Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
$Parseltongue$
Chapter 63: Life at home
Harry spent the rest of the week getting used to his life at home.
He would spend most of his free time either with Holly and his mother or reading something from the library.
The Potter library was massive and some of the books found on the upper shelves were fairly old, dating back over five centuries.
However, he had yet to find any book containing a piece of useful magic, like some ritual, chant, or conjuration he didn't know about.
The ones displayed were, for the most part, fantasy tales, diaries, and historical books, as well as a big section dedicated to cheesy romance novels that Harry had the feeling were put there by his mother.
The spell books he found, only contained common magic, like cleaning charms, cosmetic ones, or magic that you would usually learn at Hogwarts.
Harry was convinced that an old family like his, must have a lot more interesting tomes than the ones found at the library, but maybe those were placed in a more secure location. It was something he would have to ask his father when he returned.
'This is starting to get boring though…'
He wanted to do some magic training, but couldn't do it inside the house. Not with his two little sisters there.
'Wait, what about that room?...' He just recalled it. The safe room underneath the manor. From what his father said back then, that place has some powerful protections that would make it an ideal place to practice his spells.
This was going to be something else to ask him tonight when he came back from his working trip.
Harry glanced at the grandfather clock located in a corner of the library.
'He should be here in a few hours. Mom said he promised to be here for dinner time.'
"Pop"
Two elves appeared in the library. Both of them were carrying a tray with tea and some food.
"Master Potter, I have brought you some red tea and a slice of treacle tart," Mipsy said with a polite smile.
"And Dobby got Master Harry some of that too. And chocolate!, Dobby's favorite!." The little elf buried up and ran to his side before presenting the tray to him.
Seeing this, Mipsy increased her pace and did the same.
"Master Harry likes red tea the best!, and treacle tart is his favorite."
"But Dobby got here first!. Does Master Harry not like what Dobby brought for him?" The elf had fetched him some green tea and chocolate treats.
The two elves haven't been getting along as well as one would expect.
Dobby wanted to make himself useful to the family, while Mipsy, who had served the Potter for her whole life, was very territorial and refused to give Dobby an easy time.
"Okay, that's enough of this, you two," Harry said with a stern tone.
"Master Harry?" The two elves looked at him with a hint of fear.
There weren't many things more terrifying to a house elf than feeling they have failed their Master and upset them.
"This rivalry has to stop…this is not a competition. Mipsy, you have been a house for a long time and you have done a wonderful job. No one will ever take your position away from you. You will be part of this family for as long as you want. Dobby just wants the same, to be part of the family and feel useful and wanted. Can you help him with that, instead of trying to compete with each other?"
"Yes Master Harry!, of course. I'm very sorry for my behavior." Mipsy said with her head hanging low.
"And Dobby is sorry for not knowing what Master Harry liked the most!."
"That's fine, I don't hate green tea, and I like chocolate as well. So, thank you, Dobby."
"Do we take back one of the trays, Master Harry?" Asked Mipsy.
"No, just set them up on the table. I'll do what I can with them…"
The elves left the food on the table located in the brightest corner of the library and left.
"Oh…you are here." The newcomer spoke with disappointment.
'Speaking of not getting along…' Harry thought of his second sister. She has been mostly ignoring his existence since their mother scolded her on the night of his return.
"I don't have many places to be. I am grounded after all." Not that he had much of a reason to leave the house at the moment.
"You are grounded too?...never mind that. I'll just grab a book and leave." Lyra was about to walk away when Harry called for her.
"I have some extra tea and sweets if you want to accompany me." He offered.
"You want me to have tea with you?...do you have any idea of how weird that sounds to me?" Her voice was getting progressively louder.
"I am aware it may seem odd, considering how strainer our relationship was…."
"Strained?. You hated me to death!, and to be fair, I felt the same way. You never gave me any reason to feel otherwise."
"Fair enough. I don't remember most of the things that happened back then…but I can say that I'm extremely sorry for it. You didn't deserve any of that."
"Who are you?!." Lyra screamed. "My brother would never say something like that. He would never apologize for the shitty things he did and would never EVER invite me to have tea with him, less he was planning on poisoning the cups!."
Harry waited patiently and allowed her to vent her frustrations, she seemed to have been holding them inside for a while.
"At first, I thought you were making up the whole 'I don't remember anything' to not get in trouble with Mom and Dad for what you did. But the Harry I know would not have lasted a day without going back this usual hateful self….much less an entire year."
She continued.
"But now…I don't know how to talk with you anymore, My brother was a jerk, but he was a jerk I was familiar with. You are like a completely different person and I feel like you have become… a stranger to me."
"Well, that has an easy solution." Harry pointed to one of the chairs.
"Come sit with me. Have some tea and we can have a proper conversation."
"Can I really?..." Said Lyra with hesitation.
"Please." Harry offered her a seat again and she took it.
Lyra looked down at the piece of treacle tart.
"Mipsy had spent the entire week making those…you really like them, huh?."
"Yes, but I'm going to have to ask her to slow down, less I will grow tired of it...or become very fat," Harry exclaimed.
Lyra chuckled.
"Yeah…Mipsy can be very enthusiastic sometimes. By the way, that elf that you brought is super weird!"
"Really?, how so?" Harry smiled and let his sister talk. The next hour flew by as he talked with his sister, who he finally had a chance to know.