CH 24

My agents would come to me in my space in the library, which everyone knew I had basically claimed as my own, with information on what the assignment was supposed to be about, and the fee charged. I'd complete the assignment in the kid's name and the agent would take it back to the student. For their services as go-between I paid the agent a ten percent commission.

"The agents had two mandatory rules: Don't tell anyone my identity, and never try to rip me off. I used to use others to test the honesty of the agents. It took me only having to sack two of them for the others to know I found out who was ripping me off pretty quickly. During the whole time I was doing that, only two of my agents were ever busted by the teachers, and neither of them ratted me out. And none of the teachers ever figured out I was the one doing the assignments.

"It was the money I raised doing that for the last couple years of my muggle schooling that I used to buy school supplies for myself and, ultimately, used to get myself on public transport from my relatives' house to The Leaky Cauldron on that first day."

By the time Harry finished his short tale of questionable legal acts in heading his own minor crime syndicate, Cygnus was roaring with laughter.

"Harry James Potter!" he crowed. "Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter; Secretly Head of a Petty Criminal Organisation!" And started roaring with laughter again. "Well, I wasn't actually doing anything illegal," Harry said a bit sheepishly. "What I would do was always write using a yellow legal pad for the paper and in green ink. Each page was also stamped with the notation 'Sample Only' top and bottom. If it ever did end up getting back to me I knew I could always claim I was only writing a sample assignment for the student. How was I to know they'd rewrite it in their own hand on their own paper and submit it under their own name? I could have even claimed the student plagiarised me. Besides, who could ever really believe that a third or fourth grade student was writing top line assignments for a sixth grade student? Especially one who, through his own grades, was a pretty poor student.

Cygnus was still laughing. He even had tears in his eyes. "Are you - are you sure you're not bound for Slytherin?" he chuckle asked.

"Nah!" replied a grinning Harry. "Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. Then I'll work at secretly taking over the school hidden within the House of the Ravens or Badgers using cunning and guile. No one will ever suspect me. Mwa ha ha."

That just set Cygnus off again.

After dinner, Tracey headed for home while Astoria and Daphne headed upstairs to their rooms. Before he got a chance to leave, Isabel asked him to remain at the table for a few minutes.

Cygnus, not know what was going on, looked at his wife with a curious expression.

Isabel sat next to Harry and said, "Harry, I know you don't want to go over all that information you provided the girls and I this afternoon, but I think Cygnus needs to hear it for himself."

Harry just nodded back with a bit if a sheepish expression.

"Have you ever heard of a pensieve, Harry?" she asked.

Frowning, Harry replied, "No, sorry; what's a pensieve?"

"A pensieve is a magical device that allows a person to share their memories with another. They can do everything from giving the person a full, immersive experience of the memory, to just displaying the memory like a ghostly form above the surface of the pensieve," she explained.

"Okay," said Harry. "I guess I can understand what you mean." "Good," she said. "Because, what I want to do is show Cygnus my memories of what you told us this afternoon in our family pensieve. Would it be okay with you if I did that?"

"Yeah, that'd be alright," said Harry. "I guess it would save me from having to tell it all again, I suppose."

"Yes; my thoughts, exactly," she said.

"I - don't have to be here for it, do I?" he asked.

"No," she replied. "I just thought it would be polite to ask you for your permission for me to do so first. After all, it's your information to share."

"Thank you," said Harry. "In that case, I don't have a problem with it."

Getting up from the table, he said, "While you're doing that I need to meditate for a while. I'll be in the guest room if you need me."

Nodding, she said, "Thank you, Harry; and good night."

"Good night, Harry," said Cygnus.

"Good night!" Harry called back over his shoulder as he walked out.

Turning back to look at his wife, Cygnus asked, "So, in the study?"

Rising back up from her chair, Isabel said, "In the study." And led her husband from the room.

After the pensieve was brought out from it's custom-made draw in the study bookcases, Cygnus placed it carefully on the corner of his desk.

Isabel touched her wand tip to her temple, frowned a bit, and slowly drew the tip away from where it touched her skin. As she did so, a gossamer-like glowing mass of something resembling partway between cotton wool and string came with it.

She gently transferred it into the liquid kept within the birdbath-shaped stone pensieve and indicated to her husband to join her.

Together, they dropped into the pensieve to watch the memory Isabel had just transferred there.

When they came back out some time later, Cygnus walked around and plonked himself onto his office chair. Frowning, he asked, "He's slowly opening up to us about his life with his relatives, isn't he?"

Nodding, Isabel replied, "Yes. But he's going to need to do it at his own pace. I don't think he consciously thought to reveal as much to us as he did this afternoon. And I think he only said what he said to put Daphne more at ease." "Those were my thoughts as well," said Cygnus. Leaning forward again, he said, "And speaking about what he reveals, I think I should show you the memory of what we discussed in here after you ladies left that little ring ceremony he performed."

"You're not worried he'd be upset you're sharing it with me?" she asked.

"No, I doubt much gets past our young Mister Potter," he replied. "I daresay he expects me to share it with you."

Then Cygnus used his own wand to extract a memory and allowed it to drop into the bowl of the pensieve. Once it was in, they both dropped their faces in after it.

While the Greengrass parents were downstairs in the study using the pensieve, Harry was in his room getting ready for bed and to meditate. He first checked to ensure Hedwig was comfortable on her perch, and that the window was a little open for her to leave during the night and hunt. He made sure she had owl treats and replaced her water. And checked to see if she was suffering any from her new harness.

When he was satisfied he returned to his trunk and brought out his pyjamas, laying them on the bed. And headed into the bathroom to brush his teeth for the night.

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