Harry Potter and the Bucket List

Year 2 - 3

Beta: Cloudy

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

Dobby did not appear in front of me prior to the start of school.

He did appear in front of Harry Potter the night we finished our school shopping.

I didn't know what happened since I obviously wasn't there. Harry was very calm during the ordeal so there was no loud shout of HELP! A STRANGE ELF IS IN MY ROOM, instead he carefully listened to what Dobby wanted to say. When it was over, Harry asked Dobby if he could discuss it with his godfather and sister. Dobby insisted Harry and I shouldn't return to Hogwarts one more time before Kreacher popped out and quite literally kicked him out.

Kreacher did not like the fact that another House Elf showed up. Kreacher woke up Sirius who then woke up Remus and the three—Harry, Sirius, and Remus—talked about it while I enjoyed a nice snooze fest. Because Kreacher liked me, he wanted me to "not worry about it" and how "dark witches need their evil sleep" or something.

I found out about it in the morning.

"It's likely some brat trying to pull a prank," Sirius told us after Harry filled me in. Sirius shoveled piles of food onto Harry's plate while he talked. Despite Harry's small stature the boy could eat a fridge-worth of food per meal. "Ignore it."

"We will," Harry promised over breakfast.

The rest of the summer went without issue. I wouldn't even touch Riddle's diary until I was at Hogwarts and within running distance of Dumbledore. I was reckless, but not that stupid.

Experimentation with the werewolf potion was slow but progressing—if only in terms of what not to do. To keep from going completely insane on having to focus on one thing, I decided to add a side project of making a potion that would allow vampires to be in daylight. Anyo was delighted by it, but he had burned his fingers several times testing it out thus far.

Then at long last it was time to return to Hogwarts.

And... you know... deal with the diary.

Magical luck, please let Tom Riddle not be hot.

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

The return to Hogwarts was a lovely affair. I sat with Draco, Daphne, and Theodore on the way down. We had a lot of catching up to do. There were some stories that simply couldn't be told through letters. I was ever so pleased that they had all kept up with their running.

"Mother refurbished a training room to look like what they use for professional Quidditch players," Draco low-key bragged.

"Father re-did a portion of the yard so I could enjoy the view while I ran," Daphne smugly said. "He bought me enough outfits to have a different one every day of the month."

"My family visited the dueling tournaments over summer," Theodore said, not wanting to be outdone. "Dad bought me all the right equipment. Think we can start a dueling club this year?"

"I don't see why not," I answered. "If you want to get more serious about dueling there's another exercise we can do instead of running. Not to say we should stop running, but perhaps switch it to only doing it four times a week, and a different exercise the other three?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Reflex training."

"How do you mean?" Draco frowned.

"It'll be grueling but oh so effective. We're going to play tennis with the Whomping Willow."

"What?"