Thicker Than Water: Year Six

Chapter 8 - Back to School

The rest of the summer holidays flew by for Harry. After his vacation with Remus, Bill started working on legilimency with him.

"Legilimency isn't simply the flip side of occlumency, it's more like a continuation of the same thing. When you push me out of your head, you can in essence keep pushing until you get into mine," Bill said. Harry thought back to the time that had happened with Snape, and nodded his understanding.

After learning the wand movement, Harry took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind so he could concentrate on the spell. Pointing his wand at Bill, he said loudly, "Legilimens!"

Nothing happened. Bill had him try again. With short breaks and coaching between attempts, an hour passed and Harry was still unsuccessful. "Maybe I should just stick to occlumency - this doesn't seem to be my thing," he muttered.

Bill gave him a long look then said, "Remus tells me you've definitely been able to get into his head on one occasion this summer. It's not such a far cry from occlumency to legilimency and - I think for your own safety - you should have a few offensive tricks up our sleeves. Let's try a different tack.

"I've played quidditch with you, and I've heard my brothers' stories - you're an incredible seeker, right? Harry, have you ever played in a downpour?"

Harry nodded in surprise and Bill asked him, "How do you manage to find the snitch when the weather is bad?"

Harry thought in silence for a minute then replied, "I don't know really. I look around for it, and block out everything else..."

"Okay, Harry, here's what I want you to do. Try legilimency again and this time - look for the snitch! I promise I'll leave it lying around where you can find it," challenged Bill.

Raising his wand, Harry held the spell for a long time, his eyes closed and the intensity of the search equal to that of Seeking in a real quidditch game. Finally, he dropped his arm and shouted, "I've got it! I saw the snitch!"

"What colour was it?" Bill shot back with a gleam in his eye. Harry screwed up his face in concentration then called out, "Blue! The snitch was blue!"

"Now you're getting the hang of it!" exclaimed Bill, and he urged Harry to go another round. Over the remaining hour, Harry managed to "see" the snitch in Bill's head a few more times: once chasing Ginny, once in Molly Weasley's stew pot, once atop a Christmas tree in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. At the end of the lesson, Harry was exhausted, as though he had just played a real game of quidditch, and just as exhilarated.

"He's definitely worked it out," Bill later told Remus confidentially. "I actually forced the first image into his head, but it gave Harry the confidence to continue. It seemed to work: the rest of the lesson, he was able to use legilimency to see what I wanted him to. Now, we have to teach him to see things that I'm not explicitly giving him access to. But he'll need some practice."

Bill looked at the older man and Remus, taking the hint, grudgingly replied, "Okay, I'll talk to him and tell him I'm game. With advance warning, of course."

"There's nothing you don't want him to see, is there?" Bill asked. Remus shook his head and replied, "No, Harry's already got a handle on some of my better secrets. If he sees anything I've done for the Order.... well, we've all agreed to keep him in the loop anyway and I'm sure he can handle it."

Bill nodded and excused himself, saying that Fleur was particularly anxious these days if he came home too late. Remus unconsciously drew an image of Sinéal, and quickly put it away. He went off in search of Harry, to let him know he was a willing participant for any target practice Harry needed while mastering legilimency.

Harry made the most of his volunteer, and frequently tried legilimency on Remus. It became a bit of a game, with Harry clearing his throat in a certain way to warn that an attack was coming, and Remus trying to control what memories Harry had access to. Remus fed him some of the better memories he had of the Marauders, though it took Harry a while to get used to seeing Peter Pettigrew revelling in the friendship of the other three. In his less guarded moments, Remus let slip the occasional scene that had Sinéal and his sons in it, or of the lonely years that he spent without them, hungry, miserable, and unable to find work.

In addition, Remus was showing the boy more complicated hexes and shields. He promised Harry that they would start some duelling after he returned to school, at which time Harry should have a good repertoire of spells under his belt.

Dumbledore only came by a few times, to assess that Harry was doing alright and answer any questions he had. The old Headmaster was quite pleased with Harry's disguise, a little less so by the name but he promised Harry that with some diligence, an ordinary year at school lay ahead of him. He asked if Harry's scar hurt at all, or if had had any flashes of Voldemort's thoughts or plans lately.

Harry replied that he felt nothing at all, and Dumbledore was relieved, "You've come a long ways with your occlumency, Harry. I always thought you had it in you - Bill has told me that you're already better than he is, and that you'll soon be a better Legilimens as well."

"He has years of practice on me, how can that be?" asked Harry. "And how come Remus can't block me when I try to enter his mind - he's so talented at other types of defense!"

Remus blushed at the compliment.

"Yes, but as I told you at the end of last term, you appear to have inherited some of Voldemort's powers when you survived his attack as a baby. Legilimency and occlumency are not easy to do, but he was always accomplished at them both," explained Dumbledore.

"Sir, if I may, I'd like to know what's happening with Voldemort, and the Order," asked Harry.

"Well, I'm afraid I don't have very good news," began the old wizard. "Voldemort has convinced his supporters that you were finally defeated - and I think he believes it too. His lack of contact through your scar probably indicates that he's no longer trying to get at you, and your occlumency keeps his random emotions at bay. We think Voldemort has managed to recruit a good number of wizards, and there is an intelligence report that he is trying to free the Death Eaters captured at the Ministry from Azkaban. Recruiting the Dementors may be his next step. We found at least one of the guards at the Ministry who was under the Imperious curse, and are now subjecting the guards to routine checks. I only wish we had more Ministry support!" Dumbledore sighed.

Harry got angry and spat out, "Why isn't the Ministry on board? They saw what happened in June, when Fudge was forced to acknowledge that Voldemort is back!"

Remus shook his head and answered, "Minister Fudge is not a brave man, and is only powerful because of the position he holds. He has diverted great resources into protecting the Ministry and St. Mungo's, or into educating the public about how to make their homes more secure. But that's not the same as the intelligence gathering or intervention measures the Order would like to see in place."

With mounting irritation at the situation, Harry began to pace back and forth across the library. Dumbledore interrupted his thoughts softly, "Harry, for the time being we are dealing with this - with Voldemort's plans and with the attitudes at the Ministry of Magic. There are many people outside the Order who share our concerns and are actively supporting some of our initiatives. It isn't your burden to bear."

"Oh yes, it is!" snarled Harry through gritted teeth. Dumbledore just said, "Later, Harry, later. We've bought you this time so we can all make our preparations. For the time being, I want you to settle into as normal - and as cautious - a routine as possible once school starts. Speaking of which, you will have to go to Diagon Alley soon to replace all your school supplies."

Remus looked up and said, "I'll have to take Sean too. We can go together just before term starts, and that way I can also deliver Sean onto the Hogwarts Express."

"No," Dumbledore said quickly. "It wouldn't be prudent for you to be seen in public too often with Harry, somebody might work out who he is. You know precisely whom I'm referring to, Remus."

Harry thought for a moment about who that could be when he realised with a jolt that Dumbledore was talking about Peter Pettigrew. They had, after all, both been very good friends of his dad's. He asked, "Are you going to go with me, if Remus can't?"

Dumbledore shook his head and suggested Kingsley Shacklebolt instead. Harry looked up in surprise, "Does he also know I'm alive?"

"No, he doesn't. But having him take you will give you a chance to test your disguise in public, and around someone who isn't a stranger. If anything happens, Kingsley is an auror and can respond quickly to any situation."

"Besides," added Remus. "He's black, and so are you. You're less likely to stand out - anybody who sees you will just assume you're related. Should I ask him for this favour, Albus?"

"I think it's best if I don't appear to take too much interest in Leo," Dumbledore agreed. "How about his cover story? Perhaps we could say that your parents went to America for work just before you were to have started at Hogwarts, and that you have just returned."

Remus nodded, "Yes, Tonks could meet Harry afterwards, disguised as his mother. What if Kingsley asks about the work your dad does?"

"Let's just tell him my dad died, which is why we returned to England," suggested Harry.

Shrugging, Remus agreed, "It's probably easier to create one fake parent than two."

Dumbledore added, "If we plan this shopping trip right before school starts, Nymphadora can take Harry and see him off the train. That will give you some time with your son, Remus."

"Actually, that's right after the full moon - I'll need to have Tonks here for a few day," said Remus.

"We'll try to get her away from the Ministry for a bit, I think a covert operation will do. But I don't think she'll mind," said Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eyes. He then took his leave, citing preparations at Hogwarts which he had been neglecting over the summer.

*

Remus managed to convince Kingsley Shacklebolt to do him a favour for an old family friend, and take her son shopping for school supplies. He provided Harry with ample money from Sirius' account, and said in a gruff voice that was meant to sound like Mad-eye Moody, "Remember, when you're shopping, Harry, constant vigilance!!"

Harry met the auror at the Leaky Cauldron on the Saturday before school started. It was odd standing in the pub, and not having people stare at him or come up adoringly to talk. Odd, but somewhat relieving at the same time.

"Well, Leo, I understand you've just returned from the United States," Shacklebolt began as they entered Diagon Alley. "I take it you're looking forward to starting at Hogwarts?"

"Um, yes sir," replied Harry. "Though I don't know anybody at the school yet."

Shacklebolt reassured him that he would make friends quickly enough, and asked him questions about his parents. Harry was able to cut the conversation fairly short by sighting the cauldron store, where he would be buying a new cauldron.

The shopping took longer than usual, as Harry had to purchase everything he lost anew. As well as the set list of textbooks, Harry picked up some of the books from the previous years which had been invaluable references. He also needed new potions supplies, new robes and a new cloak (even if the explosion hadn't destroyed them, a few inches of growth required him to be fitted for new clothes). Harry spent extra money on an expensive new trunk, one that had two secret compartments built into the bottom.

Walking past the Owl Emporium, Harry thought with a pang about Hedwig, who had been sent a couple weeks ago to live with Hagrid. Remus had told him that Hagrid had taken the request badly, and was missing his deceased friend very much.

Shacklebolt interrupted his thoughts by pointing out Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, and told Harry he should check it out some time. "That's Arthur Weasley's young sons who just opened up the shop - an unruly lot, those! I believe there's a boy your age in that family who also attends Hogwarts. It's quite an interesting shop, anyhow." Harry smiled in amusement, wondering what the man would think if he told Shacklebolt that he had provided the funds used to start up the store.

As they purchased ink, quills and parchment, Shacklebolt commented on the fact that Leo was buying everything new, and that they must have used very different texts and such in America.

"Yes, sir," mumbled Harry. "We also travelled light - my mother wanted to start from scratch here after my father passed away. And my things were all due for replacing anyway."

Shacklebolt gave Harry a long looked, then said, "She sounds like a strong woman, your mother. And you're such a polite boy, she's obviously raised you well. You let her know that if she needs anything - anything at all - she can just give old Kingsley a holler. I'm sure it's been very hard, coming back like that."

They then went to lunch at a nice restaurant Harry had never been in before, and Shacklebolt insisted on treating for the meal. As they were picking up the packages after eating, he said to Harry, "Well, this is quite a load. Got everything now? Got your wand?"

Harry suddenly flushed with panic. His wand! He couldn't go around using his wand in classes - it would be a dead give-away! Harry stammered to the auror, "Um, yes, well, maybe I should get a new one, a wand I mean. My wand was, uh.... damaged in a duel at a school tournament last year and... um.... I should probably get a new one just in case."

They walked up to Ollivander's. The old, white-haired Ollivander gave Harry a strange look when they requested fitting for a new wand, but he didn't say anything. As wand after wand was discarded into the unsuitable pile, the old wizard became more and more silent. He finally said, "I have a special wand in the back that might do the trick."

He came back with an old dusty box, and pulled out a wand reverently. Harry gave it a swish, and felt a tingle in his arm. Ollivander nodded, and went to wrap up the wand. He handed Harry the box and said very quietly, with a shrewd look, "Beech, 13 inches, with a Gryffin-hair wrapped around a Pheonix feather at it core. A very rare and powerful combination indeed - very good for special types of magic! I am seldom able to procure a Gryffin hair for my wands, and nobody has collected them since the ban that was imposed in 1783. Ah yes, you must have some very special talents, Mr......?"

"Evangy, Leonid Evangy," Harry said quickly, accepting and paying for the package. He left the store, the pit of his stomach churning. Mr. Ollivander was creepy enough as it was, but the knowledge that the core of his wand had extraordinary properties made him anxious. He wondered whether it would make a significant impact on the magic he was able to do.

As they walked back towards the Leaky Cauldron, Harry remained silent, while Shacklebolt told him about the Ministry of Magic, offering to take him and his mother there sometime for a tour. They finally arrived at the bar, a few minutes before Tonks was due to meet them.

"Thanks for your help, Mr. Shacklebolt. I can just wait here for her," Harry said, pointing at a booth. Shacklebolt shook his head and smiled at him, "No, no, Leo, it's my pleasure. I'd love to meet the woman who raised such a fine young man as yourself! I'll just go grab a cup of coffee."

He walked off towards the bar, and a moment later, a trim middle-aged black woman sidled up to his booth and greeted Harry, "Wotcher, Leo. How did your shopping go?"

"It was okay, but..." before Harry could warn Tonks, Shacklebolt returned. He put down his coffee, and turned a warm smile onto the disguised Tonks.

"Well, and you must be young Leo's mother. A fine lad you have there," the older auror extended his hand towards the younger auror eagerly. "I'm Kingsley Shacklebolt. I work at the Ministry of Magic. I was just telling Leo that I'd be glad to give you both a tour, anytime you want!"

Tonks looked up, confused by her colleague's enthusiastic greeting. She was tongue-tied for a moment as Harry stared down at his parcels, biting his lips to stifle a laugh. Tonks replied as glibly as possible, "Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Shacklebolt, for taking Leo to get his supplies - I've been so busy since we got back to England, and I probably wouldn't recognise any of the stores in Diagon Alley any longer."

"Please, call me Kingsley. And it was my pleasure, Ma'am." He turned to Harry and said, "I hope we'll be seeing you again soon. Good luck at Hogwarts this term! I'm sure you'll have no problem settling in quickly."

Tonks then led Harry towards a fireplace in a private parlour, and they flooed back to the Manor, clutching the many purchases. When Harry had straightened himself out in the library, he turned to Tonks laughing, and put on a deep voice, "I say, Mrs. Evangy, a prettier specimen than you I've never seen!"

She swatted him, made a strange face, and turned her hair pink again. Harry shook his head and continued, "He talked about meeting you our whole outing! It was weird... hitting on a woman he'd never met."

Tonks tempered her smile with a serious look, and said, "That's not weird, Harry. That's just very lonely. Poor Shack, he's a nice guy."

She helped Harry take his new things upstairs. Harry spent the rest of the afternoon flying around the grounds. Dinner that night was a quiet affair, and Tonks offered to show him some neat transfiguration tricks over the remaining few days of his vacation.

As the days crept forward towards September first, Harry began to feel anxious about his return to school. Tonks assured him that he was quite unrecognisable as Harry, and took a few hours one afternoon to touch up the cosmetic spells that kept his hair neatly curled, and his skin dark. She showed him some of the simpler cosmetic spells, such as those to change the colour of a person's hair. It took Harry several tries to master the spells, and even then, the resulting hair colour never looked as natural or as convincing as what Tonks had achieved with him.

"Don't worry too much about that, Leo," she teased fondly, "Human transfiguration spells are difficult for most wizards. They get even more complicated to perform if you're trying to do several transformations simultaneously, like I did with you. The spells tend to interfere with one another, and distort the final result."

Harry also spent a few hours each day reading his new textbooks. Dumbledore had excused him from preparing any summer essays because, technically, he would be returning as a transfer student who hadn't had access to the assignments or the texts before the vacation. Nonetheless, Harry felt the better prepared he was for the academic year, the less likely he was to draw the attention or wrath of certain teachers.

On the last day of August, Dumbledore came to spend an hour with Harry and Tonks. Dobby served afternoon tea to them on the patio. The Headmaster looked weary as he sat down in the ornate cast-iron chair.

"Is everything okay?" Tonks asked the older wizard.

Dumbledore looked grim when he answered, "No, actually there was an attack last night at the home of a Ministry official. His wife was killed, and their young son is at St. Mungo's; they're not certain whether or not he'll recover. The official was a junior communications director, and we understand that Death Eaters had contacted him to set up a few.... irregularities in the floo network. When he refused to cooperate, they attacked his home and family. The attack was meant as much to warn others against resisting the initiatives of Voldemort or his Death Eaters, as it was personal."

"Who was it?" asked Tonks softly. Dumbledore looked up at her and said, "A young wizard by the name of Morgane."

Tonks looked stricken, as she bit her lip and looked down. "Is it a friend of yours?" asked Harry.

"No. No he isn't, but he occasionally came to the weekly auror meetings to deliver inter-department reports. Nice fellow... poor guy, losing his wife and possibly his son to that twisted, sinister...." Tonks choked on the rest of her sentence.

Harry began to fidget with the spoon next to his cup, while Dumbledore had picked up the sugar-tongs and was distractedly adding lump after lump of sugar to his tea. He continued to speak, "Our immediate priority now is to get students safely to school. We have received information of a possible raid on Gringotts to occur sometime in September, and hope we can thwart it. All the aurors are, of course, trained and ready to help, but Minister Fudge has far too many of them relegated to giving home and commercial security courses or standing idle as security guards at various locations."

"Aurors as simple bodyguards - imagine that!" snorted Tonks. "We should be out infiltrating Death Eater meetings and taking the offensive against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! Otherwise what good is all this training, reacting instead of acting first! We're like sitting ducks in a marsh."

Dumbledore nodded his agreement, and picked up his teacup. Taking a sip, he puckered his lips at the unexpected sweetness of the drink and peered into the cup; he then tipped it back and drank the rest of the tea down anyway.

After gazing silently for a while at Harry, Dumbledore looked over at Tonks then back at Harry again. Tonks quickly excuse herself, overturning her chair as she rose to leave the table. Righting her chair, Tonks turned towards the house and tripped on a raised flagstone.

When she had gone, Dumbledore wanted to know if Harry was prepared for his return to school. Harry shrugged in reply.

"Have you told your friends about your disguise yet?" the Headmaster asked. Harry said, "No, I was planning on surprising them on the train. Do you really think I can pull this off?"

The old man nodded, and said, "As long as you keep your temper around Professor Snape, and keep out of mischief in general, nobody else should suspect it's you. Oh yes, you might try underachieving in your Defence Against the Dark Arts class, if you don't want to give anything away! Speaking of which, Remus will continue to train you in defence and duelling lessons during the year. Bill might come by occasionally too, if we can spare him."

Harry sighed and said, "How I wish I didn't need any extra training! I don't know if I - I mean we - can really do this. I mean, I guess you think it's possible, but I'm not so sure Voldemort can be defeated. Not by an underage wizard anyway."

Flashing back to his other encounters with Voldemort, Harry thought of how confident and powerful he was in a fight. True, he hadn't been able to kill Harry, but Harry figured that was just a matter of good luck.

He looked up to find Dumbledore studying with a sad expression on his face. Without even thinking about it, Harry used legilimency to detect Dumbledore's concern, and his regret that Harry had had to spend his summer isolated from friends, mourning the fresh loss of his remaining family.

His response was automatic, as Harry plucked a heart-warming vision of sitting around the small living room at Sinéal's house after dinner, playing board games with Remus and his sons. He pushed the memory towards Dumbledore, willing it into his mind.

The old professor's face cracked into a big smile as he said, "You really are an amazing wizard, Harry! I see that you and Remus have managed pretty well together this summer!"

"I don't know what I would have done if it hadn't been for Remus," Harry told him.

"...and I don't know what he would have done if it hadn't been for you," Dumbledore went on to say. "He was not in very good shape after Sirius died, and I think your presence over the last month or so has helped him immensely. I, at least, have noticed a difference."

Dumbledore went inside to have a few words with Tonks, and left the Manor shortly after. Harry spent the evening thinking about what Dumbledore said, about he and Remus helping one another to heal.

Harry compared his relationship with his former teacher to that he had had with his Godfather. Sirius Black had been like a moody big brother to him, a surrogate father in many ways. Remus Lupin was more like - well, like a friend. It was strange thinking that the older man had been so close to his father, too. And yet when they talked, he felt as though Remus really took the time to see him, Harry, and didn't just treat him as a look-alike variation of his father, James.

Those thoughts in his head as he retired for the night, Harry had many wonderful dreams: playing quidditch at the Burrow with the Weasleys; picking berries with Remus' family in Ireland; sitting near the fireplace of the Gryffindor common room with Ron and Hermione. When he awoke, he had no memory of his dreams, but felt refreshed and ready to face his sixth year at Hogwarts.