Author's Note: As always, thank you to those of you who read, review follow and favourite. We are another chapter closer to completion.
Freedom-In-Fantasy
Chapter 8 – Day 2
The day after Harry's birthday was their guests first day to really explore the grounds of Potter Palace. The younger people all headed down to the quidditch pitch for a mini quidditch tournament, while the old order members headed to Lily and James's portrait.
The order members had spent the morning telling Lily and James stories about Harry. "I couldn't believe the kid didn't know about you, about our world about pretty much anything at all." Hagrid recounted his first time seeing Harry after he'd been left at the Dursley's. "So I gave Harry a cake and the Dursley boy a pig's tail." Hagrid finished his tale sheepishly looking in Kingsley's direction, amid hoots of laughter. "Between my boys and Hagrid, at least that Dursley kid got a bit of comeuppance for the way he treated Harry." Arthur chuckled. Kingsley let out another booming chuckle. "You know Hagrid." He said. "once I'm properly settled in as Minister of Magic, I will have to see about getting you legally able to use a wand again. A war hero and the avenger of the boy-who-lived shouldn't be forced to use a pink umbrella as his signature weapon." Hagrid let out a weep of joy. "That would be just wonderful minister." Kingsley looked towards Arthur. "Speaking of illegal magic, I've never heard to full story about this car of yours that was used to break Harry out of the Dursley's house." Molly shook her head disapprovingly. "That was the first time Harry stayed at our house. He hadn't been answering Ron's letter's, so he and the twins took it upon themselves to 'borrow' Arthur's flying car and retrieve him. They claimed there were bars on the windows and they had to rescue him. But I will say, the poor boy looked underfed, so I've been feeding him ever since. Even sent him care packages in the holidays because clearly that woman didn't look after him properly." Molly sniffed. "I found the bars in my shed years later." Arthur said quietly. "I thought they'd been making an excuse to try and win Molly's sympathy, but it turns out they were telling the truth." Molly looked shocked. "You never told me that." Arthur shrugged. "Percy had just left, you were in enough pain already, you didn't need another thing to fret about." Lily was sobbing in her portrait. "I'm so glad he found you." She told Molly and Arthur. "I can't believe Albus sent him to Petunia." Molly frowned. "Me either. It was the one subject him and I never agreed on." Remus nodded. "Likewise. I tried to convince Albus to let me take him when I found out, but he said the ministry would never let a werewolf be the legal guardian of the boy-who-lived. Perhaps I should have pushed harder." Tonks rubbed his back. "Fudge wouldn't have let you be his guardian; he was fairly anti-werewolf. And none of us really knew how Harry was being treated until today. He never said a word." McGonagall sniffed. "Of course he wouldn't. He never said a word of complaint about any of the unfair burdens that were placed upon him."
Meanwhile, on the quidditch pitch two teams had been formed. Harry's team from when he was quidditch captain and Katie Bell had been out of action and Charlie's team from when he had been quidditch captain. Lee and Luna had teamed up to be the most amusing pair of commentators, while the rest of their friends lay on the ground sunbathing and watching the game above them. "It's Gryffindor's two best seekers going against each other in the match of the century." Lee dramatically announced. "And a bit of a sibling attack is going on." Luna added as Fred and George both hit bludgers at Ron with wicked grins on their faces. "The littlest red head is showing them all up though." Said Lee as Ginny scored her tenth goal. Then he quickly jumped out the way and Ginny aimed her wand at him from above. The match continued in this fashion in quite for quite some time. Katie, Angelina and Alicia were a smoothly oiled machine, but Ginny was also a spectacular chaser with two great support acts. Charlie's team were about 3 goals ahead when he and Harry spotted the snitch at the same time. They raced neck and neck in a downward spiral, skimming just above the grass then rocketing upwards against as the snitch continued to elude their grasp. Finally, Harry managed to get a grasp on it and they ended a rather actioned packed match.
Hermione was waiting for the twins on the ground with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. "How dare you target Ron like that." She yelled. "Don't you realise how dangerous and reckless your actions were." She continued to lecture them all the way up to the house, while Ron tried to placate her. The twins continued to goad her until their girlfriends stole them away with wicked promises and many others from their group followed suit, drifting away subtly or not so subtly, depending on the individual.
That night as they walked down the corridor before bed, Harry and Ginny were amused to see several of their old classmates sneaking in or out of each other's rooms. "Good thing we don't have a girl's dormitory staircase jinx here." Ginny said drily. Harry laughed. "I'm just glad you came up with a charm to keep your Mum out of you and your brother's rooms." Ginny shrugged modestly. "What can I say, I fancied keeping my eardrums working." Harry laughed as they headed towards the entrance of their room. "Can't say I'm complaining."