. She'll die soon and then so will that stupid water horse."

"Oh, I don't think so. Gin found a new dryad for him to bond with. It was indeed too late for the dryad, but the water horse will live for a good long time still." Harry saw a vein start pulsing in Cornelius's temple and a flush creep up his neck.

"It doesn't matter. When I am resurrected, I'll be able to take steps to assure that these lesser … beings are put into their rightful places."

"Far, far below true wizards, am I right?" Cornelius nodded and opened his mouth to speak again, but Harry interrupted him, focusing on keeping him off-balance. "Something I've been meaning to ask you. Why did you create the Horcrux in the first place?" Harry flicked his sword out in a feint, using the beautiful balance of the sword to reverse direction at the last second, hoping to score on Cornelius, but the man was too fast and roughly shoved his point aside.

Continuing to circle like two sharks, Cornelius smiled. "Tell me, how good are they at curing cancer in your time?"

"Depends on the cancer, I suppose." Cornelius lunged and Harry spun, dodging it easily.

"Well, in my time, cancer was a death sentence, even for wizards. And I had so much more to do."

"So you created the Horcrux, I get it. But your wife?"

"I had to!" he said angrily, the vein in his temple throbbing again. "It was the only way! The pain, her pain and the … sacrifice."

"So you subject your wife to indescribable pain, kill her and shred your very soul, all because you were afraid to die? What a fucking coward you are, Cornelius," Harry said, a surging feeling of triumph running through him as the other man flushed a deep scarlet.

"You! Have you ever looked death in the eye?" Cornelius's voice was almost a shout, his circling movements becoming more erratic.

"I have and I was ready to die. I thought I did die, once." Cornelius came at him again, swinging wildly, but not quite leaving an opening for Harry as he sidestepped neatly. "So you have this whole grand plan for your resurrection, but do you know where your bones are?" Cornelius continued to circle, an animal-like growl coming from him. "You might want to rethink killing me. A lot has changed in San Francisco since you were here, but I know where your grave is."

When Cornelius gave a loud howl and rushed at him, Harry knew his moment had come. Their swords clashed and clanged, the sound ringing in his ears and making his blood sing with the age-old thrill of battle truly joined. Harry focused as hard as he ever had, striving to see the pattern in the other man's attacks until finally Cornelius swung too wide and took a step forward. Harry stepped in and slashed, a long cut running across his chest, parting the fine cloth of his shirt.

Whirling, Cornelius slashed back at him, forcing Harry to quickly raise his sword again and parry, metal singing before breaking apart once more. "Looks like you've blooded me in return, Harry! Took you long enough!" Cornelius swept a hand across the wound, looking at the blood on his fingers as if he couldn't quite believe it.

"I've done more than blooded you," Harry said, standing up straight and lowering the Sword of Gryffindor. "I've killed you."

"A mere scratch? Ridiculous!" he said derisively. A look of fear crossed his handsome features and he pressed his hand to the wound again.

Harry lifted the sword. "About fourteen years ago, I killed a basilisk with this sword. I know you don't have much respect for goblins, but you do have to respect their craftsmanship. This sword drank up every drop of basilisk venom it could, making it the perfect weapon for destroying Horcruxes as well as whatever you are."

With an enraged shriek, Cornelius raised his sword and charged, not at Harry, but straight at Archimedes. Harry felt like his feet would not move fast enough and watched in what seemed like slow motion as Archimedes calmly drew his wand, sending a blast of red light shooting toward the oncoming shade of Cornelius Maxwell, dropping him in his tracks.

Harry slid the sword back into the scabbard, keeping his eyes on the prone shade of Cornelius Maxwell as he went to stand next to Archimedes. As they watched, the shade's wound began to smoke, thick black tendrils of vapor rising first out of the wound, then spreading out from his ears, nose and mouth, still open in a silent howl of rage.

"Stunned?"

"Body-Bind. I wanted him to be aware," Archimedes said grimly.

"Savage," Harry said, watching as more greasy black smoke poured out of what had been the shade of Cornelius Maxwell, a feeling of deep relief sweeping over him.

"Why are we still here?" Archimedes asked, looking around at the featureless white expanse.

"Good question. Can you get out?" He watched as Archimedes turned on the spot, trying to Apparate out and shook his head grimly. "Shit. I didn't count on something like this." He tried to Apparate out himself, but failed. "It's almost like there's an anti-Apparition ward up."

"How do you usually get out of here?"

"The memory ends and you get kicked out like when I showed you that bloke, yeah?" Harry backed away a few steps to get away from the spreading black smoke.

"What if we try and transition to another memory? Go back to the one you showed me before?"

"We can try," Harry said, quelling a small feeling of panic at the possibility of being trapped in the Pensive forever. He'd never heard of such a thing, but then he'd never encountered anything like the shade of Cornelius Maxwell, either. He closed his eyes, focusing on the memory of the night he'd been waiting for Ben at the clinic when he felt a burst of pain emanate from his tattoo and he gasped. My love, you are brilliant! he thought joyously.

"Are you all right?" Archimedes asked, voice tight.

"Yes, it's a Summons from Gin," Harry responded, feeling the blessed burning pain ratchet up a notch.

"Can you answer it?"

"I think so. I'll Summon you, all right?" The burning pain was becoming nearly intolerable and he sucked in a breath.

"Go. If you can't get me out, make sure that coin is destroyed!"

Feeling that the force keeping him in this strange place was supplanted by Ginny's urgent Summon, Harry answered her call. The squeezing, breathless darkness of Apparition lasted the longest he had ever experienced and he had a brief flash of fear that he would be stuck there forever before he suddenly found himself flat on his back, staring up at the bright lights of his classroom gasping for breath.

"Harry? Harry!" Ginny's panicked voice came to him through a ringing in his ears and he shook his head as if to clear them.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, sitting up and pulling his wand out. "Archimedes." He placed his wand against his tattoo and focused on Summoning the older man with all of the urgency he could muster. A moment later, he appeared also flat on his back and gasping for air.

"Harry, you're hurt! What happened in there? The sword disappeared and then the Pensieve went crazy!" Ginny pulled up his tee shirt, hissing at the long cut. Looking down, Harry realized it had barely missed his nipple. That would have been weird, he thought crazily.

"I'm fine, Gin," he said, "make sure Archimedes is okay." He stood up, holding onto the back of his desk chair as he felt wobbly on his feet. He looked at the Pensieve and raised his eyebrows. The pearly, iridescent surface was roiling as if it were on a high boil and a pale smoke was rising. As he watched, the smoke got thicker and darker. "Uh oh," he said.

"Uh oh what?" Archimedes asked as Ginny helped him stand. He looked at the Pensieve and frowned. "I see."

"Let's get this outside." Harry lightly touched the stone basin, finding it cool to the touch and carefully picked it up in both hands. "Can you, uh, check outside?" he asked, belatedly thinking of the possibility of Ignatius lying in wait outside.

Archimedes nodded and darted out, giving the all clear a moment later. Ginny walking beside him, Harry carefully carried the Pensieve outside and set it down on the pavement, moving back several feet as the smoke became thicker. As they stood watching it, Ginny took the opportunity to pull his shirt up again and slather the long cut with Essence of Dittany.

"Glad I just made a fresh batch," she murmured as she worked, checking him over for any other injuries. After checking over Archimedes, she put away her flask and hugged Harry tightly. "I was so scared when the sword disappeared and then the Pensieve … I thought you weren't coming back," she said, burying her face in his neck.

"It was close. I don't know that we would have been able to get out if not for that Summon." Harry kissed the top of her head, breathing deeply of her scent. "You are brilliant," he whispered.

"It was the only thing I could think to do. I thought if the sword could get to you, maybe I could too." She turned back to look at the erupting Pensieve. "Now, will you please tell me what happened in there?"

"It was weird. We went in and saw a few of Cornelius's memories, saw the creation of the Horcrux. I was right, he used Crucio on his wife and it was pretty terrible," he said shaking his head at the memory of poor Esther writhing in pain on the bed. "And then we saw him create the coin."

"How did he do that?" Ginny asked.

"D'you remember what I told you about Snape in the Shrieking Shack, when he died? The memories?"

"Yes," Ginny said slowly and then she gasped. "Do you think that was Snape using his dying breath?"

"I do. He didn't use a wand to extract the memories and they just came flooding out of him. I didn't realize then that he was using the power of his dying breath to give me those memories. Cornelius was dying and he knew it, so he had time to prepare." Harry repressed a shudder as he thought of the blackness that came out of Cornelius and went into the coin.

"So he put memories into the coin?"

"Not exactly," Archimedes said, "more like an awareness or a ghost, but tethered to the object rather than a place."

"Yeah, that sounds about right. I haven't had a lot of dealings with ghosts except for the ones at Hogwarts. I'll have to do some reading," Harry said musingly.

"So how did you get hurt?" Ginny pulled up his shirt again, looking at the bottom of the healing cut.

"Well, after the memories were over, we were still there, yeah? So along comes the man himself or his awareness or ghost or whatever and we dueled. With swords."

"You did what?" Ginny asked, looking at him incredulously.

"We chatted for a bit and then I challenged him to a duel," Harry said simply.

Ginny shook her head, eyes wide. "I can't believe you."

"Listen, the sword had come to me and I figured that it knew what was up. I thought I had a pretty good chance of destroying the spirit right then and there."

"A pretty good chance? Tell me, when was the last time you used a sword?" she asked, hands on her hips.

Harry pursed his lips in thought. "Two years ago? Three? I dunno, we had a weapons refresher a while back."

"Why didn't you use wands?"

"Well, to be honest I wasn't sure how magic would work in there and I felt sure that he couldn't get a mortal blow on me. If he cut me up a bit, that was all right because I know an excellent Healer," he said with a smile. Ginny was not amused. "But if he landed a Killing Curse on me, well, there wasn't anything I could do about that. With the sword, I knew all I had to do was get a scratch on him and the venom would do the rest."

"And you let him do that?" Ginny asked Archimedes accusingly.

He raised his hands helplessly. "I'm learning that it's generally best to get out of his way," he said, nodding at Harry. "Looks like it's settling down."

Harry looked at the Pensieve and saw the fluid was no longer bubbling as furiously as it had been and he cautiously approached, using his wand to blow away the thinning smoke. As he watched, the pearly fluid slowly stopped moving, reverting to its usual quiescent self. Ginny and Archimedes crowded around, peering down into it. Lighting the tip of his wand, he could see the coin at the bottom of the basin.

Thinking for a moment, Harry conjured up a set of long tongs, unwilling to reach into the liquid and grab the coin with his bare hands. Fishing around, he carefully drew the coin out, shaking it to make sure no memories remained on it and dropped it on the pavement. It landed with an odd clang rather than the expected ringing sound and they all squatted down to look at it.

"Wow, I wouldn't have expected that," Ginny said in amazement.

"Me either," Harry said, looking closely at it. It was on tails, showing the eagle with its shield and crown of thirteen stars. In the middle of the shield was a vertical crack with jagged black lines emanating out from it nearly going all the way to the milled edge of the coin. Where the gold had been bright and shiny before, looking almost freshly struck, it now looked dark and aged as if it had been sitting at the bottom of the sea for hundreds of years.

"Well?" Archimedes asked, looking at Harry expectantly.

"I'll do it," Ginny said bravely. She was already reaching out for it when he grabbed her hand.

"No, I'll do it. If something happens, I'll need you to save me again, yeah?" He nudged her shoulder, glad to see her smile before taking a deep breath. Extending a finger, he brushed it lightly against the edge of the coin, vastly relieved when he felt only cold metal. He picked it up and turned it over, seeing that a similar crack marred the face of Lady Liberty and handed it to Archimedes. "For your trophy case."

Archimedes snorted and put it in his pocket, looking down at the stone basin. "I hope it's not damaged."

"Me too. I'll test it this week," Harry said, carefully picking it up and putting it away in its cabinet, double-checking the wards and lock. He drew the sword out of the scabbard, frowning at the traces of blood on the blade. He conjured a cloth and cleaned the blade carefully until he was certain no blood was left. Sliding the sword back into the scabbard, he joined Ginny and Archimedes outside, handing Ginny her first aid tote. He locked his classroom door and took Ginny's hand in his.

Feeling as if he'd been awake for twenty-four hours, he walked slowly off campus, turning over the night's events in his mind. He foresaw many long conversations with Archimedes and maybe even some time spent with Dumbledore's portrait.

Once they were outside of the school's wards, Harry and Archimedes shook hands. "Let me know if you hear anything, all right?" Harry said.

"Of course. Just so you know, there is an Auror in the lobby of the St Regis at all hours. As far as I know, Weatherbee doesn't know where you're staying, but it never hurts to be safe."

"Thank you. I am going go home now and sleep for a week."

"What about work on Monday?" Ginny asked.

"I'll get a sub. Gilderoy Lockheart should be available, right?"

"Prat," she said, punching his shoulder affectionately.

32. Chapter 32

…looks like first blood goes to me! echoed in Harry's mind, jerking him out of a sound sleep. Heart pounding wildly, he forced himself to remain still, eyes searching around the dim bedroom. The Sword of Gryffindor leaned against the dresser, a silent accusation that the Horcrux was still out there. Ginny lay on her side next to him in the huge bed, facing away from him and he rose up on his elbows to see if he'd woken her. Stuart the cat looked at him from his place curled up at the small of her back and gave him a toothy yawn.

Still asleep. Good. He lay back down and rubbed his eyes, glancing at the bedside clock. Six-thirty. Ugh. He felt a twinge in his side and he lifted the covers, looking down at the long pink line that was all that remained of the slash he'd taken in the duel. He ran his finger down it, feeling only new skin. Wonder if it'll leave a scar? Another one to add to my collection, he thought with an internal sigh.

Feeling like he wouldn't get back to sleep but too comfortable in the bed to get up, he turned onto his side and snuggled closer to Ginny, careful not to wake her as he chivvied Stuart out of his spot and settled a hand lightly on her hip. That duel was something else. I still don't understand what happened or how it happened. How did the sword come to me? I've never been physically affected by anything in the Pensieve before. I wonder if Dumbledore ever experienced anything like that?

Thinking of Dumbledore made him think of his portrait in the Hogwarts Headmaster's office and thinking of that made him think of the fast-approaching end of the school year and everything he had to do. Finals, graduation, buy a house, sell my flat, move, destroy a Horcrux, pick up my godson…

Resolving to think about all of those things later, he pressed his nose against the back of Ginny's neck, breathing deeply as he felt the last vestiges of the nightmare leave him. Before he even realized it, he slipped into a dreamless sleep.

"So you had an actual, honest-to-God sword fight with the ghost or whatever of Cornelius Maxwell?" Ginny asked sometime later. Her head was pillowed on his shoulder and he stroked his fingers through her hair. He was mildly surprised that he'd fallen back to sleep and the clock now said a more reasonable nine-fifteen.

"Yup," he said, pushing aside the vision of Maxwell's face contorted in rage as he dove for Archimedes.

"And I didn't even get to see it."

"Not much to see. A fight like that is mostly circling around." He looked down at her and kissed her forehead. "You'd get dizzy."

Ginny lay quietly, resting her hand in the middle of his chest. "I thought you said Ron was better with Muggle weapons."

"I said Ron was the better shot, but I'm better with a sword," Harry said with a note of pride. Ron would disagree and say he was better with both, but he knew he could run circles around Ron with a sword. And then he'd probably just shoot me.

"How did that even happen? When the sword disappeared, I nearly went spare." He felt her trailing her finger over his skin, following the pink line down his ribs.

"I don't even know. When we go back to get Teddy for the summer, I'm going to have a long conversation with Dumbledore's portrait."

"Do you think he'll be able to tell you anything?"

Harry shrugged, running the tip of his finger over her bare shoulder. "Maybe? He had a lot of experience with loads of weird things." He was quiet for a moment and then spoke again. "I will say I was surprised to come out of the Pensieve with that cut, though."

"That's what I've been trying to wrap my head around. When you've taken me in to show me something, it's like watching a movie, right? But the sword came to you and you were able to … kill whatever that was in there with it."

"Yeah, that's where I'm stuck, too," Harry murmured before falling silent again.

Ginny sighed and adjusted her position. "What are we doing today?" she asked, bringing Harry's thoughts back to the mundane.

"Well, we have some more places to see this afternoon. Unless you think we ought to cancel?"

"No. I'm tired of staying in hotel suites. I want to find our place." She paused for a moment. "Unless you think it's too dangerous to be out today?"

Harry carefully considered her question. He knew in his gut that Ignatius knew he'd taken that coin. He hoped that he didn't realize it had been destroyed, but acknowledged that he would be all the more dangerous if he thought the coin was still intact and recoverable. "If Ignatius wants to come at me, he's more than welcome to," he said rebelliously.

"What if he comes at me?"

Harry looked down at her and smiled. "You'd waste him."

"I would, wouldn't I?" she said with a slow smile of her own, tracing the wand movement for the infamous Bat Bogey Hex with her finger on his chest. "What time are we meeting Rachel?"

"One o'clock."

"Well," Ginny said, turning over onto her stomach and raising herself up on her elbows, "what are we going to do with ourselves in the meantime?"

Harry put his hands behind his head. "Let's see, I don't know about you, but I don't have any work clothes for tomorrow. I still have papers to grade and I haven't even started on final exams yet—" he said, grinning when Ginny cut him off with a kiss, her tongue tracing his lower lip. "Or I suppose we could have a bit of a lie-in?"

"I think we can do better than just a lie-in," she said as her hand drifted down his chest and stomach, sneaking in under the waistband of his boxers. "I see we are in agreement." Harry quirked an eyebrow at her grin as she wrapped her hand around his erection and treated him to a series of slow, shivery kisses.

Last night, he'd been too exhausted and overwhelmed by the whirlwind of events to do more than undress and fall into bed. Memories of going to Ginny after dangerous operations resurfaced and he found he wasn't a bit ashamed about it; he'd long accepted that was just the way things were for them. Pushing aside all of his worries, he gave himself up to the sensations Ginny was creating with her skilled hands and lips, beyond thankful that he was still alive to enjoy them.

He watched through heavy-lidded eyes as she sat up and pulled off her top and let it drop to the floor. The morning sun was shining through a crack in the drapes, making shadows and highlights on her pale skin as she gave him a daring grin and swept the covers off him, leaving him momentarily chilled. Keeping his hands behind his head, he raised his eyebrows as Ginny shimmied out of her pajama bottoms, leaving her gloriously naked. "Well?" he asked, looking pointedly at his boxers.

"All in good time." She fixed him with an arched eyebrow of her own and straddled him, leaning down to kiss him again, lips warm and soft against his. The feeling of her breasts barely touching his chest was intoxicating and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her body hard against his. "Impatient?" she whispered in his ear.

"No, carry on," he said, sweeping his hands over her smooth back down to her bum, crushing her hips against him as they kissed again. Worming out of his grip, she slowly moved down his body, kissing her way down the healing slash before finally drawing down his boxers, tossing them back over her shoulder with a grin. Harry closed his eyes and sighed at the feeling of her taking him in her mouth, struggling to maintain his dignity as she went to work on him before finally giving it up as a bad job.

"So vocal today. I must be doing something right," Ginny said softly as she slid her way back up his body.

"You always do everything right," he said, capturing her lips with his once more. His heart was thudding so hard, he was convinced she could feel it.

"Oh, I'll remind you that you said that one of these days," she giggled, rolling off of him to lay next to him. "Well?"

"Well what?" Harry asked, reaching out to stroke her cheek, grinning when she turned her head and grabbed his finger with her teeth.

She released his finger and lay back, putting her own hands behind her head, which did amazing things for her breasts in his opinion. "Don't think you get to be lazy this morning."

"But I had such a hard night," he said, scooting closer to her and kissing her neck, feeling her racing pulse against his lips. "I had to get dressed all fancy, go to an event, talk to people." He moved down to her collarbone, dipping his tongue in the hollow of her throat. "Did I tell you that I found out I'm descended from the Peverells on both sides?"

"Are we really discussing your ancestry right now?" she asked, sucking in a breath as he gently bit down on one of her nipples.

"I'm just telling you how horrible last night was," he said innocently, soothing the bite with his tongue.

"Yes, you were very brave," she sighed, tangling her fingers in his hair as he continued his assault on her breasts. Trailing a finger down the middle of her belly, he slid his hand into her heated center, feeling a thrill in his chest when she parted her legs for him.

He looked down at her as she closed her eyes, face a study in concentration as she focused on the feeling of his fingers sliding in and out of her, hips moving in sync. His heart constricted as he remembered his panic at the thought of being trapped in the Pensieve forever and he shoved it aside. No, not now. Think about that later, he thought, choosing to focus on Ginny shuddering under his touch.

Clamping her legs together, she sighed happily and held her arms out to him. Harry lay his head on her breast, listening to her slowing heartbeat as she ran her fingers through his hair. "So, tell me about this double Peverell ancestry," she said after a moment.

"Really? You want to talk about my ancestry now?"

"What else is there to do?" she asked with a Cheshire Cat smile.

"Hm," he huffed as he rolled on top of her, her laughter making his heart soar as she welcomed him into her. They moved together slowly in perfect rhythm, Harry finding the peace from everything in the outside world that being with Ginny tended to bring. Here, it was just the two of them. He felt her nails scratching along his back, urging him on faster and he obliged, finding an almost animal satisfaction in the way their bodies crashed together.

Ginny's eyes opened and he felt an electric jolt at her expression. You're mine, it seemed to say, mine and I'm not sharing you with any bloody ghosts or anything else! Breath coming short, he leaned down to kiss her, feeling like she was liquid fire surrounding him as she came, fingernails digging into his back as she cried out her release.

Striving for his own climax, Harry shut his eyes and focused on feeling her sweat-soaked skin against his and her voice in his ear as she urged him on until he felt like he was teetering on the edge of a cliff, waiting for the fall and the ground to rush up at him. Suddenly exhausted, he collapsed bonelessly on top of Ginny, desperately trying to catch his breath. Did I seriously just see stars? Jesus.

A few moments later, he levered himself up off of Ginny, grinning down at her. "Did that make up for last night?" He meant it in a cheeky fashion and when he saw her face cloud over, he knew he'd made a mistake. "Sorry," he said, laying on his back next to her.

Ginny sighed and turned over on her side, propping her head up in her hand. "Don't apologize. You did what you had to do, all right?" She reached out and ran her thumb over his cheekbone. "It was crazy and completely stupid, but it's done. You're safe and that thing is destroyed." She leaned in closer to him, brown eyes fixed on his. "This is the last I want to hear about it, okay?"

Surprised by the fierce tone of her voice, Harry nodded, feeling almost like he'd just been dressed down by McGonagall for being out in the halls after hours. Satisfied, she snuggled up next to him, resting her head on his shoulder once more. "Now, what are we doing for breakfast? I'm starved!"

"You are going to love this place," Rachel said as she led them up the stairs. "It's a three bedroom, two bath top floor unit and the views are amazing."

Harry looked over at Ginny and smiled. This was the last place they were seeing today and he had high hopes for it once he saw the neighborhood. The well-kept building was across the street from Marina Green Park and he was already thinking of how convenient that would be for morning runs.

"It just came on the market this week, so you're one of the first to see it." She used her wand to unlock the door and turned to them, looking excited. "Are you ready?"

Ginny nodded, squeezing Harry's hand and Rachel opened the door, stepping aside to let them walk in first. The first thing Harry noticed about the place was how light and bright it was. There was a sort of rounded wall at one end of the lounge that reminded him a little of Gryffindor Tower with nearly floor to ceiling windows and he heard Ginny's breath catch. Spread out in front of them was the sparkling blue San Francisco Bay, complete with sailboats scudding back and forth with the wind.

"Oh my," he heard Ginny breathe as she approached the windows. "Harry, look!" He joined her at the window and beheld the Golden Gate Bridge, shining in all of its International Orange glory. "And over there!" She pointed out of another window and he raised his eyebrow at the sight of Alcatraz Island, lighthouse flashing at him rhythmically.

"You like?" he asked, squeezing her shoulder.

"I do. This is amazing." She gazed out for several more moments before finally tearing her attention away from the spectacular view. "I suppose I should check out the rest of the place," she said, looking around as if in a daze.

"Might not be a bad idea." Harry glanced at Rachel. She stood with her hands clasped together in front of her, a gleeful expression on her face.

"Well, was I right?" she asked eagerly.

"The views are amazing," Harry conceded, "we'll see how the rest of the place measures up."

She swooped closer to him, taking him by the arm as she walked him around the place. "So, as I said earlier, this is the top floor unit, so the ceilings are higher than on the lower floors. The building dates from 1927, but as you can see, everything is quite modern." She nodded to the generously-sized fireplace. "There is one other wizarding family in the building and they haven't had any issues with being connected to the Floo network, although the previous owner was thoroughly Muggle."

Harry let her go on, keeping an ear out for key words as he evaluated the place for himself. He definitely liked that it was on the top floor of a three-story building. It had a nice, open floor plan, surprisingly modern for a building that age and he looked for places someone might hide in, glad to see very few. The kitchen appliances needed refreshing to his mind, but the layout of it seemed all right.

He was wondering where Ginny had gotten herself to when he heard her call him. "Ah, this must be the master," he said when he found her.

"Look at this," she said, opening the drapes over the window. Another stunning view of sparkling blue water greeted him. "And then this." She opened a door to reveal a cavernous closet with a full closet system installed.

The attached bath sported double sinks and an enormous shower that looked like it could easily fit the Gryffindor Quidditch team. "This bath was just renovated six months ago," Rachel said from the doorway.

"It's like they knew we were coming," Ginny said with a smile. The other bedrooms were smaller and Ginny declared the smallest would be perfect for an office and Teddy would love the middle-sized one. Harry was privately glad that the other bedrooms were at the opposite end of the unit from the master.

After surveying the rest of the place, they gravitated back toward the rounded windows, gazing out at the view. "Well?" Rachel said, trying not to sound too eager.

Harry looked down at Ginny standing next to him. "What do you think?"

"What do you think?" she countered.

"Oh no. You're the boss here."

"You're the one with the money," she said, poking him in the chest.

"You don't get to get away with that one." Harry pointedly picked up her left hand. She was wearing the heart-shaped ring again today.

Ginny sighed and looked away. "I love it. I love the location, I love the view … I love the closet."

"But?"

"But it's so expensive," she whispered, cutting her eyes at Rachel.

"Love, everything's expensive here. A shack without plumbing is expensive."

"Yes, but …" she said, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Harry let her work through her thoughts for several moments before she finally spoke again. "You're not just buying it for me, are you?"

"No, definitely not. Listen, it's on the top floor, which you know is one of the things on my list. It's literally across the street from one of my favorite places to run. There's a lovely kitchen—"

"No six-burner cooker with a built-in grill or infrared broiler though," she cut in with a grin.

"That's true, but easily remedied." He smiled back down at her, squeezing her hands in his. "There's a perfect room for when Teddy comes to stay and," he leaned down, kissing her on the cheek, "we picked it out together."

"Did I tell you about the shared rooftop terrace?" Rachel asked, reminding Harry that she was there.

"And there's a shared rooftop terrace," he echoed, making Ginny laugh.

"All right," she said after a moment and Harry felt a falling sensation in his gut at the expression on her face, almost as if she'd consented to marry him again.

Pulling himself together, he turned to Rachel. "Start the paperwork."

Harry took a long drink of his pint, savoring the flavor of the freshly-poured Guinness. "Well, I think we know now why the Dementors went after Ignatius that night. That bit of Cornelius in the coin," he said to Archimedes.

The other man grunted in agreement and took the ruined coin out of his pocket, turning it over in his hands, the gold dull in the dim light of the bar.

"Are you actually carrying that thing around?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

Archimedes shrugged and put it back in his pocket. "It's a reminder," he said, taking a swallow of his ale.

"A reminder? Of what?"

"Complacency."

Harry frowned and took another swallow of his beer. He'd never seen Archimedes like this before and he decided his best course of action would be to leave him alone and let him sort himself out. He'd been only mildly surprised to see the greyhound Patronus come trotting into Rachel's office while they were neck-deep in paperwork. Would you be free to meet me at the Church Key tonight around eight? the message said and Harry sent his stag back in the affirmative.

"What does Archimedes want?" Ginny asked with a concerned look as she handed back another paper to Rachel.

"He didn't say. I expect he wants a bit of a debrief," Harry said, scribbling his signature at the bottom of an extremely long and complicated sheet of paper. He handed it back to Rachel and she took it with a raised eyebrow, but didn't ask any questions.

And now he sat with an unusually quiet Archimedes. Well, at least the beer is good. He looked around the dimly-lit bar, subconsciously cataloging the other patrons. One of the barmaids laughed and he looked in that direction, smiling at the obvious flirtation between her and a young man with far too much facial hair.

Archimedes sighed and spun a coaster on its edge. "I'm having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around what happened last night," he said, eyes on the coaster as it fell back onto the table.

"You're not the only one. Gin and I had a chat about it this morning. I'm still trying to figure out how the sword came to me and how I came out with that cut," Harry said. The Dittany had done its job and the line wasn't even pink anymore.

"You going to have a scar?"

"Won't be the first one," he said, amused when Archimedes's eyes flicked up to the scar on his forehead.

"You ever think of…?"

Harry shook his head. "Can't. Curse scar, yeah?" They sat quietly for several moments before Harry spoke again. "You doing all right?"

"Yeah," Archimedes said after a long sigh. "I just feel like an idiot. I should have just let you destroy the coin when you wanted to."

"Nah, we got some good information out of it. Got to see how the coin was created, yeah?"

"That we definitely did. You mentioned you'd seen something like that before?"

"I did, but I didn't realize what I was seeing at the time. The night before I defeated Voldemort, I watched him murder Severus Snape because he thought it would give him an advantage over me," Harry said, remembering that terrible event. "Snape knew he was on the brink of death and used his dying breath to give me several memories." He shook his head. "I don't know if they were meant as an apology or an explanation for him being a shit to me."

"And was it like we saw?"

"Yes and no. What came out looked silvery, like memories should. What came out of Maxwell … yuck." Harry sat quietly, thinking how to best to frame the question he wanted to ask. "So, about the Horcrux … ?"

Archimedes smiled, looking more like his regular self. "I was wondering when you'd get around to that." He took a drink of his beer and picked up the menu. Harry knew he was stalling for time and he let him. "We're still going through with the exhibition," he finally said.

Harry nodded, completely unsurprised and continued drinking his beer. "It's already been publicized and it's still our best chance to catch Weatherbee red-handed," Archimedes said quietly, sounding like he was trying to convince himself.

"Or we could just go into the vault and destroy it right now. Make a quick stop to pick up a sword."

"Hm, your idea does have merit." Archimedes picked up the coaster again, turning it over and over in his hands. "But we need to shut Weatherbee down, with prejudice. If we catch him either in the act of stealing the Horcrux or trying to use it and expose him as a Dark magic user, that will end his chances of wielding any sort of influence on the public. And hopefully those that he has swayed will come back to seeing reason."

"You still think he'll make a direct play for it? Try to take it himself?"

"I think so. After what happened with the coin, I don't think he'd trust anyone else to get it for him."

"Speaking of the coin, have you heard anything? Gin and I have been out all day," Harry asked, looking over the menu himself.

Archimedes shook his head. "No, I haven't heard anything and I doubt he'll make any noise about it."

"You think he knows I did it?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if he suspected. Are you worried?"

Harry looked at Archimedes and gave him a cocky smile. "I killed a ghost with a sword last night. I think I can handle one wizard."

Raising his glass to him, Archimedes finished his beer. "How is Ginny?"

"She's all right. I think she's still a bit upset at me but we, uh, made up this morning," he said, mumbling the last part of the sentence into his beer, feeling a flush at the older man's knowing smile. "How about Sarah? Did you tell her about our little adventure?"

"I did."

"And?"

"We made up this morning," he said with a wide grin, making Harry laugh out loud.

"So, what were you out doing today? I didn't cut anything short, did I?" Archimedes asked when Harry came back with the next round and settled back in the booth.

"No, we were out looking at houses."

"Oh? Find anything you like?"

"We did, actually," Harry said, feeling a swoop of excitement in his gut.

"Well tell me about it! I remember when Sarah and I bought our place. Never thought in a million years that we'd ever actually pay it off, but we did!"

"It's a condo on the top floor. Three beds, two baths and it has astounding views." Harry took a long swallow of his fresh beer. "I get to look at Alcatraz every single day. Well, every clear day," he amended.

"Where is it?"

"Right around Marina and Fillmore," Harry said, smiling when Archimedes's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "I know, I have to keep converting the price to Galleons so it's at least a smaller number!"

"Are you financing …?"

"For now. I have a flat in London to sell, so we'll see how much I get for that and then apply it to this place."

"So you're not going to keep a place in London at all?"

"Oh, I have a whole house there. My godfather left it to me. It was too big to stay in with just me and Ron, so I bought the flat."

"Well well, I had no idea that I was having a beer with an international real estate tycoon."

"Hardly," Harry snorted. "The seller is quite motivated, so we're doing a two-week close. Gin's looking forward to getting out of hotel suites."

"I don't blame her. Congratulations," he said, clinking his glass against Harry's before lapsing into silence again. "So, Voldemort."

"Yes?" Harry prompted after several moments of silence from Archimedes.

"How many Horcruxes did he have?"

"Seven. Diary, snake, cup, diadem, locket, ring … and me. In all fairness, he didn't mean to create that last one," he said, trying to keep his tone light.

"And you destroyed them all?"

"Not personally, no. I'm responsible for the diary. Ron did the locket, Hermione the cup, Dumbledore the ring, Nev got the snake. In a roundabout way, Crabbe did for the diadem along with himself and Voldemort took out the one in me," Harry said, inwardly amused at the expression on his friend's face.

"It takes a village," Archimedes said with a low whistle.

"Indeed."

"What was it like? Dealing with all of those things?"

"Awful. Hellish. The worst thing I've ever had to do," Harry said, thinking of the long hours spent wearing the terrible locket so it wouldn't go missing. "You've read Tolkien?" Archimedes nodded and Harry went on. "When I learned about The One Ring, I immediately thought of that damned locket. We took it in turns wearing it so it wouldn't get lost in case we had to move quickly and that was the worst time ever."

"Did it talk to you like the Ring did to Frodo?"

"Not to me so much and I don't think to Hermione. Did a number on Ron, though. We got into a terrible row and he took off." Harry sighed. Worst Christmas ever, he thought. "Made me and Hermione more snappish and short-tempered. Some would say that neither of us need help in that department, though!"

Archimedes chuckled and drank more of his ale, swirling it in the glass. "I can see now that we've been blessed here. Drugs, smuggling, occasional Muggle-baiting and issues with the odd magical creature."

"Now's your time to shine, then," Harry said, raising his glass in a salute and smiling at Archimedes's wince.

"Hm!" Looking at his watch, Archimedes stretched and yawned. "It's after nine. I should let you get back."

Harry looked at his own watch and grimaced. "Yeah. I have a mountain of work waiting for me. Artemis has been nagging me for my final exam plans and schedule for both written and practical. The Seniors are done a full week before the rest of the school. Why is that?"

Archimedes shrugged and finished his beer. "Tradition? I daresay you'll be seeing a lot of senioritis in the coming weeks, especially from those that already have their acceptance letters."

"What about you? Did you keep your nose to the grindstone until the very end?"

"Oh, God no. I knew I'd be starting at the Academy soon after graduation, so I spent the last month driving my teachers crazy. Grigsby threatened me with the Black Quill."

"What? You knew about that? Did he ever use it on anyone?" Harry asked, the scar on his right hand tingling.

Archimedes looked taken aback and shook his head. "Not as far as I knew. He just kept it as a threat. How do you know about it?"

Harry held his right hand out to Archimedes, I must not tell lies still visible across the back of it. "Had the pleasure of using one fifth year. I found Grigsby's when I was cleaning out the classroom. Burned it."

"I'd forgotten all about it until now," he said, eyes lingering on the scar. "Different times."

"Apparently." Harry finished his Guinness and shrugged into his dragonhide jacket. "Listen, let me know what the plan is for that exhibition, yeah?"

"Of course." Archimedes stood and shook his hand. "Thanks for meeting me. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what happened."

"So am I. Give Sarah my love."

"Same to Ginny. Tell her I'm sorry for last night."

"Of course," Harry said, knowing that he wouldn't. She'd already said she didn't want to hear of it again, so he definitely wasn't going to be the one to bring it up. They left the bar together and headed to a dark alley to Apparate to their respective homes.

"I'll be in touch," Archimedes said before Disapparating without a sound, Harry following a moment later.

Ginny walked out of Vijay's office, glad to have her last quarterly meeting for the school year over. Pretty good day for a Monday, she thought, checking her watch. She decided she had time for a quick bite and headed down to the basement cafeteria. Perusing her options, she decided on a turkey sandwich and her favorite crisps.

In the seating area, she spotted Matthew. He was sitting alone at a table, obviously deep in thought as he hunched over what looked like several different books. Curious, Ginny went over to him. "Hello," she said, holding her tray, "may I?"

He looked up, distraction giving way to a smile. "Yes, of course," he said, stacking up books to clear a space for her. "What brings you here?"

"I had my last quarterly meeting with Vijay for the school year," Ginny said, setting her tray on the table and sitting down opposite Matthew.

"How'd it go?"

"Very well. I'm set to keep my 4.0 grade point average and my St Mungo's overlords will be pleased to know that their money hasn't been wasted." She bit into her sandwich, suppressing a moan of delight. "What's that you have there?"

"A bit of research. I've got an interesting problem upstairs," he said, looking down at the top book of the stack.

"Oh? What's going on?"

"Well, it's a witch and she came in under her own power, completely unable to do any magic whatsoever."

"None at all?"

"Not a lick. She's got her wand and I've had a go with it and it works fine."

"Did she have an injury? Why did she land in Accidental Magic?" Ginny asked, mind searching for a possible cause to this witch's predicament as she opened her packet of crisps.

"Not any that could be found. Not a mark on her. She told me she's never even broken a bone, so it's assumed that she's had some sort of magical accident."

"Drugs?" Matthew shook his head. "Illness? There are a few that can make someone lose their magic temporarily."

"That's what I've been looking into, actually." He showed her the top book, Magical Infections and Infestations and Ginny nodded.

"I'm familiar with that one," she said, picking it up and paging through it.

"But she doesn't remember being ill and she doesn't strike me as a drug-taking type."

"Husband? Boyfriend?"

"No, she lives alone."

"How old is she?" Ginny finished her sandwich, still turning over a possible cause in her mind.

"Thirty-five. Perfectly healthy otherwise, just can't do a lick of magic."

"Has she been anywhere exotic? I remember reading about a bug in South America that can cause inflammation in the thalamus," she said, trying to remember the name of the insect.

"No travels in the last six months," Matthew said, running a frustrated hand through his hair. This did nothing to diminish its perfection. "She's a single woman who works in the San Francisco Magical Lending Library and lives alone with two cats. No extraordinary hobbies or travels."

"And the only thing wrong with her is she can't do magic. And she's not a Squib?"

"She has a wand. She knows the spells. Graduated from St Ambrose's and says Potions was her best subject. I'm sure she's not faking anything." Matthew clasped his hands in front of his face as if he were about to pray, blue eyes troubled. "She's quite frightened and confused."

Ginny finished the rest of her lunch, hardly tasting any of it as she thought, completely unable to come up with a reason why a thirty-five-year-old woman with two cats would suddenly be cut off from her magic. She shook her head, crumpling up the wrapper from her sandwich. "Well, I have to get going. I'll let you know if I think of anything. If you'd let me know how she gets on?"

"Of course," he said, standing and gathering his books and the remains of his lunch as she stood up with her tray. "Good chatting with you."

"Yeah, same," Ginny said as she walked with him to turn in her tray. An actual pleasant conversation with Matthew. I might have to start giving Mondays a chance!

"Isaac, congratulations on your award on Saturday," Harry said, catching him as he was on his way out of the classroom as the lunch bell rang.

"Oh, thank you," he said with a shy smile.

"I didn't know that you were interested in genealogy."

"I got interested in it a few years ago. My family took a trip to Veracruz to visit my dad's family and they had a lot of stories to tell."

"And your dad's Muggle-born, yeah?"

Isaac nodded and finally looked at him. "I wanted to see if I could connect his Muggle family to Wizarding ancestry."

"And were you successful?" Harry asked, finding that he was becoming quite interested in what Isaac had discovered about his family.

"I did," he said, beginning to sound more enthusiastic. "I found Armando Maria Magana del Rio."

"Wow, that's a mouthful," Harry said, raising his eyebrows. "He was your Wizarding connection?"

"Yes. He went to Mexico to manage his family's sugarcane plantation and fell in love with a Muggle girl, rejecting the arranged marriage that had been made for him in Spain."

"Sounds scandalous."

"It helped that he was all the way in Mexico. They had six children and two were Squibs," Isaac said with a shrug. "My dad came from one of the Squibs." He fell silent and stood by Harry's desk, looking thoughtful.

"Was there something you wanted to ask me, Isaac?" Harry asked, looking at him over his glasses.

The boy shrugged again and then nodded. "I heard my mom and dad talking last night after dinner and they were talking about something where magic can be taken away from a person. Is that true?"

Harry was very glad that he was already sitting down as he felt a cold flash go through him. "Interesting. What else did they say?"

"Not much, but they seemed really worried about it. They don't know I heard them," so please don't tell them, said the unspoken plea.

"Well, I don't think you have anything to worry about, all right?" he said with a reassuring smile that belied the cold twist of fear in his gut. "Listen, d'you remember the lesson we had on Blood Seals?"

Isaac gave him another shy smile. "I used it to keep my little brother out of my room. Mom made me get rid of it though."

"Well, it might not be a bad idea to set one up for your house, all right?"

"I thought you said I didn't have anything to worry about?" he asked, fixing him with a skeptical teenage look.

Chagrined, Harry shrugged and smiled. "Constant vigilance!" He got up from his desk and put his hand on the boy's shoulder as he walked with him to the door. "Let me know if you hear your parents say anything else, okay?"

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

Harry locked his door and headed to the teacher's lounge, turning over Isaac's words. Could that be coming from Ignatius? I'll have to ask around. In the lounge, he spotted Juanita at their usual table and he waved before heading over to serve himself what smelled like a delicious curry.

Sitting down, he gave Juanita a huge smile and she raised her eyebrow at him, setting her book aside. "Out with it, Potter," she said, taking a sip of her tea.

"Bought a condo yesterday," he said, grinning at her gasp of surprise.

"Already? You don't waste any time, do you? Where at?"

"Over by Marina and Fillmore," he said, taking a bite of his lunch. The lamb khorma was delicious and reminded him that it had been a while since he'd had any Indian food.

"The Marina District? Pretty pricey," she said, looking at him appraisingly.

Harry nodded. "It had everything we wanted. Top floor, three bedrooms, huge closet. It even has a garage. And the views are amazing. Golden Gate and Alcatraz."

"Lucky you," she said, smiling at his mention of Alcatraz. "You know, you really should go sometime. It's actually very interesting."

"It's a prison," Harry said with a shrug and shoveled in another mouthful of the delicious lamb. The door opened and he glanced over, watching as Sophia walked in with Anthony as usual. She was laughing at something he'd said outside and had her hand on his arm. Looking back at Juanita, Harry raised an eyebrow and cocked his head toward them. "Five dollars?" he asked around a mouthful of rice.

Juanita snorted and picked up her book again. "That's a sucker's bet, Harry and you know it." She looked at the pair and shook her head, a smile on her face. "Anthony's been stuck on her since he started here two years ago. I think he's finally working up the nerve to ask her out."

Harry watched the pair as they got lunch, noting the subtle touches between them and he idly wondered if Sophia had added him to her Blood Seal. "I think they've done more than go out." Juanita narrowed her eyes, looking between the pair and Harry and shook her head. "Five dollars?"

"Fine, Potter," she said, shaking his hand once. "When do you move in?"

"We're doing a two-week close, so soon. It'll be nice to not smell Chinese food all hours of the day," he said. He liked Juanita, but she didn't need to know that they'd been chased from their flat and had been staying in hotels.

"Let me know if you need any help."

"You already helped a lot by hooking us up with Rachel. She really knows all the ins and outs," Harry said with a warm smile. They finished lunch, chatting about quickly approaching final exams. He floated his idea of an obstacle course for the practical final. He wanted something that would make the kids stretch their skills and think on their feet without them actually being in danger and thought that an obstacle course would fit the bill nicely.

"An obstacle course?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah. I mean, not like climbing walls or crawling under barbed wire, but things they have to get past. Appropriate to their skill level, of course," Harry said. A brief memory of the maze from the Triwizard Tournament brought up mixed emotions and he shook his head. "Anyway, I still have to run it past Artemis."

On his way out of the lounge for his afternoon classes, he saw Sophia and Anthony again and he went over to them. "Hello, Harry," Sophia said warmly, "how are you doing?"

"I'm doing well," he said, nodding at Anthony. "Listen, I have a couple of things I want to ask you about. Will you still be around after practice today?"

"Yes. You're usually done at five?"

"Usually, depending on what Terry has planned. I'll see you around five, then." As he left the lounge, he heard Anthony asking Sophia if she knew what Harry wanted to talk about. Hope he's not the jealous type, he thought with a smile.

Later on that afternoon, he went into Sophia's classroom, breathing deeply of the smells of green growing things. "Harry, there you are," she said as she came into the classroom from the attached greenhouse. "How have you been? I heard you got engaged!"

Harry looked at her blankly for a moment and then said, "Yes! Yes, Gin and I are engaged!" He shook his head, laughing at himself. He had to remind himself that they'd only been engaged for a few weeks when it felt like he'd known he was going to marry her his entire life.

"That's wonderful news. Have you set a date yet?"

"No, not yet. Her mum has sent us several letters full of suggestions, though," he said. Molly's letters were always chatty and full of news about family and doings in the UK Wizarding world, but her last few had been decidedly wedding-oriented. One of them even included a prospective guest list that topped five hundred people.

"Mothers," she said with a fond shake of her head. "I know how mine would react if I told her—" she cut herself off and Harry used the opening.

"How are your folks?"

"They're doing very well, thank you. I just saw them last weekend."

"Excellent." She sat at her desk, looking at him expectantly and Harry felt a little awkward standing in front of her still in his running kit. "Listen, last time we chatted, when I showed you the Blood Seal, you'd said your neighborhood was a bit rough. Is it still rough or have things calmed down a bit?"

Sophia blinked several times in surprise. Clearly, this wasn't what she was expecting him to want to talk about. "Well," she said after a moment, "things haven't gotten worse since we talked about the neighborhood. There are several of us that have formed a bit of a neighborhood watch."

"That's good news. Has this neighborhood watch heard or seen anything interesting?"

She looked at him speculatively. "Are you asking if there have been any attacks on Muggles or Muggle-borns?"

"I am. Has anyone made any threats on you? Tested your Seal?"

"No. I would have told you if someone had. There have been a few rumors circulating around."

"What sort?" Harry asked, feeling a prickling on the back of his neck.

"It's completely ridiculous, but at our last neighborhood watch meeting, someone said they'd heard about some kind of spell or procedure to take magic away from Muggle-borns," she said with a dismissive wave.

"Who said that? Where did they hear it?" Harry tried to sound casually interested and he crossed his arms, leaning against a student desk to reinforce that perception, all the while trying to silence the alarm in his head.

"Patty Atkinson said she heard it and I don't know where from," she said with a frown.

"The next time you see her, can you ask?"

"Of course. Is there something wrong?"

Harry shook his head and pasted a smile on his face. "I'm always on the lookout for weird stuff. Professional curiosity, yeah?"

"I guess once an Auror always an Auror," she said, returning his smile. "I heard you talking to Juanita about an obstacle course for your practical final exam?"

Grateful for the change in subject, he nodded. "Yes. I'm still working through the particulars and I need to talk to Artemis about it. I figure I'd better have it mostly planned before I go to him, though."

"Well, let me know if there's anything I can help you out with. Designing something like that sounds like a lot of fun!"

"Actually, you've given me an idea. Do you have any Devil's Snare?" They chatted for a while longer about the pros and cons of using a plant like Devil's Snare in a Defense obstacle course and Sophia made several useful suggestions.

They were winding down their conversation when Anthony Jones came into the classroom, nodding to Harry. "Ready to go, Sophia?"

"Yes," she said, standing up and picking up her bag. "Was there anything else, Harry?"

"No. You've given me a lot to think about for my final exam. Thanks!" He walked out of the classroom with them and waved goodbye, watching them walk away hand in hand. Juanita owes me five dollars.

Sitting at their favored table in the UCSF library, Ginny stifled a yawn and looked down at her watch. "Just a little bit longer, girl. We can do this!" Ben said with forced cheer as they packed up their things.

"I just want this day to be over," she said, shouldering her heavy bag. "I haven't been sleeping well and by the end of the day I'm just exhausted."

"Is Harry keeping you up? I told you, I can take him off your hands," Ben said with a salacious grin.

Ginny punched him softly in the shoulder. "No, nothing like that. With everything going on, I just … wake up, you know? Harry's been trying to teach me some meditation stuff that helps him, but I'm just hopeless at it. When I try and get quiet like he says, that's when things get the loudest in my head." She shook her head, smiling ruefully. "Never been good at relaxing unless it's on the beach with a drink in my hand."

Ben gave her a sympathetic look and squeezed her shoulder. "Well, at least that guy doesn't have that coin anymore, right?" He'd been utterly amazed when Ginny told him about Harry and Archimedes going into the Pensieve and Harry fighting the ghost of Cornelius Maxwell with the Sword of Gryffindor. For her part, Ginny had loved having someone to talk to about this stuff and she really hoped that when everything was over, they didn't Obliviate him.

"Your minder has gone back to headquarters, right?" Ginny asked as they left the library. "I'm in charge of you now?"

"She'll be back to pick me up after class, so hopefully it's not too big of a burden on you," Ben said, cracking his own yawn. "See, now you've got me doing it. Let's stop for a coffee."

Coffees in hand, they waited to cross the street and Ginny's eyes widened as she saw Matthew waiting for the light to change to cross the street. I am on campus right? she thought, seeking out one of the ubiquitous UCSF signs that would confirm her location.

"Who's that?" Ben asked, following her gaze.

"That's Matthew."

"That's Matthew?" Ben looked at Ginny appreciatively. "Girl, you sure can pick 'em. What's he doing here?"

"I don't know." The walk signal came on and Matthew quickly crossed Parnassus, looking at Ginny as if he was afraid she was about to run away. A moment later, he stood in front of her, in his regular street clothes looking carefully casual in perfect dark jeans and a button-down shirt that was just the right amount of rumpled; it was quite the contrast from the image of the intense young Healer he'd presented at lunch. "Matthew, such a surprise seeing you here," Ginny said, a little spurt of anxiety shooting through her stomach.

"Ginny," Matthew said, eyes shooting to Ben and back to her.

"Whatever you have to say to me you can say in front of him. This is Ben Frye, a fellow med student," Ginny said as Ben extended his hand. "Ben, this is Matthew Hudson, a Healer I used to work with in England."

"Good to meet you," Ben said, sounding a touch too enthusiastic. "I've heard so much about you!"

"Quite," Matthew said dismissively, focusing back on Ginny. "I would rather chat in private."

"I'm very sorry, but we have a class to get to. Do you want to meet later?"

Matthew frowned and shook his head, looking around quickly. "Someone contacted me and told me that Harry has something of his and he would like it returned. Soon."

Ginny felt her insides freeze. "Matthew, are you all right? Are you safe?" she asked quietly, wishing Auror Gutierrez were still there. "Are you being followed?" Trying to look unconcerned, she took a quick glance around, trying to see if anyone was watching them.

"I'm all right, but … Look, I was told to relay this message and now I've done it," he said, raising his voice on the last part, still looking all around.

Well, I'll have to make sure not to pick him for anything covert, Ginny thought. "Matthew, has anyone threatened you?"

His eyes flicked away from hers for a moment before coming back. "Not me, no."

"Who? Are you dating someone?" An almost imperceptible nod and Ginny felt her stomach drop. "Is it Amanda?" Matthew twitched an eyebrow in answer. "Is she safe?"

"For now," he murmured quietly.

Ginny took a deep breath. "Can you cast a corporeal Patronus?"

Matthew shook his head. "I have to go. This is already looking suspicious."

"All right. Listen, get Amanda and take her with you somewhere safe. Go to a hotel or somewhere. Don't tell anyone where you go, okay? Do you know how to cast a Blood Seal?" Another negative shake and Ginny sighed. "Harry will send his Patronus to you tonight with where to meet him. He'll help you."

At the mention of Harry's help, some of the tension seemed to go out of Matthew and he nodded again. "All right. I'm working until nine tonight. I'll get Amanda somewhere safe."

"Good." Ginny hugged him briefly. "Be safe."

They stood and watched him walk back the way he had come. "What was that all about?" Ben asked quietly.

"Nothing good."

33. Chapter 33

"So, how did it go?" Ginny asked when Harry Apparated back into the suite at the St Regis. She was curled up on the sofa with a truly enormous textbook and he collapsed next to her with a long sigh. "That good, huh?"

"Long day," he said, looking at his watch and seeing that it was already after ten. He closed his eyes as he felt her fingers in his hair, stroking along his scalp. "That feels wonderful."

"Should I stop, then? I was really trying for horrible," she said and he smiled at the teasing note in her voice. "Was he able to cast a Patronus?"

"No," Harry snorted, opening his eyes again. "Absolute rubbish at it. I kept having to correct his wand work. It's a circle, how hard could that be?"

"Well, to be fair it is a difficult spell. Did Amanda try?"

"She did. I don't doubt she'll be able to do it before he does." Harry frowned when Ginny took her hand away but then smiled when she snuggled up next to him.

"Are they secure?"

"As secure as I could make them. Charmed the windows and doors, sealed up a rooftop access panel in the master closet, set the Blood Seal," he said, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. "Told Amanda that she shouldn't be alone and to stay with Matthew for now."

"How was she?"

"Scared, but trying not to show it," he said, remembering the sight of her curled up on the sofa, her dark eyes big in her face as she answered his questions.

"Did you get the information you needed?"

"Not really," Harry grunted, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "Not her fault, though. The Pensieve trick must have gotten out; this one wore a mask."

"Taking a page out of the Death Eater book," Ginny said quietly, resting her head on his shoulder. "Did you ask Matthew about that witch?"

"Yeah," he said, turning over the poor woman's predicament in his mind. When Ginny had told him about the lunchtime conversation with Matthew, his first thought had been that she'd been Bound away from her magic.

"So you think she's been … Bound?"

"And then Obliviated, yeah." Harry felt her shudder next to him. It was easily the worst thing he could think of to happen to a witch or wizard. He'd take death over having his magic taken away and then being forced to forget it had even happened, leaving him wondering how he'd ended up unable to do any magic at all.

"Can anything be done for her?" Ginny asked after several moments of silence.

"I don't know. Everything I've run across about Binding never mentioned restoring magic that's been taken away." He shook his head and hugged Ginny closer, imagining that he could feel the thrum of magic inside her. "Blood Magic isn't easily tampered with or reversed, but I gave Hudson some suggestions on where to look for possible answers."

"What about the Obliviation? Do you know for sure that she's been Obliviated?"

"I'm pretty sure. She remembers everything about her life except for those few hours. I showed him the detection spell."

"Giving away another Auror secret?"

"Hardly. Nah, your average witch or wizard generally doesn't need to worry about that sort of thing, so they don't bother to learn it." He smiled and looked down at her. "Maybe I should have taught it to you? All those times you've woken up and didn't know where you were—could have come in handy."

She stuck her tongue out at him and pinched his arm playfully. "Sounds like something Ron used back in the day. 'Where am I? Who is she? Was I Obliviated?'," she said, doing an exaggerated imitation of her brother's deeper voice as she mimed casting a spell. "'Nope, just piss drunk again!'"

Harry laughed out loud, kissing her on the tip of her nose. "You know, that actually happened once?"

"No!"

"Yeah, he came home one morning in an absolute panic, certain that he'd been messed with. I had to cast the spell three times before he finally believed me." Harry laughed along with Ginny, remembering the look of relief in his friend's blue eyes when he finally believed him that his memories weren't gone but merely impaired.

"I've always wondered if Obliviated memories could be recovered. Can they?" she asked when she finally stopped laughing.

"Not as far as I know. Once they're gone, they're gone. It's not like a computer where the information is still there but just being ignored for the time being until that bit of hard drive needs to be used by something else."

"Wait, what? When I delete something on the computer, it's still there?" Ginny asked, sounding a little alarmed.

"Usually, yeah." He raised his eyebrow. "Do I need to be concerned?"

"No. It's just weird to think that anyone can go in and find old stuff I've deleted."

"It's not easy. You'd need some special software in most cases." He nuzzled her cheek and kissed her. "Your secrets are mostly safe," he whispered.

"Mostly," she huffed, breath warm against his neck. "Did you contact Archimedes?"

"Yeah. He's going to have an Auror interview Amanda and have a look at that poor woman tomorrow. I told him what I found out, but he wants an official record."

"What do you think happened? To the lady?"

Harry sighed, finding it all too easy to piece together the events in his mind. "I think she was picked out deliberately. Lives alone, introverted. Once her pattern was known, she was probably taken, Bound, Obliviated and returned home like nothing had happened."

"Do you think it was Ignatius?"

"Can't prove it, but I suspect. If not himself, then under his guidance. She was a Muggle-born, after all." Ginny put her arms around him and hugged him tight enough to make him grunt. "What was that for?"

"I want all of this over. That Horcrux needs to be destroyed and that awful man needs to be put away," she said, her words muffled by his shoulder.

"I couldn't agree more. Soon, love." He stroked his hand up and down her arm. Stuart wandered into the lounge and Harry patted his lap, inviting him up. "It's not all bad news today. I heard from Rachel and our bid has been accepted."

Ginny sat up, releasing her death grip on him and gave him a radiant smile. "Oh my goodness. What does that mean?"

"It means that we will soon be in our own home," he said, shifting around on the sofa to face her.

"Our own place," she said, leaning forward and kissing his cheek. "Room to spread out, no strangers all over the place, no maids butting their heads in at all hours."

"Doing our own cleaning up, making the bed, getting our own dinner, doing our own dishes," Harry said with a grin.

"Always a dark side with you." Ginny tapped him on the nose. "Where are we going to shag first?"

"Hm, I don't know. That wood floor looked awfully hard. Might want to wait until we get some furniture in."

"What about the kitchen island? It looked about the right height." She reached out and ran her thumb over his cheekbone and Harry raised an eyebrow.

"I think you overestimate how tall I am," he said, bringing her face toward his for a lingering kiss.

"I guess we'll have to give it a try and see which one of us is right, then. When do we move in?"

"As soon as everything is signed." Harry closed his eyes and sighed as Ginny leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, softly at first and then harder as she pushed him backwards on the sofa. As she stretched her body out on top of his, he tried to lose himself in her insistent kisses, but his mind felt like it was moving a thousand miles an hour.

Is Ignatius really starting to Bind people? That poor woman, he thought, trying to focus on Ginny's hands sneaking up underneath his shirt. He was mildly successful until he started thinking about finals and the obstacle course he had yet to design. Devil's Snare is a good idea, but it needs to be kept away from sunlight. I could conjure a hut. The Boggart will definitely have to be in there … and maybe something physical to force them to use a Shield Charm. Paint balls?

"Harry," she whispered, nibbling on his lower lip.

"Hmm?" There should also be a few traps, I think. Ginny stopped kissing him and he frowned, trying to focus on her without his glasses. "What?"

"You're not paying any attention to what's happening here, are you?"

He couldn't be completely sure, but he thought she looked more amused than angry. "Sorry, love. It's been a long, busy day and I've got a lot on my mind."

"Come on, then," Ginny said, sliding off of him and pulling him up from the sofa. "Let's get you to bed.

Harry stood up and put his glasses back on, following Ginny into the bedroom. He thought about grabbing his laptop and bringing it in with him, but he thought better of it. She's not angry … yet.

Another lovely Tuesday evening, Harry thought as he shifted around in the waiting room chair. At least I've got a Cushioning Charm under me. He swept the room with his eyes again, noting one new man that had come in. He was filling out a form at Jessica's desk and seemed thoroughly Muggle, but Harry took note of his appearance anyway, filing it away in the part of his brain he still reserved for such things.

Satisfied that there was no one in the waiting room intent on doing Ginny any harm, he turned his attention to the sketch of the obstacle course on his lap. He'd used graph paper, feeling a bit like he was in the middle of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. All right, so we'll start out easy with a few traps and then the wall.

The wall had been Ginny's suggestion. "You don't want to make it too physically easy, do you? They need to be able to protect themselves against physical threats as well as magical."

"But how will a giant wall do that?"

"Well, it looks like a regular wall, but when you touch it, you stick to it like glue," she said with a mischievous sparkle in her eye. "It'll be an opportunity to see how creative they get to get past it."

"Hm, I see. No rope, no obvious way over …" Harry closed his eyes, visualizing a wall about twenty feet high similar to his nemesis during Auror training. "And you think making them stick to it? Sticking Charm?"

"Or make it slick like the stairs to the girl's dormitory."

And then after the wall, the gauntlet. Harry's eyes went to the sketch he'd made of the proposed gauntlet, lined with devices to shoot brightly-colored paintballs. Bonus points for coming out of that completely clean. He looked at a section he'd left wide open. I'll have to ask Terry about what sort of creatures can stand repeated Stunnings. Maybe that rust monster? They're pretty tough…

He looked over the course diagram some more before nodding and putting it away in his bag. I think that's enough to come to Artemis with, he thought as he pulled out his laptop and opened it up. Now for the written portion. He opened up the eighth-grade final exam document and began making edits. He had just saved it when he got an incoming email chime and he clicked over, seeing a message from Archimedes. The subject line caught his eye. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, it blared.

Feeling a bit of trepidation in his gut, he opened it. Harry, thought you should see this from me first before seeing it in the papers.

Regards,

A Douglass

Opening the attached document, Harry quickly scanned it, the sinking feeling in his gut increasing.

SAFETY ADVISORY

The San Francisco/Northern California Regional Aurors Office is releasing this safety bulletin. Due to an isolated incident, it is advised that witches and wizards of direct Muggle ancestry (Muggle-born) should not travel alone until further notice. Please report any suspicious persons, unexplained absences or irregularities in memory to your local law enforcement office.

And so it begins, he thought grimly. He noticed that the bulletin omitted the sudden failure to perform even the simplest of magic, sure that it was left out on purpose to keep the panic down. Advising Muggle-borns to not travel alone will cause plenty of panic on its own.

Archimedes had sent Harry a message earlier while he and Ginny were having a quick bite before her clinic shift with Ben and Auror Gutierrez, confirming that the witch had been Obliviated. She remembers the day leading up to when she left work and the next thing she remembers is getting up in the morning, unable to perform magic, Archimedes's voice said in his head as the greyhound Patronus dissolved into smoke.

"Was that about Matthew's witch?" Ginny asked quietly.

"Matthew's witch? The one he's dating?" Ben asked, looking between Harry and Ginny.

"No, Matthew has a case in hospital. A witch who can't do magic anymore," she explained as Ben's eyes went wide.

"Yeah, he sent someone to interview her today. They confirmed she's been Obliviated," Harry said and Auror Gutierrez grunted.

"He say who they sent?" she asked.

"No."

"Probably Sutton. I'll find out."

"So wait a minute." Ben held up his hand and frowned. "There's a witch whose memory has been … oblivi-whatevered and she can't do magic anymore? That's a thing that happens?"

"Not usually, no," Harry said, amused at Ben's trip over "Obliviated". "We don't go around making people forget things on the regular and if we do need to Obliviate someone, it doesn't make you unable to do magic."

"So how come she can't do magic anymore?" he asked, looking wary.

"You remember when we did the Blood Seal on your threshold?" He waited for Ben's nod and went on. "Well, there are a lot of things you can do with blood and most of them are not very nice. This is one of them."

"Oh my God," Ben said after a moment, sitting back in his chair. "And this is all because of that guy? That thinks wizards are better than non-wizards?"

"Muggles, you mean?" Ginny asked.

"Ginny. I'll thank you to not use the M-word in my presence," Ben said haughtily, neatly defusing some of the tension at the table.

All because of that guy, Harry thought, reading the release once more. He tapped out a response to Archimedes, thanking him for keeping him updated. We need to discuss next steps, he wrote, when will you be free next? The exhibition gala is coming up fast.

He put away his laptop and spent the rest of the evening brooding on the whole situation, his thoughts chasing their tails inside his head.

"That's a serious look," Ginny said as she sat down next to him.

"Sorry," Harry said, banishing the dark thoughts he'd been dwelling on.

"Did something happen?" she asked quietly, shooting a look around the nearly empty waiting room.

"Got an email. We'll chat in a bit. Ready to go?" He stood up and stretched, surreptitiously dispelling the Cushioning Charm. Shouldering his bag, he took Ginny's hand and sketched a salute to Jessica as they left the clinic. The late April evening was comparatively warm and they took their time walking to their favored Apparition spot, chatting about the doings at the clinic.

"So Dr Petty had to take his mother outside of the exam room and explain a few things to her about teenaged boys and there I am, sitting in the room with the poor boy, typing up notes," she said, laughing and shaking her head. "His face was so red."

"And I'm sure you were the paragon of professionalism," Harry said with a smile. He thanked his lucky stars that he never ever had to have that conversation with either Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon. God, that time in the shed with Arthur was bad enough, he thought wryly.

"Why Harry James Potter, are you questioning my professionalism?" she asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

"I would never do such a thing," he said, leaning in to kiss her before Apparating them back to their suite.

Ginny sighed and set down her bag, taking her hair out of its messy bun and running her fingers roughly over her scalp. Almost mesmerized, Harry watched, feeling a flash of embarrassment when she caught him looking at her and smiled. "Are you staring at me?" she asked, deliberately slowing her movements.

"What if I am?" he asked, pitching his voice low, pleased to see a flush creep up her neck. She flipped her hair and turned her back on him, flouncing off to the loo, not deigning to give him an answer. He heard the shower start running and he shook his head.

Taking the opportunity to get comfortable, he quickly changed into a looser tee shirt and trackies, moving furniture in the lounge aside to make room for yoga. He was so focused on his breathing and moving from pose to pose that Ginny's voice behind him startled him and he nearly fell out of his tree pose and he paused for a moment.

"Oh, no, don't stop on my account," she said, planting herself on the sofa with the cat in her lap. Harry raised his eyebrow at her and continued through his asana, deciding to show off a little at the end with a forearm stand. "Well done," Ginny said appreciatively, petting the cat.

"I'm so glad you approve," Harry said, a little out of breath from the stand. He scrubbed his hands through his own hair, wrinkling his nose at the sweat. "If my lady is all done in the shower … ?"

"You have my leave, good sir," she said with a grand wave of her hand.

Back out in the lounge, he found her staring intently at her computer, occasionally pecking away. He glanced at the screen and saw that she was on some sort of message board. "What's that?" he asked, leaning his head on her shoulder.

"Discussion group for one of my classes. There's some drama going on right now and I'm trying not to be distracted by it."

"Looks like you're being unsuccessful."

Ginny sighed and closed the lid, setting the machine aside. "What was that email about?"

Harry grabbed his own bag and took out his computer. Opening the email, he saw he had a return message from Archimedes. I agree, things are moving fast. Will you be free tomorrow evening? Why don't you and Ginny join us for dinner around seven?

Regards,

A Douglass

"What's that? Are we having dinner with Archimedes and Sarah?" Ginny asked, reading over his shoulder.

"Yeah, is that okay? You don't have anything late tomorrow?"

"No, should be fine. What's moving fast?"

"That art thing with the portraits. I want to find out what the plan is with that and how they hope to get Ignatius with it." He brought up the earlier message from Archimedes with the safety bulletin. "This is what I got earlier."

She read it silently, letting out a long breath when she finished. "Well. That certainly brings back memories. It's not quite a Ministry Decree, but it's awfully close." She shook her head sadly. "That poor woman."

Harry grunted in agreement and closed the lid of the laptop. "I should probably have a chat with Artemis. Parents are going to panic." He sighed and closed his eyes, letting his head fall back against the sofa.

"Come on, let's go to bed," Ginny said, brushing her fingers through his hair. "Things will look a lot better in the morning."

Contrary to Ginny's belief, things did not look a lot better in the morning. The safety bulletin did indeed appear in the morning's Uncanny Examiner accompanied by an editorial on tolerance in the Wizarding world and how it was up to every witch and wizard to never violate the Statute of Secrecy. "Well, that's bound to rile some people up," Harry said, passing the newspaper over to Ginny.

As he walked up the road to the school, he noticed a lot more cars on the road and the tiny parking lot was nearly overwhelmed with parents dropping off their children. Sherman Keller was doing his best to direct traffic and keep students from being run over. Harry saw one of his eighth-graders getting out of a sleek, black Mercedes and he hurried to catch up to the car before it left.

"Good morning, Mrs Anderson," he said with a smile, leaning down into the window.

Startled, Mrs Anderson clutched at the neck of her dressing gown and gave him a nervous smile. "Good morning, Mr Potter."

"Dropping off Daniel this morning? Doesn't he usually Floo in?"

"He does, usually," she said after a moment's hesitation. "His father and I decided that it would be a good idea to drive him in today."

"Aren't you down in Palo Alto? Goodness, you've got a long drive ahead of you to get home," he said, keeping his tone light.

She gave him a small grimace and nodded. "Yes, it's going to be a long one. I almost thought about staying up here in the East Bay to pick him up in the afternoon, but I have so many things to do at home …" she said, trailing off as she got a faraway look in her eyes, undoubtedly thinking of the tasks that waited for her at home.

"Mrs Anderson, it's perfectly safe for Daniel to Floo home and to school tomorrow morning. The school's Floo network is very restricted and heavily monitored." He lowered his voice and gave her what Ginny called his "teacher look". "Daniel won't go missing, all right?"

"But, the newspaper," she began, looking like she was on the brink of tears.

"I know. Don't let him go out alone in public for now, yeah? Stay with him then. But back and forth to school will be safe. You have my word," he said. He knew she was a Muggle and didn't have the faintest idea who he was besides her confoundingly magical child's teacher, but he saw her relax the tiniest bit at his reassurance.

"All right. Can you let him know that he can Floo home after school, then? That I won't need to pick him up?"

"I will. Be careful on the way home," he said, standing up straight and stepping back as she drove away. What a mess you've caused, Ignatius, he thought as he walked through the crowded parking lot to the office.

He stuck his head into Artemis's office, hoping to have a chat with him, but he was on the phone. "Can you please hold for a moment, Mr Page? Thank you." Putting his hand over the mouthpiece, he looked at Harry. "Can I help you with something quick?"

"It's no worries. I want to chat with you about some ideas I have for my practical final exam. We can chat later," Harry said, catching the slight look of alarm in the headmaster's eyes when he said "ideas".

Artemis nodded and went back to his phone call. "Now, I can reassure you that there is no need for you to …"

In the mailroom, there were several other teachers, Sophia Brown and Megan Peterson among them and when he entered, it seemed like they all turned and looked at him, falling silent. "Good morning," he said, raising his eyebrow at Sophia as he checked his mailbox.

"Good morning, Harry," she said with a smile. "Can I walk you to your class room?"

"Uh, sure." He nodded at Megan and walked out of the office with Sophia, noticing that Lucinda was also on the phone.

"Things are kind of busy here this morning," she said quietly, inclining her head at the still-packed parking lot. Sherman was trying to get one driver to move forward so the ones behind could enter the lot.

"Yeah. I don't think the parking lot was designed with this many cars in mind. Usually mine's the only one there when I drive in," Harry said, waving to several students.

"So you saw the paper this morning?"

"I did."

She looked at him for a moment. "Do you know something the rest of us should? Are we in danger?"

Harry sighed, marshaling his thoughts. "Listen, I don't think there's any cause for panic. There are some things being said by certain people that have certain other people riled up and not thinking straight."

"You're talking about Ignatius Weatherbee running for Council."

"Yes." He hadn't wanted to straight out say it, lest it get back to him somehow, but there was no use in denying it now. "Have you heard him speak?"

"I've read accounts of some things he's said and he's a topic at our … neighborhood watch meetings. A lot of people are worried he'll try to keep Muggle-born students from attending the school and now this?" She paused for a moment as they came to his classroom door. "What does 'isolated incident' mean? Lapses in memory? What happened?"

"I don't know," Harry said. A part of him was sad he had to lie to her, but it was only a very small part. "So far the warning is only for Muggle-borns and you're Half-blood like me. Just use common sense and be aware of your surroundings. Where's Anthony?"

She blushed a little at the mention of the Transfiguration teacher and looked down. "He's here today."

"Good. It might be a good idea for you to stick close together, yeah?" He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly, amused at her deepening blush.

"Thanks, Harry," she said, smiling up at him. She gave him a little wave and headed off to her own classroom, falling into conversation with a Freshman that ran up to her. He unlocked his own door, setting down his bag on his desk with a sigh. Today is going to be a long day.

After a morning spent fielding questions about the safety bulletin from his students, Harry was more than ready for a break when lunch rolled around. His Seniors had been especially inquisitive and Isaac had even spoke up in class and shared what he'd overheard from his parents.

This had the effect of sending Elizabeth into a tizzy. "Mr Potter, magic can't be taken away from a person! It's in our blood and our genes!" she said, sounding completely outraged.

Harry sighed and pondered exactly what to tell them. Well, I said I wouldn't keep lifesaving information from them. "It is true that your magic is an intrinsic part of you, same as your eye color, but it is also true that you can be sealed off from accessing your magic," he said as the class gave a collective gasp. He waited for the chatter to die down and turned to the chalkboard, writing down BINDING in big letters.

"Now, like a Blood Seal, the binding spell requires your blood, so the best thing you can do to protect yourself is keep your blood to yourself." Elizabeth immediately raised her hand and Harry called on her.

"Mr Potter, what about when girls …" she said, trailing off a little at the end as her face turned bright red.

"Ah, well. For this sort of thing, and blood magic in general, the blood needs to be very fresh and it's pretty much no good for magic after about fifteen minutes outside of your body." Relieved when that seemed to satisfy her, he went on to explain the theory and practicalities behind Binding someone away from their magic.

Towards the end of the class, David raised his hand. "Why would someone do this? What's the point other than to, um, be a jerk to someone?"

"Let me ask you a question, David. When you were little, before you came here and started learning about magic, did you ever make anything happen? Any little explosions, maybe a small fire or two?" David nodded and Harry smiled. "And I imagine your parents taught you a little bit of control, right?" He nodded again.

"What if you couldn't control it? What if instead of making the explosions and fires stop, they just kept getting worse and worse until you became a danger to everyone around you?" He bounced the piece of chalk in his hand as he looked at his class, letting that sink in. "What if a wizard has Alzheimer's? Dementia doesn't discriminate. What about traumatic brain injury?" Or a traumatic event, he thought, thinking of Dumbledore's sister.

"But there are treatments, aren't there?" Elizabeth asked.

"There are, but they don't always work for everyone. Something like this would be a last resort. So, it's not always about being a jerk," he said with a smile at David. "Make no mistake, sealing someone away from their own magic, from an essential part of themselves, is Dark and as with all Dark magic, there are repercussions." He looked at them as they shifted around in their seats and glanced at each other.

"Now, I'm going to ask you to not spread rumors. We don't know what the incident that precipitated the warning was and it's quite possible that what Isaac overheard was completely out of context. People are going to be on edge already and they don't need a bunch of smart-alecky kids stirring up the pot, yeah?"

The class murmured in agreement just as the bell for lunch rang and he breathed a quiet sigh of relief when they all filed out. Stomach rumbling, he headed for the staff lunchroom, acutely aware of the looks from the other teachers already there. He served himself up a healthy portion of fish and chips and settled down across from Juanita.

"So, how's your morning been so far?" he asked conversationally, forcing himself to relax despite the crawling sensation on his back. No one here means you any ill will, he told himself.

"Fine. Yours?" she said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "Are you all right? You look a bit tense."

Harry shrugged. "I'm all right. Odd morning, yeah? Safety bulletin, frightened parents, curious students … everyone staring at me."

"They're all wondering if you know anything about what prompted the bulletin."

"Why would I know anything?"

Juanita snorted and shook her head. "In case you forgot, you're Harry Potter."

"That poor bastard," he said to make her smile. "This whole business has got me on edge. Bad memories, you know?"

"Well, hopefully things will settle down soon," she said, picking up her book.

Hopefully around the first weekend in May, Harry thought as he continued to ignore the looks from the staff. Just as he was finishing, Artemis came in and nodded at Harry. "Artemis, come join us?" he asked, pushing aside his empty plate.

The headmaster nodded and sat down with a sigh, digging into his lunch. "Long morning?" Harry asked.

"You don't even know the half of it. I haven't spent that much time on the phone in I don't know how long."

"You get some people calmed down?"

"I did my best. Hopefully tomorrow won't be quite as … busy." Artemis had almost finished his lunch before he spoke again. "So, you had some ideas you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Yes, I did." Harry leaned forward, wishing he'd thought to bring his obstacle course diagram with him to the lunchroom. "I was thinking for my practical final, I'd do an obstacle course."

"An obstacle course?" Artemis echoed with a doubtful look.

"Yeah. I'd have a series of challenges they'd have to get past—grade level appropriate, of course."

"What exactly do you have in mind?" Juanita set aside her book and gave Harry an interested look.

"Well, I was thinking there would be some traps to disarm, a wall to get over, Sophia is going to set me up with some Devil's Snare and I'm going to chat with Terry about a creature for Stunning," Harry said, watching as the headmaster's eyebrows rose steadily. "I also thought about a sort of paintball gauntlet and also the Boggart to get past."

"Paintball gauntlet?" Artemis sat back in his chair and gave Juanita an incredulous look. "They're not Aurors in training!"

"Well, no. If they were, there would be a whole lot more, including a mud pit and live wizards shooting spells right at them." Along with the occasional bullet. "And of course for the older students, all spells will need to be cast non-verbally. Bonus points for coming out of the gauntlet clean and casting a Patronus." Harry sat back and watched Artemis mull over his idea. He was pretty confident that he'd get approval, but he still felt a little nervous.

"And you'll be there the whole time, of course?"

"Of course. Along with any other teachers that wish to take a supervisory role," he said, casting a significant look at Juanita.

"I knew it would only be a matter of time before you roped me into one of your crazy ideas," she sighed with a smile.

"Come on, I didn't make you go to the bridge. Next year?" He grinned when she snorted and picked up her book again, studiously ignoring him.

Artemis shook his head. "All right, Harry. You can do your obstacle course. I'll need to see a full diagram and all of the details before you mount it. Where are you going to put it?"

"The Quidditch pitch. I've already talked to Richard about it and he's fine as long as there's no damage to the field."

"Sounds like you've got everything covered."

"Thank you, sir. Would you like the privilege to be the first one through it?"

Artemis laughed and stood up from the table. "Your offer is very kind, but I must decline at this time. It would never do for the children to see their noble headmaster covered in paint."

That evening, Archimedes treated Harry and Ginny to his version of Carolina-style barbecue pulled pork sandwiches, complete with a fresh coleslaw and homemade pickles. "I don't even care that you have ulterior motives for asking us over for dinner," Ginny said around a mouthful of deliciousness.

"Can you blame me for wanting to enjoy the company of young, vibrant people like yourselves?" Archimedes asked with exaggerated innocence. Not a bit taken in, Ginny simply raised her eyebrow and snorted.

The dinner conversation centered on Ginny's impending exams and Harry's obstacle course ideas. Archimedes had several ideas Harry felt bordered a bit on the extreme. "I said I wouldn't harm the field, so I don't think I can do a mud pit."

"What about live casters sending hexes and jinxes at them? I'm sure I could rustle up some volunteers."

"I'm sure you could, but no. As Artemis pointed out, they're not Aurors in training."

"Come on. I know you've got at least two."

"Yes, and about two hundred others that aren't," Harry said firmly, smiling at Archimedes's good-natured grumbling.

"So, you'll be in your own place, soon," Sarah said, neatly steering the conversation away from Auror recruitment.

"Yes, and I can't wait," Ginny said with a sigh.

"Have you given any thought to decorating yet?"

Harry almost laughed at Ginny's deer in the headlights look as she shook her head. "I haven't. I've been so wrapped up in studying and actually finding a place that I haven't given any thought at all to actually decorating it."

"Well, you certainly have had a lot of other things on your mind. I'd love to help you out when you're ready," Sarah said, looking excited at the prospect.

"Are you sure you wouldn't mind? I've never really decorated anything on purpose. My flat in London was …"

"Haphazard," Harry supplied, earning a glower from his fiancée.

"Eclectic," she clarified haughtily. "And the little studio here came already furnished. I just realized I don't actually own a stick of furniture."

"I've got furniture in the flat in London."

"That's bachelor furniture," Ginny said with a derisive wave of her hand.

"Excuse me, but it's very nice bachelor furniture."

"It's all dark and leather."

Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "I seem to recall you thinking the sofa was quite comfortable on several occasions," he said, earning a bark of laughter from Archimedes.

Ginny chose not to respond, giving him a pointed look as she turned her full attention to Sarah, talking about window coverings, sofas and dining tables. Archimedes tilted his head toward his den and Harry nodded, picking up the empty plates and taking them into the kitchen.

"So, I had a message from Artemis today," Archimedes said as he poured Harry a post-dinner glass of scotch in the den.

"Oh? I wonder what he could have possibly contacted you about." Harry accepted the glass handed to him and took a sip, holding the smoky liquid in his mouth a moment before swallowing.

Archimedes gave a wry chuckle and sat in the battered old armchair across from Harry on the sofa. "It seems that little safety bulletin has ruffled a few feathers."

"The parking lot at school was a madhouse. Seems like all of the Muggle parents were bent on driving their children in today."

"Well, you can't really blame them, can you? They don't understand how the whole Floo thing works and the security precautions we take for the kids," Archimedes said with a sigh as Harry took another sip of his drink.

"It's worth it if it saves a few people from that poor woman's fate," he murmured, shaking his head. "So, tell me about your plans for the portrait exhibition gala."

"We're going to place the Horcrux portrait in with the other pieces and then see what happens."

Harry stared at Archimedes, convinced he was joking. "You're joking. That's it?"

"That's it."

"No extra security?"

"Nothing beyond the regular security at the Legion of Honor." Archimedes sat and looked calmly at him, sipping from his own glass of scotch.

Harry swirled the ice cubes in his glass, raising an eyebrow at him. "So you're setting a trap?"

"Basically, yes. Keep in mind, Ignatius has no idea we're the ones that have had the portrait. We've made up a benefactor. The portrait will be from the collection of Georges Michel, a relative newcomer to the collecting world."

"Will Mr Michel be attending?"

"Sadly, Mr Michel will not be able to attend due to a business travel conflict." Archimedes sat back with a satisfied smile.

"I see. Will Mr Douglass be there?"

"No, Mr Douglass will not be."

"But Mr Potter will?" Harry finished his scotch and set the glass down on the coffee table, shaking his head when Archimedes nodded a question.

"If Mr Potter would be so kind. You're already known to Ignatius as an admirer of the portraits in general and that one in particular."

Harry nodded and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "And you think Ignatius will show up?"

"I do. It'll be the first time he'll be in close proximity to the Horcrux since we got it out of Jacob's house. I'm very interested in what he'll do now that he doesn't have the coin anymore." Standing, he poured himself another scotch. "I think he'll use this opportunity to sort of case the place. Get a look at the security setup, see where and how the portrait is being kept and displayed."

"And what do you expect me to do?"

"Keep an eye on him, see what he does and report back to me." Archimedes sat back down with a grunt.

"You don't think he'll be too suspicious with me there?"

"I don't think so. He undoubtedly knows you're responsible for the disappearance of the coin, but as far as he knows, you don't have any idea that it's even a Horcrux. To you it's just a piece of art." Harry nodded, privately thinking that Archimedes assumed too much.

"So you're just going to put an incredibly dangerous Dark object in a place where anyone of even middling magical talent would have no trouble stealing it."

"Yes."

"And how are you going to catch Ignatius with it? What if he has someone else do his dirty work for him?"

"Number one, I don't think he will. I think this is something he'll personally attend to." Archimedes grinned, holding up a second finger. "Number two, there is a tiny drop of my blood on the back of the portrait."

"Ah, there we go," Harry said with a grin. "So, you just wait for Ignatius to take it, use the Blood Trace and catch him with it red-handed."

"Exactly."

"What if he takes it somewhere you can't track him to? Fidelius Charm, Unplottable … ?"

Archimedes nodded. "We've had him under surveillance for a few weeks now and as far as we can tell, he's taken no such measures. I have a high degree of confidence that once he has it, he'll take it to his home."

"Which is where?"

"Sea Cliff."

Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Misuse Department must pay better than I thought it did. I'm in the wrong line of work." When he'd been looking at real estate listings, he'd looked in the Sea Cliff neighborhood on a whim. The prices there had thrown him for a loop and even converting it to Galleons didn't help.

"Yes, it's a little peculiar, how our Mr Weatherbee came into his property there. He'll tell you he inherited it, but the details are very iffy."

"You think he swindled it?" Harry asked, dormant detective instincts piqued.

"Nothing concrete, of course. He's very smooth."

"He managed to get out of England before being outed and caught for a Death Eater," Harry mused, thinking over the Death Eater trials he'd witnessed in the Pensieve. Another thought occurred to him and he flashed back to the very first time he'd seen the man during his nighttime run back in October. Kind of far from Sea Cliff. Was he looking for me?

"If there's one word that describes Ignatius Weatherbee it's hubris," Archimedes said, bringing Harry back to the present. "He's very full of himself and utterly confident that he'll sail into the Council seat, so I think when he gets his hands on that portrait, he'll take it to his home."

"What about Jacob? Have you seen to his safety? When Gin touched that coin, Maxwell's spirit made no bones about the ultimate goal."

"Evelyn is with him at all times."

"Is she good?"

"One of the best. You'll have to see her in action one day." Archimedes shook his head and finished his drink.

"Another one that got away?" Harry asked, grinning at the older man's grunt of assent.

"I still have hopes," he said, fixing him with a blatantly optimistic look.

Sarah's knock at the door saved Harry from turning Archimedes down again and he turned to see her and Ginny framed in the doorway. "Are you done talking about big, important man things?" Sarah asked teasingly.

"I don't know. Are you done talking about florals versus solids and stripes?" Archimedes said, rising to take his wife's hand as she entered the room. He handed her to the sofa and immediately started making her favorite drink at the bar, continuing to banter back and forth with her. Harry watched as Ginny sat down next to him, wondering if this sort of relationship was what life had in store for them. He put his arm around her and held her close, feeling his heart pick up the pace when she sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Tired?" he whispered, kissing the top of her head. He knew she still wasn't sleeping well and the added stress of finals wasn't helping.

"Sorry," she said apologetically.

"We'll go soon." They chatted for a little bit more until Ginny let out a prodigious yawn.

"Harry, you need to get your girl home. She's about done in," Archimedes said fondly.

"I'm sorry," Ginny apologized again, stifling another yawn.

"It'll all be over soon," Sarah said and for a moment, Harry wasn't sure what exactly she was referring to. "Final exams only seem like they'll go on forever."

"And then I have a glorious summer off," Ginny said as she stood up.

"Huh. You'll see how 'glorious' summer can be in San Francisco. The writer Mark Twain once said, 'The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco,'" Archimedes said with a laugh.

They took their leave and soon were back in their suite at the St Regis, dressing for bed. "So, what did you and Archimedes talk about?" Ginny asked as she fell backwards onto the bed.

"The whole art show scheme. He's basically setting a trap, begging for Ignatius to steal it." Harry decided it was warm enough for just boxers and slid into bed, gathering Ginny close.

"And then what?" she asked, burrowing into his embrace.

"And then he tracks it via a Blood Trace, catches him red-handed and arrests him, I presume," Harry said, gently rubbing the small of her back, hoping she'd be able to stay asleep tonight.

"And then Harry Potter rides in on his charging steed, sword held high to destroy the damned thing," she murmured sleepily, breath warm on his neck.

Harry snorted softly, imagining himself on the back of a hippogriff, Sword of Gryffindor held high and a crazed look in his eyes. "More like Harry Potter sneaks in with the sword and destroys it when Archimedes isn't looking," he said. When Ginny didn't respond, he looked down at her, relieved to see her face relaxed in sleep. He kissed her gently on the forehead and closed his eyes, seeking his own oblivion.

34. Chapter 34

"I think that's the last one, yeah?" Harry asked as he set the box of books down on the breakfast bar.

Ginny frowned and consulted her list, lips moving as she counted items off. "I think so." She looked around the condo, blowing her hair out of her eyes. It looked like a bomb had gone off at a jumble sale. "I didn't think we had that much stuff."

Harry looked over the lounge and kitchen. The brand-new sofa and armchairs were still wrapped in plastic and almost buried under boxes. What Ginny called "the biggest telly in the world" was still in its box, leaning against the entertainment center. Along with the telly there were boxes of stereo components and speakers. Harry was quite looking forward to putting the whole setup together with Archimedes.

"Well, we didn't have a whole lot. Most of this is new," he said, nodding to the boxes of brand new pots, pans and dishes.

"True, I suppose. All of that stuff in the flat was there when I got it." She pulled a huge box toward her and used her wand to cut the sealing tape. "It'll be nice to have our own things again," she said with a smile.

Harry watched as she unpacked the set of pots and pans, murmuring about how he spoiled her. When they'd gone shopping, she'd nearly worked herself into a strop in the middle of the kitchen department when he'd insisted on buying a set of high-end copper-bottomed cookware.

"Harry!" she'd hissed at him, casting a glance at the older woman down the aisle. "Do you see the price on those? These will be fine!" She pointed to an utterly inferior set and he wrinkled his nose.

"Gin, those are crap. Aluminum, cheap teflon that won't stand one washing up … plastic handles. No, these are what we're getting," he said, lifting a gleaming frying pan.

"The price," Ginny moaned, covering her face.

Harry set the pan back down on the shelf and put his arms around her. "Love, let's face it. You're going to be incredibly busy with school and then your residency. If we don't want to eat takeout all the time, I'm probably going to be the one doing the lion's share of the cooking, all right?"

Ginny heaved a huge sigh and nodded. "I guess," she conceded. "I just can't believe how expensive this stuff is. At my flat in London, Mum gave me a bunch of her old things. I've never had new."

"Well with this stuff, we'll have to buy new only once. We'll be handing these things down to our kids," he said, taking her hand. "Now, mark that down and let's go over here. There's a dutch oven that caught my eye."

Now he and Ginny worked together, deciding where things would go in their new kitchen. One of the drawers was the perfect size for a junk drawer and Harry had to argue against using the cabinet directly above the dishwasher for drinking glasses.

"What's wrong with putting them here?" Ginny asked, nonplussed.

"Look, when you're unloading the dishwasher, you'll have the door open like this," he said, opening the door all of the way. "And then you've got to stand over here to the side and it's stupid." He demonstrated, standing to the side of the open dishwasher door and leaning over to put a drinking glass on the cabinet shelf. "See?"

Ginny just shook her head and took out her wand, effortlessly transferring the glasses from their box to the cabinet. "See?" she said with a smirk.

Harry stood, mouth falling open. "Hm. Well, uh, I guess it doesn't really matter, then, does it?"

"Also, I highly doubt we'll be using that dishwasher thing much, anyway," Ginny pointed out.

"You're probably right," Harry conceded as they continued to put things away. Working together, they soon had the kitchen sorted out.

"Now all we need is actual food," Ginny said, Vanishing the empty boxes and packing materials. "What next?"

Harry looked around the condo, eyes settling on the rolled-up area rug they'd intended for the bedroom. "Bedroom, I guess? It'll be nice to have somewhere to sleep tonight." He used his wand to float the rolled-up rug down the hall.

Ginny quickly found all of the bedroom boxes and floated them into the room, settling them on the floor. Hands on her hips, she looked at the bed that dominated the room. "I still think it's too big," she said.

"It's a California king. Perfectly standard."

"It takes up half of the room."

"There's still plenty of room left. See?" Harry paced quickly around the bed, arms spread out for emphasis. Ginny just smiled and him and shook her head, opening the door of the closet to put things away.

While she did that, Harry levitated the heavy bed, leaving it suspended in midair as he unrolled the brightly-colored area rug underneath, reflecting on how much easier a little bit of magic made these sorts of tasks. As he set the bed carefully back down, Stuart ambled in from exploring the condo and jumped on the bare mattress, nudging Harry's hand.

"Harry," Ginny called, voice muffled by the closet, "do you want me to set these aside for tonight?"

"Yeah, might as well," he said, poking his head in the closet. She was holding up a pair of slacks and a suit jacket. "God, I wish I didn't have to go to that damn gala."

"So don't. You don't work for Archimedes. He can send one of his own flunkies," Ginny said rebelliously.

"I have to." Harry shrugged helplessly. He had to see the Horcrux, to verify for himself that it was still intact so that he could destroy it. The glimmering rubies on the hilt of the Sword of Gryffindor in the corner of the closet caught his eye. It was as if he could feel the sword's eagerness to destroy the Dark object.

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him. "You would have thought I'd have shagged that noble streak right out of you by now."

"Yeah?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "Seems like there's still a bit left." He put his hands on her waist and pulled her to him. "Want to try and shag it out of me right now?"

Giggling, Ginny put her arms around his neck. "Now? We don't even have any sheets on the bed," she said, pulling herself up on her toes to kiss him.

"Come on, does that really matter?" Harry's hands wandered around to her bum and he squeezed, the feeling of her firm bottom in his hands making his heart race. He squeezed again, harder this time, making Ginny squeak and gently bite his bottom lip in retaliation.

"I'm not your squeeze toy, Potter."

"No? You squeak like one." Harry grinned and squeezed once more, picking her up. She wrapped her legs tightly around him. Lips glued to hers, he stumbled backwards out of the closet until he ran into the bed, collapsing backwards with a loud "woof".

Taking advantage of his prone position, Ginny quickly had his shirt off, tossing it carelessly to the floor. "Making a mess already, Weasley?" Harry chided, green eyes full of mischief.

"You'd better watch yourself, Potter," she growled, straddling his hips. Putting her hands on his shoulders, she dug her fingers into his chest muscles, grinning at his grunt. "Too much time on the computer. You're tight all through here," she said, digging in harder underneath his collarbone.

Harry yelped and grabbed her hands. "Jesus, Gin, what are you digging around in there for?"

"I'm just trying to help you."

"Yeah? You know what would really help me right now?"

"What?" Ginny whispered, leaning forward and sweeping her tongue along his neck.

Harry shifted around underneath her, trying to adjust his erection into a more comfortable position. "Getting these bloody jeans off."

"Now that's something I can definitely help with!" Ginny slid off of him and quickly undid his belt, taking the time to run her hand along the notable bulge in his jeans, giving him a wicked smile at his groan. Eyes on his, she slowly undid the buttons on his jeans and he sighed with relief as the pressure on his cock abated. "Is that better?" she asked sweetly, reaching into his boxers and adjusting his erection so it pointed straight up at his belly.

"Getting there," Harry murmured, moving to sit up.

"No." Ginny planted her hand in the middle of his chest and pushed him back down. Shrugging, he put his hands behind his head, watching with heavy-lidded eyes as she worked his jeans and boxers off him, finally leaving him completely starkers. "Now that I've got you where I want you, what shall I do with you?" She leaned forward, trailing the very tip of her finger through the hair that arrowed down from his chest to his belly button, making all of the little hairs on his body prickle.

"I can think of several things."

"Oh, such as?" Ginny gave him a challenging look, sweeping the flat of her hand from his chest nearly down to his cock, deliberately teasing him.

"You can stop with that for one," Harry said, grabbing her wrist, putting her hand squarely on his cock, sighing when she began to stroke him up and down. He closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling of her hand stroking and squeezing him in the ways she knew he liked the best.

"What else?" she whispered in his ear, startling him. "You said several and this is just one." He turned his head to look at her and pulled her toward him for another kiss, parting her lips with his tongue as he took his time to explore, gratified at her groan. Breathing hard, he broke away from her as she redoubled her efforts, squeezing the head of his cock in the most delightful way. "What else?" she breathed, eyes glittering with desire. "What do you want?"

Harry's stomach felt like it had done a swan dive down to his toes and he swallowed hard, hips jerking as Ginny began to apply a twisting motion to her continuing strokes on his cock. "You," he whispered, rising up on his side as he gently pushed her over, running his hands over her soft skin underneath her top. He fastened his lips on her neck, sucking hard to leave a mark.

"Me?" she sighed, digging her fingers into the muscles of his back just above his bum hard enough to make him twitch.

"You," he said again, pulling her tee shirt off over her head, undoing her messy bun. He entertained a brief thought of Vanishing her jeans off, but then another thought occurred to him and he grinned down at her as she gasped at the disappearance of her jeans.

"Harry! I told you—"

He leaned forward again, muffling her outrage with his lips. "They're fine, see?" he said, pointing to the pair of jeans on the floor next to the bed.

"How did you do that?"

"Switching Spell. All of that practice had to pay off, yeah?" He gave her a cheeky grin, yanking her knickers off quickly before plunging his fingers into her wetness, her gasp sending shivers down his spine. She parted her legs for him, squirming around to get her bra off, the sight nearly putting an end to him right there.

Crouching over her, he slid two fingers inside her, his thumb circling her clit and had just touched his lips to her nipple when he felt her contracting around his fingers. He kept up his motions until she batted his hands away from her, breathing hard. "That was fast," he said, stretching out next to her as she burrowed her face into his chest.

"I've been on the edge all day," she said, kissing the hollow of his throat. "Watching you lift boxes in that shirt that's too small."

"You should have said something earlier."

"We had work to do."

"Could have given the old place one last hurrah," he said, smiling at Ginny's snort.

"I much prefer breaking in the new bed." He felt her hand drifting down his ribs and over his hip, taking his cock firmly in hand again, spreading the wetness at the tip with her thumb. "Speaking of which …" She hooked a leg over his waist and moved her hips, rubbing her wetness over his erection as she kissed him hard, tongue demanding entrance into his mouth.

Harry groaned at the feeling of her sliding against him, pulling her closer and moving his own hips in earnest as she clung tighter to him, her sighs turning into grunts as she thrust harder. Feeling nearly dizzy with bliss, he slipped a hand underneath Ginny's leg over his hip and pulled back, allowing his cock to slip down over her clit and through her folds before he pushed forward, burying himself to the hilt. "That's better," he murmured, grinning at her look of surprise.

"I was already quite enjoying myself," she said, flicking her tongue along his jaw.

"Pardon me. Shall we go back to the other way?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, you're already in me. Might as well carry on." She heaved a put-upon sigh that ended in a moan as he started to move.

"As you wish," he whispered into her ear, shifting so she was on her back, legs up on his shoulders, eyes closed in rapture. Having her under him, her lithe body intertwined with his made him want to ravish her, to sink so far into her that he never had to worry about Horcruxes, mad wizards or marking papers ever again. Giving in to his baser nature, he thrust into her as hard as he dared, exulting at her grunts.

"Harry," she groaned, giving him a pained look, "cramp."

"Sorry," he panted, moving her legs down to his waist. He paused for a moment, making sure she was all right. "Too hard?"

"No." She shook her head, pulling him down by his shoulders to capture his mouth in a searing kiss. As they kissed, tongues fighting for supremacy, her hands skimmed down his flanks, settling on his hips and she moved her own, a slow, delicious grind that seemed designed to drive him mad. Whimpering, she continued to grind her clit against his pubic bone, the sensation of being held inside of her as she moved and her sounds sending him to new heights.

Breathing hard, he pulled away from her devouring kisses, sitting back on his knees and looking down at her. Afternoon sunlight shone though the bedroom window, painting her skin gold and setting her hair on fire. "God, you look so brilliant right now," he breathed, sweeping his sweat-drenched hair back from his forehead.

Ginny reached up and pinched his nipples hard, making him hiss in surprise. "Are you just going to look at me all day or are you going fuck me?" she said with a challenging smirk.

Leaning forward, he grabbed onto the headboard, answering her smirk with one of his own. Using the leverage afforded to him, he withdrew from her almost all the way, driving forward with a growl, the animal part of him gratified at her responding grunt. Gripping the headboard tighter, he pounded into her in earnest, angling his hips to ensure the continued stimulation of her clit. "All right?" he huffed.

"Harder," she breathed, legs tightening around him. She had her hands planted on the headboard, keeping her head from ramming into it. Quickening his pace, Harry complied, snapping his hips forward with a little twist, his breath exploding out of him each time. Underneath him, Ginny kept up a litany, begging him to make her come, sounding almost desperate until she did come with a keening wail, the sound sending a shiver down Harry's spine.

Slowing his pace, Harry took a deep breath as he felt her clench and release around his cock, pulling a groan from deep in his chest. "All right?" Ginny asked with a raised eyebrow, settling her hands on his bum.

"Brilliant," he whispered, leaning down to kiss her once more, moving slowly on top of her until he felt his own climax wash over him, leaving him shaking as he came with a hoarse shout. She clung to him tightly, whispering words of love in his ear, giving him time to come back to himself. Still joined with her, he gently rolled them over until she was lying on top of him.

She laid her head on his chest, sighing contentedly as she stroked her hands up and down his sides. Closing his eyes, Harry enjoyed the simple feeling of her weight on top of him and before he knew it, he'd drifted off.

"Harry?" Ginny said, giving him a small shake. He opened his eyes, realizing that she wasn't on top of him anymore, but next to him, looking down at him with concern. "What happened? You were moving around and groaning."

He shook his head, banishing the vision of Cornelius Maxwell's rage-contorted face. "Nothing. Just one of those things," he said, reaching a hand out to her cheek. She looked dubious, but leaned into his touch, closing her eyes.

"I don't want you to go tonight," she said quietly.

"Archimedes—"

"Archimedes isn't your boss."

"I know he isn't, but—"

"You'll do what he says anyway?"

Harry sat up, feeling completely ridiculous having an argument while naked, but there was nothing for it. He was determined to at least be able to focus on her, so he reached for his glasses, settling them on his nose. "Love, it'll be fine. I don't even have to talk to him, just watch and see what he does and then report back to Archimedes."

"What are you? His trained dog?" she asked with a derisive snort as she sat up, gathering her long hair into a sloppy bun.

Stung by her words, Harry took a deep breath, biting back a sharp retort. "If you're so worried, why don't you come with me?"

"I don't want to be anywhere near that awful man. Or that thing." She crossed her arms over her breasts, frowning at him.

"Well, that doesn't change the fact that I still have to go."

"But why?" Her expression went from angry to frightened in the blink of an eye. "I don't have a good feeling about tonight, all right?"

Harry felt a chill trickle down his spine. "Have you Seen anything? You've never had visions before, have you?"

Ginny shook her head, reaching for his hand. "No. I just … it's been all day. Here we are, moving into this beautiful place together and I feel like we're going to start our real lives together and then …" She heaved a huge breath and squeezed his hand. "I look at you and I think about you and that damned portrait and it's like it could all be taken away in an instant and there's nothing I can do about it. What if …" she said, looking away from him, "what if this was the last time?"

"No, love, nothing is going to happen." He lay down, pulling her down with him and held her close, nestling her back against him. "That place is going to be crawling with people, pretty much all Muggle. Security will be there, San Francisco high society. Weatherbee won't dare try anything," he whispered, lips next to her ear.

"I don't want you going alone."

"Then come with me," Harry said again, kissing the soft skin of her shoulder, darting his tongue out to trace a dot-to-dot pattern on her freckles as he gave voice to the thought he'd been holding all day. He'd purposely set up the purchase of their new home in such a way that neither of their names appeared on any public information about the sale, going through his London solicitors, having learned his lesson when he bought the flat in London. Feeling reasonably secure that there was no easy way for Ignatius to find out where they were living now, he was still hesitant to leave her alone tonight in case Ignatius decided to retaliate for the coin.

"Wear that black dress … make all those high society men lose their minds over you." He felt Ginny sigh and he tightened his arm around her waist. "There's no one else I'd want at my back." And I can keep an eye on you.

"You'd take Ron over me in a heartbeat," she snorted.

"Ron's gone soft. Sits at a desk all day now, stuffing his head with law."

She shifted in his embrace, turning to face him. "I don't want to talk to him or see that thing."

"You won't." Harry took her hand in his and brought it to his lips, kissing her fingers.

"You're lying, but you think you're telling the truth," she sighed, laying her head on his shoulder. "I'll wear the dress and I'll go with you to this bloody thing. I'll probably hear that bloody scream again and have to talk to that bloody man." She looked up at him, kissing him softly. "And I'll do it because I bloody love you."

Harry shook his head at the waiter offering him a glass of wine, keeping his eyes on the swirling crowd of people. The exhibition hall was full of men in dark, somber suits and women in glittering dresses providing splashes of color as groups formed and broke apart, happy cries and air kisses filling the atmosphere. The cream of San Francisco Muggle society filled the Legion of Honor to celebrate the gala opening of the Portrait Miniature exhibition.

Ginny also refused wine, giving the waiter a brilliant smile with her head shake. Harry glanced over at her, squeezing her hand tight. She looked amazing in that black dress that left her freckle-dusted shoulders bare and he'd already caught more than one man staring at her as they moved slowly around the room, pretending to look at the dazzling array of miniature portraits on display.

They stopped by a cabinet showcasing several portraits of what looked like young men in high-collared shirts with artfully tied cravats, their hair exquisitely messy. "Relatives of yours?" Ginny asked with a smile.

"Doubtful. These blokes all look French," he murmured, self-consciously trying to smooth the hair that always stuck up at the back of his head.

"Have you seen him yet?" Ginny asked quietly, eyes still on the lineup of Frenchmen in front of them.

"No. I thought he would have been waiting for the place to open. Maybe he's going to make an entrance?" They had arrived with the first wave, Harry not willing to miss the chance to spy on Weatherbee but had yet to catch sight of him.

"He doesn't care about Muggles. Why would he want to make an entrance here?"

Harry shrugged, shifting his eyes from the portraits to scan the assembly. His gaze skipped over one young man and then went back to him. Eyes narrowed, he took a closer look at the man, mentally logging subtle differences. Same color eyes, but the hair is a few shades darker and parted differently … he's altered his skin tone a bit and put that bump in his nose. Well done, Auror Sutton. He nudged Ginny and inclined his head the slightest bit to the disguised Auror.

Ginny looked and then frowned back at him. "Who's that?"

"Sutton. Look again."

"No." She looked again, taking pains to not look like she was staring and squeezed his hand. "Oh, he's good. Is he a Metamorphmagus?"

"Not as far as I know. Should be standard disguise spells."

"Well, then. Looks like Archimedes did send one of his flunkies. We can go home."

Harry raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. "Not yet, love. I'm going to go over there. I'll be right back."

"Fine. I'm going to have a glass of wine, then." He smiled as she stalked over to one of the waiters and plucked a full glass of white wine from his tray, looking straight at Harry as she took a sip.

Hands behind his back, Harry started a circuitous route through the throng on his way to Auror Sutton and what was undoubtedly the display that held the Horcrux portrait. He took care to pause at intervals to admire the different displays and appear like he was actually interested in the art when what he really wanted to do was run over to Sutton, grab the Horcrux and run it through with the Sword of Gryffindor. Barmy thing would probably show up if I stuck my hand out, he thought as he stared at a painting of a red-faced fat man without really seeing it.

Finally, he achieved his goal, standing next to Auror Sutton as he stared at the miniature, relieved to see the girl's eyes still snapping stolen fire at him. He paused for a moment, glad to not feel any pain from the portrait. "Sutton," he murmured quietly, not looking at the other man.

"Potter."

"Seen him?"

"No."

Harry nodded and turned his attention to the information card next to the girl. Portrait Of A Young Woman, watercolor on ivory by François Dumont, 1812. This portrait of an unknown woman was likely painted as a keepsake for a fiancé while he was away in the military. Long thought lost, it has recently resurfaced. From the collection of Georges Michel.

Interesting. So it wasn't really that old when it was turned into a Horcrux. I wonder how Cornelius got ahold of it? As he thought about it, he imagined a scene of a man striking out for the gold fields of California, trading the portrait to Maxwell for a sack of beans, a pickaxe and set of gold pans.

Wishing he'd thought to practice Detect Magic wandlessly, Harry nonetheless closed his eyes, extending his senses outward to see if there were any magical enhancements on the display cabinet, but felt nothing. Opening his eyes once more, he frowned. It would be the work of a moment to steal it. Switch it with a book of matches, Apparate out and you're done. Sighing, he exchanged a nod with the Auror and made his way back to Ginny.

"Well?" she asked as he took a sip of her wine.

"He hasn't seen him, either."

"Did you see it?"

"Yeah. Looks the same," Harry said, casting his eyes over toward the entrance to the gallery.

"Did you … feel anything?" she asked hesitantly.

"No, I have to touch it, yeah?" He put his hand on her shoulder, running the pad of his thumb over her soft skin. She leaned into his touch, resting her head on his shoulder as he continued to keep watch over her head. They stood in an out-of-the-way spot by a large pillar and Harry was starting to think of packing it in when he heard her gasp, instantly coming alert.

"There he is," she whispered, cocking her head toward one of the side entrances.

Moving only his eyes, he looked to where Ginny indicated and felt a jolt run through him at the sight of Ignatius Weatherbee's squat figure in a dark suit. "Fuck me," he groaned when he saw Jacob behind him.

"What's Jacob doing here?" Ginny asked quietly.

"I imagine he wants to see his former art piece and let everyone know it used to be his," Harry said, completely dismayed by Jacob's presence. Cornelius Maxwell's words regarding Jacob's demise during their time in the Pensieve came back to him and he felt a crawling sensation in his gut. I don't want Jacob anywhere near Ignatius and that Horcrux at the same time. Where's Evelyn? He scanned the crowd for Jacob's assistant/bodyguard, but didn't see her.

"What are you going to do?"

"Not much I can do. I'm just here to observe and report." He looked over toward Sutton and saw that he had marked the duo as well, taking a few steps away from his position by the Horcrux as Ignatius and Jacob made their way through the exhibit. Harry wasn't surprised to see Jacob greeting and shaking hands with several of the Muggles in attendance. Jacob must know everyone in town. Will he see through Sutton's disguise?

Taking Ginny's hand, Harry maneuvered them further behind the pillar, keeping his eyes on the pair. Ignatius was paying only cursory attention to the other portraits, his mind obviously on the Horcrux portrait. As Harry watched, Jacob introduced him to a grande dame, clearly irritating his companion. "What's Jacob doing?" Ginny whispered, standing on her tiptoes to see over Harry's shoulder.

"He's introducing him to that lady. I don't think Ignatius is very impressed."

"Well, she won't be able to vote for him, will she?" she snorted, making him grin. "Where's Evelyn?"

"I dunno," he murmured, a little warning bell going off in his head. He considered sending his Patronus to Archimedes, but didn't want to chance it with the other wizards nearby. Finally free of the grande dame, Ignatius picked up his pace, dropping all pretense of looking at the other portraits on display until he stood in front of the display with the Horcrux. Harry held his breath, watching as Weatherbee put a hand on the glass separating him from his heart's desire. Jacob joined him, putting a companionable hand on the older man's shoulder. Auror Sutton hovered unobtrusively nearby and Harry relaxed when Weatherbee took his hand off the glass as Jacob continued to talk.

"All right?" Ginny asked, her hand tight on his arm.

"Yeah." Harry squared his shoulders. "I'm going over there."

"Harry! Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'll just go say hello." He turned to look at her anxious face and smiled reassuringly. "We're surrounded by people. What could happen?"

"Famous last words." She took his hand and squeezed hard. "Don't make me come rescue you, all right?"

"Once is enough, love." He leaned down and kissed her softly, running his thumb over her cheekbone.

"I'm going to need more wine," he heard her mutter as he moved away to join Jacob and Ignatius in front of the Horcrux. He glanced at himself in the reflection of a display cabinet's glass, making a quick swipe at his hair and straightening his red-and-gold tie. Taking a deep breath, he approached the pair studying the innocent-looking portrait.

"Harry!" Jacob said when he joined the two men in front of the display. "I knew I'd made a collector out of you!"

"Oh, these are well out of my price range I'm afraid," Harry said, shaking Jacob's hand. "I'm just here to admire." He glanced at the display, glad to see the Horcrux still inside of it. "You must be happy to see your former piece in such illustrious company."

Jacob shrugged and grinned. "Well, it would be nicer if it were still in my library, but well, monsieur Georges Michel made me an offer I couldn't refuse!" he said, making Harry wonder how much the regional Aurors' office had paid Jacob for the piece.

"Indeed," Harry smiled, hoping he didn't look as on edge as he felt. "I'm surprised to see you here, Ignatius. I would have thought there were speeches to be made and babies to kiss."

"Ah, Harry. Wonderful to see you again," Ignatius said in a tone that indicated quite the opposite. He held out his hand and Harry took it, keeping his face carefully blank as the older man squeezed it for all he was worth. "I must say that I've been wanting to chat with you."

"Oh? About what?" Harry squeezed harder, pleased to see Ignatius flush before worming his aching hand out of Ignatius's grasp, refusing to flex it.

"I wanted to thank you for your generous campaign contribution," he said, his customary nasty grin in place. He glanced up at Jacob and cleared his throat. "Jacob, would you mind securing us some of that undoubtedly wonderful wine?"

"Of course. Would you prefer red or white?"

"I'm in a mood for red tonight. What about you, Harry?"

"Red will be fine. Thank you, Jacob." Shoving his right hand into his pocket, he flexed his fingers as Jacob headed off on his mission. "You sold the coin, then?" he asked quietly.

"I did. There's an excellent market for Gold Rush-era coins." He grinned at Harry again. "You paid for quite a lot of printing and several ads in the Uncanny Examiner, my boy."

"I'm glad I could help out," Harry said, keeping his tone even to hide his chagrin. I should have known he'd do something like that. I'll have to look up coin values and see what he could have gotten for it.

"Where is it?" Ignatius hissed, leaning in close to him, trying to force him to step back.

"I don't have it," he said, standing his ground.

"Who does?" The older man looked at him intently and Harry instinctively engaged Occlumency.

Harry shrugged. "Dunno."

"You think you're so clever, don't you? Think you can take something away from me right under my nose."

"I have done, haven't I?"

"I'll have it back. I'll find it and get it back."

"I'm afraid you won't find it's in the same condition. It's developed some flaws since you saw it last." Harry stared at Ignatius, seeing the red flush climbing up from his neck into his face and felt a deep sense of accomplishment when he backed up a step. Did he really know what was in that coin?

"Ah, look who I found, lurking around a pillar." Harry looked away from Ignatius at the sound of Jacob's voice and bit back a groan at the sight of Ginny on his arm.

"Jacob, I was hardly lurking," she admonished, giving him a brilliant smile. "I was just wondering when you were going to come and say hello."

"I hope you forgive me for my tardiness." Jacob handed Harry a glass of red wine and one to Ignatius, taking a glass of white from Ginny for himself.

"My dear, you are looking absolutely smashing tonight," Ignatius said, kissing the air over the back of Ginny's hand.

"You're too kind," she said with a smile that looked a bit strained to Harry. He reached out and took her hand, drawing her close to him. "Where's Evelyn tonight?" she asked, looking around.

"She wasn't able to come tonight. She had a family matter to deal with," Jacob said. Harry wondered if it were true and thought of sending his Patronus to Archimedes again. Something seemed just a bit off with Evelyn's absence.

"I'm afraid you'll have to make do with me for companionship tonight," Ignatius said garrulously, elbowing Jacob. "Or maybe we can convince Miss Weasley to accompany us this evening?"

Ginny laughed lightly and Harry forced a smile, not caring one bit for the look Ignatius was giving her. "Well, I'm afraid I'd have to make it an early night. I have a study group in the morning," she said apologetically.

"Ah, yes. You should be coming up on your final exams, yes?" Jacob asked, eyes alight with interest. "I wonder if Dr Richards is here tonight? He's on the board for …" Harry tuned him out as he chattered on about the influential people he knew in the City. He noticed that Ignatius had turned his attention back to the Horcrux behind the glass and he looked around for Sutton, spotting him about twenty feet away, pretending to be very interested in a series of racehorse portraits while Harry knew he was hanging on their every word.

Ben's name caught his attention and he tuned in again. Ginny had mentioned him as one of her study partners and Ignatius turned to look at her, letting Harry know he'd been paying attention to Ginny and Jacob's conversation. "Ben? That's your Muggle friend, right?" he asked, putting Harry on alert.

"Yes, he's the first friend I made when I moved here," she said, squeezing his hand gently.

"I heard he's had a bit of trouble," Ignatius said and Harry held his breath.

"What sort of trouble?" Ginny asked with a small frown as she feigned ignorance.

"What have you heard, Ignatius?" Jacob asked, looking at him with interest as he sipped his wine.

"I'd heard that he ran afoul of some of our sort that didn't take too kindly to his relationship with you," he said, nodding his head at Ginny.

"Oh my goodness. He didn't say anything to me," she said in shocked amazement, making Harry want to break out in applause.

"Hmm, why would someone be upset if you're friends with him?" Jacob murmured. "I mean, yes there's the whole Statute, but he doesn't know anything about our world, so as long as things stay that way, there's not any problem." He took another drink of wine. "I mean, I have both Muggle and magical business associates and some of them I'm quite friendly with."

"Yes, you are," Ignatius said thinly. He glanced at Harry, fixing him with a sardonic smile. "If anyone were going to have a problem with a friendship between his fiancée and another man, it would be you, Harry!"

"Oh, that's not a problem! Ben's as gay as they come. I have to keep an eye on him when he's around Harry!" Ginny squeezed his hand again as she laughed, making Jacob throw back his head and guffaw along with her.

"Speaking of trouble, I'm sure you saw that bulletin a while ago? The one warning about Muggle-borns going about on their own?" Harry asked, carefully gauging Ignatius's reaction.

"Of course! I heard from Artemis that it made quite a stir at the school," Jacob said eagerly.

"Yeah, several of the parents were alarmed and didn't want to let their kids Floo in. Made the parking lot a bit of a madhouse for a few days." Harry took another sip of his wine. "I haven't been able to find out what precipitated the warning, though."

Jacob looked mystified and turned to Ignatius. "Have you heard anything? You have your ear a bit more to the ground than we do."

Ignatius shook his head sadly. "I don't have any more information than you do. I'm not on the council yet!" He gestured with his wineglass, staring right at Harry as he spoke. "So often these sorts of warnings are put out as a knee-jerk reaction to what are usually minor occurrences."

Harry felt his ire prickle at Ignatius's condescending tone. "I'd hardly call a witch waking up unable to do magic a 'minor occurrence'," he said softly, certain Ignatius had heard him by the hardening of his expression.

"That's one of the things I'm hoping to accomplish when I take my seat on the council. Bring some more stability and mitigate some of the more extreme views in our population," he went on expansively, shifting his attention to Ginny.

"What sort of extreme views are you hoping to mitigate?" Harry asked, putting on an exaggeratedly interested tone and ignoring the tight squeeze of Ginny's hand on his. "That Muggle-borns shouldn't be taught alongside Purebloods? That companies like Magical Materials are wrongly integrating magic into technology?"

"Why Harry, are you contemplating a run against me?" Ignatius asked, neatly avoiding the questions. "If you are, you've got an awful lot of ground to make up!"

"But you have to admit that he's got the name recognition!" Jacob said, clapping Harry on the shoulder.

"Yes, even here in the colonies the Harry Potter name goes far." Ignatius shook his head again. "But our Harry doesn't like the spotlight. Prefers to hang back and direct things from the shadows. Once an Auror, always an Auror!"

"Is that true, Harry?" Jacob asked, turning to look at him with interest. "Are you going back to the Aurors? I mean, I know Archimedes would be ecstatic to have you, but I thought you were done with all of that."

Dismayed at becoming the focus of the conversation, Harry shrugged. "I'm definitely done. No more sneaking around in the dark for me these days."

"Well, I know that our board will find that very reassuring!" Jacob gave Ginny a conspiratorial wink and she smiled reflexively at him, squeezing Harry's hand hard enough to actually hurt a little now.

"Oh my goodness, look at the time," she said, faking an enormous yawn. "Harry, I'm sorry, but if I'm going to make my study group, we need to get going."

"Yes, you don't want to keep your Muggle friends waiting, wondering what happened to you," Ignatius said. His words were perfectly pleasant and reasonable, but Harry thought he detected and underlying threat. The phrase justifiable homicide sprang to mind and he forced a smile.

"Well, it's been wonderful running into you both," he said with a friendliness he didn't feel. "Jacob, please let me know how Evelyn gets on with her family and if there's anything I can do for her."

"Of course. I'm sure it'll be fine. Her mother is alone and sometimes she has these 'episodes' and Evelyn helps out for a few days. I think it's more that she misses her than there's anything really wrong," Jacob said, allaying some but not all of Harry's apprehensiveness about the situation.

"Lovely chatting with you, my dear," Ignatius said to Ginny with a courtly bow. Ginny murmured agreement and Harry managed to finally get his hand out of her grip, settling it on her back as they turned to go, weaving carefully through the crowd. He caught Sutton's eye on the way out and exchanged a nod.

"Well, that seems like it went all right," Ginny said quietly as they exited the main gallery.

"Well, he didn't steal it right in front of me. He knows about the coin, though. Thanked me for my campaign contribution," Harry said, handing their claim check to the coat check girl.

"Your campaign contribution?"

"Yeah. He apparently sold it for a pile of money." Harry helped Ginny into her jacket, leaving a couple of dollars in the tip jar. "Thanks for coming with me," he said, giving her a kiss on the temple. "Did you hear the Horcrux?"

"Not much. It was so noisy in there and I never got very close to it." She sighed and looked around, taking his hand once more. "Let's get out of here, all right? Take me to Mel's. I want breakfast for dinner."

"Are you sure? I dunno that pancakes and wine exactly mix," Harry said, smiling down at her. He was immensely relieved that the night was over and Ginny was safe with him. They'd go to Mel's and have an extremely late breakfast, he'd send his Patronus with a report to Archimedes and they'd go to sleep in their brand-new apartment in their brand-new bed on their brand-new sheets.

They were walking down the steps of the Legion of Honor enjoying the cool spring night air when there was an explosion behind them and the whole building shook.

35. Chapter 35

Ears ringing, Harry cautiously raised his head, taking in the chaos surrounding him. Underneath him, Ginny groaned and he turned his attention to her, quickly assessing her well-being. He'd knocked her to the ground when he'd hurled himself on top of her as the concussive wave of the blast rolled over them, so he knew she'd have bruises at the very least.

"Gin! Are you all right?" he shouted, barely able to hear himself over the roaring in his ears. He sat up on his knees, helping her to sit up, relieved that she didn't seem to be bleeding from anywhere.

She nodded and winced, taking her wand out and casting a spell first at herself and then at him. The ringing immediately stopped, allowing him to hear the shouts and screams around them. Setting aside everyone else for the moment, Harry grabbed her in a tight hug, heart pounding when she hugged him back just as hard, mouth searching out his.

"What happened?" she asked when they broke apart, looking around them in horror.

"I dunno. I've got to go in there."

"Harry—"

"Gin, I have to. Sutton and Jacob were in there."

She nodded. "All right, but I'm coming with you."

"No. I don't know—"

She held up her hand, stopping his words. "Harry, there are people hurt in there. I have to."

"All right," he said after a moment, nodding at her determined expression. "Let's go." She murmured a quick spell, transfiguring her stylish high heels into more practical sneakers and Harry was glad she hadn't just kicked them off when he saw the shattered glass that covered the marble steps.

People were streaming out, some holding up wadded bits of finery against bleeding wounds and Ginny nodded to Harry, squeezing his hand as she went to help an older couple. The man's wife was leaning heavily on him, her gaily-sequined scarf held up to her temple. He watched for a moment before he sent his Patronus to Archimedes. Explosion at the Legion of Honor. No cause yet. Send Obliviators.

Leading with his shoulder, he pushed through the panicked crowd, a cold feeling in his gut at what he would find inside and not for the first time he wished he had Ron at his side. The coat check he and Ginny had just left was a complete shambles, the fine wood counter looking like a jumble of matchsticks and he hoped the girl had had the time to duck into the back.

Reaching the portrait exhibition gallery, Harry stood still, absorbing the scene. Twisted and wrecked display cases leaned drunkenly against each other while glass, woodwork and precious portraits littered the floor. He took a deep breath through his nose, searching for the smell of explosives. None. Magical then. Most of the ambulatory had gotten out, but there were several people sprawled on the floor, some horribly still. His eyes searched out the area where the Horcrux portrait was displayed, looking for Jacob, Ignatius and Sutton.

He saw Auror Sutton looking like himself again and strode toward him, watching as his Patronus sprang away and shot out of the building. "Mark! What happened?"

"Bastard stole it," the Auror said grimly, picking a small shard of glass out of his cheek. "Barely got my Shield up in time."

"Ignatius and Jacob?"

"Gone." Sutton kicked a wooden leg that had once been part of an ornate display case with disgust as the sound of sirens came closer.

"Shit. Well, let's hope Archimedes's Blood Trace does the trick," Harry said, noting Sutton's look of surprise.

"How—" he began, cut off by the arrival of Archimedes himself. He appeared in the doorway of the gallery, taking in the ruins of the gallery. In an eyeblink he'd summoned easily a half dozen Patronuses, the silvery greyhounds streaking off in several directions at once.

"Sutton," he said with a nod at the Auror who stood straighter.

"Douglass."

"Harry. Well, looks like our man has made his move."

"Indeed. What's ours?"

Archimedes held up his index finger, looking away as if concentrating on something. "Yes. Full containment. Obliviators and extensive repairs. No trace by morning." He looked back at Harry. "Sorry. These earpieces Jacob showed us have become nearly indispensable."

"Speaking of Jacob, he was here with Ignatius tonight. Without Evelyn," Harry said, noting Archimedes's nod. "You knew?"

"Evelyn contacted me and let me know she'd been called away. That was another reason for Sutton being here, to keep an eye on Jacob." He turned to Sutton. "Report."

Sutton quickly launched into a concise description of the night's events, including the conversation between Harry, Jacob, Ignatius and Ginny. "Harry and Ginny left and a few minutes later, Ignatius Vanished the glass and plucked the portrait out. Before I could react, he blew up that display and several others, grabbed Jacob and Apparated out."

"Chaos and mayhem," Archimedes sighed, shaking his head.

Harry heard the crunch of glass and turned to see Ginny approaching, stopping to check the vitals on one of the waiters sprawled on the floor. Apparently satisfied with his condition, she stood and made her way to them. "Muggle police and emergency services are here," she said quietly, linking her arm through Harry's. He kissed the top of her head, glad to see her safe.

"Some of them are our people. Obliviators and medical. Any deaths?"

"No, thank goodness. Cuts and contusions mostly. Shock. A heart attack or two." Archimedes nodded and took on that inward look again. A squad of black-clad men and women came into the gallery, assessing the scene. A man barked a few orders and a smaller group detached itself, spreading out to Levitate the unconscious people while others used their wands to start cleaning up the mess of torn clothing, broken glass and wood and scattered artwork.

"Douglass," said the man that had given the orders as he approached them.

"Ramsay," Archimedes acknowledged. "How is it out there?"

"Chaos, but nothing we can't handle. I don't think anyone has gotten away, so full containment shouldn't be a problem." He looked around the wreckage. "Do we know what was used?"

"Reducto, I think," Sutton said. "Strongest I've ever seen. There, there and there," he said, pointing out the areas the curse had been used directly.

Ramsay sucked in air between his teeth and checked his watch. "Might need to have the place closed tomorrow. This is a lot to sort out."

"I'll take care of it," Archimedes said.

"Yes, sir. We'll get to it."

"See that you do."

Harry watched Ramsay walk quickly back to his squad, issuing more orders. He looked back at Archimedes, eyes narrowed. "You're not retired at all, are you?" The older man had the decency to look a little guilty as he gave a one-shouldered shrug. "You're their number one."

"He told you he was retired?" Sutton said, sounding surprised.

"Harry—" Archimedes began, but Harry cut him off with a head shake.

"We'll talk about this later. Right now, we have a madman to deal with, yeah?" he said, his thoughts tracing back over every single thing Archimedes had ever told him, trying to tell if he'd told him any other lies. Teach me to trust another man with a long white beard, he thought grimly.

"That we do." He looked around the ruined gallery and shook his head. "Well, he's certainly got flair, that's for sure." He turned around and left, Sutton, Harry and Ginny following in his wake, broken glass crunching under their steps.

Outside was another chaotic scene as emergency vehicles with their flashing lights added to the tumult and confusion. Harry observed groups of people in ruined finery being treated for injuries and then handed off to a kind of holding area. San Francisco police stood around in another group, vacant looks on their faces as another Auror kept watch on them. The fire chief was listening to a tall blonde woman and nodding sagely. Archimedes left them briefly to consult with a black-clad figure that seemed to be in charge of the whole thing.

"Gin," Harry said quietly, "I want you to go home."

"No."

"Ginny—"

"No, Harry. I'm not going home and waiting for you. I told you, never again." She spoke in a calm, measured voice that clearly said she was not going to be argued with and he sighed, drawing her into a tight hug, resting his chin on top of her head.

"I don't want you to get hurt."

"I can take care of myself, all right? And if you got hurt and I wasn't there to help you …" Her arms were tight around him as she buried her face in his chest. They stood together, surrounded by the pandemonium until Archimedes jogged back to them.

"Well. Marshall has things well in hand here. I need someplace quieter to execute the Blood Trace," he said, dusting off his hands.

"I know just the place." Harry led them to the bench that was next to Cornelius Maxwell's unmarked resting place. "His bones are just there," he said, nodding to the unremarkable patch of grass. He thought about going to stand on it once more, to see if he could still feel the same cold fire as before, but rejected the thought. The Maxwell in the coin was gone, but there was one more out there to be dealt with and standing on an old grave wouldn't benefit anyone.

Archimedes grunted and Sutton gave Harry a questioning look before turning his attention to his apparent boss who had just finished sketching a circle in the grass with his wand. Archimedes took out a small silver disk and set it carefully in the middle of the circle, pricking his finger and letting several drops of his blood land on the disk.

Ginny looked up at Harry curiously and he smiled. "Watch." To his mind, this was one of the more spectacular-looking practical spells. Closing his eyes, Archimedes concentrated, making a few subtle wand movements and a brilliant ribbon of blue light sprang up from the center of the silver disk, arrowing out over the water and straight across the bay, disappearing into the neighborhood high on the cliffs. Ginny gasped in amazement. "You're gold," he whispered to her, remembering when he'd tracked her to that bar after an argument. She raised an eyebrow at him, silently letting him know they would be having a discussion soon.

"I make it Sea Cliff. What about you, Sutton?"

"Yeah. Like we thought; he's gone to his bolt hole."

"All right." Archimedes broke the circle, the blue light disappearing and put the silver disk back in his pocket. "So. What do we know about Ignatius Weatherbee's home?"

"Blood Seal. Two occupied floors with an attic and a basement. About four thousand square feet. Ten thousand square foot lot. Stairs down to the beach in the back. Anti-Apparition ward that covers the entire property. Silent alarm spells on the front and side gates. Unbreakables on the doors and windows," Auror Sutton said, ticking items off on his fingers.

"Traps?" Archimedes asked.

"None that we've found so far, sir. We haven't been able to get into the house, so I can't speak to what may be inside."

Hunkering down, Archimedes waved his wand and an image of the house's floor plan appeared. "This is the ground floor. Front door here," he said, pointing to the entranceway that seemed to open onto a foyer not unlike the one at Jacob's mansion. Harry knelt down, feeling that old thrill he remembered from planning a raid. "We'll enter through here." A door that opened onto the kitchen glowed.

"What about the Blood Seal?" Sutton asked.

"We'll have to get rid of it. Weatherbee will know, but there's nothing for it."

"Tricky," Harry murmured, aware of Ginny squatting down next to him.

"How are you going to get around it?" she asked. "I thought only the caster could dispel it?"

"It's not pretty," Archimedes answered, eyes glued to the image floating above the grass. "I'll have to brute force it basically and there'll be some feedback. Weatherbee will feel us taking it out, so I'll have to be fast so he doesn't have time to mount a stronger defense." He looked at Ginny and smiled. "It's good that we'll have a Healer with us," he said, surprising Harry with his acceptance that Ginny would be going with them; he'd expected to have to argue with Archimedes.

"So, we enter through the kitchen. Where do you think he's hiding?" Sutton asked, steering the conversation back to the impending operation.

"Basement," Harry said. "I bet he's already started the ritual, yeah? Or whatever he's planning on doing with the damned thing." I hope Jacob's still alive.

"I agree." Archimedes banished the images and stood, tucking his wand away in his tactical trousers. He looked at Harry and Ginny in their gala finery and raised an eyebrow.

Harry shrugged and took off his jacket and tie, laying them on the stone bench. "No time," he said as he rolled up his sleeves to his elbows.

"What about the sword?"

"It'll come when it's needed." I hope.

"Right. We'll go and then Summon, all right?" Harry nodded and watched the two Aurors Apparate away, taking Ginny's hand as he waited for the burn of the Summons.

"Is this what it's always like?" Ginny asked in a quiet voice.

"No. It's mostly boring paperwork and interviews."

"You know what I mean." She hit him in the arm with her free hand and he chuckled.

"Yeah. This is what it's like," he sighed, looking down at her. She looked scared but determined and he felt an odd mixture of pride and paralyzing fear. "Listen, if something happens, there's a letter for my solicitors—"

"Stop it."

"Gin, you need to know. There's a notarized letter in the bottom of my go bag. Take that to my solicitors in London and you'll be taken care of, all right?" She shook her head, pressing her lips firmly together and he sighed, pulling her close. The warmth of her body against his in the cool night air felt reassuring and he flashed back to that afternoon, the sunlight making her look like living fire.

He was about to speak to her again when he felt the burn of the Summon radiating out from his tattoo. "Time to go," he said softly. "Ready?"

Ginny let go of him and stepped back, taking his hand again. "Yeah," she said, her voice strong and steady. Harry took a deep breath, focusing on the Summons and silently Apparated them both, appearing in front of Archimedes and Sutton on a dark street.

"Let's go," Archimedes said quietly, leading the way down the block. Wands out, Harry and Ginny followed, coming to a stop in front of a dark, forbidding house fronted by a tall wrought-iron gate topped with wicked-looking spikes.

"Doesn't exactly have the welcome mat out, does he?" Ginny murmured in Harry's ear, making him smile in spite of the adrenaline pumping through him.

Sutton waved his wand and the entire gate glowed blue, indicating the silent alarm spell on it. A moment later it disappeared as he dispelled it. "That's alerted him," he remarked, pushing the gate open.

Moving quickly in a crouch, they made their way in a line to the kitchen door, Harry bringing up the rear. A ripple not unlike a heat signature caught his eye and he hissed a warning, nodding his head to indicate the patch of ground right in front of the kitchen door. "Trap."

Grunting, Sutton picked up a rock and threw it toward the indicated spot, watching as it flew up into the air. "Anti-gravity. That would have been inconvenient." A moment later he'd neutralized the trap and they clustered around the kitchen doorway.

Archimedes stood in front, the Blood Seal glowing a dull red all around the doorway from his Detect Magic. He squared his shoulders and tilted his head from side to side, putting Harry in mind of a footballer getting ready to take on a penalty kick. "Wait!" Ginny said as he raised his wand. She went up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. "For luck."

"I'll need all of the luck I can get, my dear," he said with a smile as he turned back to his work. Harry held his breath, watching as he closed his eyes and frowned in concentration. He'd had to do this once as part of his Auror training and the experience had not been a pleasant one. The headache had lasted a solid week, no matter what he tried to get rid of it.

The red glow flickered and Archimedes's frown deepened, a small bead of sweat running down his temple despite the coolness of the night. Harry could feel a heaviness in the air like when there was a thunderstorm approaching and he heard Ginny breathing hard next to him. A low growl of effort and the glow abruptly went out, Archimedes stumbling back a step. Sutton caught him and Ginny was there, checking his pupil response with the lit tip of her wand.

"I'm fine. We need to go, now," he said brusquely, gently batting Ginny's wand away from his face. Sutton glanced at Harry and nodded toward the door. Making sure Ginny was right behind him, Harry cautiously opened the door, alert to any sounds.

No lights were on, so he lit the tip of his wand as he stepped in. "Detect Magic," he breathed to Ginny, eyes darting around. It was a large kitchen with all of the standard appliances and the hanging pots and pans made crazy shadows on the walls in the light of his wand. Nothing lit up at Ginny's spell, so he stepped all the way in, motioning for the others to follow him. In the quiet, Harry thought he could hear a low murmur coming from the right and he surmised that was where the basement was.

Auror Sutton closed the door behind them and Harry was slightly alarmed to see Archimedes leaning against him. Messing about with Blood Magic isn't good for anyone, he thought grimly. "Basement," Archimedes said, motioning toward the right, "quickly."

Ginny took charge of checking for magic on the basement door, nodding in satisfaction when there wasn't any and stepped aside for Harry. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door, the low chanting abruptly increasing in volume. Is that Latin? Unlike the upper floor, the basement was brightly lit and Harry had no trouble making his way down the steep stairs, aware of Ginny close behind him.

They emerged from the stairway into a stone-floored basement and Harry noticed two things right away: the still figure of Jacob Green lying on the floor and the swirling cloud of black smoke floating inside of a Bounding Circle. Ignatius stood next to the prone Jacob, arms raised high as he continued to chant in that dead language.

"Ignatius, stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Harry called. Ignatius scowled at him and chanted louder, his words seeming to reach a crescendo. He could feel the energy of the ritual making all of the small hairs on his body prickle and he fought the urge to scratch. Every single sense he had was screaming at him to get out and he reached for Ginny, grabbing on to her arm to anchor himself.

"Ignatius, end this ritual," Archimedes shouted over the sound of the chanting. "You've stolen a Dark artifact, caused personal injury and destruction of property and violated the Statute of Secrecy. If you stop the ritual and come quietly, I might be able to get you clemency before the courts."

Not interrupting his words, Ignatius only sneered, focusing back on the swirling cloud of blackness in front of him. Harry watched, horrified, as the cloud seemed to expand and become larger, nearly filling the three-foot diameter of the silver circle inlaid into the floor. It looked like a storm cloud, a very angry storm cloud as it pulsed and throbbed inside of its prison.

"Harry, what about Jacob?" Ginny whispered and Harry took his eyes off the roiling black cloud his mind was screaming at him to destroy, focusing on the prone man. His eyes were closed and he looked like he was sleeping. His jacket had been carelessly tossed into a corner and one of his shirtsleeves was rolled up, a long cut running up his inner forearm.

Reasoning that Ignatius was too busy with the ritual to do anything about it, Harry cast Levicorpus, bringing Jacob's still body over to where they were huddled at the bottom of the stairs. Ginny dropped down next to him, hissing at the cut on his arm as she checked for a pulse. "He's alive!" she said and he felt a small knot unclench in his gut. "He's lost a lot of blood, but he's stable enough for now." He watched as she healed the slice on his arm and rolled the sleeve of his shirt back down.

The chanting changed in tone, the words becoming more authoritative and Harry focused on Ignatius again. His face was flushed a deep red and his eyes were bright, teeth bared in a triumphant grin as he finished the chant. The black cloud seemed to have reached a balance point, swirling malevolently within the confines of the Bounding Circle.

"So, I see you've decided to join me tonight. Come to witness my transformation!" he said, finally turning to face them.

"Ignatius, you don't know what you're dealing with. It's incredibly dangerous and must be destroyed," Harry said, putting every ounce of authority he could into his voice.

"Destroyed? No! This is power to be used!" Ignatius countered with that infuriating grin.

"You've caused a lot of damage and hurt a lot of people tonight," Archimedes said, gesturing toward Jacob. "If you destroy that thing, I'll see that you get the best deal possible."

"Why?" Ignatius sneered. "Why should I not take the power that's available? Destroy it so I can watch you ruin our world? So I can see our bloodlines diminished and our children's power grow weaker and weaker?" He nodded toward Harry. "So he can teach the children of mewling, idiot Muggles who don't have the faintest idea of what real power can do?" He spat onto the stone floor. "Faugh! My time has arrived and I am more than ready!"

"You don't know what's going to happen!" Harry warned, earning a scornful glance.

"Idiot boy! You're not the only one that likes to lurk in moldy bookshops, seeking out the Dark and strange. I know exactly what will happen when I step into that circle. I will absorb the lingering power of the late Cornelius Maxwell and bind it to my own, becoming more powerful than even the Dark Lord dreamed!" Harry felt a coldness wash over him and he nearly swayed on his feet. Is it possible? Can he bind another soul to his own and take its power?

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Auror Sutton step forward, wand outstretched. "No!" Harry shouted, grabbing the Auror's wrist and spoiling his aim as the spell went wide, leaving a scorch mark on the wall behind the laughing Ignatius.

"Harry!" Sutton shouted in dismay, turning an incredulous look on him.

"We don't know what will happen if Ignatius is incapacitated while that thing is still there. I don't know how he's keeping control of it!" Archimedes put a calming hand on Sutton's shoulder and nodded.

"He's right," he said quietly, eyes on the smirking Ignatius. "The last thing we need is for that thing to go ballistic."

"I'm so glad to see you coming to your senses," Ignatius said smugly. He looked at the swirling blackness inside the Bounding Circle. "I feel almost bad for old Cornelius. He's waited so long to come back and now he never will. D'you know that he wanted to take over Jacob's body? I couldn't allow that, though. San Francisco is such a small town and I really couldn't have another competitor."

"Ignatius, this is madness. Please let us destroy it," Archimedes said, not quite pleading.

"And how would you destroy it? With that?" He pointed at Harry who became aware of the weight of the Sword of Gryffindor on his hip. "You're going to use a sword to fan away a cloud of smoke? I'd like to see you try!" Throwing back his head, he let out a mad cackling sound and Harry was sure they were watching a man deep in the grip of insanity.

Completely at a loss for what else to do, Harry drew the sword with a ringing sound and held it in front of him as Ignatius laughed harder, wiping tears from his eyes. He could practically feel the sword vibrating in his hand with its eagerness to destroy the Darkness in front of them. "We're going to have to let him do it," he murmured. "Let him do it and then put him down after."

"Aye," Archimedes breathed, transfixed by the laughing madman.

Laughter ceasing abruptly, Ignatius gave them a salute. "It's been wonderful chatting with you all, but I must be getting on with things. Please, make yourself comfortable. I'm sure we'll have many things to discuss in the coming days."

Holding his breath, Harry watched as Ignatius carefully stepped over the silver inlaid into the floor, taking care not to break the circle. Ginny clutched his arm, fingernails digging painfully into his flesh. Inside the circle, the smoke swirled around, seeming almost hesitant and unsure of this new development.

Spreading his arms wide, Ignatius spat a command at the smoke in a firm voice. "Veni ad me!" The smoke didn't respond and Harry exhaled. Maybe it won't work. "Veni ad me!" Ignatius said again, sounding impatient and the black smoke began to collapse in on itself, slowly moving closer to its presumptive master.

"Veni ad me!" Ignatius said once more, his voice strained almost to breaking. The black cloud shot forward almost faster than Harry could see and completely enveloped Ignatius's head, covering him completely from the shoulders up. The cloud surrounded him for only a second before shooting away once more, revealing Ignatius's frozen expression of surprise. Everyone in the room was very still, holding their collective breath for an eternal moment before Ignatius collapsed and fell down dead.

Transfixed, Harry could only watch in seeming slow motion as the dead man's outstretched arm fell across the silver ring, breaking the circle. The heavy pressure in the room vanished, making his ears pop as the magical energy of the circle dissipated. He had time to draw a single breath before all hell broke loose.

With a cry of dismay, Ginny darted forward to Ignatius. "Gin! No!" Harry shouted, reaching for her coat, feeling the fabric slip through his grasp. He sprang forward as she got on her knees next to the dead man, probing his neck for a pulse. The black cloud hovered and he had a feeling that it was confused by all of the commotion as both Sutton and Archimedes fired spells at it, jets of different-colored light passing harmlessly through it.

"He's dead! There's nothing you can do!" Sword in one hand, he grabbed her arm, hauling her up with the other, eyes glued to the hovering blackness. Completely unperturbed by the spells zipping through it, it hovered closer and Harry put Ginny behind him, slashing at it with the sword to absolutely no effect.

"Archimedes! Restore the circle!" Sutton shouted as he waved his wand. Harry saw Ignatius's body slide swiftly to the other side of basement, coming to rest against the wall with a soft thump, leaving the circle unbroken once more. The cloud was still within the confines of the silver, but just barely.

Springing forward like a man half his age, Archimedes crouched down next to the metal in the floor. The cloud seemed to realize that it was about to be confined to its prison once more and expanded, sending several tendrils out. "Now, Archimedes!" Harry yelled, backing up and slashing desperately at one of the questing tendrils. It simply split and reformed, swirling like tobacco smoke. "Gin, get out! Run!" He pushed her toward the basement stairs, keeping his body between her and the approaching malevolent cloud.

He heard Archimedes murmuring as he touched his wand to the silver and he knew it was too late. Too much of the cloud had gotten past the Bounding Circle; closing it now would be useless. A brief flash of blue light and the circle was energized once more, but only a quarter of the black cloud was still in it, the energy of the circle cutting it off from the main body. Harry watched as the cloud in the circle turned to gray and dissipated, certain he heard an angry scream.

The remainder of the cloud shuddered and seemed to shake itself like a dog. Harry's mind raced, desperately trying to come up with a way to destroy it. Nothing he'd ever read or trained for covered anything like this. He pushed Ginny toward the stairs again. "Go. I love you. Get to Sarah, yeah?"

Ginny nodded, freckles standing out starkly on her pale face before she turned away from him and started running up the stairs. Turning back to the cloud, his eyes widened in horror as it expanded, growing longer. Faster than a thought, it arrowed straight for Ginny just as she gained the top step. All Harry heard was a soft "Oh!" and she stiffened as it burrowed straight into her, sending her tumbling backwards down the stairs.

36. Chapter 36

Ginny stumbled a few steps forward as if she'd jumped from a moving broom, barely saving herself from falling flat on her face. Heart pounding, she spun around, seeing only a white, featureless space. Looking down at herself, she saw she was in jeans and an old blue jumper with a giant "F" on it and a hole in the left elbow, well-worn trainers on her feet. This isn't what I was wearing … she thought, remembering the off-the-shoulder cocktail dress she'd worn to the gala. I was running up the stairs to get away …

She had only a moment to puzzle out her change of clothing and venue when she heard the sound of approaching footsteps and backed away, looking around fruitlessly for somewhere to hide. "Ah, I'm afraid you won't find anywhere to hide here, my dear," said a voice that sounded like someone had worked hard to add a veneer of sophistication to an accent from the rougher end of London. "I would say it's rather difficult to hide when you're inside your own mind, wouldn't you?"

A man that Ginny would have sworn was Jacob Green leered at her, sweeping the top hat from his head as he gave her a bow. "Forgive me. Cornelius Maxwell," the dead man said, extending his hand to her. She didn't take it and he frowned. "It seems manners have fallen on hard times."

"Where are we?" Ginny asked, feeling for her wand in her back pocket, reassured at the touch of the familiar yew wood. And how can I get out of here and back to Harry? Her last sight of him came to her, his eyes wide with a panic she was not used to seeing as she pelted up the basement stairs.

"We're inside of your mind. I should think that you would be very familiar with this place, given all of the time you've spent here with your dear Tom," he said, a saccharine friendliness oozing from his voice.

At the mention of Tom, Ginny's blood froze in her veins, memories of her time with the diary Horcrux flooding back. Endless hours spent chatting with the shade of Tom Riddle as she poured her tortured eleven-year-old heart out to him. He was such a good listener, offering only helpful suggestions for how she might make herself stand out to Harry, how she might get him to see her as more than his best friend's annoying little sister and how wonderful it would be when they finally shared true love's first kiss. But we didn't talk here … not in this place. She frowned, casting her memory back to a time she'd rather forget forever and the landscape around them shifted.

"Oh, well done, girl!" Cornelius said with obvious surprise and admiration as a green forest glen took shape around them. He was standing on a moss-covered rock next to a swiftly rushing stream and Ginny stood across the clearing from him, next to a fallen tree that had a perfect seat-shaped depression. Golden afternoon sunlight shone through the tree branches.

"That white was getting boring, don't you think?" she said with a forced casualness as she sat down in her old, familiar spot. "Please, don't feel that you need to stand. Tom always said that boulder was very comfortable."

She watched, muscles tensed as the shade settled his portly figure on the boulder. He set his top hat on the rock next to him and leaned his walking stick against it in easy reach. There's a sword in there, she remembered. Cornelius looked around, taking in the rushing water and the dappled sunlight falling between the leaves of the surrounding trees. "This really is very nice. Is it based on somewhere?"

Ginny shrugged, unwilling to tell him that this very place existed only a short distance from the Burrow and was her favorite place to escape her brothers when she was little. He frowned and cocked his head at her. "It seems to be missing a bit of something though." She felt a dull pressure in her head and turned away from him, closing her eyes until the pressure stopped. "I think that's a bit more appropriate, don't you?"

Opening her eyes, she saw that the sunlight had been replaced by cold moonlight, casting the dead man's face in shadow. The fact that he could exert change on a place of her creation in her own mind frightened her badly and she struggled to maintain her cool expression. "Depends on your taste, I suppose."

Cornelius rocked back, letting out a sharp bark of laughter. "You and I are going to get along very well. I've always enjoyed a challenge." The leer was back in full force and Ginny suppressed a shiver.

"And what exactly are we going to be getting along with?" she asked, casually drawing her wand out of her back pocket. She had no idea if she'd actually be able to do anything with it here in this place, but the familiar weight of it felt reassuring in her hand.

"We're going to be sharing this beautiful body of yours for a long time, my dear," Cornelius said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. The way he looked at her made her very glad that she wasn't in the off-the-shoulder black dress, but in the shapeless old jumper and jeans. "Well, I say share, but you're never going to be in control of it again, so really I'll be the one in charge." He sighed, looking around at the peaceful clearing. "I've always wondered what it's like to be a woman. I wonder if Harry will be able to tell the difference?"

The thought of this man being in control of her body, living her life and being with Harry turned her stomach. Can I vomit here? Fighting a rising sense of panic, Ginny simply nodded. "And I'm just to be shoved aside?"

"In so many words."

"Why did you kill Ignatius? Why not take him over?"

Cornelius shook his head. "Ah, Ignatius. He was a … flawed vessel. Too much ambition in that one. Trying to tame him would have been a tiresome chore. Much easier to remove his piece from the game board, as it were."

"And Jacob?" Ginny asked. If I can keep him talking, maybe I can give Harry and the others more time to do something. If time is even passing the same.

"That would have been the work of a moment." Cornelius snapped his fingers with a grin. "He is my descendant and the same blood runs through us both. I would have sent him to his slumber and been free to walk as a man once more."

A chill trickled down her spine and she steeled herself to ask the question that she must. "And me? What makes me so attractive?"

"What do they teach children these days that you do not even know your own worth?" Shaking his head sadly, Cornelius shifted on the moss-covered rock. "You, Ginny Weasley, are a seventh child and the first daughter of your father's line in several generations. As such, you possess a deep well of power and are … more sensitive … to certain energies and magics, as you no doubt discovered when you met Tom." He grinned at her, leaning forward and she subconsciously leaned away from him, even though he was all the way across the clearing from her. "You've already been broken to harness, so to say."

Ginny kept her expression calm, even though she felt as if her very breath had been snatched away. He's dead! Tom is dead and gone, but he can still hurt me! "Well, I don't think you'll find me a very obedient beast of burden," she said, hoping she was projecting abject boredom.

Cornelius only chuckled indulgently and she felt that pressure in her head again. She felt almost like she was drowning, her vision blurring as if she were looking up at the sky through a few feet of water and a surge of panic swept through her, transporting her to how she felt when Tom would take over, using her to open the Chamber of Secrets and release the basilisk to wreak havoc on the school.

Gasping, she pressed on her forehead with the heel of her hand until the awful pressure eased. Across from her, Cornelius smiled in satisfaction. "You're strong, make no doubt about that, but so young. And well-broken. I really wish there were some vestige of Tom left to thank."

"You're a few years too late for that. Harry killed him," Ginny spat, angry at the reminder of the time she'd spent possessed by the spirit housed in the Horcrux diary. She looked at the trees surrounding them and found them to be a bit more sinister, the friendly green trees in her memory replaced by spidery, sick-looking things. Frowning, she concentrated, a flush of pleasure running through her as the light brightened to a late-afternoon glow and the trees flourished green and healthy once more.

Cornelius gave her a respectful nod and she braced herself for that pressure in her head again, but none came. Instead, he appeared to make himself more comfortable on the boulder, taking off his jacket and loosening his cravat. "Looks like we're going to be here for a while, you and I. We should get to know each other better."

"I know everything I need to know about you," Ginny said coldly, keeping her eyes glued to him. She had to keep reminding herself that he wasn't Jacob. Except for the outlandish sideburns and extra weight around the middle, they could almost be twins. Even his voice had a similar timbre for all that the accent was very different.

"Ah, but if we are going to be together, then I must learn more about you." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Tell me, do you hold a grudge against Harry for letting your brother die?"

So, he knows some things, but not everything, Ginny thought with a wave of relief. I still have some secrets from him. Mind racing, the words came out of her mouth almost without conscious thought. "That's one of the few things we fight about, actually." At the hint of discord, Cornelius's expression sharpened, looking like a hound that had caught the scent of a fox. "I mean, Fred was of age and could do whatever he wanted to," she said with a shrug that suggested doubt.

"But if Harry had just done what he was told, your brother would still be here, wouldn't he?" Cornelius said, nodding sympathetically.

"Exactly." She shook her head, keeping a regretful look on her face. "He's never been very good at doing what he's told." Ginny remembered that awful, endless night, hearing the amplified voice of Voldemort, calling for Harry to surrender and her conviction that he should not; that he should resist and continue searching for the diadem. Summoning all of her skill and guile, she embroidered the lie. "Everything would have been fine. His sacrifice still would have protected him." Across from her, Cornelius shook his head sadly. "Instead my brother was forced to exchange his life for Harry's."

"I'm not surprised to hear that. Everyone wants to live and will do whatever they can to continue doing so." Cornelius sat back, adopting the attitude of a wise master instructing a pupil. "There is nothing you can do to make people like Harry work for the greater good."

Ginny kept her face still, nodding along with him. She wanted to shout, to scream in his face. Harry wasn't afraid to die! He went into that forest to die for all of us! There's your greater good! "That's partly why he left the Aurors. He complained constantly about how the department was becoming entirely too restrictive and namby-pamby. Wouldn't really allow him the freedom to handle things the way he felt they ought to have been." Her stomach turned at the look of avarice on the dead man's face as she told the lie. He's eating this up. He's so willing to just believe the worst of everyone. Harry, if this man takes me over, I hope I've told enough lies to lead you to the truth.

"I'll have my work cut out for me then, bringing him to heel," Cornelius said, voice full of sage wisdom. The thought of this awful person inhabiting her body, living with Harry, kissing him … making love with him caused a wave of dizziness to wash over her and she swallowed her rising gorge. Maybe I can vomit here.

"Is that what you did with your wife? Brought her to heel?"

Cornelius rocked backwards, focusing on her once more, thoughts of controlling Harry momentarily banished. "My wife was very young when we married. She had a lot to learn."

"And I'm sure you were an excellent teacher." Ginny took a deep breath. Let's see if I can make him as uncomfortable as I am. "Did you teach her about Horcruxes?" she asked, head cocked casually to one side. "Or did you not tell her what you were torturing and killing her for?" Cornelius scowled and she felt a spurt of triumph. "Did she go to her death, wondering what she had done to make you so angry?"

Clearly the discussion of Esther's death and his part in it agitated him and he picked up his walking stick, tapping the butt of it against the boulder in a staccato rhythm. Ginny plunged forward, hoping to goad him into something she could counter, mindful of the blade housed in the cane. "Did you send her to her grave wondering if burnt toast or an overdone egg that morning sealed her fate?" Scowling, Cornelius narrowed his eyes at her and she felt the pressure in her head again. She took a deep breath against the pain, digging deep to apply Occlumency. After what seemed like an endless moment, the pressure in her head went away and she heard Cornelius grunt.

"I see you know at least one trick, my dear," he ground out, sounding irritated.

But you're still here. I'm still here. That smoke must have something to do with it. The thought of that malevolent smoke actually being inside of her chilled her, but she focused on needling the dead man's pride. "If only Esther had been as lucky," she said, laying the sadness in her voice on thick.

"Pah," Cornelius spat, standing up. Ginny tensed, eyes glued to him, ready to tumble backwards over the log and put it between them. She had yet to see his wand, but didn't doubt that it was close to hand. "I'd been given a death sentence. 'You'll be gone in five years, maybe seven if you're lucky,' the Healer said." He paced back and forth between the stream and the boulder, movements quick and agitated. He looked back at Ginny and she carefully avoided looking him in the eyes. "Tell me, girl. What would you have done? If you'd been told you had only a few years left to live, but you knew that with a simple spell, you would be able to come back, whole and disease-free?"

"I'd hardly call creating one of the worst things known to our kind 'a simple spell'," she said tartly.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't." He stopped by the boulder again, resting one foot easily on it. "You've spent your adult life saving people. Saving their lives, soothing their hurts, curing their boils. How does it make you feel?"

Surprised by his question, Ginny answered honestly. "It makes me feel good."

"And what if you can't save someone? What if despite your best efforts, all of your training and knowledge, they still die?"

"Every Healer or doctor runs into cases that they can't resolve. Not every case has an optimal outcome."

"Optimal outcome," he sneered. "Such a pretty phrase for 'I'm very sorry Glenda, but your poppa has died.'" He stopped his pacing and faced her. "I still had things I very much wanted to do. Why shouldn't I take advantage of the things my magic affords me?"

"But that wasn't the only thing you took advantage of." Ginny tightened her grip on her wand, not sure how he would react to her words. "Did Esther know what she was dying for? Did you get her consent to take her life so that you may preserve yours?" Across the clearing, Cornelius growled and she felt that curious pressure again and she focused on her Occlumency, driving him out. "Did poor Esther know that she would be leaving her daughter so soon?"

"You know nothing!" he shouted, the calm urbane facade gone.

"I think I know quite a lot. I've been present at many deathbeds. I've seen men break down crying, desperately trying to bargain for even another minute. I've seen women holding on to their loved ones as they slip away." She leaned forward. "I've seen children more prepared to die than you."

His cry of rage shook her and his wand finally appeared, a jet of red light coming straight at her. Before she could raise a Shield, she felt a chill shoot through her chest and she realized the spell had passed right through her. Looking at Cornelius, she saw he was equally surprised. "Foolish girl! You know nothing about facing death! You don't know how I struggled with such a terrible decision!" he shouted, face red and contorted.

Heart in her throat, Ginny forced herself to remain calm. So we can cast, but his spell didn't affect me, she thought as he continued to rant and rave. That means I probably can't cast against him. How am I going to get out of here? Do I keep goading him? She let him go on until he finally wound down, breathing hard.

I've got to get him to make a move. "But you still made the decision to kill your wife. To commit murder so you could split your soul. And then you plotted with your partner to kill your daughter to resurrect you. Such a loving father and husband." Ginny put as much scorn as she could muster into her voice.

"Richard." Cornelius spat on the ground. "Weak. I should have seen it."

"I disagree. I think he was strong. Strong enough to defy you." Another burst of red shot through her and she saw it leave a scorch mark on a tree next to her and she frowned as he spun away from her in frustration. "Magic has no effect here; why do you keep casting?"

The dead man turned back to face her, smiling a terrible smile when she met his eyes. The pressure in her head was almost like a spike driving into her brain, making her cry out in pain and surprise as he scattered her concentration. He continued his assault and she became aware of the light in the clearing growing darker than the twilight it had been. Once more the trees became spindly and thin and she heard the sounds of things scrabbling around in the darkness.

The changes in what was her place enraged her and she took a deep breath, gathering her focus, willing the glen to go back to how she'd originally envisioned it. Ignoring the cold torment in her head, she used her fury to turn the pain back on Cornelius, feeling a grim satisfaction at his grunt. Gradually, she became aware of the light in the clearing moving back toward sunlight and the spike in her head lessened, finally disappearing entirely.

Clearly frustrated by his failure to cow her into submission, Cornelius spun around and as he did, a magnificent stag bounded through the clearing, making Ginny's heart soar. Harry! I wonder ….? Touching her wand to her hummingbird tattoo, she focused on Summoning him with the utmost urgency.

"That's one trick that won't help you, girl," Cornelius said with a cruel smile. "He can't reach you here. It's just you and I, I'm afraid."

And I'm afraid this place isn't big enough for the two of us, Ginny thought, disappointed that Harry didn't suddenly materialize next to her. "I guess we'd better get comfortable with each other then."

Cornelius stared at her, his condescending expression morphing into one of hatred. Faster than Ginny would have thought possible, Cornelius sprinted toward her, knocking her off of her perch on the fallen log. He was on top of her, using his greater mass to keep her on her back. "Insolent, stupid girl!" he raged as they wrestled in the dirt.

Her first instinct was to hex him, but the instant she had the thought, she knew it wouldn't work. Twisting her body as he struggled to fasten his hands around her neck, she frantically thought back to the lessons Harry and Ron had drilled into her when she first went to live in London.

In her memory, she stood in the back garden of the Burrow, the summer sun sending sparks from her brother's hair. "Spread your legs and bend your knees," Ron said, demonstrating the deceptively relaxed-looking stance. Harry mimicked him and she watched as they viciously tried to bring each other down, Ron crowing in triumph as he pushed Harry's face into the long grass.

But he's already got me down, she thought, pushing with all of her might against his shoulders trying to shove him off of her. Another lesson sprang to mind, this time it was Harry on top of her, his weight holding her down, the smell of crushed grass rising all around them. "I don't want to hurt you," she protested, looking up at him, still not used to seeing him without his glasses.

"Don't worry, Gin. I don't want you to be in the habit of holding back, yeah? It's just a few scratches," he said, sounding confident in his own abilities.

Propelled by the memory, Ginny let go of Cornelius's shoulders, spreading her fingers out into claws and raking them down the sides of his face with her sharp nails. "You bitch!" he howled as bright red marks appeared down his cheeks. Encouraged by his distraction, she did it again, harder this time and he roared again, throwing himself off of her. She used the opportunity to heave herself to her feet and run as fast as she could, leaping over the small stream in a single bound. For a crazy moment, she thought she could smell the same crushed grass she had at the Burrow all those years ago.

She had no idea how large this forest in her mind was, but she was determined to put as much distance between her and the vengeful spirit. Darting around the trunk of a large tree she remembered climbing when she was little, she heard Cornelius crashing around behind her. Useless wand clutched in her hand, she desperately tried to quiet her breathing, listening as the sounds came steadily closer. Maybe I can poke him in the eye with it!

"You can't hide from me, girl! I've got your scent now! I'll find you soon enough!" he shouted, sounding utterly deranged.

Clutching her wand tightly, she risked a glance around the trunk of the tree, catching a flash of his white shirt in the underbrush. Ducking back behind the tree, Ginny held her breath, trying to will herself invisible. How am I going to get myself out of this? She chanced another look and caught sight of his livid face. Long scratches ran down his cheeks and she saw wisps of smoke rising from the wounds she'd made.

He continued stalking, moving quieter now and Ginny cursed herself for not thinking to climb the tree before he'd gotten so close. "Ginevra, you are far too old to be playing hide-and-seek. Step out and we can continue our conversation like civilized people," he said, back in condescending elder mode. "I apologize if I frightened you. Sometimes my temper gets the better of me." He shook his head ruefully, eyes continuing to dart around the trees, seeking her out. He swiped his hand over one of the scratches on his face, irritated at the smoke that continued to rise.

Ginny felt her heart begin to slow as she watched him. That smoke … I wonder what would happen if I cut him? I wish I had the Sword of Gryffindor here. But … he left his walking stick back at the clearing. Excitement washed through her at the thought of running this awful man through with his own sword. Justice! she thought fiercely.

Lost in thoughts of running to the clearing and snatching up Cornelius Maxwell's sword, Ginny was startled at the sound of a branch snapping very close by and smothered a gasp, chancing another look around her tree. He was very close to her, almost within arm's reach, looking a bit the worse for wear. His fine white shirt was smeared with dirt and the collar had become undone. The stitching on the shoulder had started unraveling, making him look more like a hobo than a wealthy, powerful wizard.

It's now or never! Ginny took several deep breaths, Harry's voice echoing, "Be smart, be safe, be fast," in her head. Before she could second guess herself, she darted out from behind the safety of her former climbing tree, running full-tilt for the clearing.

"Aha! I knew you'd come out!" Cornelius shouted behind her, spurring her on faster as he crashed around behind her. She saw the stream come into view ahead and gathered herself to jump, clearing it neatly. Eyes searching, she saw the walking stick where he'd left it, leaning against the moss-covered boulder and she ran to it, snatching it up and continuing on through the clearing to the other side.

"You think to duel me, do you? You don't even know the first thing to do with that!" Cornelius called mockingly, still sounding too close for comfort. "I doubt Harry ever taught you anything about how to use a sword!"

I know where the pointy end goes, you bastard! Ginny thought as she raced to another tree she remembered. It was not as good for climbing, but some disease long ago had hollowed it out and there was a little hiding place at the base. I'll tuck myself in there and give him a surprise he won't soon forget! Spying her objective, she threw herself down, rolling into the hole in the trunk of the tree. Slowing her breathing, she drew the sword out of the walking stick, surprised at how heavy it was for such a thin piece of metal.

"Now, now. You really shouldn't have taken that. You don't have the faintest idea what to do with it and you'll only end up hurting yourself," Cornelius said chidingly, sounding like he was talking to a little girl. "We were having such a nice conversation and I felt like I was really getting to know you." His voice had a pout in it, putting her in mind of Jacob when he was in one of his persuasive moods.

She shut out his cajoling voice, focusing on the racket he was making as he moved through the underbrush, betraying his city-raised nature. He continued to talk, trying to get her to betray her location, slowly coming closer and closer. Shifting around in the cramped hiding place, Ginny gripped the sword in both hands, trying to get the point of it oriented away from her so she could jab it into Cornelius.

Muscles screaming for action, Ginny forced herself to lie still. I'm only going to get one chance at this. Got to make it count. He was coming closer and she swallowed, trying to get her heart back into her chest where it belonged. "Now this looks like an interesting tree," Cornelius said, sounding like he was right next to her. She gripped the sword tighter, readying herself to stab another person for the first time ever. Well, a person-shaped thing, anyway.

"Boo!" Cornelius shouted, looking directly into her little hole, gleeful triumph on his face. Caught completely by surprise, she stabbed forward awkwardly, aiming for his grinning face. He dodged easily to the side and then grabbed her wrist, hauling her out as she squawked in protest. "I told you that you wouldn't be able to do anything with that!" He twisted her wrist viciously, causing her to drop the sword from nerveless fingers. He kicked it aside, pulling her to her feet. "When will you learn to listen to your elders, you ridiculous girl?"

Their eyes met and again the pressure came, his teeth bared in a rictus grin as he stared at her. She desperately tried to set up an Occlumency block, but she was so tired and so very scared that it was worse than useless. She felt as if she were drowning once more, gasping for breath as the light around her dimmed. No! This is just like Tom all over again! she despaired, Cornelius's hate-filled faced dominating her vision.

Once more, she felt like a stupid little girl, lying helplessly on the floor of the Chamber of Secrets while a twelve-year-old Harry fought a terrifying monster. Harry, who even as a mere boy was willing to sacrifice himself for those he believed in. What is he doing right now? As she bowed under the dead man's assault, she tried to reach out for even the merest feeling from Harry, feeling like she was flinging herself out into a fathomless void.

He's so strong! She became aware of her friendly little forest becoming something different all together, the trees twisting into unnatural shapes, the stink of rot filling the air. I can't … I … The pressure was increasing, making her feel like she was being driven further and further underwater until she abruptly felt a jarring sensation, almost like she'd finally reached the bottom of whatever this was.

Cornelius seemed to sense it too and he scowled, appearing like he was concentrating harder. She thought of Harry again, hoping to summon a memory of him one last time, something pleasant to hold onto while her consciousness was compressed and trampled into submission by Cornelius Maxwell. Once more, the smell of fresh green grass came to her as she remembered flying Seeker drills with Harry, preparing for the last Quidditch game of the season in her fifth year.

"I'm a Chaser, Harry, not a Seeker!" she'd protested when he told her that she would be taking his place.

"You're the best one for it," he'd insisted, drawing on his innate stubbornness. "No one is a better flyer than you and you're the smallest one."

"Then let me score so many points it won't matter if Cho catches the Snitch!"

Harry merely kicked off from the ground, shooting high up into the sky, leaving her no choice but to follow. They hovered in place, looking at each other as he fished the Snitch out of his pocket. "You've got this," he said, sounding supremely confident in her abilities as he activated the Snitch, releasing it into the afternoon sunlight.

He believed in me, believed I could win the game and the House Cup and I did. Another memory, this one of her telling him about her ambition to leave England and everything she knew and loved to attend Muggle medical school in California. In her memory, he sat there and listened to her, nodding and smiling even though she knew now that he was dying inside. Encouraging her to chase her dream because he believed that she would be successful.

Everything. He's always believed in me. I need to believe in myself! A zinging sensation went through her, feeling as if she'd touched a live wire and she felt her heart speed up. She focused on Cornelius and felt a jolt of anger at how he'd perverted her childhood forest glen. This is my place! You don't belong here! she thought, digging deep into the well of belief inside of her.

"He can't help you here, girl!" he ground out, his voice sounding far away as Ginny began to fight back.

You're so wrong, she thought fiercely. First, we need to set this place to rights. Like a ripple around a rock dropped into a small pool, the sinister darkness generated by Cornelius's tainted power dissolved, replaced by burgeoning green and gold, the smell of rot and death fading away as a fresh, cool wind blew past them.

Snarling, Cornelius leaned forward and she felt the power of his mind batter at her, trying to break her down and rather than try and meet it head on, she mentally stepped aside from it, letting it wash by. A vision of using her flexibility and smaller size to worm her way out of Harry's grasp when wrestling with him made her smile and she saw Cornelius's face flood red.

"You will submit to me!" he roared, taking another step toward her.

Ginny stood her ground, turning her attention to him rather than their surroundings. "No, I don't believe I will," she murmured, gathering her will. Their eyes met and in an instant, she knew everything about him. Knew about his impoverished youth in a rough-and-tumble part of London, how even going to Hogwarts and being sorted into Slytherin hadn't been the balm he'd hoped for as he had more of a knack for making enemies rather than true friends.

As a young man, Cornelius had been ambition personified and he worked his way up from a lowly law clerk to junior partner in an up-and-coming wizarding firm, only to be caught with another partner's wife, fleeing London for New York one step ahead of a Killing Curse. Unable to endear himself to potential law clients, he struck out west, finally finding his calling in cheating hardworking miners of all stripes, mercilessly separating them from their gold.

She knew the instant he saw Esther at a grand gala during her debut season that he finally lost his heart to someone else, but even that wouldn't be enough to save her from his overwhelming ambition. Killing his wife was indeed a sacrifice for him and she felt a brief flash of pain from him as he remembered his wife writhing in pain on their marriage bed before he killed her to split his soul in two, for no one loved Cornelius Maxwell more than Cornelius himself.

"No!" he shouted, sounding desperate for the first time, advancing a few more steps towards her, looking like he was fighting against a gale-force wind. "Get out!" Ginny felt herself slammed mentally back and her concentration was momentarily rattled. Shaking her head, she stepped backwards, away from the oncoming madman.

"It's you who should get out! You don't belong here," she shouted, focusing all of her will and energy on the shade. As she did, she saw his outline start to blur and more wisps of smoke, thicker now, came out of the scratches she'd made on his face. He raised his hands, looking at them in horror and she saw that more smoke was coming from the tips. Triumph flashed through her. Yes! I can push him out of here!

Clutching his head in pain, Cornelius groaned in rage and agony. Opening bloodshot eyes, he looked at her with such an expression of hatred that Ginny felt it almost like a physical blow. "You are mine!" he shouted, making a desperate charge at her. He crashed into her, knocking her off her feet and into the dirt, trying to pin her down.

Thrashing underneath him, Ginny kicked her legs and pounded her fists anywhere she could. His meaty hands were around her throat, cutting off her air and she started to panic. The eyes! Harry said go for the eyes! Pulse pounding in her head, she clutched the sides of his face, driving her thumbs into his vulnerable eyes as hard as she could.

Cornelius screeched and hurled himself off of her, hands clapped over his eyes, more smoke rising between his fingers. Choking, Ginny scrambled away from him in an awkward crab walk, desperately trying to regain her breath and put as much distance between them as she could. As she scuttled along the ground, her hand closed on something vaguely familiar and she looked down to see the ruby-encrusted hilt of the Sword of Gryffindor.

A brief surge of relief was replaced by despair at the memory of how easily Cornelius had disarmed her before, but she grabbed it anyway. Harry said he only scratched the ghost in the Pensieve. Maybe I can get him to scratch himself? If it even works the same way in here. She set aside the mind-boggling thought of how the sword could even be present here. Did I imagine it? God, I hope I imagined the Basilisk venom, too!

"You're mine now, girl!" Cornelius's shout brought her out of her reverie of examining the sword. He pelted toward her, hands outstretched, clearly intending to pounce and choke her into submission once more. Forcing herself to lie still and look helpless, Ginny watched as time slowed down, Cornelius looking like he was moving through molasses as he launched himself at her. She waited until she was certain he was past the point of no return and raised the sword, bracing the pommel against her sternum.

Fully committed to his action, the shade of Cornelius Maxwell was unable to arrest his forward motion, fully impaling himself on the sword. His eyes wide in horror, he stared at her, seemingly transfixed, a burbling, gasping sound coming from his mouth along with a torrent of black smoke.

Ginny gathered her legs underneath him, pushing him off and scuttled away, letting go of the sword, gasping for breath as she stared at the body, the silver blade sticking out of its back. As she watched, the body started to implode on itself, dissolving into a black, greasy smoke. "Oh God," she whispered, lurching to her feet, desperate to get away from the spreading miasma.

Reaching the denser forest, she saw that the place she'd built was starting to degrade back into the featureless white space that it was when she'd first arrived and she tried to overcome her panic and build it up again, watching over her shoulder as that dense blackness continued to advance. Her efforts were fruitless and as the last tree disappeared, the smoke overtook her, choking her and sending her to her knees. Harry, I'm sorry …

One. Two. Three. Harry counted his heartbeats as he dropped the Sword of Gryffindor with a clang and sprinted up the stairs, catching Ginny in his arms as she fell. The impact of her stiff body against his threw him backwards and he grunted as his shoulder hit a step and then he was floating, buoyed by someone's levitation and gently settled down on the stone floor of the basement.

Panic rising, Harry looked down at her still face. Her eyes were closed and she looked like she was sleeping, but there was a telltale line of worry between her brows. "Gin! Ginevra!" he said urgently, stroking her cheek, hoping for some sort of response from her. He became aware of Archimedes crouched next to him, anxiously looking down at her.

"Is she breathing?" he asked, placing his hand on her chest. Harry fought the urge to slap it away as he realized that she either wasn't breathing or doing it so shallowly he couldn't tell the difference.

"I don't know. Ginny!" Terror rose up in him and he felt sick as he gently laid her down on the stone, loath to let go of her, but she needed to be flat on her back if he was to intervene. She looked so small and Harry felt a sweep of vertigo as he was transported back to the Chamber of Secrets. He raised his wand, fixing the proper spell in his mind, when she suddenly took a deep breath, her chest rising higher than he'd ever seen. A wave of relief washed over him as she paused, seeming to hold the breath before starting a long, slow exhale.

The relief turned to despair when he saw the stream of smoke coming from her nose and mouth. Archimedes grabbed for his arm to pull him away, but he angrily shook him off, taking Ginny up in his arms once more. As she continued to breathe out smoke, Harry realized it was ashy gray and dissipating, much as the portion of the black cloud that had been cut off from the main body by the renewed Bounding Circle had. His heart beat in wild excitement and he held her closer, murmuring words of encouragement. Dimly, he heard Sutton gasp in amazement behind him.

After an eternity, Ginny took another breath, slowly blinking her eyes open. "Harry," she whispered in a raspy voice, "you believed in me."

"Gin, love," Harry said, holding her tightly to him as if he were afraid she would disappear like the smoke she'd just exhaled. When she didn't respond, he looked down at her and saw her eyes were closed once more, her breathing slow and regular. Bending to kiss her, he realized she was ice cold. "Gin?" he asked, shaking her, trying to get her to rouse again. "Gin!" he shouted in her ear, hoping the shock of it would wake her. "Shit. Shit. Shit."

"What?" Archimedes asked in dismay.

"She's ice cold and I can't wake her up. I don't know what's wrong. I've never … I've got to get her out of here."

"Give her to me. I can —"

"No!" Holding her against his chest, Harry stood and turned to face Archimedes. "I think you've done enough, yeah?"

"Harry," he began with a pleading expression.

"We're done here, all right?" At his words, Archimedes rocked back as if Harry had physically struck him. "Take care of him." He nodded to Jacob still lying on the stone where Ginny had checked him and turned his back on the two Aurors, taking the stairs out of the basement two at a time, practically running right into Evelyn in the doorway.

"Harry!"

"Downstairs," he said shortly, brushing past her on his way out of the damned house. Reassured by Ginny's regular breaths, he jogged off the property until he was certain he was well away from the anti-Apparation wards. Taking a moment to center his thoughts, he focused on his destination, holding Ginny closer as he Apparated the both of them to the only help he could think of.

"Potter? What—" Matthew stood in his doorway in rumpled pajamas, hallway lights glinting off his artfully mussed hair as he answered Harry's frantic pounding of his door.

"She's hurt. I don't know what to do. Please help me."

37. Chapter 37

Harry opened the door, surprised and yet somehow not to see Ron leaning casually against the doorframe looking slightly disheveled in his old dragonhide jacket. "Care to tell my why my mum sent me a Howler at the crack of dawn to tell me that my sister's clock hand was at 'Mortal Peril'?" he asked, sounding like he was asking what the soup of the day was.

Not fooled in the slightest, Harry stepped aside and invited him in past the Blood Seal. "How did you find us?" he asked, closing the door firmly.

Ron only snorted in response, looking around the condo, still full of the detritus of moving house. "Where is she?"

"She's resting. Come on." Leading the way, he showed Ron into the bedroom where Ginny lay asleep, looking extremely small in the king-sized bed. Stuart the cat was curled up next to her, keeping up a steady, rumbling purr. He'd been there ever since Harry had put her in bed in the wee hours of the morning. Gently settling himself next to her, Ron took one of her hands in his and brushed away a stray bit of hair from her forehead.

Ginny shifted at his touch, eyes fluttering open. "Ron," she whispered, "what are you doing here?"

"Mum sent me," he said gently and Harry saw some of the tension go out of his body at seeing his sister recognize him and able to speak.

"Oh, that's nice," she mumbled, closing her eyes. A moment later she was sound asleep again. Leaning forward, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead and let go of her hand.

Standing up, he turned to Harry and pointed to the door, all traces of the gentle brother gone. In his place was the protective brother bear and Harry braced himself for the coming attack. Falling back on English politeness, he put the kettle on while Ron seated himself in one of their new barstools at the breakfast bar, fingers drumming on the granite. They were silent while the kettle boiled and Harry dropped teabags into two mugs. Handing one to Ron, he apologized for the lack of milk. "Haven't had time to do a shop."

Ron shrugged and took a sip, setting the mug aside. He stared at Harry, blue eyes narrowed and fingers templed under his chin. Harry was starting to think that he was going to sit like that all day when he finally spoke. "You will tell me exactly what happened. Leave nothing out. I'll know if you do."

Taking a deep breath, Harry did, feeling like he was unburdening his soul. He began at the beginning, some of which Ron already knew from when he and Hermione had visited just a few short months ago. What Ron didn't know was how they'd been driven from their flat above the Chinese when Ignatius had shown up at their doorstep and how they'd learned about what was so special about that coin.

"Wait, hold on," Ron said, holding up his hand. "Ginny touched this coin and what happened?"

"D'you remember when Snape died? And he gave me those memories?" Ron nodded and Harry went on, arms crossed as he leaned against the cabinets he and Ginny had put their new dishes away in just yesterday. "Cornelius had done something similar, only it wasn't just memories. More like an active consciousness."

"So like a Horcrux, then? No wonder those Dementors went after him." Harry shrugged, knowing he was thinking of the locket and the diary. "So what happened when Ginny touched it?"

"It talked to her. She said it got into her head and talked to her. Said it would use her. Scared the shit out of her." Harry picked up his mug to take a drink, frowning at its lack of tea. "I couldn't let us stay there anymore, so we left that night. Stayed in hotels until we found this place. Just moved in yesterday, in fact."

Ron grunted, eyes darting around the cluttered condo. "So then what happened?"

"Well, things were quiet for a while until her Muggle friend Ben was attacked. That Ignatius bloke had been whipping up anti-Muggle rhetoric and I guess someone didn't like Ginny and Ben being friends. They were walking on campus and a wizard shot a spell at him. Ginny Apparated her and Ben to our suite," he said, smiling as Ron's eyes went wide.

"You're saying that my sister violated the Statute?" Harry nodded, turning the burner back on under the kettle.

"Yup. They decided that she'd done it in defense of herself and Ben, so she didn't get anything for it."

"They Obliviate … Ben, was it?"

"No. He knows all about us."

"Harry … that's risky."

He shrugged again. "They said he was safer with the knowledge in case someone went after him again. We'll see if they let him keep it. Anyway, so that happened and then we had to move again. And I figured out how to do a wandless Switching spell so we could get that coin away from him." The kettle sounded and he turned off the fire, dropping a fresh bag in each of their mugs, filling them both to the brim with hot water. "Did you know that I'm descended from the Peverells on both sides?"

Ron rolled his eyes and shook his head as he dunked his teabag. "I'm assuming you got the coin. What did you do next?"

"Um, well … we dropped it into the Pensieve. And then I had a bit of a sword fight with a sort of ghost."

"Jesus Christ, Harry."

"I know. And then last night Archimedes put out the portrait as bait for Ignatius at that gala and he took it." Harry fell silent as the events of the last twenty-four hours played through his mind. Unpacking, making love with Ginny in the afternoon, convincing her to go with him to the gala. God, I should have listened to her. I should have told Archimedes to shove off.

"So exactly what happened last night? Why was Ginny in mortal peril?" Ron asked slowly, eyes fixed on Harry.

Closing his eyes, Harry rubbed the back of his neck, trying to massage away some of the soreness that had resulted from his fall down the basement stairs and staying up all night to keep watch over Ginny. "Well, we were at the gala and Ignatius shows up. We had a bit of a chat and then Gin and I left. We'd just gotten outside when there were some explosions. Ignatius had stolen the Horcrux and blew the shit out of the place with Reducto as a distraction."

"Kill anyone?"

"No. Cuts and bruises mostly. Made an unholy mess for the Obliviators and Fixers." Ron groaned; neither one of them had fond memories of their occasional stints on the magical Fixit Squad. "So Archimedes had put a bit of blood on the portrait and we tracked it to Ignatius's house, pretty much as we expected."

"Why didn't you send Ginny home?"

"Ron, I tried!" Harry said in a near shout, running his hands through his air in agitated frustration. "I told her to go home, to be safe, but she wouldn't! She flat out refused to go." He looked at his best friend, dismayed to see him sitting with his arms crossed over his chest, a scowl on his face. "Don't give me that look. You know how she is!"

"You could have done something."

"If I wanted to get a divorce, sure," Harry snorted.

"You're not married," Ron said, eyes narrowed.

"We're engaged."

"Congratulations."

"Anyway, we went to his house. He was doing some sort of ritual in the basement. Had a Bounding Circle, Latin, the whole nine yards. He'd used Jacob's blood to release the soul in the Horcrux and was holding it in the circle."

"To what end? Was he trying to resurrect the bloke?" Ron asked, sitting up straight.

"He seemed to think he could … absorb the soul fragment into himself and add its magic to his own?" Harry shook his head. "You know how these arseholes can talk. I've never heard of anything like that in my life. Have you?" Ron shook his head, lips pursed thoughtfully. "He hinted that he found it in a book somewhere. I'll have to see if I can get a look at his library. No idea if he left any heirs."

"You're getting as bad as Hermione. So then what happened?"

"So there's this black cloud thing in the circle, yeah? And I'm thinking 'Holy shit, how are we going to destroy that?' when the bastard steps into the fucking circle with it. Now I'm sure we're going to have to let him do whatever he's going to do and then take him out, right?" Ron nodded, caught up in Harry's description. "The fucking sword has shown up, by the way. So Ignatius is in the circle, trying to command it and then it just kind of … swarmed him and it killed him."

Ron sat back in his seat, a frown creasing his forehead. "How?"

"Dunno. One second he was yelling at it and then he was dead."

Harry watched Ron mentally set aside the fact that a sentient cloud had killed a man in front of him last night, choosing to focus on his sister. "So what does this all have to do with Ginny being in the shape she's in now?"

Harry sighed, reliving the moment when Ignatius's dead body fell to the floor, his arm falling over the metal of the Bounding Circle and destroying the integrity of it. "He fell and his arm covered part of the circle."

"Fuck me," Ron breathed. "So it was on the loose, then?"

"Yeah."

"And it went straight for Ginny."

"Yeah." Harry could see it plain on his best friend's face. His sister, who had already been possessed by the soul fragment in Tom Riddle's diary and lived in fear of it ever happening again.

"What did you do?" Ron asked after a long moment of silence.

"What could I do? I'm there with a fucking sword of all things against a smoke cloud. Useless."

"The venom?"

"No. I took a swipe at it and it did fuck all. Neither did the spells Archimedes and Sutton were firing at it."

"So it went into Ginny and then what?"

"I don't know what she experienced—she hasn't been able to tell me yet—but I saw …" he took a deep breath, looking down at the floor of the kitchen. "I saw the smoke go into her, into her back. I'd told Gin to run, to get away when that cloud got loose and she was running up the stairs when it got her. She froze and started to fall backwards and I ran up to catch her before she fell down the stairs." He shook his head. "She wasn't breathing right away and then she took this huge breath and breathed out smoke."

"Was it … the soul fragment?"

"I think so? But it was like it was dead or something. It was gray instead of black and just dissipated like regular smoke, you know? Gin had done something to kill it when it was inside of her." Harry stared at the floor, conscious of Ron across from him.

"And why is she laid up? Why isn't my sister in here with us now, talking to us about whatever the fuck happened inside of her?"

"When she came out of it, she was cold, like she'd been frozen inside. Matthew—"

"Hudson?" Ron asked sharply.

"Yeah, I took her to his place. Didn't want to take her to a busy damn hospital and try and explain what happened. I knew Matthew would do whatever he could for her." The feeling of complete and utter helplessness came back to him and he shuddered. Uncharacteristically, Matthew had been the first person he'd thought of. Someone he knew who had magical medical expertise and would take care of Ginny in a private setting. Ginny would say that I wouldn't have had trouble wasting him if he'd fucked up. She might not be wrong.

"What did he do?"

"I'm not entirely sure. Possession is pretty rare, but does happen on occasion, according to him. He said fighting off a possession is very draining and her magic resources were nearly exhausted. Him and that witch Amanda got her warm again, but now she just has to rest. Build up her reserves again."

"Can she still do magic?" Ron asked, sounding almost afraid to hear the answer.

"Yeah. Matthew made sure of that before he let me bring her home."

They were silent for several moments, each lost in their own thoughts before Ron heaved a loud sigh, resting his head in his hands. "Are you sure it's her?" he asked, looking down at the granite countertop.

Harry squelched a flash of irritation at Ron's question. It was a perfectly legitimate question given the circumstances, but Ron asking it only served to remind Harry just how badly he'd failed to keep Ginny safe. "I'm sure."

"How?" Ron raised his eyes from the counter to look at him and Harry locked eyes with him, probing into his mind with Legilimancy, catching a sense of mingled worry and relief for Ginny and a hot blast of anger for Harry before Ron pushed him out with Occlumency. "All right then."

"Satisfied?" Harry asked, rankled from the anger he'd felt from him. Ron just looked at him and he felt his ire rise. "Dammit, Ron. I did the best I could, all right?"

"My sister could have died."

Just like Fred. "I know," Harry said quietly.

"I told you to leave it alone at Christmas, yeah? Let someone else deal with it. It wasn't your problem, mate," Ron said, voice tightly controlled.

"I know."

"And you had to get Ginny involved?"

"Ah, now that's where you're wrong. She involved herself. She makes her own choices, yeah?"

"But if you had let it alone like I told you to!"

Harry took off his glasses and closed his eyes, pressing on them hard with his fingers. "I couldn't. Ron, they've never dealt with anything like this out here. As far as we're concerned it's been fucking sunshine and daisies!" He settled his glasses back on his nose and looked at his best friend. "Listen, if I'd had my way about it, I would have destroyed it months ago and none of this would have happened."

"Why didn't you?"

"Archimedes wanted to catch Weatherbee with it to ruin his chances of being on the Council. We're pretty sure he was indirectly behind the attack on Gin's friend Ben. Oh, and he was starting to experiment with Binding Muggle-borns."

Ron's eyebrows shot up to his hairline and he let out a low whistle. "Shit," he said softly. "And this Weatherbee bloke is the one that's dead?"

"Yeah. At least last I saw he was."

"What about Archimedes? He was there, right?"

Harry shrugged, turning his empty mug around in his hands. "Dunno. He's fine, I guess."

"You guess? You two seemed pretty tight last I was here."

"He lied to me. Said he was retired when we first met. Turns out he's the head out here," Harry said after a deep breath. He still felt the deep sense of betrayal and replayed the moment when he finally figured it out. He told you he was retired? echoed in his mind, Auror Sutton's amazed voice seeming to mock his cluelessness. He carefully set the mug down on the counter, afraid he'd hurl it across the room. He didn't want to wake Ginny.

"What a fucking mess," Ron sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "What are you going to do?"

"About?"

"Archimedes, I guess? That's a pretty big lie to tell someone."

"I haven't decided. I really want to hit something, though," Harry said, shaking his head.

"Yeah? You wanna go three rounds?" Ron asked, eyes lighting up.

"Nah, I don't want to ruin your pretty face." Harry smiled, memories of sparring with Ron during their Auror days together coming to the surface. "For some reason, Hermione likes it."

"As if you could even land a hit on me," Ron snorted.

"Yeah? You're looking pretty soft these days, mate. Too much time on your arse."

"What about you? You think running and that bullshit yoga stuff are good enough?"

"Good enough to—" Harry's retort was cut short by Ginny's voice from the bedroom.

"Harry? Harry, where are you?" she called, voice rising in panic.

"I'm here!" he called, moving quickly to the bedroom, Ron following closely behind. He was surprised to see her sitting up and he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Is that Ron?" Ginny asked incredulously, catching sight of him in the doorway.

"Yeah. He got here a little while ago. You don't remember?"

"No," Ginny said, shaking her head. "What are you doing here?"

"Mum asked me to come," he said, sitting on the other side of the bed and taking her hand.

"What for? Where's Hermione?"

"Shh," Ron murmured, gathering her into a tight hug, rocking from side to side for several moments. "Listen, Mum's clock had you at 'Mortal Peril' and she sent me to check on you."

"I'm fine! Everything's fine!" Ginny said brightly, holding her brother's hands in hers.

"I told him," Harry said, watching as she suddenly looked like a child that had been caught with her hand in the biscuit tin.

"Oh." Ginny looked down at the comforter, avoiding her brother's gaze. "Am I in trouble?" she asked in a small voice.

"No, you're not in trouble." He put his finger under her chin, causing her to look back up at him. "Mum saw your hand go to Mortal Peril and just about came unglued. Sent me a Howler up to Hogwarts and everything, telling me I had to come and make sure you were all right."

"How long can you stay?"

"As long as you want me to," he said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"What about Hermione?" Ginny asked, cutting her eyes to Harry over her brother's shoulder.

"She's busy with NEWTs and OWLs, so she's not able to get away."

"Oh!" Ginny gasped. "My study group! What time is it?"

"It's almost noon, love. You've missed it already," Harry said gently, amazed that she could even be thinking of a study group right now.

"Ben must be so worried! Harry, can you …?"

"I'll take care of it, Gin. I need to do a shop anyway," Harry said, chagrined that he hadn't already thought of Ben; he was sure that if they'd had a phone it would be ringing off the hook.

Ginny nodded in relief and closed her eyes briefly. "Why am I so tired?"

"How are you feeling? Are you warm enough?" Harry asked, pressing his hand against her forehead and then on her chest, relieved to feel her warmth.

"I'm warm, but I'm so tired," she said, sounding like an out of sorts child.

"Remember, Matthew said it'd take a while to get your energy back. You do remember, right?" Harry asked, brows drawn down in concern.

"Yes, I remember," she said reassuringly. "I just thought that I'd have a nap and then be back to normal. I have so much to do."

"Well you're not doing any of it today, yeah?" Ron said, pushing her gently on one shoulder. "Let us take care of you."

"Ugh, you're a terrible nurse, Ron. Remember when I was five and Mum needed you to watch me for ten minutes while she hung up the wash?"

"Listen, I turned my back for one minute. It's not my fault you decided to crawl into the fireplace and make a mess." He turned to Harry with an aggrieved look. "Honestly, who expects a six-year-old to watch a five-year-old?"

"Your mum, apparently." Harry squeezed Ginny's hand. "D'you want anything? I can get you a cup of tea before I go out."

"Tea would be lovely, but I really need the loo right now." Harry watched anxiously as she got out of bed and tottered to the master bath, standing outside the closed door until she opened it. "Should I have invited you in?" she asked when she saw him there.

"Wouldn't be the first time we've been together in a loo," he said with a grin as she whacked him on the shoulder. He took her arm and helped her into the lounge, settling her on the sofa with a blanket over her.

"Honestly, I'm not an invalid!" she protested as he tucked one of their new throw pillows behind her. Stuart jumped up into her lap, nosing the blanket before settling down, flexing his paws as he kneaded Ginny's leg.

"Okay, so we need everything. Any special requests?" Harry asked, looking at Ginny and Ron. Ron was laying back in the new recliner, hands behind his head.

"Beer," he said succinctly. "Steak. Chips."

Ginny shook her head at him. "Don't feel like you have to get a ton, all right?" she said to Harry. "Just be sure to let Ben know I'm all right?"

"That's my first stop," he said, leaning down to kiss her.

"Ugh, get a room," Ron said from the recliner, eyes closed.

"We have a whole bloody apartment, but someone has invited himself over," Harry said, nudging Ron's foot.

"Sounds like a wanker."

"You have no idea."

Kissing Ginny once more, Harry Apparated out of the condo, appearing in an alleyway close to Ben's apartment. I hope he's home and not out looking for Gin or something, he thought as he walked quickly to Ben's building and ran lightly up the stairs. "Ben? Are you home?" he called as he knocked on the door.

He heard the sound of the door being unlocked and it opened a crack, Ben's bright blue eye peering out cautiously. "Harry? Where's Ginny? She wasn't at the study group this morning. Is she all right? Does she need anything?" he asked in rapid-fire fashion as he pulled Harry into the apartment.

"She's all right, just feeling a bit under the weather. I knew she wasn't feeling well and I let her sleep in. I completely forgot about your study group," Harry said apologetically.

"Oh, good. Well, I mean not good that she's not feeling well, but … I thought maybe something had happened," Ben said, hand over his heart.

Harry shook his head and plastered a smile on his face. If you only knew. "No, I think she's been working too hard and with the move yesterday, she just wore herself out. She should be in class tomorrow."

"That's right! You moved yesterday! It must be great to finally be in your own place."

"Yeah, it's pretty nice so far. Hey, uh, I don't think you need to worry so much about being attacked anymore, all right?"

"What? What happened?" Ben asked, looking surprised.

"We got word this morning that that Ignatius fellow that was making all of the trouble died last night."

"Oh my goodness. How?"

"Dunno," Harry shrugged, not really feeling like he was telling a lie; he truly didn't know how the black cloud had killed Ignatius. "Where's Gutierrez?"

"She had some things to do after the study group. I had to promise I'd stay put."

"Well, she should be out of your hair soon," Harry said, wondering if Archimedes had called her in to brief her on the situation and let her know that she wouldn't be needed to keep an eye on Ben anymore.

"She wasn't so bad. It will be nice to have sleepovers again, though," he said with a devilish wink at Harry. "Oh, I just thought of something. Since there's not any danger, are they going to Oblivi-whatever me?"

Harry frowned. Gin would be heartbroken. "I'll make sure they don't."

Ben smiled gratefully. "Thanks. I find the whole thing fascinating and I would be sad if I had to forget all about it. But … would I be sad? I wouldn't know what I'm missing …" He waved his hands in the air. "Never mind about all that. When are you having a housewarming party?"

"That you'll have to ask Gin about. She's the party planner, not me! Listen, I just wanted to stop by and let you know that it looks like the danger of being attacked is over. Archimedes might keep Gutierrez with you a few more days to make sure, but things should be back to normal."

"Thank you. Are you getting a phone at your new place? You need something so I can get a hold of Ginny. Can wizards use a phone?"

"We can use phones," Harry said with a smile, remembering the time Ron had called him at the Dursleys'. "I've been thinking of getting us both cell phones. That new one is supposed to be out soon."

"Yes! It looks so cool, doesn't it?" Ben said, launching into a discussion of their shared passion for gadgets.

Harry glanced at his watch, realizing he'd been at Ben's for half an hour. "I'm sorry, but I need to get going. I'm meant to be at the grocery store buying out the whole place!"

"I should let you go then. I know how cranky Ginny can get when she hasn't eaten for a while!"

Harry left Ben's apartment, feeling better for having chatted with him, reassured that after the extraordinary events of the previous night that some things were still the same. He spent his time at the grocery store trying to concentrate on filling two shopping carts with everything they needed rather than on those events, being only moderately successful.

Archimedes … what am I going to do with you? he thought as he stared at neatly-wrapped packages of meat. He selected a package of steaks that looked like they might satisfy Ron and put it in the nearly overloaded cart. He still felt the keen sting of the older man's betrayal and was still trying to decide if he'd give him the opportunity to explain himself. As he brooded on the situation, he knew that if Archimedes had introduced himself as the head of the SF Regional Auror department on that Thanksgiving trip he would have run very quickly in the opposite direction.

And then where would we be? Gin wouldn't have had to suffer whatever happened to her, I wouldn't have been lied to and cut up by a damn ghost, we wouldn't have been chased out of our little flat, Ben would still be ignorant of the Wizarding World, she wouldn't have that damn tattoo … Harry sighed and tossed a bag of potatoes and several bags of salad mix into one of his two carts.

But then Ignatius could be cruising to a win on the Council where he could spread his poison, more Muggle attacks, Jacob could be dead or taken over or Ignatius might have succeeded with his crazy plan …

He thought about the time he and Ginny had spent with Sarah and Archimedes, how readily they'd been welcomed into their home. He knew that Ginny valued Sarah's friendship and entry point into the world of San Francisco witches and that she was very excited about her first midwifery client. We wouldn't even have the damn cat if it weren't for them. Sarah had been confident that Stuart would return to his home on the Filbert Steps, but so far he seemed content to stay with the two of them which was a good thing because Ginny was utterly attached to him.

In the checkout line, Harry admitted to himself that he enjoyed Archimedes's friendship. It was nice to not have to be so guarded in the way he felt he had to be around Juanita and the other teachers at school. There was so much about his life growing up and his former profession that they just didn't understand that Harry felt like he was constantly having to edit himself, but with Archimedes, he could just relax and be himself, knowing that the fellow Auror would instantly relate to his thoughts and feelings.

Someone to trade war stories with, he thought as he wheeled his two fully-loaded shopping carts out into the parking lot as if he were going out to a car. Taking a quick look around, he went around the corner of the building, neatly shrinking all of the bags down to a manageable size and Apparating back home.

"Finally!" Ron said, "I was starting to think about eating that cat!"

"No! You couldn't eat poor little Stuart!" Ginny said, cuddling the cat close. Harry was glad to see that she looked a little more awake. "He's much too cute to eat!"

"Little? That thing's a monster! I think his feet are bigger than mine!" Ron shoved off from the recliner as Harry set the bags down on the kitchen counters and restored them to their normal size. "Beer?" Harry tossed him a Newcastle and Ron grinned, casting a quick Cooling Charm and taking a long drink. "Cheers."

"How has she been?" Harry asked quietly as he started putting things away.

"All right. She took another nap not too long after you left, but just a short one. Where does this go?" he asked, holding up a bag of flour.

Harry nodded to the cabinet they'd decided to use as a pantry. "Good. I saw Ben and told him you were all right," he called to Ginny as he sliced a bagel in half and dropped it into the toaster.

"Oh good. Was he worried?" Harry watched as she carefully got up from the sofa and came over to the breakfast bar, settling in a barstool.

"A bit. I told him that you were tired out from schoolwork and moving. Do something with those," he said, passing the package of steaks to Ron.

"Excellent. Weasley marinade coming up," he said, rooting through the bags for the things he would need.

"I did let him know that Ignatius was dead and that he shouldn't need to worry about attacks."

"Was Auror Gutierrez there?" Ginny asked, eyeing the toaster.

"No. Ben said she'd had to step out and told him to stay put." The bagel popped up and Harry put it on a plate, setting it in front of Ginny with a freshly-opened package of strawberry cream cheese and a knife. "My guess is Archimedes had called her in to brief her on what happened last night."

"Who's Gutierrez?" Ron asked as he cut open the package of steaks.

"An Auror Archimedes had shadowing Ben in case anyone got any bright ideas. He did ask if he was going to be Obliviated."

Ginny looked up at Harry with a stricken expression. "Oh no! It's so much easier now that he knows! Can you …?"

"I'll try. I'd prefer him to know, too." Even if that means I have to talk to Archimedes sooner than I'd like. He continued putting groceries away while Ron put the steaks in a plastic bag with all of the air magically removed to marinate in his dad's special recipe. Harry had a mind to try out the grill he'd seen up on the terrace.

He had just opened a perfectly-cooled beer for himself when the doorbell rang. Ginny looked at him questioningly and he frowned, taking his wand out. "Expecting anyone?" Ron asked quietly.

"No, we're not." Harry cautiously approached the door and peered through the peephole. There was a man he didn't recognize standing outside with a very large cellophane-wrapped basket and a paper bag. As he glanced at Ron standing easily behind him and to the right, the man rang the doorbell again. "Delivery of some sort," he said. "I'm going to open the door."

Ron nodded, wand laying casually against the side of his leg and Harry opened the door. "Yes?"

"Harry Potter? Delivery for you," the man said, handing him the large basket. It was heavier than Harry had expected and the man seemed glad to be rid of it. "This too."

"Um, do I need to sign anything?"

"Nope. Have a good day!" The man turned and headed off back down the hallway, whistling tunelessly.

"What's that?" Ginny asked when Harry set the basket down on the breakfast bar in front of her. "Oh, there's all sorts of things inside!" She detached the elaborate bow at the top and folded down the cellophane. "Oooh, wine! Crackers, cheese, some little sausages, chocolates, fruit … this is really nice! Who's it from?"

"Dunno, the bloke didn't say," Harry said, peering inside of the bag. He pulled out his jacket and tie from the disastrous gala. "I'd forgotten all about these. Left them on that bench." He sighed and set them aside. "Well, I guess we know who it's from."

"Well who, then?" Ron asked, looking confused.

"Archimedes and Sarah. I left my jacket and tie on a stone bench outside of the museum last night before we went to confront Ignatius and I forgot all about them."

Ginny looked at Harry apprehensively. "Does that mean we don't get to keep the goodies?"

"Oh, we're definitely keeping all of that. We'll have that wine when we eat," Harry said, peering at the label. It was from a winery he vaguely remembered he and Ginny had gone tasting at when they'd gone up to Calistoga for the Thanksgiving holiday. I wonder if he intended to remind me of our first meeting? he wondered.

Setting those thoughts aside, Harry went up to the shared rooftop terrace to take a look at the grill. He'd only had the briefest glimpse of the area when he and Ginny had first looked at the place and he was pleased by what he saw now. There was a nice seating area with low tables as well as a more traditional dining table. There were fairy lights strung up and a couple of freestanding gas heaters, something he knew would be welcome during chilly San Francisco evenings.

Satisfied with the condition of the grill, Harry stood by the railing, looking out toward the bay. The Golden Gate Bridge shone in the bright sunny day, making the notion that something as horrible as the events that had occurred last night could even happen seem utterly ridiculous. But they did happen, and Gin nearly paid the ultimate price. As he stood staring out and brooding, he became aware of a cat butting its head against his shoulder.

"Hello," he said, scratching it under the chin. "Aren't you handsome?" The cat was black and white and looked like he had a little mustache. "I apologize in advance, but we might have brought you some competition." The cat purred and arched his back, his tail wiggling back and forth and Harry felt some of his gloom abate. Giving the cat a final pat, he headed back down, smiling at Ron and Ginny's laughter when he came back into the apartment.

Later that night, he lay in bed with Ginny cuddled close. He was exhausted, but so far sleep had refused to come and he was wide awake, staring at the ceiling. After dinner, he'd looked through the newspapers he'd bought while out shopping, scanning for any mention of the events at the Legion of Honor, but it looked like the Obliviator and Fixit squads had done their jobs well. He'd also managed to pick up a copy of the Uncanny Examiner and while there was no mention of the Legion of Honor, there was a notice that Muggle-borns could once again move about freely.

"But no notice of Ignatius's death," Ginny noted when he passed the paper over to her.

"No. Probably won't be for a few days yet. Need to concoct a story, don't they?" Harry said, taking a sip of the wine Archimedes had sent. He might be a deceptive old goat, but the man does know his wine.

"What d'you think they're going to say?" asked Ron, putting his feet up on the low coffee table. The cat Ginny had christened Mustache Kitty jumped up in his lap and he gave it a distracted pat.

"Dunno. I imagine some variation on 'natural causes'. The usual."

"Good old 'natural causes'. It encompasses so much." Ron grinned and finished the rest of his wine, leaning his head back against the chair and looking up at the night sky. "This is a great place. I might move in."

"I think Hermione might have something to say about that," Ginny said.

"She could move in, too. I'm sure she could manage Gryffindor from here."

Harry smiled, thinking back to their embryonic plans to move in together in London before Hermione's parents had been killed and she left England. The plan had been to fix up Grimmauld Place and make it a real home, but he and Ron hadn't had the energy for it without her and ended up at the flat instead. "Heaven save us from newlyweds," he said, throwing his balled-up napkin at Ron's head.

Ron caught it and threw it back at him, making Harry dodge. "As if you two aren't as bad. I'm going to need an extra-strength Silencing Charm, no doubt!"

"At least you haven't caught Harry and me in the shed with my top off!" Ginny stuck her tongue out at him as he grumbled about how some people just didn't know how to knock.

He felt Ginny shift next to him as she came awake. "Are you still awake?" she asked, voice rough with sleep.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"What are you apologizing for? Sometimes you're so very British."

"Sorry," he said again, smiling as she swatted his arm. "How are you feeling?"

"All right," she said after a moment. "I should be able to go to class tomorrow and clinic the day after."

"Don't run yourself too hard. If you need another day, take it."

"I'll be fine. What about you? When was the last time you slept?"

"Dunno. Thursday?" Harry shrugged as Ginny swept her thumb across his cheek.

"Harry, you need to sleep. Do you want a potion?"

"No, I'll be fine." I hope. God, tomorrow is going to suck.

"If you're sure," she said, sounding dubious. They lay quietly for several moments before she spoke again. "What are you going to do about Archimedes?"

"I don't know," Harry said after a long sigh. "I've been thinking about it all damn day."

"He's someone you can talk to about … things," Ginny said, sounding like she was choosing her words carefully.

"Yeah, I know." Harry knew full well that as much as she loved him, there were some aspects of his life as an Auror that she would never be able to understand or be comfortable talking about. "But he lied to me. To the both of us."

"He was less than truthful, yes. Are you going to give him a chance to explain himself?" Harry shrugged, feeling frustrated as his thoughts chased themselves around in circles.

"If he hadn't lied, then we wouldn't have been dragged into—"

"Oh, no. You can stop right there," Ginny said, raising herself up on one elbow to look at him. "You know full well that you would not have let that Horcrux business go, even if you'd never gotten the Americans involved."

"But then you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"You don't know that. Who knows what would have happened if you'd gone charging in alone? Instead of me, it could have been you. Besides, he's not the only one who might have told a lie or two lately," she said, giving him a stern look.

Harry shifted uncomfortably, remembering the rainy night Archimedes had made a gamble and Summoned him, forcing him to reveal to Ginny that he'd reactivated his Auror tattoo. "Fair enough," he murmured.

Satisfied, she settled down, putting her head back on his shoulder. "I'm not going to stop being friends with Sarah."

"I wouldn't expect you to."

"Good. You don't tell me what to do."

"You've made that abundantly clear, love," he said with a soft snort. "Wish you'd tell Ron that. He nearly took my head off when you were still sleeping."

"He knows, he just likes to blame people when he's upset. It can't have been pleasant to get a Howler from Mum in the dark of the morning."

"He did tell Molly you're all right?"

"Yeah, he sent his Patronus when you were out shopping."

Harry sighed and hugged her closer. "Well, hopefully a Howler won't show up here tomorrow morning."

"Can you even send Howlers internationally?" Ginny said, her breath soft against his neck.

"Dunno. Not too interested in finding out," he said, gratified at her quiet chuckle. Harry closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of her finger tracing slow circles around his bellybutton as he thought back to their after dinner conversation out on the terrace. "Thanks for telling me and Ron about what happened, yeah? I know it wasn't easy." Ron had coaxed her into describing what exactly had occurred when the smoke went into her and he'd been stunned to hear her relate the sequence of events.

"The sword really showed up?" Ron had asked, eyes round with amazement.

"It looked the same. I suppose I could have imagined it, but it worked. Ran him through like a kebab," Ginny had said with an impressive calm, making Ron shake his head.

Ginny sighed and squeezed Harry around the middle. "It wasn't easy, but I had to."

"I had no idea what it was like with … Tom."

"No, I never told anyone."

"I should have asked."

"Why?" Ginny snorted. "You had plenty to be going on with yourself and I wouldn't have told you anyway. What were you going to do, come up to me in the common room? 'Oh, hey, Ginny, so tell me what it was like when you were being possessed by the spirit of Tom Riddle. Do you sit and have nice long chats in the forest?'," she said, doing a passable imitation of his twelve-year-old voice.

Harry flushed, thinking that was probably exactly what he would have asked. "I was a git."

"Was?" Ginny asked, poking him in the middle of his chest and making him laugh. "You're my git, all right?"

"And you're my brave, wonderful girl," he whispered, kissing the top of her head.

"Don't you forget it." She kissed him, her lips wonderfully soft on his and rested her head back down on his shoulder. "I saw your stag."

"Yeah? Where?"

"In the clearing. We'd had a little battle, Cornelius and me, and I when I won it, this stag came bounding through. Gave me a bit of a start."

"Interesting. Maybe I will get that tattoo."

"I know just where you should put it," Ginny whispered, sliding her hand down to rest on his hip.

38. Chapter 38

Prodded by her internal alarm clock, Ginny opened her eyes a little after six in the morning, incredibly grateful that she was still around to open them. Aware of Harry next to her, she slowly shifted her head to look at him, glad to see his eyes were closed. Carefully, she turned over onto her side to get a better look at him.

Yesterday, he'd looked like he was ready to fall over and she'd been reminded of when the Aurors were running him off of his feet, sending him all over Europe anytime there was even a hint of Dark activity. The dim morning light made him look relaxed, hiding the shadow of stubble on his face and she resisted the impulse to sweep his fringe out of his eyes. I don't want to wake him, she thought, knowing that he'd been asleep only for a couple of hours at most.

"I'll have my work cut out for me then, bringing him to heel," echoed in Ginny's memory and she shook her head as if she could shake the thought out. Nope, you're gone and I'm still here, she thought, glancing at the clock. And I have a load of work to do.

The cat chose that moment to jump up on the bed, nonchalantly walking across Harry's stomach, making him frown and shift around before finally waking up. "Bloody cat," he mumbled, voice hoarse.

"Good morning," Ginny said quietly, giving in to her desire to touch him by sweeping the hair out of his eyes, catching sight of a few more strands of gray.

"What time is it?" he asked, squinting at the clock.

"Almost six-thirty."

"Oh, God," he groaned, rubbing his hands over his face, the sound of his beard rasping against his skin loud in the quiet room.

"Did you sleep?" Harry grunted and shrugged, pushing the cat off his chest. "Stay home today."

"I can't. I need to start setting up the obstacle course and it's the last week before finals," he said with a long sigh.

"One day. You've earned it," she said. Harry turned over on his side, closing his eyes as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"Stay home with me," he said, taking her hand in his and holding it against his chest.

"I can't," Ginny groaned. "I have my first final today."

"We're both screwed, then." He held his arm out and she burrowed into his embrace, resting her head against his chest. "Listen, I want Ron to stay with you today, all right? Let him handle the Apparating."

"Harry, I'm not a child. I can Apparate myself, okay?" she protested.

"I know you're probably all right, but I don't want you to wear yourself out and get stuck somewhere," he said, sounding unconscionably reasonable. "Matthew said it could take as long as a week to get your full energy back."

"I know how to take a bus, Harry."

"Do you know what line goes right by here?" Ginny frowned in thought and Harry smiled. "See, you don't even know. You'd have no idea how to get home if you couldn't Apparate."

"I'd get a cab," she said, affecting a superior tone. "I know the cross streets." Harry drew a breath to argue and she put her finger against his lips. "But I'll humor you and let my big, scary brother escort me around today."

"Thank you," he said, muffled by her finger still against his lips.

Ginny heard the other shower start up and she sighed. "Ron's up."

"Good. Maybe he'll make coffee." Harry's eyes slipped closed again and Ginny kissed him on the cheek.

"Go back to sleep. I'll get you up in time, all right?" Ginny slipped out from under his arm, smiling when Stuart took her place. Tugging the cat's tail, she shuffled into the bathroom to take care of her most urgent business. Washing her hands, she looked at herself in the mirror, frowning at the dark circles under her eyes. Hm, looks like some makeup is in order today.

She was studying the new coffeemaker in the kitchen when Ron ambled in, looking fresh as a daisy, hair still damp from his shower. "Morning," he said, taking the carafe out of her hand, expertly filling it with water and pouring it into the coffeemaker. "How are you feeling?"

"All right. Still a bit tired. Matthew said it could take a week before I'm all the way back," Ginny said, figuring it was useless to try and hide anything from him. She looked through the cabinets, trying to think of where Harry might have put the coffee, finally finding it in the cabinet right above the coffeemaker. "You're in charge of me today. You get to follow me around, carry my books and Apparate me wherever I want to go."

"Hm. I think I hear Hermione calling my name," Ron grunted, measuring out what looked like entirely too much coffee into the filter before snapping it shut and pushing a button.

"Do you need to get back? What about your own finals?"

"Had them last week. For once you have excellent timing," he said, favoring her with a grin. Cocking his head toward their bedroom, he asked, "How is he?"

"He's asleep right now, but he'll need to get up soon. I tried to get him to stay home today, but he says he can't. Too much to do. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, not too bad. Bed's a bit small, but I did a bit of lengthening on it." Ron opened up the refrigerator and peered in, pulling out the eggs and a package of bacon.

"Well, it is meant for Teddy. You're lucky it's not in the shape of a race car." Ginny handed him one of their new, expensive copper pans and watched as he cracked several eggs into a bowl and quickly scrambled them.

"That would have been cool."

The smell of coffee and bacon permeated the kitchen and Ginny heard their shower start up. "I'd hoped he would sleep longer," she said, dropping bread into the toaster.

"Harry's tough," Ron said, shoving a mass of eggs onto a plate along with four pieces of bacon. "Here, eat." He handed the plate to Ginny and she obediently took it, settling down at the breakfast bar.

"Yes, Mum," she said with a cheeky smile.

"You're too thin. Mum would be scandalized. Harry, too." Ron put even more eggs and bacon on another plate and set it next to her along with a cup of coffee. A moment later, Harry came out of the bedroom, dressed for work.

"Aw, Weasley. Breakfast waiting for me. I didn't think you still cared," he said with a simpering smile as he sat down.

"I don't, but for some reason my sister has decided to keep you around," Ron said around a piece of bacon. "All right, mate?"

Harry shrugged, drinking half of the coffee in his cup in long gulps. "I'll be fine." Ron slathered butter and jam on the toast, plopping a slice on each of their plates before pouring his own cup of coffee.

"Ginny says I'm to chaperone her today," he said as he buttered his own toast.

"Yeah, if you don't mind. I don't want her to get too tired and get stranded." Harry smiled at Ginny's soft snort. "That reminds me, I need to add you to our Seal."

"Such a level of trust."

"Sod off, Weasley." Harry quickly finished his breakfast, glancing at his watch. "Bugger," he muttered, hopping off of the barstool to disappear back into the bedroom, coming out a moment later with his tie loose around his neck and his blazer over his arm. "Blood," he said, looking at Ron and Ginny. Dutifully they contributed drops of blood while Harry reset the Blood Seal to allow Ron access to their home.

"Here, let me do that. You'll only mess it up," Ginny said, quickly tying his tie as he shrugged on his blazer. She took a step back as he picked up his bag, settling it across his chest. He still looked like he'd had a rough time of it and she sincerely hoped the kids didn't give him too much trouble today. "Don't let them smell weakness."

Harry snorted, raising an eyebrow. "Mind your brother, all right?"

"Ugh, yes, all right! Are you going to be late?"

"Depends. I'd like to get a start on that course," Harry said, eyes losing focus as he turned his thoughts inward.

"Well, you look dead on your feet, so you have my permission to skip running today and come home straight away."

"Doctor's orders?" Harry smiled down at her and she felt a wash of happiness, going up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

"Yes. Even though I'm technically not a doctor yet," she said, acutely aware of Ron standing behind her. Harry nodded at him over her head and Apparated out of the flat, leaving the two of them standing there. Ginny sighed and turned to look at her brother. "Well, I have an Organic Chemistry final in about an hour and a half. Get ready to carry some books."

"Oh. My. God. I think my brain is going to melt," Ben said, collapsing down into a chair outside the coffee shop.

"Mine too," Ginny said, taking the seat across from him. Ron settled into the one next to her, scooting his chair back to take advantage of the warm sun.

"How can you have had a hard time? Don't you already know all of this with your …" he paused a moment, looking around, "potions stuff?"

"Well, potions is hardly the same thing, isn't it?" Ginny said with a shrug. "Organic chemistry is all about structure and properties and such and potions is … potions."

Ben shook his head at her. "You're going to have to show me how that all works one of these days. But right now, the only organic chemistry I'm interested in is introducing as much caffeine into my system as possible. What do you want?"

"Iced americano, if you please."

"Um, can I get you anything?" he asked Ron shyly.

"Double macchiato. Ta," Ron said, flashing a smile bright enough to make Ben blush.

"You stop that!" Ginny said, hitting him in the shoulder when Ben went inside to get their drinks.

"What?" Ron asked, aggrieved at her abuse.

"You know what. You've been flirting with him all day!"

"I have not!"

"You have, too!" Ginny narrowed her eyes at her smiling brother stretched out in the chair in the sun. "Admit it, you like the attention."

"It's just a bit of harmless fun, yeah? Come on, he knows I'm married to Hermione," Ron said, sounding just a little defensive.

"Well, don't let it go too far, all right? It's a stressful time right now," she said frowning when he rolled his eyes at her.

"You're just jealous because I've replaced Harry in his affections," he said loftily, looking away across the grassy quad.

"Hardly," she snorted, remembering Ben's look of amazement when she'd shown up outside the lecture hall with Ron in tow.

"Ginny," he'd hissed, pulling her aside after she'd made the proper introductions, "are all of the men you know really, really ridiculously good-looking?"

She looked back at Ron, leaning against the wall with one foot propped up against it and his arms folded across his chest, knotwork tattoo peeking out from under the sleeve of his shirt. He looked utterly implacable and she wrinkled her nose. "You think he's good-looking? I mean, Hermione likes him, but she's got some odd tastes. I've always thought Bill was the best-looking, even with the werewolf scars."

Ben's eyes bugged out and he shook his head. "We're going to have to have a conversation when all of this is done."

A few moments later, Ben came out of the coffee shop, juggling the three drinks and a paper bag with pastries. "Here you go," he said, setting the drinks and pastries down on the table. Ron leaned forward, digging in his pocket and pulling out his wallet, but Ben waved him off. "I've got this round," he said with a grin.

"Fair enough," Ron shrugged, taking his drink and a croissant.

Ginny sipped her iced coffee, enjoying the coolness of the drink in the warm sun. "Now," Ben said, leaning towards her, "will you please tell me what happened this weekend?"

Blinking in surprise, Ginny gathered her thoughts, fixing a blank look on her face. "Well, we spent all day and night Saturday getting moved into our new place. Harry let me oversleep on Sunday and I missed our last study group," she said.

"Ginny. We both know that's complete BS," Ben countered and she felt a flush rise to her face at Ron's grunt of agreement. He held up one finger. "First, Auror Gutierrez is called away. Second, Harry comes to my apartment looking like he hasn't slept all night, telling me that you're tired from studying and moving. Third, the guy that was making trouble falls over dead and then Auror Gutierrez says she won't need to keep an eye on me anymore and that I should be safe." Ben looked at Ron and pointed his finger at him, making Ron raise his eyebrows. "Fourth, your brother shows up looking like some kind of, I don't know, a honey badger or something, carrying your bag and not letting you out of his sight."

"Well—" she began, only to be cut off by his raised finger.

"I'm sure being a cop taught Harry how to lie pretty well, but there are some things you just can't hide and like my mom used to say, there's just no such thing as coincidence," he said, sitting back in his seat and folding his arms in satisfaction.

"What's a honey badger?" Ron asked, sounding amused.

"It's a vicious little shit. I'll show you a video. Don't change the subject!"

Ginny felt the pressure of two sets of blue eyes on her and she took another sip of her coffee to stall for time. "Has anyone ever told you you're too smart for your own good?"

"Several times. Out with it, sister."

She looked at Ron and he shrugged as if to say it was her call how much she wanted to tell him. Sighing, she shook her head and marshaled her thoughts. "Well. Do you remember when you first learned about us and all the …" she said, waving her hands the way Ben did whenever he referenced magic. He nodded and she went on. "I told you about Harry and Voldemort—how he defeated him? Well, what I didn't tell you about was about a thing called a Horcrux …"

Harry's eyes snapped open, panicked breath harsh in his throat. He lay very still, eyes darting around the room, seeing only their dim bedroom and he turned over, exhaling a shuddering breath at the sight of Ginny next to him, curled on her side. He stared at her until he saw her ribcage flex with her breathing before letting out a sigh of relief. Closing his eyes, the vision of Ginny falling backwards as if she were a puppet with cut strings assaulted him and he opened his eyes again, shaking his head, wishing he could shake the terrible image out of it.

The sound of his blood rushing was so loud in his ears he was certain it would wake her as he reached out a hand to her, afraid she would be cold to the touch again. She wasn't, though, and the relief he felt at the sensation of her warmth nearly took his breath away as he settled his hand on her hip. "Harry?" she mumbled, turning towards him, brown eyes heavy with sleep.

"Shh, go back to sleep," he whispered, kissing her on her forehead.

She frowned, looking more alert. "What are you doing awake? You need sleep more than I do."

"I'm fine," he insisted, feeling foolish for having woken her. He still felt exhausted and a headache throbbed behind his eyes.

"Liar. Come here." Ginny lay on her back and stretched out her arm, inviting Harry to lay his head on her breast, stroking her fingers through his unruly black hair. The steady beat of her heart against his ear had a calming effect and he let his eyes slip closed. "What woke you?" she asked in the quiet darkness.

"You were falling. The stairs."

"Oh." She took in a deep breath, the sound of the air rushing into her lungs filling his ear. "Well, I'm not falling, all right?"

"Yeah." He rubbed his thumb over the strip of exposed skin between her top and pajama bottoms and Ginny shifted under him, moving to lie on her side to face him. She reached out and rested her hand against the side of his face, pulling him in for a kiss. Their kiss was gentle and sweet at first, but the feeling of her soft lips against his sparked something primal in him and he pressed harder, cradling her face in his hands. She made a soft sound and he became aware of her hands in his hair, fingernails scraping along his scalp to send a wave of prickles all over his body.

Wrapping her fingers in his hair, she gave a sharp tug and he grunted as she opened her mouth to him, inviting him to explore. Desperate to feel more of her, he grabbed the waist of her pajama bottoms, pushing them down along with her knickers, growling when she kicked them off the rest of the way. Harry closed his eyes, submerging himself in the sensation of her warm body against his as he slid his lips over her heated skin. Her pulse in her neck beat a steady rhythm against his lips and he felt his own thrumming to match.

He used his teeth on the soft skin at the junction of her neck and shoulder, drawing a trembling gasp from her. Wanting to hear it again, he bit down harder, letting out his own gasp when she moaned his name and dug her nails into his back, raking down hard to make his skin burn. "Are you marking me?" he asked, leaving his own red mark on her neck.

"Yes," she whispered, doing it again, harder this time and Harry pressed his mouth to her shoulder to quiet his groan, aware of Ron's presence in the apartment. Sliding his thigh in between hers, he pushed her legs apart, the feeling of her wet heat nearly making him giddy with desire.

"Anything but cold now," he muttered against her breast as he stroked her with his fingers, searching out the places he knew she loved to be touched, a visceral thrill rolling through his gut when she bucked her hips against his hand. Sealing his lips to hers, he swallowed her cries as she came, wave after wave of tremors sweeping through her, leaving her clinging to him as if for dear life.

Every single twitch, jolt and sigh let Harry know that Ginny was gloriously, wonderfully alive and his heart rejoiced when she whispered his name over and over to him as her hands slid over his back and shoulders, her touch feather-light. His skin twitched at the sensation of her fingers skating underneath the waistband of his boxers as she reached for his hard cock. He bit down on her shoulder to muffle his sounds, breathing hard through his nose as she brought him off in a few quick strokes.

He rubbed the red mark his teeth had left on her as if he was trying to erase it. "Did I hurt you?" he asked quietly.

"No," she whispered, sweeping a lock of hair from his temple. "All right?"

"Yeah," he sighed, shifting onto his back. He closed his eyes, vainly wishing for sleep. He was monstrously tired, but his brain refused to shut off. The messages from Archimedes weighed heavily on his mind and he was tired of mentally composing response after response.

"Do you want a potion?"

"No." He smiled as he felt her hand glide over his softening cock in his damp boxers. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to put you to sleep," she whispered his ear.

"And you think that's the way to do it?"

"Works for me sometimes," she said matter-of-factly.

Harry raised his head and looked at her. "Does it?" She shrugged and gave him one of her half-smiles, continuing to stroke him with the flat of her hand. "I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not intrigued at the idea of you wanking me to sleep, but no. I need to get up and settle my head."

"Okay," she said, withdrawing her hand and settling back on her pillows. "I'm going to stay here. You may have wanked me to sleep." He kissed her on the forehead and got out of bed, jumping in surprise at the silent Scourgify Ginny sent his way. She winked at him as she primly set her wand on the new bedside table.

Harry was surprised to see Ron sitting awake in the lounge, reading one of his books on blood magic and he was acutely aware of his slowly dwindling erection. Ron flicked his eyes down to his crotch and then back up, raising an eyebrow. Harry felt his face heat up as he sat down in the recliner and took his laptop out of his bag, hoping he wouldn't notice the throbbing red streaks on his back and shoulders. "Couldn't sleep?" Ron asked mildly, turning a page in his book.

"Slept for a bit. Woke up," Harry said, surprised to find his glasses on the arm of the recliner, having only a vague memory of his actions when he'd gotten home. He put them on and opened the laptop, squinting at the bright light from the screen.

"When you got home, I thought you'd sleep for a week." Ron closed the book, leaving his finger in it to mark his place. "I didn't even ask. How was your day, darling?"

Harry snorted, giving him the V as he looked over his email, dismayed to see one from Auror Sutton as well as Archimedes. "Horrible. Shitty and horrible. Yours?"

"Not too bad. Messed about while Ginny had her exams. Flirted a bit with your boyfriend."

"How'd that work out for you?"

"I think we're running away to Ibiza next week."

Harry grunted as he read over the email from Archimedes. It pretty much repeated what the Patronuses he'd sent had said and he shook his head, cursor hovering over the trash button. He decided not to delete it and read the one from Sutton.

Harry, I hope this message finds you and Ginny both well. I'm very sorry that she took injury in the confrontation with Weatherbee and I'm hopeful for a full recovery. I want to thank you for your support throughout these events. I don't know that we would have been as successful without your knowledge and expertise. I know that you had your own reasons for leaving the Aurors in England, but I hope you'll consider Archimedes's offer to join our department. I'm sure you'll find that we're a little bit different here! You'd be such an asset to the department and I have no doubt you'd be the youngest department head in our history. I have a feeling that you and I would make an excellent team.

—Mark

Sighing, Harry closed the lid of the laptop, leaning his head back against the recliner. Eyes shut, he heard Ron shift around and set the book down on the coffee table. "Bad news?" he asked.

"Aggravating. I was hoping I'd be left alone out here, you know?" He lifted his head and looked at his best friend. "You'd be such an asset to the department. No one else has your experience. Become a director in three years. Youngest department head in history," he said, repeating information from both Archimedes and Sutton's messages. "It's the exact same shit I got from the Ministry."

"I would beg to differ on the whole 'no one else has your experience' bit. I was right there," Ron said, sounding a little affronted.

"Shall I point them your way, then? They might take you as a consolation prize."

"Consolation my arse. Isn't that what you were to that school when Hermione turned them down?" Ron stood and stretched. "Tea?"

"No, thanks." Despite his exhaustion, he still felt like he couldn't settle down. "I'm going to go for a run."

Raising his eyebrows, Ron looked at the clock on the microwave that said "3:30 am" in blue. "Want company?"

"What are you, my bodyguard?"

"No, you've made it quite plain that I'm Ginny's," he said loftily, filling the kettle with water. Harry padded past the kitchen on the way to the bedroom to change. "Oi, mate," Ron said with a knowing smile, making him pause by the door, "you might want to have her take a look at your back."

"Lot of good that would do me. Gin's the one that did it."

"Ugh," Ron groaned, turning the burner on underneath the kettle. "You two are the worst."

A few minutes later, Harry was running down the trail that went along the water heading through Marina Green toward Crissy Field, concentrating on his breathing and trying to quiet the voices in his head. He had just passed the public restrooms when a dark-clad figure darted out and ran toward him. Whirling, Harry drew his wand and had nearly cast Stupefy when he realized it was Auror Sutton.

Tucking his wand away, he turned and resumed his run, determined to ignore the other man. Keeping his eyes on the lights of the Golden Gate Bridge in front of him, Harry focused on the sound of his trainers hitting the paved trail, seeking solace in the rhythm. The Auror running easily next to him was making that difficult, however, and he found himself growing more and more irritated. He finally slowed to a stop at the Warming Hut, absurdly pleased that Sutton was breathing harder than he was.

"Am I being watched?" he asked without preamble, turning to face the other man.

Sutton shrugged and shook his head. "Archimedes wanted to keep an eye on your place for a few days in case anyone decided to get cute. Some of his more ardent supporters are … unsettled by Weatherbee's current absence."

"So Archimedes put you on it?" Harry asked, not completely surprised that their place was being monitored. He filed away the information that Weatherbee's death hadn't yet been announced for later contemplation.

"Not me specifically, no. I got a message that you were heading out and I was curious as to what would make you leave your home at this time of the night."

"Satisfied?"

Sutton smiled and shook his head. "How's Ginny?"

"Fine."

"I heard Ron Weasley's in town."

"Yup." They stood looking at each other, the wind off of the bay giving Harry a chill on his sweat-dampened skin.

"Aren't you going to ask about Jacob?" Sutton finally asked.

"I haven't seen any announcement in the paper, so I assume he's fine," Harry said, feeling a small twinge that he hadn't asked after him. He'd just been caught up in the events, purely by an accident of birth.

"He's recovering. Whatever Weatherbee did to him involved more than just blood."

"I can refer you to an excellent Healer." Harry rolled his shoulders, trying to alleviate the ache there. "Listen, this has been a nice chat, but I have an early morning." He turned to run back, stopped by the other man's hand on his shoulder. Shaking it off, he turned. "What?"

"You got our messages? I know Archimedes sent you several Patronuses."

"Yes, I got them," he said, a flash of annoyance coming over him as he remembered his classes exclaiming at the spectral greyhounds that trotted into his classroom throughout the day.

"And?" Auror Sutton asked, looking at him expectantly.

"And what?" Harry asked, knowing what Sutton wanted to hear and stubbornly refusing to say it.

"What about his offer?"

Harry took a deep breath through his nose and let it out slowly. "His offer? To join the department? To be his dogsbody and be groomed to take over the department when he really retires? To be sent away from Gin at his whim anytime anything even smells the least bit Dark? To put my life on the line again, hoping for a pat on the head and a medal? To be 'Famous Harry Potter, Dark Wizard Catcher'?" He shook his head, giving Auror Sutton a mirthless smile. "No."

"Come on. You're wasted there at that school and you know it. Join the department, be my partner," Sutton said earnestly.

"So you can save me from being wasted? You have any kids? How old?"

"I have a son. He's ten."

"So I'll be seeing him in a couple of years, then?" Harry looked at Sutton in the light of the nearby streetlamp and shook his head. "We'll see how 'wasted' I am when I'm teaching your son, yeah?" Not waiting for a response, he turned and jogged swiftly away, glad when Sutton didn't follow him.

The next evening, Harry and Ron were putting together the new telly under Ben's supervision. They had spent most of an hour deciding on the perfect speaker placement for optimal surround sound and now Ben was on the sofa, directing Harry as he levitated the television against the wall, focusing on keeping it steady.

"Hm, I think just a bit higher on the left. And then move the whole thing to the right. Your other right. More. Okay, I think that's good," he said with finality.

"Gin, would you do the honors?" Harry asked, his arm getting tired of being stuck out in front of him. Ben had proved to be exceedingly picky in television placement.

"Of course," she said, setting aside her container of Chinese food and getting out her wand, efficiently casting a Sticking Charm.

Ben sighed in amazement when Harry lowered his wand and the television hung on the wall as if it had always been there. "But what about all of those cables?" he asked pointing to the black cords hanging underneath the television.

"Well, let's get them hooked up and then you'll see," Harry said, smiling at him. Plugging the cables into the audio/video receiver, he stood up and waved his wand with an outrageous flourish, casting an Invisibility Charm on the unsightly cables. Ben gasped in appreciation.

"Magic is so cool," he breathed, reminding Harry that magic didn't have to be all about Horcruxes and involuntary possession, that it could be something as simple as sticking a telly to a wall and hiding some cables.

"What d'you even need a telly that big for?" Ron asked from his sprawled position in what was apparently his favorite recliner. He took a drink of his beer and pointed at the television with it. "That's got to be the biggest one I've ever seen."

"Oh, there's definitely bigger," Harry said as he picked up the needlessly complicated remote control. "I think I showed remarkable restraint." He chose to ignore Ginny's snort of disagreement as he pressed the button that should turn everything on. All of the devices clicked and whirred to life and he pressed another button, a little tray sliding forward.

"Use this one," Ben said, handing him a disc. Harry dropped it in and pressed the button to close it, smiling as he heard it spin up. A few moments later, a loud fanfare seemed to come from everywhere and Ron jumped in his seat, startled by the music.

"Bloody hell! You're going to wake up the neighbors with that racket!" he exclaimed, ears pink with embarrassment. Laughing, Harry turned down the sound, completely delighted at the clarity and quality of the speakers.

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…" he intoned as the yellow script crawled into infinity against a star field.

Ben sat on the sofa, mouth hanging open in awe. "It's so pretty," he breathed reverently.

Harry had just sat down and put his arm around Ginny as Darth Vader threw a fit at the disappearance of the two droids when a ghostly greyhound trotted through the door, coming to a stop in front of him and sitting down in that strange way greyhounds had. All eyes were on him and he finally set his hand on top of the Patronus's head. Harry, could you meet me at the Church Key around nine tonight? There are some things I'd like to discuss. Message delivered, the greyhound dissipated into a pearly fog.

"What just happened?" he heard Ben whisper to Ginny.

"I got a message from Archimedes," Harry told him, running his hand through his hair.

"What'd he say?" Ron asked, leaning forward in the recliner, Sith Lords and space princesses forgotten for the moment.

"Wants me to come by a pub called the Church Key in … half an hour," he said, glancing at the clock before taking a long swallow of the beer he'd just opened.

Ron grunted and nodded. "You going to go? Want me to come?"

"Yeah, I'm going to go," Harry finally said after a long moment. "I can't keep putting him off. I can go by myself, I think." Ron shrugged and drank more of his beer. Harry was sure he was planning on coming along anyway.

"As usual, you're up to your arse in alligators and it's up to me to manage them. You can consider me your solicitor," Ron said with a grin.

"A year of law school hardly makes you a solicitor," Ginny pointed out.

"And a year of medical school doesn't make you a doctor, does it?" he shot back.

"Oh snap," Ben murmured as Ginny rolled her eyes.

"You mind if I go?" Harry asked Ginny, half hoping that she would object.

"You've got to talk to him sometime, don't you? It's just going to get worse the longer you put it off," she said with her typical pragmatism. Harry nodded, looking at the telly without really seeing the droids wandering around in the desert landscape, wondering exactly what Archimedes wanted to tell him that was so important that it couldn't wait for the next day.

At the appointed time, Harry and Ron walked through the door of the Church Key, Harry remembering the debriefing session they'd had there after the events of the Pensieve. Archimedes was alone in a booth at the back that had an excellent view of the front door. He noticed that there was a pint of Guinness waiting for him across from the older man.

As they approached, he saw Archimedes signal the barmaid and make a request, nodding his head at Ron. By the time they were seated, she was back, setting a freshly-poured pint of Guinness in front of Ron. He took a long swallow, nodding at Archimedes in thanks.

Determined to make Archimedes break the silence that stretched out between the three of them, Harry drank his own Guinness and looked him over. He didn't seem to be any the worse for wear from their adventure the other night, but he knew that he must be feeling the residual effects from tampering with and breaking the Blood Seal. Ron had been impressed when Harry described how quickly he'd done it. "He's going to be feeling like shite for at least a week," he'd commented.

But there he was. Pink-cheeked, iron-gray hair in his usual ponytail and his long beard snowy white. Harry thought he could see a hint of shadows underneath his eyes and quashed the flash of sympathy he felt for the man. Ron spun a coaster on its edge, the sound of it flapping down to the table the only sound.

Finally, Archimedes cleared his throat. "How's Ginny?" he asked.

"Didn't Sutton tell you? She's fine," Harry said, satisfied at the flush that rose to his cheeks.

"That's good to hear. When she didn't turn up at SF Thaumaturgical, I was very worried."

Harry shrugged, knowing that he was fishing around to see where he'd taken Ginny after he'd left Weatherbee's basement.

"You were worried?" Ron said, "When my mum saw her hand move to Mortal Peril she went completely spare. Sent me a Howler telling me to get my arse over here and find out what's going on."

"I'm sorry for causing your mother undue stress," Archimedes said apologetically.

"But not sorry for putting Ginny in that situation?" Ron looked at him with a raised eyebrow, combative scowl on his face.

Archimedes heaved a long sigh. "I'm sorry for the whole situation. One man dead, your sister hurt, Jacob hurt, Statute violated, Legion of Honor damaged, Muggles attacked …"

"Sounds like it's been a great year." Ron took another swallow of beer and silence fell once more.

"Harry—" Archimedes began, but Harry cut him off.

"You lied to me. The very first time we met, you lied and said you were retired. Why?" he said, careful to keep the anger he felt out of his voice, focusing on trying to sound merely curious.

Archimedes winced. "I felt that if I had introduced myself as the head of the San Francisco Regional Auror Department you would have run in the opposite direction. I wasn't lying when I said I was an admirer of yours and I very much wanted to get to know you."

"And you thought that lying to my face was the best way to do it?"

"I was planning on telling you eventually, but then things started to get out of hand and I felt like the timing was never right."

"You could have told me that night you Summoned me out into the rain and got me in the shit with Gin. D'you know she threw me out over that?" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ron's mouth fall open in amazement.

"Getting you in trouble was not my intention, Harry. I had no idea of the history between you and Ginny over your Auror career. You're right, I should have told you then," Archimedes said, looking very contrite. He fiddled with a coaster, turning it over and over in his hands. "Is that when she got her tattoo?"

"What about her tattoo?" Ron asked, looking between the two of them. "Harry, is Ginny's tattoo activated?"

"Ron, she insisted, all right? Yell at her about it," Harry said tiredly. "Besides, it's come in damn handy."

"Oh, you can bet we're going to have a long conversation," Ron said, mumbling under his breath about sisters that didn't have any sense of self-preservation.

"Please accept my deepest apologies, Harry. I held on to the misguided hope that I could ease you back into the idea of rejoining the Aurors and I thought the best way was to present myself as more of an Auror emeritus." Archimedes took a long drink of his cider. "I haven't often had to admit that I was wrong and I'm afraid it doesn't come easy to me."

Harry looked at him, wondering if he was expecting absolution from him. He had to admit that he was a bit mollified by the apology, but that didn't entirely take away the sting of Sutton's amazement the night of the disaster. "Why me?" he asked after a long silence.

Archimedes shrugged. "You've got talent, skills, instincts. You managed to stay alive when you were a child with the worst Dark wizard hunting you down. Fully-trained and more knowledgeable in the field of Dark Arts than most people realize. I know Artemis has no idea as to how much you really know and he'd probably faint on the spot if he did," he said, clearly refusing to mention the baggage that came with the Harry Potter name.

Looking at him earnestly, he continued, sounding like he was warming to the subject. "I wasn't lying when I said you could become the youngest department head in history. You could have my place by the time you're thirty-five."

"Won't that upset some people? Me coming in as some sort of usurper?" Harry said, thinking of Sutton.

"You mean Mark? He's been champing at the bit for the opportunity to work with you. He could become your right-hand man."

"Already got one, thanks."

"Cheers," Ron said, clinking his glass against Harry's.

"It would be a wonderful opportunity for you and for California. Harry, you could rise far indeed." Archimedes fell silent, clearly waiting for his response.

"Did I ever tell you exactly why I left the Ministry?" Harry asked after a moment. "I was tired of being used. All of my life, I was used. Voldemort wanted to use my death as a way to cement his power. My aunt and uncle used me as a glorified house boy. My cousin used me as a punching bag. Wizards used me as a beacon of hope. Death Eaters used me as symbol of hate. Even Albus Dumbledore himself used me to some extent." Harry shook his head and took a deep breath.

"When it was all over, I thought I finally had the chance to do something I wanted to do instead of something I had to do. I went into the Aurors for the opportunity to fight against the Dark on my own terms, but that was another lie." Mouth dry, Harry finished his Guinness, savoring the rich taste.

He looked around the pub before continuing, eyes settling on the flirty group playing darts in the corner. "The Ministry was so desperate to put the past behind that I became their new symbol. Everything's going to be all right now! We've got Harry Potter! He's training to be an Auror and will protect you and your children from all of the things that go bump in the night! Read the latest interview with him in the Daily Prophet and find out his favorite counter curses!" he said, bitter memories coming to the surface.

"And I went along with it at first. Wizarding Britain had just been through a hard time, I reasoned. If I can do a little bit to make the transition easier, then I should. After a while the interviews slowed down and the general public moved on with their lives for the most part, but the Ministry never forgets, yeah?" The barmaid put fresh drinks down in front of them and he took a grateful swallow of the fresh pint.

"Far be it from the Ministry to set aside a useful tool and I was entirely too useful to them." He shoved Ron with his elbow. "And then this one gets a girlfriend and up and leaves me and it just got worse. I was done with being sent anywhere there was a whiff of the Dark, never really too sure what could be waiting for me. And all the while Kingsley is telling me how far I'll go."

"Sorry, mate," Ron said quietly.

"Not your fault, yeah? You were ready to be done after that knee thing." Archimedes was looking at him with an unreadable look in his eyes, fingers steepled under his chin and Harry focused on the dark depths of the beer in his glass. "I was tired of holding Gin at arm's length. I wasn't going to leave her a widow with children, so I got out. I want to live my own life and do what I want for a change."

He looked back up at the Auror, realizing that he did value the man's friendship and didn't want to lose it completely. "So I'm going to have to decline your offer, Archimedes. That part of my life is over." Harry felt his heart racing and he felt absurdly lighter. He'd never given voice to his feelings about being part of the Ministry and being the physical embodiment of Wizarding Britain's hopes for moving forward and all of the pressure and expectations that came with. He knew Ron had surmised most of it, but to actually put it to words was completely different.

Archimedes let out a long sigh and drank nearly half of his cider in long swallows. "Well, I guess I can't argue with that," he said as he set his glass back down. "Again, please accept my apologies. I didn't quite fully … realize how you felt."

"Well, I don't make a habit of blabbing all over the place about my 'feelings'," Harry said, taking his turn at spinning a coaster on its corner.

"So, uh, Ginny's tattoo," Ron said slowly, "you said it's been handy?"

"Yeah. She said she wanted an absolutely foolproof way to get ahold of me. She used it to get me out of the Pensieve when we were messing about with that coin." He looked at Ron and smiled. "Your sister's stubbornness can be useful, sometimes."

"She saved us both that night," Archimedes said musingly, a speculative look on his face.

"Don't even think about it," Ron growled, beating Harry to it. Archimedes held up both hands in surrender and reached down on the bench next to him, setting several books on the table.

"What's this? A bribe?" Harry asked, looking over the titles. They were all very old and had titles like 'Bloode Will Tell' and 'Alchemie of Blood'. His heart skipped a beat and he picked one up, leafing through the musty pages. "A Treatiese On The Blood Of Witches And Wizards And The Uses Thereof," he murmured. "I've been on the lookout for this one." He put it back on top of the stack. "Where did you find these?"

"Weatherbee's library. Thought you might be interested in them."

"What about his heirs?"

"There aren't any as far as we can tell," he said, pushing the books towards Harry. "Keep them."

"Don't you want them for the department?" Archimedes smiled and raised his eyebrows. "Of course," Harry said, not envying the grunt whose job it had likely been to produce magical copies of the books and verify the accuracy.

"And I thought you'd want to see this." He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper, handing it to Harry.

Unfolding it, he realized it was a copy of the news article announcing Weatherbee's death and he quickly scanned it, handing it to Ron when he was done. "So, you have Jacob discovering him?"

"I thought that would seem the most plausible. He was his campaign manager, after all," Archimedes said with a small smile.

"Natural causes," Ron said with satisfaction, handing the sheet of paper back to Archimedes. "I told you." He finished his pint in long swallows and left the booth, heading for the loo.

"Are you expecting any trouble when this is published?"

Archimedes moved his hand back and forth like a seesaw. "Well, we're not expecting a huge outcry, but I've got the Aurors and MLES both on alert for anything unusual."

"Do you think there's a chance that Ben might be attacked again? I know you've reassigned Gutierrez."

"We still have eyes on Ben, don't you worry."

"Like you have eyes on my place?"

"You're watching Harry's place?" Ron asked as he sat back down.

"We have someone in position until we're sure things have returned to normal," Archimedes said. "How much longer are you in town for?"

"I'll probably go back day after tomorrow," Ron said with a questioning look at Harry.

"Up to you, mate. Hermione's got to be missing you, yeah?"

"Yeah. Had a Patronus from her this morning. It was … nice." He had a dreamy look on his face and Harry suppressed a shudder.

"Well, I hope you'll accept an invitation to our house for dinner tomorrow night. To make up for the reason for your trip out here," Archimedes said with a glance at Harry.

"We'll see how Gin feels after her finals. I understand tomorrow is a tough one," Harry cut in, saving Ron from being put on the spot.

"Of course. Just let me know. I know Sarah would love to see you all." He checked his watch. "And speaking of, she's probably wondering how long I'm planning on staying out tonight."

Harry looked at his own watch, surprised to see that it was later than he thought. "We should probably get back, too." He gathered up the books and slid out of the booth, feeling a little awkward standing there.

"Thanks for meeting me," Archimedes said, holding out his hand to Ron and shaking his hand firmly. "Good to see you again, Ron. I hope we can get together tomorrow night."

"Yeah, cheers," Ron said, carefully not promising that they would get together.

A few moments later, they were back home, Ginny and Ben still on the sofa, watching as Princess Leia placed medals around Han's and Luke's necks. "Chewie way gets boned here. He did as much as Han did," Ben was saying around a mouthful of popcorn.

"Oh, you're back! How'd it go?" Ginny said, getting up from the sofa and taking the books from Harry. She looked at the titles and wrinkled her nose. "What are these?"

"Books from Weatherbee's library. Archimedes gave them to me."

Ginny raised her eyebrow and set them on the coffee table. "All right then. So, are you still friends?"

Harry shrugged and took off his hoodie, hanging it up on the coatrack by the door. "We're invited to dinner tomorrow night at their place."

"Are we going?" she asked with a glance at Ron.

"Haven't decided yet. Depends on how tired your finals make you." Harry grinned down at her and kissed the tip of her nose. "Come on, let's put in Empire. It's the best one."

39. Chapter 39

Harry stood out in the middle of the school's Quidditch pitch, surveying the progress on his obstacle course. Tomorrow his students were going to face it and he looked it over with a critical eye. He was rather proud of the initial obstacle, a fifteen-foot wooden wall. It was slick on the side the challengers would need to go up and sticky on the side they'd need to go down. Following that, they would need to enter the hut full of Devil's Snare and manage to get out of the other door.

"Devil's Snare, eh? Remember how Hermione was on us for days for not knowing how to get around that one?" Ron had said, shaking his head as he'd helped him set up the hut in the field. "She still brings it up."

"I'm not surprised. Heading back tomorrow, yeah?" Harry asked, sending his stag to Sophia to let her know the hut was ready for the plant.

"Yeah. I need to get home. Hermione's summer holidays are coming up and we're going to start looking for our own place." Ron wiped his brow, frowning at the hot afternoon sunlight.

"You don't have to. You can stay in the flat."

"I know, but it's not our place, is it? Besides, how're you going to pay for that place you just bought if you don't sell the flat?"

"Suit yourself. Just make sure you have all your shit moved out by the end of the month. I hear the owner of that place is a real arsehole." Harry grinned and dodged Ron's half-hearted swipe at his head as Sophia approached with the Devil's Snare.

"That's it?" Ron asked as she set the medium-sized pot down. The plant was completely covered by a thick black cloth.

"Oh, don't worry, this is just a cutting. It'll spread out and fill up that little house you two have built for it. May I?" she asked, gesturing toward the hut.

"Of course." Harry stepped aside and watched as the Herbology teacher went inside and shut the door. She came out a few moments later and nodded happily, picking up the potted Devil's Snare and taking it back inside.

"There. I've set it in the farthest corner. I'll take a peek at it in the morning, but please avoid opening the door until you need to," she said, dusting off her hands.

"Thanks for your help, Sophia. How, uh, how's the neighborhood watch?" he asked, giving Ron a shake of his head at his questioning look.

"Oh, the neighborhood has calmed down considerably with the latest news. Thanks for asking." She shook Ron's hand and gave him a brilliant smile. "It was so wonderful to meet you. You should bring Hermione with you next time you come. I would love to meet her."

"Well, this trip came up a little out of the blue, so she wasn't able to come with me. I'll be heading home tomorrow, but I'll definitely bring her next time. You can have a long chat about Devil's Snare." Harry coughed, covering his laugh at Sophia's confused expression as she nodded and waved goodbye. "What was that neighborhood stuff about?" Ron asked, coming to stand next to him.

"Sophia's dad is Muggle-born, so when Weatherbee was rabble-rousing, she formed a group to sort of keep an eye on things," Harry said, smiling as she went into the Transfiguration classroom.

"Initiative," Ron grunted.

"Indeed." Harry turned back to the obstacle course. "How about you take a run through those paintball guns and see how they work?"

Ron had left that morning, eager to be home now that it looked like Ginny was going to make a full recovery and suffer no obvious ill-effects from the possession incident. Molly had taken a lot of reassuring, including a very brief international Floo call, but she had finally stopped threatening to come out there herself.

Harry watched the rust monster settling down for the night in the wooden pen constructed for it. He was very much looking forward to seeing how his students dealt with that. He'd thought about putting the Boggart in the course, but they were so accustomed to it by now that it wouldn't really be a challenge. Besides, he didn't really want to chance it going rogue and escaping; he'd have a hell of a time getting a replacement.

He had just exited the enclosure that hid the course from the sight of curious students when he saw a tall figure walking across the field toward him. Harry shaded his eyes from the setting sun and saw that it was Jacob. Hands in his pockets, he waited for Jacob to make his way across the field. "Jacob, good to see you up and around," he said once the man had joined him.

"It's good to be up and around," he said with a trace of his usual joviality. "How's Ginny?"

"She's doing well, thank you," Harry answered, wondering how much Jacob knew about what had happened that night. "How about you?"

Jacob flapped his hand and shook his head. "I'm fine. A couple of Blood Replenishing potions and I was right as rain." He stood there and looked at Harry and he was just starting to wonder if he had something on his face when Jacob spoke again. "I want to thank you, Harry."

"For what?" Harry asked, surprised to hear him say it.

"For saving my life. For trying to warn me off of Ignatius. For risking your life, and Ginny's, for mine," Jacob said with a shrug, eyes looking off into the distance behind Harry's left shoulder.

"It's apparently what I do," Harry said quietly, drawing a faint smile from Jacob. "What happened after Gin and I left you at the gala?"

Jacob nodded, meeting Harry's eyes briefly before looking away again. "It's all jumbled up together. We were there, looking at the art and right after you left, there was this tremendous banging and clamor. Then before I really knew what was happening, he'd Apparated us to his basement." He was quiet for a moment and Harry let him gather his thoughts. "It was all so strange, you know? He was like a man possessed and completely different from the way I'd seen him before. He had that little portrait and was just … ecstatic? Delirious?"

"Unhinged," Harry supplied.

"Yes," Jacob said, looking back at him. "Unhinged. He was rambling about how he was going to bring forth the spirit of an ancestor of mine, of Cornelius, and then somehow take it over. I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't listen. Said I was just a pompous, rich playboy that didn't know what real power was. Talked about how he would show us all real power."

"So he knocked you out and took your blood?"

"He didn't knock me out. Paralyzed me and made me watch as he cut me. Then he took that portrait and said a bunch of Latin and just let my blood run all over it." Jacob's voice grew more and more distant as he described the ritual. Harry was searching his memory for something that sounded similar, coming up empty.

"And then what happened?" he asked gently after Jacob had been silent for several moments.

"It was the strangest thing. This smoke started coming out of the portrait and as it did, I started to feel like I was being almost … drained. Like some vital essence was leaving me." He took a deep breath and shook his head. "And then I just passed out. When I came to, Ignatius was dead and I was on the floor of the basement with Archimedes yelling at Evelyn."

"Where is Evelyn?" Harry asked, eyes sweeping the grounds for her.

"She's at the house. She figured I'd be all right coming here to see you."

"I'd better make sure to not disappoint her, then." Harry grinned at Jacob, glad to see him grin back. "So, Weatherbee," he asked, cocking his head to the side. "Why?"

"Why was I his friend? His campaign manager? How come I didn't believe you?" Jacob shook his head, mouth quirked to the side. "He wasn't always quite so … militant. Or at least not as obvious about it. I've known him for years and he's always been a very droll fellow, good to have at parties. You say he was one of your … Death Eaters?"

Harry shrugged. "A minor one. He managed to evade capture by coming here before anyone thought to catch him up."

Jacob grunted and nodded, hands deep in the pockets of his trousers. "Anyway, he really changed about a year or so before you came here. Started talking more about things like how it was a shame that Muggle-borns were taught alongside Purebloods and how he'd seen the bloodlines in Britain weaken and didn't want to see it happen here."

"Was that about the time he started flashing that coin around?"

"Yes, I think it was, now that you mention it. I noticed immediately that it was old and very valuable, but he wouldn't be parted from it and didn't say where he'd acquired it from. I'm assuming there was something special about it?" Jacob asked, curiosity in his eyes.

"There was. He stole it from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office," Harry said, deliberately failing to mention the awareness Cornelius had imbued into the coin with his dying breath.

"Ah. The change was subtle, though. I didn't really even realize how much he'd changed until he started advocating to restrict the scholarship to Purebloods."

Jacob fell silent again, looking down at the grass. "How did you acquire the portrait?" Harry asked, giving voice to a question he'd wondered for a long time.

"Ignatius alerted me to an estate auction, said there should be some interesting things in it and we went together. When the portrait came up, we were both determined to have it, but I outbid him. I really felt there was something special about it, you know?"

"Do you know what it was?"

"Archimedes told me it was a Horcrux, created by Cornelius Maxwell. How did you know what it was?"

Harry gave a rueful smile. "Gin and I did a bit of snooping during your Halloween party and I saw it in the library. I thought it was very striking and I was drawn to it." He shook his head, remembering the strange impulse to touch it. "When I touched it, it literally knocked me flat on my arse."

Jacob's eyes went wide with realization. "Ah! So at Thanksgiving when you were asking about it and got me and Guy to touch it—you were looking to see if we knew what it was?" He shook his head and wagged his finger. "Sneaky, Harry! Very sneaky!"

Harry merely shrugged, hoping he wasn't completely red in the face. "I didn't know you well at all and I didn't really want to just come out and ask you what a Horcrux was doing in your house."

"Just in case I turned out to be an evil mastermind, bent on ruling wizardkind?"

"One can never be too sure," Harry said, thinking of how much pain could have been avoided if he'd just spoken up. Seems I've taken a few too many of Dumbledore's lessons to heart.

"Well, it's all water under the bridge now," Jacob sighed, looking toward the setting sun. "I want to apologize to you."

"For what?" Harry asked, surprised at his words.

"The scholarship in your parents' names. I thought I was doing you an honor, that you would be pleased by having them remembered like that. You left in the middle of the party so suddenly and I thought you were just overcome with emotion, but Evelyn explained to me later that maybe I should have spoken to you about it first." Jacob looked at him, genuinely contrite. "I can't rescind it, but I can change the name."

Harry was genuinely touched at Jacob's admission that using his parents' names without permission was maybe not the best idea he'd ever had and he shook his head. "Well, I was very surprised and keep in mind that I had just discovered a Horcrux and then there you are in full Slytherin regalia."

"It is my ancestral house."

"Yeah, I know that now, but that night I seriously thought someone was really taking the piss," Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck as memories of that night flooded over him.

"I didn't even think about that, to be honest. They thought I was crazy at Madame Malkin's when I ordered it. A fully-grown adult ordering a Slytherin school uniform to run around in and American to boot. I'm sure they talked about me for months," Jacob said, his face turning a bit pink.

"No doubt. The ladies there are the worst gossips," Harry said, remembering when he and Ron had gone to get measured for first their Auror Cadet dress robes and then their Auror dress robes. Both experiences had been quite memorable. "But no, leave the names, yeah? It is an honor."

"I can make it for Muggle-borns or Half-Bloods only?"

"No. Open to everyone who applies. It's what they fought for." What they died for.

Jacob nodded and looked away, leaving Harry to his thoughts. "So, show me this obstacle course I've been hearing so much about. Old Grigsby never did anything like this."

Harry smiled and opened the gate, ushering Jacob into the enclosure. "Sure. Feel up to taking a run through it?"

"You've got a big day today," Ginny sang as she piled bacon onto his plate.

Harry picked up a piece and snapped it in half. "Perfect," he said, crunching down on it with a smile. She smiled back and sat down next to him with her own plate. "Yeah, first group through the course today. I hope they like it."

"Artemis give you a hard time over any of it?"

"Not really, no. He wasn't too happy with the rust monster or the Devil's Snare, but he said he trusted my judgement."

"He didn't say anything about the poison?" Ginny asked, slathering strawberry jam on her toast.

"I know, surprised me, too!" Harry folded a slice of toast around his egg and a couple of pieces of bacon, biting into it with satisfaction. "I offered to have him take a run through it, but he declined." He finished his improvised breakfast sandwich and drank down the rest of his tea, putting his dishes in the sink when he was done. "Thanks for making breakfast, love," he said, kissing Ginny on the cheek.

"I've got start my boy off strong, don't I?" she said, giving him a playful smack on his arse as he turned to go into the bedroom.

"Hey, now! That's a very sensitive area," he said, leaning in close to her ear.

"Aw, shall I kiss it and make it better?" she asked with an impish smile.

"Hmm, maybe I have something else that needs a kiss, yeah?" he whispered, nuzzling her ear and smiling at her squirming attempt to get away from him. He was incredibly relieved that she seemed to have recovered her energy after her harrowing ordeal. She still had some trouble sleeping and Harry was helping her with some meditation techniques.

"Don't you have to get ready for work?" she asked pointedly, kissing him on the nose.

"Indeed I do! So I'll thank you to leave me in peace, all right?" He gave her a cheeky smile and disappeared into the bedroom, quickly pulling on a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a navy-blue polo shirt. Since he was going to be outside all day, he'd managed to get Artemis to agree to let him dress more casually. He slipped on his trainers and grabbed the Cal baseball cap he'd recently acquired.

He stepped dramatically into the kitchen, arms spread wide for Ginny's approval. "Are you really going to work dressed like that?" she asked when she looked up from the newspaper.

"I am. I have permission from the headmaster," he said loftily, sweeping his hair back and settling the cap on his head.

"Do you have permission to blind everyone with those white legs?" Ginny asked, hopping down off the barstool.

Harry looked down at his legs. "They won't be that white for long. Unlike some people in this room, I can tan." He tapped the tip of her nose as she adjusted his collar, making her snort.

"Keep talking, mister. I know where you live."

"Indeed you do," Harry said, pulling her into a hug and kissing the top of her head. "What are your plans for the day?"

"Hmm, well, my last final was yesterday, so I'm pretty much done with school," she said, voice muffled against his chest. "I thought I might do some more organizing in here or maybe I'll just sit on the sofa all day watching the telly?"

"Eating bonbons, no doubt."

"Of course." She grinned up at him and he felt his heart soar at being together with her in this place. Something must have shown on his face because she scrunched her eyebrows and asked, "What?"

"Nothing," Harry said, shaking his head. "I love you."

"I love you, too. You'd better get going. You don't want those kids to run through your obstacle course without you!"

"No, I suppose I'd better be there to time them and grade them and all that other stuff." He kissed her again and gave her a final squeeze. "See you tonight. Think about what you want to do for dinner."

"What if I'd rather think about what I want to do with you after dinner?"

"I suppose I don't have any objection to that."

"Excellent. Now scoot!" she said, slapping him on the bottom again, this time hard enough to actually sting a little.

"Hey, what is it with you and my arse this morning?" he asked, shaking his head at her enigmatic smile. He slung his satchel over his shoulder and Apparated out of the condo, holding on to the feeling of her goodbye kiss.

Harry clicked his stopwatch as Thomas crossed the finish line, stumbling to a stop in front of him. He was covered in a rainbow of paint splotches and Harry raised his eyebrow at him. "I'm sorry, Mr Potter, I was completely rattled after that Devil's Snare and forgot about the Shield Charm. I just tried to run through as fast as I could."

"Quite all right, Thomas. Coming out clean is just worth some extra points. You're fine."

"What's my time?"

"Five minutes, thirty-seven point four five seconds."

"Is that good?" Thomas asked with a frown.

"It's not bad. Richard is next. Want to watch?" Harry looked over at the rust monster. It seemed to have recovered from the Stunning spell Thomas had used and was waving its antennae around. He reset the stopwatch and took out his wand, sending a flurry of green sparks up into the sky.

"Can I? Awesome!" Thomas sat down on a nearby bale of hay, eagerly anticipating watching his best friend run through the challenging course.

Squinting through his sunglasses, Harry saw red sparks shoot up from Juanita's wand and he started his stopwatch as the small figure of Richard approached the first obstacle, the fifteen-foot-high wall. As they watched, Richard paused and cast, a thick rope shooting from the end of his wand, anchoring at the top of the wall.

"That's not going to work," Thomas snorted, arms crossed. He was proved right when the slick surface of the wall left Richard unable to use his feet to help himself ascend and he quickly lost any of the progress he'd made. They watched as Richard stood, looking up at the top of the wall for a few moments before he cast a spell, causing a column of earth to rise up underneath him, carrying him to the top.

"Ha!" Thomas crowed as Richard tried to use the rope to rappel down, promptly getting his feet firmly stuck on the sticky side of the wall. Harry winced as he watched him get his feet unstuck and slid down the rope, shaking his hands and jumping up and down at the bottom. "That had to hurt," Thomas remarked.

"Indeed," Harry murmured, glancing at the stopwatch as Richard entered the hut; he'd cleared the wall a bit ahead of Thomas's time. Thomas tried to look nonchalant, his grin widening as Richard took longer than he had with the Devil's Snare. Harry knew the hut was pitch black inside and the plant was very hasty to react, quickly ensnaring intruders. He looked at the stopwatch again, brows furrowing at how long he'd been in the hut and was almost ready to throw down his clipboard and run over when the door opened and Richard stumbled out.

"That took a while!" Thomas said, wiping his brow and Harry felt his heart settle down as he watched his student contemplate the zig-zag corridor formed by bales of hay. Richard bent over and picked up a rock, tossing it toward the closest bale. When nothing happened, he took a step in, jumping back when one of the hidden nozzles shot a blue paint ball at him, narrowly avoiding it.

They saw him cast and then run forward, bright colors smashing against his Shield Charm. "Dammit," Thomas swore under his breath, glancing at Harry to see if he'd heard. Raising his eyebrow at his student's language, Harry turned his attention back to Richard as he approached the pen with the rust monster.

Terry had assured him that the rust monster would be perfect for his purpose. "He's slow, but territorial, so he'll definitely go after anyone who comes into the enclosure. He'll take his sweet time about it, but he'll be hard to stop."

"But he will stop, right?" Harry had asked, watching as the giant beetle-like creature rooted around in a bin of metal scraps.

"Eventually," Terry said with an enigmatic smile.

Now Richard entered the enclosure, closing the gate firmly behind him. The rust monster stood between him and the exit, antennae questing toward the intruder. It made an odd sort of hissing whistle, a sound Terry told him it made by forcing air through its spiracles and started slowly trundling toward Richard. He tried to dodge around it, but the size of the pen didn't leave a lot of maneuvering space, forcing him to deal with it directly.

Richard stood confidently and Harry recognized the wand movement for the Full-Body Bind charm, but the creature didn't even stumble, forcing Richard to scramble backwards, lest he be stepped on. He recovered quickly, casting a tripping jinx which did cause the creature to lose its footing and careen to the side. "Nice," Thomas grunted, arms crossed over his chest.

Another cast and the rust monster's feet were moving uncontrollably, rendering it unable to control its direction as the hissing whistle turned into a high-pitched whine. "Dancing Feet. Good," Harry murmured as Richard turned toward the final obstacle, a table with three flasks of potion. A sign said simply, "Identify the poison."

Harry was rather proud of this one. A very simple Revealing spell would indicate the poison, but coming at the very end when the students were rattled made them tend to think it was harder than it actually was. Thomas shook his head as Richard picked up the first vial and uncorked it, taking a cautious sniff before setting it back down. He held the second vial up to the light, squinting at the sun through it. The third one he tasted and Harry groaned.

"Oops," Thomas whispered and Harry dug in one of the pockets of his cargo shorts for his flask of antidote to common poisons. Clutching the vial he'd drank from, Richard sprinted toward them, Harry clicking his stopwatch as he crossed the finish line.

"Time?" Richard gasped.

"Six minutes, fifteen seconds flat," Harry said, handing him the flask of antidote. "Have a sip of that."

"I was faster!" Thomas exulted, jumping up and down. "I win!"

"This is the poison, right?" Richard asked, handing Harry the vial and taking the flask from Harry.

"Yes. You're not supposed to drink it. All you had to do was use Reveal."

"That's it?" Richard asked, wiping his mouth.

"That's it. All right?"

Richard nodded, shooting a dirty look at Thomas who was still dancing madly around. "Okay, you can stop now. At least I don't have paint all over me!"

"Yeah, but you poisoned yourself!"

Richard raised his wand at his best friend and Harry shook his head. "That's enough, you two. Take it outside, yeah?"

"We are outside," Thomas said, sounding confused.

"Look, here comes the Headmaster and Ms Okefor. They don't need to see you two playing up. You both did very well, now get out of here, all right?"

"All right," Richard said. "I didn't fail because I drank the poison?"

"No, you did correctly identify the poison, after all. You're not the first one today and you won't be the last one. See you tomorrow, yeah?"

"See you, Mr Potter," the two boys said, both flipping him lazy salutes.

"Good afternoon, boys," the headmaster said, nodding at the boys. "Did you enjoy Mr Potter's practical final exam?"

"Yes sir. I had a better time than Richard," Thomas boasted, dodging the punch Richard aimed at his arm.

"You watch, I'll beat you next year," Richard said.

Artemis laughed out loud at the boys' rivalry. "I'm sure you will," he said, patting Richard on the shoulder.

Harry grinned at Juanita. "Thanks so much for helping me out today. I didn't quite fully realize that I'd need someone riding herd at the entrance."

"Just wait until it gets out that a humble history teacher had to bail out the great Harry Potter," she said, returning his grin. "It was no trouble. Just remember, you owe me one now."

"The thought of owing you a favor is somehow more frightening than having the Dark Lord on my arse," Harry said after making sure the boys were well out of earshot as they left the course, still bickering back and forth.

"I'm sure Juanita won't be too demanding of you, Harry," Artemis said, giving her a mock severe look as she shrugged noncommittally.

"Be on your toes, Potter. You never know when the call will come." She patted him reassuringly on the shoulder and nodded to Artemis. "I'm off. One more week and then freedom! Well, after graduation. Then freedom!"

"All right. See you tomorrow, yeah?" Harry said, taking off his blue-and-gold Cal baseball cap to wipe the sweat from his brow before settling it back on his head. She gave them both a jaunty wave and headed off the course, humming a tune Harry couldn't quite identify.

"So you've been very busy this year," Artemis said, looking over the course. The dancing legs curse had worn off and the rust monster was back to trundling around its pen, using its antennae to look for any stray bits of metal.

"Indeed I have." Harry looked at the headmaster, wondering if he knew more than Harry thought he did.

"Starting a new career, teaching high school students the Patronus charm with real Dementors—"

"Chaperoning a school dance," Harry interjected with a smile.

"I'll get you for prom next year, just you wait."

"Gin will be delighted, sir."

Artemis chuckled and was quiet for a moment. "You've certainly pushed us in ways we didn't quite expect. Word of your methods has gotten around and our enrollments are up. Parents from all over the western states want their children to be taught by you."

Harry felt a wash of heat that had nothing to do with the hot sun wash over him. "I'm flattered, sir. Is that going to be a problem?"

"It's a good problem to have," the headmaster said with a grin before falling silent again. "Looks like you got your wish."

"Pardon?" Harry asked, a warning tingle shooting through him.

"Ignatius Weatherbee is no longer on the school board," Artemis said, looking at him with a sad smile.

"Ah, yes. Well, I certainly didn't want him dead. I just didn't want him to have any say in how the school was managed."

"He definitely had some different views." Artemis shook his head. "I wasn't looking forward to trying to oust him from the board, but I didn't want it to end like that."

"No one did, sir." If we'd managed to catch him red-handed rather than watch him be killed, that would have done him in right there, Harry thought. Doesn't seem like Artemis knows more than he ought to, though.

"I understand congratulations are in order. You've bought a place in the City?"

"Yes, yes we have!" Harry hesitated a moment before realizing that he had absolutely no reason to not tell Artemis where he lived. In fact, he reminded himself that he needed to give Lucinda his new address. "It's a lovely condo over at Fillmore and Marina," he said, amused as the headmaster's eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

"My ketch is berthed at Marina Green. You and Ginny should come sailing with Diana and me sometime."

"We'd love to," he said, reflecting that he didn't know whether Ginny got seasick or not. He supposed he'd find out sooner or later.

"Any plans for the summer?" Artemis asked, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"Oh, well let's see. My godson is going to stay with us for the summer, so we'll be heading back to England to pick him up. I'm sure we'll have a few adventures with him." Harry looked up at the blue sky, envisioning Teddy's eyes full of mischief as they got up to summer adventures. "I want to learn to surf, check out that Mt Tam everyone's on about. I might even finally go tour Alcatraz," he said, looking back at Artemis with a wide grin.

"Now why would an ex-Auror want to visit an old prison?"

"That's what I keep saying, but you're the only one that gets it!" Harry clapped Artemis on the shoulder and started walking off the course, clipboard tucked under his arm. "Come on, I've got to actually record these scores and figure out final grades."

They walked off the course, chatting companionably about summer plans and sailing. Artemis waved his goodbye as Harry secured the gate to the obstacle course, thinking of the younger students that were slated to run through it tomorrow. Everyone that had already run it was under strict orders to say nothing of what was involved in the course. "I'll know," he'd said, standing at the front of the classroom as he fixed his seniors with his best teacher glare. Privately, he hoped that the threat was enough because he hadn't actually devised a way to alert him if someone did talk; he didn't feel like explaining to parents why their child's face was emblazoned with the word "SNEAK".

He walked back to his classroom, enjoying the warm sun on his back and shoulders, eyes searching out the oak trees that studded the golden hills surrounding the school. When he'd first arrived, the sight had looked quite foreign to him, but now it was just the way hills should look. Megan Peterson came out of her classroom and locked the door, returning his wave.

"One more week," she said, falling into step next to him. "How did you like your first year teaching?"

"It was very different from being an Auror, I'll tell you that much!" he said with a chuckle.

"But not nearly as dangerous, am I right?" she said with a bright smile, laying a hand on his arm.

"Well, not always, but there were a few times!" Harry shrugged his shoulders, subtly disrupting her touch.

"I'm sure you'll find your second year much easier. We are going to see you next year, aren't we?" she asked, her expression hovering around a pout.

They arrived at his classroom and Harry looked at the worn number 35 on the door, remembering the day he'd taught his seniors about Blood Seals and how they'd all stood outside, utterly puzzled as to why they couldn't get inside and the thrill he'd felt as they gradually figured it out. He unlocked the door and swung it open, the now-familiar scents of chalk dust, paper and ink washing over him. "Yeah, I think so," he said, giving the Charms teacher a wide grin.