Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, If I was do you think I would be writing
fan fiction?
A/N: this is my first attempt at fan fiction, PLEASE review and let me know how it is.
CHAPTER ONE
A young man of about 16 or 17 years of age sat at a desk in an unfamiliar room. His name was Harry Potter, and he was no ordinary young man, but a wizard as well. He was feverishly writing on a piece of parchment, every now and then referencing to a book besides him.
The room was warmly lit, with two desk lamps in the room filling it with light. The light cast from the lamps accentuated the walls of the room, making the golden honey color of the oak deeper and richer and in essence, warmer. It was a relatively small square room, with a bed against one wall and a small, long dresser next to it that doubled as a nightstand. Next to the dresser was an open window whose dark blue curtains were being gently blown around by the night breeze. A small, round table sat next to the window, in the corner of room, and held a giant cage with a magnificent white owl housed inside. Harry and his desk were adjacent to the bed, with the owl next to him. On the one remaining wall was a framed picture. The picture was of his parents, before they died, with him in his mother's arms, no older than a few months. The rest of the room was filled with overflowing boxes, covering the wood floor.
Sighing, Harry put down his quill and rolled up the parchment, smiling as he did so. He closed the book he had been using, revealing a picture of a werewolf and the title "Common Misunderstandings of A Gentle Kind, a memoir of Professor Reamus Lupin's life" on the dark green cover. Stretching, he stood and walked over to the owl and opened the cage door. As he did so, the owl flew out the window giving a hoot of thanks.
"Have fun Hedwig" Harry muttered, turning back to his desk. He glanced at the digital clock that was on his desk next to the book. It was a couple of minutes after 8:00 and Harry sighed, wandering out of the room and down the hall. The rest of the house had the same wood ceilings, floors, and walls as his room did, giving the house an old log cabin feel to it that welcomed Harry the second he had walked into the house.
As he entered the kitchen, an older man in shabby clothing looked up tiredly from his newspaper, The Daily Prophet. The older man smiled and put his paper down one the table he was sitting at.
"Did my book help you any Harry?" the man asked as Harry sat across from him.
"Yes it did, thank you for giving it to me Professor. How is it doing on the bestseller's list?" Harry asked as he helped himself to a cookie on a plate in the center of the table.
"Pretty well actually, I'm still in a bit of shock really, I never expected it to do so well. Who knew that the life of a werewolf would be so entertaining as to have most of the wizarding world wanting to read it," Professor Lupin chuckled. "But then again, it might have something to do with James and Sirius being in a majority of it." Professor Lupin's face fell as he mentioned this. Harry and Lupin were still having trouble with the deaths of these two very influential men in their lives.
"Well, you know how people are, anything involving the Potter name or Sirius' name is gold to them" Lupin said with a grin, trying to lighten up the mood a bit.
"How's your room Harry?" Lupin said, changing the subject as he got up and moved around to make some tea.
"It's good, big enough I suppose. It still feels really weird being here. Why did Sirius have this place re-built?" Harry asked as he watched his friend rummage through the cabinets for tea bags.
"He wanted you to have somewhere for you to live when you got older Harry. I'm surprised he was able to finish it with everything that was going on" Lupin said as he triumphantly smiled at retrieving tea bags. Before he had died, Sirius Black, Harry's legal guardian, had rebuilt the Potter's old house in Godric's Hollow. It had many spells and charms that caused it to be hidden from anyone but the owners and those they wish to let in.
Lupin returned to the table with two mugs of tea and handed Harry half of the paper. Harry gladly accepted the tea and paper and started looking for an interesting article. Harry sighed, content with where he was. Just the day before, Lupin had taken him from his home with the Dursley's and moved him into this magnificent house. And tomorrow would symbolize his 17th birthday and his last year at Hogwarts (which symbolized a good and bad thing) was merely weeks away, and he began to become nervous at the prospect of his apparition test the next day. He had been practicing under the supervision of Lupin since his 16th birthday, and had become rather good at it, but still was worried.
He calmed himself remembering that Arthur Weasley was now the Minister of magic and would make the test more comfortable for him. At the end of his 5th year at Hogwarts, Cornelius Fudge, the then current Minister of Magic, had been fired for trying to hush up Voldemort's return. Arthur Weasley was the only other person with enough gusto to run and whom the people actually liked. His best friend Ron's family had, surprisingly, not been affected by the overwhelming amount of money that was now pouring in and still lived in a run down house in the country. Percy, Ron's older brother, had returned to the family and all was forgiven.
Thinking about Ron's family also made Harry think of Ron's younger sister, Ginny, who was now 16 years old and quite beautiful at that. Ron was starting to get annoyed with all the attention Ginny was receiving and was threatening to tell any boy at school who liked her that he knew many a curse that would deteriorate them into vegetables. For this reason alone, Harry never revealed his true feelings for the youngest Weasley.
'Professor, have you thought anything about Dumbledore's offer?" Harry asked after finding nothing interesting in his half of the paper.
"Yes I have, I think I'm going to take him up on his offer and start teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again" Lupin said with a smile.
"That's great Professor!" exclaimed Harry with sincerity. He was glad that his last year at Hogwarts would be with a favorite teacher.
"Thank you Harry. And I think you should get some rest, you have to get up at 4 to get to the Ministry for your apparition test, and you got no sleep last night either. Why Arthur made your appointment so early is beyond me" Lupin said, glancing at the clock which read 9:00.
"Ron asked him to, something about him and Hermione kidnapping me and a surprise," Harry answered vaguely, getting up.
"How about Draco? Will he be there as well?" asked Lupin.
"I honestly don't know, he didn't return my last owl" Harry said sighing. Draco Malfoy had become friends with Harry, Ron, and Hermione after his father had been convicted of being a Death Eater. Draco was quickly becoming a part of the trio, but Harry still worried about him sometimes. Still wondered if there were ulterior motives behind him wanting to be their friend.
"Don't worry about him Harry, his father's appeal was this week, he was probably busy with that. He swore he was on the good side" Lupin reminded Harry.
"You sound like Hermione now Professor" Harry grinned, leaving the kitchen and heading back to his own room.
**********
"Eat up Harry, we have to leave in 10 minutes" Lupin said hurrying about the kitchen. Harry sat groggily at the table playing with the toast that was on his plate.
"Maybe we should just go, I'm too tired to eat." Harry got up and Lupin cleared away the plates with a wave of his wand.
As they left the house Harry realized that no one sent him any birthday greetings with the exception of Luna Lovegood. He was quite afraid to see what she had sent so he had pushed it aside. He figured that his friends would give him their gifts when he saw them later that day.
As they boarded the subway train that would take them to London, Harry started to feel the nervousness from the night before coming back. Lupin noticed and gave him a small smile.
"You'll do fine Harry, don't worry. You could apparate to the moon and back if you wanted to." Harry smiled at this and him and Reamus made small chat until their stop came.
"Do you know the new code to punch in Reamus?" In an answer to his question, Lupin punched in the code and the phone booth they had piled into asked for their names and business. When they had answered the phone booth, it spit out badges for them to pin onto their clothes and started to descend. Lupin just smiled at Harry as the phone booth started to come to a stop.
"Ready Harry?" Lupin asked.
"I guess so" Harry gulped. They arrived at the guard's desk and after having their wands measured they started to make their way quietly towards the apparition office. Arthur Weasley greeted them at the door.
"Harry my boy! Good to see you." Mr. Weasley shook Harry's hand vigorously and pointed to a door on his left. "Just go on through that door right there and Madam Bones will oversee your test. Reamus, you stay with me, I wanted to have a word with you on a few matters." Harry started towards the door, looking back at Reamus who gave him a reassuring smile. With a deep breath, Harry opened the door.
Madam Bones was seated at a desk and smiled as he came in.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, nice to see you, sit down" Madam Bones pointed to a chair opposite her desk. Harry sat down nervously twiddling his thumbs.
"Your apparition test will require that you apparate to a certain point in the countryside, as there are no muggles present. This is to prove that you are capable of the apparition spell in itself. Once there, another Ministry official, who will explain the rest of your test, will greet you. Now, here is a map of the spot in the country we have chosen for you to apparate. Good luck Mr. Potter, I will await your return." Madam Bones handed him a map of the country. He studied the map for a few seconds and closed his eyes concentrating on where he wanted to land.
He heard a crack and upon opening his eyes was greeted by a smiling Tonks.
"Wotcher Harry" Tonks greeted him.
"Hullo Tonks" Harry smiled.
"Down to business now, shall we? Next is to test whether or not you can apparate yourself into a crowd of wizards without landing on anyone. No sense in trying to find out if there are muggles present just yet, we will have you apparate in front of the Wizarding Wheezies in Diagon Alley. From there you will meet with another Ministry official to finish the last of your test. Good luck Harry" Tonks smiled at him as he concentrated on Fred and George Weasley's shop. He performed a more complicated version of the apparition spell that allowed him to cast his senses and sense a safe spot to apparate. Once that spot was found, he heard a loud crack and found himself standing in front of Kinglsey Shackelbot.
"Well done Harry! Now on to the final step of your test, you will have to apparate yourself as close to the Leaky Cauldron in muggle London as you can without being spotted. Make sure that you are still in muggle London but you are save from prying eyes. I will already be standing in front of the leaky Cauldron when you arrive and will hear you pop in. From there we will apparate back to the Ministry and if all goes well with this last part, Madam Bones will have your signed apparition license upon our arrival" Kingsley smiled at him and with a pop was gone, presumably to the Leaky Cauldron.
Harry concentrated while saying the more advanced apparition spell. The only save place he felt free of Muggles was on the side of the pub. Concentrating on this spot, Harry heard a crack and opened his eyes to see himself safely on the side of the Leaky Cauldron and Kingsley walking towards him smiling. "Well done Harry, well done. Now, back to the Ministry." With a pop the two men found themselves in Madam Bones' office.
"Well Harry, here is your license, good day" Madam Bones said, handing Harry a piece of parchment with her signature on it as well as Mr. Weasley's.
"Thank you, you too" Harry said smiling triumphantly as he opened the door to the main apparition office. He found Reamus sitting there alone flipping through a magazine. He looked up when he heard Harry close the door and smiled.
"How'd it go?" he asked as Harry just smiled at him. "Never mind, that stupid grin on your face tells me everything. Congratulations Harry, now let's go back to the house and get started for your birthday party. Don't give me that look, you knew it was coming. It's 11 o'clock and they're going to be there in an hour. Hermione and Ron were supposed to distract you but they just woke up according to Arthur." Reamus finished.
"What did Mr. Weasley want?" Harry asked.
"I'll tell you once we get back to the house, c'mon" Lupin said as he disappeared with a pop. Harry followed suit and soon found himself in the living room of the house in Godric's Hollow, only him and Lupin weren't the only ones there.
A/N: this is my first attempt at fan fiction, PLEASE review and let me know how it is.
CHAPTER ONE
A young man of about 16 or 17 years of age sat at a desk in an unfamiliar room. His name was Harry Potter, and he was no ordinary young man, but a wizard as well. He was feverishly writing on a piece of parchment, every now and then referencing to a book besides him.
The room was warmly lit, with two desk lamps in the room filling it with light. The light cast from the lamps accentuated the walls of the room, making the golden honey color of the oak deeper and richer and in essence, warmer. It was a relatively small square room, with a bed against one wall and a small, long dresser next to it that doubled as a nightstand. Next to the dresser was an open window whose dark blue curtains were being gently blown around by the night breeze. A small, round table sat next to the window, in the corner of room, and held a giant cage with a magnificent white owl housed inside. Harry and his desk were adjacent to the bed, with the owl next to him. On the one remaining wall was a framed picture. The picture was of his parents, before they died, with him in his mother's arms, no older than a few months. The rest of the room was filled with overflowing boxes, covering the wood floor.
Sighing, Harry put down his quill and rolled up the parchment, smiling as he did so. He closed the book he had been using, revealing a picture of a werewolf and the title "Common Misunderstandings of A Gentle Kind, a memoir of Professor Reamus Lupin's life" on the dark green cover. Stretching, he stood and walked over to the owl and opened the cage door. As he did so, the owl flew out the window giving a hoot of thanks.
"Have fun Hedwig" Harry muttered, turning back to his desk. He glanced at the digital clock that was on his desk next to the book. It was a couple of minutes after 8:00 and Harry sighed, wandering out of the room and down the hall. The rest of the house had the same wood ceilings, floors, and walls as his room did, giving the house an old log cabin feel to it that welcomed Harry the second he had walked into the house.
As he entered the kitchen, an older man in shabby clothing looked up tiredly from his newspaper, The Daily Prophet. The older man smiled and put his paper down one the table he was sitting at.
"Did my book help you any Harry?" the man asked as Harry sat across from him.
"Yes it did, thank you for giving it to me Professor. How is it doing on the bestseller's list?" Harry asked as he helped himself to a cookie on a plate in the center of the table.
"Pretty well actually, I'm still in a bit of shock really, I never expected it to do so well. Who knew that the life of a werewolf would be so entertaining as to have most of the wizarding world wanting to read it," Professor Lupin chuckled. "But then again, it might have something to do with James and Sirius being in a majority of it." Professor Lupin's face fell as he mentioned this. Harry and Lupin were still having trouble with the deaths of these two very influential men in their lives.
"Well, you know how people are, anything involving the Potter name or Sirius' name is gold to them" Lupin said with a grin, trying to lighten up the mood a bit.
"How's your room Harry?" Lupin said, changing the subject as he got up and moved around to make some tea.
"It's good, big enough I suppose. It still feels really weird being here. Why did Sirius have this place re-built?" Harry asked as he watched his friend rummage through the cabinets for tea bags.
"He wanted you to have somewhere for you to live when you got older Harry. I'm surprised he was able to finish it with everything that was going on" Lupin said as he triumphantly smiled at retrieving tea bags. Before he had died, Sirius Black, Harry's legal guardian, had rebuilt the Potter's old house in Godric's Hollow. It had many spells and charms that caused it to be hidden from anyone but the owners and those they wish to let in.
Lupin returned to the table with two mugs of tea and handed Harry half of the paper. Harry gladly accepted the tea and paper and started looking for an interesting article. Harry sighed, content with where he was. Just the day before, Lupin had taken him from his home with the Dursley's and moved him into this magnificent house. And tomorrow would symbolize his 17th birthday and his last year at Hogwarts (which symbolized a good and bad thing) was merely weeks away, and he began to become nervous at the prospect of his apparition test the next day. He had been practicing under the supervision of Lupin since his 16th birthday, and had become rather good at it, but still was worried.
He calmed himself remembering that Arthur Weasley was now the Minister of magic and would make the test more comfortable for him. At the end of his 5th year at Hogwarts, Cornelius Fudge, the then current Minister of Magic, had been fired for trying to hush up Voldemort's return. Arthur Weasley was the only other person with enough gusto to run and whom the people actually liked. His best friend Ron's family had, surprisingly, not been affected by the overwhelming amount of money that was now pouring in and still lived in a run down house in the country. Percy, Ron's older brother, had returned to the family and all was forgiven.
Thinking about Ron's family also made Harry think of Ron's younger sister, Ginny, who was now 16 years old and quite beautiful at that. Ron was starting to get annoyed with all the attention Ginny was receiving and was threatening to tell any boy at school who liked her that he knew many a curse that would deteriorate them into vegetables. For this reason alone, Harry never revealed his true feelings for the youngest Weasley.
'Professor, have you thought anything about Dumbledore's offer?" Harry asked after finding nothing interesting in his half of the paper.
"Yes I have, I think I'm going to take him up on his offer and start teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again" Lupin said with a smile.
"That's great Professor!" exclaimed Harry with sincerity. He was glad that his last year at Hogwarts would be with a favorite teacher.
"Thank you Harry. And I think you should get some rest, you have to get up at 4 to get to the Ministry for your apparition test, and you got no sleep last night either. Why Arthur made your appointment so early is beyond me" Lupin said, glancing at the clock which read 9:00.
"Ron asked him to, something about him and Hermione kidnapping me and a surprise," Harry answered vaguely, getting up.
"How about Draco? Will he be there as well?" asked Lupin.
"I honestly don't know, he didn't return my last owl" Harry said sighing. Draco Malfoy had become friends with Harry, Ron, and Hermione after his father had been convicted of being a Death Eater. Draco was quickly becoming a part of the trio, but Harry still worried about him sometimes. Still wondered if there were ulterior motives behind him wanting to be their friend.
"Don't worry about him Harry, his father's appeal was this week, he was probably busy with that. He swore he was on the good side" Lupin reminded Harry.
"You sound like Hermione now Professor" Harry grinned, leaving the kitchen and heading back to his own room.
**********
"Eat up Harry, we have to leave in 10 minutes" Lupin said hurrying about the kitchen. Harry sat groggily at the table playing with the toast that was on his plate.
"Maybe we should just go, I'm too tired to eat." Harry got up and Lupin cleared away the plates with a wave of his wand.
As they left the house Harry realized that no one sent him any birthday greetings with the exception of Luna Lovegood. He was quite afraid to see what she had sent so he had pushed it aside. He figured that his friends would give him their gifts when he saw them later that day.
As they boarded the subway train that would take them to London, Harry started to feel the nervousness from the night before coming back. Lupin noticed and gave him a small smile.
"You'll do fine Harry, don't worry. You could apparate to the moon and back if you wanted to." Harry smiled at this and him and Reamus made small chat until their stop came.
"Do you know the new code to punch in Reamus?" In an answer to his question, Lupin punched in the code and the phone booth they had piled into asked for their names and business. When they had answered the phone booth, it spit out badges for them to pin onto their clothes and started to descend. Lupin just smiled at Harry as the phone booth started to come to a stop.
"Ready Harry?" Lupin asked.
"I guess so" Harry gulped. They arrived at the guard's desk and after having their wands measured they started to make their way quietly towards the apparition office. Arthur Weasley greeted them at the door.
"Harry my boy! Good to see you." Mr. Weasley shook Harry's hand vigorously and pointed to a door on his left. "Just go on through that door right there and Madam Bones will oversee your test. Reamus, you stay with me, I wanted to have a word with you on a few matters." Harry started towards the door, looking back at Reamus who gave him a reassuring smile. With a deep breath, Harry opened the door.
Madam Bones was seated at a desk and smiled as he came in.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, nice to see you, sit down" Madam Bones pointed to a chair opposite her desk. Harry sat down nervously twiddling his thumbs.
"Your apparition test will require that you apparate to a certain point in the countryside, as there are no muggles present. This is to prove that you are capable of the apparition spell in itself. Once there, another Ministry official, who will explain the rest of your test, will greet you. Now, here is a map of the spot in the country we have chosen for you to apparate. Good luck Mr. Potter, I will await your return." Madam Bones handed him a map of the country. He studied the map for a few seconds and closed his eyes concentrating on where he wanted to land.
He heard a crack and upon opening his eyes was greeted by a smiling Tonks.
"Wotcher Harry" Tonks greeted him.
"Hullo Tonks" Harry smiled.
"Down to business now, shall we? Next is to test whether or not you can apparate yourself into a crowd of wizards without landing on anyone. No sense in trying to find out if there are muggles present just yet, we will have you apparate in front of the Wizarding Wheezies in Diagon Alley. From there you will meet with another Ministry official to finish the last of your test. Good luck Harry" Tonks smiled at him as he concentrated on Fred and George Weasley's shop. He performed a more complicated version of the apparition spell that allowed him to cast his senses and sense a safe spot to apparate. Once that spot was found, he heard a loud crack and found himself standing in front of Kinglsey Shackelbot.
"Well done Harry! Now on to the final step of your test, you will have to apparate yourself as close to the Leaky Cauldron in muggle London as you can without being spotted. Make sure that you are still in muggle London but you are save from prying eyes. I will already be standing in front of the leaky Cauldron when you arrive and will hear you pop in. From there we will apparate back to the Ministry and if all goes well with this last part, Madam Bones will have your signed apparition license upon our arrival" Kingsley smiled at him and with a pop was gone, presumably to the Leaky Cauldron.
Harry concentrated while saying the more advanced apparition spell. The only save place he felt free of Muggles was on the side of the pub. Concentrating on this spot, Harry heard a crack and opened his eyes to see himself safely on the side of the Leaky Cauldron and Kingsley walking towards him smiling. "Well done Harry, well done. Now, back to the Ministry." With a pop the two men found themselves in Madam Bones' office.
"Well Harry, here is your license, good day" Madam Bones said, handing Harry a piece of parchment with her signature on it as well as Mr. Weasley's.
"Thank you, you too" Harry said smiling triumphantly as he opened the door to the main apparition office. He found Reamus sitting there alone flipping through a magazine. He looked up when he heard Harry close the door and smiled.
"How'd it go?" he asked as Harry just smiled at him. "Never mind, that stupid grin on your face tells me everything. Congratulations Harry, now let's go back to the house and get started for your birthday party. Don't give me that look, you knew it was coming. It's 11 o'clock and they're going to be there in an hour. Hermione and Ron were supposed to distract you but they just woke up according to Arthur." Reamus finished.
"What did Mr. Weasley want?" Harry asked.
"I'll tell you once we get back to the house, c'mon" Lupin said as he disappeared with a pop. Harry followed suit and soon found himself in the living room of the house in Godric's Hollow, only him and Lupin weren't the only ones there.