Chapter Forty-One

Harry and his family appeared at Aunt B's house. Not five seconds after they had appeared, Dee popped in with the trunk, shrunk in her hands.

"Where should Dee bes setting up your home?" she asked them.

"You can set it in the room Harry used when he stayed over," said Aunt B., "thank you."

Dee nodded at them and popped out.

Remus sighed, "what should we do first?"

Aunt B smiled, "first, you need to let the school know about Harry's change in guardianship," she said with a sigh, " Petunia will have to sign guardianship over to you."

"I'll get her to sign tomorrow," said Sirius with an evil grin, "I'm sure she'll do anything she can to help us."

They all chuckled at that.

"We can use my phone number for an emergency contact," said Aunt B, "I don't trust the not-so little bully to behave himself."

Remus nodded grimly, "he'll go after Harry."

"And then he'll go to jail," grinned Sirius, "I'll bet the ostrich and the walrus will make him behave after they have to bail his butt out of jail."

Augusta smiled, "sounds right."

Sirius grinned at them, "so," he said, "let's celebrate! We're finally shot of them for the most part. What should we do to celebrate?"

"Pizza!" squealed Harry, clapping his hands.

Remus clapped him on the back, "you got it, cub. Let's go grab Neville, then we can discuss toppings and whatever else we want to do."

"Okay!" exclaimed the excited boy, all but jumping in his shoes.

…..

Albus had flooed back to his office to find everything as it was. Fawkes still sat on his perch, and the gadgets and trinkets he'd set the bird to watch were still puffing and whirring merrily. He nodded to himself before heading toward the Great Hall for dinner.

He smiled to himself as he watched the Hall fill up. At least the stupid bird is still under the potion, he thought, Maybe that last dose worked better than I thought.

He smile down at the students, new and old, and stroked his long beard as he thought and planned. This time next year, Harry Potter will be at Hogwarts. Then all my hard work will come together. He only hoped that the mutt and the wolf wouldn't mess up his plans more than they already had. He'd been hoping to have Hagrid 'rescue' the boy and take him for his shopping, taking care of other business as well. That would make the boy curious and get him on the trail of the stone. He also knew he could confound Hagrid to conveniently "forget" to tell the boy things.

He knew however that now this wouldn't work. Black and Lupin would want to explain to Harry about magic and take him shopping as well as taking him to the train. This negated the plan to have Molly Weasley "show" him how to get to the platform, leaving an easy in for her son Ronald to befriend him. How to get them to make friends?

Still deep in thought, he quickly dismissed dinner and headed for his own rooms. Maybe Harry could 'meet' the Weasleys while out shopping? No, on the train would be better. At least then the boy wouldn't have the wolf and mutt hanging over his shoulder. Yes, that's it, he thought, smiling to himself. He would be making a trip to the Burrow very soon.

….

The family was just settling down for pizza in their living room, when the fire suddenly flared green and Minerva's head was in the flames.

Quickly she explained what happened and the steps she'd taken to prevent Dumbledore finding out.

Remus smiled, "well if Fawkes is helping us, that's definitely a good thing."

Sirius nodded, "another pair of eyes and ears is always good, but especially if they belong to a phoenix."

Everyone agreed with that, even Harry could understand as he had read all he could find on everything. So far potions and magical creatures were his favorite subjects to read about. For the other subjects, he liked to take a more practical approach. Sirius and Remus had began training his wandless magic not long ago, and he couldn't wait until he could get a wand and REALLY start learning.

Minerva promised to update them, and Remus and Sirius promised they would make her a new mirror. They'd already made several pairs, but now they were working on a system based on the Muggle 'cell phone.' This version was designed so that all you had to do was say a person's name to the mirror to call them.

"We're still working on the runes for that, but with the Potter, Black, and Longbottom libraries we should figure it out in no time," said Remus.

"Everyone will want one of those," said Augusta, "these mirrors are so much easier on the knees than a floo call."

Both Minerva and Arabella voiced their agreement. After saying goodbye to Harry and Neville, she pulled her head from the fire.

"If it's so hard to floo call someone," Harry said looking at Augusta, "why don't people put in a higher one for calls and just use the fireplace to go places?"

Augusta ruffled his hair, "I don't know Harry. That's just the way it's always been."

Harry shrugged, "If Uncle Moony and Uncle Padfoot can figure out the mirrors, then everyone can use those to call people."

"You'll make a lot of money then," said Neville, "everyone will want one 'cause it's faster than owl post and easier than the floo."

Sirius ruffled Neville's hair, "true. But I think we'll wait to sell them til after we deal with Dumbles."

Remus nodded, "any advantage we can get is a good one."

Everyone nodded their agreement and settled down to eat their pizza.

….

After the pizza was devoured, they let the boys go off with Dee for another camp-out. They had been told that they were allowed to make a small fire and roast marshmallows for desert. Harry wanted to try making something he'd heard about from a friend who had visited his cousin in America and went camping – s'mores.

So Remus found a recipe then bought graham crackers and chocolate bars along with the marshmallows. Everyone was eager to try the new concoction.

Remus made a plate with the crackers and chocolate, and the boys roasted marshmallows and put one on each cracker, then covered it with another.

The family sat around the fire, enjoying the gooey treat and talking softly, content in the knowledge that, for now at least, all was well.