Chapter 14: Summer With Millie

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Hermione didn't get to join Harry for most of the vacation because she went on vacation with her parents to France. So, Harry spent most of his time with Millie in Hogsmeade going over his self-defense. He was still taking his muggle classes with Phil and Millie. And he was doing very well with those. He had caught up with in his age group and was going to do his tests at the end of the summer.

But he was alone without anybody his own age. Everybody else had plans for the vacation. Neville was on a vacation with his gran somewhere in Asia. Even Ron and the rest of the Weasleys were in Egypt.

Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday he was in Hogsmeade and after his class, he would go around the village looking at the shops. There were some amazing things in this small village. It was like a smaller version of Diagon Alley. It lacked a few things. There was no broom shop, nor was there a wand shop. Still, there was a candy shop and a joke shop, a pub, and a tea shop and a few other things that made it a really nice place to visit. That and it was like looking at a postcard of an old-time village of homes with thatch roofs and wooden structures. Very picturesque.

Today was his birthday and he received some horrible news from his aunt's house. He rushed to Millie's via the Knight Bus. He had used it many times during this vacation to get there. Phil had taught him how, just for occasions like this.

"I don't know what to do, Millie. She's a nightmare," he said as he paced around the workout area of Millies self-defense shop.

She had everything you could want to have to work out. Like dumbbells, yoga mats, skip ropes, and all sorts of exercise items. There were also things like pepper spray, brass knuckles, weighted bags, and assorted self-defense necessities. Anything to get into shape and protect yourself.

"Who are you talking about, Harry? I can't help you if you don't let me know, yeah," Millie said, looking both amused and concerned at the same time. She was amused because he was pacing like an adult, but concerned because he was very upset about whoever it was, he was talking about. It was obvious he didn't like this person more than he didn't like the Dursleys.

"My Aunt Marge, well, she really isn't my aunt. She's Vernon's sister, but she's a nightmare and she's supposed to be coming to visit today, and I don't know what to do," Harry ranted, even going so far as to throw his hands in the air.

"How is she a nightmare?" Millie wanted to know, so that she could help fix the problem.

"She brings this little dog, Ripper, and he bites me every time he sees me. She has no control over him, and she often encourages him to bite me," the teen said, and there was even a bit of fear in his voice, like he really didn't like the dog and it had bitten him many times before.

"Do you want me to go over there and threaten her like I did with your Uncle Vernon?" she offered, thumping one of her hands into the other hand in a threatening manner. If she thought Vernon was bad, this other woman sounded even worse, and she was more than willing to give her a what for. What kind of woman sicced her dog on a small child? Only somebody mentally unbalanced would do such a thing, and she had no problem putting somebody like that down.

"No, you can't. She doesn't know anything about magic," Harry said, slumping his shoulders in defeat. He'd love nothing better than for Millie to go over there and turn Aunt Marge into a teacup forever. But there was such a thing as the Statute of Secrecy.

"I'm still an adult and I can still threaten her," the older girl suggested.

"I don't think it'll work with Aunt Marge. She's a very big and mean woman. She's even bigger than Uncle Vernon," Harry said. His eyes got so large at how big Aunt Marge was. "That and she likes her wine… a lot."

"Well, you can stay here with me while she's visiting," Millie said, gesturing above her shop. She lived in the flat above it. "My flat has two bedrooms, and you are more than welcome to take the second bedroom."

"Do you think my Aunt Petunia will let me?" the teen asked with hope in his voice. That would be a perfect solution to this problem. He'd get away from the Dursleys, he'd get away from Aunt Marge. He'd be able to do his homework. He'd be able to go around town. He'd be close to Hogwarts. He would have freedom. It would be great.

"Honestly, Harry, I think your aunt would do anything to get you out of the house if it would keep the peace," Millie said. She moved to her office and went to the desk and gathered up some papers that she had been keeping for a while now.

After the trouble that Harry had had in the last couple of years in the school, she wanted to have these papers signed and ready in case she needed them. So far, he'd been able to keep out of any major trouble, bar his kidnapping, but signs showed that there was going to be a time when she was going to need these papers signed.

"Could we go and ask?" Harry asked her, ready to bolt out the door just for the opportunity to get out of his Aunt Petunia's house.

"Sure. Let me just close up shop. I don't have any classes until 2pm," she said, going to throw the closed sign on the door. She only kept the open sign switched on to sell the merchandise in the shop area when there were no classes.

And with that the two of them closed up shop and went to Harry's aunt's house to ask if Harry could stay at Hogsmeade with Millie until Aunt Marge left or longer. The only person left in the house was Aunt Petunia. Millie took her into the living room and sat her down.

"Look here, Petunia," she said in a firm tone. "Harry doesn't like your Aunt Marge. He doesn't wanna stay here while she's here. Give me a Power of Attorney and let him stay with me until she's gone or even till the end of summer, I'll make sure he gets to Hogwarts on time." She said all this rather forcefully because she really wanted Petunia to agree.

"Why should I do anything to make him happy?" Petunia said, sneering at the young people sitting in front of her. She did not like her nephew and she did not want to make him happy in any way, shape, or form. She would rather see him suffer under the gentle persuasions of Aunt Marge. Then again, she really didn't want him in the house, and she really didn't want to get Aunt Marge all riled up. That woman's tended to drink more when she got angry, and the angrier she got, the drunker she got, and she was harder to handle when she was drinking.

"Well, you could leave him here and accidental magic might happen, and then how would you explain it?" Millie said a sickening sweet smile plastered her lips. She knew how much Petunia hated magic, and she knew there was no way she wanted Aunt Marge to know about it.

"Oh, for goodness' sake, just take the boy," the horse-faced woman said, ready to just get these people out of her house, especially with their unnaturalness.

"I need a Power of Attorney, yeah," the younger woman said, giving her a 'you'd better agree' look.

"Fine, just give me the papers and I'll sign them," Petunia said, holding out her hands for whatever paper she needed to sign. She'd sign just about anything just to get them to leave. Vernon was due back with Marge any minute now, and she just wanted them gone before they got here.

Millie handed over the papers she'd been keeping for quite a while, just for this type of occasion. Petunia signed on the dotted line and gave Millie the Power of Attorney to have control over Harry. Just in case he needed medical attention or legal advice for any reason. Little did Petunia know, but she basically signed her rights away for Harry in the magical world. She really should have read what she was signing.

"Well, it was nice doing business with you, Petunia. I'll take Harry and get out of your hair," Millie said with a very bright smile on her face, which gave Petunia pause. Then she turned to Harry and said, "Harry, go pack your stuff, yeah. You're gonna be staying with me until the end of summer."

"I'd be careful if I were you, the news said that that mass murder, Sirius Black, has escaped Azkaban," Harry's aunt said with a sneer. She, of course, knew who Sirius Black was. She had met him at Lily's wedding. A wedding she regretted going to, but there it was.

"How do you know about Azkaban?" Millie asked, completely shocked that Petunia would know anything about the wizarding world. Especially, with how much she despised it. She wasn't quite sure who Sirius Black was or how important he was in Harry's life, but she was going to keep a lookout for him. If someone like Petunia was even mildly worried about it, yeah, she was going to keep an eye out for him.

"That boy of Lily's told me about it," Petunia sniffed as if she smelled something foul in the air.

"Right. Harry, go get your stuff," Millie said, nudging Harry out of the room.

With that, Harry ran upstairs and grabbed all his things. It took him a matter of five minutes since he never really unpacked at Aunt Petunia's house. He made sure to grab everything under the floorboard. He hurried back downstairs with his full trunk, and they were out the door. Since Millie could now Apparate, they were back in Hogsmeade in a matter of seconds.

"Your Aunt is a real piece of work, yeah," Millie said as they were unpacking his trunk in his brand-new bedroom above her shop.

"She has her good days, since you started talking to her, but yeah, she's really not a nice person," the dark-haired teen said as he shrugged his shoulders and put some shirts in the dresser drawer. He was just glad to be away from his aunt's house, even if it was his birthday, and nobody had really celebrated it with him yet. To him, this was an excellent birthday present. He did not have to deal with Aunt Marge.

"Well, at least you don't have to do the chores all the time anymore, but I'm glad you're gonna be staying with me for the rest of the summer," Millie said, coming up behind him and ruffling his hair.

"Millie, who is Sirius Black?" Harry asked, looking at her as he put the last shirt away.

"Let's wait till tomorrow and I'll let you know all about him. Today is your birthday and I wanna go to the Three Broomsticks to celebrate," she said, coming up to him and giving him a brilliant smile. Since today was his birthday, she just wanted to party with him.

"Alright," said Harry, all but bouncing in place of the joy that he wasn't going to have to sit at home alone.

So, after Millie's afternoon classes were over, the two went to the Three Broomsticks to celebrate Harry's birthday. Madame Rosmerta gave them a complimentary birthday dinner and Harry got to taste butterbeer for the first time. It was a good time for both of them, and at midnight Harry got his birthday presents from all of his friends.

This time nothing prevented them from showing up and he got a ton of presents, including, of course, a book from Hermione. He got things like candy, a broom servicing kit, a sneakoscope from Ron. A book on curses from Neville. And some general junk from the rest of his friends.

The next morning, Millie sat Harry down after breakfast. "Okay. You wanted to know about Sirius Black, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, what about him?"

"Well, I don't know much," she said a bit hesitantly because she really didn't want to give him false information. "I've looked it up last night in the newspaper, so this is what I've got. Sirius Black is the one who is reported to have turned in the Potters to You-Know-Who. He is also reported to have killed fourteen muggles and a man named Peter Pettigrew. Now Pettigrew was also a friend of your parents, and he was supposed to be the one who went after Black to turn him in. They say Black has escaped from prison because he might be after you. Now, I don't know how much of this is true because we're talking about the Daily Prophet here, and they don't always report facts," she said, completely out of breath for having said it all in one go.

"Okay," said Harry, thinking it over. He wasn't sure whether to be mad or not, but he was generally confused. He was going to have to do his own research on everything because that was two of his parents' friends that were either guilty or dead. Either way, there was a madman that had escaped from prison, and he was either after him or he wasn't. It was confusing.

"I have a bit more of bad news," Millie said, reaching over and grasping his hand. "According to the newspaper, they're going to be putting dementors around Hogwarts." She shuddered at the thought of those demons being anywhere around all those kids.

"What is a dementor?"

"They're the guards of Azkaban. They're soul sucking demons. They make everything around them sad. And I mean so sad it'll make you feel like you can never be happy again," Millie explained, giving a full body shudder. "I'm going to get up a bunch of people and we're going to protest, but I don't think it'll do any good. What I want you to do, is to stay away from these soul suckers."

She already had a list in her brain as to who she was going to call to see who was going to go up against the Ministry to get these soul sucking demons away from the kids. Unfortunately, most of them were muggleborn or half-bloods, and only a few light-sided purebloods were on that list, so it might not be effective.

"How am I going to do that if they're going to be surrounding the school?" Harry asked, fearfully from what she was saying it sounded like it was going to be a scary year at Hogwarts.

"I don't know, but you can look up and try to learn the Patronus Charm," she said thoughtfully. That was a spell that would be very useful for everybody to learn this year.

"Is it hard?" he asked, hope in his voice.

"Yes, but I think you'll be able to do it because you're a strong wizard, Harry," she said, reaching over, ruffling his hair.

"Can you do it?" the teenage boy asked, batting her hands away and trying to straighten his ever messy hair.

"Probably, but nobody's ever taught me. I've never had a reason to learn, yeah," Millie said, smiling at his efforts of trying to straighten his messy hair out. She just reached over and messed it up again. One of the perks of being an older sister figure.

"Well, if you can do it, then I can do it. Then we'll learn together," Harry said, holding out his hand in a type of deal making agreement.

"That's a really good idea. You're a smart kid, Harry," Millie said, taking his hand and shaking it.

"Okay, so together we'll learn the Patronus Charm. I'll do it all year at school, and you'll learn it here in your shop," he said, grinning like a fool, like he had just won some type of lottery.

"Okay, and we'll teach it to our friends."

"It's a deal."

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The rest of the summer was spent roaming around Hogsmeade, doing his muggle homework, his Hogwarts summer homework, and his self-defense classes. It was about a week before Hogwarts was going to start that he ran into a large black dog.

The poor thing looked horrible. It was skinny and mangy and looked like it hadn't had a bath in forever. It was looking at him with bright pleading eyes.

"Hello, boy," Harry said, gently slapping his hands to his thighs.

The dog wagged its tail at him and looked at him with puppy dog eyes.

"Do you want something to eat?" the teen asked in a soft voice. He didn't want to spook the dog into running away. The poor dog looked like it had been abused at some point, or at the very least neglected to the point of starvation.

The dog wagged its tail again and came forward just a little bit.

"Let's go find you something to eat," Harry said, patting his hand on his thighs some more. "Come here. Come here, boy. Come here, boy," he kept calling.

The dog came forward slowly but surely, until he was sitting right next to Harry. And boy, did that poor dog stink. Harry and the dog went to Millie shop and the teenage boy made sure the dog stayed outside because he just stank that badly. Harry knew Millie would just kill him if he brought something that smelly into the store.

"Millie, I found a dog. Can we get him something to eat?" he called out into the store because he didn't see her in the storefront.

"You found a dog?" she said questioningly as she came out of the storeroom. She was wiping her hands on a towel, so she must have been doing something dusty.

"Yeah, he's in sad shape. He really needs something to eat, and I want to give him a bath," Harry said as he headed towards the kitchen to see what he could feed the stray. He wasn't sure what they had left over and what would be good for the dog and the sad shape it was in.

"Harry, you can't just bring strays home, yeah," Millie said with some exasperation. She always knew Harry had a kind heart, but to bring home strays? That was not something she was willing to deal with on a regular basis. Maybe one that would be fine, but if she gave into this one, how many more would he bring home? She was going to have to put her foot down, she knew that.

"But he really needs something to eat or he's going to die. Really. Just let me get him something to eat and a bath. I promise I won't make you keep him," the teen said, turning his puppy dog eyes on her.

"All right," she said, caving into the power of the puppy dog eyes. "We'll give him some leftovers from last night. And then you can take him out back and bathe him there." She's going to have to be careful around this one. Those puppy dog eyes were deadly.

"Thanks, Millie, you're the best," Harry said, running up and hugging her around the waist and turning around, going back to his rummaging of the chill cabinet.

Harry took the leftover roast beef from last night's dinner and fed it to the dog a little bit at a time. He knew how it was to eat after you've been starving, so he knew you had to do a little bit at a time.

The dog seemed to understand and didn't try and grab the roast beef out of his hand and ate it nibble by nibble.

After the dog had eaten the last of the roast beef, he took him out back and gave him a good bath. Because the hose was magical, the water came out warm. He used his own soap to lather the canine up. And soon it was a nice, clean dog.

The dog was happy to be clean and started running around the backyard. Barking and yapping. He came up to Harry and licked his face. He was just so happy.

Millie was standing at the back door, watching the whole thing.

"Can we please keep him? Millie, look at him, he's so happy," Harry said with his arm around the dog rubbing his neck. He was just smiling just as brightly as could be. It was quite the picture to take in, a boy and his dog.

"I don't know. He's a pretty big dog, Harry. He might eat a lot and you're going back to school in a week, yeah," she said, looking at the dog. She didn't know how she would be able to feed such a sizeable animal. She made a good bit of money with her store, but still that was a very large dog. It almost looked like a grim.

"He might be good protection for you here," Harry said, rubbing down the dog's neck as if it were a good boy.

The dog just sat there with its tongue hanging out the side of its mouth as if it were hanging on every word the two people were speaking. He turned his puppy dog eyes to the woman in the doorway.

"I don't know. He doesn't look very vicious to me," Millie said with a playful smile on her lips.

"Maybe you can just keep him for company," Harry said, desperately grasping for anything that would let her keep this dog. There was just something about this dog that he wanted to keep it near.

"We'll keep him for the week until you go back to Hogwarts," she said, throwing up her hands in fond exasperation.

"Yay, did you hear that, Padfoot? You can stay here for a week," the overly excited teen said as he hugged the dog excitedly.

"Why did you call him Padfoot? What an odd name," Millie asked, giving him a perplexed look.

"I don't know, it just came to me. It sounds like the right name," Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Okay, if that's what you wanna call him, yeah," she said, it was no big deal to her what he called the dog.

And with that, Harry and his new dog went into the house and spent time together. From then on, they were seen all around Hogsmeade, just spending time together and having a good time until it was time for Harry to go and get his supplies from Diagon Alley and then catch the train to Hogwarts. He was spending the night at the Leaky Cauldron with the Weasleys, so Padfoot was staying here. Harry was upset that he couldn't take the dog with him, but that's the way of things.