Diclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Chapter III
The rest of the summer flew by. Harry generally behaved as a normal twelve year old, refrained from using magic and played a good deal of Quidditch. He had to degnome the garden, help paint the shed, and clean up after meals just like everyone else. While it was in the back of everyone's mind that Harry wasn't quite a twelve year old boy, he was foremost and forefront just that.
Harry, in addition to his friendships with Hermione and Ron, had forged a strong friendship with Ginny as well. It was purely friendly, and Harry planned to keep it that way for quite a while. Harry had been teaching the children Occulmency, and all of them were quickly mastering it. Sirius had learned it to keep information from his family, Remus had learned it to protect himself when he pretended to be a werewolf loyal to Voldemort, and Moody knew it from being one of the best Aurors of his time. As such, Harry did not need to teach them, and Moody and Albus only visited every so often.
About two weeks after Sirius had been released, Harry had been transferred into his custody. Sirius had decided to let Harry stay at the Burrow, while he and Remus caught up and relived their marauder days. However, being the legal guardian of Harry had allowed Sirius a reason to visit the Burrow at least once a week. As well, the joking, laughing, pranking Sirius had returned after gaining custody of Harry, and Fred and George Weasley were delighted.
Finally, shortly before first term, it was time for the shopping trip. Harry had almost wanted to skip the whole ordeal, he knew Gilderoy would never let him off easy. However, they needed that diary so they could destroy it. Harry woke up on the morning of the trip to a pillow to the face.
"Get up sleepy!" yelled Hermione. Apparently, she had Ginny had taken it upon their selves to wake him and Ron up by beating them over the head with pillows. Harry leapt out of his bed, and summoned his wand. He attempted to enchant his pillow to attack Hermione. It did just that, rising up and clouting her with extreme force. Hermione went sprawling forward, and began to cry. Harry disenchanted the pillow, and came to her side. "What happened Hermione?" he asked. Ginny and Ron came over, and Ginny snapped at Harry. "What did you do?" Through her sniffles Hermione spoke "Harry, when was the last time you cast spells, without the intent to hurt someone. Not a ward or anything though." Harry thought on it, realizing what she was asking. "At least two years, but probably more like ten." he stated. Ron was glaring at Harry with a venom not normally seen from him. "Maybe you should work on that then." he snapped. Harry wondered at this development. True, they had gotten married in the last time line, but they weren't even together until he was seventeen. He supposed it was just how close they had all gotten. He knew Ron was closer to Hermione in this timeline, the four's bond was much stronger, and Ginny was now in the picture, meaning Hermione had a girlfriend.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, I never had the need for much control. I should definitely get a handle on that before school. If I do Aguamenti and cause a flood that might cause some questions to come up." The others grinned slightly at this. Ginny asked "Why did you use magic in the first place?" Harry smiled "I forgot I wasn't supposed to, that's all."
"Kids! Breakfast!"
Mrs. Weasley's voice rang up the stair well. The four of them broke from their little circle, and Ginny yelled "Last one down the stairs is a rotten egg!" Three children broke out in a run. Harry smiled, and Slid downstairs. He reappeared directly in the dining hall, and was almost run over by Mrs. Weasley. "Oh, Harry, sorry, didn't see you there."
Ron, Hermione, and Ginny ran into breakfast with a chant of Harry being a rotten egg, only to find him already seated at the table, helping himself to toast. All of them looked a bit cross, and mutters of "Cheater!" could be heard from Ginny. When Mrs. Weasley left, she hissed "You just had to show off, didn't you!" Harry was downcast. He had abused his magical powers to the disappointment of his friends twice today already, and he didn't even know why. The twelve year old part of his mind was at the forefront, but his twenty eight year-olds habits were coming back.
Mrs. Weasley bustled back in to find all four eating their meals in silence. When she called them over to the fireplace, Arthur left first, but Harry immediately stepped up. "Diagon Alley" was all he said, and only after in the fireplace. Ginny went next. When she tumbled out of the fireplace, Harry moved to help her up, but then stopped himself. Arthur took note, and after the rest came through, he hung back to talk to his wife.
"Molly, have you noticed anything odd about Harry today?" asked Arthur. Mrs. Weasley nodded, and was immediately on high alert for anything that might be going on between her children and their friends. Arthur decided on a more direct route. After getting most of Ginny's supplies that they were buying, he went over to talk to Harry, who was walking off to the side of the bustling alleyway. He went up and tapped Harry on the shoulder. In one fluid motion, Harry whirled around, petrified Mr. Weasley wandlessly, and had his wand pointed in between Mr. Weasley's eyes. Several passerby took notice, and a few drew their own wands. Harry stammered apologies, and lifted the petrifaction from his friends' father. He pretended to stow his wand, and silently banished it. Molly came over to see what was going on, while Fred, George, Percy, Hermione, Ginny and Ron all stared speechless. They had been walking behind Harry, and had seen the whole thing.
"Are you all right?" asked Molly
"Yeah, I'm just a bit stressed." answered Harry.
"Just a bit…" muttered Mr. Weasley, who was obviously still in shock. Pedestrians saw an actual fight was not going to broke out, and began to move along again. This seemed to break Harry's friends out of their trance. They began to come over, but when they got close, Harry ducked away, with an almost incomprehensible "Sorry." Harry walked quickly down the street to Flourish and Blotts. They probably all hate me now he thought Messed up three times in one day, and not even been here two months. He continued with his self bashing thoughts until Ginny rounded in front of him.
Harry was pulled abruptly out of his train of thought by the sight of her red hair swirling around her, and her voice while not raised, contained power. All in all, he could see he had done some good in this world. A month ago, she had been afraid to even talk to him.
"Harry, I don't care how old you are, or how much magic you know. Your head is up your bum and if you don't pull it out right about now, you are going to be in deep trouble. Just because Ron, Hermione and I are mad at you for an hour or two doesn't mean you are a horrible person, and the way your acting, either you hate us or you think we hate you. So please, do yourself a favor, and don't forget that just because you may be all-powerful, doesn't mean you don't need to deal with rows the same way everyone else does."
With that, she stomped into the bookstore, only to be waylayed by the crowd of people attempting to go inside. Here goes nothing thought Harry, following Ginny inside. As he forced his way inside, he heard a group of girls swooning over the man inside.
"Can you believe he is actually here!?" said one
Another sighed. "I hope this line does die down though."
Harry continued going through. After the events earlier today, he was really frustrated, but didn't dare risk being found out, or making Ginny even madder, by Sliding into the bookstore. Instead, he forced his way into the story. By the time he got through the mass of bodies, he was ready to hex something. He had developed a fear of crowds during the war in his last time line, and the stress was getting to him.
As soon as he broke free of the main crowd in the doorway, he moved off in between the bookshelves. He began to get his list of schoolbooks, but he didn't dare go over to the Lockhart section, it was packed. Browsing the bookshelves, he got several household spell books as well. During the war, he hadn't had time to learn the arts of magical cooking, or much cleaning. He could conjure edible food, but it was fairly bad in taste, and hopefully, this time, he would have a use for frivolous spells.
After about half an hour of picking out books, the rest of his group was near the front of the line. He rejoined the Weasley family, and hope Mrs. Weasley was too distracted by Lockhart to notice him. She and Hermione were, but Mr. Weasley and Ron both had nothing else to do. As well, Ginny had her school books in her cauldron, and took notice of Harry's return.
"Harry, I would like to let you know that I am in no way mad at you. I know you have had a difficult life and a difficult day. Keeping reflexes like that is a good thing, but putting some sort of control on that for a while would also be good." Mr. Weasley spoke softly, and then turned away. Instead of anger in his eyes, Harry saw sadness, and a little bit of what could be shame. Harry had to know. Legilimens he thought. Mr. Weasley had learned Occulmency from Dumbledore, as had a good deal of the order members trusted with important information. It was so few people but Voldemort could break into his mind. Luckily Harry was more subtle then Voldemort, though not as powerful in this art.
We failed him thought Mr. Weasley. Just a boy, and he had to go through all of that, and we couldn't save him. Look at how nervous he is. And he thinks we are going to abandon him too, I'll bet…
Harry left Mr. Weasely's mind, and resisted the temptation to break into others. He couldn't solve his arguments by reading minds. Ginny was right. Just because he was powerful, didn't mean he could use it to deal with other people. That is what Tom does anyway he thought. During the end years of the war, he had been just as ruthless as Tom. What had separated them was Harry only targeted Tom and his followers, while Voldemort was merciless to everyone. Harry had used evil for good, while Voldemort used evil for evil. He supposed that Dumbledore was the pinnacle of good and trust, with Tom at the opposite end of the spectrum, and Harry somewhere in between.
Harry resolved to go about this the right way, although he hadn't done as such for at least five years. For those last five, it had always been just him and Ron and Hermione, and they had all understood they could not fight, or they would die by the hands of their enemies.
Harry looked at Ginny. "Um… Ginny?" he started. "What?" she snapped. Her tone of voice made Harry wish he could go back into his shell. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I just am really stressed about—"
"Could it be! Could it be! Why yes I think it is! Ladies and Gents, today we have not one celebrity, the Magical Me, but we also have the Boy-Who-Lived! That's right folks! Harry Potter!"
"—this…" finished Harry under his breath. When he felt a hand on his wrist, he instinctively started to break the hold, but instead grabbed Ginny, carrying her along with him. The two of them were dragged up to the front by none other then Gilderoy Lockhart himself. Ginny was significantly more pleased then Harry. At least, she was pleased until Lockhart spoke up again.
"Oh-ho! Our young Harry seems to already have developed a taste for the ladies, I daresay!" he dropped his voice to a whisper "Run along now little girl, you can see your man later."
Harry almost hit Lockhart, and himself for dragging Ginny into this. Ginny looked close to tears, but also looked ready to hit Lockhart. Instead Harry spoke up. "Ladies and Gentleman!—" Lockhart cut him off quickly. "Harry came here today, simply to purchase some books of mine, definitely to expand his mind, but also for school. You see, ladies and gentleman, Hogwarts will be blessed with the real Magical Me this coming term! That's right, I will in fact be teaching your young children how to keep themselves safe and sound! And Harry Potter will now, in addition to Magical Me, will be needing all my other books, and I present them to him, signed and free of charge." With that, he plopped the stack of signed books into Harry's arms. Harry handed them to Ginny, and then held his arms out expectantly for more. The crowd laughed, and Gilderoy spoke up. "I suppose, I shall, for generosity is of my nature." With that, he handed Harry another stack of his books, again signed, and shooed them off.
Harry gave his second stack of signed books to Hermione, who nearly fainted with delight. Through her squealing, however, he heard "So, Mr. Potter, have we a girlfriend already. I suppose, being a Weasley, its more like a slave for your… desires?"
Harry turned around to see Draco Malfoy and his father standing several feet from the line. He broke into Lucius' mind, just as Lucius opened his mouth. "So, Arthur, trying to get some money and famed by selling your daughter to the boy who lived?" At the same time, Harry detected Lucius magically placing the diary in Ginny's cauldron. Ginny began to cry and scream at the Malfoys at the same time, while Arthur moved towards Lucius. "Tsk, Tsk." said Draco "Such attitude from a little—"
Harry lost it. Harry was not one to lose himself to anger, it was a bad trait in a battle. But Harry hadn't even had the chance to fight for Ginny in eleven years. He did, however, have enough control not to make it obvious. Draco appeared to trip, and fell on his face, hard. Harry was mad enough that he transfigured the book Draco had fallen on to be the Monster book of Monsters.
While Arthur and Lucius whaled on each other, the rest of the Weasleys laughed as Draco Malfoy was mauled by a book. Finally, Harry pretended to help Malfoy, and charmed several of the wounds to leave nasty scars before the boy pushed him and the book away. The book scurried towards Lockhart, and bit his leg. Amid the panic that ensued, Harry, Hermione, and the Weasley children slipped out of the shop, a very unhappy Arthur left behind in Hagrid's clutches, listening to Molly's screams.
A short while later, everyone was still having a good laugh at the idea of Draco's face being eaten by a book. Sirius, Remus, Fred and George were thinking of all sorts of ways to make pranks to replicate the day for ever. So far, at least three books had some sort of jinx on them, although most were less harmful than the Monster book of Monsters. Mrs. Weasley had been shot in the face with bubbles by her cook book, and Hermione had been hit by a jelly legs jinx from a spell book. Ron had hit Fred when he opened his Magical Me book, and now Fred had big shiny white teeth. Harry was convinced there were more, but decided not to spoil the fun, and had resolved not to break the charms he knew he would find on his books.
Harry was really looking forward to the start of term. He hadn't been to a fully constructed Hogwarts since it was destroyed, which had been soon after the Bill and Fleur's disastrous wedding. Harry walked outside, hoping to escape the antics going on inside. It was getting to be a bit too much, with Sirius and Remus having a mock duel, while Fred and George threw things at them.
As he walked outside, he felt people following him. Not looking behind him, he sent weak Legilimency tendrils at each. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, as was expected. Since he had done so much Occulmency work with them, he could tell it was them without actually breaking into their minds. Hermione had a smooth wall for Occulmency, while Ron had a layered defense and Ginny had a sort of spiked wall, ready to attack back. At least, that was the impression Harry got off of each.
He kept walking out to the back, and figured he would have to set up some wards on the Burrow. Unfortunately, this would probably not be possible until the war actually started. Frying visitors from the Ministry or having owls lose their way from a Fidelus would not do well for Arthur's position.
He sat down out in the back garden, and waited for his friends to show up. Sure enough, he was only brooding for a few minutes before Hermione called out "Hey Harry!" They had pretty much made up from earlier, but Harry had wanted some alone time. "Hey Hermione!" he called out anyway. "Can we come over?" she said. "Sure!" he said with false enthusiasm.
Hermione came up, with Ron and Ginny trailing behind her. They all sat down, and began to talk about the pointless things in life. Ginny asked a lot about Hogwarts, and they told her about the Sorting Hat, although Ron wanted to tell her she had to fight a dragon. Hermione gave her a break down of the first year curriculum and promised to share her notes. Mrs. Weasley called them in soon after, but Ginny was reassured about going to Hogwarts, and Harry was quite looking forward to the way things would turn out, this time.