A/N – Wow, I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed! Thank you so much!
Disclaimer – See part 1
Harry Potter and the Story of Secrets
Part 3
People think that magic can fix anything. All you have to do is wave a stick in the air and say something silly like "Agra Kadabra" and there you go! The faucet is fixed and you didn't even have call in the football maniac of a husband and an ugly old plumber!
Sirius snorted at that thought, if magic could fix every thing, than Dumbledore would have waved his stick in the air and made world hunger go away and put a cheering charm on everyone! Now, that wasn't such a bad idea, Sirius mused.
"What do you think?" Remus asked his friend. The two and Professor Dumbledore stood in front of a Victorian styled house that wasn't more than fifty miles away from Hogsmead and a hundred or so from Hogwarts. It was three story's tall with a wrap around porch. About each window was a shutter that used to be white but was now grey from weather. The rest of the house used to be a nice sky blue, but no one could tell that.
"It'll be nice once we patch it up," Sirius said.
"Lot's of room for Harry to play in, and it's not hard from the Hogsmead primary school," Remus said.
"I am not sending Harry to that school," Sirius muttered.
"You're right, we don't want Harry to get all snooty," Remus said. Sirius gave him a look and then barked a laugh.
"If anyone's snooty around here, it's you, Remus!" Sirius said.
"And if anyone around here is a prat, it's you, Sirius," Remus replied with a straight face.
"As much as I would like you're bickering to continue, I have to conduct the protective charms before I leave to see my sister. She's had a baby you know, named the child Adrien," Albus Dumbledore said as he walked up the steps to the front porch.
"Congratulations," Remus said.
'Thank you, now, I'll start with the kitchen," Albus said.
"Come on Sirius, I'll show you the house," Remus said and dragged his friend up the stairs to the third floor.
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Everything in the house was dirty; at one point it had been the home of a prestigious family, but the furniture was moth eaten despite the sheets thrown over them. There were hardly any curtains to speak about. The beds were rusted and broken, and spiders and flees lived in the mattresses.
However bad the house was with the structure and the dirt; Sirius knew that he would make it work. He would make it cheerful; it would not be like the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, of that, Sirius would make sure of. Remus stood beside him; he had helped picked this house out. He didn't have a job to speak of and so it was not put-offing to him to donate some of his time to find his best friend and surrogate nephew a place to call home.
"Guess what else this house has?" Remus asked with a smirk. Sirius raised and eyebrow at him.
"What?" Sirius asked.
"Me! That's who!" something quite transparent said.
"Sirius, this is Lady Gertrude Owens, the last heir and owner of Mayweather Manor," Remus said with a smile. The woman gave him a raised eyebrow. She was rather old, with a harsh manner, but was kind deep inside.
"Nice to make you're acquaintance," Gertrude said.
"And yours, but, I'm buying this place, I'm going to make it into a home for myself and my Godson, or and of course Moony," Sirius said.
"Who is the little boy?" Gertrude asked.
"Harry," Sirius said proudly.
"Sounds like a nice boy," she said, and then glared at Sirius. "I haunt the attic, I may come down once or twice during the day, I mean, with living beings in the house how could I pass up the opportunity?"
"In deed, just don't scare Harry too much," Sirius said.
"Why for heaven's sake would I do that? Hasn't he ever met a ghost before?" she asked in a huff.
"Er—he lives with Muggles," Remus supplied.
"Ah, I see, I guess then that means that you don't want old Gertie to come around and just pop in for a 'Hi'," she sniffed.
"That wasn't what I meant at all!" Sirius said. He looked to Remus for help but Remus just gave him an You're-on-you're-own-pal look.
"Than what did you mean?" Gertrude asked pointedly.
"Er—that you give us enough time to warn Harry before you pop around and abouts," Sirius replied.
"Ah, perfect, how about around tea then?" Gertrude asked.
"That would be perfect my Lady!" Sirius bowed and gave the old ghost woman a winning smile.
"Oh, you charmer!" Gertrude giggled before disappearing back up to her attic.
"This house has a ghost! Wow!" Sirius seemed very happy at the idea.
"I'm glad you're happy about it, but what about Harry" Remus asked.
"Oh come now, if we just let Harry get used to the idea, he'll probably go and be visiting Gertie whenever he gets the chance!"
"I hope you're right," Remus said.
"When have you ever known me to be wrong?"
"What about that time you turned James' hair Slytherin green?"
"Er…"
"He chased you about the castle, you both got detention, and he still managed to give you a concussion with his school bag," Remus summarized.
"I forgot about that," Sirius said, giving an embarassed chuckle.
"You forget a lot of things," Remus rolled his eyes.
"Hey!"
Remus laughed at his friend and they went outside to stand on the porch. Albus had left long ago after putting up the protective charms. The sun was setting, casting red, yellow, orange and purple into the sky, framing the high towers of Hogwarts castle.
"Just imagine all the evenings we'll spend on this very porch watching the sun like this," Sirius sighed.
"It'll be nice," Remus agreed.
"And Harry will be playing with some toy or other one of us had gotten him, and on other nights we'll regale him with stories of our time at Hogwarts and teach him the best way's to get out of detention!" Sirius said.
"What about responsibility?" Remus asked.
"Ah, you can do that Moony!" Sirius laughed.
The two sat on the porch of the old house, just talking about anything that came to mind. They still had a lot of work to do, but with the help of magic, it wouldn't be as hard as if they had gone about it the muggle way from the start. Sirius wished that James and Lily could see this; but he contented himself with the fact that Harry would be home with him soon.
In the end, that was what really mattered anyway!
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Over the next few days, Remus and Sirius made good use of buckets, mops and rags. The used magic to make the structure of the house sound, but they went about cleaning the muggle way. Sirius kept day dreaming about what he and Harry would do, and Remus was included in most of the dreams.
By the end of the fourth day, Remus had Sirius moved into the house and they were planning on decorating Harry's room as soon as possible so that they could go and pick the little boy up. It would be a happy time for the small family and Sirius was even talking about a welcome home party for Harry.
"Do you think he'll like it?" Sirius asked.
"He'll like anything you give him," Remus laughed.
"Good!"
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A/N – Hello all! I hope you liked this chapter! I thought it was kind of cool to have a ghost in there. I mean, Harry and Sirius have to have some woman in the house, even if she is dead…I don't honestly know why I named her Gertrude Owens, it probably isn't English, but Gertrude sounded quite nice for a ghost if I may be so bold as to say!
Thanks for reading!
Ta,
Poppy