Sensing Magic
by Teddylonglong
Please refer to chapter 1 for my disclaimer and warnings. Thank you.
When Bellatrix followed him through the fireplace, Harry felt that his parents immediately tensed. It was subtle, and Harry was sure that Bellatrix did not notice anything.
"Bellatrix, these are my parents, Regina Lestrange-Prince and, well, you know my father, Severus Prince-Snape, and this is my baby brother Felix." Turning to his parents, he added, "Bellatrix Black swore on her magic to not harm our family."
"Thank you, Bella." Severus stepped forward. "This is very much reassuring, especially for my wife. Even if we believe you, old habits die hard."
Bella let out a deep sigh. "I know, and I don't think many people will trust me in the near future." Turning to Regina, she said, "Harry told me what happened to you, and I am so very sorry to hear that. I had not even known about your existence until an hour ago."
"That's fine." Regina smiled. "I was an outcast. You couldn't have known. My brothers certainly wouldn't have wanted anyone to know about me."
"Harry, will you please inform Narcissa and Draco that Bellatrix is here?"
Harry nodded. "Yes, Mum, I will send them here. Afterwards, I'm going to be in the first-year study room."
Bellatrix stared at him in apparent surprise. "You're a first-year?"
"Yes?"
Turning to Regina and Severus, she uttered, "Congratulations on a well-educated son. I'd have believed him to be at least a fifth-year in spite of his size."
Smiling, Harry returned to his room to unobtrusively pop away together with Lucy.
HP
"Are you sure that Aunt Bella told the truth? Everyone always said that she was crazy."
Harry nodded, reassuringly. "Draco, I believe that it's true. I talked to her for a bit this morning, and actually, she was quite nice. Go and see for yourself."
He smiled at the retreating form of his friend, before he changed the topic addressing everyone. "Now, as the parents' weekend is going to take place in two weeks' time, we need to finalise our plans. Together with Neville, Teddy, Lucy and the Weasley twins, I have prepared a rally. We need ten students to wait at five different spots, but we'll have to take turns, so that everyone will have enough time to do the rally themselves, together with their family of course. Daphne and Tracey, could you perhaps make a timetable for everyone, let's say from ten o'clock on Saturday morning until two in the afternoon."
"Won't we get any lunch that day?" Ronald stared at him in apparent disdain.
Harry nodded. "Ah, of course, sorry for that. The parents will arrive around nine o'clock in the morning and will be offered refreshments in the Great Hall. Then we should do the rally until let's say one in the afternoon and then have lunch." He remained pensive for a moment. "If we only have three hours for everyone to do the rally, I'll ask some of the professors or the older students to assist with the five spots, where we need people."
"I think that's better." Daphne was the first to agree.
Harry nodded. "After lunch, everyone will have some private time with their families, and on three o'clock, the Quidditch match first-years versus teachers will begin. We will only have that one match on Saturday, and the matches teachers versus parents and then students versus parents on Sunday morning."
"What about Saturday evening?" Hermione looked extremely excited.
Harry shrugged. "Professor McGonagall promised to plan the evening program. As far as I know, she has invited a band. They are famous in the muggle world but have stopped playing a few years ago. What the muggles don't know is that they're magical and are still continuing to perform within the magical world."
"Who are they?" Hermione's excitement seemed to multiply.
"You will know soon enough." Harry grinned, broadly.
"Do we have to dance?" Neville's voice was laced with concern.
Harry shook his head. "We can just hop around in the rhythm of the music. We don't have to be able to properly dance. Professor McGonagall wanted to have a proper ball at first, but my Mum told her that first-years usually don't know how to dance yet."
"Thank Merlin your mother is so wise." Ginny nodded in apparent appreciation. "I heard from Bill that they had a dance ball in their fifth-year and it was a real hassle."
Harry rolled his eyes at the prospect. "All right, who wants to play on the team? If we're too many, we need to take turns. Draco will play Chaser in any case, and I'd like to play Seeker if you don't mind."
"That'll give us the ninety-five percent chance for a victory." Theo grinned, broadly. "Even the professors acknowledge that he's the best Seeker Hogwarts has ever seen."
"Ah, rubbish." Harry shook his head. "Anyway, who wants to play Keeper?"
Ronald was the first to rise his hand. "Me."
"All right. Ronald Keeper. Who wants to play Beater?"
Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle raised their hands, and Harry nodded in their direction. "All right, two more Chasers?"
"Ginny, Draco and? One more please?"
"Harry, do you think I could play?" Teddy's voice was barely audible.
"Of course. Teddy will be the third Seeker then. During the next two weeks, we should practise as often as possible, perhaps between the last afternoon class and dinner. Will we get together a reserve team, which we can play against to practise?" Receiving several nods, he quickly set up the team with Theo as his opponent Seeker.
"We might need two or three people who take turns looking after younger siblings. Would anyone be willing to do that?"
Tracey, Ginny and Susan raised their hands. "Will they bring their toys?" Susan enquired.
"I will purchase some stock of toys for every age," Harry promised, making a mental note to ask one or two of his elves. 'Oh well, before I forget, I'll just deal with it right away.'
"Nina, Tony," he called his first elf friends, who were among the free elves working for him. He swiftly told them what they needed, instructing them to take the money from his vault and advised them to discuss what was needed with Ginny, Tracey and Susan. He smiled, when the three girls immediately began to confer with the two elves. 'Amazing,' he thought. 'For my classmates, it's completely natural to speak with the elves like with other humans, probably due to Teddy being our classmate.'
HP
After lunch the same day, Minerva approached Harry. "Harry, would you mind accompanying me to my office for a moment?"
When they were seated in the Transfiguration professor's office, she spoke up while gently playing with Lucy's ears. "As you know, we have several parents of our first-years who are muggles."
Harry nodded. 'Yes, I know that.'
"As you probably also know, muggles cannot see Hogwarts. While we have given out Portkeys to all of our first-years to send to their parents, we need to cast a specific charm on these muggles to enable them to see and thus enter Hogwarts."
Harry nodded in understanding. "All right. What do we have to do?"
Minerva smiled. "Would you be willing to accompany me to these families and cast the spell? While I could cast it, it might be more efficient if you as the owner of Hogwarts cast it."
"What spell is it?"
It was not difficult, and after a few tries, Harry managed to cast the spell flawlessly, much to Minerva's apparent contentedness. He then quickly popped Lucy back home, instructing her to remain with Regina and Felix, before he and Minerva visited the muggle parents of his classmates. To his relief, everyone was at home, and the parents already knew Minerva, as she had visited the families before.
The Grangers were the only ones who perked up at the mentioning of his name. "Harry Prince? Oh, how nice to finally get to meet you. Hermione already told us a lot about you."
Harry smiled. "She's one of my best friends." He swiftly cast the charm at the two muggles before asking if they had any further questions. Only too late did he realise that it had been a mistake.
When they left the Granger residence, three hours later and their bellies full with tea and cheese cake, Minerva smirked. "Now we know where Ms. Granger got her inquisitive character."
Harry grinned. "I suppose that you already knew, which is probably why we went to see the Grangers last."
Minerva smiled, knowingly.
tbc...
Thank you so very much for the kind reviews for the previous chapter.