Disclaimer is in chapter 1. So apparently Tenhawk has resumed posting fanfiction on one of his own sites ( t . evancurrie . ca ) and on patre on (username tenhawk).


Harry snapped back to consciousness when he hit the ground, opening his mouth to shout in alarm but found quickly that his mouth filled with something he had to spit out even as he was being tumbled along the ground. Things kept slamming into him, pushing him back more, and completely swamping him under as he struggled against it all like a swimmer caught in a riptide.

After what seemed like an interminable time he managed to kick the last thing off him and struggle back to his feet, wand coming out as he looked around for the source of the attack.

"What the bloody hell was that?" He gasped, jaw swinging open.

"I think this one was a birthday card," Xander said dryly from a short distance off, holding up an opened envelop with a card hanging half out.

Harry just stared.

"It's a what?"

"Birthday card, sent when you were…" Xander paused, flipping the card over before he looked back in Harry's direction. "Four. Happy Birfday, Harry. Sent by a… huh, I can't really read the handwriting that well, but I wouldn't be shocked if it was from someone in our year at Hogwarts…."

He stopped, considering it for a moment, then shrugged.

"Give or take."

Harry looked down at the sheer mass of letters and packages he'd been swamped with, eyes wide with a stunned look on his face as his wand dropped a little in his grip.

"I think we fouind where your mail was sent, Harry," Hermione offered from where she had pulled herself free as well.

Dippy nodded, pulling his ears down, "We Hogwarts Elveses have being putting all Master Harry's mail here since… that night. Took many Elveses to make the Keepsie big enough to hold it all."

"Huh," Xander said, looking up, "I knew they didn't make them this big."

Harry barely heard him, he was too busy looking up at the towering construction that rose up over him, eyes barely taking in the massive circumference.

"You… filled it?" He asked, unbelieving.

Dippy nodded.

"Oh."


Hermione looked over at Harry, getting a little worried since he was just standing there with little expression on his face, his wand held loosely in his hand.

"He looks like he's going to pass out," Xander offered up from where he was standing, casually sorting through the pile of mail that had spilled around his feet.

"I can see that," Hermione grumbled, moving to help Harry. "Are you going to help or not?"

"Eh, he'd rather see your face if snaps out of it than mine, I'm guessing," Xander laughed, waving off her irate glare. "Oh lighten up, he'll snap out of it. It's just a lot to take in…"

Xander looked over to the extra large door built into the side of the tower, "Merlin knows, it was a lot to put in."

Hermione rolled her eyes, scoffing as she got close to Harry.

"Harry…": Hermione said softly. "Are you ok?"

Harry didn't answer right away as he just stared in shock at the sheer mountain of packages and mail, much of which he could see through the door in just massive mountainous piles.

"Harry?" Hermione nudged him.

"How am I going to sort through all of this?" Harry blurted out plaintively, sounding utterly lost.

Harmione just shrugged slowly, having no clue herself.

"Start by asking Dippy over here, just an idea," Xander offered up as he tossed another bunch of letters aside and picked up a box that had been opened. "Hey, were all of these opened?"

Dippy nodded furiously, "Elveses had to check for curses, jinxes, and bad magics."

"Makes sense," Xander nodded, as he flipped open the lid of the box looked in before pulling back with a grimace, "How long as this cake been in here? Never mind, since Harry was eight apparently. Good job on the bad magic, but maybe the food should have been donated rather than left in here?"

"Oh god," Hermione paled, looking at the tower. "It's full of decade old food?"

"Elveses be happy to sort for Master Harry," Dippy offered. "We's just being told to store it until now."

"Uh…" Harry croaked, face looking torn and pained as he started to shake his head.

Xander just stepped in and cut him off, "Master Harry would be honored if the Elves were willing to help."

Dippy grinned widely, nodding furiously, "Dippy be getting help!"

Before any of them could say anything else, Dippy had popped away, leaving Xander facing an irate Hermione.

"Alexander Harris, you know better than that! You shouldn't be using slave labor!"

Xander rolled his eyes, "Did I order him to do anything? No, I said that Harry would be honored if they were willing to help. Or are you saying that they don't have the right to help if they want to?"

She glared at him, "How can you say they want to help if they don't have a choice?"

Before he could answer, several elves popped back in and almost literally threw themselves into the work, clearing the parcels and like from around the three teens' feel and quickly heading in to the tower to work on the rest.

"Master Harry, sir," Dobby grinned up at them, "Dobby has asked to be be allowed to be helping Harry Potter Sir with this mess, if is ok?"

Harry looked lost for a moment but, after shooting a guilty and apologetic look to Hermione, he smiled and nodded.

"I would be honored, Dobby." He said, before looking up and noticing that the other Elves had paused, eyes looking back at him, "I would be honored for any, or all, of you to help. Thank you so very much."

Dobby was visibly holding back the urge to start bawling, and the other Elves similarly wailed something to the effect of how good a master Harry was before they vanished from sight, quickly getting to work as the sheer mass of parcels began to be pushed back from the entrance to the tower, allowing the three teens within.


"Wow," Xander said as he looked around, "You've got a lot more space in here than I thought."

"Uh huh." Harry nodded numbly as he looked around, "You think the Elves did this to fit in the packages?"

"Probably?" Xander said, shrugging. "I mean, maybe your parents or granparents or something expanded it at some point? Maybe when there were a lot of Potters running around?"

Hermione nodded, "it's possible, I suppose it could be either."

"Merlin, I think it's a hundred meters from the front door to the… what is this room?" Harry asked from down the hall, staring into a room.

Hermione and Xander caught up to him and peaked in.

"A sitting room, I believe," Hermione answered. "For receiving visitors."

"So the living room?" Xander frowned as he looked at the nicely, but very antiquely, appointed room.

"No, that's probably upstairs," Hermione said. "You didn't just invite random people into your home proper in those days, it wasn't done. You had a public area for casual friends."

"Weird, but I can see the point I guess," Xander said, looking back along the long hall. "Harry's right, though, I think… How much is a hundred meters in real measurements?"

Hermione smacked on the back of the head, rolling her eyes, "Don't you start that silliness, but it should be about… three hundred and thirty feet?"

Xander nodded slowly, "Yeah, looks about right."

The three largely tried to ignore the packages and mail that was vanishing from their path as they walked, not worrying too much about where it might be going to, trusting that the Elves would properly deal with it.

Harry largely was ignoring them in favor of walking around his family home, or as close as any he'd ever known of, taking in as much as he could. The sitting room was quite nice, he decided, if not really to his personal taste… but, if he were being fully honest, Harry would have to admit that he didn't really have much of a personal taste for such things.

The old furniture was in excellent shape, no signs of moths or other insects tearing into any of them, which he supposed was something else he likely owed the Elves for… unless there was something in the wards that protected the contents.

Which seems likely now that I think about it, Harry supposed.

He was feeling at a loss, though, not sure where to go next or what even to think about any of it.

"It's… old," He said aloud, surprised by the surprise in his voice.

"Well," Xander looked around, "Your parents didn't move in here, so I guess your grandparents would have been the last people here?"

"I don't know…" Harry shook his head.

"You might be able to ask the professors," Hermione offered. "Some of them new your parents well, I believe…"

"Yeah… maybe."

"Come on," Xander clapped a hand on Harry's shoulder, forcing a grin. "Let's just explore today, you can worry about asking for details when you get back to school."

"Right," Harry nodded. "Yeah… Yeah, let's do it."

The three exchanged smiles and quickly started looking around the tower, finding several more rooms on the base floor as well as stairs leading up and down.


Xander looked down into the inky darkness the stairs lead into, "Damn, Harry. Your family have a dungeon or something?"

"I don't know…" Harry shook his head, eyes wide as he too tried to pierce the shadows.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Oh honestly. It's a Keep, they probably just have a normal basement storage room."

"Cool. You go first," Xander told her.

Hermione huffed at that, but Harry just gestured to the stairs when she turned to look at him, causing her to just puff up even more.

"Fine. Lumos!" Hermione snapped, brandishing her wand.

The light flared, casting shadows around them as she glared one last time before huffing again and stomping down the slowly curving stairs. The two boys watched her go for a moment before Harry winced.

"She's going to be so pissed," He sighed.

Xander just laughed, "She always is. Come on, Harry, let's go make sure she doesn't get grabbed by a Bogart or anything."

"Don't even joke about that," Harry groaned as they started down, chasing after the angry girl.

At the bottom of the stairs, three wands all lit up barely illuminated anything more than the very closest sections around them.

"I don't see any torture devices," Xander said, "Dibs if there's an Iron Maiden though. I bet Wednesday would love a real one."

Hermione scoffed, "There are no real ones. They were invented for morbid Victorian parties hundreds of years after they were supposedly used."

"Yeah well, that may be right, but that just means those are the real ones," Xander said, "besides, look around. This looks like a Morbid Victorian era room to me."

"How can you tell?" Harry asked, sighing, "I can't see anything. Are there any lights down here?"

"I don't know," Hermione said, "look around, maybe we'll find some."

"I have another idea," Xander put a hand on her shoulder before calling out, "Hey Dobby!"

The Elf popped in right beside them, "Yes Master Harry Potter Sir's Friend?"

Xander stared for a long moment, face twitching as he considered answers to that, but Harry beat him to it.

"Dobby, do you know if there are any lights down here?"

Dobby barely looked around before nodding wildly, "Yes Master Harry Sir, Dobby will light them."

Before they could say anything else, Dobby had snapped his fingers and a series of torches set into the walls lit up in what seemed a timed sequence, throwing flickering light across the area.

The three were silent for a long moment, during which Dobby popped back out, each trying to find the words.

"Damn," Xander said finally. "I… think I just found the Addamses next vacation home."