61 The Reality Of Truth

“I don't know what ta tell yeh, Headmaster.” Hagrid said and shrugged his massive shoulders. “It's been a month and a half since then. It could be anywhere by now.”

Dumbledore had stood inside Hagrid's hut and silently cast 'Accio the philosopher's stone' over a dozen times as Hagrid emptied his pockets and searched everywhere. Nothing appeared.

“Where did you go after...”

“I've been all over the grounds and in the forbidden forest, Headmaster.” Hagrid said. “Tha's meh job, see.”

Dumbledore barely managed to not rub his face in frustration. I must scour the grounds. He thought, then left the hut without saying goodbye.

“I'm sure it'll turn up, Headmaster!” Hagrid said and waved to his back.

For the rest of the day, the students and a few teachers saw Headmaster Dumbledore walking around and waving his wand as he muttered to himself the entire time. No one asked him what he was doing, however. He was the headmaster and could do whatever he wanted.

Snape didn't have to worry about Dumbledore coming back for hours.

*

Harry had the absolute best day. He learned so much about the wizarding world from Amelia that he had taken dozens of parchment papers of notes. Amelia had been impressed by the speed of his writing and it was actually legible. In fact, she had given him a couple of spells to practice for their training classes that she wouldn't confirm he was participating in with her niece Susan next week.

He added them to his spell book on the bottom and Amelia didn't ask to look through it. When he attached them, he gave her a look that she recognized as a little weary, then he handed it to her without a word. Amelia didn't rifle through it immediately like she desperately wanted to, though. Instead, she reached over and took him into a hug.

“Thank you for trusting me with this.” Amelia whispered and held on for a moment. She let him go and looked into his eyes to let him know that she appreciated his gesture, then she slowly started to peruse the stack of paper. She held her surprise in check as the spells became more powerful and complicated as she went deeper, then simple for a few pages, then extremely difficult. A lot of the spells would cause her own Aurors to have difficulty casting them.

Amelia closed the 'book' and rested her hands on it. “You can cast all of these spells, can't you?” She asked. “Minus the two at the end that I just gave you.”

“I can only get wisps with the Patronus spell.” Harry said. “I've tried to find the happiest memory to use as a mental shield, and I just can't get it to work.”

Amelia smiled. “Well, maybe you haven't thought of a memory that's happy enough. It takes a certain combination of emotions and mental fortitude to cast the spell.” She handed him back his spell book and touched the side of his face. “Can you tell me what memory you chose?”

“The first time I flew with Hedwig.” Harry said and smiled widely. “It was so much fun.”

“What did you try before that?” Amelia asked and let his face go.

“Riding on The Knight Bus.” Harry said. “That was pretty fun, too.”

“Hmm. Those are good memories...” Amelia stopped talking and thought about it for several minutes. “You know, I think you're focusing on the wrong thing. Fun memories might not be good enough. They aren't personal to you.”

Harry looked at her in surprise.

Amelia chuckled. “I mean, you can always have fun if you repeated it, like how many times you've ridden The Knight Bus.”

Harry nodded in understanding.

“I think you need to dig deeper. You need to find a memory that made you happy... truly happy.”

Harry sat there and thought about it. He tried hard to find a memory that actually made him happy. He looked at the woman next to him and he remembered the hug she had given him when they first met. His face flushed red and Amelia smiled back, almost as if she knew what he was thinking about.

“I think whatever you're thinking is on the right track.” Amelia said. “Something personal, something that no matter what happens to you, you will fight to keep that memory alive and safe.”

Harry stayed on the same track and kept thinking, then he took in a sharp breath.

“I think you got it.” Amelia whispered. “Go ahead, Harry. Cast the spell and show me.”

Harry flicked his wrist and deployed his wand, which surprised Amelia, then he stood up and did the proper wand movement that he had memorized. “EXPECTO PATRONUM!”

To Amelia's utter shock, a giant snowy white owl popped out of Harry's wand on his very first try. It was covered in the telltale white wisps of the Patronus Charm as it flew around the room. Harry had a beaming smile on his face as he watched it.

“That's enough, Harry.” Amelia said and picked up one of the desserts that had chocolate in it. She hid her reaction as he ended the spell and took the dessert and started eating it. She waited until he was done before asking him what she wanted to ask. “Can you tell me what you decided on?”

Harry didn't hesitate as he spoke. “It was the second night I had Hedwig and she let me hug her.” He said, his face a little red. “It was the very first hug I had ever given anyone.”

Amelia couldn't hide her surprise this time. “Your owl let you hug her?”

Harry nodded. “She was so soft and warm and she's my very first friend that I'll have forever.”

Amelia blinked her eyes at the wording. Who told him that? She asked herself. Owls only live for about twenty years or so. Depending on how old she is now, their time together... no, I won't tell him that. His Patronus was corporeal. An eleven year old cast a corporeal Patronus. I won't destroy that ability by telling him his time with his owl might be limited. She looked at the boy and gave him a warm smile. “I'm sure the two of you are going to have a lot of fun times together.”

“She's even allowed into the school when not delivering the mail.” Harry said. “I thought the teachers would say something about her on my shoulder and none of them did.” He let out a sigh. “I didn't take her to Potions, though. I know Professor Snape would complain about it if I did.”

“She would garner too much attention and distract the other students.” Amelia chuckled. “Like my niece, for example.”

Harry smiled at that. The last time he had taken Hedwig to Herbology on Wednesday, Susan and her friend Hannah had taken spots beside Harry and Hermione and Susan's hand would randomly reach for his shoulder and her fingers kept lightly petting Hedwig's feathers. It was almost like she was doing it automatically or she just couldn't stop herself from petting the owl. Hedwig didn't seem to mind.

“Well, it's getting late.” Amelia said and stood. “I think I better pop you back to the school.”

Harry nodded and gathered his notes and things and put them into his trunk on top of the bookshelf.

“Thank you for coming over to visit, Harry.” Amelia said and Harry turned to face her. “I know I'm pretty much hijacking you on Saturdays now, so I hope you can handle only having one relaxing day off a week for a while.”

“Mister Filch won't let me help clean on the weekends, even though we could have done a lot more with all the extra time.” Harry said.

Amelia couldn't keep a straight face and smiled as she took the young man into a hug. “The poor teachers don't realize that their harsh punishment is wasted on someone like you.”

“I don't know why people think it's harsh.” Harry said and hugged her back. “It's just cleaning.”

Amelia laughed and Harry smiled at her happy face. “Most people can't stand the thought of being on their hands and knees as they scrub floors and bathrooms.”

“I have foam knee pads.” Harry said and she laughed a little more.

“Please tell me you gave some to Filch.” Amelia said. “That poor man needs all the help he can get.”

“He loves all my cleaning stuff.” Harry said with a nod. “I ordered a pile for him and he said that if he had a granddaughter, he would have traded me for her.” He said. “I wouldn't want her living with the Dursleys while I lived wherever his granddaughter might have lived, though.”

Amelia laughed pretty hard this time and hugged him a little tighter. “I think you misunderstood what he meant.”

“What did he mean?” Harry asked.

“He would have traded the cleaning supplies for his granddaughter.” Amelia said and saw that he didn't quite get it. “He would have given her to you as a wife for them.”

Harry's eyes widened and his mouth opened in surprise.

“Yes, now you understand.” Amelia said and let him go. “Grab your trunk and I'll get you to the gates of the school.”

Harry nodded and closed his trunk, picked it up, and stepped close as he tucked his arm around her waist. His thoughts lingered on having a wife and looked up at the woman that had shown him a lot of affection and hugged him a lot. She treated him well and didn't yell at him when he made a mistake or smacked him in the head for being stupid. He suddenly realized where his hand rested on her hip and he felt something stirring inside of him. He didn't know what it was, though.

“You have to help me with your magic as a side-along apparator.” Amelia kindly reminded him.

“R-right. I'm sorry.” Harry said as he locked eyes with her and blushed a little.

Amelia smiled at his reaction, then she held in her gasp when his arm tightened around her and he shared a lot more magic with her than ever before. He's actually pushing me with it. She thought. With only a little bit of training, I think he might be able to do it on his own. She kept that thought to herself for now and apparated them to just outside the school gates.

She would need to set all the restrictions and boundaries into his head before broaching that subject. She definitely didn't want him apparating all over the place and possibly hurting himself if he didn't have the proper precautions in mind when he used the ability.

“You better relax tonight and tomorrow.” Amelia cautioned him and tapped her temple. “I'll know it if you don't.”

“Legilimens?” Harry asked. He wasn't worried about that, though. She had already taught him how to fill his thoughts with his spells or potion ingredients and to divert his gaze. It had worked on Professor Snape already and he appreciated the technique.

Amelia chuckled. “Woman's instinct, actually. I can usually tell if a man isn't listening to my advice.”

Harry's arm tightened a little more and she touched his face. “I'm also sure that Hedwig will let me know if you're pushing yourself too much.”

“Only if you give her fresh mice like Bertha does.” Harry said with a grin.

Amelia nodded. “I'll be sure to have some on hand when she visits.” She said and put both arms around him to hold him to her chest.

Harry rested his head on her chest and held on for several minutes.

“I could stand here all night doing this.” Amelia said and reluctantly let him go. “I'll see you next week, all right?”

Harry let her go and nodded.

Amelia tapped the gates and Harry picked up his trunk and walked through. She watched him walk all the way up to the castle before she disappeared and went back home. She had a lesson plan to change, now that she knew what spells Harry actually knew how to cast. She smiled and went into the large training room she had in her house. She started waving her wand to move things around in preparation to give Harry both a fun and educational time.

“I thought it might be a pain in the ass to look after someone else besides Susan, and yet, I can't believe that I'm actually enjoying it.” Amelia said as she felt excitement fill her. “Bertha was right. He's too promising of a wizard to not help as much as I can.”

She finished moving the targets around and went over to her desk. She sat down and started making notes on her already prepared lesson plan. She could pair Harry and Susan up almost immediately, considering the number of attack spells they knew. She had been worried that she had taught Susan a bit too much for school and now she didn't have to worry about that at all.

They might even have fun doing it, too. Amelia thought and smiled as she kept writing.