Chapter Seven
Summary: A trip to the Burrow, Castor's Birthday and Harry finally meets Bill.
Evie's Notes: Happy Friday! I hope you all are having a wonderful week ! As always, thank you so much your support of this story, it really and truly means the world to me ! I hope that you all enjoy the this new update .
Harry happily flooed through to the Burrow excited to see Ron again after a month and a half apart.
"RON!"
"Harry, mate!" exclaimed his best friend pulling him into a hug.
"I missed you so much" said Harry.
"Everything ok with your new guardian?" asked Ron worriedly. He knew how bad the Dursleys were and hoped that his best friend hadn't gone from one bad situation to another.
"Oh Castor is the best! He…." started Harry
"Is that Harrikins we hear?" called the twins as they entered the kitchen with Mrs. Weasley.
Harry fist-bumped the pair quickly before accepting Mrs. Weasley's fierce hug.
"Thank you for having me Mrs. Weasley" thanked Harry.
"Of course Harry! You're always welcome here. I'm so glad to see you, I've been wanting to check in ever since you moved in with your new guardian, make sure he is treating you right".
"Oh Castor! Yeah he's amazing" gushed Harry. "He treats me so well, I have my own room that he painted my favorite color. He's helping Remus teach me about the Wixen world and all the stuff I don't know because I grew up with the Dursleys. He even taught me how to send a message with my patronus"
"You're doing school during the summer?" asked Ron aghast.
"NO, not really" protested Harry. "Sure we started with my homework, but now we're talking about culture, holidays and the government. Remus is such a good teacher that it's actually fun. Castor is also teaching me Oculomancy to protect my mind. It's an absolute godsend when it comes to stopping my nightmares. I'm so lucky to have them both"
"Well I guess that sounds ok" said Ron
"Don't worry though, we have a lot of fun. Remus and Sirius and Castor have been wrapped up in a prank war for the last two weeks… I never want to see glitter again" laughed Harry.
"I am glad to hear that Lord Potter-Black is taking good care of you," said Mrs. Weasley. "I can't wait to meet him"
"Us too!" agreed the twins.
"Did you bring your broom?" Asked Ron
"Of course!" said Harry, taking the shrunken broom out of his pocket and having Mrs. Weasley resize it for him.
"Gred, go grab Ginny! That way we can scrimmage three on three" said George.
"Will do, Forge!" agreed his twin, rushing up the stairs to get their little sister.
"Outside with you all then" declared Mrs. Weasley as she ushered them out the door.
Shoving Harry's shoulder playfully, Ron took off running to the broom shed yelling "Race you to the shed"
"Ugh Ron you cheat!" yelled Harry, laughing and racing after his friend. This really was the best summer ever!
Xx Breaking the Hourglass x Breaking the Hourglass xX
Castor's 23rd birthday was the best ever. For once he was surrounded by family as he blew out the candles on the lemon cake that Kreature baked for him. Sirius and Harry were having fun seeing how terribly out of tune they could sing the birthday song.
"Happy Birthday, Castor" grinned Harry.
"Thank you Harry"
"23 years old, do you feel old yet?" teased Sirius.
"If I'm old does that make you ancient?" joked Castor
"Definitely" quipped Harry
"Ooh you wanna go, Prongslet?"
"Peace boys" cut in Moony. "I think it's time for presents"
"You guys didn't have to-" began Castor, only to be cut off by three voices.
"Of course we did!" protested Remus
"You're family" smiled Harry.
"Just shut up and let us love you," laughed Sirius, passing him the first brightly wrapped package.
From Harry, Castor received a set of beautiful leather journals that the boy said could be used to record his spell crafting experiments in. Castor had grinned and given the boy a big hug in thanks.
Remus had given him Chocolate and a new book on Defense skills, joking that it's best to brush up on one's fighting skills when Harry "troublemagnet" Potter is in your life.
Sirius had gifted him some paints and other art supplies; the gift was inspired by a conversation the pair had had the other day about how much Castor missed being artistic.
Castor had been shocked when Errol arrived that morning carrying a box for him. Inside had been a beautiful blue sweater (Castor's favorite color), a tin of treacle tart and some home made fudge. The gifts were accompanied by a note saying how happy they were that he had taken Harry in and that they couldn't wait to meet him especially since they had heard so many good things about him. Castor felt a warm glow in his chest, apparently Bill had been talking to his family about him.
The little family then retired to the sitting room to drink tea or hot chocolate and play a board game. Harry thoroughly beat them all at Monopoly.
There was a huge smile on Castor's face when he went to bed that night. Truly he had the best family and tomorrow they would get to meet Bill!
Xx Breaking the Hourglass x Breaking the Hourglass xX
Castor sat on the couch in the receiving room, his leg bouncing nervously as he awaited Bill's arrival. He wanted to make sure that everything went smoothly today. Bill was becoming important to Castor, but nothing and nobody was more important than Harry. If the two couldn't get along, or Harry felt uncomfortable, Castor would have to let the relationship go. Cleo was wrapped around Castor's shoulders and hissing calming messages in his ear.
The floo flared green signaling his boyfriend's arrival. Bill stepped through the flames looking as unfairly good as he always did. His long red hair was braided with multiple small braids on one side with the other side loose and curly. He was dressed in a pair of black dress pants, a loose green linen shirt and a pair of dragonhide shoes. Castor spotted that he was wearing the belt he had sent him a few weeks ago.
"Hello gorgeous" greeted the man, as he pulled Castor in with an arm around his waist for a kiss.
"Hello yourself" quipped Castor with a grin. "Are you ready to do this?" he asked, his grey-blue eyes glinting with worry.
"Of course! I'm excited to meet your family, especially Harry, I've heard so much about him" grinned back the man with a devil may care smile.
"Alright, let's do this then, they're waiting for us with tea in the sitting room"
The pair made their way up the stairs to the main floor of the town house. Castor led Bill into the sitting room where Sirius, Remus and Harry were waiting.
"Everyone this is Bill" began Harry as he tugged the man into the room by their interlocked hands. "Bill, this is my family. Sirius Black and his partner Remus Lupin and my ward Harry Potter".
"It is a pleasure to meet you all" smiled Bill. "Especially you Harry, I have heard so much about you from Castor and from my siblings".
Castor and Bill took a seat on the open couch and began to chat with the house residents.
"So Harry, the twins tell me that you are quite the talent on a broom" said Bill.
"Uhh, Yeah. I'm the youngest seeker in a century, I made the Gryffindor house quidditch team as a first year" replied Harry shyly.
"That's awesome. I'm sure you know from Ron and the twins that my brother Charlie was also seeker for Gryffindor during his time at Hogwarts".
"Yeah, I don't think Oliver Wood ever forgave him for graduating" laughed Harry. "Did you play Quidditch?"
"I didn't play for the school team but I do love to fly. If it's alright with Castor maybe we can fly together sometime?"
"Oh I'd love that! Please Castor! Please"
"Ok, ok" laughed the man. "As long as you guys stay within the wards I don't see any reason not to allow you guys fly together sometime soon"
"YAY! Siri you have to fly with us too"
"Sounds like fun, Pup" agreed the man readily.
The conversation then shifted to Bill's work as the man shared stories about his job as a curse breaker and the awesome members of his team.
"You work with an actual vampire!?" asked Harry, his eyes wide.
"Yup, Cordelia is an absolute badass" replied Bill, before covering his mouth and apologizing to Castor with his eyes.
Castor just laughed and waved off the silent apology. "Oh please, it's fine. He's heard worse at school and living with Sirius"
"Anyways, Cordelia is our language expert. She is fluent in over 50 languages that she's picked up over her long lifetime" explained Bill.
"That's so cool! I wish I knew another language" pouted Harry.
"If you want to learn all you have to do is ask, Cub" offered Remus. "I'm fluent in German and Padfoot here was raised to speak French".
"We could add language skills to your lessons if you pick one you want to learn," suggested Castor. "Personally Latin is the only other language I know well, and that's because of work".
"Huh?"
"Well our English spells are based on Latin. So in order to craft new spells one needs to know what they are saying and asking the magic to do" explained the Unspeakable.
"Oh that makes sense" nodded Harry.
The group talked a while longer before Bill unfortunately had to leave. Waving goodbye to the others and promising to come back soon to fly, Bill followed Castor back to the receiving room.
Stopping before they could reach the fireplace, Bill pulled Castor over to the couch along the wall. Taking a seat he reached into his pocket and pulled out a brightly wrapped gift.
"You really didn't think I'd leave without giving you your gift, did you, bright eyes?" teased the man.
"Oh Bill! You didn't have to," protested Castor.
"I know, but I wanted to darling. Open it Cas"
Smiling, Castor carefully unwrapped the package and opened the box to find a pocket watch inside. Opening the gold cover he saw five clock hands with names on them and a variety of locations such as work, school, home, travelling, danger etc. Castor teared up as he realized he had just been given a smaller version of Mrs. Weasley's clock.
"I hope I'm not overstepping, but I know how much you love your family and I wanted to make sure that you would always know they were safe. I also included myself on there; I am hoping to avoid ever landing on the danger section… though that does seem to come with the job".
Castor pulled Bill in for a tight hug before kissing him in thanks. Now he would be able to know that Remus, Sirius, Harry, Bill and himself were safe at all times.
"Thank you so much Bill. You have no idea how much this means to me"
"It was modeled after a clock my mother has in the kitchen and she always says how good it is to know everyone is safe".
"Speaking of your mum, please thank her for me for the gifts she sent. I was so happy and surprised to see your family's owl yesterday"
"I will pass on the message, but now I really must go," said Bill regretfully. "Tyrisk called a team meeting for this evening".
Giving Bill a final kiss, Castor waved goodbye as the man disappeared back home through the floo. Grinning, Castor made his way back upstairs to check in on the rest of his family.
Xx Breaking the Hourglass x Breaking the Hourglass xX
Castor's second Wizengamot meeting was a lot less interesting than his first one. Without the drama of announcing his presence and trying to get one up on Dumbledore the meeting was dreadfully dull. Castor was again thankful that these sessions only happened once a month.
He spent a good portion of the session glaring at Albus Dumbledore as the man ignored him. The slippery headmaster had somehow weaseled his way out of a full trial regarding his neglect as Harry's magical guardian and had instead just been slapped with a large fine and the threat of taking away some of his positions. Castor's lawyer, Katherine Locke was furious with the turn of events. Castor assumed Dumbledore had gotten away with it due to the power he held over Minister Fudge and the large donations that had been made to the ministry recently.
Castor wasn't going to let this go though, he was determined to see that the man would get what was coming to him. If not through the legal courts than through the court of Public Opinion. Castor spent a good portion of the Wizengamot meeting daydreaming about the articles he wanted Skeeter to write to thoroughly destroy the man's public image. He swore to himself that the next time the man stepped out of line he would sue him again and this time he would make it stick. After all, there was nothing more important than Harry's safety.
Evie's Notes 2: Before you freak out! Dumbledore will get what is coming to him, I just need him around in the story a little longer. But Harry will get justice, Castor will make sure of that.
Next Update: Castor meets the Weasleys and Harry's birthday.
Thank you all so much for reading ! I hope you enjoyed this update, let me know your favorite part of in the comments! I hope to see you all next week !
I love hearing from y'all! Let me know what you think of the chapter and the story as a whole in the comments or my Tumblr Find-y0ur-j0y! Have a great week and stay safe! - Xo Evie