"Harry! Harry! Wake up mate"
Slowly Harry opened his eyes to look at the very familiar redhead's freckled face leaning onto him.
"Ron, it's really you" Harry sat up immediately and hugged his friend of a lifetime or more accurately clutched for life "you are there, you are really there"
"Blimey! Are you trying to suffocate me or what?" Ron exclaimed "what's gotten into you?"
"I thought I will never get to see you again" Harry still held his friend close, sighing in relief to find himself in the familiar surroundings of his dormitory at Gryffindor tower instead of Slytherin dungeon in his adult body.
"Dude that's why I told you to come to Burrow with us. Mione was worried sick that you are all alone for entire summer. We just couldn't wait to be back soon enough." Ron patted Harry's shoulder
"I know buddy, I made a huge mistake and I thought I have lost you all, but from now on I am not going to be apart from you and mione." Harry tried his best to control his watery eyes struggling to believe his good fortune that all this time travel fiasco was nothing but a prolonged dream. He was in his own time among his friends, he was not sent back by fate to make impossible possible.
"Come now, everyone is waiting to start our final year without worrying about getting killed."
"Hey Ron wait for me" Harry called out Ron's fading figure towards the common room but Ron didn't seem to listen
"Ron, Ron stop" Harry screamed in panic, something felt not right there.
"Who is Ron, Harry?"
Harry blinked to find a face was leaned over him. But it was not of his best friend. He took a moment to recognize the face which was not the one he knew for 7 years but have seen since a day before. The face of the father of his godfather.
"Harry were you having a nightmare?" Orion sounded concerned.
Slowly Harry sat up. He looked around to find himself on the four poster of Slytherin dormitory. The blue water was tapping the glass of bedside window. Through them the ray of the sun was indicating him the morning had been arrived,
"Harry are you alright" Orion asked again and Harry only nodded trying again hard to hide his watery ice. So it was just a dream then. He was still struck in 40's with Slytherins.
"Come Harry, we are late" Orion gave him a gentle tag. Sighing Harry quickly freshen up and changed into his slytherin robe, it was really strange to have them instead of his own Gryffindor color which he thought was his identity all along. Only time he had slytherin robe was when he was in guise of Goyle to spy on Draco. Now no matter how bright and soft his green and silver linen was (apparently young Voldemort had a fashion sense which is another hard to imagine fact altogether) Harry was really feeling uncomfortable to put them on.
The dormitory was already empty barring the two of them and when they made to common room most of the young students had already left for breakfast.
"So, finally you had the time to show up. Did you two had some sleeping draught last night or what?" an annoyed Walburga Black appeared before them with hands on her hips.
"Burga..It's just..we" Harry rolled his eyes to find Orion fumbling to form a sentence before his future wife, his cheeks turned into cherries in the process, this kid was head over heel for his older cousin even before he hits puberty.
"Sorry, it was my fault I fell asleep longer, was very tired, Orion only waited for me" Harry interjected hurriedly unsure what to feel about playing communicator between his godfather's parents. But Walburga seemed not to listen to him, her attention was fixed upon her future husband as well
"Not even a day had passed since you reached here and you already are forgetting about disciplines? Must I remind you are a Black and what you have been taught to choose your friend wisely?"
So did Walburga have problem with Orion being friend with Harry? It was funny to think in future she will have problem with James and Sirius being friend as well.
"Come on Burga, go easy with the kids" Harry found Dorea Black had joined them "It's only their first day"
"I was reminding them about being punctual so that our house don't have to lose points you know" Walburga sounded little irritated with her head girl aunt's intervention,
"Orion is a smart kid, he will never let us down Burga, and as for Potter you know he has got Riddle as his mentor so you can be assured about him. Now hurry up boys or else you would have to attend classes with empty stomach"
"Yeah yeah I know nothing can get wrong if the golden boy is involved" Walburga sneered as Dorea led Harry and Orion towards breakfast hall.
Harry was not sure should he focus on how disturbing the fact everyone thinking Tom as his mentor was or on knowing Walburga didn't like Tom. So all Slytherins were not worshipping teen Voldemort?
Coming down to great hall Harry saw breakfast was on was nowhere to be seen. He hurriedly filled his plate with bacon, egg, butter toast followed by juice. No matter what he needed to keep himself well fed to regain strength for his mission.
"Why did you get so tongue tied in front of Walburga Black?" Is not she your cousin?" as Harry asked Orion almost got chocked on his breakfast sausage and started coughing violently.
"Oh I am so sorry Orion" Harry patted Orion's back as he recalled how Horace Slughorn had once healed Marcus Belby as he choked on his pheasant "Anapeno" he utter pointing his wand and Orion's airway got cleared immediately.
"Blimey Harry! Riddle was teaching you such advanced healing spells as well? It's so impressive!" Orion remarked excitedly and Harry only snorted. It was true Tom had taught him few healing spell but is from now on all his work's credit was going to land on Riddle's shoulder?
"Well I got to read good spell books, but would you mind if you don't tell anyone about this please? Don't really want to show off" Harry almost pleaded. Tom shouldn't know about this at any cost.
"Hey. It's okay Harry, don't worry, I get it you don't want to draw attention I want the same too" Harry sighed in relief, he had at least found a friend in his godfather's father.
"You didn't answer my earlier question" Harry tried to change the topic
"Oh about that" "Orion's cheek turned pink again "you have no idea see how exceptional Burga is, she is the brightest among our Black cousins, she is called beauty with brain, she has great grades and also amazing quidditch skills, she is one of most popular witches that wizards fight for asking out." Orion kept on going with dreamy eyes.
Harry at a time felt both amused and awkward, as funny it was to see an 11 years old talking about his crush it was uncomfortable to think this was the matter of his godfather's parents and especially to think that his impression of them was quite different before yesterday. But seriously Harry had not really seen anyone developing such deep infatuation even before hitting puberty.
Or maybe he knew only one such person beforeā¦.Ginny Weasley.
Harry's heart felt heavier as he thought about Ginny, or more because how he thought about her. In this past two months he had missed and remembered all his friends and well-wishers whom he had considered to be family. He had desperately wished Ron and Mione to be by his side countless times but he had missed and wanted to be reunited with all of the others too. Ginny was of course one of them but so were Neville, Luna and others. In these times in orphanage he hadn't once thought about Ginny differently or in other words romantically. Now coming to think of her it seems his feelings for her was fleeting or more heat of the moment event. After losing Sirius, the only family he had, Harry clanged to Weasleys and being with Ginny was key to be legitimately part of them. May be that's why he was convinced to be in love with her because in his subconscious he only wanted a loving family. That didn't mean the few moments he spent with her and the kisses he shared were unreal but they were true for those moments. As the war ended and Harry got disoriented he felt romantically detached as well. Fter Ginny was also coping up with Fred's death, they hardly got any chance to talk alone so they did never actually patched up after their official break up in burrow.
Harry sighed and put his plate down on table. Charms class was waiting for him. Even if he wanted to have a closure with Ginny he had to return to his own time first.
