There were at least two-dozen students surrounding a large table. They
looked to be Ravenclaws, Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and even Slythrines! Yes
Draco Malfoy was sitting about two seats down from Harry now talking as
though he was reporting something. He was actually talking in a civil tone
with Harry and Harry was listening quietly. Sirius could not hear what
they were saying so he walked closer to hear what was going on. He heard
Harry speak.
"Sirius you can come out now we know that you are there." He said calmly. Sirius stood up to his full height. Harry looked over to him.
"Yes?" Sirius was amazed at how calm Harry was.
"Um, Professor Dumbledore wants to see you right now." Harry sighed. "Fine, meeting dismissed. We will continue this later."
He waited for everyone to leave, removed the table and other elements in the room and followed Sirius up to Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore looked up as they entered.
"Ah Harry, please take a seat. I have some questions to ask you."
Harry nodded and waited.
"Do you know about the Order?"
He nodded again.
"How long have you known?"
"Since you started it in our fifth year. Do you expect that we wouldn't notice of something was going on at Hogwarts? Especially something as important as this."
Dumbledore looked shocked.
"Well then Harry you may leave, I expect you will say nothing of this to anyone it is a very secret operation."
Harry began to stand up but Sirius put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down. Harry slumped down in the chair he knew what was coming. Dumbledore gave Sirius a curious glance. "We need to talk about what I saw down on the Quiddich pitch. What was that? And why was Draco Malfoy there?"
"What did you Sirius? And what is this with Mr. Malfoy? I hope you didn't hurt him Harry."
Sirius explained what he had walked in on. Dumbledore looked at Harry.
"I believe that you have some explaining to do." Harry gave another long sigh. He knew that there was no point in holding back any information.
"Well when we discovered the Order of the Phoenix in our fifth year we
decided to start our own. Adults are to set in their ways to truly do what we
have been doing. We, Ron, Hermione, and myself, approached many
Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and several of our fellow Gryffindors. After about
two months of meetings we realized that we could not have a full order
without Slythrines. I approached Draco. At first he thought it was an
elaborate plan to pull a prank on him but he showed up with several
Slythrines anyway. We discovered that he really didn't want to be a death
eater and neither did the other sons and daughters of death eaters but they
were always pressured into it by their parents. We took action to eliminate
possible death eaters before they became them by inviting them to join our
side. They of course had to pass several truth tests, all of us did. During the
last year the sons and daughters of death eaters have been spying on their
parents finding out useful information and helping me avoid several attacks.
Without the our Order I would probably be dead by now."
Harry sniggered when he looked from Dumbledore to Sirius. They had had no clue what was going on.
"We also have stopped several attacks on muggles, and that is why Voldemort has been so quiet recently. We haven't let him be loud." Dumbledore recovered first.
"Harry I believe that you are the cleverest student this school has ever seen. No one in the history of this school has done it so much service while still in school. But I would like to know more about your order and how you have prevented attacks on muggles when most of the members of your order are stuck at school."
Harry grinned. "We have more then students in our order. Remember we started it in our fifth year so a lot of our members have graduated. Fred and George Weasley for example their joke shop is more then what it seems they have given us a ton of help since they have left the school. But it would be easier if I just gave you our files. Hermione has insisted that we give a detailed report on every act that we have done."
Harry closed his eyes in concentration. Several seconds later a huge book
zoomed into the office. Harry handed Dumbledore the book. He quickly
flipped through the book. There were pictures of what looked like death
eaters meetings, scared looking muggles, and death eaters down on the
floor. It looked as though Harry, Ron, and Hermione were up to more then
pranks and schoolwork. In the back of the book there was a list of all the
people in the order and their house and if they had one there occupation.
Dumbledore was amazed at the amount of people in the order. It looked as
though every seventh year was involved and a lot of younger students as
well. They even had first years! Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Sirius
would you be so kind as to call an emergency meeting of the Order?"
Sirius didn't even respond he just quickly left the room.
"Harry what kind of leadership do you have for this order?"
Harry thought for a moment. "Well there is me who heads the meetings and assignments, Hermione is secretary, Ron heads the Gryffindors, Sarah the Ravenclaws, Susan Bones the Hufflepuffs, Draco the Slythrines, and Fred and George the graduated members. Why?"
"I will ask you to explain more in depth later but right now I want you to get your leaders together and go down to the Order room, you know where it is." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.
Harry left just as Sirius had. He sent a letter to Fred and George quickly and then went to go find the other leaders. About a half hour later everyone was gathered and they walked together down to the Order room. The adult order was there waiting for them. Everyone but Sirius and Dumbledore were surprised that Draco was there. Dumbledore asked them to take a seat. Lily and James looked at Harry curiously. 'What is he doing here?' They wondered. It looked as though Dumbledore had already called role. He stood up and looked around at the group in front of him. "I know that all the adults in this room are wondering why these young people are among us. It seems as though are young Harry Potter here and his friends have started their own Order."
There were gasps all around the room, Dumbledore held up his hand for silence.
"I will let Mr. Potter explain exactly what they have been doing."
Everyone was silent and waited for Harry to begin. He told them the same story that he had told to Dumbledore and Sirius earlier that day with little bits of narrative here and there from Ron, Hermione, Sarah, Draco, Fred, or George. When he had finished they looked at him in shock. Lily and James were beaming with pride. Dumbledore smiled.
Harry laughed at the looks that the adults had on their faces.
Time pasted quickly for Harry and his friends. They were all busy with
schoolwork, Quiddich, pranks, and the Order. Before long it was time for Christmas. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were pleased to hear that since
they were 7th years they got an extra week of vacation. (sort-of like senior
skip day but longer) The decided that because it was there last Christmas
while still in school to spend most of the time with their families except for an
occasional date or two. Before they left however, they left Professor
Dumbledore his birthday present, which he opened the morning before they
left at breakfast. They could here him chuckling as he pulled out three pairs
of thick socks. He winked at Harry. On the way home they exchanged
presents because they would not be together for Christmas this year. Ron
smiled as he opened his gift from Harry. 'I know that with Fred and George
around this holiday that you will not get much candy. This is a safe stash of
candy. There is a spell on the candy so no one can tamper with it. -Harry.'
Inside was mounds of Ron's favorite candies, he grinned. From Ron, Harry
got a book called The greatest seekers of all time. He flipped through it and
sure enough there at the end of the book was a smiling picture of Harry.
Hermione gasped when she opened her present from Harry. There was a
gold heart shaped locket with rubies around the edges. In flowing words it
said 'Harry and Hermione Forever'. Inside the locket there were wizards
photos that changed every five minutes. The pictures showed anytime that
Harry and Hermione were together. They were all a little disappointed when
the train came to a stop. They sighed and dragged their trunks off of the
train and onto the platform. Mr. Weasley came over to give Ron a hand.
Hermione nudged Harry, and he nodded.
"Mr. Weasley, we know how much you love muggle stuff and you have been so kind to Hermione and myself that we got you a Christmas gift."
Mr. Weasley smiled and opened the beautifully wrapped gift. Inside there were a lot of ordinary things like tape and a cd player. Inside there were cards that explained each object and how it worked. Mr. Weasley's face changed from a polite smile to a delighted grin. He was already beginning to point stuff out to Ron. Ron rolled his eyes. Harry spotted James, gave Hermione a kiss goodbye, and then headed over to him.
James smiled at his son as he came over. He couldn't believe that this would be Harry's last Christmas home from school. But he was going to make sure that is was the best Christmas that Harry ever had. On the way home James gave Harry a nervous glance, Harry noticing this asked him what was wrong.
"There is going to be an extra person staying with us a week during Christmas and I need to tell you some things about her before we get home."
"Her?"
"Yes, I believe that you met her at the Halloween ball with Sirius."
"You mean Ariel?"
James nodded, sighed and continued. "We were going to try to keep it a secret from you but seeing as that is impossible I might as well tell you. Ariel is the Heir of the Dragon."
Harry shrugged; he had no clue what the heir of the dragon was and why it was important.
"She has the power to transform into and control all dragons, no matter what type."
Harry muttered, "Could have used her in my fourth year."
James laughed.
"So why does it matter?"
"Well it is considered a Dark Art to be able to talk to any animal that cannot speak. Many think that the Heir of the Dragon is meant to be a follower of Voldemort."
"Dad did you really think that I would judge anyone like that? I mean I can talk to snakes but I am not evil am I?"
"Only when you are pulling pranks."
Harry laughed.
When Harry walked in the door he was nearly trampled by an over excited Lily.
"Mum, you are going to suffocate me!" Lily released him and stood back to get a good look at him. "Harry, I believe that you have grown a full two inches since I last saw you! You are taller then your father now!"
Noticing that James had just walked in the door Harry added, "And more handsome."
James glared at him mockingly. After Harry had settled in he went downstairs to find hid parents. They were sitting at the kitchen table talking to each other quietly. When Harry entered they smiled. They started to talk about Quiddich and England's chances at the cup this year when the doorbell rang. Before his parents could stop him Harry ran to the door.
When he flung it open there was Remus, Sirius, and Sirius' girl-wait no friend Ariel at the door. He showed Ariel to her room and told her to leave her luggage downstairs while secretly cursing Sirius with an invention of his own. Ariel noticed this and winked at him. When they came back downstairs Sirius was groveling over Remus and James who were looking at him as though he had lost his mind and laughing. When Sirius spotted Harry he ran over to him. "Oh Harry! How glorious and brave you are!"
He continued on and on and Harry was nearly crying from laughing so hard. Ariel recognized the type of spell and took it of Sirius as soon as she remembered how. Remus and James realized what Harry had done and now were congratulating him his small but funny prank. Sirius was still recovering. It took him awhile to remember that Harry was the one the cursed him started yelling. That just made Harry, James, and Remus laugh harder, and Sirius stomped off upstairs.
That was the beginning of the prank wars. There were three teams;
Sirius and Ariel had teamed up, James and Harry, and then since they were
the only two left Lily and Remus. Harry conjured up a large screen that kept
up with the points for each pair. James and Harry struck first. On only the
second day of the holidays they snuck into Sirius' and Ariel's room. They
had both been sleeping peacefully, but that would not last for long. Screams
woke everybody in the house up. Apparently Harry and James thought it
would be funny if they dumped horse manure over the sleeping couple. Sirius was now chasing Harry down the hallway, sending curses at him. Ariel
already had James in a full body bind and was using the tickling charm on
him. Finally after Remus and Lily had already finished eating breakfast,
Sirius gave up chasing Harry and Ariel had taken the curse off of James.
That afternoon they had to go pick Dudley up from school. James flat out refused to go get his nephew. He was still upset about what Dudley had done to Harry when they were younger and James couldn't forgive that fact that is was at Dudley's school when Harry was attacked. Lily fought with James about it for about another five minutes and then sighed and gave up. She had really been hoping that James would take to Dudley.
"Fine," she snapped, "don't go. Harry do you want to come along for the drive?"
Harry rolled his eyes. Of course he didn't want to go.
"I will let you drive your car!" Lily said, hopeful. She had hit Harry's weak spot. Harry got up and grabbed his keys Lily smiled and followed.
An hour later they pulled up in front of Smeltings. There were groups of boys talking to each other, looking as though they were waiting for their parents. Harry noticed that the snobby boy that had been at his table was talking to Dudley in a very unpleasant tone. Harry came up behind them and cleared his throat. They spun around.
"Are you ready Dudley? My mum is waiting."
Dudley nodded. The snobby boy turned to Harry. "And who are you?"
"Harry Potter, Dudley's cousin."
"So you are the fat oafs cousin, what does your parents not have enough money to send you here?"
This was going the same way as the last conversation Harry had had with this boy.
Harry ignored him and led Dudley over to the car. He made a point of revving the engine and flashing a grin at the boy. He gaped. The ride was pretty much un-eventful until about 30 minutes before they returned to the house.
"Aunt Lily could some friends come over the holiday?"
Harry was so shocked at the question he almost crashed the car. Lily gave him a stern look.
"Of course Dudley! We would be delighted to have some of your friends over!"
She put an emphasis on the 'we'. Harry coughed.
Dudley grinned. "Then I can call them when we get home!" The he thought for a second. "We do have a phone, right?"
Lily nodded. Harry was in too much shock to even speak for the remainder of the trip.
Later that night there was an explosion coming from Lily and James' room. Apparently Lily had told James about her plan, and he had not taken it well. Harry snuck up to their room to hear their conversation. He was secretly hoping that his father would win the argument. He heard his father whining, "But Lils, what about all the magic stuff we have around? And the house-elves! What about them?"
"We'll manage. Harry you might as well come into the room, I know you are there."
Harry meekly came into the bedroom. James smiled to see his son trouble making. He winked at Harry and smiled. Harry couldn't help grinning. "Really James, you're encouraging him," she scolded.
He laughed. When he saw the look on Lily's face his grin faded a little. "Ok, fine Lily! Dudley's friends can come over! But it better be after Sirius and Remus leave!"
Lily had a look of delight on her face and left to go find Dudley. "So Harry when is your next game?"
"In two days, we are playing America, it should be an easy win!"
The smile on James' face vanished. "What are we going to do with Dudley during the game? We can't just leave him here, who knows what he would do!"
"We could always take him with us. I am sure Jay could get us another top box seat. Er..or two if it is necessary."
James laughed.
It seemed as though Remus and Sirius had made some kind of alliance versus James. Harry also made an alliance with Remus but they were against Sirius. Lily teamed up with Ariel against Remus and James with Lily against Sirius. There was a lot of mistrust, yelling, and chasing around the Potter mansion.
Sirius found himself looking like a fourteen-year-old girl with zits all over. James was covered in bandages that wouldn't come off for a least a day, Lily had all her robes tye-died awful clashing colors like brown and bright pink (that wouldn't come out), Remus could only talk in rhyme, Ariel's hair was constantly being braided, and un braided and then braided again (inside joke) and Harry's hair was like a porcupine needles The pranks would have been worse if it weren't for the up-coming Quidditch game. Lily had the house-elves make a marvelous cake for dessert the said 'Good Luck Harry!' and had broomsticks all over it. Harry smiled.
After dinner there was a honk outside.
"Their here!" He yelled. The Quiddich team had a bus (much like that
Knight Bus, but it could travel over seas.) The bus was had the crest of the
Quiddich team on it. Harry quickly said good-bye to his parents and rushed
out the door to wear his team mates were waiting for him. He smiled as he
walked onto the familiar bus. When you first got on the bus there were rows
of seats just like a normal bus. However after going through a door in the
back there was a small Quidditch field and several obstacle courses for the
various positions. There was a small spiral staircase that led up to the living
area of the bus. There was a room for each player with their respective
names on the doors. There was also an area to play games and to cook
food. (Though Penny was the only one to ever really spend time in there.)
The team stayed in the bus while in foreign countries. Harry went over to
where Ron and Hermione were already waiting for him. He loved the bus
trips. Within a couple of hours they had reached the Quidditch pitch in
California. As always when they played a different time zone they were
given a special potion that made them instantly adjust to the time zone that
they were going into. When the bus pulled into the parking lot in front of the
parking lot (American Wizards used cars a lot more then British ones did.)
there was a great crowd of people the surrounded the huge bus as though
they were going to take it over. As the team stumbled out blinking in the
sunlight there were loud cheers and clapping. The new team members were
stunned. They had never been welcomed to a game like this before. On
their way over to the pitch they signed many autographs and posed for what
seemed millions of pictures. Finally after what seemed like ages they
reached to pitch, the same one that they had had training on last summer.
They immediately went to the locker rooms to change into their robes. After
Jay's regular pep-talk (it reminded Harry a lot of Oliver Wood's) they were
surprised to see the Americans already on their brooms flying. It looked as
though they were visiting the people in the crowds having short
conversations with the fans. Jay laughed at their confused faces.
"It is a tradition in America for the team to meet the fans before and after the game. And because we are on their turf we will be doing the same thing so please mount your booms and take off."
The trio zoomed off together towards the crowd. Harry frowned slightly when he saw a huge billboard giving information on the team members. His of course talked about what had happened when he was a baby and his various encounters with Voldemort. He quickly looked away and started to scan the crowds for people he knew. He spotted Ian, the little boy's who party he had gone to, and flew over to him. The little boy a look of pure joy when he saw Harry flying over.
"Hi there Ian, are you enjoying the Quidditch games?"
"Of course Harry! It is still the best birthday present I have ever gotten!"
The people that were sitting next to Ian were amazed that he was on a first name basis with the most famous boy in the world. Harry was pleased that he had managed to make this little boy happy. Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Oliver Wood motioning for him to come over. Harry said good-bye to Ian and his father and headed over to see his old Quidditch captain.
"Oliver, it is great to see you again! How have you been? I hear you have taken a job at the Ministry of Magic!"
"I've been great Harry! Yes, I gave up my Quidditch career, I work for the department of Magical Games and Sports. And Katie told me there are to be wedding bells soon, Congratulations!"
Harry smiled, that was the perfect job for Oliver.
"Yep, hey I have to go now but do you want to come to the party after the game? It is only for team members and friends."
Oliver beamed. "Count me in!"
Harry flew back down to the locker rooms where they were to wait for their names to be called. Within a couple of minutes they were back up in the air. Hermione grabbed the quaffle as it was released and headed down the field. One of the American beaters hit a bludger at Harry they he dodged and Greg hit to the other side of the field. The American team called a time out. Greg spoke to Harry. "Saw you were talking to Oliver Wood, great keeper he was. Though I will never forget his first game. I felt bad about the bludger."
Harry laughed, "Yeah, I invited him to the after game party, do you think anyone will mind?"
"Of course not, it will be great to see him again."
The referee blew his whistle and they were back up in the air. The American seeker was following Harry carefully around. Harry rolled his eyes, they never learned, so he would just have to teach him a lesson.
Harry went down in a sudden dive, as though he had seen the snitch. The American seeker followed and the crowd cheered. About two feet away from the ground Harry pulled up. He got the desired result. The American seeker crashed with a sickening crunch on the ground. There was a time-out as medi-wizards flooded the field to rush the injured seeker of the field. He had to be replaced by I second string seeker, that was not as good. In the next five minutes Harry caught the snitch. They had won 350-10. Ron was beating himself up about the goal that he had let get through while Harry dived. It was the first goal he had ever missed. The infamous trio hit the showers and headed to the party.
As they were entering the building where the party was to take place there were camera flashes and reporters everywhere. They just smiled and waved before ducking through the door. When they walked in the door they found the room decked in the teams colors. (red and white) There was loud music blaring all over the room magically magnified. Harry found Sirius and James adding some um, questionable liquid to the punch bowl. Harry laughed. He knew that he better tell Ron and Hermione to avoid drinking any punch. As he was walking around looking for his friends he spotted a flustered Oliver Wood arguing with the man who prevented those not invited to the party to come in.
"But sir, Harry Potter invited me, I used to play Quidditch with him on the Gryffindor team!"
The man snorted. "Yeah and I am his godfather Sirius Black, and now I will have to ask you to."
Harry quickly stopped him from saying anything else.
"Oliver, I am glad you could make it! Oh so sorry Gus (the name of the guard man) I forgot to add him to the list!"
Harry grabbed Oliver's hand and pulled him into the room, Oliver smiled appreciatively.
"Thank you Harry I thought he would never let me in!"
"Quite alright Oliver, let me introduce you to the team. I believe you already know Greg Mason, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley this is.."
He continued on with the introductions. The team took to Oliver right away. "So Oliver, how many of Harry's pranks have you suffered through?" Fiona asked.
Oliver gave her a curious look. "Pranks? Harry never pulls any pranks! You must have him confused with the Weasley twins!"
Everyone around laughed. Oliver was quite confused. Ron spoke up after he had regained control of himself. "Oliver, the twins seem like Professor Binns compared to what Harry has done!"
They spent the remainder of the evening telling Oliver about all the pranks Harry, Ron, and Hermione had pulled. Unfortunately Harry had forgotten to warn everybody about the punch. He himself, forgot about it to and they all ended up have about eight glasses a piece. By the end of the night the group was slobbering and being silly. To say the least Jay was not pleased when he saw his entire Quidditch team drunk. He managed to get them somber but not before James and Sirius had snapped many pictures of a drunk Harry.
The next day they said sad good-byes to each other, they didn't want to
leave. It was hard to believe that they only had one more team to play, and
if they won that match they would be going to the Quidditch World Cup!
Harry returned to home to his parents and Sirius surrounding him suddenly
congratulating him and telling him how proud they were of him. Harry
beamed. Literally! Everyone in the room was in shock, including Harry. He
was glowing gold and red all the people in the room felt happiness wash over
them as the glow left Harry and spread around the room. When the glow
was gone no one could say anything until Harry said one word,
"Dumbledore," they all nodded in agreement. Harry quickly went over to the fire pace to call the headmaster. "Professor, I need to talk to you!" Harry yelled into the fire. Because he was the headmaster of Hogwarts he was the only person who could apperate out of the castle. Dumbledore came immediately. He looked concerned at first but then he noticed the red and gold sparks left from the glow and smiled. "I am assuming that you want to know what happened in here?" Dumbledore asked. They all nodded. "It is part of Harry being the Lanoitome. I believe that we have only seen what happens when Harry is extremely angry. But this is what happens when he is filled with joy, he has the power to make everyone in the room fell warm inside and happy. It means that he is getting very powerful if he can make this happen."
Lily and James were pleased to say the least. They were incredibly proud of
their son. Dudley, who had been in the back of the room looked bewildered.
He had seen Harry play Quidditch at the game and was impressed but he
was beginning to be jealous of his cousin, something he had never thought
he would feel toward him. Dudley was also confused about what was going
on. What did the old man mean more powerful? Was it possible for one
wizard to be more powerful then another? He knew there was something
different about Harry then the other wizards but he didn't know what. Uncle
James was always going on about how great Harry was and how proud he
was of Harry's grades and of the pranks he had pulled at school. Uncle
James hated Dudley. Though he had never said it out loud Dudley could tell
by the way his uncle was rarely in the same room as him and when he was
he never talked to Dudley. Just pretended he was not there. Aunt Lily was
nice though he knew that she would never think of him on the same level as
Harry, her only son. Dudley was sure that if Aunt Lily wasn't around Uncle
James would be just as bad as his father had been to Harry. Sirius was a
totally different story. Dudley hated that man more then anybody, he was a
criminal! And they let him spend time at their house! Imagine that, how
could anybody be so stupid? Suddenly Dudley was snapped out of his trance
when an elf came in and announced that dinner was to be served. 'At least I
am well fed,' Dudley thought to himself as he headed into the dining room.
"Would you like to stay for dinner, Professor? I don't think it will be a
problem for the house-elves to set another plate." Harry addressed his
headmaster.
Dumbledore chuckled. "I think I will take you up on that Harry, if it is ok with everyone else here?" He looked around the room full of smiles and took them to mean yes. Dudley groaned to himself when he saw the old man come in the dining room and took a seat next to Uncle James. He sighed; this was going to be a long night.
Harry had never seen his father and Professor Dumbledore sit side by side as they were now. They were both laughing at a joke that Sirius had just told. Harry suddenly saw something that he had never noticed before, and here it was so clear in front of him. His father, James Potter and Dumbledore had the same sparkling blue eyes!
James noticed the look of recognition on Harry's face and panicked. He and Dumbledore had always been careful not to stand side by side or sit right next to each other. James stood up with a bang muttered something about having to talk to Dumbledore and the two left the room right away. This confirmed Harry's suspicions. Somehow, someway he was related to Dumbledore. Which of course made him angry because if he was indeed related to Dumbledore then where had Dumbledore been when he was growing up? Why was he left with the Dursleys?
In the other room James was frantically explaining about what happened. Dumbledore looked slightly upset that this was the way that Harry had found out.
"James calm down, I will talk to him after dinner."
"You don't understand! Harry is going to be so mad at me for keeping this secret from him!"
Dumbledore nodded. He understood that Harry had quite a temper and often took it out on James. After he had calmed James down they headed back into the dining room, where Harry was shooting them death glares. At the end of dinner Harry wasn't at all surprised when Dumbledore said that he would like a word. Harry glumly followed his headmaster into the other room to 'talk'.
"Harry in less your father and I are mistaken I believe that you have figured out our little secret."
"Little secret? Little? Finding out that I really did have a living relative while I was with the Dursleys is not little. Why didn't you come take me away? You should have been there. Especially the last summer I was with them!"
Dumbledore got worried all of a sudden by the look on Harry's face when he mentioned the last summer he had had with the Dursleys. Why was that one any different then the others?
"What happened the last summer at the Dursleys?" He asked in a kind voice. A wall was put up on Harry's face it now showed no emotions. Dumbledore decided not to worry about that just yet, he would get James or Sirius to talk to Harry about it later. After several minutes of silence Harry spoke.
"So how are you related to me?"
Dumbledore smiled. "I am your grandmother's brother on your dad's side, making me your great-uncle."
Harry just nodded slightly to show that he understood but was still not letting Dumbledore know what he was thinking.
"Harry it would not have been good for you to grow up with me. I was too busy to take proper care of a child. You were much better off growing up in the muggle world. I did what I thought would be best for you!" Dumbledore was practically begging Harry to forgive him.
"You could have been a whole lot better to me then the Dursleys were! If I had been living with you I wouldn't have."
Harry stopped himself and then stormed up to his room. When he got there he locked the door with a spell that he had invented with the help of Ron so that no one could enter the room with out him saying that they could. He threw himself down on his bed and fell into a deep sleep.
Dumbledore was very worried about Harry. What had happened at the Dursleys that was so bad? He went straight to James who was sitting talking to Sirius, Ariel, and Lily.
"James did Harry ever tell you what happened during the summer before his 5th year?"
James looked confused. "He told me that nothing happened really that summer, why?"
"I have the feeling that something happened to him, and he wont tell me what. Sirius did he ever say anything to you?"
A weird look crossed Sirius' face. It was much like Harry's earlier, and didn't say a thing about what he was thinking. But being Sirius he couldn't lie to his best friend.
"Yes he did." He said shortly.
"And what happened?" Dumbledore prompted.
"I can't tell you." Sirius said in a bland voice.
"YOU BETTER TELL US! I AM HIS FATHER! I HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW!" James yelled.
"I promised I wouldn't, a promise I intend to keep."
James pleaded with Sirius a little more and then Lily pleaded with Sirius but he would not give anything away. Then Lily had an idea. "Dudley," she said then she and James ran to go find their nephew. They found him in his room watching the T.V. they had bought him for his birthday. (It had been the only gift that he had gotten from them.)
James turned it off with his wand and Dudley whipped around to protest. But when he saw James he stopped and waited to hear what was going to happen. Because he was a muggle a simple truth spell would work to find out exactly what had happened.
"Dudley what happened during the last summer that Harry was at your house?"
"Dad punished him for the pain he had caused our family."
Lily looked terrified and James livid. "And how did he punish him?" James asked in a forced voice.
"Well first he made him work all day, and stopped feeding him. Then when Harry refused to do anything but stare in space he got out his large leather belt and he let me use my smeltings stick. Mum used a whip that she had from when she used to horse back ride. Dad locked him in the cupboard and thought that he would be gone for good after that. Then Harry's stupid
godfather came and took him away for the last week of the holiday."
James didn't think he could be as angry as he was now. He needed to blow
something up right away and chose Dudley's T.V. When Dudley woke up out
of the trans that occurred from the spell he was shocked to see he no longer
had a T.V. And when he asked James what happened he replied, "You don't
deserve one." He quickly left the room with Lily not far behind. As he left
the room he locked the door. James told the house-elves to give Dudley his
meals in his room and to make sure not to spoil the brat. Lily, who usually
would stand up for Dudley didn't dare. James would just blow up at her and
she understood why he was so angry. Also she was so upset about what had
happened to Harry that she couldn't speak. Why did everything have to go
bad for her son? She and James went to Harry's room to talk to him. When
they tried 'alohmora' and it didn't work they were worried. They decided to
just talk to him in the morning. (Which was Christmas)
Christmas morning was different then it had been the last two years. No pranks were pulled and everyone got up late. Harry had had a bad night. Through his dreams Harry had re-lived all the bad things that had ever happened to him, starting with his parents 'dieing' and ending with his last encounter with Voldemort. He groggily went down the stairs with dark rings under his eyes. The night before Lily and James had gone out after hearing what happened to Harry and bought him twice the amount of presents that he already had. (Which by the way was already a lot.)
Then they stayed up half the night decorating the tree and the house to make it look perfect.
When Harry got downstairs he had to blink a couple of times to realize that he was still in his house. There was fake snow falling from the ceiling, dancing fairies flouting around like stars, and Christmas music could be heard all over the house. Harry grinned. He would forget his spat with his father for today, even if it was just today because Christmas is a time for family. He found his parents snuggling by the fire and Sirius and Ariel doing the same thing. Before they noticed him he whipped out his camera and took a picture. The two couples looked up at him and smiled. Harry couldn't be to angry at them if he had come down stairs of his own free will.
"About time you woke up, we were beginning to think that someone put the sleeping curse on you." James teased. Harry just smiled. They had about thirty minutes of just sitting by the fire talking until Sirius had had enough.
"Come on, let's open presents!"
The group raced into the living room where the tree was. Harry, of course, won because all those years of dodging Dudley and his gang had paid off. When he saw the amount of presents under the tree all Harry could do was stare. There were mounds of presents overflowing the bottom of the tree all wrapped perfectly. Harry quickly summoned the gifts he had gotten for everyone and passed them out to their right-full owners. Harry seemed to have gotten everything he had ever wanted. Included in this was a collection of antique brooms, a wizard computer (very different from muggle ones), enough candy to fill a whole shop, a mini Quidditch field that would show Harry any game that he or friends had played, a muggle bike (Lily and James wanted to get him something that he should have had from his muggle child hood), a wand cleaning kit, books on pranks, pranks themselves, and much much more! Finally there was only one present left. It was a large brown envelope that seemed to have many papers in it. When Harry opened it he gasped. He couldn't believe that his parents had done this for him! There in front of his very eyes were the deeds to a house. "You wont be actually live in it until you are married, but I thought that you might want to buy the furniture and other things before then," James explained.
"Wow," was all that Harry could get out. Then he heard a voice in his head. 'Harry having a good Christmas?' Ron asked.
'Absolutely wonderful!'
'I just got an owl from Hermione; we are all invited over to her house for Christmas supper tonight. Ask your parents if it all right and then I will owl her.'
"Mum, Dad we are invited to Hermione's for dinner tonight, can we go?" Lily and James were confused. There was no owl there or any other signs of communication in the room. How did Harry know that they were invited anywhere?
"Of course dear, that would be wonderful!" Lily was finally able to get out. Harry told Ron the good news and then told Ron that he needed to spend more time with his family.
The elves made them a wonderful Christmas brunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking, laughing, and just having a good time. When evening came they all got ready to go to the Granger's. Harry had pleaded with his parents to let him take his car instead of apperating. They agreed and told Harry that they would meet him there because he had to leave earlier to get there on time. When Harry came to the door he was greeted by a passionate kiss from Hermione. "Wait and see what my parents got us for Christmas."
He whispered in her ear. He had decided to take Hermione there after dinner so they could explore the house together.
Right as Hermione was going to ask what the present was Lily, James, Sirius, and Ariel apperated into the room. Lily came forward and gave her future daughter in-law a hug. After everyone had been introduced, the Grangers led them into the dinning room where the Weasley's were already sitting around a large table. The meal was wonderful! Most of the time was spent talking about the up-coming wedding and the Quidditch World Cup. When Mrs. Granger had finally taken the last of the dessert away, Harry asked to be excused from the table with Hermione. Of course there were many jokes about what they would be doing. (Mostly made by the twins)
"What is this all about?" Hermione asked after they had left the room.
"My parents Christmas present to us. I haven't even seen it yet but I thought we should explore it together!"
Hermione was very confused! What was Harry talking about? Before she could ask Harry had grabbed her around the waist and they dissaperated. He quickly put the blindfolding charm on her and led her in the front door. Harry was amazed at the size of the house, and loved its location. (Just outside of Hogsmeade in a muggle town.) Hermione was giggling as Harry pulled her into a kiss. Then he took the blindfold off. She gasped. "Harry why are we here? This is a magnificent house!"
"I am glad you think that Hermione, because it is ours."
Hermione looked as though she was about ready to faint.
"O-ours? How could this be ours? We haven't bought a house yet!"
"Mum and Dads present!"
Hermione gasped once again. Harry grinned. "Shall we explore then?" He asked she nodded. The house was even more magnificent then what they first saw it. There was a small lake outside about half the size as the one at Hogwarts. They counted 26 bedrooms in all. When Hermione pointed that out Harry laughed. "Well my parents except a lot of grandchildren.
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Oh do they Mr. Potter?" After spending some time kissing lightly with each other and flirting. (NOTHING else) They reluctantly decided to go back to Hermione's house to tell Harry's parents of their approval. When they returned everyone was sitting around the fire with butter beer, laughing and talking. "Ah here are our two favorite little love birds!" Sirius announced. By staying up to the wee hours of the morning Harry and Hermione managed to give everyone a tour of the house at the end of the night Harry proposed an idea.
"I think that this raw group of people should get together every Christmas! No matter who we add," he said this looking at Hermione, "family should always be together on Christmas!"
"Here, here!" The group shouted.
Things however would not go as well the next day. His parents yelling at each other about Dudley awaked Harry.
"He doesn't deserve to have friends over! Not after what he did to Harry!"
"James we have already bee through this! His friends have already been called, and they are coming in a two days! He said he was sorry and if Harry can forgive him so can we!"
"But Lily."
"No, they are coming over and that is final."
There was a door slamming. Harry knew that his mother had won the argument as she usually did. But how did they find out? If Sirius had told them.
At that very moment Lily came in to check on Harry. Harry asked her how she had found out about what had happened during the last summer at the Dursleys. Her smiled faltered. "Dudley told us."
Harry was happy that Sirius hadn't been the one to tell them but he hadn't wanted them to know in the first place. After Lily had left the room Harry got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. He noticed that his father was being unusually quiet through out the meal. When Harry was about to get up from the table James grabbed his arm, Harry winced. He knew what his father wanted to talk to him about so he meekly followed James into the study where he sat down. After several minutes of silence, James spoke.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked in a low voice. Harry sighed but said nothing.
"Why didn't you tell me?" James asked with a little more anger.
"Because you probably would have gone and killed the Dursleys if I had! Sirius would have to, but he couldn't leave me!"
James glared at him. "That is not the point. I am your father, and you should have told me! Whenever you are in pain, I am! Now I would like you to tell me exactly what happened, right now!"
Harry really didn't want to but he knew that James would use the truth potion if he need to.
"Well it started when I first came in the house."
Flashback: "Boy you are going to earn your keep this summer!" Uncle Vernon yelled. Harry was in shock after just coming from the Tri-wizard tournament. He was handed a list of chores from the second he walked in the door. 'Vacuum the house, dust, wash the floors, mow the lawn, and wash the windows.' The list seemed endless. Uncle Vernon told Harry that if he didn't do his chores he wouldn't eat. But Harry was in too much shock to do anything. He just sat staring out into space the whole day not doing anything. For days all Harry did was sit in his room, doing absolutely nothing with a glazed look on his face. He kept seeing and hearing what had happened after he had taken the cup. At night when he was a sleep he dreamed about it. His friends would write him letters and he would vaguely reply with 'my summer is fine' and many 'I will be alights' One morning Harry woke up screaming and shacking. Cedric.dead.Voldemort.alive.his parents.death eaters."kill the spare". Uncle Vernon came stomping into the room. "Boy you are going to pay for that, you most have woken the entire neighborhood up! Dudley, Petunia come here with the weapons I said you could use."
Harry was horrified, what weapons? All of a sudden he felt a blow to his head, a belt! Petunia with a whip, Dudley with his stick. Even after Harry was unconscious they continued to beat him. So know one could see into the room Vernon roughly picked up his nephew and through him in the cupboard under the stairs. Unfortunately for him, Sirius was staying with Arabella Figg. Harry had not answered any of his letters and Sirius was worried. In dog form Sirius broke into the house two days after the beating had taken place. Vernon was not successful in keeping Sirius out. When Sirius found Harry he cried out in horror. His godson looked worse then he had when he had come from the third task! Without much trouble Sirius picked Harry up and left the house, warning Dursley that he would be back.
End of flashback.
James was shacking. He couldn't have imagined that something that horrible could ever happen to Harry, his son! Now more then ever James wished that he could have been there for his son. If he had been able to protect Harry properly as a baby then none of this would have ever happened. Harry would have grown up being loved by his parents and godparents. Harry was sitting in the chair with his eyes down, looking as though he was ashamed. 'He has know reason to be ashamed' James thought to himself. This was not the Harry that James knew. He seemed smaller in a way more scrawny, the way he had looked when living with the Dursleys. Harry was always confidante and always held his head up high. Then something occurred to James.
"Why didn't you fight back?" James asked. Harry stared his father in the eyes for a second and then looked back down. Something clicked in James' mind.
"You let them! You let them hurt you! Why?" He demanded. Harry spoke in a small voice. "I didn't go through half as much pain as Cedric or his parents did."
James stared at his son disbelieving. Harry had let them hurt him! He had thought that he dissevered to hurt like that!
"Harry," James said sternly, "Cedric's death was not your fault. No one deserves to be treated the way the Dursleys treated you! How could you think that?"
Harry said nothing and just walked out of the room with his head down. James sighed. It seemed no matter what anybody did Harry would blame himself for Cedric's death. James never wanted to let Dudley to leave that room but Lily wouldn't let him lock the monster up. Well, Dudley would at least stay in there until his friends came the next day.
Harry sat in his room thinking. He knew that he shouldn't blame himself for the death of Cedric, but he wished that he had just taken the cup. He should have listened to Cedric, and just taken it! Then Cedric would still be alive! He heard the doorbell ring. Must be Dudley's friends, though he no longer had to worry about them beating him up he still didn't like them. They would be here for a whole week! Maybe he could invite Ron and Hermione over to help him endure the long week.
"Harry, would you please come down here?" Lily's voice floated up the stairs. Harry got up and headed downstairs, not really wanting to go. He was not surprised to see Piers Polkiss and some other boys that were around Dudley's size and type. He recognized Piers' mother, but not the other parents who where looking around impressed at the size of the house. There were going to be four boys staying with the Potters. There was Piers, John, Henry, and Carl and they were all bullies. Just the first day and a half of their stay Harry had been blamed for a broken vase, stealing one of the boys CD, breaking a CD, tripping Piers, setting a bedroom on fire, and putting a virus on Carl's computer. Of course the boys made the mistake of complaining to James, thinking that a father would be harder on Harry, instead of Lily. If they had not been muggles James would have cursed them into oblivion for blaming his son for anything. Three days before they were supposed to leave Lily had enough.
"Boys, why don't you get out of the house for awhile? I hear a new amusement park had opened close to here why don't we take you there?" They loved the idea, and Lily felt relieved to get those boys out of the house. Unfortunately she was forcing Harry to go as well. Harry complained and begged, with the help of James, but Lily once again put her foot down.
"But you may bring Ron and Hermione if you like," she said to try to make the trip better for Harry. Harry smiled and went off to owl his friends. Before they left Dudley and his friends were convinced that they would get to ride in Harry's car, but there was no way that Harry would even let them get near it. (He put a repelling spell on it) He apperated to the park to meet Ron and Hermione. Ron was the most excited because he had never been to a muggle amusement park. Harry did a quick spell to change his wizard credit card into a muggle one as he walked up to buy their tickets. As they walked through to the main area of the park Ron was embarrassing Harry and Hermione. He would point out the most obvious muggle things. (A popcorn maker, the cement sidewalk, balloons, ect.) When Harry saw the group of Dudley and his friends he decided to get back at them for all the trouble they had caused over the last couple of says.
He whispered something in Hermione's ear, waved his wand, and pushed Hermione towards the group. Harry had changed her appearance, so that Dudley wouldn't recognize her. She was wearing a sluty outfit, a mini skirt and a tube top. Her eyes were changed to blue and her hair blonde. She went over to the boys and started flirting endlessly with them pretending to be attracted. In no time they were all drooling over her. When John tried to grab her butt he felt a electric shock go up his arm, Henry tried to lean on her shoulder and got the same treatment, Piers however went for her chest. As soon as he reached that range he was blasted about eighty yards away from Hermione. When he came back looking sheepish, Harry came over. "Oh I see you have all met my fiancé. They gaped at him with a mixture of jealousy and anger. Ron took out his camera and snapped a few picture before the three of them walked off laughing.
The rest of the day was great! Harry, Ron, and Hermione rode all the rides and almost never had to see Dudley and his friends.
Finally, it was time for Dudley's friends to go home and Harry to go back to Hogwarts. Lily cried as her son got on the train. She missed him terribly when he was off at school.
The next couple of months went smoothly at Hogwarts. Classes were
attended, pranks were pulled, Quidditch was practiced, and homework was
done. The England team even won it's game against France meaning that
they would be going to the Quidditch World Cup in Australia this year! One
night Harry decided to looked around the restricted section of the library (7th
years were allowed to). He found a book labeled The Hogwarts Heirs, it
looked as though no one had read this book in ages. There was dust
covering the book like a blanket. Harry sat down and started reading.
Several hours later when he had finished reading the book his face had gone
pale. He couldn't let what happened in this book happen again, he knew
what he had to do. He had to leave Hogwarts. The next day Ron and
Hermione could tell that there was something wrong with Harry. He was
very distant and barely ate anything. Straight after dinner that night they
went to go tell Sirius about it. Sirius told them that they would have to
watch Harry closely for the next couple of days to make sure that everything
was all right. Ron was frustrated because Harry was no longer letting him
talk in his mind or fell his emotions. It was quite annoying. That night Harry
was looking through the book again to see where he needed to go to avoid a
bad situation. The book told him that he needed to get in contact with the
Dragon heir. Harry knew the he had heard this somewhere but couldn't
remember when or where he had heard it. When he saw Sirius walking
around in the library he knew at once where he had heard. He ran over to Sirius.
"Sirius, where does Ariel live?"
Sirius looked confused, why did Harry care where Ariel lived?
"In Hogsmeade, that is how I met her, drinking at the Hogs Head. Why?"
"No reason," Harry said a little to fast and left in a hurry.
Before he knew it Harry was down in Hogsmeade. It was the first time he had ever been there without Ron and Hermione, and it felt wrong somehow. He did the search spell and knocked on Ariel's door. She didn't look surprised to see him.
"It's time isn't it?" She asked. Harry nodded.
"We will have to find a way for you to disappear without anyone looking for you afterwards I have just the plan. She led Harry into a secret room in the back of the house that was decorated with many pictures of dragons. As Harry heard the plan he couldn't help but be excited even though he knew the pain it would cause his parents, his friends, and himself. But he had to go; they were all in danger while he was still at Hogwarts.
The next day Ron and Hermione noted that Harry was worse then the day before. He looked scared as they walked through the hallways as though someone was about to attack. Harry woke early the next morning to write four letters. The first one was to Hermione Harry's hands shook as he carefully wrote;
Dearest Hermione, I love you, and I never want you to forget that no matter what happens. Remember I will never truly be gone, as long as you still love me in return. I will miss you dearest and hope to see you again someday. -Harry
Then one to Ron;
Hey mate! You must have been shocked when I wasn't there to wake you up in the morning. I hope Snape doesn't dock you to many points. Please take care of Hermione for me and make sure she spends some time having fun! I will miss you. Your Friend, Harry
Next came Sirius;
Padfoot- Thank you so much for helping me through out the years, I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't saved me countless times. Keep smiling and never be Sirius. Your Godson, Harry
He wrote the hardest one last, the one for his parents;
Dear Mum and Dad, I could never express in word the amount you two have done for me my whole life. Mum, your love saved my life and Dad your map was my savior from everyday life. Please don't be sad. I love you both and please try not to kill Dudley. Your Son, Harry
Harry was breathing hard as though he had just ran around the lake a couple
times. He carefully put the letters in both Ron and Hermione's rooms before
saying a silent good-bye to Gryffindor Tower. He slipped the note into Sirius'
room and then sent Hedwig to his parents. He met Ariel in the Shrieking
Shack to perform the curse. First they made a hollow copy of Harry. It was
just like a dummy then Ariel shot a strong killing curse at it. (Avada Kedrva)
There was a bright flash of green light added to the pinks and purples of the
early morning. Harry put his invisibility cloak on and dissaperated. After
making sure that everything was in order and then followed after Harry.
"Sirius you can come out now we know that you are there." He said calmly. Sirius stood up to his full height. Harry looked over to him.
"Yes?" Sirius was amazed at how calm Harry was.
"Um, Professor Dumbledore wants to see you right now." Harry sighed. "Fine, meeting dismissed. We will continue this later."
He waited for everyone to leave, removed the table and other elements in the room and followed Sirius up to Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore looked up as they entered.
"Ah Harry, please take a seat. I have some questions to ask you."
Harry nodded and waited.
"Do you know about the Order?"
He nodded again.
"How long have you known?"
"Since you started it in our fifth year. Do you expect that we wouldn't notice of something was going on at Hogwarts? Especially something as important as this."
Dumbledore looked shocked.
"Well then Harry you may leave, I expect you will say nothing of this to anyone it is a very secret operation."
Harry began to stand up but Sirius put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down. Harry slumped down in the chair he knew what was coming. Dumbledore gave Sirius a curious glance. "We need to talk about what I saw down on the Quiddich pitch. What was that? And why was Draco Malfoy there?"
"What did you Sirius? And what is this with Mr. Malfoy? I hope you didn't hurt him Harry."
Sirius explained what he had walked in on. Dumbledore looked at Harry.
"I believe that you have some explaining to do." Harry gave another long sigh. He knew that there was no point in holding back any information.
"Well when we discovered the Order of the Phoenix in our fifth year we
decided to start our own. Adults are to set in their ways to truly do what we
have been doing. We, Ron, Hermione, and myself, approached many
Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and several of our fellow Gryffindors. After about
two months of meetings we realized that we could not have a full order
without Slythrines. I approached Draco. At first he thought it was an
elaborate plan to pull a prank on him but he showed up with several
Slythrines anyway. We discovered that he really didn't want to be a death
eater and neither did the other sons and daughters of death eaters but they
were always pressured into it by their parents. We took action to eliminate
possible death eaters before they became them by inviting them to join our
side. They of course had to pass several truth tests, all of us did. During the
last year the sons and daughters of death eaters have been spying on their
parents finding out useful information and helping me avoid several attacks.
Without the our Order I would probably be dead by now."
Harry sniggered when he looked from Dumbledore to Sirius. They had had no clue what was going on.
"We also have stopped several attacks on muggles, and that is why Voldemort has been so quiet recently. We haven't let him be loud." Dumbledore recovered first.
"Harry I believe that you are the cleverest student this school has ever seen. No one in the history of this school has done it so much service while still in school. But I would like to know more about your order and how you have prevented attacks on muggles when most of the members of your order are stuck at school."
Harry grinned. "We have more then students in our order. Remember we started it in our fifth year so a lot of our members have graduated. Fred and George Weasley for example their joke shop is more then what it seems they have given us a ton of help since they have left the school. But it would be easier if I just gave you our files. Hermione has insisted that we give a detailed report on every act that we have done."
Harry closed his eyes in concentration. Several seconds later a huge book
zoomed into the office. Harry handed Dumbledore the book. He quickly
flipped through the book. There were pictures of what looked like death
eaters meetings, scared looking muggles, and death eaters down on the
floor. It looked as though Harry, Ron, and Hermione were up to more then
pranks and schoolwork. In the back of the book there was a list of all the
people in the order and their house and if they had one there occupation.
Dumbledore was amazed at the amount of people in the order. It looked as
though every seventh year was involved and a lot of younger students as
well. They even had first years! Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Sirius
would you be so kind as to call an emergency meeting of the Order?"
Sirius didn't even respond he just quickly left the room.
"Harry what kind of leadership do you have for this order?"
Harry thought for a moment. "Well there is me who heads the meetings and assignments, Hermione is secretary, Ron heads the Gryffindors, Sarah the Ravenclaws, Susan Bones the Hufflepuffs, Draco the Slythrines, and Fred and George the graduated members. Why?"
"I will ask you to explain more in depth later but right now I want you to get your leaders together and go down to the Order room, you know where it is." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.
Harry left just as Sirius had. He sent a letter to Fred and George quickly and then went to go find the other leaders. About a half hour later everyone was gathered and they walked together down to the Order room. The adult order was there waiting for them. Everyone but Sirius and Dumbledore were surprised that Draco was there. Dumbledore asked them to take a seat. Lily and James looked at Harry curiously. 'What is he doing here?' They wondered. It looked as though Dumbledore had already called role. He stood up and looked around at the group in front of him. "I know that all the adults in this room are wondering why these young people are among us. It seems as though are young Harry Potter here and his friends have started their own Order."
There were gasps all around the room, Dumbledore held up his hand for silence.
"I will let Mr. Potter explain exactly what they have been doing."
Everyone was silent and waited for Harry to begin. He told them the same story that he had told to Dumbledore and Sirius earlier that day with little bits of narrative here and there from Ron, Hermione, Sarah, Draco, Fred, or George. When he had finished they looked at him in shock. Lily and James were beaming with pride. Dumbledore smiled.
Harry laughed at the looks that the adults had on their faces.
Time pasted quickly for Harry and his friends. They were all busy with
schoolwork, Quiddich, pranks, and the Order. Before long it was time for Christmas. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were pleased to hear that since
they were 7th years they got an extra week of vacation. (sort-of like senior
skip day but longer) The decided that because it was there last Christmas
while still in school to spend most of the time with their families except for an
occasional date or two. Before they left however, they left Professor
Dumbledore his birthday present, which he opened the morning before they
left at breakfast. They could here him chuckling as he pulled out three pairs
of thick socks. He winked at Harry. On the way home they exchanged
presents because they would not be together for Christmas this year. Ron
smiled as he opened his gift from Harry. 'I know that with Fred and George
around this holiday that you will not get much candy. This is a safe stash of
candy. There is a spell on the candy so no one can tamper with it. -Harry.'
Inside was mounds of Ron's favorite candies, he grinned. From Ron, Harry
got a book called The greatest seekers of all time. He flipped through it and
sure enough there at the end of the book was a smiling picture of Harry.
Hermione gasped when she opened her present from Harry. There was a
gold heart shaped locket with rubies around the edges. In flowing words it
said 'Harry and Hermione Forever'. Inside the locket there were wizards
photos that changed every five minutes. The pictures showed anytime that
Harry and Hermione were together. They were all a little disappointed when
the train came to a stop. They sighed and dragged their trunks off of the
train and onto the platform. Mr. Weasley came over to give Ron a hand.
Hermione nudged Harry, and he nodded.
"Mr. Weasley, we know how much you love muggle stuff and you have been so kind to Hermione and myself that we got you a Christmas gift."
Mr. Weasley smiled and opened the beautifully wrapped gift. Inside there were a lot of ordinary things like tape and a cd player. Inside there were cards that explained each object and how it worked. Mr. Weasley's face changed from a polite smile to a delighted grin. He was already beginning to point stuff out to Ron. Ron rolled his eyes. Harry spotted James, gave Hermione a kiss goodbye, and then headed over to him.
James smiled at his son as he came over. He couldn't believe that this would be Harry's last Christmas home from school. But he was going to make sure that is was the best Christmas that Harry ever had. On the way home James gave Harry a nervous glance, Harry noticing this asked him what was wrong.
"There is going to be an extra person staying with us a week during Christmas and I need to tell you some things about her before we get home."
"Her?"
"Yes, I believe that you met her at the Halloween ball with Sirius."
"You mean Ariel?"
James nodded, sighed and continued. "We were going to try to keep it a secret from you but seeing as that is impossible I might as well tell you. Ariel is the Heir of the Dragon."
Harry shrugged; he had no clue what the heir of the dragon was and why it was important.
"She has the power to transform into and control all dragons, no matter what type."
Harry muttered, "Could have used her in my fourth year."
James laughed.
"So why does it matter?"
"Well it is considered a Dark Art to be able to talk to any animal that cannot speak. Many think that the Heir of the Dragon is meant to be a follower of Voldemort."
"Dad did you really think that I would judge anyone like that? I mean I can talk to snakes but I am not evil am I?"
"Only when you are pulling pranks."
Harry laughed.
When Harry walked in the door he was nearly trampled by an over excited Lily.
"Mum, you are going to suffocate me!" Lily released him and stood back to get a good look at him. "Harry, I believe that you have grown a full two inches since I last saw you! You are taller then your father now!"
Noticing that James had just walked in the door Harry added, "And more handsome."
James glared at him mockingly. After Harry had settled in he went downstairs to find hid parents. They were sitting at the kitchen table talking to each other quietly. When Harry entered they smiled. They started to talk about Quiddich and England's chances at the cup this year when the doorbell rang. Before his parents could stop him Harry ran to the door.
When he flung it open there was Remus, Sirius, and Sirius' girl-wait no friend Ariel at the door. He showed Ariel to her room and told her to leave her luggage downstairs while secretly cursing Sirius with an invention of his own. Ariel noticed this and winked at him. When they came back downstairs Sirius was groveling over Remus and James who were looking at him as though he had lost his mind and laughing. When Sirius spotted Harry he ran over to him. "Oh Harry! How glorious and brave you are!"
He continued on and on and Harry was nearly crying from laughing so hard. Ariel recognized the type of spell and took it of Sirius as soon as she remembered how. Remus and James realized what Harry had done and now were congratulating him his small but funny prank. Sirius was still recovering. It took him awhile to remember that Harry was the one the cursed him started yelling. That just made Harry, James, and Remus laugh harder, and Sirius stomped off upstairs.
That was the beginning of the prank wars. There were three teams;
Sirius and Ariel had teamed up, James and Harry, and then since they were
the only two left Lily and Remus. Harry conjured up a large screen that kept
up with the points for each pair. James and Harry struck first. On only the
second day of the holidays they snuck into Sirius' and Ariel's room. They
had both been sleeping peacefully, but that would not last for long. Screams
woke everybody in the house up. Apparently Harry and James thought it
would be funny if they dumped horse manure over the sleeping couple. Sirius was now chasing Harry down the hallway, sending curses at him. Ariel
already had James in a full body bind and was using the tickling charm on
him. Finally after Remus and Lily had already finished eating breakfast,
Sirius gave up chasing Harry and Ariel had taken the curse off of James.
That afternoon they had to go pick Dudley up from school. James flat out refused to go get his nephew. He was still upset about what Dudley had done to Harry when they were younger and James couldn't forgive that fact that is was at Dudley's school when Harry was attacked. Lily fought with James about it for about another five minutes and then sighed and gave up. She had really been hoping that James would take to Dudley.
"Fine," she snapped, "don't go. Harry do you want to come along for the drive?"
Harry rolled his eyes. Of course he didn't want to go.
"I will let you drive your car!" Lily said, hopeful. She had hit Harry's weak spot. Harry got up and grabbed his keys Lily smiled and followed.
An hour later they pulled up in front of Smeltings. There were groups of boys talking to each other, looking as though they were waiting for their parents. Harry noticed that the snobby boy that had been at his table was talking to Dudley in a very unpleasant tone. Harry came up behind them and cleared his throat. They spun around.
"Are you ready Dudley? My mum is waiting."
Dudley nodded. The snobby boy turned to Harry. "And who are you?"
"Harry Potter, Dudley's cousin."
"So you are the fat oafs cousin, what does your parents not have enough money to send you here?"
This was going the same way as the last conversation Harry had had with this boy.
Harry ignored him and led Dudley over to the car. He made a point of revving the engine and flashing a grin at the boy. He gaped. The ride was pretty much un-eventful until about 30 minutes before they returned to the house.
"Aunt Lily could some friends come over the holiday?"
Harry was so shocked at the question he almost crashed the car. Lily gave him a stern look.
"Of course Dudley! We would be delighted to have some of your friends over!"
She put an emphasis on the 'we'. Harry coughed.
Dudley grinned. "Then I can call them when we get home!" The he thought for a second. "We do have a phone, right?"
Lily nodded. Harry was in too much shock to even speak for the remainder of the trip.
Later that night there was an explosion coming from Lily and James' room. Apparently Lily had told James about her plan, and he had not taken it well. Harry snuck up to their room to hear their conversation. He was secretly hoping that his father would win the argument. He heard his father whining, "But Lils, what about all the magic stuff we have around? And the house-elves! What about them?"
"We'll manage. Harry you might as well come into the room, I know you are there."
Harry meekly came into the bedroom. James smiled to see his son trouble making. He winked at Harry and smiled. Harry couldn't help grinning. "Really James, you're encouraging him," she scolded.
He laughed. When he saw the look on Lily's face his grin faded a little. "Ok, fine Lily! Dudley's friends can come over! But it better be after Sirius and Remus leave!"
Lily had a look of delight on her face and left to go find Dudley. "So Harry when is your next game?"
"In two days, we are playing America, it should be an easy win!"
The smile on James' face vanished. "What are we going to do with Dudley during the game? We can't just leave him here, who knows what he would do!"
"We could always take him with us. I am sure Jay could get us another top box seat. Er..or two if it is necessary."
James laughed.
It seemed as though Remus and Sirius had made some kind of alliance versus James. Harry also made an alliance with Remus but they were against Sirius. Lily teamed up with Ariel against Remus and James with Lily against Sirius. There was a lot of mistrust, yelling, and chasing around the Potter mansion.
Sirius found himself looking like a fourteen-year-old girl with zits all over. James was covered in bandages that wouldn't come off for a least a day, Lily had all her robes tye-died awful clashing colors like brown and bright pink (that wouldn't come out), Remus could only talk in rhyme, Ariel's hair was constantly being braided, and un braided and then braided again (inside joke) and Harry's hair was like a porcupine needles The pranks would have been worse if it weren't for the up-coming Quidditch game. Lily had the house-elves make a marvelous cake for dessert the said 'Good Luck Harry!' and had broomsticks all over it. Harry smiled.
After dinner there was a honk outside.
"Their here!" He yelled. The Quiddich team had a bus (much like that
Knight Bus, but it could travel over seas.) The bus was had the crest of the
Quiddich team on it. Harry quickly said good-bye to his parents and rushed
out the door to wear his team mates were waiting for him. He smiled as he
walked onto the familiar bus. When you first got on the bus there were rows
of seats just like a normal bus. However after going through a door in the
back there was a small Quidditch field and several obstacle courses for the
various positions. There was a small spiral staircase that led up to the living
area of the bus. There was a room for each player with their respective
names on the doors. There was also an area to play games and to cook
food. (Though Penny was the only one to ever really spend time in there.)
The team stayed in the bus while in foreign countries. Harry went over to
where Ron and Hermione were already waiting for him. He loved the bus
trips. Within a couple of hours they had reached the Quidditch pitch in
California. As always when they played a different time zone they were
given a special potion that made them instantly adjust to the time zone that
they were going into. When the bus pulled into the parking lot in front of the
parking lot (American Wizards used cars a lot more then British ones did.)
there was a great crowd of people the surrounded the huge bus as though
they were going to take it over. As the team stumbled out blinking in the
sunlight there were loud cheers and clapping. The new team members were
stunned. They had never been welcomed to a game like this before. On
their way over to the pitch they signed many autographs and posed for what
seemed millions of pictures. Finally after what seemed like ages they
reached to pitch, the same one that they had had training on last summer.
They immediately went to the locker rooms to change into their robes. After
Jay's regular pep-talk (it reminded Harry a lot of Oliver Wood's) they were
surprised to see the Americans already on their brooms flying. It looked as
though they were visiting the people in the crowds having short
conversations with the fans. Jay laughed at their confused faces.
"It is a tradition in America for the team to meet the fans before and after the game. And because we are on their turf we will be doing the same thing so please mount your booms and take off."
The trio zoomed off together towards the crowd. Harry frowned slightly when he saw a huge billboard giving information on the team members. His of course talked about what had happened when he was a baby and his various encounters with Voldemort. He quickly looked away and started to scan the crowds for people he knew. He spotted Ian, the little boy's who party he had gone to, and flew over to him. The little boy a look of pure joy when he saw Harry flying over.
"Hi there Ian, are you enjoying the Quidditch games?"
"Of course Harry! It is still the best birthday present I have ever gotten!"
The people that were sitting next to Ian were amazed that he was on a first name basis with the most famous boy in the world. Harry was pleased that he had managed to make this little boy happy. Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Oliver Wood motioning for him to come over. Harry said good-bye to Ian and his father and headed over to see his old Quidditch captain.
"Oliver, it is great to see you again! How have you been? I hear you have taken a job at the Ministry of Magic!"
"I've been great Harry! Yes, I gave up my Quidditch career, I work for the department of Magical Games and Sports. And Katie told me there are to be wedding bells soon, Congratulations!"
Harry smiled, that was the perfect job for Oliver.
"Yep, hey I have to go now but do you want to come to the party after the game? It is only for team members and friends."
Oliver beamed. "Count me in!"
Harry flew back down to the locker rooms where they were to wait for their names to be called. Within a couple of minutes they were back up in the air. Hermione grabbed the quaffle as it was released and headed down the field. One of the American beaters hit a bludger at Harry they he dodged and Greg hit to the other side of the field. The American team called a time out. Greg spoke to Harry. "Saw you were talking to Oliver Wood, great keeper he was. Though I will never forget his first game. I felt bad about the bludger."
Harry laughed, "Yeah, I invited him to the after game party, do you think anyone will mind?"
"Of course not, it will be great to see him again."
The referee blew his whistle and they were back up in the air. The American seeker was following Harry carefully around. Harry rolled his eyes, they never learned, so he would just have to teach him a lesson.
Harry went down in a sudden dive, as though he had seen the snitch. The American seeker followed and the crowd cheered. About two feet away from the ground Harry pulled up. He got the desired result. The American seeker crashed with a sickening crunch on the ground. There was a time-out as medi-wizards flooded the field to rush the injured seeker of the field. He had to be replaced by I second string seeker, that was not as good. In the next five minutes Harry caught the snitch. They had won 350-10. Ron was beating himself up about the goal that he had let get through while Harry dived. It was the first goal he had ever missed. The infamous trio hit the showers and headed to the party.
As they were entering the building where the party was to take place there were camera flashes and reporters everywhere. They just smiled and waved before ducking through the door. When they walked in the door they found the room decked in the teams colors. (red and white) There was loud music blaring all over the room magically magnified. Harry found Sirius and James adding some um, questionable liquid to the punch bowl. Harry laughed. He knew that he better tell Ron and Hermione to avoid drinking any punch. As he was walking around looking for his friends he spotted a flustered Oliver Wood arguing with the man who prevented those not invited to the party to come in.
"But sir, Harry Potter invited me, I used to play Quidditch with him on the Gryffindor team!"
The man snorted. "Yeah and I am his godfather Sirius Black, and now I will have to ask you to."
Harry quickly stopped him from saying anything else.
"Oliver, I am glad you could make it! Oh so sorry Gus (the name of the guard man) I forgot to add him to the list!"
Harry grabbed Oliver's hand and pulled him into the room, Oliver smiled appreciatively.
"Thank you Harry I thought he would never let me in!"
"Quite alright Oliver, let me introduce you to the team. I believe you already know Greg Mason, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley this is.."
He continued on with the introductions. The team took to Oliver right away. "So Oliver, how many of Harry's pranks have you suffered through?" Fiona asked.
Oliver gave her a curious look. "Pranks? Harry never pulls any pranks! You must have him confused with the Weasley twins!"
Everyone around laughed. Oliver was quite confused. Ron spoke up after he had regained control of himself. "Oliver, the twins seem like Professor Binns compared to what Harry has done!"
They spent the remainder of the evening telling Oliver about all the pranks Harry, Ron, and Hermione had pulled. Unfortunately Harry had forgotten to warn everybody about the punch. He himself, forgot about it to and they all ended up have about eight glasses a piece. By the end of the night the group was slobbering and being silly. To say the least Jay was not pleased when he saw his entire Quidditch team drunk. He managed to get them somber but not before James and Sirius had snapped many pictures of a drunk Harry.
The next day they said sad good-byes to each other, they didn't want to
leave. It was hard to believe that they only had one more team to play, and
if they won that match they would be going to the Quidditch World Cup!
Harry returned to home to his parents and Sirius surrounding him suddenly
congratulating him and telling him how proud they were of him. Harry
beamed. Literally! Everyone in the room was in shock, including Harry. He
was glowing gold and red all the people in the room felt happiness wash over
them as the glow left Harry and spread around the room. When the glow
was gone no one could say anything until Harry said one word,
"Dumbledore," they all nodded in agreement. Harry quickly went over to the fire pace to call the headmaster. "Professor, I need to talk to you!" Harry yelled into the fire. Because he was the headmaster of Hogwarts he was the only person who could apperate out of the castle. Dumbledore came immediately. He looked concerned at first but then he noticed the red and gold sparks left from the glow and smiled. "I am assuming that you want to know what happened in here?" Dumbledore asked. They all nodded. "It is part of Harry being the Lanoitome. I believe that we have only seen what happens when Harry is extremely angry. But this is what happens when he is filled with joy, he has the power to make everyone in the room fell warm inside and happy. It means that he is getting very powerful if he can make this happen."
Lily and James were pleased to say the least. They were incredibly proud of
their son. Dudley, who had been in the back of the room looked bewildered.
He had seen Harry play Quidditch at the game and was impressed but he
was beginning to be jealous of his cousin, something he had never thought
he would feel toward him. Dudley was also confused about what was going
on. What did the old man mean more powerful? Was it possible for one
wizard to be more powerful then another? He knew there was something
different about Harry then the other wizards but he didn't know what. Uncle
James was always going on about how great Harry was and how proud he
was of Harry's grades and of the pranks he had pulled at school. Uncle
James hated Dudley. Though he had never said it out loud Dudley could tell
by the way his uncle was rarely in the same room as him and when he was
he never talked to Dudley. Just pretended he was not there. Aunt Lily was
nice though he knew that she would never think of him on the same level as
Harry, her only son. Dudley was sure that if Aunt Lily wasn't around Uncle
James would be just as bad as his father had been to Harry. Sirius was a
totally different story. Dudley hated that man more then anybody, he was a
criminal! And they let him spend time at their house! Imagine that, how
could anybody be so stupid? Suddenly Dudley was snapped out of his trance
when an elf came in and announced that dinner was to be served. 'At least I
am well fed,' Dudley thought to himself as he headed into the dining room.
"Would you like to stay for dinner, Professor? I don't think it will be a
problem for the house-elves to set another plate." Harry addressed his
headmaster.
Dumbledore chuckled. "I think I will take you up on that Harry, if it is ok with everyone else here?" He looked around the room full of smiles and took them to mean yes. Dudley groaned to himself when he saw the old man come in the dining room and took a seat next to Uncle James. He sighed; this was going to be a long night.
Harry had never seen his father and Professor Dumbledore sit side by side as they were now. They were both laughing at a joke that Sirius had just told. Harry suddenly saw something that he had never noticed before, and here it was so clear in front of him. His father, James Potter and Dumbledore had the same sparkling blue eyes!
James noticed the look of recognition on Harry's face and panicked. He and Dumbledore had always been careful not to stand side by side or sit right next to each other. James stood up with a bang muttered something about having to talk to Dumbledore and the two left the room right away. This confirmed Harry's suspicions. Somehow, someway he was related to Dumbledore. Which of course made him angry because if he was indeed related to Dumbledore then where had Dumbledore been when he was growing up? Why was he left with the Dursleys?
In the other room James was frantically explaining about what happened. Dumbledore looked slightly upset that this was the way that Harry had found out.
"James calm down, I will talk to him after dinner."
"You don't understand! Harry is going to be so mad at me for keeping this secret from him!"
Dumbledore nodded. He understood that Harry had quite a temper and often took it out on James. After he had calmed James down they headed back into the dining room, where Harry was shooting them death glares. At the end of dinner Harry wasn't at all surprised when Dumbledore said that he would like a word. Harry glumly followed his headmaster into the other room to 'talk'.
"Harry in less your father and I are mistaken I believe that you have figured out our little secret."
"Little secret? Little? Finding out that I really did have a living relative while I was with the Dursleys is not little. Why didn't you come take me away? You should have been there. Especially the last summer I was with them!"
Dumbledore got worried all of a sudden by the look on Harry's face when he mentioned the last summer he had had with the Dursleys. Why was that one any different then the others?
"What happened the last summer at the Dursleys?" He asked in a kind voice. A wall was put up on Harry's face it now showed no emotions. Dumbledore decided not to worry about that just yet, he would get James or Sirius to talk to Harry about it later. After several minutes of silence Harry spoke.
"So how are you related to me?"
Dumbledore smiled. "I am your grandmother's brother on your dad's side, making me your great-uncle."
Harry just nodded slightly to show that he understood but was still not letting Dumbledore know what he was thinking.
"Harry it would not have been good for you to grow up with me. I was too busy to take proper care of a child. You were much better off growing up in the muggle world. I did what I thought would be best for you!" Dumbledore was practically begging Harry to forgive him.
"You could have been a whole lot better to me then the Dursleys were! If I had been living with you I wouldn't have."
Harry stopped himself and then stormed up to his room. When he got there he locked the door with a spell that he had invented with the help of Ron so that no one could enter the room with out him saying that they could. He threw himself down on his bed and fell into a deep sleep.
Dumbledore was very worried about Harry. What had happened at the Dursleys that was so bad? He went straight to James who was sitting talking to Sirius, Ariel, and Lily.
"James did Harry ever tell you what happened during the summer before his 5th year?"
James looked confused. "He told me that nothing happened really that summer, why?"
"I have the feeling that something happened to him, and he wont tell me what. Sirius did he ever say anything to you?"
A weird look crossed Sirius' face. It was much like Harry's earlier, and didn't say a thing about what he was thinking. But being Sirius he couldn't lie to his best friend.
"Yes he did." He said shortly.
"And what happened?" Dumbledore prompted.
"I can't tell you." Sirius said in a bland voice.
"YOU BETTER TELL US! I AM HIS FATHER! I HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW!" James yelled.
"I promised I wouldn't, a promise I intend to keep."
James pleaded with Sirius a little more and then Lily pleaded with Sirius but he would not give anything away. Then Lily had an idea. "Dudley," she said then she and James ran to go find their nephew. They found him in his room watching the T.V. they had bought him for his birthday. (It had been the only gift that he had gotten from them.)
James turned it off with his wand and Dudley whipped around to protest. But when he saw James he stopped and waited to hear what was going to happen. Because he was a muggle a simple truth spell would work to find out exactly what had happened.
"Dudley what happened during the last summer that Harry was at your house?"
"Dad punished him for the pain he had caused our family."
Lily looked terrified and James livid. "And how did he punish him?" James asked in a forced voice.
"Well first he made him work all day, and stopped feeding him. Then when Harry refused to do anything but stare in space he got out his large leather belt and he let me use my smeltings stick. Mum used a whip that she had from when she used to horse back ride. Dad locked him in the cupboard and thought that he would be gone for good after that. Then Harry's stupid
godfather came and took him away for the last week of the holiday."
James didn't think he could be as angry as he was now. He needed to blow
something up right away and chose Dudley's T.V. When Dudley woke up out
of the trans that occurred from the spell he was shocked to see he no longer
had a T.V. And when he asked James what happened he replied, "You don't
deserve one." He quickly left the room with Lily not far behind. As he left
the room he locked the door. James told the house-elves to give Dudley his
meals in his room and to make sure not to spoil the brat. Lily, who usually
would stand up for Dudley didn't dare. James would just blow up at her and
she understood why he was so angry. Also she was so upset about what had
happened to Harry that she couldn't speak. Why did everything have to go
bad for her son? She and James went to Harry's room to talk to him. When
they tried 'alohmora' and it didn't work they were worried. They decided to
just talk to him in the morning. (Which was Christmas)
Christmas morning was different then it had been the last two years. No pranks were pulled and everyone got up late. Harry had had a bad night. Through his dreams Harry had re-lived all the bad things that had ever happened to him, starting with his parents 'dieing' and ending with his last encounter with Voldemort. He groggily went down the stairs with dark rings under his eyes. The night before Lily and James had gone out after hearing what happened to Harry and bought him twice the amount of presents that he already had. (Which by the way was already a lot.)
Then they stayed up half the night decorating the tree and the house to make it look perfect.
When Harry got downstairs he had to blink a couple of times to realize that he was still in his house. There was fake snow falling from the ceiling, dancing fairies flouting around like stars, and Christmas music could be heard all over the house. Harry grinned. He would forget his spat with his father for today, even if it was just today because Christmas is a time for family. He found his parents snuggling by the fire and Sirius and Ariel doing the same thing. Before they noticed him he whipped out his camera and took a picture. The two couples looked up at him and smiled. Harry couldn't be to angry at them if he had come down stairs of his own free will.
"About time you woke up, we were beginning to think that someone put the sleeping curse on you." James teased. Harry just smiled. They had about thirty minutes of just sitting by the fire talking until Sirius had had enough.
"Come on, let's open presents!"
The group raced into the living room where the tree was. Harry, of course, won because all those years of dodging Dudley and his gang had paid off. When he saw the amount of presents under the tree all Harry could do was stare. There were mounds of presents overflowing the bottom of the tree all wrapped perfectly. Harry quickly summoned the gifts he had gotten for everyone and passed them out to their right-full owners. Harry seemed to have gotten everything he had ever wanted. Included in this was a collection of antique brooms, a wizard computer (very different from muggle ones), enough candy to fill a whole shop, a mini Quidditch field that would show Harry any game that he or friends had played, a muggle bike (Lily and James wanted to get him something that he should have had from his muggle child hood), a wand cleaning kit, books on pranks, pranks themselves, and much much more! Finally there was only one present left. It was a large brown envelope that seemed to have many papers in it. When Harry opened it he gasped. He couldn't believe that his parents had done this for him! There in front of his very eyes were the deeds to a house. "You wont be actually live in it until you are married, but I thought that you might want to buy the furniture and other things before then," James explained.
"Wow," was all that Harry could get out. Then he heard a voice in his head. 'Harry having a good Christmas?' Ron asked.
'Absolutely wonderful!'
'I just got an owl from Hermione; we are all invited over to her house for Christmas supper tonight. Ask your parents if it all right and then I will owl her.'
"Mum, Dad we are invited to Hermione's for dinner tonight, can we go?" Lily and James were confused. There was no owl there or any other signs of communication in the room. How did Harry know that they were invited anywhere?
"Of course dear, that would be wonderful!" Lily was finally able to get out. Harry told Ron the good news and then told Ron that he needed to spend more time with his family.
The elves made them a wonderful Christmas brunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking, laughing, and just having a good time. When evening came they all got ready to go to the Granger's. Harry had pleaded with his parents to let him take his car instead of apperating. They agreed and told Harry that they would meet him there because he had to leave earlier to get there on time. When Harry came to the door he was greeted by a passionate kiss from Hermione. "Wait and see what my parents got us for Christmas."
He whispered in her ear. He had decided to take Hermione there after dinner so they could explore the house together.
Right as Hermione was going to ask what the present was Lily, James, Sirius, and Ariel apperated into the room. Lily came forward and gave her future daughter in-law a hug. After everyone had been introduced, the Grangers led them into the dinning room where the Weasley's were already sitting around a large table. The meal was wonderful! Most of the time was spent talking about the up-coming wedding and the Quidditch World Cup. When Mrs. Granger had finally taken the last of the dessert away, Harry asked to be excused from the table with Hermione. Of course there were many jokes about what they would be doing. (Mostly made by the twins)
"What is this all about?" Hermione asked after they had left the room.
"My parents Christmas present to us. I haven't even seen it yet but I thought we should explore it together!"
Hermione was very confused! What was Harry talking about? Before she could ask Harry had grabbed her around the waist and they dissaperated. He quickly put the blindfolding charm on her and led her in the front door. Harry was amazed at the size of the house, and loved its location. (Just outside of Hogsmeade in a muggle town.) Hermione was giggling as Harry pulled her into a kiss. Then he took the blindfold off. She gasped. "Harry why are we here? This is a magnificent house!"
"I am glad you think that Hermione, because it is ours."
Hermione looked as though she was about ready to faint.
"O-ours? How could this be ours? We haven't bought a house yet!"
"Mum and Dads present!"
Hermione gasped once again. Harry grinned. "Shall we explore then?" He asked she nodded. The house was even more magnificent then what they first saw it. There was a small lake outside about half the size as the one at Hogwarts. They counted 26 bedrooms in all. When Hermione pointed that out Harry laughed. "Well my parents except a lot of grandchildren.
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Oh do they Mr. Potter?" After spending some time kissing lightly with each other and flirting. (NOTHING else) They reluctantly decided to go back to Hermione's house to tell Harry's parents of their approval. When they returned everyone was sitting around the fire with butter beer, laughing and talking. "Ah here are our two favorite little love birds!" Sirius announced. By staying up to the wee hours of the morning Harry and Hermione managed to give everyone a tour of the house at the end of the night Harry proposed an idea.
"I think that this raw group of people should get together every Christmas! No matter who we add," he said this looking at Hermione, "family should always be together on Christmas!"
"Here, here!" The group shouted.
Things however would not go as well the next day. His parents yelling at each other about Dudley awaked Harry.
"He doesn't deserve to have friends over! Not after what he did to Harry!"
"James we have already bee through this! His friends have already been called, and they are coming in a two days! He said he was sorry and if Harry can forgive him so can we!"
"But Lily."
"No, they are coming over and that is final."
There was a door slamming. Harry knew that his mother had won the argument as she usually did. But how did they find out? If Sirius had told them.
At that very moment Lily came in to check on Harry. Harry asked her how she had found out about what had happened during the last summer at the Dursleys. Her smiled faltered. "Dudley told us."
Harry was happy that Sirius hadn't been the one to tell them but he hadn't wanted them to know in the first place. After Lily had left the room Harry got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. He noticed that his father was being unusually quiet through out the meal. When Harry was about to get up from the table James grabbed his arm, Harry winced. He knew what his father wanted to talk to him about so he meekly followed James into the study where he sat down. After several minutes of silence, James spoke.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked in a low voice. Harry sighed but said nothing.
"Why didn't you tell me?" James asked with a little more anger.
"Because you probably would have gone and killed the Dursleys if I had! Sirius would have to, but he couldn't leave me!"
James glared at him. "That is not the point. I am your father, and you should have told me! Whenever you are in pain, I am! Now I would like you to tell me exactly what happened, right now!"
Harry really didn't want to but he knew that James would use the truth potion if he need to.
"Well it started when I first came in the house."
Flashback: "Boy you are going to earn your keep this summer!" Uncle Vernon yelled. Harry was in shock after just coming from the Tri-wizard tournament. He was handed a list of chores from the second he walked in the door. 'Vacuum the house, dust, wash the floors, mow the lawn, and wash the windows.' The list seemed endless. Uncle Vernon told Harry that if he didn't do his chores he wouldn't eat. But Harry was in too much shock to do anything. He just sat staring out into space the whole day not doing anything. For days all Harry did was sit in his room, doing absolutely nothing with a glazed look on his face. He kept seeing and hearing what had happened after he had taken the cup. At night when he was a sleep he dreamed about it. His friends would write him letters and he would vaguely reply with 'my summer is fine' and many 'I will be alights' One morning Harry woke up screaming and shacking. Cedric.dead.Voldemort.alive.his parents.death eaters."kill the spare". Uncle Vernon came stomping into the room. "Boy you are going to pay for that, you most have woken the entire neighborhood up! Dudley, Petunia come here with the weapons I said you could use."
Harry was horrified, what weapons? All of a sudden he felt a blow to his head, a belt! Petunia with a whip, Dudley with his stick. Even after Harry was unconscious they continued to beat him. So know one could see into the room Vernon roughly picked up his nephew and through him in the cupboard under the stairs. Unfortunately for him, Sirius was staying with Arabella Figg. Harry had not answered any of his letters and Sirius was worried. In dog form Sirius broke into the house two days after the beating had taken place. Vernon was not successful in keeping Sirius out. When Sirius found Harry he cried out in horror. His godson looked worse then he had when he had come from the third task! Without much trouble Sirius picked Harry up and left the house, warning Dursley that he would be back.
End of flashback.
James was shacking. He couldn't have imagined that something that horrible could ever happen to Harry, his son! Now more then ever James wished that he could have been there for his son. If he had been able to protect Harry properly as a baby then none of this would have ever happened. Harry would have grown up being loved by his parents and godparents. Harry was sitting in the chair with his eyes down, looking as though he was ashamed. 'He has know reason to be ashamed' James thought to himself. This was not the Harry that James knew. He seemed smaller in a way more scrawny, the way he had looked when living with the Dursleys. Harry was always confidante and always held his head up high. Then something occurred to James.
"Why didn't you fight back?" James asked. Harry stared his father in the eyes for a second and then looked back down. Something clicked in James' mind.
"You let them! You let them hurt you! Why?" He demanded. Harry spoke in a small voice. "I didn't go through half as much pain as Cedric or his parents did."
James stared at his son disbelieving. Harry had let them hurt him! He had thought that he dissevered to hurt like that!
"Harry," James said sternly, "Cedric's death was not your fault. No one deserves to be treated the way the Dursleys treated you! How could you think that?"
Harry said nothing and just walked out of the room with his head down. James sighed. It seemed no matter what anybody did Harry would blame himself for Cedric's death. James never wanted to let Dudley to leave that room but Lily wouldn't let him lock the monster up. Well, Dudley would at least stay in there until his friends came the next day.
Harry sat in his room thinking. He knew that he shouldn't blame himself for the death of Cedric, but he wished that he had just taken the cup. He should have listened to Cedric, and just taken it! Then Cedric would still be alive! He heard the doorbell ring. Must be Dudley's friends, though he no longer had to worry about them beating him up he still didn't like them. They would be here for a whole week! Maybe he could invite Ron and Hermione over to help him endure the long week.
"Harry, would you please come down here?" Lily's voice floated up the stairs. Harry got up and headed downstairs, not really wanting to go. He was not surprised to see Piers Polkiss and some other boys that were around Dudley's size and type. He recognized Piers' mother, but not the other parents who where looking around impressed at the size of the house. There were going to be four boys staying with the Potters. There was Piers, John, Henry, and Carl and they were all bullies. Just the first day and a half of their stay Harry had been blamed for a broken vase, stealing one of the boys CD, breaking a CD, tripping Piers, setting a bedroom on fire, and putting a virus on Carl's computer. Of course the boys made the mistake of complaining to James, thinking that a father would be harder on Harry, instead of Lily. If they had not been muggles James would have cursed them into oblivion for blaming his son for anything. Three days before they were supposed to leave Lily had enough.
"Boys, why don't you get out of the house for awhile? I hear a new amusement park had opened close to here why don't we take you there?" They loved the idea, and Lily felt relieved to get those boys out of the house. Unfortunately she was forcing Harry to go as well. Harry complained and begged, with the help of James, but Lily once again put her foot down.
"But you may bring Ron and Hermione if you like," she said to try to make the trip better for Harry. Harry smiled and went off to owl his friends. Before they left Dudley and his friends were convinced that they would get to ride in Harry's car, but there was no way that Harry would even let them get near it. (He put a repelling spell on it) He apperated to the park to meet Ron and Hermione. Ron was the most excited because he had never been to a muggle amusement park. Harry did a quick spell to change his wizard credit card into a muggle one as he walked up to buy their tickets. As they walked through to the main area of the park Ron was embarrassing Harry and Hermione. He would point out the most obvious muggle things. (A popcorn maker, the cement sidewalk, balloons, ect.) When Harry saw the group of Dudley and his friends he decided to get back at them for all the trouble they had caused over the last couple of says.
He whispered something in Hermione's ear, waved his wand, and pushed Hermione towards the group. Harry had changed her appearance, so that Dudley wouldn't recognize her. She was wearing a sluty outfit, a mini skirt and a tube top. Her eyes were changed to blue and her hair blonde. She went over to the boys and started flirting endlessly with them pretending to be attracted. In no time they were all drooling over her. When John tried to grab her butt he felt a electric shock go up his arm, Henry tried to lean on her shoulder and got the same treatment, Piers however went for her chest. As soon as he reached that range he was blasted about eighty yards away from Hermione. When he came back looking sheepish, Harry came over. "Oh I see you have all met my fiancé. They gaped at him with a mixture of jealousy and anger. Ron took out his camera and snapped a few picture before the three of them walked off laughing.
The rest of the day was great! Harry, Ron, and Hermione rode all the rides and almost never had to see Dudley and his friends.
Finally, it was time for Dudley's friends to go home and Harry to go back to Hogwarts. Lily cried as her son got on the train. She missed him terribly when he was off at school.
The next couple of months went smoothly at Hogwarts. Classes were
attended, pranks were pulled, Quidditch was practiced, and homework was
done. The England team even won it's game against France meaning that
they would be going to the Quidditch World Cup in Australia this year! One
night Harry decided to looked around the restricted section of the library (7th
years were allowed to). He found a book labeled The Hogwarts Heirs, it
looked as though no one had read this book in ages. There was dust
covering the book like a blanket. Harry sat down and started reading.
Several hours later when he had finished reading the book his face had gone
pale. He couldn't let what happened in this book happen again, he knew
what he had to do. He had to leave Hogwarts. The next day Ron and
Hermione could tell that there was something wrong with Harry. He was
very distant and barely ate anything. Straight after dinner that night they
went to go tell Sirius about it. Sirius told them that they would have to
watch Harry closely for the next couple of days to make sure that everything
was all right. Ron was frustrated because Harry was no longer letting him
talk in his mind or fell his emotions. It was quite annoying. That night Harry
was looking through the book again to see where he needed to go to avoid a
bad situation. The book told him that he needed to get in contact with the
Dragon heir. Harry knew the he had heard this somewhere but couldn't
remember when or where he had heard it. When he saw Sirius walking
around in the library he knew at once where he had heard. He ran over to Sirius.
"Sirius, where does Ariel live?"
Sirius looked confused, why did Harry care where Ariel lived?
"In Hogsmeade, that is how I met her, drinking at the Hogs Head. Why?"
"No reason," Harry said a little to fast and left in a hurry.
Before he knew it Harry was down in Hogsmeade. It was the first time he had ever been there without Ron and Hermione, and it felt wrong somehow. He did the search spell and knocked on Ariel's door. She didn't look surprised to see him.
"It's time isn't it?" She asked. Harry nodded.
"We will have to find a way for you to disappear without anyone looking for you afterwards I have just the plan. She led Harry into a secret room in the back of the house that was decorated with many pictures of dragons. As Harry heard the plan he couldn't help but be excited even though he knew the pain it would cause his parents, his friends, and himself. But he had to go; they were all in danger while he was still at Hogwarts.
The next day Ron and Hermione noted that Harry was worse then the day before. He looked scared as they walked through the hallways as though someone was about to attack. Harry woke early the next morning to write four letters. The first one was to Hermione Harry's hands shook as he carefully wrote;
Dearest Hermione, I love you, and I never want you to forget that no matter what happens. Remember I will never truly be gone, as long as you still love me in return. I will miss you dearest and hope to see you again someday. -Harry
Then one to Ron;
Hey mate! You must have been shocked when I wasn't there to wake you up in the morning. I hope Snape doesn't dock you to many points. Please take care of Hermione for me and make sure she spends some time having fun! I will miss you. Your Friend, Harry
Next came Sirius;
Padfoot- Thank you so much for helping me through out the years, I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't saved me countless times. Keep smiling and never be Sirius. Your Godson, Harry
He wrote the hardest one last, the one for his parents;
Dear Mum and Dad, I could never express in word the amount you two have done for me my whole life. Mum, your love saved my life and Dad your map was my savior from everyday life. Please don't be sad. I love you both and please try not to kill Dudley. Your Son, Harry
Harry was breathing hard as though he had just ran around the lake a couple
times. He carefully put the letters in both Ron and Hermione's rooms before
saying a silent good-bye to Gryffindor Tower. He slipped the note into Sirius'
room and then sent Hedwig to his parents. He met Ariel in the Shrieking
Shack to perform the curse. First they made a hollow copy of Harry. It was
just like a dummy then Ariel shot a strong killing curse at it. (Avada Kedrva)
There was a bright flash of green light added to the pinks and purples of the
early morning. Harry put his invisibility cloak on and dissaperated. After
making sure that everything was in order and then followed after Harry.