The Speaker and His Wraiths

To A Better Future

Chapter 67

Happiness
Harry hadn't ever been as happy packing for Hogwarts as he was on the first of September in the early morning at Riddle Manor. Previously, whenever he was packing to head to Hogwarts for yet another year he never felt anything but relief. He was relieved to get away from his relatives and embrace the life he loved with everything he had. This time it was different. A good different for sure, but different nonetheless.

Now, for the first time ever Harry felt like he was heading to school and leaving home.

When Hermione talked about home, she fondly recounted her parents and her house, her violin and the place she loved because it was her home. Ron, similarly, loved the Burrow because it was filled with family and warmth and fun, an adventure every day with his siblings and family because that was home for him. Harry hadn't ever thought of anywhere but Hogwarts as home - it was the one place he could live freely and be himself, staying with his friends where he was happy in a way he never had been with the Dursleys; but he now found that Hogwarts wasn't home anymore.

As start-of-term approached, Harry at first hadn't understood why he felt so torn - he was happy, but he was also sad?? It didn't make any sense because he'd never understood what it was to have a real home; he'd never truly understood why Ron and Hermione missed home so badly when Hogwarts was right in front of them, but now he did. As soon as he understood, that sadness and confusion disappeared - it left only shining happiness.

Harry would miss Riddle Manor while he was at school. He'd miss Tom and Nagini, the little family he'd so smoothly joined without even trying; he'd miss the garden, the flowers and the even stones beneath his shoes; he'd miss his bedroom and the grounds outside and everything else about Riddle Manor because it was home. In just one summer Harry understood what it meant to have a home, a real one, a place for his family that he would come back to after school ended. Maybe that family consisted of Tom and their pet/friend/Horcrux snake, but it was a family nonetheless. His family.

"Harry, have you got everything?" Tom knocked on his bedroom door, "We'll need to be off soon."

"Yeah, got it." Harry said, looking over his shoulder as Tom pushed the door open to step inside. "I swear I know how to pack."

Harry had again used the Packing Charm, this time with moderately more success than before. All his quills had survived, as had his books, but his robes ended up all twisted together and squashed with his Potions supplies. It could've been worse, but also definitely could've been better. Resolutely, Harry firmly decided by the end of his sixth year his Packing Charm would be so thoroughly perfected it would rival Hermione's.

"Evidence perhaps suggests otherwise." Tom said with a little smile, eyeing the Potion supplies that would most definitely not survive the journey if he left them where they were. Harry huffed.

"Anyway, what time is it?"

"Quarter past ten." Tom said, "If we leave now you'll be plenty early for boarding."

"I've never been so early." Harry grinned, "Usually I'm barely on the train before it leaves. Also I missed it one time, but that wasn't my fault."

"Is that so?" Tom raised an eyebrow.

"I was sabotaged by a rogue house elf." Harry laughed, "His name's Dobby, and he was trying to protect me in a roundabout way. He was Lucius Malfoy's elf before I freed him, so he knew about the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco about to go down because he'd overheard Malfoy or something. He thought he'd save The Great Harry Potter from going to school to avoid the whole mess. "

"You freed him?" Tom tilted his head, "How'd you manage that?"

"Pure sass and a fuck ton of luck."

Harry happily recounted his experiences with Dobby as Tom helped rearrange his trunk, talking all about his involvement in Harry's trying times in second year as well as his contribution in fourth year for the Second Task. Dobby really was cool. It left Harry wondering if he could summon Dobby to meet Tom sometime, or if that wasn't possible considering he worked in the Hogwarts Kitchens now.