Chapter 12

The beginning of the summer was not happy for Harry Potter. He received plenty of letters and food from his sister but he had to read them in secret in the cover of the night. It was the same to do his homework, always hiding. Ron had tried to call him but that had only resulted in Vernon being furious with Harry. Ron hadn't tried again. Harry had borrowed Morte to send his letters to Ron and Hermione since he wasn't allowed to use Hedwig to do so.

Today Harry was turning 13 and at midnight he heard a sharp sound against his window. He opened it to let enter his sister's raven carrying a package. Harry smiled and opened said package, delighted to find new books along with clothes and some sweets. He took the letter that was attached and read it.

Dear brother mine,

Happy birthday! I sent you a few books I knew would interest you along with some new clothes so that you can experiment with what you like to wear. I refuse to ever see you in your cousin's rags. Enjoy the sweets because what would be a birthday without sweets?

I hope that you are well, cousin Severus and I are doing ok, I just wish you could be there already. Dumbledore said you could come visit us for the last two weeks of august but not before. I have half a mind to come kidnap you regardless of his orders.

I still can't produce a patronus, do you believe it? I mean I don't expect a full corporeal one but at least a bit of mist. I wonder if it's because my memories aren't happy enough but I can't seem to find the right one. I know you would have a similar issue with how similar our childhoods are. You know what that means? It means that you and I are going to make a lot of happy memories with our friends from now on. To be honest I'm not sure how that works but I'm certain we'll figure it out!

With love,

Angela.

PS : I hope you've been taking the nutrient potions I sent you, I will know if you don't!

PPS : Stroking aggressive books calms them down.

Harry smiled as he read the letter and chuckled at the post scriptum even if the last one left him confused. It wasn't much but to know that someone cared for him and that someone wished him a happy birthday was enough to make his heart swell in his chest. He wished he could already be with Angela instead of Privet Drive but he knew this summer would be a long one. At least he only had two weeks left to suffer.

A few hours later, three owls entered his room, bringing his gifts from Ron and Hermione who were in Egypt and France respectively. Harry couldn't help but be happy when reading his friends' words. A third package came from Hagrid with the Monster Book of Monsters and then after the book tried to bite his hands did Harry understand Angela's warning. He stroked the book to calm it down before tying a belt around it just in case.

The book being taken care of, it only left him with his Hogwarts letter. Harry winced when he saw the permission slip, there was no way he could convince his uncle to sign it. Maybe aunt Petunia would do it. She had taken to ignoring Harry, still shaken from Angela's visit as Lily from the previous summer.

Harry negotiated with his uncle to sign the permission slip against his best behavior for the time aunt Marge would be there. Unfortunately he couldn't help the accidental magic that first broke a glass in aunt Marge's hand and then blew her up. Harry ran away but scared by a black dog he fell over and ended up calling the Knight's bus.

It was past midnight when the Minister left room 11 of the Leaky Cauldron after Harry had assured him that he was supposed to spend the last two weeks of the holiday at Severus' house.

Early in the morning he heard a knock on the door that woke him up. He got up and opened the door only to receive an armful of Angela.

"Hey sis." he whispered in her hair, his arm wrapping around her.

"Ry'! I missed you! I don't care what Fudge or Dumbledore say, you are coming with me!"

"Don't worry Eli, the Minister already agreed, I can come with you today!" he chuckled.

Angela took a step back and looked at him. "You actually put on a bit of weight and you grew up, meaning you listened to me. Good boy." She beamed at him. Thanks to her hard work, Harry no longer looked underfed and he was growing healthily. He would never reach the height he could have had he been fed properly from the start but she had limited the damage.

Their holidays were spent either practicing magic under Severus's careful watch, brewing or just hanging out in Diagon Alley. They had gone on a shopping spree, buying whatever they fancied and laughing about it. On the last day they met with Ron and Hermione. The first thing Angela did was to drag a bemused Ron to Ollivanders where she bought him his first true wand as well as a wand holster.

After that they went to the Magical Menagerie. Angela and Harry got treats for their familiars, Ron bought rat tonic for Scabbers and Hermione actually adopted a huge cat named Crookshanks.

"That cat will be crazy smart Hermy, just like you! If you look at him you can see he is part kneazle!"

That evening Angela and Harry spent it at the Weasley's since Severus would leave early for Hogwarts just like the previous year.

oOoOo

"Who is this?"

"Our new defense professor, Remus Lupin." replied Angela, pointing at the professor's suitcase.

"I hope he'll be any good. He looks a spell away from dying." complained Ron.

"He's just sick, leave him be." Angela defended.

She opened a book and listened to them talking about Sirius Black and how he was out to kill Harry.

"Eli, what do you know, will Sirius Black be a danger for me this year?"

"He won't kidnap or kill you as far as I know Ry'. If that changes I promise to tell you." she answered before turning back to her book as they talked about Hogsmeade. The subject was still a sore spot for Harry since he didn't have the permission slip signed.

The journey was calm, only interrupted by the trolley witch and Draco Malfoy who backtracked as soon as he realized there was a teacher in the compartment. Angela had fallen asleep on Harry's shoulder at some point.

A sudden cold woke her up and she immediately had her wand in hand.

"Harry, Lumos, stay behind me."

The green-eyed teen cast the light spell and they were soon joined by Neville and Ginny making the compartment a bit crowded. Then it happened, the dementor glided to their door and opened it.

"Oh no, you hoe! Fuck you, Expecto Patronum!" Angela had been focusing on her memories with Harry and Severus and she finally managed to produce a bit of silvery mist for the first time. The dementor immediately reacted to the spell and backed away before another cloud of silver smoke chased it entirely.

"Thank you professor."

Angela carefully laid Harry's passed out form on her seat.

"Ry', wake up! It's over, you're safe."

"Eli, what happened? Who screamed?" he asked groggily.

"No one, you fainted because of the dementor."

"That was a dementor?"

"Yep, I tried to chase it away but my patronus wasn't strong enough so professor Lupin helped me out."

"You did great with that patronus even if it was not corporeal. It's a very advanced spell." said Lupin before giving them chocolate. "Now sit down children and eat this, I will go talk with the machinist."

Angela sat back next to Harry and chewed on the black chocolate piece, letting the warmth spread back to her limbs.

"Did anyone else faint?" asked Harry.

"Not really but Ginny was quite shaken." replied Ron, making the green-eyed teen shrink a bit, ashamed to have fainted when no one else had.

"It's okay Harry, you're not the first nor the last to faint because of dementors."

oOoOo

Angela couldn't prevent the other slytherins from mocking Harry so she joined with the Weasley twins to prank them in retaliation resulting in the whole year sporting bright red hair for a week. She escaped suspicion by using her metamorphmagus power to change her hair color.

She had arithmancy while the trio had divination even if Hermione shared the class with her as well. They all had transfiguration together and professor McGonagall showed off her animagus form. Disgruntled by the lack of applause the stern professor asked what was wrong.

"We had divination and…"

"There is no need to say any more, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?"

"Me." replied Harry with a sigh.

"I see. Then you should know, Potter, that Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favorite way of greeting a new class. If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues…" She paused for a bit. "Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic. I shall not conceal from you that I have very little patience with it. True Seers are very rare, and Professor Trelawney…"

She paused again before resuming "You look in perfect health, Potter. I have the regret to tell you that you will not be exempted for the next homework. If you die, do not worry you won't have to turn it in."

Hermione and Angela chuckled and Harry seemed a bit reassured especially when Angela whispered in his ear. "Told you Trelawney was a fraud."

After the class, they headed to the Great Hall for lunch, Angela sitting at the Gryffindor table with them as she had taken to do every now and then. No one batted an eye anymore, she was almost an honorary gryffindor at this point. It had taken a bit of time and a few hex for it to sink in at first but now everyone was used to it.

"The Grimm in his cup was nothing but vague!" argued Ronald.

"What if there was indeed a Grimm around Ry' but not as a death omen like everyone believes?"

"What do you mean Angie?"

"Grimms have a scary reputation, sure but maybe there is more to it than meets the eyes."

"At least we know you are a true seer unlike professor Trelawney…"

Angela cringed inside, feeling a bit guilty to be lying to them like that. Ron snorted.

"You say that just because you have no talent for divination Mione. Even professor Trelawney said so!"

"If being talented means seeing death omens in tea leaves then I don't think I will study divination very long! That class was worthless compared to what we learnt in arithmancy!"

"I tried to warn you about divination… As long as you can invent gruesome ways for you to die it's an easy O but otherwise it's a useless class." shrugged Angela. Hermione nodded to her before leaving, still fuming against Ron.

"Before I forget Ry', in Care you'll have to try and stop Dray from insulting the creature. If you can't take this and give it to him after he gets injured." She told him, handing him a phial. "Tell him it's from me, he'll take it." Harry looked puzzled but took the phial and nodded.

While the trio was in Care of Magical creatures, Hermione and Angela were in ancient runes and Ren, Angela's inner ravenclaw, took to the class like a fish to the water. The professor complimented her, clearly impressed by her memory.

Despite Angela's warning, Harry couldn't stop Draco from insulting Buckbeak but he managed to push him out of the way so the boy didn't get injured, however it was a close call that scared the slytherin.

Draco made a point to ignore Harry after the incident, unwilling to say anything remotely close to a thank you.

oOoOo

"Good afternoon. You can put your books back into your bags. Today will be a practical class, you will only need your wands." greeted professor Lupin.

Everyone looked intrigued but they obeyed. Angela's hair was a nervous shade of sea green so Harry took her hand in his to help her stay grounded.

"Good now follow me!"

Lupin led them through the corridors, dealt with Peeves and finally they arrived at the teachers' lounge that was occupied by professor Snape. The professor left, brushing his hand against Angela's shoulder when he saw her state. He halted beside her and turned toward Lupin.

"I don't know if you've been warned but there is someone in that class named Neville Longbottom and I would advise against giving him a complicated task unless Miss Granger is here to help him out."

Neville blushed and Harry glared. Angela shrunk a bit on herself and Lupin raised his eyebrows.

"I hoped for Neville to help me with the first part of today's exercise."

Severus didn't say anything more and left the room as Lupin showed them toward an old wardrobe that started shaking when they approached it.

"Don't worry, there is just a boggart inside. They like dark, closed spaces. Wardrobes, cupboards, under the bed… Once I saw one inside an old grandfather clock. This one arrived yesterday and I asked the Headmaster for permission to use it for a practical class. The first question I'll ask is what is a boggart?"

Hermione was the one to answer. "A boggart is a shapeshifter. It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."

"Couldn't have put it better myself," said professor Lupin to Hermione's delight. "So the boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us fears the most. Now, we have a huge advantage against the boggart, has anyone spotted it? Miss Schiffer?"

"Because there are so many of us the boggart won't know what shape to take and will get confused."

"Exactly! It's always best to have company when you're dealing with a boggart. He becomes confused. Which should he become, a headless corpse or a flesh-eating slug? I once saw a boggart make that very mistake, tried to frighten two people at once and turned himself into half a slug. Not remotely frightening. The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing. To begin we'll practice the spell without a wand. Repeat after me : Riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus" they chorused.

"Very good but the word alone won't be enough. Longbottom, come here."

Neville approached as if he had just been sentenced to death. Remus asked him what was his worst fear and when Neville told him it was Snape, Remus asked him to picture the potion master in his grandmother's clothes. When he put it into practice everyone laughed at the boggart. Then they each faced the boggart making it take various forms : a spider, a mummy, a banshee and so on until it was Angela's turn.

She removed her hand from Harry's and took place in front of the boggart. The creature turned into the gruesome corpse of professor Snape with his throat ripped out. Angela couldn't move, she was stuck in place. Her hair turned just as white as her face. Understanding that something was wrong, professor Lupin banished the boggart and led the girl to one of the armchairs where she sat, her eyes still unfocused.

Morte that had swapped from Angela's shoulder to Harry's when she had stepped to face the boggart flew away, probably to go look for Severus as he was trained to do.

Severus soon arrived and asked what had happened when he saw Angela. He was immediately at her side. He plunged his eyes into hers and using legilimency succeeded in bringing her back. She collapsed on him, crying her eyes out and wrapping her arm around his neck. The stern potion professor glared at the class, daring them to say anything as he held the unconsolable form of his cousin.

Understanding that the situation was sensitive, Lupin dismissed the class.

"I apologize Severus, I didn't know she would have such a strong reaction…"

"Unless she told you about her issues, there is no way you could have known." He retorted as he tried to coax her into drinking a calming draught.

"Must I expect something like that to happen in any of my classes?"

"Angela has a special condition, this can happen at any moment if she is presented with a trigger. I would say the boggart was one such trigger. Making her talk in front of everyone would be another one."

Lupin nodded and left, feeling that his presence would be more intruding than anything else.