Harry was almost too distracted by the building in front of him to hear Amelia Bones address Sirius. "Prisoner Black, you are one again confined to house arrest as per your Unbreakable Vow. Be warned that leaving the property without reporting to St Mungo's for treatment or turning yourself in to myself or any active D.M.L.E. officer within an hour will result in your death by violating your Unbreakable Vow. Do you understand these conditions?" Her tone was formal.
"Yes, Director. I understand." Sirius replied formally before switching to a more jovial tone. "It's almost like you don't trust me boss."
"I don't. I still remember the time you added flobberworm mucus to the tea urn in the brake room." She looked more like she was trying to come across as angry at the prank rather than actually being angry.
"Like I told you at the time, that wasn't me. You never found any evidence that it was me, did you." His grin left little doubt that it was Sirius who planked the tea.
"Um, excuse me, but what's an Unbreakable Vow?" Harry asked out of sheer curiosity.
It was his grandfather who answered. "An Unbreakable Vow is a spell where you bind a willing person to a course of action weighed against their very life. For example, if you took an Unbreakable Vow to always eat your green vegetables, if you didn't one day then you would suddenly fall over dead. That makes it an incredibly powerful and useful spell, but one that you don't use lightly. Director Bones here is juggling wanting to do her job and get Sirius a trial and her duty to protect the public from an escaped prisoner, so the compromise is that Sirius is under house arrest until his trial is scheduled. Just promise that you will be very careful before entering into an Unbreakable Vow. They are incredibly serious and incredibly dangerous if worded even slightly wrong. I'm sure you can think up a few vows that, while well intended, could easily result in disaster," The man explained.
Harry could definitely think of a few ways that could be a disaster; if his aunt and uncle had ever known about this then they probably would have made him take a vow to never use magic again. Then, when they continued to treat him like their slave and pushed him too far, one case of accidental magic would end it all. Director Bones said her goodbyes and then disappeared suddenly, and Harry got to see what Apparition looked like from the outside. The three men made their way up the driveway to what Harry's grandfather called Potter Manor.
Just the entrance hall was bigger than the Dursleys' house. In fact, Harry thought if he took out the stairs then both the house and the garden would fit inside. Sirius and Harry's grandfather gave Harry a tour of the manor. The ground floor was set aside for entertaining and business, as there was a large formal dining room, a ballroom, and a few office spaces. The first floor was a mix; the east side of the manor was a bunch of guest rooms whereas on the west there were rooms to invite guests when they were visiting, such as a library, a semi formal dining room, a sitting room, and a game room. The second floor was given over to family space, an informal dining room, a few places to relax, a few private studies, a potions lab, and of course a number of bedrooms.
Harry's grandfather showed Harry what room he would be his now, and Harry was overwhelmed as he looked around the room with more floor space than his dorm room at Hogwarts. "Why don't you get settled in? Then you can come find us when you're ready," Sirius smiled at him.
Harry set his trunk down at the foot of the bed and opened Hedwig's cage for her. The snowy owl climbed out of the cage and gave Harry a light nip of his fingers before letting out a soft hoot. "I'm not sure either Hedwig, it just seems too good to be true."
-ϟϟϟ-
Over the next few days Harry settled into life at the manor. He was given a few chores to do, but the house was warded so Harry could use magic to do those chores without the Ministry knowing, and the chores were much less than he had to do in Privet Drive. Mostly he had to keep his own room and bathroom neat, and he needed to clean and tidy a few of the other family rooms. But as the cleaning was done with magic, it only took a few minutes for him to do a room.
The biggest part of his day was spent with his grandfather, who Harry quickly learned wasn't as cold and aloof as his first impression had left Harry with. His grandfather had just felt awkward and didn't know how to do any better in such an awkward situation. Harry couldn't exactly blame the man he hadn't known what to say either. Harry, Sirius, and Grandfather Charlus spent the first week just getting to know one another. Harry was not the happy bubbly little kid that they remembered having sat on their laps when he was younger, and Harry had very little memory of the two of them, only a vague sense of familiarity.
In the evenings Harry was left to do his homework, only instead of doing it while hiding in his room he was given one of the private studies to work in. The only interruption was when Sirius or Grandfather Charlus would bring Harry a snack to munch on while he worked. Sirius, as he was under house arrest, was always about either in the manor itself or out in the grounds. Grandfather Charlus, however, spent most evenings away from the manor trying to arrange events for Sirius's upcoming trial.
Soon the time came when Hermione was supposed to be back from her family's trip to France, so Harry waited a day and sent her a letter in the morning with Hedwig, explaining what had happened and how he had moved in with his suddenly alive grandfather. Hedwig must have really pushed it because he got his reply that evening.
Harry,
I spoke to your uncle yesterday and he said that you had moved out to live with your grandfather and your godfather. I'm really happy for you. I'm going to miss being able to talk to you on the phone as I assume your grandfather's place doesn't have one. But my parents will be happy that they don't have to listen to your uncle trying to sell them drills again.
Our trip to France was great. Did you know that the Louvre has a magical section? We got to see wizarding paintings of historical French figures. It was quite amusing to listen to Napoleon talking about how he planned to deal with the British.
Maybe your grandfather will let you come for a visit at some point. I know the only reason my parents didn't invite you before now was because they didn't want to be cornered by your uncle all day pressing them to buy his drills. Or maybe I can come visit you. The Brecon Beacons are quite a way but I live quite close to the Leaky Cauldron, so if your grandfather's place is on the Floo network then maybe I could Floo from there.
I have really missed you this last week.
Love,
Hermione
P.S. My parents were glad to put up with your uncle so we could talk. He was just the cloud that came with the silver lining
Hermione had actually dotted the I in her name with a little heart and Harry couldn't help but think it was cute. He spoke to his grandfather about the letter that evening over dinner. "Grandfather, I got a letter today from Hermione."
The old man smiled at Harry and asked, "That's your girlfriend, right? The one you say is absolutely brilliant and incredibly smart. When can I meet her?"
"Actually that was one of the things the letter was about. She mentioned me going to visit her or her coming to visit us, but that it was a long way from here to London and she asked if we are on the Floo network."
"Ah, no we aren't. Not currently anyway. There is a yearly fee to have a fire connected to the network and I haven't had ours reconnected yet. There was no need, as Sirius is stuck here and I can Apparate. Though now you mentioned it, I should probably get it done. Your lady lives in London right?" He asked and Harry nodded. "Why don't you send her a letter and tell her we will be in London tomorrow, and if she wants to she can meet us at the Leaky Cauldron at one o'clock."
Harry grinned at his grandfather and said "Thank you!" before running to get some parchment so he could send the letter to Hermione.
-ϟϟϟ-
The next day, Harry was surprised that he and his grandfather weren't just going to lunch, but apparently they had other plans. Harry was out of the manor by 9am, a good four hours before their lunch date. After walking off the grounds, Grandfather Charlus took Harry by Side-along Apparition directly to Diagon Alley. Apparently their first stop was Gringotts.
They were there early enough that they didn't need to wait to see a teller, and soon they were barrelling down the goblin tracks to a vault. Harry was surprised that the vault they were going to wasn't number 687. He asked his grandfather about that, and apparently vault 687 wasn't the Potter vault at all but the vault his grandfather had set up for his son, Harry's dad, to teach him about money. James wasn't the best with money growing up, but with the help of Harry's mother after they had been married, they had almost been able to get the vault back up to the level Charlus had put in there when he opened the account for James.
Harry offered to return the money to Charlus, as he was sure the money had come from him originally so it was rightfully his, but his grandfather flat out refused. While Grandfather Charlus got out a bag of Galleons he lectured Harry that "money was supposed to flow down the family line, not up it" and how "it is the responsibility and the privilege of the older generations to provide for the younger ones." He did tell Harry that if he ever needed advice or help managing the money in the vault he would be more than happy to help, but that he would be insulted if Harry ever tried to give him money like that again.
They stopped by another teller on the way out and Grandfather Charlus changed about a third of the gold he had pulled out of the Potter vault into regular British pounds. After that visit, it was just after ten o'clock and their next stop was Madam Malkin's Robe Shop. Apparently the fact that the only wizarding robes Harry owned were his school robes wasn't good enough. So an hour later, Harry stepped out of the shop in a set of green robes that were so dark that if Harry was standing in the shadows you had to look twice to see they weren't black. He had two other sets of casual robes, but these were the closest to Harry's school robes and the ones he felt the most comfortable in.
Next they Floo'ed from the Leaky Cauldron to the Ministry of Magic. Harry had never been to the Ministry before and he was amazed by just how lavish it was. The floor, the support columns, and the walls all looked to be solid marble. There was a fountain in the middle of the room that had a bunch of statues that looked like they were made of solid gold. There was a witch and wizard standing together, wands raised as though about to cast a spell. And surrounding them was a centaur, a goblin and a house elf, each of them looking up at the witch and wizard with a look of admiration on their face. Harry had to fight not to laugh at it when a thought popped into his head. 'Even if the statue was solid gold, it was probably cheaper than the cost of paying a centaur and a goblin to look at a witch or wizard like that.' None of the goblins or centaurs he had met would do it. In fact, Harry was sure the centaur Bane he had met in his first year at Hogwarts would kill anyone who asked.
Harry and his grandfather had to sign in and present their wands to the greeter at the front desk. Then, after a quick ride in a lift that took them down to lower levels, Harry got his first introduction to Ministry bureaucracy, as they arranged to reactivate the Floo connection to Potter Manor. By the end of it, Harry was just glad they were reactivating an already existing connection that had been closed due to non-payment of the yearly bill for a Floo licence.
While they were queuing or waiting for some office worker to process some piece of parchment that they had just filled out, Grandfather Charlus explained how the Ministry worked. He told Harry about how the Minister of Magic selected the Heads of Department and each department was completely separate from the others. Then each department had sub-departments in it that focused on specific things. For example they were currently in the Floo Regulation Office, which was a sub-department of the Department for Magical Transportation. And according to the fine print on the paperwork they were dealing with, the department was headed by Terence Popping.
An hour and half later, they were finally able to get out of the Ministry and the Floo to the Potter Manor had been reactivated. They had about half an hour before they were due to meet Hermione, so Harry and Grandfather Charlus Floo'ed back to the Leaky Cauldron. Harry greeted Tom the toothless bartender, whom Harry liked after the previous summer, as the man had always treated Harry as a person rather than some hero. They sat down near the bar with a couple of butterbeers and his grandfather asked Harry about Hermione.
"Um, well like I told you we met first year on the train going to Hogwarts, but we didn't become friends until Halloween. I hit it off with my best mate Ron Weasley almost immediately, and Hermione and Ron just couldn't get along. Hermione had trouble making any friends at all because she is a very bookish Gryffindor, and she quickly got a reputation as a teachers' person and a know-it-all. Especially from Ron, who is basically Hermione's exact opposite. Hermione is scared of heights, Ron loves to fly; Hermione loves to read, Ron hates it; I could go on. Anyway Ron's mouth can get away from him and on Halloween Hermione ended up crying in a girls' toilet. Later at the feast, Hermione still hadn't joined everyone and we were told there was a troll in the school. Everyone was sent back to their common rooms where they would be safe, but I realised that Hermione didn't know so I went to get her. Ron and I ended up saving Hermione from the troll and then we were friends."
Harry went on telling his grandfather about how Hermione had always stuck by him and supported him during everything that had happened to him. Harry didn't even realise that, because he was focusing on reasons his grandfather should like Hermione, he was also giving the older man the full story of what had happened at Hogwarts over the last three years.
"Then Hermione helped me pull Sirius onto the back of the Hippogriff and we flew up to one of the towers. We sent Sirius away on the Hippogriff and rushed back to the hospital wing. Of course, we just had to run into a prefect checking for students out of their common room after curfew. I knew that we needed to get away quickly so I kissed Hermione. Well that kiss quickly grew rather, uh…heated and we got completely caught up in the moment. The prefect just assumed he had caught just another couple out after hours, so he took some points and sent us on our way. Only Hermione and I both rather enjoyed that kiss more than we thought we would, so we talked about it and decided that we would try being a couple. So far it's been brilliant!" Harry finished.
Harry didn't know that his grandfather was using all of his self control to keep calm after hearing everything that had happened at the school. "Well if this young lady lives up to even half of the praise you are heaping on her, I'm sure she is a wonderful person," he said and grinned as he looked over Harry's shoulder.
Harry turned around to see a blushing Hermione standing there with her parents. He blushed deep to match Hermione's and stammered out a question. "Uh… how…How long have you been standing there?"
"Just before you started to describe your first kiss," Hermione's mother Emma smiled as she answered for her daughter.
Grandfather Charlus stood up to greet their guests and shook Hermione's father Dan's hand before kissing the back of both Hermione's and her mother's hand. He then had Harry do the same. After he shook hands with Dan and kissed the back of Emma's hand, feeling incredibly awkward the whole time, Harry went to do the same thing for Hermione. However, she wasn't having any of it and pulled Harry into one of her amazing hugs and kissed him on the cheek, causing the three adults to chuckle.
The five of them had an enjoyable pub lunch, and Hermione told Harry about her trip to France in detail. She had apparently visited a few magical sights in France that Harry's grandfather had also visited a time or two, and they quickly started talking about how things had changed between his visit decades ago and Hermione's visit. Soon they were finished with food, and after a few minutes (with the permission of the Grangers) Harry's grandfather gave Harry a few galleons and sent him and Hermione to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour to get themselves dessert.
Harry had spent plenty of time in the Alley the previous summer so he knew where the ice-cream parlour was without even thinking about it. The two teens each got a three scoop sundae with their choice of toppings. Hermione got a scoop of three different types of chocolate ice cream and loaded them up with whipped cream and a caramel sauce. Harry stuck with the classics (vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry) with chopped nuts and caramel sauce.
As much as the two appreciated the ice cream, they appreciated being away from the adults more. Instead of sitting at one of the outside tables in the sun, they opted to sit in a booth inside the ice-cream parlour that offered them a little more privacy. Harry was stuck eating his ice cream with his left hand, because Hermione had snuggled up to his right and put his arm around her shoulder. As inconvenient as that was, Harry pulled Hermione in tighter. They had both missed being able to simply innocently touch each other since they had last seen each other at King's Cross Station. They also missed sneaking off to snog for half an hour, but the middle of an ice cream parlour wasn't the best place to do that.
-ϟϟϟ-
Charlus sat across from the two dentists and smiled. "You have a lovely daughter. And Harry seems quite taken with her."
"Thank you, and trust me his feelings are returned. Ever since she came home from her first year at Hogwarts every other conversation she has had with us has somehow involved Harry. And that's only gone up since they started dating this year," Emma smiled as she recounted her daughter's behaviour.
"You know, on a lot of things they are behind their peers. Not academically, if Harry is to be believed your daughter is the top student in her year. I mean the things most magical children learn before coming to Hogwarts. Manners, customs, how the wizarding government works, their rights, a basic understanding of our laws. Those sorts of things. Tell me, did your daughter tell you about Sirius Black?"
A little surprised by the out of the blue question Dan answered for them. "You mean the innocent man with a kill-on-sight order on him despite the fact that he never had a trial?" It was obvious by his tone that Dan was not a fan of the particular fact.
"Precisely. What your daughter doesn't know, because Harry didn't find out until you went to France, is that I sort of adopted Sirius when he was a teenager. He had a troubled home life that's not my place to discuss, but the point is one of the rights I have as a Head of House is to offer shelter and support to anyone who wants it and I feel deserves it. Your daughter helped save what is essentially my adopted son from the gallows, so I want to offer her something similar. " He held up his hands silently begging for the two parents to give him a little longer to explain. "Now, I know Hermione has no need to be sheltered from you, I don't mean to take her from you. However, it would allow me to officially advocate on her behalf, as Hermione would basically be recognised as a member of the House of Potter. That would give her a lot more legal protection in our world. The laws are all written with the assumption you are part of a House. It's why being cast out of your house is so painful, and it's the biggest obstacle muggleborns face in our society."
Telling Dan and Emma that he had no intention of taking their daughter away from them and instead was trying to help her prevented them from blowing up, but they still had questions. "What would this involve, practically?" Dan asked.
Emma added another question. "And what happens when Hermione and Harry break up? They are teenagers, so it's bound to happen eventually."
"Well to answer Emma's question first, her relationship with Harry has no bearing on this offer. If the two of them break up, then the worst it would mean for this is that I keep their affairs separate. If they split and remain friends, then we will have to play it by ear. The only way it could be complicated is if I die before Hermione gets married. Witches join the house of the wizard they marry, so being with Harry would make him her Head of House then. But Hermione would have the right to leave at any time and that would put her back where she is now, no worse off.
"As for the practicalities. Hermione would get a room in my manor whenever she stayed over. I will be doing that anyway as Harry's girlfriend, but she gets to use that room as long as she is a member of the House, not just while they are together. I will offer her the same lessons I'm going to be giving Harry. But the biggest change is that for legal purposes I would be considered her guardian in the magical world." The two Grangers stiffened at that. "Remember that the only wizarding institution that recognises a muggle parent's parental rights of a magical child is Hogwarts, the Ministry considers her guardianship to be held by the school. I will be able to take a much more proactive hand in helping the young woman who saved my boy than any overworked professor. And of course, I won't make any non-emergency decisions without consulting you first, and even in emergencies I will do my best to talk to you, time permitting."
The three of them talked for forty-five minutes and in the end they decided to leave the decision up to Hermione, but they were going to make her write to a few other magicals she knew and get their opinions before making her decision. They went to find the two teens and found them in the ice-cream parlour, kissing and cuddling as much as they could get away with in a public setting without being thought of as indecent.