As the three family members arrived at Number 4 Privet Drive the atmosphere was tense. Harry had no clue how Petunia would treat him, her silence hadn't been a good sign. It wasn't until dinner time that she finally said more than two words to him.
He nervously descended the stairs and walked into the kitchen, before sitting down at the dining table and awaiting the outcome of months of silence.
"So boys, how was school?" Petunia inquired once dinner was served.
"It was weird, that's for sure. Though not as weird as last year. How did you pass the time?" Dudley answered, aware of how awkward this dinner could be.
"You boys may think it's silly, but I've started taking Wing chun lessons at the community centre down the road with the lady from number seven. You know I never really liked her that much, but when Vernon died she was right there to support me."
At the mention of Vernon, Harry felt more ashamed than ever. He didn't know how much more he could take of this.
"I'm sorry," Harry whispered, though before he could continue, he was interrupted by his aunt.
"So you are talking to me? Unlike Dudley, you haven't sent any letters this year. I've missed hearing from you," Aunt Petunia responded in an upbeat voice tinged with sadness.
"I did. I wrote to you every week, twice sometimes. I thought you hated me," Harry whispered, even quieter than before.
"Oh Harry dear. If I'd known you weren't receiving my letters I'd have sent them with Dudleys. I sent a fairly long letter explaining that I was angry, however I've had time to process it, as well as having possession explained to me by Mrs Figg, you haven't met her, but she used to babysit Dudley when he was a baby. The point is, as I explained in the letter, I don't blame you for what happened. You're still my nephew. I still love you."
Harry was ecstatic, though this brought with it confusion.
"I wonder why my letters never made it here."
/*** **-** ***/
July had arrived and the morning of the first saw Harry, Dudley, and Petunia, enjoying breakfast while Petunia read the paper.
"That's nice for her," Petunia called out during a silence, after reading that June Mansonia had gotten a promotion and showing the boys the article. Harry didn't particularly care that much, noting that the woman was unremarkable in every way, though more bug-eyed than most people. Shortly before they had finished breakfast there was a knock at the door, which Petunia got up to answer. Moments later she screamed and fell backwards into the house, spurring Harry to grab the bread knife from the table and move over towards whoever had scared his aunt.
The mystery was brought to a conclusion when the face, and body, of Sirius Black entered into the doorway, apologising profusely for scaring her, with Petunia apologising for overreacting, having only just discovered that he wasn't a mass murderer.
Harry put the knife down as Sirius entered the house fully, helping Aunt Petunia back to her feet.
"I guess those self-defence lessons haven't had an effect yet," Petunia laughed as Sirius hugged Harry, before the two of them bid Dudley and Petunia goodbye for the day.
/*** **-** ***/
It truly was bizarre walking down Diagon Alley with Sirius, as together they were two of the most famous people in Britain. No longer could Harry hide from the crowds as he had before, primarily due to his godfathers lack of subtlety. People were pointing and staring at the pair, some turning away due to a bad association with Sirius' face. At least nobody called the Aurors on him this time, that had been frustrating for the ex-prisoner of Azkaban who had only been walking down the street at the time.
It had been long enough that most people knew he was innocent, though Sirius hoped to endear himself to the public.
Their first stop was Gringotts Bank to sort out the dispute in regards to the Black family vaults.
Once they had performed the necessary tests they were on their way to the lowest parts of the bank, where the older and grander vaults were kept. The ride there was a bumpy and uncomfortable one, almost making Sirius vomit a few times. Harry was unable to enter the vault, at least until he would be sworn in as heir, if he chose to be. Sirius had offered him the opportunity to gain full access to the vault and all of the family properties, but Harry had refused on the basis that Sirius might have kids of his own one day and he didn't want them to hate him.
Harry didn't understand when Sirius had answered
"That's not likely to happen," after which he laughed darkly and told Harry that the offer would always be open to him. After Sirius had grabbed a few items, they began to head over to all of Harry's vaults, one by one. Sirius had encouraged him to take an inventory of everything, and while Harry didn't fully trust the man he knew he had been trained to lead his own family.
Their first stop was the Gryffindor Vault.
/*** **-** ***/
After hours of wandering around the duo left Gringotts and were barely ten steps out of the door when they encountered Neville and Theo with Neville's Grandmother, and got to talking, while Sirius was dragged into a conversation with the Dowager Augusta Longbottom.
"What are you two doing here today?"
"I've decided I want to take my family seat this summer," Theo answered proudly.
"I thought you had to be of age to do so, or am I misremembering?"
"Under most normal circumstances you'd be correct, in my case, however, I have something for you to read."
There are a few exceptions to the laws of inheritance. If the child in question is the last living member of their family line, and they have received a high enough grade in either the Capability Aptitude Tests, or C.A.T.s, or the Ordinary Wizarding Levels, or O.W.L.s, they can qualify to claim their ancestral family seat. The child in question would still have to petition the Wizengamot to be officially recognised as the Lord of their family.
"So you're on the way to the Wizengamot to begin the process?"
"That he is and so are we. Augusta here has just invited us to accompany the three of them, seeing as I'm a Lord, I can speak in Theo's favour."
So they went to the Wizengamot, or rather a skeleton crew version of it, and waited for the other matters of the day to be attended. As they sat there Harry noticed one of the members of the Wizengamot was glancing at him occasionally, he asked Augusta if she knew who it was, but outside of the surname Gaunt she knew nothing about him. Harry didn't know what it was, but something felt familiar about him, he opted to put the man out of his head for now as he listened to an old woman arguing against the halting of the import of rare potions ingredients, she was ultimately denied her request and left the room angry.
Finally after forty minutes of waiting it was their turn to talk, and so Augusta, Theo, and Sirius all rose to begin the petitioning process.
/*** **- ** ***/
They had been heard and the members of the Wizengamot were discussing things amongst themselves before they finally reached a verdict. They would approve Theo's request to claim his seat, however they had two requests. The first request was that Theo find somebody, not already holding an estate, to serve as a proxy. The second request was also fairly simple, they wanted reparations to be made, after the previous Lord Nott broke his oath to the Wizengamot, in the form of a donation to the Ministry in the amount of 20,000 Galleons.
"If the young Heir will agree to these terms then this council will grant Theodore Nott the right to wear his family ring and rule his ancestral home," the man who was glancing at Harry earlier called out after the terms were announced by another member.
"I, Theodore Nott, do hereby accept the terms laid out before me. I swear on my life and my magic that I will complete these requirements and return, ready to claim my seat."
/*** **-** ***/
As soon as the group were back out on the streets of Diagon Alley, Sirius brought Harry to the side and quietly told him.
"During that whole meeting there was a man staring at you, do you recognise him?"
"No. I noticed him myself, I don't think he's good news."
"I'm glad we're in agreement. Now, we have shopping to do."
The two bid Theo, Neville, and Augusta farewell for now, with a promise to meet up as soon as Theo managed to fulfil the requirements of the Wizengamot, and headed for the shops.
Their first stop was Ollivander's, since Sirius' wand had been snapped upon his incarceration at Azkaban. As they stepped into the shop, Harry felt a kind of magic unique to this one store. It wasn't dissimilar to the feeling of the Hogwarts Library, but it was like all the books were sentient. As Sirius and Ollivander spoke, Harry felt drawn to a certain area in the store. He had passed an "entry forbidden" sign and continued into the depths of the store.
He came upon a pair of wands, both made of hawthorn wood, and felt a resonance with them. He picked the two wands up and approached the counter, inquiring as to the price of the pair, finding out they were vastly more expensive than any other Ollivander's wand, due to the fact of the Hawthorn family restricting the use of the trees that grew on their properties. Harry bartered with the old wandmaker before they settled on an agreement that Harry would try to convince Elias to speak to his parents about increasing the export of Hawthorn wood out to Ollivander's, in return Harry would receive a free custom wand, using whatever he felt the strongest connection to. He paid full price for the last Hawthorn wands and decided he would contact his little brother soon.
/*** **-** ***/
