FRIENDSHIPS AND EMOTIONS

Arcturus was about to respond when a female voice cut him off, "I did not expect you to visit so early brother I thought you would visit like usual at night."

"Ah I am glad to such a great welcoming for me dear sister of mine, as you see I have a guest with me right now and that is the reason I am visiting now." Arcturus said

The woman who looked similar to his grandmother's portrait looked at him and gasped, "Arcturus is this who I think it is, the resemblance in uncanny."

"If you are thinking about Hadrian James Potter heir of the Potter's then it is indeed him, who else did you expect the boy shares similarities in appearance with his Parents and Grandparents." Arcturus responded in what he assumed to be dry sarcasm, but Harry felt only he noticed it as his sister did not seem to care and rushed in and crushed him in a tight hug. Harry did flinch slightly and felt unfamiliar as he never had such physical connections before. The woman noticing it immediately released him and apologised, "Hadrian it is good to see you, I apologize for my overenthusiastic greeting but in my defence it has been years since I last saw you."

Arcturus chuckled said, "Harry this is your grandmother's and my younger sister Cassiopeia Black who I know may be quite overbearing at times but do know she means well."

"Hello there Ms Black, I am Hadrian James Potter. It is a pleasure to meet you." He said confidently and did the usual societal greetings, Harry felt such formal greetings to be boring and time consuming but his Grandfather had drilled it into him to present himself perfectly in front of other people, and had informed him that he would be judged for it. Cosmos was taking the mickey out of him when he saw Harry practising such a formal speech, which earned Cosmos Harry's ire which was not much just Harry refusing to talk to him for the day.

"None of the Ms Black you can call me your grandmother, I also am pleased to meet you. You look so much like your father who I was very fond of." Cassiopeia said cheerily.

Harry was slightly wary but trusted his instincts that she would mean no harm. Taking a deep breath he requested, "Could you please take me to visit grandmother, I would like to see her."

"Certainly Harry come along." Cassiopeia said and started leading him, Harry noticed that her home had a more comfy feeling and was not like the Black castle yet he felt it was richly furnished and he could also feel that the wards were quite strong. As he was led in to what seemed to be a room with Silver-Grey coloured wallpapers and had a big queen sized bed with an unmoving woman on it. Harry breath hitched as he saw his grandmother for the first time in years he supposed. As his occlumency progressed he was able to recall certain flashes of memories from when he was just a baby. He knew this woman cared a lot for him and she looked young for a 61 year old woman and she did not have a single grey streak in her hair unlike his grandfather's portrait which had some streaks. One of the advantages of being a magical is longer life span and slower aging but faster maturing than that of muggles.

Harry felt a familiarity as he sat at the foot of her bed. Both Arcturus and Cassiopeia feeling that they should give Harry some alone space and slowly went out of the room and closed the door. Harry felt thankful for that and he stared simply for a few moments to compose himself as he figured out what to talk about. Harry also suddenly felt calm as he recognized his familiar sent some soothing calming music to him. He mentally thanked Cosmos and he sat in relative silence for few minutes.

"Hello Grandmother, I do not know if you can hear me but studies indicate comatose people do appear to grasp their surroundings and remember things spoken next to them. I am Hadrian and I am well now, I really miss you and hope you do wake up soon" Harry said and he droned on about everything that he remembered about himself from his past to his present to her. He did not know why he revealed so much to her but he felt that quite the baggage had been lifted of him, only Cosmos and portraits in the Potter Castle knew about him, it might also be due to the fact the his grandmother could not reveal his secrets to anyone.

Harry did not notice that around 2 hours had passed and only stopped talking when there was a knock at the door and Cassiopeia's voice said gently, "Harry it is time for lunch we could come back to visit Dorea after it if you would like."

"All right Grandmother it appears that I have to leave but I do promise to visit as possible, bye" Harry said as he stood up and then proceeded to leave the room. Cassiopeia and Arcturus were waiting for him and Arcturus asked him if he had a good time chatting to which he replied that he did.

"Harry we will be going back to the Black castle were we will have lunch, you will also meet many others who are close to your age." Arcturus told him.

Harry felt apprehensive about meeting others but felt that it could not be too bad and also he wanted some allies at the very least. He was wondering how those around his age would be behaving and also wondered if he was going to meet bullies like Dudley but he decided to hold his judgement off until he met them. He again took a portkey offered by Arcturus and this time Cassiopeia also joined them after instructing the head house elf of the house to watch over his grandmother. He felt the navel tug and soon saw that he was back in the Black Castle.

He was then led to a room where many other people around his age were present by Arcturus and he was instructed to make acquaintances and then wait till lunch was served. Harry then brought back his occlumency shields to force so that his face wore an unreadable expression. The moment he stepped in all the others stopped chatting and looked at him with rapt silence. Harry was nudged forward slightly by Arcturus who mouthed softly to introduce himself to the others.

Seeing as Harry was hesitating slightly one of the boys stepped forwards, he had straight black hair with Grey eyes, he looked a lot like Sirius and Arcturus. The boy told Harry, "Hello, I am Hydrus Black. It is a pleasure to meet you" and he offered his hand. Harry shook it albeit quickly and said, "Hello I am Hadrian Potter, great to meet you."

"I find it amusing that you caused a lot of stir and trouble for the ministry." Hydrus chuckled.

"My heart bleeds out for them" Harry said dryly and sarcastically.

"You are fun to hang out around, how about we become friends" Hydrus enquired.

"Sure, why not and you can call me Harry when we are in a private setting." Harry shrugged.

"Come on let us get you introduced with the others in the room" Hydrus offered and Harry accepted and followed Hydrus.

"Guys we can skip formal greetings today, this is Hadrian Potter." Hydrus told the group.

"Hi I am Eleanor Black" a girl with black hair and bright blue eyes stood up and said confidently. She looked a lot like Melania and Marlene.

"I am Phoebe Lestrange." A girl with brown hair and rich violet eyes said and. She resembled both Bellatrix and Rudolphus.

"I am Draco Malfoy." A boy with platinum blonde hair and pale grey eyes said. He looked similar to his grandparents more than his parents Harry noted.

"I am Valerie Malfoy." A girl who looked similar to Draco in all aspects except for her having violet coloured eyes said.

"I am just Tonks" a girl with bubble gum pink hair and greys eyes said and she suddenly changed her eye colour to those of emerald green Harry and Lily possessed. Harry's eyes widened slightly. He also noticed her emphasizing on Tonks part.

"Yes I am a Metamorphmagus" Tonks explained

"Seems that I am also one Miss Nymphadora "just Tonks" Tonks" Harry amusedly told as he changed his hair colour to deep violet. Tonks was as shocked as the others in the room. Even Harry was shocked when he discovered it as it did not appear on the Gringotts test, his grandfather explained to him that not all abilities appear on that test as some were bound to families and only abilities available to many appear on that test also that Metamorphmagus was Black Bloodline ability.

Despite her shock Tonks asked and growled, "How do you know my name and can you completely control your powers."

"I saw the tapestry and yes I can control my Metamorphmagus abilities" Harry answered patiently as he changed his hair colour back to black. The introductions also continued.

"I am Neville Longbottom." A boy with black hair and icy blue eyes told confidently.

"I am Susan Bones" a girl having dark red hair and hazel eyes told him. She resembled Amelia a lot.

"Hello guys I am Hadrian it is a pleasure to meet you all" Harry told them and shook each of their hands. It was informal meeting as it was just a gathering of sorts. Harry felt these people were way more tolerable than Dudley and his cronies. He also felt that he could be friends with this group even though he did not know how friendship felt before. But he was willing to give it a try and he also starting to trust them a teeny tiny bit.

 Progress is progress Arcturus supposed as he noticed the interactions. He cleared his throat and informed them that lunch was ready. They all went to the dining room and started to have lunch while amicably chatting when Harry felt panicked as he felt two familiar magical signatures approach the door. As the door opened Harry raised his wand and shot a quick disarmer with a minor cutting curse (diffindo) and also raised a minor shield. The expelliarmus cast was fast but was stopped by a quick shield by the first man who looked a lot like Arcturus himself. But the diffindo had so much raw power than expected by the man that it broke the shield and was headed for his chest but the man was unable to react. Luckily the other man resembling Neville put up an advanced shield which the diffindo hit harmlessly. The man also said, "Relax we mean no harm to you, though I think I understand why you attacked us, was it because of the previous week"

"Who are you and why you both along with some others probing the wards around Potter castle, whoever you are you will not take me back to the Dursleys" Harry snarled.

"Harry calm down no one will take you back to the Dursleys and nobody here means you any harm." Arcturus told him

"I am Frank Longbottom and this is Regulus Black we are both Aurors, we along with the others had orders from the DMLE to search for you and we knew there was a Potter property at that location so we tried to probe it but we were not able to crack the wards." One of the men said.

"Yes we do not mean any harm and how did you know it was us we were disillusioned" the other man who was Regulus asked him.

"I could feel your magical signatures" Harry replied vaguely and dropped his wand arm. In actuality his Mage sight enabled him to see them and recognize their signatures but Harry was in no hurry to tell them.

"Sorry for the reaction it was rather reflexive and do not try to probe those wards again it is quite dangerous and could kill you" Harry informed them. His apology was waved off but this renewed the other occupants of the table hatred against the Dursleys. Frank and Regulus also joined them for lunch while the others in the table praised Harry for his wand skill and power.

"I see Charlus has already started your training" Arcturus chuckled.

"Yes he felt it was necessary and I also agree" Harry told them all.

"You could try duelling in circuits" Bellatrix suggested while Frank and Alice also agreed to it.

"I will think about it, also Sirius schedule an appointment with Mr Lupin I would like to meet him" Harry told.

"All right Harry, remember he is taking it very hard on himself so please be a little lenient" Sirius requested.

"All right I will see what I can do" Harry shrugged.

Harry then informed Arcturus after lunch that he was to leave as his Grandfather expected him. Arcturus told him that he is invited whenever he wants to visit and also asked Harry to visit regularly; he also gave Harry the permission to visit Dorea whenever he wished. All the others also said their farewells to him and asked him to visit them when possible. Harry then used the ring to portkey back to the Potter Castle and informed his grandfather about his days and reunion and trained with Cosmos on his Vacuum manipulation after which he went to sleep as he felt tired.