[A/N: Okay this is part 2 of the last chapter. If any of y'all have a recipe or cuisine that you'd like to see somewhere within my story, drop me a PM. I still have a ton of them already researched and plotted so if you don't see yours, don't be discouraged.]
January 1990
Dursley Residence
Vernon and Petunia were camped out in the living room ostensibly watching the evening news but were in reality, digesting their 'Harry Meal.' This month was Mexican cuisine and after seeing some pictures of the country and the cities on a poster board Harry had set up as part of something called a 'mood board' both were now considering taking a vacation there.
"Urm…oh, god…" Petunia let out a suppressed belch, "That was spicy."
Vernon had his eyes closed but responded, "As spicy as the Vietnamese stuff last month?"
"That was more hot than actually spicy. I think next year, we tell him that December should only be traditional British Christmas foods. I never want to move ever again but this has been fun. 'Take a trip around the world and never leave your kitchen.'"
Both laughed at that tag line.
Harry, in the meantime, was sitting in a chair in his bedroom going through his personally annotated cookbooks to determine what he should make next. The fajitas they'd just had were superb with the flour tortillas. A stray thought passed through his mind that would forever change how he would cook for the rest of his life when he overheard Petunia say that tag line.
'I wonder if I could quietly suggest a vacation to some far-flung region of the world if I were to spice so-called 'normal' food with the spices of the intended destination? It would have to be some kind of food that is easily modifiable like a sandwich meat. But where would I want to go?'
"Well, at any rate," he mused out loud, "I need to pick something for lunch at school tomorrow. Let's see. Ooh, a mango salsa? That sounds interesting. Would the grocery store carry something like that?"
He got up and thumped his way downstairs where he found his aunt asleep on the couch and his uncle on his way to 'slumberland' as well. He paused at the entry way before slipping back out and entering the kitchen. He took the pad of paper magnetically attached to the refrigerator and wrote down 'Mango?' on it as well as the missing ingredients for Carnitas and Pozole soup.
At school the next day…
Miss Bomberg was sniffing again, Harry noticed with a smirk. 'No doubt she could smell the leftovers from last night's dinner.' His musing was evidently correct when he caught her eyes and she gave him a dirty look that held no heat.
When he got out to lunch, several of the older kids crowded around him armed with pencils and paper. With an eyebrow quirked up, he inquired as to what they thought they were doing.
"We're going to take notes on what you're eating, Harry."
"Um…why?"
"So we can try and figure out what you made so we can get it at home." It was said as if it were blatantly obvious.
"Uh-huh," Harry replied slowly, "How about instead of staring at me while I eat, I just tell you the recipe name and you can go into the library and look it up yourself?" The bright grins that sprouted were all the indication he needed. So he told them the name of the book he used and the recipe he followed.
"Also, keep in mind that your ordinary British-owned grocery store won't have half of the ingredients in these recipes. You'll have to go to an ethnic specialty store. Here's the one I used," He gave them the name of the store as well.
Once armed with the new knowledge, the older kids thanked Harry and left him to eat in peace. Aaron dropped down next to him and again complained about how his American mother just didn't understand the concept of British foods. She had apparently given him yet another sandwich filled with something unrecognizable.
"Lemme see if I can recognize it," Harry offered as Aaron broke off a piece of his sandwich and handed it over.
Harry's face grew thoughtful as he mushed the food around in his mouth, "Creole, I'd wager. Tastes sort of like the seafood we had last June but more savory."
Aaron groaned, "She knows I like sweeter stuff. She's trying to kill me, I tell you."
Harry laughed, "I doubt she's trying to kill you. Probably trying to save your teeth and stuff. Dudley's got the same problem. He gains weight just by looking at a picture of sweets. As a result, anything I cook has to have natural sugars that our bodies digest easily."
"What did you bring this time?" Aaron asked in hopes of shifting the attention away from his mum and her weird ideas.
"Leftovers from last night's Mexican dinner. I made fajitas: spiced meat and chicken with flour tortillas, corn salsa, roasted bell peppers and onions. Wanna try a bit?" Aaron nodded rapidly and went to grab a fork. One bite later and his eyes closed and he sighed.
"Now, if my mum tried to give me this, I wouldn't have such a problem! That's good!" He exclaimed then he frowned, "Now, I just got to figure out how to tell her without making it sound like an insult."
Harry shrugged, "Tell her to pick up the Mexican cookbooks from the library. That's where I've found everything."
At the dismissal bell…
"Harry? Hang back a moment, I want to speak with your aunt for a moment," Miss Bomberg said. The look of worry crept over his face, "Don't worry, it's nothing bad."
Petunia came up when she spotted Harry waving her over, "Harry?"
Miss Bomberg introduced herself, "Mrs. Dursley, I'm Harry's teacher, Regina Bomberg and I had a couple of questions to ask you about his cooking."
Petunia relaxed, "You want to know if he would give a demonstration on how to cook, too?"
Regina laughed, "I take it that this has come up before?"
Petunia smirked and crossed her arms smugly, "Every single time someone stands close enough to him to smell whatever spices he's been cooking with and hears about the recipe he made."
"Ha, no doubt! Well, some of the other teachers as well as the students were wondering if you'd give permission to allow Harry to do just that. We would hold it in the school cafeteria after school and only those with permission slips would be allowed to attend. I do know that one of the teachers would like to videotape the demonstration, if you're agreeable to that."
Petunia shrugged a shoulder and turned partially to Harry who looked like he was about to explode with excitement, "It's up to you since it's your skills." She turned back to Miss Bomberg, "Would we have to provide the ingredients?"
Regina shook her head, "Just give me a list and an idea as to where to go for them and we'll handle the cost provided there's nothing too exotic."
"Harry?"
"I want to do it! Which cuisine did you want to do? Any allergies I need to know about?"
Petunia held up a hand, stalling her excited nephew, "When would you want to hold this event?"
"Well, our Deputy Headmistress had suggested that it be held on a Friday so as to not interfere with anyone's weekend plans."
Petunia thought for a moment, trying to remember if they had anything planned, "I'll call you or the school if anything should change but I think this Friday should be fine."
Regina turned to Harry, "I think whatever you're making this month ought to be just fine. As for allergies, I don't think there's anyone who has a weird one besides the peanut one."
The two women shook hands on it and Harry let out a war whoop and practically floated to the car.
That Friday…
Harry walked into the cafeteria and stopped at the entrance, his mouth dropping and his eyes bugging out. The whole room was packed! Parents, teachers, and the students who were old enough to understand were all waiting for him. There was a teacher in the center aisle setting up a video camera and microphone. Both the Headmistress and Deputy were milling around chatting with the parents while the kids were racing around. The room quieted quickly once he was spotted and the audience took their seats.
Harry was ushered up to the raised platform set up for his demonstration. All of the pots and pans along with the utensils were waiting for his inspection. The ingredients were in coolers or in spice boxes. The Headmistress shook his hand in greeting and told him to just relax and have fun. He noticed the cameras suspended above him and wondered but that curiosity was sated when he saw the view of himself on the screen from above.
"Don't worry about this, Harry. You'll do just fine; just think of this as if it were just Vernon, Dudley and I," Petunia reassured him and gave him a hug. Harry stepped up to the front of the table and cleared his throat.
"Um, hi! Thank you all for coming to my first cooking show. I'm stunned to see just how many of you are interested in cooking or at least how I cook. What I plan on doing is walking everyone through a couple of basics before we get into the actual cooking itself."
With that, he took a fortifying breath and dove into explaining how to prepare each of the different ingredients like how to chop and dice the cilantro, the garlic cloves, how to portion out the oregano without using a teaspoon, how to split and deseed the chilies without getting the seeds everywhere and in their eyes and most importantly how to keep themselves from crying when chopping the onion.
"The goggles make you look weird but trust me that it will keep you from bowing out and ruining your timing on the meal. On top of that, the gloves keep you from burning your fingers if you have even the slightest cut on them."
He answered a few questions on what to do if they didn't have goggles (open a window and turn on a fan) then moved onto the lime, "One trick I found is to leave the lime at room temperature and when you need to juice it, press down as you roll it across the cutting board. This crushes the flesh inside to release the juice easier than if you were to just cut it. It also prevents it from squirting in the wrong direction."
"Prep time is only roughly 30 minutes if you already have the ingredients on hand; Cooking time is about an hour. Interesting side note for you gardeners, you can save and replant the seeds to grow your own chili bushes for next year. The same is true for nearly every vegetable you can find in the stores. My aunt and I grow our own tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, and just about everything else that grows in our climate. Now, you probably won't be able to grow mangos or other tropical fruits but in the meantime, it's a good tip to cut down on your grocery bills." There was a flurry of activity as the adults quickly wrote that down.
Harry continued with his demonstration on how to cook the pork by first cutting the meat into roughly 1-inch pieces and trimming away the excess fat. He seasoned the pork with a half teaspoon of salt and heated the oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Every now and then, he'd offer a suggestion or two of tips and tricks he'd discovered that either improved the quality or cut down on the cooking time. There were many an adult who were grateful that the show was being recorded…
Once the meat was browned and the all the pork back in the pan, he adjusted the heat to low and began working on the sauce. He demonstrated how to operate the food processor, adding the sliced peppers and the explained the reasoning why the seasonings had to go in a specific order and why it was a good idea to wait a second or two before adding the next (prevents clumping of dry ingredients.)
"Strain the pepper puree through a fine mesh sieve into the pan with the pork. Press on the puree to extract as much of the sauce as possible. This will ensure that there are no little bits of peppers or seeds in the chili."
He stirred the pot to coat the pork in the chili puree then added the chicken stock to combine everything. Turning the heat to high, he brought the pan to a boil then reduced the heat to maintain a strong simmer for an hour. While that was simmering, he turned his attention to the side dishes. For this he grabbed several cans of sweet corn and more chilis.
"Next, I'll show you how to make a roasted corn and chili salsa when you can't get regular ears of corn."
The demonstration was over and now Harry had to face the crowds. Petunia was in charge of handing out samples of the meal he'd cooked and he was eternally grateful. He was tired, overwhelmed by the amount of people and just wanted to sit down for a while.
"Thank you for this wonderful meal, Mr. Potter," the Headmistress complimented him then her face took on a sympathetic look, "You look like you're ready to crash for the night."
Harry took and released a deep breath, "I am ma'am but I still need to pack things up."
The Headmistress waved her hand dismissively, "You let us deal with that. Go sit down."
Harry wearily nodded and crashed out on a bench off to the side where he promptly fell into a light sleep. He wasn't out for long when he felt something tugging on him. He raised his hands to swat away whoever it was but there was no one there. He blearily opened his eyes and glanced around. 'I couldn't have been imagining it, could I?' There was another tug on his chest and that's when he noticed a bushy-haired girl with the most expressive brown eyes and nibbling on her lower lip standing close to her mother and father as they chatted with Petunia.
The girl turned and they locked eyes. Hers widened perceptibly and she hesitantly moved over to him.
"H, hi," She stammered nervously.
Harry smiled in his best reassured smile, "Hi, thanks for coming to this cooking show. Are you new here? I've never seen you before."
She nodded, causing her bushy hair to bounce, "Yes, we just moved here from London."
He held out his hand like he'd been taught and introduced himself, "I'm Harry. Harry Potter."
She shyly smiled back and shook his hand, "I'm Hermione. Hermione Granger."
February 1990
It turned out that not only had Hermione and her parents just moved in from London, they also moved into the house that had been up for sale just three houses down from where Harry lived! Harry, for the first time, was speechless. He shyly offered to show her around the school and around the neighborhood. When he learned that she loved to read, he took her to the local library and helped her get a new library card (even though she knew how to do it herself, she thought he was being adorable and sweet.)
The two kids quickly became inseparable, playing on the school yard and challenging each other in class. There'd been a minor instance of bullying from the other kids when she inadvertently demonstrated her superior knowledge in class but Harry and to some extent, Dudley shot them down.
"Listen, if you don't want her to make you feel stupid then you should study more! She's my friend and if I find out that you've been mean to her, I won't share any more of my recipes."
That was a clearly defined and horrifying threat if they'd ever heard one. No one bothered Hermione after that.
After school usually found Hermione making her way over to the Dursley house more often than not to do her homework and play with Harry and Dudley. Petunia didn't mind because it was nice to have another girl in the house and when Hermione's mum came searching for her daughter, she had another adult to talk to.
"It's funny really," Hermione's mum, Emma said one day, "Before moving here, it took my husband and I many attempts to get her to put down her books and go outside to play in the yard. She meets your nephew and now I can't get her to settle down when she gets home. What's his secret?"
Petunia snorted into her cup of tea, "I have no clue. Maybe it's the thrill of a new adventure every day or the opportunity of learning something new about our garden which is where they usually go to. Harry loves the garden and regularly helps me tend to it. You know, he's already started planning how he wants his future restaurant to look when he grows up. He says that he wants a large garden to grow the vegetables and seasonings and a greenhouse for the tropical stuff."
Emma was impressed and said so. Petunia nodded thoughtfully and they both watched as Harry sprung up out of the bushes that surrounded the backyard causing Hermione to screech and chase him around the yard.
Harry invited Hermione into their smallish greenhouse that was built up alongside the house. In here they had trays with dirt in them and little tags informing anyone what had been planted. There were little sprouts here and there. A curtained off area was near the back.
"What's back there, Harry?" Harry turned to look where she was pointing.
"Oh, that's where the motor to open the vents, the water pump and some storage is," he replied. He was nervous that she'd actually go take a look because it was also the hidden entrance to some magical plants that Uncle Remus had brought the last time he'd visited.
"So what do you have growing in here?" her curious eyes sparkling in the sunlight.
"Um, I have cabbage, broccoli, I think we have a cauliflower in here somewhere, eggplant; some flowers my aunt wanted…"
"Neat. And you cook with all of these?"
"I try to. Whatever I don't cook will end up being sold to a former neighbor who operates a farmer's market downtown."
"I wish I knew how to cook as well as you do," she mumbled uncertainly.
His eyebrows rose, "Why don't you try? It's not all that difficult."
She gave him an exasperated look, "I've seen the things you cook and they look terribly complicated!"
He shrugged, "So start simply. Make a batch of biscuits or a cake. Just because I'm this talented doesn't mean that you have to start at my level."
"Could you teach me?"
"Weren't you there for the cooking show I did?"
She shook her head, "We came in at the end. Mummy and daddy had an appointment they couldn't get away from."
"Oh. Well, I guess I could show you a couple of simple things you can make but I'd need to see what's in your kitchen first."
March 1990
The audit into the Potter accounts were completed and the news wasn't good. Remus stopped in to share the bad news.
"First off, it seems that Harry wasn't supposed to be born a human boy. He was supposed to be born a monkey which explains his bursts of manic energy and desire to climb on everything." Everyone laughed while Harry stuck his tongue out at his uncle.
"Second, according to the audits, both you Petunia and Vernon created secret accounts to siphon off money from Harry's trust vault in the amounts of one thousand Galleons monthly. Petunia also supposedly was doing some shady financing of questionable investments and the like. The dividends from which were routed through those dummy accounts. I think the one had you known as 'Horse Rose Farms' or some such phony alias. The one linked to Vernon was a fake company by the name of 'Fat Walrus Industries.' All the money then was laundered before being sent to its final account belonging to Dumbledore, again under an alias." Both adults were incensed at being insulted like that. Vernon's weight management was no one's business and even then he'd a pretty good handle on it.
Vernon growled menacingly at the report in his hands, "How much total was siphoned off and is there any way to recover it?"
Remus took a sip of his beer, "He's taken a total of five hundred thousand Galleons to date whether from the transfer of Galleons from Harry's vault or from the investments. The Goblins are looking into how to recover the money but their best estimate is that the money is just gone, most likely used as bribes to officials to get the things he wanted done or not done; I now know that the most recent anti-werewolf legislation was being funded by him. It burns me to know that the man I thought I knew and respected is turning out to be a conniving, evil ba…jerk."
Harry couldn't wrap his head around all of this. He asked to be excused. After he fled the room, Petunia asked Remus what the latest was on the case of Sirius Black.
"I sent off the information to the DMLE and had a chat with Director Bones but at this point, I think they're just doing information gathering. It's what I would do before trying to move him to another location or setting him free."
"Remus, based on this information, I'm seriously doubting whether or not to allow Harry to go to that blasted school. Seeing how much money he's got in his vault, I'm sure that we could hire a tutor or two."
Remus held up his hand in submission, "At this point I would agree with you but we still have time. I'm just glad that Albus has been repeatedly denied access to the main vault. No telling what kind of nightmare he'd start if he'd had access to that kind of money."
"What else is in there besides money?" Vernon asked.
"Books on ancient and forgotten magic, weapons, ancient examples of pottery, I think the furniture from the Godric's Hollow ended up there after that Halloween, bunch of other ancient stuff that James would talk about."
"Just how old is the Potter family?" Vernon wondered.
"The earliest known reference is to a man named Linfred of Stinchcombe back in the twelfth century. His nickname was 'The Potterer' which over time became shortened down to Potter. He was a pioneering potioneer credited with creating many medicinal potions," Remus informed them as he slipped into lecture mode.
"Stinchcombe? Where's that?" Petunia asked curiously.
"Gloucestershire. He had a reputation as an eccentric, absent-minded man but his helpful nature and affability made him universally liked even by his muggle neighbors. He got the nickname of 'The Potterer' because of his tendencies to 'potter around his garden with all of his funny plants.' The potions that he was best known for eventually became known as 'Skele-gro' and 'Pepperup' both of whom are widely used to this day.
Vernon was intrigued, "So that must be where Harry got his talent with cooking and gardening. It sounds like this potion making thing is similar to cooking."
Remus cocked his finger at him, "It wouldn't surprise me in the least. Think of potion making as medieval chemistry and you wouldn't be too far off."
It was two days after the 'Financial Report from Hell' that the relationship between Harry and Hermione was forever altered. They were chasing each other around in an indoor play zone during a school trip when Harry slipped on something and slammed his head onto the edge of a trampoline. Hermione screamed when she saw the blood and tried pressing on his head with her hands hoping to stop the gushing. Her hands suddenly glowed a golden light as the blood flow slowed to a trickle and stopped. The teacher and attendant came rushing up at that moment and congratulated her on the quick thinking of applying pressure to the wound.
When Harry woke up in the hospital a couple of hours later, he saw through his barely opened eyes that he was surrounded by his aunt and cousin along with a couple of nurses, Hermione (who was holding his hand) and their teacher. Hermione was the first to notice that he'd regained consciousness.
"Urg…"
"Harry!" she squealed, getting the attention of everyone in the room.
"Blargh, I don't wanna ride the pony…" he mumbled deliriously.
"Harry? Can you hear me?" The doctor asked gently.
Harry slowly nodded his head and cracked an eye open before slamming it shut again. He tried to turn away from the light but it was everywhere.
"Too…much light, I'm dying…" he murmured.
"I'm sorry, Harry but it needs to be on," he heard someone say before feeling something like a sheet being placed over his head.
"Dudley, what are you doing?" he heard Petunia say.
"He thinks he's dying so I'm covering him up so I can go home and steal his recipes."
Harry yanked down the sheet and glared at his cousin, who grinned unrepentantly. He was examined and cleared by the medical staff that he'd be able to go home as soon as the paperwork was finished; Petunia followed them out to handle that. When it was just Dudley and Hermione left, Dudley asked about the strange glow that she'd produced when she tried to slow the blood down.
Hermione was blinking rapidly, clearly trying to come up with a believable explanation. Both boys glanced at each other and waited with amusement on both their faces.
"Um… that was… uh…"
"I think that was a case of accidental magic," Dudley theorized, tapping his chin, "what say you, Harry?"
"I agree and I'm thankful that she did."
Hermione's eyes widened comically, "You know what it was I did?"
"Not really but Harry here can do all sorts of stuff besides cooking." She turned to him with wide eyes.
Harry just shrugged then glanced at his cousin, "We're going to have to tell Aunt Petunia and Uncle Remus about this, you know."
The revelation that Hermione Granger was a witch floored Petunia; who immediately set off for the Granger's house and Remus when he'd been called. He apparated over immediately to discuss the ramifications of the news and to see how Harry was doing after his ordeal.
"I'm fine, Uncle Remus!" he whined and tried ineffectually to wave the older man's hands away from his head.
"I just want to make sure, Cub. You're the last of my extended pack and it scares me to think how close you were to being in danger."
Harry sat there and grumbled like the embarrassed kid he was. He felt something blow over his hair like a breeze before catching Dudley laughing his butt off about something. He ran to the bathroom and saw that his hair had been transformed into something hideously pink with sparkles!
"Uncle Remus!"
At the Granger's house…
"Oh, Petunia! Welcome, can I help you with something?" Emma asked as she greeted the other woman at the door. Petunia was smiling so it couldn't be anything bad, she hoped.
"I just heard that your daughter has an interesting talent of her own that she shares in part with Harry," Petunia began, much to Emma's confusion. "When did she start displaying accidental magic?"
Of all the possible questions she could've been asked, that one ranked near the absolute bottom in Emma's mind and it showed on her face as she did a marvelous impression of a fish out of water. She absent-mindedly led Petunia to the living room couch and sat down.
"Wha… what do you mean 'accidental magic?" she stammered and grew worried; they might have to move again, especially in light of what happened in their old neighborhood.
Petunia could see the mounting fear and patted the other woman on the arm reassuringly, "It's nothing to be upset about. Harry's been doing the same thing for years. It's just nice to know that there are others like us."
Emma suddenly got to her feet and paced, "So you're not going to call us freaks?"
Petunia got a sardonic look on her face, "Why would I do that? My own sister, Harry's mother, was a witch and there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, yes, I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't be one as well but sometimes it crops up in families."
Emma sank back down in her chair, "My sister, Hermione's Aunt Cathy had this odd thing she did every now and then. She liked to dress up as a witch every Halloween and other times during the year now that I think on it."
"See? Nothing to be afraid of unless this Aunt Cathy was a mean-spirited person."
Emma half-smiled, "No, she wasn't unless you were talking about sports. She had this fanaticism about some strange foreign sport known as Quid…quid something."
"Quidditch?" Petunia supplied.
Emma clicked her fingers, "That was it! You know of it?"
Petunia waggled her hand, "Somewhat, my sister Lily would occasionally talk about it. So anyways, knowing that your daughter is a witch is a good thing. It means we get to stop hiding stuff whenever she comes over!"
The two women chatted until Dan Granger; Emma's husband came home and was filled in with what occurred.
June 1990 to August 1990
A lot had happened between March and June of that year. The library was suddenly the hot ticket location to go after class and cookbooks were being snapped up quickly as soon as they hit the shelves. It got so bad that waiting lists appeared. The parents were amused by the whole thing; it was nice seeing their children enthused by a topic other than the usual boy bands or other mindless media types. Harry's popularity had skyrocketed to the point where he couldn't go anywhere near the cafeteria without a crowd of kids following him. Miss Bomberg spoke with the Deputy Headmistress and she held a school-wide assembly on the problems with harassment.
Things eventually settled down as the children's attention spans wandered off to the newest and coolest.
On the magical side, Remus heard from his contact within the Ministry that Sirius Black had been removed from Azkaban to an undisclosed location. This could only mean (he hoped) that his case had taken the next step towards a trial. He'd also started teaching Harry, Hermione (once he was introduced to the Grangers and had their permission) and to some extent Dudley the basics on magic. He couldn't really give them a comprehensive amount as the tourist season was approaching and he needed to get the farm and campsite prepared but he did leave them with books and some homework on subjects like magical theory, arithmancy, ancient runes, potions and herbology. Any of the subjects that required wands, he and Petunia figured that they'd leave that for when (or if) they got to Hogwarts.
Dumbledore had found out that his illicit accounts were being found and shut down by the Goblins in Gringotts as it was explained to Remus. The wily Goblins were highly amused at the old man's attempts to finagle his way out of trouble only to find out that they had him over the proverbial barrel. They recounted some of the angry (and loud) deprecations on their births, parentage and a host of other things uttered by Albus in his rage of being found out.
"I'm wondering if our next step should be to go to that newspaper the magical world reads to further expose Albus' misdeeds. There's got to be some backlash if it were known that the supposed 'Leader of the Light' was stealing from 'The-Boy-Who-Lived.'" Vernon commented one evening during dinner. This month it was Moroccan.
Petunia tilted her head in thought, "That sounds like a possibility. It would certainly shed some light where he doesn't want it and potentially lead to him being removed from power."
When regular school ended, the three kids kept going with their magical education. At least Harry and Hermione did; Dudley got bored with it especially since, in his opinion, he'd never get the full experience of it when the other two left for Hogwarts. That didn't mean that he was jealous of what Harry and Hermione had; far from it but he wanted to focus more on his music and the possibility of being allowed to go to a music camp this summer. The sounds of him practicing filled the house while the other two sequestered themselves in the kitchen figuring out how to make the potion assignments Remus had given them and also making little notations in their textbooks on alterations or improvements as they went along.
Pretty much the only time the three of them got together to work on a project was when Harry and Hermione's etiquette lessons were held. One other subject that was suggested was for the kids to take up ballroom dancing like the waltz and other classical dances. When whined about, Harry was given the explanation that magical society loved their galas and everyone of a certain social class was expected to know how to dance.
"The Potters used to be and still are in some circles, the highest ranked family in magical Britain," Remus explained during a weekend phone call. "It's also a great way to make contacts for whatever project you have in mind, politically."
Dudley would occasionally play the part of someone asking (or pushing) their way in for a dance, sometimes he even got funny by asking for a dance then taking Harry around the dance floor much to the amusement of the adults.
When June finally rolled around and school let out for the summer, Dudley had been packed and shipped off to that music camp he'd been begging for, Harry spent the months experimenting with combining potions with cooking, seeing if there was a way to make some of the nastier tasting ones more palatable. Hermione and her family made their annual trip to the continent.
Harry was in the garden when he heard the sibilant sounds of a snake hunting through the bushes. He put down his trowel and listened carefully to where he thought the voice was coming from.
"Here fishy, fishy, fishy… here fishy, fishy, fishy…." Harry peered into the bush closest to their small pond where he spotted a small grass snake holding motionless over the water.
"What are you waiting for?" Harry whispered.
"Waiting for a fish to come close." The snake replied, not realizing that it was a human it was talking to.
"Uh-huh, well there's no fish in that pond. It's a watering hole used for the garden."
If a snake could show emotions, the small grass snake looked put out. It turned to thank the other parselmouth and its mouth dropped open. Harry smirked at the reaction.
"Hello. Yes, I am a Speaker; yes, I do live here. No, you may not become a resident. Yes, I'm sure." Harry said as in rote.
"Well, I guess I'm not the only one to stumble across you then. My apologies, Speaker. I'm so embarrassed." The snake would've blushed if it could before tipping its tail to Harry and slithering off.
"Harry?" he heard Petunia call out. He stood up and dusted off his hands and knees.
"Another one?" she asked and he nodded, "The usual questions and answers?" Again, a nod. She waved her acknowledgement and headed back inside.
When Harry's 10th birthday arrived, he was forbidden from entering the kitchen. Not because they had any sort of secret appliance gift but because he had to host his friends at the park and he couldn't do that if he were in the kitchen. They had the party catered (read commercial pizza and cake) along with the usual games and activities. Vernon whispered to him that the 'other gifts' would be handed out later.
Despite it being right smack in the middle of tourist season, Remus took the day off to attend Harry's birthday and took a lot of photos. He was now in contact with Sirius and had even visited once during the latter's rehabilitation. He promised Sirius that he'd make sure to share said photos with him at the next visit.
Later, when they were handing out the 'other gifts' as Vernon called them, Hermione gave him a book. Normally, this wouldn't have caused much of a response but it was the title and content of said book that caused a reaction. The title was, "The Adventures of Harry Potter and the Naughty Nundu." It was clearly a children's book, no more than a paragraph or two per page but the illustrations were magically animated and told the story of how the 'Great and Powerful Harry Potter' had to save a village from the Naughty Nundu. From a literary sense, it was a load of silly nonsense as the titular character was no more than about five years old (or thereabouts). It was worrying, at least to the adults, because there was no mention of the profits of said book anywhere in their financial reports.
Remus caught the eyes of both Dursley adults, "I'll look into it."
[A/N2: Enter Hermione and the Grangers! I've been wanting to introduce them since the beginning but the timing just wasn't right then. So more bad dealings with Albus. Some people just never learn, do they? I'm hoping to do a more in-depth depiction of Sirius Black's trial in the next chapter rather than just allude to it. Again, stepping out of my comfort zone to write something I have no skill with to build my repertoire. I hope you all are enjoying what I'm writing so far. If you are, please leave a review.]
Recipes/Cuisines used:
Moroccan (mentioned only) Chile Colorado (Pinterest)
Pozole soup (Pinterest) Mango salsa (Pinterest)
Corn and pepper salsa (Yummly) Carnitas (Yummly)
Fajitas (Pinterest)
