Huddy! Been a while since you left a comment I was sort of worried about you
Fortinpatric : de rien çe va
Harry sat at a medium-sized round table in Mister Lupin's private quarters. He had sat there across from his godfather and next to the man's marauder compatriot, and tenant of these rooms, Remus Lupin, for 15 minutes now and although the greetings were genial and light hearted those quickly gave way to a heavy, awkward silence. While casting around for a conversation starter Harry's eyes alighted on a glass tank the size of Harry himself. It was filled with murky green water but still clear enough that the sole occupant of the tank, that looked like a long fingered monkey with octopus tentacles instead of feet and a horribly, unnaturally large mouth could be seen. He had apparently stared at that spot for too long as Mister Lupin turned in his seat in order to see what caught Harry's attention.
"Ahh! Do you know what that is, Harry?" Lupin asked, sounding mildly amused. "They live in the lake but I don't think I ever unintentionally encountered them, so I doubt you have." Remus smiled, seeming to be relieved to have a topic for a normal conversation.
"I think I do, but if that's Grindylow, then the books that Professor Quirell assigned weren't very accurate with their drawings. I thought they were supposed to have a fish tail and look vaguely human-ish." answered Harry as he quirked an eyebrow.
"Some do!" Remus said happily. "Very good, two points for Gryffindor, yes the Irish and British Grindylows have fish tails but for some reason, unknown to wizards, the Scottish variety evolved octopus like tentacles and are more beastly, somewhat monkey looking."
Sirius chimed in sounding just as relieved as Remus about the opportunity for conversation. "Some people, like certain members of my family, believed they developed them as a way to hitch rides on the "Beithir" or water dragon before they went nearly extinct a few hundred years ago."
"Beithir?" Ask Harry.
Remus answered in his calm and amused baritone. "I believe you would be more familiar with the term "Loch Ness Monster.""
This revelation nearly floored Harry. "You mean those are real?"
"Oh, yes, they're quite real. A small surviving population was found in the loch that the muggle monster is so famous for — and the rumors spread before the ministry could hide them." Shrugged Sirius Black. "It happens far more often than you would think. People thought moon calves were extinct in my lifetime and then — boom! — Out of nowhere came an entire breeding herd from the Forbidden Forest in our seventh year, they nearly trampled that poor sod, Davy Gudeon, to death."
"Your father had to rush him to the hospital wing as he was the only one with a broom nearby at the time." Supplied Lupin.
Harry paused unsure and looked down at the table for a few seconds before looking up at these two connections to his father with steel in his eyes. "What was he like? People say I'm alot like him and that I look like him but-" and he stopped suddenly, unable to speak, his throat choked with emotion.
Sirius picked up where Harry stopped in a slow and sad voice, eyes down cast as if he was unable to look at Harry. "You have no memories of him?" He asked sadly, and only continued when Harry shook his head, causing Sirius to sigh long and slow.
"Your father, Harry, was one of the best people I've ever met. I'm sure I could tell you endless stories of our time here and after. He was brash and willful when he was a kid. Some would say he was a bully, and they'd probably be right to a certain extent. He was smart and confident and a natural in the air."
"I'm told you share that particular trait at least with him. Professor McGonagall has been very boastful about your abilities " interrupted Mister Lupin.
"Oh yes, he was a natural on a broom. He played Chaser though, not Seeker. He was on the team as soon as tryouts started our second year and we had the Quidditch cup every year we attended." Sirius supplied again causing Harry to smile at their jubilation at reliving old memories.
"I wish I could have met them." Harry said in a sad tone. He was not sad at the loss of his parents, but sad at the need to interrupt their moment of nostalgic joy. It bothered him deeply as the smiles slid from the two adults' faces.
"Harry, I-" Sirius started but it seemed he didn't know how to continue. And for the first time Harry knew. He knew what he wanted to say to his godfather.
"You left me." Harry said, looking at Sirius who recoiled and grimaced at the calm accusation. "My parents had just died and you were arrested and I understand that. But you left me! For 13 years! 12 of those years were filled with such indescribable torment and torture that I can barely speak of it without going insane! 13 years of grief and loneliness and longing! And you both! Left! Me!" Now he was screaming, hitting the table with each word spoken, splitting skin and cracking bone along with the porcelain tea cups with the force of his pain.
"I spent twelve years alone! Twelve years getting starved! Twelve years getting beaten for being different! And I want to know why! How! Where was my godfather or my father's other friends and why did no one ever come to me!" Harry in his rage was now punching the table to mark the end of every sentence, hyperventilating and fracturing more and more bones with each punch. But the two adults seemed stunned by this sudden outpouring of emotion and violence.
"Why was I forced to grow up like that? To never enjoy a true childhood or the love of a parent. When my oath! (Thwack!) Sworn! (Crunch) Godfather! (Crack!) Was still alive!" Harry shouted the last three words with such a voice the air reverberated with magic.
"Immobulus!" Cried Remus Lupin when he came to his senses when Harry stopped yelling and seemed to be waiting on their responses, still hyperventilating and now shaking from the exertion. But to his shock Harry batted the spell away with his left hand that now clutched a wand, his eyes glowing like an infernal lantern of rage and power.
Sirius dropped to his knees. "I failed you, Harry. I will explain myself but at another time. You're likely to hurt yourself even more out of anger for my idiocy. And you've already badly damaged your hand. Please, Harry, let's get your hand healed up and we can try this again another day." Sirius wasn't treating Harry like a child; he had clasped his hands on Harry's shoulders and looked him in the eye like two soldiers, one telling the other to go to the medical tent because his arm was off but hadn't realized it yet. Harry stared down at his destroyed hand. Each digit stuck out at multiple odd angles The bones in his hand were bent and scrunched and the skin on his knuckles was all but gone? Shards of splintered bone were dripping a pool of blood onto the stone below him. He was breathing heavily. "Oh. Damn." Harry said in a blank, empty voice.
Harry sat in the hospital wing, his hand in a heavy cast and an empty beaker of skeleton beside him. He didn't remember arriving nor did he recall ingesting the disgusting liquid that was Skelegrow, but he knew he had as he could feel the tell tale pins and needles sensation that comes with rapid bone regrowth. Hermione was asleep in a chair beside his bed and Smara was curled around her shoulders most likely for warmth; the hospital wing was always chilly. Unlike Hermione, Smara's green eyes were open and staring at him.
"Awake, are you? Table killer? Are you done trying to upholster a centuries old bit of wood with your skin and bones?" She did not sound amused.
"No, maybe, for now. How did I get here?" Harry asked through their bond so they did not wake Hermione.
"When I sensed your pain and distress I alerted your lioness friend and she shot off in search of you. With me around her shoulders. When we arrived in a room you were staring at the bloody remains of what had been your right hand. She hit you with a "stunning spell" as she called it. The adults brought you down here then. That was 5 hours ago and it is nearly supper time. And she has been asleep for nearly an hour herself."
"Damn! I really need to stop losing my temper, Sirius probably thinks I'm a nutter now." Groused Harry internally.
"I do not believe that is the case, little one. From what the two elder fools were saying they were both very concerned for you and both blamed themselves for the outburst. It is my suggestion that you give them a week. To both calm down and process what you said. This will not be a short or easy process by any means, little one. Your trust in adults has been shattered. And you now face two of the progenitors of that distrust. Be kind and careful with them for I can smell their care for you. But be wary of Lupin; he has a scent of magic on him I've not smelt for eons. And I can't correctly place it. But it smells like danger"
"He's supposed to have some dark curse on him or something. McGonagall said the curse leaves him indisposed from time to time." Said Harry in his new teacher's defense.
"Still, be wary of him because he has the scent of a predator, though a sleeping one." No matter how many times after that Harry tried to speak to Smara she remained silent and wouldn't explain what she meant. And when he touched her mind through their bond all he got was a confusing mass of flashing images of monsters and images of the moon. So as another hour passed in stillness and boredom, he watched Hermione sleep. The slow even spacing of her soft breaths filled the silence of the hospital wing. It was such a soft and peaceful sound that Harry was quite content to just watch and listen as his normally bustling friend sat still and motionless. It wasn't until seven o'clock that Madame Pomfrey came to check on Harry and chevy Hermione out of the hospital wing for the night that she woke up, blushing to her roots when she learned that Harry had been watching over her instead of the other way around. Hermione being sent off for dinner and bed by the nurse was sad news for Harry as he was down for another night of pins and needles as he regrew bones in unmitigated monotony. Even Smara was gone for the night to hunt and he didn't like touching her mind when she was doing that, not after the deer.
After Harry had been released from incarceration the next morning to many many chidings and admonitions from the matron and the headmistress and Missus Weasley and he had to sit through both Daphne and Hermione brow beating him over his own stupidity for an hour and half. Each. It was, to say the least, not how he liked spending his Sundays yet he couldn't fault any of them for their concern. The headmistress and Hermione even went so far as to threaten telling Andromeda because nothing would stop Andromeda from killing Harry and then reviving him as she would her own child — whether or not Harry was a legal adult — when she heard what he had done to his own hand. It took Harry 30 minutes of pleading with them. Each. In order for them to agree to hold their tongues about it unless he did something really stupid again.
After that, Monday rolled around and the rest of the week passed by with the only interesting bit being when Professor Chambers went completely off the rails during Friday's class when asked by Harry's dormmate Dean Thomas how the magical community of America differed from the muggle one.
"Well, ya see, I was watching this old movie over the summer, my mom said it was a classic from America, "the outlaw Jose Wales" and made me watch it. Great movie, but it got me wonderin' how different the magical Old West was to the muggle side of things." The boy said.
"Well I wasn't gonna start on American history until yalls fourth year. But- since you brought it up I reckon I can give ya an overview.
To be short the American magical Community pretty much matched the muggle view of native culture. Suppress it, eliminate it and take it over — or force it away from the territory you take from them. That is until the 1860s and the American Civil War happened. While the No-Majs were fighting themselves, the magical communities of western settlers and natives were also in open conflict. The Natives had finally banded together under the command of the great chieftain Cochise of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, and the two groups would have probably destroyed each other. But in 1867 a peace accord was formed that joined the magical native council with MACUSA; this brought an end to the war and a great revival of culture and rejuvenation of magic in the Americas. Combining our cultural knowledge with the Natives set great leaps in medical and foundational magical knowledge.
After that there was still open conflict between native No-Majs and Americans but it stopped slowly as the native No-Majs were allowed special permission to join the magical community to protect their culture so ingrained with magic as to be inseparable.
And to this day there are several areas in America where Native American tribes live hidden and protected by their shamans. The Appalachian Mountains in the east. Death Valley in the west and many of our famous national parks and wildlife reserves are also native enclaves. Not to mention they also live in the more widely known Indian reservations." The man seemed so happy to share the history of his own country and that happy energy infected the whole class as he spoke.
"I often lament that British magic is so stagnant." He looked around at the offended gasps coming from the pureblood students. "Not in the way that sounds. But in America we don't only learn the Latin and English spells y'all learn here. Magical education is spread through the cultural knowledge of a hundred different native tribes, Latin, Roman, French, British, German, Mexica, Spanish, Mayan, Incan, and a dozen other countries. Experimentation is encouraged because the old way of doing things isn't always the best. The Inca had a sticking charm that acted like a non Newton's fluid. You could push and shift and hit the subject of the spell all day and even give it a harsh jerk upwards and it wouldn't move but when you went to lift it gently, the subject of the spell would go up without resistance. You don't need to undo the spell first."
And Harry got excited as he knew that spell. He had in fact just taught it to Krabbe the other day. So not thinking he stood up, pulled his wand and cast "ahuia!" at Malfoys quill. He tried to harshly pick it up only to bat himself in the mouth when his hand slipped off the immovable writing utensil, and then picked it up gently as Chambers had said, looking perturbed.
"5 points Mister Potter, that is the very spell I was talking about. When did you learn it?" asked Chambers, sounding rather impressed.
"Over the summer, I spent about a month and a half in Teotihuacan. Learning some of the history and true abilities of Parselmouths." Explained Harry.
"Ahh," the man said, smiling and nodding. "What a fabulous segway for me to talk about this year's special project," he said to a round of groans. And with a flick of his wand he sent a large scroll to each student. "This is the rubric you'll need to follow. We will be doing research projects on magical cultures from around the world. You can pick any outside of the British Isles. This research must include: location, age, history, and what makes the magical culture you pick act as it does — rather it be the docile servitude of mages to vampires in Transylvania, or the worship of the sun god in Peru. Your culture can be extinct or from the present day but I expect no less than 5 feet of parchment on your chosen subject. Since you're all third years I expect you to search for reference material while in Hogsmeade. All relevant information, rules and requirements are listed on the parchment I gave you. Your chosen culture is due to me this time next week." As he finished speaking the bell, signaling class ended, rang. And everyone went to enjoy the beginning of the weekend.
As they walked Harry could practically hear his two friends' brains buzzing. "So? Who are you two going to pick? I'm going to do magical Mexico, of course. I find that place really fascinating."
"Hmm well my first choice is magical France as I've been there so often but I think I might like to challenge myself to pick somewhere more unfamiliar. I liked the sound of Peru." Said Hermione, sounding like she was already running through her first draft in her head.
Ron however had a completely different and completely expected response. "Five feet. Five feet! How can that American pillock assign us 5 feet of parchment!"
"Oh! Calm down, Ron. Honestly! We've got the whole year to do it and 5 feet isn't even that much when you consider you're writing about the entire history of an entire culture!" And that's when Fred and George seemed to materialize from out of nowhere, each grabbing the opposite of Ron's shoulders and start frog marching him as they walked.
"Yea little brother, it's going to get even harder next year! And look at us, we have to do 10 feet of parchment on "the interrelations of magical countries preceding the first muggle World War and how that massive conflict changed them. But it should be easy since such a weighty topic is going to have a lot of references. Most of them are probably in secondhand books if not in the Hogwarts library." Said George.
"But that's not why we came to find you. Harry, Wood is looking for you, us really, we should say, team tryouts are tomorrow and he wants all returning players there to defend their spots. And he wants to discuss something with us." Said Fred.
"Speaking of tryouts. Are you trying out, little brother?" Said both twins switching between sentences.
"Errr no, I prefer keeping and well, with Wood here there's no chance I'll be on the team." Said Ron dejectedly.
"What a load of dung!" Said Fred " You're trying out tomorrow and that's that. If you're good you'll be a reserve. You saw what happened in your first year; two bludgers back to back and Wood was out for the game. It's smart to have a reserve. And you'll get much more practice for next year when we will need a new Keeper."
"And you can have my Nimbus. For practices I know you have my dad's old broom but you need something a bit newer if you're going to compete with the brooms I bought." Said Harry smiling. And that's when Hermione started unexpectedly.
"Ohh! Harry, the Firebolt has been released, you can use that in games now, right?"
"Yup! Although I don't know if I will, the broom is supposed to outmatch any broom on the market and I just don't think it'll be fair even with me donating all those brooms to the school."
"I can understand that" said Fred, "though maybe play it in the first game to see just how sporting a competition it is and then go from there?"
"I could do that." Said a grinning Harry. The thought of being back on his broomstick was a very happy one. The summer didn't leave much time for recreational activities. With a quick farewell to his friends he followed the twins to a large empty classroom that Wood often used for unofficial Quidditch meetings. As they entered the Gryffindor Chaser team and Captain/Keeper were already there waiting for them.
"See, I told you, Oliver, no point in any of us looking for him when the twins can find anyone in the castle faster than anyone else. Even Filch."
"And just how did you all find me anyway!" said Harry laughing. The question just popped in Harry's head.
"Ohhhh, just had a bit of help from Mooney, Padfoot,and Prongs!" said Fred winking.
"Oh! I forgot! You'll have to show me that later." Said Harry.
"Be that as it may!" Interrupted Oliver Wood. "Discussing Fred and George's propensity for problem causing isn't why I called you here. Look, these past two years we have had the best team in the school! And it's been rotten luck only that's kept us from the cup, from Harry getting, errr, sick at the end of his first season and the tournament getting canceled last year. This year is my last chance to have my name on the cup! And I'm going to get it there. One way or the other. We will be having more and longer training sessions. I'm also going to be training an entire squad of reserves in case teams like Slytherin take one or more of us out in a game. That being said I want all of us at tryouts; we are all going to pick our protege and train them to be just as capable as we are. This is my legacy as captain. To ensure Gryffindor wins for the foreseeable future."
"Yea! And it'll also make you look really good for the scouts that are coming for you this year." snarked George.
"There is that, too, yes!" laughed Oliver, acknowledging his ulterior motives causing the team to laugh around him.
The next day saw the biggest house team tryouts in Hogwarts' history. Wood puts out a total house bulletin. A very very rare event — meaning every student in the house had to try out. Even Hermione very reluctantly tried for keeping and actually did marginally well, scoring 3 saves out of five. Harry suspected she could actually do much better and just didn't want to. The Chaser tryouts took the longest time with the sheer amounts of applicants and the fact that one burly 4th year boy named Cormac McLaggen "accidentally" shattered Seamus Finnegan's jaw after he tried to steal a pass meant for the younger boy, being on the same team as Seamus this looked very bad on McLaggen's part. The Chaser trials concluded with Ginny Weasley, a fourth year named Howard and a 6th year, Fae Dunbar, being named back ups.
The Keeper tryouts concluded with Ron's great success at catching 5 out of 5 throws and dodging the two bludgers his older brothers sent his way to "keep his head from getting too inflated" according to Fred when Wood started to berate them. Seamus became a backup Beater after he drank some Skele-Grow someone had brought along. A second year named Richie peaks became a Beater as well. Leaving the Seeker trials for last. The Seeker trials were always the least popular. Very popular though the position is in the game not many people were willing to impart the risk that comes with playing it. That said Ginny Weasley was the only one to volunteer to try out, making her the only double back up.
Neither Lupin nor Mr Black were at dinner that night. Harry had hoped to talk to them and apologize for his outburst but he was determined to corner them the next morning and make things right.
Sunday afternoon saw Harry standing in front of Lupin's office door waiting for a reply after having just knocked on the ancient oak. Hermione stood next to him, Harry had been intelligent enough to invite her along this time. The door swung open to reveal a pale and tired Remus Lupin with heavy bags under his eyes, he brightened though, upon sighting his visitor.
"Ah Harry! And Miss Granger of course good afternoon. It is good to see you both, though I must admit I didn't expect to find you, Harry, knocking on my door so soon after- well last week."
"Hello Professor!" Said Hermione.
"Good afternoon! I wanted to let everything settle, but Smara said I should do this sooner rather than later."
"Ahh and where is your snake companion, I wanted to ask her thoughts on my lesson this week."
"She frequently disappears into Slytherin's chamber. And if not there, into the Slytherin common room. Apparently there's some hidden room she likes to stay in. Daphne won't tell us what. You all made that map, yea? Any ideas?" Explained Harry while being led inside and seeing an equally tired looking Sirius sipping coffee at the table, Harry's eyebrows drew together in a silent question he sent to Hermione, who shrugged.
The two older men shared a look and shook their heads simultaneously. "Sorry Harry, can't say we know that one. We didn't get a lot of chances to explore the other common rooms in great detail. For the map the broad details are about all there are." Said Sirius, his voice echoing out of his mug.
"Professor? Excuse me but why are you both so tired?" Asked Hermione just as Harry began asking the same thing.
"The Wizengamot!" Growled Sirius. "Some hag tried to pass an anti creatures and part human law that would make it legal to kill them all on sight in "civilized areas" in a back room deal in the dead of night. They sent two notices around 6 in the afternoon and we left there after arguing with those ignorant blow-hards for nine hours. Fell into our beds at 3 in the morning." Sirius raged while explaining this, shooting up from his seat only to pace and gesticulate wildly in his anger.
"Surely not!" Said Hermione shocked. "That must be a wildly unpopular opinion! Did many show up against it?"
"Only about half the Wizengamot. It wasn't decided until Andromeda showed up and cast Harry's votes to kill the bill. Until she showed up it was a deadlock between my block of votes and a few others' like the Longbottoms' and Bones' that kept it from being passed."
"Well I'm glad the Potter votes can do some good in the world. I certainly don't want them."
"Don't be so flippant Harry." Chided the sandy haired professor. "The Potter votes can command immense authority. We knew James and Charlus, Harry. We both know what's hidden in your office."
"The ring of Gryffindor?" Harry asked askance
Hermione whirled around looking at him with wide eyes at that announcement. Harry grimaced, meeting her angry eyes and mother a silent "later." Which she accepted with a nod her lips pressed into the thinnest and straightest line quite reminiscent of the headmistress.
"And a few others that could almost give you primacy over the Wizengamot based on the old laws of the Wizards' council. I'm a Black, Harry. I know the fact that old families have hidden lines and power more than most. Most of the time they lay dormant waiting for a Head of House to need that power or authority or access to whatever misbegotten treasure they had discovered. But!" He said cutting through the serious discussion with one flamboyant motion. "Troubles with the racists of this country and the Wizengamot isn't why you came here this early in the morning-"
"It's 2 in the afternoon Sirius" interrupted Professor Lupin.
"Be. that. as. it. may." He banged on the table before rising from his seat to kneel in front of Lupin. "Please, let's talk about something a bit less dull than the horrors of politics, please Moony?!" The scruffy looking Sirius was pleading dramatically on hands and knees. And shot up smiling, when Lupin rolled his eyes and waved his hands for them to continue. "Excellent! So tell us Harry, why come visit us on this cold dreary September day."
"Oh well, I just wanted to continue our talk and apologize for my outburst. I'm trying to be the best Lord Potter possible. And I know I came quite short with that display." A blushing Harry said while Hermione squeezed his hand for support.
Harry watched as the two old marauders exchanged a look. "If that's the case then Charlus was a poor Lord Potter indeed. Your family never put a lot of stock in the overstuffed gestures of grace and formalities that the "Sacred twenty eight" have." Sirius said before Lupin took over.
"Not to mention Harry, you are thirteen years old. No one expects you to act like a world weary reasonable adult one hundred percent of the time. Even if you think you are and that you do, you're still a teen and that comes with certain emotional - irregularities." The scarred teacher said as if picking his words very carefully at the end.
"We know Andy and Lord Greengrass' oldest have been teaching you pureblood etiquette but she didn't know your family near as much as I did. — By all means keep learning social graces, they are invaluable skills to have when you have to deal with ponces like Malfoy on a daily basis. — But you don't have to live by them to retain your family's legacy. Because — to paraphrase Charlus himself — "your ancestors rather spat on that kind of air headed nonsense. We're Lords forgotten by the crown, not princes awaiting seats on the throne." Sirius finished this story smiling.
"That makes me feel a lot better really, I'm pants at all that etiquette stuff anyway." Harry saying this caused them all to share a quick laugh.
"Look Harry, about what you said the other day. If you want a full retelling and recounting of those events I'll tell you all I know. I failed you in ways that I can never atone for. So when you're-" Harry cut Sirius off.
"I'm not. I'm not ready. I think I'd like to get to know you and Mr Lupin better. Maybe we can tell you stories of our first and second years. If the headmistress hasn't filled you in, the stories can be quite intense."
"I've been wondering how you got that badge. Minerva simply told us you would share when you're ready." Sirius said, pointing to the shield adoring Harry's robes. "Speaking of which, have you put any of those benefits to use yet?"
"Benefits? What benefits? I thought it was just a badge." At this Hermione smacks her own forehead.
"Of course, I completely forgot, Harry the Reward for Special Services to the school allows you equal status as prefects. It lets you enter the prefect lounge under the trophy room and the prefect bath." At this she turned beat red up to her roots. "Which the headmistress didn't tell you about most likely because the prefects' bathroom is co-ed and she most likely didn't think you ready for such things."
"That about sums up what I had thought. But if you do want to use that room I can tell you all you have to do is touch the shield to the door. Though I'd suggest going after hours. Maybe use your-." And he stopped there, perking up as if a great shock hit him and he looked over at Lupin before continuing. "Harry? You don't happen to have your father's old invisibility cloak, right?"
"Errr, yes? The headmaster gave it to me for Christmas my first year. Said he used it to sneak food from the kitchens. I don't use it all that much to be honest, but I keep it in my trunk with what's happened to me in my time here. I like to have things handy that can help in a lot of situations." This caused both adults to frown.
"Well, I'd use it to sneak in there if you wanted to. After hours, of course, when the older students have gone to bed. Now tell us young students about your adventures at this fine school." Joked Sirius.
And Harry and Hermione spent the afternoon catching up with the two adults on just what has been going on in and around Hogwarts. Albus Dumbledore's betrayal of Harry and his summer working up to his emancipation. Fighting a troll, befriending a basilisk and defeating a shade of fear. The two adults were a great and energetic audience; they winced and cheered and gasped in all the right places, even showing the same enthusiasm for Hermione's own solitary stories of her time as a muggleborn in the school and defeating Snape's logic puzzle. And when Harry detailed his final confrontation with the shade of Voldemort, Lupin sank into his seat and Sirius jumped out of his, cheering and raving about his godson smacking around a dark wizard. By the end of the day they had all agreed to meet up again the next weekend and swap more stories. Of Harry's parents' school days and Harry's and Hermione's own adventures.