Harry Potter and the Bucket List

Year 2 - 7

Beta: Cloudy

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

On Sunday morning I met Harry on the way to the hospital wing. He had apparently been on the way to the dungeons to search for me.

"Good morning, dear. Feeling better?" I asked him. Iris slithered out of my clothes to greet Harry. She sniffed at his cheek, looking him up and down for injuries.

"Right as rain," said Harry as he scratched the top of Iris's head.

"Lockhart?"

"Pomfrey had to vanish and regrow his kneecaps," Harry said with a big grin. He only had his grin for a moment though before it was gone. "Rosie, that House Elf, Dobby, visited me. He's trying to get us to leave the school."

"Why hasn't he visited me?" I wondered out loud. I couldn't exactly claim I had grown fond of Dobby and ask Draco for him that way if I never even met the elf. It would be odd and out of the blue to purchase the Malfoy elf, and I couldn't jeopardize my relationship with Draco by tricking Lucien into freeing Dobby. My best bet was to hopefully have the elf come to me at least once. Harry shrugged.

"He mentioned the Chamber of Secrets, know anything about it?"

"Yeah I found it."

"Oh."

"Parselmouth thing."

"Well he thinks it's gonna kill us."

"Nah. It's why I'm learning Latin."

"What?"

I gave him a quick explanation, he let out an oh as he connected the dots.

"Okay. I'll tell him to sod off next I see him."

"Okay, dear."

"Um..." Harry scratched at his cheek sheepishly. "Can I have Iris for the day?"

"Want some cuddles?"

"Yeah."

Iris trilled and dove under Harry's sweater. She popped her head back out in order to nuzzle into his neck.

"Take care you two."

(≖‿‿≖)ノ⌒●~*

November crept by without much fuss and December was a lovely affair. I finished the veritaserum before it was break time, and tested it out on one of the moron Slytherins that hadn't completed their weekly good deed. Come Christmas break Harry and I headed home—not before I snuck my yearly Christmas present for Snape on his desk which he promptly tossed out.

Paddy and Remus welcomed us with all the love in the world and it was nice to lounge around for an entire day. Then I had to sneak out to see how the potion brewing went.

Tom was quite impressed with what I had done with Lunar's Orchid.

Fenrir was beside himself with joy that the lycanthrope potion was progressing. Odette and Anyo expressed similar feelings, with the addition of Odette exclaiming, "You're a very brilliant witch to already advance so far. The wolfsbane potion was a complete accident, you know."

I resisted the urge to retort back that it wasn't brilliance—it was that no one else had bothered.

Of course, I had to also keep up appearances with the major political allies I had already ascertained—Greengrass, Longbottom, Bones, and so on. Lunar's Orchid was a success so far, and by summer it would become Britain's largest producer of magical herbs. It would save them a fortune on international trade taxes for those ingredients.