Harry Potter: A Different Sirius

The winter trimester was harder for Harry than he had ever imagined. His classes while intense were not what made it difficult what made it difficult was the frequent nightmares. Carson Beckett tried to corner Harry frequently until Harry said "Mr. Beckett, I am meeting with a counselor every goddamn week, leave me alone it's being handled." Harry also got a "prescription herbal supplement" that was really a calming draught mixed with a mild sleep potion to help his sleep after the fourth week, that he was allowed to use two nights a week. It wasn't dreamless sleep but it helped and he usually tried to take it on the nights before a test or presentation was due so he would be his most alert and together.

The new suite mate seemed to be much more compatible, but he had his own circle of friends so Harry, Dominic, Steve and Michael really only made one new friend that semester. Cassidy like Steve was a navy brat. Unlike Steve's father that was an NCO, Cassidy's dad was a commander. They met Cassidy in their home economics class. She was new to the school and a tomboy she signed up for the home economics class because her mother had died of cancer a few months before, and as she put it she didn't want to die of food poisoning when her dad was in port. Their first day of class when she was assigned to their group she told them if you four screw around and mess up my grade in this class I'll have you up before a review board. Steve was the only one remotely impressed by her threat. The boys took Cassidy under their wing and added her to their study group when the third week of school they found her alone and crying over her third C- paper. By midterms she had adapted to the school rule that you don't do it alone.

Home economics class was only offered during the winter trimester, and so the class had fifty people enrolled. It divided into thirds and each third went to a separate month long sections . The first section was sewing the students made a pouch for their sewing tools a pincushion and a simple pattern of their choosing. The boys all chose to make pajama pants. The second section was life skills the first week they planned a pretend wedding Harry found himself leading the project that week because of his experience helping with Beth and Sirius' wedding a year before the project the next week was budgeting and many of the people in the class had no clue but Steve, Cassidy, and Harry all knew enough that they once again led the class through the weeks project the projects of the final two weeks of the second section was parenting skills and housework. Harry laughed himself silly numerous times. For parenting, the first week they had egg "babies" and the second they had five pound sacks of flour to care for. Harry had had the sense to pair up with Cassidy and they were they only two to get full marks from the teacher. Because both of their babies made it through intact and they had proof that their baby was never unattended. Steve had been paired with a girl whose idea of good parenting was hand the baby off to the nanny and had ignored the instructions that if you don't keep it with you you have to have the person "watching" it sign off. Michael managed to drop and break both the egg and the sack of flour during hand offs with his partner. Dominic and his partner managed to lose their sack of flour. Harry made the comment on the final day of that section that the eggs and the flour sacks were nothing compared to real kids. The teacher overheard him making it and made him give an impromptu lecture based on his experiences with the triplets for half the class. The housekeeping portion Steve guided the other boys through although thanks to Liana Harry didn't need much help. The final section was cooking The boys and Cassidy again teamed up and Harry again because of his potion making classes with Walter found himself at an advantage he already knew the definitions of terms used. At their end of section dinner that Cassidy and Michael planned, they got top dinner for the trimester. All of which made Harry's A+ in Home economics a sure thing.

Harry had once again worked hard to maintain his A average but he missed the occasional fun weekend spent doing little to nothing important with his friends that he had done the previous trimester. He tried to make up for it though; he had found out that the school had a club of dedicated strategy game players that met Thursday nights he made time for it because he was learning strategic thinking while doing something fun. Harry was regularly beaten by the other players but by the end of trimester he had started to win about a quarter of the time. He was also doing better in his games against Grandpa and Uncle Nic. He left school after his last final instead of waiting for grades to released. He told his friends there was stuff he had to do but that he would meet them in Costa Rica for the student trip. Steve was very excited because Dominic, Michael and Harry had chipped in together and sponsored his going on the trip for a birthday present. For them it would only be a few days but for Harry it would be four months.

George, Rachel, Sirius, Harry and Sheba portkeyed to Hawaii then time jumped the two months. Sheba had a ton of paperwork and had to have a vet examine both her and the paperwork and verify that she was microchipped and healthy before they got to go to the house they were staying in. Actually house wasn't exactly the correct term, mansion on Hanalei Bay was a closer description. Some aspects of it reminded Harry of the house on Bali he grew up in. They settled in and Harry drank his de-aging potion. The next morning at eight Harry and George started. The days after that all seemed to take on grueling sameness.

From eight to ten Harry and George sorted memories frequently getting through two rooms of what Harry called the Dark Tower then they would spar with fencing swords or bokken. Harry would eat lunch then analyze the memories and process them both for details about Tom Riddle and his own emotions then in the afternoon Harry would go out and surf for an hour. If the memories he had sorted were particularly violent or malicious, he would surf longer immersing himself in the rhythm of the waves. He would come back in and spar with Rachel, another talk with George. Then after supper he would relax by playing chess, go, risk, stratego, bridge or poker with Sirius, George and Rachel. Harry would usually end his day with an hour of meditation followed by reading something relaxing or playing one of his instruments. He brought his favorite books by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Madeline L'Engle, Robert Ludlum, Ian Flemming, Tom Clancy, and Ellis Peters.

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