Chereads / Imprisoned in the Past / Chapter 61 - Chapter 10: Another Trip to the Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 61 - Chapter 10: Another Trip to the Chamber of Secrets

Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, London, 2/14/1992, 21:39

Harry sat was sitting the dining room table of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place as order members began to take their seats around him.

Harry was attending another order meeting at Sirius' insistence while Bellatrix was staying home with the twins.

Sirius was sitting to his right and looking to be in a very cheerful mood.

"I never thought I would see you here again, Peverell," Frank beamed as he and Alice took a seat across from Sirius.

"Lord Black insisted I attend the meeting," Harry sighed.

"Isn't it funny how some people spurn the old ways only to pull that old pureblood crap out to get their way?" Frank sniggered.

"Oi," Sirius exclaimed looking highly affronted.

"Don't mind him, Frank is just upset he didn't get a crack at those giants," Alice cut in.

"Not likely, I went up against a giant last time around and nearly snuffed it," Frank said, shuddering at the memory.

"Can't say I blame you, James and I squared off against one in the Leeds attack of seventy-nine, the damn thing nearly squashed us with its club," Sirius admitted.

"So how are Bellatrix and the kids?" Alice asked, looking at Harry with interest.

"They're doing well, the twins are bugging me incessantly to get them real brooms for their birthday," Harry chuckled.

"I thought you were doing that last Christmas?" Sirius asked.

"Ignotus took my Nimbus for a flight and Bellatrix decided they weren't ready to have their own brooms," Harry shrugged.

"Did he fly it through your house like cousin Nymmie did?" Sirius asked, sounding very amused.

"Worse, he flew over the ocean," Harry said with a shake of his head.

"Nymphadora flew a broom through your house?" Alice asked incredulously.

"Yep, I think she was nine at the time and almost demolished my sitting room," Harry said, smiling at the memory.

"I flew my dad's old Silver Arrow through the manor when I was eight. I did alright until I ended up crashing into the grand chandelier," Frank admitted.

"Oh I bet your mum went ballistic," Sirius chortled.

"You have no idea," Frank said with a far-off look in his eyes.

Before Harry could ask anything else, Dumbledore entered the kitchen followed by Snape and McGonagall and the talking in the room died down almost immediately.

The two heads of house took their seats while Dumbledore made his way to the head of the table with a pensieve expression on his face.

Harry watched Dumbledore come to a stop behind his seat before he looked around the room taking in the occupants of the room before he spoke in a voice that easily carried over the silent room.

"Good evening to you all, we have a few things to discuss this evening. First I will let Alastor fill us in on the attack earlier this morning as that is the biggest issue we will be discussing this evening," Dumbledore said before taking a seat at the head of the table.

"As most of you lot probably know, there was an attack at the Carrows property in Wales last night. A person or persons unknown killed twenty giants and then incited a battle between a group of thirty or more death eaters," Moody said sounding almost... gleeful.

"Whoever the attacker was, fooled the death eater forces into fighting each other while making his escape," Kingsley added.

"Aye, twenty dead giants and twenty-three death eaters died in the fight, it was a slaughter," Moody agreed.

"Any word on how Voldemort is taking this recent blow, Severus?" Dumbledore questioned as he glanced over at his potions' master.

"I have yet to meet with him since the attack. I would hazard a guess that he is livid after the loss of his giants," Snape answered in a bored tone.

"That's a safe bet," Sirius snorted.

"Quite, I believe he will look into other avenues in the coming months which should give us a small reprieve," Albus confided.

"Any word as to who was behind this?" Elphias Doge asked from a few seats away.

"My money is on Peverell and his wife," Frank said matter of factly as he gave Harry a knowing look.

"I am just a humble school teacher, Frank," Harry said mildly.

"Well I imagine you will be chief among Voldemort's suspects," Dumbledore said, looking amused at that comment.

"I seem to be drawing his attention a lot of late," Harry sighed.

"How is the minister handling the attack last night, Frank?" Dumbledore asked with interest.

"She is ecstatic. After the attacks on New Year's, she has been going mad worrying about giant attacks," Frank admitted.

"We won't have to worry about giants after this," Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Voldemort will start looking for more of his shock troops," Moody warned.

"I highly doubt he'll be able to recruit any more giants now though," Arthur said sceptically.

"True but let's move on, has there been any word as to the identity of this new spy inside the castle, Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"No though I am almost certain that it is a member of the faculty," Snape answered.

"It's not me," Harry said at once, getting a chuckle from Sirius and others around the table.

"That is obvious because you are the target that this spy has been ordered to kill," Snape drawled.

"Huh, I am starting to think Voldie doesn't like me," Harry muttered.

"Take it as high praise, lad," Moody said and got several murmurs of agreement from others around the table.

"I have a suspicion as to who this agent is but I am not certain as of yet," Dumbledore said quietly.

"Well, this should at least make things a bit more interesting at staff meetings," Harry said reasonably.

"While we're on the subject of school, how has your tuition of young Harry Potter coming along?" Dumbledore asked, looking amused at Harry's last statement.

"Pretty well though I am mostly teaching them hand-to-hand fighting since his and Draco's cores are not developed enough for martial magic," Harry said.

"Well at least you understand their limitations, you are not teaching them anything too dangerous, I hope?" Minerva asked warily.

"No, mostly I've been teaching them defensive throws and the like. I haven't gone over any of the striking techniques," Harry assured his colleague.

"And Draco, how is he coping with the training?" Snape asked with interest.

"He hated the physical training at first but I think he's finally adjusting well enough. He's a tad behind Harry but I put that down to Cissa coddling him," Harry chuckled.

"After that attack in the Slytherin common dorms, I doubt anyone will mess with Draco again," Sirius snorted.

"Indeed. While we're on the subject, I have begun my efforts to seal the passageways leading into and out of the school," Dumbledore said, getting an approving nod from Minerva.

"The Gryffindors will be devastated to hear that," Sirius said.

"Tough, I am sick of having to stay late and watch the little rascals' detention when they pull one of their pranks," Harry scowled.

"Now you know the hell you put us through with Nymphadora and those infernal wards," Minerva smirked.

"Minerva, I have no idea what you mean," Harry said doing his best to keep a straight face.

"I'm sure you don't," Minerva said in a disbelieving tone.

"There may be a passage leading to the grounds from the Chamber of Secrets," Harry said, hoping to get back to the matter at hand.

"I do not doubt that. Would you be interested in escorting me back into the chamber next weekend?" Dumbledore asked.

"Sure, I was a bit distracted the last time I was there," Harry said feeling excited at the prospect of exploring the Chamber of Secrets again.

"Excellent, I would like to revisit the library while we're there," Dumbledore beamed.

"As long as we go to the library after we've dealt with the tunnels," Harry bargained.

"That would be for the best, otherwise I might be too distracted to be of much help," Albus agreed.

"My thoughts exactly," Harry agreed, getting chuckles from others around the table.

"You're going into the Chamber of Secrets?" Snape asked with undisguised interest.

"We are, you can tag along if you like. We may need all the help we can get," Harry offered.

"I just might," Snape said more to himself than Harry.

"Well wear something you're not attached to," Harry advised.

"All he ever wears is black robes," Sirius chortled.

"It's called style Black," Snape sneered.

"Oh brother, I figured you two would have outgrown this bickering by now," Harry sighed.

"It's like this every meeting, gets bloody migraine-inducing let me tell you," Frank muttered.

After this, Dumbledore called the meeting to an end and the order members began to leave in groups of twos and threes. Harry stayed seated until it was just him and Sirius seated at the table.

As soon as the door snapped shut, Harry cast a privacy spell over the room and spoke.

"Our next target is Thomas Avery, do you still want in?" Harry asked already knowing the answer.

"You bet your broomsticks I want in, I haven't seen any action in decades!" Sirius answered at once.

"I hope you can work with Bellatrix," Harry said as he stood up.

"Sure as long as she doesn't try and neuter me again," Sirius said.

"She won't just don't wind her up and you won't have anything to worry about," Harry assured him.

"Trust me I learned my lesson," Sirius promised as he got up and walked with Harry toward the fireplace.

"I hope so," Harry muttered.

"How is Harry doing?" Sirius asked.

"I see him a lot more than any of the other first years. Besides morning training, Minerva drops his detention on me. He and Susan are constantly in detention," Harry chuckled.

"I know, Minnie sends me a letter anytime your younger self gets in trouble," Sirius admitted.

"He gets in trouble a lot more than I ever did," Harry pointed out.

"From what you told me, you had him beat on life and death experiences," Sirius smirked.

"True, but he seems to go looking for trouble and it was the other way around for me?" Harry sniggered.

"I prefer it this way," Sirius shrugged.

"So do I, the school is much safer this time around," Harry agreed.

"And thank heavens for that," Sirius muttered.

"I need to get home and make sure that Bella doesn't fall asleep in her workshop again," Harry said as he took a pinch of floo powder from the pot on the mantle.

"Personally I would just leave her out there," Sirius sniggered.

Harry rolled his eyes at Sirius before stepping into the green flames. The meeting today had been informative and gave him something to look into.

Harry was a bit surprised that Voldemort had tasked his newest spy in the castle to assassinate him.

Harry actually had a pretty good idea who the newest spy was but he would have to find out for sure before he acted.

'Well at least Voldy's focusing on me instead of my younger self,' Harry thought to himself before he was sucked into the floo network.

Chamber of Secrets, 2/22/1992, 11:29

Harry was amazed at how intricate the network of tunnels leading out of the chamber really were. In the cave that led from the chute in Myrtle's bathroom to the chamber proper, ten hidden passageways led upwards into the school coming out at various places in the dungeons, first, and second floors. There was another passageway that led from inside Slytherin's statue to the Forbidden Forest

Then there were two secret rooms hidden in the main chamber that contained books, weapons, gold, and jewels, and a small store of Salazar Slytherin's personal potion ingredients, though most of them had long since expired.

Harry was currently sealing up one of the tunnels that led into the castle. Albus was still dealing with the tunnel that led into the forest and Snape was working on another tunnel like the one Harry was in now.

Basically what Harry was doing was creating a controlled cave-in starting as close to the school end of the passage as he could and working his way back to the chamber tunnel.

This should discourage Voldemort from trying to use these tunnels to enter the castle. They could be repaired but it would take months to fix these tunnels back to the way they were. Luckily it only took about an hour to collapse them since all he had to do was etch the same runic arrays over and over again.

Harry found this work very stressful as he had to etch runic arrays into the walls of the tunnel every twenty feet or so and certain sections seemed very unstable. The last thing he need was the tunnel to cave in on him while he worked.

Harry also had to be mindful of not causing foundational damage to the castle when the tunnel got close enough to the school. To negate this problem, Harry left the vertical sections of the tunnel alone and focused on the long stretches of the tunnel that was nearest the chamber.

Harry stepped out of the passage he had just been working on to find Snape and Dumbledore waiting on him in the dimly lit cave.

"I believe that is the last one," Dumbledore said a second before a chain of explosions could be heard in the tunnel Harry had just exited.

All three wizards hastily cast shield charms over the passage entrance as the explosions steadily got closer followed by the sound of falling rock as the tunnel collapsed.

Even with their shields in place, they were still engulfed in a dense cloud of stone dust as the final exploding rune activated and the passage collapsed before their eyes, covering in brownish-grey dust

"We should have hired goblins," Snape exclaimed as he cancelled his shield charm.

"You volunteered to come down to this mouldy old cave," Harry pointed out as he dropped his own shield and cast a ventus over the cavern.

"I wanted to see the chamber of Salazar Slytherin, not tempt fate by etching explosive runes into the walls of a cave system I'm standing in," Snape snorted as the dust quickly dissipated.

"Now now Severus, you cannot deny that this is quite exciting," Dumbledore chuckled.

"It is certainly preferable to another detention overseeing Bones and Potter scrub my classroom," Snape conceded.

"Surely they aren't that bad?" Dumbledore asked, sounding like he was trying not to laugh.

"I have to agree with him on this, Albus. Minerva keeps dropping their detentions on me and those two are always getting into trouble I haven't been home for dinner since Valentine's Day," Harry said as he followed Dumbledore toward the entrance to the chamber proper.

"Yes, she is still a bit upset about those donkey wards," Dumbledore smirked.

"As my sister-in-law is so fond of saying, you'll never prove that I had anything to do with that," Harry said.

"No, but she has it on good authority that you gave young Nymphadkra a whole list of wards before every school year," Dumbledore chuckled.

Before Harry could comment, they arrived back in the chamber proper.

"I found one more tunnel that leads to the Slytherin common room," Dumbledore admitted.

"Really?" Harry asked pushing the thoughts about someone giving away his secrets to Mnerva to the back of his mind for the time being.

"Oh yes, there is even a portrait of Salazar Slytherin himself watching over the Slytherin common room through an enchanted mirror," Dumbledore beamed.

"That is remarkable," Snape muttered.

"Yes, I thought so as well," Dumbledore agreed.

"I take it you're going to leave that tunnel alone?" Harry asked shrewdly.

"Indeed, I thought it best to be able to monitor Hogwart's most troubled house if the need ever arises," Dumbledore agreed.

"I resent that remark, Albus," Snape scowled.

"I don't suppose the portrait saw anything the night Melanie Selwyn was attacked?" Harry asked.

"Unfortunately not. He did note the common room entrance opening by itself that night so it's safe to assume the attacker employed a disillusionment charm or more likely, an invisibility cloak," Dumbledore said with a regretful shake of his head.

"And Narcissa lives up to her catchphrase, yet again," Snape snorted.

"Quite. Though I do believe that Miss Selwyn learned a valuable lesson, so I suppose some good cane of this," Dumbledore said as they began climbing a set of transfigured steps that led into the mouth of the statue.

"What's that, don't mess with Narcissa Malfoy?" Harry asked with barely concealed amusement.

"Well, I believe we can expand on that lesson a bit. The lesson is that it is not wise to harass younger students. Especially when the younger student in question has well-connected or powerful parents that will take offence," Dumbledore corrected.

"Miss Selwyn should have known this already, Narcissa has a bit of a reputation," Harry said as he followed the headmaster down the tunnel in the statue's mouth.

"How that girl became so high in Slytherin house absolutely baffles me," Snape sneered as they approached the entrance to the library.

"Power can make one forget that there is always a bigger fish out there," Dumbledore said sagely as they stepped into the library that was light in torches with green flames.

"So this is the fabled Slytherin library," Snape muttered as he looked around the room in wonder.

"I hope you can read Latin," Harry chuckled.

"I can. Most of the older dark arts tomes are written in Latin," Snape said before he began wandering through the shelves and reading the names engraved in gold lead on the spines of the leather-bound tomes.

Harry had minimal experience with Latin but he had learned enough to be able to make an educated guess about what the books covered from the engravings on their spines.

From the look of the titles, most of the books in the room had to do with enchanting though there were whole rows dedicated to potions.

Not very interested in loitering in this dusty old library, Harry made his way back into the tunnel to look around a bit.

Walking back towards the chamber, Harry took a right into the area the basilisk used to sleep in noting that the Gubraithian fire was still burning merrily in the centre of the room.

Harry could see the tunnel that Dumbledore had sealed off earlier and another he assumed was the one that led to the Slytherin common room.

Harry stood there for a moment staring at the ever-burning fire it was as he was staring at the fire that he noticed a small glint of silver not far from the indention in the floor the fire was set in.

Crouching down, Harry sifted through centuries of dust and grime that accumulated on this untouched section of floor and gently uncovered the item.

Harry's eyes widened as he uncovered it and gently held it in his hands, a smile breaking across his face as he realized what he was looking at.

"Bella's going to love this," Harry muttered before hastily pocketing the item and making his way out of Emerald's old den to look around a bit more.

Great Hall, Hogwarts, 3/10/1992, 17:39

Harry was sitting with Susan as they finished up their dinner before they had to report to detention for their latest prank. Though as far as the two of them were concerned, the prank was completely worth it.

They had managed to get into the Hogwarts laundry room and placed copious amounts of itching powder into most of the upper-year Slytherin's undergarments.

The beauty of this prank was that the powder was undetectable and took about an hour to take effect. This meant that Slytherin students had fallen victim to the prank all week to hilarious results usually right after post arrived at breakfast.

"What do you think Professor Peverell will make us do tonight?" Susan asked between bites of her pudding.

"Something vile, no doubt," Harry answered.

"I know, I just hope we don't have to disembowel any more toads," Susan muttered as she pushed her plate away from her.

"I would rather do that than scrub one more of those crusty cauldrons," Harry said as they both rose to their feet.

"I had frog guts stuck under my fingernails for three days," Susan complained as the both of them exited the hall.

"You can be such a girl sometimes, Bones," Harry smirked.

"Says the bloke that is always trying to tame his hair," Susan shot back.

"Shut it," Harry muttered as they arrived in front of the door to the potions classroom where Professor Peverell had been overseeing their detentions of late.

Three hours later the two of them exited the classroom reeking of preserving potion. This evening they had to produce potion ingredients for Snape's third-year classes.

It was pretty gruesome work as they had to dissect buckets full of dead bats for their livers, spleens, hearts, and wings.

After that, they had hacked up the buckets of bats, they had to process the ingredients which started with submerging the various organs in a cleansing solution to purify them. After soaking for seven minutes, the wings and livers were set on drying racks that were enchanted to suck out all moisture while the spleens and hearts were placed in separate jars of preservative potion.

The last half hour was spent crushing the dehydrated livers and wings in a mortar to make powdered bat liver and bat wing dust respectively.

Professor Peverell had already intimated that they would be processing rats tomorrow which promised to be just as disgusting as tonight was.

"I am never working in an apothecary," Susan said as soon as they were in the dungeon corridor.

"Same here," Harry agreed.

"How do they even know we were behind the prank?" Susan demanded as they began climbing the stairs.

"From what I gather, the castle's elves told McGonagall they saw us in the laundry room around the time Markus Flint discovered the itching powder in his 'Y' fronts," Harry sniggered.

"That is the second time those bloody elves have snitched on us," Susan scowled.

"Which means we'll have to do a better job of covering our tracks from here on out," Harry said as they stepped into the entrance hall.

Harry was surprised when he caught sight of Professor Quirrell slipping out of the front door of the castle and just barely caught sight of his purple turban before the heavy castle doors slammed shut.

"Wonder where he's doing," Harry muttered as they began climbing the grand staircase.

"Probably the three Broomsticks," Susan shrugged.

"Well back to the pranks, we'll have to find a way to set them up without the elves seeing us," Harry said.

"I know but that would make things a lot more difficult," Susan muttered.

"Yeah but it has to be less work than processing those disgusting potion ingredients or shovelling dragon dung on the pumpkin patch," Harry pointed out.

"Fine but we'll have to join forces with those annoying twins," Susan said, looking a bit put out.

"We could always get Draco and Daphne to help," Harry said, not liking the idea of letting the Weasley twins in on their pranks if he could help it.

"Good luck with that, Daphne would never help us," Susan scoffed.

"I'm sure we can talk her into it, it's Draco that'll be the problem," Harry argued.

"Fine, it won't hurt to try," Susan said as they stepped off of the staircase.

They both became silent as they walked down the corridor toward the Fat Lady's portrait.

Harry was already dreading tomorrow morning as Professor Peverell always made his morning training miserable if he had detention the night before.

Harry knew that this was the main reason Draco would be reluctant to involve himself in their pranks if getting caught meant his morning training would be more difficult than it already was.

Before he knew it they were standing in front of the Fat Lady's portrait and were soon stepping into the common room.

"I'm going to bed," Susan said as soon as the portrait hole shut behind them.

"So am I, we'll knock out that history of magic essay tomorrow at breakfast," Harry said as the two of them approached the stairs leading up to their respective dormitories.

"Ugh, I forgot about that," Susan groaned.

"It shouldn't be too hard," Harry assured her as he stepped onto the first step of the boys' staircase

"Good night, Harry," Susan said as she began climbing the girls' staircase.

"Good night, Susan," Harry said before he made his way up to his dorms intent on crawling into his four-poster for the night before tomorrow's gruelling training.

Avery Manor, Hampshire, 3/10/1992, 22:29

Voldemort sat on his throne as his servant filled him in on the recent happenings at Hogwarts.

"You're certain of this?" Voldemort demanded.

"Yes my lord, Dumbledore, Snape, and Peverell entered the chambers of secrets though I do not know why," his servant answered at once.

"I will look into this, what of Potter?" Voldemort demanded.

"He and the Bones girl are constantly in detention with Peverell, they fancy themselves, pranksters," his servant chuckled.

"Well, he is still a child," Voldemort mused.

"Yes my lord though he is one of the top students in his year," his servant continued.

"That is interesting, what of his lessons with Peverell?" Voldemort asked as he sipped from his goblet of elf-made wine.

"I haven't been able to infiltrate their lessons but from what I have observed of the boys as they leave the training room, they are learning muggle fighting of some sort," his servant answered with a note of disdain in his voice.

"Their cores are not developed enough for prolonged magic use," Voldemort said thoughtfully.

"There is little point for their training after the attack on the Slytherin prefect," his servant pointed out.

"I heard about that, are there any suspects?" Voldemort questioned.

"No my lord, there is a rumour it was Narcissa Malfoy but I find that highly unlikely," his servant answered.

"Do not discount the theory so quickly," Voldemort scolded before sipping from his goblet again.

"My lord?" his servant asked curiously.

"Narcissa is a daughter of the Black family, do not underestimate her," Voldemort warned.

"Yes, my lord," his servant said at once.

"Good. I believe that will be all for tonight. Be prepared to move on your target sometime this May," Voldemort instructed.

"Of course my lord," his servant answered before bowing respectfully and scurrying out of the ballroom.

Voldemort had already made plans to visit a man named Broderick Bode who should be able to help him infiltrate the Department of Mysteries.

He needed to hear the prophecy before he made any decisions about young Harry Potter. If things worked out favourably, his servant would deal with Harry Peverell at the same time.

In the meantime, he would be having a word with Severus about the Chamber of Secrets and why Snape hadn't thought to bring this matter to his attention.

Peverell Beach House, Cornwall, 3/17/1992, 18:39

Harry stepped into the sitting room to find the three Back sisters chatting while sipping tea. In the background, he could hear the twins laughing happily as they played a game of exploding snap on the floor in front of the fireplace.

"Oh no," Harry muttered.

"It's funny how everyone says that anytime we get together," Andromeda smirked.

"To what do we owe the pleasure?" Harry asked as he took off his outer robes and hung them up on the coat rack.

"They are helping me plan for my Easter ball," Narcissa said looking amused at Harry's wary expression.

"Another ball?" Harry asked as he settled into his favourite chair.

"Yes, I had so many compliments about my Yule ball, I thought I would throw another ball for springtime," Narcissa answered easily.

"I guess that means I will have to work quickly in Greece," Harry said.

"Yes, you are my escort for the evening," Bella agreed.

"Well dancing with you does sound nice," Harry said.

"I know, so how was school?" Bella asked with interest.

"Same as usual, Bones and Potter are causing bedlam and I am stuck punishing them" Harry shrugged.

"How is my little dragon getting along?" Narcissa asked with interest.

"He is starting to get the hang of things though he still hates the training," Harry answered as the twins looked up from their game and finally noticed him.

"Daddy, you're home," Carina said happily.

"I am, how was your day?" Harry smiled.

"Good, we practised dancing today," Carina beamed.

"What about you, Iggy?" Harry asked.

"Aunt Cissa made me do a demonstration dance with Astoria," Iggy said, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

"You're one of my best dancers, Ignotus," Narcissa said, her eyes alight with amusement.

"You'll thank her for that one day," Andromeda added.

"Yes Aunt Andi," Iggy said though his tone sounded dubious.

"I finished filling this month's orders," Bella said as she came over to sit on his lap.

"So I won't find you sleeping behind your workbench for the next few weeks?" Harry asked as Bella rested her head on his shoulder.

"I hope not," Bella agreed.

"So I heard you went back into the Chamber of Secrets?" Narcissa asked getting Andromeda's attention.

"We did. After the attack on the Slytherin prefect, Dumbledore is sealing all passageways that lead into the castle," Harry said as he gave her a pointed look.

"I hope the poor dear was okay, truly dreadful incident," Narcissa said looking very troubled.

"Oh she's fine," Harry said once again amazed at Narcissa's acting ability.

"Thank heavens, those passages should have been sealed up years ago," Andromeda huffed.

"I have to agree, they were a danger to the students," Harry sighed.

"So we won't be able to sneak into Hogsmeade when we go to Hogwarts?" Iggy asked looking horrified.

"Definitely not," Harry smirked.

"Daddy, Astoria invited me to a slumber party this weekend. Can I go, pleeeeeease?" Carina asked she gave him a hopeful look.

"We'll see, Princess," Harry said though he was pretty sure that Carina would be allowed to go.

"Okay," Carina said looking pleased with his answer.

"Devon Brown invited all of the blokes in our lesson to a pickup quidditch match the same weekend," Iggy said, looking at his father hopefully.

"We'll see but I will have to talk to Lord Brown to make sure you lot are being safe," Harry said getting a nod of agreement from Bella.

Harry lounged back as the talk around him circled back to Narcissa's ball. He would be going to Greece the week before Easter to fulfil his promise to the XXXXX reserve but now he had a reason to wrap things up there as quickly as possible.

'Maybe I can drag Jennifer along to the ball,' Harry thought in amusement as the kids started up another game of exploding snap.