A Sirius Summer

16th August 1995

The battered issue of Defence for the Determined Witch was filled with his mother's soft cursive writing. Harry was curled up in the main living room happily deciphering his mum's comments on a particularly amusing article suggesting alternate uses for beauty charms in defence. It seemed that she was particularly sceptical in the ability of makeup charms to temporarily blind people. Though he would definitely be trying it out in his next dual with Sirius.

Flicking back to the earlier article on adding runes to earrings to help improve hearing, Harry picked up his own quill and started making notes. Sirius had promised that he would pierce his ears at some point over the summer – apparently there was some sort of tradition involved as to the type of piercing and the jewellery worn – and he was definitely interested in having jewellery that did more than look pretty. It still felt a bit odd that wixen folk wore so much jewellery regardless of gender. Unlike in the muggle world, it was not just an accessory for girls, it was seeped in tradition and meaning. There were several rules he had to learn about what was appropriate to wear and when before Sirius would give him his first piercings. Apparently it was a rite of passage and they would be having a small ritual to celebrate his progress

"What are you reading?" Hermione's voice cut into his peaceful world. Harry stifled a groan and sat up, letting Hermione look over his shoulder. "Defence for Witches? Why are you reading that?"

"It was my mums, I am reading her notes, is nice learning what she was like as a teenager." Harry replied, not even trying to explain why he thought the articles were good no matter your gender.

"I get that, I did the same with my Dad's school books as a kid." Hermione nodded with a smile. "Do you think I could borrow it after you finish. I haven't seen that magazine before, do you think it is still running?"

"I will ask Sirius." Harry said. He didn't really want to let Hermione read it. It wasn't that she wouldn't take care of it. In fact Hermione was probably the one person in the house guaranteed to return it quickly and in the condition that it was given in, it was more that his mums writing felt personal and he did not want anyone else to read it.

"Oh thankyou!" Hermione said with a grin. "I have been running out of things to read. Most of the books here are so ghastly that I don't want to touch them and I have already read everything that isn't cursed.

"There are hundreds of books in the library that are not cursed, how have you read them all already?" Harry asked with a grin.

"Oh Dumbledore showed me which ones were cursed books that I should avoid at the beginning of summer. There were only about twenty in the library that were okay for me to touch." Hermione replied, "I think Moody is in the process of getting rid of the rest."

Harry sighed, trying hard to ignore the reminder that Dumbledore was ignoring him and the others had been here for the entirety of summer, it was probably a good thing the order didn't have access to the family library. Although it did explain why a few more shelves had appeared there in the last week. It seemed Kretcher was once again subverting the Order's attempts to clean by relocating objects to safer parts of the house.

"The cursed books were probably just charmed so anyone who wasn't in the family can't take them without permission. It's quite a common thing." He said carefully eyeing his friend to gauge her reaction. "I mean would you like if if a stranger started taking your books. I can talk to Sirius if there is any particular topic you want to read about"

"I bet they are only cursed because the Black's have something to hide. Why else wouldn't you freely share knowledge." Hermione sniffed. "I guess I wouldn't mind, although I would need to check with Mrs Weasley. No offence but I don't trust Sirius to not try and indoctrinate me again."