In the aftermath of the war Molly Weasley and Andromeda Tonks formed an unlikely partnership. They came together through the mutual pain of losing a child and knowing that they understood each other better than most others around them. Months later the pain had receded but a firm friendship remained. Both women liked to control their worlds but despite this, there had been very little tension between them.

One day about a year after the war the two met at a favourite café. Little Teddy played nearby, tiny stubby legs still wobbly as he lurched towards the tiny brooms the shop provided in a fenced off area for their smallest customers. Watching him playing, Molly sighed wistfully.

'I can't wait until Victoire grows up a little,' she said. 'Harry already has a set of big slow moving fluffy snitches for her. I didn't have the heart to tell him the baby won't be able to chase them for at least a few more months.'

'How is Harry?' Andromeda asked, keeping an eagle eye on Teddy in case he fell off the broom he had captured. 'He hasn't been around much lately and he always seems distracted when he's at our place.'

'I really don't know.' Molly said. 'He hasn't been near our place much lately either. Ginny's finished school now, but even with Ginny home Harry hasn't been around much.'

'What's up with those two?' Andromeda was still focused on Teddy but there was a tension in her shoulders that Molly realized meant she was very interested in her answer.

She sighed heavily. 'I have no idea. After the war I thought things would happen.' Molly drew her hands together indicating a union, then added, 'but they just keep drifting along and neither one talks to the other and neither one is happy.' She dropped her hands into her lap with a sigh. 'I want to slam their heads together sometimes, but when I try to say anything Ginny gives me this look and leaves the room.'

Andromeda pulled her eyes away from Teddy for a moment, and giggled. 'You know what they need? A good shove in the right direction.'

Harry was frustrated. He had just got Teddy to bed in Grimmauld Place and was already regretting agreeing to look after him while Andromeda went to work. Her normal babysitter had come down with the Dragon Pox and Andromeda was at her wits end. Harry had offered to look after the boy and at first it had been easy, but getting Teddy into bed for his afternoon nap had been hellish. Who knew small children needed five hundred toys with them to make sleeping acceptable?

Harry sighed and turned his attention back to the job at hand. Today's mission in the quest to make the house livable was the worst of it. He had consulted several magical experts and they all agreed that the wall could be removed and that with just a little magic the integrity of the house would be uncompromised. He took a deep breath and pulled back the muggle sledgehammer again.

Just as he pulled the hammer back a loud knock sounded at the door, the curtains in front of him flew back to reveal a screaming Mrs Black.

'Alright, I'm coming,' he shouted as another, more insistent, knock sounded at the door.

Picking his shirt up from the floor, he made his way to the front door. Shouts followed him down the hallway. 'Filth, scum, defacing the ancient house, no respect for tradition …'

He was grimacing as he pulled open the door, ready to lambast whoever it was who had set off the portrait and made his job a hundred times harder. The glare on the face of the girl on the other side of the door was enough to freeze the words on his lips.

'Ginny,' he said, astonished into civility.

'Harry.' She nodded at him, one eyebrow raised as she took in his shirtless chest. Harry blushed and shrugged his shirt back on. 'Um, can I come in?' Ginny continued. 'Mum sent me over with some things she insisted you needed in your remodeling.'

Harry stood back and let her pass him into the hall. She looked around with interest and took in the hastily discarded sledgehammer and the still screaming portrait. She flicked her wand and the curtains flew back into place.

'Nice place, Harry. Very atmospheric.' She grinned at him and he scowled and picked up the sledgehammer again. A muffled scream echoed from behind the curtains and Harry grinned sourly.

'I'm getting rid of her. First stop in the war on this house.' He swung the hammer at the edge of the wall and it crashed through with a satisfying jarring feeling.

'Couldn't you do that with magic?' asked Ginny, cocking her head to the side and admiring the quivering of the curtains. She wasn't sure if it was from the force of Harry's blow or if the portrait itself was cowering under the onslaught, but it made her happy to think of removing the woman's presence from the house.

'Nope,' said Harry a little more cheerfully. 'The wall has anti-magic charms on it as well as the permanent sticking charm, but she forgot to protect it against good old muggle force.'

Ginny giggled as the wall shook again with the force of Harry's next blow. Mrs Black's screams rose in intensity and volume as the wall around her began to fall away.

'Do you have another one of those, Harry? I'd love to have a go at silencing that woman.' Harry looked over at Ginny, hearing the fierce longing in her voice. For the first time in what felt like forever, she wasn't avoiding him, or shouting at him. He put his own hammer down, pulled out his wand and cast the geminio charm on it. He picked it up, hefted it to test its weight, then passed it to Ginny.

'I'm not sure how long that will hold out for since it's not original, but I'm sure you'll get a good few blows in before it disappears on us.' The grin he directed at Ginny was infectious and she found herself grinning back. She pulled her own hammer back and then slammed it forward into the wall on the opposite side of the portrait. She wasn't ready for the resulting jolt of energy down her arms as the sledge hammer made contact with the wall and bounced back. Harry, who had been watching her, said, 'plant your feet a bit more firmly, like this. Then pull back with your whole body.' When Ginny did as he suggested the hammer went through the wall with a very satisfying crack. She wrestled it out of the wall, still grinning.

'Oh, I like this muggle way of remodeling, Harry. It's very,' she swung the hammer back again, 'therapeutic,' she added as the hammer went through the wall. Harry nodded his agreement as his own hammer crashed through the wall too. Vaguely through the crashes he heard the alarm he'd set up in case anyone flooed him.

Leaving Ginny enthusiastically smashing at the wall, he headed into the kitchen. Andromeda's head was sitting in the fire, looking anxious.

'Oh, Harry, thank goodness you're there. I was worried you might have taken Teddy out before I could get hold of you.'

Harry knelt at the fireplace, concerned. The tone of Andromeda's voice spoke of deep worry even while she tried to appear as normal as she could.

'What's wrong, Andromeda?'

'I've just been alerted that since Teddy has been exposed to Dragon Pox he has to stay in quarantine for the next five days, and since you've been with him all day you'll have to stay there too. You can't let anyone into the house and no-one who's there right now can leave.'

Harry blinked rapidly, trying to figure this one out. 'But, Ginny's here. She can leave, right?'

'Oh dear. Oh no.' If Harry had been paying attention to Andromeda, rather than worrying about the implications of her statement, he might have noticed the flicker of amusement that crossed her face. 'She's going to have to stay there too. Doctor's orders were to seal off the house immediately and that's already been done. Don't worry Harry, we'll send in food via the floo, but none of you can go anywhere, not until Teddy gets the all clear.'

Harry sighed and wondered how he was going to broach this one to Ginny. Ever since the war had ended she had been distant from him and they didn't have that old ease of relating to each other. Maybe, though, his heart started beating faster as he thought about it, maybe he could use this time to talk to her the way he'd wanted to for the last year. Maybe this wasn't such a bad deal after all.

With a new sparkle in his eye Harry returned to the hallway where Mrs Black's shrieks had become so apoplectic she had become indecipherable. Ginny was singing loudly as she smashed at the wall with her hammer. Between them they made a cacophony and yet Harry paused in the doorway, a smile on his face for the first time in what felt like forever. Ginny's hair was plastered to her skull in what should have been a completely unattractive way and yet Harry found it very endearing. The gleam in her eye as she swung her sledgehammer back at the wall bordered on manic but the whole package radiated appeal. As she swung the hammer behind her, her voice rising yet again in response to Mrs Black's latest scream, Ginny noticed Harry and stopped, dropping her eyes to the ground, embarrassed that he had caught her singing. Pretending he hadn't noticed, Harry walked into the room grimacing.

'We're in quarantine,' he said matter of factly as he picked up his own hammer. As he turned back to the wall he heard the other hammer crash to the ground.

'What? We're what?' The raw emotion in her voice told Harry exactly what Ginny thought of that idea and he felt his heart lurch.

'In quarantine. Teddy's been exposed to Dragon Pox and until we're sure he doesn't have it we're stuck here. Together.' Harry cast a look towards Ginny in time to see her face blanch. His heart twisted. Was it really that bad – the idea of being with him? There had been a time when she had fought tooth and nail to be together, but now it seemed like she wanted nothing more to do with him. He sighed, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder before thinking better of it and pulling his hand back to his side.

'Sorry, Ginny. It can't be helped. Could we – could we just try to get along for a few days? For Teddy's sake? Or for old time's sake? It could be a laugh.'

'Yeah, right, a laugh,' Ginny grunted. As she looked at Harry's downcast face, she relented. 'Okay, I'll try. For Teddy's sake – he's going to go nuts stuck here anyway without us being all tense.'

'There, see. We're good. This is going to be good.' Harry swung his hammer at the wall again and together they picked up the rhythm until Mrs Black's portrait lay still and broken on the floor amidst a fair amount of debris and an outraged silence at her new situation.

'Issall messy,' a tiny voice from the stairway said. 'Harry messy, too.'

Harry turned to look at Teddy. 'Hey, buddy, you got up then.' Harry ignored Ginny's quirked eyebrow, knowing that he really should have put some sort of charm on the door to Teddy's room. 'Yeah we're messy, aren't we? Ginny and I are fixing up the house.' Even at his young age, Teddy cast a disbelieving look at the piles of wall surrounding them and giggled. Beside him Ginny started to laugh too and soon all three of them were gasping for breath.

'Harry, go home now? See Granna?' Teddy's voice called Harry out of his laughter. He cast a glance at Ginny who looked sympathetic. 'Good luck,' she mouthed at him as she climbed to her feet and headed for the kitchen. Harry turned back to Teddy, wondering how to do this without traumatising the boy.

'Hey Teddy, what say we call Granna and ask if you can stay here with Ginny and me? We could have a pretend quidditch game.' A flash of excitement lit up Teddy's face, but was immediately followed by a pout.

'Want go home.' He repeated, and Harry sighed, scrubbing his hands through his hair.

'Buddy, we need to talk a bit. Let's go get a drink in the kitchen.' Hoping that Ginny would be able to help him work out what to say to make this more palatable for the small boy, Harry took Teddy's hand and led him to the kitchen. Even though she had been angry with him, Harry knew that Ginny would be preparing a comfort dose of hot chocolate for Teddy. She had told him once in passing that as a very small child that's what Molly had always done and that she had loved how cared for it made her feel.

After a tear-inducing explanation, the complete rejection of Ginny's proferred hot chocolate, and an emergency floo call to Andromeda who promised all Teddy's favourite foods, Harry was ready to tear his hair out. When he had imagined being stuck here with Ginny he hadn't expected a grumpy and tearful Teddy to be part of the package. He stared at the boy in frustration, unsure what else to do to stop the gulping sobs still wracking Teddy's body.

Taking pity on him, Ginny bent down and looked Teddy straight in the eye. 'Sweetie, why don't we go out back and play for a bit. It'll be an adventure – maybe Harry can turn the back yard into a fairyland. I used to love that when I was a little girl.' To Harry's astonishment the sobs started to fade away and a glimmer of interest appeared on the tiny face. Harry caught Ginny's eye as she led Teddy towards the back door and the wink she gave him made his heart race a little as he quickly grabbed some bread rolls from the pantry and followed them out. This was the start of what Harry thought was likely to be a very long five days.