Harry Potter's Tale of Two Wizards

Chapter One - Family Meeting

"Percy shut it!"

The green-eyed teen whirled from the gathered group in the Leaky Cauldron and walked over to the bar. "Tom. We need a private room for a family meeting."

With the sparks flying from Harry's eyes and the strong, serious tone of his voice, Tom immediately gave them directions to a room at the end of the hall. He was concerned. He had never encountered Harry in any mood other than a shy teenager.

Harry turned to the group that was with him and glared them into obedience as he pointed down the hallway. As the entire Weasley family, including Charlie who was home on a short holiday, shuffled down the hall he turned to his friends and motioned them down the hall also.

Once in the room Harry turned to Mr Weasley. "Sir, could you please ensure our privacy? I think none of us want this conversation to be public debate." Turning back to the assembled group, he again used his glare to silence everyone while they took seats around the room. Noticing most of the angry glares were headed towards Percy instead of himself only strengthened his determination to settle this now.

Once Arthur settled into a seat next to Molly, Harry stood beside a lounge chair next to Ron's seat. "Now Percy, what is your problem?" he spat out in a deep rumble.

"None of your business, Potter! I won't have you interfering with my family anymore!" was the angry reply.

As several of Percy's brothers started shouting back angry retorts, Harry raised his voice. "SILENCE! Percy, I have never interfered with your family. I would not be saying anything right now if this was between you and your family! But you have decided that private differences of opinion between family members need to be broadcast in public and therefore made it my business to settle it. Hermione and Neville are here because you, not me you! included them in your little tirade about people hanging out with... How did you put it? Deranged, criminally violent liars." Taking a deep breath Harry started again. "Now tell me Percy, what is your problem with me?"

Standing up stiffly, the former Gryffindor prefect stated loudly, "You break the rules at every whim you have, you rant and rave about long dead wizards coming back to life to persecute you, you risk my family's lives in dangerous quests to prove your own hallucinations! You are nothing but trouble and anyone who comes near you is in constant danger of dying like that escapee from Azkaban. I will not tolerate you destroying my family anymore, and I will report your taking us all hostage to the minister directly upon my return!"

Finally sitting down into the chair he had reserved for himself, Harry said softly into the simmering room, "Ahh. So you wish a life of no risks for your family and resent me for not being a risk-free person." He settled back and stared at Percy, letting his words fill the silence.

A look of shocked happiness filled Percy's face. The words seem to describe the situation so well. He firmly sat himself back into his chair, nodding absently over how clearly that summed his views up.

The twins stared at Percy with shock of their own. They had never considered that Percy's split from the family may have occurred over Percy's protectiveness for them. Ginny glared at her older brother. In her mind she could not understand what kind of world Percy lived in that had no risks for the people he loved.

Percy's parents, on the other hand, stared at their son Ron's friend. A summary that quick to Percy's declaration meant one of two things, maybe both. Either the family split had worried Harry so badly that he spent large a mounts of time coming up with scenarios that would explain it, or Harry's instinctive grasp of other people's motivations was so highly developed that it beggared the imagination.

Neville split his attention around the room. While the argument that triggered this meeting seemed trivial to him, the atmosphere in the room was thick enough that he knew it was serious. He had never seen Harry lose his temper that way, even when dealing with Malfoy's constant stream of degradations, taunts and injurious pranks. The Weasley parents seemed like they were waiting patiently for Percy to see the errors of his ways, while stifling any outbursts from their children. Ron and his brothers and sister seemed to feel that Percy needed to be forced back into thinking clearly, preferably with a granite two by four. Hermione seemed to agree with them. Harry, on the other hand, appeared to be interfering only because no one else was doing anything. A telling sign, after all of the hints and not-sayings that covered Harry's home life with the muggles. Neville settled back to watch his friend in action.

"So." Harry's soft word returned the attention in the room to him, leaving Percy sitting opposite from him, and outside of everyone's range of vision. "If I'm understanding you correctly Percy, you joined the Ministry because they recognized your desire to work within strict bounds of rules, to enforce the rules no matter what they were, and to prove to your family that maintaining the rules works for everybody. Does that sound right?"

Again Percy looked both shocked and pleased by Harry's declaration. He enthusiastically nodded his head in agreement.

"But Percy," Harry continued, "Did you ever consider what the rules are that you are enforcing? Did you consider why the rules were made in the first place, or who they benefit? Did you consider... Never mind. I see by your face that none of that makes sense to you."

Harry lapsed into silence as the family he longed to call his own looked on in confusion. Neville was the only one to glance at Percy and see his face fall into shock as the 'lying criminal' who seemed to understand his motiva tions the best gave up on explaining things to his family. Nev glanced at Hermione and saw the well-known expres sion on her face that said she was struggling to see where Harry's thoughts were going. Ron just sat there glaring at the table. It was hard to tell if Ron had even heard Harry's self-interrupted series of questions.

"Percy, let me try again. In your first attempt to explain yourself I noticed that all of your comments were about my influence on your family. It sounds as if you feel that your family would be more likely to listen to the Ministry, follow the rules and such, if I was not here prodding and goading them to act dangerously. Does that sound like a fair guess?"

At Percy's reluctant nod, and Ron, Fred, George and Hermione's glares at Percy, Harry seemed to come to a decision.

"Percy, is it alright with you if I tell you two stories? One will be the truth as I know it, the second will be fiction. I'm not saying it will be false, it will just be my understanding of the way things would have worked out if I had never met your family."

Neville watched as the entire room stared at Harry in shock. How would a story or two convince Percy to lay off, if not change his mind?

After another reluctant nod, (apparently Percy was as unsure of this as the rest of his family), Harry glanced at Hermione and then Ron. He then looked at Neville, holding his gaze until Neville looked into his eyes.

He then started his first story.