Chapter 20 – Summer Holidays

“Harry, what’s wrong? Can I help you? Are you in pain?”

Harry wiped his eyes and croaked, “Can I speak to my granny, please?”

Pomfrey looked at her watch.

“Of course, I will call her in fifteen minutes, when classes are over. So in the meantime let me check on you and give you the Potions.” She did her checks and frowned. Harry had already stayed in the wing for nearly four weeks, but his recovery was much too slow. If it went on like this, he would have to spend half of the holidays with her. She sighed and said to Harry, “Harry, you must not get yourself so excited; you are only making your condition worse. Your temperature is much too high, considering that you have just woken up half an hour ago. I want you not to do any work today and just sleep. As soon as you have talked to your Grandmother, you will get another sleeping draught.” Harry only glanced at her, still crying silently before he fell in an exhausted sleep. When he woke up, his Grandmother was sitting beside him.

“Hello Harry, what’s wrong?” she asked worriedly.

“Hi Granny, um… ah… you know, um… willIfailmysixthyearbecausImissallthetests?”

“Sorry, Harry, can you repeat what you said in plain language please?”

“Um… I’ve missed so many classes and now I’ll miss all of the final tests, so will I fail my 6th year?” He sighed.

She handed him a glass of water. “Here, drink this and don’t talk anymore; everything is all right. Of course, you will not fail your 6th year, as you are not skipping your tests because of your free will but you cannot take them because you are ill. During the summer holidays, you will have enough time to make up for the studies you have missed so far, so that you will not have any problems to keep up in your 7th year. Calm down and try to get better, that’s all you have to do.”

-----

During the next two weeks, Harry translated another three Potions books very much inspired by Severus telling him that indeed most of the Potions recipes had been lost sometime over the past centuries. One day Severus was very excited.

“Harry, listen. Dumbledore called me to his office yesterday and proposed that I stay at Hogwarts over the holidays to work for my Potions Masters; he said if I work on Potions during the holidays and in the evenings in 7th year like I did during 6th year, I’ll probably be able to take the Potions Masters test next summer. In addition, he said if I have passed the tests, he’ll want me to replace Slughorn after next summer who wants to retire anyway. He already talked to my mother, and she has of course agreed that I may stay here.”

“Oh, Severus, that’s great!” Harry beamed. “I’m so happy for you!” In fact, Harry felt very happy, too. He didn’t want to spend the holidays all alone at Hogwarts, he’d miss his friends too much.

“That’s thanks to you, Harry; I know you suggested to him that he hire me as Potions professor; I’m not so stupid you know.”

Harry smirked. “I only told him that you’ll be the best Potions Master of England during the next decades, and that in my time it was easy for him to keep you since he saved you from a stay in Azkaban because of your Death Eater activity and you needed his protection. However, as time has changed now he has to try hard to keep you here. And believe me; I want you to be here in 19 years’ time, when I arrive back in the future.”

“Will you be able to attend the leaving feast tomorrow?” Harry shrugged.

“I don’t know; I didn’t ask and she didn’t say anything. But I would like to go, I mean, as long as the Potions don’t wear off, I feel great.”

Severus snorted. “She will only let you go when you feel great after the Potions have worn off, and you know that very well. Shall I ask her to give permission to the other Marauders to visit you today or tomorrow?”

“Oh yes, Severus please. I would like to see them before the holidays. And I’m really glad to have you here over the summer, although I assume you’ll be very busy.”

“I will always have time to see you Harry, and when you are out of here, we will spend at least half of the time together. I won’t have to work all day.”

-----

“Speaking of work, could you please take these books back to the chamber and bring the next ones? I have only a few Potions left in this book and want to get on with the next books.”

“All right Harry; by the way, what are we going to do with the translations? I think, like I said before, you should publish the books.”

“I have thought about that too, and I think we should publish the diary. As regards the book about the Chamber of Secrets, we should think about placing the translation in the Chamber and maybe a copy of it in the forbidden section of the library and one in the Headmaster’s Office, nothing more. With the Potions books I think we have two possibilities. We either publish every Potion together in one large volume under both our names, mine for the translation and yours for the validation, or you, as you have in fact tried all the Potions and brewed them, present the Potions as your new re-invention of long lost old Potions. A third possibility would be…” the rest was drowned by a coughing fit.

“You know you shouldn’t talk so much; anyway when we publish the book, it doesn’t need my name, it needs yours.”

Harry was still coughing but countered, “No! Wait, sorry.” He took a parchment and wrote,

1. Third possibility: no publishing, but you brew the Potions and sell them as yours when you are a Potions master.

2. Your name or my name? It must be your name. You will be the famous Potions master who found or re-invented the old Potions, not me. I have no ambitions to work with Potions at all; my name is unimportant here!

Severus thought for a moment and said pensively, “Harry, this is very kind and very noble of you, but please think about it. There are so many Potions, that it doesn’t matter at all if we publish them under both names or just under one name, so let’s not only use yours or mine, let’s use both our names in any case. And furthermore, you have changed the future so much, that I will probably know you from birth onwards; so maybe you can imagine what the first present you’ll get from me will be… of course a toddler’s Potions kit.”

Harry groaned but Severus continued, “I will promise you something: By the time you’ll enter Hogwarts you will be able to brew 5th years’ Potions! Who knows if you will want to become my assistant or even a Potions Master later?”

Harry smiled and wrote on his parchment, ‘Very unlikely, but not impossible of course’.

Severus nodded his agreement and smirked as if to say ‘wait and see my friend’.

None of them had noticed Dumbledore and Pomfrey standing at the foot of Harry’s bed for several minutes, and so they were startled when the Headmaster cleared his throat.

“My dear boys, I think your talking is very noble indeed, and I have to agree with both of you. First of all, the diary should be published under Harry’s name, you just have to think about publishing it now under Harry Pane or in the future under Harry Potter.”

“Harry Potter” Harry croaked, but Dumbledore shook his head.

“Write Harry, don’t talk.”

Harry took his quill and wrote, ‘Harry Potter is much too famous anyway; he doesn’t need anything more; Harry Pane is better, because no one in the future will associate him with me’.

Dumbledore sighed. “All right my boy. Now regarding the book about the chamber, I agree completely. We make two copies for the library and for my office, with ‘Translation by Harry Pane 1977’ on it. And concerning the Potions books I agree with Severus. Use both of your names; you have a whole year to think about whether you want to publish all Potions in the book or if you leave some of them out in order to have them ‘re-invented’ by Severus later,” he smirked mischievously.

Harry nodded and wrote, ‘That is a good idea. Severus maybe you should choose the most important Potions or those you just want to give special attention to and we leave them out at this point’.

“Alright Harry, we can do that, but we will go through all the Potions together and choose the Potions we want to leave out at first. Do you agree?”

‘Yes.’

“Anyway, the reason why I came here to see you is completely different,” Dumbledore spoke again. “As you are both staying here over the holidays, I have thought about where you should stay during the holidays. On one hand, it would be reasonable to have you both stay in Gryffindor again, but on the other hand, Harry has to stay here for some more time, and for Severus Gryffindor would be very far from the Potions classroom, so I thought of something. I have asked the house elves to prepare one of the guest apartments for you, which is just next to the Hospital Wing. Severus, you can stay there from the day after tomorrow, and Harry, you can join him as soon as Madam Pomfrey releases you. Do you both agree my boys?”

“Yes of course Professor, thank you very much,” Severus answered happily, and Harry nodded his agreement.

“And now I have to ask you to leave, Albus, Severus,” Madam Pomfrey jumped into the conversation.

“Madam Pomfrey, Harry would like to see Lily, Remus, James and Sirius before they all go home; will that be possible? Severus remembered to ask, but Pomfrey shook her head.

“Not today, maybe tomorrow; ask me tomorrow morning.”

-----

James and Sirius were the first to visit Harry the next day. “Hello Harry, you seem to like it here,” Sirius greeted him and Harry groaned.

“Shut up Sirius; by the way, have you already started with Remus’ Animagus training?”

“What!” James shouted surprised.

“Didn’t he tell you? Don’t you think we are going to miss the nights in the forbidden forest? I think he should learn to be an Animagus, probably he would be a wolf, so that we could continue the Marauders’ tradition of spending the nights of the full moon outside.”

“That’s it James! That should have been my idea!” Sirius shouted.

“Did you suggest that to him?” James asked and Harry nodded. “He didn’t mention anything about it.”

“Probably because he is not ready yet. I think he can’t yet believe that he is not a werewolf anymore, so he’ll wait until the next full moon until he’ll be ready to accept it fully.”

“Our clever little Harry,” James said teasingly. “Dumbledore talked to me and told me that we are all allowed to stay here for about a week over each of the full moon nights to look after Remus and to keep you company. Do you think you would be able, in case the dragon lets you out of here some time, to brew the Potion, you know, for the Animagus recognition?”

“If I can I will try to brew it, otherwise I’m sure Severus will brew it for us.”

“Visiting time is over, please leave,” a stern voice interrupted their conversation and they reluctantly said good-bye to Harry.

“We’ll see you in about two weeks time; do you think we can send you an owl, will it find you here?”

“I don’t know, but you can send it to McGonagall and ask her to give it to me, that might be easier.”

-----

Lily was the next to come to see Harry. He didn’t have the chance to see his mother for over a month, so he was really glad to see her.

“Hi Lily, how did you do on your Potions test?”

“Oh, Harry, thanks to Severus’ Potions tutoring I did really well; I got an O.”

“Wow, Lily, great! Congratulations.”

“I’m sorry Harry, I should have kept a better eye on you instead of letting you get so ill.”

Harry was shocked. “But, Lily, that’s not your fault, not at all. I am the only one responsible.”

“No Harry, we all, I mean James, Sirius, Remus and I noticed you were ill, but the boys are very irresponsible and only think about Quidditch anyway, but I should have…”

Harry interrupted her; he could not stand his mother apologizing for something that was only his own fault. “No, Lily, as I said I am the only one responsible, and it’s okay, I’m all right, I have been spending weeks of translating the Slytherin books, which I really enjoyed. Today Severus brought me the last five books, and then everything will be translated. And afterwards I will start to try to catch up what I missed in the lessons.”

“Yes Harry, about that. McGonagall told me that you have to do the whole work during your holidays and asked me if I could give you my notes. So I brought everything with me I have and you can keep my notes here until school starts again.”

“Wow, Lily, thank you very much; I appreciate that, I really just didn’t know where to start, but when I have your notes it should be easy. Thank you very much! Will you come here over the full moon?”

“Dumbledore invited me and I would like to come but I have to ask my parents. You know, they hate magic, and I hate being at home, because my parents and my sister behave as if I was a freak. I can imagine they will be glad when I’m gone for a week, and especially because we have the full moon twice.”

‘What a pity that we can’t tell her about our Grandparents, I have to talk to Granny about it. Maybe we could tell her now…’ he thought.

“Harry, are you all right?”

“Yes, of course Lily, I just thought about my relatives I lived with. They hated magic as well and always called me a freak. I can understand very well what you feel. I’ll talk to my Grandparents; maybe they can do something to let you stay here during the month between the two nights of the full moon, but I can’t promise anything of course.”

“Harry, no more talking for today please; Ms. Evans you may stay for another five minutes, before I must ask you to leave.”

“Harry, do you have any idea how long you will have to stay here?”

Harry took his parchment and quill and wrote, ‘with the dragon you mean?’

Lily giggled “yes.”

‘No idea. Last summer I had the same thing and had to stay in the hospital wing for six weeks, but now it’s already nearly six weeks and no end in sight. I really don’t know. But I can’t complain because I really don’t feel well, otherwise I would just leave and attend the party tonight.’

“I can imagine that very well. All right, I have to go before being thrown out, Harry. I don’t have an owl, so I can’t write to you, but you can owl me when you have the possibility to do so, and then I can answer.”

‘Allright, I will write and ask Severus or McGonagall to send it for me. Bye Lily and take care; think it’s only two weeks until you can come here again.’

-----

Later that evening, during the leaving feast, Remus joined Harry and brought a few books for him.

“Harry, Lily and I didn’t have much time due to the tests and everything, so if you have time,” Harry laughed, “it would be nice if you could try to find spells that could be used for the map. Here is the map and a copy of it; if you want to try a spell, try it on the copy first. Each of us has another copy, but don’t forget to apply spells that work on the original.”

“Okay Remus, thanks; I wanted to ask about the map all the time, but…”

“I’ll be back in one and a half weeks, and I hope you’ll be out of here by then.”

Harry smirked. “I don’t know. Today she reduced the amount of my Potions, because she said it has improved a lot, but I just feel horrible. Anyway, we will go out on the full moon together – that I promise!”

During the next two weeks, Harry translated all remaining Slytherin books. All together, there had been twelve books about Potions. How could someone invent so many Potions? It was beyond Harry’s comprehension. After he had finished the translations, Severus had taken the books back and had brought about a dozen books written in English for Harry to read; they were not written by Slytherin but by the other founders and Harry was very grateful that Severus had chosen the books so well.

-----

Madam Pomfrey released him, if only half heartedly, when the Marauders came back three days before the full moon, but insisted that he had to return to the Hospital Wing for a check-up every evening and stay overnight. Harry was so happy to be able to get up and walk around when his friends came that he didn’t complain. On the first evening together, the Marauders threw a small party in the Gryffindor common room. James and Sirius had brought butterbeer, and Remus and Lily had gone down to the house elves to ask for some sweets to eat for their party, and the house elves who were glad to have something to do during the boring summer holidays had prepared a whole table with cakes, sweets and other delicacies for the students.

“Don’t you think we should invite everyone else staying in the castle as well?” Lily asked suddenly. “I mean, we will never be able to eat all this on our own.”

Severus snorted. “You know who else is staying here, don’t you? Dumbledore, McGonagall and Pomfrey. Oh, yes, today Madam Hooch joined us as well; everyone else is on holidays.”

“Oh, all right, forget about that,” James said quickly and shared the butterbeer bottles.

“Harry, I don’t think you should drink butterbeer as long as you are on Potions,” Severus warned, and Harry groaned.

“Yes, I know, but nevertheless I would like to drink a bit. You know, I haven’t had anything like that for months.”

“Harry be careful,” Remus reprimanded him, but Harry smiled at his friend and lifted his bottle.

“For a successful night of the full moon, with only Animagus transformations and no werewolves”.

“What are we going to do the night after tomorrow? Do we have to go to the Shrieking Shack or can we spend the night in the forest?” Lily asked.

“We can spend the night in the forest,” Remus said. “As I don’t think that I will transform, I will wear an old robe, so it should be okay.”

Harry sighed. “I will try to join too, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to get away from the dragon. I don’t think she will let me go, so I won’t ask at all in order not to tickle a sleeping dragon, but I’ll wait until she has retired to bed and then transform and flash over to the forest.”

“Harry!” Remus scolded him immediately.

Severus sighed and asked, “Harry, are you keen on spending another two months with the dragon?”

“Of course not, but why should I? I’ll be okay, and it’s still two nights away anyway. But it’s near curfew now, and I have to head back to be in time. I’ll see you all at breakfast.”

“Wait, Harry, I’m coming with you. Good night everyone.” When Harry walked back with Severus, he thought that he had never experienced the castle so quiet. Of course, except from last year he had never been able to spend his holidays at Hogwarts, and last year he hadn’t been able to walk anywhere around the castle. They separated in front of their apartment, which was exactly opposite the Hospital Wing with Severus’ promise to collect Harry the next morning before breakfast.

During the next two days they spent the morning in the Gryffindor common room doing their summer assignments and the afternoon on the Quidditch pitch playing Quidditch with three players on each side – Sirius as chaser, Remus as keeper and James as seeker played against Severus as chaser, Lily as keeper and Harry as seeker. It was very funny, because although Lily had no chance to keep more than every fifth ball, James had no chance against Harry, so Harry had to hurry to catch the snitch before the other side could score too many goals. Even Lily and Remus who normally didn’t play Quidditch enjoyed themselves a lot. In the evening, Harry was so exhausted that he fell asleep in the common room directly after dinner, only to be woken up just before curfew.

-----

It was the day before the full moon, and the friends had just gathered in the Gryffindor common room after breakfast, when Sirius said, “Now listen, you three – we made a great plan yesterday night!” Harry, Lily and Severus eyed him suspiciously, when he continued, “You know the passage behind the one eyed witch Harry has shown us before, don’t you?” They nodded apprehensively. “Anyway, let’s use the passage and go to Hogsmeade today! I would like to go to Zonko’s and to the chocolate shop as well.”

Harry groaned, and Severus glared at him and scolded them. “Do you know, in how much trouble we will be, if someone finds out? The teachers are on holidays as well, so why shouldn’t they go to Hogsmeade too? It is much too dangerous to be seen. In addition, we have to be happy that we are allowed to stay at Hogwarts anyway, because normally students are not permitted to stay here over the summer, and I don’t think they’d let us stay if we directly break the rules.”

Lily nodded her consent and asked, “Why don’t we just go and ask Professor McGonagall if we may go? Perhaps they will let us go; I can’t see a reason why they shouldn’t.”

Harry nodded relieved. He only knew that under no circumstances he would crawl through the dusty passage. Either they were allowed to go, or he would stay at Hogwarts willingly. “I agree with Lily and Severus. Let’s go and ask McGonagall,” he suggested and they went to her office. Fortunately, the discussion about what to do if they were not allowed to go could be avoided, because their Head of House agreed to let them go to Hogsmeade under the condition that they would be back and showed themselves in her office at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

Happily, the six friends ran into the town. After visiting Honeydukes and Zonko’s, where it took James and Sirius two hours to decide on which prank items to buy, they decided to head to the Three Broomsticks for lunch. Harry enjoyed a large sandwich with Chicken Teriyaki and lots of salad on it – it was just delicious. Afterwards Severus insisted on taking a short trip to the apothecary and the others agreed to wait in the bookstore for Harry and Severus, as nobody else was interested in Potions ingredients. Finally they managed to return to Hogwarts at 2:57 p.m. and went straight to McGonagall’s office, who was very pleased to have them back well in time.

-----

Later in the evening, Harry walked back to the Hospital Wing, while the others went into the forest. After his check-up and drinking his Potions, he went to bed and pretended to fall asleep immediately, but as he already had slept an hour in the common room, it was not too difficult to stay awake. About two hours later, near midnight, he noticed Pomfrey checking on him once more before retreating to her private rooms. He waited another thirty minutes before he changed into Icicle and flashed to the forest to search for the others. When he reached the others, he was nearly shocked to see Remus in his human form – he was so happy for his friend, although he still could not believe it. He changed back and embraced Remus who again had tears in his eyes.

“Remus, congratulations! That’s it! The wolf is gone Remus!” he cheered, and Remus hid his head in Harry’s pyjamas and continued to cry. They sat there in the forest like this for hours until Remus had finally calmed and they both had fallen asleep.

Later, they were shaken awake by James who had already changed back and said, “It’s nearly 6 o’clock in the morning, we have to head back, especially you Harry, before the dragon gets up and misses you.” Oh yes, he had to get back quickly, he was so cold, he had not intended to spend the night in the forest in his human form but in phoenix form with a thick plumage. He sneezed and quickly changed back into Icicle and flashed back into his bed in the Hospital Wing.”

-----

When Severus came to collect Harry, he asked him, “Severus could we make the Potion together for Remus today, you know the Animagus recognition Potion?”

“Of course we can do that Harry, if you feel up to it. It will only take about an hour to brew it.”

“Thank you Severus.” Harry glanced thankfully at his friend. Two hours later, they took the Potion up to the Gryffindor common room.

“Now, Remus! Severus and Harry have made the Potion for you. Lie down here on the sofa and try it out,” James shouted over to Remus, who turned pale and questioned them anxiously.

“You want me to try the animagus Potion now?”

“Yes, of course Remus, you know it’s not a problem. You have watched all of us doing it, so go on.” Sirius said impatiently.

Remus sighed and lay down on the sofa after gulping down the Potion quickly. After a few seconds, he started changing into a light brown… bear. Everyone stared at him and gasped.

“A bear?” Harry asked finally.

“It seems so,” James agreed.

“But…” added Lily, and Severus shook his head.

Then he commented, “As eloquent as ever, all of you. Remus seems to be a bear, a very nice one as well. Congratulations, Remus! Now go on and train to change yourself into a teddy bear!”

Until lunch, everyone kept trying to give Remus good advice how to manage the Animagus transformation, and by the time they had to go down to the Great Hall, Remus already managed to change his arms and legs into the four legs of the bear.

‘Maybe he can do it faster than everyone can, because his body is used to the transformation into the wolf,’ Harry thought amazed while they were walking down the stairs.

-----

In the afternoon, they went to play Quidditch again, but Harry was not in best form and lost two of three games against James. After they had changed and taken a shower, his chest hurt again and he was freezing. “Severus, I don’t feel well, I’m going to bed,” he whispered to his friend, before he separated from the others.

“Alright, I’ll come to look for you before dinner,” Severus whispered back.

“Are you already back Harry?” Poppy asked astonished. He didn’t even answer, only glanced at her desperately and went to his bed. “My, you’re burning up, aren’t you,” she said after feeling his forehead.

“No,” he tried weakly, “I have just taken a hot shower after playing Quidditch, that’s why I’m so hot.”

“I don’t think so,” she disagreed and took his temperature. “No, Harry, you cannot get a fever of 40 degrees just by taking a hot shower. Does your chest hurt again?” Harry only nodded. “You seem to have a relapse, maybe I have let you go too early, Harry, I’m sorry.”

-----

This time Harry had to stay for two weeks and Poppy released him again during daytime because he begged to be let go to see his friends who had arrived the day before. Severus had collected him in the Hospital Wing as usual and they went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. However, when they opened one of the entrance doors to the Great Hall, they noticed that the hall was in darkness and jumped in fright.