Nymphadora Tonks shuffled nervously into her boss's office. Although she was not a green rookie. She could hardly claim that she was a veteran officer. "Sit down." Amelia Bones said gruffly. The nervous shuffle was replaced by a quick dash to the indicated seat. "Auror Tonks, report."
"The party happened without a problem. It was a private affair as I was told." The young auror replied immediately. "My cousin, Sirius Black, 'riled' me up as expected. My overpowered stinging hex did not even make him twitch as expected. "Indeed, did you have a chance to try a more physical restraint?"
"No Madam. The looks those two women at his side gave me was enough to stop me from trying. I didn't think I would be able to sneak in another 'accident' no matter how annoying Sirius could be. And he acted like he did it on purpose to allay the fears my parents had after the entire Goblin incident."
"A shame. Thank you for your time Auror Tonks." she said with clear dismissal but paused as she saw her auror fidget in her seat. "Is there something else?" Nymphadora bit her lip, her boss had ambushed her at the end with the order and she hadn't given it much thought, but now that she had she didn't feel like she could do it again. Her entire list of reasons failed to manifest themselves in her voice however and instead she said "Could you please not ask me this again Madam."
"Why so?" "Sirius and Harry are family." Tonks replied shortly leaving out that she felt dirty and that she had betrayed their trust by acting as an informer. Not to mention the horrible fates people suffered who gained a Campione's ire. She had no desire to be the first example. Her boss sighed but to her relief nodded. "Very well. Dismissed."
Nymphadora ran as if she had a pack of rabid hellhounds on her heels.
Harry was at a loss what to do with himself. Hermione was with her parents, Sirius had been dragged off by Remus for some adult reason and/or responsibility Sirius had. Cressida was at the Witengamot to listen in to the reports on the investigations of the Vodyanoy and Ugruk descensions.
On the former the witch had admitted there was precious little progress. The thief had not exactly left any documentation even as every institution from the non-wanded side of the divide was more than willing to check their archives and volunteer the information. On the wanded side of things were slower but coming up equally up empty.
On the latter the goblins were surprisingly willing to tell them what the scant survivors knew after another internal reshuffle. Unfortunately for the investigation, said reshuffle reduced the amount of goblins both alive and in the know countable on a single hand, and each goblin involved was not exactly high up the ladder before the leadership got itself culled.
A small upside to this all in Harry's opinion was that at least his belongings were back where they belonged. Sirius, Remus and Cressida had plowed over the numbers separately while Harry had done the same in Hermione's company. The personal inspection had been tense but the new goblin king seemed to be a more agreeable sort, or at least pretending to be so.
He flipped through his school books in the library but simply could not muster the interest without Hermione around. Going outside to practice his magic would involve a massive dance with the Witenagemot to move his rear to a safe training area. 'And if I slip out I'll just make them all nervous. And then I'll have to deal with all the disappointed looks. Why did I want to be the better Campione again?' Harry thought wryly as he suspected his peers who threw around the powers more liberally did not have to deal with that.
Training his magical sight passed his mind but he could not find the will to do so. Trying to stare at the world in just the right way got boring quickly even if it was a kind of training he could do at any moment. Even practicing his swordsmanship required a bit of preparation as the Black manor did not have a room set aside for that.
He wandered down in the quest of finding something to eat. Lately he was growing steadily requiring a trip to buy new clothing, both muggle and wizard, which would have been fun if it was just with Hermione, but the adults felt the need to hover around and Harry had to pretend not to notice the dozen of agents following him around in the mundane parts of London. 'Well at least they all paid for my clothes. Although they are a bit too rich for my taste… ah well.' Harry mused as he walked past the living room towards the kitchen.
Glancing inside he found Mia carefully running a cloth over the sword of Gryffindor. The cloth was held in what looked like a pair of wooden tweezers. Harry paused at the bizarra sight before remembering the deadly poison that coated the sword of Gryffindor's edge. Which also explained the blackened set of cloth already tossed into a transparent bin.
His curiosity roused, he silently entered the room. Mia however is too good of a knight to let him sneak up on her without trying. "Harry?" she asked, her eyes remaining on the sword. "Yup, what are you doing?" Harry asked. "Sword maintenance, or as far as possible with this weapon." Mia replied. Harry blinked as he processed that. "Sword's need maintaining?" he asked puzzled.
The look of utter disgust he received would make just about any heretic reconsider their religious beliefs. "They do." Mia said dryly as Harry raised his hands slowly in surrender before she took enough offense to gut him with the weapon in front of her. "Anything short of a divine blade is susceptible to the predation of time. Granted magical weapons are far more resilient but still… one must at least make sure the blade is properly cleaned and oiled."
"Oh… euh. I must have been making extra work for you." Harry commented with a wince as he remembered just how often he happily slammed the sword back into its sheet without bothering to wipe off any water or goblin guts.
"It's not a problem." Mia said as she turned her attention back to the weapon. "This sword might be a bit gaudy with it's decorations, but it's edge is still pristine even after you banged it a couple of times against that divine goblin axe. It either has some kind of self-repair ability, your authority does or it is just that strong under the influence of your authority. Any other weapon would have some kind of chipping or dulling."
"Hmm, don't tell Dumbledore. He might want to test that." Harry said jokingly. "Still it seems like something I need to know." "Don't worry about it." Mia replied and to Harry's ears she sounded a touch defensive. "I'll take care of the sword of Gryffindor, or any other weapons you might pick up."
"Alright." Harry said quickly to assure her he was not going to wade into her territory again. "Just let me know if you can't get something you need to keep all our weapons in good shape."
Mia paused her duty for a moment. "I think I have everything covered. Unless you want to talk with the goblins again and get them to tell if there is anything about maintaining goblin steel that the Witenagemot hasn't deduced from them over the centuries."
Harry snorted. "I think it's best if I keep well away from the goblins. Unless you want me to give you more work." "Yes, let's avoid that." Mia agreed with a small smile. "Oiling the edge is enough work as it is and I am nearly done." "Great, think we can go out for lunch without making everyone break out in a sweat?" Harry asked.
"If I send them a message we should manage that." Mia agreed kindly.
"I can't believe the vacation is over already." Harry noted as he was packing his trunk. "It seemed so endless when I was stuck with the Dursleys. " "Heh. That would be as they are boring people. Welcome to the typical summer experience Harry." Sirius said with a grin as he levitated the fifth year books over to the trunk. He left the muggle books about geology to Harry.
"On the upside. Now you can snuggle up to your girl all day long now without any adult supervision." Sirius offered with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle had seen many times now. He didn't react to it even though he had to admit the few weeks apart as Hermione's parents also wanted to see their daughter.
"I will let professor McGonagall know you do not count her as 'adult supervision'." Harry replied with a grin. Sirius however returned easily. "Well what is she going to do? Give me detention? Make me write lines? I was a marauder Harry and none of that even stopped me before." "I am sure she'll figure out something. Perhaps she'll transfigure you back to a firstie and make you sit through Hogwarts again?" Remus offered from the door.
"Well she did offer to transfigure Ron into a map during the first lesson." Harry mused out loud. Sirius grin widened however ."Well if she is crazy enough to offer me another seven years at Hogwarts I am more than willing to give it a go." "Seven years to raise hell with all the knowledge we have now." Remus joined in with a musing tone.
"On second thought. I won't tell her." Harry replied dryly at the idea of having a second set of pranksters raising merry hell in Hogwarts. "Awww." the dog animagus whined piteously. He received a patronizing head pat from Remus. "There there Padfoot. I am sure you could prank someone else and still be a responsible member of society."
"You should shave the Malfoys to find out if they are really blond." Harry suggested as he closed his trunk. The thoughtful looks both Marauders sported Harry knew he had aimed the pranksters away from him and the people close to him. As much as he loved being away from the Dursleys. Not being able to trust your morning breakfast or run into several 'experiments' to test his resistance against magic was tiring.
He picked up his trunk and dragged the two thinking Marauders back to the living room so that he could wait on Cressida and Mia. He barely had time to sit down when someone knocked on the door. Remus went to the door and soon returned with Mia. "The limousine is here." she announced.
"It still feels a bit over the top that I get driven over to the station in a limo." Harry grumbled as he handed over the trunk to the uniformed man who followed the pair. "It is the least they could do." Mia replied with a shrug. Sirius snorted derisively. "No, It is a smart way to make sure they got a clue where the Campione is going now that he cannot side-along or use a portkey."
The younger pair paused and gave the older man a puzzled look as Remus gave an agreeing nod. "It would also give them time to delay the limousine and hope certain parties could talk sense into the Campione before he sets off to do something." "Wouldn't that be trying to manipulate a Campione, which then as everyone is convinced results into another Pompei?"
"Is it manipulation if Hermione convinces you that punching Draco Malfoy is a bad idea?" Remus offered as a suggestion. "Well it is a good idea for a start." Harry grumbled and Sirius offered an empathetic agreement. The conversation paused for a moment as they settled inside the vehicle where Cressida was deep into a book.
The werewolf chuckled as the limousine set off "Harry…" "I get it." the young man replied "I can even understand why they told Mia and Cressida to stick around me. A Campione with a bad idea must be a disaster to keep the statue of secrecy going." "Keeping the excesses of the Old Wolf of the Balkans secret is an international effort with casualties every year." Cressida inserted into the discussion.
"Now that the one knight that somehow managed to last under him is now also transferred thanks to the action of Campione Salvatore their work has become much harder." "The Witenagemot is very pleased with our 'work' to ensure that the British Campione is a proper young gentleman."
"Young gentlemen swing swords into the faces of foreign kings?" Harry asked sarcastically. "Weeelll… if you were a colonial young gentleman I think the answer is yes." All but the driver gave Sirius a glare for the smart comment. "Anything else that the Witenagemot doesn't want me to know?" Harry asked after a moment.
"They are all still very curious about the authority you gained from the goblin heretic god. As it was a one on one fight there should be no reason for Pandora to withhold an authority like she does when multiple Campione attack a single heretic god." she paused for a moment to check something in her mind. "Although I do think it is the first time a Campione effectively drowned his enemy."
The Campione in question shrugged "I can't share what I don't know myself. I just knew how I could invoke the authorities from Perseus and Vodyanoy. Maybe I don't have the instant connection like before since he used Gobbledygook to start the incantation… or maybe it is an authority he did not use in battle as it needed something the underground area could not provide?"
"Unless there is a secret repository of knowledge somewhere that is something the Witenagemot cannot answer." Cressida admitted with clear disappointment. Harry turned his attention to the London cityscape slowly rolling by as the limousine muscled its way through the traffic to make it to King's Cross Station. 'Sometimes it feels like everyone else is more interested in this Campione business then I am.'
A while later the environment became familiar again and Harry knew they were close. He didn't want to know how the Witenagemot ensured there was sufficient space to park the limousine nearly in front of the station but he suspected magic was heavily involved. He took his trunk from the driver before the man would carry it all the way to the Hogwarts train and he ignored the clear affront in the driver's eyes as he waved the man back to the vehicle.
Harry was relieved the group had worked their way through the commuting crowds like normal people. He feared the Witenagemot would have deployed a horde of people to clear the way for him and chided himself for assuming that they would go that far. 'I have proven not to be a danger to the general public.' he reminded himself. He blinked twice and the colours in the world changed. Most muggles were relatively dull while the magics surrounding platform 9¾ glowed brightly. A few more bright spots indicated the other early birds heading towards the train.
With his new sight finding Hermione was rather easy. Another pair of blinks had his sight return to normal as he took the lead. "I see our training has paid off." Remus commented just before Harry and Hermione rocketed towards each other like they hadn't seen each other for months, while the actual time was measured in days.
A very thorough snog followed that even a pointed clearing of the throat of Dan Granger did not stop, nor did the provocative whistle from Sirius have any effect. "As much I would enjoy the extra money from fixing all the teeth that have rotten from this sweet sight. I do like to think I raised a proper young lady." Emma observed when the teens finally separated.
"You did." Harry agreed with a nod leaving the woman blinking wondering if the young man had misheard her. Dan seemed to surrender to the inevitable with a sigh. "Just keep an eye out…" "... and make sure to use precautions." Sirius added with a grin. "In a couple of years and with me staying blissfully unaware of it." Dan growled. "I will be sure that they know how to use a silencing charm when they have go at it in your home." Sirius replied utterly unhelpfully.
Remus' casual assurance did not go over well and Dan settled for blaming Harry with a blistering glare. He weathered it without problem as there was no real dislike or hate in it and he understood Dan's desire to keep his daughter safe. Remus had taken the time to explain how parents tended to react when a daughter brought a lad home with them.
"Shall we head to the train platform?" Cressida suggested and found much agreement. Trooping the group through the barrier they quickly found a cabin for themselves. They chatted with the adults not going to Hogwarts through the open window as the platform slowly filled up.
The group drew some visible interest but none tried to cut in. The arrival of a redheaded family indicated it was almost time to go. They said their goodbyes and the train whistled its final signal. To Harry's surprise it was Sirius of all people who broke out in tears. The way Remus just looked at his friend he was not the only one caught unaware.
As Sirius bawled his eyes out and the train pulled away Harry and Hermione stood frozen at the window watching the spectacle recede in the distance. "Should we head back?" Harry asked as he could no longer see Sirius. Cressida opened her mouth to point out that they were on a moving train only to remember that a Campione could take that as a challenge.
"I think you might actually make it worse." she offered instead. "Do you really think so?" Harry asked to make sure as he felt a clump of worry materialize in his stomach. He inwardly wondered if he missed any signs that Sirius would take it so badly. For a moment he wished he hadn't told Hedwig in the morning to go ahead to Hogwarts. If she was here he would have penned a quick letter just to reaffirm everything was going to be alright.
"I agree with Cressida… and my mom, dad and Remus are there as well." Hermione offered as she gently pulled Harry away from the window. With one final look he plopped down the seat nearest to the door of the cabin. "You are right." he said without any real faith in his words.