Morning sun was yet to rise, but Harry was already walking out of Dursley’s doorway. In his hand there was a clenched piece of paper - an early morning bus ticket to Grimmauld Place.
‘Thinking about it… now we both missed each other for over a decade’ - the boy chuckled as this random thought struck him, still he was glad to finally visit his godfather, also being very curious where he was living in hiding all this time.
As it was still very early in the morning the bus stop was empty. The lonely bus almost passed by - not used to picking up passengers there so early, yet the driver seemingly saw Harry's stretched hand and hit the brakes.
The bus was unsurprisingly empty as well, the boy just nodded to the driver who was certainly wondering if he stayed up overnight or was he a rare early bird teenager and passed him the ticket. The driver whistled in response.
“That is the last stop lad, you can try to get some sleep on the way”
Harry just smiled in response - “thanks for letting me know, but I am well rested”
Then he walked all the way to the back where there were some more comfortable seats and just gazed out of the window through the journey. Sure it was not as comfy as the knight bus, but it was still an interesting experience, it reminded Harry of the school bus he took on excursions a few times when he was still in primary school.
Along the way he did receive a few glances from the driver, who probably wondered from where the boy had hidden not one, but five books and a sandwich, yet made no comments about it. Harry was feeling quite smug about it - all those muggle avoidance charms on his pocket trunk must be working properly.
The journey was long and he was tired of sitting - he even started to miss the knight bus where the seats were charmed to stay comfortable even on long rides, still even long tours he took with Daphne on evenings did not last that long.
Harry was immersed in some light novels, sometimes glancing up to see various muggles entering the bus or leaving it - as the bus never got past half-full he could occupy two seats in the back during the whole journey - one for him and another for his snacks and books.
It took a total of six hours until the bus finally stopped for the final time - it was now nearly empty once again - only the driver and Harry himself left.
“Your destination lad!”
“Thank you, sir, have a good ride!”
Harry strolled out of the bus and looked around - it was quite a deserted muggle district. The houses looked like they belonged to some wealthy folks, yet they also looked abandoned, some of them clearly in need of repairs. In fact he could hardly see any people walking by - just a few morning runners who probably did not live near the place.
Suddenly he heard a woof behind him and quickly turned around, there stood a big black dog, with a leash in its mouth. He smiled in response.
“Hi padfoot”
The dog let out a happy woof and seemingly pushed his leash to Harry’s hand.
The boy grinned - somewhat amused by the idea of holding his godfather on a leash… literally. Still he understood his relatives intentions and took the leash, then the dog started casually strolling - it looked like a boy walking a dog from afar, yet it was the dog leading the way, in fact it was walking so fast Harry could barely keep up without tripping..
Together they passed the long street, until arriving at a seemingly more abandoned area - not even morning joggers seemed to pass by this place.
Eventually the dog slowed down and Harry had a moment to look around. There stood houses 10, 11, 13, 14… Harry looked back, somehow he missed number 12, yet it was not there. His confused look seemed to amuse his godfather as he let out a final woof, walked forward, and… disappeared.
Harry just stood there in confusion, rubbed his eyes, and no his godfather was not in sight, yet strangely the leash in his hand was leading forwards and… disappearing mid way.
As he was still standing mouth agape, just moments later the leash pulled him back and he felt as if he passed a barrier of sorts - a similar feeling of entering the magical Kings Cross station part.
He looked around - no it was the same place, yet somehow the missing house 12 was… just there, like it had always been. He heard laughter behind him and turning around his godfather now stood tall on two legs, giving him a cheeky grin.
“It’s good to see you, Harry”
He spread his arms and Harry rushed in for a hug. A few minutes later they pulled apart and Harry started speaking - “So… how does this house stay hidden from muggles and aurors alike?”
“Fidelius charm, cast by my ancestor, still holds to this day, you can only be brought in by someone who knows this place, and unless you receive a written exact location on paper, you will forget it soon after you leave. Well if you’re so curious you can check it up in the library”
“You have a library in your house?”
“This is the Black family manor - it has quite a few expanding charms and is very spacious inside, come I will show you around”
The tour started with Sirius giving a stern warning near the doorway.
“Plug your ears Harry, as there's an annoying portrait of my unfortunate relative in the hall who won’t like you one bit… You see your mother was a muggleborn and your grandmother was Black, yet she wed a Potter and my aunt was quite a dark family supporter and a pureblood snob… well you get the point, she would hate you for just being halfblood and for banishing the dark lord”
Harry was glad for the warning as he heard all those insults with his ears plugged - he might go deaf if he heard that without any preparations.
Leaving the screaming portrait behind, the tour continued with Sirius showing various rooms and explaining what it was, occasionally casting some spells as they encountered random boggarts and pixies remaining in abandoned rooms.
Eventually they encountered a familiar figure - it was a small being, like a child which Harry recognized - as he had a few interactions with a creature of the same kind, he turned to his godfather
“You have a house elf!”
“Yes, but Kreacher is… how to say not the good kind. He refuses to remove that annoying portrait and to trash most of the dark artefacts in this place… He also never cleans, the food he makes is horrible… Heck he probably just wants to poison me, so I just make my meals on my own“
The said house elf just grumbled under his nose, Harry could make out some words like fake master, why everyone else died, why poor Regulus met his end…
The boy felt sorry for his godfather, but he did know a free elf who could lend a helping hand.
“Do you want another one? I happen to know a free elf who you can pay a monthly salary of galleon or so, he is quite eager to work and has a good attitude”
His godfather grinned - “of course, anything to get rid of that portrait”
“Are you not worried about the elf leaking your hideout location?” - Harry asked with concern in his voice
“No worries, there are some nasty wards in place that any non-contracted elves would just forget about being there after they leave, and we can just add a non disclosure clause to the contract if your friendly elf only wants to work there part time.”
Harry just nodded and called his friend.
“Dobby!”
*poof* “The Great Harry Potter Sir has called for Dobby?”
Harry kneeled to reach the little elf and gave him a hug - “I missed you, my friend”
“The Great Harry Potter thinks Dobby is a friend… “ - there were tears in the elfs eyes as he returned the hug - “Dobby is touched”
Harry stood up and went on to business talks - “Dobby, do you want to work here? It’s my godfather's place and its current elf is not doing a good job…”
The elf fanatically nodded - “Anything for The Amazing Harry Potter Sir”
Soon the deal was made and Dobby was off to clean the house - starting with getting rid of Walbuga’s portrait. Kreacher grumbled a lot, but eventually relented for just having Regulus room for his own jurisdiction - Sirius agreed as he did not want the trouble of the elf leaving the house - while his memory would be wiped away, there were many people who knew of the elf - his main concern being Narcissa Malfoy Black, he was not sure if she could access this place, but she certainly knew it existed, tipping the ministry of it would spell trouble for him - those department of mysteries fellows would surely take a challenge of locating a Fidelius hidden mansion.
The tour continued for some more time, Harry and Sirius also had a delicious meal once Dobby finished cleaning the kitchen. Harry somehow even managed to persuade the little guy to join them to eat together.
After eating there was not much of the mansion left to see, so Sirius led him to the only room they haven't visited yet.
“And this is the Black family library - frankly most of the book tomes are quite dark, so I do not suggest you read them until you’re older. And this would conclude the tour. I believe it’s getting late, and you did tell me you had a special someone to meet in a bus of all things” - Sirius winked at Harry
“Thanks, Sirius, it was fun! Can I visit sometime later?”
“Of course! Anytime”
“But… are there any… faster ways of getting there? I spend half the day in that bus”
“Well I suppose if you could apparate as it's legal for underage wizards - if you get a licence… But still you would need to know Occlumency strong enough to keep my location secure. It’s not like I do not trust you, it’s that I know” - he grimaced - “Snivelius likes snooping around in the minds of others, you would need to have good occlumency shields in place, just in case… “
Harry snickered hearing his potions teacher's nickname once again, he was sure to use it back in school and spread it to all years as well, along with all the fun stories Sirius shared, the greasy bastard certainly deserved it.
He now had a sheepish look and admitted - “Actually, I do know a bit of occlumency”
Sirius was in shock - this was an obscure and hard branch of magic and Harry learned magic existed just a few years back - “Really?” - his face seemingly morphed in a smug look - “you don’t mind me testing those defences then?”
Harry kept the innocent look on his face - “of course, I think I got the basics down quite well”
Sirius wand shot from his wand holster into his hand - “Don’t tell I did not warn you! I was forced to learn legilimency to an ‘acceptable’ level when I was still in school, courtesy to my father, leggilmens”
A quiet minute passed, until Harry broke the silence, still maintaining his innocent face mask - “Did you perhaps fail the spell?“
Sirius blushed, remembering having just boasted about it a moment ago - “erm it’s just… Azkaban does take a toll on the person” - he focused more and cast the spell a few more times.
After failing so much he switched it up to more obscure spells, yet Harry did not bat an eye - he had already seen Albus use them and already had countermeasures in place, although his innocent look was being broken as he found it hard to suppress laughter seeing his godfather so flustered, he focused back on his shields and decided to play a prank.
A few minutes later Sirius beamed - he was finally inside Harry’s mind, there were dozens of shelves of books and he grinned and walked, picking up a random one - it was blank. He rubbed his eyes and grabbed another one - blank again. He started grabbing books at random, trying to find anything - yet all the books were blank.
Proud of his godson's defences he was still unwilling to give up - he murmured a spell inside the mindscape which allowed him to find surface thoughts - soon he found a book which was quite smaller than the others. He eagerly opened it and was greeted with text inside. Excitedly he began to read - ‘My mind defences are quite decent, don’t you think so, Sirius?’ he cursed and turned to another page - yet the same words were repeated… seemingly in the whole book. Flipping to the last page which should have Harry’s current thoughts he saw a different message - “So did I pass the test?”
As soon as he read that he felt himself dropping out of Harry’s mind, and woke up outside, already hearing the boy's laughter. He felt tears swell up in his eyes as he hugged the boy.
“I am so proud of you Harry” - he waved his wand and a piece of parchment appeared in his hand, which he passed to the boy - “here read this, then you would be able to find this place without my help - he passed a note with full address which Harry quickly memorised - “You will always be welcome here”
The parting hug took a while, but eventually Harry left and walked back to the bus stop. He took the muggle bus to some other district, just in case, then summoned the knight bus to travel to Diagon Alley where he would be meeting his Slytherin friend for another long bus ride.
As another day arrived, Harry excitedly rode the knight bus to the Diagon Alley. Today he would finally begin his classes, and today was the day he would visit Neville.
Arriving at mind arts classes he met someone he never wanted to see again, even after a decade of isolation - Draco Malfoy. As if mirroring his feelings a look of loathing appeared on his nemesis face.
“Potter! What are you doing here?”
The boy let out a sigh - “I am here to see if the mind arts classes are worth attending, seeing you there makes me want to unenroll… “
Somehow that offended the blonde - “When my father hears about this…”
“Silence!” - some old cloaked fellow strolled into the room, his authoritative voice filled with power interrupting the childish bickering - “Control your emotions, young Malfoy, if your father hears about this he would be disappointed in your lack of occlumency skills over emotion control…”
Draco blushed and lowered his head.
“As for you… ” - the teacher glanced down at the note on his table, listing the enrollment details of the newest student - “Potter, huh, let’s see how good your current defences are”
He just glanced at the boy and Harry could feel it - this guy was nearly on Dumbledore’s level!
A few minutes later the old man spoke again - “I admit I am most impressed, you are ready to learn basics of legilimency, keep in mind that I will only teach reading surface thoughts - other forms of legillmency are illegal thought if you’re really passionate or talented you could learn about it by joining aurors, hit wizards, mind healers or department of mysteries after getting decent NEWTS. “ - he took a pause, noticing that young Malfoy was looking quite jealous and listening to his every word now - “Do keep in mind that it would take a magical oath to never use those skills against the law before progressing beyond the basics”
Draco somehow had a smug look on his face - “Our Malfoy house has quite a few books on the subject, I won’t need any oaths”
Instructor just gave him a stern glare - “And that is illegal, the only reason I am not reporting your family to authorities yet is of the favor I owe your father, keep in mind even if you do learn more advanced tricks like memory manipulation it won’t bode well for you - even reading past memories leaves footprints, traces, even more so when altering them - if hypothetically you somehow succeed to dig up dirt on your… opponent, it would not hold in court, unless you took the magical oath to never use those skills against the law, otherwise defendant could just claim you planted fake memories on whatever secret you fish up”
Draco’s excitement somewhat dimmed, while Harry listened with keen interest. Still it was Malfoy who interrupted teacher once again - “I want to learn legilmency too!” - the old wizards just gave him a stern glare, then after pondering something for a moment, had a small grin on his face as he addressed the rude boy.
“As for you Malfoy, if you can still defend against Mr. Potter by the end of the week, I will consider teaching you basics as well”
Draco seemed all fired up, yet he did not know who he was against. Even though Harry did not know the spell, he observed how it worked thousands of times, from the master legilmens Albus Dumbledore. Which certainly allowed him to learn the required intent for the surface thoughts reading spell.
Still Harry did not know if it was his talent or Malfoy’s lack of it, but by the end of the lesson he could already read some of Malfoys surface thoughts - it was a weird magic so to say, by catching his opponents eyes, and waving his wand in a simple pattern, he could see a book, a single book where the thoughts were being written, yet most words were still blurry, and he was not able to turn pages - which according to instructor would come with some more practice.
Instructor, even promised to teach a wandless version of surface thoughts spell to the boy,, but only if he mastered the spell with the wand first.
Even with Draco grumbles Harry was still quite happy with the lesson experience overall and was looking forward to future lessons - he had duelling in the morning and apparition in afternoon, which would have more pleasant company than today, well assuming Malfoy did not take those classes as well.
Happily he walked out of the Alley to catch the knight bus outside - he had a friend to visit.
The knight bus came to a halt and Harry jumped out, then he spent a few minutes rummaging in his pocket trunk until he found the exotic plant - Nevilles gift - which was thankfully still alive.
Then, gift in hand, he strolled towards Longbottom mansion.
It was quite a large building, five floors tall, and seemingly had a flat roof, full of greenhouses. He walked forward, yet halted near the gate - he could somehow feel something as if a force field protecting the place. Remembering the letter's instructions he knocked on the gate three times and waited.
A few minutes later an old woman opened the gates and focused on him with a stern look - “who are you?”
“I am Harry Potter, Nevilles friend, did I get the wrong house?”
“Ah yes, come in Harry!” - she still looked at the boy with suspicion, wand in arm, yet as soon as he passed the gate she relaxed and a smile popped on her face - “Sorry for the cold greeting, until you passed anti-polyjuice wards I could not be sure you were who you looked and claimed to be, I am Augusta Longbottom, welcome to Longbottom mansion!”
Harry smiled in response - he wondered if Black family home had similar wards as well - “Hello again Madame Longbottom”
“Follow me, Neville is playing in greenhouses as always, I am sure he would be excited to receive such rare and exotic specimen as this” - she eyed the plant in harrys hands - “If only you took proper care of it - the poor thing would not last more than a day without a proper care” - Harry just blushed as he walked along - he definitely had no idea what this plant was and how to take care of it - even the name he only remembered thanks to his occlumency skills.
Soon they climbed up all the stairs and were on top of the rooftop where Harry could already see Neville whistling as he was weeding some sort of plant Harry never saw before.
The noise of the steps alerted the boy and he looked up, his eyes glinting on recognition - “ Harry! It’s good to see you, is that a blue asphodel you’re holding?”
Harry waved and smiled back - “It’s good to see you too, this over here is a gift for you, if shopkeeper did not scam me it should be a blue asphodel”
“Blimey! I always wanted to try growing the blue variety, perhaps even try cross-breeding with the red ones if I find any for sale in Egypt! It’s not a local plant in Britain so some varieties are rare to find, thank you Harry!”
The boy took the gift and careful planted it in nearby plant pot, then he turned to Harry and blushed - “I would give you a handshake for greeting, but you know… “ - he glanced at his attire - his clothes were muddy and his hands were so dirty you could hardly see glimpses of actual skin underneath.
Madame Augusta just snorted - “You’re heir Longbottom and you will greet your friend properly” - she waved her hand and somehow all the dirt just vanished, Nevilled hands were even sparkling for which she somehow felt the need to explain - “Unfortunately magical dirt requires some… strong cleaning spells, so don’t mind the sparkles”
The sparklingly clean Neville now stepped forwards and gave Harry a friendly handshake and a brief hug, then he led the trio of people to the guest lounge.
In there they sat, enjoying some snacks and stories of their daily summer life, then some fun stories from Hogwarts - for which even Augusta joined in from time to time, Harry was amazed to learn that she in fact knew his parents and grandparents even - which led to her bringing an old and even older photo albums for Harry to flip through.
He had already seen most of his parents' photos there - as Hagrid did gift him an album with them, yet his grandparents' ones were something new, so he spent quite some time just looking at them, with some tears in his eyes as he listened to Augutas stories. As there were Neville's parents in most of the photos as well, the boy was listening too, somehow looked even sadder than Harry.
Eventually it was time to part ways Harry was led out of the manor, where he exchanged goodbyes with Neville and his grandmother, before leaving to catch the knight bus once again.
Neville had some packing to do and prepare for his holiday trip - which was quite some work even with the help of magic - making sure all the plants survived his absence was an arduous task.
Harry caught another knight bus to take to Diagon Alley. He was quite enjoying those evening chats with Daphne, during the scenic tours they took every day, and he was looking forward to spending more time with her tomorrow when they will take their apparition classes together.
