to have & to hold (the blacks, vol. 2)

chapter 6

It was the last week of August and the Black family along with Ginny and Hermione returned to England. While the two girls went to the Burrow, the Black family returned to 12 Grimmauld Place. The two boys decided that neither of them wanted to take Sirius' room, but instead, it would be kept to keep Sirius' memory alive.

Harry Potter, now an official member of the Black family, was in a little restaurant, reading the Daily Prophet, the headline saying: HARRY POTTER: THE CHOSEN ONE? In the bottom corner of the page, there was a piece of news about the Malfoys, 'Malfoy Sentenced to Azkaban.'

'Harry Potter. Who's Harry Potter?' a waitress asked.

Harry dropped the paper and glanced at the young waitress who stand in front of him. He had to admit that she was quite pretty. 'Oh. Um. No one. Bit of a tosser,' Harry answered.

As she leans over to clear his chips wrappings, Harry's gaze drifts over to the girl's features.

'Funny that paper of yours. A couple of nights ago, I could swear I saw one of the pictures move,' the girl said. 'Thought I'd gone round the twist,' she added. She smiles at Harry and then starts to go.

'Hey. I was wondering...' Harry said.

'Eleven. That's when I get off,' she answered with a smile. 'You can tell me all about that tosser Harry Potter.'

Harry watched her go, then quickly reaches into his jacket and takes out a mints container. Just then, a light on the opposite platform flickers. Harry looks, and it flickers again, and this time a small cloud of glittering dust dances over the opposite platform. As a train roars past, Harry squints through the flickering windows and watches as the dust turns into Professor Dumbledore. Levelling his glasses, he peers across the platform, smiles and gives Harry a wave.

As Harry arrived, he found Dumbledore studying a perfume advertisement.

'I once knew a Muggle girl from Liverpool with hair like spun silk. No light could resist it...' Hogwarts' headmaster said, then turns to Harry. 'It's good to see you, Harry. Or shall I call you by your current name, Harry James Black-Potter?'

'I'm quite alright with both Harry Potter and Harry Black-Potter, sir,' the young boy said. He hesitated before noticing Dumbledore's ask black hand.

'Rather unpleasant to behold, isn't it?' the elder man asked. 'The tale is thrilling if I do say so myself, but I'm afraid now is not the time to tell it,' he added. 'Take my arm,' Dumbledore said, extending it. 'Do as I say.'

Harry glanced across the platform, seeing the freckled waitress appear, eyeing his empty table. Slowly, he reached out and, instantly, all went black in a rush of sound and fury as if Harry had been pitched headlong into a tornado. Seconds later he re-emerges into the world, reeling, eyes stinging with tears. 'I just Apparated, didn't I?' he asked.

'Indeed,' Dumbledore answered, 'and quite successfully I might add. Most people vomit their first time.'

'Can't imagine why...' Harry replied sarcastically.

Dumbledore leads Harry up a steep narrow street lined with darkened houses. 'Welcome to the charming village of Budleigh Babberton, Harry,' Dumbledore said. 'I assume right about now you're wondering why I've brought you here, am I right?'

Harry glanced about and then answered, 'after all these years I just sort of roll with it, sir.'

Dumbledore smiled mildly, then paused, his face darkening. Before they stood a small stone house, but something was wrong with the place.

'Wand out, Harry,' Dumbledore instructed Harry. Dumbledore and Harry moved swiftly up the walk and enter. 'Lumos...' the Hogwarts headmaster casted. The tip of Dumbledore's wand blazed, as he swept the shadows. 'Horace!' he called out.