AN: Happy New Year everyone!! Here the fourth chapter of House of Potter.
Before I begin I want to say something a few things:
Harry will change into a girl for some time in this story. Since he will have to train first, I have planned it for fifth year. I already have a name.
There will be no pairing yet. I've planned Harry to be a late bloomer regarding that. Right now I am thinking about Harry/Luna in sixth or seventh year – definitely no slash!
I am not a fast writer. Longer chapters take more time to write – logically. I will try to update more regularly, but NO PROMISES!
A BIG THANK YOU!!! TO MY BETA: AGNES – YOU ARE THE BEST!!!
Last but not least: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER!
Hope you like it! Reviews are welcome.
ENJOY!
Wilyoldjane
Chapter 4. Gringotts Part 2 and Shopping
Gringotts 21
Harry looked at his godfather - no his dad with horror.
"You mean I'm changing into a girl?" he asked.
Sirius couldn't help himself. He burst out laughing – much to Harry's embarrassment.
"Sirius!!" he jelled indignantly. The Marauder stopped laughing but was still grinning.
"Sorry, son!" he chuckled. Harry started, staring at the man. Sirius had called him son! No one, not even Mr. Weasley had ever called him that. It felt – good, in a way. Like having someone who really cared, not because he was the Boy Who Lived or his youngest sons' best friend – no, someone who cared about him, Harry. Harry's eyes fell on the parchment with the result of the identity potion and for the first time he really realized one thing: He, Harry, had a dad!
"Harry?" Concerned Sirius observed his, no James son. Harry had suddenly stiffened and than looked away. "Harry, cub, are you alright?" the boy looked up.
"You called me son!" he whispered. Suddenly Sirius felt unsure. He had loved Harry like his own since the day he was born even before the Blood Adoption. But what could he offer to him? Would Harry want him as a dad? Sirius was still on the run from the Ministry and when Dumbledore would find out that Harry knew about his manipulations it wouldn't improve his situation.
"Well … you know … you?" he stuttered. "You … are you … okay with it?" Harry just nodded, not trusting his own voice in the moment. What a stupid question! He always had wanted a dad! Vernon Dursley was not someone Harry saw as a father figure.
After a moment of silence Harry remembered his initial question.
"Am I changing into a girl?" Sirius smiled.
"No Harry, you are not changing into a girl – at least not as long you don't want to." Sirius explained. "Harry, you have some very special gifts. Two of them, your Metamorphmagus- and your Genusmorphmagus abilities are linked with each other. Like I said before, is a Metamorphmagus able to change his or her appearance. My Aunt Candicea for example was able to look like her roommates at Hogwarts and other girls. She played quite a few pranks in her youth, using her abilities.
A Metamorphmagus however is not able to change his or her gender. Only one of a thousand Metamorphmagi has also the ability of a Genusmorphmagus – the ability to change his or her gender at will."
"So I can change into a girl and can change my appearance?" Harry asked thoughtfully. This sounded useful.
"After you have trained your talents yes." Was his fathers answer. On Harry's questioning look Sirius smiled. "You have a lot of talents, son. But you'll still have to work to fully develop them. Talents are like a muscle. You have to train and use them or they are useless!"
Harry still thought about what Sirius had told him when Senior Member Noldoc left to see if the Ritual Room was prepared for the ritual necessary to remove the blocks and spells on Harry. When Noldoc came back he approached the teen.
"Mr. Potter-Black, on thing before we go to the Ritual Room." Startled Harry looked up. "We will now remove the blocks on your talents and your magical core. The ritual will as well remove the effects of the Appearance Alterus Potion. This might hurt a bit.
The blocks on your memories however are very strong. The ritual will weaken, but not remove them. I would further advise, not to remove them now but to wait. Let them weaken further within the next year. Than we should do another ritual and remove the blocks on your memories." Harry didn't like this one bit. Now, when he knew about the blocks, he still couldn't remove them?
"Why not remove them now?"
"It could have negative results on your mind, Mr. Potter-Black!" Noldoc answered patiently. "It could cost you more than you would gain by getting back your memories sooner. If the blocks are too strong, removing them could destroy parts of your mind. You could end in the psychic wards of St. Mungos for quite some time. I think this makes it worth the wait, doesn't it Mr. Potter-Black?" Harry gulped. If you saw it that way – yes, he could wait a year.
Harry, Sirius and surprisingly Gnarltoe, who had taken great interest in his young charge, followed Noldoc in the prepared Ritual-Room. In the middle Noldocs staff had drawn a septigonal pentagram. Harry wished briefly, that he had chosen Ancient Runes for one of his new classes last year, so that he could read the runes drawn into and around the pentagram.
Noldoc advised Harry to step in the middle of the pentagram and ordered Sirius and Gnarltoe to stand back in a safe distance.
When everything seemed to be to Noldocs satisfaction he began to chant in Gobbledygook. At once the pentagram began to glow in a soft golden colour. Harry didn't know how long the goblin chanted but after a while the chanting increased in volume until Harry was enveloped by the light emitting from the pentagram. Suddenly Harry felt a sharp pain in his head, crawling down his neck and finally enveloping his whole body. It felt as if numerous, invisible hands were trying to push him inside of something very small while tearing him apart at the same time. Finally, when Harry thought he couldn't bear any more pain, everything went black.
Sirius saw his son fall down and made a move to run to him finding, that he couldn't move.
"I am sorry, my friend." Gnarltoe said calmly behind him. "But you mustn't disrupt the ritual, or Senior Member Noldoc will have to start over anew. You will be able to move again in a few moments but you will wait until Senior Member Noldoc has finished the ritual." Finding himself released from Gnarltoes binds Sirius turned to glare at his long time (and completely unfazed) friend, but refrained from interrupting the ritual. As soon as Noldoc ended the ritual and stopped chanting Sirius rushed forward and picked his son up.
"Will he be alright?" he asked Noldoc full of concern, while bedding Harry on a couch conjured by Gnarltoe.
"He will be conscious soon!" Noldoc answered calmly, while he waved his long fingered hands, testing the success of the ritual.
Calming slowly down, Sirius took a good look at his son, seeing Harry's real appearance for the first time.
The most obvious change was Harry's hair. It was the same dark red, like Lily's had been. It also was longer and seemed less messy now. His nose and ears were still James – or better Julian's. From Sirius Harry had inherited the higher cheekbones and the chin. Harry, while still much too thin and too small for a boy of nearly fourteen, seemed a bit taller now. Sirius couldn't wait to see his son's eyes. He hoped they were still green!
Harry groaned. "Has somebody seen the hippogriff that trampled me over?" he asked weakly, trying to bring himself in a sitting position. Sirius helped him up, than sat down beside him on the couch so that his son could lean into him.
"Merlin! That hurt! Did it work?" Harry groaned again. When Noldoc didn't answer, everyone looked at him. Noldoc stood over Harry with a frown and a surprised look on his face. "Senior Member Noldoc, did it work?"
"Noldoc!" Gnarltoe finally grumbled. This time it caught the other Goblins attention. He looked up. "Did the ritual work?" Gnarltoe asked. Now Noldoc looked insulted.
"Of course it did work!" he sneered. "I am, after all, a master of my craft!"
"Than why are you looking that …. Dissatisfied?" Sirius asked. Now Noldoc sneered at Sirius too, before he addressed Harry.
"Mr. Potter-Black, are you aware, that there is a soul-fragment attached to you that does not belong to your own soul, which is quite intact, I assure you?" He asked surprisingly gentle. Green eyes looked at the Goblin in shock.
"A … a … so-.. soul-fragment? No! How?" The boy stuttered. Sirius paled. A soul-fragment - not belonging to Harry? Could it be?
"Voldemort? I mean … who else?" he asked the shock evident in his eyes. Noldoc nodded.
"It's quite likely, especially since it seems to be cantered around the scar on Mr. Potter-Blacks forehead which is reeking with dark magic." Harry paled even more. Suddenly he remembered the conversation he had with Dumbledore after the incident in the Chamber of Secrets:
Flashback
"Professor," he started again after a moment, "the Sorting Hat told me I'd – I'd have done well in Slytherin. Everyone thought I was Slytherins heir for a while … because I can speak Parseltongue …"
"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry," said Dumbledore calmly, "Because Lord Voldemort – who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin – can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure … "
"Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Harry said thunderstruck.
Flashback cited from page 357 of Joanne K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
End Flashback
The old Bastard had known!
"I want it gone!" he said fiercely. Sirius nodded. He wanted that blasted thing out of his sons head, too. "I want it gone! You can get rid of it, can you?" he asked Noldoc. Noldoc looked at the troubled teen than he nodded.
"I can transfer it to another object, Mr. Potter – Black. After the transfer said object will be given to our Department for the Destroying of Dangerous Enchanted Objects, where it will be destroyed."
The transfer of the foreign soul-fragment was an astonishing easy affair. Within mere minutes it was safely locked within a small black stone and on the way to its destruction.
Diagon Alley
Half an hour later Harry and Sirius, who had been provided by a Gringotts-Glamour-Device so he would appear to everyone looking like his alternate persona Nigel Grim, left Gringotts Bank for a long shopping. Before they left Gnarltoe provided both of them with Gringotts new Banking card which could already be used in some wizarding shops in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade as well as in the muggle world and with a Gringotts Money-Back, which would provide cash money, wherever paying with the card wasn't possible. Harry, while having with a few tries surprisingly little problems in looking like everyone would know Harry Potter looked, preferred to go out without any changes apart from a hair-cut. His dark red hair was now short and spiky. Much to Harry's delight the skin on his forehead was smooth and unscarred. His scar had easily been healed after the part of Voldemorts soul was removed. For the first time since he entered – or re-entered – the Wizarding World Harry could go through Diagon Alley without being pointed out and whispering behind his back. And that's was not all: after the removal of the blocks Harry had never felt so good – so free! So right!
Since it was just after one in the afternoon they decided for a late lunch in the Leaky Cauldron before shopping and Harry was just mentally ticking off the finished points on his list while following his dad when Sirius asked:
"Prongslet, when was the last time, someone checked your eyes?" They stood in front of a shop, only a few steps away from the pub, which seemed new in the Alley. In the only window lay a couple of frames for new glasses. In the upper part of the window stood:
Olavus Octavian's - Optician
"Uhm…" Harry went red. As if the Dursleys would ever have his eyes checked!
"Come on, cub! When was the last time you were at an Optician?" Sirius asked again.
"I actually, you know … I never were!" Harry stuttered. On Sirius funny look he hurried to explain: "When the school-nurse in primary school recommended, that I needed glasses my uncle was livid. Aunt Petunia finally took me to a charity facility where I was to take a pair of glasses out of a bin. My eyes have never been tested!" Sirius couldn't believe it! The nerve of those Muggles! How could they treat a child like that? Sirius own parents may not have been the best example for good parents but no, never they would have done anything like that to an innocent child. Breathing deeply to calm down – it wouldn't do to arouse attention of any Aurors patrolling the streets – Sirius resolutely went in direction of the shop.
"Than we will let them be tested now!" he said while opening the door a reluctant yet excited Harry following in his wake.
The inside of the shop was bright and cheery. The walls were lined with white shelves full of frames in various colours and forms, as well as sun-glasses and reading-glasses. The shop-keeper Olavus Octavian was a friendly man of about thirty years of age with nearly white-blonde hair and deep black eyes. On Sirius urging Harry choose four new frames: One green with black and silver, one in plain silver, one in red and one in dark green. Harry tried to argue, that one was enough but when Sirius whispered in his ear if he wanted to be recognised by his glasses after changing his appearance Harry reluctantly agreed. After charming the new glasses and his old ones with the new prescription (which was quite different from his old one) Mr Octavian also added unbreakable and impervious charms to them. Harry put on the new pair with the green, silver and black frame and looked at the shop in wonder. How clear everything suddenly was! He never would have thought that having his eyes checked by a professional would make such a difference or he would have done it on his first visit to the Alley. Beside Harry's protests Sirius insisted on paying for all four pairs of glasses. They finally compromised by letting Harry pay himself for the spectacle cases he choose to safely put his glasses away.
In the Leaky Cauldron they had steak with mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts and butterbeer for both of them. Harry thanked Sirius over and over again for his new glasses until an embarrassed Sirius told him to stop thanking him and enjoy the meal.
Tiberius Titus Tousles Trunk Shop was their next stop. Beside a various collection of trunks the dimly lit shop was crammed with backpacks, book bags and handbags in various shapes and colours. Harry looked with interest at the backpacks and schoolbags, all charmed to be water-proof as well as bigger on the inside than they looked while retaining the same weight all the time. He finally choosed three book-bags: one in forest green for himself as well as a blue one for Ron and a red one for Hermione. He figured they would make a nice birthday- or Christmas present for his friends. After a moment Harry choose as well an as well forest green backpack for himself.
"May I help you?" a voice asked from behind Harry and Sirius. Turning around they came face to face with Tiberius t. Tousle. Mr. Tousle was a small thin man of nondescript age. Although his hair was a dark brown his face around the friendly grey eyes was so wrinkled that Harry would have bet him to be at least as old as Dumbledore.
"Yes!" Sirius answered. "We are looking for a trunk for my son. His school things are taking more and more space and we decided for a newer model."
"Well, we have a wide collection of trunks. Do you have something special in mind, sir?" Sirius nodded while Harry stood there, letting Sirius handle the situation. The first time in his life Harry hadn't to do everything himself and he was enjoying the feeling.
"Yes, I thought about a three-compartment-trunk divided in one compartment looking like every other school trunk on the inside but with more space. The second compartment should be a study with desk and book cases and a fireplace which can be connected to one other floo-address. The last compartment should be a small apartment with a small kitchen with self-refilling and fresh-keeping fridge and cupboard, a small bathroom and a bedroom with walk-in closet." Harry gaped. Such a trunk would be enough to live in! Was that even possible?
"Sure." Mr. Tousle answered. "We have several tree-compartment-trunks. Would you like to take a tour?"
The next hour Harry learned a lot about magical trunks, listening with open mouth to features like interior-enhancing, unbreakable, connectable between compartments, floo-net-compatible, decorating, featherlight (inbuilt in every trunk sold by Tiberius t. Tousle) and self-shrinking by password. Harry finally decided for a trunk made from a dark, nearly black wood reinforced with wide bronze bands on the edges and a emerald green gemstone on the top. After he had set a password with a drop of his blood only Harry would be able to open the last two compartments of the trunk.
The interior of the first compartment was a soft walnut-brown with shelves for neatly packing his school-books, notes, parchment and ink as well as completed homework. Beside that was a cupboard to store his school-robes and clothes he would need at school.
The second compartment was indeed a study nearly trice as big as Harry's room at the Dursleys. The light blue painted walls were full with shelves of the same dark wood as the trunk itself. Only one wall was free of shelves making place for a big fireplace beside a big dark wooden desk.
The third compartment was an apartment with enough room to live in for two or tree people. Harry and Sirius again compromised about the paying for the trunk. Sirius paid for the trunk itself (a respectable 133 Galleons) while Harry paid for the furnishing and the bags he had chosen before.
At Madam Malkins they bought several everyday robes for both as well as slacks, button down shirts, and shoes. After they paid Harry and Sirius changed at once. Harry now wore a pair of black slacks as well as a blue button down shirt and a pair of dress shoes under a dark blue hooded robe. Sirius wore a pair of black slacks as well as dress shoes and a white button down shirt. Over that he fastened a black robe with blue trimming.
On their way to Flourish and Blotts Harry insisted on picking up first to fourth year potion kits, for revising the subject as he put it.
At Flourish and Blotts Harry got in frenzy and began selecting at least ten books each to the subjects Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Defence and Wards. He picked as well several tomes on Wizarding Culture, Wizarding History, Rights and Duties of an heir of one of the Old and Noble Houses and Wizarding Etiquette. When he put nearly one-hundred books on the counter Harry understood for the first time Harry Hermione's love of books.
After an extended trip to Muggle London where they bought Harry an extended Muggle wardrobe as well as some Muggle clothing for Sirius, Sirius tandem apparated them near Privet Drive.
