After the Storm.

When Harry woke up it was to discover that Ron's things had arrived. It followed that the Weasleys and Hermione had probably arrived. He got up and dressed quickly. The upper levels of the house were quiet so he headed downstairs to find the place apparently deserted.

'Ron, Hermione . . . anyone.'

There was no reply Harry went back upstairs and called again, searching through empty rooms. A series of thumping, scraping sounds drew him to the bedroom that had once been Mrs. Black's, where he found Buckbeak apparently well and pleased to see him. Harry made a fuss of the Hippogriff and sat with him for a while before returning downstairs to wait. With the door to the hallway open he lay half dozing, on the chaise longue in the library, as the evening shadows grew darker.

Finally, in the vast silence of the empty house, he heard the front door open and close. 'You can't trust him.' Harry recognised the deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt. 'You saw the reports from Azkaban. What was he hiding?'

'That he was a member of the Order of the Phoenix, perhaps?' Tonks sounded annoyed.

'No. You know what they did to him and still he said nothing. Whatever he was hiding had to be a lot more important than that. He's protecting someone. The fact is someone owns Snape. You don't know who that person is and you cannot trust him. Stay away from him Tonks, he's bad news.'

'Dumbledore trusts him.'

'You know Dumbledore never saw those reports.'

'Didn't he?' Tonks spun to face Shacklebolt. 'Well perhaps you should tell him then. Better yet, show them to him. Show him what the "good guys" were doing to his spy while he was busy arranging to leave a baby with people who locked him in a cupboard.'

'Hello,' said Harry. Both Aurors immediately drew their wands.

'Sorry Harry,' said Tonks, relaxing. 'What are you doing in the dark? Where's Remus?'

'I don't know. No one's here.'

'He should've been back hours ago,' said Tonks worriedly.

'I'll go.' Shacklebolt opened the front door. 'Good to see you Harry. Tonks.' He closed the door behind him.

'Where is everyone?'

'Come on Harry, you can help me sort out supper.' Tonks placed a hand on his shoulder and led him towards the kitchen. 'Molly and George are being treated at Saint Mungo's. It's not serious but the Ministry were being awkward and asking all sorts of questions, so Hermione and the rest of the Weasleys went to sort it out.'

'What happened?'

'They were about to leave the Burrow when it was attacked by Death Eaters. Molly decided to fight back and George had to forcibly drag her through the flue. Mostly cuts and bruises.' Tonks smiled briefly, 'Although the people who attacked the Burrow won't have got off so lightly. Arthur and the twins have been busy. Remus was supposed to come straight here. You shouldn't have been alone for more than a few minutes. I can only imagine that the Ministry's found some excuse to detain him. Well, when they do arrive they'll probably all be ravening so I thought Spaghetti Bolognaise. Fiat lux!' Tonks waved her wand and the gas lamps flared.

Harry followed her into the kitchen. 'This is my fault, isn't it?'

'Of course it's your fault. Nothing at all to do with the fact that the Weasley's have been fighting Tommy boy since before you were born. Don't be so full of yourself Harry.' She shook him gently. 'Lighten up. Chop onions. Any idea where they keep the garlic?'

Harry found a chopping board, a knife and some onions and started work. 'Have you seen Jane?'

'This morning. She's back in her university lodgings. She was worried about you but now she's fine.'

So what was that about Snape?'

There was a long pause as Tonks minutely dissected garlic cloves. Finally she dropped them into a pan with olive oil. Harry handed her the chopped onions which she added and stirred. 'After Voldemort fell Lucius Malfoy claimed to have done no wrong and, as he himself believed that, it didn't show as a lie. And he had money and influence and so he went free. Snape knew what he'd done was wrong and had neither money nor influence so he didn't. Severus has an acquired response to Veritaserum - shuts his body down. He couldn't very well be a spy otherwise. And then there's the Occlumency. Normal methods of interrogation weren't effective and people were missing. And some of them were children so Fudge authorised "implemented interrogation", although the usual euphemism is "Muggle methods." Actual physical damage. No unforgivables, just the sort of spells you might use in gardening . . . and then someone had the bright idea of leaving what was left in a cell with Dementors. Dementors like to touch . . .' She took a sharp breath. 'Sorry Harry. I really shouldn't have said that.'

Harry felt sick. 'And Dumbledore didn't know?'

'Apparently not. It was Lucius Malfoy who finally got him released.'

'What about Moody?'

'Not the particulars. Took him from Saint Mungo's back to Azkaban.'

'And Snape's still on our side?'

'Doesn't really have a choice, does he?' She snorted. 'Funny story. Snape's been secretly working against Voldemort for a while and he decides to try and make contact with the Order. So he hangs around the "Three Broomsticks" until one night there's a party. Minerva McGonagall's being chatted up by a famous Quiddich player. Then they head back to Hogwarts together. Just the two of them. He can't believe they're being so stupid so he decides to use "Imperius" to embarrass McGonagall's Quiddich Jock . . . just to send a message to Dumbledore to be more bloody careful. Except that McGonagall's little pal turns out to be Dumbledore himself using Polyjuice. Some sort of joke, apparently. Of course Dumbledore didn't use an unforgivable. He had only to say "Protego", turn it back on him and then force Snape to swear, by Hogwarts itself, to obey him. He's spent the last fourteen years as a little more than a slave.' Tonks pulled the pan off the heat. 'Don't get me wrong. Professor Dumbledore's a good man but some of the things he's done . . . weren't right.'

Harry thought about what he had been told. 'How come I didn't see Azkaban in the penseive? Surely that was worse than what my father did?'

'You know enough of Occlumency to make your memories less accessible. The next stage is to bury some of them completely. Snape used the incident that you saw in the penseive to screen things from "You Know Who" and, under threat in Azkaban, he continued to use it. His memory of what happened by the lake is now inseparable from his memories of Azkaban and, unfortunately, your resemblance to your father acts as a trigger.'

'I see,' said Harry, dismayed. 'No wonder he hates me.'

'He doesn't.'

'Right.'

'Harry, you're a good kid and he's not stupid, just seriously messed up.'

'And you're in love with him?'

'Yes. I am.'

Little more was said until they had finished cooking the dinner and it had been put to one side to stay warm.

'Have you visited Buckbeak?' asked Tonks.

'Yes. He seems fine, although if no one could get into the house . . . ?'

'Magical sleep until the house reopened. What I'd have been doing if you hadn't talked to the Guardian. You did well.'

Harry sat down at the table. 'I hate this house.'

'Don't. It wasn't always like this. And it's mine now.' Tonks sat down opposite him. 'Although with places like this that goes both ways. And the house itself is beautiful. It should be a happy place. Sirius wanted you to come and live here and I do too. And not just because the Guardian seems to like you. Once you start Auror training you'll be needing somewhere close. Promise me you'll think about it?

She thought he had a future then? Or was at least pretending to. Suddenly tired, Harry smiled at her and rested his head on his arms.

He awoke to find himself surrounded by Weasleys with Hermione shaking him gently. 'Wake up Harry.'

'Hello. Hermione, I'm sorry.'

'Whatever for?'

'It's my fault you're here.

'That's rot, Harry. I'm here because as well as being the best student that the school has seen in a long time I'm Muggleborn, which is, apparently, totally unacceptable to some people. At least that's what Professor McGonagall told my parents.' Hermione had gone pink with embarrassment. 'They'd been ready to go into hiding at the end of the summer anyway and they hadn't told me because they wanted me to enjoy the holidays without worrying.' She looked as though she might cry. 'I'd always thought them so suburban, I mean Dentists? I was so proud of them.'

Harry stood up. 'Hug?' he said plaintively and very much to his own surprise.

Hermione reached him first but Ginny still managed to get an arm between her and Harry. Ron put his arms around both of them leaving Harry in the middle of something he recalled from Primary School as a group hug. 'Damn, I missed you,' he said.

'Hey don't squash him.' Fred and George both reached over to ruffle his hair and, with some reluctance, the girls disentangled themselves. Ron pushed Harry down onto his chair.

'How are you feeling?' asked Ginny solicitously.

'I feel fine. A bit spaced but . . .'

'What's spaced?' Ron looked puzzled.

'Spaced out, disconnected, high. Muggle expression.' Hermione explained. Ron continued to look puzzled. 'Slightly drunk.'

'Oh. Right. So how were the muggles? I know you can't say much, but . . .' Ron tailed off.

'They were ok. I had a really good summer. I wish I could have written to you but the family went into hiding the last time Riddle decided to make a nuisance of himself and they're really cautious. But they're good people.' With Snape and Tonks Harry had discussed what he would say and he wasn't exactly lying, just not telling the whole truth and allowing them to reach the wrong conclusions.

'We wanted to send you a birthday cake,' said Ginny.

'I had a cake,' briefly thought Harry, before Tonks tripped over Hedwig, 'and presents.' He grinned. 'I am now the possessor of a seriously evil chess set.'

'A chess set?' demanded Ron, 'let's see it then.' Harry made to stand and was pushed back down onto his chair. 'I'll get it. In your trunk, right?'

'Right,' said Harry, equally glad to have something to diffuse a rather fraught situation. 'It's shrunken, just four squares on a box. It's sort of in the middle, near the top.' Ron disappeared.

'You look well dear.' Mrs. Weasley had discovered the Spaghetti Bolognaise and was adding pepper to it. Mr. Weasley gave Tonks an apologetic smile and settled into one of the chairs.

Ginny must have been doing a lot of flying to get that brown, Harry thought. Brown or not, when she noticed him watching her, she blushed. He was glad when Ron returned and put the chess box down on the table in front of him. Harry reached out and, still slightly unsteady, tapped it not once but twice. As before the squares slid to form the chess board but then the whole thing flexed and then doubled in size. Curiously Harry tapped it again and again it doubled in size until its borders overhung the edges of the table.

'Whoa!' said Ron. 'What about the pieces?'

Without thinking Harry tapped the board. 'Ludo,' he said. Many of the pieces that appeared were now comfortably over a foot in height and Harry was better able to appreciate the Pawns predatory expressions. One of the White Rook dragons stretched its beautiful iridescent body and then took off and it was at this moment that the White Queen stole Harry's wand and leapt from the table.

Chaos broke out. Fred or George made a grab for one of the dragons and was stabbed in the hand by the lance of the neighbouring Knight who's Thestral then took off, turned in midair, and flew straight at his eyes causing him to duck sharply under the table. The Kings swiftly mounted dragons and joined the Knights in the air while the harp wielding women, that were the set's Bishops, began to sprout feathery wings from their backs and heels and to launch themselves over the edge of the table. A grab for one of them by the other twin resulted in fingers sliced by more than razor sharp harp strings. Hermione drew her wand 'Immob . . .' She broke off as her wand was snatched by a flying dragon and a burst of flame forced Ginny to jump back. By this time all of the White pieces were off the table.

Ron looked incredulous. 'How d'you stop it Harry?'

'Sod off!'

'What?'

'Tap any part of it and say "Sod Off".'

'Oh. Ok. Sod Off!'

The Back Queen smirked. 'The chess set is not yours,' she informed him sweetly. As Ron reached out, a selection of none too miniature weaponry was displayed by the Black Pawns surrounding her. Ron hurriedly pulled back his hand and gave Harry his wand.

'Alas,' murmured the Black Queen in tones strongly reminiscent of McGonagall, 'the wand is not yours.'

'What?' He ducked just in time to avoid a flying Knight. The pretty pennanted lances that they carried now looked decidedly lethal. A burst of flame bounced off a pan lid that Ron had raised as a shield and across a row of cauldrons before petering out among the vegetables and Harry yelled in surprise as his ankles came under attack from the cheerfully vicious Pawns that had driven George or possibly Fred back out from under the table.

Then they started singing. To Harry it sounded like Welsh. It was altogether too much for Mrs. Weasley.

'Out!' she yelled. 'I'll deal with it.' Without hesitation Mr. Weasley seized his two youngest children and dragged them, too surprised to protest, out of the kitchen. The twins followed meekly as did Hermione and, rather to Harry's surprise, Tonks. 'Go dear,' said Mrs. Weasley, kindly.

'They're open to negotiation, apparently.'

'Thank you Harry.' She smiled at him pointedly and, with great reluctance, Harry left the kitchen. The door was shut behind him.

'Extendible ears!' yelled Fred (or possibly George) running up the stairs.

'She'll have cast "imperturbable", don't waste your time,' said Ginny.

Just then the front door opened and Remus Lupin and Kingsly Shacklebolt came in. 'Whatever's going on?' asked Lupin.

'Harry's got this bloody brilliant chess set,' replied Ron and began to tell them about it but Harry had had enough.

My chess set: my problem, he decided. Quietly he crept back into the kitchen to find Mrs. Weasley facing down the recalcitrant chessmen, most of whom were now back on the table.

'She sez ye've a bluddy great snake and'll have it eat us,' said one of the Black Pawns anxiously.

'What . . . no,' said Harry.

'Ye've no a snake or ye'd no have it eat us?'

'Well, I suppose that it would if I asked but . . . well, no, not if you'll stop damaging my friends.

'We are prepared to discuss the matter,' stated the White Queen.

'Let me Aurelia,' said the Black Queen coming forward. She really did resemble a younger McGonagall, Harry decided. 'We are bored with being in the box. We want to get out more.'

'I'm not surprised you don't get out if you behave as badly as that,' said Mrs. Weasley.

'And I was warned that you tend to acquire things,' said Harry.

'Which you will find in the box should you care to look there,' replied the Black Queen, 'except for anything alcoholic of course. We are prepared to give an undertaking of good behaviour. Moreover, we are prepared to be helpful.'

'Helpful? How?' asked Harry.

'We'll get yer dinner back from yon bluddy bird,' put in the talkative pawn.

'What?' Sure enough Hedwig was perched on top of a cupboard busily rending a large and rather bloody piece of raw meat that was dripping down the cupboard onto the floor.

The Knights rose into the air.

Still clutching the meat, Hedwig launched herself towards the door. The White Queen immediately hit the end of Harry's wand against the table causing a stream of sparks to shoot out of it. As Hedwig flew through them an outraged squawk became a howl and, twisting in midair, Hedwig once again became a cat. As the meat bounced away across the floor, Hedwig landed on the table in front of her attacker and extended a ferocious set of claws. 'You might wish to consider that you have a fine fur coat and I do not,' said the White Queen pointedly. The very tip of Hedwig's tail flicked and then she put the claws away, jumped off the table, grabbed the disputed dinner and then streaked out through the door with most of the chess set in hot pursuit.

'We understand that you have a problem with Doxies,' suggested the Black Queen. 'We could deal with it for you.'

'Not to mention mice,' said the White Queen in tones calculated to aggravate the most careless of housekeepers. 'Do you ever clean under the cupboards?' She flicked at her sleeve.

'Aurelia, dear, you're not helping,' said the Black Queen. 'Give him back his wand.' The White Queen pulled a face but did as she was told. 'And the other one.' Hermione's wand was laid at her feet by a rather sheepish looking dragon.

'A gesture of good faith,' said the Black Queen. 'I am Ayesha. That's Tom' The White king who, Harry noticed, bore more than a passing resemblance to Tom Riddle, waved. 'And this is Brian.' She patted the Black King on the shoulder. 'Parthenope, Leucosia, Ligia and Loralei,' she indicated the harpists who stopped gossiping amongst themselves to wave coyly. The Black Queen sighed and then continued. 'The boys are Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. They do, admittedly, have a bit of a Grail fixation but they are quite splendid at retrieving things.'

There was a cheer as a rabble of pawns dragged something entirely disgusting into the kitchen. Hedwig had lost her fight to retain the stolen meat. Rather dubiously, Mrs. Weasley picked it up and put it by the sink. 'Would they do housework?' she asked the Queens.

'You would be surprised at what they are prepared to do for beer,' replied the Black Queen, 'or quite possibly appalled.'

'Why wouldn't Ron's wand have worked?' asked Harry.

'Oh it would have. I merely implied that it wouldn't.'

'You tricked me?'

'Well, yes. But we could start with the kitchen, tonight, if you wish?'

'Perhaps,' said Mrs. Weasley. 'Harry, would you put the set away for now?'

'Sod off.' Harry tapped the board, the pieces disappeared and the board shrank and folded itself into its innocuous looking box.

'And perhaps not,' said Mrs. Weasley. 'I suppose that you got that from Dumbledore? That Black Queen is clearly supposed to be Professor McGonagall, and as for the White King, well, I had thought better of the Headmaster. I know he regrets allowing Umbridge . . . but even so.' She picked up the Spaghetti Bolognaise that he and Tonks had made, now spiced to her own satisfaction, and put it on the table as Ron and Ginny handed round plates and cutlery. 'Good grief, I hope that it didn't behave like that in front of the Muggles? What would they have thought?'

'I was just shown how it worked,' said Harry. There was no way for him to explain that Dumbledore had not given it to him. Supposedly he had been staying with a Squibs and Muggles and why would they have given him such a thing?' It looked as though Mrs. Weasley would be having another "little chat" with the Headmaster.

Snape thought Harry trust Snape to give me this pocket Pandemonium. It wasn't as if he hadn't been warned. Since Azkaban, dozens of Aurors had tried to give the slippery bastard a hard time and had come seriously unstuck. He was suddenly inclined to feel just a little bit sorry for Professor Dumbledore as well as almost proud of the appalling chess set. If he could just get them on his side . . .