Disclaimer: see prologue
guide: "Talk", Thoughts, ~letters and other written stuff~
rating: M for sexual themes and language in the chapter and slash in later chapters
(warnings: some people might consider the description of Ron's character in this chapter as Ron bashing even if in may opinion he is simply his usual self.)
Betas: jointheclub and Makoto Sagara
update of beta-ed version: 27th July
AN: Thank you for the new reviews, alerts and favourites. A special thank you goes to .michi for reviewing again ^_^
At the end of the last chapter, I said that in this chapter both Harry and Draco would make an appearance. But since the beginning of this chapter turned out longer than planned, I decided to split it into two parts instead and update this part already. Chapter 3 will be from Draco's POV.
Also, I have changed the dates in the last chapter having realised that I choose two weekend days in McGonagall's letter, which would be rather counterproductive.
about the war against Voldemort: Let's just say, for the sake of the story, that Voldemort was defeated sometime during Harry's sixth year in a quick fight without too many casualties, but there were still some deaths and wounded. And as you most likely have noted, both Snape and Dumbledore are still alive, but that doesn't mean that some things from sixth-year didn't happen. You will learn more about it during the next five chapters or so.
-~-~- Altair -~-~-
-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-
-~-~- chapter 2 – Happy Birthday, Harry -~-~-
When the alarm spell Harry had set before going to bed went off at 8:30 in the morning, he needed a few minutes to realise that he would be able to leave this place for good and never have to come back to his personal hell hole again. So with a spring in his steps and his wand in his hand (a precaution for any Good-bye-Harry-beatings from Dudley), he went into the bathroom to shower.
After he was finished in the bathroom and dressed for the day, Harry went down to the kitchen to make himself a light breakfast, knowing that Ms. Weasley would cook a rich lunch in addition to the cake and dinner later, so it would be better to have enough room left for her meals.
When he was finished, he washed up his dishes and then went up to his room to pack the small things lying around in his room, like quills and the spare sock or two. The majority of his possessions Harry hadn't bothered to unpack in the first place.
As expected, the final goodbye between Harry and his relatives was very short and tearless. Dudley did not even come down to see him off because he was scared that now, when Harry could cast magic without being expelled from Hogwarts, he might receive another pig's tail as a parting present. So, he preferred to hide inside his room until Harry was away for good, thus making Harry's earlier precaution of carrying around his wand unnecessary.
In return to Harry's "Well then ... Bye", Petunia offered him a simple "Goodbye Harry", whereas Vernon only had "Good riddance" left for Harry when he left the house with Mr. Weasley at 9:52 to Apparate to the Burrow.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
The two of them arrived at the Burrow without any problems.
"Why don't you go to the yard, and enjoy the nice weather, Harry? The others are already out there playing Quidditch." With that, Mr. Weasley took Harry's trunk and entered the house.
Hermione was the first one to greet him when he arrived at the back of the house since she was sitting on a blanket reading one of her many books while the Weasley children were up in the air playing a Quidditch game.
"Happy Birthday, Harry! It is good to see you again." With that, she gave him a big hug.
"Thank you, Hermione," Harry answered while hugging her back.
Gradually, the Weasley kids all came down from the air and wished him a happy birthday as well. Even Charlie was there.
"Come on, Harry, get your broom and join our game. Our team is in the need for another player anyway," Fred called, who had before Harry's arrival played together with his twin against Ron, Ginny and Charlie.
Harry swiftly complied, being more than happy to have left Privet Drive behind him and being together with his friends having fun for the rest of the summer.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
The Quidditch game lasted till 12:30 pm when Ms. Weasley called them into the house so that they could eat lunch. Needless to say, after eating all of them were too full to continue the game, so they decided to settle down and talk instead until the guests for Harry's birthday party would arrive at three o'clock.
To Harry's surprise, Ms. Weasley had also invited Remus, his wife Tonks, and Luna to his party. He really had not expected to see the werewolf for quite some time, since the last he knew, Remus was still recovering from the wounds Greyback had inflicted on him during the battle against Voldemort, because his monthly transformations tended to set back his recovery, even with the Wolfsbane.
"Happy Birthday, pup," Remus greeted him when he stepped out of the fireplace, still hobbling a bit.
"Thanks. How are you feeling, Remus? I didn't know you were already out of St Mungo's."
"I was released just three days ago. I still need to take it slow, but at least I can finally recover at home."
"Wotcher, Harry," Tonks said when she clumsily fell out of the fireplace. "I see you have grown quite a bit over the hols. But then, most wizards tend to go through a growth spurt around their seventeenth birthday … Happy Birthday, by the way," she added as an afterthought.
"A Happy Birthday from me too," Luna added from the doorway, having just arrived.
"I see everyone is here now," Ms. Weasley called from the kitchen entrance. "Come and settle down at the table."
With that, everyone entered the kitchen, where a big chocolate and cherry cake was sitting on the magically expanded table.
As expected, the cake was delicious and Ron even had a fourth serving of it. How he had room for this after the lunch earlier today, Harry did not know.
After everyone was finished eating, they went into the living room so that Harry could open his presents there.
From Mr. and Ms. Weasley, he received a gold watch. Remus explained to him that it was a traditional gift on a child's seventeenth birthday and was usually given by the young adult's parents.
"I don't know what to say. Thank you." Harry hugged each of them in turn, giving Ms. Weasley a kiss on the cheek too.
"You are our son in everything but blood, Harry," Ms. Weasley told him. "I am proud to have seen you growing into such a fine young man over the last years."
"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley." The thought that they saw him as one of their own children warmed Harry's heart. He could not thank them enough for the watch and what it stood for.
Remus gave him the present from him and Tonks next. It was a book about the basics of healing magic since Harry mentioned in one of his letters to Remus that he had developed an interest in becoming a Healer instead of an Auror, but he had not decided for sure yet.
"Thank you, Remus, Tonks"
"Here you go, Harry." With that Hermione handed him her present. It turned out to be a book too. How very surprising. It was called 'The 21 Most Potent Potions for Treating Mind Illness' by Gjueti Gjeraqinë*. The author was also the one who invented the Shërim Mendjen*.
"I thought that you would be interested in this book, especially in the last potion mentioned in the book," Hermione whispered into Harry's ear while he hugged her in thanks.
She knew that he was very interested in mind healing, especially the Shërim Mendjen, and decided that it was the perfect gift for him, especially if Harry should get into the Sexual Potion class next year.
"Thank you. I can't wait to take a look at it," Harry whispered back.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
If one was wondering why Hermione and Harry were whispering, the reason for this was not that Ginny, who couldn't be told of things related to the Altair, was standing nearby, but that Ron had not reacted well to the whole topic of sexual magic and the possibility to share a room with someone from 'Merlin forbid, Slytherin'.
In his opinion, it was only a pretext for people like Snape to get sex because they would not be able to find an agreeable woman otherwise. He had made his opinion quite clear during the train ride back to London. He even went so far as to prohibit his two best friends to even think about applying to any of the offered Altair electives.
Nevertheless, Hermione and Harry had decided to still sign up for some interesting Altair electives. It was not like Ron would be able to find out if they signed up or not because of the spells in place to secure discretion. Even the accepting letters would not give them away, since the 19th of August would also be the day when the normal book list for the new term would arrive for all seventh years.
The twins thought that Ron was simply afraid that Hermione might find a new boyfriend who shared the same interest in books as herself and was trying to hide his insecurity behind his rash behaviour.
Hermione, on the other hand, thought that he was simply being a jerk about it. So as payback for him forbidding her to sign up for the new electives, she decided to annoy him as much as possible with, in her opinion, interesting facts about sexual magic and the Altair. It was purely academic, of course, since she would never think about going against Ron's prohibition and therefore had to study it in theory only.
But since they did not want to start a fight on Harry's birthday, they (the twins included) agreed to not mention anything Altair related in front of Ron today. Especially since reminding him that he always could escape to the 'Slytherin-free' Gryffindor common room did only so much to calm him down.
But back to where we were before this little interruption.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"Really, Hermione, how could you give him something related to Potions? We were lucky enough to have only received one holiday assignment this year," Ron stated, not planning to do said assignment until the night before his first Potions class of the new school year as usual.
"It's practical and interesting, Ron"
"And I really like it," Harry added.
"I am sure that you will like mine, Ginny's and Charlie's gift even more," Ron said enthusiastically handing over a small package.
It turned out to be new red dragon hide Quidditch gloves with his initials in a golden colour stitched onto the gloves.
"Thanks, you three. They are beautiful."
Luna simply gave him a subscription of The Quibbler.
At last, the twins gave him a blue envelope. Opening it, Harry found a gift certificate from a Healer named Charles Curador*, who had a private practice in Diagon Alley.
"Someone told us that you were a girl," George explained.
"And boy," Fred added from besides his twin.
"Magnet during the Altair without your glasses and with the clothes we had sent you. So, we decided to make the change permanent and give you a treatment with an eye-correction specialist as your birthday present."
Harry had noticed that he had gotten some glances from some of the other students that night. And since they were not at all like the ones he got in his second year, Harry had begun to feel more self-confident about his looks at the end of the night. And not needing his glasses would surely also be helpful for some of his new electives.
"Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it." He then gave each of them a hug.
"Have you an idea how expensive such a treatment is? I was researching it some years ago because I was wondering why Madame Pomfrey hadn't cast a spell to correct your eyesight during one of your stays at the Hospital Wing," Hermione asked Harry. "It seems like magic has its struggles if it comes to nerve illnesses, be it illnesses of the mind or of organs which have a lot of nerves like eyeballs. Only a few are able to perform the challenging healing spells or brew the necessary potions for a successful treatment."
"Don't worry, Hermione, we earn enough money with our joke shop to improve Harry's life for the better," George answered her while Fred whispered "It is the least we can do, if you do not want to accept the money you should receive for being our silent partner" into Harry's ear.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Later that day when they were outside grilling, the twins had persuaded their father to have a Muggle barbecue for dinner, an owl arrived for Harry.
Instead of the expected Birthday card from a school friend, it turned out to be from Gringotts.
~Dear Mr. Harry James Potter,
Hereby we officially inform you that with you being of age as of today you receive full access to your inheritance. You are now in a position to access the following accounts you inherited:
+Potter family vault (50.135 Galleons (AN: about 250,000 ₤), various objects)
+Black family vault (311.653 Galleons (AN: about 1.5 million ₤), various objects)
Furthermore you also inherit the following title:
+Lord Black, head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black
Please visit us at your earliest convenience to finalize the respective paperwork.
May your vaults always be full,
Rathúil Miodóg*
Gringotts' inheritance manager~
"Who is this from?" Ginny asked him.
"Gringotts. It says that I am now Lord Black and also have acquired two more vaults," Harry answered her, still shocked that he now owned even more money.
"They must be the family vaults. I had totally forgotten that you would only gain access to the majority of your inheritance when you came of age. It is a usual safety precaution to assure that underage children don't spend all of their money at once and still have enough left after they know how to handle money," Mr. Weasley explained from the grill.
"Considering that the Blacks were a rather old pureblood family, I bet that you got more money than you could ever dream to spend," George said from Harry's right.
"You could say so," Harry answered now that the shock was mostly over. Holding up the letter a bit, Fred and George were able to read it over each of Harry's shoulders.
"I don't think you will be able to get out of the shopping trip next Tuesday that the girls have planned for you to buy you a completely new wardrobe," Fred said after having read the exact amount of Galleons Harry received.
"It is not like you couldn't afford to buy a new wardrobe every day for the rest of your life now," George added from Harry's right side.
"And you definitely are in the need of a new wardrobe!" Fred continued.
"Yep, you can't let the eyesight correction treatment go to waste by hiding your body in the hand-me-downs you got from your cousin," George said with a clap to Harry's shoulder.
"And since you definitely won't see your relatives ever again, you don't have a reason any more to hide the fact that you have money of your own," Fred ended their speech.
What Fred said was true. Some time ago, the twins asked him why he didn't simply buy himself some fitting casual clothes while he was getting a new school uniform because they knew that Harry had more than enough money to buy himself new clothes. He answered their inquiry with being scared that uncle Vernon would begin to ask questions and maybe even come up with a ridiculously high fee for him staying at his house or wanting a compensation for his sacrifices over the years. Especially since, as his guardians, the Dursleys could easily have taken most of the money he owned away from him when he was still underage. So, Harry preferred to simply continue wearing Dudley's old clothes. It wasn't like the school robes didn't hide the clothes under them anyway.
"Shopping for a whole wardrobe?" Harry asked, feeling a bit scared from all the tales about how women seemed to go mad if they were on a shopping trip.
"Even you know that the twins are right. And with your growth spurt, you will need to buy new things anyway. Even more if you decide to sign up for any of the Altair electives," Hermione added the last part as a whisper so that only Harry and the twins could hear it.
"Don't worry, Harry. We will make it as short as possible for you," Ginny said, coming over to him.
"I will even come with you and Ginny and Hermione to assure that the Nargles stay away, so they can't hide in some of the clothes you are going to try on and make the trip longer than necessary," Luna promised him.
"I can't get out of this, can I?" Harry asked, defeated.
"Not a chance, mate," Ron said from his place near the grill so that he would be able get the first steak. Apparently, he was starved already.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Gjueti Gjeraqinë: hunting hawk in Albanian (according to Google translator), I don't believe that it would be an actual Albanian name but it sounds good enough for me
Shërim Mendjen: Albanian for healing/recovery of the mind, see chapter 1 for further information
Curador: Catalan for healer (according to Google translator)
Rathúil Miodóg: irish for successful and dagger (according to Google translator)