Desperate Measures

Chapter 27: Harry's Summer I

Overall, there were four suitors likely to be part of the "finals" that were planned to take place in September and October.

The last week of school Harry and his grandfather had met every morning primarily just to chat. It was the only time that he had actually taken advantage of the situation to get some time away from the school that would otherwise have been unauthorized. Still, they did mark down the suitors who had sent confirmations that day for the family meetings that had been scheduled for varying dates the last part of June and the first part of August.

It was now the morning of June 20 and he was flat on his back in the receiving room of his grandfather's estate. He groaned in frustration and didn't bother to get up or even look around until he heard a door open. Merlin, but he hated portkeys.

"Hello, Harry," Robert said as he entered the receiving room, amusement lacing his tone. "You're quite a bit early. How was your morning?"

Harry glared half-heartedly at his grandfather as he accepted help up off the floor. "Weird."

Robert raised his eyebrows. "Oh? How so?"

Harry dusted himself off and straightened his clothes then gave his grandfather a warm hug before leading him off towards the dining room for the wonderful lunch he could smell from here. "It started at breakfast," Harry said. "Nichol came with this box."

"Interesting," Robert replied. "I thought she only came on Mondays."

"Not today," Harry said with a shrug. "The letter that came with this box said that there were additional letters inside the box – one for every day of summer."

"Indeed?" Robert asked in surprise.

Harry nodded. "With a box of chocolates," he added with a happy smile.

"For every day?" Robert asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," Harry said fatuously.

Robert laughed and shook his head. "Well, you'll probably have a couple more full sets of frog cards by the end of summer, then."

"Oh, no," Harry said in surprise. "Didn't I tell you that he had switched to birds?"

"No, you hadn't," said Robert with a shake of his head. "Well, a couple of complete sets of birds, then."

"Except he sent both birds and fish," Harry said. "Maybe I'll get lucky and complete both sets."

"Maybe," Robert said with a smile. "So why so many letters?"

"He's going to tell me more stories. That's after he's revealed himself in the first letter, of course," Harry said with a smirk.

Robert laughed again. "Will you ever tell him that you've known all along?"

"Probably at the family dinner," Harry said with a wicked grin. "From what he's told me about his great-grandmother, I think that she'd enjoy the joke and I'd hate to deprive her."

"How thoughtful of you," Robert said with a chuckle. "So that was the beginning of your weird morning?"

"Yes," Harry said, also chuckling. "It gets better."

"And what was next?" Robert asked curiously.

"Were you aware that Dumbledore got custody of me?" Harry asked pleasantly.

"Pardon?" Robert said in surprise.

"Oh, yes," Harry said with a smirk. "Seems he visited my lovely relatives and they couldn't sign my life away to him fast enough. He did that back a couple of weeks after the wards fell. Then he went and got some pretty papers from the Ministry."