I Do Not Own Harry Potter. I would like to, but I don't. So this Fanfiction will do for now.
Chapter 3: Family Time Is Fun Time
Harry woke up feeling happy. It was a good way to start the morning so he thought he'd go downstairs and make himself some breakfast. 'Maybe I'll try eggs and buttered bagels. And I haven't had coffee in months.'
He tried to get out his bed when he realized he was quite stuck. A pair of arms were keeping him from moving. Turning over he sees his mother lying beside him with a smile on her face.
'It's an odd thing. I remember the Lily of my old life being quite cold to me. Never talking to me let alone giving me a smile. Now that I think about it it's like these two are totally different…people…'
"Can we go down to have breakfast mum? We could have eggs and toast." Lily's smile widened. "Yes we can. Tempus." She checked the time. "It's still early so it'll just be you and I for breakfast."
"Okay. I'll go wash up and then meet you in the kitchen." Lily nodded and headed for the door. Once she left Harry cast Finite Incantatum on himself and discovered several restrictions on his magical core including several weakened repulsion and aggression charms keyed towards his mother.
'Thankfully I didn't inherit mum's temper or else I just might end up with no father to be mad at.' Harry ran the shower and spent most of it dispelling certain charms that had not only restricted his magic but sapped away at it.
'No wonder I died so soon into the battle with Tom. I've never been at full magical strength before. Woah! Does this mean I'll get taller too!?' "Yes!" 'Oops. Hope no one heard that.' Luckily for him, no one did.
(A/N Quick Wizarding Fact: Magic not only extend their lifespans, it also helps Wizards and Witches mature faster than a Muggle child would. So rather than looking like a three year old, Harry looks and acts to be nearly five or even six. In fact, most of the wizarding world doesn't really care much for age. Only status, prestige, and capabilities.)
After getting out of the shower and getting dressed he headed to the kitchen to find his mother arguing with Hokey. He chuckled to himself as he remembered quite fondly the nights where Hokey would help him sleep by holding him and humming to him.
She would tell him of the misadventures she had with her 'Mistress Lily'. The daily battles of how a house elf must cook for their Mistresses' rather than the other way around. How her Mistress always 'threatened' to pay her for her hard work.
'It really is wonderful to see Hokey again.' When he went off to school he could only really see her during the breaks. And once he was of age he distanced himself from his family by moving out. He missed her. More than he realized.
Once the argument was won by a rather worked up Hokey, Lily came out to set the table. The two had apparently established a compromise. Harry walked into the kitchen and up to Hokey and before she could say anything he gave her a nice long hug.
Lily stuck her head in to say something to Hokey but upon seeing the hug between her son and the squirming and protesting house elf she slipped back into the dining room without another word.
Meanwhile Hokey was freaking out and stammering "Young master Harry musn't hug Hokey! Hokey is being very concerned for young master! Very bad to hug a lowly house elf!" Harry only hugged her closer. "That's nonsense Hokey. You're no lowly house elf. You're a member of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter. And more importantly you're my friend, my family."
Any inkling of a struggle Hokey put up suddenly disappeared at Harry's words. Slowly her arms reached up and wrapped around him. "H-hokey is happy to hear y-young master say s-such kind words to Hokey."
As Lily looked on through a crack in the door she couldn't help but smile to herself about her son. The new light in her life. As the effects of the repulsion charms placed on Harry were no longer affecting her she felt better freer than she had in several years (A/N Approximately two according to the story's timeline.)
Harry walked out of the kitchen wearing a bright smile and sat down at the table across from Lily. A plate of eggs and toast appeared in front of him and his mother but also a stack of pancakes with a blueberry smiley face.
As he dug in with great fervor he thought to himself. 'Hokey. You are sooo getting a getting paid.'
Scene Break
After breakfast the mother and son pair took a trip to the Malfoy's to meet with some friends that Lily recently made. Harry must be making bigger waves than he thought he was because to his knowledge, his mother never had any real friends that she knew outside of the ones James knew.
Speaking of which, Harry was glad that she was being smart enough to have a wide range of friends of all backgrounds. Having only certain types of people as friends can get rather tedious.
And while Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater at one point during his youth he, like several others, came to regret joining when their "Master" showed little regard for his own men safety and even took pleasure in their suffering at the hands of his cruciatus curse.
Lucius joined the Dark Lord's cause in order to prevent the danger that Muggleborns posed to their ancient traditions. He had not expected their mission of self-preservation to be elevated to a full blown war between them and the ministry.
Needless to say several ex-Death Eaters had the same train of thought and had gotten off scott free with the death of their "Master" as well as claims of being under the imperius before the Wizengamot.
Some of the more notable turncoats include Narcissa Malfoy nee Black(not marked but repentant nonetheless), Alecto and Amycus Carrow, Igor Karkaroff,, Bellatrix Black, Augustus Rookwood, Regulus Black, and of course Severus Prince.
As Harry and Lily approached the Malfoy Manor wards Lily grabbed Harry's arm and side-long apparated into the reception area of the home. Already waiting for them were Bellatrix, Lucius, Narcissa, and Andromeda and Ted Tonks. Both sitting with Nymphadora lying down on the floor at their feet randomly changing her hair color.
'She looks rather bored' mused Harry as he looked around the room. 'That's the great thing about being from the future. You know who's ending up where and what they'll do to get there. And now that I have the home field advantage I'll abuse it as much as wizardly possible so that I'm never bored.'
With the greetings out of the way and the adults talking amongst themselves Harry took the chance to talk to Nymphadora. If she was anything now like she was when he knew her, talking to her would be fun.
"Hello. My name's Harridan. But you can call me Harry. What's your name?" he tried a simple approach rather than some complicated scheme. "Taken aback by his interest in her she tried to be friendly.
"My name is Nymphadora but you'd better call me Tonks. I hate my name." Harry was not surprised that she opened with that. If Nymphadora was known for one thing it was hatred of her name.
"Why? It's a nice name." Harry thought he might try a little experiment on her. It's not like it'd hurt her or anything. "I don't like my name because it's weird. No one normal names their daughter Nymphadora. It's long and it stinks and my mother is the worst for naming me."
Nymphadora became very worked up over her name. "Well my name isn't really Harry. It's actually short for Harridan James Potter. At first I didn't really like my name either but the more I thought about it the better it got." Calming down and pushing away the tears in her eyes Nymphadora asked "You don't hate your name? But why? It's almost as bad as Nymphadora."
Ignoring the jab at his name Harry pressed on "Well, I like to think that my mother wanted my name to be original. Something people would remember in their hearts when I achieve greatness. And I find that unique names like Nymphadora" she growled at him "and Harridan are more likely to be remembered than boring names like Stacey or Richard. You know?"
Nymphadora was quiet for a long time after that. Suddenly she spoke with hesitation in her voice. "D-do you really think Nymphadora is a nice name?" He smiled "It's a beautiful name that I'd wear with pride if I were you." She blushed heavily. Nobody had ever complimented her name before. Only jokes and laughter. "T-Then I guess since you're m-my only friend you can say it. We are friends…right?"
Had she seen the smile on his face she wouldn't have had to ask. "Of course we're friends Nymphadora. You and I are two of the same kind." Slightly confused at the 'same kind' thing she could only nod her head as if she understood.
About an hour later Andromeda walked in to let Nymphadora know that they were leaving. Lily came to tell Harry the same not long after.
Scene Break
Once they left the Malfoy's Harry and Lily went to Diagon Alley to check out some of the shops. It was surprising to Harry that Lily had not actually seen most of the shops in Diagon Alley. She mostly just stayed in Godric's Hollow, made trips to Gringotts, or visited Dumbledore at Hogwarts.
Speaking of which 'I need to make sure Dumbledore thinks I'm a natural occlumens when we meet. I may think him as a great man but he is just too enthralled with learning secrets. Which is actually what killed him last time around.'
Harry liked Dumbledore because he was honest with him and guided him at his lowest point. Also the man was hysterically funny in Harry's opinion.
As they went into the book store Harry went to the kids' section to see the books about the 'Boy-Who-Lived'. As his mother came to get him so they could go to Ollivander's he asked her a question. One that would hopefully open up another source of income for the Potter's.
"Mum, why do all these books talk about Henry doing cool things he doesn't do? Has he really fought a dragon?" Lily explained that those were just stories people put out to sell their books and tell stories. "Ohh okay."
He picked up the book and walked out of the store without paying. The man at the register stopped Harry. "Now you're going to have to pay for that if you want it little boy." 'I hate being called little boy old man' except he couldn't exactly deny that he was a little boy at the moment. Lily stepped in "Harry we have to pay for the book if you want to take it home"
"But the book is about Henry. Why do we have to pay if it's about him?" Lily didn't know how to answer that. What he said makes a surprising amount of sense but… "I'm sorry Harry but we still need to pay for the book." Harry put on a look a disappointment and lowered his head "Fine."
Putting the book back and walking out the door he hoped he planted enough of the idea in her head. He was pretty sure they didn't receive royalties from these books. Which they should have been since they first came out.
On their way to Ollivander's they saw a stern looking woman who was immediately recognized as Professor McGonagall. She was going into Gringotts so only Harry saw her. Seeing the older woman, however, made him start to think that he really only had short term goals. He needed to start planning for happened when he begins attending Hogwarts. 'Winging it only got most of Henry's people killed, after all."
As they walked into Ollivander's Harry could feel his old wand calling out to him and his magic trying to respond. Luckily his mother and Mr. Ollivander went to the back to discuss something. Harry could see the box containing his wand shaking its way out of its holding space and towards him.
Finally shaking itself loose the box opened up and the wand flew to Harry's hand. A large flurry of red, green, and silver sparks shot out of the end of his wand. He relished in feeling the connection between himself and the wand that chose him all those years ago.
He used evanesce to vanish the wand box. His mother came back with Mr. Ollivander who looked very pleased.
Afterwards they went out for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron for some lunch and then to Florean Fortescue's for ice cream. His mother had told him about her new apprenticeship with Mr. Ollivander so she could become a wand maker someday. It was secret she wanted to keep from James so she could surprise him.
By the time they got home it was almost dark out. They had spent the rest of the day out and exploring the nooks and crannies of the shopping district. And when they got back to the house they found it empty.
"Hmm. They must be out. How about we start making dinner huh?" Harry gave her a smile. "Sure!" 'Today was a great day. And I honestly thank whatever higher power gave me this opportunity. I shall not squander it.'
Scene Break
James had woken up with the intention of spending the day with his wife and son but woke up to find his wife gone. Annoyed, he woke up Henry and spent the day with him. They went mostly spent their time with James' gambling buddies. (A/N #BadDad)
Once it started getting late he and Henry went back home to find his wife cooking up dinner with the house elf and the other one. 'Tonight' he thought to himself with a cold look in his eye 'I'll set her straight about this nonsense tonight'