Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch

Harry felt the pulling stop and he opened up his eyes. He had never been to this place before, he was sure. To the west was a little town, and farther away than that was a big great castle. 'Wait,' he thought. A castle, a town...he was by Hogwarts! Harry felt a rush of excitement. He had thought he'd been going to Sirius' old place, but he got to have a place near Hogsmeade!

"Professor Dumbledore?" he asked tentatively.

"Yes, Harry?" he replied, turning away from Harry's relatives who looked as though they were about to be sick.

"Am I going to be living...in Hogsmeade?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"Yes, you are. I am sure you are quite happy about this-"

"Will I get to live alone?" he queried, cutting off Dumbledore. His Headmaster's eyes twinkled even more.

"Yes, Harry, you will get to live alone."

"But what about us, you old fool! We are in need of his...services. My wife and I can't manage without him, you see..." Uncle Vernon butted in, lying through his teeth.

"Ah, yes. I have taken care of that, I assure you, I will ordering a house elf to accompany you in your home and take care of you. I'm sure that you will find it much better than having Harry around, After all, what with his magic abilities..."

"Of course, sir," Aunt Petunia replied shortly, putting the emphasis on sir as not to anger him. "We would enjoy that. But may I ask where we are living?"

"I have talked to the members of my little group and we have come to the decision that you will be staying in London where they can check up on you, to make sure you're doing okay with the housework and all. They are all perfectly kind people, and I must emphasize how important it is that you stay there," Dumbledore told them. Dudley shifted nervously, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon looked frightened while appearing to be holding back some awful comments.

"Yes, sir," Dudley said in a trembling voice. He was still scared as ever of wizards.

"All right, then. I am afraid you will have to make it to the town over there on your own as I have to set up Harry's little place right here. The road isn't long, and you can't possibly get lost. So off you go, and make sure to go into the Three Broomsticks."

"But sir," Uncle Vernon said, "I don't see any towns. There's only a factory over there."

"Then wait for me there. I shan't take more than an hour. Good-bye, Dursleys."

Almost as if they were admitting defeat, they trudged mopishly down the road, walking about as fast as honey slides down a mountain. Harry had to stifle a laugh,

"That was hilarious, Professor." The old man smiled down at him, though the distance between his head and Harry's was growing shorter every time they saw each other. Harry, while he was still short, was growing quite steadily, having already gained an inch in the month. Dumbledore smiled, remembering the first time he had seen the boy in the Great Hall of Hogwarts.

"Why, thank you, Harry. I don't usually have an effect such as that on Muggles like them, however."

"Pity, that. They were scared witless of you. I think it's because of the one time Hagrid hexed Dudley and that time that Fred and George used their Ton-Tongue Toffees on him. Only Dudley would be stupid enough to eat them..." Harry rambled on with glee.

"Yes, yes, it's all great fun. Now, Harry. About the house. Nobody except you and myself can find this house right now. Only people that you or I tell the location will be able to find it, alike Grimmauld Place. It also has charms placed on it so the Ministry can't detect any magic used inside, as I trust you not to use anything you shouldn't. I, of course, know that you have been doing wandless magic this summer. What things have you been doing, anyway?"

"Just charms to lessen my chores. Summoning charms, repellant charms, nothing big. I'm surprised the Ministry hasn't sent me any owls yet. They sent me an owl for Dobby's Hover Charm before second year," Harry told Dumbledore.

"The Ministry can't detect little charms like Accio and Wingardium Leviosa very well, especially if it's wandless magic and it's not in the presence of Muggles. They only monitor more difficult magic such as the Patronus and Hover Charms, especially if it's in the presence of Muggles," the Headmaster explained.

"Oh. But how did you know about that if the Ministry didn't?"

"I have patrol charms and spells placed all over, around, and inside the previous Dursley household. I wouldn't have been able to 'head off' the Ministry last year about your Patronus so effectively if it weren't for that."

Another "oh."

"Now about your house." Dumbledore flicked his wand and said "Ostendo!" Then, from the bottom to the top, appeared a widespread bungalow. It had a pale green stucco on the sides, front, and back, and under the windows and on the pillars was a darker green. A small driveway appeared from where Dumbledore and Harry stood and led to the west side of the house downwards on a slope. The door was painted a deep green.

Harry was awestruck.

"Professor?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"Is this really mine?" he asked, nearly speechless.

"Yes. It's all yours. It cost a small sum, of course, but Sirius left millions of Galleons to you in his will. This is merely a small fraction of what you could have."

"Thank you...I can't express how happy I am," Harry said gratefully. He thought for a moment, then he spoke again. "How did you know green was my favourite colour?"

"Ronald told me. I asked him a few things about you. I also know that you hate whole wheat pasta and your life's ambition is to get back at Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy," Dumbledore replied, grinning.

"Speaking of Ron, who knows that I have a house of my own other than you?"

"Nobody other than your relatives. Ronald and Hermione do not know. Neither does Remus. I thought it would be better if you told them yourself."

'Dumbledore never fails to think of absolutely everything,' Harry thought.

"And, Harry, you'll find all of your school supplies purchased and your O.W.L. results are on the kitchen table. I have had a few spare rooms done up, customized to your friends' needs. There is nothing you need right now in that house, other than someone to live in it, of course." He stopped for a second, then continued. "I suppose I better be catching up with your relatives. I suppose they've only made halfway out of the little distance they have to cover. I'll see you later, Harry."

"Thank you so much, Professor. You have no idea how much this means to me."

"It's all I can do for you right now. Farewell, Harry, and do behave. I'll Floo Remus and tell him to pop by. Good-bye!"

"Thanks a lot, Professor! Good-bye!" Harry shouted, tears building up around his eyes while he waved rapidly.

As he saw the Headmaster swiftly walk down the lane, Harry approached the door of his brand new house with his trunk, not knowing what to expect. As soon as he touched the doorknob, he closed his eyes and turned it, pushing it in. With his eyes still closed, he stepped up into the front area. He opened his eyes. Before him was a magnificent expanse.

To the left of him was the living room. There was one loveseat, two single chairs and one three seat sofa. All of them were green, but there were some red and gold accents. The walls were a cream colour, as was the carpet. In front of him was a hallway, leading to the kitchen and other rooms. There were numerous hooks and racks for shoes, and a talking mirror was hung on the wall right next to the door. He peered into it.

"You're looking a bit peaky, dear," the mirror told him kindly.

"I know. Do you have a name?" Harry asked in the same manner as the mirror.

"No. Should I have a name?"

"I think you should...how about...Aurora, seeing as you're a girl?"

"I like that name. Alright, then. I'm Aurora. You're Harry?"

"Yes. This is my house now. Dumbledore is such a nice man," he mused.

"Mm, he is quite the man. Has enough heart to love every person on the planet."

"That's true. I'm going to check the rest of the house out," he said, walking down the hall with his trunk. On his left past the living room was a small bathroom consisting of a toilet and sink. He kept going on to find an slight angular turn on which a door was across from him and to the right a little. 'This must be my bedroom,' Harry thought excitedly. He turned the gold lion's head doorknob (the lion had a lightning scar, which was a dead giveaway to Harry that it was his room) and walked inside. It was amazing.

To his left was a lovely wooden dresser with a large mirror attached to the back. The handles on the drawers all appeared to be pure gold, and Harry wondered just how much money Sirius had willed to him if this house had cost 'only a small fraction' of the money. His four poster bed was chestnut, the sheets were red, and the quilt was gold. The red sheets shimmered dimly, and Harry felt them. 'Silk,' he thought. It was so soft, and it would keep in cool in the summer. Across from the dresser, on the other side of the bed was a large, almost square oval. Harry peered over at it and could see that it was a Jacuzzi tub. He nearly died of shock when he found a gigantic shower just to the right of it, built right into the wall. Harry had never known such luxury. When Hermione saw this, she would have a conniption. He had a WALK IN closet full of highly expensive clothes that even Draco Malfoy would be jealous of. Half of his shirts were silk, he has cashmere sweaters, formal and casual pants, everything. He had shoes of every type and every colour. His robes were bottle green, wine red, black, gold, every suitable colour. Accompanying them were many clasps, including one that looked like a dog and one that looked like a stag. Harry smiled faintly at the symbols of his father and his best friend. Trust Dumbledore to be somewhat sentimental.

Leaving his so-called closet (which was more like a room than a space for clothes), he decided to go find the fireplace and Floo Moony himself. He really wanted to talk to him, see how he was coping with Sirius, and see if he wanted to come check out the house with him. Being alone in such a large house was going to take some taking used to. He left his room the way he exited (leaving his trunk beside his bed) and went forward instead of left (the way he came). There, he came to an open space. Going down was an elegant staircase, and another elegant staircase, joining at the bottom. There were five doors about ten metres from the bottom of the stairs, one labelled Ron, another labelled Hermione, and so on. At the bottom of the stairs to the right was a room labelled Theatre, and to the left was labelled Recreation Room.

Harry thought of himself lucky. Across the way on the same level as he was, he saw a fireplace with a small pot of Floo powder on the wall, with large puffy chairs surrounding it. He quickly walked around the railing that looked down on the fairly open basement and kneeled in front of the fireplace after pinching up some Floo powder.

"Remus Lupin," Harry said clearly. For a second, he thought it hadn't worked. But then he saw a face in the fire.

"Hello, Harry," Remus said, grinning. "You howled?"

Harry chuckled at the joke. "Hey Moony. What's up?"

"You can guess where I am, I suppose. Ron and Hermione are here, though I think you know that too. It's been awful, Harry, you haven't missed a bit. We finished taking out that old hag last night and we're all resting peacefully without the constant shouts of Mudbloods and Werewolves..." Remus told Harry, telling him all about how boring and stupid it had been at Grimmauld Place. Once he finished, he asked Harry, "Do you want to talk to Ron and Hermione?"

Harry grinned sheepishly. For a while he had forgotten about his two best friends. "Sure, Moony. Put 'em on." Then, you could see Remus turn his head, obviously calling for Ron and Hermione.

"What do you want?" Ron asked grumpily. Harry snorted at the obviously sleepiness in his friend's voice.

"Hey Ron, you lazy lout. You don't want to talk to your favourite best friend?" Harry teased. Ron looked blank for a second.

"Oi." Pause. "Oi! Hermione, Harry's in the fire!"

"Hey Ron," Harry said.

"Hey, Harry. What's up? How've you been? Where ARE you? I sent Hedwig back to the Dursleys and she came back with the letter that she waited so long for. You great prat, she isn't happy with you, you know," Ron replied.

"Hi, Harry! Oh, I missed you SO much! I haven't got my books yet, and it's so boring here with stupid Ron and the rest of the Order. Watching Fred and George do magic and play pranks is so annoying, I wish we could do magic at home..." Hermione ranted for about half an hour about her boredom and how bloody stupid her boyfriend was. She and Ron had "hooked up" back at Grimmauld and Hermione said that Ginny said that Mrs. Weasley said that it was so lovely how her son finally had a nice girl to keep him company (Ron blushed as Hermione told him this).

"...and Dumbledore Floo-ed here just before you did. He told us to tell you that he's picking you up tomorrow morning at nine, says there's business at the ministry. He also said...he said to make sure that you disguise with the charms in the book on the kitchen table with the rest of your things. You don't want attention drawn, he says. Anyways, where are you?"

"I'm...Dumbledore said not to tell. It would spoil the surprise."

"You dirty bugger! I ought to yell at you," Ron chided. "Mum says we have to go eat lunch now. She made bacon sandwiches, I love those. So, I'll see you Harry!"

"Yes, Harry, good-bye!" Hermione said.

"See you," Harry replied, as the faces faded from the fire and the flames diminished.

Created: 09/25/03

Uploaded: 09/25/03