AN:Big Poll on profile. See bottom for details!
"Harry! Watch this!"
"I'm watching, go ahead," he called back to the smiling little girl from inside the family green house.
Making sure that he was indeed watching her through the open window, Ivy took a deep breath and started bouncing. Higher and higher she bounced, until she was getting as high up as she was tall. As she was bouncing up she threw her leg out in front of her, putting her in an L shape. Coming down she bounced on the trampoline with her butt, before quickly flying up again, where she snapped her legs back under her landing on her feet again.
A look of great accomplishment on her face. Turning she yelled to Harry," Did you see me do it?"
She had shown Harry, the same move at least ten times since he had brought the trampoline home the day before. This didn't matter to Harry though, the fact she was enjoying it so much made him extremely happy. Making it so that he didn't have to fake any emotion in his voice when he answered.
"Yeah I did, that was amazing. Maybe you should teach Sirius how to do that," he called back, making Ivy, and Iris who was also on the trampoline laugh.
Sirius had insisted on being the first one on once it had been setup. He was in such a rush to try it out, that he hadn't given Lily a chance to put charms on it to make it safe. He had been on for less than two minutes before he started acting like... well himself. He was attempting to see how high he could go, and was doing a good job. That is until he came down a little crookedly, and shot off the trampoline and over everyone's head. He had been fine afterwards, but the fall had done nothing to help with his fear of heights.
Seeing that Ivy was finished with him for the moment, as she had gone back to trying to out bounce Iris, Harry continued to explore the potter family green house.
He had seen it a few times since he had come here, but had never gone inside until his mother had asked him to get her some Hellebore for the potion she was making. He had known the green house was big, but just how big surprised him. It had to be larger than one of the Hogwarts green house's by at least half. Inside there were so many different plants that he only knew a fraction of the ones inside, and those were ones he had used in potions and herbology.
Once he had found the plant his mother needed he headed back to the house. Grabbing the broom he had come on, he shot into the air; getting the same feeling of freedom that being on a broom always gave him. He circled above his sisters a few times, causing Ivy to try and jump up and grab him. He flew just out of her reach for bit enjoying her laughter, before he realized that his mother would be wanting the plant.
Waving goodbye to his sisters, he laid flat to the broomstick pushing it as hard and fast as he could. Enjoying himself he started to do continuous barrel rolls to the house. Reaching his destination faster than he would have liked, he let go of the broom with his legs falling off while upside down, before quickly righting his self landing on his feet.
As soon as he opened the back door the sound of a single person clapping reached his ears. Having stopped when he first heard the clapping, he continued into the kitchen to see his father clapping, and his mother standing at the window with her head in her hands.
"Now that was some flying," said James, making Harry smile and Lily sigh. "Who taught you to handle a broom like that?"
"Myself," Harry answered honestly, something that he didn't get to do often. "Ever since my first time on a broom, I've been at home in the air. It's like I was born to fly."
"I'll say, it took me years to be able to fly like that," said James eagerly. "We have to fly together sometime."
"I'd love to, do you have any free time right now," he asked as he made his way over to his mother. As he reached her, he pulled her into a warm embrace. "I'm guessing she saw my little stunt?"
"Yes to both," he chuckled. "We were in the middle of a snog -"
"JAMES!" she shrieked at him.
"Sorry honey, we were seeing who could hold their breath longest," as he said this he dodged a spell sent at him by Lily. "When she caught sight of you out of the corner of her eye, needless to say she was um... surprised, that's a good word for it, surprised," he finished to Harry's laughter, and Lily imitating a tomato.
"Oi, it isn't funny," he said in mock rage. "She bout near bit my tongue off."
"James stop being dramatic," Lily said, having gained some composer.
"I don't know how I can, I only have half a tongue," he said faking hysteria. "People are going to start calling me Nearly Tongue less James."
Rolling her eyes at the man-child that she was married to she turned to Harry, but not before both Potter males saw her lips twitching. "Thank you for getting this for me," she told Harry, as she took it from him. "Hellebore has many uses, but between you, your father, and Sirius, I think I need to use it to make a Wit-Sharpening potion."
"HEY!"
Ignoring James she continued, "What were you thinking flying like that. You could have hurt yourself," Lily asked, the fear she had felt evident in her voice.
"Mom it wasn't as bad as it looked," Harry replied, finally understanding what others had said about disappointing someone being worse than making them mad. "I've done tons of moves that are worse than that on a broom."
Seeing his mother pale he realized that he should have phrased that differently. "All I'm trying to say is that you have no reason to worry about me on a broom. I'm better in the air than on ground."
"Come on Lily, he's fine," James said trying to calm her. "You saw how smooth his flying was, and that graceful landing. He's a natural when it comes to flying. I mean, he is my son after all," he finished sounding as cocky as Snape had always said he was.
"Fine!" As she said it, she threw her hands up, knowing that he was going to be as reckless as his father when it came to flying. "Just try and be careful, I don't want to see ether of you get hurt. It'd be James's luck to break something on your birthday."
"Don't worry, I'll be sure and not let him break anything," chuckled Harry, as he gave her another hug. "We all know how awful of a flyer he is. He's going to need all the help he can get." He said the last part as he was pulling away from Lily, sending James a smug look with the shot at his flying ability.
"Oh, is that a challenge brat," he sneered playfully. "I guess I'm going to have to teach you a thing or two about flying."
"Have fun you two, but James," Lily said, her voice slipping from amused to deadly, in a way only a mothers could. "If you try to teach him anything dangerous, I'll do you like I did Sirius, when he tried to teach him things he shouldn't have."
Her words had an instant effect on both James and Harry. James because he knew she would follow through with her threat. They affected Harry because he had received firsthand knowledge as to why the Marauders feared his mother so much.
FLASHBACK!
"But mommy I wanna jump," pouted Ivy, crossing her arms showing how cute and mad she could be at the same time.
Before Lily could respond Harry decided to calm her. "Ivy we can jump after we eat, and mom makes it safe to play on."
"But I don't want to wait," she whined. It was rare for Ivy to act out, but today seemed to be one of those days.
"You don't want to end up like uncle Padfoot do you," he said as he pointed to his right, where Sirius was currently sitting. "You could get hurt on it, and if that happened then we couldn't keep it. You don't want that do you?"
Harry didn't know if the thought of flying off the trampoline, or losing it was what made her calm down, but after hearing his words she calmed a great deal.
Sirius had taken Ivy's gift for its maiden voyage, only to end up landing on his face. Said person was drinking pain relief potion at the moment.
"Are you alright uncle pad," questioned Iris, who was sitting on Harry's left across from Remus. "You landed at a weird angle, it looked really painful."
"Oh I'm alright, I've taken worse falls out of bed," he said as he drained the last of the pain relief potion. "But I agree with Lily, we should defiantly put some charms on it."
"If you had listened to us before you got on it, you wouldn't have had to learn that the hard way," chided Remus. "One of these days you're going to get severely hurt, because you didn't listen."
"Yes mother," was Sirius' sarcastic reply.
Remus knowing a lost cause rolled his eyes at his brother in all but blood and turned to Lily. "I didn't get to say it yet, but thank you for the potion last night. It worked perfectly; I had full control in my mandatory turn last night."
"You know it's no problem Remus," she told him sincerely. "You don't have to tell me thank you every time. I know you would do the same for any of us if the situation was reversed."
Harry hadn't known it was a full moon the night before. He had wanted to learn how to make the Wolfsbane potion for Remus last life. But he had known that it had been nothing but a pipe dream with who his potions teacher had been. Now that he thought about it maybe he could get his mom to help him with potions.
"Padfoot where were you last night," asked Iris snapping Harry out of his thoughts. "It's rare for you to not have a least one meal a day with us."
"I spent the evening showing a nice young lady around town," he replied cautiously, throwing glances at Lily to make sure he didn't say anything to gain her wraith.
"Lady huh," asked an incredulous James.
James' words were answered by snorts from Lily, Remus, and Harry.
"What? Just because I spend the evening with a woman, means she's not a lady," asked an affronted Sirius.
"No. It's that you have the ability to talk people into doing what you want," Lily replied in an exasperated tone. "That includes women and getting them to disregard their better judgment."
Sirius was about to claim his innocents, when the sound of Iris giggling cut him off.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were talking about Harry," Iris said as she threw Harry a look that told him this was payback for what he had done to her the day before.
"What do you mean," asked James, who had saw a look of dread creep up on Harry's face at her words.
"Well yesterday Harry and I spent the day in Diagon Alley. While we were at Flourish and Blotts, he sneaked up on me-,"
"Sneaked up," Harry asked, his eyebrows rose in disbelief. "I was next to you the entire time."
"As I was saying he sneaked up on me, and yelled, scaring me so badly that I threw the magazine I was reading," she continued like he hadn't been interrupted.
"I'm surprised they let you stay if you made that much noise," remarked Remus.
"Remus is right, I remember getting me and your mother banded after one of my louder attempts to get her attention," supplied James who was smiling crookedly at something that only he could see at the moment. "However I'm guessing that this is where Harry acts like Sirius, and smooth talks his way out of getting punished?"
Looking a bit miffed at being interrupted again she continued, "I was going to punish him for scaring me so badly," as she said this, everyone could hear Harry mutter about punches being more than enough punishment. "When this really pretty girl, who looked about sixteen or seventeen came up to us and told us we had to leave. I was so mad that I was getting kicked out because him," Iris said throwing Harry a playful glare. "When all of a sudden he walks up to her a kisses her hand. The look on her face was priceless, and then he starts telling her that he was sorry. That the reason he made all that noise was because he wasn't brave enough to walk up to her and ask her for her name, and that he hoped that by making all that ruckus that she would come to him."
"Surly she didn't fall for that," asked an amused Remus, who had to speak up to be heard over James and Sirius' giggles.
"Oh, she fell for it all right. When she first came over she was acting like we were yelling at a funeral," replied Iris. She was really enjoying how Harry looked with a blush. "But by the time he was finished talking to her, she was hanging all over him. Giving him hugs, pulling him into her chest. You should have seen him; he was redder than he is now."
All around the table, every eye turned to see Harry turning as red as his hair.
"I thought you weren't going to tell anybody about this," hissed Harry.
"I didn't say anything last night because I wanted Uncle Moony and Padfoot here for the first telling," she replied innocently. "I mean look at them, their enjoying the story as much as dad is."
"We may be enjoying this but it looks like Lily isn't," James said, sobering up at the sight of his wife getting up and leaving the table. "I better go talk to her-,"
"No I will," Harry said cutting his father off. Standing up he started to make his way over to her, but hearing Iris gave him pause.
"I wasn't trying to upset her," she said looking crestfallen. "I was just trying to embarrass Harry."
"I don't think it was you who upset her," Harry told her, patting her on the shoulder. "I think she's afraid I'm going to pick up some of Sirius's bad habits. Don't worry I'll talk to her."
Getting a grateful nod from Iris he made his way over to Lily, who was busying herself with lunch. Reaching her he gently took the plate of food out of her hands.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," she replied, not meeting his eyes.
"Come on mom, talk to me," he pleaded.
"Really there's nothing wrong. I just had to get lunch of the stove."
"So you're not upset about how I got Iris and myself out of trouble?"
She opened her mouth to reply, but was unable to say anything.
"Listen if you're hesitant to say something, because you're afraid I'll flip out then don't be," he told her gently. "I'm never going to act like I did before. Especially not because you call me out on something," seeing his words were getting to her he continued. "So is there anything you want to say?"
"I know that you're young and you're not thinking anything about it, but I want you to be careful about how you treat girls," rushed Lily, she was afraid her words would make him turn away from her. "Your father and Sirius both had... reputations about how they treated women, it's one of the reason's I didn't start dating him before seventh year," as she said this she was looking over Harry's shoulder at James. "I just don't want to see you make the same mistakes they did."
"You don't have to worry about me hurting women like that," he told her. "I have more respect for women than to treat them like playthings."
Lily pulling away from him raised an eyebrow at his choice of words. "Do you know what I was talking about when I said they had a reputation?"
"I know I asked if you had anything to say," You could clearly hear the dread in his voice, "but I really didn't mean for our conversation to go down that road."
"Are you sure you don't want that 'talk' now," giggled Lily. "With how pretty you are, and the way you affect girls it might be safer to get it over with now."
"Oh do you hear that? I think dads calling," said Harry who was obviously lying. "We can talk more about this later." With those parting words he took off for the table, the sound of Lily laughing following him.
As he sat back down in his spot between Iris, and Remus everyone gave him questioning looks.
"She's fine now," he stated simply.
"I know we could hear her laughter over here," James informed him. James knew that if he was to say it out loud it would sound wrong, but he was starting to like his son more and more. Now that he wasn't so on edge he could see how much everyone enjoyed having him being a part of the family. It didn't go unnoticed by James how whenever any of the Potter females were upset or angry, Harry would step in to calm them down or cheer them up. Seeing this James couldn't help but feel that Sirius's words about his son becoming a good man were the truth. "Thank you," he mouthed to his son, who nodded that he understood why he was thanking him.
"So before Lily gets back, what's this about another girl," Sirius asked with a lecherous smile. "What's that dark haired cutie from the broom shop going to say?"
"I was only tiring to get us out of trouble, nothing more," as he said this he remembered that Sirius had run his mouth to James about Cho. "By the way I know that you told dad about Cho, the girl from the broom shop. You know I have to get you back for that."
"Oh no! Whatever will I do," Sirius mocked, pretending to shake in fear. "What are you going to do to me? Go running to mommy?"
"You know what? I think that's a great idea," chuckled Harry. "Just remember that you brought this on yourself."
Everyone at the table felt a chill go down their backs at his words. Everyone that is except for Ivy who was too young to feel the tension in the air.
Harry seeing Lily coming back to the table, deicide now was as good a time as any to get Sirius.
"Really you're going to teach me a new charm," he yelled in fake enthusiasm. Had the others not known that he was faking, they would have thought he was showing real excitement. "Did you hear mom? Sirius is going to show me a new charm. He says I'll need once I get to Hogwarts."
"Really, what charm is that," she asked looking at Sirius, but before he could tell her that he didn't know what he was talking about, Harry answered for him.
"I think it was called a Contraception charm," he answered with a smile full of false innocents.
James and Remus were too shocked, and a little bit impressed by Harry's revenge to say anything. But even if they could have, they knew that to interfere with someone's prank, was to make yourself a target. After seeing how Harry was planning to get Sirius they knew that they didn't want to get in his crosshairs.
Iris who knew exactly what a Contraception charm was, thought it would be best to play dumb. Putting a questioning look on her face, she looked to all the adults as if questioning what the charm did. But in reality she was enjoying watching the reactions of the adults.
Ivy, who was too young to understand what was going on, knew that her Uncle Padfoot was in trouble. For the first time since the trampoline had been set up she forgot about her present.
Slowly Sirius stood up from the table, waving his hands in front of him in an apologizing way. He knew that if he said that Harry was lying it would only piss Lily off more. "Now Lily calm down," he said gently, as if afraid that if he spoke to loudly she would snap.
Lily getting over her shock laid the dish she was holding down, and reached into her jeans for her wand.
Sirius seeing how calm she was acting knew that if he was to stick around he'd be on the receiving end of her wand. Turning in place he ran for the door, rushing past the floo in his panic to get away. Flinging the door open, he had shifted to Snuffles before he had made it past the threshold. Knowing that apparating was his best chance at escape, he made a beeline for the nearest apparation point.
Back in the house those sitting at the table watched as Lily slowly walked out the same door that Sirius had just left out of. She had only just disappeared through the door when everyone jumped at the sound of a dog yelping.
"Harry, is mommy going to kill Padfoot," Ivy asked her brother, as she made her way around the table to him.
"No she's not going to kill him," he answered, picking her up. "She's just teaching him a lesson."
Knowing that her Harry would never lie to her, she asked her next question, "Can we go jump now?"
FLASHBACK END
Remembering what she had done to Sirius made Harry feel bad about his revenge prank. He knew that Sirius was going to get him back; it was only a matter of time.
"I promise no dangerous stuff," vowed James. He knew she was serious about her threat. He still couldn't get the vision of Snuffles hanging in the air by his back paw. A pile of his fur under him from where Lily had casted a balding hex on him.
"Don't worry mom, we'll just throw a ball around." he said appeasing her. "Besides it won't be long until everyone starts showing up."
"You sound worried, is anything wrong," James asked worried by Harry's tone.
"I'm just wondering how grandmother and father are going to react to me," answered Harry, who couldn't seem to stop fidgeting when he thought of meeting his grandparents.
Sirius had told Harry a lot about his grandparents in his past life. They had been extremely good people, who had fought for equal rights of all creators, always gave piles of gold to charities and good causes, they had even taken Sirius in when he had run away from home. Charlus and Dorea Potter had been killed in a Death Eater raid, nine to one had been the numbers they had faced. But even with numbers on their side the Death Eaters didn't stand a chance, knowing they couldn't take them they used Fyendfire to finish them off. At the time Harry had thought it would have been amazing to have the chance to meet the two, but now that it was about to happen he couldn't calm down.
"Oh is that it. I've already talked to mom and dad this morning," said James dismissing Harry's worries. "I told them basically everything that happened. Mom is like Lily was and wants to squeeze you to death, and dad's always been laid back, so that when I told him about your change he said he was happy to hear it."
Harry didn't share the same confidence that his father did about them being okay with him, but knew that all he could do was wait and see what would happen.
"If you say so. Now how about I show you how to fly a broom," Harry called cockily over his shoulder. He was already out the door, on his broom before he heard his father yelling something about teaching brats a lesson.
S2ndC
Harry had spent the rest of the day flying with his dad. They had only come in when Lily had told them it would only be an hour before Charlus and Dorea showed up.
Now the Potters, Remus, and Sirius were in the living room waiting for them to show up. Despite what Harry thought about only being able to wait, he couldn't help but be nervous. Although he had won the others over, he wouldn't feel like a part of the family unless they all accepted him.
"James tells me that you and he went flying today," stated Remus. "How was it?"He walked over sitting between Harry and Iris.
"It wa-," Harry started only to be cut off.
"He was brilliant," blurted Iris. She was bouncing in her place beside Remus, thinking about how he looked diving for the quaffle. "You should have seen him uncle Moony, he was giving dad a run for his money."
"I wasn't that good," denied Harry. "Besides we couldn't really go all out, mom threatened dad with the same fate as Sirius if he tried to teach me anything to hard," he paused as the other two winced at the memory, "not that it mattered. If dad had been going all out, there would be no way I could keep up with him."
"That's not what your father's saying," countered Remus. "He did say that Lily was watching you two, but when you were sure Lily wasn't watching you were both trying to stump the other with tricks."
"Yeah but that wasn't serious, we were just playing around."
"You know being humble is a good quality to have," Remus told him. His tone reminded Harry of his teaching voice. "Just make sure you don't take it too far and down play your own achievements and abilities."
Harry nodded his understanding to Remus, but was thinking to himself, "that easy for him to say, my egos hard enough to control the way it is.'
After Remus's words, the three sat in silence, each lost in their thoughts. Harry had left his thoughts on his flying abilities. Now he was busy trying to figure out what moves he should make and how they would affect the future. He could sit back and let Neville deal with all that was coming, and step in when needed. But for all he knew nothing would be the same. Would the stone be kept at Hogwarts? Could Riddles diary open the chamber?
'Wait, today's when the vault at Gringotts is supposed to be broken into.'
Before Harry could think anymore on the stone, he saw Remus twitch and look at the doorway, which connected the room to the kitchen. Following his line of sight, he glanced up in time to see Charlus and Dorea enter the room.
Instantly everyone in the room rushed to them. Seeing them all laughing, and joking together, made Harry feel like an outsider. He knew that after all the old Harry had done, it was a miracle that his family would have anything to do with him at all. That the level of closeness he had achieved with his family over the short amount of time he had been here, showed how much he meant to them. Nonetheless he still longed to have the same familiarity with them that he knew he could only achieve over time.
As the group calmed, Dorea caught sight of her grandson for the first time in over three months. He looked to have grown a bit, and was leaner than she remembered. However it wasn't how much he had grown in her time away that had her attention, but the way he was holding himself. Gone was his rigid stance that screamed of his barely contained anger and hate. It was now replaced with one that spoke of uncertainty, and nervousness. His beautiful face that had always held a look of loathing and disgust was now replaced with a look of deep longing.
Taking all this in she couldn't help but feel a deep sadness, but more so she felt joy. No child should ever have to feel like an outsider to their own family, and Dorea could tell that was exactly how he was feeling at the moment. It was these same emotions that were the cause of her joy. They showed her that what James had told her and Charlus about him changing was true.
Seeing that the others were listening to Charlus talk about their trip, she made her way over to her wayward grandson, hoping to get to spend some time alone with him. As she made her way to him, it was easy to see that he was struggling with how he should greet her.
"Happy birthday Harry," she congratulated, as she enveloped him in a loving hug. "How does it feel to be eleven?" She asked as she pulled away holding him at arms leant.
"Good. It feels great knowing I'm going to Hogwarts soon," Harry answered shakily. He was finding it awkward trying to talk to someone who he was supposed to have known all his life, when in reality this was his first time meeting her. "How was your trip?"
"It was fine, but that's not important right now," she lead him by the hand to the love seat, where she sat them down, never letting go of his hand. "I'm happy to see your father was right about your change," Hearing her say this he gave her a questioning look. "You're wondering how I know that you've changed," she asked, getting a nod she continued. "Well as you know I was born a part of the Black family. Growing up I learned that not all people can be trusted, that includes family. So I learned to read people from an early age. As soon as I saw you, I knew you had changed."
As he listened to his grandmother's explanation, one thing became clear to him. That the person he was going to have to be the most careful around wasn't his father, but his grandmother. If she could tell that he was changed just by how he held himself, then if he wasn't carful she would know something more than a change of heart was going on.
"I can see that bringing up your change bothers you, so why don't we talk about something else," she said giving him a knowing smile. "From what your father tells me, you're very talented in spell casting. Is there a branch of magic your most excited in learning?"
"I just want to start learning," he answered. "But the one thing I really can't wait to learn to do is make my own spells. It's just too bad that I have to wait three years before I can even begin to start learning the basics."
"Ahh! Spell creation. The branch of magic for those who want to leave their mark on the world," she proclaimed. "Though let's be honest," she said lowering her voice, "we both know you won't wait until third year to start learning that subject. You're most likely already reading up on it aren't you," she accused with a mischievous smile, which only increased in size at the guilty look on his face.
"Your right, I have been looking in to it, but that only means I'll be better prepared when I take the class," he defended. He had to say he really liked his grandmother, but her ability to read people worried him.
"Oh don't take what I said the wrong way," she chuckled, patting the hand of his that she still held. "I absolutely love the fact that you're so interested in magic. I wish I could say you inherited it from me, but your father didn't, so it's more likely you got the learning bug from your mother."
"You know it's rude to talk about your son like that." While Dorea and Harry had been talking, James had made his way over, and was now standing over them looking amused.
"You know I love you, but we both know you were never very studious. How you managed to be so high up in your year I'll never know."
"I think there were two reasons behind that," Harry mocked whispered to her.
"Oh and what's that," she asked playing along. She was really enjoying this new side to her grandson.
"Having Remus as a friend," he paused after saying this, looking around as if to see if anyone was listening before he continued. "And a cretin red head he may have had a crush on."
"The sad thing is, he's right," sighed James, causing Dorea and Harry to laugh.
Their laughter drawled the attention of the others. Charlus seeing how his wife was acting around Harry was more than enough proof of his change. After years of marriage he knew that his wife could read people easier than most could read a book.
With Ivy in his arms he led the rest of the family over to where Harry and the other two were. "It seems like you're all having fun," he said getting their attention, "care if we join you?"
"As if you have to ask dad," James replied, as he conjured chairs for those who didn't have one.
"Its better to ask a pointlessly question and know for sure, than to assume something and be wrong," reasoned Charlus taking a seat for himself, before turning to his grandson. "Hello Harry," he greeted holding out his hand. "How has your birthday been so far?"
Letting go of his grandmother's hand, he took his grandfathers offered one, giving him a firm hand shake. "It's been great, thank you for asking."
"I'm happy to hear that." Harry could tell by his tone that he actually meant it to, unlike most people who say that to be polite. "Is there anything in particular that you're hoping to get?"
"Not really, I'm just happy to be able to spend time with everyone," he answered playing with his hands nervously.
"That's a good attitude to have," Charlus nodded his approval. "I hope you like Dorea and my gift to you," he said, handing a small box to Harry that fit in the palm of his hand.
"You really didn't have to get me anything," Harry told them sincerely. "I haven't really done anything to deserve getting a present."
"Nonsense, it's your birthday, of course you deserve a present," smiled Charlus, he was likening the boys modesty. "Besides from what I hear you deserve them now more than ever."
"He's right son, with the way you've been helping out lately, and the way you treat everyone makes us want to give you gifts," James said this to the nodes of those in the room.
"Alright," he replied softly.
Gently unwrapping his grandparent's gift he found it to be a ring box. Giving them a questioning look, he opens the box to see a silver ring, with a blue swirl design on it. Taking it out of the place holder, the blue design turned to the same color green as his eyes. He didn't know the meaning or purpose behind the ring, but one thing was for sure, he absolutely loved it. "It's beautiful, thank you. Thank you both," beamed Harry. Getting up he gave them both a hug, showing his thanks.
"It's no problem dear," said a cheerful Dorea. "It's one of two rings that have been passed down the Potter line for generations. Your father has the other one." She gestured to James, who held up his hand, showing a ring much like Harry's own. The only difference between the two was the color design; James was the same brown of his eyes.
"They are used to protect the heir and head of the Potter family," informed Charlus. "They tell when a poison or potion is in your food or drink. They also make it impossible for anyone to take your appearance, by any means, whether it be Polyjuice or human transfiguration."
"As you know our family is one of the four main families in Britain, along with the Bones, Blacks, and Longbottoms," James told him. It didn't go unnoticed by anyone the sound of disgust in his voice as he said Longbottom. "All four have been in an unofficial war," he said this part with air quotes, "since before the time of the founders. It's only been a little over a hundred years, that the Bones family and our own have buried the hatchet. When Sirius became head of the Black family, he did the same."
"However, even with three of the four families head families moving on, the Longbottoms see themselves as being above the other three," added Sirius, picking up where James had left off. "They take any chance they can to make the other families look bad. They have even gone as far as to attack the others, when they have been showed up," as he said this he scowled at a far away memory. "And with the way the new heir acts, he'll be worse than those of the past. With how talented you are, you can bet that 'The Boy Who Lived'," his voice dripped with sarcasm, "will have you in his sights."
"That's where the ring will help, it will make sure he can't take your appearance and do something that would reflect badly on you or the family," said Charlus pointing to the ring.
"I only have one question," stated Harry. He already knew that becoming friends with Neville was going to be hard, but now he knew there would be no way to change his former friend's ways. "Do you plan on giving the other to Iris?"
He could tell his question surprised all those in attendance. If the Longbottoms were as bad as he was being told, then he wouldn't put it past them to try and get at Iris as well as himself.
"You have to know if he's going to be aiming for me, then he won't have a problem going for her," he explained. "If for some reason you don't plan to, then I'll give her mine. I'm more than able to protect myself, and after he sees that it's useless to try and get me, he'll be aiming for Iris or anyone I'm close to."
Before anyone could reply Iris had gotten up from her seat, and made her way over to Harry, where she wrapped him in a hug. "I can take care of myself," she told him firmly. "But it feels really good to know that you're worried about me." Moving closer to his grandmother he gave Iris room to squeeze in beside him.
"I hadn't thought of that to be honest," answered James. He was feeling bad that he hadn't considered the possibility of them aiming for Iris. "You don't have to worry thought the only reason the rings are worn are to help protect us when we are too young to protect ourselves. I don't need one anymore."
"That's enough about that bit of nastiness," announced Dorea. "Go ahead and put it on, then you can move on to your other presents." As she said this Lily held up her wand, and silently summoned three gifts from upstairs.
Taking the ring that had helped revile so much information to him, he slid it on to his thumb, where it resized itself to fit him.
"Alright then it's my turn," said an enthusiastic Sirius, as he floated his gift to Harry. "I think you might have seen them before and wanted them."
Opening the gift, Harry was shocked to see the knife set that he had returned to Sirius, the day after his arrival. Harry couldn't deny he wanted them, ever since he had come here, sharp things had fascinated him.
"I know you liked them, and they would have only gained dust at my house, so..." he trailed off.
"These are amazing, thank you Sirius!" He was so excited that he didn't see the look of concern on the other adults faces.
"I mean no offence to you Harry," Remus said softly, giving Harry an apologetic look. "But is it wise to give an eleven year old a knife set for his birthday," he questioned, turning his attention to Sirius.
"Why not? He's proven he's responsible enough to have them."
Before anyone could say anything else, James spoke up, "its fine Moony, he's right, I completely trust Harry not to do anything he shouldn't with them."
Lily looked as if the thought of her baby having knifes scared her to death. The only reason she didn't say anything, was because she knew Harry would be careful with them.
"Thanks for trusting me enough to keep them," he said softly running a finger down each blade.
"So who's next," Lily asked the room.
"Me, I want to, please," begged Ivy. As she pleaded to go next, she had started bouncing, almost making Charlus drop her.
"I can't wait to see what you got me," chuckled Harry, he loved seeing her get so excited.
"Um it's from both of us," said an uncertain Iris. She hadn't planned on getting him anything at first, but in the past two days she had started to grow close to Harry. She didn't know if he would like her idea, and it was making her increasingly nervous. "I hope you like it," she told him, as she handed it to him.
He was fixing to open their gift, when he saw that Ivy was so excited about her gift being opened, that she was about to fall off Charlus's knee. "Hey Ivy do you think you can help me open this?"
Ivy hearing her brothers words, slid off her grandpa's knee, before dashing over to him and throwing herself into his lap, giving him as big a hug as her little arms would allow. Chuckling at the cuteness she was showing, he righted her in his lap, and handed her the present, which she proceeded to tear into. As the wrapping paper flew above their heads, Harry caught his first sight of his gift. It was a photo album with writing on the cover that said, 'Potter Family Memory's'.
With shaking hands Harry slowly opened the cover. The first picture was of him reading to Ivy under one of the trees in the back yard. He remembered the day well, Ivy had begged him all morning to sneak out and take her flying.
As Harry flipped through the pages, the room had gone completely silent, everyone present watching the emotions that played across his face with each photo. The adults all knew that Harry was enjoying the gift, Ivy herself was enjoying looking at the pictures with him and had forgotten that it was Harry's gift, Iris on the other hand was watching Harry and couldn't tell if he liked it or not. It finally became too much for her and blurted, "Do you like it?"
Iris's voice reminded Harry that he wasn't alone, and that everyone was most likely wondering what he thought of the gift. Slowly he wrapped one arm around the tiny little girl on his lap, and the other around Iris pulling them both in for a tender hug.
"I love it, thank you both so much. It's the best gift I've ever received." As he said this he gave each girl a kiss on the cheek, causing Ivy to giggle and Iris to blush. "I didn't know my picture had even been taken, but here I am in most of them."
"It's a beautiful gift," said a choked up Lily. She had no idea what the girls had gotten for him, but seeing how much it had affected him she had no doubt that he meant what he had said about it being the best gift he had ever been given.
"How about we save your mother and fathers gift for last," suggested Remus, making his way across the room to hand Harry a book. "Sorry about not wrapping it. It just arrived before I came over today."
Looking at the marking on the front, Harry couldn't tell what language it was. Opening it he was surprised to find the inside blank, flipping all the way through showed it all to be as empty as the first page.
"Thanks Moony, I never thought to keep a journal, but now that I think about it's a great idea," Harry told him sincerely.
"That's a great idea but I would hope that you wouldn't use that book," chuckled Remus, seeing all the looks he was getting he went on to tell them the books purpose. "That book allows you to copy other books to it. Say you're in the library and you need a certain book to do an essay, but the library is closing and you can't take the book with you. All you have to do is tap this book," he pointed to the one in Harry's hands, "with your wand once, then tap the book you want coped once, and it does the rest. But just to let you know it can only copy one book at a time."
"Wow this is really going to come in handy," Harry said excitedly, if he used this correctly he could copy most of Hogwarts library by the time he graduated.
"Something tells me he's going to come home for Christmas with a lot of written copies of Hogwarts books," mumerd Dorea loud enough for everyone to hear.
"I guess that leaves our present," announced James. He picked up their gift which everyone in the room knew was a potion vile and handed it to Harry. Unwrapping it he was greeted by the sight of a yellow colored potion.
"What does it do," asked a curious Harry.
"It's the animagus potion," James told him in a dramatic voice. "I say it's about time we found out what your animal is."
"Really, oh man I can't wait to see what I become," bellowed Harry. His excitement was rubbing off on everyone; it seemed they were all as interested in his transformation as he was.
"Is there anything in particular I need to do before taking it?"
"Just stand away from everyone when you take it," Lily informed him.
"Then let's go outside, that way I won't break anything." Getting up he headed outside with Ivy on his hip.
The others not wanting to miss what form he would take hurried after him.
Once outside they found Ivy standing by the back door and Harry off a ways from the house.
"All you have to do now is drink the potion," called James.
"Alright here goes," Harry yelled as he drained the potion.
Everyone became completely still waiting for the potion to take effect. Before anyone knew what had hit them there was a blinding flash, and the air filled with the smell of ozone. As the spots in their vision cleared, they were greeted by the sight of a large, majestic bird that was a glowing white.
So shocked were they be the appearance of his animagus form, which they all knew looked remarkable like Fawkes, that it took them a minute to realize that the air which smelled like a fresh rain, was full of power that was causing them all to feel tingling sensation.
'Are you all okay,' Harry asked his family forgetting that he was in animal form, but to the shock of the others, when he trilled they understood him perfectly.
"What is he," asked a stunned Iris, she had never seen such a beautiful creator before.
"I-I don't know," said the equally stunned Charlus. "If I had to take a guess- Dorea get back here you don't know if it's safe," the last part of his sentence coming out as barely more than snarl.
"Oh Charlus, calm down," she rebuffed. "He wouldn't hurt any of us."
As he was fixing to respond, Harry let out a heart breaking trill, 'I would never hurt her grandfather.' The sound of the hurt in his call was enough for the other ladies to follow Dorea over to Harry; she herself had only just reached him and had started to stroke the feathers on his head, earning herself trills of pleasure from him.
"Do you think he's some type of Phoenix," questioned Remus who like the other men was standing back watching the Potter women fawn over Harry.
"It's what he looks like, but I didn't know that there were other elements of Phoenix besides fire," answered Charlus.
"What element is he," puzzled Sirius, drawling disbelieving looks from the other men. "What," he snapped, the looks the others were giving him ticking him off.
"You really are thick sometimes, you know that Padfoot," chuckled Remus.
"Look at the clues Sirius," hinted Charlus. "He appeared in a great flash of light, since the transformation there's been a strong smell of a fresh rain or if you prefer ozone, you can feel static in the air, and finally take a look at his color. What does it remind you of?"
"To be honest, it kind of reminds me of the glow from a Patronus, only he's white instead of blue."
"His element is lightning," sighed James. He had known his son's animal would be strong, but this worried him for a totally different reason than it had at first. "We can't let this get out. Lily told me that there were some real nut jobs who worked in the DOM. If they hear about this they will want him."
"You right and we'll have to tell Harry that, but for now let's let the boy enjoy his day," Charlus told them with a hint of a command in his voice.
As they started their way over to the group of females crowding the trilling animagus Remus had a thought that he shared with the others.
"You know that this means he really has changed," he told them never breaking his stride. "The Phoenix is a creator of the light. If his form is one, I see no reason at all to doubt his sincerity about his change."
AN:Hello! So first up is the poll. I have been bugged to death about adding Hermione. One of the things I love about my story is the rare pairings, but I do like Hermione. So I'm willing to add her, BUT she has to win the poll by a land slide to make it. If she only wins by a couple of votes then she's not being added.
Now you may have noticed how protective Lily is of Harry, I just want to say she WILL lighten up later on, but right now she's only getting to mother himfor the first time in years, of course she's going to be a little over baring.
Now people what did you think of this chapter? I know I've been a bit emo with how I've felt about my past chapters, but this one seemed to sit well with me. I really enjoyed writing the part with Lily and James. Next chapter will be a time skip to the day before the train to hoggy warts, those of you who can recall it know that it's the same day as Iris's b-day. We'll get to see Tonks, Greengrass family, maybe the Bones. HE may make it to the train staion but he has things to do once he gets there, and if we'll get to see him get on I don't know. I still have to figure out which house to put him in. Soooo Leave a review and I will Love you. Till next time!