Chapter Text
Despite the really quite baffling issue – Harry immediately started taking notes on what they'd noticed so far, because Hermione was going to want them – there wasn't time to experiment, because it wasn't much longer before they'd be heading down to Hogsmeade to visit Neville.
What turned out to cause problems, though, was that Percy was nowhere to be found. Fred and George were found easily enough, down in the common room trying out a Frisbee Hermione had got them, but Percy wasn't there or up with the other Seventh-Years like Oliver Wood.
Harry did think that if Percy had been there, or if Hermione had been there, then they'd have pointed out that the Frisbee was an outdoors thing. But they weren't, and the Gryffindor Prefects who weren't Percy had gone home for Christmas.
That thought made Harry wonder if maybe Percy had been up late last night doing Prefect things, or possibly Head Boy things, or maybe if he'd had to get up early that morning to do Prefect things. Any of those sounded possible, and when Percy finally came into Gryffindor Common Room ten minutes before they were supposed to be at Neville's house that was the first thing Harry asked.
"Well… head boy things, in a way," Percy said. "I… suppose we are a bit late, aren't we?"
"How are we going to get there on time?" Ron asked. "It takes ages to walk down to Hogsmeade."
"We could go by-" Fred began, but George shook his head at him and Fred stopped talking.
"What were you going to say?" Percy asked. "Is this about those secret passages you think I don't know about?"
"No, it's about the secret passages I think you think you know about, but you don't really know about them because we're thinking of different secret passages," George said fluidly. "Anyway, it's not about those either, because we could just fly down."
"That was what I was going to say," Fred protested. "Did you stop me just so you'd be the one saying the idea?"
"Not at all, oh brother my brother," George answered, then paused. "Where did we run into that one?"
"Probably a poem," Fred suggested.
"You twits do know we're getting later, right?" Ron asked. "Get to the point!"
"Well," George resumed. "Percy can just fly, and Harry can fly, and the rest of us can be light enough to hitch a lift on Harry, if he'll let us."
"Sure," Harry agreed, glancing out the window. "It's snowing pretty hard, though."
"Let's just go with brooms," Fred said. "Like I was originally thinking."
"Or we could go with brooms," George agreed.
Percy set off immediately, while Harry waited for long enough to help Fred, George and Ron all get out the window one by one. Since it was hard to climb through a narrow window while carrying a broomstick, he just took the broomsticks out himself and then gave each Weasley one as they slipped through the opening in Animagus form.
Once that was all sorted, he asked the highly amused Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail to shut the window for him and let go from where he was clinging to the side of Hogwarts castle. Catching up to the quartet of Weasleys was easy enough, despite the flurries of snow, and they all landed in Hogsmeade with a soft crunch from the sheer amount of snow.
Harry was the second through the Floo, just behind Ron, and spread his wings to slow himself down as he landed.
The room looked about the same as when he'd last seen it, back in the summer before Second Year, except that there was a dusting of golden tinsel around all the visible portraits.
"Do you like it?" asked a portrait in a cavalier uniform, with a little brass plate underneath him describing him as Rupert Longbottom and as having lived in the 17th century. "We like to dress up a little for special occasions!"
"Though Christmas does blur together a little after so many," added another portrait, this one a lady in a wimple which waved around like a flag as she nodded her head. "Lovely to see you again. How's the dragoning?"
"Going fairly well," Harry summarized, as Fred and then George arrived (or possibly George and then Fred).
"Lovely to hear," said the lady in the wimple (Violetta Longbottom, 1103-1231). "Rupert, do be a dear and let them know guests are arriving?"
"Of course!" Rupert agreed, and sidled out of frame.
Hermione and Dean had already arrived, and when they went into the main room both were in a conversation with a plump older woman.
"It's good to see you all," Neville said. "I know you've been here before, Harry, but is this the first time the rest of you have been here?"
"I was here once when I was five," Percy volunteered. "I don't remember it well, I'm afraid."
"Well, the first thing I need to tell you is that the bathroom's up the stairs over there," Neville explained, pointing. "It's on the third floor but you only have to go up one flight of steps, I know, it's weird."
"Ah, these must be Neville's other school friends!" said a bluff older man, coming over and shaking Harry's paw, then the hands of the Weasleys one at a time. "It's tremendous to see Neville's picked up just the sort of friends he needs."
"This is my Great Uncle Algie," Neville introduced. "Great Uncle, these are Harry Potter, and Ron, Fred, George and Percy Weasley."
"Yes, I've heard a lot about them," Algie said, nodding. "Neville really does like you all, you know. You're very kind."
"Kind?" Harry repeated. "Why?"
"Well, being Neville's friends, of course," Algie said. "He's a good lad as well, of course. Very sweet, no denying that."
Harry wasn't really sure whether he should be feeling annoyed on Neville's behalf or not. Great Uncle Algie didn't seem unpleasant, but it was hard for Harry to forget the letter from last month.
He quickly checked he wasn't growling.
Harry had to seek quick guidance from Neville on what you did in this sort of party. He'd been to several different kinds of parties (or at least heard them through the door in the case of Dudley's party, depending on exactly how Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia wanted to handle it) and Sirius enjoyed having people laughing and playing games and occasionally pranks, while at parties in the Gryffindor Common Room… it was more or less the same, actually.
But parties in some of the books Harry had read were quite different, with people having icy conversations with one another, and Harry didn't want to try one of them during the other type of party.
"Oh, um… well, not being rowdy is good," Neville said, frowning slightly. "I think the idea is that you stand around making conversations – usually quiet ones – until it's time to eat, and we're eating in an hour or two."
Harry nodded, grateful for the help.
"Oh, and I've already asked Percy to help if Fred and George start something they shouldn't," Neville added.
"Good call, mate," Ron nodded. "Fred and George are like that."
"Hey, we're reformed," George said.
"Into rodents, maybe," Ron muttered back.
"I think you'll find you're more the rodent out of us weasels, Nutkins," Fred said smugly.
Ron grumbled something incomprehensible, then shook his head when Harry asked for clarification.
"You'd think I'd be used to it by now," he confided.
Still not sure exactly how to start the sort of conversations that Neville had mentioned, Harry went to see what Hermione and Dean were talking about.
When he got a little closer, it became clear that they were actually doing very little of the talking – most of it was being done by the plump woman, who Harry guessed was probably Neville's Great Aunt Enid.
"What I do wonder is when you'll be seeing your first unicorn," she was saying. "It's a truly wonderful thing to see, even an adult, but a foal is even better – when I did Care of Magical Creatures we got to see two of each. I've always thought it must have been a family, a colt and a filly and their sire and dam."
"I'm sure we will, they're in the textbook," Hermione began, and Great Aunt Enid tutted.
"Oh, that book doesn't tell you the whole story, you know," she confided. "There's shockingly little information on some beasts – why, it barely spares even a page on the varieties of winged horse. You'd think it would make clear just what the difference between an Abraxan and a Thestral is, but of course Newt Scamander's too busy dealing with making sure everyone knows the history of the classification of Beasts to go into detail on beasts so different they may as well be different categories like with dragons."
She spotted Harry, and smiled. "Oh, and speaking of dragons – you must be Harry Potter. Neville's told us ever so much about you in his letters, and when we visit."
Harry waved hello.
"Neville was the first wizarding friend I made, except for Mr. Hagrid," he said. "It's nice to meet his relatives."
"A pleasure indeed," Great Aunt Enid said.
Harry noticed that Hermione and Dean were looking distinctly relieved, but before he could quite wonder why there was a loud whistling noise which interrupted everyone.
Fred had his hands over his ears, and gouts of blue steam were leaking through the crevices between his fingers to rise towards the ceiling and flow upstairs. Then another whistling sound heralded that the same thing had begun with George, except that it was red steam.
"My goodness!" Great Aunt Enid said, fluttering her hand over her chest for a moment.
"What happened?" Percy asked. "Did you try one of your experiments before you came here?"
"Experiments?" Fred repeated, slightly too loud. "No, no, not at all!"
"The only thing we had to eat was some chocolate truffles Lee Jordan sent us!" George added, also slightly too loud. "And we're not stupid, we wouldn't eat something from Lee Jordan we recognized, but we didn't recognize this."
"And we know everything that Zonkos and the other joke shops sell," Fred took up the thread. "And Lee's always been better at Transfiguration than Potions or Charms."
"How did you know it was from Lee Jordan?" Dean asked.
"That's what the label said!" George answered.
Harry noticed that Neville's Great Uncle Algie was frowning, looking more confused than annoyed, and that Granny Longbottom was shaking her head. He wasn't sure in what way, though.
"Have you two perhaps considered that just anybody can write things on a label?" Percy asked, then took out his wand and waved it. The whistling sound and the steam stopped, and both twins took their hands away from their ears.
"Now you mention it, Perce, that does sound like a good argument," Fred admitted.
"But who could it be that we might have annoyed enough that they'd do that?" George added.
"There was that Howler we sent to our esteemed rivals in Slytherin," Fred mused, putting his hand to his chin. "The one where we sang that Muggle song Padfoot showed us."
If Harry had to guess, it would probably be that song that asked what love was. It was a bit of an odd song, in Harry's mind, because after asking that it immediately started asking the same person not to hurt them.
It didn't seem to make much sense to ask someone what love was if they kept hurting someone, but maybe it was just how it sounded.
"You sent those two a Howler with a Muggle song in it?" Percy repeated, and then the whistling and the steam came back again.
This time Fred had yellow and George had green, unless Harry had been mixed up about which one was which all along (a distinct possibility).
"I'm just going to stop the whistling," the Head Boy added. "Unless you'd rather I stop the steam as well, Madam Longbottom?"
"That would be preferable," Granny Longbottom said curtly.
"You might be doing this for a while, Percy," George commented cheerfully. "We each had eight of them."
Perhaps fortunately, when the conversations started again Neville's Great Aunt Enid wasn't just talking about how things had been in her day. Instead, since Harry was there, she began asking about what Harry was like and how he was different from other dragons.
That was a topic Harry was interested in talking about, especially since he could mention Nora, and though he didn't give all the details of the weird things going on with how Nora had learned to speak (partly because he was fairly sure the Marauder's Map side of things was still secret) he did mention how he was able to speak Dragonish with Nora but that he'd never met another dragon who could speak it.
Dean was able to volunteer with how he'd done the drawings for the monograph that established the Black-Backed Bookwyrm as a separate type of dragon, and Great Aunt Enid nodded and said that was very impressive – though she also admitted doubts as to whether that type of dragon was a type of dragon that would get into Fantastic Beasts. That in turn led to talking about the difference between sphinxes, selkies and three headed dogs, all of whom were currently students at Hogwarts but all of them treated differently by the classification system.
Harry quite enjoyed talking about it, though he wasn't sure how much of that was just that he wasn't being talked at like Hermione and Dean had originally been, and it was a bit of a surprise when Granny Longbottom announced that it was time for dinner.
The Christmas Dinner was sort of a mix between a lunch type meal and a dinner type meal, about two in the afternoon, and it was certainly full of all kinds of food. There oddest thing Harry spotted offhand was a plate of smoked salmon on toast, which Neville explained quietly was something they'd been having as long as he could remember, and then there were all the normal sorts of things from a Christmas dinner as well.
Yorkshire puddings, four different kinds of stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, pumpkin sauce – which seemed to be normal for a Wizarding Christmas dinner – and two different flavours of gravy. There were roast vegetables, boiled vegetables, potatoes prepared in so many ways Harry was sure he'd spend the next week wondering if he'd tried them all, roast turkey, roast chicken, roast lamb, sausages, other sausages wrapped in bacon, yet more sausages wrapped in pastry, and at that point Harry had to stop because his plate looked like it was about to fall over.
About fifteen minutes into the meal, Tandy told Granny Longbottom that the last of the puddings that needed it were in the oven, and Neville's grandmother had thanked her for her hard work before inviting her to take a place at the table with all the wizards. It felt a bit oddly formal, which was strange because Harry was fairly sure he'd seen Tandy eating with Neville and his gran during the month he'd stayed here before second year, but maybe it was a special Christmas tradition.
It was the first time in a while he'd been involved with a meal that was enough to qualify as a feast – it was certainly good enough for one, anyway, and there were a lot of people here – without there being any dishes specially made for him, but Harry didn't mind that either. He was sitting next to his friends, there was good food, and he'd given people presents they enjoyed today.
It all gave him a warm feeling right through his body, though that could have just been the food by itself.
Or possibly the fact he was a dragon.
"It is ten minutes until the puddings is needing to be taken out," Tandy said quietly.
"Then go ahead, Tandy," Granny Longbottom replied. "And thank you for your company."
Tandy slipped off her chair – which had been provided with a cushion – and headed into the kitchen, and Great Uncle Algie nodded after her.
"She's a fine worker," he said. "Always makes our visits a treat!"
He nodded to the nearest Weasley, which happened to be Ron. "Neville tells us that you've got yourselves a House-Elf as well. How's he working out?"
"Well, we like him," Ron said, a bit startled at being put on the spot. "But the food's always been really good, because Mum's good at cooking, it's just that the style's sometimes a bit different. And we've not really got a House Elf. Dobby's just… staying with us, really, it's a bit complicated."
Great Uncle Algie nodded. "Of course. Taking in those less fortunate, it's a fine instinct. Not that it's the first time you lads have done it, of course, I'm very grateful you've done it for my grandnephew."
There was a little clink as Percy put his fork down.
"I'm not entirely sure you understand Neville very well, sir," he said. "I'm not one of his closest friends – I'm four years above him – but I can assure you that the Sorting Hat placed Neville in Gryffindor and we are entirely glad to have him."
"Yes, of course," Great Uncle Algie agreed, tilting his head slightly. "Wouldn't want to suggest anything else. The lad's brave for overcoming his disadvantages."
"Like what?" Hermione asked, and Harry could hear a bit of a tremble in her voice – which wasn't really all that surprising, because if Harry had tried to say something he was fairly sure he'd have a tremble as well at the moment. "Neville's been doing better than half the year, and that's with a wand he just doesn't work well with – now he's got the right wand he's going to do much better!"
"I don't see why you're so upset," Great Uncle Algie retorted. "You don't need to defend Neville from compliments, and it's a compliment."
"Dear-" Great Aunt Enid began.
"I agree with Hermione," Dean was already saying. "You're basically saying Neville's thick, as well as that he's brave. But that's worse than him just being brave, not better!"
Harry felt like he wasn't sure what to say, and he also didn't know if he should try to say anything anyway because if he was going to say something it would probably come out as a growl.
"Neville Longbottom!" said Granny Longbottom sharply, cutting across the whole argument. "Don't think you're going to get away with not eating your greens like that, young man!"
Everyone's heads turned to look – Harry included – and Lapcat tilted his head, before licking at his big feline paw.
"I'm quite aware that cats can eat vegetables," Granny Longbottom continued, still sharply. "You're the one who put them on your plate, so now you can finish them!"
Lapcat nodded, looking chastened, and began licking up some carrots.
"…Merlin," Great Uncle Algie said, into the silence.
Neville's change seemed to break the tension, which was a relief, and after that the puddings were really nice. They weren't quite the same kind of elaborate fancies that the Hogwarts elves put together, with far more of them to split the work – but Tandy still put together a chocolate bread and butter pudding, a plum pudding, a tower of profiteroles and a yule log made with caramel and white chocolate instead of the usual milk and dark chocolate.
Harry had a bit of all of them, and as far as he could tell so did everyone else. (Though Neville had to change back to being human before he could have any of the rich chocolate bread and butter pudding, because apparently while cats were okay with vegetables they might be a bit iffy about human chocolate.)
Then the afternoon was mostly taken up with what Harry felt could only be described as lazing around.
Dean taught everyone how to play Pictionary, though it didn't really help that he was the only person in the room who could draw anything recognizable – or maybe it did, because it was kind of funny when Harry was trying to get someone to realize he was drawing a bird and Ron kept insisting that it was clearly Galvin Gudgeon, the new Seeker for the Chudley Cannons.
When Harry got back to Hogwarts that evening, he wondered if maybe the reason why family gatherings like that usually involved a lot of food was to make sure that people were too full to get into a big fight of some sort.
He mentioned it to Ron, though, and Ron shook his head – pointing out how often Fred and George got into trouble with everyone else and how Mrs. Weasley always cooked a lot of really nice food. Which was a good point.
"Yeah, it's funny like that," Ron agreed, as they headed up the stairs. "I just think it's that you have people you don't usually meet, and people who've met a lot before. So either way there's a way to start an argument, and once one starts one year you're kind of going to expect it next time."
Harry nodded, following that.
"Is there anyone in your family like that?" he asked.
"Well… Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant?" Ron volunteered. "We don't see him much these days – don't really talk about him, either."
"Why not?" Harry said, more than a little surprised.
"It's not that he doesn't have magic," Ron clarified. "Or not directly… the problem is that he got married, or that's what Bill says. So he can never come around to any of our houses, because his wife doesn't know about magic and we can't tell her, and we're all afraid of making a mistake when we go around to his place."
He shrugged. "Of course, when I say 'we' there I mean Weasleys, because I've only met him once and I was four. So we've sort of just… drifted apart?"
Harry nodded, absorbing that, and wondering how tricky it must be for someone who couldn't tell their relatives about magic.
It was a good reason for people with magic to mostly associate with other people with magic, really, and Harry did sort-of wonder how many times a wizard marrying a muggle was because the muggle already knew about magic beforehand.
That was too tricky a topic for Christmas, though, and Harry went to call Sirius on his mirror.
Harry's Dog-father answered straight away, and the view through the mirror moved dizzily as Sirius propped it up against a bookshelf.
"Harry, good to see you – and Merry Christmas!" he said, adjusting a paper crown. "I hope you enjoyed yourself – I did, but it just wasn't as much fun without you!"
Harry nodded. "I did, Sirius, and I'm glad you enjoyed yourself as well. And I'm really glad you helped Neville to become an Animagus."
"My pleasure, of course," Sirius smiled. "Molly – that's to you – told me just this afternoon she was grateful that she knows Fred and George can get something done if they apply themselves. But why Neville specifically?"
That took a while to explain, and Sirius looked quite upset in the middle of it, though the ending was entertaining enough that he was laughing by the time Harry finished the tale.
"Transforming at the dinner table!" he laughed. "Merlin's beard… I wish I'd thought to try that. The looks on my parents' faces would have been priceless."
His laughter was infectious, and Harry smiled as well before asking Sirius if he was enjoying his present.
"Sort of," Sirius said. "I'm not entirely sure how to put it together, but I'm enjoying the idea of it. How did you know I liked motorbikes?"
"Well, there's your motorbike," Harry said, counting off on his claws. "The one you've lent Hagrid, I mean."
Hagrid had tried to insist that he should give the motorbike back, but Sirius had insisted harder that Hagrid should keep it and had won the not-an-argument. It had been quite funny to watch, especially when Sirius pointed out that if he had it he'd only get overexcited and drive it over London one evening.
"Okay, that's a good point by itself," Sirius said. "No need to keep going on about it."
He lifted the pile of bits into view, most of them just poured out of the box the model had come in. "Only one question. Where's the engine?"
"Muggle models don't have engines," Harry told him. "But you could make it one that flies?"
"I'll definitely have to think about it," Sirius promised, putting the pile down again. "Now! I hope my present was tasty, unless you're saving it for later. Either way, though, here's the other thing I got you-"
"Hold on, Sirius," Harry asked, and Sirius stopped.
By way of explanation, Harry reached for the Game Boy and held it up to the mirror. Then he turned it on.
Sirius watched in silence as the light lit up, and the opening played, until the screen said 'The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening'. And '1993 Nintendo'.
Then he said "What?"
"It works," Harry said, though really that was sort of obvious now he thought about it. "And yes, I am at Hogwarts."
"Bloody hell," Sirius said, sitting down hard and nearly vanishing out of the view of the mirror. "And I was all proud of enchanting a lava lamp with heating and lighting charms."
A little after breakfast on Boxing Day, Harry climbed up the steps to the Headmaster's Office.
It was sort of funny how often he'd been up the steps, really, especially because he'd never been in trouble any of the times it had happened.
"Ah, Harry," Dumbledore said, smiling, as Harry reached the top of the stairs. "It's lovely to see you. Everything all right?"
"Yes, Professor," Harry confirmed.
"Not got any unexpected problems with Tom Riddle, I hope?" Dumbledore added.
"Well… no," Harry said, a little confused. "I would have mentioned it when I asked when I could see you."
"Ah, you see," Dumbledore chuckled. "That's very considerate of you, but it seems so very many people enjoy keeping something a surprise so they can tell me all at once."
He made an inviting little gesture with his hand, and Harry duly sat down in one of the armchairs.
"Did you enjoy your present, Harry?" Dumbledore added. "I can only apologize that I was unable to locate any socks."
"I didn't have the chance to read it much, I'm afraid," Harry told him. "But I liked what I read."
"Excellent," Dumbledore pronounced. "It is always preferable to like what you read; it makes it much easier to keep going."
He steepled his fingers. "Though I believe, Harry, that if you had simply wanted to thank me for my choice of present you could have done that in the Great Hall. And since clearly Tom Riddle is not involved, I must confess myself at something of a loss."
By way of reply, Harry took out the Game Boy.
"This is a Muggle toy, Professor," he said. "It's sort of… a really small computer, and when you turn it on the screen shows how the game is going."
"A game?" Dumbledore repeated, examining it with great interest. "But how do you move the pieces?"
"You use these buttons here to do things," Harry told him, tapping on the directional pad and the A and B buttons. "It sort of… depends on the game, because you can put lots of different games into it."
He pulled out the cartridge to demonstrate, then pushed it back in again.
"A most remarkable device," Dumbledore said. "I must say, I do sometimes wonder how it is that Muggles entertain themselves, but if everyone has one of these then perhaps it is quite easy."
"Not everyone has one of them," Harry replied. "Most people use TVs to stay entertained, or at least I think that's how it works."
Dumbledore nodded in understanding. "Yes, I believe I've seen a TV once before. It was quite remarkable. How do the Muggles make people that small and fit them in a box?"
Harry blinked in surprise, then saw Dumbledore wink at him.
"I must say, Harry," Dumbledore added. "Thank you for showing me one of these machines. Is it one that your relatives got for you? It's such a shame that your Aunt Petunia didn't know such things don't work at Hogwarts."
"Sirius got it for me," Harry clarified. "So it was a relative, I suppose. But…"
He turned the Game Boy on, and turned it around so that Dumbledore could see.
The Headmaster watched in silence as the opening played out to the point where it said the game was either The Legend Of Zelda Link's Awakening or possibly just Nintendo 1993. Cheerful music played from the speaker as he sat and looked at it, and Harry wondered if Dumbledore was thinking about all the magic around Hogwarts and why it was that this machine was working.
Then he looked up.
"Do I press one of the buttons, now?" he asked. "I confess I've not used one of these before."
"I haven't either," Harry admitted.
"Well, there is a button which appears to be labelled… start," Dumbledore said, looking closer. "Would you mind if I..?"
"Oh – go ahead," Harry invited.
Dumbledore pressed the button with a long finger, holding it down until the screen changed and changed again, then smiled. "Ah! It appears I have made something happen."
It looked like there was a naming screen, now, the sort of thing that Dudley usually skipped by naming his person 'A' - or, if he was feeling bored, 'farts'.
"A marvellous experience," Dumbledore pronounced, twirling the Game Boy around and sliding it a little way back towards Harry. "Thank you for sharing it with me."
"Do you know why it's working, Professor?" Harry asked, turning the Game Boy off in case the batteries ran down. "The only electrical Muggle things I've seen working at Hogwarts before are watches."
"Watches are electrical now?" Dumbledore asked. "How marvellous. But no, Harry, I confess I have not the faintest idea."
He tapped his fingers together. "I remember when it was first discovered that electrical things did not work around Hogwarts, however, Harry. And, while I can certainly understand why you might wonder it, we did not just conclude that something did not work because it could not be plugged in."
That hadn't occurred to Harry, and he giggled before being able to stop himself.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Well, Harry, congratulations for discovering such an oddity. Do keep me up to date if you work out what might be going on – and it seems we may need to update Hogwarts: A History. I imagine your friend Hermione would be very glad to contribute."
"I will, Professor," Harry said, then frowned. "Professor, what things didn't work at Hogwarts?"
"A number of things," Dumbledore told him. "Let me see… ah, I believe there was a mishap with one of those air planes that the Muggles were using back when they were fighting Germany. It was in some sort of trouble and had to land nearby, and of course it was the duty of Professor Merrythought – the Defence professor of the time – to modify the pilot's memory once he left, but the poor fellow was very understanding of the whole situation."
He tapped his chin. "It had… ah, yes, it had a wireless, and one of those funny radar things, but neither of them were working at all. The engine did not start, either, though once Professor Merrythought and I had lifted the air plane away from Hogwarts it all began working just fine. Most peculiar."
Harry had to agree, because it certainly sounded like nothing had worked on the aeroplane.
Maybe they'd need to do some tests.
The day before term started again, Sirius clapped his hands.
"Okay, Harry!" he called. "Ready?"
Harry nodded.
"This should be pretty good to watch," Ron said, interested. "There's no way I could keep up with all this stuff you're doing, Harry, but it's still cool to see what Sirius is teaching you."
Hermione transformed back from her raptor form. "You could practice some of these spells for Defence, you know, Ron."
"I know I could," Ron agreed. "But Harry's the one who does this fighting magic stuff. Neville might, too – what do you think, Neville?"
"Oh, um, maybe?" Neville asked, sounding a little hesitant. "I'm having enough trouble with the normal spells."
"You won't," Ron told him firmly. "It's a wand problem, not a you problem, and the wand's been fixed."
Neville nodded, understanding that.
"Besides, this bit's something we couldn't do," Ron went on. "We don't have the bits for it."
"I've got wings sometimes," Dean volunteered.
"Yeah, and if this was something involving wings, you'd have a point, mate," Ron countered.
Hermione evidently felt cold, because she went back to her raptor form to enjoy the enchanted blanket on top of her coat of warming feathers.
"Anyway," Sirius coughed. "Harry?"
"I nodded," Harry explained, in case Sirius had missed it.
His wand was held in the holster next to his tail, and he'd already been doing spell casting practice, but right now he was about to try something else.
"Then go ahead," Sirius invited.
"Ignis Verberaque," Harry incanted, all in one breath, and continued with a short, sharp exhalation as he bobbed his head.
The flame that came out of his mouth was a little thinner than normal, and stayed together longer, but then it just fell apart and unravelled all at once.
"Well, it's a start," Sirius said. "What did that feel like?"
"It didn't feel like much," Harry replied. "Did it look like one of the times I got it wrong?"
"Maybe it was something to do with momentum," Dean suggested. "What's it like when you cast other fire spells with your breath? I've seen you cast bluebell flames, I know that…"
"I need to keep breathing out, but usually it doesn't matter," Harry told him. "This is what it's like when I cast that basic fire spell."
He demonstrated, shooting a little ball of flame that exploded when it hit the snow, then compared it with bluebell flames – which came out in a torrent until he stopped exhaling, though the magical fire kept burning until he cast the counterspell.
"I think that's what's going on, then," Dean nodded. "What do you think, Mr. Black?"
"Sounds good to me," Sirius shrugged. "I'm making this up as I go along, Mr. Bluebird."
Dean looked down at himself uncertainly, turned into his Animagus form, then turned back again. "I'm not blue."
"Yeah, but Blackbird is too accurate," Sirius waved off. "Let's see if it catches on. Anyway, Harry, do you want to try it where you just exhale constantly?"
Harry nodded agreement, and tried again – this time using a slow, steady stream of fire breath instead of the single burst he'd done before.
It worked quite a bit better, with the spell sort of taking hold and keeping Harry's fire breath rising up almost like a serpent, until he lost control and it dropped to hiss into the snow.
"Not bad," Sirius summarized.
"Quick question?" Neville said, raising his hand. "Can we look at that Muggle Studies thing now? I know Harry's in the middle of practicing, but I'd rather see the Muggle thing before we get too cold."
"That's a good idea," Sirius agreed. "If you're okay with it, Harry?"
Harry certainly was.
"All right, so here's the things I got in London yesterday," Sirius said, shifting them out of the box. "I made sure to get things that used batteries – that's the right word, right?"
"Exactly," Hermione agreed, writing down each thing neatly on her new pad of paper. Harry had got her a special enchanted one from a curiosity shop in Diagon Alley which never ran out of new sheets, and seeing her using it made him feel distinctly proud of his guess. "So, that's a torch… a radio… and is that a television?"
Sirius proudly put that last one on top of the kitchen table. "I didn't know they did these with batteries. And I got Ted Tonks to make sure it was all charged up first."
Harry's wings shifted a little as he watched, every bit as interested as the others to see what would happen.
"Who's going to do the honours?" Sirius added. "What about you, Dean?"
Dean pressed the power button, and there was a click noise. Something whirred, and then loud sounds came out of the speakers.
Someone was going on about how someone called Mandy had broken up with someone called Aidan, and that he'd gone back to Ireland which was why it was over between them.
"…there's no picture," Ron said. "Are you sure that's not the radio?"
"No, there's definitely a screen," Dean replied. "This is EastEnders, anyway, and that's not a radio program. It's still working, it's just that the screen isn't."
Hermione wrote that down.
"That's weird," Sirius summarized. "I was really expecting it not to work. But didn't the screen on your Game Boy thingy work, Harry?"
Harry confirmed that it did.
Dean turned the TV off again, and Ron huffed. "I was listening to that."
"Mate, I've tried to understand what's going on on Mum's soaps," Dean replied. "I don't think she knows what's going on."
Hermione giggled.
The next thing they tried was the torch, which just worked without any fuss. It lit up, and stayed lit up, and Ron poked it experimentally.
"So this is what Muggles use instead of a Lumos spell?" he asked, and flicked the switch on and off a few times. "I can see how it's actually kind of better than a wand at lighting things up, it's just that it doesn't do the other things."
"Yeah, wands are much more useful overall," Dean agreed. "But if I was going somewhere dark and I knew it, I'd take a wand and a torch so I could use my wand for other stuff."
"I'd set myself on fire," Harry volunteered, having been thinking about it. "You could set yourself on fire, too."
"Yeah, or there's that," Dean admitted.
Neville took a turn with the torch, flicking it on and looking into it.
"That's really bright," he said, wincing. "It's like the bright bit gets bigger when you look into it."
"That's the mirror," Hermione told him. "All the light that's going back towards the torch is sort of useless, so the mirror just reflects it out forwards instead. So it lights up a whole room a bit, but the place you're pointing the torch is lit up a lot."
Neville nodded, sliding the switch to turn the torch off again, and then Harry tried the radio.
Surprisingly, that worked without any fuss either, and classical music filled the air.
"Well, now I'm really confused," Sirius summarized, as Ron twiddled the dials and found no sign of any Wizarding Wireless shows. "Why is all this Muggle stuff working? Are we too far from Hogwarts or something?"
"We could try some of it out in Gryffindor Tower," Harry suggested. "But let's try and get that fire whip spell working first."
Sirius didn't have any problem with that idea.