A/N: when I referred to HG in previous author notes, I meant Hermione Granger. As for ships, none planned right not, but definitely not Harry/Ginny. I'm not sure why Ron came out that way in last chapter, it just happened and seemed to fit.
Don't know about you guys, but I haven't been able to log on since Friday night/Sat early morning.
This chapter summarizes Harry's time at the burrow (last 2 weeks of holiday) and the trip to school. It also includes a summary of what Harry finds in the journal, only one actual excerpt from the journal is taken (for now).
Didn't originally like this chapter at first, so I redid it over the weekend. Hopefully it's better now.
Chapter 23 reading at the burrow
The first few days at the Burrow Harry could be found lying on his bed reading Cybelle's journal. At first, he was a little worried that the charm Remus used might not work, but that fear disappeared his second night there after a conversation with Ron.
- - -FLASHBACK- - -
As Ron prepared for bed, he asked Harry "What are you reading?"
"Hmmm?" Harry said, not taking his eyes off of his book.
"I asked what are you reading?"
"oh, nothing." Harry replied distractedly.
"It can't be nothing, you spent more time with that book then you have with us." Ron said as he approached Harry's bed.
"It's just a book I brought with me." Harry, replied, not noticing Ron approaching.
"Well, it's got to be interesting, since you've ignored us all day to read it." Ron said as he tried to grab the book from Harry.
Harry quickly sat up and pulled the book out of Ron's reach. "Hey!" Harry shouted "What are you doing?"
"Just trying to find out why my best mate's new hobby is reading. I realized you spent a lot of time over the summer reading, but man, you have to realize, you're free now. It's time to have some fun."
"This is fun and interesting too."
"To Hermione, maybe, but I know you better than that. You like Quidditch, exploding snaps and losing at chess, not being stuck indoors all day and night reading a book." Ron said, as he made another grab for the book, but landed face first on the bed.
"I won't be stuck indoors all day," Harry said with a smirk, as he raced to the other side of the room, book in hand, as Ron stood up. "Tomorrow, I'll bring the book outside to read it."
"Merlin, you have spent way too much time with Snape this summer. Hopefully it's not too late to bring the old Harry back out." Ron said as he quickly lunged left, then right to grab the book out of Harry's hand. "Huh! Got it!" He cried.
Since Harry was now taller than Ron, Ron quickly jumped on the desk to keep the book from Harry's grasp. After reading the title and looking at a few of the pages, he tossed the book onto Harry's bed and jumped down from the desk.
"Forget it," Ron said, with a frown on his face. "I think the old Harry is gone forever."
Wondering what Ron could've meant by that, Harry said "What? Why?"
"Why!" Ron shrieked. "Harry, you're reading a book on the usefulness of Flobberworms! And you find it interesting! Not even Hermione would be interested in reading that book! Hagrid might, and possibly Snape, since it's main use is in potions but nobody else would willingly read an entire book dedicated to Flobberworms."
"Flobb-" Harry started, as he turned away from Ron and tried to control his laughter. It looked like Remus's charm worked, he thought. "Um, would you believe me if I said that Snape assigned it to me as an extra credit project?"
Ron looked at Harry, "Maybe. I hope that's the reason why you're reading it, but it still doesn't explain why you find it interesting."
Luckily, before Harry could answer, Mrs. Weasley knocked on the door and entered the room. "What is all the noise about in here? It sounded like a herd of elephants. Now get to bed you two. No more fooling around."
"Yes, mum" Ron said as he crawled into his bed.
"Good night, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said as he climbed into bed and under the covers.
"Good night, boys. And I don't want to hear another sound from this room tonight."
- - -END FLASHBACK- - -
Harry was relieved that the charm worked and even more relieved that after that night he hadn't heard a single word from Ron about Flobberworms. Hermione, however, kept giving him strange looks whenever he brought the book out to read.
His mother, Cybelle, began writing in the journal in 1978. It started off with her acceptance into the auror training program, which now takes three years to complete, but at the time, in Sweden, was only ten months. Shortly after her first day, she met a fellow auror, Dane Foxim. Apparently, the two were put together for training and Cybelle quickly fell in love. It wasn't long before the two were dating. Within the year, he proposed-chocolates, flowers, the works-according to her journal. She even included descriptions of what they were both wearing that evening. Harry was pretty sure that he just found out who is father was. Dane Foxim, but why did his birth certificate read 'Aren Brac Swann' instead of 'Aren Brac Foxim'? Harry continued to read, hoping to learn the reason for this, as well as to find out more information about his parents.
The journal entries for the next few months were slow moving, as they all seemed to be about the preparations for the wedding. Harry got a very different impression from his grandparents from Cybelle's journal. According to her journal, they were making her every wish for her dream wedding come true. Harry wasn't sure what to think. How could parents that were so loving and caring, ignore their daughter and her child, especially after the aforementioned daughter had died?
Harry continued to read the entries that were leading up to the early September wedding. Considering the fact that his mom was an auror, he couldn't believe how boring it was. He couldn't wait to get past all the entries that talked about the wedding. He thought about skipping ahead, but he felt that he might miss something if he did that, so he continued to read every entry she wrote. He still had a little over a year till he got to the entries closer to his birth.
Every few hours, Harry would take a break from reading the journal, usually when Cybelle's description of wedding preparations got to be too much, and would meet with Ron to play chess or Quidditch. He would also visit the twins in their lab to see how they were coming along on the 'looky lollies'-lollipops that temporarily changed either your hair or eye color. They had also created 'eye candy', candies looked like eyeballs and another yet unnamed candy, that looks like strands of hair. They eyeballs changed your eye color, while the strands of hair changed your hair color. The main difference between the lollipops and the candies was that there was no indication on the lollipops what will change or what color it would be. On the candies, the color of the eyeball indicated what color your eye's will change, the same was true regarding the strands of hair. The only condition Harry made before he helped them with this project is that they promise not to make candies that would change someone's eyes to red. The twins were a little puzzled at this request, but quickly agreed.
He had reached the Cybelle's entries from August of 1979 in journal, knowing that there was only one month left until the wedding, Harry was determined to read about the wedding by the end of the day.
It was after midnight when Harry put the journal down, stunned. He had read that last page a few times to make sure he got it right. The pages were all smudged, from tears he now suspects, and were difficult to read.
In late August, just a few weeks before the wedding, Dane and Cybelle went to England to meet with the London Minister of Magic to discuss assisting England in the fight against Voldemort. Most countries had sent represented to London, since they new it was only a matter of time before Voldemort invaded their land as well. While they were there, Death Eaters attacked a muggle village, the London Aurors, and those visiting from other countries, went to assist in the fight. This was one of the major battles in the first war against Voldemort. Dane Foxim was among the many aurors fatally wounded.
Now it looks like Harry was starting over. He was so sure that Dane was his father, but if the man died about a year before Harry was even born, then that made it impossible.
Sighing, Harry turned off the light and went to sleep, after he wrote in his own journal to clear his mind.
There were very few entries for the month of August and September. Cybelle wrote about her trip home, her worry of seeing Dane's family and telling them the news. She spoke highly of her parents, how her mother stepped right in to take care of canceling everything for a wedding that now wouldn't happen. The scariest thing to Harry were the entries Cybelle wrote that mentioned how much she missed Dane and didn't want to live without him. He obviously knew that she didn't act impulsively, since she lived for another year, but still, he couldn't get over the fact that something just didn't seem right.
Cybelle, needing to get away and keep herself occupied, had agreed to return to London to work with aurors there in the fight against Voldemort. The entries after that were much more frequent and violent in nature. Harry got the sense that she was personally trying to avenge her fiancé's death. After moving to London, every page of the journal spoke of a battle. Harry was impressed. Even if only half the things his mother wrote were true, she was an incredible woman. There were times, however, when Harry felt like she was also incredibly stupid. He was beginning to understand why Snape and some of the other adults in his life called him foolish and reckless. Obviously, it was a trait he had inherited from Cybelle, he thought. After reading about a few more of her daring actions, the incredible risks she took, as well as some of the injuries she acquired, he now wondered if she was either insane from grief or trying to get herself killed.
As 1979 became 1980, she continued to fight. It seemed like a one-woman crusade against the death eaters. Not once did she mention a boyfriend, or even a co-worker that she might have been seeing. Nor was there any mention about her pregnancy. Harry wondered how she could continue to fight in what should have been the last few months of her pregnancy.
A year after Dane died, there was a more personal entry in the journal, the first one, since his death. It began saying how much she missed him and the family they had both wanted so much. It continued talking about how she was born to be a mother, how she longed to hold a child, their child, a perfect combination of the two of them, in her arms. Her yearning was so strong, Harry almost felt like it was something tangible he could feel coming off of the pages. These entries continued on for about a month, quickly overshadowing her thirst for revenge. She wrote how it wasn't fair that others, people who didn't deserve to have a child did, but she did not. Harry was beginning to believe that she was obsessed with having a child.
The next few entries wrote how she had the opportunity to do just that.
Many of those entries actually began as if it were a letter addressed to him instead of a diary. Harry thought he would always remember the last entry:
My dearest little one, I suppose you want to know how you came into my life. I heard of you, a young child whose mother had died, a father who couldn't love and care for you as you should be cared for. You deserved a peaceful life, a happy life, a free life. I was determined to give you that. So I took you and left London. With the help of my contacts in the Swedish ministry, I adopted you. I 'borrowed' blood from Dane's brother for the Novo Visius Adoptio spell, hoping that as you grew up, you would be the perfect combination of the two of us. A reminder to me of our love, which continued even after death.
The only thing left was to give you a name. I wanted your name to have meaning, to have power. I finally decided on Aren Brac.
Aren-peace, a ruler. It was the reference to peace that made me choose this name. My wish for you was a life of peace and love, one that I knew you wouldn't have if you had stayed with your father.
Brac-Free. Freedom was what I wanted for you more than anything else. Freedom to be who you wanted to be. Freedom to make your own choices and not to be tied down by the decisions of your father.
I love you my little one. Be happy, be at peace, and be free. I will never regret what I have done to give you that life.
The first time he read those words he wanted to bang his head against the wall. He was right back where he was at the beginning of the summer, with no new information.
Novo Visius Adoptio. He was beginning to hate those three words, Harry thought.
Over the next ten days, Harry did spend more time with his friends. However, a lot of his time was spent in his room as he tried to figure out what he had learned about his family.
He was originally from England, most likely born in London. If his father was still alive, there was a good chance that he, Remus, the Weasley's or Dumbledore might know him. The familiar feeling of hope returned, as he realized that he might have more family than just his father. If his father had remarried after his mother's death, then he might even have siblings at Hogwarts. His birth mother was dead, but her parents or siblings, if any, could still be alive.
Now he just had to try to find out who his parents were. From what Cybelle wrote in her journal, most of her time was spent fighting. Because of this, Harry felt pretty confident that there was a strong chance that his birth mother or father were also aurors. It seemed likely that that was how Cybelle learned of his situation.
He had tried contacting Remus to see if he was available to talk, but unfortunately, Hedwig returned to him with his original note. Harry suspected this meant that Moony was still on a mission and was unavailable. He hoped that the werewolf would be at school in September and he could talk with him then.
Luckily, Ginny and Hermione weren't hounding him too much about being alone in his room most of the time. They even kept Ron from disturbing him as well. They did this because they thought that he was working through his feelings regarding Sirius's death. Of course, that could be because of the time they entered the room he was on the bed with the memorabilia from the packages that Moony and Sirius had given him on his birthday spread out around him. Pictures of Sirius, his old school records, as well as various notes from the Marauder's pranking days. He even had the baby items that Sirius had included with his second letter out on the bed, looking at them for clues to his family.
Harry knew that if he wanted to find his family, he would have to enlist Hermione's help. Granted, she already suspected that he was adopted, she was just waiting for confirmation from Harry that this was true. But it was still difficult to talk about, especially in light of the news he received from Cybelle's journal.
The trio sat in one of the last compartments on the train. Harry brought out some of the sweets he had bought last week when they went to Diagon Alley for their supplies.
"Hey." Harry said. "Don't you guys have to go to the prefect's compartment?"
"We've got some time," Hermione said, "Although, I am curious who the head boy and girl are this year."
"Yeah mate," Ron echoed. "So what type of adventure do you think we'll be in for this year? Merlin knows it's never quiet around Hogwarts with Harry there."
"Ron," Hermione said, looking apologetically at Harry.
"Its okay, Hermione. He's right anyways. Although I for one am hoping for a quiet school year. Last year and this summer were eventful enough, thank you very much."
"Why, mate?" Ron asked, "I mean I know what happened last year, but what happened over the summer?"
Harry hesitated before replying "I promise I'll tell you. I vowed to myself that I wouldn't keep secrets from you guys, since I didn't want that to be a problem in our friendship. I'll tell you before the first week of school ends. There are some things I need to discuss with Dumbledore first, though."
"Okay, Harry," Hermione said, as Ron nodded and reached for another chocolate frog. "Just remember that you can tell us anything."
"Thanks."
No sooner had Harry finished speaking when the compartment door opened and the trio were joined by Neville, Luna and Ginny. It was a tight fit into the compartment until Ron, Ginny and Hermione left for the prefects meeting.
"Hey Neville," Harry suddenly spoke.
"Yeah, Harry?"
"When is your birthday anyways? I mean, I know that it is close to mine, but I'm not really sure when."
"Oh, it's the day before yours, the 30th."
"Oh."
"Why?"
"Just wondering." Harry said, deciding not to mention the prophecy to him. "Happy belated birthday. Did you do anything special?"
"A family party that night. Earlier in the day we went to St Mungo's to see my parents. Other than that, not much. What about you?"
"Oh, I spent the day with Ron and Hermione. It was actually the first birthday party I ever had. It was definitely one of my favorite birthdays."
"Oh yeah" Neville said as if he just remembered something. "I also got a new wand from Ollivanders. I can't wait to get to class and try it. It feels more powerful than my dad's wand. I guess that could be because-"
"The wand chooses the wizard!" Harry and Luna joined in with Neville, all three laughing at their imitation of Mr. Ollivander.
"I remember the first time I went in there. It was kind of eery. I mean he remembers every wand he sold; he even recited the statistics on my parent's wands. And that tape measure." Harry shivered. "I still don't see what its purpose was. I must have tried over a hundred wands."
"Not me." Luna said. "I walked straight over to a box sitting on the shelf, opened it up and took out the wand. I knew before I even opened the box that this was the wand for me. Mr. Ollivander was amazed."
Neville and Harry laughed; they could just picture Luna doing something like that.
"Harry," Neville said once they stopped laughing. "How are you? You seem to be feeling much better now than you did on the train ride home. I was worried about you this summer, especially after I received your letter. I know that what happened that night was difficult for you, him being your godfather and all."
"Honestly, Neville? I don't know. It has been an interesting summer, I'll tell you that. The first few days I was looking for something, anything to keep my mind occupied so that I wouldn't think about that night. I had most of my homework done in that first week, which shows you how desperate I was. Luckily I was able to keep from dwelling on it too much. I can now think about him without feeling guilty about his death. I still miss him and get upset at the senselessness of it all, but overall, I think I'm doing pretty good."
Luna gave him a long searching look, before saying, in a dreamy way that only Luna can, "I am sure that he wouldn't want you to blame yourself for what happened and to not see the beautiful things in life." Harry just looked at her. Her words were so similar to what Sirius wrote in his letter that it was spooky.
Neville just nodded and said "I'm glad to hear that. Now, what's with the new look?"
Before Harry could come up with an answer, the compartment door opened and Ron, Ginny and Hermione reappeared.
"So Priscilla Clearwater and Xavier Stebbins are the head boy and girl this year." Hermione said, "It's a shame that neither one is a Gryffindor."
"But at least they're not Slytherins either." Ron said, as he took a bite of a chocolate frog. Priscilla Clearwater was a Ravenclaw and Penelope's younger sister. Xavier Stebbins was a Hufflepuff.
At the sound of the door opening again, all six sitting crunched in the compartment, looked up.
"Well, well, well, Potter. I noticed that your little pet didn't escort you to the station this year. What's the matter? Did the puppy have to be put down?"
Harry just looked at his blonde classmate as he grabbed Ron's shirt to keep him from attacking Malfoy. Hermione placed her hand on Neville's arm, as he reached for his wand, as an signal to let Harry handle this. "Good afternoon. Ready for another school year?"
"Oh, no, scarhead the question is, are you ready for your last year?"
"What will be, will be, Draco." Harry said, purposely using his first name.
"Don't call me that. You lost the privilege of calling me that when you refused my offer of friendship."
"I might not have refused your offer if you weren't acting like stuck-up git, so much better than everyone else."
"Hmph. I wasn't acting." Draco said snidely, as he took in Harry's new appearance. "Finally got the guts to use magic to try to improve your looks, huh, Potter? Even magic can't work a miracle like trying to make you presentable. That's right up there with trying to bring someone back from the dead." Draco smirked.
Harry only looked at Malfoy. To Harry's point of view, Malfoy's comment didn't deserve a reply. In fact, Harry figured he had better get used to comments regarding his appearance, especially when he starts changing again.
For once, Ron followed Harry's and Hermione's example and ignored Malfoy. Neville and Ginny just stared out the window at the passing scenery, while Luna continued to read the Quibbler upside down.
Malfoy, noticing that he didn't get a rise out of Harry with his earlier comments and not even a response from his last one, turned around and left their compartment. Crabbe and Goyle also left, trying to catch up with a disgruntled Malfoy. Malfoy was too buys thinking of ways he could get revenge on Potter for putting his father in Azkaban, to hear their calls.
"Mate, how did you keep yourself from hexing him like that? Especially after some of his comments about Sirius?" Ron asked once Malfoy was gone.
"I tried really hard this summer to control my temper, especially since it got me into so much trouble last year and banned from Quidditch. I also realized that Malfoy doesn't matter. His comments don't matter. There are much more important things I can do with my time and energy than lose my temper over things he does or says. I can't control what he does, but I can control how I respond. Especially since most of the time, I'm the one that gets into trouble for it."
"Harry's right Ron." Hermione said, speaking for the first time since Draco entered the scene. "You should really learn to control your temper as well. I'm sure once Malfoy notices that he doesn't get a response from us, he'll just forget about us."
"Says the girl who slapped Malfoy two years ago." Ron said ironically.
"What!" cried Ginny and Neville both shocked that Hermione did that and upset that they had missed it.
"Never mind about that," Hermione said. blushing. "I meant what I said, you should learn to control your temper before it gets you into trouble."
End Chapter 23 reading at the burrow
So, Can anyone help me with a name for the hair changing candies that the twins & Harry created??
Names, their origins & meanings taken from
Cybelle-mother
Tyra (Cybelle's middle name)-Goddess of battle
Aren-ruler/peace (Scandinavian origin); Lily focused on the ruler aspect of the name Aren, Harry (Harold also Scandinavian origin) means (army) ruler as well.