It was a quiet summer night at Hogwarts, even Peeves was not up to his antics tonight.
As he leaned back in his seat, Dumbledore mulled over what to say to Harry. He had been back for hours and had yet to send the boy a letter as nothing he could say seemed right. Letting out a frustrated sigh he closed his eyes, sleep threatening to take him. Suddenly a small knock woke his senses up. "Come in." He called out and soon Minerva was walking up to his desk.
"Dumbledore, I just got word that Harry Potter has taken up his Lordship." she stated, a frustrated look in her eyes. "I was under the impression that you spoke with Mr. Potter and he decided to wait til the end of his schooling to take this role.. unless I was misinformed?"
If looks could kill, Minerva would have murdered him with just a glance. "Yes.. well" Dumbledore stammered a bit before sighing and shaking his head.
"I lied. Harry was kept from his parents will... for the Greater Good." He explained, looking at the wall behind Minerva as he did not want to see the anger in her eyes.
"Greater Good?! Hog wash! What good come of it Albus?!" Minerva exploded, throwing her hands in the air. "Dinnea tell you, every time you say something about the bloody 'Greater Good' nothing good comes of it!"
Dumbledore seemed to just shrink in his seat as she shouted at him. She started to rant more and more, and the more she did the thicker her Scottish accent seemed to get to the point that he could not keep up.
Finally, she let out a frustrated sigh as she sat across from him, her accent completely gone now. "Well, I, for one am glad he knows now and that he took his lordship. It will give him some leverage since the Dark Lord's return.." She looked over at Dumbledore.
"Unless that's what you wanted to avoid?" She asked with worry lacing her voice.
"Minerva... there are still many things that I need to keep secret.. some that would shock you. In the mean time, just trust that the light will win." Dumbledore stated softly letting her know she was not getting anything out of him any time soon.
Minerva stared at him for quite some time, not wanting to back down but then he watched her sigh once more. "Fine." She said in a stern tone and got up to leave "I hope, for your sake, that Harry will understand." With that she walked out of the headmaster's office.
Now that the conversation was done, for now, he finally decided to reach out to the boy and quickly wrote a sentence on his small parchment before giving it to Fawkes to deliver.
He watched as his majestic bird flew off into the night sky, a letter for Harry clenched in his talon. Hoping beyond hope, that he would be keep his promise to the Greater Good.
-111-
Harry woke up late the next morning, the grogginess of the butter beer finally hitting him. He had just let himself fall onto the bed last night, face first and passed out in seconds. Not even bothering getting under the covers.
He groaned as he rolled onto his back, pulling his wand that was hidden in his sleeve and gave it a quick flick. His timus spell showed that it was already 12:24pm in blurry green letters as he was rubbing his eyes awake.
'Over slept.' He thought to himself as he got up and made his way to his master bathroom.
As soon as the hot water his skin, a small sigh escaped his lips and the headache that had been creeping over his temples dulled somewhat. As much as he wanted to stay under the hot water for a couple hours, he rushed through his shower and got out.
Once he freshened up, the bathroom tightly hugging his body, he went back to his room to see that Dipsey had laid out a nice outfit for him that was clearly not in his wardrobe prior to arriving in potter manor.
Black slacks, black socks, dark blue boxers and a dark blue dress shirt were laid out neatly on the bed. While his, well Dudley's, dress shoes where beside the bed.
Suddenly a tapping on the window grabbed his attention. "Fawkes?" Harry asked bewildered as he went towards to the window to let the majestic bird in.
Fawkes flew over to the nightstand, letting out a magical tune that made Harry smile, before showing him the note he was there to deliver.
"From Dumbledore?" Harry asked as he took the note, catching the beautiful nod at him.
"I will explain everything, please come to headquarters at your upmost convenience."
That was all the note said. At first Harry thought it might be a way to just make him leave the manor but the more he thought about it, the more he realize that it wasn't a demand but more of an open invitation by Dumbledore. He quickly wrote back, stating he and Hermione would be on their way in 2 weeks time.
"Have a safe flight." Harry said softly, giving the response to Fawkes who took off with no hesitation.
With a sigh, he turned back to his bed and as he reached for the clothes, his long locks got on his face. It was becoming annoying to deal with it at that length.
Suddenly he had an "Dipsey." he called out softly.
He heard a small pop behind him. "Master Harry! What can Dipsey do for you?" she squeaked.
Harry gave her a soft smile. "Wondering if you could give me a hair cut?" Dipsey jumped into action upon the request.
-111-
Hermione was going nibbling on her late lunch and going through her potions homework in the sitting room. However, she was rather distracted.
She had woken up at the usual 7am that she had gotten accustomed to at Grimmauld place and got herself ready for the day but there was not much for her to do as she did not have Molly Weasley there to run her ragged with cleaning.
She had asked Dipsey if Harry had gotten up but was told he was still sleeping. Which didn't surprise her as he did have a tendency to over sleep. So she went about her day, working on her school work but the more the day went by, the more concerned she was that Harry was not up yet. She would have woken him up by now, however, she was not sure where his room was and to add icing to the cake, Dipsey would not tell her where his room was either.
She let out a frustrated sigh and pushed away her work. 'It could be worse.' she thought to herself 'You could still be stuck with Ron being overly clingy.' She closed her eyes and laid her head against the sofa's pillows.
She let herself think about the past few weeks before coming here. Ron had not left her side at Grimmauld Place. He was overly sweet and at first it was a nice change to the usual bickering they tended to have but it was almost obsessive. He was always there, even when she wanted to be alone. It was becoming a pain.
But she noticed his attitude change somewhat when Harry either wrote them or if he was brought up. He got this look in his eyes, a look that Hermione saw all too much last year when Harry's name was called from the Goblet of Fire. It was a mixture of jealousy and hatred but Hermione could not understand why the mention of Harry would spark that look now. 'I thought they made up..' she wondered.
Suddenly she heard soft foot steps come towards the sitting room. "'Mione?" Harry called out,
"On the sofa, Harry." She said simply and heard him walk in.
"Sorry, I overslept.. must've been more tired than I thought I was." He apologized sheepishly.
"It's o.." she started to say as she opened her eyes to look at him but stopped short.
There was Harry, dress in the most fancy clothes she had ever really seen him in, hugging his body in such a way that you could tell that he was indeed working out. But what really grabbed her attention was that his usually messy long locks were gone. His hair was now short, his locks were brushed back a bit to keep them neatly in place. Slightly parted on one side. Almost 50's chic is what came to mind.
"Does it look bad? I asked Dipsey to do it." Harry asked, a bit panicked, his hands running through the longer length on the top.
Hermione shook her head, clearing her mind of the not so innocent thoughts caused by his actions. "No, it looks good!" She said sweetly as she fully stood up.
"You're going to give the boys a run for their money this year." She smirked at him, causing Harry to blush a bit.
"Bollocks." He scoffed playfully.
-111-
Once Harry had eaten, He had told Hermione that he finally had received word from Dumbledore.
"So, in two weeks time, we will head back?" She confirmed with him
Giving her a short nod, a smile playing on his lips. "Gives us time to catch up and relax."
Hermione mulled over the answer then smiled, "Well it honestly beats having to clean day in and day out."
"Clean?" Harry asked, clearly confused.
Hermione then went onto tell him how Molly had her and the rest of the Weasley children clean Sirius's home to keep them away from the adults during the day. When she tried to explain further as to what Dumbledore and the others were doing she opened her mouth, nothing came out. "Sorry?" Harry asked confused.
Hermione sighed angrily "Must be the fact that Dumbledore made it impossible for any one to mention what happens in Sirius's home aside from the mundane."
The nagging voice in the back of Harry's mind tried to come out as anger was starting to take over but he forced up a wall in his mind, making sure that whatever was happening with his emotions was in check.
"It's fine Hermione, I will figure everything out in due time." He said, pushing his empty plate away. It was quiet for a moment as they finished their tea.
Hermione kept looking Harry over, her heart hammering and feelings that she was trying to keep buried down were threatening to spill. Harry notice her stare as he gulped the last bit of her tea, she looked a bit pink in the cheeks which he thought was adorable as it highlighted her pale complexion lovingly. He took the time to notice that her usually wild hair was now tamed into soft ringlets and she was not in her usual jeans and jumper, instead she had a cute peach sundress on that showed her curves. He blushed lightly as he decided to look out the window to get his thoughts together. 'Ron likes her.' he repeated to himself before Hermione broke the silence.
"Is there any chance we could look around? If we are staying here for 2 weeks I would love a tour?" She gave him a playful smile.
Harry then gave Hermione a better tour of the Manor with Dipsey giving commentary. He made sure to let Dipsey save the library for last, as he knew he would never get Hermione out of there.
They had already been through the courtyard out back, the head of house office and the tea/sitting room. As they passed the bedrooms, Hermione was satisfied to know that Harry's room was just down the hall from her own much to Dipsey's dismay.
Once they were passed the bedrooms they took a left to the next long hallway, at the very end there was the entrance to the library and at the middle there was the stair case that led back down to the main hall of the manor. Dipsey and Harry ignoring the doors all together, heading straight to the stairs but Hermione stopped them.
"What's in there?" She asked curiously.
"Nothing to worry about that room for now Missus, the other elves are cleaning it as it has been left in a mess." Dipsey stated as she started to push both teens down the stairs. "But.." Hermione began to protest but the little head elf shushed her and told her that that room was not ready for viewing and that she could see it in a little while.
Hermione huffed but let herself be pushed forward on the tour.
Dipsey showed them the basement which used to be Jame's den/bar hangout. Harry had only barely glanced at it the first time he looked around the house but now he noticed the trophy case with his father's Quidditch medals and trophies, as well as honor student plaques and both his prefect and headboy badge.
He then took in the walls, all sorts of family pictures were hanging out, some moving, some muggle prints. He noticed one of James and Lily. They looked young, almost his age, smiling and laughing at the person taking their picture. Another showed James, Remus and Sirius wearing their school robes in the Hogwarts courtyard. Harry smiled as he took in both photographs and then looked over at Hermione looking over a different picture near the bar.
It was one of James, Lily and himself. James and Lily looked happily upon baby Harry while he was playing with a black cat.
Hermione smiled at baby Harry as he saw him happily laugh. Then looked over at Harry, noticing that he was smiling sadly. "You were loved, they loved you." She reassured him softly then took his hand. "We won't let their sacrificed be in vain Harry." She looked him determinedly in the eyes. A fire lit in her that Harry knew all too well.
A lump in his throat made it hard to respond so Harry smiled at her gave her a short nod, and her hand a quick squeeze before letting go.
A small pop got their attention, another young elf walked over to Dipsey with a smile on his face "Dipsey, the Library is ready."
"This place has a library?" Hermione asked earnestly as she walked over to the small elves. "Yes" Dispey confirmed, "Am I right to presume you want to see it now?" She asked, a smile forming on her face as Hermione nodded frantically.
-111-