Author's notes:

Standard disclaimer: It all belongs to JKR. Except where I might use some song lyrics which I will call out at the time and give proper credit. Thank you JKR for letting us play with your toys.

HARRY POTTER AND THE MUGGLE'S DAUGHTER

Sharpening the Blade

Part III

HPHPHP

"Did you ever try to become and Animagus?" Harry asked.

Mum shook her head. "I didn't. Your dad was going to teach me, but with the war on there was just never time."

Harry nodded. "I wish you could learn with me."

Mum smiled. "I do to. But if my choice is what we have or nothing at all, it's an easy choice." She pulled him down next to her and he snuggled in. "Happy birthday, Love," she whispered and pressed a kiss to the back of his head.

"Thanks, Mum." She kissed him again and they fell silent for a few minutes before he spoke again.

"Mum?"

"Yes."

"Can we spend tomorrow with just me and you?"

Mum let out a little huff and crushed him tightly to her. "I'd love to, Baby."

Harry tore after his mum down the docks to the boats. It was their last day for Epcot. Tomorrow they'd be moving on to Typhoon Lagoon. After that they were off to Key West for a few days on the beach. What the non-magic world didn't know of, was the regularly scheduled portkey service from Key West to West of Key West; the hidden, all magic, island that was, well, west of Key West. There was a small community of about a thousand permanent residents to the island and they played host to an ongoing influx of vacationing wizarding folk. The island was also the home of the Florida Manatees, a fairly successful first division professional quidditch side. They would be playing the Salem Sea Serpents on the last day of the trip and the lot of them would be attending. But that was still a full five days away yet and today it was just Harry and his mum and he couldn't be more excited for it.

"Back again?" the attendant asked as the two of them skidded to a halt at the rental hut.

"Better believe it," Mum said. Harry just grinned at the girl. She was probably a few years older than Tonks, sported long red hair, and loads of freckles across her face, arms, shoulders and legs. Her name was Gwen and Harry was enamored. Thankfully, his mum never seemed to tease him about girls like everyone else did.

Gwen winked at Harry. "I'm going to miss those eyes when you two finally stop visiting me."

Harry turned scarlet and before he could stop himself blurted. "I'm going to miss your red hair." Mum shot him a look and he promptly stared holes in the dock.

Gwen laughed. "He's a charmer, he is. Makes me wish I was ten years younger."

"Wish I was ten years older," Harry said. He promptly clamped his hands over his mouth, staring at his mum in horror. She stared back for a second before collapsing in fits of laughter. If the fact that his skin felt like it was on fire was any indication, Harry was certain his entire body was enacting the blush to end all blushes. He didn't know how it was he wasn't fleeing – come to think of it if he could find an alligator, being eaten didn't sound all that bad to him right now – but he wasn't. He was instead looking straight at Gwen.

She stared back for a second before saying, "Come here." Harry stepped to the counter and she hopped up on it, lying on her belly she leaned over and kissed his cheek. She then plopped back in the kiosk and handed him the keys for one of the boats. "On the house, hot stuff," she said. Harry somehow turned redder than he already was, grinned, took the key and calmly walked down the dock to the assigned boat.

Mum joined him a few minutes later, sitting down beside him to wait while the deck hand started the motor and untied the lines. "Harry," she said, "you have no idea how happy you've made me."

"Why?"

"Because Sirius looks like arse in a skirt and I can't wait to eventually make him pay up." Harry frowned at her. "It'll make sense… when it happens."

Harry shrugged and pressed the throttle forward. If that's all she was going to say, he wasn't going to say anything either.

Harry took his mum's hand as they wandered through the countries of Epcot. He wasn't certain just how real the various experiences were, but it was certainly interesting. At the very least it had sparked the idea he'd like to see the world for real one day. He was certain China would be amazing. The magical community there was the largest in the world. There were entire magical cities, with populations bigger than all the sorcerers in the UK combined. There was just one village in the UK, Hogsmeade – the town that serviced Hogwarts – that was one hundred percent magical. And there were only about a thousand people who lived there.

"How about some diner?" Mum asked as they left the country of Mexico behind. He glanced at her. She sounded rather tired to him and as he looked at her he could see the fatigue on her face. Even with almost two full years having passed since she woke up she wasn't completely recovered from her ordeal. It had become less and less noticeable, to the point he sometimes forgot. But the trip had been nonstop from the get go; with late nights and early mornings. If they were back home he was certain she'd have spent most of the day in bed.

Noticing him studying her, she said. "I'm fine, Harry. And tomorrow's the water park. Sirius has hired us a nice tent where there is a deck chair with my name on it. I intend to follow that up with two days laying on the beach before we finish up in West of Key West."

"You're sure?" Harry asked.

"I'm positive. Now where would you like to eat?"

Harry considered, there were lots of places they could eat but she needed something relaxing, not a quick burger and fries with more wandering to follow ten minutes later. "Can we go to the Coral Reef again?"

"That was lovely." She smiled and gave his hand a tug. "Come on, let's go put another dent in Sirius bank account."

"Is that possible?" Harry asked.

"Perhaps… if I tell the manager to charge the whole night's receipts to him." Harry goggled at her. She winked. "I'll teach him for turning my son into a ladies man." Harry blushed. Mum laughed and kissed his crown. "She's a lovely girl, Harry; but first Andromeda, then Tonks, and now this. We're going to have to do something about this older woman fixation you've got."

"Mum," Harry groaned.

Lily sat cross-legged on the bench on their deck next to Harry. Her arm was around his shoulders and he leaned comfortably against her. The fireworks had just come to a close for the night when Harry spoke. "She really likes that."

Lily stilled. She hadn't even realized she was doing it. Kaa was mostly coiled in Harry's lap, but the serpent's head rested on her knee. And she was very gently stroking the creature's head like it was some harmless little puppy. She blinked a number of times as she adjusted to the circumstance. Terrifying, failed to describe the news that her son was a Parseltongue and was waiting on the porch, his pet adder across his shoulders, for that information to be delivered to her before she met him. She'd been given all of about five minutes to process and accept it before she'd come face to face with the creature. Even now she wasn't quite certain how she hadn't had a heart attack. She went back to stroking the snake's head. How very far she had come.

"I'm glad she likes it."

"She doesn't frighten you anymore?"

"I'm not certain there won't always be a bit of me that isn't scared of her."

"Why? She won't hurt you."

"Won't she? If I were to harm you or try to harm her, she wouldn't bite me?"

"You're trying to blame her for something you'd have brought on yourself," Harry protested.

Lily stilled again. He was right. Despite everything, she was still holding ancient prejudices against Kaa. Her attitude was hardly better than the Death Eaters she had killed while defending herself. They attacked her first, and then blamed her for defending herself. The fact that she fought back, in their minds, further justified their hatred and future attacks and attempts to kill her. "Kaa, may I pick you up?" she asked. The serpent responded by moving from Harry's lap to being completely in hers. Gently, as Harry had shown her, she picked the creature up and raised it so they were eye to eye. "I'm sorry." Kaa moved forward a bit and flicked her tongue against her nose. Lily then leaned forward and bumped her nose against Kaa's.

"Tell her I am honored to hold her trussst. Ssshe may handle me asss ssshe whisshesss and her commandsss will be sssecond only to yoursss."

"She says she's honored to hold your trust and that you may handle her anytime you like. She also said your commands are second only to mine."

Lily focused on the snake. "My only request is that you continue to watch over my son."

"I have a requessst of her asss well. Though it will pain her to hear it."

Harry frowned. She says she has a request for you but that it will pain you to hear it."

Lily frowned as well. "Ask me, please?" Kaa swung around to Harry and hissed softly for a time. When she was finished, Harry stared at her for a number of seconds before leaning forward to bump his nose with the serpent. He then focused on his mum.

"She asks that should there ever come a day that she fails to protect me and our bond is broken that you not turn your back on her. She asks, should that come to pass, that you consider to accept her as a bond for yourself. She says she asks so you know that with her bond to me broken, her venom would not harm you and that it would grant you the gift to understand and speak with her kind. She says, should you ever have another child, the gift would pass down through the line of firstborn till the line failed. She says until you become second in my life this request lives."

Lily stared at Harry first and then Kaa. "I accept. Not for any gift or power it might bring to me, or descendants I doubt I'll ever have, but out of loyalty… For a friend who has shown me far more than I have her. I'm honored to have your fealty Kaa. And fully accept there will one day be one in his life who comes before me. Should it come to pass that you find yourself rejected by her then come to me. You will always be welcome." She leaned forward and bumped her nose to Kaa's again. "I don't know what brought you to my son, but I am truly grateful for it."

"It isss asss it ssshold be," Kaa said. She slithered forward to settle on Lily's shoulders.

"She says it is as it should be," Harry translated.

Lily planted a kiss on Harry's head. Nearly, Kaa, she thought, He still hasn't told me he loves me, but nearly.

"Here comes a set!" Tonks said. It was the second of two beach days and she and Harry were determined to ride every wave they could. Being a rather typical teenager she had been a bit put out about the trip. Two weeks of her summer hols gone and she wouldn't get to see Charlie or any of her friends once. It was particularly irritating that Harry had been allowed to bring his girlfriend but she'd been denied being allowed to invite hers – boyfriend, not girlfriend that is. And none of the friends she'd been allowed to invite had been able to come. They'd all had family trips of their own that conflicted. That was the problem with attending boarding school. Your parents didn't want to let you out of their sight when you were home on break. But like most teenagers, once they were distracted enough they forgot to be sullen. She was no exception and it was really hard to be sullen when her cousin was spoiling her and everyone else rotten. Sirius wasn't just rich. He was filthy rich… with emphasis on the filthy.

"Second one?" Harry asked.

"Yep," she agreed. They started paddling together, catching the biggest wave of the set perfectly they jumped up on their boards and sped across the surface.

"WAHOOO!" they shouted together. The wave was a really good one and they rode it for a good thirty seconds before bailing out and diving into the ocean.

"That one was bril!" Harry exclaimed.

"Nice job." Tonks held her hand out and he high-fived her. They quickly climbed back on their boards and started paddling out again. Once out far enough they sat astride their boards and waited for another good set to come in.

"I'm really glad you came," Harry said.

"It's been a ton of fun," Tonks returned cheerfully.

"What's been your favorite part?"

She thought for a bit. "I really liked Epcot. I kind of grew up half in and half out of the Muggle world you know? So I understand a lot more than most. But when you really see everything Muggles are doing, you start to understand things different."

"Like what?"

"Well, just things like Disney World and the bridges connecting all these islands and stuff. Long before Muggles built the Great Pyramid, we built bigger ones. We built the Great Wall in China. Most of ancient Greece was built by magic folk. The Druids build Stonehenge and a dozen other places like it. The last great thing built in the UK was Hogwarts. It's been a thousand years since we did that… We used to build amazing things, Harry. But we don't anymore.

"We're lazy, I think. Especially the pure-bloods. There's a hundred and twenty-three kids in my year. The top ten are all Muggle-born or half-blood. There's only two pure-bloods in the top twenty-five. One of them is Charlie, yet most of them run around screaming how superior they are to all the rest of us. The worst part is that ponce, Jorkins, is sure to be Head Boy and he doesn't deserve it by half."

"Then how come he gets it?"

Tonks shrugged. "Cause the pure-bloods run the board of governors."

"But isn't Sirius on the board of governors?"

"He is, but he's one vote among twelve and the ministry is blocking the legislation that would let him exercise the Potter vote. Till they get that, there's a permanent six/five split. I get why we're keeping your mum hidden, but it'd sure be nice to have her able to exercise the Potter vote."

"But Sirius can exercise the Potter vote on the Wizengamot, right?"

"Yes, and Mum says Director Bones nearly has the votes lined up to force the legislation through so the board has to accept that Sirius has the right to exercise the Potter vote. Unfortunately it's not going to matter for this year."

"That sucks," Harry said.

"Yeah," Tonks agreed. Then she smirked at him. "But you know what the best part of the trip so far was?"

"What?"

"The look on Sirius' face when that girl from the boats leaned over the counter, tapped her cheek for you to kiss her and damned if you didn't!" Harry turned scarlet. "Brilliant, that was," she chortled. "And then she let you go out for free. I thought he was going to topple over into the lake right there."

Harry pointedly stared out to sea, looking for a good set to ride and ignored her. Tonks smirked. It'd been damn funny. Of course, now that she thought about it, Hermione's reaction was the most curious. She'd have though the girl would be angry as hell. But as far as she could tell Hermione hadn't batted an eye. Maybe Sirius was wrong and there wasn't any underlying attraction between the two.

"Third one?" Harry asked.

Tonks studied the incoming waves for a second. "Yep."

Mum came out of the toilet and climbed in the bed with him. Sirius had hired a large beach house for them in Key West, but they were still short on bedrooms so he was once again in with her. "Good day?" she asked.

Harry nodded. "Yep."

"I'm surprised you and Tonks didn't grow gills out there. Did you even get out of the water once today?"

Harry smirked. "Only to eat and use the toilet."

She smiled. "You were pretty good out there."

Harry blushed. "I guess I'm just good at things like that."

She leaned in to kiss his crown. "You do give me a heart attack on that broom of yours. Even your father wasn't so reckless."

"I'm not reckless," Harry protested. "It's just easy."

She pushed his shoulder, rolling him so she could pull his back to her front. "You still terrify me."

"I don't mean to."

Mum kissed the back of his head. "It wasn't an accusation, Love. You keep right on doing what your doing."

"Does that mean I can try bungee jumping?"

Mum jabbed him. "Watch it, Buster."

Harry giggled. "Night Mum."

"Night, Love."

Harry landed in a heap of limbs, completely tangled up with Hermione. The Portkey trip from Key West to West of Key West was only his second experience with magical travel. As far as he was concerned the only improvement over apparating was not vomiting afterwards. "Sorry," she said, untangling from him.

Harry stood and offered her a hand up. "I prefer the plane," he muttered.

"It is a bit less… turbulent," she said.

Harry snorted and hand in hand they followed the party out of the arrivals terminal. "Cool," he said, upon getting his first look at an all-magical community.

"It's a bit different than the UK," Sirius observed. "But then it's a bit warm for robes, isn't it?" Harry didn't really care if it was different or not. He was much more interested in the fact that people were zooming around on brooms above.

"Is that a magic carpet?" Hermione squeaked. Harry followed her gaze to what was most certainly a family, mum, dad and two kids, flying down the road on a carpet.

"Wicked," he grinned.

"Oh, and look!" she pointed to a parrot with a package in its talons. "There's a post parrot."

Harry sighed. "It's a good thing Kaa's favorite food is rats."

Hermione giggled. "She will be disappointed to learn she's not allowed to eat them."

Harry stopped dead in his tracks. A man was walking down the street with both arms attached to his left shoulder. Tonks bent down between them. "That'll teach you to pay attention when you start apparating," she whispered.

"He splinched?" Harry croaked.

"Yep," Tonks said.

Harry and Hermione shuddered. "Destination, determination and deliberation," she said firmly. Harry could only nod.

Many hours later, Harry was standing next to Hermione in Cribble's Caribbean Confections. "Ice mice," he said peering into the large barrel. Inside he found piles of translucent blue candies in the shape of, what else, mice. Not a big deal really, except for the fact they were all moving about; very much like they were actually alive. He gave a shudder. Mice were frighteningly close to being rats and despite Kaa, Harry hated rats. "Think I'll pass."

"Careful," Hermione said as he backed away. She scooped a foil wrapped package from the floor. Harry leaned closer to examine it. "Chocolate Frogs. Collect all the cards," she read.

"Chocolate frogs?" Harry asked. Just then the package jumped from her hand. It landed on the floor and bounced about. He stared at it and then his friend. "You don't think it's a real frog, do you?"

Hermione continued to eye the package warily. "Ick."

Harry made a grab at it. Holding it firmly he spied the bin it had come from and dumped it back in. "Bits of chocolate shaped like a frog. Spelled for a hopping time," he read from the description. "Each frog comes with a card depicting a famous witch or wizard. Collect all six hundred sixty-five." He turned to Hermione. "Well that's a relief."

She snorted. "Jelly Slugs, Ice Mice, Chocolate Frogs, Glow Worms, Bumble Bee Blobs, it seems like everything is animated."

"Except for the Bertie Botts Beans."

"Yes, but who wants soap flavored jelly beans?"

"Every flavor," Harry mused, "do you really suppose they made every flavor? I mean they listed troll bogie as a flavor."

"Ewwwww!" Hermione cried. She did an all over body shudder.

"What I wanna know, is who they got to taste test that?"

"Harrrrry!"

"Or worse," he continued to tease, "poo."

"STOP!" she cried and clapped her hands over her ears. "Oh, you're so gross," she complained and stomped from the store.

Harry grabbed a handful of the chocolate frogs and quickly paid for them before following her; the cards sounded interesting.

Half an hour later Harry stood next to Hermione as they perused the display case of Imma's Ice Creams. "Whew," he said after a minute, "no poo."

Hermione grabbed his arm, twisted and pinned him with his back against the case. Her nose an inch from his she growled, "I'm warning you."

Sirius leaned down by her ear. "Bit aggressive, Hermione," he whispered, "but whatever it takes to snag him, yeah?" Without blinking, Hermione stomped on Sirius' foot. "YEOW!" he howled and started hoping around.

"Girl after my own heart," Mum cackled.

"Thank you, Mrs Plynch," she stumbled over almost saying the name Potter aloud."

Mum bent down and kissed her cheek. "I do so love you, Hermione."

"I love you too, Evanna," Hermione said. "But I'm still going to kill your son."

Mum kissed her again. "I don't blame you one bit, Luv."

"What did you think?" Mum asked that night.

"It's kind of crazy," Harry said.

"It is," Mum agreed. "Sorcerers kind of have a bit more of an attitude that if you do something stupid and kill yourself, it's your own fault than non-magic folk do. And they tend to do things sometimes that non-magic people wouldn't because they just think the Healers will be able to fix them right up. And most times they can. But sometimes they can't and you end up with a pig tail on your forehead, that every time they remove it, just grows back."

Harry nodded. "But you can't argue brooms and flying carpets are way cooler than cars."

Mum laughed and pulled the covers up. "You and your flying machines."

"Flying is cool," Harry protested.

Mum leaned over and kissed his crown. "If you want to know what you got from your father, you can count a love of all things that can launch a wizard into the air."

"You really don't like it, do you?"

"Much like Hermione, I find it to be a necessary evil."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Mental, the both of you. ARRGGGH!" he cried as she pounced.

"Call me mental, will you!"

"MUMMM!" Harry laughed.

The last day of their vacation found them at the stadium on West of Key West for the match between the Florida Manatees and the Salem Sea Serpents. Both teams played in the American first division and it promised to be a good match. David Granger had been looking forward to it almost as much as Harry, so he skillfully snagged the seat next to his star pupil and plunked himself down.

Over the last year Hermione had advanced two levels to 11th Mon, but Harry had made up two levels on her, going from 5th Mon to 9th in the same timeframe. He'd likely catch her over the next year. But as much as he appreciated Harry's natural talent for his life's passion, it was Harry himself he was grateful for. The day Remus and Lily had walked through the door of his dojo with Harry in tow had been a blessing in the waiting.

He and Malala had grown increasingly concerned over their daughter's inability to relate to people her own age. She was simply too intelligent and had little to no patience for other children. Even adults could be off put by her intellect. They'd hoped sending her to the Cotswold Academy would give her a chance to find at least one friend but it just never seemed to work.

And then there had been all the strange, unexplainable things that happened around her. He'd been thrown more times than he could possibly count in his life, but never by a sixty pound, seven year old girl. That simply did not happen to an Olympic Silver Medalist; no matter how unprepared he was. Then there was the incident with the dog chasing her; glasses that suddenly exploded, objects that jumped off tables when she walked past. The scariest had happened only a week before Hermione and Harry had sparred for the first time. It'd taken a bit to get the full story from his daughter, but a group of girls had caught her outside the library and stolen a book she'd checked out. They'd been tormenting her as to what she was going to do about it when the book spontaneously combusted. The girl who'd been holding the book had received second degree burns on both hands. He'd never been a religious person, but he'd honestly begun to consider the idea his daughter might be possessed.

But then she'd met Harry and things had almost instantly begun to calm down. One friend had been all she needed to help her harness the emotions driving what was not possession, but accidental magic. Yes, they'd learned a lot of frightening things since that first conversation with Lily and Remus. There were terrifying things directly related to Harry that neither Harry nor Hermione knew of yet. But he was pretty sure Harry's presence in her life had saved his daughter.

She needed him. She needed to learn to control her magic and understand what she was. If she didn't, if they denied her the right to be who she was, he was certain they'd lose her entirely. The ministry would try to wipe her memory and bind her magic. Only Lily said she was too powerful to have her magic bound. Most likely she'd break the binds three times and she'd be taken from them. They'd be made to believe she was dead and she would believe the same of them. Horrible as that was, the alternative was worse. If she didn't break the binds, she'd not just be uncomfortable in her own skin the rest of her life, she would slowly go insane. That would happen to his daughter over his dead body.

So he and Malala had embraced the news. And done everything in their power to protect and prepare her to attend Hogwarts. They had even begun training in the Mind Magic of Occlumency. It wasn't easy. But as Andromeda had suspected, people without magic could be taught to go into their own minds. They could learn to protect themselves from Legilimens. They could even defend themselves from the Imperious Curse. Magic or no, the mind belonged to the soul and the soul could protect itself if it was determined enough.

As to other forms of magic, well, he was former SAS. He was quite practiced in not getting hit. Both Remus and Sirius assured him sorcerers were not immune to bullets and just the fact that he fought back would put him on near even ground with nearly any witch or wizard who came after his family. As a former SAS soldier, he was allowed to keep certain weapons others weren't. He was very well practiced in hitting what he aimed at with those weapons. His magical friends had been suitably disturbed by the demonstration of the damage hollow tip rounds inflicted. No, there were witches and wizards out there who were dangerous; but so was he.

"So a keeper, two beaters and four slashers?" he asked.

"Right," Harry agreed. "Slashers try and put the quaffle through one of the three hoops. The keeper tries to stop them and each goal is worth ten points. That's called the Chase."

"And the beaters use their bats to hit the bludgers at the opposing team's players to try and stop them scoring?"

"Yep," Harry agreed.

"And slashers also go after the golden snitch, right?"

"Yeah, that's called the Seek. But no player is allowed to catch it unless they've scored five goals first. Each catch is worth fifty points but you can only catch it once. You can't catch it a second time unless you score another goal. If you do earn another chance at the Seek, then a second catch is worth a hundred points."

"Can you earn a third chance to go after the snitch?"

"Yes. It almost never happens though. But you get a hundred and fifty points if you do. The most snitches by a single player in one match is seven; by Dmitry Bilozerchev. He scored a total of 1510 points in World Cup match in 1890 between the national sides of Russia and Brunei. Bilozerchev is also the only player to ever play an entire match at keeper and catch the snitch. He did it in the return match of the home and home series with Brunei. He scored a hundred points in the match and Russia won by a score of 3520-30. The first match the score was 5370-50. It remains the most lopsided home and home series in history. Brunei hasn't fielded a national team since."

"Can't say as I blame them," David said. "So keepers are allowed to score goals and go on the Seek? Can beaters do so as well?"

"They can score goals," Harry answered, "but they can't catch the snitch because they aren't allowed to ever touch any of the balls with anything but their bats. If they score a goal they have to knock it through with their bat or their broom. And they're never allowed to touch another player with their bat."

"And that's it?"

"Yep. Simple really. Except there are about a thousand different fouls that can be committed."

"A thousand?"

"Yeah, it's crazy."

"Sounds like American football," David said.

Harry shrugged. "Most of the fouls never happen cause they banned the use of a wand against an opponent during a match. They chuck you automatically if you do, and you're not allowed to replace them. Being a player down makes it impossible to keep up so no-one is willing to risk it."

"Sounds exciting."

"I can hardly wait. Salem has Taylor the Trigger, Tracer. He's supposed to be one of the best slashers in the world."

"The Trigger," David said dubiously, "I get it, but please tell me that's not his real name." Harry giggled.

"Believe it or not, it is," Tonks said, from his other side. "His dad was a star player back in the day and his teammates gave him the name. Dumb ponce gave it to his kid."

"Luck shines on fools," David chuckled.

Tonks laughed. "As I understand it, it's a good thing the bloke can play quidditch cause he's got rocks for brains."

Harry sat cross-legged on the bed with his mum across from him. It had been an amazing two days, but he was well and truly glad to be done drinking polyjuice for the time being. It was disgusting.

"Well, was it as good as you hoped?" Mum asked.

"It was amazing," Harry gushed. "I can't believe how much faster they can fly."

"Well they are on the newest brooms."

"Yeah, Nimbus 1700s," Harry agreed.

"Well, I'm glad you had fun."

"I really did. Thanks, Mum, for letting me go."

"It was never that I didn't want you to go, Harry. I'm just very scared of what someone might try to do to you."

"I know. But it all worked out. The polyjuice worked perfect and no-one suspected a thing."

Mum smiled. "Yes, it did. I know I'm going to have to let you grow up soon, but I'm still going to do everything I can to keep you safe."

"I know."

"So what was your favorite part of the trip?"

Harry thought about it. "Well, everything was really cool. And getting to hang out with Hermione all the time was really fun, but my favorite part was just being with you."

Mum reached out and pulled him into her lap, turning him so his back was to her chest and she could wrap him tightly in her arms. "I'm glad," she whispered fiercely. She kissed the back of his head and just held him.

"Mum?"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"You know the rules."

Harry nodded. He knew them alright. He wasn't always fond of them, but they were the rules and there was no point arguing with her if she wouldn't answer. He'd never once won. "Why do you get so angry when Tonks mentions Professor Snape? I'm sorry," he said almost immediately when he felt her stiffen around him. "You don't have to answer." He felt her take a number of deep breaths. "It's ok, Mum, really."

"No, Harry, you need to know this. I just wish you could have the childhood you're entitled to."

"I kind of figured it was something like that."

Mum kissed him. "You're entirely too old to be as young as you are, Harry." She kissed him again and just held him for a minute or so. Harry waited. He already knew, when it came to things like this, it took her a while as she sought the right words to answer what he asked.

"Severus and I were friends, Harry. We lived near each other." She let out a little, ironic sounding huff. "I was his Hermione. His mother was a witch and he figured out I was too. Only we liked each other a bit more than you two. When we went to Hogwarts I was sorted into Gryffindor while he was placed in Slytherin."

"Slytherin?" Harry blurted.

"Andromeda was in Slytherin, Harry. Don't judge by generalities and don't interrupt."

"Sorry," Harry said contritely.

Mum kissed him. "I'm sorry too. I don't mean to snap. This is just very hard."

"Okay."

Mum took a breath and started again. "Somehow we managed to stay friends for a while. And the summer before fourth year we even dated; if you can call it that. It was very innocent, but I called him my boyfriend and kissed him. But when we returned to school he wanted to hide our relationship. For a while I agreed. But I eventually got fed up and demanded he acknowledge our relationship publicly. When he refused I broke up with him. He was furious. I was too. We didn't speak for more than a year… But I missed him terribly.

"As bad as things were between us, it was fifth year when it turned really ugly. Your father, Sirius, Peter and Remus had always been at odds with Severus. Severus gave back plenty, but the reality is your father was a terrible bully. The four of them ganged up on Severus one day and really had a go at him. I broke the fight up, cursed your father and Sirius something terrible. Remus and Peter got off a bit lighter.

"Severus was horrified that he'd needed to be saved by a girl. He yelled at me, swore at me and called me a Mudblood. I slapped him so hard I drew blood. He tried to apologize, but I told him he needed to choose between me and his Slytherin friends. He chose them… I was devastated. And I was furious with your father and his friends.

"Remus and I were very close. We were friends before he was friends with your father and the rest. I had told him Severus had been my boyfriend. I'd begun research at the start of fifth year, trying to create the Wolfsbane potion. I never stopped working on it, but it was six months before I even let him apologize. Peter, Sirius and your father, I wouldn't even look at till after sixth year started.

"Your father grew up a lot sixth year. He went from dating a new girl every few weeks to a single girl from the beginning of the year to just after Christmas. He didn't date anyone else the rest of the year. And he didn't pick on people anymore. He actually started putting a stop to some of the other bullies in the school. On the train ride home that year he asked if he could write me that summer. I was still very leery of him, but agreed. He wrote me every week. I wrote twice. He asked me out at the start of our seventh year. I turned him down. He didn't give up and I finally agreed to go to Hogsmeade with him that March… We eventually ended up with you." Harry could feel her smiling around him as she said that last bit.

But then she went on. "Severus on the other hand became a Death Eater. He was in the same pub as Dumbledore when the prophecy was made. He overheard part of it and told his master," she said bitterly. "I think he realized Voldemort had decided to target you, and by extension me. He went to Dumbledore and became a spy for him in the war. But the damage was already done."

"He betrayed you to Voldemort?" Harry whispered.

"No, he betrayed you."

"Me?"

"The night Voldemort came for you, he told me he'd promised to spare me, that Severus had begged him for my life if I would only step aside and let him kill you?"

Harry frowned; trying to understand everything she'd told him. He didn't like the things he'd learned about his father, but it fit with some of the things his mum had said about him in the past. His dad had been a prat, but changed and she eventually fell in love with him. "So he only cared if Voldemort killed you, not me or dad?"

"Yes."

"He hated dad, didn't he?"

"Yes, Harry. Not always without reason. But the man I married was not the boy who tormented Severus. Your father grew up, became a man and won my heart. Severus remained a child and lost it."

Harry turned around to face her. "Do you hate him?"

Mum's lip twitched and her eyes, unhidden by the contacts she wore, blazed an emerald green fury. "Nothing, will ever be enough for me to forgive him."

Harry held her eyes for another few moments before he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Thank you for telling me the truth."

HPHPHP

Author's notes:

And we're finished at Disney. I hope everyone enjoyed seeing Harry's interactions with the various members of his surrogate family.

Quidditch, I've written stories with JKR's rules and without. The fact is I am not a fan of the rules she created. My first issue is I really don't see it as a team sport. Honestly, you might as well get rid of everyone but the seekers. My second issue is that individuals wins and losses don't really matter. The season champion is determined by the total number of points your team scores over all matches. That means a strong defensive team that wins all it's games, but doesn't neccssarily score a lot of points will come in second for the season to a team it beat because that team was built to score bucket loads of points and did so in every game but the one it lost to the defensive minded team. Anyway, the point is I don't like JKR's quidditch rules so I changed them. I think mine make more sense in a sporting sense, but others may not. Anyway, real simply here's how it works

1 Keeper: no real change to JKR's creation

2 Beaters: No real change to JKR's creation. Though they can score goals as long as they don't touch the quaffle with their hands. Not sure if they can in JKR's version or not, but they can here. They can never catch the snitch because they can't touch any of the balls with their hands.

4 Slashers: These are JKR's Chasers, but 4 instead of 3 because the Seeker is eliminated. Slashers try to score with the quaffle; this part of the game is referred to as the Chase.

Once a Slasher scores 5 goals in a match they are eligible to catch the snitch once. A catch is worth 50 points. A Slasher after the snitch is said to be on the Seek.

Once a Slasher makes a catch of the Snitch, they must score another goal before they can make a second catch of the snitch. A second catch is worth 100 points. A Slasher making two catches of the snitch in a match will have scored a minimum of 210 points. 5 goals for 50 points, then a snitch for 50 points, total 100 points, then another goal for 10 points, total 110 points, then a second snitch for 100 points, total 210 points.

A third snitch can be caught by the same Slasher but only if they score a seventh goal for the match. A fourth would require eight goals, a fifth, nine goals and on and on. Snitches go up in value for each subsequent catch. 1 catch 50 points, 2 catches 100 points, 3 catches, 150 points, and on and on and on.

A Slasher can also bank snitches; meaning if you score 5 goals you can go seeking, but your team may choose to have you stay in the Chase and you score a 6th or 7th goal before you've caught a single snitch. If a Slasher has scored 6 goals they have banked two snitches. The first catch would be worth 50 points. A second catch would be worth 100 points.

Hopefully that is a decent explanation of the rules. You'll get to see how the strategy plays out later, but I found it to be fun writing quidditch matches again with the changes. The thing about the Chase and the Seek that throws a loop is getting a player on 5 goals is great. You send them up to Seek a 50 point snitch, but the other team might choose not to defend that snitch, which means you are now playing 3 Slashers against 4. Which means the other team might score 5 goals before your Slasher catches the snitch! Again, hopefully you'll see when we get to Hogwarts and it will clear up some. I guess, just try to bear with me.

Lily and Snape. Well, now you've got the background. I'm certain people will be unhappy that she dated him, but I decided to have her do so. He wasn't always a horrid person and one thing I never got from JKR about Lily is that she would have cared at all about what house her boyfriend was in. She always saw the heart of the person. As Remus said, she was an uncommonly kind woman.

One more, split chapter to go and that will be it for Muggle's Daughter. It'll be time to head to Hogwarts!

Also, for anyone looking for an interesting story, head on over to Nifty Niffler's page and check out The Beast Within and Unity in Diversity! Actually, check out all her stuff. There are some really great reads there if you've not yet your way to her page.