A/n: Hehehe long time no see. I have nothing to say for myself other than i've been really ill lately and my uni course is brutal. So to make up for this long wait here is a much longer chapter than before, with a bit of fluff toward the end. Hope that you enjoy it.

Chapter 34

"There you go Mr Potter." Madame Pomfrey stated as she handed over the few things that he had managed to accumulate over the past couple of days. He was pleased beyond belief to notice that his wand was one of them. Harry hadn't seen it since he had collapsed in that corridor and once he was fully conscious of what was going on, he had been worried that he had lost it or that someone had taken it.

Apparently, he had Professor Snape to thank for finding and returning the holly wand to him. The man had changed significantly since the fall of Voldermort at the end of last year. Sure he was still cranky and bad tempered with somewhat of morbid sense of humour but he was nowhere near as vindictive as before. Neville had told him during one of the many visits that his friends had made to see him in the hospital wing that, the man had even taken to helping him during potions. Something that had apparently shocked Malfoy so much that he had dropped a tablespoon of ground Gladiolus petals into his cough syrup and it had exploded covering half the class in short curly blue hair wherever it had touched them.

At last he was finally going to get out of this place being cooped up in bed for such a long period of time was very boring and something that he seemed to spend a lot of his time doing. Despite this joy he felt of finally getting his life back on track there was still a deeply lodged feeling of panic that he couldn't control. He wasn't human anymore! Sure his friends had told Harry that pretty much everyone was ok with his having suddenly turned into a mythical creature but that didn't that mean that the bullying and social isolation wouldn't get worse. By now he had learned to expect the worst of people, but always to hope for the best. Dumbledore's recent betrayal had pretty much been the final nail in the coffin for that part of him. Maybe one day it could be rekindled but it was going to take a lot of trust in someone for that to happen.

People especially adults found it hard to understand (and sometimes even to believe) how hard it was to go day to day with people calling you names, making jokes about your appearance, questioning your gender/sexuality and just generally being mean. It slowly grinded you down over time and if you weren't lucky to have good friends then it meant that you had no support.

Madame Pomfrey had ensured that he knew what was expected from him, by both Professor Snape and herself. No over exerting himself (he was banned from the Quidditch team until he put at least a stone back on and was able to maintain it). Harry had to take several nutritional potions and continue on the eating programme that Neville and him had created over the years. If he felt hungry he was to eat, no matter what the time was, she had given him a special pass that allowed him to call for a house elf to bring him something. The school nurse had made it clear to him if she thought that he had so much as thought of not following these stipulations that she would have him back here before he could so much as blink and that she would tie him down if she had to.

Once he had everything gathered up, he was on his way out of there as fast as his legs could take him, back into the heaving jungle that was school life.

Nathaniel Powell rushed down to the lifts as fast as he could, tucking a small manila folder beneath his arm. He had kept them waiting for long enough as it was, without lengthening their wait anymore than necessary. Black leather shoes squeaked as he finally made it to the central landing, where the lifts could be accessed. Here the stone floor which had previously been a bold red colour, bordered with sparkling white quartz, morphed gradually into a considerably more complex pattern. Green, blue and gilded tiles added to the red and white, from this a mosaic had been created depicting several magical creatures. Houseplants stood in glazed pots, the ministry was obviously trying to make the place look a little more friendly than it had before.

During Fudge's time as Minister the place had been made of a grey black polished granite that made everything dark and depressing.

Nathaniel squeezed into the first lift available and was promptly squashed against the left wall, between Roger Matthews the assistant departmental head of the goblin liaison service and a burly auror, with which he was having to endure an entirely inappropriate level of bodily contact. The man fortunately looked just as uncomfortable as he did, their eyes met briefly before darting away once more. For a moment he thought that he recognised him from somewhere, but as quickly as the thought arrived, it left once again.

It seemed at times that the Fates loved playing with his life.

"The Queen makes her apologies, for being unable to attend this meeting." The head councillor stated, the moment that they had entered the conference room and sat down. The room was pleasantly warm and was painted with a soft sky blue coloured paint and a number of statues were situated around. The table which they were sat a t was made out of solid oak and had a large unidentifiable stain in one of the corners. "You have to understand of course that, that was a risk which we were unwilling to take." The man was middle aged, grey hairs starting to make their presence known and recently bereaved, thus making him someone who wasn't in the least bit interested in idle chit chat. They had come here primarily for one reason, getting custody of the boy Harry Potter.

"Yes, ties between our two people have been bad throughout the past. If, you would permit me to ask a question High Councillor?" Nathaniel asked cautiously, beads of sweat making their way down his forehead; this job was most certainly not good for his heart. Highly stressed wasn't the word for it.

"You may, though there is no surety that we will answer it." William Dranton, former head of the weavers guild stated, his blonde hair swishing wildly to the side, hand on his hip and a meticulously groomed eyebrow raised in question. He hadn't particularly wanted to be part of this new delegation, as it meant giving up a job that he loved and had real passion for, but if it meant that the safety of a child was ensured then he would do it. The news that he had been voted into this position had been like a bolt out of the blue.

He had been gifted with a daughter six months before and the time he had been pregnant with her, used his body to incubate her egg and watched her hatch had been beautiful. The bond between him and he, between her other father and her and the bond between him and his husband was so strong and filled with love. Every day it became just that little bit stronger.

From the moment that he knew that he was pregnant, he had made a vow to protect her, the thought of her going through what harry had terrified him. Not only had the boy been betrayed and neglected, a large part of his heart was saying that they had yet to hear the full story.

"What is the purpose of this meeting?" Here, Nathaniel opened the manila folder and sat with a trusty ballpoint pen poised in order to take notes. Dictating quills were very unreliable at the best of times and their 'handwriting' was often difficult to decipher. The tried and tested method would have to do until he worked out how to use a Dictaphone properly without it blowing up because of the magic within the building.

"Well there are two reasons." Adaline piped up, brushing a lock of hair out of her face, this was what she had been tasked with saying by her peers. "Firstly we are here to re-establish contact with the wizarding world and are formally declaring the opening of the Faerie creature council, known among our kind as the lower council and we are invoking our right to exercise its full powers."

Nathaniel stopped his writing in shock, he had never even thought that this was a possibility, though he should have, what with the amount of people that had come in this delegation and the fact that they were making themselves known once ore after so long in self imposed exile.

The paperwork for this was going to be terrible and if the pressure hadn't been on before it most certainly would be now. If things went wrong not only would he be waving bye bye to his job, it most certainly would become an international incident and make the United Kingdom look incompetent on the world's stage. Biting back the urge to begin slamming his forehead off the table, heart beating loudly in his ears, he made a noise that he had intended to sound like an affirmation of the fact that he had heard what was said, but in fact it came off more as a panicked squeal. Luckily no one seemed to hear it, or at least if they did, they chose to ignore it.

"Secondly it has come to our attention that a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has come into a Faerie inheritance and as his family are unwilling and unable to care for him we formally request guardianship."

"This student being?"

"Harry Potter."

The group met in an abandoned classroom on the sixth floor, a place they had met in many a time before. Despite this, it had been sometime since they had use it, Peeves had taken to throwing inkpots around in here when he was bored and so it had become a no go zone until he moved on to somewhere else.

Luna was wearing a hat that seemed to be made out of iceberg lettuce, and she was sitting at one of the desks, poking holes through various vegetables and stringing them together.

"Luna?" Harry called softly, trying to get her attention, but not startle her as she was using her potions knife to make the holes. The last thing that anyone wanted was someone else in the hospital wing after all Harry had only just gotten out of there a couple of hours ago.

She turned in her seat, holding a carrot in one hand and the knife in the other. "What are you doing?"

"Making a dress." The only female member of the group stated, with no further comment as if this was a perfectly normal thing to do. This was Luna though and Harry had seen her doing things that were much weirder and often more dangerous, so he sat next to her and began threading vegetables that already had holes in them onto the string in the order she had laid them out in. At least then he would have something to do with himself.

"Someone seems to be channelling Lady Gaga at the moment." Dean stated dragging Seamus behind him, left hand tightly clutching at his boyfriends right. They both slumped into the seats opposite looking bone weary and began snogging like there was no tomorrow.

"Oy that's not something that i want to see!" Fred shouted from the doorway, covering his twin's eyes with his hand. "Spare yourself the sight George!" Seamus blushed and broke away, leaving Dean panting for his breath. They had after all been in a full on lip lock of epic proportions.

"Yeah we don't want to see our brothers playing tonsil tennis thank you very much." George added, elbowing his twin in the ribs and breaking out from his hold. The two of them flounced into the room and sat at a bench at the far end of the table. It was a bit rickety, but only rocked scarily when they both leaned to the left. The glue holding the wooden joints together had obviously worn away, meaning that they could now move around.

Neville opened the door, ten minutes later to find Luna wearing a necklace made out of carrots and Dean, Seamus and Harry teaching the twins to sing Poker face by Lady Gaga.

Luna was the first to notice him and came running over laughing, pointing to her necklace, now that she was closer, he could see the golden hue to it. Someone had obviously done a clever bit of transfiguration.

"Look Neville I'm wearing a twenty four carrot gold necklace. Isn't that funny do you get it? Carrot not carat, they sound the same but they mean different things." She stated, unable to hold back her giggling at times, and it disrupted her speech, making it somewhat hard to understand. After a few seconds though he managed to decipher what she was trying to say and smiled, drawing her to hi and hugging her tightly.

"Don't you ever change." He whispered into her ear and she laughed, twirling away into the room again. Now that he was back within sight of Harry, he could smell that scent once more, it was beginning to drive him mad. Not only did Harry himself smell of it, but so did all his belongings and many of the rooms throughout the castle. This meant that he could barely get anywhere without catching a whiff of it.

Harry was laughing, something that they were all trying to get him to do more often and he was back with his family what more could he ask for?