Parselmouth
Sign language
Warning, there is slight Molly Weasley bashing in this chapter. Will explain why at the end.
With that, everyone started making their way out of the room, with Mr. Ollivander being the last to go. "Lord Black, I have your wand finished." He said as he held the Applewood and Phoenix feather wand out to him. An unusual combination, for an unusual man.
Sirius reluctantly pulled his arm away from Harry to reach for his new wand, smiling despite himself as he felt it connect to his core. He nodded his thanks to Ollivander before putting his wand away in its holster and going back to holding his godson. He waited until Ollivander was gone before he began to talk.
"Boys, I know that this was a shock, but you have to remember. You still have me, you have Remus, Ron, Hermione. The rest of the Weasley's, even Snape I think. He appears to hate Petunia even more than he hates us. You even have Dudley now. It didn't look like he knew anything about it." Sirius said softly.
"I know, Siri, its just. I've made excuses for them for years. They didn't have to take me in, I inconvenience them, they could have just sent me to an orphanage, but instead they were generous and kept me." Harry said quietly, he sounded hollow.
"Now to find out that they were being paid... they wouldn't have kept me if it wasn't for the money, would they?" Harry continued.
Sirius sighed. "I don't know pups, I just don't know. But what I do know, is that you are not alone. Remember the people you have around you now." He pulled the boys against himself tighter. He cleared is throat and started to sing softly, it was an old Muggle song Lily taught him, she used to sing it to Harry all the time when he got fussy and nothing else worked. For some reason, Sirius singing it always calmed him down faster than if Lily sang it though.
Fred and George herded the younger teens and kids down the hall until they finally stopped inside a room that looked strangely like the Gryffindor common room. The Draco's looked around curiously.
All the adults had gone off by themselves, probably to talk about what they were learning and for the futures to discuss the outlines of a plan for those from the past to take once these books were done. They obviously couldn't come up with a full plan right now, they were only five chapters into the first book.
Bill and Charlie had taken Percy off somewhere, probably to have that talk they'd wanted to have with him since they arrived. They were probably just going to yell at him a lot for abandoning his family and hurting their parents. Meanwhile, Fred and George with left with all those younger than them.
They were mainly making sure Ron and Hermione didn't try to barge in on the Harry's and Sirius, trying to help but just making things worse. Fred and George knew the two of them meant well, but sometimes they were a little too... pushy. They just didn't seem to understand the concept of wanting space.
They had overheard Hermione tell Harry once, after Sirius died, that the books all said it would help to talk about it to someone. What she didn't seem to understand was that Harry didn't want to talk. So, she kept pushing and pushing for him to talk, but all it did was push him further and further away until she finally let it go. She only let it go when they took her aside and told her to give him his space, because you couldn't make someone talk if they didn't want to. That just did more damage than good. He would talk if and when he was ready.
She tried to argue that she just wanted to help, he couldn't just keep it bottled up, it wasn't healthy. Until they finally lost their patience and snapped back that she wasn't his mother. She wasn't a mind-healer. She was a friend, who had her head too far into her books. Sometimes, books and real life didn't match up. She wouldn't talk to them for a week after that, but they noticed that she did lay off on Harry.
"I don't understand." Dudley said.
"Understand what?" Fred asked. The Draco's looked a little disturbed at seeing Fred and George Weasley, the Twin Terrors or Hogwarts, so serious looking.
"Well, he knows how mom and dad feel about him. They see him as a burden, always have. He knows they don't care. So, why is this affecting him so much?" Dudley asked.
"That's just it." George said.
"I think, that on some level,"
"Some part of him."
"He believes they do care."
"That they did take him out of a..."
"... sense of family, rather than an obligation..."
"...that they had no choice in." George finished.
"One of you! Please." Dudley said, holding his head.
"Sorry, we don't even realize we do it." Fred said.
"Yeah, it's just such a habit." George agreed.
"But, anyway, Harry doesn't talk about his home life much, if ever. But there was one time... I forget how the topic even came up." Fred looked at his twin questioningly. He shook his head, he didn't remember either. "Ok, well, anyway. Something was said, and Harry went off on how his aunt and uncle didn't have to keep him. They could have just dropped him at an orphanage or something."
"To him, that was proof that they did care. That they kept him despite not wanting him. Now, to find out they only kept him because they were getting money out of it..." George said. "From what he says, when he was younger, he was always trying to prove to them that he could be good, that he wasn't a burden, that they could be proud of him like they were of you. Somehow though, nothing he did was ever good enough, until he finally just, stopped trying."
"Why do you sound like you are speaking from experience?" Draco asked suddenly.
The Twins looked at each other. "All of you have already seen mom's reaction to our pranking and jokes. She was always disappointed that we didn't do better academically. She seemed to think we just didn't try hard enough. The truth is, we never saw the point. We had other plans, plans that didn't involve schooling. Obviously, we know the material inside and out, and then some. How else could we make the stuff we do?"
"We just didn't bother with homework beyond having something to turn in so we didn't get more detentions than we had to. And we didn't really study for OWL's either because we were busy with creating a business plan for our shop, figuring out what we wanted to sell, what we would need to test with the Hogwarts population before we left school, testing most of our products on ourselves before deeming them safe to test on others..."
"None of that really left much time for studying. We did study some,"
"But only because mom would have really blown up if we didn't get at least three OWL's each. She already wasn't happy that three each is what we actually ended up getting."
"Well, why didn't you explain all this to her?" Draco asked. He was confused.
"We tried." Both twins said together.
Fred continued, "She didn't want to hear about two of her sons opening a joke shop. She had big plans for us. We were going to go into the Ministry, we were going to work our way up, eventually get into well paying positions, and bring some honor back to our family name. She said that was a respectable job."
George snorted. "If it was such a respectable place to work, they wouldn't pay dad less than they do the Magical Maintenance crew. Like we would want to work somewhere where they put dad down like that just because he happens to be fascinated with how Muggles live without magic?"
"We gave up years ago, trying to make her proud of us. Trying to make her see, that this is us. The pranks, making people laugh, that's who we are. We just weren't made for some desk job. We just can't get her to see that."
"We thought that she would back off, and finally see what we've been trying to tell her when she saw the shop, but if anything it only made things worse." Fred said sadly. "Who's up for some exploding snap? I don't know when Sirius is going to let us back in to read." He said suddenly and brightly, clapping his hands together. He had decided that that was enough with the depressed attitudes.
None of them saw Molly at the doorway, listening to the whole conversation.
She swallowed and turned away from the door, leaning against the wall beside it with tears in her eyes. Did she really do that? She looked back and debated asking her Twins for a word, but had a feeling that now wouldn't be the right time. She should probably talk to Arthur about it too, he always seemed to understand the boys better. Then again, when did she really try?
She decided that she should get some lunch around in the meantime.
As soon as Sirius dismissed everyone so he could make sure his godsons were alright, it must have been their idea to come back against his better judgement, the other professors cornered Severus before he could escape.
His own godsons had already been herded away with the other teens and children by the Twin Terrors. Which meant he had no shield or excuse not to go with them.
They had tried to corner him a few times now since they got here, but he'd managed to avoid them so far. He sighed as he let them lead him to a far away room. Once they were in, they turned to him with unreadable expressions. He winced internally.
"What really happened? Just which side are you really on?" Minerva finally asked, her eyes narrowed like the cat she could turn into. He figured that she was having a very hard time figuring him out. On the one hand, his behavior the past couple of days was what she expected of him from the past fifteen years they worked together. Completely different from his behavior the past year when he was supposed to be a loyal Death Eater. On the other hand, he killed Albus, proving his loyalty to the Dark Lord.
He sighed mentally, on the outside he scowled. "Its going to come up in these books anyway, from Harry's point of view. Considering he was there, on the tower that night..." Filius trailed off.
Severus finally sighed in defeat. "Albus was dying. We already knew Draco was tasked to kill him. However, neither of us were willing to let Draco actually go through with it. So, Albus asked me to do it instead. He wanted there to be absolutely no doubt in the Dark Lord's mind whose side I was on, so I could hopefully be able to protect the students."
"Yeah, because you did so much to protect them." Poppy scoffed.
Severus glared at her. "If you haven't noticed, I stepped in where I could. It would have been worse if I wasn't keeping them busy where I could or personally handling detentions where I could." He spat. "Who do you think was keeping the infirmary overstocked with potions, was leaving food and potion supplies where the DA could find them? Was leaving Cruciatus potions in the common rooms when the students weren't allowed to come to you? I did what I could." He hissed. Nobody regretted how much he failed in protecting the students than he did.
He had one job, protect the students. And he couldn't even do that.
"Just be glad the Dark Lord listened to me and sent the Carrows instead of Bellatrix and Rowle." He said. "They were his original choices." They gasped.
The Carrows were bad enough, Bellatrix would have been a nightmare.
"I may be nothing more than a bitter man, but I took my responsibility towards my students very seriously. Nobody knows how much I failed better than I." He said softly.
Finally, Minerva sighed. "You didn't fail. If anything, we failed. We were the ones actually around the students daily."
They were interrupted by a knock on the door, and Remus poked his head in. "Hey, Sirius said we can come back in, and Molly has lunch waiting for us in the Room . Is everything ok here?" They all knew as soon as he asked that, he heard the entire conversation.
"Yes, everything is fine." Pomona said, leaving and heading back to the reading room.
"Just remember, the boy hates pity." Severus said when he saw the women's faces before they went in. They looked at him startled before they nodded and schooled their features.
"Everybody ready to read?" Sirius asked brightly once everyone got food, still holding his boys. They all nodded.
The Harry's still looked a little dead and hollow, but they looked better.
Chapter six, The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-quarters
"Incoming Weasley family!" Ron cheered. He grinned proudly when Harry gave a slight smile.
(Harry's last month with the Dursley's wasn't fun.)
Everyone immediately grew concerned that the Dursley's might have gotten physical with Harry. They had been hoping that Hagrid scared them enough that they wouldn't try anything...
Or maybe Hagrid would have scared them enough that they would take that fear out on Harry.
They leaned forward, wanting to hear what came next but at the same time, not wanting to.
(True, Dudley was now... in the same room,)
"Thank goodness for small miracles." McGonagall muttered.
(while Aunt Petunia and... it were empty.)
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Sure, getting ignored sucked, but it was better than being beaten.
(Although this was... depressing after a while.)
"But it was better than the alternative." Ron muttered to Hermione. She nodded.
(Harry kept to his... A History of Magic.)
"You read that?" Ron asked appalled. Hermione beamed.
Molly narrowed her eyes at her youngest son and opened her mouth to berate him for not taking his studies more seriously, when she remembered the conversation she overheard just a little bit ago.
Harry shrugged. "I had nothing else to do, since they weren't making me do my usual chores... and why wouldn't I want to learn about this new world?" He asked dully. Ron made a face at voluntary reading.
(His school books were very interesting.)
"Unfortunately, even if you read those, you would still be lost since the background theory was in the introductory books that didn't know you were supposed to buy." Severus sighed and shot a glare at Dumbledore. So much grief in his classroom could have been avoided if the old man had just included the list and didn't decide he knew better.
The man needed a wake up call that he wasn't all knowing. First he finds out that if Albus had just taken Harry to the goblins instead of deciding the only way to get rid of the Horcrux in Harry's scar was for the boy to die, it would have saved him so much grief. If Albus hadn't decided the prophecy had to be true, and that Harry had to do everything himself, Voldemort might never have risen. If Albus had just shared the information he knew... so many lives wouldn't have been lost.
But no... instead the man decided that only he knew best, that only he could be trusted to do what was best. The man had his word taken as law for far too long, he decided it was time that changed.
He pulled out the letter he had started writing to his younger self. He already had the parts that would convince him that this was real and not a trick, now it would just take adding the important information as they read.
(He lay on his bed... back dead mice.)
Petunia whimpered. She didn't know the filthy bird kept bringing back dead rodents. If she'd known that she would have had Vernon kill her when the boy first brought her home.
She glared at the bird, it was sitting on Harry's lap, staring at her. If she didn't know animals were unintelligent, she would say that the thing looked smug.
(Every night before... to September the first.)
"That's what I did." Hermione, Neville, Luna, and Ginny all said with a shrug.
Dudley turned slightly red. "It was the opposite for me, I counted down the days when school would end and I could go back home where I could do what I wanted. The teachers had this 'annoying' habit of trying to tell me what to do after all. Besides, back home I could eat all I wanted, and go beat up as many kids as I wanted and I wouldn't get into any trouble." He said somewhat bitterly.
Dudley looked at his older self in awe and fear. Just what happened to change him so drastically.
Snape shook his head. "If your mother heard about how you raised her grandson, she would have put you over her knee in a heartbeat, no matter your age." He said.
Petunia glared at him. "You would know, the amount of time she had YOU over her knee." She spat.
Severus raised an eyebrow at her. "I was put there because I did something stupid and almost got Lily and myself injured. You would be there because you have thrown every value and moral Helen ever taught you growing up out the window. She would be ashamed of you." He didn't really mind too much, Helen was more of a mother to him than his own mother ever was.
All the kids he ever taught were wide eyed at the thought of their scary professor being spanked as a child. Harry swallowed, "Professor?" He asked quietly. Severus swung his gaze to him and raised an eyebrow. "Can you tell me about my mom sometime? Nobody ever mentions her, they always talk about my dad." He said. Severus blinked before he nodded slowly.
"If you behave, I will consider it." He said stiffly. He cuffed the Draco's on the back of their heads when nobody was looking when he noticed them smirking. They knew that meant yes.
(On the last day... station the next day,)
"Wow, talk about last minute." Hermione said with a raised eyebrow. Everyone else was thinking the same with the exception that they knew how ingrained it was for Harry not to ask questions. He'd probably stood at the top of the stairs for awhile trying to talk himself into going down there to ask them.
Harry shrugged, "Didn't want to give them much time to change their minds. Plus, they don't like it when I ask them anything." Harry said.
When Hermione looked to Harry he shrugged like his older counterpart.
(so he went down... ran from the room.)
Hagrid looked ashamed. He had terrified the boy.
Dudley waved it off though, when he tried to apologize. "It was a wake-up call that I needed, the message just didn't sink in until much later." He said.
Hagrid bit is lip but nodded. He still didn't like that he had terrorized the boy, even if the boy was an awful bully at the time.
("Er- Uncle Vernon?"... he was listening.)
"He speaks troll!" Fred exclaimed. He kept an eye on the Harry's, and was rewarded with a small grin.
("Er- I need to be... Vernon grunted again.)
"You know, my not-as-handsome-as-me brother, I'm beginning to think our little Harrikins might speak troll as well. He must if he grew up having to interpret his troll speaking uncle." George said to much laughter. He too was rewarded for his efforts when the grins got a little wider.
Molly saw what they were doing and was ashamed.
("Would it be all... that meant yes.)
"It's confirmed..."
"Harrikins speaks troll!" Fred and George proclaimed grandly.
They grinned proudly when both Harry's snorted in laughter.
("Thank you."... Vernon actually spoke.)
"Wait, he's not actually a troll? But he was speaking it so fluently earlier..." Luna said in her typical soft, dreamy 'Luna-voice'.
Harry preferred this Luna to serious Luna.
Molly pursed her lips in slight disapproval, she actually agreed with Luna, but she also felt that to be pushing it slightly as the kind of thing a teenager shouldn't be saying about an adult, although she used the term very loosely when it came to the Dursley's.
Everyone else just laughed. Sirius was now smiling and relaxed again since his boys were already starting to laugh again thanks to the Weasley twins efforts.
("Funny way to get... punctures, have they?")
"Flying carpets are illegal in Britain..." Neville said, looking at Vernon oddly. He was wondering how a Muggle like him would know that flying carpets existed.
"They're classified as a Muggle artifact, and therefore illegal to enchant." Draco picked up.
"Try telling that to India..." Arthur muttered. He STILL, even after Voldemort took over the Ministry, even after he got promoted after Rufus became Minister, he STILL got requests from Indian companies wanting to export product to Magical Britain.
The Dursley's all looked at Neville, Draco, and Arthur in horror (more than they already had been the entire time they were there in the room, the Dudley's looked amazed.) Then they started muttering about perfectly normal objects being corrupted and they would never know it.
(Harry didn't say... "I don't know,")
"Hagrid, you didn't give the pamphlet either?" Minerva groaned.
Hagrid blushed, "I gave 'him what I was given. Tha' was 'is letter, nothin' more."
Dumbledore got a few more dirty looks.
(said Harry, realizing this for the first time.)
"Wow, you didn't really think about where you were going, did you?" Hermione asked.
"I was more worried about getting away from that house. I didn't really care where I went." Harry muttered.
"Now, Harry, that is your home, surely you can't want to leave it that badly?" Dumbledore asked worriedly. If Harry no longer called the place home, then he was no longer protected there.
"That place has never been 'home' to me, Headmaster. It's been my prison." Harry said coldly.
Dumbledore gulped lightly, especially when Harry nodded his agreement. That meant that Harry had never been as safe as he should have been. The wards would have still worked, but they weren't strong enough to keep people from harming Harry while there.
(He pulled the ticket... aunt and uncle stared.)
"Why, what's wrong now?" Draco asked, confused. It was just a train platform.
"In the Muggle world, 9 3/4 doesn't exist, they don't use fractions on train platforms." Hermione said. "It threw my parents off when Professor McGonagall mentioned it too."
"But Petunia knows about 9 3/4, she's been there with myself and Lily." Severus said coldly, glaring at her. Petunia sniffed primly. Both Vernon's stared at their respective wife uncertainly. He knew she didn't like to talk about her sister, or really even acknowledge her sister or magic existed, but... she was there.
He shook himself. Magic was unnatural. It shouldn't exist. If she didn't want to talk about her experience with such unnaturalness, that was her business.
("Platform what?" "Nine... "It's on my ticket.")
"Which Petunia knows..." Severus muttered. Petunia glared at him this time.
("Barking,")
"No, I'm barking." Sirius said... seriously. Almost everybody groaned at the bad joke.
(said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad,)
"No, I'm howling mad." Remus said with a straight face. Everybody groaned again.
Nobody noticed Sirius and Remus high-five around Harry.
The Dursley's just looked at them strange. (More than normal.)
(the lot of them... keep things friendly.)
"Why?" Several people asked incredulously.
Harry shrugged. "It was the first civil conversation I ever had with either of them, not for lack of trying on my part mind you, and the first human interaction I'd had in a month.
He missed the dark looks that were exchanged.
("Taking Dudley to the hospital,")
The adults all winced. "Hagrid, you should have mentioned it to me so I could have gone to reverse it. I wouldn't have gotten you in trouble, but this could have caused a massive Secrecy breach." Minerva told her giant friend gently.
Hagrid flushed red again, but nodded his understanding.
(growled Uncle Vernon... go back to sleep.)
"Me too!" Hermione said happily.
Several of the adults were just happy to have a decidedly age appropriate response to something from Harry. Sometimes, the kid acted way too mature for his age.
(He got up and... change on the train.)
"Oh, thank goodness." Arthur and Moody sighed in relief. Sirius did too, he had his share of shifts watching the train station on September first when he was still an Auror.
"Every year we have several Muggleborns go out in full uniform, which causes enough scenes with the Muggles that we have to get the Obliviator squad out there to modify memories." Arthur explained.
Hermione flushed red, she was one of the Muggleborns wearing her uniform to the train station. She was excited!
(He checked his Hogwarts... into the Dursley's car,)
"With me probably killing my back to get it in there while Uncle Vernon stood there and laughed." Harry said bitterly. Harry didn't say anything, he just closed his eyes and leaned against Sirius, which was all the confirmation they needed.
(Aunt Petunia had talked... had set off.)
"How much sugar and trips to the movies did she promise you, again? Plus new video games and a new computer. Despite your old one only being a few months old." Harry said with a raised eyebrow.
Dudley turned red, "Shut up, Harry." He muttered.
Mrs. Figg grimaced, "I could hear him kicking up a fuss from my living room, and I live a couple of streets over." She muttered.
(They reached King's Cross... station for him.)
A few people frowned, "He's being nice. Its not good when he's being nice." Harry hissed nervously. He fidgeted.
Harry grimaced. "This was one of the better times, though that's probably only because we were in such a public place." He hissed back.
Neither of them noticed the adults muttering about how this couldn't be good. They had noticed that the boys only switched to Parseltongue when they didn't want anyone else to know about something, and Harry never told them anything about his home life because he didn't want them to know.
(Harry thought this... grin on his face.)
"Uh-oh." Was heard throughout the room. This couldn't be good.
("Well, there you are,... yet, do they?")
Draco narrowed his eyes (in a manner scarily similar to Severus) and said coldly, "There is such a thing called Magic. You don't honestly think we would have something like that out in the open, did you?" He asked scathingly.
"You know Petunia, I don't think your mother would have found a spanking to be enough." Severus mused, his eyes glittering. She was standing there, letting her husband torment a child over something she knew did, in fact, exist. All she had to do was tell him to walk through a stone pillar. She didn't even have to stay, just shove him towards the pillar and tell him to walk.
She glared at him even harder. She would never say anything, but all his talk about her parents being ashamed of her actions was starting to get to her.
(He was quite right,... without another word.)
Jaws dropped.
"He just left you there? An eleven year old boy in a crowded train station, with luggage and an owl, and no idea where to go, and he just left you there." Molly said faintly. Arthur wrapped an arm around her.
Everyone was staring at the Harry's, so they just shrugged.
They also decided to not mention all the times he was just abandoned with Mrs. Figg, or all the times he was abandoned at school even if he was literally in the process of opening the door when Aunt Petunia drove away, and then had to walk the twenty miles home, only to arrive and find a longer-than-normal list of chores that had to be done before Uncle Vernon got home from work within the next hour or two.
His punishment for not having them done on time was always more severe than normal. Those were the few times he was actually hit, and it was always painful.
Mrs. Figg caught the boys eyes and she didn't say anything either.
(Harry turned and saw... them were laughing.)
In the next few seconds, the Dursley's hair turned pink, the Vernon's sprouted donkey ears and tail, the Petunia's sprouted antlers, their skin started changing colors like a chameleon, and the only sounds coming out of their mouths were teh sounds of their respective animal. The Dudley's weren't even spared from the color changing skin.
Only the other pranksters, Severus, and Mad-eye saw an entirely too innocent-looking Remus casually putting his wand away with a satisfied smirk on his face.
Severus reflected on that old Muggle saying that it was the quiet ones you had to watch out for the most.
Dudley took his color-changing with good grace, while Dudley was a bit more disgruntled, he didn't voice it though.
(Harry's mouth went... to ask someone.)
The adults winced. The only way this could possibly end well was if he spoke with a teacher stationed there for the purpose of directing Muggleborn families.
Oh wait!
There wasn't one.
Albus refused to station anyone there, saying it was unnecessary.
"I think we need to start stationing a couple of teachers there, regardless of what the Headmaster says. Sure, we tell the Muggle families how to reach it, but its always best to have somebody around just in case..." Minerva said to her colleagues quietly. Severus nodded and added it to his letter.
His letter was two parts. An actual letter, and a bulleted list of stuff young Snape needed to see done.
(He stopped a passing... stupid on purpose.)
"Yes, we will certainly be stationing a teacher or two there." Minerva muttered.
"It might help the Obliviator squads out, too." Arthur muttered to Moody.
(Getting desperate, Harry... about time wasters.)
"Wait, he never once asked you where your parents were? Never asked why you were alone?" Molly asked, indignant.
Harry, predictably, shook his head no. "Its actually pretty common for Muggle parents to let their kids come home on the train by themselves, either from school, or from a relatives house if they were visiting. They trust that the station guards will make sure nothing happens." Hermione explained.
(Harry was now trying... get into Diagon Alley.)
"He did." Some people muttered.
"Its not his fault, he was focusing on getting Harry home to his relatives so he could get the Stone to safety with the Headmaster." Luna frowned at the Headmaster. "You really should have retrieved the stone on an earlier date though, so Hagrid only had Harry to concentrate on." She said reproachfully.
(He wondered if he... platform's nine and ten.)
"Don't do that!" A few adults yelped.
Harry smirked slightly. "Don't worry about it, I didn't." He glanced at Molly and the smirk changed into a grin.
(At that moment a... Muggles, of course-")
Arthur and Moody sat up quickly, who on earth was stupid enough to speak so loud in a place crowded like that with Muggles? That was a potential Breach! Minerva sat up too, this could be really good, or really bad.
(Harry swung round... they had an owl.)
Arthur and Moody sank back. Molly had to have had her reasons, she wouldn't risk Secrecy carelessly. Maybe she just wanted to pick up stragglers.
Minerva sank down in her seat with a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Molly." She said.
"I guess coming late came in handy, for once." Bill said fondly. The Weasley's were always late.
Molly smiled. "I'm just happy we could help out."
(Heart hammering, Harry... said the boys' mother.)
"Why would you ask that? You know what it is." Sprout asked, confused.
"I also know that there aren't any teachers stationed there. I ask that so that any parents or," She smiled over at Harry, "Lost children, can hear me and know that they can approach me if they are unsure." She'd known Harry was there, she'd seen the lost and desperate look on his face, as well as the owl in her cage.
"Thank you, Molly." Minerva said again. Arthur nodded. That was something Molly would do.
("Nine and three-quarters!"... "Mom, can't I go...")
"Oh, Merlin..." Ginny said as she hid her head in her hands. She just remembered how she acted when the Twins came back and told them who the black-haired kid that they helped was. She so did not want Harry to see her like that, or worse... Bill and Charlie. They would probably try to be all protective big brother on her and try to kill Harry. They had barely accepted it when she told them why Harry had broken up with her.
Harry lifted his head from Sirius's shoulder long enough to smirk at her. She got a sinking feeling that Harry already knew how she acted on the platform.
("You're not old enough,... boy had vanished.)
"Wait, where did he go?" Hermione demanded. Harry looked worried, how was his book self supposed to get on the train if he couldn't follow the Weasley's? He couldn't follow them if he couldn't see where they went. The only other option was asking, and he didn't really see himself doing that.
"Just wait, you'll see." Minerva said with a small smile that shocked the Slytherins. They never saw her smile.
Hermione frowned, but huffed and waited. She didn't want to wait, though!
Hermione watched herself and quietly asked Ron if she was always this impatient to know things. He hesitated, debating the safety of an honest answer before he slowly nodded his head. He watched warily as she frowned, but sighed in relief as she just sat back with a frown on her face.
("Fred, you next," the... you tell I'm George?")
At this question, Harry cocked his head to the side and looked at the Twins questioningly. Bill and Charlie sat back and looked at each other in resignation.
Molly caught their looks and wondered what she messed up now.
("Sorry, George, dear."
"Only joking, I am Fred,")
Harry sat up with a gasp and his questioning stare turned demanding. They looked at each other before sighing and nodding at him.
What Harry had just realized, now that he actually knew Fred and George (he was one of the few that could actually tell them apart, along with Bill and Charlie), was that George hadn't been joking about being George when he was really Fred.
Which meant that his question about her not being able to tell them apart wasn't a joke at all. He'd been 100% serious when he asked that. They just let her believe they were joking so their mother didn't feel bad about not being able to tell her own sons apart.
Bill and Charlie looked at each other and sighed. They knew Harry had just figured it out, only people who could actually tell the Twins apart were going to figure it out.
They didn't blame their mother though, she had seven kids to divide her time between after all. It was easier on her with the two oldest out of the house (and country), but that still left five others.
Molly had a really bad feeling about what she messed up with.
(said the boy,... had he done it?)
"Magic." The Weasley's all said, completely deadpan.
Everyone not a Weasley stared at them, and a few even began to inch away from the red-head nearest them.
(Now the third... else for it.)
Harry nodded, so his older self did ask. He figured he must have been desperate, he never asked for anything if he could help it.
"We were wondering when you were going to stop spying on us and finally ask." Fred said cheerfully.
George nodded. "Yup, all of knew you were there, we saw you as we walked up." Arthur nodded. Further confirmation that his wife didn't endanger the entire wizarding population for nothing.
"I was only waiting until you approached us, dear. I would have said something to you if you still hadn't before I went through with Ginny, after sending Ron." Molly said, smiling reassuringly at Harry, who grinned gratefully back.
Everybody was relieved. His smiles were starting to come easier and look more natural again. Now to just get his eyes lively again...
("Excuse me," Harry... a long nose.)
"Ugh," Ron said, banging his head on the couch behind him. "Well, I suppose it could have been worse." He said with a sigh.
"Yeah, he could have compared you to an animal." Fred snickered. He was met with a pillow to the face, along with his snickering twin.
"Shut it, you two."
It would have ended in a massive pillow war if Molly, Minerva, and Severus had not all glared at them until they dropped the pillows. It was a mark of how good they were that they didn't have to say a word.
All of them pouted when they put the pillows down, but smiled when they saw Harry muffling his laughter in his blanket.
("Yes," said Harry... now before Ron.")
Hermione and Harry were staring in amazement. Hermione's logical mind was racing to find out how that was possible. Harry was thinking that if this was true, then magic was amazing.
("Er- okay," said Harry... looked very solid.)
Harry nodded fervently. It did, he still couldn't he got up the courage to run at something so solid looking.
Hermione grimaced before she nodded too. She agreed there. Her parents had almost taken her home as soon as they saw the very solid looking concrete wall they were expected to run right into.
(He started to walk... for the crash-)
Bill shook his head. Harry really did not know how to think positive.
"Not letting fear control you. That's the mark of a true Gryffindor." Minerva murmured.
"Professor?" Hermione asked.
"People tend to think of bravery as being stupidly unafraid of anything," She eyed Snape, who smirked at her. "But that's not true. True bravery, is being afraid, but not letting that fear control you. Doing what you need to do regardless of the fear." She explained.
The Gryffindor's all grinned while the four Slytherins (Severus, two Draco's, and Moody) all scowled.
(It didn't come... he kept on running... he opened his eyes.)
Both Harry and Hermione sat up straighter and leaned forward a bit. Sirius chuckled lightly and just hoped that he got to see his godson's face when he actually saw it when the time came.
Everyone else who cared was watching the two children in amusement, they loved watching the reactions of those introduced to magic for the first time. Especially the teachers.
(A scarlet steam engine... Three-Quarters on it.)
"Whoa." Hermione breathed, still trying to figure it out.
"I want to see that." Harry muttered. That and Diagon Alley.
Sirius smiled. "You will, Pup. You will." He murmured.
(He had done it.)
"That's kind of dramatic." Percy muttered.
"Yeah, Harry can get like that sometimes." Ron answered, ignoring the glare Harry sent his way for the remark.
A few other people snickered.
(Smoke from the engine... of heavy trunks.)
"How do people make sure their animals get on the train with them if they go everywhere like that? I mean, I get the owls, they're in their cages. But what about the cats?" Hermione asked.
"There's a spell on the platform, it automatically places the animals with their owners when its time to get on the train. It also ensures that no animal can be on the platform if their human is already on the train." Flitwick explained. Hermione's eyes lit up, and she would have kept answering questions if Hermione hadn't reached over and held a hand over her mouth.
(The first few carriages... my toad again.")
Neville turned beet red as several of the people around him turned to look at him. He was always losing Trevor!
"Don't worry, he just likes to explore. Besides, the dorms can get too hot for him, it drys out his skin." Luna said reassuringly.
("Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.)
Those who hadn't already figured it out turned to look at Neville too. He turned an even deeper shade of red.
(A boy with dreadlocks... a long, hairy leg.)
Fred and George started laughing. "I forgot he had that." Fred said.
"Yeah, what happened to it?" George asked.
They missed the satisfied look on Ron's face, and the fact that Harry and Hermione were desperately trying not to laugh or look at Ron.
Although, in his defense, it was an accident.
That he just went with and didn't feel the slightest bit of guilt over. Well, he had, until Harry had helped him get Lee an owl instead. That was the only time he ever asked Harry for help financially.
(Harry pressed on through... painfully on his foot.)
Everyone flinched, as that had happened to them all at some point, even Draco. "Ouch."
("Want a hand?" It... through the barrier.)
Molly smiled proudly. She knew her boys could be very helpful when they found somebody who needed it. No matter how much their pranks and jokes drove her mad. They were still good boys.
Harry smiled too, the Weasley's were the only wizarding family, it seemed like, that didn't try to get in his good graces because of who he was. They wanted to be with him for him, not some title.
("Yes, please," Harry... of the compartment.)
"That thing was heavy." Fred muttered to his twin.
"Yeah, especially considering all he had in it was the bare minimum of school supplies." George agreed. They looked at each other and decided to write a letter of their own to their younger selves. Ron could deliver it.
("Thanks," said Harry,... Harry's lightning scar.)
"Ugh," Harry groaned. "Thankfully, this was the first and only time any of you treated me like I was different." He muttered.
"What do you mean?" Neville asked.
"The train ride was the only time any of the Weasley's, with the exception of Ginny for a while, treated me as anything other than 'just Harry'. In the beginning, they stared for a bit, but then they got over it and I was just another little firstie." Harry said with a smile.
Ginny went bright red when he mentioned that she was the exception.
The other Weasley's smiled back at Harry. It had been kind of hard to see him as a rich, powerful, and famous wizard when he was dressed in rags and scrawny. They weren't going to tell him that, though.
("Blimey," said the... yes, I am.")
Harry went bright red while Harry snickered along with everybody else.
"Very elegant, Harry," Draco snickered.
"Shut up. I wasn't expecting that as soon as I got on the blasted train." Harry muttered, trying to hide his face in his laughing godfather's side, after punching said laughing godfather of course, not that it actually did anything but make him laugh harder.
(The two boys... train's open door.)
"We were actually staring because we didn't expect to find a poorly dressed, scrawny little kid who looked like he could use a few good meals. That, and your reaction to us asking who you were." Fred said with a shrug. George was too busy writing the letter, his hand-writing was better.
"Thanks," Harry muttered, not sure how to feel about that one.
("Fred? George?... they were saying.)
Molly, the teachers, and both Hermione's frowned. Before they said anything though, Harry said, "I know, eavesdropping is rude, but they were also the first example of a family I'd ever seen outside Privet Drive and them," he waved vaguely towards his aunt and uncle, "and I wanted to compare." He finished with an unapologetic shrug.
Their frowned deepened, but they decided not to say anything, this time, which made the Harry's and even Dudley sigh in relief. Dudley because he himself had that himself a lot the last year he was at Smeltings before they went into hiding. He had wanted to compare how his parents treated him versus how other parents treated their kids.
He actually found himself wishing his parents were more like the other parents he'd seen.
He'd seen one kid, he was acting up, acting like Dudley used to, when his father turned him and spanked him standing right there in the middle of the hallway in the dorms. But after the punishment, the boy got a hug and a reassurance that he was still loved, but he better never act that way again. And he didn't. Even after his father left.
Dudley had ended up befriending that boy later on and had been able to ask some questions. He wished his parents had actually disciplined him growing up, then maybe...
(Their mother had just... end of his nose.)
Arthur winced while his sons snickered at a red Ron. "Molly, dear, we've talked about giving the boys space as they got older, especially in public." He told his wife gently.
She opened her mouth to protest, but Bill cut her off. "Yeah, mom, it may be different with girls, but for a guy to be babied like that in public is downright humiliating. Especially the day you leave for school, that's the day everyone gets their first impression of you." He said with a slight shake to his shoulders, evidence of trying not to laugh.
Molly frowned, but saw how all the boys in the room were snickering at Ron in the book, and decided to think about it. This chapter was giving her a lot to think about.
("Mom- geroff."... one of the twins.)
"See?" Charlie snickered again. Molly sent an apologetic look at Ron, who smiled at her.
None of the Weasley clan held it against her, they knew that she spent twenty plus years raising seven kids, so she had a bit of a hard time letting them go. As evidenced by how excited she was whenever Bill and Charlie got some vacation time and came home. They tried to coordinate when their vacation times were for a reason, so they could both be home at the same time.
("Shut up," said Ron... letter P on it.)
"Uh-oh." Percy muttered, glancing at the Twins warily. He almost forgot about how much they teased him that summer...
("Can't stay long, Mother,"... we had no idea.")
"Fred, George..." Bill said quietly and warningly.
They took one look and sheepishly apologized to Percy. Bill was always on them about not going too far or too long with their teasing. It was just so easy to tease Percy, they tended to get carried away with him. Percy graciously accepted their apologies, although he said it wasn't necessary.
Molly blinked, she could never get those two to apologize.
("Hang on, I..."All summer-")
Bill frowned at Percy, "And you, need to not flaunt it so much, it only makes you more of a target, as well as unapproachable for the younger students." He said.
Percy turned red. He didn't want to admit it, but Bill was right, none of the kids ever came to him if they could help it, they didn't even listen to him half the time.
("Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.)
The Twins turned to stare at Harry. "Why didn't we think of that?" They demanded.
Harry just shrugged. "Like I said..."
"...earlier, you just..."
"...aren't as awesome." The Harry's said with a shrug and a smirk.
The Twins turned away pouting. Everyone else just either snickered, or scooted away in fear. Severus pinched the bridge of his nose, once again thanking every deity ever worshiped in the history of the planet (even though he only worshiped God) that there was only one Harry Potter. Even if he at the moment had to deal with two of them.
("How come Percy... he's a prefect.")
Bill and Charlie flinched. That was so not fair on the younger siblings. They looked around to see their brothers faces closed off. Even Ron's. Ginny seemed fine, but then, she didn't have to deal with her mom comparing her to her older brother's as much, and at least her clothes were store-bought second-hand. Perks of being the only girl in the house.
"Mom, please tell me you haven't been throwing our achievements in the Twins face all these years." Bill asked hopefully.
"Of course not!" Molly said defensively. Bill's heart sank when he saw the Twins shift angrily in response.
His mom meant well, and she truly didn't want to hurt her children, she was a good mother... but, Bill supposed, every parent had their faults.
(said their mother fondly... up a toilet or-")
All the Heads of House and Madam Pomfrey all groaned. "Molly, you just gave them ideas." Minerva said with her face in her hands.
"That's where the toilet seat idea came from..." Madam Pomfrey muttered.
"You never give a prankster ideas." Remus and Sirius said together with grins on their faces.
"Especially don't give them ideas while your telling them not to do something." The Harry's continued with a sly smirk on their faces.
"Yeah, you never know how far we can take it." The Twins finished with a mischievous grin of their own. Everyone stared at the six of them wide-eyed. The six smirked when they could practically taste the fear.
("Blown up a toilet?... though, thanks, Mom.")
The teachers snapped out of their fear-induced haze and groaned again.
Severus gave a mental smirk though, his was the only classroom that was never touched by the pranking menaces. Outside the classroom was where he had trouble with the three. Inside the classroom, they knew to behave themselves or be chopped up into the smallest potion ingredients he could manage. Of course... Harry's potions did have a tendency to explode... mostly from either being paired with Longbottom or his Slytherins throwing stuff in his cauldron making it explode.
Hermione suddenly realized something. "That's what you found so funny in our second year!" She turned to Ron. "It was about a month before Christmas. Remember?" She asked him, referencing when they first started brewing the Polyjuice.
His eyes widened and they both turned to Harry, who just shrugged with a slight smirk on his face.
("It's not funny... met on the train?")
"Sorry about this, Harry." The Twins said. Harry waved them off, though he noticed Ginny had turned an interesting red color.
(Harry leaned back... Mom, oh please...")
Ginny's face was beet red as she hid her face in Luna's blond hair. Her brother's snickered quietly, but didn't say anything. They were just glad she finally grew out of that.
"I'm so glad I grew out of that." Ginny muttered, unknowingly vocalizing her siblings thoughts.
"Me, too." Harry said with a jerk of his head. She had been driving him nuts with her sudden clumsiness and inability to speak when he was nearby. The professor's were smiling amused, while Dudley's eyebrows were raised. So, his cousin was popular with the ladies, was he...
("You've already seen... at in a zoo.)
"Thank you!" Harry cried. "Try telling that to the rest of Wizarding Britain." He grumbled.
(Is he really, Fred?... Who looks like?")
Harry grimaced and frowned. "Looked like, not at the time. How he laughs... yeah. That, I remembered." Harry muttered.
Everyone else frowned too. It wasn't right that he remembered something like that.
"I hope none of you bothered him by asking about it." Molly warned her boys.
"Of course not!" The Twins said defensively. Ron shifted in his seat, but didn't answer. He didn't technically ask that though, so...
(Their mother suddenly... began to cry.)
"Normally, children don't want to go to school... at least, Muggle children don't." Dudley said with his head tilted to the side.
Ginny shrugged. "I didn't want to be left at home all alone for a year."
"You weren't alone, your father and I were there." Molly said, looking at her daughter.
"Yeah, but your both old." Ginny said with a grin at her parents, both of whom scowled back playfully.
("Don't, Ginny, we'll..."Only joking, Mom.")
"Even I could tell tell they were joking." Harry whispered to Sirius.
Sirius frowned and looked at the Twins in concern. "I can speak with them later, if you want." He offered.
Harry frowned, but shook his head, "I don't think it's going to do much good at this point, this was years ago." He said. Sirius nodded in understanding.
(The train began to move... fell back and waved.)
Bill reached over and pulled his little sister into a side hug, smirking when she whined and halfheartedly fought against it. The other boys all grinned. They maybe, kind of, spoiled their little sister a bit.
Just a little bit though...
(Harry watched the... was leaving behind.)
People frowned again. He didn't even care where he was going, as long as it was far away. Just what happened in that house that Harry wasn't telling them? They glanced over at Harry, only to see him grabbing a sketch pad and pencil and start drawing something.
(The door of the... "Everywhere else is full.")
"Ron..." Charlie and Hermione both started slowly. They looked at each other, startled, before Hermione motioned for Charlie to speak, it was his brother after all.
"Ron, you were on a magical train. If there were truly no more seats available, the train would have expanded and a new compartment would have been created. Something you knew seeing as how I made sure to drill it into your head before I left for Romania." Charlie said with a frown, looking at his youngest brother. Ron turned beet red, which clashed horribly with his hair, but he didn't say anything. He avoided the amused looks on everybodies faces in favor of looking at Harry, trying to see his reaction to hearing that Ron basically lied so he could get a chance to meet him.
Harry blinked at his friend a couple of times, shrugged, and went back to drawing. Ron breathed an audible sigh of relief. Glad his friend wasn't mad and didn't seem to care about the reasons behind them actually becoming friends.
(Harry shook his head... tarantula down there.")
Ron shuddered again. Hermione reached over and patted him on the back.
("Right," mumbled Ron... See you later, then.")
"Well that was... kind of sudden." Hermione blinked. Harry didn't even look up from his drawing this time.
"That's the twins. They don't waste time with idle chat. They say what they want to say and they do what they want to do. If they do come to just chat, there is usually a reason behind it." He said. The Twins blinked. They didn't think he noticed.
("Bye," said Harry... and George's jokes,")
"I can see us doing that,"
"If we didn't know how much you'd been wanting to meet him." The Twins said seriously, staring at their brother. Ron blinked, but smiled.
(said Ron. "And have... lightning scar. Ron stared.)
Ron winced, now that he knew how much Harry hated it when people stared. "Sorry about that mate." Harry waved him off and kept drawing. After a minute, Harry joined him.
Hermione tilted her head. "I didn't know you liked to draw." She said flatly. Harry shrugged. He didn't really get a chance to draw much when he was at Hogwarts or the Burrow. When he did get a chance, it was usually when he snuck up to the Room of Requirement in the middle of the night.
Dudley said, "He draws all the time at home. Of course, mom usually tears those up if she finds them, or Aunt Marge feeds them to Ripper..."
"You used to tear them up too, Dudley. Either that or take them to school to show off your artistic abilities." Harry said, saying 'your' as sarcastically as he could and looking at his cousin over the top of his work. Dudley grimaced.
"Who's Ripper?" Sirius asked curiously.
"Aunt Marge's prized bull-dog." Harry said bitterly.
Dudley grimaced again. "The thing hates Harry. With a passion. How many times did it chase you up a tree?" He asked. Both Harry's shrugged. They lost count years ago.
"There's only two dogs I want anything to do with." He muttered, glancing between Hagrid and Sirius. The only two dogs he could tolerate were Padfoot and Fang. Otherwise, they terrified him. Sirius smiled at him, sad that Harry didn't like dogs, dogs happened to be Sirius favorite animal. Case in point, his dog animagus. He was considering telling Harry that Padfoot would stay away, but if Harry didn't mind Padfoot... he'd talk to Harry about it later.
("So that's where You-Know-Who-?")
"RON!" Molly cried. She said NOT to ask.
Ron held up his hands. "Technically, you told the twins not to ask, not me. Also, technically, I didn't ask him anything about that night. I asked about his scar." He said defensively. The Slytherins in the room raised an eyebrow. That had been a very Slytherin answer from the Prince of the Lions (Harry was the King, whether he knew it or not Gryffindor listened to him).
Molly's eyes narrowed dangerously, but Arthur put a hand on her shoulder, saying that Ron had a point.
("Yes," said Harry,... light, but nothing else.")
"You shouldn't have even remembered that much." Sirius muttered, pulling his boys tighter against him, loosening up again when he felt their drawings start to crinkle up a bit. Looking at them, he was very impressed.
"You left out the loud, creepy laugh." Harry muttered, Harry shrugged.
"Didn't think that would gain me a friend. That might of scared him off." He said matter-of-factly.
("Wow," said Ron... as Ron found him.)
Now it was Harry's turn to go slightly red. "Sorry." He muttered, glancing up from his drawing. Sirius was looking at it curiously, and was even more impressed.
Ron waved it away. "I guess it's natural, what with wizards still being new to you, and all." He said. He outright ignored Hermione's shocked expression beside him. Hey, he could show tact! Once in awhile...
("Er- yes, I think so,... we never talk about him.")
"Why not?" Hermione asked, slightly offended.
"He's very bitter. The family has tried, many times, to reconnect with him, but he turns us away every time. For a family like ours, where family means everything to us, for one of that family to want nothing to do with us, its very painful." Molly said.
Hermione said, "Oh," in a small voice, and looked down, once again she jumped to the wrong conclusions about something and almost accused somebody of something. All the Weasley's pointedly avoided looking at Percy, who was looking down at the floor in shame. Although, Bill and Charlie both shifted so their knees were touching his.
("So you must know loads of magic already.")
"Not quite." The Weasley's muttered.
Molly narrowed her eyes at all her boys. "You better not have, you know perfectly well it's against the law to do magic outside of school." She warned them.
Neither of the Draco's felt like mentioning the loop-holes regarding the simple fact that the Ministry couldn't tell WHO did the magic, which meant that children with at least one magical parent could do all the magic they wanted and the Ministry would never know.
(The Weasley's were... had talked about.)
"So are the Potter's." Sirius muttered to his godsons. They both smiled slightly at him.
"And we're not quite like what Draco was talking about either." Bill said with a shrug.
("I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron.)
"Hey, you know what I just thought of, if he was living with Muggles, then how did the papers and books know what he looked like, and why are they passing off the Harry Potter Adventure series off as something he really did?" Ron asked.
"I hadn't thought of that. But that is a massive security breach." Arthur said. Moody nodded and went back to scribbling furiously on his parchments.
"Wait," Harry said, looking up from his drawing hesitantly, as if he really didn't want to know, but had to ask anyway, "'Harry Potter Adventure' series?" He asked slowly, his eyes were wide.
"You didn't know about that?"
Harry shook his head. "I usually try to get in, get what I need, and get out. That way there's less chance of being mobbed by 'adoring fans'." He said sarcastically. Moody frowned and scribbled some more.
"Don't worry about those, I'll see what I can do when we get back. There are laws concerning using the name of a minor in marketing." He reassured Harry. "Basically, in a nutshell, it can't be done without the legal guardians permission, and the minor in question has to receive a cut of the profit."
"Which he wasn't." Sirius and Bill muttered. Dumbledore shifted. That would be because he authorized it, and he was getting that cut of the profit.
("What are they like?"... and Percy's old rat.")
Charlie was speechless. When he finally found his voice, he could barely speak above a whisper. "You gave him my old wand? I gave you that to Owl it to Ollivander to be destroyed when I got my new one because it was unsafe to use." He stared at his mother as if she'd grown a second head. "The core was poking out the end, how could you possibly think that was ok to give Ron?"
Ollivander looked at Ron sharply. He knew Ron no longer had that wand, having sold him one just before the boys third year, but he never did find out what the boy was using before that. "You never had problems with it? You were never injured using it?" He asked sharply. All the teachers looked shocked.
Minerva was heard asking Severus quietly how they missed something like that. There were funds set aside, to be used if a students wand became damaged or unsafe and the parents were unable to purchase a new one. This certainly explained his poor spell-work his first year.
Ron shook his head, no he was never injured using it. The first year, anyway.
"Mom!" Charlie exclaimed when his mother refused to meet any of their eyes or say anything.
Finally, she sighed. "We had no choice, I had to send him with something, and that year was harder than usual, financially. We couldn't afford to get him one of his own."
"You could have owled me! Or Bill! You know we would have been glad to help out. We've been trying to help out for years and you never let us!" Charlie said. The younger Weasley's were shocked. They didn't know Bill and Charlie had been trying to send their parents money.
"We have never been so bad off that we couldn't manage somehow." Molly said sharply. "Besides, that money is yours, you earned it, so you are going to use it for your own homes and future families."
"But mom, we're talking about a faulty wand! No matter how much you don't want to take our money, this is something you couldn't have just ignored! Ron could have gotten seriously hurt or killed using that!" Bill jumped in. Ron went pale. He didn't know that.
"Boys, we can finish discussing this later." Arthur stepped in. "And Ron, we will talk about your... insecurities later as well." He said. They all looked at their father, but nodded and sat back.
(Ron reached inside... which was asleep.)
Sirius, Remus, and the Trio growled at the mention of the rat, surprising everyone who had not yet caught on, or didn't know the full story.
("His name's Scabbers and he's useless,)
"You got that right." Was heard from random people who would really love to go rat-hunting right about then.
(he hardly ever wakes... Scabbers instead.")
*"Hold on. You already said Percy got new robes because he was a prefect, now he got an owl, too? I thought you said that year was harder than usual. So, why not have gotten Ron a wand instead of new robes and an owl? You could have easily bought a new wand with the cost of the owl alone." Charlie said. He was not happy about this.
"Charles Weasley." Arthur said in a hard voice. "I said, we will discuss this later." Charlie sat back reluctantly, but he realized that he finally pushed his father too far. Everyone else just stared at Arthur. They never heard him like that, before.
Percy spoke up in a quiet voice. "I actually bought the owl myself. I'd been saving up, my fifth year and becoming prefect just happened to be when I finally had enough." He was bothered. He didn't know the condition the wand given to Ron had been in. If he'd known, he'd have bought Ron a wand instead of Hermes. He could have waited another year.
Ron blinked. He didn't know Percy bought Hermes, he thought their dad did.
(Ron's ears went pink... out of the window.)
Arthur looked more and more pained the longer he had to hear about how ashamed his son was of how bad their financial situation was. Molly gave him a side hug. She was wishing they could have just that little bit of extra money.
(Harry didn't think there... proper birthday presents.)
Ron scowled. "Yeah, except you made it sound like the Dursley's honestly just couldn't afford anything. He said nothing about them actually being fairly rich themselves." He muttered.
(This seemed to cheer Ron up.)
He turned red again. "Not in the way that I was happy for his suffering, but more in the way that we had something in common." He muttered at the scandalized looks being thrown his way.
("...and until Hagrid... Voldemort-" Ron gasped.)
Now he just shook his head in exasperation and defeat. Harry shrugged.
("What?" said Harry... saying the name,")
"Its not a matter of bravery, anyway. Its just a stupid name. It's not even real." Harry muttered.
(said Harry, "I just... worst in the class.")
The teachers all raised an eyebrow. "Actually, Mr. Potter, while your theory could use some work, you are the top of your class when we do practical work."
Harry gaped at them. "But, I never get it quickly! It always takes me a couple of days!" He protested.
"Yes, but when you do get the spell, its usually better quality work than the rest of your classmates. It's your poor theory work that had your grades so low." Harry and Hermione could only gape. "And, of course, now that we know why that is..." She turned to Harry, who gulped. "I expect your theory work to reflect that smart mind I know is there." She told him sternly.
Harry could only nod his head quickly. Hermione looked like she wasn't sure if she should be excited at the possibility of competition, or jealous that he might be as smart as or smarter than her.
("You won't be... learn quick enough.")
Hermione nodded while Hermione looked relieved. "Now, if they just offered that class on wizarding customs and tradition..." Hermione muttered.
Sirius nodded, Lily said the same thing once. "I'll see what I can do... I think the Blacks have a seat on the Board of Governors... so do the Potters actually, now that I think about it."
"Um, I think my father has been using my status as the Heir to the Black family, well, unless the Head of the Family says otherwise, and the fact that the Head of the Family was a prisoner turned escaped convict and therefore couldn't say otherwise... Yeah, he's been using the Black family's political status to get what he wants." Draco said sheepishly. Sirius blinked.
"Well, that's the first thing that needs to be changed." He muttered. "That actually explains a lot..." Then he frowned. "I'm pretty sure I named Harry as my legal and magical Heir before I went to prison. Months before, actually."
Moody and Severus frowned. That wasn't good. Dumbledore shifted, he didn't know about that...
(While they had been... the cart, dears?")
Both Ron's started drooling a bit at the thought of the food cart. Ron had heard a lot from his brothers about it, while Ron just wanted some food off of it.
Both Hermione's rolled their eyes at their respective Ron. "Always thinking with his stomach..." Hermione muttered fondly.
Everyone else chuckled.
(Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast,)
Everyone cast dark looks at the Dursleys, unsure if this one was due to Harry's excitement, or them not letting him have anything.
(leapt to his feet... brought sandwiches.)
Molly frowned. What was he embarrassed about?
(Harry went out into... as he could carry-)
"What's a Mars Bar?" Draco asked. Draco nodded in agreement to the question.
"Its a Muggle candy, its... here." Hermione said, and next thing everyone knew, the table was covered in Mars Bars. Hermione evidently thought it would be easier to just let them try it for themselves than try to talk about it.
Draco picked it up and inspected it. "What does it do?"
"Nothing." Hermione laughed, "Its just a chocolate bar. Muggles don't have Magic, how could you expect them to enchant something?" She asked, Harry nodded in agreement. He thought it was amazing how wizards seemed to forget so often that some of the stuff they took for granted, like moving pictures, didn't exist in the Muggle world because they took MAGIC to make, something Muggles didn't have. Draco turned slightly red at the question.
With that, everybody helped themselves with Dudley making sure Dudley was limited to three. Those were to last the rest of the day. No more. Petunia was trying to get her son to let his younger self have as many as he wanted, while Petunia tried to get them all for him, but Dudley wouldn't budge.
The wizards all found them to be pretty good, and it was decided to just leave them out if anybody wanted more. Under Molly's watchful eye, of course. No matter their ages.
(but the woman didn't have Mars Bars.)
"Maybe we should put Muggle candy on the cart... It would certainly make the first year Muggleborn and raised more at ease about being thrown into a new world like we are... it might even help the Purebloods understand where we come from a little more." Hermione suggested to the professor's.
Minerva looked thoughtful before she summoned some parchment and started writing. "That combined with a wizarding customs class... they would have a much easier time of integrating into our society..." She frowned for a moment, then a stack of books appeared, Hogwarts a History, editions 1-10. Her, Hermione, and Remus all sat up and stared at the books. Severus' eyes went wide. Everyone could have sworn the four of them started drooling, (Severus would deny that ever happened.)
"Before you four start fighting over these, how about we do this...?" Sirius said loudly when the four of them started eyeing each other warily and inching toward the books. Three more sets of the same books appeared in front of Remus, Hermione, and Severus, while a fourth stack appeared sitting neatly on top of the trunk holding the Potter Heirlooms. On top of each stack, was a satchel with extension charms similar to Hermione's beaded bag. "And then, when we leave here, you can give your set to Hermione," He gestured between the two Hermione's, "And the others can give your sets to Moody or Ron to give your other selves. Well, Ron can give it to his Bill, or his dad, either one would work." He suggested.
They all nodded, Moody grumbled, "Why me?" To which Sirius answered that he was the only one who currently had Sirius trust to actually do it and not hoard them to himself. Well, he trusted Ron too.
(What she did have... seven bronze Knuts.)
Sirius whistled lowly. "That's more than we usually spent." He said, impressed.
Molly frowned, "You shouldn't eat that much sugar, its not healthy." She scolded.
Ron sighed, "Yes mom." He muttered.
Sirius frowned at her, "Boys will be boys, Molly." Molly turned to glare at him, but didn't say anything when Arthur laid a hand on her arm.
(Ron stared as Harry... like corned beef.")
"You don't?" Molly asked, startled out of glaring at Sirius. "I though you loved corned beef."
"No, that's me that likes corned beef." Charlie said quietly. They usually just went along and never said anything. There were times when she would ask to make sure, and they would tell the truth, but they never said anything when she forgot and gave them something that another sibling liked instead.
"Oh." She sat back with a bothered expression on her face. She suddenly realized that must have been why Ron was embarrassed earlier about having brought sandwiches. He knew she probably forgot. The thought was just depressing.
("Swap you for one... with five of us.")
Her look deepened. "But we know you do your best." Bill said to his mother, the other kids all nodded. They wouldn't trade her for the world, no matter how many faults she had.
She smiled gratefully at them, but she still looked troubled. Draco frowned over at the Weasley's thoughtfully.
("Go on, have... sandwiches lay forgotten.))
Ron winced at his mother's downcast expression, "Sorry mom." He said sheepishly.
Arthur smiled softly at his son and leaned over to whisper in his wife's ear.
("What are these?"... I'm missing Agrippa.")
"Oh, I have at least five of him." Both Sirius and Remus informed Ron.
"I think James had several of him as well, although he left his collection at the Manor, I believe." Sirius said thoughtfully.
Remus nodded. "You'll just have to take Harry there when you get a chance." Sirius nodded, he would definitely be doing that. Harry's eyes were wide, he looked at Ron and Hermione and mouthed 'manor?' They just shook their heads, their eyes were wide too.
("What? "Oh, of course,... Agrippa or Ptolemy.")
"I've got several of him, too." Sirius and Remus muttered.
"HOW?!" Ron practically exploded. "Those two are among the rarest cards you could find!" He exclaimed.
"Well," Sirius started while Remus turned slightly red, although whether it was from embarrassment or annoyance was anyone's guess. "You kids must have noticed that Remy is a bit of a chocoholic?" He waited until he saw heads nodding before he continued. "When, when you share a dorm with a chocoholic for seven years, you tend to eat A LOT of chocolate frogs. Which means you build up quite the card collection. We used to trade some of the rarer cards we collected for kids silence if we didn't feel like threatening them with turning into a toad for the day or something." He shrugged and ignored the look Minerva gave him.
"And what he really means, is that he was constantly finding and getting into my secret stash. DESPITE the wards I would place around it, AND despite the fact that I eventually started carrying it around with me in a pouch I put an undetectable expansion charm on along with those same wards I had on it in the first place." Remus said, glaring at Sirius accusingly.
Sirius just smirked at him while the teens laughed and Minerva muttered that that was what those wards he asked for were all about.
(Harry unwrapped his... name Albus Dumbledore.)
Dumbledore had a small, secretive smile on his face during the description on his card.
He like that he had a chocolate frog card.
("So this is Dumbledore!"... and tenpin bowling.)
During the description of what the card said, Ron and Hermione both turned to glare at Harry, who chuckled sheepishly. "Oops?" He tried.
They scowled and turned away, both grumbling about wasted time and how he had it right there the whole time.
(Harry turned the... disappeared.
"He's gone!")
"What?!" Both Dudley's yelped.
"Well, yeah, what else was he supposed to do?" Draco asked.
"Pictures don't move! Movies are different!" Dudley said.
"Of course pictures move, and what's a movie?" Draco asked, confused. Arthur looked up eagerly, wanting to learn something new about Muggle technology. The Dursley's all made a strangled sound.
"Wizarding pictures move, remember, Muggles don't have potions or magic, so they can't produce moving pictures? And movies are... well, they're not moving pictures in the way wizarding pictures are..." Hermione trailed off and looked to Harry for help explaining.
"How about we watch a few movies while we're here or something? It might be easier to just show you." Arthur nodded eagerly. He didn't know what a movie was, but it sounded fascinating! The rest of the Weasley's noticed this and shook their heads in fond amusement.
("Well, you can't... to be unwrapped.)
"Ronald, if you want something, you know how to ask politely." Molly said sternly. Ron just sighed and nodded his head obediently.
("Help yourself," said... stay put in photos.")
The Dursleys nodded imperiously, that was the way it should be. The Dudley's looked curious about this new thing though.
("Do they? What,... him a small smile.)
The Dursley's looked repulsed and horrified, while both Dudley's looked curious. Next thing, some chocolate frogs appeared on the table, and both boys were studying them, eventually opening them up to see the cards inside. Their eyes widened in amazement when the pictures on the cards moved, they even waved at them!
Both Petunia's gave a small shriek of horror at seeing their boys holding those things before snatching them and tossing them away. Both boys protested, but quieted down when they saw Harry summon them and hand them off to Bill. Both Harry and Bill saw them looking and winked. Bill would give them their cards once they got back to their rooms.
Their mother's scolding and lecturing about how they shouldn't touch such unnatural things also made them shut up and sigh before nodding obediently.
(Ron was more interested... Paracelsus, and Merlin.)
"You got Merlin?" Both Sirius and Remus yelled, staring at Harry in shock and awe.
"Yup." Harry said with a smug grin. The Merlin card was very rare, there were only supposed to be a hundred made every two years. Which meant that they were very difficult, almost impossible to find.
"I don't think we found a Merlin card until our seventh year, even with all the Chocolate Frogs we ate, and you just happen to find one on the first day of even finding out Chocolate Frogs exist? HOW IS THAT EVEN FAIR?" Sirius yelled in shock. Ron was nodding along. He had found one too, but not until their fifth year, and he'd been collecting since he was old enough to read the descriptions.
Harry shrugged, still with that smug grin on his face. Sirius and Remus both stared at him for a moment before they sat back, pouting at the unfairness of it all.
Hermione shook her head, and muttered, 'boys.' The teachers shook their heads too, but they were used to the Marauders antics.
(He finally tore his... Every Flavor Beans.)
"Every flavor?" Dudley asked.
The wizards grinned. "Yup. Every flavor." Ron confirmed with a smirk.
("You want to be... -flavored one once.")
"That's a lot of flavors..." Dudley muttered to his younger self.
"Some of those sound a little... strange, to have to eat though." Dudley muttered back. Dudley nodded in agreement.
(Ron picked up..."Bleaaargh- see? Sprouts.")
All the Weasley boys made a face at that. Sprouts were disgusting. Their mother shot them a look, she didn't care how disgusting they thought they were, they were going to eat them.
(They had a good... out to be pepper.)
Remus and Sirius were impressed. First, the kid finds a Merlin card, then he gets some fairly decent luck with his Bertie Bott's. Those weren't bad flavors to get. Sardine and grass were fairly mild. The kid had some very good luck.
Ron groaned. "I got earwax and vomit." He grumbled.
(The countryside now... He looked tearful.)
"Oh, great." Neville muttered.
Ron frowned. Didn't he say something after Neville left? He couldn't remember what he said though...
("Sorry," he said,... away from me!")
Neville sighed. Wasn't that the truth. "Like I said, he just likes to explore and find cooler places for his skin." Luna told him. Neville looked thoughtful for a moment before he grabbed a quill and parchment
("He'll turn up,"... quick as I could.)
"Ronald!" Molly said sharply. Ron winced (now he remembered what he said) and apologized to Neville, which he was about to do anyway even without his mother there.
Neville waved it off, toads weren't exactly the most popular.
(Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk.")
"I would take Trevor over Scabbers any day. At least Trevor is a real animal." Ron muttered. Everybody that knew about Scabbers being Pettigrew nodded in agreement.
(The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.)
"You know, I wonder if he was really snoozing, or if he was listening to our conversation trying to find out information on you, Harry." Ron said thoughtfully.
Harry frowned, but nodded. It was entirely possible.
("He might have... I'll show you, look...")
Fred and George burst out laughing. "You actually tried that?" They asked while still laughing. Ron's ears turned pink with embarrassment, and Harry was trying not to laugh as well, Ron was so easy to prank, even after growing up with Fred and George, it was hilarious!
Molly wasn't amused though, and made that known.
(He rummaged around... poking out. Anyway-")
Charlie and Ollivander both groaned. Ollivander turned to Molly, "You do realize the state of that wand would have been grounds for me to call the DMLE on you for criminal negligence and child endangerment? Not to mention improper use of magical resources." He asked her sternly.
Molly's eyes widened and she looked at Moody and Sirius (the two Aurors in the room) to confirm, they both shrugged and nodded. That sounded about right to them. It didn't happen often, because a wand was considered to be such an important piece of the wizard, but it did happen.
Arthur sighed. He hadn't known the condition the wand was in either. Molly gave it to Ron while he was at work.
(He had just raised... new Hogwarts robes.)
Hermione blinked, then slumped down. She hadn't exactly made the best first impression, has she?
Ron reached over and squeezed her shoulder. She gave him a small smile.
("Has anyone seen a... bossy sort of voice,)
Hermione groaned. "I did, didn't I?" She asked her boys. Both of them shrugged, but nodded. She had been very, very bossy when they first met. She came out of it around the end of the Easter holidays, but everyone once in awhile it would come back.
"Its ok, though. You just didn't know how to really interact, I think." Harry said quietly. Ron nodded in agreement.
Hermione frowned. She didn't boss people around, did she?
(lots of bushy brown... girl wasn't listening,)
Both Harry and Ron gave long-suffering sighs. When something caught her attention, Hermione had very selective hearing. She could probably catch on fire and she wouldn't even notice.
Something that they were both fond of and extremely annoyed with.
(she was looking at the wand in his hand.)
"Oh, boy." Ron muttered, he glanced at the Twins, this would be good. Not.
("Oh, are you doing... looked taken aback.)
"I would have been too." Sirius said, he blinked and looked at Hermione. "I don't think even Remus was quite that... socially deprived when we first met him." He said, still bewildered. Remus scowled.
Sure he had a furry problem, and his parents tried to hide him away, but he still got out and met people.
("Er- all right."..., fat rat yellow.")
There weren't that many people in the room that weren't either laughing or shaking in laughter. He honestly fell for that! He grew up around magic, he would have heard both his brother's, parents, and who knows how many relatives doing magic, and more than likely saying the spells!
And he honestly fell for it!
The Twins stood up once they controlled their laughter and each took a sweeping bow before grinning at their younger brother, who glared back. There wasn't any real heat to it though. Honestly, Harry helped get the Twins back many times over the years for various pranks they did on Ron. Including this one.
(He waved his wand, but nothing happened.)
"Of course not, that's not a real spell." Charlie chuckled. He was glad nothing happened with the wand though, it could have still gone off.
Ron scowled at him.
That's when he noticed that even his mother was starting to smile over that stupid fake spell!
(Scabbers stayed gray... all worked for me.)
"What did you try?" Minerva demanded.
Hermione blinked, "Just a couple of small reparo's." She was a little confused.
"Foolish girl, you could have damaged your core trying that before you even started your schooling. Books can't supervise, and books don't hold all of the personal experience dealing with some issues that come up, personal experience that your teachers have. Books are not substitutes for a good teacher." Madam Pomfrey lectured the girl, who was wide-eyed.
Hermione nodded numbly. She had just wanted to impress her parents! (That, and know as much as she could as quickly as she could.)
(Nobody in my family's... all this very fast.)
Everybody was blinking at the girl when the charms on the book managed to mimic the way she said all that perfectly. Harry, Ron, and Neville were all hiding smirks, and Hermione was very red in the face. The three boys realized just then that this was the first time anybody else in that room had really ever been exposed to Hermione's way of talking very fast without taking a breath or giving you a chance to get a word in otherwise.
Harry and Ron gulped when they realized that they would very quickly be learning first hand how to keep up with the girl.
(Harry looked at Ron,... books by heart either.)
"But I did read them." Harry hurried to say, eyeing his teachers, especially Professor Snape.
A couple of them cracked a smile.
("I'm Ron Weasley,"... the Twentieth Century.")
"You know, Sirius, you should probably check into those books... I haven't read them, but I don't think they are going to be very accurate about what actually happened. Considering I've never talked about it with anybody, before or after coming to the Wizarding world. Well, except with Ron and Hermione." Harry said, looking at his godfather. Sirius nodded thoughtfully and Moody added those books to his list of things to take another look at.
Hermione, who had looked very excited at hearing Harry was in three separate books, looked like Harry committed blasphemy when he said they probably weren't going to be at all accurate. But when she heard that Harry was the only one who could have told anybody what really happened, as he was the only one to survive, it did raise the question of where they got their information.
("Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.)
"And for good reason." Harry muttered. A few people shot him apologetic looks.
("Goodness, didn't you know,)
"That should have been my first clue that those books might not be the most accurate." Hermione said with a sheepish look on her face. "If the only person who was said to have actually been there and survived knew nothing about the books about it being written..." She shrugged. A few people chuckled, that was very true.
(I'd have found out... sounds by far the best;)
"More like, you ran into a few Slytherin students, who made fun of you for being Muggleborn, and a couple of Gryffindor's scared them off." Harry mumbled in sudden realization, looking at his friend.
She looked at him, then blinked in confirmation before she looked away.
Draco scowled at Gryffindor being called the best.
(I hear Dumbledore... boy with her.)
"After all that, he never did introduce himself, did he? You just overheard his name on the platform and Hermione mentioned it in passing." Ron said. "And I suppose I already knew him in passing, but..." Ron shrugged.
Harry shrugged too, but Neville never did introduce himself now that he thought about it. Neville looked sheepish, and said sorry with a slightly red face. Harry and Ron both waved it off.
("Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.)
Molly gasped, "Ronald!" She said. She would have started scolding, but Hermione cut her off with a small smile.
"It's ok, I guess I did kind of start off wrong. I just... didn't really know how to make friends, I guess." She said sheepishly. Molly frowned at her, but she let it go... for now.
(He threw his wand... knew it was a dud.")
"Ron," Fred started.
"For it to have been a dud,"
"It would have had to have been..."
"... an actual spell in the first place." The Twins said. Ron scowled at them both while others laughed.
("What house are... settling on him again.)
Arthur and Molly frowned. They had never heard their youngest son be so insecure before. They supposed they better talk to him about this, both of them. Especially the younger one, when they looked at him, he seemed fairly gloomy at the thought too. They were going to make sure Ron didn't feel this way anymore, and they were going to nip this in the bud with Ron.
("Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not.)
"We would have been perfectly happy where ever you ended up." Arthur said quietly. "Even Slytherin." He said when Ron looked like he was going to say something. "If that was where you were supposed to be, and you were happy there. Of course, we were thrilled when you ended up in the House our family has been in for generations, but, if you belonged somewhere else, then you belonged somewhere else." He said firmly. He wanted for there to be no doubts about this, all he and Molly wanted was for their kids to be happy, even if Molly tended to be way too hard on the Twins, and kept insisting they go into the Ministry when all they wanted was to run a shop and make people laugh.
(I don't suppose... -Know-Who was in?")
Everybody gasped and stared at Harry like he grew two heads. "What?" He asked with a frown, what did he do?
"You didn't say his name." Neville said, with wide eyes.
Ron snorted. "Don't get used to that, it didn't last long." He told everybody. They all sighed and settled back in, happy that Harry would go back to relative normal soon. Harry rolled his eyes.
("Yeah," said Ron... mind off houses.)
"Thanks, Harry." Ron muttered. Harry shrugged. Some people, those who noticed anyway, wondered at how alike Harry and the Twins were.
("So what do your... something for Gringotts,")
"'Doing something'? Ron, you knew full well I was in Egypt raiding tombs." Bill said, amused. "That's kind of what Curse-Breakers assigned to Egypt do. Other assignments have other stuff, but Egypt is the tombs."
Ron turned bright red while everyone else glanced at him, all of them were amused. Draco looked thoughtful though, he had always thought Curse-Breaking sounded cool. His father, though, would say it was beneath a Malfoy. But... at the same time... Curse-Breakers were considered some of the elite of the wizarding world. Curse-Breakers and Aurors. Healers could be ranked up there too, depending on who you asked.
(said Ron. "Did you... a high security vault.")
Moody and Dumbledore sat up. Dumbledore was thinking Voldemort had gone and taken the bait, now he could test Harry this coming school year. Moody was suspicious.
(Harry stared. "Really?... haven't been caught.)
"That's not good." Sirius muttered.
Bill grimaced. "We heard about that in Egypt. They recalled me back to England for a few days, to test the banks security, they were not happy that somebody broke in and out. Sure, nothing was taken, and the vault was empty, but... the fact that nobody noticed anything until several days later..." He shuddered. He hated testing the banks security. Problem was, he was one of the best they had, and they only trusted their best with testing security.
The Heads glared at Dumbledore, everything that happened that year was his fault, they never did learn just what happened to the Stone, just that Quirrell tried to steal it and was stopped by Harry.
(My dad says it... "Voldemort" without worrying.)
"Exactly. Hey, could there be some kind of curse on the name You-Know-Who? To make people fear him even more? Or even a curse on the name Voldemort?" Harry asked suddenly.
Bill frowned and sat back, "It's possible... The goblins have documented cases where somebody cursed their name like that." He said slowly.
Severus frowned too, "He was certainly powerful enough." He murmured.
"And he was determined that he would become so powerful that nobody would dare speak his name out of fear." Dumbledore added on thoughtfully. That was actually an idea.
("What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.
"Er- I don't know any," Harry confessed.)
All the Quidditch fanatics groaned, especially the Gryffindor's. Honestly, their star Seeker not even knowing any teams out there! "Oh, you are so lucky Wood didn't hear you say that." Ron muttered.
Harry and the Twins froze, then shuddered and started muttering to each other with fearful expressions. Everyone else caught the phrases, 'three in the morning', 'never properly dry', and 'couldn't sit properly'. Minerva looked concerned. Did she miss something while Oliver was captain?
("What!" Ron looked... Madam Malkin's robe shop.)
Draco suddenly gulped and looked at his godfather warily. He forgot about this conversation, and the fact that he kinda... lied- to his godfather about how it really happened.
And his godfather HATED lying. The only time he deemed it acceptable was when his life or the lives of others were at stake. Which was probably how he was such a good spy despite his hatred of liers.
Severus looked at him suspiciously when he groaned. Why did he get the feeling he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear?
(He was looking... back in Diagon Alley.)
"Funny how people look at me differently as soon as they learn my name." Harry muttered sarcastically.
("Is it true?" he said... looked like bodyguards.)
Draco coughed. "They, actually kind of are... Their families have been in service to the Malfoy's for generations, if I remember right father said something about them owing us a lot of money, so they have to serve us until that debt is paid." He said, Draco shrugged.
"I'm just surprised your the only one who came in to meet me." Harry said with a snort.
"Ah, that would be us." Fred said, gesturing between himself and his twin.
"We overheard some students..."
"... talking about how Harry Potter..."
"... was in a compartment towards the..."
"... end of the train and how they..."
"... always wanted to meet him."
"So... we made it known that whoever we caught..."
"... anywhere near that compartment would be our first..."
"... prank victims of the year."
"We also made sure they knew we had some new ideas to test out." The Twins said with a grin. Harry blinked at them, then grinned widely. He hadn't even had a full conversation with the Twins at this point and they were already looking out for him.
("Oh, this is Crabbe... Malfoy looked at him.)
Severus narrowed his eyes at his older godson, this conversation was already not going how Draco described it to him when they spoke in his office later that night.
("Think my name's... they can afford.")
All the Weasley's made sounds of protest, and Draco sank down in his seat and looked highly apologetic. Draco watched all the Weasley's in the room with wide eyes.
(He turned back to... Harry didn't take it.)
"You should have taken it, pup. No matter how angry you were with him." Sirius said with a grimace.
"Why? He was being a jerk." Harry said, "No offense." He said to Draco, who just shrugged while avoiding Severus's narrowed eyes.
"Refusing somebody's hand is considered one of the most serious insults you can give, not just them, but their entire family. By refusing his hand, you practically declared a family feud." Harry stared at his godfather, then looked at Draco, who looked uncomfortable, but shrugged again.
("I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.)
Severus was glaring at his godson. The only part of this conversation that Draco told the truth about, was Harry Potter refusing to shake his hand.
(Draco Malfoy didn't... it'll rub off on you.")
Severus stood up and dragged Draco with him, snarling that they would be back before he dragged Draco out of the room. Draco watched with wide eyes. His older self was in sooo much trouble right now.
When they were alone, he spun Draco around and stalked away from him, so he wouldn't be tempted. There was only one thing in the world that could ever tempt him to act like his disgusting father, and that was when somebody he cared about lied to him.
"You lied to me." Severus snarled.
Draco grimaced. "I know. I just... you know how much Father was pushing me to be friends with Harry Potter. If I told him that I messed it up, you know how he would have been. He would have never let it go, I don't know how angry he would have been, and I didn't want to know." He trailed off, he knew that Severus wasn't going to care what his excuse was, he still lied.
Severus whirled around and grabbed him by the shoulder, shaking him lightly. "You should have trusted me to know how to handle Lucius. You should have trusted me to know what to tell him." He hissed. Draco could see the hurt and disappointment shining in his eyes. He was one of the few who could read Severus Snape.
"I know. I'm sorry." Draco said quietly. He hated disappointing Severus, probably more than he hated disappointing his father.
"Draco, you realize, that when you told me what you did, you solidified the image I had in my head of Harry Potter being a miniature of his father. Half of the abuse I heaped on him in class, would not have happened, if I did not have that image in my mind. You realize, that when you LIED to me, you put us all in danger from the Dark Lord. Dumbledore asked me, to get Potter's trust, so that he would come to me when he had a problem, and so it would be easier for me to get information from him. I refused after I heard your account." Severus said. He watched as Draco's eyes widened. "That's not even counting the fact that you. Lied. To. Me. And, you said something like that to him! That is how your father speaks and acts, that is not how I taught you to speak and act." He said, letting go of Draco's arm.
"I know. It's just... I got angry. You know how I lose my filter when I'm angry. I've been working on it, and I'm better about it, but..." Draco shrugged helplessly.
Severus stared at him for a moment before he made a sound that was a cross between a sigh and a growl.
"You will be assisting me in the labs every free second you have while we are here and not reading until I say otherwise. Before I allow you in the lab though, you will give me two thousand lines of, 'I will never lie unless lives are in danger again', and no dessert for the next five evenings." Severus said. Draco blinked. That was more lenient than he thought it would be. "And don't look at me like that, I am taking into account how long it has been. And if I find out that there are other times you lied to me in these books, I will be adding to your punishment." Severus warned. Draco grimaced, but nodded. He was going to be writing lines the entire time he was here.
Severus nodded and gestured for him to go back to the room. When he was gone, he took a moment to collect himself before he followed. He found everyone talking quietly, and Remus pointedly not looking at him or Draco.
Great. He forgot Silencing charms. He knew he was forgetting something. The book started up again once he sat back down.
(Both Harry and Ron... than him or Ron.)
Harry looked up from the drawing he was still working on and nodded quickly with wide eyes.
Ron snorted. "Especially since Harry is pretty much the smallest in our year, and they are easily the largest." He said somewhat sourly.
Harry scowled, "It's not like I asked to be the smallest." He grumbled. Dark looks were again cast at the Dursley's.
("But we don't feel... let out a horrible yell.)
"What?" Some of the adults yelled in alarm. Draco, Harry, and Ron, though, all grinned or smirked. This was probably one of their favorite memories of first year.
(Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger,)
There was a split second of silence before some people were on the floor laughing, and others were chuckling, trying and failing to look disapproving, or just trying to hide their amusement. Sirius and Remus scowled at mention of the Rat, but they grinned when they realized what was happening.
(sharp little teeth... and hit the window,)
Those who didn't know who Scabbers really was, winced in sympathy, because that had to hurt. Those who did know, took savage pleasure in the rat being caused pain. Ron actually cried out when it was read. That was his pet!
(all three of them... Granger had come in.)
"What were you doing back there?" Neville asked.
Hermione went red. "I think I remember Ron asking me that. So it should be in the book." She muttered.
("What has been... And so he had.)
Sirius and Remus snorted. "Typical." They both muttered. They waved everybody off when they tried to ask what was typical. They did not want to get into Peter Pettigrew being an animagus and his sleeping habits right now. In fact, they would be happy if they never heard of the Rat again.
("You've met Malfoy before?"... to the Dark Side.")
Sirius and Moody both snorted. "Ain't that the truth." Sirius muttered. The man had been slimy back in school, nothing changed when he got out of school.
"Oh, the number of times I caught him at the scene, in the act, and he was still allowed to go free." Moody muttered.
Sirius snorted again. "Which Malfoy? There were two of them." He muttered to his mentor.
"Both." Moody growled. He was still sore about that.
"How could they allow them to go free if you caught them at it?" Hermione asked, appalled.
"Money." Both Moody and Sirius said at the same time. Draco blinked at the two Aurors, but said nothing. He was lucky, he was still in school and the Dark Lord wanted it to stay that way. But he really didn't like the thought of his grandfather and father doing any of those things.
"Be grateful you two never caught them at a Revel." Severus said darkly. "Even the two of you would have been too sick to your stomachs by what you saw to be able to move quick enough to defend yourselves, let alone make any arrests." A haunted look crossed his face before he quickly shoved it all back behind his Occlumency shields. That was the main reason why none of the spies the Ministry tried place within the Death Eater ranks never lasted long. They tended to give themselves away at the first Revel they attended.
Moody looked thoughtful. "You wouldn't mind speaking with me about it later, would you?" He asked. Severus blinked at him before he nodded slowly.
(He turned to Hermione... even get there!")
"Hermione," Percy started. Then he paused and grimaced. "I can't believe I'm about to say this." He muttered, "Lighten up. Life is no fun if you follow the rules so strictly or constantly worry about doing something to get into trouble. Trust me, I know." He had been miserable when he left his family, he never realized how much life the Twins brought into everything they did. He looked to the younger Hermione (and ignored his family, Harry, and Hermione gaping at him in shock) since he knew Hermione had long since lightened up.
You only needed to look at everything the Trio did in school (like start the DA, for example) to know that.
And he didn't even want to know what else they got up to without him knowing about it.
("Scabbers has been fighting... while we change?")
"Ronald, be polite." Molly admonished.
"This was years ago." Ron protested. He was getting really tired of her scolding him for something he said years ago, he didn't even remember saying it!
"Molly, leave it." Arthur said when she narrowed her eyes at her youngest son. "Its no use scolding him for something he doesn't remember saying."
"Its alright, Mrs. Weasley, I did need to get out so they could change." Hermione jumped in.
("All right- I only... down the corridors,")
"Most of them are children, dear." Sprout spoke up, looking slightly amused. Hermione blushed.
Harry looked thoughtful, then he suddenly snapped his fingers to get her attention, and signed, "You got kicked out of your compartment and just wanted to sit with somebody, didn't you?"
Her eyes widened, along with Ron's, and she nodded with a grimace when Ron turned demanding and questioning eyes on her. He was not happy. All the adults looked confused, except for Severus, who was the only one outside of the Trio that knew sign language. His eyes narrowed.
(said Hermione in a very sniffy voice.)
"My voice was not sniffy!" Hermione exclaimed, "Was it?" She asked hesitantly.
Neither Ron nor Harry felt it safe to confirm, but Neville did, surprisingly enough. Although, he was also partially hidden behind Luna, so... "Yeah, it kind of was, up until the troll incident." He said carefully. Hermione frowned towards her younger self thoughtfully, and a little worried.
Meanwhile, Molly was panicking slightly trying to figure out what troll incident they could possibly be talking about.
("And you've got... sneakers underneath them.)
Ron went a little pink while Molly went deep red. Honestly, she did what she could, but charms on clothing only went so far.
(A voice echoed... pale under his freckles.)
"What are you THAT nervous about?"
"Fred and George told me what to expect with the Sorting." Was his answer. And honestly, it did explain it.
Now they really wanted to know what Fred and George told him the sorting would be.
(They crammed their... thronging the corridor.)
Harry shuddered. Then he turned to Harry. "Be prepared for large crowds on and off the train." He hissed.
Harry shuddered in revulsion at the thought of large crowds. He actually hadn't thought about that yet.
Everyone else looked curious at what they were talking about, although Ron and Hermione looked like they had and idea, Harry always hated large crowds, or crowds of any size, really.
(The train slowed right... All right there, Harry?")
"Yup, thanks for asked Hagrid." Harry quipped with a grin to his large friend. Hagrid grinned back.
(Hagrid's big hairy face... thick trees there.)
"There aren't trees there." Minerva said.
"... Then maybe you should probably light that path up." Harry said to the teachers. They all nodded.
Why did they not think of that? One of the kids could get hurt.
(Nobody spoke much... sniffed once or twice.)
Neville blushed. "I lost Trevor again. I didn't think I would see him again." He explained. The Gryffindor's all smiled at him, they knew how much he liked Trevor.
("Yeh'll get yer firs'... a loud "Oooooh!")
"Tha' never gets old." Hagrid murmured. He loved seeing the looks on kids faces when they saw the castle for the first time. That was why he volunteered to bring the kids across the lake every year.
Well, that and the fact the other teachers usually had last minute preparations to get finished up before the Feast and classes started the next day.
(The narrow path... turrets and towers.)
Harry, Ron, and Hermione's eyes widened. Ron had heard a lot about Hogwarts from his older siblings, but none of them really described the castle itself and he'd never seen it.
Harry and Hermione were obvious, Muggleborn and raised, they never even knew Hogwarts and magic existed until they came to this room. Draco, on the other hand, had visited his godfather at the school, or went along when his father had a Governor's meeting at the school, or Governor's business to speak to Dumbledore about. He usually ended up wandering the school or going down to visit his godfather.
Sirius grinned at his younger godson.
("No more'n four... Neville and Hermione.)
"Huh." Remus said. He turned to Sirius. "Is there just something about sharing that first boat ride? Because us, Pettigrew, and James all shared a boat ride. And the four of us were all together." He said. Sirius shrugged. He didn't know. Of course, you just had to look at Pettigrew to know that there was no guarantee of them staying together.
"What if somebody is afraid of the water?" Hermione asked.
"Then hopefully they mention it to Hagrid before hand and he can send them off to the carriages with a prefect." Minerva said. Honestly, it had happened several times. They just dealt with it as it happened.
("Everyone in?" shouted... boats reached the cliff;)
"Hagrid, I'm pretty sure your the only one tall enough for there to be any danger of hitting your head." Minerva said fondly. Hagrid flushed at her gentle teasing. Everyone else snickered a bit.
(they all bent their... climbed out of them.)
"How did you know it was his?" Hermione asked.
Hagrid shrugged, "I figured he was sad about somethin', an' I've only ever seen someone so sad as when they los' a pet." He said.
Neville smiled at him gratefully.
("Trevor!" cried Neville... still got yer toad?")
"Yes, I still had him. He seemed oddly content to stay put until we got to the dorm." Neville said.
"He wanted to know where you were living so he would know where to go back to once he was done exploring." Luna said wisely. Neville and the Trio grinned at her, although Hermione looked to be humoring her more than anything else.
(Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.)
"I think that is the chapter. Next?" Flitwick asked the room. They all nodded, so he flicked his wand to restart the book.
"Chapter Seven; The Sorting Hat"
So, some of you could probably tell, I like Molly Weasley, but I do not like how she treats the Twins when it comes to their jokes and pranks. Or how much she seems to try and control her children's lives so much. I think she is a great mother though, she had to have done something right to raise seven kids and all of them turned out pretty well, with the exception of Percy, but I also feel he was acting the way he was to protect is family a little bit. More on that later, though.
*I was wondering about this, they couldn't afford to buy Ron a wand, but yet they could afford to buy Percy new robes and an owl just for becoming Prefect? Yeah...
