Ch7

There weren't a lot of people staying for the holidays, but it was certainly more than had stayed during his second year. Harry elected to sit by a pretty blonde witch who looked like a sixth or seventh year.

"Hi," Harry greeted. "Do you mind if we sit here?"

"Wotcher, Harry," she greeted. "And no, I don't mind."

Harry froze. She looked nothing like her, but her voice sounded so familiar AND she had used her trademark greeting. "Tonks?" he asked uncertainly.

She cocked her head at him. "Do I know you?"

"Not exactly," Harry admitted. "But I took it upon myself to research my godfather's family members after he broke out of Azkaban."

"Family members?" Fred asked, staring at Tonks.

"Godfather?" Tonks repeated, staring at Harry.

Harry nodded. "Yep, my godfather is none other than one Sirius Black. You're his cousin, right?"

"My mum is," Tonks explained. "That's why I'm here. Given the sheer number of Azkaban inmates I'm related to, my mum has always had policy where every time one of my Death Eater relatives breaks out of Azkaban, I have to stay at Hogwarts where it's safe. Needless to say, this is the first time we've actually had to put this into practice."

"You're RELATED to Sirius Black?" Ron asked, stricken.

Tonks eyed him critically. "You're a Weasley, right?" At Ron's nod, she continued, "You are too, just not as closely related."

Ron looked faint.

"Of course, you're not as closely related to Sirius as you are to Draco," Harry added, smirking.

Ron groaned.

"What do you know about me?" Harry asked, curious as to what the other houses made of him this time.

Tonks snorted. "Please, everyone knows you."

"But what do they say about me?" Harry pressed

"They say you have a death wish," Tonks responded cheerfully. "Is it true that you went chasing after a full-grown troll because you were bored?"

"Well, kind of," Harry said sheepishly. "But if anyone asks it was because I was so distraught that Sirius escaped that I wasn't thinking clearly."

"Personally, I think you're just nuts," Tonks offered.

Harry nodded. "That works, too. Just don't tell the Prophet. I've got a good thing going here, being able to do or say whatever because everyone seems to idolize my forehead, and I wouldn't want anything to compromise that."

"I promise," Tonks laughed.

"So you're a seventh year?" Percy asked.

"Yeah," Tonks confirmed. "I'm a Hufflepuff."

"So you can tell me all about OWLS!" Percy said excitedly.

"Here he goes again," Fred sighed.

"He does this whenever he talk to someone who's already taken them," George confided.

"The week we took OWLS was the worst week of my life," Tonks declared.

The twins exchanged glances.

"You know, we could really use all the help we could get…" George began.

Tonks groaned.

----

"That girl was strange," Ron commented as they made their way back to the Common Room that evening.

"Yeah, she is," Harry agreed. "But I like her."

"So do I. That was the most productive meal I've had in quite some time," Percy said happily.

"She looked like she was really regretting letting us sit down," Harry noticed.

"Why?" Now Percy was confused.

"SOME people don't enjoy discussing exams they took a year and a half ago at Christmas, Perce," Fred told him.

"But you only let me ask her about them for twenty minutes," Percy protested.

"Because she was looking homicidal and we were feeling generous," George explained.

"What? I-" Percy began.

Ron tapped Harry on the shoulder. "Hey, mate, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure," Harry said surprised and they headed up to their dormitory, ignoring the three older Weasley brothers continued debate about the merits of rehashing exams.

Ron stared at the ground, looking extremely uncomfortable. "Listen, I know you must have spent a fortune on my present and I know I didn't get you anything. I'm sorry about that and I feel really bad but I just…I don't have any money. I know you're not the type to flaunt your wealth like Malfoy and some of the others, but it's pretty obvious that you have money. I couldn't afford to buy anything, mum had to make the sweater and fudge she sent you and, well…what could I have possibly gotten someone like you?"

Poor Ron. It's not like Harry was trying to make him insecure, but he had been a little blasé about the ridiculous amount of fame and fortune he possessed, having been long used to it and used to Ron being long used to it, too. It made sense that he was a little overwhelmed.

Harry put a hand on his best friend's shoulder. "Ron, look at me." Ron did, reluctantly. "You gave me your friendship when I had no one. The only other person I even knew was Hagrid, and he had to be nice to me, he was a representativeof the school and knew my parents. You didn't have to be and even though it took a bit, you remain one of the only people here who can see past my scar and you have no idea how much that meant to me."

"It didn't seem like it. You've been nothing but confident since the moment I met you," Ron countered.

Well, technically this was true, but really only because of Ron and Hermione the first time around. "Ron, you saw what my relatives sent. Enough money to buy a small piece of candy and death threats. I've never had ANYONE until I met you and that's more important than any broomstick."

"Do you mean it?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Of course," Harry smiled. "But I will be expecting something for my birthday. July 31st, write it down."

Ron laughed and they headed back downstairs to play wizard's chess.

----

"Hey Ron," Harry shook him awake early that morning. Quite early, in fact, as it could barely be even be called morning.

"Tap-dancing spiders!" Ron shouted as he shot up, knocking Harry to the floor. "Huh? You're not a tap-dancing spider."

"No, I'm not," Harry gritted his teeth.

"And what are you doing on the floor?"

"Oh, nothing…I just wanted to know if you wanted to use my invisibility cloak to go find a magic mirror."

"Aren't most mirrors magical?" Ron asked skeptically.

"This one shows you things you want, not lectures you about your appearance," Harry explained.

"Sure, why not," Ron said, rubbing his eyes as he headed for the door. Unfortunately, he misjudged the distance to the stairs and fell down all of them. Fortunately, the first year dorms were the closest to the bottom.

"Watch your step," Harry called, a little late, as he grabbed his invisibility cloak and hurried to Ron's side.

"What was that?"

"Sounded like a cannon."

The Weasley twins appeared on the scene.

"Oh, it's just Ron."

"What are you guys doing?"

"Professor Dumbledore finally got around to giving me my father's invisibility cloak back after he felt the need to borrow it for the last ten years or so and so Ron and I decided to go looking for this kickass mirror Dumbledore has around here," Harry explained. "Wanna come?"

The twins stared at him incredulously.

"Do you even need-"

"to ask?"

Hm, the twins tended to do the whole twinspeak thing a long less around Harry, since he could actually tell them apart. Of course, he hadn't seen fit to mention that was because he cast silent identifier spells at them every time they entered the room, but hey. They were bloody identical and enjoyed confusing people. He was really just levelling the playing field.

"What's the meaning of this?" Percy came down the stairs. "It's long past curfew and even though that doesn't technically apply to the Common Rooms, it's far too late to be up and about. You're not planning on sneaking off somewhere, are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Of course not," Fred assured him.

Percy still looked skeptical.

"Harry is though, and he just invited us," George beamed. "And may I just say that I am SO proud."

"Ron, this one is definitely a keeper," Fred told him.

"You can't just-" Percy began.

"It's the holidays, I don't have classes tomorrow and there is nothing you can do short of hexing me that will stop me," Harry interrupted.

"I'll tell Professor McGonagall," Percy threatened.

"So I'll get a couple of detentions, that's not exactly enough to deter me. My relatives would be thrilled to hear I'm doing my utmost to get myself killed, and I honestly do not give a damn about house points."

"Really?" Ron asked, wide-eyed.

"Really. You see, I've come to the conclusion that the 'House Cup' is really more of a 'Suck-up Cup.' After all, the more of a teacher's pet you are, the more points you win. God knows I love Hermione, but she has got to be the biggest teacher's pet I have ever met and guess what? She's the single biggest point winner in our year. I don't care is I lose Gryffindor all of our points because quite frankly I don't want to be a sycophant all year just so the Great Hall gets to be decorated in our colors for one meal and you get an entire train-ride's worth of bragging rights. It's just not worth it," Harry concluded.

"Harry my good friend," George began.

"You might be on to something," Fred finished.

"And by the time you'd find McGonagall, we'd be long gone. So how about it, Percy? Would you really stoop so low as to hex a first year?" Harry challenged.

"I…no," Percy said, defeated. "But I'm coming with you to make sure you don't do anything stupid." Percy paused. "Well, anything stupider than this," he amended.

Harry shrugged. "The more the merrier."

----

"You're lost, aren't you?" Ron asked as they walked past the same portrait for the third time.

"No I'm not," Harry insisted.

"But we've been past here," Ron countered.

"I know what I'm doing."

"He's lost," Fred said.

"I kn-What the…" George trailed off as a door appeared in front of them.

"That door wasn't there a minute ago," Percy said, peering intently at it.

"I know. It's a MAGIC door," Harry explained. "Come on, let's go."

Harry opened the door and they all went in. In the center of the room was a huge mirror with an elaborate golden frame and standing on two clawed feet. The inscription read "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi."

"What the hell does that even mean?" Ron asked.

Harry shrugged. "Beats me, I always figured it was some obscure language that only really old people with nothing better to do with their time understood. I know it's called the Mirror of Erised."

There was a moment of silence and then Percy said slowly, "I show not your face but your heart's desire."

"Um, that's great Perce-" said Fred.

"But what does that have to do with-"

"The price of dragon's eggs-"

"In France?" George asked.

Percy rolled his eyes. "It's obviously backwards."

"Obviously," Fred mimicked.

"Really?" Harry asked, looking closer at the inscription. "I show not your…you're right! That's amazing."

"It wasn't that hard," Percy said, but he looked pleased.

"So take a look," Harry invited. He looked in the mirror and saw Ginny holding a baby with messy black hair. Ron and Hermione stood next to her holding Teddy's hand.

"What do you see?" Ron asked, hesitant to step in front of the mirror without knowing what to expect.

"My family," came the quiet answer.

"I see our own joke shop!" George exclaimed. "Sweet!"

"I do, too. And I see Angeli-I mean, that's really a nice joke shop," said Fred, looking a little embarrassed.

"I see myself as the Head Boy and the Quidditch captain," Ron announced.

"Grand plans," Harry remarked. "Can you even BE the Head Boy and Quidditch captain at the same time?"

The twins looked mildly ill at the prospect of yet ANOTHER Head Boy wannabe in their family and Percy looked thrilled at the thought of someone following in his footsteps. When Percy finally stepped in front of the mirror, he gasped.

"Minister of Magic?" Fred asked.

"Probably," George agreed.

Harry didn't think so, though. He sidled up to Percy and spoke quietly. "You see your family accepting you." It wasn't a question.

Percy looked startled. "How did you-"

"Not all dreams are impossible, Percy."

----

Harry's life soon settled back into a monotonous routine (or as monotonous as anything ever was since Harry had decided on a devil may care approach to his second chance) until one Quidditch practice where Oliver Wood announced that Snape would be referring Gryffindor's next match against Hufflepuff. Harry had forgotten about that, but it wasn't really very big in the grand scheme of things. What DID interest Harry was the fact that this would provide him with his first opportunity to approach Cedric since he arrived. Granted, reacquainting himself with Tonks (for he did make an effort to see her whenever he could) was a complete and total accident and a result of Sirius's decision to escape while Tonks was still at school, but he found he rather liked seeing her again after all these years. He hadn't been nearly as close to Cedric, but his death had a profound impact on him too.

"That certainly sounds like a bit of a conflict of interest," was Harry's only comment. "You'd think they'd have a teacher who wasn't a Head of House be the referee if they weren't going to use Madame Hooch." Of course, the WHY of the matter eluded him. Was this yet more evidence pointing towards Madame Hooch being a Squib? Though Harry wasn't quite sure how much being up in the air with him would help Snape stop another attempt, especially as he'd need to actually pay attention to the going-ons for the other players.

"Shouldn't you be a little more concerned about the fact that he's going to blatantly cheat?" Wood asked.

"Well, I would, but the referee can only do so much and the 150 points I get when I catch the Snitch will definitely help on our way to the Cup. And besides, since he's doing it for me, I'm kind of obligated to be a bit, dare I say it, grateful," Harry shuddered at the thought.

Everyone stared at him.

"Harry, I don't quite think that Snape-" George began.

"Is going to be blatantly biased towards Hufflepuff for your sake-" Fred continued.

"Unless you have money on them or something," George ended.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh please. And he's doing it to make sure that Quirrell doesn't try to kill me again."

That set off a whole new round of questions.

----

When Harry had finally finished answering everyone's questions and changed, forty-five minutes had elapsed. Honestly, it was like a bloody press conference, he reflected wryly as he headed to Gryffindor Tower to tell Ron and Hermione the news.

He had just finished convincing Ron that his safety was, in fact, more important than a Quidditch game and he couldn't always jump off of his broom or else it would get old, when Neville showed up.

"Hey guys," he said cheerfully. "You'll never guess who I just ran into."

"Who?" Hermione asked.

"Malfoy."

"And you're…happy…about this?" Ron couldn't believe it. "Bloody hell, first Harry, now Neville…Stay strong Hermione! Don't give in to his temptation!"

Hermione giggled. "I'll…try not to, Ron."

"So, what happened?" Harry asked, for once the one to bring everybody back on topic. He vaguely remembered a conversation like this, but Neville had been much more upset…

"Oh, right. Well, I ran into him outside of the library and he said he'd been looking for someone to practice on," Neville explained. "He shot a Leg-Locker curse at me."

"And this makes him happy," Ron remarked. "Either Neville's got some strange preferences or Malfoy's spell is stronger than I thought…"

Hermione ignored him. "What did you do?"

"Dodged it and ran like hell," Neville grinned.

"Nice," Harry approved.

"You should have hexed him back," Ron told him.

"No he shouldn't have!" Hermione said, scandalized.

"Would YOU have wanted to just stand there and face off by yourself against Malfoy and his two half-troll bodyguards?" Neville asked rhetorically.

Harry finally managed to place the situation. "You're worth twelve of Malfoy," he echoed his words of twelve years prior. "And don't you forget it."