RELATIONS

Chapter VI

Thursday, July 4, 1996

"How did you learn the Mu . . . the right way to paint a house?" Harry asked Edward the next morning.

"I did my advanced training in New Orleans. I rented, and then bought, a small house. While I had some help on the inside, I took care of the outside. It was fairly interesting. I could have hired it done of course, but I thought it better that I learned." He lowered his voice. "Most Dark Wizards in the last two hundred years have been similar to Tom Riddle -- what most people would call racial supremacists. Over the last few years, though, a new type of criminal has started growing up; more like your typical Muggle crime families. I heard Riddle has been having some problems with them; many don't have the prejudices against Muggle-born, and the ones who do don't like coming in second to Riddle. They don't like having Aurors snooping into their business, either."

"I don't see the connection."

"You're learning survival skills; being able to live in the regular world gives you lots of options. Even something as simple as painting a house is something that most Pure Bloods would mess up. You may be hiding, you may be tracking down the new criminals, you may just be fleeing fame. No matter what, you can fit in."

"True. I hadn't thought of that."

"No one can think of everything, Harry. That's why, unless we're unfeeling or extraordinarily selfish, we feel guilty."

"Knowing we shouldn't feel guilty doesn't make it easier to live with," Harry said, thinking back to his own feelings.

Edward helped Harry move the ladder to the next upper storey window. "True. I have lots of regrets myself. I wish I could at least go back to the day before . . . I don't know how I could have convinced James, but I would have tried. I wish I could have been here for you this last year. I wish I had been with you and Sirius last month." Edward's face hardened. "There are even more scores to settle now."

"I know. If we could have . . . destroyed Voldemort a year ago June if not before, so much would have been better."

"Of course, there still would have been lots of evil in the world," Edward mused, "but I have a hard time believing it would have been worse."

"And if we could have stopped him Eighty-one, Sirius would still be alive, maybe never would have been sent to Azkaban, even if Mum and Dad were still killed."

"True."

"I wish we could have met before this," Harry said.

"I know. I'm sorry, Harry. I should have been here for you. Even if you were still stuck here for part of every summer; even if we had to keep it secret -- I should have been here. I am sorry."

"I know." Harry sighed and stepped on the ladder. "I'm sorry I didn't ask about you."

"Well, we Potters are a sorry lot. I'm sure Petunia would agree, wouldn't you?" he called out suddenly.

Harry heard a window close abruptly. Then another noise distracted him.

"Have any of the enemy been seen?" Harry knew it was Edward's voice, but it sounded stranger than the question. Looking, Harry realized his uncle was talking to a grass snake.

"No adders have been seen," replied the soft hiss. "All others are clear."

"Thank you. Be careful of the owls."

"You're . . . you're a Parselmouth!"

"Of course. All Potter men are; or at least most of us. I understand you are, too."

"Dumbledore thought . . . it was a power Voldemort . . . well, that He somehow shared with me."

"Dumbledore doesn't know everything about us, Harry. Since many people mistakenly believe it's a Dark Gift, we tend not to reveal it. It's possible Voldemort's powers reinforced yours, but that's all." Edward looked at his cousin. "If you're willing to take it seriously now, I can work with you on your Occlumency this summer."

Harry flushed. "Yes, sir; this time I'll really work on it."

"You've had a rough thirteen months, Harry. No need to be ashamed."

Harry decided to change the subject again. "Are you an animagus?"

"No. I thought about it, but decided not to. Self-transfiguration will have to do."

"I thought those weren't too difficult to detect."

Edward shrugged. "The more powerful the wizard, the harder it is to detect." In rapid succession, he turned into a bird bath, a bird feeder, three types of sun dial, and finally a small flag pole waving both the Union Jack and Gryffindor pennant. He popped back. "The real key is to fit into your surroundings. If you do, only a slight aura can give you away, which most wizards can't see without casting a spell, and which most others who can see it won't notice unless they really take notice of little things around them. It's also harder to detect in sunlight. If you blend in, they probably won't notice." He turned into a very out-of-place Louis XV love seat for a few seconds. "See?"

Harry laughed. "Can most wizards do all that?"

Edward looked at his nephew, suddenly very serious. "Why do you ask?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. I've never really seen many adult wizards outside of school, except the Weasleys. I don't know how adult wizards act in private. Maybe that's a type of wizard parlor game."

Edward laughed. "It might be a fun game at that!" He sighed. "Harry, in our society, the position you hold is dependent on many factors. In rising order: your aptitudes; your friends and associates; your job and/or wealth; your character and personality; your family; and your power. Arthur Weasley is considered a crank, because of his obsessions with Muggle technology -- he should have been transferred out of his job and gone on to higher rank, but he loves it too much. His friends are odder than he is. His personality and character are of the highest order." Harry had felt himself getting angry; this last statement appeased him a little.

Edward went on. "However, he's so friendly that people forget he's also a very strong-minded individual. He has no money and his current position is in one of the lowest ranking parts of the Ministry, even if he's the Head of the Department and therefore outranks 99% of all Ministry officials. The Weasleys are, however, a fairly old family -- more than a thousand years old. And most Weasleys are fairly powerful wizards. The Malfoys, on the other hand, are a few hundred years younger than the Weasleys and generally a pretty nasty lot. And that nasty, bullying manner doesn't win them friends, but it does bring them a somewhat fearful respect. They're one of the wealthiest Wizard families in Britain, and they generally produce equally strong wizards as the Weasleys -- with wizarding families of a few generations, you can generally predict the range of power anyone born into them will fall into, although there are always exceptions in either direction. Potters are richer than Malfoys, although we don't flaunt it. We're more powerful, and we sometimes flaunt that. But you, James, and I are three of the ten or so most powerful wizards in Western Europe in at least the last two hundred years, Harry, maybe the last thousand. Dumbledore and Voldemort are the only two that could nearly equal you and me in terms of raw power."

"Nearly equal?"

"Nearly equal. Now, remember, there's more to magic than mere power. Power is not the same as talent. Dumbledore's also a bloody genius at every branch of magic, so far as I've heard, and Voldemort was, too. I fought my way to twelve O.W.L.s and twelve N.E.W.T.s, and just barely made four of the N.E.W.T.s, the same as your Dad. On the other hand, James probably was the second best Transfiguration student in the last two hundred years, after Dumbledore, and I was the best Charms student in Hogwarts history. We were pretty great in Defense, too, and I think you might end up out-stripping us both there. To answer your question, no, most wizards couldn't do what I did as well as I did it, in the time span I did it in."

Edward took a deep breath. "Don't think I don't have much respect for Arthur Weasley, or Weasleys in general. I . . . well, I'm . . . I've secretly married Carole Weasley, one of Arthur's cousins. We still have to tell the Weasleys, so don't tell anyone yet."

"Warlocks are allowed to marry?"

Edward smiled. "Once we're full-fledged warlocks, we can date and even marry. What we can't do is torture, use major magic for personal gain, or participate in pure government work. We can work with Aurors, or as a temporary Auror, but can't be Aurors, for example."

"But Dumbledore was removed as the Chief Warlock by the Ministry. . . ."

"Being a Chief Warlock is much like being an Ambassador. Both the Warlocks and the national Ministry have to agree to it. When the British Ministry removed Dumbledore, the Warlocks refused to appoint anyone else. He's back now, of course."

"And does this mean you couldn't have skinned Uncle Vernon, right?"

Edward made some exaggerated facial expressions, pretending to think about it. "Well . . . that wouldn't be torture for pleasure, profit, or information. We can torture as punishment, but it's frowned upon."

"You said the range of power a wizard will fall into can be pretty well predicted by who their parents were. How about Muggle-borns or mixed-bloods?"

"We don't know exactly how Magical powers are passed on. It almost has to be genetic, of course, but beyond that?" He shrugged. "Usually in wizarding families the genes match up; sometimes they don't and you get a squib. Most Muggles probably don't have any genetic disposition towards magic. Those that do are most likely descended from squibs -- less than one out of every 1,500 people are born with powerful enough magic to be trained, maybe five million to maybe five an a quarter million world wide at the moment. You'd need to match up squib-descended Muggles to get a Muggle-born, and even the Muggles can't identify the genes responsible. Most Muggle-borns have pretty weak powers; most so weak they are never even informed of about our world. Most of the time, their powers lie in things like Divination and the abilities to see auras, ghosts, and magical plants and animals. Still, sometimes you get people like your dorm-mate Dean Thomas; a Muggle-born with moderate powers." Harry frowned.

Edward carried on. "Marrying a pure-Muggle is chancy; you don't know for certain that they have squib-genetics, and it might not match up. Most mixed marriages produce squibs."

"How do you explain Hermione Granger, then? She's a Muggle-born, not a witch or wizard known in her family, and she's more powerful than I am!"

"She's more talented, Harry, not more powerful," Edward corrected, "just as I'm more powerful than Dumbledore, but he's much more talented. Remus, Filius, and Dumbledore have all mentioned her. She's obviously a genius, and she's fairly powerful. Statistically, she's a fluke -- she's the second most powerful Muggle-born at Hogwarts in the last sixty years or so. Lily was almost as bright, equally talented, but slightly more powerful."

"But she had magical great-grand parents; Hermione didn't."

"They're somewhere back in her ancestry on all sides, but who can tell how far back?"

"So Malfoy's right? Blood matters?"

"Heredity matters, but it's not the over-whelming, decisive characteristic that people like the Malfoys like to pretend it is. If it was, they wouldn't be following a half-breed like Tom Riddle."

"True," Harry admitted. He smiled. "I told them all He was a half-breed; I wonder if any of His followers are wondering about that!" He climbed down the ladder and Edward and he moved the ladder on to the last of the four upper-windows.

"Probably not; they're a pretty gullible lot." Edward shrugged. "What else can I tell you?"

"Tell me about Carole."

"Carole is six years younger than me; she apparently had a major crush on me her first year, when I was Head Boy. That makes her . . . ten years older than you, a year younger than her first cousin Charlie."

"You knew Bill and Charlie?"

"Bill was a Fourth year, Charlie a Second in my last year. I only knew them fairly well because they both played Quidditch. Carole and her older sister Joyce were two of the three children who survived childhood of Arthur's older brother, Bilius. Bilius Junior was a year ahead of James, and was killed the summer of 1981."

"Survived childhood?" Harry was puzzled.

"The Weasleys of Arthur's parent's generation were even poorer than Arthur's family are now. There were eight sons, four who died young. Jacob, the oldest, and his only son raise puffskeins for sale. Not a very lucrative profession, but one that the Weasley's have followed for several generations. Bilius. . . ."

"Died after seeing a Grim."

Edward shrugged. "That's the belief anyway. I still think it was the train that hit him after he got drunk because he'd seen the Grim, but I'll never say that to a Weasley, and neither should you."

"I won't!"

"Arthur was the seventh son, and the youngest, Ronald, married a Muggle. They and their children were both killed by Death Eaters in 1980."

Harry's hand shook a little. "Did they all have red hair?" Harry asked, mostly for something to say.

"Remember when I talked a little about genetics yesterday and today?"

"Yes."

"Some wizarding families do seem to defy the laws of genetics as we know them. Male Weasleys always breed red-haired male children; not all the girls have red hair unless their Mum's were red-heads as well. Male Potters have this stupidly wild black hair. Malfoys have light blond hair. Dumbledores always have blue eyes. Crabbes and Goyles. . . ."

"Are always big and stupid?"

"Big anyway. Only the last three generations have been rather . . . dim. Anyway, Joyce and Carole are both tall and slim, maybe 165 centimeters or so. . . ."

"How tall?"

"A little over 5 foot 6. Joyce has rich auburn hair, and Carole has copper hair and blue eyes. Carole won some scholarships to a Muggle red-brick University, just like Joyce. They both studied archeology, and were junior members of the expedition to Chad. Joyce was two years ahead of me, and restarted a relationship with George Posy, a Ravenclaw who was Head Boy three years ahead of me."

"Where does Carole live? It doesn't sound like she lives with you."

"They're both at Jacob's. We need to wait until you decide if I come back as Edward Potter or not to announce our marriage."

"Voldemort knows who you are, right?"

"Right. Only the press doesn't know yet."

"Then I'd like my adoptive uncle back, please." Harry started climbing down the ladder.

"Really?"

"I've lost Sirius, I need you and Remus." Harry looked up at his 'uncle,' his brown thatch so much like his own. "Get rid of that brown hair, though. You're not Hermione's cousin, you're mine."

"Thank you, Harry. We might not make the official announcement of who I am until September First, but we'll have to meet with Carole soon."

"Babysitting me sort of interrupted your honeymoon, huh?"

"Sort of," Edward admitted. "You're worth it." Harry and Edward exchanged the extension ladder for a step-ladder. Dudley, finally out of bed and dressed, came out the front door and took off down the street.

"Poor boy," Edward muttered.

"In what way?"

"It's one thing to be overweight -- over a quarter of all the Muggle children are overweight in many industrialized countries any more. It's another to be obese when you're an adult. Hard to slim down. But to be that obese at his age, boxing or no! If he makes it to forty-five, it'll be a miracle."

Harry went back to painting, while Edward talked of Carole and Potter Place.

4 July

Dear Luna, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny:

I didn't really think I'd be writing so soon. I met someone yesterday I didn't know of -- Edward H. Potter, my first cousin once removed. Maybe you three heard of him (if so, why didn't you mention him?), but I hadn't (I know, Hermione, I'm sure he was in those books you kept telling me about). It turns out he's been living under an alias; Edward Harold. Yes, Hermione, that Edward Harold, the archeologist. That might have to stay secret until school starts -- he'll be the new Runes teacher. Don't get a crush on him, Hermione (just teasing).

He showed up yesterday morning. We spent yesterday talking and doing some clothes shopping. We spent today talking while I painted the trim (he claims it will reinforce the magical protection here faster, and that I can leave after it reaches a certain strength, hopefully before my birthday). I'll be weeding the lawn by hand tomorrow.

The Dursleys weren't too happy to see him. However, it turns out he paid off their mortgage and paid the money for my Muggle schooling and Hogwarts. Uncle Vernon's business isn't doing very well (Ted claims it would have gone under if it wasn't for Vernon's hard work, guess the git is good for something besides yelling at me), and so he also managed to buy a little bit of the business. When Uncle Vernon needed money to invest in the business, Ted's agents gave him another mortgage on the house here. Uncle Vernon understands money, and that Uncle Ted has it.

Apparently the Potter family has a family estate (Remus Lupin lives in a game keeper's cottage there). Whenever I'm freed from here, I can go to Potter Place, Remus' cottage, or the Burrow (if your parents will have me, Ron and Ginny) -- Ted told me that 'the club' where we stayed last summer is off-limits to non-members. If it's either of the first two, all four of you are, and Neville, welcome to stay all or part of August with me.

Ted knows the twins of course, and of course Carole and Joyce Weasley were on that last expedition with him. I gather he's rather taken with Carole. Can either of you (Ron or Ginny) tell me anything about her?

He gave me this duplicating quill, so I only have to write this once.

Harry

4 July

Dear Professor Dumbledore:

As I am certain you are aware, my cousin is visiting me daily at the Dursleys. I really wish he'd been able to be in my life sooner, although I am aware you believed otherwise, and prevented him from being available to help me.

He asked that I inform you that he will be teaching under his full name, and if you have any objections to the press releases for the expedition using it as well to let him know. I hope to spend August either at Potter Place with my two remaining adoptive uncles Ted and Remus (and if possible with Ron, Hermione, and perhaps Neville, Ginny, and Luna for part of that time) or at the Burrow (or both).

I shall be visiting Jacob Weasley's puffskein farm on Sunday, but will return here Sunday evening. Edward stated that this might be a good time for have the wards tested to see how soon I might leave, and what types of chores might further strengthen them.

yours
Harry Potter