Amelia woke up on Friday morning with an unusually high motivation to get out of bed. Today, she would be moving out of Grimmauld Place and going to live with her godfather, along with Harry and Dorea, at their new home. Even though she had no clue where this new house was located, she was very optimistic.

As she walked downstairs to breakfast, she encountered Ginny. Her friend turned to her. "Mum says we're not to discuss the fact you're moving today - Elphias Doge has just dropped by."

She knew what that meant, as there was a rule - only the people who lived in Grimmauld Place knew about their move (the only exception being McGonagall and Dumbledore). Not even fellow Order members who were superbly trusted, like Kingsley, knew they were going - it was far safer to tell as few people as possible. That way, they could sleep far more easily at night.

They walked down into the kitchen together. Her twin brother, along with the other Weasley's, Dorea, and Hermione, were all there munching away. Remus was helping Mrs Weasley wash up a few dishes. Tonks and Mr Weasley had already gone to work. Elphias Doge was sat reading The Daily Prophet. Why is he reading that drivel? She thought incredulously. She spread some strawberry jam on a warm bit of toast and began to eat. Her godfather entered the room not long after. Though he was yawning, he looked in regal spirits. She could tell he just wanted to mention their new home, but was unable to due to Elphias Doge.

"Why is he even here?" She whispered to Harry, gesturing to the old man.

"He was talking to Remus and Mrs Weasley about something - he had a letter, and I heard Hagrid's name being mentioned." Harry whispered back.

"Hagrid's an Order member, isn't he?" When Harry nodded, she continued, "It's strange we haven't seen him drop by."

"Oh, you're right! I wonder why?"

Sirius got up out of his seat and came towards them. She felt him place a tiny bit of paper in her lap as he went through to the pantry.

She opened it out of sight of Doge - it read:

"There's been a slight change of plan - Dumbledore has to survey the house's security wards and enchantments just to make doubly sure they're a hundred percent safe and renew a few of them. We can go to the house from 1 o'clock onwards."

That dampened her slightly - they would have to wait a few more hours.

"Oh well, it is what it is." She said quietly. Feigning that she was going for another cup of tea, she got up, she passed the piece of paper to Dorea, who read it. She shared the same slightly disappointed look as her, but shrugged. The outcome would still be the same - they were still leaving today. "I'm going for a shower." Dorea said.

Dorea left the room, walked up the stairs and down the long corridor to go to the large bathroom at the end. It had been scrubbed within an inch of its life, and was now shiny and clean instead of grubby. She got the fright of her life when she entered the bathroom and saw, sitting in the bath, Kreacher, who appeared to be muttering to himself and was holding something under his loincloth. (For a split second Dorea felt sick as she thought he was doing something rather unpleasant). "What are you doing in here, Kreacher?" She asked, firmly.
"Kreacher did not see young mistress," the old elf grimaced, and under his breath, Dorea heard him mutter. "Nasty little blood traitor that she is, the brat."
"Didn't catch that last part, Kreacher," Dorea snapped at him. "Just what are you up to now? Dad won't be pleased if you've been smuggling stuff again."
"Kreacher has done nothing of the sort, young mistress," he grumbled again. "Mistresses' father is nothing but a nasty swine who broke his mother's heart. Oh, if mistress Walburga was still alive, she'd blast all these unnatural beasts and brats and traitors out the house-"
"Kreacher, what. are. you. doing. in. here?" Dorea shook the elf harshly, and could almost hear Hermione telling her off in her head, saying "oh Dorea, he isn't in his right mind".
"Kreacher is cleaning."
"That's likely. This room has been spotless for the past week."
"Oh, the runt is as horrid as its sire. If my poor mistress-
"Oh yes, I'm sure she'd be horrified. Kreacher, hand me whatever you've got under your cloth. That's an order."
Kreacher would never dare disobey a direct order, and with great reluctance, tipped the contents out. They were all relatively small things, - an old toothbrush with the initials R.A.B written into them (the initials of her uncle), a watch, a quill, and a peculiar looking box.
"Why do you have these, Kreacher?" Dorea took hold of him again, and this time could hear Hermione explaining S.P.E.W in her head.
"Mistress would never forgive Kreacher if these were lost," he said, then muttered very fast, "especially if it was in the hands of her good-for-nothing brat of a granddaughter."
"I reckon you've done something to these, Kreacher," she spoke slowly but harshly. "I wonder what would happen if I did this." She then drew her wand (she was allowed to do magic, she learned from Tonks, as the ministry couldn't detect anyone doing magic if they were in a highly secret location) and was about to speak the incantation when Kreacher made a mad dive to gather the objects back and dashed for the door. "Oi, get back here!" Dorea shouted. "Accio Kreacher!"
Within an instant the elf had whizzed through the air and was now in a struggling heap in her arms. He was wriggling around like a Flobberworm and burst into tears when Dorea held him by the scruff of the neck and commanded him to sit in the corner. The old elf would not stop crying, and his cries were getting louder by the second, and his insults more harsher. "Oh if Master Regulus was alive, how he'd beat the daylights out of his ungrateful, useless niece. Oh how master and mistress would take pleasure in seeing her beaten-"
"-SHUT. UP!" Dorea's patience was running low. She pointed her wand at the most suspicious item Kreacher previously held - the quill. It just didn't make sense how or why he was holding it so dearly. It was just an old quill. "Reparifrage," she spoke the incantation, and ignoring the threats and insults Kreacher was making about her, her dad and now her mother, she watched as the quill began to transform into a piece of parchment, filled with writing,
"Nooooooo!" Kreacher wouldn't stop crying, and Dorea was surprised as to how nobody was coming thundering up the stairs to investigate yet. The bathroom was big, and it meant that noise echoed off it due to its size and airiness.
Dorea instantly lurched forward and took the parchment in her hand.
It read.

"Mother/Father,
I cannot do this anymore, I simply can't. I am sorry I will be bringing shame on the family. But if you were in my shoes you would not stand another minute of this torture.
The Dark Lord is making big plans. He is saying that after he kills the twins Harry and Amelia Potter, he's promising me that 'Sirius will regret not joining his ranks'. I'm scared for him. You may hate his guts and think him nothing more than a swine but he is MY brother, and I can never tell him how sorry I am.
The reason I am scared is that the Dark Lord is also planning an attack on the MacKinnon family. You may think them scum, but the woman Marlene is the mother of Sirius's child, and if she's the target, their daughter will be too.
Little Dorea is my last hope of redemption. If he touches her, I will make sure that the world knows his treachery. Do you know how hard it is for me to just sit there at meetings when he's planning to kill my future sister in-law and my niece right in front of me?
No, you don't, because you've never bothered to do anything yourselves.
Mother, father, you two are the biggest hypocrites in this godforsaken world.
From a young age you've taught me that Lord Voldemort is the way forward - that pure-bloods are like royalty and that Muggles are nothing more than dirt. You've drilled it into mine and Sirius's brains and when Sirius didn't join him, it fell on me to join him. Sirius always asked why we had to, and why you two, the adults, hadn't joined Voldemort, and all he got for that was a smack.
But he was right.
Forcing your only two sons to join a powerful dark wizard just because you shit yourself every time you see him really is a poor excuse, and low even for you two.
Your own granddaughter is in enormous danger, - your granddaughter, who from what I gather from Pettigrew is the sweetest and purest little soul in these dark times. The girl could be ruthlessly murdered along with her mother's family and yet NEITHER OF YOU CARE because she's Sirius's daughter.
I hope you both rot in hell.
The Dark Lord has tasked me with something that I will be unable to fully carry out, and it's regarding his horcrux of Salazar Slytherin's locket. I have to switch the real one for a fake one, and Kreacher will be helping me out - he is critically needed for the task.
However, this is when I will be betraying Lord Voldemort, and if Sirius dies along with the MacKinnon's, then I will take it upon myself to raise his daughter as if she was my own, and love her the same way her mother and father do. However, if I die before I can do this, then.. Well, let's just say being dead will be far better than leading the life I'm currently living, and will find a way to look out for Dorea even in the grave.
I wish you good fortune for the rest of the war, but I hope you both die knowing that you're nothing but hypocritical scum, and are quite frankly shit excuse for human beings.
Signed,
Regulus Arcturus Black
Your "loving" son.

Dorea stood shocked, her body getting cold goosebumps. Her suspicions that Regulus hadn't become a Death Eater of his own free will was confirmed. He was in fact forced to.
It wasn't that knowledge that shocked her, it was what he had written regarding her. She couldn't ever imagine being in Regulus's position - if she had to sit and hear someone plotting to kill Harry or Amelia she would not go quietly.
Regulus had also promised to raise her as if he was her own daughter, if anything happened to Sirius or her mother, Marlene. That part touched her heart more than anything. He was willing to risk his own life if it meant that his niece was safe. If her uncle was still alive, she'd hug him fiercely right now.
She was thrown back into reality when she heard a clanging, and turned around to find that Kreacher was kicking the wall and still crying.
"STOP!" She commanded him, and he obeyed very reluctantly. If looks could kill, Dorea Black would be dead by now.
She almost laughed out loud at the thought of her own gravestone reading "Dorea Black. Cause of Death = House Elf"
"Why have you kept this hidden, Kreacher? I'm sure Regulus wouldn't be very happy if his elf was hiding stuff like this from his own niece."
"Master Regulus wouldn't want it to be shared to his filthy blood-traitor niece, spawn of scum." Kreacher continued his breakdown.
"My uncle loved me very much, thank you." She snapped.
She then turned to the other suspicious item Kreacher had taken for himself, the box. Once she made doubly sure that the old elf wasn't going anywhere, she raised her wand once more and muttered "Reparifrage."
This time the box took its time to reveal whatever it was concealing. It was hovering in the air and growing with every second, until it finally changed and turned out to be a portrait.
Not just any portrait though, her own grandfather's.
With wide eyes, she turned around and cast a silencing charm in the bathroom, and then locked the door. She gave Kreacher one last glare before slowly turning to face the portrait. If her grandfather's portrait was anything like her grandmothers, it was going to be loud. The portrait of Orion Black didn't move at first, and Dorea almost thought that it wasn't a magical one at all. But then he started up.
"You." Orion Black narrowed his eyes at her. His voice was very gravelly and Dorea hated to admit it, but she was scared of the way he sounded.
"Hello, grandfather." She said simply.
"So. You're Sirius's girl." Considering her grandfather hadn't started shouting yet, you could almost call this a good start.
"Yes, I am. And you're my grandfather."
"I suppose so. Is that Kreacher behind you?"
"Yes."
"Kick him for me." Orion Black said sharply.
"Why?"
"Because thanks to him I'm now having the unfortunate opportunity of talking to you."
"So that's where Dad gets his joker side from.." Dorea replied sarcastically whilst rolling her eyes.
"Shut up, whore."
"That's not a very nice thing to say."
"Do I look like I care?!" Orion snapped, making Dorea flinch.
"I found Regulus's note."
For a split second, Dorea saw worry flash in the eyes of her grandfather's portrait. "What note?! I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Hmmm let's see..the one where he calls you and Walburga hypocritical bastards, and basically exposes you for being shitty parents." Dorea challenged.
"How dare you! No granddaughter of mine would ever dare speak to me like that! If I was alive you'd be going across my knee right now, girl-" he started shouting.
"And there you go again being hypocritical!" Dorea snapped. "You just called me a whore less than a minute ago, do you really expect me to stand here and take that?"
"Are you a Black or not?!" Orion was starting to get scary, and Dorea now knew exactly why Sirius had left this house at the age of 16 to live with James Potter.
"Oh trust me, I am a Black. There's a reason I'm in Gryffindor, you know - it's because I'm brave, and I don't take shit from anyone, especially people like you."
"Should have known you were a Gryffindor," her grandfather continued looking at her as if she was dirt. "Your wretched father was one too. No, to be a Black, you have to be in Slytherin. You would of excelled in the Dark Arts, dear-"
"- I don't want to study Dark Arts, thank you very much, I'd rather defend myself against them." Dorea snapped again.
Her grandfather made a type of growling noise that Dorea associated with big cats. "Suit yourself. You'll be coming crying back to my portrait when the Dark Lord comes to get you, child. Just you wait."
"No, I shan't wait. I've quite frankly had enough of you for one day. Oh yeah, go tell your wife to cut her tongue out, by the way, we're all sick and tired of having to be mute in the hallway." Dorea said cheekily, and was about to silence her grandfather when he started talking again.
"Wait!"
"What?!"
"Stay with me for another minute." Orion commanded, but Dorea thought that his tone was slightly softer.
"Come again?"
"You look like her." Orion commented, his tone now very soft. However, being compared to her shouty grandmother dampened Dorea's mood slightly. "Your grandmother."
"Erm.. Thanks."
"You've got the softest eyes as well. Full of kindness, I can see. For the sake of yourself, I hope you live a long and happy life. Do well at school. Go on to greatness. I'll have Phineas keep an eye on you for me." For the first time, Orion Black sounded exactly like a grandfather should be - complimenting and kind. However, she had an inkling somewhere in her that Orion was thinking that it was his wife he was talking to, having just said that Dorea looked just like her. Maybe he's finding it easier to do it that way, she thought, still knowing that he's speaking to me but can't bring himself to be nice, so he pretends I'm his wife instead.
With a tiny smile, Dorea turned the portrait back into the box it was before.
Slightly shaken, she gave Kreacher back his items (except her uncle's letter), and then told him to leave her. Once he was gone, she finally did what she originally came into the bathroom for - to have a shower.

It was one thirty in the afternoon, and thankfully, they now had the all clear to move to the new house. Amelia was so excited she was nearly shaking. This is it!

Though they were quite reluctant to leave the Weasley's behind, they avidly promised to come and visit them nearer the last few days of the summer holidays. During the farewell hugs, Hermione kept saying for them to keep up on the holiday homework, and send her an owl if they were stuck. Remus said he would pop by and visit once they were all settled in.

"Right, are we ready?" Sirius asked them, as they prepared themselves to be pulled into an Apparition (though it would have been better to Floo, there was no guarantee it wouldn't be detected). Her godfather had already been to the house that day to drop off Hedwig.

Within the blink of an eye, they were no longer in Grimmauld Place, but they had landed on a stone driveway. Harry had almost fallen over. Amelia just felt dizzy.

"Welcome to Black Manor." Sirius said, gesturing in front of him.

Amelia almost fainted when she looked up. In front of her was what looked like to be a luxury mansion - the building from the outside had all red-coloured stone walls, and the foundations were solid grey.

"One man lived in this huge house?!" Harry said, referring to Dorea's great-uncle, Alphard Black.

"Yes, though he was prone to using a good few of the rooms." Sirius said. "Let's get the wards sorted out."

They walked towards the front door. Sirius explained that they all had to give him one of their hands so that he could add them to the security wards. When Amelia went first, she held her hand out whilst Sirius held the tip of his wand to her palm. She suddenly felt something akin to an electric shock buzz through her hand. She jumped back a bit.

"What on earth?" Amelia asked, holding her hand.

"That is you added to the wards." Sirius said sprightly, moving on to her brother. When they were all added, the door opened for them.

The front hall was smaller than what you would expect, but nonetheless it was quite big. There was a huge staircase in the middle of the room which led to the upstairs. There must have been about three doors on the left hand side of the room, whilst there were only two on the right hand side.

"Sirius, this is too much." Amelia immediately said, "we surely don't need all this room…"

"You ain't seen nothing yet, 'Melia." Sirius stroked her hair. "I promise, you'll love it when you see what's all in it."

"What did your uncle do with all this space?" Dorea inquired, head craned upwards.

"Why don't we find out?" Sirius said kindly. "I'll show you the bedrooms."

"There must be about twenty bedrooms!" Amelia said exasperatedly as they climbed the stairs to the first floor. "How will we ever choose just one?"

They spent what must have been nigh on an hour looking in all the 17 spacious bedrooms, trying to choose which one they wanted. It was a bit pointless - they all resembled each other. Whilst the house on the outside looked quite old - probably 1800s, on the inside, someone had been to clean, tidy and modernise it. There was no old wallpaper or paint at all - in fact, most of the bedrooms were perfectly white walled.

"Sirius, I think I like this bedroom the most." Amelia called out. It felt quite cosy, and the bed was a four-poster one. What she liked most was the view out of the window - she could see the massive front garden and would be able to see who was coming and going.

"Okie dokie," Sirius said, though he continued. "Amelia, what's your favourite colour scheme? As in, colours that you think really look good together?"

A bit confused by his question, Amelia had a think. "Erm.. I quite like yellow and light gray together."

"Say no more," Sirius said, and with one flick of his wand, the bedroom walls transformed. The wall where the bed was up against turned into a light (but not too bright) yellow, whilst the other walls turned light grey to match.

"Woah!" Dorea had walked past the door at that exact moment.

"There's more," Sirius said, and turned to his goddaughter again. "What bedroom furniture do you want?"

"Sirius, please, I don't need much." She insisted.

"This is my treat to all of you, so please do not hold back. It isn't costing me anything." Sirius pleaded.

With a harrumph, Amelia had another think. "Erm, I'd quite like a desk for studying at,"

At her words, Sirius conjured up a desk. It was white in colour so it didn't clash with the grey wall it was up against, and it was neither too long or too short in length.

"A dressing table with a mirror," she added. A white coloured one appeared along the longest wall beside the already installed wardrobe. "An armchair, nothing too fancy" she added, and one appeared. Lastly, she said, "and a chest of drawers." There was already a bedside table on either side of the bed.

Taking a look at her completely furnished bedroom, Amelia felt a lump form in her throat. Oh, go away emotions, she urged, why are you crying over having your own bedroom?

She needed to thank her godfather for this - it was way beyond what anyone had ever done for her. "Thank you, Sirius, for all of this." She tried so hard to not let her voice break.

Her godfather smiled warmly. "Enjoy it, my dear, because by all the gods you deserve it."

She started unpacking her trunk whilst Sirius went with Dorea and Harry to sort out their bedrooms. Dorea's bedroom was right down the opposite end of the hall, and it looked miles away. When she went to see, she saw that her godsister had chosen a simple two shades of blue wall colour scheme. She'd also gotten a study desk and a dressing table, but instead of an armchair there was an L-shaped sofa by the window.

Harry's bedroom (on the next floor up) was rather patriotic to Gryffindor - his walls were coloured red and gold. Her brother had mostly the same furniture as she did, except he had asked for a bookcase beside his wardrobe. That reminded Amelia that she wanted some floating shelves - she'd ask Sirius another time.

Sirius continued their tour of the house, now that they had chosen their bedrooms. The house kept rendering them speechless - for Sirius showed them that, taking up quite a lot of room on the top floor of the house was a library. His uncle Alphard must've been some avid reader, Amelia thought, or maybe he just had it to show off to guests. She only had a brief walk throughout the room, and discovered there were some Muggle novels as well - Jane Austen, J.R.R Tolkien, and Bernard Cromwell among some of the few. There were even some books regarding some of Hogwarts' curriculum. I'll definitely have a read of some of those.

On the bottom floor of the east wing of the house, they discovered, was a whole room dedicated to an Apicathry, and then there was something they were desperate to try out - a Potions workspace. It wasn't a dank dungeons space - far from it, the room was actually naturally well lit, and there were plenty of work benches. It felt like a classroom, but a far more relaxing one.

"Does this mean that we could brew potions in here?" Harry asked.

"What else would you use it for?" Sirius replied, leaning against the door. "The Apicathry has been recently topped up too - every ingredient under the sun is in there."

"This is amazing!" Amelia realised, "We could actually make Potions without Snape growling over our shoulders every five seconds, and do it at our own pace!"

To top it all off, the house also came with what they soon realised were duelling chambers - there were rows of some magical dummy's, and you could even change the settings on them to fit and mimic a certain type of situation - some of the settings were "ambush", "NEWT level student", "Death Eater" and "Auror".

They would definitely be trying them out at some point - with Voldemort returning, they would need to be prepared.

The last part of the property they toured was the back garden - and they were even more blown away, as there was a makeshift quidditch pitch - three hoops on one side, and another three on the other. There was also an equipment shed, where the balls were kept in a case. Amelia noticed there were also different models of brooms - from Shooting Stars to Nimbus's to Cleansweeps and even an old Silver Arrow. There were also 2 broomstick servicing kits collecting dust.

At the corner of the garden, Amelia even saw a medium-sized but very run down greenhouse. She asked her godfather about it.

"There used to be plenty of plants in there, but the house elves just removed them as they were all long-dead." Was Sirius's answer.

This is going to be so good, Amelia thought to herself as she watched Hedwig fly around the front garden from her window that afternoon. Our family dynamic is now official.

After their first ever dinner in their new home (the two house elves, called Ditsy and Dippey, cooked them up a delicious roast chicken), Harry went up to his brand-spanking new bedroom and was unpacking his books onto the bookshelf. He wanted to get everything exactly where he wanted it - he had put all his clothes away in the wardrobe and drawers.

As soon as the last book, - Quidditch Through The Ages, was slotted perfectly in between Quidditch: A History and Quidditch Teams of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, he got to work on setting up his study table. It was only seven p.m., he could easily get started on more schoolwork. He sorted through them all and, rather reluctantly, pulled out a homework for Divination.

To this day, he still had no clue why he even chose to do it back in third year. He was now going into fifth year - they were to do their O.W.L's this year - he'd rather throw himself off the roof of the house than sit a Divination exam.

That got him thinking. What is on at the same time as Divination for third and fourth year?

He remembered - for Hermione, Amelia and Dorea had Ancient Runes. That subject had always caught his eye for some reason - he had liked the look of it, but Seamus and Dean said it was very hard and was like learning a new language, so it put him off it. They claimed that Arithmancy wasn't as hard, but a lot of numerology was involved. I wonder, though…

Harry, thinking himself slightly stupid for contemplating changing a class and learning 2 more with 3 weeks to go until he was back at school, felt a wave of curiousness go through him. He went in search of his godfather.

Sirius was still down in the kitchen, wiping the worktops down. He had a cup of tea steaming away on the table. "Harry! What's up?" The man greeted.

"Sirius," he smiled back.

"So, are you enjoying the house? I know it might seem too much, but it's got everything we could ever want. And after… not being able to raise you, Amelia and Dorea for so long, I just thought it would make up for those absent years." Sirius said.

"I love it, it's great!" Harry admitted. "I cannot wait to use all the rooms."

"Do you want a cuppa?" Sirius gestured to the kettle.

"Oh, yeah, please." He replied. When he sat down at the table with his cup of tea, Harry started enquiring. "Did you ever take Ancient Runes and Arithmancy at school?"

Sirius swallowed. "Nah, it wasn't really my thing. Remus took it though - he did both Ancient Runes and Arithmancy with your mum," he paused, "Why?"

"Well, I just had a thought… I do not wish to continue with Divination this year." Harry said, a bit surprised his mum took (arguably) the two toughest subjects..

Sirius looked doubtful. "It might be a bit late to change subjects now, pup. There's only three weeks left of summer. What's with the sudden change of mind?"

"Well, I just thought… Divination is pointless." (Sirius adamantly agreed with that statement). "Though I haven't totally decided what I want to do after school, if I wanted to be an Auror it would be a pointless subject to take. I think that having Ancient Runes and Arithmancy would qualify me more. Plus, Professor Trelawney is a bit… odd."

"I see." Sirius was looking at him. "Do you have any prior knowledge of Ancient Runes or Arithmancy? Did you take either one as one of your electives in third year?"

"No." Harry admitted weakly. That didn't really stand him in great stead - he wanted to swap Arithmancy and Ancient Runes but had literally no idea what either of them entailed. Sirius probably thinks I'm a right dunce, going in blind.

"Dorea and Amelia do it though?" Sirius seemed to remember.

"Yeah, they've been doing it since third year. Hermione too." Harry said. He remembered them speaking about it. "There's a lot of theory to them, and even Hermione says they're tough."

"Think of it logically, Harry," Sirius started explaining, "Could you learn two years of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy content in three weeks?"

Harry could already tell this wasn't going to work out in his favour. "No, I don't think so."

Sirius threw in a curveball, though. "But, it's worth a try, isn't it?"

He almost choked on his tea, not expecting his godfather to have that much faith in him. "You think I could do it?"

"Whilst it sounds unlikely, it can be done." Sirius put his cup down. "Do you want me to Floo Professor McGonagall and ask her?"

Harry remembered, "But I thought we couldn't Floo call anyone? What if the Ministry detects it?"

Sirius looked smug. "Dumbledore did a little experiment with that - he got someone he knows that works in the Floo Monitoring department to watch the network as he made a call from this house. He said it didn't even come up."

"Oh, really? So we can Floo call and the Ministry won't find out about this house?" Harry said spritely.

"Precisely, little Prongs. Especially since the Ministry thinks this house was demolished after poor old uncle Alphard kicked the bucket."

Harry's eyes widened. "What?"

"Kingsley deleted the record of this house for us - the Ministry thinks it no longer exists, so it is not on their radar at all." Sirius leaned back in his seat.

"As if today could get better! That was a clever thing to do." Harry said, mesmerised.

Sirius went into the huge living room, and Harry thought he looked quite comical as he stuck his head in the fireplace. He soon heard the tones of his Transfiguration teacher, Minerva McGonagall.

He didn't expect her to turn up in the living room just a few minutes later. She looked a bit odd in casual wear. "Mr Potter, I hear you want to take up two completely new subjects? With just over three weeks of break left?" Harry slightly cringed as she said it - her tone suggested that it was entirely a stupid thing to even think of doing.

"Erm, well, I know it sounds mad, Professor, but Sirius said it could be done." Harry offered, looking a bit sheepish.

"It can, but it would require a good few hours of study every day to even get through third year material. Not to mention, in fourth year Ancient Runes you start translating Runic transcripts… It will be tough going, Potter, but I could speak to Professor's Vector and Babbling for you this evening?" McGonagall didn't think him a loon, then. That was promising.

A thought came to him then. "Oh, Professor, I could ask Amelia and Dorea if they still have their notes from third and fourth year? Surely that would be a good start?"

"Yes, that would be beneficial, though it might make as much sense as Gobbledygook." She turned to Sirius. "This house has a library on the top floor, does it not?"

"Yes, Minerva, it does. I am sure there would be a few introduction books there. They might explain it more simply, but surely it would stick more?" His godfather answered.

"Indeed," McGonagall turned back to him. "I would do some digging for some introductory books, Potter, and ask your twin and godsister about those notes. No doubt they still refer back to them from time to time. If all else fails, ask Miss Grainger."

He nodded. McGonagall told Sirius that she would Floo call Professor Vector and Professor Babbling (he knew them to see them, but that was about it) as soon as she got back. With that, she Floo'd back to her own home.

"Well," Sirius said, "Looks like it can be achieved. I would do some digging in the library."

Harry did just that. It took him a few minutes, and the books looked like they were written for first years, but he thanked Alphard Black's resourcefulness. Flipping through the pages, he noticed a good few word bank's and glossaries that explained the terms in really, really simple language. This will definitely be easier for me, a complete beginner, he thought as he meandered back down to his bedroom. He would enquire about the notes tomorrow.

By ten o'clock, Harry had gotten through two chapters of the Ancient Runes intro book. He could understand why Runes needed to be translated, and even correctly guessed why they would still be used today. I'm on track, Harry thought, it may not even be the nitty-gritty stuff yet, but it is a start nonetheless.

He just hoped Professor's Vector and Babbling were fair.