Chapter 34
Bilbo escorted the dwarf over and as he spoke, the dwarf pushed his hood back. “Harry?” Harry turned around at the sound of his name. “This is-” Bilbo was cut off before he could finish.
“Harry?!” The dwarf squawked. “Harry Potter?!”
Harry saw the dwarf’s face and his eyes went comically wide. “Cedric?!”
“How the hell…?”
“How the heck…?” The two said at the same time.
“I take it you know each other then?” Bilbo looked from one to the other.
“Yeah.” Harry answered. “Cedric went to Hogwarts.”
“Harry?” Cedric looked even more surprised. “Should you be talking about Hogwarts?”
“Who’s going to stop me?” Harry snorted. “The Ministry? Here?”
“Uh…” Cedric grunted.
~~~
July 22nd 2920
“Yeah…” Harry sounded resigned. “So…?”
“So?” Cedric turned his head a little so that he looked at Harry almost sideways.
“Next time? Duck.” Harry suggested.
“Oh, shut up, Potter.” Cedric grumbled. “Like you did any better.”
“Oh, yeah, I did.” Harry pursed his mouth and screwed up his nose. “I got out of the graveyard, with your body, I might add, and back to Hogwarts. No-one believed me, though. That was the end of my nice peaceful time at Hogwarts.”
“Nice? Peaceful?” Cedric looked at Harry in disbelief.
“In comparison? Yeah.”
“Oh, Merlin.” Cedric muttered.
“Pretty much.” Harry huffed, before laughing. “Oh, hey? My fifth year? I ran an underground training camp for a private army of underage witches and wizards.”
“…?!” Cedric made a stunned noise.
“And Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ginny and I broke into the Ministry and destroyed the Hall of Prophecy.”
“… no, no, no…”
“Sixth year? I nearly killed Malfoy in a bathroom. Later, I was got to watch as Dumbledore poisoned himself just to get a trinket that wasn’t what he thought it was, then watched as Malfoy attacked him before Snape killed him.”
“Snape killed the Headmaster?” Cedric gasped.
“Not really, but yeah sorta…”
“What?” The Hufflepuff frowned in confusion.
“Dumbledore blackmailed him into it.” Harry answered. “Dumbledore was dying from a withering curse and made Snape promise to kill him, so that Voldy would trust Snape.”
“Uh…?”
“Snape hated Voldy, saw Dumbledore as a sort of father-figure-cum-mentor, which is slightly urgh… But I have no idea how they’re coping, now.”
“Ah, didn’t you just say Snape killed Dumbledore…?”
“And Pettigrew killed you.” Harry replied. “Yet, here you are.”
“Huh.” Cedric grunted and frowned. “But Snape and Dumbledore…?”
“Are in the Iron Hills, a thousand miles east of here, where Snape is very studiously ignoring and actively avoiding Dumbledore.”
“How do you know that?”
“We sent them a Patronus and they replied.”
“You can cast a Patronus?” Cedric’s eyes widened.
“You can’t?” Harry asked.
“Well, yeah, but you’re…” Cedric paused. “Huh… I was going to say ‘but you’re too young’, but you’re not a kid anymore, not really.”
“Ced, I could cast a Patronus in my third year.” Harry shook his head. “How do you think I survived the Dementors?”
“Huh.” Another grunt.
“And from there it just got worse.” Harry sighed.
“How the heck does it get worse than Snape killing Dumbledore?”
“Voldy attacked Hogwarts.”
It was just three words. But it was three words that silenced Cedric and caused his heart to stutter in his chest.
It took nearly a minute before Cedric could speak. “How many…?” He swallowed and tried again. “How many died?”
“On our side? Sixty-ish, maybe a little less. On their side? They had dozens of Ministry personnel under imperius, a hundred-plus DeathEaters, about the same each, of werewolves, dementors and acromantulas. I think… I know the Malfoys all left before the second wave of fighting started, but as for how many others survived? I know that as someone was killed, the people they Imperiused woke up and most fought for us. About a dozen DeathEaters lived, but none of them escaped uninjured, we made sure of it.”
“Oh, dear God…” Cedric whispered. “You took out an army of… what(?) four or five hundred and only lost sixty-odd people? Out of how many?”
“Students, Hogsmeade locals, staff and Hagrid’s critters.”
“Hagrid’s critters?” Cedric blinked. “That’s an army by itself.”
“Oh, you have no idea…” Harry’s eyes were wide as he shook his head.
“Alright.” Cedric huffed. “Things got bad. But you ended it, right?”
“Yes, I did.” Harry nodded.
“And now you’re here.”
“Yep.” Harry nodded, again.
“So, now what?” Cedric asked. “Stonag mentioned a new village was looking for residents. How are you connected to that?”
“Mum, dad, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Tonks Lupin, Fred Weasley, Lavender Brown and Colin Creevey appointmented me as mayor.”
“And he’s been recruiting residents, ever since.” Bilbo added, having stayed quiet during the two magicals’ discussion. “And as you apparently went to Hogwarts, he doesn’t need to do a Disclosure for you.”
“Nope, Cedric probably knows more than I do, he grew up in the magical world, I didn’t.” Harry shrugged. “Although mum and dad are trying to correct that, not a lot really applies anymore.”
“Mum and dad?” Cedric looked beyond stunned. “Your parents are…?”
“Alive? Yep.” Harry nodded. “Came as a bit of a shock.”
“I can imagine…” Cedric’s eyebrows vanished into his shaggy hair.
For a few seconds neither magicals nor hobbit spoke.
“I don’t suppose that you need a farrier?” Cedric asked. “I trained with a Man, on the edge of the Gulf of Lune, west of the Blue Mountains. I worked with him for a month after he declared me ready to go it alone, less than a week later he was killed in drunken brawl, he was a mean drunk and kinda deserved it, but…”
“He was your teacher…” Harry finished for him.
“He was.” Cedric nodded. “His wife gave me all his tools, then closed down the forge, packed up and went back to her family, she wanted nothing to do with blacksmiths or farriers, after him. Can’t say I really blame her. But she warned me not to stay, or his debtors would probably come after me. As his apprentice, I should have inherited his business, but as his wife had put up the money, the magistrate decreed that it all went to her. I packed the tools in his cart, harnessed up his horse and got out of town. I camped for a bit, trying to figure out what to do. Eventually, I decided to come east, to the Shire. I thought that there’d be more call for a farrier, that’s not as tall as a Man.”
“Yeah, we’re dwarves, now.” Harry said.
“Yes, Harry, I figured that out for myself.” Cedric said tartly. “It is rather obvious.”
“Yeah, well, Fred didn’t.”
“He’s a Weasley twin, they don’t do obvious, they’re always looking for what’s hidden.” Cedric retorted. “With them, obvious requires a slap to the face with a beater’s bat. Or a bludger…”
“True.” Harry nodded. “But that’s not a horse, pulling your wagon, Ced.”
Cedric shook his head. “No, it's not. I went back into Harlinde and sold the horse and cart, bought the ponies and wagon, and got out of there, as fast as I could. Mrs Boot gave me a share of Jer’s profits as well as his tools. Apparently, she’d been handling the accounts for him and had been putting a little aside, before he got to it, and as his only apprentice, she felt that I’d earnt it.” He shrugged. “I thought about stopping in the Blue Mountains, but the few dwarves that I’d met were…” He paused to think about that.
“Condescending.” Harry answered. “And yes, they would have been. You’re a dwarf but you’ve no beads and that usually means that you’re not recognised as being of age. Therefore, they’d treat you like a child.”
“Ah, is that what it was?” Cedric muttered. “I could never figure it out.”
“Yeah.” Harry nodded. “We can deal with some of that, the Family Beads, at least. Craft Beads might be an issue, we’d need to find a Men’s farrier and get him to sign off on you. Then there’s the other stuff…” Harry trailed off and hummed as he thought his way through the problem.
“Other stuff?” Cedric asked.
“You’re a dwarf, now, and that means that almost every facet of life can earn you a Craft Bead.” Harry answered. “You can read and write, that will get you a Scribe’s bead. Potions might get you a tarbûn bead. DADA-”
“Tarbûn?” Cedric and Bilbo both asked.
“Ah.” Harry grunted. “An apprentice is called a ‘crafter’ and in Khuzdul, that’s utrab. A journeyman is a Craftsman, a tarbûn. A Master of a craft is a ‘Craftsman of Craftsmen’ or Tarbûnel and a Grand Master is ‘Grand Craftsman of Craftsmen’, which is Sigin’Tarbûnel.”
“… Okay…” Cedric drew the word out. “And how many of them have you got?” He eyed the beads clearly visible in Harry’s hair, until now, he’d thought them just a decoration.
“Oh, heaps.” Harry laughed. “Scribe, swords, knives, hand-to-hand, locksmithing, archery, teaching and a few others.”
“… Okay…”
“Don’t worry about it.” Harry laughed. “We can’t do anything until we get back to the Willow’s Pond, anyway.”
“True.” Cedric agreed. “And the Willow’s Pond is where we’re going?”
Harry grinned. “The Whomping Willow’s Pond, is the formal name, that we’ll put on maps, but among ourselves, we’re just calling it the Willow’s Pond or simply, the Pond.”
“Whomping Willow? After the one at Hogwarts?”
“Sort of.” Harry agreed. “There’s a large pond in the middle of the village and we’ve made an island in the pond. And planted a Whomping Willow on the island, we’ve also placed a Green Amethyst wardstone on the tree’s island.”
“Green Amethyst? They’re incredibly rare, isn’t one the wardstone for Windsor Castle?”
“Windsor, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and some of the other schools.” He didn’t mention Malfoy Manor, it wasn’t important, not anymore.
“Wow…” Cedric gasped. “And you’ve got one as wardstone for the Willow’s Pond?”
“Yep.” Harry nodded. “And a few extra stones for any other places we might want to ward, later.”
“Wow…” Cedric said again.
“Anyway…” Harry shrugged it off. “Get yourself some dinner and get some rest, tomorrow’s going to be a long day. I want us to cover a lot of ground tomorrow, twenty miles if we can. That would leave us with only the morning after, we should be at Willow’s Pond by lunchtime.”
“Yeah, I’m a little hungry.” Cedric nodded.
“You look like you need a fair few decent meals.” Bilbo countered. “Come on and we’ll get you a plate.”
Cedric let the hobbit chivvy him across the camp, but he’d only gone a few steps before he turned back to Harry.
“Are you going to tell anyone that I’m here?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Harry smirked. “I want to see their faces, when they figure it out.”
“No wonder you got on so well with the Weasleys.” Cedric shook his head and followed Bilbo to the table set up beside a small firepit.
~~~
July 23rd 2920
After a quick but hearty breakfast of bread rolls stuffed with lashings of bacon and eggs, steaming mugs of tea and a few pieces of fresh fruit, Harry led the way from the Three Farthing Stone, out onto the East-West Road and east towards the Brandywine River. If they were lucky, tonight they would reach Whitfurrows. If they were extremely lucky, they might even reach Hildibrand and Tansy’s, but that was unlikely. Possible, but unlikely.
They bid farewell to Bilbo, as they turned east. All of them waving as each successive wagon turned onto the road. Bilbo assured them, that he’d come and see the fledgling village before winter set in.
They passed the turn-off to Oatbarton well before lunch, which surprised Harry, as he’d thought they’d have taken longer to reach that point. When he spotted the little forest that protected Frogmorton, he found a space along the road that had room for all of their wagons and ponies.
Lunch was a simple meal of cold meats, salads, rolls and fruit. And the little convoy were quick to get back on the move.
Harry still wasn’t sure they were going to reach Hildibrand’s by sunset, but they were going to come very close. So close, that when the last sliver of sun fell below the horizon, they were less than a mile from that hobbit’s smial. And while he contemplated stopping, there was nowhere that was large enough to accommodate them. So, they pushed on.
Hildibrand and his dog met them at the gate to the field and waved them in. “Hello, lad.” The hobbit called. “Been collecting strays, have you?”
“Recruiting residents.” Harry corrected.
“For this village I’m hearing so much about?”
Harry nodded. “Hopefully, they’ll stay for many years.”
“As you say.” Hildibrand agreed. “Tansy’s sending down a pot of soup and a tray of scones. And I’ll leave you to show your… recruits… where the bathrooms are.” Unlike Bag End, Hildibrand’s smial had bathrooms in a separate but adjacent structure. “Now, that everyone’s in, I’ll shut the gate and leave you to settle in. I know you’re in a bit of a hurry, so just shut the gate behind you, when you head out in the morning.”
“Thank you, Hildibrand.” Harry called as the hobbit walked away, getting only a wave over the shoulder for his effort.
“Did he say bathrooms, Harry?” Hattie asked.
“He did.” Harry nodded. “Give me a minute to… oh… thank you Squire, Micah.” Harry had turned to his only wagon, intending to unhitch and unharness his ponies, only to find two hobbits doing it for him. He turned back to Hattie. “How about we fetch the other ladies and I’ll show you all at the same time?”
“Much appreciated, Master Harry.” Isadora refused to drop Harry’s title, not once it was mentioned that he was the de-facto mayor of Willow’s Pond.
Harry led the little group of hobbitesses across the field to a small gate, through that and onto a gravelled path that led to a small smial that housed two simply decorated but well fitted bathrooms.
“Feel free to make use of them, however you will.” Harry told them. “The lads and I will wait until after dinner, for our turn.”
“Very much appreciated.” Isadora repeated.
After dinner, a bath and a round of questions that needed to be answered, the group settled down for the night. It surprised Harry slightly, that Cedric would place his wagon behind Harry’s. And when Harry hung a lantern off a willow-switch, pushed into a bracket on the tailgate of his wagon, before laying his bedroll under it, Cedric placed his in front of his own wagon, only a few feet from Harry’s.
“How do you cope, Harry?” Cedric asked. “Without magic? Or can you do wandless?” If the other magical could do a Patronus as thirteen, he wouldn’t put it past him.
Harry blinked and looked at the older dwarf. “Ah. Haven’t told you that, yet, huh?”
“What?”
“That lot don’t know all of this.” Harry kept his voice low as he nodded across the camp. “They know about magic, in a broad sense, but not the rest. The only hobbits that know the whole story, are the Thain, his heirs, Bilbo Baggins and his father, Bungo Baggins. We also plan to tell the Master of Buckland and his heirs, and the king of the dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield, and his heirs. Much like the Ministry would tell the Queen, her heirs and the muggle Prime Minister. The residents of the Willow’s Pond will know that magic exists and the we can use it, but not the rest. Not the different world, bit. They think we came from the south and we’re going to continue to let them think that.” He saw the frown on Cedric’s face. “We’re not going to lie to them, but we don’t need to tell them everything.”
Cedric thought about that for a few minutes. “Alright.” He nodded. “What has that to do with how you’re doing magic?”
“After the graveyard, I…” Harry spend the next hour explaining to Cedric roughly what had happened to him, Fred, Lavender, Colin, Remus and Tonks, followed by how they’d inadvertently stumbled into James and Lily Potter and how that had led to where they were now. “… and Ollivander must have some Seer blood, because so far, everyone has found wands in the storage box that he gave Hermione, that she sent with me.” He finished.
Cedric stared at Harry and shook his head. “Only you, Potter, only you…” He snorted. “We heard rumours about your adventures at school, but wrote them off as fake… or exaggerated...”
“They weren’t…” Harry shook his head. “Ron and Hermione thought it was just me, but Sirius and Remus say that it’s a Potter thing. A bit like that ‘May you like in exciting times’ curse, but not quite so bad.”
“Not so bad?”
“No. Apparently, mum looked into it, when they first married.” Harry shrugged. “The actual curse is supposed to have something happen every month. But dad and me? It’s only a couple of times a year and dad hasn’t had any episodes, not since they arrived in middle-earth.”
“And you?”
“Not really?” Harry almost phrased it as a question. “I mean, yeah, sure, things have happened. But they’re all… good things? Like finding Fred, Lavender and Colin. Then I was literally driving down the road and saw Tonks in a kitchen window… And dad? He was covered in mud, neither Remus nor I recognised him, not until he’d washed most of if off and mum started to yell at him. Then there’s finding you. So, no, not really. Not bad like it was in England, anyway.”
“Huh…” Cedric grunted. “Fair enough.” He nodded. “So, you’ve got wands? Can I have one?”
“If one likes you, sure.” Harry replied. “You can have two or three, if they like you. We all have backups.”
~~~
July 24th 2920
The sun was just peeking over the hills to the east, when Harry and his recruits left Hildibrand’s field, this time with Jonah leading the way. They might have only had ten miles to go, but ten miles was still a couple of hours by wagon.
It amused Harry that Hildibrand sent a care package along for Sigi. It seemed that parents were the same no matter what world you came from. Lily had rushed from their cottage, with a box of food and treats for Harry’s trip to Tuckborough, just as he had been about to climb up onto the wagon’s drive-seat.
Harry was a familiar enough face, now, that he was given waves and greetings as the little caravan of recruits trundled along the Road. Workers in the fields called out ‘hello’s’ and hobbitesses gave nods as they past smials. Even a few of the faunts, ran along the road, some brave lads offered up pieces of fruit or handfuls of grass. One very adventurous lass held up a pot and blushed brightly, when Jonah pulled his wagon to a halt to accept the bright yellow daisies, although the blush on Jonah's face was just as bright.
Harry snickered to himself, at least until Cedric look back at him, raised and a brow.
“Don’t laugh, you were just as bad whenever Cho was around.” The older magical chided.
Harry flushed and ducked his head. “Yeah, I got over that. I was dating Ginny Weasley just before everything went bad.”
“Huh…” Cedric snorted. “You and a Weasley, why am I not surprised?”
“Be nice.” Harry earned himself a laugh from his former quidditch rival.
Jonah laid the pot of daisies beside him on the drive-seat and with a quiet click-click, his ponies leant into their harnesses and the wagon was moving. The other carts and wagons quickly following suit.
Crossing the Stonebow Bridge, over the Brandywine amused Harry. Thirteen ponies, five wagons and one cart, made a heck of a clatter, as they crossed the stone bridge. Enough that it drew a Bounder guard from his little guard tower.
“Sirs?” He called.
“Morning.” Harry answered cheerfully, pulling his wagon to a halt.
“Got far to go?”
“Just to the Willow’s Pond.”
The Bounder frowned. “And where’s that?”
“It was the Smedley place.” Harry replied. “My family and I bought it and some surrounding land, last month and Master Gorbadoc approved us building a settlement there, as long as we welcomed hobbits.”
“Huh.” The Bounder grunted. “And these are your hobbits, then?”
“Some of them.” Harry laughed. “We’ve another pair already there and Sigi Took’s decided he’s moving in, not too sure he’s told Violet that, yet.”
“Ooh, that could go rotten.” The Bounder grimaced.
“And then some, that lass won’t tolerate him not involving her, in his decisions.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” The Bounder laughed. “The Smedley place, huh?”
“Yeah.” Harry replied. “We’re setting up a little village. Tea rooms, dining rooms, accommodation, ale house and a market place.”
“… ooh…” The Bounders whistled. “That’ll be handy. Not many hobbits like having to go to Bree for specials. Having a marketplace close by… That’ll be good.”
“I certainly hope so.” Harry said.
“And you’ll be having hobbits and dwarves there?”
“That’s the idea.” Harry nodded. “Might even have a few Men, but I doubt they’ll stay.”
“Maybe contact the Rangers?” The Bounder suggested. “They like to keep an eye on us, make sure the other Tall Folk don’t get rowdy with us.”
“Oh, hadn’t thought of them.” Harry pulled out his ever-present notebook and pencil and jotted the suggestion down. “Thanks, I’ll see that they know.”
“Good job, lad.” The Bounder nodded. “When do you think your marketplace will be up and running?”
“We’re hoping for mid-August, maybe the seventeenth?”
“A Hevensday Market?”
“Hobbiton has a Highday Market and Tuckborough has theirs on Sterday, we don’t want to compete.” Harry explained.
“Oh… I hadn’t even considered that. Good idea.” The Bounder nodded. “Drop by and let me know, about a week before, I’ll spread the word for you.”
“Oh, much appreciated, sir.”
“No problems, lad.” The Bounder laughed. “Now, you best get a move on, or your hobbits will have left you behind.”
“Oh, blast.” Harry huffed. “Move out, ponies.” He picked the reins up and clicked to the ponies.
“Stay safe, lad.”
Harry grinned and flicked a florin at the Bounder. “Thanks for the ideas.”
It only took Harry a few minutes to catch up to the hobbits and Cedric, then he kept an eye out for their turning. They weren’t using the original farm entrance, anymore, instead they’d created a proper road turning, but as yet, it wasn’t signposted. A hundred yards from the turn, in each direction, they’d put up a Menhir carved with dwarven runes, telling travellers that there was a dwarven-friendly place close by.
So, when Harry saw the stone, he called out to Jonah.
“Next left, Jonah, next left!”
Harry saw the hobbit raise a hand, but couldn’t hear if he verbally responded. Another few seconds and Harry saw the hobbit’s wagon swing slightly to the right, before turning to the left. The other wagons each followed and within a minute or two, Harry was back on home turf.
“Harry?” Jonah has stood up, turned and called back down the line of wagons. “You better come up here and show us where to go.”
“Coming!” Harry yelled and guided Almond and Latte around the others and led the way through the marked-out spaces and past the frame of what would be a timber building. “You hobbits are over this way. We’ve got a handful of guest smials up and ready, and we thought you’d feel more comfortable in one of them. At least, until you design your own smials and we built them for you.” He told the hobbits as he went past.
“Thank you, Harry.” Hattie called.
As they reached the edge of the ridge, Sigi appeared from nowhere. “Afternoon, Harry.” He nodded to Harry and raised a brow at the collection of hobbits following him. “I thought you were only bringing one hobbitess, not half a village worth’s?”
Harry laughed. “So, had I. But your grandfather had other ideas.”
“Grandfather does have the best ideas.” Sigi laughed. “How many smials do we need?”
Harry turned to the hobbits. “Lady Isadora? Lady Adelaide? Are you prepared to share a smial, until we can build yours?” He asked the two older hobbitesses.
The two exchanged glances and Isadora spoke. “That’ll be fine, Master Harry.”
“Thank you, ladies.” Harry turned back to Sigi. “Four, if we have them. One for the Burrows, Squire and Hattie, preferably the nearest to the ponies. Squire is an animal tenderer and Hattie is expecting their first child around Yule.”
“Oh, nice, we need someone to keep the ponies in line.” Sigi grinned. “And faunts? Lovely, we need some of them, running around. The place feels a little empty without them.”
“Agreed.” Harry nodded. “A larger smial for Jonah, Laura, Micah and Lena, if possible. They’re siblings and Jonah is a crop farmer.”
“Grand, I think we’re too late for a harvest, this year, maybe he can set the ground ready for the spring, but I’m not a cropper, so I’ll leave that in his capable hands.”
“Same here.” Harry agreed. “Next are Stonag and Lorenna, their family will also be growing over the winter. Oh and Stonag is a baker.”
“Well, he’ll have to tell us what he wants, as far as baker’s ovens are concerned. We can’t build them if we don’t know.” Sigi nodded.
“And the two ladies are Lady Isadora Wellgate and Lady Adelaide Grant. As you heard, they’re prepared to share a smial, for the moment. Lady Isadora is a weaver and Lady Adelaide is a seed-starter.”
“Oh, brilliant, we need seedlings so badly.” Sigi sighed in relief. “And Missus Wellgate, you say? I think I have a couple of vests made from Missus Wellgate's brocade, I know papa does.”
“I have a few pieces of her fabric, that I bought last month, all we need is a seamstress and I might even get to wear them.” Harry said.
“Ah, well, good news?” Sigi said. “Gorbadoc sent his youngest sister, Cordelia, and her apprentice, Camelia Goodbody. Cordelia’s a seamstress and we’ve put them in the same smial, being two ladies alone, we felt it best to have them together.”
“Yes, I can understand that.” Harry agreed.
“And the dwarf?” Sigi asked.
Harry smirked. “Long story, that. Best wait for later, for now, he’ll stay in the big house with us. We’ll shove him in with Fred.” They’d extended the living space of the larger house, by opening up the attic and dividing it into two rooms, one for Colin and the other claimed by Fred.
“Uh, is that a good idea?” Sigi asked.
“Yep.” Harry grinned. “Let’s get the hobbits into their smials and then we can all relax for a bit.”
It had taken Harry less than an hour to unload the wagons, magic was a grand tool, if you knew how to use it, and he was only putting the furniture in the appropriate rooms, it was down to the occupants to place it where they wanted it. It was to be their homes… for a short while, anyway.
Then he and Cedric left Sigi chatting with the other hobbits and made their way around the edges of the soon-to-be village, to what Harry called the big house.
As the two wagons pulled to a stop, dwarves flooded out to greet them.
“Harry, sweetheart, you’re back.” Lily gave him a gentle hug and stepped aside, she knew that James and Sirius were waiting on their turn to greet him.
“Thanks, mum.” Harry pressed a quick kiss to her cheek and turned to face his father and godfather. “Hey, dad. Pads.” The two dwarves grinned at him and enveloped him in smothering hugs. “Oof, gentle, I’d like to keep my ribs in one piece.”
“So, what’ve you brought us?” Sirius asked subtly eyeing off the new dwarf, who pushed his hood back and exposed his face.
“Cedric Diggory?” Remus asked, eyes wide.
“Diggory?!” Fred squawked.
“What?” Colin asked.
“Professor Lupin.” Cedric nodded to the dwarf. “Weasley. Gryffindors.” He nodded to Fred, Lavender and Colin. “Mrs Potter, Mr Potter. Sir.” The last was directed at Sirius.
“Am I a sir?” Sirius asked. “Why am I a sir?”
~~~