Returning Home

Potions and Favors

The next few days after Harry came to stay were wonderfully ordinary. Harry would join her in the mornings right after breakfast and usually read from the paper and write to Draco in their journals while she replied to letters. The blonde in question had been very upset at having been left out of the loop by the two of them but had let it go on the condition that he also have the honor of teaching Harry how to fly. Gwyn had to promise to teach him at least two hexes from the Peverell family library before he would consider forgiving his very best of friends for her grievous offense of withholding very valuable information as to the whereabouts of their mutual friend.

Once the letters were sorted then they would each select a book and he would come with her while she went around the gardens and greenhouses before joining her under the willow tree to read together. She had been unsure at first, not knowing if she would really like to share the special spot with someone else. However, sitting there in comfortable silence with her animal companions and Harry while they both read did something more to soothe her. He did complain at first, about her forcing him to go through and read all of his own copies on theory from cover to cover completely. Once he saw how they all had a way of relating to each other, however, he understood and kept quiet about any further complaints.

After lunch they would split ways. She would continue going to see her grandparents portraits and grilling them with any question she could think of. She wouldn't allow herself to lose sight of her goal in finding and helping Tom, and there was no way she could do that if she fell behind in any sort of study. The runes and arithmancy books especially held an interest for her, she didn't have Harry's natural talent for spell creation and didn't want to leave anything to chance when it came to her Tom. It helped that her mother's mother had also been a runes mistress and her father's mother had been very proficient with the art of arithmancy. Every day they would quiz her on equations and which runes could be used alongside each other and what rune to add to stabilize them if need be. She often left for dinner feeling more mentally exhausted and yet always with a sense of accomplishment and having passed all of their tests.

After dinner she would take on the role of her grandparents while Harry asked questions about all he had read through in the books on theory. He also had a lot of questions on wizarding customs and traditions and was equally as outraged as most pure bloods when she had informed him that most if not all had been banned by the ministry. He agreed with her sentiment that it wasn't right for them to be punished for standing with traditions while no one was forcing anyone to partake if they didn't want to. He had made it his personal mission to learn all he could about the olde rites and rituals as he could. She suspected it was also a way for him to reconnect with his family and wondered if he would be willing to celebrate the olde holidays with her before they went on to school.

That was another one of her secret worries. School. She had no idea who this mysterious he was that Aunt Lily had mentioned nor did she understand how she connected everyone involved and on top of that why everyone was targeted. There was a very real chance that whoever it was that had orchestrated everything could be at the school. And there was an even bigger chance that Harry would not be in the same house. He was the heir of Gryffindor, and that was one house she knew she could never belong to. She wasn't daring, she wasn't brave, and she most certainly wasn't what one might consider chivalrous. She worried about what would happen to their friendship once they were sorted more than she cared to admit.

Right now, however, she had more pressing matters to attend to. The boys would be coming back from Italy tomorrow and Theo had all but begged to be rescued from his heir training as soon as was possible. She knew from how he spoke that Theo was adored by his father and he adored him just as much in return, but no ten year old who grows up happy wants to throw themselves into that kind of study. Gwyn figured that he would spend the day and the next morning with his father and she could rescue him the afternoon after his return home. She just needed to finalize that plan with Harry. She just had absolutely no idea how to go about such a thing.