Unlike a Sister (Harmione)

Chapter 18: A Fucking Mess

"You've got to be joking. It's a fucking mess. We are not cleaning all this up."

Harry smiled grimly at Ron's reaction. The ballroom at Clymene Court was, indeed, a mess. Over the years, Harry and Ginny had transferred a great number of items to the vast room-junk from their old flat, furniture and various sundries from Grimmauld Place, work files and Prophet broadsides, gifts from foreign dignitaries, memorabilia from Ginny's days with the Harpies, and the children's old clothes and toys. At some point, Harry and his wife must have made an unspoken pact to ignore the mess, like a trick step you learned to skip over. But it was December 30th. The New Year's Eve Ball would be the following night. It was now Harry's (and Ron and Hermione's) unlucky duty to salvage the important items from the heap before a cleaning staff removed the unwanted remainder.

Despite the detritus, the ballroom was a stunning space with its parquet floors and enormous arched windows. A domed ceiling with fogged glass windows towered above, held together by wrought ironwork in the shape of a radiant sun.

"It's not that bad," Ginny said defensively.

He stared at his sister. "Are you mental? You never told me you and Harry shifted the Room of Requirement here. All this time I thought it'd burned down."

"Oh, come on," Hermione said, dropping her bag to the floor. "It'll be like old times, like when we cleaned out Grimmauld Place."

"Half the stuff's from Grimmauld Place," Harry chuckled. His godfather's former home was let out to tenets now, who understandably hadn't wanted their house full of Dark Arts kitsch.

"If you take it in sections, it'll be done in no time," said Ginny, undaunted.

"Easy for you to say," Ron said. "You'll be downstairs."

"Some one has to get the rest of the house ready," she said easily. "I'll be back to help when I can."

Since their return from the Burrow, Ginny had become entirely consumed with preparations for the ball. Two thousand people had been invited, a guest list that included members of the Wizengamot, fashion designers, a number of singing and acting celebrities, innumerable former and current Quidditch stars, and the Minister of Magic himself. While the Prophet was supposed to bear most of the expense for the party, the Potters' pocketbook had already taken a substantial hit. Security wizards had to be hired to manage the invitees and keep out gatecrashers. Harry had also relented and agreed to book a well-known band to provide the music. While Harry wasn't particularly familiar with The Time Turners, based on the reaction of the younger Aurors in the Department, he assumed they were quite good.

Finally, Ginny had hired a custom events planner, Angelo Russo, to design the decorations for the ball. That morning, Angelo brought in reams of amaranthine, lavender, gold, and white organza and laid them out in the library. This was followed by over a hundred crystal orbs, designed to levitate over the revelers on the dance floor. Harry thought it all a bit much.

Once Ginny had gone, the trio moved to a display cabinet filled with expensive-looking oddities. Hermione conjured one of her signature bottomless bags in which to place the salvaged items and they worked rather efficiently, the Weasleys checking with Harry every so often on whether to save or toss an item. They discussed the ball, the children's return to school, Ministry gossip. Ron continued to make snide comments on the state of the mess.

In the back of the cabinet, Harry removed a framed picture. Wiping away a layer of dust, he saw it was a Muggle photograph of himself nineteen years ago. He was wearing a Muggle suit and shaking hands with a tall, jovial-looking man with white hair. He read the inscription.

President Bill Clinton with the Vanquisher of the Dark Lord, Harry J. Potter. Washington, D.C., August 11, 1998.

He smiled faintly at his younger self's uncomfortable expression. Several weeks into his Auror training programme, Harry was asked to join a diplomatic outreach effort to Europe, Egypt, India, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and the United States. It was a goodwill mission to reintroduce the British wizarding security forces to the world, to reassure close allies and partners.