PhoenixSong.net :: A Harry/Ginny Fanfic and Fanart Archive

Author: everylittlething

Story: Towards King's Cross

Part: 11:Towards King's Cross

Rating: Teens

Setting: Post-DH

Status: Completed

Reviews: 26

Words: 6,182

Updated: March 7, 2008, 9:45pm

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11:Towards King's Cross

Author's Note: Well, here we are, finally at the final chapter. Thanks so much to all of you who have read and reviewed, I have really enjoyed this whole process and even before I finished this chapter I was already trying to think of some inspiration for my first story set in 7^th Year at Hogwarts in the Towards Kings Cross Universe. Who knows!? Maybe it'll be up next week! Maybe not…

Hats off to JKR who owns all of this, hats off to The Police who wrote the very fabulous Every Little Thing She Does is Magic which features as a love-song dedication later in this chapter and is also the source of my pseudonym and finally, hats off to all of the founders and perpetuators of the WizardRock genre, particularly Philosopherock, who get a mention later in this chapter. I doubt if I could listen to much of it, but I really love it in theory!

Thanks a mazillion to my beta, Trelawny 2213, who has helped this whole experience to be really enjoyable. It has been great fun sending chapters and chit-chat whizzing half-way across the globe and hearing her thoughts and insights along with benefiting from her much needed editing!

I hope you like how it all ends… Let me know!

Harry was beginning to wonder what kind of magical owl Ginny had bought for him. He watched on in happy bemusement as Isla proved herself more than capable of baby-sitting a human child. Teddy was in raptures as the speckled owl caught up yet another of his toys in her claws and circled his head, just out of his reach, flying closer and closer until she allowed him to grasp the toy and immediately released her hold.

Harry laughed as he watched little white feathers sprouting from the outer corners of his godson's eyes which were yellowing and growing rounder. He kept an eye on the pair of speckled creatures while he got a bottle together for Teddy and was nothing short of amazed when Isla flew to his side, grasped the bottle so that she could hold it upright and delivered it straight into the hands of a hooting Teddy. Isla circled back around after depositing her cargo and landed deftly on Harry's shoulder. He stroked her feathers, imagining setting an essay topic for Hermione who, he was certain, would soon be getting twitchy from lack of research: Crookshanks is to Kneazle as Isla is to...?

He had to leave that particular train of thought where it was as Teddy had taken his mimicking of Isla one inevitable step further and there was a puddle of milk forming on the floor.

"Teddy! Matey, drink the milk first, then flap!" Harry pleaded as he wrested the bottle out of his godson's feathery little fist. He had managed to avoid being drenched himself which was lucky because he'd decided, in his second conscious moment of wardrobe contemplation, that he'd wear the navy shirt Ginny had seemed to approve of when they'd visited Gringotts to her birthday party.

Harry used his wand to dry off the little owl-boy on the floor and then gathered him up to go and see if Andromeda was ready to go. Gratifyingly, Teddy shape-shifted again, returning to his imitation of his beloved godfather and throwing his arms joyously around Harry's neck as the older wizard carried him across the garden. Harry smiled into the little boy's messy raven hair. It was nice to see Teddy learning how to return the affection that he was constantly shown. Harry squeezed his godson gently against his chest then held him out and tossed him into the air laughing at the myriad colours that Teddy transformed through before he caught him again.

"Not more party tricks, matey! You've got enough of a repertoire to secure the lime-light for the whole night!"

Teddy clapped his little hands together and wriggled in Harry's arms as if urging Harry to toss him again. Harry looked laughing into his own face in miniature.

"Ah, how can I resist you?" he sighed, and Teddy was airborne once more.

****

When Harry, Teddy and Andromeda arrived at The Burrow they quickly recognised that the place was in a bit of a kafuffle. All seemed organised for the party, which wasn't to start for another hour or so, but Karina, not exactly an unexpected guest, given her growing friendship with George, was taking rather a prominent role in coordinating the family activity, which mainly seemed to involve nearly wrestling Mrs Weasley into a chair in the garden while the rest of the family crowded around.

"Ah, Harry's here!" cried Mr Weasley enthusiastically. "We can begin now, Karina!"

Mrs Weasley was looking around in alarm. "Begin what, exactly? Arthur, I've got so much to do! And you know that everything takes three times as long with the state that I'm in!"

"Summon dear old Kreacher again, would you Harry? There's a good chap," called Mr Weasley. And as soon as Harry said his name, Kreacher was on the run into The Burrow's kitchen leaving Mrs Weasley looking only slightly less harried.

"Oh, please! What is going on?" Mrs Weasley cried out in exasperation.

"Well, Mum, if you'd allow me to remind you of your most recent copy of Witch Weekly?" George began, producing the magazine with a flourish. "Could you please turn to page forty-three and read for us all what you find there?"

Mrs Weasley was looking quite unimpressed. "What is this all about, George?"

"Please, Mum, just read it to us," Ginny pleaded.

Molly's expression softened at the plea of her youngest child and only daughter who had the added emotional blackmail power of being the birthday girl.

"If I must," she sighed, flipping through the pages until she found page forty-three. She cleared her voice and read aloud:

Witch Weekly's Most Marvellous Magical Mum Competition.

Grand Prize 500,000 Galleons!

Do you have a mum who is marvellous as well as magical?

Write in to nominate your mum to win this magnificent prize that will keep her in

finery and frippery in leisure and luxury and in style and security for the rest of her days!

Address all letters of nomination to Karina Trilby, editor.

Mrs Weasley began reading clearly, and then faltered a little, and by the time she read Karina's name and looked up to compare the photograph of Karina Trilby to the woman standing in front of her, her voice was absolutely trembling.

"That's right, Mrs Weasley," Karina responded to her unasked question. "As much as I'm here with George to enjoy Ginny's birthday party tonight, I'm also here in my capacity as the editor of Witch Weekly to inform you, in the presence of these, your nominators, that you are the winner of Witch Weekly's Most Marvellous Magical Mum Competition."

Molly looked like she was about to fall out of her chair but Karina kept talking.

"Firstly, I'd like to present you with these, the letters of nomination sent in not just by one member of your family, but by all seven surviving members of your family and one who thinks of you as his mother even though he was not born to you and Arthur."

Molly took the parcel of letters that Karina held out to her, hands trembling, smiling tremulously up at all of her family members who stood closely around her chair beaming at her.

"Secondly, I have here the first instalment of your prize." Karina produced an enormous old-fashioned wooden chest. "In here is a lump sum of five thousand galleons along with a statement that details the way the rest of the money will be paid to you. Starting this week, five hundred galleons will be paid into your Gringotts account every week for the next nineteen and a bit years."

Molly could only blink at this news and, apart from George and Harry who'd had plenty of time to get used to the idea, having devised the plan in the first place, the rest of the family seemed to need a bit of time to be able to digest quite how much money that actually equated to.

Karina smiled and spoke into the stunned silence. "I'm sorry to interrupt your reverie, Mrs Weasley, but would you like for me to arrange for the money to be placed straight into your Gringott's vault now for safe-keeping?"

"Oh, yes please," Molly whispered, eyes still as wide as saucers. She may as well have been accepting the offer of a nice cup of tea for all of the comprehension that her expression seemed to convey.

"And Mrs Weasley?" Karina continued, smiling kindly. "I really want to encourage you to just let Kreacher get to work for the next half hour or so while you sit there and read your family's letters. There was no doubt in my mind at any point as to who most deserved to win this competition."

After Karina Disapparated with the trunk, Arthur sat down next to Molly in the garden while she read and the rest of the family headed back into the kitchen to see if there was anything that they could do to help Kreacher. True to form, however, the kitchen was already spotless, piles of food were mounting up on the platters that the Elf had laid out around the room and all they seemed to be doing was getting in Kreacher's highly efficient way.

George took Harry by the arm and led him outside to the opposite side of the house from where Molly and Arthur were sitting.

"Nice work, Boy Wonder," George said as soon as he was confident that they were out of earshot of the others.

Harry grinned. "Seemed to go down well, didn't it?"

"I think it might take Mum a decade or so to get used to the idea, but yeah, I'd say that this will definitely change Mum and Dad's life for the better."

Harry's grin grew cheekier. "And perhaps all of that effort you put into planning the whole thing might have changed your life for the better, eh? That Karina is a fearsome Beater!"

George chuckled. "A complete surprise to me, mate. Remember, she's a bit of an older woman. I'd only just started at Hogwarts when she was playing and she must've left by the time I got on the Quidditch team. Charlie said he remembers her though, he reckons he might still have some of the bruises she gave him!"

"Sounds like she's just your type, George!" Harry laughed.

"She may well be, Harry. She may well be," George mused.

Suddenly, Harry and George's eyes were drawn to the ground where a pure white weasel Patronus spoke to them with Molly's voice.

"Oh boys, you have to come out here and let me give you a hug!"

"Crikey!" cried George as he and Harry sprinted round to the other side of the house. "Looks like her fortune wasn't the only thing your little plot restored. Seems that Mum's got her mojo back too! I say again," he panted, turning and jogging backwards for a second so that he could face Harry, "Nice work, Boy Wonder!"

****

Ginny's birthday party was a truly lovely occasion. Mrs Weasley's renewed magical powers along with the great affirmation she'd received from her family, and perhaps one too many glasses of punch that George had laced with "Ogden's Old Firewhiskey", had her in excellent spirits and she was really quite entertaining.

Lee had brought a whole lot of records with him from the WWN and proceeded to play them all night so most of the guests spent the evening on the dance floor including Harry and Ron dancing, not too shabbily, with Ginny and Hermione respectively.

Speeches and toasts had been made, feasting had been undertaken with gusto, presents had been given and the night had been well and truly danced away by the time her friends started saying farewell, many of them beginning to suffer as the fourteen doses of invigoration draught that Harry had supplied to the Quidditch players began to wear off.

Ginny had received a beautiful new set of dress robes from her parents, though Molly announced more than once that she'd be buying Ginny what she'd always hoped to buy her only daughter for her coming of age in the week to come.

Bill and Fleur had given her a portable magic mirror, obviously chosen by Fleur, and her own Quaffle, clearly chosen by Bill. Charlie had presented her with some dragon-hide Quidditch boots, Percy gave her a Puddlemere united scarf and jersey and George gave her a very generous voucher to spend at Gladrags Wizard Wear. Ron and Hermione had bought her all of her books and equipment for seventh year along with a selection of parchment and quills obviously lovingly chosen by Hermione. The other guests had given her a variety of other fabulous trinkets, assorted toys and accessories for Arnold, her Pygmy Puff, Honeydukes chocolates, various bits of Quidditch paraphernalia and memorabilia and another stand-out t-shirt from Luna which read:

I wondered why the Bludger was getting bigger.

Then it hit me…

While all of these presents delighted her, nothing could surpass her excitement about her Bulgarian Speeding Bullet and she made sure that Harry knew it.

****

Tuesday morning, two days after Ginny's party, saw almost the entire wizarding community of Britain gather in the cavernous atrium of the Ministry of Magic for a ceremony to unveil Kingsley's war memorial which stood in the place of the old Fountain of Magical Brethren and its travesty of a replacement. Harry's eyes prickled as Kingsley took the podium. Yet after he'd only spoken a few words, Kingsley was no longer the centre of attention because somehow, from somewhere, Fawkes had arrived and had begun to sing. Each note of the phoenix song rang with all the triumph of Voldemort's defeat and yet somehow a sadder and more profound note of deep tragedy resounded.

Whether through the power of Fawkes' song or by some other means, Harry couldn't tell, the veil that featured so prominently in the centre of the Ministry foyer when they had walked in shimmered and began to become translucent.

"It's water!" Ginny whispered at his side, but this was like no waterfall that he had ever seen before. The walls of water took definite shape as the deluge descended from the highest point of the fountain and before long gasps of recognition became audible around them and many in the large crowd were moved to tears.

At the peak of the fountain, the water formed into a translucent representation of Fawkes, the very phoenix who was, at that very moment, providing catharsis to the hearts of all who heard his mesmerising song. Beneath Fawkes, standing back to back as comrades, stood the forms of Dumbledore and Harry, Ginny squeezed Harry's hand as soon as she noticed. The next tier down depicted Ron and Hermione, Dobby, Sirius, Lupin and Tonks, Snape, McGonagall, Moody, Kingsley, Hagrid, Molly, Arthur, Fred and George Weasley, all mystically but beautifully formed by the contours of this flowing wall of water. The rest of the tiers of the fountains similarly honoured all those who had played a role in the fight against Voldemort during the many years of his reign of terror.

As the waters shifted and changed, more and more faces were revealed in this constantly dynamic monument to the bravery and determination of those who protected the Muggle, the Muggle-born witch or wizard, the witch or wizard of mixed blood and the realm of non-human magical creatures. Hermione was moved to see that Dobby and Kreacher featured prominently. Neville and his grandmother both wept to see Frank and Alice Longbottom represented and Andromeda was speechless with emotion at the perfect images of Ted, Dora and Remus. As he saw George gaze fondly up at his twin, Harry knew he could distinguish his brother from himself, even if it was a struggle for everyone else. Ginny noticed Sybil Trelawney, not far from where they stood, looking sobered to find herself gazing at her own likeness within the shifting liquid, no mean feat. Her hands appeared to have ceased their characteristic trembling, and she seemed to suddenly stand taller than Ginny had seen her since Umbridge's intrusion into Hogwarts. Mundungus Fletcher looked similarly affected at the sight of his own image.

Cedric Diggory looked bravely out from the wall of water as did crystal clear representations of Griphook, of Bill Weasley, of Aberforth Dumbledore, of Grawp and of so many others. But Harry's sight was fixed on the woman whose eyes he'd so often been told he had and the bespectacled man beside her who he resembled in every other way bar his lightening bolt scar.

The phoenix song rose and swelled bringing the same peace and healing it had somehow managed to bring on the day that they buried Dumbledore. Witches and wizards smiled warmly at one another through their grief and everyone had found some measure of comfort as each note resounded in the cavernous atrium.

Harry had gripped Ginny's hand tightly in his own as they gazed up at all those they had loved so deeply, and whose loss they felt so profoundly. Harry sought Kingsley's eye and solemnly nodded his approval. The tribute was fitting; Harry felt satisfied that honour had been paid to those to whom it was due. It seemed clear that this world, which Harry hadn't come to know until he was eleven, could now look to its future.

****

Late-night stock taking at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes went much faster on Thursday nights when Ginny and Verity could tune into Lee hosting the WWN's weekly Love Song Dedications program.

They loved to giggle at the ridiculous things that people would call in to say and the hilariously soppy songs that they would request for one another. The highlight, however, was the way that Lee's voice only thinly disguised his own incredulity or out-and-out contempt. He did his best to sound warm and enthusiastic, but Ginny and Verity had heard him rail against it when he dropped by the shop so they knew what to listen for.

This particular night had been a corker, with Sharon ringing up to dedicate some shocking Muggle ballad to her boyfriend, Danny, currently in Azkaban for selling stolen dark magic objects. Ginny and Verity had laughed until tears streaked down their faces.

Ginny sat up and listened, however, when the song ended and she heard Lee's voice say a familiar name.

"Well listeners, I have a particularly love-struck chap here in the studio with me and I'm chuffed because he wants to dedicate a song to a girl I know and have become quite fond of. Why don't you share your story with our eager listeners?"

"Erm, h-hi there," a nervous voice stuttered. "My name is Rolf Scamander and I have been absolutely smitten by a girl I met on holidays when I was out searching for Tebos in Central Africa."

"Hang on a minute, Rolf. That's a familiar name. Are you by any chance related to Newt Scamander, author of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them?"

"Yeah, he's my grandfather. My dad and I are naturalists too. We were working on an updated edition of the book for Granddad and Dad got a tip off from Xenophilius Lovegood that we might find some in a particular spot he knew of at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro." Rolf sighed dramatically. "That's how I met Luna."

Ginny squealed and gripped Verity's arm, nearly upending a carefully stacked arrangement of George's Summer Special Skiving Snackboxes – Charms To Get You Out Of Chores."

"So what happened, mate?" Lee asked.

"Well, we hiked all over and camped together for two weeks, our dads and the two of us. I have to admit that at first I thought she and her dad were a bit odd but after I'd had this great conversation with her about Thestrals, watched her go swimming in the creek to check out the African species of Merpeople and climb trees to get a closer look at a nest that she thought might have belonged to a Fwooper, I realised that I was never going to meet another girl who was just so fascinated by life.

"When we had to go our separate ways at the end of the trip, she gave me a charm she'd made herself to ward off Nargles and she kissed me on the cheek. I wanted to kiss her properly but my courage failed me; I was a Ravenclaw too you know."

"I see," said Lee, chuckling.

"I think I love her, Lee. I can't get her out of my head."

"That's great news, mate. Have you tried to get in contact with her in any other way?"

"I sent her a bunch of puffapods but I was too afraid to attach a card, she wouldn't even have known it was me."

"Do you think she'll be listening tonight?"

"I have no idea," Rolf replied, sounding anxious. "I don't even know if she and her dad have a radio."

"Oh, well. What song do you want to dedicate to her? You never know, she might be tuned in?"

"Could you play a Muggle song for me called Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by The Police?"

"Great choice, mate!" Lee exclaimed. "Why don't you stick around for a while to see if Luna calls in while we play her song?." His voice lowered conspiratorially, "In fact, if I were the type of chap to call in to a show like this one, this is exactly the song I'd choose to dedicate to a certain beautiful champion of mums everywhere. Hope you're listening Luna and Verity – this one goes out to you."

The familiar strains of the most popular Muggle song at Hogwarts rang out of the radio and Verity sat stunned, opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish.

"Be right back, Verity," Ginny said hurriedly as she ran for the fireplace. I'm going to go and fetch Luna. I bet this Rolf guy's right – she probably doesn't have a radio!"

Minutes later, Ginny returned with a surprised looking Luna Lovegood, her blonde hair streaked with blue paint.

Ginny interrupted excitedly. "Were you listening to the radio, Luna?"

"The radio?" Luna asked in her perpetually calm voice. "No, I was just humming to myself as I painted my new mural, but then you grabbed me as I was making my way to the kitchen for some more paint. What's going on, Ginny?"

Verity and Ginny tried their best to fill Luna in on what they'd heard from Rolf.

She stared wide-eyed at them both, especially at the mention of the bunch of puffapods.

"Oh! I thought they might have been an offering from the Gernumbli Gardensi. We're very excited as it seems that a few of them have taken up residence in our garden."

Ginny looked pointedly at her friend, "But they weren't from the gnomes, Luna, they were from this boy, Rolf. The boy who has dedicated this song to you and is sitting in the studio with Lee, nervously hoping that you'll call in and talk to him."

The final chorus of the song resounded loudly in the empty shop as Luna wandered towards the display of Patented Daydream Charms, silently contemplating what Ginny and Verity were telling her.

Every little thing she does is magic

Everything she do just turns me on

Even though my life before was tragic

Now I know my love for her goes on.

"So do you like him, Luna?" Ginny asked, intrigued as to how her very unusual friend would react to the news that a boy had a crush on her.

Luna turned back to face her friend, bright red in the face and beaming.

"He's lovely!"

"Well," said Verity, "do you want to call in? You could use the fireplace right here."

For the first time ever, Ginny saw Luna looking a tiny bit like a typical teenage girl. "Do you really think I should?"

"Absolutely!" Ginny and Verity chorused.

Luna smiled nervously and walked towards the fireplace.

Verity and Ginny watched Luna step over the grate and disappear in a burst of flame as The Police faded out.

Lee's rather amused voiced sounded over the dying strains.

"Erm, well, I'm witness to a rather non-verbal reunion here which doesn't seem likely to end any time soon so we might go to another song while I try to persuade these two to find somewhere less in my face. Here's the latest offering from Philosopherock, this one's called Losing My Remembrall."

****

It was yet another lazy morning at The Burrow and Mrs Weasley, who was almost irresponsible with her use of magic having missed it for so long, was flinging washing around the garden with reckless abandon while Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione sprawled on the grass in the shade of an enormous tree.

The summer was well and truly coming to an end and it was very nearly time for them to return to school but the four of them were making sure that they made the most of every last second of their well-deserved holiday.

Just as the last peg whizzed dangerously past an unsuspecting garden gnome's ear and attached Ron's last pair of Union Jack boxer shorts to the clothes line, four owls could be spotted on the horizon flying towards The Burrow.

"That'll be your Hogwarts letters I expect," Molly had called as she made her way back into the house, bouncing the washing basket along the grass with her wand.

Just as she'd predicted, the four owls each released the letter at the right angle for them to each hit their marked recipient.

"Ouch!" cried Ginny, as her envelope made contact, and the other three exchanged glances, knowing what gave her letter its added weight.

Harry, Ron and Hermione tore into their yellow envelopes to find the familiar green handwriting of Professor McGonagall declaring that she was delighted to welcome them back for their seventh year at Hogwarts. The usual list of classes and books and equipment were detailed but Ron and Hermione already knew all about it, having contacted McGonagall in advance to get Ginny's birthday present.

Harry was interested to know whether Professor McGonagall intended to carry on as Head of Gryffindor House but as he read through the letter he came across a most unexpected paragraph.

Unfortunately, I will have to give up my role as Head of Gryffindor House to attend to my many and various duties as Head Mistress. I am delighted to announce that an ex-Gryffindor and ex-Head Boy of the school, Professor Bill Weasley, has agreed to take up the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and he will also take on the role of Head of Gryffindor. He has worked for Gringotts as a curse-breaker these past years and has built up invaluable experience which he will bring to his teaching. As a curse-breaker we are also hopeful that he will last in his tenure as Defence Against the Dark Arts much longer than his last seven predecessors in the role! Somehow I feel very confident that he will be successful for a long time.

Ron, Harry and Hermione all cried out at once, obviously having all just got to the same point in their letter.

"Why didn't he say anything?" Ron cried out, chuckling.

"What? What?" asked Ginny who had chosen to doze a little longer rather than tearing into her envelope straight away like the others.

"Open it, silly!" Hermione said, laughing.

Ginny tore open her envelope and just managed to catch the gold badge that fell straight out towards the ground.

She gasped. "Me!? How could it possibly be me? Why isn't it you, Hermione?"

"Read us your letter, Ginny," urged Hermione. "What does McGonagall say?"

Ginny looked at the expectant faces in front of her and read aloud:

Dear Miss Weasley,

I am delighted to offer you the position of Head Girl of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry alongside Mr Neville Longbottom who has been offered the position of Head Boy.

Appointing you and Mr Longbottom was an easy decision to make as during a very difficult school year last year, the two of you stand out for showing admirable courage, resourcefulness and leadership within the school setting. You and Mr Longbottom led almost the whole school, uniting three of the Houses in ways previously unseen at Hogwarts and I have complete confidence that you will be able to continue this leadership over to a time of peace, just as well as you managed during a war.

Mr Ronald Weasley, Miss Hermione Granger and Mr Harry Potter, while showing excellent leadership outside of the school setting will continue on as Gryffindor Prefects (enjoying the privileges but not shouldering the responsibilities of the role) and Quidditch Captain respectively but you and Neville are the people to whom I have decided to give the honour of leading the whole student body.

Yours sincerely,
Professor Minerva McGonagall
Head Mistress

"Mum is going to have kittens," Ron whistled. "I wonder if she knows about Bill, seeing as he's kept it all so quiet."

"Kept all what so quiet? What about Bill?" Ginny asked.

"Keep reading, Ginny!" Hermione sighed.

Within a few seconds Ginny was reacting just as Ron had. "The snake! We just saw him a couple of days ago! Why didn't he say anything?" she cried.

"Won't it be awesome, having Bill as Head of Gryffindor and as our Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher!" Harry exclaimed, lying back on the grass with his hands under his head. "He's so laid back! And mate, has he got a thing or two to teach us from all the stuff he's learnt!"

When he realised that all his friends were quiet, Harry looked up to see what was going on. They were all staring at him looking a little bit taken aback.

"What?" he shrugged.

"I would have thought that you were beyond learning how to defend yourself against the Dark Arts, Harry," Hermione said smiling.

"Yeah," Harry said, reclining again, "But the stuff that Bill will have to teach us will be really interesting!"

Hermione, Ron and Ginny collapsed into giggles.

"I hadn't realised that you found last year so unstimulating, mate!" Ron chuckled.

****

As predicted, Molly went wild with delight when she heard Ginny's news. She wasn't in the least surprised by Bill's position having known about it for ages. She merely claimed, while conjuring balloons and streamers in celebration, to have found it almost impossible to keep the news to herself all this time.

With Molly's magical powers restored, no one went hungry at any time of the day or night anywhere in or around The Burrow. She set about creating a great feast with everyone's favourite dishes represented, even if they bore no real gastronomic relation to anything else on the table.

The family, Bill and Fleur included, sat down to yet another table groaning with the weight of the food it supported and everyone took turns at quizzing Bill on the details of his new appointment.

"Will we have to call you Professor?" Ron asked.

"Probably you will when there are other students or teachers around," Bill replied wisely.

"Will we get special family privileges?" Ginny inquired, trying to look as sweet as possible.

"The Head Girl? Seeking special privileges? Oh, this isn't a good start at all," Bill shook his head, though he wasn't doing a great job of keeping a straight face. "I'd better send an owl to McGonagall right away."

"Will you be living at the castle? And Fleur too?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, we'll be zere during term time and we'll go back to Shell Cottage for ze holidays," Fleur replied. "Zo I must admeet, I am a leetle worried about what all that rich 'Ogwarts food will do to my figure!"

****

The scarlet engine of the Hogwarts Express crouched in the billowing steam like a nesting Chinese Fireball as Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione made their way along the platform.

Harry had found it extremely difficult to leave Andromeda's house as he was loathe to be parted from Teddy, but Professor McGonagall had given him leave to go and visit them through the Floo in Bill's office whenever he had some free time, providing he kept up with his work for the N.E.W.Ts.

Ginny had also found it extremely difficult to leave The Burrow as, in the extravagance brought on by Molly's enormous cash prize and getting her powers back, she had splashed out and bought Ginny the kind of coming-of-age gift that she had always longed for as a child – an Aethenon, a chestnut-coloured winged horse. Ginny had never been the sort of girl who had longed for Daddy to buy her a pony but there was something very cool about having a flying horse in the meadow beyond The Burrow that she could ride anytime she liked. She'd named the Aethenon Pegasus, or Peggy for short, and the last few days of her holidays went by in a blur as she spent most of her time in the sky, either with Peggy or on her Speeding Bullet practising Quidditch manoeuvres. Molly and Arthur were also extremely fond of Peggy so Ginny knew that the horse would have plenty of opportunities to fly while she was away at school. Molly had become quite the daredevil in recent weeks!

Harry had walked through Kings Cross Station in a daze. The last time he had seen the place he hadn't even really been there, or at least, he didn't think he had. And the last time he had seen the place he had yet to stand before Voldemort, wizard to wizard, and finally destroy him. It was here that Dumbledore, either in a kind of reality, or maybe even just in his head, had explained the Hallows and Horcruxes and his own failings, giving Harry hope that he could yet triumph over Voldemort, even though he thought he'd handed himself over to death at last. And as Dumbledore had cryptically said as they parted, not for the last time, "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

"I didn't think I'd ever do this again," Harry said suddenly, causing Ginny, Ron and Hermione to stop pushing their trolleys and turn to face him. "I never thought I'd be going back to Hogwarts," he grimaced. "I didn't think I'd even be alive."

Ron nodded towards the thin figure of Draco Malfoy standing on his own further up the platform. "I bet he didn't think he'd be here either. He's only alive thanks to you."

Draco turned to see them all looking in his direction and made a slight gesture of acknowledgement before turning to look towards the other end of the platform.

It wasn't long before Harry noticed that the eyes of everyone on the platform were turned towards him.

"I hope you're prepared, mate. This year might be a bit worse than the beginning of our sixth year," Ron chuckled.

"If Romilda Vane so much as tries to come near you with love potion, she'll have me to deal with," Ginny hissed.

"Looks like I'll be alright then, Ron. I've got my brave protector here," Harry grinned nudging Ginny affectionately.

"Shall we get on and find a compartment?" Hermione asked as Luna and Neville joined them. Ginny and Neville had been informed in their letter that they could just sit in normal compartments for the first hour of the journey before they would have to head up to the Prefect's carriage and brief their team.

The six of them stowed their trunks and clambered onto the train and into an empty compartment, chatting away as the train prepared to leave.

Harry looked quietly out the window until Ginny took his hand. "What's up?" she asked.

"Oh, just meditating on a bit of poetry," he replied, smiling.

"Really?" Ginny asked incredulously.

Harry fished Dumbledore's book out from his pocket, opened it to the right page and handed it to her.

"What do you make of this?" he asked.

Ginny read aloud from the little book in front of her, and the others quietened down to listen.

Figgety Figgety Figgety Fee

If I change to a cat then I'm still only me.

Figgety Figgety Figgety Foe

I suppose I just take me wherever I go.

"Any ideas?" Harry inquired.

"Great man, Dumbledore," said Ron, doing his best impersonation of Hagrid. "But rubbish at poetry."

The others shrugged and nodded in agreement.

"Well, you can't be good at everything, I guess," Harry responded.

"Apparently not!" chuckled Neville and the rest of them dissolved into laughter as the Hogwarts Express moved out from King's Cross Station.

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