Aftermaths
"What's going on in Ravenclaw?" said Lavender.
Parvati stopped chewing.
"My sources tell me," said Fey, "that Harry Potter visited ravenclaw tower after lunch and assigned Ben Wind-something to be the bodyguard of a Lonnie Um 'Lovegood'. If he could stand to be around her, or if she could stand to be around him, sources vary. And he got her to, or she got him, whichever, she gave him earrings and pierced his ears and he has been following her around ever since. Not counting class times."
"Who is Lonnie Lovegood?"
"No one knows."
"Ok, who is Ben Wind-ish?"
"No one knows that either. One presumes they're just quiet behind-the-scenes ravenclaws, you know."
"Yes, well," said Lavender,
"But for some reason, this has upset the balance of power in several different places, and things are in turmoil there from the third to the seventh year."
"Hmm, interesting, does that affect us?"
"Not directly to my knowledge," said Fay.
"Parvati?" said Lavender.
"What?"
"You keep closer tabs on Harry than anyone, is he moving and shaking in Ravenclaw?"
"Yes," said Parvati.
"Matchmaking for this Ben and Lonnie?"
"Probably not," said Parvati, "I think it's just his saving people thing making connections … or as you were saying last month, stirring up trouble so he'll have someone to rescue later."
"I thought you said you don't think he does that."
"I'm sure he doesn't do that on purpose," said Parvati, "I'm still undecided on whether it happens around him by accident."
"Ah, do you know either of the ravenclaws?"
"I know Miss Lovegood, her first name is Luna. I've only met Mr. Windrow once in passing, he's in his sixth year. He doesn't take arithmancy or runes, so I've never shared a class with him. I gather that my sister (the prefect) thinks him particularly uninteresting. I sort of gathered that he all but failed defence, and Lovegood could wipe the floor with his arse, and she's in her fourth year. So the bodyguard duty doesn't seem to fit. Probably it was herbology tutoring or some such, the earrings thing seems easy enough to verify though."
She looked around, "Yes, the brown-haired boy with the blue and turquoise earrings is sitting next to the blond with green and brown earrings."
Lavender looked. "He's big."
"True."
"He could use better hair product."
"His hair is a bland colour, he may not know that there's hope for it," said Parvati.
Lavender looked for a little longer, "what does he do for fun?"
"Rumour is, he sketches."
"That's ambiguous, sketches what?"
"How bad do you need to know?" said Parvati.
Lavender shrugged and looked again, then went back to eating, "He's sketching right now, it doesn't stand out at ravenclaw table the way Dean's sketching stands out here, where only Hermione and NEWT students revise at meals."
"You want me to go peak?" said Fay.
"Might as well," said Lavender.
.
Fey went and greeted several 'friends' and returned, "Girls," she said, "don't know what he sketches in other environments but in the great hall he was sketching a face. I didn't recognise her, but she had groomed eyebrows, a teased cowlick, and a braid. She wasn't symmetrical like she was facing slightly to the side. I couldn't even pick her out in the general direction of the crowd, which should be sitting at that angle to him." A shrug.
"Hmm?" said Lavender, "and what feature seemed to be the most important to him?"
"I couldn't say," said Fey, "But I'd kind of guess ears or eyes, but both of those seem to be incomplete answers."
"Alright,"
"Another equally good answer is 'Hair' because he neglected most of her chest to concentrate on the tip of her braid, but then, the middle part of her braid was completely missing. So was everything else below the chin."
"Hmm," said Lavender, "he might not be a perv, he might …" she turned to look at Parvati, "What does he do besides sketch?"
Parvati shrugged, "Keep quiet?"
Lavender shook her finger, "who are his friends? What does he do with them?"
Parvati shrugged, "I don't have any idea."
"I think he's not drawing," said Lavender, "I think he's sketching, the question is, what kind of art are his sketches in preparation for?"
Parvati shrugged.
Lavender shrugged too, "maybe he's not important, but Harry tends to find us interesting people to watch. Is there any news on the Diggory / Chang front?"
Parvati shook her head, "No news, Hufflepuff has been keeping more careful track of pitch security ever since the attacks on our chasers."
"Humph, so don't spy on practice, spy on them."
"One of Cho's best friends is trying out a vehemently lesbian phase," said Parvati, "Not with Cho, with a fourth year."
"That's skipping how many years?"
"A lot," said Parvati, "I don't know exactly."
...-...
After tests
As had become the custom, Lion's-Keep gathered on the front steps after their last exam to absorb some fresh air, and when it was available, sun.
Susan and Hanna stopped to greet them on their way down to the lake.
A bit later Neville stopped by also, to shake Harry's hand, (also to give Nim a scratch and tell her "keep Harry safe for me, Hmm?")
She sneezed, As if! … Except, of course, I'm already doing that, she purred.
But it's a good leadership style to give some easy orders.
Trust me, that one isn't easy. Merely well suited to my temperament.
It was probably a backhanded suggestion to me to help keep it somewhat easy for you.
There is that.
"Thank you, Neville," said Harry, "Keep safe yourself."
Neville nodded with a smirk that seemed to say, "No more than gryffindor honour allows, but thanks." Then he continued on his own stroll around the lake, Hanna glanced back and forth between him and Susan several times, then followed him.
Half a minute later when Susan noticed that, she relaxed. When she finished comparing reactions to the history test with Padma, she turned to Harry.
"Mr. Potter," she said, "Sorry for being so distracted with revising, My aunt told me weeks ago she wants a word with you about summer plans."
Yeah, I just talked to her about that yesterday, but … we got distracted by some other logistics. And I might have left some things out. "Nothing set in stone yet," said Harry, "I figured to mostly stick close to my Manor and find out how my estate is running, and what I can do to improve that."
"That makes sense," agreed Susan.
"You should tell her that the House of Bones is welcome to visit, though we'd appreciate 48 hours' notice if anyone is planning to stay for meals."
Susan's eyebrows shot up, "Then there will definitely be visits."
"Was that flirting?" said Harry.
"I don't need to flirt," smirked Susan, "We've got a contract." Then she took any possible sting out of that by grabbing him in a hug just long enough to plant a kiss on the corner of his mouth. Like she was aiming for his cheek this time but was distracted by habit. Or was that, she was planning on his mouth, and got distracted by the proprieties of standing in the dubious public of the front stairs?
Harry caught her before she could let go, "Who said anything about needing to," said Harry, and kissed her back properly. Though he kept his tongue and teeth to himself. They were in public after all.
He let her go.
She stared at him for three seconds, then nodded, "Good point."
She turned toward the lake and looked wistfully after Hanna and Neville.
Harry glanced around. Luna caught his eye and nodded sideways toward Ginny.
Harry nodded.
Luna leaned in to kiss Padma's cheek then spun away and grabbed Ginny's hand, whispered something to Parvati, and then led Ginny over.
"What did you say?" said Ginny.
"I said, we are escorting Susan around the lake," said Luna.
"Oh," said Ginny, "Sure, Hi Susan."
"Hello, Lady Potter," murmured Susan.
Ginny smiled really indulgently.
The three of them walked away.
Definitely going to be snogging.
No bet.
No more than three minutes later the Patils had bracketed him and they also strolled down to the lake.
.
"You're awfully quiet, Parv," said Padma, "What are you thinking?"
"Composing a letter to Mum and Da," said Parvati, "Don't know if they saw the quibbler, don't know if Grandma has told them anything. I want to tell them everything, or at least a sufficient amount that they're not worried, and won't drive to pick us up from the train. I'm assuming we were going to portkey home?"
"I assumed we'd portkey home from kings cross," said Padma, "I don't care about the train trip, but it seems like everyone else uses it to say their last goodbyes before summer."
"I should write my relatives," said Harry, "make sure they know I'll be visiting when I can get away from other duties, not based on the train schedule or their willingness to pick me up anywhere."
"Are you going to invite them over?" said Padma.
"Maybe eventually," said Harry, "I want them not to worry about my well-being, but there are other people I feel a lot more concerned about their safety."
"So you could just send them a 'Look at my family's new old house' postcard, and be done with them?"
"Perhaps," said Harry, "I care slightly more about them than that. But … I don't have to put up with them visiting overnight."
.
"What about Cousin Wednesday," said Padma.
"What about her?" said Parvati.
"Grandma tried to sponsor her into Lion's-Keep," said Padma, "Harry told her she'd have to be ok with the fact that the harem existed, and that we had to be ok with her, and that was a separate and distinct thing than the breed contract Grandma wrote."
"Sure."
"And that the breed contract wasn't something he could sign in good faith before he had his Manor back."
"So … we think Grandma was on our side during the battle?"
"That's not how I would describe her," said Harry, "She and Margaid each had agendas stacked several layers deep, I think Nagini would have been content merely for the battle to end with minimal casualties to her clan, I think she would have been equally content with a bloodless surrender either direction. All her other plots and counter-plots that night were either in service to that goal or were gravy."
"And Margaid's plots?"
"I think she wanted a bloody showdown or a bloody debut, either way, she gets turnover in the Wizengamot, and a chance to stack it with votes, of course, everyone else is aware of the opportunity and is researching it. I'm awaiting with dread whether she's arranged ahead of time for me to be hailed the hero or arrested as the villain."
"Which would you rather?"
"Neither really."
"Because you're modest, or because Susan and Draco convinced you to operate within your legal rights as a clan chief. And that makes you look like a petty tyrant instead of a national hero?"
"Both," said Harry, "I don't like being a celebrity, and if I must have fame, I'd rather it be for things I really did, and for that matter, relatively noble heroics. This particular time I was goaded to act as precipitously as I did because Clan Granger needs more space, and I was dead tired of not having a place to call home: 'go to your relatives,' 'which relatives?' 'Wait for the Weasleys or Grangers to rescue you.' 'Oh, Harry can come home with me, actually, wait, my house is crap why don't you go live with my cousins who aren't even members of my house yet.' Etc. Etc. Etc. And then into all of that, that sneering letter, Margaid knew I would act. I have no idea if she predicted that with Susan's legal advice and Draco and Ron's strategic advice, we would execute a time thrust when they were vulnerable instead of the raid we'd previously planned. Or joining in support of the ministry which … the rest of you would have walked away from with at most a fine. I could have gone to prison."
"Dumbledore wouldn't have let that happen," said Parvati.
"No, probably not, but maybe it would have cost him a lot of political capital to keep me out."
"Are you saying?" said Padma, "that you'd rather have been a persecuted hero for ineffective illegal heroics, instead of a petty and ambiguous hero for legal and successful heroics?"
"First of all, I really, really prefer successful heroics. Legal heroics are significantly more comfortable, they let you take the next day off for a surprise honeymoon, instead of keeping you on hospital arrest while they decide what to do with you."
"Certainly!" said Parvati.
"But … I'm still kind of ambivalent about whether I want any recognition for … being the figurehead … and purse strings? Behind the hard work and risk of a whole bunch of us. Given all the circumstances, I'd rather not say, something like 'proudly heroic' because that would imply I acted alone, nor do I want to say something 'proudly nationalistic,' which would imply support for the status quo at the ministry.
"I'd much rather say, The House of Potter and allies are happy to report the successful conclusion of our blood feud with the family of Riddle. Except I can't say that because … traditionally I would have to say whether it was elimination, or capture, or capture and parole. And … it was capture, but the public story is elimination."
"Can you just remain vague, and take up time naming and thanking your allies?" said Parvati.
"Probably," said Harry.
"If we're done with your angst," said Padma, "Can we get back to, Grandma and Cousin Wednesday?"
"Probably go ahead and invite her over," said Harry, "I think that contract was to kill three birds with one stone: make sure she breeds, (and preferably with the remaining male parselmouth who isn't her father), make sure she's in a place where she's safe to pursue a mostly lesbian lifestyle, and put her beyond the reach of other adults in the Gaunt/Bryce clan who have been pressuring her about both those things."
"Ugh?" said Parvati.
"We can for sure provide the last one, while we decide whether we're comfortable with the first two."
"Hmm," said Padma, "And the House of Granger, are we taking in any other strays?"
"I'm mildly hoping that the Weasleys feel free to floo in and out as they have time and inclination. The House of Bones also. But that's more of a 'friends of the family,' dynamic, not an 'if you're not safe at home, please run away to my house,' thing."
"'Rescuing Strays' is shorter to say," said Padma.
"Granted," said Harry, "Abbreviation accepted."
"I think someone is missing Wotcher," said Parvati.
"Umm?" said Harry.
"Good point," said Padma, "I'm not sure if that makes me jealous or homesick."
"Don't be jealous," said Harry turning to her, "Wotcher can't do this," he leaned in and kissed her.
.
...-...
On Awards
"The culinary award," said Dumbledore, "which goes to the student who introduces the largest number of new, popular dishes to the kitchen elves … also goes to Luna Lovegood."
"Thank you, Headmaster." They shook hands. She looped the ribbon around her neck and let it clink against her 'literary award' (for eight letters or articles published in newspapers or periodicals). And made her way back to her seat yet again.
"That's most of the awards," said Dumbledore, "Shall we just stop there?"
There was a roar of disapproval.
"Alright then," he said, "unsurprisingly the quidditch trophy goes to Gryffindor. Miss Johnson, Congratulations."
"Thank you, Headmaster."
They shook hands. Angelina carried it over to McGonagall (to get engraved again and put right back in the trophy case.)
"And the house cup," said Dumbledore, "goes to Hufflepuff. Let's thank them, for … showing us the … ultimate expression of loyalty."
There was a lot of noise. A wide variety of kinds of noise.
Several of her neighbours patted Susan on the shoulders.
She nodded because yet again, she couldn't speak.
Cedric stopped beside her, "do you want to get it?"
You're the seventh-year prefect, you're supposed to.
She shook her head. He patted her shoulder too and went to the front.
"Collected by, our Head Boy, Mr. Cedric Diggory. Congratulations!"
Cedric only nodded his head and accepted the trophy.
They shook, and Cedric brought it back to Susan, even though he was supposed to take it to Professor Sprout.
She didn't reach for it, didn't accept it. Couldn't accept it, it wasn't hers.
He put it very gently on the table in front of her and returned to his place.
There was a few moments of silence, and then Flitwick stood and dismissed them to bed.
Susan waited until the initial rush was over then carried the trophy to Professor Sprout.
Accompanied not by Hanna and Ernie, but by Hanna and Cedric. Oh, and all of the hufflepuff prefects. Wow. That means the first years are fending for themselves. Or … no not really. It means that others besides the registered prefects are stepping in and taking care of things, just like normal.
Everything would be fine.
Professor Sprout accepted the trophy from her and didn't try to say anything either, just nodded.
Susan tried to find the right words to say, 'you're welcome but let's not win it this way again,' except … she couldn't find words that meant anywhere close to enough.
And … so many of the professors seemed to have had the same problem and had just … stopped talking, or … had just gone on calling for him, and calling for him, like mother cats whose kittens are gone long before the milk was meant to dry up.
"Off to bed," murmured Professor Sprout. Putting an end to her wordless torment, but not her misery.
Susan nodded and went.
Again with the escort.
.
"I don't see how we won this time," a second year was saying, Sioned Prichard, maybe. "We were second last until Christmas, and only got to second when we won against Slytherin.
"Do you want me to get this one?" murmured Cedric.
"I will," said Hanna, and went and sat down next to Prichard, "We didn't win with quidditch points," said Hanna, "They help but they can't win by themselves, if they could they'd stop letting those points be included at all. We win by being the best we can be. It's not just being the best students, which is how ravenclaws try to win it, or by being the bravest students, which is how the gryffindors try to win it, or all of the different ways that the slytherins try to win it."
"Huh?"
"Have you ever heard of Voldemort?"
"Yes, we're not allowed to say that."
"Right, because the name used to have a taboo on it," said Hanna, "But you know who he was."
"Yeah, he was the worst dark lord in England since Charlemagne,"
"That's debatable," said Hanna, "But yes, he was very bad."
"And he died on October 31, 1981."
"He did," agreed Hanna, "But he's tried to come back at least three times, in 1991 and 1992 Harry Potter almost died keeping him from coming back. Both times the Headmaster gave him a lot of points for doing that. Last year, in 1994 Harry almost died again but wasn't able to keep him from coming back. No one gave him points, but … since he'd just won the Triwizard tournament, I'm not sure anyone noticed one way or the other. This year Harry and several of his friends went to catch You-know-who. They sort of killed him again. But they say … he still might come back."
"How does he keep coming back?"
"Nobody knows," said Hanna.
Susan snorted.
Hanna sent her a bemused look, "But I'm sure there are some very smart people trying to figure it out and stop that from happening any more."
Hanna turned back to Prichard. "But the point is, this time it wasn't just Harry, this time it was lots of his friends along to help, and it wasn't just Harry that almost died, a lot of us almost died. And Ernie did die. And we didn't just interrupt You-know-who from trying to get back, we killed him again. And all the professors, not just Dumbledore, gave us points, except … they gave Ernie a lot more points than they gave anyone else."
"You're crying."
"Yes, I am crying. I miss him. Ernie was my best friend."
"I miss him too. He was the best prefect."
"I don't know about that, but he was your prefect."
"What?"
"The different prefects get different chores, one of his was giving help and tours to first and second-year students. So I'm sure he did his best to help you find things."
"Oh."
When Prichard was quiet and bundled off to bed, Hanna returned and gave Susan an apologetic shrug.
"You handled that very well," said Susan.
"Way too much practice," she said.
"Yeah," said Susan. They went to their room and prepared for bed.
"The house points always seemed wrong," said Susan, "but you made them seem normal, or perfect."
"Yeah," said Hanna, "they give and take points for everything, points seem mundane, the best score wins the trophy and nothing else, they seem petty and useless. But really … the points are just a more concrete way for the teachers to tell us, how well we're doing at being good, smart, strategic, brave, and loyal.
"Then why doesn't Hufflepuff win every year?"
"Because class is a perfect time to show off being smart, and … sometimes strategic. A few classes give you a chance to be brave. But loyalty and hard work? Usually happens right here in hufflepuff, or in the library, not where a teacher can see it and reward it. I bet if the portraits gave points, we'd win every year."
Susan turned and stared at her.
Hanna rolled her eyes, "Or slytherin would, same as always."
"You know who seemed really slytherin tonight?"
"Who?"
"Luna Lovegood,"
Hanna giggled, "how many awards did she get?"
"No idea, five?"
"I think she must have just got bored one day, and read through the book of awards, and checked the requirements and just … made a to-do list."
"Probably," said Susan, "It must have happened early enough in the term that the elves had a chance to decide which of the new dishes actually counted for 'popular'."
"Not so sure, a lot of the weird dishes were since Christmas."
"Since mid-January?"
"Yeah, about."
Susan smirked, "I think the little minx stole a cookbook from Harry and gave it to the elves."
Hanna stared at her, "Do elves read cookbooks?"
"Why wouldn't they?"
Hanna shrugged, "I've never seen one reading, I've never heard of someone leaving written instructions for one, I think it would have taken more work than that."
"Hmm, alright," said Susan.
"Of course, maybe she took a cookbook and read it to them."
.
...-...
Express
Prompted to look for them, Harry saw a small crowd of students get off the thestral-drawn carriages and turn away toward Hogsmeade instead of continuing on to the station. And the seventh-year students arrive with faces bright and wands and balances twitching from their farewell ride across the lake, this time in boats they'd conjured themselves. This time one to a boat, and each under their own power and control, instead of drawn gently across the lake by the enchantments on them.
No one seemed wet, but then, they'd learned drying charms long before they'd learned to conjure boats, or how to propel them.
.
"You're back early?" said Parvati.
"They tell me," said Padma, "that after-term 'prefect reviews and suggestion time,' sometimes takes next to no time, compared to start of term announcements and orientation."
"Oh," said Harry, "I suppose that makes sense."
"So Harry," said Padma, "what are you taking notes on?"
"Summer to-do list."
"What's first?"
"Well, since we already reviewed house membership lists, and I re-enabled Ben's family to use magical transportation within the estate, I think the main things are visiting them, any other mages that have managed to become tenants without being on the house roster, and decide what their intentions are.
He shrugged, "I probably should include the Windrows in our general list of people we owe a dinner invite, just to see if they accept, and/or try to repay it."
"To gauge whether they ought to be considered friends of the family, not just members of the House by accident of birth?" said Padma.
"Basically."
"Are you going to offer the same to the other families in the upper management of your wineries?"
"I probably should," sighed Harry, "Though … I'm thinking of just inviting each executive out for lunch and giving them a chance to talk, and make suggestions, or ask for whatever they need. And find out their general level of politeness and … attitude about polygamy before I bring them back to the house for a family meal."
"As much as I'd like to say, that I or Ginny should be there for each of those meetings," said Parvati, "And something about sweetness for not bringing them into Ginny's house if they cannot be polite. You're right that you shouldn't invite an entire family over without giving the parents fair warning about … our lifestyle so they can take their own decision about how much of that topic their children are ready to hear explained."
"Yeah," sighed Harry, "There's that too." He looked at his list, "Most of the rest of this is just, checking on household things, preparing for guests, and possible guest lists, and guesses how much of the summer they might each wish to visit."
"May I see?" said Ginny.
He handed it across, parchment, quill, and book for a writing tablet and all.
Apparently, that was the right choice because she quickly started adding notes of her own. With Padma looking over her shoulder there were soon a lot more suggestions and expansions to the logistics section.
.
A knock sounded at the door.
Harry got up to open it.
It was Ben, "Room for two more?" he said.
"Sure," said Harry, "Though it might be a little tight."
Luna stepped past him and squished in on the far side of Parvati. Harry locked the compartment and resumed his previous seat. Ben didn't immediately sit down in the biggest remaining space.
He stared at Harry with several intermittent jerky glances around at the rest. Then he hunched and took the empty space.
The conversation resumed somewhat.
The to-do list got passed back across to Parvati, so she and Luna could look it over.
"What's that?" said Ben.
"To-do list, shopping list, and people-to-invite-over list," said Harry, "standard 'Head of House has taken a ten-month vacation to attend school and has to get their job done in two months' sorts of things."
"Ouch," said Ben.
"Luckily I have a lot of assistants," said Harry, "and about half are either smarter or wiser than me."
"Dad says—" started Ben, then shut up.
"What does your dad say?"
"A lot of upper management bullshit," said Ben and shut his mouth firmly.
Harry looked at him expectantly.
"Probably they're wise proverbs, or something, once you start using the words involved to mean upper management things instead of normal everyday life things."
"Oh," said Harry, "yeah, that happens. Was he in slytherin?"
"Hufflepuff, both my parents were in hufflepuff. Though she's quick to say his friends were in slytherin and ravenclaw, and hers were in gryffindor and ravenclaw."
Harry raised an eyebrow.
"And your brother?"
"Ravenclaw also, but his friends were in hufflepuff and slytherin."
Harry shrugged.
"And your friends?" said Harry.
Ben clenched his teeth.
Harry shrugged and looked away.
Ben relaxed, and after an awkward pause he said, "just the one, he's a hat stall in gryffindor."
Padma grunted.
"Big on the scientific method though," said Ben, with a smile in his tone now, "reminds me of Mum."
"Ah, I see," said Harry.
Another awkward pause.
"Would you say, that most of your companions are books?" said Padma, "or study group members?"
"Oh! Hmm," said Ben, "No, I think I'd say 'ideas.' My head gets so full of them sometimes that it's hard to get to know any one of them thoroughly."
"There are meditation techniques for that," said Parvati.
"Huh?" he said and leaned forward to look past Harry to see her.
"I said, There are meditation techniques for that," said Parvati, "I can try to teach you, or I can try to find you a book."
"I'd rather … read the book until I get stuck and then ask for help?"
"If that's what you'd rather, then that is probably what would be best."
"What do you … do for it already?" said Padma.
"Anything to keep my hands busy," said Ben, "taking notes in class, drawing out of class, gardening or potion ingredient prep at home."
"Hmm," said Padma.
"When one of the things I'm thinking about is what my hands are doing, and what I'm going to do next. Thinking about exactly two things at a time is easier than any other numbers."
"Sounds plausible," said Padma, "There are people who meditate while walking. In theory, it's only a little different from sitting still, but for some people, it makes a big difference."
"Interesting," said Ben.
.
The conversation moved on to other things, and eventually, they reorganised so Ben could talk about hair product & hair dye, and the ingredients of the same with Parvati. While Harry and Ginny went over the changes to the to-do list.
Gradually each of them left and returned without uniform robes, giving the compartment a less dour complexion, until only Ben and Harry remained. Harry realised he was waiting for Ben to make the first move. (not out of deference) but he didn't quite trust Ben enough to leave his girls 'alone with a stranger.' Not that they couldn't each handle him easily, but that they shouldn't have to.
It wasn't that Harry had any solid reason to be suspicious of the worst, but enough hints here and there to know Ben wasn't as socially competent as he should be by almost seventeen. This might imply starting from a drastically lower level of talent than average, or it might imply actively avoiding situations where he could practice and improve. Not an entirely uncommon problem for ravenclaw types. Harry sighed.
Maybe Ben was merely an introvert and hadn't desire for a lot of company, perhaps even had suppressed his desire for a little company because the best places to find a little company were the fringes of the same sorts of places where one found a lot of company, and it took a little wisdom to notice the problem or a little gryffindor courage to brave the one thing to find the other.
But that probably wasn't entirely it either. He seemed to get on with Luna well enough in certain circumstances, and with Parvati and Ginny now.
But there was something off.
Harry turned to Padma and nodded her toward the door then stepped out of the compartment.
It took her a moment to follow him.
Harry closed the door and checked that there wasn't any traffic to get out of the way of.
"What's your assessment of Ben?" said Harry.
She shrugged, "He's spoken more in the last month than I think I've seen him talk since I started attending. There's a new friendship energy … that I associate with … directly after the second-dates of couples that will end amicably within a year. Except that I'm not sure he has enough experience with friends to realise that there are more kinds of friendship than one might have read about in a book. So he might not have the mental concepts ready to be able to comprehend, let alone say, 'I like you some, and I respect you some, but we're not the correct fit for best friends, maybe we can just be regular friends, can we break up that far?"
"Hmm," said Harry.
"Do you know what I mean?"
Harry nodded, "a little, you think he's trying to shove all of us into all of the kinds of friendship connection slots, to see what works, because he doesn't have sufficient practice assessing that? And it ends up with this weird vibe where you don't know one moment from the next whether he's going to act brotherly or friendly or romantically, or just relax and be himself."
Padma shrugged, "He's working too hard? That's not quite what I was trying to say, but … I think you're pointing to symptoms of the same problem that I am."
Harry sighed.
"And I'm not sure if I should suggest you let him be, because he needs practice and he'll be more useful to you if you let him practice. Or … Oh, I bet that's it."
"What?"
"We're safe people."
"We are not safe people," said Harry, "I've killed, and I intend to do it again if my duty again requires it of me."
"And you don't realise that makes you a lot safer to be around, than someone who doesn't have any idea what provocation it might take to draw that level of violence out of them? Someone who might have little enough experience with their anger as to be surprised by it?"
"As in, it makes no moral difference whether you are a happy drunk or voluble drunk or sleepy drunk or angry drunk, it does matter if once you know that about yourself, you keep drinking in any environment where that has any chance of going wrong?"
"Yes," said Padma, "except it's less about alcohol and behaviours that it can cause, and more about all of the things that can make you angry or violent. Or, conversely, getting and staying angry enough of the time that you can learn, recognise, and then control and adjust 'the angry version of you's' responses and behaviours so that they remain true to your values and goals."
"As in 'I am for peace and harmony, therefore don't touch me,' or as in, 'that's the secret of my control, I stay angry all the time.'?"
"Yes, but not just 'angry' and not just negative emotions, every single one of your emotions, hence the saying: 'you cannot be whole until you meet your shadow self and become intimate friends with it,' What was your first quote from?"
"One of the mottoes of Kung Fu, the second is just from one of my cousin's comic books."
"You've taken Kung Fu?"
"Yes," said Harry, "I don't mind being grabbed by my friends, but you need to keep in mind that whenever you do, I have to sort through conditioned responses about how to make you let go. I might not be able to listen to whatever you're saying for several seconds while I'm verifying that this isn't a survival situation and Mr. Kung Fu may go back to sleep."
Padma smirked, "well said, I've noticed sometimes after AHDT that I've picked up … they might not yet count as conditioned responses, but I know what you mean."
"Right," said Harry, "Anything else about Ben?"
"No," said Padma, "Well, Luna said he was standing on a well of homesickness leagues deep, and you cracked the ice and the earrings and haircut dragged him out of the worst of it, but the well is still there and might take a while to drain away."
"Ah," said Harry, "Well he'll be home soon enough."
"I'm not sure he will," said Padma.
"What do you mean?" said Harry.
"I'm not sure he'll make it through another year of boarding school, and I don't think his ravenclaw version of his parents' hufflepuff work ethic, will let him do the dropping out with just OWLs thing."
"You think he needs, what do they call it, a gap year?"
"He needs more than that, but I'm not sure what it is that he needs. Anyway, I'm going to be paying close attention."
"Thank you," said Harry, and took the door handle.
"You know …" said Padma.
"What?"
"It might say something about how much we subconsciously dislike him, that we're thinking about ways to fix him, instead of ways to convince him to spill the beans on whatever is bothering him, as we did for Luna."
"Hmm," said Harry, "I'm not … yeah, alright … that might be a valid accusation, or it might be a carefully unfalsifiable bit of sabotage."
Padma sighed, "I wasn't trying to make up anything unfalsifiable, a lot of Parvati's dream interpretation maths is about figuring out what your subconscious is preparing for, based on ideas or objects that spring just a bit too readily to mind. We're asking ourselves 'what is wrong with him?' But … we aren't doctors, we're prefects (and whatever you as a vigilante type prefect are called) we're not supposed to fix people we're supposed to keep them safe."
"We're friends," said Harry, "he's a candidate friend based on ancient family history. Friends help each other or send them to doctors. Anyway, I won't say I dislike him, I will say he hasn't been around long enough to 'mesh with our vibe.' "
"That's a Zabini- and Theo-ism?"
"Yes," said Harry, "So we're adjusting our vibe to fit around him, it's not his fault he's in a foreign environment, it's not his fault he's a grain of sand in our oyster, maybe we'll turn him into a close friend, maybe we'll merely put enough coats of lacquer of civilisation over his rough edges and he'll be a pearl, maybe he'll dislike being told he isn't yet sufficiently cultured for our tastes, and leave."
"You're going to leave it up to him?"
Harry shrugged, "Not entirely, and by the way, if he grabs your wrist or clothes or whatever, you have my permission to slap him."
"Have you done so?"
"No, but I did ask him how much martial arts he'd taken, and therefore whether I could trust him to survive being thrown down some stairs, or if I needed to help him land safely after I … confiscated his balance."
"How did he respond?"
"He let go of my wrist, called me Lord, didn't quite apologise, explained that he damn well wasn't going to apologise for long enough that I was required by honour to pay attention to the rest of his message, and then his duty would be done, and only then could he apologise sufficiently to attempt to save his own skin, etc."
"Good grief."
"I think that either burned up a year's supply of his gryffindorness," Harry frowned and turned to her, "or … the fact that it worked out, in the end, is what convinced him that we were safe people."
Padma put her eyebrows up, "huh, alright."
Harry shrugged, "I still don't want to … ugh, this is what Parvati meant by sometimes duty to my house might feel like slavery."
"Certainly," said Padma.
"Once more into the breach," he opened the door.
.
When there was another pause in the conversation Harry interrupted, "Ben, There's barely more than an hour left, shall we go change out of uniforms?"
Ben stared at him wide-eyed, then swallowed, glanced down, then sat forward, not to stand up but gain a better angle to examine the floor of the compartment. When he raised his eyes to Harry's face again, his expression was a very poor imitation of stoic. Then looked away and was silent for over half a minute.
What in the world?
Why would this question bother him? What was wrong with just, 'oh, good point, thanks for reminding me,' or 'thanks for providing an interruption during which I don't have to pretend to be interested in the current topic,' or 'yeah, let me get my things.'?
Luna also had weird problems that weren't her fault.
"Um," said Harry, "do you still own sufficient clothes to change out of your Hogwarts uniform robes?"
"Yes, why would …" he sprang to his feet and stared at Harry.
"People borrowing and not returning things is not an unprecedented situation. If that's the problem, I might have some extra clothes, not sure how well they'd fit."
Ben shook his head, "I don't have all my clothes, but I'm not missing so many that—" … "That's not my main problem." He frowned. He took a deep breath, "Ugh, my footlocker is in a different compartment."
Harry gave a nod and got out of his way, then followed him through half the train.
And leaned on the door frame trying not to watch while Ben gathered his things, and also traded out his parchment sketch roll for a muggle spiral-bound sketchbook and coloured pencil kit.
From the greyness of the edges of the paper, he'd used up about two-thirds of it.
After his trunk was shut and locked, he turned back toward the door. Harry opened it.
"Wait, please," said Ben.
"What?" said Harry.
"Can you … lock the door?"
"You want to change in here?" said Harry.
Ben shrugged.
"I do know the right colour change charm for the glass, but…"
"Can we just talk for a minute?"
Knowing you, if you're being this awkward about it, it's going to take you more than five minutes to get to the point.
"Sure," said Harry. He shut and locked the door. "What's up?"
Ben stared at him, then sighed, then sighed again, then dropped to one knee, then knelt on both knees.
"My lord, I crave a boon."
Uh, oh. And I just got finished with the death eaters. And my summer hasn't even started.
"Not promising anything," said Harry, "Tell me what you need."
"Please turn me into a girl."
"What?" said Harry his eyes involuntarily wide.
"Permanently?" pleaded Ben.
"First of all, 'no' on the permanent part," said Harry, "the charm I know isn't for a permanent change." though I could set a combination and try to forget that combination.
Ben bit his lip.
"Second of all, there's this prevailing local tradition that you are encouraged not to make any permanent decisions until you are an adult."
Ben raised an eyebrow.
"And that's just for things like contracts, and tattoos."
"You let me ask for pierced ears."
"Those are long-term, but they're not completely permanent. And anyway, you take out your earrings and they don't really show all that much, not like a tattoo."
Ben shrugged, "how long can it last?"
"Until someone breaks the enchantment," said Harry.
"Oh," said Ben, "one of those, and we can pick any trigger we want?"
Harry shrugged, "The arithmancy for some triggers is a lot more difficult than for others.
"Alright, um, once until I'm seventeen, and then another forever?"
"That's … a neat way around my ethical issues," said Harry, "but what is best for you and your logistical situation?"
Ben held his face in his hands for several seconds, "for the summer then?"
Harry shrugged, "What are you going to tell your family?"
Ben shrugged, "Potions accident, it's supposed to wear off in a few months to two years."
Harry raised an eyebrow.
"There is a potion to help induce more milk for breastfeeding twins, if you give it to a man, they sort of get breasts, temporarily. It's not an impossible lie."
Harry crossed his arms. "What if you told them the truth?"
Ben shook his head, "I don't think I could do that."
"Alright," said Harry, "I could tell them for you, but first I have to be absolutely sure I know what the truth actually is."
Ben groaned, climbed off the floor, and scooted onto the bench and into the farthest corner from Harry.
"I have so many reasons by this point that I'm not even sure which one is the real one anymore."
Does that mean the rest are lies? Or that the rest are merely non-central, or that the rest are additional perspectives on the real reason?
"I've actually studied this the other direction," said Harry, "trying to track down why my cousin was the way he was."
"He what?"
"Had completely different problems based on diet, and conditioning, it wasn't hormonal after all," said Harry, "But I've heard some of the psychology involved, and medical problems involved in the muggle way of changing the other direction, you probably won't surprise me much, just say what you want to say."
"Oh," said Ben, "is that all? ugh." He covered his face in his hands.
Harry waited for several minutes, watching Ben shake his head or nod and whisper under his breath to himself.
"Why don't you start with," said Harry, "a simple 'why' like 'why did you ask for a summer,' instead of 'for an hour,' which you could already try with polyjuice if you really wanted."
Ben put his hands down, "because I don't want to be someone else, so it never crossed my mind, I just want to be me, but … more me-ish."
That has the sound of he's either on exactly the right track, or he's got narcissist problems.
"Alright, Why now? Not weeks ago when you first saw what I could do?"
"Because I had revising to do," said Ben, "Because … in robes, I don't have to …"
"Don't have to remember that the muggle world is so delusional about how much difference between the genders there is."
Ben sat up and stared, "Kind of that, kind of … there's a lot of difference, or I wouldn't want to change."
"I'm fairly sure that I could find a double bell-curve graph that would prove one of us wrong, depending on what each of us is talking about."
Ben gave him the stink eye, then shook his head, "whatever that means. You asked why now, and I told you, in loose robes, I can pretend that it isn't a problem, but that doesn't make the problem go away, it just makes it easier to ignore, and concentrate on other things."
Harry nodded.
"Then you suggested I switch to muggle clothes an hour before I absolutely have to, and … I remembered that you have something … that looks like it might be a solution, from the outside, so I'm asking for help. Or at least information about why it might not be a solution. Or less than a complete solution or whatever."
"Right," said Harry, "fine."
"Going back to … why for only a summer, it would be exactly long enough to … err have a summer fling with Toby Pratt."
Harry grinned, "fair enough." He shrugged, "So you're gay."
Ben shrugged, "I never really worried about that, but I like Toby, and Toby is straight."
"If he wasn't would you already be with him?"
Ben bit his lip and looked away, "maybe, or maybe we'd have had our fling two years ago, and I'd be … over it and looking for a mage."
"How old is Toby?"
"… Eighteen now."
Only a year or two difference in theoretical maturity. But Ben being a mage theoretically was already immune to the dangers of an overdeveloped addiction pathway from experiencing drugs or sex too soon. Close enough, probably. Fine whatever.
"Fine," said Harry, "It's probably better for him to have waited, even if you were ready two years ago."
Ben raised an eyebrow.
"Never mind, that's just statistics, individuals are individual."
Ben nodded.
"Will you tell Toby the truth?"
"Can't, he's a muggle."
"Arg," said Harry, "you can tell him you're transgender and used to be his friend 'Ben' without telling him that you managed that via magic instead of pills and surgery."
"Oh," said Ben, "I hadn't thought of that. Is that real?"
"Yes, but somewhat expensive, and rather drawn-out, and dangerous, though getting less so."
"Yay science!" muttered Ben then curled in on himself.
"Maybe I'd do that," said Ben, "Eventually. Maybe I'd wait a little while and see if he guessed."
"Ah, that's another thing we should discuss," said Harry, "what do you want to look like?"
"I have a choice?" said Ben, "Oh, of course. You went blond."
He sat forward and opened his sketchbook and flipped through pointing out various bits and pieces of various faces.
"Wait go back," said Harry.
"Which one?"
Harry flipped back, "This one,"
Off symmetrical almost to the point of being ugly, except somehow the unmatched eyes made it more endearing instead of less.
"No, that's not me, that's not anyone."
"It's a parselmouth," said Harry, so I think you copied it from a real person.
"What?"
"Never mind," said Harry.
"It's half you when you were being Luna's sister and half Luna."
That's why the halves don't match. "And I'm a parselmouth," said Harry, "Fine, you got her eye colour a little wrong."
"Yeah, because I'm working with coloured pencils here."
Harry shrugged and let Ben turn the page.
.
"Alright," said Harry, "I think I'm getting the gist, but … you don't have a single picture of what you want to look like?"
Ben shook his head, "I didn't expect I'd ever get a chance to ask for this, I didn't try to … compose? an entire impossible goal, that would have just been, depressing … or addictive."
Harry shrugged, "alright, but it makes my job harder."
Ben stared at him, "I'm not asking you to make me into the perfect girl, I'm just asking to be a girl, any girl that is still mostly me."
"Are you even Toby's type, if you were a girl I mean?"
Ben shrugged, "No idea."
"Huh, alright."
"And if you did know his type, would you be asking for it?"
Ben grimaced, then shrugged very slowly.
"When you say, 'mostly you'" said Harry, "What details do you for sure want to remain the same?"
"My hair colour," said Ben, "My eye colour," he frowned, "can I have no freckles and moles?"
"Probably not."
"Can I have just the big one by my belly button, except make it a freckle instead of a mole?"
"Ah," said Harry, "Probably."
"Really?" said Ben, "Awesome. Why?"
"Some kinds of arithmancy don't let you say none of something, the human brain doesn't make 'nothing' an easy thing to concentrate on," Harry shrugged, "'Only one freckle by your belly button,' is the right kind of specific that I think I could do it."
Ben shrugged.
.
"Alright," said Harry, "So your absolute requirements are girl, same hair, same eyes, one freckle. Beyond that as girlish a face as I can manage?"
Ben frowned, "yeah, I guess, not same hair, just same hair colour. I think my hair could be more girlish with a different … outline."
"Right," said Harry, "Do you care about height?"
"Well shorter than I am," he said, "I didn't expect to be able to pick. I never thought about it."
Harry shrugged.
Ben flipped through his sketches again, "This is how much shorter than me my big brother is, and my mum is a little shorter than that, and my aunts are mostly the same size as her."
It looked like 4 inches.
"So 4 inches plus what, another 4 inches shorter?"
Ben shrugged, "I'm not going to be mad if you don't make me some exact amount shorter."
"OK then, at least how much?"
"At least four inches, preferably … ten or so."
"Alright,"
"At least two inches narrower shoulders, or whatever."
"Alright," said Harry, "That sounds like it's heading directly towards average."
Ben nodded, "That's fine."
"I guess," said Ben, "I don't need to be anyone, in particular, just I want to be a sister, not a brother, from the same family."
"Right," said Harry, "I think I got that, but it was a roundabout way to explain."
"Gryffindors: always asking ravenclaws for details, and then saying we took a roundabout way to explain anything."
"Sounds right," grinned Harry.
When Ben realised that Harry wasn't even a little annoyed, he grinned back.
"What else do you need? Do you want me to find some pictures of my aunts? I think I only have pictures of maternal aunts at the moment."
"I need you naked."
Ben grimaced, "You … did yourself without being naked."
"I can feel myself without seeing myself," said Harry, "and the first several times I also used a mirror."
Ben stared into space for several seconds, then nodded, "I'll do it."
He undressed.
While he did that Harry changed the window to an opaque turquoise.
When he turned back he remembered that the new arithmancy that Susan isolated was supposed to work without needing an accurate starting image, by virtue of extracting its starting point from reality itself. But they hadn't tested that, because they'd all been using it on themselves, and generally had a sufficiently good starting image.
"You have a lot of moles," said Harry.
Ben shrugged, "That is not news."
Harry snickered.
"What next?" said Ben when he was in his altogether.
Not nude, but not just naked either: both naked and defiant.
"Do you have a name?"
"What?"
"Does your girl self have a name?"
Ben grimaced, then shrugged, "Do you need one?"
"No, it just is easier to make it repeatable if I have a name to attach."
"How much of an issue is that?"
Harry shrugged, "Just to be clear you're welcome to change your mind at any time."
"Don't say that," said Ben.
"Alright," said Harry, "You have one and only one chance to chicken out, and it goes away as soon as your parents see you. After that, you're stuck until either the next Express ride or when you ask me to take it off because your yearly trek to Diagon is coming up and you need to go shopping in the size you're going to be for the term."
"Ugh," said Ben, "yeah, I can see how that's … er prudent."
Harry drew his wand, "any last-minute requests?"
Ben shrugged, "I wouldn't mind if my hair grew faster."
"Or was already long and didn't grow much?"
Ben shrugged, "I want it down to my waist, but that's … not believable, down to my shoulder blades would be OK."
So much for the haircut, that we gave you earlier. Harry nodded.
He concentrated and built the picture as best he could imagine, then cast: Be the twin sister of Ben Windrow.
The only-one-freckle thing seemed to have worked, though it was a rather large freckle.
Ben blinked and looked, picked up her hands and examined them, picked up one foot and then the other, examining … the flexibility in her ankles maybe.
She looked up, gave Harry a lopsided smile and tried to turn around, though she caught herself on the wall. Then kept leaning against it while she made several more twists and turns, from the looks of it relearning her balance and her range of motion.
Then she sat down. And reached for her clothes.
"You didn't have to make my boobs so big," she said.
"I was aiming for average," said Harry, "But I'm not actually sure how close I got."
"Then I won't ask for them to be half smaller," she said, "Maybe just … a third … at least a quarter smaller."
"Sure," said Harry, "Anything else?"
"My hips are … not what I expected. But I'm not sure if that's just … I'm not as tall so they seem a different proportion, or if they actually are bigger."
"They're a little bigger, and your shoulders are a little narrower, which is average."
"Alright," she started to get dressed in her muggle clothes.
Harry cast again, shrinking her breasts a little.
She didn't seem to notice. Too busy casting sizing charms on the waistband of her pants.
"I'm going to go change," said Harry, "are you ready to lock the door after me?"
She looked up and grimaced, "Don't … don't go yet?"
"More to say?"
She shook her head and looked down then back up. "Don't want to be alone, yet."
Harry raised an eyebrow, "you want me to change in here?"
She frowned and conjured a huge blue banner dividing the compartment in half, a brass-coloured raven in the centre of it. Leaving Harry squarely alone, but still between her and the corridor.
Enough privacy, to the extent he trusted a big boy who wasn't sure enough of himself to identify as gay, currently in a girl's body. And who could apparently conjure wider things with less time to concentrate than Harry normally used. (Though perhaps diameter didn't require as much concentration as volume or mass.)
Harry changed.
When he finished and had rolled up his other clothes and there still was very little sound from the other side of the curtain.
"Ben?"
… "Yeah?"
"Are you ready?"
"Humph," she said, "Are you?"
"Yes,"
"Finite," she said, and the curtain vanished.
She stood up from where she'd been sitting.
"Am I acceptable?" she said.
"If you mean, are your clothes sufficiently modest to be travelling in the muggle world, then yes. If you're asking—"
"Am I pretty enough to be getting along with?"
"I'm the wrong boy to ask," said Harry, "But I suspect yes."
"Why are you the wrong boy to ask?"
"I'm the boy who has no idea whether veelas are pretty."
"They aren't," she said, "they're just bird hominids instead of monkey hominids."
"What?"
"And goblins are reptile hominids," she shrugged, "doesn't make them pretty or not pretty. They just are themselves."
They stared at each other.
Ben shrugged, "For someone who doesn't care what girls look like, you picked a very striking pair of girls."
"What?"
Ben shrugged, "those with red hair and Indian eyes are supposed to be some of the hottest kinds of girls."
"Really?"
"Yeah, you didn't know?"
"I knew the reputation for temper tantrums that is supposed to go with the red hair."
Ben shrugged.
"And you didn't ask me for either of those things?"
She shrugged, "Not really, the very prettiest girls only get asked out by a narrow selection of guys, who are impressive enough or delusional enough to think that they deserve to be noticed by the prettiest girl, I'm not trying to catch … I'm not trying to catch some lord somewhere, I'm trying to find a good friend. … and not be … mocked for … studying fashion."
Harry shrugged, "You might find you'll get farther in the fashion industry being an openly homosexual man, than a woman with ideas."
"Why?"
"No reason that I can figure, but that's muggle fashion, seems like mage fashion tends to be a lot more open-minded."
She blinked, "alright … now I'm really confused."
"About what?"
"What do you want from me?"
"Ben," said Harry, "I want you to succeed at something, and I don't even know if you know what that something should be yet, I don't care if you figure it out this summer, I don't really care if you figure it out by next summer, but I want you to succeed at something."
"Yeah, well."
Silence.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Silence.
"I guess I'll go find a mirror, and fix my hair."
Harry nodded, "you know where to find us when you're done."
"Yeah."
.
"You're back, really late," said Padma.
"Ben had something he needed to get off his chest," Harry shrugged.
"Off his bottom?" suggested Luna.
Harry looked at her, "well yes, that too."
"Harry!" said Hermione.
"What's up?"
"Are you going home with me or not?"
"No," said Harry, "I'm visiting by floo … hum, actually I might as well, I'm going home by floo I could stop there and pack up my things."
"Oh," she said, "Yeah, floo is a good solution, I was thinking of chartering a van, but floo powder is a lot less expensive."
"Just how many people are headed to your place?"
"We're not sure, shades of last year, my previous house heirs haven't actually changed their registry yet. Only the rest have, and we're not sure how many of them are welcome at home, vs. Are welcome 'at House,' Vs. 'Might subtly influence the decision for or against their houses becoming my allies.' My current prediction is that Tracy, Roger, and Theo are coming right away, and the others will catch up eventually. But I'm willing to stand around for an hour and see who shows up to pick up their kids and who does not."
"Right," said Harry, "Do you want guards for the duration of that process?"
"Ugh," said Hermione, "a little?"
"Any objection my lionesses?"
Several annoyed sighs but no objections. "Yeah, that sounds like the right thing to do," said Ginny, "we should have planned better though."
"Agreed," said Hermione, "a month ago the plan was to go straight to my place, or your place and play things by ear. But there have been enough letters back and forth along the lines of: 'Now I'm allowed to say what I think, and I think you made the wisest possible move under the circumstances, you're welcome to come home whenever you want or need.' Etc. So, I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, but … yeah, a few extra wands would be nice."
"Five wands, one hour," said Harry, "Then we all leave by floo."
"And if … I have less than five, you're welcome to wait a day or two to collect your things if you prefer."
"I don't have a strong desire one way or another," said Harry, "I'd like to thank your parents one more time for having me."
Hermione nodded, "Yeah, that's … "
"Actually," said Harry, "I'd like to invite them over, though perhaps we need to collaborate on exactly how much they're ready and willing to be exposed to."
"That's fair."
"Do they even take time off work?"
Hermione smiled, "usually in December. But I wouldn't put it past them to decide me coming home with fourteen project relationships, demands an intervention either on my behalf, or to assist me in getting everyone muggle IDs or who knows what."
Harry grinned, "Better you than me. Err. Better them than anyone else I know."
Hermione shrugged.
"Excuse me."
Hermione glanced that way.
"Oh! Umm, Head Granger," a curtsy, client to Head of ally House.
Hermione backed up and gave a nod, a completely status-indifferent nod, which was so classic Hermione that Harry couldn't help smiling.
"You … have me at a disadvantage."
"I go by Jennifer in … muggle clothes."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Jennifer then."
Jennifer ducked between Hermione and the door frame, around Harry and resumed her previous seat on the bench.
"Harry! what did you do?" said Padma.
"Exactly what she begged for," said Harry.
Hermione narrowed her eyes, "another Lion's-Keep member?"
"Not yet," said Harry, "the Windrows are an old client Family of Potter, not a new one."
"And we're just finding out about them now?"
"Not everyone is cut out to be a spokesperson," said Harry, "And to be fair, I could have checked the pureblood registry office years ago, and didn't think of it."
"Hmm," said Hermione, "I've only dealt with them by mail, it might behove me to set foot inside and see what all they do."
Harry nodded, "It could be very educational, a lot can change in fifty years, between editions of social studies books."
Hermione nodded.
"A caveat that tripped up even Hitler and you-know-who from time to time."
Hermione opened her mouth, froze for two seconds, then smirked, "I'm fairly sure that came out differently than you meant it, but point made."
...-...
Platform 9 3/4
A middle-aged witch approached them, "Is this hedgehog formation an omen of something I should know about."
"Hey Mum," said Roger Davis, "it mostly means … we weren't sure if you were coming to get us, or if we should be securing a base of operations, and then coming to get you."
"Oh," said Mrs. Davis, "Yes well, there has been turmoil. But after the route and then the execution, a little purchasing of ingredients from an unlicensed supplier does not seem that big of an offence, and our Head will probably get off with only a corporate fine."
"Convenient."
"In the meantime, yes, of course, we're under ministry protection only, but more than a third of the nation manages just fine with that, so it's nothing to panic over."
"Manage just fine, with ministry protection and sleeping behind friendly wards," said Tracy.
"True," said Mrs. Davis, "are you two ready to come home, Or do you need to wait for your friends?"
"I'm ready," said Roger.
Tracy looked around, "Yeah, see you later everyone. Expect my owls."
"Of course," said Daphne.
.
"Merlin, Harry," said Jennifer, "I can't do this. Not today. Please take it off."
Harry turned. For a moment she had her hands over her face peering through the crowd, the next she was desperately fumbling Luna's blue earrings out of her ears.
"What?"
"They've seen me," said Jennifer, "But not recognised me, will you still let me take it off?"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes … Not sure," she said, "I … I definitely need this, need to do it soon, but … I can't … I can't go through with this part today. Please take it off."
"Ah, alright," said Harry. He concentrated on the unlocking combination, and cast, "Finite Incantatem."
Ben groaned again, something about … homesickness and tetrachromacy. Then he held out the earrings to Luna, "thank you for the lend. Little sister."
"You're welcome, Jennifer," said Luna, "We should make you some of your own sometime."
"Yes," agreed Ben.
He took a step, froze, cast the ending spell on his clothes three times, then grabbed his trunk and wandered away.
Not very far, the man that he met was … apparently his elder brother, a year older than the picture he'd shown Harry. A moment later his mother appeared too. All three hugged tightly for most of a minute, then they apparated away.
.
"There you are Ginny," said Fred, "We were looking for you."
"Tell Mum I'll floo over this evening after dinner."
"What?"
"I have a family to cook for and two maids to manage. I can't stay long, 'cause tomorrow I have a farmhand to take reports from and give instructions to, but … I will come over this evening for a couple of hours."
"Merlin," said George, "alright, we'll tell her."
.
"About that farmhand," said Padma.
"What?" said Ginny.
"Ben?" said Padma.
"No, Melantha," said Ginny.
"Ah, fine," said Padma, "But about Ben—"
"Pretty sure that one is mine," said Parvati, "or ours … he's into cosmetic potions and ingredients, not food and medicinal."
"You want him?" said Padma.
"It, probably, or until it makes up its mind." said Parvati, "Yes, I think I do, just you know … not for a spokesperson. Assuming of course that it can make up its mind to work for me."
"There is that," said Padma.
"Speaking of," said Ginny, "were you wanting to share the Purcells one each, or are they strictly mine, or … I didn't get the feeling that they could be shared both-both like house elves?"
Hermione huffed. But continued her other conversation.
"Yeah," said Parvati, "I think the best politics is for us to share a list of things for them to do, but they only have one person prioritising the list and feeding it to them."
"Yeah, that's about what I was thinking. Do you want me to be that person?" said Ginny.
"Probably, You already marked them, even."
.
Two minutes later Mr. Goyle appeared and took Draco home. Five minutes later he reappeared and turned, "Greg, Vincent?"
"Yes, Father." "Yes, Mr. Goyle?"
"Draco says, you did it because he ordered you to."
"Yes, Father." "Yes, Mr. Goyle."
Pansy also chimed in with, "Yes, Mr. Goyle."
"Are you coming home?"
"Ask Head Granger," said Gregory.
Mr. Goyle turned to look at them all and didn't seem to know who to ask.
Hermione raised her hand, and only waited until his eyes were on her before she asked, "Will they be welcomed at home?" said Hermione, "Or punished for running out of a house that was rumoured to be on fire? Or treated as foreigners or outcasts?"
He frowned, "I can't completely guarantee any of that."
"If I say I'm not going with you," said Pansy, "Does that simplify the question?"
He shrugged, "No one will be punished."
"Then they have my permission and blessing to visit their native families, for as long as they choose to do so," said Hermione, "and at seventeen, they'll have the choice to transfer wherever they choose and can find welcome."
"Ah," he said, "alright." He turned away and then turned back, "Thank you, Head Granger."
He offered a hand each to the two boys. They accepted, and he apparated away with them.
"Let's go home, Hermione," said Theo.
"I said I'm willing to wait an hour," said Hermione.
"Everyone else is either here to guard us, or already knows what the outcome of waiting would be."
"Hmm," said Hermione, "Yeah, you're right. Let's go."
.
So they made their way over to the floos. The Gamps and Greengrasses flooed away. Followed by Hermione, Pansy, and Theo.
Ginny gave Harry an expectant look.
.
"Would one of you like to accompany me to Hermione's house?"
"Yes, but…" said Ginny.
"We want to establish that Potter Manor hasn't reverted to other hands while we've been gone," said Padma, "we'd rather have all five wands for that."
"Alright," said Harry, "That's a good point, Nim are you ready?"
Nim turned human, "alright, which floo are we least expected at?"
"Big house, little house, Any of the passwords could have been changed, I ordered her to change the master suite and the infirmary," said Harry, "if we try one of the others and it's blocked, we know something's up. But we might luck into the one with the ambush on our first try."
"Or they could both be blocked, leaving only our portkeys, or the ambush might be in Wotcher instead."
"Right," said Harry, "all of those could be blocked or redirected, I'm going to suggest the main floo is where I was planning to go, portkeys are next most common, and cottage floo is least common, therefore the last thing I'd planned to do, maybe the first thing to do if we're trying to be unpredictable. Or maybe that's predictably unpredictable. And we should do the portkeys."
"Given that the floos are easily and reversibly block-able, and the portkey anchors can be moved somewhere unfortunate without needing to compromise Wotcher first… I'd say portkeys are last."
"What? Are we overthinking this?" said Padma. She was looking at Luna.
"Yes," said Luna.
"What should we be thinking."
"What is also the null hypothesis?" said Luna, "we've considered maximally disloyal, but she has a mark … what would be maximally loyal?"
"She changed the master suite floo password as ordered," said Harry, "To … the same password as another floo that we set."
"Or, amusingly," said Padma, "she changed it to a word we can't say."
"An unpronounceable word?" said Harry.
Padma shrugged, "or to one of our portkey anchor activation phrases."
"Maximally disloyal," said Luna, "would be to move the portkey anchors and use the activation phrases for all four floos."
"Fine," said Padma, "for experimental purposes then," she stuck her knut in the vendor and twisted the handle to get a handful of floo powder and tossed it into the flames, "Potter Manor, Master suite."
The green flames roared up but only to the correct size for a floo call. Padma stuck her head in and shouted something. The flames cleared to traversable size. She pulled her head out but kept her hand through, "Richard regnat."
She waved her hand, welcoming them through.
Harry didn't draw, but he did grasp the hilt of the good wand. And stepped forward.
But Bellatrix stepped in front of him and walked through.
He still hated floo travel. Even second-hand.
She arrived.
It's empty, as you requested.
Ah, fair enough.
"She says, and shows images to witness that Margaid has moved out of the master suite, as requested."
Alright Nim, I'm following.
He went through.
Wotcher, Wotcher?
[Wotchering exactly as intended.]
Good, where are my people? Are there any foreign mages in your range?
[Map.]
Good, Where are my mages?
[Map.]
Where do people that live in my manor habitually sleep?
[Map.]
Margaid in the servant's quarters behind the library. Below the tree. That would make Padma soooo excited.
The Purcell twins were in a suite on the third floor. Sharing the big bedroom, leaving one bedroom empty between them and Sergeant Leathan Pasternak. Nagini in the greenhouses, predominantly in the western greenhouse.
His wives arrived behind him, and shortly after them, Padma and Luna.
"Wotcher, Show them where our long-term guests have been sleeping, then start telling me about what Greyback's people have been getting up to."
[…]
"What has Margaid been getting up to?" said Padma.
[…]
"I guess I'd better go look at those blackboards," said Parvati and jogged away towards the stairs.
"I'm going to put my trunk down first," said Luna, "Harry, walk with me? I have something to give you from my trunk."
"Sure Luna."
They went into their family suite and put their trunks down and un-shrunk them. And did a little other unpacking.
Luna slipped into Harry's room as he fished his school robes from his bottomless belt satchel.
"Harry?"
"I'm listening," he said, turning to face her.
"I want to give you your birthday present early, because," she shrugged, "because you'll enjoy it best to get it at the same time as getting back to your kitchen."
Ginny stepped backwards out of her room to look in on them.
Luna handed Harry a book.
It was a leather-bound sketchbook. He opened it to the beginning.
"Favourite Family Recipes, as compiled by:
Galore,
Magellan,
Plantain,
Kooky,
Fried,
and Earwig.
1863-1975
.
Translated from elvish by:
Bernard Oppenheimer Andromeda Volturcius Calypso Cherubini Akeley (commonly known as Cranky)
and Luna Lovegood"
.
"House-elves?" said Harry.
"The Potter family house-elves," said Luna, "The Potter Family favourite recipes."
He turned the page.
Ingredients he'd never heard of.
He turned another page, and another, ingredients that he'd only heard of in hushed tones about crazy expensive restaurants, he flipped a bunch more pages.
Boiled egg sandwiches, five recipes, based on the availability of seasonal herbs and tomatoes.
From among them, he recognised the recipe of the sandwiches the elves had given him that day in (Was it April or May?) that he first made it through the Ravenclaw door.
"This is how you won the culinary award?"
"I didn't set out to win the culinary award," said Luna, "I set out to get this translated, but Cranky wanted to try a bunch of them, and he's … kind of influential in the kitchen."
She shrugged, "when one of them told me that I was going to win an award I'd never heard of, not by giving them the most recipes, but by giving them more than the minimum of five, when no one else had given them more than two. I went checking to find out 'how many awards were there?'" She shrugged, "I'd already written 12 letters and articles for Papa's newspaper, I just had to get him to send a letter back saying how many of them met the 300-word requirement."
"Oh."
"The rest were not quite that easy," said Luna.
"So you got all five of those in less than four months?"
Luna nodded, "They basically all have minimum requirements, and best-of- or tying-for-best competitor requirements, if no one won it last year, or for a hundred years, you're probably just competing against the minimum requirements."
"Are you going to get them all next year?" said Harry.
Luna rolled her eyes, "I have to revise for OWLs next year."
"Good point," said Harry.
"Are you going to get some?" said Luna.
"I have to decide between quidditch captain, teachers assistant for Survey of Law, and swords. Picking up a bunch of contest ribbons that aren't really for contests, more like merit badges … I'm not sure … the kind of appeal that has isn't … the kind I'm used to chasing."
Luna smiled, "that's OK, I only need one or two more years with at least two people trying to meet as many minimums as they can figure out how, and it will catch on and give the slytherins something productive to do. And they'll keep on until it's popular with everyone."
"What?"
"They're even better than house points," said Luna, "they're about helping people, they're mostly writing related, you get an award in front of people for being the best, and if you're not competing alone, it probably takes some hard work. It's like … an almost level playing field."
"Between the houses you mean?"
Luna nodded.
"Did you also document all the ones those slytherins got?"
Luna shrugged, "Mostly pointed them out to Rebekah and Draco and got her to document them."
"I see," said Harry.
Harry glanced at the book in his hands and flopped all the way to the back cover then flipped back to the last entry.
Cranky's adaption of Meloria Greengrass' Nutrition Potion-laced Treacle Tart for Young Mages.
A recipe for the potion, a recipe for the original tart pastry, a recipe for a much simpler turnover cake batter instead, and a recipe for the potion-laced treacle. Baking instructions for each bread style.
So the dish he'd grown fond of, was it technically a fruitless cobbler? Was it called something other than a cobbler in that case?
He flipped the next page back, 'diricawl and horseradish breakfast sausage, medium spice version'
And on the facing page: 'Sausage casserole' made with same.
He flipped another few pages, a recipe for an aspic-based fruit dessert, which he definitely didn't recognise. Why would anyone create that? The byline was Earwig, the dedication was James Potter's 7th birthday party. The date matched.
He closed the book and gave Luna a hug.
"Best housewarming present ever."
"Not even close," said Luna.
"No?" said Harry, "are you sure? What could be better than this?"
"You are," said Luna.
Harry glanced across her shoulder to Ginny.
'No, You,' and 'No, Ginny is,' weren't what he wanted either of them trying to compete with.
"Well…" said Harry, "Thanks, I'll try my best."
Ginny smiled at them like they were cute, and stepped forward, not to join the embrace but to take the book from his hand so he could hold Luna more evenly.
Also so she could flip through the book. A few recipes made her eyebrows go up and her mouth tighten the way Padma did when she read an excellent puzzle.
After about twenty pages she said, "These are not in any particular order? You'd need a searching spell to find anything."
"They're in historical order, just like the original."
And it was easier and significantly more meaningful to leave it that way.
"Oh," said Ginny … "Yeah, definitely need to work on my searching spells."
Luna let go and looked up into his eyes, "I guess I should go put the original back where I found it."
He squeezed her one more time and let go.
Luna grabbed another (obviously more ancient) book from her room and they went off together.
.
Parvati came in, "Ginny? Padma?"
"Ginny just left with Luna, to organise my cookbook shelf I think."
"If they are organising it, it might not be yours," said Parvati.
"Still mine," said Harry, "I just have great help. What did you need her for?"
"Best blackboards ever!" Parvati said, "best chalk, imported from Japan. Don't ever let Margaid leave. If you get tired of her, give her to me."
"Ah, I see," said Harry. Uncle Lucius once said: everyone has their price, the most interesting people, not in money.
Padma entered, "Harry? Oh and Parvati, good."
"What?" said Harry.
"Aunt Margaid is either entirely loyal or entirely insane."
"Nim is both, so…" said Harry, "What's your evidence?"
"The infirmary password was: 'Earnest Asclepius'"
"Merlin," said Parvati.
"Horribly fitting," said Harry, "Leave it for now."
"I added 'Bones McMillan' to the end," said Padma, "same significance, an order of magnitude harder to guess."
Harry shrugged, "Yeah … alright."
...-...
{End Chapter 38}
{End of Year 5}