For the first time in both timelines, Harry headed back to London on the Express on Sunday, eleventh of April, for the two week Easter break. Of course, he was accompanied by his wives. The three of them shared a compartment and were soon joined by Horace, Blaise, Tracey, and Neville. It was a full compartment of seven. They were happily chatting away when Malfoy, minus his bookends, turned up. The blonde-haired boy opened the door, took one look at whom else was in the compartment, and left again. He never uttered a word.
"Well, that's a first," said Harry.
"What; Malfoy coming to pay you a visit?" asked Urquhart.
"No," replied Harry. "That he came to pay me a visit, without his bookends in tow, and then didn't even utter a single word, let alone a scathing insult."
"You sound disappointed," smirked Blaise.
"Well, yeah; I was," he replied. "I was even going to call him 'Teddybear' and everything. I even had a bit of a mental list of snide remarks concerning male homosexuals I wanted to use."
"Harry, you're not homophobic, are you?" asked Hermione.
"No, of course not," he scoffed. "I just wanted to rile him up."
"Well it would be tacky," she grumped.
"Anyway," he said looking at Blaise and wanting to change the subject. "How goes life in the Snake Pit?"
"Well, as you probably gathered, Malfoy's no longer the self-anointed Prince of Slytherin he believes he is," said Tracey.
Blaise, as with Horace, seemed reluctant to comment, but eventually said, "Outside of the Pit we have to present a united front. I'm sure Daphne's told you that."
Harry nodded back.
"However, inside the Pit, life's become pretty... difficult... for the little ponce," he said. "Even his supposed girlfriend is wary of being seen with him."
"I noticed his bookends are no longer seen shadowing him," said Harry. "I had no idea Pansy's also shying away from his company."
"Yeah, Malfoy's on the outs within Slytherin," said Tracey. "If it wasn't for Professor Snape stepping in pretty quickly, I daresay he'd have spent a great deal of time, these past couple of weeks, within the infirmary." When the train arrived at Kings Cross the three, as expected and planned, were greeted by the Greengrasses.
They, with Astoria joining them, were quickly led down to the portkey point and portkeyed direct into the entrance foyer of the main house of Greengrass Farm; whereupon Harry immediately fell forward onto his face on the polished floor.
With the light laughter of both his wives and Astoria ringing in his ears, he climbed to his feet. "That's it," he muttered. "As soon as I find out who invented the portkey I'm going to challenge him to a duel."
"That's going to be a little difficult, Harry," grinned Matthias, who had helped him to his feet. "He died over one hundred years ago."
"Who died?" asked Sirius, as he walked in from the informal part of the house.
"Rupert Portman," replied Matthias. "The wizard who invented the portkey. Harry wanted to challenge him to a duel for not making the portkey better."
"Well, your great-something-aunt Mabel would've been unhappy to hear you wanted to challenge him to a duel, Harry," said Sirius. "He was her brother."
"Your problem, Harry, is you've got to remember to hit the ground as if you're running forward," said Matthias. "What you're doing is akin to running forward, and then suddenly jamming your feet together and jabbing straight down with them. Of course you're going to sprawl forward."
Muttering under his breath about wizard travel hating him, Harry just nodded back. At least he was now able to travel via Floo without being sent skidding across the floor once he reached his destination - mostly.
"Could it be something like the effect you have on the Floo system, Harry?" asked Hermione. "You spin faster than everyone else?"
With the help of the Floos in both Professor Flitwick's and Professor McGonagall's offices, and practicing going from one to the other, Harry had finally learned the 'knack' before he had to turn up in the atrium the day of the presentation. Part of the problem was Harry had timing difficulties when it came to sticking his foot out forward and off to the side a little. However, with Professor Flitwick joining him in the Floo, the Professor immediately said that Harry actually spun quite a bit faster than normal as he travelled through it. And, secondly, he didn't seem to slow down all that much as he hit the grate of the arrival point. So, according to the little Charms Master, it was no wonder Harry tended to shoot out on his side and skid across the floor. Harry's timing had to be that much sharper than everyone else's, to pull it off. And he had to practically stick his foot right out to arrest his forward momentum he carried through from the Floo.
"No," said Daphne. "When we travel by portkey we all spin and travel the same. Harry just needs to get used to it."
"Can we help him out by setting up something similar to the constant jumps between Professors Flitwick's and McGonagall's offices?"
"Like what?" asked Matthias. Hermione and Daphne, between them, explained the concept of repeatedly travelling from one Floo to the other and back again to give Harry time to work out his timing in reaching a destination and stepping out to counteract both the speed and spin of the Floo system.
"It could work," mused Matthias. "But, we'll need two multiple use short hop portkeys..."
"... Going from one point to another and back again; over and over," continued Sirius.
"I'm going to end up getting sick again," moaned Harry.
"Something to worry about later," said Deece. "For now, you three know where your rooms are." After going to their rooms, and already finding everything unpacked and ready for them, the three quickly cleaned up from the train journey and portkey before returning downstairs. The others, as expected, were all in the parlour.
"Good," said Deece, taking a long look over the three of them - Astoria returned before them. "Much better."
"So, what're the plans for the break?" asked Daphne.
"The three of you are taking a look at the new emergency escape system here, in the Granger house, and at the Black House," replied Deece. "To facilitate that, you're spending a couple of days here, a couple of days at the Black House, Easter at the Granger's house... apparently muggles make that a four day long weekend break... then the last four days you can be wherever you want to be."
"Sounds good," said Harry.
"For right now, though, it's time for dinner," said Deece, rising.
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