A/N : Another chapter with no Beta so blame me and my not-so-good english writing skill for errors of any kind. If anybody want to become my beta, pm me.
Thanks Talen Dari, Vellouette, lovette for the review! This chap is for you guys!
Chapter 6.4. Incoming Owl, Leaving Owl.
-{6.4.1}-
While Harry was eating his breakfast on a wonderful morning of the last week of June, he suddenly heard a noise, which made him jump a little bit, so he looked around him nervously.
Hard to blame him, after everything he had to go through, a little paranoia doesn't seem so unhealthy. After all, it wasn't paranoia if they were really after you. The noise seem to come from the door, so Harry moved carefully toward it, wand in hand. He listened carefully and the sound was coming from the lower part of the door. Harry gather his courage through his left hand, turned the handle of the door and opened it. He looked down and saw an owl. A pretty strange owl, overall. He was looking straight at Harry, but his gaze seem to be on the human before him, on the house behind Harry and also looking at absolutely nothing. He hold his arm out for the owl, who climbed on it and rose one of its leg, where was tie up a letter. He took it, let the owl flight back home, and looked at the envelope. The mystery of the strange behaviour of the owl began to clear up when Harry saw who had send it. Luna Lovegood. As the addressee was "Harry Potter, the one and only resident of his pants", he presumed the letter was for him, afer all he was the resident of his pants, so he opened the envelope and begun to read the letter.
"Dear Harry,
How are you? I hope you have been able to go throught this harsh ordeal. I know how hard it is. Does Sparrow knocked on the door before coming in? It's not polite to enter one's home without asking the permission. There's only the Fidnéturas Kopoliptus, that you must know since they were in the latest edition of The Quibbler, who enter house uninvited. A funny muggle came home last week. How did he found the house I don't know, but he seems like a pleasant man and he wanted to show us the capability of an hoover. My dad and me were pretty impress by the ability of this muggle appliance, the best on the market available right now. I was able to convince my dad to buy it, but unfortunately, José 'Padro' Anil, the 'Sales representative of the best and most reliable vacuum cleaner maker in this part of the galaxy', that was his unofficial title, couldn't accept anything else than muggle money. And Mister Card. We subtly conjured a cat and called him Mister Card, but the salesman said it wasn't what he wanted. So we had, against our deepest wishes, to refuse the incredible offer he was giving us, more than a 60% rebate on the in-store price. An unbeatable offer in my opinion, and the salesman eagerly agreed with me. Talking about permission, I met at the beginning of the summer with Fudge, minister of magic and chief commander of the Heliopalegion( the name of his Heliopaths's army) concerning the battle in the Department of Mysteries. I took the title of ' spokesperson and chief negotiator of the DA', I hope you don't mind. As of you, your title is now 'Supreme Revered Chief of the Dumbledore Army', it's a lot better than 'the-one-who-lived', there's a lot more letters. 38 against 14. A lot better I'm telling you, more letters, more power. After heavy negociation, and one tea break, the tea was good, doughnuts were passable, I was able to obtain the lift of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery for all the members of the DA who were present in the department of mysteries. Sorry I didn't told you sooner, we were pretty busy at home teaching Sparrow, our owl, to knock on the door, we couldn't send it to you before it's apprenticeship was over. So, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Luna, Neville, Me and Yo, can do magic outside of school now.
Clinically yours,
Luna Lovegood
Spokesperson and chief negotiator of the DA
Harry had just finished to read Luna's letter and he couldn't help it but smile. First of all, Luna's letter was bringing a lot of answer to the previous days questions, like where in the world is the owl supposed to bring us the letter of doom announcing their expulsion from Hogwart due to their underage usage of magic outside of school. Secondly, Harry now had a new title, with a lot more caracters then the previous one. And thirdly, Harry was thinking about Luna and her father, whom he didn't know but who after all was a Lovegood and chief editor of the Quibbler, admiring a vacuum cleaner from a door-to-door salesman. This letter was the ray of light of his morning. And it was explaining the strange comportement of Sparrow, the owl.
"Good morning Harry" told Hermione when she got in th dining room, "so, what could this letter be?"
"Well, it seems I now have another title to add at the end of my name. Now, I'm no longer only Harry the-one-who-lived Potter, I'm Harry Potter Supreme Revered Chief of the Dumbledore Army! This new title come with a bunch of advantages! For once, there's a lot more letter in this one than in my old one! He also let me do magic without any fear from the ministry and their restrictive underage wizard use of magic laws!"
Hermione was now looking at him with a worried and concerned look, wondering if Harry hadn't, after all those trials, finally giving in to a sweet madness. The newly crowned Chief of the Dumbledore Army him, hadn't stop talking.
"And a small detail, but of so great importance, did you know that door-to-door salesman can't accept wizard money? And that Mister Card the cat isn't a valid credit card?" His smile just got bigger, seeing his friend half-dumbfounded, half-worried expression, before stopping his little game and explaining himself.
"It's Sparrow, Luna's owl, who brought me this letter, here, read it, you'll understand"
Hermione took the letter from Harry's hand then started to read it, and her worries concerning her best friend mental health were dispelled rapidly. She couldn't stop herself from laughing while reading the letter, who was litteraly following the special thoughts of the ravenclaw's girl, and that was at the same time fascinating, and hilarious. And there was only one Luna Lovegood in all the world to call her owl Sparrow, to judge someone title by the number of character in it, to talk during more then half the letter about the qualities of a muggle vacuum cleaner and to let the main message of the letter at the end, like an after-thought. Luna was without a doubt a enthralling person.
When she finished the letter, Harry left the kitchen with a nod and went to Grimmauld Place's library, where he looked in two particular section, Domestic magic and transfiguration, and after thirty minutes, he found what he was looking for and went straight to his room, crossing Hermione on his way out, whom would without a doubt read during most of the afternoon a collection of books, like she had done the previous days.
Once he was in the master bedroom, now his room, he started to seek the exact sorts he needed, to refresh the best he could both the furniture and the decoration his room. After all, the bedroom hadn't been redecorate since Sirius's mothers had died in it. And the style 'old bitter pureblood with a strong declination toward dark with Toujours Pur as a slogan' wasn't really to Harry's taste. So he got down to work.
-{6.4.2}-
Hermione had a lot of things against Grimmauld Place. The dirtiness, the general dark atmosphere of the house, the snakes and a strong inclinaison toward evilness, made that inside the HQ of the Order of the Phoenix, she wasn't feeling quite home, quite the contrary. The facts that most of the portraits of the house were shouting mudblood everytime she pass in front of one of them didn't help at all. The only good thing about that house was it's library. The fact that Harry was living there was also another positive point, but that was another subject altogether. The room full of bookshelves themselves full of books was really the only place where Hermione felt 'home' inside Grimmauld Place. Even the three painting who were regulary shooting insult toward her when they felt like it, weren't able to shake that feeling. That was why she was spending most of her days inside the library. This summer, most of her book were about two main subjects : 'defense against the dark arts' and 'dueling'. There was a lot of books in those categories in the library, but unfortunately, most of them was a little bit too dark for her tastes. Some of those book were more toward 'fight with' then 'defense' against the dark arts.
She was currently reading 'Duelling, the art of doing it well, quickly', when Harry entered quietly inside the room. Even if he had been stealthy, which he was absolutely not, he wouldn't have been able to hide his presence to Hermione. She always knew if he were in the same woom as her, even if she had never told him of that 'gift'. Hary was subtly putting back his books in the shelves when Hermione decided it was about time she made her presence known.
"So Harry, did you find what you were looking for?"
"Hum... yeah, not exactly was I was looking for, but it got the job done"
"What were you looking for, I could perhaps help you find some books you overlook the first time?" she told him, getting up and going straight toward where he had begun putting back books.
"No, it's allright, the books had the informations I was looking for, everything is allright, you can continue reading" he told her really fast, and a little bit nervous.
Hermione, wondering what could get him this anxious, tried subtly to steal the books from Harry's arms, but he dodged her attemp. The idea of getting cought with a book on domestic magic wasn't really appealing to Harry. It was already too much that the Dursleys was thinking about him as a cleaning woman, he didn't want girls, first of all Hermione, thought he was reading books to learn how to do the cleaning, the cooking or how to raise well-behave children, from what he had read of the table of contents. That was when he thought about using magic to get out of this bad situation. That was his last thought before landing on the floor with a loud 'tonk', stunned.
Because of this, he wasn't able to see the triumphant look of Hermione of being able to get the book, melt into a look of worries from the rough landing of her friend. She levitating Harry on the library's couch, and finally took a glance at the book. She had had a million possibilities in her head, most of them implying Harry reading dark arts book, but she hadn't thought about THAT possibility. A book on domestic magic!? What could Harry have been looking for in this book? The best person to answer her question was a couple of meters away from her, on the couch, waiting to be enervated to let his anger flew out. Hermione, at the precise moment, thought it hadn't been that good of a decison to stupefy her best friend, a well-aimed Accio could have also done the job quite well.
"Enervate"
Harry awoke, look at her and told her : "It's not what you think!"
Hermione, whom was prepared to face Harry's wrath, decided to hear what he had to say. "I hadn't time to think about anything right now, why don't you explain yourself, it would be a lot simpler..."
"Follow me."
Harry took her by her hand, and brought her in front of his bedroom's door.
"Here's the reason why I read part of this book." He told her, opening the door. She was completely amazed by what she saw. Instead of a sinister room like the rest of the house, Harry's room was now warm and inviting. So inviting, in fact, that Hermione didn't wait until Harry give her the permission to enter it before going in and inspecting the new decoration. Not only had he changed the walls's painting, wallpapers, the carpet, the lights, he had changed the furniture too. They were now old and elegant, instead of old and rotting.
"Wow, I would like to sleep in your bed" she said, thinking about the more then doubtful she had at the HQ to try to sleep in. It was only when she saw the grin on her friend's face that she revisited her sentence, and quickly saw what her friend was finding funny.
"No, I didn't want to say your bed like your bed, more like the bed in which you sleep" she said quickly, blushing, before, yet another time, tried to restore the true meaning of her sentence.
"No, no!" I want to say in a bed like this one", this one was the good one, no second connation. "Talking about bed like this one... I would be pretty happy if someone would be generous enough to transfigure mine to something a little bit better. And it seems one of my friend now know how to do it. And that friend really don't want his best mate to mysteriously learn what kind of book he read." She said, hoping to be able to sleep in his bed. On a bed like his, after mental revision.
-{6.4.3}-
Harry was beginning to be pretty tired. Not only did he have to transfigure Hermione's bed, he had to do Ginny's too. In truth, it was always better not to take any chance with Weasley's jealousy, even if that trait was a lot less present in Ginny then in her older brother Ron. When Harry thought his transfiguration work for the day was over in the girls's room, Ginny came into the room. Hermione explained to her Harry's new talent for transfiguration of bed, and in the middle of the conversation, trying to look as unconcerned as possible, she said :
"Oh Ginny, you should see what he did in his room, he have completely redesign his room, he's really good in this transfiguration's field"
"Harry!" She adressed her friend sharply, while he was trying to get out of the room unnoticed. "Where do you think you are going? It seeem you have other talents you absolutely have to show me! You could start by painting that wall a beautiful green, let's say 'mexican cactus'?"
It was the beginning of the end for Harry. Not only did he have to repaint all of the walls, each a couple of time because of Ginny's frequent change of favorite green shade, he also had to change the carpet's color and texture, change the moulding and transfigure the full set of furnitures in the room, a couple of times. Now the two teenagers girls seems, at last in Harry's opinion, satisfied, so he took that opportunity to slip away, while they were both content with the changes. He decided to go to Ron's room, and tired, he only change his bed, deciding it would be the only think his best friend would find important. He found his friend in the living room and begun to lose a chess game. In the middle of his fourth soon-to-be loss, Ginny and Hermione came into the living room to observe Ron's victory streak being incremented by one yet another time.
"So Harry, did you talk to Ron about your new talents?' asked Ginny, clearly amused.
"New talents, what are you talking about Ginny?" answered Ron.
"Oh, it seem he forgot to tell you what he is now able to do! Harry's new talents are really attractive for us girls, he really know how to please us now."
"What have you done to my little sister Potter" asked a little bit coolly to Harry, already weary of his youger sister game.
"I just redecorate my room, and since Hermione have begged me to redesign their, well, I did it. When I got out, I was a quite tired magically with all those transfigurations, repainting, yadda, yadda, yadda. I did have enough energy thought too transfigure your bed, so you now have a queen bed Ron! I hope it doesn't upset you too much that I did it without asking you before. I could change it back you know"
Ron's eyes were shining, but when Harry finished it's last sentence, Ron immediatly answered Harry.
"Don't change a thing! Don't worry, I would have accepted!" said Ron, still looking like he was about to do something stupid, like jumping in Harry's arms. He decided instead, to Harry's relief, to go do a test run of his new bed.
"Ron! If you leave in the middle of a game without a very important reason, doesn't it count like a forfeit, meaning a loss?" asked Hermione, stopping him in his track. He then looked at Harry, who couldn't refuse the pleading look of his best friend, clearly torn between a new bed and the end of his long victory streak.
"Anyway, I had to write a letter, it will be better for all involved party if we were just cancelling this game" Harry's said, in a generous mood. As soon as cancelling was out of Harry's mouth, Ron continued his quest for his new bed, without looking back. Harry too, went to his room, because he really had to send a letter. It was June 30th, and Dudley would be waiting for Harry's news during the night. He had writed a couple of sentences when Hermione knocked on the door, and he let her in.
"So Harry, who are you writing to? You must be writing to Luna, right? Thanks her for all of us for our newly acquired right to use magic she have been able to deal."
"Sorry Hermione, I'm not writing to Luna right now. You could write to her and thank her yourself."
"If you're not writing to Luna, who are you writing to?" she asked.
"Hermione, when did you begun to take interest in my personnal correspondence?"
His sentence had the wished effect on his best non-male friend. Blushing, she started to mumble an answer.
"No, it's not like I'm taking an interest in your personnal mail, it's just that, you know, well, I was thinking that right now the only person you had to write to was Luna, because she had sent you a letter, and that most of your close friend, including me, are here with you, but you have the right to send letter to who you want, well, I believe." Harry's smiled and answered her.
"Indead! I have the right to write to whom I want, but if you want to know who I'm writing too, you have to guess it!"
"Cho Chang"
"Not a chance" he answered, not stopping writing his letter.
"Katie Bell"
"No"
"Angelina Johnson"
"Again, no" 'She must think I'm writing a letter concerning quidditch' he thought.
"Gabrielle Delacour"
"Even less likely", 'not concerning quiddith finally'
"Lavande Brown"
"Not a chance",
"One of the Patil's twin"
"See last answer"
"Both twin?"
"I won't grant an answer to this one"
"Susan Bones"
"It's a great idea, but no", 'She seem pretty sure I'm sending a letter to a girl, no?'
"Tonks"
"She was here like two hours ago, why would I be sending a letter, she's here everyday!"
"Emma Dobbs"
"Emma who? Well, I'll tell you, it will make sure you don't create name out of nowhere. Dudley. I'm writing to Dudley Dursley.
Hermione's face was so funny Harry would have given almost anything to get a pensieve at that moment, to share with the world this really funny moment.
"Dudley?"
"As strange as it can look like, it seem Dudley is rather fascinated by magic and it's, our, world. More so since a pretty bad episod with dementors. He wished to train to kick their ass muggle style but now he know he can't… Anyway, I spend most of my night talking to him at Privet Drive, We have to keep it secret, I unfortunately think his parents would kick him out if they knew. He asked me to send him a letter once a month, to keep contact, he will answer back with the owl I send him the same night to keep thing easier."
"Hedwidg, come here my dear, I got a message for you. It's for Dudley, wait until he open his window tonight to give him. Try not to make any noise. I know you're good at it. Wait there, he will send a message back. Thanks"
Hermione was still looking at him with a dumbfounded look, less surprise, but still a pretty funny sight.
"Come on, it's time to go eat" he said to her, going out of his room.
A/N : So, did you liked Luna's letter?
