Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself in her books.

LOVE CONQUERS ALL

Chapter 1 Beginnings

Harry was chuckling quietly to himself, which was not a thing he normally did when in the company of the Dursleys these of course were his obnoxious relatives from Little Whinging in Surrey. The expressions on their faces when they had been confronted by several Order members at Kings Cross station had been priceless, however he still had serious doubts about the long term effect of the encounter.

Of course, as we all know, he was Harry Potter a young wizard in training, returning for his summer Holidays after his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The trip from Kings Cross Station to Little Whinging had been unusual and it had taken him some time to fully comprehend what was causing the incongruity. The factor that had been missing was the abuse he normally received, in fact the Dursleys had not spoken to him at all and this in every way he could think of had been an improvement over previous years. He had reached the conclusion that it was the words of warning, which were actually no less than thinly veiled threats, that had been issued by the members of the Order of the Phoenix were the most significant reason for this improvement.

When the car had arrived at number four Privet Drive the Dursleys had gone straight indoors, this had left Harry to struggle with getting his trunk out of the car boot and upstairs to his room, at least this bit had been back to normal. Harry looked slowly around his depressing room, maybe the pile of unread books had grown slightly in his absence but nothing else appeared to have changed appreciably since he had left it the previous summer.

He opened his trunk and started rooting among spell books, pointed hats, robes and other wizarding paraphernalia to find ink, quills and parchment. Then he sat at his desk and wrote an order for the wizarding newspaper, 'The Daily Prophet,' he wanted it to be delivered to him, until the end of the school holidays.

He opened the cage of 'Hedwig' his Snowy owl and tied the order to her leg with the payment for the ten weeks of his vacation, then sent her off to deliver it to the newspaper's subscription office. Once again this year, he was going to at least try and keep up with what was going on in the wizarding world during the holidays, maybe the Ministry of Magic would allow something interesting to be reported.

A short while later Harry went downstairs to the kitchen, his aunt Petunia was alone preparing dinner and she looked at him with a face like a constipated Grindylow then said quite abruptly, "What was that all that rubbish about, at the station?"

Harry poured himself some cold water from the fridge whilst he contemplated his reply, "Well I've not had too good a time of it lately. A few weeks ago quite a few of us had a battle with Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters and although we won, some of our good friends were killed and injured. So I guess those guardians who spoke to you at the station, don't want me to become too upset because they are not quite sure how I might react."

"Just what are Death Eaters?" she demanded.

"They are evil people who are sworn to help Voldemort regain power and kill all Muggles," said Harry in a quite off hand manner.

"Oh, I remember that, a bit," said his aunt and she went back to preparing dinner, Harry was slightly puzzled over just what his aunt was implying by this remark, but did not say anything more about it.

Dinner was eaten in stony silence, however there was a slight improvement this year, it appeared that Dudley was off his ultra-strict diet, so at least there was a reasonable amount of food on the table.

The next morning at about seven Harry was woken up by a thump on the head. He reached out groggily and found his glasses, putting them on and looking around he realised that the rude awakening had been caused by a Daily Prophet delivery owl, dropping his copy of the newspaper on his head.

He picked up the paper without glancing at it and put it on his desk then went to the bathroom for a shower, before dressing and going downstairs to get himself something for breakfast.

When he sat down Dudley, who in all honestly, didn't look any thinner this year than last, asked him how he was feeling, he could tell his uncle Vernon was listening because he had the newspaper he was supposedly reading upside down. Harry told Dudley that he wasn't too bad so then he poured himself some orange juice and had a few pieces of toast with cheese for his breakfast.

Whilst Harry was eating his breakfast uncle Vernon made a big fuss about going off to work, he did not usually work on weekends except during the periods that Dudley was on a diet.

When Harry had finished his breakfast he asked his aunt if the garden needed weeding, she told him that it did and also the grass needed cutting but that Dudley could do that, it would do him good. The look on Dudley's face was incredulous, he obviously didn't believe that the words 'cutting grass' and 'do him good' belonged in the same book, let alone sentence.

By about ten thirty Harry had finished the weeding, he was about to go up stairs to get his newspaper to read in the garden, but Dudley stopped him and asked if they could talk for a bit. Harry was surprised, he couldn't remember Dudley ever having asked to talk to him before. He agreed but said that he needed a drink, so they both went into the kitchen and his aunt Petunia made them all a cup of tea, then Dudley asked him what had really happened in the alley the year before.

Harry looked over to his aunt who was sitting at the kitchen table with them, "Would you like me to explain as much as I can?" he asked her and she agreed.

He first thing that he told them was that now he knew a lot more about what had really been going on last summer than he had done at the time it was all happening to him. Harry then explained about why the Minister for Magic had wanted him out of the way and he told them that the Chief Assistant to the Minister for Magic had, without orders, sent the Dementors deliberately to get him. He continued by explaining to them, as best he could, what Dementors appeared to be and how they affected nearly everybody's mind. He told Dudley what they had been about to do to him, Dudley shuddered and looked ashen but he was nodding, Harry asked his aunt if she could make them all some hot chocolate.

"Why?" She snapped, obviously the don't ask rule was still in full working order.

"Because it helps with the stress that the Dementors cause," he told her.

His aunt made them all some and when they all started drinking it they began to feel better, "Why didn't you tell us about this when we needed it last summer?" she whinged.

"Well, things weren't quite tranquil enough for me to think straight then , were they?" Harry replied shortly, then went on to describe to them the expulsion hearing he had, had to undergo for saving Dudley's life, by using magic out of school and in front of a muggle, now both Petunia and Dudley looked disgusted.

Pondering this conversation later, Harry began to wonder if this talk might, to some degree, clear the air somewhat and to some extent relieve a little of the customary tension in the house.

The next day Harry wrote a letter to Professor Dumbledore asking if he could take a trip to Diagon Alley, he explained that he needed to withdraw some money from his Gringotts Wizarding Bank vault, because he wanted to buy himself some decent muggle clothes. He spent the rest of the day reading his newspaper and resting, he had no homework because the OWLs were finished and he did not know if he would qualify for NEWTS, or indeed what NEWTS he would be allowed to take.

In the late afternoon, Hedwig returned with the reply, the Headmaster had agreed to allow him to take his trip out, the letter went on to say that Tonks would come at ten the following morning to take him to Diagon Alley and to look after him. The Headmaster also suggested that whilst he was in Diagon Alley he should buy himself some formal dress robes, Harry thought that this was a most peculiar request, but then in all truth, he was a most peculiar Headmaster.

Harry went down stairs and told his aunt that he would be going out, after breakfast the next day, she obviously did not mind because she would not have to get him any food the following day.

Shortly before ten, the following morning, there was a knock on the front door and Dudley went to answer it, it was Tonks, today she still had her bubble gum pink, spiky hair but her T-shirt proclaimed that Dylan was God, she had skin tight faded jeans, a small satchel type bag and trainers completed her totally muggle look.

"Hi Dudders," she said "is Harry baby ready?" Dudley was flabbergasted.

"Yes I am," called Harry coming down the stairs, Tonks came into the hall, shutting the front door.

"Where did you get her?" said Dudley, pointing at Tonks and looking slightly bewildered.

"She's my prettiest bodyguard," said Harry, smiling at her.

Tonks immediately gave Harry a big sloppy kiss and said, "There you go Harry," to which Harry's reply was to turn bright red. "We are going by Portkey," she then added "shall we go up to your room?"

"And just why do you need to go up to his room?" sneered his aunt, coming out of the kitchen, with an expression that said there was only one possible reason and that had better not be it.

"Because the Portkey will return us to exactly the same spot as we depart from and if we were to appear in your hallway when someone else was there, well even you can dream up some of the multiple possibilities of consequences," said Tonks. The pair of them went up to his room, "Have you everything you need?" she asked. When he told her that he had she held out a small piece of parchment, all he could see was that it had, The Leaky Cauldron and OUT written on it, as Harry took hold of the parchment and he felt the now familiar pull behind his navel, the whole world went out of focus.

Tonks and Harry arrived in a pleasant room with a fireplace, a table with eight comfortable chairs, a portrait of an old witch and Kingsley Shacklebolt waiting for them.

"This room is permanently rented by the Order," Kingsley said with a smile, "it is completely shielded and we are to look after you all today," this confused Harry for a second until the Auror opened the door and in came Ron, Ginny and Hermione. They all smiled and hugged him but it was Hermione smiling at him, that suddenly took his breath away, when had she grown up, she looked like well a girl, a very pretty girl not the little, bucktoothed, fuzzy haired, eleven year old he had met his first day on the Hogwarts Express.

Then she smiled at him again and said, "Dumbledore thought it would be a nice idea if we all relaxed a bit together so here we are," Harry was thrilled.

The party all went out through The Leaky Cauldron and the magic wall and then into Diagon Alley, ambling down to Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour where the others were going to wait whilst Harry went with Tonks to collect some money from his Gringotts vault.

Harry had intended going to go to the bank with just Tonks, but Hermione asked if she could come with them as she had never been down to a Gringotts vault before, Harry agreed, for some reason he was quite pleased about this. When his vault was opened his money as usual was in neat stacks, he asked the goblin who had brought them down, how many Galleons there were in one of the stacks, "There are usually two hundred and fifty, in these type of vaults," was the surly reply. He put a full stack in a bag he took from the corner of his vault, then a pile of about sixty or seventy into his normal money bag, Hermione couldn't help noticing that there were an awful lot of stacks of Galleons in Harry's vault.

After they had been to his vault they went to the exchange counter and changed the two hundred and fifty Galleons into muggle Pounds, he had over twelve-hundred pounds, after that they went back to the ice-cream parlour, to meet back up with the others.

Their next stop was Madame Malkins Robes for All Occasions, to get the formal dress robe that Dumbledore had asked him to get, the ones he bought himself were dark silver grey, Hermione had picked the colour.

He asked Kingsley if he had any idea why he might need them but the Auror answered, "I have no idea, but as you grow up there are things you have to do that require formal robes. Also your situation is slightly different to most people because you are on your own, so you have to do things other teenagers would not normally need to do."

Harry also bought a very fashionable robe which Ginny had been admiring, it was soft iridescent shimmering silver.

"You can't buy me that!" she said, with a shocked look on her face.

Harry replied that he had never ever bought her a Birthday or Christmas present so this was to partly make up for his bad manners and for some of the events he had missed. Also it was a thank you because she had come to the Ministry of Magic with him at the end of term.

Ginny blushed, thanked him and then for the first time ever she gave him a kiss on the cheek, after that she didn't appear to want to even look at him, Harry for his part turned bright scarlet and didn't seem to know where to look either.

Madame Malkin packed the two robes and Tonks took them from her, Ron offered to help carry them but Tonks said that she would put them into her bag.

"The clothes will get all crushed in there." Hermione said but Tonks put them in easily and then said quietly that it was a magic bag, not only does it hold masses of things but whatever is put in it doesn't weigh hardly anything. Hermione thought that she would love one of those, she was no doubt thinking of how many school books she could carry everywhere.

However Tonks told Hermione that they were quite expensive and usually you had to have them made, she added that hers had been given to her by her grandmother who had travelled a great deal.

As they came out of the robe shop Harry dragged Tonks and Hermione to a bag shop and discovered that a bag similar to the one Tonks had would cost about one thousand Galleons. She added that it would have to be specially made and it would take about a month to complete, he told the owner that he would think about it.

After that he explained his real reason for getting Tonks and Hermione away from the others. It was because he wanted to buy Ron and Ginny some new muggle clothes, theirs were nearly as bad as his however he knew that they wouldn't ordinarily let him buy them anything so he needed to enlist their help. Then he suggested that if Hermione and Tonks allowed him buy some clothes for them whilst he was buying things for himself, he could probably mix in buying some clothes for Ron and Ginny at the same time, then hopefully they wouldn't notice too much.

Hermione especially thought that this was about the only possible way he might succeed and so they both knew what he was planning to do.

x-x

So they walked back and joined the others then they went out through the Leaky Cauldron into Muggle London.

Calling up taxis they visited quite a few shops which were known to Hermione and Tonks.

Harry bought the clothes he needed and mixed in clothes for the others. His ruse was working quite well and by buying a few things for the two older girls he managed to get Ron and Ginny to also accept a few things. It was quite a long day and the conspirators had by mixing up who and what they were buying, managed to get the two Weasleys more clothes than they realised.

The four of them had, had a good time, Harry and Hermione were starting to teach both of the Weasleys a little about some of the muggle ways that were different to the Wizard World.

Late in the afternoon they all returned to the Leaky Cauldron for something to eat, they were starving especially Ron. While they were eating it was decided that when they had finished their meal, Kingsley would take Hermione to her home and Tonks and Harry would accompany Ron and Ginny to the Burrow.

So after sorting out Hermione's few things she tried to pay Harry for them, he would not let her and told her that it was a small thank you for her coming to the Ministry of Magic with him, so they said their goodbyes and set off in different directions.

When they arrived at the Burrow, only Mrs Weasley was home and she greeted everyone, hugging each of them in turn as they arrived, she somehow managed to get Harry twice, he thought that it might not have been a complete accident. She told him that the twins were in the process of setting up their new shop in Hogsmeade and now they left early and came home late, Ron had already told him that the family still wasn't speaking to Percy.

When they started unpacking the bag, Ron and Ginny suddenly realised just how many clothes Harry had bought for them. Of course their was a bit of a row but in the end Harry put his foot down, he told them all, that Mrs. Weasley had never allowed him to help when he stayed there, also it was a small thank you for them coming to the Ministry of Magic with him. So if he couldn't buy two of his best friends something then it wasn't fair to him, she finally relented and Ron and Ginny both smiled sheepishly.

Harry had managed to buy Ron a pair of jeans, two T-shirts and a pair of trainers, he was very grateful and took his new clothes up to his room. But to Ginny's amazement she had, two tank tops, three T-shirts, two pairs of jeans, a pair of smart shoes, a pair of trainers and the fashionable robe from Madame Malkins, she was gob smacked.

"What do you think you are doing buying me all these things?" she demanded, looking at him in a way that reminded him, a lot, of her mother.

"Well Ginn," he said, "last term you came with me to try to save Sirius and I really appreciate it, also you never seem to have anything new to wear, so I am very pleased to be able to buy you some things." Ginny came over to him blushing and , thanked him, then she gave him another kiss on the cheek which prompted them both to turn scarlet and she dashed upstairs to her room with her new things.

A few minutes after Ron and Ginny had come back down from putting their things away Tonks apologised and said that it was time for them to return to Little Whinging and she took out the piece of paper.

"Can we use that from here?" Harry asked, then Tonks explained that it was a very special kind of Portkey developed by Professor Dumbledore, it activates only when both of them held it, it would take them from his home to the room in the Leaky Cauldron and then from wherever they finished up back to his home and it could be used repeatedly, when she turned it over it had HOME written on it.

Harry thanked Mrs Weasley, said bye to Ron and Ginny and he gave her a kiss on the cheek another round of furious blushing ensued, then he said that he hoped to see them again very soon, then he touched the Portkey and they disappeared.

When they arrived back in Harry's room at Privet Drive, Harry called down that they were home, his Aunt Petunia asked if they would like a cup of tea and Tonks agreed that it would be a very good idea. So they quickly unpacked all of Harry's things from the magic bag, Harry wouldn't let Tonks pay for the two T-shirts he had bought for her. He explained that it was worth it to be able to buy Ginny and Ron some things and he went on to explain that it was something that he had been trying to do for years and years.

The pair of them went down to the kitchen for their tea, Petunia sat in the kitchen with them talking, but Vernon stayed glued to the TV in the lounge, Tonks told them that her dad was Ted Tonks the TV News presenter and that only her mother was a witch, so she was half and half. Tonks kept chatting with Petunia until she had finished her tea and after about half an hour left, his aunt seemed disappointed and went into the lounge.

Harry went back up to his room, he had to put his new clothes away and then he went to bed for what were, for a change, very pleasant dreams that were starring two very pretty witches.

x-x

By the time Harry had been home for about a week he definitely noticed a difference in the Dursleys attitude towards him, it had started three days after what he called 'his Dementor conversation,' with his aunt and cousin. His uncle had started being bombastic and short-tempered with him, for no real reason, but his aunt had taken his uncle into the lounge and 'given him a talking to,' his uncle had gone directly to work at Grunnings without saying goodbye to anyone.

After that the Dursleys weren't particularly nice to him but they were not mean either, so his life was reasonably pleasant and he realised that although Sirius' death still hurt a great deal, he was getting past blaming himself for it.

Harry spent his days generally taking things easy, he was corresponding with his friends regularly and he was also reading through his newspaper thoroughly every day to try to find out what was going on, but everything seemed quiet. He had begun to wonder if there was going to be another complete cover-up by Cornelius Fudge and his cronies, however, after about a week and a half of his holiday, the paper was full of reports about the investigations into the battle at the Ministry.

The Daily Prophet Monday 1st July 1996:

MAJOR SCANDAL AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

The Ministry of Magic has announced today that an autonomous team of Aurors led by Albus Dumbledore and Kingsley Shacklebolt, have been interrogating the Death Eaters who were captured during the recent confrontation in the Ministry of Magic. These prisoners have been kept isolated at a still secret location and by using Veritaserum, (Truth Serum) the Ministry Investigators have uncovered a spiders web of corruption, within the Ministry of Magic.

The most prominent among those named is none other than the now Ex-Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, who has been taken into custody. It is alleged that Fudge, although not a Death Eater himself, is accused of being a collaborator with He Who Must Not be Named and his Death Eaters and to be knowingly taking bribes from his supporters, to ease the path of the Death Eaters.

The other major figure, who was actually captured in the Ministry of Magic battle, is Mr Lucius Malfoy, it has long been contended by various prominent wizards that Mr Malfoy was a Voldemort supporter, it is rumoured that a major portion of the information gathered by the interrogators has come from Mr Malfoy.

A further announcement indicates that the Dementors have been removed from Azkaban and they have been destroyed because it has been established, beyond any doubt that they were also allied with He Who Must Not be Named. The Dementors have been replaced by Goblin Guards and the magic wards protecting the Island prison have been augmented, greatly improved and they have also been strengthened.

Additional information received confirms that Peter Pettigrew is still alive and the Order of Merlin that had been awarded to him (Posthumously) for his part in the capture of Sirius Black has been revoked, he is now a wanted man and the details of his illegal Animagus form and pictures of him as a rat and a human, have been widely distributed. It was also confirmed that Cornelius Fudge has known all along that Sirius Black was innocent and that his imprisonment was one of the concessions granted by the ex Minister for Magic to He Who Must Not be Named and the Death Eaters.

Further reports state that an additional eighty-five Death Eaters have been rounded up as a result of information obtained from the prisoners. Fifty seven of these Death Eaters were actually working inside the Ministry of Magic, it is believed that a mighty blow had been struck against He Who Must Not be Named and his followers.

In further action attempting to reduce the operating capability of He Who Must Not be Named and his Death Eaters, is the introduction of new Laws automatically Impounding all property and monies of those accused of being Death Eaters or their collaborators, until they come to trial. This would be followed by the automatic confiscation of these assets and their redistribution, among their victims, if those accused are found Guilty of said crimes. Implementation of this has also been confirmed by Gringotts Wizarding Bank and they will cooperate in the application of this new Law.

Additional information obtained by this reporter.

Arthur Weasley had been appointed interim Minister for Magic, it has been proposed that Elections are to be held in about two months for a permanent appointee to the position. However nominations for the post must be received by noon on Friday the twenty sixth of July. Mr Weasley has already been nominated and has agreed to stand for election.

The name of Sirius Black has been cleared totally of all charges, including those relating to the murder of James and Lily Potter and Peter Pettigrew. Also Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter (the Boy Who Lived) are being praised for their part in the Ministry of Magic battle and their constant vigil against He Who Must Not be Named.

This article was accompanied by various photographs including one of Peter Pettigrew as a human and one of Scabbers, Wormtail's Animagus form.

Harry now wondered if his life would change, but he seriously doubted if it would be by very much as there were still Death Eaters free and he was probably still one of Voldemort's prime targets.

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