AN: Did you know you can be so consumed by one fandom you don't manage to as much as edit a chapter from another? It happened to me this summer. I spent it immersed in writing a Tolkien fanfic. Fortunately the rough draft of that monster is done, so I can return to a saner pace.
I'll try to update more frequently for a while now to make up for the almost two months long pause.
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The attic was shadowy but clean, and really, really large. „Miss Brigit?" Alduin called. „May we disturb you?"
Harry looked around, trying to guess where the ghost would come from, and was rather startled when it appeared through the wall.
It was a young lady dressed in rather elaborate robes, all silvery and see through. She looked at them intently and said: "What is it, Alduin?"
Harry's cousin made a small bow. "Allow me to introduce my ward, Mr. Potter. Harry, this is Miss Brigit Travers, my great-great-great-aunt."
"Good evening," Harry said a little uncertainly.
"Good evening to you as well. Why are you here?" The ghost asked sharply.
"Er..."
Alduin came to his help. "Mr. Potter has been raised by Muggles, and he has never met a ghost in his life. I was hoping you could talk to him for a moment, perhaps tell him about how you died?"
Harry gave Alduin a horrified look. Surely that was not appropriate? Miss Brigit noticed, and said: "You will find that most ghosts delight in talking about their death, unless there is something shameful about it." She frowned. "Well, mine own was a little shameful, but I still maintain it could not have been predicted..."
Alduin coughed.
"Yes, of course," Miss Brigit said, giving him a quick irritated look, before turning back to Harry. "Well, it was simple, really. I was working on developing a new, fantastic potion when my experimental batch acted completely unpredictably and exploded. I was just leaning over it, so...ah...it took me with it. But I was on the brink of a great discovery, I just knew it, and my death would set research back decades...so I came back to finish what I started."
"And did you?" Harry asked curiously.
"I would say so. Polyjuice Potion is my work!" She stated proudly.
"That is a potion that allows you to change into someone else, in appearance, down to every last detail," Alduin helpfully explained.
"Wow," Harry muttered. "So there could be people looking exactly like me walking around right now?"
"Not very easily," Miss Brigit replied. "They would need a piece of you first – a hair or a nail or something – and then, one batch only lasts an hour, thankfully. It could get very dangerous otherwise."
"It is dangerous as it is," Alduin said with a smile. "But fortunately, there are charms that can detect it or see though it, and even cancel the effects, even though those are extremely complicated. But Miss Brigit was a notable inventor in her lifetime, and she is still an honorary member of all respectable potions societies."
"Yes, and in fact, I have a review of a new potion proposal to dictate, so if you will excuse me for now..." Miss Brigit was already drifting away before anyone had time to react.
"Yes, of course," Alduin said quickly. "We are sorry to have brothered you, and thank you for your time."
Harry followed Alduin back downstairs, and on the way, asked: "So does Miss Brigit know Miss Burke's great-grandmother? Because, you know, Mrs. Bagshot said that she was a potion enthusiast, and..."
"Indeed she does. In fact," Alduin seemed to think a moment, "yes, I believe she tutored her for a while."
"Wait, so Mrs. Burke remembers Miss Brigit while she was still alive?" Harry asked. Surely Miss Brigit died too soon for that?
"Oh no," Alduin corrected, "she tutored her as a ghost!"
Harry shook his head. This was a strange, strange world.
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Harry woke up excited on Christmas morning. Yesterday had been great, he even got to meet a proper ghost, and today was to be the first Christmas of his memory when Dudley wouldn't mock him for not getting any presents.
It was early, he knew, so he tried to read in bed a little, but he couldn't concentrate and was very happy when Sibby finally brought him his morning tea and he knew it was time to get up. He was dressed in no time, and down in the breakfast parlour to admire the tree, which now boasted a pile of gifts under it. Harry grinned. His cousin must have been very good indeed!
The man himself appeared shortly afterwards, and Harry could hear Miss Burke arriving by the Floo. "So, ready to distribute gifts?" She asked him when she entered the room.
"Me?"
"Of course, who else?"
Harry shrugged and started on it – only to see that the first gift to be found there was his! He turned to his cousin, stunned. "You didn't have to..."
Alduin stared at him. "What are you talking about?"
Harry shook his head and kept silent – he learned enough it the last almost month to know that it wasn't polite to discuss things like this in front of guests, but as his pile of gifts grew, he was more and more mortified.
Finally, everything was distributed, and Alduin said: "Come on, Harry, start unwrapping." Seeing the expression in his eyes, he added: "Half of this are gifts more for me than for you, anyway."
Harry could sort of see what his cousin meant – it was a lot of books and clothes, but there were some new comics too, and..."What's this?" He frowned at several strange wooden tables.
"They are displayers," Alduin explained. "Each of them has something captured on them – it says what it is above. Some have Quidditch matches, some have theatre plays and one has a duelling competition, if I remember correctly."
Harry almost said, 'so like a small TV', but he caught himself, remembering he wasn't supposed to mention his time with the Muggles.
He kept the largest package till the end, and as he unwrapped it he almost stopped breathing. It was a brand new racing broom, one Nimbus Two Thousand. He started at his cousin, open-mouthed.
Alduin smiled in response.
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Alexandra stayed with them until tea, which meant Harry had to control his desire to go and try his new broom immediately. Alduin could see it was a chore for him, but the displayers distracted him a little. He did not speak much, apparently overwhelmed by the presents he received, and so Alduin and Alexandra were free to remain reading their new books in the drawing room, discussing the ideas in them, in the best Ravenclaw Christmas tradition.
"Oh, this is absurd," Alduin muttered, irritated.
"What is it?" Alexandra asked.
"Transfiro proposes here that it could be theoretically possible to create a form of time-travel that would allow you to change history," Alduin explained his outburst.
"What?" Alexandra looked up from her book, startled. "And the conservation law…?"
"He claims he found a way around it," Alduin replied, rolling his eyes.
"Will he be announcing a perpetuum mobile next?" Alexandra asked archly.
"Probably," Alduin retorted.
Alexandra put her book down on her lap. "Does he include the equations? What do they say? You know I would never find the problem if there was one, but..."
"Well, they aren't my forte either," Alduin admitted, "but they seem sound to me, only they do not appear to mean what he thinks they mean! I will have to call on Abdullah to discuss it with him and give him and opportunity to laugh at my meagre Arithmancy skills. I mean, Transfiro would hardly get published if it was entirely nonsensical, yet it seems so out of the bounds of not only possibility, but also probability..."
At this point, Nitty appeared in the parlour with tea, and they were all obliged to put their books down and enjoy the trifle instead. Alduin turned to Harry. "Miss Burke and I," he said, "have an announcement to make."
Harry swallowed and looked up at him, seemingly a little anxious. "Yes?"
"Last night, I asked her to be my wife, and she has graciously accepted me. Travers Manor is to gain a mistress."
"Oh!" Harry seemed taken aback. "Congratulations! When are you getting married?"
"We think the beginning of summer would be best," Alexandra replied. "It gives us enough time to prepare, the weather should be decent and you will not be at Hogwarts yet."
Harry was surprised. "It takes so much time to plan a wedding?"
Alexandra laughed. "Well, some people get married on the spur of the moment, but it certainly takes time to plan the sort of wedding we are going to have!"
Alduin explained. "Noble and Most Ancient House weddings are events with a capital E, Harry. Effectively, all living members of the other Houses are invited, plus any friends one has that are outside that sphere."
"Wow! That's going to be a lot of people. Where is it going to be? I mean, are there places big enough for this in Diagon Alley?"
Alexandra smiled again. "Noble House weddings do not take place in public venues. They happen in the bride's family house, or on the grounds, if they take place in the warmer months."
"But, I mean, it means preparing really a lot of food, doesn't it? I have never been to a wedding, but I thought..." Harry trailed off.
"Fortunately, house-elves are really very good at making food in big quantities without it tasting any worse for it," Alduin reassured him.
Harry mused about it. A huge wedding in Miss Burke's family house, and from what she said, it seemed like he would be invited. It would be interesting to see, even though he was a little wary of her family, which he did not know.
Miss Burke bid them goodbye a short while later, and Alduin looked intently at Harry's frowning face, clearly deep in thought, before he asked: "What is it?"
Harry looked up, surprised. He was silent for a moment, then he said: "Why did you give me so many gifts?"
"There was nothing unusual about the number, I assure you. It was about as much as I used to get when I was a child."
"You gave me more than you gave Miss Burke!" Harry exclaimed.
"Certainly," Alduin replied. "Miss Burke is an adult with her own allowance, and can buy most things she wants to. You, on the other hand, cannot. It makes sense for you to get more gifts."
Harry frowned again, but did not say anything. "Harry, what is it?" Alduin asked, a little impatient.
Harry clearly did not want to say, but seeing that he would not let it be, in the end, he asked: "What is going to happen after you marry Miss Burke?"
"What do you think? She will move in here and become the mistress of this house, and in time, hopefully, we will have children."
Harry nodded, but his frown did not disappear. "Why do you ask?"
"I was just wondering."
"Harry, there is something clearly bothering you, so why don't you tell me what it is?"
Harry shifted uncomfortably. "I just wanted to know what will happen to me afterwards," he muttered.
"Why should anything happen to you?"
"Well, once Miss Burke moves in and you have your own children, you are hardly going to want me to be around..." Harry pointed out.
Alduin stared. "And how do you figure that one out?" He asked at length.
"It's obvious."
Alduin got up from the sofa to take Harry by the shoulders. "Harry, as long as I am alive, and unless you wilfully attack a member of my house, you will always have a home here. Always, even after you are an adult and take Potter Manor back. I will not be casting you out, whatever happens, unless it is something of your own doing."
Harry looked away, embarrassed. "Sorry," he said. "I just thought..."
"You spent too much time with the Dursleys," Alduin said decisively, "and so you assume you are a burden to everyone, but that is simply not true. You are my responsibility, and I will not throw you out after I tire of you or something of the sort."
There was a silence, and Alduin returned to his sofa to give Harry some space. After several minutes, the boy asked: "There is a Potter Manor?"
"Was. It was mostly destroyed in the Death Eater attack that killed most of your parental relations, but you still own the grounds, and once you come of age, you will be able to build the house again, exactly according to your wishes." Seeing his expression, Alduin smiled. "I know it sounds like a lot of responsibility, but you do not have to worry about it now, I assure you. As I have said, you will always have a home here."
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On Boxing Day, Harry woke up early again, and lay in bed musing about the talk he had with his cousin the day before. He was not sure he fully believed he would not become unwanted after the wedding, but he supposed that Hogwarts improved his chances – he would only be here for two months in the summer, and Miss Burke could probably tolerate him for that long – she seemed to quite like him, even.
When Sibby appeared with his tea, he promptly jumped up – today, he would get to try out his new broom!
Neville visited him again during the holidays, and he visited Neville. They enjoyed showing each other their new presents, and Neville particularly liked Harry's Quidditch displayers, while Harry admired some of the stranger plants his cousin got for Christmas.
A few days before the New Year's Eve, cousin Alduin approached him. "Miss Burke and I," he said, "have been invited to a New Year's Party. It is not, however, an event where they encourage participation of children. I do not like the idea of leaving you here alone for such an important night, but it is a major social occasion and so I came to ask you, against my better judgement, if you would mind it very much if we went."
Harry stared. Was his cousin actually asking him leave? "Of course you should go!" He said. "I would not want you to stay home on my account. I can read and watch my displayers and paint a little and all that! I wouldn't want you to miss the party."
"Thank you for being so understanding, Harry. I really hope you do not see this as me abandoning you. We will have a celebratory tea before I leave, to make the day at least somewhat special."
Alduin also bought him some new displayers to help him pass the time. Harry was extremely confused by this. What his cousin did not understand was that to Harry, it was a sign of trust, a direct contrast to what the Dursleys did – trusting him enough to leave him alone in the house for the night! He had the elves there, true, but while they would help him if he needed them, they obeyed Harry and would hardly stop him if he decided to do some mischief – indeed, they would have been just as likely to join in if he told them to! So Harry was really feeling very adult and grown up as he bid his cousin good night and went to his room to watch that one fascinating duel from the competition.