I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World or any canon characters.

A Taste of Magic

95th Course – Season's Seasonings

"Hi Hedwig," Sirius said, looking up to see the owl flapping into his office. He took the envelopes from her. "Thank you." He smiled when she bobbed her head and fluttered off. Hedwig would occasionally deliver him mail as well, if she intercepted a message on delivery or it was convenient to get for whatever she was delivering for Harry at the time. She had been extra busy due to the season and her coming and going was not an uncommon sight. He watched her fly to the right after leaving his office which meant she would be going downstairs, so her work was most likely done.

After going through the envelopes, he rose from his desk and left his office too, going left. He read the newspaper as he walked, moving to the side to let Hedwig fly past. "Hi Hedwig," he said on reflex but paused and looked up when he realized what he said and what he saw. He turned to see the owl fly around the corner and scratched his head for a moment before continuing on his previous path.

Finished with the restroom, he opened the door and saw Hedwig standing on the ground, waiting patiently. "Hi Hedwig," he said and let her walk past him into the restroom. As he turned to look again, the door closed behind him and he looked at it dumbly for another moment before walking away. He then remembered something he left on the rooftop garden and walked up the stairs to it.

He opened the door and stood to the side, letting Hedwig flap past him. He acknowledged her hoot of thanks. "Hi…Hedwig?" He stared down the stairwell at the flying owl and was definitely confused at that point. Grabbing his pipe, he walked down the stairs and went to the kitchen.

"Hi Sirius," Harry greeted with a smile, looking up from a bubbling pot.

"Hi Harwig, I mean Harry. Uh. Dumb question. You only have one owl, right?"

"Yeah. I don't think Hedwig would tolerate sharing me with another owl," Harry said easily. "She doesn't share much."

"Huh. That's what I thought," Sirius mused, scratching his head.

"Ooh, Bad Master has obtained true status as Head of the Blacks," Kreacher said eagerly.

"What does that mean?" Harry asked.

"He has gone mad." Kreacher tilted his head and grinned in an unsettling way. His eyes rolled independently of each other, turning around and around as he held a finger to his temple. Winky snorted and thwapped him with the towel she held while Harry laughed.

"He might not be wrong," Sirius said, crossing to a cupboard. "I swore I saw Hedwig multiple times in different places within moments of each other. It's as if she was in-" He opened the door to the cupboard and stopped when three sets of silver eyes and a set of amber eyes turned to look at him. "-in multiple places at once."

He shouted when the three Patroni and the snowy owl exploded out of the cupboard. They flew around him in circles, cackling with glee and he fell onto his rear with a loud thump. They landed and ran around him with their wings up and out, giggling mightily before they launched themselves into the air and flew to Harry. They landed on the counter and did a victory dance before the three Patroni faded with a wink and Hedwig settled on Harry's head, still giggling.

"Right, the Patroni," Sirius laughed, shaking his head ruefully. "You know, normally you control the Patronus."

Harry's smile was from ear to ear. "I can direct them to fly somewhere but that's the limit of my control really."

"Pranked by an owl and a Patronus, that's pretty great," Sirius laughed. He climbed to his feet and nodded respectfully to the smug Hedwig. "Good show." He grabbed a large glass and filled it with water and sat at the counter. "Well, at least I'm not going mad."

"Yet," Kreacher croaked as he walked past.

"Yet," Sirius agreed. "It might happen. Kreacher isn't wrong, it is family tradition."

"I can make lots of brain food for you," Harry said.

"They aren't literally brains though, right?"

"No." Harry smiled at a memory of a very similar conversation happening. "Unless you want to eat brains."

"Doesn't really appeal to me so I'll pass on that, thank you for asking though," Sirius chuckled. He sniffed appreciatively at the mug of soup Harry handed him. "Gosh that smells great. French onion?"

Harry nodded. "Grandmother and Grandfather are coming today."

Sirius sipped the soup, blowing on it in between bites. "Mmm, delicious. Doesn't this normally have cheese and bread on it too?"

"It does, I just wanted to give you some while I make some of that for you too." Harry ladled a portion of soup into crocks and topped them with rounds of bread and gruyere cheese and popped them into the oven.

"Thanks Harry," Sirius said happily. "So uh, I wanted to ask you something, a favor of sorts."

"Of course, what can I do?" Harry asked, looking at Sirius.

Sirius grew a little nervous. "So, uh, well, I've been seeing someone, you know, like that."

"Oh! Congrats?" Harry said, feeling as awkward as Sirius looked. "I mean, congrats! That's great. Right?"

"It is! And thanks!" Sirius laughed. The laughter eased the tension. "And it is great and I like her a lot. We liked each other a bit before I found myself in Azkaban and we sorta started seeing each other again and well, yeah. I was hoping it'd be okay if she came over for Christmas day and stuff."

"Are you asking me for permission?" Harry asked. "Aren't you the adult and this is your home."

"Our home," Sirius corrected. "Your home too and I wanted to make sure you were okay with it."

"Well if they make you happy then yeah, I'm all for it," Harry said happily.

Sirius' smile grew. "Thanks, Harry, that means a lot. And yeah, don't worry, she'll be good to you. You know her some already. It's Amelia Bones."

"Oh she's always been nice to me and I'm friends with Susan," Harry said. "That'll be nice."

Sirius breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thanks again. I was hoping you'd say yes and now things will be even better. Though Dora might have some problems since Amelia's her boss' boss and all."

"I'll keep Dora distracted with food."

"That's my boy," Sirius smiled.

"Master Sirius, Master Harry, the Flamels," Winky announced from the door.

"Thanks Winky," Harry said. He smiled as Nicolas and Perenelle walked in. "Hi!" He was enveloped by Perenelle and coughed when she squeezed hard. "It's great to see you!" he gasped.

"It is wonderful to see you cheri," Perenelle smiled, kissing him on the cheeks.

"Ah what a fine grandson," Nicolas said happily, hugging Harry firmly. "Has hot soup ready for us."

"Perfect timing," Harry said, laying out the crocks of bubbling soup covered in toasted bread and melted cheese. He set the ones for Kreacher and Winky aside and Hedwig waited for him to cool hers with a Cooling Charm before she started eating happily.

"Perfect as always," Perenelle said, fanning her mouth after the first moltenly delicious bite.

"Is Blinky here?" Harry asked.

"I will go fetch her in a day or two," Perenelle said. "She got into a fight with another dragon. She is okay, do not fret. It takes her a day or two to change her form so she is recuperating today and will be ready for travel in a day or so. I think she was particularly vexed that the dragon picked an inopportune time to try and poach territory since it delayed her coming. She…manhandled is not the quite right word, basilisk-handled it very roughly."

"I think she was debating on eating it," Nicolas chuckled, "out of frustration and spite but that would interfere with her eating here so she slammed it about a bit more than usual, and a lot harder. She has quite the temper when she indulges in it."

"Poor Blinky," Harry smiled. "I'll make her something special when she comes."

"I heard about the festival that you and Albus put on, very good of you," Perenelle praised.

"Oh it wasn't too bad workwise," Harry said. "I just did what I usually do. The Hogsmeade residents and the Gringotts goblins were the ones that really did a lot."

"Take credit when it's due my boy," Nicolas said. "Humility is good and all but an excess, it is another kind of vanity."

"Like you know anything about humility," Perenelle snorted.

"I am very aware of humility," Nicolas sniffed. "I see the moments where it is called for and deliberately ignore them. I am The Alchemist, not the humble alchemist after all."

"I'm glad we're friends," Sirius smiled. "Whenever I wonder if my ego is out of control, I can look at you and see that I'm still quite grounded."

"I am a very good frame of reference," Nicolas agreed.

"You are an inflated frame of reference. One should not compare a match to a forest fire," Perenelle said dryly.

Nicolas chuckled. "I have no need to be humble, I have you here for just that reason."

"Don't make Grandmother work too hard," Harry chided.

"Thank you," Perenelle smiled. She hugged him. "Someone cares for me."

"Okay, but only because you told me to," Nicolas smiled. "Speaking of, I hope Minnie has stopped persecuting you for her own personal faults."

"Not if you phrase it like that," Harry laughed with a groan.

"Another letter then," Nicolas sniffed.

"Please don't," Harry begged. "Apparently you can have too many muffins. Or so Madam Pomfrey tells me. She's been confiscating them."

"Perhaps she wants them for herself," Perenelle smiled.

"That actually makes sense," Harry said with a thoughtful expression.

-0-

"Hi Harry!"

"Hi Susan!"

It was Christmas Eve and Amelia and Susan had been invited to spend time at Grimmauld that night as well as the following day. Both had come eagerly and had walked into the kitchen. It was well decorated. Garlands of shiny ornaments hung from the walls with sprigs of winter plants. The air was rich with so many different smells and it was full of people and laughter.

"Thanks for inviting us," Susan said, sitting next to him at the central counter. "I sort of knew Auntie was seeing Sirius and I'm glad she is too, she's been lonely and stuff. Normally for the holidays I hang out with Hannah when I can and Auntie used to come too sometimes."

"Glad to have you," Harry said sincerely. "And Miss Bones makes Sirius happy so I'm fine with it too."

Susan beamed. "So what is everybody doing?"

"Well, there was this thing I've always wanted to do during Christmas with people. We're making gingerbread houses! I made sheets of gingerbread and there's icing and candy and we're making structures. Normally it should be a house but people sort of are making whatever they want. We're going to leave them up when they're done for the night and eat them together later or tomorrow."

Harry pointed at various people. "Remus made a doghouse for Sirius and Sirius is doing the same back. Auntie Andi and Uncle Ted are making a house together. Grandfather is making a statue of himself and Grandmother is making a castle. Dora is making a small village because she's always wanted to pretend to be a dragon and eat a village."

"And Hedwig has a nest," Susan smiled.

Hedwig cheeped and fluffed up happily. She sat on a blanket that was tucked into a gingerbread nest that was built with logs of gingerbread and put together with white icing and decorated with green and red gummy candies.

"Yup! And this little house is Blinky's." Harry knocked on the door of the little house in front of him and Blinky poked her head out, hissing a hello to a surprised Susan. The tiny basilisk slithered out of the house and wound her way up Harry's arm and coiled around his neck, hissing with satisfaction.

"Gosh, I know she's a basilisk and all but she's so cute," Susan smiled.

"She really is," Harry smiled. "What do you feel like building?" He and Susan built a neighboring house for Blinky. Dora moved her village over and put the small houses around theirs to fill out the space and they made small trees with candies and gingerbread as even more decoration.

Harry blinked a few times. "Is that a gingerbread siege tower?"

"And it is fully functional," Perenelle smiled. She waved her wand and the biscuit wheels spun and the tall tower trundled forward slowly. The walls and platforms were made of gingerbread and thin pieces of biscuits were protective armor on the front and sides. When it reached the wall to her tower, the upper ramp fell open and tiny candy grapnels sank into the gingerbread walls of the castle. "Would you assist me on making a trebuchet? I need to destroy Nicolas' statue."

"I'd love to," Harry smiled.

-0-

"You are quite right," Nicolas said, admiring himself in the mirror. "The scarf billows wonderfully!"

Christmas morning was bright and cheery and blisteringly cold outdoors, but was comfortably cozy indoors. The Tonkses and the Flamels had stayed in Grimmauld with Harry, Sirius, and Remus and were all exchanging gifts and enjoying time together.

Harry's gift to Nicolas had been a hand-made scarf that he half-made with Lavender's help and he had put in a few charms that he had learned. The scarf would billow and move without any wind at all and if there were some, it would move about quite dramatically but would stay firmly anchored around his neck no matter how hard it was blown or even pulled. Nicolas had taken up his cane and he loved the effect the spell had on the scarf.

"I'm glad you like it," Harry smiled broadly. "Lavender's the best at sewing and we worked hard on it together with the charms."

"Wherever did you find this kit?" Perenelle asked. She lovingly ran her hands over the expansive cleaning kit that he had gotten her. "It is so well made and has so many useful things in it for delicate metals and equipment!"

"Salta's family makes kits like that for equipment cleaning and I remembered how you were saying you needed to find new things to keep your potion things and alchemy things clean. So I got one of their best sets for you."

"Practical and beautiful, thank you!" Perenelle hugged him. "Now, I have been waiting for months to get you your gift. Nicolas and I worked very hard on it together for a long time."

"Yes! I think you will enjoy it very much," Nicolas said. "One of the best things we have ever created." He took out a slim metal case and handed it to Harry. "Go on then!"

Harry opened it eagerly. "Wow! These look so cool!" He looked at the miniature oven, the miniature stove, the miniature sink, and an array of miniature tables. He picked up the oven and looked at it closely. It was a brick oven with a metal door, the tiny bricks cunningly fit together and while it was small, it felt heavy and robust, not delicate. "Does it work?"

"Of course it does! But not like that. You would not be able to use it properly when it is that small. You know the Growing Charm, yes? Put the oven down and cast it," Nicolas said eagerly.

Harry put the tiny oven on the ground and aimed his wand at it. "Engorgio." He gasped when the tiny oven shuddered and grew into a very large version. It looked and felt like a high-end model, even ones that were built into walls. He pulled the door open and looked inside. "It's a real oven?!"

"Yes!" Perenelle said, enjoying his delight. "And not one simply shrunk. We made these and they were designed to be shrunken and moved about by you and to be expanded as you desire. They are all fully functional and are fueled with a combination of wood and magic as fuel. They can absorb ambient magic and you can cook with that or load it with wood and use that as your fuel source."

Harry unshrunk the other pieces in the case and the others exclaimed with delight, seeing them at full size. "The sink vanishes water and converts ambient magic into water as well or you can put a source of water next to it and it will dispense it through itself," Perenelle continued. "All are self-cleaning with charms and spells and incredibly resilient."

"Once you key each piece to your magic and blood, none can move or shrink or do anything to them," Nicolas said. "They will respond to you and you alone. Your own personal mobile kitchen!"

"I cannot imagine all the work you had to put into just one of the pieces, even the simpler ones," Andromeda gasped.

"We worked for a while on them with many tests," Perenelle confirmed. "It was a fun challenge."

"I love it," Harry whispered. He hugged the Flamels tightly. "Thank you so much!"

"I told you," Nicolas said smugly.

"I did not disagree with you," Perenelle sniffed. She smiled at Harry. "I am glad you like it so."

"Reducio." The pieces all shrank to their miniature sizes when Harry cast the Shrinking Charm and he put them back into the case carefully. "I can't believe I have my own kitchen to carry around now!"

"Making those has opened new ideas for us," Nicolas grinned. "We are finishing a prototype of a portable frying pan. As in you can cook with it without an external heat source. It provides its own heat source to cook. It is a bit difficult to control right now but it also has been incredibly fun to play with and create."

Harry regrew the oven and with Nicolas' and Perenelle's instructions, started it up and placed the sweet rolls he made for them back into it to warm up. The bricks heated up like they would with a stationary oven, but the space around the oven in the sitting room was well protected and the rolls came out hot. Some parts were a little more cooked than others.

"Hmm, not quite perfect," Nicolas huffed.

"All ovens have their own hot and cool spots," Harry said, shaking his head. "I just need to practice with it. It's wonderful!"

"Does it shrink things inside too and keep them that way?" Ted asked.

"We do not recommend it usually," Perenelle said. "We tried it on a few things and while the contents survive the experience, they do not come out unscathed as it were."

"Ooh, it's nice and warm," Dora commented, leaning against the still warm oven's exterior. "Dang, this blows my gift out of the water." She smiled when Harry hugged her about the middle, squeezing hard.

"It's not a competition," Harry said. "I love all my gifts and the people that gave them to me."

"I know, I was just teasing you," Dora said, coughing a little before she squeezed him back.

"I think that is what I admire most about you," Nicolas said later.

"You admire something about me?" Harry asked, giving his grandfather an incredulous look.

"Despite what most think and I say, I am not perfect," Nicolas said with sigh of mock-reluctance. "Only mostly perfect. But yes, I am capable of admiring other people for things. It is rare of course and-" He flinched and gave Perenelle a cool look. He blanched when she tapped her wand against her hand and shot him a look. "What I mean to say is that I am capable of admiring other people for various reasons."

He tousled Harry's hair. "But yes. I admire how genuine you are with people. You are obviously thankful for people and things. You hold no reservations about showing your appreciation for them. There are very few people that I am like that with. Though it has been nice adding more people in that august company."

Harry flushed and smiled. "I'm always grateful," Harry said. "It's wonderful having things of my own, to be thought of." His flush turned into one from embarrassment when he saw Nicolas and Perenelle exchange a look. "Sorry, weird thing to say, especially today."

"Is this why you never really ask for anything?" Nicolas asked quietly.

Harry nodded. "All I ever wanted was to…be wanted. So I'm happy with all the attention and the care. That means more to me sometimes. Not that I'm not grateful for the things of course," he finished lamely.

Perenelle pulled him close and wrapped her arms around him. "Well you are truly wanted, do not think otherwise."

"I'm good at not thinking," he joked, grateful for their laugh.

"How do you feel about your upcoming tests and the Showcase?" Nicolas asked.

"Pretty good for the former, a little nervous about the latter."

"Makes sense of course," Perenelle said. "Do not worry though, we will be there at the Showcase with you. Have you been told where it will be?" She smiled at his headshake. "Well, we have been told it will be in Italy, Rome specifically."

"Oooh, that'll be cool," Harry said brightly.

"Indeed! Roman magics are still strong and are prevalent there," Nicolas said, "it's a very interesting place for magic and history. And food!" They chuckled at that. "And you and Hogwarts will have our support."

"But mostly me?" Harry asked with a smile.

"But of course," Nicolas said warmly.

"I know O.W.L.s are important for N.E.W.T.s and for future career things but I don't have a great idea about that yet. Besides something food related of course," Harry continued. "I think we have a meeting with our Head of House this year about that too."

"I better write her a letter to tell her to behave and be supportive," Nicolas said, pulling out a small wax tablet and writing on it.

"Do you really believe that would happen if you sent that?" Andromeda asked with a slight smile.

"Fair point, perhaps I should sit in on the meeting," Nicolas mused.

"That will probably make things worse," Perenelle said. She poked him. "You and she will get into an argument and the point of the meeting is to discuss Harry's future. Not about how you two can annoy each other."

"But I have substantial experience and wisdom to share," Nicolas protested.

"Not helpful experience and wisdom," Perenelle snorted.

"You do not know that," he sniffed, wounded.

"You won't have to worry about your future," Sirius said to Harry. "We'll build you a restaurant and you'll run it however you want. Or whatever you want to do, I assume you want a place to show your food to the world."

"I don't know about the world," Harry laughed. "That sounds way too intimidating."

"Uh, hate to make it obvious, but the Showcase is the International Showcase," Dora said.

"Yeah but that's school stuff," Harry said.

"As in you don't care as much about it?" Dora asked cheekily. She and the others laughed at his sheepish expression.

"Well you still have plenty of years to figure out the details," Ted said. "You have a firm foundation and a good and solid interest that's sustainable to different degrees. Keep working hard until you graduate and you'll have all the tools you need to find all sorts of things to do."

"And you will have plenty of experience at your disposal for advice," Remus said. He smiled. "Both helpful and not."

"I do have plenty of unhelpful experience," Nicolas said amicably and proudly.

"So do I," Sirius grinned.

"Yes, do see them as cautionary tales," Perenelle clucked.

-0-0-0-

DOOOOOOM Lord of Waffles - Diamonda was surprisingly fun to write for since she just appeared. Had a big impact though and added a lot of fun flavor I feel.

Andre MacKenzie - I've heard of the franchise but no, it was not inspired from it. I just liked a very large underground sea and a reason for the goblins to establish a city there.

odonnellzoo99 - I like the Parkinson family dynamic and thought it would fit well given what has been going on. Dee and Ari are probably very good friends, they have that kind of temperament, don't they?

alix33 - Leomattok was a fun and new character to introduce.

poka - Glad to hear it. Hope you continue to enjoy. Dee was such a fun and impactful personality wasn't she? I knew I wanted her to be something like that given the little snippets I had her friends and relations say in the past chapters.

Hands Off MY Wolfie - Pride really. Same reason why some people always want to put down certain cuisines, pride and in some cases, bad behaviors. I haven't had a lot of proper or authentic French cooking, but it is always kind of funny to see how much work they put into it and then so many sauces. I do like the history of it though. Thanks for reading.

Guest - Thank you for the very kind words. I am very happy with how it is now, and hope to maintain the quality and feeling when it ends eventually.