Harry Potter – Family Man

Hello! We're back with chapter 2! There are some things that I'd like to say. Firstly, thank you so so much for the positive response to the prologue. I've been loving it. Secondly, Whilst I said that I have taken inspiration from 'paid in blood' I have a bad memory so I don't really remember that fic anymore, so if it seems I steal from it in the future it's purely subconscious.

This first chapter is really just laying the ground work for what's to come, I'll try to be faster on the next chapters, but no promises. As always, please review (in a polite manner), and enjoy.

He had done it.

He was back.

"Daphne? Are you listening to me?"

She shook her head and saw Tracy staring at her from across the table.

"Sorry Tracy. What were you saying?" The brown-haired girl frowned at her.

"I was saying that I really thought Potter had bitten the dust yesterday." Daphne rolled her eyes. Ever since the first task of the Triwizard tournament had finished, all Tracy had been talking about was how brilliant Harry Potter had been on his broom. Of course, this was all whispered conversation. Such praise for Harry Potter was, to put it mildly, unwelcome at the Slytherin table.

"Really. The way you're going on about it Tracy, you sound as if you care about him." Tracy snorted at that.

"Well…" She tilted her head sideways, as if considering something.

"You can't be serious?" Tracy questioningly raised her eyebrows "Potter? Really?" Daphne said in shock as Tracy began to laugh, tears forming in her eyes.

"Oh" *gasp* "Your face! No of course not!"

Daphne rolled her eyes once more, and turned back to her breakfast, ignoring the laughter coming from her best friend.

After they were both finished eating, and Tracy had calmed down, the two Slytherins turned to leave the great hall. It was the weekend, so they planned on finishing their homework in the library before going to chill out by the side of the lake.

As they got to the entrance of the library however, Daphne stopped, surprising Tracy.

"Uhm. You go on ahead Tracy. I need to do something." For the second time that day, Tracy frowned at her.

"What? I thought you wanted to do homework?"

"Yes. I do. And I will. I'll be back in 5 or 10 minutes."

"Where are you going?" her eyes were squinted suspiciously.

"Never you mind. I'll see you in a minute." And she turned and walked down the corridor they had just came down and towards the clocktower without another look. Tracy knew not to follow her. She had seen the look on her face, the look that had gotten her the nickname of the 'ice queen of Slytherin'. As Daphne walked out of view, Tracy turned and started heading to the library, intent on finishing her homework before daphne. For once.

As Harry stirred in his bed, he grabbed the attention of the person sitting beside him, and he found it incredibly hard to look at them with a happy face. It was Hermione was on his right, sitting, looking incredibly relieved to see him awake.

"Ugh. Hi Hermione. Just a tip, fly away from the dragon before, not after you've angered it. It makes it much easier to avoid the flames" He chuckled to himself.

Hermione wasn't in the mood to chuckle.

"Harry you gave us a right scare. I cannot believe you tried to outfly a dragon. Do you have no sense of self-preservation at all?!" Harry couldn't be bothered to argue with her. He was so happy. The ritual had worked absolutely perfectly. Harry could remember the events in the future as he could previously, and the events that had just happened in the timeline he was now in, he could remember as if they had just happened for him. Exactly as planned.

Just as Hermione began to go on one of her famous rants about Ron Weasley and his lack of loyalty to Harry, the hospital doors opened, and Harry lost the ability to breath for a split second before he controlled himself.

Daphne Greengrass had walked into the hospital, and she was looking right at Harry. Hermione didn't know who it was that had walked in, so she was extra surprised when she heard the voice of somebody that she recognised to be a Slytherin call her name.

"Miss Granger. I need to speak to Potter. In private." Hermione wheeled round in her chair, not at all happy.

"Why. What do you want with him?" Harry suspected that her voice sounded more malicious than she had actually intended it to.

"That's none of your concern Granger." Her expression was cold, and it hadn't changed since her entrance to the hospital.

"Well I think you'll" …"Hermione." She turned sharply to look at Harry. "Could you step outside for a moment. I hardly think Miss Greengrass is here to curse me." He looked at daphne and nodded at her. Hermione didn't look like she wanted to do as Harry asked, but eventually she nodded.

"Ok. But I'll be right outside. So no funny business."

Once Hermione had closed the door behind her, Daphne walked forwards, choosing not to sit in the seat that had just been vacated. For a moment, the two stared at each other.

"What can I do for you Greengrass?"

"I need something from you." Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I'll see what I can do I suppose, what is it you need?"

"I need your help. With flying. I need you to teach me." Harry raised his eyebrows for a second time.

"I was not aware that you aspired to play Quidditch Greengrass. And why not ask Malfoy? Why come to me, a Gryffindor?" She rolled her eyes in a dramatic manner.

"Malfoy couldn't teach himself to fly a broom, let alone someone else. You should know that Potter." Harry snorted in amusement. "I saw you against that dragon. That's why I've come to you. And, for your information Potter, I don't aspire to play Quidditch. My reasons are my own."

"Interesting. Ok." He nodded slowly.

"You'll do it?" She sounded surprised. Harry hesitated for a moment.

"Well… What do I get from this?" Harry could tell that she had not expected him to ask for something in return, although she hid her surprise well.

"I can help you." Daphne said quickly. He raised his eyebrows. "In the tournament. I can help, in exchange." Harry took a few moments, this conversation had gone differently last time, but he thought that this would make it easier to get closer to Daphne.

"Alright. I'll help you. Let me know when." Daphne nodded and started towards the doors.

"I trust you'll keep this conversation between us Potter." She said as she left, not seeing the giant grin he held on his face behind her back.

It wasn't until later that night, whilst lying in bed, that daphne had a chance to reflect on her conversation with the Boy-Who-Lived.

She had been very reluctant to go to him and had been trying to think of an alternative person to help her ever since the start of the year. But after his display of flying in the first task, she realised she didn't have much choice. Suffice to say, Malfoy would've perished within seconds against that Horntail, contrary to his claims that he could've out flown Potter.

She just had to hope that Potter kept his promise to keep the conversation between them. It was hard to imagine how unbearable Tracy would be if she found out, or even worse, her sister.

It was not only her best friend and her sister that she had to be worried about though. Many of the older years and Malfoy's gang of lackeys would pose a significant threat to her health if they were to discover just who she was aiding in the tournament. Whilst it was a minority in Slytherin that were actively anti-Potter, usually children of death eaters or those who held the dark lord's views, they were definitely the most vocal in the house. And that meant they were by far the most dangerous.

But if it meant that she would be able to fly a broom even half as well as Potter had done against that dragon then the risk would be worth it. Too many wizards and witches of upbringings similar to hers look down on broomstick flying as a sort of commoner's form of transportation, rather than a useful means of escape or attack. She was not ignorant to the increase in dark activities in the magical world over the past few months and did not want to limit herself by being constrained to using only certain types of magic or transportation.

After sending her owl to Potter with a note telling him to meet her on the 7th floor the next day, she slipped off to sleep.

After being let out of the Hospital wing around lunch time, Harry had spent most of his day collecting his thoughts down in the Chamber of Secrets. Had he not known that Daphne was aware of the Room of Requirement, that would've been the ideal area for him to relax, however the risk of being walked in on was too high, thus, the chamber.

Surprisingly, his thoughts were in good order. As he had discovered upon waking up in the Hospital wing, he could remember his current self's timeline, that being the 14-year-old Harry, perfectly. The task which had taken place 3 days ago, was still fresh in his memory, as was everything before that. Whilst the events that had taken place in 40-year-old Harry's life were still memories exactly as they had been before the ritual.

His occlumency barriers were, whilst still present, significantly weaker than before his transportation. It was fair to say that should he face Dumbledore or Snape any time soon, that he should avoid making eye contact at all costs. Or else everything could come tumbling down.

He hadn't spoken to anyone except for Hermione and Madam Pomfrey since his conversation with Daphne earlier on. Hermione had been less than pleased with him when he refused to divulge the nature of his conversation with the Slytherin and wouldn't stop asking him questions about it until he managed to sneak away to the chamber when she went to the toilet.

Harry didn't know yet whether Hermione was in the loop regarding Dumbledore's plans for him, he didn't think she was. And that was a good thing. It meant he didn't have to kill her in the times to come. That would've been hard to do for a second time. As for Ron, well he was in the same boat as Hermione. Harry didn't know when Dumbledore revealed to Ron what he was doing, but he hoped it hadn't happened yet. This time around, Harry was not planning on being so accommodating to the ginger. Whether Ron was in the loop or not, that didn't matter. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, and Harry could see now that Ron didn't have his best intentions at heart in his previous school life. But that didnt mean he wanted to kill him. Again.

When he left the chamber and headed back to his dormitory, it was past dinner, which he had missed, and the sky was beginning to darken outside the giant entrance hall windows. The setting sun was just visible, bathing the hall in a sweet orange glow. He imagined that it would've provided a nice backdrop for Harry to walk up the magical staircases to, should anyone have painted it.

Upon entering Gryffindor tower, he was met by a blast of music and loud cheers. He had completely forgotten that this would have been the first time that he'd have returned to the house since his win in the first task. Seeing all of the old faces come up and congratulate him on such an impressive performance was very overwhelming at first, he had to use his many years of practice to hide his emotions. Some of these people he hadn't seen for decades, some of them he had seen much more recently. Those people were the ones that he wasn't so happy to see again. It took longer than he would've liked, but after thanking everyone for their kind words, Harry managed to escape up to his dormitory, looking forward to a long rest.

Ron was waiting for him, no doubt to give Harry the same "I'm sorry. Can we be friends now?", speech. But he ignored him, as 14-year-old Harry had been doing for the past month anyways and headed instead towards what most caught Harry's attention. An owl was on Hedwig's perch, and much to Harry's surprise, it wasn't Hedwig. The owl was relatively large, and brown. It looked fairly old but still well looked after. better than Errol anyways.

Whilst he hadn't seen the owl before, he had seen the handwriting on the letter that it was carrying. He'd recognise it anywhere. After feeding the owl a treat, he took the letter and got into bed, closing all of his curtains around him. It was a greatly satisfying sight to see Ron stood watching him close the curtains as if he had egg on is face.

The letter was short.

Potter.

7th floor, before lunch. Troll painting.

'Ah' Harry thought as he fell into the clutches of sleep. 'The room of requirement.'

Well. As I said. Groundwork. I hope you've enjoyed that. Sorry if it seems a bit short, but I felt this was a natural ending place, and it allows me to go into better detail for the 'lesson' in the next chapter.

As I said, please review and thank you for reading!