A new life down under

10

'It won't help us get the money though, he's betrothed to that little bitch.'

'Unless Susan had an accident, leave everything to me girls, now go, I have things to do,' Albus waited until the two young girls left before he began working on plans for Susan Bones. He knew he would need to be careful, Amelia Bones was already suspicious, so he would need to take his time and wait for a few months. He would also need to get his two little spies to leave Neville alone, anything that would throw off suspicion. Hopefully, in a few months the one obstacle would be gone and he would have Harry Potter locked up ready to die the moment Voldemort returned.

When the holidays began, Harry had been surprised to find a large potions lab off the back of the house, so he decided to stock up on potions, but also ingredients. He would never attempt a potion that he'd never made before without supervision, but he could keep practicing the potions he already knew he could make.

Susan and Harry had a great time at the house during the holidays. The house was right near the beach, so they spent a lot of their time swimming in the ocean. When Allan and Victoria arrived the four young people would spend their time on the beach or on the water. Even though it was the holidays, the adults kept working. They did take breaks, but they could not stop altogether, they wanted a way to rid Harry of a piece of Voldemort's soul.

Christmas day was so different from what Harry and Susan was used to. It was hot and sunny, not cold and snowing. They still had a great time, they also had lots of gifts. Susan ended up with tears in her eyes when Harry presented her with the promise ring. It had emeralds and diamonds around the ring. Susan said the emeralds would remind her of Harry's eyes.

Even though Sirius, Remus and Amelia sat on the large veranda watching the four young people swimming in the ocean, they would still have books around them. Amelia would check in with the unspeakables to see if they were making progress. Remus would check in with Gawain to see how things were going on the Australian side. So far, they had not found a way to get the soul out of Harry, but they believed they could contain Voldemort. They would just need to capture him which would be extremely hard and dangerous.

Once Susan had returned to England with her aunt and Allan and Victoria returned to their school, Harry had a couple of days just with the two men he thought of as family, as fathers. He even occasionally called Sirius dad and Remus father. At first he had been worried they wouldn't like it, he had also been embarrassed. Sirius and Remus felt very honoured and said if that is what Harry wanted to call them, then he could. They loved hearing Harry call them dad and father.

Gavin Reynolds could not believe how brilliant Harry was at potions. After finishing what they would learn in class, he would have Harry return a few nights a week to prepare and make more advanced potions. He never had trouble with one and he made sure to tell Harry how good he was and how proud he was of helping Harry hone his skills in potions making.

Right after the second task at Hogwarts, Susan used to mirror to contact Harry, 'So what happened?'

'They had to go into the black lake and rescue their hostage who had been put in an enchanted sleep. They were shivering like crazy by the time they got to the surface.'

'That is dangerous in that weather, who would think up something so dangerous?'

'No idea, but Cedric got first, Viktor Krum second but he was just outside the time. Fleur Delacour was attacked by grindylows, she had to be rescued. She was hysterical, calling for her sister who was her hostage and only ten years old. Dumbledore used some spell to bring her to the surface and woke her up, she was fine, just freezing.'

'Tell Cedric I said congratulations.'

'I will, but the way it's going, it looks like a Hogwarts victory, he is ahead in points. Oh, you should see the quidditch pitch, they are building a maze, with these giant hedges. They aren't finished yet, but they are already huge.'