"I want the de-aging. I want to repair the damage my family did. I want to remove the last taint of my parents' care from my body, so I can close the memories of the same incidents away in the depths of my mind and never have to think on them again. I want to repair the damage that Azkaban did. I want to be the best that I can be, for me, for him, for you." Sirius told Harry earnestly.

It took three days for Hermione and Ollivander to have the booster-crystals ready for the wizards to charge. Then there was the issue of who to pair with who? And that, had Harry standing outside the door to the house that Thorin and his Company were using, shortly after lunch.

"Thorin?" He knocked on the open door but didn't enter. "Can I have a word? We're at the stage of needing to pair one of my people with one of yours, and bluntly? I don't know your people well enough to judge." He went on when Thorin came to the door.

"Hmm…" Thorin mused. "In that case it might be wise to have Dwalin join us, he knows the measure of my Company, the most."

"Sure."

"One moment." Thorin held up a hand, then he leant backwards and yelled. "Dwalin! Dê!" From somewhere in the house came a thumping of feet and within seconds three people thundered down the hall.

"You yelled, Uncle." Kíli grinned.

"Not for you, I didn't." Thorin huffed. "Go back to Balin and your studies."

"Oh, but-" Kíli pouted

"Go." Thorin pointed back into the house. "Dwalin, with me." The two young princes pouted and stomped back into the house.

"Right ye are." Dwalin grunted.

"The pavilion, Master Harry?" Thorin asked.

"No, not this time. I need a bit of space, let's go down to the creek." Harry suggested.

"As you wish." Thorin nodded and stepped out of the house. Harry led the two dwarves down to the creek and with a swish of his wand transfigured three rocks onto neat stone chairs. "What can we do for you?"

"Hermione and Ollivander have some crystals ready to try, but that means that we have to pair one of my people with one of yours." Harry replied.

"Why is that?" Thorin asked, a frown on his face.

"Your dwarves have a magical core, but it's not as pronounced as ours, Miss Sissy believes that it's because you didn't have contact with magic while it was developing and as a result, its growth was… stunted. She and Severus are working on a potion that may correct that, but it could take them months to get it ready for testing. In the meantime, Hermione and Ollivander have created a crystal that will act like a booster. The downside is that it requires someone to charge them."

"I don't understand. Charge them?"

"Ah, right, um…?" Harry wondered how to describe the- "Oh. Consider them like… a bucket that holds magic. Your people can fill it, but it will take them months. On the other hand, it will take one of my people a few minutes. These 'buckets' provide the fuel for the brooms and other magical devices."

"Ah…" Thorin nodded.

"Yes, but we'll get a better result if we can team one of my people with one of yours. As an example… young Ori? He's shy and a little retiring. Pairing him with Sirius or one of the twins, is a disaster for Ori."

"Ah…" Thorin nodded again.

"But Fíli and Kíli? They'd work well with the twins, you and I might dread what they get up to, but they'd still work well, they have similar personalities." Harry went on.

"I see. So, what do you need from me?"

"Because it's your people we need to match, if you and Dwalin could describe each of your people and their personalities and abilities, I'll try and find a match in one of mine. Then we can start testing the crystals and charging them."

"And then?" Dwalin asked.

"And then we teach you to fly. Once transport is sorted out, Thorin and I will meet and discuss what he needs us to do next. Provide accommodation. Set wards. Provide explosives. I'm out of my depth when it comes to Kings and what they need to reclaim a kingdom, you're going to have to tell me. But the one thing I do know is that we have to get you there first." Harry told them earnestly.

"And your brooms can get us there in a day?" Thorin asked.

"Yes. A day, two at the outside. Depends on the route and how many stops we make." Harry answered.

"Well, then, we'd best get our people paired up." Thorin nodded. "Dwalin, give master Harry a breakdown of each person's capabilities, strengths, weaknesses and personality."

"You and the boys, too?" The partially bald guard asked.

"Yes, all of us. Hold nothing back." Thorin ordered.

"Right then, let's start with him." Dwalin jerked a thumb in Thorin's direction.

For the next hour and a half, Dwalin and Harry debated the merits of each pairing, slowly hammering out a pairing that both sides felt would work.

"Read 'em back to me, lad." Dwalin requested.

"Got it. Let's see… Bilbo and Severus. Fíli and Fred. Kíli and George. Ori and Neville. Dori and Oliver. Nori and Charlie. Gloín and Sirius. Oín and Remus. Bofur and Seamus. Bifur and Dean. Bombur and Justin. Balin and Draco. Dwalin and Bill. Thorin and Harry."

Dwalin turned to Thorin and raised an eyebrow. "Well? What do yer reckon?"

"You're the one that's trained them, watched them work. If you're happy with the pairings, Dwalin, I shan't interfere." Thorin held up a hand in denial.

"I'm happy with 'em." Dwalin drawled.

"Same here." Harry agreed.

"Then the pairings stand as you read them." Thorin nodded.

"Excellent. In that case, we can start getting crystals bonded to a dwarf and their wizard partner and charged. We should be able to start you on brooms in the morning. The quidditch queens will take you into the Nest and-"

"Why them?" Thorin asked, curiously. "Why not you? Or Sirius? Why the ladies?"

"Because they're chasers, the most flexible flyers on a quidditch team. The most agile, the most manoeuvrable." Harry answered.

"We've yet to see this… quidditch." Thorin said.

"I know, and that's partially deliberate." Harry allowed. "We don't want to scare you off just yet. We tend to get a little… competitive when quidditch is involved. We felt that if you'd have a lesson or two, we could then show you, this is where all of us started and this is what you can achieve if you want to. Not everyone does. Hermione is a prime example, she's an excellent flyer, but gets no pleasure from it. Neither does Neville. But McGonagall and Ollivander will be finished with their de-aging in a few hours and I can pretty much guarantee that McGonagall will be back on a broom as soon as she's allowed. She's even more quidditch-obsessed than we are." Harry laughed.

"And you think we can start in the morning?" Dwalin asked.

"If we can get the crystals bonded this afternoon, yes." Harry nodded.

After an early breakfast, Katie and Angelina greeted the dwarves as they approached the pavilion and led them through the enlarged entrance into the Nest's pocket-space. The dwarves twisted their heads around and gaped at the space, you could clearly see the 'walls' and 'ceiling' of the space, as they walked across an empty field to a huge walled structure.

"Morning." Alicia stood beside Bilbo and Headley at the entrance to the structure and bounced on her feet.

"Good morning, Lady Alicia." Thorin nodded to her.

"Oh, now, as lovely as that sounds, there's no formality on the quidditch pitch. Out here, I'm Lish, and my fellow chasers are Angie and Katie." Alicia beamed at them, taking any sting from her words. "We're going to teach you to fly." The last word was said passionately, with the reverence usually reserved for something of exquisite beauty.

"Come on, guys, let's get you started." Angelina led them through the entrance, down a tunnel and out into a massive amphitheatre-like space. "Over here." Across the grounds to a group of brooms laying on the ground.

"So, we're going to start you off slow." Katie told them and began to describe the process of raising a broom.

Up in the stands, Harry sat with Hermione and Snape.

"You really think this will work, Potter?" Snape asked.

"Give them a chance, S-Severus." Harry stumbled over calling Snape by his first name. "Oh, lord." Harry tried not to laugh at the look of almost-horror-almost-rapture on Oín and Dori's faces.

"You paired Fred and George with Fíli and Kíli, didn't you?" Hermione sighed, watching the two young dwarves, as they raced around the pitch and tumbled from their broom every time they yanked on their brooms' shafts, cackling all the time.

"Yep." Harry gave up any pretence of not laughing, when Thorin and Dwalin both started chasing Fíli and Kíli, yelling at them to behave.

Snape buried his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking, at the expression of distaste that Balin and Gloín wore as they sedately circled the pitch at exactly six foot above the ground.

"Alright, everybody in." Katie called and a reluctant Fíli and Kíli settled to the ground only to be collared by Thorin and Dwalin. "That can wait, chastise them later, fly now." She pulled Dwalin and Thorin to a halt. "Next we're going to try some carpets."

"Some of you might find them to be more your thing." Alicia flicked her wand and a caravan of carpets floated out of the entrance tunnel and across the pitch, to settle beside her. "So, first. Where to sit and how to operate a carpet. Angie is going to demonstrate for you, but she's going to keep the carpet at one foot above the ground and at walking speed, just so that you can watch what she does. Angie?"

The next half hour was just as entertaining for the trio in the stands, as the last hour had been.

Bombur wore an expression of bliss as he floated along, happily doing whatever he was told. Fíli and Kíli, on the other hand, pouted and moaned at having to go so slow. Thorin spent most of his time cutting in front of his nephews and forcing them to slow down. Balin, Gloín, Oín and Dori looked no happier on a carpet than they had on a broom, while most of the other dwarves didn't seem overly impressed.

"Everybody in!" Angelina called and everyone but Bombur seemed happy to abandon the carpets and gather near the girls. "Last on the list of flying things that we're going to subject you to, are… the modified brooms that Remus and the Weasleys have been working on."

Katie flicked her wand and summoned a flight of one after one after one of odd-looking brooms. Each broom had a wide saddle-like seat on it, with a tall backrest, that if the dwarves knew what an ergonomic office chair was, they'd recognise as having been the backrest's inspiration. Then there were two extensions that fell from the front of the broom that ended in stirrup-like footrests. And finally, there were two odd looking brackets, that at first, the dwarves assumed to be armrests, but once Alicia mounted the odd contraption, they realised that the brackets were the means to control the broom.

"As you can see, these are slightly different. Bombur, we know you like the carpets, but you still have to be able to ride a broom. You might not want to, you might never need to again, but if you don't know how? Guaranteed, that's when you're going to need to it." Katie lectured. "First up, Dori and Gloín. Mount up and try it. Alicia will fly between you, to give you a hand. Bombur and Oín, you're next. Angie will fly with you."

Up in the stands, Hermione was making notes. "I think we've got ideas of who's going to prefer which broom." She said.

"Except from Bombur." Harry agreed. "I think we can safely say that he's going to prefer a carpet."

"Indeed, but I'm hesitant about Balin, Dori, Oín and Gloín. They look no more comfortable on a modified broom, than an unmodified one." Snape added.

"Or the carpets." Hermione sighed.

"Let me have a chat with Remus and the twins, they might have a few ideas." Harry screwed his nose in thought.

Two mornings later and the dwarves were just finishing off their latest flying session, when a whooping yell came from the pitch's entrance tunnel, closely followed by an indignant squall of noise. This caused the dwarves, Bilbo, Headley and the girls to spin to face the tunnel.

What emerged from the tunnel had Harry and Hermione laughing and Snape covering his eyes.

An elegant rollback loveseat whisked along just below the ceiling of the tunnel, on one side there was the cross-legged Sirius Black, grinned delightedly as the small sofa blazed along, on the other side was the obvious reason for the squalling sound. A very disapproving Teddy held tightly in his father's arms.

When Harry saw the tiny infant, he started to growl, but waited until Sirius had brought the sofa to a halt beside Katie.

"Try these out. They're-"

"Sirius Orion Black!"Harry's voice was amplified by his wand, but it still was low and sounded very much of his panther's growl.

Down on the pitch, Teddy stopped screaming and Sirius head jerked in Harry's direction and an expression of absolute horror blossomed on his face. "No… No… He didn't…?" He whispered.

"It appears he did." Remus' expression was nearly as bad.

"He did what?" Katie asked.

"Who did what?" Angelina asked.

"Harry inherited his mother's temper." Remus grimaced.

"Ah…" Headley grimaced, too. "Good luck with that. Harry's temper is… Yeah, good luck…" He skittered around to hide behind Katie.

"Uh, pup…?" Sirius whined.

"Get your mangy, flea-ridden ass up here, Black." Harry snarled and pointed to a space beside himself.

Sirius' eyes widened and twisted on the spot and apparated away.

"Coward." Remus muttered.

Harry snarled and he, too, vanished from the stands.

"Let's leave Harry and Sirius to sort themselves out." Angelina shook her head. "Tell me about this, Remus." She pointed at the loveseat.

"We were watching yesterday." Remus answered. "We weren't sure if it was the uncomfortable bit or the undignified bit, but it's clear that Balin, Dori, Oín and Gloín are not happy on either type of brooms or the carpet, so we spent the afternoon, working out whether we could modify a broom, to be both comfortable and elegant. This is, roughly, the result."

"And what have you done?" Alicia asked.

Remus raised his hand and the loveseat lifted into the air and hovered with the feet on a level with his shoulder. "We asked Justin for a sofa from the commissary and modified it using Sirius' old broom. We didn't want to destroy new a broom if it didn't work. We added a few twigs to the broom to bulk it up and then added the modified steering mechanism, before used a separating charm to split the broom. Not completely, what we did was… make a slice a few inches from either end, down the centre of the broom, then encouraged it to form a squarish shape and used a sticking charm to secure it to the base frame of the loveseat. Then we elongated the steering handles so they both come out the front here, a curved front to have somewhere to rest feet or a bag… and there you have it." Remus smiled. "This isn't the finished product, though, this is only a testing model. But if the dwarves like it, Justin and McGonagall said we can personalise seats for the dwarves."

"But it works?" Alicia asked.

"You saw it, for yourselves." Remus gestured to the tunnel and shifted a now sleepy Teddy to his other arm.

"How will this differ from the completed model?" Katie asked.

"Well, the big difference will be that in the personalised models, we'll be using two brooms that have been tethered together, but only the primary broom will have the modified steering. And the brooms will be physically attached to whatever seat is used, rather than a sticking charm. The idea being that if not needed for transport, the brooms can be removed and be used as standard brooms."

"And they'll use the same steering as the modified brooms?" Katie asked.

"They will." Remus nodded.

"Alright, we'll take it from here. You go and see to Harry and Sirius." Angelina jerked her thumb in the direction of the tunnel.

"Yeah, no, not happening. I'll sit with Hermione and Snape. Sirius is on his own." Remus grimaced.

"Got it." Alicia nodded and waved him away. "Right, let's try this." She sat on the seat and wiggled until she was comfortable, let her hands fall to the extended handles and the seat lifted into the air. And few simple manoeuvres and she let it settle back to the ground beside Katie. "Well, they work. Hardly the most… versatile of flying things, but it'll do the job." She told the other two girls.

"Alright." Angelina nodded. "Balin, you first. Just try the standard course, that should be enough to let us know if one of these is more suitable for you than a broom or carpet."

"Yes, of course, Miss Angie." The older dwarf refused to be so crass as to address a young lady without a title. He settled himself onto the sofa and let his hand take hold of the controls. Three minutes later, he let the sofa settle to the ground, a beaming smile on his face. "I like this. For me, this is far more acceptable than a broom or Bombur's choice of carpet."

"Yes." Angelina agreed. "That's very clear. We still need you to finish the broom training, but like with Bombur, you'll only have to pass the basics."

"Thank goodness for that." Balin muttered.

"Gloín, you're up next." Katie called and the redheaded axeman came forward.

When he landed, he nodded and joined Balin. "Yes, much better." Was all he said.

Oín was next and he flitted around the pitch, letting the seat rise and fall in odd places. He said nothing but nodded to Katie when he landed and stepped away from the seat.

"Dori." Katie called.

Dori wore an expression of distrust for the first few seconds, but quickly his smile grew, and he relaxed enough to settle back into the seat, still going through Alicia's course. "Oh, this is very nice, a little on the large side for me, but very nice, indeed." He smiled at Katie as he disembarked.

One by one, all the dwarves tried the flying sofa. Each of them wore differing expressions, some of contemplation, some of dislike, some of just plan indifference.

It was as Thorin, who was last to go, was trialling the sofa that Harry returned.

"Did you catch him?" Remus asked.

"I did." Harry smirked.

"What did you do to him, Harry?" Hermione sighed.

"He's stuck as Padfoot, with a pink French poodle haircut, for the next hour." Harry glanced sideways at Hermione, but predominantly kept his attention on the pitch. "What's the verdict?"

"The sofa is good." Hermione answered. "Personalising it will make it even better. Bilbo, Dori, Balin, Oín, Gloín and Thorin like them, but Thorin and Bilbo are still leaning towards the modified broom as their preferred option. Bombur, as we already said, prefers the carpet. Bifur prefers the modified broom but is quite comfortable with either the sofa or the carpet. The rest are one step above useless on the sofas and tend to push the carpet a little too hard."

"Agreed." Snape nodded. "But it might be an idea to keep Bifur as a possibility for a second carpet."

"Can't hurt." Harry nodded. "Alright. I'll go and have a chat with Thorin about it, see what he thinks, they're his people, I don't want to step on his toes."

"Always a good idea to have." Remus nodded.

"How did Headley go?" Harry was conflicted about Headley. On one hand, Dudley had been his greatest tormentor during his youth, on the other Headley wasn't Dudley anymore.

"Good, really good. He's going to make an excellent keeper as he matures." Remus answered.

"He was looking up here for you, seemed a little disappointed that you weren't here." Snape added.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about him, I need to work out if he's Dudley or Headley." Harry sighed.

"Harry, he's Headley now, not Dudley, not anymore. Dudley was your cousin, a muggle and a bully. Headley is your brother, he's a wizard and a good kid." Hermione clarified.

"So, you think I need to… what…? Forget he was ever Dudley?"

"Yes, he's not Dudley anymore." Hermione nodded. "Judge him on what he does as Headley, not on what he did as someone he's not, anymore."

"Why don't you take him for the afternoon? Visit the hippogriffs, play with the foals for a while." Snape suggested.

"Hmm… Yeah, I can do that." Harry gave them a smile and summoned a broom, mounted up and flew down onto the pitch. "Hey, Headley? Wanna come see the Buckbeak's foals?"

Headley grinned and bounded over to Harry. "Yes, please!"