The summer began with a wonderful reunion of Neville and Harry with their 'parents' on the platform at Kings Cross Station. If the other parents in the crowd were surprised and pleased by how affection their children appeared that afternoon, they were universally welcomed the hugs and kisses. Colin and Hermione made their way through the portal to muggle London where their parents waited and welcomed them with open arms as well.
After a happy supper and an evening of telling stories about their classes and the absence of any 'challenges' in the winter and spring terms of their second year, Neville and Harry were tucked into their beds by both parents who kissed their foreheads and wished them pleasant dreams. Iggy chose to remain silent and not speak up because both boys were regular children that the evening.
The next morning, as soon as breakfast was finished, Neville and Harry ran to the Greenhouse to examine their rose bushes. There were now six plants, each with slightly different coloured petals and different perfumes. (The Longbottom and Potter elves had visited muggle garden centres and purchased several roses while glamoured to resemble humans. These plants provided the root stock that Neville and Harry used to start their new plants.)
"I like the names 'Lady Augusta' and 'Lady Hermione'!" Neville announced, looking at the new roses blooming beside Lady Evans and Lady Alice.
"And the name 'Lady Luna'," declared Harry, naming the third rose. "And what about this bright red rose? It smells good but what do we call it?"
"How about 'Lady Hogwarts'?" asked Neville.
"Brilliant!" Harry declared.
[Iggy, can you send a letter to Lady Hogwarts?] asked Harry. [I want to send her some perfume if that's possible.]
[Let's talk to the head elf from Hogwarts,] Iggy replied. [She'll be here soon or I can call her. She'll be able to take the perfume back to the castle.]
The two boys set to work, gathering rose petals and beginning the process of creating perfume in the still room. While they worked, the Longbottom elves revealed that they had stored several months of rose petals in baskets to help produce more perfume.
Frank and Alice visited the greenhouse often that first week and allowed the boys to work there for several hours each day but they also required their sons to spend time out of doors riding bicycles (safer on the ground than in the air on brooms), and at least two hours each day reading and on their summer homework.
One evening, Harry spoke up at dinner and asked, "Can we go to Potter Manor one day? My elves tell me that it is secure and full of pictures of my first mum and dad, and my grandparents."
"Harry, that's a great idea," Alice replied. "I think we should go tomorrow. Can your elves take us there?"
"Yes, they can pop us all there."
Frank sat back and nodded his head, while Augusta seemed to be thinking for a time. Eventually she said, "Harry, ask your elves if the greenhouses there have room for your roses. I think you and Neville need to graft each of your roses and start another garden of them at the Potter Manor. And it might be time to plant some outside."
Neville looked at his grandmother and asked, "Why outside?"
"The concentrated smell inside the greenhouse attracts the house elves to Longbottom Manor. In the natural outdoors, the smell might dissipate in the area…"
"Or it might attract other magical creatures," Alice concluded. "The manor is under powerful wards that will keep out wizards and witches, but it might let magical creatures inside and you two can study them."
** CHANGE TO POTTER MANOR the next day…
Harry's family manor was a long stone and brick house that had obviously been added to several times in the last two hundred years. The entrance hall was an ancient stone keep five stories tall that must have been five or six hundred years old. Spreading to the east and west were two wings; the western wing was dedicated to a library and portrait gallery. The eastern wing held more bedrooms, dining rooms, and workrooms than a family of forty persons could have used. The elves had a secure and comfortable rooms beside the large kitchens. On the south side of the manor were three greenhouses, two of them filled with herbs and magical plants used in potions. A half dozen elves worked to keep the plants trimmed, fertilized and harvested at the proper times.
The third greenhouse was mostly empty because it had been the private greenhouse of Lady Euphemia Potter before she died. There were no roses present of course when Heir Peverell first arrived but within a week, there were six of the roses potted and growing in the greenhouse and a special garden spot prepared for the next shoots to be planted in the ground.
The Potter elves and the Longbottom elves worked tirelessly to make the manor and gardens reflect the magic that the roses brought into the wards.
Alice was adamant about something, and Frank and Augusta agreed with her as she told the boys, "No one it so know about your second rose greenhouse or garden at Potter manor. Just us and our elves. None of the visiting elves and none of your friends are to know about this!"
Neville, Harry and Iggy 'thought' about it for less than a minute before Neville announced, "We agree. No one knows about Potter Manor and the roses."
With the help of Harry's two personal elves and the elves living and working at Potter Manor, the wards were strengthened, and the 'Visitor's Log' was located. Every name except for the Longbottom family and Harry Potter were removed. And after consulting with the goblins, a new elven exclusion ward was placed around the estate. Only the named Potter elves and the four Longbottom elves could pass through the wards after that day.
By the end of July, Harry and Neville were pleased with their roses, their family, and were beginning to think about their third year at Hogwarts. On the morning of 1 August, after a glorious two-day birthday celebration at Longbottom Hall with many of their friends coming both day for food and games, Harry and Neville were sitting at breakfast when Angus, one of Harry's personal elves popped into the room and announced, "Mr. Harry, there be dragons in the gardens at Potter Manor! There be giant green dragons in our garden!"
"Green…" Frank paused before he continued. "Your manor is located somewhere in Wales and James never admitted to any nearby muggle towns to be able to figure out where the place was. But it is in Wales and that means the dragons are probably a family of Welch Greens. The males are about the size of large pony with the females slightly larger."
[DRAGONS! Oh joy!] shouted Iggy. [Fire breathing ponies!]
[Wait, Iggy,] Harry interrupted. [Can you put the protection around Mum, Dad and Gran too?]
[If the dragons mean us 'ill' they can't see us,] said Neville.
[Oh, I've learned even more now,] Iggy informed them. [Persons with plans to do you harm–or werewolves, dragons and goblins for that matter who want to hurt you–can't see, smell, or hear you. Even if you fart, they can't smell or feel your 'wind'.]
Harry smirked; he had only turned thirteen years old the previous day so crude humour remained funny to him.
[But we'll have to explain to Mum, Dad, and Gran about Iggy. They might not be too pleased.]
[But we'll get to see dragons, Neville,] Harry argued.
Thereafter, Harry and Neville shared the existence of Iggy with Frank, Alice and Augusta. Gran went to the library to read chapters about the Peverell family in a two history books. Frank sat and stared at the corner for a time, cursing Dumbledore occasionally, and Alice sat in the centre of a sofa with a teenager on either side of her asking Iggy questions that the boys took turns sharing the cloak's answers.
At one point, Neville asked, "Dad, why are you angry?"
Frank explained, "I can't help but think Halloween 1981 would have been different if James had Iggy around his shoulders."
"And Iggy is still angry that 'he' wasn't taken to me after they were killed. If Iggy had been with me at the Dursleys, he would have forced them to treat me better," Harry said angrily.
Iggy extended the protections on Harry and Neville to the adults in the family for the day. Then the family spent an hour researching the Welch Green dragons before they were popped by the house elves into the entrance hall in the keep at the heart of Potter Manor.
Frank immediately turned to Harry and asked, "Can you feel the dragons through the wards?"
Smiling Harry nodded and replied, "It's a family of dragons. A mated pair and their three hatchlings. They're hiding from poachers in the forest around here. Hey, that forest belongs to us! Who told 'em they could hunt here?"
"Case and Angus! Get those hunters out of our wood! Take all the help you need!" Harry commanded as four of his house elves popped away.
Listening closely to the wards, Harry announced, "One of the hatchlings is hurt!"
The young wizard immediately pulled his bottle with the Breathe of Magic from his pocket and ran from the room, his brother and father following while his mum and gran hurried after them.
Just outside of the greenhouse with the roses, next to the newly planted rose garden lay a young green dragon that was only slightly larger than a Labrador Retriever. One wing was broken and the creature cried in pain. The mother dragon growled at Harry but he remained visible because she meant no harm 'yet'. Popping the top off the bottle of perfume, Harry poured some of the liquid on his hat and then held the item of clothing out to the dragon. She leaned closer to sniff and then nipped the cloth hat from Harry's fingers to lay it on her hatchling's wing. The small dragon seemed to immediately feel less pain and Harry walked forward, the bottle held before him.
With the mother dragon watching closely from just a foot away, smoke issuing from her nostrils, Harry murmured soft words and poured half of the perfume on the wing that began glowing as magic healed the wound. The other half of the bottle, he poured over the little dragon's head.
[You are going to kill me with these stunts!] Iggy said, quietly, as if the dragon could hear his voice.
[Mum wants you to leave the bottle and backup now,] Neville told Harry. The boy lay the bottle on the ground and backed up.
[Smile without showing your teeth and backup slowly,] instructed Iggy.
The dragons gathered around the injured hatchling as it struggled to its feet and then spread its wings for a few flaps to show the injury was cured. Then the little fellow crawled to the mother and curling up under her wings to sleep. The other juvenile dragons joined their sibling to sleep underneath their mother's wings. Their father flew around the manor four times to ensure there were no hunters lurking about before he returned to stand over his mate and hatchlings.
[Merlin love a duck, Heir Peverell. Dragons!] squawked Iggy as the family gathered just inside the house for tea as they watched the sleeping dragons.
After instructing the elves to procure five sheep carcasses from a magical butcher and leave them out on the lawn, away from the house, Harry and his family were popped back to Longbottom Manor.
"I don't know how many of these adventures I can survive," Gran joked. "Goblins, thieves, poachers and dragons. This has been a momentous year, Harry."
Frank Longbottom's face was sour as he read the Daily Prophet at supper and he handed the paper to his wife who glanced at the front page before handing it to Augusta who turned pale.
"Harry, there's been a breakout of Azkaban. Your godfather has escaped and the Aurors think he's after you."