AN: Happy new year, everyone! The plot starts to move a liiittle in this one again.

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Neville and Mrs. Longbottom came for dinner to Travers Manor only a day after another garden party, this one at the Ollivanders, and Harry didn't hesitate in telling his friend all about it as soon as the guests entered the drawing room. They boy was looking more and more morose, however, and finally he sighed and said: "I kind of wish I could go sometimes, too."

"Why doesn't your grandmother take you, then?" Harry asked. He had been curious about this for a long time, but always felt it awkward to ask. Now he felt his opportunity.

Neville, however, muttered something incomprehensible and blushed.

Harry was considerate enough to change the topic, but he didn't forget about it and at dinner, only waited for a lull in the conversation before asking: "Mrs. Longbottom, why doesn't Neville ever come with you to garden parties?"

Neville looked like he wanted to sink in the ground, but Harry's eyes didn't leave his grandmother.

"He wouldn't know how to act," she replied. "He's too young."

Harry took a breath to argue, but caught his cousins warning glance and reluctantly changed tack. "But he will come if there's ever going to be one at Travers Manor, won't he? I'd be really sad if he didn't!"

Mrs. Longbottom seemed to hesitate. "I suppose," she said. "Especially if it was a smaller gathering."

Harry beamed at her. He very much doubted any garden party his cousin would throw after his wedding would be a smaller gathering, but they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.

He felt like he won a small victory, but after the guests left, Alduin approached him with a frown. "Harry," he said, "you should be more considerate of your friend's feelings."

"What do you mean? I did it for him!"

"Did you even asked Neville if he wanted you to do this for him?"

"He told me he wished he could go!"

"Yes, but it doesn't necessarily follow he wished you to confront his grandmother about it."

Harry kept frowning, and even though he didn't say anything, it was clear he disagreed.

"You managed the situation quite well," Alduin conceded after a moment, "but next time, find Mrs. Longbottom at a party or in the drawing room and speak to her privately, where Neville cannot hear, okay?"

"Okay," Harry conceded.

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After months of terse silence, Dumbledore contacted Alduin in mid-May to give him Harry's Gringotts key, and to make a demand. "You may be Harry's closest adult living relative," he said, "but his parents had friends, friends to whom they had been closer than to you, and Harry should meet them as well. I wish for him to be introduced to Hagrid."

Alduin raised an eyebrow. This whole visit was very untoward. Dumbledore had Flooed to Travers Manor without much prior warning and demanded to speak with him, and now he has this kind of odd request? "Why Hagrid?" He asked. "You are right that I wasn't particularly close with James and Lily, but, nevertheless, I am aware that there are many who they had been closer to than Hagrid." Of course, most of them were dead, imprisoned or in hospital, but still.

"It was Hagrid who saved Harry from the ruin of his home and brought him to the Dursleys, and he much wishes to meet him now. I had planned to give him the opportunity when the time came to deliver Harry's Hogwarts letter, but given your...interference, it will have to be arranged in a different matter."

Alduin was still convinced there was something else behind this strange request, but it was better not to antagonize Dumbledore more than strictly necessary. "Very well," he said. "Tell him he can come for tea today, or during the weekend."

"Come here?" Dumbledore asked, surprised.

"Where else?"

"I'd have thought you'd prefer for him not to visit your ancestral home."

Alduin narrowed his eyes. "Dumbledore, if you're trying to imply speciesism on my part, I would thank you to take such suggestions elsewhere. I'll be glad to welcome Hagrid here. You, on the other hand, I do not remember asking."

"No need to get so prickly, my boy! I simply thought your grandmother wouldn't have appreciated it. Better make sure his portrait is not present when Hagrid comes!"

"It was pleasant talking to you, Dumbledore," Alduin replied and left the room, waiting just behind the door until he heard the sound of Floo, and then checking of Dumbledore had really left.

It was stupid to get so riled up, of course. It was without a doubt intentional provocation on Dumbledore's part, likely aimed at distracting him from thinking about the reasons for this little idea. But even after he set the distraction aside, he couldn't figure it out.

Hagrid sent a quick Floo confirmation that he would make an appearance in the afternoon, and so Alduin used lunch as an opportunity to prepare Harry. "Hagrid is...big." He said. "About twice as tall as a regular man, and he can look a little wild, but he is a very good man, if nto oen fo the brightest. He works at Hogwarts, as Keeper of Keys and Grounds."

"Is he your friend?" Harry asked, sounding very surprised.

Alduin grimaced. "Not exactly. He used to be friendly with your parents, however, and wished to meet you."

"With my mum or with my dad?" Harry asked immediately.

"With both of them." Alduin paused. "Mainly when they were adults already, and the...sillier things your father used to do became somewhat scarcer."

"Sillier things?" Harry asked incredulously. "You told me he used to attack Professor Snape without due provocation!"

Alduin sighed. Finding the right balance was hard sometimes. "You are right. Less good things, then, let's say."

Harry nodded, but stared a little morosely into his shepherd's pie.

Hagrid arrived on time, in a dreadful brown suit, and looked very awkward on the sofa in the afternoon parlour. "My cousin said you knew my parents?" Harry asked as soon as the introductions were over.

"That I did!" Hagrid replied immediately. "As good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! But yer bound to know all of this."

Harry, however, was frowning. "You say my father was as good a wizard as you ever knew," he said, "but my cousin told me he used to attack Professor Snape when they were together at school."

Alduin winced. Hagrid shifted in his seat, the sofa creaking ominously, and his eyes darted to the lord of the manor for the smallest moment. "Well," he said, "yeah, that's...that's true enough. They were always after each other, yer dad an' Professor Snape. Nasty, it sometimes got. Suppose he wasn't always in the right. But yer mum, now, nothing can be said against her, can it?"

"I don't know," Harry replied. "I didn't know her. I never heard anything bad, but then, my cousin says he didn't know her very well, and Professor Snape was her friend, so of course he wouldn't say bad things about her." Harry sounded a little anxious. "She was truly nice, wasn't she?"

"Yeah, the nicest there was, and always gave yer dad hell for the way he treated Professor Snape. Wouldn't go out with him until he stopped."

Harry looked relieved. "And if you knew my dad...did you know Sirius Black, too?" He asked then.

Hagrid's face immediately turned dark. "So I did – filthy, stinkin' turncoat that he was."

"Was my father influenced by him a lot?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"Well...in tormenting Professor Snape. I always though...it must have been Black's idea, must it not?"

"I never though about that," Hagrid replied. "I never knew who started it. But yer right, it musta bin Black. They tended to egg each other on...it musta bin him who started it." Hagrid's scowl deepened. "I met him," he said. "It was me what rescued you from yer parents' house after they was killed! Jus' got you outta the ruins, poor little thing, with a great slash across yer forehead… an' Sirius Black turns up, on that flyin' motorbike he used ter ride. Never occurred ter me what he was doin' there. Thought he'd jus' heard the news o' You-Know-Who's attack an' come ter see what he could do. White an' shakin', he was. An' yeh know what I did? I COMFORTED THE MURDERIN' TRAITOR!" He roared.

Harry flinched, and Alduin laid a calming hand on his forearm for a moment.

"How was I ter know he wasn' upset abou' Lily an' James?" Hagrid continued. "It was You-Know-Who he cared abou'! An' then he says, 'Give Harry ter me, Hagrid, I'm his godfather, I'll look after him —' Ha! But I'd had me orders from Dumbledore, an' I told Black no, Dumbledore said you was ter go ter yer aunt an' uncle's. Black argued, but in the end he gave in. Told me ter take his motorbike ter get you there. 'I won't need it anymore,' he says. I shoulda known there was somethin' fishy goin' on then. He loved that motorbike, what was he givin' it ter me for? Why wouldn' he need it anymore? Fact was, it was too easy ter trace. But what if I'd given you to him, eh? I bet he'd've pitched you off the bike halfway out ter sea. His bes' friends' son! But when a wizard goes over ter the Dark Side, there's nothin' and no one that matters to em anymore…"

Alduin frowned. The last thing he needed was Harry being fed this kind of nonsensically demonized view of Death Eaters. Before he could say something, however, Harry asked: "But wait, why did Dumbledore give you orders to give me to my Ant and Uncle? Did he suspect Black?"

"Dunno, do I? Suppose so. Dumbledore knows a lot."

"But if he suspected Black, why didn't he told my dad?"

"Harry," Alduin interjected, "remember that Dumbledore knew who was the Secret Keeper. Once your parents were dead, it was clear that either Black betrayed them, or he had been caught and tortured. Of course the first possibility would have occurred to Dumbledore."

"Okay, so no Black," Harry conceded, "but why the Dursleys? Why not Neville's parents?"

"That is something you'll have to ask him yourself," Alduin replied.

Harry frowned into his tea.

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Ron was visiting again, and as they walked in the gardens, Harry was busy telling him and Neville about the trip to London he'd made with Alduin only two days ago. "We saw the National Gallery," he said, "and then we went through Whitehall – that's where the Muggle government is – and my cousin told me all about how they communicate with our Ministry, and then we saw the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey and he took me to the London Eye – it's a big wheel that gives you this awesome view of London. We had lunch out, too, and everything. It was awesome."

"Yeah, must have been," Ron said, and he sounded bitter and irritated.

Harry sighed. He studiously avoided mentioning the opulent garden parties he went to or the way Alduin shopped before Ron, but he had thought this wouldn't irritate him so much. It was just a trip to town! He'd just wanted to tell his friends about it!

"It must be nice to have so much money to spare," Ron continued. "You visit museums and galleries and eat out, and meanwhile, I won't even have a new wand for Hogwarts."

"Ron," Harry said, frustrated, "I'm sorry about that, but what can I do?"

"Nothing, that's just it, isn't it? It's just not fair! Why should you have it all – the money and the front pages of the Prophet and everything?"

Harry was too shocked to answer, but Neville said quietly: "Ron, you do realize Harry became famous after his parents died, right?"

"Of course you wouldn't understand," Ron replied, kicking a rock. "You're almost as rich as he is."

The visit ended soon after that, on a very awkward note.

"I wish," Harry muttered at dinner, "Ron had more money."

"So does he, I'm sure," Alduin replied.

"Yeah, he does. But, I mean, he's a real prat sometimes, and I really think mostly it's exactly when he realizes how much more money me or Neville have. I know you told me I shouldn't, but could I tell him how I lived when I was with the Dursleys? Maybe he would feel less sorry for himself then."

Alduin frowned. "I'd much rather you didn't. I have no faith in his discretion, and it would cause a huge scandal if the word got about."

Harry sighed. "And you wonder why I talk to Draco so much," he said. "He is the only one whose family is normal!"

Alduin was very glad Mrs. Longbottom was not here to hear this pronouncement, but he did see Harry's point. The Malfoys were very far from being the norm, but they were probably closer to it than either the Weasleys or that august lady.

Harry, understanding why it would be a scandal, did not insist on asking Draco to visit, but he spent a good part of every party with him – and sometimes with Daphne, too. Alduin considered the situation. He could control it now, but once Harry was at Hogwarts, he would be free to make his own decisions, and while Alduin wanted him to be friendly with the Slytherins – that feud was just too absurd for words – there was no need to make the Gryffindor side consider him a traitor. Neville was probably firmly established as Harry's best friend already – and a good thing, too, since he was the best of many bad choices – but as distasteful as it was, good relationship with the Weasleys was important for a Gryffindor family. Which meant...wheels started to turn in Alduin's head.