Chapter 3
Daniel was glorifying in his new purchases by the time Harry got home. He was surrounded by so much junk, that Harry was surprised he didn't trip over things just by breathing. Daniel was trading out all of his new school supplies with his old ones in a highly showy manner. Shaking his head at his brother's foolishness, Harry clambered up the stairs to his room and dumped the cup, Gringotts folders, and the animagus pamphlets on his bed. He'd go and grab the newly discarded effects from the rubbish bins later that night.
Picking the Hufflepuff cup from the bedspread Harry started tossing it from hand to hand. The cup shot another set of tingles through his arms that slowly dissipated away. Hedwig hooted in puzzlement at his frown. He looked up and smiled as she launched herself off of the dresser and flew over to his bed.
"Hey girl, miss me?" Harry asked while petting the crown of her head with the back of his knuckle.
Hedwig closed her eyes briefly and leaned into the touch before pulling back. She stood on his bedspread watching him while he unloaded the folders of their contents. Shortly after Harry was up to his eyebrows in paperwork and felt like bashing his head against the wall. No wonder the goblin, Raypirnk, had grinned insanely at his declaration about not being able to get an account.
He'd bet anything that the proper procedure when bringing over new clients was not tossing a load of gibberish rubbish at them. Getting nowhere fast, Harry just ended up creating three stacks of papers. They were loosely organized into vault responsibilities, vault benefits, and vault protection. He would tackle them later when he had a clearer head, Harry decided.
Running downstairs Harry grabbed himself a plate of leftovers from the fridge and heated it with a wandless warming charm. Carefully, he snuck past his family sitting in the dining room and ran upstairs. Back in his bedroom, Harry set the plate on top of his desk and gingerly sat down in the broken chair.
He ate quickly and after two tries banished his plate back to the kitchen below. Stretching, he grabbed a quill and a roll of parchment. Then he tried to make headway again with the Gringott's piles. In the end, Harry still felt like a confundus charm had been cast upon him and pushed it all away with a disgruntled sigh.
Perking up, Harry pulled the animagus pamphlets towards him and gleefully opened the first one on 'Potential For Becoming.' It wasn't a long read, considering ¾ of the book was a list of ingredients and directions for brewing the potion required. The other ¼ was about the rune work involved in a short but precise ritual and the history of the ritual. There was also a stamp of Ministry Approval on the back cover that Harry was positive had been faked since all things animagus were regulated.
'Prepping the Body for the Change,' was similar in it's set up. However, the potion to be drunk by the witch or wizard required nothing short of a bloody miracle to pull off. Practically all of the ingredients reacted badly with at least one other and required such precision during preparation that even cutting at the wrong angle could ruin the entire contents of the cauldron. Not only that but it was time consuming and would take Harry well over three months to brew--and that's with using Hogwart's facilities and fresh ingredients!
"This is positively ridiculous!" Harry exclaimed angrily, shutting the pamphlet and stuffing it in his desk. "Hedwig, how am I suppose to do this? How the hell did Dad and Sirius and Remus do it? And Peter bloody Pettigrew! How did he do it? It's an individual preparation!"
Hedwig hooted wryly and Harry stopped mid rant and chuckled. His chuckling escalated into a full blown riot. A few minutes later Harry settled down and started getting ready for bed.
Just before he blew out his candle he stared thoughtfully at Hedwig. "But seriously, how did they do it? They were 5th years."
Hedwig blinked her bright yellow eyes and shuffled her feathers before flying out the open window with a coo. Harry shrugged and piled his spectacles on the nightstand. He laid on his back and stared blankly at the blurry ceiling and thought about the upcoming year.
It was four days before September first and the train to Hogwarts. Harry wasn't sure if he was thrilled or not. He was sure he'd liked to be back in classes and be able to explore the Restricted Section of the library looking for the term Horcrux. He was even certain he would, in spite of the ridiculous measures involved with the whole process, enjoy having the time and space to work on his animagus training. He'd even get to play Quidditch!
All these great things would happen at Hogwarts and yet he wasn't thrilled to be going back. It certainly wasn't the threat of Voldemort bothering him. He'd fooled the Dark Poofter before. Maybe it was because Daniel was the new Headboy. Or maybe it was because he was looking forward to another friendless year. It could also be that 7th year just marked the end of his childhood and no one cared what he did with his life afterwards.
Shortly thereafter Harry fell asleep. The night passed by uneventfully and with the next day came news of Voldemort's strike against some muggleborn homes in Wales. Harry sat and soberly read the Prophet's report while reflecting on the pain from his scar from dinner not too long ago. Absently he rubbed it as if to swipe away any lingering prickles of pain.
The next three days were spent shuffling between the Potter library with it's section on goblins and his room. Passages of pure gobbledygook required hours of translating and then fixing with a rune or two and a deciphering spell. When Harry had finally mucked through it all he knew the answers to the questions he'd asked earlier.
Harry also used that time to ponder the bloody Hufflepuff cup. The Potter library yielded nothing in his search for Horcruxes and there wasn't a lot of information either about any of the founders. What once where small tingles form the cup had turned in to full blow electric shocks, and Harry wanted to know why.
He poked his wand at it and it would jiggle skittishly on his desk. So in trying to get more of a response from the golden object Harry tried out what he'd seen Snape do with a piece of parchment, Daniel had once. He pointed his wand directly at the cup and intoned severely, "Reveal, your secrets."
The cup flew out of his hand with a small explosion causing Harry to yelp in pain. His skin had reddened rapidly and was sore to the touch. When he got close to it now, the cup would wobble and hiss threateningly, so he packed it in his trunk and left it alone. Even with the small setbacks, he was immensely pleased with himself.
Boredom struck not to long after and Harry found himself revising his homework just for something to do. Hedwig was displeased with the doldrums that Harry was going through and tried perking him up with a dead mouse, but that didn't bring a smile to his face. After a while she left to go hunting and so Harry found himself the night before the holidays ended with a growling stomach.
Deciding to join the rest of his family, Harry tromped down the stairs to the summer's 'end of hols' dinner made up of all of Daniel's favorites. The smell was delicious and mouthwatering when he reach the landing and Harry hurriedly followed his nose into the dining room. After entering Harry halted, flabbergasted. He was then greeted by the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore.
"Uh... Good evening, Headmaster," Harry responded dumbly before starting and hastily taking his customary seat, which happened to be directly across from the wizened wizard.
"Are you looking forward to the start of term, Harry?" Dumbledore inquired after cutting a bite of roasted ham and chewing it thoughtfully.
Harry looked up and met the Headmaster's eyes briefly before looking down at his plate. "Yeah, sure. Can't wait to get back to the library and Quidditch pitch."
"That's right," Dumbledore said, watching him and making Harry nervous. "You're going to be first string seeker for Ravenclaw now that Miss Chang has graduated."
Harry glanced up again and looked back and forth from his mother to his father and finally on Daniel. "Yes, sir," he answered finally.
"Daniel's looking forward to the next season," Lily said reaching forward to the green bean casserole and giving herself and James seconds.
"I'm sorry you didn't make captain, Daniel," Dumbledore replied looking over to Daniel, who was sitting on the other side of Harry.
Daniel paused mid-chew, shifted his food around and said, "Yeah, I don't know what Professor McGonagall was thinking giving it to Ron. I have seniority!"
"By like three days, Daniel," Harry grumbled under his breath.
Daniel shot him a glare but said nothing as he swallowed and then drank heavily of his pumpkin juice. "Can I have more ham, mum?"
Lily smiled adoringly and asked Dumbledore if he'd mind passing Daniel the plate of ham. Dumbledore wiped his mouth on his beard instead of his napkin and proceeded to do as requested with an twinkle in his eye.
"I'm sure Minerva had a reason for it, Daniel, my boy," the Headmaster said as Daniel took the plate and piled more food than he could possibly eat in a sitting onto his plate.
"If you say so Professor," Daniel replied.
James shook his head and around his mouthful of food argued, "I don't believe Minnie has her head on straight. Daniel is the best player on the team and Ron, bless the boy, is practically the worst player ever to be on the Gryffindor team."
"Exactly!" Daniel exclaimed, perking up.
"He's loads better at strategy then you, though," Harry retorted under his breath. "You couldn't plan your way out of a broom cupboard."
"Shut it, you!" Daniel snipped, facing Harry and spraying him with a few flecks of food. "I am loads better than Ron."
"Harry," James reprimanded sharply, glaring at him..
"Harry, stop riling Daniel up this instant," Lily scolded sternly. "If you don't behave you can't have any dessert."
Harry stared at them for a minute causing Lily to raise an eyebrow at him. "Sorry mum, dad," he said weakly, stabbing a green bean. "My humblest apologies brother-of-mine."
The Headmaster was oddly silent while staring steadily at Harry and Daniel for a minute before deftly changing the topic and breaking the sudden tension that had arisen. Harry moodily ate at his plate, not bothering to follow conversation and they cheerfully left him out . When he finished, Harry quietly asked to leave and left without ever getting a response.
As he was exiting he heard Dumbledore turn to his parents and ask about his recent behavior. He slouched up the stairs in defeat when they'd passed it off as his normal behavior. It really wasn't his fault that he couldn't socialize, was it? After all he had nobody to socialize with, other than Hedwig and occasionally Serion.
Upstairs, Harry packed his trunk as slowly as he could. He put the robes Daniel had recently tossed at the bottom. All were carefully folded after several attempted and failed wandless ironing charms that left the hems a bit singed. He did however successfully transfigure the school badge, something he had too much practice with, without his wand.
Then Harry set his school books on the bottom to the left of the stack of robes in two neat piles. He triple checked that the restricted section library books were all there and readily accessible for a quick run to the library before the opening feast. The pamphlets for animagus training were stuffed into his cauldron that rested in the wedge of space between the books and the robes.
Hedwig's cage was shrunk and tucked in beside the cauldron alongside her bag of owl treats. Following that were his ink wells, quills, and rolls of recycled parchment. Regular clothes were then folded and placed on top of the robes until the right side of the trunk was filled. It took some work, but Harry managed to stuff the trunk with his potions kit.
Harry surveyed the room and deciding it packed, cleaned it with some well aimed scourgifies at the dustiest spots. Shortly after tidying up the room he got ready for bed and climbed in between the sheets.
His scar prickled annoyingly. Harry rubbed it irritably and scrubbed the rest of his face once. Another twinge raced through his scar and he rubbed it again. Harry turned over onto his side and punched his pillow into a ball. If he could just get to sleep, he'd be okay.
"Bloody Tosser," Harry grumbled, punching his pillow again when another spike of pain ripped through his scar.
Quiet meditation allowed Harry to shut out those feelings in his scar and fall asleep. The next morning Harry woke up feeling well and refreshed. They had about an hour before they had to get to the train station so Harry rushed through his shower and dressed. Downstairs in the chaos of the kitchen, Harry grabbed a few slices of bacon to munch on, while watching with amusement as Lily berated Daniel for not having packed already.
"We're going to be late!" Lily bemoaned, putting another ration of bacon in front of James who scarfed it down and asked with pleading eyes for some more.
Lily huffed and pulled both Daniel's and James' plate from the table in annoyance and took them to the sink.
"Hey! I was still eating, Mum!"
"I will not be sending anything you forget today through the post, young man. Go upstairs and pack your things right now."
"What about Harry?" Daniel griped, shoving his chair under the table and glaring at his twin.
"I've already packed," Harry said around a bite of bacon, smirking up at his brother.
"Stop it, James," Lily scolded, smacking his hand away from her plate.
James nursed his hand and pouted. "Ow, woman! That hurt!"
"It'll hurt more if you try it again!"
"Bacon Nazi," James grumbled under his breath.
Daniel gave one last moody glare and stalked from the room and up the stairs. Harry took another bite of bacon and got up from the table. He went and poured himself a glass of orange juice from the fridge and pulled out some fruit as well. Lily and James were arguing behind him about breakfast and the proper amount of bacon that was to be served for the meal.
"You'll get high cholesterol, James, dear," Lily said high-handedly and ate the last piece of bacon from her plate before moving onto the scrambled eggs.
"Lily, love, I'm never going to get high coal-lester-all! I'm a wizard! Muggle medicine doesn't hold a broomstick to the stuff Madam Pomfrey can do!"
Harry shook his head at their antics as he sat back down at the table to eat the fruit and drink his juice. Daniel came back downstairs complaining that he couldn't find his new broom and couldn't possibly continue packing until he new where it was. James laughed at his son's childishness and sent an accio out for the broom.
"Wherever it is, son, it'll be here soon. We're leaving in ten minutes for the train so you better hurry up. Your mum sounded serious about not shipping you anything you've forgotten."
"I don't know how Molly does it," Lily said shaking her head and going over to the sink to put on the charmed automatic dish washer. "I know it's only Ron and Ginny this year, but how did she get them all ready when she had five going all at the same time? It's hard getting one kid ready to go!"
Harry scowled at that declaration and stuffed the rest of the fruit into his mouth, chewed, swallowed, and drank the rest of his juice in one go. Standing abruptly from the table he grabbed his dishes and dropped them uncaringly into the sink. He stalked from the room afterwards and hurried up the stairs.
"One kid, my arse, Mum," Harry growled, slamming his door into the wall as he stomped into the room.
The sight of Serion was on his desk sunning stopped Harry in his tracks. The dark cloud hovering over his head evaporated as he walked over to the little green snake.
§I thought I wasn't going to see you again.§ Harry hissed, petting the crown of Serion's head.
Serion lifted his head and yawned. §I coming with you to Hogwarts.§
§You never wanted to before, what's changed your mind, Serion?§ Harry said, perplexed as he petted the snake.
§What? And let you go on to your 7th year and never come back? I don't think so,§ Serion sniffed. §Besides you're the best conversation I have around here when you aren't a whiny brat.§
Harry's eyes narrowed menacingly, before he relaxed and said with a smirk on his lips, §I may be a whiny brat, but it's better than being a cantankerous sycophant.§
§You take that back, human!§
§Relax, Serion, I'm only pulling your tail,§ Harry soothed, collecting his trunk and putting the Hufflepuff cup in his trouser pocket. § If you're coming you better hurry up and climb up my sleeve, because I'm going downstairs.§
§Don't jostle me,§ Serion hissed, snaking up Harry's wrist and wrapping himself around the warm flesh of Harry's upper arm.
§Never your royal highness,§ Harry replied with heavy sarcasm.
"Hedwig, you better take off now," Harry said turning to Hedwig and stroking her feathers once Serion slithered out of sight. "I'll see you at Hogwarts, girl."
Hedwig hooted and took off through the open window. Harry shut it after her departure and heaved his trunk down the stairs into the foyer. Lily and Daniel were there but his dad was not. He gave a questioning look to Daniel, who just ignored him. Shrugging in indifference, Harry leaned back against the credenza and crossed his arms, careful not to hurt Serion.
"Mum, we're going to be late if Dad doesn't hurry up," Daniel said, rolling his eyes and slumping against the wall.
"Your father wants to take pictures of your last start-of-the-year train ride. He gets sentimental at times."
"I'd rather he not, it's embarrassing Mum!" Daniel said with a huff. "Besides I'm sure that Collin Creevey will be there to snap the moment of the famed Daniel Potter's last train ride."
"Unless you go home for Christmas," said Harry, raising his gaze from the interesting scuff spot on the floor. "Then it'd be your second to last."
"Well…" Daniel hedged for a minute before wincing as James came running around the corner with an absolutely ancient Muggle camera slung around his neck.
"Sorry 'bout that, Lily love," James panted, doubling over to catch his breath. "Just wanted to get a few snaps of Junior here, making his last hurrah."
"Ss… plural, Dad," Harry muttered under his breath as he picked up his trunk by it's handle. "Or in case you didn't notice, you have two sons."
James fairly bounced with excitement as he patted his pockets in search for the Portkey that would whisk them off to the station. He found it in the twelveth pocket in his coat and held it out to them with an eager expression. It was a Muggle slingshot and Harry couldn't fathom how James acquired it.
"Ready everybody?" he asked, and at receiving nods of affirmation, proceeded the countdown.
The familiar tug behind the naval, heralded the initiation of the Portkey. It always made Harry feel a bit queasy in the stomach, but he was fairly certain this was the normal reaction everybody had. Looking about Harry was able to see something other than swirling blurs of color whip around him and took that as the hint to start breaking.
Harry let go of the slingshot and hoisted himself upright and walked on the air before him. As he slowed, more and more shapes started appearing and connecting into recognizable objects. He landed on his feet in the middle of the train station and then took two stumbling steps forward. Luckily, he didn't fall down.
Daniel was not so lucky and landed with a whump on the 9 ¾ Platform. The Hogwarts train whistled welcomingly at them and a few other new arrivals to the scene. It's gold lettering proudly displaying the school's name and credo about tickling sleeping dragons. Multicolored smoke drifted from the exhaust pipe in glittering text, adverts for everyday magical must-haves like Degnoming Kits and Industrial Family Broomsticks.
Harry took in the sight of mothers and fathers waving off their kids and hearing the clicking noise of James' camera snapping Daniel's image. Daniel kept trying to fend him off to go find friends, but then Lily would want to claim one more hug. It was an embarrassment Harry wished was his, as his brother's cheeks reddened and his eyes darted frantically around hoping nobody saw him getting kissed by his mom.
But seeing as Harry had no farewell from his parents and no friends to worry about retaining a cool image for, he just took his trunk and walked across the platform. He hopped the train and jerked his trunk upwards to lift it over the steps and walked on through the narrow corridors looking for an empty compartment. He found one in the back and slipped inside.
Serion untangled from his arm almost as soon as he sat down on the familiar cushion. The little green snake hissed something unintelligible and slithered over to a bright patch of sunlight. Harry watched in amusement before leaning over and opening his trunk. He pulled out his animagus pamphlets and the restricted section book on advance animagus training and tapped them both with his wand to hide their covers. Then he placed his trunk in the overhead compartment and settled in to reread for the hours spent chugging towards Hogwarts in Scotland.
A soft swooshing noise revealed Hermione Granger looking oddly nervous in the doorway. Serion slithered out of sight at the first sign of disturbance and missed detection. Harry looked up curiously from his book and found that the train was already pulling out of the station as he glanced out the window before returning his gaze on the frizzy haired Ravenclaw girl wearing the Headgirl badge proudly over her rather nice left breast.
"I knew you would get it," Harry said by way of greeting, looking down at her chest.
Hermione seemed puzzled for a minute before glancing down. It was as if seeing the badge instilled some kind of courage in her and she straightened up, her hair practically bristling as she barged her way into his compartment without invitation.
"Sure, come on in. It's not like somebody was here already," Harry said sarcastically, as he shut his book. "What do you want, Granger?"
"To sit down," she replied primly, stuffing her trunk in next to his and placing a cat carrier on the seat directly across from him.
"I would have thought the Headgirl had better manners, then to barge into somebody else's compartment without invitation," Harry retorted, leaning his head back against the seat.
Hermione flushed. "It was full elsewhere on the train."
"Daniel is in the front of the train, before you ask me out."
"ASK YOU OUT!" Hermione exclaimed in indignation, bolting upright from her position across from him. Her hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly by her sides.
"Girls do it all the time with Daniel," Harry returned, unfazed by her outburst. "I thought I'd warn you and save you the discomfiture of asking the wrong twin."
Hermione flushed a red that would put a Weasley to shame as she fumed. "There is no where else to sit, we have more first years this year than in previous years. The compartments are overflowing," she informed him, turning her nose up.
"Make yourself at home then," Harry said, a bit miffed at her implications that she wouldn't have sat near him if there had been space elsewhere. He flipped open his book again, doing his best to try and ignore the girl across from him.
"What are you reading?" Hermione asked, shifting the animal carrier over on the seat and leaning forward as if to pluck it right out of his hands.
Harry moved the book out of reach and angled the cover upwards for her to see.
"You know, I've read that twice over the summer. It was really helpful in doing the essay assigned by Professor Snape."
"I know."
"Though why you're reading it now is beyond me," Hermione said, pushing her bushy hair behind her ear as she continued talking. "You should have done your homework ages ago."
"Don't you have a meeting to go to?"
"No, I'm letting your brother handle it. Honestly, Harry I don't mind helping you with your homework if you need it. I do it for others all the time and you know how Professor Snape picks on you in class. You really should have done it sooner, so just try to be a little more--"
"I've already done Professor Snape's essay," Harry cut in, trying to stop her running diatribe.
Hermione looked at him disbelievingly before shrugging and said, "Then, let me see it. I'll look over it for you."
Harry shifted awkwardly in his seat. "There's no need--"
"There's every need!" Hermione retorted. "Ravenclaw can't lose points on the first day back. Besides, Harry, everybody knows just how bad you are at potions."
"Listen here, Granger--"
"Hermione."
Harry paused and then acquiesced. "Hermione, I lose points in potions class, but not in my grades. I'm the best potions student Snape has had since the start of his tenor at Hogwarts, and he's just pissed about it because I'm a Potter, okay? I don't need your help."
Hermione looked put out for a moment. Harry watched as she gathered herself up and got ready to argued her point again and mentally prepared himself the outburst.
"Even if what you're saying were true, I could read over it and help you out. I am after all at the top of our year."
"For someone so smart," Harry said, crossing his arms to glare at her, "you sure are dumb."