Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter. And yes, I know Hogwarts is free according to what JKR decided to tell everyone in 2015. If you read carefully enough you will notice I mentioned nothing about tuition being the factor keeping the Weasley's from attending Hogwarts. (Can you tell those reviews have been bugging me?)

And now, on to the story.

Carpentry- Month One

Sirius sat in the kitchen drinking his coffee. This was the third time in two weeks that his godson had brought a lady home.

The boy was long overdue for some fun. He'd been training his whole life to bring down Voldemort, and he'd been cut off from the world in order to do that training. After they finally managed to get rid of the bastard for good Harry had sunk into a broody type of depression. He'd been robbed of his childhood and had very little friends. The one's that he did have were a few years older than him as well.

It took a year for him to shake off that depression, then he took to travelling.

Sirius had thought that the travelling would be a good call. Get some life experiences, see the world and all it had to offer. The kid had been tucked away in a secluded cottage since he was seven with only his ex-convict godfather and a werewolf for company until the age of thirteen, which was when they opened up a few trusted individuals to help him with his training and the Horcrux hunt, the youngest one was still nine years older than Harry.

Travelling to places where he wasn't recognized was good for getting him out of his depression, he'd seen some people who had it much worse than he had in a few third-world countries. He'd also got the chance to try out some great experiences like Hang Gliding and going on rollercoasters and the like.

They'd been back for a year now and had moved into Sirius' old family home in London. The house was a mess, the house elf hadn't kept it up and they'd come across his mangled body in the kitchen where he'd tried to decapitate himself. It was pretty gruesome.

After a few months of gutting the place together and getting rid of nearly every artifact they'd stumbled across, Harry decided it was time to take up the Ministry's offer of an Auror position for him.

Wonderful.

He had a purpose again, he would be around people his own age at work. Sirius had really hoped that this would make him happy. He was in his early twenties and had been deprived of a normal life. Working for the Ministry was as normal a lifestyle as they came.

Now Harry was embracing some of his celebrity. It had been going on for a few months. At first Sirius couldn't help but think 'good on him'. He was getting experience with women, yet one more thing he'd never had before.

The first morning that Sirius had accidentally bumped into one of these girls in the corridor he'd just smirked at Harry as he passed them by and teased him about how he was a man now later on. Then he'd seen a new girl leaving Harry's room, then another.

He didn't want to be hypocritical about it. He'd certainly cycled through enough women when he was a young man, but it was getting to be a point of concern. He didn't think that James and Lily would have appreciated him keeping his mouth shut about the number of conquests their son had had.

The two of them had fallen hard for each other and were each other's first and only lovers. But, James and Lily had had shining examples in their own parents of what a relationship should look like though.

Harry had only Sirius and Remus, neither of which had a proper partner until after Voldemort fell. Sirius still didn't, and Remus had only admitted to wanting Nymphadora two years ago and hadn't been around too much since. They still saw him, but not much of he and Tonks together.

With his coffee now finished he rubbed a hand over his face and rose to his feet.

He'd decided it was time to call in the professionals to revamp the house. It was a depressing nightmare as it was, even with all of the horrible tapestries and house elf heads off the wall gone. There was so much potential in the house and he wanted that to shine through.

There had been a while that he thought about selling it off all together, but then he'd gone to visit Longbottom Manor. He remembered it from his Order days the first time around. There was this awful dining room and entryway that was very dated and drab. When he went this time it was not at all the same place. The mix of modern and ancestral touches throughout the main floor was feast for the eyes.

Each room he walked into gave him a different feeling that was so in sync with the rooms purpose. The Library had comfortable armchairs by a fire, the wall was a warm color that hugged you when you came in. The shelves housing the books themselves beckoned you to them. And the space inside, given the actual size of the room, was larger.

He asked Augusta about it in her sitting room. A light room that invited conversation somehow. She had hired a small company that had done the whole remodel. They used subtle expansion charms and had a way of making each room feel to its inhabitants the way it ought to.

She gave him their card and he'd Owled them right away.

The company was in demand it turned out. For good reason. After five months of back and forth they were finally free and ready to come and visit Grimmauld Place to have a meeting.

The door to the kitchen swung open as he was about to exit to get ready for the day.

"Morning." Harry wiped the sleep out of his eye. He was wearing only his pajama bottoms and his hair was as messy as always.

"Sleep well?" Sirius cocked an eye at him.

He shrugged in response and headed straight for the coffee pot. He was always so grumpy in the morning.

"Weren't up all-night shagging?" Sirius tried to tease him, but he hadn't put any effort behind the questions and it came out more of a remark on his choices than in jest.

Harry caught his eye at that. "Problem?" He challenged.

Sirius sighed. "No." He let it be, it was too early for a serious discussion. "I'm meeting with the renovation team today."

"Good." Harry dug through the cupboards to find some breakfast foods. "This place really needs it."

"Do you have to go in this morning? Care to meet them with me?" They had so few chances to actually spend time together now with his job and being out meeting up with the various women to bring home.

"Yeah. Have to go in in a half hour. Probably be out late again." He poured himself some cereal and sat down at the table.

Sirius nodded and left the kitchen. A pretty young brunette was coming down the stairs and squeaked when she saw him, faltering in her steps. "Sorry. Hi. Um."

Sirius just pointed his thumb towards the kitchen and walked around her heading up to the bathroom to clean up. As the girl opened the door to the kitchen, he heard Harry greet her by the name Stacy. From what he overheard before he was out of earshot her name was actually Stephanie.

()()

That damn drawer had done it again. Harry didn't know why he'd expected today to be any different than every other day.

The stupid drawer was impossible to move and when you finally get it to budge open it makes an awful noise and you have to struggle to get it back in. Why he didn't just get a new one or swap it out with another dresser from another room he didn't know.

Laziness maybe.

His muttering and bitching about the stupid drawer must have been what roused Stacy. Er. Stephanie. She'd been quite keen on him last night, and it hadn't taken much to get her to come back with him. Actually, it hadn't taken anything.

It never took any effort on his side. The girls that he'd wound up with were all throwing themselves at him because of his scar. But this was what guys his age did, right?

He was in his early twenties. Single guys in their early twenties went out to the pub and picked up women. Or in his case, women picked him up and he barely needed to utter a single word before they were handing him drinks.

Then he'd bring them home and wake up in the morning and struggle with his fucking dresser drawer.

Once or twice a week he would go out and he got no satisfaction from it anymore. Initially it had been exciting. Girls liked him and he enjoyed the kissing and the sex. But something was always missing.

He knew it was feelings that were missing. He'd been told of his parents relationship and he wanted that, but had no idea how to go about it.

Now he was just stuck in a cycle, not knowing any other way to go about it.

Stephanie didn't stay for coffee and he went up to get changed into his Auror uniform.

Truth was that Harry just had no idea what he was supposed to be doing with himself. Since the age of seven his whole life was about ending someone else's life.

How depressing was that.

But at least it had been a goal. Now he didn't really have one.

Things had gotten a little better for him when he'd joined the Aurors. The cases could be interesting, so could the people he worked with, but he hadn't had any experience with the whole 'social interaction' part of life and he was floundering with it a bit.

As it was, if this was how everyone his age got on, then life was pretty sad. Because he was pretty sad, and just couldn't figure out how not to be.

()()()()

At nine on the nose the door knocker echoed out through the main hall. Sirius answered the door to find two tall identical smiling ginger men. They were smartly dressed. Not overly, just button up shirts and clean blue jeans with suede shoes.

"Fred Weasley." The one stuck out his hand.

"George Weasley." The other said sticking out his own. The two of them shook his hand, then turned and shook each other's.

"Welcome. Thank you for coming." Sirius smiled at their antics and stepped back to let them in. After a bit of 'after you' 'no after you's between the two men they finally came in. They were amusing, Sirius thought with a chuckle and went to close the door behind them.

"Oi! I know I'm small, but I'm still here." Came a voice from the stoop.

Sirius pulled the door open again and saw a young lady with darker red hair than the twins holding two take-away beverage cups in her hands. "Sorry! Didn't see you there."

"Don't worry about it." She brushed it off then held out one of her beverages. "For you. It's a Chai latte. Horribly addictive, but if you haven't tried it yet, it'll change your life and haunt your dreams. In the best possibly way." She assured with a big smile.

"Ah, thank you." He took the offered cup a touch awkwardly. "Sirius Black." He introduced.

"Ginny Weasley." She smiled and looked behind him. "Wow. This place looks horribly depressing." She still sounded upbeat about that as she stepped in and looked up at the ceiling then wrinkled her nose. "Ugh. Smells it too."

Sirius took in a whiff of the room. It smelled the same to him, but maybe he'd been here so long his oral faculties were simply used to it. Looking to the beverage in his hand he brought it tentatively to his lips and took a small sip. The taste was wonderfully smooth and spicy. He took a larger sip. "This is fantastic!" He exclaimed. "Chai Latte you say?"

The three Weasleys grinned at him. "She's going to get everyone hooked on them." One of the twins said. He had a 'G' on his shirt pocket, so it must have been George.

"I'm hoping that if they gain enough popularity then the price will lower." She stated optimistically and looked down at the carpet. "You want everything changed, right?"

He looked down at the carpeted floor too, and it was like he was seeing it for the first time. The patterns were faded, and there were signs of decades of wear along the most traveled paths. The color may have been gold and dark red at its first installation, but now it was more of a muddy brown. He looked back up from the carpet and saw that all three of them were silently laughing at his expression. "Everything." He agreed.

They spent hours going through every room in the place, including Harry's where Ginny picked up a stray bra with a ruler she'd produced from her bag, then flung it at one of her brothers, laughing, after Sirius begrudgingly explained its reason for being there.

After going through the house, they set up in the drawing room and Fred sketched out the floor plans from memory. A very accurate memory as he had even included the placement of the windows and fireplaces, as well as the four bathrooms sinks and such.

The three of them worked as a team, each assisting with all aspects, but Fred was more of the architect, George was the designer and decorator, Ginny was the carpenter. He would have thought Ginny and George's specialties be reversed based on gender roles. It was a nice surprise.

"We'd need you to make a list of the furniture you want to keep." George told him.

"Bear in mind that some of that awful dark wood can be made lighter and new again. We can even remove those little gremlins carved into the bedposts." Ginny told him.

"What gremlins?" Sirius asked trying to visualize which guest room had gremlins carved into the bed posts. "Which bedroom has that?"

Ginny raised her eyebrows and her lips parted slightly in surprise. "All of them." She said slowly, with an uptick in pitch with every word.

"Huh." He had never noticed that. "Feel free to remove all gremlins." He shrugged and chuckled again. It had been a long time since he'd smiled and laughed this much. He was feeling like his younger self again around these three. They had such great spirits, and his cheeks were hurting because of it.

Over the next hour they went over plans and suggestions that Sirius was growing excited about having done. He was eager for them to get started. It was around noon when Fred finally called for a break. "We need some food." He told Ginny.

"Oh. How rude, yes I can-" Sirius started.

"Don't worry about it." Ginny told him and dug a hand into her bag. She handed a sandwich to Fred, one to George and then pulled out two more. "Our brother Ron has a deli in Hogsmeade, he makes the best panini's on the isle. You aren't allergic to anything, are you?" She asked and handed him a sandwich as well.

"I. Uh, no. No allergies." He accepted the sandwich in surprise. She kept digging in her bag and retrieved a thermos and four cups as well as individual sized treacle tart. "You really come prepared, don't you?" This had not at all been what he'd expected. They were all laid back, humorous and so easy to get on with. They were feeding him and carrying on like they were in their own home with an old friend.

"Have to when we're working long hours, sometimes in the middle of nowhere." Fred told him, pouring a cup of whatever was in the thermos. "We'd love to get our hands on this place." He looked around.

George and Ginny nodded.

Sirius was mildly taken aback at that. "Jobs yours." He said like there was no question about it. If they'd been sneering business suit type, then he would have taken longer to think it over. But he was ready to hire them based on Ginny's mention of the carpet in the entryway alone.

"Wonderful!" George beamed.

Ginny fished in her bag again. It had to be one of the never-ending bags with a featherlight charm on it. "I have a contract right here. We'll have to fill in estimated times and materials. Judging on the size of the house and the number of rooms, plus time we'll need a deposit of..." She looked at the twins and then grimaced slightly. "15,000 Galleons."

"Done." Sirius dusted off his hands. The panini was indeed delicious, just like the Chai Latte had been. They seemed nervous about the amount, but 15,000 Galleons was less than he had been anticipating for a deposit. He'd figured on near 100,000 for the whole job. The three of them seemed to think it was quite high, maybe he'd walk away with getting the renovation done at a steal.

"Great!" Ginny smiled. "Some other things though. About wards, NDA, and a clause about any Dark Artifacts that we might come across. We need to go over those before we can put a start date."

"You need an NDA?" He asked in surprise.

"We thought you might want one actually." Fred told him delicately. "Because, you know. Harry Potter lives here." He said simply.

"Well, that's considerate of you, but unnecessary. The Fidelus on the place was removed a year ago, and the wards can be changed to allow the three of you access through the front door. Did you need Floo access?" They nodded. "I'll add that too."

"Then, about any dark artifacts we come across." George said hesitantly. "We will go through and cast a detection spell in every room on the agreed upon start date. If there are any that we find we will dispose of them. So, if there is anything that you know of that you don't want us to dispose of, we suggest you move it to your vault at Gringotts before we start." He told him in the most serious tone he'd used yet.

Sirius shook his head. "I know there were several in the house when we first moved in. I think I got all of them, but if you find any more, do away with them however you see fit."

The three of them relaxed slightly at that.

"Then we will leave this contract with you to read over." Fred jotted down numbers in columns on the last page and handed it over to Sirius. "Earliest we can start is two days from now. We only do Monday through Friday. No weekends, but we will do evenings so long as you provide dinner." He winked exaggeratedly.

Sirius chuckled. It would be nice to have these three around the house for a few weeks.

()()()

Three years they'd been doing this now since they'd turned this into an actual career. And it had started off so small, but turned out so brilliantly. It was a miracle really that the three of them had each been passionate about it.

See, Ginny's room was the smallest in the house. It had been the nursery across from their mum and dad's room. As more kids came along after Bill an extra floor was added to the house and all of the toddlers would graduate up to a new floor as the next sibling came along.

Meaning that with her being the last one, she stayed in the nursery.

It wasn't like she 'needed' the extra space, but there was barely any room to move once she got a proper sized bed. The dresser drawer would bump the bed when it was open fully, the closet door had been taken off because it was really more of an obstruction.

When she was twelve she had a fit of frustration with absolutely everything wrong with the room, her going through puberty had absolutely not been the cause of her meltdown no matter what anyone said, and the twins had come to her room just as she was throwing things out the window because she felt so suffocated. As she was normally the 'happy go lucky' one of the group, they'd taken it to heart that something had to be done.

There wasn't anything they could do to the outside structure being that the next floor up was precariously perched as it was, but there were some charms that they could put in place to magically expand the inside of her room.

They were all home schooled, so with their mum's permission they used it as a Charms project and removed everything from her room before the two of them started the spells. It took them all day to get it right, but once it was done she had an extra four inches added to the perimeter of the room.

That may not sound like much, but it made a whole world of a difference to her. She took the opportunity with the empty room to spruce up her floors and walls. She painted and sanded, and with the help of her brothers they pulled her closet door from the shed and cleaned it up before hanging it back up.

Each piece of furniture that she put back into her room she spent time sprucing up and making it her own. Her room looked like it truly belonged to her when she was done.

The twins decided they wanted to do the same thing with their room too, so she offered to help with their floors, walls and furniture as well.

They made their way through the whole house over the next year and turned each room into something unique. When you walked into their parents bedroom, it felt like their parents. When you walked into Ron's bedroom, you felt like it truly belonged to him. Percy's room even now invited his studious atmosphere.

Convincing their mum to declutter the sitting room or the kitchen didn't go over, so they added a room onto dad's shed so they could organize and store all the excess odds and ends that they'd had scattered around the Burrow.

Once they were done, even Percy was impressed.

It had been fun, and it had brought the three of them even closer. It felt good to have something to keep their hands occupied when the world outside the Burrow was growing more and more chaotic with the war.

After finishing with the Burrow, they started building a tree house. The treehouse turned into their testing room. They played with combining paints and spells so each color would emit the feelings associated with them. Yellow actually made you feel happy, Red made you feel warm and loved, green made you feel at peace. They made up mock plans for future houses they'd planned for themselves to build and brought different pieces of furniture they would find that were set for garbage pickup in the neighboring villages and refurbish them. These pieces were sold on consignment at the local shop in Ottery St. Catchpole.

To their delight their pieces had sold quite quickly.

Their dad had been worried they were using magic on the pieces at first, and demanded they let him check them over for spells. He was in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department at the Ministry and wanted to make sure his own children wouldn't wind up on a dossier on his desk for breaking the law he was meant to enforce.

He'd been delighted to find that they hadn't used magic to enchant the items, just to strip it down and find the natural appeal of the things. They changed up hinges and handles and such, making all of the difference.

After the war they'd started doing small jobs. The Lovegoods, their neighbors, home was attacked by Death Eaters so they'd gone over to help with the cleanup efforts, and gave it a little extra of their touches to restore the home. Xenophelius Lovegood was very appreciative and asked if he could pass along their names to a friend who needed likewise assistance with their home.

From there they picked up more small jobs, then less small jobs, then bigger jobs. Now they were about to do an entire home in the middle of London. Of a Nobel Lord!

Sirius Black had seemed quite pleased with them, and he signed the contract by the end of the day.

She and the twins went out and celebrated that night. This job was going to be a huge undertaking, probably three months at least. They'd need to gut the place room by room and fix up every piece of furniture and ornate mantelpiece.

It would be magnificent by the time they were done though.

The three of them met up at the Leaky Cauldron to see Percy after he was done work to tell him the good news and pick his brain about any permits they would need for the job. He'd been a good source of information for them so they could keep all their work on the up and up.

She was in need of a good night out. Ginny had a few good girlfriends scattered around the isle, but more often than not she wound up going out with her brothers. They put a cramp on her dating life, and after her last disappointing relationship she was welcome to them stopping men from hitting on her right now.

Ginny went to the bar to get them all drinks and was carrying a tray laden with shots and beer back to her table when someone pulled one of them off. "Hey." She rounded on the person. "I'm not a waitress, these aren't bloody samples." She scolded the guy and pulled the shot out of his hand and put it back on her tray before looking properly at the drink thief. "Oh shit."

It was Harry Potter. A very drunk Harry Potter. A barely managing to stand Harry Potter."Can I have it now?" He asked pretentiously as though his celebrity meant he was entitled to the shot.

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him, annoyed. So what if he lived with the owner of the house she and the twins had just gotten a contract for. So what if he was the defeater of the Dark Lord. So what if she found him attractive. A sense of entitlement was easily the least attractive thing a person could have in her opinion. He had a girl hanging onto his arm looking up at him like he was a God, and he was just staring at Ginny and expecting her to hand over her hard-earned liquor. "No, piss off and sober up." She told him, then continued on her way back to her brothers at the corner of the room. "Drink up boys." She placed the tray down and took back her shot in one go.

Looking behind her, she couldn't see Harry Potter anywhere. He was nearly falling down drunk if his glassy eyed expression was anything to go off of. It was only just going on seven in the evening.

On a Friday, but still.

She felt bad for judging him. It was just what men did at that age, was it not? Drinking and sleeping around. He just happened to be in the limelight. She just couldn't help feeling slightly disappointed that her childhood dream guy turned out to drop his trousers for every girl that spread her legs. But she was here to celebrate, so she pushed it out of her mind. And kept the altercation to herself.

()()

On Monday the Weasley crew showed up at Grimmauld Place and changed the wards on the Floo and the main door with a drop of their blood. The older magic homes used the ancient ways of tuning the house, which required a drop of blood mixed with the rightful owners.

Ginny had brought Sirius another Chai Latte, which he gratefully accepted, and they went over all of the plans they'd made over the weekend.

He approved them all and the three set to work in topmost part of the house first.

Sirius joined them when they broke for lunch and eagerly accepted the treacle tart they'd offered as well. He hung around with them and even assisted with levitating the furniture out of the room to the next floor below. He regaled them with stories of his Hogwarts days and pranks that he pulled on his fellow students and staff. They told him tales of growing up with so many siblings and how they got their start in this business.

"So now that the furniture is all out, what's next?" Sirius asked Ginny as they stood out in the hall after lunch, the twins had gone into the room to re-size it.

"The twins are going to scope out the dimensions of the room and make sure it is optimal, then we'll strip it down. The floors, the wall treatments, the ceiling, until it is completely bare. George will figure out the right color for the walls and we'll get it painted up. Then he'll find the right window treatments and such. I'll have to go through a more detailed list of your furniture and see what fits in the space properly before moving anything back in." She looked down the corridor at the floorboards. "This is going to look stupid." She warned him and started skipping slowly on each of the different boards.

"What are you doing?" Sirius asked with a laugh.

"Squeak testing." She smiled and carried on, leaning down and marking each board that protested.

"You seeing anyone?" Sirius asked her curiously.

That threw her for a moment, but she was pretty sure he wasn't about to hit on her. "No. Why, you interested?" She winked saucily.

He barked out laughter. "If I was any younger." He shook his head. "Why though? You just not find the right one?"

Ginny shrugged. "Been single for a few months now. 'Married to my job' was the excuse the last one gave me. I guess it's true. Did me a favor really. Didn't even realize that I never really liked him much. I'm not looking for Mr. Right at the moment anyways. Just enjoying my work and spending time with family. And I coach a kids Quidditch league on the weekends. That all keeps me pretty busy."

"You play?" Sirius asked in happy surprise. "What position?"

"Ready." George came out of the room wiping his hands on his trousers. "Sorry to break up the fun." He handed Ginny a pair of coveralls.

Ginny gave Sirius a mock salute in farewell and went into the room. They closed the door and cast Bubblehead charms on themselves before each taking a different corner of the room and pointing their wands at the floor to begin the stripping spell.

It took two days to get the top floor properly stripped down and early on the Wednesday morning the twins got right to work with painting and Ginny was doing an inventory of the furniture when she went into Harry's room and startled a girl that was getting dressed. "Sorry!" She yelled through the door from the hallway after she'd shut it quickly.

The girl opened the door a few seconds later with her dress on. "I'm so sorry!" Ginny said to her again. "I didn't think anyone was in there."

The girl looked her up and down. "Just from one to the next then is it?" She huffed and stormed past her. Ginny stood in the open doorway until she heard the front door open and close, then started to snicker. Another satisfied customer of the one and only Harry Potter.

She looked down at her outfit. It was a tan unisex coverall and her hair was tucked up in a cap, how could that girl have possibly thought that she was here for sex? Maybe some role play? Oh, or a sexy striptease! Ginny made a mental note to try that one with a future boyfriend.

She'd yet to see anyone but Sirius in the house, besides anonymous girl there and Sirius himself. Sirius told her that Harry ducked out before eight most mornings and didn't get home until late. She felt bad for him when he told her that. He seemed lonely, but he'd been a very lively lunch companion the past two days and she made sure to bring an extra piece of treacle tart for him every day.

They'd gotten really good word of mouth and used the same approach to every meeting. Regardless of who the customer might be, the twins acted like the twins, and Ginny acted like herself. She brought the customer a beverage from a Muggle shop and lunch for all.

The reaction of the customer is what they were looking for. It didn't matter to them who the customer was. They could have been on the losing side of the war, or goblin, or an aristocratic ex-convict, so long as they had the right attitude they'd take the job.

Sirius had been a pleasant surprise for them. They'd worried because he was the head of a Nobel house and had been a key factor in the downfall of the Dark Lord, and well, they didn't know what to expect. But he was down to earth and funny. He had a slightly haunted look to his eyes though. Made her wonder what he'd think if she greeted him with a hug every day, because he looked like he could do with a hug.

She turned to the dresser in Harry's room. It was beautiful oak, with a horrible dark finish. She ran her hand over it and pulled one of the drawers open. It required a lot of force.

"Ginny?" Sirius asked from the doorway.

"Hey." She didn't look up from the dresser, she was checking out the sides to see how it sat on the frame.

"What are you doing?"

"Pantie raid." She picked up one of the pairs of boxers inside without looking at it. "Bet I could auction this off for a charity." She flung it at him.

He caught them and walked over to the dresser tossing them back in. "Seriously, what are you doing?"

"Checking out the furniture. This one is nice solid oak, but the drawers are impossible. Must be frustrating." She struggled to shove the drawer back into place. "I'd consider putting rollers on the side if it weren't such an old piece, but maybe I could fashion something with ball bearings." She pondered.

"Thought I heard someone leave?" He asked.

"There was a straggler in here when I came in and frightened her." Ginny smirked.

Sirius sighed and sat down on the davenport. "He's been going through this phase." He said by way of explanation.

"Seems you don't approve." She noted. "And please don't sit on that. It's a writing desk, sit on the bed." She shooed him away so she could inspect the desk. It too was oak, with a leather inlay for a writing surface and an intricate iron design on the sides. He smirked at her bossiness and moved over to the bed and perched on the edge of it. "You think he's going a little over board with his celebrity?" She asked while checking out the desk.

"I don't want to stop him from having fun, lord knows he missed out on enough of that when he was growing up, but it'd be nice to see him going about it a little differently." Sirius admitted. "What do you do in your spare time for fun? Besides coaching little league Quidditch?"

"Visit with friends, hang out with my mum and dad, go to the market and chat with the vendors." She shrugged. "Every now and again I tie one on at the pub, usually with one of my brothers in tow." She looked up at his sad face. "What do you do for fun?"

He started to say something a few times. She could see him trying to think of anything he did that could be considered 'fun'. "I am so bored." He admitted morosely. "The last time I remember having fun was when I joined Harry for a bit in the States and we went to an amusement park. That was near two years ago, and before that I was just trying to raise him and prepare him to fight Voldemort. Before that I was in Azkaban."

"Sounds like you should work on setting a healthy example for him." She told him pointedly.

"Where do I even start?" He asked looking lost.

"Ever think that that might be the same question Harry asked himself?" She answered.

He looked floored.

"I'll take that as a 'no'." She took a seat beside him and looked over one of the four posters and the foot board. "Start small. Find something that you like to do." She suggested.

"I like Quidditch." He said thoughtfully.

"Great. Go see a game or two. Invite Harry along."

"Yeah. Yeah, I could do that." He said brightly. "That sounds like a great idea actually! I'm going to go check the Prophet for the next game." He patted her knee once and walked out of the room.

Ginny kept on inspecting the rest of the furniture in the room and couldn't resist making the bed before she left. Her mum had ingrained an obsessive-compulsive need in her when it came to making the bed.

()()

Thursday morning Harry crawled out of bed and went to his daily torture device.

He supposed this was a small sacrifice to pay to not have anyone trying to track him down and kill him anymore. Or the reverse, someone he had to track down and kill. But this dresser was one of the things he was hoping the renovators were going to get rid of.

It was especially hard to deal with this when he was hung over.

He gripped onto the two handles of the drawer and gave them a pull. Generally it would squeak open inch by inch and he would have to shake the thing back into place after, but now it slid open gracefully and hit his thigh.

He blinked down at the open drawer and saw a small note laying on top of his underpants. It simply read 'You're Welcome'.

He picked up the note and studied the scroll of the words in awe.

He looked back at his drawer and closed it. Then he opened it again. Each time the movements were so smooth. This drawer had been a freaking nightmare. Now the renovators had fixed his dresser and left a cheeky note.

He smiled and got dressed. When he got into the kitchen Sirius was already there and did a double take at Harry's expression.

"Had a good night?" He asked.

Harry put the note down beside Sirius' coffee cup. "They fixed my dresser." He smiled. "That stupid drawer had been the worst part of my morning." He chuckled and grabbed a coffee for himself.

"Love that Weasley cheekiness." Sirius said proudly.

()()()

"Ginny." A voice called out from the fireplace of her flat on Thursday evening.

Ginny leaned her head back from the kitchen so she could see the fireplace. "Hey Luna! Give me a minute." She turned her burner to off and removed her pasta dish from the heat. "How are you?" She called out. "Come on through if you like."

There was a woosh from the other room and Luna walked into her kitchen, taking a seat at the two-seater table. "That smells good."

Ginny smiled and grabbed two bowls to serve up dinner. "What brings you here on this fine day?" Ginny picked up a bottle of wine and held it up to her, asking if she wanted any then poured two glasses.

"There is a Ministry Ball coming up this weekend." Luna said before digging into her dish.

"That's nice, you need to go shopping for an outfit?" Ginny asked settling into her seat. In reality, it wasn't nice. Those functions were stuffy and boring with bad food, but what else was she supposed to say about it.

Luna made a noise and shook her head 'no'.

"You need to convince Rolf to go with you?" Ginny teased. Luna and Rolf Scamander had a very casual romance going on. They'd met through her work in the Department for Regulation of Magical Creatures and seemed to spend a lot of time together when they were in the same country.

"He's off in Brunei at the moment."

Ginny's smile faltered. "What about Neville? You said you got on at school."

"He's already got a date."

"What about your dad! I bet he'd love to go." Ginny offered a little too optimistically.

"You know I can't bring daddy there. I've already asked Ron and my friend Selena who can't go." Luna looked up at her with head over her bowl.

She felt the pull of her relationship obligation. "So you've considered everyone, and asked everyone you could think of to go with you and they all are busy?" Luna nodded. "And you have to bring a plus one?"

Luna raised a single eyebrow at her.

Ginny had brought her along to two of her brothers weddings using the obligation card. It wasn't her fault that she'd just happened to break up with her boyfriends at the time two and three weeks before the weddings.

She gave in to the obligation. "Fine. When is it?"

"This Saturday." Luna smiled at her victoriously.

Ginny huffed. "Plenty of notice to find a gown then!"

"We'll pull out the dress you wore for Percy and Audrey's wedding and make a few alterations. That will work." She shrugged

()()()

Harry adjusted his tie to loosen it a bit and took another sip of his champagne.

It tasted awful, but it was all they were serving.

He kept getting pulled into these boring conversations and asked his opinion about things he had no idea about. He could have been at a Quidditch game with Sirius right then, instead he had this obligation gala to attend because he was the department poster boy.

With every passing smile and nod in his direction he was getting closer and closer to bailing. There was a pub just down the road from the entrance on Diagon Alley that had some good fish and chips. That would be better than whatever it was that was being passed around by the servers.

There were a few women here that were winking at him, but he wasn't nearly drunk enough to have the confidence to strike up a conversation with them.

For a while now he'd been wondering if there was more to life than this. Everyone else seemed happy and he was just stuck in this routine of trying to figure out how to get that kind of happy for himself.

None of these one-night stands were doing it for him, and he had to be pretty drunk in order to get the nerve to hit on a girl or get past his own embarrassment with his infamy. Now he was becoming infamous for another reason and he didn't like it.

"There you are." Gawain Robairds, his department head found him. "Come on. Just dance with some of the ladies and then you can go." He said. He could tell that that Harry didn't want to be there.

Harry wanted to roll his eyes, but if it meant he could leave before ten then he'd do it and try not to act like a petulant child about it.

"Harry, you know Amelia Bones, and this is her niece Susan." Gawain introduced him. "How would you like to take Susan for a spin around the dance floor?"

He plastered a tight polite smile to his face and held his hand out for her. She giggled and took it. Internally he groaned. She was wearing too much perfume, it always made him want to breathe through his mouth, but then it was like he was tasting it.

"I'm afraid I'm not a very good dancer." Harry apologized as they reached the other dancing couples. His eye caught on a flash of red hair to his left. A pretty young woman was dancing with a much older man. She scowled at her dance partner and Harry recalled an image of her doing the same thing to him, but couldn't place when or why. They moved out of his eye line and he turned back to his dance partner who was doing that thing with her eyelashes that was supposed to imply that she was innocent or interested in him or something. Looking up and sort of fluttering them.

They moved around the dance floor for the two minutes it took for the song to end and then he thanked her and turned around and found himself straight in front the scowling redhead he saw before. "Sorry." He caught her around the middle and froze with their bodies close and facing each other. She was even prettier up close.

"No harm done, still on my feet." She told him easily. He kept perfectly still with his arm around her trying to figure out why she was so familiar to him. As he stared into her brown eyes her expression turned quizzical. "You can let me go now."

"Right! Sorry." He pulled his arm away, but not completely. "Do you want to dance?"

"What?" She blinked at him.

"Do. Do you want to dance?" He held her hand a little tighter.

"Um. Okay." She answered slowly and let him lead. Reluctantly.

"Enjoying yourself?" He asked, hoping to start a conversation.

"Not particularly." She looked over to where her last dance partner was being led away by someone that may have been his wife. "I'm only here because my friend needed a plus one and no one else could make it." There was slight uptick to her lips at that.

"You must be a very good friend." He supplied.

She shrugged. "I did drag her to two of my family weddings, so I kind of owed her."

Her indifference to him was rather refreshing. "Look, you seem so familiar. I'm trying to place you." He admitted.

She gave him her full attention then. There was this humorous glint in her eyes and a smirk forming. "Not trying to figure out if I'm one of the many women you've taken home in the past few months, are you?"

She was teasing him. He knew she was teasing him, but his dirty laundry had been splashed over the cover of many magazines and the papers. "No." He said defeated. Could he do anything right?

"I didn't mean to upset you." She frowned.

"You didn't." He lied automatically.

She let out a single laugh. "That was very convincing." She joked, but he still couldn't manage a polite response. "Fine. You might recognize me because I told you off last week." She admitted.

"What?" he racked his brain trying to think of when this might have been. "When?" Or, more importantly. "Why?"

He spun her around once and held her a little closer to him, hoping she wouldn't mind or pull away. He liked the feel of her in his arms. Her expression told him that she noticed but didn't pull away, she was merely allowing it. "You stole my drink."

He halted their movements. "What? I stole your drink?"

"Right off the tray I was carrying." She mockingly scolded. "I can only assume you thought I was a waitress or something, but you stole my drink, I took it back and then when you noticed that I recognized you, you asked if that meant you could have it back."

His heart was beating faster. He had tried to pull his celebrity card on her? That was not an attractive thing to do. He had no memory of this, just the image of her angry face.

"I told you no and and to sober up, then we went our separate ways. You were fairly intoxicated as it was and being pulled along by some tall leggy thing." She dismissed.

He didn't want to dismiss it. "I am so sorry. I'm a bit of a mess right now."

"I gathered that."

She didn't look sad or sympathetic about it. Just that it was a statement of fact. He really should cut back on the drinking. It wasn't making him any happier, and it had only led to unsatisfactory one-night stands and his personal business smeared all over the tabloids. "I can do better." He said, mostly to himself. He studied her face once more and started dancing with her again. "Can I make it up to you?" He asked hopefully. "Get you a drink right now?"

She snorted. "All they have here is champagne, and I'd honestly rather drink straight from the toilet. Disgusting stuff. So glad my taxes are going to these awful events." She said sarcastically.

"The food sucks too." He agreed.

She groaned. "I know. And I always forget to pre-eat. All they have is those crackers with some sort of foam or something on it." She made a cat face.

He laughed at her reaction. "I feel the same way." He was tapped on the shoulder and turned to see the Minister of Magic.

"Sorry to interrupt." Kingsley told him. "I have a few people that would like to say hello to you."

"Oh." He was disappointed. He turned back to the woman in his arms. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine." She leaned in slightly to whisper in his ear. "I need to leave and get real food and drink anyway."

He laughed and let Kingsley lead him away.

()()

Harry didn't have any more to drink that night and the next day he was feeling pretty good when he walked into the kitchen and found Sirius there. "Didn't you say that the renovations were supposed to start last week? Shouldn't they have done more than fix my dresser by now?" He asked grabbing a cup of coffee.

"They did. Starting at the top floor and working their way down. They've finished up two rooms already, they look amazing, want to see?" He hopped up from his seat excitedly and Harry chuckled at his exuberance following him out.

"You're in a really good mood." Harry pointed out.

"It's really nice having something to do right now. I've been spending time with the Weasley's while they work and just chatting with them about... whatever. They were the ones that suggested I go to the Quidditch match yesterday."

"Yeah. Sorry I missed it, would have rather gone to that." Except for one highlight from the gala, he thought to himself.

As they passed Harry's room Sirius pointed at it. "Anyone in there?"

"Ah, no." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I think I need to take a break from all that."

"Really?" Sirius spun around on the spot to face him.

Harry took a step back. "Uh. Yeah. I just think I've been going a little overboard, and it isn't. It just isn't feeling right."

Sirius' shoulders sagged in relief. "Oh good. I didn't want to say anything, but I was getting worried."

That really bugged Harry on some level. "Why didn't you say anything?" Sirius was his only parental figure, shouldn't he be chastising him for misbehaving or something?

"I just thought you were due a bit of fun, but it didn't really look like you were... enjoying having all that fun?" He said awkwardly.

Harry felt ashamed of how out of control he'd been getting. Not even remembering stealing a drink from a pretty girl and embarrassing himself over it a week later. He needed to stop and find something else to focus on. "I wasn't. I'm not."

Sirius put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "I wasn't either, and it was pointed out to me recently that if I don't know how to start having fun, then how should you know?"

Harry hadn't thought about that. It was true that he didn't know how to start having fun and enjoying life. Even when he was doing his traveling, he was alone. He just kept trying new experiences and had a momentary rush of adrenaline, but then it would wear off. The most fun he had was when Sirius came and joined him for part of his States visit. "That's what the Quidditch match was all about?"

"Yeah." Sirius nodded. "Thought it would be a start. And it was fun. Remus and I had a good time, only got a few looks." He wasn't as plastered over the papers at the end of the war as Harry was, but he was still pretty well known.

"Next time. Hopefully there won't be some mandatory function I have to go to." Harry agreed. Sirius smiled at him. "Alright, let's see these rooms you're so happy about.

At the top of the stairs Sirius turned to him with his hand on the doorknob. "You ready?" He asked excitedly.

"Yes." Harry chuckled.

Sirius pushed open the door and Harry's jaw dropped. It was like stepping into a completely different house. The walls were painted white and deep red, the furniture was all whitewashed and plush with pillows and ornamental knobs on the wardrobe and the dresser, and it even matched the drawers on the nightstand. The curtains fit the room perfectly, and the king size bed had a shear canopy over it. It all looked so inviting and royal.

"I know, right?" Sirius beamed. "Lets go look at the other room." He hurried across the hall to what had been his brother Regulus' room. Not anymore. It was now an area for entertaining, or relaxing.

"It kind of feels like you should be doing yoga in here." Harry commented after standing in the center of the room a moment. The walls were a soft green color and there was a large sofa that was curved around that entire corner of the room, and there were two kind of circular armchairs across from it.

"That's the wall treatments." Sirius told him. "They have this special way of making the paint express a feeling or something. Like the color leaves an impression on the room."

"That's amazing." Harry went to the wall and put his hand against it. It made him feel so relaxed. He felt like this room would be perfect for one on one conversations at the end of the day. He turned to Sirius, who was looking out the window. Even the window's looked brighter. "How long until they get to my room?" He asked, understanding now why Sirius had been so giddy about it.

Sirius laughed. "Not a while yet pup." He pulled him in for a one-armed hug.

Harry leaned into the hug. It had been a long time since Sirius had called him pup, and he liked it. "Why don't I go get us some fresh coffee and we can sit in here with it?"

"That sounds good. Careful not to drip any on the floor though, they'll kill me if I spill something on that rug so quickly."

It took another week for the top floor to be done. Once it was, it turned into Sirius and Harry's little Oasis. They would spend the evening in the green sitting room at the end of the day talking, or just sitting in each others presence.

Harry had not had a drop to drink of alcohol that week, and he felt better for it. Sirius mentioned something about a Quidditch League or getting out into the Muggle world for something or other on the weekend. It sounded like a good idea. Much better than spending his Saturday in bed like he normally did.

On Saturday the two of them went to Diagon Alley to check out a few shops. Sirius was keen to go into one of the art shops to see about getting some new pieces for their place, but after five minutes it all looked the same to Harry, so he left the shop to wander down the alley a bit. He was looking through the Quality Quidditch display when something ran into his leg.

"Sorry." A little voice sniffled.

He looked down and saw a little strawberry blonde girl in tears. "That's okay. You don't have to cry about it!" He worried.

"I'm lost." She looked up at him. "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"That's smart." He reached in his pocket and pulled out his Auror badge and knelt down to show her. "But I work with the Auror's. My name's Harry. Will you let me help you find your parents?"

She worried her lip and peered at him cautiously.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Victoire." She whispered.

"That's a pretty name." She smiled at him. "How about I lift you up on my shoulder and you can take a look and see if you can see them in the crowd?"

Her eyes lit up at that. "Okay! I would be really big then!"

Harry chuckled. "Yes, you will." He picked her up and settled her on one shoulder. "Do you see them anywhere?"

"No." She said worried. "AGONY!" She screamed suddenly.

He nearly dropped her in surprise.

"Victoire!" He heard someone call back. "Excuse me, Sorry." The voice was coming closer.

Harry settled her back down just as the person belonging to the voice came upon them. He was startled to see it was the woman from the ministry ball. She seemed as surprised to see him as he was her. She looked much more natural and relaxed today than she had been the last time he'd seen her. She had fitted jeans and a loose top on that was tucked in at one side. Her hair was down, and she looked ravishing.

The little girl rushed to her and hugged her around the middle. "What?" She looked down at the girl hugging her and knelt down. "What are you doing here alone? Where are your mum and dad?"

Harry felt a ridiculous sense of relief to know that she wasn't actually the girls mother. Not that it mattered.

"I got lost. But it's okay that I talked to that stranger, because he's an Auror." She looked back to him and gave him an endearing smile.

"She told me she wasn't allowed to talk to strangers." He offered. "I showed her my badge and just offered to give her a better vantage point."

"Agony. Mum and daddy are going to be mad at me." Victoire cried.

She scooped the little girl up into her arms and twirled one of her pigtails in her fingers. "Don't worry sweet heart. We'll find them and they will just be relieved to see you again." She gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"He helped." Victoire said looking at him. She was adorable.

"Well, why don't you say thank-you to the nice man?" She goaded.

Harry chuckled as she held her little arms out for a hug. He leaned in and let her wrap her arms around his neck, then she gave him a kiss to the cheek and let go. "Anytime little one."

"Agony. You too!" She insisted.

He got a brilliant smile from 'Agony' before she humored the little girl by quickly wrapped her free arm around him then and gave him a swift kiss to the cheek and pulled back. "Thank you. I'd better go track down my brother and his wife now. They'll be frantic."

She shifted the girl a bit and got her to wave goodbye to him before they disappeared into the crowd. He watched them in between the pedestrians as they made their way down the alley.

That was three weekends in a row that he'd encountered her. After meeting her at the ministry ball she would pop into his head every now and then. While at work through the week he would turn his head to look every time there was a redhead in his peripheral vision, feeling a little disappointed when it wasn't her.

Now this was the third time, and she'd kissed him on the cheek. He smiled thinking about how she hadn't hesitated to do as her niece requested in thanking him. She smelled so nice, and her smile was so lovely.

"See anything you're interested in?" Sirius popped up by his side.

'Yeah' was his initial reaction, but he looked back through the window of the storefront beside him. "No, just browsing." He smiled and they kept making their way back towards the Leaky Cauldron. "You? Any art calling out to you?"

"Some stuff didn't look bad, but I'd want to consult with George before making a decision."

"George?" Harry kept looking back down towards Gringotts behind them, hoping to catch another glimpse of her.

"Yeah. George is one of the renovators." Sirius drawled out, clearly realizing Harry wasn't listening.

"Right, yeah. So, they're onto the third floor next?" The hallway on the fourth was the last bit not finished, but he supposed that would be the last thing overall. Sirius' room was on the third floor and he was going to be moving into the guest room on the fourth and was quite happy about it. He'd apparently told them that he was thinking of making the move permanent, but they'd told him to just wait until he saw his room when they were done with it, and he was more excited about that now.

"Yep. I love how they changed up the layout, so the bedrooms aren't on top of each other. You know they're going to knock down a wall between the two second floor guest rooms? Make it one big room." Sirius was starting to prattle on and on about them again.

It was good that he had something to look forward to every week.

"Have you ever heard of Agony as a girls name?" Harry cut in.

"Agony?" Sirius asked quizzically. "I've heard of Briony, and Agatha. Not Agony though. Why?"

"Just, overheard someone being called that, thought it was odd." He said flippantly.

Sirius shrugged. "Maybe it was a nickname. She could be just a real pain in the ass."

Harry seriously doubted that.

()()()

It was the Wednesday of the third week that Harry was in the house at the same time as her and the twins for the first time.

She'd found it amusing that she'd run into him three weekends in a row, each time he seemed to have no idea who she was. His beautiful green eyes staring at her and that sexy wild hair of his that he ruffled every time he was at a loss for words.

She was attracted to him for sure. She had been for as long as she could remember. But he was a player, and she didn't need to get her feelings hurt by any more boys. She was not the kind of girl that was okay with a one off either. If she wanted a quickie she could take care of her needs herself.

She did want a proper relationship, like what her parents had, and what Bill and Fleur had. She'd told Sirius that she wasn't looking for Mr. Right, but it would be nice to have someone to come home to or someone to make her dinner once in a while, or take her out.

Her last boyfriend had essentially toyed with her emotions, she didn't know if he could have even been considered her boyfriend, that's how shaky their relationship had been. Luna was able to have a casual dalliance with Rolf, but Ginny wanted commitment.

She'd been working on repairing the nosing on the stairway from the third floor to the fourth when Harry had come out from his room a floor and a half below.

Sirius had been on his way up and intercepted him. "Oh. Harry. Thought you'd already left for the day."

"No, going in mid-morning. They sent me an Owl last night. I'll be working later this evening."

Ginny didn't stop filling in the cracks in the wood while they chatted. She was sure she could feel their eyes on her though. She was in her tan unisex coveralls again with her hair pulled up in the cap and with her back to them.

"Going to grab breakfast and go to the gym I think." Harry told him.

"No overnight guests again?" Sirius sounded hesitant about that.

Harry's response was muted, but Ginny strained her ears to hear it, having to remember to carry on with her task as well so as to not look like she was eavesdropping. "I told you. I'm done with all that. It just never felt right."

A stupid swooping sensation caught up in her belly at that. He wasn't sleeping around anymore? He'd never thought it felt right! Maybe he wasn't such a player after all. She grew a little frustrated at how happy that made her. He didn't stop because of her, and he wasn't going to discover her there and fall madly in love with her. There was no reason she should be happy about him making that life choice, other than to be happy that he seemed happier than he had been.

"Need help in here." Fred called out from the far corner room. She left her supplies where they were and turned to go down the stairs. Harry and Sirius must have ducked back from the stairs to have their little conversation, not realizing how much their voices carried through this house.

She went into the far room that Fred called from, they were pulling up a carpet. This could have been done magically, but that could damage the floor underneath, so they always did it by hand.

()()()

Saturday morning Harry decided to go to Hogsmeade. There were a few Quidditch Leagues of every age and skill level that practiced up there every Saturday. He'd heard about it from one of his co-workers and wanted to check it out, thinking that maybe he could check out their skill level and see where he might fall in.

The kids had the pitch first thing in the morning though. He saw them clumsily mount their brooms and kick off, he watched for a moment before turning down towards the village to see about getting a coffee. He'd ask about the different league times closer to the hour mark, which was in about twenty minutes.

The first shop he came across was a deli and he went in. The place wasn't busy at all, but he smelled the fresh coffee and baked goods. He took in a big whiff and felt warmth in his belly just from that.

"Heyya. What can I get for you?" Asked the man behind the counter. He had his back turned when Harry walked in but pivoted around with a tray of croissants and put them in the display before looking up. "Oh! You're Harry Potter!"

Harry cringed, waiting for the slew of inappropriate questions.

"My siblings are doing the renovation on your house. How do you like it so far?"

"Oh!" Harry beamed. "You must be a Weasley then!" He felt so relieved. And he was kicking himself for not realizing. Sirius had said that they had a brother with a deli in Hogsmeade too. "I love it, can't wait for them to finish." He replied sincerely. "Fantastic workmanship. The place was horrible before."

"So I've heard. Surprised them when they found out you didn't want an NDA." He told him easily. "Coffee? What do you take?"

"Uh, yeah. Cream and sugar please. And I'll take one of those treacle tarts too. Heard raves about them." He pointed out the tart in the display case. Sirius was very nearly singing songs about them in the evenings. "I didn't know about any NDA, but it doesn't seem to matter what I'm doing, I get splashed all over the tabloids anyways." Harry tried to shrug it off. Now that he wasn't out every other night there was speculation going around about who had finally 'tamed the wild beast'.

"What brings you all the way up here this early on a Saturday? Heading up to the school?" He handed over the mug of coffee and went for a plate for the tart.

"Thinking of joining a Quidditch League actually. Have no idea what my skill level is though, so I was going to check out the other teams to see where I might fall in." He accepted the tart and the guy gestured to the seat at the counter.

"Well, it's just the kids playing this early. The adult leagues start up after lunch. That's why we're closed from three to four-thirty on Saturdays. I'm in the league myself. Ron" He held out his hand.

Harry took it gratefully. "Nice to meet you."

"Same. Do you get a chance to do much flying? What position do you reckon your wanting?"

They chatted casually about the sport and Ron offered him some tips about when and where he could practice closer to home as well and gave him the times of the older league practices and what each of the levels were called. Harry picked up a few extra of the treacle tarts, which he learned were made by the Weasley Matriarch, for he and Sirius to eat after tea and left as the kids practice was ending which had the deli quickly picking up business with the parents.

Harry headed back towards the pitch to see some of the older kids had started their practice and were learning more advanced tricks. He took a seat in the stand to observe for a bit and almost dropped his take-away cup when he realized one of the coaches was her.

Four weekends in a row, four completely different locations and reasons, and he kept coming across her.

She was wearing a pale blue jersey that read 'Coach' on the back and showing a group of six how to do a barrel roll. She kept whistling and clapping her praise when they made it through an attempt and pumped two fists in the air when one of them demonstrated it perfectly.

After a few minutes she got a new rotation of kids and performed the move again for them, training them to do it as well. She gave the kids all high fives and hugged one of them. She looked like she was really enjoying herself.

She must have felt his eyes on her because she looked over to near where he was and searched the stand until her eyes landed on him and she paused, staring.

He gave her a shy smile and a pathetic wave. Being here like this now, he worried that he might come across as a stalker sitting up here and watching her. He didn't even have a kid, he was just watching them practice.

That was so creepy.

But if he got up and left now it would look like he just got caught doing something wrong and possibly look even worse.

She said something to her group of kids and flew over to him. He sucked in a breath and stood up to stand at the edge and greet her.

"Hi." He said lamely.

"Hello yourself." She smiled. "What brings you here this early on a Saturday?"

"Uh. Coffee?" He held up his cup jokingly.

She snickered. "Well, they do have the best. And always fresh. But really. Why are you watching a kids Quidditch practice?"

"Yeah." He said ashamed. "I may have only just realized how creepy this might be, but I actually didn't know what time the adults played. I was looking to watch and maybe find out my skill level." Her eyebrows went up in surprise. "Just trying to not be a mess anymore." He told her honestly.

A slow and soft smile came to her face. There was this look in her eyes that told her she very much approved of his efforts, but she said nothing about it. She licked her lips and looked back to where her group were doing the rolls. She needed to get back to them. She turned back to him. "Come back around one. That's when the older leagues start up." She told him. "Sorry. I have to get back." She gave him one more smile before heading back down to the kids.

Then he was kicking himself because he didn't get her name again. He'd heard some very odd names throughout the magical world, but Agony had not been one of them, and he was sure it was just some kind of nickname or toddler babble.

He walked down the steps from the stands and thought over everything he did know about her. She had a niece named Victoire, she had a brother, she didn't like champagne, and she coached little league Quidditch. And she was beautiful in dress or a Quidditch jersey, whenever she licked her lips they would get this enticing sheen to them and look subtly fuller, and when she scowled there was this adorable little 'v' shape in between her eyebrows.

He really liked her. This was the first time he'd ever really liked anyone and thinking about her was making his hands tingle slightly with excitement.

At the bottom of the stairs he hesitated. Torn between wanting to stay and maybe talk to her after their practice or leave and come back later when she might be playing the game herself.

In the end he left, hoping that she'd be in one of the recreational leagues later that day.