Let's Try That Again Redux - Chapter 6

There was something different when he got back. He had been gone for most of the day. His time with Sirius, even in dog-form, was still precious to him. They had spent quite a few hours in muggle London too. That way Sirius was able to walk on two legs rather than four.

The first thing that Harry noticed about the house was how clean it was. Not just the dusting and vacuuming, but all the extra junk had been removed. Ugly furniture, except for Vernon's chair, had been replaced by better quality items that looked like they were made in the last couple of years rather than a decade ago. The second thing he noticed was that they had redecorated his room. Unlike in the past, when that meant locking his school supplies away, they had added it to the décor around the house. A Gryffindor banner hung on the back of the door and a few of the pictures from his album were now nicely framed and placed around the room. Not only that, but he saw a few new pictures as well. Photos of Lily growing up were added not only to his room, but to the hallway as well.

Harry felt that same punch in his chest. A large lump formed in his throat. Tears clouded his vision.

"Do you like it?" Petunia stared at him with an expectant, nervous look in her eyes.

Harry couldn't speak. He nodded as tears began to stream down his face. Petunia wrapped him in a tight hug. She kissed the top of his head.

"We have so many years to make up." She whispered. "So many years."

Harry looked up at the sound of Vernon clearing his throat. The man had red puffy eyes and was dabbing them with a handkerchief.

"Sorry." He smiled at them. "I didn't mean to startle you. These blasted allergies just snuck up on me."

"I know something that will help." Harry untangled from his aunt and pulled Vernon into a hug.

"Nope." Vernon managed to croak out. "Just getting worse. I think I need to lie down."

Harry nodded. He wiped his own tears as he looked over at Dudley. His cousin shook his head.

"I'm just made of sterner stuff." Dudley puffed out his chest.

Harry patted him on the shoulder. Dudley practically yanked Harry off his feet, pulling him into a hug. His cousin began to cry the loudest of all.

"Blasted allergies." Dudley managed to say. "Dad had the right idea. Need to lie down."

"Of course." Harry cleared his throat, trying to get the lump to leave. "Allergies are horrible this time of the year."

Petunia watched her son hurry up the stairs. She sighed. "The Dursley men have always had strong..." She smiled. "Allergies. It's good to see Vernon acting like himself again."

"Are you going to be okay with me living with Sirius?" Harry asked.

Petunia took a deep breath. "It will be an adjustment, but yes. He needs you as much as you need him."

"I'll make sure you're protected." Harry said firmly. "I'll add more protections and wards before I leave. It would be a good idea to put some on your car as well. Maybe craft some personal charms too."

"That's for another day." Petunia beamed at him. "Get settled in your room and we'll figure out what to do for dinner. Vernon's doctor wasn't happy."

Petunia nodded. "We have started taking walks around the neighborhood each night. Unfortunately, we've had to adjust our diets some."

Harry winced. He could remember the summer of half-melon lunches and soggy salad dinners.

"Nothing too drastic." Petunia chuckled. "Less red meat, more greens, and one glass of wine at dinner."

"Thank Merlin." Harry sighed. "I didn't want to have to sneak out to get good food."

"Harry James Potter." Petunia tried to sound stern but compared to her old voice it was laughable. "Are you implying that I am a bad cook?"

"Of course not." Harry laughed. "I'm sure that whatever you cook would feed the garden quite nicely."

"Such cheek." She pursed her lips at him. "I was going to take it easy on you." An evil look crossed her face. "How was your year? Any girls we should know about? Is it time to have the talk about the birds and the bees? I don't think Vernon is up for it, so I'll have to. You see when a man and a woman-"

"Nope." Harry plugged his ears. "Not happening."

He tried to escape up the stairs, but his aunt followed right behind. Petunia cackled with glee. A shiver ran up his spine. Bellatrix Lestrange's laugh had nothing on Petunia.

"I give, I give." Harry turned on his aunt.

Petunia smiled triumphantly. The expression on her face softened.

"Did you have a good year?" She asked.

"Yes, actually." Harry nodded. "No one tried to kill me, I'm doing great in all my classes, and I was able to sneak onto the quidditch field every other day."

"You stayed out of trouble?" She pressed.

"Trouble usually finds me." Harry sighed and shook his head. "Yes, no trouble this year. I spent a good portion of my time in the library."

"That's wonderful." Petunia said. "Any girls?"

"I thought that session of torture was over." Harry groaned.

"That was pestering." Petunia corrected. "This is sincere curiosity."

"How can I say no to that?" Harry sighed. "No. No girls. I kept to myself this year. It was nice not being the center of attention."

Petunia scrunched up her brow as she looked at him. "Why would you be the center of attention?"

"I'm something of a celebrity in the Magical World." Harry explained.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but why?" She asked.

Harry closed his eyes. "The night my parents were killed, Voldemort tried to kill me too."

Petunia gasped.

"There is a spell, it cannot be blocked by magical shields and kills almost one hundred percent of the time." Harry pointed to the faded scar on his head. "Except it didn't work on me. When he cast it at me, it bounced back and hit him instead. Due to that, I'm the Boy Who Lived. No one considers that I'm famous for the night my parents were killed."

Petunia wrapped him in her arms.

"On top of that." Harry continued. "Someone decided to write a series of books about my life. Grandiose tales about me living in a castle, slaying monsters, and basically being the modern Merlin."

"We need to get you a solicitor." Petunia grumbled.

"I'll get it settled once things have settled with Sirius." Harry squeezed her and then let her go.

"Sirius?" Petunia asked. "Sirius Black?"

"You know him?" Harry raised an eyebrow at that.

"Of course." Petunia laughed. "He was a friend of your mother and father. I swear he would have swooped in to marry her if James ever messed up."

Harry looked down at Rook. The dog suddenly decided that he needed to be in another room.

"You certainly live an exciting life." Petunia shook her head. "Let's hope summer is simple enough to recover."

"I hope so." Harry took a breath and let it out. "It's been a long day. Did you want to get some take-away?"

Dobby popped in next to them. "No. Harry Potter sir and families be eating the dinner Dobby made." He crossed his arms. "Dobby heard Tuna. Healthy, tasty food. No take-away."

"Tuna?" His aunt looked at the elf.

"Pe-Tuna." Dobby pointed at her.

"Pe-toon-ya." She enunciated.

"Pet-Tuna." Dobby nodded. "Healthy, tasty dinner be ready soon."

"You've created a monster." Harry chuckled.

~§~

The Daily Prophet the next day was a wonderful sight. True to her word Rita had done a lot of research. She started with the basilisk attacks at the school in second year, then continued on to expose Tom Riddle as the summoner of the beast the first time. From there she chained the travesty of justice, Hagrid being charged with the crime without any real proof and transitioned it into current events. She had published a copy of the contract Sirius and the Potters had signed at Harry's birth. It didn't take long for her to discover that there hadn't been any trial. Each article came out at the first of the week. This provided time for the public to discuss the issues and do their own digging before she pushed on. She sent a copy to Harry before it was released.

Rita had exposed the multiple mishandling of justice. She had even turned her attention to the missing Wormtail without any prompting. Sirius escaping was starting to look less like a crime and more of a wrongfully imprisoned man trying to regain his freedom. The fact that Sirius was the Head of a Noble and Ancient House helped spur people into action.

Luckily, the Kiss on Sight order on Sirius had been recalled. Now there was a kindly worded request for him to contact them for further investigations. Fudge and his people were scrambling. During all this the Minister found himself without his greatest ally, the Malfoy family, had vanished. Their manor was stripped clean, even the wards had been removed. It was almost like no one had ever lived there in the first place. When Fudge sent someone to investigate the place hadn't been touched in over a month, which, was right about the time that Harry had met with Lucius at the start of summer break. Really, that was a footnote in the chaos that was unfolding.

The one thing Harry knew for sure was that he still needed a way to deal with the attack at the World Cup and the free Death Eaters. They were something tangible to focus on for now. Everything else would just have to come as it may.

Harry had taken to leaving copies of the paper out for Sirius to read. His godfather swapped over to his human form when the house was asleep. Harry didn't think that his relatives would tell anyone, but they didn't want to get sloppy. The Weasleys were due to come pick him up soon. He had a plan to deal to see who he could trust.

Finding out Molly and Ginny had been dosing him with Love Potions angered him on a level he could not properly explain. Thinking about Ginny led to thinking about Hermione, which then turned to all the lies he had thought were truth. How often did they alter his memory? When did they start? When did Hermione get in on it? Never once had he suspected Hermione to betray him on such a level. They had multiple children together and he couldn't even remember a moment they spent in each other's arms. That thought hurt him more than he expected. In some twisted way did she love him? Was that what started it all? Her loving him, but not being able to have him.

Harry had been focusing on Voldemort and the horcrux hunt. He had kept busy, not allowing himself to dwell on things. Those were tangible problems. He needed to kill Nagini, destroy the ring, and finally the necklace. Nagini being the most challenging. After that he could kill Voldermort. Once that was done, he would start on taking apart the Death Eaters. If he couldn't stop the war then he would need to come up with a way to kill the dementors too.

As much as he hated to admit it, he didn't spend nearly as much time with George after the war. If nothing else, they were the brothers he never had. Being around George was too painful. He needed to change that.

"Excuse me." Harry hurried to his room.

Harry quickly wrote out a quick note inviting Ron, Fred, and George to come over for a couple of days.

"Hedwig." Harry spoke softly.

The regal owl hooted.

"I have a letter I need you to deliver to the Weasley's." Harry said.

Hedwig ruffled her feathers and flapped her wings like she was forcing herself to wake up. She held out her leg for the letter. Once it was secured she hopped over to the window then took off. An hour later she returned with a reply. They would be coming to visit for a day or two. Arthur insisted they take muggle means to avoid unwanted attention.

~§~

Strengthening a magical core was similar to working a muscle. It required time, dedication, and effort. The quickest way to do it was to drain every bit of magic out, as safely as possible, then let it refill. The only problem being that there was a fine line between safely draining a magical core and destroying it. Pushing too hard would actually cause it to shatter and kill the wizard or witch in the process.

Along with the same principle, but with more control, there was something akin to strength training. The environment also played a part. Using magic in an area full of ambient energy, like Hogwarts or Diagon Alley, was like using lower weight, while doing the same exercises in an area with little to no ambient, Privet Drive for example, was the equivalent of using much heavier weights. The lack of ambient magic meant the magical core had to replenish itself.

The fastest way to drain his magical core would be a quick workout of high-powered spells early in the day. Then, while his core recovered, Harry could turn his focus to his physical training. Keeping his body healthy helped things along as well.

Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. Not only would this draw a lot of attention, from the muggles in the neighborhood and the DMLE. They might not be able to track wandless magic, but the amount of energy he would need to dispel was significant.

Instead, Harry focused on small, precise wandless magic. Using a cutting spell to peel an apple and then summoning the seeds from the core, writing letters by directing the quill with his magic, and transfiguring random items around the house.

Petunia had found an old box of tin soldiers that they had bought for Dudley years ago. With a bit of concentration, Harry was able to animate the figures. It quickly became a game that took over the wide coffee table in the living room. There were three colors, one for Petunia, Dudley, and Vernon. They would instruct Harry how they wanted their troops to do, and then he would move them. The soldiers were limited to blades and arrows, their muskets and cannons worked a little too well. Vernon's chair had a spattering of burn marks now. They had also added a couple of old mugs, a bundled-up sock (much to Dobby's horror), and a stack of coasters to vary up the landscape.

Even with all that, it still wasn't pushing his magic as far as he needed. On a whim, Harry tried to change his hair color. Much to his surprise, it had worked. He wasn't a metamorphmagus like Tonks. She could change effortlessly with a thought. Any changes he made took considerable focus and magical power. This discovery led to a new evening ritual. Harry would spend about an hour in front of the mirror cutting his hair, changing the color, then growing it back out and returning to the natural shade. Once exhausted, he would shamble to his bed and pass out.

He didn't trust his skill enough to mess with anything more. Changing his bone structure, even the cartilage, was no easy feat. The skin was even more complicated. He did have success with his fingernails and toenails. Harry could trim, grow, harden, and sharpen them. Having claws at will was something he was going to keep a tight lid on.

Harry could already feel a noticeable change by the end of the second week. Just in time for the Weasley's to visit. Much to Arthur's joy, they took muggle transit to the house. Harry stood out on the front lawn watching as a cab pulled up in front. Arthur stepped out, a bit ruffled but still grinning like a loon, followed by a just as messy Fred and George and Ron.

"Hey, Harry." Ron smiled at him. "Are you sure your relatives are fine with us visiting?"

"Things change." Harry gave him a reassuring smile. "Trust me."

"And how much was that?" Arthur leaned back speak to the cabby.

Harry didn't hear the amount, but he did see Arthur hand the cabby a wad of cash. Considering the exchange rate from galleons to pounds, even a couple hundred was pocket change. The cabby quickly hopped out of the car and scrambled to help them unpack.

Arthur turned around to admire the Muggle neighborhood. He gave a wave to Mrs. Figg, which would have been suspicious, except Arthur then waved at every person he saw. The man was having a blast. Harry didn't even try to fight the smile that crossed his face.

"He's been grinning like a loon since we got off the train." George chuckled.
"It was the same as one of ours." Fred shook his head.
"Better graffiti though." George turned to his twin.
"Leagues ahead of the Express." Fred nodded.
"Might need to get a telephone machine to call all those numbers." George smiled.

His attention shifted to Arthur as the man began to approach the house. The man's broad smile began to faulter as he got closer. His foot came down just a bit too fast, causing him to stumble for a step. He stared at his sons, then Harry, and finally down at his hand. His left hand. Arthur's face scrunched up in grief Harry had only seen once before.

"He crossed the wards." Harry muttered.

~ ~

Author Note:
I'm cutting it here so I can go over the rest of this chapter again.