– – – – – Rebirth Chapter 27 – – – – –

Harry had come to the firm conclusion that having dysfunctional plumbing was obscenely frustrating. For the last few years, a big part of him had been dreading having to go through puberty again, but now he was simply incredibly impatient for it to just happen already and get over with.

His frustratingly young body was able to get erections just fine. He just couldn't ejaculate. Tom could though, and Harry had managed to get the other 'boy' off just fine, quite a few times over the last week. Tom was more than willing and eager to reciprocate any physical favors, but Harry just couldn't reach completion, and it was a very frustrating situation to find himself in.

It was getting to the point that he was considering looking into potions or rituals that would speed up the whole puberty thing. Every boy went through puberty at a different time and pace. Generally between the ages of ten and fifteen. He'd be turning twelve in a couple weeks time, which put him in a nice average sort of location for spontaneous puberty-type growth spurts. If he showed up at Hogwarts in September with a slightly deeper voice, several inches taller, and a frustratingly greasy forehead with little red spots of teenage misery littering his skin, no one would actually question it. And there were plenty of potions and creams that could instantly magic away zits.

But it wasn't the kids and professors at school that he would have to worry about reacting to a sudden onslaught of puberty, it was Remus. Because if Harry took a potion to speed things up, it would be most apparent to the people who saw him before the potion and immediately after.

But he couldn't help but wonder if it was even worth the trouble. Once he and Tom got to Hogwarts they wouldn't have nearly as many opportunities to snog since privacy would be scarce and twelve and thirteen would probably seem a bit early for dating. At that age, the most kids did was have a one-week 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend' where they might give a single peck on the lips because their friends dared them to. Twelve year olds didn't tend to engage in heavy snogging.

And when he and Tom did get some legitimate privacy, they would most likely spend it in the Room of Hidden Things with an hour-long dose of ageing potion. So why bother with putting himself through the mood-swings and physical annoyances, like unpredictable body odor, of puberty any sooner than needed?

Once he really did start to go through some more obvious changes, then maybe he'd look up a potion to make things move along faster.

But until then, he still had the rest of the summer to be frustrated with his under-developed body, and the subtle teasing he occasionally got from Tom about it's frustrating deficiencies. Of course the smug bastard's body already had armpit and pubic hair, the occasional slow-growing chin stubble and his voice would break if he spoke quickly when he was excited – the last one being exceptionally amusing to Harry and a cause of annoyed embarrassment to Tom, when it happened. Of course, Tom's body was turning thirteen in a couple months, so he had almost a year's advantage over Harry's body.

Maybe he would ask Snape for help finding some different potion options.

Harry grimaced at the thought. He was more than willing to ask favors from the man, but this seemed a bit... private? Slightly embarrassing? Well... yes, it felt embarrassing, although he couldn't rationally explain why, it just was.

He'd been perfectly content to let his body go through the natural paces of aging and hormones at it's own speed... right up until he found Tom, that is. Or, more specific, right up until the first time they'd tried snogging in their current bodies.

There had definitely been some awkwardness to the whole thing. They hadn't done anything more than heavy snogging and rutting against each other – always while mostly clothed. The less clothes they were wearing, the more blatantly obvious their body's youth became, and neither one of them exactly fancied themselves particularly attracted to such... youth. But it was almost shocking how quickly and easily they'd both moved beyond any weirdness once they got into things. Tom was still Tom, no matter what body he was in, and Harry was attracted enough to Tom to not really care how young he looked – although, granted, if he looked nine-years-old or, Merlin forbid, even younger than that... well, there probably wouldn't be any snogging going on, that's for sure. But no matter how awkward their bodies made everything, it didn't change the fact that they had desperately missed each other, and deeply missed the intimacy that they'd grown accustomed to over the decades.

And it's not like Tom's old body was the only body that Harry had ever fucked, or vice versa. Granted, neither of them had ever had sex with anyone so... young. Sure, they were each other's first sex partners, but over the years they'd invited plenty of people to join their bed to spice things up some. Both had also wanted to know what it was actually like to lay with a woman, and they'd done that as well. They'd shared, they'd swapped, they'd partaken in trains... no one could ever accuse them of having a dull sex life. And they did tend to prefer whoever they invited to join them to be around a certain age group. Usually around their early twenties, but there'd been a few seventeen and even sixteen year olds in there. But they'd never gone younger than that. Even evil Dark Lords had lines they preferred not to cross.

Of course, all those still very vivid memories of sexual experimentation with Tom were now haunting Harry because his underaged pecker was presently dysfunctional and he had no choice but to hold back and wait just because a certain part of his anatomy wasn't cooperating properly.

It was even more annoying than when he was an infant and he couldn't get his tongue and mouth to cooperate enough to get words to form correctly. Just another instance of his body not being able to keep up with his mind and memories.

He huffed a frustrated sigh and tried to reassure himself that he could be patient, even thought he didn't really believe it. It's not like he didn't get any enjoyment out of the snogging and the groping. He just couldn't complete. Which... was frustrating.

Stupid, prepubescent body.

–

Harry had gotten his summer homework done already – it had been beyond easy, not like that was a surprise. Tom had gone ahead and done the same homework assignments as Harry for the sake of practice. They both knew that Tom would have difficulty dumbing himself down under any circumstances, and it was good if he got some actual practice doing it now, before he went to Hogwarts to take his equivalency exams with McGonagall.

It was the end of the second week of July and they still hadn't heard back from McGonagall on a time for 'Dominick's' test. Despite the lack of obvious progress on the 'getting Tom enrolled at Hogwarts' front, there had been quite a bit of progress on the 'getting Tom adopted by Sirius' front.

One unexpected part of the process, however, had been when the Department of Magical Child Welfare had contacted all of the other relatives on the family tree to see if any of them wanted to try to seek custody as well. What this meant was that they'd received owls from both Muriel and Tessie Prewett inquiring about 'Dominick' the very next day. Neither one wanted custody since both were set in their ways and believed themselves too old to take in a young boy, and neither intended to object to Sirius seeking custody in their stead, however they did want to arrange a meeting with the 'boy' to discuss his eventual role as Head of the Family, since he would gain the title as soon as he reached age seventeen.

The Prewetts were an ancient and very well respected old pure-blood line, however they'd never reached the same level of power or wealth as, say... the Malfoys or the Blacks. But still, Tom was clearly intrigued by whatever potential titles he might have come into by being in possession of his new body. At one point, the Prewett family had held a seat on the Wizengamot and Tom couldn't help but voice to Harry how amusingly convenient it would be if he could claim it upon reaching his majority.

It actually made Harry pause and wonder if he would be inheriting a seat on the Wizengamot because he knew the Potter's used to have one as well, and he was the only Potter left.

Arrangements were made for 'Dominick' and Sirius to meet with the two elder Prewett women over tea, for early August – neither woman could clear their schedule any earlier than that, apparently – and things went back to normal for exactly one day. And then they received a letter from Molly Weasley.

She was clearly both shocked and very very excited to have discovered a new addition to her extended family. She sent an invitation for lunch and insisted that they come to her family's home. And as such, that Saturday, Sirius, Harry, and Tom found themselves on the outskirts of Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon, standing at the point where a small dirt path led off a cobblestone road, marked with a crooked sign labeled 'The Burrow'. A short ways in the distance, at the end of the dirt path, one could easily see what appeared to be a house on the brink of collapse.

Sirius had side-along apparated both 'boys' to the edge of the Weasley's meager wards, and they were going to walk the rest of the way. Harry and Tom lingered slightly so that Sirius was a few feet ahead of them. Harry glanced over and saw Tom sneering at the house with obvious disgust, which only grew as they drew closer and got to see it even more clearly.

It was more than obvious that the only thing holding the house together was magic. The house itself looked as if it had started out as an old stone pigpen and then appeared to have been added upon and expanded multiple times over the years, adding several crooked stories to it and quite a few of the additions were tilting precariously with support structures that logic would dictate were clearly insufficient to hold anything up.

The yard to the front of the house had a small garage to the side of it, and beyond that a chicken coop could be seen. From what they could see from their vantage on the pathway leading towards the house, it appeared that the back garden had an old stone outhouse that had a few brooms leaning up against the side of it. Beyond that was an overgrown garden and then a pond filled with frogs croaking away merrily.

Harry realized he was sneering at the sight too and masked his expression as he heard Sirius speaking to them and saw the man turn to look over his shoulder at the two 'boys' trailing behind him.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Harry called out as he skipped a few paces quicker to catch up with Sirius. He heard Tom sigh quietly as he did the same.

"Remus mentioned that their youngest son is in your year, right?" Sirius said, repeating himself.

"Oh... yeah," Harry said flatly, grimacing at the reminder that he was about to have lunch with Ron Weasley.

"And the twins are the ones that had the Marauder's Map?" Sirius went on.

"That's right," Harry confirmed. "They've still got it actually. You could probably ask them to show it to you. I imagine they've got it up in their room or something. I can't picture them leaving it at the school."

"They didn't give it to you?" Sirius asked, stopping and turning to look at Harry with surprise.

"No point. I made my own," Harry said with a shrug.

"What map?" Tom asked, looking slightly annoyed at not knowing what they were talking about.

"It's a map of Hogwarts that taps into the school's wards so that it can provide you with an animated labeled dot for each and every person registered by the school's ward system," Harry answered.

"Made your own? What do you mean, you made your own?" Sirius asked, looking incredulous.

"Well, I borrowed the one that you, Remus and my dad made and studied it, and I asked Remus some questions about how he did the charm work and linked them into the wards, and just... made my own," Harry answered with a dismissive shrug. "Mine's better, actually," he added with a smirk.

"Can I see it?" Sirius asked, still appearing a bit stunned.

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment as he debated it before shrugging. "Sure, don't see why not. It's back at home though."

"Of course," Sirius said with a nod as he turned back and resumed his journey to the house.

"A map that shows you where everyone is in the school?" Tom asked as he stepped closer and spoke quietly into Harry's ear.

Harry grinned. "Yeah, it's brilliant. I've got to show you all it can do once we get to Hogwarts in September. It's brilliant. Especially some of the... special features, I added."

Tom looked intrigued and smirked slightly before the two 'boys' had to turn their attention back to the house they had just arrived at. Sirius was already at the front door and knocking. A moment later the door was thrown open and an a short, plump, and frumpy-looking woman with flaming red hair and brown eyes greeted them with a wide, beaming smile.

She quickly welcomed them and motioned for the three of them to come inside. They were led into a cluttered sitting room littered with arms chairs of several different styles and states of disrepair, and a large sofa with several bits patched. There was a large fireplace, a wooden wireless set, and a clock that, rather than telling the time, appeared to list each member of the family and their current status. Instead of numbers it had phrases such as 'home', 'school', 'work', 'traveling', 'lost', and 'hospital'. Harry's eyebrows rose slightly into his forehead as he observed the clock with his Sight. It was quite an advanced bit of charm work. It appeared unique too. Harry wondered absently if one of the elder Weasley's had created the clock.

The woman introduced herself as Molly Weasley and was piratically gushing with excitement over their arrival. An initial introduction was made – 'Mrs. Weasley, this is Dominic Prewett and Harry Potter.' 'It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Weasley,' 'Oh, call me Molly!' and then she made apologies, saying that lunch was just about ready and it would be just a minute, as she disappeared towards the back of the house to attend to whatever she was cooking.

Harry felt a tug and glance down to see Tom already sitting on one end of the couch and pulling slightly on the hem of Harry's outer robe, indicating he sit down as well. Harry quickly did so, just as the sound of feet came barreling down the staircase to the side of the sitting room. Sirius had just taken a seat in one of the armchairs with its back to the stairs and he twisted and looked over his shoulder just as a pair of identical red-headed twins appeared on the stairs, grinned widely, and quickly hurried the rest of the way down.

Following behind them at a far more sedate pace was the boy Harry recognized as Percy Weasley. The twins came over and pulled two wooden chairs of different styles with them, perching them around the armchair that Sirius was sitting in and stared at him with something akin to awe. Sirius just looked at them with bemusement in his expression. Percy looked down at the twins and made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat before going over and sitting in a free armchair as far away from the group as possible.

"So you're Sirius Black?" one of the twins began with an excited air to his voice.

"One of the Marauders?"

"Padfoot, right?"

Sirius blinked at them before looking over at Harry who chuckled quietly under his breath. Tom rolled his eyes.

The twins proceeded to grill Sirius for tales of his pranking days with the Marauders at Hogwarts for about ten minutes, while everyone else in the room seemed to just sit there in awkward boredom. Finally Molly Weasley appeared again from the doorway to the kitchen and told them all the lunch was ready before going to the foot of the stairwell and calling up for 'Ron' and 'Ginny'. She then waved her wand and a little light shot through the room, out a partially open window, and directly towards the garage Harry had seen earlier at the front of the house.

With some reluctance, Harry and Tom pulled themselves out of the couch and into the kitchen. It contained a very large wooden table with ten different chairs around it. No two chairs matched in style, shape, or size, and Harry could practically feel Tom's disdain for the extraordinary commonness of it all. Another large fireplace was in the kitchen, and this one looked like it was probably the one actually hooked up to the Floo Network since it was much larger and a tin of floo powder was visible on the mantle.

Harry, Tom and Sirius hesitated for a moment as everyone else began to take seats around the table, before Molly Weasley told them to 'just sit anywhere dears'. The twins beckoned for Sirius to sit down between them, something that seemed to amuse Sirius, so he agreed, and Harry and Tom on the opposite end of the table. Percy Weasley sat down on Tom's right, leaving one seat available on Harry's left, one seat directly opposite Harry, and two chairs open on the end of the table diagonal from him. More thundering steps could be heard coming down the stairs and a moment later a scowling Ron Weasley made his way into the kitchen, followed by a very timid and nervous looking girl with long, straight hair... red, of course.

Ron took one look at Harry and his scowl deepened and twisted into a sneer. He looked at the seats available and took the one opposite Harry, rather than sit in the one beside him. Harry figured that the two on the end were apparently designated for the parents – his guess was confirmed when, a moment later, a red-headed man came in through a doorway that led to the back garden, gave Molly Weasley a quick peck on the cheek and then sat down in one of those seats while greeting Sirius enthusiastically.

The timid-looking girl seemed to squeak when she realized the only seat open was next to Harry and for a moment, she looked like she was about to make a run for it. Then Mrs. Weasley called out to her, telling her not to dawdle and to sit down. Flushing bright red – which looked awful with that hair of hers – she went over and sat down next to Harry while keeping her head bowed and her hands folded in her lap, twisting nervously.

Harry barely refrained from snorting before he turned to Tom and resumed some light conversing. A moment later introductions were being made all around. The man was Arthur Weasley, and the girl was named 'Ginny' and would apparently be starting Hogwarts this fall.

Mrs. Weasley began dishing out food, levitating platters and plates all around and serving pumpkin juice in an assortment of vastly different cups. Even the silverware was mismatched.

Mrs. Weasley sat down and the meal quickly began – filled with discussion about family (apparently there were two more older brothers in this already enormous family, but they'd already moved out of the house) and questions mostly directed at Tom. They were all very interested to learn that 'Dominick' had known Harry Potter growing up in the muggle world. Arthur Weasley grilled both of them with questions about muggle 'tekonogy', asking questions about 'automobibals' and wondering if either of them could explain to him what a 'telly' was and how it worked.

Tom was clearly not the least bit interested in discussing the finer points of the muggles and their culture, but even he couldn't stand by silently and not correct the man of his obscenely inaccurate ideas. Tom had, after all, spent the last two years traveling through countless muggle cities, in addition to the fact that he and Heri had actually grown up among them back in the 30's. He was far from ignorant about how they lived and worked. He had always made a point to keep up with the muggles. 'Know thy enemy' he had told Heri, numerous times through their youth.

Discussion was brought back to the family relation topic once food was done. Molly Weasley cleared the table with a wave of her wand and Tom was asked to pull out a copy of the family tree that he'd brought with him. It was spread out onto the table in front of the senior Weasleys. Percy Weasley, who had mostly feigned disinterest through the whole meeting, actually craned his neck slightly in obvious curiosity, while the twins got up and walked over behind their parents to peer at it. Ron, who hadn't stopped scowling once through the whole meal, appeared to give in to his curiosity and leaned over to look at it as well.

"I never realized that mum's uncle married a Black," one of the twins commented offhanded.

"But that doesn't make us blood related to the Blacks, does it?" Ron asked, looking as if this idea made him somewhat ill. If Sirius noticed, he didn't comment.

"Well your grandmother Cedrella, my mother, was a Black, you know," Arthur said with chuckle and a smile. "So, while you lot may not be related by blood to the Blacks from your mother's side, you certainly are from mine."

Harry noted that Ronald seemed to make a startled choking sound and looked at his dad with rather wide eyes. Did the moron honestly not know what family his grandmum was from?

"She was?" Sirius exclaimed, looking surprised as he turned his attention to Arthur.

"Oh yes. Cedrella Weasley was a Black. Of course, once she married my father, she was disowned for it. Her family didn't approve of him, much, obviously."

"Cedrella, Cedrella… yeah, I know the name, but I'm afraid I'm not exactly sure how I might be related to her."

"I believe that your… let's see, I guess he would be your Great-grandfather, Cygnus Black, was brothers with my grandfather, Arcturus. So it's not exactly a close relation," Arthur said with a chuckle and a shrug.

"Yes, well the Blacks were a rather large family. Married into a lot of different families; the Flints, the Bulstrodes, Crabbes, Longbottoms, Crouches..." he paused and chuckled, "Potters and Prewetts. Of course, I suppose I'm the last one to actually carry the name 'Black', now…" Sirius said.

"Ah yes, and young Dominick here is the last male to carry the name Prewett!" Arthur said. "It's a bit exciting really, isn't it dear?" he continued, turning to Mrs. Weasley.

"Oh, quite," she agreed with an enthusiastic nod. "I have to admit, the idea that the family name might live on is rather reassuring. I'm sure Aunt Tessie and Muriel are both thrilled. You're meeting with them in August, right?"

"That's right," Sirius confirmed with a nod.

"Wait…" Tom said, cutting in, "wasn't the former headmaster of Hogwarts, Pineas Nigellus Black, Arcturus and Cygnus' father?"

"Ah! Yes, that's right!" Arthur confirmed with a proud grin.

"You're great-grandfather was a headmaster of Hogwarts?" Tom said, just to clarify. Harry noticed that Ron's head shot up again and his eyes went slightly wide as if he hadn't actually known this bit of information either. That's one of the reasons he hated these bloody fools the most. No room left for proper respect for their heritage and history because they were too busy drooling over stupid little muggle gadgets.

He failed to refrain from rolling his eyes, and Ron seemed to notice because his gaze locked on Harry and he glared angrily for a moment before he shifted to a smug look of superiority.

"So my great-great-grandfather was a headmaster of Hogwarts?" Ron asked his father, while maintaining eye-contact with Harry and looking entirely too proud.

"Have you ever looked at the Black family tree?" Harry asked and Ron's smug expression shifted back to a scowl.

"No, why would I?"

Harry gave an exaggerated sigh. "I don't know, maybe because your grandmum was one – on wait, you didn't even realize that, did you? Well, if you had any idea about the Black family, you'd realize that every one of our lines descends from Phineas Nigelis. He's my great-great-grandfather, he's your great-great-grandfather, and he's Dominick's great-great-great-grandfather."

"Wait, you?" Ron exclaimed, and his voice cracked in the middle of 'you'. "You're related to the Blacks? I'm related to you?"

Harry grimaced slightly before rolling his eyes and muttering 'unfortunately', under his breath before saying "Distantly, related," aloud.

"Harry's grandmother, Dorea Potter, was born Dorea Black," Sirius explained.

"The Blacks really did get around, didn't they?" one of the twins said to his identical counterpart, with a smirk.

"That they did, dear brother. It's a regular family reunion of family we didn't even know we had!"

– –

The 'adults' eventually got to talking about old family relatives – mostly all deceased – and it became blatantly obvious that the kids were all bored out of their minds so it was suggested that the Weasley's enormous brood of children take Harry and Dominick out to to the yard. Neither Harry nor Tom actually liked this idea at all, but staying with Sirius and the elder Weasley's wasn't exactly much better so they reluctantly allowed themselves to be dragged out. Not that that actually led to anything productive because the only activity that Ron and the Twins could come up with was a game of pick-up quidditch and neither Harry nor 'Dominick' expressed any interest in such an activity. Instead they were given a tour around the property.

The afternoon passed exceedingly slow and it was excruciating to endure. Harry managed to carry on some light conversation of mild interest with the twins for a while and Tom was able to put up with Percy for a bit, but otherwise, both 'boys' were sick of the whole ordeal long before Sirius was finally ready to leave. Apparently he had gotten caught up in talks of 'the old days' memories of Gideon and Fabian Prewett, with Molly Weasley.

As such, it was a considerable relief when they finally left.

Two days later, Tom finally got a letter from McGonagall with word on when 'Dominick' was to come in for his test. More specifically, she instructed him to come in the following afternoon at 2pm.

For this visit, Harry had to stay behind. Sirius and Tom left an hour after they all had lunch and Harry went down to the basement to continue some of the investigations into the nature of the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Stone. It was just before six o'clock when Tom and Sirius returned. Remus called down to Harry to let him down that the others were back and he quickly finished up his current test, packed up his things and jogged up the stairs. Tom was standing in the foyer looking bored and mildly pleased with himself. Sirius was stretching and remarking something about being starved as he disappeared into the sitting room with Remus.

Harry turned his full attention on Tom. "So how'd it go?"

"Fine. I succeeded in restraining myself, while also sufficiently impressing her. I did nothing that a second-year wouldn't have been able to do –"

"A normal second year, or you when you were a second year?" Harry asked, smirking.

Tom seemed to contemplate the question for a moment. "I would say I performed around you-level from second year," he answered with a smirk.

Harry snorted and shook his head in amusement.

"She did have one curious request though."

"Oh?" Harry asked.

"She asked me for an example of my wandless skills."

Harry's gaze sharpened slightly and he frowned. "What did you do?"

"I told her that my ability to do it has reduced significantly since I started using my wand last year. I pretended to try and fail to summon a quill from her desk. She seemed sufficiently convinced."

Harry nodded his head. "Probably the best route to take."

"Yes, I thought so as well. It's not unheard of for magical children to gain some level of control of their magic without the aid of a wand during their youth, but retaining or improving upon any significant control –"

"Extremely rare," Harry finished.

"Correct," Tom nodded.

"Hell, the most even I ever managed was simple summoning, banishing, and things like unlocking doors. You were always a freak in your wandless control," Harry griped playfully.

"You had your necromantic powers to make up for it and none of them required a wand," Tom pointed out.

Harry just grinned widely and shrugged.

The two went into the library to wait until Dobby informed them all that dinner was ready.

"So when do you get the official word about whether or not they think you did good enough on your tests to go into second year?" Harry asked as they settled into a pair of armchairs.

"She said that she should have the tests graded in a week and I'll be receiving the results at the same time that she sends out the Hogwarts letters to everyone else. So I suppose I'll get the official word at the same time that you get your book list for next term."

"Cool."

– –

The rest of the summer passed quickly. Harry and Dominick's Hogwarts letters arrived precisely one week after Tom had to go in to take his tests and, of course, he was approved for second year. The following day they went with Remus and Sirius in to Diagon Alley to buy all their school supplies. Neither were particularly pleased when they ran into the Weasley clan while visiting Flourish and Blots for their books.

"Oh, no. It's you," a familiar and oh-so-unwanted voice sounded from behind where Harry and Dominick were standing by a bookshelf. Harry heaved an annoyed sigh and turned around to find Ron Weasley standing there, scowling at him.

"Hello Weasley," Harry said flatly.

"What are you doing here?" Ron said with a mockery of a sneer.

Harry just gave him a Look that seemed to say, without words, 'are you really that stupid?'

"Gosh, I don't know... perhaps we're here to buy books," Tom said in a sarcastic, patronizing tone.

"I know that," Ron spat back, as his face started to turn pink with embarrassment. "So I guess this means you got into Hogwarts?" Ron said, motioning towards 'The Standard Book of Spells; Grade Two' nestled in the crook of Tom's arm.

"Of course," Tom said, dismissively, looking bored and turning to face Harry, completely turning away from Ron.

"Harry?" another familiar voice came out from several feet away and Harry and Tom both turned in the direction of the new voice.

"Draco," Harry replied in surprise – although he realized he really shouldn't be surprised to run into so many classmates considering it was the day after the Hogwarts letters were sent out. The Alley had been rather filled with Hogwarts students all day.

"I wondered if I'd get to see you at all this summer," Draco said, as he came to stand by Harry and Tom, pointedly ignoring Weasley's presence entirely, and causing the red-head's face to darken with obvious irritation. "I asked father if I could invite you over to the manor for the summer, but he said it would have to wait until August, although I can't imagine why." Draco paused then and blinked at Tom for a moment before tipping his chin up rather pompously. "And who are you?"

"Draco, this is myfriend, Dominick Prewett. Dominick, this is Draco Malfoy," Harry introduced.

"Prewett? I didn't think there were anymore Prewetts," Draco replied, looking at 'Dominick' appraisingly.

"That's an interesting story, actually," Harry replied with a quirked grin and he and 'Dominick' then went into a description of Dominick hadn't known who his father was until just this very summer when he returned to Britain from living in Greece for the past two years. Draco's opinion of 'Dominick' appeared to take an instant dive when it was revealed that his mother was a muggle and he'd grown up in the muggle world. Harry quickly moved on to say that he and 'Dominick' had attended the same muggle primary school and Dom was his very best friend.

Draco had frowned and looked between the two with a mixture of confusion and curiosity. Whatever it was that was going on in his mind, he apparently came to the conclusion that Dominick deserved his respect because he never again sneered at him, nor did he act exceptionally snooty or stuck-up around him.

At some point during their talk, Ron Weasley had huffed off, clearly annoyed at being so blatantly ignored. He had gone off, most likely to the second-hand books section, while Harry, Draco, and 'Dominick' had slowly browsed around the store while they talked. They were in the middle of a discussion about the Hogwarts houses when some sort of disturbance from the front of the store caught their attention. Harry was already facing the correct direction so he saw what was happening first and his eyes went wide as his jaw dropped. Draco had to turn all the way around before he saw what was happening, but when he did finally face the proper direction, his shock was apparent on his face.

Lucius Malfoy seemed to be in the middle of a physical scuffle with Arthur Weasley. Rolling around on the floor like a couple of muggles! Harry looked over at Tom and, while he had expected to see something akin to disgust on Tom's face, he was surprised to find amusement there instead.

Tom actually snorted and smirked before rolling his eyes and turning away from the idiotic scene and using the distraction being presented at the moment to wandlessly summon a couple books from a high shelf that his frustratingly short body wasn't able to reach.

Sirius and Lupin managed to intervene and pull the two grown wizards apart and end the ridiculous spat. The two men exchanged a few more snarky words before Lucius bent down and picked up a pile of books that had been knocked out of Ginny Weasley's cauldron during the scuffle and unceremoniously tossed them back into the girls possession before turning and calling to Draco.

It was at that point that his eyes met with Harry's and he actually looked a bit abashed for a moment before quickly straightening himself, raising himself up proudly and vacating the store. Draco looked obviously annoyed and abandoned the books he'd collected on a shelf before walking back out of the store as proudly as he could manage.

"What the devil was that about?" Tom said quietly under his breath while looking back with mild amusement, at Arthur Weasley, who presently had a split lip and had Molly Weasley fussing over him with a handkerchief.

Harry snorted. "I have no idea."

– –

Harry's birthday was the following week and Harry was more than happy to celebrate turning twelve since it meant he was one year older and he was more than eager to get some good aging behind him. Tom had thought the whole thing was ridiculous and unnecessary, however that didn't stop him from getting Harry a present. Actually he'd gotten him two gifts, but one was just a decoy. His 'public' gift was a book on defensive charms appropriate for someone in their second or third year. His real gift was... a legitimate surprise. Tom had taken off for an afternoon at one point and even Harry hadn't known where he'd gone to. Apparently he had been retrieving Harry's birthday gift.

It was the Peverell ring. Tom's second horcrux. Harry had gasped and gaped at it in shock when he'd opened the box the evening of his birthday after Tom had dragged him to the privacy of 'Harry's' room and handed him the small box.

Harry had proceeded to ask Tom what had happened to it after his death (since Heri had been wearing it when Dumbledore had killed him), to which Tom had admitted that after Heri had been killed, Tom had removed the ring from his corpse and had hidden the horcrux somewhere appropriately protected. He would have buried Heri with the ring on his finger and set protections around the grave, however Heri had specifically requested his body be cremated. Being a Necromancer, he knew exactly what sort of things could be done with a corpse in the wrong hands and didn't want to leave his body behind for anyone, even if there were next to no chances of any such thing happening.

Harry had always been touched that Tom trusted him to wear one of his horcruxes on his finger, but for the first time, he was hesitant with the idea of wearing it proudly on his hand. It was entirely possible that Dumbledore could recognize the ring, or at the very least, he could possibly sense the very significant Dark magic in it. Horcruxes were protected against such things though. It was usually very difficult to tell there was anything iffy about it at all unless one was in constant physical contact with it. But one never knew when Dumbledore was involved.

Still, Harry figured he could decide what to do in regards to wearing the ring or not, when school started. Until then, he conjured a long, thin, silver chain, slipped the ring on to it and latched it around his neck, tucking the ring under his shirt. His finger was too small to wear it now, anyway.

Harry had insisted against any sort of big party for his birthday, but they had still gathered for lunch for Harry to open his presents and eat some cake. Sirius had gotten him a bag of joke products from Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, and Remus had given him a book on Light magic that he had apparently seen Harry eyeing the last time they were at the book store in Diagon Alley. Tom had looked at it dubiously, but Harry had been mildly enthused. Aside from his new found access to parsel magic, there weren't a lot of magical branches that interested him that he hadn't already spent decades delving into. Light magic was one of those branches that he'd never bothered to investigate in his previous life.

He'd also recieved simple presents, via owl post, from several of his classmates and his study-group members – sweets, and little toy products much like what he'd gotten during the Yule holidays – but from Draco and Theo he'd gotten considerably more elaborate gifts. They were both very high level and rather rare Dark Arts books that Harry assumed they had each nicked from their family libraries, since he doubted either could have gotten those particular books without their parent's explicit assistance, and Harry doubted Lucius would have bothered giving him the book Draco had sent him. He also highly doubted that Nott Sr. would have willing and knowingly handed over a rare Dark Arts book to the Boy-Who-Lived.

It did make Harry wonder what exactly had inspired the two boys to send him such books. While he had made no attempt to hide his Darker nature from the two Slytherins, and they were both aware of his advanced stage in his magical learning, but there was still no reason to believe that he could possibly be advanced enough for such... well advanced books.

He was glad that both packages had arrived the previous night with notes for him to not open them in front of anyone else because he would have had a lot of trouble explaining to Remus why his two Slytherin friends were sending him books that were so very, very, illegal.

August passed with very little of importance. Tom had his lunch with Muriel and Tessie Prewett and was told about what official titles the family still held the rights to claim, although none were currently occupied since there was no male head of the family. Tom was quite pleased to learn that he would be inheriting a seat in the Wizengamot upon the arrival of his seventeenth birthday.

The family vault was currently being used and managed jointly by Tessie and Muriel but they said they were willing to hand over controlling interest to him upon the date of his seventeenth birthday, or their deaths, which ever came first – although they were obviously assuming they'd still be living quite a bit longer. Tom didn't think he'd exactly need the money contained within it – although he certainly wouldn't hesitate to make use of it – but he was also curious to see what sort of old family artifacts could be inside it and made note to investigate it in several years. Until then, he would put it all behind him and avoid interacting with the two old witches as much as he could mange.

The only other incidence of note was when Sirius' cousin Andromeda, her husband Ted, and their daughter Nymphadora came over for dinner one evening. Sirius had invited Andromeda at that specific time, mostly because he had just finished the steps necessary to officially reinstate her to the Black family. She had been disowned after she married Ted because he was a muggleborn. But now Sirius was the head of the family and had the right to reinstate her and her family. So he did.

The most interesting thing about that evening had been the fact that Nymphadora – who was adamant that she not be referred to by her full name because she apparently hated it with a fiery passion – was actually a metamorphmagus. She spent the evening entertaining them by changing her hair color and facial features, and talking with Sirius about Auror training.

A few days before the end of August, Remus Floo'd to Hogwarts to start preparing for the new term and Harry and Tom enjoyed having the days free, where they didn't have to sneak around the house so much. Sirius walked in on them snogging in the library, the living room, and the kitchen before he finally burst slightly, informing them that 'just because I know, doesn't mean I want to see it' and then he had quickly left somewhat red in the face.

The snickering from the room he'd just vacated told him that they clearly hadn't taken his discomfort all that seriously.

Finally, September first arrived and the three Floo'd to London and then took a muggle cab to Kings Cross Station. Harry couldn't help but seriously question the logic behind making everyone spend an entire day in a train when most of the students could have just as easily Floo'd directly to Hogsmeade and just walked up to the bloody castle, but the Wizarding World had never been full of a lot of logical thinkers and Harry had to admit that there was some value in respecting tradition.

And thus, Harry and 'Dominick' boarded the bright red Hogwarts Express and bid Sirius goodbye from the window of the first compartment they found empty. As the train finally began to pull out of the station Harry turned to Tom and smiled.

"So, are you excited?" he asked while grinning.

"Excited?" Tom echoed in amusement.

"Yeah, sure. You're getting to go back to Hogwarts. Don't pretend you haven't wanted to go back there for ages."

Tom looked as if he were about to argue, but he stopped abruptly and looked as if he were truly contemplating Harry's question. A moment later he let out a very small chuckle and shrugged dismissively. "Perhaps I am excited."

Harry's grin grew wider. Tom was excited. And so was he.

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