Chapter 8 Growing Up a Bit

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The last week of his restriction went pretty much the same as the time he was bedridden, only with school added. When they were finally free, Harry and his friends spent most of their free time exploring. They didn't wait for Player to be able to join them, which pissed the half-goblin off, but there was little they could do about it. He'd just have to deal or not, they weren't going to put their lives on hold because his mum was stricter.

The outer rim of the city, which they still called the City of Z, was uninhabited. So there were many empty buildings to examine. They found small treasures like pottery, jewels and a bit of gold. They were allowed to keep whatever they found as long as it wasn't dangerous.

Player finally got off restriction and right now they were all looking in an abandoned shop that had weird gizmos.

"Look at this thing," Harry called his friends over so they could see what he held in his hand. It was strangely shaped, like an octagon, and appeared to be a small pamphlet with squiggly lines. The thing that caught his attention was the wizard's picture in the front. It was a young man, in a loincloth, with a snake wrapped around his neck. The man moved in a depictive way as if to show a great feat of magic. Then the whole scene would darken, like the lights went out and then start again.

"Wicked," Zack said as he observed the picture. "I wonder what it says?" his eyes narrowed in concentration at the wiggly lines.

"Harry, that looks like parselscript," Player said as he examined the writing. "I think if you focus hard enough you should be able to read it. Maybe it's a map to treasure." His eyes got that glint in them that he always got when gold was involved.

Harry had told all of his friends about his ability. With all the snakes that inhabited the dome, he felt it would get out sooner or later and it was better to just let them know. To his surprise they all accepted it without qualm. He reckoned that it was because they had all been persecuted in one way or another. Zeeb thought Harry was a wonder; parseltongue was well revered in his old tribe.

"Maybe," Harry conceded and squinted his eyes to see if he could read it. After a minute the words formed to English, well that's how it appeared to the parselmouth, to the rest of the explorers it was still just squiggly lines. "Oh, it says that parseltongue can be used for a different type of magic, but all this does, is give a short description and list the scrolls one is supposed to read."

"Useless then," Player said and walked away. If it didn't have to do with money then it was not important.

"Et is not uselez, et can be very 'elpful. All you need iz to find ze parchments and zen maybe you will be even more powerful," Jean said, slapping Harry on the back. The group had long ago accepted that Harry was the most magically powerful of them, Zeeb knew more of the rainforest, Jake had the brute strength, Jean had a wicked mind, Zack was the planner and Player the craftier. All of these traits made their adventures fun and profitable.

"Right, now all we have to do is find the stores or libraries that has the scrolls, or see if the curse breakers found any in the temple." Harry nodded his head decisively and put the pamphlet in his pocket.

"Well, let's get to looking," Jake said as he turned to leave this store to find the one with the scrolls. They looked for the better part of the afternoon, until the sun went down and then they acknowledged defeat and went home.

That night after a great dinner of Bouillabaisse (house elves were wonderful at getting things they couldn't get in the city like fish and other ingredients), Harry talked to Sirius. "Hey, Sirius," he said as he sat in his chair. "Did the treasure hunters find any scrolls with squiggly lines on them?"

"A few. Why?" his godfather answered, and then sipped his tea.

"They are parselscript. I was hoping to take a look at them," the teen perked up. "I found a small book that noted which ones would teach me or any parselmouth a different form of magic. It said that this magic was quicker and stronger the wandless magic of the old city. So, I wanted to see if it was better than Latin based." He sat up and expressed his eagerness to learn a new way.

"Tell you what, after the holidays we'll take a look. Right now the curse breakers are still going through the pyramid. They are right ticked that you won't give them the answers to the puzzles." The older man gave a mocking glare; he actually found it funny that Harry was making them work for the treasures.

"If I did the puzzles will change. It's supposed to be a challenge," Harry defended himself with a huff.

"Right, so, yeah, after New Year's, if they are done, I'll take you and your classmates down the tunnels," the older man promised. "And we'll look over those scrolls." He figured maybe it was time to give Harry some more adult responsibility.

"That's great," Harry said, getting up from his chair. "I'm going to go and read that pamphlet, maybe it'll tell me more." And he left the room to do just that.

He got a letter from his best friend the next day, Hermione wrote constantly and poor Dobby was getting exhausted from popping back and forth. She kept him abreast of the news and gossip, which was more of the same, Dark Wizard, criminal, blah, blah, blah. All of her letters were bad, a lot said how much she missed him and how lonely she was, making Harry feel the need to go and kidnap her. She wasn't having a good time at Hogwarts and Harry did ask if she wanted to join him. She was reluctant to ask her parents to uproot their lives just so she could reunite with her only friend. Harry knew if war broke out it would be different, but he could see her point of view and left the offer open. Though Harry never told where he was, they shared their lives and fears in those long letters and got to be even closer friends.

The six adventures continued to scour the city for small treasures and while they played and explored the adults worked to build a nirvana. The City of Z was now over one thousand strong. And the Council felt it was enough for now. If war broke out in the other countries, they would invite those who were persecuted or discriminated against. Since they knew Voldemort wasn't dead, they kept a close eye on Britain. The free elves were paid to obtain newspapers from all over the world so they could keep up with what was happening.

Right now the government still consisted of the Council of Elders; they were debating on whether or not to have elections for when they retired. Jeuel was getting too old and he wanted someone younger to take his place. Sirius was the head of the Council, because it was he and Harry that founded the City of Z, so he had final voice in all debates. Matta and Melampus were the seconds, since the herd led them to here. Jeuel was the third for translating the ward stone.

Had Harry been old enough he would be the leader, but they all agreed not to put that burden on him right now, though they did ask him now and then about the structure of the leaders of City of Ci. Harry was more than happy to impart that information to them. Sirius took his time to educate his godson on running a government, so when Harry was old enough he could run for leader. Well, that was the plan, but it was up to the teen whether or not he wanted to.

Vows of loyalty to the city and its people were being written and debated on. They wanted to make sure they were foolproof before implementing them. They were using the temple as their offices and setting up departments, such as law enforcement, research and development and public relations and so on. A lot of people found work in the departments and the economy was starting to grow.

The new paradise was getting along okay, the stores were profitable, the newspaper was factual and flourished and the treasures found in the temple were put in a city coffer to pay the new government workers. The bank was a success and the farms were fruitful. Every culture had a voice on the Council and the laws were passed to help all of the communities. The different races did clash and the Aurors were called out to break up fights. So far that had been the worst of the problems. The wards prevented any outright crime.

Most of the citizens still migrated to their own kind, but the inner city was a delightful combination of them all. The mixture of food and drink was a huge success. The many diners, pubs and coffee/tea houses made eating out an adventure. Clothing shops opened with mixed designs and females flocked to them.

Now that the people weren't repressed, new inventions, spells and artifacts flooded the stores. Electricity didn't work in the city, so many spell crafters were coming up with ways to duplicate muggle things. They now had lights for their houses and the streets that were permanent Lumos' rune imbedded on to a crystal, which the dwarves were mining, which could be placed on the walls or poles. To turn it off, you simply tapped the rune and it would dim into a nightlight, tap it again and it went out. Many were thankful for the new lighting and even the fairies found them to be wonderful; they would flock to the lights when they were on and make the room brighter.

The inventors did get a handheld radio to work and a station was set up for news and music, which spun off to a recording studio being created. They also invented something equivalent to a small computer, which they put in the local library and government offices. It was more of a data collector and reader than a regular computer, but it was helpful to store records and books. They were working hard and developing something like the internet. Sirius passed on his knowledge of the mirrors and soon everyone had a new communication device. This product would go a long way into getting the internet running.

Floos were also connected, but they were mostly used for travel. Harry, with the understanding of the elders of old, showed them a new way to move about the city. He called it Stepping, because that's what you did. You stepped from one spot and appeared in another. To do this you required the knowhow to create a temporary rip in space, making a doorway and then stepping through. It was hard to accomplish, so Apparation was still the main way to travel for the magicals. The non-magicals got by with horses, mules and carriages. The house elves and others hired out as street cleaners and were paid by the city coffers. The Department of Transportation was one of the first to be set up.

Taxes, much to everyone's dismay, were set on all merchandise. They hadn't set up a wage or yearly tax yet, but the council was hammering out the details. They wanted to make sure to it was equal to everyone, but there were still things they had to consider, so it was slow going.

With magical household items, waste was not an issue. The wells were cleaned and marked with runes to make the water flow to wherever it was needed. Non-magicals were able to use this system, much to their relief. Loo waste was simply banished. Garbage was collected and recycled or banished; a department in the government was in charge of that.

Iago, Gundabald and Firenze were still teaching at the magical school. Iago taught History, of course. Gundabald was relaying theory, while Firenze did Divination. They had professors for all the other subjects and everyone was getting an education. There was a smaller school set up for non-magical classes and the younger kids or the older non-magicals went there. There was talk of a University, but funding and lack of people were still being debated on. So right now, apprenticeship programs were being utilized.

Quidditch and Quadpot teams were formed and Harry got his seeker's spot on one. They only had two teams for each sport, which would play about once a month. They were hopeful on getting another team, because it would get boring and monotonous to play the same people over and over. The smaller school didn't have enough players to form football teams, so they only played pickup games during recess and after school with those magicals that knew how.

Weeks passed and the day of the first task came and Harry stayed home from school, with a chuckling Sirius's permission. He paced and fretted all day.

"I don't know why you're so worried. I told you that you're safe," Sirius said with a grin. "Don't you trust me?" he asked with a mockingly hurt look. He wasn't worried. He knew far more about magical contracts than Harry did, but it amused him that the teen was so concerned.

"I do trust you," Harry said earnestly. "It's my luck I don't trust. Nor do I trust the adults in Britain. With all the things The Prophet and Fudge are spouting, who knows what they've done to get me to come back." Many unrealistic scenarios were flickering through his thoughts. Like a distant portkey that would pull him to the task unwillingly or the goblet being confounded to rip him of his magic anyway.

"You know, even if your theories were correct and you somehow lost your magic, I'd still love you," Sirius said with a bit of force. He grabbed the pacing boy and looked into his eyes to show he was serious.

"You would? You wouldn't think I'm useless or a freak?" Harry's past coming into play.

"Damn those Dursleys, if I was to ever go back to England, they'd be first on my list. Harry, you are like a son to me. I'd love you even if you were a deformed house elf," Sirius said, giving the fretting boy a hug.

"Thanks," the teen said, hugging him back. "That does help, but I am also worried about Voldemort. We know he is alive and probably the reason I'm in this mess to begin with. I know he can't come here, but he is a Dark Wizard, who knows what magic he has that no one else knows." More fatalistic situations flooded his brain.

That remark made Sirius stop and think. There were many things people could do to try and get Harry to return. Magical Britain and the so-called Dark Lord wanted this teen whether he was famous or infamous. Sirius only hoped that the wards and the fact that the horcrux was gone were enough to protect his godson. He had no idea how powerful in mind magic Voldemort had become over the years.

Sirius had written Remus with the knowledge of the horcruxes, so he could pass that information on to Dumbledore. He would be damned if he or Harry would search for them. No, he gave them what he knew and left it in their hands.

So the two men paced together until late at night, only to fall into a fitful sleep in their chairs. Dobby covered them both up with a blanket and shook his head at their sleeping forms. He'd wake them if they started to have nightmares.

It was early the next morning when Dobby brought a letter from Hermione; she told him what had happened. It seems the man they thought was an ex-Auror, Alastor Moody, who had been teaching DADA, was actually a supposedly dead man, whose name they weren't told. When the final scores for the task were given, this man started to morph. He bubbled and changed, then screamed as his magic was ripped from him. It was decided that he was the one to put Harry's name in the goblet. They didn't know why, because after five minutes of screaming the man died.

Then Hermione told him how the others did in the task and after reading about the dragons, Harry was thankful that Sirius asked him to escape with him. He did wonder if the gossip and the newspapers would stop calling him a Dark Wizard. He got his answers a few days later.

Hermione sent him a copy of the Daily Prophet. They had printed a retraction and were now calling for the Boy Who Lived to come home. With the news of a Death Eater putting Harry in danger, the public feared that something foul was afoot. Well, not the Ministry. Harry didn't care why they suddenly changed their tune, but he was half tempted to write to them and tell them to piss off. Sirius had talked him out of it, citing that they would just start vilifying him again.

There was another article stating that someone named Bartemius Crouch Sr. was arrested for breaking his son, who was the dead Death Eater, out of Azkaban and using an Unforgivable on him.

Weeks of nothing happening passed and Christmas would be coming soon and Harry was extremely happy. He had family and friends to celebrate with. He didn't fear for his life, much, nor was he stuck in his cupboard. He shopped with unrelenting glee, purchasing everything he thought others would like. He bought Hermione a copy of one of the translated scrolls that taught how to do the wandless magic. He even got Ron a small box of goblin chocolate, since the redhead had written him and apologized for his hot-headedness. He was still leery about the boy, who was now talking to Hermione, but he would give him another chance.

He got Jake a new broom designed for the half-giants and a gift certificate to the wand maker. Zach was to be given a substantial gift certificate to the clothing and shoe store, since he was always in secondhand clothes. Zeeb was given a few of the magical gizmos to make his home more modern. Jean's gift was a new watch, which was like the Weasley clock and told time. To Harry it was confusing, but the saleswoman told him that you got used to it. Player's present was a ruby encrusted pendant that Harry had found while they were exploring. He made sure to add a note so the half-goblin didn't take it the wrong way.

The dark-haired teen didn't forget his friends and teachers from the herd and purchased crafting material for them, though he bought books and scrolls for his tutors and the two leaders. He had visited the herd often and learned more about them. Nalla was always excited to see him, she wasn't allowed in the city often and though she liked the other foals, she was an adventurer at heart. She couldn't wait until she was old enough to move away from the herd. She would be the first Centaur to move into the city.

The city took on a strange look. The new lighting was utilized and fairies were everywhere, but without snow it was completely different than back home. In this country at this time of year, there was rain, which was refreshing after the summer's heat. The dome glittered gold, which made the fairies and lights dimmer and not as festive. So the elves were hired to go to other magical communities and buy boughs of holly, fir, and cedar. Evergreen trees were also purchased and dressed up. Now the whole city was green with decoration. This was perfect.

Hermione wrote him about the Yule Ball and told him who her date was. He was happy for his friend. She told him what she was going to be wearing and how her hair was going to be done and the teen's libido spiked. He had never thought of Hermione as a girl, but from her description, he pictured how she'd look and was now convinced she was all female and those thoughts caused many nice dreams. Sirius teased him mercilessly whenever he blushed over remembering them, though Harry never said who he was dreaming of.

There were girls his age here, and he also fantasized about them. Now, with the thoughts of Hermione, he was taking a closer look at other girls. But all that really did was make him miss his best friend more.

Christmas was loads of fun. They had decorated their small house with boughs of cedar and the entire place smelled wonderfully like Yule. There was a small tree with glass ornaments and fairy lights. The fireplace held four stockings, one for him, Sirius, Dobby and Winky. Mounds of cheerfully wrapped presents were under said tree.

That morning Harry got up and had a simple breakfast of eggs and toast. He woke Sirius and they settled in the living room and opened presents. Harry got a new broom, a radio, a computer and new clothes from Sirius. He gave Sirius a new watch, like Jeans, a recording of the new rock band, The Soulers, and a gift certificate to the French restaurant that his godfather loved. Dobby and Winky got new clothes and useful crafting supplies. From Harry's friends he mostly got candy and small gizmos, his mates weren't as well off as he was and he was happy to get anything from them, though Zeeb and made him a bow and arrow set with the promise to teach him how to use it.

They had three different sets of carolers come by their house that day. They listened to them with pride and joy. They ate a nice dinner of ham, pheasant, potatoes, stuffing and other dishes. Stuffed full, they sat in their chairs to digest the feast.

"So," Sirius stated cautiously, "are you pleased you came with me?" he glanced at the teen, hoping for a positive answer.

"You bet, these last few months have been the best time of my life," Harry answered with passion. "I have a family, friends and adventures. What more could anyone ask for?" his face brightened with a huge smile.

"Good, I'm glad, I still worry sometimes," Sirius said seriously. He had his doubts off and on, but this conversation would go a long way in quelling them.

"Sirius, you're like a dad to me. You're loads better than the Dursleys. The only thing I regret is leaving Hermione behind."

"There's still the possibility she'll have to run here. Voldemort is still out there planning something," his godfather warned.

"I know, but I was hoping she'd come on her own," the teen said, a blush staining his cheeks.

"You rascal, when did you get those feelings for Hermione?" Sirius teased, reaching over and mussing up his godson's hair. He was happy for the lighter topic.

"I'm a teenage boy, I get those feeling for any girl," Harry denied quickly.

"Right, you know I was a teenager once and I know how your mind works," his godfather said with a playful grin. "Do we need to have The Talk?" He sat up in his chair, all joking aside and looked at the teen in front of him.

"Well, Player and Jean have been talking about things they do with girls, but most of it doesn't make sense," Harry confessed, slouching in his chair.

"That's just bragging, most of what you hear is bullshit and you'd do well not to pay attention to it. So listen close and I'll tell you what really goes on between men and women," Sirius said in a lecturing tone. So one hour of embarrassing conversation later and Harry had a better understanding on the functioning and thinking of teenagers, male or female.

Boxing Day was a day of sales and Harry and Sirius took full advantage of it. New Year's passed with fireworks and celebration. The Aurors earned their pay that night.

It was a week after they were back in school when Iago told them that they would be going on a field trip to the pyramid. The class was ecstatic. They were more than happy to finally get to see the hidden treasure rooms. Though the government was using the temple, the mazes were left in a museum like fashion. Only the gold and scrolls were taken from them. There was an admission, which went into the city coffers. Sirius paid for the field trip.

So the next Monday Sirius came and they all walked to the new museum. Iago stayed behind, because he didn't like to go up those stairs. The class and their guide had to go through the atrium to get to the door. Harry noted that the old throne room was still intact; the only difference was the Stepping and Apparation points that were used for the government workers. Floos were not connected here, but they were working on a room for that. There were muggles and squibs employed here, so there was a stable set up to the right side of the pyramid for them.

The throne was now behind a shimmering silver shield, you could look, but you couldn't touch. The statues and pillars were still present and polished even further than they had been. The armament still hung on the walls, mostly since they couldn't get it down. Each item had a placard that explained what it was, when it was crafted, and to Harry's embarrassment, how the throne had passed on its knowledge.

The class went through the doors and followed behind Sirius and a curse breaker named Paul. The two adults led the whispering teenagers to the main opening of the maze.

"Listen up, you guys," Paul said in a loud voice. "You need to stick with me or Sirius. These mazes are easy to get lost in. There is nothing dangerous, but I can't tell you how many times we've had to go looking for someone. So stay with us." and with that he turned and went down the first passage.

The walls were packed dirt with wooden beams as support. They were lit with the new lighting and the whole hall was bright, well as bright as dirt can get. They walked on for about five minutes when they came across the first puzzle. Paul explained how the curse breakers had to solve the problem to move forward, something about weights and balances, which Harry wasn't paying much attention to. No, his mind was on the statue of a bizarre creature that seemed to be guarding the puzzle. It was waist high and looked like a cross between a dog and a man; it had a large dog's body, but a man's head. Harry wondered if it barked or spoke. He didn't think there was such a creature and that it was for scare tactics only, but it still was a sight to behold.

As Paul solved the trick, they moved on. The walls started getting shoddier, like the people who dug them were running out of time. The puzzles were harder to solve with concealed levers and hidden doorways. More strange statues appeared, making the teens ohh and aww.

Deep down in the pyramid, they got to the empty treasure room where the gold had been held. This room was marble and gold; it was magically expanded and stood two hundred square feet. Paul's voice echoed in the room while he explained that the treasure was now in Barkley's and, no, he wasn't going to tell you how much.

They moved on to where the scrolls were found, this room was also magically expanded to fifty square feet. It walls were polished wood, with wooden bookcases that had cubbyholes where the documents had been stored. There was a blank space where stone tablets had laid. Now the scrolls and tablets were in the hands of the Educational and Spell Research Departments. They would be going over everything and updating both schools' curriculum.

Paul ventured further into the maze and the teens followed, the last room was left intact. This room was also marble and gold and held armaments and tapestries of the story of the desertion of the City of Ci. The people on the tapestry moved as the story unfolded. There was a picture of the vengeful seer making her prophecy, the Goddess they were supposed to have affronted, and the scene of the people leaving. Then the story moved on to the creating of the mazes and the draining of the leaders' magic. Then someone painted, by hand, the betrayal the aforementioned seer.

The reason this was left alone was because Harry had already told the tale and they didn't want to disturb the treasure unless they had to. It made the class recollect the marking on the stone walls that lined the city, which didn't move. Those walls told of the day to day life of the people who used to live here.

Twice Player tried to leave the group and twice his friends stopped him. He glared at them and huffed away. Harry was still being good, his punishment and the weakness he felt after the throne weren't that long in the past. The third time Player tried to leave his mates just shook their heads and let him. They all watched as he snuck behind Sirius and headed out the door.

Sirius was counting heads when they came out of the Story Room. "Where's Player," he asked.

"Don't know, he slipped off just after we came to this room," Harry said with a shrug.

"And you didn't try and stop him," his godfather asked with a lifting of an eyebrow, not really mad, just curious.

"Actually, Mr. Black, we did, but he left anyway," Jake jumped to Harry's defense. It wasn't their responsibility to keep Player in check.

"Right, sorry. Paul could you send a Patronus to the search team?" the older man asked. He still couldn't cast that spell and for some reason the mirrors didn't work in the tunnels.

"Yeah," the curse breaker sighed, cast the spell and a silver swallow came out of his wand. He knew some kid would sneak off, so they had made sure the search team was ready. It had been debated on whether or not to have more adults on the tour, but they wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.

"Right, let's get the rest of you back to the top," Sirius said after the Patronus was sent.

The teens groaned and dragged their feet, but eventually made it to the entranceway, where they were reunited with a very disgruntled Player. The half-goblin shot his friends a glare and they all gave him a don't-look-at-me look in return and jerked their heads to Sirius, who was watching the byplay with a smirk.

"Harry, you come with me. The rest of you brats follow Paul back to school," Sirius said with a teasing grin.

So everyone left and only Harry and Sirius remained behind. "Why am I here?" the confused teen asked.

"I thought you wanted to look over the parselscript scrolls?" Sirius said with a tilt of his head.

"Really? Now?" Harry all but bounced on his toes.

"Yes, really, and, yes, now. The Spell Research Department wants them translated. So after today, you'll be working part-time after school. That's if you want to," his godfather said as he turned and let the way to the other side of the main hall.

"Of course, I want to. Will I be paid?" Harry questioned, though he knew Sirius won't make him do work for free.

"Don't be daft, of course, you'll be paid. I think they are going to give you the going rate of twenty galleons a week. It's what most department workers are paid."

"Wow, that's great." He swelled with pride at his new job.

The two men went down some marble halls to an office that consisted of five overflowing desks and two large tables. Each desk had a diligent person poring over a scroll, wearing what looked like latex gloves. The two tables were also laden with paper, parchment and stone or marble tablets and were also surrounded by workers. In the back of the room there was an unoccupied desk, which had piles of parchment and a few tablets on it. It was set far enough back that Harry had missed it when he came in.

Sirius led him to this desk and said, "Here is where you'll be working. Make sure you wear the gloves, even though there are preservation charms on the scrolls, the Head of the department doesn't want them smudged. See that woman over by the first table? The one with the blonde hair? She's in charge. Her name is Ms. Feltre; if you need anything just ask her." He ruffled Harry's hair and nudged him to sit.

"You're leaving?" Harry asked, feeling suddenly out of his depth.

"I have to work too, you know? Don't worry; I'll be back for you in a few hours. When you come after school tomorrow, you'll work four hours. That's it, no longer than four a day," his godfather said firmly.

"Right, four hours, got it." Harry settled into the chair, put on the gloves and grabbed a pen and paper, then one of the parchments and set to work. He worked hard for those few hours, getting frustrated, because he kept doing the translations in parselscript, then he'd have to do them over. Finally he got the idea of using a dicta-quill and trying to read the scrolls in English, which had better results.

Parselmagic was easier than Latin, because if you wanted to heal someone all you had to do was hiss 'heal' and it would do so. This spell was used for broken bones, injuries and minor illness. It could work on major illness if the person was magically strong enough. There had been three parselmouths in the City of Ci, and they were revered as healers and snake charmers. This knowledge hadn't been passed on to Harry when he sat in the throne, because those three weren't elders.

Soon it was time to go home and Harry passed his finished work to Ms. Feltre. She beamed at him and took the file. It would be up to someone else to enter the data in the government computers.

The weeks passed in a flurry of work, Quidditch, practicing his parselmagic and exploring. Hermione continued to write about the happenings of Hogwarts and the rumors of what was being done to find Harry. She wrote about the argument she and Ron had got in during the Yule Ball. They made up, but she was still miffed about it. Dumbledore still questioned her, but she stopped telling him anything. She was getting upset at the man for his constant bombardment of questions that she couldn't answer. The closer she got to Harry, the more she wanted to protect her friend.

Harry's adolescent dreams continued and he started dating some of the other girls in school. Make out sessions were fun, but they lacked a certain spark. He told Sirius that and his godfather laughed at him and said, "Just go with it. You'll find your lady love one day. Right now, you're just a kid. Make out, experiment, but don't go too far," He warned in a strict voice, then broke down in laughter again at Harry's blushing face.

"I'm not," the teen defended with a glare. "You know you're supposed to be telling me to leave the girls alone until I'm married," Harry chastised the laughing man.

"Well, I'd be a right hypocrite if I did that. No, what I am going to tell you is don't have sex until you are married, but making out—go for it," was the reply from the chuckling man.

"Prat."

"In all seriousness, Harry, boys will experiment and as long as the girl is willing I'm not going to stop you. Not that there is a parent alive that can," Sirius said thoughtfully, "Well, maybe Player's mum."

Player had been grounded for a month again and his mum had taken away his allowance, which to Player was the worse punishment. Her voice could be heard all over the city, she reamed him something awful. She threatened him with dire consequences if he got them kicked out of the city with his greed and mischief. Harry felt sorry for the guy, but he was still keeping an eye on him as well. He had no idea what the half-goblin thought he would find in the tunnels.

So with Sirius's blessing he continued to date. He would mostly take the girl to dinner and then walk around the city. There really wasn't much to do for teens, well, there was one club that had been opened and sometimes Harry took his date there, but it was dancing. He complained to Sirius making the man have another laughing fit. Then his godfather took pity on him and taught him how to dance, which made the dates more enjoyable.

Time marched on and the City of Z was a thriving community. Harry would walk around and look at the differences between what they had before and what they had now and he would swell with pride. He still continued his job in the research department, because even after the parselscript scrolls were done, thanks to the throne, he knew the old language. When he wasn't working, playing Quidditch or doing homework, he was hanging out with his friends. There were still places to explore and treasure to find.

Harry and Sirius were quite content with their lives. It was a letter from Hermione that dampened that.