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Chapter 4
Harry's biggest problem at the moment was that he had no homework this summer, as he had just sat his O.W.L.s. The classes Harry would be taking next year were entirely dependent on his O.W.L. results and what career he wanted to pursue, so there was no point seeing homework for a class they he may not even be taking when September comes around. There was suggested reading for each class, but when Hermione was your girlfriend you found that you had already read them while preparing for your O.W.L.s. Normally students would find this a reason to celebrate. But for Harry, he would have loved to have something to distract him from the real world right now. Not only was the reality that Voldemort was back sinking in, but the fact that the man who wanted to kill Harry had been confirmed to be immortal. The worst part, however, was that it was Ginny's funeral today and Harry couldn't go and say goodbye to his friend.
Harry was currently trying to focus on filling out an application for a patent for his drying doorway. Unfortunately, the paperwork was too easy and he could do most of it without thinking. This meant every time his mind would wander, he would start thinking about Ginny. The effort she put into learning how to fight, her joy at joining the Quidditch team, her pure joy as she flew on Harry's Nimbus, how she helped him find his animagus form, and the look of terror in her eyes as she was bleeding out from Voldemort's attack. The more Harry tried not to think of something else, the more he ended up thinking about exactly what he wanted to avoid. Everyone came by to check on him at some point, but Harry just wanted to be alone. He appreciated the fact that everyone cared, but he was just in one of those moods where everyone just rubbed him the wrong way. It wasn't anyone's fault, and Harry wasn't going to inflict his bad mood on anyone.
He had gone to check on Hermione and found her in Fleur's lap being comforted. With Fleur handing Hermione, Harry had felt fine just shutting himself off from everyone to brood. He knew Hermione and Fleur would both give him a hard time about it later, and he also knew he would deserve it. That didn't change how he felt now, however, so he pressed on with the paperwork.
There was a knock on the door and it opened to reveal Tracey. "Hey Harry, I know this isn't the best time but this is kinda time critical. I got a letter from the person managing my parents' business this morning. She is running very low on the potion-based ointments that the shop uses, the ones that are secret family recipes. If I don't start brewing any soon then it is going to be a problem. I was hoping I could borrow the Potions lab like you said I could and that you could help me a little."
Harry's sense of responsibility went to war with his desire to be left alone, and his responsibility won a decisive victory a day. He said, "Okay what do you need?" as he stood up ready to follow her.
"We need some specific Potions ingredients, and I need to get some containers and tubs from storage in the shop. Apart from that it's just brewing," Tracey told him.
Harry winced. Getting the Potions ingredients meant going to either Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, probably Diagon Alley as he assumed Tracey would need to get some gold out of the bank before she could actually buy the ingredients. That meant putting up with the crowds of witches and wizards, but he had promised Tracey he would help and he had left it too late to be picky. "Let's grab Sirius then. We should at least pretend to have adult supervision," he said dryly, making Tracey laugh.
Sirius was more than happy to accompany the two teens, but when they asked if Daphne wanted to come, it turned out that she, Fleur, and Hermione were already doing something together with Fleur's mother and Emma. Whatever was happening with them, Harry decided discretion was the better part of valour and left them to it.
The trio decided they would take the Knight bus to Cardiff, collect what they needed from the shop, and then take the Knight Bus to Diagon Alley. Once they were done in the Alley, they could then Floo directly to Potter house in Hogsmeade and make a start on the potions. Well, the others could Floo, Harry wasn't going to step one foot in the fire if he could help it. He planned to Step himself there under his own power. He was far less likely to end up either throwing up or whacking his head on something that way.
As soon as the Knight Bus pulled up a few streets down from Grimmauld Place, Harry knew just that kind of day this was going to be. As soon as he saw Harry, the conductor leaped out of the bus and grabbed Harry's hand and started to vigorously shake it up and down. "'arry Potter, wow, as I live and breathe! Hey Ernie look, it's 'arry potter! Look! Look!" It appears that Mr Shunpike was even more excitable than the last time Harry had taken the Knight Bus. The commotion was enough to get the attention of the other passengers on the bus, and they too all wanted to shake Harry's hand.
Sirius stepped in and insisted that the bus get underway after he paid them and Tracey gave the address. Once they were seated, the other few passengers were then invited to shake Harry's hand and thank him for once more banishing he who they wouldn't name. The trip took ten minutes as others were dropped off and more got on, but at the end it was clear to Harry that everyone thought that now that Voldemort was beaten again, it was going take him over ten years to return again.
Harry wished he could be that confident. The trials for the caught Death Eaters were going to be soon, but from what he had read in the papers a lot of the key members of Voldemort's inner circle, people like Malfoy and the LeStranges were still free. They knew that Voldemort was still alive this time, they knew he was out there and it was possible to restore him. Harry doubted that it would take Voldemort long to come back this time. The question was, would he try and kidnap Harry again for his ritual or would he try someone else? Or maybe even a completely different method to restore himself?
The Davies Spa in Cardiff was nice enough, though Harry really hadn't been to any spas before so he had nothing to compare it to. It was clean, it had a relaxing atmosphere, and the staff were friendly, which Harry supposed was the point. Tracey got greeted and teary hugs from all the staff there. They had all known Tracey for years, and this was the first opportunity she had had to see them since her parents had been killed. Tracey insisted on having a look around and making sure everything was in order. She trusted Mair, the manager who had stepped up to run the place, but it didn't mean she didn't have a responsibility to look the place over herself while she was here.
While Tracey was doing that, one of the staff, a dark-haired fair-skinned man by the name of Neil, made both Harry and Sirius a cup of tea in the staff break room. "So you two are the ones who took Tracey in," he said as he handed over the cups of tea. "How did that happen? I know you aren't family and the bosses never mentioned before they passed, so you're not close family friends. So connect the dots for me." It was obvious that Neil didn't trust either Harry or Sirius, but at the same time it seemed that the reason was because he, and probably everyone who worked here, cared about Tracey.
Harry decided to answer, but he needed to be careful not to reveal anything, so he asked. "What do you know about where Tracey goes to school?"
"Some big fancy boarding school up north in Scotland." He shrugged. "What's that got to do with it?"
"I go to the same school, Tracey and her friend Daphne,-" Harry started but Neil cut in.
"You mean girlfriend Daphne."
"Yep, but it wasn't my place to say. Anyway Daphne and Tracey are friends with my girlfriend Hermione and I. So when Tracey lost her parents, I offered her a place to stay in my house," Harry explained.
"And your parents just accepted that?" Neil demanded, obviously thinking Harry's story was strange.
"My parents died when I was a baby. The house is mine to offer its space to whoever I like." Harry was trying not to get annoyed by the amusing tone, but this really wasn't the best day.
Sirius put a hand on Harry's shoulder and took over the conversation. "Harry is right, it's his house and if he wants to invite a friend who needs a place to stay, then that's fine by me. I had no problem accepting the responsibility, because if I'm being frank there is hardly any of it. Tracey is in school for something like forty-five weeks of the year. I had to rely on the kindness of a friend's parents to take me in when I was her age after my parents threw me out. I'm just doing the same for Tracey that Harry's dad and his parents did for me."
Neil seemed to relax a little. "What about the bosses' house? Sara swung by it a few times and there is a new family living there. Please tell me you didn't sell it and pocket the cash?"
"Of course not, the house is still Tracey's. It's being held in a trust by the bank until Tracey is old enough to legally make decisions about it. The bank and I talked it over and they rented out the house to cover all the expenses, rather than just letting it sit empty," Sirius explained.
After that the tension was lifted. Neil wasn't the only one who worked there that was worried. He explained how they had feared that with Tracey going to strangers that she was being taken advantage of and her assets were being sold off, leaving her with nothing. By the end of the explanation, Harry just wished that there had been someone who had confronted the Dursleys the same way as Neil was confronting Sirius.
Tracey eventually came to find them holding four large shopping totes each stuffed with boxes holding containers that she needed to fill up with the home brewed ointments and oils that were the cornerstone of the business. Once they left the spa, they called the Knight Bus again, and once they were onboard Sirius shrunk down the bags and everything in them until Tracey could fit them all in the handbag she was carrying. The second Knight Bus trip was a lot calmer than the first, as Stan seemed to have gotten his fill earlier, and without someone else doing it first the new passengers on the bus seemed to be too shy to mob him.
They threaded through the Leaky Cauldron as quickly as they could, not stopping long enough for the people who had been drinking to notice that Harry Potter was there. They only slowed down once they were on the steps of Gringotts. The guard goblins of Gringotts would never stand for a mob of people to swarm one of their customers. Not just because that customer was less likely to hang around and spend gold on Gringotts services if they were being harassed, but it could also be a distraction, a disturbance to draw the eye while someone else tried to steal something. Because of this, the guards enforced a level of decorum in the bank, and as the least severe sentence was a month-long ban from the bank, and with it any gold in your vault, no one wanted to suffer that. Harry went and found a bench to wait while Sirius and Tracey went to sort out the gold. Tracey had collected a bunch of mundane cash from the spa as well to get the ingredients, and that needed to be changed into galleons.
Once that was done, it was off to the apothecary, which as always was dark and cool because a few ingredients were sensitive to bright light or warm temperatures. Tracey quickly went around examining the merchandise and selecting what she needed. Twice she found that the ingredients on display weren't fresh enough and had sent the clerk to the back to find something suitable. She explained to Harry that for the Potions she was brewing, if some of the ingredients weren't fresh enough they could irritate the skin, kind of a big no-no if you were making massage oils.
With the purchases done, it was time to leave. Unfortunately for Harry, he wasn't able to avoid the crowd in the Leaky Cauldron this time. Worse, because everyone was watching him he couldn't just Step and had to take the floo. If he had Stepped, everyone would have assumed it was Apparating without a licence, and everything that would follow from that assumption would be a bigger headache than just using the Floo. Once they were at Potter House, Tracey wasted no time putting Harry to work to help with the brewing. Unfortunately, the first step was more like detention with Snape than any of his lessons. The Potions lab hadn't been used since around the time Harry was born, which meant that every piece of equipment was caked in a layer of dust and needed to be scrubbed before they could start anything.
-ϟϟϟ-
While Tracey was dragging Harry and Sirius around the country, Hermione, Fleur, Daphne, Emma, Apolline, and Gabrielle all decided to have a girls' day and discuss the plans for the wedding between Harry, Hermione, and Fleur. While it was still years away, both Apolline and Emma had insisted that the earlier you make some decisions the better. After all, some venues can be booked years in advance.
"My first question is are you going to do one wedding where you both marry Harry, or individual weddings so you can each have your own?" asked Gabrielle.
"Gabby, I'm not just marrying Harry, I'm marrying Hermione as well." She and Hermione both flashed each other a warm smile at that. "So we will only have one wedding were we each marry the other two."
"Well that rules out a church wedding. I can't imagine trying to explain to a priest that not only is it a legal polygamous marriage but one that includes a same sex couple," Emma said.
"Yeah, wherever it's held I think we will need a magical officiant," Hermione agreed. "How does that work in the UK?" She asked Daphne.
"You don't need an official, though it's recommended you have one as a witness. What most people do is find someone to lead whatever ceremony they want. Some people have a religious ceremony led by a priest, some have a handfasting led by their best friend, and others have no-one and just lead the ceremony themselves. It's really up to you," Daphne explained.
Hermione and Fleur looked at each other trying to gauge the other's reaction while slowly trying to work out what Harry would want. "Well I was a default Christian going up, but we almost never went to church and I wasn't really a believer. I think Harry is in the same boat as me on this. What about you Fleur, you have mentioned finding soul bonds sacred but are you actually religious?" Hermione asked very carefully.
"Well, like almost all Veela I do have a few spiritual beliefs, there is a runic array we can stand in during the ceremony that will make our bonds visible that I would like, and some mention of how magic has recognised our love and compatibility. Outside of that, I'm open to whatever you and Harry would like as far as the ceremony. I have more to say about the aesthetic and the theme."
"Oh, we can actually get to see the bonds between us, that will be beautiful. And I have no issues with including magic recognising us with the bonds, I think we need to work out where we are going to hold the wedding before we set the theme though," Hermione said as she pulled a notepad and a pen from somewhere and started writing down notes.
"Well if churches are out, what other nice venues are there in the UK? I can think of a few places in France but I know nothing about such places in Britain," asked Apolline.
"Well there are castles, some of them are quite nice. Country clubs and golf clubs often have that sort of thing. Then there is Kew Gardens, remember your father and I got invited to a wedding there a few years ago. That was a lovely venue, but a little small if you have a lot of guests," Emma said.
"What are these gardens and how many is 'a lot'?" asked Fleur.
"It's the royal botanical garden, and it's only about five or ten miles from here. I haven't ever been but we could easily take a look at it this summer." Hermione explained what she knew.
"I'd say it could comfortably hold 200 people, maybe a few more." Emma answered the other part of the question. "The venue they rent out is an old Victorian glass house so it's full of natural light. I have some photos somewhere in our things, I'll see if I can find them later."
"Will 200 be enough?" Daphne asked. "I mean it's three families coming together, not just two."
Hermione started working it out. "Let's see, Harry has Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Tracey, and you, since she's protected by House Potter then best count you as well. Maybe add in Tonks' parents even if Harry hasn't really met them. For me, it's Mum, Dad, and my grandmother. I don't think I'd invite Dad's brother and his family, they are fine but we aren't close and don't know I'm a witch. There's the Tuckers, I'd definitely invite them. That's fourteen for mine and Harry's family. What about you, Fleur?"
"Well Maman and Papa of course, Gabrielle, a few cousins and aunts on Maman's side, and an uncle and his family on Papa's side, so maybe twelve or fourteen."
"So about a hundred and fifty spaces for friends. If we split it up so that we each have about forty, that would leave us plenty of room for anyone we miss or need to add."
"Sounds doable, but I'm not sure I can find forty more people." Fleur admitted.
"Well, don't worry about it. I don't know if Harry and I could find forty more people between us, even with giving them all plus ones. And as we won't be getting married until at least Harry and I are out of school, you will have a few years of making friends with people who aren't teenagers who can't control themselves." Hermione said, knowing the problems Fleur had had already with the male population of her school. Problems she hoped that the French beauty wouldn't have while working in Gringotts, a place where all the people who worked there were taught at least rudimentary Occlumency as a matter of security.
The five women continued to talk for a time, not really making any decisions but proposing ideas for Hermione and Fleur to consider. Emma was surprised to learn that Apolline could magic up instant flower arrangements in whatever style that they talked about. That meant that everyone had a good idea of what someone was describing, and it would also make the wedding itself easier as they wouldn't need to order a lot from a florist. They only stopped when Tonks turned up looking for Harry. She had news about the upcoming trials of the Death Eaters. Rufus Scrimgeour, the new head of the D.M.L.E. since Amelia Bones had become the new minister of magic, wanted Harry to give testimony about what he had seen the Death Eaters doing during the attack.
-ϟϟϟ-
When Harry, Tracey, and Sirius arrived back at Grimmauld Place after a long day of brewing, they found Tonks in the kitchen with Fleur and Hermione, the three of them having a good laugh over Tonks retelling a story of her catching a thief in the act a few months ago. "So there he is, the crate bust open at his feet where he dropped it, witches' 'toys' spilling out on the floor, and Hestia said, 'Well Mr. Widdershins, I didn't have you pegged as that sort of wizard.'" The three girls laughed and none of the people who had just arrived had any doubt, by the way Tonks was describing it, what she meant by witches' 'toys.' When they saw Harry, both Fleur and Hermione got up and sandwiched him in a hug for a few minutes in greeting before asking how their day had gone.
Tracey, who was the one who was tracking all the stuff they had been doing, said. "It's about two-thirds done. There is one batch of moisturiser that still needs a few of the herbs to sit in it for another twelve hours before it can be bottled, but once that's done I can deliver it all to the spa and it will be done."
They all sat down at the kitchen table and Harry said, "Hey Tonks."
"Wotcher, Harry. Before anything else, I need to tell you that the D.M.L.E. wants you to give evidence next week at the trial of the Death Eaters who were caught after your fight with You-Know-Who."
Harry sighed. He had known this was coming, how could it not? He really wasn't looking forward to being put on display for the masses, but if it was to put them in Azkaban then he would do it. "Fine, just give me the details and I'll be there. Is Hermione also being called?"
"Nope," replied Hermione, having already had that conversation with Tonks.
"You're the only underage witness they are calling," said Tonks. "There are plenty of witnesses who don't require the Wizengamot to worry about the extra steps they need when calling a mirror, but you are a Warlock. And let's be honest, when 'the Boy-Who-Lived' speaks, people will pay attention. Scrimgeour is saying that there is no need to put the traumatised little kiddies through the stress of being a witness."
That made some sense to Harry, and if there was ever a cause for which he should throw around the influence of being the Boy-Who-Lived, it was this. He wasn't going to like it, but he wasn't going to complain either.
"Where is everyone?" Sirius asked as he rummaged through a cupboard looking for biscuits.
"Well, Daphne is upstairs, she probably hasn't heard you arrive. As for the rest, Dan said he fancied Indian food, so they have all gone to get it," Fleur said.
The rest of the evening was nice. The parents arrived back with a few bags of food, and Daphne hearing them arrive came back down so they were all able to spend the evening together. By the time it was over, while no-one had forgotten that it was the day of Ginny's funeral, everyone was feeling better off than they were that morning.
When Tonks was getting ready to leave, Harry pulled her aside to have a quick conversation. When they were away from prying ears, Harry asked, "Tonks, how well do you get along with Fleur?"
"Well…she is a bit stiff for my tastes. Girl needs to relax a bit. But well enough, I guess. Why, what's up?"
Harry could understand why Tonks would think that. Fleur was cautious around new people, if she didn't know how they would react to her being a Veela. Tonks, on the other hand, was generally relaxed around people. "It's that Fleur is moving to Britain, and the few friends she has she is leaving behind. Her family are staying in France, and Hermione and I are going to be in school. Sure, she will have Sirius and Hermione's parents around when she wants, but someone who is closer in age, who isn't essentially an in-law…" Harry trailed off.
"Ah, you just want me to help Fleur get settled into life over here. Show her all the cool places to hang, point out the creeps, drag her down to the pub for an evening if she stays locked up in the house too long. That type of thing?"
Harry nodded. "Please, if it wouldn't be too much trouble."
"Sure Harry, I'll look after your girlfriend while you're in school. But if you come home for Christmas and find her dressed like she's ready to attend a Weird Sisters concert with spiky pink hair, you can't blame me," Tonks joked, and then Disapparated on the spot so that Harry didn't have an opportunity to say anything. Harry was just glad that Fleur would have something more than work and Hogsmeade weekends where Harry and Hermione could spend a day or two with her. After all, without a few friends to relax with, Fleur would get lonely pretty quickly. Harry knew what that was like, and if he could help it neither of his girls were ever going to feel like that.
A/N
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