Harry could not believe the major turn-around that his life had taken after he made the decision to go with Silver. Terra, after meeting him, became the male role model that he didn't know he desperately needed. Terra would phrase it as "teaching him to be man" whatever that actually entailed.
Harry started to fill out and wasn't as skinny via Silver's home cooking. She had planned out his meals and took him to the gym with her and Terra where they spent time building his muscle and physic to the point that he wasn't a lanky, malnutritional boy anymore. Yes, there were chores to be done in the house; but there was a system. Each had their own set to do based on the responsibilities they have in the house.
The Siblings did not make Harry do everything and he was so grateful for it. All he was asked to do was to keep up with his room, help Terra keep their shared bathroom clean, and the mindset of "if you made the mess, you clean it up." Whoever made the meals―usually Silver―cleaned the kitchen and took care of the food as well unless someone volunteered to do the dishes and other things.
Harry had a blast decorating his room. Not only had the two Scarlets taken him around the shopping district and market of the Sanctuary, but they let him pick out his own stuff. Granted, Silver guided him a little when it came to internal decorating, but she was good at it.
They were in a store with a little bit of everything. Both mundane and magical. At first, Harry did not know how he wanted to decorate his room seeing as he never had one of his own. He was just glad that this one was clean and didn't have any spider webs. Silver told him to start off with his favorite color. He told them that he had always liked the color red, but he didn't know why.
"How does a red rug sound?" She asked him. Harry had given it some thought before shrugging.
"Maybe?" Was his response. He truly did not know where to start. That was until Silver's eyes started to literally shine and sparkle like glitter. Her hands started flying about as she spoke faster and faster the more words that left her mouth.
"We could paint your walls a dark maroon red or a wine red, but matte. We don't do shiny walls for this. Have a red Barcelona rug and a dark brown leather reading chair in the corner with a wooden bookcase for all your books. And Oh! We―we could paint the door frame and windowsill gold to accent the red and have a brick accent wall!" Silver's description was so vivid in Harry's mind that he could practically see the room. However, it was missing something.
"Could the bedding have a soft yellow to go with the red? Or could the walls be the soft yellow and the bed be red?" He asked while he chewed on the inside of his lip.
Silver stared at him for a moment before answering. "Either way is great. It's what you want the room to be in the end. I'm just throwing out ideas." She told him with a shrug.
In the end, Harry decided to keep the walls the neutral tan they were already painted. His bedspread was red with gold accented embroidery that actually went very well the Barcelona rug they ended up getting for him. Harry decided against the chair and bookshelf as he said there were plenty of those in both the living and family room. Terra patted his back with an approving grin when he said that. Harry beamed.
Harry also found that he really liked to work in the kitchen with Silver. She taught him new recipes, even her special cake made from scratch. He never knew that he could enjoy cooking until he was having an all-out food war with the siblings and they all became covered in flour. He didn't get yelled at for having such fun or making the mess.
He also got involved in the prank wars that would ensue between the two. Sometimes, after he had a successful prank, he swore up and down that he could hear the laughter of a man congratulating him. When he told Terra, he smiled softly at him and told him what he had found out something about his parents. That was a conversation in and of itself.
Harry was just relaxing on the couch reading a leather-bound book when Terra had walked through the front door after a meeting in HQ. He didn't actually see Terra in the house until the eye-patch wearing young man passed him by on the way to the juice cabinet. Harry had to pull up the book a little higher to hide the grin that was starting to form on his face.
The first thing that Harry noticed was that Silver was not with her brother. He sat up after bookmarking where he was reading with a silk, red ribbon and turned to where Terra was standing by the western wall of the living room. His brow was furrowed and his mouth set in a frown.
"Wasn't Silver supposed to come home with you tonight?" Terra was startled from the sudden noise. He also nearly dropped the glass of fruit mocktail that he was about to drink out of before he luckily caught it before it could hit the ground. The boy turned towards Harry so that his lone eye could actually see him when he spoke to the younger male.
"She stayed back to talk to her contacts. There's a couple things that they need to go over. She'll sum it up for me later."
"Oh," Harry let out. He couldn't hide the small bit of disappointment that he felt race down his spine and settle in his gut. He was really hoping that Silver was going to be there to witness what he had planned. His sweet payback for Terra hiding his quidditch books. The sheer idea of flying appealed to Harry's very soul. He was just itching to get on a broom and feel the rushing wind on his face.
(He'll just settle for sitting on top of the roof on nice windy days and pretend for now.)
Terra had paused to stare at Harry with his left eye and an eyebrow raised. The young green-eyed boy was not hiding anything. Immediately, he felt a strong pressing need to look over his shoulder. Whipping his head around and finding nothing out of the ordinary all around the room, Terra took a sip of his drink.
Only to spit it out a split second later with several coughs. Harry couldn't hold back his laughter and proceeded to clutch his stomach when it started to ache from the abuse of laughter assaulting the muscles.
A wheezy voice escaped Terra, "What is that?" He tried forcing out. His throat felt a little tight alongside a slight burning sensation and―oh. Oh. OH. It was alcohol of the very unexpected kind. Whatever else Terra tried to say didn't come out except for little airy squeaks that caused Harry to roll around on the couch until he fell off onto the floor, cushioned only by the red Barcelona rug, similar to the one in his room.
He suddenly stopped, though, when he thought he heard the echo of a man laughing with him. It was jovial and hysteric all at once. It sort of reminded him of Silver's more chaotic laughs when she actually let herself loose enough; but, more masculine.
Terra took immediate notice of this change in behavior of the boy and rushed over to Harry's side. "Harry." No answer. He was too busy looking frantically around the room.
"Harry, what's wrong?" Terra pressed.
Green eyes hesitated before they looked directly at the only chocolate brown eye that wasn't hidden by an eye-patch. "Did you hear that?" He quietly asked.
"Hear what?"
"The laughter. It sounded like someone else's laugh. It―it was a man's, I think. I don't know…you don't believe me do you…" As Harry spoke, he got quieter and quieter with each word. Terra didn't once look away from the younger male as he continued to stare into his eyes for confirmation. There was no lie in the glittering, terrified green.
"You said it was a man's voice?" He asked in the calmest manner he could. All he received was a shaky nod in return. Terra glanced around the room only to see nothing out of the ordinary. The Scarlet bit his lip in thought.
"What did the voice sound like?" Harry furrowed his brows harshly at Terra with a small scowl that continued to twist his face.
Before Harry could even stop himself he had already let the words fly. The heavy sarcasm curtesy of Silver, "Uh, a man's? How else is it supposed to sound?"
With a roll of his eye, Terra continued unperturbed, "Did the voice sound familiar or no?" As quick as Harry opened his mouth to answer, it closed with a snap equally as fast. He straightened up, head jerking back, unfocused eyes shifting down left in thought, and a crease in his brow once again.
"Actually," the boy paused, "Actually, yeah. It did sound familiar. It's at the tip of my tongue of where I heard it. I…I know that voice." Harry looked at Terra directly in the eye again, only sterner in the face and set in determination.
"Terra, I know that voice. I hear it in my dreams when I dream of a time before the green light. Dreams of a red-headed woman with eyes as green as mine and a man with hair dark as the night and hazel eyes filled with laughter." Voice becoming lighter and higher in its amazed tones brightened the room. A distant whisper in the air called Harry's name in a sad loving way. The boy told Terra so.
"There it is again! Only, it's whispered my name…"
The singular-eyed boy thought for several moments before arriving at the only plausible answer. "Could it be your father? Your father watching over you?" At the mere thought, Harry suddenly became docile and unsure of himself.
"You think so?" He whispered uncertainly to the older one in the room. With that said, Terra took the opportunity to break it to Harry the truth of his parents. Something that he and Silver hadn't quite figured out the when. Now seemed like a pretty good time to Terra.
"We found out something while we did some digging about your heritage…" He trailed off. Harry's head snapped up to look at the red-headed male again.
"You did?" The eleven-year-old's voice was quieter than before. The light, airy feeling of hope blossoming in his chest. It made his throat swell and choke out his voice in the possibility that maybe―just maybe―his parents were actually, really and truly, good people. Something other than what his Aunt and Uncle would tell him nearly every moment of every miserable day.
"Your parents didn't die from a car crash, Harry. They were murdered. They died protecting you, and they were magical." At first Harry said nothing. He merely let the information sink in.
(There was still that darkest part of him that refused to believe it no matter how much he wanted it to be true)
"…What?" He forced out of his ever-increasingly tight throat.
"Your parents were good people, Harry. No matter what anyone else says," Terra kneeled down in front of the younger boy, placing his hands on either shoulder, "they were people with flaws that fought for a better world. They never stopped, even when their lives were at stake, they kept fighting the very person that was terrorizing the whole of the wizarding world."
"Who was that?"
"Who?"
"The person that was terrorizing the wizarding world. What was his name?"
"He went by Lord Voldemort. Though I don't know why." Terra stressed with a scoff, "He wasn't lord of anything as far as Silver and I know." Harry's eyebrows furrowed as the two went to sit back down on the couch.
"What happened to him? Voldemort, I mean."
"Well, some say he's dead. However, Silver has intelligence suggesting otherwise. We think he's out there somewhere gaining his strength. I wouldn't put it past his petty ass to get revenge on you for―and I quote―getting rid of him as a baby."
"I defeated him when I was a baby? How? That doesn't seem possible. I had no skill as a baby. I doubt I could even lift my own bottle at that point so why―."
"Because the wizarding adults outside of the Sanctuary are idiots, Harry." Terra interrupted. "They have no common sense and only claimed you as The-Boy-Who-Lived because you were the only one left remaining alive after the attack at Godric's Hollow where you lived.. Also, no one truly wanted to admit that it was your muggleborn mother that bested him somehow, even though she was the brightest witch of her generation."
"Well then what happened after that?" The inquiry made Terra pause, wondering if he should really tell Harry this right now. He did have the right to know, however, seeing as it was Harry's life they were talking about. It was also better to tell him now because he'll be starting his first year of Hogwarts with Silver come September. He should be prepared to not trust Dumbledore and to "look underneath the underneath" and all that rot.
"Dumbledore left you on the doorstep of the Dursley's after being warned by Professor McGonagall about what kind of people they were. He was also the very person mainly in charge of the safety of your parents, and one other family if I'm not mistaken."
"WHAT." Harry intoned, over articulating the last letter of the word. It seemed to be that the more Terra told him, the more upset Harry was getting with this Dumbledore person.
"Why would he leave me with them?" He couldn't help but ask. Out of every place he could have possibly been sent to, why there? Why with the people that have treated him like a slave? Anywhere else was better than the Dursley's retched place.
"I don't know why, Harry. At least, not yet." Terra answered with a shake of his head. "I will find out. And what I mean by that is―"
"That he'll have me find out through the grapevine." A new voice joined in. The two boys turned to face the entrance to the living room to find Silver leaning against the opening frame. Terra scoffed but nodded nonetheless with a thumb jerked in his sister's direction, "Yeah what she said."
Before anything else could be said, a knock sounded from the front door of the house. "I'll get it." Terra spoke as he rose from his spot on the couch next to Harry. He strode past Silver, who moved to join Harry on the couch―thus taking Terra's spot. When he opened the front door he found Luke, the young child who has been bringing him his mail now, standing on the porch holding three envelopes.
"Sorry to disturb you, Terra sir, but these just came from Hogwarts for you, Silver, and Harry. As usual, the owls were lost and confused in the nearby forest." Terra gently took the letters from the boy with a smile gracing his face.
"Thank you very much, Luke. We appreciate your hard work." The boy couldn't have beamed any brighter to be honest.
"I'll be seeing you then! I need to get home now! Bye!" Luke shouted with a wave as he started to run off towards his home. Terra closed the door and let his legs carry him back to the living room where Harry and Silver were waiting for him to return. He slid the others' letters under his armpit where they were pressed between his upper arms and ribcage.
Terra took his own letter and popped the wax seal from the aged, heavy parchment to reveal his school list inside. In it was a list of a few new books that he would need to pick up in Diagon Alley as that was sadly the closest magical shopping district compared to others in theory. 'Though, any form of wizarding travel has nothing on the Gateways.' Terra had thought to himself with the corner of his lips lifting up as he huffed a little through his nose. 'It's like walking from one room to another.'
Silver held out her hand, palm face up, when she saw her brother enter back into the room and seat himself on the leather couch opposite her and Harry. Terra handed the silver-eyed girl her letter and passed Harry's the last one that belonged to the boy. Without much prompting, the two soon to be first years were ripping open their letters and pulling out the parchment inside to read the contents.
"Hey Terra?" Silver spoke up from where she sat, eyes remained trained on the school list in front of her. She didn't need to read the invitation letter. She already knew what it said. There was no need to read information that was already known with no purpose.
"What is it that you need, dearest sister?" Said brother asked while starting a shopping list on the back of his main letter.
Silver could not help the roll of her eyes at the exaggerated response but responded anyway. "Can I just use your old set of books from your first year? I don't want to spend money on something we already have."
"Sure. I don't have a problem with it. I don't need any of them this year anyway seeing as we're getting into the higher-level stuff. Though I highly doubt you are even going to crack open those textbooks. You were the one to tutor me remotely for the last two years so far. Speaking of which," Terra paused in his speaking as he waited for his sister to look at him, "do you plan to do that still on top of all your work or what?"
At first, Silver didn't answer. She decided that this question should have more thought put into it. The last two years she was able to pull off seeing as all she had to do was do her part in leading the Grey Knights. Now she's throwing her own schoolwork into the mix as well.
Then again, her tutoring was more of looking over her brother's work and giving him constructive criticism and giving her opinion on some questions or uncertainties that Terra had. So, yeah. Silver believed she could do it and not burn out.
"I plan on still helping the way I have been. It doesn't seem to me that it will cause me to be overworked as far as I can tell." She shrugged her shoulders.
"Uh…" Harry trailed off still trying to read and understand his papers. "What about me?"
"We can check Gringotts and see if your parents left anything for you to use before we get you your own supplies." Terra explained. His head was tilted in Harry's direction, but his eye remained on Silver. "What do you say?"
"Sounds good."
The sound of bricks scraping away as the entrance to Diagon Alley revealed itself to three figures in drab brown cloaks with hoods draped over their heads, shadowing their faces. Nothing special about them in anyway. They slipped under the notice of many witches and wizards, which was the goal. They were relatively short compared to the adults around them, but thanks to the sheer number of people crowding the streets, no one was able to pay attention to them long enough to see anything of significance about them.
One of the three, who was shorter than the other two, kept twirling around as if they did not have enough eyes to see all the magic floating around in blatant use. Other than that, nothing else seemed special. This particular person had already seen a place far grander than this…medieval congregation of buildings.
"This place is nothing when compared to home." They whispered to the other two. The tallest one sighed in exasperation as the last one of the group held a deceptively delicate hand over their mouth as they giggled.
"Ah well, we have business to attend to. Let us go." The taal one spoke up. The three entered into the bank and swiftly made their way to an open teller. The goblin attending was older with graying wispy, hair and long, gnarled fingers. He seemed to have a permanent scowl on his face as he examined some precious gems in front of him with a magnifying glass.
"Name?" The goblin asked with a harsh attitude.
The tallest cloaked figure nudged the smallest one to speak. "H-Harry Potter, sir." The disguised Harry spoke up from under his cloak. The two with him advised it would be better to hide his face as he was very famous in the wizarding world. This was something that Terra had pulled him aside to explain before they had left so that he was prepared for any and all possible reactions to his name.
"And does Mr. Potter have his key?" The sentence was spat in their faces. Spittle going flying and landing on the taller person's face. 'This Bitch.' He wiped it off with the handkerchief provided by the slightly shorter cloaked person who spoke in answer to the question.
"He doesn't have his key, Master Goblin." At the title, the goblin had frozen at the respect and finally put down his work and given them his full attention.
"And why not?" He asked with a little less bite in his words. He was still cautious though; these people could be posing to steal from the bank.
"We did not know that he even had a vault here, sir. We merely came here to see if he did so he could gather a little bit of money needed for his school supplies. We figured that maybe his parents had left something behind. Seeing as you are asking for a key tells us that he does, in fact, have a vault here but does not posses the key. This means that someone else has it, who could be withholding things of precious value to Harry Potter." The tall one continued to explain.
"And who would you be?" The goblin asked.
"Terra Scarlet, sir."
"Ah. I have heard of you. Then am I to assume correctly that this other person with you is your sister?"
"You would be correct, Master Goblin." The being didn't say anything for a few seconds. He just stared at the three younglings in front of him before he gestured to them to come forward.
"Then we'll just have a new key made for him and the lock changed."
"Thank you, Master Goblin." The newly revealed Silver said. The goblin just grumbled under his breath in return. So the three followed behind with their hoods still up and identities hidden from the other wizards as they went on the roller costar ride that was the underground transportation to the vaults. Harry grabbed some coins after being gifted his new key from his trust vault left by his parents.
Once they had gotten back to the surface and back on the street of the alley, they momentarily split up to make the shopping trip shorter. Terra went to grab the books, Silver the potions supplies, and Harry the other miscellaneous items that the other two instructed him to get. Thanks to them, he knew how the currency worked and how to figure out if something was worth the money.
They did end up going to the robes shop together as one can't go for a measuring for the others. The last stop: Ollivander's.
When they walked in the bell had dinged when the corner of the door hit it. The shop was still in desperate need of a dusting or three. Also, the windows needed a good polishing, but otherwise the shop remained chaotically organized.
Ollivander had popped up behind Harry, "Greetings! There is no need to hide your faces here my dear Scarlets. Terra how is your wand working for you?"
"Still going strong, sir." He answered. "No problems."
"Of course not, I made it." The old man scolded with a mock haughty expression and tone. He chuckled then mumbled under his breath as he walked into the back to grab a few boxes most likely containing wands. "It would be the lovely Silver's turn, would it not?"
Silver did a little bow, "Yessir." She answered in a soft voice, feeling very out of her element for some unknown reason. Finding her wand was fairly quick. Stubborn red oak and phoenix feather core. Though she really didn't need it as she was adept without it. Both siblings were, but you know, appearances and all that rot.
When Harry stepped up to bat―wait, wrong story―when Harry stepped forward to receive his wand, Ollivander's eyes went a little wider than they already are.
"By the―Harry Potter!"
"Yeah, yeah, Harry Potter this Harry Potter that Savior and shit. Let's get on with it." Was the dry response from the normally timid boy. However, he was tired and wanted to go home. Hence certain mannerisms he seemed to have picked up from Terra when he wanted to go home after a long day.
"Just for shits and giggles," Terra began, "I suggest phoenix feather cores for Harry." By golly did that suggestion cut down the searching time for Harry's wand get cut into a mere thirty minutes instead of the literal hours it took to find in the books. Still the same wand though. Pity.
After they finished up at the shop, all three threw on their hoods again and left Diagon Alley to return back to the Sanctuary. They immediately set off to bed as soon as the walked through the front door of their home. The had only managed to take their cloaks and shoes off in the entryway before lumbering up the stairs like a pair of zombies to their bedrooms to sleep.
Terra, Silver, and Harry had a busy morning ahead of them. They were off to Hogwarts.
And shit was about to hit the proverbial fan.
