Revelations and Romance

Revelations and Romance chapter 18/25

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18: Godric's Hollow

March 28th

Harry stretched and yawned. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised for a moment -- this wasn't his dormitory in Gryffindor Tower -- but then remembered he was staying with Sirius Black for the Easter holidays. He put his glasses on and went into the sitting room.

'You've had a nice lie-in,' said Sirius, looking up from the Daily Prophet he was reading. 'How are you feeling, after all that's been happening?' The previous evening, Harry had told Sirius the whole story about Raine being Voldemort's unwilling spy, and it had been after midnight when he'd finished.

'I'm OK. I thought after I went to bed, I shouldn't have stopped you and Remus killing Wormtail. It would have saved so much trouble -- Cedric would still be alive, Voldemort wouldn't be back, Raine would be a lot happier ... it would have been better for everyone. You could probably even have been pardoned by producing his body.'

'Your heart was in the right place. Without Snape's interference, none of this would have happened.'

'That's what I told Raine. He's her Head of house, and she ought to blame him for it. I think she thought I was joking, at first.'

Sirius smiled. 'You're not going to make friends with him that way.'

'I'm never going to make friends with him, whatever I do. About the only thing I've decided about the classes I'm taking next year is that I'm going to drop Potions. I don't think it's useful enough for all the aggravation he gives me.'

'Right, you were going to ask me about the new subjects.'

'Yes. But it's the first day of the holiday, and there's plenty of time for that.'

Sirius nodded. 'I recognise that phrase.'

'Did my dad say things like that?'

'Yes. You know, unless things have changed, you can do Human Transfiguration next year. McGonagall's an Animagus, and if you're interested, she could probably give you extra lessons in that. Have you thought about that?'

'No, not really. You mean, I'd be an official Animagus, not an unregistered one?'

'It takes less time that way, and you wouldn't have as much risk of something going wrong, with a proper teacher who knows how to do it herself.'

'I don't know if I want to or not. It's something to think about, I suppose.'

Sirius put the paper down. 'While you're thinking, get dressed, in something Muggles won't find odd, and have something to eat, and I'll show you round the village.' He went into the kitchen to get something for Harry's breakfast.

After Harry's breakfast, they went down the stairs to the side door of the bakery that Sirius' flat was above, and out into the street. Harry looked around with interest. Despite having stayed with Sirius at Christmas, he hadn't seen much of the village, as the weather was bad, and he'd only been there for four days anyway.

He hadn't seen many wizard areas -- Diagon Alley wasn't typical, and Ottery St Catchpole had only a few wizard families on the outskirts of a Muggle village. The wizarding area of Godric's Hollow was only part of a village, but this part of it was separated from the Muggle part by charms and a secret entrance.

'The others told me I had to find all the interesting places here, to show them when they visit.'

'It's not a big tourist attraction, but it's a nice place, and I suppose it makes a change from Hogsmeade.'

'Hermione seemed to think there was something in particular I needed to find out about.'

'Did she?' Sirius sighed. 'Harry, do you know much about Godric's Hollow?'

'No. Oh -- don't tell me -- Godric Gryffindor probably defeated a Goblin Rebellion here, and Hermione wants to see the site of the battle.'

His godfather laughed. 'Is that the sort of thing she does? I've only met her a few times, and she mostly seemed interested in house-elves.'

'Yes, she was then. She pays more attention in History of Magic than I do, anyway. Do you think that is what she means?'

'I think she probably means something much more recent. We can look round these shops later -- I'll show you what I think she means. I was going to leave it until this afternoon, but it doesn't matter.'

'OK,' said Harry, wondering what the mystery was. He followed Sirius over to the butcher's and along a narrow alley that started beside it. 'It's odd, having everyone look at me twice. I suppose it's the scar.'

'You're famous. Also, you've been to this village before, Harry.'

'Yeah, at Christmas.'

'No, before that. You won't remember.' He stopped at the end of the alley. 'On the other side of this wall is the Muggle part of the village.'

Harry looked at the transparent wall, which acted like a cylindrical lens, showing the street stretching away to left and right. 'So the Muggles can't see through from their side?'

'That's right. It's just so we can check that nobody's going to see us when we walk through the wall. You can see that there's nobody there.' He tapped a brick with his wand, put it back in the bag he was carrying, and stepped through.

Harry followed. 'I don't think I can remember which brick it was.'

'Any brick will do, it's the fact that you've got a wand that matters.'

'Doesn't anyone in these houses ever see people walking out of the wall?'

'It doesn't matter. The houses in this street belong to Muggle-borns or mixed marriages -- people who are used to electricity.'

'Oh. That would be useful. Electricity is the only thing I'd miss about the Muggle world.'

'Lily felt the same way,' Sirius said quietly, turning to the right and walking along. Harry looked at the boring, featureless piece of wall they'd walked through, and made a mental note of how the houses on each side were painted, so he wouldn't lose the way back, then he followed Sirius.

'They don't take good care of their garden,' Harry commented when he caught up. Sirius had stopped outside a house with an overgrown garden.

'No. There's nobody here. This is going to be more difficult than I thought.'

'Were you going to introduce me to the people who live here, then?'

'Nobody lives here. Nobody has for years now.'

Harry frowned. 'It looks a nice enough house. Why doesn't anyone want it?'

Sirius sat on the low stone wall that surrounded the house and its garden, and looked across the street, avoiding looking at Harry.. 'It was destroyed. Dumbledore made sure the insurance money was used to rebuild it almost exactly as it was before. He checked, and there aren't any ghosts here, though Muggle-Repelling Charms make the Muggle kids think there are.'

'Destroyed? How?'

'This is your family's house, Harry. It was destroyed when Voldemort attacked it.'

Harry stared blankly at Sirius, then at the house. So this was where his parents had been hiding under the protection of the Fidelius Charm? This was where he'd lived as a child? This was where they'd been betrayed by Wormtail, where Voldemort had killed first his father, then his mother, and then failed to kill him? He swayed, caught the wall and sat beside Sirius.

'Are you OK?' Sirius asked, his head no longer in his hands. 'I've kept thinking about the best way to show you this, over the past months, and I never did think of a good way.'

'It's OK. I'm OK. Hagrid told me the house was destroyed, but he didn't say it had been rebuilt.'

'He probably doesn't know. He was upset enough when I saw him here that Dumbledore may have thought it would just upset him again.'

'This is what Hermione meant,' Harry said, suddenly realising. 'The first time I met her, she already knew more about my background from the books she'd read than I did.'

'So the books must have said you used to live in Godric's Hollow.'

'I suppose so. This is what you meant about my mum, wasn't it? They lived here because she'd grown up with electrical gadgets.'

'Yes.'

'Can we go in?'

'If you want. I got the key from Dumbledore.' Sirius stood, opened the gate and waved Harry in first. 'You're the owner, after all.'

'Oh! I suppose I just hadn't thought of that.' He paused, thought about it, and said wonderingly, 'I've got a house?'

'Yes, even if you don't want to keep it. If it's got too many bad memories, you could sell it and use the money to buy a house somewhere else. Well, technically you can't until you're eighteen, but Dumbledore can do it for you if you want. Your parents' wills named him as a trustee.'

'I was teasing Ron about him and Hermione looking at houses if they do get engaged, and it turns out I've had a house all along.'

'Do you think they're likely to get engaged?'

'Ron's already proposed. Hermione wants to wait and see how she feels after she's left school.'

'A good idea. Things rarely turn out the way you hope they will.'

The tone of Sirius' voice had changed. Harry asked. 'What did you hope you'd do after leaving Hogwarts? Wormtail wrecked everything, didn't he? And he's still doing that to people now.'

'I didn't have any definite plans. I wanted to earn some money so I could afford my motorbike and anything else I wanted, and ...' he looked at Harry. 'Oh, you're old enough to know what I mean. I wanted to date lots of women and maybe, when I was thirty, which seemed really old then, I'd get married and settle down. I didn't get too far with that, and my thirtieth birthday was in Azkaban.'

Harry couldn't think of anything to say. He wondered if it had been a good idea to ask, but it sounded as if Sirius wanted an excuse to tell him.

After a moment, Sirius said, 'It's just as well James wasn't that much like me. Without Lily, and without you, Voldemort wouldn't have vanished for so long.'

'What jobs did they do? Nobody's ever said.'

'They didn't need to work ...'

'Oh, don't say Uncle Vernon was right!'

'I doubt he's ever right,' said Sirius sarcastically. 'Lily never thought much of him -- not that he'd have cared. No, I don't know why, but your family, James' side I mean, were one of the ones that Voldemort seemed to particularly hate. You know that Lily's sister, and her son, are your only living relatives, don't you?'

'Do you mean that Voldemort killed all of the others?' Harry wondered briefly if his uncle was related to Voldemort, as both seemed to hate the name Potter. After all, Riddle's father was a Muggle, he probably did have Muggle relatives.

'Yes. James' father inherited his money, and of course, once he'd been killed, it all went to James.'

'That's all that money in my vault, then. It was Dad's, and my granddad's, and so on?'

'Yes, so you're rich in money, but you've got no family.'

'I'd rather have a family,' said Harry quietly. 'Ron's one of seven children. I like them all -- well, Percy gets carried away, but he's OK really -- and they do all right, even if they don't ever seem to have much money. The only time I saw their vault, there was less money in there than I had left over from the previous year at Hogwarts.'

'The Weasleys? Yes, they're one of the old pure-blood families, but it doesn't seem to have brought them much money. Anyway, did you want to go in the house?' Sirius asked.

'Oh, yes.'

Sirius handed Harry the key. 'There's no furniture, of course. It was covered by insurance too, but the money for it got put into your vault, since nobody knew if you'd even want the house.'

Harry unlocked the door and they went inside. There wasn't as much dust as he would have expected -- he supposed there were charms that kept most of it out.

He looked round the entrance hall he'd found himself in. There were a couple of doors, and a staircase with a cupboard under it. He shivered.

'Are you all right?' asked Sirius, behind him.

Harry turned to see Sirius was still standing on the doorstep. 'Aren't you going to come in? I don't recognise this part, anyway -- it just reminded me of the Dursley's house.'

Sirius came in. 'It's not surprising -- you weren't very old at the time.'

'I wish I could remember more about that last day.'

'I can't be much help about what happened then. The house was in ruins by the time I got here, and Hagrid had already got you out of the wreckage.'

Harry nodded, and tried the first door. It led to a large room which he supposed had been the living room. 'I don't remember anything about this,' he said quietly, going through another door in the living room. This room had worktops, kitchen cupboards, and a sink, but no appliances. A window showed the back garden. There were two doors other than the one he'd come in by, one leading out into the garden, the other back into the entrance hall. He was just about to go upstairs when there was a loud knocking on the front door. Sirius drew his wand and held it behind his back out of sight as he opened the door. A man dressed in Muggle clothing stood outside, and Harry could see at least two people behind him.

'What do you think you're doing, walking around in this house, as if you owned it? Don't you know whose ...' The man suddenly saw Harry standing behind Sirius, and stared at his forehead. 'Oh,' he said, deflated. 'It's ... well, I'm sorry, I didn't know. I haven't seen you since you were a year old,' he told Harry. 'I just thought it was someone being nosy -- of course, you've got a perfect right to be here.' Embarrassed, he turned away to leave.

'That's all right. I've only just found out this house was rebuilt, and it's good to know people were watching it,' Harry told him.

The man turned and smiled at him. 'That's just the sort of thing your father would have said.'

'I'd like to hear more about him one day, and Mum too.'

The other man nodded. 'Of course. My house is that one, the one with the blue door. I'm home most evenings -- come round any time.'

Sirius watched them go, then closed the door. 'Are you tired of hearing you're so much like James?'

'No. I'd be happier if I could just remember him and Mum.' He told Sirius how he'd realised that his only memories of his parents had been pulled from his subconscious by a magical mirror and the Dementors.

Sirius sighed. 'That's hardly the best way to remember them. I don't know of any Memory Charms that improve memory, but you could ask Dumbledore if he does. It's not really surprising you don't remember them, given how old you were.'

'I suppose it isn't. Well, I'll look upstairs now.'

At the top of the stairs was a landing with four doors off it. The first one Harry tried led into a tiled room, with the usual bathroom fittings. 'Has it all been rebuilt just the way it was?' he asked Sirius.

'Yes, as far as Dumbledore and Remus could manage it. There were only the three of us left to remember it well, though there were others who'd just visited here once.'

'And they weren't going to ask you, or Wormtail. I'm sorry, Sirius.'

'Harry, there's nothing you could have done.'

'No, but I wish you could have had your dreams instead of going to Azkaban.' He tried the second door. This was a large room. 'Was this my parents' bedroom?'

'Yes.'

'I don't remember any of this, but it's all unhappy memories for you, isn't it?'

'No, not all, though there's some sadness now looking back at most of them.' He sighed. 'James and Lily showed us round the house when they had the house-warming party. Dumbledore, Remus and I, and Peter of course. That was about six months before you were born. I stayed a few times after that, too.'

Harry bit his lip and tried the next door. 'This feels like one of Dudley's computer games. I don't know what's behind any of these. I hope there aren't any monsters in the house, though.'

'Only a Parselmouth wizard and an ex-convict,' said Sirius. 'That's enough monsters for most people.'

Harry grinned and went into the room. 'Another bedroom?'

'Yes, this is where they put visitors. I stayed in this room a few times.'

The fourth door led to a smaller room, and Harry looked around it. 'Was this my room? All I remember, now, was that flash of green light that killed Mum and didn't kill me, and ... she must have run out of the door with me. I can't remember anything else, not even if it was the front or back door.' He sagged against the window sill and sat there, thinking. 'I didn't even remember we went outside before, though.'

Harry twisted round to look out of the window, which showed the front garden and the street outside. This gave him time to recover, so Sirius wouldn't see he'd been crying. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. When he'd put them back on and turned back from the window, Sirius' sympathetic expression showed he hadn't been fooled. Well, his godfather wasn't the worst person to know he'd been crying. 'I suppose that's all there is to look at? I wish I could remember more.'

'There's an attic, but that's hardly going to be the thrill of the day.'

Harry laughed. 'No, I'll skip that one. I just thought of something.' He went back down the stairs and into the living-room. 'There's a fireplace. Is that on the Floo Network?'

'No. It could be, but with your parents being in hiding, it seemed like a good idea to take it off -- and there wasn't any point putting it back on with nobody living here. You'll be able to put it back on if you want to live here.'

'I can't decide if I want to or not. I do, because it was my parents' house, or identical to it. But I don't, because this is where they died. Well, I suppose I've got plenty of time to decide.'

'How are you feeling now?' asked Sirius. 'Do you want to have some lunch, or look at the village a bit more?'

'Is it that late? So it is. I suppose because I got up so late. Yeah, lunch sounds like a good idea.'

Back in Sirius' flat, they had a light meal, and then Sirius set the dishes washing themselves.

'That's useful -- oh!' Harry went into his room and came back with the list of subjects. 'This is the list I was going to ask you about.'

Sirius took the list. 'Duelling wasn't a class in my day, but the others are all familiar. You're sure you want to drop Potions?'

'I suppose after five years, I know all the techniques -- anything new I'll ever need to brew can come from a book, can't it?' He grinned. 'I can always ask Hermione to recommend books!'

'One thing that changes when it's called Advanced Potions is that you aren't told the ingredients. You have to recreate a potion just by being told what its effects are. But if you aren't planning to create new potions, you won't be interested in that.'

'I bet Hermione will take that, but I won't.'

Sirius nodded. 'Snape was just an annoying pupil in my day, I never had to put up with him as a teacher. Right, I already told you about Human Transfiguration and the possibility of becoming an Animagus.'

'I don't know about the Animagus part, but Transfiguration's OK, so I think I'll keep that.' Harry grinned. 'It'll keep McGonagall happy too, I hope.'

'Very diplomatic,' Sirius said with a smile. 'Charms and Herbology are just more advanced versions of the same. I think DADA must have changed since my day, as it's the one that has to keep up with new curses. Remus would know, as he taught it for a year.'

'I suppose I'd better do that one, especially if I want to become an Auror.'

'Is that what you want to do? I thought you might try becoming a professional Quidditch player.'

'I'd like to play Quidditch. I don't think I can, though.'

'Of course you can! I've seen you play!'

'I don't mean that,' Harry said quietly. 'Professional Quidditch means playing in a stadium full of people -- anyone could come and watch. At Hogwarts, it has to be pupils, teachers or family, not just anybody. Suppose Voldemort was planning something again, and it involved me? What's to stop him having Death Eaters in the crowd? They could kill all the other players if they wanted to kidnap me. They wouldn't even have to use the Killing Curse -- just Stunning them would do, at those heights.' He paused. 'Am I just being big-headed, do you think? I'm not the only person Voldemort hates.'

'No, I think you do have a point there. It's just like what you told me about Ginny at Christmas. I don't think you should feel that you have to protect the whole world, but I can understand why you do feel that way.' Sirius smiled. 'And I do think you should at least tell Ginny how you feel.'

'Well, I've done that. It even got into the Prophet.'

'Yes, but they retracted ... oh, that was to protect Ginny.'

Harry nodded. 'She likes me too, but really I'm hoping that people think she's spending time with Ron, and not me, so that they won't guess. We've been a bit careless sometimes, though.'

'OK.' Sirius looked at the list again. 'Are you planning to take Duelling, then? Dumbledore told me you're ahead of your class on that.'

Harry grinned, and told him about the lesson with the sixth-years. Sirius grinned back. 'You shouldn't have too much to worry about there, then.'

'I think I'd better do Medical Magic -- and Household Magic, if that includes things like the way those dishes washed themselves up.'

'Yes, it does. Good idea. What else is on this list? Spell Structure is only useful if you want to know how to create completely new spells.'

'Another one for Hermione, then,' Harry said, smiling at the idea.

'Just about everyone at least tries Apparition.'

'Yes, I'm looking forward to that one.'

'Business Management -- well, you're not thinking of needing that, really.'

Harry shook his head.

Sirius gave him the list back. 'There's one thing I'm curious about. I know what you said about Ginny, but just now it was me that mentioned her, you didn't. You keep mentioning Hermione though.'

'Well, Ginny's not in my year, so she won't have to choose for another year, and Hermione's one of my two best friends.'

'So there's nothing more to it than that? You're not "torn between them"?'

'That sounds like something from a soap opera! No, Hermione and Ron are in love with each other, and that's great. I still think they're at risk because they're my friends, but she's safer now that the rumours about her being my girlfriend have stopped. At least, I think they've stopped.'

'OK.' Sirius frowned, then said, 'You've got three weeks here, so there's no rush, and I don't know how you feel after this morning.'

'I haven't seen much of the wizard side yet -- is that what you mean?'

'Actually, no.' Sirius paused before continuing, 'I was wondering about going back to the Muggle side, and visiting the cemetery.'

'You mean, my parents' graves? I've never even thought about that, the house was surprising enough. Yes, I'd like to go.' He grimaced. 'Well, I want to go. "Like" might not be the right word when I get there.'

'OK. Do you want to go now?'

Harry nodded. They went out and followed the same basic route as before, pausing only briefly at the house. They continued to the end of the street, and turned right into a street which had a church in it. Harry looked at the church, and tried to imagine his parents' funeral.

'Did I go to their funeral?'

'I don't know, I don't think so.' There was a note of bitterness in Sirius' voice as he added, 'I wasn't there either.'

'Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned it.'

'No, it's an obvious question. You'll have to ask Remus or Dumbledore what it was like. At least we know that Wormtail can't have been there.'

They entered the churchyard and went round to the cemetery. The only other cemetery Harry remembered ever being in was the one where Voldemort had been revived, and this one seemed much bigger. He paused as a name on one of the tombstones caught his eye. 'Jonathan and Merihew Potter? It says "Their lives brutally cut short".'

'Your grandparents,' Sirius told him. 'Also killed by Voldemort.'

'I wonder how many people he killed -- I've met the ghost of his first victim.' Harry hadn't really thought about the implication of Sirius' earlier comment but he suddenly realised that if his parents had become ghosts, he would at least have been able to meet them, tell them what he'd been doing, introduce them to Ginny ... There was a bench nearby. He sat on it, his head in his hands, and waited for the sudden sorrow to pass.

Sirius had stopped. 'I'm sorry, this is just too much for one day, isn't it?'

Harry shook his head. 'I want to see their grave. It's probably better to get the shocks all done on one day. Are there any more?'

'Not that I can think of.'

Harry stood up. 'Let's go and see it then.'

They continued along the path until they reached the grave. Harry looked at the stone, which read 'James and Lily Potter, died 31st October 1981. Much in love, much loved, much missed.' There was a metal flower-holder built into the base of the stone, with drooping flowers. Sirius removed them, looked around, said, 'Orchideous,' and placed the resulting flowers into the flower-holder. He looked up at Harry, who had given up on trying to hide his tears.

'It's the inscription, most of all,' Harry managed to say.

'Remus wrote that.'

'I ought to thank him. I haven't even spoken to him since Snape drove him away from Hogwarts. Have you?'

'Quite a few times. You saw him at that meeting.'

'I know. I couldn't admit I was there, though.'

'He's going to come round here on Sunday, so you can talk to him then.'

Harry smiled. 'Oh, good. I'd like to see him again.'

'He's looking forward to seeing you, too.'

They stayed at the grave for a while longer, Harry just looking at the inscription and thinking of his parents, of the house he couldn't remember, and of the continuing crimes of Wormtail.

*

Over the next few days, Harry wandered around the wizard side of Godric's Hollow. The village's shops, including the bakery, were grouped together in one street which led from the alley towards the triangular village green, which was surrounded by houses and had a couple of other streets leading off it. Local legend said that the village was indeed named after Godric Gryffindor, but there seemed to be nothing that was definitely connected to him. Harry was amused by the stone pillar with a carved Snitch on top of it, a monument to the metal-charmer Bowman Wright, who had lived in this village.

Harry had sent Hedwig to Ginny, with a letter telling her that 'Godric's bakery flat' was the name she, Ron and Hermione would need to use to Floo to the flat. He'd added that he thought he'd found enough interesting places to keep Hermione happy. Hedwig returned with a letter from all three of them telling him they wanted to come to visit on Friday, as they were hoping to avoid the twins' April Fool's Day jokes that day.

'Remus told me about those two,' said Sirius, looking up from the letter. 'Their antics sound familiar.'

'I did hear Hagrid say once they could give you and my dad a run for your money,' said Harry.

'Good. Keeps the teachers on their toes.'

'Including Remus?'

Sirius shrugged. 'He could cope with us, so I'm sure he coped with them too.' There was a pause. 'Though I really can't imagine Remus as a teacher, after everything we did at school.'

*

Harry got up early on Friday morning, as he'd forgotten to ask the others what time they'd be arriving. He had breakfast, and a second helping before sounds from the fireplace told him he had visitors.

'Hello. So you found the place all right?' he joked.

'Hello Harry, hello Sirius,' said Ginny, echoed by Ron and Hermione.

Sirius greeted Ginny, Ron and Hermione and asked if they wanted any breakfast.

'No thanks, we had some at Hogwarts,' said Hermione, putting her hand over Ron's mouth before he could answer.

'And then we gave the twins their presents and ran away fast,' said Ginny.

'Why, what sort of presents were they?' asked Sirius.

'We only gave them useful things,' Ginny told him.

'Stink Pellets, Dungbombs, Belch Powder, Hiccough Sweets -- that sort of thing,' said Ron. Harry had left some Zonko's tricks with Ron to give to the twins.

'It's nice to know the old traditions are being kept up,' Sirius said, grinning. 'So those jokers were born on April Fool's Day?'

'It's predestination,' said Ginny.

'Do you want to see round the village now?' asked Harry.

'Oh, yes. Did you find all the interesting places?' asked Hermione.

'I think so. See what you think.'

'I'll leave the four of you to it,' said Sirius.

Harry took his visitors to the village green and showed them the monument to Bowman Wright. 'That's the big thing in the wizarding part of the village,' he told them. Ron and Ginny were more interested in it than Hermione. Judging by her expression, she thought he hadn't found out about his parents. Harry looked at the monument and tried not to smile; Hermione hadn't said what she wanted to see, so he was going to delay showing her as long as he could.

'Are you sure that's the only thing worth seeing?' she asked him.

'Well, the shops are mostly not as good as in Hogsmeade -- Sirius says most people go to Diagon Alley for spellbooks and wizard equipment and that sort of thing -- but the sweetshop's not bad. It doesn't have as much variety as Honeydukes, though.'

Hermione looked as though she was going to say something at this point, but Ginny spoke first. 'Oh, a sweetshop? I need to get some more sweets.'

'You need to? Is this a new addiction or something?'

'No, it's just that I ate all the sweets I had the other week, the ones I was going to give Raine on her birthday.'

'Ginny's forgiven her now, though,' said Hermione.

'Yes, so I need to get her something else for when she comes back.'

'If she does come back,' muttered Ron. 'She ought to get expelled.'

Ginny frowned at her brother. 'He still hasn't forgiven her,' she told Harry. 'He doesn't mind that I nearly killed you and Hermione, but he won't forgive Raine.'

'Well, maybe he will later. Anyway, the sweetshop is back in the street Sirius lives in.' He led them back in that direction, talking about sweets and trying to ignore Hermione's expression. Hermione paused by the window display of a shop selling dress robes. 'Harry, can I talk to you a moment?'

'OK, I've already been in the sweetshop. Oh -- tell them you're my friends.'

'Does that get them a discount?' Hermione asked, as the two Weasleys went inside the sweetshop.

'Yes, and it's not because they're Weasleys, so they shouldn't get upset by it. What did you want to talk about? You'd be better asking Ginny if you want to know if those robes would suit you.'

'No, it's about upsetting Ron and Ginny. We went flying a couple of times this week ...'

'So Ron did manage to keep his hands off you for a few minutes?'

'Harry! He's not obsessed, you know! After flying, we were talking about their brooms, the ones that the twins lent them the money for.'

'I know, it was nice of them to do that,' said Harry.

'I hadn't thought about it before, but they can't have saved up enough for two brooms since Bagman cheated them. Their brooms may not seem all that expensive, but they were a lot of money to them.'

'What are you suggesting? You don't think Fred and George stole the money? I'm sure they didn't.'

'Stop playing dumb! No, I don't. Your Triwizard winnings would easily cover the cost of those brooms.'

'Oh.'

'I remember you tried to give the money to Mrs Weasley, and she wouldn't take it.'

'Everyone insisted it was mine, but it shouldn't have been,' he said quietly.

'Well, it was a very nice thing you did. I won't tell them. After all, you didn't tell them how much my broom really cost.'

'Thank you,' he said, smiling at her. 'I didn't really want to tell anyone.'

'There was one other thing: that monument. Is that really the only interesting thing you've found out about here?'

'Wait and see,' he told her. 'You were hinting when I got on the train, and you didn't tell me what it was about, so I decided to tease you. Let's go and get those two.'

Hermione gave him an exasperated look but followed him to the sweetshop, which Ron and Ginny were just leaving, carrying large paper bags. 'Everything was half-price!' said Ron happily. 'Just because we know Famous Harry!'

'That's the good side of knowing me. I've probably said enough about the bad side before. Let's go to the Muggle side of the village.'

'Oh, that's why you told us to wear clothes that wouldn't surprise Muggles,' said Ginny, following him towards the alley.

'Yes, because ... oh! I forgot to bring my wand.'

'You can't use it anyway,' said Hermione.

Harry explained about needing a wand, like when entering Diagon Alley.

'If it doesn't matter whose wand, I've got mine,' said Ginny.

'Why?' asked Ron.

'You never know when some invisible menace might be lurking in a poor girl's room,' she answered with a grin.

'"Invisible menace" indeed,' he muttered, following the others along the alley. Ginny had her wand in a secret pocket on the leg of her jeans, and let them through the wall. Harry walked along explaining about the wizards living in the street, and stopped at his house.

'Whoever lives here needs to learn some charms to deal with gardens,' said Ron.

'Is this it? But it's not a ruin,' said Hermione in surprise.

'Why's that a surprise?' asked Ginny.

Harry explained about the insurance and the rebuilding.

'Oh -- it didn't mention anything about that in Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts,' said Hermione, looking at the house. 'I suppose it didn't matter to the author, though it does to you.'

'What are you two talking about? Whose house is this?' demanded Ron. 'Why should it be a ruin?'

'Mine, it seems,' said Harry, who then explained what Sirius had told him about it.

'Oh, Harry, I'm sorry about the garden comment. I just didn't realise,' Ron said.

'It's OK. I didn't know Godric's Hollow was where we lived. It's why Sirius chose here to buy his flat, of course. I thought Hermione was hinting that Godric Gryffindor defeated a Goblin Rebellion here, and she wanted to see the battlefield.'

'It was a wizards' revolt, and I'm not that interested in where it was,' she said.

'Is it exactly like the old house?' asked Ginny. 'Can we see inside?'

'I remembered to get the key from Sirius, even if I can't remember my wand,' he said, and showed them round the house. His old bedroom didn't affect him as badly this time.

'It's a nice house,' said Hermione. 'Are you going to live here when you leave Hogwarts?'

'I haven't decided. You know, I was teasing Ron that you two were looking at houses and choosing curtains, and then,' he gestured, indicating the whole house, 'I find out that I've inherited this.'

'Serves you right for exaggerating,' said Hermione, smiling at him. 'We were only talking about where a house ought to be.'

'It's an odd house,' said Ginny, emerging from the bathroom. 'I've never seen a house like this before.'

'It's a Muggle house. I don't suppose you've ever been in one before,' Harry told her.

'Oh, no, I haven't. Quick, show Dad!'

Harry laughed at her, then asked Ron, 'What's happening about that Muggle passport? Is your dad enthusiastic about having another Muggle thing to look at?'

Ron nodded. 'He wrote a really long letter back about that. And it turns out that the Ministry is used to people needing Muggle documents, but doesn't have a proper department for doing it.'

'So it's something that the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office handles as a sideline,' Ginny added. 'In between raiding people for enchanting Muggle stuff, they forge Muggle documents. Dad says it's called "bureaucracy".'

'Ah, that sounds convenient. So it's all sorted out?'

'I sent the forms back home yesterday,' said Hermione. 'It just needs my dad's countersignature, and then he can send it off by Muggle post and not worry anyone with an owl.'

Harry laughed. 'I don't suppose they get much post by owl.'

'You two are weird,' said Ginny. 'Owls are normal.'

'It depends what you're used to,' said Harry, leading the way downstairs and locking the door behind them. He hesitated. 'How morbid are you feeling?'

'Oh, Harry,' said Hermione. 'It's up to you.'

'OK, I'll show you.' He took them to the cemetery, and pointed out his grandparents' grave and then his parents'.

Ginny swallowed. 'This makes it seem more real.'

'Yes. It's not as bad, seeing it a second time.'

'I like the wording,' said Hermione gently.

'That's Remus'. He was the only one of Dad's close friends to be at the funeral. Sirius was already in Azkaban. I'm glad Wormtail didn't go, though.'

The others nodded their agreement.

The four of them wandered back to the wizard part of the village and back to the shops. 'I just thought of a problem with you living there, Harry. You-Know-Who knows where that house is,' said Hermione.

Harry stopped. 'I hadn't thought of that. I'd just thought of memories, and that it's the house I should have grown up in.'

'You'll just have to make sure he's in Azkaban before you move in,' said Ginny.

'Nobody's managed that yet,' said Ron. 'I think you should sell it and buy another one, which he doesn't know about.'

'Or you could use the same Fidelius Charm that your parents did,' suggested Hermione. 'But you'd have to find someone you trusted.'

'Yes. Something else to think about,' said Harry. 'Sirius said my parents had a house-warming party, so people must have known where they lived, and then forgotten, when they used the charm. I've got more than two years to decide in, anyway. So, did you want to look at any more of the village? I think you saw most of it,' Harry told them.

'I want to ask Sirius about the Marauder's Map,' said Ginny.

'OK -- he might have gone out, though.'

Sirius was still in, and greeted them on their return. 'Want some lunch?' he asked them. He made them quite a reasonable lunch, and left the pans washing themselves while he joined them in eating. While the dishes cleaned themselves, the five of them sat and talked about what Harry had shown them.

'Can I ask you about the map you made?' Ginny asked him.

'Yes. James did a lot of the spells on it, though. I did a few, and all four of us drew the map.'

'You know there's a Chamber of Secrets in the castle?'

'That was just a legend in my time. I never thought it was real, until I heard Harry had rescued you from it.'

'Yes. I wondered about adding it to the map. Wormtail's copy has part of it on.'

Sirius looked surprised. 'How do you know? Have you found it?'

Harry explained that Raine had been lent it. 'I forgot it when I was telling you all the other stuff.'

'So Dumbledore has it now? Good. Well, it's the parchment, not the ink, that has the main spells on it. In theory, anything that's added to the map will work -- you'll see dots for the people in it, and their names.'

'Do you think You-Know-Who knows enough to make a new copy of the map?' asked Hermione. 'Or would Wormtail?'

'Wormtail was there all the time we were working on it, but he wasn't very good at Charms, and I don't think he'd be able to make one. My guess is, if someone goes into the Chamber of Secrets, they won't show up on that map. Just because Voldemort drew it on the map, doesn't mean the new parts will work.'

'That's not what you just said,' Ron said, puzzled.

'I said the main spells were on the parchment. You have to put a charm on the ink, or the parchment won't realise it's part of the map. James and I charmed a couple of bottles of ink to draw the map with, and I don't think Wormtail was around when we did it.'

'So he doesn't know the secret?'

'I don't think he can. So, do you want to learn the charm for the ink? All of you?'

'Hermione!' chorused Harry, Ron and Ginny. Hermione blushed.

'You're the most likely of us to get it right,' Ginny told her.

'Remus mentioned your reputation,' Sirius told her. 'Do you want to learn the charm, or make them learn it?'

'I might as well learn it,' she agreed.

'Ginny's top in her classes too,' Harry told Sirius.

'So you and Ron feel outclassed?' he asked.

'Mostly it means we can get good help with our homework,' grinned Harry.

Sirius showed Hermione the charm. She asked him, 'As long as I've charmed the ink, anything we draw on the map with it will work the same way as the rest does?'

'That's right. We started using the map before we'd finished mapping the whole castle, so we had to have a way to add to it.'

'I suppose your copy and my dad's really were destroyed?' asked Harry.

'Since Wormtail's copy has turned up, I really don't know. You can't write on the map when it's blank, so if anyone tried to use my copy after I was sent to Azkaban, they'll have thought it was cursed or something, and probably thrown it out or burnt it. I really don't see how James' copy could have survived the destruction of the house, unless he'd lent it to someone and never mentioned it. But the most obvious person he'd lend it to would be Dumbledore, and if he's finding Wormtail's copy useful, he can't have had James' copy.'

'Unless he doesn't know what it is, because it's blank,' suggested Ron.

'He knew what the other one was,' Ginny pointed out. 'Even if he didn't know the right phrase, he knew he could ask Harry or Sirius, didn't he?'

'I suppose it would be nice if Harry did have James' map, but it's probably best if the maps are lost or destroyed,' said Sirius. 'That way, they can't fall into the wrong hands.'

'But we don't know if they exist or not. You didn't think Wormtail's did.'

Sirius nodded. 'There are so many ways things could have turned out better if Wormtail hadn't gone over to Voldemort.'

Harry felt the subject was getting too morbid, so asked, 'Any more news about Neville? Or the spell on the Quidditch Cup?'

'Neville's going to be back next term,' said Ron, smiling. His smile vanished as he added, 'But Snape's going to be back, too.'

'So's Hagrid,' said Ginny. 'Back teaching us, I mean, not just doing the gamekeeper job.'

'Dumbledore and Flitwick were still examining the Cup. They can't find any other spells on it, and they've both held it now, so it isn't too dangerous,' said Hermione. 'But they still don't think it's completely safe, until they understand why that spell was used on it.'

They sat quietly after that, as nobody could think of anything else to say for a while. Sirius broke the silence. 'Did you have fun looking round the shops? You seem to have got a lot of sweets.'

'They were half-price, because we know Harry,' Ron said with a grin.

'We got some Flavour Pyramids,' said Ginny. 'I tried one in the shop, and I think Raine'll like those.'

'Raine again,' said Ron, sounding fed up with the whole subject.

'Well, she will. They're not chocolate.'

'She didn't eat any sweets from the trolley when we were on the train,' said Harry. 'Doesn't she like chocolate?'

'She says it's medicine for Dark Arts, and she doesn't want to eat medicine when she doesn't have to. And she ate a nasty Every-Flavour Bean in the second year, so she doesn't eat those any more, either,' Ginny explained.

'I wondered why you were getting her sweets,' he said.

'This isn't the same Raine that cursed Harry, is it?' asked Sirius in a puzzled tone of voice.

'They've all forgiven her,' said Ron.

'And Ron hasn't,' said Ginny.

Sirius looked at Harry, bewildered. 'You've forgiven her too?'

'It wasn't her fault, Wormtail blackmailed her.'

'It took me a while to accept that I couldn't really blame her,' said Ginny. 'I wanted to owl her to tell her, but I mentioned it to Professor Dumbledore, and he said she shouldn't be contacted at the moment, to avoid upsetting her parents any more.'

'Would it really upset them if you wrote saying that you'd forgiven her?' asked Harry. 'I think it would make them feel better.'

'Does she know that you have?' asked Hermione.

'I told her on the train -- and that you'd forgiven her as well. I also said I was sure Ginny would too, even if she hadn't then.'

Ron, Hermione and Ginny had to return to Hogwarts for dinner, so they said good-bye to Harry and promised to write.

'You can come back if you want,' said Sirius.

'I'm not sure McGonagall will let us,' said Ron. 'She seemed to think our parents' letters just meant we had permission to visit here once.'

'Which isn't how we read them,' said Ginny.

The three of them used Floo powder to return to the school.

*

Harry was looking forward to talking to Remus again. He'd only seen him once since the end of the third year, at the meeting he'd sneaked into with his Invisibility Cloak. This time he'd actually be able to talk to Remus.

Remus arrived on Sunday, through the fireplace as usual. 'Hello, Harry!'

'Hello, Remus. How are you doing now?'

'Oh ...' Remus frowned. 'There's still not much work for a werewolf.'

'Just working for Dumbledore against Voldemort then?' Harry asked with a grin.

'Sirius, we weren't supposed to tell him!'

Sirius looked round from the steaks he was preparing. 'You remember James' Cloak?'

'Of course I do. Oh, Harry, have you been sneaking into our meetings?'

'Only once,' Harry said innocently.

'That's one more than you were even supposed to know happened! Which one was that, the March one?'

'February,' said Sirius.

'Do you have one every month then?'

'That's a secret,' said Remus. Then he relented. 'Yes, we do. If you saw one of them, you've got an idea of what's been happening anyway.'

'Yes. I don't want to complain, but it doesn't sound as if there was much progress.'

'Certainly not enough to prevent that cursed headband affecting you,' Remus said sadly. 'I don't know if we've really achieved anything yet.'

'Who's the spy in Malfoy's house?' asked Harry.

'I am definitely not telling you that!' Lupin replied, frowning.

'He can't tell you, we don't know,' said Sirius, coming to join the others while the oven cooked their lunch.

'Oh. I was going to guess, but I suppose there's not much point if you won't know if I got it right,' Harry said.

They talked for a while about all sorts of subjects: James and Lily's funeral, whether Dumbledore's plan to keep Voldemort nervous about people plotting against him would work, and how Harry was doing at Hogwarts.

Sirius said, 'I met his girlfriend, Ginny, when I visited the hospital wing, and again the other day when she came to see him.'

'Ginny? Ginny Weasley? I remember her. So she's your girlfriend now, Harry?'

'You've met her?' asked Sirius. 'Oh -- you'd have taught her, I suppose.'

Remus nodded. Harry explained again about how he couldn't really tell people about Ginny being his girlfriend, except for close friends.

'So now I'm not an ex-teacher, but a close friend?' grinned Remus.

'Well, since you were one of my parents' closest friends, I know I can trust you.'

'That doesn't really follow,' said Remus quietly.

'I know, but you're not Wormtail. You taught me the Patronus Charm.'

'You learnt that really well. It's a shame it doesn't work on people -- you could try using it on Voldemort, if it did.'

'It worked on Malfoy and his friends.'

'Only because you gave them such a fright. It didn't have any magical effect.'

*

For the rest of the holidays, Harry just relaxed, wandering around the wizard part of the village. He also tried looking at his house again to try to stir forgotten memories, though unsuccessfully. He and Sirius visited the wizard who'd asked what they were doing in the house. His name was Mr Barron, and he told Harry several anecdotes of his parents after they'd moved into the street.

He did manage to do some of his homework, too. Sirius tried to avoid making his reminders sound like nagging, but Harry admitted to himself that he wouldn't have got much of the work done without the reminders.

Remus visited again the next Sunday. It seemed that they took it in turns to make Sunday lunch for each other, and get together to talk about old friends. Sirius' time in prison and Remus' lycanthropy had denied both of them any sort of normal life, and Harry got the impression that their renewed friendship was at least some consolation for each of them.

Finally, it was the seventeenth of April, a Sunday again, and time to catch the train back to Hogwarts. Harry packed his bag and Sirius took him by Floo powder to the Leaky Cauldron, where Remus was waiting for them, then they went round to King's Cross station to see him off on the Hogwarts Express.

'This is where you have to say all the godfather stuff,' Remus reminded Sirius.

'What, like be good, study hard, get O.W.Ls? I think Harry knows all that stuff already,' Sirius retorted.

'How many O.W.Ls did you two get? If you don't mind my asking -- and do you know how many my parents got?'

Sirius looked blank. 'It's so long now, I've forgotten what I got.'

'I looked mine up when I got the teaching job,' said Remus. 'I got nine. I expect if you ask McGonagall, she could tell you what James and Lily got -- I must have known once, but I don't know now.'

'Are you trying to outdo us, or just find out how many you have to get so that I can't tell you off for not trying harder?' asked Sirius, grinning.

Harry said, 'I just wondered. I know people who've got between six and sixteen.'

'Sixteen?' asked Remus in surprise. 'Oh -- do you mean Voldemort?'

A family who were standing nearby winced at Remus' bluntness. The parents glared at him, and covered their daughter's ears.

'Yes, Hermione told me he set the record. I'm sure she only found out what it was so that she can try to beat it,' said Harry.

'You'd better get on the train, anyway,' said Sirius. 'You'll have to try to beat her total, then.'

'Twelve's a good result. I don't know how likely you are to get up to that,' said Remus.

Harry got onto the train and opened the window in the door so he could keep talking to them. When the train started to move, he waved good-bye until he saw Sirius and Remus Disapparate, then started looking for a compartment. He couldn't see Raine on the train, and knocked on the door of the compartment with Hannah and Ernie instead. They invited him in.

'You really aren't interrupting anything,' Ernie told him.

'It was polite to check; you might have been talking about nasty Gryffindors,' explained Harry.

'We were talking about nice Gryffindors who lend people brooms,' said Hannah, smiling at him. 'Our game against Slytherin's only twenty days away.'

'And you're not at all excited about it, and you certainly aren't counting the days,' Harry commented.

'Definitely not,' said Ernie. 'Have you heard what's happening to that girl who cursed you?'

'I can't see her on this train. I talked to her on the train home, and told her I'd forgiven her ...'

'You've what?' exclaimed Ernie. 'Why?'

'She was being blackmailed -- by the Death Eater who betrayed my parents to V- ... You-Know-Who. I've asked Dumbledore not to expel her, either. I hoped she wouldn't even be suspended, but as she's not on the train, I suppose she has been.'

'Maybe her parents are taking her to Hogwarts some other way,' suggested Hannah. 'They might not trust her out of their sight until they hand her over to a teacher.'

'I suppose so. They could get there by Floo powder, if they asked Dumbledore in advance.'

'I've only used that to get to Ernie's house, and back,' said Hannah. 'I didn't like it much.'

'No, I didn't like the first time I used it. I got to the wrong place and almost ran into Malfoy and his dad. Oh, Malfoy's on the train, I saw him. So's Neville.'

'Professor Snape's back this term, isn't he?' asked Ernie. 'I don't suppose Neville's looking forward to seeing him again.'

'I bet he isn't, after putting Snape into St Mungo's for so long. I hope he doesn't have to do Potions any more, if he doesn't want to.'

'Why would he want to?' asked Hannah.

'I can't think of any reason. Anyway, how were your Easter holidays?'

Ernie looked at Hannah, who sighed. Ernie said, 'I had a good time. Did you, Harry?'

'Yes, I visited my godfather, Sirius Black; you know he was pardoned, don't you? I saw Remus Lupin again, and ... well, I saw some personal stuff from my past,' Harry said.

'Sounds better than mine,' said Hannah, turning to look out of the window. 'I had just too much personal stuff and arguments.'

Harry frowned and waited for her to continue, but it seemed she didn't want to. Ernie started talking about their O.W.Ls, and Harry replied, taking the hint that Hannah didn't want to talk. After a while, she joined in this more neutral conversation.

Once the train reached Hogsmeade station, Harry saw Ron, Hermione and Ginny waiting for him on the platform. They talked to him about what they'd done at school since visiting Godric's Hollow -- just trivial matters but, after the cursed headband and other stressful events, it was nice to be back at Hogwarts with only trivia to talk about.