Unexpected Events Chapter 9, a harry potter fanfic

Unexpected events

By Zakairen

AN: It's alive! I finally managed to update! It took me a bit longer than anticipated after the deletion of my files. Hopefully you can forgive me. I decided to put the review responses after the chapter. There are quite a few due to the long time since the last update. And no, I will never abandon this story, even if it might take longer with the updates. I probably won't be able to give detailed review responses much longer, they are taking too much place and I don't want to get my story removed.

"blah" - talking, 'blah' - thinking, italics - incantations, quotations and writing, "blah" - parseltongue

Chapter 9

His mind was hazy when he started to wake up. Outside he could hear the bells ringing for the morning mass, reminding him that it was Sunday. Harry sighed. For once he didn't want to get up, as he had slept very well. This was the fifth time in a row, but unlike the last few days he was in no hurry to actually rise. He had more than enough time on his hands to laze about for a bit.

When he finally decided to get up, driven by his growling stomach, it was half past ten. He made his way into the bathroom to take a shower, still yawning. After that he decided to eat some strawberries, raspberries and other fruits for breakfast. He was munching on a pear as he went back upstairs to finally draw up a timetable for the next two weeks. Harry was absolutely sure that he would forget something, like learning for a certain exam or even attending it, if he didn't do that. He also didn't want the Order members getting too suspicious from seeing him in two different places at the same time. And if Moody happened to look at the house right now… Well, he could explain the absence of his relatives, but the fact that the house was devoid of about all its furniture? Not bloody likely. It was fortunate that it hadn't already happened.

After he had his timetable ready, he sighed. It looked pretty full. And he noticed that he had an OWL-exam everyday in the coming week. Not to mention that Remus would be there on Tuesday. But, Harry assured himself, he would manage. This schedule was nothing compared to the chore-lists that he had been given when he was younger. Now, that had been really difficult if not impossible to achieve. He opted to do the OWLs on the first repetition of each day, that way nobody, meaning the Order guards, would notice anything amiss.

Today he would fix up the first floor, in other words, in the evening he would have four bedrooms to choose from and the master bathroom would be much more comfortable. But before he would begin with that task, he would clean up the rest of the garden – despite the fact that it was Sunday. As he went to get the lawn mower, Harry's thoughts turned once again to his parents werewolf friend. Despite the fact that he had told Tonks that he wanted to talk to Remus, he didn't really know how to go about the upcoming talk. Sure, Remus had taught him how to do a Patronus, but after Sirius had been back any relationship they might have had had been cast aside. The man had been there alright, but only in his capacity as Sirius' closest living friend.

Now that Sirius wasn't there any more, it cast both of them adrift. And they didn't know each other well enough as to call themselves friends. Sure, Harry wanted to call Remus a friend, but at the moment, he feared that the werewolf might be blaming him for Sirius death. All this made him rather anxious regarding the talk they would have. Even if that talk was to help Remus accept Sirius death better, to help let go of a part of the grief and to form a friendship between the two of them. The other part of his worries was the fact that he didn't know just how much Remus trusted Dumbledore. The Headmaster had allowed him to attend Hogwarts, later on even to teach. All the favors the old coot had done the werewolf made him even more of an unknown than Snape. And for Harry's peace of mind that was not good. If he trusted the wrong person now, he would loose everything that had lately happened in his favor.

In the haze of his thoughts he didn't even notice that he had already finished the mowing of the lawn. What snapped him finally out of his daze was the noise the mower made as it came up empty, with no more grass to cut. Harry shook his head.

'Well, I should probably pay a little more attention to what I'm doing. I could have just as well mowed my own feet or one of the flowerbeds. That would have either hurt hideously or made a hell of a lot more work for me.'

As he brought the mower back into the shed he took a good look around the garden in general. There were a lot of weeds between the flowers, despite the work he had already done. The grass seemed to thin out in some places and the hedge that separated the backyard from the surrounding land was in desperate need of a trimming. All in all it looked as if the Dursley's hadn't done even a tiny bit of yard work. And because of the hot and dry weather over the past few days the earth seemed a bit dry. That meant that he had to water the garden in the evening, it was already too late for that now, he had to wait until the sun was almost down and her rays were not as intensive.

Just as he thought about a little weeding before it got too hot outside, a shrill voice broke into his quiet musing.

"Boy! Get in here now! We need something to eat, and just because you aren't hungry, it doesn't mean that we don't want something to eat either. And do remember not to make the floor dirty. If you do, you'll have to clean it up before lunch."

Harry knew that voice. He even knew that tone of voice. It didn't mean any good for him. Swallowing he yelled back: "I'm coming, Aunt Petunia!" and slowly made his way around the house and over to the back door, sneaking a look. His Aunt was just pulling her head back inside through kitchen window. Behind him there was a small rustle heard, followed by a shuffle of feet on the pavement. He had totally forgotten about his guard dogs from the Order.

Maybe that was why it didn't occur to him that his Aunt was currently somewhere on an island half a world away until he had already reached the kitchen. When he found nobody in there, he sat down heavily on one of the chairs and put his head in his hands. Had that only been an hallucination? But the guard had reacted too. When he finally lifted his head he noticed a piece of paper on the counter. On it was a short message.

You should read up on glamour charms alongside your Herbology books – I did. You also
need to do the same display I did now when you go back for the second run of today.
If no-one saw 'our' relatives they would get suspicious very soon and they needed to see you
at the same time. I'm sorry if I frightened you, but we needed a natural reaction and
this behavior is a bit too ingrained to simply shrug it off like nothing. I already made
some salad for me, well us. The rest is in the fridge.

'Future' Harry

So the him that was already living this day for a second time had decided that a sighting of his relatives was in order. Sure, it was more than just a bit suspicious if his family was absent on a Sunday after they hadn't been seen for the last few days, but had there really been the need for this… this show of conditioned reaction on his side? Angry he burned the note. Then he marched to the fridge with a scowl on his face and retrieved the salad, taking it upstairs. Somehow he needed to get rid of his anger, otherwise he could forget eating in peace.

With a flick of his wrist he had his wand in hand and cast the hovering charm on the salad bowl, then charmed it to follow him in a distance of a two feet. Then he summoned the book he had used for the remodeling of the den and went straight into the master bedroom.

A few hours later, Harry had changed all four rooms to his liking. The master bedroom closely resembled the one in his trunk, even if there were a few differences. Like the fact, that it resembled a clearing in a wood more than a bedroom. He still hadn't had time to look up the charm for the ceiling, though. And few other ideas concerning the decoration of his room had come to him, but couldn't be realized at once. The three guest rooms were not quite that personalized, instead he had kept them in neutral tones: cream and light beige. The furniture was accordingly of a lighter colored wood. There wasn't much left to be done, only the bathroom waited to be redone and a master bathroom needed to be created. Harry had decided that the guestrooms didn't need an accompanying bathroom each.

He had been able to expel his frustration and anger at the stunt his future self had pulled through all the work he had done. Though he didn't like it, he had – after thinking about it for quite some time – come to the conclusion that it had indeed been necessary. That didn't mean he had to like it.

After he had gotten rid of his anger he had enjoyed the salad and continued on afterward. Harry was satisfied with the amount of work he had done. Of course, he had to relocate all of Dudley left-over junk and the boxes with the muggle books. They had been deposited into his new trunk for the time being. That would make it easier to put the muggle books away when he found the time to do so and had the room in the basement fit for that. Hopefully he would also find the time to sort through the rest of the junk soon.

His new trunk had found its way into the master bedroom and was at the moment used as a stand in for a wardrobe. Harry simply didn't see a reason to relocate all of his clothes, if they could be kept just as well in his trunk. He even went as far as to place a few supports on the wall, as to have his trunk level with his hips. Thankfully, lifting his trunk was not an issue anymore.

Now the only thing left on his timetable was the sorting of his potions ingredients and another study session, this time solely for Herbology and glamour charms. As he still wasn't hungry, Harry decided to finally get his ingredients in order and take his supper in the library while studying. Again. So he vanished into his trunk and retrieved the package from the apothecary. In the lab, he carefully opened it. Now it became more apparent that the contents were in a shrunken box. He enlarged the box and began to put the ingredients away in their proper places. Never before had he been as thankful that he liked being prepared and organized and had decided to label the intended places for the ingredients beforehand. Therefore the process wasn't as tedious as it could have been, it was only time consuming.

Despite that, Harry made an impromptu revising session out of it and recalled all the details about the properties of the ingredients, the uses, the habitat and the handling instructions that he could remember. Afterwards he was a bit astounded at what he could remember even though he had paid close to no attention to this particular subject. On the other hand – the things he didn't know still held a vast majority and he had been extremely careful because of that. He decided not to put a stasis charm on the cupboards, as he wasn't sure if the ingredients wouldn't be badly influenced by that or even made unusable. That would have to wait until he had time to look it up.

Harry heaved a sigh. The list of things he wanted to look up lengthened some more with each passing day. And at the moment he couldn't see just when he would find the time to actually do something about it. As he took the wrapping paper and the box to put them into the trash bin in the workroom, his stomach grumbled a bit, reminding him that it had been a good few hours since he had lunch. Naturally he fixed himself something to eat before he retired to the library with some notebooks.

There he spread the remaining four books on Herbology around him and began to rifle through them while munching on a sandwich. Slowly he began to fill the notebooks with his writing, one for each year. After he had managed to get through about a quarter of each book, he decided to stop. It had been interesting to do the different books somewhat simultaneously. But now, Harry thought, it was time to look those glamour charms up. He would need them on the repetition of this day. As he summoned the index, he wondered if he should make an extra notebook for all kinds of disguises. That would probably be the best. Hopefully it wouldn't take him too much longer to find what he needed. Harry yawned. He was tired. The remodeling had probably taken a lot more out of him than he had thought. He selected three different books on glamouries and other methods of magical disguises. Then he heaved a sigh and reached for a new notebook.

Hours later, it was almost eleven pm, saw an exhausted Harry Potter laying in the Jacuzzi in his trunk. He was so tired now, that he was nodding off time and again. Finally he decided to get out of the pleasantly warm water and go to bed. After drying off he put on a pair of pajama pants, went into the master bedroom and slipped under the covers and was asleep in a matter of seconds.

The next morning dawned bright and early, and Harry was sleeping peacefully until a loud crashing noise woke him rather abruptly from his slumber. Through the open window he could hear some colorful cursing from the street. Mumbling something he pulled his pillow over his head and prepared to go back to sleep. As he was almost asleep again, he was startled into wakefulness by an angry bellow that could only belong to his Uncle. Sighing he got up and cursed a moment later. A quick tempus had shown him that it was only half past six in the morning. He was just thankful that it wasn't him who had to play Vernon this morning – or the one who had made the racket in the first place. Though he could have sworn that it had to have been Tonks and her normal bout of clumsiness.

Sighing again, Harry went for a quick shower and put his clothes on. Then he collected the time-turner and vanished into his trunk. He still yawned every other minute as he collected his notebooks and went into the kitchen for some breakfast. As he munched on a piece of apple, he decided that he needed to put some cereal there, as well as some jam and honey. He needed to get away from the traditional breakfast of fried bacon and eggs that he had to make for the Dursley's in the past. All that fat still made him shudder. Once in a while it wasn't so bad and he liked it, but every day? And Hogwarts was almost as bad in that particular respect as his relatives had been. Thankfully Hogwarts at least provided a selection of traditional English foods every day – even if it was always the same - rather than just a constant minimum standard. Nobody had to eat the same thing two days in a row if they didn't want to.

Still – it got rather old after five years. With all the house-elves at Hogwarts one would think that a bigger selection could have been provided, like American or continental breakfast at least once in a while.

'But that is just like everything else in the wizarding world. Or maybe it is just Britain and a select few other countries. They are so narrow-minded and old-fashioned, it often seems to me as if they simply stayed in the middle ages with no contact to the outside world instead of advancing. The muggles have advanced so much and instead of taking advantage of it, they just stay ignorant of things that have been around for half a century and longer. Technology could do so much for them if they assimilated it for their uses, but no… Not even Mr. Weasley, as muggle obsessed as he is, knows how to use a simple telephone or even how to spell it correctly. Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't have been better of if I hadn't gone to Hogwarts. With the hype around me I don't know if I want to stay in the wizarding world. And I don't have a muggle education thanks to Hogwarts. Maybe I'll have to remedy that.'

Harry sighed and decided to ponder this at a later time. Right now he had to use his time-turner and complete the notes from his Herbology books. After that he could decide how long it would take him to commit everything perfectly to memory. He reckoned that it wouldn't take too long thanks to his Occlumency. Carefully he picked up the plate he had used to cut the fruits and deposited it in the sink along with the knife. Quickly cleaning them he put them on the rack to dry. Then he pick his notebooks up and went into the library. A few moments and a time-jump later he once again collected his Herbology books and continued to work through the chapters diligently.

When the alarm he had set went off, Harry had finished his second and third year texts and was a bit more than halfway through the ones of fourth and fifth year. As he stretched, he could feel a lot of his muscles protest. Leaving the mornings work in the library, he grabbed the notebook on glamours and selected the one he wanted to use. Applying it he went outside and down to the kitchen, making a short stop in the bathroom to do a once over of himself in the form of his Aunt. It didn't take him long to make the salad and put half of it away in the fridge. Then he grabbed a pencil drew up the note he himself had already found. After he put it on the table he hesitantly opened the window. He still didn't like that he had to do this, but knew it was necessary.

Hearing his Aunts shrill voice coming out of his own mouth was by no means a nice feeling. Over the ringing in his ears he could hear his past self's faint answer. Harry winced and shut the window. Then he hurried over to the table and grabbed his portion of the salad and disappeared upstairs and back into his trunk. He knew that he now had ample time to finish his Herbology work of. With a shudder he remembered the mood he had been in after that episode. Just as well that he did not meet himself, it would not have been pretty. In the library he sat back down and continued his note-taking. It would still take more than two hours to finish up.

Once again stretching his body, Harry went and put his books away. That had taken longer than he had anticipated. He would have hurry a bit as to not meet his past self. Oh well. Nothing more to be done about it. Collecting all his stuff he exited the trunk and put all of it away properly. He knew that he wouldn't do that with the unfinished notebooks. Taking a look around the master bedroom he noticed that there wasn't really that much in there, apart from the bed and the trunk.

'Another one of those things that can only be changed later on. The room will look the same tomorrow morning, so it'll have to wait. But I know that I will at least need some bookshelves and a desk. A perch for Hedwig wouldn't be amiss either. Hedwig… I better write some letters to my friends. I don't want Hedwig mad at me because she doesn't get something to deliver and I also don't want those two busybodies to go running to Dumbles because they think something is wrong. Not a nice thing to think… or say, but after all that happened a month ago… I still haven't put those pink glasses back on. And I need to know if my two best friends will stand with me or with the Headmaster. They will expect me to be lost in grief over Sirius and I really don't want to fake it. Damn. I should have told Tonks not to speak about my state of mind with anybody apart from Remus.'

Harry grabbed a few pieces of parchment out of his trunk along with a pen and went downstairs into the den. There were a few things he needed two tell those two, well more to the point that he didn't want anybody else to tell them before him. He should probably write to Neville, Luna and Ginny also. He put everything onto the table and sat beside it. Silently he began to compose the letters to his friends.

Dear Hermione,

To put it bluntly – how do you do? How much are you still hurt from that curse that hit
you at the ministry? Are there any long-term consequences? I still feel a bit guilty for
allowing you get hurt that way. On the other hand – I couldn't possibly have held you
back from following me to the ministry, could I? Have you already ranted about the
fact that we didn't get any homework, because we don't know which classes we are
eligible to continue? Or bought a few of the texts for sixth year that I know you wrote the
titles down of? I wonder are you going away with your parents over the holidays or will you
stay in Britain? As you might have guessed I'm still not in alright, but surprisingly the
quiet time here has helped me more than any thing else. Most of that is connected to the
fact that I chose to do a few chores to have something to do. And in addition to being able
to choose what to cook I get a good a mount of food for once, so I shouldn't be needing…

… you did very well at the ministry. I know that we haven't been close friends, but I still wanted
to thank you for your effort. I know I didn't before. Have you spoken with your Grandmother
about a new wand? Try to convince her to get you your own wand, even if she wants to have
your fathers repaired for your continued usage. You will never get the best results with someone
else's wand. If it helps, tell her that you don't want your fathers wand to be damaged in an accident.
I also wanted to thank you for your quiet presence all over the last year. It helped to keep me
relatively sane in view of the mess with Umbridge and her stupid meddling. I hope you'll write me
back soon, I can use everything that keeps me from thinking about my godfather. But somehow
I think that you understand me better than Ron and Hermione ever could. In a way I'm thankful
for that. It means that they have not had the misfortune to lose someone so close to their heart.

Best wishes, Harry

After Harry had put a ribbon around the last scroll he looked down at the five letters and scratched his head. There was no way in hell that Hedwig would be able to carry all the letters, despite what his trusted owl may think. Scooping the letters up he went upstairs after he turned of the light. In his old bedroom he leaned out of the window and called for his winged friend. To his surprise the m inistry owl was still with her. He silently lifted an eyebrow. The reaction was a somewhat embarrassed sounding hoot from both of them. Shaking his head in amusement, he beckoned them inside.

"Now you two, listen. In a way it is fortunate that your new friend is still here, Hedwig. I have five letters for you to deliver…"

A delighted hoot interrupted Harry and he had to laugh as Hedwig jumped onto his shoulder an began to nibble lovingly on his ear.

"Yes, Hedwig, I know how much you like to deliver letters. But I'm sorry to say that you can not deliver all of them."

He shuddered slightly as a sharp nip was delivered to his ear. She was displeased all right.

"Now, Hedwig, you get to deliver the letters to Hermione, Ron and Ginny. Please wait for a reply, you know Hermione does not have an owl of her own and we don't want Pig anywhere near us, now do we?"

A screech was his answer. Somehow he hadn't expected anything else at the mention of Ron's tiny, hyperactive owl. Hedwig had never liked the ball of feathers. Errol and Hermes also weren't dear to her. Then Harry spoke to the ministry owl. He didn't feel good about his usage of an owl obviously belonging to the ministry and he didn't entirely trust this owl jet. But Hedwig was a good judge of character.

"Would you mind much, my friend, if I sent you out to deliver the other two letters for me?"

Another delighted hoot. Again Harry wasn't really surprised.

"Very well. These go to Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. You don't have to wait around for a reply. After that, you should probably return to the ministry. Just so you know: You are always welcome here because Hedwig likes you. And if you get around to it, I would like to know your name."

He tied a letter to each foot for both of them and then gave Hedwig the last to hold with her beak.

"Now, off with both of you. And don't tire yourselves out."

Then he watched as both owls vanished into the night. He could hear his past self rummage around the master bedroom and was just about to call it a night, when he suddenly remembered suddenly that he still needed to make a trip to the local High school. He probably should have thought of that a little earlier. He cursed silently and scuffed his foot against the floor.

"Ah, bugger. And if I don't go tonight I'll have to wait for another week and I need to make a few potions before then. Just my luck, really. Why on earth am I talking to myself?"

Ten minutes later saw him climbing out the window. It was really bad that his broom was still at Hogwarts. That would make the whole thing a good deal more difficult. Now he had to walk to Stonewall High and back. At least he had his invisibility cloak. Harry looked around carefully, to see if he could detect his Guard. Quiet shuffling alerted him to the fact that someone was in the front yard. As Harry sneaked closer he noticed with relief that it wasn't Moody, but someone else. Someone that he wasn't familiar with as far as he could tell. Silently he moved back into the garden and onto the next property. Then he waited with baited breath, but nobody called out to him, he hadn't been noticed.

As quick and quiet as possible he went towards the street and into the night. Hopefully this stunt wouldn't cost him too much sleep. Considering the circumstances of the wake-up call he had had, it was probably a good idea to put up a silencing charm around the room he would be sleeping in. He did not want to be woken up at half past six, not if he wouldn't get to sleep until at least one am.

Everything was dark and quiet as he arrived at his destination. Harry walked quietly around the building, protected from view by his invisibility cloak. He couldn't even see an open window and he didn't want to open one of the doors on the ground floor. Quickly he levitated himself up to the roof and charmed the door there open. Then he put a silencing charm on his feet. As he wandered through the school he saw several open doors and chanced a few looks into the empty rooms. When he finally found the lab and charmed the door open, he was a bit surprised at the pristine condition the lab was in. It was not what he would have expected in a school. Not counting the fact that it seemed too empty and clean.

A few moments later it hit Harry like a ton of bricks. The summer holidays had begun! Of course, otherwise he wouldn't be here, but somehow his brain had not made the connection. He could have come here whenever he wanted and nobody would have been there apart from the janitor. This whole escapade had been utterly unnecessary! He was losing sleep over a matter he could have just a well left another day, against his earlier thoughts. He felt like hitting his head against the next available wall a couple of times. But that wouldn't gain him anything apart from a splitting headache. It would be better if he just completed the task he had come here for and left.

So he began to make several copies of the tables and anything else that struck him as useful. He was especially delighted when he found a few catalogues for equipment and chemicals as well as a few schoolbooks. Taking a last look around he shrunk his copies and put them away in his pocket. Harry had decided not to duplicate the chemicals, because he couldn't safely transport them and he didn't know just how they reacted to magic. Those he would have to have delivered after ordering them from home.

With a sigh he locked the lab door and back-tracked his way to the roof. He felt a bit silly sneaking around, but had to fight the urge to just giggle and play hide-and-go-seek with his own shadow. Up on the roof he locked the door and levitated calmly to the ground. As he made his way home, Harry was oddly giddy and only a breath away from skipping and whistling on his way. He shuddered. He really didn't want to know what could have prompted this rather odd behavior. On his late-night walks in Hogwarts he had never felt even remotely similar. As he walked down Privet Drive he remembered only at the last moment to take the way through the backyards. Again he levitated himself up, this time though he had to get himself through the window also.

As soon as he was safely inside he felt the excitement give way to sleepiness and exhaustion. He quickly stripped down and fell into his bed as soon as he had cast the silencing charm on the room. He was asleep even before his head hit the pillow. The day had been entirely too long.

upload date: 9-2-05