When the Grangers arrived home from work, they found Harry and Hermione sitting on couch in the living room playing a Super Mario Brothers Nintendo game together. "Hello Hermione, Harry," said Marissa. "How was your day?"

"No," said Harry, as his character missed a jump and fell into a pit. "Er, it was fine, Mrs. Granger."

"Harry, I already said to call me Marissa."

"Er, yeah. Hi Marissa, Adam."

"Hello Harry. Hermione, you've been awfully quiet," Adam said, smiling.

"Er, Hi Mum, Dad."

"I noticed a new bike in the garage," said Adam. "Is it Harry's?"

"Yes," said Harry, "We enrolled in a karate class here in town, and Hermione suggested we ride bicycles there."

"Good idea," said Marissa. "It'll give you even more exercise than the video you used this morning."

Both teenagers looked at Marissa. They hadn't told her about the video. "How did you..." asked Hermione.

Marissa said, "I noticed it had been moved, that's all. It's fine. I certainly don't mind. I must admit I'm curious why all of the sudden physical fitness is so important to you."

"Well," said Hermione nervously, "Hogwarts doesn't have any physical education, and we wanted to form our own exercise club next year. We figured that it would be a good idea if we knew what we were doing."

Harry stopped himself from glancing at Hermione, who'd just lied to her parents.

"That sounds like a good idea," said Adam, "It wouldn't be good for all those witches and wizards to have heart attacks during duels, would it?" No one could tell if he was joking or not. "So, did you find Sirius Black's house alright?"

"Yes," said Hermione. "It was a bit dirty, but it was easy to clean using magic."

"So you're going to be taking this Knight Bus there every day?" asked Marissa.

"Actually," said Hermione, "after we got there I made a portkey so we could travel back and forth magically."

"Portkey?" asked Adam.

"I charmed a necklace so that if you're touching it and say the right words, it'll take you to either that house or this one. The charmed object is called a portkey."

"Wow," said Adam. "I can't wait to use it to visit Sirius' house in a few days." Harry took a moment to realize the reason Hermione claimed she'd only made one. It went to her bedroom. Harry would be safer if Hermione's parents didn't know he had a portkey to her bedroom. He had to make sure that he never let them know about his portkey.

"So," said Marissa, "Did you see Ron today? Is he going to practice magic with you?"

"Er," said Harry, "We did see him, but, er, he won't be studying with us."

"Oh. Why is that?" asked Adam.

Both parents noticed the exchanged glances between the teenagers, and were pretty sure what it met. "Er, we had a disagreement," said Harry, his ears turning pink. "He's mad at us."

"Oh," said Marissa, a smile starting to form on her lips, "what about?"

"Er," said Hermione, her cheeks turning pink, "He's mad that Harry's staying here."

"Why?" asked Adam, joining in on the fun.

"He, er, he's jealous, I think," supplied Harry.

"Why?" asked Marissa, smiling.

"HarrIdting," said Hermione eloquently.

"What?" said Adam, obviously holding back laughter.

She took a deep breath and looked at her knees. "Harry and I are dating," she muttered.

"Oh," said Adam, "When did this happen?"

"Er, this morning...sir," said Harry nervously.

"Have you kissed my daughter?" asked Adam with a serious expression on his face, enjoying the way both Harry and Hermione's faces were changing colors as they squirmed.

Harry swallowed and said, "Er, yes sir."

"I see. Hermione?"

"Yes,"

"Did he make any unwanted advances on you?"

"No, no he'd never do that!" Hermione answered more confidently.

Adam chuckled now, "I'm sure he wouldn't."

The tension eased a bit until Adam said, "Harry, I would like a word with you, though."

Harry swallowed again. "Er, yes sir." He reluctantly got up and followed Hermione's father into his bedroom.

Once the door was closed, Adam said, "I, I don't suppose that the Dursleys have ever spoken to you about, well, girls, have they?"

"Only to say that only a blind one would ever like me," answered Harry truthfully.

"I suppose they think that whale Dudley has the girls lining up to date him."

"That's the lie he tells them," said Harry. "They once asked him why he never has a girl visit the house, so he claimed he can't decide which girlfriend to invite."

"And they believe that?" asked Adam, clearly shocked.

"When it comes to their 'itle Dudlykins,' they believe anything and everything he says."

"I also suppose that your godfather hasn't exactly been able to have a talk with you about girls either," said Adam.

Harry at this moment finally realized what was about to happen. "Er, no. I don't suppose listening to Seamus and Dean in the dorm talking about the girls they've dated counts either?"

"No Harry, that doesn't count. If they talk about how far they've gone with kissing and such, they are doing a great disservice to their girlfriends that I hope you never do. It looks like I'll have to give you this talk. The first thing I want you to know is that you need to treat your girlfriend with respect. Part of that is not talking about your relationship behind her back, giving her a less than flattering reputation. After the other boys talk about their girlfriends, what did you think of those girls?"

"Er," said Harry, "I thought they sounded, well, loose. Like I wouldn't want to date them."

"You thought they were slags, didn't you?" asked Adam.

"Er, well, yes."

"Well, the first thing you need to know is that a lot of guys lie about how far a girl lets him go, which betters his reputation while worsening hers. If you care at all about a girl, you won't do that. Don't ever judge your relationship based off of what other guys say. The way to judge your relationship is by how happy the girl is. That's the true measure of how good or bad of a boyfriend you are."

"Yes sir," Harry said.

Harry surprisingly was enjoying this talk until Adam ruined that by saying, "Now we'll talk about the actual physical affection, starting with kissing. I know you two did kiss..." At this point Harry's face went red as they discussed that subject, with Adam's main focus being that he not push Hermione or treat her with anything but the utmost respect. While he agreed with that ideal, he was really embarrassed talking with his girlfriend's father about showing her affection. He found himself silently wishing for Death Eaters, or even Voldemort himself, to attack and rescue him from this conversation. "This is pathetic! I'd rather be interrogated by Voldemort than Adam Granger," he thought to himself.

When they returned an hour after they'd left, he found that Hermione was in her room talking with her mother, so he went to his own room and started reading his book on Magical Transportation, and looked up the chapter on charming brooms. He found it to be extremely fascinating. He was about half way through the chapter when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in," he said.

The door opened to reveal a blushing Hermione. She stepped forward and closed the door. "Er," she said, "How did your talk with my dad go?"

"I suppose it wasn't so bad. He just wanted to make sure I don't mistreat you. How was your talk?"

"She wanted to make sure I don't let you mistreat me. She told me not to hesitate to defend myself if you ever get, 'fresh,' with me. I assured her that you treat me with respect."

At that moment, a tiny owl zoomed in through the window and landed on Harry's shoulder. He took the package that had been attached to its leg, and the excited owl flew a victory lap around the room. The letter said,

"Well," said Harry, "that shouldn't be any problem. Let's give Pig a treat and let him go."

"Ok. Maybe you should write Sirius about the floo and ask him to personally invite Ginny so that we don't have to pick her up."

"After we've gone through more of the stuff and made sure that anything dangerous is locked away where she can't accidentally get it and hurt herself. But I guess I'll write Sirius about it now. We can decide when and what to tell Ginny."

❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾

The next day, after their exercise and breakfast, Harry and Hermione portkeyed to Grimmauld Place. From there, they flooed to the Burrow, where they met Ginny. Ginny said, "Good morning guys. We'd better portkey before mum comes down and we actually have to let her see us floo to Diagon Alley.

Hermione took off her necklace, and they all grabbed hold of it (why give Ginny blackmail information by showing her Harry's) and Hermione said, "House Two Now."

When they arrived, Ginny looked around the place and said, "It's as roomy as I expected those old family manors to be, but it looks..."

"...Like it hasn't been properly cared for in years?" suggested Hermione. "It hasn't. When Harry and I showed up here for the first time, the place was filthy and stank. I'm just glad we could use our magic to clean it up. It would've taken the whole summer to do it the muggle way."

"I don't know how they live without magic," said Ginny.

"Anyway, after we cleaned up the mess, we found that the carpet and walls are in desperate need for maintenance, but we don't have the time to worry about that. We just made it livable," said Harry.

"I could take care of it," said Ginny, "for the right price."

Harry stared at her for about thirty seconds as she looked him straight in the eyes, grinning. "Are you asking for a job?"

"Yes. I'd like to get some new clothes before school starts just as much as Ron would. The only difference is that he complains but doesn't do anything about it while I try and make some money."

"Well, how much money do you want?" asked Harry.

"Well," said Ginny, "Obviously you're paying for the materials like carpet and paint, or maybe wallpaper in some of these rooms. If I'm doing all the work of coming up with a new 'look' for the house, and doing all the work, I'd like fifty Galleons."

Hermione said, "Thirty."

"Forty-five."

"Thirty-five."

"Ok, Forty Galleons, and that's my final offer," said Ginny.

"Done," said Hermione, "That is, if Harry agrees."

"Yes, for forty Galleons you decorate the place, but make sure not to make it look feminine. It after all does belong to a bachelor. Just one thing. Make sure you're careful. Some of the objects here may be cursed."

"Alright," said Ginny, "Could Hermione maybe teach me a spell to detect curses?"

"Yes," said Hermione, "but it would be safer for you not to mess with anything while you're alone."

The redhead glared at Hermione. "How am I supposed to get this done if I can only come here for three hours a day?"

Hermione sighed, "I guess I'll have to make you a portkey. We'll check on you though, every few hours, just to make sure you're alright."

Ginny, whose cheeks were getting pink, said, "How about if I get my idiot brother to come and baby-sit me?"

"Ginny," said Harry, "this is not about us thinking you can't take care of yourself. I wouldn't want to be here alone until we're sure nothing's been cursed. If you get cursed you could end up lying on the floor dying with no one to help you. Why don't we today instead of our regular studying, go through this house learning and using that spell Hermione mentioned for checking objects for traps or dark magic so that we can declare this place to be safe? I think it would definitely be a valuable learning experience for my goals."

The other two quickly agreed, and after Hermione had shown them the spell, they started checking objects. They stayed in the same room checking every object in it, and then moved on to the next room. They found that it was a good thing that they checked things for curses. They quickly started finding everything from a blood quill to a book that blinds you if you open it (they didn't open it).

They levitated the objects into a box until it filled up quickly, and then they flooed to Diagon Alley quickly and picked up another weightless bottomless trunk. After they'd transferred all the dark objects they'd already found into the trunk, they continued the search. Hermione was making sure to list every object they put in there. They found a locket that seemed to show more dark magic when tested than all of the other objects combined. Hermione made a special note of that after they'd levitated it into the trunk.

Hermione said, "I think we should ask Professor Dumbledore what to do with these things, and specifically, I'm going to ask about that locket."

"But it's Sirius' stuff!" said Harry. "We can't just give it to Dumbledore!"

"I didn't say to give it away, just ask for advice about it."

"But then we'd be telling him about this place. He might not want us coming here."

"I've got it!" said Hermione. We'll ask Sirius about this stuff, and ask him to ask Dumbledore about anything he's not sure of, claiming that his house elf told him about it."

"Er," said Harry while he worked out what she'd said, "Alright. That wouldn't be going behind Sirius' back."

"Then that's what we'll do," said Hermione. "I just have a bad feeling about that locket. Did you see how much dark magic it had?"

"I did," said Ginny, who'd stayed out of the conversation so far, "and I've got a bad feeling about it, too. But something about it seems, I don't know, familiar somehow, but I don't know how. For some reason it makes me uneasy."

"Alright," said Harry, "but for now can we get back to the search?"

They managed to get through the entire house, with the exception of the attic, in the three hours they' planned to stay, and Hermione turned a necklace Ginny had worn into a portkey for her (between her room at the Burrow and the living room of Grimmauld Place). They put the trunk in the attic and Hermione magically sealed that room so Ginny couldn't get in there if she wanted to. They left Ginny there to figure out what she needed before going home. The plan was to meet there the next morning to discuss the plans and buy the materials necessary so Ginny could begin work. Harry and Hermione would then complete whatever studying they could do before their karate class, and then come back to finish their studying.

After they ate lunch at Hermione's house, they went out to the garage and mounted their bicycles. They began pedaling slowly, but soon they were racing each other and enjoying themselves. They arrived at the karate school about ten minutes before their class began and went to their separate changing rooms to put on their karate outfits, and then waited for class to start. As the instructor was just introducing himself to the new class, a brown haired, slightly pudgy boy came rushing in timidly saying, "I'm sorry I'm late, sir, it won't happen again."

The instructor said, "We will excuse tardiness only one time in this summer course without proper justification. Just make sure that it doesn't happen again Mr.?"

"L-Longbottom, sir, N-Neville Longbottom."