It's Sunday again and it's time for another chapter. Thanks to those that left reviews and favoured the story. I enjoy reading them and try taking on some things that work with the story, if I didn't include them already that is.

I hope you are all safe and wish you to stay healthy.

The Burrow

Harry looked forward to meeting his best friend again. And the prospect of being able to just spend time with normal activities like playing Quidditch, going swimming and playing games with the Weasley children was wonderful. He knew that he needed to take his potions for the next one and a half weeks, as Madam Pomfrey insisted on getting a few deficiencies he still had from his childhood corrected, as he had never got to eat as much as he would have wanted to, but she was sure she could still do so, as they had got to him in time. It was much harder after a child entered puberty.

Older Harry drove the car from a spot where they couldn't be seen when the car appeared from thin air over the bridge over the river Otter towards the Burrow. They could see the strange house from a distance away.

"It's certainly a house with a personality," Older Harry commented.

"I think it's really cool. Totally different to the sameness that is at Privet Drive," Harry replied.

"Well, I can't argue with that," Older Harry chuckled, "Those houses that looked all the same were boring."

Harry nodded, happily grinning that he didn't have to return there. Madam Pomfrey had absolutely forbidden it. While he didn't know yet what would happen in the future, he was free of any Dursleys. And, as Mrs Weasley had agreed to take some money for housing him, not as much as he had wanted to pay her, but enough that he didn't feel bad or in any way obligated to do anything beyond behaving for the Weasleys as a proper house guest, he was really looking forward to the coming weeks.

"I hope we get to play a lot of Quidditch," Harry stated.

"I'm sure you can do that. It could also be nice to explore the village here. It seems like a nice, small place," Older Harry suggested.

"True. Oh, and thank you for telling me that Ron's sister had her birthday coming up. I would have felt bad if I didn't have any kind of present for her. I hope she likes the kitten I got her. Are you sure that it's okay that it stays with your wife until the day before the birthday?" Harry asked.

Older Harry had told Harry that Ginny's birthday was coming up and that girls tended to like cuddly pets. As there was a cat in Hogsmeade that had had kittens a few weeks ago and the owner of the cat needed to find good families for them, and was giving them out for free, Harry had decided to take one of the kittens for Ginny. The Weasleys couldn't complain about a pet that hadn't cost Harry anything. He knew how Ron took it whenever Harry spent a lot of money for anything. Overly expensive presents always made him awkward. And he knew from Ron that the Weasleys couldn't really afford to buy a pet for any of the children. The family owl wasn't that old for no reason. But, like an owl, a cat would be able to hunt for itself, next to getting some kibble. And that could be bought cheaply in the muggle or magical world.

His shopping trip to get some proper clothes had gone off without any trouble. Mrs Peverell had been too busy with her studies to accompany them and they had been done with all their purchases after an hour. Mr Peverell had taken him to a shop in Silver Street, which was one of the side streets off of Diagon Alley, where a number of reasonably priced shops were located that sold things of good quality to normal prices. Older Harry had told his younger counterpart about other streets as well, which catered to different clientele. Diagon Alley was the main street with shops that sold things that were mostly needed for the Hogwarts students, next to being useful in general, like the apothecary selling potions and ingredients for them, the bookstore, the bank, Ollivander's and Madam Malkin's.

But other places sold a wider range of certain products. There was Opal Alley, which was where the high society and really rich people went shopping. There was Espen Alley, where a lot of muggleborns had set up shops and sold things that combined the best of the two worlds, and Harry would go there before the next school year started with his future head of house to buy a few more things, like training clothes for Quidditch and simple running, curiosities that came from cleaning out houses of people that died without heirs and proper writing equipment. Older Harry had found out about Espen Alley in the future and knew that it was set up because the Ministry refused to give business permissions to muggleborns that wanted to have their shops in Diagon Alley or one of the 'higher ranking' places.

Thus, they went there, and their shops were insider tips. One could get a lot of good things there to low prices most of the times. For wizard wear that would be respected by everybody at Hogwarts it wasn't too well-suited, but for anything else, well, Harry was fully in favour of screwing certain bigots over. And Ginny had asked him to buy a few sets of the 'Guide to Potions Brewing – From Beginner to Master' series. The curiosities shop had found the full set, a true treasure and highly sought-after series for serious potion brewers, while cleaning out a house and had used muggle ways, meaning a computer and some good, old fashioned typing and inserting the illustrations onto the pages, to create as many copies as they wanted.

Hogwarts only had one copy, which was kept inside the restricted section, as the books were too expensive to be allowed outside of the library. The new books were printed on normal paper, instead of parchment, and bound in paperbacks. The production was cheap, and the books were sold with a profit of two galleons per book. With one galleon being fifty Pounds, the shop made good money on them. Especially as, after the initial copying of the book, they only had to reprint as many copies as they needed, all at the price of the paperback, paper and ink. Older Harry and Ginny had found out about them being sold there coincidentally during one of the secret dates, where they simply went in disguise to explore all side alleys of Diagon.

And Ginny had decided that the students of Hogwarts would profit a lot from having the series around in numbers that allowed them to borrow one for a week at a time. She would also order the books for any student that wanted to have his own copy. Though she would mainly stock up on the first two volumes. The last one was meant to support those that aimed for a mastery in Potions and already had achieved journeyman level. She would keep three of them on hand for the really serious students of the subject, but both Peverells knew that the first two volumes would suffice for the majority of the students. Knowing where to get them cheap, compared to what other shops demanded, was certainly an advantage. Harry would strike a deal with the owner of the shop to set up an owl order service for Hogwarts students. It would bring the shop much more business. Most purebloods avoided Espen Alley after all, if they even knew it existed, and a lot of halfbloods didn't go there either. Mostly because they didn't know about it.

The two had also decided to see what other books they could get that way. It would be a shame to let the pureblood extremists and traditionalists keep their society back, simply because they didn't want to share that kind of knowledge with muggleborns and halfbloods. Perhaps Dumbledore would even agree to a cooperation of the Hogwarts library to replace old books and get larger numbers of them, in exchange for giving the shop the original books as the base. Hogwarts had a famous library after all, and many of their books weren't in print anymore. He would have to suggest it to the old man when he got back there.

Finally, they reached the Burrow. Mrs Weasley was already exiting the house, calling out to Ron that Harry had arrived. Older Harry opened the door on his right and got out of the car, with Harry soon following him to get his trunk and Hedwig's cage.

"Mrs Weasley, I'm Harold Peverell, the new head of Gryffindor House from next school year on and I'm going to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts," Older Harry introduced himself.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor Peverell," Mrs Weasley replied.

"Hi, Harry, hello Professor," Ron greeted, "Come on, Harry, I'll show you where you sleep. We set up a camping bed in my room. It's great to have you here. But we were really surprised when Mum told us why you hadn't been answering the letters I sent you. Ruddy muggles."

"Thanks, Ron," Harry replied, a smile on his face, "I'm really grateful that your parents agreed to let me stay for the rest of the summer break. With me getting away from my relatives, Professor Dumbledore first needs to find a permanent place for me to stay and he said that he would manage to do so before the next summer break. And I stay at Hogwarts during the breaks during the school year anyway. Mrs Weasley, thank you for allowing this."

"You're very welcome, dear," She replied, "Why don't you and Ron go to his room while I talk to your teacher?"

"Sure, Mum," Ron agreed, and Harry followed him, after Older Harry had told him to get the luggage later.

Mrs Weasley led Older Harry into the orchard to talk in private.

"How bad are things really?" Mrs Weasley asked.

"It was a good thing I went to his relatives' house when I did, as he had only been given next to nothing to eat for two days. A lucky coincidence that we didn't get the needed reply for the form we sent with his Hogwarts letter. Still, they didn't feed him properly before that and Madam Pomfrey detected near malnutrition and severe lack of proteins in his diet. I don't know if Ron told you, but Harry was seriously sick at the end of the school year and should have been eating properly to recover from that. Going by what she told me, his muscles were basically used and reduced by his magic to supply him with the needed proteins for keeping his body functioning. Thankfully, it didn't go as far as using the bones.

"I'm going to also come and visit him to help him deal with the emotional damage that was caused to him. Madam Pomfrey said that once a week would be enough over the summer break and I will continue that once the school year starts again. As his new head of house, I would be the one best suited for the job, not to mention that I had some training in psychology. He needs to take nutrient potions and a potion that rebuilds his muscles. It shouldn't take too long, as we caught it just in time," Older Harry explained the situation.

"That's really bad. I will definitely make sure he takes the potions," She promised.

"I would also like to talk to the ones among your children that are closest to him in age. Those being Ron, the twins and Ginny from what Professor Dumbledore told me. I don't think Percy had a lot of contact to Harry during the school year, and he wouldn't be interested in spending time with a child four years younger than him normally. But the twins are on the Quidditch team with him, as far as Professor McGonagall told me what I should be aware of when I take over from her, and Ron is his closest friend according to Harry," Older Harry stated.

He knew that he had to make sure that things went well. He knew that leaving Harry with the Weasleys bore some risk, but currently, there wasn't a better option to let him stay for the remainder of the summer break. He and his wife simply had too much left to do before the school year started again and they didn't have a house of their own yet. And Harry couldn't stay at Hogwarts during the summer break. While he was highly aware how the Weasleys had opposed his and Ginny's relationship, as well as meddling in his life in case of especially Percy and Ron when they were older, right now, Percy hadn't started at the Ministry yet, thus he wouldn't begin his agenda yet.

And this offered the chance for a better start for his and Ginny's younger selves. It was a main reason why he wanted to speak to all the younger Weasley children to not have them act negatively. His younger self needed time to heal and friends he could have a normal summer break experience with. No matter what he knew about the future, right now, it would help Harry to stay at the Burrow. And with him keeping an eye on things, he could prevent that unwanted developments took place.

"Yes, that would probably be a good idea. Children can be unintentionally hurtful if they try talking about topics that are sensitive," She nodded, bringing his thoughts back to the conversation, "I will call them. Do you think it would be better talking to them together or one by one? The twins are real mischief makers; I just warn you."

"I can deal with that and I already got a warning from my new colleagues," Older Harry replied, "I think the twins together would work and then Ron and Ginny on their own each. By the way, what is your daughter's reaction to Harry's fame? I need to take that into consideration when I talk to her. Simply because Harry doesn't like it at all."

"Well, she did grow up admiring the brave Harry Potter. I know she had a crush on the story hero when she was younger, but I'm not sure how she would react to the real person. Normally she is a very bright girl that doesn't let her brothers get her down, even if I wish she would be more ladylike. Well, perhaps when she grows older," Mrs Weasley answered.

"Okay, I will explain to her then that, if she wants to help Harry deal with what happened, she should simply think of him as a different Harry Potter than the one in the stories," Older Harry said, repeating something his wife had told him how she got over her crush on a non-existent person and fell for the real one.

Mrs Weasley nodded and went back into the house to see who she could bring out first. She would of course stay around, as she didn't really know him, but, as he didn't plan to talk about delicate topics anyway, that wasn't a problem. The one she found first was Ginny and Older Harry smiled when she looked at him questioningly.

"Hello, Ginny," He greeted her.

God, she had been so cute when she was this age. He only hoped his younger self would smarten up about her earlier than he had done. Though in his defence, he had been hindered.

"Hello, Professor, Mum said you wanted to talk to me?" Ginny asked.

"Yes, that's right. I'm Harold Peverell, your brothers' future head of house at Hogwarts, and possibly yours, should you follow them into Gryffindor. You see, I brought Harry Potter here to live with your family for the rest of the month and I wanted to explain a few things to you children that are closest to him in age, as something happened," Older Harry started.

"Something bad? I mean, I heard that Ron told Mum and Dad that he didn't get any answers from Harry to his letters," Ginny asked.

"Very perceptive. You are right. Harry lived with his muggle relatives and they have a strong dislike for magic. They locked up Harry's owl and he couldn't use her to send any letters, next to a house elf stealing any letters he got, but the reason for that isn't really important for now. Professor Dumbledore is already looking into the matter. Fact is that Harry's relatives were really nasty to him over the summer break, while he lived there, and he got health problems from it," Harry started.

"But, why didn't he defend himself against the muggles? He's Harry Potter," Ginny asked.

"Ginny, this Harry isn't the story book Harry Potter. This Harry is a normal boy, who hasn't had a good life so far. All those story books about heroic deeds done by Harry Potter aren't true. Some authors made them up. Like the tales of Beedle the Bard. They are great stories, but just that, stories. Some of Beedle's stories have a true story as the base but have been spun to be more interesting. Think about it like this. The Harry Potter that is going to stay here for the next month just coincidentally has the same name as the story book hero. He likes playing Quidditch and flying for fun, as far as I was told by Professor McGonagall he flies really well, he dislikes being nagged to do his homework, and doesn't want to be a burden for anybody. What he needs are friends that can see that he isn't that fairy tale hero, just Harry," Older Harry explained.

"But Ron told me about the thing with the stone at the end of their last school year," Ginny replied, confused about what she was told.

"Harry definitely is brave, but he isn't all powerful. What I would like you to do is not thinking about him as somebody you think you know. Just see him as what he is. A boy you are just meeting, who is your brother's best friend and who might be in the same house as you, if you follow your brothers into Gryffindor on the first of September. He could become a good friend to you too. Your older twin brothers are his friends as well, from being on the same team," Older Harry said.

"Okay, while it is strange, I will try to do that. It would be nice to already have a friend when I start at Hogwarts," Ginny decided.

"That's a good idea. Thank you, Ginny," Older Harry nodded with a smile.

Mrs Weasley smiled at the way her daughter interacted with the young teacher. She thought he would be a good one, going by how he interacted with children, as far as she had seen so far.

"Why don't you go back inside, Ginny? Now that you know what's going on, you can see if you can get to know Harry better. And please don't ask him too much about how his relatives treated him. He doesn't like talking about that and will do so when he's ready, not when others want him to."

"I will do that, sir," Ginny promised.

"Do you know where the twins are?" Mrs Weasley asked.

"I think they wanted to go swimming and went to get changed," Ginny answered, "Though they might have stopped to greet Harry."

"Then I better catch them now, before I have to drag them away from the pond," Mrs Weasley decided and Older Harry was left alone until she returned with the twins.

He talked to them for a while, explained what had happened and what Harry needed during the month he spent here at the Burrow. The twins, for once not joking around, promised to look out for him and to distract him whenever he was down too much. They also offered to just take the trunk up to Ron's room and get him down for his conversation with Older Harry. The talk with Ron went similarly, even if Older Harry could already detect some of that constant jealousy that Ron showed. He didn't like that Harry got special treatment, but right now he was friend enough to accept that it was needed.

All in all, Older Harry was satisfied and certain enough that the month would go well. He bid his goodbye to the Weasleys and Harry and agreed upon a date when he would come for Harry's first session with him.

Harry had a good first week at the Weasley home. He got to finally just enjoy his break from school. It had been a bit strange at the beginning, when the Weasley siblings gave him certain looks, but they soon got over that and simply treated him like anybody else. Mrs Weasley made sure he took his potions in the mornings and evenings. The first three days he just had fun, after that he set two hours each morning aside to get his homework done, as he didn't want to slack off on his education. Now, when he was finally free to do what he wanted, he wanted to be the best he could be. The Sorting Hat had been right, he wanted to prove himself.

He hadn't known during the last year what to do exactly, as he didn't want to imagine what his relatives would do if he excelled at his studies. He didn't really think they would want to see his report cards, but he could never know when a stupid idea struck their minds and they would use old arguments, like him cheating with his freakishness to be better than Dudley. Not to mention that, what with Ron not liking to study and Hermione always studying too much, he hadn't really known how to act. The talks with the two Peverells had helped him get some things into perspective. It was his life and he had to do what he felt was right. And if his friends couldn't take it, then it stood to question if they were really his friends.

Ron had declared him barmy for wasting the time, as there was plenty of time left of the summer break to get things done, but the twins had simply shrugged and commented that it was his decision if he wanted to get it out of the way and that it had to be finished some time. They were halfway through theirs; which Ron had asked them when they had made that comment. It led to Ron getting a tirade from his mother about finally starting his homework, which made him retreat and grumble about unfairness. Instead of him, Ginny was around, wanting to know a few things about what had been taught during their previous school year. Harry easily took to the one-year younger girl and told her about the classes, which parts he liked more than others and how he wished to have a better Potions teacher, as the subject itself was interesting, but the teacher sucked.

After the stories her older brothers had told her about Snape, she could fully agree with that sentiment. As Ron didn't come down from his brooding by the time Harry finished his Herbology homework, he offered to accompany Ginny into the village to buy some meat for the next few days. He hadn't been there so far, and it would be interesting to see what was there. Mrs Weasley had easily agreed to that, as the village was very peaceful and totally safe for them to go there on their own. It was a fifteen minutes' walk to the outer parts. Ginny told Harry some stories about often coming down here with her Mum to buy one thing or the other. They kept a small stock of muggle money just for this purpose. While there were other magical families living around, it wasn't a majority and they had to blend in with the muggles.

She showed him the grocer's, the butcher's, where they bought a good number of sausages, a roast and some bacon for breakfast, the baker's and a small wizarding shop that was hidden from the muggles that sold drinks like butterbeer and firewhiskey for example, next to normal things like pumpkin juice. Harry asked why there weren't any shops like wizarding greengrocers, as he hadn't seen anything of the kind in Diagon Alley, but Ginny explained that those shops weren't prestigious enough to be in a place like Diagon. Most of them were led by muggleborns and squibs. Some magical families ran large farms for animals and other food, which magical families could order their food from, but often things were cheaper to be bought from muggles. And the shops for food in the wizarding world were normally at the farms themselves.

In Ottery St. Catchpole there were a playground and a football field, which had some of the village's children playing on it. It was a nice little village and many people greeted Ginny by name, clearly knowing her well. It was a bit surprising for Harry, as the Weasleys didn't know much about muggles, but he liked the idea of growing up in a nice village. He wondered where his parents had lived. He would have to see if he could find out.

All in all, the trip had been quite nice and had served to make Ginny see that her future teacher had been right about Harry being nothing like the storybook hero. Thinking about them as two different persons that just coincidentally shared the same name would be the best thing to do. The real Harry could be shy, clueless about girls, resigned to having to do his homework, but also wanting to do his best and didn't like having to take bad tasting potions. A normal boy.

Harry stood at the Quidditch pitch of the Weasleys, which was surrounded by high hedges to not let the muggles see anything strange going on.

"While we can't play with real bludgers or a snitch, as they might escape and that would be bad, we can play with a quaffle and just have fun," George explained how they normally played.

"Makes sense. I never really played chaser much during training," Harry told them.

"Yeah, not surprising with how Olli conducts our training. It would be better if we had some experience in at least one alternate position, just in case we need to replace an injured player. Had we had a replacement seeker, we wouldn't have lost the last match against Ravenclaw as badly as we did," Fred agreed.

"We should really suggest that at the beginning of the year," Harry suggested.

"We should. I really want to win that cup next year. Thank goodness that Ravenclaw won and not Slytherin. Thanks to the high win they got against us, they were better in the points. The cheating tactics of Slytherin really should be punished harsher," George commented.

"Hardly with Snape being in charge of the house," Fred sighs.

"So, how do we play?" Harry asked, "I mean, we are five people to play, as Percy didn't want to."

"Five?" Ron asked, "What are you talking about? We are four."

"Well, the twins, you, Ginny and I make five," Harry simply replied.

"Ginny can't play," Ron stated.

"Who says that?" Harry asked, not impressed by that attitude.

"She's a girl and never flew on a broom," Ron answered.

Harry looked at Ginny, who looked furious at this behaviour.

"Care to prove him wrong? I saw you fly the other morning," Harry asked her and held out his broom.

"Gladly," Ginny took him up on the offer, grabbed both the broom and the quaffle and kicked off the ground, her long, red hair flying behind her from the wind.

She proceeded to speed over the field, the quaffle firmly under her arm, throwing with dead accuracy at the hoops that were placed at the end of the pitch, then flying some loops before diving down before stopping accurately before her brothers, a triumphant smirk on her face.

"I so wanted to show them up, thank you, Harry. They have never let me play with them, no matter how often I asked them to join," Ginny told him.

"You're welcome. Well, guys, how will we play, as the argument that Ginny can't fly clearly holds no weight here," Harry turned to the three stunned redheaded boys.

"Damn, Forge," One twin, Harry thought it was Fred, said, "Little firefly can fly for real."

"She has got the good Weasley Quidditch genes, Gred" George agreed, "Well, chaser passing would work."

"Yeah, Ron plays keeper most of the time, so we could work on attacking in pairs and he tries to keep his hoops clean," Fred nodded along.

"Okay, sounds like a good idea," Harry agreed.

They paired up and challenged Ron, who tried to keep the hoops clean. First the twins were up, then Harry and Ginny, and then they switched around to have all kinds of possible combinations to not give Ron time to get used to one attack combination too much. In the end, they had all had a lot of fun when Mrs Weasley called them inside for dinner. And the three boys had to admit, their little sister was a serious candidate for the Gryffindor Quidditch team once a spot for chaser was open. And Ron could be a possible replacement for Wood after he graduated in two years. Both just needed a bit more training.

Older Harry looked over his new classroom. He and Dumbledore had joined forces with Snape to search the school from top to bottom, and the even lower levels to find out how Voldemort had managed to curse the DADA position. The answer was finally found, after two weeks of searching everything, by inspecting the secured diadem horcrux. They had refrained from destroying it yet, as they wanted to know if there was more to it. Right now, the diadem sat inside an iron tin on Harry's desk.

"This is how he did it, Albus," Harry told the old headmaster, "I wondered why there wasn't any real protection around this horcrux, now I know. Voldemort used the diadem to manipulate the wards around the school to place a subtle curse on the one taking on the DADA position. The one being cursed would be unable to come back for a second year in the position, one way or the other. And the thing is tricky enough to not let it happen by the same way more than twice. Really impressive magic."

"But how would he have managed to interweave the curse into the wards? And why did it never show up when we searched for a curse in the past?" Dumbledore asked.

"The magic of Rowena Ravenclaw, who designed the wards together with Salazar Slytherin. Any addition to the wards with their magical signatures, which is present in the diadem and the descendants of their lines, would never be noticed as harmful, as long as it wasn't registered as a curse. The diadem exudes Rowena's magic and Voldemort is a descendant of Salazar. Combined that would be enough, especially if he let it happen over time. From what I get, this is basically an extremely complicated charm, not a curse. Curses by their definition cause harm directly or when triggered. Didn't you tell me that at the beginning the reasons for the teachers not returning were mostly benign? Like becoming pregnant or returning to the DMLE for their normal jobs after being healed from an injury?" Harry asked.

"Of course, I never considered that it might have something to do with a curse. It wasn't like a curse effect after all," Dumbledore acknowledged.

"Going by what I found in your files on my predecessors, about seventy-five percent had perfectly harmless reasons to leave. Only when I was a student, the reasons became worse. Remus was actually the one that got hit the least," Harry informed the headmaster.

"I agree, but the new position you found for him will be much better for him in the long run. Working at an apothecary that is supplied by Hogwarts will give him some protection and financial safety. Not to mention allow him to see your younger self during the Hogsmeade weekends. It was really a shame that the Ministry barred him from ever seeing you while you grew up," Dumbledore sighed, "He was destroyed by not even being able to visit you for your birthdays."

"I know, I found out when I was sixteen and got him drunk," Harry nodded, "He was in a really bad place after Sirius' death. Thankfully, we can prevent that it gets to that point this time around."

"Yes, it's a blessing," Dumbledore agreed, "I have already set the trap for Pettigrew. As he is not going to accompany Mr Weasley to the feast, the house elves will take him, like the normal pets, to Gryffindor Tower, where the new animagus detection ward will identify him and send him into a cell down in the dungeons. And I really need to have a serious word with him about sleeping in the same room as underage boys."

"Ugh, did you have to give me that mental image, Albus? I was one of those boys," Harry shuddered, wanting to bleach his mind from that image.

"All the worse," Dumbledore commented, "So, how will we lift the spellwork? Does destroying the horcrux do the trick, or do we need to unravel it first?" He waved his wand in complicated patterns over the diadem.

Harry left Dumbledore to do this, as he was far more experienced in obscure kinds of magic than him. Finally, Dumbledore nodded.

"Very tricky. Tom even weaved the curse into a net of other spells. This was the horcrux that was destroyed with fiendfire last time, wasn't it?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, Crabbe decided that it was a good idea to try and kill Ron, Hermione and myself by setting it off, but he couldn't control it. He killed himself and nearly got Malfoy and Goyle killed as well, but we saved them from their deaths in the flames," Harry nodded.

"Well, as he probably used the Room of Requirement to start the curse being taken into the wards, it would have, by default, cancelled the magic powering the curse. But I don't want to take that kind of drastic action. We should be good if we unravel the spell net. I haven't had such a challenge for at least thirty years. If only Tom hadn't gone dark," Dumbledore sighed and then started working, using spells that Harry had only heard of before, but never seen being used for real. They were obscure spells, not commonly useful.

He needed to work concentrated for two hours, then he lowered his wand and sat down.

"Well, this would have been much easier in my youth. Really a work of art, even if a twisted one. This should ensure that you get to stay as DADA teacher, Harry," Dumbledore said, "Now we only need to destroy the horcrux itself."

"Some basilisk venom will do the trick, Albus," Harry commented.

"True, but a real shame that these founder artefacts are irreplaceably lost to us. And all just because of one man's greed," Dumbledore sighed, "Well, nothing to do for it."

He took a small vial with dark violet liquid in it out and uncorked the vial. Then he carefully let a few drops fall onto the diadem, which immediately started to smoke and exude a horrible scream, until a cloud of black smoke broke out and with a final scream the soul piece was destroyed.

"Well, another one down. Now we just need to get the others. The locket will be ours to get as soon as Sirius is free again, he should also be able to get into Bellatrix's vault for the cup. We already dealt with the ring in the Gaunt Shack and the diadem. The diary will come to us when Malfoy places it with Ginny again and there is no reason for him not to do so. Nothing changed in that regard," Harry commented.

"Very true. I'm just relieved that we already killed the basilisk. I don't ever want to relive the horrors of the time fifty years ago," Dumbledore shuddered at the memory.

"Me neither. Well, I'm going to continue working on the changes to the Gryffindor common room. I want everything ready when the students come back," Harry stated.

"Not to mention that your wife is busy, and you would otherwise be bored," Dumbledore chuckled.

"Hey, I have every right to feel that way. Ginny and I could never truly enjoy our relationship fully, simply because too many interfered. All of my supposed closest friends and her family tried to prevent our being together. It was seriously frustrating. The fact that we now have to let her get her mastery in Potions for the next year to work out only cuts our time together short again. I know why it is necessary, but that doesn't mean I have to like it," Harry gave back, "We didn't even have the time for a proper honeymoon vacation."

Dumbledore just gave him a smile with his trademark twinkling eyes.

Ginny looked at the changes her husband had made to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"You have been really bored, haven't you, Harry?" She asked while looking around.

"Well, you weren't there, so I decided to work on this project instead. After all, we are stuck on the horcrux front until the diary is out of Malfoy's hands and the locket can stay at Grimmauld Place until Sirius is free again, which requires capturing Pettigrew," Harry answered, "While we now have basilisk venom available, Kreacher would give us trouble, as he has tried to fulfil Regulus' last orders. He wouldn't acknowledge that I have a claim to the house and its contents, as he doesn't know me. And with Sirius still alive, the magic is muddled there."

"I'm really glad that I'm done with the mastery tests now. It was really a lot of hard work to get ready for them, but I certainly am incredibly happy with the results," She told him.

"And I'm incredibly proud of you," Harry stated, kissing her long and passionately.

Before they could get too heated, Harry pulled back.

"While I would love fulfilling one of my old dreams and making love to you in front of the fire of the common room, we sadly are expected at the staff meeting. And it starts in ten minutes. By far not enough time," Harry sighed.

"We definitely have to remedy that later. But for now, we must go. Duty calls," Ginny agreed unhappily, "But I want you to know that tonight you are mine, Harry Peverell. Mine alone and Albus can hang himself if he needs something."

"Yes, love," Harry nodded, fully in agreement.

They left the common room, promising themselves to soon have that session in front of the fire. They would have to do so before the students returned after all and it were only five days left until the first of September.

Harry had made a good deal of progress in the sessions with his younger self. He was slowly understanding that a lot of things that he subconsciously did had to change. He had already seen that he didn't need to hold back anymore and that he could be himself. But it took time to change old habits, like always fading into the background and not speaking his mind. Had he done that while the Dursleys were around, he would have been in for a world of pain.

He also needed to start trusting that he could approach adults with a problem and leave them to deal with things. Not really that easy, as the very few times he had tried, he had been disappointed, not the least over the attempt to warn McGonagall that the Stone was in danger of being stolen. She hadn't believed him then, and it had been another nail into the coffin of his trust in adults. Older Harry's way of talking to Harry about things, letting him tell what he was comfortable with and not pressing when Harry wasn't willing to talk, evened the path. It would still take lots of sessions to manage a somewhat better mental state.

Thankfully, Older Harry knew that this year one stress inducing factor would be gone, in form of Snape not teaching anymore, and more positive support would be in place. Not only for Harry, but for all the students at Hogwarts.

And another chapter done. Until next time.