Aunt Mini

Hermione, Ron and Harry walked downstairs to have lunch, Harry greeted Arthur Weasley, Charlie, Bill, Fleur, Fred, George, Percy and Ginny, but he made sure to treat Ginny as he treated everyone else. He saw her confusion but acted like nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

‘So how’s Hogwarts coming along Harry?’ Arthur asked.

‘Getting there, I mainly help outside unless I’m talking to professor McGonagall.’

‘Yeah, Harry said he spends a lot of time with her,’ Ron said.

‘I never knew you were so close to Minerva Harry,’ Molly said.

‘I wasn’t, well, the truth is we couldn’t tell anyone because it could have put her in danger.’

‘What are you on about mate?’ Fred asked.

‘Okay, we said after the funerals we’d tell everyone, but Minerva McGonagall is my great aunt, my father’s mother’s sister. Dumbledore believed it would have been too dangerous if they found out I had living magical relatives. But when aunt Mini started as a teacher they decided to keep it quiet as they knew my father would be a student one day and they didn’t know each other, so my father would never pick up on the fact that professor McGonagall was aunt Mini.’

‘I understand the danger, but wouldn’t your father recognise her?’ Bill asked.

‘No, she hardly saw the family and until my father became a student, she hadn’t seen him since he was five. Aunt Mini said I could explain, she never got on with my grandmother, they actually hated each other so aunt Mini only visited occasionally. It’s been great getting to know her as family, we’ve been talking a lot and since I don’t have other family we’ve become close, she tells me what she knows about the family, what she remembers but also about how my father was as a student.’

‘I’m sure she could tell you a lot Harry, but you do have family, your aunt, uncle and cousin,’ Molly said.

‘I know you think all family should be close Mrs. Weasley, but I don’t want them as family, not after the way they treated me. All that had to do was show me some type of affection instead of cruelty and I would have treated them as family, even helped them out financially, but they can go to hell for all I care. From now on I have aunt Mini, she’s all I need. So I’m going to buy a house in Hogsmeade so we can stay close, but I’m having a room at Hogwarts, right beside hers until I decided to leave.’

‘Just from the way you sounded and the looks Ron and Hermione gave you, it seems there’s more about your muggle relatives than just not giving you enough food,’ Arthur said in his normal fatherly voice but also a voice that said he wanted an answer.

Hermione and Ron could see Harry wouldn’t answer, ‘They beat him dad, made him work all day with no food or water, he had a lot of trips to muggle hospitals. Harry didn’t want anyone to know because he got enough sympathy about his parents,’ Ron said.

‘Then why did Dumbledore make you stay with them?’ Charlie asked.

‘Harry had a blood protection Charlie, when his mother died protecting him it gave him that protection but only if Harry stayed with his mother’s blood, Petunia Dursley,’ Arthur said.

‘Dumbledore explained that to the order of the phoenix because your mum wanted me to live here,’ Harry smiled at Molly Weasley who smiled back.

‘Dumbledore knew magic most people don’t, I don’t know much about blood magic,’ Charlie said.

‘Not many people do, it’s very rare and if you find out about blood magic you need to be powerful to perform the spells,’ Arthur said, ‘We understand why you feel that way Harry, so let’s forget your muggle relatives, you have us and now you have an aunt who cares about you.’

‘Yeah, I do. Aunt Mini is going to stay with me during holidays, we like spending time together. But after I finish my last year we’re going on a holiday together, overseas, spend a month away before she needs to return to Hogwarts and I start work, something different to what I thought.’

‘Blimey, imagine going away with McGonagall,’ George said.

‘You’re thinking of her as a teacher, she’s Harry’s aunt so it will be a nice holiday with family,’ Molly said.

‘Yeah, it will.’

‘Now about what you said, work, we thought you wanted to be an auror?’ Arthur asked.

‘Not anymore, I just don’t want to have that as my life, fighting dark witches and wizards, done enough of that.’

‘So what are you going to do then?’ Hermione asked.

‘You might find this hard to believe, but I want to train as a potions master. Aunt Mini explained more about it, Sluggy can take me on for three years to learn the basics after Hogwarts, then I have to train for another seven years under a master, Sluggy’s not a master just good enough to be a teacher. If I do good working under him he will be able to sign me off to a master who will continue my training. It’s hard work and it’s not something most want to do as you have to dedicate your life to learning everything there is about potions and ingredients, so you don’t get much time for a personal life.’

‘So Sluggy is just good with potions but he’s different to Snape?’ Ron asked.

‘Yeah, Snape is a potions master, he did his three years under Sluggy then went overseas to become a master, Dumbledore explained about that.’

‘But he was a death eater, how did he study potions with Voldemort?’ Ron asked.

‘Voldemort wanted a potions master as a servant, so he supported Snape’s career. Dumbledore said that Snape as a young death eater and master could make him dark potions, poisons, whatever he wanted and being a master you can get hold of ingredients that no one else can. It’s the masters that invent all the potions healers use, the rare or hard to get ingredients gives them more to work with that’s why they can invent new potions. That’s what I want to do.’

‘I know you did well in potions when you had that book Harry, but when you used the official book you were average, sorry, but how could you become a master when you weren’t that good?’ Hermione asked.

‘That book showed me what a master can do, Snape’s corrections made those potions work and his instructions were easy to follow. Remember that first potion I made for Sluggy, the draught of living death and it was perfect. I found out that Sluggy showed Snape without telling him who made it and Snape said it was as good as he would make. So even though I’m good at defence and fighting, which is all my father, I’m also good with potions which was my mother. Now I don’t have to worry about what Voldemort is up to I can concentrate on learning, plus I won’t have Snape as a teacher since he’s headmaster. Sluggy might get annoying but he’s a decent teacher.’

‘So back to being the potions prince,’ Ron smirked making Harry laugh, ‘No matter what you do mate, you always get given a name. You will never be just Harry like you always say, I’m Harry, just Harry.’

‘Yeah, what are they, the boy who lived,’ George said.

‘The chosen one,’ Fred said.

‘The potions prince,’ George said.

‘Undesirable number one,’ Fred said.

‘The saviour of the wizarding world,’ George said.

‘Witch weekly’s most eligible bachelor,’ Fred and George said together making Harry scowl but all the Weasley kids laughed apart from Ginny.