Chapter Four: Gryphon's Eyrie
When Harry came down the next morning, Sirius, Tonks and Professor Lupin were already awake and clustered around Lupin's small battered kitchen table, they appeared to be eating breakfast, but they were also chatting to two other wizards, who were perched on the kitchen cabinets, one of which Harry recognised as Jason Draper, who was today dressed in a crimson muscle T-shirt and green tracksuit bottoms. The other young wizard, who looked about the same age, had tawny yellow-brown hair, the oddest eyes Harry had ever seen, and wore scarlet and white robes.
Sirius turned to look at Harry as he came in and smiled. "Hi Harry, I'm glad you're up, I'd like you to meet Jarred Laken, he'll be filling in for Corinne Anderson for a few days. She had some family business to take care of."
"Nothing serious, I hope?" Harry asked, looking at Draper rather than Sirius, he figured that as Corinne's boyfriend he would be the most likely to know.
Draper shook his head. "Just family stuff, nothing to do with the war. She'll be back by the end of the week tops."
Sirius picked up an envelope that lay on the table in front of him. "Harry, Jarred brought me a package from my vault at Gringotts. Now I've got it, we can go."
"Go where?"
"To your ancestral home, Harry."
A hour later, the group, who had been joined by Sandra and another friend of theirs, Antonia Menotti, a pale dark-haired girl with a similar taste in clothes to Sandra exited the Floo Network into what Harry could only assume was a gatehouse. As usual, Harry managed to trip and fall as he came out of the fireplace, causing his glasses to break. "Not again," he muttered. "I can't wait till I can Apparate."
As soon as Lupin exited the fireplace, Harry handed his glasses to him. He eyed the shattered lenses and removed his wand from a pocket inside his robes. "We really should see about getting you some wizard spectacles Harry. However. Oculus Reparo." Seconds later, the glasses were whole once more and Remus returned them to Harry.
"Harry, are you coming?" said Sirius. "We should get going."
"I'm coming Sirius, Professor Lupin was just fixing my glasses. I broke them again."
"We should really get you some wizard glasses Harry." said Sirius, moving to the large golden door that formed most of the far wall.
"Professor Lupin just said same thing."
Sirius unwrapped the small package to reveal two gold keys, both of which had griffins at the base. "Take one of these keys and put it in this lock." Sirius instructed, pointing to one of the two large keyholes set into the door's face. "I will do the same with the other key. On my signal, turn the key a quarter-turn precisely and say the words 'domus suävis domus' at the same time as I do."
"What happens if I get it wrong?"
"Then nobody will be getting inside until one of us dies."
"Oh."
"In actual fact," Sirius continued. "I've just realised that you haven't named an heir. So nobody would ever be going in."
"Let's get it right then." said Harry.
"Yes, let's." Sirius said. "Are you ready?"
Harry nodded and inserted his key in the lock. "Ready."
Sirius copied the motion and nodded to the others. They took up a defensive line behind them with Remus and Tonks in the middle, Sandra and Antonia at the ends and the others between them. "After three. One... two... three."
"DOMUS SUÄVIS DOMUS!"
There was a rumbling sound from the doors and a bead of light ran down both sides of the lock pedestal and up towards the lintel. Seconds later, the pedestal dropped into the floor and the two halves of the door itself parted and returned the jibs.
Sirius turned back to look at his godson. "Harry. Welcome. to Gryphon's Eyrie."
----
Harry hadn't a chance to pack his trunk before he left on his birthday, so the next day he took the Floo to Mrs Figg's house - Sirius, Professor Lupin, Tonks and Draper accompanied him, as did Ginny, who had come over to visit at breakfast, claiming that she couldn't stick another minute of being the third wheel to Ron and Hermione, a sentiment that Harry could certainly sympathise with.
"We'll get the Floo back to Gryphon's Eyrie from the Dursleys', Arabella." Sirius told the old woman as they headed out of her front door. "So don't wait for us. We'll see you at the Order meeting at Grimmauld Place on Saturday night won't we?"
"You will," confirmed Mrs Figg. "Don't kill any of them Black. I don't want to have to clean up the mess."
Sirius assumed an expression of feigned innocence. "Why Arabella, what makes you think I would do anything to them?"
"Because those. people would try even a saint, Black. And you're no saint."
"Why thank you Arabella," said Sirius, totally straight-faced. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"Can we get moving?" asked Draper, impatiently. "We're rather exposed here, and I'd like to avoid trouble if possible."
Sirius nodded, and Tonks and Draper led the way to the corner of Magnolia Crescent and Wisteria Walk, with Sirius and Professor Lupin bringing up the rear.
Five minutes later, they arrived at the front door of number four, Privet Drive. Draper went up to the door and knocked on it. Petunia Dursley opened the door a few seconds later, when she saw Draper she paused, trying to figure out if she'd ever seen him before, then she spotted Harry over his shoulder. "Get inside," she hissed. "I don't want the neighbours to see you."
"Draper, stay in the hall and keep watch." Sirius told the Hit Wizard, once Petunia had disappeared into the living room. "Ginny, Tonks, why don't go with Harry and get his trunk packed. Remus and I just need to have a little word with Harry's aunt and uncle."
"I bet they won't enjoy that conversation," observed Ginny.
"Probably not." Harry agreed with grin. Tonks didn't seem too upset at the prospect, but said nothing.
"I could stay out here." Ginny offered hesitantly, when they arrived on the first floor.
Harry shook his head, then taking out his wand, he released the Locking Charm he had put on his room before he left and ushered her inside. Tonks followed them inside and closed the door. Harry immediately crawled under his bed to retrieve his most valuable possessions: the Marauders' Map, his broomstick, his Invisibility Cloak, the photo album given to him by Hagrid at the end of his first year, his old Sneakascope and his new Pocket Foe Glass. Ginny moved to Harry's desk and began to gather up Harry's school books and piled them into his cauldron, then stacked up his papers and tucked him into some free corners. Tonks finished Harry's packing by moving his clothes into the trunk and fixing it closed with another Locking Charm.
"You wait here, Harry," said Tonks. "I'll go and see if Sirius and Remus have finished their 'conversation' with the Dursleys yet."
Harry nodded and watched her as she headed down the stairs and into the living room. He was so focused on watching the living room door for her to come out, he missed the creak of a door to his right as Dudley came onto the landing.
"Who's this Potter? Your girlfriend?" he asked, grabbing her by the arm - her wand arm, in fact. "Surely she couldn't be that desperate?" He looked Ginny up and down, and Harry could tell he was mentally undressing her. "She's not actu..."
They never found out what he was going to say, because at that moment Harry drew his wand and pointed it at his cousin's forehead. "Let go of her," Harry ordered. Dudley obeyed, looking rather scared. "Touch Ginny, or any of my friends again and I'll kill you. Understand?"
For once in his life, Dudley Dursley had no problem figuring out what his cousin had said to him. With a whimper, he fled back into his room and slammed the door. "Colloportus." Harry muttered and the door clicked shut. "That should hold him for a while."
"Thank you Harry," said Ginny, looking Harry in the eyes.
Harry could see a tiny tear glistening in the corner of one eye and without thinking he reached out and wiped it away for her. "That's okay Gin," he told her. "You... your family, Hermione, Sirius... maybe Tonks and Professor Lupin, you mean the world to me. You're the only family I've got, and I don't want anything to happen to any of you."
"Am I interrupting something?" asked a voice from behind them.
Harry spin round and raised his wand. It was only Draper. "What is it?"
"We're ready to go," said the raven-haired Hit-Wizard, his eyes unreadable behind his black shades. "Sirius wants you to come downstairs now."
Harry nodded and pointed his wand at his trunk. "Locomotor trunk. Could you possibly... not mention that I lost my temper with Dudley to anyone? Please?"
"I didn't see a thing Harry, I was too busy watching out front, wasn't I?"
"Yes, I suppose you were Jason, weren't you?" Harry agreed after a moment.
When they entered the living room, Harry noticed immediately that the boards covering the fireplace had been removed and a fire was already burning in the grate. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Mrs and Mrs Dursley huddled in the far corner, under the watchful eye of his godfather. Tonks was missing, apparently she'd already gone through. At Harry's urging, Ginny took a handful of Floo Powder next and stepping into the flames. Once she was gone, Harry manoeuvred his trunk into the fireplace and took some Floo Powder for himself from Professor Lupin. He threw it into the flames and shouted, "Gryphon's Eyrie!"
And with a flare of green flame, he disappeared.
----
The next morning, Harry was in what was rapidly becoming his favourite place to think - the balcony outside his opulent quarters at the top of the keep - watching the sun rise above the flat grey-blue expanse of the North Sea, when a harsh, cackling voice broke the silence, bringing him out of his meditative state. "Knut for your thoughts?"
"Civis! What have I told you about sneaking up on me?" said Harry, his eyes still fixed on the horizon.
"The same thing your father, grandfather and every other master of this house told me since I got here." Civis replied, as Harry turned to face him. As a hobgoblin, the warden resembled a heavy-set, six foot tall, house- elf, and he was dressed in somewhat medieval style that he had worn when he greeted them on their return from Surrey the day before: grey breeches, black boots, and a scarlet lace-up shirt under a black dress cloak. "Sirius wants you downstairs for breakfast. You're meeting your friends in Diagon Alley at nine to get your school supplies, so you'll need to get a move on."
"I'll be down in a few minutes," Harry told him, turning to go back inside. Civis nodded and disappeared with a 'crack'.
When Harry left his room about fifteen minutes later, showered and dressed in a pair of clean, outsized jeans and his Weasley jumper from the year before, Civis was waiting for him, perched on the stair rail. When he saw Harry he jumped down and walked at Harry's side as he descended the long wooden main stair. "What were you thinking about anyway?"
"Lots of things really." Harry admitted with a sigh. "The prophecy. Sirius coming back."
"What happened yesterday with your cousin?" suggested Civis, slyly.
"Yes that to." Harry agreed. "I meant it, Civis. I really would have killed him. The curse was on the tip of my tongue. I almost killed my cousin over an insult. What does that say about me?"
"That's not what bothers you most about yesterday, and you know it Harry." Civis chided him. "It's why you reacted so violently to what he said. From what Ginny said it wasn't that bad."
"I would reacted the same way if it'd been Hermione, Luna, Cho, even Katie, Angelina or Alicia."
"No you wouldn't have Harry," retorted Civis. "Well Hermione maybe. From what I've heard listening to you, Ginny and others, you do care a lot for her. But not in that kind of way."
"What kind of a way do you mean?"
"How many of the portraits do you remember in the Entrance Hall?"
"The ones of the masters of the house and their families?" Civis nodded. "Let's see. My mum and dad of course, James Tiberius Potter and Lily Evans. Their parents, Tiberius Algernon Potter and Antonia Kirtland. My great- grandparents, Algernon Delphineus Potter and Agatha Bones." He went on for about five minutes, by which time they'd nearly reached the ground floor. ". Gudrun Gryffindor and Simon Atticus Potter. And finally Gudroc Gryffindor and Helena Hawkesmoor."
"Not bad. You got thirty out of the thirty-five."
"As I said to Ginny yesterday my family is important to me."
"You missed out two younger sons who inherited after the death of their older sibling: David James Potter, 1268-1294, and Terrence Alfred Potter, 1402-1451. You also forgot the dead-end line of the Claymore family."
"Simon Claymore and Joanna Potter, 1763-1799, Siegfried Claymore and Augusta Fielding, 1799-1864, and Serena Claymore 1864-1908. Serena Claymore died unmarried and without a clear heir, so the estate passed to my great- grandfather Algernon Potter, who was the great-grandson of Joanna Potter's younger brother Harold."
"So you did remember them after all," said Civis, with what could have been a smile but on him more closely resembled a leer. "Very good. Full marks."
"What's your point?"
"Lily Evans, Agatha Bones, Petunia Portland, Simon Claymore, Rachel Summersby, Augusta Fielding, Gudrun Gryffindor, Helena Hawkesmoor, and eighteen of the others. What do they have in common?" Harry thought for a minute, but couldn't come up with anything. He shook his head. "They were all redheads Harry. Eighteen of the women and seven of the men who have married the heir in your family have been redheads. Three more: Cassandra Alderton, Alyson Blareau and Natasha Crosby, have been blondes. Are you seeing a pattern here? 'Cause I saw it in 1662 when Henry John Potter married Regina Anne Stokes, another red-head."
"Ginny is not my girlfriend, she's seeing Dean Thomas!"
"Well, two things about that." said the hobgoblin, with what was definitely now a leer. "First, I know she isn't, but you like her to be. And, second. who said she was seeing Dean Thomas? She's here, not with him, isn't she?"
Harry was spared further conversation as they had arrived in the big work kitchen in the basement of the keep. Professor Lupin, Sirius, Tonks, Ginny, and two of the Order - Jarred Laken and Antonia Menotti - were sitting at the large scrubbed pine table in the middle of the room eating porridge. Velky, one of the six house-elves that were still at the castle, was working at the huge cast-iron stove. "What can I do for you Master Harry?"
"Porridge please," said Harry, sitting down between Ginny and Laken and opposite Sirius. "Sausages, or bacon and eggs too."
After a quick breakfast of sausages, eggs and fried bread, Sirius, Harry and Ginny donned coats or cloaks and followed Civis down to the gatehouse and all four of them Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron pub on Charing Cross Road, the covert entrance to Diagon Alley.
A/N: The Warden of Gryphon's Eyrie was inspired in part by Robin Goodfellow aka Puck, the servant of Oberon in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bonsocus is derived for the Latin for 'good fellow').
When Harry came down the next morning, Sirius, Tonks and Professor Lupin were already awake and clustered around Lupin's small battered kitchen table, they appeared to be eating breakfast, but they were also chatting to two other wizards, who were perched on the kitchen cabinets, one of which Harry recognised as Jason Draper, who was today dressed in a crimson muscle T-shirt and green tracksuit bottoms. The other young wizard, who looked about the same age, had tawny yellow-brown hair, the oddest eyes Harry had ever seen, and wore scarlet and white robes.
Sirius turned to look at Harry as he came in and smiled. "Hi Harry, I'm glad you're up, I'd like you to meet Jarred Laken, he'll be filling in for Corinne Anderson for a few days. She had some family business to take care of."
"Nothing serious, I hope?" Harry asked, looking at Draper rather than Sirius, he figured that as Corinne's boyfriend he would be the most likely to know.
Draper shook his head. "Just family stuff, nothing to do with the war. She'll be back by the end of the week tops."
Sirius picked up an envelope that lay on the table in front of him. "Harry, Jarred brought me a package from my vault at Gringotts. Now I've got it, we can go."
"Go where?"
"To your ancestral home, Harry."
A hour later, the group, who had been joined by Sandra and another friend of theirs, Antonia Menotti, a pale dark-haired girl with a similar taste in clothes to Sandra exited the Floo Network into what Harry could only assume was a gatehouse. As usual, Harry managed to trip and fall as he came out of the fireplace, causing his glasses to break. "Not again," he muttered. "I can't wait till I can Apparate."
As soon as Lupin exited the fireplace, Harry handed his glasses to him. He eyed the shattered lenses and removed his wand from a pocket inside his robes. "We really should see about getting you some wizard spectacles Harry. However. Oculus Reparo." Seconds later, the glasses were whole once more and Remus returned them to Harry.
"Harry, are you coming?" said Sirius. "We should get going."
"I'm coming Sirius, Professor Lupin was just fixing my glasses. I broke them again."
"We should really get you some wizard glasses Harry." said Sirius, moving to the large golden door that formed most of the far wall.
"Professor Lupin just said same thing."
Sirius unwrapped the small package to reveal two gold keys, both of which had griffins at the base. "Take one of these keys and put it in this lock." Sirius instructed, pointing to one of the two large keyholes set into the door's face. "I will do the same with the other key. On my signal, turn the key a quarter-turn precisely and say the words 'domus suävis domus' at the same time as I do."
"What happens if I get it wrong?"
"Then nobody will be getting inside until one of us dies."
"Oh."
"In actual fact," Sirius continued. "I've just realised that you haven't named an heir. So nobody would ever be going in."
"Let's get it right then." said Harry.
"Yes, let's." Sirius said. "Are you ready?"
Harry nodded and inserted his key in the lock. "Ready."
Sirius copied the motion and nodded to the others. They took up a defensive line behind them with Remus and Tonks in the middle, Sandra and Antonia at the ends and the others between them. "After three. One... two... three."
"DOMUS SUÄVIS DOMUS!"
There was a rumbling sound from the doors and a bead of light ran down both sides of the lock pedestal and up towards the lintel. Seconds later, the pedestal dropped into the floor and the two halves of the door itself parted and returned the jibs.
Sirius turned back to look at his godson. "Harry. Welcome. to Gryphon's Eyrie."
----
Harry hadn't a chance to pack his trunk before he left on his birthday, so the next day he took the Floo to Mrs Figg's house - Sirius, Professor Lupin, Tonks and Draper accompanied him, as did Ginny, who had come over to visit at breakfast, claiming that she couldn't stick another minute of being the third wheel to Ron and Hermione, a sentiment that Harry could certainly sympathise with.
"We'll get the Floo back to Gryphon's Eyrie from the Dursleys', Arabella." Sirius told the old woman as they headed out of her front door. "So don't wait for us. We'll see you at the Order meeting at Grimmauld Place on Saturday night won't we?"
"You will," confirmed Mrs Figg. "Don't kill any of them Black. I don't want to have to clean up the mess."
Sirius assumed an expression of feigned innocence. "Why Arabella, what makes you think I would do anything to them?"
"Because those. people would try even a saint, Black. And you're no saint."
"Why thank you Arabella," said Sirius, totally straight-faced. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"Can we get moving?" asked Draper, impatiently. "We're rather exposed here, and I'd like to avoid trouble if possible."
Sirius nodded, and Tonks and Draper led the way to the corner of Magnolia Crescent and Wisteria Walk, with Sirius and Professor Lupin bringing up the rear.
Five minutes later, they arrived at the front door of number four, Privet Drive. Draper went up to the door and knocked on it. Petunia Dursley opened the door a few seconds later, when she saw Draper she paused, trying to figure out if she'd ever seen him before, then she spotted Harry over his shoulder. "Get inside," she hissed. "I don't want the neighbours to see you."
"Draper, stay in the hall and keep watch." Sirius told the Hit Wizard, once Petunia had disappeared into the living room. "Ginny, Tonks, why don't go with Harry and get his trunk packed. Remus and I just need to have a little word with Harry's aunt and uncle."
"I bet they won't enjoy that conversation," observed Ginny.
"Probably not." Harry agreed with grin. Tonks didn't seem too upset at the prospect, but said nothing.
"I could stay out here." Ginny offered hesitantly, when they arrived on the first floor.
Harry shook his head, then taking out his wand, he released the Locking Charm he had put on his room before he left and ushered her inside. Tonks followed them inside and closed the door. Harry immediately crawled under his bed to retrieve his most valuable possessions: the Marauders' Map, his broomstick, his Invisibility Cloak, the photo album given to him by Hagrid at the end of his first year, his old Sneakascope and his new Pocket Foe Glass. Ginny moved to Harry's desk and began to gather up Harry's school books and piled them into his cauldron, then stacked up his papers and tucked him into some free corners. Tonks finished Harry's packing by moving his clothes into the trunk and fixing it closed with another Locking Charm.
"You wait here, Harry," said Tonks. "I'll go and see if Sirius and Remus have finished their 'conversation' with the Dursleys yet."
Harry nodded and watched her as she headed down the stairs and into the living room. He was so focused on watching the living room door for her to come out, he missed the creak of a door to his right as Dudley came onto the landing.
"Who's this Potter? Your girlfriend?" he asked, grabbing her by the arm - her wand arm, in fact. "Surely she couldn't be that desperate?" He looked Ginny up and down, and Harry could tell he was mentally undressing her. "She's not actu..."
They never found out what he was going to say, because at that moment Harry drew his wand and pointed it at his cousin's forehead. "Let go of her," Harry ordered. Dudley obeyed, looking rather scared. "Touch Ginny, or any of my friends again and I'll kill you. Understand?"
For once in his life, Dudley Dursley had no problem figuring out what his cousin had said to him. With a whimper, he fled back into his room and slammed the door. "Colloportus." Harry muttered and the door clicked shut. "That should hold him for a while."
"Thank you Harry," said Ginny, looking Harry in the eyes.
Harry could see a tiny tear glistening in the corner of one eye and without thinking he reached out and wiped it away for her. "That's okay Gin," he told her. "You... your family, Hermione, Sirius... maybe Tonks and Professor Lupin, you mean the world to me. You're the only family I've got, and I don't want anything to happen to any of you."
"Am I interrupting something?" asked a voice from behind them.
Harry spin round and raised his wand. It was only Draper. "What is it?"
"We're ready to go," said the raven-haired Hit-Wizard, his eyes unreadable behind his black shades. "Sirius wants you to come downstairs now."
Harry nodded and pointed his wand at his trunk. "Locomotor trunk. Could you possibly... not mention that I lost my temper with Dudley to anyone? Please?"
"I didn't see a thing Harry, I was too busy watching out front, wasn't I?"
"Yes, I suppose you were Jason, weren't you?" Harry agreed after a moment.
When they entered the living room, Harry noticed immediately that the boards covering the fireplace had been removed and a fire was already burning in the grate. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Mrs and Mrs Dursley huddled in the far corner, under the watchful eye of his godfather. Tonks was missing, apparently she'd already gone through. At Harry's urging, Ginny took a handful of Floo Powder next and stepping into the flames. Once she was gone, Harry manoeuvred his trunk into the fireplace and took some Floo Powder for himself from Professor Lupin. He threw it into the flames and shouted, "Gryphon's Eyrie!"
And with a flare of green flame, he disappeared.
----
The next morning, Harry was in what was rapidly becoming his favourite place to think - the balcony outside his opulent quarters at the top of the keep - watching the sun rise above the flat grey-blue expanse of the North Sea, when a harsh, cackling voice broke the silence, bringing him out of his meditative state. "Knut for your thoughts?"
"Civis! What have I told you about sneaking up on me?" said Harry, his eyes still fixed on the horizon.
"The same thing your father, grandfather and every other master of this house told me since I got here." Civis replied, as Harry turned to face him. As a hobgoblin, the warden resembled a heavy-set, six foot tall, house- elf, and he was dressed in somewhat medieval style that he had worn when he greeted them on their return from Surrey the day before: grey breeches, black boots, and a scarlet lace-up shirt under a black dress cloak. "Sirius wants you downstairs for breakfast. You're meeting your friends in Diagon Alley at nine to get your school supplies, so you'll need to get a move on."
"I'll be down in a few minutes," Harry told him, turning to go back inside. Civis nodded and disappeared with a 'crack'.
When Harry left his room about fifteen minutes later, showered and dressed in a pair of clean, outsized jeans and his Weasley jumper from the year before, Civis was waiting for him, perched on the stair rail. When he saw Harry he jumped down and walked at Harry's side as he descended the long wooden main stair. "What were you thinking about anyway?"
"Lots of things really." Harry admitted with a sigh. "The prophecy. Sirius coming back."
"What happened yesterday with your cousin?" suggested Civis, slyly.
"Yes that to." Harry agreed. "I meant it, Civis. I really would have killed him. The curse was on the tip of my tongue. I almost killed my cousin over an insult. What does that say about me?"
"That's not what bothers you most about yesterday, and you know it Harry." Civis chided him. "It's why you reacted so violently to what he said. From what Ginny said it wasn't that bad."
"I would reacted the same way if it'd been Hermione, Luna, Cho, even Katie, Angelina or Alicia."
"No you wouldn't have Harry," retorted Civis. "Well Hermione maybe. From what I've heard listening to you, Ginny and others, you do care a lot for her. But not in that kind of way."
"What kind of a way do you mean?"
"How many of the portraits do you remember in the Entrance Hall?"
"The ones of the masters of the house and their families?" Civis nodded. "Let's see. My mum and dad of course, James Tiberius Potter and Lily Evans. Their parents, Tiberius Algernon Potter and Antonia Kirtland. My great- grandparents, Algernon Delphineus Potter and Agatha Bones." He went on for about five minutes, by which time they'd nearly reached the ground floor. ". Gudrun Gryffindor and Simon Atticus Potter. And finally Gudroc Gryffindor and Helena Hawkesmoor."
"Not bad. You got thirty out of the thirty-five."
"As I said to Ginny yesterday my family is important to me."
"You missed out two younger sons who inherited after the death of their older sibling: David James Potter, 1268-1294, and Terrence Alfred Potter, 1402-1451. You also forgot the dead-end line of the Claymore family."
"Simon Claymore and Joanna Potter, 1763-1799, Siegfried Claymore and Augusta Fielding, 1799-1864, and Serena Claymore 1864-1908. Serena Claymore died unmarried and without a clear heir, so the estate passed to my great- grandfather Algernon Potter, who was the great-grandson of Joanna Potter's younger brother Harold."
"So you did remember them after all," said Civis, with what could have been a smile but on him more closely resembled a leer. "Very good. Full marks."
"What's your point?"
"Lily Evans, Agatha Bones, Petunia Portland, Simon Claymore, Rachel Summersby, Augusta Fielding, Gudrun Gryffindor, Helena Hawkesmoor, and eighteen of the others. What do they have in common?" Harry thought for a minute, but couldn't come up with anything. He shook his head. "They were all redheads Harry. Eighteen of the women and seven of the men who have married the heir in your family have been redheads. Three more: Cassandra Alderton, Alyson Blareau and Natasha Crosby, have been blondes. Are you seeing a pattern here? 'Cause I saw it in 1662 when Henry John Potter married Regina Anne Stokes, another red-head."
"Ginny is not my girlfriend, she's seeing Dean Thomas!"
"Well, two things about that." said the hobgoblin, with what was definitely now a leer. "First, I know she isn't, but you like her to be. And, second. who said she was seeing Dean Thomas? She's here, not with him, isn't she?"
Harry was spared further conversation as they had arrived in the big work kitchen in the basement of the keep. Professor Lupin, Sirius, Tonks, Ginny, and two of the Order - Jarred Laken and Antonia Menotti - were sitting at the large scrubbed pine table in the middle of the room eating porridge. Velky, one of the six house-elves that were still at the castle, was working at the huge cast-iron stove. "What can I do for you Master Harry?"
"Porridge please," said Harry, sitting down between Ginny and Laken and opposite Sirius. "Sausages, or bacon and eggs too."
After a quick breakfast of sausages, eggs and fried bread, Sirius, Harry and Ginny donned coats or cloaks and followed Civis down to the gatehouse and all four of them Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron pub on Charing Cross Road, the covert entrance to Diagon Alley.
A/N: The Warden of Gryphon's Eyrie was inspired in part by Robin Goodfellow aka Puck, the servant of Oberon in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bonsocus is derived for the Latin for 'good fellow').