New and old faces

As Sirius and Harry approached Lupin's mansion the front doors burst open and there stood Remus Lupin. "Harry!" exclaimed Lupin as he grabbed Harry into a nice suffocating hug.

"Professor Lupin, air please."

"Oh sorry, and by the way Harry I'm not your professor anymore so Remus or Moony will do."

Harry simply smiled, I don't deserve them thought Harry.

Before Harry was allowed to sink into depression again he was ushered inside and led to a very elegant bedroom. Sirius turned to Harry, "This is kind of a formal event so you are going to need to dress up."

"I have my dress robes from the Yule Ball." replied Harry.

"Works for me," replied Sirius as he left Harry to change. Harry turned to his trunk and began to shuffle through his stuff looking for his dress robe. "There they are," said Harry as he pulled out a very wrinkled piece of green material.

Slipping into his robes he surprisingly found them way too small. To be exact the robes were about 4 inches too short and he couldn't move his arms. Well this isn't going to work thought Harry as he headed to the door, "Sirius".

"What?"

"This isn't working."

"What isn't working" replied Sirius as he came into view, "Oh………yeah that's not going to work. I'll definitely get a lecture by one of the witches if they show up and you look like that.  Let's see what I can get Remus to do."

Sirius let out an evil smirk and sang in a sing song voice, "Oh Remus, dear Remus where for art thou Remus?"

"If you are going to sing please sing in tune," replied Remus as he joined them with Sirius pretending to look hurt. "Now what is the problem."

"It seems that Harry has grown over the summer," replied Sirius proudly, "I thought you had gotten a lot taller since the last time I saw you."

Harry looked down at the ground and blushed. "Well," stated Remus, "That should be pretty simple for a house elf to fix."

He turned and yelled out the bedroom door, "Margie would you please join us."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth a very eager and old house elf dressed in what seemed to be small black robes appeared. "What can Margie do for you Sir?"

"It seems that Harry has grown a lot over the summer," replied Remus, "Could you possibly adjust his robes?"

"Yes Sir, Margie will fix Mr. Potter's robes."

'Thank you Margie. Sirius and I are going to go change Harry, Margie will attend to you."

"Thank you Remus."

Remus smiled, nodded his head and followed Sirius out of the door.

"Would Mr. Harry Potter please stand on the stool?" asked Margie.

Harry looked over and saw that she had summoned a short stool. He walked over and stood on the stool as Margie walked around him tugging at his robes and muttering under her breath. After a while of standing still Margie announced that she was done. Harry started to move around and saw that his robes now fitted perfectly. "Thank you very much," Harry told Margie.

Margie bowed and looked up at Harry, "Margie has heard about all the great things that Harry Potter has done. She is very happy that she finally gets to meet you after all of those years of stories she has heard from Mr. Lupin and his parents."

"I haven't done anything great," mumbled Harry.

"No Mr. Potter!" exclaimed Margie, "You may feel bad about all of the stuff that has gone wrong and you might blame yourself for all of it but I have been around a long time and there has been no one person besides Dumbledore himself that has given so much for others. You may have not been able to stop everything but trust me sir, things would have been a lot worse with out you around."

"Thank you Margie," whispered Harry as he watched the little house elf leave

It is amazing how such a small and simple creature could make everything seem so much better then you would have thought it was mused Harry.

* * * *

Now that Harry was dressed and he had attempted to clam down his hair he decided that he would wander down stairs and see what was going on. As he reached the bottom of the staircase he heard some noise coming from a room on his right. When Harry looked inside he saw what looked like a very large library/study and in the middle of the room sat Sirius on a couch watching TV. Sirius must have heard Harry enter because he looked up and smiled, "You look much better. Come over and watch some TV with me. Remus's mother has grown quite fond of certain muggle inventions."

A while latter Remus and an older couple entered the room while Harry and Sirius remained hypnotized by a TV show called Jerry Springer. Never before had Harry had seen so many messed up people in one place destroying each other. "Sirius what kind of trash are you and Harry watching?" scolded Remus.

"This really disturbing TV show where gays reveal to their lovers that there is another lover and now they have all decided that they wanted to become professional porn stars." stated Sirius as he continued to stare at the TV screen.

Remus walked forward and turned off the TV making Sirius protest, "Hey we were watching that!"

"You're corrupting Harry! He really shouldn't be watching trash like that. You shouldn't even be watching trash like that. What if one of our guest walked in and saw the infamous Sirius Black watching porn." exclaimed Remus.

"Hey!" Sirius replied indignantly, "It wasn't porn and Harry is a teenage boy, I am sure he has seen worse then this. His cousin, Dudley, looks like one of those porn kings."

Remus rolled his eyes, "Just because he looks like a fat pig that no girl in their right mind would like doesn't mean that he has resorted to porn."

The old man that had entered with Remus cleared his throat to get Remus's attention. "Oh," Remus replied in embarrassment as he pulled forward the old couple, "Harry these are my parents Adele and Russell Lupin. My mother is a singer and my dad works in the ministry as head of foreign affairs."

Adele had long blond hair streaked with strips of white hair. Her eyes were a sparkling blue and she was wearing blue robes to match them. Remus's father looked a little more worn. He's hair was white with very small traces of brown and his eyes were hazel, sharp and calculating. He had chosen to wear simple black.

Harry stood up and shook hands with them. I wonder what happened to my grandparents thought Harry. They're dead just like everyone else in your family said a nasty voice in his head. With that Harry heard the doorbell ring, the first party guest had arrived. As the group moved out into the living room to join the new arrivals Harry saw the two familiar faces of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

"Harry!" shrieked Mrs. Weasley as she smothered Harry in hugs and kisses, "My, my Harry look how much you have grown! You still are a little on the skinny side but you are starting to fill out nicely when it comes to muscles. Look Arthur! He has grown a few inches and look at all of these cute arm muscles that he has now!"

"Now Molly, let the boy breath," laughed Mr. Weasley as he caught sight of a very blue looking Harry.

"Good Evening Molly, Arthur, it is nice of you to join us this evening" stated Remus as he started to play host.

"He is so proper that sometimes it makes me want to retch." whispered Sirius so that it was loud enough for Remus to hear.

Harry tried to hold in his laugh but failed and ended up snorting which earned him a glare from Remus. Pretty soon after that more and more people started to wander in. Ministry workers, Auror's and several other kinds of people filled the Lupin mansion. Harry briefly saw a few of his professors and some other familiar faces but no one of any real interest to him. Sirius had wandered off and all Harry wanted to do was climb the staircase and go to bed. He was exhausted from the yard work that he had done earlier that day and being around crowds of people never had sat well with him. He was about to escape when he herd a familiar voice calling him. As he turned around he was met with the warm face of Professor Dumbledore. "Harry how has your summer vacation been?"

"The same as always Professor." Harry simply replied.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry suddenly noticed the person accompanying Dumbledore. It was a girl about his age in dark purple robes. She had a medium complexion with dark brown hair below her shoulders and eyes that were a normal shade of dark brown. "Ah," said Professor Dumbledore as he interrupted Harry's thoughts, "I see that you have spotted my accomplice. Harry Potter this is Icicle Vera, Icicle this is Harry."

Icicle met Harry's eyes and shook hands with him but before anything was said Dumbledore motioned to them that they should follow. "Now if you two will follow me, we have some socializing to do."

"Translation, we are playing Dumbledore's shadows until he pulls us out and forces us to talk," whispered Icicle to Harry.

Harry laughed and pretty soon they were face to face with an old lady that Harry new all too well. "Mrs. Figg…." sputtered Harry.

"Hello Harry, it is nice to see that Sirius got you here safe and sound." replied Harry's old muggle baby sitter.

Harry stood there gawking at his baby sitter trying to process this new information through his head. Obviously Mrs. Figg was a witch but forcing his mind to believe that piece of information was as leaving Harry with a very big headache. Headmaster Dumbledore broke the silence with an amused tone in his voice "Harry I believe that you already know Mrs. Arabella Figg. She will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year."

Mrs. Figg smiled and shook her head, "I owe Dumbledore a favor so I agreed to teach that cursed position for one year and one year alone."

Icicle laughed, "Well from what I have been told, you don't have much to live up to. I strongly believe that you can teacher better then 2 death eaters and a blonde airhead who shall remain nameless.  Lupin is the only Defense teacher that I have heard of that may give you some standards to live up to."

"Very true dear, Lupin is a fine young gentleman an most likely a great teacher."

* * * *