The New Trio and the Madness Within

Chapter 2: Marauding in the Alley

Harry's birthday was a rather quiet affair. The overall mood was a quiet and brooding one, but it wasn't only because of the prison break; Neville's parents had taken a sudden turn for the worse, and Madame Longbottom was in the middle of discussions with the goblins to see if they would consent to providing healing for Frank and Alice. It wasn't easy, since discussions with the Goblins almost never went your way unless you had something they wanted, and even then you had to prove that what you wanted was worth the goblins' time. The only reason Harry and his godfathers had had such an easy time with them was because they saw Horcruxes as absolute abominations of life and magic, and they had taken it as a personal attack that they'd discovered one in their vaults. Hufflepuff's Cup was currently on its way to Hogwarts, fully cleansed of the soul fraction and the small number of curses which had been placed on it. They had decided to allow Professor Sprout to keep a hold of it, but only until the first time it was damaged-after that, it would remain inside Gringotts for the foreseeable future, unless the Heir to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Hufflepuff arrived, and that didn't seem very likely.

Narcissa and Severus had come back from their honeymoon early, and Draco was now living in Prince Manor full-time. The few times he saw Narcissa, she looked shaken and pale. One good thing that had happened was that she now had the confidence to reach out to her older sister, Andromeda, who, in turn, introduced everyone to her daughter, Nymphadora, or Tonks, as she wanted to be called. A few days were spent simply getting to know the small family of three. Sirius had previously allowed them back into the Black family, and had had a few lunches getting to know his beloved older cousin all over again, so he bowed out of the get-togethers in favour of doing his job as an Auror and attempting to track Bellatrix down.

Eventually, however, the horribly stressful week came to an end, bringing with it the Hogwarts letters. Harry was happily pleased to see the Defence book-Remus had admitted a week ago that he'd been offered the Defence Professor position, and even though they knew Dumbledore had only given him the job to try to get friendly with Harry, they'd decided unanimously that he'd take the job. He might even be able to twist it against the old coot, by becoming 'friendly' with him and pretending to agree with him. It was a dangerous thing to do, though, and Sirius had suggested that they go over what the man wanted from them extensively before committing to anything.

When the twins sent another letter, telling them the days they'd be in Diagon Alley, and that Fred had already made sure that Hermione would be there for one of those days, they made plans to visit the Alley to get their school things. On that day, Narcissa, Severus, and Draco Flooed over to Grimmauld Place for breakfast, closely followed by Augusta and Neville, then Sirius, Harry, Draco, Neville, and Narcissa Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron, leaving Remus and Severus behind because they had a staff meeting at Hogwarts in half an hour which would likely take up the rest of the day, and Augusta had a morning tea scheduled with her allies on the Wizengamot to go over a bill they were backing.

The first thing that happened when Harry arrived was his vision being reduced to seeing nothing but the bunch of bushy brown hair which belonged to none other than his favourite know-it-all. The screeching in his ear helped to identify her too. Then, suddenly, she was gone, off to screech a greeting at Draco and hug him just as fiercely, and repeated it again with Neville. Harry simply smiled. Hermione had come a long way from the bossy girl on the Hogwarts Express; having three best friends and a large circle of other friends had mellowed her out, and now that she'd played several pranks and even had a genius prankster for a boyfriend, she was positively cheeky when she knew no one other than the Marauders' Recruits were around. She was a brilliant researcher, and she was the brain behind most of their prank ideas. Having friends had changed her for the better, and she held them all close to her heart whenever she remembered her lonely past in primary school.