Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Thanks so much to AllyStar, la2ur2a, michelle, eTRINITYs11, Starry Eyed GIrl, gundamhardcore, and Ali Lee for reviewing the last chapter! Y'all are so cool! : )
Chapter 18
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Of all the summers Harry had been forced to stay with the Dursley's, this was without a doubt the worst. Petunia at least had resigned to simply ignoring him, but Dudley and Vernon were obviously taking exceptional pains to torture him, possibly because they knew that this was their last chance to make his life miserable.
If it weren't for Ginny's letters, and him being able to write to her, Harry probably would have ended up getting a little too wand happy and cursing their brains out. There wasn't anything holding him back, now that he was no longer a student at Hogwarts and was legally allowed to do magic anywhere he wanted, he knew that if he did something rash now then he would undoubtedly regret it later. In just a few months he would be free of the Dursley's forever, and until then he might as well just learn to live with them as he had so many times before.
No need to say that Hedwig was exhausted. She'd flown back and forth from the Burrow to Privet Drive two times a day for almost a month now. Ginny had attempted to use Pig a few times just to give Hedwig a break but the hyperactive little owl wasn't exaclty the most dependable creature that every existed.
Harry spent most of his days studying the many Auror books that Remus had let him borrow before he left Hogwarts. Of course he already knew practically everything in them , but there wasn't much else to do, and he was hoping that if he did well enough he would be able to lessen the training time to one year instead of two.
He was sitting in his bedroom reading about the defensive manuevers of dueling when he heard his uncle bellowing at him to come eat. Harry sighed as he set down his book and headed down the stairs. He wasn't surprised to see Dudley already stuffing his face. Petunia was piling more mashed potatoes onto her son's already overflowing plate.
Harry sat down and was just about to grab a biscuit when there was a loud, resounding knock on the door. Vernon froze with his fork half-way to his oversized mouth. He dropped his fork onto his plate and scooted his chair backward angrily. He waddled to the door clumsily, muttering the whole time about idiot sales people who didn't know what supper was.
After a few minutes of silence, he waddled back in. His face was always purple of course, but now it was a shade that Harry had only seen a few times. He looked straight at Harry then grunted, gesturing toward the door, a nervous and scared look on his face.
Harry stood and left the room excitedly. There was a tall figure standing in the living room with his back turned toward Harry. He was wearing a long black cloak, which was unmistakenly a wizard's. Harry cleared his throat softly, letting the man know that he was there. Harry almost fell backwards in shock at who he saw standing there when the man turned around. It was Sirius. But Harry had never seen his Godfather look like he did now, except for in photographs. His dark brown hair was cropped short, and his eyes had something shining in them that Harry had never seen in them before. It was joy.
"Hello, Harry." He said with a smile. "Didn't think I'd forget your birthday this year, did you?"
"I've still got a couple of weeks till my birthday. Don't tell me you got the date wrong." Harry joked as he grinned back.
"Yeah, I know. But there's something that I didn't want to wait to tell you." He said with a wide grin spreading across his face. "I've been freed, Harry. Some Aurors found Wormtail with a group of Deatheaters and as soon as Dumbledore told me about it I turned myself in. I told them my story and asked them to give either me or Peter the truth serum, and Dumbeldore managed to persuade them to. I was just freed earlier this morning."
Harry was in shock. He just stood gaping at Sirius for a few minutes, trying to let the information sink in. Sirius just stood smiling uncontrollably, trying to hide his pleasure but failing completely.
"Sirius that's great!!" Harry finally managed to exclaim. The older man just nodded his agreement.
"The Ministry gave me a huge house in Hogsmeade to supposedly try and make up for what they did to me, which of course will do nothing of the sort, but I was hoping....I mean I know you'll probably want to move out on your own when you start training, but maybe just until then you could come stay with me. I already...."
"Of course I want to stay with you!" Harry said, interupting his Godfather. "When can I go?" He asked excitedly.
"Well now, I guess. That is, if it's ok with your Aunt and Uncle." Sirius said. Harry didn't know if Sirius was being sarcastic or not about the last part but he didn't really care.
"I've already talked to Dumbledore about it and he said it would be fine for you to come any time you want. It's already decided that Remus is going to stay with us, too." Sirius said, sounding excited despite his attempts to hide it.
"Great! I'm gonna go pack my stuff." Harry said as he turned and bolted out of the room and up the stairs.
"I'll talk to your Aunt and Uncle." Sirius yelled after him.
There's no need to go into detail about the response of Mr. and Mrs. Dursley when Sirius asked if he could take Harry. Lets just say they weren't exactly hesitant. In less than an hour Harry and Sirius were riding in the back of a taxi with Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage in the trunk of the car. Sirius had decided to take the muggle way back, since Harry hadn't learned how to apparate yet. He also wanted a chance to tell Harry everything in detail that had brought about his being released of the charges that had haunted him for years.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry probably set a record for going from utterly miserable to completely happy in the shortest amount of time. Living with Sirius and Remus was just the opposite of living with the Dursley's. There was a huge basement underneath the house which was where Remus went every month just to be safe, even though he was still taking the potions which calmed him considerably in his transformed state.
Ron had started his job at the Ministry, as had Hermione. Hermione was consantly trying to organize Ron, which of course failed miserably. Harry visited them frequently, usually eating lunch with them before they had to get back to work. He had taken his apparation test and passed easily. Sirius had only shown him how to do it once before he was able to do it without even thinking about it.
Harry was dreading as well as looking forward to September, when he would begin his official Auror training. He was excited about it because it would be a huge step towards becoming an Auror, and also because he enjoyed dueling so much. But it also meant that Ginny would leave for her last year at Hogwarts. Of course he would be able to visit her any time he wanted, but they wouldn't have the same freedom that they had now.
Dumbledore had decided that considering the dangerous times, it would be practical for every student to have some sort of dueling experience, and therefore created a dueling class of which Sirius was now the teacher. So every day after Sirius and Remus left for Hogwarts, Harry had the rest of the day to himself. He spent most of them with Ginny, walking aimlessly through Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley.
Harry and Ginny were sitting on a park bench in London eating ice cream one day with four days left untill Ginny would leave for Hogwarts and Harry would begin his training. They had spent the day walking through London, Ginny laughing at all the muggle devices and Harry trying and failing to explain their purpses to her.
"It's not supposed to have a point, Gin. It's just entertainment." Harry was trying desperatly to explain movies to Ginny. They had been to see one earlier that day and Ginny had had a hard time understanding why anyone would want to sit and watch idiots blow themselves up on a big screen for two hours.
"Well I know that Harry, all I'm saying is that muggle entertainment is lame." She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"They have to settle for what they can get, Gin, I mean they're kind of limited in their actions, unlike us."
Ginny just shrugged. "Ok, forget it. I don't care anymore. You win." She said with a smile.
Harry sighed. Ginny would never understand muggles.
"So have you met with Walker yet?" She asked, changing the subject abruptly. Harry shook his head no. Walker was the Auror who was going to be training him. Harry wished that Remus could continue teaching him, but Walker was probably more skilled considering he had been an actual Auror for nearly twenty years now.
"You'll do great, Harry." Ginny said, seeing Harry looking a little nervous at the idea of meeting the Auror. "They'll probably shorten your training to one year as soon as they see you duel." She said, trying to make her voice reasurring but at the same time wishing that Harry could just stay in Auror school forever and never actually have to become one.
"You'll visit me, right?" She asked as she turned to look up into his eyes.
"Yeah, of course. And you can come over to the house any time you want, you know Sirius won't care." Harry said, trying to sound casual but really dreading when she would leave. Not that what he said wasn't true, they would be able to see eachother almost whenever they wanted. But Harry was scared that Ginny might meet another 7th year at Hogwarts. He knew that guys would be all over her, after all she was extremely pretty. He believed her when she said she loved him, but he was afraid that she might meet someone else, someone who would always be able to be there for her, who would never have to put her in danger just to be with her, like he did.
Ginny seemed to somehow know what he was thinking and she squeezed his hand gently, smiling softly at him.
"I love you, Harry. And I always will, no matter what. You believe that, don't you?" She whispered, looking deeply into his emerald eyes. Harry smiled and reached up to stroke her cheek. He leaned forward and kissed her softly, and as he kissed her he forgot for a moment that in a few days she would be at Hogwarts, forgot about Voldemort, forgot about Auror training, forgot about everything.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: I know that one took me forever to get up and it was short, too! I think everything happened too quick in this chapter, but I didn't feel like
taking a long time on it. I'll try and do better in the next one. I'm still having problems thinking of what to do next so it could be like another week or so before the next chapter's up. Sorry! :)
~Kati
P.S. If you haven't please read my songfic. It's too fluffy but whatever.
Thanks so much to AllyStar, la2ur2a, michelle, eTRINITYs11, Starry Eyed GIrl, gundamhardcore, and Ali Lee for reviewing the last chapter! Y'all are so cool! : )
Chapter 18
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Of all the summers Harry had been forced to stay with the Dursley's, this was without a doubt the worst. Petunia at least had resigned to simply ignoring him, but Dudley and Vernon were obviously taking exceptional pains to torture him, possibly because they knew that this was their last chance to make his life miserable.
If it weren't for Ginny's letters, and him being able to write to her, Harry probably would have ended up getting a little too wand happy and cursing their brains out. There wasn't anything holding him back, now that he was no longer a student at Hogwarts and was legally allowed to do magic anywhere he wanted, he knew that if he did something rash now then he would undoubtedly regret it later. In just a few months he would be free of the Dursley's forever, and until then he might as well just learn to live with them as he had so many times before.
No need to say that Hedwig was exhausted. She'd flown back and forth from the Burrow to Privet Drive two times a day for almost a month now. Ginny had attempted to use Pig a few times just to give Hedwig a break but the hyperactive little owl wasn't exaclty the most dependable creature that every existed.
Harry spent most of his days studying the many Auror books that Remus had let him borrow before he left Hogwarts. Of course he already knew practically everything in them , but there wasn't much else to do, and he was hoping that if he did well enough he would be able to lessen the training time to one year instead of two.
He was sitting in his bedroom reading about the defensive manuevers of dueling when he heard his uncle bellowing at him to come eat. Harry sighed as he set down his book and headed down the stairs. He wasn't surprised to see Dudley already stuffing his face. Petunia was piling more mashed potatoes onto her son's already overflowing plate.
Harry sat down and was just about to grab a biscuit when there was a loud, resounding knock on the door. Vernon froze with his fork half-way to his oversized mouth. He dropped his fork onto his plate and scooted his chair backward angrily. He waddled to the door clumsily, muttering the whole time about idiot sales people who didn't know what supper was.
After a few minutes of silence, he waddled back in. His face was always purple of course, but now it was a shade that Harry had only seen a few times. He looked straight at Harry then grunted, gesturing toward the door, a nervous and scared look on his face.
Harry stood and left the room excitedly. There was a tall figure standing in the living room with his back turned toward Harry. He was wearing a long black cloak, which was unmistakenly a wizard's. Harry cleared his throat softly, letting the man know that he was there. Harry almost fell backwards in shock at who he saw standing there when the man turned around. It was Sirius. But Harry had never seen his Godfather look like he did now, except for in photographs. His dark brown hair was cropped short, and his eyes had something shining in them that Harry had never seen in them before. It was joy.
"Hello, Harry." He said with a smile. "Didn't think I'd forget your birthday this year, did you?"
"I've still got a couple of weeks till my birthday. Don't tell me you got the date wrong." Harry joked as he grinned back.
"Yeah, I know. But there's something that I didn't want to wait to tell you." He said with a wide grin spreading across his face. "I've been freed, Harry. Some Aurors found Wormtail with a group of Deatheaters and as soon as Dumbledore told me about it I turned myself in. I told them my story and asked them to give either me or Peter the truth serum, and Dumbeldore managed to persuade them to. I was just freed earlier this morning."
Harry was in shock. He just stood gaping at Sirius for a few minutes, trying to let the information sink in. Sirius just stood smiling uncontrollably, trying to hide his pleasure but failing completely.
"Sirius that's great!!" Harry finally managed to exclaim. The older man just nodded his agreement.
"The Ministry gave me a huge house in Hogsmeade to supposedly try and make up for what they did to me, which of course will do nothing of the sort, but I was hoping....I mean I know you'll probably want to move out on your own when you start training, but maybe just until then you could come stay with me. I already...."
"Of course I want to stay with you!" Harry said, interupting his Godfather. "When can I go?" He asked excitedly.
"Well now, I guess. That is, if it's ok with your Aunt and Uncle." Sirius said. Harry didn't know if Sirius was being sarcastic or not about the last part but he didn't really care.
"I've already talked to Dumbledore about it and he said it would be fine for you to come any time you want. It's already decided that Remus is going to stay with us, too." Sirius said, sounding excited despite his attempts to hide it.
"Great! I'm gonna go pack my stuff." Harry said as he turned and bolted out of the room and up the stairs.
"I'll talk to your Aunt and Uncle." Sirius yelled after him.
There's no need to go into detail about the response of Mr. and Mrs. Dursley when Sirius asked if he could take Harry. Lets just say they weren't exactly hesitant. In less than an hour Harry and Sirius were riding in the back of a taxi with Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage in the trunk of the car. Sirius had decided to take the muggle way back, since Harry hadn't learned how to apparate yet. He also wanted a chance to tell Harry everything in detail that had brought about his being released of the charges that had haunted him for years.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry probably set a record for going from utterly miserable to completely happy in the shortest amount of time. Living with Sirius and Remus was just the opposite of living with the Dursley's. There was a huge basement underneath the house which was where Remus went every month just to be safe, even though he was still taking the potions which calmed him considerably in his transformed state.
Ron had started his job at the Ministry, as had Hermione. Hermione was consantly trying to organize Ron, which of course failed miserably. Harry visited them frequently, usually eating lunch with them before they had to get back to work. He had taken his apparation test and passed easily. Sirius had only shown him how to do it once before he was able to do it without even thinking about it.
Harry was dreading as well as looking forward to September, when he would begin his official Auror training. He was excited about it because it would be a huge step towards becoming an Auror, and also because he enjoyed dueling so much. But it also meant that Ginny would leave for her last year at Hogwarts. Of course he would be able to visit her any time he wanted, but they wouldn't have the same freedom that they had now.
Dumbledore had decided that considering the dangerous times, it would be practical for every student to have some sort of dueling experience, and therefore created a dueling class of which Sirius was now the teacher. So every day after Sirius and Remus left for Hogwarts, Harry had the rest of the day to himself. He spent most of them with Ginny, walking aimlessly through Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley.
Harry and Ginny were sitting on a park bench in London eating ice cream one day with four days left untill Ginny would leave for Hogwarts and Harry would begin his training. They had spent the day walking through London, Ginny laughing at all the muggle devices and Harry trying and failing to explain their purpses to her.
"It's not supposed to have a point, Gin. It's just entertainment." Harry was trying desperatly to explain movies to Ginny. They had been to see one earlier that day and Ginny had had a hard time understanding why anyone would want to sit and watch idiots blow themselves up on a big screen for two hours.
"Well I know that Harry, all I'm saying is that muggle entertainment is lame." She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"They have to settle for what they can get, Gin, I mean they're kind of limited in their actions, unlike us."
Ginny just shrugged. "Ok, forget it. I don't care anymore. You win." She said with a smile.
Harry sighed. Ginny would never understand muggles.
"So have you met with Walker yet?" She asked, changing the subject abruptly. Harry shook his head no. Walker was the Auror who was going to be training him. Harry wished that Remus could continue teaching him, but Walker was probably more skilled considering he had been an actual Auror for nearly twenty years now.
"You'll do great, Harry." Ginny said, seeing Harry looking a little nervous at the idea of meeting the Auror. "They'll probably shorten your training to one year as soon as they see you duel." She said, trying to make her voice reasurring but at the same time wishing that Harry could just stay in Auror school forever and never actually have to become one.
"You'll visit me, right?" She asked as she turned to look up into his eyes.
"Yeah, of course. And you can come over to the house any time you want, you know Sirius won't care." Harry said, trying to sound casual but really dreading when she would leave. Not that what he said wasn't true, they would be able to see eachother almost whenever they wanted. But Harry was scared that Ginny might meet another 7th year at Hogwarts. He knew that guys would be all over her, after all she was extremely pretty. He believed her when she said she loved him, but he was afraid that she might meet someone else, someone who would always be able to be there for her, who would never have to put her in danger just to be with her, like he did.
Ginny seemed to somehow know what he was thinking and she squeezed his hand gently, smiling softly at him.
"I love you, Harry. And I always will, no matter what. You believe that, don't you?" She whispered, looking deeply into his emerald eyes. Harry smiled and reached up to stroke her cheek. He leaned forward and kissed her softly, and as he kissed her he forgot for a moment that in a few days she would be at Hogwarts, forgot about Voldemort, forgot about Auror training, forgot about everything.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: I know that one took me forever to get up and it was short, too! I think everything happened too quick in this chapter, but I didn't feel like
taking a long time on it. I'll try and do better in the next one. I'm still having problems thinking of what to do next so it could be like another week or so before the next chapter's up. Sorry! :)
~Kati
P.S. If you haven't please read my songfic. It's too fluffy but whatever.