Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
Parings: Lateship Bw/Hp for sure at the moment.
Story Warning: Slash in later chapters. Shady Dumbledore, history, corporal punishment, snaky/comical Snape and teen shenanigans. Rated 'NR-17' for later chapters.
Authoress Note: All facts of origin/history can be found through links in my profile. Some comments are true, some are not, please use your head. Please excuse any grammar errors, read profile for that info.
Chapter Warnings: Oi, I found a better word to get over my Pound/Pounds annoyance, Quid! I'm eternally grateful.
The Craft
Part One: Summer of '95
Chapter Two: Closure
A woman with mossy brown hair and eyes hid in the shadows behind a corner in the ministry building, cursing the senior officers whom decided to stick around an have a chat. She needed to get out of here at once and report to Dumbledore about her findings!
She never thought the standards at the ministry would drop this low.
Miles upon miles away, a teen sat on a cobblestone container wall watching the road. A funeral party was making its way down the hill into gods knew where. He didn't know why he had chose to watch them instead of getting back to the Bridge Farm, a campsite and working farm, to the warm hospitality of the owners. Instead, he was perched up on a wall and his thoughts were giving way to deaths cold hands.
'It was all so sudden. I think, I think if there had of been anything like Cedrics' burial I'd feel a little better. At least I could visit his grave an talk to him, say goodbye.' he thought sullenly.
There was no body to bury, his godfather was never proven innocent and no one seemed to care to, at least, give the man a proper sending off into the next great adventure. Was that too much to ask for in the end, to be remembered?
'Death really does happen at fucked up times,' he thought, amused.
He wasn't amused by his morbid thoughts, but by his language. Even in his mind he was swearing and the Harry Potter, Golden Boy Extraordinaire, at Hogwarts hardly ever swore.
'Some changes are needed.'
Indeed, some changes were definitely needed. Being away from it all for only a few days cleared his mind and opened horizons he never thought about before, like he didn't have to stay in the wizarding world. If he so fancied it would be more than easy enough to venture out into the muggle world upon coming of age in the wizarding world. The only thing was that he didn't have any muggle education past primary school and that's where he found a flaw in the Hogwarts curriculum.
Here they spent all this time in classes learning things that wouldn't be practical in the real world, especially now that people woke up and smelled the coffee about Voldemort. There just had to be a better way.
"A wake," he whispered to himself, "Sirius deserves that at least."
The man deserved more, but without a body for a proper burial or the knowledge to have one done in the wizarding world this was the best he could do at the moment.
"Later, when I can get some fire whiskey an Remus and the skies are full with stars I'll say bye then." he promised himself.
Somehow he knew this was how Sirius would have wanted it to be, no other way, but pissed drunk under the stars and laughing their tails off in remembrance.
As the last of the cars turned the corner to go downhill, Harry slid off his perch and began walking back to his campsite. Tonight was going to be the first movie night on the farm an he didn't want to miss the movie that was going to be shown. A sixty's spoof of a spy comic reel called Modesty Blaise.
A few hours later, after a country style dinner and the movie, Harry found himself wondering around in one of the pastures near his tent, once again lost in thought.
'There was a lot of useful stuff that I never thought about before.' he stopped for a moment to kick a rock out of the way, 'If I got caught I would at least have a chance to escape or something,' After all, fighting fire with fire was the best, sometimes.
One of the gadgets from the movie was fake peel off skin. The skin was like a pouch that held a small amount of things inside, light weight things and looked real and was flexible like skin. Another from the spoof was a retractable hollow cane that, when taking the ends off, became a blow dart. It fit seamlessly in pockets or coat jackets.
"Looks like my summer just got complicated." he said dryly to himself.
Picking up a random rock, he chucked it into the field. He needed to get things done so he'd be better prepared for Hogwarts, but it would be difficult since he promised himself he wasn't going to step foot on wizarding soil until September. Thinking about Hogwarts was bittersweet. What once was considered an escape, became a constant paranoia trip. It just seemed like danger and misery were his best friends at school now. There wasn't a time when nothing happened, that he was a normal student, but Harry fucking Potter could never be normal.
"So I have five hundred an something quid left and there's…five weeks to go. Do I even have to go back?" he sighed.
He knew he had to go back, there was too much left to do and as much as he tried to tell himself otherwise, Voldemort wouldn't stop searching for him until he finally killed him or Harry fulfilled the prophecy. There was business to attend to like his education, talking to the twins about the shop and his finances. Having to deal an make sure he had enough in the muggle world made him wonder about what he had in the bank at Gringotts.
Ron always seemed to envy him for the things he had, but what Ron didn't take the time to realize was that most of the things he had were either hand-me-downs within the Potter line or gifts.
He paused.
"That's odd," he mumbled. 'Odd that I get no mail, not even hate mail. Everyone knows my owl and where I go to school at. I'm half surprised that a Death Eater hasn't sent me a threading note or something.'
It was odd, the savior of the known wizarding world, the UK at least, didn't receive anything at all. Nothing but a broken childhood and death ensnared traps each year.
"I'll have to talk to someone about blocked owls." he said thoughtfully.
Looking up at the night sky for a moment, he turned to head back to his tent for the night. He stopped and looked one last time, smiling.
"Night Sirius."
The next day found Harry sitting alone at a table inside of the towns' library trying to read a book on the occult, one of the many that was stacked on the table, but seem to hit a road block since he couldn't make heads or tails of what the book was saying. He growled and was tempted to burn the book before he remembered that one; muggles can't randomly set things on fire without a either a lighter, gas or a match and two; he would have to pay for the book if he ruined it.
Slamming the book close and shoving it to join the stack on his left he sighed and leaned back into the wooden chair.
"Those books are mostly Latin,"
Harry nearly jumped out of his seat in fright, instead he spun around in his seat about to curse Ron when he noticed it wasn't Ron, but instead the librarian.
"What?" he asked.
"Those books you've got there," she nodded at the stack, "are mainly in Latin because that's what most of the material calls for you to speak in." she explained.
'Well that makes sense, should have known though.' he thought dryly.
"Oh, well do you have books teaching Latin?"
"Of course, but I suggest going to the book store down the street and buying them and the language tapes to go with them. We only allow books out for a week." she said in a low voice.
"Just down the street there?" he asked, pointing his finger crookedly.
"Yes, just down the way for a while. It's a large purple building. The language books are on the farthest back wall of the store."
"Thank you ma'am, I'll just.." he said, gesturing to the books.
She shook her head, "No, no my sister owns the place. I'll get those, don't worry, just get there before she closes,"
Harry smiled at her before quickly walking out the library and down the road in the direction the librarian said to take. In less than ten minutes he saw the large purple building on the left hand side on the corner across the street. Crossing the street in quick strides, Harry walked into the open door and was hit by the aroma of incense.
'Oh lord,' was his instant thought.
Shaking his head he made his way back to the language section and was surprised to see so many language books and tapes. He sighed, seeing a few others that would look interesting, but he knew he didn't have the money for it. He only had five hundred and something quid left and he needed to be careful. The Bridge Farm offered work for pay or food to campers so maybe there would be an opening so he could gain a quick twenty or so for a day or two's work.
Scanning the shelf he quickly found the Latin book and tapes, but frowned when he not only saw the price, but realized he didn't have a tape player.
'Thirty-seven quid! That's three day's worth of food,' he moaned in his mind. 'Damn, but no one ever said education was cheap. There should be a class at Hogwarts for this.'
Scowling, he marched up to the front counter where a woman with wild looking reddish brown hair, wearing quirky pink shades and a matching pink outfit sat, smacking on some bubble gum. He dropped the items on the counter and tapped the bell.
"Ya, ya…oh Latin huh? That'll be Thirty-eight, fifteen." she said, voice a little wheezy.
Harry counted the money and handed it to her asking, "Where can I get a tape player from?"
"I sell some for five quid, second hand. Other stores round here sell 'em for ten or fifteen." she said, reaching behind the counter for one. "Want it, five more quid and some free juju batteries, but they're cheap so you might wanna buy some more in a few days."
Harry nodded an soon left the store, hoping to come back, an headed back towards the library. Once back at the library he learned that they were about to close.
"You could sign up for a library card."
"I'm just on tour here." he said, sighing.
She narrowed her eyes in thought then said, "How about you sign your name here and I'll just reserve those books for you, keep them off the shelves until your done reading them or the two weeks are up?"
"Brilliant! Thank you ma'am." Harry said cheerfully.
He hitched a ride from a local farmer that lived past the Bridge Farm while he was walking on the side of the road that was just about to turn into the tough, rocky, back roads. The ride was short enough, just to the gates of the farm, and after saying his thanks the man said anytime.
After dinner, Harry climbed the tree near his tent that over looked the pastures an sat, leaning back against the tree with his tape player on his lap. He decided to just listen to the people speaking on the tape first, then tomorrow he would begin reading the book and then cross reference with the occult books he had been trying to read in the library.
He wasn't counting on a miracle or anything when it came to how fast he would be able to pick this up. He knew it would take a while before everything sunk in. But, hoping that since he was only trying to learn one thing, which he technically was, then it would come a little faster than if he was all spread out trying to learn five things at once.
The benefit from learning Latin would also come in the form of school work being a little easier as well. Hermione said that it was easy enough in some classes for her and he knew why now, since she took Ancient Runes it was required to also, at least, study Latin and Old Norse to help understand the symbols and their meanings better.
In turn, not only did she learn in one class, it was spread too all classes, even Potions!
The first tape was just going over the basics, the vowels and consonants, how to say simple words and going over the importance of saying the words right, the slightest 'ah' instead of 'au' sound would ruin a word.
'I wonder how much longer I should stay here? I need to find one other place to go to so I can switch back here at the end of the summer.' Harry thought, keep the order on their toes if they did get wise.
The night before, whilst watching the stars in his tent, he changed his plans about the wizarding world. Oh, he would stay clear of it for most of the summer, but would head back the day before school started to take care of some things and get his school supplies. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed to go back to learn, even if the classes weren't going to help much in the future, at least he'd learn control over his magic.
'My magics' been quiet for a while, I wonder if talking to magic helps? People say talking to plants help them grow, Professor Sprout is always muttering and laughing with hers. It'd be weird though, I'd have to give it a name. I wonder if magic could have a gender.'
The tape had long since stopped and Harry was just sitting up in the tree, half sleep, watching the stars absently.
"I better get down before I fall my arse out the tree." he mumbled sleepily.
Climbing down and getting inside his tent, dressing in his night shorts, he laid down on his mat and drifted off to sleep, mind wondering back to a night when he was at Hogwarts, playing strip poker with some interesting people.
End Chapter: Monday, July 20, 2009. Five pages.
Next Time: Order of the Phoenix…or mushrooms? New location is picked and the like. Shady ministry people and St. Mungo.