Chapter 14: Willow Wanderings
After the conversation with Hagrid, classes for the rest of the week seemed to pass by in an instant. Already, it was the last day of October, the day of the Halloween Feast. For some reason, Harry woke up and had this gut-wrenching feeling that something, somewhere, was going to go horribly wrong. He didn't know what was going to happen, it's not like he was a Seer, but the feeling was growing ever since the day before, just after his last class.
Although, there was something else, something was bugging him ever since they all got back from Hagrid's, and it would get to the front of his thoughts, and just before remembering what it was exactly, the thing would disappear. The only thing he knew was it had something to do with his birthday party just this last year. So, he decided to ask Dudley if HE could remember what it was. Well, as soon as they all met at breakfast.
Today, as it was Halloween, they all agreed to sit at the Hufflepuff table. Harry wanted it to be the Gryffindor table, but was convinced otherwise. It was too close to the Slytherin table, and Hermione thought that, since Malfoy had been making jokes about the Halloween festivities, someone was going to get into a fight over something said. The raven claw table was apparently off-limits unless you wanted to hear about everything to do with Halloween, and John meant EVERYTHING when he advocated for not being there. There was no way that they were going to go sit at the Slytherin table today of all days, and even Piers agreed near-instantaneously with that. So, it was agreed that Dudley's table was the one to go to. Well, until dinner. Apparently it was told them that the feasts, such as the entrance, leaving, and holiday feasts, were mandatory to sit at your own house tables.
Looking across the hall, Harry could already see Dudley waving him over, and that almost everyone else was already there. Ron, of course, walked with Harry down from the tower, grumbling about being hungry the entire way. Harry was silent the whole time, and didn't even reply to anything that Ron said to him, being that he wanted to remember as soon as possible whatever it was that he forgot.
"Dudley, what did I forget about my birthday?" A surprised look was all Harry got in return. "There was something that has been bugging me that I forgot, and as soon as I'm close to remembering, it disappears like magic."
The pun was not lost on even Ron this time, but Dudley started to remember everything that happened one by one until "...and you got that weird letter that said 'dont open until-'"
"SCHOOL STARTS! That's what I was forgetting."
"You STILL haven't opened it? I thought you opened it as soon as we were sent to the different common rooms after the Welcoming Feast."
The facial expression Dudley saw in return answered that statement. "What's this strange letter?" Hermione asked, looking only at Dudley.
"Well, Harry got this letter that said exactly that. 'Do not open until school starts' was the only thing written on it, and, apparently, Harry here forgot about the whole thing. That reminds me, wasn't there someone we were supposed to meet on our first Diagon Alley trip?"
"Oh yeah, Hagrid never brought it back up though. Wonder why?"
Dudley, for the first time in present company, face-palmed. "Duh, Harry. Remember? Just after Gringotts and the first two stops at shops, we met Hermione, Ron, his family, and we seemed to be having a good time with just us; he prolly didn't want to bother us by feeling like they were intruding."
Hermione looked at Dudley in a new light, saying "Dudley, you CAN think."
"I thought you could only remember things" Lily chipped in.
As the laughing started, its seemed like no one could stop except for Ron, who apparently didn't get the joke, and was in the middle of stuffing as much food as he could fit into his mouth, so it was a blessing that he didn't laugh with the rest of them. Just then, however, Hagrid was walking by their table and heard the last few sentences.
"Aye, Dudley got it right. When he saw Harry with Dudley, Ron, Hermione, and the Weasleys welcoming him at the Leaky Cauldron, he saw all the joking around you were doing. He pulled me aside when the Weasleys were introducing themselves and told me that he was happy that Harry was happy, and not to bother with meeting with you until you want to."
"Who was he?"
"A friend of your Dad's. That's all he would let me say."
"Well, that narrows it down to only one person." Harry was looking at John, who instead shook his head. After a questioning look from Harry, he explained.
"If it was Remus, which is what Harry meant, that it would make sense. But it would also make sense that, judging by what it seems like James Potter's personality was like, he could have more than just the Marauders as friends."
Silence. Then.
"Who told you who the Marauders were?"
"Hagrid, when we went to the bank, I somehow got a letter after I got home, saying there was something that Griphook wanted to give me, which was in the trust account, and wasn't supposed to be. It was my dad's journal from first through sixth years."
Relief spread through, not just the group, but to Hagrid as well. What they couldn't see was Professors McGonagall and Flitwick also sighing in relief. Harry did though. He made a mental reminder to ask those professors about stories of his dad, when it seemed appropriate. Then remembered the basis of where the conversation lead to.
"Well, was the person who wanted to meet with me named Remus Lupin?"
"Well, I guess you got the nail on the head anyways, aye, it was. He wanted to meet with you to see how your life was going after that Halloween. Actually, since you brought it up, I can tell him that you asked about him, if you want."
"Actually, I think I will send him a letter myself, I'm sure Hedwig is up to the task." As Harry spoke, the mail was beginning to be delivered, and Hedwig was headed towards the Gryffindor table. Thinking that she was looking for him, Harry was about to call, until she dropped a letter off to one of the Weasley twins. Confused, Harry watched as Hedwig then flew over to Harry with another letter.
"You sent a letter to the Weasleys, remember? Thanking them for being so nice in Diagon Alley?" Dudley was always the reminding kind of person, and could pick up, usually, when someone forgot something.
"Oh yeah, they prolly figured that Hedwig could carry another letter to the twins instead of sending Errol."
"That bird won't last the year, I don't think." Ron finally spoke up, finished with his mountain-sized plate of breakfast.
After looking down at the letter that Hedwig dropped off, it was indeed from the Weasleys, and quickly reading it confirmed that it basically was telling him there was no need to thank them, and that there was a chance that they would be going to see Charlie in Romania during the Christmas Holidays, and if they wanted to come, they may be able to take everyone. Reading this letter also re-reminded him of the mystery letter sitting in his trunk.
"Well, Hagrid, I will see you later, there is something that I need to do before classes start."
Watching his retreating back, Hermione was about to say something about the letter, then realized that's exactly what he was about to go find. So instead, she suggested that everyone start heading to their first classes, since although there was still 15 minutes, that sometimes could be just enough time to get to class if the staircases wanted to trick you into taking the wrong route.
Harry, after finding the letter finally, missed part of his first class, lost 10 points, but made it back up with excellent charms work in the rest of the class. Actually, if he was honest with himself, he wasn't doing as well as he could have. What he read of the letter so far told him that it was definitely shareable with the group, who still had no name yet, but knew that he could trust them all with what the letter said so far, and anything after was still safe for the group to hear, no matter what it would be. Harry was planning on spending lunch outside, but didn't want to have them all grow hungry, so was in the process of trying to figure out how to get food out to the lake. Fortunately for him, he had heard a rumor that the twins knew how, from a conversation that was overheard in the common room just that morning.
From the questioning glances Harry had gotten, and the blank looks that he had given in return, Hermione could see that Harry had gotten ahold of the letter, and read enough that, she knew, Harry would tell everyone what was in the letter if he wanted to. Seeing Harry run off as soon as class ended was a surprise though. She didn't know where he was running off to, as she knew that after charms was transfiguration for the Gryffindors, and she had potions as a Ravenclaw. Instead of trying to figure out that particular mystery, John was talking to her, and didn't catch what he was asking about until she turned to him and, apologetically, got him to repeat the question of whether a slight change of a potion ingredient would cause chaos in a cauldron.
Harry, for his directive, was lucky that morning, as the twins either skipped Herbology or found a secret way to travel from the first floor to the third floor in mere minutes. "Hey you two!"
"Well well well"
"If it isn't our"
"Favorite first year"
"Of the non-Weasley"
"Variety"
"Could you two be serious for a moment? I have a question." Harry was already exasperated, and it was beginning to show.
"Our ears are yours"
"For talking to anyways"
"Wouldn't want you to"
"Run off with them"
"Kind of need them you know."
"To listen, I get it..." Harry shrugged off their unique way of joking and decided to just ask them straight. "I heard that you would know how to get food from the kitchens, so that I can eat by the lake instead of going to the great hall for lunch."
"That we do, young Harrikins"
"We can tell you,"
"Or we can show you."
"Just tell me, unless it's easier to show me." Harry responded.
"Easier to show you, C'mon, follow us."
They led Harry to a hallway that he had never been to before, but was determined to imprint the way to get there and back into his memory. They stopped in front of a painting of some fruit, and saw them tickle the giant pear, which squeaked. The painting swung forward, and he was greeted by the sight of tiny little creatures that Harry had never seen before.
"These little guys are the Hogwarts House elves."
"They like working"
"And anything to do with it"
"And especially cleaning."
"They can get you what you need."
Harry then turned to the over-excited elves and a few of them, which didn't seem to be doing much at that moment, stopped and looked at the group.
"Missers Weasleys, yous shouldn't be here" one of them said from the back of the kitchens.
"We just wanted to show you"
"A new friend."
"Hes not being wrecking the kitchens is he?" The same one looked from the twins to Harry so fast that Harry thought his, or her, Harry couldn't tell, might be slightly dizzy from the movement.
"No, I just wanted to have a picnic out by the lake instead of in the great hall, but needed some food."
"I's be Mippy. I can get you food."
"Oh, okay. Can I get enough for about 12 people that I can come pick up just before lunch?" As soon as the sentence ended, Harry thought the twittering, which could be laughing, was a somewhat annoying sound. He looked at the twins and saw them also laughing.
"Relax Harry"
"They can pop the food out to you and you'd never see them."
"Oh, I guess that settles that then." Harry started towards the door before something occurred to him. "How did you guys find this place? I didn't even know that this hallway existed."
"Ask us no questions"
"And we'll tell you no lies" one of them finished.
As he was closing the door, he could hear banging and smashing, followed by what seemed to be angry squeaking, ending with the twins being launched from the room through the painting that Harry just exited. With his business concluded, Harry started heading towards the classroom that he would now be late for by at least a few minutes. And Professor McGonagall was not someone that he wanted to be late to a class for. At least, if Harry was to get there only by walking.
As soon as he entered the class, out of breath from the running he had just done, but on time (barely), he took his seat next to Ron and Neville. Since the Hufflepuffs were also in this class, he sent a nod towards Dudley, who just looked at him confused, until Harry mouthed 'Lunch, Lake' back towards his brother's way. This class, to Harry at least, could not have passed by quick enough, and it showed. His work was sloppy, everything he tried wasn't working as well as it should have, and Professor McGonagall noticed enough to remark on it about ten minutes before the bell.
"Mr. Potter, having difficulty with this lesson? Perhaps you would benefit from some extra lessons?"
"It's not that Professor, I just have a lot on my mind. About my Dad, I mean."
"Oh?"
"Sorry, professor, I just found out some things that I didn't know of before. I don't know if my Dad was the person that people told me of."
"Like Hagrid, or perhaps Mr. Dursley's parents?"
"Something like that. Well, Hagrid did say that you were more knowing of what kind of person my Dad was."
"Well, perhaps over the holidays we can speak about that, but for now I will need you to focus more in my class."
"Yes, of course Professor." After hearing all that was said, Neville sent a concerned glance Harry's way, but didn't get anything in response, so continued to work on his own transfiguration attempts.
After the bell rang, Harry was waiting at the door for everyone of the group to start to head to the great hall, where he told them that there was a change of plans. They then met the rest of the group near the library, as they had already agreed to head to lunch from there the day before. Harry made sure he had the letter, which even now confused him. They headed towards the great hall, but Harry turned at the last minute, which everyone followed with curiosity clearly on their faces.
Once they got past the castle's front doors, they saw Hagrid walking past them to head to lunch like everyone else. Hagrid glanced at Harry, shrugged, then continued on his way. They finally got to the same spot with the Whomping Willow blocking the line of sight to almost everything else, and Harry prepared the rest for the picnic.
"I thought it would be better to tell you all about the letter that Dudley reminded me of when we were at breakfast during lunch, but not with everyone hearing everything we say. Here's the letter, one of you can read it; I read enough to know that I have no problem sharing it with you guys."
After silently deciding who should read it, Hermione reached out and grabbed the letter, and started reading. "Dear Harry, I know this may come as a shock to you, but I was in the room the day you were born. I wrote this letter so that if anything happened to me, it would make to you, no matter where it was, on your 11th birthday. See, there was a theory that, after being hidden, something drastic was going to happen to a lot of people, regardless of who would be involved." A look at Harry told Hermione to just keep reading. "You may not have heard of me, but I was a friend of your parents while I was at Hogwarts, and if anything was to happen to them, or to me, I was supposed to take care of you. I know that there are going to be a lot of books, reports, articles, and other information that you may be able to read about, whether or not you know or knew what happened from today forward." Hermione now looked at Harry and asked him "Do you know the day that this was written? It doesn't have a date on it."
"It doesn't, but that doesn't really matter. The rest of it is what does."
Turning back to the letter, Hermione started reading again. "Today is my birthday, my 24th birthday actually. And it's also a month since you were born. There is a lot of going on in the world, and I can't trust that any information you get until we may meet will be entirely accurate. See, James and I may have been friends, but there was another friend that I had that was more of your father's rival. I will not say who, as that is their own business, but what I will say is this. There is a reason that your mother detested your father until sixth year. I will not say exactly why, but your father changed after third year slightly, but the actions that he was involved in until third year stuck with Lily, and it took three whole years for her to see that James had changed, little by little."
"Was that in the journal, Harry?"
Harry took the moment to look at Neville, then said "Yeah, it was, but not pointed out so much as just written about. The journal was a journal for their pranks, not everything they did, so there was a lot that wasn't in the Journal that other people may have known of or seen. That's why this letter was written, technically."
"And that means..." Lily trailed off, but after seeing Harry's look decided to wait for an answer.
"The rival that I am talking about was also a friend of Lily's, and complicated a lot of things. Especially when it came to James and Lily, and Lily and this friend, and this friend and James. If you recognize the names Peter, Sirius, and Remus, you must know about the kind of things that happened between 1st year and 3rd year, at least. They were the now-legendary Marauders, and I was one of the few people to catch them red-handed. But I did NOT turn them in, nor would I ever. The reason for that is that James saved my life before Hogwarts even started. Not a single person knew how even to this day, and I believe it may have been a family spell. My family has them also, but not in a related method of use. I cannot give out family spells, the same reason that you cannot give out yours." At this, Hermione and John shared a glance, and Hermione asked the group "This is a thing? Family spells?"
Neville was the first to speak. "I don't know mine, but I know that there is a set of Longbottom spells. Gran has the book, but she hasn't shown it to me yet. I think because I'm still a first year."
"Well, my family has some spells, but not many." Everyone was not looking at Ron. "The most obvious one is our Family Clock. It has a hand on it for every member of the family, and instead of times around the 'hands' it has things like 'work' 'traveling' or 'mortal peril'...and no, I don't know how it works. But I know that the head of the family is usually the one that holds onto the Family Spells Book."
Hermione looked a little offended, probably that there are books that she may never read, but it faded as she decided to just continue reading the letter. But she added, "Well, it says on the side that the Potter's book literally cannot be read by anyone other than a Potter. Probably added as an afterthought by whoever wrote this letter." At a nod from Harry, she then read "I don't think you'll get or be able to read your own family's spells until at least 17, unless your father allows it. Anyways, as you can probably tell, I am a friend of your parents, but not as close to them as their tight-knit group, The Marauders. It was also I who did some of the pranking before James started attending Hogwarts. He called it 'the prank of timing' and later renamed all those pranks "the prequel to the Marauders" and started planning pranks as early as 4 years old. He just couldn't do any of them until Hogwarts, but lived vicariously through me, who started 2 years before James."
"Is all this relevant?" John asked from the side.
"It'll get there. But I just like hearing the next part, before everything else at the end." Harry was looking like a half-sad, half-happy child during a story. "Just keep reading Hermione."
"I first met James when I was 9, and he was 7. We were at Dragon Alley, and i only knew OF the Potter family at this point. Well, everyone knew OF the Potter family, but hardly anyone knew them. There was a lot of families that planned play-dates with the children of the Potters for generations, at least the last 5, that I know of. I was one of them, and the Diagon Alley trip was our first meeting. Since the war with grindewald was still 'recent history' and there was a lot of anti-muggle purebloods out that were trying to pass laws every wizengamot meeting, there was a lot more to a simple play-date than the children of different families trying to get their children to get more friends. It was politics at its worst, and my family was no different. We were know as some of the bigger business dealers with the purebloods, and were technically known as completely neutral for the past 10 generations. There was some grain in truth about this, but the little-known fact of the matter was that we were only neutral due to business, and were actually more towards the light side of the spectrum. This play-date was a mixer of some of the bigger families, and there was a few children of the Blacks, Longbottoms, Weasleys, Prewitts, Abbots, Bones, Malfoy, Nott, and my own family. It was decided to have this particular play-date at a quidditch game; Tutshell Tornadoes at Holyhead Harpies. The game itself was where your father saved my life, and until the end of my days, I shall never forget it. There was an...incident, where a rogue Bludger was charmed by a dark wizard to attack certain families in the middle of the game. This, we only found out afterwards, but my family and a few of the others, which were not included in the playdate that game, were the main targets. Your father, at the age of 7, shattered the bludger an inch away from my face, and the anger that I saw when I looked around to see who stopped it was enough to remember clearly even today. After it exploded, all the shards were completely inert, and fell to the ground in front of the Bones family's Head of House, who was currently the Head of the Auror office."
"That must have been accidental magic though, at 7 years old, right?" John asked.
Ron chose then to surprise quite a few of them of his Quidditch knowledge. "Not at that level of game play. Bludgers are enchanted to not be affected by something like accidental magic. I mean, if any toddler liked a certain team and didn't want to see someone from that team hit, accidental magic could prevent that, otherwise, and would be like cheating."
"Oh, that makes sense. But wouldn't that mean he was using wandless magic at 7?" Hermione looked to Ron, then at Neville, for an answer, but Harry interrupted.
"Read the next part."
Hermione looked down, then nearly face-palmed. "At first, I thought it was someone else, until I saw his father's wand in his hand, pointing at the bludger still at the feet of the Bones family."
"That makes more sense" Lily added.
Hermione took a second to see how much longer the letter went on. Fortunately, there wasn't much left. "So, since that day, our families have been tied together, by design, so that I could maybe one day repay that effort. Hence, why this letter was written in the first place. It was, and is, my intention to invite you to write, visit, or otherwise get to know my family eventually, no matter what happened, or what will happen, in the future. Your parents have told me that next month, they plan to go into hiding from Voldemort, who by now I am sure you have at least heard about. If what I think will happen, should happen, know that at the very least, you will be able to communicate with me for any reason, at any time, and I will make myself available to you. For now though, I wanted to give you a little bit of a backstory before I get to my last point of focus for writing this letter. To put it bluntly, I have gone over many scenarios in my head for months, and I am not a seer, but even I can see that the light is losing this war with Voldemort. As this was written only a short time after James, Lily, and you have gone into hiding, I have a gut feeling that whatever will happen in the next few months, or even years, will be bad; very bad. I hope that everything goes according to the 'best-case scenario' but I highly doubt it will. My daughter has been growing faster than I could have imagined, and I can only hope that James and Lily get to experience the same feeling of raising their child as I am blessed to have, and hope to continue to have. If that is not the case, however, I believe that wizards and witches across all of Britain will end up blaming the wrong person, or end will end up being on the losing side of the fight. As I said before, this letter is enchanted, with my own family's spells, so that no matter what, you get this letter. I could die, my magic erased from this earth, and the magic this letter holds will still find you on your 11th birthday."
"He seems like both a terrifyingly smart, and equally morose, kind of thinker."
"He does, John, at least to me, but there's only a few lines left. Let me finish then we can talk." Looking back down at the letter, Harry could see a tear forming in Hermione's eye as she finished with "So remember, feel free to contact me at any time, about anything. You may know my daughter, even though even now I can tell what house she will end up going to, and your family's house has not had a closeness to Slytherin, by my last name, but I can only ask you at this point to try to get to know her. She will at least NOT be raised like someone, say, from the Malfoy or Nott families."
There was a long pause, where Hermione had stopped reading. Everyone in the group was looking at Harry, who was paying the most attention to Hermione, even though nothing was said by anyone. For the next ten minutes, there was silence and slight shuffling, but not a single one of them knew what to say.
Finally, Hermione spoke up, with a single closing. "Signed, Daniel Greengrass."
Dudley was shocked, to say the least, and Harry was looking at Dudley with a slightly sad smirk. They both knew the daughter, and knew that Dudley had been chasing after her since she started walking away from Dudley without leaving a slap-mark.
To be fair to Hermione, it was a lot of reading, so it was expected that she wouldn't want to talk all that much, but Harry thought that of anyone he wanted to talk about what was read, Hermione would be the one to show off her smarts. Unfortunately, time passed a bit faster than they all thought. John assumed it was because it WAS a long letter, but also because, with everyone thinking about all that the letter had to say, they simply lost track of time. Ron was the first to realize the time, as the first sound since hearing Hermione say "Greengrass" was the overly-loud growling of Ron's stomach.
"WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING OUT HERE?"
The suddenly loud voice made everyone jump about a foot in the air, and turned to see a surprisingly angry Hagrid racing towards them, umbrella in-hand, and yelling at them to get inside quickly. It was only then that they realized the sun was already almost set, and they couldn't see the willow anymore.
"Cho said you might be out here, c'mon, everyone else is already in their common rooms."
"Sorry Hagrid, we didn't realize how much time passed. We came our her for lunch."
"The twins told me that Ron. Just be glad you weren't in the castle an hour ago."
"Why, what happened?" Ron asked. Expecting a simple answer like 'the prefects didn't know where you were, and you missed ca few classes,' like Hermione was, they were unprepared for what really happened.
AN:
I am going to end it here, since it's technically not a wholly unexpected answer that they get for those of us that have read or watched the Harry Potter movies...but since the sun is still setting, I changed some things. (hehe, you'll find out what I changed next chapter, and I hope it's better than having the same things repeat themselves from cannon)
That being said, yes, I added the greengrasses a little early, and that WAS for a reason. I do write as the story is being typed still, but there are little ... feathers, I guess you can say...that drift into my typing that are really preconceived plot points that I want to add... I just have to remember to see them fall, so I don't end up picking them off the floor...kinda like I had to for the letter thing. (The letter, I was originally planning to have been read by only Harry after the welcoming feast as he was unpacking his trunk)
Well, I hope you read the interim before this chapter, because that is, for now, what's causing me to stall on some of the other chapters I have planned...(Planned as in "feathers")... I kind of don't know what to name the group, and I wanted to have the group named before the Christmas Holidays, so that I don't have to have them known as "the group" throughout first year. Not because of me, but because I think it makes sense to have a group with Harry in it named for the school's "Fame/Renown" topic of conversation or rumor mill that a LOT of people write about.
Thanks again for reading, I'll see you next time.
Kauthreader.