"What the bleep!!!!!!! did we miss?" & "How did I not know this?" & "Why didn't you tell me?"
Outside the Burrow, 2 Minutes Later, July 30th, 1998
While the rest of the people standing in front of the Burrow remained frozen, the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs apparated away. They returned five minutes later from their two destinations.
“Earth to Everyone!” The previously frozen folks turned to Justin and Ernie. Justin continued. “Terry and Anthony went to the Three Broomsticks and got enough Butterbeer for everyone while Hannah and Susan went to the Leaky Cauldron and cleared out most of Tom’s fire-whiskey stock. I think recommended ages just went out the window.”
Ernie then said in a very coaxing voice, “Lets go sit on the picnic blankets in the backyard while everyone processes the current sights!”
George raised his hand and asked, “Can the people who really need to explain things please start explaining?”
“I guess I’ll start,” Parvati said, quickly catching the new guests up on everything at Grimmauld and what had been previously discussed that morning.
Ginny followed with news of the Burrow, Daphne with the events of Malfoy Manor, and Neville with what happened at Hogwarts.
Blaise and Theo stood up and quickly went through Harry’s entire tale, leaving off at the Tea with Mrs. Figg.
“This tension needs to go! I’m going to make some guesses about everything that people are shocked about. Please do correct me if I’m wrong,” George started, “The Dursleys, the family of Lily Potter’s sister, who raised Harry…”
“And we treated him horribly.” Dudley mentioned.
“Yep! Thanks Dudley, Harry’s muggle cousin. Now, you moved to Australia so as to not be killed and possibly held for ransom on Harry’s suggestion. Something happened with your Dad, which is why you aren’t being a problem. Hermione got her parents' memories back, but they’re a little bugged and they just aren’t sure if they’re ready to return to Britain or if they even want to. Harry got Hedwig back from his Squib next door neighbor, Mrs. Figg, who rescued her, and was unaware of the outcome or progress of the war until Lavender apparated onto her doorstep, mostly dead, and is now semi-okay. I assume I’m missing a few things, but I think I got the basics.”
Harry and Hermione started nodding. Harry got up, grabbed three bottles of fire-whiskey, and gave one to Hermione and one to Ron. They hit the bottles together and downed them in less than 30 seconds, barely even shuttering.
“I’m feeling much better,” Hermione said, “But not good enough to fix everything, sorry.”
“Mind if I step in?” Draco asked.
Hermione nodded, “Please!”
“Alright,” he said with a clap, “Kingsley and Percy need to make a speech to give about their new Ministry. Early August is preferable. Address the rumors of your hypothetical distrust in your Aurors, without directly emitting or admitting anything. The Ministry needs to also search other homes, if the occupants are willing, to keep Dark Artifacts. They would be brought to the Department of Mysteries, and once an object is discovered, and hopefully either destroyed or uncursed, the report would be available to the public. I’d assume that it may be a good idea for the department to have a vault in Gringotts to place the now safer artifacts in.
“I’ll check with the higher ups, but I’d work with them and help with curse-breaking.”
“That is an excellent idea, uh? Wait, Gringotts and curse breaker, you’re Bill right?”
“Yeah, oh right, Charlie’s been at Hogwarts!” Bill laughed.
“Ok. That takes care of two of the Beetle’s headlines, I don’t think we can do much about the Malfoy vs Ministry one. The Golden Trio,” the three grimaced, “no offense!, should be hosting a get together celebrating Hogwarts being fully rebuilt, with everyone that’s here, there. As well as any students who wish to come early.”
“Is there a CPS for your world?” Dudley asked.
“A what?”
“It stands for Child Protective Services. Most countries have them to protect children who are abused or to keep them away from dangerous people and or households.” Hermione answered.
“I’m an idiot. Why didn’t I think of that!” Harry yelled.
“There are a handful of children at Hogwarts right now. Ones that don’t have a home or family or ones that don’t want to go back to theirs. They shouldn’t be forced to stay at Hogwarts for the summer or breaks.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think about anything like that. It’s something our world could use. I’ll talk to the Muggle Prime Minister. I want to create that. Harry, would you help advise?”
“Uh, yeah. I think there should be a temporary solution. And then after this year we work on a long term one.”
“I’d be happy to house some students here,” Molly said, “We have the room. And the experience.” Arthur nodded.
“The Manor has hundreds of rooms, if children feel safe there and the Ministry allows. We have strong wards, the worst of which Andromeda and I have worked to remove, those being the ones added during the war and the ones that would hurt trespassers immediately. But the centuries old ones would keep children safe. The ones with parents in the ‘old world’.” Narcissa smiled.
Andromeda continued, “What Ted and I have isn’t large, but there’s definitely room. And our parents' house, once it’s safe, has plenty.”
“It’s in my hands now and I can’t think of a better way to anger our parents.” Narcissa laughed.
“So are we gonna discuss how Lavender is alive? I mean it’s good, but really?”
“It’ll make Greyback angry. Perhaps we could draw him out, and get him captured before the school year starts. It would make things safer.
“I agree, but since we’ve decided that the Dementors aren’t the most ethical guards after the whole ‘Sirius Black is Innocent!’ incident, though I really should have known better, we’re short a trained staff and not all of the trials are complete. Two prisoners have escaped before Moldeywart even returned! It’s a shame Effie passed when she did. She would have destroyed my predecessors.”
“Effie?”
“And what do you mean Sirius Black innocent!!!!”
“Euphemia Potter. Harry’s grandmother. She was a good friend. She’s the one who took Siri in, and would’ve taken Reg if she could. Founder of the Black Sheep, I might add,” Andromeda said.
“You both knew my grandmother?”
“I was in school for two years with the Marauders around. I thought the world of death by pranks was over. And I was nearly done at Hogwarts when Tonks showed up. Ha. She came to me in her Sixth Year and apologized to me. Apparently the Weasley twins gave her a run for her money. I don’t know how you’ve put up with it all, Professor.”
“Oh, it will be worse when Teddy starts, or if any of these troublemakers have children. I think I might retire at that point. We’ll see how much trouble I have with Nymphadora’s genes mixed with Remus’!” the Headmistress laughed.
The kids smiled, and Draco grimaced.
Pansy asked, “So are we forgetting that Sirius Black is apparently innocent? Or?”
“Oh yeah, he’s good. It was actually Peter Pettigrew. Gave the Potters to Moldywart and Sirius Black was the only one besides Dumbledore who knew about it. They switched the secret keeper under the table. Sirius would take the harassment if someone came after him.”
“Sirius confronted Peter in public, Peter spelled off his finger, and ran away with the other rats.”
“I get that he ratted on the Potters, but how did he…?
“Remus Lupin is a werewolf. Greyback’s fault. Remus went to the Shrieking Shack every full moon, hence the rumors. My dad, Sirius, and Peter decided to become Animagi when they found out in Second Year. They managed it in Fifth. My dad was a stag, Sirius was a black dog, and Peter was a rat. And Wormtail accidentally became Scabbers, and he spent the same amount of time in prison as Sirius.”
“Wait! Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs! The Marauders! How did I not know this? Are you kidding?”
“Yep, Harry’s dad, the only competent DADA teacher, no offense Harry, the escaped prisoner we helped harbor, and the family rat. I thought you knew!” Ron said.
“No! I would know if I met three of my hero’s, one of whom prevented me from meeting the fourth! My life has never made so much sense! Charlie? Bill? Did either of you know?”
“Why them?”
“After Fred and I found the Marauders Map, and gave it to Harry and all we offhandedly mentioned it to our older brothers, who happened to know someone who had it in their school years!”
“I didn’t know what it was or what it was called! And I found that out after the fact!” Charlie shouted.
Bill laughed.
“What else are you guys keeping secret?”
“Uh…”
A handful of people snickered.
Draco grimaced again.
“Malfoy, you okay?”
“It’s one of them, they’re calling. I can’t wait to destroy everything their work left in the Manor. I’m pretty sure they might show up tonight, but they’ve been taken out of the wards. And everyone here has been allowed in.
“You sure this is safe?”
“No idea. But I think all of us combined will be able to figure it out if something bad happens.”
“Good then. Our house-elves, freed and paid with very nice quarters and uniforms I might add, have prepared a wonderful feast for all.”
“Freed, Paid, Upgraded Quarters, and Uniforms?”
“I think S.P.E.W. is an absolutely wonderful idea, for some ruder families.”
“You know about the Society Promoting Elvish Welfare?”
“Yes, Draco informed me about it, not too long ago. He thought it to be semi-ridiculous, but a worthy idea, no offense intended, Miss Granger.”
“It’s Hermione, and coming from Draco Malfoy, it is the closest thing to a compliment that I have ever received.”
Narcissa gave her son a hard stare.
“I’m working on it! They’ve been my enemies in the simpler times!”
“Not during the war?” Ron asked.
“Of course not. You people getting things done was a literal savior. Minus the small help we gave during your escape. That wasn’t fun, but it was 1000% worth it. Probably more.”
“You seriously like us? And wanted us to win??” Harry said, shocked.
“Yes. HIS world was one of horror. If I wasn’t scared for my mother, things would have gone quite differently. Moldywart was absolutely fuming when he found out about some of the things you three had done, and I think there was a lot more that he didn’t know about. And of course Uncle Sev didn’t bother with telling me about the double agent thing until he was dying, so of course I couldn’t help like my friends did.”
“We can’t hold ourselves responsible for the actions of psychopaths,” Hermione said, “You did what you could to help while doing everything you could to protect your mother. You're my friend at this point. I know too many things about you to not!.”
“Uh?”
“It was a long July, and Pansy seems to enjoy giving me information about the Slytherins, and 7 years of gossip that I could not ignore, no matter how hard I tried.”
“You have our sympathies, Granger! Sorry, Hermione.” Blaise smiled.
“Pansy is a force to be reckoned with, or not reckoned with, or whatever the saying is…” Theo laughed.
“So, who’s ready to make my ancestors scream?” Draco shouted.
His question was answered with cheers, whoops, applause, and everything in between.