Harry Potter and the House Divided

Chapter Three "A Will, Three Letters and a Howler"

Much as he might have been expected to be exhausted by his first Occlumency lesson and the emotional rollercoaster that had come with it, Harry was unable to sleep that night. Conflicted feelings about having Fleur in his head and his responses to her as a woman kept him awake well into the night. When added to the overwhelming grief that he felt every night when he had the time to think about Sirius' death and the feelings of isolation that were a natural part of living with the Dursleys, he wouldn't have slept well even if he'd played an eight-hour game of Quidditch earlier that day.

With all of this on his mind it was not surprising that Harry was already awake when an enormous grey and brown bird appeared at his window and began to peck at it ferociously. He quickly jumped from bed so as to get the large letter tied to its leg before Uncle Vernon could wake up and yell at him for his "Ruddy Mail Deliveries".

Harry had never seen such a bird and would not learn until much later that it was a 'White-Tailed Sea Eagle'. Once he had taken the letter from it the bird accepted a handful of Hedwig's owl treats while sitting on his window sill. Once done, it manoeuvred around so that it was facing toward the side yard and took off with a tremendous flapping of its wings-which Harry guessed must be at least seven feet in span.

The envelope that he received was of an unusually high quality parchment and sealed with wax that had hardened with age. The seal held an image of a large pot or cauldron on some kind of stand that seemed to be containing a plant and a great deal of water. Harry didn't recognize the plant and thought that it might be a muggle variety as Madame Sprout who was his herbology professor at Hogwarts was extremely thorough in her lectures.

The envelope was simply addressed to Mr. Harry Potter. The seal gave nothing away and the front of the envelope told him nothing beyond the fact that it was addressed to him. The back, however, told him something about what its contents might be.

It read:

'Department of Endowments, Estates and Trusts

Howard, Marbury, Vance and Zabini, solicitors.

Harry's heart nearly stopped when he read this. It had to be Sirius' will or at least something from his solicitors about how Sirius' money was to be divided. Although part of Harry continued to hope that Sirius would come back through the veil and prove everyone from Professor Dumbledore to Nearly Headless Nick wrong in their belief that he was dead, the passing days without word from his godfather were forcing Harry to face the probability that Sirius had died.

This letter was the final straw for him and he collapsed on his bed, muffling his sobs with his pillow as he grieved for the man whom he'd come to love like a father and yet not known nearly as well as he wanted to.

After some minutes, he brought himself under control and with a shaking hand, opened the letter. It's contents shocked him as much as Sirius' sudden appearance in his room would have.

There were three pieces of parchment, one with the solicitors' seal, another detailing a long list of things that he realized must be accounts and property and the third was a detailed letter.

Harry, not sure what to do with the solicitors' document or the list, decided to read the letter first.

October 26, 1981

From: James and Lily Potter

To: Our much beloved Harry

Subject: Your inheritance--financial and familial.

Harry

We have no idea when you may receive this as we have just laid out a listing of the property and other trusts that belong to you for the solicitors before going into hiding from Lord Voldemort. That list is on the accompanying page and we hope that we have been able to see you grow up and shown you all of the places, things and memories that it contains. More importantly, we hope that we have been able to give you the love and joy that you have brought into our lives in a way that we never could have imagined when we learned that we were going to have a baby.

If, as we fear, we have not been able to see you grow up, we want to tell you how much we love you. The money and other effects that we have left may help you along in life and if they do, we are glad that we could give them to you. We ask you to remember that they are only money and to respect them as such and not allow your head to turn too much because you have been fortunate with respect to your wealth. Family is far more important and if trinkets and bawbles are all that we have been able to give you, we are equally sorry that we could not be with you as you grew up and became the wonderful wizard that we are both confident you will be.

If you have received this letter before your seventeenth birthday, your godfather Sirius Black is dead. Others have been asked to look out for you but Professor Dumbledore is the only one with legal power to care for your needs in the wizarding world. We ask you to treat him as if he were your great great uncle. He is not related to you but he is very well respected in the magical world and has promised to look after you as closely as he can. Our solicitors are very reliable and will work with Gringotts Bank to oversee your money until our deaths or your seventeenth birthday, whichever comes last. You may access reports on those investments and change them if you want to subject to recommendation from an adult of your choosing until your seventeenth birthday. The accompanying parchment has been charmed to show the current value of everything that we have bequeathed to you and will act as a legal record of your assets anywhere in the wizarding world.

If you are reading this, we both want you to know that we love you more than you can possibly imagine and are very sorry that we haven't been able to be a bigger part of your life. We hope that you will have had the chance to know and have fun with Sirius and Peter, they are both good men and we trust them implicitly. We hope that Remus is still serving the light and if he is, he is as trustworthy as either Padfoot or Wormtail. If not, Sirius, Peter or Professor Dumbledore will have done everything that they can to help you deal with him should he still be alive and a danger to you. Sirius was selected as your godfather, but you have no godmother as we could not decide which of the many wonderful people that we could have asked to be that person should have that role in your life. We are sure that Sirius will have done everything to care for you and loves you as much as we do.

We desperately hope that you have had a happy childhood with us and that you will never receive this letter but if you have, we want you to know that we are watching over you at all times and love you more than you can possibly imagine.

Love

Mum and Dad.

Harry was wrong when he'd thought himself cried out when he'd believed that this letter must be from Sirius. He wept for his parents, for the lies that Peter had told them and the horrid consequences that they had, not only for his parents but for Sirius and most importantly for him. He cried for not knowing what a loving family was until he met the Weasleys and for the trust that he had lost in the man that his parents had told him he could believe in above all others who were now left to him. It seemed to him that he cried for hours and in truth it was a very long time before he slept, exhausted by an emotional hurricane whose eye he had barely reached.

* * *

The next morning, Harry was awakened by an owl pecking at the back of his neck. Barely conscious, he rolled over, nearly squashing the poor bird.

It was immediately obvious that it carried yet another important letter. The thick parchment carried a seal depicting a wrinkled elf head with the words 'Toujours Pur' inscribed around it in extremely beautiful calligraphy. The seal and motto told Harry that it must come from the new head of the most noble house of Black.

Remembering how painful reading his parents' letter was for him, Harry was not sure that he wanted to look at this one. However, another owl swooped into his room at that very moment, and Harry realized that today was going to be one for reading mail--all of which would probably not be from friends.

After accepting both of the letters that the nondescript owl carried with it, Harry sat down to read his mail.

The first document proved to be from Andromeda Tonks.

Dear Harry

I know that you've never met me and after dealing with my sisters you are probably not sure what to think of me. As my daughter has doubtless told you, I am married to a muggleborn wizard named Ted Tonks who has brought me great joy in ways that my pureblood family never thought possible.

Although I am not involved in matters as deeply as Nymphadora is at the moment, I fully intend to change this and help Professor Dumbledore in any way that I can as soon as we can speak on the matter. Dora has also told me that Sirius was close to you and although I never understood him well and believed that he was guilty of contributing to the deaths of your parents for a long time, I am very sorry that Sirius is dead and even sorrier for you that you must now face life without yet another connection to your parents. I believe that you know that he loved you and them very deeply. I can not replace him and would never hope to, but do want you to know that I will be available to you in any way that I can be now and in the future.

Most Respectfully

Andromeda Black Tonks

Harry was still too emotionally exhausted to evince much of a response to Andromeda Tonks' letter. Not knowing what else to do with it, he put the letter aside for when he could give it the thought that it deserved.

The second letter of the morning proved to be from the young woman whom Harry would always thought of as "Tonks", no matter how many people from that family he ultimately met.

Watcher, Harry!

Sirius left me a letter at the house and asked me to keep an eye out for you this summer. Since it's likely that I'll be seeing you for ... other stuff in any case, I'm happy to do it if you want me to. I know that I'm not Sirius (and thank goodness for that as I think I'm far better looking than the old boy was at his best), but I think he hoped that you'd have someone around who was a bit older than you that you could talk with about things. I'm happy to help in any way that I can and want you to know that although he's asked me to take over as guardian that I'd rather think of it as being something of a big sister.

Send me a note with Hedwig and if it's OK I'll get Dumbledore to set things up. If you're not OK with this that's fine but Sirius says that otherwise Dumbledore will have sole responsibility for you. Sirius thought that this would be bad for reasons that you'll see in his letter. I'm not sure that I agree with him, after all, Dumbledore is the greatest wizard of the age, but Sirius always thought of you ahead of everyone else so I'm happy to do it if you want me to.

As soon as everything's in hand, I'll be over to see you and we can figure out how much of a big sister you want.

Take care and don't do anything that Fred and George wouldn't.

Tonksie

Even with the comment about Fred and George, Harry couldn't help but be angry at the letter, though not at Tonks herself. It was clear that Remus couldn't be his guardian but why not? After all, Harry was at least somewhat comfortable with Remus and he knew that Sirius trusted the last of the real marauders to take him on. More than that, Harry knew that Sirius was aware of his friendship with Remus and was pretty sure that Sirius would have wanted him to have someone who cared about him around to help if Sirius wasn't able to.

The third letter of the morning explained this although not to Harry's satisfaction.

Dear Dora

I'm hoping that you'll never get this letter and more importantly that you'll never have to forward it on to Harry. If you're reading it I'm dead. If you're forwarding it to Harry then Remus can't be his guardian because of those damnable laws that passed the ministry this year.

I can't tell you exactly why I want you to do this only that it may be the most important thing you do in your life. Please look out for Harry and if he'll accept you, take over my role as guardian for him until he is seventeen. Albus Dumbledore will look after his legal needs and can represent him before the ministry or other officials as needs be but he also needs someone who will take care of him in ways that I don't think the Headmaster knows how to anymore.

Harry needs to have fun, he needs to be carefree at least some of the time and he needs the freedom to be a young man..., whatever that means for him. Professor Dumbledore wanted him to grow up and have as much of a normal childhood as possible, but in making sure that he lived he's nearly choked Harry's spirit.

You've got a great sense of fun and I need you to make sure that Harry has at least some of it in the next couple of years. I'm not sure why Voldemort is after him but he is and I don't think that he'll stop until either one or the other is dead. Hopefully it'll be that bastard but either way, Harry's life is pretty bollocksed and he needs all the help at having fun that he can get. He also needs chances to become something other than Dumbledore's pet and/or prisoner, depending on the day. Molly Weasley is too afraid to let Harry learn the things that he needs to and Arthur can't go against her, no matter how much he tries. The rest of the order are too much in awe of Albus and there's no one else who I can turn to that I trust to help Harry become himself.

If you take this on, please take as much time with Harry as you can and give him all the attention that he needs from someone who isn't named Weasley or under the protection of Harry's headmaster.

Sirius

This letter explained a few things at least, and Harry supposed that if someone had to look out for him Tonks was as good of a backup plan as Sirius could make since he didn't want Mrs. Weasley to do it. Personally, after the year that he'd had he could understand why Sirius didn't want Mrs. Weasley acting as his guardian. With her responsible for him he might never have learned about the prophecy or any of the other things that Professor Dumbledore told him about after Sirius died. He knew that much as he might not want to have these things thrust on him it was better to know what he had to try to do than not. Something that Mrs. Weasley would have denied him much as Professor Dumbledore had. Thinking about Ron's mother seemed to have unusual effects this morning as Errol, the Weasley family owl, appeared at the window a smoking red envelope in its talons almost simultaneously with this new turn in the stream of Harry's thoughts.

It took Harry a minute to realize just what this envelope might mean. When he did he ran to the window, jerked Errol off the ledge and slammed the window shut so that the neighbours wouldn't hear the howler that someone in the Weasley family had sent him.

Knowing that it was far worse to let the thing go off than to wait for it to explode, he quickly slit the envelope open and sat back, horrified that someone in Ron's family would have been angry enough to send him a howler.

"HARRY!!!! HOW COULD YOU???!?!?" Mrs. Weasley's voice boomed.

"CRITICIZING PERCY LIKE THAT IN THE DAILY PROPHET AND JUST AFTER WE'D GOTTEN HIM TO COME HOME TOO!!!!"

Harry was too shocked to think much but he knew that he'd not said anything bad about Percy in the Daily Prophet. He'd not even talked with anyone from there since seeing Rita Skeeter at The Three Broomsticks in February and she'd been working for The Quibbler then in any case.

Mrs. Weasley's voice continued, booming with increasing force in Harry's small bedroom.

"PERCY HAS BEEN MISLED INTO MAKING SOME TERRIBLE MISTAKES. YOUR SAYING ALL OF THOSE HORRID THINGS ABOUT HIM HAS FINISHED HIM AT THE MINISTRY AND LEFT HIM NO PROSPECTS AS WELL. YOU SHOULD BE MORE THOUGHTFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT PEOPLE WHEN YOU TALK WITH REPORTERS. I'M VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU AND SO IS ARTHUR. I DON'T KNOW IF YOU WERE PLANNING TO COME TO THE BURROW THIS SUMMER BUT I THINK THAT ITS best FOR YOU TO SEE RONALD AND GINNY ON THE TRAIN ON SEPTEMBER 1ST. UNTIL THEN YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT BEING KIND TO OTHERS!!!!!!!"

Parting shot delivered, the envelope became a ball of flame, leaving a scorch mark and a few ashes on Harry's desk.

Unfortunately for Harry, the Dursleys had heard the howler. Moments after Mrs. Weasley had her say, Uncle Vernon came into Harry's room, face a deeper shade of purple than Harry had ever seen it before.

"What, exactly, was that racket?" demanded Uncle Vernon, moustache quivering violently.

"It was a howler," Harry said.

"A howler?" Uncle Vernon roared. "Like that barmy letter that Petunia got last year after those dementoids attacked Dudley?"

"Dementors," Harry said, mouth running ahead of his brain.

Whatever," Uncle Vernon said before turning back to the subject that brought him away from his Sunday mail.

"Why, exactly, did you disrupt our quiet Sunday morning with it?"

"I didn't disrupt...."

"It was in your room so you were responsible, boy."

"But...."

"I can't do anything about you this summer," Uncle Vernon said, moustache bristling. "You certainly deserve a good whacking for disrupting our peace this morning but after the... meeting we had at the train station I'll not do it. "But just because I can't punish you as I should doesn't mean that you're not on very thin ice at the moment. One more incident like that and you'll be out, I don't care what that freak told Petunia."

Harry, knowing that nothing would change his uncle's mind simply nodded, more depressed than he'd been a few minutes ago when he'd had reason to hope that his two months at the Dursleys wouldn't be as bad as they had been when he was younger. He now knew without doubt that it was going to be a very long summer on Privet Drive.