A/N: Thank you for the great response so far! I will be (hopefully) updating around once a week. (I am writing at a much slower pace now, but I am a couple chapters ahead of what is posted.)
Chapter 5: A Very Special Family
Every morning, Mimsy helped Harry pick out what clothes to wear before she popped him down to breakfast. The day Harry had bonded to her, she had quickly demanded permission from Sirius to buy Harry's wardrobe. And so, with a magically-endorsed house elf voucher for 1,000 galleons, Mimsy had purchased clothes and toys from the magical world –Harry didn't know what galleons were, but, after seeing Remus' reaction, he decided that 1,000 of them was probably quite a lot. According to Sirius, Grandfather had given him full access to Black funds with instructions to outfit Harry with everything –clothes, toys, books –befitting an heir of House Black. Besides, he had pointed out, Harry's trust vault had been untouched and accruing interest for six years, so it wasn't as if Harry wouldn't have been able to afford it himself. This little bit of news was very interesting to Harry, who had never had money before and certainly not a lot of it. Sirius told him they had a lot to show him over the next few months, but that visiting the wizarding bank, Gringotts, to learn about House Potter was one of those things.
Today, though, Mimsy chose a sleek, silver-gray closed robe for him to wear. It was silky soft and accented in ice blue, one of Harry's favorite colors. When he had seen it among the clothes Mimsy had purchased last week, he had wanted to wear it immediately, but Mimsy had insisted it was not appropriate to play in. Harry found it was very difficult to argue with Mimsy about appropriate clothing, so he had reluctantly agreed. So, when Mimsy handed him the robe and a pair of black shoes, Harry was very excited.
"Where are we going today, Mimsy?" Harry asked while she waved her fingers over his hair, little sparks of elf magic taming it to a manageable level.
"Mimsy not be knowing. Master's dogfather be saying to get Master ready to go to magical world, he not be saying where."
Harry's bright, green eyes lit up in excitement. He hadn't been to the magical world yet. They had explored the muggle area around Grimmauld Place the last couple days, and found the best pizza, which Sirius said was very important, but which had offended Mimsy greatly. Harry liked Mimsy very much, she was nice and she took good care of them. She cooked much better than his Aunt Petunia and she made the house gleam it was so clean. She had even cleaned out the garden, though nothing grew in it yet. He willingly took Mimsy's offered hand and they popped down to the kitchen.
The room had changed quite a bit, Mimsy had gotten rid of the big, long table; instead, now there was a round table with eight chairs, which meant Sirius, Remus and Harry could all sit together and easily speak to one another. There were also new cabinets with fancy dishes in them taking up some of the unused space. Sirius said that most of the dishes had been in the pantry, which was now stocked full of food and covered in house elf stasis charms. Harry thought the cold box, with its cooling charms instead of electricity, was the coolest thing in the kitchen –wizards didn't use electricity, Remus told him, because they could use magic for the same things and without paying an electric bill. The room was also lighter. Mimsy had repainted the walls from drab, dark grey to a light, tan color and added more lighting to brighten the room. The kitchen was a happy room now, Harry decided.
He ate his breakfast dutifully, not wanting to insult Mimsy by not immediately eating her wonderful food, then he looked up. "Sirius," he said. "Where are we going today?"
Sirius smiled at his godson. "First, we need to take you to St. Mungo's, the hospital, for your magical check-up. Hopefully, they can help you see better too, Harry. Then I thought we might visit Diagon Alley for a bit and get some ice cream."
Harry wasn't sure how he felt about going to the magical doctor, but he thought Diagon Alley sounded fun. "What is Diagon Alley?" he asked.
"It is our magical shopping district, only the main alley is actually called Diagon, though; Diagon has all the basics you would need for Hogwarts. Those shops are all up front near the bank and the entrance at the Leaky Cauldron to help the Muggleborns find everything they need without accidentally going somewhere dangerous. If you go further back there are other streets branching off with smaller businesses and specialized shops, though some of them sell some pretty nasty stuff."
They finished their breakfasts and then went out to the back garden. After Mimsy had cleaned it out, Sirius had decided it would make a proper apparition point for them. He had modified the wards over the property to create a small, unwarded space near the back gate. Remus took Harry's hand –he had confided to Harry the other day that he was worried Sirius wasn't strong enough to side-along apparate him yet, at least not long distances –and they appeared in a dark alley. Harry looked around curiously as he was pulled along by the hand. It was a dirty alley, but as they rounded the corner they came out onto a large street and stood before what looked like an abandoned building to Harry and which was ignored completely by the rest of the people on the street. Harry watched in amazement as Sirius disappeared right through the front window. Remus nudged him forward and he walked through the window reluctantly, which opened up into a hospital waiting room.
Harry looked around at the people in the waiting room, some seemed relatively normal, while others had visibly strange maladies. Sirius greeted the 'Welcome Witch,' as the sign on her desk proclaimed, to the check them in for their appointment. She looked over her list. "Very well, Healer Tonks left instructions to send you up to the fifth floor, she will meet you in the tearoom."
As they headed over to the lift, Remus explained, "Usually, you only come to St. Mungo's if you are sick, most regular check-ups are done during home visits. But Sirius wanted you to see his cousin, Andromeda Tonks, and she was too busy at the hospital this week –a couple of the Healers were involved in an accident on the fourth floor, so she is covering extra shifts –so, she asked if we could come see her here."
Harry read the descriptions of each floor as they moved upwards in the lift, wondering absently how often people had accidents with magic. Soon enough, they exited onto the fifth floor, which opened up into a large room filled with tables. There were various people sitting about, most consuming tea or some sort of snack. But they didn't approach the tearoom; instead, Sirius turned to a petite, black-haired woman who was waiting off to the right. "Good morning, Andy," he said brightly. "How is my favorite Healer?"
She smiled warmly. "Happy to see you again, Siri. Why don't you come back to my office and we can all catch up?"
Andromeda led them back past the tearoom and the gift shop to a door marked 'Authorized Staff Only.' She took them through a narrow labyrinth of hallways until they came to a door with 'Healer Andromeda Tonks' inscribed across it. Inside, they found a smallish room that held a desk with a cushioned chair behind it. On the opposite side of the room, there was a three-person couch and a coffee table next to a small bookcase that was completely full of books. On the desk, Harry noticed a picture of a teenage girl with pink hair who smiled and waved at him as he looked.
"That's my daughter, Nymphadora," Andromeda said, noticing his preoccupation.
Harry looked at Andromeda shyly. "She has pink hair," he said, eyes wide.
She smiled at him. "Dora is a metamorphmagus, she can change her appearance however she wants," she told him.
Harry nodded, he thought that would be a pretty interesting thing to do, and looked at the photo once more. "You have the same eyes," he told Andromeda, sitting down on the couch next to Sirius.
Andromeda was stunned by this comment for a moment before taking the chair behind her desk and bringing it over to the couch to sit near Harry. "Harry," she began. "I'm Andromeda Tonks, I'm Sirius' cousin and I'm a Healer."
"Sirius says you're his favorite cousin," Harry told her.
Andromeda laughed. "Well, I'm not sure that's saying much, Harry. You can call me Andromeda, or Andy if you want. I'm going to do a few diagnostic charms on you now. They won't hurt, though sometimes the magic may tickle a bit, alright?"
Harry nodded eagerly, he loved to see magic and couldn't wait until he could do it too. Andromeda waved her wand over his body in a figure-eight pattern, sometimes she murmured words too, but Harry didn't understand them. A soft glow left her wand and enveloped Harry, it felt warm and tickled a bit, like Andromeda had said. She nodded to herself, then directed her wand at his eyes. Harry saw blue light for a moment, then it faded quickly. Andromeda had gotten up and came back with a couple bottles. "This is a new potion developed in the last couple years, Harry, it is a vaccine against dragon pox. That's the magical disease your grandparents died from."
Harry nodded and took the bottle from Andromeda. He grimaced at the taste, but was able to swallow it.
"The other ones are a daily nutrient potion for you to take for the next few months, to help you grow to catch up with other boys your age." She looked to Sirius. "Will your house elf be able to brew the potions or shall I order them for you?"
Sirius smiled. "Kreacher went back to Grandfather. Harry has a house elf now; she will be able to do anything you need her to. Why don't you call her, Harry?"
Without so much as a word from Harry, the little elf –who was now clothed in a clean uniform with the crest of the House of Black on it, Harry had insisted she could make her own without freeing herself and he had been right –appeared immediately. "Master Harry be needing Mimsy?" she asked him.
Andromeda recognized the elf as Lord Black's. "Hello again, Mimsy. I have some potions here to help Harry, do you need me to order more?"
Mimsy took the offered bottle, her fingers glowing with magic for a moment. "Mimsy be making Master his potions, Miss Andy not be worrying about Master Harry." And just as suddenly as she appeared, Mimsy popped away, taking the potions bottles with her.
"Well, you are underweight, Harry, and I'd like to see you grow a bit too, but the potions will help with that. Your eyes aren't as bad as those muggle glasses make them seem. You should be able to visit the optometrist in Diagon Alley and he can help you. I'm not sure if he will be able to fix your eyes completely, but he can definitely get you better lenses, something charmed, much safer than those muggle glasses."
"Sounds great Andy, we were headed to Diagon today anyway." Sirius responded.
Sirius, Remus and Harry had just left the optometrist, where they had purchased corrective potions for Harry's eyes. It was a series that Harry would take over the next two weeks, which should restore his vision completely. When Sirius asked why James had not taken these potions as a child, the optometrist explained that they had been developed in the last few years, could only be used on children under ten, and many families couldn't afford them (The series cost nearly 4,000 galleons).
Next, the trio stopped at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. Harry chose double chocolate chip and the three of them sat together in the shop to eat. Harry watched the people walking by outside the window as he ate the best ice cream he had had in his short life –though, admittedly, he hadn't eaten much ice cream up until this point. It was bitterly cold today, and windy too; the people on the street all wore hats and gloves and pulled their cloaks about them tightly. A few were dressed like Harry and Sirius, in expensive robes paired with cloaks with permanent warming charms, but not many. One woman, a blond woman with dark eyes, walked regally past the shop dressed in a beautiful silver cloak, a small blond boy on her heels.
"Harry," Sirius was saying, drawing his attention. "What do you say to stepping into the pet shop, we could use another housemate, and I need an owl anyway, going out to the Owl Post every time I send something is getting old."
"I can get a pet?" Harry asked shyly, searching his godfather's face for a sign that he was joking.
"Of course you can, pup."
The three companions finished soon after and headed back into the cold. Harry kept his cloak close, allowing the warming charms to wrap around his body tightly as he followed Sirius down the street. They stepped into a loud shop called the Magical Menagerie. When Harry walked in, the stink of too many animals crammed into one place attacked his nose, and, when he looked around, he saw a cage with a different occupant in every inch of space.
"Close your eyes, Harry." Remus said. "See if you feel anything."
Harry closed his eyes and felt for what he felt when he was near Sirius and Remus. For a moment, he couldn't find it; then he felt the familiar presence of Sirius, bright and dazzling, and Remus, soft and comforting. Beyond them, he felt a fainter pulse. When he opened his eyes, he could see his magic, leading him to the back corner of the shop. There, laying in a basket in a large cage, was a litter of half-kneazle kittens. Towards the far end of the cage, one kitten sat up, staring up at Harry blearily. Its fur was pitch black and it had striking ocean blue eyes and large, long, pointed ears with little messy bursts of soft black fur, but the very tips were stark white. Other than its kneazle-like ears and overly bright, intelligent eyes, it was a relatively normal long-haired black cat. Mesmerized by the tiny furball, Harry opened the cage and lifted the kitten out; it immediately nuzzled into his arms, purring.
"Well, looks like someone found a familiar," the shopkeeper chuckled. "Bring her on up front, lad. We'll get you some supplies."
Sirius and Remus met Harry at the counter and encouraged him to buy a few toys for his new pet. Sirius said not to worry about food, Mimsy would know what to feed her. "What's her name, Harry?"
"I think –I think her name is Gemma," Harry decided.
"Well, alright little Gemma, let's go get an owl and get you home out of the cold," Sirius said happily.
Harry followed Sirius past a few more shops down to Eeylops Owl Emporium; Gemma curled herself inside his cloak, out of the wind. Harry thought Eeylops looked and smelled very similar to the Menagerie. As he wandered through the shop, the owls' eyes followed his movements; Harry thought maybe they were waiting for something. When he got closer to the back of the shop, he started to feel a pull on his magic again. Gemma mewed from under his cloak, squirming in his grip. "Do you feel that girl?" he whispered to her. She trilled back at him, her ocean eyes imploring.
Remus noticed that Harry was looking at the door leading into the shop's backroom. "What is it, Harry?" he asked, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.
Harry looked up at him. "I feel something with my magic, back there. Gemma feels it too," he said, pointing through the door.
Remus turned to the front of the shop. "Mr. Walker," he called. "Are there more owls in the back of the shop?"
The shopkeeper, a small, round man with beady eyes perked up and came to meet them at the backroom door. "The young ones are out back, need a few years of training before they can be sold as mail owls. They are born with the magical instincts, but they still need training up."
Remus nodded. "And if one is a familiar?" he asked, glancing down at Harry, who was holding tightly to a squirming Gemma.
Mr. Walker nodded, reaching for the doorknob. He pressed the door open and ushered Harry through. "Well, lad, which one is yours?"
Harry made a beeline for a snowy owl perched just inside the door on the right. Gemma meowed loudly at it and it gave an answering hoot; then, she purred and curled back in the crook of her owner's arm. Harry unlatched the cage and reached in to stroke the bird's silky feathers, cooing at her softly.
"Ah," Mr. Walker said. "She's a special one. She'll learn real quick, just send her along with your father's owl on trips for a few months, she'll pick it right up, especially with a familiar bond to hone in on."
"Come on, Hedwig," Harry whispered, immediately choosing a name from the book Remus had been reading to him that week. The owl nipped at his hand affectionately and then, with one flap of her wings, landed on his shoulder.
"Let's take her home, Harry." Remus said, leading the boy and his familiars back to the front of the shop to meet up with Sirius.
Sirius was at the front counter, holding a black cage with a large male brown owl in it. Its feathers were flecked with different shades of brown and even bit of white and it had large amber eyes. It was an impressive looking animal and it didn't surprise Remus that Sirius had chosen it. "Who is this?" Sirius asked his godson, eyeing the snowy owl in appreciation.
"Hedwig, she's ours, too." Harry told him.
Sirius's eyes lit up as he smiled. "You just get all the ladies, don't you Harry," he chuckled.