Only six days since I planned to post this... Sorry! I've been rather busy life seems to catch up even with it all written .
Now, I do believe we all get the point and from now on I will NOT be posting any more disclaimers or notes here unless I must. I'll take this last bit to say "thank you" to all my reviewers and readers, I hope you enjoy this!
The Observatory's Cat
TOC; Relax?
oOo
The room sat in quiet companionship until the roar of the floo interrupted them all; while the room bathed in the green glow Mrs. Weasley came in with a tin of still-steaming biscuits, setting them on Harry's lap, and a cool glass of water with a bright pink straw in it. "Eat up, dear. You need them," she smiled warmly, hugging him lightly, "Welcome home."
She stepped back, allowing him his first look at his old Potions teacher. He moved with purpose as he always had as he entered the room, he wore the same black robes and expression. The man raised a brow and stepped closer. "Fascinating. Did you do this yourself, Potter?"
Harry blinked at the congenial tones from the snaky man, the usual vitriol replaced for the first time that Harry could remember; he sipped from his drink, nibbling on a biscuit as he nodded absently watching the man, he didn't remember him acting like this at all; his tail reached out and wrapped around Hermione's hand. He flinched as the Potions master pulled out his wand with a flourish and began to cast spells without delay. Or warning. "What did you find, Poppy? His magic seems to be intact, as does his mind, what little he had anyway. I'll need a blood sample to further…"
Harry tuned him out when he was sure the man was really Snape after that barely hidden jibe. Harry was content with his family and drifted off for an afternoon nap. The last thing he heard was the twins and Ron whispering to each other about the git about loudly.
Harry didn't wake from his nap when someone used a spell to make a slit in his arm for some blood, nor did he wake while everyone whispered about him and their lives, he did; however, wake when Remus brushed against his head, knocking into his crooked ear. The stinging pain was not a pleasant way to wake but one Harry had become somewhat familiar with over the past few weeks, since that little dunk in the Thames, or what he assumed was the Thames since it led him back to London. Harry opened his eyes, blinking blearily at his family. Sirius broke the sudden silence. "Another good thing, Kitty-cat, is that you obviously don't need your glasses anymore."
Confused Harry reached up to pat at his face amid the chuckles of the group, Ron and the twins laughed heartily on the floor while Hermione patted his leg and smiled tenderly. Remus and Molly seemed to continue a conversation they had started whilst he slept and Sirius turned fully to him, grinning. They began a discussion on the newest developments of Hogwarts. Hermione seemed more reluctant to let go or remove her hand and left it on his leg while she turned her head down to continue a book she had in her lap.
"You're going to be so amazed at your old godfather, Harry-boy! I beat down those stupid Slytherins into their proper place, and those kids, the stupid gits over there," He shoved his hand toward the three boys on the floor, Hermione pointedly shaking her head as if to tell Harry that she was not involved in said 'stupid git' list, "tried to start a prank war," he winked at that, "I beat them down before they could get much past changing my perfect hair grey!"
Harry laughed, "You look like Lockhart, tossing your head like that. What did you three 'gits' do?" He looked at the boys again, who all proceeded to jump into what looked like the greatest telling of the most imaginative stories; ones that he knew would be true no matter how fantastical.
"The entire floor of the hall in front of the great hall, you know that huge bit of stone that everyone has to pass through if they want to eat? Yeah, we transfigured it into ice! It was charmed to keep any slytherin from staying on their feet, hufflepuff had to do spins to get into the hall! The ravenclaws kept going backwards, even gryffindor was stuck skating on one leg the whole way across!" One twin informed loudly, great pride evident in his voice.
"We charmed Siri's brush! Every time he used it, it would change any hair it came into contact with a different colour! It took him all day to figure out how we did it!" Ron added in response to Sirius' comment.
"The snakes had Medusa hair for a whole weekend, Pomfrey was stuck with half the girls in there with snake-bites for 'aggravating their hair'. Malfoy still doesn't know whether it was us of Padfoot!" The other twin chimed in.
Hermione smiled up at Harry, tapping her fingers against him to talk. While the pranksters reminisced she began telling him about the past Defence teacher and other mundane topics he had missed, she even whispered what speculations the Daily Rag had printed of him for the first few months after his disappearance. By the time the conversations died out Dumbledore had returned with smile blazing and eyes twinkling, to inform everyone that Snape and Madam Pomfrey would return early after breakfast tomorrow and that he would return for lunch after them.
"Now, the two of them decided to contact a third party Healer, everyone; he's apparently well-versed in Muggle first aid and has been working with magical animals for the past few years!" Dumbledore clapped his hand, those his parting words. "If he's able he'll be by tomorrow too."
"That means it's time to eat, Ron, dear, will you help me get the roast out of the oven? Hermione would you set the table? Fred, George, Show Harry to Ron's room, please." Mrs. Weasly stood, clapping her hands and moving toward the kitchen. Harry looked at Sirius, seeing his face fall in a slight frown and glower.
"Molly." He waited for her to turn around, the kids recognized the tone and quickly waved at Harry to sneak into the kitchen behind their Mother, Hermione sighed but followed. "Harry will have his own room, there's plenty of space.""Well, yes…" She seemed slightly surprised, if exasperated, at Sirius, Harry bit his lip and looked at Remus, wondering if this kind of fight was normal. "I'm sure he'll want to stay with Ron, though."
"They haven't seen each other in two years Molly. He'll want the same-" Sirius paused looking at Harry for the first time since the argument began. "Would you like to go pick your own room, Harry? Hermione's on the second floor, the same as Molly, Ron and the twins are on the third with Remus and I. The fourth has the Library and a few other rooms, mainly storage; there's not much on the it, and I haven't been past the landing of the fifth since I was your age, There are a few empty room on the second floor, even one on ours; If you want."
Harry shot a few looks between the two parental figures. He had wanted to ask about this other healer, one who seemed to have switched from magical to muggle means and then to animals if Harry understood what Dumbledore had been saying. Remus shifted behind him, leaning closer to his ears, "You can just go look if you'd like, Harry. They've been arguing about this ever since you fell asleep. If I remember correctly Sirius used to have a green house here, somewhere, it should be easier than a normal room for you after that adventure, hm?"
Gratitude shined in his eyes as Harry turned and smiled at his old professor, not answering either Molly nor Sirius as he climbed the stairs of his new home, he doubted it mattered if he ever returned to Privet drive after the past two years, any protections would have faded after so long without him there in between the school terms; besides he'd made it alone for that long he could handle it again if he had to, even if it was just for summer. He climbed past the first two floors, looking around the fourth floor, the floor that had held Buckbeak last he knew. He peaked into the library, over half blocked off with rope and a parchment sign saying 'cursed'. He snorted and left, wandering into the few rooms of boxes. He meandered into a thin door that was the same as all the others, dark polished wood; he opened the door into a large room with glass walls on all sides, the walls charmed (Harry guessed) to be wide windows, allowing the cacophony of plants to flourish, even the ceiling was charmed the same to reflect the weather outside, currently the slowly setting sun was depicted to the west. He saw what could have been a half-broken ladder in one of the corners opposite the door, but the space above it was covered by the same slightly dusty pane of glass as the rest of the room. Bored of the dead or untamed foliage he left back to the staircase.
They hadn't climbed past this floor while cleaning, Sirius had told them tales about the upper floors being cursed and charmed to the nth degree by his parents and previous ancestors, something that Harry (and many others) had doubted; but everyone had respected them and not passed beyond this floor, mostly.
Harry had looked around a bit once or twice after a sleepless night but he hadn't ventured into any of the rooms, the entire manor had more expansion charms and floors than the Gryffindor tower did. Harry skipped going through the boxes and instead went up another floor to the sixth, it was laid out the same as the one below, rooms meant to house or store mainly, a few that seemed to have been in use in the past century had desks in them, one clean and filled with cauldrons and what looked like diagrams and the writing and pictures depicted different scenarios of the potions. He had found the Twin's real room it seemed. He shut the door and went back to the stairs, climbing to the seventh floor, finding only two large rooms, one a huge bedroom with a sitting room and bath attached within, the other a huge formal office; "Found the master bedrooms," he chuckled.
The next floor was the last. It was an attic that ended the staircase. He saw the huge open attic filled with boxes, books, trunks and paintings. There was dust everywhere much like the other two floors had had. Harry moved to where a single shaft of light illuminated the large room, and found a small glass door, more like a window. Confused Harry pushed on it. It gived soon enough and opened. Looking around Harry stuck his head through, looking around again as his eyes adjusted to the dim light, a murky tinge to the room. He found a large, much larger than the attic, room. Harry guessed it was located on the roofs of some of the other buildings on the block. There was tall domed glass all around, encircling the room and, assumably, making it invisible to muggles and other wizards not privy to the Black family manors secrets. Harry climbed through the window fully, spotting a large telescope and several shafts of light that prevailed through the grimy windows and onto the grey stone of the floor. He grinned, looking around for a cloth or something to start cleaning the windows. It definitely wasn't the greenhouse that Remus had mentioned, but it was a large, warm room. It was perfect.
