Chapter 25: Laughter and Liberation
"The very one" Sirius smiled "I'll introduce you later, long story short we talked and apologized to each other and he's offered me to stay at his place. However I was rather wondering…if you wanted to spend some more time together?"
"Hell yeah!" Harry nodded
"Really?!" Sirius asked and Harry nodded again "first of all I have to be responsible now, so language, there I did that. Second of all I just want to make it clear, I'm not trying to replace your dad. No one could replace him, but I want to do whatever makes you happy. You deserve happiness"
"Thanks Sirius" Harry wiped away a tear "it would be nice to have a father figure in my life, I have no problem with that but I have a few conditions. The first is I still get to spend time with my friends obviously, the second is I lend you a house elf to help you. Don't worry I have forty nine more, the third is if you see Snape again then be nice to him. I'm not saying become best mates but at least be civil to each other for my sakes and my last condition is you get healthy and take a bath"
Sirius eventually agreed and Harry's summer schedule was pretty much the same except he spent more time with Sirius. Ron seemed to get worse; in his mind it was somehow Harry's fault that his rat was Pettigrew. Eventually everyone got their Hogwarts letters and Harry agreed to meet them in Diagon alley, first Harry and Ginny snuck off to buy her a new wand. She'd been using her grandmothers wand for school and Harry had forbid her from revealing the other one unless it was an emergency.
Then they snuck back into the group and everyone brought their robes shortly before everyone was dragged everyone to the book store, Harry had already owl ordered his own books and read them but then again he had nothing else to do so he went with them. Hermione was also there, she smiled at him as if the last conversation the two had never happened. There was a big commotion at the store, apparently Gilderoy Lockhart was signing books.
"Not this idiot" Harry sighed, unfortunately Hermione heard him
"What do you mean?!" She shot him a glare
"I don't have time for fakes" Harry responded
"He's not a fake! He wrote all those books!"
"Hermione" Harry spoke slowly "books don't always tell the truth. I found a book about myself that was written by a German author and it claimed I had defeated a dragon when I was ten with a cat. Now that is ridiculous because I like dragons, the book was written when I was nine and I would have used a dog" Ginny giggled but Harry was still getting shouted at by Hermione.
"Just because those books were fake doesn't mean he's are" Hermione argued
"No the mismatching dates and the unrealistic events in them do" Harry shot back "according to his 'accurate books' he was fighting Vampires in Italy around the same time he was fighting werewolves in Romania. Also if he knows a spell that can change werewolves back into humans then why doesn't everyone know it? Or why doesn't he teach it to us or at least tell us the name of the spell? And for someone who has been fighting the most dangerous creatures and people in the world, he looks remarkably unbothered by his adventures doesn't he? You'd have thought all those near death experiences would make him smile a bit less" Hermione had no answer. Unfortunately at the moment Lockhart saw Harry.
"Merlin's beard, it's Harry Potter" Lockhart shouted. The camera man tried to pull Harry to the front, but he was surprised by the fact he couldn't even move Harry. "Come on Harry" Lockhart insisted "come take a picture with me, I know our fans would like it"
"I'd rather not" Harry sighed
"Don't be nervous Harry" Lockhart put a massive pile of books on the table "come on, I'll give you my entire signed work for free. All for you"
"Well in that case" Harry walked forward, Lockhart was about to clasp an arm around his shoulder when Harry took his book, deposited them into Ginny's cauldron and walked away leaving a very stunned crowd, a rather embarrassed Lockhart, a constantly clicking cameraman and a lot of angry fan girls including Hermione. Ginny followed after him and the two were soon stopped by Malfoy
"Famous Harry Potter" he stood in front of them "can't even go to a book store without getting noticed"
"Leave him alone" Ginny demanded, Harry could handle Malfoy but knowing Ginny was there made him much more confident
"Look Potter" Malfoy drawled "you've got yourself a girlfriend?"
"So what if I do?" Harry smiled "she's better than you'll ever get, how is Goyle doing anyway? Or are you dating Crabbe?" Before Malfoy could respond Malfoy Senior entered the fray and introduced himself
"Forgive me" He looked at Harry's scar "your scar is legendary"
"That as maybe but my eyes are slightly further down, now unless you'd like pay commission I'd ask you to please stop looking at me like that" Soon the rest of the Weasleys arrived, the two heads of houses got into a fight after Malfoy took one of Ginny's book, once it ended Harry noticed him putting the book back but with an extra one. He took the book out and examined it when nobody was looking.
"Damn it, I knew he'd have more" Harry grumbled before having Stink take it back to the mansion
"What is it?" Ginny asked, once Harry explained it was horcrux Ginny looked disgusted
"Let's tell dad" She suggested
"No" Harry refused, but he remained calm to make his point "I get why you think we should but we can't, at least not yet. At the moment it's in my house where nobody can get to it and I can find a way to destroy it. If anyone finds out then they'll try to take it, maybe even by force. I don't think Malfoy knew what it was or he wouldn't have left it in your cauldron, he probably just thought it was some sort of dark object. All it would take is one death eater to hide this and Voldermort never dies"
"Fine" Ginny caved, everyone thought that she expected life with Harry to be perfect. She knew it wouldn't be and she knows that at some point she or he might end up in real danger. All she could do is trust his judgment.
Soon the shopping was done, when Harry had gotten home the elves had told him about how the Malfoy house elf tried to get in through the wards, he failed and the elves had caught him and took him to an abandoned forest a few miles away. Harry arrived there to see two of his elves holding the frightened elf while five others stood behind them. Stink stood alongside Harry.
....
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