Okay! Here's the next instalment! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: If I owned them, Sirius would be –so- alive right now (sniffs, wipes away a tear, and hides the fuzzy handcuffs)
Erm…not much to say…cept to Eric2: No, Lupin has not fathered any children (that I know of), Gekko and Lupin's personalities are alike, that's all.
"-and then, as if I hadn't done anything, pretends the whole thing is his idea in the first place! Is that justice? I most certainly think not!" Gekko scowled his displeasure over life while Dawn and Harry tried valiantly not to laugh.
"Well little one, it did get you out of trouble, I think he was just being a friend." Dawn chuckled
"Some friend; getting himself in trouble when it was my idea, honestly, kids these days…moralistic values make me sick." The little Werewolf frowned at his dinner, as if he expected the spaghetti to argue.
Harry grinned at the boy and ate a mouthful of pasta. It has been a month since he moved in with his mystical roommate and her young –rather opinionated- charge. 'It has been an interesting month' He reflected. His use of aura magic had evolved in leaps and bounds and he was now able to see the aura of everything around him. It was disconcerting at first, seeing multi coloured lights surrounding his customers and new found friends, until Dawn showed him how to tune out the vibrant hues. His mentor also –as promised- was teaching him several hand-to-hand duelling strategies, including boxing, tai chi, Tai kwon do, and several others, his favourite, however, was sword play. Harry was in the midst of mastering the katana and the broad sword, though; mastering can easily mean that he can now pick the bloody things up without cutting his arm off.
His studies certainly were unconventional, and rather sporadic. Dawn had once woken him up at three thirty in the morning for twelve days in a row, just to teach him the intricacies of swing dancing. Harry felt that the time spent whirling around on the living room floor could have been easily spent doing something much more important, say, sleeping for example, but, he had to admit, it was fun.
"Hello, anyone in there? Harry, wake the damn up, man!" Gekko waved his hands in front of the young wizard, and Harry blinked in surprise.
"Sorry Gekko, I zoned out, what were you saying?" Harry realized he missed half a conversation, and smiled apologetically at the young boy. Gekko gave him an annoyed look before speaking.
"I was saying, my teacher assigned us our first assignment –on the first day too! - and I need to go to the park to do it –we're supposed to collect different species of leaves-will you take me?"
Harry shrugged, ignoring the jolt in his stomach that told him today was the first day of term at Hogwarts, and he was missing it. "Sure, I'll take you out; I'm not working tonight, so how 'bout you and I go after dinner?"
Gekko beamed at him, "Great! I just have to go over to my Uncle's to get my stuff." And he proceeded to wolf down his –now cold- pasta at an alarming rate. Harry watched him silently for a minute, and turned to his own meal, not feeling remotely hungry. He excused himself and went upstairs, into his 'office'. It was actually a large room with a cauldron in the center, a desk, and posters of random muggle bands adorning the white walls. A large bookcase at one end of the room was filled with an assortment of oddments that Dawn had collected and Harry added to. His firebolt lay on the top shelf, and several floating tennis ball sized orbs of different colours inhabited the next, while the others were filled with what Dawn affectionately labeled 'odds and ends'. Harry thought the term 'dangerous to health' would be more appropriate, but apparently some people found dark objects and shrunken heads rather…endearing. Of course, Harry could talk to snakes, so he wasn't about judge anyone.
He sat on the stool next to his cauldron and peered into it. He had managed to make a hair-coloring potion with little difficulty, (he found that when Snape wasn't breathing down his neck he was almost enjoying himself) and was now working on a new potion from the book he picked up in Knockturn alley a long month ago. He read the instructions carefully, and then stared unseeingly at the potion in front of him.
"Is this a private party or can anyone join in?" Asked Dawn from the doorway, smirking.
Harry shrugged at her and watched the swirling liquid in his cauldron.
"Homesick?" Dawn asked, as she perched herself on the edge of the large, black desk. Harry nodded and shrugged, because it would have been really annoying if he made up his mind, and he didn't feeling like communicating properly.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, tugging slightly at the navy blue ribbon that held his ponytail in place. "It's the first day of Hogwarts, I didn't even realise… it's my sixth year…I guess I just miss Ron and Hermione." He blinked rapidly, and pulled the ribbon out of his hair, making the dyed tresses tumble down around his head.
"It's alright to miss them, you know. I haven't spoken to my family in a couple of centuries, but I still miss them…" Dawn trailed off, watching the young wizard.
Harry scrunched up his face and stuck out his tongue at his cauldron, "I know that, I just, I dunno…. maybe it's sinking in, that I'm…not there anymore, know what I mean?"
Dawn nodded, "Yes, I do…It's hard to adjust sometimes when you know what your missing, but today isn't forever, and you'll see them again, that's how life works." She grinned at and held up two fingers in a peace sign "Of course, I could be wrong, but I'd like to think I'm relatively all-knowing, I've certainly been around long enough to achieve that status." She hopped off the desk and looked into the cauldron. "It looks almost ready, how long does in have to mature?"
Harry stared at her, and smiled. "About three months, in another month I have to add the second-last ingredient" He checked his book, "The first orb is ready to be filled though." He was about to stand up when Dawn stopped him with a hand on his slim shoulder.
"Try it the other way." She said.
Harry blinked and nodded. He unfocused his eyes and watched the floating orbs on the bookcase. Concentrating on the pale blue one with the red aura, he reached out his hand and willed the object to float into his a waiting palm. He was only vaguely surprised when it worked. He grinned.
"Guess I'm getting good at this." He said; pride evident in his voice.
The blonde smiled and conjured a ladle with a delicate wave of her hand and gave to Harry, who put it in the potion and stirred it counter-clockwise, three times before spooning out some of the clear, colourless liquid. He held out the blue sphere and poured the potion over it, and the liquid turned a cloudy, pale green. The orb absorbed the potion and glowed faintly as Harry gripped it in his palm. Concentrating hard, Harry closed his fingers around the ball, and felt it start to shrink. He opened his right hand and the orb was now the size of a small marble. He smirked and raised his left arm, weaving his fingers in a complicated pattern, the air the shimmered for a minute, and a long thin gold chain appeared wrapped around his slender fingers. Harry slipped the tiny ball on the chain and closed the clasp, which was a tiny snake's head that opened its mouth and bit down on the opposite end of the chain. He slipped it around his neck and stood up. He looked at Dawn who was smiling at him in approval.
"Do you think it will work?" She asked,
He shrugged, "There's only one way to find out." Harry pulled a long slender stick out of his trousers, made from the wood of a holly tree, with the core of a phoenix feather. The one thing Harry had been itching to use all summer.
He closed his eyes against the erratic beat in his chest, and said "Accio trainers!"
A pair of sneakers whizzed in through the open door, and into Harry's hand. Dawn and Harry stood there silently for a minute, waiting for; it seemed, a bomb to drop.
"Gekko wants to go to the park. I'll let you know if you get any ministry owls show up." Dawn said quietly. Harry nodded, pocketing his wand and slipped on his trainers, not bothering to tie them. He picked up the forgotten hair ribbon off the floor and pulled his hair up, brushing his bangs out of his eyes.
"I'll see you in a couple hours." He said to the blonde. She nodded in response and Harry went downstairs to get Gekko, who was not so patiently waiting for them to be off.
Dawn sighed and looked into the cauldron, "I hope you understand, Harry, you can't hide forever…. we both know they won't let you."
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Mafalda Hopkirk had been working at the Improper Use of Magic office for nearly thirteen years. She regulated the use of magic in underage wizards and wizards in muggle areas. It was tedious sometimes, but as her father had used to say, someone's got to do it. She sat at a desk in front of a large room that seemed filled from ceiling to floor with large purple filing cabinets. Each cabinet drawer held exactly fourteen tiny red spheres that monitored the actions of these witches and wizards. Each tiny orb was charmed to appear in Mafalda's In Tray when a breach of The Responsible Use of Magic Decree has occurred.
Surprisingly, it had been a very quiet summer…so much so that Mafalda decided to call it an early night and head home. There was going to be an exclusive interview with the Weird Sisters in the Wizarding Wireless, and she did not want to miss it. So it really came to no surprise that as she left her desk that she did not notice the slight tremble of a cabinet in the 'P' section. Curiously, as the Ministry official left, ignorant of any "going on's" (as her father would have called it), a tiny red orb marked 'Potter. J. Harry' stopped it's impromptu seizure, and turned a cloudy color of pale green, which, if anyone was to check up in a magical signature hand book, would be horribly surprised to find that the wizard bearing this particular name, had met a most untimely demise… and the use of magic by said wizard, would go largely unnoticed.
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Ron Weasley was not having a good day.
It was surprising for Ron to not have a good day on the first day of term, but then, life can't be perfect. If it was any consolation for Ron, his best friend Hermione wasn't having a particularly good time of it either. The two Gryffindor's had been sitting in their favourite chairs in front of their common room fire. They hadn't spoken in two hours.
Ron largely blamed Harry Potter for this.
When he found out that Harry had buggered off, he actually laughed. He ignored the incredulous looks from his mother and siblings and laughed, not because he was glad his best friend had disappeared and was likely get killed by You-Know-Who, but because he knew Harry. He knew that Harry didn't do anything unless he thought he had a good reason for it, and Ron knew it was because his stupid friend thought he should be protecting everybody. Hermione once said it was because Harry has a need to play the hero, but Ron knew better. He didn't spend nearly six years in the others boy's presence to not know how the Boy-Who-Lived ticked. Harry was absolutely terrified of losing someone else he loved.
'Be buggered if you get him to admit it though.' He thought sourly as he watched the flickering flames.
He knew that Lupin and Snape were looking for him. He knew that it might take them a while. He also knew that when they did find the idiot he would be the first one to give the git a hug, and then clobber the parselmouth out of him for making Hemione cry over his sorry carcass. Hermione had been in a right state about him ever since she found out he left. Between crying over his safety and muttering curse words that Ron could only guess where she picked up (he had a suspicion that Dung Fletcher may be at fault) his bushy haired friend was running herself ragged. He helped her as much as he could, but as much as he tried, Hermione was still female, and he just hadn't learnt how to read her that well yet. Harry was always much better at it.
He looked over at his friend and thought 'bugger it' and stood up, walked over to Hermione, who was sniffling, and told her to move over. Hermione looked at him blankly before complying. Ron sat beside her and put his arm around her. She leant into the touch and was soon resting quite comfortably against him. Ron stared at the fireplace and gently placed a kiss on the crown of his friend's head.
"He'll be back sooner or later." Ron said gruffly.
"I know." Whispered Hermione, who seemed to be falling asleep.
Ron continued to watch the flames, and thought 'Oh yes, Harry certainly would be getting a piece of my mind.'
If there was anything left after Hermione was done with him.
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Lupin hated parks. It was rather surprising really, as he was a bit of an outdoors person, but parks had nothing natural about them. In fact they were so controlled that Lupin found them to be rather creepy. He envisioned a rather neurotic gardener wandering around at all hours of the night making sure the grass was filled with those, those pesticles that made his noise itch and keeping the place in it's unnatural order.
He really preferred an unkempt garden; at least it had character.
Snape didn't seem to like gardens either, but Snape was standing outside in direct sunlight, so that may be why he was looking as if he'd crucio the next living thing that crossed his path. Unfortunately, the blonde headed boy that ran into the potions master seemed blithely unaware of it. "Oh, sorry!" The boy said looking over his shoulder and gasping for breath. "I was playing tag with my aunt's roommate, I didn't see you." He looked up at the Dark-haired Slytherin and smiled quite charmingly.
Snape was not amused.
Lupin, however, smiled at the young boy, and then sneezed. "Pesticides bother you too huh? I have to take a puffer so I don't get sick, but it still stuffs my nose up." He said this all very fast and looked between the two men, his eyes widening. "Ah! There he is! Sorry 'bout running into you, bud, have a nice day." And with a yell the boy ran toward a figured that was sitting on a swing set, and seemed to be reading a book, oblivious of his young charge's pursuit of him. Lupin sniffed again, and turned to his companion, who was trying very hard not to twitch at being called 'bud' by someone who was four feet tall.
"I think we can call it a day, Severus, I doubt Harry would be here and I can't smell a thing."
Snap agreed –surprisingly- and the two walked off, unaware of a young man in a ponytail watching them carefully, from his place on the swing set.
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AAANNNNDD that's chapter 7! I really need to sleep now. I just got out of my philosophy exam……six hours ago….am stilling reeling from the pain….ugh.
Any way, I know I jumped time pretty fast, but hey, I'm lazy. I want to get to the Christmas chapter as fast as possible (because that's when the shit hits the fan, -sigh- I love the holidays). I also want Voldemort to step up to the plate for the next chappie. Also, thanks for to everyone who gave me their ideas for a Harry pairing, and keep 'em coming, I don't mind if their slash, more fun for me. Mauh. Don't forget to R&R, I'll love you forever (smiles innocently).