Chapter 16: Difficult good decisions
Sirius walked with a spring in his step along the Ministry, resisting the urge to wave his new certificate around and scream giddily at everyone who passed. He was finally Harry's legal guardian. This was what he had dreamt for since the deaths of James and Lily, and it had finally come true. Everything was going well so far, and he would definitely celebrate tonight.
He and Remus had finished decorating the house, and they had enjoyed the past three weeks in peace, not missing Molly's screaming and cleaning sprees in the least. Flippy and Sassy were excellent house elves and did everything he asked without any insults attached, which was a very welcome change from Kreacher. They had even gone to the airport in London and figured out that Harry would be back on Thursday evening, so Sirius would be there waiting for him as a surprise. Even Buckbeak was a nice energetic pet now that he had a big yard to fly around in instead of being cooped up in a bedroom. Yes, life at their new home was very comfortable, and it had had an incredible effect on Sirius' mood. He no longer felt like having fits of anger at every minute, and he didn't feel the overwhelming need to get drunk every night anymore. Sirius and Remus hadn't told anyone the secret location, so whenever they met anyone it was a Grimmauld Place. Today would be a change from that, as they would actually be meeting the Weasley twins at the Tonks' for lunch, since as Marauders they had promised to give them some prank pointers. He was actually a little bit late, he suddenly realized, and promptly apparated to Andromeda's garden.
'Hi Sirius' Andromeda greeted him with a smile when he knocked on the door 'how did it go?' Sirius proudly showed his cousin the certificate, barely believing it himself.
'Congratulations!' Remus told him emotionally and hugged him. Sirius hugged him back. Normally they weren't so affectionate, not since Sirius had been in Azkaban anyway, but Remus knew how much being Harry's legal guardian meant to him.
"Congratulations!" The twins told him enthusiastically "now you can turn Harry into a proper marauder!" Sirius grinned mischievously, knowing that Harry's personality would make that quite difficult, but telling them he would take it as a challenge. Fred and George still couldn't get over the fact that they knew two marauders in the flesh and treated him like royalty, and it was nice to have fans.
Dinner was incredibly fun, with the twins proudly showing Remus and Sirius some of their inventions, and telling them about their plans of dropping out of school to run their shop as soon as they were able. Sirius was impressed with the success they had had so far with their business, and the research that they had put in each of their products. He had never doubted Fred and George's intelligence, after all, the marauders had always developed extraordinary magic for many of their schemes, but he could easily admit to himself they had lacked the focus and ambition to take it to the next step like the twins were planning to. He was sure they would succeed.
'I think your idea is excellent' Sirius commented to them grinning 'I wish we'd thought of it when we graduated'. Fred swelled with pride, and he could see George felt similarly. They had finally organized the promised lunch with Sirius and Remus, so they could give them advice and new ideas for their shop. To be honest, Fred thought he and his twin were doing a pretty good job on their own, but the chance to talk at length about jokes with the Marauders had been their dream since they were eleven, so there was no way they would have passed it up.
'Yes, and it looks feasible, since you already have the money for the lease on the store and a nice stock of products and ideas' beamed Remus more sensibly. Sirius rolled his eyes at the comment and Fred grinned, though he could see the importance of the werewolf's point.
'Well, I think it is very unwise of you to consider leaving school without taking your NEWTs, no matter how soon it can be ready' Andromeda commented, and he looked at her, shocked. So did everyone else, Fred noticed with satisfaction. He knew Andromeda was about the age of his mother, and it made sense for her to think school was needed for absolutely everything, all old people did. But he had thought that after explaining their brilliant idea that she would see sense, not that it really concerned him what she thought.
'But mom, they already explained that they don't need to take a test to invent things, they already know enough about their classes' Tonks stood up for them, and George gave her a wide grin.
"You don't need to take the test to know more, you need to take the test to project an image" Andromeda disagreed "you don't need that now when all you want is to open a shop, but what about later? What about when you want to expand and you need investors? You also said you want to make a line of products to be useful in the fight, what if the Ministry or other Ministries want to buy them? Any organization could want a special order of your products if you become more well known later, and trust me, they will look at your qualifications before making the decision, and they could think that your products are maybe not as good as people say if you haven't passed your NEWTs. I just think it would be silly to miss so many potential opportunities and clients only to avoid taking a test that is not even difficult for you". Fred groaned, noting that what she said made sense. People who knew them well were perfectly aware that they were smart, but people who didn't might not, and grades were regrettably on what most people measured your intelligence. Could what Andromeda was saying possibly be true? Would they miss potential investors because they had dropped out of school? He had never thought they would need the NEWTs, but maybe they had been wrong, and they would end up regretting the decision not to graduate.
He looked sideways at George and they exchanged a troubled look, knowing they had to consider the matter further. How hard would it be to wait a couple months really? They were still earning well with the mail order business, and they could have a grand opening as soon as the summer started, while still receiving their NEWTs and their diploma. It was only a two-month difference, and they wouldn't even need to study hard. He and George had never found the classes difficult after all, and they would get good marks when they applied themselves.
"Yeah, maybe. We'll have to think about it" George told Andromeda. They would probably talk it over and investigate more about potential future investors before deciding what to do about their qualifications. It would probably not be wise to ignore the advice of the only person in the room who had ample experience in negotiation and the job market. Not that three NEWTs would give them a good reputation, but it was definitely better than zero. Fred and George had decided long ago to flunk their Potions and Care of Magical Creatures OWL on purpose. Their mother would have insisted they take the NEWT classes, and they hadn't wanted one more minute with Snape. And Hagrid…well, he was a great bloke, but a terrible instructor. They had wanted more free time to develop products, not waste it in useless classes and bad teachers. If there was truth to what Andromeda was saying, it was a pity they had done that, Fred reflected. They could both pass the potions NEWT tomorrow if they tried, but now that would be impossible when they didn't even have the OWL. He had never thought he and George would end up regretting the choice they had made together all those years ago, so he hoped Andromeda was wrong. They could have easily passed many more subjects, but they had decided to divide them by strength. Fred was taking NEWT Transfiguration and Ancient Runes, and George was taking NEWT Charms and Arithmancy. They were both taking defense, simply because they hadn't needed to study for it, and Lupin had been good and they had naively hoped he'd stay. If they had actually helped each other instead of dividing the subjects, they could have had many OWLs without much effort. Oh well. Even if Andromeda was correct, they couldn't go back in time and retake their OWLs, so there was really nothing they could do but stay at Hogwarts and get their three NEWTs each.
He sighed. He bet that if his mom had listened and reasoned with them like this, they would have studied and passed a lot of OWLs the first time…but with her drivel of them working at the ministry and her opinion that their dream job was nothing but a childhood fantasy, they had done their best to fly as far from that idea as posible. He wondered how she would feel if she knew that her obsession with controlling their lives had actually hindered their education, and probably many other opportunities. Probably not good.
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Harry put his pen down, signaling to the examiner and looking at the clock. He still had 15 minutes left to finish, but he knew he had done the absolute best he could. He had answered almost all of the questions while being quite sure he was right, and was pretty confident that he would pass elementary Spanish. He resolved to thank Anto and her parents as soon as he got home.
Harry and his hosts had just returned to Madrid the previous night after travelling for three weeks around Spain. Even though he had missed having free complete days with Anto without anyone else's interference, he had enjoyed the first sightseeing trip of his life immensely and had lots of pictures to show for it. His favorite cities had been Salamanca and Sevilla, even though all of Andalucía was stifling hot, way more than Harry had ever experienced. He would definitely miss Spain, he reflected, even though he was looking forward to living with Sirius in their new home. Most of all, he would miss Anto. They had talked about breaking up when he left some weeks ago, but he was definitely having second thoughts. He had never told her he loved her, but now he was completely sure that that was what he felt, and there was at least one moment a day in which the yearning to say it was almost too strong to resist, even if at this point it would probably do more harm than good.
"Hey! How did it go?" Anto asked him excitedly as soon as he got home.
"Good, I think. They give me the results on Wednesday" he told her, smiling gently at her. She looked beautiful today, with her hair loose, jean shorts and a shirt that let him see a hint of her flat stomach.
"Cool! Let's go!" she told him, grabbing his hand and taking him to the dining room. He chuckled, expecting she would be hyper today. She had gathered the courage to tell her parents she wanted to change her room (at his insistence) and today they had planned on doing so.
"I've only changed one thing and it already looks so much better" She said satisfied after they had made the new bed. Harry agreed with her, liking to see her so happy. It definitely looked more like a teenagers room now, having replaced the prim flowery bed cover and cushions with turquoise and sky blue tones that that she liked. They proceeded to dispose of the million ornaments, pictures and awards that were all around her room, only leaving the ones that Anto wanted. It was slow work, as Tía Ana was somewhat of a clutterer, but Harry found he enjoyed watching how the room gradually became more his girlfriend's. He watched amusedly as Anto viciously cut off all her best average medals from her bunk bed and threw them in the bag that her mother had insisted they saved for her.
"Hey, maybe you could get rid of the bunk bed" Harry suggested suddenly "you would have a lot more space to put things on the walls and to stand up from your bed". He had noticed whenever they sat on her bed he would have to crouch slightly to avoid hitting his head, and they always had to stand carefully.
"I had never thought about changing it that much, but it's a really good idea, I haven't used it in years" Anto told him, looking at him in wonder. "Do you think it would be ok with my parents?" she asked him hesitantly.
"Just like you told me before, it's your room. I don't think they would care that much" Harry told her sincerely. As time progressed between the two of them, Anto had been less scared to show her insecurities with him, just like he had done with her. With her initial constant hyperness, Harry had been surprised to find they had a lot in common, even when clearly his traumas were much more extreme than her. It was amazing to have someone that understood to a certain degree what he was going through, and they had talked a lot about trying to be completely themselves with other people and not being scared of it.
"Wow, now it definitely looks like a completely different room!" Anto exclaimed happily once they had taken apart the bunk bed "thank you, I could have never done it without you" she told him sincerely. Harry thanked her back, hugging her tightly and looking at her in the eyes. Thanks to Anto and Carmen, Harry felt that he had made a lot of progress with identifying and controlling his emotions, and not censoring himself unconsciously to be liked by other people. It was an amazing feeling to realize he had also helped her feel freer from her parents, which he knew was important to her.
"I have a present for your new room" he told her, and gave her a dream catcher he had bought for her. Anto had a strange fixation with dream catchers, and he knew she loved the magenta and turquoise colors of it.
"Wow, it's beautiful. Thank you Harry" she told him tearily, putting it on the wall over her bed. "I'll miss you" she told him suddenly, looking straight at him, and Harry's heart caught in his throat. She looked so beautiful, and she didn't even want to imagine never seeing her again.
"I love you" he told her before he could control it. She looked back at him, shocked, and he held her gaze. Normally he would have kicked himself for making things awkward, but he had been holding back those words for days now, and they felt completely right.
"I love you too" she told him, sitting back next to him and hugging him tightly. He kissed her longingly, and she responded equally passionately. It was the most bittersweet kiss they had ever shared. "What are we going to do?" she asked him, her voice raw. Harry looked at her, relieved that just like him, she clearly did not to want to break up.
"I asked Carmen last week if it was possible to program the portkey to Saturdays too even if we don't have sessions so I could see you" he told her hesitantly "She said no, but she said if I wanted she could program it to last two hours instead of one in each session. If you want…" Harry stopped himself for a second, hoping Anto would agree "I don't want to break up...we could spend an hour together on Tuesdays and Thursdays after my sessions before the portkey leaves. I know it's not a lot of time, but I really want to keep seeing you, you make me really happy" he told her earnestly.
Anto smiled through her tears. "I'd like that" she told him, and Harry felt his heart soaring. "But if we keep being together you are getting a cell phone. I am not waiting for your next session or for a stupid owl to talk to you". Harry agreed, smiling, telling her they would go tomorrow to magical Madrid to buy one. He couldn't believe what at the beginning was just an obligation to get along with her and learn Spanish had ended up being so important to him, and he was incredibly happy that it didn't have to end.
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The next day, the teens passed hand in hand through the costume shop to "El Barrio Dorado", and went straight to the electronics stores street. Harry held Anto's hand firmly, still not daring to believe they could still be together after he went back to Britain. They found a reasonably cheap cell phone quickly and tested it out, happy that it worked. Apparently, the magic electricity incompatibility thing was completely real, but many people had developed electronics that were inspired in the muggle technologies but were really powered by runes that kept the appropriate spells in place permanently. Harry's cellphone worked just like Anto's, and had a number she could call with no problem, even if hers was a muggle phone. On an impulse, he bought one also for Sirius. He wanted to be able to communicate with his godfather and get to know him better, and possibly intercepted cautious post was not the ideal method. He hoped Sirius would like it.
Harry was still amazed at all the technologies that existed, but not so surprised that they hadn't made it to magical Britain, given how conservative and anti-muggle the general culture really was. He had read almost all the books he had ordered from Flourish and Blotts at the beginning of the summer, except the finance one, and it had helped him see his country in a more cynical way. It was really a lot more prejudiced and backwards than he had ever realized, and it made him wonder how he had ever been so desperate to be away from the Dursleys that he had been blind to his new world's faults. Even families like the Weasleys, who were in favor of muggles, clearly saw them as inferior, as he could now interpret from Ron and his parents' occasional comments. He wondered if it would ever change, and what he could do to help it change.
"We have to get your TV stuff for your room" Anto interrupted his thoughts. Harry smiled back and agreed, enjoying Anto's lesson on how to use a cell phone.
"Hey, it works!" Harry exclaimed the first time her phone rang when he called. Anto praised him amused, and called him back, showing him how to reply and store her number. By the time Harry got it all down they had arrived at the new store, and Harry got a TV, a game console and three games that apparently were the most popular. The TV and console were a little bit more expensive than he expected, but by now he had already accepted that it was ok to spend money on things that he would really enjoy. Therapy had really helped him, he reflected. Two months ago he would have never dreamed of buying such a thing merely for entertainment.
He was getting his photos delivered when the next store caught his eye, and he decided on a whim to get himself a walkman with headphones and a few CDs. It would be useful for studying peacefully, for History of Magic, and even maybe for potions. He wondered if he would do better in potions if he could not hear Snape's degrading comments every three minutes. He debated with himself for a minute before buying another walkman and headphones for Hermione's birthday. She would never ever use them in class, but she hated the noise in the Common Room when she was studying so maybe it could help her, and since they also worked with muggle CDs her parents could probably send her some.
"I got an extra copy of these for your cork board, in case you want to put them there" Harry told Anto shyly, showing her two pictures of the two of them. He carefully placed the other copies in his album, smiling fondly at the memory of the last one. They had been touring the Alhambra in Granada and Anto had asked Tía Ana for a picture of them, jumping on Harry's back at the last minute and nearly toppling them over. Tía Ana had been scandalized and looking everywhere, worried about what the other tourists were thinking.
"Nah, your face is too ugly to be in my room" Anto joked, smiling mischievously.
"Hey!" Harry laughed and poked her. Anto tried to move away, but Harry caught her quickly, both laughing. He didn't remember the last time before this summer when he had been so carefree. He hoped that didn't change when he started Hogwarts next week.