Chapter 66:

Once Harry had thoroughly exhausted himself on his Firebolt, he took another quick shower and went to find some sort of company. He came across Sirius in the main living room, sprawled out on the thick rug in front of the fire. At first Harry thought he was asleep, until he picked his head up and blinked at Harry. "Hey, pup. Have a good fly?"

"It was great!" Harry enthused, taking a seat in the nearest armchair. He didn't often get time to just be on his broom, enjoy the wind rushing through his hair and the blood pumping in his veins as he dove and flipped through the air. "I never said thank you for the Firebolt, by the way, but I really love it. It's amazing."

Sirius rolled onto his back, a contented grin tugging at his lips. "Glad it makes you happy, pup. You'll have to let me take it for a spin sometime; I haven't been flying in years."

"Did you play quidditch?"

"I was a beater in my fifth and sixth years, but I wasn't as in love with it as the rest of the team, and by seventh I decided to let my place go to a talented little third year. I always liked flying, though. James and I used to spend half our summers on brooms. We could never convince Moony to join us."

"You should get your own broom," Harry suggested. "Then we could go flying together."

"I might have to. It's been a while since I tossed a quaffle around, but I'm sure I'll pick it back up eventually." He turned his face towards the fire. It wasn't exactly cold outside, but Sirius didn't seem to care, basking in the heat from the flames. "We're going to have a great summer, pup. To make up for all the rubbish ones. All the ones I missed."

"It

wasn't

your

fault,

Sirius,"

Harry insisted. Sirius grimaced.

"We'll agree to disagree there, Harry." He sat up, running a hand through his chin-length hair. "Are you sure you want to spend your summer having lessons? I know there's things you wanted to learn, but if Remus is coming on a bit strong with the schedule and all, you can say so."

"No, I honestly want to," Harry promised. "It's way better than spending my summers weeding the garden and cooking for the Dursleys." He saw Sirius frown, and ploughed on quickly. "Besides, school is great and all, but there's so much magic they don't teach you. Magic they don't think is important because people in wizarding households grow up with it. I want to learn everything I missed out on by being raised by muggles." There were so many basic household charms that they never bothered to teach in school, which would be fine if all the students had parents to teach them, but not everyone did.

"You really are Lily's boy, aren't you?" Sirius remarked. "Moony told me, but I didn't quite believe it. After seeing you run after your friend into the Shack, I thought you had to be James through and through." He chuckled to himself. "Probably for the best, to be honest. James always needed Lily's logic to balance him out. He was a bit thick by himself, bless his soul."

"Everyone always says I'm like my dad. I think because I look like him," Harry said, looking down at the dark skin of his hands, which was already starting to go even more brown from being out in the sun all afternoon.

"I think people forget that Lily had a Gryffindor streak a mile wide, too," Sirius said, swinging up to sit cross-legged facing Harry. "And Merlin, she could prank with the best of them. She didn't do it often, but every now and then someone would really piss her off, and you could always tell a Lily Evans masterpiece. They were beautiful. Once in fifth year this Ravenclaw bloke cheated on one of Lily's best friends, so she hexed him to make every piece of cutlery melt as soon as he touched it. Told him to eat face-first like the pig he was. It was brilliant. She was just so studious and sweet all the rest of the time that no one ever thought she could be trouble." "She sounds amazing," Harry sighed.

"She was. Far too good for our Jamie. He knew he was doing well for himself with her. But she loved him to bits, once he deflated his head a bit. Stopped bullying Snape. I think half the reason it pissed Lily off so much was because James couldn't see how mad Remus was for the bloke. He didn't even realise they were shagging til after we graduated, and only then because he walked in on it," Sirius said with a roguish wink, making Harry blush.

"How long have they been together?" Surely he hadn't been oblivious to it all last year? Someone would've said if two of the professors were… involved, especially if one of them was Snape. The Hogwarts rumour mill wouldn't keep that one quiet.

"It's complicated with those two," Sirius told him. "It was inevitable since second year, but true love never does run smooth. As much as it pains me to admit that old Snivelly's really Moony's true love. Could be worse, I suppose."

"Remus seems to like him," Harry approached tentatively. There had to be something good about Snape if Remus loved him.

"Oh, he's not as bad as he used to be. He's actually been fairly decent to live with, so far," Sirius relented. "He'll probably be the one teaching you Occlumency, by the way. I thought about it, but Snape's a far better Legilimens than I am. He's been helping me sort out my own mind, y'know. Twelve years in Azkaban really did a number on my organisation skills up there," he said with a tap to his forehead. "Hasn't pried, hasn't asked questions, hasn't mocked me for anything he saw up there. Maybe he really has changed." Sirius sighed. "Or maybe I was always just too much of a pillock to see what Remus and Lily saw in him."

Harry didn't really know what to say to that. Luckily, he was saved having to find an answer by Remus calling them for dinner. Sirius jumped to his feet, his melancholy mood slipping away in the blink of an eye. "Come on, pup. Maybe after dinner we can get the two lovebirds to play cards with us or something. Have you ever played Warlock's Bluff?"

Harry's standards were fairly low, but even so, he'd never been happier in his life.

Living at Seren Du was like everything he'd dreamed of all at once. Spending his weekdays learning new spells and wizarding politics and his family history; flying whenever he wanted; swimming whenever he wanted; spending evenings curled up in the living room with some combination of his three housemates, reading or talking or playing card games. On weekends Remus always tried to take him somewhere, saying it wasn't good for him to be cooped up with just the three of them for company. Sometimes they took Sirius with them — usually as Padfoot, sometimes under a glamour in muggle areas. Every now and then, Remus bullied Snape into coming too. They went to the beach, to the cinema, to the muggle shopping centre in Cardiff. On one memorable occasion, the four of them even went to a Holyhead Harpies quidditch match. No one batted an eyelash at the big shaggy dog Remus claimed was his familiar, and thanks to Snape's disguise charms no one recognised them either. Seeing live professional quidditch was breathtaking, and it made Harry even more desperate to go to the Quidditch World Cup.

Even his Potions lessons were enjoyable, once he and Snape both realised Harry wasn't terrible at brewing if he was in the right environment.

•

🚀New updates on my Ko-fi!🚀

Support me and read the novel, now available in PDF, with the advanced chapters.

•

https://ko-fi.com/cmrowling