AN: Neville's back! Did you miss him?
-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-
„I've met my first Hogwarts teacher!" Harry announced to Neville cheerfully the next time the boy came over for an afternoon.
„Really? Which one?" Neville asked curiously, plopping down on a chair in Harry's room.
„The Potions teacher," Harry replied, sitting in the other one. "Professor Snape."
"Oh wow, Potions!" Neville straightened. "That's really closely related to Herbology, you know, so I'm curious about that. What is he like?"
Harry thought about it. "Well...kinda scary, to be honest."
Neville looked resigned. "Just my luck. How did you meet him anyway?"
Harry shrugged. "Turns out he used to be friends with my mum, so when I asked my cousin if he knew any of her old acquaintances, he invited Professor Snape for tea."
Neville seemed deep in thought.
"What is it?" His cousin asked.
"Well...do you think he will come to visit you again? I think I'd kind of like to meet him before school too. I mean, it's usually an advantage, and I'd like to do well in that subject..."
Harry frowned. "I'm not sure," he said. "Turns out that while he used to be friends with Mum, he really didn't like Dad, and given that Alduin is actually dad's cousin...I gathered he mostly came as a favour to me, to tell me about Mum. He didn't look all that happy about it either."
"Why didn't he like your dad?" Neville asked curiously.
Harry played with the sleeve of his robe as he answered: "I asked Alduin, and he said something about them being in Gryffindor and Slytherin, which seems like a really stupid reason -"
"I think you'd be surprised," Neville interrupted him. "From what Gran told me...and frankly sometimes I think someone being a Slytherin is enough of a reason for her to dislike them as well." He paused. "Not that I'm trying to imply your dad was like that!"
"Well, my cousin did name some additional reasons, but they sounded even more stupid – like that my dad was rich and Professor Snape was poor. I can understand why Snape would be jealous of my dad, but why would my dad dislike him in turn?" Harry certainly didn't fancy the idea of his dad being one of those people who looked down on those who were worse dressed. He had enough of that in Muggle school!
He mused about it for a moment. "I bet it was the influence of that Black fellow," he said at length. "He was a rich pureblood too, and I'm sure he would think someone like Professor Snape was really bellow him. And he was friends with my dad, so he might have convinced him of this."
Neville nodded sagely. "I can imagine that," he agreed. "I can ask Gran if you want – my parents were a bit older than yours, but they were at school together, so Mum and Dad would have met Professor Snape and maybe they mentioned him sometimes."
"That would be great," Harry agreed, "thanks. But how have you been? It's been two weeks..."
"Oh, yes, sorry about not writing." Neville looked sheepish. "The weather was really bad in Scotland, so I didn't want to put the owls through it if I didn't have to. And the only Floo connected fireplace at the house is in the drawing room, so I'd always have someone listening to our conversation if I Floo-called, and I always feel really awkward when they do that, so..." He trailed off.
Harry had been a little upset and nervous about the lack of communication, and was relieved to hear there was such a good explanation. "It's fine. You were in Scotland?" Harry had never been there, and it seemed very interesting to him especially because he knew that was where Hogwarts was.
"Didn't I tell you? Yes, that's where Gran's parents and grandparents live. There's a family reunion there every year after Christmas, to meet those that don't come to Longbottom Hall to celebrate with us. Which reminds me that I could probably ask Gran's cousin about Professor Snape and your dad as well."
"Gran's cousin?" Harry was getting well and truly lost.
"Professor McGonnagal. She teaches Transfiguration."
"Ah, so you will have an advantage too!" Being related to a teacher seemed much better to Harry than just meeting one for tea, as friendly as he might have been with his mother.
But Neville shrugged, looking rather uncertain. "I dunno...she's kinda scary too, and I don't really know her very well – she doesn't come to family reunions often. Plus I feel like she's absolutely scrupulously fair and there's no way to get an advantage in her class."
"Well, Professor Snape didn't exactly give the impression that he would go easy on me either!" Harry replied with a laugh.
-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-
A suitable time was finally arranged for the Burke family visit to take place, about a month later than it had originally been intended. Alduin did not wholly regret that Harry had additional time to train his social graces before he met with his future relations by marriage.
Given the tentative rules that governed small family parties of the sort they were allowed to be giving, they only asked Alexandra's parents and her brother's family. It was probably better to introduce Harry to them gradually anyway. The whole clan at once could be a little overwhelming.
As it was, Harry was doing his level best to hide his nervousness as the four visitors appeared in the drawing room. Perhaps, Alduin thought, I overdid it with the warnings of how important this visit was just a little.
"Oh hello, Mr. Potter," Perpetua gushed as soon as the introductions were done. "I'm glad to finally meet you! I've heard so much about you – from Alexandra, and from my cousins as well."
Alduin could almost see Harry mentally reviewing the family tree and, to his satisfaction, clearly arriving at the correct conclusion, because he said: "It was a pleasure meeting them. Mr. Kingsley's stories were very interesting to hear."
"Oh, don't tell me he talked shop? How ill-mannered of him."
"Oh no, I actually asked him about it!" Harry hastened to reassure. "I was very curious about what the Aurors did."
"Of course you were," Alexandra's mother joined in, but Alduin was distracted from further conversation on that end by Theodore approaching him.
"Have you seen the new research published by Gillet?" He asked quietly.
"I'm afraid not..." Gillet was one of the best known Dark Arts theoreticians, and Alduin was not in the habit of reading his articles.
"Well, it's not strictly your field," his future brother-in-law conceded, "but I think you might be interested. Look it up."
"What is it on?" Alduin asked curiously.
"The Unforgiveables," Theodore replied, and his gaze flickered to Harry almost imperceptibly.
Alduin's face tightened. "Ah." He paused. "Does he make any...personal conclusions?"
The younger man nodded almost imperceptibly. "Quite a number of them."
"The proclivity of some people to write articles without any grounds for their claims whatsoever will never cease to amaze me," Alduin commented drily.
"Well, it's not like you'd give him leave to study your ward..." Theodore pointed out.
"No. Which is why he should not be writing articles about it."
"Alduin…" Theodore paused. "Well, I understand your protective instincts, but you can hardly expect people to just drop research of such interest because it makes you uncomfortable."
Alduin narrowed his eyes. "Believe it or not, I do not object simply because I don't like the idea of someone writing articles about Harry. I object to bad science."
Alexandra's father approached them at this point, and said quietly: "But Gillet does not do bad science. He works well with the data at his disposal."
"Wouldn't it be better, however, to wait a few years until Harry is old enough to give consent, and then write articles based on some actual interaction with him?" Alduin asked.
Mr. Tacitus Burke gave him a hard look. "With Riddle's return a constant possibility, many don't wish to take that chance."
Alduin tried to control his reaction to that pronouncement, and he was helped by Alexandra joining their group and laying a hand on his arm. "Dad," she said, in a softly chiding tone, "before dinner is no time for such grim pronouncements. It will spoil our appetite." And she deftly manipulated Alduin towards the group with Harry in it.
The boy was discussing the finer points of Aurors' work with Perpetua and did not seem in need of assistance, so Alduin turned to Alexandra's mother instead. "And how are your nieces, ma'am?"
"I suspect you know about Isobel better than I do," she replied. "I haven't seen her since Christmas. As for Narcissa...she is well, I think. Draco makes her proud."
Alduin smiled a little. "He is Harry's age, is he not?"
"Yes, about to head to Hogwarts next year. They boys should meet, surely?"
"Yes," Alduin agreed diplomatically, "they should. We are a little overwhelmed with visits at the moment, but I certainly intend to make the introduction in time."
"I am glad to hear it. Draco needs company that is worthy of him."
That caught Alduin's attention, for more than one reason. "What do you mean?"
Mrs. Tacitus Burke pursed her lips. "Well, the boys his age he is most often seen with are the young Crabbe and the young Goyle. Surely you can see why I would not consider that ideal friends for my great-nephew."
"Indeed. But why does Lucius…?"
"Merlin knows why the man does the things he does. Goyle is his cousin, of course, but still. Young Nott visits sometimes as well, but you know how strange the father is. Really, partly it is just that all of Draco's closer relations that are his age are these boys, but why does he not attempt to curb their devastating influence, I do not know."
Alduin wondered if it was not, in fact, partly because no one else was willing to associate their children with Draco too closely. For all his money and influence, Lucius' taint was clear. It was one thing to cultivate an adult friendship there, with all the advantages it brought, and another matter entirely to drag one's children into it, especially as everyone knew the war would return sooner or later. After all, Isobel and Narcissa were cousins and while Abdulaziz was younger than Draco, he wasn't that much younger, and the boys could have been friendly – had Abdullah been willing to see something like this happen. But Alduin knew his friend, and knew that no matter his political ambitions – which were never too great to begin with – he would keep his children out of it. Others were likely to think the same way.
He would have to consider this very carefully.
-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-
The temperatures have dropped sharply at the beginning of February, and Harry wanted to make use of the snow. Alduin was not very understanding.
"Extremely low temperatures," he said, "are meant to encourage you to stay at home and read, not to go out and build snow forts."
"Please! We have all these warming charms on our clothes, we'll hardly feel it."
"All of your clothes that has warming charms," Alduin replied, "have water-repelling charms as well. That would not be very productive for fooling around in snow, would it?"
"Well, it doesn't mater. We can just wrap up really warmly, and not stay too long, and then have hot tea afterwards and sit by the fire. Please?"
Alduin groaned. "Fine," he said, "but if I see one hint of a snowball fight, I'm going back inside and you will not coach me into the garden again until all the snow melts."
Harry tried to hide his disappointment.
He ended up doing most of the actual fort building work himself, while Alduin stood by and gave him advice, and helped out with a spell from time to time.
The end result was pretty impressive.
"Can I have Neville over tomorrow, please?" He asked Alduin once they were back inside. "I want him to see it before it melts."
"Harry, have you looked at the weather forecast? It's not going to melt any time soon."
Harry, who never as much as touched the newspapers, shook his head. "No," he admitted. "How do the wizards to weather forecast anyway? I there a spell for it?"
Alduin chuckled, taking off his wet cloak and heading to the fireplace in the afternoon parlour. "There are monitoring spells for the atmospheric phenomena, yes, but the actual forecasting is done exactly as in the Muggle world – by actually experts in the field working with the data."
"But, I mean, can't we predict the future?" Harry asked, joining him. "There's that prophecy..."
Alduin extended his freezing hands towards the fire. "Actual, legitimate prophecies are rare, done by Seers when they are inspired – not on demand – and often difficult to decipher. They would be useless to predict weather. Then you have all those people attempting to read the future in the tea leaves and such, but well..."
"It doesn't work?" Harry frowned. "Why do they do it, if it doesn't work?"
"Well, some Seers claim that it can help to inspire them – that's how all of those practices originated. But the success rate of that is very low, and mostly, it's just about people who are not very...magically competent attempting to earn some easy money."
"But why does anyone believe them?" The boy insisted.
"Harry, none of the fortune tellers in the Muggle world are genuine, and yet many Muggles still believe them. Why do you think that is?" Alduin asked, leaving the fireplace to pour out the tea that had appeared.
"Well, that's different. Witches and wizards know what real magic looks like, they shouldn't fall for that!" Harry insisted.
"But prophesying always looked different from all other forms of magic, at least as different as herbs and potions are from spell-casting. In fact, there is even some discussion about whether it should be called magic at all, or whether it should be regarded as a special kind of gift altogether. There are known Seers who had no other magical powers. But magic detectors do pick up on it, so..."
But Harry was caught by a different idea. "Muggle Seers? Really? Could I know any of them? Like, were they famous among Muggles or something?"
Alduin sighed. "It's not exactly my field, but remind me to tell Alexandra to devote one History class to that. Even though I expect she will be as thrilled with the topic as I am."
-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-
AN: I started to headcanon Minerva and Augusta as cousins when McGonnagal referred to her by her first name in HBP and I was like, but wait, there would be too much of an age difference between them for them to be friends from school, unless the Longbottoms had children significantly later than what seems to be the norm in the wizarding world, so...of course! Relatives! And they were alike enough to make it really work to my mind. Of course based on the Pottermore information, Minerva would be the right age to be Augusta's school friend, since it makes her about 10 years younger that JKR's original statement that she was 70 at the time of the end of GoF...but I think I'll just ignore it. I like the hc too much, just as I like the idea of her being at school with Riddle too much.