Chapter 21: Grab, Stab, and Fab - Late July/Early August 1993

Harry and Sirius were getting along well, so Harry pushed down his nerves and agreed to visit Acturus Black at Grimmauld Place in mid-July.

"Boy, come here." Acturus' first words to Harry sounded gravely and gruff. He was sitting in an office that Harry had adopted as his own after the war ended in the other timeline.

Harry walked over to him. "Hello, Mr. Black."

"You may call me Acturus."

"Thank you." Harry searched for a topic. "Sirius tells me that you were very helpful in getting him released. I'm very glad that you were successful."

"It was a damn mess, even with the culprit in their hands! The ministry has always been a disgrace."

"Er, do you have any hobbies?"

"Business and alcohol."

Sirius jumped in. "I'll be explaining the businesses to Harry when he's a bit older. Right now, I'm focusing on his schoolwork with him."

Acturus jerked his head. "What's your best class?"

At this point in the conversation, Harry thought he had the measure of the man. Harry would be polite, direct, and not a pushover. "Of the standard classes, my marks in Defense are my best. I'll be adding in Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, and Arithmancy this year."

"Any experience dueling?"

"There was a club this past year, but it failed after the first meeting."

"Sirius, be sure you teach him some dueling at some point. It's a dangerous world, and you can never be too careful."

Harry's tone was polite with an edge of a challenge. "I'd be happy to learn anything that Sirius wants to teach."

Acturus cracked a slow smile. "You have strength, pride. That's good. Very Black. Good choice, grandson."

Acturus coughed into a handkerchief and dismissed Harry and Sirius.

Conveniently, Sirius had some business in a room upstairs, so Harry would be left to his own devices at the house for an hour or two.

He offered to sit in the dining room and read a book he brought along.

Not long later, he used a wand hidden up his sleeve to make a knocking sound on the front door. (Ron taught him the specialty charm.) The knock would to distract Kreacher for the twenty seconds it would take for him to "grab, stab, and fab" (Ron's words).

Harry used a basilisk fang off of his bracelet to stab the heart of the locket. He then put a small glamour on the object so the damage would be less noticeable. He put the object back in the case, and sat back down to read. Success.

Harry left the destroyed locked at Grimmauld so that Kreacher would know the horcrux was gone, instead of thinking that he failed his master and that the locket was stolen. Still, Harry felt guilty a week later when Sirius reported that Kreacher was… struggling, to put it nicely.

"One minute he's bawling his eyes out. The next he's punching Dobby. I can't get a straight answer out of him, even when I threatened him with clothes."

Harry grimaced and bit his lip. After a minute's thought, Harry asked Sirius, "Do you think Kreacher would like to go work for one of your cousins?"

"Well, Bella's in prison. Dromeda disgraced the family according to my mother, so she might have an even tougher time with him. However, Cissa is a 'proper pureblood'. He might like her better than me and Dobby, at least."

Harry leaned in, malice in his heart. "What if you got in a dig about Lucius accidentally freeing Dobby when you made the offer. You'd hate to give her the impression that she's doing you a favor."

"Ba ha ha!" He mimed writing a letter: "Dearest Cissy, I heard about Lucius' unfortunate gaffe with his house elf. As a daughter of the House of Black, I'd like to offer you our family elf to spare you the indignity… ."

"Kreacher is going to serve Mistress Cissy?" The elf appeared. Dobby popped in moments later, arms crossed and with a small cut across his cheek.

"Would you like that, Kreacher?" Harry endured Kreacher's intense stare. He probably suspects me of destroying the locket since there aren't a lot of visitors.

Sensing this was a time for honey and not vinegar, Sirius said, "I'm not asking you to leave. This is a choice, another way for you to serve the House."

Kreacher's face showed warring emotions.

Harry asked Sirius, "Can Kreacher come back to you if he changes his mind?" Harry didn't want to create another Dobby situation.

Sirius agreed easily. "Yes, we'll say that Kreacher can keep Narcissa's secrets. But he'll keep ours as well, and he can appeal to us if he's not being treated well."

He flapped his bat-like ears slowly. "Kreacher would like."

Sirius told Kreacher that he would write Narcissa Malfoy née Black.

A week later, Kreacher was staying at Malfoy Manor full-time.

Harry noticed later that the broken Slytherin's locket he'd left in a display case were now missing. He assumed that Kreacher had taken it as a personal memento, which Harry was content to let him have.

Hearing the news, Dobby hugged Harry's knees and said, "Harry is a friend to elves, even nasty Kreacher."

Hermione was frustrated by her failure at the Crouch house. She and Ron also went to Lestrange Manor to look for Hufflepuff's cup, which also yielded no results.

Hermione received a vague note off Ron implying that he had a simpler idea, but she wasn't sure what plan he was referring too.

The curly-haired witch saw his success a month after their ashwinder debacle: a Daily Prophet headline proclaimed the arrest of Barty Crouch Senior and the re-arrest of his still-alive son. The article named the father's former employee, Bertha Jorkins, as the source of a tip.

Hermione would have to wait until school resumed to get the full picture, but she sent Ron a note of congratulations anyway.

The rest of Hermione's summer plans were much more enjoyable: activities with her parents, letters from her wide circle of friends, and reading for pleasure.

But to the studious witch's surprise, she was still learning a lot. From her own parents, no less. She was happier than ever with her decision to spend more time with them.

Now, they were challenging her on her study habits, friendships, and perceptions of the magical world. Obviously they talked about house elves because of the scene at King's Cross. But they talked about a lot of other things too. Her parents had lots of questions, and Hermione thought that she knew the answers already.

How does the magical economy function? How do other Hogwarts students spend their summers? How do other countries' magical governments function?

Her parents repeatedly asked her how she knew what she told them, and encouraged her to look for confirmation in multiple places. They said she should ask her peers more questions, too. "Even if you already think you know their answers. They might just surprise you!"

Lavender, Parvati, Susan, Hannah, Neville, Harry, and Ron all started receiving shorter letters with more questions for them.

She learned about Parvati's family business and Ron's extended relations' attitudes on magical society. Some of what they said was honestly appalling on a variety of levels, but now she knew!

Pleased with Hermione's increased curiosity, her parents surprised her with a battery-powered cassette tape player and a selection of music. Hermione loved it so much that she wanted to bring it to Hogwarts. I bet Lavender and Parvati would let me play music in the dorm.

The witch agonized over the lack of clear answers about exactly how magic and electricity conflicted. Her parents eventually promised her that if the magic of the school damaged it, they'd buy her a replacement.

Harry happily headed over to Sirius' cottage for weekly homework sessions. The pair also met up on Saturdays. So far, they'd been to the movie theater, the beach, a big park with a river running through it, and Florean Fortescue's for ice cream.

Sirius asked Harry what he wanted for his birthday, which coincided with their next outing. "I have a decade of birthdays to make up for. Would you like a new broom?"

"Er, I think I might not play quidditch this year."

"Oh?"

"I love flying, but I'm tired of all of the injuries. And the attention, if I'm honest." Harry described the incident with Quirrell first year and Colin's scheming this past year.

"Hmm. That's a tough one. Will you be sad, watching the team play from the stands? Not going to practices?"

Harry considered that angle carefully. "I would be happy for the team and whoever took my place. I might ask Ron or the twins to fly with me sometime, maybe play a game just for fun."

"Sounds like you're making the right choice for you."

Harry was relieved that Sirius was so accepting. In the previous timeline, Harry felt like Sirius had wanted him to be like his father, who played quidditch. Harry worried that he would feel let down when Harry gave it up.

Perhaps this Sirius was different, having been publicly exonerated then supported by his family. Harry was surprised that this thought made his eyes water. I'll never get to know that Sirius, Harry realized. I'll only get to know this version, no matter what I do.

Harry wiped the wetness from his eyes. Sirius had been banging around in the kitchen, so hopefully he didn't notice Harry's sudden emotions.

Voice steady, Harry asked, "Do you think we could go to a muggle music store? We have this group at school who all listen to music through this record player that we found. I'd like to get some more recent music than the seventies."

"The seventies has great music, I'll have you know. But sure! I haven't been to one of those in ages."

As they shopped, Sirius held up a Queen album and said, "I used to have a copy of this. I wonder where it got off to."

"We have that one at school. Could that be yours?"

"Maybe! That would be awesome. I'm glad you're all getting exposed to the greats. My taste is immaculate; I'll pick out some more just for your club. And don't forget to pick out more than one album for yourself. My treat!"

Harry had a great time, and he thought Sirius did too.

Sirius apparated them both back to his cottage so they could listen to their new purchases. When they entered the big open room containing the kitchen, the dining table, and a sitting area, they saw an owl waiting for them at a window.

Sirius grabbed the parcel, an evening edition of the Prophet. He paid the bird, then folded the newspaper flat on the table so they could both read.

The headline read: "Pettigrew Missing at Azkaban Prison."

Sirius swore.

Sirius was more concerned about the news than Harry, who believed Pettigrew had probably already left the UK to find Voldemort.

Still, everything felt a bit tenser after Harry's (apparent) thirteenth birthday. Surprisingly, that extended to the Dursley household even though Petunia, Dobby, and Harry were the only ones to know about Pettigrew's prison escape.

Sirius escorted Harry to Diagon Alley for new school robes. His godfather picked up the rest of Harry's supplies himself. Dobby helped organize them into Harry's trunk at Sirius' cottage.

A week after Harry's birthday, his thoughts were already turning towards returning to Hogwarts for his third year. When he reviewed his previous experience of that year, a problem occurred to him that made his blood run cold: Dementors.

Harry hadn't heard anything about dementors being posted at Hogwarts this time around. If there were, Ron had long ago explained that Harry needed a plausible excuse for why he could cast a patronus.

Sirius was receptive to Harry's interest in learning the difficult charm. However, neither his godfather nor Acturus could perform it. Harry found instructions in a book, then cast the charm under Acturus' supervision a few times.

"Good job, boy. Get my son, and you can show him."

Dobby brought Sirius a few minutes later. Harry cast his patronus for Sirius.

"A stag," Sirius said dully. Fifteen seconds later, his eyes filled with tears. "That's… great magic. I'm so proud of you." He seemed a complex mixture of happy and sad to Harry, which he hesitantly handled with only a long hug.

Eventually, Sirius explained James' animagus form.

Acturus put the pieces together quickly, and told Sirius flat out that he needed to register his own dog form. "This boy depends on you, which means you have to stay on the right side of the law."

Sirius looked at Harry. "I understand, grandfather."