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Letters From Potters' Cove
By MinistryMalcontent

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Category: Deathly Hallows Challenge (2009-1)
Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger
Genres: General
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 21
Summary: Six years after the events in Shut and Be a Bud Again, The Royal Academy of Magic pressures Harry to let them examine the Deathly Hallows. Harry pressures back.
Hitcount: Story Total: 5850



Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.



Author's Notes:
The following is my first attempt at epistolary fiction...

In When Life Gives You Lemons... Harry and Ginny named their newly-chosen home “Potter’s Cove.” After their wedding, Harry insisted on correcting the grammar, to “Potters' Cove.”

Potters' Cove is not far from the (real) town of Boscastle, Cornwall. This story implies nothing about that town except that it is Harry and Ginny's “mailing” address. [The fact that real-world Boscastle hosts a museum of witchcraft, containing the largest collection of witchcraft and wiccan-related artefacts in the world, is a mere coincidence.]

There are a few “teasers” in here about upcoming events for readers of Shut And Be A Bud Again.

As always, thanks to cwarbeck, and to miri, who have beta'd for me.




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Harry and Ginny Potter
Potters' Cove
Boscastle
Cornwall

October 4, 2004


Hermione Granger-Weasley
c/o Ministry of Magic Liaison Office
Her Britannic Majesty's Embassy
Montevideo
Uruguay

Dear Hermione,

It works! Now that's what I call a brilliant charm complex!

Of course, it makes perfect sense that if a Portkey spell can cause a charmed object to to transport anyone who touches it to a predetermined location, then there has to be a charm that causes an object to transport itself to a predetermined location when someone touches it. Never heard about that spell at Hogwarts, did we? Layering the two charms one on top of the other was the truly brilliant part of the idea, though. Only the “brightest witch of her generation” could have come up with that. Oh, the boxes work, too. I'm sorry you couldn't be here to see it.

I spoke to Freddie Thompson. He found me three locations in London, all of which have video cameras in their safe deposit box rooms. These three in particular have their video feed continuously recorded by the Metropolitan Police Service. Freddie is having the signal re-routed through the Intelligence Division, so he will have control of any compromising footage that might be recorded.

You were too pessimistic. I didn't have any trouble recovering the Resurrection Stone. I've always had a talent for Summoning Charms, if I do say so myself. A good, focused Accio Marvolo's Ring brought it flying on the third try — even in that steaming cauldron of magic-gone-wrong Tom Riddle brewed in the Forbidden Forest.

The one part of this sorry mess I will never forgive those bleeders at the Royal Academy for is making me open Dumbledore's Tomb and retrieve the Elder Wand. Merlin knows I'm used to being treated with disrespect. The constant pestering and stirring up “concerned citizens” to pressure me into letting them examine the Hallows didn't bother me — well, not too much. But if there's anyone whose memory deserves to be treated with respect, it's Dumbledore. Opening the White Tomb again, that's about as disrespectful as it gets! To satisfy them, I've become a grave-robber!

I know, I know. Kingsley explained at great length why I had to let them do this. That doesn't mean it's right! If they can take advantage of their positions, so can I. Before we are done, I swear I will drag those Royal Academy sods through every bureaucratic briar patch between here and Hogwarts! I've even asked Percy for pointers.

Ginny just told me to stop ranting and tell you the family news. Mum and Dad Weasley are fine. The four oldest cubs are back at Hogwarts, and according to Neville, the castle is still standing. Mab is beside herself that she is home alone.

Teddy crashed his first broom on Saturday. It was one of the ones he is forbidden to fly until he is older. Andromeda was frantic. Teddy wasn't hurt — at least not until Andromeda got her hands on him. I don't think he's ever been thrashed for breaking the rules before. I know you don't approve of that — please don't be too hard on Andromeda. She really was terrified. I spoke to Teddy about it afterwards. I did my best to explain why Andromeda acted the was she did.

Most importantly, Aly — oops, I mean Aletheia — had her first episode of accidental magic yesterday. Your sister is definitely a witch! As best I can calculate it, that means that Hogwarts will have another Muggleborn Head Girl in 2016. Your parents floo-called everyone they know to brag. I'm sure they sent you an e-mail, and probably an owl, but since this is going by Ministry pouch, you may well get this before you find one of those Internet coffee houses you mentioned.

Oh, and Meagan Thompson was selected for the Ravenclaw Quidditch Under-Fifteens as a Second Year! All those summer practices in the paddock with the cubs, or with Ginny down here at the Cove, seem to have paid off. Ginny says that Meagan is a natural Chaser. Freddie and Catherine are thrilled. Ever since Ron took them to watch Ginny play last fall, they've been fascinated by Quidditch.

Hurry back! Ron has been inconsolable while you've been gone. Downright disturbing to watch, in fact.

This should be waiting for you when you arrive in Montevideo.

Your mate,

Harry

P.S. Ginny says she's doing fine despite the morning sickness and she'll write tomorrow at the latest to give you all the important news items no wizard would remember!








Har ry and Ginny Potter
Potters' Cove
Boscastle
Cornwall

October 6, 2004


Bill Weasley
Shell Cottage
Tinworth
Cornwall

Dear Bill,

I tried floo-calling Shell Cottage, but no one answered. I suppose you are both on that new job Fleur mentioned. This should be waiting when you return.

The room is finished, and it works just as you predicted. Wizard space is wonderful! Watching the room shrink smaller and smaller as more curses struck the walls, so that the wards protecting the walls became more powerful as they protected a smaller and smaller area, was almost enough to make me regret not taking Arithmancy at Hogwarts. “Almost enough” covers it about right.

The Fidelus Charm is done too. Dudley finally agreed to be the Secret Keeper. All he asked in exchange was a selection of George's Patented Day Dream Charms. I'm almost certain Muggles can't use the Charms. That raises a whole series of questions that I would just as soon NOT think about. Ginny insists there are some things we are better off not knowing.

I think I'm ready to invite those wankers at the Royal Academy to examine the Hallows. The instructions about the security arrangements will be very detailed. Percy gave me some pointers.

Do you have any idea what happened between Victoire and Teddy yesterday during Day School at The Burrow? Mum Weasley said Victoire went right for Teddy like a whirlwind, even though he must be near twice her size. She had to pull them off each other and they both had bloody noses. If they are like this now, what will they be like in eight years when the hormones start to kick in? Umm...sorry if I said the wrong thing. On second thought, I can see how that might not be a phase you're looking forward to.

Thanks again for your help with the holding cell.

Your brother,

Harry








Harry and Ginny Potter
Potters' Cove
Boscastle
Cornwall

October 11, 2004

William Theed, RA
The Royal Academy of Magic
666 Diagon Alley
London

Dear Sir,

I am in receipt of your letter of the tenth, protesting the restrictions placed on the Academy's access to the Deathly Hallows for the examination. Your letter went on at some length describing the difficulties your fellow Academicians anticipate.

Yes, each of the three Hallows is stored in a different Muggle bank vault. Yes, the area in which you will be examining each Hallow is under continuous surveillance by Muggle security devices. No, in that environment you will not be able to use active analytic charms of any kind — unless you can cast them wordlessly and wandlessly. Yes, any occurrences during the examinations that alert or disturb the Muggle authorities will be reported and investigated as potential violations of the Statute of Secrecy. The security of these dangerous and tempting artefacts remains my overriding concern. I should hope that is and will remain your paramount concern as well!

Apparently you and your colleagues are under the misapprehension that I am a bloke who cares about your convenience while you root through these reminders of a painful part of my past. Let me clear that up immediately. I DO NOT CARE! In this case, you are not dealing with Harry Potter, employee of the Ministry. You are dealing with Harry Potter, Saviour of the Wizarding Word. As Saviour of the Wizarding World, the displeasure of the Minister is a matter of little import to me. It was only the personal appeal of my dear friend Kingsley Shacklebolt that swayed me to agree to your rude and intrusive demands in the first place.

If the security measures put in place to protect these artefacts — measures that I must point out are completely consistent with the agreed-upon restrictions — make your planned examination more trouble than it is worth, then I will certainly make no objection to your withdrawing the “request” and cancelling the scheduled examinations.

If you decide to pursue any further complaints, my Solicitor's mailing address is affixed to the foot of this parchment. Please conduct any further correspondence through the good offices of Davies and Davies.

Again, I remind you. When examining the Hallows, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES REMOVE THE ARTEFACTS FROM THE BOXES IN WHICH THEY ARE STORED! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! AGAIN!

Your obedient servant,

Harry Potter
Order of Merlin, First Class
Royal Order of the White Rose
The Boy Who Lived
Saviour of the Wizarding World, etc. etc.








Harry and Ginny Potter
Potters' Cove
Boscastle
Cornwall

October 12, 2004


Hermione Granger-Weasley
c/o Ministry of Magic Liaison Office
Her Britannic Majesty's Embassy
Santiago
Chile

Dear Hermione,

Everything is ready. On Friday I'll take the Royal Academy representatives to examine the Hallows.

I have alarm and monitoring charms cast on the Muggle banks, their vaults, the safe deposit boxes, and on the Hallows themselves. The holding cell has its own set of detection charms. My desk at the Cove is covered with curious silver instruments that whir and emit puffs of smoke. I have matching read-outs in the Auror's offices at the Ministry. It's sobering — no, it's scary — that I now understand what most of those strange devices in Dumbledore's office actually did. Ginny promises that if my eyes ever start to twinkle, she'll strangle me in my sleep before I can inflict myself on the Wizarding world.

Speaking of Ginny, she's over in Romania, scouting prospects for the Harpies. She may wait to write you again after she gets back and I can stick her letter in the Ministry pouch, but I know she's thinking of you. She told me to make certain I remind you not to get discouraged. You and Ron may have been trying for longer than we have, but Ginny has both the Weasley and the Prewett genes. She always maintained that if she wasn't on the Contraceptive Potion, all I'd have to do to get her preggers is look at her cross-eyed.

Ginny hasn't decided what to do once the baby is born. I know she wants to keep playing, and the Harpies would like to keep her. I promise I've learned my lesson! I'm letting her make up her own mind. No manipulation, no matter how much I favour one particular choice. No offers too good to refuse. Just unconditional support — and advice, but that only if she asks for it. Even if I do believe I have more right now than I ever did before to have a say in the decision — after all, we're married and having a child together!

Someone tried to break in here two nights ago. Kreacher raised the alarm and woke me up. We secured the cottage and checked the grounds. Someone had tampered with the wards. Someone who knew what they were doing. They must have Disapparated when they heard Kreacher casting more protective magic. You know there aren't any anti-Apparation Wards here at the Cove to keep someone from getting away — we've always focused our precautions to keep intruders out. Precautions that did not work this time. Thank Merlin Kreacher was here!

I couldn't sleep until I got the Hallows out of the cottage and into the Muggle safe deposit boxes in London the next morning. It's just too risky to have them all in one place at the same time. They're never coming back here again — except for the Cloak, of course. No one except a couple of Order members and some of the D.A. know I've had the Cloak since First Year. As long as the public believes the Cloak is secured where no one can get to it, they'll never suspect I might be using it.

I'm taking your advice and making it public knowledge that the Hallows aren't stored here at the Cove. Even the keys to the safe deposit boxes will be locked in the Potter vault at Gringotts. I'm following your advice on that too. They are in a box with keys to seventeen other safety deposit boxes, all mixed together. Besides me, only Ginny knows which are the right three. When you get back, we'll show you and Ron.

I've told Ron about the break-in, he brought by a couple of his mates from the Auror training program and they are checking for clues as to who might have tried to get in. He told them it's a practice exercise I set up for them. No one else knows yet. I promise I'll tell Ginny about it when she gets home. Then she and I will decide what to tell Mum and Dad Weasley.

Ron really does miss you. He's doing his best, but he's lost without you. Come back to us as soon as you can.

Your mate,

Harry








Harry and Ginny Potter
Potters' Cove
Boscastle
Cornwall

October 15, 2004

Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt
Office of the Minister — URGENT!

Kingsley,

Percy says he'll see that you are handed this at the first opportunity.

Yes, you'll get back your Inspector from Magical Equipment Control. I'm on my way to collect him as soon as I finish this note. However, I am not at all pleased with that particular wizard at the moment. It may be a long note.

No, the Department of Mysteries boffins can't trace him. He's in an Unplottable location protected by a Fidelus Charm. I do hope he's not too stubborn about trying to blast his way out.

I don't know who was more surprised when he announced that he was confiscating the Stone, me or those Academy blokes. That's the point at which I became seriously annoyed with Mr Hambledon Kegg. He's certainly no Unspeakable! I still can't believe he actually took the Resurrection Stone out of the box, after all the warnings. And then to try to Finite a Portus Charm! How many O.W.L.s did he achieve?

Actually, are you certain he's one of yours, and not an impostor? (I'm sorry, I mean “ours.” I know, I know, you've counselled me about that before.) If there is one attribute of Ministry employees I have always grudgingly admired, it's their firm and unwavering sense of self-preservation. This bloke is a few sheaves short of a cart-load, if you ask me.

Back when I designed the security for the Hallows you asked how much trouble there would be if something like this happened. How much trouble would you like there to be? Chief Inspector Fredrick Thompson has it all on video, but he's ours. We can play it however you direct. What do you think now about bringing the Director of the Met's Intelligence Division onto our side? Of course it helps that both his daughters are witches.

I'd do anything you ask (well, almost anything, I respect your imagination too much to give you a completely blank cheque) if you would authorize me to drag my Royal Academy “friends” through a long, tedious Improper Use of Magic investigation. They're responsible for my having to open Dumbledore's Tomb! Of course, it would be a more meaningful investigation if it hadn't been a Ministry employee who actually caused this fiasco.

Will we see you for Sunday dinner at The Burrow?

Your legacy to the Wizarding world,

Harry








Harry and Ginny Potter
Potters' Cove
Boscastle
Cornwall

October 16, 2004

Ginny Potter
c/o Communications Office
(to be forwarded immediately!)
Holyhead Harpies
Holyhead
Wales

Dearest Ginny,

It's all done. I'm sorry you weren't here to see it play out. You would have loved it. The expressions on the faces of the Royal Academy wizards when the Resurrection Stone returned to the box without that Ministry twit were priceless. Their ardour for conducting a detailed study cooled noticeably after that. I think they'll be done in a day or so. They've certainly stopped asking to take the Hallows away to their own laboratory for further study.

There's one thing I haven't told anyone.

The night I was preparing the three Hallows, before I took them to the Muggle banks, I had all three — the ring, the wand, and the cloak — in the study. I couldn't resist. I put on the cloak and the ring and took up the wand in my hand. I mean, as far as anyone knows, no one has ever done that. I don't know what I expected to happen. You don't have to tell me I was being an idiot.

Do you remember the Battle of the Seven Potters? How I told everyone that my wand moved like it had a mind of its own and defended me against Voldemort? That's what the Elder Wand did. It twitched in my hand and fired a spell at the mirror by the door. After that, I could see figures moving in the mirror. One of them was you. That's the one part I know for certain. There were three children, two boys and one girl. Before I could identify anything else, the three children were grown, and they each had little ones around them. After that the pictures began changing faster and faster, I couldn't make out anything more.

What does it mean to conquer death? I'm still not sure, but I think it has something to do with who you leave behind when you go on the next great adventure.

The Cove is hollow without you here. Are you sure everything is going well? Are you feeling comfortable? Do you need anything?

I need you more than life itself. Come home safe.

All my love,

Harry

P.S. I'm not a happy husband. Why can't the Harpies tell me where you are? I'm an Auror for Merlin's sake! There is such a thing as carrying team security too far!
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