29

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Time: Two weeks into summer vacation

Place: Susan's house

"I can't believe they make us write essays over summer vacation!" complained Harry, throwing down his quill. He was sitting at Susan's desk, finishing up his essay on Witch Burning Through the Ages. Susan had a Grade 0 Neptune spell going in the room, enough to create a cool breeze and take the edge off the heat. Sparkle was currently curled up in a box down in the basement, prowling around at night when it got cooler.

"I can't believe they still make us regurgitate information," said Susan, saving her essay with a keystroke. "The Socratic Method this is not."

"The what? Never mind, my brain is too fried to care right now."

"I mean, the entire essay could be written in two words: Because, magic. Essay over. But no, we have to write a bunch of pages about things other wizards wrote about wizards who survived burning hundreds of years ago."

"I noticed you used your Research spell for most of it."

"I thought our professor might like reading about someone other then Wendelin for the millionth time. So I dug up some other names and places from there. I had to do the same amount of research you did, it's not like I cheated or anything."

"That's true, I admit. But isn't printing it out with a computer going a little too far?"

"Why's that? Nothing stops a wizard from picking up and using non-magical means of doing something. If they want to tediously scratch out letters with a quill, not a pen, mind you, a quill, that's their prerogative. They're only making their own lives harder. Me? I prefer to use the best of both worlds, where appropriate."

"I guess we're the lucky ones, growing up in both world. Getting to see the best and worst of everything."

Susan turned to face him. "You're being oddly grumpy today. It can't just be the homework that's getting you down."

"No, it's my stupid Aunt that's coming to visit soon. She's worse then Senior, if you can believe that."

"I don't believe it. That guy is like the king of anti-magic sentiments for the whole world. And for no reason that I can discern, mind you. He still hasn't let slip why he hates magic so much?"

Harry shook his head. "But she's not anti-magic, she's just anti-Harry."

"With your roguish good looks and charm? I don't buy it."

He smiled. "It's true though. Thinks I should have gone straight away to an orphanage rather then the Dursleys looking after me. For some reason whenever I'm around she just can't stop herself jabbing into me."

"Like what?" said Susan, coming over to sit on the bed, nearer him.

"Oh, like I'm a product of bad breeding. My father was worthless. I'm too scrawny. That I have no manners."

"Is that all?"

"Yeah. But for some reason she treats that lump Junior like he's the second coming of Elvis."

"Ha! I'd like to see Junior slide into the Chamber of Secrets where certain death awaits. I'd like to see him defeat not one, but two pieces of Voldemort's soul."

"He wouldn't even have fit into the pipe!" Harry said, laughing.

"He really wouldn't!" said Susan, laughing along with him. She sobered. "You can't let her get to you. I mean you're Harry Potter; you know your worth, even if she doesn't. You proved it hacking a giant snake in two, saving Ginny's life. How many others can say that?"

"Not many."

"No, just one. You. And don't you forget it, either. What has she done in her life that compares, even remotely, to that?"

Harry just shook his head. He picked up his quill again and turned back his book, but Susan continued staring at him.

"It does bring up a good point though," she said after a moment.

"What?"

"Why didn't they just get rid of you? I mean I'm glad they didn't, we wouldn't be having this conversation if they had. But the fact remains, what incentive did they have to keep you? It must have meant explaining magic to Senior, I doubt his wife did. She hates magic as well, from what you've told me. No way did she include 'by the way, my sister is a witch' when they were dating. Ugh, Senior dating, that's a horrible mental image."

"I really have no idea. It wasn't familial tendencies, that's for sure."

"Still, there must be some reason, and a powerful one. Have to ask the Headmaster when we get back to school."

"Yeah," said Harry, troubled.

Twenty minutes later, Harry threw down his quill again. "It's not that I mind staying here, in the blistering heat," he said. "I mean, Ron and his family deserved to win that money. And spending it all on a vacation in Egypt? Why not? And Hermione touring France? Brilliant! More power to her! But you would think, at the very least, one of them would have said, 'Hey, you have teleport magic. I'll send you a picture of where we're staying, you should come tour with us for a day.' But nooooo. Not so much as a peep!"

"Okay, break time!" said Susan, sensing this was not going to end well. "Come on, let's take a walk."

"Oh, all right."

Susan told her mother she was taking a walk around the neighborhood, and the two left.

"You think the ghosts get lonely during the summer?" Harry asked after a few minutes of walking.

"Well, Myrtle said she would miss me. I told her she could come and haunt my toilet over the summer, but she said she couldn't go that far away from the castle. Which you would think she should, really. There's still a lot I don't know about ghosts."

"Wonder what professor Binns does? Just sort of fuzz out?"

"Maybe. His entire existence is now teaching that class. When it's not in session he probably isn't even aware of the world."

"Too bad."

"I know. I've tried talking to him, but outside the context of history he just doesn't seem to care. I think because his death wasn't violent, like the others, so he doesn't have the emotional imprint that the others do."

"I have to admit I was kind of worried about Myrtle."

"How so?"

"You called ghosts an 'emotional imprint on the world' right? What if you changed those emotions too much? Made her happy instead of sad. Would she just fade away?"

"I think if it were that easy, there would be way less ghosts in the world. But I do admit, Albus said not many wizards take an interest in studying ghosts, so maybe no one knows."

"There's something I wouldn't mind gathering data and writing a paper about. What ghosts are."

"You would think after all of recorded time there would have been some study of them."

"Could't your Research magic help?"

Susan barked a laugh. "I wish. I would be researching faster then light travel and the cure for cancer! You know what I got when I asked my spell for FTL research?"

"Can't imagine."

"A blank book, except for one line in the middle. It read: Keep going faster until you can't go any faster. Helpful, right?"

"So I guess it's just a substitute for going to an actual library or reading websites or whatever."

"You got it. I can look up things others have written, but other then that, I'm on my own."

"Pity. Well, hello!" Out of nowhere a big black dog ran up to Harry and started dancing about. "Now who are you then?"

"Hi boy!" said Susan, petting the dog. "Where did you come from?"

The dog kept trying to jump up and lick Harry's face. "You're a friendly one, aren't you?"

"No collar or tags, think he's a stray?"

"Do you have a spell that could help?"

"Sparkle's the one with Animal Speech. Still, if there's no one in particular watching…" She looked around. No one came running to collect the dog, and it seemed apart from passing cars, no one was taking any particular notice of them. "Okay, I can show you a new spell I asked my book for last week." She started concentrating, and a magic circle appeared around her. The dog seemed interested, trying to sniff it. "Temporary Tool," said Susan, and as the circle faded she was holding a collar and leash, both milky white.

"Hey, neat, but don't you already have Creation?"

"This is a little different," said Susan, fitting the collar on the dog. He didn't seem to mind, and kept trying to lick her face. "This I have to maintain. Creation, which takes me a full minute, gets me an object that's real, like my sword. This is just solidified magic I get to form into the shape of something. I thought it could come in handy when I didn't want to spend an entire minute casting but still needed some tool or in this case, a leash! It only takes 5 turns rather then 15, so it's way easier to pull off instantly with energy."

"Sort of a temporary Creation, huh?"

"Exactly. Come on Blackie, let's see if we can't find your owner, huh?"

"We're home, mom!" Susan shouted, and her mother came into the living room.

"And we have a dog now?" she asked, looking at the dog, who was trying to sniff her, the rugs, the furniture, etc. His tail was wagging frantically.

"It came running at us. I figured we would see if there were any missing animal reports in the area."

"Okay, but you're the one telling Sparkle we have a dog in residence, not me."

"Go get him some water Harry, I'll hop on Craigslist." She passed him the lead, which he felt between his fingers.

"Weird material. Water- Got it."

A few moments later Susan closed the browser window and opened her book of magic. There was nothing since a month ago, so magic it was! She started scanning her Descry spells, and read them over. She noted with interest that Object took only a minute to perform but Creature took five, while Owner took a full ten!

That escalated quickly. Time for some Energetic Accumulation, as there is no way I'm trying to cast a spell from writings while holding a dog for twenty minutes.

"Let's take him out back, we have some rope around here, don't we mom?" she asked, coming down the stairs.

"What sort of adventurer are you? Don't have 50ft of rope on your person at all times?" Harry joked.

"I'll see what I can come up with," answered Stacy.

Susan made her Magic Scripture check to read over Descry Owner with a 14, more then enough, but then only got an 8 on her Magic Theory to understand the spell.

Durr, me so stupid! Time to consult and roll a retry.

Susan went down to ask Sparkle's opinion, and with her help and rerolling the check, she got a 15, beating the DIF by 2. "Thanks!" She also got Accumulation cast on her, and went back up to see what the spell told her.

"Get ready to note this down," she told Harry, handing him a pencil and paper.

"You got it."

She cast Descry Owner on the dog after building up energy for three actions, and got a result.

"Owned by a Dennis Scott, 13.34 miles that way." She pointed. "Dark hair, no glasses, green eyes, late twenties?"

"We'll need a ride."

"And an actual address," said Stacy, who was standing right there.

"That's what we have the internet for," said Susan. "I'll be right back."

She opened up a mapping website and turned on the satellite view. Okay, I was facing this way, and I pointed that way. Zoom out. She got a ruler out of her desk. Okay, that's a mile, so thirteen of those would be right… here!

She told her mother the address, and they all piled in the car. A few minutes later, a young boy was running out of the house shouting "Wookie! Wookie is back! Hurray!"

"I take it you know this dog?" asked Susan as the dog strained against the rope to knock the boy over.

"He's mine!" said the boy.

An woman came out of the house. "You actually found Wookie? He's been missing more then a month. Wherever did you find him?"

"He just sort of ran up to us."

"Thank you so much. We didn't think we would ever see him again. I didn't want to tell Mark he was dead, but it was starting to look that way."

"You got lucky this time, I guess."

"How did you know where to find me, though? I didn't put my address in the lost and found picture."

"Would you believe magic?"

The woman smiled. "Well, however you did it, thank you. We've really missed him around here."

"My pleasure," said Susan. "Now you stay with your family, okay Wookie?"

He barked.

"Good boy!"

"So, feeling better?" asked Susan on the way home.

"A bit. You know, I asked Rubeus once why wizards hid themselves, and he said because everyone would want magical solutions to everything. But when you actually do something for someone, and then tell them the truth that you used magic to do it, they just pass it off. Would the worlds being together really be so bad?"

"If they had stayed together, probably not," said Susan. "My father's world had always been together. But after this long it would take some fast talking to explain why wizards weren't preventing disasters or curing world hunger for so long."

"I guess you're right. It's too bad, really. I mean, that was such a small thing, but look how happy it made that kid. I wish we could do more."

"Yup."

A few days later was Harry's birthday, where he received gifts from his friends and the school forms. Susan got him a perfectly ordinary DVD player to hook up to the TV she had repaired two years ago, and the 50 disk, complete set of the sci-fi series "Andromeda". She laughed and laughed at his reaction.

"You're in the non-magical world now! Did you think you would get a magical gift? It's a great series, give you something to watch while your Aunt is over."

Harry's face fell, Senior had left earlier and would be retuning in moments.

"Senior said if I behaved myself he would sign my form."

"Form?" asked Susan. She had yet to receive her Hogwarts letter for the year, as hers could be delivered during the day like any normal person's mail. Harry showed her.

"Well, there's two ways to go about this," Susan said, thinking. "The first is the sneaky way. He must have his signature on something in the house. A check he's going to mail, or a contract or a bill he signed. We just trace it, and that's that."

"We couldn't!"

"Why not? It's not like the school is going to call up the Dursley's and politely inquire if you signed the form or not, are they? The second way, and the more fun way, for me, is I go in there right now and bully Wife into signing it while Senior is away. Or I just open a Teleportal while I'm there and Sparkle turns you into someone completely different for the duration and no one's the wiser. Up to you."

"They could magically verify it somehow. I think just the Teleportal route is safest if he doesn't keep his word."

"You got it!"

It seemed Harry was doing well enough, venting his frustrations to Susan for the week of Marge's visit, but on the last day there was a knock on Susan's door and he was standing there, trunk in hand.

"What happened?" asked Susan, inviting him in.

"Accidental magic. She started talking about my parents and… well, she blew up."

"You exploded her wandlessly?" Susan was both horrified and fascinated. She knew some magic could be done without a wand, but something of that magnitude- he must have really been angry. He hadn't lost control like that since his first year, when they started taking Magical Theory class and learning how to avoid random magical outburst like that.

"No, I mean she swelled up and started to float away."

"Oh, so she's not dead. Thank goodness for that."

"I left though, so now I don't know what I'm going to do."

"We better get in contact with someone at the Ministry for a start. They'll need to send someone to put her right and modify their memory. Shoot, this is bad. Does incidental magic show up to the underage charm, or whatever it is? If it was supposed to they'll be wondering why it didn't trigger the alarm, which leads back to your Conceal Magic I made for you a while back."

"Which leads back to you," Harry said sadly. "I'm sorry, it seems I've gotten us both in hot water this time."

"We'll face it together," said Susan. "What are they going to do, snap my wand?"

"No, but they might snap mine."

"Good point. Here, let me have yours."

"Why? What are you doing?"

"Just a precaution. Hand it over, come on."

Harry did, and Susan opened her Pocket Dimension, shoving it in. Then she pulled one of the wands she had taken from the bullies the year before and handed it to Harry.

"There. If a wand gets snapped it won't be yours. So you're safe."

"Good thinking, but where did you get a spare wand? This isn't your fake one, is it?"

"Nope, it's real. It'll work for you, but not as good as yours, as I understand it. Do you want to hide out at the base? It's been ready since the dwarf incident."

Harry started to answer, but there was another knock on the door.

"Popular place today," Susan said, going over to open it. "Minister!" said Susan with surprise. "How lovely to see you! Please, come in!"

"Thank you, Susan."

"Minister, may I introduce my mother, Stacy. Mom, this is the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr Fudge," said Stacy, taking his hand.

"Charmed," said Cornelius. He turned to Harry. "And here's the boy himself; Harry Potter. Good to see you came straight here after the incident, I must say. We were worried you might have just ran, or asked Susan to take you away somewhere. She's done it before, after all!" He forced a laugh.

"The Ministry moves fast," Susan remarked.

"Yes, given the current situation… anyway, your Aunt is being put back to normal and her memory will be modified to erase the entire incident. No harm done. Your guardians are a bit upset, however. Though upset may be not strong enough a word."

"I don't suppose their memories could be modified as well?" Harry said hopefully.

"They could, yes. The event didn't happen to them directly, they only saw it. Given that they know about magic it would be harder to modify their memories then your Aunt's, who doesn't know about magic. It's all very technical and easy to get wrong. In fact I think you know how it can go wrong, poor Gilderoy hasn't recovered from Ginny trying to erase his memory, after all. They've agreed to overlook the incident and allow you back home, er, next year. As for the rest of the time until school begins, well, I have a proposal for you."

"Yes?"

"How would you like to stay at Diagon Alley for the duration? I believe there's a room for rent at the Leaky Cauldron."

"I'd love to, but how expensive is it? My parent's money was stolen by supporters of Voldemort so I only have what the bank "loaned" me so I wouldn't go blabbing the theft to the entire world. I need to be careful and just use it for school things."

"Really?" asked Cornelius. "I'm sorry to hear that. They haven't caught the culprits yet?"

"Not that they've told me."

"Odd, usually they pride themselves on- no matter. I'll pay for your stay personally, how would that be?"

"Really?" Harry said, shocked.

"Least I can do. Now, how to get you there…"

"I can handle that much, I've been there," said Susan. "I'll take him directly."

"Splendid! That's taken care of then. I trust you'll get him there safely tonight?" he asked Susan.

She nodded. "We'll leave immediately, unless Harry needs something else from home he didn't grab." She indicated his trunk.

"I got everything."

"Then I'll be off! Good talking to you again, Susan, Harry. Nice to meet you Stacy. You've raised a firecracker of a girl, let me tell you. Good night!"

And he was gone.

"How is it you know the Minister of Magic?" asked Stacy. "Isn't that like having the president on speed dial?"

"He showed up to watch when I cured some people of a magically induced madness. A boy I go to school with named Neville Longbottom's parents were tortured for information during the war. I fixed them, because wanded magic couldn't. I met him again after kill- helping kill the Basilisk earlier this year. That's when I told him to do something about the wizard prison or face me in five years when I did it for him."

"You didn't."

"Oh, I did. You don't know what that place is like, mom. Pray you never do. It needs to be destroyed. Yesterday."

"Uh. No wonder he called you that. Wait, did you say war?"

"I'll explain it later, let's get Harry taken care of now, okay?"

"Right. Still, why would the minister come here?"

"Good point," said Harry. "Why did he come here? A flunky would have been good enough. And did you notice- no punishment. Weird."

"Yeah, that is weird. They went on and on about that first year, didn't they? About not using magic at home until you were of age, and what would happen if you did. Then this happens, and he seemed more relieved to find you in one piece then angry you broke the law."

"Wait, you've been doing magic since you were little," said Stacy.

"Oh, my magic doesn't register to them. Only the type Harry does."

"Which also begs the question, how did they know? Your Conceal Magic item should have prevented it," said Harry.

"Maybe they're watching your house? That would be a creepy thought. I… don't know." Susan and Harry looked at each other, worried.

"This is too much. Let's just get Harry set," said Stacy.

"Okay. Want to come see the magical world? It won't be too busy at night, but maybe that's for the best."

"I'm actually a little hurt you didn't ask me before this."

"I didn't think you- oh. You're thinking of dad, aren't you?"

"A little."

"I'm sorry, mom. Of course you would want to go see what this world's magic is like, after hearing his stories. I was selfish, wasn't I, keeping you away from it."

"It's okay, honey. I would have asked earlier if I thought it was that important."

"Still. Okay, then, to Diagonally!"

Harry gave her a dark look. Susan snorted. Stacy just looked confused. "Private joke. I'll just go tell Sparkle we'll be back soon, and then one Teleportal coming up!"

After Harry got situated in room eleven and said good night, Susan took her mother on a tour of the Alley. Even dark, with only a few witches and wizards wandering about, Stacy was still entranced.

"I'll bring you back here tomorrow when the place is really jumping and the shops are open," said Susan. "But at least you can see a little of what the wizard world is like."

"Is this where you'll go when you, well, leave home?" asked Stacy.

"Honestly I'm not sure what I'll be doing, or where I'll be. I'm only thirteen, mom. I've already had job offers, so to speak, making magical items and working as a healer from the school nurse. My magic can do so much, I have to decide where I can do the most good. And like you saw, I can Teleportal back to see you any time. I could work thousands of miles away and still have a house in my old neighborhood."

"You do have years yet to decide. I have to admit, I wasn't sure what to expect."

"I know. It's like stepping back in time, isn't it? No telephone lines, no electric lights, it's all magic. They seem to ignore anything not directly magical, which I was just remarking to Harry recently."

"I think I heard part of that. Something about computers, right?"

"Yeah. They still use film cameras, and write with quills for Pete's sake. I have to wonder sometimes."

"You really fly on broomsticks?" Stacy ran over to the broomstick shop, gawking in through the window.

"I don't. I have a Flight spell. But other magic users do, yes. It's sort of their version of the car, I guess."

"Crazy."

"Tell me about it. They don't have a lot of personal spells. But they do put an emphasis on potions, one would think they would brew up a flight potion. Oh well."

And so Susan and her mother walked around and looked at the shopfronts. Susan explained to her about the wizard war, and Voldemort. How he seemed to have enchanted certain objects with pieces of his soul, and how dangerous they were. She talked about the school, and the fun she had with her friends there, and about Myrtle her ghost friend. By the time they were ready to go home, Stacy looked a little haunted herself.

"It's a lot to take in. Sorry I sprung this on you like this. it just sort of came to a head, I guess."

"That's okay. You've just had so many adventures in your life already. I had no idea that school was so dangerous." She muttered, almost too low for Susan to hear. "Or that you were."

"Well, as long as no more pieces of Voldemort show up it should be fine. I mean, what else could go wrong?"

Too bad it was so dark there, or Susan would have seen the wanted posters all over the place. Posters featuring a screaming man with the name of Black.