London
Andromeda Tonks had just arrived in her office to begin her day when she found an owl pecking on the window to her office. It was an owl as black as the night with amber eyes and a cruel looking beak. Andromeda's breath hitched in her throat when she recognized it. She knew that this particular species of owl was especially bred in the Black Castle (though she could not remember the location of the castle). This was usually used by the Lord of the House when he was writing a letter and acting in that capacity.
She had been ousted from the Black family about 20 years ago. Never once in the last two decades had she received so much as a scrap of parchment from Arcturus Orion Black. She mused over what he could possibly want from her now. They were already ousted from the family. Not even once in the last two decades had she heard from her parents or her sisters. True she saw Narcissa at some social events but the look of disdain that Narcissa gave her was sufficient to tell her that her sister had no love lost for her.
The owl tapped again. She flicked her wand, opening the window inwards. When the owl landed on her table, she got a better look at it. The slight silver and green tint at the edge of its wings was unique to the owls bred by the House of Black. There was no doubt now that Arcturus was writing to her. Curiously she freed the owl of his burden offering it an owl treat. The owl took off not waiting for a reply. With trembling hands, she opened the letter. It read:
"Dear Andromeda
I suppose that you are wondering why I am writing to you after two decades of silence. But two decades is too long to wait. Neither have I received a letter from you in all this time. Until recently, I have been away so I could not write to you either. I am writing to you to end this long silence.
I know that I have no authority to order you to do anything. I am inviting you and your family to join House Black in Yule celebrations this evening at the Townhouse at Grimmauld Place. I am sure you remember where it is.
Arcturus Orion Black
Lord of House Black."
The letter was in the slant cursive handwriting of her grand-father. He had taken the trouble of writing to her after almost 20 years. In his usual terse manner, he did not even bother telling her the purpose of this visit. He simply invited her. Still, it would not be amiss to accept his invitation for once.
She had loved her family when she was little. Despite their anti-muggle attitude, she loved all of them and was not budged even by their pureblood tripe. When she left her family home to marry her husband, she had not thought about going back to them. The mannerisms of being a Black had never left her though and her deportment reflected in everything she did. She was still a Black in her heart even if not in name.
She also used to look fondly upon Arcturus Orion Black who was a model figure to her. He was the perfect father, perfect husband and the loving grand-father who she thought would not abandon her. When she left her home, she thought that he would call for her, that he would not let others banish her from the family. It stung when he did nothing of the sort and let her mother get away with it. Maybe, she could at least ask the questions that she wanted to after all these years. There was a little hope in her that maybe he would reinstate her into the family. Somewhere in a corner of her heart, she still yearned to be recognized as a Black.
She would have to get Nymphadora to agree to it though and that might be an uphill battle. Nymphadora was her father's daughter. That meant she would have to ask Ted first. If he agreed, Nymphadora would definitely agree to follow them.
She found Ted in his office busy reading a file. "Ted", she called.
He raised his head and gave a smile to her, "Yes love?"
She showed the letter to him. He read the letter then mulled over it for a few minutes before he asked her, "What should we do about it?"
She hesitantly said, "I want to go. I know it may be bad but I just have to ask some questions of him."
He quietly hugged her, "I will follow you anywhere Dromeda."
She quietly said, "Umm... what do we tell Nymphadora though? He has asked me to bring her with us."
He nodded, "Well, she will just have to put her grudges aside for once today."
Nymphadora Tonks their daughter was a metamorphmagus. A metamorphmagus is one who can change their appearance with a thought and they are very rare. It is a skill which cannot be acquired but one is born with it. One of the biggest drawbacks of this ability was that the metamorph could never keep their balance and tended to trip over nothing. In other words, they were most clumsy.
It was a gift of the Black family but it had not manifested for about 300 years now. She was the first Black to be born with the ability in quite a while but she did not know that. For her, the Blacks were a subject of scorn except for Sirius. She could only remember scattered glimpses of him coming to their house and bringing Honeydukes chocolates for her when she was little.
When Ted floo called to his home and asked her to come with them to the Black Townhouse, she was initially reluctant but agreed when Andromeda assured her that she would not do something which was not agreeable to her. Nymphadora knew her mother still yearned in her heart to return to her house at times. She could be amenable to her wishes for a little while.
Return of the daughter
They arrived in the entrance chamber of the Townhouse where Arcturus and Sirius were waiting for them. The children were away for the day. There were just the three of them. Remus was working on something in his room.
Arcturus beamed at Andromeda, "Andy, welcome home."
She tried to show courtesy to him but he was having none of it. He lightly hugged her and kissed the top of her forehead. Andromeda thought she saw a tear in the old wizard's eye but the next moment she felt she must have imagined it because his eyes were quite dry.
Nymphadora was the next to come. She tripped over something which he could not see. She didn't even try to show courtesy to him. It did not go unnoticed by him but other than a look to Andromeda, nothing was said. Andromeda was inwardly embarrassed. She knew she should have taught her daughter the basic manners of the pureblood families but she had forgotten about it over the years.
He jovially addressed her, "So you are Nymphadora. I am your great grand-father Arcturus Black."
She said through gritted teeth, "Do not call me Nymphadora."
Sirius snickered. Before he could say anything, the floo roared for the third time. Ted Tonks stepped out. He was about to extend a hand to Arcturus to shake his hand but Andromeda stepped in before he could do so. She said, "Grand-father, this is my husband, Edward Tonks." She turned to Ted, "Edward, this is my grand-father Lord Arcturus Orion Black."
Edward extended his hand to him, "Mr. Black, it is a pleasure to meet you finally. Please call me Ted."
Arcturus was amused. It reflected in his words, "You can call me Lord Black or Grand-father if you wish to."
Sirius in the meanwhile had hugged Andromeda joyfully, "Andy, I could swear that you are getting younger every day. You have not changed a bit."
She rolled her eyes, "Could not resist complimenting me still, Sirius? I see Azkaban failed to dent your humour."
Sirius said in a mock sigh of relief, "Finally someone appreciates my humour. I was starting to have self-doubts with everyone taking a shot at my humour."
"She just doesn't want to tell you the harsh truth, Padfoot. Your humour is indeed lame", said Moony who had just entered the entrance chamber, "As I remember, she was always kind to you.".
Andromeda was surprised, "Remus Lupin! Where have you been hiding all these years?"
Arcturus said, "Would you have all of your questions answered here? Come now."
Sirius led them to the meeting room. On the way, she took in the house. She was surprised with all the changes that had been made to it. She could not see a trace of her former home in this new remodelled house. Even the wall with the heads of the dead house elves was gone. The old gas lights were replaced with new ever burning torches. The chandelier looked grand and better than the last one. The staircase which led upwards was wider now than it used to be. She could not see the kitchen but she thought it would have been similarly remodelled. The house shone as compared to the dark eerie appearance which used to pervade it earlier.
He offered seats to them at the table in the meeting room. When they were seated, Arcturus turned to her, "I suppose that you have a lot of questions for me. Can you contain your curiosity long enough to partake of some refreshments first?"
He snapped his fingers. With a crack, Kreacher appeared holding trays of food. He placed them on the table before them. With a quick bow and a hesitant smile (atleast that is what it looked like) to Andromeda, he disappeared.
After they were all done with refreshments, he turned to her again, "Ask your questions but I pray you to ask them one by one."
She took a deep breath and thought about questions she had to ask. She decided to start with the one which had nagged at her all these years, "Why did you not send me a letter before today?"
Arcturus sighed, "That is my mistake, Andromeda. When you left the house, I was not here but in France with Melania. I had given freedom to my children to take their decision for themselves. I trusted them to do what they thought was best for them. When I knew that you had walked out of the family, I did not try to contact you because I did not want to cause a disturbance in my family. As it is, most of them had already pledged to fight for Voldemort (the Tonks' shuddered). I feared for your safety and that of your husband if I tried to bring you back."
She nodded, "You thought that my parents and my sisters would be able to walk all over me? The same blood flows in my veins, grand-father. However that's all water under the bridge now. My second question is why was I banished from the family?"
Arcturus said, "As a matter of fact, you were never banished, Andy. Druella had come to me with the request to banish you from the family but I told her, in no uncertain terms, that I would not do this. It was not in her power to do it without my authority."
She was surprised to say the least, "But I thought you had banished me from the family tree."
Arcturus smirked, "Did you ever get a decree from Gringotts telling you that your trust vault is taken back by the family? In fact, Ripfang told me that you had withdrawn all the money in your trust vault a week after you had left the family. I told him to refill the vault and allow you to withdraw as much as you like. I did not close your trust vault until two years had passed and you never made another withdrawal."
She asked him, "When you were doing so much for me, why did you not at least send a message to me or come find me?"
He sighed, "I wanted to but by then Bellatrix had pledged her loyalty to Voldemort and Narcissa was slated to marry Malfoy. I wanted to reach out to you but the House of Black was descending into the dark. They would not tolerate muggle born under their roof. I feared for the safety of Edward and you. Sure, you are a Black but he had too many followers with him. I could not risk it."
She did not say anything for some time while she pondered over his words. His reasons made sense to her yet she felt kind of disappointed. She also had not tried to send an owl to him. She had simply assumed that Arcturus endorsed their actions. There were still a few questions to be answered though. She asked him, "Why come back now? Why ask me if I would like to be a part of the family?"
Rather than giving a straight answer, he asked her, "Why do we do things we do for people we love?" He then proceeded to answer her question, "I want my family to stay together. We have lived apart for far too long. I want them to be together. I do not ask anything of you but to tell you that you are a part of the family as you always have been."
She asked the next question, "What have you done with the house? I mean I am pleasantly surprised with the changes you have brought to this place but I kind of expected to find myself in the place where I grew up."
He chuckled, "That would be Harry's doing. He said that he did not like the feel of the place that it looked like a house of dark wizards."
She raised an eyebrow, "Harry who?"
Arcturus said amused, "Do you mean to say that you do not know that Hadrian Potter-Black is my heir."
She remembered then, "Oh right. I remember reading that the House of Black had raised him. But I dismissed it as just more of the sensational lies that The Daily Prophet publishes."
He smirked, "In this case, that rag was telling the truth. He is my ward. Remus here helped me raise him since he was a wee lad about 3 years old. Cassiopeia doted on the boy and taught him all the mannerisms expected of heirs of houses."
She looked around the room and asked him, "So, where is he? What does he look like?"
Sirius answered this time, "He is visiting Hogsmeade today with the Weasley children. They are our guests for the winter holidays. He looks a lot like James except that he has Lily's eyes. He seems to have the best characteristics of both of them."
Andromeda remembered something she had on her mind lately, "Sirius, I had been meaning to write to you since you were exonerated but I could not gather the courage to do so. When you were arrested for betraying James and Lily and killing Pettigrew with those muggles, I accepted the fact like everyone else. I never stopped to think that you would have died for James, if the need be. I want to apologize for thinking so."
He waved her off, "Andy, it is all in the past now. I have no qualms. There is nothing to apologize for. Peter was even able to hoodwink Dumbledore and we are but ordinary when compared to him."
Hogwarts
Voldemort was having a hard time. He of course had not yet been able to find a way past the beast. Since the winter holidays had started, Severus had been more alert. He kept a watchful eye on his movements. He could outduel Severus but then it would have come out into the open that he had been possessing Quirrell.
The possession was a different issue altogether. It took a lot out of him. At times, it even threatened his meagre existence. To keep his vitality and vigour intact, he would have to find some way other than the stone to stay alive long enough to obtain the Philosopher's Stone. With the stone, he could create a body for himself. Then, with the elixir of life, he could be immortal.
If Severus helped him, he could get his wish sooner but he was not yet sure of Severus's loyalties. He had been loyal when Voldemort was in a body but now he could just as easily hand him over to the ministry. Then his secret would be out. Everyone would know that he was possessing Quirrell. No, he would obtain a body before he showed himself to anyone else.
In the meanwhile, he was looking for an alternative to the elixir of life, something that could grant him a life even if it was a cursed one. He was sitting in the library poring over the books which were deemed dark and out of bounds for the students. However as he was possessing the Defense teacher at the moment, inspecting those books would not be taken amiss by anyone, not even the old fool.
He picked up a book titled 'The curse of half-life." It was an obscure book which he had not found in the library ever before. May be the magic of the castle was assisting him to find something to help him. He had once heard Dumbledore say something of the sort "Help is given at Hogwarts to those who need it." Maybe it was true, after all.
He also wanted to get his Horcrux out of the Room of Hidden things but Snape always kept an eye on him. His going into a place where he was not needed at all would look suspicious. His secret could be out in the open. Besides it was safe where it was for now. There was no one who could know about the room except him so it would still be safe there.
He took a table and started to read the book. Maybe it could help him out of his predicament.
Black Townhouse
When the children returned to the Black Townhouse, it was full of people. In the meeting room, Arcturus was sitting with three more people that Harry had never seen before. One was a woman who had a royal air about her which was common for the Blacks. Harry guessed she was a daughter of the house. A pot-bellied jovial man was sitting on the other side of her. He looked slightly bewildered as if he had no idea what he was doing here. The third was a young lady with bubble gum pink hair. She resembled the woman beside her in appearance.
"Hadrian, come here", called Arcturus.
Harry knew he had to be at the best of his manners. Arcturus never addressed him as Hadrian unless it was important. When he approached the table, the woman stood from her place and beamed at him, "Harry! You look just like James."
Harry instantly understood that the woman knew his father since it was the usual reaction of anyone who knew his parents but he did not know this woman. He had a fair idea that she was a Black but other than that his mind was blank. He knew of no other Blacks who were alive on the family tree.
Remembering the manners drilled into him by Cassiopeia, he approached the woman, gave her an elaborate bow and pretended to kiss her knuckles saying, "Hadrian Potter-Black at your service."
She grumbled, "I can see Aunt Cassiopeia made you as immaculate as she could."
Next, he approached the man. He gave a slight tilt of his head since that was what he was supposed to do for those he did not know and shook hands with him. He gave a bow to the girl but did not pretend to kiss her knuckles as he had done with the woman.
Arcturus introduced them, "Harry, these are Andromeda Tonks, her husband Theodore Tonks and their daughter Nymphadora Tonks."
The girl said through gritted teeth, "Don't call me Nymphadora."
Harry inwardly chuckled. If she was opposed to being called Nymphadora and protested every time then Arcturus would do exactly that. He liked to get a rise out of people that way.
He also recognized Andromeda when Arcturus told him. She had married a muggle born, defying the wishes of her parents for her marriage to a son of the Rosier family. He had been killed in the last war at the hands of Alastor Moody. Harry had always thought that she had made the correct choice in that respect. Her presence in the Townhouse could only mean that Arcturus had again admitted her into the family.
"Grandfather has been telling me about you, Harry", Andromeda was saying, "I knew James when he was little. Aunt Dorea used to invite me over to her house so often that I have seen James in the crib and even baby sat him."
Harry smiled, "Thank you for telling me this, Aunt Andromeda. I am always eager to hear about my parents."
She waved her hand as if it was nothing, "You can always come over and I will tell you about your grand-parents too. They were my favourite."
The floo roared at that moment. Augusta Longbottom stepped out followed by Neville. Andromeda greeted her warmly, "Hello Augusta. It has been a long time."
Augusta replied warmly, "Indeed and it is a pleasure to see you back in the House of Black."
The floo roared again. This time, Ernie came through. Harry had invited him and since he was back, he had come to visit. Shortly after him, Susan Bones came too with Amelia Bones however Hannah Abbott was staying back with her family.
When Susan had joined him at the table, Arcturus asked him, "Lad, are there any more of your friends to come through?"
Harry shook his head, "Not this time, grand uncle. The rest of them had prior commitments."
With that, Arcturus led all of them into the garden. When they emerged from the townhouse, there was a pine log already burning surrounded by rugs and blankets laid on the ground for all of them.
After they were all seated and refreshments were served to them, Arcturus stood to address the gathering, "Today is Yule, an occasion where we give thanks for a good year which has passed while we hope for a good year ahead. I assume that most of you are conversant with the rituals. I will review for the uninitiated. There are parchments and quills here. We each take a piece of parchment and write about the things for which we are thankful from the past year. Then we drop these parchment pieces into the fire. Then we write about our hopes for the coming year on another piece of parchment while we nibble on some bread. After we are done writing that, we drop those pieces of parchment into the fire and retreat."
Every one took a piece of parchment and wrote things they felt thankful for. Harry was thankful for his god father being free, Arcturus being there for him as he had always been since he was rescued from the muggles, for the friends who were there for him, for the new friends who always supported him.
Once every one was done writing, they proceeded to drop those pieces of parchment in the fire before they sat down to write what they expected of the coming year.
After they were done, they proceeded inside to enjoy a feast which rivalled the Halloween feast. During the feast, Susan sat on one side of him with Ernie on her other side. He engaged her in conversation, "How are your holidays?"
She replied, "Terrible. Auntie barely has time for me with her duties as the Minister of Magic however I try not to complain. She has been trying to give me as much time as she could."
He asked Ernie, "Where were you?"
Ernie answered, "We were at my grand-parents' but I was terribly bored with nothing to do. Also I missed my friends so here I am."
Susan asked him, "What are your plans for the rest of the holidays?"
He shrugged, "I don't know. I think that we'll remain here and return to Hogwarts when it's time."
After dinner, most of them went home. The Black Family sat for a reunion around the fire in the fireplace with butterbeer for the children and mead or fire whiskey for the adults.
Harry noticed that Nymphadora was sticking with butterbeer though. He noticed that she had black hair right now instead of the bubblegum pink he had seen earlier.
He asked her curiously, "Nymphadora, did you apply glamour charms?"
She gritted her teeth, "Don't call me Nymphadora. No, I did not use glamour charms. Why do you ask?"
Harry was smirking, "First off, it's your name so what else can I call you? Secondly, I could swear that I saw you had bubblegum pink hair but now it is black."
She replied, "Yes, I am a metamorphmagus."
He was impressed and that reflected in the tone of his voice, "That's really amazing. You are the first metamorph in the Black family in about 300 years."
She was visibly impressed, "How do you know that?"
He replied off-handedly, "Grand-uncle wanted me to learn all about our family heritage which includes learning about the gifts of magic in our family. I know for a fact that Parsel tongue and Metamorphmagus have been recurring gifts in our family."
He asked her then, "What do you do for a living? I mean you have obviously graduated from Hogwarts."
She started saying, "I graduated just last spring. I have been trying to get into the Aurors."
He asked her curiously, "Why do you want to be an Auror?"
She started telling him enthusiastically, "Actually it was due to Uncle James and Sirius. I mean I was little when they used to come over all the time. They looked striking in their red robes. Plus I was always excited when I heard about their bravery in the newspaper. I became their fan when they stopped an attack on my family when I was six. That was when I decided that I had to become an Auror."
A prank war
Just when Harry thought that things would be at peace in the Townhouse, they escalated. The twins who had been pranked too many times by Sirius finally decided to give as good as they got.
One day as Sirius woke up and opened the door to his room, he was smacked in the face by a bag that nearly knocked him over backwards.
As he was wincing, trying to shake the stars out of his vision, the twins appeared and grinned at him, "It's on!"
They had filled a sack with gravel from the back garden. They tied it to a length of heavy twine then fixed the end of the twine to the ceiling outside of Sirius' room with a sticking charm. Finally, they levitated the sack to the ceiling, at the end of the length of twine and stuck it there with another sticking charm. Their preparations made, they lay in wait. When Sirius started to open his door, Fred cast a "Finite" at the sticking charm on the sack. They let gravity and timing do the rest.
The next to be targeted was Moony. When they were sitting in the meeting room one evening, Remus was breaking an enormous slab of Chocolate. The twins were trying to hide their smirks, watching him. Seeing them smirk, Harry was suspicious but before he could do or say anything, Moony gobbled up a large piece of chocolate. In the next second, he was on the floor. A minute later, there were two Sirius Blacks in the meeting room.
Luckily Percy was not there in the meeting room with them. He would have gone berserk trying to figure out where they got their hands on polyjuice potion. A dose of polyjuice potion can change a person to look like another person and it is not taught before NEWTs. It is difficult to brew with the process taking 21 days. Then a hair or a body part has to be added to it before consuming it.
Since it was unlikely that Fred and George could brew the Polyjuice Potion, it was much more likely that they had raided Snape's stores.
Remus was frowning at them, "You two have no creativity. You could have changed Sirius into me."
Sirius was howling with laughter, "You two have turned it up a notch. You will soon have your reckoning lads."
The next time, Remus placed a ward outside the door of their room. The ward would levitate the one who tripped it. Since the twins had no idea about how to detect wards yet, they didn't see it.
When they stepped out of their room, they found themselves to be hovering upside down. Remus was there, smirking at them. He calmly stunned them and placed a disillusionment charm on them so they could not call for help and no one would be able to see them.
The attacks on Arcturus did not cease either. Someone was doing pranks on Lord Black almost every day. Some days, it was rather simple like placing a dungbomb on his chair while at others, the prankster used transfiguration extensively like when they charmed his chair to walk off with him the moment he sat down. Since none of the children could do it yet, the Marauders were the only suspects. Arcturus had to warn them not to do it again.
There had been a very phenomenal prank one morning. Percy when he woke up from his sleep went to the bathroom. As he came out, he was surprised to find his bed-sheet standing before him. Before Percy could understand what was happening, his bed-sheet picked him up in the air. Percy started shouting for help and when the Marauders arrived, none of them could figure out who had done it. All they knew was that they hadn't done it. The twins were the only suspects unless Harry knew how to charm the bed-sheets in such a way which he did not.
Finally Harry had enough and he decided that he needed to do some pranks of his own lest others forget that he was a prankster too. For this purpose, he needed some help because he could not do it by himself. It was some advanced magic and he wanted to avoid detection in the whole situation.
He and Neville conferred with each other and formed a strategy. For the prank, they needed an elf and some enchanted items. They were going to prank the twins and the marauders all at the same time. Since they had been raising hell with their pranks, it was befitting that they were all pranked at the same time. For this, they enlisted the services of Mr. Gambol and Japes. They went to his shop on a visit to Diagon alley.
When he saw them enter, he hailed them cheerfully, "come in young lads. What a bright day indeed to see young people ready to engage in pranks. Now how can I serve you?"
Neville handled the business with him, "Mr. Gambol, we are looking to procure some custom made enchanted items. Would it be possible?"
He grinned eagerly, "If the items you require are not in stock already, I will personally do the work. What do you need?"
On the night of the intended prank, Harry kept the twins and the Maruders engaged at dinner while Kreacher did the work for them. When the desserts were brought at the end of dinner, Sirius expressed his doubts that the sweets had a distinct taste to them. Everyone else told him that it was not so. Then Remus Lupin noticed that his chocolate had a different taste from the usual but then he was used to magical chocolates and maybe they were testing a new flavour. Later the twins shared butterbeers with Harry, Neville and Ron. The twins noticed their butterbeers had distinct taste but others found nothing wrong with the butterbeers. Neville had stayed over telling Augusta that he was having a stay over and she was fine with it.
The pranks were seen the next day. Instead of Sirius, what came out of his room was a creature with horns on its head, a forked tail, matted bright red hair and bloodshot red eyes. He did not notice that his appearance had changed until he reached the breakfast table where Harry, Neville, Ron, Percy and Arcturus were sitting for breakfast. They broke into laughter when they saw him enter.
He asked them, "What are you all laughing at?"
Arcturus asked him, "Have you looked in the mirror this morning?"
He haughtily replied, "Of course I did. I enjoy gazing upon my handsome, flawless visage."
Harry snorted, "Flawless indeed. I implore you to grab a mirror and look into it again."
Sirius looked into the mirror and howled in rage, "They will pay for this.
Arcturus asked him, "How do you know it is the twins?"
Sirius said with certainty, "Who else could it be? We have been at prank war since they arrived. This is their newest attack."
Arcturus said sternly, "Unless you can make sure that it is them, I forbid you from saying a word."
Sirius whined, "That's unfair, grand-father."
Arcturus glared at him, "Is it fair that you are pranking children half your age?"
Sirius of-course had no answer to that. Arcturus also forbade him from getting rid of the prank before breakfast was over telling him that others needed to see him.
When Remus came in, he had a greenish tinge to his body and his pajamas had been transfigured into a skirt that ended below his knees. His hair was blond instead of the brown it usually was and he wore slippers that squeaked every time he took a step.
Remus was angry with the twins. He raged at them in front of the others, "Look what they did to me, padfoot. They changed my pajamas in skirt, changed the tone of skin and changed my slippers with these which squeak."
Sirius said, "We will teach them Moony. Remember we are Marauders."
When the twins did come down, there was a surprise. One of them sported a beard to rival Dumbledore's, bald and dressed in a gown that had Marauders stamped upon it. The other twin had hair which went past his ankles, dichromatic eyes and he wore what appeared to be animal hide instead of robes.
Arcturus turned to the Marauders, "Did you two do this to them?"
Sirius shook his head, "No, we didn't. Not that we couldn't do any of those things. It's just that we wouldn't go to that much trouble for a prank." Remus also denied having done it.
Arcturus asked the twins if they had done these pranks on the Marauders. They denied it also. The Marauders didn't know it but Arcturus had an idea about who the perpetrators were. Arcturus himself had not done it. That left only Percy and the three children who had not been involved in any prank yet. This was beyond them talent wise since they did not know enough magic at this point to be able to do it but they certainly could use their brains.
Let's see what you've got
After breakfast was over, Arcturus summoned Harry to his office. After Harry sat in his favourite chair, Arcturus asked him, "Now lad, we have been quite busy with so many things to do that we haven't had a chance to sit together and talk about things. What you have been up to lately?"
Harry told him everything, "I've been cultivating friendships with students of other houses except for the Slytherins. As a general rule, they avoid me. There are a few of them though who are amenable to me. I suppose it is more to do with me being the Black heir. After all, if there is some house which can have a claim of being Slytherins through and through after Salazar, it is the house of Black. The fact that most of them owe felty to House of Black is just an added bonus."
Arcturus smiled, "I see you learnt your lessons well. Is there anything else you want to tell me?"
Harry weighed the pros and cons about whether to tell him about Flitwick's dueling lessons before he decided that Arcturus deserved to know about it. He told him, "Me and Neville have been learning dueling from Professor Flitwick for about 4 months now. We are working toward being ready to participate in the Under-14 World Duelling Championship next summer."
He nodded, "Alright. I will enter you both as contestants in the championship. Have you thought about how you will bring Slytherin House to your side?"
He nodded, "I have some ideas but that is all for now. I need to develop them before I can tell you more about it." Nothing however was said about the three-headed dog, or the whispers of Voldemort and the Sorcerer's stone.
When he was leaving Arcturus' office, Arcturus called, "Just so you know, I know that you pulled those pranks on the twins, Sirius and Remus."
Harry cringed inwardly but did not say anything. He should have known that Arcturus would figure it out.
A duel
After Arcturus released him from the meeting, Sirius cornered him, "Pup, I have heard that you are learning to duel. Would you display your talents to me?"
Harry grinned, "Gladly but where? There is no duelling ring in this house."
Sirius smirked, "Remind me about it tomorrow."
Next morning, Harry had his wand on the table at breakfast. Ron asked him, "Harry we have been forbidden from using magic outside of school. You're going to get yourself expelled."
Harry smirked, "Not a chance, Ron. They can't find out I did this if I'm doing it in this house. There are too many adult wizards here for them to bother figuring out who did it."
Ron asked him further, "But why did you take it out?"
He told him off-handedly, "I was polishing it this morning."
Since Flitwick had told them that he would not teach a third student, he had to give Ron that excuse. When they were finished with their breakfast, Harry reminded Sirius, "Sirius you had asked me to remind you that this house has no duelling ring."
Sirius nodded, 'Indeed I did. If you want then you can call Neville over." With Neville coming over, he apparated with the two of them. Harry had never liked Apparition to begin with but since it was the fastest and safest way to go, he agreed.
They apparated into a small flat somewhere in London. Harry asked him, "Sirius where are we?"
Sirius replied, "After I left my home, I went to live with Great-Aunt Dorea and Uncle Charlus. I lived with them until I was admitted to the Aurors. Me and James put some money together and with a little of Uncle Charlus's help, I bought this place. I lived here until James had to go into hiding. It had been sealed and confiscated by the Ministry. After my exoneration, they had to give it back to me. I just got it back recently."
Neville asked him, "Why have you brought us here?"
Sirius grinned, "Because this house has a duelling ring where we used to practice. I want to see what old Flitwick has been teaching you."
He duelled against them two on one. Sirius had not been one of the best Aurors for nothing. The moment Harry and Neville bowed, he sent a stunner towards them which they both dodged by jumping aside. He casually kept sending spells at them in their turn while he danced around their spells. He just stood and waited for them to cast. When they did, he simply moved away. When they tried to be smart and cast in the direction he was going to be, Sirius changed direction and went the other way.
He kept them casting at him for 10 minutes. Neither of them was able to connect with any spell. Finally he decided he had enough. He started herding them together by firing spells to make them converge. When they were together, he sent a wide area stunner. They both raised shields in response. He sent a spell chain at Harry first. It had a petrification hex, a shield breaker and a stunner. Harry ducked the petrification hex, sacrificed his shield to the shield breaker and dodged the stunner only to run into a second stunner which Sirius had fired a split-second after the spell chain. He sent a spell chain of levitation charm, shield breaker and levicorpus at Neville who dodged the levitation charm, gave up his shield and fell to the levicorpus dangling from the ceiling. He calmly stunned him too.
When he enervated the two of them, he told them, "You both are good for firsties but you need to think outside the box. To win a duel, you should use every trick at your disposal."
In between the prank wars, Harry arranged a 'get together' at the Townhouse almost every day. All of his friends came over when they could. The holidays were turning out to be the best yet. When they got bored, they would go out in Muggle London trying to find their way through the city or for a walk or maybe just to have some fun in general.
He had also visited Andromeda twice in that time. Whenever he was out or doing something by himself, Remus would engage Ron in a game of chess. He was fairly good at it so he could keep Ron engaged and not make him feel bored besides stimulating his own brain. Sirius tried to play against Ron a few times but after getting trounced in ten consecutive games, he decided that maybe wizard chess wasn't for him.
The first day that he went to visit with the Tonks, only Tonks was there since Andromeda was at work. When he stepped out of the floo, she grinned, "At last someone here I can play with."
He arched an eyebrow and asked apprehensively, "What do you mean by that?"
She replied, "I wanted to practice my glamour charms on someone. Mother never allows me to do that saying it always ends in a disaster. Father says he is just a common wizard who does not need them. You on the other hand, are a celebrity. I guess you need to be anonymous at times so you could use some glamour charms."
Harry smirked, "Not anymore. Why do you need to learn glamour charms though when you can just concentrate and change your form?"
She replied, "I am trying to get in to the Aurors. They need us to be expert in stealth and tracking, disguise and defense besides being good at potions. I am a fair hand at potions courtesy of mother who was excellent in potions in her time at Hogwarts and she also taught me something of defense. I have no problem disguising myself because of my natural talent, but glamour charms are part of the entry exam and I need to practice them. Also I am clumsy at Stealth and Tracking."
He nodded, "I suppose that it's hard for you to keep your balance because you change your form so much. I remember seeing a book about Metamorphs in the Black library. If you ask, grand-uncle would happily give it to you."
She replied, "I'll think about asking him however why don't you let me do glamour charms on you?"
He was apprehensive but nodded. She did the charms satisfactorily. Just to see that she had done it perfectly, they took a tour of Diagon Alley too.
Coming with her was different from coming to the alley with Sirius or Remus. She had so much to shop for. She met so many of her former classmates that he got bored and even regretted his decision of agreeing to come with her to Diagon Alley.
The next time he visited Andromeda, she was at the house. She invited him to dinner, to which he agreed. She entertained him with a lot of tales about his grand-parents who were her favourite uncle and aunt. She told him of the support they lent to her when she married against the wishes of her parents and how they had treated her as one of their own. Since they had James when they were really old, they doted on all the children around them except Bella and Narcissa. Those two did not like Dorea and Charlus for unknown reasons from the start.
All in all, it was turning out to be the best holiday for him. Then there was the New Year ball which was hosted by the Macmillans. They had started hosting this ball since the end of the war because neither House Potter nor House Black which used to host balls on New Year or Yule had anyone left to organize them. The Macmillans had snapped up the chance. An invitation had arrived for Arcturus as well as Harry. Ernie had also personally invited him for the ball. They were expected to bring dates for the ball but neither Harry nor Neville had dates for the ball. They however decided that they did not need dates at this age. They were still too young to think so far ahead. What they needed at this time was to chase witches (as Sirius put it) and have fun.
Neville went to the ball with Augusta. Harry went with the Blacks, Ron and Remus.
The ball
They spent the day of the ball in muggle London, seeing the sights and having fun. When Big Ben struck the half-hour after three, they headed back to the townhouse. Kreacher intercepted Harry as soon as he stepped through the door and dragged him to his room. He had already drawn a bath for Harry. After he had thoroughly bathed and scrubbed, Kreacher had him sit and then went to work on him. His hair was long, falling to his shoulders. Kreacher set it into a fancy hairstyle while applying Sleek-easy hair potion to make his thatch look presentable. After that, Kreacher went to work on his nails. He filed them to an even shape then buffed them to a glossy shine.
Sirius had ordered his dress Robes. Even though he had wardrobes full of clothes for him, Sirius had ordered yet another trunk full for him. There was a cream coloured silk shirt with black trousers, a dragon hide belt with an intricately worked silver buckle, dragon hide boots, Black robes and the whole ensemble was topped off by a black and gold scarf made of the finest wool which could be found. While he was always conscious of his attire, Kreacher had surpassed himself in dressing him up.
They were greeted by Lord Macmillan in his family home when they exited the floo. As per his duty, Ernie was beside his father and he bowed deeply to Arcturus and Sirius. He gave a curt nod to Remus as was prescribed for Regents who are not lords otherwise. He shook hands with Harry and Ron however and sent them in to enjoy the party.
The ball room was large enough to accommodate about 200 people at once. There were tables set up in the hall where a long table had been set up for the heads of houses, Ministry officials and other VIP's. Smaller, rectangular tables had been set up for others. Harry and his friends claimed two such tables and joined them end to end. He was joined by Isobel at one side and Neville at another. Isobel was dressed in black, form fitting robes which rather suited her. She had opted to wear her hair loose rather than the plait she usually sported. Harry thought she looked prettier than she usually did.
She asked him, "So, it never crossed your mind to contact me even once during the holidays?"
He said, "As I remember you did not leave me a floo address."
She eyed him, "Are you sure you were raised in a wizarding family? You could have sent me an owl."
He embarrassedly said, "Oh right. I guess I didn't think of that because Hedwig was at Hogwarts."
Dinner was grand. There were so many dishes put out for them that he could not count. They ate with gusto before a wizarding band started performing. The band players started with a slow song. The hosts went to the dance floor first. The song was slow moving and suited for dancing gracefully.
After the first song, others led their partners to the dance floor. Harry offered his arm to Isobel, "let's dance?"
She accepted and they went to the floor. It was a fast song which required them to dance at a faster beat than the last one. There was some extremely coordinated footwork involved. However Cassiopeia had taught him to dance and he was not about to embarrass himself. They danced for three or four songs before someone interrupted them, "Would you mind Isobel if I borrowed your dancing partner for some time?"
It was Lisa who was also at the ball. Isobel handed him over to her. While they danced, she asked him, "So how were your holidays?"
He replied jovially, "They were excellent, perhaps the best in years with so many people around. What have you been up to?"
She replied, "I was trying to catch up with my friends from before Hogwarts. Woefully, they all seem to have moved on. I guess all the friends that I have left are at school."
He was claimed from her by Hannah who asked him, "What are our plans for the next term, Harry?"
He grinned, "Well I have some very ambitious plans, Hannah. Let's see what becomes of them."
Susan took him from Hannah and they danced for about 10 minutes while enjoying it. They had been getting together recently with their friends so there was not much to talk about. She had told him that she loved to dance and he was determined to show her that he was the perfect dancer.
The night ended shortly after mid-night with a speech by Lord Macmillan. Sirius who had stayed behind escorted him home. Remus and Lord Black had returned to the Townhouse some time before ten o'clock with Ron. Ron had danced a few times with some girls but when he realized that he was not very good at dancing, he had given it up in favour of some refreshments.
Two days later, it was time for them to return to Hogwarts. The morning they were to return, Arcturus addressed them at the breakfast table, "These few days have been very fun filled. This place felt like home after a very long time. I enjoyed your pranks and the retaliations. I would appreciate it if you people would come over whenever you have time to spare. You are all my family and this is as much your home as the Burrow is. Now I want to tell you all that those pranks which were not performed either by these Marauders or the twins were performed by me."
The proclamation caused total silence. There was no way that the perfect pureblood Lord could be a Prank Lord. It took a moment to sink in for all of them and when it did, Sirius asked him, "Are you jesting?"
Arcturus growled, "Does it look like I am laughing? I performed those pranks on you all. I wanted to see how good you self-proclaimed pranksters are when it comes to a real Prank lord."
A/N- So someone said Percy was doing the pranks but did I not indicate it was Arcturus when I wrote 'The Prank Lord'.