Chapter 12: Food Fights with a Splash of Blue
Three jaws dropped. "What!" they exclaimed at the same time.
"Did you just say…" Aly started.
"Dursley?" Sirius and Arion finished.
"You have to be kidding," Aly said, going paler then normal.
"No, I'm not 'kidding.' Though, this isn't completely a bad thing…" Dumbledore trailed off thoughtfully.
Aly was thoughtful. "The Dursley's are bad, but not everyone in the family can be that bad. After all, Harry's apparently my cousin and my aunt was all right."
"Yes, there is that, but there was another issue I wasn't too sure about how to solve. There are wards set up around Harry that have to deal with the blood protection Lily gave to Harry when she defended him against Voldemort's killing curse. Now that we know Alyssa is related to Harry by blood, those wards should protect your house as well," Dumbledore said.
"We can go get him then?" Arion asked excitedly.
"Yes, go get him. I'll set up the wards," Dumbledore said.
Sirius looked excited for a moment before it was replaced with a thoughtful look. "Do you think the ministry will allow me to take him in? I know that I was allowed to get Arion, but Aly and Harry as well?"
Dumbledore thought for a moment. "Well, in their wills, James and Lily named you as the primary guardian. The ministry can't do anything about that, so go ahead and get him from his aunt and uncle's," Dumbledore said.
"How should we be going there? I don't think it would be wise to apparate there. Do you have a portkey or something?" Sirius asked.
Dumbledore looked slightly guilty. "I made a portkey to take me to Privet Drive the moment there was an attack on the house," he explained, getting up and grabbing an object from behind him in the shape of a lily.
"I wouldn't expect it any other way. Arion, can you look like you did yesterday so Harry will be able to recognize you?" Sirius asked.
"Yes," Arion said, changing her eye shape and growing her hair out a bit more.
"Should we ask them about me?" Aly asked.
Sirius looked at his new daughter. "Why not? Show them what a lovely girl you have turned out to be."
"Make sure to make some comment on how much she looks like Lily. I'm sure they would love that," Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling.
"Can we stop talking already and just go?" Arion asked, impatient.
"Just a warning for you, Arion. I hope you don't have any issues with the portkey since the last time you used a portkey, it was in your shoulder and caused you to black out," Sirius warned. "Wouldn't be an impressive rescue if one of us faints trying to help," he continued, trying to lighten the mood.
Arion glared. "I don't faint. The last time I did that was…" she trailed off, leaving Aly to finish.
"Last week when Spencer got bit by a dog."
"There was a lot of blood! And, he ran at me with it," Arion defended.
"As long as there isn't a lot of blood, you'll be fine. What's the password for the portkey?" Sirius asked.
"H-A-R-R-Y," Dumbledore said. "Here's a copy of the will for proof," he said, handing a piece of paper over to Sirius.
"All right, see you in probably an hour at our house?" Sirius asked.
"Where is it?"
"1861 Hanover Drive. It's a beach house," Sirius said.
"Okay. Good luck," Dumbledore said before grabbing a hold of Fawkes tail and disappearing to the house.
"Ready you two?" Sirius asked.
"Yes," they answered.
"Put a finger on it. Harry," Sirius said after they put their fingers on it. There was a tug on their navels and off they went to the end of Privet Drive, by a park.
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Once the three got to the park, Arion took off running for the trees. Sirius and Aly followed only to hear her getting sick.
"Well, at least you didn't faint," Aly said.
"Are you all right?" Sirius asked, conjuring a handkerchief and passing it to Arion so she could wipe her face.
Arion put out a shaking hand and took the cloth, wiping her mouth. "I should be all right. Can I have a glass of water?"
Sirius nodded and conjured a glass of water. Arion gratefully took a sip of the water before putting a piece of hard candy in her mouth.
"I'm ready now. Can we go?" Arion asked, looking normal except for being a bit pale.
"Mental note: Arion should not take portkeys for they make her sick," Sirius thought, leading the two girls down Privet Drive to number 4.
Going down the street, Aly and Sirius looked around with wonder. "How do they make it so that twenty houses and their lawns look identical?" Sirius asked.
Arion wasn't looking at the houses around her. Her gaze was locked onto number 4. "How are we going to do this? Do you want Aly and I to help Harry pack and explain things while you talk to them?" Arion asked Sirius.
"That may be the best idea. Who wants to ring the doorbell?" Sirius asked like it was some prize.
Rolling her eyes, Aly rang the doorbell. Constantly. Listening, Arion thought it sounded like it was to the beat of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". The door banged open in the middle of the third line.
"What do you want? Don't you see the sign saying 'No soliciting?'" a big man with little neck said angrily.
Arion glared at the man. "Hello, Vernon. I would like to talk to you and Petunia about something," Sirius said.
Vernon looked to be trying to place Sirius' face when Petunia walked from the kitchen. "Vernon, who is it?" she asked before coming to a stop behind him. Aly and Arion knew she recognized Sirius as her face paled.
"Now, may we please come in?" Sirius said. "Thank you," he said, pushing his way in. Arion and Aly followed.
Vernon looked shocked at the fact that Sirius didn't seem to be intimidated by his size. "What do you want?" he asked, angrily.
"I would like to talk to you about your nephew, Harry," Sirius said.
"There is no one here by that name," Vernon said.
"Then who is that?" Aly asked, pointing at the boy on top of the stairs.
Everyone looked up and saw Harry looking down at them with wide green eyes. "Hello, Harry. Remember me?" Arion asked.
Harry nodded slowly. "I met you yesterday in Diagon Alley. Arion Black, right?"
"Yes. We have some things to talk to you about. Aly, why don't you come with me to go talk to your cousin," Arion said, making sure to make it clear who Aly was to the Dursley's.
Running up the stairs before the Dursley's could say anything, they could only hear Vernon roar, "Who was that!"
"That, Vernon, would be your daughter that you left at the orphanage. Was it because of her uncanny likeness to Lily? Or could you tell she was magical?" Arion, Aly, and Harry could hear as they went into Harry's room.
Harry looked at them with big eyes. "Okay, so what's going on?"
"Well, let me make some introductions. Harry, this is Alyssa Black, my adopted sister. Aly, Harry Potter. We just found out today that Aly was actually your younger cousin when we went to Professor Dumbledore to see about getting you out of here," Arion explained.
"How am I getting out of here? And, why haven't I heard of either of you before yesterday?" Harry asked with a look of 'what has happened to my nice little sane world where no one likes me?' He was good with people ignoring him.
"Actually, for a year in a half of our lives we grew up together before your parents died. Our dad is your godfather and the person Aunt Lily and Uncle James wanted to raise you. Sadly, there were some complications causing me to go to an orphanage and dad to go to prison," Arion said.
"As for getting out of here, dad is downstairs talking to…those people to get you out of here. And, not knowing about me? I just found out that my biological parents were those people downstairs," Aly said with a look of disgust on her face.
"We should pack your things. Is this your owl?" Arion asked, referring to the snowy white owl in the corner.
"Um…yes, that's Hedwig. Most of my things are packed," Harry said.
"Hmm…I wonder how she and Adria are going to get along…" Arion said, trailing off.
"Who's Adria?" Harry asked.
"My new cat I got yesterday," Arion replied.
Arion and Aly helped Harry to pack his things into the trunk. When they finished, the three of them sat on the old bed in the room.
"There's one more thing you should know. Arion?" Aly said, wordlessly telling Arion to tell Harry about what she knew.
Harry looked over at Arion, who blushed and whose eyes flashed a couple of colors. "Well, I have this ability where whenever I re-meet a person who I haven't seen in a while and whom I have a bond with, I can see flashes of their lives when I touch them."
"And?" Harry asked, interested about this magical ability. "How many people can do this I wonder?" he thought.
"I saw some things from your life here," Arion blurted out, causing Harry to pale. "I change my mind. As long as I don't meet anyone else who can do that, I will be happy," Harry thought to himself, thinking about what Arion probably knew about now.
"I won't bring up anything, though. Was there anything you liked to do at school or anything?" Arion asked, quickly changing the subject.
"I liked to draw…though, running around wasn't too bad. As long as Dudley wasn't the one chasing me," Harry said.
"Oh, no. Not another artsy person," Arion groaned while Aly grinned.
"Who knows? Maybe there's a magical sport Harry will be good at," Aly said.
"Do either of you know what Quidditch is?" Harry asked.
Arion and Aly looked at each other. "No. What is it?" Aly asked.
"He doesn't know or he wouldn't be asking us," Arion said.
"He might have some idea," Aly said.
"Obviously not or he would have said something about it. I wonder if it's a wizarding world sport?" Arion pondered.
"A boy I met in the robe shop mentioned something about teams," Harry interrupted the tennis match.
Arion blinked a couple times before asking, "Was it some blonde boy who was talking about being in Slytherin?"
"Yes. Do you know him?" Harry asked.
"I met him after you did. He sort of insulted my dad and… well…" Arion trailed off.
"Ari has a habit of changing a person's hair when they make her angry," Aly finished. "What color did you change it to?"
"Green. Though, I can change my appearance as well," Arion said, changing her eyes and hair, making herself look sort of like a girl version of Harry with green eyes and untidy hair.
Harry stared at her for a moment before pointing out, "My nose and mouth don't look like that."
Arion sighed. "I know. I can't seem to get how to change my face," she said, changing her features to normal.
"At least your eyes didn't get stuck on green this time," Aly pointed out.
"Maybe it was because of the memories that I couldn't do anything other then change my eyes green and had problems changing them back. I'll ask Nym," Arion said.
"Nym?" Harry asked.
"Our dad, Sirius Black's cousin's daughter. Her name is Nymphadora, which she hates. She tried to get me to call her Tonks. It didn't work," Arion said.
"Anyone else I should know about before we go to your house?" Harry asked.
"There's Uncle Remus. He's our father's closest friend. Then there's Professor Dumbledore, who we will be meeting up with at the house. Do you like to swim? We live on the coast somewhere and it's really nice to see and probably swim," Aly said.
Harry blushed. "I was never taught how to swim," he answered.
Arion's blood, which had been simmering, went up a few degrees. After all, she knew from her memories that Dudley was taught how to swim. Aly noticed Arion's eyes flashing and heard a shout come from downstairs. "BOY!" it said in a masculine voice.
There was a thundering sound as someone was coming up the stairs. Arion stepped in front of Aly and Harry as the door burst open to show Vernon Dursley. Who had electric blue hair.
Vernon shoved Arion out of the way, causing her to go into the dresser and hit her head. Blinking to get the stars out of her eyes, Arion saw Vernon reach to grab Harry. Arion's magic came to the surface more, there was a spark of light, and Vernon went flying out of the room.
Sirius was almost hit by the flying Dursley. He poked his head in the room. "Is everyone all right in here?" he asked, noticing Arion rubbing the back of her head.
"I'll be fine. I just might have a small headache soon. Can we go now?" Arion asked with a pleading note, not wanting to be here for another moment. After all, who knew if the walrus was going to wake up and try for revenge.
"Hold on a minute. Petunia said she had something to give to Harry. What happened to cause you to get angry, Arion?" Sirius asked, coming into the room. "Hello, Harry," he said, giving his hand to Harry to shake.
"Hello, Sirius," Harry said quietly, shaking his hand. Anyone looking at Sirius could tell that he wanted to pull the boy into a tight hug, but he knew that wouldn't be a good idea.
"Harry was telling us how these people didn't teach him how to swim when I know they had the tub of lard know how. I was already angry from things that happened before that, though," Arion said.
Aly looked amazed. "Wait, isn't Dudley really fat? He was able to get into the water without sinking to the bottom?" she asked.
Before anyone could answer (or do anything but laugh in the case of Harry and Arion), Petunia came around the corner with a box in her hand. "Here," she said, giving it to Harry. "Your mother left this with us about a month before she died." Was all Petunia said before leaving, not even sparing a glance at her daughter, who glared at her mother.
"Are we ready to leave now?" Sirius asked.
"Do I have to ever come back here?" Harry asked nervously.
"Not unless you want to. Let's go before Dumbledore sends someone to collect us. Though, it would be entertaining to see him send Snape to come get us," Sirius said with a smile on his face.
Arion rolled her eyes. "Please, don't antagonize him anymore. Aly and I have to get through the next 7 years. Not to mention Harry will probably have problems as well," she pointed out.
"True, true. Now, someone is going to have to hold onto me tightly. I only have two hands," Sirius said.
"I vote on a hand," Arion said, still not comfortable with apparating.
"Maybe Harry should hold on tightly," Aly said.
"Is that okay with you, Harry?" When Harry nodded, Sirius said, "Okay, now, you should let your owl out the window to fly to where we are going. She'll be able to find the place. You're going to have to hold on tightly and hope you have a reaction similar to Aly's and not Arion's," Sirius explained.
Harry let Hedwig out the window, let Sirius shrink his trunk, and grabbed onto Sirius' waist. Arion grabbed one hand while Aly grabbed the other. In two seconds, they were gone from Privet Drive, leaving no trace of the young boy who had lived there for a decade.
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Arriving at the house, Arion ran straight for a bathroom while Harry was trying to get his head on straight.
"Not again," Sirius said, following Arion to the bathroom to help her.
"What's wrong with Arion?" Harry asked.
"She had a bad reaction to traveling by portkey. Not to mention Arion has been having some difficulty traveling by apparation," Aly explained.
"That's what it was called," Harry said.
"Hello, Professor Dumbledore," Aly chirped as the headmaster came around to the living room, where they had ended up.
"Hello, Alyssa. And hello to you, Harry. It's been a long time," Dumbledore said.
"Do I know you, sir?" Harry asked.
"Yes, but it has been such a long time since I have seen you. I am Professor Dumbledore," Dumbledore said.
"Aren't you the headmaster of Hogwarts?" Harry asked.
"Yes, I am. How did you remember that?" Dumbledore asked.
"Well…" Harry trailed off, not wanting to go into details.
"Hagrid doesn't like when people insult you, sir. Umm…Vernon Dursley insulted you," Arion answered, weakly coming from the bathroom. "Are there less taxing ways of traveling in the wizarding world? I don't like portkeys. Though, apparating wasn't bad the couple of times before this one."
"Why did it get worse?" Dumbledore asked.
"Probably because I had taken a portkey before that and hadn't fully recovered from that. After all, how can I be comfortable with a portkey after what happened?" Arion asked.
"Sorry about that, Arion," Sirius said, coming back from the kitchen with a glass of orange juice.
Arion shrugged. "I'd rather be sensitive to portkeys then dead."
"Good point. Arion, Alyssa, why don't you show Mr. Potter where his bedroom is," Dumbledore suggested.
"Okay. Follow us," Aly said, grabbing Harry's hand and dragging him to the room next to Arion's.
The room was the same size as the rest of the bedrooms, but it was a light blue. "Aly, do you think the house-elves chose the colors based on if we were male or female?" Arion asked Aly as they helped Harry put some of his things away.
"That's pretty observant of you, Arion. I think they did," Aly answered.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"The house-elves made our two rooms pink. I hate pink," Arion said.
"It's a pretty color, but not my favorite," Aly commented.
"Harry might like the color of your room now," Arion said.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because she changed it to be emerald green. The same color as your eyes," Arion answered him.
Harry thought for a moment. "I'm not sure what color I want this room…maybe white," he said.
"Why white?" Arion and Aly asked.
"Because I can do interesting stuff to it to decorate. I could draw something and then paint it on myself," Harry answered.
"Can't wait to see what you choose to draw," Arion said. Then she remembered something. "Umm…since we're done in here, can we go into my room? I still need to unpack," she admitted.
"Why unpack? Your room is usually a mess anyway," Aly said, leading the way out of the room.
"True, but I would like it to be organized for maybe one night so I can get used to the room before messing it up. And, you can't talk about my room being messy," Arion mentioned, opening the door to her room.
"Arion, that was mostly your stuff. I'm actually pretty neat about my things," Aly said.
Arion just glared as she grabbed the clothes on her bed that she had left before going to see Dumbledore. In a couple of minutes, there was an exclamation of surprise.
"Hey, the radio is in here. We should see if we can listen to music here," Aly said, plugging the radio into a plug.
"I think dad decided to be able to use muggle things for the three of us since we were raised in the muggle world," Arion commented.
After much debate on music, they finally found one they could all agree on. The work was done much faster and they were able to stop soon after.
"You know, I'm kinda hungry. Anyone else?" Arion asked.
"No, I'm still full on Hogwarts food," Aly said.
Harry shrugged. "I'm hungry as well," he answered Arion.
"On to the kitchen!" Arion said, marching Aly out the door and leaving Harry to trail after them, shaking his head in amusement.
After eating about half of the food they scrounged up, Aly 'accidentally' paid Arion back for the pumpkin juice by 'accidentally' having her strawberry fly out of her hand and onto Arion's shirt.
"Oops," Aly replied innocently.
Arion glared and didn't say a word. In two seconds, she threw something at Aly, causing a food fight to come about in the kitchen once Arion had accidentally hit Harry with something aimed at Aly. Sirius came to see what the noise was all about and found the food fight. Everyone paused for a moment as Sirius stood there with ice cream running down his face.
"Uh-oh," Arion said.
"Sorry dad," Aly apologized.
"She/he started it," the three said, pointing at one another.
Sirius didn't look mad. Actually, he had a big evil grin on his face as he entered the room and grabbed a carton of ice cream, throwing it at Arion. After getting over the shock, the food fight started up again and ended when Dumbledore entered the room, chuckling.
Sirius tried to put on a stern face, which failed since he was covered with ice cream, strawberries, some odd brown stuff, and other items associated with them. "That was very wrong of you. You should not throw food in the kitchen. Aly, what is this brown stuff you threw at me?"
"Nutella," Aly answered.
Arion walked up to her dad, stuck her finger on his arm where the nutella was, tasted it, and said, "Mmm…not too bad. We should try this combination when it's not on us. Last one to the showers has to have this stuff on them for a while!" she called, half way down the hall. Aly and Harry raced after her.
"Looks like you're going to have your arms full," Dumbledore commented, eyes twinkling.
"Looks like it," Sirius said, smiling before cleaning up the food fight remains from the kitchen and off of himself.
A/N: Ok, no one hate this chapter. I had a hard time with it. Anyways, Arion has a sensitivity to Portkeys. Remember, she had a nice, unexpected ride on one when she was little and it caused severe pain (obviously). Also, this is an...odd chapter. I probably should have read it over one more time (even though I've read it several times...). If anyone feels like being a beta reader, PM me. Also...I can't remember if I replied to everyone's reviews. Sorry if I didn't. Oh, yeah. Present for all of you this weekend (mainly because I might not be able to update next week...unless I hijack my cousin's computer in Ohio). So, Saturday or Sunday I should have another chapter up. After this one, things won't be so drawn out (they seem long to me...). Luvs! Leave a review! (please?)