AN- I don'd own Harry Potter. Hey everyone, I'm sorry it has been months since the last update. Good news is that I have all the way to chapter 51 finished, bad news is that I have to proofread it first. I want to thank everyone who has favorited and followed since my last update.
Super Squashman: Thank you so much for commenting again. I'm also sorry for not posting in a while and I agree that life gets in the way. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Monster King: Thank you so much for the support. Snape stilll carries that trauma into his adult life, so it will take time before he sees the redeaming qualities in Harri becuase she's a little shitling by choice most of the time.
Chapter 45
Harri felt uneasy as she was sure that she was forgetting something on Halloween day. If Hedwig didn't come back with a response from Sirius by the time she had finished eating, then she would escape Hogwarts and find him herself. But Harri still felt uneasy as she sat in between the twins and enjoyed the feast in between them.
Harri thought back on all of her Halloween days, and she knew that something bad always happened on this certain night. Even from before she started Hogwarts something bad would always happen on the night her parents died that Halloween night. The first Halloween night she remembered was when she was 5 and Aunt Petunia had shaved off all of her hair because one of their neighbors had complemented Aunt Petunia for having a lovely and beautiful daughter. That didn't go well with her, and she shaved her entire head and threw her red locks at her face, only for her hair to grow the next morning. But her hair had only grown out to a short pixie cut to Petunia's satisfaction and Aunt petunia had told all of the other mothers that she had Lice and had to get rid of Harri's hair so that the other children wouldn't catch her lice. That also served as a way to make the other children ostracize Harri.
Then when she was 6 years old, Harri had gotten lost for an entire week until the policemen had brought her back to the Dursleys to their dismay. But Petunia had acted the part and pretended to tear up at having Harri brought back to her. She then went for three days with no food and a minimum amount of water.
Then when she 7 years old, Harri had blown up her teacher's car, not that anyone could prove it was her, but Petunia knew it had something to do with Harri and had punished her either way.
As Harri was recalling all of the terrible Halloweens and was trying to remember how this one was terrible, Harri felt a panic rise up in her. What if this Halloween turned out to be bad because something happened to Sirius because she had screwed up by changing the timeline? Harri visibly frowned and decided to go to her room after the feast and pack a couple of things before she made her escape.
Harri thought about the Halloween night when she was 11 years old and the first Halloween she had spent in Hogwarts and dropped her cutlery when she remembered the damned troll in her first year. Harri frantically looked at the end of the Gryffindor table where the first years usually sat and couldn't find Hermione. Fred noticed that Harri looked to be in a state of panic and as he was about to comfort her for the loss of her parents, Harri suddenly stood up and took out her wand with a crazed look in her face. Fred decided that the look on Harri's face couldn't be good, so he stood up with her and caught the attention of George. George looked over at his twin and he agreed that Harri looked disturbed.
As Harri stood up from the table and made to leave the Great Hall, Quirrell came in and passed her on her way out as he sprinted to the middle of the great Hall. Harri exchanged a look with him and started to speed walk out of the Great Hall before someone stopped her.
"Troll- in the dungeons! Thought you ought to know-" Quirrell fainted and hit the floor and Harri was in a sprint now as she ran to the bathroom in the dungeons to get Hermione out. Harri didn't realize that the twins were running behind her until Fred took her wrist and stopped her.
"Harri, we have to go back-" Fred looked serious for once and he knew that a troll was above even them.
"Hermione doesn't know about the troll" Harri snapped and yanked her arm back as she ran to the dungeons and listened for any signs of the troll.
"Hermione could be in the library or somewhere safe, you don't know if she's in danger." George tried to reason with her.
"I also don't know if she is safe. Better safe than sorry." Harri continued to run as fast as her short legs could take her. The twins easily followed behind her.
Harri heard soft cries coming from the girl's bathroom and Harri sighed in relief when she saw that the troll hadn't appeared yet. But she could hear the grunting and the heavy footsteps of the troll nearby. Harri knew that at most she had three minutes to convince Hermione to come with her, and she still had the twins to deal with.
"You can either stay by my side and help me, or you can start running to safety. Hermione is in that bathroom and I'm getting her out." With that said, Harri took off to the bathroom and opened the door and entered forcefully. The twins looked at each other and they followed Harri into the girl's bathroom. Harri heard the cries soften and Harri pounded on her stall door.
"It's oc-occupied" Hermione hiccupped.
"Hermione, there's a troll in the dungeon coming our way. It's me, Harri. Open the door or I'll open it." Harri threatened as she now only had about a minute before the troll decided to grace them with its presence.
"No, you just want to make fun of me!" Hermione lightly said back.
"For fucks sake!" Harri cursed and she pointed her wand at the door handle and said,
"Alohomora" the door opened and Harri forcefully took Hermione's hand in hers and pulled her out with her.
"NO! let go of me!" Hermione resisted and Harri pulled harder.
"Hermione! We can either do this the easy way or the hard way. It's your choice really. I'd rather have you alive and angry at me, than dead and gone. There's a fucking troll out there and it'll probably kill the three of you." Harri gestured at the twins who had Harri's back covered. Harri pointed her wand at Hermione and gave her five seconds. Harri stared up at her in frustration and after a bit Hermione nodded.
"O-Okay" Hermione didn't think that they would go out of their way to prank her to this extent. The twins weren't smiling, and they looked serious and a bit scared, but they also had their wands out and had it pointed at the door.
Harri gave her hand a light squeeze and then let go of her. Harri got in front of George and Fred and put them behind her and stood in front of them all and put her pointer finger to her lips to silence them all. They heard the loud thumping outside the bathroom and Hermione shook behind them. Harri motioned for them all to back up slowly and quietly to the far end of the bathroom so that she had space to deal with the troll. They could smell the troll now and Fred was about to gag but Harri covered his mouth and shook her head.
The four of them agonizingly took baby steps backwards so as not to make any noise. The troll went silent and listened for any activity inside the bathroom. Harri kept quiet but at the exact same moment George sneezed and the troll blasted the door off its hinges and knocked part of the wall down and had Hermione screeching out in fright.
Harri didn't give the troll any time to react, and she took her wand out and told Hermione, George, and Fred, "Close your eyes if you're squeamish." Harri didn't wait to see if they had closed their eyes and immediately, she got to work.
Harri pointed at the troll's club and whispered, "Wingardium Leviosa." The club levitated in the air as the troll made to swing at the students again but instead the troll looked up in confusion as its club stayed floating in the air. Harri left the club frozen in the air as she quickly transfigured the club and added razor sharp spikes on the tip of the club. Harri then pointed her wand at the club and violently slashed downwards as the club rushed downward and penetrated the Troll's eyes. Harri didn't flinch as the Troll let out a deafening yell of pain and afterwards, she raised the club with her wand again and let it fall on the trolls head repeatedly until its head was bashed open like a watermelon. Harri didn't let go until the troll was lying on the ground motionless and without a head, as Harri had made sure to mince the head completely and was unbothered by the blood staining her face and uniform.
Fred and George covered Hermione eyes after the first hit had popped the eyes of the troll like a grape. They refused to let her see after the first hit and watched in morbid fascination how a first-year spell managed to kill a troll. Harri put her wand down once the troll had finished twitching minutes after Harri had minced its head.
Harri analyzed her work and went closer to the troll and took some samples in a couple of vials. Harri collected some hair, teeth, skin, nails, saliva, and blood to play with at a later time.
Fred and George stared at each other, shocked, and gave each other a considering look before they too started to collect some samples and put it in toilet paper.
Harri rolled her eyes at them and handed them extra vials.
"Thank you, My Lady." Harri smirked and shrugged.
"Always a pleasure." Hermione slowly opened her eyes and watched as Harri, Fred and George took samples and were scavenging the troll's body.
"It's a shame I destroyed the eyes." Harri sighed sadly as if that were the world's greatest tragedy as she continued to take many vails of blood. Hermione felt her stomach roll and she ran to the toilet, but she immediately knew she wasn't going to make it on time, so she hunched over on the floor and vomited out her entire days' worth of food. Harri gave her a pitiful look but continued to collect samples as the teachers came into that exact sight.
McGonagall came through the whole in the girl's bathroom and saw the minced and scavenged troll of the floor. Snape stared at his surroundings and knew it was Potter that head dealt with the troll, only she could be so brutal with dealing with threats. Quirrell looked at the minced Troll's head and went to a stall and gagged out saliva, but nothing came out. McGonagall stared at the trio collecting samples for a good minute and was trying to compute what she was seeing but it wasn't connecting with her that two of her students and her honorary Gryffindor were dissecting a troll in the girls' bathroom.
To Snape's credit, he didn't look sick, but he did look disgusted at the sight and smell. He watched as Potter dug her small hands inside the guts of the troll and waited for the vial to fill itself with blood. Snape bent over the troll and analyzed the gashes to see what Potter had done to it. McGonagall looked furious and she turned to the twins, and they secretly passed their vails to Harri as Harri stored them in her pouch with hers.
"What on earth were you thinking of!?" McGonagall glared at the twins and left Harri out of it. Harri thanked her mother's look for getting her out of trouble once again.
"Well, you see…" Fred looked to George, but he also had nothing to say. Hermione wiped her mouth and stared at McGonagall and spoke up.
"It's my fault professor, Harri came looking for me because she knew that I didn't know about the troll." Snape and McGonagall both immediately turned to Harri who was done collecting her samples and was standing in the middle of Fred and George and wiping her bloody hands on her silk robes.
"Miss Potter." McGonagall firmly voiced. She didn't even know where to start. There was the dissecting of the troll, the killing of the troll, and going off on her own and possible harming herself in the process.
"Yes professor?" Harri asked respectfully.
"Do you care to tell me why you thought it was a good idea to go off and warn miss Granger and possible get yourself killed instead of getting a teacher to save Miss Granger?" Harri couldn't keep the bite out of her voice.
"Because Hermione would have been dead otherwise. Rule breaking is worth it if it saves a life. And as we are on the topic of rule breaking, technically I didn't break any rules, I was already out of the Great Hall before any announcements were made so we didn't break any rules." Harri said as she pointed to the twins and herself.
"You still should have gotten a teacher and told them that there was a missing student."
"I'll do that next time when one of my friends isn't the one in danger and see if they come out alive. I barely made it on time to warn Hermione. If I had gotten a teacher that would have taken me at least five minutes to explain to a teacher, and another five to look for Hermione. By that time, Hermione would already be dead." Harri spoke evenly and stared into McGonagall eyes.
"…" McGonagall pursed her lips, and she knew that Harri was right, but she thought that going off on her own still didn't make it correct for her to put herself in a dangerous situation. Any other student would have only gotten themselves killed as well.
"I don't mean to sound cocky but… I know how to handle myself perfectly well. This troll didn't even last a minute." Harri wiped her bloody shoes on the overflowing water from the broken pipes.
"I trust that you can deal with your students Minerva" Snape curtly spoke. Minerva looked shocked and she nodded at him once.
"Let's go Potter." Snape said once and walked away without waiting for a response.
"I'll talk to you soon." Harri took Hermione's hand and squeezed it once before leaving to follow Snape.
"Gentlemen, I'll see you soon." Harri said and motioned at the ingredients that she had in her pouch. Both boys nodded frantically and waited for their punishment from Minerva.
As Harri walked past Quirrell she intentionally met his eyes and put her mental barriers up and gave him a knowing smirk before following after Snape.
Quirrell didn't know what to think of Potter. She was too talented if what she said about taking down the troll was true. Quirrell clutched his heart as he stepped closer to the troll and observed the damage to its body. It appeared that Potter transfigured the club and beat the troll until it became pure mush. Quirrell stepped back and stared at the rest of its plucked body. That girl was clearly disturbed, and he might have an idea of why the Dark Lord saw potential in her. He had to go to his quarters and talk to the Dark Lord immediately.
Quirrell backed away from the mutilated corpse and left the bathroom in a hurry.
McGonagall watched as poor Quirrell couldn't take the sight anymore and retreated. McGonagall then stared at her three students and sighed.
"Five Points from Gryffindor for not being at the feast, Miss Granger." Hermione nodded sadly at having lost points, but she knew that it could have been worse.
McGonagall then stared at the Twins. "Five points each for sheer dumb luck." The twins smirked at each other and high fived each other and then took Hermione's hand and high fived her as well.
"I shall escort you three to the Gryffindor common room where you shall resume with the feast."
With that, the Gryffindor's retreated to the common room where they were questioned by their House mates on where they were and why they were covered in blood.
Ron stared on in jealousy as his brothers received more attention for breaking the rules and then glared at Granger for being an accomplice and also getting attention from their year mates. As Parvati, Lavender, Dean, Seamus, and Neville huddled around Hermione and asked her for details on what happened to the troll.
Hermione felt a bit lighter as she realized that Harri went after her and risked herself to save her.
Harri turned away from Quirrell and followed behind Snape. Harri was honestly getting used to following him around and having him pull her away from sticky situations. But she didn't understand why he kept helping her get out of trouble. He helped her get out of the fight with the Hufflepuffs, he helped her get out of trouble because she killed the troll, and he let her go when he got angry with Fred and George. Back in her original timeline she never got out of trouble, on the contrary, Snape looked for anything to get her in trouble.
The difference between then and now was that before in her first timeline, he thought she was a pampered spoiled brat and now, Snape clearly thought she was a troubled girl from a broken family and needed his protection. Harri smiled as she walked behind Snape and wondered if her appearance also had anything to do with the change from last time.
Petunia had cut her hair to resemble a boy before she started Hogwarts because Petunia didn't want her to be popular in school like her mother had been. She had also given her Dudley's hand me down and had made her wear them everywhere they went, and when Petunia was questioned about this by the other parents at the primary school, she had said that Harri wore those clothes because she would have a panic attack and go feral if she wasn't wearing her comfort oversized clothing. Petunia was met with sympathetic looks and encouragement from the mothers to Petunia's glee and had sent Harri a triumphing look before continuing to vent out her sorrows to the other mothers.
Harri remembered that the first day on the Hogwarts express, Ron had thought that she was a boy and had treated her like a brother. It didn't help that Harri was also wearing trousers, oversized worn out shirt and had unkept, wild, unruly flaming red hair that stuck out at every direction when it was short, and was wearing thick, black, oval glasses that hid the gentle shape of her face. Harri and Ron had gotten along marvelously, well, until they had introduced themselves and Ron found out she was a girl. It got awkward and silent for a bit before they resumed their chattering and their laughter after they had insulted Malfoy and had forgotten their previous awkwardness. Ron saw that Harri was just like himself, and had also grown-up wearing hand-me-downs and he quickly formed a bond with her and saw her as a bloke even after they introduced themselves and were sorted.
Harri was sure that Snape had something against her as he always went out of his way to insult her and her father and had given her detention every time, he got the chance to. Harri had tough skin ever since she was 8 years old and learned that the world saw her as a pest, and no one would ever be on her side, and she easily learned how to ignore Snape and his nasty comments.
Harri continued to trudge after Snape to the familiar path to his office. Harri decided that after she was done talking to Snape, she would pack a couple of things and go find Sirius herself. She would go to the shrieking shack first, then Hogsmeade, then Grimmauld place, then Diagon alley, then hit London, and if she didn't find him there, she would go back to Hogwarts, pack her trunk, and look for him throughout all of the UK before hitting the other continents. Harri was sure that Kreacher could get personal belongings that belonged to Sirius so that she could hunt him down using suspicious means of magic.
She supposed that she could always get away with sneaking away from Snape and making a run for it, but she didn't want to have to explain to him why she was paranoid in getting to Sirius. Harri checked her little pouch to see what she had inside. She still had the daggers she had taken from Bellatrix's vault and the robes, and the books, a decent number of galleons. A muggle first aid kit, some potions she brewed in class, a mirror, and other miscellaneous items.
Harri checked her appearance and figured she should probably bathe first before she left, it would attract more attention if others saw her outside of Hogwarts in a tattered state.
Snape turned to look at Potter and saw the pensive look in her eyes. He was sure that she was planning on doing something very soon, something that he knew that she knew that he wouldn't approve of.
Harri stared back at Snape who was staring at her in suspicion as she was planning her next course of action. She could always slip away from him unnoticed, but she didn't want to explain herself to him and she didn't want to lie to him if she didn't have to. She thought that she would just have to go when everyone was in bed in the dead of the night. That would also get her more time to shower and make preparations for battle just in case everything went to hell, and she had to be on the run with Sirius.
Snape turned away from her and continued to lead the way to his office.
As Harri continued forward without looking ahead, she bumped into Snape's back once again and stumbled back slightly before catching her balance and avoided falling on her arse. Harri looked over to see what seemed to stop Snape in his tracks.
In front of Harri and Snape stood a worn-out looking Sirius and an angry Hedwig that was glaring at Sirius in front of Snape's office. Hedwig squawked angrily at Sirius and as soon as Hedwig saw Harri, she flew over to Harri and brushed her face against Harri's bloodied face.
Harri gave Hedwig a childish giggle and rubbed her face back at Hedwig before dismissing her so that she could rest.
Sirius rolled his eyes at Hedwig. In his humble opinion, he didn't even do anything, he only prevented her from going back to Harri because he didn't want Hedwig to spoil the surprise for her. Sirius send a scathing glare at Snape and walked past him to see Harri, as he was sure that Hedwig would only fly and cuddle her owner. But as soon as he saw the bloody state of Harri's robes he forgot all about Snape and rushed over to Harri and bend down and checked her over before he stood up and glared at Snape.
"What did you do to her?!" he spat at Snape venomously with a mad glint in his eyes at the thought of anyone harming Harri. Sirius's hand twitched towards his wand and Harri interjected before any duel broke out.
Harri answered for Snape before the situation escalated even further, "I killed a troll that was trying to kill me and my friends…" Sirius stared at Harri for a bit to see if she was joking with him, but Harri's robes confirmed her statement and her eyes reflected no humor, and Snape wasn't contradicting her, so he knew that she was telling the truth.
Sirius suddenly felt like his mother as his temper came to a boiling point and toppled over as he criticized the school, "What type of Madhouse are you running here?!" he sneered as he conjured a damp towelette and cleaned Harri's face and hands.
"No one told Potter to go fight the troll, Dog!" Snape sneered back at Sirius as he wasn't about to let anyone, less of all a Black, criticize him for doing his job and going out of his way to look out for Potter.
"Oh, so it's Harri's fault then?" Sirius sneered at Snape and bared his teeth out like a dog as he continued to clean Harri's face.
"She was perfectly safe in the Great Hall with everyone else until she went to the dungeon to look for her friend" Snape snapped back at him as they both inched towards each other as they were both eager for spells to fly.
Harri stood in between them as she faced Snape and gave her back to Sirius and extended a hand towards Snape so that he wouldn't fire at Sirius. Harri turned her face to look at Sirius and said,
"The troll went down easily, and no one got hurt, this isn't my blood" Harri declared triumphally at Sirius. Sirius stared at Harri's back and then at Harri's face and he softened when he saw that she was trying to protect him from Snape's spells. But he still thought that he could easily show Harri how he doesn't need protection from Snape and could easily take him down if she wasn't there. Sirius glared at Snape and picked up Harri in his arms and carried her like a child. Harri blinked as she registered that Sirius had just picked her up like she was five, but she wasn't complaining as she had never been picked up like that before. Sure, Theo had picked her up in a princess's carry many times when he was impatient and was eager to take her to the master bedroom in his manor, or to Harri's room in her flat, but being picked up like a child was surreal to Harri. She had no memories of ever being picked up by her parents, the Dursleys, or Sirius. The only memory she had of being picked up was by Hagrid when everyone had thought her dead in the forest where she had received the killing curse. But even Hagrid had her cradled in his arms like a baby as he cried over what he thought was Harri's dead corpse.
Sirius regretfully had to inform Snape, "Merlin knows why, but seeing as they made someone like you the Head of House for Slytherin, I'm taking Harri out of the school for a couple of days." Harri blinked owlishly and stared at Sirius and then Snape, and then she only shrugged and settled into her new position. Harri wasn't about to argue against spending more time with Sirius as that was her favorite pastime.
Snape rose an eyebrow and before he could argue that he couldn't just take Harri out of school whenever he pleased, they were joined by Dumbledore.
"Gentlemen, I will remind you that we are at a school, where there are children present" he said as he eyed Harri with a twinkle in his eye as he tried to impress her with his grandfatherly persona. Harri gave the three of them a side eye look and then rested her head on the crook of Sirius neck and pretended to fall asleep.
"Don't let me stop you." and then Harri closed her eyes and pretended to snore loudly, and she heard Sirius chuckle at her antics and adjusted Harri so that she could get more comfortable.
"Headmaster, I remind you that students cannot be taken out of school out of the whims of childish adults that have no sense of responsibility" Snape pressed.
"Professor Dumbledore, I remind you that greasy gits should mind their own business as I am Harri's guardian, and I can do as I please." Sirius shot back as Harri pretended to snore louder so that the men could lash it out.
Dumbledore suddenly felt 20 years younger as both men continued to argue like they did when they were school children.
"How they gave you guardianship of Potter is beyond me; they should have given her to the werewolf instead." Snape snapped back with a sneer, and he hoped that Potter heard him say that.
"Severus" Dumbledore said disapprovingly.
Snape looked at Dumbledore's solemn and disappointed expression and looked away from the old man with a bit of shame that he always got when Dumbledore gave him that expression.
"We'll be back on November 3" Sirius snapped, and he was glad that Harri already knew that Remus was a werewolf. Sirius turned and walked away with Harri in his arms and ignored Dumbledore as he tried to call him back,
"Sirius, my boy, maybe it's for the best to let young Harriet stay here at Hogwarts instead of making her face her darkest moments…" Sirius continued walking away from them and Snape rolled his eyes at Black for his lack of respect for the headmaster. After calling after him several times, Dumbledore finally stopped trying to convince him to let Harri stay there at Hogwarts as he could also understand that perhaps Sirius wanted to take young Harriet to her parent's grave and remember and honor them, so he stopped trying to convince Sirius to listen to him and simply let them go.
Sirius took the stairs towards the Great Hall and when Harri couldn't hear the voices of Snape and Dumbledore she raised her head from the nook on Sirius' shoulder and gave him a big smile.
"So where were you Sirius?" Harri asked him as she forgot all of her worries when she saw Sirius looked healthier, better fed, and more energized. His hair looked darker and shinier than the last time she had seen him as well.
Sirius gave Harri a guilty look and then looked away from Harri's soul piercing eyes.
Harri waited patiently for Sirius to respond as she wouldn't be letting his absence go without a proper justification.
"Hmmm…" Sirius stalled for a bit longer and Harri started to feel suspicion creep into her mind. She wondered what he had done for him to pull her out of school. Was this it? Were they going to flee Europe? Was he preparing to leave everything behind and had come pick her up after he had finished preparations? As Harri's mind went into over gear, Sirius finally answered where he was.
"IwentoMexico…" Sirius mumbled quickly, but Harri still caught what he said but was unsure that she had heard him correctly.
"I'm sorry?" Harri enunciated. "I think I misunderstood you, could you say that again?" She stared intensely at him.
Sirius turned to look at her and gave her his best puppy dog eyes to mellow her out. "I took a portkey to Mexico and got the spell to activate the ritual." Sirius felt the power of Lily's disappointed eyes that Harri had inherited staring into his soul.
Harri stared at him and was unsure how to react. She was glad that he got the spell so that they could speak to her parents sooner rather than later, but on the other hand, he had gone to Mexico without her when he had told her that they would go together. Sirius fidgeted under her stare as Harri continued to stare at him disappointedly.
"Come on Bambi, I wanted to give you a surprise." Sirius' eyes became bigger as he tried to get Harri to stop giving him her cold stare.
Harri continued to stare at him, and she knew that she had lost when he gave her his puppy dog eyes that she had learned from him in her first life. But she couldn't show him that he had won so easily, she wanted to make him squirm first and get him to make it up to her first before giving in. "Fine, but you are still taking me to Mexico… and Egypt." Harri bargained.
Sirius broke out in a smile and laughed.
"You go it Kiddo!" Sirius continued to walk to the gates of Hogwarts and apparated them both to Grimmuald place once he was outside of the Hogwarts grounds and wards.
Once inside the house, Kreacher immediately popped in and greeted Harri by bowing down deeply with his nose touching the clean floor.
"Mistress has come home. Kreacher greets young mistress."
"You may rise Kreacher." Harri spoke out loudly and clearly. Harri gave Sirius a look of surprise as Kreacher was acting too loyal to her, as she hadn't tried to win over his loyalty yet.
Harri hadn't considered how to win Kreacher's loyalty because she thought she still had time to ponder over how to win him over. She couldn't give him the locket as she needed it and wasn't planning on destroying the locket either to show him proof that she had destroyed the locket his late master had died for.
Sirius shrugged and put Harri down. Harri looked around the house and it looked better than she had ever seen it in both lives. Kreacher had definitely been busy working.
"Good job Kreacher, I am pleased that the House of Black is in a better state." Harri nodded to Kreacher who stood up and gleamed happily at her.
Sirius grimaced when he saw the smiling house elf but kept his comments to himself.
Walburga portrait's curtain opened, and she glared at Sirius, but she didn't yell at him as she saw that her granddaughter was also there with him.
"What happened to you child?" She asked Harri as she noticed the poor state her uniform was in.
"Some nutjob let a troll in the school so I killed it after it tried to kill me" Harri informed her gravely.
"WHAT TYPE OF MADHOUSE ARE THEY RUNNING THERE!" Walburga screeched out and Harri shot Sirius a smile as he had said the same thing. Sirius tensed and rolled his eyes at Harri, as he knew that she was thinking the same thing as him; He was turning into his mother.
"I have already dealt with the school mother; I have pulled her for the time being to perform a ritual in the basement." Walburga immediately perked up and Sirius grimaced when he saw his mother smile at him for the first time since before, he started Hogwarts.
"Very well, I guess it cannot be helped. Make sure you take precaution, but most importantly make sure you have fun." Sirius never thought that he would hear those words from his mother's mouth, but he was just as surprised as Walburga was when she spoke those words to him. Walburga nodded at him briefly before she nodded at Harri and then closed her portrait with her curtain.
"That was…" Harri started off.
"Yeah, that was disturbing. Let's agree to never speak of this again." Harri nodded quickly and Sirius decided to change the topic.
"I already collected what we need for the ritual, I just need to read out the spell and wait for them to appear." Harri nodded eagerly and followed Sirius to the basement. She had already forgiven him as she knew that getting to speak with her parents a year earlier was worth going to Mexico without her.
The lights turned on as Sirius and Harri entered the basement. The basement was bare except for the shrine in the middle against the back wall. The shrine held a picture of Lily and James Potter, as well as their favorite foods and bread adorning on many plates. Many candles were lit around them, as well as quidditch balls to entice James and books to entice Lily to visit them. On the table stood a personal item that belonged to each of them. For James, Sirius had gotten his team Jersey from Quidditch, and for Lily, he had gotten her copy of advanced Charms.
Harri smiled up at Sirius and walked over to him and hugged him tightly around his waist.
"Thank you, Sirius." Harri smiled up at Sirius and was trying her hardest not to let her tears flow.
"Now, now, Bambi, no tears or else I will cry, and no one wants to see that" Sirius sniffed. Harri's lower lip trembled, and she nodded quickly at him and hid her face in his robes. Harri hugged him tighter and muttered to herself, "no tears, no tears, no tears" nothing could make her cry on the spot like Sirius could. Everything that had to do with Sirius made her sensitive as she had never gotten over his death after decades of accepting his death.
Harri nodded at Sirius and let him go. "Let's get ready for midnight." Sirius nodded and cleared his throat before patting her head and heading towards the door leading to the basement.
"Kreacher, you are not to listen in or come to the basement under any circumstances, understood?" Sirius asked Kreacher who was waiting outside of the door. Kreacher nodded worriedly for his young mistress. If something went wrong, he wouldn't be able to help or rescue her from the ritual damage, but he couldn't do anything because of his order. Kreacher nodded, "Kreacher understands" as he glared at Sirius and popped away.
Sirius glared at the spot where Kreacher was and closed the door behind him. He joined Harri on the sofa she was sitting on. Harri smiled at him,
"Can I borrow the shower or bath?" Harri asked as she motioned to her red silk-stained uniform.
Sirius eyes widened and he nodded quickly as he had forgotten that she still looked like she had come back from an extended holiday at the Forbidden Forest, "of course not!" Sirius led her to a bathroom and left her to her own devices before going back to the basement to wait for her.
Harri washed herself quickly and popped herself out from the bathtub to fresh towels prepared for her by Kreacher. Harri went through her pouch before she found one of Bellatrix's floor length dresses and put it on. Harri altered the dress with transfiguration to have the outdated dress fit her without slipping off and put back her Potter hair ornaments and heirlooms back on.
Harri walked back to the basement and closed the door behind her before she went to sit with Sirius as they both waited for midnight to come.