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batsutousaiTitle: The Creators
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
batsutousai
Beta: The amazing, the beautiful,tsuki_no_suzu!
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Susan/Neville, Ron/Krum, Hermione/Bill, Sarah/??, Harry/NO ONE, DAMMIT!
Warnings: Mentions of child-abuse, anti-Muggle sentiments, mentions of murder and rape, anti-Dumbledore
Summary: 'When their Creators return, their world shall be remade.' Four children hold the fate of the Wizarding World in their un-tried hands.
Disclaim Her: I see no point in showing Dumbledore or Quirrell and the Stone, since the kids don't care, and Dumbledore doesn't think the Stone is anything but the real thing. He'll be destroying it again, just as he did in the books, to keep the Dark from getting its hands on it. So no one will ever find out the kids took the Stone.
-0-0-
Touch the Sunrise
-0-0-
He came upon the scene just as they finished killing her. Two muggles had held her down while the third buried his sword in her stomach. The man who had finished her off was standing in a puddle of blood from between her legs. He heard them comment, "She was a good fuck, for a witch."
He saw red. He shot the Darkest curse he could think of at the one who'd killed her off. The other two saw their friend scream, saw his skin start to peel off. They ran, and he shot curses at their backs.
He shoved the peeling man away and knelt next to her. He ran his fingers through her beautiful black hair, closed her horrified eyes, kissed her forehead. The last of his family. Dead. His precious little sister, the baby he'd once sworn to their dying mother he'd give his life to protect.
Salazar had failed. He'd failed because of muggles.
Harry sat up, gasping and choking. "Sarah," he whispered, hugging himself. "Oh, Sarah. Sweet, gentle Sarah."
He stayed up the rest of the night, not even comforted by Hogwarts' gentle hug.
-0-0-0-
Week two started out poorly for the Founders. Harry had dreamt of his sister's murder the night before, Hermione was still furious because of the basilisk, and Ronald received a happy letter from his mother at breakfast, which made him feel sick. What was his family going to think next year, when he ended up in Slytherin?
Susan was the only one in a good mood for the first classes, so was really the only one to earn points out of the four of them that morning.
At lunch, the four friends decided to eat in the kitchen. Hermione refused to talk to Harry for the entire meal, which didn't bother Harry one bit, since he didn't want to talk to anyone after his horrible night. Ronald was quite happy to complain about his family's reactions next year, and Susan just watched the other three sadly, wishing she could make things better.
Tuesday was much better, in retrospect. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had their first flying lesson after lunch. Ronald had always loved to fly as Godric, and even though Salazar had never been fond of being off the ground, he found he suddenly enjoyed it immensely. Recalling what Sirius had said about his father being a natural on a broom, Harry figured that some genes must have affected him from his birth parents, and he very much enjoyed it.
After classes that day, Harry dragged Hermione away from their other friends and the two had a long talk. When they came back, they were friends again, as it were, and the rest of the week went much better.
In fact, other than their boredom with the easy classes, and Harry's difficulties with Snape, school turned out to be rather nice. The four got to spend time together and in their home, Hogwarts. Harry would occasionally get a letter from Sirius, which he would read to his friends at their insistence, and the Hat would complain on the weekends about being locked up in Ronald's room during the week. (Ronald had been told to leave the Hat in his room during classes after the first time it had interrupted a class. Even though the Hat had sworn to behave, he wasn't allowed back into any classrooms. Especially not if it wanted to remain with a student.)
The most exciting thing that happened before Yule was when Quirrell let a troll into the school on Samhain. The four Founders had watched the professor with a fair bit of suspicion after that, but otherwise the event was nothing more than a bump in the year.
For Yule, the four Founders talked their families into letting them stay at Hogwarts, so they could spend the holiday with their much older family. Sirius managed to get the okay to come visit for the week starting on Yule.
For Yule, the Founders met in the Room of Requirement and enjoyed mugs of cocoa in front of a happily crackling log which Ronald and Susan had managed to procure the afternoon before. They spent the night reminiscing about their past lives and their families. Hogwarts attended in stone-form and enjoyed the meeting, as the Founders' memories were much more recent than her own.
When Harry returned to the Hufflepuff dorms early the morning of the twenty-third, he found Sirius waiting for him, fast asleep on the couch in the common room. He offered the man a fond smile and pulled out a spare blanket from the stores most students didn't know existed and draped it over his guardian. He'd told Sirius he wanted to spend the evening with his friends and that Sirius shouldn't wait up, but the man had clearly done so anyway. Shaking his head at Gryffindor silliness, Harry wandered up to his bed, where he fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
The rest of the holiday was spent making snowmen and having snowball fights. The Founders quickly found that it was almost worth it to be children again – they'd loved playing in the snow, even as adults, but it was generally frowned on, no matter what time you were in. (Not that it stopped Sirius, who happily waged a one-man snow fight against the four first years and lost impressively. To be fair, the students had cheated a bit by casting magic to make their artillery and aim it. Not that Sirius wasn't doing the same thing, but he was both outnumbered, and hadn't expected the kids to know such spells.)
When they weren't playing in the snow, the four friends would curl up around the fire in one of the common rooms and listen as Sirius happily regaled them with the deeds of the Marauders. Occasionally, Ronald would take notes and ask for clarification on certain spells. (He later told his friends that he'd planned on using the spells on his twin brothers, who had always teased him mercilessly as a child. Not that Ronald hadn't fought back, but he wanted to have some new tricks up his sleeves, just in case.)
Christmas morning, Harry was woken by a large dog bouncing onto his bed. He blinked sleepily at his godfather and mumbled, "Sirius? What–?"
Sirius quickly turned back into himself and pointed at the bottom of Harry's bed, which was sporting a pile of neatly-wrapped gifts. "Presents, Harry! Come on!"
Sometimes, Harry mused as he pulled on his dressing gown and brought his pile over to where Sirius had already spread his out across the empty dorm floor, he had to wonder who was really the guardian of the two of them.
From his godfather, Harry got a second-year Defence book with notes written in it by Sirius and his father. For a long moment, he honestly hadn't known what to say, and when Sirius looked up to see why he'd stopped at one present, he smiled and ruffled Harry's hair. "It's a bit used and probably a little out of date, but I thought you might like to have something your dad once owned. It's one of the few things I could find that weren't destroyed when your house went up in flames."
Harry gently set the book to one said and managed a croaked, "Thanks."
Sirius shrugged. "Sure thing, kiddo. Now, why don't you finish opening those gifts?"
Harry grinned at that and practically dove back into his pile. From Hermione he got a book on modern legal Dark spells. When Sirius cocked an eyebrow at the book, Harry shrugged and said, "Just something I'm interested in. No point in not knowing, right? Going to get cursed by them at one point, I'd bet."
Sirius shrugged at that and went back to his quickly dwindling pile. Harry snickered at the fact that his godfather was more excited about the presents than he was.
Ronald got him a set of daggers that Harry couldn't even begin to imagine how the boy could afford. (Given, he could probably access his old Gryffindor vault, but Harry wasn't sure how his friend would have managed that without being noticed by someone.) Susan had given him a box of herbs and other potions ingredients that Hogwarts didn't have stocked in the student cupboard. Since Harry had been considering finding the old potions lab and using it to brew some potions for himself, the gift was invaluable.
"Potions ingredients?" Sirius asked, eyeing the box with distaste. "Don't turn into another Snivelly on me, k?"
Harry grimaced in disgust at the mention of the Slytherin Head of House, who was still being cruel to him, no matter what Harry did. "Not a chance," he informed his godfather. "But I do like potions, even with Snape completely ruining the class. A lot like cooking."
Sirius shook his head. "You're Lily's child all right."
Having already heard about his mum's love of potions, Harry just grinned and pulled out the next gift, a fifty-pence piece from his aunt and uncle. He stared at it for a long moment before hissing in disgust and tossing it in the bin. Sirius gave him an odd look, but Harry just returned to his pile, where he next opened a box from Ronald's mother, which had a knitted yellow and black sweater and some fudge in it. The gift shocked him speechless again, as Harry honestly hadn't expected anything from his friends' parents, though Ronald had warned all of them that his mum might be sending them gifts.
After a moment, Harry pulled the jumper on under his dressing gown and opened the last gift. When an invisibility cloak slithered out, Sirius exclaimed, "James' cloak!"
Harry gently touched the silky fabric, dreadfully pleased to have another thing of his parents'.
"I thought it had been destroyed," Sirius whispered.
A note slipped from the folds and Harry picked it up, then read it aloud: " 'Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you.' Know who it might be, Sirius?"
Sirius eyed the note curiously, then nodded. "Dumbledore. That's his 't', see?" He pointed to a couple of 't's, which had a distinctive curl on the end of the horizontal line.
"Huh." Harry pulled on the cloak and grinned madly when his lower body disappeared. "Wicked."
Sirius laughed. "Yeah. We got into so much trouble with that cloak. It's easy to cast prank spells on people when they can't see you. But Dumbledore can see through it. And Snape probably knows of it, since we used it on him all the time."
"I'll remember that," Harry assured him, then got up to put his gifts away.
The rest of the week continued in much the same way as it had before Christmas. When Sirius left on the next Saturday, he promised Harry, "I'll try and visit for Easter, but if it's not approved, I'll see you at King's Cross, okay?"
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "I'll see you soon, then."
Sirius laughed at that and hurried off to Hogsmeade, where he would take the Floo back to the cottage he'd bought in Godric's Hallow shortly after being released from St Mungo's.
Fred and George quickly talked them all into another snowball fight, which they lost as spectacularly as Sirius had, even with Percy's help.
That night, Harry tossed his cloak over his head and followed Hogwarts' lead to the newest curiosity in the castle. Hogwarts had said that Dumbledore had put it in a side room at the beginning of the break. And though it looked like a normal mirror, it was practically overflowing with magic, and Hogwarts wanted to know what it was meant for.
When Harry got into the room, he cautiously locked the door, then pulled off the cloak and held it tightly under one arm. Carefully, he approached the mirror and read the inscription across the top. After blinking and running it through a couple languages he knew, he smacked himself on the head and said, "I show not your face, but your heart's desire. Huh." He glanced into the mirror and froze.
There, staring back at him, were the smiling faces of the other three Founders, looking like they had before, and Harry looking like Salazar. And there, holding his hand and alive was his beautiful sister. "Sarah..." he whispered, voice cracking. "Oh, Sarah..."
After another moment of watching his little sister smile and breathe, Harry turned away from the mirror and put his cloak back on. "She's dead, stupid," he told himself. "She's dead and there's nothing a magic mirror can do to change that." Then he hurried from the room and back to his dorm, where he dreamed of happier days with the bright girl.
-0-0-0-
The rest of the year passed as calmly as the first half had. Harry traded insults with Snape and cheerfully won the lost points back by being brilliant in his other classes, which kept his House from – as Ronald had put it – lynching him. (Not that a Hufflepuff would actually lynch someone.) Sirius hadn't been able to visit during Easter Hols, but he and Harry kept Hedwig busy with letters back and forth.
The four Founders slowly managed to fit into their adopted Houses, for the most part. Hermione still had some trouble with some of the upper years, but she'd been around Harry for long enough that she was able to act enough like a Slytherin to make most of the House leave her alone. Susan had found the Gryffindor House to be a much more welcoming and comfortable House than she'd expected, and told Harry that he'd actually probably like it in there, in spite of the colours. Ronald had ended up being much more willing to study after his stay in Ravenclaw, and could even say with some sincerity that he'd come to like the bookworms. Harry had decided he enjoyed spending time with the loyal Hufflepuffs, and had even made a few friends with the students in their year, much to his surprise; Harry had never had an easy time of making friends, as he'd never been a friendly person, especially not after Sarah's death.
Exams were easy for the four students, and they happily enjoyed the brief break before grades were due to laze about next to the lake and toss biscuit crumbs at the giant squid.
"It's a pity you can't take me with you," the Hat was saying one such afternoon the day before they were to depart. "I'd much rather stay with you, rather than have to sit in Albus' office for another boring summer."
"I seriously doubt he'd let you off school grounds, Hat," Hermione commented. "You're too old and precious."
"It's not precious," Harry complained. "It's just Ric's old hat. Which he accidently enchanted when he was drunk. Whoop-dee-doo."
"Ah, yet another story which was never passed down," Susan commented drily. "Instead of drunken stupidity, it was a moment of genius."
"Well, I am a spell-crafter," Ronald replied, huffing at their teasing.
"Which is probably why you managed it while you were drunk, and never since," Harry said, giving his friend an amused look.
"You know what?" Ronald replied, looking a little vexed, "Stop picking on me. I get enough of that at home."
"Oh, Ric, we didn't mean to pick on you," Susan said, reaching over and squeezing Ronald's arm gently. "We're just having a spot of fun."
"Yeah, sorry, Ric," Harry agreed, scratching at the back of his head nervously. "Didn't mean to. Honest."
Ronald crossed his arms over his chest and gave them a disgruntled look, which made the other three snort, then shook his head fondly. "You two. Anyway, Helga, what's going on with you and Neville Longbottom?" he asked, turning on the yellow-eyed girl, who blushed a bright red. "You seemed awfully close yesterday at lunch."
"Oh? Has sweet Helga finally found herself a match?" Harry asked teasingly. "Has someone finally stolen the untouchable heart?"
"Shut up, Salazar," Susan replied, shoving at him with her foot. "It's not like that. Nev and I are just friends."
"Mmhmm..." Ronald said, brown eyes sparkling. "Didn't look like friends to me."
"Oh, stop teasing her," Hermione admonished, eyes laughing.
"Thank you, Row."
"But, come on, Helga. There must be something–"
"Rowena Ravenclaw!" Susan snapped, then smacked the other girl on the arm, making the boys laugh.
"Prude," Hermione replied, making the boys fall backwards, clutching their sides. "Oh, stop that, you two."
"S-sorry, Row. But it is funny," Ronald said, wiping at his eyes.
Hermione huffed a bit, making Susan roll her eyes.
Before they could continue, Harry glanced up with a frown. Everyone turned to look at the Headmaster, who was approaching their group with a gentle smile. Hermione unobtrusively took down the privacy wards, which no first year should even be able to cast, let alone know how.
When the Headmaster got close enough so he wouldn't be yelling, Harry said, "Something we can do for you, sir?"
Dumbledore smiled at the cheerfully. "Well, I was wondering if Mr Weasley wouldn't mind returning the Hat, for starters?"
"Blast," the Hat complained. "Well, I suppose we'll have to wait until next year to chat, Ron," it said, allowing itself to be handed over to Dumbledore.
"Thank you," Dumbledore said, handling the Hat carefully. "Now, Mr Potter, if you don't mind, I'd like a word?"
Harry blinked at his friends, who all shrugged, and stood. "Sure."
Dumbledore smiled and led the boy back to his office, prattling on about sweets and other nonsense that Harry didn't even bother paying attention to. Once they were in the office, Dumbledore offered him tea, and Harry said, "With all due respect, sir, please get to the point."
Dumbledore smiled again. "Of course, my boy. I must ask you to return to your aunt's house–"
"No," Harry said sharply.
"Now, Harry–"
"I will not return to that muggle's house again," Harry said, making the word 'muggle' sound like a dirty curse.
"Harry, she's your family–"
"No, sir, she's my nightmare. I'd sooner off myself than return there. If we hadn't caught Pettigrew, I was planning to see if I could stay here this summer."
"Harry, surely that's a bit extreme," Dumbledore said, looking disappointed. "She's your mother's sister."
"Yeah. And she hates my guts. I'm not going back there."
Dumbledore let out a sad sigh. "My boy, you must. The blood wards are protecting you so long as you go home for a few weeks each year. After two weeks, you may move to Sirius' home, but I must insist you return to Petunia's house."
Harry stared. Blood wards?! "Sir, why are their blood wards around their house?" he asked quietly. As far as he knew, blood wards should have been illegal in the eyes of the Ministry.
Dumbledore gave a great sigh and gave Harry a horribly sad look. "My boy, your mother died to save you, you see, and as it is her sacrifice which saved your life, it's her blood you must stay with, to protect you. The blood wards just added to that, making the protection that much stronger."
Harry eyed the man suspiciously for a long moment before something occurred to him. "Correct me if I'm wrong, sir, but don't blood wards require that the subject, me, thinks of the place they're protecting as home?"
Dumbledore blinked. "Yes, of course."
Harry smirked. "Well, then, they probably broke at the beginning of the year. You see, sir, as soon as I walked into Hogwarts, I thought of this castle as home. Not the Dursleys'." In all honesty, Harry had never considered the muggle house his home, but he wasn't going to tell Dumbledore that.
Dumbledore looked like Harry had killed his mother or something. "Oh, my dear boy..."
Harry stood and gave the man a disgusted look. "Sir, I am not 'your boy'. I hardly know you. And just so we're clear, I will be staying with Sirius this summer. And only Sirius. Good day, sir." Then he turned and stalked from the room, intent on finding his friends and thinking of something else for a while.
"Mother's sacrifice my arse," Harry muttered as he walked back out into the sunshine. "Hundreds of mother's must have died for their children. What makes me so special? Light wizards..."
-0-0-0-
Harry had sent his godfather a quick owl to let him know that, no matter what Dumbledore had already told him, he would be staying with Sirius for the entire summer, and he should be ready to pick him up the next day at King's Cross.
The train ride was spent talking about their summers. Hermione said she might be travelling to France or somewhere on the continent, since her parents like to spend summer off the island. Susan commented that she'd likely just be at home, studying and spending time with her aunt, who she adored. Ronald grumbled about de-gnoming the garden and getting teased something horrible by his brothers. Harry didn't have any expectations, except that it would be fun. He also invited his friends over to the new house, since he knew Sirius wouldn't mind – the man even liked Hermione, despite her House. Ronald extended the same invite, saying his mum was a brilliant cook and loved having a large group of people to entertain.
At one point in the trip, Draco Malfoy swaggered into their compartment. He and Hermione had come to the mutual agreement to ignore each other during the past year, but he'd always enjoyed catching Ronald in the halls and teasing him something fierce about his family's money-status. There had almost been three duels, but one of the other Founders had always cut in before it could get too serious. Susan and Draco weren't fond of each other, but Draco mostly ignored her, since she was "of good breeding, despite her unfortunate Sorting."
Draco hadn't been quite sure what he thought about Harry. On one hand, the boy was a Hufflepuff and friends with a Weasley, as well as a muggleborn. On the other, he was one of those people you wanted to know and he acted very much like a Slytherin.
"Well, hello there, Potter, Weasel. And how has your trip been so far?" Draco asked with a smirk. He made a habit of never acknowledging the girls, especially since the first and last time he'd insulted Hermione, he'd had to go to Pomfrey to have his fingers separated. And since Susan's aunt was the Head of the DMLE, he wasn't even going to try insulting her.
"Brilliant, right up until you walked in," Ronald snapped back.
Harry sat back and smiled. "Well enough. How has your trip been, Draco?"
Draco blinked at Harry, thrown off by him. "Fine," he mumbled, then eyed Ronald with a look of disgust. "Now then, Weasel–"
"I wouldn't, Malfoy," Hermione commented, levelling her wand at the boy. "I don't want to have to curse your fingers together again right before we get back to London, you know? So why don't you just leave Ron alone?"
Draco eyed the old, pale wand and put his hands up. "Have a nice summer, you loonies," he told them, then hurried away.
"I don't know why you won't let me just curse him," Ronald grumbled.
"Because you might 'accidently' curse him permanently," Harry replied with a smirk. "And you know it."
"Give it up, Ric," Hermione suggested. "Malfoy's not even worried about you."
"Listen to Row," Harry agreed. "Best to let him underestimate you, so when it really counts, you can take him down."
Ronald gave Harry a disbelieving look. "Why would I wait? I'd rather just curse him silly now, so he leaves me alone like he does Row."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Gryffindors."
Susan and Hermione laughed while Ronald grinned unrepentantly.
-0-0-0-
Hermione went to Italy for the first half of summer, while the other three did exactly as they expected, with the occasional visit to Harry or Ronald's houses for a bit of together time. When she got back, they all met up at Harry and Sirius' house.
"I brought gifts!" Hermione exclaimed as soon as she come in through the Floo.
"Yeah!" Ronald and Sirius both shouted.
Susan and Harry traded amused looks.
Hermione grinned and flopped down on the couch next to Susan. "I wasn't sure what everyone would like, so I got a bunch of little things..." She pulled a few toy models of the coliseum and other temples from her bag and spread them out across the table. When Sirius reached his hand out first, Hermione smacked it. "No, Sirius. The others pick first."
Sirius pouted and hugged his hand to his chest, while the three students traded amused looks and picked up a few models, leaving four for Sirius, which he immediately snatched up, eyeing Hermione's hands warily.
"These are kinda cool," Ronald commented, turning his model of Apollo's temple around in his hand.
Hermione smiled and said, "Ah, but I also got everyone a Carnevale mask, since we found a shop that still had some for sale."
The other three Founders sat forward, eyes wide. Though it hadn't been as well known when they were originally alive, the Venetian Carnevale had existed then. A few of their students shortly before they died had come from Italy and enjoyed celebrating their holiday before and while the few Christian students had their Lent and the pagan culture of the school – including the four Founders – enjoyed the spring equinox. The school had quickly adopted the time of merry-making before their other holidays and it had become something of a tradition in the years preceding their deaths to have a few weeks without classes to enjoy the holiday. Masks had been much less prevalent at the time, so the Founders had never had their own, though they'd often joked about going to Italy and get masks themselves.
Hermione giggled a bit, then pulled out the first carefully wrapped mask. "Let's see, Ron?" She handed it over.
Ronald waited until she'd nodded before ever-so-carefully unwrapping it. The mask was a half-mask which looked like it had a leaf above his eyes. It was done in autumn colours and lined in gold. Swallowing, he put it on, then grinned at his friends. "What do you think? Am I mysterious?"
"Not in the least," Harry deadpanned, then laughed and ruffled Ronald's hair playfully, earning him a shove.
Hermione laughed at the two and pulled out another well-wrapped mask and handed it over to Susan. The girl opened it just as carefully as Ronald had. Inside was a beautiful half-face, metal mask with a tiara-like pattern above the eye holes and fancy curls coming out from the corners of the eyes. It had a black back piece, which was covered in the gold metal cut in the decorative pattern. "Oh, 'Mione, this is so beautiful," she whispered, putting it on. "What do you think?" she asked the boys.
"Stunning," Ronald said. Next to him, Harry nodded, then turned to Hermione hopefully.
Hermione smiled and pulled out the last mask, handing it over to Harry. When he unwrapped it, he found a silver half-mask with a metal crescent moon rising over the eyes. He carefully put it on, pausing to argue with his hair when it tried to get caught in the moon. When Ronald snorted, Harry shoved him, then asked, "Yeah?"
Ronald grinned. "Yeah."
When they turned back to Hermione, she'd pulled out her own mask and was grinning at them as she finished tying it on. It was done in an aged-bronze and had two hippocampi on either side of a hand-harp above the eye holes. Rowena Ravenclaw had been the only Founder to play an instrument, the harp, so the mask was far more proper than anyone but the four friends would know.
"That's lovely, 'Mione," Susan said, smiling from behind her own mask.
Hermione smiled. "Thanks, Sue. Sorry I didn't get you one, Sirius. I wasn't sure which one would suit you best, and the selection was a bit limited, anyway."
Sirius shrugged with a grin. "S'ok. I'll just have to take Harry to Italy next year and get my own," he said, eyes dancing.
The four kids laughed at that. Then the three who'd stayed in Britain turned on Hermione and demanded details about her visit, which she laughingly offered without complaint.
-0-0-0-
The rest of the summer passed quickly, with the four friends enjoying their time spent at home with their families almost as much as they enjoyed the time they spent together at the Burrow or Sirius' cottage.
Suddenly, it seemed, it was time to get supplies for a new year. The friends agreed to meet in the Leaky Cauldron at noon a few days before term was to start.
When the Weasleys finally finished coming through the Floo, the parents made quick plans, then herded the group of eight children off to the bank, where each family set about getting gold for purchases. After a number of pleading looks from the children, the parents went to get little things for their kids, while the twins went one way and the Founders went another.
Since their parents had agreed to get their other things, the four friends made their way to the bookstore, since that's where they were to meet up anyway. It was already filling for the autographing session of Gilderoy Lockhart.
"Ugh. Lockhart's books?" Susan complained, eyeing the full set they were supposed to be buying in disgust.
"What's wrong with him?" Hermione asked.
"All his books are tall tales, that's what," Susan replied, determinately walking right past the assigned books.
"They can't be that bad," Hermione said, frowning down at the books she'd just added to her basket.
"Mum's nuts about him," Ronald commented. "She's not sure how she feels about having to buy the full set for all of us, though – they don't make the used copies shelf very often..."
"Sorry, Ron," Susan mumbled, gently touching his shoulder.
Harry shrugged. "Well, if the books are as bad as Sue says, then maybe we should only buy a set for the four of us? Ron and I can share when Slytherin and Gryffindor has classes together, and Sue and 'Mione can share when Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw have classes together. We'll just have to trade them for the set that needs them that day."
"That would be brilliant," Ronald breathed.
"We might even be able to work it so your whole family only needs to buy one copy," Susan commented, eyeing the book in disgust. "I really hope whoever our teacher is realizes how hard this is on the families with less money."
"That would be the Weasel's family, right?" Draco asked out of nowhere, coming to stand next to them.
Susan eyed Draco for a long moment, then sniffed and walked off. "Come on, Ron. He's not worth your time."
Hermione shoved Ronald after the retreating Susan, leaving Harry to smile in amusement at Draco. "Someone once told me children like to mercilessly tease someone they have a crush on," he commented. "Be careful, Draco, before someone takes your verbal comments the wrong way." Then he turned and followed his friends, leaving a gaping Draco behind.
By the time they'd finished finding all the books they wanted, the adults had arrived. They met next to the register and the kids gave their books over to be bought. Mrs Weasley was practically bouncing in place and, once the books had been paid for, hurried them all into line to get the books signed.
"Hey, Mrs Weasley," Harry said, "we were talking earlier and we figured we four would just get one set of books to share, since we end up sharing our books in classes anyway. And, well, Sue thought it might be easier to just get one set for the twins, Percy and Ginny to share. And if Ginny ends up in a different class, she can borrow the set we're using." At the mention of her name, Ginny blushed brightly and hid her face behind her hands. Harry gave her a weird look; he'd figured out early into the summer that she was crushing on him – he'd seen his fair share of teenaged romances to be able to tell – but he didn't understand what her deal was.
Mrs Weasley, who'd already commented on the prices of the books for this year, looked surprised and grateful. "That's a good idea, Harry. Thank you. You too, Susan."
Both students smiled at her, but before anything more could be said, the photographer bumped into Susan. Harry and Ronald both hurried forward to steady her, giving the man venomous looks. "Move, kids," the man snapped, barely sparing them a glance. "This is for the Daily Prophet."
"No one cares about your rag of a newspaper," Harry snarled back. "You watch where you're going."
"It can't be Harry Potter?"
Before Lockhart could do more than start to move towards Harry, Ronald, Hermione and Susan were all standing between them, wands drawn. Behind them, Harry smirked nastily. "So what if I am?" he asked.
Lockhart flailed for a moment, clearly uncertain what to say, before smiling brightly and saying, "Well, come here, then, Harry. I wanted to gift you with the school books–"
"Oh, no, that's okay," Harry replied, leaning over Hermione's shoulder with a fake smile. "See, I can afford your books fine without your help. Now, other students going to Hogwarts this year – the poorer families who can't afford them and the orphans who have to buy them with money from the Hogwarts vaults – those children could use your... donation."
Lockhart cleared his throat and tried another desperate smile. "Well, ah, of course. I– ah... Oh! The Weasleys, of course!"
Mrs Weasley huffed a bit. "We can afford school books just fine, sir."
The Founders hid smiles at how much of a fool the man was making of himself.
Lockhart tried another smile after his recent attempt died in light of Mrs Weasley's anger. "Uhm, right! Of course! I shall just leave a couple sets here at the counter for any students who are either unable to buy them themselves or have to use Hogwarts money." He handed four piles of books over to the cashier, who didn't quite seem to know what to do with them. Lockhart turned back to the crowd, his smile much more genuine. "And of course, what these poor, unfortunate students don't yet know is that, not only will they be getting free copies of all my books, they'll also be getting me! Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen, your very own Gilderoy Lockhart will be teaching at Hogwarts this year!"
"Oh no you don't," Harry muttered, then used the noise of the crowd to shoot a couple of older spells at the man, smirking nastily when they hit. Next to him, Susan giggled, while Hermione rolled her eyes and Ronald snorted.
"What'd you hit him with, then?" Ronald asked.
Before Harry could answer, Lockhart blissfully said, "If you'd like a back massage, please continue to move forward. If you need to bash the staff, hit everyone in your way."
Everyone just sort of stopped and stared for a long moment, Lockhart looking puzzled. Then, pandemonium ensued, and the four Founders had to hurry out of the way, snickering.
"Oh, the Dyslexic Curse. Sal you're horrible!" Hermione said through her laughter.
Harry looked proud of himself. "With an added confundus to make him think he's actually saying what he means to say."
Susan beamed. "I do think I love you for that," she decided, then gave him a wet kiss on the cheek.
"I can see the headlines now," a sarcastic voice called from just to their left, "Potter Flirts With Bones Beyond Stupid Writer."
"Malfoy..." Ronald hissed, then aimed his wand at the other boy.
Hermione grabbed Ronald's hand and smiled nastily at Draco. "Don't worry, Ron, you'll have plenty of time to curse him in his sleep this year," she said sweetly.
Ronald relaxed, smiling. "Oh, and I'll enjoy it."
Draco sneered. "Weasel would never get into Slytherin. And he couldn't curse me, even in my sleep."
"What's going on over here, kids?" Mr Weasley asked, walking over with the rest of the Weasley kids and the various parents.
"Just a friendly school-yard rivalry," Harry commented, eyeing Draco warningly. "Nothing to worry about."
"If you're sure..."
"Ah, Arthur," a new voice said. "How quaint, seeing you in a bookstore. Sure you can afford all those school books? Perhaps you've already taken the four copies behind the desk, to lighten the cost."
Everyone looked over at where a man who looked very much like Draco was approaching. Everything about him screamed 'Slytherin,' and the other three Founders looked to Harry in hopes that he might keep a fight from happening.
But Harry could no sooner have stopped an oncoming rhino, and the two males quickly turned their fight of words into a brawl, with Susan's father and Sirius hurrying forward to pull the two men apart.
In the end, it took Mrs Weasley coming back over and yelling at her husband to get off the floor. The two men shot glares at one another, then the elder Malfoy hurried Draco from the store.
After that, the rest of the trip was almost boring.
-0-0-0-0-0-
A/N: This chapter was a lot of fun to write.
A translation of what Lockhart thought he was saying: "If you'd like autographs, please continue to move forward. If you need the store staff, please stay to the left."
~Bats ^.^x
Chapters:
Pro - Prophecy's Children / 1 - Home ||| 2 - Socially Acceptable |||3 - Touch the Sunrise
4 - Tomorrow Will Come ||| 5 - Fallen Star ||| 6 - A Dream Will Come True When It Will
7 - The Deepest River ||| 8 - Question of Honour ||| 9 - Hanging By a Thread
10 - Never As it Seems ||| 11 - Long Road
Incomplete
Author:
batsutousaiBeta: The amazing, the beautiful,
tsuki_no_suzu!Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Susan/Neville, Ron/Krum, Hermione/Bill, Sarah/??, Harry/NO ONE, DAMMIT!
Warnings: Mentions of child-abuse, anti-Muggle sentiments, mentions of murder and rape, anti-Dumbledore
Summary: 'When their Creators return, their world shall be remade.' Four children hold the fate of the Wizarding World in their un-tried hands.
Disclaim Her: I see no point in showing Dumbledore or Quirrell and the Stone, since the kids don't care, and Dumbledore doesn't think the Stone is anything but the real thing. He'll be destroying it again, just as he did in the books, to keep the Dark from getting its hands on it. So no one will ever find out the kids took the Stone.
Touch the Sunrise
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He came upon the scene just as they finished killing her. Two muggles had held her down while the third buried his sword in her stomach. The man who had finished her off was standing in a puddle of blood from between her legs. He heard them comment, "She was a good fuck, for a witch."
He saw red. He shot the Darkest curse he could think of at the one who'd killed her off. The other two saw their friend scream, saw his skin start to peel off. They ran, and he shot curses at their backs.
He shoved the peeling man away and knelt next to her. He ran his fingers through her beautiful black hair, closed her horrified eyes, kissed her forehead. The last of his family. Dead. His precious little sister, the baby he'd once sworn to their dying mother he'd give his life to protect.
Salazar had failed. He'd failed because of muggles.
Harry sat up, gasping and choking. "Sarah," he whispered, hugging himself. "Oh, Sarah. Sweet, gentle Sarah."
He stayed up the rest of the night, not even comforted by Hogwarts' gentle hug.
Week two started out poorly for the Founders. Harry had dreamt of his sister's murder the night before, Hermione was still furious because of the basilisk, and Ronald received a happy letter from his mother at breakfast, which made him feel sick. What was his family going to think next year, when he ended up in Slytherin?
Susan was the only one in a good mood for the first classes, so was really the only one to earn points out of the four of them that morning.
At lunch, the four friends decided to eat in the kitchen. Hermione refused to talk to Harry for the entire meal, which didn't bother Harry one bit, since he didn't want to talk to anyone after his horrible night. Ronald was quite happy to complain about his family's reactions next year, and Susan just watched the other three sadly, wishing she could make things better.
Tuesday was much better, in retrospect. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had their first flying lesson after lunch. Ronald had always loved to fly as Godric, and even though Salazar had never been fond of being off the ground, he found he suddenly enjoyed it immensely. Recalling what Sirius had said about his father being a natural on a broom, Harry figured that some genes must have affected him from his birth parents, and he very much enjoyed it.
After classes that day, Harry dragged Hermione away from their other friends and the two had a long talk. When they came back, they were friends again, as it were, and the rest of the week went much better.
In fact, other than their boredom with the easy classes, and Harry's difficulties with Snape, school turned out to be rather nice. The four got to spend time together and in their home, Hogwarts. Harry would occasionally get a letter from Sirius, which he would read to his friends at their insistence, and the Hat would complain on the weekends about being locked up in Ronald's room during the week. (Ronald had been told to leave the Hat in his room during classes after the first time it had interrupted a class. Even though the Hat had sworn to behave, he wasn't allowed back into any classrooms. Especially not if it wanted to remain with a student.)
The most exciting thing that happened before Yule was when Quirrell let a troll into the school on Samhain. The four Founders had watched the professor with a fair bit of suspicion after that, but otherwise the event was nothing more than a bump in the year.
For Yule, the four Founders talked their families into letting them stay at Hogwarts, so they could spend the holiday with their much older family. Sirius managed to get the okay to come visit for the week starting on Yule.
For Yule, the Founders met in the Room of Requirement and enjoyed mugs of cocoa in front of a happily crackling log which Ronald and Susan had managed to procure the afternoon before. They spent the night reminiscing about their past lives and their families. Hogwarts attended in stone-form and enjoyed the meeting, as the Founders' memories were much more recent than her own.
When Harry returned to the Hufflepuff dorms early the morning of the twenty-third, he found Sirius waiting for him, fast asleep on the couch in the common room. He offered the man a fond smile and pulled out a spare blanket from the stores most students didn't know existed and draped it over his guardian. He'd told Sirius he wanted to spend the evening with his friends and that Sirius shouldn't wait up, but the man had clearly done so anyway. Shaking his head at Gryffindor silliness, Harry wandered up to his bed, where he fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
The rest of the holiday was spent making snowmen and having snowball fights. The Founders quickly found that it was almost worth it to be children again – they'd loved playing in the snow, even as adults, but it was generally frowned on, no matter what time you were in. (Not that it stopped Sirius, who happily waged a one-man snow fight against the four first years and lost impressively. To be fair, the students had cheated a bit by casting magic to make their artillery and aim it. Not that Sirius wasn't doing the same thing, but he was both outnumbered, and hadn't expected the kids to know such spells.)
When they weren't playing in the snow, the four friends would curl up around the fire in one of the common rooms and listen as Sirius happily regaled them with the deeds of the Marauders. Occasionally, Ronald would take notes and ask for clarification on certain spells. (He later told his friends that he'd planned on using the spells on his twin brothers, who had always teased him mercilessly as a child. Not that Ronald hadn't fought back, but he wanted to have some new tricks up his sleeves, just in case.)
Christmas morning, Harry was woken by a large dog bouncing onto his bed. He blinked sleepily at his godfather and mumbled, "Sirius? What–?"
Sirius quickly turned back into himself and pointed at the bottom of Harry's bed, which was sporting a pile of neatly-wrapped gifts. "Presents, Harry! Come on!"
Sometimes, Harry mused as he pulled on his dressing gown and brought his pile over to where Sirius had already spread his out across the empty dorm floor, he had to wonder who was really the guardian of the two of them.
From his godfather, Harry got a second-year Defence book with notes written in it by Sirius and his father. For a long moment, he honestly hadn't known what to say, and when Sirius looked up to see why he'd stopped at one present, he smiled and ruffled Harry's hair. "It's a bit used and probably a little out of date, but I thought you might like to have something your dad once owned. It's one of the few things I could find that weren't destroyed when your house went up in flames."
Harry gently set the book to one said and managed a croaked, "Thanks."
Sirius shrugged. "Sure thing, kiddo. Now, why don't you finish opening those gifts?"
Harry grinned at that and practically dove back into his pile. From Hermione he got a book on modern legal Dark spells. When Sirius cocked an eyebrow at the book, Harry shrugged and said, "Just something I'm interested in. No point in not knowing, right? Going to get cursed by them at one point, I'd bet."
Sirius shrugged at that and went back to his quickly dwindling pile. Harry snickered at the fact that his godfather was more excited about the presents than he was.
Ronald got him a set of daggers that Harry couldn't even begin to imagine how the boy could afford. (Given, he could probably access his old Gryffindor vault, but Harry wasn't sure how his friend would have managed that without being noticed by someone.) Susan had given him a box of herbs and other potions ingredients that Hogwarts didn't have stocked in the student cupboard. Since Harry had been considering finding the old potions lab and using it to brew some potions for himself, the gift was invaluable.
"Potions ingredients?" Sirius asked, eyeing the box with distaste. "Don't turn into another Snivelly on me, k?"
Harry grimaced in disgust at the mention of the Slytherin Head of House, who was still being cruel to him, no matter what Harry did. "Not a chance," he informed his godfather. "But I do like potions, even with Snape completely ruining the class. A lot like cooking."
Sirius shook his head. "You're Lily's child all right."
Having already heard about his mum's love of potions, Harry just grinned and pulled out the next gift, a fifty-pence piece from his aunt and uncle. He stared at it for a long moment before hissing in disgust and tossing it in the bin. Sirius gave him an odd look, but Harry just returned to his pile, where he next opened a box from Ronald's mother, which had a knitted yellow and black sweater and some fudge in it. The gift shocked him speechless again, as Harry honestly hadn't expected anything from his friends' parents, though Ronald had warned all of them that his mum might be sending them gifts.
After a moment, Harry pulled the jumper on under his dressing gown and opened the last gift. When an invisibility cloak slithered out, Sirius exclaimed, "James' cloak!"
Harry gently touched the silky fabric, dreadfully pleased to have another thing of his parents'.
"I thought it had been destroyed," Sirius whispered.
A note slipped from the folds and Harry picked it up, then read it aloud: " 'Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you.' Know who it might be, Sirius?"
Sirius eyed the note curiously, then nodded. "Dumbledore. That's his 't', see?" He pointed to a couple of 't's, which had a distinctive curl on the end of the horizontal line.
"Huh." Harry pulled on the cloak and grinned madly when his lower body disappeared. "Wicked."
Sirius laughed. "Yeah. We got into so much trouble with that cloak. It's easy to cast prank spells on people when they can't see you. But Dumbledore can see through it. And Snape probably knows of it, since we used it on him all the time."
"I'll remember that," Harry assured him, then got up to put his gifts away.
The rest of the week continued in much the same way as it had before Christmas. When Sirius left on the next Saturday, he promised Harry, "I'll try and visit for Easter, but if it's not approved, I'll see you at King's Cross, okay?"
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "I'll see you soon, then."
Sirius laughed at that and hurried off to Hogsmeade, where he would take the Floo back to the cottage he'd bought in Godric's Hallow shortly after being released from St Mungo's.
Fred and George quickly talked them all into another snowball fight, which they lost as spectacularly as Sirius had, even with Percy's help.
That night, Harry tossed his cloak over his head and followed Hogwarts' lead to the newest curiosity in the castle. Hogwarts had said that Dumbledore had put it in a side room at the beginning of the break. And though it looked like a normal mirror, it was practically overflowing with magic, and Hogwarts wanted to know what it was meant for.
When Harry got into the room, he cautiously locked the door, then pulled off the cloak and held it tightly under one arm. Carefully, he approached the mirror and read the inscription across the top. After blinking and running it through a couple languages he knew, he smacked himself on the head and said, "I show not your face, but your heart's desire. Huh." He glanced into the mirror and froze.
There, staring back at him, were the smiling faces of the other three Founders, looking like they had before, and Harry looking like Salazar. And there, holding his hand and alive was his beautiful sister. "Sarah..." he whispered, voice cracking. "Oh, Sarah..."
After another moment of watching his little sister smile and breathe, Harry turned away from the mirror and put his cloak back on. "She's dead, stupid," he told himself. "She's dead and there's nothing a magic mirror can do to change that." Then he hurried from the room and back to his dorm, where he dreamed of happier days with the bright girl.
The rest of the year passed as calmly as the first half had. Harry traded insults with Snape and cheerfully won the lost points back by being brilliant in his other classes, which kept his House from – as Ronald had put it – lynching him. (Not that a Hufflepuff would actually lynch someone.) Sirius hadn't been able to visit during Easter Hols, but he and Harry kept Hedwig busy with letters back and forth.
The four Founders slowly managed to fit into their adopted Houses, for the most part. Hermione still had some trouble with some of the upper years, but she'd been around Harry for long enough that she was able to act enough like a Slytherin to make most of the House leave her alone. Susan had found the Gryffindor House to be a much more welcoming and comfortable House than she'd expected, and told Harry that he'd actually probably like it in there, in spite of the colours. Ronald had ended up being much more willing to study after his stay in Ravenclaw, and could even say with some sincerity that he'd come to like the bookworms. Harry had decided he enjoyed spending time with the loyal Hufflepuffs, and had even made a few friends with the students in their year, much to his surprise; Harry had never had an easy time of making friends, as he'd never been a friendly person, especially not after Sarah's death.
Exams were easy for the four students, and they happily enjoyed the brief break before grades were due to laze about next to the lake and toss biscuit crumbs at the giant squid.
"It's a pity you can't take me with you," the Hat was saying one such afternoon the day before they were to depart. "I'd much rather stay with you, rather than have to sit in Albus' office for another boring summer."
"I seriously doubt he'd let you off school grounds, Hat," Hermione commented. "You're too old and precious."
"It's not precious," Harry complained. "It's just Ric's old hat. Which he accidently enchanted when he was drunk. Whoop-dee-doo."
"Ah, yet another story which was never passed down," Susan commented drily. "Instead of drunken stupidity, it was a moment of genius."
"Well, I am a spell-crafter," Ronald replied, huffing at their teasing.
"Which is probably why you managed it while you were drunk, and never since," Harry said, giving his friend an amused look.
"You know what?" Ronald replied, looking a little vexed, "Stop picking on me. I get enough of that at home."
"Oh, Ric, we didn't mean to pick on you," Susan said, reaching over and squeezing Ronald's arm gently. "We're just having a spot of fun."
"Yeah, sorry, Ric," Harry agreed, scratching at the back of his head nervously. "Didn't mean to. Honest."
Ronald crossed his arms over his chest and gave them a disgruntled look, which made the other three snort, then shook his head fondly. "You two. Anyway, Helga, what's going on with you and Neville Longbottom?" he asked, turning on the yellow-eyed girl, who blushed a bright red. "You seemed awfully close yesterday at lunch."
"Oh? Has sweet Helga finally found herself a match?" Harry asked teasingly. "Has someone finally stolen the untouchable heart?"
"Shut up, Salazar," Susan replied, shoving at him with her foot. "It's not like that. Nev and I are just friends."
"Mmhmm..." Ronald said, brown eyes sparkling. "Didn't look like friends to me."
"Oh, stop teasing her," Hermione admonished, eyes laughing.
"Thank you, Row."
"But, come on, Helga. There must be something–"
"Rowena Ravenclaw!" Susan snapped, then smacked the other girl on the arm, making the boys laugh.
"Prude," Hermione replied, making the boys fall backwards, clutching their sides. "Oh, stop that, you two."
"S-sorry, Row. But it is funny," Ronald said, wiping at his eyes.
Hermione huffed a bit, making Susan roll her eyes.
Before they could continue, Harry glanced up with a frown. Everyone turned to look at the Headmaster, who was approaching their group with a gentle smile. Hermione unobtrusively took down the privacy wards, which no first year should even be able to cast, let alone know how.
When the Headmaster got close enough so he wouldn't be yelling, Harry said, "Something we can do for you, sir?"
Dumbledore smiled at the cheerfully. "Well, I was wondering if Mr Weasley wouldn't mind returning the Hat, for starters?"
"Blast," the Hat complained. "Well, I suppose we'll have to wait until next year to chat, Ron," it said, allowing itself to be handed over to Dumbledore.
"Thank you," Dumbledore said, handling the Hat carefully. "Now, Mr Potter, if you don't mind, I'd like a word?"
Harry blinked at his friends, who all shrugged, and stood. "Sure."
Dumbledore smiled and led the boy back to his office, prattling on about sweets and other nonsense that Harry didn't even bother paying attention to. Once they were in the office, Dumbledore offered him tea, and Harry said, "With all due respect, sir, please get to the point."
Dumbledore smiled again. "Of course, my boy. I must ask you to return to your aunt's house–"
"No," Harry said sharply.
"Now, Harry–"
"I will not return to that muggle's house again," Harry said, making the word 'muggle' sound like a dirty curse.
"Harry, she's your family–"
"No, sir, she's my nightmare. I'd sooner off myself than return there. If we hadn't caught Pettigrew, I was planning to see if I could stay here this summer."
"Harry, surely that's a bit extreme," Dumbledore said, looking disappointed. "She's your mother's sister."
"Yeah. And she hates my guts. I'm not going back there."
Dumbledore let out a sad sigh. "My boy, you must. The blood wards are protecting you so long as you go home for a few weeks each year. After two weeks, you may move to Sirius' home, but I must insist you return to Petunia's house."
Harry stared. Blood wards?! "Sir, why are their blood wards around their house?" he asked quietly. As far as he knew, blood wards should have been illegal in the eyes of the Ministry.
Dumbledore gave a great sigh and gave Harry a horribly sad look. "My boy, your mother died to save you, you see, and as it is her sacrifice which saved your life, it's her blood you must stay with, to protect you. The blood wards just added to that, making the protection that much stronger."
Harry eyed the man suspiciously for a long moment before something occurred to him. "Correct me if I'm wrong, sir, but don't blood wards require that the subject, me, thinks of the place they're protecting as home?"
Dumbledore blinked. "Yes, of course."
Harry smirked. "Well, then, they probably broke at the beginning of the year. You see, sir, as soon as I walked into Hogwarts, I thought of this castle as home. Not the Dursleys'." In all honesty, Harry had never considered the muggle house his home, but he wasn't going to tell Dumbledore that.
Dumbledore looked like Harry had killed his mother or something. "Oh, my dear boy..."
Harry stood and gave the man a disgusted look. "Sir, I am not 'your boy'. I hardly know you. And just so we're clear, I will be staying with Sirius this summer. And only Sirius. Good day, sir." Then he turned and stalked from the room, intent on finding his friends and thinking of something else for a while.
"Mother's sacrifice my arse," Harry muttered as he walked back out into the sunshine. "Hundreds of mother's must have died for their children. What makes me so special? Light wizards..."
Harry had sent his godfather a quick owl to let him know that, no matter what Dumbledore had already told him, he would be staying with Sirius for the entire summer, and he should be ready to pick him up the next day at King's Cross.
The train ride was spent talking about their summers. Hermione said she might be travelling to France or somewhere on the continent, since her parents like to spend summer off the island. Susan commented that she'd likely just be at home, studying and spending time with her aunt, who she adored. Ronald grumbled about de-gnoming the garden and getting teased something horrible by his brothers. Harry didn't have any expectations, except that it would be fun. He also invited his friends over to the new house, since he knew Sirius wouldn't mind – the man even liked Hermione, despite her House. Ronald extended the same invite, saying his mum was a brilliant cook and loved having a large group of people to entertain.
At one point in the trip, Draco Malfoy swaggered into their compartment. He and Hermione had come to the mutual agreement to ignore each other during the past year, but he'd always enjoyed catching Ronald in the halls and teasing him something fierce about his family's money-status. There had almost been three duels, but one of the other Founders had always cut in before it could get too serious. Susan and Draco weren't fond of each other, but Draco mostly ignored her, since she was "of good breeding, despite her unfortunate Sorting."
Draco hadn't been quite sure what he thought about Harry. On one hand, the boy was a Hufflepuff and friends with a Weasley, as well as a muggleborn. On the other, he was one of those people you wanted to know and he acted very much like a Slytherin.
"Well, hello there, Potter, Weasel. And how has your trip been so far?" Draco asked with a smirk. He made a habit of never acknowledging the girls, especially since the first and last time he'd insulted Hermione, he'd had to go to Pomfrey to have his fingers separated. And since Susan's aunt was the Head of the DMLE, he wasn't even going to try insulting her.
"Brilliant, right up until you walked in," Ronald snapped back.
Harry sat back and smiled. "Well enough. How has your trip been, Draco?"
Draco blinked at Harry, thrown off by him. "Fine," he mumbled, then eyed Ronald with a look of disgust. "Now then, Weasel–"
"I wouldn't, Malfoy," Hermione commented, levelling her wand at the boy. "I don't want to have to curse your fingers together again right before we get back to London, you know? So why don't you just leave Ron alone?"
Draco eyed the old, pale wand and put his hands up. "Have a nice summer, you loonies," he told them, then hurried away.
"I don't know why you won't let me just curse him," Ronald grumbled.
"Because you might 'accidently' curse him permanently," Harry replied with a smirk. "And you know it."
"Give it up, Ric," Hermione suggested. "Malfoy's not even worried about you."
"Listen to Row," Harry agreed. "Best to let him underestimate you, so when it really counts, you can take him down."
Ronald gave Harry a disbelieving look. "Why would I wait? I'd rather just curse him silly now, so he leaves me alone like he does Row."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Gryffindors."
Susan and Hermione laughed while Ronald grinned unrepentantly.
Hermione went to Italy for the first half of summer, while the other three did exactly as they expected, with the occasional visit to Harry or Ronald's houses for a bit of together time. When she got back, they all met up at Harry and Sirius' house.
"I brought gifts!" Hermione exclaimed as soon as she come in through the Floo.
"Yeah!" Ronald and Sirius both shouted.
Susan and Harry traded amused looks.
Hermione grinned and flopped down on the couch next to Susan. "I wasn't sure what everyone would like, so I got a bunch of little things..." She pulled a few toy models of the coliseum and other temples from her bag and spread them out across the table. When Sirius reached his hand out first, Hermione smacked it. "No, Sirius. The others pick first."
Sirius pouted and hugged his hand to his chest, while the three students traded amused looks and picked up a few models, leaving four for Sirius, which he immediately snatched up, eyeing Hermione's hands warily.
"These are kinda cool," Ronald commented, turning his model of Apollo's temple around in his hand.
Hermione smiled and said, "Ah, but I also got everyone a Carnevale mask, since we found a shop that still had some for sale."
The other three Founders sat forward, eyes wide. Though it hadn't been as well known when they were originally alive, the Venetian Carnevale had existed then. A few of their students shortly before they died had come from Italy and enjoyed celebrating their holiday before and while the few Christian students had their Lent and the pagan culture of the school – including the four Founders – enjoyed the spring equinox. The school had quickly adopted the time of merry-making before their other holidays and it had become something of a tradition in the years preceding their deaths to have a few weeks without classes to enjoy the holiday. Masks had been much less prevalent at the time, so the Founders had never had their own, though they'd often joked about going to Italy and get masks themselves.
Hermione giggled a bit, then pulled out the first carefully wrapped mask. "Let's see, Ron?" She handed it over.
Ronald waited until she'd nodded before ever-so-carefully unwrapping it. The mask was a half-mask which looked like it had a leaf above his eyes. It was done in autumn colours and lined in gold. Swallowing, he put it on, then grinned at his friends. "What do you think? Am I mysterious?"
"Not in the least," Harry deadpanned, then laughed and ruffled Ronald's hair playfully, earning him a shove.
Hermione laughed at the two and pulled out another well-wrapped mask and handed it over to Susan. The girl opened it just as carefully as Ronald had. Inside was a beautiful half-face, metal mask with a tiara-like pattern above the eye holes and fancy curls coming out from the corners of the eyes. It had a black back piece, which was covered in the gold metal cut in the decorative pattern. "Oh, 'Mione, this is so beautiful," she whispered, putting it on. "What do you think?" she asked the boys.
"Stunning," Ronald said. Next to him, Harry nodded, then turned to Hermione hopefully.
Hermione smiled and pulled out the last mask, handing it over to Harry. When he unwrapped it, he found a silver half-mask with a metal crescent moon rising over the eyes. He carefully put it on, pausing to argue with his hair when it tried to get caught in the moon. When Ronald snorted, Harry shoved him, then asked, "Yeah?"
Ronald grinned. "Yeah."
When they turned back to Hermione, she'd pulled out her own mask and was grinning at them as she finished tying it on. It was done in an aged-bronze and had two hippocampi on either side of a hand-harp above the eye holes. Rowena Ravenclaw had been the only Founder to play an instrument, the harp, so the mask was far more proper than anyone but the four friends would know.
"That's lovely, 'Mione," Susan said, smiling from behind her own mask.
Hermione smiled. "Thanks, Sue. Sorry I didn't get you one, Sirius. I wasn't sure which one would suit you best, and the selection was a bit limited, anyway."
Sirius shrugged with a grin. "S'ok. I'll just have to take Harry to Italy next year and get my own," he said, eyes dancing.
The four kids laughed at that. Then the three who'd stayed in Britain turned on Hermione and demanded details about her visit, which she laughingly offered without complaint.
The rest of the summer passed quickly, with the four friends enjoying their time spent at home with their families almost as much as they enjoyed the time they spent together at the Burrow or Sirius' cottage.
Suddenly, it seemed, it was time to get supplies for a new year. The friends agreed to meet in the Leaky Cauldron at noon a few days before term was to start.
When the Weasleys finally finished coming through the Floo, the parents made quick plans, then herded the group of eight children off to the bank, where each family set about getting gold for purchases. After a number of pleading looks from the children, the parents went to get little things for their kids, while the twins went one way and the Founders went another.
Since their parents had agreed to get their other things, the four friends made their way to the bookstore, since that's where they were to meet up anyway. It was already filling for the autographing session of Gilderoy Lockhart.
"Ugh. Lockhart's books?" Susan complained, eyeing the full set they were supposed to be buying in disgust.
"What's wrong with him?" Hermione asked.
"All his books are tall tales, that's what," Susan replied, determinately walking right past the assigned books.
"They can't be that bad," Hermione said, frowning down at the books she'd just added to her basket.
"Mum's nuts about him," Ronald commented. "She's not sure how she feels about having to buy the full set for all of us, though – they don't make the used copies shelf very often..."
"Sorry, Ron," Susan mumbled, gently touching his shoulder.
Harry shrugged. "Well, if the books are as bad as Sue says, then maybe we should only buy a set for the four of us? Ron and I can share when Slytherin and Gryffindor has classes together, and Sue and 'Mione can share when Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw have classes together. We'll just have to trade them for the set that needs them that day."
"That would be brilliant," Ronald breathed.
"We might even be able to work it so your whole family only needs to buy one copy," Susan commented, eyeing the book in disgust. "I really hope whoever our teacher is realizes how hard this is on the families with less money."
"That would be the Weasel's family, right?" Draco asked out of nowhere, coming to stand next to them.
Susan eyed Draco for a long moment, then sniffed and walked off. "Come on, Ron. He's not worth your time."
Hermione shoved Ronald after the retreating Susan, leaving Harry to smile in amusement at Draco. "Someone once told me children like to mercilessly tease someone they have a crush on," he commented. "Be careful, Draco, before someone takes your verbal comments the wrong way." Then he turned and followed his friends, leaving a gaping Draco behind.
By the time they'd finished finding all the books they wanted, the adults had arrived. They met next to the register and the kids gave their books over to be bought. Mrs Weasley was practically bouncing in place and, once the books had been paid for, hurried them all into line to get the books signed.
"Hey, Mrs Weasley," Harry said, "we were talking earlier and we figured we four would just get one set of books to share, since we end up sharing our books in classes anyway. And, well, Sue thought it might be easier to just get one set for the twins, Percy and Ginny to share. And if Ginny ends up in a different class, she can borrow the set we're using." At the mention of her name, Ginny blushed brightly and hid her face behind her hands. Harry gave her a weird look; he'd figured out early into the summer that she was crushing on him – he'd seen his fair share of teenaged romances to be able to tell – but he didn't understand what her deal was.
Mrs Weasley, who'd already commented on the prices of the books for this year, looked surprised and grateful. "That's a good idea, Harry. Thank you. You too, Susan."
Both students smiled at her, but before anything more could be said, the photographer bumped into Susan. Harry and Ronald both hurried forward to steady her, giving the man venomous looks. "Move, kids," the man snapped, barely sparing them a glance. "This is for the Daily Prophet."
"No one cares about your rag of a newspaper," Harry snarled back. "You watch where you're going."
"It can't be Harry Potter?"
Before Lockhart could do more than start to move towards Harry, Ronald, Hermione and Susan were all standing between them, wands drawn. Behind them, Harry smirked nastily. "So what if I am?" he asked.
Lockhart flailed for a moment, clearly uncertain what to say, before smiling brightly and saying, "Well, come here, then, Harry. I wanted to gift you with the school books–"
"Oh, no, that's okay," Harry replied, leaning over Hermione's shoulder with a fake smile. "See, I can afford your books fine without your help. Now, other students going to Hogwarts this year – the poorer families who can't afford them and the orphans who have to buy them with money from the Hogwarts vaults – those children could use your... donation."
Lockhart cleared his throat and tried another desperate smile. "Well, ah, of course. I– ah... Oh! The Weasleys, of course!"
Mrs Weasley huffed a bit. "We can afford school books just fine, sir."
The Founders hid smiles at how much of a fool the man was making of himself.
Lockhart tried another smile after his recent attempt died in light of Mrs Weasley's anger. "Uhm, right! Of course! I shall just leave a couple sets here at the counter for any students who are either unable to buy them themselves or have to use Hogwarts money." He handed four piles of books over to the cashier, who didn't quite seem to know what to do with them. Lockhart turned back to the crowd, his smile much more genuine. "And of course, what these poor, unfortunate students don't yet know is that, not only will they be getting free copies of all my books, they'll also be getting me! Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen, your very own Gilderoy Lockhart will be teaching at Hogwarts this year!"
"Oh no you don't," Harry muttered, then used the noise of the crowd to shoot a couple of older spells at the man, smirking nastily when they hit. Next to him, Susan giggled, while Hermione rolled her eyes and Ronald snorted.
"What'd you hit him with, then?" Ronald asked.
Before Harry could answer, Lockhart blissfully said, "If you'd like a back massage, please continue to move forward. If you need to bash the staff, hit everyone in your way."
Everyone just sort of stopped and stared for a long moment, Lockhart looking puzzled. Then, pandemonium ensued, and the four Founders had to hurry out of the way, snickering.
"Oh, the Dyslexic Curse. Sal you're horrible!" Hermione said through her laughter.
Harry looked proud of himself. "With an added confundus to make him think he's actually saying what he means to say."
Susan beamed. "I do think I love you for that," she decided, then gave him a wet kiss on the cheek.
"I can see the headlines now," a sarcastic voice called from just to their left, "Potter Flirts With Bones Beyond Stupid Writer."
"Malfoy..." Ronald hissed, then aimed his wand at the other boy.
Hermione grabbed Ronald's hand and smiled nastily at Draco. "Don't worry, Ron, you'll have plenty of time to curse him in his sleep this year," she said sweetly.
Ronald relaxed, smiling. "Oh, and I'll enjoy it."
Draco sneered. "Weasel would never get into Slytherin. And he couldn't curse me, even in my sleep."
"What's going on over here, kids?" Mr Weasley asked, walking over with the rest of the Weasley kids and the various parents.
"Just a friendly school-yard rivalry," Harry commented, eyeing Draco warningly. "Nothing to worry about."
"If you're sure..."
"Ah, Arthur," a new voice said. "How quaint, seeing you in a bookstore. Sure you can afford all those school books? Perhaps you've already taken the four copies behind the desk, to lighten the cost."
Everyone looked over at where a man who looked very much like Draco was approaching. Everything about him screamed 'Slytherin,' and the other three Founders looked to Harry in hopes that he might keep a fight from happening.
But Harry could no sooner have stopped an oncoming rhino, and the two males quickly turned their fight of words into a brawl, with Susan's father and Sirius hurrying forward to pull the two men apart.
In the end, it took Mrs Weasley coming back over and yelling at her husband to get off the floor. The two men shot glares at one another, then the elder Malfoy hurried Draco from the store.
After that, the rest of the trip was almost boring.
A/N: This chapter was a lot of fun to write.
A translation of what Lockhart thought he was saying: "If you'd like autographs, please continue to move forward. If you need the store staff, please stay to the left."
~Bats ^.^x
Pro - Prophecy's Children / 1 - Home ||| 2 - Socially Acceptable |||
4 - Tomorrow Will Come ||| 5 - Fallen Star ||| 6 - A Dream Will Come True When It Will
7 - The Deepest River ||| 8 - Question of Honour ||| 9 - Hanging By a Thread
10 - Never As it Seems ||| 11 - Long Road
Incomplete
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