(v) Green Grass And Black Star

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. All rights are reserved to JK Rowling and Warner Bros.

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Chapter 5

Green Grass And Black Star

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The weather was as unremarkable as it was every single other day in Helnear. Harry had taken to walking everyday around the village when faced with his newfound freedom under his liberal relatives.

It had already been 2 weeks since he had first arrived in this new strange world, and he was feeling nothing but euphoric. All the big stressors in his life had just been plucked straight out since arriving here after all. There was no Voldemort so he wasn't worried about losing his life at another yearly excursion. No Vernon and Dudley was very obviously a wonderful thing. His aunt being a witch also made him feel much more comforted and wanted in day-to-day life. Uncle Virtus was a delight whenever he was around the house– working in St. Mungos resulted in a very hectic lifestyle. He was also coming around the date when he would have to stop taking the nasty health potions.

So, all in all life was good for Harry.

Today was planned to be eventful for him with a visit to Diagon Alley along with a dinner at Grimmauld Place– the Black's ancestral home. He couldn't ask uncle or aunt about Sirius so he didn't know if he would be there or if he somehow ended up in Azkaban in this world too. They had, however, informed him that Lord Arcturus Black was going to attend the dinner so he should be at his best manners.

He hadn't even known that Lords existed in the magical world till they had told him, so he was pretty nervous.

It didn't matter now either way, he would face it when the time came like the Gryffindor he was. Plans tended to go awry most of the time when it came to him anyways. Right now though, he was focused on his 3rd year transfiguration textbook, revising the Draconifors spell to perform on a random pot he had found when rummaging through his belongings.

He often did that these days actually; the rummaging that is. The Harry of this world owned a lot of earthly possessions, a lot more than his school supplies, a map, and a cloak. It made him a bit jealous at first, he wondered what he had done to deserve all this– the possessions too, but primarily the loving family, who unconditionally showed him love, when he himself had to suffer through the hellish upbringing at the Dursleys.

The jealousy didn't stay that long though, when he realised that all of those things belonged to him now.

He looked at the miniature bronze dragon that he had almost instantly transfigured. It was slowly walking on his desk, bumping into objects. It didn't have any intelligence obviously, but it was still a feat to transfigure it, much of his class last year had a hard time performing the transfiguration, except Hermione that is. He didn't include himself because he most definitely wasn't trying that hard back then. Mostly because he didn't want to provoke Hermione's competitiveness and Ron's jealousy. He didn't have to do that any longer though…

He missed them still. If Hermione was here with him she probably would have soaked every bit of information about this world and have a list prepared about even the minute changes between them.

Ron would probably pass out from the panic.

He wasn't either of them so he hadn't done either of the things. Limited knowledge in his own world history and culture made it every bit harder to distinguish between the worlds so he had just focused on learning about this world. He was pretty good under pressure so he hadn't panicked much and accepted his reality as soon as he realised.

Speaking of friends, Malfoy was going to be at the Black's dinner along with his mother and father, apparently his mother was a Black. His foretold presence had increased his nervousness quite a bit. He was avoiding thinking about that whole ordeal the entire two weeks.

He had almost forgotten about it too, but then the unfortunate news was delivered by uncle Virtus.

A clank broke him out of his grievance. The dragon he had transfigured had knocked down the small candle holder on his desk. He quickly vanished away the miscreant and picked up the candle. In the process of picking up the holder he spotted a bit of parchment stuck behind the table that he had somehow missed during his rummaging and cleaning of the room. Tugging it and getting it unstuck, he proceeded to read the tiny amount of writing written on it in neat handwriting.

Draco,

Going to keep this short.

How are you? Is uncle Lucius still giving you trouble over the Carrow incident? If he is then just blame the whole thing on me. He wouldn't be able to get any more angrier with me than he already is. Also, Neville wanted to meet at Fortescue's; needed some help with his potions essay.

I will try to convince uncle to come visit you before that, so that you don't get into one of your another 'moods' over uncle Lucius' outbursts.

HP,

The letter itself was crumbled and ridden with mistakes, probably nothing more than a draft. The content of the letter didn't really help Harry with his situation. It only raised more questions than it gave him answers.

If the letter was to be believed, he, Malfoy, and Neville of all people were somehow good enough friends to meet over ice cream to discuss their potions essay. Plus he was apparently selfless enough to take the blame over some incident that he and Malfoy were involved in.

And uncle Lucius? That just gave him creeps.

The only fact that comforted him was that he was still friends with Neville. Although even that came with the caveat that this Neville even was like his Neville.

Oh well, nothing he could do about it.

In the meantime, he had had enough with practising 3rd year transfiguration for a day, so whilst he waited for aunt Petunia to get ready to go to Diagon, he pulled out a very peculiar wand that had taken much of his mind these past weeks.

The Horned Serpent wand was unlike any other wand he had seen since stepping into the magical world. He had obviously always known that wands to some extent were aware of other living beings, 'The wand chooses the wizard' had given that away very early on. But the level of apparent awareness that this particular wand showed was a wholly another thing.

The fact that it could directly communicate with him set it apart entirely from any other wand, even his main Basilisk core wand. He had wondered about what exactly set the Horned Serpent apart from a Basilisk that its core could actively hiss at him. He had researched extensively on both serpents and still failed to figure it out. As far as he could tell, both were creatures that were unheard of being found in the modern era, and both could be considered at the pinnacle of their respective continents.

It didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things for him though, and if he was being honest with himself, it was a good thing that at least his main wand didn't actively hiss at him, because that would make him as inconspicuous as they came.

He couldn't entirely discount the Horned Serpent wand though, as it was quite nifty in situations of the unfortunate type. Just in the first week it had saved him at least 10 times, 5 of those had involved stairs, so he was exponentially more in love with the wand already, even bordering his love for his Phoenix feather wand.

With a thud he put the books he was reading on the bookshelf, which he would have to sort again once he came back from Diagon.

Looking at himself once in the mirror, he walked downstairs, headed for aunt Petunia's room.

______

She saw him through the opaque window of Flourish and Blotts.

Actually, that was a lie, she didn't see him per se as much as she sensed him through the… countlessamountsoftrackingwardsshehadputon hisclothes.

Or as she liked to call it, 'their Bond'.

He was standing there, idling around a bookshelf, most probably reading the latest Charms Collaborative, if not that then the latest by Gilldory Lockhart. If she remembered correctly he would either go to the Leaky Cauldron afterwards to ask for some galleons from his aunt 'Tunia. If not that, then he would probably meet up with his mates at Fortescue's.

So, it wouldn't be light to say that she, the self-proclaimed Harry James Potter expert, was surprised that he instead went to The Magical Menagerie instead of the former two.

Naturally, as it was for Daphne, she followed.

She couldn't quite put her finger as to when she had started to develop the 'habit'. But it was probably around late 1st year or early second year, it was all muddled if she was being honest with herself. It started off innocent enough, her sister had a simple enough crush on him when she had met in one of Greengrass parties, and all of her friends, Tracy, Artemis, and even Draco, DRACO! were friends with him, to the point that they had started to spend less time with her.

So, one day she took to follow him carefully around whenever one of her friends went out with him.

It had started with jealousy, but ended in an unhealthy obsession, one which she couldn't shake off no matter what she tried.

The scary part was that it developed gradually so she had never stopped to think how far she was falling in the pit. It was only when she was at the bottom that she realised, and at that point she honestly didn't care enough to stop.

Fed enough with her self-loathing, she looked at her Harry, who was going deeper and deeper into the shite-filled owlery. She couldn't possibly imagine Harry owning a pet after what a disaster Jamie the Toad had been. He was too rash for it. But, it seemed like he wanted to take the gander again, possibly because Draco might've taunted him again with his worthless pet python.

She had wanted to kill that slithering worm with fuck all for brain the moment she had seen the thing bite Harry, but in the end couldn't because the thing she dreaded and hated the most since last 2 years had come knocking.

Summer Holidays.

The time when she was lost without any purpose so to speak. Sure, seeing her mum and dad was always a nice thing after so long, but its novelty died down very quickly, and all she could do was to wait for the dreadful 2 months to quickly end.

In between, to pass the time she would make do with some photographs she had occasionally managed to procure from Urie, a 4th year Slytherin with a knack for photography and disgustingly greedy pockets to fill with gold— which wasn't much of a problem for her.

Those along with her father's pensive – which she would get to use whenever he wasn't in the manor – were the only things that made it bearable to remain there.

.

.

.

She honestly didn't know what was wrong with her, Harry wasn't even remotely interested in her, and his personality was too brash and straightforward for her. Her obsession just didn't make any sense whatsoever.

But still, here she was snooping around a Merlindamned shite-filled petstore, following him.

Looking at him from the reptile section she observed that he was searching for a specific owl. Last she remembered he used the Potter family owl, Poras. Why was he searching for a new owl? If he wanted to flaunt on Draco - which she was sure he wanted to - then he should be searching for something more exotic.

Why was he searching for an owl?

His search continued for about 5 minutes more before he started moving towards her direction.

Seizing her opportunity, she walked towards him.

BAM!

——

BAM!

Dammit. Who had he crashed into now? As if the day couldn't go any more bad.

Harry wasn't having, well, the greatest of times if he was being honest with himself.

The trip to Diagon had started well enough. Aunt Petunia had after much insistence, agreed on letting him go alone in the Alley. Taking full advantage of the fact, he decided to first and foremost go to (bookstore) to browse the general magazines and journals, to figure out what was currently going on in the world.

It was both informative and surprising to say the least.

Gilderoy Lockhart was apparently still a big deal here, whether he was a phoney like in his own world or a real deal was yet to be confirmed. But seeing the trends of this world, it was more likely to be the latter.

Fed up with that he had decided to head to The Magical Menagerie in hopes of finding his oldest friend and partner, but unfortunately for him the snowy white owl either didn't exist or had been bought by someone else.

Out of everyone, he missed her the most probably. She was his only solace in the grim Dursleys household.

Now, he didn't know where she was.

"Harry? Are you fine? I'm— I'm sorry I wasn't looking where I was going." Said the person he had bumped into. She was a beautiful girl with light blonde hair much like Luna and violet eyes that shone brightly in the dimly lit interior of the petstore.

And apparently she already knew him.

"Y-Yes I'm fine, and it's alright, I wasn't looking as well, sorry about that, you aren't hurt right?"

After he had delivered his awkward bout of dialogue he observed something he was slowly growing accustomed to in this world. The girl's face went through a few emotions very quickly. The most apparent was confusion, but it didn't last long as it was promptly replaced with a… smile? He wasn't even sure if he could call it that, it was just her lips slightly curling upwards.

"Oh I'm absolutely fine! Was just browsing to see whether I like a pet or not. Sorry, I should have looked where I was looking."

"It's ok, you don't have to worry about it." He said with a smile. The girl was being quite polite, it would be quite shitty of him to not be the same.

The fact that she was pretty didn't matter at all, of course.

This time a genuine smile graced her lips, "I'll take your word for it. How is aunt Petunia by the way? She is not with you today? Mum was asking about her, actually."

Ok, so apparently she was a family friend too. Things were getting a bit too complicated and one sided as the conversation went on. He would have to interject with his whole 'losing memories' bit soon.

He didn't even know the girl's name for Merlin's sake.

"Well aunt Petunia is in the Leaky Cauldron right now, I convinced her to stay back today, I wanted to explore myself. But that all aside, I need to tell you something before we go further into this conversation."

"Yes? Go on…" she said, adorned with a curious expression.

"To put it well, bluntly, I don't know– or rather remember who you are, actually. And no, this is not any sort of prank, you can ask Aunt Petunia too, she would tell you the same."

It took a solid 32 seconds before she spoke.

He would know, he counted.

"That… is terrible," she remorsed, although he could swear he had seen a fleeting smile on her face, but had quickly dismissed it. She had been polite so far, surely she would not be happy with his 'technically true' ailing, "How… When did this happen?"

It was a bit unusual that she believed him so quickly, but it was quite convenient for him so he didn't press further, "About 2, almost three weeks ago now, I suppose. As far as I've been told I was involved in a spell incident, the outcome of which left me like this."

"So you don't remember me at all? Absolutely nothing?"

"Yes, sorry. It's the same for everybody at Hogwarts, I didn't even recognise uncle Virtus at first, so that can tell you the severity of it. I gather we knew each other before?"

She took a moment before speaking again, "Yes, we were… quite close. I'm Daphne Greengrass, I'm in the same year as you, in Slytherin. We've been friends since the first year, actually. My mum and your aunt are also quite close, them both being in St Mungo's and all." She stared at him… intensely, after she finished speaking. It took Harry a moment to think up a reply.

"Oh." He said eloquently.

Suddenly she smiled, "Well, we should get acquainted again! Then, a fresh start…" she spoke fondly, "Do you want to go to Fortescue's? it's where we usually hung out before, or do you want to continue browsing for a pet? I am staying with you either way."

She then did something very unexpected, she grabbed his hand.

It took everything in his power to not recoil.

"Uh- um, no, we can go to Fortescue's, I'm not really interested in any pets here."

"Brilliant! Let's go!" she shouted before dragging him out of the dark dirty shop.

—

Things were going… swimmingly for her, a bit too swimmingly from her experience.

Harry losing his memory was the last thing she would've imagined happening over the summer break, but knowing that it did happen made the hellish summer a bit more worth it this time.

She had spent almost 2 hours just talking with him and just letting him know how much she cared about him… also filling his mind with as much propaganda about Draco and his pack of arses as she possibly could, she didn't want him getting close to those shitheads again now did she?

The greatest thing had been the fact that Harry had been much agreeable to whatever subtle insults and gestures she threw on Draco.

She was just falling for him even more and more, it was almost like the memory loss had moulded him to be hers.

He was also quite shy… actually no, he was just considerably gentler than his rasher and louder past self, he was a much better listener and plus she had even caught a slight blush on his ears at multiple points during their date, it was just the most perfect and beautiful thing.

And yes, date, because calling it anything other than that would be foolish. The aftermath of the said date had her feeling possibly better than she had ever since the last 2 years.

Should just talking to a person, one who possibly just didn't care about her have an effect like this one her?

Probably not, but then again, when did she ever claim to have it all together nicely in her head?

—

He was late.

When he had agreed to the small outing with Daphne at Fortescue's he hadn't expected it to drag as much as it had. He had enjoyed it at the very least, Daphne was quite pleasant to converse with if he was being honest with himself, way more agreeing with him than any of his past friends too. They had talked about anything and everything that came to her mind when he had asked her to explain how he was before the 'memory loss'.

The end conclusion of the conversation portrayed him to be a loud, wands-first talk-later kind of guy who was almost too much of a gryffindor for even gryffindors. He couldn't say that he liked the picture that painted.

Draco had been this Harry's friend way before they even got into Hogwarts, and apparently even the house divide hadn't separated the two biggest troublemakers of Hogwarts— all according to Daphne of course, whose information he was taking as facts for now, albeit with a grain of salt. He had some doubts about her too, believing him as soon as he told her about his 'memory loss' situation said two things, either she was too gullible, or she was… pretending for whatever reason. Both were not very great scenarios.

For now though, it didn't matter, he would be careful around her but the dreaded Black dinner had once again taken forefront of his mind. He was not looking very much forward to that. Plus all the Lord stuff was seriously putting him in waters unknown to him. He could only hope that he didn't offend someone or other because of his plebeian manners.

"Harry! Finally done dear? What took you so long? I was almost on my way to search for you with Conor here, You didn't forget anything right?" aunt Petunia said. She was sitting with an unfamiliar man– middle-aged, not much older than aunt Petunia herself. He wore a long dark-brown trench coat over an overly complex and fancy suit.

"Sorry, aunt Petunia. I actually got my stuff about an hour ago. But then I met Daphne–"

"You met Daphne? Did you remember anything about her?"

"No.. unfortunately. But we talked a bit and when I explained my situation to her she insisted we talk more so we went to Fortescue's for a while, that's the reason I'm late, actually."

"That's so nice of her. She's a sweet girl, always a joy whenever Tulia brought her on her visits. Be nice to her ok?"

Harry gave her a nod in response. Maybe he could trust Daphne after all. She was in Slytherin though, which - despite not having as much prejudice as Ron - still made it a bit too naive to think that she didn't have an ulterior motive.

'Only time would tell', he mused.

"Oh I forgot to introduce him, you must not remember him either. Conor here is a big-name auror who also happened to be a friend of mine from my Hogwarts days."

"Greetings there lad, heard you had a nasty accident from 'Tunia here. What'd you say? The Malfoys were involved? Isn't that much surprising that, I always told you and Virtus to take caution with how much you lot were mingling, that Lucius fella is involved in more embezzlements and scandals than the former minister himself, and you know how clean that man was."

Aunt Petunia gave Conor a light shove and said, "Oh shut it Conor, Draco is as distant from his father as he can be. And for your knowledge we rarely ever met with that man, it was just Narcissa and Draco."

"Oh I'm sure, forget I said anything then." Conor said giving her a side eye before looking straight at Harry again, "Now lad, if you ever need any help in the DMLE, I'm just an owl away, Petunia here have saved my life more times than I could count so got to repay the debt eh?"

Aunt Petunia gave a chuckle on the comment before gesturing Harry to answer, "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind." He gave him a stiff smile which was returned by the same from Conor.

"Well 'Tunia, it's been lovely to catch up but I should probably get back to my patrol, tell Virtus that I said hello." with that the man left the aunt-nephew duo to their own devices.

"That man never changes, even during Hogwarts he was the same sleazy two-faced scoundrel who loved nothing more than to fight," aunt Petunia remarked with fondness in her voice despite the contrarian words, "But despite all that he is a good man."

"He seems like an interesting guy, did I know him before?"

"No, not necessarily, he was at the odd house party whenever he was free, he is quite a busy man Harry, he might seem not much, but he duelled against Harfang Longbottom himself, although some say that Harfang wasn't in his prime so it was 'easy' somehow, I would love to see them try, they would would be a demiguise when actually faced with such a foe like him."

"Harfang Longbottom?"

"You are confused as to why Conor, an auror would duel against a Longbottom, is that right dear?"

"Well yes, Longbottoms are quite upstanding as far as I can remember, what did this Harfang do?"

"Every family every once in a while has what you would call a 'bad egg' to put it mildly. Harfang Longbottom was a close friend of your grandfather actually, they both were quite a pair in the Wizengamot, representing a unified progressive-conservative front. But then…. He betrayed him for someone despicable," she looked around at the crowded tavern, "This really isn't an appropriate place to talk about this topic, I'll tell you more at home, ok dear? Just remind me."

He absently nodded and made a note of definitely asking her about it later. A Longbottom being considered 'bad' was really quite a new concept, Neville was as docile and harmless as they came, although he had heard that his grandmother was ruthless in the political scene so maybe it wasn't surprising, maybe Harfang had existed in his own world too, he was just ignorant of him as with most things.

No way to know now though.

After that conversation aunt Petunia and he had quickly went back home to Helnear via the floo and uncle Virtus had arrived shortly after from St Mungo's, he had taken an early leave to prepare for the evening. Being invited by the Lord Black was a special occurrence no matter what faction you belonged to, and although apparently Harry himself was considered family, his uncle and aunt weren't. So they had to abide by a certain decorum. He could so as much go in casual robes and nobody would be able to say otherwise, but if his uncle and aunt didn't dress properly for the occasion it would apparently seem offensive to the host.

All of that boiled down to two facts: He could dress however he liked and his aunt and uncle couldn't.

That didn't stop aunt Petunia from dressing him to look almost like a spoiled little pureblood child, aka Draco Malfoy.

—

Grimmauld Place was… grimm and old he supposed. The wizarding world, he had noticed, had a strangely ironic sense of naming, 'Diagon Alley' was either named by a genius or an absolute lazy arse, anyways the name was golden. The place didn't particularly emit any sort of warmth, it was strangely cold and dank and the lighting was dim all around the house. The only place with any sense of acceptable light was the dining room which was currently off limits as not all guests had arrived.

They had arrived a bit too early on the insistence of uncle Virtus as he had wanted to introduce him and his arduous situation to Lord Black, hence why he was currently in the room that was apparently reserved for him whenever he visited. It was about as big as his room in the Reson household and quite a bit more than his 'room' at the Dursleys. There wasn't much natural lighting and the entire room was lit up by dimly lit lanterns. The walls were entirely clean of any decorations and all that was visible was the dark venomous green.

It was… not something he would ever imagine himself or the Harry of this world enjoying living in. So, it was probably a matter of fact that the original Harry rarely visited Grimmauld.

To be fair he would've done the same.

Wood creaking brought his attention to the door, and a second later two men entered the room. The first was uncle Virtus, but the second man was the one who made him stand up instantaneously. Maybe it was the mannerisms his aunt had drilled onto him before coming here. But if he was being honest it was just the aura that the man exuded that actually made him stand up.

Arcturus Black, the current Lord Black was an old man, maybe as old if not older than Gellert or Dumbledore. He walked around with a cane that, unlike Malfoy's father, actually seemed like it was used by the man. His face was gaunt and wrinkled and his posture a bit bent, but his presence was anything but weak or old. His clothing was extravagant and expensive, befitting any pureblood lord he would gander. Although he had only ever seen one so maybe his opinion was flawed.

A glance at him sent shivers down Harry's spine and he appropriately bowed a bit and greeted the man.

"Good evening, grandfather."

Arcturus looked at him apprehensively and after a few seconds grabbed his right shoulder, "Evening child. I gather you are comfortable in your room? Kreacher cleans the room every so often so it should be relatively clean."

"Yeah, It's-it's good… clean." He replied lamely. 'Way to go Harry!'.

"So I have heard from Virtus that you were involved in an accident… Do you recall anything about me?" Arcturus asked.

Harry just shook his head in negative in response. Much like Virtus or Gellert, Arcturus was absent from his world so he knew nothing at all about the man.

Arcturus gave a blank face in response, "That's… unfortunate, but we shall work on that after the dinner. I assume Virtus has taught you what is expected of you? I will nevertheless inform all those who would be present of your situation, you are still expected to act cordially. Is that understood?"

"Absolutely grandfather."

"Good. Let us make our way to the dining, no need to keep everyone waiting."

With that all three of them climbed down the stairs to the dining with Harry minding each of his steps. Maybe he had developed a phobia of stairs, what would that even be called?

Oh Merlin Hogwarts was going to be a nightmare.