An eventful summer

Taking the route from last time, I went by the gargoyle statue.

A good surprise was, that instead of the old headmaster, his beautiful phoenix Fawkes welcomed me.

"Hey there. Would you let me pat you?", I ask the intelligent bird, but he just raises his beak in an arrogant way.

So to get his approval, I take out some treats Ash likes. Roasted insects.

They are still birds, so insects were preferred and as both are firebirds it was obvious for me to roast them. It seems to work, as Fawkes now looked at me with some curiosity. So I held my right hand out in front of him and with a little caution he eats them with great joy.

I raise my left hand to his head and he didn't object this time and let me groom his feathers for him. They were similar to Ash's as even the feathers emit a low heat that felt nice to the touch.

"You seem to know how to handle a lot of animals.", a voice behind me says.

"And it seems you don't want to be polite to others.", I reply to my headmaster and didn't respond to his hidden meaning.

"I'm sorry, my boy. Now should we go over to the matter I asked you to come here for.", he similarly ignores my words.

"If you wouldn't refer to me as your boy, I am all ears.", I say while using the little occlumency knowledge I obtained to simplify my thoughts and think of my familiars again, while withholding eyecontact.

I used Fawkes as an excuse to watch his behaviour instead of the old man in the chair.

"Could you tell me why you took school property without permission."

"And which property do you refer to, headmaster?", I ask.

"Hagrids Cerberus Fluffy."

"I didn't know he was school property and as you said Hagrids and if you ask him if he wants Fluffy with me or shipped to Greece, I believe I did right. I already asked him as the owner."

"You get quite a lot of pets, Nicholas. Mind telling me for what?"

"What do you mean? They are my pets. Part of my family. I think I am even closer to them than a Hufflepuff under your care.", I explained.

"If that is all, then I don't object, but like Minerva already told you, they are not allowed to be released in front of students. Did I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Then you can go back."

Maybe in this conversation I learned more about him than he from me. Dumbledore isn't as manipulative as I thought, but really cared about the students and I was a risk factor he didn't plan with. I could be good or bad for his plan.

I couldn't care less and had a neutral approach to him, but I still cared for Harry and the others, so I would naturally help him. But I wouldn't sacrifice myself for Dumbledores 'greater good'.

-

After this I could finally take of for the break.

And I really needed them after the schoolyear, so I made two weeks free without studying or training. Just to relax.

Then another family trio with our uncles was planned and they finally got permission from Dumbledore to take Harry with us.

So that brought some problems with it. Mom realised as soon as she saw him, that he was underweight and abused. Her priority for the trip was to nurse him back to full health. Sis and Sirius entertained him and we other three gave him a silent place to return to, if to much happend for him.

So all 7 of us went to the Toscana in Italy. Our trip lasted for 10 days, but because of Harry's health, and a few lectures from the adults to Dumbledore, Sirius took him to his home.

A problem that I almost forgot was Dobby.

Dobby is really a nice elf, but his self-abusive style shocked me to a greater amount than I thought.

I wasn't as radical as Hermione with her S.P.E.W initiative, but teaching them to not harm themselves for everything that they made wrong, is a good way in my opinion.

How I learned about his appearance. He made a similar thing as in canon with the flying cake for Harry's birthday. He threw it when Harry was alone, but I knew he wouldn't do it, so I called out to Sirius house elf to locate others of his kind.

"Bad Dobby. Shouldn't get caught.", he says while trying to slap his face to the ground.

As I didn't want to escalate the problem, I told him clearly to just protect Harry in Hogwarts from danger.

Maybe a big movement of my wings, but I couldn't think of something else at the moment.

Harry was still sorry as he saw himself responsible for the ruined cake, but I made my viewpoint clear to him, so he doesn't questions himself. At least not to much.

After my birthday, I got back to studying and training.

Aside from the O.W.L.s, I needed to think how I want to handle the Basilisk.

I really wanted to save him from the irresponsible dark lord with teenage hormones, but how and when. I try to learn Parseltongue with sis and Harry. Learning with two who can speak the language advanced my progress immensely and Harry learned up front that it could also be used for good as sis gave him her book on Indian healing spells, which wasn't much used now that she is in auror training.

Till a certain point, I should be able to speak it good enough to enter the chamber. But I had another problem. Just throwing the Basilisk into 'Dimensional Home' would petrify or kill the other beasts, so I needed another pocket to keep it. So with that in mind, I used a hour daily to expand the space, but I really find it tough. The improvement isn't as fast as before and I don't know why, but I still tried every day to improve at least a few square meters.

Now the biggest question: When?

I need to balance the timeframe as too early wouldn't reveal the horcrux and too late he would be dead.

So with all those thoughts, the weeks flew by.