Chapter Text
Expelled.
Somehow, despite everything that has happened to him, Harry didn’t really think he would be expelled. He’d known all summer about the smear campaign the ministry and the profit were running, despite Dumbledore’s order the twins had kept him in the loop with the wizarding world with Voldemorts return. He would have gone crazy over the summer if not for them, so he knew that this circus of a hearing was meant to discredit and humiliate him. Yet somehow he still hadn’t expected this.
Expelled, his wand taken, snapped even, Harry had just stood there dumfounded as he watched the leader of magical Britain snap his wand in his pudgy hands, watched the first thing that had ever truly belonged to him being destroyed as photographers took pictures. He just knew tomorrows addition would show this moment on loop, one of the worst moments of his life on loop forever. He walks out of that courtroom numb, he isn’t in a daze, or lost, it doesn’t feel like shock, it feels like when you’re waiting for danger, knowing you’re unprepared and all alone.
Arthur Weasley is waiting for him outside. His face is crestfallen, he’d seen the verdict from the gallery, as soon as Harry is within arms reach the man is pulling him into a hug. He won’t cry, not here, he won’t give them that satisfaction, he has to hold it together until he is back at Grimmauld place. Arthur lets him go, patting a hand on his shoulder.
“My boy.” A kind sad grandfatherly voice says from behind them.
Harry closes his eyes, taking a deep steadying breath, before he turns to see the head master. He’s dressed in light violet and silver robes, with embroidered stars and moons, his grandfatherly face is sorrowful and repentant.
“I’m going back, I’m not discussing this here.” Harry says before he turns back to head for the atrium and the ministry floo system.
He doesn’t care if they follow him or not, Harry needs to get away from the ministry, it’s not a safe place for him to linger, not now. Before long he’s floo’d into the Black family town house, Arthur and Albus on his heels. The kitchen is full with Hermione and the Weasleys, Sirius and Remus standing near the far wall huddled close together, the room goes deathly silent with his emergence. It must be written on his face, he watches as his family comes to the realisation that the trial went south.
The silence is broken by Sirius. “Pup.” He says walking toward Harry. “What happened?”
“Harry has been expelled.” Mr Weasley says, gesturing for everyone to listen. “Let’s give Harry some privacy, he and the head master need a word.” Arthur says, ushering his family and Hermione from the room. George lingers, looking back and forth from Harry and the animagus, Remus puts a hand on the gingers shoulder.
“Come on. We’ll see him after.” Remus says, drawing the young man from the kitchen.
Sirius cups Harry’s face brushing a stray curl from his glasses, looking his pup over, making sure he’s ok. “What happened?” He asks gently.
“Sirius, I need a moment with Harry.” Albus says, kindly but firmly.
Sirius straightens, hackles raising. “No.”
“Excuse me?” Dumbledore says.
“No.” Sirius says, moving to stand between Dumbledore and his pup. “Anything you need to say to Harry you can say with me here.”
“My boy-” The head master starts before being cut off.
“I’m not a boy Albus, and I am not your boy. I’m the closest thing Harry has to a living parent and I am not going to leave him alone right now. So either talk to us, or get the fuck out of my house.” Sirius growls.
“Sirius.” Harry says, putting a hand on his godsfather’s arm. “It’s ok.”
“No Harry, it isn’t. You’re a kid, and you deserve to have someone backing you up. I’m not leaving you alone in this, wether you want me here or not you’re stuck with me pup.” Sirius says looking at Harry with determination.
Albus sighs, taking a seat across the table from the two. “Well then, I owe you both an apology.” Albus says. “We knew the time and place of the meeting may change, and I was detained in another meeting, arriving only after the verdict was already announced. If I had been there you wouldn’t have been expelled, your wand wouldn’t have been destroyed.”
“Thats not an apology.” Harry says as he leans back against the kitchen counter. “Saying you owe an apology isn’t the same as apologising, and frankly I don’t want to hear it.”
“Harry.” Dumbledore says, Sirius raises a hand for the old man to stop.
“I’m no longer your student, so I don’t want to hear any placating lectures. I’m not interested in your half truths and riddles.” Harry is staring down at the floor as he speaks. “Since I started school you’ve been dropping a trail of breadcrumbs, pushing me towards danger, giving me just enough to stay interested. Well I’m done.” Harry says, facing the head master, anger glowing in his eyes, fire running through his magic. “It’s time for answers, real answers. So Head Master, what exactly is going on here? And don’t ask me what I mean by that, or say nothing. We all know what I mean. Voldemort is fixated on me, and you, him, and the ministry are all focused on me. Why? Cause I’ll tell you I don’t buy that it’s because I defeated him as a baby, if that was the case he would have just killed me by now, not use me in some fucked up blood ritual.”
“Harry, these things are better left for the adults in your life.” Albus says trying to be reasonable.
“Like me? Cause I think its high time the boy knows why he’s being hunted, so either you tell him Albus or I will.” Sirius says resting his hands on the table, leaning forward in a vaguely threatening way.
The two men look at each other for a moment before Albus sighs. “Not long before you were born there was a prophecy, only myself and the prophet were in the room when it was foretold, but a death eater was hiding outside the door, and over heard the first half. It was enough for Voldemort to target your family, you specifically, he believed by killing you he could prevent his own defeat.”
What was the prophecy?” Harry asks.
“I don’t believe that is wise.” Albus says.
“Stop, he should know, he doesn’t have the protection of school anymore. Keeping him in the dark is just putting him in the way of danger now, he needs to know.” Sirius says brokering no room for arguments.
Dumbledore lets out a world weary sigh. ”The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...” Dumbledore says in a far away voice. “He only knows the first half, but it was enough for him to mark you.”
“Power?” Harry asks skeptically. “I have the power to kill Voldemort? So when were you going to tell me? What power am I supposed to have, seriously, when were you going to tell me this?" harry can't wrap his mind around this. He's some kind of chosen one with the power to defeat the most powerful dark wizard the modern world has ever seen. And what? He was just supposed to figure this out on his own, instead of, I don't know, relying on the adults in his life like every other kid gets to do, but no. He's Harry fucking Potter, why would any adult actually help him. "What, was I supposed to just discover this the next time I face him? You didn’t think knowing would help me figure out whatever power I’m supposed to have? Or were you just hoping that I would figure it out on the fly next time he tries to kill me?” Harry rants at his professor.
“Harry…you are still just a child.” Dumbledore tries to reason.
“With a target on my back.” Harry snaps turning to face the head master. “What? You didn’t think knowing I’m being targeted would help me? Fuck, do you understand how much dangerous stupid shite I’ve gotten into the last four years because you kept me in the dark? You encouraged me to take risks, seek the truth, you didn’t help me. Why? What was the point in steering me in the direction of Voldemort if you didn’t want me involved, because I’ve been involved, and I didn’t hear you objecting to me stopping him while I was in school.”
“Harry.” Albus says standing from his chair before stopping at Harry’s harsh tone.
“No, don’t Harry me. What were you playing at? You have a seat on the wizengamot, you could have convinced someone to take this seriously, hell you could have gotten Sirius a trial, so why did you have two thirteen year olds help Sirius escape, why not force the issue, what do wizards not have solicitors, do they not follow their own laws?” Harry raves as he starts pacing the kitchen.
“You saw today they vote the way they will.” Albus tries to reason.
“And you said that if you had been there on time I wouldn’t have been expelled, you have so much power, why aren’t you using it?” Harry stops, looking the head master in the eye, he see’s the twitch. Albus twitched, Harry’s words clearly striking a cord.
Sirius walks to Harry, putting a comforting hand on his heaving shoulder, Harry breathing fast in his rage. “Pup, don’t worry about me.” He tries to sooth.
“No!” Harry says nocking Sirius’s hand away and facing his Godsfather. “This matters, if you were free I could live with you and not have spent the last two summers with the Dursleys. Hell if you got a trial in the first place I could have grown up with you.” Harry looks distraught, thinking back on all the abuse and neglect he’d endured at the hands of his relatives.
“You would still need to go to the Dursley’s.” Albus says quietly into the following silence of Harry’s out burst.
“What? Why?” Harry asks looking to the head master, seeming to have forgotten momentarily he was there.
“Excuse me, if I ever do get free I can assure you he will never set foot in that house again.” Sirius says protectively.
“No Sirius, he must live with them for at least a month every year.” Dumbledore says, sadness clear in his eyes.
“Why?” Harry asks suspiciously.
“Harry when your mother gave her life for you she created a blood ward, a ward that is only active if you live with her blood and call their home yours for at least part of the year.” Albus explains, resting a hand on the table. “A childhood home gave the ward more strength, so for the first decade of your life you needed to live with them full time. It is why when you touched Quirl his bond with Voldemort was destroyed, the sacrifice of true love is the only thing that can protect you from him.”
Sirius stares at the head master in horror. “What? Fuck no, you complete and utter…ugh. No, those weren’t made by her sacrifice, those wards were old Black family magic Lilly and I made together.” He says with a wave of his out stretched hand. “They aren’t made from Lilly’s love, they’re the family protections. Harry is just as safe with a blood relative of Lilly’s as he is living with me or Remus, its about family ties, not fucking blood. Is that why you haven’t gotten me a trial?” The convict accuses the old wizard.
“Sirius, I don’t believe-” Dumbledore tries to say before he’s cut off.
“I could have been living with Remus or Sirius all this time! And I’ve been with the fucking Dursley’s?!” Harry yells, glasses in the open cupboards shattering with a burst of wild magic fuelled by his unbridled rage.
“It wasn’t safe, you needed to be away from magic.” Dumbledore tries to sooth.
“No he didn’t, why did you really want him there. And cut the bull, we’re not buying it.” Sirius growls out, static popping in the air around him as his own magic tries to lash out.
“It was for his protection.” Albus says.
“Protection?” Harry asks angrily. “So you were protecting me by sending me to live with people who hated me? It was protecting me to live with Vernon who beat me when I had spells of accidental magic? You were just protecting me by leaving me with Petunia who would only feed me if I earned it? It was for my protection to be bullied and abused for my entire life, instead of living with Sirius and Remus? They love me, and you think I was better off with those fucking monsters?” Harry is crying in pure fury by the end, his sobs wreaking through him as wave after wave of magic roll out of him in his grief and blinding anger.
Sirius cuts through the magic, his own parting Harry’s with ease, he moves to hold his godsson wrapping him in his arms. Slowly Harry settles, the rage ebbing into exhaustion.
“Get out.” Harry says quietly.
Sirius stiffens. “Pup?”
Harry looks up to meet the head masters eyes where he’ still standing at the end of the table. “Get out. You aren’t my head master anymore, I’m not your student.”
“Harry.” Albus says.
“No.” He pushes out of Sirius’s arms, standing. “I’m done with you. I’m done being some bloody pawn, I’m the one who has to defeat Voldemort, and I can’t waist time playing these stupid power games. So get out.”
Dumbledore stands there momentarily, seemingly lost.
“Go. Before I forcibly remove you from the wards and the house ejects you.” Sirius says from where he is still kneeling on the floor, not looking up from his hands.
Albus nods, he opens his mouth to say something then seems to think better of it, before he turns and leaves in a swirl of green flame. The kitchen finally falling silent.
. . .
After Albus left Harry tells Sirius everything that happened in the trial, before he goes to the room he’s sharing with Ron, leaving it to Sirius to tell everyone what happened with him and Albus. He’s barley shut the door when the loud crack of apparition startles him, as a pair of red haired menaces pop into existence behind him.
“Well done there Harrykins.” Fred says appreciatively.
George drops down onto Harry’s bed, a grin plastered to his face. “You really laid into the Head Master. Gotta be honest there mate, that was pretty sexy.”
“Well I wouldn’t go that far.” Fred says rolling his eyes at his twin. “Still, pretty brill.”
Harry blushes a bit, he’s always been embarrassed by his temper. “Look I appreciate it, but I’m not really in the mood.”
“Aw, Fred, isn’t he cute? Well luv, no worries, your virtue shall remain intact, for now at least.” George says with an exaggerated wink.
“Merlin, who knew my twin was such a freak for the golden boy?” Fred says as he falls back on Rons bed.
“What can I say? I appreciate a man with a temper.” George purrs as he looks Harry up and down from where he is still standing by the door.
“George.” Harry reprimands, not knowing how to respond to the blatant flirting, the twins always flirt, but George isn’t usually this forward with him. He’s not sure how he feels about it, and wether he would prefer George to be joking or not.
“Oh there it is, go on luv, say my name again, just like that.” George coos as he leans forward resting his elbows on his spread knees.
Fred rolls his eyes at his twin as Harry blushes enough to be noticeable even on his tanned skin. “I can always leave if you two need a moment.”
“No!” Harry says too quickly and too loudly, getting a chuckle from Fred and a smirk from George, before he clears his throat and tries again. “No, you’re fine. What’s up?”
George grins. “Whats up? You just cussed out the head master after getting expelled, that’s what’s up.”
“We’re mighty impressed there mate, didn’t think you had it in you.” Fred adds looking proud.
“Extendable ear.” Harry realises with an exasperated sigh.
“Catches on quick this one. Might be too smart for you George.” Fred teases.
“Nah, just smart enough for my tastes. Genius attracts like after all.” George says loftily, before his face softens. “How ya doing Harry? Really.”
Harry finds himself getting lost in George’s soft brown eyes. They’d been exchanging letters all summer, on paper he’d been writing the twins, but almost all the letters had been written by George with a few lines added here and there by Fred. The two of them had always been close, but during the tournament the year before George had become the person Harry went to when everything was just too much. He always knew how to make him smile and how to get him out of his head, the flirting isn’t even new. Their letters had been particularly flirty the last few weeks, and George has always been rather affectionate. Harry’s been pointedly not thinking about it, not when he’s been dealing with the trauma of the graveyard and Cedric’s death, but he would be lying if he said George hadn’t been a comfort through it all.
“I, uh, George. This is a lot, I’m, I’m…I don’t know, today was intense.” Harry finally says, looking at the carpet instead of George’s warm eyes.
A pair of legs enter his line of sight, and Harry doesn’t look up, not until a hand catches his chin, slowly raising his head to meet George’s piercing gaze. “Hey, it’s going to be ok, you aren’t going to do this alone.”
“Aren’t I? I’m the one who has to defeat him, I’m the one who’s been expelled, I’m the one with some nebulous power I have no idea how to access or control. Gotta say, I feel pretty alone right now.” Harry states in a sarcastic tone.
“Harry. We’re not leaving you alone.” George says with a meaningful smile.
Harry narrows his eyes at that. “What do you mean? You have to finish out the year before you graduate.”
George and Fred exchange a sly smile, before George turns back to him.
“You know George, I always felt our future lay outside the world of academic achievement.” Fred says from where he’s lounging on Ron’s bed.
“Fred I’ve been thinking exactly the same thing.” George says moving to lean over Harry essentially caging him to the door.
Harry’s heart picks up suddenly and he can feel his heart beet in his throat, with George smiling down at him. “You can’t drop out for me.” Harry manages to get out. “This isn’t an adventure or some kind of game. Voldemort is trying to kill me, and he will kill everyone around me to do it. You can’t risk your lives for me, this isn’t fun, and you two can stay out of it, live your lives.” Harry implores trying to get across the seriousness of the situation, cause as much as he wants them to stay, he can’t ask it of them.
George smile softens. “You think we’re doing this for you?” He asks in such a sweet warm tone Harry thinks he may melt into the floor.
“Boy thinks highly of himself, no worries, you hang out with us long enough we’ll knock that right out of you.” Fred says with a wink. “Did you know some absolute sucker gave us a pile of gold a few months ago?”
George’s grin broadens. “We aren’t going back to school.”
Harry’s eyes widen in realisation. “You’re really doing it.” He breathes out with a smile.
George nods his head. “We’re really doing it.”
“What about your newts? What about your mom?” Harry asks, his brain catching up to what this means.
“We’re seventeen. Legally it’s our decision, and we can always take our newts later if we want, it’s just a test anyone can take at any time. Mom disapproves of the shop anyway, she’ll either come round or she wont, we’re not waiting, especially if war is on the way.” George says, surprisingly serious for him.
Harry’s looking up into warm brown eyes, completely in awe of what they are doing. “You’re really doing this aren’t you?”
Fred snorts, drawing Harry out of the intimate moment, making him remember George and him aren’t alone in the room, he’d almost forgotten there for a sec. “Fraid we ain’t that selfless mate, we like you and all, well me in a different way from my twin, you’re a good lad, but no. We aren’t blowing up our entire lives for you, because of you most certainly, your gold mostly if we’re honest. Still, makes you a great scapegoat for our mom.”
“Specially now with the whole expulsion, we can say we’re leaving to keep you company.” George says in a playful tone with a wink as he pushes himself off the door, making his way backwards to join Fred on Ron’s bed.
“Just be sure to play up the sad orphan bit, help us out ya know. If she’s to busy fussing over you being sad and lonely to focus on us being stupid and reckless it’ll make life much easier for us.” Fred adds moving his legs to lay over George’s, George pushing him off so Fred ends up on the floor in a dramatic roll only to land on his side with a hand on his hip and his head in his other hand, posing and smiling up at Harry, making the younger boy laugh.
Harry steps over Fred to join George on the bed. “You two are something else.”
Fred rolls to face them as George says. “Course we are, we’re the most talented.”
“Ingenious.” Fred adds.
“Handsome.” George tacks on.
“Twins you’ve ever seen.” They finish in tandem with an exaggerated wink making Harry laugh, maybe this year won’t be so bad with these two around.
Just then there is a stompied up the stairs, clearly their time is up, as the door is thrown open to show Hermione, Ron and Ginny in the doorway. Hermione spots him and throws herself in his arms, making him fall backwards on the bed with a distraught Hermione clutching his neck.
“Harry! They just can’t expel you, they can’t!” She cries into his shirt.
He awkwardly pats her back, trying to comfort her. “It’ll be alright Hermione.”
She pushes off him slightly to look at him with teary eyes. “Harry! You’ve been expelled! They snapped your wand, what will you do without a wand?”
He pushes her to sit beside him on his free side, so he can sit up, he catches George’s eye as he does and the older boy is frowning, a very un-George like expression. Harry raises a brow at him and he puts on a fake grin, making Harry only squint at him more in suspicion.
“Mate this is nuts. You can’t not go to Hogwarts.” Ron says as he enters the room.
Harry looks between his best friends with a sigh. “Guys, the ministry had no intention of letting me graduate, they don’t want me armed, they think I’m dangerous.” Harry thinks back to the headlines the profit had been printing all summer. “The trial was fixed before I even entered the room.”
The room is quiet at the statement. “What are you going to do?” Gin finally asks.
Harry shrugs. “Look, I, this all just happened. I don’t have a plan yet, all I know is I’m apparently the key to killing Voldemort. There’s some prophecy that says that neither can live while the other survives. It’s why he targeted me in the first place. He’s determined to kill me, so I have to kill him first, before he kills anyone else.”
“It’s bleak work being the chosen one.” Fred says as he sits up on the floor. “Only you could take getting expelled in such a dower way.”
“Fred!” Hermione admonishes, as she lightly kicks him in the ribs, making him wince dramatically and clutch his side as if he’d been mortally wounded. Hermione rolls her eyes at his theatrics. “For Christs sakes I barely touched you, you big baby.”
“Just ignore him, he’s a drama queen.” Gin says crossing her arms.
“I’m being abused by all these mean women, save me oh chosen one.” He says as he sits against Harry’s legs, throwing his head back over Harry’s knees.
George rolls his eyes at his twin, and pushes him off Harry. “Would everyone just stop throwing themselves all over Haza here. Merlin, you people are animals.” He says with a grin and a wink for Harry, making him flush at the attention.
“You’re no fun, you just want to keep Harry all for yourself.” Fred whines, moving to rest against Hermione. “Mione, George is hogging Harry, make him share.”
“I thought I was mean and abusive?” She points out with a raised brow.
“Details details.” He says waving a hand. “Be mean to George, you’re brill at it.” He says with his most charming smile, causing the witch to roll her eyes at his antics.
“This is serious, we need to make a plan and figure out how to get Harry re-enrolled in school. Also we should research this prophecy, see how legitimate it is, you know how wishy washy divination can be.” She says pulling a pocket notebook from her jeans with a pen to start taking notes.
“Merlin Hermione, give the guy a minute. His whole life’s been blown to bits, shouldn’t Harry take a minute or two to process this before we go into problem solving?” Ron points out from where he’s leaning against the wall next to the door.
She covers her mouth in shock, clearly appalled with herself. “Oh, Harry, I’m so sorry. Of course, what do you need right now?”
Everyone in the room is now staring at Harry. “Uh, look, I don’t really know. I just, well it’s all just a lot. I don’t really know what I need, or what I should do, I just blew up at Dumbledore and found out he kept me with the Dursley’s despite the fact that I would have had just as much, if not more protection living with Sirius and Remus. He, I don’t know, he wanted me with them, even though I had people who actually loved me, actually wanted me.” Harry says with a shake of his head.
“Why would he do that?” Hermione asks
“He said it was blood wards, that my mothers sacrifice made wards that were activated by living with her blood, but Sirius, he made those wards with my mother. They’re Black family wards, activated by family ties, not blood. He, he could have gotten Sirius a trial, at any point, and he just let him rot in Azkaban. He let me live with my abusers, for fourteen years, fourteen.” Harry puts his head in his hands, suddenly he’s pulled into George’s lap, wrapped in a bone crushing hug.
“Bloody hell man. No wonder you’re torn up over it all.” George whispers into his hair. Harry settles into the hold, resting his head in George’s long freckled neck.
“Uh…Wha-ow!” Ron starts before being hit by Gin, who glares at his affronted face.
Fred gets to his feet, stretching out a hand for Hermione, nodding his head for the door. “Best to give them a mo.” He says quietly, he helps her to stand and ushers everyone out of the room.
“They’re on my bed!” Ron whines as he’s pushed from the room.
“Oh really Ron. Do shut up.” Hermione bullies him away from the door as its closed, leaving the pair alone.
“George, what do I do? I don’t even know where to start.” Harry says after a moment, gripping the taller boys soft shirt.
“Right now sweet? Right now you just let me hold you, things can wait a bit.” He says nosing at tangled black curls.
So Harry lets himself be held, lets himself be taken care of, he doesn’t cry, he’s out of tears for the time being, but he lets himself grieve. Grieve the life he could have had, grieve for his life at Hogwarts, grieve the life he’d dreamed of, grieve for his Godsfather, for all they had suffered at the hands of a man they had both once trusted. Harry isn’t sure how long they stay like that, but eventually they hear Mrs Weasley calling up the stairs that dinner is ready, causing the portrait of Mrs Black to start screeching bile.
George sighs into Harry’s hair. “We’d better head down before they send up a search party.”
Harry sighs too. “Ugh, I suppose you’re right. Do We really have to go down?” He asks looking up at the ginger.
“Unless you’d fancy mom walking in on us like this, probably should.” George says in a teasing tone.
Harry shudders at the image. “Yeah, I don’t need her knowing bout us just yet.”
Harry moves to get out of George’s lap, only to be held in place. George is grinning at him like he just did something unbelievably amazing. “Us?” The ginger questions in a teasing voice.
Harry flushes. “Uh, well, uh…I, that is, um…”
George cackles and kisses his temple. “Have a mental break down later love, there’s food on the table and my siblings are a lot of pigs.” He stands up still holding Harry causing the younger boy to yelp, before setting him on his feet.
Harry just stares at him for a moment, still a little stunned by everything between him and George, they’d been dancing around each other for a while now, even when Harry was pretending they weren’t, well after all this they can’t really pretend they’re just friends, specially not after that display in front of everyone.
“George. I uh, thanks.” He says quietly.
George brushes some hair behind his ear. “Any time luv, sides, I got the sweet end of the deal, I just got to hold the cutest guy for like an hour. I’m on cloud nine here.” He says teasingly.
Harry bats his arm lightly laughing. “I am not cute.”
“Eh, agree to disagree. We’d better head down before all the foods gone.” George says with a wink, looping an arm over Harry’s shoulder and guiding him to the door.
“Jesus, do you think they’ll find a way to shut her up. I don’t love the idea of living with that.” Harry says sassily as they’re walking down the stairs.
“Bet we could find a way. Would be a good bribe to get you’re godsfather to let us stay here.” George whispers conspiratorially in Harry’s ear.
“Wha-really?” Harry asks in surprise. “You’d really stay here?”
“Why not.” George asks with a grin. “No rent, no mom. Be the perfect base of operations while we’re looking for the shop. We need a place to sleep and all that.”
Harry shakes his head smiling. “You just want to stay here to learn from Pads and Moons, don’t you?”
“Oh my Gods Harry! Do we ever! Without mom here!” He says excitedly, talking at a rapid pace. “It’s half the reason we decided to not wait and just buy the shop now. Like the actual Marauders, ah! Its amazing, the stories alone are worth dropping out for.” He finishes in a whisper as they enter the hall outside the kitchen, descending the last few steps George lets Harry out from under his arm, letting the younger boy enter first. Their is a few steps down to the kitchen where everyone is gathered round the table running down the centre of the long room. The table is long enough to seat sixteen which is great for a family of eight, and a group of four, the all have plenty of room for once to spread out and the table is full with an entire feast.
“Mom stress cooks.” George whispers as he pulls Harry to a seat between Ron and Fred on the long bench, seating Harry between himself and Ron and taking a seat between Harry and Fred for himself, across from Gin, Hermione, Bill and Percy.
“Oh, hi. sorry, I didn’t realise you two were here.” Harry greets the older Weasley brothers.
“Oh no worries there Harry. Today was a bit of a whirl, we only got here in time fore dinner. Don’t hold back, mom made tons tonight.” Bill says with a wink.
“Good to see you Harry. Let me know if you need any help with your studies, I’m happy to arrange your owl exams when you’re ready to take them.” Percy says with a polite smile.
“I can still take those?” Harry asks shocked.
“Of course you can cub.” Remus adds passing a bowl of potatoes to Fred to give to Harry. “Hogwarts is the only magical school in the UK, but anyone can study for and take their owl’s or newts." The former professor says with a sad smile. "Werwolves aren’t allowed in school period, so they have to be home schooled or study independently, I was actually hoping to speak with you about what you would like to do about your education, tomorrow.”
“Really?” Harry asks excitedly. “Can I really still learn without a wand?”
That gets the whole table to quiet. Remus looks around before settling on Harry in a warm but serious manner. “Harry, a wand is a tool, a very useful one, but a tool none the less. Any magic user can learn to cast without a wand, it requires more power, and more discipline, as it is a skill, but yes. You can learn without a wand.”
“Isn’t it supposed to be extremely advanced magic?” Hermione asks in fascinated horror.
Remus looks at her and smiles. “In the way that learning to play Beethoven’s fifth is advanced piano. It is a skilled form of magic that anyone with enough energy and patience can learn to harness.” He turns back to Harry, meeting his eyes across the table. “We’ll talk more tomorrow. Have some of the roasted carrots, they’re very good.”
Remus pushes the platter closer to harry with a flick of his finger. A very small spell, but a pointed one. Harry can feel himself grinning. “Tomorrow.”
The rest of the meal is uneventful, everyone pointedly avoiding talking about Harry’s situation, with the twins playing interference anytime someone gets to close to mentioning it. They’re good at distracting everyone so Harry can eat in peace without having to rehash it all again. George periodically bumps their knees together, until they’re just resting against each other, each slightly pushing into the other from time to time, as if to assure the other that they’re really there. It’s nice. Molly comes round with desert and places a very big portion in front of Harry, while cupping his forehead to pull his head back slightly so she can kiss the top of his head in passing, it’s so sweet and so motherly Harry thinks he may cry. It feels like love. Fred makes a kissey face at him, lightening the mood by making him laugh, George presses his knee more firmly into Harry, jostling him a little, making the shorter boy look up at him, only to see the ginger give him an encouraging wink.
Harry shakes his head and digs into the giant piece of treacle tart, his favourite.