atlas

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There were some things the Penny always came to Grimmauld place to do. Especially the potions that she worked on for the sake of the New Order. It was the safest place to keep everything as well as to test it. There were too many spies outside those doors, and no one wanted to take the risk of someone barging into her home and finding something that could harm them in the future.

She’d been writing the findings in her notebook when Harry came in. “Hey! Long time no see!” She smiled, putting her quill down. “Oh, that would be lovely, I don’t think I had a drop or water for hours.” Once again she had been lost in her own work. “How you been?” 

ϟ

Harry grabbed another mug from the cabinet and filled it, sliding it across the table to Penny. He could empathize, he could go entire days working at the DMLE only to realize when he got home that he hadn’t eaten or had anything to drink all day. “I’m doing okay, thanks. How are you?” 

He pulled his notes closer to look over them as he took a long drink from his tea. Harry had started a page of weaknesses (which looked to be growing to multiple pages), but with their resident potions expert across from him, a few items jumped out to Harry. “Say Penny, do you have any ideas for potions we could use on missions? Polyjuice jumps out to me, but I know that’s both complicated and doesn’t last that long.” 

status: closed starter for @siriushqs​

Harry didn’t bother flooing Sirius before coming over anymore, just coming straight over and shouting into the house that he was there. The two of them had grown a lot since their first meeting, and Harry got a quiet thrill out of this permitted, welcomed, intrusion into Sirius’ life. 

He didn’t hear a call back though, and assumed Sirius was out. Which was fine, it happens when you pop over unexpectedly. Harry wandered over to the living room, flopping down on the couch without looking, nearly sliding right off as he sat on Sirius’ leather jacket. Harry paused. He’d always been a little curious about it, since Sirius always looked so effortlessly cool. And Sirius wasn’t here, so...

Harry quickly stood up, throwing on the jacket and conjuring a mirror. The coat smelled like Sirius, which was oddly nice. He looked at himself in the mirror, noticing where the jacket fit and where it didn’t. On the whole, he thought he looked quite good! (If he ignored the persistent feeling that he was playing dress up.) Feeling dorky but having fun, he struck a pose in the mirror, conveniently forgetting that he was still in Sirius’ house, where Sirius lived. 

status: closed starter for @ginnyxweasleys​

When Harry overheard a group of muggles talking about things to do this weekend, he initially hadn’t given them much thought, too intent on getting passed the clump of people on the sidewalk. But then they started talking about some sort of sport that involved teaming up to throw little balls of paint at your friends. He’d been intrigued, enough to do some more digging. After a little bit of research, he all but raced to floo the first person he thought of.  

“Ginny!” he said when she answered. “I’ve just learned about an exhausting, violent, potentially painful sport that muggles play. It’s called paintball. Are you in?” 

status: closed starter for @lav-brown​

Harry slumped into a chair at the Ministry cafeteria, wearing a notice-me-not to protect himself from any talkative passerby. Was it frowned upon by Ministry policy? Yes. Was he doing it anyway? Also yes. 

He just wanted to sit quietly for 30 seconds. Maybe take a nap. Instead, he kept his eyes moving, scanning all the people in the cafeteria, looking for Lavender. They tried to catch lunch together when they could, and Harry knew that without the plan to meet up, his lunch plan would be an extra mug of tea from the break room. Probably better to not tell Lavender that. Speaking of, Harry spotted her across the room. He cancelled his charm, waving over to her. “Lav!”

status: closed starter for @fleurisabelleweasley​

Harry’s cheeks hurt from all the smiling he’d done on his outing with Victoire. The little girl was up on his shoulders, pulling his hair a little as they walked back to her house, but he didn’t mind. He was infinitely grateful for all the ways his life had changed when the Weasleys all but adopted him, and being Victoire’s uncle featured prominently on that list. 

Vic had one small hand clutching the ice cream she’d insisted they bring back for her mother, and Harry was thankful for the ice cream parlor’s anti-melting charms or he knew it would be dripping onto his head. When they made it to the door, Harry bent down for Victoire to knock and carefully swung her down back onto the ground. He smiled at Fleur when she answered the door, only to blink in shock as Vic proudly handed over the ice cream, “For you and the baby!”

Harry looked at Fleur with wide eyes. “Are you...?” 

status: closed starter for @pennyhaywoodx​

Harry was reviewing his notes from their last mission to recover the list at the Ministry, identifying weak points in their strategies and working on ways to improve their odds. He hated that Angelina had gotten hurt, even if they’d ultimately been successful. Taking a break, he grabbed a mug of tea from the kitchen, the act of making it himself soothing in its routine. 

There was an extra person in the dining room when he got back, and Harry nodded companionably at them. “Hey Penny,” he greeted, setting his mug on the table. “I just made some tea, did you want some?” 

when merula first opened her shop, she debated on one thing: whether or not to make it exclusive to purebloods. on one hand, she urged herself to do it. it was her place and she was allowed to do whatever she wanted with it. but on the other, she wanted the business and it was possible that halfbloods and mudbloods would complain that they were being treated unfairly. she couldn’t have that, risking her shop being shut down due to some law that could come hover over her at any second. 

merula looked up and recognized the person she saw in front of her – harry potter. merula had been taught well since her days at hogwarts. with some help, the woman had looked to some of those older than her to learn how to not react in a harsh manner manner when dealing with someone she thought unpleasant. she wasn’t perfect, though. she still found herself being the same 15-year-old she once was, personality wise, and while she hadn’t done a complete 180, merula was different in some ways, although – still quite abrasive. 

“what can i help you with?” she asked flatly. 

ϟ

Harry was sometimes teased about how oblivious he could be about some things, but he did have a fairly good sense for when someone didn’t like him, especially after the back-and-forth opinions the Wizarding world had on him at Hogwarts. There was an almost palpable tension now that he’d walked in, and Harry had a good feeling it had something to do with the scar on his head. 

But he was already here, might as well ask his questions. If he avoided every person who didn’t like him he’d probably have to leave the country. 

“I only know a bit about the muggle tattoo process,” Harry said, trying not to think about how idiotic he probably seemed. “How do tattoos work for magicals?” 

Astoria had heard about the classes Harry Potter would be hosting during their lunch break and she had definitely been intrigued by the thought of it, although she wasn’t sure how her family would react to her wanting to take defense classes. Weighing out the pros and cons she decided there would be no harm done attending the first lesson and if she felt comfortable she could stay for the next as well. And her parents and Daphne didn’t need to know, right? They couldn’t disapprove if she didn’t tell them. 

With everything that had happened with the Redeemers recently she felt a bit on edge, especially in public. If that could help her feel safer she would love that. Ever the prepared and honestly, anxious, person she was there fifteen minutes early, thinking it was better that way than to be late and come and interrupt in the middle. “I’m sorry. I’m too early right? I um.. I can wait outside if you want.” 

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“No, come on in!” Harry called, finishing up his writing with an underline, at least half just because he wanted to. Turning, he was pleasantly surprised to see Astoria. Based on the anniversary gala, she already had the most important step down- being willing to act. Everything else after that was teachable. He smiled at her, knowing that it was probably a big deal that she was here. “Astoria! I’m really glad to see you,” he said earnestly, hoping it would reassure her she had every right to be here. “First person privilege, anything you want to make sure we cover?” 

Just make it to the elevators. Gabi nodded, still feeling overwhelmed but at least now she had a purpose. She could definitely stick close to Harry’s side until then. Even if she felt a little bit like a duckling at least she was a safe duckling. No one messed with Harry.

His words did help to calm her down, even just slightly. He didn’t seem like the sort to lie. “Eef you say so…” hopefully Phillip wouldn’t want his job back. Or maybe they’d both get to stay. That would be nice. “Did ‘e leave any notes? I could keep ‘es seestem the same.”

–

Harry thought back to when Phillip had left, trying to recall if he’d left any sort of guide. “Hm, I’m not sure if he left notes, but Phillip’s a pretty straightforward guy so hopefully it won’t be too bad?” Administration was not Harry’s strong suit. “If it’s bad, I trust you’ll be able to make a better system anyway. And anything’s better than my system,” Harry joked, though he was serious. “It’s a lot of piles and ‘point-me’ spells.” 

“Suppose you’re right about that,” Remus surrendered with a laugh. He knew that Harry was trying to make the conversation less emotional. He knew how difficult it could be to process all of these emotions when you were closed off for so long. Sometimes, he still had trouble himself. 

Remus thought about what they’d have to do next. What the process was. He tried to remember what his friends had gone through. “I have a book around here somewhere with the process. It takes a bit, but I’m sure you’re already aware of that.” He looked up at Harry, before asking, “What animal do you want to turn into?” 

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Harry perked up at the mention of the book, wondering if it was the same one his dad had used all those years ago. He liked to think his parents would be proud of him no matter what, but Harry felt closer to his dad just going through the process. Maybe one day his dad would have taught him, but it was enough to Harry to share the experience. And Remus was there to help, which meant it was still a family activity, if a little different than James Potter might have imagined. 

“It’ll take a while, yeah, but you get to turn into an animal,” Harry stressed. McGonagall had made quite the impression his first year. He was a little caught off guard by Remus’ question. “Um, I didn’t really think about it. I wasn’t even sure you’d agree,” Harry told Remus. “It would be cool to be able to fly on my own, or maybe something proper fierce, like a tiger,” he mused. “You get to pick?” 

Terry had decided to join the classes much for the same reason he’d decided to join the DA back in school: he loved to learn. Back in their Hogwarts days, Harry had proven himself to be a pretty decent teacher and since then there was much more that he had learned so Terry was optimistic about how today’s outcome would be. That is of course if they did more than just the basics. There was a risk of showing up to a class that anyone in the community could join and while it made sense to have some basics since Harry probably didn’t know the skill level of those in attendance Terry hoped they might do one or two advanced spells as well. 

“Will there be any snacks?” Terry asked as he followed Harry’s instructions to grab a chair. It was a genuine question and he figured it was as good enough conversation starter as anything else he could say to fill up the space the empty room held. Back in school, Terry tried his best to arrive at class early, it just seemed polite to do so so that class could start on time though it seemed in this situation he was the first.

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Setting his chalk down Harry turned to Terry, frowning thoughtfully. He hadn’t given a single thought to the more extra-curricular aspects of this, consumed by lesson plans and the fight to get the classes organized at all. Hopefully Gabi or one of the other wix helping had given it more thought than he had. “Er, I’m not sure,” Harry said. “Probably would’ve been a good call,” he said, rubbing his chin ruefully. Maybe hungry students would be more focused? That didn’t sound right. Shit. “Hopefully it’ll be okay. I’m glad you’re here, though. Would you believe me if I said I was a little nervous about this?” Harry waved a hand around the room, shaking his head a little as he contemplated what he’d gotten himself into. 

ourkingweasley·:

Due to his focus on his attempts to not stare at Hermione, it didn’t occur to Ron that it was coming off in a completely different manner to Harry. The two of them sat farther apart than usual. They weren’t talking. It looked like they were ignoring each other because they’d had a disagreement. It only occurred to Ron when Harry spoke up and his eyes widened in surprise. He looked over at Hermione with red ears, before turning his gaze back to Harry as he stuttered in surprise. 

It took him a moment before he composed himself. Ron knew that telling Harry was necessary. He didn’t know why he was so nervous. The redhead stole another glance at Hermione, a blush highlighting his cheeks, before he finally broke the tense silence. “Harry - it’s not…” He trailed off. “Er…Do you want to tell him?” 

@booksandcleverness-arc·

Hermione’s attention snapped to Harry when he asked who was pissed off- pissed off? Oh merlin. Her and Ron really had mucked this up, she hadn’t realised their attempts to look just friendly had backfired and they looked as though there was animosity between them. “Harry thats not-” she said at the same time Ron had protested.

She looked to Ron and saw his blush and smiled, her own cheeks turning warm. “I- sure” oh merlin now she actually had to tell him. Hermione turned to Harry, who looked very exasperated with the thought of her and Ron being in an argument. “Harry, me and Ron. I mean- sorry, Ron and I uh” why were the words fighting so hard to stay in her mouth. “We’re- Oh for gods sake this is ridiculous. It shouldn’t be this hard to tell you. Ron and I aren’t in a fight, we’re dating.” she let the words hang in the air, biting her lip slightly as she looked from Ron to Harry nervously. 

@hjpotter-arc·

Watching his best friends stumble over their words did not inspire confidence in Harry and he fought the urge to rub his hands over his face. He knew he was being a little dramatic, but he was this close to just locking the two of them in a closet until they either made out or killed each other. 

He was so caught up in his wishful thinking, Harry nearly missed Hermione confessing that she and Ron were dating. Dating. Dating, as in a romantic relationship. Harry took a moment to process, face going somewhat blank as he realized Hermione and Ron had actually gotten their shit together on their own. A grin began to spread itself across his face and he nearly choked on the laughter bursting out of his chest. He sprung to his feet, grabbing his friends in an almost painfully tight hug. “It’s about bloody time!” he laughed, so utterly pleased at something going right for once. “When did this happen!”