With Harry knowing the basics of his past and who he was, Sirius and Remus were eager to begin the process of introducing him to other witches and wizards his age. They wracked their heads trying to recall which families had kids near his age. Since muggle-born witches and wizards would not know of their talent for quite awhile, and Sirius could only imagine how the parents would react if an owl landed in their room asking the child to come for tea.
Especially before said child had displayed the first signs of accidental magic. Harry had yet to do any, but no one was concerned. Wasn't defeating Voldemort stronger magic than the most powerful of wizards?
"I know that Augusta Longbottom has taken over caring for Neville," Remus suggested. "He'll be in Harry's year."
"Ah, but we'd have to go through Augusta," Sirius half-teased, half shuddered.
They'd been friends with him at school, and he'd been downright fearful of her. The woman was certainly the matriarch of the family.
"We can have Neville here for a few times, and entertain his grandmother. Keep her from scaring the robes off of poor Harry," Remus offered. "Anyway, she strikes me as being rather pleasant in public."
Sirius snorted, but added Neville's name to the parchment.
"The Weasleys have at least five children," Remus noted. "I expect that one would be within a year or so of Harry."
"Ah yes, the 'blood traitors.'" Sirius grinned. "They were cut off from the family tree at least a hundred years before I was born. Wouldn't know anything about them, were it not for dear Uncle Alphard. Arthur married Molly Prewett at about the beginning of the dark days, as I recall."
Remus nodded. "Fabian and Gideon were among the first Voldemort killed who didn't meet his 'typical' criteria."
"You mean that they weren't muggle born or related to half-breeds or anything like that," Sirius corrected. "Pure-blood wizards who fought against them."
"Well, yes."
Sirius sighed. He hadn't known either of them very well, as they were nearly at least fifteen years older than him, but they had fought together in the Order...well, until Voldemort's men killed him.
"What about your cousin, Andromeda? Doesn't she have a daughter?" Remus asked, after several moments of silence.
"Nymphadora. Much as I love Andromeda, I can't think what was going through her mind when she chose that name. Must have been some powerful pain relief potion from the delivery." Sirius chuckled. "Pretty sure she's going by Dora. Anyway..." He paused, thinking. "She's about twelve. Bit old to have as a friend."
"They are your family, though, and Harry could have a female relative in his life who hasn't traumatized him," Remus reminded him. "When was the last time you visited your cousin?"
"Almost a year ago," Sirius admitted. "All right. We'll pay another visit."
"Of course," Remus noted, "if Narcissa finds out, she might insist that Harry and Draco-"
Sirius swore before his best friend could finish the sentence. "I will not have a bloody Death Eater associating with my pup."
"Draco is a child," Remus said, quietly.
Sirius snorted. "Dudley Dursley was a child, and perfectly capable of tormenting Harry."
"Because his parents encouraged him at every turn, if I recall correctly," Remus noted. "A child can hardly behave otherwise if his parents are instructing him to do so, and spoiling him at every turn." At Sirius' grunt, Remus continued, "I'm not suggesting we invite Draco and his parents over to tea, Padfoot. I'm only alerting you of what may happen when word comes out that he's socializing with other witches and wizards."
"I'll deal with that when the time comes. Sorry," he added, quickly. "We will, I mean."
Remus put his hand around Sirius' shoulders. "You're his guardian, after all."
"Ah, but you're his uncle. You're helping me raise him, Moony." He grinned. "You can't shirk your responsibilities, there."
Remus squeezed Sirius' shoulders, briefly, before letting go. "Wouldn't think of it. Now, let's see. What about the Nott family? I know they have a history of being in Slytherin, but they didn't join Voldemort at the height of his power..."
Sirius added the family name to the list.
In the end, they almost needn't have bothered. Once he sent out a few owls, numerous other invites arrived. Names of families he'd forgotten-in part because they were half-blood families, which showed that even he could be rather forgetful-sent owls of congratulations and requests for "the dear Harry Potter" to join their family for tea, and meet their children. While Sirius and Remus both knew that some of the invitations were purely political in nature, as further investigation revealed that many of these "children" were in or finishing Hogwarts, many were quite sincere.
"We won't overwhelm him," Sirius determined, sifting through the letters. "Perhaps one visit a week, at least in the beginning."
"That sounds reasonable," Remus agreed, also going over a separate stack of letters, dividing them into two piles. "Merlin knows he could use the socialization, but not all at once."
In the end, they decided to have families over at Grimmauld Place, tightening the security so that they could only visit the one time (unless approved for later visits), and still rendering the home Untraceable and Unplottable. The potion might protect Harry and his guardians from harm, but they could not be too cautious.
Besides, even though Apparating into a person's home was the height of rudeness, Harry Potter was so famous that some families might be tempted to ignore this.
The first visitors would be the Longbottoms. Remus would, of course, entertain Augusta while Sirius and Harry spent time with Neville.
"Mostly because Augusta scares me half to death," Sirius joked, on the morning of the visit. "You'd do better with her than I would."
Remus rolled his eyes. "She's a lovely woman, just fierce."
"You just keep thinking that, Moony," Sirius teased. "Come on. Let's get Harry ready to meet his first friend."
Author's note:
Bit of a short chapter, but in light of how difficult this fic is turning out to write, I wanted to finish the setup before moving onto the meeting. I'm hoping that the next part will be easier. I do intend on having Harry and Andromeda (who he'll probably call "Aunt Andromeda" or some variation) meet...soon.
As always, feedback would be most helpful. Perhaps, I'll even use your ideas and find the writing of the next chapters to be less like pulling teeth! :)