Chapter Four: The Broken Elements

The following two months were a blur to Harry as he settled into truly being Marius' ward. Dudley was sent to a different school and the adults were serving prison time.

"Amazon?" the little boy queried, bright green eyes peering at the man in hopeful anxiety.

"Yes, Harry?" Amazon questioned.

"At school, there's going to be a field trip this Friday," he explained. "Here's the permission slip and could you come with me?"

Marius read the letter that accompanied it, which explained that they were going to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins to carve.

"You may go," he said, smiling. "We used to carve pumpkins when I was a child. But wouldn't you like to go with your friends, now that Dudley isn't there to take them from you?"

"Yes, but I want you to come too," Harry stated as seriously as he could. "You're the best thing in my life." Marius smiled. He was going to enjoy the closeness that they had, for one day there would be a time when Harry wouldn't want his guardian with him all the time.

"I'll come with you," he agreed. It was two weeks before Halloween.

That Friday, Marius and Harry walked into the school together. "Mr. Black, right?" Marius nodded.

"Ms. Bennett," Marius said in return, following the tall, stout woman with brown hair and brown eyes, into the classroom.

"Ooohhh!" a boy cat-called. "Harry brought a stranger!"

"They don't even look alike!" the girl next to him added. Harry gripped Marius' hand tightly. "And look! He's old!"

"Harry, come here!" a different boy called out, cutting off another scathing remark.

"Enough, Jasper, Clara," Ms Bennett reprimanded the duo. "Now, make yourself welcome," she told Amazon.

"Thank you, Carl," Harry said, smiling.

"Hi, sir, what's your name?" a little girl with strawberry-blond pigtails asked Marius.

"Mr. Black," he answered with a smile. "And yours?"

"Gemma," she supplied. "You're sweet." His smile broadened.

"Thank you, so are you." Then Ms. Bennett interrupted them by starting a roll call. Only three students were absent that day.

The class trouped out of the room and headed back outside to get on the bus. "I'm glad that the big boy is gone," Gemma was saying to Marius as they rode. "Harry is nice, but no one could be with him because Dudley would hurt us if we tried."

"Harry is smart and has the best scores," Carl continued, with admiration in his voice. "And he helps us when we can't get it."

"Harry?" The boy smiled.

"I don't want people to end up like me," he revealed. "I didn't like it, so I'm going to fix it." Then he shook his head. "Some are better."

"Yeah, but you help others, so we can be better and others don't help," Gemma countered. "That's better than being the best and bragging about it."

"It's alright to brag, but only in small doses," Amazon put in. "Like I can play the piano very well because I learned how to play when I was your age."

"Like a professional?" Carl queried, intrigued. The man nodded, grey eyes sparkling.

"Mmmhmmm…" he answered.

"He's played for me and it's like being in bed, warm and soft," Harry praised. "It could protect me on my scariest nights. It's like magic. Well, 'cause you're magic."

"Harry…" Marius groaned with an embarrassed smile. The boy grinned while the others laughed.

"Well, if I get to brag, I'd want to brag about someone else instead," Harry replied. "Like Gemma, I love that you are kind and Carl, you are interested in space."

Marius grinned. "Then you would love the fact that many of our family members are named after celestial bodies. I've got a first cousin once removed whose name is Orion, my sister's name is Cassiopeia, and my cousin's names are Arcturus and Regulus."

Harry frowned in thought. "That sounds familiar," he commented.

"That's Figaro and Domino," the man supplied.

"No, not Figaro or Domino," the boy whispered back. "Something about Regulus."

"I had a grandson named Regulus," Marius offered tentatively. "He had a brother named Sirius."

"Yes, but," Harry reasoned, his nose scrunching up the way his mothers used to when trying to concentrate on a particular thing. "...P-Poo, no, Pa…Paddy."

Harry had no time to think about it as they arrived at the pumpkin patch. A handful of other buses were pulling in or parked. Other schools would be joining them.

His class filed off excitedly, going inside the lone, sun-washed building to get checked in for their field trip.

"Come on, Hermione," a man coaxed quietly behind them.

"I wish that my parents hadn't forced me to go," Hermione groused. I'd rather stay home with my books." Harry froze.

"Wait, Princess Hermione, is real?!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "I didn't know she was a real person!" He whipped around and stared at a girl with thick, curly, brown locks and brown eyes, which were blown wide from shock.

"I'm not Princess Hermione, but I was named after her," she replied shyly. "Besides, princesses don't have untamable hair and buck teeth."

Harry made a face. "Sometimes people look like princesses but then act like villains. Or people don't look like princesses, but they act like them. Besides, I like your hair."

"Really, why?"

"You're very smart and I love your curls because I understand." He pointed to his unruly head of black hair. "Marius and I have tried everything to get my hair to lay down, but only my grandfather's concoction works on my hair. It would work on your hair."

Marius and Hermione's teacher signed them in and shepherded them off to the side to ensure that they didn't become a blockade.

"You think so?"

"I know so." He reached out a hand to touch one of her tight, corkscrew curls. She placed a lock in his hand.

"It's very dry," Harry remarked.

"You need a special routine for your hair," Marius added. "But, anyways, we'll talk about it while we pick pumpkins."

The check-in building was in the centre of the patch, small, paved paths webbed out of the circle the building was situated on.

Ms. Bennett also explained that the class would be meeting in front of the check-in building for lunch, which was sac lunches. Marius, Harry, and Hermione broke off from the centre, going down the path that was oriented toward 4:20 if the building faced at 6:00. On either side, orange pumpkins were piled as high as Marius' head.

"We could sit in this one!" Harry exclaimed in astonishment.

"Sorry, that one is too large," the elderly man said with a rueful laugh. Harry pouted.

"It wouldn't if you could do extra things!"

"Even if I could, I wouldn't in this setting."

"Because of Hermione?" The aforementioned girl adopted a guilty look.

"Not because of her, with her presentation, but because then she would be forced to keep something that isn't her business." Hermione stared at them.

"I don't think that this will help because you can't do what he's asking, but I can do really weird things," she spoke shyly. "I've been able to bring a book I want to me when I'm not anywhere near my bedroom. I've read while I've spent time in the bath." Two sets of eyes became as large as saucers. "You are the only people besides my parents who know."

"I suppose that it does concern you," the man announced in a shocked whisper.

"So, you're like me?" Hermione asked excitedly. Marius took in his surroundings even if the pile of pumpkins made a decent buffer.

"I grew up in the culture of it, but I can't participate; however, you and Harry can," he answered.

"Why does it matter that you can't?" she asked. "You know about it and participated as a child."

"Well, I suppose that I am as I am spending my days with Harry," he mused. "That's my contribution."

"And that's the best," Harry replied, digging through a pile of the orange fruit. He came up with a vibrantly orange pumpkin that was plump and round. "A happy face should be on this one!" His guardian and friend smiled. It was Hermione's turn.

She came up with one that was a bit lighter in colour and instead of it being fat and round, it was rather tall and slender by pumpkin standards.

Marius followed and he made a show of picking out his pumpkin. "No, not that one," he muttered, examining a small, round pumpkin. "No, not that one either." That one more resembled a gourd rather than a pumpkin.

The children giggled. "Sir!" Hermione laughed.

"Ooh!" Marius promulgated triumphantly. It looked very standard.

"Uncle Amazon!" Harry shouted with amusement. "Lots of pumpkins look like that!" Grey eyes stared at the standard-looking pumpkin.

"Oh, I thought that it was unique-looking," he remarked in disappointment. He turned to put it back in the pile.

"Keep it!" Hermione shrieked. "It's perfect like you!"

"No, I'm not!" he countered passionately.

"You are smart and kind-" She punctuated that with a tackle hug which he accepted jovially. Harry joined them.

"Can you both keep a secret for me?" he asked conspiratorially. The pair nodded as sagely as they could. "Who you are, you are witches and wizards, but just between us, hugs from people like you, young people, are like balm for people like me. You carry all the magic in my heart." He guided their tiny hands to his chest. "You are magical!"

Harry rolled his eyes. Hermione was smiling. They gathered up the pumpkins that they had chosen, and then headed back towards the centre to devour their sac lunches: ham and cheese sandwiches, crisps, grapes, and a bottle of water.

They went off to pick out a few more pumpkins before they returned to school. "Why can't Hermione come to my school?" Harry was demanding as they walked back to the parking lot to get on the bus.

It was her turn to roll her eyes. "I can't just switch schools."

"But why not?"

"It takes a long time."

"But it's a real thing!"

"Here," Marius proposed. He wrote down his number. "Have your parents call me and we might be able to do something."

"Thank you, sir," she said gratefully.

"None of that, Hermione; Uncle Marius or Uncle Amazon is fine."

"Okay, Uncle Amazon," she corrected herself. She and Harry hugged each other for as long as they could before they had to separate until the next time. Now, if only they knew what was in store for them when they entered the Wizarding World in six years.

At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Bill and Charlie Weasley were sat before the great fireplace in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"I can't say I have ever met someone as interested in Dragons as you," Bill was saying to his younger brother.

"Really?" Charlie's friend Marina, asked, hazel green eyes wide with incredulity.

"Yes, and he wanted to know all about the Horntails," Charlie responded, blue eyes lit with happiness. "He's so cute. He's Ron's age."

"Awww!" Marina cooed, smiling, revealing two dimples as she did so. "What is his name?"

The brothers exchanged glances. "Hardwin," Bill lied smoothly. Well, it was on the same family tree, which was ironic as Bill didn't know that.

"Cute!" she giggled. The fire crackled and popped comfortably. The duo smiled.

"He is," Bill concurred.

"Cuter than Ron and Ginny," Charlie joked.

"Charlie!" Bill admonished.

"They're equally cute," Charlie conceded.

"There we go," Bill said, laughing. Marina rose from her seat.

"I'm getting ready for bed," she stated. "See you, Char, Bill." Charlie chuckled.

"See you, Mari." She sent him another dimpled smile and then disappeared up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

"It's just so unfair that he has to go without his parents!" the younger said despondently.

"It's not, but at least he's with people who love him," the elder countered.

"Yeah, he'd been with horrid Muggles," the first groused. A spark from the fire grew into the apparition of a tall, thin man with neat, shoulder-length hair. It landed on Charlie's finger.

"His actual name is Harry," Bill said. The apparition grew larger.

"Mr. Black?" Charlie squinted. The figure increased in heat. "Ow! Ok! Erm…Sirius?" The ember cooled. "Are you alive?" Sirius paused and then shook his head. He floated down to one of Bill's spare pieces of parchment. He charred out the words: I am on the plane of existence; My friends are the same way, but our spirits roam here while our physical bodies are out of reach.

"Is there a way for you to return to your body?" Bill asked. Sirius nodded.

"Can we help?" Charlie added. This time it was a shake of the head.

"Where are your bodies?" Sirius lifted off of Charlie's finger and circled the room.

"Here?" Bill guessed. "In this castle?" The figure nodded. "Can you leave and go see Harry?" Another shake.

"So like the ghosts?" Another nod.

"And Harry is the only one who can restore you all?" A final nod. Sirius burned out another line of text. He can only do it because he is the only one to have access to our elemental powers.

"Well, we'll keep you company until he arrives," the pair promised. Sirius enveloped them in warmth instead of thanks. The ember shrank and dimmed, and then disappeared. When they went to bed, they found their sheets warmed.