Thanks for the wonderful reviews everyone! I have to admit that I was a little concerned about how the whole statue issue was going to come across, as it was one of those last minute additions to the plot that somehow just added itself right on the end of the Diagon Ally trip. I am very glad that you all liked it. One question about that that I should answer, I didn't intend that Harry be the man in the statue, what I had in mind that it was just a random face, like statues tend to be. I don't think Harry would leave a statue with his face on it.
Ah, yes, Hedwig. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I somehow managed to totally forget about her during the whole rough draft stage. Don't ask me how… I did figure out a way to work her in, but it's still a couple of chapters off. I didn't go into Harry's emotions about either the new owl or the new broom just because they seemed rather obvious to me. Harry would be needing a new owl and that's why he bought one, although I know I have had him worry a few times over what happened to Hedwig, I've never had him ask anyone. That could be because he forgot, or what I like most, that he suspects that she's dead and doesn't really want to know. He's also had a lot of other things on his mind…
DISCLAIMER IN CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 26
Books
They landed with a thump outside the invisibility shields that surrounded Harry's castle. Sirius promptly dropped all of his packages. "H… er… sir?" His voice was tentative but curious.
Harry was off in his own thoughts. "Hmm?"
"How did you DO that?" Remodeling statues with magic wasn't something that just anyone could do. Sirius was still trying to get used to the fact that Harry obviously had powers that went beyond the normal range of wizarding magic. It wasn't easy equating that with someone who he could still vividly remember throwing handfuls of baby food in his father's face at the age of one.
Harry blinked and then shrugged, seeming almost surprised by the question. "Why, is it supposed to be hard?"
Remus answered emphatically. "Yes. Very hard. Stone is very hard to work with, since there is very little innate magic in it, and marble is the worst of the lot. It takes years of study and a lot of specialized spells, none of which you used." He was also obviously curious as to what type of magic Harry had been utilizing.
Harry actually blushed slightly. "Whoops. Hmm, well, I really don't know how I did it." He shrugged again. "It just comes… I can't explain." Well, technically, he probably could, but it would take hours, and Harry hadn't quite forgiven so much that he felt like easing their minds any. They didn't need to know that he hadn't exactly spent his whole stay in Azkaban in less that horrible conditions, although he figured that they probably suspected that something strange had happened in there. Dementors don't normally teach wandless magic and stone sculpting. He turned his back on the unspoken questions and grabbed his broom from where Sirius had dropped it.
Remus watched as Harry unwrapped his broom and took to the skies as if he had never left them. "Merlin, he is a natural, isn't he?" He shook his head in awe. Harry was currently speeding around the grounds like a small jet, pushing the brand new broom to its limits, spiraling and looping as if it was the easiest thing in the world.
Sirius picked up the rest of his packages and nodded in agreement. "I just wish that James could see him now."
Remus nodded sadly, still missing his friend after all of those years, but cringing at the thought of what James would say and do if he were here today and knew exactly what two of his closest friends had done to his son. Remus was only sure that it would be both scathing and bloody. Even that didn't stop the werewolf from fiercely wishing that Prongs was there. One never quite got over the death of a friend, and it was moments like these, watching James' son fly, that brought that old muted pain to the surface again.
Meanwhile, Harry was in his element. He had missed flying so much that he felt as if someone had just returned a part of him that had been previously cut off. He thought again, not for the first time, that he should work on the animagus transformation next. It would be fun to fly with his own wings. There was no doubt in his mind that he would have those wings, flying for him had always bordered on instinctual, and it would surely carry over to his animal form. He made a mental note to make sure that some of his new books covered the transformation. He could no doubt order Sirius to teach him, but he wasn't sure that it would work the same way with his magic anyway. That, at least, was the excuse he used to himself for not wanting to force close contact on him and his godfather. In reality, he once again just wasn't ready yet. Not for the kind of close contact that learning the animagus transformation would entail.
He increased his speed once again and felt the wind wring tears from his eyes. An earsplitting grin attached itself to his face as he pulled up sharply, defying gravity for a few moments as he flew straight up towards the afternoon sun. This was freedom. Alone, up here in the sky, with a good broom and miles of empty air. The broom was superb, nearly begging to be pushed to its limits. Harry soon discovered that the braking system also worked well. He pulled to a stop a good 200 feet up in the air and looked far down to the specks that were Sirius and Remus.
Eventually, he was going to have to talk to them. But he wasn't quite ready to either make explanations or verbally forgive quite yet. Doing it mentally was hard enough. And then Harry dove out of the sky, going faster than he had before as gravity worked with the acceleration of the broom to pull him towards the earth. He pulled up only after he had a chance to see the worried look on Sirius' face. He spiraled back up in the air with a whoop, finally forgetting his problems in lieu of the much more enjoyable art of flying.
Harry actually spent most of the daylight hours of the next week or so in the air. It helped him to clear his thoughts, to think about the world, himself, his fears and to deal with the issues that he needed to deal with. If he needed to scream with fury or cry in pain over a particular memory, he could do so in the air and no one was the wiser.
And so Harry was much closer to accepting, if not really understanding, what had been done to him by those that he had once trusted. Another full moon came and went, and time marched on, as it always does. Harry maintained the same amount of contact with Remus and Sirius, staying polite but evasive when he did see them around the castle. To their credit, they seemed to accept that things weren't going to change and didn't push Harry in any way. They were merely there, willing if Harry needed them. If Harry ever noticed the muted longing in Sirius' eyes, or the searching gazes of Remus, he never acknowledged them in any way.
It was as Harry was reentering the castle after a long and invigorating airborne exploration of his castle's grounds that Harry happened to put his hand in his robe's inner pocket and find the shrunken Flourish and Blott's magical catalogue that he had totally forgotten about. Banishing his broom back to his room and magically lighting a nearby lamp, Harry returned the book to normal size and started to thumb through the many pages.
It didn't take Harry very long to realize that he didn't even know what books he currently owned, and was therefore totally unable to order any without guaranteeing himself of a lot of duplicates. With that in mind, he headed for the library, hoping that he could think up a way to use magic to catalogue his many boxes of books. He was surprised when he realized that he hadn't actually been in the library since the first day that he had toured the castle several months ago. Harry pushed open the heavy door expecting to see the empty shelves and piles of boxes that he remembered. He was pleasantly surprised.
The library looked totally different than he remembered. Books lined the numerous shelves, several small tables were set around here and there, and a fire was blazing in the huge stone fireplace. Harry stood in the doorway and looked around in shock, finally realizing that this must be where his two bondservants had spent most of their time over the last few months. It looked as if a lot of work had been put into making this room a perfect library. He took a step further in.
Remus suddenly came around a corner with an armload of books that seemed to be more than a normal person could carry easily. In the brief seconds before Remus noticed him, Harry studied the man that had been one of his father's closest friends, and a trusted and respected teacher and friend to Harry himself for two years. The gray in his hair was even more pronounced than it had been in Harry's third year, and Harry could almost feel the stress that was still emanating from the ordeal of the full moon only two nights past. Harry wasn't sure that he wanted to know what it was like to know that there was a part of you that liked to kill and worse, that that part was going to be let out in a very painful way once a month for the rest of your life.
Harry was cut off from his musing when Remus looked up, startled at the sight of Harry. The stack of books swayed dangerously, and Harry leapt forward to grab the top half of the stack before they all ended up on the floor. Remus gathered his composure quickly. "Thank you."
Harry shook his head. "No problem, it was my fault anyway. Where do you want these?"
Remus nodded towards the nearest table. "There is fine. I hope you don't mind that I'm using your library? I was just doing a little research."
Harry put the books down next to another small stack of ancient looking tomes and waved Remus' question off. "Someone might as well get some use out of them. I must say, it really looks nice in here. I guess I haven't been in here since before you arrived." Harry picked a book off of Remus' stack and glanced at the spine. "Inverted Matrices of Divisionary Arithmancy and How to Utilize Them? Merlin, help yourself."
Remus looked almost embarrassed by the depth of his reading material. "I enjoy it. And you do have a wonderful library here."
Harry half sat on the table. "Which brings me to why I'm here." Remus immediately looked attentive. "I was planning on updating the library, but now that I'm here, I don't think that it's such a good idea." Harry almost missed the flash of disappointment in Remus' eyes at the supposed loss of new books. "I want you to do it, if you can spare the time from your research." He handed Remus the catalogue, mentally congratulating himself for such a good idea.
Remus blinked in surprise. "Of course!" He took the catalogue from Harry's outstretched hand and glanced at it appreciatively. "What do you want updated? This library is very complete up until about a thousand years ago, give or take. Pretty much all of the best old books are here. Including these." Remus pulled forward the stack of books that had already been on the table. "These are the most valuable ones that I could find, although I'm not an expert on ancient texts. All of these you could practically name your own price for." Remus handed Harry the top book with careful hands. "And these, look, you have two copies of Most Dangerous Magical Arts and Maladies. Two! And they've been thought lost for centuries, since a library fire destroyed three copies at once."
Harry had to stifle a grin at Remus' animated movements and excited tone of voice. It was obvious now, as it hadn't been to his less discerning eyes in his third year, that Remus had been the bookworm of the Marauders. A rare book excited him like a broom and a Quidditch pitch excited Harry. Harry enjoyed a good book himself, but his devotion to the art of learning didn't quite stretch as far as some peoples did. To each his own, he thought with a mental laugh. Remus was engrossed in the catalogue now, muttering under his breath as he flipped through pages. Glancing at the book in his hand, he flipped to the middle. He read the first paragraph of an article on a type of freezing charm that he'd never heard of. It looked very interesting, and Harry resolved to learn it as soon as possible. He turned a couple more pages, and then came to a stop on a page that nearly caused him to drop the precious book.
He hurriedly read on to the end of the article, hardly believing what he was reading. Then, trying to keep his face and voice normal, he looked up. Remus was still paging through the catalogue. Harry spoke quietly, wondering if Remus had read what he had just learned from the book. "This looks very interesting, have you read it?"
Remus looked up, startled and then almost embarrassed as he realized that he had totally zoned out for a few minutes. "Oh. No, I haven't. I'd like too sometime, but they were valuable enough that I thought I'd better wait and ask you first."
Harry stood and swept up the four books in his arms, not really caring what the other titles were, but wanting to keep the two Most Dangerous Magical Arts and Maladies away from the werewolf, at least for the time being. "Right then, perhaps when I'm done." Then Harry headed for the door.
Remus called out hurriedly. "Er, what type of books do you want me to order? And how many are you thinking? Are…"
Harry never even slowed down. He called back over his shoulder. "Anything and everything. Bring the whole library up to date." And then he was gone, the only proof of his presence the echoing thud of the library door shutting firmly.
Remus blinked in surprise at Harry's hurried exit. Then a grin spread over his face as he realized the extent of the free rein he had been given over the soon to be updated library. "PADFOOT!"
"Ow, you don't have to yell, I'm right here." Sirius came from around the corner, rubbing his ears.
Remus blinked in surprise. "You were back there all along? Why?"
Sirius shrugged. "He was talking to you. Haven't you noticed? He's more relaxed when it's just you. I didn't want to interrupt." Remus barely caught the flicker of pain flash through Sirius eyes before the animagus changed subjects. "So, you get to spend a bunch of Harry's money, huh?"
Remus knew that Sirius didn't really want to talk about it, so he allowed himself to be diverted. "Yes, I suppose. And you can help, too."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Oh, exactly what I've always wanted." Even though he was mocking his friend, he would help if Remus needed him to, and they both knew it. Plus, it wasn't like there was a whole lot else to do. Sirius had been spending some of his time exploring the castle, but even that was getting a bit old. "I wonder why he went tearing out of here."
Remus shrugged. "Don't look at me to explain Harry Potter. He does what he wants." That was true, but somehow seemed to be an understatement, although Remus couldn't really vocalize how.
Sirius continued to muse softly. "Maybe he saw me…"
"Oh, don't be ridiculous, he sees you all the time and he doesn't run away then." Not to mention that Remus was quite sure that Harry hadn't noticed the other man's presence. If he, a werewolf, hadn't either heard Sirius or caught his scent, there was very little chance that Harry had seen him. Sirius looked somewhat relieved at this reassurance. Remus continued. "What I want to know is whether or not he knows that he took two of the exact same book with him. Rather redundant of him, isn't it? Oh well, he probably just didn't realize it."
Sirius laughed, a small sparkle returning to his eyes. "I thought you weren't going to try to explain him, Moony."
"Oh, right."
Meanwhile, in his bedroom a floor up, Harry was rereading the passage that had so caught his interest in the library. His mind was filled with questions. Why hadn't this been found or thought of before? Or maybe it had, and it didn't work, which could be why Harry hadn't heard of it before. But with the new developments of the last decade or so, well, that could change everything. And on top of it all, how was he going to find out whether or not it would work? Who could tell him if it was even possible? He certainly didn't have the knowledge necessary to figure it out.
And then he grinned and disapparated, wandlessly taking a few useful items with him. Those items included one copy of Most Dangerous Magical Arts and Maladies and the Marauder's Map. He had just thought of the perfect person to ask.
COMING SOON: A visit to Hogwarts.
And the plot thickens for the last time… or not, you know me, this story may just last forever. Actually, we are winding down a little, I think I would estimate six or seven more chapters. Er, maybe things aren't winding down quite yet. Anyway, thanks for reading, double thanks for the reviews, and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can. –krtshadow
Question: What color are Sirius' eyes? Does it say? I know I already messed up James' once, saying dark brown when they should be hazel, so I just thought I'd ask and see if anyone can clue me in…
