Queen
Harry planned to give Queenie the magical fish tank she wanted on his birthday, and he tried to make some changes so that it wasn't exactly the same as the one Lily gave to Slughorn.
The orchid element had to be kept; Queenie liked that. He planned to replace the small fish with a ship and the fish tank with a glass bottle, creating a design similar to the ship in a bottle they had seen at the Maritime Museum.
Harry was very pleased with his idea. The boat was far less difficult to make than the fish, at least it didn't require cross-species transformation. The challenge lay in achieving a perpetual cycle—constantly repeating the transformation process between the orchid and the boat. Harry was certain that if he succeeded, he'd get an O in NEWT's Transfiguration competition.
Of course, he might not have been able to figure out this troublesome little thing on his own before graduation—he meant, going against Voldemort and the other Slytherins was no problem, but inventing wasn't his forte. Fortunately, Harry had an all-powerful godfather, Sirius, whose skill in Transfiguration was no less than Lily's. Sirius could teach Harry the magical theories and spells he might need, but how to integrate these spells was up to Harry himself—given that he refused Sirius's direct help in making the gift, only accepting his off-site guidance.
Harry felt he was quite talented; he always learned spells quickly—at least faster than Ron and Neville—and his gift was almost complete, though he wasn't quite perfect at looping. His silly sailboat would always crash into a glass bottle after sailing for a while, sink to the bottom, and then turn into an orchid and float back up.
"Merlin's beard, man, did you really make this?" Ron exclaimed in admiration. "If you can turn it into a model of a fire bolt and fix the details, we'll make a fortune!"
Hermione examined the magical item closely, her eyes conveying the message, "You've been secretly working hard behind my back."
"Alright, you've seen it. Remember not to tell Queenie beforehand!" Harry swiped the gift back into his pocket, which was enchanted with a Stretch Mark Charm. The pocket wasn't very big and contained some of Harry's usual items.
Harry hadn't planned to let his friends know; he wanted Queenie to be the first to see the finished product. But Hermione noticed that Sirius was always secretly teaching him other things, so she couldn't help but pry.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "You've also learned the Unseen Stretching Charm?"
“Uh, it’s only about a cubic foot in size. Sirius said it would be more convenient to carry an invisibility cloak with you… I know you can do that too! Sirius said you asked him first! Otherwise, he wouldn’t have thought of this!”
"..." Now it was Hermione who was annoyed. She awkwardly smoothed her curly hair. "I was just curious. The Unseen Stretching Charm is extremely profound, far beyond our reach... That's not important. What's important is that you've been secretly working on it behind our backs!"
Harry retorted, "When it comes to hard work, you've always been the hardest working one. In your first year, you were reading books four inches thick, and in your second year, you even learned Polyjuice Potion! That's sixth-year material!"
“Hey Harry! Why are you suddenly praising Hermione?” Ron followed up. “Hermione, I—we all know how wonderful you are!”
Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance and burst out laughing at the same time. Ron, not understanding why, joined in the silly laughter.
The trio huddled together listening to Harry explain the magic used to create the ship in a bottle. Ron's occasional ideas always veered towards making money, making one wonder if he'd been listening to the twins talking about opening a shop too much lately.
Hermione was a little annoyed, so she waved her wand and turned two blades of grass into parchment and a quill, letting Ron write down all his ideas while she and Harry tried to solve the problem of the shipwreck.
"Did Queenie sleep in again today?"
"Oh, we... well, we played until very late last night..."
Harry's words were vague, but fortunately Hermione didn't understand. She just assumed they were playing wizarding chess or something similar and didn't ask any further questions.
"Where's Sirius? Is he at headquarters for another meeting?"
“Yeah, I went last night. It seems the Order of the Phoenix has made quite a bit of progress this time.” The ship in the glass bottle crashed into the edge of this small world again without hesitation, sinking once more. Harry scratched his head in frustration. “Slughorn didn’t mention that fish only turn back into petals after they die. I really don’t understand what went wrong.”
“Don’t rush, we’ll take it slowly,” Hermione comforted her. “But your mother is amazing. How old was she when she made this? She was indeed a clever and powerful witch.” That was undeniable; it wasn’t just any witch who could use love magic to resist Voldemort’s killing curse.
"This is already a simplified version; at least seagoing vessels don't have life."
"Let's try again. Maybe we need to slightly change the hand gestures for casting the Conversion Charm..."
After a while, the ship charged toward the glass bottle for the Nth time, as brave as a Gryffindor.
“Hmm—” Hermione suggested another approach, “How about we make another iceberg? Have you seen Titanic? It’s a beautiful love story, and Queenie would definitely like that movie.”
“No,” Harry rejected the suggestion. “This ship is called ‘The Queen,’ and it can’t sink.”
Hermione, “…” Fine.
As dusk fell, Sirius returned. Harry was making dinner and, hearing the commotion, called out to him what he wanted to eat.
Sirius was disheveled and haggard, his eyes bloodshot, and he was in even worse shape than on the day he learned the cause of his brother's death.
Queenie handed him a glass of warm water and asked with concern, "Sirius, didn't you get any rest last night?"
“I’m fine.” Sirius managed a weak smile. “Harry…”
"Um?"
Sirius said something, but the sizzling sound from the pot drowned out his words, and Harry didn't hear him clearly at first.
"Wait!" Harry quickly finished cooking the steak and turned off the heat. "What did you just say?"
"Oh, Dumbledore wants me to take you to the old house..."
"Now?" Harry asked, somewhat surprised. "Can we go after dinner? I'd like you and Queenie to try my new spice recipe."
"Of course, no rush."
The three of them sat down together for dinner. Harry's new recipe tasted great, and Queenie especially liked it, saying she wanted to eat it again the next day.
Throughout the meal, only Sirius seemed preoccupied, and eating steak felt like Buckbeak eating raw marinated meat.
Harry hadn't been to Black's old house for three weeks. Perhaps because their house in Godric's Hollow was too warm and bright, Harry found the old house particularly cold and dark.
The Order of the Phoenix still used the dining room as a meeting room. Harry was brought in there, and Sirius remained silent the whole way, making Harry feel uneasy.
The dining room door opened, and only Dumbledore was inside. His face was as gentle and composed as ever. "Harry, it's been a long time."
Harry replied politely, "Professor Dumbledore, it's been a long time."
Then he noticed that Dumbledore was playing with a ring in his hand. It was made of pure gold and had a black gemstone set in it. There seemed to be some symbols or scratches engraved on it.
Harry suddenly realized what that was. "Professor Dumbledore! Danger!"
Dumbledore chuckled and casually tossed the ring aside. "Sirius told you everything?"
"Uh, I was the one who kept pestering him to ask, you know, it's my curiosity..."
Harry's gaze unconsciously followed the ring. Was that a Horcrux? Holding a part of Voldemort's soul? He had to admit it looked unremarkable, but then he thought of the diary that had nearly killed Ginny. Perhaps Dumbledore had placed some kind of restriction on it… Wait! Harry's eyes widened suddenly. The tiara, the cup—even though he had never seen these two things before, he was certain they were Ravenclaw's tiara and Hufflepuff's cup!
“The Order of the Phoenix has put in tremendous effort, and fortunately, their efforts have not been in vain.” Dumbledore looked at him. “You must also know the number of Horcruxes, Harry?”
“Yes, Professor, seven.” Harry counted all the Horcruxes on the table: the destroyed diary, locket, ring, tiara, and cup—five in total.
"Just as you guessed, the sixth one is very likely the snake named Nagini that's next to Tom."
"Great!" Harry exclaimed with genuine joy, his green eyes gleaming with delight. "That makes seven, including Voldemort himself!"
“Yes, yes…” Dumbledore said in a gentle tone, “Harry, I called you here tonight to have you witness the destruction of the Horcruxes.”
"Let me be your witness?"
Dumbledore didn't explain why he had Harry come to witness this. He took out his phone and glanced at the time. "Six minutes to go. Severus will be moving according to plan. Sirius, take Harry to the next room and keep an eye on him."
What does Snape have to do with this? What's his plan?
Harry followed Sirius to the next house, completely bewildered, only to discover that his godfather hadn't said a word since they stepped into the old house.
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