Charlus reread the letter he had received from the goblins. It was all euphemism and code words disguised to look like it was actually about the Potter accounts but the truth was the goblins wanted to plan his strategy for dealing with the Wizengamot after they took back the old ministry building.
Charlus could understand their trepidation. If things went wrong in the Wizengamot, magical Britain could be thrown straight into another war. One that would split the country in half. A war that would devastate the economy on both sides almost immediately. Charlus had to admit that in Ragnarok's position he would be reluctant to risk that without a solid plan in place as well.
It was definitely going to cost him a lot of political good will. He could see the headlines calling him a traitor and accusing him of selling the country out to the goblins already. Still, it was a cheap price for keeping his family, his friends, and most of the country safe from a mad man.
His plan wasn't going to be easy but at least he was going to be able to get the materials he needed created by the goblins. He picked up the information booklet he had written explaining the history of the old Ministry of Magic complex and pointing out the laws and treaties that made what the goblins were going to do completely legal. He gave it a last look through to make sure everything was correct before he slipped into an envelope with a cover letter asking for a ridiculous number of copies to be made.
The first step in convincing the public not to let themselves be worked up into a mob was to be the first to get your message out. So as soon as the goblins had secured the Ministry and re-christened it 'Tas'Ak'Un' the booklets would be sent out to everyone. Not just witches and wizards but everyone in magical Britain. Witches, wizards, squibs, hags, goblins, dwarfs, leprechauns, even any veela in the country. His hope was that most people would have read the booklet before they read in the prophet that the goblins had taken back what was theirs. He was also planning on doing some interviews on the wizarding radio where he could point out to everyone that a building, even one as nice as the Ministry was, was a small price to pay to stop families being murdered in their beds.
-ϟϟϟ-
It surprised Harry how well Ron was doing as captain of the Quidditch team. He had everything organised for tryouts by the first weekend. He was so on top of everything that Hermione even joked that if he put as much effort into doing his homework as he put into organising the tryouts she would actually be worried for her position as top student of the year group.
Harry was actually woken at the crack of dawn that Saturday morning by Ron throwing his Quidditch uniform at him and telling him to get dressed while he went to get Ginny and Katie.
Harry was still too asleep to recognise that Ron wouldn't be able to get up the girls stairs so as Ron left he pulled himself through a semblance of his morning routine. He pulled on his robes, grabbed his broom and still half zombie from sleep trudged down the stairs that led to the common room. There he collapsed into a comfortable chair next to his best mate and focused on finishing to wake up.
About five minutes later Katie came down the stairs in her Quidditch gear and looking ready to kill Ron. She didn't say anything, just held up a bird that was folded out of parchment then shoved it into Ron's mouth as she walked past on her way to the Quidditch pitch.
Ron laughed at her reaction and when Harry gave him a look with a raised eyebrow, Ron shrugged and said. "She is up and headed for the Quidditch pitch. If being forced to eat the letter is the worst of it, I can more than live with it."
Ginny wasn't much longer and her response was to throw the crumpled up bit of parchment in her brother's face before grunting something about it being too early and needing coffee.
Harry wanted to stay where he was and go back to sleep but Ron yanked him up and started pushing him towards the door while being way too happy and chirpy for how early it was.
They found Katie waiting by the main entrance waiting before them with a large mug of coffee each for herself, Harry, and Ginny, and a smaller one for Ron. The message was clear, Katie did not appreciate being woken up so early and if Ron kept at it she was going to make him regret it.
The four of them set up the pitch for trials and as Harry and Ginny were the only ones trying for the seeker position they were able to do that tryout before the hopefuls looking for chaser and beater positions started to turn up.
Harry got his spot back as seeker but it was a close thing. Ginny had definitely been training and if he wasn't careful she was actually going to take his spot next year.
-ϟϟϟ-
After breakfast Hermione made her way down to the Quidditch pitch. She wasn't the only one. There were a few hopefuls for the team as well as Dean Thomas who she knew was in some type of relationship with Ginny. Or as Ginny had put it: "It's not, not a relationship." Hermione wasn't sure she liked the idea of how undefined it sounded, but Ginny was old enough to deal with her relationships herself.
With the whole team doing tryouts that morning Hermione wanted to show her friends her support. Sure Harry would get the most support but Ron and Ginny were her friends too. She climbed up into the stands and took a seat to watch.
Harry was mostly helping Ron and Hermione was surprised to see Ginny trying out for the chasers before they held the seeker trials. It took her a few minutes to realise that she had somehow missed the seeker trials despite being there right after breakfast. It was a pity but if Ginny was trying for a chaser then Harry had won back his position as seeker and judging by how she was flying she would at least be a starting chaser this year.
Ginny indeed got on the team as a starting chaser; she and her yearmate Demelza joined Katie. The two new beaters were from the fourth year and while Hermione could recognise them on sight she didn't know their names. Lastly Ron appointed himself as keeper surprising absolutely nobody.
Seeing that the tryouts were over, Hermione climbed down from the stands and gave Harry a quick hug and peck before holding out a bacon sandwich she had put together for him at breakfast.
On seeing the sandwich Harry's stomach gave an audible growl and he let out a moan of pleasure and said "marry me." before grabbing the sandwich and taking a large bite.
Hermione decided to mess with him a little. "Yes." Hermione didn't know if she had pulled it off until Harry looked at her with a deer caught in the headlights look on his face. He started trying to swallow his bit of sandwich quickly and just before he could try and stammer out some type of clarification Hermione couldn't hold it in any more and started to giggle.
"The look on your face." Then she gave him another quick kiss, this time tasting a hint of ketchup in his lips. Harry relaxed into the kiss and when they broke apart Hermione said. "As much as I appreciate the sentiment I will only consider it a real proposal if you also have a ring."
Harry thought about that for a second and nodded. "Over Christmas break we should probably go find out what your ring sizes are. Not for straight away but it's useful information to have." He couldn't keep the nerves entirely out of his voice as he asked. Despite how useful that information might be for Christmas presents and the like, the idea that he would also be using the information to buy an engagement ring sometime not too long from now was right there in the open.
"Sure, we can do that now. Why don't we put this conversation off for another year at least and instead we can go and have a look around the new school shop?" Hermione suggested.
The idea of checking out the new shop was appealing so that's what they did. Harry still in his Quidditch uniform and Hermione in her regular weekend clothes. They were about halfway there when Harry suddenly stopped and slapped at his pockets. "I don't have any money on me. My gold is up in my truck."
Hermione shrugged. "I have money. Let's call it my treat for once, as long as you don't go to nuts. This does need to last me until Christmas after all."
Harry hesitated. A part of him was saying that it was ungentlemanly to let his girlfriend pay. Yet he knew Hermione had quite a bit of pride and the idea of being a kept woman would annoy her no end. He had to remind himself that his responsibility wasn't to keep some stereotype happy, but Hermione the individual who would enjoy being the one to treat him for a change. "Okay but make sure to tell me if I'm going too far and I can always pay you back as soon as we get back up to the common room. Oh and next time I'm paying."
That settled, they finally made their way to the shop. Despite being a brand new building, to keep it from clashing with the castle the new shop was built in the old wattle and daub style, the one with the white squares framed in painted black wooden frames. While it didn't look like part of the castle, the surprisingly large three floored building did look like it belonged there. And despite how early they were, the shop was already packed. It seemed most students wanted to check out the new shop with today being the first day they were open.
The inside ground floor was as large as any three shops from the village and while there wasn't quite the selection of the full shops each of the main shops seemed to have a shelf to display whatever they thought would be the most popular.
There was a shelf from Honeyduke's that was an explosion of colour and delicious smells showing off the more popular sweets. Harry immediately picked up a box of chocolate frogs and sugar quills. He knew Hermione wouldn't pick up a box of sugar quills for herself no matter how much she wanted them.
A shelf from Tomes and Scrolls was split in three sections. Academics took up half of the shelf and the other half was split between novels and magazines. Harry left Hermione examining the bookshelf while he looked to see what else was available. There was stationery, school robes and accessories, a display of wirelesses, gramophones and records, makeup and other witchy products, Quidditch gear, potions supplies and even a display of 'Weasleys Wizpopers' a type of supposedly safe fireworks made by the Weasley twins that were for showing house pride at the Quidditch games.
They were also the only item that Harry had seen in the shop that had an age restriction on buying them. Harry didn't know if it was the twins or the Headmaster who had decided to put an age restriction on them but he was glad someone had. The idea of what some of the lower years would do with them given the opportunity, and having to police it as a prefect sent a shudder down his spine.
It did however highlight for Harry that Hermione was fast approaching her seventeenth birthday. That was a big one in the wizarding world. By magical standards Hermione was now only days away from legally becoming an adult. He needed to work out a way to do something special for her. He was sure a gift, card, and a bunch of flowers wasn't going to be anywhere near enough this year. Annoyingly, her birthday fell on a Thursday this year so anything they did to celebrate was going to need to wait until Friday evening at the earliest.
Harry made his way back over to Hermione and found her flipping through a copy of 'Moaning with Marshwiggles" trying to decide if it was the book she was going to buy.
"I thought Marshwiggles were made up for the Narnia books." Harry said indicating the book in her hands
Hermione leaned up against him for closeness before saying. "No, they are apparently real, not common, but real. I guess C.S Lewis must have met one somehow."
Gently, because Hermione could get weird about books, Harry asked. "The title sounds like something Lockhart would call a book. Are you sure it's reliable?"
Luckily Hermione didn't take offence. "Lockhart's books were popular, a lot of books published around the same time used a similar format for their titles. Basically it became a marketing trend. I have read books from this author before and they have been reliable. Well mostly, his book on veela isn't worth the paper it's printed on. He was too affected by their allure to think straight so it just became a book praising their beauty."
They spent another five minutes going over the books until Hermione in her frustration gave up and turned to Harry. "Harry, I can't decide. You pick a book you want me to read."
Harry took a look at the shelf and to play for time he quipped. "Is kamasutra spelt with a Cee or a Kay?"
Hermione blushed and shoved him lightly for his audacity before regaining her composure and flipped the joke on him. She leaned in and quietly so that nobody else could hear them in the crowded shop said, "And what makes you think I haven't already read it?"
That thought was enough to stall Harry's brain entirely. He tried to focus on finding a book for Hermione but now he couldn't keep thoughts about him and Hermione out of his head.
"You know the book isn't all about kinky sex positions right?" Hermione whispered to Harry, enjoying seeing him so flustered. "It talks about love and relationships, and how to live well. Some of it is rather dated and incompatible with modern British culture but it's a fascinating book." She couldn't keep the smile off her face as Harry tried to focus on finding her a book. She knew she was going to have to 'pay' for her teasing later but that would be even more fun.
Harry eventually found Hermione a book. It was a cookbook of Magical recipes. Food that could only be made with magic, like hot chocolate fudge sauce in a shell made of ice cream. Without a few charms to keep the heat of the sauce from melting the ice cream it was impossible. It seemed like something he and Hermione could try together at some point.
When they had looked from the outside both Harry and Hermione had assumed that the upper floors were just for storage and maybe a break room for the people working the shop. However, while that might be what the top floor was used for, the middle floor was actually like a cross between a pub and a café. The drinks were of course alcohol free except for the butter beer that had so little alcohol in it you would need to drink six just to get the same amount of alcohol as a low alcohol beer. There was also a selection of sandwiches and pastries.
Harry could see that this would soon become a popular place for the students. It was novel, packed with sugar, and most importantly there wasn't a professor in sight with the shop and the café both being staffed by adults from the village. Harry made a mental note to have a word with the head boy and girl and see if they wanted to station a couple of prefects here on the weekends.
-ϟϟϟ-
Harry took a slightly different approach this year with Hermione's birthday and decided to surprise her by telling her and her friends that he was throwing her a party on the Saturday after her birthday. Basically a copy of the surprise party he had thrown for her in fourth year only bigger. He hadn't had the opportunity to do much for Hermione last year as the death eater trials had taken up too much of their time. The surprise was on Friday evening.
On her birthday Harry had of course given Hermione a gift, the Moaning with Marshwiggles book she had been eyeing up and a gold bracelet as well as a card. He also did his best to give her the princess treatment for the day, but being in school that was mostly limited to carrying her bag for her.
Having had her gifts from Harry on Thursday and with her party planned for the next day, Hermione was surprised when Harry asked her out to dinner after classes on Friday. Surprised but definitely pleased. She sent him off to get scrubbed and changed while she got ready and around the time most of the students started wandering to the Great Hall for dinner Harry led a dressed up Hermione to his grandfather's office where the trunk he had bought last year for combat practice now sat in the corner.
It had taken some doing but Harry had arranged a candle lit dinner for just the two of them in the room that was his expanded trunk. Between Charlus in the school, Sirius outside the school and a few letters exchanged with Hermione's parents, Harry had managed to have a fully catered multiple course meal delivered. That combined with some decorating Harry had done over the last week and a few strategically hung curtains had transformed the room from a large training hall into a somewhat cozy and intimate dining room.
When Harry was serving the dinner he found that his grandfather had even included a bottle of wine with a note telling him that he trusted Harry to be responsible with it.
As they ate and sipped wine the couple talked and joked and had a good evening. Good enough that they completely lost track of time. It was a good thing that both of them were prefects because they didn't get back to the common room until twenty minutes after curfew.
-ϟϟϟ-
The Saturday party was a much bigger success than Harry had anticipated. He hadn't thought about how big a deal some of their friends would make over Hermione being the first one in their year to become of age. In some ways it made Harry's job a lot easier. A lot of people wanted to help and every job he gave one of them to get something ready was one less he had to do himself. The problem was he had to manage them all and each one of them had their own ideas on what should be done.
Harry left Lavender and Parvati to decorate the inside of the trunk room. The room in the trunk was built with dodging practice in mind and was about twice as big as a classroom so it was a great place to hold a party. Ron and Ginny volunteered to get food. They had apparently gotten a few tips from the twins. Harry specifically had to remind Ron that it was a party for Hermione so, "for every sweet thing you get bring two savory options and don't forget the drinks that I have shrunk down in my trunk."
The drinks Harry was referring to were eight two liter bottles of mundane cloudy lemonade that had been bought by Hermione's parents, passed to Sirius, who delivered it to grandfather Charlus who had passed it on to Harry. A little complicated but it was apparently Hermione's favourite. So making sure it was available at her big milestone birthday was the least Harry could do.
Dean put himself in charge of music, Seamus said he had an idea for lighting and rushed off to deal with that. And about a half dozen other people were all volunteering to help. It actually got to the point that when Harry went to check on the progress in the trunk Lavender actually kicked him out and told him. "Your job is to keep Hermione company until five o'clock. Go do it."
Harry found Hermione in the common room, she was taking advantage of most of their year being out of the common room to claim one of the more comfortable chairs. She had repositioned the chair so that it was in front of one of the windows and was using the natural light to read. When Harry walked over and sat down next to her he could see the book was the book he had gotten her for her birthday.
Hermione paused in her reading for a moment to see who had sat next to her. Upon seeing that it was Harry she smiled a little and repositioned herself so that she was leaning against him, pulled his arm around herself and continued reading.
She stopped when she finished the chapter she was reading and asked. "So how are the preparations coming along?"
"Everyone's pitching in so much that my official job got switched to birthday girl minder. It's my job to keep you company until the party." Harry explained. "So how are you enjoying the book?"
"It's fascinating. Apparently despite always looking and sounding depressed to wizards and witches, Marshwiggles are actually a really happy race. They love moaning and doom saying to the point that they make a competition out of it. And if they lose, well that just gives them something else to moan about." Hermione explained.
"Sounds like a bunch of nutters if you ask me," said Harry.
Hermione playfully slapped the arm he had wrapped around her. "You can't go calling an entire race nutters Harry. They may be different from humans but you wouldn't expect your dog to act like your cat would you?"
"Well considering the closest thing I have to a dog is Sirius I wouldn't exactly say it would be a complete surprise." Harry joked and they both had a laugh at the idea of Sirius in his animagus form doing an impersonation of Crookshanks.
At around four o'clock everyone started coming back and the girls all pulled Hermione up to their dorm to get ready, all except Lavender who dragged Harry up to his dorm and after asking Harry to open his trunk to his wardrobe she quickly went through his robes before pulling a set out, cast a few colour switching charms on them and handed them to a bewildered Harry telling him "wear that, trust me." Before she rushed back down the stairs.
Apparently Lavender, and probably Parvati with her, had appointed themselves the fashion police for Harry and Hermione tonight and wanted to coordinate their robes. Harry took a look at the robes he had been handed. They were his semi formal robes, the ones he was planning on wearing anyway. They were charcoal gray before with a green trim that matched his eyes. Now the robes were a few shades lighter and the green was now more of a pastel green. Harry wasn't sure he liked it but he was sure Lavender knew what she was doing.
Harry had a quick shower and brushed his teeth. As he was brushing he examined his face in the mirror and decided that it would be better if tried a Charm that Charlus had taught him over the summer. Harry ran his wand incredibly carefully over his jawline, chin, and upper lip and the wispy hairs that were his underdeveloped beard and mustache fell away, cut off by the shaving spell.
Harry looked down at the hairs now floating in the sink full of water and felt a little melancholy at their loss. Sure they weren't much of a beard, but they were his beard, a symbol of his approaching manhood. He probably wouldn't care in a few years when he could actually grow a full beard, but until then it would take weeks to grow back what he had just cut off. Still, as he examined his face now he had to admit it looked better.
Harry threw on the robes that Lavender had modified and made his way down to the common room to wait for Hermione. Despite how long Harry had taken to get ready he still had to wait twenty minutes before Hermione came gliding down the girls stairs.
Hermione's dress was blue but the shade of blue as far as Harry was able to tell was a match for the shade of green on Harry's robes. Different colours but matched so that neither one overpowered the other and struck a balance between them. Harry's darker robes still pushed Hermione into the spotlight a little more but it was her birthday, her coming of age celebration. The focus was supposed to be on her.
The decorations were amazing. Lavender and Parvati had covered all the walls in drapery and instead of chairs there were brightly coloured over-large cushions to sit on. That combined with Seamus's lighting, a half dozen Weasley fireworks bouncing lazily around the ceiling creating ever moving soft lighting, gave the room a sort of Arabian Nights feel. Dean was playing some soft music that didn't have any lyrics and one wall had a table that looked about to collapse with the weight of the food on it.
Hermione had a good time going around and talking to all her friends, but soon it was time for presents. Not everyone had brought a gift. Some, like Harry, had already given their gifts to Hermione and others just weren't close enough to give one. However it still took Hermione half an hour to open them all and thank everyone and by the time she was finished Harry was mentally grumbling at the idea of helping carry all those books back up to her dorm.
Any self pitying thoughts Harry had were soon cut off however when Hermione decided it was her party and she wanted to dance. And Harry as Hermione's boyfriend was also dance partner in chief. All Harry's worries and cares fell away as Hermione smiled at him as they took to the center of the room and started to sway together in time to the music. There was a flash from Colin taking their picture, something Harry had paid the boy to do tonight because he wanted to have pictures to send Hermione's parents. Then as if the flash of the camera was the signal other couples soon started to join then on the dance floor.
It was a night Hermione would remember for the rest of her life.