Harry and Tonks made their way into the kitchen, a dark and dingy place if ever there was one. Full of pipe smoke and poor lighting, it didn’t hold nearly the appetising appeal one might expect from a kitchen used by Molly Weasley.

Harry could see Mr Weasley and Bill, Ron’s oldest brother, talking amongst themselves, a mess of scrolls of parchment near them and another man, he recognised as Mundungus Fletcher, looking around groggily looking rather confused.

Mr Weasley looked up when he heard some footsteps and seeing Harry, he quickly stood up and walked briskly towards him.

“Harry!” he exclaimed. “It’s really good to see you!”

“You too, Mr Weasley” replied Harry. Bill could be seen tidying up the scrolls on the table as quickly as he could.

“Journey okay, Harry?” asked Bill. “Did Moody try to take you through Greenland?”

“He tried to but luckily we shot him down” laughed Tonks, making her way to the table, helping Bill out.

The two quickly cleared everything up just as the others entered the kitchen.

Harry noticed that Mrs Weasley alone looked a little uncomfortable and the moment she glanced at her husband, she looked all the more guilty.

Harry sighed slightly, making his way over to her. “It’s fine to tell Mr Weasley and Bill, Mrs Weasley” whispered Harry. “It’s not like I want you to keep this a secret forever, it’s only till I get a grip on these powers”

Mrs Weasley looked at Harry with a complicated expression while he continued to speak. “I feel like, if I can get a grip on these powers, I won’t have anything to be afraid of. Then I don’t really care if this gets out”

With difficulty, Mrs Weasley nodded. “I really don’t want you to be in danger, dear” she said. “No matter what, you need to be careful. The people we’re dealing with won’t just come at us from the front. You need to be ready for anything at all so make sure you rely on us, we’re always there for you - I’m always there for you” she said with an affectionate smile as she patted Harry on the head.

Harry could feel a different kind of warmth build up in his chest. ‘This is really different from how she was in my past life’ thought Harry. ‘Though she still seemed affectionate but not nearly as much’

Out loud, he said, “Thanks a lot Mrs Weasley, that means a lot to me”

Nodding her head with a smile, she headed over to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

“If you all want dinner served anytime soon, then you need to help out” called mrs Weasley, to the room at large.

“What can I do to help, Molly?” asked Tonks excitedly and rushed towards the kitchen, knocking a chair over.

“Uh, you sit down and rest Tonks, you’ve had a long day” replied Mrs Weasley in a strained voice.

“No, no, let me help with something at least” said Tonks, running over to the kitchen.

“You take a seat too, Harry” said Mrs Weasley and busied herself stirring a cauldron.

Sirius soon took a seat next to Harry and introduced him to the other man in the room.

“That’s Mundungus Fletcher, Harry” said Sirius, loudly enough for Mundungus to hear him, causing him to turn towards them. “The man who was SUPPOSED to be watching you” continued Sirius with a cold bite in his tone.

Mundungus looked visibly uncomfortable as he made his way to Harry. “‘Eya Harry. I ow you a ‘pology” he said. “Ye see, I ad this business opportunity-” he started only to be cut off by Sirius.

“Don’t you always, Mundungus?” he asked with narrowed eyes. “Tell me, was the business opportunity worth someone’s life?”

Mundungus looked around uncomfortably and decided to beat a retreat instead of face the accusations. “Right Molly, on my way ta ‘elp”

Sirius sighed placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder. “Forget him. Anyway, it’s really good to see you Harry” he said with a smile.

Harry suddenly recalled how Sirius had died. Working hard to keep his tone calm, he replied. “It’s good to see you too, Sirius”

The two started talking about random topics after that. How this was Sirius’ childhood home and some information about his family.

Harry soon got to the crux of the information he wanted. “What’s the news about Voldemort, Sirius?” he asked siriusly.

“Thought you might never ask” grunted Sirius. “There’s not been any real news about Voldemort, none that’s known out in public anyway. He seems to be lying low for now”

“If it’s only information known to the public then the order would be pointless wouldn’t it?” asked Harry eliciting a smirk from Sirius. “What does the order know about what he’s doing Sirius?”

“Smart of you to ask me on the side instead of in front of Molly, you’d get nothing out of her” he laughed. “Apparently he’s been looking for something. Though I’m not sure it’s best for you to know what it is”

Harry sighed, ‘I already know though. Let’s ask some of the other things I actually do need to know’ thought Harry.

“Then forget that. I know Voldemort would have spies everywhere. How many does he have in the Ministry?” asked Harry.

Sirius thought about it for a moment. “Well, he has Malfoy, that’s for sure. Other than him, it’s really hard to tell who else is a spy for Voldemort”

“I see. In that case, do we have any trustworthy spies amongst Voldemort?” asked Harry.

Sirius sighed, “Well, Snape is one, though I suppose that’s fairly obvious”

“I said trustworthy, Sirius” said Harry with a frown.

“None of those kind” laughed Sirius. “Now, let’s discuss all of this later, Molly is staring daggers in our direction right now”

Harry looked around and noticed that the food had already been set on the table and everyone else was taking their seats to have dinner.

Harry looked around at each person in turn, noticing how different they were from their selves in the future and soon his gaze landed on Mundungus Fletcher. Harry could feel some sort of a slimy, disgusting feeling coming off of Mundungus.

Harry felt he could almost see a murky aura around the man as he joked around with Ron, Fred and George.

Seeing this, Harry frowned and turned towards Sirius. “Mundungus doesn’t seem like the kind to be in a secret society, especially one fighting Voldemort” he said, quietly.

Sirius nodded at Harry, “He owed Dumbledore a favour and is rather loyal to him. Though his usefulness is mainly because he knows a lot of criminals, seeing as he’s one himself”

“I really think we should be a little more wary of him though” said Harry, rather disconcerted.

“Don’t worry Harry, none of us really trust him to have our backs” said Sirius, his tone immediately turning icy, “Especially not after he botched his protection of you”

Harry nodded and soon the dinner finished. Having already asked what he wanted to know, Harry helped everyone else clear up and quickly made his way upstairs with Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins.

Harry and Ron entered their bedroom while the others made their way upstairs. They quickly got ready and dove into their beds. They spent a few minutes chatting and soon found themselves drifting into sleep.

The next day, Harry awoke rather early to find the first rays of the sun streaming into the room, lighting up the rather gloomy room, though not really rectifying the gloomy, drab feeling.

Harry stretched and got off the bed, causing it and the floorboards to creek. Ron stirred at the sound and he sat up, rubbing his eyes.

“Morning, Harry” he said sleepily.

“Morning” replied Harry. “Come on, let’s get ready and head downstairs, I’m feeling rather peckish”

The two made their way downstairs to find Mrs Weasley getting ready to clean the living room.

“Good morning” she said with a smile, “Grab one of those doxycide, you’re all helping to get rid of these doxys. They’re a lot more than I imagined”

Harry and Ron covered their faces and grabbed a spray bottle from a wobbly table.

Hermione, Ginny and the twins walked in soon after Harry and Ron got ready and listening to Mrs Weasley’s instructions, they similarly got ready.

“Doxys tend to bite and their bite can be poisonous. I have a bottle of antidote but I really don’t want to have to use it” said Mrs Weasley. “I wonder what, that house-elf, Kreacher has been doing for ten years”

“Kreacher is just old, he probably can’t think straight” said Hermione, defensively.

“Hermione, can you please stop your insane ideas? It’s driving me crazy” said Ron, with distaste. Hermione immediately opened her mouth to argue but was beat to the punch.

“There’s no need to shut her down like that, Ron!” argued Ginny heatedly. “At least she cares enough to try to do something for them, no matter how they are and I think that’s more than you could ever claim”

Ginny blushed slightly when everyone started staring at her after her outburst. Hermione looked at Ginny gratefully. She almost looked like she had found an oasis in an arid desert.

Ginny coughed and quickly got back to work, trying to gloss over her embarrassment.

Moments later, Sirius walked in with a bloody bag in his hand. Harry looked over at the bag, trying to remember what had happened around this time.

“Ah, I was feeding Buckbeak. I keep him upstairs” said Sirius, mistaking Harry’s contemplative look.

Soon after, once they were all done with the de-doxy-fying, they moved on to decide what they could and could not throw away.

The doorbell rung constantly and thankfully, because Harry had already destroyed Sirius’ mother’s portrait, there was no more screaming when there was noise in the hall.

As they worked, Harry saw something on a shelf that almost made him jump in shock. He tried to slow his racing heart and slowly made his way to that shelf trying his best to seem casual.

He reached towards the object that caught his eye and picked it off the shelf and held it in front of his eyes.

It was an ornate locket, one that would be considered remarkable no matter the person who looked at it. It had a serpentine S, inlaid with glittering, green stones. That alone was enough for Harry, possessing Voldemort’s memories to know what he had found. However, what he felt from it was what made him doubly sure that he was right.

The object in his hands exuded an evil aura, one that he could feel would try to devour him if he was too close to it.

An aura, Harry was intimately familiar with. One that was easily capable of evoking the most hideous rage from him.

Harry stared at the locket, one of the objects he had set out to find, to take down Voldemort. To be able to finally kill him, once and for all.

One of Voldemort’s 6 Horcruxes, Slytherin’s locket.

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What do you guys think of exploring pairings other than Harry?