"We can help with conjuring tents for the students," Marvolo said to a clearly overwhelmed McGonagall after Dumbledore had disappeared inside the castle again.
"That would be most welcome," McGonagall said with a tired sigh. She seemed to gather herself for a moment, brushing her hands down her robes a few times before she went to alert the students to start packing their belongings.
Harry got an idea and he followed Marvolo towards the open lawn where the tents were to go. "You start making tents. V, stay with him."
"Why, why?" V demanded while he pulled on Harry's ear in annoyance.
"Because I'm going to get that girl's skeleton and place it in the wreckage we left behind so it will be found," Harry explained, and V calmed down once he understood Harry actually had a good reason to abandon him again.
"Excellent plan," Marvolo agreed quickly. "It will be one more very rusty nail in Dumbledore's coffin tonight."
Harry nodded at Marvolo's words, inwardly amused that was why Marvolo thought Harry wanted to expose the girl's remains. What Marvolo didn't know, because Harry hadn't told anyone, was that Harry was a father and a grandfather, and he could very well imagine the sheer terror the girl's parents must feel not knowing what had happened to one of their children. This way they'd get some answers and some closure, no matter how heart breaking the confirmed death of their child would be. One of Harry's young assistants, Ron Weasley, had mentioned a time or two that his sister had gone missing and Harry strongly suspected the remains belonged to her. This way Ron would get a chance to properly mourn his little sister as well.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," Harry whispered, pushing gently against V until the raven flapped his wings and moved over to Marvolo's shoulder. It still amused Harry to no end how put out Marvolo could look anytime he was forced to interact with a piece of his own soul.
Harry hurried towards the treeline so the darkness around him would hide his actions. Once cast in shadows, Harry pulled his broom from the satchel he kept in the pocket of his robes and enlarged it. Under the cover of darkness, Harry flew towards the school's edge as fast as he could and the second he crossed the wards he apparated to Basilisk Island, broom still in hand.
Sylva wasn't to be found in the haphazardly installed Chamber, which saved Harry an explanation of why he was removing the decomposed body. Harry opened a very small portal, just big enough to shove a skeleton through, leading to the location he'd used earlier, where the Chamber used to be. The whole place was covered in debris great and small, but there were plenty of air pockets in between the larger rocks, and Harry had no problems levitating the girl's remains between some of the rubble. As people started repairing the castle they'd come across the body eventually.
Harry apparated back to Hogwarts and used his broom to return to the forest's edge closest to Marvolo.
Moody was berating a very unimpressed looking Marvolo while small clutches of students and some of the Yule Ball guests milled about on the lawn in confusion.
"I know you had something to do with this, Gaunt!" Moody growled, artificial eye spinning wildly in its socket. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and I know exactly what tree you came from!"
Harry could have kissed Barty. By having Moody accuse Marvolo of all sorts of imagined crimes without a shred of evidence, Barty actually made it less likely that people would believe Marvolo had anything to do with it.
"Potter!" Moody barked when Harry strolled towards them. "And where have you been? Preparing more terrorist acts?"
Blinking in confusion, Harry gestured over his own shoulder towards the woods. "I was taking a piss. We're not allowed to use the bathrooms in the castle anymore. It's not safe."
"Castle go boom, castle go boom," V agreed, hopping up and down on Marvolo's shoulder.
"You did this!" Moody grumbled as he took a few large steps towards Harry so he could glare up at him, his scarred face scrunched up in obvious anger. "You and the Dark Lord's spawn did this, and I'll prove it, mark my words!"
Harry held up both hands, giving Moody an unimpressed look while he really wanted to commend Barty for his acting skills.
Moody turned around and spotted some of the students gathered nearby staring at him with opened mouths. "What are you all looking at? Go back to your dormitories!" And with that, Moody stormed off across the lawn.
"Don't go back into the castle," Marvolo called towards the bewildered students. "We'll have accommodations set up for you in no time at all."
Harry shared an amused glance with Marvolo as V quickly flew back to settle on Harry's shoulder. They dutifully conjured tent after tent, making them big enough to house an entire year's worth of students inside, separated by gender. Marvolo took care of the tents, while Harry conjured sleeping mats and sleeping bags, making sure each tent had at least six. That would allow the students to catch a few hours of sleep at least before the Hogwarts Express arrived.
When they had enough tents set up and the students that trickled out of the castle retreated into them one after another, Harry and Marvolo walked back inside the castle. Officially, to see if they could be of further help. Unofficially, because they wanted to see the damage they'd accidentally caused.
It was quite the disaster, to be honest. Removing the Chamber had collapsed a significant part of the castle, several floors up. Debris and dust was everywhere, and several portraits had been lost or damaged in the collapse. Their occupants complained loudly, almost drowning out Dumbledore, Karkaroff, Maxime and Crouch Sr, who stood discussing the damage.
"We conjured enough tents," Harry said to Dumbledore as though he was a soldier reporting to his general. Harry wanted to appear nothing but helpful at that moment, to hopefully drive any suspicion away from them. He truly hadn't meant to cause such damage to Hogwarts. "Was there anything else you needed help with right now?"
Dumbledore looked at him in surprise for a moment before shaking his head. "Ah, no, there is nothing else needed at the moment. The Ministry will send some specialists tomorrow to assess the damage and arrange repairs. For now, the students need to be evacuated, but our staff is arranging that."
"We'll make sure all the students get settled into tents," Harry suggested with a kind smile, putting on a bit of an act in front of their current audience.
Nodding, Dumbledore turned back towards the others. "Yes, thank you, Harry."
But before Harry and Marvolo could take their leave, Moody came clunking around the corner. "They did it, Albus. Mark my words, these two terrorists just attacked Hogwarts."
"Now, now, Alastor," Dumbledore said with a surprisingly tired look aimed at his old friend. "Do you have any evidence of this?"
"Who else would have done it?" Moody pointed a gnarly finger at Marvolo. "You know who his father is. I daresay that boy came here to finish his family's business."
"I assure you I am nothing like my father," Marvolo said in a frosty tone, glaring at Moody with all his might. Marvolo was just as good an actor as Barty was, Harry decided. "Besides," Marvolo continued with an almost careless gesture at the disaster area in front of them. "It looks like a sinkhole opened up beneath the castle."
"A what?" Crouch Senior asked with a worried frown.
"A sinkhole," Marvolo said with a patient look. For some reason, Harry couldn't stop looking at Marvolo's lips while he spoke. He could still feel those lips devour him, as they'd done earlier in the Chamber. Kissing Marvolo had been just as good, if not better, than Harry had imagined and he was determined to do it again as soon as he could. "It's a hole that opens up unexpectedly because a layer of earth or rocks beneath it have disappeared. Washed out suddenly or worn away over many years. When sinkholes appear under buildings, this is very much what it looks like."
"Yes, thank you for that explanation," Dumbledore said with a bit of a sour little smile, as though he wanted to reject anything Marvolo said simply on principle. "But we'll first hear what the Ministry specialists have to say before we draw any conclusion."
"Naturally," Marvolo agreed easily enough. Harry admired his tactics. Even just mentioning sinkholes as a plausible explanation now made sure the others would at least consider it as a genuine cause of the collapse, and they might very well decide to go with it if they couldn't discover any other obvious reason. And Harry very much doubted they would. No one would guess that the Chamber of Secrets had physically been removed, after all.
Harry and Marvolo left the scene of their accidental crime to make their way back to the lawn, to herd the students into tents and make sure there were no problems with hundreds of teenagers suddenly being asked to act in an organized and orderly fashion.
"Harry!"
It seemed Harry's young assistants had been lying in wait for him, because they all but jumped on Harry the moment he stepped outside the castle.
"They're saying the whole castle collapsed," Ron said, face stark-white in the darkness. Neville didn't look much better.
"It was a sinkhole," Marvolo said in his most reassuring tone.
"Stinkhole, stinkhole," V cawed wisely.
"A sinkhole? Truly?" Hermione asked with a thoughtful frown. "I wouldn't think the rock formations here in Scotland were suitable for sinkholes to form."
Marvolo gave her a very brief but very annoyed look. "The castle was built over a thousand years ago. Who knows what's been happening to the bedrock beneath it during that time."
Biting her lip, Hermione looked torn for a moment before finally nodding. "I suppose that's true." Then she looked Marvolo over top to bottom. "Who are you exactly?"
Harry wanted to laugh at Marvolo's affronted expression at being addressed in such a callous way. "Hermione, this is Marvolo Gaunt, my dear friend and neighbour. Marvolo, these are my friends Hermione, Ron and Neville." Marvolo managed a polite nod, but barely, and Ron and Neville seemed unsure how to respond to an unknown adult while Hermione's gaze was full of speculation.
"I'm sure they'll fix the castle up in no time at all," Harry said in order to break some of the tension. "School will probably reopen once the holidays are over."
"I certainly hope so!" Hermione said, face creasing with obvious worry at the idea that Hogwarts wouldn't reopen in time.
"If you two are interested in becoming Prefects next year," Marvolo pointed out to Hermione and Neville. "I suggest you go help make sure the younger students of your House are all tucked away safely in their tents."
"Of course," Hermione said, springing into action at once, dragging Ron and Neville with her towards the tents.
"But I don't want to be a Prefect," Ron protested weakly, yet Hermione put him to work anyway.
While Harry and Marvolo crossed the lawn towards the tents, Harry leaned a little closer towards his companion. "After we are finished here, I need you to come with me to my castle."
"Oh?" Marvolo said, face the picture of innocence save for his sly grin. "Whatever for?"
Harry wanted to jump the man right there and then, rip his clothes off and impale himself on the man's hard cock, but there were people all around them and obviously now was not the right time. Something must have shown on his face because Marvolo's smile only became more crooked. "Fuck," Harry sighed in utter frustration.
"That certainly is an interesting proposition," Marvolo said, smooth as butter. "I'll take it into consideration."
Harry gritted his teeth. He was seriously horny as fuck. That little snog and wank number they'd performed in the Chamber of Secrets had only been the aperitif, and Harry was absolutely starving for the main course.
The man beside him did things to Harry. Many exciting and arousing and filthy things. His magic was so deliciously dark, his sense of humour so dry and sarcastic and his looks were so handsome it should probably be against the law. Harry couldn't remember the last time he'd ever been this attracted to another person. He'd spent the majority of his time these last few weeks in Marvolo's company and yet he still wanted more and more.
It was like Marvolo was the world's most delicious drug and Harry an eager addict.
As they assisted the staff and prefects in getting all the students settled Harry couldn't keep his eyes off Marvolo. And Marvolo noticed, if his amused little smirks and heated stares were any indication.
"I do believe we've assisted enough by now," Marvolo said after about an hour, just as Harry was ready to rip his clothes off right there and then.
"My castle," Harry growled. "Now."
Marvolo didn't object one bit when Harry grabbed his elbow and steered him across the grounds towards the gates. The second they stepped outside the wards, Harry apparated them to the doorstep of his castle. He attacked Marvolo's mouth with his own before he even pushed the door open.
They somehow managed to stumble inside while their mouths never stopped their feverish kissing. Harry yanked on Marvolo's robes, pulling a few buttons loose, while Marvolo did the same to Harry's attire. During their trek up the stone staircase they both lost their shirts and by the time they stepped inside Harry's bedroom their trousers were opened and barely hanging onto their hips.
"Tell me what you want," Marvolo whispered against Harry's lips.
Harry inhaled a shuddering breath as he pulled back enough to stare into Marvolo's brown eyes. They gleamed with desire, and Harry was very happy to see the evidence of Marvolo's attraction to him. "I need you to fuck me," Harry breathed as he gently bit Marvolo's lower lip. "I need you to pin me to my bed and impale me with your cock and fuck me until I no longer know my own fucking name."
Marvolo very briefly closed his eyes while he inhaled a deep breath. "That can certainly be arranged."
Before Harry knew it, he was lying on his bed and Marvolo devested him of his shoes and the rest of his clothes with a few flicks of his wand.
Fuck, having Marvolo use magic to help fuck him somehow made the whole experience about ten times hotter.
Smirking, Marvolo cast a few silent spells that prepared Harry's body for a good fucking. A cool brush of magic tickled Harry's entrance before something slick filled him up. Harry lay back on the mattrass and opened his legs wide, bringing his knees to his chest and opening himself up for Marvolo.
"Fuck." With a few flicks of his wand, Marvolo got rid of his own clothes and a second later he kneeled on the mattrass, hard cock in his hand.
"Yeah," Harry whispered, his own cock hard and leaking small drops. "Fuck me right now."
That was all the invitation Marvolo needed and he positioned his cock against Harry's slick hole and pushed inside without pause, slowly at first but it didn't take long before he was buried inside Harry's body completely. It had been a while since Harry had been fucked like this so there was a bit of a burn and a sense of fullness. And then Marvolo moved and everything was just as it should be.
"Fuck, yeah, harder," Harry groaned, curving his back and pulling Marvolo to him so he could devour his mouth. Marvolo managed to brush his tongue against Harry's a few times, before he pulled back and placed his hands on either side of Harry's shoulders so he could really give Harry a good fucking.
It was exactly what Harry needed, this kind of submission. Nothing relaxed him like letting someone else use him for pleasure for a while. His mind blissfully blanked out while his body reached new heights of pleasure with every thrust of Marvolo's hips. Marvolo reached between them and fisted Harry's cock and it did not take long at all before Harry's climax hit him and he spurted long strings of semen across his chest.
Marvolo lasted a while longer, and he angled his thrusts to hit just the right spot inside Harry, which prolonged the pleasure of his recent orgasm until he literally couldn't see straight anymore.
Marvolo came with a quiet groan as he crushed his lips to Harry's, his body shaking and his hips bucking as he emptied himself deep inside Harry.
"Fucking hell," Harry sighed while Marvolo slumped on top of him, skin warm and slick with sweat. "We're doing that again. I seriously need you to fuck me every day from this point on."
"Challenge accepted," Marvolo said against Harry's throat, causing them both to chuckle.
They stayed like that for a while, Harry stroking a hand up and down Marvolo's back while Marvolo nuzzled Harry's cheek and neck. Harry glanced up and saw V sitting in his usual spot on the headboard. Usually, V had all sorts of inappropriate objections he insisted on saying out loud when it came to Harry having sex. But now V kept his beak shut and even looked a little smug about the whole display before him.
Harry supposed that V couldn't very well object to Harry having sex with a part of V himself. Well, the part that was housed in a human body, of course. V was Harry's favourite companion, no question there, and while their bond was intimate it had never crossed that line.
But Marvolo was human and willing, and Harry had been absolutely honest when he told his lover he wanted to get fucked every single day. He seriously hoped Marvolo had been honest in his response as well. Then again, they had plenty of time to come to some arrangement that suited them both when it came to their relationship. Nothing needed to be decided for good at that very moment.
Eventually, Marvolo's soft cock slipped from Harry's body and he rolled off Harry with a satisfied sigh. Harry summoned the blankets with a wave of his hand and rolled onto his side so he could look at Marvolo.
"I'll fuck you first thing in the morning." Marvolo's eyes were half-shut, his face utterly relaxed. He looked as sleepy as Harry felt.
"I'll hold you to that," Harry murmured, letting his own eyes fall shut. It had been a few very long days, weeks even, and during all that time Harry hadn't felt as relaxed as he did now, so it was no surprise that sleep claimed him before he could say another word.
Loud banging woke him the next morning. Harry was so sleep drunk that it took him a while to understand what was happening. Marvolo lay in bed beside him, also blinking confused eyes as he woke up. His short, black hair was adorably tousled and there were creases on his cheek left there by his pillow. Harry couldn't take his eyes off the man, suddenly overwhelmed with happiness they'd finally fucked and had thus progressed to that new level of their strange relationship.
Harry's bedroom door banged open and in marched Sirius, clutching the Daily Prophet. "Harry, did you blow up Hogwarts?"
"Castle go boom, castle go boom!" V crowed in utter amusement.
Remus followed Sirius, and much to Harry's sudden horror, James brought up the rear.
"I don't even care," Sirius said as he stood beside Harry's bed and took in the scene before him. Clothes everywhere and two naked, very well-fucked men barely covered by a blanket sharing a bed. "I don't even care you're fucking Voldemort, Harry." Sirius shook the paper in Harry's mortified face. "What I do care about is Hogwarts. Did you seriously blow it up?"
"It was a sinkhole," Marvolo muttered, burying his face in his pillow, determined to ignore their impromptu guests.
"Stinkhole, stinkhole!" V announced, hopping along the headboard.
Harry, in the meantime, couldn't take his eyes off his father, who seemed equally shocked to see the scene before him. Honestly, this wasn't the first time a member of Harry's family had caught him in an intimate situation. That was bound to happen when your immediate family members were incorporeal and could float through walls.
It was, however, the first time one of Harry's parents found him naked in bed with their murderer.
"Harry," James said in a quiet voice. "Really."
"Come on," Harry objected weakly, filled with equal amounts of shame and anger. "This can't be a surprise, not really."
"I'm not surprised!" Sirius announced, and then shook the paper in Harry's face again. "Hogwarts, Harry!"
Harry batted it away with an annoyed gesture.
"Honestly, I told them to wait for you to get up and not barge into your bedroom," Remus said in a resigned tone, looking like a man who was used to advising his friends to not do things they ended up doing anyway.
Harry only had eyes for his father, though. "Dad," he said, determined to sort this out, whatever it even was. He didn't want to end up ignoring his family for weeks again because he was worried how they'd react to his recent life choices. "You already knew I was working with Marvolo. Was friends with him, even. So what does it matter that he shoved his cock up my arse repeatedly and we both enjoyed it."
Sirius clapped both his hands over his ears at once, smacking himself in the face with the Daily Prophet. "Not listening!"
"Cock in arse, cock in arse," V cawed, because that bloody thing liked nothing more than causing chaos where ever he went. And if it embarrassed Harry on top of wreaking havoc, V probably considered it a bonus.
James managed to deal with the explicit details better than Sirius, but not quite as good as Remus, who merely looked mildly amused while James still had a bit of a pinched look on his face. "It probably doesn't matter," James conceded with a little sigh, giving Harry a searching look. "I know you're a grown man, and I know that you're a good man. But please understand that this is very strange for us."
"We spent years fighting him, Harry," Remus added, sounding like he was choosing his words with care. "And while we know things are different now, that doesn't make this any less bizarre."
"Yeah," Harry agreed, sitting up a bit more in bed. Beside him, Marvolo still had his face pressed into his pillow, eyes closed, but Harry was willing to bet a significant amount of gold he was carefully listening to every word that was being said. "I understand this is a strange situation for everyone. Just please try to accept that I am going to continue fucking Marvolo for as long as he'll have me."
"Cock in arse, cock in arse," V helpfully supplied, squinting his eyes in amusement.
"Are you lot done?" Sirius asked while he glanced between everyone, carefully removing his hands from his ears. "Now about Hogwarts. Harry, what the fuck happened?"
"What makes you think I had anything to do with it?" Harry asked with a daring curve of his eyebrow before he wiped loose strands of hair from his face. His ponytail had not survived the night intact, it seemed.
Sirius gave him a look full of disbelief. "You go and steal a basilisk from Hogwarts and the next thing the whole castle collapsed."
"It does all seem too much of a coincidence," Remus agreed with an amused chuckle. "We got up to plenty of mischief in our Hogwarts days, but we never actually damaged the castle."
"Except that one time," James said, leaning towards his friends a little while a huge grin stretched out across his face. "But that was just the wall beside the entrance to the Slytherin common room and it never even collapsed."
Harry shook his head and glanced down at Marvolo. He had hoped for a different kind of morning in bed with his brand new lover, but it seemed that the world around them had other plans. "Do you lot want to stay for breakfast? We'll tell you what happened to the castle."
Sirius narrowed his eyes, arms crossed over his chest, looking as though he was contemplating if Harry was trying to play some kind of prank. "Fine. But we expect all the details."
Marvolo finally pushed himself up on an elbow and glared at their unexpected guests. "We'll tell you everything if you go downstairs now and stay there until we join you."
"That sounds like a plan." Remus placed a calming hand on Sirius' shoulder.
"Violet!" Harry called as he sat up on the edge of the bed. Violet appeared in front of him with a soft pop. "Bring tea for our guests in the library."
"Eep!"
Sirius shuddered while he stared at Violet with wide eyes. "That will never not be creepy."
"She can hear you," Harry said with a pointed look at his house-elf.
"She is dead," Sirius countered in a deadpan voice. "She has no feelings."
Violet popped away again without giving any indication she'd understood one word about that conversation, so perhaps Sirius had a point. Still, Harry loved his little undead house-elves and he took it as a personal insult if someone talked badly about them.
"We will see you in a few moments," Remus said, all but dragging Sirius with him out of the bedroom, James floating behind them. At least his father no longer looked at Harry as though he was terribly disappointed in his only child.
"I suggest we take this to the bathroom," Marvolo murmured as he crawled up to Harry and placed a soft kiss on Harry's bare shoulder. "That way I can fulfil my promise while we get clean at the same time."
And that is exactly what they did. Harry much preferred to take warm baths, but he did have a large, walk-in shower, which they put to good use that morning. Marvolo fucked him under the warm spray, Harry leaning against the wall with one arm, almost completely bent over while Marvolo pounded into him. It was the perfect way to start the day, and Harry privately made plans to convince Marvolo to fuck him every morning for the rest of their lives.
By the Sun Goddess, Harry had it bad, hadn't he?
Harry wasn't even sure what he felt for Marvolo. He just knew that he enjoyed spending time with the man, loved talking with him, listening to his suggestions and stories. And now he knew that he also absolutely loved fucking the man.
They were so very well suited for each other, physically, magically and sexually. It kept surprising Harry every time he realized it. He didn't think he'd ever met anyone who was so perfectly suited for him, and that was a very tantalizing realisation.
Afterwards, they stood in a wet embrace for a few long moments while they kissed with lazy strokes of their tongues, just basking in their new intimacy.
"You need to repeat this tonight," Harry all but ordered as he shut off the water. His arse was a bit sore from all the recent attention, but they had salves for that, so Harry wasn't worried.
"Your wish is my command," Marvolo easily agreed with a lopsided smile that made him look even more handsome than he already was. Harry's spent prick made a feeble attempt to rise again but had to admit defeat for the time being, no matter how attractive Marvolo was.
Harry got dressed in his usual attire and Marvolo slipped on his formal robes from the previous evening, even if they were missing a few buttons. Igor had collected them and placed them on the dresser sometime throughout the night, so Marvolo reattached them with a few simple spells.
They found their guests in the library, Remus paging through one of the English books Harry had recently bought, and Sirius and James speculating over what could have happened to their beloved castle.
"Cock in arse, cock in arse," V announced, just because he could, as he flew inside the library and landed on his perch.
"Did you really just fuck again while we were waiting here?" Sirius demanded, setting his teacup down with a loud clang.
Harry snorted, not at all put out by Sirius' attitude. He was used to people giving him shit. That's what family did, after all, and Harry had a very large family, living and dead. "I thought you wanted details about Hogwarts, not about how Marvolo just gave me a good buggering in the shower."
Sirius quickly held up a hand to wards off further details. "Yes, your point is made, Harry. Now what the hell happened?"
"Sylva didn't want to move so we had to sweeten the deal," Marvolo said as he sat down beside Harry at the table in the library, opposite Sirius and Remus.
"Violet, breakfast for four!"
"Eep!"
"Who the hell is Sylva?" Sirius asked with a suspicious frown while he squinted at Marvolo.
"The basilisk," Harry said with a chuckle. "So I offered to move most of the Chamber of Secrets to Basilisk Island and then she accepted."
Remus ran a hand across his face while Sirius stared at him in complete disbelief. "And it hadn't occurred to you," Remus said softly, slowly, "That removing a large underground part of the castle's foundation would cause it to collapse."
"Not at the time, no." Harry sat back a little when Violet appeared with a tray filled with a large collection of dishes, from scrambled eggs to fried mushrooms and crispy bacon. "Afterwards, yes, I realized I should have been a bit more careful."
"You almost destroyed a thousand year old castle," Sirius said in obvious dismay. "Because you weren't paying attention."
Harry wisely kept his mouth shut about Marvolo having distracted him with a bit of a snog and wank moments before the collapse and instead he just shrugged.
"They'll have the castle fixed up soon enough. They have magic, after all." Marvolo gave Sirius a look as though he was a bit simple for not realizing that before adding some eggs to his plate.
"Yeah, yeah," Sirius sighed in defeat and turned his attention to the plate of bacon. "What's done is done, I suppose." After he placed four rashers of bacon on his plate, he looked up at Harry with a expectant smile. "Before I forget. I was talking to Kashvi about promoting Broomstix and I have an idea."
"Broomstix?" Harry asked after he swallowed a mouthful of buttered toast.
"The name of the broom shop you opened with her." Now Sirius was giving Harry a look as though he doubted his intelligence.
"Ah." Harry gave a careless shrug, not at all concerned with such details.
"Anyway, my idea is that we organize a broom race around the island," Sirius said, obviously warming to the subject. "We can do it somewhere in January. Maybe even make it an annual thing. Since you have so many second-hand brooms for sale in the shop, you could rent those out for the race. That way people can see for themselves how well those brooms are made."
Harry chewed more toast while he listened to Sirius ramble on. "Sure. You can organize it."
Sirius gave Harry the kind of bright grin that suggested that any previous transgressions were already forgiven. "Consider it done."
Just then, Igor came shuffling inside the library, hands full of mail. Harry sighed when his butler placed the stack beside his plate.
"That reminds me," Remus said with an apologetic look. "Rachel asked me to tell you to stop by as soon as you're able. She was quite put out to learn you had in fact created Basilisk Island, not tiger island. And Mildred wondered when the next town meeting will be, since you had promised they would take place every week."
Harry sat back in his seat with a frustrated sigh. "I've got so much to do, I'm not even sure where to start next."
"Get an assistant," Remus suggested with a kind smile, since this wasn't the first time Harry had bemoaned his workload.
Harry gestured at his favourite inferius. Igor stood to the side, dutifully waiting for his next command. "I have an assistant. Lots of assistants, if you count my inferi house-elf army."
"A living assistant. One that can at least talk," Marvolo said with a pointed look, apparently in complete agreement with Remus about Harry's immediate needs.
Harry gave Marvolo a horrified look at the very thought of having to work day in day out with a living person in his own home.