The next morning I ate breakfast, packed a trunk, said bye to Severus, took Blake by the arm and apparated to the Burrow, home to the Weasleys. I had written a reply to Neville's letter before I went, and told him my plans to stay at the Burrow for a little, and told him that he should come over one day and play Quidditch with us. I told him I could come pick him up if he wanted me to. Technically no one was supposed to know I didn't have the Trace still again, but there was no point in hiding it anymore, everyone was bound to find out or ask if I didn't have it again.
I knocked on the door and Mrs. Weasley opened the door looking flustered but gave me a big hug then went on to hug Blake too, "Jessica, Blake I'm so glad you both could make it. Hermione and Ron are right upstairs. Harry should be coming later tonight, Dumbledore is picking him up to run some errands before bringing him here."
I beamed at the small woman in front of me, "Lovely. I'll go up with Ron and Hermione then and get settled in."
She ushered us upstairs and I walked into Ron's room, "Hey guys, your Mother said you were up here."
"Jessica!" Hermione squealed standing up and giving me a hug, "Blake, so glad to see you again," she exclaimed as an afterthought also giving him a hug, "You've been staying with Jessica haven't you?"
He nodded and answered, "Yeah I've been staying with her and Severus most of the summer. Both of them have been helping to train me and such, and take them to the Ministry to learn some things while Jess did some of her Junior Auror stuff."
Hermione nodded, listening intently, "You guys will have to tell me about what you did at the Ministry, it seems so interesting!"
"Why don't you let me say hi before you interrogate them?" Ron asked with a laugh, "Hey Jessica," he said leaning over and giving me a small hug, "Blake, good to see you too man."
"So Harry isn't coming until tonight I heard? What's Dumbledore need him for?" I asked taking a seat on his bed.
Ron shrugged, "I dunno. Hopefully something cool that he can tell us about. Maybe he's going to tell Harry why his hand is all black like that."
I scrunched my eyebrows, "What do you mean his hand?"
"Oh I forgot you haven't seen him lately since you've missed a few meetings. A few weeks ago he came in and his hand was all black as if it had been charred. He wouldn't answer any questions on it, but it looked really bad, and was still there when he came back the next time."
"That's odd," I agreed, "Maybe Harry will find out, or we can try to do some investigating and see what could even cause something like that. Severus just went to see him and didn't mention it, that's very strange."
There was a knock at the door and Ginny opened it, "I heard Jessica come and just wanted to pop in and say hi."
I went over to the door and gave her a hug, "Hey Ginny. You've gotten so tall, gosh. How has your summer been?"
She shrugged, "I'm stuck in a house full of boys for the most part. I'm glad the two of you are here. We are going to have as much fun as we did last summer."
The three of us looked at each other and started to giggle remembering last summer. Every night we'd stay up very late and talk about anything imaginable and by that point in the evening we were not in our right mind, so of course it would often get very silly.
"I'll see you at dinner then."
"No, stay," I told her, "I'll yell at Ron if he tries to tell you to leave," I shot a grin over at ROn and winked.
He shook his head but said nothing so Ginny came in the room. We stayed in there and talked until Mrs. Weasley called us down for dinner.
"Is Harry not here yet?" questioned Arthur Weasley once we were all settled around the table, "Where could he be?"
His wife shrugged, "He's with Dumbledore, who knows what plans that man ever has. I'm sure he's fine and he will be here soon enough. I'll save some dinner for him for when he gets here."
It wasn't until the late, late hours of the evening that we heard some commotion downstairs. Ginny, Hermione and I ventured out of Ginny's bedroom, as Ron and Blake peeked out of his.
"Harry, we were beginning to think you weren't going to come tonight," I heard Mrs. Weasley say, "Albus, nice to see you again, would you like some tea?"
"I'm just here to drop off Harry, I must be getting back to Hogwarts, thank you Molly."
With that we heard a loud pop, and I assumed he apparated away.
We went bounding down the stairs until Harry came into view and Ron exclaimed, "hello harry!"
We all exchanged hugs and handshakes while Mrs. Weasley insisted he sit down and eat some dinner, "What were you doing out so late then Harry?" she asked, "Surely not talking to Slughorn this whole time now were you?"
Harry nodded, his mouth full of food, "Yeah, he wanted him to come back and teach Potions."
"Is he going to?" I asked.
"Yeah, at least for now he said he would. Look like your dad's going to get to have his dream job finally," Harry responded.
I chuckled, "Hopefully."
"So are Fred and George not here?" Harry asked, "I had expected to see them here by now. I know they were living in that room above their joke shop."
Molly answered, "They've been so busy, they've decided to stay there a bit longer. They seem to have quite the knack for business and for cheering people up in these times I must say. Are you done with that?" she asked taking his plate.
"It was delicious, thank you Mrs. Weasley."
"Of course. Now all of you get back up to bed. If any of you want I suppose you could sleep in Fred and George's room, but I think you would want to stay together."
"Goodnight Mrs. Weasley," we chorused in return.
We went our separate ways, and to my surprise everyone-in the girl's room at least-fell asleep immediately. The next morning we slept in late, and were only drawn out of bed by the aroma of waffles and bacon filling the room.
I stifled a yawn and stretched my arms high above my head, "Let's get the boys and get some breakfast."
Ginny and Hermione followed me as we crept into the room where the boys were all still soundly sleeping. I held a finger to my lips, grabbed a pillow and motioned for them to do the same. At the same time, I hit Blake, Hermione hit Ron, and Ginny hit Harry.
They all sat up very quickly and Ron pulled the blankets over his bare chest, "What the hell?"
We started to laugh as I replied, "Breakfast is downstairs, get moving."
After breakfast we all went outside, to bathe in the sunlight streaming in over the mountains in the distance. We took a few blankets and laid them out before sitting down in a circle on them.
"So what did Dumbledore want with you?" Ron asked Harry.
Harry replied, "It was kind of weird. He came and picked me up from Grimmauld Place, since I just finished the time I need to stay with the Dursleys. Then we apparated to this town called Budleigh Babberton, and we went into this house that looked abandoned. We met with Professor Slughorn, who used to teach Potions, to try to convince him to come back. Dumbledore said he likes to "collect" students that he thinks are great, or famous which is why he thought he would come back for me."
"Well is he coming back?" Hermione asked, "I've heard of him, he was the professor there when all our parents went."
Harry shrugged, "It seems like we did, he said yes and all I mean. I"m sure him and Dumbledore will talk more about it."
"Wait, if he's going to be teaching Potions, not Defense Against the Dark Arts, does that mean Snape's going to be the new D.A.D.A. teacher?" Ron asked.
As everyone turned to me I shrugged, "I think so."
"Did he tell you about his hand?" Ginny inquired.
Harry shook his head, "I tried to ask him, but he just said it was a long story to save for another time, and to not worry about it."
There was a long silence, apparently everyone else had been waiting to figure out what was wrong with his hand for a while. I still hadn't seen his hand, nor had Severus mentioned Albus telling him anything important to do with it.
Harry cleared his throat and turned to me, "Well Jessica, how is it at the Ministry with Scrimgeour there instead of Fudge? Also how was the Ministry stuff? You were there for a while, and I feel like I haven't heard much about it."
I shrugged, "The Ministry itself isn't much different on a daily basis honestly. Everyone is still doing the same job they were doing under Fudge. I think Fudge was hardly the problem, but everyone wants a scapegoat. While I was there I was working with a few Aurors to try to help them track down some Death Eaters that escaped from Azkaban then ran away, rather than going back to Voldemort. I didn't leave the Ministry a lto honestly, it wasn't anything like I thought it would be. It was a lot of just looking at maps and going through databases that track which spells are being cast where, that sort of thing. No one wanted to leave and try to confront someone if they could be wrong, so the action was quite minimal," I lowered my voice and caused everyone to lean in, "But he has set up a few new offices, for smaller things, and the word is that your father is about to be appointed as head of one of them!"
Ron and Ginny beamed, "That will be amazing," Ron said, "He's already working so much, it's about time he's recognized for it."
I nodded, "Nothing was confirmed yet, but it takes a long time to do something like that, so hopefully, if everything goes smoothly, that'll happen soon."