After the Dawn: The Philosopher's Stone
Chapter Two: Month in the Manor
Harry remembered little of the rest of his birthday, it had been spent in a pleasant daze of cakes, unpacking, talking with Sirius and his parents' pictures.
The rest of that month he remembered in greater detail than possibly any other time that he had spent in the Manor – it was his last month here before he would go to Hogwarts.
"Come on Sirius!" Harry called on the first morning of August, standing at his godfathers door – today he would not awaken his godfather in his usual manner.
Sirius opened one eye a crack and Harry smiled faintly – his godfather had only been faking sleep anyway, apparently anticipating an early morning awakening.
"Come on!" Harry repeated impatiently.
"Come on where?" Sirius wanted to know as he levered himself out of bed, knowing that his game had been caught.
"Flying of course!" Harry replied, as though this should have been incredibly obvious.
Sirius immediately bounded into action and in only moments was ready to go. "Well why didn't you say so before?" he demanded cheerily as he and his godson strode out onto the grounds to the place where they flew their brooms.
"Because you didn't ask," Harry replied calmly.
"Duh," Sirius said, laughing softly. Harry nodded in agreement, mounting old broom.
"Sirius, loose the balls," Harry called down to his godfather once he was safely up in the air.
Sirius nodded from the ground and called to the House Elf Sally, who aided in the grounds keeping jobs most of the time. She appeared moments later with a box of Quidditch balls as Sirius soared up to join his godson.
Down below, Sally loosed the Bludgers, which immediately tore after Harry and Sirius, so both were moving already when Sally released the Snitch.
Harry caught a glint of gold in the early morning sunlight as the Snitch sped free, and he and Sirius both flew in quick dives and climbs to both avoid the Bludgers and make sure that they'd both lost the Snitch completely.
"Go!" Harry yelled, signalling that the game should begin.
Their game was to have only the Bludgers and Snitch loose. They didn't have goal posts – the person who caught the Snitch won the game, and the only rule was that you couldn't directly interfere with the other player.
As they didn't have any other team mates, this worked quick well, and both Harry and Sirius enjoyed the challenge. The winner didn't get anything particularly special – the joy of winning was enough for both of them.
Harry and Sirius flew apart, each keeping an eye on the other. The Snitch was charmed to remain within certain boundaries, so as not to make the feat of catching it completely impossible – just difficult. Very difficult. But no more difficult than it would be in a Quidditch game.
Harry swooped, and watched as his godfather suddenly swooped in a deep dive. Looking ahead of the man, he saw no glint of gold and smiled – a feint.
Suddenly, upwards, he saw a flash of something, instantly he was moving into the air, his eyes flashing in triumph as he caught sight of the golden snitch, hovering just above him.
At that moment, just behind him, came the whirr of a bludger, and he rocketed upwards, hearing the bludger behind him, seeing the snitch ahead of him and vaguely conscious of Sirius's muttered curses as his godfather realised what was going on ahead.
Harry caught the snitch in a swift, easy motion, twisting his broom sharply to the left, guiding it with one hand. A black blur passed his shoulder, the bludger was now ahead of him.
But the other one was coming from the side. Harry turned his broom downwards and dove steeply, sensing that the bludgers still followed him.
Sirius had landed already and was beckoning Harry towards him. With a grim smile, Harry corrected his course and dropped again, this time heading to a point just to Sirius's left.
Just before he would have crashed, Harry threw himself from his broom, twisting to jump at one of the bludgers and pin it to the ground. Beside him, Sirius was doing the same thing with the other ball, but had an easier time of it than Harry, who still had the snitch clutched in one hand.
Sally hurried over to Harry and pointed a finger at the bludger he had trapped. Immediately it disappeared, reappearing held tightly in it's place in the box. She quickly performed the same service for Sirius.
Harry himself replaced the snitch in the box and grinned at Sirius. "You lose, old man," he said.
"Hey, less of the old!" Sirius complained. Harry had been winning more and more often over the past few years. "Besides, you're more of a Seeker than I ever was – when I was at school, I played Chaser, like your father."
"I suppose," Harry said. "But I still won and you still lost."
He laughed, and Sirius soon joined him.
The next two weeks passed in a blur, and soon the Dan's Death Day came around.
Harry was late to breakfast, and when he came he was wearing black jeans, a black top and his hair was trapped by a black bandana. His green eyes were misted with tears, and his cheeks stained with their passage.
Sirius knew that his godson only wanted to be alone, and so left him to it for the day. Harry walked through all of the places that Dan had loved most while he was in Potter Mansion, and then asked Sirius to take him to the cemetery.
He spent an hour there, just kneeling by Dan's grave, then set a small, polished stone that he had picked up over the last year on the way to a Tae-Kwon-Do class.
That night Harry ate no dinner, but in the morning, he looked a little better, as was wearing dark red as opposed to black. He was still withdrawn, but less so, and spent his time practicing Wandless magic and reviewing the texts that he would need at school.
He was becoming more and more interested in the wand magic – sure being able to do spells without a wand might be cool … but only if it didn't continuously knock him out.
August was coming to an end, the warm summer weather was retreating to winters cold. Harry liked the winter, as much as he liked the summer, and the weather within the Potter Mansion almost matched that of the outside world.
One night, the twenty third, Harry came down to dinner wearing blue jeans and a black shirt, his eyes were slightly troubled and his hair had changed in length a little.
"Hey there kid," Sirius greeted him as cheerfully as ever.
Harry smiled faintly. "Sirius, what is the plan for going to Hogwarts? You know that I cannot go as Harry, and I know that too. What is the story to be, and how will you come to school? What if someone recognises you? What is my disguise to be?"
"Questions!" Sirius laughed. "Best not to discuss serious business over a meal, so eat your dinner and we'll go to the sitting room and I'll tell you what I've worked out so far."
Harry hesitated, then nodded his head. "Very well," he consented, knowing that it was impossible to get his godfather to talk much over food anyway.
Dinner came and went, as did desert, and Sirius, just to tease Harry, mimed being exhausted. "Hmm … Well, I think I'll turn in for the night now … it's been a long day," he yawned.
Harry arched an eyebrow. "You won't fool me," he told his godfather coolly. "We are going to the sitting room and you're going to tell me the plan – I need to be familiar with it before I leave, otherwise it will be too easy to make a mistake."
Sirius smiled and nodded his head. "Quite right. Let's go."
Soon enough they reached the sitting room, and Harry was anxious to learn what he needed to.
"Now, I've been giving things a lot of thought over the past few months. I've realised that you won't be able to catch the train to Hogwarts," Sirius began.
"Why not?" Harry asked.
"Because you need a ticket for that, and we don't have one," Sirius replied waspishly. "Oh well. There is a fireplace in the Shrieking Shack-"
"Where you and dad and Remus and Peter went on the full moon nights?" Harry asked, to make sure he knew what was going on.
"The same. There is a passageway, as you know, that leads onto the Hogwarts grounds. We can go up there and arrive just as the Sorting is finishing," Sirius continued. "There you will introduce yourself …"
"By what name?" Harry asked.
"How does Nemo Protectium sound to you?" Sirius asked with a smile.
"No one?" Harry mused. "Sounds fine! I like it, in fact!"
"Good – I thought you might," Sirius said proudly.
Harry hid a smile. "You will have to change your appearance of course. The best bet, I think, would be to stick with something a little like what you had in Diagon Alley … Longer hair, and straighter, more mature, but I think light blue eyes would be good … And the slightly pointed ears – I liked them. Obviously, no scar," Sirius said.
Harry thought for a moment, before the changes happened to his body. He looked quite different from the boy who'd gone to Diagon Alley, but at the same time somewhat alike.
His hair was now completely black, and had adopted a bluish tinge to it, and his eyes were sparkling light blue.
"Perfect," Sirius said. "Now, as for me, I've been working on a potion for some time now, which will be able, when finished, to change my Animagus form.
"I will appear to be a red setter, and will look quite a bit different from my usual form. As long as I have a lot of the potion in backup, I think that everything should be fine – it has to be retaken once every two months."
Harry nodded. "Sounds good… But what's the story? It'll have to sound convincing."
"No worries about that," Sirius assured him. "You will give your story to Dumbledore alone. You will tell him that your last name is not your real one, but that you will not reveal what it really is, because you fear for your families safety.
"Your family was a minor pureblood house that has been presumed to be dead long ago. Instead, they'd only performed the Fidelius Charm and gone into hiding in a different country – say New Zealand or America.
"When it came time for your schooling to begin, you and your cousin left your families hide out and returned to Britain. There you found that everything seemed to have blown over, and Voldemort was gone.
"Tell him that you know that the Death Eaters have been more active lately, and that your family will remain in hiding. You, however, will remain for your schooling. You wish to be treated as a regular student, and would rather not have anything happening to cause you to be singled out.
"In time, you'll fade into every day life at Hogwarts, and all will be well. Tell him that I am your faithful dog – I will go by the name of Ardeo."
"That means fire, in Latin, doesn't it?" Harry asked.
"Sure does," Sirius replied. "Tell him that we have been together for many years, and that you would not like to be parted from me – I don't think that he will do so."
Harry nodded. "I will familiarise myself with this over the next week before we have to leave," he replied.
"Best way to start is to sleep on it," Sirius hinted, and Harry laughed.
"Good night Sirius."
"Night kiddo."
The two went their separate ways calmly. Soon it would be time to go to Hogwarts.
***
Well, that'll do for that chapter – it's nearly 12 am now, but it's still 32 degrees Celsius (90 F) where I am, and I'm therefore disinclined to sleep… Anyway, I hope you are all at least at a little bit cooler than I am! Review please!!
Anyone who can think of a good prank(s), please give ideas in reviews! After all, with Harry/Sirius in the school, who will be safe from them? And add the Weasley twins …
Note on last chapter: I know that Harry's wand is different, but I don't think that the wood comes into much. Also, I know Harry's owl is different, but there isn't that much that would say Harry is likely to get the exact same owl if he grew up in a completely different way.
Thanks:
Shdurrani, LonelySpirit, azntgr01, Kathy Stgqvk, Sea-Turtles, Chiquita-3, PhoenixTears101, Nicoletta, Tristin Silver, Lord Nomad, liz, Silver Scale Serpent, Stix-the-Rebel, MarsIsBrightTonight, Wolfia, Songbreeze Swifteye, AthenaKitty, Wynjara, OliverLover4Life, captuniv, Hilel, Bronx, Maxx77, jack4, Jeff, Alynna Lis Eachann, Cataclysmic, Nasser Himura, DiaphanousChameleon, Butler, Schmanski, Acacia Jules, Dumbledore's Heir, Xenocide, Keronshara, Andromeda's kitty, Keronshara, Jaded Angel8, Solar, ReflectionsOfReality, greasy sox, fiddy, MikiBaby, Rayvern, ping*pong5, Hannanora-Potter, Hermione HP, jbfritz, AltonShadeFoot, Potter Reader, summer, Dakana Warrior, Jeanne2, Jillian Filch, howling wolf1, skaped, thisisagoodstory, Nimair Black, Tamsy, sadisticfreak529, Enelya Fefalas, Scrambler, Persephone, BeastialSunStormDragon, knot2be, chady, Empress Sarah-sama, Buffy Summers1, pen, Samara-Morgan-101, Cyblade Silver, Milenn Cassandra Riddle, Anna L. Black, Phoenix Flight, hi, Sakura, Gaul1.
Ok that's it *grins* I'm giving up on asking for so many reviews – I asked for something over 30 last time and I get 79! LoL. Well, they ARE appreciated! And I swear – if I ever get 100 reviews in one chapter, I'll update two chapters instead of one! Just to give you something to work towards, if you want it *grins* otherwise, I'll just keep updating every second day, which really should be enough for you *grins*
~WolfMoon~