Even though Harry and Hermione had Voldemort trapped in a soul orb, no one wanted to take the chance that he could escape. The locket, the cup and diadem was destroyed, they had to wait to the start of the next school year to get the diary that Lucius slipped to Ginny. They had a plan for that. But Sirius and Dan had gone to the cemetery and removed every bone and every bit of bone dust from all the Riddle graves. Sirius then transfigured some tree branches into bones, replacing them with the real bones. They planned to get the ring during the holidays as they needed Harry's ability to talk to snakes to get past the enchantments so they wouldn't end up cursed.
Even though Sirius could buy his own home, he liked living with the Grangers and he would get to spend a lot of time with Harry. So Sirius and Dan worked on a few things. First was Sirius had a cottage build down the back of the garden so he could have some privacy, but it also gave Dan and Emma time alone. Since he was officially living there, Sirius was able to get the Grangers property warded, and the fireplace hooked up to the floo network. Having it warded meant it would give everyone some protection from people like Malfoy and the other death eaters that never ended up in Azkaban. The floo was restricted to just Harry, Hermione, Sirius, Emma, Dan, Neville and his grandmother. If Harry and Hermione got close to others, then Sirius would give them access. Even though Sirius didn't believe the old death eaters would cause trouble, not without their master around, no one wanted to take a chance. When Harry explained how the death eaters acted at the quidditch world cup, and that was before Voldemort's return, they decided it would be best to be cautious and keep their eyes open. They would also try to get those that were really death eaters locked up or at least have them taken care of so they could never cause trouble again.
Ron didn't end up back at Hogwarts before the Christmas holidays. Fred and George explained to Harry that his father had decided he would return in the new school year yet he would repeat first year since he wasn't able to do his end of year tests. But Arthur also found out that Ron hadn't studied and most of the time none of his homework from any of his classes had been finished. Arthur felt that making Ron redo first year would have the boy realise that if he didn't change his ways then he would never get a decent job when he was older.
Since Harry knew that the twins had been genuine friends, he decided he would offer them money so they could begin to make their great joke products. Once they had enough and done a few more years at Hogwarts, they would be ready to open their joke shop. It had to be done legally, which the twins liked. So Sirius was going to work it out so everything could be finalised during the holidays. He planned to send a letter to Arthur, inviting the twins out for the day. Fred and George couldn't stop thanking Harry, but when Harry told them that Sirius thought the twins were the next generation of Marauder, that's when Fred and George realised that one of the original Marauder's was going to assist in their goals at following in the Marauder's footsteps. Then they found out that Harry was the son of Prongs. Harry ended up being their new best friend, much to the amusement of Hermione.
Even though Malfoy was not causing trouble, he still sneered at Hermione and any other muggleborn. There were many other Slytherin's and a few students from the other houses that used the word like mudblood. Sirius gave Harry and Hermione an idea for a prank but it would affect everyone at Hogwarts who used bad names for people. They had put a jinx on certain words, like mudblood. Whenever anyone said that word or any word that was meant to hurt someone's feelings, they would turn into a small garden gnome, similar to what the Weasley's gnomes looked like. Nothing the teachers did could change them back. They would stay that way for a week, but if they continued saying those words or hurting people, the next time they turned into a garden gnome would last two weeks, and would increase every time the jinx kicked in. Hermione had used runes on specific parts of the castle, then made sure they were hidden so the jinx would always be active. Even though there were garden gnomes running around Hogwarts because some just couldn't stop being bullies, it made Harry realise that the purebloods believed it was their right. Harry wasn't sure anything would change with what the purebloods believed.
Right at the end of the Christmas holidays, Harry received a letter from Dumbledore. The old man wanted Sirius and Harry to speak with Arthur Weasley about Ron, so he could re-join his classmates. Sirius sent a letter back explaining that the boy was lucky not to be expelled, but he also wrote that if Ron did return to join the rest of his class mates and went anywhere near Harry or Hermione, then those two would be gone from Hogwarts. Sirius made sure that the old man knew that Hermione and Harry already spoke with the headmaster of some of the other schools in other countries. He also wrote that Sirius and the Grangers were ready to up and leave the country if that's what it would take to keep Harry and Hermione safe and away from people that wished to use them, or hurt them.
The day after Fred and George had visited, Harry, Hermione, Sirius and Dan went too Little Hangleton, again. This time they went to the Gaunt shack. It took Harry almost an hour to dismantle all the wards that had been placed on the shack and the ring before Sirius cast fiend fyre. He was the only one who could use and control the magical fire. Apart from having the fire destroy the horcrux, he let the fire destroy the shack at the same time. Once the shack was gone, a few charms from Harry, Hermione and Sirius had the place cleaned up so it looked like the shack had been gone for years. Now it was just a bit of vacant land that was hidden behind a lot of trees and hedges. They wanted people like Dumbledore or maybe a death eater that knew of the house to believe it had been gone for many years. This way no one would be suspicious of Harry, Hermione and Sirius.
The end of the school year went perfectly for Harry and Hermione. Harry was able to catch the snitch in the final game which gave Gryffindor the quidditch cup, first time since Charlie Weasley left Hogwarts. There were nothing to cause Harry to miss the match. But what Hermione and Harry liked was there was no troll, no fluffy, and most of all, no Voldemort. They knew they still had to get the diary from Malfoy, or Ginny when the blond slipped it to her, but they didn't believe it would be a problem. If for any reason they missed their chance to get the diary that day in Flourish and Blotts, then Hermione would sneak into Ginny's dorm room, take the diary then send it straight to Sirius who would destroy it. That would be the last one, there was no Nagini this time since Voldemort hadn't had a chance to regain even a partial body. There was also no soul inside Harry.
After studying the books they got from Grimmauld place they realised that when Harry and Hermione took the potion which stopped their hearts, and killed them, it caused the horcrux behind Harry's scar to disintegrate. They spoke about what Dumbledore believed, how it would be love that destroyed Voldemort. Harry and Hermione realised that before they returned Harry had never loved anyone, so love would not work. Harry and Hermione had no idea why Dumbledore left Harry with people who hated him then allowed him to be ostracized by half the students. None of that would have Harry feeling anything like love, more like hate. But it was the same with Sirius, Harry did not get a chance to spend time with Sirius before he died. So even though love was powerful, Harry had been denied love and a lot of that came down to Dumbledore's plans. They still had no idea about all the old man's plans, they might not ever find out. But they knew at least they could get rid of Voldemort for good which would hopefully have Dumbledore out of their lives.
Harry explained to Sirius about Barty Crouch junior. So even though everything had changed now so the death eater wouldn't be able to get in contact with Voldemort. They believed he should be found by the aurors. He could be returned to Azkaban or given the kiss. It would also get rid of his father who got his criminal son out of Azkaban in the first place. Sirius wanted Bartemius Crouch punished for putting him in Azkaban without a trial. Sirius hoped both Crouch's would end up in there, hopefully for life.
Just as Harry, Hermione and Neville left the train, they could see that Molly Weasley was going to try and intercept them, which they had expected. They told Sirius to make sure to cut her off, he did.
'Mr. Black, I would like to speak with Harry, if you don't mind?'
'It's not up to me, it's up to Harry if he wants to talk to you, whoever you are.'
'Molly Weasley, Harry knows my son.'
'Oh, right, the bigoted garbage tip that doesn't know when to keep his big mouth shut. Let me tell you this Mrs Weasley. You need to teach your son some manners and tell him that if he continues to call my girlfriend disgusting names, I will make sure his outside looks like his insides. That is not a threat, that is a promise. Now Sirius, let's go home.'
Harry walked off with Hermione and Neville, Sirius was keeping himself between Harry and a seriously pissed off Molly Weasley. He could see she was ready to chase after them, so he sent a tripping hex at her to slow her down until they left.
They said a hurried goodbye to Neville, then Sirius led them to the public floo. He kept himself between Harry, Hermione and everyone else until they disappeared.