Chapter 7 - Different Tears For Different Reasons
Harry was glad that for once he managed to stay on his feet when he went shooting out of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron, but it was a near thing. Tonks had gone through the Floo network first for his protection of course, and she managed to grab a hold of him by the scruff of his shirt before he face-planted the worn stone floor. He couldn't help but let out a groan straightaway when he saw that the patrons of the pub were already staring at him. Hopefully, he wouldn't be in the Alley for too long and they could just get out into muggle London. He didn't want to have to deal with their stares all day.
"So, where do you wanna go first? What do you wanna get her?" Tonks asked, brushing the soot off her arms.
"Erm…I dunno."
"Well, what does she like?"
"I don't know, she's good at potions, and she's really protective of her family, and…she's a girl?" Harry finished weakly.
"Ah, so like the typical boy, you're hopeless," Tonks teased.
"Yeah," Harry replied with a sigh, "She's rich too, what do you get a girl who probably has everything she wants?"
"Something she doesn't know she wants," Tonks answered with a shrug,
But what didn't she even know wants? He didn't really know that much about her, only from what Astoria had said, what he'd learned from their conversations and the rumours about her that had been spread around the school. Then, Harry had an idea. He might not know what she wants, but he might be able to get her something she needs, and with what the need was, the need to protect her family, well, with what had gone through, he would do anything to make that happen.
"Wait, Tonks is there some kind of spell you can use to make something produce more magic?" Harry asked.
"Nah, you can't just create magic out of nothing, you'd have to collect it from somewhere, and there's not many places with that much ambient magic," Tonks replied.
He hummed. Tonks watched the gears turn in Harry's head as he thought.
"Would Hogwarts count?" he asked.
"Oh yeah," she answered with a little chuckle, "That place is riddled with the stuff."
"And how would you go about casting a spell to make something do that…collect ambient magic?"
"You can't do it with a spell, it's usually done with runes. It's a function of some wards actually, the ambient magic from the inhabitants keeps the wards strong."
"Is there somewhere we can go to get something like that?"
"Daphne's house already has amazing wards, Harry."
"I know, just humour me, at least I've got an idea."
"Okay, follow me."
Tonk led him through the alley past a wide array of gawking and staring witches and wizards. He even received a few catcalls, including from what looked like a reporter who'd suddenly stopped interviewing a shopkeeper about his grand reopening and gone running down the street after them, trying to ask for an interview. Tonks just shot him a warning look and turned her eyes bright red. The man soon got the message.
A little bell jingled as Harry and Tonks entered Edgecombe Enchanters. The shop was nearly empty, just a single, immaculate room with a smooth, grey tile floor and a large mahogany front desk that spread across the width of the store. Behind the desk sat a young, unassuming man, in tortoise-shell spectacles and fine navy blue robes. He smiled as Harry and Tonks entered and bowed when Harry was the one who approached the desk.
"Lord Slytherin-Potter, congratulations on your ascension, my name is Lionus Edgecombe, how can I help?" he said.
"I'm looking for something that can absorb ambient magic and store it, then when activated could be used instead of a wizard's core to power a spell." Harry
The man blinked. "You're talking about a ritual stone. They're more expensive than your usual ward-stone and not purchased very often as they have to be made from scratch and require an expensive reset after they've been used three times. Several runes have to be buffed out and re-engraved. You only really see them at Yule for blessing ceremonies and occasionally for big events. We do have one in stock though, give me a moment."
The man went into a back room and returned later with a large, jet-black stone about the size of a bowling ball.
"This will set you back a thousand galleons my Lord." the man said. Harry almost heard Tonks' wink behind him.
"Ah," Harry replied, "I may have to go to Gringotts."
"No need, my Lord. I can create a Noble Family Cheque, you simply need to touch whatever jewel your House uses as its heirloom and touch your wand to the parchment, the order will be then sent to Gringotts for an immediate transfer within accounts for a 1.5% transaction fee."
"Excellent," Harry said with a happy nod, "I was worried if I went into Gringotts I'd immediately be dragged into a long, drawn-out meeting about my holdings with some King Goblin called Rocknor the Unreasonably Brutal or something, and to be honest Lionus, I really can't be bothered with all that fanfare today. We'll leave that for another chapter of my life."
Lionus laughed and leaning forward in a stage whisper, said, "I don't blame you my Lord, but it's Ragnok the Bold, and from what I've heard you wouldn't be far wrong." So, will you be purchasing it today?"
"If it's shrunk and set into something, would it still be effective?" Harry asked.
"I'm afraid not, the shrinking spell would mess with the runes." the shopkeeper said,
"Ah." Harry said, scuppered ."Could you make a custom one, and in less than a week?"
"How small are we talking?"
"Really small, like the size of a knut. I'd like it set into jewellery"
"Hmm, it can be done, but it will be expensive and we can't supply the jewellery."
"Money is no object," Harry said, with a wave of his hand. If it drained his account, he was sure he could find a not-too-important and none-confidential family tome in the Chamber of Secrets and sell it for a small fortune, and he had loads of those.
"I'll need a few minutes to work it out, I'll have to go into the back room and check my current supplies."
Lionus went into the backroom and Harry turned to Tonks who was sitting in the bay window at the front of the shop, waiting patiently.
"I have no idea why you're buying this Harry and it could be unbelievably expensive. Are you sure?"
Harry smiled, "I've never been surer of anything, I know what I'm doing." After all, he would give anything for just one day with his parents, what would Daphne and her family give for more time with Astoria?
"Still, it means we're going to have to go to a jeweller's too. This is gonna be like… wedding present level expensive."
"I'd buy it for anyone who needed it for the reasons that I am, I won't say more," Harry replied. He made his decision and he wasn't going to budge.
"Fair enough."
A few minutes later Lionus came back in and presented them an invoice for five thousand galleons. Tonks whistled at the price, but Harry made no hesitation in grasping his pendant and touching his wand to the parchment provided.
Lionus smiled and said "Lord Slytherin-Potter, thank you so much. I will have this ready in three days."
"That's perfect."
"If you go across the alley to Llewelyn's Jewels, tell them I sent you, they'll give you a little discount and I'll liaise with the shop for you to have the stone set into whatever you purchase when it's ready. You'll get a letter from me when the whole piece is finished and you can come and pick up the item then."
"Wow, that's brilliant, Mr Edgecombe, if I get the opportunity to recommend you to anyone, I shall. Ah, and please send the letter to Nymphadora Tonks, owls are getting redirected to a more distant location for my safety. Tonk's would you mind picking it up?"
"Very well." Lionus agreed.
"Sure," replied Tonks.
The shopkeeper bowed to Harry, and Harry and Tonks made to leave the shop. As they opened the door, Lionus called"Oh, and my Lord, if you wish to purchase jewellery with some other enchantment already engraved onto it, it will need to be made of Goblin Silver."
"Thanks, Lionus, I'll bear that in mind," Harry replied, as he closed the door behind him.
Twenty minutes later Harry and Tonks left Llewelyn's Jewels with a receipt for the second part of Daphne's present. Tonks was almost beside herself at the money he'd spent but admitted she was more pissed by how unreasonably rich Harry was now that he was Lord of the House of Slytherin and the House of Potter. They were walking back down the Alley towards the Leaky Cauldron and Harry was thinking about the party, feeling more and more excited by the minute. Now, they were going to get swimming shorts to go in a swimming pool and that meant actually seeing some of the girls from school not in the school robes or thick jumpers he'd usually see them in at Hogwarts. Even in the summer term, the Scottish Highlands could get very chilly, and only occasionally had it been warm enough to wear a t-shirt. But wait, that would mean the others would see him as well!
Suddenly he felt very uncomfortable, never really having liked what he saw in the mirror. The Dursleys hadn't exactly paid any real attention to his eating habits and many times had deliberately given him scraps to eat or nothing at all. Sure, they'd never hit him hard enough to leave any unsightly scars, but Harry guessed that was more out of fear of wizards than anything else. He placed his hands on the side of his chest self-consciously as they walked and felt suddenly totally on edge. What if they laughed at him? Sure he knew he'd filled out a little bit last year, he'd trained really very hard for the tournament, and Quidditch had been good to his body over the years but still, he'd always been smaller than his peers.
Now though, he dreaded going to the party. He really wanted to go, but how on earth would he look standing next to even Neville? Harry had to admit that his friend had started to fill out the last time he'd seen him. Was there something he could do about it? He only had nine days? Maybe a spell? Wait, Tonks was a Metamorphmagus, right? She knew about changing your body more than anyone!
"Tonks, I need to talk to you about something before we leave the Alley, I might want to buy something but… I need to talk to you privately about it first."
She gave him a weird look and a hesitant "Suurre, follow me,"
The auror led him into a small alleyway off the main strip. She waved her wand and Harry felt everything go quiet for a moment before it returned to normal. Some kind of privacy ward was in effect.
"What didya wanna talk about, man?" she said with a smile.
"Erm…"Harry said, "It's kind of embarrassing."
He suddenly thought that this was a bad idea, surely Tonks was going to judge him.
"Harry, trust me, it's nothing I've never heard before," she replied, placing a comforting hand on his arm.
"Okay, well… it's just that…" he started, but the next bit he said so fast he pretty much said it all as one long word.
"The Dursleys never really fed me and that's why I'm so skinny and when Daphne sees me next week she's gonna think I'm disgusting."
Tonks blinked, nonplussed.
"Well, two things. First, if she doesn't like what she looks like she doesn't deserve you and second, what do you mean the Dursleys didn't feed you?"
"Damn," Harry thought, "Of course she was gonna attach onto that bit. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."
"I don't wanna talk about it, but can we get something to make it better" Harry replied.
"No, now you've said that Harry, I can't just drop this. I'm an Auror remember?"
"Oh." Harry said looking down, but really in his head he said "Fuck. Brain - engage before mouth, Potter, you dickhead."
So you're not just naturally skinny? You promise?" Tonks asked.
"I mean I don't know for certain, but I don't exactly measure up to people in my age group."
"Yeah, I did notice that," Tonks answered, and chewed her lip. "Look, Harry, I might be able to help you but you're gonna need to tell me what you meant about what you meant by they didn't feed you."
Harry wished he hadn't brought it up, but it was too late now, and what would he rather do, not tell her what his life with the Dursleys was like, or finally get the chance to fix something about his body he'd been wanting for ages but never knew how?
So, he told her. He told her everything, from sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs to his repeated haircuts to the bars on his windows. He'd never really thought about the implications of talking about it, but saw her skin get paler and her features more angular with every sentence he spoke.
Tonks took a big deep breath. It took her a good twenty seconds to say anything. Harry just stared at the wall opposite, feeling utterly drained, if he were honest.
"Okay, Harry." she said, and Harry noticed that suddenly he could tell that friend Tonks was gone, and professional Auror had taken her place, "I know you've just told me some very sensitive, personal things and I'm going to do my best to help you, but I need you to realise that what you've just told me is against the law. It's… it's child abuse. I can't do nothing about this, it's my job and it's against the law for me to not report it. I have what's called a legal duty of care. Especially as loving or not they might be towards…Dudley wasn't it? There's still a child remaining in an abusive household, muggle or not."
Harry felt himself go completely still, and felt the air get sucked out of his lungs as he realised he felt very vulnerable and very weak. He'd…been abused? He realised how shaky he felt; he needed to sit down. He slid the stone wall he'd been leaning on and sat down on the floor of the alleyway, head in his hands. He felt Tonks sit next to him.
"People can't know about this. People can't know what they did to me," he said, barely able to look at her.
"They don't have to. It can be just you, me and Amelia Bones. They might want to extract a memory with a professional in St Mungos but they're all kept confidential."
"But won't the Dursleys get charged? The whole Wizengamot, the Wizarding World would know eventually."
"No, Harry. There are special procedures for things like this. That wouldn't happen unless you wanted it to,"
Harry hesitated and then looked up from his hands. Tonks was looking at him kindly, her face had resumed its normal, caring, heart shape.
"And Sirius?" he asked, chewing his lip.
"As far I'm concerned you're an adult now. You tell him when you tell him, but you might find him even more understanding that I am, you know the family he grew up with. And we don't need to do the whole investigation now, Merlin knows how much you and Amelia have on your plates, it's not like you're going back to the Dursleys ever again anyway."
Harry's eyes widened. He'd never thought about it like that. He was emancipated now, He'd never have to go back again. Suddenly he felt the need to give Tonks a huge hug, which she returned in kind. When they finally pulled away, she said. "We're gonna keep this secret, and I'm gonna get you some potions, but the potions I'm gonna buy would draw attention to the problem if you're seen going in there. As an Auror, for me, it wouldn't, I'm just doing my job. You stay here and I'll be back in five minutes.
"Do you need some money?" Harry asked.
"No, don't worry about it," she answered as she got to her feet.
She smiled at him and left the alleyway. Five minutes later she came back and handed him a small brown bag containing six small crystal vials, three with a clear, sparkling liquid, and three with a dark green, almost muddy-looking fluid. Harry thought he recognised that one.
"Okay," she said, casting her privacy spell again, "Three malnutrition replacement potions, they'll build your muscles as if they were built at the stage you would've been at when you did the exercise in the first place. You take one a night before bed and a pain potion, because depending on how much they stunted your growth you could be in for a heck of a growth sport. You're what now, five three and a hundred and twenty pounds?"
"Five-one and just over a hundred, actually."
"Yeah, I'm glad I got the strong painkillers," Tonks replied with an almost uncomfortable laugh.
"Thanks, Tonks."
"Good job we can use magic to resize things eh, or there'd be no point buying these trunks today."
Harry laughed.
Half an hour later they found themselves in a shop that Harry'd only been in a couple of times before when his Aunt Petunia had taken them out shopping to get Dudley a new shirt for an upcoming dinner for Aunt Marge. The branch of Marks Spencer was the very same shop that Dedalus Diggle had bowed to him right outside of once before Harry'd even known magic existed.
It didn't take long for them to find what they needed as they didn't need to try on sizes. He was really grateful that Sirius had thought ahead and had handed Tonks a crisp fifty-pound note before they'd left because Harry had completely forgotten about the need for muggle money. Ten minutes later Harry had a pair of emerald green swimming shorts and a plain white T-shirt in a carrier bag and the pair set off back to headquarters.
"Ugh, I'm just done with this now," Tracey said, slamming her textbook shut and flinging it to one side, "Flitwick must be lying. This can't be OWL-level stuff, surely!"
She was sat on Daphne's four-poster bed, surrounded by scraps of parchment and several spellbooks. She wiped her quill on her robes and placed it alongside her pot of ink on the sky-blue antique bedside table to her right. Daphne was sitting at her dressing table, but she'd already finished ten minutes ago and was busy painting her fingernails.
"I'd tell you what to write, but Flitwick set me an entirely different project. Guess he didn't want us to copy off each other." Daphne said, not looking up.
"He's a crafty old bugger," Tracey replied with a grin. She took a sip of her pumpkin juice, "Are you sure it's gonna be okay for me to come to your party?"
"An heir or not, you're still my best friend, you're coming. It's my birthday party." Daphne replied.
"Your birthday is on the first of September," Tracey pointed out.
"Yeah, but I never got to have an actual party because of that. We're always travelling back to school." It was incredibly frustrating for Daphne in fact and head meant she hadn't had the chance to have a party since she was ten,
"More than two months early though?"
"It'll be the height of summer," Daphne replied, waving her off, "And Father wanted to have it before the Black trial so Harry could come, you know, just in case things went awry and Fudge was somehow able to nail Harry for something. Not that that will happen if things go the same way as the last time."
"I still can't believe he's Lord Slytherin-Potter now," Tracey said.
"Me neither, but it gives us a good chance to get to know him. I know Mother would never let Father even think about siding with the Dark Lord, and we're gonna have to pick a side eventually."
"Hopefully we get a bit more time before he reveals himself, I'm scared what it's gonna be like in the common room when there's gonna be people whose parents are literal Death Eaters. I'm a half-blood, remember?" Tracey said with a sigh,
"Don't worry, we'll stick together," Daphne said determinedly, she got up from her chair by her dressing table and sat with Tracey on the bed. "I won't let anything happen to you."
"Thanks," said Tracey, laying down on the big double bed, head on one of the plump, silk-covered pillows. Daphne moved further along and lay beside her.
As Tracey looked up at the ornate swirling pattern on the cream ceiling of Daphne's bedroom, she said, "You know, with Harry being Slytherin-Potter now quite a few people will think he might stand a chance. He's gonna be even more fanciable. A bit on the slimmer side for me, like, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried it on with him at your party."
Daphne sighed and dejectedly replied, "Yeah…"
Tracey turned onto her side to face her friend.
"You like him!" she almost shouted in recognition.
"I barely even know him," Daphne replied, "But… Dad would like me to try to."
"You still fancy him though, don't you!?" her best friend answered, almost teasingly,
"Well… he's powerful, and pretty handsome. Yeah, he's a bit on the skinnier side but his eyes are…"
"Stupidly pretty?"
"Yeah," she sighed dreamily, "And I loooooove his hair,"
Tracey grinned "You know what you need to do about that then, don't you?"
"What?" Daphne replied, rolling her eyes. Here Tracey would come with her most ridiculous suggestion.
"Get him on his own and snog him senseless!"
"I don't even know him!"
"And you can't snog people just because you think they're attractive?"
"Tracey…" Daphne said warningly, she knew she was being silly now, wasn't she?
"What?! You know even Millicent might try to flirt with him if she thinks she could be Lady Slytherin, Death Eater dad or not. I don't think she cares for her father's ethics. I'd say Pansy too if she ever managed to get the hint that Draco isn't that interested in her."
"I'll… I'll think about it." Daphne relented.
"That's all I ask, Tracey said with a grin." Who else is coming?"
"Blaise, Draco, Pansy and Millicent, as well as Terry Boot, Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones and… Neville Longbottom" Daphne finished with a grin.
Tracey's eyes went wide. "Neville's coming? Holy Crap! Daphne, what will I wear? I've never even spoken to him!"
Daphne laughed at her friend's response, "Chill, Trace, we'll sort something out."
"You know you've invited yourself some real competition there don't you?" Tracey asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Susan Bones. Light family, Aunt is the head of the DMLE, the only other Heir of Most Ancient and Noble House… and she's got those big ass titties that make all the boys just wanna -"
"Tracey!"
"What!? I'm just saying, she's gonna be competition, don't tell me you've never thought about giving them a squeeze. They look big even under her robes and she was practically falling out of her dress at the Yule Ball."
"I didn't know you swung that way," Daphne said with a smirk.
"Nah, just curious," she replied with a laugh, "But seriously, Daph, after he played Fudge like a fiddle last week and ascended to the great Seven… well Harry was already considered one of the most eligible bachelors before that.
"Alright, I get your point."
"Do you? You know you're gonna have to pull out all the stops. You can do it."
"I do," Daphne sighed, "if not for me and father, but for Astoria too. Mother said if Harry seems to like me as he's showing himself as neutral, Astoria can get a bit closer to Draco. At least it means she might get a bit of happiness before she-"
Daphne stopped herself, feeling tears starting to well up, but Tracey was already there, wrapping her best friend in a warm hug."
Arms still wrapped around Daphne, head over her shoulder, Tracey said "She deserves it Daph, but try not to dwell on it. You never know, if Harry can keep it at bay every time who knows what the future holds?"
"I dunno Trace, it gets stronger every time. And what if you're right, what if Harry picks Susan, or Ginny Weasley or something."
Tracey pulled back to look her friend in the eyes.
"Well we'll just have to stack the odds in our favour, won't we? Come on, we're going shopping, and you tell your mum to owl Harry to come early so you can get your claws into him."
Wiping away her tears, Daphne laughed and said, "Way ahead of you."
Harry opened his eyes to his Godfather standing over his bed. He didn't know whether Sirius, looked angry, scared or concerned. He was looming over, looking down wildly at him. The moment the roguish animagus knew that Harry had woken up enough to recognise him, he spoke.
"Why do you look so different?" he asked, tone low and even.
"Shit", Harry thought. He stretched out and found his feet now touching the bed's footboard. Inwardly he felt joy at knowing the first of the potions had worked but that emotion was stunted by Sirius' glare.
"Tonks got me some potions," Harry replied.
"Show me," Sirius answered, almost emotionlessly, like Snape.
Harry sat up, pulled open the drawer of his bedside table and pulled out the paper bag of potions Tonks had given him. Sirius pulled out several of the small vials in one hand, which started clinking together as Sirius' hands started shaking. He stared at them for about ten seconds before he placed the vials back in the bag.
"Harry," he said calmly, but his voice was just as shaky as his hands had been, "These only work if you are malnourished. Why would be you malnourished?"
Harry felt tears threatening to well up, stinging his eyes, not sure whether it was from the sheer care that Sirius was showing or whether it felt like Sirius' words had almost been an accusation.
"The Dursleys," he mumbled.
Sirius Black almost hit the roof. "I am going to FUCKING KILL DUMBLEDORE!" he shouted and thrust the paper back into Harry's hands before moving towards the door.
Harry sat bolt upright and shouted, "Wait, Sirius, please!"
A hand still on the door handle, Sirius turned his head to face him, eyes still wild.
"You need to calm down, Padfoot. Going off on one won't help anything. Tonks is going about it legally. I'm never going to have to go back, and everyone involved will get their comeuppance... You know what happened the last time you lost your temper and went off without thinking."
The hand dropped from the handle and Sirius numbly walked to his bed. Harry's Godfather placed his head in his hands and then, he sobbed.
Harry sat there, dumbstruck. He'd never seen a grown man cry before. What should he do? What would Sirius want him to do? He got up from the bed, and while his strides felt very weird with his newly lengthened limbs, he walked over and put an arm around his Godfather.
"If…" Sirius hiccoughed "If I hadn't lost my temper, you wouldn't have been with the Dursleys in the first place. I would've gone and got you."
"I know you would," Harry said quietly, an arm on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry I never noticed anything. I guessed you were taking after your mother, she was skinny at your age."
"Look at me Padfoot," Harry said, and his godfather did as he asked.
Now, without breaking eye contact, Harry said, "Stop blaming yourself. It's done now and we're, we're fixing the problem."
"I can't Harry, I just can't."
"Well you want to help me, don't you?"
"More than anything."
"Then stop dwelling in the past and focus on what we can do now."
Sirius grumbled.
"We can go to the Chamber of Secrets and you help me train to defeat Voldemort. We can portkey there from here, right now?" Harry said, almost like he was suggesting a trip to get ice cream to a seven-year-old.
"You… you mean it?" Sirius said, with wide eyes of excitement, "But Dumbledore-"
"Knows about it and gave permission. Asked me to ask you actually, seemed to think you might recognise the titles of some of the books in case they looked dodgy."
Sirius nodded, then gave a weak smile and wiped away his tears.
"You need to stop beating yourself up." Harry said, "Focus on the things you can change."
"When did you become so wise?" Sirius asked with a laugh,
"When I realised worrying about the things I couldn't was stupid."
"I see."
Sirius stood up and smiled. "Okay, let's do this, I haven't had a good duel in ages. I'll go tell me Molly were not to be disturbed and get kreacher to pack us some food while you get ready."
"Sure."
Harry got up and went into the bathroom to take a shower. He looked in the mirror. He'd grown about four inches and…wow, he was now a similar build to what Ron had been at the end of their last year, and his muscles were even a little bit more defined. His mind was full of the possibilities of what he might look like once he'd finished the potions, Harry turned on the shower and stepped in.
A white jet of magic went sizzling past his left ear as Harry strafed to one side. It was their third day of training in the Chamber of Secrets.
For the first day, Sirius had spent most of it talking to the portrait of Slytherin and looking over the texts in the library. He'd needed to make sure he asked the portrait which books were family magic as he would surely have been injured had he tried to pick up any of the confidential tomes.
Sirius had been almost aggressive in his disagreement with Dumbledore. If Sirius was going to train him, he was going to train him to kill, but before they got to that point they needed to work on Harry's speed and athletics first. This meant that on the second day, they'd spent their time purely on Harry's reflexes. Sirius spent pretty much an entire day sending a wide array of spells at Harry; spells that appeared in jets he had to dodge, horizontal or vertical waves he had to strafe past or sheets he had to duck under or jump over.
Today though, Harry was allowed to fight back, and they'd been at it for hours. Spells were coming at him thick and fast and Sirius was deliberately trying to use obscure spells so Harry didn't know which spells could be blocked by what. It meant that the majority of the time if he was going to try to block something, Harry would have to conjure something solid. Sirius said this was important because it would train him to block an Avada Kedavra much more instinctively.
"Come on Harry, you're gonna have to try harder than that, use your imagination" Sirius called from ahead of him. They were in the main chamber, the room in which Harry had defeated the basilisk. Sirius stood with his back to the great stone sculpture of Salazar Slytherin's head that had been carved into the rock face. Only the large pool of water the basilisk had once thrashed about when Fawkes had clawed out its eyes was between Sirius and the sculpture. It was this pool that Harry thought to use to his advantage after being thoroughly trounced by Sirius no less than twenty times that day.
Three white spells hit just where his feet had been and sizzled on the stone floor as Harry stepped backwards, casting two stunners followed by a knockback jinx. The first missed, but Harry had anticipated the way Sirius would step, and the spells would've hit their target had Sirius not brought up a hasty shield charm followed by a blisteringly fast Incendio that shot towards Harry like a bullet, and went straight into the hem of his robes. He dropped and rolled on the floor to put the flame out, but Sirius pressed the advantage and cast an Expelliarmus at him.
"Protego" Harry shouted and watched his shield blare into life. He turned it solid and the spell ricocheted off and Harry rolled to the side, but how would he get to his feet before Sirius got him with another spell?
He conjured a small rock face to crouch behind but felt it take the magic out of him. With the sheer amount of them he'd conjured today, Sirius had said he'd been more than impressed. With the amount of magic conjuration took, Sirius said that he himself wouldn't have been able to cast nearly as many of them in one day and praised the depth of Harry's magical reserves, but now Harry was reaching his limit. This time, the rock wall meant Harry managed to get to his feet out of sight and Sirius wouldn't know which side he would fire from.
He looked around the right side of the wall and Sirius spotted him. A petrificus totalus then instantly shot straight through where Harry's head had been had he not pulled it back immediately. Sirius was still standing right in front of the pool. Good.
Blindly, Harry reached his wand around the side of the wall and cast a blasting curse. Its trajectory was always going to be way too far away to hit Sirius but it had the desired effect. If Sirius wanted creativity, he was going to get it. The blasting curse hit the pool and covered his feet and ankle in water. This was it. It was now or never.
Harry dived to the left and rolled, and while still having not got wordless casting down yet, whispered "Impervius." The spell hit Sirius' left foot. "Perfect," Harry thought, the water-repelling charm was nearly invisible and the floor was now absolutely soaking.
He needed to get Sirius to step onto his left foot, so he shot a Bombarda just to the right of him. Sirius moved onto his left foot to strafe but had no purchase on the floor and slipped. Yes!
From his crouching position, Harry flicked his wand like a lash and cried "Depulso!" It connected straightaway and Sirus went careening into the pool behind him.
"YES!" Harry cried jumping in the air at his victory,
When Sirius reappeared he was soaked through, but beaming almost madly.
"That was brilliant Harry, how did you do that?" Sirius asked
"Impervius on your shoe," Harry replied.
"I didn't even feel it hit, and as a spell didn't even see it. That's exactly what I've been talking about. Amazing creativity."
"Thanks."
Then, Sirius got to his feet, dried himself off with a raise of his wand and raised his wand challengingly.
"Best two out of three?"
The day before the party, and two days before the trial, Sirius, Harry, Ron and Hermione were sat in the lounge. They'd just finished talking about Harry's recent growth for what seemed like the umpteenth time. Hermione just wouldn't accept that "Family Magic" was the reason for Harry growing ten inches in height and putting on nearly fifty pounds in the space of less than a week. After all, Neville was the Heir to House Longbottom so he would have some family magic too and he didn't suddenly look like an under-21s rugby player.
In the beginning, at breakfast, Ginny had been unintentionally hilarious to the rest of the Weasleys as it had massively increased her fangirling behaviour, but Harry had just found it annoying. Thankfully when she'd accidentally missed her own mouth staring at Harry across the breakfast table and poured orange juice all down herself, she'd decided to no longer be in Harry's presence at mealtimes.
"Look Hermione, I've told you what I'm willing to tell you." Harry said, annoyedly, "You need to let it go."
"Fine." the bookworm replied begrudgingly.
"Besides, we need to talk about the party," Sirius said from his cushioned green armchair by the fireplace, "There's gonna be some eligible witches and wizards there, and there's gonna be some politicking involved."
"What does eligibility have to do with anything?" Ron asked.
"Well, Harry is very powerful politically now and the family magic is legendary. I'm willing to guess there will be at least one girl there whose family would like you and their daughter to be placed with you under a betrothal contract." Sirius replied
Hermione gaped. "What, like Jane Austen? Like selling women off like common cattle? That's…that's…that's barbaric is what it is, it's completely medieval!"
"It's tradition, Hermione," said Ron, "All marriages in the Wizarding World have a contract of some kind."
"That's ridiculous." she huffed, "Guess I won't be marrying a wizard then."
"It's more than just paper, Hermione." Sirius told her, "Yes there are bride prices and dowries involved, but the monies exchanged are usually of equal amounts, and usually more so that a receipt with Gringotts can be made. It can be done for just one galleon, and that's the norm. Only in richer families do the marriages involve higher sums, and that's more for just a status symbol in the papers than anything. Still, most of the time, the sums are about equal. Women aren't bought any more."
"So…why do it?" she asked,
"It's about the magical contract itself, it allows the mingling of family magics. The bride and groom are then able to use each other's to an extent."
"I still think it's ridiculous that there's all these spells that I'm never going to be allowed to know." Hermione huffed, folding her arms.
"Nothing's stopping you from making your own family magics though," Sirius answered. Hermione's eyes suddenly glared with excitement. She hadn't thought about that.
"But Harry has two Houses, does that mean he will get to marry two women?" Ron asked.
Harry's eyes went wide, he hadn't thought about that.
"Nah," Sirius said, "Bigamy is outlawed, as fun as the idea of having two wives might sound to you Ron, historically, it caused issues, so they stopped it. Plus, having two wives. Just one woman is usually a handful on her own!"
"Hey!" cried Hermione, and the boys laughed. Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
"Now, if you have an inkling that you may want to enter into a contract with a girl Harry, we're…" and Sirius swallowed nervously before he continued, "We're gonna have to have "the Talk".
"Oh Merlin no, not with Hermione and Ron here!"
"Relax, we'll do it later."
The conversation they had in the room last night was distinctively uncomfortable, but Harry thought at least it had come from Sirius. The rogue had definitely given him a fair share of pointers.
