Harry took the present hesitantly. There was a note attached. Harry looked up at Sirius and Remus uncertainly.
'Read the note.' Sirius told him.
'Dear Harry,' Harry read aloud. 'Your father left this cloak in my possession before he died. It is now time it should be given back to you. Use it well. Happy birthday, Professor Dumbledore.
'Is that...?' Sirius asked faintly
'My dad's old Invisibility Cloak.' Harry breathed weakly, stroking the cloak reverently. Harry wrapped the cloak around his shoulders and walked to a nearby mirror. His head was floating, his body seemingly gone.
'Think of all the pranks I could pull with this! And nobody would ever know…' Harry exclaimed happily
'I don't think- 'Remus began
'Remus! Remember all the rules we used to break with help from the cloak!' Sirius said, staring at Harry's floating head in awe.
Remus sighed, shaking his head.
'Harry? Harry, where did you go?' Remus asked, looking around. 'He disappeared!'
'Funny that, seeing as he's wearing an Invisibility Cloak.' Sirius said
'Whose idea was it to give him the cloak again?' Remus asked
'Catch me if you can!' A mischievous voice rang through the house.
'Uh oh.' Sirius said
O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O
'Master Harry Potter? Master Sirius Black and Mater Remus Lupin says you is to being getting up.' Inky woke him the next morning. She pronounced 'says' as 'say is'.
'Why?' Harry whined
'Master-' Inky began
'Alright, fine! I'm getting up!' Harry complained loudly, kicking off his quilt and flinging his wardrobe door open, snatching out some clothes and trainers and tossing them on his bed in annoyance.
Inky disappeared with a pop.
Harry got changed into his clothes and stormed downstairs grumpily.
'Oi! Cheer up!' Sirius' voice called from down seven flights of stairs and Harry found himself wondering how they could even hear each other. 'Breakfast's ready and we're having cake with it! Moony wouldn't let me give you Firewhiskey though…'
Laughing, because it was just like Sirius to try and give him alcohol, alcohol that was on fire nevertheless, Harry ran downstairs so Sirius wouldn't eat all his cake.
O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O
'…You're supposed to meet Hagrid at the park at one to go to Diagon Alley to pick up your school stuff – it was one of the conditions – although very well hidden through absurd amounts of politeness – of you attending Hogwarts.' Remus said while they were eating, just after scolding Sirius for trying to sneak Harry Firewhiskey for the eighteenth time. 'Sirius has put your money bag in your satchel, it takes money directly out of the Black vault so you won't have to worry about running out.'
'Thanks, Sirius.' Harry said absently, glancing over at his birthday cake. It was a mini Quidditch stadium with little players sweeping about on broomsticks in it. Zooming around above it were miniature broomsticks, with scale Snitches, Bludgers and Quaffles.
'When can we eat it?' Harry asked impatiently
'Now, if you want.' Sirius shrugged.' Just grab a Snitch or something.'
Harry grabbed a Snitch and stuffed it in his mouth, licking his fingers. Harry refilled his glass of Butterbeer, and took another stack of pancakes, drizzling them in honey and – on Remus' insistence – putting some fruit on it.
'Hungry, Lightning?' Sirius asked in amusement
Harry said something that was muffled by the food crammed into his mouth.
'What wonderful table manners you have.' Remus commented wryly
'Shut up.' Harry said, before stuffing another whole pancake into his mouth.
'And you just proved me right.' Remus laughed
'Honestly, you'd think we starved you.' Sirius said
'That'd be impossible with Inky.' Harry said, licking the left-over honey from his plate, before piling some bacon on it and covering it in tomato ketchup.
'Then perhaps we should get a house elf passionate about table manners.' Remus said
'Well if you didn't order Kreacher to stay in the basement back in Grimmauld then maybe you would.' Harry said. 'Poor elf's probably starved to death by now.'
'Nah, there's some stale bread and wine in the cellar he's in. Enough to live on for a few decades. He's allowed to eat and drink and sleep and such, just I don't feel comfortable with him serving us in our house. He hates us, if we let him out he could easily betray us.' Sirius said
'Did you even give him a chance?' Harry asked
'He's – Do you ever stop eating?' Sirius demanded
'Blame Inky for being so good at cooking!' Harry said, speech muffled by the cake he was eating.
Sirius rolled his eyes.
'You've got an hour until you've got to meet Hagrid.' Remus informed him
Harry nodded, stuffing another pancake in his mouth, before standing up from the table.
'I've already packed your bag for you, it's by the front door.' Sirius said
'Thank Padfoot.' Harry grinned. 'I'm going to leave early, to give me some time to read at the park for a bit before I have to leave.'
'Okay. Have fun.' Sirius said
'Bye, Harry.' Remus called
'It's Lightning!' Harry bellowed from by the front door, as he grabbed his satchel and headed out the door.
Just before Harry closed the door, Mare flew out from the house and into his bag, beside Hydrus, his pet basilisk, who he had had since he was seven, and had to be very careful with due to his lethal stare. Harry put a charm on him to keep him from growing too much, so he was only about three feet long. Harry was planning on taking him to Hogwarts, but Sirius and Remus had warned him to be very careful.
Harry finally arrived at the park and he sat down on a swing, talking – or rather, hissing – to Hydrus while he petted Mare, who was perched on his shoulder.
After a while of playing with his pets, the half-giant who Harry had learned was called Hagrid, arrived.
Harry stood up upon seeing him, hissing quietly at Hydrus to be quiet because owning a basilisk was prohibited by the ministry and Azkaban didn't sound like a very pleasant place to Harry.
He walked up to Hagrid, and extended a hand, which Hagrid stared at. After a few seconds Harry realised Hagrid wasn't going to shake his hand, so he took it back.
'Hello Hagrid,' He greeted quietly, the shy and nervousness at finally properly talking to someone after ten years showing in his tone. 'I understand you're supposed to be taking me to Diagon Alley to buy my things for school?'
'Yeh,' Hagrid said
Harry was silent for a moment, letting Hagrid take everything in. From the stories Sirius and Remus told him, he was friends with his parents and rather fond of him. Being worried about him being turned into a dark wizard by Sirius and Remus, who the whole wizarding world thought were Death Eaters, and then finally getting to see him after so long. It would be a lot to take in.
'Hagrid? I've got a portkey to the Leaky Cauldron, we could use that if you'd like.' Harry offered shyly
Hagrid nodded, and Harry got the impression he was still in shock.
Harry took off his necklace, a scarlet leather chain with ancient protective runes covering it, and small holes at the bottom, where three seemingly random objects hung from it, a small crystal phial of something that looked like water (it was, in fact, phoenix tears), a phoenix feather, a phial of basilisk venom, and a stick resembling a lightning bolt in the middle.
The stick was actually Harry's wand, elder wood and a mixed core of basilisk venom, phoenix tears, basilisk skin and a phoenix feather, all, of course, from Mare and Hydrus.
Harry got the impression that the neighbourhood kids talked about him behind his back for the strange way he dressed. His bleach blonde hair was straight, going down past his shoulders was tied back with a short, thin scarf made of a light, flowy fabric. His eyes were cold, and he had a permanent icy, unforgiving stare. He mainly wore leather, and dressed like, according to the neighbourhood kids (who Harry very much doubted had opened a history book in their lives) 'like it was the medieval times'.
He wore short cloaks to keep himself warm the majority of the time, so that combined with the rest of the style made him a freak in the eyes of the other kids (their words, not his).
Harry felt slightly dizzy as the portkey activated.
'So, where should we go first?' Harry chirped cheerfully. 'I've already got my money, so why don't we go to Twilfitt and Tattings to get my uniform – I much prefer their clothes than the ones at that other shop – What's it name?'
Hagrid seemed rather surprised as Harry led him along their shopping trip.
Author's Note:
I do, in fact, have some reasons for not updating. First thing, my keys on my laptop weren't working, second, Microsoft Word kept on crashing, third, the save of this chapter got deleted and I had to start from the beginning again, and forth I changed classes in school a couple weeks ago which took a while to get used to. Promise to try and update within a month!
Padfootandpuppy,
The author who doesn't get quite and quiet mixed up, :D