The Auld Alliance
12th June 1993
St Mungo's, London.
Harry was laying on his hospital bed, he’d been locked in a staring contest with his owl for the last few minutes, both incredibly stubborn and unwilling to concede any ground. They’d been locked in a battle about her name since he’d found out she was a girl and he got a feeling of annoyance through the new familiar bond they’d formed every time he called her Robert. After his initial confusion at the new link he could feel a nebulous and tenuous connection that simultaneously felt like the thoughts were coming from both outside and inside his head at the same time. The more he tried to pinpoint it the more his head hurt and less he understood it.
In spite of a brief explanation by one of the unspeakables before they left and reading some books Andromeda had managed to bring him about Familiar bonds it hadn’t shed any further light on how the bond occurred, how the connection worked or what effects it had as they all seemed to vary depending on the bonded.
So far he could only describe it as feeling broad moods and that was enough to tell him how much she disliked being called Robert. So they’d spent the last two hours unable to get the bird to respond positively to any of the new names he had chosen, the owl seemed less than impressed. Admittedly unimpressed was better than the violent reprimand he got when he decided that if his owl was a she then she could be Roberta not Robert.
He got a sense of what he thought was profound annoyance, although maybe it was impatience coming across the new link between him and his familiar.
"Don't give me that look! It’s not like I’m not trying!" Harrys pointed his finger at her voice growing louder as the owl fluttered its wings in protest.
“Stop being so haughty, if you keep it up I’m going to call you something boring like Feathers or Snowy.”
The owl jumped on the book between them he was reading name ideas out of and stomped her talon on it like an annoyed teen.
“It’s not my fault you can’t read the names I’m pointing out.”
The owl turned its back, pretending to ignore him entirely.
Andromeda who’d been watching from the chair beside his bed burst out laughing drawing scowls from both. “Maybe we’ve been looking in the wrong place and instead of books about famous familiars we should be looking at Queens of England the way she carries on?”
The owl only tilted its head sideways staring at Andromeda. Harry couldn’t help but feel victimised, if he’d said it the owl would have never let him get away with the audacity of gently mocking her.
Harry stroked his chin contemplating what she’d said “Her owlness does deserve a very regal name.”
“Here.” She pulled ‘A History of Magic’ out of a bag and handed it to him. “If Binns is still as interesting as he was when I was a student I’m sure you could do with looking over it again anyway.”
“Yeah, he sucks all the fun out of History.” Harry said as he started leafing through the book. “You'd think it’d be harder to make Goblin rebellions and wizard battles boring. I actually enjoyed Muggle history but I’m awful at Wizard history.” Harry whined. “We spent ages in Primary school learning about Romans and Normans…Binns hasn’t mentioned any of that. We haven’t even talked about Merlin once and then fail that part of the exam.”
“Well if you want to know a secret most of the people I grew up with had tutors for it. Come to think of it, I honestly don’t know how he hasn’t been replaced, there's 70 years of wizards knowing he’s not teaching the subject well.”
“HARRY!” a noise came from behind them causing Andromeda to jump and start to move her hand towards her wand pocket. Simultaneously a fuzzy brown blur zipped at speed from the door and slammed into Harry, pulling him into a hug before he could make sense of what was happening.
Harry could only mumble a question, his face pressed into her shoulder and being tightly squeezed into her “Hermione?”
Realising Harry wasn’t in immediate danger of being murdered, Andromeda suddenly got worried he might accidentally release some of his still slightly unstable magic at the shock and how hard he was being squeezed. “Watch, his magic’s still not entirely stable yet!” Andromeda warned pulling the girl away from Harry by the back of her collar. “I suppose I should ask how you got past the guard?”
Realising there was an adult in the room Hermione launched into an explanation at speed “Hi! I’m Hermione Granger.” She stuck out her hand towards Andromeda but kept looking directly at Harry “They let me in. I had permission from Dumbledore. I’m sorry if I almost made your magic act out.” Harry was pretty sure she’d said it all without breathing and Andromeda had definitely missed bits of it.
Andromeda looked over her head at Harry and raised an eyebrow at him before taking her hand “I’m Healer Andromeda Tonks…”
Harry interrupted her “She's my second cousin on my grans side!”
Andromeda kept going in spite of the sudden look of shock on the girl's face. “It’s nice to put a name to a face, Harrys said a lot about you over the last few days. Just be careful and try not to touch him, he only had one outburst yesterday which is a massive improvement but if he gets too excited he might accidentally lash out and we’d need to drain him.”
Hermione bit her lip and gave a curt nod. “I’m glad you're okay Harry, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Probably stay out of trouble?” he said softly.
“Sounds terribly boring.” Harry couldn’t help busting out laughing at her reply which made Hermione beam at him.
“I’m glad it didn’t manage to kill any of us…” before quickly adding ”It would have been nice if it got Snape first though.”
“Professor Snape Harry.”
“He’s worse than Binns” Harry said while looking at Andromeda “I’m fairly sure I’ve learnt more in the last few days asking questions about what makes the potions I’m getting taste so bad than two years with him. He might be teaching the Slytherins to be awful though and I suppose he’s good at that.”
“Nymphadora said much the same I had to tutor her during summers. I think if she didn’t know me she’d have thought all Slytherins were evil too.
Hermione quickly deduced the meaning of what had just been said “So a second cousin?” She faced Harry but threw a suspicious glance over her shoulder clearly wanting to know where this woman had just appeared from.
“Oh don’t worry, her family are all Slytherins and they hate her for marrying a muggleborn.” Harry winced realising he probably shouldn’t have said that while she was in the room but one of the potions had made his head light and he’d lost some of his filter.
Andromeda raised her hand over her mouth to hide a gentle laugh. Under normal circumstances the harsh reminder would have been cruel but she knew Harry was being far less reserved than usual as a side effect of some of his medication.
Harry tried to save the situation “And it turns out Malfoy is my second cousin once removed.” Hermione's eyes got wide and she let out a gasp “So since the rest of my relatives were already awful and finding that out made it worse I’ve decided to stick to the one who might be even slightly sad if the basilisk had done me in.”
Hermione went to hug him again, Harry never talked about his family. She’d assumed they didn’t get along because of how reserved he was about mentioning them but hearing they were awful was the closest he’d come to telling her what life with them was like. Andromeda reached out and stopped her before she could, still worried about his unstable core but gave them both a rueful smile as she suspected what had gone unsaid and wanted to hug the child too.
Hermione looked at Andromeda and surprised her with a series of rapid questions “How did you make Harry revise History of Magic? I tried to make him do that for two years and only got some groans in response? What's your secret? Can you teach me?”
Harry couldn’t help laughing “That's what you took away from that?”
“It’s very important information!”
“I’ll have you know I’m looking for a new name for Mrs Potter.” He said while pointing at the owl who was standing at the bottom of his bed.
“OH! I went to the Library and read about it once I got your letter. A familiar bond! It’s so exciting I need you to tell me everything!” Suddenly she had a muggle notebook and a pen in her hand. Harry wasn’t quite sure where it’d come from since she didn’t have a bag with her.
“Well…everyone says once she landed on me I glowed with a golden halo, although I didn’t see that. I’m not sure if that was because I couldn’t see it or I was too distracted because I was being assaulted.” He gave his owl a glare who just puffed up her chest.
“Don’t worry, I know sometimes he deserves it.” Hermione whispered conspiratorially before putting her hand out which the owl nibbled on affectionately before she started stroking her chest feathers.
Harry gave a look of indignation before paling slightly at the thought of what would happen if they permanently teamed up to scold him when he did something rash or stepped out of line. Then he was glad that Ron wasn’t here to laugh at him after seeing how terrified he was of getting a bollocking from his own familiar.
“The Unspeakable who was here said people don’t usually glow gold because the bond builds gradually and they weren’t really sure why I glowed. They think it was because more of my magic was freed up after the basilisk bite it was being blocked before somehow and it just sort of happened all at once.” Hermione tapped her pen on her hand staring off in thought.
“Do they know why it was being blocked?”
“No idea, I think they knew but they didn’t tell me. Whatever made my scar go away probably made it go away too though.”
“I wouldn’t recommend being bit by a basilisk as a cure to you or your friends.” Andromeda chipped in.
“Because it all happened at once it’s sort of hard to tell what changes are because of my magic being weird, whatever my scar was doing to my head and what's the familiar thing.” Harry’s face was scrunched up in concentration as he tried to put it all in words. “My head is sort of clearer, it’s easier to pay attention to things for longer but I think that's the scar thing. The magic is weird, they told me not to use it but I tried to reach for it like you would when you do a lumos.”
Andromeda gave him a critical look but thought better of saying anything as truthfully she’d expected a teenager told to stop doing magic to be inquisitive and do something much more rash which could set back his release by days. Nymphadora would have treated it like a new toy to be played with at his age.
“It felt like falling into a blender instead of touching a stream like it normally does. But since feathers over here landed on me I’ve had all these feelings that are in my head but not? Like I’m playing pictionary somewhere else at the same time but half the drawings are covered up as well… I think she's trying to communicate with me using it but I don’t really know. I think sometimes I can feel her mood too but it might just be because she looks angry when I call her a name she doesn’t like.”
Hermione finished writing a few seconds after Harry stopped speaking then began to ramble. “When I was reading about them they said every bond was different, but that just makes it more exciting! It said Merlin had the most ever recorded at five and one of his was an owl… but it was a Tawny Owl. It said owls bond with people who are wise but require direction…” She paused, staring at Harry obviously deciding if she should continue “Ron laughed a lot when I told him that, something about being thick as mash sometimes. Seamus overheard and said ‘sometimes you're a buck eejit’ we had to get it translated by one of the other Irish kids. But it’s so exciting!” she repeated with exuberance again, “People are lucky to just have one and usually if they do find one they don’t get it so young. I was going to ask mum for a pet over the summer to try and test it out.”
“So how did you end up here? You said Dumbledore let you come, is he here too?”
“Well, I overheard Neville in the common room telling Fay that he was going to St Mungo's to visit his mum because it was her birthday.”
Harry had no clue who Fay was but jumped in interrupting her “So you pestered him until he broke and brought you with him?”
“No. I asked politely…” Harry didn’t think she sounded very polite as she said that to him. “We sent a letter to his Gran asking if I could come and Professor McGonagall gave me permission as well… They were very accommodating once they knew it was to see you.”
“I’ve never really thought about why Neville lives with his gran, he’s never mentioned how that happened, I always just assumed his parents were like mine.” Harry said wistfully.
Andromeda had a sombre expression that the two children missed.
“I asked but he got nervous and started to stammer, I felt bad for him so I didn’t press. He’ll tell us when he wants too.”
The three continued in conversation for another few minutes before there was a rap at the door. It swung open revealing a stern faced tall but thin woman who looked to be in her late 40’s. Since Witches lived longer than muggles Harry would hazard a guess she was older than she looked, she wore expensive looking robes and a hat topped with some sort of bird. She took in the room before her eyes fell on Andromeda who stiffened.
Behind her from roughly the level of her upper back Neville Longbottom's head peeked out looking into the room and smiled at Harry.
“Neville, good to see you. Come to save me before I get a lecture about missing my potions homework from Hermione?”
Neville let off a wry laugh and Augusta closed her eyes, took what looked like a steadying breath before stepping into the room, walking toward Andromeda and shaking hands. Harry couldn’t hear Hermione and Neville talking but he thought that Andromeda looked slightly nervous and the conversation was obviously strained which was odd as she always seemed so poised when anyone other than himself and Dora were about.
“Madam Bones came and asked us all about the Basilisk when we woke up in the hospital wing.” He overheard Hermione say. “She was angry but not at us, just that it had happened. Susan told me she was sorry about how they treated you all year too Harry.”
Harry had been about to reply when Neville's Grandmother turned to him “Mr Potter, it’s nice to see you again.” Harry couldn’t remember meeting her before outside of a glimpse at King Cross earlier in the year. “Neville's talked about you quite a bit. You sound as headstrong as any Potter I’ve met but every bit as tenacious as your mother.” Harry just shook the hand that was pointed at him slightly awkwardly, he noticed Andromeda seemed to think better of telling Madam Longbottom off for touching him while Neville had turned slightly red and was looking at his shoes.
“It’s nice that someone finally appreciates that I wasn't being reckless.” Harry quipped drawing a smile from the stern woman.
“You’ve set a fair few Kneazles among the Diricawls. Board of governors in chaos about how much they under-reacted and the minister is under spellfire after you accidentally shone a light on some of his incompetence arresting the gamekeeper without trial. Fudge is scrambling for some good press and the only question is if your Order of Merlin is first class or if Lucius and his supporters get their way and it’s a second class.”
Harry shifted awkwardly and his face immediately turned a shade of pink that would rival a Weasley. “I don’t want any fuss” he mused “Honestly I’d rather everyone just forgot about it.”
“Harry, it’s okay to accept some recognition every now and then. You saved lives, you killed a calamity class 5x Magical Beast to do it and you did it alone.” Andromeda sounded slightly exasperated that they were having this conversation again. She was determined that she would make sure he didn’t feel so worthless or undeserving of praise.
“But I didn’t do it alone, Fawx and the Sorting Hat were actually useful I just sort of flailed about.” He waved his hands about in a flapping motion.
“Yes but I’m sure it was some incredibly brave flailing…” Andromeda's eyes lit up with mirth at her own wit as she looked at him “Flailing with noble intentions of saving others at your own risk and that's what they want to honour.”
“It just feels a bit much.” he muttered under his breath but loud enough everyone in the room heard.
Augusta was eyeing him critically before giving an approving nod in Andromeda's direction. “A Potter indeed. You remind me of your Grandfather after the Grindelwald war, performing feats the rest of us would baulk at then writing them off as frivolities that didn’t need to be discussed.” Harry noticed Neville out of the corner of his eye looking towards his feet even harder as Madam Longbottom said it.
“Actually Mr Potter if you want my advice you should probably give an interview soon, or at least let the paper follow into the chamber of secrets when they collect the carcass.”
Harry had a look of bewildered betrayal at this new and what he thought was terrible idea. He looked to Hermione for some support only to feel even worse when he noticed she’d nodded her head at the idea.
“Harry.” she looked nervous as she said it “Everyone at Hogwarts as well as the paper are talking about rumours about what happened anyway…” before she’d got as far as saying if he talked to them it may curb their excess Harry broke in unable to contain how annoyed he was any longer.
“But if I talk to them they’ll only talk about me more! I want to be just Harry, I just want to be left alone! I barely walk through the hall without being followed by stares and whispers as it is.” He got softer spoken as he reached the end of his venting seeing sympathetic looks from the others in the room.
Andromeda began to speak and Harry turned away from Hermione to face her. “Harry, you’re one of the very few global wizarding celebrities, and arguably the most famous of all.”
“I can’t be the most famous. I haven't done anything.” he snapped.
“I know you're famous for what's probably the worst thing to ever happen to you.” She reached out for his hand before stopping herself. “But being the only person to survive the killing curse is something that will be written and speculated about for centuries.” She powered on through Harry's obviously appalled look. “They might not recognise you in Peru or Kenya but they’ll have heard of your name. Only Albus and one or two others would even compete and most people in Britain have met Dumbledore before so he doesn’t hold the same mystique. The media will print stories about you because they sell, speculation or not and if you’re a recluse they’ll not treat you well. You have to steer them towards what you can live with them talking about by giving them some crumbs.”
Madam Longbottom gave Andy an approving look “Slytherin indeed Mrs Tonks.” then turned to Harry “Although if I may add a different perspective. Show them a basilisk you weren’t afraid to rush into facing and it’ll show them you’re not to be trifled with or you might come rushing to face them.”
Harry grimaced, staring at the scar near his elbow pensively while running a finger around its edges.
Hermione couldn’t contain herself any more and flounced down, seating herself on the bottom of his bed and narrowing her eyes at him in an almost predatory stare “Spill! I have ways of getting information Potter, don’t make me use them!”
Harry began telling his slightly redacted tale about the basilisk, again, as much as he wished it was the last time he knew it wouldn’t be. It got gasps where there should be gasps and indignation where he thought there should be. “Coward in the same ward as my Frank” he thought he heard Madam Longbottom whisper at one point after he talked about Lockhart obliviating himself. He finished in a flurry about what it felt like as the venom began to take effect, the burning feeling followed by the numbness as the phoenix cried into it.
“S-Sounds like you could have used me stopping you rushing off again this year” Neville offered, causing Hermione to wince slightly.
Harry gave a nervous laugh “Andromeda says I need a babysitter.”
“Well I’m rarely wrong” Andromeda started in a haughty tone before becoming more serious, “It does make me feel slightly better that between the venom and the tears you’re probably immune to venoms and poisons now. Should work even better than your ring; they generally only work against the common and easily treatable ones.”
Harry had a baffled look on his face “What ring?”
“The heir ring, they normally have some common protective enchantments.”
“What heir ring?” his temper started to flare with increasing exacerbation.
Andromeda took on a serious expression “Harry has nobody ever told you about the Potters history or your rights?”
“I know my dad was from an old pureblood family” he had a faint pleading look as if silently asking for understanding. He could hear Augusta muttering to herself that it was a disgrace while Andromeda just looked slack jawed, Hermione shrugged at him not following what was happening either. It was Neville who spoke into the shocked pause.
“I-I did wonder why you never brought up the House of Potter.” then he spoke quieter as if afraid to say it and looked abashed at his grandmother who had her back turned to him “Or the…the alliance”
“You haven’t told him about the Alliance?” Augusta wheeled on Neville.
Neville's eyes widened as he looked at her and he shook his head wilting slightly under Augusta's stern gaze “I-I Thought he knew… e-everyone knows.”
Harry thought Hermione looked confused too and if she hadn’t known something then it definitely wasn’t something everyone knew. He gave an exasperated sigh as he thought about just how much he didn’t know about himself, his family or the wizarding world, “Don’t worry Neville, people assume I know everything all the time because I’m Harry Potter and that means I must know.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you grew up with muggles until Hermione told me on the way here... you never mention where you live.” Neville's gaze was glued to his toes now with slightly flushed cheeks.
Neville's gran turned towards Harry and spoke stiffly “The Longbottom - Potter alliance has lasted from 1373, it’s the oldest formal wizarding alliance between houses that remains in force worldwide. It started as a treaty of perpetual friendship and mutual aid during a war with France and Spain over the Portuguese succession, it set the relationship between the houses and influenced the politics of the nation for centuries.” She was seething in anger, he could tell she was becoming more incensed the longer she spoke. “The houses have never been on opposing sides in any conflict since.”
Harry was stunned, into the silence the mechanical alarm clock beside his bed exploded sending Hermione diving off the bed and Neville ducking down behind it on the other side, his magic started sparking slightly turning some of the air in the room into ozone.
Andromeda jumped up off her chair and accio’d a couple of quartz crystals before pushing them towards him “Too much stress, here hold these.” she gave him a soft look “The Potters are more important than you realise, we'll talk about it later and get you sorted out at Gringotts in a few weeks.” she looked up at Augusta who was in a semi silent rage muttering retribution and commupances to herself.
“Augusta I have an idea what else you want to mention to him but he’s not ready.” she waved her hands at the room implying he’ll level it if the conversation continued on its current course.
“Fine. Fine.” It was clear she didn’t think it was fine. “But eventually he has to know and I want to know why he clearly doesn’t know. We’ve all been told he was being trained.”
Andromeda was tight lipped and just nodded back at her. She'd thought he was being trained too and it suddenly made a few other queries she’d had make sense. Harry was leaning back into his pillows baffled at what he was supposed to be being trained in and trying to rain in how annoyed he was at only getting some half answers again.
They sat slightly awkwardly before Hermione started the conversation again. “Professor McGonagall asked if I could get the subjects you picked while I’m here. She said the headmaster gave you her letter.”
“Oh. Yeah” he pointed his elbow to a note on his bedside table, his hands still full.
Hermione brushed off some bits of clock that had fallen on top of it and picked it up before looking at it.
“Divination and Care?” he could hear a slightly questioning tone as she said it.
“Ron said they were easier than the others.”
He was expecting Hermione to huff, what he wasn’t expecting was Andromeda to launch in “Absolutely not Harry, if I let you coast through Hogwarts Lilly would be livid. She’d have had your hide for even implying you were even thinking about not giving your education your best.”
Andromeda looked at the rest of the room before apologising in advance for being rude and waving her arm to put up a temporary charm that prevented eavesdropping then leaning in close to him. “Harry over the last few days you’ve told a half dozen people Voldemort isn’t dead. If I didn’t sit here and tell you you’ve to do better I’d be doing you a disservice. Your parents died defending you and you’ll have to learn how to defend yourself to the best of your ability. When we go to Gringotts we’ll see if any of their reports are in the vault… your parents were brilliant. James and my cousin might have messed about but they didn’t slack off and I’ll show you what you should be capable of if you apply yourself.” She waved her finger at him trying to appear stern. “You will not get below an Exceeds-Expectations. An Acceptable is no longer acceptable.” Then leaned back and lowered the charm.
Hermione couldn’t help wondering what had just been discussed, she’d seen Harry angry and sometimes when she told him he’d been ridiculous he looked very mildly flustered but she’d never seen him look shamed.
“What are you two doing?” he finally said while eyeing Neville
Neville had started to speak “Dvi…” but Augusta spoke over him while giving him a withering look “Runes and Care of Magical Creatures”. Neville baulked slightly while looking at her before tentatively saying “I’m doing Runes and Magical Creatures Harry…”. Harry couldn’t help noticing Hermione was covering her mouth with her hand to hide she was trying not to laugh.
“What about you then?” he said, poking her in the arm trying to make her giggle and drawing a raised eyebrow as well as some muttering from Andromeda ‘Unstable core Harry’.
“Oh, I’m doing all of them”
“Is that as awful an idea as I think it is?” Harry said, an open ended question to everyone in the room.
“That's for Hermione and her guardian to discuss Harry.” Andromeda reproached him but he did notice she didn’t seem keen on the idea. “Although Miss Granger that is quite the course load and I would advise you that you’ll gain very little from Muggle Studies. My Husband is muggleborn and sat the exam without going to class and obtained what he called an easy O. Something I would recommend to both you and Harry. Another thing we can discuss after and send your response when you finally manage to name your owl Harry.”
“So in a few months. She's very hard to please.” he joked, earning an angry squawk from the owl who had been standing on top of the history book peering at pictures occasionally flipping the pages over as well as an affectionate smile from Hermione.
At that moment Andromedas husband Edward ‘Ted’ Tonks came through the door back first using his bum to nudge it open and semi sat on the handle because his hands were full “I got Chinese! I didn’t know what you like Harry so I just bought a mix.” he shuffled backwards into the room before turning around. “Oh Guests.” Andromeda was very noticeably wincing.
“Edward” Augusta said politely after she put out her hand for him then realised he couldn’t take it before breaking into small talk for a half a minute and declaring. “Well, we’ll take our leave and let you have your supper.” Harry thought it sounded semi questioning what they were eating actually qualified as food and that if her nose was any more wrinkled it may actually permanently crease. “It’s been enlightening but we should be going.” She made some further polite conversation and a quick attempt to gather Neville who was incredibly interested to hear how Ted managed to get foreign food sent all the way from China and had to be told it was common in muggle London as well as trying to cajole a very obviously reluctant to leave Hermione.
Just as they’d made their way towards the door Nymphadora opened it looking down at something in her hand and talking loudly into the room “Britain's most eligible bachelor! Are you sure you didn’t take Lockhart out to get the title Harry." She turned the magazine round and held it up at the same time as she looked up, showing a candid photo of Harry in his school uniform on the Hogwarts grounds and the magical equivalent of a photoshopped sword in his hand ‘Witch Weekly’ written in large font at the top of the page. “Oh, guests.” she stuttered out as she saw the rest of the room, her mother with her forehead resting on the palm of her hand muttering what she was sure were curses.