Harry sat alone at the Gryffindor table, idly munching on his bacon while he skimmed through a book on flight magic. Most of it wasn't going to be useful for him, just enchantments and enhancements for brooms and carpets, but there may be useful nuggets of information in there somewhere that would help him learn to fly without a broom. Meals during the summer were weird at first but grew more comfortable with time, the professors attending occasionally and the timing less exact. Food just appeared on the table around him when he sat down, and he had a suspicion that it was house elf magic at play because he could never sense any magical sparks in the table or the food. He was always the only student in the Great Hall.
He looked up from his book as footsteps approached from the front of the hall. Professor McGonagall walked towards him, looking severe and put together as always. She smiled at him as he met her stern gaze, though.
"Good morning, Mr. Potter. I have your official second year Hogwarts letter and your list of school supplies for you. It felt silly to send it as a letter when you are already present."
"Thanks, professor. Will it be a problem if I fly to Diagon Alley to pick up everything I need?"
"Fly to…" McGonagall spluttered, "Mr. Potter, you will not need to fly to London. You will be allowed to take the floo, and Hagrid or I can escort you if you wish."
"Oh, you don't need to go to the trouble, I'll see if I can meet up with Hermione and Neville. Also, what's the floo?"
…
The patrons of the Leaky Cauldron looked shocked and surprised as Harry flew past them. He smashed into the bar on the other side of the room from the fireplace and left a Harry-sized crater in the broken wood. He rolled out of the hole in a shower of splinters and looked around at the now silent tavern.
Apparently floo travel didn't agree with his power.
He had been lost in the churning green tornado of magical fire as he was transported across the country. He could feel it as it moved, taste it as he was stretched and twisted through a hole in reality. He had felt his own power unconsciously mingling with the conveyance magic of the floo, and then suddenly he had arrived with quite a bit of unexpected momentum.
He assumed that it had something to do with his ability to perceive and interact with the rift magic that allowed for the magical transport. He subconsciously expected to have significant momentum after being stretched like a rubber band and fired five hundred miles through a fiery magical chimney, so he came out the other end with more force than most witches and wizards. Something to work on later.
"Umm. Sorry about that, everyone. First time using the floo. I'm still at Hogwarts and can't use magic outside of school yet, would someone else be able to repair the bar?" He was greeted by more silence.
"Right. Erm. I'll just be going then." He quickly made his way out back before anyone could react or realize who he was. He used a tendril of his power to tap the bricks that he could feel glowing with magic and the way opened to him as he strode into the alley.
Harry had started to like his 'summer attire' of just the white button down and slacks from his school uniform, so he had foregone the normal over robe and hat. He let a bit of his magic infuse his shirt and forced the ash from his flu travel out of the white fabric. He did his best to ignore the stares and the whispering and the pointing at his forehead as he walked through the alley, but it was starting to get a bit old already. He hadn't realized just how famous he was the last time he came to the alley, flying below the radar in his shabby mundane clothes.
He smiled as he caught sight of Hermione and Neville in front of Gringotts. Behind them stood Mrs Granger, a tall man with cleanly cropped brown hair and glasses, and an intimidating older woman with gray hair wearing a set of expensive looking maroon robes and a large decorative hat with a stuffed vulture on it.
Well, this is going to be interesting.
Hermione caught sight of him as he approached and her face broke into a wide smile. He loved seeing her smile. She ran over and threw her arms around him, as if it hadn't been less than a month since she had seen him. Not that he minded.
Neville and the adults followed at a more sedate pace. Harry said hello to Neville and hugged him as well, happy to see his friends again after a solitary summer at the school. He looked up as the adults made their way over.
"It's good to see you again, Harry." Hermione's mother said, "I hope you've had a good summer so far now that the letter issue got cleared up."
Harry smiled at her. She had a way of making him feel comfortable that he hadn't felt around adults before. Maybe it was that she had taken the news of his powers and other secrets so well, or that she looked like Hermione. "It's great to see everyone again too. Summer at school has been brilliant, I have the library all to myself.
Her smile widened at that. "I can imagine. Let me introduce my husband Daniel. Dan, this is Harry. I told you that he stopped by the house a while ago because Hermione's letters weren't getting through."
Hermione's father, Daniel apparently, smiled warmly as well. Harry could see Hermione's enthusiastic smile and wiry build in the tall man. Mr. Granger stuck out his hand for Harry to shake.
"It's wonderful to meet you, Harry. Hermione has told us so much about you and it's great to finally put a face with the name," He said.
Harry took the offered hand and was very careful not to crush Daniel's fingers by accident.
"It's great to meet you too, sir. I'm glad that you all could make it today, I was going to be bored out of my mind shopping for everything alone." Harry said, turning towards Neville and the formidable witch behind him. He could see where Neville got his powerful spark of shining magic. The woman may look a bit silly with the bird on her head, but to Harry she was a burning torrent of heat and light kept locked in careful chains of iron control that rivaled and stood above most of the teachers at Hogwarts, save for maybe McGonagall or Snape.
Neville cleared his throat nervously. "Harry, please allow me to introduce Lady Augusta Longbottom, Head of the Noble House of Longbottom." His voice was very formal, aside from an occasional quiver. Harry wasn't sure what to make of it.
"Well met, Heir Potter." Lady Longbottom said, her posh voice clearly enunciated and intentional. "I knew your father well, and your mother to a lesser extent, before their tragic passing. I am glad that you and Neville have become acquainted. We may have business of both a personal and professional nature to discuss in the future, if you are interested."
Harry felt decidedly off balance. Heir Potter? And she knew his parents. Ok. Right. Fake it until you make it. He could do this. He let his magic leak further into his mind, speeding his thoughts and sharpening his focus.
"Thank you, Lady Longbottom. It is a pleasure to meet you as well. I would like that very much; I have few opportunities to talk to people who knew my parents, and I am always interested in knowing them better. Feel free to call me Harry. However, I'm afraid that I have to ask; why do you refer to me as Heir Potter?"
Augusta raised her eyebrows and her mouth tightened. She seemed to choose her words carefully. "How well versed are you in the status of the Noble House of Potter, Harry?" She said, maintaining her casual but clear tone.
Harry's mind raced. Noble House of Potter? That must be why he had so much gold in Gringotts. Was that just a trust vault? That would explain why he could access it at age eleven. He had been so preoccupied with learning everything he could about the magical world that he hadn't even considered it last year.
Harry looked into Lady Longbottom's eyes and observed her powerful spark with his magic. She was stern and proper, and her spark held the potential for great anger and fiery retribution, but she seemed well-meaning and held him in high regard. He felt that he could trust her to act in his best interest, even if only because it would also benefit her own. "Let's assume that I am not aware of the status of the Noble House of Potter. Or that there was a Noble House of Potter, for that matter," he said.
Her lips thinned further. Mr and Mrs Granger looked back and forth between them with concerned expressions, also following the unexpected turn the conversation had taken.
"In that case we will certainly have much to talk about, Harry. And I may be writing a strongly worded letter to a certain forgetful old codger."
Harry chuckled and nodded as he imagined Albus being taken to task by this prickly woman. "Excellent. In the meantime, Gringotts first, then shopping?" Harry said, eager to be done with the awkward introductions.
…
"In addition to access to my vault, I must request a complete accounting of the current assets and holdings of the Noble House of Potter." Harry said to the angry looking goblin behind the counter. Apparently, the goblins had not changed their demeanor in the last year.
"There is a fifty-galleon fee for a review of vaults of that magnitude," the goblin sneered at him.
"That's fine. Are quarterly account statements available by owl?"
The goblin's eyes narrowed further. "You have not been receiving your regular statements?"
Dammit Albus.
"My mail must be being filtered by my guardian due to my public status. I will speak to him to ensure that all further communications from Gringotts reach me. Please send the accounting directly to me by owl if possible."
The goblin just glared at him and handed him a receipt for the fifty-galleon deduction. Satisfied that that was probably the best that he was going to get out of the grumpy creature, Harry followed another goblin over to the carts to withdraw his spending money for the year. He was excited to get to ride in the perilous carts again.
…
Harry paused outside the Magical Menagerie. The adults had wandered ahead but Hermione and Neville stopped and looked at him.
"What are you thinking, Harry?" Hermione asked curiously.
"I think that I may be getting a bit tired of borrowing school owls constantly, especially if I'm going to be dealing with Noble House stuff outside of Hogwarts." He said. Harry considered his options and quickly decided on a course of action, his magic still accelerating his mind after his conversation with Augusta and then the goblins.
Hermione's eyes widened. "You're going to get an owl?" She said excitedly, bouncing a bit as she waved to the grown-ups and gestured to the pet shop.
"Yeah, I think so." Harry said, opening the door to the store with a small chime.
Harry wandered through the owl section of the menagerie, letting his magic explore around him as he touched the sparks within the owls. Post owls were more than just birds, they were bred and enchanted to allow them to find their targets and to have an instinctual understanding of a witch or wizard's needs. Their magic reached out and touched his own, seeking to form a connection similar in many ways to his broom or the cloak.
Harry continued down the row as he looked and prodded at each bird with his magic. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he assumed that he would know when he found it.
He was right. A beautiful snowy owl near the end of the row turned her head to regard him with piercing amber eyes. His magic touched hers and he was surprised to find an intelligence and strength of soul within her that was absent in the other birds so far. The connection snapped into place almost involuntarily as she cocked her head at him, and he felt himself grinning as her magic mingled with his own.
He got the distinct impression that she thought that he was late, for some reason.
He opened the cage and reached in to gently stroke the soft feathers of the owl's face. Her magic continued to twist around and through his own power, far more aware and active than the magic of the artifacts that he had bonded with before. He caught abstract bits and pieces of thoughts, feelings and more from her strange soul. He couldn't understand most of it, but he got a few general impressions and he instinctively understood that she already had a name.
"It's very nice to meet you, Hedwig."
…
"I'm still not sure why all of these novels are on the reading lists," Harry said as the group approached Flourish and Blotts. "Don't they normally just have textbooks?"
Hermione flushed lightly, which Harry thought was a bit of an odd reaction. "Obviously Quirrell is gone, so we have a new teacher. I heard that they just announced that the author of the series, Gilderoy Lockhart, is going to be our new teacher."
"Ohhhh. Using required reading to boost book sales. Classic," Harry chuckled.
"He is not! I'm sure all of the books will be very important for class." Hermione said hotly, still a bit pink and looking embarrassed underneath her irritation. Strange.
"If you say so…" Harry said, looking around the bookshop as they entered.
It looked like a bomb had gone off. Multiple bookshelves knocked over and their contents all over the floor, people milling about in confusion, tables of fliers and equipment in disarray. The worst of the damage was near the front of the store, and near the back…
"Everyone just calm down please, there are more than enough copies for everyone, and there is more than enough of me to go around today!"
A tall, pretty man with shiny blond hair and a perfect ivory smile stood behind a table at the back of the shop. A photographer and several reporters bustled around him while he gazed out over the crowd in front of him with blue eyes that he probably wished twinkled like Dumbledore's.
"Oh my God, he's here!" Hermione squealed from beside him in a tone that he had never heard from her before. "Mum Mum Mum it's Gilderoy Lockhart!"
"I see that, sweetheart." Mrs Granger said with an indulgent expression.
"He's doing a book signing! Can we please get my schoolbooks signed, please?"
"Sure, dear." Her mother chuckled, "go get in line while I go get the rest of your books. Hopefully they get this mess cleaned up quickly."
Augusta sniffed disdainfully and went with the other adults while Harry and Neville followed Hermione to the line. Harry idly noticed that the line was mostly witches, and that the majority seemed to be looking at Lockhart with the same expression as Hermione. Weird.
As they got closer to the front, they got a better look at the famous wizard. His robes were impeccably pressed, and his hat was carefully perched on his lustrous hair at just the right angle. His attire's color perfectly matched his blue eyes. He seemed to be chatting charmingly with every customer that approached, moving with purpose from one to the next until-
"It can't be Harry Potter!"
Shit.
The crowd parted as the handsome wizard strode over, reaching out to grab Harry and pulling him to the front of the line. Harry subdued the urge to rip off Lockhart's arm. Barely.
The crowd burst into applause and Harry immediately hated each and every one of them on instinct. Hopefully he managed to keep that off of his face as the photographer's camera clicked away madly.
"Nice big smile, Harry," Lockhart said, flashing his own trademark grin at the camera. "Together, you and I will make the front page."
Harry tried to plaster a somewhat convincing smile onto his face while he imagined ripping out Lockhart's spine. He carefully pulled himself out of Lockhart's grip, although he remained where he was to avoid causing a scene. He even managed to resist the desire to break Lockhart's fingers while he did so. Harry felt that was more than generous, all things considered.
The crowd quieted as Lockhart spoke over them. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, with my entire collected works free of charge. And as some of you may remember from my announcement earlier, Harry and the rest of the students of Hogwarts will be getting the real me all year when I take my post as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. I look forward to passing down as many of my talents and experiences to the young witches and wizards as I can."
The crowd cheered and clapped, and Harry was handed the entire collected works box set as he managed to escape the limelight and slink back towards the front of the shop. After getting their own books signed, Hermione and Neville joined him.
"That was so cool! You got to take your picture with him and everything! I'm so excited for him to teach us this year, there are so many interesting encounters in his books that I'm sure he'll be able to tell us even more about and…" Hermione continued to chatter rapidly as Harry let her voice wash over him, feeling oddly ill for some reason. He looked back at the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
Harry couldn't help but narrow his eyes a bit. The man's spark was pitifully weak, and his magic felt hollow somehow. Something didn't quite add up here, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
