"Oh," Hermione's dejected expression had Harry hugging her shoulders and promising to let her check his mum's old notebook to see if she put anything about the Map in there.
"Actually, Harry…" Sirius shuffled around in his seat a bit before sighing and leaning forward. "I wanted to talk to you and Shiva about this summer."
"What about it?" Harry asked. Beside him he saw Shiva tense slightly and drape a protective arm around his shoulders.
"Uh, you sure you want to talk about this, you know, now?" he glanced at the others causing Harry to sigh.
"I'm just going to tell them later anyway. Might as well skip the middleman as it is. What did you want to say?"
Sirius sighed again and nodded at that. "Right. Okay. So look, you know I'm your godfather right? Well, I kinda screwed that one up royally. I was supposed to take you in after…that night. I saw a bit of what happened with the Dursleys during the summer and I was going to offer to let you stay with me from now on. Now that I'm free and all." He held a hand to ward of Shiva when she opened her mouth to say something. "I want you to know that my home is always open to you. Well, when my home is habitable that is. I have very low opinions of the old Black house, but that that's neither here nor there." He shrugged and looked a bit sad. "I hung out with you guys as Padfoot long enough over the summer to know that you're happy with Shiva so I understand if you want to stay with her. I wasn't there for you; she was. Both of you are welcome to stay with me should you need a place in the future."
Shiva smiled a bit and relaxed back into the couch. She batted her eyes playfully at the man, "You're a little old for me, Sirius. Sorry old dog."
"Old?" he held a hand to his heart and Neville and Tracey shook their heads laughing. "Me? Oh, you wound me woman!"
"Thanks for the offer, Sirius," Harry said grinning at the two. "We'll certainly come visit, but yeah, I would like to stay with Shiva."
"I understand. I'm sorry for not being around when you needed me, pup. I'd still like to be a part of your life though."
"You keep doing right by him and you will be," Shiva said all serious again. "But you abandon Harry again to go off on another revenge quest and I neuter you."
"No you won't," Hermione commented. She shrugged at the raised eyebrows that comment received and continued, "Simply because I will have done it first."
"You may be the girlfriend, Hermione, but remember that I am the Slytherin Slayer," Daphne said sitting up straight and thrusting her chest out pompously. That set off another round of laughter. "Actually, Harry, speaking of that, do you and Shiva mind meeting me at Gringotts sometime early this summer?"
"Sure. Why?" Harry asked.
Daphne just grinned evilly. "Well, I finally got a good idea of the going rates. I believe we have a basilisk to render."
"That's...I can't believe I didn't think of that before..." Shiva said with a note of wonder in her voice.
"Don't worry; I started looking into selling prices and commission fees as soon as we all left the hospital wing last year. If we go with the goblins we should turn the highest profit. They take a hefty margin but they also are the only ones to actually be interested in eating the meat of the snake. They'll take most of the meat as acceptable payment so it works out largely in our favor."
"Sounds good to me. We can negotiate terms there right?" Harry asked and she nodded. "Okay then. Just let us know when."
Sirius looked between the group members like they had gone crazy but didn't find any signs of pranking at all and his eyes widened. "I'm going to need that story, pup...One more thing first though. I, err…may have gone to talk to Gringotts earlier…" he ran a hand through his hair and shifted a bit in his seat. "And I…might have gone and made you my Heir…"
Neville and Daphne's mouths dropped open and Tracey whistled. Luna just nodded as if she had always expected this while Shiva groaned and shook her head ruefully. Tonks leaned back into her seat with a large sigh. Hermione narrowed her gaze at Harry and fell into her 'I'm deep in thought. Disturb me at your own peril.' look before eventually giving a large sigh and nodding her assent. Harry felt like he was missing something that the rest of the room got implicitly…
"Um, okay…thanks I guess?" Harry said fishing for more clarifying input.
"I got a quick checkup last night after the attack. Looks like my chances of having kids are pretty low now after my island stay. So I figured the least I could do was give my House to you. It will hopefully make up for some of the problems I caused." Then he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows, "Also it should be bloody fun for you, pup."
Harry shook his head. "I really need to look up more things concerning pureblood politics don't I?"
"Probably a good idea, Harry," Shiva said. "You do seem to be acquiring quite a bit of power as the years progress, kid."
"Yeah about that," Sirius said with a snort. "Just how much of that thing with Fudge last night was a bluff? That's quite a bit of pull you're starting to amass."
"Probably about half and half," Harry said shrugging.
Daphne picked up the conversation. "While all the families he mentioned are personal friends, their parents may or may not actually go against the Minister if we asked. I know my father would not – at least not unless he was offered a very good deal with very few downsides. The Li's and Patil's would likely consider it repayment for their mistake with Luna and reclaiming their honor, but…" she shrugged.
Neville took over. "Once we all actually take the Lordships we'll be able to make some real changes. Until then, though, it mostly comes down to what we can convince our parents and guardians to do. I'm a little surprised Fudge caved like that. You would think that a politician would've been a bit savvier."
Tracey snorted. "I'm amazed the idiot manages to tie his own shoes in the morning. How did he get elected?"
.
.
.
🎉The novel is available in PDF with more than 400 chapters, visit us in our Ko-Fi store🎉
🎉ko-fi.com/gokublack444🎉