Chapter 12

While Remus collected the paperwork; Harry called Torry, who practically attached himself to Sirius' leg muttering at so fast a speed that they could barely decipher something about being pleased to see that he was free and sorry for not believing him, when he finally left Sirius, Harry asked him to get a warm bath ready for Sirius at the manor and to inform Sippy that his godfather and uncle would be coming with him so she could prepare the food they liked.

After some time, during which Harry and Sirius sat together in a comfortable silence, taking in everything that had happened, Remus came with the necessary documents. They apparated to the manor gates, Remus with Harry.

There was a nostalgic look on both their faces as they entered the grounds. They looked around the house with so many expressions running on their faces their faces that Harry couldn't decipher one from the other. Torry popped in told Sirius that the bath was ready, he just nodded not trusting himself to speak without breaking down.

"Go on Sirius, it will help you relax. We have loads to tell you after that", Remus said, putting a hand on his shoulder comfortingly, but his own were shining with what suspiciously looked like tears. Harry, too, nodded at him.

He took Torry's hand, who popped him to his room. "Uncle", Harry spoke up bringing Remus' attention to himself, "don't you want to go to your room?"

"I would like to do that Harry", Remus said, shaking his head to clear it, and took the boy's hand and climbed up the stairs looking at everything indulgently, 'oh, how he had missed this house'.

He stopped at the door to his room, running his fingers over his carved name. He took in a deep breath and pushed open the door. The room, his room, was just like he remembered; the same warm toned sitting room, the same large oakwood bed with similar nightstands, the same fireplace and desk with photos he cherished, on them, everything was just the same. Harry felt the grip on his hand tighten and squeezed back in a comforting gesture. Remus felt this and smiled at the thoughtful boy.

"Won't you show me your room Harry?", he asked.

"Of course, come on", Harry said excitedly, and practically dragged the man to his room.

He had shown Remus around the sitting room and had just entered the bedroom when there was a knock at the door and Sirius entered, looking much better washed and wearing a clean set of robes, though they also showed how much weight he had lost. Remus knew how well that particular robe fitted him and now… he would make sure the goblins saw to it that both, his nephew and best friend, gained proper weight.

Harry scurried over to the door and said, "Come in, Godfather".

"Come on Harry, I can bear with the formalities when in formal settings but please call me Sirius or at least, Uncle Sirius otherwise, don't make me feel old", Sirius laughed.

"Ok, Uncle Sirius", Harry chimed.

"You have a great choice Harry", Remus said looking around the room, "your room looks amazing".

Harry blushed, "Mipsy decorated it, I just told her the colours I'd like to have".

"Then we will have to thank Mipsy for doing such a great job for you, cub", Remus said and Harry grinned at the nickname, "Now, don't we have to show Sirius something?"

Harry nodded and took out the portrait from his pocket. Remus levitated it and charmed it to stand upright in front of the fireplace, while Harry went to the toilet and Sirius talked to an excited Sippy; he had made some light salad as evening snack so as to help Sirius to gradually adjust to normal food again.

Harry came back, enlarged the portrait and took a seat on the couch beside Remus. Sippy bowed to them and popped away.

Remus and Harry were waiting impatiently for Sirius to turn, when he did his eyes widened as saucers and no one could stop laughing when James chimed, "You okay there Padfoot?" and Sirius started spluttering.

"Now", James interrupted him when he tried to say something, "don't you dare start blaming yourself for whatever happened, Merlin knows I've had enough of that today" he grumbled.

"But James,,.", Sirius started.

"No"

"Bu…"

"No, Siri. There is only one person who is the cause of everything and that's Voldemort. Blame Pettigrew if you want, but don't start with the blaming yourself business", James said firmly, and Sirius nodded reluctantly.

"I…You are both here, I...just can't believe my eyes, I can talk to you. I am so, so happy", Sirius smiled with watery eyes, which was mirrored by everyone else in the room.

Sirius sat down on the couch, with Harry between him and Remus. They hadn't noticed in all the excitement of the day but they were hungry and picked up their salad, Harry didn't bother telling them that he was used to going hungry one time, as much as he disliked the Dursleys he didn't want to see them beaten to a pulp.

Sirius moaned as he took the first bite, "Finally, some actual food, that too something made by Sippy, so delicious!". They watched him fondly as he practically devoured the food and after he had eaten, together, they told him everything that he had missed; he was furious at the Dursleys and proud of his Godson who was now leaning against him in his one-armed embrace, he agreed to try to be civil with Snape, too.

"So, what are we going to do about Dumbledore?", he asked after silently contemplating everything for a few minutes.

"For now, Harry, and all of you, will have to act like you trust him," Lily answered, "the old man does know a lot about a lot of things. We can do with all the all the information we get conveniently. From there, we can go as per the situation suggests."

Everyone agreed with this. They were all telling Harry more about Hogwarts and were wondering if the Marauder's Map; Harry's eyes glinted when they told him about it, the three Marauders noticed with pride; was still with Filch or had someone managed to nick it, when Sippy came to inform them that the dinner was ready. They requested him to bring it to Harry's sitting room where they ate over more stories about pranks and normal school life.

After dinner was over, Harry asked, "Can we go over to my balcony and the upper floors, I haven't been able to till now?"

"Of course, pup", Sirius said and they got up, Remus levitating the portrait beside him.

They stepped out into the balcony, the light breeze was cool and relaxing. "Look to your left pup", Sirius said.

Harry turned and saw a sitting area and three hoops that were visible before they got hidden from the view. "Guess what it is?", James asked while Lily shook her head and muttered 'boys'.

"Harry tried to remember what he had been told about these hoops, 'the game! Now what was the name?', he recalled suddenly, "Quidditch! That's a quidditch pitch".

"Brilliant! See lily? I told you, he will love quidditch", exclaimed an excited James.

"Of course he will Prongs", Sirius scoffed, "what's there to not love about Quidditch, and he has loved flying ever since he was a baby".

"That doesn't mean he will like Quidditch too, it's different from flying", Lily insisted.

"Women", the three men chimed together and Harry giggled. They decided to take Harry to fly the first thing after they came back from Gringotts the next day and moved to the upper floor.

Harry stared dumbstruck at the size of the library, it was rectangular and occupied almost the whole floor and was two stories high with wall bookshelves lining the walls, a balcony around the second storey, and a couple of stairs to access it. Movable ladders were also attached to the shelves to conveniently access the books in the higher parts. There were also several bookshelves running parallel to each other throughout the length. They were all made of a light brown wood and the stone floor was carpeted. Wherever there was a gap between the shelves, there was a floor to ceiling window filling the room with ample amount of natural light. Comfortable chairs, sofas and recliners with side tables, which held beautifully carved silver candle stands, were tastefully placed between the shelves and in front of the windows.

"Wow", Harry whispered.

"Pup do you like to read?", Sirius asked.

"I love to read", Harry answered, still looking awestruck at all the books.

"Prongs, your son loves to read", Sirius said, he and James looked horrified. "You", he said pointing a finger at Lily and Remus, "you both corrupted him, I told you not to read to him as much as you did, he already had Lily's genes to begin with."

The two looked at each other, rolled their eyes, and ignored his protests and James' agreeing nods in favour of looking at Harry who was now reading the names of the books. The look in his eyes was the same that they had in theirs when the saw the extensive library. They grinned at the excitement of the child.

Harry eventually left the library because he was excited to see the Mirror Room and the adults all said there was something he would like see in there. The entrance to the room was disguised by one of the shelves along the walls. He pulled the 11th book on 11th lowest section and put his palm on the middle page as instructed and the shelf moved aside to reveal the only other room on the 4th floor; the Mirror Room.

They entered and the door closed behind them, the room had five huge mirrors against the wall to the left of the entrance, and the wall opposite to it had a French window. "Only the people inside can see the window, from the outside it looks like a solid wall", his father told him. Harry was amazed, he still was at the things one could do with magic and he planned to do some good things with it.

"To your right Harry are the portraits of your ancestors", James said and Harry pivoted around swiftly. He was met with curious and kind gazes of his ancestors, his grandparents, his great grandparents, and so on. He suddenly felt excited as well as nervous. His godfather and uncle placed their hands on his shoulders and his father said, "Come on Harry, greet them", and he himself got up and bowed to them along with his mother.

Harry copied them and bowed and said, "Hello, it's an honour to meet you all". They all replied kindly impressed by his manners and cuteness, the men all looked proud while the women all went 'aww' and 'aah' at him, making him blush which only resulted in more fond noises. Sirius and Remus to bowed to them and were met with kindly.

"They all decided to move in here from the entrance hall when we had to go into hiding, now, I think they would like to move back there?", James informed Harry and asked politely.

"We would like to, child", a man who appeared to be the eldest among them replied and all others agreed. James called for Hoppy and he appeared. While James instructed him, Fleamont Potter, Harry's grandfather smiled at him, told him who he was and said, "Come to talk to us when you have time Harry. There's a lot we would like to talk to you about".

"I will, Grandfather, I too, want to talk to you", Harry replied. Hoppy popped away with the portraits and Harry chirped, "It was so good to meet them, they are all so kind".

"I know Harry, I felt the same when I met them too", Lily agreed.

Then James told Harry about the mirrors, "These are two-way mirrors, they can be connected to mirrors you want them to and you can talk to people through them. One mirror can also be used to contact a number of people but five mirrors mean that this room can be used to hold secret meetings, and you can control who can see whom when there are multiple people. We used this as our inspiration to make portable two-way mirrors in school."

"That's amazing", Harry said.

"Come on, let's show you the training room then, bed time", Lily said.

"But Mum, I want to talk to you people and also to my grandparents and the other portraits", Harry pouted.

"You can do that tomorrow, Harry", Lily said unrelentingly. Harry pouted but a small smile graced his lips as they went to the uppermost floor.

What should have been an attic was a big room because of the size of the house and had numerous swords, blades as well as spare wands. There were training dummies and cushions as well as targets among other things. The walls were lined with torches and there were a few windows.

"The windows here do look the same from the outside but no one can see what's really inside, they see a normal attic", he was told, "All wands normally have a trace on them, these don't, the wards around the house don't let the Ministry trace the magic done here anyway but these wands can be used undetected outside, too."

"You can come back here tomorrow, for now, it's time for you to go to bed", Lily ordered and no one dared to object, even when he gave the puppy dog eyes, they just looked away from him.

Harry went to sleep that day listening to stories and surrounded by people who loved him and whom he loved.

/hp/

monbade: Yeah, I kinda tweaked it; thanks for the review 😊

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