And it wouldn't stop until Harry was back at Hogwarts; Sirius knew Andy wanted to take the kids to a painting exhibition; he himself had bought tickets for the British Duelling Finals; Remus wanted a trip to Stonehenge so he could do a history lesson; Augusta was insisting everyone attend the Charity Tea Dance in aid of Saint Mungo's at the beginning of August…
Between his lessons, the outings and the alliance dinners, Harry was being kept wonderfully busy. He was thriving under the attention. The good health their time in the clinic had bestowed upon Harry had been built upon by Dobby's nutritionally balanced meals, Harry's training, and more importantly, being surrounded by people who loved and cared about him even if one of them was Albus Dumbledore.
It was just as well because hearing the prophecy had been a very big shock to Harry.
They'd heard the full prophecy with a quick and discreet visit to the DOM organised by Bertie, with Remus along for moral support. They had listened to the whole thing and all of them had been white faced by the end of it…
"I think I already knew." Harry said, placing the orb back on the shelf. "He's just too interested in me."
Sirius couldn't help noticing that Harry's hand was trembling; he was feeling fairly shaky himself. As Harry had said; they'd known but knowing and knowing were too different things. He wrapped his arms around Harry and dropped a kiss on the top of his head, ignoring a shocked looking Remus and a grave looking Bertie to focus on Harry. "I know it's scary but I don't care what it says; we're going to do everything we can to make sure you don't have to fight him, Harry. I promise."
"What if I do have to fight him again?" Harry countered, pressing closer. "How can I beat him?"
Sirius couldn't answer because of the fearful lump in his throat and he threw Remus a glance that screamed 'help!'
Remus, who had gone white as a sheet when they'd heard the prophecy, rallied in the face of Harry's and Sirius's distress. "Well, it does say that you'll have a power that Voldemort doesn't know about. We should probably try and research what that is…"
"It could be your family magic." Bertie inserted brightly. "There is definitely an unusual affinity there, and while Slytherin is a Noble House, it isn't an Ancient and Noble House."
"And we'll train you." Sirius added, recovering his composure. "Everything we know including all the dirty tricks." He rubbed Harry's back comfortingly. "If the worst comes to the worst, we'll make sure you're prepared, Harry."
And so they'd increased Harry's DADA training beyond his Tuesday control lessons: if Harry ever ended up facing Voldemort again (which Sirius would try his damned best to make sure didn't happen) he was going to need to be able to survive the experience.
There had been a lot of discussion between Remus, Minerva and himself, over whether to tell Harry about Snape's role in telling the prophecy to Voldemort. Remus and Minerva weren't certain Harry was ready from an emotional point of view to handle such news and then face Snape with equanimity at Hogwarts. Sirius had conceded the point but he hated keeping secrets from Harry and so he had insisted they offered Harry the choice.
He and Remus had sat Harry down one Friday afternoon at Black Manor (where the magic would contain any loss of control on Harry's part if he did decide to know) and told him that they knew the identity of the Death Eater who had informed Voldemort of the prophecy, that it was someone Harry would have to interact with in future, and so did he feel he could handle the information? Harry had shown great maturity and declined, acknowledging that he would never be able to be in the same room as the person who had prompted Voldemort into attacking him and his parents just as he would never be able to stand the sight of Wormtail for the same reason. Sirius understood how he felt – it was all he could do to stop himself marching down to Hogwarts and hexing Snape himself.
Albus had surprisingly taken aboard much of Sirius's criticism about safety. Moody had moved into Hogwarts early to do a full security review and he'd taken to the job like a duck to water. Sirius knew Harry would be disappointed some of the passageways were now warded but Sirius was pleased that nobody could get through them without it being detected. But it wasn't just security that was changing at Hogwarts.
Binns had finally been convinced to move on and so History of Magic was undergoing something of a major revision. Muggle Studies had a new tutor, Alison Bunting, while Charity Burbage had been quietly transferred to help out with the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Department while Arthur handled the new Muggle Affairs Committee.
Three old courses had been revived and added as weekend electives. Duelling, magical military strategy, and healing were all an hour long and open to fourth year students. Harry had expressed interest in all three and Sirius had encouraged him to take them and see what they were like. He could always drop them if he didn't enjoy them. Minerva complained about the extra work the changes were causing but confided that she was very happy to see the school being somewhat reinvigorated.
Sirius rather suspected the new courses were Albus sneakily trying to train Harry for a final battle with Voldemort but he decided to let Albus think he was doing it under Sirius's nose and getting away with it for the time being. Sirius didn't really have an objection to Harry learning something that could help him survive if he had to face Voldemort again, he just objected to Albus assuming the prophecy had to happen and placing the burden of killing a Dark Lord on the shoulders of a teenage boy. Sirius still believed the adults around Harry should do everything in their power to take care of the problem first.
Which led him to that Friday's War Council.
He stepped out of the floo and into Black Manor. He wasn't surprised when Penelope appeared. She looked smart in her blue robes with the crests of the House of Black and the House of Potter adorning them. She was turning into a treasure. She and Bill Weasley were the only other people beside Minerva who had access to Griffin House as Sirius and Remus had occasionally had to request one of them look after Harry – Harry might protest that he didn't need babysitting but Sirius felt better knowing someone else was in the house in case of an emergency than simply Dobby.
"Afternoon, Penelope." Sirius said.
She fell into step as he headed towards the study. "You have five new invitations." She said cheerfully. "Lord Rickett invited you to tea; I've set the meeting up for next Tuesday. Lord Nott invited you to discuss the August session agenda."
"Are you sure he's not planning to murder me?" Sirius joked, wondering why Nott wanted to see him alone. It could be the first parry ahead of an alliance discussion, he mused. Lucius had sent word that most of the Ancient and Noble Houses in his alliance had understood the new political landscape – Nott foremost among them.
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