She then changed tact on Ron. "Look down there. Now no one in the entire world knows those two better than you do - so tell me this. Is it his gold that's making Harry incredibly happy, or the people he's with?"
It was like the theatre curtain pulling back on opening night, Ron finally got to see his friends for who they really were. "Harry usually wears clothes that are in a worse state than mine - and don't even fit him. When Harry got access to his gold, the first thing he did was spend a chunk of it on his friends. Harry could easily have arranged for some of the best tutors in the world to provide lessons for him and Hermione, instead he's building a fabulous school for all of us. People are more important to Harry than any amount of gold, with Hermione being right at the very top of that list."
Pleased that her boyfriend was cottoning on, she prodded him to go further. "And Hermione?"
Ron smiling was not the answer Millie wanted, but she was fine after hearing his explanation. "The first time we met Sirius was terrifying - and not just because it was in the Shrieking Shack. He was supposed to be an escaped mass murderer who was desperate to kill Harry. Hermione deliberately stood right in front of Harry, ready to take any curse Sirius was going to cast at him. A hell of a lot of things changed that night, but not how those two felt about each other. She wouldn't care if Harry didn't have a knut to his name, Hermione would still be right by his side."
Nodding at his understanding, Millie then laid it out for Ron. "You have a wonderful family and fantastic friends, that makes Ronald Weasley a wealthy man."
He leaned over and gently kissed Milly. "Having you as my girlfriend makes me one of the richest men in the world. You have my permission to keep whacking the back of my head anytime I forget that."
Molly was sitting on the balcony connected to the room Harry had provided for her and Arthur's stay, sipping a wonderful glass of red wine and making no attempt to stem the flow of tears that were running down her cheeks. Understanding these were happy tears, Arthur sipped his own glass as they saw his youngest son give his girlfriend a kiss.
"They all look wonderful, Arthur, and are clearly very happy. That school Harry's building is something else too. It's hard to believe that our children even had some input into the design of the building but Minerva would never lie to us. Harry's also invited us back for Christmas, we'll get to spend the holidays with them."
Passing his hanky over to his wife, a smiling Arthur had even better news for Molly. "Since the Institute will only have four years worth of students, they decided to allow parents to visit and stay for a weekend each term. They'll arrange a rota of when those visits are, taking birthdays and other things into account. I didn't want to say anything until after our visit…"
Molly finished Arthur's sentence. "..just in case we couldn't come. Oh Arthur, I could strangle Albus bloody Dumbledore with his own beard for what he's done to these children. Do you think Percy will be in any danger at Hogwarts?"
Arthur had been giving that a lot of thought so gave Molly his best guess. "Dumbledore will try to extract as much work out of Percy and Penny as is humanly possible, while paying them as little as he can get away with. I don't think either of them will be in any danger, those Quibbler articles will see a lot of people keeping a close eye on Hogwarts and Dumbledore. He would need to be really crazy to pull anything now."
That didn't exactly reassure Molly, since the young Mind Healer who was handling Ginny's case used exactly those words to describe the Hogwarts Headmaster.
Harry and Hermione were tucking Joan into a bed that had been placed in Hermione's room, the little chatterbox became quiet as Harry kissed her goodnight on the forehead.
Noticing her silence, and her nose twitching almost as if Joan was biting her young lip over something, Hermione kissed the little girl on the forehead too before speaking. "You know you can ask us anything, don't you?"
Looking at both of them in turn, Joan then lowered her eyes and her voice was barely above a whisper. "Is this what having a family feels like? Everyone here has treated me so well. This has been the best day of my life..."
Harry sat on the bed beside the little girl, trying to avoid Joan bursting into tears. "I think so. You see, I didn't have a family before this summer either - and never thought I ever would. Any family would be really lucky to have you as part of it, and I promise your name is already down to attend the Potter Institute when that time comes."
Joan threw her arms around Harry and hugged him close, smiling instead of crying. "With a wand and uniform and books...". She now had a future to look forward too.
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