Summer Vacation

After Christmas Break...

The students returned that January at night...to note the partially-renovated castle. The Ground Floor is clearly RENOVATED! The paintings also sported new frames, too and the empty armor displays are polished to be shiny. The chairs in the Great Hall looked comfortable too with big, elegant, chandeliers for lighting above the tables and lamps on walls for more light.

As for food...its no longer a feast. Its now a set-course menu. Before them are their typical goblets, one bowl, one spoon, fork and dining knife, and two plates. All gold of course, they're used to it for years! As they all sat down for dinner, food and drink appeared on their dining ware but...where's the feast?

'Hey man, where's the rest of the food?' Ron Weasley wondered aloud. For him, these portions are NOT enough! He's a growing boy, he's gotta have more!

'Don't you read the Prophet Ron?' his older brother, Percy sighed. 'Hogwarts underwent changes and this is one of them! I'll have mum send you the Prophet about it tomorrow.'

'As you all noticed, our meals are no longer a feast.' said Albus Dumbledore as he stood up when all students settled down. 'This is to reinforce meal discipline to wean you off of picky eating and to make sure students do not overeat and gain unhealthy weight into obesity and some of you are sadly, glaring examples of gaining in pounds.' he said, making pointed looks at some students. 'This is also a new healthy setting for growing children and young adults, thus you will have to eat everything until every last bit and drop is gone. If your set course is not finished, you will remain stuck in your chairs, unable to leave with our new discipline sticking charms. And if you attempt to vanish some food with a Vanishing Spell, we will deduct ten points from your house.'

This was much to disbelief and incredulity of most students. Ron Weasley was one of the most vocal against it.

'Now then, dig in!' said the Headmaster jovially.

Instead of Pumpkin Juice, its now chilled strawberry Fruit Juice, freshly squeezed off fruit. Dessert is now chilled Fruit Slices and Berries with a honey dip and dipping fork. Soup is Crockpot Minestrone Soup, Vegetable Stir-Fry with scrambled eggs and Roast Chicken with Mashed Potatoes. Soup is easily the part of the meal with the largest portion. From a distance, Giselle could hear her cousin grumble about 'food withholding' even though an article about the Prophet showed Hogwarts' new and permanent changes.

After a nice dinner, everyone headed upstairs for sleep when they also noted the First Floor was also Renovated, but halfway-done.

Common Room?

WOW.

'Oh wow!' Lavender Brown squealed as she was the first to jump on the new bigger and soft-looking couches.

'Well, our Common Room got bigger and definitely new!' Percy Weasley gasped as they marveled at their new Common Room.

'What about our dorms?! Eeeeeee!' another female upperclassman squealed as the students rushed to their dorms...to find it also renovated and its warmer!

'Oh wow!' Parvati Patil cried in glee as the girls happily jumped on their new, soft-looking beds with quilts. The curtains on their new beds are just as new too.

'This is so cool!' Giselle squealed.

'No more uncomfortable bed bumps!' Hermione Granger sighed in bliss.

'Your old bed had bumps?'

'Yes and I couldn't sleep all that well...now with these new beds, we can live in style!'

Needless to say, the students are all VERY HAPPY and Student Moods improved.

Breakfast the next day however...

Drink is...well, nobody's familiar with Green Tea unless you're asian...and there are only four asians in school, and the tea is in golden mugs. Cho Chang, Sue Li and the Patil Twins are Asian while Lyra lived in Japan all her life so she knew what this is. The asians explained that the green drink is a different type of tea is and its what they usually drink at home so they were pretty used to it. However, not even they were familiar with what brand this is even if it was sweetened with honey and Lyra drank Matcha all her life. But she pretended to be just like anyone else.

Her parents sent six barrels of Matcha Tea to Hogwarts under the label 'Green Tea for breakfast' under Anonymous as well as her mother's recipe(in computer print on a laminated white paper attached to one of the barrels on spellotape) to make it delicious with honey, Beef, Potato and Quinoa Soup, and a triple-layer egg, spam and cheese Clubhouse Sandwich for breakfast.

So far, while classes occurred, a lot of the Vacant Rooms are closed under Renovation, thus only the Classrooms, Infirmary and Library are open to students.

The Library was indeed updated with new books from Flourish and Blotts. But the only shelves filled are books about Children's Storybooks, Folktales, Wizarding Culture, Social Norms, Manners and Etiquette, Wizarding Laws and Sanctions, the Ministry, Magical First Aid, Healing and Medicine, and books about the core Subjects and Electives, sorted according to Year Level per shelf. And because the books are new, Madam Pince checked everybody's hands to make sure there will be no dirty fingerprints in the new books' pages, and practically instructed muggleborns to read some 'books of concern' in spare times to fully understand the Wizarding World.

She did it with a big, enlarged parchment note besides the door of the Library so the muggleborns took books off for borrowing on a rushed first-come-first-serve for a week's reservation.

That, and the school year went by smoothly with Neville and Lyra NOT taking the bait no matter how many students got curious about the Third Floor Corridor forbidden to them that year...and they went home on Spring(another all mandatory break) and Summer Break.

Year One, overcome with the Seventh Years graduating.

Madam Pomfrey happily reported that known obese students, have lost weight and had normal weight levels now. Students are also more awake in classes as noted by teachers although it will take time to get a new History Teacher so students will stop treating that class as 'Extra Nap Time' but when was it when they last know someone who knew real history...?

xxx

Albus Dumbledore and Quirrellmort each had a reason not to be happy at the end of the year.

Lyra nor Neville did not get curious about the Third Floor, discover what it is the professors were protecting...and Voldemort nearly got the stone if not for Albus' tricky obstacle. He got to the Mirror's room on time after being lured out with a fake letter from the Ministry and dueled Voldemort using Quirrell's body personally, forcing him to flee once more as a shade and leaving Quirrell dead. And neither child was marked to jumpstart the prophecy.

Sighing, the old man wondered how to end the war for good if neither child was marked before HE comes back...they were typical rule-abiding good kids. Nothing wrong with that but still...

xxx

Upon going home...

'Well Lyra, did you avoid event no.1?' James asked his daughter as he fetched her himself that night. This time, they spoke Arabic.

'Of course.' Lyra smirked. 'Neville and I refused to take the challenge, while pretending to be rule-abiding kids. Nothing suspicious about that, is there?'

'Nope, none at all!' James cackled impishly. 'Well, let's go home kiddo.' they left King's Cross Station to take their Portkey home to Japan. Time for Summer and that means Beaches!

xxx

Japan...Namimori's Streets...

'Ah, good thing for holidays~!' Lyra chimed as she walked with Tsuna who left his Elementary School. The boy turned 10 last year and time sure flies by fast because of hectic school and tutoring. He'll be eleven by the time she's back in Hogwarts for her second year.

'No fair! I still have ten days of school left and its all about exams! You're really lucky Lyra-nee.' Tsuna complained unhappily as they ignored whisperings of him being friends with a beautiful foreign girl. 'And the heat is making things worse I'm glad I have you-know-what to cool off, but it's too bright out here!' he was also grateful that Summer School is a thing of the past now. When he was unsealed, his learning ability and capacity improved by several leaps that he saw himself as 'normal' like anyone else. He also awakened his Hyper Intuition, and he was no longer clumsy. He worked hard to shed off his 'No-Good' Image and having friends greatly boosted his confidence. He's also tall, and physically fit as well as sporting rounded shoulders and barely-visible but still-there muscle. And he's doing well in sports now people wondered if an alien replaced him. He doesn't care as long as he has his friends, he no longer cared about public opinion.

Due to how his peers treated him, he remained friends with only the Potter Children even after all of them will be home on school vacations.

Maybe he can change that when he's in Middle School?

'Well, Japan and UK's Board of Educations think differently...and Japan's ideal is 'work-hard-till-you-drop'. Isn't that the point of the praise 'Otsukaresamadeshita'?'

'Yeah but still...' Tsuna pouted. 'So what are you gonna do for summer? My mother's complaining that she's not seeing me much lately since I spend too much time with your family so I asked Lily-sensei and James-sensei for a summer off.' Lyra inwardly rolled her eyes.

Tsuna's mother, Sawada Nana was too accepting of everything to the point of 'Cheerfully Resigned Doormat' that it disturbingly sounds like she's OK with her son being 'no-good' and 'useless' in school and talks about it like how the weather is sunny today. For Tsuna back what he used to be, he has no familial and emotional support in what he was going through in school and she could not be counted on when he needed her most, especially when he was bullied for it.

As for his father, a construction worker overseas yet somehow sends him photos of the Amazon Jungle, the North Pole with Penguins, Sahara Desert and even Hong Kong's busy streets! Just how stupid does he take his family for and what is his REAL job really?! Is that not a wonder why Tsuna looks up to her parents and grandparents instead for emotional support and comfort and why he's distant? And while Nana doesn't know about Tsuna's condition, they really wondered about the father, given his questionable occupation.

'I don't know what my parents are planning for summer...well, I'll have to find out soon in a few days. Hogwarts is in a total renovation fever and parents have a hand in their ideas about it. Recently the vacant rooms and other halls are closed off. I got pictures about Hogwarts in its previous appearance and I'll show you the changes next year. Sound good?' Lyra offered.

'Yeah. I heard from Harry you caused a political scandal with the help of your relatives and a hated journalist while posing as anonymous.' Tsuna chuckled impishly. 'You're sooo bad.' he praised with a sly look on his face.

'Well, if you want something, do something about it without drawing attention to yourself. And I'm quite good at that.' Lyra smiled. 'Be devious. Tricky. Cunning. Resourceful and Motivated to get what you want without implicating that YOU want it. Its how you should roll, given what you feel your future is.'

'Yeah. I'll be practicing on mom this summer.' came the reply.

xxx

Summer...

It was spent with Lyra and her family visiting Japan's popular Tourist Attractions open only in the summer since she has no Homework to worry about. Her birthday was also spent in the trip. And on the third week of August, they returned home so Lyra can keep up her muggle education in computers and latest updates in Japanese Curriculum in schools.

Lyra's birthday gift from Tsuna came in late as a result of their trip but the family is OK with it.

And because Lyra and soon Harry would be gone in Hogwarts, they gave him his birthday gifts in advance.

Lyra gave him a box of Nutrition Potions worth six months for him to come to his full training potential at adolescence so he could undergo harder training and Harry gave him Magical Candies only he could see. Her parents gave him two Ride-All-You-Can Tickets in the Amusement Park so he could go with his mother if only to pretend said 'gifts' were from his friends. Well, they can't let his mother see the Potions and magical sweets now can they? That, and Tsuna hid them in his closet which he could take and enjoy in secret. And for years, Tsuna had tricked his mother into cooking known healthier foods instead of the usual 'mother's home cooking' mothers usually do. With his father's unknown occupation, Tsuna also got wind that his father sends his mother quite a fortune every month.

Normally, even for Overseas Workers, they can only send their families 100.000 yen a month or lower than that depending on their jobs. 100.000 is the highest you can hope to send and that's after climbing up the hierarchy ladder and get a high paying job.

His father sends 500.000. Half a million, literally. That's more than a month's expenses worth, and even then, he also pays the Mortgage, Electric, Water, Gas, the Internet Bills AND his Tuition Fee! And how much do all THAT cost? More than a million and his and his mother's money not included!

Tsuna is really wondering now...which is why he got obsessed with computers, in order for him to be able to do research and eventually...hack. He wanted to know what job his father has to have that much money in just a few years when he grew up knowing his father for eight years of his life wherein within those eight years, he was sealed without his parents knowing and his father DID NOT WORK in those years, yet his father is heavily muscled and sculpted, a body not even a Construction Worker can have unless they took part-time as Body-Builders or did major heavy lifting in the work. His training with the Potter Family also ensured that he is physically and mentally tough and durable, highly adaptable, physically capable, and trained never to lose his cool no matter what.

James Potter, one of Magical Britain's Decorated Heroes and strongest Aurors, taught him that he should be highly adaptable and never lose his cool so he can make plans on the fly based on present information, succeed in his fights in as little injury as possible, and make plans that nobody he cares for dies. While Aurors are more into Magical Dueling, it was Lily Potter who introduced the concept of physical and muscular conditioning, Acrobatics, and Free Running. And that was because the magical family discovered Anime. They trained in the whole town that Tsuna knows the town like the back of his hand, and knows how to Parkour on everything. The wizarding family trained while invisible, going as fast and agile as possible while maintaining their momentum and avoiding people at the same time. As a result, he and the Potters have great stamina, and strong legs with great flexibility and acrobatic ability, a trait shared by their allied families, the Blacks, Prewetts, Boneses and Longbotttoms. However, the families chose a different martial art to learn from and Tsuna himself chose a different style when he turned 10, and spars with the Potters to improve his own fighting abilities as everyone works hard to be stronger and faster with quicker reactions to match.

However, due to his flames, he was faster due to his flames' high propulsion ability, naturally boosting his own speed even without using his powers.

But despite his abilities, he never showed off, simply satisfied with being a normal kid...unless something forced him to fight.

He was satisfied with his school grades and PE Performance(he only does enough to get 70-80), and nobody once questioned his height and his physique, thinking he was 'just different'. At least he was no longer small, wimpy, weak, clumsy and an easy target. His school reputation also improved and treatment towards him changed but this does not mean he could forgive them just yet. They don't know what its like to be in his shoes.

If he never met Lyra and Harry...if he never met the Potters...

He wondered what his life would be like.