19 Chapter 17 - Revelations

***** REGULAR RELEASE ***** A/N: I dunno why my timer publish isnt working. Had this chapter set up for yesterday, and it failed. Today again, and it failed. Anyways, looks like I'll just manually publish these chapters from my phone... Hope you all enjoy. *****

"Because Ron's being stupid." replied Ginny. "His proper name is Pigwidgeon."

"Ginny named him." Explained Ron. "She reckons its sweet. I tried to change it, but now he won't reply to anything else."

"He annoys the other owls, Errol and Hermes." Further explained Khan, having an inherent link with magical beasts. "So he's staying up here with us. He's honestly not so bad, just young and excitable. Just give him a bunch of delivery jobs, and he'll be happy."

"He annoys me too." Grumbled Ron.

Pigwidgeon flew happily around his cage, hooting in excitement at hearing his name.

Meanwhile, Harry knew his best friend too well, to take him very seriously with his grumbling. He was the same way with his old pet Scabbers. Yet he had been quite upset with Hermione, when her pet Crookshanks, appeared to have eaten him.

Knowing what he did now about the rat, Harry reckons Crookshanks should've eaten him.

"Where is Crookshanks?" Harry asked his other best friend.

"Probably in the garden chasing gnomes." Replied Hermione happily. "He's never seen them before."

"Have you heard from...." Ron began to ask, but a pointed look from Hermione scared him into silence.

Harry knew Ron had been about to ask about Sirius. His best friends were both involved in helping Sirius escape the previous year after all.

However, there was nobody, other than the 3 of them and professor Dumbledore, who knew about Sirius' innocence. Discussing him around Ginny and Khan was probably a bad idea.

Khan meanwhile looked at the 3 best friends in suspicion. Having gone on numerous extracurricular activities with his own best friends during his time at Hogwarts, he recognized the tell-tale signs of an intriguing story involving a secret adventure.

"I think they've stopped arguing." Stated Hermione awkwardly attempting to cover the silence. She had noticed the suspicious looks coming from Khan, alongside Ginny looking curiously from Ron to Harry. "Shall we all go down to help with dinner?"

Leaving Ron's room, the 5 of them went back downstairs to the kitchen, finding Molly looking extremely bad-tempered.

"We're eating out in the garden." She stated bluntly when they came in. "There's just not enough room for 12 people in here."

Having eaten outside previously with the Weasleys the last few days, Khan and Hermione were familiar with the setup.

"Could you take the plates outside girls? And Khan, the forks and knives please? Bill and Charlie are outside already setting up the tables. Glasses and mugs please, you two." She finished to Ron and Harry, as she angrily stormed around the kitchen, violently preparing the food.

Khan, Hermione and Ginny quickly gathered their assigned items, a left the kitchen in a hurry, eager to escape Molly's wrath.

Ron and Harry, as usual, were slow to catch on, and were left listening to Molly raging about the twins.

Escaping a few terrifying minutes later, Ron and Harry, hands full carrying 6 glasses/mugs each, came outside and heard a loud crashing noise coming from the other side of the house.

Entering the garden, the source of the commotion was revealed to the 2 of them, as they saw that both Bill and Charlie had their wands out, and were making two old battered tables fight.

Flying high above the lawn, the two tables were smashing into each other, each attempting to knock the other's out of the air.

Fred and George were cheering like football hooligans, while Ginny and Khan were laughing amusedly. Hermione meanwhile appeared to look quite constipated; a curious mixture of anxious and amused.

*BANG*

Bill's table caught Charlie's table with a sudden strike, knocking one of its legs clean off.

A clatter was heard from the house, and they all looked over to see Percy poking his head out of a window, looking quite disgruntled.

"Will you keep it down!?" He yelled in anger.

"Sorry Perce." Bill grinned at how serious his brother was. "How are the cauldron bottoms going?"

"Poorly." Percy replied peevishly, as he once again shut the windows in an attempt to finish his report.

Chuckling, Bill and Charlie were directing the tables back to the garden when they were interrupted by Khan.

"You can leave those tables to the side. They are quite battered after all." Khan stated grabbing his wand.

He conjured a 'Huge Table' with Botanical style Chairs, to match the garden, much to everybody's surprise.

"Y-You just did magic outside of Hogwarts!" Hermione cried in surprise.

Stunned at their reactions, Khan replied hesitantly. "Yes.... is that a problem?"

"Yes thats a problem! Students aren't allowed to do magic underage when outside of Hogwarts" She exclaimed in righteous fury. "And thats conjuration! We don't learn that until 7th year!"

"Wait... 7th year?" Khan was shocked with that piece of information.

Conjuration was quite common during his time after all. Professor Weasley had taught him it in passing, while helping him customize his RoR space. And there was even a specialized Hogsmeade shop that only sold conjuration spellcrafts.

"Is Tomes and Scrolls no longer selling their spellcrafts to Hogwarts students?" Khan asked confusedly.

"Tomes and Scrolls?" Replied Hermione just as confused.

"Yes.... In Hogsmeade." Answered Khan.

"There is no such shop called Tomes and Scrolls in Hogsmeade."

"This..... Do you know if there is still a shop called Stitches and Draughts in Hogsmeade?"

Khan was rather worried about his own shop in Hogsmeade, as well as Poppy, a house-elf he had freed with clothes, but had stayed to take care of his shop.

Thinking back to the adventure that had landed him that shop in the first place, he thought of Fastidio, the poltergeist, and silently hoped he had kept to his agreement after all these years.

"Not that I remember...." Hermione answered. She noted to herself that she needed to update her new friend on current wizarding laws immediately, before he got himself into trouble. "But forget about that. The most important thing, is that you'll get into trouble with the ministry because you casted underage-magic. All students' wands carry the 'trace' while they are under legal age."

"Actually Hermione, Khan over here should be fine." Bill responded lightheartedly as he turned to address Khan. "I was actually working at Gringotts when you came in with McGonagall and Flitwick. Quite the scare you gave the Goblins, when you entered the bank. Everyone was quite on edge."

"Oh? You work there?" Khan knew a husband and wife couple who worked for Gringotts as a Curse Breaker, and Guard respectively. He had in fact, rescued the husband, when he had been kidnapped alongside Natty by Ashwinders.

"Yes. I work as a Curse Breaker." Bill replied with pride. "But as I was saying, Khan here should be fine. He is after all, the Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Khan. In the eyes of magic, he is legally an adult."

Everyone's eyes were wide with surprise.

Hermione was slightly jealous that Khan could practice magic during the summer. She couldn't even show her parents what she had learned throughout the school year.

At the same time, she was eager to research 'Ancient and Noble' houses. Both Harry's house, and Khan's house were both titled the same. Perhaps Harry could also take his Head of House, and wouldn't have to live with the Dursleys anymore.

Ron meanwhile was feeling inadequate comparing himself to everyone else. Harry and Khan both came from noble backgrounds, whereas Hermione was known as brightest witch of her age. Not to mention, his brothers and sister excelled at many things. With all of them back in the house, it only served to remind Ron just how lacking he was.

Whereas Harry was simply happy that his new friend would not get in trouble with the ministry. He was quite unhappy with the ministry, with its recent actions last year against his godfather, Sirius. So needless to say, he felt quite relieved Khan would not have to deal with them as well.

*****

The huge table was soon filled with numerous dishes of Molly's excellent cooking, as everyone eventually settled down to eat dinner.

At the far end of the table, Percy was pompously bragging to his father about his knowledge of happenings around the Ministry, no doubt bringing up his report on Cauldron Bottoms whenever he can.

Khan was enjoying some food, when he overheard Percy attempting to speak mysteriously to his father, spoiling his appetite in the process.

"We've got enough on our plates at the Department of International Magical Co-operation, without trying to find members of other departments too. As you know, we've got another big event to organize after the World Cup."

Percy paused, as he cleared his voice rather loudly for dramatic effect, glancing over towards Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione.

"You know the one I am talking about Father. The 'Top-Secret' one."

Rolling his eyes at the over-dramatics, Khan turned away as he overheard Molly harassing Bill over his appearance.

"Its horrible looking. Horrible great large fang just dangling there. Really Bill! What do they say at the bank?"

"They don't say a damn thing, as long as I keep bringing home treasure." Replied Bill patiently. He had placated his mother many times before.

"And your hair is getting too long now dear. I wish you'd let me give it a trim."

"I like it." Ginny interjected on her brother's behalf. "You're so old fashioned mum."

Chuckling to himself at their conversation, he turned to Fred, George and Charlie, as they were all talking spiritedly about the upcoming World Cup.

"Ireland is going to take it all this year!" Charlie argued stubbornly. "They stomped Peru in the Semi-finals."

"Bulgaria has Krum though." Fred replied in protest.

"Bulgaria has 1 good player. Ireland has 7." Charlie replied shortly. "Besides, we're British. We need to cheer for the home team."

"Ya it was pretty embarrassing, what happened to our other teams." Agreed George.

Harry, who had overheard, inquired curiously. "What happened to England?"

"Lost to Transylvania. 390-10. Meanwhile, Wales went down to Uganda, and Scotland was crushed by Luxembourg." Replied Charlie unhappily. He was an avid Quidditch player in his youth, previously leading Gryffindor to numerous Quidditch house Cups during his time at Hogwarts.

Khan meanwhile was curious about Quidditch. Being a nerd growing up, he spent a lot of time with books during his childhood, not spending any time watching any matches or cheering for a specific team.

And the 1 year he had attended Hogwarts, the Headmaster had cancelled Quidditch, so he didn't even have a chance to play.

That isn't to say that Khan avoided flying; in fact he loved the feeling of freedom it brought him. He had continuously raced against Imelda Reyes after all, as the two of them constantly traded records on the various flying courses set up around Hogwarts in the Hamlets. Khan was certain, that he would have played Quidditch for Ravenclaw if there had been a team.

He had to say, he was definitely looking forward to this world cup match. He wanted to see how much broom technology had improved after all.

His thoughts were interrupted, as he overheard Ron attempting to ask Harry a question, stealthily.

"So... have you heard from Sirius?"

Hermione glanced around the table, ensuring nobody was paying attention, completely forgetting about Khan sitting beside her.

'So there is a Sirius involved in this secret.' Khan noted to himself, as he eavesdropped on the conversation.

"Yeah.... twice actually." Harry replied softly. "He hasn't mentioned where he is hiding now, but he told me he is avoiding the Black family mansion as the place is very rundown."

Khan was once again shocked with the revelation he had just overheard.

Had the Black family fallen from power?