Spending the rest of the summer staying at The Leaky Cauldron wasn't in his plans, but inflating Aunt Marge wasn't planned either and spending this last week in Diagon Alley was certainly an excellent experience of freedom, and Mr Fortescue helped with his homework and even gave him free sundaes.
"Now what am I going to do until Hermione gets back from France and Ron gets back from Egypt?" The green-eyed boy asked himself, from the last few letters he had exchanged with the girl she didn't know whether to be worried that he would be alone for the next few days or excited that he had decided to enrol in Arithmancy with her, honestly, he had almost chosen Ancient Runes, but the idea of learning a completely different alphabet just for magic tired him out just thinking about it, plus Arithmancy is just a slightly different form of maths, it's all numbers after all. 'I don't know if the fact that I can't inform Ron about this because of the distance is a good thing or a bad thing, there's still this message from Dumbledore asking me to meet him at lunch because of something he has to tell me about the next school year.
There were still two hours to go until the scheduled meeting time, so wandering around the alley was the best option to distract himself, the Quidditch shop was closed, and wandering around London with a criminal after you didn't seem like a good idea either, so Harry did something he certainly hadn't done since he started Hogwarts, he entertained himself in the book shop.
The Flourish and Blotts manager was more than happy to let him read some of the shop's books there without having to pay, having Harry Potter in the shop is an excellent form of advertising after all, and the man almost cried with relief when Harry explained how to calm the Book of Monsters using the instructions Hagrid had given him.
'It's a good thing Fibonacci introduced the Arabic number system to Europe, understanding it using Roman or Greek numbers would have been hell!' Harry briefly closed the Introduction to Arithmancy book to look at the clock, seeing that it was time for his meeting with the Headmaster, the boy said goodbye to the bookshop manager and headed for the Leaky Cauldron. 'Now how he managed to introduce an Arabic concept to a Christian majority society during a crusade is something I've always been curious about.'
Finding Dumbledore among the other customers at the Leaky Cauldron isn't too difficult - after all, it's almost impossible to miss a six-foot-tall man in a lilac robe with more beard than most people have hair.
"Harry my boy, how nice to see you, I heard about the unfortunate accident that befell your aunt, however, due to your current position I think it was for the best, the subject I have to share with you would not be very pleasant for your family as it involves magic." Dumbledore greeted the boy with a brief handshake before leading him to one of the farthest tables in the pub with two plates of food. "But come along, I've asked Tom to reserve a space for us, I wouldn't want our conversation to fall into the public ear."
"Uhm, I'm fine professor, this has probably been the best summer week I've ever had in my life!" The happiness of not being confined to the Dursleys was such that Dumbledore could see that the boy was practically glowing and a slight feeling of guilt was present for a moment.
"Harry, as was discovered last year, you possess a very rare gift in the wizarding world, which is the ability to communicate with snakes. Unfortunately, here in Britain, it's not very well regarded due to the history of users, but it's an excellent ability." Said Dumbledore with a friendly smile. "I decided to call in a few favours and had the opportunity to arrange a tutor for you if you're interested."
The look of surprise on the boy's face was instantaneous, on the one hand, the idea of learning more about this power was interesting, especially as it came from someone recommended by Albus Dumbledore, but on the other hand, it increased the chances of the rest of Magical Britain finding out, and if their reaction was the same as that of the Hogwarts students last year he would be labelled a dark lord in the next edition of the Daily Prophet.
"Of course, there's no need to accept now, your tutor isn't here just to teach you, he's doing research into astronomy so he's just combined the useful with the pleasant." The Headmaster said, realising the boy's uncertainty. "You can have this year as a test, if you don't adapt you can be cancelled without any problems."
Harry nodded positively before his face took on a look of doubt. "But Sir, I've decided to do three of the electives, how would the workload look taking into account that there's still Quidditch practice?"
"I must say, Harry, I'm delighted you're determined to take your studies seriously this year." Dumbledore gave a lazy smile and said. "But don't worry about the hours, Minerva and I are arranging for both you and Miss Granger to carry on with your additional workload without any problems."
The rest of the lunch passed in a calm and relaxed manner with Dumbledore telling us about the International Warlock's Convention that had taken place in Brazil over the last few weeks alcohol and powerful wizards were not a very good combination and the only reason that the Statute of Secrecy wasn't jeopardised was that some horrific act had taken place in the early hours of the same day so all the focus of the city's media was on that instead of whatever the wizards were doing.
Before saying goodbye, Dumbledore told him that the tutor would meet him at the Leaky Cauldron on 1 September and asked Harry to accompany him to King's Cross, as it would be the tutor's first time in England and the Headmaster was afraid that the boy, a pure-blood witch, would get lost in the confusion of London.
"No problem sir, but how do I know who he is?" the green-eyed boy asked the old wizard, who had a twinkle in his eye and a small smile as if he were honouring the funniest thing in the world.
"Believe me, Harry, you'll know as soon as he's in the same place as you, the same way you know there's a storm coming"
With those words, the old headmaster left the establishment and Harry found himself in deep confusion.
'What did he mean by that?
"HARRY!" The shout was the only warning the boy received before he was hit by a projectile called Hermione, who quickly wrapped him in an awkward hug from behind, since for the first time the two were of similar height, with the brunette being perhaps two centimetres taller. "I've been so worried, especially since I couldn't receive your letters anymore because of my relatives who don't know about magic, how are you?
"I'm fine, Hermione." Said Harry with a smile dancing on his lips as he broke away from the hug and turned to look at the girl himself.
The sun on the French coast had done the girl some good. Her olive-coloured skin, which had previously been pale due to months confined to a castle in Scotland, now had golden tones that complemented her golden-brown hair and eyes that looked like they had been analysing him from head to toe.
"I'm still taller." Said Hermione with a smug tone and eyes full of jubilation.
"For derisory sums."
"First you signed up for Arithmancy and now you're talking so fancy, if it wasn't for your letters I'd think you were an impostor." The girl replied with a slight laugh. "But tell me, what did the Headmaster want to say to you? Something to do with you not being at your relatives' house?"
Now comes the tricky part: how do you explain to the girl that he'll probably have a tutor until the end of his Hogwarts education?
"Well..."