Chapter 1
Archie’s birthday on August 3 was a surprising affair.
Sirius’s birthday had been celebrated with a quiet family dinner at the Potter residence after which Sirius had insisted on taking Archie on a flying motorcycle driving lesson. Remus and Lily eventually convinced Sirius to only show Archie how to ride the bike on the ground. Sirius had insisted that Harry learn too (so that she could teach potential boyfriends how to ride a motorcycles when the time came). Neither of them had gotten the hang of it, the bike had fallen on Archie and Harry had crashed into a shrub.
James, who remarked without looking in the direction of the contraband bike, that he had an urgent report he needed to finish, had simply gone to his office and not surfaced until the now dented motorcycle had been carefully put away. Harry supposed a flying motorcycle was the sort of thing that Percy’s father at the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office would be fascinated with but reluctantly have to confiscate for destruction anyway.
Without saying anything to her, in July Lily and James and had decided that it was time to force Harry and Archie into some independence from each other. Or at the very least prevent future schemes. Harry had noticed that her time with Archie was being capped at half an hour after which Lily or James would call Archie away. She supposed that her parents had decided that the best way to prevent a revolution would be to separate them. After the first few times of being sent to do chores, Archie had started avoiding Potter Place. She hadn’t seen him since her birthday, unusual for cousins who grown used to seeing each other at least at dinner every day during the summer.
Harriett had however seen a lot of her little sister- it was amazing how frequently Lily Potter now needed a babysitter. Addy was becoming quite happy about being able to boss her older sister around. Harry had gotten almost used to the weight of Addy on her shoulders everywhere she went.
Harry had been told she would have her own birthday celebration and that she could choose a family activity. She didn’t have any friends she could invite other that Archie so she had decided to do something she had always wanted to do but Archie would never have agreed to.
Having her own birthday instead of a shared one hadn’t been terrible, she reflected. She had asked to go to a magical menagerie and then go for ice cream. James had looked so incredibly pleased about this childish request that she had felt almost guilty. She had noticed that everyone had avoiding giving her any potions related products for her birthday. Noting her shambles of a wardrobe her presents had been an assortment of new clothing including several pairs of formal robes which quietly concerned her-where exactly did they think she would be going to in dress robes? She’d only left the house four times all summer. New boots though, those had been exciting.
Sirius had then blind-sided them all with the news that Archie was going to have a pool party at 12 Grimmauld Place.
She supposed it made sense. Archie had been gone the previous birthday, volunteering in the Dorian Gap and Sirius was determined to make it up to him.
It was still a bit of a shock though visiting the house where she had spent a lot of her early childhood and see that it had been dramatically changed yet again.
Now that he had a son firmly aligned with the Light, Sirius had redecorated his family home. Gone were the green and silver colours, the house was now white and full of light, all skillfully enchanted to look natural. Windows had been expanded to picture sized and skylights were cut in the ceilings.
Pictures of Archie, wearing his own face were hung around the foyer. It was a bit shocking, almost all of the pictures had been taken in less than three months. Archies smiled at her, winked roguishly at her and snored at her from various frames. One Archie had even transfigured himself into a fox and was chasing his own tail.
The pictures in the hallway showed an eleven-year-old Archie posing with his father back to back in marching motorcycle jackets and identical expressions, a ten-year-old Archie smiling as he was presented with a ribbon at the closing ceremonies at the local junior Quidditch League and a nine-year-old Archie waving from the top of a tree. There were a series of pictures of Archie at various sizes, missing various teeth.
She winced. Not a single reminder of the time from when she and Archie had started school until the beginning of the summer. Four years of memories based on lies that Sirius clearly didn’t want to be reminded of.
Harry had been a bit worried for the snakes but Sirius hadn’t been able to part with them. They’d been transfigured gold and Sirius had carefully accessorized each one with a festive party hat. She poked at one and the hat did not budge. Probably a sticking charm. It honestly seemed a bit cruel but she supposed Sirius had thrown them in the pool two years ago so cruelty was rather relative.
She headed down to the potions lab that had permanently become a pool with Addy toddling beside her. In contrast to the enchanted ceilings in the rest of the house the potions lab ceiling was a night sky. Harriett remembered reading on the invitation that the birthday theme was “Light’s Out Luau” whatever that meant.
Addy was wearing a bright blue bath suit with pictures of dragons and enchanted water wings. Harry had left her shorts on top of her swimsuit and worn an old AIM sweatshirt of Archie’s for good measure. She wasn’t comfortable enough with her new appearance for a swimsuit just yet.
Lily, Sirius, Remus and James were already in the adult pool when they arrived. Harry looked around for Archie and sighed. Odds are he was planning on making a very dramatic birthday boy entrance a bit later. Addy immediately noticed that Sirius had charmed a kiddie wading pool for her complete with a very short water slide. She bopped enthusiastically at Harry who removed both of their shoes and picked her up, carrying her over to the wading pool.
“Weee!” yelled Addy as she went down the slide and into Harry’s arms. Harry, who was knee deep in the warm water, reached down to hand her a toy watering can and a bucket.
“There you are!” Archie came in to the pool room. Harry smiled at him. Archie was wearing gold swimming trunks. He had started to grow out his hair and even with it at an in-between stage of length looked incredibly handsome. “Natural hair is better than magical hair,” he had tutted at her when she had sped up the growth of her own hair.
“Is Hermione here yet?” Harry asked curiously. Archie just smiled at her.
“She’s just looking at the library. Dad thinks he’s sorted out everything really nasty in there but I better go back and check on her.”
Harry doubted that there could be anything there that Archie was more equipped to handle than Hermione. Archie probably just wanted some alone time with his friend.
“I’d go with you just to say hello but...” she nodded in the direction of Addy who was attempting to carry all the water toys at the same time and on the verge of tears of being only able to manage two or three without dropping the rest.
Archie winked at her and ran off, clearly not willing to miss a minute with Hermione even if it meant he was at the library and not his own birthday party.
She rolled her eyes.
Leave it to Sirius to throw a party for someone who didn’t want one.
Fireworks stared to go of overhead spelling Archie’s name in bright gold letters.
Remus came to watch her and Addy. She had placed Addy on an inflated raft and was towing her around the pool as Addy pointed and yelled instructions. “Well this is a change from the last time we were all here together.”
Harry smiled at him. “Well Addy is here and Hermione apparently. And Archie and I have different faces of course.”
Neither of them laughed. Harry supposed it wasn’t much of a joke.
“That duelling display from the last task of the tournament was a bit familiar I thought,” Remus said casually.
Harry was getting used to these kinds of comments from Remus. She knew he didn’t expect her to trip up but perhaps he was waiting for her to come clean on her own. “I’m sorry I missed it. I didn’t really leave the apartment unless I had to. Too many risks.”
Remus eyed her suspiciously. It was going to be a while before he looked at her any other way.
“Feeling ready for your OWLs tomorrow?”
Harry nodded. She had chosen to write five as that was the most she could write in one day.
“And your NEWTs?” Harry had asked for special permission to be tentatively scheduled for her NEWTs the that same week, pending the successful completion of her OWLs.
Remus eyed her oddly. “It would be strange I suppose to write exams in person when you haven’t done them before.”
Harry considered this. “Well my correspondence class had exams though it was a bit different. And my potions internship had in class challenges and on the spot questioning. So I’d imagine it wouldn’t be too shocking.”
She was hoping he would leave at this point but he sat down on the edge of the pool dangling his feet into the shallow water and gestured for her to sit next to him.
“You know, if you found yourself in some trouble, I hope you’d feel like you could talk to me,” he told her.
It was a bit of an odd thing to hear she thought in this ruined potions lab in a house that had been recently scoured of all memories of Rigel and all things Slytherin. She wondered if the irony was lost on Remus.
Harry smiled at him. “Thank you, Uncle.”
She eyed Addy attempting to go down the slide head first. “I better be getting back
to my sister though.”
They didn’t see Archie again or Hermione until dinner.
Hermione was as Harry had remembered her. Full of nervous energy and frizzy hair. She supposed in some ways the girl was her friend but it felt awkward to try and share her with Archie, especially on his birthday. She settled herself as far away from them as possible. Addy who had asked for and then received a comically large piece of cake from Sirius would not doubt keep her busy.
Sirius looked absolutely delighted that Hermione was there- the first friend that either Harry or Archie had every had at a birthday aside from each other. Harry tried not to take his delight too hard, well obviously Sirius would be pleased that Archie had a friend. Plus, Sirius had used Hermione’s visit as an excuse to rid the house of even more family heirlooms and he was positively gleeful talking about some of the horrible portraits he had burned.
At the other end of the table Hermione was excitedly talking to Lily about her work on the Fade and her very impressive end of year exam scores.
Archie and Sirius would be leaving early for America to sort out his return to AIM. Sirius had been loudly announcing for days that he planned to give Archie a red convertible and for them to take a road trip together. She wondered if America would ever be the same again after they were through with it. She also doubted that Sirius had a driver’s license anywhere in the world. Archie certainly didn’t.
“And how did you manage to convince them to take you back?” Hermione was asking Archie. “I of course had everyone write letters in support of you being allowed to return but the only response we got was that if was a private administrative matter.”
Sirius laughed. “Well it didn’t come cheaply. You’ll notice when you return that the Healing Library has been expanded and renovated when you get back to AIM Hermione.”
Hermione looked positively scandalized. “You bought Archie’s way back into AIM?”
Archie could see that the conversation was heading in an unpleasant direction and pivoted. “I’ll be writing my placement exams to see if I can return to fifth year in two weeks. I’d love to look at your exam review notes.”
And Hermione was off explaining her note taking system that involved different colours and something called Post-its. Harry could see Addy starting to yawn into her second piece of cake. As good an excuse as any to leave before presents were opened. She picked up her sister, waved at her parents and headed towards the floo. Archie didn’t notice.
It was a few hours later when she woke up to a loud poke in her side. Instinctively she reached out with her magic, “Argh Harry, it’s me.”
She allowed her magic to slowly come back to her. “Archie?”
“Yes you fat-head.”
Archie jumped into bed with her. She sighed. Only Archie would wake her up on the day she was writing her OWLs. He probably had completely forgotten about her exams with all the excitement of Hemione’s visit.
“What is it Archie?”
“Hermione went home. It was a bit of a long shot trying to convince her to stay the week because she had said she wouldn’t but I had thought she would at least want to sleep over. She wasn’t happy about the donation I think.”
Harry sighed. “Have you tried doing something to make amends for what you did?”
Archie paused. “Well I was fined-”
“Sirius paid the fine.”
“I was arrested and put in custody.”
“For about an hour.”
“I have to write my exams again.”
“You didn’t write them the last time. And Sirius is buying you a car once you get to America.”
Archie paused. “Well when you put it like that it doesn’t sound too good. What I need is a grand gesture. Why don’t you help me come up with something-”
Harry hit him with her pillow. “You can stay if you go to sleep. I have my exams tomorrow remember? And unlike some people my Dad won’t donate a library for me.”
Archie laughs before settling down to sleep.
OWLs were easy, almost to the point of being comforting. Harriett spent her morning completing enchanted booklet after enchanted booklet. There was a short break for lunch during which time she wasn’t allowed to leave the room and then she was back at it again. When James came to pick her up, still in his work robes she smiled at him earnestly.
“I really enjoyed that.”
He nodded at her. “Back tomorrow morning?” She nodded. All the practical exams were the following day. James patted her on the shoulder.
“I’m proud of you Fawn, I hope you know that. There’s not many students that could study by themselves for four years and come out of it a year ahead if not three.”
Harry thought she could almost hear pride in his voice. “You know, I think you can watch the practical exams if you like,” she offered hesitantly.
James paused thoughtfully. Harry remembered something Remus had said about her magic appearing similar to Rigel’s and wondered if James maybe just didn’t want to see her magic in action.
He patted her head. “Maybe your NEWTs.”
She nodded but wasn’t counting on it.
Harriett’s practical exams the following day moved quickly. She was pleased to see Ms. Marchbanks again though she supposed that Ms. Marchbanks barely knew her as Harry.
She demonstrated a perfect switching spell for Transfiguration, a summoning charm for Charms and a Bombarda spell and the Impediment Jinx for Defence. For Herbology she labelled and demonstrated repotting techniques for a table of unidentified plants. She had asked to complete her Potions practical last and finished her exams triumphantly with a beautiful Deflating Drought and a Pepper up potion.
Ms. Marchbanks invited her for a pot of tea after her exams. Harry had finished a full hour early but was hesitant. She had been told very clearly to stay put by James Potter. Senseing her hesitation Ms. Marchbanks laughed at her.
“I know both your parents Ms. Potter. I was there for your Father’s practical OWL exams and while he did manage seven OWLs he certainly didn’t manage it less than a week after turning 15.”
Harry smiled ruefully at her. “I would have taken a few more exams but I also wanted to take my NEWTs on Thursday.”
Ms. Marchbanks patted her on the shoulder. “Tea in my office then. We will have you back here before Lord Potter even notices you are gone.”
They step into a small office. Ms. Marchbanks conjures up a teapot and two cups.
Harry accepts one and sips her liquorice tea quietly.
Ms. Marchbanks eyes her with a curious smile. “You’ve done remarkably well Ms. Potter. I don’t think we expected any less of you but your work was thorough and confident. I can’t give you your results yet but I’m sure you won’t be surprised to receive our owl confirming that you can take your NEWTs on Thursday.”
Harry murmurs thanks into her cup. “I only needed the two exams for a Potions Mastery so it’s just Herbology and Potions on Thursday.”
Ms. Marchbanks sighed at her. “I wish you would reconsider. We could schedule you at least for Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts on Friday.”
Harry smiled at her. She has no intention of displaying advanced skills across a wide range of subjects.
“I don’t know that I would be ready for those two exams,” she says quietly. “I was thinking I would just do the two I need to continue to study Potions and then take correspondence classes for anything else I might be interested in.”
Ms. Marchbanks beams at her. “I didn’t doubt that you were a sensible young lady. Not even after that incident with the Rigel Black Child.”
She sighs at Harry. “It can be easy to get caught up in mischief at your age, especially when young men are involved. I’m glad that you stayed away from all of that foolishness and focused on your studies these last few years.”
Harry crosses her legs at her ankles and smiles sweetly at her. She was looking forward to coming back on Thursday for her last four exams.
No one is surprised by the owl that arrives on Sunday declaring that Harry has successfully completed five OWLs as well as two NEWTs with Outstandings.
Her parents had a lurid pink and green cake ready to go and invited the family for dinner.
As Sirius puts it, her accomplishment manages to be both exceptional and hopelessly mediocre at the same time. Sirius, James and Remus had all managed significantly more OWLs and NEWTs but then again they had been older and had the benefit of attending school.
As the dinner conversation turns to Archie and Sirius who would be leaving for America first thing the following morning. Harry wonders what’s in store for her. She doesn’t need to attend school and she’s barely been allowed to leave the house. Addy would be starting a nursery school in the mornings in September so she wouldn’t be needed to provide as much childcare.
She tries to raise the subject with her mother once everyone else has gone home. Lily only similes, “Your father has something planned for you. It’s a surprise.”
That sounds truly terrible.
Monday morning Harry wakes up to a bucket of cold water dumping itself on her head.
James is beaming at her from the doorway. “Get up Fawn, I’ve found you a job at the office.”
Harry groans and pulls the wet blankets over her head.