Here is the next chapter of my story. Please read and review love Sag x
It was a highly confused Narcissa Malfoy who tried to figure out how her darling Lucius had truly died. Where was his arm and why was it not with him when he died? In her grief she had given Dobby to Draco to be his personal elf now. She felt it was a way Draco could feel closer to his father. Of course she didn't know about the abuse because Lucius didn't want her to know about it until he said she should know about it. This all came to a head by itself however when she saw the bruises on her son and heard why he had them in the first place. It utterly broke her heart to hear what Lucius had done but she still very much loved and missed her husband. It was very confusing for her. She just assured Draco she loved him dearly and brought him to the healer to be sorted out and for her that was the end of it. It wasn't for Draco who had been emotionally scarred by everything his father had done to him but was getting over it. Dobby was a great help to him as well. He got him chocolate cake whenever he liked and it felt very good right about now.
Elsewhere Vernon came home happier then he would have normally. It was Harry's birthday tomorrow and he looked so gleeful that Harry knew it likely meant something very bad for him. They always did something mean to him on or around his birthday. "Petunia come here I have some news for you. Oh there you are. I won the competition at work so you, Dudley and I are going to that five star resort in the Lake District for four days, pack your bags now. The freak can stay here and who knows being here for four days without food might teach him to be better person and not such an insufferable freak" he said with an evil sneer which he directed in Harry's direction. Petunia squealed in joy telling him she was off to pack her bags and rushed upstairs. Harry looked put out but was secretly delighted inside. He had plans for his birthday which did not involve them for he too planned to spend the night at the Savoy in the presidential suite there something he had always wanted to do. He asked Tilly to purchase him an aging potion and get a few thousand pounds from his vault which she did gladly. As the Dursleys rushed around panic packing Harry did his part well of looking highly put out and upset that he wouldn't be joining them. As Vernon carried their bags out to the car Petunia turned to Harry with an evil grin on her face.
"The fridge and cupboards are all locked. If you want water you'll have to take it with your hands. No glasses for freaks except of course the ones you wear normally" she delighted in seeing his face falling further than it already had. With one final sneer in his direction she slammed the front door closed and the car soon sped off. Harry couldn't have looked happier if you'd paid him to. He took the aging potion which made him grow until he looked roughly twenty one years old. This was merely to avoid awkward questions at the hotel as to why a child was checking in. he left at once with his money and checked in for two nights considering they were going to be gone for four days as Vernon had said. As he was going in the door of his hotel room however he fell down in an awkward way and landed on top of his glasses shattering them. When he realised that he groaned in annoyance. "Tilly is there no way to just fix my damn eyesight? I'm so tired of glasses!" he snapped as she appeared there.
"Yes sir we can do that. In the time of your parents this potion was not available as it was only invented four years ago. I can get some and put it inside your eyes to heal them however sir you will need to sleep afterwards for four hours and you should be ok!" she said popping out and popping back in ten minutes later with a dropper. She had him get unchanged and get into the king sized luxury bed in the suite whereupon she put four drops into each eye every two minutes for a total of ten minutes as the instructions said. Harry cried out and shivered as the potion got to work. He was in agony but unfortunately this potion needed to cause pain to work. In ten minutes the searing pain became unbearable as he fell asleep deeply. He woke again in four hours amazed it had worked. He now had twenty-twenty vision and felt wonderful. That had truly been the best birthday gift he'd ever gotten even if he did have to be the one to gift it to himself.
He ordered their most expensive steak with pepper sauce, fried mushrooms, onion rings and chips. He got a side of his favourite vegetables and tucked in with joy. It was truly delicious. As this suite had its own small swimming pool he was thrilled he got to experience a swim too. Tomorrow he'd be going to Diagon Alley himself for the first time in this timeline. He intended to buy his first year potions book, some quills and some ink so he could practice his writing. It had been awful the last time and he wished to avoid that this time if he could. Hermione always harped on about neat writing and complaining to him about the state of his writing. I mean she did have a point even if the way she told him about was annoying and ridiculous. After he had swam around in the pool for a while and cleared his head he felt very good and very tired. He had a quick shower and washed his hair. Tilly dried it for him as he sat at the vanity for her to make it easier for her to reach his hair. After a quick hot chocolate he went to sleep and was out like a light in no time.
In the morning he woke up to an excited Tilly bouncing up and down at the end of his bed. She told him to close his eyes for a moment and so he complied. When she said he could open them again she had a large cake she'd made him for his birthday with plenty of buttercream icing on it and some jam and cream in the centre. He loved it. He blew out the lighting nine candles on the top and thanked her for it. Asides from the handful of times he'd gotten a cake in his last lifetime he never really had someone get him a cake while he still lived with the Dursleys and this meant everything to him. He asked her for a camera so he could get a few photos of the cake she made and she squealed in joy handing him the camera so he could capture her creation. She asked him to move in front and sit down by the cake and as he did so she snapped a picture of him genuinely smiling. Best birthday ever he thought to himself loving being woken up for cake. There was something so pleasurable as a young boy getting to enjoy a great cake on your birthday. He was further shocked when she told him to close his eyes again. When he opened them the cake was gone and he looked stunned. He was about to ask her why when she spoke.
"That cake has gone to our storage and you will have it over the next few days but today is sir's birthday so of course he must have his favourite Treacle Tart. Tilly could never forget that!" she enthused as she brought out the tart and it made him cry overwhelmed tears of joy. It was like being shown the best thing ever and then being told someone had made it just for you. He felt so special and loved in that moment as the love went from her into him through their bond. She really did love her sir so much. He felt the same way himself because for him she really was his family. He viewed her as a sort of best friend and mum rolled into one that he never had before and loved it. After a big slice of treacle tart and a cup of tea he redressed and was ready to go to Diagon Alley. She handed him so plain black robes she'd bought for this occasion and smiled. As he still looked like a twenty one year old and had no glasses it was unlikely he'd be spotted or noticed.
Tilly popped him to an alleyway inside the main thorough fair off to one side and he emerged casually. He entered Flourish and Blotts getting himself the first year potions book and a book on wizarding etiquette. He'd been shocking at both the last time and he vowed to never again be as bad as he had been before. He loved Ron so much as a friend but would not allow him to convince him to do less work this time around. Thinking about Ron made him smile. He missed his best friend who was so often misunderstood. He emerged from the book store determined this time around to get Ron to be more studious with him if he could. He could see that with a bit of encouragement Ron could likely be a very good student but Hermione would seriously have to tone the nagging down because he wouldn't be taking it like he always did last time around. She either learned to speak with tact or shut up. He went next door into the quill and ink shop. It was lined with various shelves along all walls of the shop full of various inks and parchment types. He stupidly had never realised there were so many types of parchment which given Hermione was his friend he should have.
He strolled along the shelves carefully browsing. He decided to buy some more expensive quill books for use later on and he bought five practice or lower quality parchment which wouldn't be a problem if he messed up as there was so much of it and it was cheap. He moved on to the inks feeling quite stressed and overly excited. He had planned to do things carefully but found he was too excited over it being his birthday so he purchased one of every ink shade and quill the shop sold. The shop owner was stunned so much that he couldn't even speak. It had cost the princely sum of two thousand galleons but Harry was happy to pay it if it meant he could relax and find what he truly loved in his own time and pace. He had another two years before he would need to go to school and plenty of time to practice and find the ones he liked the most. He would start this time with writing letter by letter instead of trying to write in joint writing immediately like he had last time. That had been disastrous. He popped into Fortescues for ice cream choosing his favourite death by chocolate ice cream. It was vanilla ice cream with three scoops of chocolate smothered in milk chocolate chunks, chocolate sauce and crème Chantilly. He loved it so much. He heard a tinkle at the door and looked up stunned as a familiar face came in/
In all honesty he'd not really spent much time with the boy but he'd know Blaise Zabini anywhere. He was surprised to discover how casual he was at this age. He was sitting at the counter with a little girl who looked much younger then him. Maybe his sister or something. The last times he'd seen Blaise he'd been in a severe suit looking ridiculous and chucking around dark arts spells like it was nothing which was weird to say the least. Now he looked so innocent and carefree as he giggled at something the little girl said and kissed her forehead lovingly. Yes she was definitely his sister. Maybe Blaise could be saved too. Here he went again with his whole I must save everyone dilemma. He'd eventually learn to stop it; it was just a hard thing to get over. He enjoyed his ice cream but then his ears picked up something they were discussing which he had never heard the last time.
"Blaise may we please pick up another Harry Potter novel? You know they release the new one today! Maggie told me that in this one he slays a dragon and rescues a princess. Oh how romantic!" she sighed as Harry's eyes widened comically. He almost choked on his ice cream but managed to stop himself before he could. He left his money for the ice cream on the counter hastily making his way back to Flourish and Blotts where he asked to be shown the latest book and just as she had said there it was. He had left before he could even hear Blaise's reply but it didn't matter. He bought one copy and took it with him. He'd be reading it and then deciding what to do with this author. Who in the hell was Thelonious Cross? Well Mr Cross would soon get a letter from a lawyer demanding that he stop writing nonsense and that all of his royalties go to Harry himself. How dare someone write nonsense like this about him leading everyone to believe it's true? He now understood why he was so revered the last time in his first year as he had been. I mean not only was he famous anyway but then with these books everyone would have thought he took time off to go to Hogwarts. That people believed he could really slay dragons and rescue desperate girls was not only absurd but funny as well.
Back at the hotel room he got out all of his supplies and organised them into piles of self-inking quills and non-self-inking quills. He then got out the cheap parchment and decided to practice writing his few lines and see how it went. When he was calm and thought properly it went a lot smoother. Also with his block on his magic gone he now had more control then he would have normally. In regards to that he felt so very different this time. He could now retain information and had mild occlumency shields. It was as he was writing and thought about it that he had an idea. He had no idea if it would work but it was worth a try.
"Tilly I need to ask you a question. I know that we cannot read the minds of elves but we can read the minds of each other if we try magically that is! Can you teach me to guard my mind like you do so no one I don't want reading my mind without my permission can do so?" he asked her carefully as she looked at him deep in thought.
"No I cannot the way you humans do it. When you do it I know you make a mindscape and store your memories away like that however we elves don't do that. We make our minds glacial like giant walls of ice which can never be penetrated by others so I would need to do this for you. I can if you like but be warned it won't look pretty like a mindscape!" she said as he smiled brightly at her. Hermione or someone like that would have been mad that it wouldn't look pretty or that he was "cheating" by getting an elf to do it for him but he didn't care.
"Yes that's ok it doesn't need to look pretty so long as my thoughts are protected at all times!" he said nodding as she asked him if she should proceed. She did so a glow connecting the both of their heads for a while and he felt it sink in almost like putting a curtain over a window. He could see out but no one could see in and what's more because of elven skills which came with it he would know who was looking in his mind and when. As he finally managed to write on the parchment which an eagle feather quill he loved without tearing the pages he felt happiness surge within him. He loved the feeling of getting things right he just didn't over boast about them like Hermione did. That night he went to bed with the biggest smile ever on his face. He'd had no party but spent the day with the one he loved like family doing everything and anything he wanted to. It had been his best birthday weekend yet.