"It's time for another trip abroad," Alduin announced about a week after Harry used the Resurrection Stone, waking Harry from his soft melancholy he'd been steeped in ever since.

"Oh? Where to?" Harry asked curiously.

"Italy," Alduin replied with a smile.

That definitely caught Harry's attention. "Like Rome?" He asked.

Alduin nodded. "Yes, and Venice, and Milan, and Florence. Pisa, too, most likely. And it will be for a few days, without coming back home to sleep, as Italy is too far to Apparate reasonably."

"Will Alexandra come with us this time?" Harry wondered.

Alduin shook his head. "No. With Edric, there is one more reason for her to stay at home, and neither of the boys are in a state to travel now."

That was true enough – even Harry was beginning to find Wynn's tantrums a little tiring, and he imagined it would be even worse when travelling. And Edric was crying half the time these days, with his teething aches. "But won't she be overwhelmed, being alone here with both boys?" Harry worried.

Alduin smiled. "It's good of you to ask, but she'll have her mother here to help in our absence. We might go together during the school year at some point," he added, "but for a shorter trip, so that we can leave the children with her parents, completely, and at a point when they're not in such a...precarious state."

"So next year, then?" Harry asked with a grin. He'd heard all about how long the age of tantrums usually lasted in toddlers.

"Don't even joke about that," Alduin replied with a groan.

Two days later, they set off, and right from the beginning, Harry was amazed. In every city, there was something to take his breath away.

In Milan, it was mostly the incredibly huge wizarding shopping zone, many times bigger than the one in London. "Paris has something like that," Alduin told him, "but we didn't really have time to see last year. Maybe next time."

In Florence, it was the amazing gallery it took them most of the day to go through. Harry was tired and his back ached, but he had to admit the paintings were amazing. As was the evening view from the top of the cathedral.

They popped in to Pisa for just a short visit, and then it was off to Rome, where Harry was most thrilled by the Colosseum and Forum Romanum. "I like imagining all the noble Romans walking through here," he told his cousin.

"And the gladiators dying," Alduin added grimly. "Don't forget that part."

They saw museums, too, and the Sistine Chapel, but there Harry was a little disappointed. He couldn't see most of the paintings properly, given that they were all the way up on the high ceiling, and because of all the Muggles present, they couldn't really use omniculars. But St. Peter's church was even bigger inside than the cathedral in Florence, so that was something, Harry guessed.

The last city they went to was Venice, and that left Harry with rather mixed feelings. Floating around the city in a boat was nice, and some of the buildings were really impressive, but… "It's just so wet everywhere!" He complained. "It feels sort of...moldy?"

Alduin laughed. "Maybe I should have you read Mann."

Harry had no idea what it meant, so he only nodded vaguely and continued looking around. He might not like Venice as much as the other cities, but it was still an interesting experience.

The trip was also nice because it meant five evenings Harry could spend with Alduin, having dinner in some nice Italian restaurant, talking about anything that came to mind. One evening like that, they talked about Harry's feelings about meeting his parents, and another, they discussed Pettigrew's escape and what exactly it meant for the future, things Alduin had been unwilling to share over letters or even via the two-way mirror.

"Kingsley is trying to stop his return in its tracks now," he told Harry as they stuffed themselves with the best tiramisu Harry had ever tasted – not that he had tasted tiramisu that many times before. "But it's complicated. The Albanian Ministry is apparently not the most cooperative institution, and of course we can't exactly send people there without their government's say so. Plus, given that Kingsley still doesn't know whom to trust in his own department...it's a mess."

Harry was certainly glad it wasn't him who had to deal with the politics of it all.

After using Apparition to hop around Italy, they returned to London from Venice by Portkey. Alduin told him that on his own, he could probably make it from there to Travers Manor in just two Apparition jumps, with a stop in Paris, just as he could make it from the manor to Paris in only one jump, but that side-alonging was more difficult, and that it would have required three or four jumps and that, apart from being uncomfortable, would probably lead to Alduin splinching them in the last jump. Harry completely understood why his cousin preferred the Portkey.

After five days away, he was excited to see his little cousins again, even in spite of the crying and the temper tantrum that welcomed him home, but he was also full of new experiences and impatient to tell his friends about it. Draco, at least, would be eager to discuss the places with him, he knew that much, and asked his friend over the very next day to talk about it.

"Florence is my favourite," Draco said as they sat together in the garden. "Even the shopping zone there, I mean, it's not big, but it's just so interesting, you know?"

Harry did know. It was squeezed into a hidden floor of an ancient bridge, and it was unlike any other wizarding shopping zone Harry had ever seen. Not that he'd seen that many.

"Blaise swears by Milan," Draco continued, "but really, you can't beat Florence, not when it comes to Italy at least."

"So Blaise knows Italy too?" Harry wondered if all the purebloods were as well-travelled as all that. He knew Neville wasn't, but then that was a bit of a special case, as was Ron.

Draco nodded. "He's actually half-Italian," he explained, "and they have a house close to Milan or something, so really, he's just too biased."

"I think I liked Rome best," Harry admitted. "I mean, all the ancient stuff..."

"The Forum is cool," Draco conceded. "A pity there wasn't more preserved. Did your cousin take you on that tour about Roman magic?"

Harry shook his head. "We only really had two days there," he explained.

"Well, you have to go next time," Draco insisted. "It's fascinating."

Harry thought about all the things in the world he'd like to see, and then he thought about whether Riddle's return would give him the chance.

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Harry had kept up his correspondence with Sirius, and the man now invited him, as he'd promised, to see the Black family house for himself, so that he'd agree that Sirius was in the right in wanting to sell it.

"I'm all kinds of uncomfortable with letting you go there alone," Alduin admitted, "but I'm the last person Sirius would want in his house."

Harry considered this problem. "Well, I mean...you can take me, you know, and then you'll sort of naturally be there..."

"If you think Sirius will ask me in just because manners dictate it, you give him more credit than I do," Alduin said with a snort. "Nevertheless, it's probably the best option."

And so Alduin Apparated him to Grimmauld Place, and Harry knocked on the door of a house which, he had to admit, looked much less worth preserving than Travers Manor did.

Sirius opened the door, and scowled at Alduin. Nevertheless, he motioned them both inside.

"I'll just keep out of the way," Alduin muttered. "Show me a place where I can sit quietly and read, and that's all I need."

Sirius looked like he wanted to say something scathing, but restrained himself and took him to a drawing room which certainly looked like it had seen better years.

"The family tree will occupy me for a while," Alduin said with a smile.

Sirius scoffed. "Don't tell me you don't know it by heart."

"Most of it, yes," Alduin replied calmly, "but it'll be so interesting to see whom your mother burned away!"

Sirius grimaced. "Yes, I can start my show of horrors right here."

Alduin stepped to the tapestry, and focused on the burn marks. "Andromeda is gone, predictably. enough.." he muttered, "and so are you, I see...but why isn't your uncle in here?"

"He dared to give me money," Sirius said bitterly.

Alduin shook his head. "Your mother certainly took her grudges seriously. Wait...Cedrella? Seriously?"

"Well, she did marry a blood-traitor," Sirius said with a sneer.

"She's your great great aunt," Alduin explained to Harry, who stepped closer in curiosity, tracing the lines he knew from the family trees Alduin had shown him. "Mr. Weasley's mother, Ron's grandmother. She lives a retiring life now, since the death of her husband. But to erase her for a marriage to Septimus? It wasn't even...nowadays, it would be a little more comprehensible, but Septimus wasn't..." Alduin shook his head, bewildered.

"That's my mother for you," Sirius said. "Nothing was too fanatical for her. I can introduce you, Harry – she has a portrait in the hall. She delights in screaming insults at people. I wonder what she'd call you – probably half-blood scum."

There was a gleam in Alduin's eye. "I just might go have a chat with her."

"Be my guest," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "But do use silencing charms on the area, would you? I don't want t listen to your charming conversation. I don't doubt you'll have much in common."

Harry scowled at him. "I think I'd like to hear it, actually," he said. "At least to start with."

Sirius frowned uncertainly. "Are you sure?"

Harry nodded resolutely, and so they all headed to the hall and Sirius pulled back the curtains from a painting.

The woman in the picture took a deep breath, and then swept the two strangers with a suspicious look. "Who is this?" She asked.

"What charming manners," Alduin commented.

"You come to my house, you insolent rogue!" She spat.

Alduin raised his eyebrows. "I beg your pardon, but it is your son's house now."

"He is no son of mine," she hissed venomously.

Now Alduin looked amused. "Perhaps you forgot in your rage, but that tapestry of yours is actually not legally binding. You didn't disinherit him, not that you had the legal power to do so, so for all practical purposes, he is, and this is his house. You are suffered here, at most."

"How dare you- you- what scum have you brought to my house, you ungrateful brat!" She rounded on Sirius.

Alduin gave her an ironic smile. "From what I know, I am better company for this house than you have had for the last decade of your life at least. No one who mattered was willing to as much as greet you, were they? You see, treating your own blood badly...that's not the done thing in pureblooded circles. Are you sure you are not from a different stock?"

Sirius' mother looked about ready to explode. "This is a scandal! An affront!"

"I quite agree." Alduin shrugged. "But you are Sirius' mother, so I suppose he does feel some compunction about melting you with turpentine, though I can't imagine why."

"He wouldn't dare-" She began.

Sirius beamed. "Actually, that's a brilliant idea. Thank you for the tip, Alduin."

"Alduin? Alduin Travers?" Sirius' mother finally caught on. "So you take the side of my son now? Blood-traitors, all of you!"

"There are very few things I would ever take your son's side in," Alduin said with quiet rage in his tone, "but against you? Always. Because, you see, you are the only actual blood traitor in this room. It was you who turned on your own blood, not any of us. I wouldn't suffer such filth in my house for a moment." And with a disgusted shake of his head, Alduin returned to the drawing room, leaving Walburga speechless.

Harry and Sirius wandered on into the house in silence. Only once they were on another floor, Sirius remarked: "I knew they would get on amazingly. All that talk about bad stock and filth!"

Harry sighed. In truth, it made him a little uncomfortable as well, but he was certain – or almost certain – Alduin had only done it to rile Mrs. Black up. "You have to admit it silenced her," he said. "Is that really your mother?" He asked then, a bit incredulous. He had known from Alduin she had treated him badly, of course, but it was one thing to hear about it and quite another to see it with his own eyes.

"Well, you have heard her deny it, but biologically, there's no escaping the fact, I fear," Sirius said drily. "Though as a boy, I'd always hoped the fairies had left me."

Harry grinned at that. "I can definitely see why her presence in the house would make you hate it," he commented then, looking around the grim space.

"It's not just that." And Sirius took him to see the severed heads of house-elves mounted on the wall – Harry almost vomited right there, and remembered what Kiara had told him about the Black treatment of their elves – and the various showcases of Dark objects.

"What is here to preserve?" Sirius asked once they were done with the tour.

"But surely most of the damage was done by your mother?" Harry asked, trying desperately to find something positive to say.

Sirius shrugged. "Most of the burns on the tapestry, yes, and some of the collections, but not all. And the house-elf tradition is certainly many generations back."

Harry shook his head. This really was a terrible place. "It's just really hard to imagine my great-grandmother growing up here," he muttered.

"Well, she got out as soon as she could, or that's what your grandfather always said to me. She married directly out of Hogwarts, and I think wanting to never have to come back to this place was the main reason why she did. Not that I don't understand her."

Harry, too, could understand that perfectly. "And the other one?" He asked.

"The other one?" Sirius asked in confusion.

"Well, I have two Black great-grandmothers, don't I?" Harry pointed out.

Sirius shrugged. "I wouldn't know, I don't know the family trees by heart." The 'unlike some people' was obvious, though unvoiced.

Harry ignored it. "But I mean, she was the mother of the grandmother with which you stayed when you stayed with my dad," he pointed out. "She must have mentioned something."

"Oh, you mean Calliodora!" Sirius said with understanding. "But she never lived in this house."

That made Harry frown. He thought the Ancient family people always stayed in their ancestral houses, by and large. "How come?"

"The Black family was quite large at the time," Sirius explained. "There was a Black Manor, too, but some ancestor or another decided to buy this town house as well, and to put one of his sons it it when he married. Calliodora was from a different branch, and she lived in the Manor."

"What happened to the Manor?" Harry wondered.

Sirius thought about it. "I'm not sure. It should have come down to me as well, I suppose, since my father was technically the heir, but I don't know if they didn't arrange the will differently."

"You never checked?" Harry asked in surprise.

Sirius shook his head. "No. I never lived there. I was reluctant enough to go back here, I see no reason to interest myself in another part of the dreadful heritage of this family."

"But, I mean, what if it's better?" Harry insisted.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I'd have thought this place would be enough to convince you my family wasn't worth anything."

"I told you, I had two Black great-grandmothers," Harry said stubbornly. "I can't believe that. And it changes everything...I mean, if the Manor was the real ancestral seat of the family, then I guess selling this house wouldn't be such a big deal...just, you know, make sure there isn't anything actually good left behind."

"I think that if there was anything actually good here, my mother would have thrown it out a long time ago."

Harry had to concede that was likely. "I found some mementos of your parents, though," Sirius said, brightening up. "Let me show you."

Seeing the photo of him zooming in and out of the picture on a toy broom, Harry had to laugh. So much like Wynn! And it was nice, too, to see his parents differently than in that melancholy state of mind they appeared form the Resurrection Stone. Sirius made a copy for him, and Harry cherished it as he collected Alduin and they returned back to Travers Manor. Perhaps, the next time he was allowed to talk to his parents, he could show them?

This, he couldn't help thinking, was exactly why family heritage was important, whatever Sirius thought. Though maybe, if he'd grown up in a house like that, he'd have seen things differently as well…

It was food for some serious thought, but as it happened, Harry came home to find Wynn in a good mood, and that quickly drove any philosophical contemplations out of his head. Who had time for that when you could go flying with your baby cousin?

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AN: The boys are very much repeating my own opinions of the great Italian cities. Forum Romanum is the best.