Once and for All

Chapter 5

Two days later, Harry was surprised at dinner when Kingsley suddenly tumbled out of the Weasley's fireplace. "Evening, Molly," he greeted in a deep voice before sitting down. Before long Percy came through as well, followed by Mr. Weasley and George, then Mundungus and Bill. "'Ello, 'arry," Mundungus said, sitting as far away from Mrs. Weasley as possible, who was glaring daggers at him.
    They all greeted the others politely, but Hermione's eyes simply darted back and forth in suspicion, obviously adding up what this meant. "Why would we need another Order meeting?" She asked at last. "Voldemort's dead-I thought that was the goal."
Harry and Ron glanced at each other in surprise, followed by Harry and Ginny. Of course they knew all of these people were in the Order(including Percy, their newest member) and they were just as surprised as Hermione about having another meeting. But more surprising than this was the fact that the Order was so much smaller now, since so many had died in the battle. Harry's heart dropped to his stomach as Mrs. Tonks came through with little Teddy, and stared at the floor, all thoughts of food gone.
"Voldemort is dead, yes, but his followers are still out there," Kingsley explained, politely making way for Mrs. Tonks. "They are clearly disbanded without their leader, but if they ever unite again to terrorize muggles, we have a real problem on our hands. The Malfoys, for instance, have been doing numerous sketchy actions in the Ministry that I'd like to investigate. Not to mention the many Death Eaters still on the loose that need to be captured."
"And because of all this," George added, sitting in a chair and helping himself to food. "We are seriously understaffed and need new members. We're assuming you're interested. And yes, Ginny," he added as she made a move to rise from her chair in defiance. "You can be part of it too, since your birthday's coming up and you'll probably hex anyone at this table that says no."
Ginny sat down, looking triumphant, and Harry hid a smile.
"Obviously Harry and Ron are in, especially if you both want to become aurors at some point," Bill continued. "And Hermione's welcome to be a part of it too, since you'll probably become the next Minister of Magic or something."
Hermione blushed as everyone nodded in agreement. "Actually, I was thinking of working in the Ministry to fight for the rights of magical creatures like house elves," she admitted. "But still, of course I'm in."
Ron nodded approvingly, but Harry said, "You're going to need more members than this, though."
"Exactly," Mrs. Tonks spoke up, and Harry was forced to look at her. "We were wondering if you all had any other people in mind who'd like to join."
"Why not the people from Dumbledore's Army?" Harry asked. "I'd think they're qualified enough..."
"Blimey, of course!" George exclaimed, slapping his forehead. "That's loads of people. Luna, Neville, Cho, Seamus..."
"...basically everyone in Gryffindor, Harry finished, and George grinned in acknowledgement. "We can write to them this summer-I mean, at least some of them, I don't know all their addresses-"
        "We can help you out with that," Kingsley confirmed. "While we're on this topic, though, when did you two send out your auror applications?"
     Harry glanced at Ron, who shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I sent mine out last week," Harry admitted. "They haven't responded."
      "I haven't sent mine out yet," Ron admitted, and Hermione glanced at him in surprise. "But before you all have a go at me," he continued, eyeing his mother whose eyes had narrowed dangerously. "I've been thinking about this a lot. I want to become an auror, yeah, but that can wait. But for now..." he turned to George, who was looking at him strangely. "You're going to need a hand in that store, mate. I can help you manage it."
       George blinked, obviously stunned, and Mrs. Weasley looked as though she had been hit with a frying pan.
         "I mean, if you want me too," Ron added hastily. "If you don't, then I'll just-"
       "No, I really need another hand," George amended quickly. "It's just-blimey, Ron, you sure you want to do this? It's a lot of work."
       Ron spread his hands out. "I got plenty of time on my hands. And besides, once Harry becomes one he can put in a good word for me, right?"
     "Of course, mate," Harry agreed.
      "Then it's settled," Ron finished with a finality in his tone. Mrs. Weasley  appeared to be blinking away tears rapidly and walked across the room in an attempt to hug Ron. "Mum-Gerroff-" He muttered, his face turning a bright shade of red as everyone at the table looked at him with looks of half-amusement, half respect.
"Well that was touching and all," Ginny finally spoke up, making Mrs. Weasley release her son as he shot Ginny a grateful look. "But I think it's time we heard some updates. What exactly have the Malfoys been doing?"
"Sneaking into the department of mysteries without authorization," Kingsley stated, as if he'd memorized the list. "And they keep offering to give me gold-a bribe, no doubt, they can't seem to wrap their head around the fact that not everyone works for just a fat paycheck-"
"Why would they be bribing you?" Ron asked, puzzled.
"Blimey, you didn't hear?" exclaimed George. "Kingsley's been elected as the new Minister of Magic."
Ron's jaw fell, and Harry and Ginny stared at him in surprise. "How did you two not hear about this?" Hermione asked in exasperation. "It's been on the headlines of the Daily Prophet for weeks!"
"I forgot to subscribe to them again," Mrs. Weasley admitted, looking as if she just realized it. "I heard from Arthur, but of course they wouldn't have heard-sorry, boys."
"And me!" interjected Ginny, though she looked more surprised than angry. "They sure picked the right man for the job, though," she added sincerely, and Kingsley nodded his thanks.
"But back to the subject," said Mr. Weasley, speaking up for the first time. "The Malfoys have also been trying to return a number of strange objects to Borgin and Burkes, but obviously they're not so keen to take them back, not with Ministry officials onto their every move-"
"And it's not just the Malfoys either," Percy spoke up. "There was an incident last week where some other Death Eaters levitated some Muggles in the middle of the street-like at the World Cup-and one of them 'accidentally' dropped one when a Ministry official came in to sort the matter. He's in St. Mungos now and should be alright, but still-they have no authorization to do such a thing!" Percy ended furiously.
"Right you are," Kingsley agreed. "Which is why we need more backup. Write down all the names and addresses you can think of who were in Dumbledore's Army, and we'll ask around," Kingsley said, pushing a quill and a piece of parchment towards Ron, who was the closest. "Of course, this is all unofficial," he added, giving a stern look to the four at the table, and they nodded in agreement.
Two hours later of discussions and writing down names, the company slowly departed. Mrs. Tonks left last, with baby Teddy at her hip. She seemed to be struggling to put on her shoes with the baby, and Harry hastily approached her. "Let me give you a hand there," he said quickly, taking the baby a bit awkwardly. His hair was bubble-gum pink now, like Tonks, and he was smiling at Harry, who just then noticed that the baby had inherited Lupin's eyes.
"Oh thank you, dear," Mrs. Tonks said, quickly bending down to tie her shoelaces. "He's a sweetie, but he can be a handful at times."
"He's got his dad's eyes," Harry noticed as Teddy grabbed his glasses and began pulling them off. "Agh, no," he muttered, smiling a little as he took them back. Disappointed, Teddy grabbed a chunk of hair instead.
"Yes, he does," Mrs. Tonks agreed sadly, taking the baby back. Harry noticed he clung to her like a little monkey.
"You know, I could watch him if you needed me to," he suddenly suggested. "No charge needed."
"I could too," Ginny added, approaching them from across the room. "I've done my fair share of babysitting."
"That would be a relief," Mrs. Tonks admitted. "But I couldn't have you doing it for free all the time-I'll pay you something for the longer stays."
Harry would have protested, but there was a stern look in her eyes that stopped him. "Sounds good to me," he said, and she bid them farewell before disappearing into the fireplace.
Ginny turned to him. "You've never held a baby before in your life, have you?"
"No," he admitted. "But it can't be hard to look after him-he can't even crawl yet."
Ginny gave him a condescending look that looked uncannily like Hermione's. "I'll have to teach you, then-you'll need to know how at some point."
"That's a long ways away," he said, startled at the thought. He was still only seventeen.
"Yeah, but you can never prepare too early," she said.
He stared at the strange, firm tone her voice had taken on. "You've been talking to Hermione, haven't you?"
"Well yeah, but that's beside the point. Tomorrow we're going to work out a schedule with Mrs. Tonks, got it?"
"Yeah," Harry agreed, smiling as he walked upstairs with her. It was still very early-after all, they had only been together a couple of months-but he couldn't help feeling that he had picked the right girl.