Chapter 23 Relieving Boredom

April 1, 1995

"I'm bored," Harry said as he dished up some eggs and toast.

"How can you possibly be bored?" Neville exclaimed, almost choking on his toast.

"Yeah, you're in a life threatening situation," Jordan was just as flabbergasted.

"There's no football, no Quidditch, nothing to keep my mind off things. All we do is train, train and more training. I'm sick of it," the youngest champion defended himself.

"Oh, you won't be bored today," Luna said as she calmly drank her tea.

"Really, why not," Harry said, perking up at those words.

"It is the Weasley twins' birthday," she said airily.

Harry laughed at that. The Weasley twins were pranksters of the highest caliber. Even Sirius was impressed with them. So he sat and waited to see what the two would do.

The Great Hall was full and everyone was minding their own business when out of nowhere came the flashes of fireworks over the Staff Table. Words started to form and they said:

The Marauders Have Returned.

This confused Harry, because he knew Remus was still in the US and only Sirius was in the Great Hall. He turned his head to his godfather and watched as all professors and Heads, including guests, turned into animals.

The SMI adults and Sirius were canaries, the Hogwarts' staff was changed into owls and the Beauxbatons' Headmistress was the largest chicken Harry had ever seen. Karkaroff was the only one not turned into a bird; no, he was now a cat and seemed to be eyeballing the birds at the table. Everyone not turned into an animal started laughing and some fell off their benches. Harry chuckled along with them, still confused about the words. He'd talk to Sirius afterwards.

The prank only lasted a minute, but it was really clever. Snape jumped to his feet and tried to lunge at Sirius, only to be held back by Hagrid, who was laughing with everyone else. That dour man was the only one not enjoying the joke. When he found he would not be able to retaliate, he stormed out of the room.

The words now lighting above the table were saying:

April Fool's

This caused many people to glance warily at the twins, whose birthday it was, as everyone was reminded yearly. Now they had to wonder if it was them or the actual Marauders. Either way the Hogwarts' students would be keeping a sharp eye out this day.

Harry and Neville remembered the jackets they had received for their birthday that turned them into polar bears. Jordan had brought his as well, so they went to the boat and retrieved them. Chuckling and ribbing one another, they donned the jackets and ran around the grounds. Of course, they let the bodyguards know so they would be protected from people who truly believed they were dangerous animals.

The three bears let out a roar and charged one another, causing some chaos in their wake. It took a lot of talking from the bodyguards and Mr. Scott to let the teachers and students know that it was just the boys. The three 'bears' came up to McGonagall and sniffed her hand, showing they were in complete control. They then turned and started wrestling on the ground. Mr. Scott had to explain that it was much like being an Animagus.

Many of the students, after being told it was a prank, especially the Weasley twins, wanted one of those coats for themselves. The bodyguards told them they could purchase them, via mail order, either by non-magically or owl, in the US. It was a fun time had by all as many people watched the 'bears' wrestle with each other all over the grounds.

When Harry and the boys returned to their normal selves, they decided to ask Sirius what was up. They looked for him on the grounds, but didn't see him anywhere. Coming to the conclusion that he had gone home, they, Isaac and Luna Jumped to the cottage and knocked on the door.

Sirius answered the door, for once looking completely unruffled. "So, what has you guys knocking on my door on this April Fools' Day? Aren't you scared of the great Padfoot?" he asked as he weaved his hands in front of their faces, like he was casting a spell.

"Yeah, right, remember the last time you tried to have a war with us?" Harry scoffed and shouldered his way past his godfather.

"Yeah, but now I can do the same magic as you," Sirius said as he changed the boy's streaks from blue and silver to green and yellow with a wave of his hand, causing the other teens to snicker.

"I still have years more experience in that type of magic than you do," the now green and yellow-haired boy said, waving his own hand and turning his dogfather purple and pink polka dotted.

"Hey, now, that's uncalled for," Sirius said with laughter in his voice. They both smirked and undid their spells.

"So what is with the words over the Staff Table this morning?" Neville asked, before these two got any further in their pranks.

"I caught the twins trying to come up with how they were going to pull off their greatest prank, so I offered to give them a few pointers. The words were to throw off Snape. Now he'll think I did it and the twins won't get the blame. Did you see his expression when he stormed out?" Sirius asked, bending over in laughter. He really hated that slimy git and would do anything to piss him off. That and it was a good joke.

"That's pretty clever. How did you think of it? Did the twins help?" Harry said with a smile to take the bite out of his words.

"Prat," the dogman said, swatting at the young man's head.

"Hey, now, no calling me British names, asshole," the teen said as he ducked.

"Where is Aunt Gilly?" Neville asked, once more interrupting the two.

"She had to go to Gringotts again," Sirius said mysteriously with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Oh, you're not going to tell us are you?" Neville asked, not really worried, just curious.

"Nope, it's a surprise," the dark-haired man said as he settled further into his seat. He loved that his fiancé was sneaky and the boys were going to love what she was doing. She always had Harry's and Neville's best interest at heart.

"Harry is bored," Luna said out of the blue as she fingered her necklace. She hadn't taken it off once since she received. She found it funny that Sirius tried to have 'The Talk' with the boys, only to find out that Gilly and the aunts had that discussion with them years ago. Gilly asked Sirius if he wanted to have 'The Talk' with Luna, but the man quickly declined. So the older woman took the teen girl aside and found out what she knew, which wasn't much. Gilly sat her down and made sure to tell her everything. Luna smiled at the memory and then shook herself from those thoughts and brought her attention back to the males in the room.

"How can you be bored?" Sirius asked, echoing Neville's previous exclamation.

"I just am," the tri-colored hair boy answered. He slumped in his seat and picked at a thread on his jeans. "I mean, there is nothing to do here. It's boring just training all the time. I miss the States." Everyone, but Luna sighed, they too were homesick.

"I know," Jordan jumped in loudly, causing everyone to start. "Sirius can teach us how to be an Animagus." He internally patted himself on the back for that one.

"That's not a bad idea, should we include all of the SMI students?" Sirius said seriously, rubbing his chin in thought. "I wonder why we haven't done it before. I mean, we had loads of time in New Salem."

"We were too busy with school, and you were flirting with Aunt Gilly," Harry offered.

"Nay, that's not it. I think it was just something that never came up," Neville stated as he too racked his brain as to why they never thought of it before.

"Well, I could have thought about it, but really you should be about this age to try. We, James, Peter and I, were too young went we started and we got into a lot of predicaments that we had to lie our way out of," was Sirius' conclusion. "Anyway, let's do this."

"Yeah, let's go tell Mr. Scott. He can round up the others," Harry said as he jumped from his chair and then Jumped to the shore and then the boat. The rest of the group followed. When everyone joined him, the youngest male teen went to the Vice Principal's office and knocked on the door. They waited until bid enter and then all trooped in, letting Luna take one of the chairs and the males remained standing. "Sirius wants to teach us to be Animagi," Harry explained why they were there. "I thought he could do the whole team."

"That is a wonderful idea, everyone is starting to get bored with no extracurricular activities," Mr. Scott said, putting aside his paperwork. "Let's set up a time to get started," he said, turning to Sirius, since it would be on the man's own time. So they hammered out a nightly schedule, making sure to add a warning to all the students that not everyone would have an animal. The SMI students that would be able to transform would have it easy, since mind arts were part of the teaching of the school. The class would not be mandatory, but it should be fun with Sirius teaching.

April 7, 1995

It was about a week later around six at night and the whole SMI team was in the magic room. Gilly, Sirius and Mr. Scott were pacing in front of the students. The agents were standing by the door.

"Okay, you lot, remember you might not get a form. Who has tried to become an Animagus already?" Sirius asked, looking over the eager faces.

The two oldest, Cathy and Scott, raised their hands, looking disappointed, since they didn't find anything in their meditations. They weren't as hopeful as the younger kids in the class, but they wanted to try again, just in case.

"Don't worry you might not have been looking in the correct place. Now my mates and I finally got it right in our fourth year, but we cheated. There's a potion you can take, it's relatively harmless and it'll tell you if you have an animal. It took us ages to find it, we had to…" he trailed off when Mr. Scott cleared his throat. "Right, well, who wants to give it a go?" the dogman asked with a wicked grin, waving to the table that housed said potions. There was enough for everyone in the room, he and Gilly stayed up the last week brewing them.

Everyone raised their hands and soon enough the potion was handed out. Sirius quirked his eyebrow to Gilly and Mr. Scott, Gilly nodded her head while Mr. Scott declined. So he handed a potion to his fiancé and she giggled with glee and went to sit by Harry. Sirius then turned his attention to the agents, who looked back at him and smirked. They were already trained as Animagi, though only Isaac had a form, so they just shook their heads and waved him back to the class.

"Everyone, sit down and get comfortable. It might take a minute to work and it will make you dozy," Sirius warned as he settled on the wall to watch.

Everyone complied and were now scattered around the room on conjured pillows or mats. When Sirius nodded his head they all took the potion and were soon either in a trance or asleep, those asleep didn't have an animal.

Harry, Gilly and Luna were in a trance, while Jordan and Neville were asleep. There were three other students in a trance; everyone else fell over on their pillows or mats into the hands of Morpheus. They would be glad they conjured them when they woke, for the potion knocked them dead out and they hit those cushions hard.

Harry was in a white space there was nothing to be seen, just white. It felt like there was a floor under him so he settled down and waited. Soon there was a vague shape coming towards him, it was smallish and furry, not as big as the lion he was hoping for. God, I hope I'm not a rat, oh, wait, it wasn't that small. The closer it got the more defined it became, when it was near enough, he saw that it was a wolverine, one of the fiercest animals the animal kingdom, well for its size.

This was going to be great. He could use this as well. The third task was just made simpler. He might have to ask Jim a few questions, but even if what he was thinking didn't pan out, being an animal this size would still be beneficial. He waited until the creature came nearer and then held out his hand to see if it would accept him.

The wolverine crept closer and was soon snuggling with the young teen, which is very out of character for such a solitary animal. They shared a few minutes of closeness then the whiteness started to darken, and he knew he would be coming out of it soon. He gave his new form a final pet and sent it back to the whiteness. His eyes began to become clearer and the magic room came into focus.

"Well, it looks like the six of you have an animal. Let's wake everyone else up," Sirius suggested, knowing there were going to be some disappointed people. Gilly, Harry, Luna, Cathy, Steven and Nicole woke everyone else up. "Those of you that fell asleep don't have an animal, sorry. You can stay here and watch the rest, or you can go and do what you normally do," he offered apologetically, hoping they wouldn't be too dissatisfied.

There were groans of disappointment and a few flickers of jealousy that faded quickly as those that did have a form gave their apologies, not that they had anything to feel sorry for, but they were just as disappointed as the rest. Most of them stayed to see how it was done or to encourage their classmates.

"Alright, you six, tell me what you saw," Sirius said as he settled on a conjured pillow. "Gilly-bean?" he asked as she sat next to him, all but bouncing across the floor.

"I am a hummingbird," Gilly said with a huge smile. She felt that it was a good bird for her, fast and small. The things she could do and see as a bird were running through her mind. The aunts and Sally will be amazed, she'd have to get Sirius to email Sally with the recipe for the potion to see if her or the girls could transform. The aunts may not want to, but Gilly would make sure they got the opportunity to try.

"Luna, sweetie?" he directed to the youngest in the room, who was looking rather dazed.

"I'm not sure what I was," the confused blonde said, her face scrunched in thought as she tried to understand what she saw. Having been brought up a pure-blood, she had little understanding of non-magical creatures, though from what she witnessed in her vision this one might be magical.

"Describe it," Neville said, putting his arm around her shoulders, "and we might be able to figure it out."

"Well, it was extremely bizarre; it had brown fur, a duck's bill, a long flat tail and furry webbed feet. It was sitting on a nest of eggs," she said airily, still confused, though mostly happy that she got a creature that was different than anything she had ever seen.

The SMI boys laughed and then sobered at her affronted look. "We're not laughing at you, little Luna. We think it's great that you have one of Mother Nature's most mysterious animals as your form," her boyfriend said quickly, not wanting her to think they were teasing her. It was just that it was so Luna to have that animal.

"What is it?" she tilted her head to the side, making her ever present radish earrings sway.

"It's the Duck-Billed Platypus," said Cathy in a very serious tone, glaring at the boys for laughing. "It's found in Australia. No one knows how it came about, but it is one of the only egg laying mammals there is. I think there's only five species of monotremes, which is what they are called. The remaining four belong to the echidna family, I think they are called the spiny anteaters, but I'm not really sure. All I know is that those five animals have baffled scientist for ages." She was thinking along the line of the rest of them that this was the perfect animal for their little seer.

"See? It's perfect for you," Neville said, giving her a hug.

"Cathy?" Sirius brought them back to the subject.

"I'm a meerkat," she said, proud of the fact that she had such a family oriented animal.

"Nicole?" Sirius asked, indicating the younger girl.

"I am a horse, a quarter-horse to be exact," she said smugly. She always like horses and felt it was a good form for her. Her family had a few at the homestead. They didn't raise them or anything like that, no, they just liked to ride.

"Steven?" Mr. Scott asked, anxious to get everyone started.

"I'm a bear, a brown bear. I'm kinda disappointed in that, I wanted to be a lion," the boy said with a shake of his head. He always thought that he would be king of the beast, so, yeah; he was a bit put out on the bear. It wasn't even a grizzly.

"You do have a choice as to whether or not you want to continue. No one is forcing you," the Vice Principal said gently, not wanting any of the students to think they were being pushed into something they didn't want to do.

"No, it's still cool to have a form, I'm sure I'll get used to it," Steven said quickly with wild gestures of his hands, not wanting to give up transforming.

Sirius patted him on the back for reassurance. "James didn't like his form at first, but he came around. It was very useful for what we needed him for," the dogman hedged, making those not in the know look at him questioningly.

"Harry?" Gilly asked, taking the attention off her fiancée.

"I'm a wolverine. And I like it," he stated firmly as if daring them to laugh. He remembered his study on them; wolverines were solitary animals and have a reputation for ferocity and strength out of proportion to its size, with the documented ability to take on prey many times larger than itself and win. While he wasn't solitary the rest fit.

"Wow, that's one tough animal," Jordan commented. It was one of his favorite mammals to study.

"Now that we know what you are, we're going to try and change one part at a time," instructed Sirius and continued from there, attempting to get them to change their right hand into its Animagus form.

"Also, when you do get the transformation down, you have to register with the US government, not here in England, but, yes, back home. We," Claire stated as she pointed to Isaac and back to herself, "can get you registered. Don't worry though, the Brits won't know a thing, even Sirius here had to get registered when he came to the States."

Sirius smirked at that. The Ministry still didn't know he was an Animagus, and they never will if he had his say. However if they ever did, he had his registration cards for both the MUN and the ICW.

Harry and his aunt sighed over the fact they couldn't keep it a secret then settled down to get started. They practiced for about an hour with only fur or feathers showing, but it was a good start. Sirius peppered them with stories on all the mishaps that he and the Marauders had when they were doing it on their own. Making everyone laugh and perk up that it wasn't going to be an easy process, but could be done. Soon enough they were too tired to carry on and everyone trooped to the living area and had a bit of lemon cake for a treat at a job well done. Then it was time for bed.

It was almost two months before the final task and even with the nightly sessions on Animagus training the weekends were still boring for the youngest champion. He missed his aunts and his home. Others on the boat felt the same way. Mirrors and computers were used daily to keep in contact with family. The only break in the monotony was the tours and even they were starting to get repetitive.

As the weather warmed, the hover-boards were also put into use and they started playing tag with the giant squid. It was more than happy to comply. The young merpeople also tagged along and were soon in the game, riding the waves the board left behind. The kids didn't do it often, because it was still a bit cold to play in the water for very long.

Harry's friends and family tried to keep his spirits up, but to little avail, he was in a funk about this whole tournament. The feds were looking into the Death Eaters at the castle and had their eye on Moody. They found it strange that he was taking pulls of his flask every hour, there was a plan in motion to see if it was Polyjuice. If it was that man was going down and he could take the Headmaster with him. Probably not as hard, but the old man was supposed to be a dear old friend of the DADA professor, how could he not realize it was an impostor.

One day while at Gilly's and Sirius' cottage it was mentioned that the only Potter never really got a good look at his accounts. The last time they were there was just signing a bunch of documents to get it all in his name. So with the permission of Mr. Scott; Harry, his friends, family and male bodyguard went to Gringotts. This time they met with Bigprofit, since he was the one in charge of the money side of the accounts.

"What can Gringotts do for you today?" the goblin asked as they sat in a different room than before. This was less of a conference room and more of an office; with a desk, bookcases and customer chairs. It was a small room and mildly cramped, but the seven humans and one goblin got settled, with the women seated, and Harry, and the men leaning against the walls.

"Well, I've never really got to look at the books on the accounts and I was wondering if I can combine them all to one, or should I leave them separate?" Harry asked, folding his hands and putting them on his lap.

The goblin reached behind him and grabbed three books off the shelf, each larger than the other the smallest being the Potter account. "Here are the books for all accounts," he said as he put them on the desk and pushed them to the teen. "They are self-updating, but since two of them have been closed for centuries, and your Potter account was sealed when you went away, there is little activity on any of them." He shivered at the memory of meeting Death.

"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense,' Harry said as he looked over the books and then placed them back on the desk.

"Now that you have opened all of the vaults again, we can start making money. I just need you to read over some of the investments I would like to do and then we can go forward," Bigprofit said, and then he opened a drawer and pulled the files that contained the investments he wanted to make. "These are the changes I would like to make, I just need your okay," he said as he handed the file to Harry.

"Let me take this home and look it over," the teen said, placing the file in his backpack.

"As to your combining them, it all depends on if you want the names declared dead. If you put the Peverell account with the Potter account that name will die, and the same goes for Gryffindor."

"Hmmm, I'll have to think on that. Does that mean I have to have three sons to carry on those names?" Harry asked a bit concerned on how his future wife would think about such a large family, since he wanted girls to carry on the Owens tradition of having two daughters. That would be five kids and he didn't know if Jessie would want to carry that many. He blushed just thinking about it, he was a bit young to be having thoughts of marriage, let alone children.

"Yes," the reply came from Sirius. "If you want those names brought back to the now, then, yes, you have to have at least three sons. Well, four, don't forget you are my heir as well," the dark-haired man grinned. He smirked at the blush and then at the look of horror.

Harry banged his head on the desk and groaned. Four sons, he wasn't even sure that he wanted a family that big.

"This is something to talk about with your wife, let's leave it for now," Gilly suggested at the horrified look on her nephew's face. The other teens were laughing at his predicament, making him glare at them.

"Let's go over the books," Bigprofit brought the subject back to why they were there as he pushed the account ledgers toward the streak-haired teen.

So for a few hours, which were boring to those not named Potter or Black, they went over the vast finances Harry held. Everyone tried to help at first, but he seemed to be holding his own, with Sirius throwing in a word every now and then. Since they had the time, Harry brought the folder back out and they went over it as well. There were a few things that the teen didn't want to risk, but for the most part they were good investments. The others were only there because they wanted to look at the vaults. After confirming and adding to the investments they were finally done.

"Okay, guys, that's us done," Harry exclaimed, making a few heads jerk awake. "Let's go check out the vaults. Remember the dragons won't hurt you as long as I'm there." So a weary group got up and was guided to the carts. Harry had asked for the politest goblin they had to guide them, since he didn't want to have to snap at any more of these beings. They were introduced to Griphook, who was the best at handling hard to handle customers.

They had to take a larger cart to fit everyone, and soon enough they were in front of the Gryffindor vault. Harry warned Griphook that he would handle the dragon and the goblin let him do so, though was leery on his approach. Harry talked to the dragon and reassured her that he was still working on getting her and the rest free. She let them pass without incident.

The vault was mildly dusty, from the cleaning they gave it the first time they visited, and still smelled old and musty. They waved wands and hands to clear the air and started looking around at the treasures. Luna, Neville and Jordan made a beeline for the books, while Gilly and Isaac were looking at the weapons and armor. Sirius and Harry once again went to the diary on the pedestal to look through it.

"So, Harry, did you ever read the copy you made?" Sirius asked as he leafed through the relic with a sense of awe.

"Yes, it was hard to do, since it was in Old English, but I finally got through it. That book has some pretty wicked spells I might use during the last task. But I have to adapt them to our magic," the streak-haired boy said.

"Harry," Luna said, getting his attention, "some of these books are written by the Founders. You have a wonderful treasure here; the history alone makes it such. There are even a few in parseltongue that maybe you can translate." She was ecstatic that there were such books, even though she no longer attended Hogwarts that didn't make her less interested in its history.

"I didn't even know parseltongue could be written, I mean it's not like snakes have opposable thumbs," Harry said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh, I am sure that Salazar Slytherin simply wrote what he was speaking and placed magic on it somehow, so that only those who could speak to snake could read it," the little blonde said airily as she thumbed through one of the said books. "Besides, when had magic followed the rules of logic, silly," she added with a giggle.

"I guess that makes sense. I just hope I can read it," the tri-color haired teen stated as he grabbed one and looked at it. It didn't make much sense until he looked at the snake in the corner. Then it cleared up like magic, only it was in Old English. The boy groaned and closed the book.

"Too bad we can't take them out of the vault," lamented Jordan, he too was very interested in the spells used in days gone by.

"No, but we can copy them. Hey, Griphook, do you have a bag we can put them in?" Harry asked the patiently waiting goblin. His backpack was a not expanded, much. He could probably put twenty books in it, but they still had to go to the other vaults and he wanted to see if there were trinkets and gadgets that would catch his attention.

"Never mind, Griphook," Gilly said, waving the goblin back, "I have my bag and it holds up to one hundred and fifty books." She held up what they thought was her purse. "So choose carefully, we still have two more vaults to visit," she warned, handing the bag over to Luna.

"That's my girl," Sirius said, giving his lovely fiancé a quick kiss, "always prepared."

She giggled and swatted him on the chest and went back to looking over the interesting items.

So the teens set about copying some of the books that were lesson books used a thousand years ago, and a few of the parseltongue spell books. It would make great reading to see how they fluctuated from lessons in this day and age. Once they got that done, they cast the preservation charm on everything in the vault, and a repairing charm on anything that had started to deteriorate. When they left the whole room was sparkling clean and everything was in good repair. Magic was wonderful. Soon enough they were ready to go to the Peverell vault.

Once again calming the dragon, they did the same to this vault as they did in the Gryffindor one. Books were copied and spells were cast and they made their way to the Potter vault. Harry wanted to see if there were journals from his grandparents and other relatives so he could get a better idea of his family history. There were, so he copied them and put them in his backpack and they left the vault. Going back to the lobby and getting some self-filling money bags attached to the Potter vault from the teller, they left Gringotts with a feeling of satisfaction in a job well done. They would go over the books with Mr. Scott and donate more copies to the school library. It would be fun.

"So what else are we doing today?" Sirius asked, shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight.

"Same thing we do every time we're in the Alley, Pinky; try and eat all the ice cream in the world," Harry said with a chuckle, making Isaac, Neville, Jordan and Gilly laugh, and the other two to blink at them in confusion. He waved the looks away and said, "It's a non-magical cartoon."

Still chuckling they went to the ice cream parlor, getting the normal sneers for their non-magical clothing, which they ignored, and got their treats. Harry wanted a banana sundae, Luna got the Every Flavor Beans cup, and Neville decided on a Chocolate Frog sundae, while everyone else, bar Isaac, who stood guard at the door, stuck with vanilla cones with chocolate topping.

"Well, we have plenty of books, so we don't need to hit Flourish and Blott's, is there anything we need in the Alley?" Gilly asked as she tried to keep her dripping cone from melting onto her hand.

"We need new trunks," Jordan said, finishing off his ice cream, "We've acquired so much stuff from Hogsmeade that nothing is fitting in our suitcases. I hear the Hogwarts DADA professor has a trunk that has multiple compartments. Like five or seven, I'm not sure, but I don't think we need one quite that big, but one with three might be helpful."

"Yeah, I'm still getting gifts from fans, no matter how many times I write and tell them to stop. I've donated all the silly toys they keep sending me to orphanages, here in London and in Salem. I had to make some of them non-magical, since England doesn't have a magical orphanage. Still I have no idea why, but they keep treating me like some kid, and the books and stuff is getting out of hand," complained Harry, who was still working on his sundae. It was good, he never tasted such wonderful banana ice cream before.

He was also still getting threatening mail and marriage proposals. The threats were now being fielded by the feds, and more people were getting charged with attempted assault, much to the displeasure of Minister Fudge and the Headmaster. However, there was little those two men could do about it since the FBI had permission to be there and do whatever it took to defend their citizens. Fudge blamed Dumbledore. Had he not tried to wipe the boy's memories, the Yanks wouldn't be in his country.

The suggestion on the trunks got a round of nods and agreements, so they finished their treats and headed to the nearest luggage store. The shop was orderly and clean. The trunks and some enchanted suitcases were on shelves in the middle of the store, and there were bags, like Gilly's, along the walls.

The man behind the counter perked up when they came in. Business was slow this time of year, so he was hopeful that he would make a sale today. "Welcome to Bartley's Trunks, we have all your traveling or storage needs," he said his spiel cheerfully. "I'm Stewart, how can I help you today?"

"Hello, Stewart, I'm Harry, these good people are Neville, Jordan, Luna, Gilly, Sirius and Isaac. We," he pointed between the four teens, "need new trunks. We heard you have multi-compartment ones and we're looking for some with three compartments."

"We can do that," the jovial clerk said. "What kind of compartments are you looking for? We have a bit of everything, standard, expanded and we can even make one into a flat," he expounded as he led them to the back of the store.

"Why would anyone need an apartment in a trunk?" Harry asked with a great deal of confusion. "I'd be afraid of being locked in.

"No, no, no," Stewart waved away the concern, "there are spells on the locks to make sure that doesn't happen. They can be opened from the inside and be spelled for your magical signature only. The flats are for people like Aurors who need a place to sleep when they are on stake-outs or something. There are some of the poor wizards who use them instead of renting, since they can set them up anywhere there's a free space. No, don't worry, young man, those trunks are completely safe and legal," he assured them, getting a curious look from the agent. They didn't have apartment trunks in the US, so that was one up for Britain. He would have to buy one before he went back to the States. Though he doubted the cell phones worked in such a chest, the mirrors should. He would get the Research and Development Department to look into this; it could be a major budget saver. No more hotel rooms or safe houses, just a simple trunk in a secure area.

"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense, but, no, we don't need one of those. What we're looking for is a three compartment trunk, the first for school books and equipment, the second for clothes and the third expanded to fit everything else. I have a lot of non-school related items that I need to store," the young man explained, while the others nodded their heads in agreement.

"Well, just take a look at these four trunks and see which one fits your needs," Stewart said as he pointed out the four that had only three compartments.

The teens looked at what he had to offer. "These are great," Harry enthused and then added, "oh, and if you have something similar to a traveling bookcase, I'd like to look at that as well."

"We have three different kinds of book trunks. They differ in size and space. There is one that holds thousands, another that holds five hundred, and the last can store fifty," the clerk stated, waving his hand to the side where those trunks were displayed.

"Well, I only need the book trunk for five hundred," the tri-color haired teen stated as he moved to check out the bookcases.

Gilly and Sirius were looking at other trunks across the store and seeing if there was one to fit all the furniture they had in the cottage, for when they went back home. Isaac was standing guard at the door, still mulling over the conveniences of the apartment trunk.

So Stewart showed the kids the trunks they needed and Harry paid for all four three compartment ones, much to the protestations of Neville and Jordan, and his book trunk. "Didn't you see all the gold in those vaults, besides you can think of them as early birthday presents, and I won't give you as many on those days," Harry said firmly.

"Whatever," Neville said, shoving his brother playfully. While he had riches too, he was nowhere near as well off as Harry, but still… well, next time it was his treat.

"Prat," was Jordan's comment as he too shoved his best friend's shoulder.

Luna just thanked Harry with a kiss on the cheek and wandered away.

They gathered up their purchases and Jumped to the shore of Black Lake and then to the boat. "Hey, everyone," Harry said loudly, making every head swing his way. "You'll never guess what we found."

The students, now curious, gathered around the champion and his group and oohed and ahhed over the books they brought back. Mr. Scott came from his office to see what the ruckus was about and was equally impressed. The SMI contingent stayed up the rest of the night copying and organizing the treasures. They would start reading them at night and on the weekends, many were grateful that Harry was a sharing type of dude, now they weren't quite so bored.

After everyone was asleep, Harry called Jim hoping to ask him a question. "Hey, Jim, if you're not busy, you got a minute?" he called to the air.

"What can I do for you, young Harry?" the deity asked as he faded into the room.

"I was wondering, well, you know how when you shape yourself into an Animagus your clothes and anything on your person transforms with you? Well, if I am wearing the Invisibility Cloak, will my animal be invisible?" he asked, not want to wait until he got his form down.

Jim thought about it a moment, rubbing is bony jaw with his skeletal fingers. "Yes, that should work," he finally said.

"Great, that's a lot of help," Harry beamed. He couldn't wait to try it out. "Thanks, Jim. Oh, hey, one favor, if you want, can you go and scare the goblins into letting the dragons go?"

Death nodded and said, "That is a request that I would have to think about. There are rules as to how much I can interfere, and it might be something you are supposed to accomplish yourself. I will take the matter up with Fate and see what she says." And with a nod he faded out.

"Well, damn," Harry said to no one, and then rolled over and tried to sleep.