Next Night

At the dinner table, Sol narrated the events inside the court. Of course, aside from omitting some minor details, he wove the story very eloquently.

“I see, then I must thank you,” Sirius said gratefully after hearing that the Headmaster will be pleading for his case.

“Yeah, yeah!” Sol waved his hands dismissively as he bit into his food.

“So, what happens now?” Harry asked.

“I mean what else? You and I go to school, and Sirius either hides here or goes back to his home until he's deemed innocent.”

“Then can I stay with you, Sirius?” Harry asked with some anticipation.

“Yes, you can,” Sirius tousled his hair with a smile. He took Harry’s small hand into his, “Live with me in my house!”

“Really?” Harry looked excited.

“Really.”

Sol watched on with a smile. I feel like… As he was about to complete the thought, an owl hooted from the windowsill. Everyone turned around to look at the brown and white owl that had an envelope in its beak.

Sol got up and took the envelope. He turned it around and saw the recipient’s name. But all it said was ‘To whom it may concern’. Sol tore the envelope open with his teeth and took out the letter.

As he read, his eyes twitched but he managed to keep a calm face. I don’t know if the Headmaster has horrible timing or the best timing.

He looked up and saw everyone staring intently at him. “What does it say?” Selene asked first.

“Well, Harry,” Sol looked at Harry. “You have to stay with the Dursleys.”

“Why?” Harry and Sirius asked in unison.

“Just read this,” he passed the letter to them.

Harry anxiously took the letter from him and read it. After reading it, he sighed and passed it to Sirius who had the same reaction after reading it.

“What’s the matter with you lot?” Selene raised an eyebrow as she asked.

“Well, to summarize, Harry can’t leave the Dursleys because of some charm his dying mother put on him which hides him from You-Know-Who’s radar,” Sol explained.

“If he has the charm, what’s it got to with the Dursleys?”

“Well, the condition for it to work is that he has to live with someone blood-related to him.”

“What kind of charm is that?” Selene slapped the table in frustration.

“Hell, if I know!” Sol replied exasperatedly. He hadn’t mentioned one thing the Headmaster had written. It was that the charm would’ve been broken if a wizard enters their house.

Both Harry and Sirius who had read the letter did not bring this up. But the thing is if that was the case, why hasn’t Harry already been caught? Sol sat down and ate his dinner in deep thought.

It’s been almost three years. Is it that Voldemort is too incompetent or the charm hasn’t been broken? But how do I check that? If the seal only works if Harry is with the Dursleys then even if I were to head over now, I wouldn’t see anything.

This dilemma gave Sol a headache. He did not have a plausible reason to send Harry back to the Dursleys. He couldn’t just say, “Get the fuck out of my house” now, could he?

“Oi, Harry,” he snapped his finger to attract Harry’s attention. “We’re going to go over to the Weasleys on the 25th, stay there for five days, and then head to Hogwarts with them.”

“O-Okay!” Harry still looked sullen but brightened up a bit with Sol’s words.

“Sol,” Selene called him.

“Yup?”

“Be a dear and put the plates in the sink.”

“Sure.” While Sirius and Harry talked in the living room, Sol took the used plates from the dining table and put them on the sink. He soaked them in water so that the grimes would be easy to scrub off later.

After that, he headed into his room and lay on his bed. If the charm's really not broken, then some of what I do will end up ultimately useless.

25th of August, 1993

“I don’t appreciate you guys treating me like a mode of transportation,” Sirius grumbled as he, Sol, and Harry apparated in front of the Burrow. Harry staggered as he felt dizzy from his first time apparating.

“Don’t be so moody,” Sol ignored his grievances as he looked at the Burrow. He warned, “Don’t show your face to the Weasleys. Although they are good people and would most likely accept you, you still haven’t been claimed innocent.”

“Goes without saying,” Sirius replied with a solemn voice. He gave Harry who was still trying to gather his bearings a hug and bid goodbye to the two boys before disapparating.

Sol contemplated something for a while. Elaine and Hedwig hooted from their cages. Sol turned towards Harry and said, “Well, let’s get going.”

“Right,” Harry nodded as they started walking towards the oddly shaped house in front of them. As they stood in front of the door, Sol raised his hands and knocked thrice.

After a while of hearing footsteps on a wooden floor, the door opened. “Yes?” Molly peeked out the door. Her initial inquisitive look turned jovial when she saw the two standing at the door.

“Ah, boys! You’re here!” She reached out and gave the two a bear hug.

“Y-Yes, we did say that we were coming,” Sol tried not to squirm as the air left his lungs.

“We did, didn’t we?” Harry nodded in a similar condition.

After a few seconds, she let go and went inside. She waved her hands at them and enthusiastically gestured them to come in.

“Boys!” Molly yelled as she looked upstairs. “Sol and Harry are here!”

Sol and Harry put their owl cages on the table as numerous footsteps marched down the stairs in an odd harmony.

“You’re here!” Ron, George, and Fred rushed downstairs. Percy followed behind them calmly. And in a rare turn of events, Arthur Weasley also came downstairs.

“Mr. Weasley,” both Harry and Sol greeted Arthur first.

“Well, good morning, boys!” Arthur greeted them back.

Sol thought if he remembered the day wrong. Molly’s voice suddenly entered his ears, “It’s one of those rare days that he gets a holiday.”

“I see,” Sol gave her a perfunctory reply and threw the matter to the back of his mind.

“Harry, Sol,” Fred and George called out to them, “we’re taking Dad to Diagon Alley for some last-minute shopping. Do you two want to come?”

“Yeah, sure!” Harry agreed nonchalantly.

“You guys go,” Sol shook his head and denied.

“But why not?” Fred and George pressed him.

“He’s going to say something like, ‘I just don’t want to walk’,” Ron mocked. But Sol just looked at him like he had done something incredulous. Seeing his reaction, all of them had guessed that Ron got it right.

“Fine, stay here,” Fred groaned.

“We’ll be going,” George added.

“Right, boys.” Molly mediated. She looked at Sol and Harry, and asked with a puzzled expression, “Where are your luggage?”

“Oh, right!” Sol said with a remembering expression. Both he and Harry dug into their pockets and took out tiny suitcases. They looked just like miniature models of the real thing.

Sol looked at Harry, “Give me your luggage. You go with them to Diagon Alley.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Arthur asked again.

“Yeah, I’m quite sure.”

“Right then!” Arthur clapped his hands and looked at the boys. “Shall we get going?”

“Let’s go!” Fred and George exited the door followed by the others. Even Percy went with them. Sol and Molly watched as they used the Floo Powder and teleported out of the house in a flash of green flames. This time, however, Harry did not mispronounce ‘Diagon Alley’.

“Shall I keep our stuff in the room?” Sol asked Molly.

“Go ahead, dear.” Molly nodded. Sol ran upstairs and restored the suitcases to their original size. Reducio was not a spell that was hard to maintain. So, Sol had barely consumed any of his magic power.

After putting the owls and their cages in the room, Sol came downstairs. He saw Molly in the kitchen preparing food. It was already 11:30 a.m. so it was no surprise she was preparing lunch. Evidently, it takes a while to make lunch for 9 people.

“Mrs. Weasley, what should I do?” Sol came forward and offered some help with the chores.

“You know if it were Harry asking to help I would’ve sat him down in the living room or made him play with the others,” Molly said as she tried to imply something.

“I see, I see,” Sol nodded and stroked his chin, looking like he thought hard about it. However, the next moment, he raised his head and asked, “What should I do?”

She sighed and said, “Why don’t you cut the vegetables for me, dear?”

“Understood,” he turned around and saw some vegetables that looked like they had just been washed. He put them on the chopping board and brandished a knife. He chopped them like he had done before at home.

“Why does Selene let you handle a knife?” Molly sighed once again.

“Because I can?” Sol didn’t look up and concentrated on the vegetables. It’s not that he needed to but more that he would be nagged forever he didn’t concentrate whilst chopping.

“If only my boys could be as responsible as you,” she lamented.

“Please, don’t say that.” Sol peeled and diced the onions. “Bill is already doing well as a Curse-Breaker and the same goes for Charlie.”

“As much as I like that the boys are doing what they love, both of those are dangerous jobs, you know?”

“If you know it’s dangerous, then they know it too. Believe me, they’re the ones trying hardest not to get killed.”

Molly chuckled, “That’s quite true, isn't it?”

“Come to think of it,” Sol stopped chopping and looked upstairs. “I haven’t seen Ginny today.”

“She’s probably sleeping.”

Really? Then who just went out the window?

After a while, Sol put the knife down and washed his hands. “Well, I’m done with the veggies. I’ll go out and walk around.” Sol left the kitchen and walked out the door.

Molly smiled wryly as she looked at the now cut-up vegetables. As fast as always...

Outside, Sol quickly went to the back and looked around. Soon, he arrived in front of a makeshift Quidditch field. It was smaller than the one at Hogwarts and had only one goalpost on either side. Inside, Ginny was flying around on an old broomstick with a worn-out Quaffle in her possession. As she flew from one goalpost, she swerved as though making maneuvers against imaginary opponents and threw the Quaffle into the post.

She did a celebratory trick on the broom. However, when she saw Sol who was looking up at her with a smile, she stopped mid celebration as her countenance paled.

My god, the visible fear… Sol’s smile became bitter as he watched Ginny slowly descend in front of him. She dismounted the broom and hung her head. She pleaded meekly, “Please don’t tell George…”

If he wasn’t feeling so bad, Sol might’ve laughed. In the end, he just sighed and patted her head. “Don’t worry, I won’t.” He smiled teasingly, “I’ve known for six years. If I wanted to tattle, I would’ve done so.”

“How did you-” her words were stuck in her throat as she looked at him with shock and utter disbelief.

“You’re not as sneaky as you think you are.” Ginny’s shoulders slumped at his words.

He put his hand out, “Give me the broom.”

Ginny said nothing and quietly put George’s broom in his hand.

He again said, “Put your hand out.”

Although she was confused, she did as she was asked and put her hand out. With his free hand, Sol dug into his pocket and took out something pink. It looked like a paintbrush. As he lifted the Reducio spell, the paintbrush became as big as the broom in his hand. Now, Ginny could see that the pink she was seeing was actually a gift wrapper.

“Here,” he handed it over to her. “Happy Birthday, Ginny!”

Ginny did not thank him. It did not seem like Ginny heard him as she looked at the gift in her hand with changing expressions; first, confusion then, shock, and lastly excitement.

She hastily tore the pink wrapper revealing the reddish-brown broomstick inside. Her face warped into shock once again when she read the name inscribed on the handle of the broom. It read ‘Nimbus 2001’.

“T-T-This is a-!” she looked at him with complicated emotions.

“Slow down, slow down!” he chuckled. “It’s my gift to you!”

“H-How did you get this?” her eyes were glued to her gift.

“Well, let’s just say a certain mode of transportation gave it to me. But since I don’t play Quidditch, I thought you’d like it.”

Honestly, he only thought of this since Sirius was adamant to buy him something for his help.

After a while, Ginny finally pried her eyes off the Nimbus 2001 and bolted towards Sol. She hugged him without stopping her momentum causing him to take a few steps back.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she seemed really happy with it.

“Well, it is your birthday. So, don’t think too much about it.” Sol smiled. “Besides, don’t you want to play for the Holyhead Harpies? There are a lot of powerful players there. So, you got to start early.”

She understood that Sol was trying to downplay his deeds a bit so she just said her final ‘thank you’ and ran off towards the house, intent on showing her mother her new broom.

Sol shook his head and smiled. He walked to the broom shed to put George’s broom back. After doing so, he unhurriedly walked back to the house as a thought struck him.

She’s going to be even more shocked by Harry’s new broom, isn’t she?