It was only one week ago that Harry had finally defeated Voldemort in a thirty-minute brain battle on the second day of his sixth year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Due to Harry’s ingenuous tactics during the battle, all Death Eaters had been pulled into death together with their master. However, somehow, Harry had managed to keep Professor Snape alive. Afterwards he couldn’t even remember why – maybe it was because the professor was fighting for the light side.

He still couldn’t believe it – he had trained spells and defence methods over the years and mulled over the contents of the prophecy during the whole summer holidays after Dumbledore told him about it at the end of his fifth year; however, in the end, it had been love that had helped him to fulfil the prophecy.

After this final battle against the evil, which had pulled the wizarding world into a war for a long time, he had endured a demise party, in which the Minister of Magic had awarded him the Order of Merlin 1st class, and a press conference together with his meddling old Headmaster.

Finally, he was allowed to rest in the Hospital Wing, where he found time and peace to think about his life and a future that was supposed to be better than his past had been. ‘Now I can really be myself and live my life as I wish to do – no more being forced to do something because I’m Harry Potter – maybe I should even change my name!’ he thought, while he absentmindedly endured Pomfrey’s last check-up before his release just in time for breakfast on Monday morning of the second week of classes.

-----

When Harry walked down to the Great Hall to meet his friends at the Gryffindor table, he still couldn’t believe that he had left the prophecy behind and all he had to worry about now was his classes. Sitting down between his friends, he put his head in his bag, feverishly looking for his timetable.

“I can’t find my timetable. What do we have first?” he asked, giving up.

“We’ve double transfiguration first and then a free period,” Hermione announced.

“So we’re all together. That’s good. And in the afternoon?”

“Oh, I’ve Herbology, but I don’t think you want to know what you and Mione have,” Ron said with a very annoyed face.

“Then let me guess: could it be Potions?” Harry asked, his voice laced with venom.

“Even worse. Double Potions!”

Harry groaned. Why did the Potions professor hate him so much? If he managed to let his cauldron explode, he knew he would be thrown out of the class, for sure.

“Oh, shut up you two. Potions isn’t that bad, and Professor Snape isn’t either,” Hermione scolded them. “Now let’s go, otherwise we’ll be late.”

On their way to the Transfiguration lesson, Harry was getting more and more self-conscious because he noticed that many students were watching him or started to whisper as soon as he came into view.

‘How much would I give for just having a normal life without anybody noticing me, with a family just for myself?’ he kept thinking while he tried to configure a button into a live rabbit. And suddenly . . .

“Mr. Potter! What do you think you are doing?” the voice of his Head of House penetrated his ear.

‘What? What did I do?’ He absently looked around and noticed many pink rabbits running around the classroom.

‘Did I just do that?’ he wondered.

“Err... sorry Professor. What happened?”

“Oh, nothing special apart from the fact that I only asked for one rabbit and not for a few dozen,” his teacher replied in a very annoyed voice.

Harry sighed. “Sorry Professor, I really am. I don’t know how it happened.” He looked around, very confused, and noticed that most of his classmates were giggling or more or less successfully trying to hide their laughter.

“Mr. Potter, I am afraid you will have to transfigure each of them back to buttons, or at least vanish them, if you can’t do that. Fortunately, this classroom will not be used until after lunch, and by then I expect all of the rabbits to be gone. As homework, practice transfiguring one button into just one rabbit. Class dismissed.”

Harry sighed again and looked over to Ron and Hermione. “Here goes my free time. I’ll see you two after lunch,” he told them glumly but Hermione put her bag back on her table.

“You don’t think we’ll leave you here alone with all these rabbits?” she asked. “Look, there are about 70 or 80 of them. Let’s try to vanish them together; maybe we’ll even manage to finish in time for lunch.”

It was a difficult job because the rabbits were quite fast, so they decided that Ron and Hermione should stun the rabbits first, and Harry could transfigure or vanish them. Finally, they succeeded in getting rid of all the rabbits before going to lunch.

-----

After lunch, Hermione pulled Harry with her to the dungeons, where he looked around unbelievingly at the classroom. Apart from the two Gryffindors, there were only two Hufflepuffs and four Ravenclaws in the classroom.

“Hey, where are the Slytherins? They can’t have all failed their Potions OWLs,” Harry wondered aloud. In order to get into Professor Snape’s Advanced Potions Class they had to get an ‘O’ in their Potions OWL, which Harry had somehow managed.

“Many of the Slytherins are either dead or still at home because they’ve lost one, or even both, parents because they were Death Eaters. You know that about half of this class consisted of Slytherins; remember you already had a Potions lesson last week,” Hermione reminded him.

“Oh, don’t remind me of that. Even after the stupid six feet of homework, I still didn’t understand how my cauldron could have exploded,” Harry said, very annoyed.

With a loud ‘bang’, the classroom door shut and Professor Snape stormed up to the front of the class. “After the disaster of our last lesson in the previous week, I have once more thought about the standard this class must to hold. I still cannot imagine how some of you have managed to achieve the necessary grade to be in this class, but as you all know, with a famous name everything is possible.” Did Harry only imagine it, or was Snape looking straight at him? Harry dared not look up but watched the floor intensely.

“But I can tell you now: as you have seen last week, this class is very difficult, and we will be brewing dangerous Potions here. If you are too stupid to brew them correctly, neither fame nor the pleadings of my colleagues will save you from dangerous injuries. Mr. Potter, this applies even to you.”

Harry met his teacher’s eyes for the first time today. “Me?”

“Yes, you. You are as arrogant as your father was. Don’t think that you will receive any special treatment because of what you did last week,” Snape said, sneering in Harry’s direction.

“I don’t expect anything, especially not from you. And I didn’t get into this class because of my name or anything, but because I received an ‘O’ in my Potions OWL. Maybe I wouldn’t be so bad at Potions if you weren’t always standing behind me hoping to drive me crazy so that I make silly mistakes!”

Snape sneered. “Potter, watch yourself, or you will be out of this class faster than you can say ‘Quidditch’,” he threatened with a hint of anger in his voice.

Hermione placed a hand on Harry’s arm to stop him from talking back. “Keep calm. Don’t let him get to you. That’s only what he wants,” she whispered.

Harry calmed down, but only for the moment. He knew something else was going to happen by the end of the class.

With a flick of Snape’s wand, the instructions for the Potion appeared on the blackboard. “This is the Esnopia Potion, and be careful; it is highly explosive when the ingredients are not added at the right time.”

Harry chopped the ingredients carefully and had just started to add the first of them, when Hermione spoke up.

“Excuse me, Professor, what is this Potion used for?”

Snape sneered and said, “I know that you are an insufferable know-it-all, but even you will have to wait until the Potion is finished. We will be asking one of you to test it,” he added, addressing the class as a whole.

Hermione blushed and looked away quickly to hide her tears. Harry stood up with a very upset expression on his face.

“How dare you insult my friend like this? What do you have against her? All she did was ask a question, and if I remember right, teachers are supposed to answer nicely.”

“Oh yes, like I said before, as arrogant as your father. Is it not enough to save the whole world? Do you now have to advise your teachers on how to conduct their lessons?” Snape snapped. He looked as if he had devil’s horns, as he was towering threateningly above Harry.

Harry’s face became red with anger. “What’s your problem SIR? Does it bother you that you’ve another life debt to pay to my family? If that’s your problem, then you can forget it. You saved my life often enough, so that you don’t owe me anything SIR.”

Snape exploded. “YOU! I will get you expelled! Detention tonight at 7 o’clock and you better not be late. Then, we will go to see the Headmaster about your behaviour.”

Now Harry saw red. Not thinking, he picked the remaining ingredients up and threw them all together into his cauldron. Within seconds, the Potion exploded all over Harry, who screamed in pain and was gone with a whoosh.

The students were frozen with shock.

“What happened? Where is Harry?” they asked each other questioningly. Even Snape couldn’t believe what had happened and had turned pale.

“Class dismissed. We will try to brew this Potion again in our next lesson. Ms. Granger, if you are sure that you are not injured, be so kind as to accompany me to the headmaster’s office.”

“Yes, of course Professor.” Hermione followed Snape, having to run to keep up with the fast pace of the Potions master, who was storming up to the Headmaster’s Office, his robes billowing as he strode. The Headmaster offered Lemon drops and tea, which Snape and his student both declined before they proceeded to tell the story.

While listening, Dumbledore’s face became more and more pensive. “The Esnopia Potion, you said? I’m sorry, Severus, but frankly speaking, I have no idea what this Potion does, and I’m sure that you are proficient enough at Potions to determine what effect the wrongly made Potion will have had on our Mr. Potter.”

Snape sighed and turned to the student, who had been astonishingly quiet so far. “Ms. Granger, do you have any idea what Potter has done to his Potion?”

Hermione threw a frightened glance at the Professor and returned, “No, sir. I can only guess that he became very upset and threw all ingredients in at once. The last thing I saw him adding properly was the bat wing powder.”

Severus remained pensively for a moment, until suddenly an alert expression showed in his eyes and his always-pale face turned as white as a sheet.

Harry opened his eyes and groaned. Everything hurt, and he couldn’t move properly. Something seemed to be wrong; but what was it? He looked around and wondered where he was. He seemed to be in the Potions classroom, but… what was he doing here? Then he remembered the Potions lesson and his accident and thought ‘Where have they all gone? Why did they just leave me here? Where’s Hermione?’

Hearing sounds from the front of the classroom, Harry tried to look where the sounds were coming from and noticed someone in black robes, huddled over a cauldron at the front row. Even if this was Snape, he would have to ask for help, but he was in so much pain that only a groan escaped his lips, before he closed his eyes and tried to occlude his mind in order to push the pain away.

-----

Severus Snape, a Slytherin student in his 6th year, was just brewing an experimental Potion for a special project when he heard strange sounds from behind. He turned around and saw a student lying on the floor near the door wincing in pain.

“Potter,” he gasped. “What are you doing here? What happened?” He hated the Gryffindor, but as he obviously seemed to be in pain, he couldn’t just ignore him.

“Please help me Professor, it hurts,” Harry mumbled.

“Professor? Did you hit your head or something, Potter?” He eyed his rival suspiciously. Was this a prank, or had Potter just gone mad?

“If you hadn’t insulted me as always, my Potion would never have exploded. Could you please either help me to get up or call one of my friends for me?” Harry asked.

“I don’t know what you are talking about Potter, but I will take you to the Hospital Wing anyway,” Severus replied, moving to help the Gryffindor up.

“No, not to the Hospital Wing, I just want to return to my dormitory Professor, please, I’ll be fine,” Harry pleaded.

However, Severus, who noticed how exhausted Harry’s voice sounded, said, “No, I don’t think so.” He levitated Harry to the Hospital Wing, where he put him on a bed and went to get Madam Pomfrey.

She hurried into the wing and asked Severus, “What happened and why is it you to bring him here?” She took an astonished look at Harry and gasped. She could not believe her eyes. “What have you done to your eyes Mr. Potter, and where did you get that scar?”

Harry, who was too much in pain to even notice how much younger they both looked and that even Severus’ voice sounded different than before, felt totally annoyed. He groaned. “You know the colour of my eyes and you have seen my scar often enough. Are you trying to harass me as well? Bad enough to be brought here by Snape. Maybe you could just give me a Potion for pain so I could be on my way back to my dormitory.”

“If you ask me, Madam Pomfrey, he has hit his head. He suddenly keeps calling me ‘Professor,’” said Severus.

“Mr. Snape, please go and get Professor Dumbledore immediately.” She waved her wand over Harry. “Now, Mr. Potter, what did you manage to do to put yourself into this amount of pain?”

Harry sighed. ‘Why can’t she just give me a pain relieving Potion and let me sleep?’ he thought but tried to explain, “It was a Potions accident. We were brewing the Esnopia Potion, and the greasy git – sorry, I mean Professor Snape – insulted me so much that I really lost it and threw in all ingredients at the same time. Then the Potion exploded, and the next thing I knew was that I was lying on the floor of the Potions classroom and everything hurt. I don’t know why none of my classmates took me with them.” ‘Maybe Snape put them under the Imperius curse in order to prolong my suffering’ he thought.

-----

Professor Dumbledore came with Professor McGonagall and Severus in tow just in time to hear Harry’s last sentence.

“Good evening, my boy. I assume you are Mr. Potter?”

“Of course, I am. What is wrong with you all? Even Madam Pomfrey was trying to harass me because of my scar. You have known me for five years now. Have I changed somehow or what is wrong today?” He was starting to get really upset. Couldn’t they see that he was in pain and had no intention on playing silly games?

“Mr. Potter, try to be a bit more polite and cooperative. We don’t know what is wrong with you, and we are just trying to help you,” snapped Professor McGonagall.

Harry looked up and his eyes grew bigger as he noticed that his Head of House looked different. “You look so young Professor, wow!” he commented.

“Why, thank you Mr. Potter.”

“Maybe Mr. Potter, you could tell us a little about yourself. Am I correct in my assumption that you are related to our James Potter?” Dumbledore asked calmly.

“James? James was my father. I am Harry James Potter. Um…Professor, what is wrong? What happened?” He glanced at the teachers, confused.

McGonagall gasped, while Dumbledore looked amused and his eyes were twinkling madly. Pomfrey seemed as if nothing could really shock her, and Severus did not show any emotions, although his stomach was doing flip-flops and he groaned inwardly. ‘A son of James Potter – could things even get worse?’ he thought.

“Oh, my dear boy. How did you manage to come back to the past? It is the year 1976.” Ignoring Harry’s gasp, he asked, “Which year do you come from? Are you attending Hogwarts in your time, and in which house and year are you?” Dumbledore asked.

Harry was so shocked that he could only stare from one person to the next. He was in the past? And his parents? They were here at the same time? His thoughts were going haywire. Finally he managed to answer, “If that is so, I come from 20 years in the future, and I am a Gryffindor 6th year. I don’t know how I came here, it was a Potions accident.”

Madam Pomfrey interrupted them. “As he is obviously in pain, maybe we should try to help him first,” she said and then addressed Snape. “Severus, he told me he was brewing the Esnopia Potion and inserted all ingredients at the same time. As a result, he came here and now he seems to be in a lot of pain. Do you know this Potion, and do you know how to counter it, or do we have to call Professor Slughorn? Will the pain just go away with pain relievers?”

Severus thought for a moment and said, “no, probably not. You will need a Potion of the same ingredients together with a special ingredient to counteract the effects, like for example a Bezoar. I can brew the Potion for him, but it will take about an hour.”

“That would be good, thank you my boy,” Professor Dumbledore threw in. “Could you brew it immediately and come back to let Harry drink the Potion as soon as possible please?”

“All right. I will go and make the counter Potion, but it will only help to kill the pain; how we can send him back to the future, I have no clue.”

“Of course, Severus, Harry will just have to stay here for the time being, but maybe during the next weeks or months you and Harry can get together and do some research about time travel with Potions?”

“Yes Professor, I would like to do that,” Severus replied with a small rare smile.

“Okay, but I am not good at Potions,” Harry mumbled and groaned inwardly. Bad enough that he had managed to catapult himself into the past, now his hope of a return to his own time depended on a younger version of the greasy git and his own non-existent Potions abilities. Could it get worse?

“Mr. Potter, we will leave you here for the night. Severus will bring the Potion for you as soon as it is ready, and Professor McGonagall will collect you here tomorrow morning to escort you to my office before breakfast. As the fact that you are related to James Potter is more than obvious, we will have to give you a new name. What about Harry Pane? We will think about everything else tomorrow morning. Good night Harry.”

“Good night Professors.”

Harry was woken up an hour later by Severus, who helped him to sit up and drink the Potion he brought. Harry felt better immediately and visibly relaxed. “Thank you, Severus,” Harry mumbled. “And…”

“What?” asked Severus.

“Um… I think I have to apologize for insulting you. I was very angry with your future self, but not at you. Therefore, I am sorry. And thanks for brewing the Potion for me even though I had been insulting you,” Harry said, anxiously playing with his bed covers. Finally, he looked up and received one of the rare smiles of Severus.

“You are welcome, Harry. It’s all right, I am sorry myself, I was not very friendly to you because I assumed you were your father, and we do not have too good a relationship.”

“I know, but maybe we can try to have a better one, okay? I am in Gryffindor, although the Sorting Hat originally wanted to place me in Slytherin, but I am not my father, and as much as I have heard about him, I must be very different from him.”

“Let’s try anyway; maybe we can change the future a little. Good night, Harry.”

“Good night, and thanks again for the Potion Severus.”

“You’re welcome.”

-----

In the morning, Harry woke up and immediately remembered the events of the day before. Being goaded into a Potions accident by the greasy git Snape, only to arrive in the past and make friends with a 20 year younger Snape – what a crazy day! Now he was in the past. Would he ever be able to go back to the future to see his friends? However, as far as he had understood the evening before, his parents should be here as well. Would they be in the same year? Would they have classes together? Suddenly he was getting very excited. ‘What will they say when they hear their son is here? Will I be able to talk to them about it at all? I have to be careful not to change the future, haven’t I?’

He had just taken a shower and dressed when Professor McGonagall arrived to take him to the Headmaster’s Office. On the way there, Harry noticed that nothing had really changed from his own time.

“Professor, which year are my parents in now?” he asked, curious.

“I suspect your mother is Lily Evans?” she questioned.

“Yes, Professor.” He noticed the teacher glancing at him with a rare, small smile but could not rightly understand the reason. He even caught something in her eyes that seemed like pride – but could that be? What could it mean?

“Then both of them are 6th year Gryffindors. Chocolate frogs,” she said to the Gargoyle in front of Dumbledore’s office.

Harry was getting even more excited. 6th year Gryffindors? Then he would be in the same House AND in the same year as his parents! He quickly stumbled up the stairs after the professor.

-----

“Good morning, Minerva, Harry. I hope you are well on this fine morning. Lemon drop?” the headmaster greeted them in his usual lemon drop way.

“Now Harry, we have to decide a few things. First of all, your name is Harry Pane; will that be okay for you?”

“Of course, Professor, no problem.” ‘However, will anybody believe that, if I look like my father?’ he thought, slightly confused about the necessity of a name change.

“Another point is that nobody should know about the fact that you come from the future. We have to tell them a story, maybe that you are an exchange student from abroad. You even should not talk to us about anything, but as I suppose it is necessary for you to have someone to confide in, I propose that you talk to Professor McGonagall and me about everything you wish, and we will see that we will be put under a memory charm before you go back to the future.”

“Okay, thank you Professors. I appreciate that very much,” Harry answered with a nod, glad that he would have someone to talk to. He suddenly remembered Severus, but Dumbledore was talking before he could ask anything.

“And also, Severus already knows about you, so you can speak about certain things with him as well, but try not to change the future too much and make sure that you keep your matters between the two of you. Severus is as much in need of a good friend as you are at the moment, so I hope you will get along well in spite of what I heard you say yesterday.”

“Yes, Professor, we talked for a while yesterday evening and already decided to at least try to act civilly towards each other if nothing else.”

“And Madam Pomfrey knows as well, but as a healer she is bound to keep secrets, so there is no need to worry.”

-----

“Very well. As you came by a Potions accident, I assume that you don’t have any belongings with you, am I correct?” Dumbledore asked.

“Yes, Professor, I mean, no, I don’t have anything, but I don’t have any money to buy anything either. What am I supposed to do?”

“Don’t worry, Harry, we have certain funds for students like you who are in need. One of our teachers will take you to Hogsmeade today to get your books, clothes and what else you need. And a broom, in case you play Quidditch,” Dumbledore continued.

“Thank you very much, I really appreciate it, and I am sure that I will be able to pay everything back to you as soon as I return to my own time. I have been playing seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team since my first year, and I would like to play, if there would be any chance to.”

Professor McGonagall gasped. “First year? Who was Head of Gryffindor at your time? Students are not allowed to play in their first year!”

Harry could not help laughing. “You, my dear Professor, are my Head of House, and it was you who noticed me during my first ride on a broom, talked your Quidditch captain into taking me as Seeker and convinced Professor Dumbledore to forget the fact that I was a first year. You even enjoyed quite a fight with Professor Snape about it.”

Professor McGonagall shook her head. “I must have become really old in your time. Anyway, I will take you to Hogsmeade today, and we will also buy a broom for you. Gryffindor is just in need of a new Seeker, and I will have a word with your father, our Quidditch captain, about you. Please meet me in the Entrance Hall at 11 o’clock.”

“All right Professor, thank you very much,” Harry answered, quite relieved.

-----

Professor Dumbledore addressed Harry again. “Although I know that you already have been sorted in your time, the Hogwarts rules require a sorting at this time. Are you ready to talk to the Sorting Hat again?”

Harry looked up to the shelf, where he knew the Sorting Hat was placed, smiled, and said, “Of course Professor.”

Professor McGonagall fetched the Sorting Hat from the shelf and put it over Harry’s head.

‘Oh, Mr. Potter, what is your name now, Mr. Pane? I know you, I have sorted you before, and even after that we have talked several times. I have told you every time, that you could be great in Slytherin, but you always preferred Gryffindor. How about Slytherin this time?’

Harry frowned. ‘You know, I believe I could do well in Slytherin, but as you probably know, my parents are in the same year as I am. And although I have never known my parents, I know that they would despise me if I were in Slytherin. So in order to get to know my parents this time, I would really appreciate it if you could sort me into Gryffindor once more.’

‘Okay, let’s do that this time once more, but I can promise you, the next time I get to sort you, you will end up in a different house! So this time it will be’ “GRYFFINDOR!”

Relieved Harry pulled the hat of his head and handed it to Professor McGonagall.

“That took quite a bit time Mr. Potter. Were you talking to the Hat, or did it just need that much time to decide?” Dumbledore asked, his eyes twinkling.

“Um… sorry. Yes, we had some sort of … ah … discussion. When I was sorted for the first time, it originally wanted to place me in Slytherin and said I could do well in both houses, but I talked it out of it. And I have had several more conversations with the Hat here in the office after that. So this time, it suggested that maybe I should try Slytherin. I would have really liked that, but I know for a fact that my father and his friends would have despised me if I was in Slytherin, so I explained that I would like to get to know my parents and asked the hat to just leave me in Gryffindor and it agreed,” he answered in a rush voice.

McGonagall frowned. “I didn’t know that students could have any influence on which house they were put in, Albus. Do you think that is normal?” Minerva whispered to Dumbledore.

“I don’t know Minerva, but I will have a little talk with the hat later,” he Headmaster answered calmly.

-----

“So Harry, you will share your classes and even your dormitory with your parents.”

“And with my godfather Sirius and my ‘nearly godfather’ Remus. They are in Gryffindor as well, aren’t they?”

“Yes, they are. Do you think you will be able not to reveal yourself to either of them?” Harry frowned.

“I cannot promise that I will succeed, but I give you my word that I will try the best I can.”

“That has to be enough my boy, but please do try your best. And when you encounter any problems, come to speak to Minerva or myself. And now let’s head down to breakfast.”

When they arrived at the Great Hall, Professor McGonagall escorted Harry to the Gryffindor table and introduced him to Lily Evans and Remus Lupin, the 6th year’s prefects. While Harry sat between them, Dumbledore addressed the students.

“Good morning to a new day at Hogwarts. Today we have a new student in our 6th year. His name is Harry Pane, he comes from a small private wizarding school in Germany, and he has already been sorted into Gryffindor. Please give him a friendly welcome to Hogwarts.”

-----

Harry immediately recognized Sirius’ excited voice, “Look James, he looks like a twin brother of you!” Harry was so glad to see Sirius alive and happy, that he threw a big smile in his direction, before he looked in awe at his 16-year-old father. He wanted to speak to his mother next to him, but he just didn’t know what to say, so he instead addressed Remus at his other side and asked him, “Are you all 6th years?”

Remus laughed. “Yes, the one over there with the dirty laugh is Sirius Black; next to him is James Potter, our Quidditch captain. The boy beside me is Peter Pettigrew, and as you know, the girl next to you is Lily Evans and beside her is her friend Alice. I am Remus Lupin. All of us are in our sixth year.”

“Thanks for the introduction Remus,” Harry said and thought ‘wow, that’s my father’s voice.’

“By the way, Harry, do you play Quidditch?” Remus asked him.

“Yes, in my old school I have been playing Seeker from first year onwards.”

“Are you any good?” James, who had heard the conversation asked, looking excited.

“In my five years I have only lost one game and that was because someone had placed Dementors around our school,” Harry answered, absently taking another piece of bacon.

“That sounds good. As we are only in need of a Seeker, I don’t want to have a big tryout. If you are interested, meet me on the pitch after dinner tonight.”

“Thank you, I would like that very much. Professor McGonagall is going to accompany me to Hogsmeade today, so that I can buy a broom.” Harry beamed with excitement. It would be just so great to play in his father’s Quidditch team. Harry nearly fell from his seat when suddenly Lily addressed him.

“When you are finished with your breakfast, I will take you to Professor McGonagall’s office, because you need to get your timetable from her, and you probably won’t find the way on your own.”

“Thanks. Err... I’m sorry to bother you.”

“That’s no problem, Harry. We have Transfiguration for the first lesson anyway, and the classroom is just next to her office. If you have any problems, be it finding your way to a class or anything, just ask Remus or me, we will always help you.”

“Thank you!”

After dinner, Remus, Sirius and Lily accompanied Harry to his Quidditch tryout. James and Harry played five seeker-against-seeker scrimmages. Harry soon noticed that his father was a good flyer, but not nearly as good as Harry. Everyone let out a loud gasp when Harry suddenly tumbled downwards, straight to the ground.

Two meters before hitting the ground, Harry pulled up and went straight upwards to where he had spotted the Snitch just before his dive. James, who had followed him, nearly hit the ground. Finally, out of the five seeker-against-seeker scrimmages, Harry won five. Sirius and Remus were delighted.

“Wow James, exactly what you need!” Sirius said teasingly.

“Yes, that’s true,” James answered, ignoring the tease. “I needed a good seeker, and now I have one. Congratulations Harry, you are on the team! Quidditch practice is every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after dinner.”

Harry was happier than he could remember having been any time before. His main task in his own time, the demise of Voldemort, was fulfilled, and until he could – with the help of a young and much friendlier Severus Snape rather than the greasy git – find a way to go home, he might as well enjoy his time in the past. He would take the chance to get to know his parents and the younger versions of his teachers, Severus and Remus.

-----

The first lesson the next day was Potions. With a slightly queasy feeling, Harry descended the stairs to the dungeons with Lily, Remus and Peter. When they entered the classroom, he noticed Severus sitting alone in the first row. Quickly, he slipped in next to him and didn’t notice that Lily, Remus and Peter suspiciously glanced at each other wondering, why he would sit down next to a Slytherin.

“Hello Severus. Listen, I am really, really bad at Potions, but can we still sit together?”

“Hello Harry. Of course, we can. Maybe I can help you. As you probably know, Potions is my favourite subject.”

“Oh yes, I can easily believe that. In my time, you are the best Potions Master in England. However, that is not the reason I want to sit with you. I would like to get to know you better.”

“Of course Harry. Yesterday I was wondering where you were. I thought, once sorted into Gryffindor, that you might have forgotten me.”

“Of course not,” he replied and Severus’ eyes brightened. “I was just really busy. In the morning I had to go to Hogsmeade to buy my school supplies, and in the evening I had Quidditch tryouts.”

“You play Quidditch?”

“Yes, I’m the new Seeker of the Gryffindor team,” Harry beamed. “Do you play?”

“Yes, I am chaser in the Slytherin team,” Severus answered, but then the door of the classroom shut and Professor Slughorn approached the front of the classroom, leaving them unable to talk more.

Harry and Severus worked together on the Potion, and the Slytherin was amazed at his lack of skills.

“NO! It says COUNTER clockwise – can’t you read?” Severus looked unbelievingly at Harry.

“Sorry,” Harry mumbled. “I told you I am bad at Potions. Your future self always calls me a ‘dunderhead’.”

Severus laughed. “If you always make Potions like this, maybe I can understand the reason for it. However, I will try to help you to become better before you go back. I will give you tutoring lessons every evening we don’t have Quidditch practice if you like.”

“Thanks, Severus. I hate Potions, but maybe it will be fun to do it without a Potions Master breathing into my neck and scaring the wits out of me.”

Professor Slughorn interrupted them. “Did you encounter any problems, Mr. Snape, Mr. Pane?”

“No, Professor, everything is alright,” Severus answered quickly in order not to attract more attention.

“Then maybe it would be better to concentrate on your Potion,” Slughorn said in a slightly reprimanding voice.

“Yes of course. Sorry Professor, it was my fault,” Harry mumbled.

Despite their discussions, they managed to brew the Potion flawlessly due to Severus’ talent and agreed to meet at the Potions classroom every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evening as well as on Sunday afternoons for Harry’s tutoring. To his great astonishment, Harry had enjoyed the Potions lesson very much, and this Severus didn’t seem so bad. Maybe he would be able to prevent him from becoming the greasy git he was in Harry’s time.

-----

Quidditch practice was a lot of fun. Although his Nimbus 11 was much slower than his Firebolt, he noticed that he could manage to fly just a little faster than his father, whose flying abilities the Sirius of his time always had praised so much. But James didn’t mind; he was glad to have such a good Seeker for his team.

One day Harry overheard Sirius and James talking in the Gryffindor Common Room.

“I don’t know, James, but I just don’t trust him. I don’t know why, it’s just a feeling. And why does he look like you? Is he related to you? He cannot be using Polyjuice Potion, can he?” James snorted.

“Why should anybody want to look like me? I would change my hair into anyone else’s if I could. But I also think he must be related to me; I mean, the Potters are a big old family, so why not? I don’t mind. In fact, I like the boy; he is friendly and nice to everyone. So what’s your problem with him?”

“As I said, James, I don’t know. It’s just a feeling, that something isn’t right with him, nothing more. Have you noticed, that he’s watching you, me, Remus and even Lily in a strange way, differently from the way one normally watches people? I can’t say that his behaviour is cause for trust”.

“He watches Lily? What’s that? Are you sure?” James seemed to wake up, suddenly interested in Sirius’ arguments.

“No, James, not in that way. I didn’t mean to imply that. It’s all right. Calm down.”

With this, they went out of Harry’s hearing range. After listening to this conversation, Harry was even more self-conscious in his interactions with the Marauders and Lily, not wanting to give himself away or give the Marauders any reason not to trust him.

-----

One day, he met Lily sitting alone at a table in the library and noticed that her eyes were swimming in tears. He was still unsure how to interact with his mother, but couldn’t help asking, “What’s wrong with you, Lily?”

“It’s nothing, Harry, I’m fine.” Lily managed to say with a small smile.

“Don’t tell me fine, you don’t look fine. What’s wrong? Maybe I can help you?”

“I have problems with Potions, Harry. I’ve messed up all Potions we had so far this year. But please don’t tell anybody about it, especially not James and his friends. They will all laugh about me, because I have always been good at Potions, but this year, I’m really having problems,” Lily confided.

“Oh. That I can understand very well. I have always had problems with Potions. But now Severus is giving me Potions lessons a few times a week. Maybe you could join us!”

“Severus Snape?” Lily asked astonished. “He would not help me. He is a Slytherin andcalls me a ‘Mudblood’, because I am muggleborn.”

“Yes, but I think that is only the bad influence of some pureblood Slytherins. Severus is not so bad. I have become friends with him, and I think he has already changed a little since I have first arrived here a month ago. If you don’t mind, I will ask him, because I’ll be meeting him tonight anyway.”

“Thank you, Harry that would be nice.”

“No problem, Lily, you’re welcome.”

Harry spoke with Severus about Lily that evening and they agreed to extend their evening sessions to Lily, but to keep their Sunday afternoons between them to give Harry the possibility to talk about the future and to have a chance to start their research about how to send Harry back. Professor Dumbledore had already talked to Severus, and Severus knew that he would have to be obliviated before Harry went back to the future. He would remember Harry as a very good friend whom he would meet again in the future, but nothing more.

-----

It was in the second half of October, on the night before the full moon and he noticed the Marauder’s were very excited. He suddenly remembered Remus’ condition together with the fact that he was not supposed to know about it. In September, he hadn’t thought about it and had not even noticed that the Marauders had left the dormitory at night. Maybe at that time, just a week after his arrival in the past, he had been too preoccupied with himself to notice anything.

Suddenly, he even remembered something else. He had to talk to Severus as soon as possible. It was still half an hour until curfew, and maybe Severus would still be in the Potions classroom. Throwing his robe over his pyjamas, he left the dormitory and ran as fast as he could to the dungeons. From under the door of the Potions classroom, he could see light. Would it be Severus? He didn’t want to meet the Potions professor or, even worse, any other Slytherin at this time of the evening. How could he explain what he was doing down in the dungeons just before curfew? However, he was lucky – when he summoned all his courage and opened the door slightly, he could see his friend brewing a Potion.

“Harry! What are you doing here?” Severus hissed.

“Sorry to disturb you, but I have something very important to tell you. And it can’t be overheard by anyone.”

“Okay, no problem. Close the door properly,” Severus admonished and waved his wand to look the door and place a silencing charm around them. “Now, what’s wrong?”

“Em… I don’t know how to tell you about it, so I will just spit it out. You know Remus, don’t you? You know, I only know from the future that I must tell you this, okay. So you cannot tell anyone about it, is that clear?”

“Of course Harry, you know that I would never tell anybody about what you have told me.” Severus looked directly into Harry’s eyes.

Harry averted his eyes down to the floor. “Yes, of course, I know that. Sorry. Anyway, what I have to tell you is that Remus is a werewolf. The fact as such is not a problem. But what I heard in the future is the following story: You had noticed something about Remus and were trying to find out what his problem was. He was always spending the night of the full moon at the Shrieking Shack, and Sirius told you once that if you wanted to know about Remus’ secret, you should go to the Shrieking Shack on the full moon. You did as you were told, and James only saved you in the last minute before Remus would have killed you. I don’t want that to happen (again), so I just had to tell you.”

Harry slowly looked up to his friend. Severus didn’t react at all. He was clearly shocked. Finally, he managed to form words.

“Thank you Harry. I really appreciate what you have done for me. That would have been a shock for life.”

“Yes. Your future self is still suffering from it. Now I have changed the future, although I should not have done it,” Harry said solemnly. He looked at his watch. It was already 30 minutes after curfew. “Are you sure that you are okay, Severus? If you are, then we should return to our dormitories. It’s late.”

“It’s okay. I have to clean up here, but that is no problem. You have far to walk, so go on. Good night Harry and thank you!”

“Good night Severus. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Harry said and run back to Gryffindor tower.

“Mr. Pane! What are you doing outside of your dormitory after curfew?” It was the stern voice of his Head of House.

“I’m sorry Professor, but I really had to talk to Severus. It was very important,” Harry tried to defend himself.

“Then you surely can explain it to the headmaster and myself.” Professor McGonagall took him to the Headmaster’s Office, where he explained the whole story to the absolutely shocked teachers.

After listening to Harry’s story, Dumbledore addressed Harry. “Thank you my boy for warning Severus tonight. 100 points to Gryffindor. Now, I believe that it is time for you to go to bed, and I am sure Professor McGonagall will be so kind as to escort you back to Gryffindor tower.”

Harry couldn’t sleep that night. When he returned to the dormitory, none of his classmates was there. They had all drawn their curtains, but from the lack of breathing sounds, he knew that the room was empty. He just couldn’t decide about what to do. Should he talk to them and tell them he knew Remus was a werewolf and later on obliviate them at least partly? They were not supposed to know that he came from the future; otherwise, they would know immediately that he was James’ son. Or should he just keep quiet and pretend to see and hear nothing? On the other hand, if he told them he knew about everything, he could ask James and Sirius a big favour. It was 6 o’clock in the morning, when he finally fell into a restless sleep.

At 6:30 James, Sirius and Peter slipped into the dormitory, hidden under James’ invisibility cloak.

“Oh, he is fast asleep. Hopefully he didn’t notice that we were gone at all,” Sirius beamed.

“I can’t imagine we’ll be able to hide it from him forever anyway,” James said shrugging.

“You think we should tell him?” Sirius asked suspiciously.

“Yes, I think so. But I think it is up to Remus to decide about it. We will have to ask him tonight. Anyway we have to wake up this lazybones now.” With that, James went over to Harry.

“Harry, it’s time to get up. You must hurry, or you will miss breakfast.”

Harry groaned. “I don’t want breakfast. I’m tired. Can you wake me up again later?”

“Okay, we’ll do that. Come on Sirius, Peter.”

---

“Harry! What’s wrong with you? Are you ill?”

Harry blinked. He knew this voice, but… and suddenly he was fully awake. His mother, Lily, was standing there. “Sorry, no, I’m fine, I’m just tired and my head hurts, I didn’t sleep well.”

“If you are sure that you are well, you should get up. Or shall I excuse you with Professor McGonagall? Transfiguration will start in 10 minutes.”

“No, thank you, Lily, I’ll be there.”

-----

Harry managed to slip into the room, just before Professor McGonagall shut the door.

“Mr. Black, would you please be so kind as to distribute these buttons? One for each student. Today we will try to change these buttons into pink rabbits.”

Harry groaned inwardly. ‘Only 1 rabbit, only 1 rabbit, only 1 rabbit, 2 rabbits, 3 rabbits…’, his head hurt and his eyes were so heavy, ‘…not too many rabbits…’

“Mr. Pane!”

Harry nearly fell from his chair startled. “I’m sorry Professor.”

“Do you think this is too easy for you?” Professor McGonagall watched him sternly.

“No, of course not, Professor. I’m sorry; I just don’t feel very well today.”

Lily spoke up. “Professor, I think he really seems to be unwell. I even had to go and wake him up 10 minutes before the class started. Maybe he should go back to bed and rest?”

Minerva gave Harry a piercing glance. “Alright Mr. Pane, go back to your dormitory, and if you still do not feel better at lunchtime, go and see Madam Pomfrey. Take your button with you and try to transfigure it into a rabbit. I want to see a rabbit in our next lesson on Friday.”

Harry nodded. “Thank you Professor, thanks Lily,” he said and went back to the dormitory.

Harry slept through lunch and managed to be in the dungeons just in time for his afternoon classes. Severus smiled, when Harry slipped into the seat next to him.

“Hello Harry, how are you? When you didn’t come to Charms, Lily told me you were sick. Are you better now?”

“Yes. But I can’t tell you here. We can talk when we are alone.”

-----

The same evening after Quidditch practice James called Harry over.

“We would like to meet in our dormitory for a short talk.”

When they arrived in the dormitory, James locked the door and placed a silencing charm on it. Harry looked at him questioningly. Remus, Sirius and Peter were sitting on their beds.

Remus spoke first. “Harry, we want to tell you something, but you have to promise that you don’t speak about it to anybody.”

“I promise,” Harry said sincerely.

“I am a werewolf,” said Remus.

Harry had to try hard to put an astonished look onto his face. “That means that you change into a wolf only on the full moon, doesn’t it?” he asked, trying to sound curious.

“Yes, every month on the full moon I go to the Shrieking Shack to transform during the night. If I were together with people, they wouldn’t survive. Our three friends here are Animagi; that’s how they are able to stay with me during these times, which helps me a lot. James is a stag, Sirius a dog, and Peter a rat. Do you understand that, and do you know, why you cannot talk about it to others? Neither about me being a werewolf nor about them being unregistered Animagi?”

“Yes, Remus, I understand fully, and I don’t mind at all of course. I have just one request for James and Sirius.” The four other boys looked astonished.

“What might that be?” Sirius asked.

“Could you teach me how to become an Animagus please?” Everyone laughed with a very relieved expression on their faces.

“Of course we will teach you. We can practice every night here in the dormitory directly after curfew.” James picked up a quill and wrote something on a piece of parchment, before he admonished Harry, “Go to the library and get this book. Read over the first two chapters by tomorrow evening.”

Harry took the parchment from him, went to the library to get the book, and managed to read through the whole book during the night. It was so interesting, that he just couldn’t stop.

The next morning he asked James about the Potion mentioned in the book, which was necessary to see which animal you were going to become.

“How do I get this Potion? Do I have to brew it?”

“Yes, you either have to brew it, or you can buy it at Hogsmeade, but I don’t know when the next Hogsmeade weekend will be. We bought it at Hogsmeade, so I don’t know how difficult it will be to brew.”

“In that case I will ask Severus. You know, he is tutoring me in Potions, and I will meet him tonight anyway. Maybe he can show me how to brew it tonight.”

“Are you sure, Snivellus won’t tell anyone?”

“Yes” Harry said sincerely. “I am sure.”

When he told Severus and Lily about the Potion, both of them were eager to brew the Potion and test it as well. Harry promised to tell them everything he learned about becoming an animagus and help them during their Potion tutoring lessons, so that they could learn to become Animagi at the same time.

Harry arrived just in time for his first Animagus lesson, the Potion in the pocket of his robe. He was very excited.

“So, Harry, do you have the Potion?” When Harry proudly showed them the bottle, James advised him, “I would advise you to lie down on your bed before you take the Potion, because you will really transform in the animal you are going to become, and the transformation might hurt a lot the first time.”

Harry did as he was told, transformed… and for a few minutes he found himself in a black world of pain.

After a few minutes, he gained consciousness again. However, something was not right. His field of vision had been greatly expanded, and it felt as if he had wings. He looked at himself and saw many white feathers.

“A phoenix! You are a phoenix!”

“An ice phoenix. Lots of white feathers and a few green ones, cool!”

“A magical animal. That’s great; I didn’t think that was possible!” His friends were beaming at him. Finally, Harry realized: If he were able to become an animagus, he would be a phoenix! That would be wonderful. He’d be able to fly without a broom. Harry was so happy.

“Please, please, you have to teach me,” he said as soon as he was back in his human form.

“We will do that, and we will start tomorrow evening,” his father said, fully understanding his friend’s excitement.

Over the next weeks, his friends helped him every evening with his Animagus practice, and twice a week Harry practiced together with Lily and Severus. Lily was training to become an owl and Severus a snake.

-----

It was Friday morning, and Harry was sitting in transfiguration class. Harry was again dreading the correct transfiguration from button to just one rabbit. His stomach was churning and he was on the verge of throwing up, when the professor called, “Mr. Potter please.”

Harry summoned all this courage to configure his button, and three pink rabbits were running around his table.

Professor McGonagall nodded her approval and vanished the rabbits. “It was not your turn yet, Mr. Pane, but very nice transfiguration indeed. Now, Mr. Potter please.” Harry sat back relieved.

-----

The sun was shining brightly for the first Quidditch game of the season, which was a resounding success for the Gryffindor team, who beat Hufflepuff 270:40. The party in Gryffindor Tower was loud and lasted half the night, but in spite of the Marauders being there, Harry missed some of the atmosphere the Weasley twins used to bring to their victory parties.

-----

On Sunday morning, Harry decided to go for a walk around the lake. He sat down at his favourite spot under a tree and thought about his life in the past and in the future and wondered if he was going to change the time line even unwittingly just by being in the past.

Suddenly he spotted something on the other side of the lake – a scene he knew too well. Sirius and James were picking on Severus, while Remus was sitting beside them reading a book.

The Marauders didn’t know what happened to them when Harry rushed over and shouted, “Stop bothering Severus IMMEDIATELY or you will get to know my bad side!”

“What do you have to do with Snivellus?” asked Sirius.

“He is my friend, and you will never be able to understand why, if you don’t try to get to know him.”

“He is a Slytherin and you can be sure that in the future he will be kissing Voldemort’s feet.”

“Come over here, Sirius, James and Remus. I have to tell you something. Now!” Harry waved his wand and put a silencing charm around the four of them and Severus. “Listen very well, because I will only tell you this once. I have come from 20 years in the future. I know everything that will happen in your lives during the next 20 years. In the future, Severus will be on my side, but your good friend Peter is going to betray Lily and James to Voldemort and will bring Sirius to Azkaban for that.”

“WHAT!”

“That can’t be true!”

“Really? That means... what is your real name?” James glared at Harry.

Harry snorted. “My name is Harry James Potter... Dad.”

“So you are my son???” James beamed. “Who’s your mother???”

“I will let you figure that out for yourself... Dad” Harry laughed.

“And Sirius and Remus are my godparents, but I must tell you that I cannot be proud of parents or godfathers pestering other students all the time. I am your friend here and now, but I am also Severus’ friend!”

“Do you know all of us from the future?” Remus asked.

“I know you quite well, Remus, but I can’t tell you any more, I’m sorry. I am not allowed to talk about the future, so please don’t ask me anything else. But please, even if you don’t want to be friends with Severus, at least behave civilly towards each other.”

With that, Harry countered the silencing spell and pulled Severus away. As soon as the Marauders turned away, he performed three obliviating spells and mumbled so that only Severus could hear it, “I’m sorry Remus, Sirius, James, but I had to do that“.

Severus smirked. “You are full of secrets, aren’t you? Will they remember anything about it?”

“They will only remember not to trust Peter fully but to trust you.”

“I have to thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome Severus.”

“You still wanted to tell me what happened on Wednesday to prevent you from showing up for Charms.”

Harry chuckled. “First of all, the night before that was the full moon. I spent the whole night thinking about letting them know that I knew about Remus or not; I only slept for about an hour that night and woke up with a horrendous headache. Then I went to Transfiguration and we had to transfigure buttons into rabbits and I just felt sick.”

“We had to do that as well. What is the problem with transfiguring buttons in rabbits? Not that I am very good at it, but...” Severus lifted one eyebrow.

Harry chuckled again. “On the day before I arrived here, just before the horrible Potions lesson with your future self, which brought me here, I had Transfiguration and we had to do exactly the same thing. At that time, I tried, but instead of transfiguring the button into one rabbit, I managed to get a few dozen of them. McGonagall was very annoyed having her classroom overrun by at least 50 rabbits, and I had to transfigure each of them back, one by one. However, the main point is that I hate attention. Your future self always calls me “attention seeking brat” because I always get so much attention. I don’t want that, and here, so far, I am just a very normal student, without any specialities, just like anyone else. I have never been so happy in my life before. You can’t imagine how afraid I was to lose this just because of this stupid Transfiguration!”

-----

The Halloween feast a few days later was not very different from those Harry was used to. But as he could not help thinking about what was going to happen in exactly 4 years, he couldn’t really enjoy the feast and decided to go to bed early. However, as soon as he was asleep, he began to dream. He found himself in a dark chamber and heard himself speak.

“My faithful servants come here. We have some new young students who will be given the honour of receiving my mark tonight, before we go to Diagon Alley and show the world how a Halloween feast should be celebrated later tonight. My most faithful servants please bring your children or wards to me.”

The Death Eaters who were accompanied by their children, who did not yet wear a Death Eater’s mask, came forward and kissed Voldemort’s robe. He branded each of the new Death Eaters and conducted a personal ceremony with each of them.

“Malfoy Junior, what is your name?”

“Lucius, my Lord.”

“Are you willing to be my servant for the power of the world against the light?”

“Yes, my Lord.”

He waved his wand over Malfoy “Crucio”.

Harry was thrashing around in his bed with a hand on his scar. After a short time, Voldemort countered the curse.

“Why is it that you want to join my circle?”

“Because I want to serve your power over the world.”

“Then we will test if I deem you worthy of my precious mark. Crucio.” After a few minutes, Voldemort countered the course, before he placed his wand on Malfoy’s arm and mumbled something in Parseltongue, so that the Dark Mark appeared on Malfoy’s arm. “Welcome to my faithful servants. I only expect the best from you. Crucio”.

Harry was just watching the third student being marked, when Lily and Remus, who had been looking for him, found him in his bed, thrashing around with a bleeding scar, and tried to wake him up.

“Harry, wake up, what’s wrong?”

Harry groaned and mumbled, “Go and get Dumbledore please. Quickly.”

“I’ll go”, said Remus, “you stay and look after him.” He ran out of the room.

“What’s wrong with you Harry? Can I do anything for you?”

Harry just managed to say, “I’m going to be sick,” and Lily quickly transfigured a sock into a bucket, before Harry turned on his side and got sick.

After a few minutes, Dumbledore arrived with McGonagall in tow. They hurried over to Harry. “What is the matter Mr. Pane? Are you ill?”

“His scar is bleeding and he is burning up, Albus; we should take him to the Hospital Wing.”

“No. I must tell you something – only the two of you please. It’s important,” Harry requested urgently.

“Ms. Evans, Mr. Lupin, thank you very much for alerting us. Please leave us for a moment,” the headmaster said before putting up a silencing spell after the two students.

“I had a vision. Voldemort is going to attack Diagon Alley tonight. You must alert the Order of the Phoenix and the Aurors quickly!”

The professors looked unbelievingly at Harry. McGonagall whispered to Dumbledore, “He seems to have a fever. Maybe he is hallucinating?”

Harry was getting upset. “No! Professors. I got my scar, when Voldemort tried to kill me at the age of one. Since then I have been connected to Voldemort with this scar. And I can often see his Death Eater meetings and other things when I am asleep. That is also how I managed to kill him in the future. Please believe me. He initiated several students as new Death Eaters tonight, and told the Death Eaters they were going to attack Diagon Alley later tonight. So please hurry up and contact the Aurors.”

“As unbelievable as it is, Minerva, I deem Mr. Pane as very trustworthy and believe what he says. Therefore, I will contact the Aurors and some of our friends to meet them in Diagon Alley later. Please guard the school for me and take Mr. Pane to the Hospital Wing, so that Poppy can have a look at him.” With that, he was on his way.

Professor McGonagall looked at Harry. “Do you think you will be able to walk to the Hospital Wing?”

“NO! I am fine. I don’t need to go to the Hospital Wing!”

The teacher glared at him and said, “Your scar is bleeding, you have a fever, and you are obviously in pain. Either you will go to the Infirmary with Mr. Lupin’s and my help or I will levitate you there. It’s your choice”.

Harry groaned and scrambled out of the bed. While Remus and the professor were helping Harry to the Hospital Wing, Lily went to the Great Hall to fetch Madam Pomfrey.

When she saw Harry, she asked, “What have you gotten yourself into this time, Mr. Pane?”

Harry mumbled, “nothing, I’m fine. I just need a headache Potion and I’ll be on my way.”

Madam Pomfrey quickly checked on him and said sternly, “No way. You can make yourself comfortable on that bed; you will have to stay here for the night. And I don’t want any more discussions, because I am the one to decide whether you are fine or not.” She made him drink a headache Potion and a fever reducer and Harry lay down in a sulk.

Professor McGonagall said, “Poppy, in case you need me, I will be in Albus’ Office, as he will be out for a few hours. Please don’t give Mr. Pane a sleeping Potion, because it might be that Albus will need to speak to him later tonight.”

“And I tell you, Minerva, even if he is the Headmaster, he cannot come during the night to wake my patients up!” With that, she shooed the professor and the students out of the wing.

Harry was woken up a few hours later by several loud voices. He could only recognize two: Dumbledore’s and Pomfrey’s.

“I’m sorry, Poppy, but the Aurors have to talk to him now. I cannot explain to them how we could know in advance, what would happen tonight. Mr. Pane here has saved many lives tonight. Please let us talk to him for a few minutes.”

“Mr. Pane is not well, and it is not alright to disturb him. So the Aurors have exactly 5 minutes to talk to him, before I will throw each of them out.” Madam Pomfrey sounded very angry.

Dumbledore approached Harry. “Harry, my dear boy, I’m very sorry to disturb you. The Aurors want to thank you for saving hundreds of lives tonight. Could you please very quickly explain to them how you could know what would happen?”

Harry just finished his explanation, when a very angry looking Matron came over and shouted at the Aurors, “OUT OF HERE, NOW!”

The Aurors thanked Dumbledore and Harry and hurried out of the room.

Dumbledore sat down on a chair next to Harry and asked, “Poppy, what exactly is wrong with Harry?”

Harry looked away very annoyed.

“His headache seems to have gone, but his fever is not completely down, and he seems to have a problem with his nerves, I don’t know exactly what it is, but I don’t like it.”

Harry looked at her inquiringly. “Don’t you have any Anti-Cruciatus-Potion yet in this time?”

Poppy and Dumbledore exchanged a glance before Dumbledore asked, “What exactly is this Potion, Harry?”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “The Anti-Cruciatus-Potion counters the effects of the Cruciatus curse. When I am having my visions, I cannot only see what Voldemort and his Death Eaters say, but I can feel his emotions and feel every curse he places on someone. And as he enjoys the Cruciatus curse very much, I often have to suffer it. Tonight it was about eight times, each of them maybe a minute or two. It will wear off in a day or so, but in my time, Professor Snape always made this Potion for me. Probably it’s his own invention.”

Dumbledore gave Harry a piercing glance. “I don’t think it is already invented in this time. However, we will ask Severus. If not, do you, by chance, know how to make it?”

“I probably know the ingredients, because it was in my 6th year Potions book, but I don’t know how to make it. Severus, though, is so good at Potions; I’m sure he will be able to brew it.”

Dumbledore laughed. “You really seem to have a lot of faith in Severus.”

“Yes Professor. Even if he really hated me in my time, he has managed to save my life several times.”

“All right” said Dumbledore. “Twinkle!” With a pop, a house elf appeared next to him. “Twinkle, will you please go and bring Severus Snape to us immediately.”

A minute later, the elf re-appeared together with a very annoyed Severus.

“Ah, my boy, how good that you can join us. Thank you Twinkle. Severus, have you ever heard of the Anti-Cruciatus Potion?”

“No. Should I know it?”

“According to Harry here, you invented it – we just don’t know exactly when.”

“So you are saying you woke me up and brought me here in the middle of the night just to invent a Potion I have never heard of?” Severus glared at them. He was quite annoyed, but when Dumbledore told him about Harry’s vision and his suffering of the Cruciatus curse, Severus was fully awake and in Potions master mode.

“Alright Harry, now tell me as much as you know about it. Professors you can leave us alone, this will probably take a while.”

“Professor, I’m fine. Look, it is nearly 3 o’clock in the morning. Don’t you think Severus should go to sleep first? We can try to brew the Potion after lessons tomorrow.”

“No Harry, we will do it now. Just tell me as much as you know and I will try to make your Potion.”

“Alright my boys,” Dumbledore beamed at them “but you will both be excused from classes tomorrow. I will see you in the morning. Good night Poppy.”

“Severus, you know my Potions abilities, so you cannot rely on what I tell you. As far as I remember from a glance in my 6th year’s Potion book, you need the normal basic healing Potion as basis, and have to add petals of the Syrian wildfire, cumberflow, lace fly wings, four drops of Jojoba oil and one drop of phoenix tear extract. That’s all I know. I don’t know how to brew it.”

“It’s okay, Harry, just with the ingredients you told me you helped me a lot. Now go to sleep for a few hours. I will try to brew the Potion. Would you recognize it by the smell or the colour or would you have to drink it to know if was correct?”

Harry groaned. “Oh, Severus, don’t ask me. You know I am a dunderhead in Potions. If it’s very different I will know, but if it’s similar, I don’t know if I can tell the difference.”

After about three hours, Severus returned with three phials of Potions, woke Harry up and asked, “Do you think you recognize one of these?”

Harry sat up, looked piercingly at each of the phials and sniffed at each of them before pointing to one of the Potions. “I think it could be this one. Let me try.”

“Only if you are quite sure. I don’t want you to try anything, although it cannot do much damage with these ingredients.”

Harry took the Potion from him, gulped about half of it down and visibly relaxed. “Thank you Severus, I knew you could do it. Thank you!”

Severus gave Harry a very relieved smile and lay down on the bed next to Harry’s. “Let’s try to get some more sleep, Harry, good night”, but Harry was already asleep.

Harry had only slept for a few minutes when he woke up by a sharp pain in his scar.

He noticed that Voldemort was very angry, probably because of the unsuccessful attack during the night. Soon he was drawn into another vision.

“My most faithful servants of my inner circle,” he was surrounded by Death Eaters, “the time has come to question, if you are really as faithful as I always believe. How could the Aurors have known about our plans to put a show for the world upon Diagon Alley? I only can imagine one reason – we must have a spy in our midst!”

The Death Eaters fell to their knees. One of them, whom Harry could not recognize because he was wearing a hood, spoke up, “My Lord, I do not know how the Aurors could know about your plans, but I cannot imagine a spy here in your inner circle. Maybe one of the others left earlier yesterday after you announced the attack. He would have time enough to warn the Aurors.”

“Impossible, Malfoy. I put my Anti-Apparition wards up yesterday, so nobody could get away. Crucio.”

Malfoy cried in pain. Harry too.

“Nott. What is your theory?”

“My Lord, I don’t know. But it cannot be anyone of these members. We know each other too well.”

“Hopefully. Crucio. Avery, come here. Who could have alerted the Aurors?”

“My Lord, I really have no idea. But don’t you have a spy in the ministry who might be able to find out?”

“I don’t have a spy with the Aurors. Crucio. Crabbe and Goyle, do you have a reasonable explanation for me?”

“No, my Lord, I am sorry.”

“My Lord, I have no idea. Sorry.”

“Sorry is not enough! Crucio. Crucio. I expect better from all of you. I am very disappointed. You are dismissed.”

Harry woke up, groaned and got sick all over the bed. At the same moment, Dumbledore strayed into the Hospital Wing and rushed over to his bedside.

“Harry! What is it now? Your scar is bleeding again. Did you have another vision?”

Harry moaned, “No, he is just very disappointed about the failed attack last night and was torturing the Death Eaters of his inner circle. This means Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Avery.”

“Do you have these visions often?”

“Quite often. Voldemort was gone until about 15 months before I came here, so I only had them during these 15 months, and yesterday was the first time after I came here. Halloween seems to have always been special for Tom.”

“So you always spend a lot of time here in the Hospital Wing.” It was more a conclusion than a question.

However, Harry answered, “Yes, unfortunately. In my time I even have my own bed here, although I hate it here.” Harry took the still half-full phial from his night table, gulped it down and relaxed.

“Is that the Potion Severus made for you?”

“Yes Professor. Did I not tell you that he is the best Potions master of England in my time?”

“And I still can manage to keep him as our Potions Professor?!” Harry nodded.

‘Certain information I will have to put into my pensive before being obliviated’ Dumbledore thought to himself and said aloud, “I will get Madam Pomfrey to check on you. Afterwards we can have breakfast together. There are a few things I would like to talk about with you if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not Professor.”

Madam Pomfrey checked on Harry and said to Dumbledore, “No! You cannot take him with you. His temperature is as high as it was yesterday, and his scar is open again. Come back after breakfast if you need to. If nothing more happens, I will release him before dinner.”

“Then I will be back in half an hour. I want to talk to Harry, and after the events of the night I do not want to wait.”

Pomfrey made Harry drink a few Potions, bandaged his head and made him eat a small breakfast, which he finished just in time for Dumbledore’s return.

“Harry, when we talked in your dormitory yesterday, you said something about a certain ‘Order of the Phoenix’, is that correct?”

Harry nodded affirmative.

“Could you please explain to me about his order?”

Harry’s eyes got bigger. What did this mean? The order was Dumbledore’s organization, wasn’t it? “Oops, I thought you must have known by now. Anyway, the Order of the Phoenix is an organisation of the light side, founded by you, and the members are mostly former students of Hogwarts whom you can trust, like for example the Weasleys.”

“Then it will be time to found this Order! Why is it called the Order of the Phoenix?”

“I’m not sure. You know, I am not yet a member of it. You are only taking students who are of age and have graduated. But I think it has two reasons. One has to do with procedure of people entering the order for the first time. I think Fawkes has to approve them. Maybe he will know; I don’t know if this was his idea or yours. The other is that you use the Phoenix symbol for the Order and also for fast communication. But don’t ask me how it works exactly.”

“Fine, Harry. This is very valuable information. Now, where and when does this Order meet?”

“Um... at my time they meet at Sirius’ house, you know at the old Black house. It is under the Fidelius charm and you are the secret keeper, but as far as I know, before that the Order has met at Hogwarts, maybe in your office or somewhere. You call the Order whenever there is any need, whenever Voldemort was attacking somewhere or when people of the Order had to guard something or someone for any reason.”

“All right Harry; that will do for the start. Now, do you know how many members the Order had at your time?”

“No. I know about twenty of them, but there might be about fifty, some of them not so active members. I just don’t know. Shall I give you the names of the Order members I know?”

“Yes please, that would be very helpful. The full names please.”

“Albus Dumbledore as the boss, Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, I’m not sure if Madam Pomfrey is a member but I think so, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, James Potter and Lily Evans (not in my time of course because they were dead, but before they died). Peter Pettigrew was in the Order too at that time but was a Death Eater, Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley and all of their seven children but one, Agatha Longbottom, Frank Longbottom and his wife Alice (who are in St. Mungos at my time). Some Aurors like Mad Eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymphadora Tonks; her mother was in the order too, I think, and Arabella Figg. The parents of James Potter were probably Order members too. Sorry Professor; that’s all I can come up with now. But when you ask me about certain persons, maybe I’ll be able to tell you about them.”

“Alright Harry, thank you very much. I will have a talk with Fawkes and... Who do you think would be my second hand in this Order?”

“Professor McGonagall. She is your second-in-command in everything, Sir.”

“Then I will talk to her as well. Maybe one of us will come to you with more questions later. Now try to rest for a while.” Harry laughed.

“I don’t mind any questions. I’m glad to be able to help. Just please don’t tell anyone except Professor McGonagall about me; I really don’t want any more attention as I get anyway” he added pleadingly.

Dumbledore was just on his way out of the Hospital Wing, when Harry called him back.

“Sorry Professor. I forgot to tell you something. You know Voldemort initiated several new Death Eaters last night, and I recognized a few of them. They were Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe, Goyle and Pettigrew.”

Dumbledore’s face went white “Peter Pettigrew? Are you quite sure?”

“Yes, Professor, I am sure.”

When Dumbledore left, Harry looked for Madam Pomfrey, but fortunately she was nowhere in sight. He got up and left the Hospital Wing as fast and silently as he could and ran up to Gryffindor Tower. Fortunately, he did not meet anyone in his pyjamas and with the bandage around his head, because the second class of the day just had begun. After he put a robe over his pyjamas, he fetched his Potions book, parchment and a quill and ran back to the Hospital Wing to look through the Potions book and take some notes until Severus woke up.

He woke up about an hour before lunchtime, and when he came over to Harry’s bed, Harry whispered, “Watch her without attracting attention. As soon as she is out of sight let’s get out of here.”

Severus looked questioningly at Harry. “Are you sure you are all right? Did she release you yet?”

“No, but she said she probably was going to release me before dinner, so I’ll be fine.”

“And where are we going to go? The Potions classroom is still used at this time of the day.”

Harry hadn’t considered that. “Um… we could go to the Room of Requirement. Now, she’s not here, and the last morning classes have just started, so let’s go!”

They ran up to the seventh floor, where Harry paced in front of the Room of Requirement, thinking, ‘we need a Potions laboratory together with a place with comfortable seats’, and a door appeared.

Severus’ eyes got really big. “Wow. What is this place?”

“It is called the ‘Room of Requirement’. You have to pace outside three times and wish for a room you need, and it appears. I have been using it quite often in the future. Just look around. There should be shelves with mostly used ingredients and everything.”

Harry flopped on one of the comfortable looking sofas and called his friend over. “Let’s sit down and talk first. What are we going to do? I was thinking about finding out which Potions – especially healing Potions – you still haven’t invented and making a list of them. Maybe that sounds a bit crazy, but you know, you have invented many really useful Potions like for example the Wolfsbane Potion.”

Severus gave Harry a piercing look. “You mean you are going to teach me Potions?”

Harry nearly fell off his seat. “Of course not. Don’t misunderstand me. But last night, it really helped me a lot that you could make the Potion for me. I even had to use the second half of it this morning.”

Severus looked horrified.

“So what I intend to do is just telling you about certain Potions, even if I don’t know the ingredients, which are very useful in my time, so that you maybe could invent them earlier than you would do otherwise in order to help others in this time. There is also the possibility that you only invented them in the future because I told you about it in this time. Oh, I don’t know any more.” He sat back and closed his eyes. His head hurt, and he was getting tired. But it was really fun to work together with Severus. It felt as if Severus’ enthusiasm for Potions was contagious.

“All right. I think your idea is not bad. You mentioned a Potion before, Wolfsbane. What exactly is it?”

“The Wolfsbane Potion helps a werewolf to keep his mind during the full moon. He still changes into the werewolf form, but he is coherent. So when Remus was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts in my time, he didn’t have to go to the Shrieking Shack to transform but just could stay in this office. But it takes about a day to brew, has to be brewed freshly every month, and it is said to be one of the most difficult Potions to brew.”

They talked about several Potions, which could be invented, before Severus started to try some of them, with the help of Harry, who was busy chopping many different ingredients. They managed to brew the Anti-Cruciatus Potion once again, this time a whole batch, half of which Severus promised to leave in the stock of the Hospital Wing. The other half he gave to Harry.

“That should be enough for today, let’s go to the Great Hall for dinner,” Severus said satisfied.

“You go on, I will go back to my dormitory, I don’t want dinner, and I’m just tired.”

Severus glared at him. “You are going to get yourself in even more trouble than you are already in, especially with Madam Pomfrey, you know that don’t you?”

Harry smirked. “I don’t mind. If someone comes looking for me, I will already be asleep.”

Severus couldn’t help laughing. “You are incredible. By the way, do you want me to take your head bandage off, or do you prefer to leave it as it is?”

Harry looked at him reproachfully. “Thanks for telling me, I had completely forgotten about it. Could you please take it off?”

-----

Dinner had already started, when Severus slipped into a seat at the Slytherin table. His classmates immediately questioned him, “What was wrong with you today? Slughorn told us you had to stay in the Hospital Wing today. Is everything okay?”

“Yes. I didn’t have to stay there; I only had to sleep, because I had to spend the night brewing a Potion for Dumbledore!” Severus answered in a very annoyed voice and finished his dinner quickly. But before he could leave the Great Hall, Dumbledore called him over to the Head Table.

“Mr. Snape, have you by chance spent the day together with Mr. Pane?”

“Yes Professor, we were doing some Potions research until dinner. With his help I have managed to brew another new Potion for the Hospital Wing, and I’ve got the ideas for a few more healing Potions.”

“As commendable as this may be, and I am very proud of the two of you, my boy, Harry is really in trouble now. He escaped from the Hospital Wing although Poppy didn’t release him yet, and he missed lunch and dinner. Do you by any chance know where he might be now?”

“He told me he was tired and would go back to his dormitory. I’m sorry Professor for not keeping him out of trouble.”

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled. “That, my dear boy, seems to be impossible.”

-----

It was nearly 7 o’clock, when Lily arrived for their Potions tutoring lessons. But Harry didn’t show up.

“Hi Severus. Where is Harry?”

“Hello Lily. He won’t be coming tonight. He was tired and went to bed. But we can brew a Potion together nevertheless. I promised Madam Pomfrey to make a batch of Headache Potions for the hospital wing; are you interested to help me with this?”

“Of course, when you tell me what I have to do. You know I’m not better at Potions than Harry.” Severus smirked.

“Look, I have already got the ingredients ready. Would you mind to prepare them and trying to hand them to me in the correct order I have to add them?”

“Is that the Potion we brewed at the end of last year?”

“Yes Lily.”

When they were waiting for the Potion to simmer for the last few minutes, Lily summoned all her courage, but looked at the floor. “Severus, you know, um… Dumbledore announced the Hogsmeade weekend for the day after tomorrow at dinner. I thought maybe it would be nice to go there all together, you, Harry and me. What do you think?” She couldn’t believe it. She had done it. She had asked him. Slowly she looked up and met his eyes. What she discovered there was… a smile – one of his rare smiles.

“Of course Lily, I would love that, and I’m quite sure Harry would like it too. We have to tell him tomorrow.”

“Are we going to practice our Animagus training without Harry, or should we wait for him?”

“I think we could practice without him. He told me today that he already managed to change his whole body, except from his head. As far as I know, he is practicing with the Marauders every night.”

“All right, then let’s go on. May I have a go first?”

In the meanwhile in Gryffindor Tower…

Most of the Gryffindors were studying or talking in the Common Room, when suddenly Professor McGonagall climbed through the portrait hole. The room went quiet immediately. She looked sternly over the room and said, “Everything is okay students; go on with what you were doing! Mr. Lupin, could you please get Mr. Pane for me. He should be in your dormitory.”

A minute later...

“Sorry Professor, he is fast asleep, I cannot wake him up. Is it so urgent?”

“It’s okay, Mr. Lupin, you can stay here. Thank you. I will try to wake him up.”

“Mr. Pane!” Harry did not react at all, although she called him several times.

“Mr. Potter!”

Harry blinked. “Hmm? Go’ way, m’tired.”

“Mr. Pane!” McGonagall was getting angry. “You won’t be any more tired when you know how much trouble you are in Mr. Pane!”

Harry slowly opened his eyes and blinked at the angry teacher. “What’s wrong Professor? Am I not allowed to sleep?”

“No. You will accompany me for a while. First, we will go to the Hospital Wing, where you will apologize to Madam Pomfrey for running away and for skipping two meals. She told me that she had made it very clear that you were not supposed to miss meals, because you really need them. After that, you will let her check on you and release you properly. And finally, we will go to meet the Headmaster. He went to see you in the afternoon, because he wanted to talk to you, but as you were not where you were supposed to be, I am afraid you will have to answer his questions now, even if you are tired. Come on Mr. Pane.”

Madam Pomfrey was even angrier. She made him drink a nutrient Potion and told him, “You are not to skip meals. From now on, Professor McGonagall and I will watch you at every mealtime. If you miss a meal or do not eat properly, I will be expecting you here half an hour before curfew. As you missed two meals today, you will come here tomorrow evening for the second nutrient Potion. Do you understand me?”

“Yes Mam,” Harry said annoyed.

“And I will not have you releasing yourself from my wing. It is up to me to decide if you are well enough or not, and you were clearly NOT well enough when you decided to just go away. You still are a bit warm and you are much more tired than you should be at 7 o’clock in the evening. Therefore, you have to take it easy for a few days. I want you to refrain from playing Quidditch for a week and use the time to lie on your bed and rest.”

Harry was really angry now. “That is not reasonable, that’s just punishment, isn’t it?!”

Poppy was still angry. “No, Mr. Pane, it is not.”

McGonagall frowned at Harry. “You can deem yourself very lucky, Mr. Pane, if it was for me to decide the consequences of your actions today, I would have banned you from the coming Hogsmeade weekend as well! And now apologize to Madam Pomfrey and let’s go to the Headmaster,” she said sharply.

“I’m sorry Madam Pomfrey,” Harry said, sighing inwardly.

The matron glared at him. “Please don’t do it again.” Harry intensely watched a spot behind the window on the opposite of the room and preferred not to answer.

-----

They went up to the Headmaster’s Office in silence until Harry asked, “Do I have to apologize here as well?”

McGonagall glared at him. “I would think so. He went to see you, and you were not where you should have been. Don’t you think he was worried about you? Fortunately he knew that Severus would probably be with you, but still he was very upset, especially after what happened yesterday evening and this morning.”

‘Oops, they are really more bothersome than in the future,’ Harry thought, slightly annoyed, but happy at the same time, because it sounded as if they really cared about him and not only about his scar.

The gargoyle answered by ‘Phoenix feathers’. ‘Wow,’ Harry thought.

“I’m sorry, Headmaster, for not being where I was supposed to be when you were looking for me. Did you have any more questions about the Order?”

“No my dear boy. Please sit down. Lemon drop?”

“No thank you.”

“I only came looking for you to ask you to come here after you were released. Fawkes told me that he knows quite a few things about the Order of the Phoenix, and I thought we might hear what he has to say together.”

“Albus, do you mind us having a cup of tea, while we are talking to Fawkes?”

“Of course not. I’m sorry Minerva. Twinkle!”

“Yes Professor Dumbledore sir. What can Twinkle do for the Professors?”

“Could you please bring us tea and a few biscuits? Thank you Twinkle.” A minute later tea and biscuits arrived on a big silver plate in front of them, and McGonagall was pouring the tea into three cups. “Now let’s start. As you know, Harry, only I can understand Fawkes, so I have to repeat everything he says for you and Professor McGonagall.”

“All right Professor.” Harry was very curious about what Fawkes might have to say.

“Fawkes, can you tell me anything about the Order of the Phoenix?”

#Of course Albi, I can fill many parchments. If you put them one over another, they will be as high as your beard is long.#

Albus interpreted for Professor McGonagall and Harry, “Of course Albus, I can write many parchments, even books about it.” Harry stared at Fawkes. ‘How could it be? No. He was dreaming...’

“Harry? Are you all right?” McGonagall asked concerned.

“Yes of course,” Harry answered absentmindedly.

“All right Fawkes, could you then try to explain in a short and understandable way about the Order please?”

#I could. But should I really?#

“I would love to.”

Harry was still staring at Fawkes.

#The Order of the Phoenix was founded by your and Harry’s great, great, many times removed grandfather, you know, the big purple grumpy bearded one.#

“The Order of the Phoenix was founded by the great Merlin.”

#By now the Order has been re-founded as many times your dear Minnie is old#.

“By now the Order has been re-founded 56 times.”

Harry really had to try hard not to laugh. He managed to hide a laugh behind a big yawn.

#Every time a bad one comes and needs his wings clipped, the Order is re-founded.#

“Every time an evil person comes and starts a war, the Order is re-founded.”

Dumbledore remained pensive for a moment, before he asked, “but Fawkes, what about the time of Grindelwald? There was no Order!”

#Oh yes, there was. But every time the bad egg is removed, everyone’s head is filled with feathers and they forget about the Order, a method to save it from all the other meddling old coots.#

“Oh yes, there was. But every time the threat is gone, everyone is obliviated concerning the Order, a method to save it from any negative influences. That’s why I don’t remember anything about it. So how do we proceed in order to re-found the Order of the Phoenix this time?”

#You choose your chicks, choose your nest, fix a time, and I will play the nice birdie and do the work for you.#

“You choose the members, choose the meeting place, fix a time, and I will be there and do what is necessary. Fawkes, are they any limits in the number of members?”

#Only as many as there are rats in this castle please.#

“No.”

Harry again had to hide a laugh in a big yawn.

“All right, thank you Fawkes. It seems Mr. Pane is too tired tonight; it is nearly curfew anyway. I think we should continue this conversation tomorrow evening. In the meanwhile, I will try to speak to several of the people Mr. Pane mentioned to me this morning, and maybe we should try to hold our first Order meeting on Sunday evening after dinner. Will tomorrow evening be all right with you, Minerva, Harry?”

Harry smirked. “Of course Professor”

“Yes Albus. What time?”

“Directly after dinner”

“No Albus. Mr. Pane, until what time does your Quidditch training normally last?”

Harry glared at McGonagall. “Until about 9.”

“Sorry Albus, we cannot meet until after 9 o’clock. Harry has been suspended from Quidditch for a week and has to spend the practice time in bed.”

Dumbledore chuckled.

“Don’t laugh Albus. It is not funny!” he was being scolded immediately.

“All right. We will meet here at 9 o’clock tomorrow evening. Good night, Minerva, Harry.”

-----

The next day started bright and sunny. Harry was eating breakfast together with the Marauders, when Lily came and sat next to Harry.

“Good morning Harry. You went to bed very early yesterday. We missed you at our Potions lesson.”

“Yes Lily, I’m sorry. I should have attended Potions tutoring. McGonagall pulled me out of bed and into some sort of detention with Pomfrey, her and Dumbledore because of me running away from the Hospital Wing.”

“What!” Sirius laughed from the opposite of Harry.

“Oh, yes, I nearly forgot. Um... James?” Harry asked hesitantly.

“Yes Harry? What is it?”

“Um... I’m sorry, um... you see, Pomfreysuspendedmefromquidditchforthewholeweek”

“What??? Could you repeat that properly please?” Sirius nearly fell from his chair laughing.

Harry mumbled, “Pomfrey suspended me from Quidditch for the whole week”.

James was shocked. “All right, it doesn’t really matter, you are very good anyway, and you don’t need the practice as much as others, but WHY?”

Harry was looking at the floor. “Punishment for running away from the Hospital Wing.” Sirius and James roared with laughter.

“No Harry, I don’t think it’s only punishment. They are really worried about you. McGonagall called me before breakfast and asked me to keep a close eye on you and to stay in the dormitory with you during Quidditch practice,” Remus contradicted sternly.

Harry jumped up from his seat. “Thanks a lot Remus, but I’m not an infant, I don’t need a babysitter.”

-----

“So, are you ready for Transfiguration? I heard we’ll be transfiguring rabbits again. Why does she like them so much? Why not cats?” Lily efficiently tried to change the topic.

Harry looked at her in horror. “Transfiguring rabbits again? I thought that was over!”

“No, Severus told me, the Slytherins had to transfigure rabbits again, and then change the pink rabbits into green ones. Are you all right Harry?” Harry’s face had gone white. “Do you have problems with rabbits?”

Harry groaned. “Yes, I don’t know why, but I think I’m allergic to rabbits.”

“Are you sure?” James asked suspiciously.

“No, but after the stunt I did yesterday I don’t want to attract any attention today, so let’s go.”

20 minutes later Harry was sitting in the transfiguration classroom between Remus and Lily, looking at a brown button with his wand still in his pocket. He tried to imagine, ‘just one cute pink rabbit...’, and suddenly just one small rabbit was sitting in front of him.

“Nice wandless transfiguration,” Remus whispered from his right side.

“Oh please be quiet about it or I’ll kill you,” Harry whispered back. Now Harry imagined the rabbit to be green, and the small animal changed its colour.

“Very well done Ms. Evans and Mr. Pane as well,” Professor McGonagall commended. For the rest of the lesson Harry did all transfigurations wandlessly and didn’t encounter any more problems. He was very relieved when they left the classroom.

-----

After lunch, Severus came over to the Gryffindor table to wait for Harry. Together they went down to the dungeons.

“Harry, did Lily tell you what we talked about yesterday evening? We decided to go to Hogsmeade together.”

“You and Lily? Wow, that’s great. When is the next Hogsmeade weekend?” Harry asked, while he thought, ‘Oh no! Lily has to get together with James, doesn’t she?!’

“Me and Lily? No, YOU and me and Lily of course, and the next Hogsmeade weekend was announced at dinner yesterday and will be tomorrow. You will come with us, won’t you?”

“Yes I will, provided that McGonagall won’t punish me for anything today. Yesterday evening she threatened to suspend me from the next Hogsmeade visit because of my stunt yesterday.”

Severus chuckled. “You really would have earned it, but she didn’t, right?”

“No, but I’m suspended from Quidditch for a week,” Harry mumbled.

-----

After dinner, Harry spent two hours with Remus in the dormitory. When Harry took parchment and a quill out of his school bag, Remus said, “Harry, you know as well as I do that you have to lie down and rest. But if you don’t mind, I would like to talk to you.” Harry put everything away and looked curious at his friend.

“What about …?”

“About your problems with rabbits and wandless magic.”

Harry sighed. “All right; I have a problem. I cannot transfigure a button into just one rabbit. Once I got about fifty rabbits, the next time three. I don’t know why. The only thing I know is that I don’t want to attract attention on me. At my old school I was the focus of attention very often, and I really hated it. Today I didn’t really try, I didn’t even take my wand out, because I was afraid of the consequences, it was just by chance that I succeeded.”

“I don’t think it was by chance. When was your 16th birthday?”

“On July 31st.”

“And you were raised by Muggles?”

“Yes.”

“Then maybe you don’t know the following: When a wizard reaches the age of 16, his magic reaches a new level of development. Your magic seems to have become very strong when you became 16, and you are still not able to control it properly. When you use your wand and use the same amount of magic as you did before, the spell will get too strong, because your magic is very strong now. I think you should talk to McGonagall about it and ask her for a few extra lessons in order to get your huge amount of magic under control; otherwise it could become very dangerous for you and for others.”

Harry was shocked. “Thank you Remus” he stammered, “I didn’t know that. I have a meeting at 9 o’clock with McGonagall and Dumbledore, and then I will talk to them. But please do me a favour and don’t tell anybody about it, nor about the wandless magic.” So, there was hope the professors would be able to help him? He sighed relieved.

“Harry, I give you my word; I won’t tell anyone.”

“Okay, then I will use the remaining 90 minutes to work on my Animagus transformation if you don’t mind. I want to be able to finally have a phoenix head over my phoenix body.” He smirked.

Remus frowned. “I don’t mind, but the teachers would. But don’t worry, I won’t tell.”

After an hour of intensive practice, Harry finally succeeded and saw himself in the mirror as a beautiful white phoenix with pretty, green wings on both sides. He flew over to Remus and back to his bed.

“Wow Harry, that’s brilliant. You can’t imagine how I envy you.”

Harry beamed. He changed back and forth several times, until he could do it very quickly. He was just sitting on the windowsill in his phoenix form, watching the Quidditch practice outside, when suddenly the dormitory’s door opened and McGonagall entered.

“Mr. Pane, I came to accompany you to the Headmaster’s Office,” she said, and then her view fell onto Harry’s empty bed.

“Oh, Harry has just gone to the toilet,” Remus lied quickly.

She looked at him piercingly. “Then I will wait for him.”

Harry could only think ‘have to be at the toilet, go over to the toilet’, and in a flash of ice, the phoenix disappeared.

McGonagall looked over to the window. “What was that?”

“What?” Remus asked innocently.

“I don’t know, like a white flash,” she said and thought, ‘Am I imagining things? Maybe I’m going to be sick. Thank god it’s the weekend.’ Then she advised Remus, “Please tell Mr. Potter... no, Mr. Pane of course, to come to the Headmaster’s Office, when he returns. Thank you,” and left the room.

Harry arrived at the washroom without problems, quickly changed back to his human form and went out. On the stairs, he bumped into the professor.

“Sorry Professor, I just had to go to the toilet.”

“No problem. Go and put your robes on, then we will be on our way.” On their way to the Headmaster’s Office, they went by the Hospital Wing to get Harry’s nutrient Potion. Harry was so annoyed and angry that he thought about just flashing away but still didn’t want his secret to be discovered.

Once again, they learned from Fawkes about the Order of the Phoenix. Fawkes seemed to sense that Harry was able to understand him and was trying his best to make Harry laugh. ‘Maybe he can sense the phoenix in me,’ Harry thought and gave Fawkes a threatening glare.

After about an hour of lecture from Fawkes Dumbledore said, “That will do it for tonight. I have invited 10 people whom I know very well for Sunday evening. Harry, I’m very sorry, I would like to have you here as well, but as you know, I cannot admit students under age, and friends like the Potters would be very astonished if you were here and their son not.”

“I can understand that, and I don’t have a problem with it Professor.”

McGonagall smiled at Harry, “As you are our advisor in this matter, together with Fawkes, you can be sure that we will inform you about the happenings at the meeting as soon as possible. In fact, this should be on Monday, same time as today I suppose. I will come and get you again.”

‘And I will have a way to observe your meeting anyway,’ Harry thought and smirked.

-----

At 3 o’clock that night, Harry got up silently, changed into his phoenix form and flashed into Dumbledore’s office, where he sat next to Fawkes on his perch. Fawkes nearly fell off, so shocked about the sudden appearance of another phoenix. Harry talked to him for a while.

#Fawkes, can you hear me?#

#Hello Icicle. Yes of course I can. Who are you and what are you doing here?#

#Please Fawkes, can you promise me not to tell Albus?#

#I promise#

#I’m Harry.#

#I thought so. Good, very good. I have not seen an ice phoenix animagus since the big purple grumpy bearded one, except from Albus, but he is a fire phoenix! Congratulations!#

#Thank you. What I wanted to ask is, can I come on Sunday evening to watch the Order meeting?#

#Yes you can, I will introduce you as my friend Icicle, and you may come to all Order meetings. Just flash here as you did tonight.#

#So you are Fireflight or what?#

#Correct#

#Okay, I will flash back now, thanks Fireflight. Good night.#

#’night Icicle.#

Harry flashed back directly into his bed, but as soon as he changed back into his human form, he had a brilliant idea…

‘Why shouldn’t I try to fly for a while?’ he thought to himself. He changed back immediately and tried to view the Quidditch pitch in his head. With a white flash of ice, he was gone. The air of the icy November night felt warm to his thick feathers. Harry beamed. He flapped his wings and started to fly – around the Quidditch pitch and even over the Forbidden Forest – it was just brilliant. He enjoyed himself so much that he didn’t realize the time passing, and suddenly he noticed that it started to get light. By the time he flashed back to his bed, he had already missed breakfast, and his roommates had wondered where he had gone so early on a Saturday. Now he had a problem. He could not let the teachers see him before going to Hogsmeade; otherwise, he would be grounded for the day.

-----

Suddenly Remus stormed into the dormitory. When he saw Harry, he was very relieved and said, “Yes he is here.”

Lily came into view. “Here you are. Severus and I agreed to meet at the entrance door in twenty minutes. Are you coming?”

“No. I missed breakfast, so McGonagall & Co. cannot see me. So meet me near the Whomping Willow after you two meet, all right?”

“Okay Harry, be careful please. We’ll be waiting there.”

“No Lily, I’ll be already there, because I’m leaving now. Bye Remus, have a nice day. See you at Hogsmeade!”

James and Sirius stormed up the stairs. “Lily!” James shouted. “I was just looking for you. Will you come with us to Hogsmeade?”

“No James, I’m sorry. I am going with Severus and Harry today. Bye!”

“You are WHAT!” James sat down on his bed looking very frustrated.

“Harry, do you have any intentions with Lily?”

“James, I can assure you Lily is only a friend of mine and I’m not interested in her in any other way. I can swear you a wizard’s oath on that!”

“Really?” James looked challenging at Harry.

“Herewith I swear on my magic that I am not interested in Lily Evans as a girl friend. Is that enough? Okay, I’d better be going.” Harry transformed and was gone with his normal white flash of ice. James’ and Sirius’ eyes got bigger...

“Wow, he got it! Beautiful!”

“Fantastic!”

-----

When Lily and Severus reached the Whomping Willow, they saw a beautiful white phoenix sitting on a nearby rock.

“Look Severus! Over there! It’s Harry, he managed it!”

Harry changed back into his human form and Severus sternly said, “You are crazy. I can’t understand why you have to get yourself into trouble all the time.”

“Yes Professor Snape, sorry Professor Snape. I just can’t help it. Now, where are we going to go?” He smirked.

Lily laughed “Why not? I’m certain Severus would make a good Potions professor. Anyway, I would like to go to the bookstore. And maybe later have a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks?”

“Good idea, but I have to go to the apothecary as well; I need a few Potions ingredients.”

“I don’t need anything at all, but I’ll join you anyway, if you don’t mind. And butterbeer sounds nice.”

The three friends enjoyed their first Hogsmeade visit together very much. For lunch, they had a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, where they shared a big table together with James, Sirius and Remus. It was a very warm and sunny November day, but shortly after they left the Three Broomsticks, Harry noticed that the air was becoming colder and colder – an abnormal coldness he knew from somewhere. His scar had been buzzing for a while now, so it was not difficult to guess what was happening. He turned to his friends.

“I think it’s so cold because of Dementors. I didn’t know Voldemort had already managed to control them. I will change now and flash the two of you back to the school, just grab my tail feathers, and then I will return for the three of you. Wait just here. We have to hurry,” he said urgently and changed into Icicle. He flashed Lily and Severus back to the school, ordered them to immediately send Dumbledore to Hogsmeade and returned for Sirius, Remus and James; fortunately Peter was not with them that day, because he would have liked to just leave him to the Dementors; but when he arrived at Hogsmeade, the Dementors had already arrived at Hogsmeade.

He shooed the Marauders out of the way and went to stand in front of them, thought about how happy his life was now and shouted “Expecto Patronum”. A strong, white ice phoenix Patronus appeared and chased off the Dementors. Harry was very astonished, even a little shocked. Why was his Patronus suddenly a phoenix although it had been a stag for nearly three years? By then Fawkes had flashed Dumbledore to Hogsmeade, and he conjured his phoenix Patronus as well. The Dementors were still nearby, one of them just trying to attack a small child, so Harry summoned all his powers to conjure one more Patronus to chase them away completely, before he collapsed.

-----

The Marauders were stunned. Dumbledore came over to Harry. “Very well done my boy. Thank you!”

Harry smiled tiredly, “no Professor, thanks for coming to help!”

Many people came running to thank Dumbledore and Harry, but James and Sirius saved them from the crowd.

The Professor looked at Harry. “I will let Fawkes take you and the others back to the Hospital Wing, you all have to recover from the effects of the Dementors.”

With that, Harry was wide-awake and contradicted vehemently “No Professor! We will not go there! At least I WILL NOT! We will go to Honeydukes immediately and buy lots of chocolate to eat now; afterwards we will be fine.”

The Marauders nodded in agreement. The four boys went over to Honeydukes and bought four huge pieces of chocolate which they ate on their way back to Hogwarts. Again, they had to talk to several residents of Hogsmeade as well as other students, who had watched the scene at Hogsmeade.

“Do you know about the hidden passage, which leads from the cellar of Honeydukes to Hogwarts?” Harry could not help asking on their way back, and the Marauders’ eyes grew bigger.

James looked piercingly at Harry. “What is this Harry? You have been at Hogwarts just two months; we have been here for five years, and we still need you to teach us about hidden passages? How do you know that?”

“Oh, I overheard two students talking about it and thought it might be interesting to try it out.”

“Of course,” said Sirius. “We have to try it out during the night. Harry, where does is start at Hogwarts?”

“On the third floor, there is a statue of a one-eyed witch. If I understood it correctly, you have to say ‘discendio’ to get down to the passage.”

-----

At dinner, the events of Hogsmeade were the topic of the day, much to Harry’s chagrin. He groaned inwardly and thought, ‘So much for not attracting attention!’

When Remus asked him, “Harry, I would like to learn how to do that. Could you perhaps teach me the Patronus charm?” Harry had to restrain himself from laughing too much.

Suddenly a big brown owl approached Harry. He hesitated to take it, because he knew there was no one who would send him a letter, but when James tried to take the parchment for him, the owl wouldn’t let him and Lily said, “It looks like a school owl. Probably it would be better to take it from her.”

Harry glared at her and took the attached parchment. The owl nipped from his pumpkin juice and flew away. The parchment read, “Mr. Pane, you have an appointment with Madam Pomfrey at 30 minutes before curfew tonight. If you miss it, you will be grounded until the end of the month. M. McGonagall”.

He groaned. ‘Why can’t they just leave me alone?’

Seeing the inquiring looks of his friends, he mouthed “later” and left the Great Hall for the Potions classroom without even a glance at the Head Table.

-----

Lily and Severus arrived after a few minutes. Severus looked at Harry and said, “Thank you Harry for bringing us back to the school safely.”

Harry smiled. “You’re welcome. But I don’t want to talk anymore about it please. Are we going to do Potions today, or do you want to practice with your Animagi?”

Severus shrugged “I don’t mind. Either of them will be fine.”

Lily beamed at them “I want to practice to become an owl. After seeing Harry as a phoenix I really can’t wait to manage the transformation as well.”

Harry nodded affirmatively and smirked. “I don’t want to do anything apart from watching you practicing anything. I’m a little worn out today. But let’s go to the Room of Requirement, it will be much more convenient for you. Let me flash you there, I don’t have much time tonight.” He showed them McGonagall’s letter.

Harry changed into his phoenix form and back and said, “Sorry, I don’t have the energy to flash all of us tonight, we’ll have to walk.”

Lily and Severus tried to transform each single part of their bodies, while Harry was sometimes flying around, sometimes just relaxing in his phoenix form. Lily managed the transfiguration apart from her head and was very proud. She was a white owl like Harry’s owl Hedwig.

Harry beamed. “Well done Lily, you will get it very shortly! And Severus, I think a snake is much more difficult than a bird, because it just consists of one torso and doesn’t have different limbs, so being able to change your legs is already a great success! Very good, but I have to head back now. Good night.”

“Harry wait, I’m coming with you. I will accompany you to Madam Pomfrey.”

“Thank you Lily. I really appreciate it.”

“Are you so afraid of her? What is it about now? About your missing breakfast this morning or what?” Harry sighed.

“Yes. She’s going to give me a nutrient Potion. But I’m afraid it’s more than that. You know this Patronus charm really requires a lot of magic. Mine is normally very strong, because I have a lot of magic available. But today I had to conjure two strong Patroni, and therefore my magical powers are quite depleted. And if she gets to know that, she won’t let me go tonight.”

“Poor Harry,” Severus sneered. “Okay, let’s go together. Maybe we can do something to distract her from you.”

-----

When they arrived at the Hospital Wing, McGonagall was waiting for them together with Pomfrey. Harry was on the verge of running away, but Severus restrained him and said sternly, “Do you want to get yourself in even more trouble?”

“That’s right Harry. Let’s go, otherwise you will be grounded for weeks,” Lily agreed immediately.

Harry sighed. “Why only did I have to become friends with prefects?”

Pomfrey looked at Harry disapprovingly. “I did not want to see you so soon again Mr. Pane. And I thought you had learnt your lesson during the last few days. Apart from that I heard you conjured two strong Patronus charms, and I cannot believe that you are well enough to run around the castle.”

“I went outside this morning and forgot the time; it was not intentional. And I am not running around the castle. I was only talking to my friends,” Harry said accusingly.

“Sit here and be quiet, so that I can check on you.” She waved her wand over Harry who looked so annoyed that his friends had a hard time not to laugh aloud.

McGonagall looked very annoyed but worried. “How is he Poppy? What does he need? Bed rest?”

“Yes, Minerva, I have to keep him here. He has used much too much magic; his powers are depleted.”

Harry became very angry. “NO! I will NOT stay here! I can rest as well in my own bed in the dormitory! Please, please, let me go!” he begged.

McGonagall sat in a chair next to Harry. “I am sorry Harry, but I have the impression that you are not able to look after yourself. So we will have to look after you at least until you show us that you are responsible enough towards yourself.”

Lily and Severus laughed. “It’s okay Harry, it’s near curfew anyway. We’ll return here in the morning before breakfast.” Harry smiled sadly at his friends, but he was too tired to fight any more. With a flick of Pomfrey’s wand he was dressed in hospital pyjamas, lay down and was asleep within seconds.

When Harry woke up at about lunchtime on Sunday, Lily and Severus were sitting next to his bed doing homework. ‘Just like Ron and Hermione’ he thought and was very happy. He mumbled, “Good morning Lily, Severus”.

“Harry! You’re awake. We thought you were going to sleep for the whole weekend,” Severus said teasingly.

“How do you feel Harry?” Lily asked.

“Fine. Did the dragon say I can go?” he asked hopefully.

Severus shook his head. “No, she didn’t say anything so far.” Lily handed him a newspaper. The headline of the Daily Prophet read

“Hogwarts professor and student save Hogsmeade from Dementors”

Underneath was a photo of Dumbledore’s and Harry’s two phoenix Patroni flying around. Harry groaned.

“At least they have not mentioned your name,” Severus tried to comfort him.

“Why? What’s wrong with the newspaper?” Lily asked.

“Harry has got too much attention in the past, and he hates it and enjoys his time here without much attention,” Severus explained.

McGonagall entered the room and saw that Harry was awake. “Good morning Harry. How are you?”

“Fine! May I leave now?”

“No. Madam Pomfrey had to go to Hogsmeade for the afternoon, but she said your friends may stay here if you wish, and you will probably be allowed to return to your dormitory just before curfew.”

“Professor! No! I am fine, and I have to go and do my homework.”

“Mr. Pane! If you are going to throw a temper tantrum again, I will give you a sleeping Potion! You don’t have to do your homework for tomorrow; I will alert your teachers accordingly. I will ask the house elves to bring lunch for the three of you now, and I will come by again later. If you need me, or if anyone comes looking for Poppy, I will be in my office.”

-----

They had just finished their lunch, when James, Sirius and Remus entered the Hospital Wing. Harry laughed. “Wow, now we can have a party here.”

Sirius said, “That’s a good idea. Maybe you could explain to all of us what you did to the Dementors yesterday, and maybe could try to teach us as all of us are here?” Harry sighed.

“Why not. The Patronus charm is a strong charm of the light side, and it’s the only thing that works against Dementors. When I learned to do it, we used a Boggart to practice, but as we don’t have one here, we can just practice the Patronus as it is. Okay, do you all want to participate? Severus and Lily as well? I would recommend it, because it is very useful and has already helped me several times.”

“Yes” both Severus and Lily replied.

“All right. So take your wand out, try to think of a very good memory and say ‘Expecto Patronum’.”

“What kind of memory?” James asked.

“Anything, it just has to be very good and strong. The first time I thought about my first ride on a broom, but it wasn’t strong enough and didn’t work. Then I tried to imagine my parents cuddling with me during the time before they were murdered, although I didn’t know if that memory was real or just a dream, and it worked. Yesterday I tried to imagine how happy I am here and how good friends you all are, and as you have seen, it worked. So go on and try.”

After one hour of extensive practice, everyone could get some white mist out of their wands. Just before dinnertime, after a few breaks and several more hours of practice only Severus and Sirius could produce a corporeal Patronus. Severus’ was a snake, and Sirius’ a dog. If you knew what James’ Patronus was going to become, with a little fantasy you could guess it from the white mist he produced, but… When McGonagall came in and saw what they were doing, she was very angry about this place not being a classroom and shooed everyone out.

“Alright we will have to practise some more. The best would be next Saturday afternoon. We can use the Room of Requirement. Maybe by then we can find a Boggart to practise with,” Harry managed to say to his friends before they left the room.

McGonagall peered angrily at Harry but asked curiously, “Mr. Pane, what is the Room of Requirement?”

Harry explained it to her and offered to take her to the room, but she said

“Not today Harry, but maybe tomorrow evening. I’m curious to know if Albus knows about the room.”

Harry thought for a moment. “Probably not. In my fifth year, we had a really bad Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, so I founded my own defence group, called Dumbledore’s army, and we always met there. When you and Dumbledore got to know about the group, I showed the room to you. Both of you didn’t know about it before.”

“Which year’s students did you teach, and what did you teach them?”

“Everything I thought useful, like for example, the Patronus charm or Blocking spells, and the students came from all years. All fifth year students of my group got an O in their Defence Against the Dark Arts OWLs.” Professor McGonagall was impressed.

“Anyway I have to leave for the Order meeting. Please stay here until Madam Pomfrey sends you back. I will meet you tomorrow at breakfast. Good night Harry.”

When the teacher was gone, Harry began to think intensely. Should he flash over to Fawkes in order to attend the order meeting? He would really love to, but what if Madam Pomfrey returned while he was away? However, he dismissed this thought, summoned his magic, and transformed into Icicle.

However, the instant he was going to flash away, he heard a sound from Pomfrey’s office and immediately transformed back into his human form. Now he couldn’t leave to attend the Order meeting, much to his chagrin, so he just closed his eyes and slept through until breakfast the next morning.

During Quidditch practise in the evening he used the two hours he had to spend in the dormitory with Remus in order to teach Remus the Patronus charm, and by the time McGonagall came to get Harry for their talk with Dumbledore, he was able to do his wolf Patronus. Needless to say McGonagall was not very pleased to be greeted by two Patroni, a wolf and a phoenix, when she entered the room.

The Gargoyle in front of the Headmaster’s office was back to sweets and opened on ‘Gummibears’.

“Hello my dear boy, how are you on this fine evening?”

“Fine, Professor, how was your Order meeting?”

“Ah, I think it was a full success, don’t you think so Minerva?”

“Yes, Albus, I think so, but maybe we should just show your memories in the Pensieve, before talking about details?”

“That we shall do my dear.”z88;The Pensieve was already waiting on the table, and Harry reluctantly entered after the two professors. He found himself in a circle of about twenty persons, again in the office he had just left. Most of the people seemed well known to him, only they were much younger than he remembered them or – as in the case of the Potters – were parents of people he associated with the Order. ‘Awe, these are my grandparents. Maybe I will get a chance to know them’ he thought smilingly. The Weasleys were accompanied by two infants. ‘How cute Bill and Charlie are. I have to tell them when I’m back’. It was great fun to watch the people he knew so well in the future interacting here in this time.

Harry also had much to laugh about Fawkes’ antics. While each member of the new Order of the Phoenix was sworn on the Order, Fawkes sat on the shoulder of the new member and trilled a phoenix song, which sounded not only beautiful but also very calming to Harry’s ears. Each of the members received a necklace with a phoenix pendant, which was supposed to warm up to alert the owner, whenever Dumbledore needed the Order to convene immediately. He only had to grip his own pendant and whisper ‘phoenix emergency’. Harry thought it was actually a good idea. Dumbledore very carefully explained about Harry and his connection to Voldemort without revealing the fact that he came from the future. The members were very pleased to hear that they had been able to save so many lives at Diagon Alley the other day, just because of a vision of a student who seemed to be clearly on their own side. After about an hour, they were back to reality.

“Now, what do you think Harry?” Dumbledore asked eagerly.

Harry thought for a moment. He couldn’t tell the professors that he was mainly in awe over how cute and young the people he knew so well were. “I cannot tell you much about the issues discussed at Order meetings, because I just haven’t attended one. I know that you had been thinking about letting me into the Order, but you couldn’t because of the protests of Professor McGonagall and Molly Weasley, who were always very protective of me and seemed to think I should rather try to lead a normal students’ life.”

“All right Harry, if you think about anything else, you can tell us later. Now, curfew has already passed…”

-----

“Sorry, Professor,” Harry interrupted him. “There is something I would like to discuss with the two of you. It has nothing to do with Voldemort or the Order, but I have a personal problem.”

McGonagall looked enquiringly at Harry. “Of course Harry, what is wrong?”

“Um…” He explained the story of the pink rabbits and his getting sick with panic every time he had to transfigure something in their class and told them about Remus’ possible explanation, which sounded very reasonable. He also told them about his unwanted manifestation of wandless magic. When he finished, Harry sighed and sat back in his seat, watching his shoes.

Professor McGonagall spoke up at first. “I think Mr. Lupin is right. You have to get your magical power under control. If you don’t mind, I will teach you two or three times a week. Come to my office after classes tomorrow afternoon, and we will compare our time tables to make a suitable plan.”

Harry looked very relieved. “Thank you very much Professor!”

Dumbledore laughed. “Now, we can’t have you miss all Transfiguration classes because you are afraid of transfiguring rabbits, can we? I will teach you myself about the wandless magic. Wandless magic is a very rare gift, and I am the only one at this school who is capable of it to a certain extent. We shall meet here every Saturday and Sunday evening after dinner. Does this match your plan?”

“Yes it does, Professor. Thank you very much!”

Dumbledore looked very pensive. “I would like to ask you one question Harry. When you conjured your Patronus at Hogsmeade, it took the form of a phoenix. Do you know why it took the form of a phoenix? As you probably know every wizard has a different form of Patronus, mostly it is an animal with some connection to the wizard.”

Harry sighed and shook his head. He didn’t yet want to reveal his secret. “No Professor.”

-----

Dumbledore looked questioningly at Minerva, who nodded smilingly. Then he started to speak again. “All right. Now Harry, we would like to tell you something, but we do not want it to be revealed to anyone in this time – maybe in the future it will be okay, but that we can decide when we meet again in the future. Would you be willing to swear a wizard’s oath to us that you refrain from telling our secret to anyone in this time?” Harry glanced astonished at the two teachers.

“Yes of course Professor.” He took his wand out and said, “I herewith swear a wizard’s oath to not reveal your secret to anyone by any means until at least one of you tells me it’s all right to reveal it.” He put his wand away and asked,

“Will this be okay Professors?” They laughed.

“Harry, you will understand why it is so important not to tell anybody, when I tell you that your mother doesn’t know about it although it concerns her as much as it concerns you.”

Harry raised an eyebrow. ‘What could that be?’ he thought.

Dumbledore continued, “Harry, the power of wandless magic as well as a certain affinity to phoenixes are a speciality of the family of Merlin. Merlin had a phoenix familiar,” he looked over to where Fawkes was sitting and Harry interrupted him.

“That was Fawkes, wasn’t it?”

“Yes Harry, exactly. And Merlin was also the only known animagus who was able to transform into a phoenix before myself, although I’m a fire phoenix and Merlin was an ice phoenix. Now, the Dumbledore’s are descendants of Merlin, which explains why I possess some of the qualities Merlin is famous for. But it is not only me who is a direct relative to Merlin; you are one as well my dear boy.”

Harry nearly fell from his chair. “But how…” he stammered. Both professors smiled at him.

“From your reaction I would like to believe that I have never told you about the relationship between us, is that correct?”

“But Professor, I don’t understand. You have always told me my mom’s sister Petunia was my only living relative, that’s why I had to live with her even if it was living hell for me. Are you related to me as well?” He was getting a little upset.

“Stay calm Harry, Albus had his reasons for that, although I have probably never liked it,” Minerva said calmingly.

Harry’s face showed a questioning expression.

“Harry, when was it that you vanquished Voldemort?”

“Um… just a week before I came here.”

“And this week you spent in the Hospital Wing, didn’t you?”

“Yes” Harry answered solemnly. “I came here on my first day of classes after that.”

“So you see. We didn’t have any chance to speak to you really privately after Voldemort was gone. That was the reason we have never told you anything about our relationship. Do you know about the relationship between Minerva and me?”

“No Professor, not really. I have always imagined you behave like a couple, married for a long time.” Harry blushed.

“Correct Harry. Minerva is my wife. However, hardly anybody knows about it and we would like it to stay like this at least until Voldemort is gone forever. But about our relationship to you… the mother of Lily and Petunia is our child!”

Harry jumped from his seat. “WHAT! But I thought Lily was muggleborn.”

“No Harry, she is a Dumbledore as are you, but our daughter is a squib. And she hates everything that has to do with magic. She grew up here with us of course until she was 11, then she went to a Muggle boarding school, and when she became 18 she cut off all contact to us, so that Lily and Petunia don’t even know that we are their grandparents.”

Harry was stunned. “So you are my Great Grandparents. Cool. Is that really true?” He looked at the Professors questioningly.

“Of course Harry, do you think Albus would make jokes like this?” Minerva asked back smiling.

“No, of course not…Ahem… Uh… Granny. Cool. I still cannot believe it however. It will probably take some time to get used to it. Anyway thank you very much for telling me!”

“The main reason for us telling you this now is the fact that you are stuck here for we don’t know how long and you have no other living relative here who can know and nobody else to care for you. That is why we wanted you to know your relationship to us. Another reason is the manifestation of your power. Lily has so far not shown any special power; her magic is not weak but it is more or less normal; in contrast to this, your magic is VERY powerful, you also have special powers, which are the real Merlin powers. At some time in the future, when Voldemort and I have gone, you will probably be the most powerful wizard in the world; therefore it is very important that you learn to control your powers.”

McGonagall interrupted him. “Sorry Albus, but it is already after midnight, and Harry has to go to bed.”

-----

“No, wait please Professors. After you have told me so much, I think I have to confess something.”

His Great Grandparents glanced curiously at Harry.

“Please don’t tell anyone. And please be angry at anyone, okay?”

The teachers very reluctantly agreed.

“You see, because Remus is a werewolf, Sirius, James and Peter learned to become Animagi in order to spend the nights of the full moon together with Remus. James is a stag, Sirius a black dog and Peter a rat. Anyway, I have asked James and Sirius to teach me, and they helped me to become an animagus as well. At the same time I am teaching Lily and Severus to do the same.”

McGonagall glared at Harry very angrily. “Do you know how dangerous that is? You could have died trying!”

“But nothing happened. And I always tried only in the dormitory every evening, when James, Sirius and Remus were with me; only the last time I only practised with Remus. If something happened, one of us would have fetched you immediately. And Lily and Severus only practise together with me, so that I can get help if needed.”

McGonagall was not convinced yet. “And can you show us your form then? Have you already managed completely? In such a short time?” she asked unbelievingly.

“Yes, sorry. And… um… I’manicephoenix.”

“Sorry Harry? Come again” Dumbledore inquired.

“My form is an ice phoenix” said Harry and changed into Icicle.

Fawkes greeted him happily, #hi Icicle.#

#Hello fireflight.#

#I’ve missed you at the Order meeting, why didn’t you come?#

#Sorry, I was stuck in the Hospital Wing, I couldn’t. But I will surely come the next time.#

“So you are already friends with Fawkes,” Dumbledore chuckled. Harry quickly changed back to his human form.

“Yes, I visited him very early on Saturday morning and introduced myself.”

Dumbledore smiled fondly at him. “Well done Harry, I’m very proud of you.”

“I’m too stunned but also impressed to say much about this, but you can believe me, that we will have a word about this tomorrow,” promised his Great Grandmother strictly. “Anyway, I will take you back to your dormitory now. And do not dare to sleep through breakfast!” Harry chuckled and thought, ‘Ah but that will be exactly what I’m going to do’.

-----

The next two weeks flew by for Harry with classes, homework, Potions tutoring, Quidditch practise, lessons with Professor McGonagall and wandless magic lessons with his Great Grandfather. Even if he was so busy, Harry was completely happy. The night of the full moon he spent outside with the Marauders as Icicle – it was great fun; Sirius even let him ride on his back once.

However, two nights later he just couldn’t sleep. So far, he had really tried not to change the future. But he spent all the time either being together with Lily and Severus, who had become his best friends, or one of them or with the Marauders. But Lily never spent time with the Marauders. How was she going to get together with James? Harry had even tried to invite her when he was together with them, but Lily had always declined. Had he managed to change the future so much that he, after all, would not even exist in the future? He worried and worried and got himself into a real panic attack. He nearly could not breathe. What was he going to do? He could speak to Severus or even to his Great Grandparents, but what could they do? In the meanwhile, it was 2 o’clock in the morning, and he decided to talk to Fawkes. He would still be awake, and maybe he would understand him and knew how to help him.

He changed into Icicle quickly, flashed over to Dumbledore’s Office and nearly fell from the perch. The Headmaster was still in his office, having tea with his wife.

#Hello Icicle# Fawkes trilled happily.

#Hello Fireflight, hello Headmaster, sorry to intrude at this time of the night,# Harry/Icicle replied.

“Harry, that is no problem. Have you come to talk to Fawkes or to me?” Dumbledore asked sternly but with this usual twinkle in the eyes.

#In fact I came to talk to Fawkes, but I would also appreciate talking to you. While I was in bed I was having a panic attack worrying about having changed the future without wanting to.#

“Then change back, and Minerva and I will see if we can help you.”

Harry flew down to the floor and quickly changed back into his human form.

“I’m really sorry Professors.”

“What’s wrong Harry?” McGonagall asked worriedly.

“I couldn’t sleep and began thinking about if I was already changing the future by being here. You know, I always spend time with Lily and Severus, and I think they have already come very close to one another. I think Lily fancies Severus, and they are really good for each other, but, you see, Lily has to get together with James, otherwise I will not be born at all.” He began to panic again; his breath was becoming heavy and he nearly couldn’t breathe at all.

“Here Harry, drink this.” Dumbledore handed him a phial with a light pink Potion. “It is a calming Potion.”

Harry drank the Potion and could breathe again. His Great Grandfather calmingly put a hand on his shoulder.

“Harry, I can understand very well what you are worrying about. And frankly speaking, Minerva and I have already worried about the same matter. That’s why I have contacted a seer I know very well, Mrs. Trelawney – I don’t know if you knew her in the future, anyway, she is very good, and I have spoken to her.”

Harry groaned and his Great Grandparents gave him an astonished view. “Sorry. Her daughter, granddaughter or whatever is teaching at Hogwarts at my time, but she is a flop and cannot really see a lot. And she has been predicting my death every lesson. You,” he looked at McGonagall, “have even warned me about her before my first lesson with her.”

“All right Harry, but this time’s Trelawney is very famous and is said to be really good. Anyway, I spoke to her about you and asked her about the future. And she told me, you would change the future VERY much, but you would survive and after some difficulties while adapting in the future, with which we would be able to help you, you will ultimately be very happy.”

McGonagall smiled fondly at Harry “You see, you have nothing to worry about. I really don’t believe in predictions…”

Harry chuckled, thinking about his Head of House had behaved in the future when it came to Divination.

“…but Trelawney’s predictions are said to be true” she continued.

“Okay Grandmother, Grandfather, thank you very much and once again sorry for disturbing you in the middle of the night. Good night.”

“You’re always welcome Harry, and DO NOT miss breakfast tomorrow, otherwise you will be grounded for the Quidditch game.”

“Don’t tell me you want Gryffindor to lose against Slytherin, because I wouldn’t believe you, and as you know, my punishment for missing breakfast has already be defined in advance some weeks ago,” Harry laughed, changed back into Icicle and apologized to Fawkes for not talking to him, and in a flash of ice he was gone.

“Very impressive” was McGonagall’s comment.

-----

The next day went by in a blur, and soon it was time for the big Quidditch game Gryffindor against Slytherin. Harry was looking forward to it very much, although he didn’t like the fact that he had to play against his best friend Severus. Fortunately, it was a bright, sunny day and considering that it was the last Saturday in November, it was still quite warm – the ideal conditions for a Quidditch game.

Harry managed a few times to bluff with his Wronski bluff, so that the Slytherin Seeker, who was following him most of the time, nearly crashed into the ground. The Slytherin beaters were playing very hard, and Harry often had to escape because they were aiming at him with their Bludgers. After twenty minutes, he spotted the snitch for the first time but had to evade a Bludger again, and after that it had vanished from sight. Now, after nearly two hours of playing he spotted it again near the goal on the Slytherin side. He dove to just a few meters over the ground, always with the Slytherin Seeker shortly behind him, then shot upwards and aimed for the small golden ball.

The moment he caught the snitch, a Blugder hit him straight in the head, so that he lost his balance and fell of his broom, one hand safely gripping the snitch. As Harry fell, there was a large gasp, and everyone looked at Harry in shock. James and Severus were the first to reach Harry; they were too late to stop him falling but were able to partly break his fall, ensuring he didn’t hit the ground with full force.

-----

The next thing Harry knew was pain. He blinked and looked around. ‘Oh no! In the Hospital Wing AGAIN!’ He groaned. Everything hurt.

“Oh look, he’s waking up” he could hear the excited voice of Sirius.

“Oi, Harry, good you’re still alive” James said solemnly.

The whole Gryffindor team seemed to be there. Harry turned to James and gave the snitch to him, which had still been gripped in his hand. James looked at it and couldn’t believe it.

“He caught it! Why has nobody seen that? They are continuing the match outside with our reserve team – but they don’t even have a Snitch anymore, that’s hilarious. I’ve to go to Madam Hooch immediately!” He showed the snitch to the others and ran away.

Harry’s eyes fell to Lily. She asked, “Are you in a lot of pain?”

“Yes, my head hurts very much,” he mumbled and closed his eyes.

“No, Harry, stay awake please, until Madam Pomfrey can check on you. Don’t go to sleep,” he could hear Severus’ voice, but he was so tired.

Pomfrey came and shooed everyone except from Lily and Severus out of the Hospital Wing. “Mr. Pane, you have a concussion and a few broken ribs this time. You’ll have to stay here for a few days, and I don’t want to hear any complaints about it. It’s not my fault; I didn’t want to see you here in the first place.” She gave Harry a few Potions, and Harry fell asleep again.

Lily and Severus spent the whole weekend with Harry, and his Great Grandparents also came to visit him, late in the night when no one would notice.

Pomfrey used the opportunity to speak with the Headmaster and his wife. “Professors, I’ve noticed something about Harry. His body shows many traces of old bruises and welts, even a few scars on his back. I’m afraid he must have been abused before in the past, and he was obviously malnourished. I’ve also found out that his immune system shows a certain amount of damage, probably resulting from neglecting to treat illnesses in the past. This last one is also the reason for him spending so much time here, because his body is subjected to more injuries than normal and not able to heal as fast as it should be.”

Both teachers’ faces had taken on an appalled look. Dumbledore was the first to find words. “What can I have thought to place him with the Dursleys? Why didn’t we raise him ourselves?”

“That’s a question only Harry can answer. We have to speak to him about this, but we should wait until he is out of the Hospital Wing. Relax Albus, Harry is not in immediate danger,” his wife said calmingly.

-----

Two days later, it was on the 1st of December, when Harry woke up with Severus sitting in the chair next to his bed reading a parchment. Harry reached for his glasses and put them on, only to see that Severus was in fact reading a letter and that he was crying silently. Harry was shocked.

“Severus! What’s wrong?”

Severus cried even more, and Harry was shocked even more. He had never seen Severus crying.

“If I tell you, you won’t like me anymore. You won’t be my friend anymore,” Severus hissed.

Harry sneered, “You know that I know a lot about you. There is nothing you have to hide. Let me guess, all right?”

Severus calmed down a little and nodded.

“Is it from your father?”

Severus glanced astonished at Harry and gave him a short nod.

“Does he want you to take the Dark Mark?”

Severus sighed. “He wants me to come home for Christmas to take me to the Dark Lord in order to get marked,” he said solemnly.

“All right Severus, it’s okay, we will manage that. You don’t want to take the mark, right?”

“Of course not, but you don’t know my father, he will kill me!”

“Okay, Severus, we have two possibilities. One is just not to go home but stay here and not to take the Dark Mark. I know Dumbledore will protect you, and so will I. The other one is to take the mark and to work for Dumbledore as a spy – that is what you did in the future so far. What we have to do is to talk to Dumbledore. Let’s go immediately.”

“You can’t go anywhere Harry!”

“Oh, not that again. There are more important things to discuss now. The dragon is not in sight, is she?”

“No, but she told me you have still a concussion and will have to stay in bed for a few more days. So the only way to talk to Dumbledore is to get him here.”

“Then get him, or get the dragon and I will ask her to get him if you prefer that!” He didn’t have to consider because just at this moment Madam Pomfrey came over to feed Harry some Potions. “Madam Pomfrey, could you please call Professor Dumbledore for us? We have to speak to him, and it is really very urgent,” Harry immediately asked.

“I will do that, Harry, as soon as you have taken these Potions,” the stern reply was.

-----

It only took 5 minutes for Dumbledore to arrive at the Hospital Wing. He rushed over to Harry’s bedside and asked, “What is wrong Harry?”

Harry immediately cast the strongest silencing spell he could and told him the story. “You see, in my time, he acted as a Death Eater for a few years, before he came to you and was given the possibility to work as a spy. But this time he talked about it before taking the mark, so I think we have a choice; either to take the mark and do the spying, or not to take the mark and hide from his father. What do you think?” Dumbledore’s face grew very serious.

“Severus, my boy, I think Harry is right. We have two choices. Both are possible. I will protect you in any case, as well as from Voldemort as well as from your father if necessary, and so will Harry; I am sure. You have to think about which one you would prefer. How about you consider it for a day, and we will meet here again for a talk tomorrow after your classes? Maybe you let Harry tell you a few things he knows about your work as a spy; it could help you with your decision.”

Severus sighed but seemed to have calmed a little. “Thank you very much, Professor, Harry, I really appreciate your help. I feel as if the two of you were my family; you care much more about me than anyone ever has. Thank you!”

“You’re very welcome Severus. I could say the same to both of you as well.” Harry replied seriously.

“You both are like Grandsons to me anyway, my dear boys. So I will see you here again tomorrow.”

“No, please, wait. I want to leave here. Can’t you do something for me? Tell the dragon to let me go, because I’m really fine now, and I want to go back to my classes,” Harry tried to beg his Great Grandfather.

Dumbledore laughed. “I know you would like that, but I also know how protective Minerva and Poppy are of you, and that they would have my head if I tried to get you out of here even two hours earlier than Poppy deems you fit. Therefore, I’m very sorry but you will have to wait. Apart from that, Poppy is keeping me up to date on your condition daily, and therefore I know that you are still not fine at all. Look, I leave some lemon drops here for you!” Harry groaned.

-----

Very early in the next morning Lily came to see him alone. “Oh Harry, good that you’re awake. I tried to see you several times yesterday, but you were always asleep. I have to talk to you.”

Harry laughed and said, “What is the problem? You can just wake me up. As I’m not allowed to do any school work, I don’t do anything else but sleep for the whole day. What’s wrong?”

“Pomfrey didn’t allow me to wake you up. Something is wrong with Severus I think. Yesterday he got a letter at breakfast, and later I saw him around with red eyes as if he had cried. And he came to me at dinner and asked me to postpone our Potion tutoring until Thursday. He has never done that before even when you were in the Hospital Wing before.”

Harry sighed. How well Lily was watching Severus… “Yes Lily, you’re right. Severus has a problem with his father. He has talked to me about it, and we have both talked to Dumbledore. He is going to help us. I cannot tell you now because it is not my secret, and he probably won’t either, at least not at the moment, because he is very upset about it, but please rely on me and believe me that he will be fine, and that it has nothing to do with you. I’m sure he will tell you when he is ready.”

Severus came and spent lunchtime with Harry to discuss certain spying activities. “So, Harry, could you please tell me whatever you know about these spying activities?”

“Of course Severus.” They talked until Madam Pomfrey came and told Severus he had to run to be in time for his afternoon classes.

-----

When Harry woke up the next time, his Great Grandfather and Severus were sitting next to his bed, engaged in a lively discussion. Harry sat up and jumped into the conversation. “I’ve thought about something. If Severus decides to do the spying, he will have to learn Occlumency before he goes to see Voldemort for the first time. That’s absolutely necessary!”

“Oh, hello Harry. I didn’t notice that you were awake,” Severus said.

“How are you Harry?” Dumbledore asked.

Harry shrugged. ‘Don’t ask me if you don’t believe me anyway,’ he thought, but didn’t voice this and only said, “Fine, of course Sir. Severus, you know what Occlumency is, don’t you?”

“I know what it is but I’m not able to do it. I’ll have to learn.”

“I can try to help you. You actually taught me Occlumency during my 5th year and Leglimency during the summer holidays just last summer, but it was horrible and I’m not very good at it. But we will try if you decide to do the spy thing.”

“That would be good Harry. But as it is only a little more than two weeks until the holidays start, I think you should start to teach Severus immediately, starting tonight, without waiting for his decision whether to take the mark or not.”

“That sounds very reasonable, Professor. Would you be willing to do it Harry? And are you able to do it in your condition?”

Harry glared at him. “Of course, no problem. So let’s do it every evening after dinner. This week is perfect, as I don’t have Quidditch practice or any lessons in the evenings.”

Severus laughed. “Don’t worry, you won’t have any Quidditch practice next week either, and Potions tutoring can wait as well I think.”

“No Quidditch practice? Why not?”

Dumbledore smiled. “Can you imagine Poppy is going to let you play Quidditch so soon after what happened on Saturday? She told me you are grounded for at least a month.” Harry’s face fell in disappointment. It hadn’t been his fault that he had been hit by a Bludger now, had it?

Dumbledore stood. “All right, Severus, you will train with Harry every evening, and I will teach you additionally on Sunday morning after breakfast. And you still have two weeks to decide what you are going to do. Harry, Minerva and I will come to see you after curfew. Behave yourself,” he said and chuckled.

-----

“All right Severus. Let’s start right now. Are you ready?” Severus nodded. “In that case, try to clear your mind of everything. I always think of ice and water. I have an image in my mind of water flowing over an icy landscape, and I put this image in front of everything else and just try to lock it there, so that nobody can remove it to look behind it. Now try and tell me when you are ready so that I can try Leglimency on you.”

After a few minutes, Severus gave him a short nod to show he was ready. Harry took his wand, pointed it at Severus and thought ‘Leglimens’. A lot of pictures passed in front of his eyes; Severus and him talking and laughing, Severus and Lily during their Animagi studies, Severus as a small boy being pulled by the ear by a man who had to be his father, Severus as a small boy again, being shouted at by his mother for making a Potion. Suddenly the pictures stopped, and Harry got a glance at a golden cauldron with a Potion bubbling in it. He then stopped the connection and let himself fall back into his cushions.

“Severus, that was very good! You managed to stop me from getting behind this picture, a nice picture by the way. For the first time it was incredibly good,” he beamed.

“Thank you Harry, but I’ve let you see a lot of memories. That was not good at all.”

“No, Severus, for the first time it was excellent. You are very talented I think. No wonder Dumbledore had asked you to teach me last year. It took me months to get so far. Are you ready to try again?” Severus nodded affirmatively. Harry tried once more “Leglimens”. Again he was shown several pictures, this time all of them of Severus’ childhood, before he came to the golden cauldron and had to end the connection.

“Very good again. Once more. You can’t let me see any memories.”

“Wait Harry. This is very tiring.”

“I know. But if you think my pace is fast, then maybe I should show you a few of my memories how Occlumency lessons could be…” He smirked. “Leglimens.” They tried a few times more, but it was always the same. Finally, they had to stop, because Madam Pomfrey came and brought dinner for them.

-----

On the next day, they practised again after dinner. Severus was getting better. Harry was still able to watch two or three memories each time, before getting to the cauldron. They practised until Dumbledore joined them to see how they were getting along. Harry did not feel well. The Occlumency lesson had been very tiring even for him, and he couldn’t help feeling sick.

“Harry, are you alright?” Dumbledore and Severus asked simultaneously.

“No, I’m going to be sick,” he mumbled and got sick all over himself.

“Scourgify,” mumbled Dumbledore and went to get Poppy. She came over immediately and asked,

“Headmaster, what are you doing to my patients?”

Severus gave her a glare. “The Headmaster didn’t do anything; Harry and I were practising Occlumency, Mam.”

“And who gave you permission to study here? Harry was supposed to recover and not to get worse!”

“I’m sorry Poppy, it was just that Severus has to learn it very urgently, and Harry was the only one to be able to teach him. I did not want him to get worse of course,” Dumbledore said trying to calm the infuriated matron.

“Anyway, both of you will leave the Hospital Wing NOW. OUT. And don’t even try to come back tonight,” she shouted and fussed over Harry.

-----

After curfew, Minerva came alone to see Harry, and fortunately Pomfrey had just left the room for a few minutes. “Hello Harry, how are you?”

“Hi… Granny. Fine. How did you get around the dragon?” he smiled, although his smile didn’t really reach his eyes.

“I believe that immediately,” his Great Grandmother snorted. “May I ask you about the Occlumency lessons?”

“Of course. Severus is very talented I think. Yesterday I always got to see about five or six memories, and then he managed to show me a cauldron, which I couldn’t get behind. Today I could only see about two memories before it ended with the cauldron. After one or two more practise sessions he will be alright I think. But Grandfather has to train him as well, because he is much better than me, and Voldemort is VERY good at Leglimency!”

At this moment, Pomfrey came back and frowned. “What are you doing here Minerva? Harry is ill and needs his rest.”

“Yes, I know that and I’m not doing anything except talking to him as long as he is fine with that. By the way what is wrong with him?”

“He overdid himself practising Leglimency on Severus for quite a time it seems. He has thrown up four or five times, has a fever, and his concussion has gotten worse again. I am not pleased with either the headmaster or Severus and Harry. I was going to release him tomorrow evening, but now he has earned himself at least two more days in this bed. You have five minutes to talk, afterwards please pour this Dreamless sleep Potion into him and let him sleep Min.”

“All right Poppy, good night.”

“Um… Grandmother, I have thought about something.” McGonagall looked inquiringly. “In fact, I would like to have Grandfather here as well, but he won’t come, will he? After the dragon shooed him out and told him not to think about coming back today?”

“He had the intention of listening to Poppy, but when you need to speak to him too, I can go and get him.”

“No. You can tell him then. And maybe he can come see me tomorrow morning. You know how I killed Voldemort, don’t you.”

“Yes Harry, you’ve told us.”

“All right. So, what I thought is… I could do the same thing now. I have to try to establish the link from my side, because Tom still doesn’t know about the connection, but that should be no problem. If I vanquished him now, Severus wouldn’t have this difficult decision to make, and a lot of lives would be saved, for example the lives of my parents. I’m coming to the point where I have stopped caring if I’m changing the future or not. Can you understand that? Anyway, I think I would like to try to kill him now.”

“Do you think you could do that any time?”

“Yes I think so. I could not do it today, because I’m sick. I really need all the powers and all magic I have. Therefore, I would have to wait a few days. On the other hand, I should do it here, because I’ll end up here later anyway.”

Minerva laughed. “Harry, I don’t know what to say about that. On the one hand, of course I would appreciate it very much. I mean who wouldn’t? On the other hand I’m afraid that something will happen to you.”

“I can understand that. Therefore, I would ask Grandfather to stay here with me. He is very good at Leglimency, and if I encountered any real problems, he could use Leglimency on me and help me. He also could just try to wake me up. Or our dear dragon could as well. But the last time I was able to do it, so why shouldn’t I be able to do it now.”

“Harry we will discuss this tomorrow with your Grandfather. You have to go to sleep now.” She put a hand on his forehead. “Poppy is right. You are burning up. Try to rest and think… the earlier you get well the earlier you can have a go at it… in case Albus agrees with it of course. Good night my boy.” She let Harry drink the Dreamless Sleep Potion, gave him a kiss on the forehead and only had to wait a minute until Harry was fast asleep.

Harry was finally released from the Hospital Wing on Sunday evening just before curfew. He had agreed with his Great Grandparents that it would be good to try to finish Voldemort off in the same way as he had done it before. That only left the question for the timing. They had also consulted with Poppy, who had advised them to wait at least a full week, which meant afterwards there would still be a week until the start of the holidays. Severus had decided to choose the spying option, mainly because in Harry’s future he had already done so. But now, of course, he hoped that Harry could prevent everything by finishing the Dark Lord off.

-----

The Marauders cheered when he returned to the dormitory. They had not seen him after the Quidditch game, as only Severus and Lily had been allowed to visit him.

“So, Harry, did the dragon finally let you go,” Sirius beamed.

“Yes, fortunately. I can’t even think about how much I missed and how much homework I’ll have to do in the coming two weeks. And we also have tests during the last week before the holidays, don’t we?”

“Yes Harry, there will be the mid-term tests, but I don’t think any teacher will ask you for homework from last week. McGonagall told me that all teachers have orders from Pomfrey to spare you from everything strenuous during the two weeks until the holidays.”

Harry raised an eyebrow and shook his head, very annoyed. “All right,” he said, however. “By the way, did we actually win that crazy Quidditch game last weekend?”

“Ah but yes of course we won!” James and Sirius cheered.

“That’s good. Then it was worth it,” Harry said and climbed into his bed.

“Good night, everyone.” He lay down and let out a tired yawn.

“NOOOOOOOOO” Sirius and James suddenly shouted, “don’t even think about it!”

“What?” Harry asked and had to laugh about his friends’ indignant faces.

Remus came over to his bed. “You know Harry, when we won the Quidditch match, you were in such a bad condition that no one felt like having a party. So we decided to make up for it the evening you returned. That’s why your presence is requested in the common room as soon as curfew starts in two minutes.”

“You mean we’re having a Quidditch victory party NOW?” Harry couldn’t believe it. “Cool!”

-----

When they descended the stairs to the common room, the whole room was decorated nicely and a big banner was put up on the wall

‘Gryffindor 350 - Slytherin 70’

Tears were building up in Harry’s eyes. It was too good to be real. He beamed with joy. “HARRY!” Lily ran over and embraced him fiercely. “I’m so glad to have you back.”

Harry smirked. “Believe me I’m even happier to have escaped from the dragon, especially after such a long time!”

Frank Longbottom, the head boy and Gryffindor 7th year raised a glass and spoke, “Dear Gryffindors, welcome to the Quidditch Slytherin demise party. Thanks to the Marauders and the Hogwarts house elves we are having butterbeer and many delicacies tonight. Cheers!”

James whispered in Harry’s ear, “We’ve tried out your secret passage to Hogsmeade! It works. That’s why we’re having butterbeer tonight!”

The party was joyous but quite loud. Harry was nearly asleep when the portrait hole opened and a very annoyed McGonagall entered the common room and began to shout “What do you think you are doing here? It is 2 o’clock in the morning!”

James and Lily went over to the angry professor immediately. “Sorry, Professor, but we had to celebrate our victory over Slytherin; you surely understand that, don’t you?” James said beaming at his teacher.

Lily tried to help him. “And Professor, we had to postpone our party until now, because Harry wasn’t here. You know that we normally wouldn’t do such a thing, but in this case it was necessary.”

“Now look, it’s not our fault that the hospital dragon did not release him earlier but on a Sunday evening just before curfew,” Sirius jumped into the conversation.

McGonagall had to try hard not to laugh. Of course, she appreciated her Grandchild and Great Grandson to be happy with their friends, but… “Allright. Don’t let it happen ever again! Go to bed immediately, and I tell you now, if only one of you misses so much as breakfast tomorrow morning, you will ALL end up in detention for the rest of the week! Good night.”

-----

The week passed by quickly. Harry had to do a lot to catch up for the tests that were due the next week. Most of the time, he could be found in the library studying together with Severus and sometimes also with Lily, although she seemed to prefer the Gryffindor common room for studying to the great pleasure of James. Fortunately, his Great Grandparents had suspended their private lessons with Harry until after Christmas, and as he was not allowed to do any more Occlumency lessons with Severus and was banned from Quidditch as well for the time being, he really had a lot of time to catch up.

Harry was very careful not to use large amounts of magic at one time, not only because his Grandmother reminded him to take it easy every time she had the opportunity to do so, but because he knew that he had to save all his powers for the big strike if he wanted to succeed.

Dumbledore had agreed with him to try the attack on Voldemort on Sunday morning. Harry was supposed to come to the Hospital Wing directly after breakfast, where Severus, Dumbledore and McGonagall would join him in order to help if necessary.

However, as the week passed by, Harry was getting restless and worried about how to finally get into Tom’s mind. On Friday evening, he summoned all his courage and tried to get his scar connection into life. It worked! He was inside of Tom’s head. Should he do it straight away? It was very tempting, but he decided against it. The matter was too important to do it improperly, and it was much too dangerous for himself to try alone in the dormitory. So he just exited Tom’s mind before being noticed and tried to sleep.

-----

For Saturday, the last Hogsmeade visit before Christmas was planned. Harry had agreed with Lily and Severus to meet after breakfast and go to the town together. After lunch at the Three Broomsticks, they would split up for an hour to buy each other’s Christmas presents. But as often happens it came differently as planned.

Harry and the Marauders had just entered the Great Hall for breakfast, their outdoor robes already with them, when McGonagall came over. “Mr. Pane, Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak to you after breakfast.”

“But Professor! I’m going to Hogsmeade with Lily and Severus!” he told the teacher, already being very annoyed.

“I’m sorry Harry, I suppose he doesn’t want you to leave the castle today, but I’m not sure. Maybe you can tell your friends that you will meet them for lunch, if you are allowed to go,” she suggested in a small voice, only for Harry to hear.

Very disappointed he made a bee-line for the Slytherin table and told Severus the story.

“Severus, please go with Lily alone. If the meddling coot lets me go, I will meet you at the Three Broomsticks for lunch, all right?” Harry whispered to his best friend.

Severus sighed. “He won’t let you go. He probably wants to make sure you will be well rested and prepared for tomorrow morning. Do you need anything from Hogsmeade I can bring for you?”

Harry sneered. “Yes please, Christmas presents for you, Lily, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Sirius, Remus, James and the dragon.”

Severus sneered “Of course. Take care of yourself Harry!”

Lily was as disappointed as the other two, maybe even more because she couldn’t understand the reason behind Dumbledore’s decision.

After accompanying his two friends to the gate, Harry went to Dumbledore’s office – the Gargoyle opened with ‘the power of love’ – and he entered. Dumbledore, McGonagall and Pomfrey were already waiting for him. Harry who had already been upset before, became really angry and hissed,

“What is it? Am I only to do the dirty work now? May I not have a little bit of fun like all other students?”

Dumbledore sighed. “Harry, my dear boy…”

“Don’t give me dear boy Professor.”

Pomfrey gripped his arm and handed him a phial. “Drink this please.”

“NO!” Harry cried angrily.

“Harry, it is only a calming draught and we need you to drink it in order not to have to force feed you,” McGonagall said calmly.

Very reluctantly, Harry agreed and calmed immediately. Now nothing really mattered anymore. He even let his Great Grandfather pull himself over to his guest bedroom where he was told to sit on the bed.

“Now Harry, I want Poppy to check on you to make sure you are really fit and well to do your stunt tomorrow morning. What we are planning is very dangerous and I do not want to have any risk of losing you on the way,” Dumbledore said sternly.

Harry only shrugged and just let things happen.

Pomfrey waved his wand over him a few times and finally said, “He is completely fine, although he seems to be a little tired. I would prefer to give him a few Potions in any case.”

Dumbledore nodded affirmatively and she handed Harry two phials, one of them he could recognize as Pepper-up Potion. The other one... he eyed it suspiciously, but he really didn’t care and just gulped it down. Within seconds, he was asleep.

“Harry, time to wake up my boy!” Harry blinked. Where was he? What was he doing here?

“Professor?” he asked and reached for his glasses.

“Yes Harry, you are in my guest bedroom. You had to rest for a while, don’t you remember? But now, we have to go down for dinner. You already missed lunch today,” the professor said grinning.

And suddenly Harry’s memory came back. Angrily he eyed this Grandfather.

“Don’t let yourself get so upset again, Harry, otherwise I have to force feed you another calming Potion” Dumbledore advised his Great Grandson and smiled fondly at him. Together they went down to dinner in the Great Hall.

-----

“Harry! Where have you been all day?”

“In Dumbledore’s guest bedroom. Pomfrey force fed me a sleeping draught,” he mumbled.

“What!” James cried angrily. “What does he think he is doing?”

“We bought lots of sweets and are going to have another party tonight in the common room, because we have still butterbeer left from the party last week,”

Sirius beamed.

Harry who had so far only pushed around the food on his plate mumbled, “Sorry lads, I’m still tired and I’m going back to bed.” When he retreated from the Great Hall, he didn’t notice the five pairs of eyes who were watching him concernedly. He went to bed and didn’t even wake up when the party got so loud that McGonagall came and threw a temper tantrum in the common room.

“You are very irresponsible. It is not more than six days ago that I told you not to hold any more parties here without my permission. You will all be in detention tomorrow! You will meet in the Transfiguration classroom immediately after breakfast, and I will have Mr. Filch come and tell you what each of you will be going to do for the day. I am very disappointed!”

“But Professor.” Lily went over to her. “What about Harry? He was not participating tonight. He has been asleep since dinner.”

McGonagall eyed her suspiciously, said, “I will see to that,” and went up to the sixth year’s boys dormitory to look after her Grandson. He was fast asleep. She put a hand on his forehead to check for a fever, but he seemed to be fine. On her way back out of the common room, she told Lily, “Harry is exempted from detention tomorrow.”

-----

Harry woke up very early the next morning. He felt very refreshed and awake, but his stomach grumbled. After thinking about going flying as Icicle for a while, he abandoned the thought because he didn’t know yet how much energy this would take out of him, and he decided on walking down to the kitchens for an early breakfast.

When he entered the kitchens, he was stunned. The Headmaster was sitting there drinking cocoa.

“Harry! Good morning my dear boy” his Great Grandfather beamed. “Would you like a cocoa as well my boy?”

“No. I would like to have breakfast please,” Harry addressed the house elves, and said to his Grandfather “I am very hungry, as I somehow missed lunch and dinner yesterday.”

“I am very sorry, Harry, but I really thought it was necessary to let you rest for a while yesterday. How do you feel today?”

“Great. As much as I hated it yesterday, I think it helped a lot. Do you think we could start immediately after breakfast, or do we have to wait until breakfast in the Great Hall is finished?”

“Twinkle!” Dumbledore called his house elf and explained to Harry, “Twinkle is my own house elf and normally lives at Dumbledore Manor. But when I’m here, there is not much to do at the manor, so Twinkle often stays at Hogwarts with me. “Twinkle could you please go and wake Minerva, Severus Snape, and Poppy and tell them to come to my office at 6 o’clock; that’s in half an hour. Thank you.”

“Of course Professor,” Twinkle replied and was gone with a pop.

When they arrived at Dumbledore’s office, the other three were already waiting for them and had made themselves comfortable in the guest bedroom where they were just having breakfast.

“Good morning. I’m sorry to wake you up so early, but Harry and I met at breakfast in the kitchens and Harry preferred to start immediately,” Dumbledore apologized to the three.

“No problem. Harry, are you well and ready?” McGonagall looked worried at her Grandson.

“Yes of course,” Harry replied.

“Harry, what do you want us to do? How can we help you?” Severus asked worriedly.

Harry sighed. “In fact, you cannot really do a lot. I will lie on the bed, occlude my mind and try to establish a connection to him. I know that it works because I already tried on Friday evening…” he ignored the gasp that came from McGonagall and Pomfrey, “… and succeeded in connecting to his mind. But at that point I stopped because I was alone at the time and it was too dangerous. So I would like you to watch me. I don’t think he will be able to defend himself, because firstly he couldn’t do it the last time, and secondly he doesn’t even know about my scar and our connection. But in case I have real problems, I think you will know and be able to help me. Professor Dumbledore could use Leglimency on me to join our conversation, or you could try to wake me up. But please only interfere if you can sense that I’m really in danger.”

“And how do we know if he has gone?” McGonagall asked.

Harry sighed again. “As you know, when he dies, his Death Eaters are going to die as well. The last time I could save Severus from the Death because I somehow included him in the people I love, but this time fortunately it will not be necessary. However, the students who already bear the mark will be gone. I’m sorry for them, but…”

“I thought you had hated me?” Severus asked unbelievingly. “Then why did you save me?”

“YOU hated ME, Severus. I am not capable of hating people. And you had never done any physical harm to me – on the contrary, you had saved my life more than once – and were on the light side at that time, so why should I have let you die?”

“All right Harry,” Dumbledore threw in. “But before you start I want to give you something.” He handed him a necklace with a phoenix pendant, which held the Dumbledore family’s crest. “This is a protection necklace like all magical families give to their children. When you are in real danger, Minerva and I will know immediately.” He noticed Severus looking astonished from one to another. “Severus I would like you to swear a wizard’s oath to me that you won’t tell anybody of what you are going to hear here today. Can you do that for me? And in case you are wondering, Harry has sworn one too the other day, and Poppy has already known for a long time and is bound to secrecy by her profession.”

Severus watched them curiously and said, “I herewith swear by my magic not to tell anyone about what I learn here in this room today”.

“Fine, thank you Severus. Hardly anybody knows that Minerva and I are married, and nobody except from the five of us now know that Harry is our Great Grandson. Alright Harry, shall we start?”

-----

Harry gave a nod and went to lie down on the comfortable bed he already had spent the last day in. He had to try hard to stay calm. Although he had managed to do this before, what he was going to do was very dangerous. The only real advantage he had was that Voldemort didn’t know about their connection.

“Sorry, could you please put yourselves under a silencing spell, because I really have to concentrate very hard,” he addressed the others for a last time before he occluded his mind and tried to force the connection to Voldemort.

Yes! That’s right. He was in Voldemort’s mind. ‘Okay, Harry stay calm, you know what you have to do and you already did it before. You can do it,’ he tried to convince himself, before he began to address Tom.

The others could hear him say, “Hello Tom, can you hear me?”

“Yes. Who are you, and where are you?”

“Nice to meet you. There is no need for you to know my name, is there? You can call me Icicle, and I am just here.”

“Where?” Of course, the others could not hear Voldemort’s answers but the whole conversation was clear by what Harry said, so they tried to relax and listened. So far, apart from Harry’s livid scar everything seemed to be fine.

“Never mind Tom.”

“I am Lord Voldemort.”

“Yes, yes, I know. Tom Marvolo Riddle, a nice name for a half blood.”

Voldemort was really getting angry now. “Don’t call me that!”

“Right. That’s why I’m just calling you Tom. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I have something you don’t have. LOVE. I love my parents who died for me, I love my Great Grandparents who are still alive, and I love my friends, Severus, Lily, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Sirius, James and Remus. I love all students here at Hogwarts now and in the future, I love all the teachers, Madam Pomfrey and I even love the teachers who hate me. I also love you Tom and your Death Eaters when you die and leave the world in peace. I love the whole world. Good bye Tom.”

For a few minutes that felt endless, Harry seemed to be in utmost struggle. Pain and exertion was clearly written in his face, and his scar was bleeding freely. Finally, Harry relaxed and fell into a deep sleep.

Pomfrey rushed over to the bed and waved her wand over him several times before she relaxed and said, “He has depleted his magic completely. Apart from that and his head wound he seems to be fine.”

Dumbledore nodded. “Yes, I feared that would happen. He told us it happened that last time, and he had to stay in the Hospital Wing for nearly a week. But he can stay here, at least until he wakes up. Now, what are we going to do? We should check on the Death Eater students within the castle without letting anyone know. Severus could you go back to Slytherin and look for Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe or Goyle without attracting any attention? These four are certainly Death Eaters, because Harry watched their initialization. About other students I can only guess.”

“But Albus, breakfast is going to start in five minutes. We can just go down to breakfast and watch out. Pettigrew should be affected as well in case something really happened,” McGonagall contradicted immediately.

“You’re right as usual, Minerva,” Dumbledore said pensively. “Poppy, maybe you should return to the Hospital Wing in case some of the Death Eater students will be brought there. Severus, would you mind staying here with Harry while we go down for breakfast? I will ask Twinkle to bring some more tea for you.”

“Alright Professor, thank you. And please tell me as soon as you have new information,” Severus asked worried.

“Of course my dear boy,” Albus said calmingly.

-----

When the two professors reached the Great Hall, it was in an uproar. The Slytherin table was nearly completely empty, and only Professor Sprout and Madam Hooch were sitting at the Head Table. At the Gryffindor table, the Marauders were missing. McGonagall sighed.

“Albus, it seems to have really happened. I’ll be going to the tower to look for the Marauders.”

“All right Minerva. Take him to the Hospital Wing and bring the other students here. Later on we will have to notify the parents.”

“Of course Albus. I’ll help you,” she said and hurried up to Gryffindor tower.

She went straight up to the sixth year’s dormitory, where she saw three students towering over one other who was lying on the ground.

“What happened exactly?” she asked in her normal strict voice.

“Professor!” James exclaimed. “We really don’t know. He suddenly gripped his arm and seemed to be in a horrendous pain before he collapsed like this. Is he dead?”

McGonagall sighed. “I’m afraid yes.” She took Peter’s left arm and rolled his sleeves up,

“What are you doing Professor?” Sirius asked and gasped, when they could see the fading Dark Mark on Peter’s arm.

“What happened, Professor?” Remus asked carefully.

“Voldemort and all this Death Eaters seem to have gone, thanks to your classmate Harry. Please go to the Great Hall for breakfast, I’m sure the Headmaster is going to tell you more. I will take Pettigrew to the Hospital Wing.”

When she came back to the Great Hall, Dumbledore whispered, “Minerva, could you go and stay with Harry? Please send Severus down, I am going to tell the students as soon as he’ll be with us.”

-----

As soon as Severus reached the Great Hall, Dumbledore stood and addressed the students. By then all students apart from the dead Death Eaters had arrived.

“As most of you probably know we have found ourselves in a time of war during the last few years; the war against Tom Riddle AKA Lord Voldemort or the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters. Even some of our students were Death Eaters. During the last few years Voldemort and his followers have killed many innocent people and were threatening to throw the wizarding world into a long-term war of horror and death. Today one of our students, Harry Pane, has managed to vanquish Voldemort for good. Although nobody has yet found his body, we believe that he is dead and cannot come back. His Death Eaters are gone as well.

Unfortunately, for a few of you this means that one or even both of your parents and maybe also one of your friends here at Hogwarts has died. As far as I have heard, there are eight students, who have died this morning. This is indeed very sad, but please remember that it was their own choice to be on Voldemort’s side and hope together with me for a future in peace. I hope to be able to give you more detailed news at lunchtime.” With that, he stood and left for his office to contact the Aurors.

-----

When Harry woke up, he noticed that he still was in Dumbledore’s guest room. His Great Grandmother was sitting in a chair next to his bed reading a very old looking book. She was startled when Harry suddenly asked, “Is he gone for good?”

She hadn’t even noticed that Harry had woken up. “Yes my dear. You did it!” She smiled fondly at him. “How do you feel Harry?”

“I’m fine, but I’m very tired, and my head hurts. How is Severus?”

“He is all right, he is very glad that you could save him from taking the Mark, but he had to go home for his father’s funeral. Most of the students who had to return now will stay home until after Christmas, but Severus told us he didn’t want to leave you alone and would be back as soon as the funeral was over. I’m going to get Poppy to check on you.”

“No”, Harry groaned, “not the dragon. Just let me go back to sleep.”

McGonagall sighed. “Harry, she only wants to help you and everyone else does as well. You have been asleep for more than two days and I want her to see you while you are awake. You don’t have to worry that she will take you with her; you are allowed to stay here in Albus’ guest room until you are fully recovered. Today is Wednesday, and on Friday, the evening before the students leave for their winter holidays, we will have a Voldemort demise party with participants from several European countries, the ministry and many others.”

Harry groaned. “I have already had that three months ago, when I vanquished him for the first time. Surely, they will have a press conference as well… You know how happy I was here because of not being famous, and I don’t want to lose that. Do you think I would be allowed to sleep through the whole event?”

His grandmother frowned. “I can’t imagine what that would change. Albus had to tell them your name anyway. So they are surely going to ask you questions and to keep on thanking you. Minister McNeill has already floo-ed to Hogwarts three times in order to talk to you, but so far, Albus, Poppy and I have been able to keep him from you. But I’m afraid you will have to talk to him soon.”

Harry sighed. “All right. I will – hopefully for the last time – do what everyone is expecting from me. But first I need a headache Potion.”

McGonagall went into Dumbledore’s office, and a minute later Pomfrey and Dumbledore came into Harry’s room.

“Harry, my boy! Congratulations!” His Great Grandfather greeted him happily.

“Well done Harry,” Pomfrey said and waved her wand over Harry. She gave Harry two Potions, and within seconds, Harry was asleep again.

The next time he opened his eyes, Severus, Remus and Lily were sitting next to his bed and smiled at him.

“Hi Harry, time to wake up finally,” Severus said. “You’re just in time for the party which will start in an hour.”

“Severus! How are you? Is everything okay?” He looked piercingly at his best friend.

“Yes, Harry, I really have to thank you. I feel as if I was finally alive again.” He gave Harry a small smile.

“I think we all have to say thank you Harry,” Lily said smiling at Harry as well.

“Harry, I have brought your robes and everything, maybe you should get up, take a shower and dress in order to go to the party. I’m sure we will have much fun tonight!”

Harry looked curiously at Remus. “Fun? Are you sure?” Harry asked sarcastically. The last time he had to endure the remise party – in the future – had been horrible, and only the thought of it made his stomach churn.

The Demise party was indeed very different from the last one. Dumbledore, McGonagall and Harry gasped, when they entered the Great Hall together. James and Sirius had, apparently with the help of Remus, Severus and Lily, managed to change the whole Great Hall into a tropical paradise. They had configured the upper part of the hall, where normally the Head Table was placed, into a lake. The big house tables were replaced by many smaller tables surrounded by comfortable chairs on the beach. Many palm trees completed the scene. Fawkes was sitting in a palm tree, trilling happily. Dumbledore allowed Harry to sit at a table with his friends, but told him he would have to come over to the guests’ table whenever being called.

“Dear students, ministers and guests of the house, I welcome you to our Voldemort demise beach party. We have many guests here tonight from several countries, but before we talk a lot I would like to invite you to enjoy what our house elves have prepared for you. Dig in!”

When they had finished their main course, Sirius said in a loud voice

“Five minutes for the Animagi to play before the dessert,” and the Marauders changed into their animagus forms. Harry was stunned. Lily and Severus had managed it – great! Without thinking, he quickly changed into Icicle and joined Fawkes on his tree.

#Hi Icicle, nice of you to join me, I was a little lonely here on my palm tree.#

#Hello Fawkes, oh my, and I had thought you enjoyed sitting above everybody else and looking down on us.#

Two Ravenclaw 7th year students had transformed into a cat and a lizard, and Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore joined the students in their cat and phoenix forms. A crocodile was approaching the water – ‘probably one of the foreign ministers,’ Harry thought. At least he didn’t know such an Animagus. Severus in his black snake form looked beautiful on the white sand of the beach. They had a lot of fun until Dumbledore transformed back a few minutes later and called, “All Animagi back for the dessert please!”

-----

When dinner was over, Minister McNeill stood and addressed the hall.

“Dear Professors, dear students, dear guests. Thank you very much for the invitation to this joyful party! The whole wizarding world is very happy about the end of the war. I want to express my sincere thanks to Mr. Harry Pane, who has somehow managed to vanquish the evil that pulled us into this war for many years. Could you please explain to us how you were able to do us this big favour?”

Harry stood up. “Dear minister, dear foreign and other guests, welcome to Hogwarts. In order for you to understand how I could do this I have to tell you a little about myself. When I was just 1 year old, Voldemort tried to kill me, after he had killed my parents. He used the Avada Kedavra curse, but somehow I managed to survive and only get away with this scar.” He lifted his hair to show his scar.

“Ever since then I have had a connection to Voldemort via his scar. I often could sense his feelings, especially when he was full of strong emotions, for example, when he was very excited, angry or glad. Recently I had started to get visions of him speaking to his Death Eaters, too. That was why I was able to warn Professor Dumbledore about the attack on Diagon Alley on Halloween.

Anyway, I tried to use the connection to speak to him, because my greatest power is love, while he was so full of hate and negative feelings that he couldn’t stand positive feelings like love. I told him that I love my friends, my teachers, the whole world etc. and that I would like him as well if he and his Death Eaters died and left the world in peace. Then I tried to summon all the love I had and sent it over to him. That’s all, he just couldn’t stand it and died and took all his Death Eaters who had the Dark Mark with him. So, you see, it was not me who managed it, it was my parents, friends, teachers and everyone else of you who gave me all the love I could summon. You don’t have to thank me, just thank my friends and everyone in this hall. Thank you.” He sat back on his chair tiredly.

Severus handed him a phial under the table.

“What is it?” Harry whispered.

“A very strong pepper-up Potion. I made it for you this afternoon. Drink it.”

The minister was speaking again. “Representing the Ministry of Magic I would like to present Mr. Harry Pane with the Order of Merlin 1st class. Please join me for a moment Mr. Pane.”

Harry went over and received the Order of Merlin for the second time. He shook the minister’s hand and retired to his seat again.

-----

Several other people gave their speeches; Harry didn’t really listen. As long as he didn’t have to interact, he didn’t care at all. When all speeches were finished, Dumbledore rose to speak again.

“Now I have some smaller issues. First of all, I want to thank the students who have provided us with such a beautiful place for our party. I would like the responsible students to stand up for a moment.”

James, Sirius, Remus, Severus and Lily stood and were greeted with a grand wave of applause.

“Furthermore I would like to introduce our new Animagi. Please come here one by one so that I can introduce you properly.”

The students went up to the teachers’ and guests’ table and were introduced one by one. This time, Harry stayed at his seat and didn’t change into Icicle. When Fawkes came over and asked, #Why don’t you change, Icicle?# Harry only shook his head. He had received more than enough attention for one day.

Before the minister could ask anything, Dumbledore added, “Be assured, that all of them will be properly registered as Animagi with the ministry.” The minister nodded affirmatively.

“And last but not least I invite all of you to come out to the grounds. Mr. Daedalus Diggle has promised us a beautiful fireworks display in Hogsmeade just behind the lake that we will be able to watch from here.”

With this the whole hall moved outside – from the warm, tropical paradise into the snowy cold of Scotland. The firework was fantastic and lasted nearly an hour. Afterwards everyone nearly ran back to the tropical island to have a hot cup of cocoa before going to bed. While they were drinking their cocoa, Dumbledore came over to Harry.

“Harry, there will be a press conference in here after the students have gone to bed, and I think your presence will be required.”

Harry groaned. “Do I have to Professor? I am so tired; I would like to go back to bed. Please!” Harry begged.

Severus agreed, “Professor, I have already given him a really strong Pepper-up Potion which I brewed specially for him, but even that has run out; he is not well enough to answer lots of questions.”

Dumbledore gave Harry a piercing glance. “All right Harry, you may go back to bed. I will talk to the journalists on your behalf. Severus could you please take him to Minerva and ask her to accompany him to my guest room. Thank you my boy. Good night Harry.”

“Severus, will I see you before you go home tomorrow?” Harry asked his best friend sadly.

Severus gave him a small smile. “Harry, I won’t go home for Christmas but will stay here with you. I could convince my mother to visit her sister during the holidays, so that I don’t have to feel bad about leaving her alone. We will meet tomorrow morning, when all the others have gone.”

“Alright Severus, thank you,” Harry mumbled happily. He was dead on his feet.

-----

The next morning, Harry woke up just in time for breakfast. He went down to Dumbledore’s office. “Good morning my boy. What are you doing here?”

“Um… I thought I might be going to breakfast. I also want to say good bye to everyone going home today.”

“I don’t think you are supposed to go anywhere, but if you are sure you are well enough you may go.”

“Thank you granddad,” he gave Dumbledore a big smile.

“Harry, there is just one thing I wanted to talk to you about. You will be the only Gryffindor student staying at Hogwarts this year, and as your condition is not very good yet, we don’t want you to stay in Gryffindor tower alone. Now there are two possibilities for you to choose. You can either stay here in my guest room, which I do not mind at all, or you can ask Severus if he would stay in your dormitory with you. As he will be the only 6th year Slytherin staying for Christmas, it should not be a problem. Please think about it and inform either Minerva or me later.”

“Thank you Professor. I will discuss it with Severus and tell you at lunchtime at the latest. Oh, and… um… you know you didn’t let me go to Hogsmeade on Saturday and… um… I have to go and buy my Christmas presents sometime before Christmas, early enough to send presents to my friends by owl.”

“Harry, at the moment we can’t do anything about it; we have to wait until Poppy deems you well enough. As I told you, you are not even supposed to leave your room. When you are allowed to go, maybe sometime during the next week, Minerva will accompany you, or as Voldemort has gone now, maybe you and Severus can go on your own. We will talk about it in a few days’ time. Now let’s go to breakfast.”

The atmosphere at the Gryffindor table was full of excitement. Suddenly, James asked, “Harry, what are you doing for Christmas? Do you want to come home with me?”

Harry couldn’t believe his ears. His eyes began to twinkle happily, but then he remembered, “Oh no, I can’t. Severus is going to stay here for Christmas in order not to leave me alone here. I cannot tell him now I was going away. But thank you anyhow, I really appreciate it. Maybe another time?”

“Of course Harry, anytime. I’m sorry; I should have asked you earlier,” James apologized. Sirius was going home with him, too, as he wasn’t welcome at his parents’ house anymore and he Potters had taken him in a few years ago.

Only a few students were standing in front of the castle, when the carriages left for the station. It seemed that everyone wanted to enjoy safety and freedom, now that Voldemort was gone.

-----

Harry and Severus spent the time until lunch in the Room of Requirement in order to work on one of the Potions Severus was inventing. They still could not manage to get it precisely as Harry remembered it, but at least they were making progress. As there was still time until lunch, they tried to make a plan for the holidays with enough time for homework and lots of time for Potions studying.

“As we have so much time just for ourselves, maybe we should start working on a Potion to send you back,” Severus proposed and Harry reluctantly agreed.

“Severus, you know, I’m willing to help you as much as I can, but I won’t be able to help a lot, you know that I’m a dunderhead at Potions. And the other point is, as much as I’d like to see my friends again, I don’t want to lose my friends here again. Anyway, I thought I might just stay here until the end of 6th year, and then I will go back in case we have found something to send me.”

“Believe me. We will, and you have changed the future so much, that you should be able to meet all of us again as soon as you arrive in the future. At least I will always be there for you. And I don’t think you’re so bad at Potions. You just haven’t learnt the fundamental things about Potions, but I think you have improved a lot since we have started our tutoring.”

Harry threw his friend a grateful smile. “Yes, I think I know a lot more than before, and I like it very much – thanks to you of course. All right, so we will try. But I have one other thing to discuss before lunch. Um… Dumbledore talked to me this morning and said all Gryffindors have gone home, and I’m not allowed to stay alone in the tower. He said either I might stay in his guest room or I could ask you if you were willing to stay in Gryffindor with me to baby-sit me. Maybe I could stay in Slytherin as well, I don’t know, I didn’t ask him.”

“Probably not, because your very protective Granny wouldn’t be able to check on you which she will do on a regular basis, you can be sure. I don’t mind staying in Gryffindor, no problem, especially when all Gryffindors have gone home.”

“All right. I promised Dumbledore to inform him at lunchtime.”

“That’s good, then he will arrange for the house elves to take my trunk over to your dormitory. Now let’s go down to lunch.”

-----

They arrived just in time for lunch. The house tables had gone, and the few people remaining in the castle were all sitting at one round table in the Great Hall. Harry earned furious looks of his grandmother and Madam Pomfrey and the question, “Where have you been the whole morning?”

Severus managed to reply innocently, “Sorry Professor, we have been in the Room of Requirement, working on a Potion. He did nothing strenuous, and we were careful to be back in time for lunch.”

Harry didn’t say anything; he only threw a very annoyed look in their direction and tried to focus on his meal.

Dumbledore managed to change the topic efficiently by showing Harry the morning’s newspaper. The headline of the Daily Prophet read,

“The vanquisher of Voldemort – Harry Pane – Grandson of Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall”

Harry gazed at Dumbledore. “Why did you tell them?”

“Because, my dear boy, they kept asking about whom your guardians were and questions like this. So in order to stop them speculating I had to tell them. Fortunately, I had spoken to Minerva about this possibility in advance. As Voldemort has gone now, it is all right. But of course we won’t tell anyone more than that.”

“All right … Granny and Granddad.”

The first week of their holidays passed in a flash spending the time between breakfast and lunch at varying places doing homework, sleeping two hours after lunch on Pomfrey’s request, brewing Potions afterwards until dinner and working on some more Potions in the evening.

Finally, it was Friday morning, Christmas eve, and Harry had not yet been to Hogsmeade. After breakfast, he told his grandfather, “Sorry, Granddad, but I just have to go to Hogsmeade today; I have to buy Christmas presents.”

“Yes, my boy, I know, but I’m afraid you have to ask Poppy about it.”

“No, Granddad. I will not ask; she and Granny are treating me as if I were an infant. I will flash there, buy my things and will be back before they even notice I’m gone. Severus, are you coming with me?”

“Why not, may I go Professor?”

“You may, but I don’t know if Harry is allowed.”

“I don’t care. Let’s go, Severus, grab my tail feathers.” He changed into Icicle and was gone. Dumbledore sighed and looked at the papers on his desk. Hopefully, Minerva wouldn’t realize it; she was over protective of the child.

It took Severus and Harry about an hour in Hogsmeade to gather the Christmas presents Harry wanted to get for his friends and family. Suddenly they noticed a well-known coldness spreading around the village.

“Oh no,” Harry groaned, “Dementors again. I had completely forgotten that they were not gone yet. What are we going to do? It’s not enough to chase them away, we have to vanquish them!” Otherwise they’d come back again as they had to be hungry, now that nobody was in charge of them.

He thought for a moment, then took his wand and a chocolate frog out of his pocket and configured the chocolate frog into a big machine with a huge hose on the top.

“What is this, and what is it for?” Severus asked amusedly.

“Wait.” Harry took his wand and pointed it at the machine. “Sensus humanicus”.

Severus eyed him questioningly. Harry sighed. It was getting colder. “Severus, go and tell the people to hide in the houses and shops because Dementors are coming. This is a vacuum cleaner, which simulates human senses for fooling the Dementors. And when they come near, they will be sucked in… if it works like I want it to work.” He transfigured another five chocolate frogs into the same kind of machine and put his spell on them, just in time for the first Dementors to arrive. This just had to work. If not, he would just have to chase them away with his Patronus.

Severus came running back to Harry. “All right so far Harry? Do you think it will work?”

“I don’t know but transform to your snake, please. I will change as well as soon as I see that it works and I don’t need my Patronus. Animals are not affected by them.”

Severus obliged and transformed into a snake. The Dementors headed for Harry, but… it worked! The first few already had been sucked in.

Relieved he said to Severus in Parseltongue, “Severus it works”.

The snake glared at him. “Why can you talk to me? And shouldn’t you change as well?”

Harry felt the coldness taking over and his mind slipping away, so he quickly changed into Icicle. He felt better immediately. But how could he communicate with Severus like that? He tried Phoenix tongue.

#Severus, can you hear me?#

No answer. They could not communicate. He would think about that later. In the meanwhile, nearly all Dementors had been sucked into the machines. Therefore, he transformed back just as the last Dementors had vanished. He transfigured the machines into cow dung and scourgified all cow dung.

“All right. They have gone, but we need chocolate now,” he said to Severus who had also changed back in the meantime.

“You were not supposed to be here, were you?” Severus said slightly amused. “You can’t imagine in just how much trouble you will be tomorrow morning, when two certain ladies get a glance of the headline of the Daily Prophet.”

Harry, who was already feeling quite queasy, turned white. “Why? Did they take photographs?”

“Yes, they did. Lots. And everyone knows you by now, because you saved the village before and because you vanquished the Dark Lord. Let’s hurry back, flash us to Dumbledore, he will have chocolate for us.” Harry groaned and changed into Icicle.

-----

With a flash of ice, they arrived in Dumbledore’s office. As he saw that Dumbledore was alone, Harry transformed and plopped into a seat. Severus sat down as well.

“Sorry Professor to just flash into your office,” Severus apologized.

The headmaster’s eyes twinkled. “That’s no problem my boy, I’m glad you are back without anyone noticing. Is everything okay?” He looked over to Harry worriedly.

“Professor, we need some chocolate please. There were Dementors,” Severus said shortly.

“Twinkle!” With a pop the elf appeared.

“Please bring two big pieces of chocolate for the boys.”

The chocolate arrived within seconds, and Severus and Harry began to munch it immediately. Pleasant warmth began to spread within their bodies. Harry tried to give his grandfather a weak smile and said, “I hadn’t thought about the fact that the Dementors were not gone yet. And how things are, they arrived just when we were in Hogsmeade. At first I thought to just chase them away as usual, but then I knew they would only come back a few days later because they had to be hungry and no one was controlling them.”

“That should be correct I suppose,” nodded Dumbledore. “So what did you do to them? You are affected more than the last time, and you even more than Severus, Harry.”

“I told Severus to transform into his snake form as soon as they arrived, so he was not affected so much. But I had to make sure my plot worked before I could change. If it hadn’t worked, I would still have had to chase them away.”

“So what did you do?”

Severus continued. “He transfigured chocolate frogs into several huge vacuum cleaners with big hoses on the top, put a spell on them simulating human senses to fool the Dementors, and the Dementors were all sucked in. Probably you’ll be able to see a picture on the front page of the Daily Prophet tomorrow.” He smirked.

The headmaster’s look became stern. “So we will all be in big trouble tomorrow when your grandmother gets to know of your Hogsmeade visit.”

Harry sighed. “It’s not my fault that I wasn’t allowed to go and buy my Christmas presents before.”

Severus sneered. “We won’t be in trouble tomorrow, we will be in trouble at lunch, as soon as they see Harry, won’t we? Look at him.”

Harry’s face was white as a sheet, only his cheeks were flushed, and dark rings marked his eyes. Feeling absolutely awful, he contradicted, “No, Severus, because I’m going to skip lunch. I will go to sleep for a while. You can tell the dragon I’ll be going to get my nutrient Potion before curfew,” and with a flash of ice he was gone.

Albus and Severus looked at each other amazed.

“Oh, Severus, how does he manage to always get himself in so much trouble?” Dumbledore sighed and sat back in his chair.

Severus laughed. “That’s what I really would like to know. I have always wondered since I have first met him.”

“Now my boy, what do you think, shall we go to the lion’s den, or shall we have lunch here in my office today?”

Severus smirked, looking hopefully at the Headmaster. “Would that be possible? I’m scared of just how angry your wife will be, and as Harry won’t be there…”

The headmaster’s eyes twinkled. “Let’s do it. They’ll be angry anyway, so we can at least have a peaceful lunch together.”

A few minutes later, when they had just started to eat, there was a knock at the door, and Minerva entered the office. Needless to say that she was very annoyed with them having lunch in the office.

“Albus, when there are only 10 people for lunch, don’t you think everyone will notice when 3 of them are missing?” she asked sharply.

“I’m sorry Minerva, I just had something to discuss with Severus privately, and I thought this might be good timing.”

“And where might I find Harry please?”

Severus shrugged. “When I met him the last time he told me he would go back to the dormitory to put his things away before lunch. Maybe he has fallen asleep?” He quickly lied.

“Ah, but why don’t you at least have lunch first, Minerva? Harry will be okay; I’m sure he will be somewhere in the castle.”

“Don’t give me that Albus. Please behave yourself, especially in front of students.”

“Oh oh, she’s getting upset. Poor Harry,” Severus commented as soon as the professor had left the office.

Ten minutes later the stern teacher was back. “Could one of you please be so kind as to tell me what is being played at here?”

Dumbledore and his student watched her with a surprised look.

“Harry is sitting on this bed in his phoenix form, his head on his back fast asleep und huddled under a mountain of blankets. What happened and what’s wrong with him?”

The two culprits frowned at each other. “Ah, he will be okay Minerva, go and have lunch my dear,” the Headmaster tried to calm his wife.

“Albus, I want to know what is wrong. Severus, have you been together with Harry this morning?”

“Yes Professor.”

“And what have you been doing?”

“Minerva, dear” Dumbledore interrupted her, “don’t get yourself so upset. Everything is fine, believe me.”

“Then why can’t Severus tell me what they have been doing this morning, and why is your grandson skipping lunch AGAIN?” Her voice was starting to get louder.

“You know, Minerva, last Saturday we had the last Hogsmeade weekend before Christmas, didn’t we? But I was afraid to let Harry go, so he spent the day here.”

“And?” His wife asked impatiently.

“He had to go and buy his Christmas presents.”

“And you let him go? Without Poppy’s consent? You are really irresponsible Albus! But that still doesn’t explain what is wrong with Harry.”

“Minerva, I did NOT let him go. I told him he was probably not allowed to, but he could ask you or Poppy, and he frankly told me he was not going to ask but would flash there and come back immediately. So I only allowed Severus to go to Hogsmeade, but not Harry. And when they were in Hogsmeade, the Dementors showed up again, so Harry vanquished them forever.” He told her the whole story.

Then Severus added, “And finally he transfigured the vacuum cleaners into cow dung and scourgified it.” Severus and Albus giggled.

Even Minerva had to smile a little, although she was still angry. “So what is wrong with Harry?” She asked worried. “Was he affected by the Dementors, or did he use too much magic again?”

“He was affected by the Dementors; he ordered me to change into a snake quite fast, but he stayed in his human form much longer to be sure his idea worked.”

“And none of you has thought about taking him to the Hospital Wing?” McGonagall asked angrily.

“He just flashed away Minerva, what could we have done?” Dumbledore countered helplessly. “I thought we could just let him go and look after him later.”

“I would have thought at least you would be more responsible, Severus,” she said disappointed.

“Sorry, Professor, but I think he is on the verge of having nightmares about the Hospital Wing, so I agreed to just let him rest now. Please don’t be angry, Mam, Harry is so happy here and just wants to enjoy his time here now.”

“But nevertheless he cannot just do what he wants even without permission,” she said sternly. “Severus, you will be grounded for the rest of the day for going with Harry although he was not allowed to go. Please stay in the dormitory with Harry, I will send up Poppy later for Harry, and I shall instruct a house elf to bring dinner for you. And Albus, you won’t get any more lemon drops until Christmas,” she said ignoring the disappointed expression that spread on her husband’s face.

“Regarding Harry’s punishment I will come to your dormitory and have a word with him in the course of the evening,” she threatened with a very angry look on her face.

-----

On Christmas morning, the grounds were white with snow – Harry woke up very early, changed into Icicle and enjoyed an early morning flight over the grounds. It was beautiful – what a pity that he had been grounded by his grandmother until the end of the holidays and couldn’t have a big snowball fight with all remaining students and teachers. He flashed back to the dormitory several times to see if Severus was awake, and finally his friend was moving.

“Good morning Sev, and happy Christmas!” Harry beamed.

Severus smiled back. “Merry Christmas to you too Harry. Did you already open your presents?”

“No, I was waiting for you to wake up, and in the meanwhile transformed and went for a little flight. Nobody will be able to notice me against the snow,” he chuckled.

“Oh Harry stop it, don’t put yourself in even more trouble,” Severus said annoyed. “Now let’s open our presents.”

It was Harry’s first Christmas since his 11th birthday without a Weasley sweater – but probably the second one in his life with a present from his mother. Lily had sent him a broom polishing kit. ‘Just like Hermione,’ he thought happily. In James’ package, he found a book on famous wizards; Sirius had sent him a defence book and Remus a large package of assorted chocolates of Honeydukes. From Severus he received a Potions book, and from his Great Grandparents a Pensieve, a very nice robe and a really warm, fluffy coat, each in a very pretty green that matched his eyes. Poppy gave him a book about Healing for beginners. Finally, there was only an envelope left. Harry wondered what it could be. When he opened it, he saw a card with just one sentence on it, which said: ‘You are not grounded on Christmas day. Granny’.

“YEEEAAAHH!” he cheered.

Severus watched him astonished. “Harry? All you all right?”

“Yes! Sev, I’m not grounded today, look, we can have a proper snowball fight today! Wow!” He showed Severus the card from his Head of House.

Severus chuckled. It was good to see his best friend so happy. “Anyway, we have to go down to breakfast within three minutes, otherwise you’ll be grounded again” he sneered.

-----

At breakfast, Harry said to his grandmother, “I challenge you to a snowball fight after breakfast Granny.”

She laughed. “I’d like that Harry, but be careful, I’m better at snowball fights than you might think.”

Harry smiled. “Who else is coming? Grandfather? Severus? Madam Pomfrey? Susan? Jack?” he addressed all the others surrounding the table. Finally, everyone went together for a big snowball fight on the beautiful snowy grounds.

Harry went over to his friend and whispered, “Look Severus, we have to decide on a tactic. We should play together and always attack a group of two or three of them at the same time.”

Severus nodded reluctantly. “If I have to play at all, then let’s do it like Potions, only the other way – you tell me and I’ll do what you say”.

In the end, the two friends were fighting against Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey. The Headmaster had been overwhelmed by the two Slytherin 5th years who had concentrated their fight on him.

Harry whispered to Severus, “Wait a moment, stand far away from them and watch!” He suddenly transformed into Icicle, so that he could hardly be seen on the snowy ground, flew over just in front of the two ladies and flashed back to Severus leaving the two teachers surrounded by a huge flash of ice. Everyone except for the two women nearly fell into the snow laughing.

“And the winners are….” announced Dumbledore, “Severus Snape and Harry Pane. Congratulations my boys! Thanks everyone for a very nice game, and now let’s head into the Great Hall and have a hot cup of cocoa before lunch.”

-----

They spent the rest of the day reading their new books in the Gryffindor common room. After eating too much of the delicious main courses and desserts the house elves had prepared for Christmas dinner, Harry suddenly noticed just how quiet the normally lively common room was and couldn’t help thinking of Ginny, Ron and Hermione. ‘What will they be doing now?’ he thought… ‘but no, that’s crazy, they are not even alive…’ With this thought, he felt homesick for the first time in his life.

Severus secretly threw a curious look in Harry’s direction. What was wrong with him? He seemed to be on the verge of crying. “Harry, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Severus, I’m fine,” Harry replied with a small smile that did not reach his eyes.

“I know that it’s late, but I would like to go and brew a Potion,” Severus tried. “Would you care to join me?”

To brew a Potion – that was about the last thing Harry wanted to do – but the thought of remaining alone in the big Gryffindor tower was not so very attractive either, so Harry decided on joining his friend.

Severus quickly got some ingredients and placed them on the table before he asked, “Harry, would you help me to prepare these please?”

Harry shrugged and began to cut and crunch Potions ingredients thinking ‘what a crazy thing to do at 11 p.m. on Christmas day’. Severus, who had been silently watching Harry all the time, grinned to himself in relief. It took about an hour until the Potion was finished. After they had tidied up the Potions classroom they went back to Gryffindor tower, but the nearer they came to the tower, the more Harry’s feelings from before returned, and by the time they had reached the dormitory, tears were swimming in his eyes again.

Severus handed Harry one of the phials of the Potion they had just made and said, “Drink it please.”

Harry downed the Potion and didn’t even ask what the Potion was that they had been brewing, and Severus was sure he couldn’t have recognized it because it was a new mutation of the calming draught Severus just had invented the week before. But it helped and he was much calmer now.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Severus asked carefully, eying his friend piercingly.

Harry replied, “I’m fine, it’s just so quiet here and I suddenly had to think of my friends in the future, and when I thought about what they might be doing now, I realized that they don’t even exist at the moment. I think I’m going to bed. Thanks for the Potion; it really helped.”

There was a knock at the door, but Harry just ignored it and went to bed. A moment later, his Grandmother entered the room and seemed quite upset.

“Where have you been after curfew tonight?” she asked quite angrily but Severus managed to calm her by waving her over to his bed and telling her that Harry had been homesick and was in need of a calming draught, so they had gone and brewed his very new invention which had helped immediately.

Harry didn’t hear any of it; he was fast asleep – dreaming of Christmas at Hogwarts with snowball fights of phoenixes and snakes against cats and other animals. When he woke up early the next morning, he had a bad cold, probably from being outside in the cold snow for such a long time. But Severus, who had woken up early as well from Harry’s sneezing and wheezing, went immediately to brew a batch of Pepper-up Potion and fever reducers for him, so that nobody else noticed and bothered Harry.

The second week of the holidays passed very quickly, and in no time, the other students would return. As much as Harry had enjoyed the quiet time together with Severus, learning and researching about Potions during this time, he couldn’t wait to see his parents again. Maybe he should tell them, that he was their son…!?

Classes started again as well as all the tutoring and the extra lessons Harry had to take, and then finally Quidditch practise. Harry, who had not been allowed to fly after the near-fatal Quidditch game against Slytherin a month ago and had only been secretly flying as Icicle during this time, enjoyed the ride on this broom a lot. It was just different from flying as a bird. The first game of the New Year against Ravenclaw was planned for the beginning of May, so they had lots of time to practise, but James was determined to win the Quidditch cup this year.

“I don’t mind if it’s dark and cold, I want to take the Quidditch cup at the end of the year, so go on you lazybones! Or don’t you want to win?” James shouted at them one evening, after it had continually snowed for hours and the team had the impression their limbs were going to freeze.

“Um… James…” Harry tried. As much as he loved flying, he didn’t want to catch a cold again just of playing Quidditch in the snow, especially as he seemed to be prone to colds recently. “Um… you know, um… the game against Ravenclaw will be in May, so I don’t think we really need so much practise in the snow.”

The rest of the team nodded their thanks gratefully. “Yes, prongs,” Sirius agreed. “Let’s get inside and warm up!”

“Thanks Harry,” Frank whispered to him in the changing rooms.

“No problem,” Harry replied mischievously, “I had to leave anyway because I have lessons with Dumbledore in 15 minutes.”

-----

On Sunday afternoons, Harry and Severus were researching the Potion to send Harry back. Harry had spoken to his Great Grandparents and received the promise that he wouldn’t be forced to go back to the future as soon as the Potion was ready but would be allowed to stay in the past until the end of the year. When the others would leave for summer holidays, he would go to the future for another 6th year – provided they had found a way to go.

So far, they hadn’t come even a little closer to their aim. Harry managed to stay quiet relaxed, knowing that they still had several months and that the best Potions Master of this AND his own time was working on it. And in the worst case he would just be stuck here as friends of this parents and future teacher’s – things could be worse.

One Sunday Severus seemed to be radiant. “Harry, I have thought about something!” Harry watched him amusedly. His friend, whom normally nothing could unsettle, seemed to be quite excited.

“So far I have only thought about fluid Potions. But maybe we could try to make a powder like floo powder to be used in the fireplace.”

“Wow, that’s a great idea! Do you think it will work?”

Severus snorted. “Of course it will work. The only tiny problem is that we still have to invent the powder – please think about that before you get too excited!”

“Oh, yes. Do you have any idea how floo powder is made at all?”

Severus nodded. “Of course I have researched it. Floo powder is made of fairy dust and essence of whirlwind, both of them being ingredients which are provided for at any apothecary.”

Harry eyed his friend with deep respect.

“I have already sent an owl to the apothecary at Hogsmeade, and the ingredients should arrive any time now,” Severus continued, peering into the cauldron he was working at.

“Will an owl be able to find you here in the dungeons?” Harry asked curiously.

Severus laughed and pointed to a small flap at the very upper part of the wall.

“Do you know what this flap is for?”

“No.” Harry shook his head negating.

“Behind this flap is a channel in the wall which leads directly to the owlery. Actually, there is a whole system of channels behind the walls. Each room in the dungeon is connected to it in order to be able to receive mail in the dungeons.”

“Wow, what a cool system.” Harry was impressed. He had never even thought about how people were able to get their mail down here. “So what are we going to do now?”

“I’m not sure how to proceed. Of course we have to do a few tests about the interactions of floo powder and other ingredients, but we must also do a lot of research in the library.”

“And I would probably be more efficient in the library than here,” Harry added.

“Yes,” Severus admitted. “However, I have to do some research as well, and I will also need your help with the Potions, because we will have to run lots of tests.”

“How will we be able to test if it works?”

“Very easily. We can use rats and use the Potions classroom’s fireplace to send them from today to tomorrow. No problem with that.”

Harry eyed his friend in awe. He was just incredible.

“Close your mouth Harry. You need to be creative; otherwise you won’t be able to invent anything.”

Harry laughed. “I’m not planning on inventing anything. That’s what I have you for…”

During the next weeks, they spent every free minute in the library. They were so engaged in their research that Harry had started to miss meals again, much to the annoyance of this grandmother, who dragged him to the Hospital Wing each night for his nutrient Potions. Harry was very annoyed.

“Couldn’t I just get them with my breakfast? I hate going up there to the dragon, and it’s such a waste of time; I need the time for my homework and my studies. You know I need a lot of time for my research with Severus.”

“No.” Professor McGonagall said sternly. “You know exactly when the meal times are, and you are supposed to observe them. I would prefer having you here for another year than sending you back even thinner and unhealthier than you were before. I expect you to improve your attitude.”

Harry sighed watching his shoes. He knew he wouldn’t be able to promise anything.

-----

One day Lily asked him, “What is it that you are researching all the time? You hardly spend any time in the common room anymore.”

“Oh, Severus and I are doing a special project for Potions, and for that we are researching the interactions of floo powder with other possible Potions ingredients.”

The Marauders’ eyes grew larger. “And why, please, should that be more interesting than playing pranks with us on the Slytherins?”

Harry laughed. Such a question could only come from Sirius. But he resolved to spend more time with the Gryffindors during the next months. Maybe he could get them to do some research as well… As far as he knew, the Marauders’ Map had been made in the Marauders’ sixth year, but so far, he hadn’t seen or heard anything about it, and as Peter wasn’t there any more, maybe they would need help this time.

“If you want to do some research as well, how about producing a map of Hogwarts that shows every person in the castle? It would be great for playing pranks, if you could see exactly where people were and who was nearby.”

“HARRY!!!” James embraced him. “That’s the best idea you’ve ever had, Cool!”

“But unfortunately your help will be requested as well,” Remus said mischievously.

“Yes, I know. We will probably have to make use of my abilities to flash anywhere, as well as of Lily’s abilities to fly.”

“How about we ask Severus for help as well? As a snake he will be able to reach places we would never have access to,” Lily suggested.

“Oh, I don’t think he’ll have time for it, because he seems to be even busier than me with the Potions research,” Harry countered, weakly trying to keep Lily closer to James than to Severus.

“You could ask him anyway. But when and where could we meet with him?” James inquired. “We don’t want the whole castle to know about it.”

“We could meet every Wednesday after Quidditch practise and every Saturday night after dinner in the Room of Requirement. I will speak to Severus about it tomorrow.”

As Harry could have imagined, Severus was all for helping with the map, and so the six students started working on examining the castle’s passages two nights a week. Fortunately, his grandmother had finally deemed him able to control his magic, so that he didn’t need their private lessons anymore. Otherwise, he really would have problems to find time for his normal homework.

-----

One day several weeks later, Severus seemed very disappointed.

“What’s wrong,” Harry asked, when he sat next to him for their charms lesson.

“During the last few weeks I have made a lot of tests concerning the interaction of floo powder and several plants and herbs, and I came to the conclusion that it’s not possible to mix them. All Potions I tried with a combination of the essence of whirlwind and some kind of plant or herb exploded.”

“Ooops,” was all Harry could add in his disappointment.

“So the only possibility to get it to work as we hope will be to mix it with certain ingredients of animals, but the problem is that we probably won’t be able to use non-magical animals, because the fairy dust only can be combined with magical plants or animals.”

“And what is wrong with that?” Harry interrupted.

Severus glared at him. “How do you think you will get ingredients of magical animals? The only magical animal we have access to is a phoenix, but as far as I know phoenix feathers or even phoenix tears are only useful in Healing Potions! We have to do a lot more research to come up with something.”

In the middle of the night, Harry was suddenly wide-awake. ‘the Basilisk, that’s it’ he thought. He changed into Icicle, imagined Severus sleeping in his bed in the Slytherin dungeons, and flashed over to his friend. He changed into his human form and put a strong silencing and notice-me-not spell around Severus’ bed, before he woke his friend.

“Harry! What’s wrong? What are you doing here? Are you ill or something?”

“No, Severus, listen. I’ve remembered something. Have you ever heard about the Chamber of secrets? There is a Basilisk in the chamber, and we have access to it!”

Severus listened stunned. “Is it still alive?”

“Yes, of course. I killed it in my 2nd year, so it must still be alive now.”

“You killed it? How? Do you know dangerous that was? You could have easily been killed!”

“Yes I know, but I couldn’t help it. Voldemort let it loose on me and a friend of mine. Fawkes even helped me and saved my life.”

“All right, but first I don’t know yet if we have use for basilisk’s ingredients, and secondly we have to talk to your grandfather about the chamber. He will know what we can do. Let’s go back to sleep, we’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

-----

Harry flashed back to his own bed and kept dreaming about basilisks with big yellow eyes. Soon he was awake again and decided to visit Fawkes. He flashed over to the Headmaster’s Office and saw that Fawkes was asleep but his grandfather was already sitting behind his desk reading the Daily Prophet.

As his grandfather greeted him, “Good morning Harry, you’re early today,” he quickly changed back into his human form. He told his grandfather about their research and the problem they encountered, as well as his memory about the chamber of secrets and the events, which occurred in his second year at Hogwarts. Dumbledore became very pensive.

“Do you know that the chamber has been opened before, a girl has been killed and Hagrid has been accused of it, wrongly as I have always presumed?”

“Yes, Granddad. It was Tom Riddle, who opened the chamber at that time. Hagrid couldn’t even have done it, because you need to be able to speak Parseltongue to open it!”

“Is that so Harry? Can you prove it and would you be willing to do so? I mean… in order to prove Hagrid’s innocence? I don’t know if he would want to continue his studies again, but at least he would be allowed to have a wand again.”

Harry sighed. “I hate people knowing that I’m a Parselmouth, but I would do anything for Hagrid. He was the first friend I had; he was the first one who gave me a birthday present and even made a birthday cake for me, the first one I had ever received. For whom should I want to do something if not for him?”

“All right. I am very proud of you Harry. I will speak to Moody about this. Maybe we have to tell him about your coming from the future, because how else can we ask for help with killing a Basilisk that nobody is supposed to know of. And we should vanquish the Basilisk before anyone else has the idea to open the chamber.”

“No, Grandfather, wait. I have an idea. We won’t need help with the Basilisk, not only because I managed on my own, only with the help of Fawkes and the sword of Gryffindor, but because I’m a phoenix now. The Basilisk cannot kill me when I’m in the phoenix form, so I’ll be able to look into those big yellow eyes without danger. I will pick the eyes out first, then change back and kill him as I did the last time. You and Severus and whoever you deem fit to join us will even be able to help me after I have picked his eyes out.” He jumped out of his chair with excitement.

“That sounds quite good Harry. Would you mind if I pulled Professor Flitwick into the circle of people who know about you? I will put him under a charm so that he won’t be able to talk about your origin, as I did with Severus. And later we will obliviate him as well.”

“I don’t mind Grandfather. You may speak to whom you deem trustworthy and necessary to help. Just don’t forget to obliviate them afterwards. And after we have killed the Basilisk and collected all the Potions ingredients Severus can use, you can talk to the Aurors or whoever about Hagrid.”

“I would propose not to speak about it to your grandmother for the moment, because she wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore with worry about you.”

Harry couldn’t help laughing. “Speaking of Granny… I have to run for breakfast. Thanks Granddad, bye.”

Although he was already late in the Great Hall he took his time to walk by the Slytherin table to exchange a few words with Severus before sitting at the Gryffindor table, very well aware of the stern eyes watching him from the Head Table.

A few days later McGonagall came to Harry during breakfast. “Mr. Pane, Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak to you and Mr. Snape tonight after dinner.”

“But Professor, we have Quidditch practise,” Sirius protested immediately.

“Then I’m afraid you will have to practise without your Seeker today,” was the sharp reply.

After dinner, Harry and Severus climbed up the stairs to the Gargoyle. Harry groaned; McGonagall had forgotten to tell him the password.

“Chocolate frogs, gummy bears, mars bars, snickers, liquorice wands, cookies, lemon drops, basilisk drops,” Harry kept on guessing and suddenly the Gargoyle opened.

Severus sneered and they entered the office, where Dumbledore, Flitwick, Mad Eye Moody and to Harry’s astonishment the father of James Potter were assembled. Harry glanced at him in awe until he noticed his look being returned curiously. Dumbledore, who had noticed the glances that the two Potters exchanged, spoke up.

“Mr. Potter, may I introduce you to your Grandson, my Great Grandson who came from the future to visit us, Mr. Harry Potter AKA Harry Pane. Harry, as you’ll probably know, this is your Grandfather.”

“What!” Mr. Potter seemed shocked about this news, but Harry smiled fondly at his Grandfather, whom he just had met for the first time.

He went over to his Grandfather and held out his hand. “Hello, Grandfather, I’m very glad to meet you!”

Mr. Potter shook his hand fiercely. “My Grandson you are! And you look exactly like James – except for your beautiful green eyes. I am more than glad to meet you, and you will have to visit us at Potter Manor, while you are here. Your Grandmother will be very happy, when she sees you.”

-----

Dumbledore continued. “Anyway we have met here to discuss how to get rid of the Basilisk, which is hidden in the Chamber of Secrets. Only for this reason, I have told you about Harry, and please note that I have to obliviate you about everything concerning the future, before Harry leaves us again, probably in the summer.”

Harry chimed in. “May I suggest something based on my experiences vanquishing the basilisk last time? I would propose that I first go into the chamber alone, wake the basilisk and change immediately into my phoenix form. Nobody can accompany me, because any person who looks in the eyes of the Basilisk dies immediately, but in my phoenix form, I will be fine and can pick the Basilisk’s eyes out. Afterwards I’ll call you, and you can come down as well. If Fawkes doesn’t mind, I would like to ask him to accompany me though.”

#Of course, no problem, Icicle, I’d love to#

“Fawkes has already given his consent, thanks Fawkes,” Harry explained quickly to the others.

“The last time I battled the Basilisk with the sword of Gryffindor, which was hidden in the Sorting Hat.”

“You can use the sword anytime, because you are the heir of Gryffindor, just as myself, but how did you know that the sword was in there?” Dumbledore asked curiously.

“I didn’t know. Fawkes brought the Hat to me, and when I put my hand in it, I suddenly had the sword in my hand. Anyway, maybe I could take the sword with me in the first place and try to kill him the same way. But at the same time perhaps all of you together could try to stun the beast? If you used a stunning spell, all five of you at the same time, I can imagine that it could be strong enough. As an alternative, I could do the stunning spell together with you, and only if it doesn’t work try to get him with the sword. What do you think?”

Severus was the first to speak. “I would prefer the second version, because it won’t put you in so much danger as when you immediately try to take it out with the sword. But what about sending all our Patroni out before trying the stunning spell or do they really only work against Dementors?”

“I’m not sure about the Patronus charm; I have not heard it other than in conjunction with Dementors,” Flitwick said pensively, “but on the other hand it is a strong charm of the light used for working against the dark, and the Basilisk on the contrary is an animal considered as utmost dark, so maybe it could work. We should try it anyway; I think Mr. Snape’s idea is very good. Is every one of you capable of producing a corporate Patronus?”

“Yes” everyone answered.

“And”, Dumbledore added, “is every one of you willing to assist Harry, who no doubt will have to bear the main part in this action, in vanquishing the Basilisk, although it could put all of you in a lot of danger?”

“Yes,” so the unanimous answer.

“Very good. That leaves us with the question when we are going to do it. For the Basilisk I’m sure it won’t matter, but we,” he threw a meaningful look at Harry, “all have to be really well rested when we access the chamber. So I would propose Sunday morning. How is that?”

“Sunday would be good. Then we have the whole day to fight and to recover in case we need it.” Mr. Potter agreed.

“All right. Does everyone agree with Sunday morning?” Everything was nodding their consent. “Then we should meet here directly after breakfast. Harry and Severus, I expect you to take it easy on Saturday. No Quidditch, no studying through meals, and nothing else strenuous.”

“Alright Professor, but I have one more point. We have to take some of the Basilisk venom out immediately after we kill the Basilisk, because there are certain Potions, which require fresh Basilisk venom. All the other ingredients can be taken later. In case Harry and I were both injured, could some of you take care of it please?”

“And what do we have to do with the fresh venom? Isn’t that dangerous?” Harry countered.

“It is dangerous. We have to be very careful, and I will bring several pairs of protective gloves and a few phials to bottle the venom. Nothing has to be done about it, it just has to be taken and bottled freshly.”

“Don’t worry; we will take care of it. It will only take a few minutes, because as you said, everything else you will be able to get later,” Moody agreed.

With this, the two students were dismissed and returned to their common rooms.

Saturday passed in a blur. Harry and Severus spent the whole afternoon together with the Marauders and Lily, lying in the grass near the lake doing nothing but making plans about the Marauders’ Map.

“By the way, Severus and I won’t be around tomorrow. Don’t look for us, we have something to do for Dumbledore,” Harry told them to prevent his friends from searching for him and worrying.

“For Dumbledore? What might that be?” Remus asked inquiringly.

“Um… I have an idea, but I’m not sure what to expect. Ask me later, then I’ll be able to tell you,” Harry answered.

After dinner Harry went to bed immediately, downed the dreamless sleep Potion Severus had handed him secretly, and fell into a deep sleep until the following morning.

-----

After breakfast, they met in Dumbledore’s office.

“All right,” the Headmaster said. “Fawkes and Harry, will you be so kind as to flash us to the entrance of the chamber please?” Harry changed into Icicle and he and Fawkes flashed the other five people down to Myrtle’s bathroom.

“So, Fawkes and I will fly down first. I will call you as soon as you come down, and if I encounter any problems, Fawkes will come and get you.”

“All right Harry, please be VERY careful,” his Great Grandfather said worriedly.

“I will,” said Harry and hissed in Parseltongue to the sink, “open”.

While the entrance to the chamber opened, Harry changed into Icicle, and he and Fawkes flew down into the chamber. The Basilisk was nowhere to be seen, so Harry changed back into his human form and hissed, “come on big snake, wake up you lazybones.” Then he changed into Icicle immediately.

There it was! The huge Basilisk appeared, and Fawkes and Harry flew immediately in the direction of where its head was. On the way Fawkes trilled,

#You take the right eye, I’ll take the left one.#

#Okay# Harry trilled back and began to attack the snake. It was more difficult than they had thought, because the snake moved its big head wildly around in order to bite them, and it took the two phoenixes about half an hour, until both eyes of the Basilisk were gone.

#Will you please go and bring the others down, Fawkes? Then I can change back and enlarge the sword in the meanwhile.#

#All right Icicle, I’ll be back in a flash,# Fawkes trilled and flashed away.

In the meantime, Harry had changed back. He took the sword out of this pocket and tapped it with his wand to enlarge it, just at the moment when the others arrived behind him. He took a brief glance at them, but just at this moment, the big snake managed to snap at him and take a small bite in his left arm. Harry ignored it and would take care of it later. He summoned as much power as he could to produce a Patronus phoenix and told him to fight the snake; the others followed his example, and soon several white Patroni were running over to the snake.

“Alright, let’s stun it on 3,” Harry shouted and all of them waved their wands and put the strongest stunning spell they could cast at the snake, when Harry had counted to 3. The snake was still moving, but its movements had become a little slower.

Harry now took the sword, shouted, “Get out of the way”, and after running around for a while, stabbing the snake here and there, while the others were standing at a safe distance throwing stunning spells at the snake frequently, he finally managed to kill it after been bitten several times more by the big Basilisk. He was just too clumsy today. When the Basilisk fell down, he turned to the others.

-----

“It’s dead. Now, Severus, which parts of it do we have to take now?”

The others ran over and looked worriedly at Harry. “Are you all right Harry?” Dumbledore inquired.

“Yes, I’m fine, although the beast has bitten me a few times. I need Fawkes to come and heal the bites.”

Fawkes flew over to Harry immediately.

“Albus, you and Harry stay here, Potter, Snape, Moody and I will take the venom out” Flitwick said.

“All right, thank you Filius.”

Fawkes made himself comfortable on Harry and let his Healing tears flow in each of the wounds the Basilisk had made. It felt really good, but Harry noticed that his mind was slowly beginning to slip. Maybe some of the venom had already managed to get into his blood. He had to transform into Icicle, that should help, but as much as he tried, he couldn’t change into his phoenix form. ‘Maybe I have once again used all my magic, therefore I can’t even transform,’ he thought.

In the meantime, the others had come back. For Severus, the dead Basilisk must be a dream come true; he looked incredibly happy, but Harry barely noticed.

“Sevvus, need antidote venom…” he managed to say before he passed out.

“Severus, can you make an antidote? Maybe together with Professor Slughorn?” Dumbledore asked worriedly.

“I can make it, especially as I have the venom itself, but it will take about one and a half hours. I don’t need Slughorn, it’s easier on my own; take Harry to the Hospital Wing and keep him cool, and if possible keep him awake,” Severus replied urgently, already sorting the ingredients he would need for the Potion in his head.

“Fawkes please take Severus to the Potions classroom immediately and then come back for the rest of us,” Dumbledore ordered his familiar, and Fawkes was back in a flash and brought everyone else up to Myrtle’s bathroom.

“I’m afraid we have to wake Harry up to close the chamber,” Dumbledore said hesitantly. He pointed his wand at Harry “Enervate”.

Harry blinked. “Harry, you have to close the chamber again please,” he could hear and mumbled, “close.”

As soon as he could hear the “Alright Harry, thank you Harry”, he closed his eyes again and was gone.

-----

Dumbledore thanked the three others and dismissed them, before Fawkes took Harry and him to the Hospital Wing. He put Harry on his favourite bed and went looking for Madam Pomfrey, whom he finally found eating lunch in the Great Hall. After he had explained the situation, she ran back to the wing, accompanied by a very upset McGonagall. Pomfrey examined Harry and became very serious.

“His pulse is very week, and his temperature is at nearly 43 degrees. If Severus doesn’t hurry up, he won’t survive I’m afraid. How long did he say will it take to make the antidote?”

“About an hour from now. He said we should keep him cool and try to keep him awake before he went to make the Potion.”

“Yes, let’s put him into ice and wake him up.” With a flick of her wand, the bed was transfigured into a bath tab filled with ice.

“Can’t we let him sleep? It must be horrible to be so hot and then packed in ice” McGonagall asked worried.

“No, because his body has to fight the poison and this will be more efficient when he is awake. Enervate”.

Harry blinked; he was so cold; where was he?

His grandmother took his hand and said, “Harry, dear, can you tell me what happened?”

Harry leaned into the touch of her cool hand and answered, “Don’t know, have to fight snake, Sevvus wants Potions ingredients, Tom cannot have Ginny, MY girlfriend,…”

The three adults eyed each other worriedly. “He’s delirious. What can we do Poppy, Albus?”

“I’m afraid we can’t do anything Minerva. Harry, everything is all right, you don’t have to do anything, just lie there and relax,” Poppy said calmingly.

“It’s so cold, Granny, help me,” Harry mumbled, and Pomfrey transfigured the tub back to a bed after taking his temperature again.

“He is a little cooler, but we have to watch him closely until Severus comes.”

After half an hour Poppy checked on Harry again and said urgently, “I hope Severus hurries up now, otherwise he won’t make it much longer.”

After waiting and worrying for a while, they heard the door to the Hospital Wing being opened, and Severus arrived with the Potion, helped Harry to sit up and drink the whole phial.

After a few waves of her wand Poppy said, “Thank you Severus. He is much better, his temperature is still very high, but much better than before and his pulse is nearly back to normal. I will keep him here until he is completely recovered, which might be tomorrow or which might take a few days. Please let him rest now.”

Minerva glanced gratefully at Severus and said, “100 points to Slytherin for saving the life of a class mate”.

Severus blushed and nodded, “Thank you Professor.”

“Now please come to my office all of you. You owe Minerva and me a few explanations Gentlemen,” Poppy said sternly and added, as soon as they arrived in her office “Headmaster what did you think about taking children to a basilisk? How can you endanger your students like this?”

“That is exactly what I want to know,” Minerva agreed angrily, before her husband and Severus could tell them the whole story.

Harry was asleep for three days and was finally released from the Hospital Wing after two more days under the condition that he should take it easy for a few days, which according to Poppy meant no Quidditch and no running around the corridors. The Marauders, who in this timeline apart from Harry consisted of James, Sirius, Remus, Severus and Lily, spent every free minute with Harry and filled him in about their research regarding the corridors of Hogwarts. While Harry had been asleep, Severus had conducted several tests with powdered basilisk venom but had not come to any conclusions so far. On Saturday morning, just before Harry was allowed to leave, Dumbledore strayed into the wing to speak to Harry.

“Harry, I’d like to speak to you. Have you already had breakfast?”

“No, I thought I’d be allowed to leave in time for breakfast.”

“If that is so, let’s have breakfast together in my office. Poppy, may he leave?”

“Yes, you may go, Harry, don’t do anything strenuous for a few days, and don’t skip meals. I don’t want to see you here again before the Easter holidays.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t want to see you either,” mumbled Harry and said aloud,

“Thank you Madam Pomfrey.”

-----

They went up to the Headmaster’s Office, where Dumbledore told Harry, that Moody had talked to the head of the Aurors about the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and that Hagrid had been granted a trial which would take place on Monday.

“Now Harry, do you have any memories of Voldemort telling you that he had opened the chamber, which could be used at the trial?”

Harry thought for a while and answered, “Yes, I think so. May I burrow your pensive?” He put a few memories which didn’t reveal anything about having occurred in the future into the pensive and thought about what else he might be able to do for Hagrid while Dumbledore was watching his memories.

“Very good Harry. That will do; the only problem is that we will have to explain where you come from in order to clarify where and when this might have taken place. So we will have to be careful to obliviate anyone who leaves the room.”

“Could we perhaps take Professor Flitwick with us for that purpose? If anyone is good at memory charms it must be him, and as he doesn’t have to say anything during the trial he could fully concentrate on this.”

“That’s a very good idea Harry. I will talk to him at lunchtime. By the way, we should have breakfast.”

At this moment, McGonagall entered the room. “Why are you having breakfast here and not in the Great Hall?”

“Yes Minerva, we will have breakfast this minute. Twinkle! Could you bring breakfast for Harry and me, and tea for Minerva please? Now, Min, I had to discuss something with Harry concerning Hagrid’s trial. He has put memories in the pensive which show clearly that Hagrid is innocent, even regardless of the fact that he cannot even open the chamber.”

“That’s very good. Hagrid has earned better, and I’ll be very happy to teach him privately if he wants to learn for his OWLs and NEWTs.”

“You know, Professor, in my time you have engaged him as Professor for Care of Magical Creatures, and he made a very good one.”

“Thanks Harry, I think I will hire him as soon as our teacher retires. I will try to do the same with Severus by the way. As soon as Professor Slughorn retires, Severus can have the job, don’t you agree Minerva?”

“I agree fully Albus. But now eat your breakfast please, both of you.”

When the two teachers dismissed him, he asked hesitantly, “Hagrid knows about where I come from, doesn’t he?”

“Yes Harry, he knows,” McGonagall answered. “Do you want to talk to him?”

Harry smiled. “Yes, I would like that very much. Thank you. Bye.” He took a short detour via his dormitory to pick up his pensive and then went straight to Hagrid’s hut.

-----

“Hi Harry. Interesting story Dumbledore told me about you” Hagrid said and beamed at him.

“I don’t know how much he told you, but I just wanted to tell you my version of things. I would like to tell you how we met, that you were the first friend I ever had, and that it was you who gave me my first birthday present and baked the first birthday cake for me.” He put his memory into the Pensieve and invited Hagrid to watch together.

When they came out of the memory, Hagrid was stunned. “So we are really close in your time, aren’t we?”

“Yes, and Dumbledore hires you as Care Of Magical Creatures teacher, and you are a really good one. I have changed the future so much since I have come here, so I don’t know what will really happen, but I hope Dumbledore will at least remember to do so again.” He smiled mischievously. “Anyway we will meet on Monday for the trial. I’m very glad you get one, because in my time you were still using your umbrella as a wand, and they even put you into Azkaban when the Chamber of Secrets was opened again. But as I have changed the future and already killed Voldemort, you have nothing to fear, and we have a memory that clearly shows your innocence, so don’t worry, everything will be fine. Bye for now Hagrid.”

“Bye, Harry, and thanks a lot!”

-----

On the day of the trial, Dumbledore, Flitwick, Hagrid and Harry floo-ed directly from the Headmaster’s Office to the ministry. The trial took place in a small courtroom under exclusion of the public. Moody had arranged for the trial to be held with as few people involved as possible.

As Harry was the most important witness, he was called up immediately. When he was asked his name and birthday, everyone who didn’t already know who he was, gasped. As he feared people would not believe that he came from the future, Harry proposed to be questioned under Veritaserum, so he was given just one drop of Veritaserum before he was further questioned.

“When did you first meet Hagrid?”

“On my 11th birthday. He came to explain to me about Hogwarts and took me to buy my supplies.”

“Did he open the Chamber of Secrets 30 years ago and cause the death of a student?”

“No.”

“How can you know that? You were not even alive at that time.”

“No, but Voldemort as Tom Riddle told me in my 2nd year at Hogwarts, that Hagrid was innocent.”

“Who then opened the chamber?”

“Tom Riddle.”

“Why do you know that?”

“He told me at the same time. You can watch my memory in the pensive if you wish.”

His memory was self explanatory, and Hagrid was judged to be innocent and was given permission to receive a new wand, as his had been snapped thirty years ago, and was granted 50 thousand gallons as compensation for the misjudgement which had taken place thirty years ago. Harry beamed at his friend – ‘How good that I came to the past,’ he thought once more.

“Headmaster, Harry, thank you!” Hagrid just managed to say before starting to cry big tears.

“You are very welcome Hagrid” Harry beamed at him.

“Headmaster, may I take Harry to Diagon Alley for an ice cream?”

“Of course Hagrid, you may. Harry is excused from all classes today,” Dumbledore replied gently, smiled at both of them.

“Cool,” was all Harry could say before he had to struggle out of a huge hug in Hagrid’s big arms.

After having the biggest ice cream sold at Fortesque’s ice cream parlour, they went to buy a new wand for Hagrid. They spent the whole afternoon in Diagon Alley, and especially Harry enjoyed it very much. He felt as free as he hadn’t felt in a long time. In the past (future), he couldn’t go out unless a bunch of Order members were accompanying him, and after Voldemort’s demise he had spent all the time either in the Hospital Wing or being grounded by his over protective Great Grandmother. He hadn’t even been able to go to Hogsmeade since then. They only intended to return to Hogwarts in time for dinner.

Suddenly Hagrid embraced him fiercely, and Harry felt he couldn’t breathe anymore and was overcome by dizziness. The next thing he knew was that they were walking up the street from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts.

“Wow, Hagrid, your grip is too strong. I could hardly breathe,” Harry complained and continued to walk.

“You’re just in time Harry,” James beamed at him, when he sat down for dinner. “Don’t forget we’ve Quidditch training after dinner!”

Harry only replied tiredly, “Yes James” ignoring the dirty look Lily threw at his father and forgetting that he wasn’t allowed to play Quidditch at all.

-----

After the trial was over and the basilisk had been vanquished, Harry decided to use the next weeks to concentrate once more on his studies and on the research of the floo powder. He also wanted to resume his studies with his Great Grandfather about wandless magic.

One day at breakfast Harry nearly fell from his chair startled, when Severus spoke to him from behind.

“Harry, do you have time to meet me in the Room of Requirement after breakfast?”

“Of course Severus,” Harry said and beamed at his best friend. “Sorry Lily, I will come to the common room to do homework as soon as I can.”

“Don’t worry,” James laughed at him. “I will take care of Lily for you”, he said, and everyone laughed. Harry didn’t even notice the dirty look Severus gave James – only Lily saw it and smiled happily.

They met in the Room of Requirement AKA private Potions lab, and Severus told Harry, “I have run a lot of tests, and I think we need two more ingredients which we need help with. One is unicorn’s horn, and the other house elf hair. Do you have an idea whom we could ask about that? Your Great Grandfather?”

“Unicorn’s horn we can ask Hagrid about. He knows about me anyway, so it’ll be easy to ask him. About house elf hair, we could just ask my Great Grandfather. Shall we go and ask both of them now?”

-----

First, they went to the Headmaster’s Office.

“Professor, for the Potion, you know which one, I would like to try house elf hair, but it has to be freely given. Do you have any idea whom we could ask about it?”

Dumbledore smiled fondly at his two boys. “That should not be a problem, let’s ask Twinkle first. Twinkle!”

“Yes Professor, what can I do for you and Mr. Pane and Mr. Snape?”

“Twinkle, Severus and Harry are trying to invent a Potion which is very important for Harry. But for this Potion they need house elf hair which is freely given. Do you think…” Twinkle did not wait for the professor to speak further. She beamed with joy.

“Yes, professors, masters. Twinkle would like to give her hair for your Potion, no problem. Twinkle can make her hair longer if you need more, no problem at all.”

“That is very reassuring Twinkle, thank you very much. Severus would you like to have some immediately? If yes, how much do you need?”

“I would appreciate that very much. Thank you very much Twinkle. For the moment, we don’t need much, as we are only trying a Potion out. But if it really works, we will need quite a lot I’m afraid.”

“Thanks a lot, Twinkle,” Harry interrupted. “So this problem is solved. Another thing, Granddad, is unicorn horn. Do you think Hagrid could help us with that?”

Dumbledore nodded. “If anyone is able to get unicorn horn for you, it will be Hagrid. And I can imagine he would do anything for you Harry, as he owes you for his freedom.”

Harry shook his head. “He doesn’t owe me anything, Professor. But we will go and ask him. Thank you for your help.”

“You are very welcome my boys. Can I assume that you are progressing successfully with your Potion?”

Harry groaned. Severus threw him a questioning glance and answered, “Yes professor, we will need a few more weeks, but we’ll probably be able to manage.”

“We?” Harry shouted. “YOU! I’m not doing anything. Granddad, I’m sorry, I’m too much of a dunderhead at Potions, and I can’t do anything about it. Severus is doing the whole work alone. I’m only reading book after book but don’t come to anything.”

“NO!” Severus contradicted vehemently. “That’s not true. Who went to kill a Basilisk in order for me to get the ingredients? Who took me here to get the house elf hair? And who will accompany me to Hagrid to ask for the unicorn horn? YOU!”

“That’s easy. Everyone could do it.”

“Of course. How many Basilisks do you think the other students have already vanquished in their lives? 1? 2? 30?”

“All right my boys, calm down. Each one of you is good at doing your parts, Harry is good at Defence and Transfiguration, and Severus is brilliant at Potions. But remember… when you work together as you have been doing so far for the whole year, you are brilliant at nearly everything, it doesn’t matter which of you fulfils what part of the deal, the main point is that you can do brilliant work together. Don’t forget that.”

-----

Hagrid told them it could be difficult to get unicorn horn, because he couldn’t actually communicate with them, but Harry had an idea.

“Severus, Hagrid, do you think a stag would be able to communicate with a unicorn?”

Severus only shrugged helplessly, but Hagrid thought for a while before he said hesitantly, “I don’t know, but it could be. Do you think of James Potter, or why has it to be a stag?”

“Yes, I thought of James. I will ask him at lunch – oh shit, we’re late! Severus, lunch has started 15 minutes ago! What am I going to do?”

“Oi Harry, take it easy, you won’t starve,” Hagrid tried to calm the now hyperventilating boy. “What is wrong with him?” he asked Severus.

Severus sneered and said, “When he manages to skip a meal, he has to show himself in the Hospital to get a Potion and a check-up by Pomfrey, and he hates it because she often finds a reason to keep him.”

-----

“Severus, let’s run, Hagrid, sorry, we have to go, I’ll ask James and come again later. Bye.” With that he started to run and didn’t stop until he reached the entrance doors where he waited for Severus who was shortly behind him.

“I don’t know if it will be reasonable to go in there now after running like this. Won’t it be better to ask her for the Potion?”

“NO!” Harry shouted and ran into the Great Hall, directly in the direction of the Gryffindor table. As he dared not look at the Head Table, he couldn’t see the upset looks following him to his seat. He managed to eat exactly two bites before all plates were cleared from the table. He didn’t mind, because he wasn’t hungry anyway; he was still trying to catch his breath.

“James, wait. I have to ask you something.”

Lily interrupted him “Harry, what’s wrong? You’re wheezing horribly.”

“It’s okay Lily, I’m fine, I just had to run here up from Hagrid’s hut, in order to reach lunch in time.”

“In time you call that?” Sirius laughed. “Is that why McGonagall and Pomfrey threw these dirty looks at you?”

“Did they?” Harry was horrified. “Anyway, James, what I was going to ask… When you are prongs, do you think you will be able to talk to unicorns?”

James was stunned. “What kind of question is that? Why should I communicate with unicorns?”

“Because I need unicorn horn for a very important Potion. We went to Hagrid to ask him if he could get it for me, but he said he wasn’t able to communicate to them. So Harry had the idea that maybe you could…” Severus joined the conversation.

“I don’t know, but I can try. Shall we go to Hagrid immediately? Then he could take us to meet a unicorn.”

“That would be great, James, thank you,” Severus and Harry nodded.

“Mr. Pane!”

Harry groaned and closed his eyes. He had still problems to breathe.

“What do you think you are doing? Do you think arriving two minutes before the end of lunch saves you from having missed lunch?” The angry voice of this Grandmother reached his ear.

“Sorry, Granny, we had to visit Hagrid for a Potions ingredient, and suddenly we were late, but we couldn’t manage faster, I could have flashed us here but I forgot, sorry, didn’t mean to.” His voice could hardly be heard, he was getting trouble breathing again.

“I think he needs a calming draught Professor,” Severus spoke up. “He started hyperventilating when he noticed we were late for lunch.” He took a phial out of the pocket of his robe and handed it to the teacher.

“Do you always carry Potions around?” she asked curiously.

“Yes Professor, but the most often used Healing Potions only, especially as Harry gets sick so often,” he said smirking.

“Harry, can you drink this for me? Severus made you a calming draught,” McGonagall asked and Harry downed the Potion without protest. He felt a little better.

“May we go now Professor?” She sighed.

“Yes Harry, you may, but I want you to meet me at the Hospital Wing at 9:30 tonight for your nutrient Potion.” Harry groaned but nodded.

-----

“Alright James, Severus, let’s go. Lily, Sirius, Remus, are you coming too?”

In the end, they went all together with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest to search for a unicorn. Finally, after walking for about an hour they found a herd of unicorns. Hagrid motioned for them to stay away and sit down somewhere quietly. Harry, who had been feeling a little under the weather ever since lunchtime, was glad for the break. James transformed into Prongs and followed Severus and Hagrid who went slowly as not to startle the animals and to try to talk to one of them. The unicorns knew Hagrid was a friend, so they didn’t run away and even stood to listen when James tried to talk to them. After he had translated everything Severus told him, the unicorns agreed to give quite a lot of unicorn horn to them, much more than they would need for the Potion.

After they had returned to the castle, Severus pulled Harry down to the Potions classroom immediately.

“Harry, I think we nearly have it. I know the ingredients it should work with, we only have to try several times, because I don’t know yet the necessary quantity of each of the ingredients. Today we will make five different Potions at the same time, each of them with slightly different quantities. Can you help me?”

“Of course, you just have to tell me what to do.”

They made the five Potions; Harry prepared the ingredients while Severus was busy taking notes on each step of each Potion. Afterwards Severus compared his notes and started five new Potions, again taking notes on all of them.

-----

“Harry!”

“Hmm?”

“You’re so quiet, what’s wrong with you?”

“Just don’t want to disturb you.”

“Really? You don’t look well.”

“My chest has been hurting ever since lunch time. Can I go back to my dormitory?”

“Of course Harry, go to bed. Or maybe I should take you to see the dragon?”

Harry nodded sadly and Severus looked at him astonished. Harry must feel quite bad if he would go to the dragon willingly. He quickly tidied up the Potions classroom and pulled Harry up to the Hospital Wing, where Harry quietly sat down and waited for Severus to get Madam Pomfrey.

She came immediately and eyed him suspiciously. “What are you doing here? I didn’t expect you so early.”

“He is not feeling well, so I brought him here,” Severus answered for Harry. He told her what had happened at lunchtime and that Harry said he hadn’t felt well after that.

Pomfrey waved her wand over Harry thinking that it must be very bad if he came by his own free will. “Yes, he has a respiratory infection, which is quite bad. Make yourself comfortable Harry, you have to stay here.”

Harry only nodded.

“When you go to dinner, which will start in five minutes, please tell Professor McGonagall that Harry is here. He will have to rest today, but you may visit him tomorrow.”

Later that evening Harry heard something talking in Parseltongue. It came from the floor next to his bed. He looked down…

Chapter 16 – The Map

“Severus,” Harry hissed at the snake, which was lying on the floor next to his bed, surprised.

“Yes. Do you feel better?”

“A little. Why are you here, and why as a snake?”

“I wanted to show you something, but the dragon is still in her office. I think I have the Potion. Tomorrow we can try it out on a rat, or whenever she lets you out.”

“Wow, that’s cool. You’re just great!”

“I’ll show you tomorrow, I can’t change back now, because she would notice me. Go to sleep, I’ll be back tomorrow morning. Good night Harry. Oops, look at the cat over there.”

“Cat? Oh, is that McGonagall?”

“Yes. I could be in trouble. Oops.”

“Just ignore her and try to leave. Maybe she doesn’t want to be seen either. Good night Severus and thank you.”

-----

When Harry woke up in the morning, Severus was sitting in a chair next to him. As soon as he notice Harry was awake, he handed him a small piece of parchment.

It read:

Floo powder to get back to the future:

fairy dust

essence of whirlwind

powdered unicorn’s horn

fresh basilisk powder (made from the venom to be collected from a living basilisk or within 24 hours of it’s death and preserved immediately)

house elf hair freely given, 1 mm per day (7305 mm 20 years)

“Don’t lose this parchment; nobody except from us should know about it. And don’t get your hopes up yet, you know that we haven’t tested this so far. Maybe it doesn’t work at all.”

“Alright Severus, thank you. When can we test it?” Harry asked eagerly.

“If you want me to do the test alone, I can do it immediately, but when you want to be with me, we have to wait until you are allowed to go. How do you feel? Do you think she will let you go sometime today?”

Harry looked down to his blankets and shook his head. He still didn’t feel much better. “Severus, when you go down to breakfast, could you please ask Remus or Lily or even James to bring me my school books? I really have to study for the tests next week, and as I missed all of the last ones because of my fight with Tom, I have to give my best on these tests.”

“Alright, I will ask them. I have to go down to breakfast now anyway.”

-----

Pomfrey finally released Harry on Monday evening just in time for dinner but not before having a stern talk with Harry.

“Harry, did your relatives who raised you ever take you to a Healer or a doctor when you were ill?”

“No, never. I always had to heal myself, meaning … that broken bones or such external injuries I always healed somehow by wish, internal illnesses just had to go away by themselves. Last summer it was quite bad; I had a cold but couldn’t do anything about it, and by the time Dumbledore finally rescued me to Hogwarts it had turned quite bad and you told me it was Pneumonia.”

“That’s exactly what I thought. With this lack of treatment of illnesses, they have damaged your immune system, and that’s why the two of us meet so often. You have to be very careful when you have any trouble breathing like on Saturday, or when you even get a slight cold, you have to come to me immediately, otherwise it might turn into Pneumonia before you know it. You were very near to it this time. And now go down to dinner. No running, no playing Quidditch for a week!”

As soon as dinner was finished, Harry stormed up to the Slytherin table. “Severus come on, let’s do it.”

They two boys went down to the Potions classroom quickly, Severus caught a rat and stunned it, took a small box filled with yellow powder out of his pocket, threw the rat together with the powder in the fireplace and called, “Hogwarts Potions classroom”. Harry and Severus watched as the rat disappeared.

“Now we can only wait until tomorrow. The problem is… will it arrive exactly at the same time? As it said in the recipe, 1 mm of elf hair means a day. I put about 1.1mm in the Potion to be on the safe side, so the rat should be back about 2 hours later than we have now, so that we are sure we’ll be able to be here.”

“Alright. What are we going to tell Lily, why a rat comes through the floo during our Potions tutoring?”

“Let’s just tell her it’s an experiment, don’t tell any details.”

“Alright. Shall we brew a Potion together? I still have time until my lesson with Dumbledore about wandless magic which starts at 9.”

“Yes, we can do that. Pomfrey has asked me to make a batch of the new pain relieving Potion I invented, so we could do that now, if you don’t mind.”

-----

During their Potions tutoring the next evening, both of them could hardly concentrate on their Potion.

Suddenly Lily giggled and asked curiously, “what’s wrong with the two of you? You are watching the fireplace constantly. Are you waiting for someone coming through the floo?”

Severus and Harry giggled as well and Harry answered sincerely, “Yes, of course, we are waiting for a rat coming to visit us.”

When an hour later the fireplace fared green and a stunned rat appeared, Lily fainted, while the two boys congratulated themselves.

“Have you laughed enough?” Severus asked his friend. “May I wake her up?”

“No, wait!” Harry pointed his wand at Lily, mouthed “obliviate,” and said, “now you may.”

“Enervate”

Lily blinked. “What happened?”

“Nothing. You just fainted, is everything alright?”

“Yes of course. Let’s get on with our Potion.”

Later the same evening Harry thought, ‘everyone in my time told me the Marauders had always being funny at playing pranks, but since I have arrived here they’ve done nothing interesting. Do I have to help them with that as well?’

On their way to breakfast the next morning, he whispered to James and Sirius. “I think we are much too good, we should play some pranks don’t you think?”

“Yes, of course. We nearly forgot we had to defend the reputation we got in our fifth year. Let’s prank the Slytherins.”

“No, Sirius. Not the Slytherins. Don’t forget, one of the Marauders is a Slytherin. No, let’s prank either the teachers or everyone here. And I’ve already thought of something. But I can’t tell you here; let’s meet beside the lake directly after lunch.”

The six Marauders, James, Sirius, Remus, Harry, Severus and Lily ate their lunch very fast and met outside to hear what Harry had thought of.

“I thought about changing the floor under all entrance doors to the main class rooms into Portkeys that will transport people to different classrooms, for example the floor under the door of the Transfigurations classroom into a Portkey that sends people directly to the Potions classroom, although the door, of course will stay where it is. The door of the Potions classroom for example to the Hospital wing and so on. It should cause a great deal of chaos all over the school. What do you think it?”

“Cooool” Sirius and James shouted at the same time.

Remus asked carefully, “Harry, do you know how to make Portkeys? Even those which don’t move with the victim?”

“Yes, Remus, I know how. In fact, I had that idea while I was stuck in the Hospital Wing, so one night I flashed directly into the library, borrowed a book about Portkeys and studied it. No problem. As I’m the only one capable of making Portkeys I could go alone during the night, but I would prefer to have one of you with me, and we need to plan which door should lead where.”

“When you make the Portkeys, can you fix a time for which the Portkeys are active?”

“Yes, and I think we should just set all times to a fixed date from ten minutes before the start of the first lesson to five minutes after classes start. And afterwards the Portkeys should deactivate.”

“Harry, that sounds great, but are you really sure it will work? Should we meet in the dungeons tonight after dinner and try with some of the unused classrooms?”

“No, we have Quidditch practise tonight. Only Remus and Lily are free, but we need Harry to make the Portkey.”

“I’m not allowed to play Quidditch this week, so I could try with Severus, Lily and Remus. Has someone a free period today? If so, you could make a plan, and when our test works this evening, we could set the whole plan into action tonight and set the Portkeys for tomorrow morning.”

In fact, Remus and Sirius had a free period and developed a plan to transport every one over the greatest possible distances. Unfortunately, the classes for Care Of Magical Creatures couldn’t be considered, but all other classes, even the greenhouse for Herbology was included in the plan.

-----

Harry couldn’t believe that the teachers were unable to detect the excitement that dominated Gryffindor table the next morning. The Marauders couldn’t wait for classes to finally start. All six Marauders had Charms for their first class, and the portkey at the door to the Charms classroom was set to take everyone to the Transfiguration classroom.

“Oh, I can’t wait to see McGonagall’s face,” Sirius whispered to Harry, who just couldn’t stop laughing when he thought of the impending mayhem.

“Be careful Harry, you’re attracting attention. Your Grandparents are watching you,” Lily whispered from his other side.

Harry’s face fell and he said to Lily, “Oh no, if my granny thinks I’m behind this I’ll be grounded for the rest of the year.” With that he managed to put on a very serious expression on this face.

“Alright, let’s go; we don’t want to be late,” Remus said in a normal voice, for everyone to hear.

And it worked! They went to the Charms classroom, waited for Professor Flitwick to open the door, entered and felt a familiar pull behind their navels only to find themselves standing in the Transfiguration classroom together with all their classmates and Professor Flitwick. Professor McGonagall however was there as well; she probably hadn’t entered through the classroom door but through the door between her office and the classroom. The six culprits tried hard to make confused faces, when the first students who had already noticed, that they were in the wrong room, tried to leave the classroom and were pulled to the Potions classroom. There was complete and utter chaos, and it took up to about the end of the first lesson until all students had finally reached the classes they were supposed to be in.

Just after curfew on the same day, Fawkes appeared in Harry’s dormitory and asked, #Do you know anything about the prank this morning?#

“Um… why? Did Grandfather suspect me and sent you to ask?”

#No. But Albus was as amused as Minnie was upset. He thought it was funny and even said he was impressed with the abilities of the student who made the Portkeys. You know he would rather award a medal to someone for playing a good prank. In fact, both of them suspect you and your friends I think, but of course I won’t say anything.#

“All right Fawkes, it was us. You may tell Albus but not his wife.”

#She can’t understand me anyway, Icicle. I’ll be on my way, come to visit me anytime.#

As soon as the phoenix had flashed away, the four others rushed to Harry’s bed. “What did he say?”

“Do they suspect us?”

“Wait mates, everything is okay. Yes they suspect us, and McGonagall is quite upset, but Dumbledore thinks it was funny and was even impressed by our abilities of making Portkeys.”

Fortunately, their Head of House couldn’t see the four inhabitants of the Gryffindor sixth year’s dormitory rolling on the floor with laughter holding their stomachs.

-----

“When are we going to resume our work on the Marauders’ Map?” James asked two days later.

“Sorry, James, but as I missed the last tests completely, I really have to study this time. As soon as the tests are over, I’ll help with the map,” Harry promised.

“Maybe we can do a lot during the Easter holidays, or are you all going home?” he added.

“Normally we all go home for the holidays, but we could stay here I suppose.” James said.

For the next ten days, Harry spent every free minute studying and the tests went off really well; thanks to Severus’ Potions tutoring he and Lily even managed to get an O in their Potion tests.

“Cool” Harry said to Severus smirking. ”Thanks to your tutoring, I got an O in Potions. You have never given me anything better than an A.”

Severus laughed. “Maybe you have really become better in Potions than you were?!”

“Yes of course, but you also have become better at teaching,” Harry said teasingly. “By the way, Severus, are you going to stay here for the holidays?”

“Of course Harry, I won’t leave you here alone, I told you before.”

“That’s great, thank you. The other Marauders are going to stay as well, and we thought we could work on the Marauders’ Map. Are a lot of the Slytherins staying?”

“As far as I know there are only two first years staying, nobody else.”

“Should we ask Dumbledore or McGonagall if you might stay in our dormitory over the holidays? There is a free bed in our room anyway.”

“I would like that very much, but do you think they will allow it?”

“You mean, although there are three others to baby-sit me? Let’s go to the Headmaster’s Office and ask Granddad. It’s easier to ask McGonagall after getting his approval.”

“But wouldn’t your room-mates mind?”

“No, of course not. You belong to the Marauders, don’t you?”

Fortunately, Dumbledore and McGonagall agreed immediately.

-----

After the carriages with the other students had left Hogwarts, the six Marauders gathered immediately in the dormitory and made plans for efficient use of their holiday time. They paired in three groups – Harry and Severus, Remus and Sirius, Lily and James – and divided the castle into three large parts for their initial exploration. During the second week, they would go all together to suss out parts of the castle which were difficult to access and where their different special abilities would be needed.

They spent all their days exploring the castle, and Severus and Harry, who had taken the part of Hogwarts that was very far from Gryffindor because of Harry’s ability to flash them around, managed to miss lunch or dinner every second day. Harry couldn’t care less; they were so busy, and as long as they were not hungry, he didn’t want to interrupt their ‘studies’. Every evening, five minutes before curfew, they flashed to the Hospital Wing, where he downed his nutrient Potion, just to change back and flash Severus and himself straight to the dormitory. On the fifth day, McGonagall and Pomfrey were both waiting for him, very angry and threatening to keep him there if it happened just once again, so that Harry decided to be more careful during the second week.

After the first week, they were able to draw the main points of the map and only had the fine tuning and the charms left for the second week. During the second week, Lily and Remus spent a lot of time in the library looking for useful charms for the map, while the four others were busy with the fine measurement of places difficult to access, where the Animagus abilities of Harry or Severus were needed. They were very busy, but due to Harry’s ability to flash them all around the castle, they managed to finish everything during the holidays.

When school started again, each of them regretted not having much time any more to invest in the map, but they made a detailed plan of their free periods and whenever at least two of them were free of classes, they would meet and work on the map.

-----

Quidditch practise was resumed as well, and James made them train very hard in order to win the Quidditch cup. The final game against Ravenclaw was in two weeks time, and they had Quidditch practise not only three nights a week until directly before curfew, but also on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Harry groaned; he liked flying, but Quidditch practise on five days a week, especially mostly in the rain, was just too much.

One day after their Potions lesson, Professor Slughorn called, “Mr. Snape and Mr. Pane, please stay after class.” The two friends looked astonished at each other and shrugged. What could that be about?

Chapter 17 – Slytherin’s Library

“I just wanted to ask you about the Chamber of Secrets. Have you already found time to save the ingredients you can get from the basilisk?” the professor asked them.

“No, Professor, we didn’t have the time to go to the chamber yet. But we should work on it, you are right. Maybe we could get down there on Saturday or Sunday, what do you think Harry?”

“I have Quidditch practise in the morning, but after that we can go, on both days if you wish. Are you interested in joining us Professor?”

“If you don’t mind, I would like to come with you. Mr. Pane, what do you intend to do with the ingredients?”

“Why do you ask me? They are not mine.”

“Ah but they are yours. It was you, who discovered the chamber and opened it to vanquish the basilisk. Nobody else could access it.”

“I don’t intend doing anything with them. If it is up to me, I would say half of the ingredients are for the Hogwarts Potions classroom, where you, Professor, and if necessary the students have access to them, and the other half is for Severus and his personal experiments.”

“All right Mr. Pane, thank you very much. Then let’s go on Saturday after lunch. I will notify Professor Dumbledore, maybe he wants to come along.”

-----

After nearly four hours of Quidditch practise in the rain and a short lunch on Saturday, Harry, Severus and the two professors entered the Chamber of Secrets. While Severus and the Potions professor carefully began their work on getting ingredients out of the basilisk, Harry and Professor Dumbledore moved around in the Chamber only to discover that it was much bigger than they had originally thought. After passing through one small wooden door they had discovered, which also opened on “open” in Parseltongue, they found a comfortable room like the Gryffindor common room, only in Slytherin colours. Even a fireplace was there, and behind another door they found a library – a room full of books up to the ceiling, books from the time of the founders. This chamber was a treasure trove for research.

“I’m already so busy, when should I read all these books – where’s Hermione when you need her? Maybe I should stay here until the end of my 7th year, Granddad,” Harry said jokingly.

“Why not Harry, you are very welcome. It doesn’t matter when you return, as long as you return before you are born. You have changed the future so much, it doesn’t matter anymore,” was the encouraging answer he got.

While he was sitting on the sofa in Slytherin’s chamber looking at a book, this conversation played in his head repeatedly.

Suddenly Dumbledore brought him back to reality. “Harry, dinner will start in ten minutes; we have to return, but we can come back here tomorrow.”

They went to call the others, and Harry flashed them up to the Potions classroom, where the two Potions specialists stored all the ingredients that they had collected, before Harry flashed them over to the Great Hall just in time for dinner.

-----

“Hi Harry, where have you been?” Sirius said and sneezed.

Remus threw James a dirty look. “That’s what you get for letting your people fly in the rain for hours; they get sick and you have to play alone.”

“Tell him Remus. He is crazy. I had to go to the Chamber of Secrets with Slughorn, Dumbledore and Severus, because they want parts of the Basilisk as Potion ingredients, and as the Basilisk is so huge, it is going to take them a long time to collect everything. I explored a little together with my Grandfather and we discovered a hidden room just like our own common room and a huge library with lots of books from the age of the founders.”

“Really Harry? That sounds very interesting. May I come with you sometime?” Lily asked.

“I want to go as well.”

“Me too.”

Harry sighed. “I can take you all, but wait until after the Quidditch match, all right? I have to go again tomorrow, but with Slughorn, Dumbledore and Severus. I could take one of you with us but not all of you. Lily, do you want to come tomorrow?”

“Yes Harry, thank you,” Lily beamed.

After dinner, Lily and Harry met Severus down in the Potions classroom.

“Alright, what shall we do today?” Severus asked.

“I would like to make some Healing Potions,” Harry said; “maybe Pepper-up Potion or Fever reducing Potion?”

“Why, are you ill?” Lily asked worriedly.

“No, at least not yet, but if James continues with this Quidditch practise and I have to fly in the rain for another three or four hours a day it’s only a question of time. Sirius already has a cold.”

“Alright, we can do that, but you have to promise to be careful with them, if you take them too often or too high a dosage, Healing Potions can be dangerous. And if you drink any of them, you will have to tell someone,” Severus said sternly.

“Ok, I’ll remember,” Harry replied. They brewed the two types of Healing Potions Harry had suggested, and just like before Severus took half of the batch to give to Pomfrey, the other half he gave to Harry.

“Thank you Severus. By the way, what do you think, should we include the Chamber of Secrets on the Marauders’ Map?”

“Why not? But on the other hand nobody can access it, or is there another way rather than the normal entrance?”

“I don’t know. In the room I went with my Grandfather there was a large fireplace, so I think maybe we could connect it to the Floo Network. I can ask Grandfather tomorrow.”

“Alright you two, curfew starts in twenty minutes, we should head back Harry.”

“Yes, Lily. We’ll see you after lunch tomorrow; Lily will come with us as well tomorrow, and the other Marauders are already on the waiting list.” Harry smirked.

-----

On Sunday, it still rained, but James insisted that the weather on the following Saturday would probably not be much better and they should train in such weather as well, and Harry in particular should practise finding the Snitch between the low-lying clouds.

After lunch, they went down to the Chamber immediately. Slughorn and Severus went happily to work on the Basilisk, while Dumbledore and Harry took Lily into the library.

“Professor, do you think this fireplace could be connected to the Floo Network?” Harry asked when they crossed the room to the fireplace.

“I don’t know Harry, but we can try.” He lit a fire in the fireplace, conjured some Floo powder, threw it in and the fireplace turned green. Then he put his head into the fireplace and called ‘Minerva McGonagall’s Office’ to try to talk to her. The two professors talked for a few minutes about how to find out what the fireplace they were just using would likely be called, but they couldn’t find out anything.

“Is there a portrait of Salazar Slytherin within the castle? We could ask him; as he built this part of the castle he should know.”

“That’s a very good idea Harry; I believe there must be a portrait in the dungeons. I will look for it.”

“Or maybe we can find something about it in the library,” Harry said and sneezed.

“Let’s have a thorough look around the library,” Dumbledore agreed. Each of the three started at a different end of the extensive library.

“Professor, should we perhaps catalogue all the book titles onto some parchment?”

“I think that would be a very good idea. Let me call Minerva again and ask her for some parchment and quills.” He came back with parchment and quills and the three set to work. The bookshelves were so dusty that Harry had to sneeze repeatedly.

“Harry, are you alright?” Lily asked him. “Is it the dust or do you have a cold?”

“I don’t know, but it is really very dusty here.”

Dumbledore laughed and with a flick of his wand, he vanished all the dust.

“Thank you Professor,” Harry said gratefully. By dinnertime, they had only finished a very small part of the library.

“Maybe we should try to come in the evenings after dinner; otherwise we will never finish this,” Harry proposed.

“We can come back later today, directly after dinner,” Lily said.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to come with you, but I would like to ask you to bring Floo powder in order to call me in my office in case you need any help, and I would also ask you to keep the entrance open to allow anyone of us to come to help if necessary. I know that Fawkes could flash me here, but I think this is better.”

“Yes Professor, we’ll do that. Maybe we can bring the other Mar… Ah … I mean James, Sirius and Remus as well, they could help us.” Lily said looking questioningly at Harry who nodded and sneezed again.

“Alright, let’s go,” he said and transformed into Icicle. With a flash, they were gone into the other room where Severus and Professor Slughorn were still busy.

“We are going for dinner, are you joining us, or will you be skipping dinner? Harry and his friends will come back later.” Dumbledore told them.

Slughorn and Severus exchanged a brief glance and said, “No, we will continue our work here for a while.”

-----

After dinner, Harry brought his four friends with him into the chamber and they continued to copy the book titles.

“What’s this?” James shouted suddenly and held up a book. Harry looked at it and didn’t know what James’ problem was, until after a second glance he recognized it as Parselscript.

“Wow, do you know what this is,” he shouted in excitement, before he sneezed again. “This is Salazar Slytherin’s diary!”

“Wow. But as you are the only one able to read it, maybe you should read it and translate it for everyone to read.” Sirius suggested as he sneezed.

“You’re right Sirius; I will take it with me and try to translate it.”

“Are you having a sneezing contest, Sirius and Harry?” Remus asked reproachfully. “Maybe you should go and see the dragon.”

“No!” Harry countered. “Sirius, I’ve a phial of Pepper-up Potion. Let’s share it.”

Sirius came over and each of them drank half of the phial while being laughed at by the others because of the steam coming out their ears.

Lily placed a hand on Harry’s forehead. “You need the other Potion as well.”

“Here, Sirius, we need this too. Drink half of it.” Sirius did so, before Harry finished the phial.

“Thanks Harry, it was disgusting. What was it by the way?” Sirius asked and everyone groaned.

“Fever reducer, but now let’s continue our work,” Lily answered.

James looked astonished from one of his friends to the other. “Do you have any more secrets?” He asked Lily, who shook her head smiling.

It was a few minutes before curfew, when Professor Slughorn and Severus joined them. “I think we should finish for today,” the professor suggested.

“I’m going to take this diary with me and hope to find time to read it. Does anyone else want to borrow a book?” Harry asked before changing into Icicle again. Lily and Remus each borrowed a book, and they left the chamber for the night.

During the following week, they spent all evenings they didn’t have Quidditch practise in the chamber. The library was so huge that even on Friday evening they had not yet finished with cataloguing the book titles. Harry had started to read Slytherin’s diary, but as they were so busy with classes, homework, Quidditch, cataloguing book titles and exploring for the Marauders’ Map, he could only read during the night. As interesting as the book was, unfortunately the whole book was written in Parselscript, which Harry couldn’t read as quickly as normal English.

He wasn’t in a good shape anyway. In contrast to Sirius, whose cold had gone away after the first Potion of Pepper-up and Fever reducer, Harry had to take the two Potions every night. However, on Friday evening, after spending the rainy night of the full moon in the forest with his friends, he noticed that it hadn’t gotten better at all but had in fact gotten worse.

-----

When they were having breakfast on Saturday morning, a little more than an hour before the final Quidditch game and Harry was only pushing his food around, Lily placed a hand on his forehead and said, “You can’t play Quidditch like this Harry, James you have to get someone else to play, he is burning up.”

“No, I’m able to play, no problem,” Harry countered, and Sirius hissed angrily,

“Was that display necessary here at the table? Now McGonagall and Pomfrey are watching Harry and will try to take him out of the game, and we really need Harry to play today.”

James leaned over to Harry and whispered, “Quickly go to the dormitory and take another fever reducer, which might fool them until after the game.”

Harry nodded and quickly left the Great Hall, changed into Icicle and flashed directly onto his bed. He downed the last two phials of his Potions immediately, took his broom and went down to the common room where his friends had arrived in the meantime.

James whispered again “Are you all right? Are you sure you want to play?”

Harry whispered back, “No, I’m not alright, but I’m sure I want to play.”

Remus looked out of the window and sighed. “I can’t understand. Today we will have the most important Quidditch game of the school year – the game that will lead Gryffindor to the first Quidditch cup in years; but it looks like the weather Gods are not interested in Quidditch.”

Sirius laughed. “Maybe they can see through the clouds?!”

“Anyway we should go and change. Let’s fight for the cup, afterwards we’ll have a big party here and forget about the weather!” James tried to encourage his team.

“Wait!” shouted Harry as he remembered something. “Have you all put a water repelling spell on your glasses?”

“A what?”

“A water repelling spell.” He took his glasses of, pointed his wand at them and said “Impervius”.

James looked surprised. “Does that really work?”

Harry smiled. “Of course, just try it out.” He pointed his wand at James’ glasses “Impervius”.

When they exited the locker rooms where they had changed into their Quidditch robes, McGonagall came over to Harry.

“Harry, you look ill, are you all right?”

“I just have a little cold or something, but I’m fine.”

She felt his forehead and said, “You’re a little warm, but it doesn’t seem too bad, nevertheless after the game I want Poppy to check on you.”

The game was hard, because the Ravenclaws played well, although much fairer than the Slytherins had played, but it was really annoying to play in the ever-lasting rain. Harry could hardly see the Snitch between the dark grey clouds, and his sneezes had turned into a bad cough. James, who had noticed asked Madam Hooch for a break, and Harry was more than grateful when he heard Madam Hooch’s whistle. In the end, it took him nearly three hours to catch the snitch, only one arms length ahead of the Ravenclaw Seeker. The final score was 320:280 for Gryffindor.

The Gryffindor team landed in a circle around Harry and cheered. They couldn’t take the Quidditch cup yet, because the final game Slytherin against Hufflepuff was still to be played, but the cup was relatively safe, as in order to win the cup Slytherin had to score 460 points more than Hufflepuff, which was more than unlikely. The team went to take a shower and change while the other Gryffindors were going to get the common room ready for the victory party. Harry wanted nothing more than to sleep, he didn’t care if he missed the party; as soon as he was dressed, he told James he would go to bed, changed into Icicle and flashed directly onto his bed, lay down and went to sleep.

Chapter 18 – Research Holiday

Harry woke up later, when he heard loud voices around his bed.

“No, I cannot leave him here, he is very ill.”

“But he will be fine here; we’ll all look after him.”

“I can see how well you look after him. How could he get so ill without anyone noticing?”

He groaned. Why couldn’t they just leave him in peace?

“Harry?”

“hmm?”

“I need to take you to the Hospital Wing. If there is anything you want to take with you, grab it now, because you will have to stay for at least a week. Do you think you can walk that far?”

Harry grabbed Slytherin’s diary and his school bag and shook his head. “I’ll flash. Please grab my tail feathers.” He changed into Icicle, waited until Pomfrey had grabbed his tail and flashed away. He made himself comfortable in his favourite bed and waited for the lecture that was sure to come. However, it didn’t come.

Pomfrey just told him, “We will talk tomorrow,” made him drink a few Potions, and he instantly fell in a long, dreamless sleep. When he woke up, Remus was sitting beside him, reading one of the books from the Slytherin library.

“Hi Harry, are you finally awake,” he stated.

“Hello Remus, where are the others? What time is it?” he croaked hoarsely.

“It is 3 o’clock on Sunday afternoon, and the others are in the common room. The dragon is only allowing one visitor at a time should she allow any she told us. She is very angry, because nobody noticed that you were so ill.”

“It’s only a really bad cold, nothing to let the whole school know about,” Harry said angrily.

“No Harry, it’s not. You got pneumonia this time, because you didn’t do anything for your cold.”

“I did. I took lots of Pepper-up Potions, did you tell her about that?”

“Yes, we did, and she got even angrier at Severus and at us. She told us we were very irresponsible not to inform her of your problems, and she forbade Severus to give you any more Potions, apart from in exceptional circumstances when you needed them urgently and she was not available.”

“Oh, Remus, I have to talk to her. I can’t have her angry at Severus. It’s not his fault, he even warned me about it. Can you get her for me please?”

Madam Pomfrey came over, nodded at Remus and said, “Thank you Mr. Lupin. You are dismissed. Please tell your classmates that Mr. Pane is not allowed any more visitors until further notice.”

“Hello Madam Pomfrey, you are looking as radiant as ever,” Harry tried to joke and lift her mood, but to no effect.

“I thought when I last talked to you about your condition I had explained the main points in detail,” she said in a very upset voice. “I can’t believe that you go and secretly get Potions from Severus, continue to take them without telling anyone except for your dorm mates, who are just as irresponsible as yourself, and fail to tell your teachers or me.”

“Please don’t be angry at Severus. It’s not his fault. On the contrary, he warned me about it and told me I had to tell you whenever I had taken any of the Potions. And Severus didn’t know that I took the Potions. I’m really sorry.”

“Alright, I will talk to him again. Nevertheless, you have pneumonia this time, and you will have to stay at least a week, probably even two weeks or more. When you behave yourself, I might allow visitors again.” She gave him several different Potions and went back into her office.

-----

Harry took the Slytherin diary and tried to read, although he couldn’t concentrate very well. His chest hurt, and he couldn’t stop thinking about his friends who had been scolded because of him. About an hour later, Severus entered the Hospital Wing and went straight to the office.

“May I see Harry for a moment?”

“I have to apologize to you, Severus; Harry told me that it was not your fault at all and that you even warned him. Is that true?”

“Yes, but it is my fault as well. I shouldn’t have given the Potions to him in the first place; I just thought he would be a little more careful.”

“You may see him only for a few minutes; he is very ill and I want him to rest. And he shouldn’t talk too much.”

Harry saw Severus coming over to his bed and began to apologize immediately. “I’m so sorry, Severus, I didn’t want to get you into trouble.”

“I know that, Harry, and the dragon just talked to me, I’m not in trouble, but you are. It would have been so much easier to spend one or two days here a week ago than for at least a full week now… you are crazy.”

“But we won the Quidditch game!” Harry beamed.

“Yes you did. Congratulations!” he said without any emotion in his voice.

“And maybe she will let me leave earlier,” Harry tried hopefully.

“No, she won’t.” He glanced at the patient sheet that was placed on the windowsill and tried to read Pomfrey’s writing. “She must really have drugged you up that you are able to sit up and talk at the moment. It’s quite bad this time. But if you feel well enough, maybe you can translate this diary, and you also could help Lily and Remus with the charms for the map.”

“Yes, of course. They only have to bring me some books to read, and then at least I’ll be able to make some use of my time here. By the way, can you read Parselscript?”

“You ask questions! Show me your book… No, I can’t read that. Maybe when I’m a snake I can read, but in snake form I can’t write, so it’s not very useful.”

“But do you know what you can do? You should be able to open the chamber in snake form, shouldn’t you?”

“That may be, I’ll have to try it out, but I can’t think of a reason why it won’t work. Good idea, I didn’t even think about it. Now, you look like you could use a rest, and I will go before being thrown out. I’ll ask her when I may come again, and if she doesn’t let me, I’ll come in my snake form around curfew.”

“All right, Severus, thank you.” Harry slept for a while and was woken up later by his own coughing.

“Harry,” he heard a voice and opened his eyes.

“How do you feel?”

“Horrible,” he croaked.

“Your Potions must have worn off, I thought so. Here, drink these and you’ll be okay for a few hours.” Pomfrey helped him to sit up and drink several phials.

He felt better immediately.

“May Severus or Lily or Remus come to see me?”

“Severus will come back after dinner, but you are not allowed to speak. If you talk a lot, I will cast a silencing spell on you.”

“All right.”

-----

Harry grabbed the Slytherin book, a parchment and a quill and began to translate the book. Maybe he could finish it in a week. The book was quite interesting. Slytherin wrote a lot about himself and life at Hogwarts of the four founders. However, so far he hadn’t found any information about the Chamber of Secrets. He had already translated the first chapter when Severus came to visit him.

“Wow, this is very interesting. You should publish it after it’s finished you know?! By the way, I can open the chamber. I went there in the afternoon together with James and Lily. We continued your work in the library for about two or three hours, and we found three more books written in Parselscript. Look, here – I’ve brought them for you to read and translate!”

“Thanks a lot! This will be a busy week. Wow, these are Potions recipes. I bet there are many long lost Potions in it. Cool.”

“So you can’t say you’re bored. You can have lots of fun here with old Potions,” Severus smirked. They talked until Pomfrey came and reminded Harry not to talk so much and told Severus curfew would start in a quarter of an hour.

“Alright Harry, sleep well and don’t work too much on your translations.”

“Night Sev.” Harry continued to work on his translation, and he had just finished the second chapter, when his Great Grandparents came into the room.

“Harry, how are you? What are you doing, especially at this time of the night? It’s nearly midnight.”

“I’m translating Salazar Slytherin’s diary. I don’t know how late it is, but the dragon did not come to tell me to sleep, so I thought it was okay. She probably forgot I was here.”

“Mr. Pane, how could I forget you? Don’t worry you will get your check-up and your Potions. I just wanted to wait until your Potions are about to wear off; you have so many strong Potions in your system that I can’t check on you while they are still working.”

“Is he already better?”

“No Minerva, not at all. He only feels good because he is drugged. Otherwise it would be very bad, you noticed before, didn’t you Harry? His chest is very congested; he has a bad cough and a very high fever.”

“Anyway this book is very interesting,” Harry hurried to change the topic. “So far, I have translated the first two chapters. Slytherin describes life here at Hogwarts, his family, his studies and so on. And Severus, James and Lily found three more books from him, one of them seems to be about Potions, and this one”, he showed them a thin, smaller booklet, “is about ‘secret places within Hogwarts’. Maybe I can find details about the chamber in it. This will be the next one I translate.”

His grandmother frowned. “Harry, dear, you sound as if you were on a research holiday,” McGonagall said reproachfully.

Harry shrugged and said, “It’s kind of that, isn’t it. And as I’m not allowed to talk a lot, this seems to be the best activity for the time being”.

Dumbledore laughed and his eyes were twinkling. “Harry, I suggest that you publish it when your translation is finished.”

“Severus already suggested that. If you care to read it, Granddad, you may take the first two chapters with you.”

“Yes Harry, I would like that very much, and I promise to bring them back tomorrow morning. Thank you.”

-----

With only a few interruptions Harry spent the next days on his translation and managed to finish the diary by Friday evening. He knew he wouldn’t have so much time once he returned to his dormitory, so he started the next book immediately. When his Grandparents came to visit him as they did every evening, he presented the finished translation to Dumbledore.

“Very good my boy, thank you. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the diary tonight.”

“Harry, does Poppy know what you are doing here all day? And probably half the night as well?” his Grandmother asked worriedly.

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know; I mean I don’t do it secretly. Probably she is just glad that I do what she says, don’t beg for visitors and don’t talk a lot. Apart from that she doesn’t mind I think.”

“I will go and ask her about Harry’s condition Albus, he doesn’t seem much better to me although he has already been here for six days.”

“Ask her to come here Minerva; I would like to hear what she says as well.”

Pomfrey came and shook her head. “No, his condition has not improved at all; it has stopped getting worse, but that’s all I’m afraid. I have already talked to Severus, and he is currently doing some research for me in order to invent a new Potion that might help Harry, but apart from that, we just have to wait it out with the Potions we have. When I see how slow the improvement is if there is any at all, I think it will take at least another week if not two or more for him to recover, and I can assure you that I won’t let him out until he is completely recovered.”

“Don’t you think he is working too much on his translations Poppy?”

“He is, Minerva, definitely. However, I prefer that to his normal attitude. Fighting against my check-ups or my rules concerning sleeping times, visitors etc. would be much more strenuous for him than his work, which he can do silently. I check on him every now and then, and when his fever is too high or he seems to be too tired, I tell him to sleep for a while and he so far has obeyed.”

“Ms. Evans and Mr. Lupin wanted to know when they could visit him.”

“Until his condition improves, he is not allowed to have visitors. Only Severus comes three times a day, but he is very careful to prevent Harry from talking much, and he knows that he is only allowed to stay for ten minutes every time, and so far Harry has not complained about this rule.”

“Sorry, Madam, I just don’t have enough energy to fight you, but wait a week and I’ll try to annoy you as much as I can,” Harry said with a small smile.

-----

By the end of the next week, Harry had translated the second book, in which he learned everything about the Chamber of Secrets. According to the book, the fireplace in the living room of the chamber was called ‘The snakes den’ and seemed to be one of the normal Hogwarts’ fireplaces, which were connected to the internal Floo Network.

On Friday evening, he gave the translation to his Grandparents, and Dumbledore promised to try the fireplace out the following day.

“Granddad, when you try the fireplace out, could you please go to the library and look if there are any more books in Parselscript? I have still two books left, but both seem to be about Potions, and if there was another book about any other topic, I would prefer to translate that first.”

“I will do that my boy, I’ll try to floo down to the chamber tomorrow morning, but don’t work too much as you have to rest as well.”

“I’m resting enough, and you know when I return to my dormitory I won’t have much time, especially as I have already missed two weeks of school work, and I don’t know when she will let me out.”

Suddenly McGonagall frowned and asked sternly “Mr. Snape, what are you doing here at this time? It is already after curfew.”

“Hello Harry, Professors. I am sorry Professor, Madam Pomfrey had asked me to invent a Potion that might help him, and I have tried something out, which I would like him to test. You know I can only do my research when the Potions classroom is empty, so sometimes it goes beyond curfew. I’m sorry.”

“There is nothing to be sorry about my boy. On the contrary, we are very grateful that you sacrifice your private time to research Potions for the Hospital Wing. I’ll get Poppy to see if you may give the Potion to him.”

“I’m here, and yes, Severus, of course you may give him the Potion, but I have to check him out first.”

“What is your prognosis Poppy; how long he will have to stay?”

“Sorry, Minerva, ask me again tomorrow, maybe Severus’ Potion helps. Otherwise, I do not know. I can only repeat what I told you last week and the week before: at least one more week.”

“Severus, are you busy tomorrow morning, or would you care to try out the Floo connection to the chamber and look through the library for more books in Parselscript?”

“I would like that, of course Professor. We have to get all books translated as long as we have our professional translator here,” he smirked.

Suddenly Harry remembered something and jumped into the conversation. “Um… I… I’d like to ask you something,…um… you know, the school year ends in about four weeks time or so…? And… um… I thought about, you know, Granddad, we once talked about when I should go back to the future, and you told me it doesn’t matter, as long as I go back before I am born, so…um… I thought, maybe I could stay another year until the end of 7th year and then definitely go back. Would that be possible?” he croaked hoarsely.

McGonagall threw a questioning look at Dumbledore, who smiled fondly at Harry and replied, “Of course my dear boy, we would love to have you here for another year, right Severus?”

“Yes, of course, Harry, that would be great!” Severus said eagerly.

“The only problem is,” Harry said pensively, “where could I go during the summer holidays?”

“First of all, you have to see that you will be out of here by then,” his Grandmother said, “and afterwards you can stay with us, of course, either at Hogwarts or at Dumbledore manor, where we’ll be staying.”

“Considering his very poor health you should think about staying at Hogwarts,” Poppy said.

Dumbledore nodded agreeably and said, “And maybe Severus and your other friends could stay with you for a while. We will make plans when you are out of here.”

-----

When Severus came to have lunch with Harry on the next day, he brought five more books for Harry to translate. Harry groaned.

“They are all about Potions it seems. I know he was the Potions Master of his time, but did he have to write seven books about Potions?”

“Oh, there are more. I just didn’t bring them to spare Pomfrey a heart attack. Anyway, I’d like you to translate them all for me; if you don’t know what certain ingredients are just ask me, and I’ll help you with the English text. Maybe we can find useful recipes of long lost Potions. By the way, how are you today? Did my Potion help?” Harry looked questioningly at Severus.

“I don’t know, you have to ask her,” he said apologizing.

“By the way, she still won’t allow visitors except for you and my Grandparents. Could you ask Remus and Lily to bring a few books about charms, you know, to research for the map, or have you made progress with the map?”

“Our friends are too worried about you to do anything reasonable. I think they didn’t do any research so far. I know that Lily, James, Remus and Sirius are annoying Pomfrey every day because they want to see you.”

“Alright, as we have decided that I will stay for another year it doesn’t really matter; we’ve enough time for everything. Nevertheless, ask them for a few charms books anyway please. And tell them that I’m fine and they don’t have to worry.”

When Severus came a few days later, Harry was very excited.

“Severus, look what I have found!

Chapter 19 – The Wolves Cure

“Severus, look what I have found! This seems to be a cure for Lycanthropy!”

He showed Severus the pages he had translated a few hours ago.

Severus read the text and the ingredients excitedly, raised an eyebrow and said, “I think you’re right; it seems to be what it says. I will brew it, and we can ask Remus to try it out. He has to take it within a week before the full moon; do you know when that will be?”

“The last one was two nights before I came here. How long am I here now?

“Two and a half weeks I think. Therefore, it should be in a little more than a week. That is good. The Potion takes three days to brew, and he needs to drink it for three days, so when I start to brew it tomorrow, we should be right on time.”

“I hope it will work. When will you tell him?”

“I would like you to tell him, as it is you who has found the cure. Are you still not allowed to have visitors?” Harry shook his head.

“I’ll explain the situation and ask her; I’ll be back after dinner,” Severus said and went over to see Poppy. She was delighted about their discovery.

“In this case Mr. Lupin may come, but this has to be an exception, because Harry’s condition is still very bad.”

“Doesn’t the Potion I made help at all?”

“It helps a little, it reduced his fever and his congestion a bit, but not enough and I have no idea how to help him except to wait until his body gets better by itself with the help of the Potions. I am also considering taking him to St. Mungos; maybe they can do something else to help him. But as I said you may bring Mr. Lupin with you the next time you come to visit Harry.”

-----

In the evening, Severus came to see Harry with Remus in tow. Harry sat up excitedly.

“Hi, Remus. Has Severus already told you?”

“No, he only said you had an interesting story for me. What is it? And how are you?”

“As Severus has told you, maybe…, I’m using my time here to translate Slytherin’s books. At the moment, I’m translating a book full of Potions, and one of them seems to be a cure for Lycanthropy. I discovered it this morning and Severus said he could start to make the Potion tomorrow in case you want to try it out. I don’t know if it really works of course, but you could try. What do you think?”

Remus dropped into a chair next to Harry’s bed. He was stunned – so many years had he hoped for a cure, while he was a small child, but for a number of years he had given up all hopes of a cure. “Harry… Severus… I… I just don’t know what to say, I don’t want to get my hopes up too much, but nevertheless I would like to ask you to try whatever you can.” His eyes were swimming in tears.

“Remus, it’s okay. We cannot promise anything and I can’t do anything for you, but I can tell you that if anyone is able to make the Potion, it will be Severus. He is the best Potions Maker you can find.”

“The Potion will take three days to make, but I have already gotten permission from the Headmaster to skip classes tomorrow and on Friday, so that I should be able to finish the Potion on Saturday. Then you have to take the Potion on three successive days, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and on the day of the full moon – Thursday I think – we will all go into the forest together, or maybe better the Shrieking Shack and see if it works. I cannot promise anything either, we will just have to try and see. Don’t get your hopes up too much.”

Remus took one of Harry’s warm hands in his own cold hand and said sincerely, “Thank you very much, you two. You can’t believe how much that means to me.”

“You’re very welcome Remus, and believe me if this doesn’t work, Severus and I won’t stop until we find a cure or at least something to help a lot – that I can promise.” At this moment, Pomfrey came over to shoo them out and check on Harry.

“How does this Potion work, Severus? When are you going to brew it?”

Severus explained the details to her and asked, “Maybe it would be better for him to come here to the Hospital Wing to take the Potions, don’t you think so? If he had any problems, you would be able to help him immediately.”

“Yes, Severus, Remus, that’s right. Please come here on Saturday, Sunday and Monday after dinner for your Potions, provided, that Severus has it ready by Saturday evening. Now, Harry, how are you? You are coughing a lot, are your Potions wearing off?”

Harry nodded solemnly “Yes, it hurts again.”

“Alright, Severus, you may come tomorrow morning, Remus, we’ll see you on Saturday evening, and Harry has to rest now.” She checked on Harry, fed him his Potions, mumbled something to herself and went back into her office only to come back and sit down next to Harry after two minutes.“Harry, you have told me some months ago that you had pneumonia last summer and were brought to me to cure you, is that right?”

“Yes, why?”

“Do you know by chance, what I did to cure you? What Potions I gave you, and how long did it take you to get better?”

“I don’t know what the Potions were, I think probably it was the Potion Severus invented last week, but as I’m a dunderhead at Potions I’m not sure. And I had to stay in the Hospital Wing for the rest of the holidays; it was quite long, nearly six weeks.”

Pomfrey seemed shocked but said, “all right, if my abilities 20 years in the future are not better, then I won’t be able to do anything differently now. So maybe it will still take a few more weeks. Anyway, try to sleep for a while until your Grandparents come.” During the next few days, Harry translated the first of the Potions books. He didn’t know much about Potions, but the Potions in the book were all unknown to him. Hopefully, Severus would find something helpful apart from the Lycanthropy cure. On Saturday afternoon, Severus came and brought three phials of the Werewolf cure.

“Can anything happen to Remus when he drinks the Potion? Does he have to take it here?” Harry asked excitedly.

“Oh Harry, that was only to find a way for you to participate in the big event of Remus drinking the Potion,” Severus laughed. “Pomfrey is not stupid either, of course she knew, but she didn’t want to take all the fun away from you.”

And as Severus had foreseen, nothing happened to Remus during the three days he had to take the Potion, and now everyone was waiting for the night of the full moon.

“I want to go too,” Harry told Severus on Thursday, when they were having lunch together.

“I believe that, and you will be staying here, because I would prefer if you survived your sixth year, and I will speak to Pomfrey and McGonagall to make sure they are watching you tonight. Don’t even think about it! I’ll see you after dinner.”

-----

By the time Pomfrey had to leave to accompany Remus to the Shrieking Shack, Harry’s Grandparents had arrived and made themselves comfortable clearly intending to stay with Harry for a few hours.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to watch me; I promise that I won’t go anywhere,” he mumbled.

“No, Harry, we will stay with you anyway. Severus, James and Sirius are together with Remus watching him, but as soon as it is clear if the Potion has worked, Severus will come here to notify us. Remus has to stay at the Shrieking Shack for the whole night in any case,” his Grandmother told him.

“And? Have you found any other interesting Potions?” Dumbledore asked, his eyes twinkling.

“Oh, Granddad, I don’t know. I am not adept enough at Potions to know if there are Potions, which are not known in our time; for me all Potions in the book sound new. By the way, did I tell you that Slytherin had his own Potions lab in the Chamber? I don’t know if Severus has found it yet, but it might be that there are even old ingredients left. The Potions lab was described in the first Potions book I translated. I have now nearly finished the second one.”

“Do you have the two books here? May I have a look at them?”

“Severus has the first. The second one is here, because it’s still unfinished, but I think I have only one or two Potions left to translate. Here,” he handed Dumbledore a bundle of parchments.

Suddenly Severus stormed into the wing, his eyes full of excitement. “Harry! It worked! Remus didn’t transform, he’s still human! Harry, we did it!”

“Wow, that’s great! You did it, Severus, you made the Potion. Congratulations!”

“Credit to both of you my boys – 150 points each to Slytherin and Gryffindor! Please excuse me; I will go down to the Shack to see Remus with my own eyes. Harry, Severus, I will see you tomorrow. Good night.” Dumbledore changed into his phoenix form and was gone.

Severus said good night and went back to the dungeons.

“Harry,” his Grandmother said sternly, “Don’t even think about it.”

“Don’t worry, Granny, I don’t feel well enough to even think about it. You really don’t have to stay with me, I promise I won’t even move if I don’t have to.”

His Grandmother took his hand, noticing the heat radiating from her grandson seemed to be worse than it had been the other evenings. “Harry, I’ll get Poppy for you, all right?”

“Okay.”

“Poppy, he seems so hot tonight, is he all right?”

“Yes, his fever is spiking today, it has been higher than yesterday for the whole day, and so late in the evening it’s the worst of course; probably he had just too much excitement today.” Pomfrey gave Harry two more Potions, and within seconds, he fell in a long, dreamless sleep.

-----

Early the next morning Remus stormed into the Hospital Wing, his friends James and Sirius in tow. “Harry! Harry!”

“Harry, wake up you lazybones!”

“Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, what do you think you are doing? OUT! NOW!”

“But Poppy,” James tried to contradict, “we just have to thank Harry for what he did for Remus, can’t you understand that?”

“I can understand that, and therefore, Mr. Lupin, YOU and only you are allowed to come and see Harry after lunch to talk to him for ten minutes. And now out of here please.”

When Harry woke up sometime in the afternoon and slowly opened his eyes, Remus was sitting beside his bed holding his hand.

“Harry!” Harry was not completely awake yet. He knew something was different, something had occurred… but he just couldn’t recall… “Are you awake yet?” Remus sounded impatient, but Remus never was impatient. What happened? His Potions seemed to have worn off, and he couldn’t think properly.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” he croaked hoarsely and reached for his glasses.

“Harry, you seem confused, don’t you remember? Remus asked astonished, when he helped Harry with his glasses, and when Harry didn’t show any reaction he continued, “You found the cure for my Lycanthropy, and it really worked! I’m not a werewolf anymore, and I just wanted to thank you!”

By then his memories had come back and Harry beamed at his friend. “Oh Remus, yes Severus told us during the night. Congratulations! I’m so happy for you! But you don’t have to thank me, thank Severus. I would not have managed to brew such a difficult Potion.” His voice cracked, and he wanted nothing more than a glass of water. “Remus, sorry, could you get me some water, please?”

“Yes I will, and I will get the dragon as well.”

“No, wait, let’s talk for a few minutes first. Remus, now you have to learn to be an Animagus.”

“You mean, we’ll spend the nights of the full moon in the forest anyway?” Remus laughed at his friend.

Harry beamed. “Of course. Otherwise we would all miss it too much.”

“All right, but I will wait until after the next two nights of the full moon. Dumbledore told me he would arrange with my parents that I may stay at Hogwarts for a few days around the next two full moons during the summer holidays, and that James, Sirius and Severus may come as well, maybe Lily too, so that they can watch over me during the full moon. You will stay with your Grandparents anyway, won’t you?” Harry nodded thinking how nicely his meddling grandfather had managed to get all his friends to stay with him for some time during the holidays. “I will go and let you rest; I don’t know when I’ll be allowed to visit you again, but if there’s anything I can do for you, let me know through Severus.”

“All right, Remus, thanks, and tell the others I said hello.” When Remus had gone, suddenly a question occurred to Harry, and he couldn’t help thinking about it.

When Pomfrey came out of her office to check on Harry, she noticed that Harry was crying silently and was shocked; he had never cried before. Was he in so much pain, or what could have upset him so much? She rushed over to him and asked, “Harry, what’s wrong?” Harry only shook his head, his eyes full of tears.

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.

Chapter 21 – Dobby and Bobby

Harry had never seen the Great Hall in darkness, and he cautiously took a step backwards, until suddenly the lights flared on and the ceiling cleared and everyone shouted, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”. Harry glanced questioningly at Severus, who only shrugged, and entered the Great Hall. Why didn’t he say anything? Whose birthday was it? When he was supposed to attend a birthday party, they could at least tell him for whom the party was. Silently Harry slipped into the free seat next between Severus and Lily. Suddenly he noticed that everyone was glaring at him and felt very uncomfortable. What were they expecting him to do or say?

He whispered to Severus, “Sev, I still don’t feel well, I go back to bed”, but Severus gripped his arm and threw a piercing glance at his friend.

“Harry, do you know whose birthday it is?”

Harry shook his head and said, “No, I’m sorry to whoever it is, but I can’t eat right now and…”

“Harry,” his Grandmother who was sitting just opposite Harry, interrupted him, “it’s your birthday, dear, and you are 17 today!”

Harry couldn’t help but glare at her with his mouth open. He had completely forgotten his own birthday. Not that it mattered, but…So he could spend his birthday together with his parents and friends. ‘Cool’ he thought, ‘I’m 17, but it’s my second birthday together with my parents.’

“Now Harry,” his Grandfather interrupted his thoughts, “you have at least to blow out the candles and eat a piece of your birthday cake!” He waved his hand over the large birthday cake that Harry hadn’t even noticed beforehand, and the 17 candles on the cake lit.”

-----

After breakfast, Harry was guided to a table full with presents. The best present was from his Grandfather, who showed him a book in a dark green cover, which was decorated with small twinkling stars. The title said,

‘The diary of Salazar Slytherin translated and edited by Harry Pane’.

“Flourish and Blotts agreed to print it for me with a first print run of 250 copies. Your name on the cover is charmed – whenever you are known under a different name, the name will adjust itself accordingly. I have got twenty complementary copies and would like to ask you for one for the library and one for my office; the other eighteen copies are for you to keep or give to your friends or whatever you want to do with them.”

Harry was stunned but managed to say, “Grandfather, that’s the best birthday present I’ve ever received! Thank you very much.”

From his Grandmother he received the complete school books for his 7th year, James gave him a subscription to ‘Quidditch Monthly’ for 17 months, and in the package from Sirius Harry found a big box Bertie Botts every flavoured beans. As usual Remus gave him Chocolate Frogs, and from Severus, Lily and Pomfrey he received books; ‘Master Potion Makers Through the Ages’ from Severus, ‘Everyday Charms for Everyday Uses’ from Lily and ‘Emergency Healing Potions for Witches and Wizards’ from Pomfrey. When he had finished to open his presents and had thanked everyone, Hagrid, who had in the meanwhile returned to the castle, went over to Harry and handed him a small wooden box with holes on both sides. ‘Oh, what can that be? These holes are quite suspicious,’ he thought and carefully lifted the lid of the box. Inside he found … “a bird?” he asked cautiously.

“Yes Harry”, Hagrid beamed, “It’s an owl chick, and his name is Cyclops.”

“Wow, Hagrid, thanks a lot. That’s exactly what I needed, but he is still a baby, isn’t he? How old is he? Can you teach me how to care for him? How long will it take until he’ll be able to carry letters for me?”

“Of course I help you Harry, come down to my hut after lunch, and you’ll get a lesson on baby owls.” Harry quickly changed into Icicle and tried to talk to the little owl.

#Hello little one, can you understand me?#

#Yes, large feathered one, who are you?#

#I’m Harry, your human, but I can change into this phoenix, then I’m called Icicle and I can talk to you.#

#That’s nice.#

#Hagrid will show me how to care for you, and then I’m sure we will get along very well.#

#Alright, but now I’m sleepy.#

#Very well, Cyclops, and I have to change back# he said, transformed back into his human form and noticed that everyone looked at him in awe.

-----

After lunch, Harry picked Cyclops up and took him down to Hagrid for his owl lesson. Hagrid told him a lot about caring for a baby owl but then proposed Harry should leave Cyclops at Hagrid’s place until he would be big enough to stay in the Owlery. According to Hagrid, it should only take about six weeks, but as Harry had to stay in the Hospital Wing where he couldn’t have his owl staying with him, it seemed to be the best solution and Harry agreed quite relieved. When Harry stepped out of Hagrid’s hut, he noticed a new enclosure right of the entrance door to the hut.

“What’s this for?” he asked suspiciously.

Hagrid grinned and said, “for my new dragon. She is beautiful, isn’t she?”

Harry’s face fell and he inquired, “You don’t intend to keep this dragon here at Hogwarts, do you?”

“Oh yes, of course, she’ll be fine here Harry,” Hagrid beamed.

“Um… Ah… Em… I mean, um… does Dumbledore know about this?”

“No Harry, I haven’t yet talked to him, but I know I should tell him. I’ll talk to him soon.”

When Harry came up to the school, his friends were already waiting at the Quidditch pitch. Severus had even brought his broom as well as robes for him to change. Harry ended the first two games in 5 and 10 minutes, but at the third game, he just couldn’t see the Snitch. Fortunately or unfortunately, James couldn’t either, so the game lasted for about two hours. After they had taken a shower and changed, it was already time for dinner. Dinner itself was a funny affair. Although Harry was more tired than hungry, he really could enjoy dinner, because James and Sirius seemed to have had nothing to do during their holidays than to think about pranks for Harry’s birthday dinner. They managed to change the teachers’ clothes, their hair colour, the colour of everything they had on their plates etc. In the end, everyone was laughing instead of eating.

-----

The next day, they were allowed to make a trip to Diagon Alley to buy their school supplies for the next school year. Harry was so happy – to be able to go with his friends, without any adults – it was just great! As much as he loved his grandparents, sometimes it was good just to be with his friends. They went to Madam Malkins first to get everything made until they returned to Hogwarts in time for lunch, which Professor McGonagall had insisted on. Afterwards they went to the Apothecary and Flourish & Blotts, but as Harry already had his 7th year’s books, he spent the time walking up and down Diagon Alley. Suddenly he saw a small figure sitting at the corner to a side street drinking beer – it looked like a very young house elf. It was such a strange sight that he curiously went nearer to take a better look at the scene. But… somehow he knew this face…

“Dobby?” he asked cautiously, and the little elf jump onto his feet.

“Sir? Who are you? Why do you know Dobby?”

Harry laughed at the elf and whispered to him, “Dobby, you are not allowed to tell anybody about what I tell you now, alright?” Dobby nodded eagerly, and Harry continued. “I am Harry, and I came from twenty years in the future. I know you from the future, because I freed you from the Malfoys, and you came to Hogwarts to work there. You are a good friend of mine in the future. What are you doing here, and why are you drinking beer?”

Dobby sighed. “You are Harry Pane! You killed the evils! Thank you very much. But, when the Malfoys died, Malfoy manor became a ward of the Ministry of Magic, and we were all freed. But as we have not yet found another family, Bobby, my little brother, and I are living here in the street.”

Harry gasped. “Dobby, would you like to come to Hogwarts with me? As my great grandfather, Professor Dumbledore, hired you in the future, he will probably do the same now. Where is your brother?”

Dobby looked around and pointed a finger at the other side of the street.

“He is still small; he is only two years old, so I cannot go anywhere without him; I have to take care of him.”

Harry smiled and said, “I’m sure this won’t be a problem. I have to meet my friends now, but you can come with me, and when we take the floo back, you can just apparate in front of the Hogwarts gate, and I will meet you and take you to the Headmaster’s Office. How is that?”

Dobby nodded eagerly and called his brother to follow them. Harry introduced Dobby and Bobby to his friends and informed them of his plan.

“I don’t know if Dumbledore will take on any new house elves, but as there are so many at Hogwarts, I don’t think it will hurt to have two more,” James said calmingly, as they all pitied the poor, small house elves.

Half an hour later, Harry accompanied Dobby and Bobby to Dumbledore’s office and introduced them properly. Albus smiled at his grandson and said,

“If I can take them in after 16 years, I can take them in now, right Harry? Especially as it is your ‘fault’, that they need it now.”

Turning to Dobby he said, “Dobby, Harry will be born yesterday in three years time. I don’t know yet, if he will grow up at Hogwarts, but at least he will return here to attend Hogwarts, when he is eleven. Anyway, I would like you to keep an eye on Harry and to take good care of him, whenever his parents or Minerva and I are unavailable. Do you think you could manage this?”

Dobby nodded eagerly and replied, “Yes, of course, Professor Dumbledore sir. Dobby will always watch over Master Harry.”

“Thank you Dobby. Twinkle!” With a pop Twinkle appeared. “Twinkle, these are Dobby and Bobby; could you please take care of them; they will belong to the Hogwarts elves from now on. Thank you.”

Harry promised Dobby to visit him in the kitchen and left the office to head down to dinner.

-----

A week later, it was the night of the full moon and Harry was determined to accompany his friends to the forest again. As the last time he pretended to be fast asleep, so that Pomfrey would go into her private chambers for the night. He still waited for about half an hour after she had left and flashed into the forest, where the others were running around and having fun. And he sat on a branch stunned. He couldn’t believe his eyes: Remus had already managed it – a cute light brown bear was running around! Harry trilled a very happy melody for his even happier friend.

Suddenly Lily flew over to the branch Icicle was sitting on. #Shall we go for a little flight?# she asked and Icicle happily agreed and started to fly in the direction of Hogsmeade, making sure Lily was following and waiting for her to catch up. They flew around for nearly two hours before they returned to their friends who were still running around in the forest. Suddenly Harry heard a howl and looked questioningly at Lily, who only shrugged and looked around.

Two minutes later James came running and said urgently, “Sirius has hurt one of his legs. What are we going to do?”

Harry changed back into his human form immediately and ran after James over to Sirius.

“Sirius, can you change back into your human form?” he asked excitedly.

Sirius groaned but changed back, and they could see a large cut on his left arm. Harry took Sirius’ left arm with both hands without thinking, closed his eyes and thought about just letting his magic flow in the direction of Sirius’ arm to heal it. After a few minutes, he could hear someone say, “It’s enough Harry, stop it now, and let his arm loose.”

He could only think ‘stop what?’, before he blinked and saw that he was still holding Sirius’ arm, which in the meanwhile had completely healed. He let the arm loose and let himself fall back into the grass.

“Harry, are you alright?”

He recognized Lily’s voice and nodded.

“Harry, how did you do that? This was Severus’ voice, and he shrugged. He didn’t know either, he had just made it happen, but now he was knackered.

“Flash…back…night,” he managed to mumble before he changed and flashed back immediately.

-----

When Pomfrey checked on him later in the morning, she noticed that his magic level was very low. ‘What can have happened during the night? It was the full moon, but as Remus isn’t a werewolf any more they don’t have to go out, do they? Moreover, he was asleep, when I checked on him before went to bed. I have to ask Severus, if anybody knows then it is him,’ she thought and turned to Harry, but he was already asleep again.

An hour later, Severus came to collect Harry for breakfast. “Severus, please tell me what happened during the night.”

‘Oops, I don’t know what Harry told her’ he thought and asked innocently, “What do you mean?”

She gave him an annoyed glare. “Don’t give me that please. Your friend is nearly in a coma, while his magic is almost completely depleted. What has happened? This is not funny!”

Severus sighed. “Remus still couldn’t believe that he is not a werewolf anymore, so we had to take him out into the forest. You know that is also the reason why Dumbledore is letting all our friends stay over the full moon.”

“Yes, I know that, but that should have nothing to do with Harry who is staying in the Hospital Wing overnight, because he is still not completely recovered.”

“Ah but he wanted to be included in this happy event you see. He flashed there and enjoyed it very much, and so far, he was okay, otherwise I would have sent him back immediately, but then Sirius in his dog form hurt his arm and Harry gripped his arm and healed it with his own magic. We couldn’t do anything about it, he suddenly gripped Sirius’ arm with both hands and seemed to send magic over to Sirius’ arm to heal it… and succeeded.”

Pomfrey nearly choked with surprise and raised an eyebrow. “This would mean that Harry is a natural healer. I cannot really believe it, because natural healers are very rare. We have to talk to the Headmaster about it. When you go down to breakfast now, please ask the Headmaster and Mr. Black to come to see me after breakfast.”

Unfortunately, they could not clear everything up before the Marauders had to go home, because they couldn’t talk to Harry who stayed fast asleep for three days.

-----

When he was deemed fit again, there were only three weeks of holidays left. Harry was very glad that he had used his time in the Hospital Wing and had already finished his catching up on all lessons and the most of his summer assignments. During the last three weeks, Harry and Severus were very busy. Severus had still to brew several Potions he had promised Pomfrey, who just didn’t seem to get along well with Slughorn. Harry had to finish his summer assignments and wanted to search for useful charms for the map and both of them wanted to explore the Chamber a little more, remove more Potion ingredients, read some more books and use the Potions lab.

Moreover, on top of all this Dumbledore had decided to give Harry and Severus apparition lessons, so that they could get their license just before the end of the holidays.

On the last day before the other students were supposed to come back, Dumbledore took Harry and Severus to take their apparition tests. They floo-ed over to the ministry and after the tests went to Diagon Alley for an ice cream. When they were sitting at Fortescue’s ice cream parlour, Dumbledore seemed pensive for a moment before he spoke up.

“Harry and Severus, I have something to discuss with you, and to put it briefly, both of you will not return to your dormitories tomorrow.”

Chapter 22 – The Hogwarts Team

“What!” Harry interrupted Dumbledore furiously.

“It’s all right Harry, don’t get upset,” Severus tried to calm him.

“Let me explain first please Harry. In your case, Poppy thinks that it would be better for you to stay in a room in the hospital wing, so that she could check-up on you every evening because of your obvious poor health. She fears that you would not take enough care of your health when you went back to the dormitory, so that you’d be back in the Hospital Wing with bigger problems very shortly. And frankly speaking, Minerva thinks so as well. You could stay in your common room until curfew and then just flash over to your room if you wanted.”

“Harry, I know you don’t want to hear it, but I think I have to agree with your Grandfather.”

“Maybe I should just return to the future,” Harry said stubbornly.

“Ah but Harry, you would have exactly the same problems in the future, and Poppy and Minerva would react in the same way in the future. Please think about it; I assume Minerva is going to talk to you as well. There is also an issue I want to discuss with you Severus.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. “What might that be Professor?”

“You and Lily are our new Head boy and Head girl.”

“Wow, congratulations Severus!” Harry beamed, and Severus smiled back to him.

“Anyway, the head boy and the head girl normally have their own rooms, either rooms in their respective Houses or an adjacent room at a central location within the school. Now you know where you are staying now Severus. I have thought about making a two-room apartment out of it, which means a common room and two bedrooms, so that you would stay right in the middle of the castle, centrally located and near to Harry. What do you think Severus?”

“Yes, Professor, I think that is a very good idea. Thank you very much for your consideration.”

“You are very welcome my boys. Then this is decided. I will ask Twinkle to prepare the rooms as soon as we return to Hogwarts. Will that allay your fears just a little Harry?” Harry shrugged.

-----

Harry’s friends had finally arrived and they were sitting at the Gryffindor table, more or less listening to the Sorting.

“We need a new Keeper for our Quidditch team,” James announced. “Remus, you’ve played so well during the holidays that you’ll have to find a new excuse for not playing!”

“If you think I’m good enough, I’d like to play,” Remus replied eagerly. Now he didn’t have to save all his powers for the transformation on every full moon, so why shouldn’t he play?

“Which means our team is already complete! Cool!” Sirius beamed and Harry nodded his agreement. In the meanwhile, the Sorting was over and food had appeared on the tables. “Did Dumbledore already say who the Head Girl and Head Boy are?” Sirius suddenly asked.

“No, but I already know,” Harry mumbled.

“Then tell us Harry,” Sirius insisted.

Harry glanced questioningly at Lily who seemed to ignore the whole conversation. “As far as I know it’s Lily and Severus,” he said and smiled fondly at his mother. “By the way, James,” he addressed his father, “I have thought about something. What about a Quidditch game students against teachers? We’d have to have one team, consisting of members of all four House teams, and the teachers must field a team also.”

“HARRY! YES! That’s a brilliant idea. Too bad it didn’t come from me,” Sirius shouted over the table.

“We could also make this team a real school team and organize a tournament against Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. How’s that?” Harry extended his idea.

“Only under the condition that you’ll be the team captain,” James demanded, “and we can discuss the details later in our dormitory.”

“I think that’ll be for Dumbledore to decide… IF he agrees at all. I’ll go up and ask him later. I’m not allowed to stay in the dormitory any more, at least not for the mument.”

“Why not?” Remus asked silently.

“Health problems,” Harry answered in a small voice only for Remus to hear.

“Hospital Wing?” Remus mouthed and Harry nodded.

-----

“Mr. Pane, will you please come to my office for a mument?” the stern voice of his Grandmother resounded in his ear.

“All right, I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night,” he said and climbed up the stairs to his Head of House’s office.

“Harry, Albus told me that you didn’t take our decision very well to let you stay in the Hospital Wing?

Harry frowned. “Should I be very happy about it? But you have decided anyway, so I don’t think there is any more need to talk about,” he said reprimanding and added, “I have something much more interesting to discuss.”

“And what might that be?” his Grandmother asked surprised.

“We should found a Hogwarts Quidditch team out of the best Quidditch players of all teams and organize a tournament a) against the teachers and b) against Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. What do you think?”

McGonagall was stunned. What a good idea! “Harry, let’s go to the Headmaster’s Office. Could you flash us over?” she asked excitedly.

“Of course. Grab my tail feathers please.”

“And who is going to play in the Hogwarts Quidditch team?” Albus asked with his eyes twinkling.

“You would have to name a Captain for the team; James already suggested me, but the other teams will want to propose someone as well; and the Captain has to either do tryouts or closely observe the practise and games of the other teams. And of course it has to be someone who is a member of one of the House teams.”

Albus glanced at McGonagall and she nodded smilingly. “Alright Harry, as you said correctly it is up to me to name the captain. Professor McGonagall and I have decided to entrust you with this position. Are you willing to take over the position? The Captain has of course to fix the team; whereby you do not have to try out of course, because as Captain you must be on the team; and you have to do the organizing including the communication with the other schools. However, I will write the first letter to the Headmasters of both schools and ask them to name a contact you can talk to. And all appointments and dates have to be discussed with me in advance. Is that clear?”

“Yes of course, Granddad.”

“Then everything is clear; I will announce it to the school tomorrow morning, and maybe you should post a notice about tryouts. You may return to your… dormitory… no, I mean Hospital Wing.”

Harry glared at him. “Isn’t it ridiculous?” he asked furiously.

McGonagall answered in a very upset tone, “No, it is not ridiculous at all. Your behaviour is more ridiculous sometimes. Can’t you understand that we are only worried about you?”

“Yes, but I’m 17! I’m not an infant.”

“But you behave like one. Spending the night in the forest, although you have not yet recovered from pneumonia, is quite ridiculous. Anyway, go back to your room and try to sleep. Good night, Harry. I will come and check on you later, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not. Good night Granny, Granddad.” When Harry entered the Hospital Wing, he noticed that all his things were gone from the bed he had been using for the past few months. He was just looking around wondering what this could mean, when Pomfrey came and guided him through her office into a small hall and into the first room on the left side.

“This is the part of the Hospital Wing normally reserved for the teachers. But this will be your room for the time being. There is no necessity for you to live in the open wing for a whole school year; this will be much more convenient, won’t it?”

Harry sighed relieved and smiled thankfully at Pomfrey. “Yes, that’s much better; thank you Madam Pomfrey.”

“You are welcome Harry. Now I would suggest you unpack as much as you like and get ready for bed; the bathroom is the last door on the right side. I will come back and check on you when curfew starts.”

‘How funny…’ Harry thought, ‘…in the future she always offered me my own bed, now I even have my own room.’

-----

At breakfast the next morning, Dumbledore made an announcement. “Good morning on this bright and sunny day at Hogwarts. Before you are thrown into your lessons, I have a small announcement to make. Harry Pane had the idea of putting up a common Hogwarts Quidditch team consisting of members of all four House-teams. We have decided to make Mr. Pane captain of this new team, which has yet to be formed and leave everything else to him. Mr. Pane would you like to say a few words?”

Harry rose from his seat. “All right. I thought it would be nice to have a school team for example to play a match against the teachers or to have a tournament together with other schools like Beauxbatons or Durmstrang. I need two full teams, one 1st team and one reserve team. I hope that you all will understand that I am going to play Seeker, but I still need a reserve Seeker of course. Therefore, as we need 14 players, there should be three or four players from each House team playing. If you are interested, you can either talk to me directly or tell your team Captain, and I would like all team Captains to join me here for a short discussion after dinner tonight. Practise for the school team will be every Sunday morning directly after breakfast. In case we have more players available than we need, we’ll have tryouts this coming Sunday. Thank you!”

Loud murmurs started as soon as he sat down again, and he could hear cheering voices from the corners where several members of each House team were sitting together. So maybe his idea had not been so bad...

“Harry!” he was pulled out of his daydreams. Lily stood behind him trying to hand him his lessons plan.

“Oh thank you Lily,” he managed to say in his confusion. Right, it was the first day of classes and not the day of Quidditch tryouts...

“Now come on Harry, or we will be late for class,” his father’s voice rang in his ears and he followed James and Lily to the classroom they were heading for. It was the Transfiguration classroom.

“You will find that 7th year transfiguration will be more difficult than the 6th year’s has been. Do not forget that you will have to take your NEWTs at the end of the school year, and it will not be enough to review two weeks before the exams, but you will need utmost concentration throughout the whole year. While we spent the last year configuring objects into living animals, this year the transfiguration of a living object into another living object will be the main focus. The few of you who have already managed the Animagus transformation will be able to gain additional points in your NEWTs. Please note that it is not allowed under any circumstances to transfigure any of your classmates into animals. This transfiguration will lead to your immediate expulsion.” With this, the stern Transfiguration teacher ended her lecture.

“Today we will try to transfigure our pink rabbits into black cats.” She waved her hand at a box filled with buttons and a button landed in front of each student. “Now first of all transfigure your button into a pink rabbit.” Harry used wandless magic, and stunned the rabbit immediately.

“Hey, Harry, is your rabbit alive at all?” Sirius called over from two rows behind him.

“Of course, it’s only stunned,” Harry said coolly and a few of his classmates who’s rabbits were running around the room glanced at him in awe. ‘All right, I don’t like rabbits, I want you to be a cute black kitten,’ he thought, and a cute black kitten with a white nose was sitting on his table. He released the stunning spell, and the kitten jumped off the table and ran around the room chasing a few pink rabbits. Soon it was joined by a few more black cats.

“Very good Mr. Pane,” McGonagall complimented and awarded 10 points to Gryffindor. So far, 7th year was all right, but what would come next Harry thought.

-----

Harry was glad that the next lesson was Potions, because he wanted to discuss something urgently with Severus. Fortunately, he was already sitting in the front of the classroom. Harry slipped into the seat next to him and threw a wandless silencing spell around them. “Severus, I need to ask you about something. You know, this thing with the Hogwarts Quidditch team, um…”

“A very good idea, Harry, great!” Severus interrupted.

However, Harry ignored his comment for the time being and continued impatiently, “Anyway, what I was going to ask is… I’d like you to be my Co-Captain. I mean I am the Captain and I’ll do the work and all, but in case I’m ill or something happens I need someone else who can take over or help me if necessary. I know you are very busy with Potions Mastership and so on, but would you be my Co-Captain?”

Severus beamed with pride. “Harry, thank you very much for asking, this really means a lot to me. But I would not be your Co-Captain and only your Deputy Captain, all right?”

Harry sighed and relaxed. “All right Severus, thank you very much! I am very happy to be able to work together with you. Then I’d like you to come over to the Gryffindor table after dinner as well.” With this, he cancelled the silencing spell and threw a glance at the teachers’ table, where Slughorn had arrived in the meanwhile. Suddenly he turned white…

“Harry? Harry! Harry, what’s wrong?” Severus whispered urgently.

Harry motioned to Severus to look at the blackboard, where Slughorn had listed all ingredients they would need today to brew… the Esnopia Potion.

Suddenly it dawned on Severus and he said to Harry in a calm voice, “It’s okay Harry; we will brew it together today. We won’t send you even more in the past.”

-----

After dinner, the captains of the three other Quidditch teams and Severus joined Harry and James at the Gryffindor table. Harry started immediately. “Thanks for joining us here. First, I have decided to make Severus my Deputy Captain, and I hope you can all live with this decision. We know each other very well in spite of him being in a different House, and I think the Hogwarts team really has to be a team open to all Houses. As captains we are on the team anyway, Severus as Chaser and I as Seeker. Therefore, we still need five people for the first and seven people for the second team, which makes three people from each House. Now we’ll try to figure out whom you could recommend for each position and later you can talk to your team about it.” He took a quill and some parchment and wrote,

The Team

PositionNameHouse

1st team

Keeper

ChaserSeverus SnapeSlytherin

Chaser

Chaser

Beater

Beater

SeekerHarry PaneGryffindor

2nd team

Keeper

Chaser

Chaser

Chaser

Beater

Beater

Seeker

“Now – does anyone of you have a really good Keeper? And remember, all positions we can’t decide on right now will be decided at tryouts on Sunday.”

It was soon very clear that they wouldn’t be able to avoid tryouts for Chasers and Beaters, because it was difficult to compare the abilities of the own teammates to those of the other teams except for the positions as Seeker or Keeper.

-----

On Saturday morning James whispered to Harry, “Today’s the full moon; are we going to the forest tonight?”

Harry glanced at his father pensively and answered reluctantly, “You know, both last times we went, I came back with a bad cold, and I can’t afford that tomorrow, because we have the Quidditch tryout. I suppose we can’t go tomorrow, can we?”

James laughed, “You mean it’s better to miss classes, right? Let’s ask Sirius and Remus, but I don’t know why we shouldn’t do it a day later. Hey Sirius, Remus,” he ran over to his friends and whispered, “Do you think we can do our full moon night a day later, tomorrow night?” When Remus raised an eyebrow James explained, “Harry is afraid of catching a cold again, and it wouldn’t be good tomorrow, because we need him for the Quidditch tryouts, and you know he wouldn’t be able to get away from the dragon, so can we change the day?”

“All right,” Remus laughed, “I’m glad to be able to say ‘yes’ easily. A few months ago, I couldn’t have agreed to such a plan.”

“So we will do it on Sunday evening; I’ll tell Lily, please tell Severus, Harry.”

-----

The Quidditch tryouts continued until lunchtime. Nearly every member of the House teams had come to try to get into the Hogwarts team, and they all did their best, so the decision was not easy for Harry and Severus.

“The problem was,” Harry explained to his Grandparents later, “that we didn’t only have to find the best players, but they also had to come equally from all four Houses. We could have made the team only from Slytherin and Gryffindor players, but we had to let at least one Hufflepuff player in the first team and accordingly two in the second team. But now I think we have a good team and a good reserve team. We are going to train every Sunday morning, and I’ll let both teams play against each other. I’m also going to meet with the House team captains once a month to take advice because they have more experience with tactics etc.”

“This sounds very good Harry, I should really give points to Gryffindor for a brilliant idea,” his Grandmother commended.

“I shall do that. 100 points to Gryffindor for a brilliant idea, which has got all Houses to work together for our school. Well done Harry!” Dumbledore added.

Harry blushed. “Thank you, Professors. Um… by the way, I would like to fix a date for a friendly match Teachers against Students. If you agree, we could even have two games, one in October and a revenge match maybe at the very end of the school year.”

“That sounds good, but do you think we will get a team together, Minerva?”

“Yes, I think so Albus. You, me, Pomona, Poppy, Filius…”

“Madam Hooch and Professor Slughorn, or maybe better Professor Sinistra,” Harry suggested.

“All right, that should work. If not, our Head boy and Head girl have to play with the teachers,” Dumbledore joked and was immediately contradicted by Harry.

“No! Severus is my Deputy Captain and is not available, and Lily… if you want to be on the losing team … I don’t mind…”

“What about the first Sunday in October and the last Sunday before the end of the school year, Harry, Minerva?”

“Very good, thank you” Harry beamed.

-----

Later that night, he flashed into the forest to meet with the Marauders. As usual, they were running around. He talked to Severus in Parseltongue for a while, before he went to fly with Lily. It was near dawn when James and Sirius transformed back and produced six bottles of butterbeer. After everyone had transformed back Harry asked, “Is there any special reason for the butterbeer today?”

“No”, Sirius said, “but as you seem to get a cold each time we meet in the forest, James thought we should try to warm you up a bit before we go back.”

Harry laughed. “How kind of you; thanks!” he said and made himself comfortable with his bottle sitting with his back at a tree trunk. The six friends cuddled close together because it was very cold without the thick fur of the animals and talked for an hour before they had to go back. “By the way”, Harry asked, “when are we going to do some more exploring for the map? I think, maybe we should do some of it during the nights when we are undisturbed. During the holidays I did a bit of research and found a few charms that might come useful, but I would like to discuss it with you.”

Severus looked at his watch and said, “We should discuss it later today. We need to go back now. Maybe we can meet directly after lunch beside the lake?”

Everyone agreed, and they quickly went back to their beds to get at least an hour sleep before classes. When they met at the lake after a very short lunch, Harry showed the others what he had found out during the holidays. He had found the charm to make all people visible on the map, but – and of this charm only Severus knew – he had put a hidden charm on the map never to show Harry Potter, but to show him as Harry Pane. He had also discovered a charm with which he could look for people on the map only by saying their name to the map.

-----

On their way down to the dungeons for their first afternoon lesson, Harry felt that he – again – had caught a cold by being outside during the night. Why was he so weak? It was really annoying, but on the other hand it was such fun being outside with his friends, that it was worth the cold he thought. Never mind what the others said he would continue to meet them during their nights. While he was brewing a Potion with Severus, he sneezed so much that Professor Slughorn threw him out of the classroom.

“If you accidentally sneeze into the cauldron, everything will explode, so you better go somewhere safe.” Harry glanced at Severus who threw him a worried glance and left the room. It was a double Potions class, and after that, he had a free period until dinner, so he had lots of time. He thought about what to do now and decided to just go and ask Pomfrey for a Potion.

She put him to bed immediately and checked on him saying, “I can’t imagine why you always get a cold, but fortunately this time it is only a cold, and when your temperature doesn’t go up you’ll be able to attend classes tomorrow.”

Harry only shrugged and drank his Potions before falling asleep in an instant. He woke up to a cold hand on his forehead. Severus had come to look after him and to ask what he was supposed to say at the Quidditch captains’ meeting that was supposed to take place at 9 o’clock that evening.

“You can give each of the captains a plan of the first and second team to put up in their common rooms. In addition, they should know the dates for the match against the teachers, which will be the first Sunday in October and the last Sunday before the end of the school year. That’s all. Apart from that I only wanted to discuss tactics and to ask if they have any advice.”

“All right Harry. Is it okay for you if I hold the meeting instead of you?”

“Of course, Sev, thanks,” he replied tiredly. “I can’t go today.”

“Don’t you think you should refrain from spending the nights in the forest?”

“Yes, I know,” Harry mumbled, “but it is such fun and I enjoy it so much, that I don’t mind a cold for the rest of the day; it’s worth it.”

“I doubt that it only will be the rest of the day,” Severus said more to himself and went to the Quidditch meeting.

-----

In the end, Harry had to miss classes for two more days and was finally allowed to get up a few days before the first Hogsmeade visit of the year. The Marauders had decided to go to Hogsmeade all together, so they were bound to have a lot of fun. “Harry!” He winced; he had been completely absent and had missed everything his friends had said.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

“I thought you had spent enough time in bed sleeping, but you are still daydreaming,” Sirius teased him.

“Sorry” he mumbled.

“Now Harry, listen, we’ve been planning a prank for our Hogsmeade visit, and it involves you,” James said. “You are capable of wandless magic, aren’t you?”

Chapter 23 – Merlin House

Harry sighed – How did they know about that? “More or less yes, but I don’t want people to know!”

“All right, they won’t know,” Remus added, “you know, we have a charm to make people’s hair green, and we thought maybe you could change everybody’s hair green in Hogsmeade – just the hair of everyone we meet. But it has to be with wandless magic so as not to be detected. Could you do that?”

He sighed again. “You know, I’ve slept a lot, but I’m still tired. I can try anyway, but I can’t promise anything. What is the spell? And how can I counter it?”

James laughed. “The spell is ‘Capillus veridis’ and you can counter it with ‘Finite Incantatum’.”

Harry looked at Sirius and imagined his hair to be pink; as soon as he sent a little magic to strengthen his transfiguration wish, Sirius’ hair turned pink.

Harry grinned. “I don’t need a spell; I can do it with wish magic. So you want me to turn everyone’s hair green. Students as well?”

“Of course,” Lily said and giggled.

“All right.” While they were in Hogsmeade, Harry was very busy. He changed everyone’s hair just by using wish magic, but he felt his magic reserves weaken, and when they arrived back at Hogwarts, he was so tired that he went straight to bed and missed an exciting dinner with about 80 percent of the older students from third year upwards with green hair. The Marauders were still laughing when the Hogwarts Quidditch teams met the next morning for their first Quidditch practise. They could well laugh – they hadn’t been scolded by Pomfrey about depleting their magic for the sake of a joke as Harry had.

-----

Nearly half the school had arrived at the Quidditch pitch, when it was time for the Hogwarts Quidditch teams to practise. Everyone used the changing rooms of their respective Houses, and the teams met on the pitch. Harry placed the starting team on one side, the reserve team on his other side, glanced at the first team and sent some magic to dye their hair neon green; afterwards he repeated the same with the reserve team and their hair had turned neon orange. Then he addressed the two teams. “Welcome to our first practise. Don’t think about the colours of your hair; it has nothing to do with your Houses or anything else, but is just for distinguishing team mate and opponent during the practise. As many people are watching, even spies for the teachers, who will be our opponents in three weeks time, we won’t show anything special today, but just play a Quidditch game with our starting team against the reserve team. Go on, and – needless to say – I want a nice, clean game!” With that, he finally released the Snitch.

He caught the Snitch after only 15 minutes and released it again immediately for another game. This time it took him a little more than an hour to catch it, and he released it a third time. However, either the reserve seeker was waking up or Harry was tired, anyway it was getting difficult, but Harry managed to catch the Snitch after nearly two hours.

“All right, everyone; thanks for a nice, friendly game. We’ll meet again next Sunday, and I hope that everyone watching us today will be getting tired of watching Quidditch every Sunday morning, otherwise I feel forced to change our practise time to an unknown time on an unknown day very early in the morning. Try to practise a lot with your House team and remember we have only practise twice before our match against the teachers, which we have to win of course!”

-----

When they headed off to the changing rooms, Severus asked Harry, “Are we resuming our Potions tutoring on Sundays as well?”

They already had resumed their lessons together with Lily on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings, and Harry was a bit astonished by the question. “Of course, why not? Or don’t you want to?”

“Of course I want to; I just didn’t know if you were too busy.”

“No, I’d love to.”

After lunch, they headed to the Potions classroom. “Is there anything special you want us to brew Harry?” Severus inquired.

Harry only shrugged, before he said, “I don’t mind, you certainly have something you want to brew haven’t you?”

“I have several Healing Potions to make for Madam Pomfrey. Will you assist me? Alternatively, maybe you can try something on your own, for example this Headache Potion. This is quite easy.”

“All right, then I will try to brew it.”

Severus watched all the time what Harry was doing but didn’t have to correct him at all; after nearly two hours a perfect Potion was simmering in Harry’s cauldron.

“Now, leave it for exactly five minutes; then you can bottle it in the small glass phials over there,” Severus instructed and Harry obliged. Severus sighed. “Pomfrey has asked me to do some research for her. She wants a kind of strengthening Potion for you, because your immune system is so weak and you get ill every second week. However, I’m still at the beginning of my research. For this, I’d like to have some blood from you too; would you be willing to give me some?”

“Of course, help yourself,” Harry answered and grinned. He didn’t know what Severus intended to do, but he trusted him completely.

Severus fetched four small phials and a knife and held the knife towards Harry. “Are you going to do it yourself or shall I do it?”

“You do it please,” Harry said unsurely.

Severus gave him a small smile, took the knife, made a small cut in Harry’s arm, and held the wound over one of the phials, so that Harry’s blood flowed straight into the phial. He repeated it with the other phials until they were full and healed the cut on Harry’s arm with a wave of his wand. Harry suddenly felt a little dizzy. Severus noticed this and handed Harry a chocolate frog. “Here eat this. I’m sorry, I must have taken too much blood at one time. Are you all right?” Harry nodded. “Now, Harry, do you feel well enough to go to dinner?” Harry nodded and got up slowly. “Then let’s go.”

-----

At dinner, James asked Harry, “When are we going to go on a night trip for you-know-what? I have seen something interesting the other day…”

Harry shrugged. At the mument, he didn’t want to explore anything. “Not tonight, but any other night will be fine.”

“So tomorrow it will be. Where and when will we meet?”

“My problem is that I can’t get away until Pomfrey is in bed. She always looks in on me once more before she goes to bed, which is mostly at about midnight, but sometimes earlier or later. It’s difficult.”

“All right. Then we’ll wait in our common room and you can flash over there as soon as you can, and… wait… you could go and get Lily and Severus before you come.”

“Yes, I’ll flash to Lily and Sev’s common room and flash the three of us to you.”

It was nearly 1 o’clock, when Harry finally heard Pomfrey entering her private rooms. He transformed immediately and flashed over to Lily and Severus. “Hi Harry, you are quite late. Is everything okay?” Severus asked apprehensively.

“Yes, sorry, Pomfrey didn’t go to her private rooms until now; some first years seem to have tried to hex themselves and kept her busy for the whole evening. Where’s Lily?”

“She went to bed, and I promised to wake her.” Severus went over to the door of Lily’s room and called her. “Harry’s here Lily, are you coming with us?”

Two minutes later Lily emerged from her room and Harry said, “All right, grab my tail feathers. Hi Lily…” He transformed back to Icicle.

In the Gryffindor common room, the other three Marauders were already waiting impatiently. “Harry is a lazybones! Probably he has just fallen asleep!” Harry heard Sirius ranting when he flashed into the common room.

“Maybe you should go and get your mouth washed Sirius. I’m not a lazybones; I’ve told you before that I didn’t know when I could escape from my room!”

“It’s all right Harry, you know Sirius, he is always like this, but he doesn’t mean it; anyway the biggest lazybones here is Sirius himself, and believe me he knows it.” James tried to calm Harry who was really getting upset by Sirius’ accusations.

Harry sent a grateful smile in James’ direction and asked, “Where are we going to go, and how do you want to go? Shall I flash us somewhere?”

James pulled the map out of his pocket. “Look here, this passage seems to lead to some part of the castle which is not used (anymore?); maybe you flash us to the furthest point here on the map and we can have a look?”

“All right” said Harry and transformed again.

-----

Harry flashed them to where James had pointed on the map, but flashing five people was so tiring that he stayed in his form and went to sit on Lily’s shoulder for a few minutes. He noticed everyone’s astonished glances but he couldn’t care less and tried to talk to Lily – as her animagus form was an owl, maybe she’d understand him. #Lily, can you hear me?#

“Why, yes Harry, I can understand you,” was the surprised answer.

#Do you mind carrying me like this for a few minutes? Flashing five people was so tiring that I don’t have the power to transform back at the mument.#

“It’s fine Harry, no problem. I don’t mind at all.”

“What is he saying?” James asked.

‘Oops, can I maybe hear a bit of jealousy in his voice?’ Harry thought.

“He asked me if I mind him sitting on my shoulder being carried, because he used too much magic carrying all of us.”

“Oops, are you all right Harry?” James asked worriedly and Harry nodded in his direction.

“All right,” James added. “Here just behind us is the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room. I suggest that we try to go in this direction and see where it leads. This part of the castle seems not to be used at all.”

“I can see that,” Sirius said. “Look how dusty it is! Does anybody know a spell to get rid of the dust?”

Remus took his wand in his hand, pointed at the dust and said, “Scourgify. Are you a first year Sirius?”

Severus smirked and said, “Thank you Remus. Now let’s go!” They walked along a long aisle, passed in front of two or three classrooms on the right side, while there were windows leading to the Forbidden Forest on the left side.

“Look” James said excitedly, “Here is a door with a portrait of a phoenix like our door to Gryffindor with the portrait of the fat lady, just that here is not a person to talk to on the door at all. Let’s see if we can go past it.”

The door was in fact closed, and Harry tried to talk to the Phoenix on the portrait. #Hello. Are you living here alone in this part of the castle?#

#Yes. Where do you come from? I have never seen a phoenix here apart from Fawkes.#

#My name is Icicle; I’m an Animagus; when I’m not in my phoenix form, I am a Gryffindor student. By the way, what are you guarding here? May we go in?#

#I am guarding Merlin House. Nobody has come here for a few hundred years; it’s really a pity.#

# Merlin House? Is it a Hogwarts House like Gryffindor or Slytherin?#

#Yes. Rowena Ravenclaw, who married the grandson of Merlin, founded it and somehow thought, Merlin should have a House here as well. But some time about 500 years ago, this knowledge was lost for some reason, and since then Merlin House has not been used anymore. I’m waiting for someone to come and put Merlin House back into action to do my job again.#

While Harry was talking to the phoenix, Lily told the other Marauders what he was talking about. For some reason she could understand the phoenix as well as Harry in his phoenix form.

#Does Dumbledore know about you?#

#No; sometimes I visit other portraits, but he has never seen me. I have seen Fawkes, but he hasn’t seen me either.#

#But if you talked to Dumbledore he could help you to revive Merlin House!#

#I want you and Dumbledore to help me. You are both descendants of Merlin and should be able to revive my House.#

#All right. I will come alone or with Dumbledore during the day to talk to you. At the mument, I’m exploring the castle together with my friends. Do you think you could let us in, so that we can have a look at your House?#

#Of course, and come again soon!#

#Thank you.#

The portrait opened and they entered a room like their own common room. In fact, it was very similar to the Gryffindor common room with a large fireplace, many dusty tables, sofas and chairs, and there were two stairs going up to other rooms, probably dormitories like in Gryffindor. James, Sirius, Remus and Severus each took a parchment and started to draw different parts of the area on their own copy of the map.

Harry trilled to Lily, #Lily would you mind talking to the phoenix some more?#

“No Harry, of course not.” She went out of the Merlin House entrance door.

#Sorry to bother you again.#

#You are not bothering me at all, I’m very happy that you finally came!#

#I have some more questions. What kind of students were sorted into your House?#

#Mostly students who would have fitted into more than one House at Hogwarts, mostly very open minded students.#

#And why do you think the Sorting Hat never told anyone about Merlin House?#

#That I don’t know.#

Harry was still sitting on Lily’s shoulder talking to the portrait, when the others came out of Merlin House.

“We have everything on the map. I think we should head back, it’s nearly half past four, and we still could get two hours sleep,” Remus suggested and the others nodded approvingly.

“Harry, are you able to flash us back, or shall we walk?” Severus asked and looked straight into his eyes.

#Lily, can you please tell him that I’m fine and can flash them back, no problem.#

“He says he is fine…” Severus snorted, “…and that he can flash us back,” Lily translated for Harry, who flashed them back straight to the Gryffindor common room

#Do you and Severus want to go back immediately?# he asked Lily then.

“Shall we go back to our rooms Severus?”

“Yes please, but we can walk as well.”

Harry shook his head and turned his tail to Lily and Severus for them to each grab a tail feather. In a flash of ice, they were gone and arrived in the Head Boy/Head Girl apartment. Before Harry went on to his own room, he trilled, #I am sorry, Lily, for clinging to you for the whole time. Please tell Severus I’m sorry I can’t talk to him tonight, and I wish both of you a good night, although there is not much left of it.#

She translated for Severus who told Harry, “Rest well Harry, I will come and look for you in the morning before breakfast. Good night.”

When Pomfrey noticed that Harry made no effort to get up in time and went to his room to wake him up, he was fast asleep in his phoenix form, huddled under the blankets on his bed. She called and tried to wake him but to no avail. Half an hour later, when Severus came to collect Harry for breakfast, he was still asleep, but began to slowly wake up when Severus started to pet him carefully.

“Harry, you have to wake up, we’ll be late for classes.” Harry opened an eye and shook his head. “You don’t want to go to classes?” Harry nodded. “Are you ill?” Harry shook his head. “Are you tired?” Harry nodded. “Can you change back now?” Harry shook his head. “You cannot change?” Harry nodded. “Are you too tired?” Harry nodded again.

“What is wrong with him? Why is he so tired?” Pomfrey asked impatiently.

“Yesterday he has flashed James, Sirius, Remus, Lily and me all together to a far away part of the castle and back, and he probably has used too much magic in order to do this. I don’t know why he changed back during the night, maybe he thought he would feel better in his phoenix form, but now he is too tired to change back.” Harry nodded in agreement. “Could we just let him sleep until he is better?” Severus asked and Harry nodded, but Pomfrey shook her head.

“We should ask Minerva to change him back and give him a Pepper-up Potion, so that he’ll be better soon.” Harry shook his head, but Pomfrey insisted, “Severus, when you go down to breakfast, please tell Minerva about it and ask her to come here after breakfast; she will have to change him back.” Harry shook his head vehemently and flashed away.

Severus inwardly grinned and said, “Oh my, is he getting in trouble again…”

Pomfrey sighed. “Alright, don’t tell Minerva anything at the mument, otherwise she will worry too much about him; he will have to answer to me when he returns!”

-----

Harry flashed directly up to Fawkes’ perch in Dumbledore’s Office.

“Oh my, that’s a surprise! Good morning Harry.”

#Hi Icicle, glad to see you#

#Hello Headmaster, hi Fawkes, is it all right to disturb you for a mument?#

“Of course, Harry, you are always welcome. How are you on this fine morning?”

#Fine Granddad, but I have something I would like to talk about with both of you.#

“All right Harry; why don’t you transform back and have breakfast with me?”

#Sorry, Granddad, I have a slight problem and can’t change back at the mument.#

“What kind of problem?”

#It’s nothing. Yesterday I have flashed five people together, twice, and that took too much power out of me, so I just can’t change back, but otherwise I’m fine.#

#Five people at one time? Are you crazy? I never flash more than three or occasionally four people, and I am used to it!#

#Yes Fawkes; now I know better. Anyway, what I wanted to talk about is something else. Yesterday I went to explore the castle with James, Sirius, Remus, Severus and Lily. We passed Ravenclaw tower and went straight on until we came to a portrait of a phoenix. Do you know the portrait Granddad?#

“No, my dear boy.”

#And do you know what it is guarding? It is guarding Merlin House!#

“Merlin House?”

#Yes. Hogwarts has another House.# He told Fawkes and his Grandfather what the phoenix had told him and said, #Granddad we should try to revive this House, it would be just right for me I suppose. Why don’t you ask the Sorting Hat about the House; he should know everything.#

Dumbledore talked to the Sorting Hat for a few minutes and Harry was listening intently. The Sorting Hat knew of course of the House but was charmed not to talk about it until asked. Now as Dumbledore had specifically asked him about it, he was able to tell everything he knew. He recalled, that Rowena Ravenclaw when she founded Merlin House, had put a charm on the House. Therefore, only an heir of Merlin could be the Head of Merlin House, and at a time when there were no teachers at Hogwarts who were heirs of Merlin they hadn’t been able to use the House at all for several hundred years.

Suddenly Harry thought of something. #Granddad, could you please ask him for me, if he would place me there if the House was active?#

“Oh my, you are asking questions Mr. Potter/Pane/whatever. Oh yes, I would sort you into Merlin House – it was specially founded for people like you!” the Hat answered straight to Harry.

“All right, Harry, let’s walk over there. You can sit on my shoulder if you don’t mind. Fawkes, are you coming too?”

#Of course, I want to speak to the phoenix portrait as well.#

#Thank you, Granddad. I’m sorry to have to bother you. But…um… in fact, um… nobody should see me. Could you put a notice-me-not charm on me please?#

Dumbledore laughed. “All right my boy, but why would that be?”

#Um… in fact… Pomfrey wanted Granny to come and transfigure me back in order to feed me Potions and I just flashed away, because I want to transform back as soon as I can and not be transfigured back by someone else.#

“But don’t you think Poppy’s Potions would help you to feel better?”

#Yes, maybe, but… she’d keep me again and I don’t want that, I didn’t want her to know at all, and I didn’t want the attention anyway.#

Dumbledore sighed. “Maybe one of these days you will be awarded the Order of Merlin for getting yourself into trouble… Anyway, let’s go.” Together with Fawkes, they visited the phoenix – who told them his name was Tori – and inspected Merlin House. After their return to the Headmaster’s Office, Dumbledore told Harry, “I have to talk to Minerva first and then to the other colleagues in order to get their approval. Afterwards I need this issue to be discussed in front of the Board of Governors, which will not be a problem, because with the Death of the Death Eaters all troublemakers are gone. After everything is approved, we can make plans on how to revive the House from the coming summer onwards. Probably now, as I know about the House, lots of information about it can be found in the library; I suppose the books were charmed in the same way as the Sorting Hat not to tell or show anything about Merlin’s House unless the Headmaster knew of it. So if you are interested, maybe you could go and try to research a little about the House of our ancestors.”

#Of course, Granddad, I would love to do some research about it. Do you think I could be re-sorted?#

Dumbledore laughed. “Let’s wait and see.” His face turned stern. “But first we have to consider how to get you out of the trouble you are obviously in. What should we do?”

#I’ll just flash back into my room and rest for a while, and hopefully I’ll be able to transform back later, but Pomfrey is going to kill me anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. My problem is that I can’t talk to anyone except you, Lily and Fawkes.#

“Lily understands you?”

#Yes, she does, definitely,# Harry trilled.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Harry looked at Fawkes terrified, trilled something that Dumbledore couldn’t catch so fast, and in a flash of ice he was gone.

Chapter 24 – The First Match

McGonagall and Pomfrey stormed Dumbledore’s Office. The Headmaster groaned inwardly and said, “Good morning. I hope the Ladies are well on this fine morning. Care for a lemon drop?”

#You need two with a strong calming and Obliviating Potion in it I suppose,# Fawkes trilled giggling.

“Albus, don’t play the innocent with us – you know everything that’s going on in this castle, don’t you?”

“Ah, but no, my dear Minerva, I’m afraid not. What can I do for you?”

“Have you by any chance met your grandson this morning?”

“I have not met Harry – why?”

Poppy glanced suspiciously at Minerva and asked, “Albus, have you perhaps met Harry in his phoenix form?”

Albus sighed. “Ah, Icicle I have met, yes.”

“ALBUS!”

“Why, Minerva, in fact, Icicle came to talk to Fawkes this morning.”

Minerva and Poppy both gave a very annoyed sigh, before Minerva asked, “And where please, might your grandson have gone afterwards?”

“He said something, but I didn’t understand; Fawkes did you by chance understand, what Harry said before he flashed away?”

#He said ‘f… off, I don’t want to be found today.’ I’ll tell you the rest after they are gone.#

Poppy and Minerva looked questioningly at Albus.“He doesn’t know either.”

Poppy glared at him annoyed. “Albus, this child will cause me a heart attack. He is so irresponsible, nearly every week he purposely puts himself into danger, gets ill and runs away from us, so that we can’t help him, but instead have to worry all the time. I’m really fed up with him this time!”

Minerva nodded her consent. “I think so too Albus. And I don’t think he should get away with it. I’m so angry I would like to just order him to go back to the future, but…” She swallowed hard…

“But you would miss him too much and want to keep him here as long as possible, right?” Dumbledore added, his eyes twinkling happily.

Minerva blushed. “I won’t deny that, but I really want to come to his senses this time.”

Dumbledore sighed. “I must contradict you. This time, he didn’t get himself into trouble on purpose. He flashed too many of his friends at the same time, but he only did this because he didn’t know his limits, otherwise he would have flashed twice like he did before in Hogsmeade. Then later he transformed back because he noticed he was feeling better as a phoenix. And this morning you threatened to have him transfigured back against his will by someone else. I can’t say that I don’t understand him, and I’m sure he is somewhere in the castle, only resting and not in any danger and will come back to his room when he feels better.”

“Then maybe we could agree on a punishment, for example a weeks worth of detentions in the Hospital Wing every evening from after dinner until curfew?” Minerva suggested and glanced at Poppy who hesitantly agreed.

“All right. But after his next stunt it will be a month of detentions!”

-----

Harry had flashed back straight in front of Merlin House and told Tori he would like to agree a password with him.

#All right, so you suggest a password,# Tori told him.

#Let’s make it ‘Harry’s room’ for the mument, all right?#

#Of course. Are you going to spend some time here today?#

#Yes please.#

Tori opened the portrait hole and let Harry in, who then flew up to the 7th year’s boys dormitory and slept through the day. When he woke up it was already dark outside, but he didn’t know if it was only late in the evening or early in the morning. As he felt much better now he tried to transform back into his human form and when he succeeded, looked at the wall and thought ‘Tempus’. The time now displayed at the wall showed ‘5:36’ and he considered for a mument what to do next. Deciding to flash to his room in order to change into his school clothes and grab his bag he transformed again, flashed away and was back in just under five minutes. Afterwards he flashed over to Fawkes’ perch in order to beg for a breakfast, because after eating nothing for 24 hours he realized that he was very hungry. Dumbledore was already sitting at his desk, smiling when Harry arrived as Icicle.

“How are you today, my dear boy?”

#Fine, Granddad, and you?#

“Are you able to transform back now?”

#Yes sir.#

“Then how about changing back and having an early breakfast with me?”

#Oh that would be just great, I’m starving.#

Dumbledore laughed and Harry flew down to the floor and transformed back quickly. While they were eating breakfast, the Headmaster told Harry how upset and concerned his Grandmother and Poppy had been and that they had decided on a full week of detention for him.

“Oh, maybe I have to reconsider whether I should go back to my room today,” Harry groaned.

“But… Harry, tell me something… do you really want to get into even more trouble?” his Grandfather asked sincerely.

“No, especially as the full moon will be at the end of next week,” Harry mumbled.

“What does that have to do with the full moon?” Albus inquired with a surprised, but mischievous look on his face, and Harry couldn’t prevent himself from telling his Grandfather about the Marauders’ fun excursions into the forest and his bad luck of always catching a cold afterwards. Both of them enjoyed their early morning talk a lot, but when 6:30 passed, Harry was beginning to get afraid of his Grandmother or Poppy appearing in his Grandfather’s office, so he said good-bye and flashed back to his dormitory in Merlin House. After reading ahead for the next lessons in his Potions and Charms books, he transformed and flashed back in front of the Potions classroom just in time for the first lesson.

“Harry! Where have you been?” his friends asked all at the same time.

He grinned and whispered so that nobody else would be able to hear, “In Merlin House. I’m hiding from McGonagall and Pomfrey.”

James and Sirius were roaring with laughter, but Severus asked him, “Are you alright Harry?”

Harry smiled at his friend and nodded as they entered the Potions classroom. They didn’t have time to talk during the lesson, but on their way to the Charms classroom he told Severus where he had been and what the Sorting Hat had told them about Merlin House.

“Have you already talked to McGonagall or Pomfrey?” Severus asked innocently.

“Of course not, but Dumbledore told me I have detention with Madam Pomfrey for a full week.”

Sirius who had heard the last sentence roared with laughter again, until Severus reprimanded him annoyed. “Do you think it’s so funny, that Harry will be punished? He got himself into this trouble by flashing all of us to the other end of the school and back. Maybe you should actually think before you show a reaction to something.”

Sirius looked affronted but apologized immediately. “You’re right, Severus. I’m sorry Harry, I really didn’t think and I didn’t mean it.”

“It’s okay,” Harry said and sighed. During the Charms lesson, he considered skipping lunch instead of undergoing the danger of capture by a dragon and a wild cat, but as he would have to leave lunch quite early to be at Hagrid’s hut in time for his Care of Magical Creatures lesson, they couldn’t do a lot to him, could they? He didn’t have much of a choice anyway, because as soon as he left the Charms classroom, Lily and Remus appeared on both sides of him and dragged him down to the Great Hall.

“As you seem to have missed all meals yesterday, now you will have to come with us to lunch,” Remus said sternly and Harry didn’t make an effort to resist.

Harry ate his lunch as fast as he could, and when James, who was sitting opposite of him, whispered, “Be careful, your Granny’s coming this way and she is on the warpath,” he got up immediately and left the hall without even looking left or right. He ran down to Hagrid’s hut as fast as he could, sat down and waited for the others to come and the lesson to begin. Fortunately, he didn’t have Transfiguration that day.

At dinner, he was not so lucky. He had just started to eat, when McGonagall approached with a very offended look on her face and said, “Mr. Pane, after dinner you will accompany me to your room, have you understood?”

“Yes Professor” Harry replied tiredly. As he could have guessed, the two women threw a temper tantrum when they arrived in Harry’s room. Madam Pomfrey gave him his week’s detention, and Harry saw his chance to end the discussion and asked eagerly, “Alright; may I start immediately? What do I have to do?”

But Pomfrey countered sternly, “No, you may not. You will go to bed NOW and rest and start your detention tomorrow evening directly after dinner.”

And McGonagall added angrily, “That was Poppy’s punishment; from my side you are grounded for the week, which means you are not allowed to play Quidditch or to go to Hogsmeade during this time.”

Hearing his Grandmother’s words Harry exploded... “You cannot do that! I have to train my team!” he shouted at his Grandmother angrily.

“Oh, I can do that and I will. You – will – not – play – Quidditch – for a week!”

“No! Do you think that is an easy way to prevent my team from practising properly so that the teachers can win the match in two weeks time? I’m sorry, but in this case I will cancel the game!”

“You will do no such thing.”

“I will! We can only practice on Sunday morning, which means once a week. Last Sunday the whole school was watching so that we couldn’t practise properly, and when we can’t practise this Sunday, we only have ONE practise as a team at all before having to play a match against the teachers. All right, I’m going to resign as captain.”

“You will not resign and your team will be fine!” his Grandmother said calmingly.

However, by then Harry was so upset that he only saw red. He couldn’t breathe anymore, threw himself on his bed, and silently began to cry. Pomfrey motioned to McGonagall to leave the room and whispered, “I will look after him.” She went to sit on his bedside and talked to him in a quiet, calming voice.

After a few minutes, Harry had cried himself into a light sleep. In his slumber, he noticed two fingers trying to hold his mouth open and a phial pressed to his lips, he swallowed the liquid, and his breathing returned to normal.

-----

At breakfast, he talked to his friends who were nearly as upset as he was. It was good that McGonagall was sitting far enough from them not to hear the names Sirius was calling his Head of House. Finally, he agreed with James and Sirius, who were the two Gryffindor players in the two Hogwarts teams along with Harry, that a team meeting would be held on Saturday afternoon to discuss practise on Sunday without Harry. He didn’t know if he would be allowed to watch and commentate the practise session but they had to be prepared anyway.

After the Transfiguration lesson, in which Harry did not even glance at his Grandmother while looking at his transfiguration book waiting for the lesson to end, for to meet with Severus in the Potions class to tell him about his unfair punishment. Pomfrey who had checked on him in the morning had forbidden him to do any magic for two days, so he really couldn’t do anything during this stupid lesson. ‘It must be the first time in my life that I prefer a Potions lesson to Transfigurations,’ he thought while he watched the stunned pink rabbit on Remus’ desk and absentmindedly wished it to be a cute little cat in Slytherin colours.

“Oh my…” Remus was stunned and threw an amused glance at Harry.

“Very good Mr. Lupin, but maybe you have to revise your choice of colours a little,” McGonagall said annoyed.

“Um… sorry Professor…I…um….” he glanced at Harry, but he was looking down at his desk.

“I think that was not Remus’ doing,” Lily helped her friend quickly and frowned at Harry, who hadn’t once noticed what he had done.

“I see,” the teacher said sternly and looked at Harry with an exasperated gaze on her face.

At dinner, Harry was only playing with his food. He dreaded the detention with Pomfrey. Would she lecture him again? What was he going to have to do? He had never before had detention in the Hospital Wing but he had heard stories from Ron who once had spent three evenings in a row cleaning bedpans. However, as is often the case, it was much different than he had imagined. Pomfrey had thought very well about what she was going to let him do. She thought they still had to test Harry’s abilities to see if he really was a Natural Healer, but it couldn’t do harm to teach him several things about Healing anyway. So in fact Harry gained, in the contrary to what he had expected, a week of Healing classes, and he enjoyed the evenings with the Mediwitch so much that he was almost a bit disappointed when the last evening of his detention was over. Of course, he would never admit this to the dragon or his Grandmother.

-----

Finally, Quidditch practise went well, and Harry, Severus and the four Quidditch Captains of the House teams had agreed on skipping all House Quidditch practises for the week before the match in favour of daily practises for the Hogwarts team, which took place every evening after dinner. On Friday evening, Harry told his team members that there would be no Quidditch practise on Saturday, instead he expected all members to go to bed early in order to be fresh and fit for the game on Sunday.

The same Friday evening was also the night of the October full moon, and as always, the Marauders spent the night together in the forest. It took Harry only until lunch to know that he – as usual – had caught a cold playing around in the forest. Oh no, why had he been so stupid to spend the night outside just a day before the important match? As he didn’t want anyone to know at least until after the game, he decided to go to the Chamber of Secrets – maybe he could have a look at the Potions lab. Having transformed into Icicle he flashed directly into the Slytherin library, trying to recall what had been written in the book about the Potions lab. Oh yes, he remembered.

One of the bookshelves in the far corner could be moved aside to reveal the entrance to the Potions lab. And there it was! It was a perfect Potions lab, complete with everything, which you could imagine. There were even more Potions ingredients in the shelves than Harry had ever seen before. This lab was so inviting that he thought about brewing a Potion. However, what could he brew? Maybe something for his cold, but the only things he remembered how to brew was Pepper-up and Fever reducing Potion, because they had studied them with Severus. The easiest way of course would be to go to Poppy said a little voice at the back of his head. But he knew she would put him to bed and that was not what he wanted, especially as she would not care at all that the first Quidditch game of the Hogwarts team – students against teachers – was going to take place on Sunday morning, and he wanted to play.

So he tried to brew the two Potions, one after another, and was very pleased to see that they looked right the way they were supposed to look.

‘Maybe Severus is right, and I’m not completely stupid at Potions,’ he thought and looked for some phials to bottle the Potions; he even found a whole shelf filled with clean, empty phials, bottled the Potions, cast an unbreakable spell on them, slipped five of each in his pockets and put the rest neatly in one of the empty shelves. Whenever he needed them, he could just flash here and get them. After drinking one phial of each of them, he felt much better and proceeded to cleaning up the room. Afterwards he sealed the room as it had been before and proceeded to sit in the room with the fireplace; maybe it would be a little warmer. He lit a fire in the fireplace, sat on the sofa and did his homework until it was time for dinner. Once transformed into Icicle he flashed directly in front of the Great Hall for dinner.

-----

On his way back out of the hall after dinner, Severus caught up with him and asked sternly, “Harry, where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

Harry giggled. “I shouldn’t tell you, because you’ll be angry at me…”

Severus sighed. “Harry! What have you done now? Please tell me, or do I have to take points from Gryffindor?”

Harry glared at him. “Would you really do that? I mean… take points from me?”

Severus glanced at him sternly. “To prevent you from putting yourself into danger I would, yes.”

Harry looked down to the floor and said in a small voice, “IwentdowntothechambersPotionslabandbrewtwoPotions.”

“Harry! Can you speak normally please?”

Harry mumbled, “I went down to the chamber’s Potions lab and brewed two Potions. But I want to go to bed now, I’m very tired.”

Severus was stunned. “Wait! YOU… BREWED… POTIONS…??? You must be really sick; I…”

“Severus, sorry, I’m dead on my feet, and you know we have our game directly after breakfast. I’ll tell you tomorrow, okay?”

“Alright Harry.”

Harry was lucky because he had just drunk another two Potions before Pomfrey came to check on him for the night, so that she didn’t notice that he was sick, and nothing else could prevent him from playing Quidditch in the morning. After a very quick breakfast, he went to the Gryffindor changing rooms to change into his Quidditch outfit and quickly gulped down his last two Potions thinking, noticing that at least the Fever reducer worked.

When he was ready he went on to the pitch and sat down on the Gryffindor bleachers to wait for the other players and for his Grandfather, Harold Potter, who would referee the game, as Madam Hooch who was normally refereeing the games would have to play herself. Weeks ago, he had sent an owl to his Grandfather and asked if he would like to referee for the students – teachers’ game and his Grandfather had accepted immediately. By the time both the teachers and the students had arrived on the pitch, his Grandfather had arrived as well, and Harry presented him with a parchment with the names of each player and their positions.

-----

Mr. Potter took the microphone. “Welcome to the first game of the Hogwarts Quidditch Team in their match against the Hogwarts Teachers’ Team.

Here come the players of the students’ team: Deborah Molloy (Ravenclaw, Keeper), Roger Burke (Slytherin, Beater), Donald Quirke (Ravenclaw, Beater), Amelia Bones (Hufflepuff, Chaser), Severus Snape (Slytherin, Chaser and Deputy Captain), James Potter (Gryffindor, Chaser) and Harry Pane (Gryffindor, Seeker and Team Captain).

And here are your teachers: Professor Sinistra (Keeper), Pamona Sprout (Beater), Albus Dumbledore (Beater), Filius Flitwick (Chaser), Minerva McGonagall (Chaser and Team Captain), Poppy Pomfrey (Chaser) and Rolanda Hooch (Seeker and Deputy Captain).

I wish both teams good luck and hope for a fair and nice Quidditch game.”

With this, he released the Snitch and the game began. Compared to games Harry had played against Slytherin this game was very soft. The teachers were playing much better than Harry had expected, based on the fact that they were not really a team with fixed practises, but nevertheless soft, because they were very careful not to hit students with their Bludgers. Both Keepers were really good, and it took thirty minutes until the teachers scored to bring the score to 10 – 00. Now the students woke up and scored twice in a row, but there was still a long way to go. Harry was hovering over the pitch desperately looking for the Snitch. He knew he had to catch the Snitch before Madam Hooch caught it because otherwise the students had no chance of winning. Only once, he caught a glance of the snitch but was distracted by a Bludger that Dumbledore had sent in his direction, and the Snitch was gone. It took another hour and even began to rain before Harry finally got another glimpse of the snitch, and he raced downwards until he nearly crashed into the ground with Madam Hooch on his heels. She had watched his stunts so often that she should have known better, because he pulled up just in time to snatch the Snitch out of the air. He held his hand up and showed the snitch, and Mr. Potter announced, “Mr. Pane has caught the snitch. The Hogwarts Student Team wins. Congratulations, students! The final score is 220 students – 200 teachers.”

Dumbledore took the microphone from him. “Congratulations to the Hogwarts Team! As it is time for lunch anyway, let’s have a victory party in the Great Hall for the winning team!”

Harry was surrounded by his teammates and thanked the team for their very good play before they went to the changing rooms.

The Party lasted the whole afternoon, and everyone had much fun. Fortunately, the teachers seemed not to mind that they had lost the first match against their students.

-----

During the afternoon, Severus was sitting next to Harry and asked, “Yesterday you told me something about brewing a Potion. Care to explain?”

“The Potions lab down in the Chamber … have you been there?” Severus shook his head and Harry went on to whisper excitedly, “It is beautiful, and there are more Potions ingredients than I’ve ever seen. Anyway I wanted to brew a Potion, just because the lab was so great, so I made Pepper-up and Fever reducer, because I couldn’t think of anything else and I needed it at the time – and I succeeded, I got it right.”

“Very well, Harry,” Severus commended him. “You have to show me the lab Harry.”

“Sev! We can go now – I can’t wait for you to see it. We can make all Potions there, it’s much better than the Potions classroom!”

Severus was as delighted as Harry had been when he visited the hidden room for the first time.

-----

On Monday, McGonagall approached Harry at dinner. “The Headmaster wants to speak to you Harry, directly after dinner please.”

Harry nodded and said, “All right Professor.” He finished his meal quickly and climbed up the stairs to the Gargoyle. He groaned; McGonagall had not told him the password. Considering to just sit down and wait for Dumbledore to come looking for him he started to guess the password ‘lemon drops, chocolate frogs, Quidditch, Hogwarts team wins… etc., and finally the Gargoyle opened to ‘Merlin House’.

“Hello Harry, Lemon drop?”

Harry declined and wondered what his Grandfather might want to talk about when he heard a knock at the door and the door opened with a wave of Dumbledore’s hand. Harry blinked in surprise. McGonagall had just entered the room with Sprout and Flitwick in tow.

“Harry we have come together in order to talk about the Merlin House. I have already spoken with the three Professors here, and we have agreed to revive Merlin House as fifth Hogwarts House as soon as possible. The Board of Governors has already approved my suggestion, so it is up to us how to proceed. Today I have called you together to discuss this. Shall we open the House at the beginning of the next school year or maybe even earlier on Halloween/1st of November or the 1st of January? I would like to hear your opinions.”

“Albus, do you want to re-sort all students? Or what do you intend to do?”

“We have three possibilities.

1. We start with Merlin House at the beginning of the new school year, and only the 1st years, which will be sorted anyway, can come into the House.

2. We re-sort all students, which I would not recommend.

3. We ask the Sorting Hat who actually knows each student at this school, whom of our students he would place in the new House; and the students among those named by the hat can choose if they want to change.”

“Um…”

“Yes, Harry?”

“Sorry, but just one question in advance. If we went by your third suggestion, what would happen about the students’ former status? I mean, if I for example changed to Merlin House, would I still be able to play Quidditch for Gryffindor?”

“Yes, I think we should go by Albus’ third suggestion and let the students who actually change Houses have a kind of double House status, at least until the end of the school year, so that they belong to both Houses. There won’t be that many students to change to the new House immediately, will there?” Flitwick asked.

“That we have to ask the Hat,” Albus said and addressed the Hat. “How many of our students would you recommend to put into Merlin House?”

“Oh, a difficult question indeed. I would probably recommend about 20 students.”

“So there will be about 10-20 students, which will be all right for the beginning, but they need their old Houses as well I think. For Quidditch of course, and they will need to have the possibility to meet with their friends in their old common rooms, and they will also need their Head of Houses to confide in and to talk about their problems. As I told you, only an heir of Merlin can become Head of Merlin House, and as I am the only one who is currently at Hogwarts as a teacher, it will have to be me at first, at least until Lily is ready for a teaching position. And I don’t think I would make a good Head of House like the three of you.”

Flitwick jumped into it. “I have a suggestion concerning Lily. In fact, I am keen on taking over the position of History of Magic whenever you would like to abandon the ghost. And I would propose Lily as my successor in Charms, because she is the best student I ever had.”

“Thank you very much Filius; this is a very valuable suggestion, and I am ready to agree to make the change directly next summer, however I have to speak to Lily about this before we can make a decision.”

“Now back to the decision about Merlin House,” Minerva said; “I would also agree to the third suggestion in the combination old House/Merlin House for the students. I tell you, I’m not going to lose Harry as a Quidditch player for my House!”

Everyone laughed and Dumbledore asked, “Pomona, what do you think?”

“I agree with Filius and Minerva.”

“Harry?”

“I agree as well, although in fact I think I don’t have much to say as I sort of live in my room in the Hospital Wing anyway. So I won’t belong to the few lonely students staying in Merlin House except for maybe staying there sometimes in the evening.”

Minerva smiled fondly at her grandchild. “What do you think of the date?”

They agreed on the 1st of January, provided that the Hat would announce his decision during the first week of December and that the students had time to decide until the beginning of the holidays.

-----

It was about three weeks later, and Harry was sitting between Severus and Lily in their Charms lesson, when suddenly the classroom door opened and Professor McGonagall stormed in.

“Sorry Filius; I need Harry. Harry! You have experience in battling dragons, don’t you?” Harry’s face turned white.

Chapter 25 – Don’t bother a Dragon Lady

Harry quickly followed his grandmother out of the Charms classroom and asked, “What’s wrong? Why do I need experience in battling a dragon?” He noticed that the teacher had a peculiar look on her face while she was watching him.

“Harry, a dragon is attacking the castle from outside; in fact it is attacking Hufflepuff. Can you do anything about it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it understands Parseltongue.” He transformed into Icicle and flashed outside, where he saw that a dragon was in fact attacking one of the towers of the school. He flew over near the dragon, changed into Harry and started to talk to the dragon in Parseltongue.

“Hello, can you understand me?”

“Oh hello, yesss, who are you?”

“I’m Harry. What are you doing there?”

“People from inside here have taken my eggsss, and I want them back!”

“Wait! Don’t attack the tower. I will help you and we will get your eggsss back immediately. But don’t attack anyone.” He looked around and saw most of the professors standing in front of the main entrance doors.

“Please wait here, I’ll ask some of the teachers to get your eggsss, I’ll be back soon. Please rely on me and wait. Are you living here with Hagrid?”

“Yesss.”

“All right. Fly back in your living area, and I’ll be there in a few minutesss, all right?”

“Okay, thanks.” The dragon mother went back to her place, and Harry flashed quickly over to the teachers, who were glancing at him expectantly.

-----

“She is attacking because some Hufflepuff students seem to have taken her eggs away and are hiding them in their dormitories. She won’t attack at the mument, but we need the eggs back immediately,” he told the teachers.

Professor Sprout stormed away with Madam Hooch and Professor Flitwick in tow. Harry ran after them. “Wait! I’ll flash you; it’s faster.” He flashed them in front of the Hufflepuff common room.

Sprout said pensively, “Harry, I have no idea where to look for the eggs; please flash to Albus’ Office and tell him to make an announcement throughout the school that all Hufflepuff students have to return to their common room immediately.”

Harry flashed away. Two minutes later the announcement could be heard. Harry flashed back directly into Hufflepuff, where the professors had searched the common room in the meantime. Minutes later the first students arrived and gathered in the common room. Professor Sprout addressed the students, and the culprits – three second year girls who had thought they could care for the eggs instead of the dragon mother – went up to their dormitory to fetch the eggs.

“Put them into something I can carry please; a bag or something similar and give them to me, I’ll take them back,” Harry said and transformed into Icicle. As soon as Sprout had fixed a bag to his foot, he flashed away, directly to where the dragon was waiting, took the bag from his foot and changed back. Then he fetched the eggs out of his bag and laid them on the ground next to the dragon.

“Here are your eggsss back; I hope they are sstill all right, the studentsss didn’t do anything to them.”

Carefully he took a few steps back when the dragon mother approached. She inspected the eggs, but something seemed to be wrong. Harry could not help the feeling that he needed help – the help of his Nimbus. He concentrated and wished ‘Accio Nimbus’, and within seconds his broom arrived. ‘Oh, yes, the Hospital Wing is just above here,’ he thought gratefully.

-----

Suddenly the dragon attacked, only this time she did not attack the castle tower but went directly against Harry. He took off on his broom and tried to evade the furious dragon, but was hit by a wave of flame against his left arm and chest. A bit further away, he waved his hand and tried to stun the dragon to no effect – the dragon was flying after Harry now. While Harry was flying, he tried each possible spell he could think about and finally conjured a strong Patronus, which immediately took on the dragon. From the ground, the teachers were sending their Patroni against the dragon as well. This weakened the dragon, but she was still chasing Harry, and he was once more hit by a blast of flame.

Professor McGonagall could not stand to see her grandson like this and urged Dumbledore with a slight hint of panic in her voice, “Albus, what can we do? We can’t let him battle the dragon alone; you must think of a way to help him!” Dumbledore, who had a grave look on his face, only shook his head and pulled her into a hug, while Flitwick said softly,

“Minerva, I don’t think we can do anything to help him. He flies better than any of us, and he has much more power than any of us except Albus, who is – sorry, Albus – much too old to fight a dragon. We can only keep on sending spells from the ground and hope it will weaken her.”

Harry tried spell after spell, which was difficult, because his left arm was injured and he could hardly hold himself on the broom with his right hand, which he also needed to conjure spells. Finally, he tried his wish magic and wished the dragon stunned on the ground, sent the strongest stunning spell he could do summoning all his magic, and fell onto the ground directly after the stunned dragon.

The teachers, who had been helplessly watching everything, ran over to Harry and the dragon. McGonagall put Harry on a stretcher and levitated him to the Hospital Wing, while the other teachers sent some more strong stunning spells at the dragon. Dumbledore transformed into his phoenix form and flashed directly to the ministry in order to ask someone to take the dragon away from Hogwarts immediately. Professor Sprout went back to Hufflepuff to tell the three culprits who had caused the trouble to pack their things because they were suspended for a week and would be sent home tomorrow. And the rest of the students were still waiting patiently in their common rooms for the announcement that the castle was safe again.

-----

Pomfrey had watched the battle from the window of the Hospital Wing, alerted by Harry’s broom, which suddenly went through the – fortunately open – window. Therefore, by the time McGonagall arrived with Harry, she had already prepared everything she would probably need in Harry’s room, so that she could tend to him immediately. She shooed McGonagall out and told her she needed to tend to Harry without disturbance for at least two or three hours. Professor McGonagall climbed up to the Headmaster’s Office to announce to the students that they were allowed to move freely around the castle interior again but were not to leave the castle just yet. Afterwards she left the office and went down to the rooms of the Head Boy and Head Girl, two of her favourite students. She knocked and was invited in immediately.

“What happened?” Lily asked worried.

“Is everything okay?” Severus added.

She sighed. “Yes and no I must say, unfortunately. The dragon is stunned now and the Headmaster has gone to the ministry to ask someone to take the dragon away. However, Harry is injured badly. Poppy is currently tending to him and threw me out for two to three hours.”

Lily noticed that the strict professor was on the verge of tears. She went over to her and said calmingly, “I’m sure he will be fine. Madam Pomfrey is able to heal nearly everything. Why don’t we sit down and have a cup of tea together?”

“Yes Professor, please have a seat. We can leave our door open and open the door of the Hospital Wing, and then we can see when Madam Pomfrey leaves her office. She will probably tell us when she is finished.” Severus added.

“Twinkle,” McGonagall called the Dumbledore House elf, which arrived immediately.

“Yes Mistress McGonagall, what can I do for Mistress and the Head students?”

“Please bring us tea and some biscuits. Thank you, Twinkle, and… Twinkle, when Albus comes back from the ministry, could you please tell him that I am here.”

“Of course, Mistress McGonagall-Dumbledore.” A minute later, tea and biscuits arrived, and each of the three tried to hide their concerns about Harry by drinking tea and talking.

“Professor?” McGonagall glanced questioningly at Lily. “I’m sorry, but may I ask about what your House elf just called you?”

McGonagall sighed. At this mument, Dumbledore appeared at the door. “May I?” he asked.

On Severus’ “Of course Professor, tea?” he entered the room.

“Albus, Twinkle just called me McGonagall-Dumbledore.”

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled. “Ah, I see. Lily, this might come a bit of a shock, but you must understand that it was too dangerous for all of us to reveal anything as long as Voldemort was alive. That is why we didn’t tell you before, alright?”

Lily looked very surprised about the repercussions of her little question but nodded eagerly.

Professor McGonagall continued, “Albus is my husband, and your mother is not a Muggle, but a Squib. In fact, she is our daughter. Moreover, she hates everything that has to do with magic. She grew up here with us of course until she was 11, then she went to a Muggle boarding school, and when she turned 18 she cut off all contact to us, which even went so far that she did not tell you and Petunia that you are our grandchildren.”

Lily was stunned. She glanced from Minerva to Albus, back again, and could not believe what she had just heard.

Albus added, “As Minerva already said we would have liked to tell you much earlier, but it was not possible because of Voldemort. You would have been in incredible danger, if he had known that you were a Dumbledore. We told Harry for some reason which I cannot explain to you at this stage and Severus heard it by chance at the same time.”

“So I am related to Harry?”

“Yes, you are related to Harry, but we cannot tell you anymore about him at the mument and he or Severus cannot either. In fact Harry knows, but Severus doesn’t know; anyway you will know about your relation to Harry sometime in the future.”

“In the future? I know what this means. Does Harry come from the future? He is my son, isn’t he? I don’t know why I know, but I know I love him, but not like you love a boyfriend or someone like that, I just… and I am very protective of him.. and I have always wondered why…But… who is the father? I cannot change anything, I have to get together with his father, is that right? Otherwise he won’t even be born later, correct?”

“Lily, calm down! You are right in Harry being your son. Severus you know that you cannot talk about this to anyone,” Dumbledore stated.

“Of course Professor. I knew anyway. It’s obvious, not only from Harry’s eyes, but from how he reacts to Lily.”

“Harry has changed the future very much. In fact, if he hadn’t, you and your future husband would be killed in three years’ time.”

Lily gasped.

Dumbledore continued, “This is probably the most important fact why he tried to change the future, to save your life. Anyway, Minerva and I worried just about the question you asked about your changing the future, so we went to see a very famous seer who can really see the future. And she told us that he would change the future very much, which he already had by now; so we believe it true what she told us. Harry will have great problems to adapt when he goes back to the future but in the end, he will be very happy. He will be your son in the future anyway, and you do not have to think about him, you can get together with the person you love; just let everything run its course. Harry will go back to the future at the end of your seventh year, and you will meet him in 19 years. Of course as a baby you will meet him in two years when he will be born.”

Minerva caught a glance of Severus secretly smiling fondly at Lily. At this mument, Poppy left her office and came over to them with a very concerned look on her face. She entered Severus and Lily’s apartment and said in an exhausted voice, “I think I healed everything. He was in quite a bad shape, burns on his left arm and his chest, a few broken ribs which caused problems with a lung, apart from that he has a bad concussion and is in a coma, but he will probably recover completely, although it might take several weeks or even months.”

Lily nearly cried. “May I see him?”

“Poppy”, Minerva said softly, “we told her.”

Pomfrey gave her a surprised look and said, “Alright, but the four of you will be the only ones allowed to see him. He is not awake anyway; as I said he is in a coma, and I don’t know when he will wake up; it might take a long time. But it might help when you talk to him; he will probably be able to hear you.”

Severus put a cool hand on Lily’s shoulder. “Harry is strong, Lily, he will be fine. Let’s go and see him.”

“Minerva”, Albus said apologizing, “I’m sorry, but I have to go down to dinner; I must make an announcement because of the three students who will be suspended, and I have to have a talk with Hagrid about keeping a dragon as a pet in a school.”

“Alright Albus, I will come down in five minutes. We can visit Harry later; I just want to see him for a few minutes,” his wife answered hesitantly.

Lily, Severus and Minerva went over to Harry’s room, and Lily sat next to Harry on the bed, took his hand and whispered, “I don’t know why, but I knew Harry, somehow I have always felt for you like a mother, and you know, I am very, very proud of you!”

“Lily, look!” Severus hissed. “He can hear you, he is smiling!”

“Wake up Harry, look Severus is here, your best friend, and Minerva, our Granny, and Poppy, who spent hours fixing you up. We are all waiting for you to wake up. You were very brave today Harry; you saved Hogwarts and its students from the dragon, as I said before, I am very proud of you. And I want to see your beautiful green eyes...” Lily could not speak further; her eyes were full of tears, and when Severus put his arm around her shoulder, she sobbed into his robes.

Harry remained in a coma for about three weeks. Lily and Severus spent every free minute at his side; they had even gone over to doing their homework in his room in order to be able to talk to him all the time. His Grandparents visited him every night after curfew as they had already done so often during the last year.

-----

Harry stirred, his mind still being somewhere between being in a coma and semi consciousness. Right away, he knew something was wrong, but he could not place it at first. He lay still for a few minutes, before he slowly tried to open his eyes in order to determine what was wrong. He blinked – Where was he? Oh, he recognized it as his own room within the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts. Someone was sitting next to him on his bed; he tried to move his head and gasped – it hurt. He tried to move only his eyes, and it worked – he looked into two brilliant green eyes. ‘My mum,’ he thought and smiled.

“Harry”, a soft voice penetrated his ear, “It’s all right, don’t move.”

“Stay with him Lily,” he could hear another voice, which he could recognize as Severus’, “I’ll get Poppy.”

After a very short time, Poppy came into view. “Hello Harry,” she said, “you gave us quite a fright.” She handed him a glass of water, which he tried to drink greedily, but could only get very small sips at one time. “Harry”, Poppy continued, “You have been asleep for three weeks and most of your wounds have already healed in the meantime. Can you tell me if anything hurts?”

“Head,” Harry mumbled tiredly.

“All right, stay awake for a mument please, let me check on you.” After two minutes, Poppy handed him a few Potions, which he drank one after another and fell asleep again.

The next time he woke up, he was a little more alert, and after a few days he was aware enough to ask, “What happened?”

Severus sighed. “Do you remember anything? You had to fight a dragon, because she was attacking the school. Do you remember that?”

“There was something, yes, but I thought it was a dream; so this really happened. Hagrid is just crazy sometimes.”

“Hagrid is in big trouble,” Severus said, “He nearly got the Headmaster’s Grandchild killed.”

The next time he woke up his grandparents were sitting with him. “Hello Harry, how are you?”

“Fine.” McGonagall looked disapprovingly at him. “Um… yes, apart from a headache, I’m fine. When can I go back to school?”

“I don’t know about that, Harry, you have to ask Poppy,” his grandmother told him.

“How much have I missed Granny? What date do we have? I mean… how long have I been here now?”

“You haven’t missed much. Do you recall the dragon?”

“In fact I didn’t, but Severus talked to me about it. What happened to her?”

“Albus went straight to the ministry, while I brought you here, and asked them to take it away; as far as I know they have brought it to Romania to a dragon reserve. Albus also had a long talk with Hagrid who should never have kept a dragon as a pet in a school of course, and the three students who caused the whole event have been suspended for a week. Now we already have the end of November, you have been here asleep for about four weeks.”

Harry groaned. “This means, that I have missed lots of classes and have lots of work to do. Are you still going to pull the thing through, you know, with the Sorting Hat and Merlin House?”

“Yes Harry, it is planned to bring the Sorting Hat down to dinner on the 1st of December and to have him announce the names of the people he suggests for Merlin House.”

“When is the 1st of December?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Oh, I must go there, I don’t care if Poppy wants me to, but this is a once-in-a-life-chance, and I want to go. Afterwards I will return here immediately and do everything she wants me to, but…”

“Wait Harry, let me get Poppy and you can beg her. I can’t imagine that she will agree, but we can try.”

“No,” was the answer. “Your concussion was so bad, it is still not completely healed, and you still have a temperature; you will only make yourself worse.”

“Oh please, I promise I will come back here immediately, I only want to hear what the Sorting Hat says. I could even flash there and back.”

“No Harry, I don’t want you to transform at the mument. About tomorrow we will talk tomorrow afternoon.”

McGonagall smiled calmingly at Harry. “Keep calm Harry, that’s the only thing you can do at the mument. By the way, did you have a chance to talk to Lily yet?”

“No, I knew she was here, but I wasn’t really awake enough to talk; why, is something wrong with her?”

His Grandmother shook her head. “No, on the contrary. She happens to know about her relationship to us and to you.”

Harry glanced at her questioningly. “You told her? Why?”

McGonagall sighed. “No. Only about her relationship to us. We had to tell her because she overheard Twinkle accidentally calling me McGonagall-Dumbledore. Afterwards she guessed that you are her son.”

“Granny, can you get her for me, now, please?!” McGonagall looked at her watch and said,

“Harry, it’s too late. She will be asleep.”

Harry began to whine. “Please Granny; I need her, only a few minutes, please.”

His Grandmother gave him a surprised glance and went to get the girl he needed so desperately.

-----

After a few minutes, she returned with Lily in tow, who proceeded to sit on Harry’s bed next to him and give him a big hug. Harry couldn’t believe it – his mother... she knew about him and was sitting there hugging him – he was so happy. Lily smiled lovingly at Harry. “You know Harry, I’ve always had motherly feelings towards you, I just didn’t know why, so when Granny told me we were related I guessed immediately that you were my son, and I can tell you I’m very proud to have a son like you.”

Harry smiled tiredly. “Thanks….mum.”

She grinned and said, “Now Harry, I know we have a lot to talk about, but it’s already late and you are tired. As it is Saturday tomorrow, I can come straight after breakfast, and we have as much time to talk, as you want. Good night, my dear.” She gave him a kiss on the forehead and left the room.

Lily kept her promise and was already sitting next to Harry when he was still asleep. Finally, Harry blinked and looked straight into his mum’s beautiful green eyes. His heart beat faster for an instant.

“Hi, Mum,” he said joyously. “Thanks… I mean… for coming to talk to me.”

“Oh Harry, I wanted to talk to you anyway. You have told me you were raised by your relatives who hated you. Was that by any chance my sister Petunia?”

Harry nodded solemnly.

“And Granny told me you killed Voldemort so save mine and your father’s life?”

“Yes.”

“So maybe this time we will be able to raise you ourselves.”

“Probably, I hope so.” Harry interrupted her.

“Anyway this time I will take precautions. Who was it to place you with Petunia?”

“Dumbledore.”

“All right. I will tell everyone – and also write a ‘final wish’ stating – that in case something happens to your father, whoever that might be, and me, you are going to be placed with Severus, James, Remus, Alice or with your Great Grandparents. Don’t worry – you will never have to see Petunia again, I promise!”

Harry was on the verge of tears, he was so happy. “Thank you mum,” he croaked.

At this stage they were interrupted by Poppy; she came to check on Harry and said to Lily with a big smile, “He is much better than yesterday – a mother’s love seems to be the best remedy!”

-----

In the evening Lily and Severus came, begged the dragon together with Harry to let him attend the ‘Sorting Hat Dinner’, and promised to take him back immediately, so Poppy very reluctantly let him go. His friends helped Harry down to the Great Hall where he sat between Lily and Remus at the Gryffindor table and was greeted happily by his other friends who had not been allowed to see him for a month.

“Hello Harry,” Remus said, “Do you know what this is about?” Harry looked at the Head Table, where the Sorting Hat was placed in the centre, and shrugged.

Dumbledore stood and started to make his announcement.

“Before we start our dinner, I would like to…”

Suddenly the Great Hall turned completely dark – like it had been on Harry’s birthday, but that had been special, hadn’t it? – And in the far corner behind the Gryffindor Table, something white like a foggy cloud appeared. A few students began to scream. Harry had too much of a headache to be afraid of anything or to even think of what could be wrong; he just leaned his head against his mother’s shoulder, who put an arm around him and said, “It’s alright Harry, calm down.” But suddenly a voice shook the hall.

Chapter 26 – The Sorting Hat

The voice suddenly became clear, and the foggy cloud cleared up to the form of a ghost. “Merlin,” Harry gasped and the ghost began to speak to them.

“Welcome to the revival of Merlin House. I am very glad to have three heirs of mine joining this ceremony, as Merlin House can only exist with an heir of mine as Head of House. Please do your work Sorting Hat!”

The Sorting Hat revolved its pointed top a few times and began to talk.

“You all know me, so I will spare you my song,

I don’t want to ask you, I’ll tell you what’s wrong!

As Merlin has told you, there are five Houses at Hogwarts

and not only four – as you thought from long time onwards.

It’s not only Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw;

No, there is also our Merlin House you know.

But you think Merlin House is for whom?

We are all sorted – so what will you do?

I’ll tell you what I’d do with you.

In Merlin House, I want some of you too!

-----

Amelia Bones

Lily Evans

Stephanie Field

Alice French

George Graham

Fred Hampton

Remus Lupin

Stephen McKenzie

Otto Meyer

Alicia O’Brien

Harry Pane

John Ryan

Michael Smith

Severus Snape

Nathalie Spears

-----

You have until Christmas;

Think well and tell us:

What will you do?”

With this appeal, the Sorting Hat went silent and students and teachers applauded.

-----

Dumbledore rose from his seat and thanked the ghost of Merlin as well as the Sorting Hat and said, “Dear students, as you have heard, the hat has named fifteen of our number whom he would like to have in Merlin House. As you have already been sorted when you entered Hogwarts, you are not obliged to transfer to Merlin House, although I would appreciate it. But don’t forget, even if you change Houses now, you will still partly belong to your old House, for example regarding your participation in the Quidditch team, your Head of House, or your use of the common room. You still have all the rights you had before. Head of Merlin House will be me, but as I said, you should rely more on your old Head of House, because I am not always available. From the next school year onwards, there will be more students in Merlin House, and I hope that I will have a new Head of House for you, but that I cannot promise just yet.

“Please think it over carefully and tell either your Head of House or me your decision before Christmas holidays start. If you have any questions please come and see either Harry Pane as the youngest heir of Merlin or me, or our Head girl Lily Evans or our Head boy Severus Snape. Of course, you can also ask my wife, Minerva McGonagall-Dumbledore. They all know as much about Merlin House as I do and will be pleased to help you.” He clapped his hands twice, and food appeared on the tables. “Now, this was enough talk for tonight – please tuck in!”

Harry, who was still leaning against his mother, sat up straight and ate a little, while he thought about whom the Hat wanted into Merlin House. It didn’t seem to make so much sense to transfer 7th years, did it? How would Severus and Remus decide? Lily was supposed to do it, as she was an heir to Merlin and maybe… hopefully would accept the post of Head of Merlin House next summer. He was startled when Remus suddenly spoke to him.

“Harry, are you all right?” When Harry nodded, he went on, “Do you know what you are going to do? Will you transfer to Merlin House?”

“Yes. And you?”

“I don’t know; it’s a bit all of a sudden. Lily, will you transfer?”

Lily smiled at Harry and Remus and said, “Yes, I will.”

Suddenly Severus came over to them. “Harry, are you all right? Shall I take you back?”

“Yes please, Severus, thank you,” Harry said gratefully and stood up.

“I’ll accompany you too,” Lily said and rose as well.

While they slowly walked back to the Hospital Wing, Harry asked, “Severus, what are you going to do? Will you transfer to Merlin House with Lily and me?”

Lily glanced apprehensively at Severus. “It’s a difficult decision, but as it is only the last half year, why not? You know that I’m probably going to be Head of Slytherin next year, don’t you?”

“But that doesn’t matter. Even if you transfer now, you have spent more than six years in Slytherin, so you are more than qualified to be Head of Slytherin,” Lily argued. In the meantime, they had arrived at Harry’s room.

“Thank you, you two. Go back to dinner please, I’ll be fine,” Harry said and threw a small glance at his best friends.

“No, I will stay here; are you going back Lily?”

“No, let’s stay here and talk for a while. So do you think you will transfer Sev?”

“When my two best friends go, I’ll have to go as well, won’t I? And both of you have to go, because you are the heirs. So let’s go together!” He smiled softly at Lily.

After they had talked for another hour, Pomfrey came in, waved her wand over Harry twice and said, “Thank you very much for bringing Harry back; he must rest now. You may come back to see him tomorrow.”

“Wait a mument please. Lily, may I borrow your notes again? I have to hurry to catch up on everything. You know we have end of term tests in two weeks.”

Poppy raised her stern voice. “No Harry, you are not allowed to do any schoolwork as long as your concussion and your fever have not gone. And don’t ask me when that will be, because I don’t know.”

Lily and Severus left the room, Poppy fed Harry a few Potions, and Harry was asleep immediately.

Harry was finally allowed to return to classes (with the stern instructions ‘but only classes, no Quidditch or anything strenuous until after the holidays please’) a week before the start of the Christmas holidays, just on Monday morning as the end of term tests started. He was exempt from all tests because he had missed so many classes but could try to do them if he wished. On Saturday, Poppy had agreed for Lily to bring her notes, so that Harry could slowly start to catch up, and Harry had used the two days to read through the complete notes of six weeks’ classes. On Monday, they had tests in Transfiguration, a written test in the morning and a practical in the afternoon, and he had no problems with either part. After dinner, he met with Severus and Lily for an extra Potions tutoring lesson to study for the test, which was due on Friday.

At breakfast on Tuesday morning, a large brown barn owl flew down just between Harry and James. James took the letter and realized that the owl, which belonged to his parents, had brought another letter… for Harry. With a very surprised look, he handed the letter over and proceeded to read his own.

Harry was astonished too, but before he could risk a look at the letter, James cleared his throat and said, “My parents are inviting Harry, Lily, Severus and Remus for the Christmas holidays. Sirius is coming anyway, but would you like to come home with me?” He looked questioningly at the other Marauders.

“Wow, that’s cool,” Harry was the first to answer. “I would like that very much.” Inwardly he beamed, ‘I’m going to get to know my Grandparents, that’s so cool’.

Lily agreed. “I would like to go too; I hate my own home, so I already decided to stay here, but I’d like to come with you very much”.

Remus also agreed to go.

“That’s fine; now we only have to ask Severus. I hope he’ll come too,” James concluded.

“Oh look, we’re late; we have to go to Charms or we’ll miss our tests,” Sirius suddenly said and everyone left in a hurry.

Lily and Harry used the Potions tutoring lesson to ask Severus about the Christmas holidays, but Severus declined and said, “When you go, I will use the time to visit my mother, as I haven’t seen her for a whole year; I was only going to stay so that Harry would not be alone over the holidays.”

Harry didn’t have time to read his Grandfather’s letter until after curfew when he was back in his room.

Dear Harry, it said.

With Professor Dumbledore’s approval, I have told my wife about you and she would very much like to get to know you. Therefore, I have asked James to invite you and his other friends to our home over Christmas and we would appreciate it very much if you could come. We know that we cannot let anybody know of our connection, not even James, and we have also sent a letter to Professor Dumbledore and asked for his approval to have you here over the holidays.

Best regards from your (other) Grandparents, Harold and Luisa Potter

-----

At breakfast on Wednesday morning McGonagall came over and told them Dumbledore would like to see James, Remus, Lily and Harry straight after their Care Of Magical Creatures test in the afternoon. When they entered the Headmaster’s Office, McGonagall was there as well. Dumbledore was the first to speak.

“I have received a letter from the Potters, James parents. They are inviting all of you to visit them over Christmas. Severus has already declined because he wants to go home for a week and research a Potion for Harry during the second week. So I would like to ask Lily, Remus and Harry if they want to go home with James.”

The three glanced at each other for a mument, before Remus said, “We have already talked about it, and we all would like to go.”

Harry noticed that McGonagall had a very disapproving look on her face and was just wondering what could be wrong with going to the Potters, when she said, “Lily and Remus, you may go, but please tell your parents about it. With regard to Harry, I have spoken to Madam Pomfrey and she told me that she cannot give her approval at the mument, because he has not fully recovered yet. She told me to ask her again on Friday evening.”

Harry groaned. Would he finally have to stay at Hogwarts alone without his friends?

“On the other hand I know the Potters very well and I am sure that they will be able to look after Harry, so I will try to convince Poppy, but I cannot promise anything,” Dumbledore said in a calming voice.

Harry was on the verge of tears and quickly left the room without another word. He went straight up to Merlin House, plopped on a sofa in the common room and tried to concentrate on the notes for his tests in Herbology and DADA. He didn’t even bother to go back in time for dinner and went straight to his Potions tutoring. When he returned to his own room just before curfew, Madam Pomfrey was very angry with him for missing dinner and gave him a nutrient Potion, but he couldn’t care less.

-----

On Friday morning, the Marauders were discussing the upcoming holidays. The Hogwarts express was leaving on Saturday morning and from Kings Cross they intended to take a Portkey to Potter Manor.

“On Tuesday we’ll have the full moon,” Remus said, “are we going to do something?”

“We can spend the night in the park if you want, however we have to tell my parents about it, if we spend the night outside.”

“I hope they let me go with you, I don’t want to stay here all alone,” Harry whined.

“Oh Harry, I hope Pomfrey lets you go; maybe Dumbledore will be able to convince her,” Lily said worriedly.

James added, “Last night I received a letter from my parents and they promised to write to Dumbledore that they of course would look after Harry if he was ill, and so maybe we still have hope.”

Suddenly Harry looked at his watch and panicked. “Oh Lily, come on, we have our Potions test now. If we don’t hurry, we’ll be late.”

James threw him an astonished glance. “Harry, don’t panic. You can flash yourself and Lily to the dungeons, then you will have lots of time.”

“Ah, all right, James, thanks. I didn’t think about that,” Harry said gratefully and transformed into Icicle, and as soon as Lily had grabbed his tail feathers, they were gone in a flash. When he changed back, he noticed that his headache was back full force and remembered that he was not supposed to transform for a while. He slipped into his seat next to Severus and asked him, “Have you by any chance a Headache Potion with you?”

Severus glanced at him and shook his head. “No, why? If it is still so bad, you shouldn’t be here. Go and see the dragon, otherwise you will only make yourself worse.”

Harry shook his head almost unnoticeably and tried to prepare himself for the coming test. Fortunately, it was the same as with the Transfiguration test: just a written test in the morning and the practical in the afternoon, and thanks to Severus’ tutoring and Lily’s notes he didn’t have a problem with the written test. But how could he brew a Potion with this horrible headache? He could go to the Chamber and brew a Potion, but he dare not skip lunch, because he needed Poppy in a good mood in the evening and not angry in order to being allowed to visit the Potters. And he couldn’t go to Poppy for a Headache Potion because she would just keep him there, and he didn’t want to miss the final test.

So he went to lunch instead, and fortunately the others were very excited about the upcoming holidays and didn’t notice that he was only playing with the food on his plate. Soon they were back to the dungeons.

“Harry, what’s wrong with you?” Lily whispered to him.

“I shouldn’t have transformed this morning; since then I’ve a terrible headache,” he whispered back.

Lily was alarmed. “Oh, I hope you will be able to come with us tomorrow.”

Harry only shrugged. At this mument, Slughorn arrived and opened the classroom door. Harry sat on his usual seat and waited… where was Severus? He was never late. Slughorn was just waving his wand for the name of the Potion to appear on the blackboard, when Severus finally arrived and slipped into the seat next to Harry. Under the table, he handed something to Harry, who glanced at him enquiringly. “A Headache Potion; you still need it, don’t you?” Severus whispered.

“Yes, of course, thank you Severus,” Harry answered and quickly gulped the Potion down. He still didn’t feel well but a lot better.

“I just made it down in the Chamber,” Severus whispered back.

“Now start your Potions and no more talking please,” Slughorn said and ended their talk. Thanks to Severus’ Potion, Harry was lucid enough to brew a nearly flawless Potion. The colour was a slightly different blue, maybe a touch lighter than Severus’, but still a very similar colour, so he had surely managed to brew a Potion worthy of an E if not better.

-----

At dinner, Dumbledore announced that all students whom the Sorting Hat had suggested for the transfer to Merlin House had accepted. So there would be fifteen students in the House. Dumbledore named Harry, Remus and Amelia Bones, who was a 6th year student, as prefects. Lily and Severus would be prefects too, as they were Head girl and Head boy. Dumbledore told them they would stay in their new House from the day when they returned from Christmas holidays. The Merlin emblem was in white and gold with a white – green ice phoenix like Icicle on it, but of course, the students wouldn’t have to buy new robes, as he would transfigure their old ones after their return.

Suddenly James asked, “Have Dumbledore or McGonagall already talked to you about the holidays? How do we know if you’re allowed to come with us? Do we have to go and see Dumbledore again?”

“I have no idea. Probably I have to go to the dragon and ask her, but if we can convince Dumbledore otherwise, it would be better,” Harry answered.

Lily added, “I don’t think it would be good if Harry had to go for a check-up, he isn’t well today. He transformed this morning into his phoenix form although he shouldn’t have, he simply forgot, so…”

“Alright, then let’s go to Dumbledore and try to convince him,” Sirius said forcefully. As soon as dinner was finished, the five friends climbed up the stairs to the Gargoyle, which after a lot of guessing opened on ‘winter holidays’.

Dumbledore greeted them and offered each a lemon drop, before he said, “I hope you are not here to pester me about Harry, because that’s not for me to decide but for Madam Pomfrey.”

Harry contradicted immediately, “Why Granddad? I mean… you’re the Headmaster here, AND my Granddad, if anyone should be able to decide then it would be you.”

Dumbledore sighed and asked, “Harry, tell me, what is the problem? Do you think that you are well enough? If yes, why are you so afraid of Poppy’s decision? If not, then it would be better to stay here.”

Lily answered for Harry and told her Grandfather what the problem was. He sighed and said, “Alright, you go to Poppy and ask her, Harry; take all your friends with you. And if she says no, I will talk to her later and try to convince her.”

With this, they were dismissed and Harry’s friends dragged him up to Pomfrey. She motioned for Harry to lie down on his bed and waved her wand over him several times. Finally she said disbelievingly, “Harry, what have you done today to make yourself so much worse than you were in the morning?”

Harry burst into tears immediately and Lily answered for him and told that he had in panic forgotten that he shouldn’t transform. Poppy shook her head in exasperation and said, “I’m sorry, but I cannot allow him to leave for the holidays; he has to stay here.”

Chapter 27 – Winter Holidays

Lily motioned for the others to leave and sat down next to Harry on his bed. James promised he would go back to Dumbledore and talk to him and left the room with Sirius and Remus in tow. Harry didn’t speak to anyone, not even to Lily; he had buried his head in the cushions and was crying silently. He didn’t even react when Poppy called him three times to drink two Potions. Finally, she gave up and retreated into her office. She was so sorry for Harry; she hated seeing him like this, but what could she do? He was so irresponsible concerning his health in spite of his fragile immune system that he was not able to look after himself; so how could she let him go for the holidays especially with the fever he was having. She sighed and considered talking to Minerva.

A short while later Dumbledore and Minerva came into her office together with James’ parents. She explained the reasons for her decision to keep Harry here and Minerva nodded her consent. However, James’ mother said softly, “You know that I am his Grandmother. Now do you believe I wouldn’t do everything I could for him? If you told us what Potions he needs and what he or we should or shouldn’t do, don’t you think maybe we should be able to have him at least for a week over Christmas?”

“The problem is that he wouldn’t tell you if he felt bad, on the contrary, he would try to hide it, and he is so good at it that he is able to fool anyone apart from me. His immune system is gravely damaged, therefore he gets ill about every second week and it takes twice the time to heal as it would normally. You would need to check on him twice a day; I could teach you two or three spells, which you’d have to do every evening and morning. And when there were any problems, you’d have to fire-call me immediately.”

Finally, they decided to try it, and Mrs. Potter would come the next morning to be taught a few spells, before she would leave together with the students for the train.

“Maybe” Mr. Potter threw in, “it would be better to take him home by portkey directly from here. Wouldn’t the train ride be too strenuous?”

“No, he may not use a portkey. He can go by train or the Knight bus, but no magical transportation such as portkey, apparition or flashing for the next two weeks, because his concussion isn’t fully healed. That was his problem today – he transformed into a phoenix and flashed through the school and made his condition much worse again.”

By the time the Potters left, Harry had cried himself to sleep. Lily had stayed with him for the whole evening, holding his hand all the time; now she was asleep next to him, but none of the teachers wanted to wake her up and chase her away; on the contrary, McGonagall smiled fondly at her, conjured an extra blanket and tucked her in. Harry’s other Grandmother came back early in the morning for her lesson with Pomfrey. They used the still sleeping Lily and Harry for their practise, and by the time they had to wake the two students, she had managed to perform a general check-up spell as well as a spell to check his temperature flawlessly. Poppy handed her several Potions, which Harry might need as well as specific instructions for any possible occurrence.

Just before they had to leave for the train, Severus came over to look after Harry and smiled when Harry beamed that he was allowed to go. “Harry, promise me not to do anything crazy, not to spend a night outside, and tell Mrs. Potter when you have problems, alright?”

“Alright Professor Snape,” Harry said teasingly but smiled gratefully at his best friend.

-----

The train ride was uneventful; the six friends and Mrs. Potter shared a compartment, although it was very crowded with seven people, they had a lot of fun. Harry was asleep most of the time, his head on Mrs. Potter’s lap, his feet on Lily’s. When they arrived at Kings Cross, they called the Knight bus, which took them to Potter Manor in one big jump. Harry was very excited when they arrived at Potter Manor. He had never heard about the House, although it was beautiful; did it still exist in his time? Would he inherit it when he became 17? It was a beautiful, huge manor surrounded by a grand park. As soon as they entered the House, they were greeted by two House elves, who Mrs. Potter introduced as Tipsy and Tapsy. They took immediately care of their luggage.

“Remus and Harry, would you like to share a room or to have your own room?”

Mrs. Potter asked suddenly, while the students were looking around. “I’m asking because James and Sirius have their rooms where they always stay, and we have two more rooms on the same floor, one of course for Lily. So you can either stay together on the same floor or have your own rooms on a different floor.”

Harry glanced at Remus. “Shall we share a room?”

Remus smiled at him. “I would like that; I mean we have shared a dormitory at Hogwarts for a year anyway.”

“All right,” Mrs. Potter said, “Then James and Sirius, could you show your guests their rooms please? And Harry, you might want to rest for a while; I’ll send someone to wake you up for dinner in about an hour.”

When they reached their rooms, Lily laughed at Harry and said, “Maybe she is not so different from McGonagall…”

-----

James showed them all their rooms and Harry was stunned. Remus and he were staying in a large room with two huge four-poster beds with dark blue curtains and a big window with a spectacular view of the landscape – he could even see a lake. The room was beautiful and he liked it immediately. Finally, they all ended up in Remus and Harry’s room, lying or sitting on the two big beds. Harry was very grateful to be together with his friends. Moreover, although he already missed Severus, he hoped that maybe he would be able to get his parents at least a little closer together during these holidays. After a while, Mr. Potter came to escort them down to the kitchens for dinner.

“Normally we use the dining room when we are having guests,” his wife said when they arrived in the kitchen, “but as you will be staying for your holidays I think you shouldn’t feel like guests but consider this place as your home, so we’ll just eat in the kitchen.”

Harry couldn’t help it, but dinner reminded him immensely of the Weasleys. His grandmother’s cooking was very similar to Mrs. Weasley’s and he tried hard to eat a little of everything in order not to attract any attention. After Mr. Potter had told them a lot about Potter Manor and about the Potter family who were direct descendants of Gryffindor, which Harry had learned in his second year, he asked the children what they were planning for the holidays. As if they had only waited for a start signal, James and Sirius began to try to outdo each other with many good ideas how to use the holidays. Lily, Remus and Harry had to try hard not to laugh too much. When James suggested going for a walk in the park after dinner, his mother scolded him a little.

“James, Harry is still ill and I would like you to be considerate to him in your planning. I will check on him every morning before breakfast and in the evening directly after dinner, and after that, I can tell you what he may do, so that you can make plans accordingly. But tonight he won’t be able to go outside, so I’d suggest you spend the evening either in Remus and Harry’s room talking or playing games or even reading or you go to the TV room and watch a film.”

James looked over to Harry who had blushed and was looking down on the table. “Of course mum, we’ll do that.”

“Harry, I want you to come with me to your room for your check-up now,” his Grandmother finished the conversation. Harry got up immediately, followed her up the stairs to his room, and lay down on his bed. Oh, that felt good. So far, he had not noticed how tired he was, but… he was wide-awake again when he felt a cool hand on his forehead. His Grandmother frowned.

“Sorry Granny, this bed just feels so good…”

“I believe that, but let me just try to do the check please; maybe I need your help. Then you may sleep.” She put a parchment next to Harry on the bed and did the first spell. Immediately many lines filled with words appeared on the parchment. She looked at the parchment and asked Harry, “Do you still have a headache?”

Harry nodded and said, “But it’s not bad, I’m fine.”

His Grandmother waved her wand again, this time to take his temperature and scolded him, “No, you are not fine, don’t give me that; you still have quite a headache and a fever; I will give you two Potions and then I want you to sleep, so that you hopefully will be able to have fun with your friends tomorrow.”

“Alright Granny, thanks,” Harry mumbled tiredly and was asleep within seconds.

-----

The five friends spent the next morning exploring the big Potter Manor. There were about 30 rooms, each of them as big as the room Harry and Remus shared, nearly as big as their dormitory in Gryffindor tower. Everyone was impressed by the huge library; it was much bigger than the one Harry knew from Grimmauld Place of the future. After lunch Harry was told to rest, so they decided to spend the afternoon in Remus’ and Harry’s room doing their homework and looking through the charms books Remus and Lily had brought. They were keen to finish the charms for the map in order to get the map complete as soon as they returned to Hogwarts.

“James?” Sirius suddenly asked, “Do you have the map with you? I would like to know if we can see who is at Hogwarts even when we are here with the map.”

James looked at him thoughtfully. “That’s a dammed good question!” He pulled the map out of his pocket and showed it to his friends.

“Wow, Dumbledore is walking around in his office,” Lily giggled.

Harry was stunned. He would not have believed that the map worked from such as distance. He joined the conversation, “James, I think we should use a charm so that the map is only accessible using a password. You have to say a password like for example ‘I solemnly swear that I am up to no good’ to have the map show something, and if you don’t know the password you will just see an empty parchment.”

“Yes, Harry is right; we cannot run around Hogwarts with the map in our pockets like this. I mean, everyone could use it. So that’s the next charm we have to look for,” Remus said.

For the next thirty minutes, there was silence, and Harry was nearly asleep while everybody else was feverishly searching through the books when Lily suddenly shouted excitedly, “Here, look! This is what we are looking for, isn’t it? It’s called the Himitsu charm.” She showed the book to Remus and James, who curiously read the text she pointed to.

Remus was the first to speak, “Yes, I think she’s right. Let’s try it anyway. Lily, you are the best at Charms, so maybe you should try the spell.”

“But please use a copy of the map first, not that I don’t trust you Lily, but...” James contradicted.

Lily immediately interrupted him. “Of course James, we have to try all charms and spells on the copies first. Only when we are sure they really work we should put them on the original map.” She tried the charm and it worked.

“All right, so we need another charm to shut the map down afterwards. We need another charm and we need a text for it,” Sirius said.

“For the text we should ask Harry, he invented this one already, so he’ll be able to think of another one”, James added, “and concerning the charm let’s rely on Lily. I mean it should not be so different from this one, or what do you think Lily?”

Lily only nodded already wrapped up in the book again. Sirius walked over to Harry’s bed and shook him, “Wake up you lazybones!”

Harry blinked and tried to remember where he was. “Hmm?”

“Harry, we need another password to end the map,” a voice penetrated his ear.

Harry sighed and mumbled sleepily, “Try ‘mischief managed’.”

“What was that? Mischief managed?” Remus said and giggled.

“Oh here, now let me try,” Lily said excitedly and gripped the copy she was working on, charmed it and handed it to Sirius. “Here you troublemaker, can you try it out and let innocent, sick boys sleep please?” By dinnertime, they had found some more useful charms, which Lily applied on the map.

“That’s it, now we only have to explore the castle a little more and the map is finished,” James said contently.

However, Harry, who had so far not participated in the activities cleared his throat, so that everyone looked over to him expectantly, and said, “We need a charm, which provides that the map always shows the real names of people, even when they are under Polyjuice Potion or some other charm or spell.”

For a minute, there was no reaction at all. His friends were too impressed to say anything, but then James said, “All right, Lily and Remus, our Charms heads, go on and study please.” However, at this mument Tipsy appeared and announced dinnertime; so they postponed the research to another time.

-----

After dinner, Mrs. Potter accompanied Harry to his room and checked on him. When she was finished and reached over to the shelf to get a Potion for him, Harry glanced at her and said in a small voice, “I’m sorry for being such a burden.”

His grandmother was totally shocked to hear her grandchild say what he did and finally sat down next to him on his bed. “Harry, how do you get the idea you were a burden? You are not, nor will you ever be a burden to us.” She frowned. “Harry, may I ask you something?”

Harry looked at his Grandmother astonished and said, “Yes, of course.”

“Harry, I don’t know if you know this, but Dumbledore has put a spell on Harold and me, so that we are not able to talk about your connection to us or about anything you tell us about the future. Therefore, you may tell us anything you want. I would like to ask you… who raised you? It was not your parents, was it?”

Harry sadly shook his head. “My parents both died when I was a year old. That was why I chose to kill Voldemort in the past – to save my parents’ lives. My mum’s sister raised me. She is a squib, but she does not know it; she thinks she is a Muggle, and her husband is one, and they are just horrible. However, as Voldemort is dead, my parents will not die by his hand, so I hope that they will survive and raise me by themselves this time. And my mum has already promised to take precautions that I wouldn’t have to live with her sister if she and my father died by any other means.”

His grandmother, who had been listening intensively to comprehend everything Harry was ranting about, tried to ask more detailed, “Harry, how exactly did they raise you? Didn’t they love you at all?”

Harry snorted. “No, they hate me. As soon as I was old enough to look over the kitchen table at about the age of three, they made me do chores, in the kitchen, in the garden, in the House; I was their House elf until I started Hogwarts. Until then I had never known about my parents, about wizards, about anything concerning magic. I got my first birthday present and also my first Christmas present when I was 11.”

“Did they ever beat you?”

“Only a little bit, when I did accidental magic or so. It was nothing.”

“I see. Um… Poppy told me that your immune system is very weak. Does this have anything to do with the way your relatives raised you?”

Harry sighed. “Probably. They have never taken me to a Healer, when I was ill; everything had to heal by itself. And last year during summer I had a bad cold, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I had even thought about flying to Hogwarts to see Pomfrey, but they had taken my broom away, so I couldn’t, and finally I got pneumonia and had to stay in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts for more than six weeks. Poppy told me this was what damaged my immune system. And I think it’s true; before that I’ve never been ill at Hogwarts, but since then every second week.”

“Harry, you don’t have to answer any questions you don’t want to answer, all right?” Harry nodded. “Is my assumption correct, that your mother is Lily?”

Harry smiled. “Yes, Granny. You can’t imagine how happy I am to be with my parents whom I haven’t known at all for all those years.”

“I can believe that. Is there a reason why they are not to know that you are their son? And for your friends not to know that you come from the future?”

Harry sighed again. “Lily knows that she’s my mother and of course that I come from the future, but I didn’t tell her, she guessed it, when my Great Grandparents told her about their relationship to her. Concerning the others… James guessed that I am somehow related to him, nothing more. And I would like to leave it at that.”

He frowned and glanced at his grandmother. “I don’t want to influence Lily and James about their relationship. I do not want them to think they have to be together in order for me to be born or something like that, and I don’t want to attract any attention. Believe it or not, I hate attention, nevertheless I’m always getting too much of it, and if the Marauders knew I came from the future, they would cease treating me normally I think. I don’t know, it just seems the right thing to do, to hide it from them. Do you think I should tell them?”

“I don’t know Harry. We can talk about it another time, maybe by then we will have other ideas. I won’t tell anyone, I give you my word. Now, I need you to drink these two Potions again, and then maybe you should try to sleep.”

“All right, Granny, thanks for talking to me…um… and… um… for everything else as well.”

“Good night my boy.” She gave him a kiss on his forehead and left the room.

-----

When his grandmother came in the morning to check on Harry, he was talking to Remus very excitedly. “Remus, how could I forget about that? It’s horrible! What am I going to do?”

She quickly went to Harry’s bedside and put a hand on his forehead. “Harry, calm down, son. What is wrong with you?”

Harry had a panicked look on his face, when he glanced at his grandmother and said excitedly, “I can’t believe it. In two days, it’s Christmas! And I haven’t bought even one Christmas present! I have to go to Diagon Alley or somewhere today to buy Christmas presents.”

Remus added, “You see, Mrs. Potter, we went to Hogsmeade all together, but Harry had to stay in the Hospital Wing all the time, so he couldn’t go with us. And when he was allowed back to school he had tests every day, and then we came here, after a lot of worrying if he was allowed to come – so it’s not astonishing that he forgot.”

Mrs. Potter sighed. “Harry, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go anywhere, but as we already have Christmas Eve tomorrow, we just have to go today. I will accompany you to Diagon Alley, but you cannot spend a lot of time there, only get your presents and we come back, so that you can rest.”

“All right. Thank you very much.”

“Mrs. Potter, can we come too?” Remus asked hopefully.

“Yes, we can go all together, but as I said we won’t stay very long, and we cannot apparate or use the Floo Network and have to take the Knight Bus.”

Remus ran out of the room and straight into James’ room to tell the good news. Together they ran to wake up Sirius.

-----

They left immediately after breakfast. Fortunately, the Knight Bus came very quickly and took them straight to Diagon Alley in only three big jumps. When they arrived in front of the Leaky Cauldron, Mrs. Potter told them she would go with Harry, and the other four had to stay together all the time and had to meet them again in two hours at Fortescue’s ice cream parlour. Harry only needed to go to Flourish & Blotts as well as to the Quidditch shop and the Apothecary, because he had asked Lily to buy some chocolates for him that he could give to the Potters, so they were the first to arrive at the ice cream shop. He didn’t really want to eat anything but was glad to be able to sit down. The alley was so crowded two days before Christmas that shopping was very exhausting. They had to wait quite a while – the others were nearly thirty minutes late and Mrs. Potter was very angry with James and Sirius whom she obviously thought responsible for their delay.

“Oh I’m sorry Mrs. Potter, Harry,” Lily said. “That’s my fault, because I had to go to the sweets shop to buy some last minute presents, and you wouldn’t believe how crowded it was.”

“Which wouldn’t have delayed us at all if they hadn’t spent nearly two hours at the jokes shop, so it’s not your fault at all,” Remus added reprehensively.

“So is it our fault that the jokes shop was so crammed full that it took us two hours to go through it? Wait until we’re back at Hogwarts planning our next pranks, then you’ll be grateful to have waited a little today,” James said a little upset.

“Oh, it’s no problem at all, except that we have already eaten all the ice cream they had, so you won’t get any,” Harry countered jokingly and Mrs. Potter nodded.

“Yes, we have been sitting here now for nearly an hour and want to go home. We’ll have lunch at home and you can have ice cream for dessert – all right?”

They all agreed and took the Knight Bus back to Potter Manor. Even the Knight Bus was full of people, and it took them about an hour to get home. When they finally arrived and sat down for lunch after the House elves had taken their shopping bags up to their rooms, Harry apologized solemnly. “I’m sorry that you all had to take the bus because of me, although you could have floo-ed home in seconds.”

James countered immediately, “No, Harry, in fact we are very grateful. Do you honestly think my mum would have taken us to Diagon Alley a day before Christmas? No, only thanks to you we were able to spend a nice morning in civilisation.”

“By the way,” Lily said, “we met Professor McGonagall at the sweets shop buying sweets for Dumbledore.” Everyone laughed. “She asked about Harry, and we just told her he was with you, so that she couldn’t assume he was in Diagon Alley as well; I don’t know if she would have appreciated it.”

“Certainly not. I’m glad we didn’t meet her or anyone else,” Mrs. Potter replied mischievously.

-----

After lunch, Harry was sent to bed and James motioned the others to follow him up to Harry and Remus’ room to check the new joke items they had purchased. He showed them a small, dark brown wand.

“Well,” Remus said. What’s so funny with a wand?” Sirius grinned.

“Take it in your hand and try a spell – then let’s see if it’s funny.” Remus looked at the wand in order to take it and it immediately changed its form so that it looked like Remus’ own wand. He eyed it suspiciously and took it in his hand.

“Now, try something,” James requested impatiently.

Remus pointed the wand at a book on Harry’s bedside table and said, “Accio book”, but the book did not move; instead, blue sparks came out of the wand and formed themselves to a sentence. ‘That doesn’t work,’ was written in large blue letters in the air. Grinning he waved the wand once more and repeated, “Accio book,” but nothing happened. This time yellow sparks appeared and told him ‘Try harder’. Remus tried again just to be told ‘Have you still not given up?’ in red letters. Everyone was laughing now. Remus asked, “So how many different sentences does it know? Anyway it won’t work at all, will it?”

James and Sirius roared with laughter and Sirius suggested, “Just try it out, Moony, we’ll wait and watch.”

James said, “No, it won’t work. But don’t you think it’s worth trying it on McGonagall or so?”

Everyone laughed even more, but suddenly Remus had an idea. “Yes! I know what we do, but we need Harry to do it.”

Sirius snorted. “Our lazybones is asleep as always.”

Harry sat up very angrily. “No – I – am – not – asleep! Maybe you should go and wash your mouth Sirius!”

“Yes, Sirius. You’re very unfair. Continue with your behaviour and Harry and I will go back to Hogwarts,” Lily added.

“All right I’m sorry Harry,” Sirius apologized.

“What do you need me for, Remus?” Harry asked.

“Um… you can do wandless magic silently, right? I thought you could silently and of course wandlessly accio McGonagall’s wand out of her robe and replace it with this wand.”

“Yeah! That’s it!” James shouted and the others couldn’t help but agree that this seemed to be a great idea.

“Do you think you can do that?” Lily asked Harry and he nodded slowly.

“I’m not sure; I have to try wish magic on it. But I hope it will work without her noticing it was me, otherwise I’ll be grounded for the rest of the school year,” Harry replied laughing.

“I have an idea,” Remus said giggling. “Tonight after dinner, when James’ mum comes to check on you, we can try if it works. James takes this wand instead of his own, we all follow you here in the room, and you just try your wish magic to exchange James’ and his mother’s wand”.

“My mother sometimes places her wand somewhere in the kitchen. It would be easier for me to exchange it then,” James said.

“Yes, I know, but in order to know if Harry will manage to exchange the wands it would be better to try it on your mum,” Sirius countered.

“For that I don’t need Mrs. Potter. I can just try with one of your wands – what’s the problem?”

James thought for a mument. “All right. I assume you are not too keen to play a prank on mum, so I will try to get hold of her wand at dinner, and then we’ll see.” He grinned.

“So, what other things do you have? I suppose you haven’t spent two hours in the jokes shop just to buy a few wands?” Remus asked and they discussed a few more items until it was time to go down for dinner.

-----

At dinner, the atmosphere was very tense and Mrs. Potter wondered what they were up to. When she was clearing the table after dinner with Lily and Harry’s help, Sirius and Remus managed to distract her for a mument by quarrelling about something incomprehensible, just long enough for James to exchange her wand, which she had placed on the table with the faked wand.

“Alright, thanks for your help, Lily and Harry,” Mrs. Potter said, “Now Harry, let’s go to your room.”

Harry groaned but climbed up the stairs obediently, and James said audibly to the others, “Let’s go with them, maybe Harry will be allowed to go to the park with us.”

As soon as they reached Remus’ and Harry’ room James mother said, “Now you will please go into your own room, James and Sirius, Harry will definitely not be allowed to go to the park tonight.”

“Alright, but we want to watch anyway,” James insisted.

His mother sighed and told him, “I cannot imagine Harry wants to have all of you in his room.”

Harry mumbled uncomfortably, “I really don’t mind them Mrs. Potter,” although in fact he loved to have some time just alone with his grandmother.

“All right,” his grandmother said and tried the first spell, which, of course, didn’t work. She glanced annoyed at the pink letters that said ‘this doesn’t work’ and said to Harry, “I’m sorry my dear, this didn’t work, let me try again.” When the next time blue letters appeared and told her ‘You seem to be not so good at it,’ she glanced over to James and Sirius, who were obviously trying hard not to explode with laughter. “James and Sirius! This is not funny! Make my wand work again immediately!”

She sounded so angry, that James handed her wand over straight away. “Now you two, go to your rooms please, NOW! You will stay in your room until breakfast tomorrow,” she said angrily facing James and Sirius. Sirius still managed to giggle silently when they left the room. Mrs. Potter gave the fake wand to Remus and said, “I hope you do not intend to use this at Hogwarts.”

Harry laughed and said with an innocent face, “Not really; we will only use it on my great grandmother!”

-----

On Christmas Eve, they were allowed to decorate the huge Christmas tree in the parlour. As it was the first time for Harry to decorate a tree at all and the first time for Lily to decorate a tree using magic, James and Sirius had to teach them the required spells. Suddenly Harry took a piece of parchment from the table and transfigured it to a golden bauble with an image of his ice phoenix on it.

“Wow”, Remus said, “look, it’s adorable!”

“Can you teach us how to do this?” Lily asked, but Harry shrugged.

“I’m sorry; I can do it with wish magic, so I’m not able to tell you a specific spell to do it. You’d have to ask McGonagall about that, or maybe Mrs. Potter. But if you want me to I can make one for each of you.” They all agreed they wanted to have their own, so Harry transfigured parchments into golden baubles, decorating them with one of their animagus forms on each; he even made one for Severus, although he was not there.

Lily looked fondly at hers. “Harry, thank you! This snowy owl looks so beautiful in front of the golden background; I love it!”

Harry smiled, as his friends seemed to be so happy with their baubles. When they were finished with the tree, James and Remus glanced at each other for a mument before James cleared his throat and having the attention of everyone said, “As you know, tonight is the night of the full moon. What are we going to do? Are we going to spend the night in the park?”

“Yes, of course, we always do, don’t we?” Sirius fell in immediately.

Remus glanced hesitantly at Harry, but Harry said glumly, “I cannot go this time, but I won’t mind at all if you go without me. Go and enjoy the night; the park just looks beautiful from the window. Maybe tomorrow or the day after, we can go to the park together during daytime.”

James glanced at Harry, “Why can’t you come with us? Do you think mum wouldn’t let you? Do you still have a fever?”

“No, James, I don’t think so. But during the last months, every time we have spent the night outside I got a cold on the next day, and I don’t want to spend the rest of the holidays here in bed with a cold. Apart from that I’m not allowed to transform until the end of the holidays.”

“That is very reasonable of you Harry, and if you want me to, I can stay with you; I don’t mind,” Lily said calmingly, but Harry didn’t want to hear it.

“No Lily! You can go and enjoy the night with them. I’m looking forward to hearing a few interesting stories tomorrow. The only question is will your mum let you go?”

“Let’s ask her at dinner. It’s time for dinner anyway,” James said and went over to the kitchen. When they asked Mrs. Potter if they could spend the night in the park in their animagus forms, she was not too happy about it.

“Do you know how cold it will become during the night?”

“Yes” said James, “but in our animagus forms, we will be warm. Each of us has a thick fur, or in Lily’s case warm feathers and we do it at Hogwarts as well, every full moon.”

“But Harry cannot go, so wouldn’t it be nicer of you to stay with him this time?” she said but reluctantly agreed to let them go when Harry explained that he didn’t want to join them anyway.

“All right, then Harry, let’s go out with them for a minute – I’d like to see all the Animagi, I haven’t seen Lily’s and Remus’ yet. But if you get cold or tired or anything is wrong, you will come in immediately, is that clear?” She looked strictly at the four friends.

“Yes, of course Mrs. Potter. We are always very careful,” Remus replied earnestly. After dinner, they went out the kitchen door onto the terrace where James, Sirius, Lily and Remus transformed.

Harry couldn’t stand it – he wanted nothing more than to transform too, maybe he could try as long as he didn’t flash, just transform for a mument…

Lily noticed Harry’s sad face and flew on his shoulder. #Harry, are you sure, you don’t want me to stay with you? I really don’t mind!#

“No, Lily, my problem is that I want to transform as well but I dare not …”

#No Harry, you can’t. Wait another week and you’ll be fine.#

“All right Lily, I’ll go back inside, it’s too cold here like this. Have fun!”

#Thank you, Harry#. Lily flew to sit on a near-by tree.

Harry went back into the kitchen followed by Mrs. Potter who had noticed his miserable mood and wondered if there was anything she could do to make him feel better. They went upstairs to Harry’s room for his check-up. Harry seemed to be much better; the first spell showed nothing, and the second spell only showed a slight temperature. She sat next to Harry on his bed and asked, “Harry, you seem to be better today, but do you really feel better?”

Harry sighed and said, “Yes, granny, I feel much better, that’s my problem. If I felt bad, I wouldn’t mind to stay here during the night, you know. I never had so much fun as I had during the nights of the full moon together with them out in the forest. And I love being a phoenix, it feels so great to have feathers and be able to fly.”

“But you know you still can’t transform,” his grandmother said softly.

“Yes, but that’s not the problem, I’d probably be fine if I transformed now, because my head doesn’t hurt any more. However, the problem is that every time we spent the night outside I got a cold afterwards. EVERY time. And I don’t want to spend the rest of my holidays here in bed with a cold. That’s the reason I decided to stay here for the night,” he said sadly.

“I’m sorry, Harry, try to think of something else. Do you feel up to coming down to the parlour with me? We could sit near the Christmas tree and maybe read something.”

“I still have to wrap my Christmas presents,” Harry said and sighed.

“Then you bring them down and I’ll help you with it,” his grandmother suggested.

“Oh that would be nice, thank you very much. I will just wrap yours and granddads and come down with the rest.”

His grandmother nodded approvingly and left the room. Harry wrapped the two presents for his grandparents and took everything with him next to the beautiful tree. The Potters were just looking at the pretty baubles Harry had made. “Harry, these are beautiful,” Mr. Potter said. “Who made them and how?”

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know, I mean I made them, but I can’t explain how. I can do things with wish magic, and these I did with wish magic, so I don’t know a spell or something to do them with a wand that I could teach anyone.”

His grandparents were stunned. “Harry, I have never heard of anyone able to do wish magic except for small children who do accidental magic unintentionally, and the fact that you are able to do wandless magic alone is a sign of how powerful you are. Maybe one day you will be the most powerful wizard alive.”

“Yes Granddad, I know. Dumbledore told me before, he is the only one who is still more powerful, but he said, that one day I would be able to outdo him. I don’t particularly like it, I would give anything to just be a normal student like anybody else, but whatever I do attracts attention because in some way or other, I am an exception. I really hate it.” With this, Harry tried to focus on wrapping his presents and with his grandmother’s help, it took him only half an hour. He glanced at his watch; it was only 10 o’clock, and the night was still young. Perhaps he should go to bed and try to sleep through the night? After putting all his presents under the tree, he said good night and climbed up the stairs to his room. He quickly took a shower trying not to think about what the others would be doing out in the park. However, when he was in bed trying to sleep, his self-control was at an end; he couldn’t hold back his tears.

Two hours later his grandmother came to check on him before going to bed and saw that he was silently crying and noticed the heat he was radiating. “Harry” she said softly, and when Harry opened two glassy ices, she said, “I would like to give you a calming draught and a dreamless sleep Potion, alright?” Harry only nodded and sat up to drink both Potions before he lay down and was asleep seconds later.

-----

When he woke up again, he noticed that Remus was asleep in his bed. A glance at his watch showed him, that it was already after lunchtime. He got up, dressed, and went down to the kitchen to see if anyone was there at all.

“Good morning Harry, happy Christmas,” he heard when he was on the stairs and went to the parlour where his grandfather’s voice had come from.

“Hello Harry is everything all right?” his grandmother greeted him.

“Yes, thank you Granny,” he said, “thanks for looking after me during the night”.

“You are very welcome, my dear. Come here; sit here on the sofa please, so that I can do our check-up.” Harry obliged and she did the two spells and nodded contentedly.

“Now Harry, what about opening your Christmas presents?” Mr. Potter suggested.

Harry looked over to the huge Christmas tree. “Have the others already opened their presents?” he asked in a slightly strange voice.

His Granny went over to him and gave him a big hug. “Yes Harry, they opened them before they went to bed this morning. Lily wanted to get you, but I told her to let you sleep. I’m sorry, but you were in no condition to get up, you really needed the sleep.”

Harry nodded. “Yes, it’s all right. I will open mine now then.” He went over to the tree. There were still many presents; they couldn’t all be for him? He opened the first and saw it was a broom compass from James. His grandparents, the Potters, had given him dragon skin boots; from Remus he received an ever-lasting lollipop, that wouldn’t get smaller however long you licked it. From Sirius he got a book: ‘Magical creatures and how to cook them’ and from Hagrid a book: ‘Understanding dragons’. His Great Grandparents had sent him a parcel with a lot of new clothes, muggle clothes as well as wizarding robes – ‘Oh, that’s great’, he thought, ‘nearly all my trousers had become too short recently’. Poppy had sent him a copy of a very rare, ancient book about Natural Healers, which he frowned at but thought to ask her about it later. From Lily he received a ring, which was just beautiful. It was simple gold with six animals engraved on it – a stag, a bear, a dog, a snake, an owl and a phoenix.

“Wow, Granny, look what Lily gave me – this is beautiful!” He placed it on the ring finger of his left hand, and it adjusted its size accordingly to his finger.

Finally, there was only one parcel left, and it was from Severus. When he opened it, he saw another wrapped package with two letters on top of it – one addressed to him and one to Mrs. Potter. He anxiously gave the letter to his grandmother. “This letter seems to be for you, it’s from Severus Snape.”

Before he looked at his own letter, he unwrapped the present and saw a dozen phials in six slightly different colours. Then he opened his own letter. It read:

Dear Harry,

I wish you a very happy Christmas. I hope you have recovered completely and are not attracting too much trouble!

These phials contain several new Potions I have tried to make for you and hope some of them could help you the next time you catch a cold, because the Pepper-up Potion seems not to work for you. BUT: Do not try them out on your own! Please ask Mrs. Potter to keep them for you until you return to Hogwarts. I want you to try them out under Pomfrey’s supervision, because they are new and I don’t know how they will work and what problems can occur by drinking them! I hope this is very clear, because otherwise these Potions can be very dangerous!

Enjoy your time and I’m looking forward to your return to Hogwarts.

Severus

Harry frowned and thought what Severus thought about the rare Potions ingredients he had bought the other day and sent to him. When he noticed his grandmother holding her hand out towards him, he looked questioningly at her and gave her the box with the Potions with a sigh, before he said, “Thank you Granny.”

She smiled fondly at her grandson and replied, “You are surrounded by good friends, do you know that?”

Harry smiled back and nodded. Then he went up to his room to get parchments and a quill and wrote thank you letters to his Great Grandparents, Poppy and Severus. It was nearly time for Christmas dinner when his friends finally showed up and begged him to show them his Christmas presents. Christmas dinner was as great as he only knew it from Hogwarts. The House elves, with a little help from Mrs. Potter, had outdone themselves. Fortunately, Harry, who had missed breakfast and lunch that day, was very hungry and could eat a lot of the delicacies. Afterwards they sat around the Christmas tree until late in the night, reading their new books and talking. Harry noticed he had to be more and more careful not to give himself away by calling Lily ‘mum’ or the Potters ‘Granny’ and ‘Granddad’. Before they finally went to bed at around two o’clock in the morning, Mrs. Potter told them breakfast was cancelled and they all should show up in the kitchen for a brunch at 11 o’clock.

-----

When they were in bed, Remus and Harry talked for about two hours, and suddenly Harry felt a very strong need to tell Remus about himself and about where he came from. He thought feverishly how he could prevent Remus from accidentally tell anybody and finally tried to spell him with wish magic. But how could he tell if it had worked? Then he reflected that Remus of the future never had broken a promise or told anybody a secret, which had been placed on him; therefore and decided to trust him.

“Um… Remus? Um…” Remus looked expectantly at Harry, waiting patiently.

“I would like to tell you something. However, I know it sounds crazy, but I need a wizard’s oath from you that you won’t tell anybody or act differently because of what I tell you.” Remus glanced at him very curiously but agreed and made his oath.

“Thanks Remus. What I tell you….um…. you see, Lily and Severus know about it partly, and James’ parents and McGonagall and Dumbledore know everything. I come from 20 years in the future – now it’s only 18 and half years in fact.”

“You WHAT!” Remus was speechless and Harry laughed, because he had never seen the calm Remus so agitated except for last year when he had discovered the wolves cure.

“I know you from the future, and you were one of the best friends I had in the future. You also were the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher I’ve had.” He told them about how his parents had died and about everything else and they talked until 7 o’clock in the morning, when Harry said, “Let’s try to get some sleep; we still have half a year to talk about everything until I have to go back to the future.”

“Alright, Harry, good night. And… thanks for telling me the truth; I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad I told you so that I’m able to talk to you about it. Lily knows like I said, but she doesn’t know who my father is and I don’t want her to know.”

“Everyone must be able to tell that Harry, it’s more than obvious.”

“No, Remus, she thinks I’m somehow related to him, and I want it to stay like this, because I don’t want her to choose to be together with him just because of me; I want her to be together with whom she really loves.”

“But… if they don’t get together, you won’t be born!”

“I know, but Dumbledore has asked someone who can see into the future, some famous seer, and she has clearly seen me and told him that I change everything but that I’ll be fine in the end. So I decided not to interfere anymore.”

“Alright Harry, in this case, you don’t have to worry about it and nobody has to know. Good night Harry.”

-----

Mrs. Potter, who came to check on Harry, woke them up three hours later. Content with the results she told them to get up and come down to the kitchen, before she went to wake up the other teens. When Harry got up and looked out of the window, he noticed that it had snowed a lot since the night before.

“Maybe we can have a snowball fight or a snowman contest,” Remus suggested and everyone agreed immediately.

Harry smiled inwardly when he thought about his snowball fight at Hogwarts just a year before. Sirius and James just couldn’t get up, and so it was already nearly lunchtime until everyone was assembled in the kitchen.

“Mum, may we go out in the snow? We want to show Harry the park and maybe have a snowball fight.”

Mrs. Potter nodded.“Yes you may go, but please be back early enough to be dry and clean for dinner tonight. And remember that it’s really cold outside and put on warm clothes.”

“Alright mum, we’ll be careful,” James promised and they ran up to their rooms to fetch their warm coats.

Outside, the Marauders guided Harry to a part of the park that he didn’t even know existed, because it was his first time outside and this part of the park couldn’t be seen from the House. Near the large lake he had seen through the window was a very tiny pond with many colourful fish in it. Harry loved this place immediately, and they spent a long time watching the fish, before Sirius suggested having a snowball fight. They hadn’t even exited the forest part of the park when Sirius began to throw snowballs at each of them.

Harry ran over to Lily and Remus and whispered to each of them, “Let’s get together against Sirius”, and they fought quite a battle against Sirius and James who had come to help his friend. By the time Remus proposed having a snowman building contest, Harry was freezing and his teeth were chattering, so he declined and told them he was going inside before catching a cold. Lily, who had been watching her son worriedly, decided to accompany him and instructed the others to build their snowmen directly in front of the kitchen window, so that she, Harry and Mrs. Potter could be the jury, when the snowman contest was finished.

“Alright”, James said, “go inside and ask mum for a hot cocoa for both of you to warm up!” Lily rushed Harry back into the kitchen, where she told him to sit down at the table, and when he obliged she went to look for James’ mother. Finally, she found her in the parlour reading a book.

”Hello Lily, are you back already?” she asked friendly. She appreciated the girl very much and was glad that her son had such nice and cordial friends and not only pranksters like Sirius, although she had taken in Sirius and loved him like her own son.

“Yes, I came in with Harry, he was cold and his teeth were chattering, so James told us to go in and ask you for a hot cocoa,” Lily told her and followed her to the kitchen.

Harry was sitting at the table, his arms wrapped around himself as if he was cold in spite of still wearing his warm coat. Mrs. Potter immediately proceeded to making hot chocolate for them, before she asked Harry, “Are you alright Harry?”

Harry shook his head slightly and sneezed. “Oh no, Harry. Have you caught a cold?” Lily asked horrified.

Harry sneezed again and glanced sadly at his mother. “Don’t worry. Drink this chocolate, and afterwards you take a hot bath to warm up, you should do the same Lily. Afterwards you come back here and we will see what we can do.”

They did as they were told, and by the time Lily and Harry were back in the kitchen, Harry had warmed up but was now sneezing and coughing constantly. His grandmother handed him one of the Potions Severus sent him and said, “I know that Severus said you should take it with Pomfrey’s supervision, but I fire-called her and she agreed to let you try it out now. If you get any problems, we will have to call her immediately though. We’ll have dinner in half an hour, and afterwards you go straight to bed and maybe you’ll be fine in the morning.”

“May I go to bed now? I don’t feel well, and I don’t want any dinner.”

“Harry!” Lily scolded him.

Mrs. Potter eyed him worriedly and said, “Alright, go to bed, I’ll be by later to check on you.”

Harry went to bed and Lily and Mrs. Potter took turns sitting with him for the whole evening. Even if he really felt unwell, he noticed that he in fact enjoyed to be cuddled and cared for by his mother and grandmother – something he had never experienced before. Fortunately, Severus’ Potion was very efficient, and in the morning, Harry was completely fine.

-----

The rest of the holidays was so enjoyable and funny that the time passed in a blink and soon the day came, when they had to return to Hogwarts. Harry was a bit sad. On one hand, he was looking forward to seeing Severus and his great grandparents again, but on the other hand, he had liked it at the Potters very much, and he had really enjoyed living in a home together with a family of his own. Mrs. Potter pulled him into a big hug and promised that he could come again to spend the Easter or summer holidays at Potter manor.

This time they took a portkey to Kings Cross in order to get the Hogwarts Express, and they arrived early enough to be able to get a compartment together. When they arrived at the castle, Severus was waiting for him in front of the entrance door.

“Hello Harry, good to have you back! Now we can go to dinner I suppose. You are in for a nice surprise.”

When Harry and Severus reached the Great Hall, Harry was very curious what the surprise Severus had spoken of would be. As soon as he entered the Great Hall, he knew what it was. There were not four big House tables anymore, there were five! He cheerfully glanced at Severus and whispered, “So we’re able to sit and eat together – wow! That’s great!”

They walked over to the Merlin table, where Lily and Remus were already sitting and had reserved two seats next to them, and sat down just in time for Dumbledore to begin his speech. “Dear students, dear colleagues, welcome back to Hogwarts. I particularly want to greet the students who will start the New Year in our new House, the Merlin House. Your 7th year prefects Remus Lupin and Harry Pane will take you to your common room directly after dinner. Please follow them and make yourself comfortable in your new home. And now tuck in everybody.”

Amelia Bones, who was sitting opposite Harry, asked him, “Do you know where it is? Have you already been there?”

Harry nodded and Severus added, “He is the one who discovered the long lost House back in September!”

“Really?” Amelia asked excitedly. “Oh, you must tell me everything about it.” They enjoyed dinner very much; it was easy to discuss everything with only fifteen people at the table. But all too soon dinner was finished and they had to walk over to Merlin House. When they arrived in front of Tori’s portrait, Harry introduced them to Tori, told them his name and asked what they wanted to choose as a password. Amelia suggested ‘Novelitas’, and Harry told Tori this was the new password.

Tori said, #Yes of course, and you are very welcome here. Thanks for bringing my House back to life again!#

Harry accompanied the students into the common room, showed them the dormitories and explained, that Lily and Severus as Head girl and Head boy were living in an apartment just opposite the Hospital Wing, and that he himself was staying in a room within the Hospital Wing. Therefore, Amelia and Remus would be the only prefects currently staying with them, but that everyone who had questions could come and ask Madam Pomfrey where to find him anytime. It was already near curfew when Lily, Severus and Harry walked back to their own rooms.

The next few weeks were uneventful. Life in Merlin House was not much different as it had been in Gryffindor, at least not for Harry, as he wasn’t staying there anyway. He was very busy with classes, Potions tutoring, Quidditch practise with the Gryffindor team and with the Hogwarts team, as well as his lessons with Dumbledore. He also had to help Severus, who was researching for a Potion to help Harry’s immune system, and they already had tested the second of the Potions he had given Harry for Christmas after the night of the full moon, which they had – of course – spent in the forest, and it had worked quite well too.

-----

This Saturday was the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year. Harry was looking forward to it very much. When had he been able to go to Hogsmeade with his friends and just for fun? He was well aware that the next day was Valentines Day and tried hard not to think of Ginny. Maybe he should buy something for his mum.

On their way into town James came over to Harry and whispered in his ear, “Harry, you have to help me. I want to buy a Valentines present for Lily but I have no idea at all.”

Harry frowned and said, “I am sorry, James, but I don’t know her as well as you do, and I don’t know what you should give her. Maybe you should have a look around Hogsmeade and just search for something.”

When they arrived at Hogsmeade, James asked them, “Can we please separate for about an hour? I have to buy something on my own.”

Lily frowned and said, “Yes, but as you know nobody is allowed to go on his own – therefore always two people together please.”

The others agreed immediately, and James pulled Sirius away quickly, while Severus apologized to Lily, “I am sorry, Lily, would you mind going with Remus today? I have to do something together with Harry.”

Remus laughed at Lily and said, “All right, Lily, let’s have a date today and make them all jealous.”

Harry and Severus laughed and after they had agreed to meet an hour later at the Three Broomsticks they separated. Severus pulled Harry along the street and into a small shop a few steps off the main street. Harry had never known there was a shop here. It was a jeweller’s, and Severus seemed to be quite sure what he wanted. Harry watched amused while Severus looked at a shelf, argued with the shop keeper and finally called Harry, “Harry, come and tell me what you think. I want to buy something for Lily; do you see the necklace and these earrings over there?”

Harry was stunned – the pieces Severus pointed to were just beautiful. The earrings and the necklace were made of the same material and in the same colour, gold with light blue and green animals, obviously matching pieces, although the necklace consisted of a pattern with three snakes, which were moving their heads around, while the earrings had the forms of two beautiful owls. “Severus,” he breathed, “They are beautiful.”

Severus glanced at him questioningly. “Which is better? Should I give her the necklace or the earrings?”

Harry thought for a mument and suggested, “How about you give her the necklace and I buy the earrings for her?”

Severus scowled. “YOU?” he asked doubtfully.

Harry laughed and asked, “Is there any rule that you cannot buy a Valentines present for your mother?”

With this, Severus relaxed and said, “All right, yes; she is your mother; I forgot for a mument. That’s a good idea then, if you don’t mind.” Ten minutes later the two boys were wandering around the bookshop, each with a small box in their respective pockets.

-----

Harry and Severus had decided to give Lily their presents at breakfast. She was very surprised to receive a present not only from Severus but also from her son, and she was stunned when she saw the beautiful presents, which even were perfectly matched. She hugged both of them and said, “Thank you very much. You really should not have spent so much money buying things for me. These are beautiful!” Severus fastened the necklace around her neck, Lily put her earrings on, and everyone at Merlin table admired them.

Just before breakfast was finished, James came over to Lily, handed her a present and said, “Happy Valentines day to the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts!” Everyone in the Great Hall turned their heads to see what was happening at Merlin table.

Lily flushed deeply, thanked James and opened the present, which contained a pretty scarf, which by chance matched the colours of her jewellery as if it had been bought together as well. The background was gold, and in the foreground, light blue animals were moving around green trees and plants. Lily was amazed and put the scarf around her neck.

-----

In the afternoon when Harry was helping Severus with his Potions research, they heard a cry in front of the door of the Potions classroom. They rushed out to see Professor Slughorn lying on the floor gripping his arm and a big snake sliding around him. Harry immediately started to speak to the snake, “Who are you, and what are you doing here? Have you bitten our professor?”

“I am Nagini, and I am very pleasssed, that you ssspeak my language. I need a new owner, because my own one isss dead.”

“Nagini? The snake of Voldemort?”

“Yesss. I wasss told to bite everyone here in thisss cassstle, but I couldn’t get in ssso far.”

“Who told you thisss?”

“My old owner.”

“But he isss dead now, so would you be willing to listen to me?”

“Yesss, I would appreciate that. I’m hungry and I need a warm place.”

“Do you promise not to bite anyone?”

“Yes.”

“May I heal our professor first?”

“Alright.”

Harry told Severus to let Nagini into the Potions classroom, lit the fire and give her some rats to eat, before he knelt down next to the Potions teacher and gripped his arm with both hands to let his magic flow through to the teacher’s arm. It would already be too late to just try to heal the wound with his phoenix tears he thought. In the meantime, Severus had locked Nagini into the Potions classroom and cared for her as Harry had told him. When he left the classroom, he saw what Harry was doing and that he was slowly losing consciousness while the professor seemed to be all right. He quickly pulled Harry’s hands away from the professor and steadied Harry for a mument, when Professor Slughorn slowly got up, his face white from shock.

Severus asked him, “Professor, are you all right? I would like to take both of you to the Hospital Wing in any case. Do you think you can walk?”

“Yes, Severus, I’m all right. I can’t remember… what happened? The snake bit me, didn’t it?”

“Yes, Professor. However, Harry tried to heal you. Can you walk?”

“Yes Severus. Let’s go.”

Severus put an arm around Harry, and they walked to the Hospital Wing, where Severus told Madam Pomfrey the whole story. She ushered Slughorn to a bed and checked on the teacher several times, until she put her wand away and said unbelievingly, “Harry really seems to be a Natural Healer. He has completely healed you, Professor. You are free to go.”

“Professor, could you go to Professor Dumbledore and tell him that Nagini is still in the Potions classroom please? I would like to stay here with Harry,” Severus asked the teacher.

“Yes, of course. Thank you Severus,” Slughorn replied to go to see the Headmaster.

Pomfrey went over to Harry’s room, who had fallen asleep in his bed, where Severus had put him, waved her wand over Harry and sighed relieved. “He has depleted his magic a little, but it is not so bad this time. I think he is just tired and will sleep for a while. He just can’t do anything normally, can he?”

Severus grinned a little and said, “But at least he had a reason to do what he did, and I’m very glad about it, because the snake is big and very alive – I do not know how to harvest her venom in order to make an antidote!” Severus made himself comfortable in Harry’s room and decided to stay with him as long as he was allowed to do so.

About half an hour later Dumbledore arrived and asked, “How is our life saver? Still asleep? Professor Slughorn has told me everything, and I have contacted the ministry about the snake. They have already sent a few Aurors who came and took her with them; so this problem is already gotten rid of, thanks to Harry’s and your fast handling of the situation. If both of you hadn’t acted as quickly as you did, several people here in the castle could have been killed by the snake. Thank you very much my boy. One hundred points to Slythe… oh, no! Two hundred points to Merlin House for averting great danger from Hogwarts and saving a teacher’s life.”

Severus blushed and said, “Thank you, Headmaster.”

“You’re welcome my boy. Now, shall we go down to dinner?”

Severus sighed. “I don’t think Harry will wake up anytime today, but we can ask Madam Pomfrey,” Dumbledore added, noticing Severus’ problem.

“Knowing him as well as I do, he won’t wake up until at least tomorrow morning. I will stay here of course, but you can put your mind at rest and go to dinner Severus; he will sleep, and when he wakes up he’ll be tired but fine.”

-----

As Madam Pomfrey had diagnosed, Harry remained fast asleep until the morning. On Sunday morning, when Lily was sitting at the edge of his bed and Severus on a chair next to him, he stirred, blinked several times and finally managed to open his eyes slightly. He was so tired. ‘What happened?’ he thought and was suddenly torn from his thoughts by the voice of his mother, “Hello Harry, are you all right? Good to see you awake again!”

“Hi mum,” he mumbled tiredly, “what happened?”

“Harry do you remember Nagini? You talked to her, and afterwards you saved Slughorn’s life,” Severus told him, and slowly a memory from far away made his way into Harry’s conscience.

“Is he all right?”

Lily laughed. Harry was so tired that he had slurred the words so that they were hardly understandable.

“Yes Harry, Slughorn is alright. You have saved his life. And the snake has been taken away by the ministry,” Severus said smiling at Harry, who was already slowly drifting away again.

When he woke up later, Poppy checked on him and decided he would probably be well enough to attend classes the next day, but he wouldn’t be allowed to do magic for at least one week, maybe two. “This also means no flying, no Quidditch, and no transforming into birds or whatever, is that very clear Harry?”

Harry groaned but nodded reluctantly. In the evening, when Harry was much more alert, Poppy and the headmaster came together to talk to him, which he realized when Pomfrey sat on the edge of his bed and Dumbledore took the chair Severus always used. ‘Oh no!’ he groaned inwardly. ‘What have I done now?’ Although he didn’t feel guilty in the slightest he shifted uncomfortably in his bed.

“My dear boy”, Dumbledore started. “First of all I have to thank you for saving a teacher’s life and for saving Hogwarts from a great danger. Thank you very much my boy.” Harry shrugged. “Harry”, Dumbledore continued, “How did you even get the idea to try if it would work as it did?”

Harry thought for a mument and replied, “I was quite sure that it would work. It was already too late to heal his wound just by phoenix tears, so I had to heal him with my magic. I don’t know; I just knew that it had to work.” He noticed the curious look on both faces, but he could not really understand them.

Now Poppy took over. “Did you already have experience with this kind of healing? I know that you healed Sirius before the same way, but I mean before that.”

Harry sighed. “Um… yes, I mean, as I have told you before, my relatives never took me to a healer or a doctor. So when I had any broken bones, my leg or ribs for example, I had to heal them just with my hands trying to send all my magic just to the point of the body that was hurt. Unfortunately it does not help me with colds and other illnesses.”

Poppy looked at him in awe. “This kind of healing that you did is normally impossible! Only Natural Healers have this healing power, and they are very rare; there has not been a Natural Healer for more than 200 years.”

Harry groaned. “So what? I’m a Natural Healer. Is that what you are implying? I don’t want to. I just want to be a normal student, nothing out of the normal, please!” He glanced at them pleadingly.

Dumbledore and Pomfrey looked at him with an understanding but displeased expression. “Harry”, Dumbledore continued, “I can understand you very well my boy, and I’m sure Poppy can as well, but we think that it seems that you indeed are a Natural Healer. And as it is dangerous for you to deplete your magic as completely as you already did two or three times during this school year alone, we think that you have to be taught how to control your magic when you try to heal someone. Of course, as none of us is a Natural Healer, we cannot teach you perfectly, but we think that we will be able to help you a little. That is also the reason why Poppy has already started to teach you a little about healing. So we suggest, that Poppy should teach you two or even three evenings per week if possible, if necessary after Quidditch practise in order for you to learn to use your healing abilities in a much safer fashion for the sake of your own health.”

Harry sighed. What else was abnormal? Most of his abilities, be it Parseltongue, wandless magic, wish magic etc. were not normal, now he had Natural Healing to add to it? He was so tired of everything… he just lay down and closed his eyes.

Poppy put a hand on his shoulder. “Harry? It’s all right, you know. It is a great ability, and you don’t have to talk about it to anyone if you don’t want to. Just think about it, and remember Albus and I only want to help you. Allright?”

Harry blinked slowly and mumbled, “All right. Thank you Madam Pomfrey, Granddad.”

Suddenly McGonagall came running into the room. “Albus, you have to come to your office immediately. Floo there from Poppy’s office. They seem to have a problem with the snake at the ministry and require your immediate assistance.”

Chapter 30 – The Tournament

When Dumbledore left the room, Pomfrey shouted after him, “Albus, in case they even think about requiring Harry’s help, tell them that he is not allowed to do any magic for the next two weeks!”

McGonagall sat on the chair Dumbledore had just vacated and looked peculiarly at Harry. “Harry, is everything alright?”

Harry slowly opened one eye and mumbled, “Did they tell you?”

“Yes Harry, Poppy told us, and I’m very glad that she is willing to teach you so that you do not to deplete your magic so much when you use healing magic.”

“We have talked about it Minerva”, Pomfrey interrupted her, “but Harry still has to think about it, and at the mument he is too tired and just needs to sleep I think.”

Harry shook his head. “No Madam Pomfrey, I don’t have to think about it. You see, what you told me really came as a shock, but of course I would like you to teach me, sorry for not saying this earlier. I have always wondered why you gave me this book about Natural Healers for Christmas.”

At this mument, Dumbledore came back to the office. “They want Harry to come and heal someone in the ministry, Arthur Weasley, an inspector in the Care of Magical Creatures Inspection Office, who has been bitten by the snake earlier, and they still couldn’t manage to get the venom in order to make an antidote. But as Slughorn has spoken to the Aurors the other day, they know the story about Harry healing Slughorn…”

Harry didn’t wait for Dumbledore to finish, jumped out of his bed, and threw his robe on. “Come, Granddad, where do we have to go? I am sorry, Madam Pomfrey. I have to; Mr. Weasley is my best friend’s dad.”

Poppy shook her head annoyed and said, “Harry, you must be careful; your magic powers are still very low – don’t put yourself into danger!”

Dumbledore and Harry ran into Pomfrey’s office and floo-ed to the Ministry of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures Inspection Office, where many people were already waiting for them and rushed them to an office, where Harry saw Mr. Weasley lying on a sofa. He rushed over to his side and took his right leg, which seemed to have been bitten, in both hands. He sight and thought, ‘Maybe I should have killed that f… snake in the first place. How many people will I have to heal that have been bitten by her?’ Now he sent all the magic he could summon through his hands into Mr. Weasley’s leg until he lost consciousness completely.

Mr. Weasley relaxed and started to fuss over Harry, but Dumbledore just made a portkey to Hogwarts Hospital Wing, took Harry up into his arms and said, “I’m sorry; I have to bring Harry back to Hogwarts immediately.”

A mument later, they landed back in Harry’s room, where Pomfrey immediately started to look after Harry. Finally, she said, “I hope he will recover completely; this time he is not only asleep, but in a coma, and I don’t know when he’ll wake up, but it will certainly take at least a few days.” This time Harry was lucky, because Severus and Lily spent every free minute talking to him, and after only a day he slowly drifted from the coma into a disturbed sleep, and after another day he finally was allowed to attend classes – under the condition to take it easy and not to do any magic for two more weeks.

-----

Fortunately, during the next weeks, there weren’t any Quidditch matches, and the next weeks passed uneventful, so that it was not too bad for Harry not to be able to use magic. His only problem was that he had missed so many classes, that he still had to catch up a bit. This time he had exactly two weeks to prepare himself for the magical part of the tests, which were due in the last week before the Easter holidays.

“Take it easy Harry,” Lily said to him one day, “You don’t have to rush so much; even if you don’t do well on your NEWTs, you will be able to take them once more in the future anyway, won’t you? It’s more important to recover completely.”

When they arrived at the Transfiguration classroom, James leaned over to Lily, Remus and Harry and asked, “My mum asked if you would like to come with us again for the Easter holidays. What do you think; Are you up to coming with us?”

Harry sighed. “I would like that very much, but I have holiday lessons with Madam Pomfrey every day,” he said very disappointed.

Lily glanced at the sad look on his face. “Will the lessons take the whole day? Maybe you can stay at the Potters and just floo here every morning or every afternoon for your lesson?”

“Yes, Harry, that’s a good idea!” Remus added, and Harry promised to run up to Madam Pomfrey directly after the lesson and ask her.

‘I don’t even have to floo; I can just flash here and back, so it will be much easier,’ he remembered. Poppy was very happy for him and agreed to have the lessons every morning from nine to noon, so that he could just flash to Hogwarts after breakfast, and if he was too tired to flash back, he could always use the Floo System. His Great Grandparents also agreed to let him stay at his Grandparents’ House for the holidays, and this time even Severus would come with them. Harry again did well in all his tests and was very content with himself.

Soon Saturday morning came and they were riding on the Hogwarts Express again. Mr. and Mrs. Potter were waiting for them at Kings Cross, ready to take them all to Potter Mansion with a portkey.

-----

Before calling the House elves to carry their baggage up to their rooms, Mrs. Potter asked them how they intended to divide the rooms. Would Remus and Harry want to share a room again? Alternatively, would they like single rooms? Harry glanced at Remus and Severus and asked, “Would it be possible that we shared a room all together, I mean Remus, Severus and I? The room is so big, that it shouldn’t be a problem; I mean if you don’t mind, Remus and Severus.”

“The House elves can easily add one more bed; that’s not a problem, but what do you think, Severus and Remus? You can have a room of your own like Sirius, James and Lily.”

“No, let’s stay all together, alright Severus?” Remus suggested and Severus nodded in agreement.

-----

Harry was the only one in the kitchen early having breakfast together with Mrs. Potter at 8:30, while the others were still asleep. “How are you Harry?” his grandmother asked. “Madam Pomfrey has sent me an owl to tell me about what happened to you between Christmas holidays and now. She also told me about your lessons. How are you feeling about this ‘Natural Healer’ thing? I mean, on one hand it is a very useful and great ability to have; on the other hand, as far as I know you, I can imagine that you hated the special nature of it as well as the attention you would receive if you used it.”

Harry sighed. “Yes, I hate it, and I already had to use it in front of others; I had to go to the ministry to heal Arthur Weasley, who will be the dad of my best friend in my time, so I just had to go and do it. Anyway, I had better transform and leave now. I’ll be back sometime after 12 o’clock.”

“All right Harry, be very careful please. And if you are too tired to transform later, just come home by floo.”

Harry nodded and transformed into Icicle and noticed his Grandmother’s gasp when she saw the beautiful phoenix, before he sent a trill to her and flashed away, straight to his own room at Hogwarts. He arrived a little early, but Madam Pomfrey made no bones of it and started their lesson immediately. She brought a dummy and laid it on a bed in the fortunately empty Hospital Wing, took her wand and made a small scratch on the dummy’s arm. Now it was Harry’s part to heal the scratch. As it was a small scratch, he didn’t have to release a lot of magic, but he still had to learn, just how much magic was necessary to heal certain things. It was really difficult, especially as he was a little frightened to deplete his magic again, although this couldn’t happen as Pomfrey was watching on him like a hawk. But when the lesson was finished at 12 o’clock he was absolutely knackered.

Poppy suddenly said, “All right, Harry, that’s enough for today. Considering it was the first time, you did very well, and I am sure that by the end of the school year you will be perfectly capable of controlling your Healing magic. Very well indeed. Twenty points to Merlin House.” Harry glanced tired but happily at his teacher. “Now Harry, you will go to your room and lie down for an hour until I’m back from lunch to check on you. After that you may return to Potter Manor for lunch.”

Harry glanced at her astonished but did not answer back but went to his room and lay down. He slept until he was awoken by Poppy an hour later, who had thoroughly checked on him and told him he was fine and could flash back to his friends. When he arrived at Potter Manor, his grandmother made him a sandwich with Chicken Teriyaki, before she told him that his friends were outside in the park; so as soon as Harry had eaten his sandwich, he thanked his grandmother for the delicious meal, transformed back and flashed out in the park to meet the others.

-----

“Hey Harry,” Lily shouted excitedly, when the white phoenix came into view.

“How was it?” Severus asked and Harry transformed back quickly, noticing that it was still quite cold, as he was just wearing his school robes.

“Yes, it was very good, and I think this is going to help me a lot, and Madam Pomfrey is a very pleasant teacher. But after the three hours I was so knackered that she made me take a nap before I was allowed to flash back.”

Sirius roared with laughter. “Look Harry, I always said you’re sleeping a lot, taking naps during the holidays.”

Harry only threw a very annoyed glance in his direction and kept quiet. The whole first week passed by in exactly the same way. Harry really liked his Healing lessons, although they were as tiring as they had been on the first day and he had to take a nap every day. The afternoon was mostly spent outside in the big park, and Harry enjoyed it very much. In the evening, he had to do his homework for the Healing course, which consisted of reading the book about Natural Healers Pomfrey had given him for Christmas. He tried to read one chapter each evening, so that he would be able to finish the book during the holidays.

-----

On Saturday evening, when everyone was sitting in the parlour reading or talking, Harry excused himself and said he was going to bed ignoring the astonished glances his friends threw at him. He went up to their room, smiling mischievously. He took a small bag out of his luggage and enlarged it. He smiled mischievously looking at the colourful Easter eggs in the huge bag and took the bag onto the balcony, which was overlooking a part of the garden and the lake. Now he used his wish magic and magicked each of the Easter eggs into the grass down in the park. When finally all eggs had found their final place in the grass, he took a quilt and parchment out of his bag and wrote on the parchment,

The Easter bunny was here – who is going for an Easter egg hunt into the garden?

He charmed it to be put on the kitchen table at 6 o’clock on Sunday morning and went to bed, although he was much too excited to sleep. What would his friends say? During his last summer at the Dursleys, before he was taken to Hogwarts with Pneumonia, he had a job at the bakery in Little Whinging, where he often talked to a young man, who was an exchange student from Germany. And he had told Harry about this German Easter tradition. But he was quite sure that the Marauders wouldn’t know about it. Anyway, they would have a lot of fun in the morning.

And fun they had. Fortunately, the weather was good, so that they spent the whole morning in the park looking for hundreds of chocolate eggs.

-----

On Sunday evening, when they were lazily sitting in the parlour, having eaten too many of the delicious chocolate Easter eggs, James suddenly asked,

“By the way, the Easter egg hunt was really funny and a very good idea… but… tell me, who came up with that?”

Everyone went quiet and looked expectantly at each other. Harry grinned inwardly until he noticed the glances Severus, Remus and Lily were throwing at him. “What?” he asked innocently.

“What are we going to do tomorrow? Are we going out in the park during the full moon?” Lily successfully changed the topic.

“Yes, of course,” Sirius beamed.

“I am in,” Remus said happily.

Severus and James agreed as well, and James asked, “What about you Harry? Are you coming with us this time?”

Harry sighed and said, “I would like it so much, but I don’t want to catch a cold again like last time.”

Severus considered what Harry had meant and said thoughtfully, “Harry, you know, with the Potion I invented for you we can get a grip on your cold quite quickly if you get one, so I think you should be all right. If you feel like you have caught a cold, tell me immediately and I will make the Potion down in the Potions lab.”

Harry glanced at him questioningly. “So you think I can go? Then I will go – yeah!”

-----

“By the way,” Remus asked suddenly, “what about playing Quidditch tomorrow afternoon? As we are six people this time, we could have two teams of one chaser, one keeper and one seeker each. What do you think?”

It was early in the afternoon before the night of the full moon, and Harry had just returned from Hogwarts and joined them in the park. “Yeah,” Sirius cheered, “That’s a good idea. Who is going to play together?”

Harry laughed and said, “Let the captains choose. James can choose one team, and Severus can choose the other.”

James nodded enthusiastically and said, “Alright, I want Lily on my team.”

Severus threw him an astonished glance but stated, “Okay. I choose Harry.”

Harry stared at him. He was a little confused. “Err, Severus?” he managed to say. “I’m sorry, but I cannot play anything else but seeker; I have never played any other position.”

Severus threw a smile in his direction and told him, “I know that Harry, but I can play chaser as well; so you will be the seeker.”

It was James’ turn again, and he chose Sirius, so that Severus and Harry got Remus as keeper. Severus laughed and whispered to his two teammates, “Does James really think he has any chance of winning? With Harry as seeker and Remus as keeper, they don’t have the slightest chance.”

The other two giggled and mounted their brooms. They played three matches – each of them lasted between five and ten minutes before Harry caught the Snitch, and during that time, Severus always managed to score at least five times, while Remus efficiently saved every Quaffle that came in the vicinity of his hoops. After the third match, Severus told them, “It’s no use playing like this. Remus and Lily, could you perhaps change teams? Then it would be more equal with the better keeper on one team and the better seeker on the other team.”

Remus and Lily agreed immediately and changed their positions, but against Harry as Seeker they never had a chance. In order to win they had to score at least 16 times, but Harry always caught the Snitch too quickly. But at least they enjoyed themselves greatly.

Finally, Harry asked, “Do you think we could play a match during the night? Would I be able to catch the Snitch?”

The others were silenced by this question and just stood there staring at Harry. Finally, James laughed and said, “I don’t think it would be possible, but we should try to do it at Hogwarts. There we should have more light than in the park here.”

-----

When the moon became visible, it was a beautiful night; there was not a cloud in the sky, and the park illuminated by the light of the full moon was gorgeous. They flew and played around near the lake and just enjoyed themselves, before James transformed back, went into the House and came back with a tray full of butterbeer and Muggle potato snacks. They all transformed back and enjoyed a late night – early morning snack. Even Harry, cuddled between Lily on one side and James on the other, heated up by the butterbeer was not freezing this time.

While they were enjoying their snack, Harry had an idea. “I know what we should do. I can just charm the snitch and the Quaffle to be fluorescent – maybe a pretty light green/orange combination and we should be able to see it in the dark. Let’s try it out during our next full moon night,” he suggested.

When the others went to bed at 7 o’clock, Harry decided to go to the kitchen and prepare breakfast, as he would be too tired later if he went to bed just for an hour. Before he went upstairs, James told Harry, “Don’t let her make you sleep too long today; mum is going to take us to Diagon Alley in the afternoon!”

“Wow, that’s cool,” Harry answered happily. However, as so often everything happened a little differently than expected.

Harry flashed over to Hogwarts just in time for his lesson with Pomfrey, which went well as usual, until he suddenly noticed he was feeling unwell. But why? Had he managed to get a cold again? Then he should flash back quickly to ask Severus for the Potion he thought, while he sneezed and absentmindedly tried to let magic flow into a broken foot of the dummy, when he lost consciousness even before Poppy could pull him away from the dummy.

When Harry’s mind slowly returned back to awareness and he managed to open his eyes just a little, he noticed that his surroundings were dark except for a dim light that came through the open door of Madam Pomfrey’s office. Before his mind was even aware enough to wonder what was wrong or why he was there, Poppy came into the room and sat down on the edge of his bed.

“I’m sorry Harry, I had to keep you here, you are ill,” she said softly.

Harry groaned and croaked, “But they are waiting for me. What’s wrong?”

“You have a cold and you overdid yourself healing the dummy. Probably due to your fever, you couldn’t control your magic anymore and just used too much. But it’s not so bad this time, you only slept for about ten hours. Severus has brought a Potion for you; therefore, you will probably be fine again in the morning.” Harry groaned and closed his eyes, falling asleep immediately.

Even though Poppy kept him in bed the next day, he used the time efficiently by writing several letters to the other magical schools to organize a Quidditch tournament at Hogwarts during April and May, before he was allowed to return to Potter Manor in the evening. By the end of the day, he had managed to arrange dates for two weekends with Durmstrang and Beauxbatons for April 20 and May 25, not forgetting to get his Grandfather’s approval before fixing the exact date.

Both teams would arrive in the evening of Friday, April 19; Hogwarts would play Durmstrang on Saturday morning, and the game Durmstrang against Beauxbatons would take place on Sunday morning, before the guests would go home in the evening. In the same way, they would come back on Friday the 24th of May for the last game Beauxbatons against Hogwarts that was scheduled for the 25th of May. A huge dance ball with the presentation of the Quidditch cup would be the climax of the tournament, and on Sunday, all students would have the chance to accompany their guests from abroad to Hogsmeade. Harry was quite content with his good plan by the time Poppy released him to return to his friends in time for dinner.

-----

“Harry!” He suddenly felt himself embraced in two arms, bushy red hair falling into his face. Harry smiled widely – that could only be his mum.

“Harry, are you all right?” asked Remus, while Severus glared at him in concern.

“Yes, I’m fine; sorry for not being able to come back to you earlier,” Harry managed to say trying not to be squashed by his mother’s arms.

“Now Lily, let him go, he can’t breathe,” Severus admonished her harshly and Lily let loose immediately.

“Harry, we were so worried when Poppy suddenly fire-called and told us you had collapsed.”

Harry sighed with an annoyed look on his face. “It was nothing, just a little cold, and I’m really fine now, thanks to Severus. So tell me what I have missed yesterday!”

”Not much Harry,” Lily assured him. “Severus spent the days in the Potions lab, researching his cure for your immune system, and the rest of us were more or less talking about how we could help you, in fact doing nothing at all. We even postponed our trip to Diagon Alley until you were back.”

“Then I have done more than you,” Harry smiled at his mother. “I have arranged the Quidditch tournament to take place at Hogwarts and fixed the dates with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.”

“Wow, will it really take place?” Severus beamed at his friend.

“Yes, my Co-Captain. I will make announcements to put up in each common room. We will also have a dance ball and a Hogsmeade visit together with our guests.”

James’ eyes glowed with joy hearing Harry’s last sentence.

“A dance ball? Lily! Would you please accompany me to this ball?”

Lily nearly fell off her chair with surprise and only managed to say, “Um… eh… ball?”

“Yes Lily. Don’t tell me anyone has asked you before, because nobody knew about this, so will you go with me?”

Lily sighed and replied obviously annoyed, “If I have to say yes in order not to be bothered with it every day for the next six weeks, then ‘YES’.”

“Yeeah,” James cheered and Lily groaned. Only Harry managed to notice the slightly disappointed glance Severus threw at Lily.

On the last day before they had to return to Hogwarts, Harry composed five colourful parchments announcing the two weekend dates. He also wrote three letters to the four House team captains with the exception of James to ask for their agreement to give up their own team practise sessions in order to let the Hogwarts team train every evening during the last week before both tournament weekends. As soon as everything was finished, he called Dobby, who arrived immediately with his distinctive ‘pop’.

“What can Dobby do for you, Master Harry?”

“Thanks for coming immediately Dobby, would you please be so kind as to put them up on the walls of the five Houses’ common rooms? And could you please hand these three letters over to my owl to have them delivered tomorrow at dinner?”

“Yes, of course Master Harry, I will do it right now,” Dobby replied. A second later, he was gone with a pop.

-----

Fortunately, the night of the full moon was not until three nights after the game against Ravenclaw, so that Harry was in top form for the game and Gryffindor managed to win 290:10. Remus had become a very good keeper, and hardly let anything pass him by. During the winner’s party in Gryffindor tower James counted and said, “You all know, that we lost the game against Slytherin, when Harry was in the Hospital Wing because of his fight with the dragon. But fortunately we only barely lost it, so if we manage to beat Hufflepuff by a goal difference of 200 points, in other words the snitch and five goals more than Hufflepuff – we can still make it and get the cup! Let’s try hard to achieve it, I mean it’s our last year here and I really want to take the cup once more!”

On Tuesday evening, Harry refused to go outside during the night. James and Sirius glared at him, but Harry defended himself, “Next week is the game against Durmstrang, and please believe me, I want Hogwarts to win the tournament, so I will not do anything that even might put me into a position of not being able to play in the game. Believe me, James, I love our full moon nights; they are the highlight of the whole month every time, but I really cannot go this time. I will join you again next month.”

Severus added, “I think you’re right Harry. Come on, I will accompany you to your room and ask Poppy for a dreamless sleep Potion so that you can’t even change your mind and join us in the middle of the night.”

Poppy didn’t even bat as much as an eyelid, when Severus asked her for a sleeping Potion for Harry; she knew that Harry was often having nightmares as she had often calmed him during the night without him knowing it, and Harry really could use the sleep.

-----

A week later on Friday night, the teams of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons arrived just in time for dinner. Each school had brought a starting team and a reserve team. Dumbledore and Harry who was organizing everything concerning the other schools’ stay at Hogwarts had decided to accommodate the teams in Merlin House; they were sorted into the dormitories according to their gender and age and had their seats in the Great Hall at the table of Merlin House, together with their dormitory roommates. The morning of the game against Durmstrang started as rainy as the whole week had been. Harry groaned when he woke up and looked out of his room at the dark grey sky. He quickly took a shower, fetched his broom and ran down outside the huge entrance doors, where he intended to wait for the Minister of Magic to arrive just in time for breakfast. Harry had managed to win the minister to referee all three games of the Quidditch tournament. Fortunately, Harry didn’t have to wait long, Minister McNeill arrived after a few minutes.

“Good morning Mr. Pane, thank you for inviting me here for this big event.”

“Good morning, Minister McNeill. I have to thank you for coming here for our Quidditch tournament, especially in this weather.” Harry accompanied the minister to the Head Table where his Great Grandfather took over. He motioned the minister to a seat between himself and McGonagall and spoke to the hall.

“Good morning Minister McNeill, good morning dear guests and residents of Hogwarts, welcome to our breakfast on the first day of our Quidditch tournament. As the weather is not very enjoyable, I will not say anything outside, so please allow me a few words on this occasion. After you have finished your breakfast, you are very welcome to watch our first game Durmstrang against Hogwarts. I wish you all much fun and hope for a nice, fair game. Now tuck in.”

‘I wonder how their seeker is’ Harry thought. ‘Fortunately I don’t have to play against Victor today’. The game was very hard, and he just couldn’t see the Snitch, because it seemed to be hiding in the very low hanging clouds. However, the Durmstrang students played quite aggressively, and he often had to escape from Bludgers coming in his direction. When a Bludger hit his left arm, Severus came over immediately and asked if he should ask for a break, but Harry just gripped his left arm with the right hand and let a small amount of healing magic flow into his arm, and his bones mended immediately. Nobody except for Severus had noticed anything about the event. Finally, after nearly four hours Harry got a brief glance at the golden Snitch and managed to get it right away, while the Durmstrang seeker was looking for it at the other end of the pitch. He showed the Snitch to the minister, who immediately blew his whistle and announced,

“Mr. Pane has caught the snitch. Hogwarts wins 520:410.” Wet and dirty, but very happy Harry and his friends landed on the muddy ground, while Dumbledore invited everyone into the Great Hall for lunch. At lunch, everyone frowned at the strange taste of the pumpkin juice, but when McGonagall asked Dumbledore what was wrong with the juice, he giggled and whispered that Madam Pomfrey had insisted the House elves mixed Pepper-up Potion into every glass after having the students sitting in the rain for four hours. McGonagall grinned as well and threw an approving glance over to her friend. Fortunately, Severus remembered that this would not work for Harry and used the time after lunch to brew a Potion especially for him.

-----

The weather on Sunday was bright and sunny, and Harry and the other Marauders were sitting on the tribunes watching the game Durmstrang – Beauxbatons. The game was over much faster than the one the day before; in only a little more than an hour Durmstrang beat Beauxbatons 170:40.

For the afternoon, the Marauders had organized a beach party in the Great Hall, similar to the one that had taken place after the demise of Voldemort. The mood in the Great Hall was great, even the students of Beauxbatons seemed not to dwell on their lost game. The party lasted until after dinner, when Dumbledore came to Merlin table and asked Harry to come to the Head Table to end the Quidditch tournament officially. Harry obliged and announced,

“In the name of all Hogwarts students I would like to thank you very much, dear students of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, for coming here and having this great tournament with us; the tournament will now end until the 24th of May, when I hope to see each of you here again. We would also like to thank your teachers as well as our teachers, who made the arrangement of this tournament possible and Minister McNeill for taking over the position as referee. I wish you a safe journey home and am looking forward to having you here again next month.” Afterwards the whole school went outside to say good-bye to their guests who were travelling by the same manner as Harry could recall from his 4th year.

For the evening, Harry and Severus had invited all members of their first and second team to a victory party in the common room of Merlin House. Harry said for everyone to hear,

“Dear Hogwarts team, I want to thank you for a great game. Our position is so good, that all we have to do in the next game on May 25 is to score 60 points and the cup will be ours. I think that is manageable. I also want to thank every student here in Merlin House for the hospitality you have shown to our guests – I really appreciate it very much. I wish you all a nice evening and ask you to note that I have promised Professor Dumbledore that the party will end by midnight the latest. Please don’t disappoint me and go to bed by at least midnight, although I will probably have to leave earlier. Thank you.” He walked over to where Remus and Lily were sitting and joined them for a few hours.

-----

The weather gods or whoever was responsible for the weather did not mean it well with the Gryffindors. Every time they had team practise it rained, and as much as Harry begged James to cancel the practise, he insisted that they needed the practise even in the rain, especially Harry as seeker. This time Severus’ Potion did not work well enough and after the Wednesday practise it could not prevent Harry from being in bed with a very bad cold; he wasn’t even released in time for the Gryffindor – Hufflepuff game that took place on Saturday. On Friday evening, he threw a temper tantrum, when Pomfrey told him he could not play as he still had a fever. But Harry wanted to play; he didn’t care how angry she might be later, he just didn’t want to think of any consequences – he just had to play. When he noticed that Pomfrey went to bed, he waited about half an hour before he transformed into Icicle and flashed away.

Chapter 31 – Detention

He arrived in Gryffindor, in the 7th years’ dormitory, transformed back and woke James up.

“Harry, what are you doing here?” he said shocked.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m going to play tomorrow. Pomfrey won’t let me, but I’ll just flash into the changing rooms, and when we take off as we come out, they won’t notice me fast enough. Or maybe you could place a Notice-me-not charm on me?”

“I can do that. But are you sure you are well enough to play apart from the fact that you will be in so much trouble afterwards?”

“I’m well enough; she’s only keeping me because I have a fever, but I’m fine and I don’t care about the trouble, I only want Gryffindor to win the cup!”

“Alright, but we have to distract Poppy, so that she can’t come to the game. But how? I have some joke powder, which makes people vomit for a few hours. We could feed that to some of the Slytherins at breakfast. Then she will be busy the whole morning.”

“Oh, that’s great. How can we arrange that?”

“No problem, can you flash me to the kitchens, so that I can speak to the elves?”

Harry transformed immediately and flashed James to the kitchen. When they arrived in the kitchen, a few House elves came and motioned them to sit down and one of them brought something to eat and drink to their table. Suddenly Harry noticed Dobby.

“Dobby?” he asked cautiously, and the elf bowed deeply and said,

“Yes, master Harry; I’m glad you managed to visit me here.”

Harry smiled and asked, “Dobby, are you and Bobby well? Do you like it here?” As James was busy arranging his prank with a few other elves, Harry took the opportunity to tell Dobby everything about him and the relationship they were having in the future, before he hugged him fiercely. Finally, everything was arranged, and Pomfrey was indeed very busy with a room full of Slytherins during the following morning, so that Harry had no trouble getting away with his broom and his Quidditch robes.

He flashed directly into the Gryffindor changing room to transform back to his human form, and when he arrived, everyone cheered. James had already spoken to the team, so they knew they had to get into the air quickly without attracting any attention, especially not from their Head of House. They managed to get in the air without problems, and as soon as the game began, Harry relaxed, although he noticed a gasp that came from the teachers’ seats when the commentator announced their names. He began to fly over everyone else, feverishly looking for the snitch, which he intended to catch as soon as Gryffindor was five goals ahead of Hufflepuff. As they didn’t need any more points than the 150 points they would get for the snitch plus 50 more points, this would be enough, and he didn’t know how good his condition would be after a while.

Very luckily he managed to catch the snitch immediately after the score was 80:20 after just forty minutes, handed it over to Madam Hooch, went a few steps aside, transformed and flashed away just when she announced, “Harry Pane has caught the snitch. Gryffindor wins 230:20.”

Within minutes, McGonagall and Dumbledore were at James’ side. “Where is Harry?”

“I don’t know Professors.”

“You know that he wasn’t supposed to play, don’t you?”

“Why?” James asked innocently.

“Because he is ill, and you knew that. I have told you on Wednesday evening that you had to train your reserve seeker because Harry probably would not be able to play today. And until the game I haven’t told you anything to the contrary, have I?”

“I’m sorry Professor, but Harry told me he was fine and so I thought it would be alright to let him play.”

“I know my Grandson very well, and I know that it is his fault, but nevertheless you should not have let him play! I am very disappointed in you Mr. Potter. I will tell you your punishment after I have spoken to Harry.”

“Minerva, please calm down for a minute,” Dumbledore said and placed a hand on her shoulder before he put the Sonorus charm on himself and announced,

“And now it is time to present this year’s Quidditch Cup… to… Gryffindor,” he spoke louder than the enthusiastic applause that was coming from all sides. “Congratulations Gryffindor!” he said and handed the golden Quidditch Cup to James who showed it around with a huge smile on his face before he gave it to his Head of House, who thanked him, took the Cup and transformed into a cat only to dart away like a bolt of lightning.

“Oh, poor Harry,” James whispered to Sirius, who was standing next to him.

-----

Madam Pomfrey sat down in her office and tried to relax for a few minutes. Just a few minutes beforehand, she had been able to release all Slytherin students who had kept her busy for the whole morning. After that, she had gone into Harry’s room, who was peacefully asleep, but checking on him she had noticed, that his temperature was much higher than in the morning. ‘What is wrong with him and what can we do?’ she kept thinking repeatedly. ‘Maybe I should ask Albus to excuse Severus from certain lessons to give him more time for his research on Harry’s Potion. Anyway, when they are all going to be obliviated, I have to make sure that Severus still knows that he has to develop this Potion for Harry, so that Harry can get it immediately when he goes back. Good that Albus said I do not have to be obliviated’.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not notice the familiar cat rushing through the Hospital Wing and her office towards Harry’s room. A few minutes later McGonagall came into her office, but not through the wing but from Harry’s room.

“Hello Minerva, how did you get here?” she asked surprised.

“Sorry, Poppy, I came here as a cat, but you seemed to be so wrapped up in your thoughts that you didn’t notice. I wanted to talk to Harry.”

“Oh, he is fast asleep and you may not wake him up; he is not well,” Pomfrey said sternly and McGonagall snorted. Poppy raised an eyebrow and looked enquiringly at her friend.

“Have you, by chance, looked after him once during the Quidditch game that has been played on the pitch?”

“Hmm?”

“He got out and has been playing Quidditch for about an hour!”

“He has WHAT!”

“Yes, you heard me correctly, Poppy, that’s why I’m here right now.”

Pomfrey remained speechless.

“I think he has to be punished this time, maybe he should receive one week’s detention with me and can do some grading for me.”

Poppy glared at her. “That’s a good idea, but not before I release him, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to do that.”

“All right, so please tell him he has detention from the day he is released and I expect him to be at my office at 7 pm every day for a week. Are you coming to lunch with me?”

“No, Minerva, I cannot let him alone, but after this morning of two dozen puking Slytherins around I’m not hungry anyway.”

“What was wrong with them?”

“I don’t know Minerva, to me it seemed as if someone had put something in their pumpkin juice, but as none is left, there is no way to prove it.”

Harry was kept in bed for the rest of the weekend, until he was very reluctantly allowed to attend classes with a note that this could be revoked by Madam Pomfrey anytime, when his fever that had still not completely gone got worse. When he walked out of the Hospital Wing to attend breakfast before going to his first classes, Pomfrey called him back. “Don’t forget your detention with Professor McGonagall at 7 o’clock in her office! And you are not allowed to play Quidditch without my explicit permission, which you only will get within an hour before the practise or game. Don’t forget that, otherwise you will be banned from Quidditch completely for the rest of the school year!”

-----

He couldn’t eat much at dinner, because his stomach was doing flip flops. His grandmother hadn’t come to speak to him at all after the Quidditch game on Saturday, but for giving him a 7 days’ detention she must have been very upset. Even in the future, he couldn’t recall having a private detention with her. When he walked up to Gryffindor tower, his pace was getting slower and slower, until he remembered that he had to be in her office at exactly 7 o’clock and it was already two minutes before that. Therefore, he sprinted up the stairs and arrived just in time at the door of ... what would probably be a tiger tonight. He knocked hesitantly and was called in immediately. His grandmother threw him a very stern glare and motioned him to sit down. “Harry, I assume you know why you are here.”

He dare not look at her. “Yes Professor.”

She sighed. “As you are not stupid, I suppose I don’t have to tell you how dangerous and irresponsible your actions have been. And your health is poor enough, so there is no need to play with it; even for the Quidditch Cup.”

Harry shot a small glance at the cup, which was placed on the shelf to his right side.

“I want you to grade these papers for me. They are from the second class, so you should not have any problems. And if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Harry nodded and began to grade the two mounds of parchment lying on the table in front of him. At first he did the grading very cautiously, but after some time he had gotten used to marking the younger students’ mistakes and he had to admit that he rather liked it. It took him about one and a half hours to finish the first pile, and he started on the second pile immediately. However, after two hours he noticed that he couldn’t concentrate anymore. “Um…” he started timidly.

“Yes, Harry?” Minerva asked immediately.

“Do you need these corrections tomorrow morning?” Harry blurted out, and his grandmother noticed his flashed cheeks and smiled at him.

“If you are tired or unwell you should go to bed; in that case you don’t even have to ask me.”

Harry nodded relieved and said, “Thank you, Granny. Good night.” In front of the door, he transformed and flashed back to his room.

-----

During his fifth detention on Friday evening, he had to grade fourth years’ homework and was nearly disappointed when his grandmother told him there wouldn’t be any detention on the weekend, but he had to serve the remaining two evenings of detention during the following week.

“But I’ll miss too much of Quidditch practise,” he weakly protested.

However, his grandmother sternly replied, “You should have thought about the consequences before doing the stunt you pulled last week, shouldn’t you?”

On Sunday morning, when Pomfrey came in his room to check on him, Harry asked her immediately, “Our Hogwarts team has Quidditch practise directly after breakfast. May I play?”

She sighed and shook her head. “No, Harry, you may go and watch the practise from the stands and even advise your players, but I don’t want you to play in this rain. Please give me your broom for a while, so that I can be sure you comply.”

Maybe it was not so bad to watch Quidditch practise from the ground – he could see things he would never had noticed from above. After twenty minutes of watching Harry called his team together and gave a few tips, before they resumed practise. “You haven’t covered this part at all,” he told the chasers. “You,” he addressed the chasers of the reserve team, “have to concentrate more on your teamwork. Don’t forget, our match against Beauxbatons is next week, and I want us to win this game!”

During his seven detentions, he had finally graded the homework of all classes except for seventh years’. Before leaving the room after his last detention, he told his grandmother, “If you need help grading homework, you can call me anytime; I have really enjoyed it… Granny.”

She laughed and told him she would remember it, when she needed help.

-----

On Wednesday evening, after his last detention with Professor McGonagall, he spent the hour until curfew helping Severus with his research, the first time in weeks to visit Slytherin’s Potions lab.

“Whom are you going to take to the Dance?” Harry asked cautiously, while they were waiting for a Potion to simmer.

“Nobody I think,” was the short reply, and Harry glanced inquiringly at his friend. “The only girl I would have invited is Lily, and she is already going with James,” Severus offered an explanation Harry could understand very well.

Harry would have invited Amelia Bones, but as he even didn’t know if he would be allowed to participate at all, he didn’t ask her or anyone else. “Alright, then the two of us can go together and don’t have to dance,” he smiled.

“Why don’t you invite someone?”

“Because I don’t know if the dragon will let me go at all. It would be unfair to ask someone just to have to cancel at the last minute. But in fact I don’t care about the party; I hope she will let me play at the match; I’m thinking all the time how I could perhaps manipulate her, because running away won’t work this time.”

“Hmm. But what is the problem? Do you still have a cold? And when does she check on you? Before breakfast or after?”

“My cold is gone, but I still have a fever; I don’t know exactly why. Pomfrey says my immune system has gone crazy. Normally she checks before I get up. Why?”

“All right. Then I will brew a very strong fever reducer for you and give it to you the day before. When you wake up early and drink it at least a few minutes before she checks on you, then I am sure she will allow you to play. Maybe you also need one the evening before. Let us meet down here on Friday evening directly after dinner, so that I can check on you and advise you which Potion when to take. If you are fine, we don’t have to do anything, so…”

“Thank you, Severus, that’s a great idea,” Harry interrupted him relieved. “You know, I just have to play in the match; everything depends on if we can catch the Snitch.”

“All right, we will try to do what we can. Like I said we will meet here on Friday evening to discuss what to do.”

-----

At dinnertime, James came over to their table and whispered to Harry, “Don’t forget that we are having Sirius’ birthday party tonight at about midnight in the Room of Requirement, and tell Remus, Severus and Lily to come as well please.”

Harry nodded and whispered with the three friends at Merlin table. He told them to go ahead; he would flash there, as soon as the air was clear for him to leave his room. This evening, Harry was lucky. Pomfrey went to bed a few minutes before midnight, so that he was one of the first to arrive at the seventh floor.

As the door was already there, he could just enter the room, which was decorated beautifully. The room looked like a forest with a lake in the middle, and on the grass beside the lake, several sofas and comfortable chairs were arranged in a circle around a huge table on which the House elves had arranged a midnight birthday picnic, which was topped by a gorgeous cake with seventeen candles. Harry looked in awe at the stunning landscape, transformed into Icicle and sat down on a branch of a maple tree. It didn’t take long until the others arrived and the party began.

After their midnight birthday meal, they changed into their Animagus forms and played for a while between the trees, occasionally taking a swim in the lake, until the delicious food attracted their attention too much, so that they transformed back in order to eat another piece of the huge cake. Afterwards they spent some time playing exploding snap and a few other games, before they reluctantly decided to head back to their dormitories at nearly 5 o’clock in the morning.

-----

After two hours of sleep, Poppy woke him up, glancing at him suspiciously. Normally Harry was awake when she left her private quarters. Why was he so tired? Harry just shrugged when she asked him and got ready for his classes. However, he was slowly beginning to panic about the match. Would Severus be able to help him so that he could play?

On Friday just before dinner, the two other schools arrived and they were again having a huge welcoming feast for the guests, who were once more sitting at Merlin table and staying in the still more than half-vacant Merlin House. Unfortunately, Harry couldn’t enjoy dinner at all, because he was too worried about the match the next day, and was glad when they finally were dismissed to their common rooms. Before Severus and Harry left Merlin House half an hour before curfew, Severus quickly told Lily where he and Harry were going to go so that she wouldn’t miss him back in their apartment, before Harry transformed and flashed them to the Chamber. When they arrived in the chamber, Severus motioned him to sit on the sofa in the room with the huge fireplace, took a thermumeter out of his robes and stuck it under Harry’s tongue.

“I’m sorry Harry; I don’t know how to do this with a wand,” he apologized. A few minutes later Harry watched as Severus checked the thermumeter with a frown. “39.2 – that’s much too high, no question why she doesn’t let you play Quidditch; more or less a wonder that she lets you attend classes at all.” He went over to the Potions lab and brought four phials with him, which he handed to Harry. “Here, drink one now and the others every four hours, the last one just before she checks on you. But hide them carefully and don’t let her get to know this; otherwise we will both be in real trouble! Now flash us back and go to bed.”

Harry did as Severus had told him and luckily managed in the morning to drink the Potion just a quarter of an hour before Pomfrey came to check on him.

“May I play today?” He asked immediately and looked at her when he didn’t get an answer.

“Let me check you over first Harry,” she said and waved her wand once, a second and a third time, before her face took a sceptic look and she said, “Your fever seems to finally have come down. All right, if you feel well enough, you may play Quidditch today. Good luck!”

Harry was so relieved; he nearly couldn’t believe his luck. In order not to meet the nurse again before the game, he took his broom and everything he needed for the match with him, when he went down to breakfast, where Severus and Lily were already waiting impatiently. Severus smirked and whispered, “From the look of your face I assume that it worked and she is letting you play?”

“Yes, Severus, I still can’t believe it. Thank you so much!”

Lily glared sternly at Harry and scolded him, “I don’t really appreciate that, and if you pull such a stunt once again, I promise you I will tell Professor McGonagall.”

-----

After breakfast, they rushed to the Changing rooms and got ready for the game. As soon as everyone had changed, Harry gathered his team around himself and said, “Let’s do as well as the last time, and then the cup will be ours. We only need 60 points more than Beauxbatons, but although I will try hard to catch the snitch, please don’t rely on me, try to get as many goals as you can. Let’s fight!”

Minister McNeill, who was refereeing again, was already waiting for Harry.

Harry stood next to the minister and took the microphone. “As the organiser of this Quidditch tournament I welcome you to the match Beauxbatons versus Hogwarts and hope you have a lot of fun and that we have fair play. Thank you.” With a short nod to the minister, he returned to his team.

Professor McGonagall took over the microphone and announced the names of the players, and the minister released the Snitch, so that the game could start. Harry didn’t care about the match going on below him – he was circling above everything feverishly looking for the Snitch – they only needed the Snitch. And there it was! He raced downwards with the Beauxbatons Seeker on his heels, and pulled up in the last minute to grip the fluttering golden Snitch – after just fifteen minutes into the game. But… at the same instant, when he closed his right hand around his favourite ball, a cry caused his attention to be directed to a scene just above him, where a Bludger had just hit James in the leg. James couldn’t hold himself on his broom and tumbled down at full speed.

Chapter 32 – Dance Party

Harry raced immediately after his father and succeeded in catching him and holding him with the arm while his hand was still gripping the Snitch. Somehow, he managed to get both of them to the ground, before they instantly collapsed. Far away, he could hear the Minister blow the whistle and held his hand with the Snitch up for everyone to see. A short mument later, equally far away, he could hear Professor McGonagall announce, “Mr. Pane has caught the snitch.”

The Minister added, “Hogwarts wins 150:00. Congratulations Hogwarts!”

Now Severus’ voice penetrated his ear, “Harry, are you all right? Can you open your eyes for me?”

Reluctantly Harry opened his eyes and brought himself into a sitting position. “I’m fine. How is James? Is he alright?” he asked and watched Pomfrey putting his father on a stretcher.

Then she kneeled next to him and asked, “Are you all right Harry? Can you get up?” When Harry nodded, she added, “Nice catch by the way; you have probably saved his life; he only has a broken leg.”

Now Dumbledore’s voice resounded through the microphone. “Thank you all for a nice but very short Quidditch game. Now you can have the whole day for yourselves until our Dance party starts in the Great Hall at 6:00 pm. If you are hungry, you will find a luncheon buffet in the Great Hall from about 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Please help yourselves.”

“Harry, do you think you could heal James?” asked Lily, who had just joined them.

Harry glanced tiredly at her and slightly shook his head. “I don’t know, Lily, I’m sorry, I’m probably too tired.” He glanced at Poppy and asked, “Should I try?”

However, Severus intervened and said, “Let’s accompany you to the Hospital Wing first, and you let Madam Pomfrey check you, before you even think about it.”

-----

When they arrived at the Hospital Wing, Pomfrey put James on a bed and motioned him to wait for a mument so she could check Harry and decide if he was well enough to heal him. Then she went over to Harry’s room, checked on him and frowned. “This morning I had hoped you were back to normal, but your fever is back again in full force. You cannot heal James, and probably you won’t even be able to attend the Dance party tonight. Take off your Quidditch robes and lie down and wait for a mument; I’ll give James his Potion first and then come back.”

“James won’t be able to go to the Dance either, will he?” Lily asked anxiously.

“No, definitely not. He will have to drink Skelete-Gro Potion and stay overnight,” was the answer.

Harry laughed. “Wow, Severus, aren’t you lucky?” Severus glared at him.

Hearing this, Lily asked astonished, “Why?”

“Because… He wanted to go to the dance together with you, Lily.” Harry laughed again and noticed Lily was warily glancing at Severus, who sent a small smile in her direction.

“Harry, you…! Anyway, Lily, would you give me the pleasure of accompanying me to the dance?”

Lily smiled happily and said, “Yes of course, I’d love to.”

When Poppy came back, Harry sat up and said with a very stern face, “Madam Pomfrey, I know how protective you are, and I promise I will do anything you say, but please, I have to attend the dance tonight. I promise that I won’t dance or do anything apart from sitting there and talking to people. You know, I have organized everything, and I am the Captain of the Hogwarts team, and I just have to go! Please let me go!” he begged her. Pomfrey sighed.

Severus decided to help his friend. “Madam, during the last few weeks – since Harry was having problems – I have tried to invent a stronger Fever reducer especially for him. It should also support his immune system a little, and I have just yesterday brewed the first small batch. Could we perhaps try it out on this occasion? He would be able to take it every four hours at the most, so maybe that could help him to attend the dance tonight.”

In the evening, Harry was able to attend the dance party.

-----

“Dear Minister, dear guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, dear Hogwarts residents, I want to thank every one of you for a – in my opinion – grandiose Quidditch tournament. It could not have taken place without the efforts and assistance of every one of you, and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. Now let’s have dinner first, and afterwards the group ‘The Bay City Rollers’ will play for us so we can dance,” Harry announced.

After this statement, his words were drowned out by loud applause from all parts of the Great Hall. Dumbledore motioned for him to go back to his table and sit down. And as soon as the noise decreased, Dumbledore stood and said, “The only thing I have to add to Harry’s words is ‘Thanks Harry for a very well organized enjoyable event’ and ‘Please tuck in everyone’.”

On his way back to Merlin table, Harry noticed that Sirius seemed a bit lonely at the Gryffindor table; so he went over to Sirius and motioned him to come with him to Merlin table.

“Don’t you think McGonagall will kill me?” Sirius asked and Harry couldn’t help laughing. Sirius was afraid of eating at a different table. Ridiculous!

He went over to his grandmother and asked, “Granny, Sirius is all alone at his table. Would you mind him sitting at Merlin table just for tonight?”

She threw a glance at Harry, which turned into a small smile when she said, “All right, but only for tonight!”

“Thank you!” Harry beamed and went back to Sirius. “You may; so come on,” he whispered to Sirius, who immediately got up from his seat, his eyes shining with joy. In the meantime, food had arrived on the tables, and it was like at the welcoming feast – the House elves had just outdone themselves.

When everyone was full and the tables were cleared, Dumbledore rose again from his seat. “As Harry has already announced, he has invited the group ‘The Bay City Rollers’ for tonight, and I would like you all to welcome them with a huge applause.”

In an instant the grand doors of the Great Hall opened and Harry (Severus and Lily had not even noticed that Harry had left his seat between them) guided The Bay City Rollers up to the large stage just beside the Head Table. They were welcomed by a deafening applause. Harry quickly got back to his seat, and The Bay City Rollers began to play immediately. His grandparents were the first on the stage and opened the dance; after a few songs, Lily dragged Severus up to dance as well. Remus asked Amelia to dance, and Harry and Sirius had fun looking at their friends dancing.

During the evening several girls came to Harry and invited him to dance, but he always said, “Sorry, I’m not allowed to dance, but my friend Sirius would love to,” and enjoyed Sirius’ flirting with everyone.

Even his grandmother came and asked Harry to dance, but he stayed firm. “Sorry, Granny, but I made a deal with Pomfrey and promised not do dance, so I won’t.” She glanced at him suspiciously but relaxed when he added, “I’m fine; it’s just that I gave her my word.”

“Oh, that’s okay Harry; do you mind me sitting with you for a mument?”

“No, of course not. As you can see, I am sitting here alone anyway; everyone is dancing. I think my choice of the group was not the worst,” he said jokingly and she agreed.

“Harry, I think you did very well in the organization of the whole tournament. Everything was a complete success.” After a mument she asked a little hesitantly, “Harry, how are you faring? I know, that you are still not very well; are you able to learn for the NEWTs? Or would you like to leave them for the future, or to do just a few of them now and the others in the future?”

“No Granny, I’m fine. I had to stay in bed a lot, but Pomfrey didn’t forbid me to study, as long as I didn’t do it after curfew or too many hours at once. So I think I’ll be all right with my NEWTs. I have always done my homework for every class; you know that, don’t you? Lily and Severus helped me a lot of course. And I have still two weeks until the tests start.”

“No!” his grandmother interrupted him, “One week! The NEWTs start on Monday in a week! And after they are finished, you have still one week until the holidays. It is scheduled like this in order to give the students the chance to just enjoy Hogwarts with their friends for the remaining time.”

Harry’s face had turned pale. “Are you sure? I mean… sorry, I just didn’t know that. But… I will attempt them, and if I fail, I’ll just have to do it again in the future, won’t I?”

“Exactly; if you have any problems with the preparation for the tests, come and see me, I’ll help you.”

“Thank you very much Granny. Um… do I have to make another announcement or anything tonight?”

“Shall I go and ask Albus?” Harry slightly nodded, and McGonagall went over to the Head Table and went into a huddle with her husband, before she came back to sit next to Harry.

“Albus told me, he will interrupt the dance for the presentation of the Quidditch Cup which you should take from him. Later it will be put in the Headmaster’s Office. Can you wait so long?”

“Yes, of course”, Harry replied. “No problem.”

At his very instant, the song ended, and Dumbledore quickly spoke into the microphone. “May I ask for a short break and your attention for a minute please?!” He waited until everyone was sitting again and continued with a twinkle in his eyes. “As you know, a tournament is nothing without a Cup at the end, and at this stage I would like to present the Quidditch Cup to the captain of our Hogwarts Team, Mr. Harry Pane.”

Lily and Severus pushed Harry from his seat and in the direction of the Head Table. Harry went over to his grandfather and took the beautiful golden Cup from him, which had a fine gold engraving of the names of the three teams together with their school emblems, as well as their team members’ names together with their positions. He took the microphone from his grandfather and said, “I would like the members of the Hogwarts team, both our teams of course, to gather for a mument”. As soon as his first and second team had gathered around him, he showed the cup around and once again thanked his members for their good playing skills, before he motioned his team to come with him to Dumbledore and offer the Cup to him for the Headmaster’s Office.

The headmaster took the cup from him with a beautiful twinkle in his eyes.

Severus went back to Merlin table and recounted how pretty the cup was, when Lily suddenly asked, “Severus, where’s Harry?”

“I don’t know Lily, I thought he was straight behind me,” he answered and Remus and Sirius glanced at each other questioningly.

Only four eyes had registered that Harry had left the Great Hall through the side door that was behind the teachers’ table. After a few words with Poppy, Minerva left the hall as well to put her grandchild to bed. As Harry was quite tired, she caught up with him quickly and accompanied him to his room, where she let him take off his dress robes, transfigured his clothes into pyjamas, gave him a Fever-reducing Potion and tucked him in. Finally she gave him a kiss on his forehead and said, “Good night Harry. I’m very proud of you.”

Harry smiled back and mumbled, “Good night Granny.” He was asleep even before his grandmother had left the room to look after James, who had been stuck in the Hospital Wing for the whole evening.

-----

In the morning, Harry was told he should better not go to Hogsmeade, but he didn’t care at all; he would just stay in his room and read and study for the NEWTs. James wasn’t allowed to go either, and Poppy suggested he could visit Harry and have breakfast together and maybe even study together. So James stayed with Harry for the whole day, while the four other Marauders went to Hogsmeade with a few students from Beauxbatons.

When Pomfrey came and brought lunch for them, James sighed and asked Harry, “Harry, may I ask you something?”

Harry glanced at him and shrugged.

“Yes, why, of course.”

“Harry, who are you? Are you a cousin of mine, or what are you? My parents obviously know you, and you seem quite close to them, but I would like to know as well.”

Harry sighed. “James, you have to promise me with a wizard’s oath that you don’t talk to anyone about what I’m going to tell you; except for your parents.” James swore a wizard’s oath, and Harry told him, “I come from the future, and I am your son!”

“You’re WHAT!?!”

“You heard me correctly…Dad,” Harry said and grinned at his father.

“So, who’s your mother?” James asked.

Harry sneered, “You’ll have to find that out by yourself!”

“Eh, how am I in the future? Will I become an Auror?”

“Yes, you will. But apart from this I’m not able to tell anything about the future.”

“Why not? Look, son, don’t be such a brat. I promise I won’t tell, and by being here for so long – two years now isn’t it? – you’ll have changed the future anyway.”

“Alright, I’ll tell you, but remember that you asked for it! I have changed a lot! In my time line, you and my mum had to go into hiding with me and made Sirius your secret keeper, but Sirius managed to convince you to make Peter your secret keeper instead, and Peter betrayed you to Voldemort. He came and killed both of you when I was just a year old, and as everybody thought Sirius was your secret keeper, they put him into Azkaban until he escaped after twelve years. I grew up with some horrible relatives of my mum, and didn’t get to know Remus until he became our DADA teacher in my third year. That’s all. So as I have already killed Voldemort and Peter, I hope that you are still alive when I go back to the future in summer.”

“So my parents know that they are your grandparents?”

“Yes, they know. That’s why they took me in although I was ill and only a burden to everyone.”

“You are and were not a burden. Don’t say something like that, especially don’t tell my mum, she will be very angry. She took you in because she loves you and wanted to spend time together with you.”

“Don’t get too angry, Mr. Potter, and don’t upset my patient please,” Poppy’s stern voice was coming nearer. She checked on James and released him from the Hospital Wing saying, “but of course you may stay to keep your son company and to study together.” Then she checked Harry and gave him another dose of Fever reducer.

-----

During the next week, Harry, Lily and Severus were studying together whenever they could. Finally, the dreaded week of the NEWT exams arrived. Harry was not very scared of them, because he knew it was not essential for him to take them this time. As his grandmother had assured him, he could take them anyway when he was back in the future. But in spite of this, he found the exams relatively easy. They had written tests every morning, and the practical exams in the afternoon. Even in the Potions practical, he was sure he had gotten the Potion right – at least it had the correct colour.

Suddenly a thought came into in his head – how and when was he going to get his NEWT results? In the future, their OWL results had arrived around his birthday, but…hmm… What was he going to do? He couldn’t just ask anybody to keep the letter for him, because everyone would be obliviated, wouldn’t they? Except for Pomfrey, as Dumbledore had told him some time ago. But could he ask her to keep a letter for him for over 18 years? He decided to ask his friends and discussed his problem with Lily and Severus, when they were studying for their last exam – Transfiguration – in Harry’s room.

“How about you stay here until your birthday?” Severus suggested.

“But you will all be gone – what am I going to do alone here in Hogwarts?” Harry asked solemnly.

“I’m going to stay here, Harry. I’m going to take over Slughorn’s chambers as soon as he leaves. You know I have to take the Potion Master’s exam, don’t you? Where should I study for it, when not here?”

“And Remus and I are going to stay as well, because we are the new Defence Against the Dark Arts and Charms teachers,” Lily added. “Maybe we (at least I) will stay a few weeks at James’ parents’ House, but you could come with us, you know how they adore you.”

Harry was stunned. What should he do? Should he really stay until his birthday? “I think I should go and speak to my grandfather. Would you mind coming with me?”

-----

The three friends climbed the stairs to the Gargoyle and spent a few minutes trying to guess the password until McGonagall came up from behind them. She threw them a slightly disapproving glance and said the password for the Gargoyle to open – ‘Chocolate phoenix’. When they arrived in the office, Dumbledore looked astonished but very pleased at his visitors and said, “Oh, I see, Minerva, you have brought very good company for this fine evening. Would you like some tea?”

“Yes please,” his wife replied for all of them, and soon each of them had tea and biscuits in front of them.

Harry cleared his throat. “I would um… like to eh… discuss something with you, both of you in fact. Um… Today I was wondering when and how I would get the results of the NEWTs, and remembered from my own time that the results always arrived around if not on my birthday. Then Severus suggested I should stay here until my birthday. Now I would like to hear your opinion on when I should go back to the future.” He looked questioningly at his grandparents.

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled merrily. “As I told you before, Harry, I don’t mind when you go back, as long as it is before you will be born. Shall we fix it for the evening of your birthday, directly after dinner? What do you think Minerva?”

His wife seemed to suddenly return from distant thoughts. “Yes, Harry, Albus. Why not? I think that is a good idea. We can have a birthday party, and after dinner you can say good-bye to all your friends and floo back.”

They agreed on this schedule, and Harry asked, “What am I going to do? I mean where will I stay until then?”

“As you are our grandchild, you can of course stay here at Hogwarts, and I don’t think Poppy will mind if you live with her for six more weeks,” his grandmother said smiling fondly at him.

“You could also go to the Potters for a week or so if you wanted to,” Dumbledore added.

“Maybe we should go to the Potters while Severus has his Masters’ exams, so that he can study without being disturbed and we have some time all together here afterwards,” Lily suggested and Dumbledore nodded approvingly.

“And as this is all decided, I would propose that you all return to your rooms and rest, as you will have your last exams tomorrow.”

“Ah but Transfiguration will be the easiest of all, as we all will get 30 points only for transforming into our snake, owl or phoenix,” Harry said teasingly.

The reply from his grandmother was sharp. “Good night to you too, Harry.”

-----

Finally, even the last exam was over, and the seventh year students could relax. Now they could just enjoy their last week of term at Hogwarts. At dinner Harry suddenly shrieked, “Quidditch!”

His friends glanced worriedly at him and Lily even felt his forehead, until he whispered, “I completely forgot! On Sunday, we have the Quidditch game against the teachers. Look, in autumn we said the first Sunday in October and the last Sunday of the school year – that’s this Sunday! And we haven’t practised once!”

“Calm down Harry,” Lily said calmingly. “Do you think the teachers have practised? They’ll have forgotten as well I bet.”

Harry jumped up from his seat and went over to his grandmother. “Um… Granny? Um… one question… eh… on Sunday is our Quidditch match, right?”

“Quidditch match? Are you alright Harry?” He noticed McGonagall and Pomfrey exchange a glance.

“Yes. In autumn we said the first Sunday in October and the last Sunday of the school year – that’s this Sunday…” he replied quickly.

“Oops. I completely forgot and we haven’t practised once.”

“We haven’t either, I just remembered a few minutes ago. Are we going to play or to cancel the match?” Harry asked impatiently; he wanted to go back to his table…

Dumbledore stood. “Attention please. We have just noticed that the second Quidditch match ‘students against teachers’ was scheduled for this coming Sunday. However, in fact both team captains, Harry Pane and Professor McGonagall forgot about it and didn’t practise with their teams. Would you nevertheless want them to play Quidditch for you? If yes, then clap your hands!” The Great Hall fell into a tumultuous noise of hands clapping, and as it ebbed a little, Dumbledore spoke again: “As you see, your fellow students and teachers want to see the match and will not release you from it! Tomorrow morning the teachers are allowed to use the pitch, and tomorrow afternoon the students. We want to have our fun on Sunday,” he ended grinning mischievously.

Harry went back to his table and threw a glance at Amelia Bones, who was as usual not sitting far away from him and his friends. “Amelia” he whispered.

“Yes Harry, what’s wrong? We will fight and win on Sunday, I’m sure,” Amelia answered.

Harry couldn’t help laughing. He was not worried at all about the game. “As you know, many of our first team members are leaving Hogwarts this summer, but I would like the team to continue as I think it is one of my better creations,” he grinned, “and so I have thought about suggesting a new captain for the next year to my grandfather to ensure the continuity and I’ve thought about you. Would you mind me suggesting your name to the headmaster?”

Amelia flushed deeply and said, “Oh Harry, thank you very much; I would like it very much, although it will be difficult to step into your shoes.”

Harry snorted. “All right, I’ll talk to him.”

-----

The next morning dawned bright and sunny, but by lunchtime, huge, dark clouds spread over the sky, and while they were in the changing rooms changing into their Quidditch robes the thunderstorm began. Harry cast the Impervius charm around each of his team members including himself and said to the team, “You don’t have to do a lot, just practise for maybe twenty minutes. We are the best team out of three wizarding schools, and we will be fine tomorrow. I am sorry, but I cannot practise with you today, otherwise I’ll definitely be ill tomorrow for the game. I’ll watch you from under the stands, and we’ll meet in the Great Hall after you’ve changed back.” After only a quarter of an hour, he blew the whistle and called the team down. “Enough for today – you’ll do great tomorrow. Please take a hot shower and change – we’ll meet at Merlin table in the Great Hall for a cup of hot cocoa.” When everyone had gone to the Changing rooms, he took his wand out and called “Accio Snitch”, and a minute later his hand wrapped around his favourite little ball.

The weather on Sunday was not much better. Harry groaned when he looked out of the window. Mr. Potter, who had kindly agreed to referee once more, took the microphone.

“Welcome to the second game of the Hogwarts Quidditch Team in their match against the Hogwarts Teachers’ Team. Just to recall: In their first game, the students beat the teachers 220:200, so this re-match might become quite interesting.

“Here are the players of the students’ team: Deborah Molloy (Ravenclaw, Keeper), Roger Burke (Slytherin, Beater), Donald Quirke (Ravenclaw, Beater), Amelia Bones (Hufflepuff, Chaser), Severus Snape (Slytherin, Chaser and Deputy Captain), James Potter (Gryffindor, Chaser) and Harry Pane (Gryffindor, Seeker and Team Captain).

“And here are the teachers: Professor Sinistra (Keeper), Pamona Sprout (Beater), Albus Dumbledore (Beater), Filius Flitwick (Chaser), Poppy Pomfrey (Chaser), Minerva McGonagall (Chaser and Team Captain) and Rolanda Hooch (Seeker and Deputy Captain)

“I wish both teams good luck and hope we have a fair and clean Quidditch game.” With this, he released the Snitch and the game began.

It was nearly impossible to even catch a glimpse of the Snitch – the dark clouds were hanging so low, that Harry couldn’t even see the goals on the opposite side of the pitch. He circled around looking feverishly for the small ball, fairly alone between the clouds. What was that? Was it a flash? Anxiously waiting for the thunder to come he continued to fly huge circles through the clouds around the pitch, until suddenly a second flash came nearer.

Maybe because of his strong desire to find the Snitch, maybe even just because of sheer luck, suddenly the tiny golden ball was hovering just in front of him – he reached out and… captured it! With a relived sigh, he started to pull down at such a speed, that he could hear a giant gasp from the stands, when he came out of the clouds and came in sight of the grounds. He landed just in front of his grandfather and held his hand up showing the Snitch for everyone to see.

Mr. Potter blew the whistle and announced, “Harry Pane has caught the Snitch. The students win 370 – 320. Congratulations to the Hogwarts Team!”

-----

Fortunately, Severus had optimized his cold Potion so well that the cold Harry caught during the game had already gone by morning. Two days later, when Harry, Lily and Severus were sitting in his rooms, he said to his friends, “Now we have only two days of classes left; do you know what? We still haven’t tried the joke with the fake wand on Granny!”

Lily gasped and nearly tripped over the bed laughing, while Severus looked inquiringly from one to another.

“Um… Severus, do you have Transfiguration tomorrow?”

“No. Charms in the first class, and then…”

“Oh right, we have Charms together. Then I will flash to James after curfew to get a fake wand.”

“No Harry, I’ll go now and retrieve it from him,” Lily said sternly.

“Alright Lily, thanks. I will exchange Flitwick’s wand as soon as he arrives in the classroom with the faked one, and we have McGonagall in the second class. She won’t have enough time during the break to talk to Flitwick, so we can do the same thing to her; and then let’s see.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. “You can’t think about anything but nonsense, now can you? If it is not about how to betray Pomfrey, it surely will be how to play pranks on the teachers,” he said sternly, shaking his head.

“Dear Professor Snape, please remember

a) You helped me to betray the dragon,

b) You are still a student for the remaining two days and are bound to play pranks on the teachers, especially being a Marauder.”

Severus growled at him, and Harry continued, “With the fake wand they can’t do magic, only sparks that will transform into funny comments. We once tried it on James’ mother when she came to check on me, and it was quite funny!”

Severus scowled and asked, “Tell me once again: What did I call you in the future?”

Harry grinned. “An arrogant, attention seeking brat.”

“Hmm. No, you’re neither arrogant, nor attention seeking, just the contrary of both, but you are very irresponsible.”

“Do you know what, irresponsible would be if you were about to die and I did it to Pomfrey, who was trying to heal you. But to play a little prank on McGonagall at the end of 7th year probably isn’t irresponsible, right Madam Pomfrey?”

The nurse, who had entered the room to look after Harry because of the voices that sounded more and more upset, unsuccessfully tried to hide a smile – a good prank on her best friend Minerva was something she could enjoy very much. “In any case you should try not to become so distressed that I can’t let you go to classes tomorrow, Harry, and to finish 7th year with a nice prank that doesn’t hurt anyone is a good decision I think.”

-----

While Professor Flitwick was on his way to the front of the classroom, Harry used his wish magic to exchange the wand in his hand with the one inside the teacher’s robes. Nobody except for Severus who was sitting next to him watching him intensely noticed anything. As it was the last Charms class for the 7th year’s students, Flitwick intended to just enjoy the class with his students and wanted to show them a few special charms he had invented himself. But as soon as he waved his wand and tried to do a spell, pink sparks appeared forming the words ‘Maybe a little practise is in order’. Puzzled he looked at his wand, while the whole class was trying to stifle their laughs. Now the teacher tried a different spell and was rewarded with yellow sparks saying ‘I need holidays’. Now the whole class was laughing loud, and the poor teacher examined his wand with a piercing look, before he asked, “What did you do to my wand?”

Harry hesitantly stood up, went to the teacher’s table, and handed Professor Flitwick his wand. “I’m sorry Professor, but as this is our last Charms class today, we had to do this tiny prank in order to leave Hogwarts with some dignity.” When he saw the teacher’s look turning into a smile, he added impishly, “Professor, if you don’t mind, we would appreciate if you did not tell Professor McGonagall about this before lunchtime, because we’d like to do the same prank to her as well during the next class.”

Flitwick’s smile intensified and he said, “Twenty points to Gryffindor, Slytherin and Merlin for a prank well performed and for ending school year in a good mood. Class dismissed.”

-----

McGonagall obviously did not take it so easy. She tried hard to hide her smile and said to Harry, “Stay after class Mr. Pane, as we have to speak about your punishment”, trying not to giggle, when Harry’s face turned white with shock.

“It’s all right Harry, relax. She can’t and won’t do anything to you; the school year is over!” Remus tried to calm him.

When Harry hesitantly went to the teacher’s table after the lesson, his grandmother looked at him and said, “Do you know what it means to play pranks not only on your teacher, but also on your Great Grandmother? It means war! Wait and see! You are dismissed.”

Chapter 33 – A Significant Birthday

On his way down to the Great Hall, Harry frowned and shook his head. What did she mean? Would she now play pranks on him or what? When he entered the Great Hall, everyone looked at him and started to laugh. Oh no! What had she done? He quickly walked over to Merlin table, where Severus and Lily had saved him his usual place between them, and asked them, “What is wrong with me? What did she do to me?” He was horrified attracting all these looks.

Lily laughed and whispered, “Your hair is all sparkling in bright neon colours. Just ignore everything and eat.”

Harry growled over to the Head Table and wished his grandmother’s hat to be a big, yellow rubber chicken clucking ‘I love prank wars’. He sneered over to the Head Table, while the whole room exploded with laughter. However, when he tried to start eating, he noticed that he couldn’t grab anything from the table, neither his glass with Pumpkin Juice nor his knife or fork. Everything slipped away from his grip. Helplessly he glanced to Lily.

“It’s alright, I’ll make a sandwich and bring it with me for you, when we go down to Potions,” she whispered calmingly.

Therefore, Harry relaxed, leaned back and thought about how to fight through this war. He transfigured her knife and fork into baby spoons and wished a large bib around her neck with a neon red sentence on it. ‘Minnie is trying to eat! Go’way!’

Suddenly his glass was transfigured into a toad trying to eat from his plate until it was transformed into a howler saying with the voice of Madam Pomfrey, “Don’t play around during lunch! Eat or you will get a nutrient Potion!”

Now Harry got really upset and transfigured McGonagall’s plate into a bunch of pink rabbits saying, ‘cats are horrible’. He then once more exchanged his grandmother’s wand with the faked one, which he had accio’d before from the Transfigurations classroom, put McGonagall’s wand next to his plate, transformed into Icicle and flashed directly into the kitchen to ask the House elves for something to eat and drink. While he was eating peacefully, he wished a big parchment on the wall of the Great Hall that was just opposite the Head Table saying, “Don’t try to pull pranks on a phoenix, Granny!” Once more, the hall erupted in laughter.

-----

For the leaving feast, Harry had planned a special prank even his friends didn’t know about. When he entered the Great Hall, he had expected to see the room decorated with the Gryffindor House banners because they had obviously won the House cup, but the banners above the five tables were those of the respective House. As soon as everyone was seated, Dumbledore stood and announced, “This year it is difficult to award the House cup, because fifteen students joined Merlin House at the beginning of January, after earning or loosing points of other Houses. Therefore, although the Hourglasses show a clear victory of Gryffindor, I think this year it would be unfair to award the House cup at all, as we do not know exactly how many Gryffindor points in fact belong to Merlin House and vice versa. So we have decided that there won’t be a Cup this year, and I hope you can all understand this decision.”

Several students clapped their hands to show their appreciation. Harry grinned mischievously and wished the House banners to change into his own creation he had made at the beginning of the week, when he had to stay in bed. Suddenly the House banners were replaced with white-golden banners, which were decorated by six animals, a stag, a dog, a snake, a teddy bear, a snowy owl, and an ice phoenix. They were just beautiful, and everyone stared at the new banners. Then another banner appeared at the wall the opposite of the Head Table. It showed the same animals with a sentence underneath:

‘The Marauders say good-bye to Hogwarts!’

Severus gave Harry a kick. “Look, the whole Head Table is glaring at us!”

But Harry only grinned mischievously. Suddenly Dumbledore stood up again, looked in Harry’s direction and mouthed, “Finished?” Harry nodded, and in an instant food appeared on the tables.

-----

The five Marauders except for Severus had decided to go ‘home’ to James’ parents at the beginning of summer holidays; and Remus, Harry and Lily would go back to Hogwarts on the 1st of July, which was also the last day of Severus’ Potion Masters’ exams and the first day of James’ and Sirius’ Auror training.

The five really enjoyed the first weeks of their holidays, each in their own way. While Sirius slept in every day until lunchtime, James spent the whole morning in his room or the Potions lab planning pranks on the others, which he pulled during the afternoon and evening. Remus spent the morning in the library preparing his Defence Against the Dark Arts classes for the time after the holidays, while Lily loved to help Mrs. Potter with chores or just to sit in the kitchen talking to her. Moreover, Harry could be found in the library reading just everything he could get his hands on. In the afternoon, they spent their time together, mostly in the huge park, eventually taking a swim in the lake, and in the evenings Remus, Lily and Harry had to suffer from the pranks Sirius and James were irresponsibly playing on them. One of their pranks was even so bad, that Remus and Harry couldn’t keep anything down for two days. After a day and a night of vomiting, Harry was so disgusted and upset that he was on the verge of returning to Hogwarts, when James came to apologize to him promising his son he would never try Prank Potions ever again.

“Please Harry, stay for the last week, don’t go back earlier. Look, I’m really sorry, and I have a surprise for you for the night of the full moon!”

Harry groaned and said, “Sorry, James, but you can’t imagine just how fed up I am with your surprises! And I won’t go out on the full moon anyway.”

“And by the way, James, you and Sirius are grounded for the rest of your holidays!” his mother announced. “I am the last one to say something about a little prank, but I cannot accept you playing pranks on your friends – or even on your son! – that makes them ill for a whole day. I am very disappointed; now go to your room and stay there; the House elves will bring you something to eat!”

“But Granny, it’s all right; they didn’t do it on purpose, and Remus and I are fine again, so please don’t punish them like that.” Two days later Mrs. Potter finally listened to Harry’s continuous begging and waived James and Sirius’ punishment for the rest of the week.

Saturday night was the night of the full moon, and Sirius and James were making plans for the night. At dinner, they told everyone they had a big surprise for them and invited James’ parents to come out to the lake at midnight. When Mrs. Potter kept him after dinner and asked if he would go as well, Harry said, “No, I won’t. I know that I would catch a cold if I went, and as I don’t want to spend my last days here in bed, I’d prefer to spend the night in my room.”

“I think that’s better Harry. I don’t know what they are planning, but I don’t think it’s worth risking your health,” his Grandmother agreed.

However, as so often, things turned out differently than planned. After talking to his grandparents in the kitchen for hours, they had left the kitchen to prepare themselves to go out to the lake and Harry went to bed. About an hour later, when he had just fallen asleep, strange sounds resounded in his ear, and before he was awake enough to cast at least a Lumos spell, he could hear a stunning spell – then the world went black.

When Harry regained consciousness, he first noticed that it was cold. Slowly opening his eyes, he found himself sitting on the ground; his back leaning against a tree next to the huge lake of Potter manor. Nobody else was there. Carefully he stood up and looked around, until he discovered the others about 100 meters to the right. He transformed into his phoenix and flashed over to the others, who threw him curious glances, happy that he had decided to join them – but only until he changed back and started to shout at James and Sirius. “What do you think you are doing?”

“Oh, we thought you just shouldn’t miss the fireworks, which will start …. NOW!” And with a ‘bang’ the first firework shot in the air, far above the lake. It was beautiful, but Harry was much too angry and cold to enjoy it. He just stood there in his pyjamas, shaking from cold and anger, and started to cry.

Lily came over to him immediately and asked, “Harry, can you tell me what happened? Why did you come here although you didn’t want to?”

“I didn’t come here! They came into my room, stunned me and brought me here – I just woke up.”

Mr. Potter, who had heard everything, stood up immediately and commanded, “James, Sirius, come back to the House with me and go to your rooms immediately. You are grounded for the rest of the weekend.” After a few ‘if’s and ‘but’s they left and Lily told Mrs. Potter and Remus what had happened.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you,” Harry said with chattering teeth and sneezed. “I’ll just transform and flash back.”

Lily shook her head. “No Harry, let’s all go back and maybe have a cup of hot cocoa if you don’t mind Mrs. Potter?”

“Of course not Lily, that’s a good idea.” Mrs. Potter agreed.

When they were sitting around the kitchen table drinking their cocoa, Harry looked down on the floor and said, “Maybe I should flash back to Hogwarts in the morning. I’m really sorry, but I don’t think I can keep up with Sirius and James anymore.”

“Please Harry, don’t leave. Don’t worry, you won’t get to see James or Sirius, because they are grounded and won’t be able to leave their rooms. It is sad enough that I have to wait 18 years to see you again, but I don’t want you to leave like this,” Mrs. Potter said smiling fondly at Harry.

“I won’t be good company tomorrow, as I’m probably getting ill anyway. I mean, I knew why I didn’t want to come although I know how much fun it is. Sorry, but I really can’t understand why they do things like that, which really can affect others. When Severus calls me irresponsible, I can’t imagine what he’ll call Sirius and James,” Harry complained in a small voice, fighting against the tears that were welling in his eyes. He just couldn’t believe how mean his father was.

Remus gave him a pensive glance. “The problem with Sirius and James, especially with Sirius, is that he doesn’t think at all. He does things and afterwards wonders why matters have gotten as they are. I don’t know why James does things like tonight with him, but I’m sure that by now James is very sorry about what they did.”

“Alright, now, it’s 3 o’clock, and maybe we should all go to bed. Harry, please promise me that you will not flash away tomorrow morning, and when you have problems during the night, send Remus to call me. Can you promise me that?”

“Yes, I promise,” Harry said and climbed up the stairs to his room.

-----

On the next day, he was so ill that his grandmother called Pomfrey who said he had a respiratory infection again and insisted that he had to stay in bed and she would come again the next day to look after him. Lily again took turns with Mrs. Potter to stay with Harry, who enjoyed having some time alone with his mother and grandmother. Finally, after a week Poppy hesitantly allowed Harry to get up and to return to Hogwarts. As glad as he was to be able to go back to Hogwarts, he knew he would miss his grandmother. But at least Severus, Remus and Lily would be staying with him.

Severus had managed to pass the Potions Masters exam as the youngest Potions Master England had ever seen. When he got his results, he came over to Harry, hugged him fiercely and said, “Harry, this is all thanks to you – You can’t believe how grateful I am!”

Harry hugged him back, saying, “And I am very happy for you Severus! And I’m looking forward to meeting your new future self!” Harry spent the next weeks visiting Severus, Lily and Remus in their new teacher’s apartments and helping them decorate their rooms and prepare for their lessons. How much he regretted not to be able just to stay here in their company. Would he meet everyone he loved so much, when he arrived in the future? What if…

“Harry, are you all right?” Lily asked him.

“Yes Lily, sorry, I was just thinking. You know, in only two weeks I have to return to the future, and I don’t even know if all of you will be there, when I arrive.”

Lily came over and hugged him fiercely and said, “You’ll see everything will be okay. However, I think it is time for you to go back to your room and rest. I will come with you.”

-----

In the evening Dumbledore and McGonagall joined Harry, Lily and Severus in Harry’s room.

“Harry, I have something I want to give to you,” Dumbledore said to gain Harry’s attention and gave him a small green envelope. Harry threw a surprised glance at his grandfather and proceeded to open the envelope. Inside was a Gringotts Key. He glanced at his grandfather questioningly. “This, Harry, is the key to a vault I opened last year to deposit the money you received for your book and for vanquishing Voldemort.”

“Hmm?”

Severus laughed. “As eloquent as ever Harry.”

Dumbledore continued, “Harry, for every exemplar of your book, which is sold, you receive 20 percent of the book’s price from Flourish and Blotts. This money is being put directly into your vault at Gringotts. And I have also asked the ministry to put your money in, which you received together with the Order of Merlin 1st class. Therefore, when you are back in the future, go to Gringotts and have a look at your vault. And there will probably be even more money, because I think Severus now has time to look through the bunch of Potions books, and if he decides to publish at least a part of them, he will do it under both your names; so when they are sold you will each get a certain percentage of the money.”

Harry frowned and whispered, “Severus can have the books printed under his name only and can keep the money; I’m fine with that.”

Severus growled at him and said, “No Harry and I’m not going to have this discussion with you either. As you won’t be here, you can’t do anything about it anyway; at the moment, you can’t even talk properly, so just shut up and listen please.”

Harry scowled at him and mumbled, “We’ll talk again in 18 years time,” and tears began to form in his eyes.

Lily immediately hugged him and said, “Please Harry, I know, but don’t cry, you’ll only make yourself worse; you’ll see everything will be all right. We’ll all be waiting for you.”

McGonagall tried to change the topic and asked, “Harry, about your birthday. Is there anyone except for the four of us, Poppy, Remus and Hagrid you want to invite to your party? What about the Potters or Sirius or James?”

Harry thought for a moment and whispered, “No, only you, Remus, Poppy and Hagrid. That’s enough, because I’m sure I’ll spend half the day crying and I don’t want many people to see it. And I’m still not able to forgive Sirius and James for ruining part of my holidays like this. I’ll forgive them in the future, but not now. And Lily, please don’t make Sirius my Godfather, take Severus and Remus this time!” Everyone laughed.

-----

Finally, Harry’s birthday arrived. The evening before, Poppy had given him a sleeping draught, so that he could undertake his journey well rested. When he woke up, Severus and Lily were sitting on the edge of his bed.

“Good morning, Harry, and happy birthday!” both of them shouted.

“Morning,” Harry mumbled sadly. He had just remembered what his birthday meant.

Poppy, who had heard them talking, came around the corner to check on him. “You are much better but still not well Harry. Please go to see my future self immediately when you arrive in the future. Tell her about your health problems – no, that’s not necessary, because it’s me, right? You don’t have to tell anything, I will remember. Just come to see me anyway!”

“Alright Madam Pomfrey, I’ll do that,” Harry promised sincerely.

“Now Harry, get up and let’s go down to breakfast,” Severus urged him and Harry hurried to get ready. When they got down to the Great Hall, Harry was astonished to find all teachers sitting around the round table, which replaced the five House tables during summer holidays. The Great Hall was decorated beautifully, and even Fawkes had joined them and was sitting on a perch near the table. As soon as they were seated, a huge birthday cake appeared just in front of Harry, and everyone began to sing for him, before Dumbledore motioned him to blow the candles out. Finally, McGonagall divided the cake giving Harry an extra large piece. After he finished only half of it, he was already so full that he even didn’t want to see anymore cake; so Lily pulled him with her to the Head Table, where many presents in different colours were waiting for Harry.

-----

From Severus he got a Spring-sprong-spell-gone-wrong cauldron cleaner, his newest invention, which might come useful in the future. Lily gave him a beautiful photo album with photos of his friends, the complete Hogwarts team, the Gryffindor team, and scenes from the game against the teachers, Dumbledore handing the Quidditch Cup to Harry and many, many more – Harry was stunned. He hugged Lily and tears were filling his eyes. Professor McGonagall gave him a Broom tuning kit for tuning his Nimbus so that it would be well able to keep up with the brooms of the future, and from Madam Pomfrey he received a book on Ancient Healing Techniques. In Remus’ present he found a full set of contemporary chocolate frog cards (sure to be a hit in the future), and Hagrid gave him something suspicious with holes in it ... again? Harry groaned and glared at Hagrid.

“Um... Hagrid? Could it be that something is alive in this box?”

Everyone laughed.

“Yeah Harry, just the right thing for you! Open it Harry, you’ll like it!” Hagrid beamed at him, and Harry very carefully opened the box and revealed... an egg?

“Eh... Hagrid? An egg? Um...”

“Yeah Harry, a Runespoor’s egg!” Hagrid beamed. “It’s small enough to take it with you”, and they will hatch in about three weeks time.

“Thank you very much Hagrid, I appreciate it very much.”

Now there was only one package left. It was wrapped in dark blue paper with twinkling stars on it. When he opened it carefully, he got a view of a whole batch of ... chocolate frog packages? Harry threw a confused glance at his grandfather, who laughed merrily and said, “They aren’t what you think Harry, they aren’t Chocolate frogs – take one in your hand and have a look!”

Harry did as he was told; he held a Chocolate phoenix in his hand. “Wow! A chocolate phoenix. Is that new? I have never seen one before.”

“Yes, they are new, and so far only three of them exist – Merlin, me and only one more person.”

Severus beamed at Harry and said, “Let’s see the cards Harry.”

Harry gave a chocolate phoenix to each of his party guests and noticed that the package was still full. He looked questioningly at Dumbledore, who laughed at his grandson’s unbelieving face. “It is a self re-filling box Harry. Keep it well and you will never run out of Chocolate phoenixes!”

“Harry! You are the third person!” Remus suddenly shouted and showed Harry a Chocolate phoenix card. He looked suspiciously at the front of the card. It showed him with his phoenix Patronus chasing the Dementors in Hogsmeade – a very well shot photograph. On the back of the card it said,

‘Harry Pane, famous for vanquishing Voldemort during his 6th year at Hogwarts, saved the village of Hogsmeade from Dementors several times, finder of the Chamber of Secrets, Translator of Salazar Slytherin’s diary and Potions books, founder of the Hogwarts Quidditch team, re-founder of Hogwarts’ Merlin House; Great Grandson to Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall.’

Suddenly Harry’s owl Cyclops arrived carrying a package from his Grandparents. He motioned to Cyclops to stay for a moment and took him over to Lily. “Cyclops I have to go away for a few years, and I cannot take you with me; so I would like to give you to Lily; she is your new owner and will look after you. Alright Lily, Cyclops?” Cyclops hooted and nodded his head.

Lily hugged Harry and said, “Thank you Harry. I promise that I will look after him.”

Harry opened the package Cyclops had brought and found another book: A self-updating History of the Potter family.

-----

Soon it was time for lunch, after which Lily, Severus and Remus helped him to take all the presents up to his room, so that he could pack everything into his trunk. Finally he shrank his trunk and put it into his pocket, before he asked his friends, “Shall we go for a walk around the lake?”

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” Severus agreed immediately. But when they were sitting beside the lake, and Harry looked around at Lily, Severus, Remus and his Great Grandparents, who had joined them in the meantime, he began to think about the future and what was awaiting him tonight. He slowly began to panic.

“Harry, are you all right?” Lily asked suddenly.

“Yes Lily, sorry, I was just thinking. I am somewhat afraid of going back. You know, I like it here so much, and I love you all, and don’t even know if all of you will be there, when I arrive.” He began to cry, and when Lily came over to hug him, he sobbed into her robes for a long time, which helped his nerves to calm down but was not too good for his not yet completely healed respiratory infection, so after a while his sobs turned into coughs and Lily could feel the heat he radiated.

“I’ll better take you up to Pomfrey to have her check on you, before you leave,” Lily said.

Hearing this, McGonagall came over, felt his forehead and said, “Oh my, he is burning up again. I wonder if he’ll be able to leave at all.”

“Yes, I have to. If I don’t go tonight, I won’t go at all, so I will go tonight,” Harry croaked.

“All right, so let’s take a walk back to your room, so that you can rest for a while before dinner,” Severus said calmingly.

Poppy took his temperature and frowned. “I do not appreciate that you want to leave tonight, you are in no condition to do so. But I will make sure to be there when you arrive. Now, you still have three hours until dinner, try to get some sleep.”

Harry drank the Potions she gave him and lay down. Fortunately his friends and grandparents all stayed with him and kept talking for the whole time, so that he had no chance to nurse any sad thoughts.

-----

At dinner, everyone was trying to joke and be as funny as possible; McGonagall, Pomfrey and Hooch, who had been in the same year in Gryffindor and were best friends at school, recounted many funny stories from their own school days. Harry listened half-heartedly and continued to push his food around his plate. Finally, Dumbledore asked, “Severus, you have the Potion ready?”

Severus nodded and replied, “Of course Professor.”

Dumbledore laughed and said, “You are a professor yourself now, my boy, so please call me Albus. So it will take Harry to exactly when?”

Severus sighed and answered, “In fact I’m not sure about the time, only about the date. It will be the 9th of September 1996. He arrived here on the evening of the eighth, and from what he told me, he must have left on the eighth. So in order to avoid a paradox, I have made the Potion so that he will arrive one day after he left. I have tried to make the Potion as precisely as possible, so he should arrive at the same time as he leaves here, but I really don’t know how exact it will be.”

“Very good, Severus, thank you very much my boy. I will be in my office the whole day on the 9th of September 1996.” Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling.

“If I may suggest something, Albus,” Severus added. “You know he is not very healthy, and I don’t know how the long ride in the floo affects the body. I don’t even know how long he will have to travel – you know we only tested it with a rat from one day to the next, and it arrived about a minute after the time I sent it – so I would like to suggest that Madam Pomfrey should be with you when Harry arrives.”

“Yes Severus, I will be there as well, don’t worry. Now, before we all go to the Headmaster’s office I want Harry to come to my office for a minute. I want to check him once more and probably give him a few Potions before he leaves.”

“Alright Poppy. Harry, go with Poppy please, and Minerva, Lily, Severus and Remus, will you come to my office with me?”

-----

15 minutes later, after a lot of hugs, tears and good-byes, his belly full with Potions, Harry sat down in the fireplace of the Headmaster’s Office, and Dumbledore threw the powder in, shouting “Headmaster’s Office, Hogwarts.”

Harry’s world began to spin… and spin… and everything turned around and around – it was horrible and just didn’t want to end. Harry could only think ‘I cannot vomit in the floo, can’t get sick now’, closed his eyes and only wanted the whirling to stop, until everything went black.

EPILOGUE

It was one evening sometime early in the year 1996. The Snapes’ fireplace at Hogwarts, where Severus was living happily together with his wife, his son and his two daughters, flared.

“Severus, could you please come to my office for a while,” he could hear Albus’ voice and groaned. He was just doing an experimental Potion together with his 15 and 13-year-old children.

“I’ll be there in five minutes Albus.”

He went up to the Headmaster’s Office and wondered about the solemn face of his old mentor and friend. Minerva, Albus’ wife and Deputy Headmistress as well as Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, and Remus Lupin were there as well. A moment later, Lily entered the room as well.

“I have called you here to show you a few, no, frankly speaking a lot of memories which were put in my Pensieve 20 years ago, when a certain Harry Pane visited us from the future. You do remember him, don’t you?” His friends nodded eagerly. Of course they remembered him well, their Great Grandchild, son and in Severus’ case his best friend forever.

“Until now I have never told anyone, but while he was here, I let him put lots of memories from his future in a Pensieve. He will come back in September and will be in a lot of trouble, because being in the past he has changed the future very much. When he comes back he will still have his old memories of his own time line and will have difficulties adapting to the new realities, which for all of us here is the normal time line. Although now Harry is living here with us in this time line, when he returns from the past, he will not have the memories of this time line at first. Therefore, I want to use the next few months until the summer to show you all my memories about his old time line in order for you to be able to understand and help him dealing with his problems. As he spent two whole years in the past, viewing the memories will take a lot of time, so I would like to ask you to come here every evening at a fixed time, for example curfew, to watch for about two hours. Will the five of you be willing to do this for Harry?”

The five nodded their agreement. “Of course Albus.”

“I appreciate that very much, thank you, because apart from me, the five of you are the only ones who have not been obliviated about him, as you were the closest to him.