"I said, that I used to babysit you when you were little. You were such the handsomest little baby I ever sat eyes on. I was supposed to watch you the night before….before…." Valentina spoke. She seemed to have lost her voice at that exact moment. Of course, however, Harry didn't need to hear the rest of the sentence to know what she was referring to. It was the night Voldemort tried to kill him. Unconsciously, Harry's right hand went up to his scar as a reaction.
"Why have I never heard of you before?" Harry asked her calmly. Sirius and Remus never brought up Valentina's name when they were going down memory lane. They tended to do that quite a lot when they were remembering their days as Marauders.
"I wouldn't be surprised if everyone had forgotten about me. I only babysitted you once or twice a month. Your….mom and dad rarely wanted to leave your side. Can I ask you something?" Valentina asked Harry. She had used that small amount of time to get even closer to Harry. Noticing that, he got up from his seat and stood in the middle of the aisle while holding a rail.
"What is it?" he asked her out of curiosity and out of suspicion.
"I remember your eyes being Bright Green. Why are they Golden now?" she asked in a slightly seductive voice. Harry noticed that she was clearly trying to get closer than close to him, so he did his absolute best to stay out of arm's reach of her.
"It's complicated. Why are you getting too close for comfort?" he asked her in return.
"Can't you tell that she's absolutely randy for you Harry? You've got your father's looks and your mother's….oops. I forgot I changed your eye color to suit my preferences." Shade spoke. He was thoroughly enjoying Harry's wriggling about to avoid the hands of Valentina.
"I thought I told you already. I thought you were the handsomest baby I've ever seen. It doesn't help when you grow up to look the way you do now. Just let it happen." she told him in a whisper.
"Yeah Harry. Just let it happen. You know you want to." Shade encouraged happily.
"Shade. Shut the hell up. You're not helping." Harry thought to the shadow form. He could've sworn that he heard Shade humph in disagreement.
"Listen Valentina. I appreciate that you think I'm attractive, but I have a girlfriend. I'm not going to do that activity with you. You'll have to find someone else." Harry told the woman apologetically.
He figured that she wasn't listening to what he had to say at all, because not even a mere two seconds after he finished speaking, she leapt towards his direction while unfastening four of the buttons on her shirt. He could've sworn that he heard Shade chewing popcorn.
"I love this part. This is where those glorious mounds, that she calls Double D cups, come out to play. Let the show continue." Shade screamed in encouragement. Harry growled at Shade and gave Valentina an apologetic look. Withdrawing his wand, he pointed it at her and casted a Full Body-Bind Curse at the poor, delusional woman. Valentina's arms snapped to her side and her breasts jiggled a little bit, before her whole body froze and hit the floor of the Knight Bus.
"Like I said Valentina. I have a girlfriend. I'm not going to do anything that will ruin that." Harry told his old babysitter before sitting back down in his seat.
"Congratulations Harry. You've frozen the only source of fun on this metal brick with wheels. What have you got to say for yourself?" Shade asked Harry in a disapproving tone. Instead of answering, Harry simply just chose to ignore Shade. He was only going to end up giving himself a migraine if he didn't. Shade pouted and remained quiet for the rest of the ride.
Two hours, fourteen stops and nearly two fatal crashes later, Harry was standing right outside of his home: Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. Unlike the last few times he had walked through the front, the house seemed much more intimidating and empty now. Most likely cause he was going to be here alone. Just him, Shade and Buckbeak. Dreading the immense feeling of loneliness that was creeping up his throat, he opened the door and walked inside. Everything was familiar, but at the same time it was distant. Or that was the thought he had until he smelled food coming from the basement.
Making his way to the basement, he looked in just to see that no one was in there. There was food on the stove, but no one else was in the room. He found this highly suspicious until he remembered that Sirius had hired Dobby and a few more House-Elves to help out around the house.
"Hiya Harry." a feminine voice called out from behind him. The sudden voice caused Harry to jump into the air and withdraw his wand in case it was an attack. He turned around to see that it was Courtney who had managed to sneak up behind him.
"You nearly gave me a heart attack." he told her in exasperation. His chest was rising and falling quite quickly due to the fright of someone appearing out of nowhere.
"Sorry about that. I was just in the loo and I heard you come in." Courtney answered with a smile.
After Harry had managed to get his breathing back under control, Courtney offered to help him take his things to his room. However, being the gentleman that he was, Harry politely declined the help and took his suitcase up the stairs. By that, I mean that he dragged it up the stairs. It was a good thing Sirius got rid of his mother's portrait, otherwise she would be yelling at the top of her lungs right now.
Harry made his way back into the kitchen, where Courtney was pulling what appeared to be Crescent Rolls out of the oven. He didn't realize it before but his stomach was rumbling quite loudly. He hadn't eaten anything since yesterday.
"Sounds like someone is a bit peckish. I swear that both yourself and Sirius have the biggest appetites I have ever seen." Courtney out loud in laughter.
"You should see Ron when he eats then. Anyways, I was grossly underfed when I was living with the Dursleys. It made my appetite grow apparently." Harry said in defense.
"Yeah, yeah. Did Sirius tell you the big news before you left?" Courtney asked him. By the look of confusion she saw on his face, she could tell that Sirius neglected in telling his godson what had happened.
"Sirius and I are going to be getting married soon. We talked about it a few days after he was given amnesty for Wormtail's crime." Courtney explained to Harry.
At first, Harry was shocked at hearing that Sirius was getting married. In the stories that both Remus and Sirius had told them about their days at Hogwarts, it seemed like Sirius had the notion of never getting married in his life. That shock was soon replaced with happiness as he realized that after everything Sirius had been through, he would get to have some modicum of happiness. Harry didn't hesitate to walk over to Courtney and give her a deep and meaningful hug.
"Congratulations Courtney. I wish both you and Sirius the best. Lord knows that he deserves it and more." Harry told her kindly. Courtney returned the hug generously.
"Thank you Harry. That means a lot to me." Courtney whispered to the bespectacled wizard. Harry released Courtney from the hug and they ate a very nice lunch. Even though he was suspended and was just recently feeling very depressed about it, everyone who saw him off and Courtney managed to lift his mood.
"Maybe I needed this break. Although Angelina is going to kill me when I get back for having to miss practice and games." Harry thought to himself while eating.