Disclaimer - Not mine. I'm playing in JKR's world and I'm very thankful for the opportunity to do so
Harry made his way through the portrait into the Gryffindor common room, and over to Ron and Hermione.
"Harry, are you taller than yesterday? Hermione asked suspiciously.
He panicked again. "Err yeah, I had a bit of an accident this morning when I was outside, got cuts all over me, and they all got dirty." He responded making it up as he went along. "Err Madam Pomfrey gave me a blood replenishing potion, some sort of purification potion and a general cure-all. Next thing I know feels like my bones are stretching and I've grown four inches. From what she says I should always have been this height but because of the Dursley's treatment I was never able to grow properly."
Hermione still looked suspicious but it was tempered with sympathy.
"Blimey mate, well you look good. What did McGonagall say?" asked Ron
"Oh, it's fine, I'm doing Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy next year."
"Well, it's good to know you're going to be taking your studies seriously." Was the inevitable response from Hermione. It was greeted with the rolling of eyes from the two boys.
The rest of the day passed with easy banter flowing between the three friends and Harry spending a bit of time reading through his text books, earning a half-hearted glare from Ron and an ecstatic smile from Hermione.
The next morning, after breakfast, Harry made his excuses to Ron and Hermione and made his way to the teachers table and Professor McGonagall.
"Professor could we have that talk now." Harry asked hoping she'd follow his lead.
"Of course Harry." She replied with a knowing smile. "If you'll allow me to get my jacket I thought it might be nice to wander the grounds while we talk."
"Certainly Professor. Err Professor, could Ginny join us? She's being released this morning and I think a walk through the grounds might help her." He said trying to convey his meaning through his words.
McGonagall's lips almost broke into a grin. That would be fine Mr Potter, I'll meet the pair of you in the entrance hall.
Harry almost ran to the hospital in his excitement to see Kali again. Bursting through the doors he looked around for Ginny and saw her, looking pale but determined by her bed.
"Hi Ginny, what did Pomfrey say can you come for a walk?"
"Yes, I was just waiting for you to get here." She replied not looking him in the eye.
"Great, Professor McGonagall said she'd meet us in the Entrance Hall."
He led her towards the doors but just as they were about to exit a small, trembling hand latched onto his elbow. "Harry, what if they stare? How can I face everyone? They all know what I did." She asked, her voice shaking.
"Okay first of all they don't know what you did. No one has said anything. All anyone knows is that you were in the Chamber. Secondly, so what if they stare? They haven't fought and held Tom off for a year. You need to understand how difficult that is Ginny. I'm sure loads of them wouldn't be strong enough. Come on it won't take long to walk through the castle then you'll be away from them and you can meet Kali."
He watched as she steeled herself, her hand still on his arm, she took a deep breath and opened the door.
Somewhat anticlimactically they saw no one on the way to the entrance hall where the professor was waiting.
"Mr Potter, Miss Weasley are you ready?" at the nod she started walking towards the forest. "Mr Potter, I spoke to Hagrid this morning and he won't be able to join us. Apparently there is a problem with the thestrals that needed to be fixed."
Harry nodded unsure of what else was expected of him. "Okay Professor. In that case, we'll go straight to them." And he took the lead of the party heading directly to the point where he dropped his invisibility cloak the previous day.
After a few minutes, they made it to the edge of the forest where they were suddenly overcome by excited screeching.
"Sweet Merlin!" was all that could be heard from McGonagall as she caught sight of the giant form of Kalcon. Ginny's focus meanwhile was entirely given to the griffin leaping at Harry.
"Hey there Kali. Did you miss me? I missed you." He said while stroking her head affectionately.
"Of course I did silly human" came her excited reply, though to Ginny and McGonagall it sounded like chirruping.
Turning back to his companions he introduced the party. "Professor McGonagall, Ginny this is my familiar Kali and her father Kalcon. Kalcon, Kali this is Professor McGonagall my Head of House and Ginny Weasley, the err...sister of my best friend."
Kalcon bowed his head slightly to each, while Kali, immediately moved away from Harry and wrapped herself around Ginny's legs, purring. Harry chuckled while Ginny took a moment to collect herself before tentatively reaching out and stroking the back of Kali's head. The purring only increased as did Harry's laughing.
"Come Harry, let us return to the clearing and sit." Said Kalcon as he turned and lead them through the forest. Kali bounced after him, and Harry marched off and it was a couple of seconds before Ginny and the Professor realised they had been left and scrambled to catch up.
Two minutes later, they were all sat around the clearing, McGonagall having transfigured some chairs for herself and the students, while Kali lay down at Harry's feet. It was then that Kalcon told of his initial thoughts while Harry translated for the other pair.
"First of all Harry the priority must be to get you protected in your relatives house. While Kali is more than willing to go and live there with you I believe that would cause more harm than good at this moment in time and she is not yet strong enough to protect you fully." McGonagall winced during the explanation as she knew a large portion of the blame for Harry's predicament lay at her feet. Ginny meanwhile was stunned as she learned of the living conditions of the wizarding worlds saviour. "In the short term I believe the best idea may well be to employ the house elf you rescued, Dobby. He should be able to both protect and feed you over the summer, ensuring that interaction with your relatives is kept to a minimum."
Harry turned to McGonagall "but last summer Dobby did magic in the house and I got blamed for it, won't the same thing happen if I employ him?"
McGonagall, who had now heard the whole story of Harry's year replied. "No I don't believe so, House Elf magic registers differently on the ministry sensors, the only reasons it was picked up is because Dobby wanted it picked up."
Despite the year that had passed since the incident and his much warmer feelings towards Dobby at the present time, inside Harry was seething. "That sneaky little bug-" he responded though a stern look from McGonagall cut him off.
"Ultimately" Kalcon continued "the aim has to be for Harry to move elsewhere, ideally somewhere where he can practice magic over the summer."
At that McGonagall looked thoughtful "Mr Potter how much do you know of the history of your father's family?"
"Very little ma'am, no one has really told me anything about them."
Suddenly looking much older than she had previously McGonagall looked at him in sympathy and took her glasses off, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. "Have you heard it said that your father was good at transfiguration?"
"Yes ma'am"
"The truth is all Potter's are good at transfiguration, even you, when you try hard enough" she smiled at him. "The family name, Potter, originally comes from the clay pots and plates they were known for making. When magic was introduced they became true artists with a wand in terms of their stone and metalwork, gifted as they were in the shaping and production of solid matter." Harry moved closer, fascinated at this new insight into his family.
"Due to your father's, somewhat deviant behaviour while at school I became rather well acquainted with your grandparents, Charles and Eleanor. They were wonderful people and they confirmed the family affinities. It seems that the finesse observed in Potter Transfiguration is largely due to Earth elemental powers prevalent in the Potter bloodline."
"Earth elemental powers? What does that mean though?" asked Harry breathlessly.
"It means that given time and training, you Harry will have command over stone and metal, being able to bend and shape it to your will. Of course the extent to which you will be able to do this is a factor of both magical power and training.
"The reason I bring this up now, is that about two or three hundred years ago the Potter's as a family became significantly more powerful magically. It is believed that this actually began happening much further back in time but only became more noticeable as other families became generally weaker. This is a side effect of the pureblood agenda, over the years the pureblood interbreeding philosophy has lead to a limited gene pool meaning that the magically each generation is less and less stable. The Potters on the other hand, partly because they have always been a middle-class family, have very rarely gone along with the pureblood propaganda and occasionally married muggles or muggleborns making for a much more stable personality hence less erratic magic.
"Anyway, for whatever reason the Potters start to become more powerful, so about two hundred and fifty years ago the head of the family decided to use this increased power to create a new family home, formed straight out of living rock. It's based down in Cumbria as far as I'm aware. After your grandparents died in the last war, your father didn't have the heart to move into the family home. As far as I am aware, it's still empty."
"So I have a family home? How come no one ever told me?" Harry demanded, starting to get angry about being kept in the dark. Kali too was agitated on behalf of her human.
"Truthfully, I largely forgot, and Dumbledore and the other Professor's were not as close as I was to the Potter's. However I believe at some point over the summer, I may be able to convince Albus to allow me to escort you to your family vault. Officially of course to look at family heirlooms and find out more about your history. In reality, there should be something in your vault regarding the location of 'The Kiln' your family home.
Harry and the group sat in stunned silence. Kalcon appeared quite thoughtful, Kali excited while Ginny felt a bit like an intruder.
After the silence dragged on for a few minutes Harry asked for him the most important question. "So you think I might have a family home free and available for me to live in?"
"I believe so Harry, though of course it has been abandoned for at least fifteen years, so there is no knowing what state it may be in."
"Well" said Kalcon, breaking the silence "it appears we have a plan. You Harry will try to contact the elf Dobby as soon as possible and ask him to work for you, protecting you over the summer, you will also do your best to come here and spend time with your Griffin family before you have to leave for the summer, though you are more than welcome to bring your young friend with you." He said looking at Ginny who blushed as Kali agreed enthusiastically.
"In the mean time it would serve you well to revise your work from previous years as well as asking your teachers for next year what they recommend for summer work." McGonagall nodded in agreement. Turning to her Kalcon continued, Professor I would ask you to assist Harry in accessing the Potter Family Vault, with a view to moving Harry into the family home before summer's end." After this was translated and McGonagall agreed the groups separated and the Professor and two students headed back to the castle.
The conversation stalled after McGonagall left them in the entrance hall.
"So –err did you like Kali?" asked Harry suddenly nervous about what Ginny thought.
"She's beautiful Harry. You're lucky to have her."
"I know"
They continued walking to the common room in silence for some time before Ginny this time broke the silence.
"Harry, why did you invite me today?"
"I thought you'd like to meet Kali."
"But why not invite Ron or Hermione then? And...and why don't you mind me hearing about you trying to move? It's not like I can help?"
Sighing Harry stopped walking and turned to the younger girl. "Honestly? I don't know why I don't mind you knowing, I think it's because you've been something far worse than I have with the Dursley's and because of it we both have a link with Voldemort." Ginny shuddered but looked interested. "Besides, I had to tell someone about Kali and I think would probably just be jealous while Hermione would get all hyper and not leave the pair of us alone. To be honest I don't think I could handle that right now."
Ginny let out a small giggle in response. It was a rather nice sound. "I think you might be right." She answered. Shyly but with a little more confidence than before.
After finally reaching the common room Harry went up to his dorm room to put get rid of some of his outdoor clothes. Seeing no one else around he decided to take Kalcon's advice.
"Err Dobby." He asked the air nervously
A couple of seconds later there was a loud pop and Harry found himself accosted by an excited House Elf.
"Master Harry Potter calls Dobby?"
Somewhat amused Harry looked at the small creature. "Err Dobby, I was wondering if you like to become my personal elf?" Dobby just looked at Harry, moisture forming in his wide excited eyes. "I mean you don't have to answer right away you can think about."
"No Master Harry Potter sir, Dobby can think of no greater honour."
"Excellent, but please Dobby don't call me master, I'd really like it if we were just friends." A high pitched wail came from the small elf opposite. "Please don't cry Dobby." The noise stopped abruptly but Harry could see the elf's lip trembling.
"Now Dobby, the reason I wanted you to come and work for me, is because this summer, more than ever I need help. You see..."
As Harry described his life so far and his needs for the summer he could see Dobby getting increasingly irate. Watching the little creature filled with righteous anger was entertaining and he feared for his relatives if anything should happen this summer. However, ultimately his servant and friends anger would do him no favours.
"Dobby please, it's in the past and if everything goes to plan, I will never have to set foot in that place after this summer. Dobby appeared somewhat appeased by this, especially when he realised the importance of his role as Harry's protector in chief and his personal chef.