Chapter 1: Home for the Summer
Hey, everyone, I know it's been awhile since I posted. To be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to continue this story since I began working on several others that I'm working on posting soon. I'm going to take this one slow and post a chapter a week. I've gone over this one for corrections several times and finally thought it was ready. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Everything in this is J.K.'s, I only claim Rigel, Dawn, Artemis, Drake and what I wrote myself.
Lily, Remus, and Drake apparated the kids from King's Cross to the Manor, since Harry was way too tired to try and apparate himself or anyone else. When they walked through the door, they sat down in the living room, while the house elves put all the trunks in the correct rooms.
"Mum, Dad, Uncle, it's great to see you guys, but I'm going to bed. I'll see you all in the morning," Harry said.
Neville, Artemis, and Dawn followed soon after. Neville walked into his and Harry's room and changed into his pajamas before going to bed, since Harry was already asleep. Artemis helped Dawn into her pajamas and tucked her into her bed before doing the same and going to sleep in her own room.
Lily and Remus bid Drake goodnight before following their kids and making sure they got to sleep before going to sleep themselves after the long day.
Drake stayed awake for awhile after everyone went to sleep. The night was still young and he needed to hunt before the sun came up. Augusta was very polite to him for someone who had been raised to fear him for being a 'half-breed,' but she seemed to have gotten over her fear when she saw how well he had taken care of Artemis.
It was nearing dawn by the time he finished hunting in the woods beyond the manor that Lily said he could hunt in. He went to bed in the room that had been made for him. It had thick curtains and bed curtains, so he could sleep undisturbed by sun. He could go out in the sun, but it was only for a limited amount of time before he would start to sunburn and then burn. He fell asleep peacefully after the good hunt.
A couple hours later, Harry and Neville woke up from Dawn jumping on their bed and telling them they needed to get dressed and eat breakfast before their friends came over.
They grudgingly did as she told them and dressed, after she left their room, and walked downstairs groggily for food.
Lily laughed at them when she saw them and asked, "Did you boys get any sleep?"
"Yes, Aunt Lily," Neville said and drank some juice and started eating.
"Harry?" she asked.
"I slept fine, Mum," he lied and drank some juice.
She looked at him concerned, but decided to let it go for now. If it was just a onetime thing, then maybe he'd tell her about it soon. She started talking with Remus, but kept a close eye on him.
He knew lying was bad, but he couldn't let her know that he was having nightmares. Ever since the night when they had gone after Quirrell, he could still see Voldemort's spirit coming towards him, but now it talked to him and his dreams about the night James died were back and worse than ever, especially the green light of the killing curse coming towards him.
He ate his breakfast and waited in the entrance hall for his friends to come. Dawn, Artemis, and Neville were with him, but his mum, dad, and uncle were in the living room.
The first to come was Sirius and the rest of Harry's extended family. Sirius came first, followed by Rigel, Daphne, and Astoria with Gabby last to make sure they all got through okay.
They left to put their stuff upstairs. Rigel was staying with Harry and Neville and Daphne was staying Artemis, while Astoria stayed with Dawn.
Next were the Weasley's. Bill and Charlie came through first after letting them know their parents were going to join them for lunch. Neville went to tell Aunt Lily, while Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny came through. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came through last and went into living room to join the adults.
The other Weasley's left to choose rooms and Neville came back in after they had left.
Next, Susan and Amelia came through followed by Luna and Xenophilius and Cedric and Amos.
"Hi, Susan, Lulu, and Ced I'm sure you can find some rooms upstairs. Ginny and Percy probably don't have anyone to share with. Ms. Bones, Mr. Lovegood, Mr. Diggory all the adults are in the living room if you want to join them," Harry said politely.
They followed Harry's advice and the kids waited for the next group to come through. It was Dean and Seamus followed by Hermione.
They walked upstairs to find rooms and Harry was about to cut off the floo when someone else came falling through.
"Oof!" Harry said as whoever it was fell on top of him. He looked to see who it was and grinned, "Wotcher, Tonks."
"Wotcher, Harry," she groaned as she tried to get off of him. "Mum and Dad are coming too. We might want to get out of the way."
They moved and Andromeda and Ted came through.
"Aunt Andy," Harry yelled and hugged her. She smiled at him and hugged him close.
She picked him up and said, "How's my boy?"
"I'm good, Aunt Andy."
"Good, now where's that mother of yours? I need to talk to her."
"Are you guys staying for the summer too?"
"Only the first month, Nymphadora has to go to work after that and so does Ted. I might come by the Weasley's to see you though."
"Yay, I'd love that."
"Ah, I see the pup found you, Andy."
"Of course he did, Sirius, now let's go see Lily. Harry, you go play with your friends and make sure they're getting settled in, okay?"
"Okay, Aunt Andy."
He hopped out of her arms and he and Neville walked upstairs to check on everyone. His room was the first door on the left with Neville. Rigel was unpacking his stuff, but joined them to check on everyone. Ginny, Luna, and Susan were in the room right across the hall. Next to that one, after a bathroom, were Fred and George. Across from them were Cedric and Percy. Charlie and Bill were next door and Artemis was sharing with Daph and Tori with Dawn.
He stopped at Daph and Misty's room and conjured another bed. They looked at him and he said, "Tonks is staying with us too."
Daphne cheered and explained who Tonks was to Misty.
"By the way, I'm asking mum if we can play a game of Quidditch before lunch," he said loudly in the hallway.
All the kids followed him downstairs and he had the wait outside the living room while he asked his mum.
"Hey, mum, can we go play a game of Quidditch before lunch?"
"Sure, just be back inside when I call for you."
Sirius stood up to go play, but Gabby pulled him back down with a glare.
Harry looked suspicious at that, but didn't say anything. He followed his friends outside and they divided into teams. There was Harry as seeker on one team, Charlie on the other and they were both captains, but before they could start picking people, Harry walked over to Dawn.
"Dawn, I need you to do be a very big favor and it involves being very sneaky for your big brother."
Her eyes lit up and she asked, "What do I have to do?"
He grinned and said, "I need you to go in the living room and say you're tired. Climb into Mum's lap and pretend to sleep. Listen to what they talk about and if you can't remember, we'll go back through the memory in something called a pensive."
"Can I come too?"
"Of course, since you're the one that's going to be doing the work."
"Okay, Harry, I'll do it."
"Thanks, Dawn," he said and she ran inside, but slowed down as she walked into the living room. She did as Harry said and pretended to sleep, but really she was listening to their every word.
Outside, the Quidditch game was starting. It was Harry, Rigel, Artemis, Ginny, Fred and George, and Ron. Charlie, Bill, Susan, Neville, Dean, Seamus, and Cedric were on the other team. Luna, Percy, Hermione, and Tonks were watching and keeping score.
Inside, Dawn was in shock. She didn't know Harry wasn't sleeping. She knew something was wrong, but she didn't know that her parents were this worried. They also discussed the possibility of Dawn starting a small public school, which she was happy to hear. She wanted to be able to do something while Harry was in school, but the only problem they were having is that they couldn't teach and have her school. In the end, they decided that Andromeda would teach her during the day, while the kids were at Hogwarts.
She would floo in and teach her in during the classes and give her homework. Math, science, history of magic and muggles, English, Spanish, French, Latin, physical training, sword training, basic charms, transfiguration, defense, runes, divination, unless she didn't show an aptitude for it, Herbology, potions, and astronomy until she started Hogwarts. Lily was going to take her, when the kids' letters came for school, to Diagon Alley and London to get her books and wand early.
Dawn wanted to jump up and down and squeal after hearing this, but she stayed 'asleep' and kept her breathing even.
They started talking about other random things like Tonks work, Ted's work, Mr. Weasley's work and when the other kids came in; she made a big deal of yawning and blinking sleepily before climbing down slowly out of her mum's arms and following the others.
Harry picked her up when she came out the door and she rested her head in the crook of his neck. Fake sleeping had made her really tired, but she knew she couldn't take another nap so she settled for resting her eyes while her brother carried her upstairs.
Everyone was using their separate showers and Harry led her inside his trunk. They walked to the study and she stood still while Harry took the memory and placed it in the bowl.
"Okay, now hold my hand," he said and she did. "Now, put your face into the liquid and hold on tight."
They put their faces to the liquid and down they went into the memory.
'"So what do you think is wrong with him,'" Memory Lily asked.
"'Lils, I know you don't want to admit it, but he's very strong. He isn't going to tell us what's wrong until he's ready to. Until then, all we can do is to make a guessing circle around the a million things that could be wrong.'"
'"I know, but he's not sleeping. He's picking at his food. I'm worried about him, he's my child, just like Dawn,"' she stroked her daughter's hair at this. '"If anything happened to either of them, I don't know what I'd do.'"
They all sighed, but moved on to the topic of Dawn's schooling. They left the pensive when the discussion started and Harry asked, "Dawn, I need you to do me an even bigger favor?"
"What?"
"I need you to not tell anyone about this, okay? And when all of my friends and I go to Diagon Alley, we'll take you with us to get anything you want."
"Anything," she gasped. He nodded and she nodded really fast.
"Okay, let's go back out, it's time for lunch and we don't need mum getting worried about us."
She nodded and let Harry carry her out of the study and trunk and down the stairs to the dining room.
Everyone was sitting down, but there were two seats available. Harry sat in between Ginny and Rigel and Dawn sat in between Lily and Artemis.
Dinner was a loud affair as everyone was discussing what they wanted to do for the summer.
As dinner ended, Lily and Remus stood up and he said, "Okay, I believe you are all done, so if it's okay with everyone, we're all going to go to the living room and make some plans for what everyone wants to do in the first month. What you all do next month, as I'm sure some of you all will have to go home and Harry, Artemis, and Dawn will be going to the Weasley's and I'm sure some of you are planning to go to, so let's adjourn to the living room and see what we can think up, okay?"
Everyone agreed and followed them to the living room. They all sat down either on a couch, chair, conjured chair or beanbag chair, or just on the floor.
"Okay, now, I have parchment, a quill, and some ink. Anyone have any ideas?" Lily asked.
Everyone started talking at once and Remus held up a hand and it stopped.
"One at a time, please," Drake said.
They started with Ginny, who sat at one end of the room, and went all the way through till they reached the other side where Susan was sitting.
By the time they finished, they had a full calendar from the next day until the end of July.
The kids went to bed after that, they were going to a water park the next day, except Harry and Artemis. Dawn had gone up with Ginny to be put to bed because she was exhausted.
"So, did you guys have fun today?" Drake asked.
"Loads, Uncle Drake," they both replied.
They both smiled at each other and waited for their parents start talking.
"Harry, you know you can talk to us, right?" Drake asked.
He nodded slowly, but his mum asked, "Are you sure? Will you tell me what's wrong then?"
"Nothing's wrong, mum," he mumbled.
"Son, we're just worried about you. We know you aren't sleeping, but please come to us if anything else comes up."
He only nodded and hugged them before going to bed. Artemis stayed and talked a little longer before following her brother.
When she opened the door to his room, she saw he was already asleep and hoped that his dreams would be peaceful. She went to bed her room and soon after that so did her parents, while Drake stayed awake through the night again.