Harry shut the door behind them and gestured towards his new cabinet.
Lily stared for a moment before realizing what he meant as he just grinned at her. She pulled out her wand and cast a couple of spells, her eyes widening as she received the results and put the pieces together.
"I'd considered various ways to get back and forth, but when it came down to it none of them were remotely as fast and safe," Harry said with a smile as she recast her spells, examining the cabinet and rechecking her spells.
Snape had recognized it right away, but he'd grown up in the magic world, so Harry figured he'd run across a set of vanishing cabinets at least once before, while it was doubtful a muggleborn witch like Lily had.
"A vanishing cabinet?" Lily asked in disbelief as she stared at it.
"A vanishing cabinet," Harry agreed with a grin.
"But they are rare and incredibly expensive," Lily said. "How did you get a pair?"
"Got one of them in a second hand shop from the owner in exchange for getting Da and Sirius out of his shop and the other was damaged and needed repairs at Hogwarts. Dumbledore was a lot of help with that one," Harry offered, carefully avoiding saying too much.
Lily giggled. "Headmaster Dumbledore is nearly as big a prankster as the boys are. I can see why Severus has no problems with you using it, they are remarkably safe from what I've read on them."
"Safest way to get back and forth from school," Harry said, "and one Da will likely never guess."
Lily burst out laughing. "And he was partially responsible for you getting it because of how annoying he can be!"
"My pranks almost plan themselves," Harry said smugly.
"Are you actually planning anything or just having fun and taking advantage of the opportunities that spring up?" Lily asked with a knowing smile.
"More the latter, leading to the former to keep things going," Harry replied. "Hogwarts is loads of fun if you don't stress about things."
Lily smiled in remembrance. "Something I wish I'd figured out before my OWLs."
"That reminds me," Harry said, "what do you know about turning a student trunk into a sauna?"
"Pardon?" Lily asked, sure she was mishearing things.
"I've assigned the first years Gryffindors a research project on how to turn a trunk into a sauna to show them that learning magic and working hard has real tangible benefits they can enjoy, but I have no clue how to go about it and need to figure it out before they do, so I can keep up the illusion that I know everything and aren't just a few lessons ahead of them, something made harder by the fact that they have Hermione Granger on their side, a muggleborn witch with a mind that is so sharp it's frightening," he explained.
"Does someone have a crush?" Lily asked with a smirk, seeing a chance to tease her son.
"What?" Harry asked confused. "No, she's like a sister to me."
Lily just stared, not quite sure how to respond to that.
Harry mentally parsed what he'd said and nodded. "Okay, I can see where that would be confusing," he admitted, acknowledging the elephant in the room. "What I mean to say is that Hermione is like a slightly older, female sibling, who I have no romantic attraction towards."
"And Ginny?" Lily asked.
"Has it been a few months already?" Harry joked, but sighed as he saw the concern in her eyes. "Is amazing," he said flatly. "Ginny is amazing and beautiful and talented and intelligent, and only going to get more so as we get older. Next year we'll both be at Hogwarts and she's going to meet a lot of new people, many of them boys, and eventually one of them is going to steal her away from me." He was surprised to find that the thought of it pained him even as conflicted as he was about their current relationship. "It's going to hurt and I'm going to smile and tell her it's alright, because I love her and want her to be happy and that's… simply what brothers do for their sisters."
Lily gave her son a hug, surprised he had such a realistic view of things.
"So… sauna?" he asked, changing the subject and pushing away memories of his last life.
"Let's go to the library," Lily said, both of them pretending the last minute hadn't happened, but feeling so proud of her son that it hurt and hoping that one day he would find a girl that was right for him.
0o0o0o0o0o
"You're glowing," Flora said, as they hid in Ginny's room.
"He thinks I'm amazing!" Ginny squealed and started dancing around the room.
"And you're going to hurt him," Flora said, accusation clear in her tone.
"He thinks I'm going to meet some boy better than him," Ginny replied unconcerned. "Like that's going to happen. Name one boy better than Harry."
"Neville Longbottom." Flora offered, unable to come up with any other famous boys at Hogwarts.
Ginny considered Neville for a moment and then dismissed him. "Meh, he's not Harry."
"He's the Boy-Who-Lived," Flora pointed out.
"I don't care if he's Merlin Bloody Reborn, he's not the boy who just told Mum how much he loves me," Ginny said, collapsing backwards on her bed to stare up at the ceiling.
Flora sat next to her. "He loves me too," she couldn't help pointing out.
"Of course he does, he's our brother," Ginny agreed, recalling when Harry said the best thing in the world was sleeping in the arms of someone you love and finding new meaning in those words.
"You won't even share a sundae with me," Flora pointed out, wondering if there was a different sort of love Ginny was talking about and that's why she wasn't upset.
"You always steal the cherry," Ginny fired back before blushing as she thought about what she'd said and how that could apply in this case.
"And now you're glowing red instead of gold," Flora noted.
"I'm what?" Ginny asked and looked at her hands. "When did I start glowing?"
Flora rolled her eyes. "I told you a couple of minutes ago you'd started glowing."
"I thought that was an expression," Ginny said, watching the red fade and turn gold.
"It is, it's what you say when someone lights up like a lamp."
"Oh," Ginny said. "Mum's busy and Da's probably still washing the polish off his head. Think it'll go away on it's own?"
Flora leaned down to look Ginny in the eye and said, "Harry thinks you're beautiful and smart." She quickly pulled back and blinked spots from her eyes. "Doesn't look like it."
"It's not important," Ginny said, smiling so broadly her cheeks hurt.
0o0o0o0o0o
"Everything is proceeding as planned, Master," Quirrell said as he prepared a strengthening solution to help him deal with the strain of hosting the Dark Lord.
"I'm aware," Voldemort agreed, his hissing voice coming from the back of Quirrell's head. He ignored the nervous sycophant's rambling as he thought about the… child that had reduced him to this state, a parasite living on the back of a weak wizard's head.
Of the two children the prophecy could have pointed to, he'd chosen the pureblood and marked him, proving the prophecy had been a true one and while the destruction of his body had been an unpleasant setback it had also shown that his preparations had been effective, he was truly immortal!
"...will only be effective for a few more weeks, master," Quirrell finished.
Voldemort pretended to consider what his servant had been saying while rummaging through the weaklings mind for what he'd said. "Worry not," he assured him, "I know of potions far stronger should you need them and when you deliver the stone to me I can not only restore any damage done by the potions, but strengthen you beyond the need for such paltry magics."
"Yes, Master!" Quirrell exclaimed eagerly, beginning to hum as he worked, images of what he would do to Pomona Sprout once the Dark Lord had risen, dancing in his head.
Voldemort would have rolled his eyes but he wasn't quite sure if Quirrell could feel it. He was relatively sure he could have felt a wizard on the back of his own head rolling its eyes and it wouldn't do to appear so classless in front of a servant.
Pushing aside such trivial concerns he returned his thoughts to their first class with Neville Longbottom, the so called Boy-Who-Lived. It was rather flattering that just surviving Voldermort's attempt on his life would earn the boy a name, one he planned on disproving with his return of course.
Still, both boys had been in his class and while Neville had been… minimally acceptable considering his age, the Potter boy was a bit worrisome. Something about the way he acted and the way the other students had hung on his every word seemed familiar…
It took only a few seconds of reflection to put his finger on what was bothering him, Harry Potter reminded him of himself, even the ways he deflected casual legilimency probes reminded him of his own techniques.
Voldemort mentally nodded to himself, the boy would have to be taken care of; the last thing he needed was competition, which the boy had the potential to become. Neville he would allow to live until he could be used to crush the wizarding world's spirit with his death upon Voldemort's own triumphant return, but Potter would be dealt with at the first opportunity.
"Chained to the foot of my bed," Quirrell muttered, eyes filled with unholy delight.
Voldemort forced himself not to shudder at the images that were leaking through their connection. He'd tell Quirrell to arrange an accident for Potter later, when he wasn't so… distracted.
0o0o0o0o0o
"What are you two working on?" James asked, as he found his wife and son surrounded by dozens of books and stacks of parchment in the library.
Harry took in his father's lack of hair and decided not to ask.
"We're examining all the many ways possible to turn a student trunk into a sauna," Lily said, gesturing to the piles of notes Harry had taken.
James ran what she'd said through his head a few times, trying to make sure he'd heard it right and then trying to figure out why Harry would need to know such a thing. "Okay, I'll bite," he finally said, "why?"
"Because it's a sauna," Harry told him.
"Fair enough," James agreed. "A bit much for a third year, much less a first though."
"Yes, but unless we get it out of the way now, it'll slow down the creation of the hot tub and pool," Harry said reasonably.
"Has first year really changed that much since we were in school?" James asked Lily confused.
"Probably not," Harry told him, "but projects like this will keep them interested in learning and make them consider the possibilities. Imagine going through transfiguration and ending up thinking all you could do with it were the classroom exercises."
James nodded. "Right. How can I help?"
"We're coming up with a list of supplemental spells to cover various options," Lily explained.
"Like enhancing the quality and portability of the trunk?" he guessed.
Lily and Harry looked at one another and grabbed a fresh sheets of parchment to make additional notes.
"Or are we talking about co-operative spellcasting to enhance the results?" James added.
Lily handed him a quill and parchment. "Start writing." She turned to Harry. "Are you sure you'll be able to memorize all of this?"
Harry nodded. "I can look up anything I forget, I really just need a good handle on the various possibilities so I can direct everyone else in finding the answers."
"You'd get much better results in later years when you have more magic available," James pointed out.
"Good, then each year's efforts will be clear improvements over the ones before, showing them how much further they've come," Harry said.
James nodded. "So, we can narrow down our spell selection to ones available for the first three years."
Harry turned to Lily. "I hadn't realized how smart Da was. I always assumed you'd married him for his looks." He forced himself not to laugh at the look on James' face a combination of surprise and confusion.
"Well…"
"Hey!" James protested.
"To be fair he is ridiculously handsome," Lily told Harry, reaching over to pinch Harry's cheek and remind him where he got his own looks. "I only found out he had a brain to go with those buns later."
James tried to look as his own bum and ended up making a complete turn, causing the two to laugh.
"Well, as much fun as teasing Da is, I've gotta go," Harry said, collecting all his notes and stuffing them in his pocket. "I've gotta meet with my housemates and see what they've come up with."
"My bum is ridiculously good looking, isn't it," James teased Lily with a grin while Harry made his escape, locking the library door behind himself.
"Harry," Ginny greeted him with a bright smile when he turned away from the door.
"You're glowing," Harry noted.
"She's been doing that," Flora agreed. "We were going to check with Mum and Da to see if they knew of a way to make it stop."
Ginny wrapped her arms around Harry and squeezed him, the glow increasing as he hugged her back.
"What set it off?" Harry asked, causing Ginny's golden glow to shift to pink. "Oh, mood aura. Just cast something and it should fix itself."
"That's accidental magic for you," Ginny said quickly, giving Flora a look that told her not to reveal anything. She gave Harry a quick peck on the lips before fleeing to find some candles, not wanting everyone to know what she was feeling on sight.
Flora felt a small pain in her chest. "Am I pretty?" she asked Harry.
"Yes," Harry replied without hesitation, making her smile. "As I've just been reminded, everyone in our family is ridiculously good looking, especially the girls. My opinion is probably biased since I'm your brother and love you, but I think you are completely huggable." He gave her a big hug, picking her up off her feet for a few seconds before setting her down.
Flora beamed and then frowned and looked down at her now glowing hands. "I gotta… go help Ginny." She darted forward and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek before rushing off.
Harry simply nodded. "Well, time to go out Hermione, Hermione." He dismissed Flora's uncharacteristic behavior from his mind, he was sure it had just been a moment of self doubt and knew nothing would come of it.
*Rumble*
Harry looked around for the source of thunder before realizing it had been from the library and was probably the sound of books being shoved off a table. He cast a quick silencing spell on the door for the sake of his sisters and fled.
Typing by: fyrewolf5