CHAPTER : FIRST SUMMER VACATION

Update 26/02/2020: I have decided to post the story year-wise, so this is just division of the chapters and not a new story. Please read "Helllooo Harry Potter!- Book 1" before you read this.

Warnings: Not my story, not that serious one either. Harry's Harem with both straight and slash members. This story will be M-rated, thought not until the next book. Right now, it will be more like between K+ and T.

psss... since I have no betas, please do point out if I have any mistakes in the chapters.

Petunia's pov

The first summer vacation of my two kids had finally arrived. Harry came home first and Duddley four days later. I had missed both of them throughout the year. I would look out of the window to see them play, or looking to the stairs to see if they would come down to eat; and then realize they were in hostels this year. Richard must have had either a headache or a good laugh seeing me fetter over the how we would spend the time with the boys during the vacation.

And then a month before their vacation, I got a letter from Dudley saying that he had been selected for the national juniors team for football. Their team had won the preliminaries and had to go to Romania for two weeks for their matches. We immediately changed our plans to include Romania in it for those two weeks. When I sent that news to Harry, he sent me a whooping howler screaming in joy and celebrating. He had told that howlers were used to send reprimands or orders, but I guess it could be used this way too. What interested me were the several voices behind me, of his friends. I was glad to know he made some true ones there.

Since the day my boys have been back, there has been complete ruckus around the house; and I have enjoyed every minute of it. What was endearing to watch was Richard participating in it along with the boys. I always feel proud of leaving Vernon when I watch the three of them. Now we are on the plane to Romania, for the matches. If Dudley's team keeps winning, there would be five matches including the finals. I was seated with Richard, Dudley with his team, and Harry was okay sitting with a red-headed boy. What concerned me was the questioning looks that boy kept giving Harry, but Harry was asleep as soon as the plane took off, so he was not bothered.

The matches went well, with all the cheering and groaning all around. Harry once again got into his cheering bad boy get up, with his bandanna, torn jeans and half tucked shirt. I find this get up always funny on him. He says he wears it just to make me laugh. We three cheered for Dudley's team at every chance we got. The visit was even more fascinating, watching a different culture and their creations. Food was so good that each of three boys separately bought me a recipe book for their dishes. Boys and their stomachs! Of course, Dudley's team was the best and they won the tournament. There was still two days of our visit left and Dudley was free now. We had visited the surroundings and were deciding on what to do next when Harry made the most scary proposal.

"Aunt, Uncle, let us go to the dragon's reserve in Romania."

"WHAT reserve?" I dropped the clothes in my hand in surprise.

"Dragons! Arrr" he growled at me.

"They actually exist?" Richard was wide eyed.

"Yes" Harry nodded, amused at our expressions.

"And they even have a reserve?"

"Yes sir"

"And we can go and come out of it alive?"

"That is questionable." He answered offhandedly. Richard gulped and Dudley jumped up in delight.

"Let's go papa, please. I won the match, I don't know when we will come here again, let's go and see dragons. Please!" He started pleading. And of course, we parents cannot hold against a magical nephew and sporty son, both putting on their puppy dog eyes. Damn those eyes!

So the day before we were to leave, Harry had somehow got us the permission through Amelia Bones for the visit. I guess it is beneficial sometimes to have a high ranked official as a friend. We received an owl the night before carrying a portkey to the reserve. It took us to the base of a huge mountain, where a young witch was waiting for us. She looked dressed for combat, with her high boots, tough jacket and pants, and hair tied in a tight bun. She must have noticed my observation, for she smiled at us.

"Welcome to Romania Dragon Reserve. I guess you are ones booked as Robin and family?"

We nodded as Richard stepped forward, "Nice to meet you. I am Richard Robin, this is my wife Petunia, my son Dudley and my nephew Harry."

"Nice to meet you too. I am Feila. Now just as a formality, but you need to hand in your wands for inspection."

"Sure" Harry said and took out his wand. She performed some spell on it and handed it back to him. Then she looked at us expectantly. I realised she was waiting for our wands, "Um we don't have one. We three are muggles."

She snorted, "Yeah nice one, I've never heard that one before."

"They are telling the truth." Harry spoke, "I am Harry Potter, and I am staying with my muggle family. I got the permission for us to visit from Defence Head of Britain, Madam Amelia Bones. You may confirm it if you want, but I request secrecy about my identity."

Wide-eyed, she performed a spell at all of us and squealed in delight before controlling herself, "Oh my, I am sorry I did not believe you, but I never imagined either Harry Potter or any muggles coming to visit us. Please come in. No one will bother you about your identity, Mr. Potter. I promise. It is even possible that we would be more interested in your family."

We walked inside the reserve. In the beginning, there were many small cottages and houses everywhere, but as we walked deeper they became sparse. Soon there was wildness all around, no hint of any human residents.

"The dragons have built their nests from here onward. The first one we will visit is the gentlest of them all. Her kind is called Chinese Fireballs, we call her Selvina. There she is with her eggs."

It was a big dragon, just as shown in movies, with big jaws full of deadly teeth, spiky scales all over her body and long tail with a sharp spike at its end. She was magnificent and dangerous, that much was obvious. As soon as we walked near her, she looked at us sharply and growled. We stopped in our tracks. Feila stepped forward confidently ignoring that growl. The dragon lift her head and without any warning, let out a stream of fire at her. She confidently waved her wand and created a shield with it, against which the fire did not come ahead. The dragon then just huffed and turned her head away and crouched over her eggs.

"You call THAT gentlest?" Richard asked in a daze.

Feila smiled at us, "Of course, that was a fire of lowest intensity and just a warning. Never believe easily when someone says that they were able to fend off a dragon at its fiercest. A dragon could burn you into ashes in seconds. Even the weakest is stronger than an army of us. We have dragons here of their own will. They themselves decided that they want to remain hidden. It nothing to do with us."

A loud roar sounded in distance and Feila's eyes widened, "Oh no, looks like we are having trouble with one of our dragons. Please come with me. I will take you to one of our houses. I will have to go and assist."

She rushed us to one of the houses on the edge and went away running towards the roaring dragon. We four waited by the door outside, watching and ready to go inside should there be trouble. There was fire raised high in the sky among the trees twice and lot of roaring and screaming all the time. All of a sudden, a majestic blue dragon rose in the sky. Many coloured spells were being thrown at her, but her skin seemed to have the ability to deflect spells. She flew high in the sky, circling like a vulture and roaring in rage at something. Suddenly Harry gasped beside me, "Her egg!" At the same instant, the dragon looked down and flew swiftly towards us.

We were frozen in spot out, unable to move away. The dragon landed in front of us and gave out a loud roar. I feared this would be our end. She opened her mouth and I waited for the fire to come, but none came. Instead, the dragon let out a low growl which sounded… sad? To my surprise, Harry stepped towards her and my heart almost died of an attack when he placed his palm on her nose.

"I know. I am sorry. I will try my best. Please, don't be sad. Your kid will be majestic, I promise." He spoke to her. Just then, a lot of reserve rangers came running out of the forest. The guy I saw on the plane was there too. All of them stopped abruptly, with their mouths wide open. I guess this was another awing instance of Harry doing something unexpected.

Feila stepped forward warily, "Harry? Are you okay? Please step back carefully."

"It's okay Feila." Harry said softly, still petting the dragon, "She won't harm me or any of you. She is not angry at us. She is angry that one of her eggs has been stolen."

"WHAT!" rang out of almost everyone's mouth there. The red haired boy stepped forward, "How do you know that?"

Harry shrugged, "She told me."

"And how can you talk to the dragons?"

Harry's eyes widened in realization, "It must be the unicorns." He muttered and I understood. This was the gift they gave Harry, to be able to talk to any creature if he wishes to. Well he could already talk to snakes; this wasn't as surprising as it should have been.

"I don't understand." The guy was confused.

Harry turned to him, "Look, I would prefer not explain how. But please find her egg. It was there with her today morning. She woke up from her nap now and found it missing."

That was enough to snap them into action. I did not understand the various talks or spells cast, nor did we stay for long outside. The dragon left soon afterwards to her nest and we were given refreshments and asked to wait. It was at least another two hours when we heard a happy roar of the dragon and the red-haired boy stepped into the cottage.

"Did you find the egg?"

He nodded, "Yes, all thanks to you. Any later and he would have crossed the perimeters and would have been able to escape. Let me introduce myself. I am Charlie Weasley. Are you Harry Potter by any chance?"

Harry snickered, "Red haired guy, of course I should have guessed. Are you the Ron's brother, and prefect and quidditch captain at Hogwarts?"

Charlie smiled at me, "That would be me. Nice to know my reputation precedes me."

Dudley spoke his thoughts, "Ron? By Ron, do you mean the same Ronald you wrote to me about? The rude and idiot? Oh sorry!" He blushed when he realised that he was insulting someone's family directly in front of them.

Charlie laughed, "Don't worry, and yes the same Ronald. I guess you two do not have good history at the school?"

"Not the best, but we don't run in same circles anyway, so I don't know him that well either." Harry replied.

"That's okay. So other than the exciting part, how was your visit today?"

We fell into an easy discussion, mostly us asking questions and him answering through his experiences. Others rangers visited us from time to time during their breaks. As Feila predicted, they had lot of questions about us too. Charlie stayed with us through our remaining visit. Though I did notice that he kept giving entirely different type of looks towards Harry. The 'I am attracted' kind which I don't think Harry knows about yet. Well I guess I won't be opposed if Harry goes out with him. He is good mannered, and a handsome one too.

Charlie's pov

Harry Potter was a beautiful green eyed devil. That is the thought that had been occurring every middle of the night in my mind; always when I woke up mid-sleep with a hard on, ever since that day of his visit. I don't think I've ever been attracted to anyone. Period. I thought my love was dragons and my love for them will never be conquered. And now? Not a free moment passes without thinking about him. He is a kid, he is out of your reach, he won't be interested in you; I keep telling myself. But every night without fail, he appears in my dream, sometimes with a dragon, sometimes not.

It has been a week since I came home for a vacation. I wanted to spend time with my family, and Bill had luckily decided to take a vacation now too. So the whole family was here. Ginny was starting school this year. I was happy for her, though her mention of Harry with a dreamy smile always grated on my patience. He was a charming intelligent boy, sure, but he certainly was not a figurehead she pictured him as. And Ron was another matter altogether. I don't know whether he likes Harry or not, but I can surely tell that he is insanely jealous of him. He was constantly repeating his version of how Harry had scolded him and Hermione just for borrowing one of his cloak. I for one knew that it was a family heirloom of Potters and that it was a invisibility cloak. Harry had told me that Ron had taken it from him without asking; literally stealing it without any remorse.

Yes! Harry and I, to my excitement, had kept up communication between us, and I had kept that as a secret even from my family. This was why I did not call out on Ron during any of his rants. My heart would always skip a beat whenever I saw his familiar snowy owl, Hedwig. She was an instant success with the dragons too, they adored her for some reason. Thank goodness I did not receive any owl when I am in The Burrow. I don't want to know the reactions of my family.

Tap tap tap

Well at least till now. There she was at my window! Checking to see if I woke up Bill, he was my room-mate for this vacation, I rushed to the window and let her in. She settled gracefully on my bed and accepted drink and fruits from me. I then opened the letter.

Hey Charlie,

How are you? You said that you might be coming to visit home sometime around now, and I was wondering if you had. Just to let you know, I am visiting Diagon Alley tomorrow with my family. If you are here, would you like to meet up? I would be delighted to introduce you to my friends. They are coming tomorrow too. If you are not here, then that's okay too. Just tell me when you are coming and I will try to meet you if it is before school. Oh another thing, my friends are all coming to my home after shopping. Either tomorrow or whenever, see if you can come too. I want you to meet my special house guest.

Yours lovingly

Harry

I was happy. I was ecstatic to be able to meet him actually. And what luck it was that my family was going shopping tomorrow too. I would not need any excuse to go there, just to go to his house. I replied in affirmative and sent Hedwig back after cuddling her a bit.

The next day, I must have looked a bit more energetic than usual, because nothing escapes the notice of the twins. We were eating our early breakfast when they started on me.

"So tell me dear Charlie…"

"Why do you look so perky today?"

I shrugged, though I could not hold my smile from appearing.

"Ah, there it is, that coy smile …"

"that you are trying so valiantly to hide. It states that…"

"there is someone behind it…"

"sending him owls late at night." Both of them finished together. Bill, who was taking a gulp of water, started coughing as the water went down the wrong way. All of the Weasleys laughed at me as I turned beet red all of a sudden.

"No there is nothing like that. He is a good friend of mine. How do you know about the owl anyway?"

"Well brother dear…"

"just as you are fascinated with fascinating dragons…"

"and your fascinating friend…"

"whom we would fascinatingly like to meet someday, of course…"

"we are fascinated with our fascinating projects…"

"keeps us up and fascinated all night." Both of them sighed at the same time. Of all the brothers, they liked me the best, lucky for me, so they did not pester me much. But mom caught on to one snippet of the conversation, one which I hoped she would not.

" 'He' Charlie? Is your friend a male?"

"Of course. Why?"

"Nothing, but why would you have… male… friends?"

"Mom, come on, I am guy, he is a guy. Who else should I be friends with? You are thinking too much. Let's go the Alley, or we'll be caught up in the rush."

That made them all speed up and soon we were in the shopping district. It was still early, so not many people were there, but it would not remain so for long. We distributed into different groups, me with the twins.

We went to different shops as per their needs and I subtly kept a look out for Harry. Not too subtle I guess, as the twins dragged me to the ice cream shop after their shopping was over.

"So Charlie, we are being serious for once."

"Who is he? Or is it a she you are hiding as a he?"

"or is it a he and you don't want us to know that he is a he?"

"Or is it.."

"Boys, shut up! He came to visit the reserve with his family this summer and we have become friends. That's all."

"So why did you not tell us?"

"Obviously, because I did not want to make a big issue out of it. Or get teased mercilessly."

"But Charlie, you are friends with David, Sebastian, Moran, Finod, and many more…"

"Why is this one different?"

"I am sure I am just a friend for him, and moreover I know he won't like me that way."

"Oh, but you like him in that way…"

"we mean the hard way…"

"like you are hard for him way…"

"Shut up!" I blushed unceremoniously. This was embarrassing. "What do you know about ways anyway, you are just third years."

"Oh but we do know…"

"third year is a long way from first year…"

"we have grown, I mean reallyyyyy grown…"

"we see things, I mean seeee things…"

"and we are in this beautiful phase called adolescence. It is fascinating."

"Doesn't matter anyway." I retreated, "He is just a boy."

"Ooooh cradle snatcher!" both of them cooed. I hit them on their heads.

"Shut up. You won't raise any issue for him being a boy right. I mean, it won't last anyway and I don't want to be teased for something I will not get."

"No, no issues. We will be saints in this matter…"

"And who says we don't notice boys too."

I raised my eyebrows, "Oh do you?"

"You would never know." They said together.

"My friend said he might meet me here today. Tell me about one guy you notice in the meanwhile."

"Actually Charlie, we used to notice many girl things…"

"but lately we have been tuned to one boy thing."

"He's got the most beautiful green eyes…"

"the most charming smile…"

"the most caring heart…"

"the most sharp wit…"

"the most captivating body…"

"the most down to earth personality…"

"Okay okay I get it, Stop it. Who is this guy?" I asked them while taking a drink.

"Harry Potter!" They both sighed dreamily. I choked on my juice when I heard his name and started coughing.

"Something wrong with the drink?" Fred asked George and both of them took a big gulp to test it. Harry's voice sounded just right then from behind them.

"Hey Charlie! Hey Fred and George!"

Both of my twins brothers started choking too at the same time. Harry patted them both on their backs to let them catch their breaths. Once done, he settled down with us.

"Hi! Anything wrong with the drinks?"

"NO" we all shouted at the same time, making him jump in his seat. My mind was reeling. My brothers liked the same boy I liked. What a mess!

"Where is your family?" I asked to dissipate the silence.

"Oh, my aunt and uncle have gone to collect the robes. Dudley is with Hannah waiting for Susan."

"And who are your other friends?"

"We have this cool group. There is Draco and Daphne from Slytherin, Neville and me from Gryffindor, and Susan, Hannah and Cedric from Hufflepuff. They all agreed to come to visit me today. What about you? Are you coming with me? Hey Fred, George, I am inviting you too you know. Why are you looking so sad all of a sudden?"

Before I could reply, Fred and George both held one arm of Harry each and begged him, "Please, please, please, can we join your group too? For all the pranks we play, Lee Jordan is the only one who puts up with us slightly. The rest of our classmates are either jealous or scared or irritated of us."

Harry shrugged, "Sure, why not. But we are a group, no one humiliating the other or cheating on any of us. That's all we ask of each other."

"Sure Harry!" they both nodded solemnly.

Just then his cousin arrived along with two girls.

"Hey Susan, Hannah, Dudley, meet our new friends, the Weasleys. This is Charlie, Fred and George." He introduced us pointing to each one of us. Fred and George looked at each other and shook their heads.

"No, I am Fred and he is George."

Harry shrugged as he got up, "If you want to be. But I am sure I introduced right. Hey Dudley, let us go get our orders."

Both the cousins left and we joined two tables to make space for everyone. Just as we finished, Harry and Dudley arrived with two big pitchers of juice, followed by his family and other friends. He had shown me photos of all his friends already, taken on a muggle camera at the muggle platform, so I recognised all of them easily.

Once again the introductions were made and it was confirmed that everyone had permission to go visiting till evening. Everyone but us, that is. Fred and George spotted Mom going into the bookstore with Ginny, so they rushed to her. I don't know what they said, but came back with smiles on their faces.

Harry stood up once our snacks were finished, "Okay then. Shopping completed?" We all nodded.

"Permissions granted?"

Affirmed again.

"Cool! So aunt, we will go by the mini bus we booked, go to the play station, eat out at pizza palace and will be home by 3 in the afternoon. Will that be okay?"

His aunt nodded, "Okay. Be safe, keep together and no funny business anywhere. Be back on time and have fun."

She kissed both the boys on their cheeks and went with all the shopping luggage. We fell in easy chatter amongst us, age and differences being no barrier. It was like once you are a part of the group, you are family.

We went out of the leaky cauldron to a small bus parked a street away. Unlike the wizard bus, the ride on this was quite comfortable and we were at the destination in no time.

The Play Station as the place was called was a muggle play zone with all kinds of fun games, from electronic to physical. We went for the skating ring, the ball pit, the paint-gun shooting, the jumping ring and many other games, sometimes with and sometimes against each other. This was absolute fun. The twins did not even feel like pranking anyone, they were having fun as it is. After that massive workout, we went to Pizza Palace, and I was introduced to Pizza along with everyone from wizarding background. It was delicious and by the end, my stomach was in danger of bursting.

The bus dropped us home on time. Fred and George were the unfortunate ones to enter the house right after the cousins.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" they both shouted in fright, making us all stop in our tracks. A giggle started amongst us from Hannah. Susan and Neville soon joined her and they pushed the rest inside while still giggling.

"Paladin! How are you?" Susan said to someone. That someone turned out to be a snake, a black King Cobra. He hissed in return and crawled up Susan's arms, where Hannah started petting it too. Neville shook his head, "Guys this snake is Paladin, one who lives in this house. He is one of the reasons Harry was so adamant for you all to come. He does not like keeping unnecessary secrets from his friends. He is a parselmouth."

The next few minutes were spent giving a history regarding Paladin and then the next few were spent sharing the ability to talk to that snake. After that the big group dispersed in the room. Some playing a muggle board game, some watching television, some just talking and even Cedric was sitting with me talking about taking a profession in quidditch. Harry's family had a doctor's appointment in the evening, so they bid us farewell before going. Harry left no one feeling alone. He switched from person to person, and yet never made anyone feel isolated. It was like he was a glue to the group, keeping us all together.

It was nearing our time to depart, so I went and sat by Harry who was talking to Draco and Daphne. I never expected a slytherin to be in our group, but these two were not what I expected. They were cool. Right now, a serious discussion was going on.

"So Draco, how was your summer?" Harry asked in a caring tone.

Draco shrugged, "It happens. I did as we discussed, telling him all yet nothing about you. So far, father has not been a bother, he is out of the house too much anyway. But I don't know how to deal with mother."

"Why?"

Draco did not want to say, but Daphne spoke up, "She is arranging a marriage contract between him and Pansy Parkinson."

"You don't like her?"

Draco frowned, "Like her? She is a nightmare waiting to happen."

Daphne joined in her own assessment, "She is irritating and mean to those she does not like. And the gossip; Her gossip is fantasy created out of facts, you will never survive if she sets you as her target."

Harry shrugged casually, "Let it not bother you. Marriage contracts don't happen without participants' approval."

Draco frowned again, "How do you know that?"

"Draco, Marriage is an agreement of intertwining your lives and magic. All the marriage contracts you hear of, they are made seeking the participants approval, be it by force or persuasion. You are not in trouble. And that is the reason why your mother is talking so much about her, so that you get convinced to marry her."

"Then what are family betrothal contracts, which are made even before kids are born?"

"They too need the participants acceptance. But if not given, then you would lose your family magic. Not you magic, but the traits that have been passed down through your family. Don't let that trouble you. Just don't accept the contract, even unwillingly, and you'll be fine."

Draco nodded and harry smiled naughtily, "Now that said…"

He gave no warning as he pounced on Draco, tickling him. The silent Draco remained silent no more, crying in laughter again. Everyone's attention had snapped to these tickling pair, and everybody was either laughing or smiling. Finally harry let him go.

"So guys and gals", he said and unknowingly put everyone to attention, "I just wanted to say one thing. We are a big group now. I want there to be no dislikes between any of us, because that will lead to disruptions and problems. I shared this secret for the very same reason. I want to have each one of you in my life. To do that, we need to stay united. If we do have any complain with another person, let us not just let it go or make it public. I want us to discuss things amidst us. I am saying this because I have a feeling that this year is going to be tough."

Neville stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulders, "Don't worry Harry. Friendship is the only thing that connects us. We will stay together, don't worry."

He smiled that beautiful smile and we all went home by the floo one by one, each giving him a parting hug. Today was a day well spent.