Aurors: The Fist of Mars

Harry's Announcement

George chuckled.

Ron hesitated. "Fred would have liked that, I think."

George nodded. "Yeah, he would have."

The brothers sat down together while Arthur ladled stew into bowls and passed them around the table. Molly had hung fairy lights in the garden, and they began to twinkle as the sun set behind the trees. Dinner was quieter than before without the witty exchange of banter between Fred and George. They had always played off each other so well, like a comedy duo with one mind. Now George didn't feel like telling jokes very often.

A shadow moved across the dinner table. An owl swooped overhead and dropped a letter over Ginny. She caught it before it landed in her stew and tore open the thick envelope addressed in green.

"Ginevra Weasley," she read aloud. "We are pleased to announce that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will open on Monday for classes. We apologize for the late notice. We hope to see you at platform nine and three quarters bright and early on Monday morning. Enclosed is your train ticket and list of school supplies. We will work to accommodate students as they wait for supplies to arrive by mail—considering the extraordinary circumstances. Sincerely yours, Professor Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Ron, chewing a heel of bread, froze as she read the letter. When it was done, he swallowed and looked up at the sky. "Where's mine?" he asked. "I know I'm supposed to be done, but I didn't exactly go last year."

Molly reached across the table and patted his hand, "Ronald dear, I'm sure there's just been a mix up. We'll write to Minerva as soon as supper is over."

They didn't have to wait for supper to end to get their answers. There was a loud crack as someone apparated into the garden. A moment later their guest stumbled and fell over. Vines crunched and someone shouted.

"Harry?" Ginny asked, sitting up straight in her chair.

"You moved the garden!" Harry Potter shouted. The whole Weasley family craned their next to look across the yard as Harry Potter, bearded and cover in pumpkin guts, climbed to his feet.

Ginny knocked her chair over, leaving the table, and ran across the lawn to embrace Harry. She kissed him in a way that made Ron turn his head to give them privacy. His face turned red as he waited for a sign that it was safe to look again.

"Did you get a Hogwarts letter?" Ron heard Ginny ask. Ron finally set his eyes back on his best friend. "Ron didn't get one," she said.

"Ron doesn't need one," Harry replied, taking her hand and walking with her to the Weasley's impromptu dining area.

"Harry dear," Molly said, enveloping Harry in a hug. "You need to shave. You look like one of Hagrid's beasts."

"Now, Molly dear, he's not one of your sons," Arthur said. "You don't get to groom him."

"Oh tush, he might as well be. Sit down Harry, eat."

"I just finished a plate of cottage pie," he protested, but Molly had already drawn up a chair and was pushing him down into it. She filled a bowl for him and placed a spoon in his hand.

"What do you mean I don't need a letter?" Ron asked, finding his seat again.

"I've just been speaking with Minister Shacklebolt," Harry said.

"Don't be so stuffy, Harry. Minister Shacklebolt, honestly," George quipped. "You're The Boy Who Lived, twice! You can just make up names for people and they can't say a thing. I think you should call Ron—"

Ron cut him off before George could give him yet another humiliating nickname he would never live down. "What did Shacklebolt say?" Ron asked. "Did he say we're back in? Are we going to Hogwarts Monday?"

"No," Harry said. "You and I are going to London. We've got job offers at the Ministry as aurors. But I'm only accepting it if you come with me."

"Blimey!" Ron exclaimed. "Aurors. But we don't even have our N.E.W.T.s."

"It'd be pretty stupid to make Harry sit for exams now that he's saved the world," Ginny said.

"The world? That's a bit dramatic," Harry said.

"The world. That witch we met from America this summer, she said they were on high alert over there preparing for the war to spread. You-Know... sorry, Voldemort was already thoroughly entrenched in Eastern Europe and North Africa. He had Egypt all but tied-up. And you know—after the Brockdale Bridge—the muggles wouldn't be safe either. The world."

"London," Ron said. "When do we start?"

"Monday," Harry said, scooping up some stew. He had hardly touched his other dinner, and he always had room for more of Mrs. Weasley's cooking. "You can stay with me at Grimmauld place. And when Hermione gets back from wherever she is, we'll track her down and ask her to come, too. Shacklebolt wants all three of us."

"You can save up for a couple months and then have your own flat," Ginny suggested

"My own flat? Harry's my best mate, why would I want to move out?" Ron asked.

Ginny cocked an eyebrow at him, as if asking Do you really need me to answer that, Ron?

Molly Weasley jumped up from the table and disappeared through the flaps of the tent. She came back a minute later with a bottle of champagne. "Arthur and I were saving this for when the house is finished, but I think this is a much more important celebration," she said. "I'm so proud of you boys. Aurors!"

"I thought she couldn't be any prouder of you after you saved the world, Harry," George said. "But clearly my mother's love for you knows no bounds."

They ate and drank champagne, and George even got into a joking spirit while Harry was there. Harry volunteered to stay and help paint the house in the morning, but Molly told him he'd have to be off bright and early so that he and Ron could buy new robes in London for work.

Arthur set up an extra cot in the tent for Harry after dinner. They sat around the camp fire for a while listening to the news on the Wizarding Wireless Network. After Molly and Arthur had gone to bed and George had gone off to be with his book, Ginny asked Harry to take her for a walk around the garden. Ron watched them disappear into the shadows together, and then he thought of Hermione. Hermione. He loved her. Ron got up, went into the tent to grab a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill, and then sat down at the table outside to write her a letter letting her know how much he missed her.