Even though Harry was able to go home he struggled with nightmares over the course of the summer after what he'd seen at the end of the year.
Mercifully Jennifer had anticipated that and had brought a psychologist on board at the Research Facility. After proving to her that magic was real by way of showing off his Metamorphagus abilities he spent many productive sessions with her.
Still, the nightmares haunted him, even with professional help, and he knew he had a long road to recovery.
Aside from dealing with his nightmares, he spent the summer productively.
He'd moved on from Mandarin Chinese and was now learning Spanish as he wasn't quite ready to dedicate himself to Hindi yet. That would come in time.
He also finally got the next Animagus potion completed with the help of the Researchers. They couldn't do any of the prep for the potion, Harry had to do it all himself to imbue it with his magic subconsciously, but they helped with timing and with figuring out how to get the ingredients the exact right size which were both important parts of the potion.
So with the potion available to him, he spent much time with feathers on various parts of his body, with a beak, and with strange hearing and vision. It would take three to five months to be able to transform himself like that without the potion and another few months to be able to bring it all together and transform completely.
In preparation for Harry transforming the Research Team had built some nests on the roof and transferred a flock of Western Eurasian Jackdaws there and he spent some time with them every day, watching how they socialized and paying close attention to what they looked like.
Harry also called Hermione throughout the summer, when she wasn't in France, spoke to Ron on the phone in secret a few times, and wrote to Amelia Bones.
As he wrote to her he began to feel worse and worse about the plan to destabilize her entire life. She was a good woman who was happy to tell him everything there was to know about the government, Auror training (though he suspected she wanted him to join the Aurors when he was older), and general magical life.
When he shared his doubts with Jennifer she had a different perspective.
"Most people are good. Most people will help others when they can. That doesn't mean that the entire society that they're part of isn't rotten. If they're good they'll be able to find new lives as law-abiding citizens in the new world but we've got to stop the rotten parts of society from continuing. Ask her about Muggle Baiting and worse."
Sure enough, Amelia was very apologetic but admitted that Muggle Baiting was a serious problem and they had an entire division in the Ministry dedicated just to stopping it, led by Ron's father. It was made worse by the fact that, unless there was a certain level of extreme harm done, most Muggle Baiting was punished with a fine. Only in the most extreme cases and cases of death was any prison time served and even then it was less prison time than if a magical were injured or killed.
It was a problem, admitted Amelia, but not one she could do much about.
She didn't give statistics but it sounded like a pervasive problem if there was an entire department dedicated to it. He was also given a set of statistics by Jennifer on how often government buildings were broken into by magicals, that they knew of. It was staggering; at least once a week for years.
So Harry stopped feeling so bad.
Amelia Bones stared hard at the Azkaban Warden who was reporting to her.
"Sirius Black…" she said slowly. "Sirius Black… the man who betrayed the Potters… escaped the most secure prison in the world… two weeks ago. And I'm just now finding this out."
The man swallowed nervously, "Yes. We've uh- we've been searching for him but-"
"You're fired."
The man grimaced and nodded.
"And you're under arrest for aiding Sirius Black and criminal negligence."
The man's eyes widened in shock, "I- I didn't!"
She stood and even though she was shorter than him she knew it must feel like she was towering over him. "You told no one. Sirius Black has been missing for two weeks and you told no one. As far as I am concerned that is aiding and abetting."
The day was a long one. She at least had someone to blame for the entire fiasco but that didn't make arranging a manhunt for a two-week-old trail any easier, nor speaking to the Minister and the press, nor going to Azkaban and arranging a new warden for the prison.
Still, the hardest part of the day came at the very end. She'd gotten a new letter from Harry Potter the day before, she'd intended to pass off some of his questions to her secretary and respond when she had the answers as she often did. That letter would have to be put off for some time. In the meantime, she had a much more important letter to write.
Harry Potter,
Though I did receive your last letter I am afraid it will take more time than usual to gather the answers as things here have become quite complicated. It is with that in mind that I must tell you some very dark news. I apologize if some of this letter will repeat things that you know but given the fact that you appear to be largely ignorant of much of society I fear that you will not know what I am about to tell you.
Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban prison two weeks ago, though I was only just informed of this due to the negligence of the prison warden who you can be assured has been fired and arrested.
Sirius Black, in case you do not know, was close friends with your father all through school and as an adult, along with Peter Pettigrew. When your parents had you they decided to go into hiding from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and to do so they used a charm called the Fidelus Charm. This charm hides the secret of where they lived in the mind of one individual. This means that the only way to know where they lived you had to be told by the Secret Keeper. You could stand before the house and not recognize it.
I'm sorry to inform you that Sirius Black was the Secret Keeper. Almost at once, he informed his master, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, of their location. It turns out he had been spying on the Ministry, where he and your father worked as an Auror, for his master the entire time.
After your parents were killed he decided to track down their long-time friend, Peter Pettigrew, for an unknown reason and killed him and ten muggles with an explosive curse. All that was left of Peter Pettigrew was his finger. He was posthumously awarded an Order of Merlin Second Class.
Sirius Black was sentenced to life in Azkaban.
I apologize on behalf of the Ministry of Magic for the grave series of errors that led to Sirius Black escaping and want to assure you that we are doing everything we can to find him and protect you. If you and your guardians would like we can assign an assortment of Hitwizards to watch over you. It has already been decided that Dementors, the primary guards of Azkaban, will be guarding Hogwarts so you can be assured of your safety there.
Good luck and Godspeed,
Amelia Bones
Harry's Hogwarts letter arrived two weeks after his letter from Amelia Bones about Sirius Black had arrived. She hadn't written to him since, not that he blamed her. Between trying to catch Sirius Black, training new Aurors and a new Warden of Azkaban, and trying to find the security hole in Azkaban she was quite busy.
Now it was time to get his school supplies but his bosses weren't quite willing to let him just take a researcher with him, even if they were both under disguises. Instead, he was paired with the woman who had done the shopping for the Polyjuice Potion supplies the year before.
With a slight smirk on her face, the redhead told him to call her Natasha. He had the feeling that wasn't her name but simply agreed.
They started with his school supplies and the supplies he'd need to make the animagus potion before moving on to search for books on Mind Magic. They searched all eight bookstores in Diagon Alley and only found one book on it and it was not an instructional book.
With no other choice, they went to Knockturn Alley. The very first bookstore they went to had three texts, all with explicit instructions on how to perform the magic within.
It was as they were leaving that the problem occurred.
They were approached by a broad-shoulder man covered in hair. He was like a walking stereotype of a werewolf with pointed teeth and brownish-yellow eyes.
"Well, well, well, what have we here?" he growled.
In the blink of an eye, Natasha had a blade out and pressed against his jugular. The man hissed in pain and backed up, "Silver."
"Exactly. Get out of here before I show you just how bad silver hurts."
"You don't have the guts," the man growled, stalking closer again.
Faster than Harry could see the silver blade slashed through the man's chest and arm. While his arm was hanging limply at his side he slashed at her with his other arm. She didn't make a noise as his sharp nails tore through flesh. Instead, she quickly moved to block Harry. Then she slashed the blade across the man's throat once, and when that didn't fell him she slammed it into his gut, twisted, then pulled it out, spilling the man's organs onto the ground.
Horrified, Harry watched as the man fell to the ground, spasming and groaning in pain.
A moment later a Hit Wizard in dark blue robes appeared and began to question them. They gave their false names, then answered all questions honestly.
As the man finished up the parchment he examined the man Natasha had killed, then went pale.
"Merlin!" he exclaimed. "That's Fenrir Greyback! You'll get an Order of Merlin for this for sure!"
She shook her head, "I don't want any recognition for this. When you tell your superiors make sure to keep my name out of it."
"But!"
"Keep my name out of it," she said, the threat clear in her voice.
The Hit Wizard nodded frantically, it seeming to occur to him that angering the one who had killed one of the most notorious Werewolves in the world might not be the best idea.
As they left Harry had only one thought.
This was sure to star in his nightmares.
Recommendation: Gold Coin by AlexFlex on Ao3 is really good. Its rated explicit for some s*x but it's really good.