The Observatory's Cat

TOC; Summer's End

oOo

The first week Harry was at Grimmauld place nearly nothing happened. He was in the manor he had taken to thinking of as his home ever since learning of it as the 'living-space in London' through Remus' letters and Sirius' talks all throughout his fourth year. Maybe not 'home' in the sense he thought of Hogwarts. Had thought of the castle, at any rate. Either way he had considered the place where his real family, the one he had been given, had chosen, was where he belonged. During that week Harry relaxed and got to know the Weasley's, Hermione and the Marauders again, they shared new stories; mainly tame ones when Sirius told them. He had mastered the Animagus transformation, if he could call it that anymore after Pomfrey had made it clear that nothing would change him back to how we had been pre-graveyard. Harry had, during the first few days, tried to spend time with Ron and Hermione. They really had nothing in common, he couldn't talk about Hogwarts, he couldn't even imagine some of the spells they spoke of. His main conversations came from his Uncles, the Marauders only too happy to share bits of their history; the twins were close in second though, he had helped develop quite a few new items with them.

They used mainly basic spells and many were taught fourth year and below, and then enchanted them with spells and potions they themselves had made. They had spent a good deal of their lives planning pranks and spells, Fred had actually quite the bookworm hidden within him, he had read many books on Arithmancy and Spell Creation. George on the other hand came up with all the best ideas and the concept of whatever they would need to 'create'. Harry was quite good at helping with either, while he would never have quite the imagination of George he did have a bit of his Marauder roots showing.

Between learning new spells, catching up, and 'getting healthy' as Madam Pomfrey put it when she came for his daily checks, Harry had a good deal more weight he needed to gain, a few extra would be nice. He had figured out that he really didn't like the way shirts fit, not used to the nicely fitting ones and he definitely did not like the way pants felt around his tail but he was cold a lot of the time, he had a constant warming charm cast on his clothes and wore a pullover constantly. Sirius claimed it was due to his human form being too skinny and bald. Harry had been knit a brand new jumper by Molly, it was a deep grey woollen one that felt old and worn with the patterns of darker grey and a picture of a kitten who looked a lot like Harry did in a bright black in the lower part between his navel and his arm. The sweater was warm and Harry was tempted to ask her if she put a Permanent Warming Charm on it to make it that way but chose not to, in case it would disappear if he asked. He'd heard of things like that, though whether they were real or not was another story.

July 31st was the first day Harry saw Molly and her husband, Sirius and Remus, both Snapes along with the three Weasleys that were staying there and Dumbledore with Madam Pomfrey and McGonagall with Moody and the other Auror he had met, the one who had changed him back that first day Remus had found him all in the same room and not arguing or fighting, just standing around the table. Harry had came down bright and early, just a little later than he usually did since he didn't want to leave his comfortable bed only to be greeted by screams of 'Happy Birthday Harry' from every direction. Mini-fireworks whistled past, tiny dragons, phoenix and other beasts shot around the kitchen, a full pot of tea on the table right in the centre of a fully cooked breakfast, a cake on the counter proclaiming the same as the cheers from the room. Harry stood there for a good few minutes as he stared at the gathering. He hadn't even known the date until he came down. The large group had had a grand breakfast followed by Sirius and Remus whisking Harry off to a muggle amusement park with all the kids, the twins had been so excited they had agreed to leave all magical items behind, though everyone still carried their wands 'just in case'. It was a fun day, a great bonding experience for Harry and his family, although the rift between Harry and the other two-thirds of the so-called Golden Trio was still obvious it had began healing. Harry learned quite suddenly that both of them seemed to conference the other before talking to him, as though neither could talk to him without the others permission. Harry wasn't the only one to notice, either.

When they arrived back most of the adults had left, only the elder Weasleys were there. Harry opened his presents, surprised to seeing the first four he opened there were three books on 'Wandless magic'; 'Redefining Magic' was from Hermione, it was basically an encyclopaedia on all the different forms of magic and the branches that stemmed from them including Wandless spells and Apparation; 'Wandless, not Defenceless' was from Moody, it was on Muggle fighting and tactics, Molly had been appalled to find the dagger hidden with it; 'The Wandless Ability' was from Remus, it was on the theory behind Wandless magic. When he cast a puzzled look to the three who were seated together it was pointed out to Harry that he didn't have his wand and had been doing all the spells he had attempted just fine without it. He received a huge amount of 'Diaries' from his Godfather, each one detailed the pranks they had completed throughout their schooling and many more Sirius had done on his own. The began during his First year and ended a few weeks before the Potters had learned of the Prophecy in 1979. Ron had given him notes he had 'copied' from Hermione over the last two years, bound with a spell to make them like a journal while the Twins gave him testing-products. The Snapes had given him a book on Healing Potions and a thin booklet titled 'Brewing for Beginners' which was something meant for children about the age of 7 who didn't know what a 'cauldron' looked like; let alone what it was used for. Although it did have the reasons why you stirred one way and not the other, the patterns used and even the basics of ingredient reactions and why they reacted to produce the desired reaction in the final outcome. The Weasley parents had given him a brightly knit blanket with cats, canines and birds all over it. There were a few animated snitches that she swore she didn't put on it that flew around and hummed. He had received quite a few other books, the topics ranging from Charms to Defence. His favourite was a bright blue book with a lovely scripted message on the inside of the front cover:

"Happy Birthday Mr. Potter! While it was a delight to teach you I'm sure you will learn much more without the school's nosy activities in your way, hm? I do believe you can make use of this, it is a copy of one of my own books; there is even a little Snidget Calling chant on the twenty-seventh page. If you would like any help or recommendations please don't hesitate to Owl, Filius T. Flitwick; Head of Ravenclaw House, July 31st 1996".

The bright book was without a title but the first page with writing had a beautifully scripted covering at the top in bright golden ink on the parchment, Grimoire of Advancement. The book was rather thick with the bright golden ink and script on nearly every page, going in neat lines throughout the blue book. Remus quickly looked through it but had only commented on the texture of the pages while chuckling at something about halfway through the book. The party ended with a typical Birthday Feast courtesy of Molly for the four adults and the five 'kids'. Harry had brought up the Grimoire just before they went to bed. Remus had given him a sad smile and told him that his mother had been given the same book for her seventeenth birthday from the diminutive professor, that it was something he did to a select few students each year. It was a collection of older, less used spells that had once been very common.

The following day set a pattern for the rest of summer, much of it passed just like the two summers where he had spent a week or two at the Burrow; the kids would do chores, play and laze about, getting the bare minimum on their homework done unless you were one Hermione Granger.

Harry divided his time equally around Remus and Sirius, and the Twins; most of his time spent either pranking or helping come up with prank ideas. The gap that had grown between Harry and his two best friends now seemed smaller, if littered with trees and tales; they weren't as close as before and Harry wasn't too sure if they ever would be. They had just missed something, some part of their friendship was gone and none of them knew how to get it back. Molly had moved the Weasleys and Hermione back to the Burrow as soon as the wards were finished half way through August citing the latest feud with Sirius as them biggest reason.

Molly had invited Harry to join them for the yearly school shopping, uninformed of Sirius' decision not to let him attend the school as a student and only return to visit for the day after they had made his return 'public' and the suddenness had worn off a bit. Remus speculated that she was pretending nothing had changed in the past two years, that Harry had not been a alone, lost as a tiny feline for two years, that he would be graduating with her youngest son that year and that he would see his family at Privet Drive before classes. She had even tried to convince Harry, Ron and Hermione that they'd be going to classes together again; the twins had heard about that before Sirius had and put a stop to that immediately. They had grabbed Harry and began talking of how they needed in invaluable input in their shop, and that he had so much catching up to do with his family.

Harry had glowered and told them to stop, and then Harry told them all, there and then, that he would never be a student in Hogwarts again as far as he knew. He wasn't sure about Privet Drive and since it hadn't been mentioned he wasn't going to bring it up. He never wanted to set foot there again. And at the moment, he wanted nothing to do with the castle he had considered his home. The students had turned their backs on him, his two main friends had for the majority of that year too, and the teachers had never made him feel safe. This was something he'd become stuck on, he wanted to feel safe and he hadn't had that there or with the Dursleys.

After that Molly had shut up and looked at him in surprise, but hadn't said a word.

oOo

The twins visited daily, arriving just after breakfast and leaving well after supper, just like clockwork. They had gained, both from Harry and the Marauders, partners to help them with their budding business; Oddly it had been Sirius to put the stipulations on the partnership of a minimum of four NEWTs, one in each of Transfiguration, Charms and Potions at least, or they would 'be too bloody dangerous' and Remus had agreed, telling them it would add more credibility to their store and they could use the Hogwarts library as much as they wanted. As they had graduated the year before with the highest number of NEWT's of any Weasley their parents had been ecstatic; until they found out about Sirius' involvement.

Molly had been less than generous to Sirius after that. Sirius had whispered that he thought the only reason he hadn't been hexed for giving her sons the encouragement she never could was because they were working together trying to find Harry.

Lunch had become an unofficial testing period for their latest concoction, they had the idea after seeing Harry and from their 'Canary Creams'; the potion, either ingested or absorbed in a large enough dosage through the skin, was meant to add animal attributes. So far the only success they had had was on giving Sirius paws for hands that were immune to the Finite Incantatem spell.

He had gone around for hours until the formula worn off. Harry took care of breakfast as he was the only one capable of waking without becoming a zombie before eating, something both Remus and Sirius were delighted about, Sirius and Remus made dinner, usually refusing to let either twin or Harry near the stove, both a hazard to the everyone with their 'pranking and cooking skills' while Harry was out since he cooked breakfast. Though when Harry wanted to they easily let him cook. He was adept at it, and he enjoyed it most of the time.

The Triple-W chain had had a mail-order business since their sixth year; during the tournament in Harry's fourth, to which they now had nearly a hundred students from Beaxbatons and Durmstrang ordering from, and a good chunk of Hogwarts, WWW was a huge success and they were opening a store at the end of September, prime time for the Halloween rush they agreed.

Harry rolled out of bed, it was very late-August now, it had been a wonderful almost-six weeks since Harry had returned. He was going with Molly, Hermione and Ron to collect the yearly Diagon school supplies. Harry had to put on the same cap Remus had gotten for him for this trip as well, it was pretty ingenious actually; it was the same shade of brown that the Weasley twins had for their 'WWW' logo, with bright golden lettering advertising for the store across the rim in at least a dozen little 'w's and sparks that shot all over the hat. It was more of a beanie that had little flaps to cover where his ears would've been, two pieces of fabric were arranged in triangles on the hat to give him 'cat-ears'. It was in their new catalogue and had already started selling. The difference between his hat and the ones being sold were that his wasn't charmed to have movable cat ears, but just disguised his without crushing them beneath the hat. They looked fake but were real. Ingenious to hide them in plain sight. Harry had worn the hat and a casually-buttoned green shirt with his normal jeans down to breakfast, his tail already tucked down one leg and Stuck to his skin, he hoped they would come out with something to fix this problem, too.

"Mornin' Cat, sleep well up there?" Remus chuckled at the dark look he received. Harry shrugged off the fact that Remus was awake, sometimes the man got up before him, now if it was Sirius that would've been cause for concern.

"You know I did." He muttered with a grin, "We're leaving after we eat, right?"

"And meeting at Fortescues!" Sirius boomed as he entered, showered and ready to go. Harry had seen him do this every time he left the house, a side-effect of being locked up that Harry knew well. The novelty of being able to go where you wanted with people who liked you didn't wear off easily.

Remus sat down with a long-suffering sigh, "No Padfoot, we are meeting at the book store, that's all that's needed other than some new quills and parchment. Then we're going for ice cream and only if you behave yourself." Remus chuckled and sat down as he pulled the newspaper toward him from the middle of the table, "And we're meeting once we're done breakfast so get ready."

Harry smothered a round of laughter at the dejected look on Sirius' face before the last of the sentence registered. "You said we'd eat there? At the Witches Stop? By George and Fred's-"

"Yes, Kitten," Remus laughed at Harry's confused look as he interrupted, "Whenever you're ready? We're supposed to meat them in about an hour if you want to stop."

"You know Moony? You're mean." Harry glared as his ears folded back in anger, Sirius was nodding alongside him as he fumbled for a cup, "Siri are you ready?"

"No ice cream…" He mumbled more into his scruff. He shot another dejected look over his shoulder.

"We're leaving Siri, come on. We'll grab some after we grab books, kay?" Harry ignored the amused look Remus was giving them as he moved to the fireplace. His hat had a cooling charm on it but it was still scratchy to wear for long hours, he slid his feet into a pair of shoes and grabbed some of the grey floo powder.

"Wait, wait." Sirius grumbled and stood beside his godson slipping into his own shoes and looking at his best friend, he wiggled the steaming cup he held in front f his best friend, "Come on Remy, I want my tea since someone can't hold on a minute."

"I thought you wanted ice cream!" Harry hissed petulantly, wiggling his hand above the coals on the fire enticingly.

"I do! But Remy won't let me!"

"You can have a double when we get there after shopping. Better?" Remus glared. He stood and moved to the fire, he was ready to go with his shoes buckled and a bag for all their purchases, the cloth charmed to be ever-light and never-full. While they didn't need any of the books that the others needed, or the parchment, the three of them would buy some texts for Harry, the Black Family Library not having quite so many 'legal' texts as they needed. Remus wanted to get a few more books appropriate for teaching Harry while Sirius needed more 'fun' books as he put it. Both Moody and Healer Nathan had suggested picking up a few of the beginners books for Healing and Shielding, something the classes at Hogwarts didn't teach past the general spells that blocked mild stunners and about nothing else, not to mention Healing was barely mentioned.

"Fine," Harry rolled his eyes at the childish tone filled with both glee and disappointment. With a shout of 'Diagon Alley' the three were soon spinning through the fire and landing in the main fireplace at the Leaky. Sirius groaned, half his tea spilled all over his shirt.

Remus sighed and spelled the cup and it's contents away. He rolled his eyes and dried his friend. They stepped out and made their way down to meet Fred and George at what would become their shop.

Harry was using the alias Evan while in public. It had been decided the night before that having 'Harry Potter' walking around Diagon would be a bad idea when it came to light he wasn't returning to school, nor was he fully human anymore. Remus had explained with an embittered tone that the main folk in the world, whether muggle or magical; did not approve of different people at all.

Harry nodded. He could handle a fake name and shopping in the uncomfortable hat. It didn't matter if anyone recognized him, not really. He knew the people who knew didn't care and no one who didn't know Harry cared about. Especially after a two year gap.

They met up with the Twins and were led into a cozy little diner for breakfast, telling jokes and happily manoeuvring around certain subjects like Molly and Sirius' feud and the Snapes.

AN: All mistake are my own, please tell me so I can fix them! I apologize for the long wait, if you want excuses and all, click on my profile. I update that with the news rather than these. I hope this chapter was worth the wait and enjoy!