In addition to more field trips to understand the Mirror Dimension and a few others, the kids spent the week at Kamar-Taj once again living the apprentice lifestyle: up early, morning katas, martial arts lessons, and the lot. Their wandless casting of early-year spells was really starting to come together, and they were having luck with the fundamentals of more complex energy constructs. They were still a ways off from forming workable shields, but they were at least beginning to get lines and circles of the orange personal energy to appear in the air at their gestures.
Well, everyone except Parvati was, at least.
"I don't know if I'm cut out for this," she complained on their last evening there. "You boys want to do this, and Padma and Hermione are really good at it even if they don't know whether they want to join the Masters… but this may be too hard for me. Maybe I'll just, I don't know, marry Neville and be a rich housewife on Vanaheim. I'd be good at that."
As they made consoling noises about how Parvati wasn't that far behind, she'd get it eventually, and she was way ahead of the Vanir kids, Dean shot Harry a look. They'd never have a better feed line than that one. Harry cleared his throat and began, "Um… also… well, about marrying Neville…" That got the girls' attention and he barreled on, "Dean and I were talking and… we don't know if it's a good idea to date within the study group."
A few moments of silence preceded Parvati asking, somewhat dangerously, "Do you not want to date any of us?"
"The… uh… the opposite?" Harry tried to soft-pedal. "I think we'd be interested in dating all of you, actually," before they could interject he amended, "and that's the problem. What if someone's jealous about who winds up dating? What if it didn't work out and people started to break up? We've got five more years of school, and we don't want to screw up the friend group."
Dean added, "Maybe it'd be safe to think about it seventh-year? But it just seems like we could mess up and make everything awkward. Plus! People might be worried about who's staying on Vanaheim and who's coming back to Earth. Better to keep all the drama out of the friend group, right?"
The girls thought about it. Hermione and Padma clearly didn't like it, but couldn't immediately think of a logical way to refute the boys' argument. Parvati was less stymied. After a few seconds she said, "That's dumb. We'll just figure out how to do it so nobody's jealous and we stay friends if it doesn't work out."
"Yeah," Hermione realized. "I don't have time to date boys in other houses. That sounds exhausting. We only see them in a couple of classes."
"That's tough for me," Padma added. "But at least I see people in the study group all the time. And I don't really fancy any of the boys in my year in Ravenclaw." She sighed, "But how do we make it fair?"
"They already said they like all of us," Parvati pointed out. "We'll just draw up a rota. That way everyone has an extended trial to see if they're compatible, and we can get people used to swapping so jealousy will be less of an issue."
"I brought graph paper and highlighters!" Hermione realized. "Maybe we can swap out after two months? That would give us eight months of testing and the end of the year to evaluate."
"Luna and Ginny will want to be included, too," Parvati cautioned.
"Month and a half, then," Hermione nodded, already fishing out her supplies. "But that's six girls for four boys." Seamus had finally come out to everyone in their dorm, so he wasn't in consideration. "And we have to account for Ron and Ginny not having a turn together."
Padma shrugged, "Whichever girls are left over can date outside the group."
Hermione nodded, explaining, "We should probably figure this out semi-randomly, so people aren't constantly dating us in the same order…"
This had all happened very quickly, and Harry and Dean had been left speechless. Harry tried to get in a, "But–"
"Go do some martial arts or something," Parvati waved them away. "You boys are not required for this part."
"Well… that didn't go like we wanted," Dean gave a thousand-yard stare as they walked out.
"Did we go from not dating any of our friends to having to date all of them this year?" Harry checked.
"I think so."
Harry sighed, "Tony is never going to shut up about this…"
It was true. Tony couldn't stop laughing. Rhodey laughed. Even Happy almost twitched a smirk. Aunt Pepper patted him on the shoulder consolingly, suggested, "Just try to not be the source of the drama if this goes badly," and she, herself, had to go to her bedroom to laugh.
Tony spent the next week sending him educational links about swinging, polyamory, and harems.
"What did you agree to?" Ron asked, when he, Seamus, and Neville cornered Harry and Dean during the Goblin Market trip. They had been surprisingly deft at luring off the two boys to a quiet corner of the Leaky Cauldron while the girls plotted at their own table. At least Neville had managed to make the trip that year.
"We didn't agree to anything," Harry objected. "We suggested that we shouldn't date inside the study group, and somehow the opposite happened."
Dean nodded, sadly, "So now the four of us," he pointed at everyone but Seamus, "are meant to take turns dating all six of them."
Ron's eyes widened at the thought but then he realized, "I'm not dating Ginny!"
"That they already accounted for," Harry said. "I'm not sure how. They were also talking about them dating outside of the group since it's uneven… but that doesn't really seem fair, since this started out with us talking about dating outside the group."
Seamus shrugged, "Maybe some o' them'll find out they're at least bi and date each other." He considered for a second and said, "My bet's on Ginny an' Hermione hittin' it off."
"Lavender and Padma," Neville grinned slyly. "It would make it very convenient for all three of them."
"As long as you accept being Parvati's husband," Harry grinned. "She's got you picked as her sugar daddy."
Seamus regarded Harry for a second and guessed, "How much o' this is so they can all date ye? Ye're like th'number one sugar daddy."
"Yeah," Harry huffed. "That was one of the possibilities Tony warned me about."
Dean nodded. "Gentlemen. Our mission this year: just figure out how to get by without a drama explosion."
It seemed at least one of the girls agreed. As Luna was following Ginny into the Market proper, she told Harry, dreamily, "This is a terrible plan. I'm very excited to see how it goes! I get to skip the first set, so if it goes very badly no one will be mad at me."
"Wait," Harry checked with Hermione, "did you already come up with the rota? Just now?"
"You'll get your copies of the schedule on the train and not a moment earlier," she smirked, mysteriously. "And, I plan to make a laminated one to post in your room so no one loses track."
"Of course you will," he sighed. "Okay. Can we at least go shopping now?"
"What do we need anyway?" Dean checked, as they wandered out into the Market.
"I have the supply and book lists for the various classes," Hermione waved a paper at them. "But I also thought we might look for holdouts. And my parents said I can get a familiar, this year."
The adults had decided that the thirteen-year-olds were now old enough to wander the Market on their own as long as they didn't stray into the seedier areas and stayed in a group. Most of them just set up an anchor at the centrally-located ice cream shop for the kids to check in. Pepper had seemed bemused to be relegated to "home base," but quickly struck up a conversation about the building project in Harlem with Dean's mother.
The kids were all starting to feel pretty confident about navigating the Goblin Market after two years of prior trips, and managed to knock out their basic supplies pretty quickly while chatting about their summers. Harry only summarized the high points of his adventures before everyone insisted that they'd wait for the train to get more information. Hermione shared what she'd gotten up to in France. Padma and Parvati had taken a short trip to Darjeeling and had the souvenir tea to prove it. Seamus had been to Portugal. Luna had gone on some kind of mountain expedition for mythical creatures with her father. Ron and Ginny claimed that they'd been to Egypt, on Earth, and gotten shown around the secret temple inside one of the pyramids.
The Midgardborn mostly looked on in disbelief but Seamus confirmed that, indeed, Ron had managed to figure out how to call him on the phone from Cairo. It turned out that the eldest Weasley brother, Bill, was basically a consultant that was helping some mystic priests of the old Egyptian gods on a secret project, and he was able to get permission from the Ministry to bring his family through the Goblin Market for a short visit and tour. Hermione had resolved to ask the Masters about why they'd never been told about Egyptian mystics.
Dean was pretty sure it was because there was a ton of stuff they hadn't been told yet. They were only thirteen, after all.
Of perhaps more interest to everyone, even than the Egypt trip, was that Lavender had accompanied her parents on a journey to check on various border villages in Vanaheim, worried about what might happen with Bifrost down. While Harry had guessed that Thor had been to Earth, it sounded like there was more to the story. The widespread rumor was that something had happened that had destroyed the Rainbow Bridge.
The three pillars of Vanaheim's planetary defense were the wizards, the non-functioning of electricity, and that Asgard would teleport in troops to thwart any serious attack. Without Asgard easily able to interfere, there were already worries that small-time feuds might flare up, and offworld powers might try to snatch land and treasure the way that the trolls and jotun had in their first year at Hogwarts.
That really intensified their desire to acquire holdouts. Unfortunately, none of the shops in the Market would sell weapons to thirteen-year-olds. The shops that sold energy weapons wouldn't even sell them with parental permission (not that Pepper would sign off on that; as laissez faire as she was about Harry's safety, she drew the line at arming him with guns, particularly laser pistols). At least in the reputable shops, they took firearms licensing seriously. There were lots of rumors that the disreputable shops deeper into the Market might make an exception, but also that they might get stabbed on the way there.
At least they managed a few useful things. Harry got what he considered a "bag of holding" that looked like a small belt pouch but had interior space large enough to hold his broom (and plenty else besides). He bought each of his friends an undershirt spelled to work similarly to a bulletproof vest: it worked pretty well as the shopkeeper demonstrated it, but they were cheap enough that Harry had doubts that they'd be extremely effective or long lasting.
Perhaps the biggest purchase Harry made was a language translator implant. He had to get Aunt Pepper to approve it, and confirm that it wouldn't just stop working after coming and going from Vanaheim (though it was electronic and wouldn't work there). After watching the inch-long cylinder get injected into the back of Harry's neck with a wet thunk, everyone else agreed that they'd wait to learn translation spells, thank you very much.
Once she found out that it included the vast majority of Earth languages, was shielded against MRIs and other magnetic interference, and should basically be invisible to current Earth technology, Pepper got one as well. That sounded very useful to the CEO of a multinational corporation. She was vaguely apprehensive that Tony would detect it somehow. It wasn't like he told her every time JARVIS was making scans.
The other high point of the market trip was when Hermione's new familiar basically threw itself at her to be chosen. Well, that was her view of the way she'd acquired the enormous, squash-faced tabby cat named Crookshanks. Ron insisted that it was just trying to murder his poor old rat, Scabbers, and she'd happened to be in the way enough to catch the terrifying ball of orange fluff. It was definitely the biggest cat Harry had ever seen outside of a zoo, and Crookshanks realized it. The shopkeep claimed that, despite its intelligence, the cat was confirmed not to be a Flerken.
None of them knew what a Flerken was, but the vehemence with which the shopkeep denied it was a bit suspicious.
As they were finally finishing up and making their way as a giant parade of around two-dozen, they started to notice black and white pictures of a man hung up along the walls of the main corridor, particularly around the Leaky Cauldron. Who knew that wanted posters were universal? The writing was in several languages, and Harry's eyes itched and watered as his new implant managed to project floating English text over the alien characters. Each set of writing said the same thing:
SIRIUS BLACK. ESCAPED FROM AZKABAN PRISON. EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. REWARD FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO CAPTURE. CONTACT THE VANAHEIM MINISTRY.
"Why does that man look so familiar?" Hermione asked, at the back of the queue with the study group and only a couple of adults.
Harry's eyes widened, "Wasn't that the guy that looked up at us when the Ancient One showed us the prison?"
"You've seen Azkaban?" Lavender boggled.
"Through a portal," Parvati confirmed. "I guess it was two-way. Do you think he escaped because he saw us?"
"Why was Sirius Black in prison?" Pepper gasped.
"You know him?" Harry asked.
"He practically lived with us when he was a kid. I think he did basically live with us after I moved out to go to school on Earth," she explained. "He was James' best friend. Best man at his wedding. I think he's probably your godfather." As Harry took all that in, she huffed, "When he never tried to get in touch, I assumed he died in the war."
By that point, the Weasleys had realized the back of the group had stopped to look at the poster and came back. "Oh, no!" Mrs. Weasley said. "It's not safe for poor Harry here, if that man is on the loose."
"What did he do?" Harry asked.
She shared a glance with Mr. Weasley, and seemed to choose her words carefully. "It turned out he had been a spy for You-Know-Who the whole time. They got him for mass murder, right after that night."
"Sirius Black. A spy?" Pepper scoffed. "That boy never thought anything that didn't immediately come out of his mouth."
"His family, though," Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Blood ties run deep. They must have finally convinced him. For sure, his cousin Bellatrix had a higher body count. But the betrayal…"
Pepper frowned, and finally admitted, "Well, I guess I trusted Tony's business partner too far, too…"
Harry's eyes flicked between the two women. On one hand, though his aunt had made that notable mistake with Obie, she was generally pretty good at reading people. She had to be, for her job. She made the case that both she and his father had trusted this man completely. On the other hand, Ron's family had a much more in-depth understanding of what happened on Vanaheim during the war, while Pepper had been receiving only the occasional letter.
"I need to know everything," Harry said, simply.
Mrs. Weasley seemed about to object, obviously thinking that she was protecting Harry from the knowledge, but Pepper simply shook her head and said, "He needs to know. I want to know too."
"Alright, then, if you're sure," she allowed. "Arthur. Can you owl them the news articles on it?"
Ron's father nodded, "It might take a few days to dig them out of the archives, but certainly."
"But please, be careful until you can get to Hogwarts," Mrs. Weasley insisted. "He… he killed Peter Pettigrew." Pepper gasped at that, obviously recognizing the name. "He was probably responsible… for betraying you and your parents' location to You-Know-Who…"
"You think he saw me and decided to finish the job?" Harry's eyes widened.
"He saw you?" she asked. They quickly recounted their field trip, and after they finished she shrugged. "They say you go mad in Azkaban, if you weren't already. You look a lot like your father. Maybe he thought you were James, and had somehow survived."
The revelation of the mass murderer that might be after Harry rather dampened the rest of the day, and they all said their goodbyes, leaving the Market to their separate cities with a frenzy of desperate hugs. "Don't get murdered," Hermione ordered him.
Mr. Weasley did, indeed, manage to find copies of news articles from the time, and sent them along a couple of days before the end of August. The prose was incredibly purple, but between Harry and Pepper they were able to work out the supposed series of events. The Potters had gone into hiding, since James' position as a successful auror and Lily's as a gifted Midgardborn witch had profoundly offended the Death Eaters. Other families had been similarly targeted. Their house made use of a particularly-powerful warding technique known as the Fidelius, where its location was not just invisible, it was unknowable. Even Heimdall wouldn't have been able to see the Potter cottage. Someone chasing them into it would immediately forget what they were doing as soon as the Potters crossed the wards.
But the technique had a flaw: like many magics, it required an escape clause to balance it. The Fidelius required that at least one soul that lived outside of the house be immune to the effect, and able to lead others through the wards. On the plus side, it meant someone that could bring news and supplies to those in hiding. Yet it provided a target: if the secret keeper betrayed the secret or was simply killed, the Fidelius was undone.
The newspaper reported that Peter Pettigrew had been the secret keeper. Pepper confirmed that he was another of Harry's father's good friends from school. They might have used Sirius Black, save that he was an active auror, so in constant danger of death or capture, while Pettigrew was able to stay almost as safe as the Potters. Yet, some time on the afternoon before Dísablót, Pettigrew had been brutally murdered, hit with a blasting curse so strong very little of him survived and everyone in his lodging house was killed as the building exploded.
And the wand that had done it was Sirius Black's, confirmed with magical forensics.
Not long after the events that felled Harry's Parents and Voldemort, Black had turned up, returning to the scene of the crime. The aurors were waiting, still cataloging the gruesome tableau. According to witnesses, Black had drawn his wand, laughed maniacally, and been brought down before he could unleash another such spell. More evidence of his allegiance had turned up at his own home, and he was speedily brought to trial and sent to Azkaban.
The court reporters thought that he was mad already, saying nothing in his own defense and simply repeating, "Never trust a rat."
"I was happier when he'd just died in the war," Pepper admitted, shoving the articles across the kitchen table, as if physical distance would push the knowledge away. "That kid. Honestly, I think he was probably a lot like Tony was at that age. Rich and outgoing and hiding the pain of not getting along with his family." She didn't mention that the constant flirting that Sirius had started with her as soon as he was a teenager was also a lot like Tony, for all that it was much less impressive in the time when a four-year age difference was insurmountable.
"What about Pettigrew?" Harry asked, vaguely remembering that name too from the occasional story Pepper had told about his father. Not that she really knew that much, since she'd moved to Earth for college when James was barely older than Harry was at the moment.
"Kind of like Neville, I guess," she considered. "Quiet kid. Chubby. Always following them around. Seemed nice enough, but didn't really speak up the few times he came over to our house. I don't know much about him or what he was like when he got older." She thought about it for a minute and added, "I think they had some other friend that was part of James' little gang, but I don't know if he ever came by the house. I think he was Midgardborn. Had a weird name."
"Weirder than Sirius Black?" Harry checked.
"All the Blacks are named after stars or constellations. Where do you think Draco Malfoy got his name?"
Harry checked something on his phone and said, "Draco the constellation? Which isn't remotely visible from Vanaheim? Is the star Sirius even visible from Vanaheim?"
"Huh," she agreed. "I never really paid much attention to astronomy in either world. I bet they liked the Latin names from Earth so much they applied them to something else visible from Vanaheim."
Harry nodded, "Yeah. They for sure kept the Latin terms for a ton of other stuff. I should ask Professor Sinistra about it; she doesn't actually focus that much on star names in our astronomy lessons. Anyway…" he remembered what he'd been getting at, "nothing in these articles says Sirius confessed. Sounds like they just had his wand and a bunch of evidence at his house. Maybe he killed Peter Pettigrew. Or maybe someone else did, framed him, and he went crazy because all his best friends died in one day and couldn't convince them he was innocent."
Pepper looked at him for a minute ready to object. Then she reached over and grabbed the articles again and flicked through, looking for something that would counter Harry's point. She didn't find anything, and eventually admitted, "I wish we could ask a real detective or prosecutor about this. Because Vanaheim justice is pretty medieval. I could see that happening, so you might be right…"
"But?" Harry knew that look.
"But he could be what everyone thinks he is. I'm not going to tell you not to try to figure out the truth," she knew that if she tried to, that would just encourage him to go wandering the hills around Hogwarts looking to talk or fight with Sirius Black. "But assume that he wants to kill you and be prepared for that. Bring friends. Bring grownups, just once, maybe? And if you're right, then great. But I don't want you to get hurt if it turns out he really did betray everyone."
Harry nodded. That seemed fair. "Okay. Oh. But you're still going to sign my permission slip to go to Hogsmeade, right?"
She breathed in through her nose, out through her mouth, and counted to ten, having forgotten that he'd have so much more of an opportunity to go looking for trouble in his third year. Finally, she said, "Yes. But if I hear you got into a spell duel outside the Hogwarts grounds with Sirius Black just you—or just you and a couple of your friends—you're grounded all next summer."
"Alright," Harry agreed, but then wheedled, "But what if he attacks me in the middle of town and it's not my fault?"
Pepper just cradled her face in her hands. That sounded exactly like something that might happen. "Just… try to keep bystanders from getting hit and try to get a teacher or a magical grownup to help as soon as you can?"
"Deal," Harry grinned. He'd also gotten enough experience with his life to know how things went, and was just happy to have at least one scenario pre-approved for no grounding.
It was probably not the best thing in the world that the grounding was the only thing he was truly worried about in all the life or death situations he kept getting into.
Yes, the change to the Fidelius logic is deliberate. I figured the different setting gave me space to set up a scenario where Sirius hadn't been thrown in prison with no trial and basically zero evidence. The evidence is still a little thin, as Harry points out here, but if it was a frame job, it was at least a less haphazard one.