Chapter 124: CH 124
Daphne replied, "Don't be snarky, Harry James. These are important matters to us girls."
"I apologise, my Lady," said Harry. "You are, as always, correct."
Daphne didn't even bother to respond.
"On to the other matters within wizarding Britain," said Harry. "The Daily Prophet have managed to steal a journalist from the Witch Weekly; a woman named Rita Skeeter. That was the name of the woman reporter Mister Wordsworth mentioned at Sirius's trial. He made her seem like a gossip columnist who writes untruths."
"She is," said Daphne. "She wrote a horrid piece about our betrothal back in September."
With a frown, Harry looked Daphne in the eye and asked, "Why am I only hearing of this now?" "Because you were in the hospital and no one wanted to see you get upset again," she calmly replied. "You would have; and you know it."
"So," he muttered, "we plan on staying away from her; and asking our friends to do the same."
Daphne nodded and said, "Good idea."
Turning back to the paper, Harry said, "There's an article that looks like it was written by the Minister, himself. It says he worked over Christmas demonstrating he's such a hard worker for the people of Magical Britain - blah blah blah.
"Oooh - There's a new broom company just starting out called Bolt Brooms. They hope to have a prototype out by Christmas 1992. They're aiming for the broom that will be recognised as a true Quidditch player's broom. I wonder if I can get in on that and provide some start-up capital."
"You'd likely be throwing away gold," she replied. "There's already Nimbus, Cleansweep and Comet in Britain alone. And they all released new broom models this year: the Nimbus 2000, the Cleansweep Seven and the Comet Two Sixty. They have only a very tiny chance of getting anything worthwhile to market."
With a sigh, Harry said, "You're right. But, it would be just the best thing to be part of that."
After breakfast both kids decided they had plenty of time to kill so went down to the bank.
Harry was quickly through to see Bloodfang, who confirmed for Harry that his property had been recovered from Dumbledore. He also informed Harry that a Potter elf had been by and collected the books to return them to the Potter library.
"Yes, I should have thought to warn you of that," he said. "I apologise I did not."
Soon after his meeting he and Daphne went down to his vaults.
Harry was shown the two magical artefacts that were recovered, the cloak and the pensieve. As the cloak was light enough, and able to be folded into a very small wad, Harry folded it up and pocketed it to take back with them.
Looking at the pensieve he could see it still contained memories, so he decided he'd get Bloodfang to collect the memories out of the pensieve and send them to him. If Dumbledore was a good boy he'd return them early. But, if he became just as much a nuisance as the first term, he'd delay their return, and use Dumbledore's own excuses against him.
Together, the kids left the bank. Harry asked if Daphne needed anything before they returned to Lily's Pad. As she didn't, they just went straight back to the apartment.
With a quick Time Charm, Harry realised it was time to return to Greengrass Estate.
"I know it sounds trite but, 'Told you so!'" said Harry with a grin.
As soon as they returned to Greengrass Estate they found the others all in the informal dining room, except for Sirius. Harry assumed he was still abed.
Cygnus told them both about how Dumbledore arrived only five minutes after they'd left; how he was overtly hinting that he was really there to see Harry; and how Cygnus also didn't respond to his questions couched as passive statements.
When he mentioned Dumbledore tried to push more overtly to speak to Harry he mentioned how he pushed back flatly stating Harry wasn't there, and that he should have mentioned he wanted to speak to Harry in the first place. And then how Dumbledore left in a right huff.
"All up the meeting only took about five minutes," said Cygnus.
"I'm surprised he didn't try to invite himself for breakfast so he could remain here and wait for my return," said Harry.
"He couldn't, because that would then put the lie to him saying he had to move the meeting up because of other commitments," said Cygnus. "He painted himself into a corner with that one." Starting on the 2nd of January, Harry taught Cygnus and Isabel how to pull magic into themselves. And used the same breathing-in example to effect them accomplishing it.
Just as with the Seven, he told them they needed to practice it, and asked them not to go sharing it around.
He left on his own with Sirius that afternoon for some 'boys' time' at Black House in London. Sirius made sure Harry was cleared through the wards before coming to collect him. So, Harry was able to floo directly to the house in the cul-de-sac of Grimmauld Place.
When he entered he could see the room they were in was actually still quite shabby. However, he was invited to have a look through some of the other rooms.
Seeing them, he realised the room in which he arrived was actually quite presentable in comparison.
Sirius then took him down to the kitchen where he was introduced to Remus Lupin.
When Harry shook the man's hand and said, "Hello Moony."
The two adults were taken aback.
"Harry," asked Remus. "Who told you that name?"
Harry glanced at Sirius and said, "Thank you for not telling even him."
Harry then turned back to the other man and said, "I heard Dad call you that many years ago."
Seeing the frown on Remus's face, Harry knew the man thought he was being pranked. With a sigh, he asked, "What do you understand about an eidetic memory, Moony?" "Perfect recall, right?" replied Moony.
"Yes," replied Harry with a nod. "Perfect recall - of everything; sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. I have an eidetic memory enhanced by a full mindscape."
Remus sat back in the kitchen chair he was first sitting in. His face held an expression of surprise and awe, looking back at Harry. "Everything?" he asked.
"Everything," replied Harry.
"So, you know I'm a werewolf," said Remus.
"Yep."
"And it doesn't bother you?"
"Nope," replied Harry. "I remember it was Dad who kept saying it was a 'furry little problem'. I know it as a disease that afflicts you most overtly around the full moon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you all for choosing this novel
Full novel in PDF format here:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://ko-fi.com/fictiontopia