Harry Potter and the House Divided

Chapter Ten Money, Memories and Mischief

As it turned out, neither Tonks nor Bill had done much interesting that day and in fact the next few weeks were almost as quiet as Harry's fifth year had been, at least for Lord Voldemort. Harry, on the other hand, was training day and night with Fleur, Remus, Tonks and Bill. When one of them wasn't working with him he was reading the books that he'd gotten for his birthday and trying to understand the extremely complex investment portfolio that his parents left him. He grew increasingly worried about it as the month passed and there was no news about when Fleur's family would be able to come to England. Though there was still time, Harry was beginning to worry that dealing with his financial concerns would have to be put off until he got back to Hogwarts.

Not only that but Fleur had announced that her cousin Katarina, a full-blood veela would be coming with her family as she was the Delacours' investment specialist. Fleur told Harry that being around her cousin would be good practice should he have to act as ambassador to the veela. Seeing his embarrassment at the thought and fear over how he would respond to Fleur's cousin, Tonks began to tease Harry about the fact that his accomplishments would certainly rate attention from Katarina. Although shocked at first, Fleur joined in and Harry's worries about money were matched by terror over the possibility that his investments adviser might find him attractive.

As time passed, worries about money began to predominate over his nervousness about meeting Katarina as his family's investments seemed to be losing value. This was a little worrisome to Harry as though he didn't know much about investing, he did know that the idea was for money to grow not shrink. When he brought the tally that Gringotts had sent him to Bill and showed him that he had gone from 6,214,321 galleons to 5,725,910 in only six weeks, Bill actually smiled and said that Harry was doing a lot better than most people.

"Don't worry about this at all, Harry. Your investments are being handled conservatively and you're doing a lot better than most people right now."

"Oh," Harry said with a frown. "I know that it's a lot of money, more than I'll ever need really, but it still seemed bad that there was less of it."

"Well, it is after a fashion," Bill said, giving Harry his full attention. "But you have to know how other people are doing to get a relative sense about these things. If you read the 'The Galleon' or one of the smaller financial papers you'd see that you're actually doing pretty well compared with most people. 'You-Know-Who's' return is really hurting the economy and most people have lost fifteen or twenty percent of their money over the last few weeks. You're down a bit less than ten percent which isn't bad at all."

"Oh," Harry said, sure that Hermione would have known all of this and been disappointed in his lack of knowledge on something of this importance.

"Should I be reading that paper you mentioned or doing anything else?" he asked, wondering if this was yet another thing that he'd have to take on now.

"No, not for now. You've got more important things to do. I would try to read the market update in the Prophet every day though, just to have a sense of where things are in general. Katarina can help you learn a lot of what you'll need to know and you can always contract through Gringotts for financial advice. They charge a lot but they're incredibly trustworthy, particularly for a family as old, powerful and well respected as yours is."

"Right," Harry said with a frown, hating just how dependent on other people he was becoming. The Order for his protection, people he hadn't met yet for advice on his money, Dumbledore and his teachers for the knowledge to beat Lord Voldemort and his friends for their ability to accept his silences until he was ready to talk about everything that was happening in his life.

Before they could continue discussing Harry's financial life, Tonks apparated into the room, firing a stunner at Harry as she did so. She'd done something like this at least twenty times since his move to No.12, Grimmauld Place and Harry hated every one of the exercises that started with something like this.

This training was called 'evasion' by Tonks and Remus who often chased Harry throughout the house, shooting random spells at him while using his status as a minor to force him to try to evade them using non-magical means only. The worst of these sessions came when one or the other of them would appear in the middle of one of these mad dashes and attack from some unanticipated angle. It seemed most unfair to Harry that he could only duck and dodge while the adults could use any spell that they wanted at any time. However, Harry was learning how to evade magical attacks and anticipate the spells that might be used against him by situation and in some cases by wand movement. Doing this, Tonks told him, would be extremely valuable as it would markedly improve his chances in magical combat.

The only good thing about these sessions was the amount of work that he could get out of after the destruction that they generated as only Tonks and Remus could do repair charms. It sometimes took them an hour to sweep the house and fix everything that they, particularly Tonks, destroyed while dashing around the upper floors. These sessions were hard on all of them and Madame Pomphrey was summoned more than once to straighten out bumps, bruises and a broken arm that Tonks got in a spectacular fall down the stairs.

Tonks' injury opened a block of time for Harry and Remus that neither anticipated. Remus, who seemed a bit restless while waiting with Harry to see what Tonks' status might be, opened a topic of conversation that Harry realized must be as uncomfortable for his mentor as it was for him.

"Harry, I know that we haven't talked about it much, but I do want you to know that I don't blame you for what happened to Sirius. He made the decision to come to the ministry with us in spite of Professor Dumbledore's orders and he was too confident when he was fighting Bellatrix Lestrange."

"But...," Harry said, still more than a little guilty over his part in the events that led to Sirius' death.

"No, Harry," Remus said quietly. "You are not to blame for anything that happened last year. Tonks and I have seen Professor Dumbledore several times about what happened and he has made it clear that although you were a part of events, you have very little blame for them. I would have known that even if I hadn't seen him and after he told us what happened with Severus, well the only reason that I didn't go and exact a bit of revenge on him was that I was the only one strong enough to keep Tonks from trying to take a piece out of him herself. You really have a wonderful guardian in her and you should definitely take advantage of the opportunity that Sirius has given you to know her."

Harry grinned, wondering if he could turn a bit of the teasing that he had been getting around for once.

"So is there anything that I should know about with you guys?" he asked, grinning at his father's last living friend.

"No," Remus said with a smile. "She's too young and there are strict rules against that sort of thing where aurors are concerned."

Harry stared, shocked.

"What rules?" he demanded, surprised that aurors wouldn't be allowed to have romantic relationships.

"Well, Harry, the ministry worries that an auror involved in a relationship with a werewolf or other magical being might not be able to perform his or her duty in pursuit of that magical being or another, if it became necessary to kill in defence of someone else. So Aurors must sign a document not unlike that which Hermione used for your Defence Association last year that acts as a magical guarantee that they are not romantically involved with any kind of dangerous non-human beings. Breaking that agreement results in the loss of the auror's badge and an immediate ban on any other work for the ministry or one of it's contractors. Since most magical businesses have links to the ministry in some way or other, the penalty for breaking this contract is very high indeed."

Harry frowned, believing that this kind of discrimination was wrong and somehow depressed that wizarding prejudice reached as far as it did. He also knew that Ron and Hermione would have differed sharply in their reactions to this policy. Ron would insist that these rules were perfectly reasonable and Hermione would be equally determined that they were just as bad as she thought the enslavement of house elves was.

Remus distracted him from these thoughts by offering him the chance to do something that he'd wanted to since he'd learned that it might be possible.

"Would you like to take the rest of the evening off and have a look at a few memories that I have of James and the rest from when we were in school?"

"Can we?" Harry asked, excited by the chance to see his father in a more positive light than Snape's memories cast on him.

"Certainly," Remus said with a smile. "I've got Professor Dumbledore's pensieve and with all of the poor associations that this house has for me, it would be nice to remember Sirius, James and even Peter in happier times than this house brings to mind."

"I'd like that, too," Harry said, jumping to his feet.

"Well then, why don't you go to the drawing room and I'll bring Albus' pensieve in a few minutes."

Harry hastened to the drawing room, pacing while he waited for Remus to catch up with him.

Remus finally entered the room, carrying a shallow stone bowl that Harry immediately recognized as Professor Dumbledore's Pensieve.

"I've only recently learned how to extract memories so hopefully this will go well," Remus said smiling in his understated way.

Harry wasn't quite sure what to make of this. After all, the only memories he'd been in were those of Professor Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard of the age and Snape, who was an experienced Occlumans and Legilimens, and a very powerful wizard in his own right.

There was no question in Harry's mind that Remus was powerful too but getting memories out of someone's mind and putting them in a pensieve seemed a bit tricky to him and he wondered if there was any danger from going into a memory that hadn't been extracted properly.

"You don't need to worry about whether we'll get killed going into a poorly extracted memory," Remus said, smiling. "Professor Dumbledore was very insistent that I demonstrate my technique before he let me have his pensieve. Apparently, he was almost as concerned about your safety in doing this as you are but if you feel better about it we can just use the pensieve as a window into the memory. Professor Dumbledore says that you've used it like this before."

"I've been in and used it like a window too," Harry said, embarrassed that the Headmaster had told Remus about some of his earlier misadventures.

"And do you feel safe going into one of my memories?" Remus asked, with one of his characteristically gentle smiles.

"Uh, sure!" Harry said, reassured by Remus' comment about Professor Dumbledore's insistence that he see that things would go well.

"Good!" Remus said while raising his wand to his temple and withdrawing a thick silver strand of memory from his mind. "This memory is by far my favourite from our early years at Hogwarts," he said as the silver filament sank into the liquid medium in which memories were held.

Harry, desperate to see positive memories of his father after having seen Snape's less than complementary recollections, practically dove at the table where the pensieve sat.

"I take it you're ready to go?" Remus asked, laughing at Harry's eagerness.

"Yeah!" Harry said, grinning.

"Then let's go and see what there is to see," Remus said, taking Harry's hand and sliding their joined fingers into the silvery liquid.

*-*-*-

After falling through the surface of the pensieve, Harry came to his feet in the hospital wing. He and Remus were standing just inside the curtains of the bed that Harry had been in at the end of his third year. Harry could see that the sun was pouring in through the open curtains, a slight breeze ruffling the bed's hangings whose motion made it seem as though they might pass right through his body.

"This was near the end of our second year at Hogwarts," Remus said from beside Harry. "I was barely back from transforming in the Shrieking Shack and much as was true when I taught you in your third year, I needed time to recover. However, the Wolfsbane potion wasn't yet invented and of course, the other marauders hadn't yet become animagi. So my transformations were both more painful and more difficult to recover from."

Before he could say anything more, three boys appeared as if out of nowhere, one hastily folding a silvery object that Harry recognized as his father's invisibility cloak.

"OK, boys," the one holding the cloak said quietly. "I'm not sure how much time we've got before Madame Pomfrey comes to chase us away so let's get in there and talk with Remus about all of this. Why he didn't tell us I can't even guess, but no matter, we're not going to turn on him because of it, are we, Peter?" he asked, shooting a sharp look at his shortest companion.

"No," squeaked a Peter Pettigrew who was younger and somehow more innocent than the version that Harry had seen in person.

"Right", the third boy said, shaking back his long hair and giving Harry a brief look at the boy that Sirius had been when he was twelve or thirteen years old. "You're spot on that we can't stab Remus in the back. After all, he's helped us with everything that we've done around here and taken a lot of trouble for us too. I'm not going to turn on him because he's kept this a secret."

"If he's kept a secret at all," squeaked Peter.

"Yes, if he's kept a secret," Sirius said, frowning.

"Well," James Potter said from his position near the place where the bed's hangings met, "we're not going to learn anything by standing around."

"Right", Sirius said, illuminating his wand.

Harry gasped at what Sirius' action revealed. A brown-haired boy lay on the bed, his face horribly bruised with several nasty slashes across his nose and mouth. His hands were heavily bandaged and Harry could see that there were places where his arms, legs and body had bled heavily, red spots having appeared on the bandaging and bed linens.

"Merlin's beard!" Sirius cried.

"Remus!" Peter squeaked, taking a couple of steps back so that James and Sirius were between him and his friend.

"Well!" said James with a sigh. "Either you've been fighting manticores and leaving us out of it, or you're a werewolf who doesn't have anything better to do than hurt himself when he transforms."

"Would you go for the manticore fighting?"

"No," James said. "After all, if Dumbledore'd brought manticores around we'd have known about it. Dad would have told me and Sirius' parents would have tried to get Dumbledore sacked."

"Not that they'd have succeeded," Sirius said with a laugh. "They've already tried three or four times, and the governors have laughed my father and that hag I call my mother right out of the room."

"All right," Remus sighed. "It's true, I'm a werewolf."

"Cool!" James said with a smile. "I love it when I'm right."

"It is most definitely not cool," Remus said, frowning.

"Of course its not cool that you're a werewolf!" James said guiltily. "I wouldn't wish that on Snape. But you're our friend and I, for one, am not going to let you suffer this without all the help that we can give you."

"There's nothing that you can do," Remus said with a sigh. "Don't you think that if there was I'd have asked you already?"

"There has to be something," James said, petulantly.

"Being my friend and helping me catch up on homework is probably all that you can do and all of you have been really great about that ever since we got here."

"Well you don't have to worry about help with homework all the way to N.E.W.T.s," James said. "Not that you need much of it since you're far better at doing your work than we are, but you know that whatever we can do, we'll help you get caught up on so that you can continue to outscore us."

"Right," Remus said, his expression both pleased and deeply concerned.

"The big worry is that I'll not get to N.E.W.T.s at all."

"What do you mean?" James asked, eyebrow raised.

"Well," Remus said, face crumpling, "if you've already figured it out, it won't take long for someone like Snape or the cousins Black to cotton on to my condition. If you think that they'll let me stay here after they've figured it out, you're thicker than I feel right now."

"I wouldn't worry about that too much," Sirius said with a frown. "Snape's a world class git but he doesn't spend enough time around us to know your patterns the way we do. Bella and Narcissa might cause trouble but Bella's graduating this spring and Narcissa's going to be in N.E.W.T.s next year. She's chasing Lucius Malfoy and spends most of her time telling him about the wonderful pureblood children he could have with her if they got married. If she noticed anything she'd forget it the minute he walked by her, which he does at least twenty times a day just to get a boost to that incredible ego of his."

"Right," Remus said, obviously still very afraid.

"You know," James said thoughtfully. "I think that I've got an idea about all of this."

"Really?" Sirius asked, eyes on his best friend.

"Maybe," James said, frown deepening.

"Remus," he said, voice rising. "Do you know if there are any animals that are affected by lycanthrophy?"

"Only people, and wizards and witches at that."

"Right," James said, smiling broadly. "Then all we have to do is become animagi."

"What!!!?" Remus cried. "That's incredibly dangerous magic and you don't know that if you were animals that you'd be safe from me in any case."

"Well!" James said with a grin, "sounds like a good reason to spend some time in the library next time its raining, eh boys?"

"Right!" Sirius said, sharing James' broad grin.

"You two are certifiable!" Remus cried. "That's the craziest plan that I've ever heard and you've had more than your fair share since we got here."

"Oh, stop being such a wet blanket!" Sirius barked. "This is a project that's more than worthy of us and it'll help keep your secret besides. If we're with you and someone figures it out, we can always make sure that they don't tell any stories."

"Too right," James said. "And I'll learn how to obliviate people from dad this summer. He was quite the marauder when he was here and we'd never have gotten that pack of nifflers into the Slytherin common room if he hadn't told me how to keep them under control last summer."

"Obliviate people?" Remus said, shocked.

"Sure!" James said. "It's a restricted spell but dad says that its not hard and he has to do it at least three or four times a month now that they're investigating that new dark wizard. He says it really helps to be able to make people forget that they've had conversations with the aurors because that way the dark wizard can't find out that they've given information to the Ministry."

"I don't suppose that I can change your mind on this?" Remus asked, face caught between disapproval and hope.

"Not a chance!" James, Sirius and even Peter chorused. "You've done loads for us and what's a little danger between friends, not to mention the chance to chase McGonagall around when she's in her cat form," Sirius said with a laugh.

"Sirius!" Remus said, laughing, "even if you can do it, you'd better hope that you don't turn into a mouse or something. If you do, it'll be McGonagall who's chasing you around."

"Well, then", Sirius replied, "I'll just have to be sure to become a dog."

"You're that already," James said, slapping him on the back.

"You've got that right," Sirius said, grinning.

"What are you doing here?!?!" a sharp voice interrupted their conversation, its source still outside the curtains that surrounded Remus' bed.

"Visiting our good friend Remus," replied Sirius, grin disappearing from his handsome face.

"Well your good friend still needs his rest!" barked the voice.

"All right, all right," Sirius and James groaned in near stereo as a much younger Madame Pomfrey swept into view at the foot of Remus' bed.

Well, good friend, we're off", James said, giving Remus a mischievous grin.

"You've got that right," Remus said with an equally flippant look.

"See you later," James said as he, Sirius and Peter left Remus in Madame Pomphrey's capable hands.

At this point, Remus touched Harry's shoulder and they rose back through the surface of the pensieve and landed back in the motheaten chairs that they'd been in before entering Remus' memory.

"You know that it took them nearly three years to do it but James never gave up. Sirius did more than once and Peter never seemed comfortable becoming an animagus but somehow your father dragged them along with him."

"But then why was he, well, so nasty to Snape?"

"You have to understand that your father was incredibly noble toward those that he cared about and equally awful to those that he hated. It was this trait that made him one of the most well respected aurors in history when he entered the service in March of 1981. He served for barely six months and quickly developed the kind of reputation for hunting dark wizards that most could only dream of."

"So he picked on Snape just because he didn't like him?"

"That along with the fact that Severus Snape was more than ready to insult people that James cared about. Your mother not least of them."

"I did see him call her a mudblood," Harry remembered.

"Yes," Remus said with a sigh. "Severus is better about that than he used to be but he managed to call your mother all sorts of names on our first trip on the Hogwarts Express when we came to school and James felt that he had to stand up for her since she was muggleborn and so didn't know any of the simple spells that most children who come from wizarding families seemed to pick up as they went along. It was this protectiveness that bothered your mother almost as much as James' overall attitude and James didn't have a chance to show her what a good thing it could be until late in our sixth year. I think it was then that her attitude toward him began to change."

"OK," Harry said, feeling much better about his father than he had for several months.

"If you like, I'll be more than happy to show you some more memories as we go along in August. Seeing them helps me to deal with Sirius' death and helps me to remember what truly good friends I've had in my life."

"I'd like that," Harry said with a smile.

"Good," Remus said, smiling back at Harry. "But for now, I think we should get you to bed before Tonks gets some crazy idea about trying to make you do avoidance training in the dark."

Harry laughed at the thought, knowing that Tonks would most certainly want to try it and equally sure that if they did it, she would get to see Madame Pomphrey twice in one day.

*-*-*-

Three weeks after his arrival there, things began to change at No.12, Grimmauld Place. Tonks announced the first of the signs that Harry's summer was coming to a close over Dobby's finest roticery chicken.

"You've done a brilliant job learning everything that we hoped you would. Your concentration's up and you're avoiding spells better than I did when I got out of training."

"Should I take that as a compliment?" Harry asked, grinning at Tonks.

"Pipe down, Junior," she replied coldly, face screwed up in a pout that reminded Harry more than a little of Mrs. Malfoy's expression when he first met her at the Quidditch World cup at the beginning of his fourth year.

Harry nodded and winked at her, deciding that it was probably better to let Tonks order him around now since she'd soon be far away and hard to get to if he needed advice. Tonks, seeing that he didn't have more to say for the moment, continued with the speech that Harry soon realized was a briefing on the rest of his summer.

"We'll try to get a few more things done before school starts but we've got to get you to Diagon Alley for your school things and a visit to the Weasley's new shop. Remus'll do that tomorrow and while you're there, be sure to stop into Gringotts in order to have your key switched out for the vault where most of your parents' things are."

"I thought that I should wait to get my family's stuff until Katarina talks with me about all that I need to know."

"Doing it in detail will take longer than we've got to the start of term," Tonks said before glancing at Fleur. "But I think that the Delacours will be here most of next week so between talking with them and getting your homework done you'll have more than enough to be going on with. Professor Dumbledore wanted to do a bit of Occlumency and so he'll drop by whenever is good for him to help with that. I'm taking next week off so Fleur and I will work you over on that since neither of us is strong enough to wear you down alone."

"But I thought things like that had to be done separately."

"They do, but we can hit you one after the other which should wear you out and give you the same effect that Voldemort has when he goes after you."

Before Harry could say how happy he was at the thought of getting out of the old, and very depressing, house for a few hours, Bill shot a speculative look at Tonks.

"Was that your first time, Tonks?" he asked, smiling.

"First time for what?" Tonks asked, flushing.

"First time to say 'You-Know-Who's' name."

"Yeah," Tonks said, grinning.

"And how was it?"

"Pretty good," Tonks said sticking a foot-long tongue out at Bill.

Harry grinned, glad for a distraction from the physical and mental pounding that they had put him through. Attacking him with spells that he had to evade, making him write while listening to loud music, practicing Occlumency and doing any number of other horrible things to him in pursuit of training in what they called concentration, tactics and battle management.

Harry thought of it as something just short of sheer torture.

Even the prospect of Occlumency practice with the headmaster was better than having to keep up the schedule that he'd been following with Remus, Tonks, Bill and Fleur.

Tonks continued Harry's briefing as if Bill hadn't interrupted her.

"...Since it's a friday, we aren't expecting much trouble. Still, Professor Dumbledore made a portkey to Fred and George's shop and they'll probably stay with you the rest of the time that you're in Diagon Alley. I can't be there because I've got to help Kingsley with something and Bill can't either but Remus should be and you won't really need me for this since you don't need anyone to sign off on anything tomorrow. If the goblins make trouble for you I should be fairly close by because Kingsley's ordered a sweep for cursed objects which means that there'll be a lot of aurors close by if you're attacked. We reckon that Voldemort will get word of the sweep before you get there and Professor Dumbledore thinks that he'll send the Death Eaters home because he's just not got enough to bother us right now, so you should be safe for several hours unless he decides to come himself."

"Do you reckon he'll do it?" Harry asked, hoping that his time in Diagon Alley would not be interrupted.

"Probably not," said Remus. "But if there is trouble I want you to promise me that you'll take the portkey right off without any arguments. I know that you want to help with the fighting but you already know that you were very lucky when you were at the ministry in June. If Lord Voldemort does try something, he'll do it knowing that there are a lot of aurors around and so he'll come with everything he's got. I won't be able to protect you in that mess and although your wand will protect you from Voldemort, I'm pretty sure that Bellatrix Lestrange will try to kill you if she can."

Harry, who knew that he wasn't ready to meet Voldemort yet, nodded to show his understanding and acceptance of Remus' directions. Much as he might want to stay in the fight, he now knew that he was the only person who could win the war for the light and had to be ready to fight on his terms, not Voldemort's.

He desperately wanted to do it soon but knew that he wasn't ready to do it yet. Professor Dumbledore might think he knew what the 'power he knows not' might be but Harry wasn't sure yet. He wasn't even sure that he had any special power that his enemy didn't.

"Excellent," Remus said in response to Harry's nod. "We really do want you to have fun and its also very important that the wizarding public see you."

"Why?" Harry demanded, not at all pleased that his day out of the house might be spoiled by what suddenly seemed to him to be exactly the kind of publicity that Snape said he looked for.

"Whether you like it or not, you're a symbol to many in our world. You have fought Voldemort several times and either won outright or escaped. You and Professor Dumbledore are the only ones that people think have defeated him.

It's true that your mother's sacrifice was the key to the first time that you defeated him but the public doesn't know that. You've beaten him three times on your own magic and after the battle at the ministry in June, you've regained all the credibility that they tried to take from you last year. We have to take advantage of that to keep people believing that Voldemort can be beaten and that its worth fighting to do it. Much as you hate it, you're the one who is going to have to be something of a symbol for us while Professor Dumbledore is trying to stabilize the ministry."

"Stabilize the ministry?" Harry asked, confused.

"Yes," Tonks said with a sigh. "We've been trying' to keep this off of you but the quotes from you in the Prophet from when you were with Fleur made it almost impossible for carolling Cornelius to keep his job. He'd already jobbed it up with Voldemort and then having you accuse him of incompetence when you're as popular as you are? Well..."

"Great!" Harry snorted sarcastically. "And all I thought I'd done was get Mrs. Weasley chuffed with me. Now you tell me that I've made Dumbledore's life harder. I don't care much about Fudge, but..."

"You should, you know," Remus interrupted quietly. "He's obviously incompetent but he's also willing to listen to the Headmaster. Another minister might not be so easily controlled and that could be very bad for us."

Harry scowled at Remus, angry that his tirade against Fudge had been interrupted by a reminder of the impact that unanticipated ears could have.

Remus sighed, obviously able to interpret Harry's scowl. After a moment's pause he sighed again and said: "I know that you don't like being reminded of the fact that your conversations can be overheard and used against you but I also know that you are smart enough to recognize the truth of the matter. Harry, you've got to know that we want to make your life as normal as possible but we just can't to do it. You'll just have to do the best that you can with a bad situation and we'll do everything that we can to make things easier for you."

"Too right," Tonks said cheerily. "After all, I've got to get you ready to pass right out of the aurors' camp and become my partner, not to mention helping Fleur to set you up with one of her cousins."

Harry blushed, knowing all too well that Tonks was teasing him about his growing discomfort with Fleur's frequently stated belief that he would be the perfect ambassador to the Veela.

"Absolutely," Fleur agreed with a look that was frighteningly like Fred and George's grins just before they pulled off some prank or other. "My cousin Katarina ees excited to meet 'u zis coming week. She ees very good with money and even better at tempting ze young men."

"Great," Harry groaned, still more than a little frightened by the thought of meeting a full blood veela girl who was only a few years older than he was. He remembered how entranced he'd been by the three veela girls who had gotten Ron and nearly ensorceled him when they were trying to get away from the Death Eaters' rampage at the Quidditch world cup. He hoped that he could resist Katarina's charm but he was only human and a teen-age boy at that, resisting cousin Katarina would be no easy thing.

"Well," Tonks said brightly. "We'd better head off to bed so that Harry's all rested up for Fred, George and Katarina. Hopefully the boys won't wear him out before she gets..., here," Tonks mouth snapped shut for a moment and Harry could tell that she had almost said something truly embarrassing.

"Talons?" Bill suggested with an evil grin.

"Well, er, I wasn't going to suggest that," Tonks spluttered, cheeks flaming with embarrassment.

Harry, who saw that Fleur was trying to hold back laughter, decided to give Tonks a break and escape before anyone else could try to embarrass him.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning then?" he said, looking at Remus.

"Yes," Remus said. "We can't go before ten so there's no reason to rush but I'd be ready to head out by 9:30 just in case Kingsley or Professor Dumbledore think we should get an early start."

"OK," Harry said, ducking through the door and heading up the stairs, knowing that fear of Mrs. Black's portrait would be enough to keep anyone from saying something that might wake her up.