It was Saturday, and while Hermione would normally be spending her day with her parents it just wasn't possible today, her father had an emergency that he needed to help a patient with. Something about a night out, stairs, and too much alcohol. Her mother also had a bunch of paperwork she had been pushing off to spend time with Hermione. So there was no fun day trip this week, but instead she was given permission to invite her friends over for the day, on the condition that while they were in the house they would be quiet enough to let her mother focus on her work.
Hermione's mother drove them to the Leaky Cauldron so she could Floo Harry and Ron. However, Hermione decided she wasn't going to to kneel on the floor with her ass stuck out to a bunch of strangers in a pub, so she Floo'ed directly to Potter Manor instead, then after talking with Harry, Sirius and Uncle Charlus, Harry Floo'ed Ron and the three of them Floo'ed to London and joined up with Emma, who was waiting with the car.
Realising that she was playing host to three teenagers, Emma stopped by a supermarket on the way home and gave Hermione ten pounds and told her to go buy them snacks and something for lunch. Ron had never been in a muggle supermarket before and was almost overwhelmed by just how much food there was on display that he had never seen before. Sure, he knew his carrots from his potatoes but he had never seen curry or Mexican food, and while he could identify crisps from the images on the package he had no clue what corn snacks were. The biggest shock for Hermione was that he had no clue what a pizza was. That had settled what they were having for lunch, as far as Harry and Hermione were concerned. They did spend a few minutes debating toppings and deciding if they wanted to get one or two garlic bread baguettes. They also grabbed two large bottles of juice (Hermione's parents weren't fans of fizzy drinks and Ron hadn't really liked the idea of cola), a large bag of corn snacks, and a bag of unpopped popcorn.
Back at the Granger house, the three teenagers sat down in front of the TV and had a movie marathon. They watched Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Monty Python's Holy Grail. Harry and Ron had lucked out a little because Hermione's collection of tapes were years out of date, and so Hermione had to choose from her father's collection, which had a distinct lack of what Harry had heard of being called 'chick flicks.' Harry had enjoyed Star Wars especially, as he could easily see himself in Luke, an orphan sent to live with his uncle only to learn he had power and his father was murdered. Hermione was like Leia: smart, strong and sexy. Well, Hermione was more cute than sexy, but he liked her the way she was. Then Ron was definitely like Han: funny, loved to fly, and despite everything, when you needed him Ron was there to help.
Ron had a lot of trouble understanding Star Wars, not the story itself but the setting. The idea that they were flying between planets was completely new to him, and when Hermione had told him muggles had been to the moon his disbelief had Hermione lending him a book to take home with him. Ron did admit that the light swords were cool though, and had a much easier time with Holy Grail, as there was no technology in it that he couldn't get his head around and they all found the jokes funny. The boys enjoyed Raiders more than Hermione, but by the time that film had come on Hermione had seated herself across Harry's lap and the two of them were sharing a large bowl of popcorn, the pizza and garlic bead having been finished off some time about halfway through Holy Grail.
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When Harry got back from his day with Hermione and Ron, his grandfather and godfather had news for him. Apparently, while he was out the Ministry had sent the Potter family four VIP tickets to the Quidditch World Cup. It was an obvious attempt to buy some favour from them and try to convince them not to sue the Ministry for their complete failure to give Sirius a trial.
"So what if we accept the tickets we can't sue them?" Harry asked. "If that's the case I say send them back, Sirius deserves way more than going to see a Quidditch game."
Both Sirius and Charlus laughed at that. "Harry, the Ministry can't say that the tickets are so we don't sue them. That would be bribery, and Sirius can file his intent to seek reparations any time in the next decade. This is only a delaying tactic. We will string them along until they do something that we don't like, then we will hit them with notice to sue when it benefits us the most," Charlus explained.
"So we get to go to the World Cup?" Harry asked cautiously, not wanting to get his hopes up only for them to be dashed.
"Not only do we get to go, we get to watch from the top box, the same one the Ministers of each other country and a bunch of other VIPs will be sitting in." Sirius grinned, and the conversation then quickly turned to all the things they could expect at the World Cup.
Harry was surprised that there would be camping involved and was shocked when Charlus explained exactly what camping ment to a wizard. Wizarding tents sounded so amazing to Harry. Charlus described the family wizarding tent to Harry, and the only way it could be considered roughing it was when you compared it to the manor. The tent had six bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room that could seat twenty people at a squeeze, and a lounge to relax in. The tent was bigger than the four-bedroom Dursley house.
Harry was even told he could bring either Ron or Hermione as they had four tickets. That left Harry with a bit of a dilemma on his hands: who should he ask, his Quidditch obsessed best friend or his girlfriend? On one hand Hermione wasn't a fan of the sport, but she would enjoy the international crowd around the game, seeing how witches and wizards from around the world differed. Ron, however, would love to see the game itself. Harry honestly didn't know how he was going to choose, but he was eventually distracted from his dilemma by a simple question from his grandfather. "So Harry, your birthday is next week. What do you want to do to celebrate?"
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Harry didn't get to see Hermione and Ron again till their next lessons on Monday. He led them into the library as normal but he knew that Sirius wasn't going to be there for another ten minutes. "Guys, I have a couple of things to talk to you about." The nerves in Harry's voice were all too easy for Hermione to spot. Ron, however, was too excited about something to notice Harry was nervous, just saying "I got something to say as well once you are done, Harry!"
"Well the first one is easy, it's my birthday Sunday and you're both invited over. Hermione, I know your parents want you to spend your weekends with them so they can come over as well if they like. We are keeping everything pretty small, just friends and family."
"Of course I will be here mate. Wouldn't miss it!" Ron answered immediately. A smile broke out over Hermione's face as well, she was sure with her parents being invited as well she would get to come, if for no other reason than her parents' curiosity of where she was going every day and to see where Harry lived.
"The other thing is a little harder. Sirius got us tickets to the World Cup next month. But he got four tickets and I'm allowed to invite only one of you. I can think of good reasons to invite both of you and I don't want the one I don't choose to be mad at me."
Hermione quickly pulled Harry into a hug, kissed him on the cheek and said, "Harry, have you already forgotten that Ron invited us both to the Quidditch World Cup? Do we need to get your head checked?" She joked.
Harry couldn't believe it; he had completely forgotten that Ron had already invited him and Hermione, and he had accepted. His grandfather had been teaching him, Hermione, and Ron a little about manners and protocol in the wizarding world, but he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do now. Did he now go with his family or did he stick with the commitment to go with the Weasleys?
Ron burst out laughing at the two of them. "I really should have gone first, I was going to tell you that Dad got the final travel details while we were at Hermione's on Saturday."
Harry was saved from having to say anything because Sirius chose that moment to walk in, a slice of toast in his mouth that he was somehow able to speak around. "Wands out." He looked them over when they didn't immediately pull out their wands, as normally Harry and Hermione at least were eager to practice and even Ron usually wasn't this recalcitrant. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I just forgot that Ron had already invited Hermione and me to the World Cup, and I had accepted before you got the tickets from the Ministry."
"Ah I see. Well two points. I know you're not used to it, Harry, given how you grew up, but you really need to ask permission before accepting an invitation like that. I'll let it slide this once but don't let it happen again. Next, I will talk with Ron's parents and sort everything out, so don't worry about it." With that Harry was able to relax and get back to the lesson Sirius had planned, making a realistic illusion with sound. It was a brilliant exercise for visualisation that would be a big aid in Transfiguration, and it required precise wand movements with control over the flow of your magic. It would help in any wand subject, really, but more important it was fun and just Sirius's style for teaching.
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Harry's birthday was small and quite quiet. Ron and Hermione came, of course, as did Mr and Mrs Granger. They spent the morning in the manor just relaxing. Hermione showed her parents the room that was hers whenever she needed it, and they were happy to see that both Sirius's and Charlus's rooms were between Harry's and Hermione's rooms. Ron gave Harry a card signed by all the Weasleys, a box of cakes and pastries under preserving charms from Mrs. Weasley, and a new pair of Seekers' gloves that were enchanted to keep your hands dry so they didn't get slippery in less optimal weather.
Hermione and her parents gave him a stack of books. One was practical, a guide to charms you would use a lot in everyday life, such as a charm that would automatically sort your groceries and put them away. The rest of the books, though, were fun; Harry now had the complete Lord of the Rings book set and couldn't wait to read them. Sirius got Harry a complete brand new set of Quidditch armour in Gryffindor red and gold, and Charlus got Harry a new trunk that had multiple compartments in it, including wardrobe, library, writing desk, potions workstation, and general storage. It was also light as a father and would shrink down or return to full size with just a simple tap of a wand.
They spent the afternoon at the same zoo where Harry had talked to a snake for the first time. Apparently Sirius had spoken to the Grangers to find somewhere to take Harry, and they had recommended the zoo. As Harry hadn't told any of the adults about his previous trip, they had all thought it a great idea. Luckily Harry actually found it amusing and went out of his way to introduce Hermione and Ron to the snake. Harry had to explain the concept of a girlfriend to the snake, who thought the idea of a mate you weren't mating with was stupid in the extreme and encouraged Harry to just get on with it. Harry blushed a lot during the conversation, and quickly as he could he changed the topic. The snake told him about his trip outside and how it had taken the zookeepers three days to find him before they had put him back in his enclosure. Of course, he asked to be let free again but Harry refused.
At one point, Hermione pulled on Harry's arm and got the two of them intentionally lost. "Finally, I have been looking to ditch the adults for a bit all morning."
"Why?" Harry asked suggestively, having a good idea what his girlfriend had planned.
Hermione just grinned at him and pulled him around a corner that led to a staff-only area. They stayed on the right side of the door that barred the public from the back area, but they were out of sight. Harry didn't need any more prompting and pushed Hermione against the wall and pressed his body against hers. She responded instantly and pressed her lips against his. "Happy." Kiss. "Birthday." Kiss. "Harry." Kiss. Hermione said as she pulled at Harry's waist, encouraging him to press against her a little harder. Soon tongues started to explore each other's mouths, and the seconds quickly melted into minutes and then longer. Neither Harry nor Hermione had any idea how long they had been separated from everyone when suddenly they were interrupted by a loud fake cough, one that was in a suddenly scarily familiar voice. The two teens broke apart and turned to see Hermione's father standing there with a stern expression on his face.
"And the two of you think this is appropriate behaviour?" He demanded.
Hermione, though, was not exactly one to be meek and step down from a challenge like that. "Considering Harry is my boyfriend, we are both completely clothed, and stepped away from putting on a public spectacle on his birthday. Yes, I think a few minutes of snogging is completely appropriate." And she stood there hands on her hips staring down her father.
It became a contest to see which of the two stubborn Grangers would back down first, and Harry just felt awkward standing there between the two. He knew who he wanted to win, but he was a little afraid to say the wrong thing and to not see Hermione again until the first of September.
"If suddenly disappearing without telling your mother or I is acceptable, you have forgotten a few things."
"I live in a boarding school. If I had to tell you before doing everything, I'd never get to do anything." Hermione argued back. "I'm not a little girl any more."
"It's still not safe for you to go off on your own."
"I wasn't on my own, I was with Harry."
Finally Harry had had enough, now he was annoyed. "Both of you, that's enough. Mr Granger, I do not appreciate the insinuation that I would let Hermione come to harm. She means the world to me and no one is going to hurt her while I'm around. Hermione, that's your dad who was worried about you. Do you realise how lucky that makes you? Both of you need to stop this."
It probably wouldn't have worked but for one line Harry said and because they were overheard. Both Hermione and Mr Granger were suddenly reminded that Harry was an orphan. Hermione realised that Harry would give anything for his dad to burst in on him and play the overprotective father, yet her response was to yell at her dad for being worried about her.
Luckily for everyone Mrs Granger heard the raised voices and found them before anything else was said. Hermione's mother was far more aware that her daughter was growing up. "See Dan, I told you they were fine."
"But they just disappeared and they were…" Mr. Granger stated but his wife cut him of
"They were doing nothing more than what Hermione and I have already talked about." Mrs. Granger said firmly, causing Hermione to blush a little. "Neither of them look like they were going to remove any clothes, so just drop it. Or do you want me to call my dad and let him set the rules on how we celebrate your birthday?" She threatened him.
"That's not what this is about, they went running off without telling anyone. Anything could have happened…" They all left to go find Grandfather Charlus and Sirius, the argument continuing in whispers until they met up with Harry's family, who didn't seem anywhere near as concerned as Mr Granger.
"Dan, I think you are forgetting that your daughter is a witch. There is probably nothing in this zoo except for me, Uncle Charlus, and Harry that Hermione isn't more than capable of handling herself. She may not be allowed to do magic normally, but she is allowed to defend herself in an emergency," Sirius reassured Mr Granger.
They continued around the zoo until the evening, when Charlus took everyone out to dinner. It was a very nice magical restaurant by the name of Ambrosia, apparently one of three magical restaurants in Britain that were considered high end and the only one in London, as the other two were in Cardiff and Edinburgh. Harry recognised a few of the other diners as members of the Wizengamot from Sirius's trial. However, he wasn't happy to see the Malfoy family already seated at one of the tables. Draco hadn't seen Harry or Hermione yet, and Harry hoped it would stay that way. If the blond daddy's boy saw Hermione, even he was smart enough to work out that Hermione's parents were with them and there was no way he would avoid making a scene.
The food was great, the adults even let each of the teens have a glass of wine with their dinner as it was a special occasion. They got to deserts before the inevitable happened; as the Malfoys left they walked past the table that Harry and his family were sitting at. And inevitably, Draco couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"Mother, father, if you are suddenly wondering about the smell then it's because there is a mudblood in here." Draco was wearing his customary sneer as he looked at them.
Harry, Ron, and Mr. Granger were all about to jump up and defend Hermione, Dan having worked out from context that this boy had said something disgusting about his daughter. However, Charlus was quick with his wand and froze everyone sitting at the table except him and Sirius.
Sirius stood up and at first addressed Draco's mother with a nod. "Hello cousin, it's been a while."
"Sirius." She nodded back to him.
Then Sirius turned to draco. "Draco Malfoy, for your uncouth behaviour in front of polite company, you are hereby disinherited from the Black family." As head of the Black family, what he said about the family was law. While it was true that Narcissa was a Malfoy now, her son was still in line to receive a trust from the Black family as an acknowledged potential hair. But that could be cut off purely on Sirius' say so, and if Harry was right Sirius had just done so.
Harry watched as what little colour that was in the faces of Lucius and Narcissa drained from their faces. Before they could say anything though, a pissed off Draco opened his mouth again. "You can't be serious! I'm the Black heir, the only heir, you can't just disinherit me!"
Sirius grinned and Harry didn't understand why until he said. "I can in fact be Sirius, have been all my life. But what makes you think you are the Black heir? You most definitely are not, or have you ever been. Harry has been my heir ever since he was born and I was named his godfather. While it's admittedly true that Harry is a placeholder until I have a kid of my own, you were at best second in line."
At that, Lucius Malfoy stepped in; he put a hand on Draco's shoulder to silence him and addressed Sirius. "Surely you jest. A half blood with no breeding, the heir to a noble House he has no blood tie to."
Now it was Charlus turn to speak, though he did it without standing up from his chair. "It's clear to see where your son got his prejudice from, Warlock Malfoy. You are, however, incorrect in your belief that Harry here has no tie to the Black family; his paternal grandmother, my late wife, was a Black from the main family line before she married me." The look he was giving the three Malfoys was enough to convey just how he felt about them. "And I would remind you that if you want to compare breeding, the Potter family is one of Britain's oldest magical families, with the creation of the Skele-Gro potion and the pepper up potion credited to us. Compared to you, a family that was run out of France for dealing in bad faith only a few hundred years ago, Mauvaise-foi. Kind of difficult to prove the veracity of your claim of being an old pureblood House when none of your bloodline can write or speak the original name of your family. Do you even know what it was? It's not like your father could tell it to you." Charlus sat there and tore the Malfoys down while casually sipping on his glass of wine.
Narcissa, sensing that her family had lost that battle and that any more would just see their names dragged down, directed her family to leave. Once they had left Charlus released them all from the spell that had them all just sitting there. "Sorry about that, as much as he deserved it, if Harry had punched that brat like he looked like he was about to, then it could have escalated quickly. And Dan, if you had so much as yelled at the boy, his father would have gotten the aurors involved. That would have been a disaster. There is enough anti-muggle prejudice that the best you could hope for is to have all your memories of the magical world obliterated and Hermione taken from you under the guise of it being to save her from the vicious magic-hating muggle. I didn't have time to stop just those two, so I had to use one spell to hit all of you."
Dan didn't look happy at being frozen like that, but once Charlus explained the consequences that he was protecting the Grangers from, he understood and thanked Charlus.
"What was that bit about them not being able to say their true family name?" Hermione asked out of curiosity.
Charlus chuckled. "Oh that's an old story. Back during the French Revolution there was a family of magicals that tried to play both sides. The details aren't important, but they were caught out and a bunch of wizards on both sides called a short truce to deal with the traitors. They cast a bloodline curse that made all of them only able to call themselves Malfoy, from the French Mauvaise-foi which means bad faith. I believe the idea was to give everyone that the family dealt with fair warning of just how treacherous they were. The family was then kicked out of France and unfortunately came to England."
"What was that bit about disinheriting the boy?" Emma asked.
Sirius answered that one. "It's an old Black family tradition. Potential heirs are given a trust fund of ten thousand gallons when they come of age. Uhh… a little under fifty thousand pounds." He said after doing a quick bit of mental maths. "The idea is to see which of the heirs is better at managing money, and from that to see who is the best to take on the role as the family Warlock. Uh, head of the family," Sirius added, seeing Dan and Emma's confused look at the term Warlock. "Basically I took that away from him."
"Fifty thousand pounds, just because he was a little rude?" Emma asked, shocked at the numbers involved.
"It's not enough," both Harry and Dan said at the same time, causing Hermione to laugh as the two of them looked at the other surprised.
"Not just a little rude. Extremely rude. He basically said Hermione had dirty blood because you and Mr Granger are not magical," Ron explained.
"Mum, there is a section of the magical world that has a very…well, racist view, and I as a first generation witch am the equivalent of a black girl. Worse, I'm a black girl who gets better grades than their kids. What that boy just did was the equivalent of calling out that word, in the middle of a very nice restaurant," Hermione explained.
Sirius picked up where Hermione left off "It's extremely uncouth behaviour, but it's also the mindset behind it. Being a Warlock of a House gives you a lot of legal clout in our world, so by cutting him off like that I am preventing someone with that mindset from wielding that influence against people like Hermione. Basically the boy showed he was completely unfit in my eyes in what was probably the most effective way possible."
The conversation was interrupted by a waitress who brought over a tray of desserts for the table. Considering that they were already eating their desserts they thought there must have been a mistake only for the waitresses to explain. "These ones are on the house. A lot of the staff here are first generation witches and wizards. The Malfoys are…not pleasant to serve, but part of the job is that we have to remain polite and courteous to all the guests. Seeing them put in their place like that has turned a long day of work into something worth remembering. Enjoy your desserts. They are something new our pastry chef is working on and aren't available on the menu yet."
Their waitress excused herself to go deal with the other customers and they finished up their desserts. The second dessert was absolutely delicious, and they all made a point to give their feedback for the chef when the waitress came back with the bill. Harry couldn't be sure, but he was sure his grandfather also left quite a generous tip, assuming the coins in the small bag he handed over were mostly galleons and not sickles. All in all, despite the few bumps, Harry could honestly say that this had been by far his best birthday ever.
-ϟϟϟ-
The next two weeks were routine. Harry, Hermione, and Ron spent their days learning and goofing off in Potter Manor. Sirius taught them Charms and Transfiguration, Charlus taught them Potions and etiquette, and even Professor Lupin got in and gave them all a few lessons in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Both Harry and Ron were presently surprised to find that they did a lot better at Potions when they had a teacher who actually explained why something was done the way it was.
Charlus also made sure to teach them three charms every potioneer should be using regularly. The first spell was a charm to clean and reshape your knives between chopping up ingredients. It would prevent cross contamination of ingredients and it made slicing a lot of the ingredients easier. The second spell was the Bubble-head Charm, to prevent them from breathing in the fumes from anything they were brewing. It was simple, and Harry could think of a few times this spell would have saved Neville a trip to the hospital wing - he was going to have to teach the boy these spells as soon as they got back to school. The third was a modified Protego that only let the caster add anything to the cauldron it was cast over if they were deliberately trying to add it to the Cauldron. It was meant to prevent you accidentally dropping an ingredient into your cauldron at the wrong time, but the three teens realised it would be perfect for preventing Slytherins from throwing random ingredients into their cauldrons from across the dungeon.
After those two weeks, the excited teens were getting ready to leave for the Quidditch World Cup final. Their trip was early in the morning, so Hermione got to try out her room at the manor for the first time. Harry did try to use his invisibility cloak to sneak into Hermione's room like they had arranged that evening, but he was still caught by his grandfather, who sternly told him to go back to bed with a reminder that the cloak was a family heirloom and that he was a lot better acquainted with its use than Harry was.