Arthur hugged him from behind, while Molly was in front. It quickly turned into a family group hug, as the other Weasley children all got up to join in, with Bill carefully guiding a now shell shocked but potioned Ron into the middle of the group.

"We'll be alright," Arthur murmured in Percy's ear. Louder, he said, "We will all be alright."

Sirius Black Innocent! Peter Pettigrew alive!

Trouble at the Wizengamot.

By Rita Skeeter

In a surprise move during yesterday's Wizengamot session, Harry Potter appeared before the Wizengamot, appointing a new proxy, Lord Daniel Greengrass, to take care of his seats until further notice. At first, nobody knew why until he revealed that Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore has been lying to us. Harry Potter claims that he was raised by Muggles, with no knowledge of his wizarding heritage until he was delivered his Hogwarts letter by Rubeus Hagrid.

It is well known that the only teachers allowed to deliver Hogwarts letters and take new Muggle-born and raised students along with their Muggle families shopping for their school supplies are the Heads of House at Hogwarts. And this only after receiving extensive training from the Ministry's educational and Muggle relations departments. So, it should be no shock that Hagrid, as well as he meant, would not have known to make sure young Harry Potter knew to purchase books on our world.

However, it seems his Families Head-elf has finally solved that when she appeared in his Muggle relatives home and subsequently took him to Gringotts when he didn't know what she was talking about in regards to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter.

As for Professor Dumbledore telling the Wizengamot on multiple occasions that Heir Potter didn't want his parents will read, that he wanted the past to stay in the past, it seems that that too was a lie. Harry Potter claims that he never laid eyes on Professor Dumbledore until the night of the opening feast, September first of this past school year.

But, yesterday at the Wizengamot Potter account manager Sharpaxe once again made his yearly request for the Wizengamot to open and read the Potter Wills, and with the aid of Harry Potter was this time successful. (For the full contents of the Wills, see page 10). The contents of these wills was surprising.

The one to betray the Potters was not, as was believed until now, Sirius Black. Rather it was Peter Pettigrew. Sirius Black is also the godfather and Blood-Adopted father of Harry Potter, with James and Lily's blessing while they were still alive.

Ten years ago, Peter Pettigrew betrayed the Potters, and then Peter Pettigrew killed those twelve Muggles that Sirius Black was accused of killing. Sirius Black was then accused of treason and thrown in Azkaban without trial.

That's right, he never even recieved a trial. Despite his service to our community as a Hit-Wizard during the war with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his status as the Heir to a Most Ancient and Noble House.

Yesterday, the reading of the Wills threw the summer Wizengamot session into chaos (They never did manage to get around to the normal business that was on the docket for this session). After the Wills were read, Harry Potter, together with Prince of the Goblin Nation Griphook demanded that Sirius Black be given trial by Veritaserum, which Harry Potter can do according to the Laws regarding Lords or Heirs who stand trial (For more information see page 3) as he is the Heir to the Black family, of which we learned that Sirius Black is Lord of since his grandfather, Lord Arcturus Black passed almost two years ago.

Lord Sirius Black was then brought out and put on trial, where he was found innocent of all crimes he was accused of except the crime of being an unregistered animagus. It was quickly determined though, that he was already punished enough when he was thrown in Azkaban without trial and left to rot for now over a decade, so he was let off with a warning to register before reporting to the Gringotts infirmary for treatment, where Harry Potter apparently made arrangements for his treatment there instead of St. Mungoes citing privacy reasons.

After the impromptu trial of Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew was brought in after Harry Potter showed Lord Black a picture of him and his friends, asking if he could identify the pet rat in the picture. Lord Black gave a positive identification, stating that the pet rat sitting on Ronald Weasley's shoulder was indeed Peter Pettigrew. That's right, Peter Pettigrew has been masquerading as the Weasley families pet rat Scabbers.

When Peter Pettigrew was put on trial, he was found guilty of the following charges. Belonging to a terrorist organization (the Death Eaters), multiple counts of murder (both direct and indirect), trespassing, betraying the Potters, being an illegal animagus, and multiple counts of rape.

As of last night, Peter Pettigrew was sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss and was transferred to the ward of Azkaban where the criminals subjected to this punishment are kept until they die physically.

The question we should all be asking ourselves now is, where was Albus Dumbledore and the Minister when all this was happening?

Where was Albus Dumbledore, and why has he been lying to us all these years about where he placed our Savior, why has he been lying to us all these years about what Harry Potter has been telling him, when Harry Potter has made it clear he never even knew Albus Dumbledore existed before he started Hogwarts? Just how many lies have we been told, and what can we trust?

I will continue to watch and report as I learn details.

Sirius laid the paper down and grinned at Barchoke and Harry sitting next to his bed in the private room the goblin Healers put him in. According to them, he was going to be here for a while, so it made no sense for him to be in the public ward, which was only set up for short-term patients.

He grinned at Harry, who grinned back. It was a good article, and it had nothing that they didn't want in it. "Who knew the Prophet could be truthful for a change, and they didn't print anything about the Dursley's." Sirius said.

Harry and Barchoke smirked. "That might have something to do with the fact that between the two of you, you own the Prophet." Barchoke said with a vicious gleam to his eyes.

Sirius blinked. And blinked. Then he burst out laughing so hard a Healer came rushing in to see what was wrong because the monitoring spells they had over Sirius went off. When she saw it was just Sirius laughing, she turned to glare at Barchoke before she started berating him for getting her patient worked up. Sirius stopped laughing long enough to protest.

"Come on! You know, there's a Muggle saying, that laughter is the best medicine." He said, giving her his most charming smile. She shot him a glare before resetting the charms and then she warned Harry and Barchoke that she would kick them out if they insisted on working him up.

When they left, Harry turned to Sirius. "You know Muggle sayings? Most Purebloods I've met at Hogwarts don't even know how Muggles dress, let alone how they talk." He said, surprised.

Sirius chuckled. "Lily made sure James and I were well educated in all things Muggle. She would get us all a hotel room just so we could be out where we couldn't use magic freely just so we could learn how Muggles live, and to appreciate magic. I never realized how much I took having magic for granted until your mother forbade us from using magic at all unless we were attacked. I'm sure you've noticed, but Purebloods tend to treat magic like Muggle house-wives would treat their pots and pans, while the Muggle-borns tend to respect the power they now hold." He said.

Harry looked awed at the piece of information about his parents, but nodded his agreement to what Sirius was saying.

"Now that is out of the way," Barchoke suddenly said, he wanted to get to the reason he was here in the first place and not in his office. "I wanted to get started on going through your assets, Lord Black. Considering how much your views differed from your parents, I think there is much we will need to discuss regarding your business investments." He said. Then he pulled out a bottomless pouch like Harry's. "Before we do anything though, we need to make you Lord Black officially. I retrieved the Black ceremonial bowl from the vaults, and I have the other items here as well. I'm also planning on giving you an abilities test, to see that nothing about your core is tampered with like your Heirs core was."

Sirius frowned. "What was wrong with Harry's core? What do you mean by tampered with?!" He demanded. Harry winced when he realized that they hadn't told Sirius about any of this yet.

"Lord Black, please try to calm down, or we will be kicked out." Barchoke admonished. He waited until Sirius was calm again before he continued. "As for what was wrong with Heir Potter-Black's core..." He hesitated a moment before handing Sirius a Calming Draught from the bed-side cabinet. He only handed over the copy of Harry's ability test after he drank it. It was clear that if Sirius didn't have the Calming Draught in his system, he would have probably destroyed the room by now.

"What...? This is...? How could...? That foolish, stupid old man, I'm gonna kill him!" He finally snarled.

Harry's eyes widened. "No! You just got out, look, we already have a plan for Dumbledore, just... be patient." He said, grabbing Sirius by the arm. Sirius stopped ranting about how he was going to castrate Dumbledore and then feed him to his fellow old goats to blink at Harry.

Then he grinned, "Alright. I'll try." He said almost cheerfully. Barchoke winced. He knew the Healers said he would have mood swings for a while, an after-affect of being around the Dementors for so long, but... wow.

"Anyway, why don't we run the inheritance test first, and while that soaks, we can go ahead with the abilities." Barchoke said as he pried the parchment from Sirius's grip. He pulled out the bowl, silver knife, and blue potion. He handed the potion and knife to Sirius while he set the bowl down and pulled out the parchments needed.

Once the parchment was in the bowl and soaking, Sirius looked over at Harry to see him staring at the bowl with a strange look on his face. "What's wrong, kiddo?" He asked.

"The magic coming off that is not... nice feeling." Harry said, pointing to the bowl.

"You can feel that?" Sirius asked in shock. Harry nodded.

"Ah yes, Sharpaxe warned me about that." Barchoke said. "And before you ask, yes, we do respect the privacy of our clients. Sharpaxe and I just happen to... share you, as the Heir to our respective Houses." He turned back to Sirius. "Put some blood on this, if you will." He said as he held out the knife and another parchment.

As Sirius's abilities started listing themselves, Barchoke looked satisfied. "Nothing here but a mild suggestion charm and a couple of charms keyed towards keeping you and Severus Snape antagonistic towards each other." He grinned ferally. "Although those last charms seem to have become inactive years ago. Perhaps when the two of you were named godfather to the same child." He mused.

Sirius looked thoughtful as he reached out to take his parchment. "Severus and I made an Unbreakable Vow to try and get along, for Harry's sake. We figured we would be around each other a lot, and we would be sharing Harry... and I didn't want him growing up with us constantly fighting over simply being in the same room as the other."

Barchoke nodded. "That would do it."

"What's an Unbreakable Vow?" Harry asked.

"Like the name suggests, its unbreakable. Anyone foolish enough to do so, dies. Your own magic turns against you, and the results aren't pretty." Barchoke said.

Sirius nodded. "Which is why you are never making one. For one, you are underage, which means that if someone were to try and make one, its illegal and constitutes a minimum fifteen years in Azkaban. Which might as well be a death sentence considering many inmates don't survive that place for longer than two years. For another, I'm your..." He hesitated to say father because he and Harry just met, and he didn't want to try to go too fast and possibly scare the boy away. He didn't know how Petunia raised him after all, he just knew it couldn't have been with any kind of motherly affection. "Legal guardian and Head of your House. If someone wants to take a Vow with you, they are required to go through me, whether you were underage or not." He paused. "That, and I really don't want you messing around with Unbreakable Vows." He finished.

He didn't see Harry's face fall slightly when Sirius only referred to himself as his legal guardian. If he had, he would have explained. Barchoke saw though, and resolved to mention it to the boy later. Until then...

He raised an eyebrow. "You didn't go through your grandfather in making your Vow with Lord Prince-Snape though, did you?"

Sirius snorted lightly. "I thought I was disowned at the time. My mother certainly made it clear enough that I was... So no, I didn't go through my grandfather. I did, however, go through Charlus and Dorea, your grandparents," He said for Harry's benefit when he looked confused. "They unofficially adopted me, after all." He set the abilities parchment aside when he saw the inheritance one was ready.

Sirius Orion Black

Abilities

Animagus

Occlumency

Legilimancy

Wandless

Charms

Suggestion Charm: Keyed to Albus Dumbledore

Aversion Charm: Aversion to Severus Snape (inactive)

Aggression Charm: Aggression to Severus Snape (inactive)

Sirius Orion Black

Father: Orion Arcturus Black

Mother: Walburga Black nee Black

Godfather: Abraxus Malfoy

Godmother: Tabitha LeStrange

Heir: Harold James Potter-Black

Lord: Black (4)

Le Fay (6)

Ravenswood (4)

"All this looks in order." Barchoke said with a nod. He plucked the three Lordship rings out of the bowl and handed them one by one to Sirius in order of when they were supposed to go on his finger. "Heir Potter-Black has already claimed his heir-ships, so that is in order as well. It is just as well that he did, considering Dumbledore plans on potioning him tomorrow at the opening feast. Now that you have officially claimed your vaults, we can discuss business." He said, pulling a very large folder out of his bag. "The Black accounts have been closed except for all incoming monies and the regular taxes since your grandfather passed two years ago, as per his order, so the vaults have grown... in fact the only vault that has been touched was Narcissa Malfoy's." He said, scanning a sheet before passing it off to Sirius to examine.

"Malfoy?" Harry asked. "As in Draco Malfoy's mother?" He was slightly horrified.

"The very same... what is Draco like?" Sirius asked. He decided to give Narcissa a chance, he wouldn't throw her out right away. She was always nice to him, at least she was until she married Malfoy.

Harry snorted. "He's a skinny version of my cousin, Dudley. Bullies everyone, has an arrogant streak a mile wide. He never gets in trouble because Severus has to keep his father happy in order to keep Professor Dumbledore happy, even if Severus literally walks in on him cursing somebody, Draco gets away with it." Sirius frowned. "Anytime something happens that he doesn't like, it's 'my father, this' and 'my father, that'. He really hates me for some reason, and I doubt that its just because I didn't shake his hand on the train last year." Harry said.

"You didn't shake his hand? Harry, that's the biggest insult you can give!" Sirius exclaimed.

Harry scowled. "I know that NOW. I didn't then."

Sirius grimaced, "Ok, that's understandable. I'll talk to Narcissa about him. Sounds like an entitled little snot. Since Narcissa is his mother, and she is part of the Black family, that makes him part of the Black family, and since the Blacks are ranked higher than the Malfoy's, since they aren't native to Britain... and they are only a Noble House, which is just a House that has a lot of money and maybe one or two seats on the Wizengamot, but anyway... what I say will trump Lord Malfoy when it comes to how his son is raised. I'm going to speak to Narcissa about teaching him how to behave like a Black. Because it sounds like he's just behaving like an entitled little brat. This will be her only chance to stay in the family, I'll speak with her too about her loyalties to Voldemort." He considered the parchment again. "Bellatrix LeStrange nee Black is hereby disowned from the family, and Andromeda Tonks nee Black is to be reinstated, along with her daughter and husband, Nymphadora and Theodore." He said.

Barchoke nodded. "I will send out the notices to the Tonks, and send for Lady Malfoy for you to speak with her. I'll send the notice about Lady LeStrange to the Ministry, since she can't get mail in Azkaban."

Sirius barked a laugh. "She's not sane enough to read it even if they did give it to her." He shuddered. "Some of the stuff she would start screaming about..." He shook his head. "The guards used to come in and start yelling at the both of us, about how we apparently made prison a family business... whoever decided to give us cells so close had a really sick sense of humor." He muttered, going back to the parchments.

Just then, the door opened and Augusta Longbottom was shown in. "Neville just came out of the ritual room, he should be waking up in a little bit. Do you want to stay here while I take him back to Ollivanders to test his wand, or do you want to go with us when he wakes up?" She asked Harry. He had come to the bank with her and Neville when she decided that it really would be best if they made sure that nothing was wrong with Neville's core, since they would be going back to Hogwarts tomorrow. She would send a note to McGonagall explaining her grandson's sudden lack of control over his magic. It wouldn't be as dramatic as Harry's loss of control was, but it could still be dangerous if the teacher's weren't prepared for it. Maybe she should have waited to get him his own wand until after they tested him... but she didn't know!

"Why don't you go on with them, pup? We'll just be talking business. I managed to talk Healer Garnock into letting me go see you off tomorrow, of course she's insisting that she come along with me, but..." He shrugged. "I figure since Severus is going to be watched by Dumbledore all day tomorrow, he won't be able to come see you off, so somebody ought to."

Harry jumped at him with a giant hug, before he left with Augusta, waving behind him as he went.

Barchoke chuckled when Harry was gone, "That's a special kid you got there. Sharpaxe and Prince Griphook were telling everyone yesterday about what he said to the Wizengamot. Apparently, somebody was trying to tell him that because we aren't human, we aren't intelligent. He threw that right back in their faces by pointing out that we wouldn't be in charge of the banks otherwise, that it takes a keen intellect to do our jobs."

Sirius smiled sadly. "He's a Potter, even if he wasn't raised one."

Severus sat back in his chair with a groan. Just as he predicted two weeks ago, Lucius Malfoy came barging in his office giving a 'generous donation' of seven new Nimbus 2001's to the Slytherin Quidditch team. Also just like predicted, Lucius then made it very clear how perfect his Draco would be for the team.

So, tomorrow he was going to have to pull the current Seeker, Terrence Higgs, aside after the opening feast and explain why he was no longer on the team, despite his three years of dedication and hard work.

He wished the goblins would just contact him already to tell him that the Horcruxes were taken care of, then he could stop pretending to be one of Them. The only way he was able to yell at Harry like he had in class the past year was by imagining Draco Malfoy in his place, and then vice versa when he had to pander to Draco's every wish, and stoke the boys ego appropriately in potions. Granted, he was good in the lab, but... still.

Terrence Higgs parents (and therefore Terrence himself) were in the alliance meeting Sharpaxe called a couple of weeks ago, so at least he would be able to explain the situation to the boy as it was. He had no choice if he was going to play his role and keep his godson safe. As soon as the Horcruxes were destroyed, Draco would be off the team and Terrence would have his spot back, provided of course that he earned it back. At least he would be able to drop some of the masks around Mr. Higgs and those other students that were at the meeting, if only in private.

He suspected that he would only truly be able to drop them around Harry, and in the past, Lily.

He would go visit the boy again, he had gotten a lot of freedom the past week while Albus was busy with the Conference, but unfortunately, the man was back this morning.

The thought depressed him enough that he finally gave into the temptation for a glass or two of fire-whiskey. He never drank more than that, not after living with his drunk of a father. His plans were ruined when the head of Albus too-many-names Dumbledore appeared in his fireplace. He cursed under his breath before he made sure his Occlumency shields were in place and 'politely' (as sarcastically as possible) asked the agitated old fool what he wanted now.

"Come through to my office." He demanded before he withdrew.

Severus sighed. The old man was in a bad mood. He must have finally seen the paper, either that, or he just got through a very large pile of Howlers.

He smirked when he remembered watching all those owls carrying red envelopes to the Headmaster's office. He himself had used the opportunity to send a Howler of his own, anonymously of course. And charmed to ensure nothing he did to vanish it or silence it would work, ensuring his message was heard even after the others were all vanished away.

He ought to do it more often. Who knew that yelling at the man about everything he ever wanted to say would have been so stress relieving and satisfying.

He bolstered his shields further as he stepped into the Floo and called his destination. An irritated Dumbledore tended to be a Legilimancy-happy Dumbledore. And that was never good.

He was right to bolster his shields, because the moment he stepped through he felt Dumbledore's mental intrusion. He stopped and glared, "Kindly withdraw before I force you out, Albus." He hissed. Giving the man a warning he really didn't feel like giving him. But he was afraid that once he started, he wouldn't be able to stop. That was the last thing they needed right now. "And kindly remember, that I do not tolerate such attacks, especially when I do not know the cause." He growled lowly.

Dumbledore scowled, but stopped his mental attack. It would not do to alienate Severus right now. Not when he had to do damage control, and that included making sure Severus would still provide him with the potions he needed.

Instead he picked up the newspaper, "Did you see this?" He asked, his tone was strained, but still polite. Severus raised an eyebrow and nodded. Dumbledore nodded too, he couldn't say anything about them not reading all of the wills contents, because if anybody asked, he would play the 'my age must be catching up to me, my memory is not as it once was' card. He couldn't do that if he asked why Madam Bones left out parts of the will. "You haven't had contact with the boy, have you?" He asked instead.

Severus shook his head, "I haven't had the time, I was also unsure as to where he was staying until now." He said cautiously, wondering where the old goat was going with this.

Dumbledore sat down behind his desk and stared at it in thought while Fawkes squawked and hopped to perch on the back of a chair near Severus. Not for the first time, Severus wondered why the Phoenix stuck around.

Dumbledore suddenly looked at Severus. "If he approaches you, you will turn him away. You will not change your attitude towards him, is that clear? He shouldn't know anything, nothing was said in the paper... if somebody did, then it shouldn't be a problem. You may no longer end up sharing a cell with Sirius Black, but do not think this changes anything." Dumbledore warned him, the grandfatherly persona and twinkling eyes gone as he stared at Severus hard.

Severus felt the compulsions wash over him again and bit back a grimace before he nodded and forced himself to say, "I doubt the brat will willingly come anywhere near me, he despises me." Before he swept out. He didn't relax again until he reached his office, but that relief was short-lived when he opened the door.

"Severus! I was just passing by, and thought I might be able to help you with some potions? I'm sure there are things even you could learn, I myself have come across many different potions in my travels..." Gilderoy Lockhart said happily.

Severus was so shocked by the nerve of this man, that he just stood there and blinked for a second before he grinned evilly and closed the door behind himself with a snap, automatically sealing it with powerful locking and silencing wards that he learned from the Dark Lord himself.

Nobody ever said he was a nice guy. He blamed the Mark on his arm and old habits.

After Severus left his office, Dumbledore sat back and contemplated his next move. The potions should take care of keeping Harry in line, he would have to find a time to get out to Gringotts and get to Sirius, why couldn't Harry have just kept him where he was? He also needed to get the charges against the Dursley's dropped. He had found about it when Elphias floo-called him after he got back this morning. Elphias refused to believe any of what was said.

Harry had to go back there, he would make Sirius see that, those charms Sirius was under should still be active even after all these years, but he may want to renew them anyway.

Not only were there blood wards protecting his weapon, but the Dursley's also kept him downtrodden, which meant that the brat would see him as nothing more than a grandfatherly figure who regretted sending him back there, unfortunately, there was nothing he could do, he already tried.

It might be a bit difficult considering the brat now knew of James and Lily's wishes regarding Petunia, but nothing a few charms and potions couldn't fix.

For now, he was just glad Minerva was still away, visiting family in Greece.

When they finally got back to the Manor, Augusta sent Harry upstairs to finish getting his trunk how he wanted it for school. He had to go pack his school trunk with his books, uniform, and his potion supplies. Then he needed to make sure his regular trunk was cleaned up and everything inside put away. His library kind of had books everywhere from when he had free time and decided to read.

In the meantime, she was going to start Neville on re-gaining control of his magic. She wondered if she shouldn't have waited until the Yule holidays to take care of the block, that way she would have more time to teach him control without him potentially drawing the Headmasters attention.

Harry went upstairs and flopped on his bed, waking up Hedwig when he sighed loudly. She hooted softly and flew to join him on the bed. He smiled and reached up to pet her head softly.

"You're gonna fly to Hogwarts in the morning girl, unless you want to go on the train with me in your cage?" He asked. She shuddered and he got an image from her of her cage, with the padlock still on it with her inside, and he understood that she wasn't getting back in that cage for a very long time.

He sighed sadly and almost wished he could hex his uncle for doing that to his Familiar. He knew he couldn't though, and the goblins would be punishing Uncle Vernon much worse then Harry ever could. "Alright, I carved a protective rune for you, its in the library, which we need to clean up anyway." He stood up and went over to his trunk, gathering books he had laying around the room on the way there, opening it up and stepping down the ladder with Hedwig winging her way after him.

When they got down there, and Harry had hunted down the rune he carved, he tied it around Hedwig's neck, making sure it wasn't too tight that it choked her, but not too loose that it got in her way. "I also used some Blood Magic I found in my family's Grimiore so that only I can take it off. Anybody else who touches it will be shocked, stunned, and I will also know about it and come if I can. Them being stunned also gives you a chance to get done what you need to and get out of there. So, don't let anybody touch it just to take a look. If they want to actually remove it, then by all means." He grinned at her satisfied hoot.

Then he faced the mess that was his library. He sighed. He tried to put books back when he was done with them, honest he did.

While he put books away, he voiced a worry he'd been having for a while. "What do you think we should do about Hermione? She thinks authority figures can do no wrong, that they can't make mistakes. If we try to tell her any of this about Dumbledore, at best she won't believe us, which will cause a strain on our relationship that Dumbledore will probably notice. At worse, she'll take our worries to Dumbledore thinking that if we just give him a chance to explain, then everything will be alright. That is the last thing we want to happen." He said to Hedwig.

She tilted her head to the side and sent a vision of Severus. He sighed. "It's worth a try, but what if she still tries to side with Dumbledore over us? He's the Headmaster, which means that he's the higher authority than Severus. Besides, given Severus's reputation... and if I try to explain to her that Severus is my godfather, she'll grab the nearest paper that quotes my parents will and try to convince me that he's lying since Sirius is the only one mentioned as my godfather. She won't believe me until I show her the full contents of the wills, which I can't do without taking her to Gringotts, which will alert Dumbledore." He sighed.

Hedwig sent him another vision of Severus, although Harry happened to be in this vision talking to him. Harry looked at her and shook his head. "Alright, I'll talk to him and see what he thinks. I'll have to find Ron on the train tomorrow and let him know that we will be taking a 'wait-and-see' approach with Hermione..."

After spending time putting books back on their shelves, he pulled his school trunk out of his pouch and started putting what books he needed for class in it. He didn't want to risk pulling his real trunk out too often. He also put some of his Muggle fiction in it, he put the Hobbit in his school bag so he could read it on the train ride. He also made sure to pack some parchment, ink and quills, although Hedwig had to grab his summer school work and bring it over to him in her beak when he forgot about it.

After cleaning up the library, he took his trunk back out to the clothes compartment, where he packed his school uniforms, some day-robes, and a few Muggle clothes. He made sure he had a uniform in his bag to change into on the train, along with his money bag. He left his more formal stuff where it was though. He made sure to leave out what he would need for that night and the morning, but everything else he had in the closet or laying around went inside. "Anything else?" He asked Hedwig before closing it and opening up the lab.

He made sure he had his school potions supplies, and then he decided to brew some potions. He didn't want to start anything complicated though... so he started with a simple healing potion that they learned at the beginning of the year, and Severus helped him figure out in the past couple of weeks. His potion hadn't gone so well when they did it in class... He didn't have to worry about packing his or Hedwig's Nutrient Potions, for one, because he was almost out, he only had enough for the next day and then he would have to get more from Severus, and for another, because Mipsy had taken them and he only saw them when she made one appear by his plate at meal-times.

When he finally emerged with his school trunk fully packed minus his broom and with several new potions stored away in his store room and a couple more in his pouch for emergencies, he was surprised to see that it was dinner time. He was especially surprised to go down to the dining room to find Augusta primly sipping the wine she usually had with dinner and Neville sitting there looking like Seamus when one of his spells exploded on him. Which was pretty much how Seamus always looked, now that he thought about it.

"So... it went well? Or do you like imitating Seamus?" Harry asked, barely holding back his laughter. Neville shot him a dirty look.

Harry once again wondered at how different his friend was since he arrived here. The Neville Longbottom he shared a dorm with for a year wouldn't have had the courage to give anyone a dirty look.

Harry just grinned at him but didn't say anything. He looked at the end of the table, where some of the cookies, cake, and bread he had baked a few days after coming here still sat under preservation charms provided by Mipsy. All the pie and treacle tart were long gone, which was fine, since he hadn't made nearly as much of those as he did everything else.

"If I leave some here with you, would you mind if we take the rest of that with us? We can share it on the train, or in the dorm later on." He asked Augusta.

She nodded. "If you want to, go ahead, you baked them. I'll never be able to eat all that by myself. Although I expect you two to eat real food on the train tomorrow, not just cookies and cake." She warned.

"Yes!" Neville cheered, he loved Harry's baking. "Now to make sure Ron doesn't eat all of it..." He said, looking at Harry.

Harry looked thoughtful. "I'll think of something... maybe I should make more tonight for everyone, and just give those to Ron..." He said.

Neville shrugged. "Works for me."