Twins: A Different Life

54

It took a few days for Harry, but he quickly got in to a routine living at Black Manor. Both Remus and his dad were laid back and the only difference was that he wasn't surrounded by people daily, well that's how it felt for Harry. As he was grounded and couldn't go anywhere, he decided first that, in preparation to his Mastery exam, he was going to explore and get used to the potions labs. Harry went down the stone stairs to the basement and there was three doors and another staircase which he presumed led to the dungeons. The first door he tried was a store room full of phials and different ingredients with a door leading out the other side, he sensed a preservation charm, but he would go through the entire inventory so he knew what he needed to purchase when he was finally allowed to Diagon alley.

The next door was another storage room with a door at the end, except it was full of equipment instead, he could see many different sized cauldrons and he made note to do a full inventory of what was actually in the room too. The final door was the actual potions lab and Harry was impressed, the room was as big as the classroom back at school, and it had space enough for several set ups meaning he could practice on his multi-brewing. He saw two doors to the side and saw that it led in to the storage rooms, the rooms had been kept in good condition which he was thankful for. Harry went in to the ingredients store first and snapped his fingers for parchment and a self-ink quill, he started from the top and worked down. He was lucky to find that majority of the things were labelled, and the things that weren't he could easily identify so began to make a list, some of the potions were ruined and he put them in a box to be disposed off, however most of the ingredients were perfectly preserved and he made a stock take of what was running low.

It was a long task and he hadn't even got half way through when Jip, his father's elf, popped in to inform him of lunch. Harry left his list and things down there and darted up the stairs, if he could eat fast he could continue.

"Hey, pup," Sirius greeted, "Where've you been all morning?"

"Sorting the lab out," Harry told, him tucking in to his food.

"I thought they were in good condition?"

"They are, amazing actually," Harry said, "But I need to do a stock take, inventory and dispose of anything that had gone bad."

"Ah, makes sense." Sirius nodded, "How's it coming,"

"Long, there's a lot of stuff in there so I have to go through everything. But I should be able to get everything done today and then I will have my lists ready."

"Well that's your territory so I will leave you to it."

Harry grinned, his dad and potions were not the best mix.

"Where's uncle Moony?"

"Substituting people and food for books again," Sirius sighed and Harry snickered.

"Send an elf."

"The elf came back covered in dust." Sirius deadpanned.

"So we've lost uncle Moony then," Harry surmised.

"Seems like it,"

"He'll come out eventually." Harry reassured.

"Well he has 6 days until full moon so if not before then he'll be out by then." Sirius said surely and Harry burst out laughing.

"I'm leaving uncle Moony's health in your hands." He said when he calmed down, "Do try not to lose him to books dad."

"Fine, I'll go drag him out."

"I'll see you at dinner," Harry hopped up as Sirius went up the stairs grumbling about werewolves and their books, Harry snickered and went back to his cupboard to continue the inventory. It took his another few hours to get through everything in the potions store, he had a roll of parchment of things he needed to top up on, a roll on what potions were in stock and the ones he needed to make to be on the safe side and he had a full list of what the cupboard held.

"Kip,"

"What can Kip bes doing for Master Harry?"

"Can I have a drink and a small snack please?" Harry asked and the elf nodded and popped away with a bow. Harry moved to the equipment store where Kip popped in with juice and biscuits, something Harry was very happy about. Harry summoned some more parchment and began with the cauldrons beginning with pewter, he started with the smallest size and got rid of any that he didn't deem in suitable conditions to work with. Harry was completely out of size 2 cauldrons and guessed it was because it was the one used for majority of school potions, and there were quite a few that needed to be replaced due to wear.

He had four brass cauldrons, one of each size, and added them to the list, he needed to have two of each to be on the safe side and in case he was duel brewing. He moved on to the silver ones and they were all in mint condition as were the gold, although it wasn't that surprising because they were the least used and he had enough of them too. Harry sorted through the other equipment such as the knives and ladles and removed the ones which were blunt or damaged, he wrote down everything he needed to replace and he had just finished re-ordering everything when he was alerted for dinner. When he got to the table this time Moony was present and Harry flashed him a grin.

"Yes uncle Moony, this is what people look like." Harry said slowly and Sirius roared with laughter, the werewolf shot him a dirty look and stabbed at his streak.

"No need to get violent with the steak, just because you can't read it." Harry defended the poor piece of beef, Sirius was trying, and failing, to muffle his laughter.

"Ha ha dungeon dweller," Moony returned and Harry pretended to blush.

"Awh you're too kind," He said bashfully and they all laughed.

"How did you get on down there?" Sirius asked him.

"Just finished, and I have the lists of everything that needs to be replaced/bought/renewed ready." Harry answered,

"You still have to wait until the weekend at least." Sirius warned and Harry glowered at him but nodded.

"I am aware." He sniffed, he wasn't even allowed to write to Draco until Thursday when his grounding was lifted, which he thought was totally unnecessary, but apparently that was the rules.

"Cheer up, cub, you only have a few days left." Moony reminded him.

"I suppose you are right." He sighed in a self suffering sort of way.

"I know,"

Harry had the urge to throw a carrot at him, but decided against it and stuck his tongue out instead.

"Mature,"

"I'm 11," Harry said,

"You have a point,"

"I know," Harry grinned as Moony rolled his eyes.