Chapter 13

Harry had woken up feeling sore and tired, he tried looking around but everything was blurred, remembering what happened he realized his glasses were broken so he wasn't sure what to do. The sound of a door opening caught his attention and Harry looked over and tried to focus on what it was, he saw a figure approach before hearing the voice of Augusta Longbottom say "I'm glad to see you're awake Harry, how are you feeling?"

Augusta saw Harry was looking intently at her, she realized why and picked up the glasses she left by the bed and placed them on Harry's face. Harry blinked before everything came into focus and he heard Augusta say "I forgot to tell you I repaired your glasses, how are you feeling Harry?"

Harry thanked Augusta before sitting up and moving around a bit, he could feel his right hand was feeling better so the healer must have finished healing it, regrowing bones was not something he'd like to do again, Harry spoke "A bit stiff and sore, for some reason I feel itchy where my new bones are, but I don't feel like anything hurts anymore."

Augusta nodded and said "That's good, don't worry about the soreness since regrowing bones can feel like that, you'll feel better than before after you've gotten used to it, the healer should be here soon to check on you."

As if he was waiting for someone to say that the door opened and the healer walked in, after making sure his regrown bones were doing well the healer handed Harry a potion and told him he's going to need to take this potion every three days before having a big meal and by December he can stop taking the potion. Once the healer informed Harry they'd heal the rest of his bones over the next two days he left to let Harry take his potion. Harry looked out the window and saw it was late so it was probably time for dinner, Neville soon showed up to see how Harry was feeling, Augusta called Shiny and told him to prepare plenty of food for Harry, while they waited Harry asked "Madam Longbottom?"

"Please Harry, you may call me Augusta."

Nodding, Harry asked "Ok, Augusta, I was wondering if you could figure out who Dobby belongs to, if his master is planning to do something to Hogwarts then we need to stop him."

Augusta sighed and said "I have already checked with the ministry on which families have house elves and while we do have a list on which families do, we don't know the names of their elves. Many elves often see they are doing their best when they can avoid being seen while serving, at the ministry we registered that we have an elf but the ministry never asks for the name of the elf so we won't be able to find out that way."

Harry wondered how they could find out who Dobby's master is, he hoped they'd be able to figure it out before anything happens. Harry was distracted when Hedwig landed next to him and started nuzzling him, Harry could tell through their bond that she felt like crying after everything that happened to him, Harry started to pet Hedwig and thank her for looking out for him and promising it wouldn't happen again.

Once Hedwig was calmed down she flew to the headboard to watch over Harry, soon Shiny popped into the room and said "Shiny has prepared dinner for Harry Potter."

Shiny snapped his fingers and a tray appeared on the bed, snapping his fingers again Shiny made a table appear before snapping again and plenty of food appeared. Harry's eyes widened at all the food and said "I don't think I'm going to be able to eat all of that."

Augusta spoke up "You'll need all of that food once you take your potion, if we want your body to catch up to where it needs to be then you're going to need to eat plenty, once you take that potion you'll be hungry enough to eat all of this."

Shiny snapped his fingers and some of the food floated over to Harry's tray, Augusta told Harry to take his potion and once Harry drank the whole thing he started to eat slowly however after a few minutes he felt the potion take effect. Harry felt like his stomach just became a bottomless pit and he felt starved more than he felt before so he started eating a lot more to fill his stomach. Augusta asked Shiny to make sure Harry is fed plenty before leaving, Neville decided to stay and work on his homework. Even though Harry was starving he still remembered to give some food to Hedwig, offering her some bacon Hedwig happily ate.

When Harry felt full he thanked Shiny for feeding him before asking Neville if he could get Harry's homework out of his trunk so they could work together. The two friends worked on their homework together before it became late and Augusta informed Neville it was time for bed, Augusta approached Harry and performed the same spell the healer performed on him to make him sleep so he wouldn't be up all night.

The next day Harry had woken up and while he wanted to get up and walk around Augusta told Harry he'd need to stay in bed for the time being, Harry wasn't happy but at least Neville joined Harry so he wouldn't be bored. Harry was soon distracted when an owl flew in carrying a letter, however he felt through their bond that Hedwig was angry another owl was delivering a letter to Harry. Neville spotted the owl and said "That's Fay's family owl, Lyall, he's pretty friendly."

Lyall landed close to Harry and held out his leg for him to take the letter, Harry grabbed the letter and saw it was from Hermione, opening the letter it read

"Harry,

Neville told me you're staying with him and that someone was stealing your letters all summer, I was worried something had happened to you, are you ok!? I tried to call you but your uncle yelled at me and hung up, I didn't want him to become mad at you so I stopped calling, I was ready to ask my parents to take me to see you but then Neville wrote to me, I hope you are doing better now. I know you said your relatives aren't kind to you so I hope your summer wasn't too bad, I can't wait to see you again when we go shopping for our school supplies, I hope you'll write to me soon and let me know how you are doing. The owl delivering this is Lyall, Fay's family owl, she's staying with me and she let me use him to deliver my letter. Again, take care Harry and I hope to hear from you soon.

Love, Hermione."

Harry smiled after reading the letter, he was glad to hear from his best friend again, he would need to write back to her soon. Lyall was waiting so Harry offered him some owl treats, Harry did have to tell Hedwig to be nice since he was the owl of one of his friends, once Lyall ate and had some water he took off. Harry was about to start writing a letter to Hermione when he heard another owl show up only this time the owl crashed into Harry's bed. Harry helped the owl as Neville said "That's Errol, Ron's family owl, he's pretty old so be careful."

Harry helped Errol get some water and rest, surprisingly Hedwig didn't seem upset this time since she saw Errol as a great owl who had worked hard for many years so he was an elder she respected. Errol gave Harry the letter and started to rest, while he rested Harry opened the letter and started reading

"Harry,

I'm glad to finally hear from you, we've written to you a few times but we haven't heard back, Neville told me you're staying with him and someone was stealing all your letters. Hope your summer hasn't been too bad because of those muggles you're living with, we heard from dad that you were given a warning for using magic. Fred, George, and I were planning on coming to get you if we didn't hear from you soon, they seem disappointed since we were planning on using the flying car to come and get you. Mum and Ginny have been asking about you and wondering when you'll come over, I hope you can come visit but if you can't then I hope we'll see each other again when we go shopping for school later. Write back to let us know how you are doing, hope to see you soon.

From, Ron."

Harry was surprised to hear Ron and his brothers were planning on coming to get him, a part of him was curious about the flying car but for now he put it out of his mind. Harry would need to write back to them soon to let them know he's doing better now. Harry looked at the two letters and glanced at Neville, even though Hedwig told him someone was stealing his letters a part of him worried his friends didn't care about him but after seeing all this he felt happy knowing they did care about him.

Harry had spent the next two days in bed recovering, thankfully the healer said Harry could walk around but for the most part he had to stay in bed, he wasn't happy he had to take skele-gro before he went to sleep but he understood the healer needed to vanish some of his bones to regrow them, he was told the process was painful but thankfully they put him to sleep each time. Harry had written to all his friends and Hedwig had insisted she deliver them, she seemed offended when Harry suggested using Neville's family owl, Sage, to deliver some of them so Harry gave her the letters. Harry wasn't happy he had to stay in bed and a few times he tried to sneak out of the room but Augusta had placed a monitoring charm on the door in case he tried to leave before the healer said he could so now he was stuck in bed, at least Neville came by to talk with him and work on their homework together.

Whenever Harry was alone he summoned the journal and started to read about his mum's second year at Hogwarts, she mentioned she was upset with James and his friends for giving Sev the nickname Snivellus. Lily talked about how bad her relationship with Petunia was during the summer and how Alice, Marlene, and Sev were the only friends she could talk to. Harry again found himself laughing at some of the pranks his dad and uncles pulled however one part that caught his attention was that Lily seemed concerned when she heard rumors that Sev was with a group of Slytherins and they were harassing a group of muggleborns but when she talked to him he said he wouldn't do that. Sadly, Harry had to put the journal aside since he still needed to finish his homework and he didn't want Neville to know about the journal in case someone reads his mind and finds out about it, he decided to read the rest when he gets to Hogwarts.

Harry had looked through his trunk and found a letter before remembering it was the letter Daphne gave him to read once he was home, he forgot Vernon made him put it in his trunk before locking it up. Harry opened the letter and started to read

"Dear Harry,

I hope you have a great summer and I hope next year we can work together to improve our casting. I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for us this school year, when you were sorted into Gryffindor I thought we would never get the chance to talk since our houses hate each other but when you said you wanted to become friends with students from Slytherin I took the chance to approach you. I think if I hadn't heard you say that then I wouldn't have taken the chance to approach you but now I'm glad you wanted to become my friend, thank you for being one of my closes friends and giving Slytherins a chance. I know Tracey, Blaise, and Lilian are much happier you became our friend and even though some of them can be stubborn I want to say it for them, thank you for being our friend. No matter what happens in the future with you-know-who I'll stand by your side too so next year lets work our hardest to become better so we can be prepared. Take care Harry and I can't wait until we can see each other again.

Love, Daphne."

Harry smiled when he read the letter, he wondered what might have happened had he listened to others and thought all Slytherins were bad. Harry wrote a letter back to Daphne after that thanking her for the letter and apologizing for not writing to her sooner.

The two days Harry needed to heal had finally come to an end, the healer had finished vanishing and regrowing all the improperly healed bones and had given Harry the ointment he needed to rub on his scars in order for them to vanish. Harry tried to stop Augusta when she was going to pay for his treatment, he offered to pay for it himself, but Augusta refused and said she wanted to look out for him. She bought all the potions Harry would need to take in order for his body to catch up to where it needed to be and she told Harry they would later pay to have an extra compartment added to his trunk with a stasis charm for the potions. Harry wasn't sure how to feel, he's always had to rely on himself since adults couldn't be trusted but now, he had an adult look out for him and go out of their way to help him, it felt nice to have someone actually care about him. Harry was shown around the manor and he thought it was both impressive and beautiful, he saw they had their own dueling room that Neville's parents used when they were aurors, he got to see their library and even though it wasn't like the one at Hogwarts Harry still thought it was impressive. Harry was amazed by all of it but he could tell Neville wanted to show him the greenhouses the most so the two boys finally went to see them, in the greenhouses Harry was amazed to see the many plants Neville had taken care of and he even showed Harry how the seeds he had given him had now grown into beautiful flowers.

One day Harry had been called into the sitting room by Augusta, when he and Neville showed up and sat down Augusta handed Harry a few photos, looking at the photos Harry saw his grandparents. Augusta spoke "Neville had told me about the photo album you have so I figured you'd want photos of your grandparents to add as well, considering the long history the Potters and Longbottoms have, there are plenty of photos we've shared between us."

Harry looked through the photos and saw how he did look a lot like his grandfather, he wondered if every Potter male had the same looks. In one photo he saw his grandfather and Neville's grandfather had an arm around each other and smiling, in another he saw his grandmother was waving her wand around and a burning heart formed around her and Fleamont. Harry looked through more until he saw a photo where his grandparents were dancing together, Augusta noticed Harry was paying more attention to that one and said "I remember that one, Euphemia and Fleamont were celebrating their anniversary, from the way those two acted you'd think they were still on their honeymoon."

Harry flipped through a few more and stopped on one where it showed Fleamont and Euphemia were laughing however they were both covered in paint, Augusta lightly chuckled when she saw that one and explained "Fleamont finally figured out how to copy Euphemia's best prank and decided to use it on her, he got caught in the prank as well."

Harry looked at Augusta and asked "My grandmother used to pull pranks?"

Nodding, Augusta said "I swear James got it from her, Euphemia loved playing pranks on others and many times her pranks made people laugh and smile, sometimes she'd even pull pranks on herself just to see those around her laugh, however whenever someone made her mad you would be afraid of the kind of prank she would pull."

Harry listened intently and asked "What was her best prank then?"

Augusta explained "I think she called it paint bomb, she was able to create a special rune set that stored a paint she made herself, she used to set those runes up everywhere and leave one as a trigger to set all of them off at once. She was the only one who knew how to get rid of the paint so since no one could vanish it then everything had to be cleaned by hand, she especially loved using that prank on her enemies."

Harry chuckled at the prank but was also curious to how it was done since it sounded interesting. Augusta had told Harry stories about his grandparents and Harry would always give his full attention as he listened closely, one of his favorite stories was how Fleamont had fallen in love with Euphemia. Augusta had told Harry that while Euphemia was beautiful Fleamont first noticed her because she was brilliant, Euphemia was someone who loved to explore magic and even created new spells, they had first bonded over an old book Fleamont was reading that she wanted to read.

Augusta told Harry how Euphemia was to never be underestimated since she proved to be a great witch, while she would never show off, if there was someone who made her mad then they would quickly learn why they shouldn't mess with her. Augusta chuckled a bit as she thought how James had fallen in love with Lily and she wondered if all Potter men were attracted to brilliant, powerful, beautiful witches. Augusta told Harry about Fleamont and how he was a great dueler who rarely lost, he was always a kind man who helped when he could and his smile often brought some joy to others. Harry also learnt how his grandparents had James late in life because someone had placed a curse on Euphemia to never have children, even though continuing the family is important Fleamont didn't want to marry anyone other than her so Fleamont spent most of his life trying to remove the curse until one day he succeeded and they were able to have James.

Harry was amazed by the stories he heard about his grandparents and he wished he could have gotten to know them, Harry had asked Augusta how they had died and Augusta looked upset as she spoke "They were killed shortly before your parents were killed, Fleamont and Euphemia had gotten dragon pox and they didn't want to get anyone sick so they isolated themselves. They were greatly weakened because of it but they were slowly getting better, however that's when the death eaters managed to attack Potter manor, somehow the wards had failed and the death eaters attacked, I think even the dark lord himself was there, they managed to block all forms of communication so we didn't know until we heard the news that Potter manor was destroyed and Fleamont and Euphemia were dead."

Harry looked saddened at that, he wondered how the wards could have failed, he decided he would talk to his account manager about that, from what he saw in the photos and remembering the mirror he thought his grandparents looked like kind and gentle people. Harry wondered if the third Potter vault had any knowledge they might have left behind so he decided he'd ask if he could visit the vault.

Harry had gotten to enjoy the rest of his summer at Longbottom manor, he first got all the homework out of the way and thankfully Neville was there to help him with anything he might have had trouble with. Harry had been able to write to all his friends and apologize for not contacting them sooner, they all understood and were glad to hear from Harry, Hedwig again insisted she should deliver the letters and refused to allow another owl deliver any of Harry's letters. Harry had asked Augusta about Voldemort and the death eaters, he found out some were locked up in Azkaban but many of them claimed they were being controlled by the imperius curse and they were let go. Harry learnt about which death eaters had been let go and Augusta pointed out who she thought was lying so Harry knew to be cautious around them.

Harry had been allowed to read many books from the library and Augusta had picked out some books to teach Neville and Harry some spells they might need. Harry had taken the opportunity to ask about magic that can improve and protect the mind and thankfully Augusta explained occlumency, thanks to this suggestion Neville started to learn more about the subject so his mind could be properly protected. Whenever Harry wasn't helping Neville in the greenhouses, he was in the library looking through the books Augusta suggested and writing down what sounded helpful. Harry imagined how jealous Hermione would feel if she found out Harry got to use Neville's library. Harry had thought about going to stay at the Burrow but in the end decided against it, while he did like Ron and the twins he also wanted to look for new spells he could learn and he didn't think the Weasleys had books this useful. Harry didn't just look up spells that could help him in a fight, he also paid attention to simpler spells that could help him clean in case he needed them, a good number of those spells could have really helped him with his chores.

One day Harry was eating breakfast with the Longbottoms when two owls showed up to drop off letters for him and Neville, looking at the letters, Harry and Neville saw they were their booklist for their next year. Excitedly, they opened their letters to see what books they would need, Augusta opened Neville's letter while Neville was reading the one Harry got. Looking over the list they saw they were going to need some new supplies but looking at the books they saw they would need seven books for defense, Harry pointed out that all the books were written by the same person, Gilderoy Lockhart.

Harry and Neville heard the sound of paper being torn and they saw Augusta tore off part of Neville's list, Augusta said "You won't be needing those worthless books, I'll help you find better books for defense."

The two boys were surprised and Harry asked "Why won't we need those books?"

Augusta explained "I have some friends that have obsessed over Gilderoy Lockhart and I've read some of his stories, those books are nothing more than adventure stories about him but in the books he doesn't explain the spells he uses, if those books are supposed to be used for defense then I don't understand how learning Lockhart's favorite color will help. I doubt he's even done half the things he claimed he's done in those books."

Neville asked "What makes you think that?"

Augusta answered "Lockhart is someone who seems to obsess over his own looks, he's won Witch Weekly's most charming smile five times, if he's done half the things he claimed he did in those books then he should be covered in more scars and missing some of his perfect teeth. I've seen aurors who have put their lives on the line in dangerous situations and they've come out of it badly hurt and with new wounds that would leave scars, even someone as powerful as Dumbledore has some scars. We will buy more useful books that can properly teach you about defense."

Neville and Harry looked at each other and decided to listen to Augusta, Harry spoke "We should probably buy at least one set of those books to share between us, at least our new defense teacher can't say anything about us not having them."

Augusta shook her head and said "Very well but I still think those fantasy books are nothing more than a waste of time."

Harry and Neville wrote letters to their friends so they could meet up that weekend to get their school supplies, Harry remembered how he needed to meet up with his account manager to finish setting up the wards at Potter manor so he asked Augusta if they could arrive early, thankfully she agreed to take Harry to Gringotts early. Harry and Neville soon heard from their friends and they agreed to meet up that weekend for their shopping, sadly their friends from Slytherin said they couldn't join them since they can't risk being seen by another Slytherin. Harry and Neville now couldn't wait for the weekend so they could get their new supplies and see their friends again.

Please comment and let me know what you thought of the chapter.