a/n: while i don't normally write these, i felt i needed to at least appologize for updating so late. i have been really busy lately what with preparing for ap tests and stuff. hopefully, as it is now almost summer break, i will have more time to write which translates into more time to update. thanks for reading and i love reviews!
Chapter 23
The group of heroes teleported back to Hogwarts and the adults herded them all to Dumbledore's office where the headmaster would need to be informed. As the twelve people and one dog walked into his office, Dumbledore looked up from the crossword puzzle he was doing. "What may I do for you this afternoon?" he asked with a twinkle in his eyes. "Have these children done something?"
Sirius, who had transformed back into his human form, replied, "Yes, but nothing they need to be punished for." Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, and, when no one else explained, Sirius continued, "While it may seem unlikely, we have defeated Voldemort, at last."
"Really! Would you mind telling me how you managed to accomplish that?"
Kayla began the explanation as it originated with her and her friends. The others all added information when she forgot something. When she got to the part where the adults came in, Hope took over, explaining what she had done after she received Kayla's truncated message.
"Headmaster, how come we were able to defeat him, when no one else has been able to?" Hermione wanted to know when everything had been explained and they had all sat in silence for a few moments.
Before he could answer, Harry whispered, "Love."
"Exactly, Harry. Everyone else has tried to defeat him out of fear: fear of his power, fear of what he could do, and fear of all that he stood for. You, however, were not afraid of him. Just like when your mother gave her life to protect you out of love, you were able to stun him out of affection for your cousin and Sirius was able to kill him because he loves you and loved your parents."
"What will happen now, Professor?" Ron asked.
"Mr. Weasley, I believe the aurors will have their work cut out for them as the Death Eaters will become angry as they learn of this news. However, eventually, they will all be subdued or captured and the world will go back to normal until a new evil rises to take his place. I believe it would be for the best, though, if Harry did not return to the Dursleys. I think he and Sirius should go to America with Hope and Kayla. This way, they can be together without hiding. The Americans do not believe that Sirius was guilty in the first place and will be willing to grant him a secret asylum there until I can arrange a trial in England. Now, I believe you have all had a trying day. I suggest you return to your common room and get some rest."
Over the next few weeks, life returned to almost normal, except for the aurors who were busy hunting down the last of the Death Eaters. Most of the Slytherins behaved almost normal, as they didn't want to get in trouble since most of their parents had been sent to Azkaban and wouldn't be able to get them out of anything. In fact, most of them began to be nice to the rest of the school, claiming that they had to pretend to be mean because at least one of their parents forced them. While, at first thought, this would appear to be just a ruse, usually, one of the Americans vouched for them since they could sense that they were telling the truth.
In fact, Draco began to study with the Gryffindors. The first time he showed up he asked if Hermione would mind helping him in Transfiguration. The next day, he asked Kayla and Jason for help in his DADA swordsmanship. Before long, he stopped giving excuses and just came to study along with the rest of the group. At first, Ron and his brothers weren't thrilled to have him there, but, as the others welcomed him (and he came alone as a sign of good faith) convinced them to at least refrain from being openly hostile. Soon, he was spending more time with the Gryffindors than with his fellow Slytherins. In the classes they had together, he had even taken to sitting with them. The Gryffindors had taken to staying in the library until very late hours of the night so that Draco, Jake, and James could study with them. They had formed a fairly strong relationship, and, since his father was in Azkaban, Draco was going to spend the summer holidays with Ron and his family.
So, it was with this less-hostile atmosphere that Hogwarts students entered the week of exams. Each day, the fifth years came back, extraordinarily tired, as did the seventh years. By the end of the week, they were so exhausted all they wanted to do was relax by the lake until the end-of-the- year feast. The group of friends walked into the Great Hall and split into three: Draco going to the Slytherin table, Jake and James going to the Ravenclaw, and they rest going to the Gryffindor table. The entire school enjoyed the feast under the Gryffindor colors (they had won again). Harry was also ecstatic, as they had also won the Quidditch cup, although he gave most of the credit to the help of Kayla and Jason and the rest of the team.
The next day, everyone was in a subdued mood as they were all upset that they would be leaving the castle, especially the American students because they would be flying back to the states the next day and were upset that they would be leaving all of their new friends behind. Most, however, had made arrangements to keep in touch. The entire train ride back, the musketeers and their friends spent crammed into a single compartment, talking about everything under the sun.
Hours later, when the train stopped in London, the group trudged off the train, and said their final good-byes. Then they separated into three groups: Hermione went to her parents, the Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George, plus Draco, went towards Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and the Americans and Harry went with Hope. George managed to grab Tori for one last, lingering kiss and Harry and Ginny were the last out of their compartment, holding hands and smiling widely. The Americans were going to spend the night at the Leaky Cauldron and then catch a flight back to New York City in the morning. From there, they would all teleport to their houses individually.
The only thing they had left to do, was for Hope, Harry, and Kayla to make a trip to the Dursley's house to inform them that Harry would no longer be staying with them and to erase their memories of witchcraft and wizardry. They would believe that Lily had gone to a normal school and met James Potter normally, and that they had had a baby boy, but the three had all died in a car accident. It was lucky for them that they had forgotten to pick Harry up at the train station.
The three of them walked down Privet Drive, following Harry towards number 4. When the reached it, Hope knocked on the front door and the three waited for Petunia Dursley to open the door. When she saw her nephew, she sneered at him, "I suppose we forgot to pick you up. Well, come on in then. Thank you for bringing him, you may go now," she told to Hope and Kayla. However, when she tried to slam the door in their faces, she found that the door wouldn't close.
"I'm sorry, madam, but I fear that we have some business yet, to discuss with you." Barely containing her distaste, Petunia Dursley motioned her three visitors inside her pristine house however she did not offer them anything in the way of drinks or food. She led them to the sitting room and waited with apparent impatience. "I am thrilled to inform you that Harry will no longer be staying with you. The great evil we were protecting him from has been destroyed. He will be returning to America with myself, and my daughter, his cousin."
"Wait a second!" Petunia interrupted. "I was under the impression that we were his only living relatives! Why did we get saddled with the ungrateful brat?"
"Well, that would be partially true," Hope replied, ignoring the question. "No one knew about Kayla or myself. And, even though I am not legally his aunt, Dumbledore thinks it best if I take custody of him."
"Wonderful, we don't want him. How soon can you go?"
"We will be out of here as soon as possible, I don't want to be here any more than you want us here. But I need to erase your memories so that you don't know anything of magic anymore."
For once, Petunia looked slightly afraid, "What are you going to do to us?"
"It won't hurt." Hope took a deep breath and sent her mind out to Petunia's erasing every trace of Harry and magic. She followed Mrs. Dursley's mind to anyone (muggles only) who knew about Harry and, likewise, deleted the parts of their memories concerning him. Finally, Hope altered Petunia's memories of her sister. Now, she remembered Lily as a delightful younger sister who went away to a normal school where she met and fell in love with James Potter. When they graduated they got normal jobs, got married, and had a son. Unfortunately, all three died in a horrible car accident before Harry was a year old. When Hope was sure that these memories were firmly planted in all three Dursley's minds, she led her daughter and "nephew" out the door. As soon as they left, Petunia stood up and looked at the pictures on the mantle and said, "Hmmm...I wonder why I don't have any pictures of Lily on that wall?" before going about her day.
The three of them returned to the Leaky Cauldron where the rest of the Americans had taken over the common room of the inn and were having a party. Harry, Kayla, and Hope were dragged into the festivities as soon as they walked in the door. The Americans were determined to enjoy this one last night in England before returning to their homes. They didn't leave until Tom, the barkeep, threw them out. Then, they spent the rest of the night, running back and forth between each other's rooms. They had nothing left to pack, but they were all too wound up to at least pretend to sleep.
The next morning, Hope rounded everybody up and made sure that everyone had collected all of there belongings from their rooms. Then, she and Remus, along with Snuffles, stood there making sure they didn't leave anything behind as they trundled into the three limos that were, once again, provided for transport to the airport. Like they had the previous year, the three grades split up into separate limos, with Hope, Remus, and Snuffles joining the musketeers and Harry. As soon as they were all settled, Snuffles transformed back into Sirius.
"So, Harry, how would you like me to come to America?" he asked.
Harry looked startled, "How can you do that? You're still wanted!"
"Well, actually, the Yanks never believed that I was guilty. Or, if they did, they just took the stance that I was innocent to protest Crouch's sending me to Azkaban without a trial. So, anyways, when I escaped, their equivalent of minister contacted Dumbledore and told him that they would be willing to grant me asylum. However, Dumbledore didn't know where I was at the time, and when he did know where I was, he thought it would be better if I stayed in the country. But, now, he believes it would be better for me to go with you until he can organize Peter's trial and arrange for a trial. Besides, I can't let you handle the Yanks all by yourself, can I?"
Everyone laughed and Sirius slung his arm around his godson's shoulders. "Now, all we need to do is to cast a glamorie around me so that anyone who looks at me will not think anything special about me. Actually, Hope is going to do some fancy mind trick thingy because if a wizard were to happen to be on the plane with us, they would detect a spell from a wand. Once we are in America, it won't matter because a European wizard won't have any jurisdiction to do anything to me there, and an American one won't care."
"So, what exactly is our story about why I am with you?" Harry asked Hope.
"Well, Kayla is going to move in with me. She had been living with my sister to protect her, but, now, she is capable of protecting herself as we have seen many times these past few years. Maybe, Charles will be confused enough not to attack for a while. Harry, we'll say that you are her cousin from England who has come over to spend some time in the States. You live with your godfather because your parents died in a car crash when you were a baby. He decided that he wanted to see the states as well, so he came with you. We will magically hide your scar to prevent questions about it. Anyone will believe it, even the magical folk. We don't tend to ask many questions because we believe in privacy. Even if they know you are "famous Harry Potter," they won't say a thing. They won't really care why you are in the US. But, just in case, we will say your name is Harry Peters. Close enough that you won't forget it, but different enough that no one will know. Sirius, here, will have to be Sam Brown."
"How come my name can't be close like Harry's?" Sirius complained.
"Because Sirius is way too uncommon a name in the non-magical world. Hell, even in the magic world it is a weird name," Hope explained carefully.
Sirius (aka Sam) crossed his arms and sulked for the remaining limo ride. However, by the time they reached the airport, he brightened at all of the new/muggle things that surrounded him. Without mishap, they all boarded the plane, and, only a few hours later, they all reached the states.
All of the students gathered their luggage, said goodbye to everyone and teleported home. The six musketeers shared a group hug, promising to see each other soon and went on their ways. Kayla slung her arm around Harry's shoulders (even though he was taller than she was) and said, "C'mon, cuz. I'll take you home." Then, she teleported, with Harry, to Hope's house.
Chapter 23
The group of heroes teleported back to Hogwarts and the adults herded them all to Dumbledore's office where the headmaster would need to be informed. As the twelve people and one dog walked into his office, Dumbledore looked up from the crossword puzzle he was doing. "What may I do for you this afternoon?" he asked with a twinkle in his eyes. "Have these children done something?"
Sirius, who had transformed back into his human form, replied, "Yes, but nothing they need to be punished for." Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, and, when no one else explained, Sirius continued, "While it may seem unlikely, we have defeated Voldemort, at last."
"Really! Would you mind telling me how you managed to accomplish that?"
Kayla began the explanation as it originated with her and her friends. The others all added information when she forgot something. When she got to the part where the adults came in, Hope took over, explaining what she had done after she received Kayla's truncated message.
"Headmaster, how come we were able to defeat him, when no one else has been able to?" Hermione wanted to know when everything had been explained and they had all sat in silence for a few moments.
Before he could answer, Harry whispered, "Love."
"Exactly, Harry. Everyone else has tried to defeat him out of fear: fear of his power, fear of what he could do, and fear of all that he stood for. You, however, were not afraid of him. Just like when your mother gave her life to protect you out of love, you were able to stun him out of affection for your cousin and Sirius was able to kill him because he loves you and loved your parents."
"What will happen now, Professor?" Ron asked.
"Mr. Weasley, I believe the aurors will have their work cut out for them as the Death Eaters will become angry as they learn of this news. However, eventually, they will all be subdued or captured and the world will go back to normal until a new evil rises to take his place. I believe it would be for the best, though, if Harry did not return to the Dursleys. I think he and Sirius should go to America with Hope and Kayla. This way, they can be together without hiding. The Americans do not believe that Sirius was guilty in the first place and will be willing to grant him a secret asylum there until I can arrange a trial in England. Now, I believe you have all had a trying day. I suggest you return to your common room and get some rest."
Over the next few weeks, life returned to almost normal, except for the aurors who were busy hunting down the last of the Death Eaters. Most of the Slytherins behaved almost normal, as they didn't want to get in trouble since most of their parents had been sent to Azkaban and wouldn't be able to get them out of anything. In fact, most of them began to be nice to the rest of the school, claiming that they had to pretend to be mean because at least one of their parents forced them. While, at first thought, this would appear to be just a ruse, usually, one of the Americans vouched for them since they could sense that they were telling the truth.
In fact, Draco began to study with the Gryffindors. The first time he showed up he asked if Hermione would mind helping him in Transfiguration. The next day, he asked Kayla and Jason for help in his DADA swordsmanship. Before long, he stopped giving excuses and just came to study along with the rest of the group. At first, Ron and his brothers weren't thrilled to have him there, but, as the others welcomed him (and he came alone as a sign of good faith) convinced them to at least refrain from being openly hostile. Soon, he was spending more time with the Gryffindors than with his fellow Slytherins. In the classes they had together, he had even taken to sitting with them. The Gryffindors had taken to staying in the library until very late hours of the night so that Draco, Jake, and James could study with them. They had formed a fairly strong relationship, and, since his father was in Azkaban, Draco was going to spend the summer holidays with Ron and his family.
So, it was with this less-hostile atmosphere that Hogwarts students entered the week of exams. Each day, the fifth years came back, extraordinarily tired, as did the seventh years. By the end of the week, they were so exhausted all they wanted to do was relax by the lake until the end-of-the- year feast. The group of friends walked into the Great Hall and split into three: Draco going to the Slytherin table, Jake and James going to the Ravenclaw, and they rest going to the Gryffindor table. The entire school enjoyed the feast under the Gryffindor colors (they had won again). Harry was also ecstatic, as they had also won the Quidditch cup, although he gave most of the credit to the help of Kayla and Jason and the rest of the team.
The next day, everyone was in a subdued mood as they were all upset that they would be leaving the castle, especially the American students because they would be flying back to the states the next day and were upset that they would be leaving all of their new friends behind. Most, however, had made arrangements to keep in touch. The entire train ride back, the musketeers and their friends spent crammed into a single compartment, talking about everything under the sun.
Hours later, when the train stopped in London, the group trudged off the train, and said their final good-byes. Then they separated into three groups: Hermione went to her parents, the Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George, plus Draco, went towards Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and the Americans and Harry went with Hope. George managed to grab Tori for one last, lingering kiss and Harry and Ginny were the last out of their compartment, holding hands and smiling widely. The Americans were going to spend the night at the Leaky Cauldron and then catch a flight back to New York City in the morning. From there, they would all teleport to their houses individually.
The only thing they had left to do, was for Hope, Harry, and Kayla to make a trip to the Dursley's house to inform them that Harry would no longer be staying with them and to erase their memories of witchcraft and wizardry. They would believe that Lily had gone to a normal school and met James Potter normally, and that they had had a baby boy, but the three had all died in a car accident. It was lucky for them that they had forgotten to pick Harry up at the train station.
The three of them walked down Privet Drive, following Harry towards number 4. When the reached it, Hope knocked on the front door and the three waited for Petunia Dursley to open the door. When she saw her nephew, she sneered at him, "I suppose we forgot to pick you up. Well, come on in then. Thank you for bringing him, you may go now," she told to Hope and Kayla. However, when she tried to slam the door in their faces, she found that the door wouldn't close.
"I'm sorry, madam, but I fear that we have some business yet, to discuss with you." Barely containing her distaste, Petunia Dursley motioned her three visitors inside her pristine house however she did not offer them anything in the way of drinks or food. She led them to the sitting room and waited with apparent impatience. "I am thrilled to inform you that Harry will no longer be staying with you. The great evil we were protecting him from has been destroyed. He will be returning to America with myself, and my daughter, his cousin."
"Wait a second!" Petunia interrupted. "I was under the impression that we were his only living relatives! Why did we get saddled with the ungrateful brat?"
"Well, that would be partially true," Hope replied, ignoring the question. "No one knew about Kayla or myself. And, even though I am not legally his aunt, Dumbledore thinks it best if I take custody of him."
"Wonderful, we don't want him. How soon can you go?"
"We will be out of here as soon as possible, I don't want to be here any more than you want us here. But I need to erase your memories so that you don't know anything of magic anymore."
For once, Petunia looked slightly afraid, "What are you going to do to us?"
"It won't hurt." Hope took a deep breath and sent her mind out to Petunia's erasing every trace of Harry and magic. She followed Mrs. Dursley's mind to anyone (muggles only) who knew about Harry and, likewise, deleted the parts of their memories concerning him. Finally, Hope altered Petunia's memories of her sister. Now, she remembered Lily as a delightful younger sister who went away to a normal school where she met and fell in love with James Potter. When they graduated they got normal jobs, got married, and had a son. Unfortunately, all three died in a horrible car accident before Harry was a year old. When Hope was sure that these memories were firmly planted in all three Dursley's minds, she led her daughter and "nephew" out the door. As soon as they left, Petunia stood up and looked at the pictures on the mantle and said, "Hmmm...I wonder why I don't have any pictures of Lily on that wall?" before going about her day.
The three of them returned to the Leaky Cauldron where the rest of the Americans had taken over the common room of the inn and were having a party. Harry, Kayla, and Hope were dragged into the festivities as soon as they walked in the door. The Americans were determined to enjoy this one last night in England before returning to their homes. They didn't leave until Tom, the barkeep, threw them out. Then, they spent the rest of the night, running back and forth between each other's rooms. They had nothing left to pack, but they were all too wound up to at least pretend to sleep.
The next morning, Hope rounded everybody up and made sure that everyone had collected all of there belongings from their rooms. Then, she and Remus, along with Snuffles, stood there making sure they didn't leave anything behind as they trundled into the three limos that were, once again, provided for transport to the airport. Like they had the previous year, the three grades split up into separate limos, with Hope, Remus, and Snuffles joining the musketeers and Harry. As soon as they were all settled, Snuffles transformed back into Sirius.
"So, Harry, how would you like me to come to America?" he asked.
Harry looked startled, "How can you do that? You're still wanted!"
"Well, actually, the Yanks never believed that I was guilty. Or, if they did, they just took the stance that I was innocent to protest Crouch's sending me to Azkaban without a trial. So, anyways, when I escaped, their equivalent of minister contacted Dumbledore and told him that they would be willing to grant me asylum. However, Dumbledore didn't know where I was at the time, and when he did know where I was, he thought it would be better if I stayed in the country. But, now, he believes it would be better for me to go with you until he can organize Peter's trial and arrange for a trial. Besides, I can't let you handle the Yanks all by yourself, can I?"
Everyone laughed and Sirius slung his arm around his godson's shoulders. "Now, all we need to do is to cast a glamorie around me so that anyone who looks at me will not think anything special about me. Actually, Hope is going to do some fancy mind trick thingy because if a wizard were to happen to be on the plane with us, they would detect a spell from a wand. Once we are in America, it won't matter because a European wizard won't have any jurisdiction to do anything to me there, and an American one won't care."
"So, what exactly is our story about why I am with you?" Harry asked Hope.
"Well, Kayla is going to move in with me. She had been living with my sister to protect her, but, now, she is capable of protecting herself as we have seen many times these past few years. Maybe, Charles will be confused enough not to attack for a while. Harry, we'll say that you are her cousin from England who has come over to spend some time in the States. You live with your godfather because your parents died in a car crash when you were a baby. He decided that he wanted to see the states as well, so he came with you. We will magically hide your scar to prevent questions about it. Anyone will believe it, even the magical folk. We don't tend to ask many questions because we believe in privacy. Even if they know you are "famous Harry Potter," they won't say a thing. They won't really care why you are in the US. But, just in case, we will say your name is Harry Peters. Close enough that you won't forget it, but different enough that no one will know. Sirius, here, will have to be Sam Brown."
"How come my name can't be close like Harry's?" Sirius complained.
"Because Sirius is way too uncommon a name in the non-magical world. Hell, even in the magic world it is a weird name," Hope explained carefully.
Sirius (aka Sam) crossed his arms and sulked for the remaining limo ride. However, by the time they reached the airport, he brightened at all of the new/muggle things that surrounded him. Without mishap, they all boarded the plane, and, only a few hours later, they all reached the states.
All of the students gathered their luggage, said goodbye to everyone and teleported home. The six musketeers shared a group hug, promising to see each other soon and went on their ways. Kayla slung her arm around Harry's shoulders (even though he was taller than she was) and said, "C'mon, cuz. I'll take you home." Then, she teleported, with Harry, to Hope's house.