Disclaimer: - I do not own Harry Potter
"Speaking"
'Thoughts'
Spells/ritual incantations
"Parseltongue"
Chapter 1
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, one of the most prestigious magic schools in the world, the brainchild of four of the most powerful and knowledgeable of wizards and witches in history, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Over the centuries the magic from the residents had seeped into the very bricks and mortar that was used to build it, so much magic that the castle had become somewhat sentient, Hogwarts had seen many things throughout the years, Armies of good, evil and neutral but misunderstood, the warning that came from the sorting hat this year was from Hogwarts and much of the material that appears in the Room of Requirement is chosen by the castle as well, Hogwarts had known what was happening earlier that year and had influenced the Room of Requirement to help the students fight.
It was early morning a few days after the fight at the Department of Mysteries and everyone was sleeping soundly, well almost everyone. Harry Potter, 15 was currently immersed in a nightmare, and to tell the truth, Hogwarts was starting to get worried, it knew the boy would be important in the future battle, it had known ever since Harry had first set foot on the grounds, it knew about the prophecy and the monster known as Voldemort, the monster that had corrupted Salazar Slytherin's views to the point of justifying senseless bloodshed, it had seen such beings before, people who cause pain because they enjoy causing pain and justifying it by twisting the words of well known historical figures. It also knew that the current Headmaster's plan wouldn't work, and so it started to work on a new setup for the Room of Requirement and planted the idea of using the room in Harry's head, normally this wouldn't work but due to the damage that year had done to the boy's mental barriers not to mention the nightmare it was able to do so.
--
"Sirius," Harry gasped as he woke up, still shaking from the nightmare he had just had. True, Harry was no stranger to nightmares, having lived for 10 years in a small, dark cupboard Harry was intimately familiar with nightmares, but back then it had been flashes of green light and pain, even the nightmares after the graveyard last year didn't have quite the emotional attachment that these ones had, watching a loved one die over and over again while you were being held back and forced to do nothing but watch can have quite the detrimental effect on a person's emotional state.
'Damn it, bloody nightmares, I wonder how long the DOM is going to haunt me. (sigh)' He put his face in his hands ' Damn it Sirius why couldn't you have taken that fight seriously, it was Bellatrix Lestrange for fuck's sake, Riddle's right hand woman, the woman who tortured Neville's parents to insanity, the most feared of Riddle's Death Eaters, and you play around with her. And now that I finally know why Riddle has it in for me you wind up dead, I'm not stupid enough to place all of the responsibility on my own shoulders, I did enough of that with Cedric and the Graveyard, though some of it definitely goes there, there's Riddle and Lestrange of coarse, then there's Snape, I mean come on we were in the air for hours how could the Order not have gotten there before us unless he took his own sweet time about it, then there's Dumbledore for not allowing Sirius to get out of the house once in a while, I mean Sirius was one of the best aurors in the ministry before that Halloween, surely he knew how to disguise himself (sigh). I need to train to be able to take on Riddle, Dumbledore won't train me, he made that point quite clear "I wanted to preserve your childhood" my arse, surely Mrs Figg told him what was happening, he had to know that my childhood died when he left me on the Dursleys' footstep, whatever the old coot is up to he won't train me, I can't tell Ron, get him angry and he blabs, and Hermione has far too much faith in rules and authority, and practically everyone else I know is in Dumbledore's pocket, looks like I'm gonna have to do this myself but how.' Harry lay back down and pondered 'There's always the Room of Requirement, but this time I'll have to make sure that I won't be interrupted, I'll leave a note for Ron saying that I've gone for a walk to clear my head and I'll see what the ROR has to offer.'
His mind made up Harry wrote the note and put it on Ron's cupboard then changed into a shirt and jeans ('Dudley's cast offs ugh, I'm gonna have to do something about getting some muggle clothes in the coming hols'), headed through the empty common room and out the portrait hole. On the way to the ROR Harry thought about what to ask for, 'I need to be able to get lots of power and knowledge quickly, Riddle has 50 years of experience on me, not to mention I need some physical training, I was completely exhausted by the time we got to the death chamber, but I don't have the time I leave in 3 weeks, … hmmm well there are spells and potions to change your appearance, but the spells are advanced transfiguration and any potion with permanent effects is incredibly complex, I doubt I'd be able to do either in the allotted time not to mention such methods can be countered by anyone who knows how. Wait what about rituals, while most of them are considered dark because of the sacrifice required there might be a few that could help that wouldn't be too bad and the only way to counter a ritual is by the appropriate counter ritual which can't be done in the middle of a fight, I guess I just got to hope that the ROR has the appropriate material.' Just as Harry finishes this thought he arrives at the seventh floor corridor across from the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy. 'Lets see I need a ritual room … I need a ritual room … I need a ritual room.' He thought as he passed the section of wall 3 times and the door appeared.
"Whoa," Harry said as he got in to the room, the room was about the same size as the DA room only without the dark detectors and different books, there was also a pedestal with a book already open on it before a circle of chalk on the floor with a pentagram in the middle with a candle at each point, there was an open cabinet with daggers and chalices of different materials and a bunch of different gemstones, there was also a cage full of rats in a corner meant for sacrifices ('appropriate'). Harry walked up to the open book and had a look, 'Blank Slate Ritual, removes any and all active non-ritual spells or potion effects, advised prior to other rituals, if there are any active spells or potions on the subject's body before a different ritual is performed the results may be vastly different from the description, eg. A perfect eyesight ritual may completely and irreparably fry the subject's optic nerves if so much as a cheering charm is active on the subject. I'd better do this one first, no doubt the old coot has a few tracking charms on me at least.' That decision made Harry set up a parchment and a quill charmed to record all of the spells that come off of him ('lets see what the old coot put on me') then set up the ritual by drawing the required runes and put a diamond at each corner of the pentagon in the pentagram (to move the spells to), after that he stripped down and got in the centre. "(AN; I'm not gonna bother with Latin translations so I'm going to put ritual incantations in English and most magic is going to be either the confirmed spells or nonverbal and I'll describe the effect) Remove all spells, Remove all potions, Remove all foreign magics from my form."X3 After he finished the incantation the last time he doubled over from an immense pain in his chest, brain and scar as balls of light of various colours detached from his body and were absorbed by the diamonds, finally a large red ball came from his scar(the horcrux), a white fog(obliviate), 4 gold balls(loyalty enforcer), a blue ball(intelligence suppressor), and a green ball(personality suppressor, cunning) from his brain, a large silver ball(power suppressor), and a rainbow ball(metamorph suppressor) from his chest, once the rainbow ball was removed Harry fainted.
--
Memories "How long do we have to pretend to be that idiot's friend Hermione." 'Ron' "Once he gets himself killed we'll have access to the Potter fortune, just be careful Ron you nearly screwed it up in 4th year" 'Hermione' "I'm going to enjoy playing with him when I master the love slave spell, it shouldn't take too much longer" Ginny' "Now remember you three, Potter must be kept busy, if he takes time to think about what's been happening over the years he may find out about the fact that I'm leading him into an early grave, Severus's sessions with the brat to open up his mind will allow for a blending of their souls, at that point I will use the explosive part of that suppression spell I put on him as a child to vaporise him and his soul as well, when that happens Voldemort will die, it is for the greater good after all" 'Dumbledore' "How dare you change your appearance in my house you freak!!" 'I'm a metamorphmagus?' "Thanks to a combination of the eternal youth ritual and my horcruxes I am truly invincible HAHAHAHAHA" 'so that's how he survived that Halloween, I've got you now Tom' "Obliviate"
When Harry woke up he remembered everything, his so-called friends' betrayal, Dumbledore's plan, the fact that he was a metamorphmagus ('so that's why I've never needed a haircut, must have been the only thing that got through the suppression spell'), and about all of the horcruxes except for the last including where they had been stashed and what would destroy them, which he must have gotten from Voldemort just before the link was severed ('Riddle's Diary is already destroyed, Ravenclaw's Diadem is in the storage version of the ROR with no safeguards so that'll be easy enough, Hufflepuff's cup is in the Lestrange Gringott's Vault damn, Marvolo's ring is in the old Gaunt house that'll be easy enough as I know how to counter the protections, Slytherin's Locket is in the … wait I've seen that locket before, it was in the Black House, I hope Kreacher was able to save it, I know the defences on the locket itself and I no longer have to worry about the inferi in the cave which can only be a good thing, and Riddle was planning to use my death that Halloween to make another, he has no doubt made a different one but I don't know what, wait what about that snake Nagini, it would make sense as that would explain how I saw Nagini attack Mr Weasley, huh that's weird I can think much more clearly now, must have been an intelligence suppressing spell in there as well. Well let's take a look at what spells were on me.') With that thought Harry put his clothes back on and walked over to the piece of parchment and looked at the list 'at least a dozen obliviates from those times I found out and blabbed to someone, four loyalty spells to Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Dumbledore, a dozen different trackers, metamorph, intelligence, personality and power suppressors … and a horcrux? Must've been unintentional, as well as a potion to make my mind easier to invade, attraction potions, probably Ginny as I have been following her with my eyes lately, growth suppression potions, no wonder I shoot up during the holidays and remain stunted at school, I'm going to have to find a ritual to fix that, an obedience potion from Dumbledore, no wonder I could never say no to the old coot and supporter potions for those suppressors, must want to make sure that I stay under his thumb. All in all after what I just remembered the only thing that was surprising was that horcrux, speaking of which.' Harry summoned the diamonds that contained the spells and noticed one had a pulsating glow, almost like a heartbeat ('must be the horcrux'). He shifted the other spells from the horcrux to the plain diamonds then destroyed the horcrux with fiendfyre while having it hover in midair, cancelling the fiendfyre when the horcrux was destroyed, he then asked for a door to the ROR storage room, got the diadem and gave it the same treatment ('3 pieces down 5 to go'). When that was taken care of he took the diamonds with the spells in the storage room then transferred the spells to various items in there, dismissed the diamonds, then he went back to the ritual room and closed the door ('there that way he won't know how I removed the spells when he does find out as that storage room has apparently been very popular over the centuries and he'll think that I just stashed them there').
"There, now I have about 3 hours left until everyone wakes up and about 2 hours on top of that before anyone stars looking for me, so lets see if I can do anything about fixing all the damage that has been done to my body over the years, as soon as he said that he noticed that a different book was on the stand open at a specific page. 'Hmmm let's see here Body Reconstruction Ritual, used for victims of lost limbs, long term malnutrition, and heavy scarring, apparently it takes my mind, soul, and magical core out of my body, destroys that body and builds me a new one which is in the best condition that I can get with my DNA, that takes care of my physical condition problems nicely, says here the ritual activation takes about 5 mins, the process takes about 25 mins and it takes about an hour to an hour and a half for the magic mind and soul to acclimatise to the new body switching on the senses one at a time which has the lovely side-effect of making them sharper then they would normally be, hope this takes care of my eyesight problems.' Harry then set out to do the ritual which took about 30 mins to set up as it was far more complex then the last one as it required 2 overlapping pentagrams with a rat for sacrifice, candle and a rune representing each element (fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, ice, wood, steel, light and darkness) at each point, plus runes cut into his skin on his chest, feet, hands and forehead with the silver ritual dagger plus a gold chalice full of his blood on top of his chest as he lay down in the centre, again naked. 'Hope this works or I'm screwed,' Harry thought as he started to chant, not missing a syllable which was impressive as it was 5 min long. As Harry finished the last line he felt a tugging sensation, having expected it he went along then watched from above as for the next 25 mins his body was incinerated then slowly reconstructed, first the bones, then the muscular system, then the organs, then the skin, at which point the body started breathing as Harry was slowly absorbed into it, over the next hour and a half Harry was in excruciating pain as his mind, soul and magic fused with his body and his senses came back one at a time, the last of which was taste. As Harry slowly pushed himself up on his elbows he took a look around and realised he had perfect vision ('Alright'), as he slowly explored his new body the first thing he realised was that he was hairless, he quickly used his metamorph abilities to change that ('ok eyelashes, done, eyebrows, done, head hair, done, pubic hair, done, arm and leg hair, done'), when that was done he got back to exploring, he had an athlete's build, designed more for speed, flexibility and reflexes then brute strength he was about 5'10" not quite as tall as Ron who was 6' at the moment but better then the 5'6" he used to be, his bones were seemingly far harder then they used to be and his muscles felt like liquid steel, he was also far, ahem, larger then he used to be. He quickly used his metamorph abilities to take on his old appearance reasoning that he had to stay this way until busted out of Privet Dr and might as well get in some practice as he hadn't done any metamorphing since he was eight when it was suppressed. He put his clothes back on and wondered what else he should go for, 'if I remember right for things like a magical core expansion you would have to sacrifice something far large then a rat, probably something from your own body, hmmm I wonder if there is an animagus ritual' just as he thought that a new book appeared on the pedestal, this one was far thinner then the others and seemed to focus on solely animagi, apparently natural animagi used to use this set of three rituals which took approx 10 days between second and third and those that weren't natural animagi had to force it through potions and practice which could take years which was the common method used today, if you were a natural the first ritual would show you your form which if it works you could then use the second ritual to start the fusion process allowing all instincts and any powers, if magical, to be available to both forms, though they wouldn't be available until after the fusion process had completed and the finalisation ritual had been done approx 10 days later (' that'll give me plenty of time to practice any powers'), his decision made he did the first ritual which revealed his form to be a Hellhound a gigantic black dog with green slit eyes and flames , in this case dark emerald green, coming from its spine and paws, its abilities are being able to take in incorporeal form made of black smoke and can fly in that form(think the death eaters ability in the DOM in the OOTP movie) , able to summon and control its flames to the point of making shields and weapons of solid flame, and able to teleport to any place in line of sight or that he could visualise (looks and sounds like Nightcrawler's Bamfing), needless to say he was downright giddy at having such a form as anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards weren't able to stop him so that was a definite bonus, he did the second ritual quickly and realised that he would have to make an appearance soon or risk people coming to look for him, he checked his appearance and determined he looked same as he used to, but made sure that his eyes were dull and he looked like he was downright depressed, it would be better if they didn't see the determination in his eyes lest Dumbledore finds out just how much of his plan had failed, he decided to eat in the kitchens from now on as he knew Dobby would warn him if it were the house elves drugging his food.
--
Harry left the ROR and headed to the kitchens to grab some breakfast, having a chat with the overly excitable house-elf then went out to the lake to skip some stones, as he did so he thought about Sirius and wondered if the Marauder would be proud of what he was doing or worried, he had no doubts that Sirius would have been on his side, he had lost count of the number of times that the mutt had told him how annoyed he was with Dumbledore, pity he couldn't trust Remus though, but he was too far into Dumbledore's dept, even if he didn't always agree with him Remus would've had to go along because of his dept, same with Hagrid. Speak of the devil.
"Hello 'Arry, how yeh holdin up?" Hagrid asked as he walked up to him then sat down on the pebbly beach next to him.
(Sigh) "I'm better then I was Hagrid, but I'm nowhere near fully healed yet, it's probably going to take a while before the nightmares settle down, I'm not taking the whole blame this time like I did with Cedric last year, but I certainly carry a good portion of it and its going to take a while before I can let that go. We got to know each other pretty well during the Christmas break, I told him things that I never told Ron and Hermione and he told me stories of the Marauder days and of my parents when they got married things like that, he heh he even told the story of how my parents got together in the first place. You remember how until then even though Dad loved Mom they were always at each others throats and it took them duelling in the corridor and putting both of them hospital wing to force them to talk civilly towards the other and once they did that they found they had a lot in common, and they were found snogging in a broom closet the next day."
"Hah, aye I remember tha alrigh, especially since it was me who found em in the firs place." They both had a good chuckle at that. "Yeh'll be alrigh Arry, it'll take a while, no doubt's there, bu yeh'll be alrigh. Sirius was a good bloke, we're all gonna miss im, bu wha yeh gotta remember is tha he wouldn wan us mopin about im not bein around no more, e'd wan yeh to remember the good times. Oh by the way I got somethin for yeh, Sirius would've wanted yeh to have it, com on." Hagrid got up and walked over to his hut with Harry following and went around the back of his hut to find a large object covered by a tarp, by its rough shape Harry had a good idea as to what it was, and sure enough.
"Sirius' motorbike," Harry said with awe as it was uncovered, it was a beautiful black Harley Davidson, it was in perfect condition considering it hadn't been used in a while.
"Yep, he even got Arthur to add a few features, ere ave a look for yerself." Turns out that Mr Weasley had got the bike running on a magically charged quartz crystal ('won't ever have to buy fuel then'), a silencer and an invisibility booster ("Noone'll kno tha yer there unless yeh run into em"), a colour changing spell ('cool so I can change the paint job to make it look how I want it to look like, I'll do that later'), a wand tap activated shrinking spell ('Always useful'), and a permanent unbreakable charm on it ("yeh can't even scratch it, I doubt Grawp would be able to do any damage").
"Thanks for this Hagrid, you don't know how much it means to me." Harry said as he shrunk the bike and put it in his pocket.
"Its alrigh Arry, I remember how much of a wreck I was when my dad died, it's the leas I coulda done. Oh by the way yer friends were out here earlier lookin for yeh, said they'd most likely be in the common room, the great hall or the library if yeh wanted to meet up with em, Ron was complainin about not being able to find you on some sorta map, yeh wouldn't know what e was talking bout would yeh?" Hagrid asked
'They obviously have no problems with going through my belongings' "The Marauders made a map of Hogwarts in their time here only to have it confiscated by Filch in their 7th year, he was never able to find out how to turn it on so he didn't know what he had, Fred and George nicked it in their 2nd year, figured out how to work it and gave it to me in my 3rd year. Basically it's a map of Hogwarts detailing everyone in it exactly where they are, it also is able to access the password to the password activated areas, the only places I know of that aren't on the map are the chamber of secrets and the room of requirement, I was in the ROR so that's why I wasn't on the map. (sigh) I'd better get going before they send out some search parties then, I swear that lot are getting more paranoid then Moody, though considering the fiasco at the DOM a few days ago I can understand it somewhat, damn annoying though. See ya Hagrid."
"See yeh Arry"
--
Not much else happened over the next 3 weeks other then the Finalisation ritual and practicing to control his animagus abilities, and when he got his abilities down he got a book on ocllumency from the ROR and got to studying on it, he actually got quite proficient at it using a shield of green flames as an outer defence with unimportant memories outside it and important memories inside it and attaching shadows to all of his important memories so that when someone tried to clear the shadow they move the important memories aside too, a positive side effect of that was no more nightmares, he also did a little research into magical theory, he had a theory of his own after reviewing the fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore and wanted to confirm it, which he did ('apparently magic is all about intent, the wand movements and words are all to force magic to work in the way the caster wants it to, it is far more natural and in some cases more powerful to merely visualise the effects you want and intend for them to happen'). Harry pretended that he was depressed and as such avoided his "friends" as much as possible, though when they were forced together he never showed any aggression and acted like they weren't using him, which was incredibly hard as after the finalisation ritual Harry was able to tell when people were lying to him by listening to their heartbeat, which thanks to increased senses he was able to do with anyone in an 8m radius, he also noticed that Dumbledore still wouldn't look him directly in the eyes though this time he knew why ('must think I'm becoming part Voldemort and doesn't want to risk the chance of a legilimency attack from Tom, well all the better as my shields are still new and I wouldn't want to test them against Dumbledore just yet').
As Harry sat in the compartment on the train on the way back to London he thought over what had happened in the past three weeks he realised he had never felt freedom like this before, not even on his broom or more recently his bike ('I really like the green flame patterns I used along the sides, especially since everything else is black making it look like a metal version of my Hellhound form'), even though he had never felt more alone, 'everyone that I once trusted can no longer be trusted and I don't want to risk being betrayed by anyone else, all my family is dead and gone, (sigh) I don't exactly have a lot to live for here in Britain, but then that was Dumbledore's plan wasn't it, to wear down my will to live to the point where I'll gladly be his little Martyr, hate to say it but I'm starting to think that it wouldn't be such a bad thing, if the looks Tonks was sending Remus' way were any indication he'll be well taken care of, the Weasleys -Ron and Ginny might be sad for a while but they'll get over it, Hagrid will take it hard no doubt be he's a survivor, I'm not really close to anyone else, and I don't intend to be until Voldemort's dead, anyone I get close to will become targets for Dumbledore and Voldemort, and Dumbledore won't stop interfering in my life until I'm of no more use to him. I won't let Dumbledore take advantage of such an eventuality, but I really don't care whether or not I live past the final battle, and even if I do live I'm not staying here in Britain, I'll head to America or Australia or maybe one of those little island communities, somewhere where people don't know about Harry Bloody Potter, maybe then I can start over, no Voldemort no Dumbledore no manipulations no war. Pfft yeah right I'm Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, lucky in a fight but unlucky in life, most likely the only peace I'll ever find is that is that of the grave, it is a nice dream though.' Harry was brought out of his thoughts by Hermione saying that they had arrived at the platform, after getting his belongings and sending Hedwig to fly to Privet Dr Harry went through the barrier only to see a sight that three weeks ago he would not have expected, he knew better now though (either they're here as guards to Privet, unlikely but possible, or Dumbledore put it in their heads to threaten the Dursleys which if I know Vernon will only make them treat me worse, probably, damn').
(AN; the material outside of brackets is form pages 764-766 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which I do not own) There was Mad-Eye Moody, looking quite as sinister with his bowler hat pulled low over his magical eye as he would have done without it, his gnarled hands clutching a long staff, his body wrapped in a voluminous travelling cloak. Tonks stood just behind him, her bright bubble-gum-pink hair gleaming in the sunlight filtering through the dirty glass of the station ceiling, wearing heavily patched jeans and a T-shirt bearing the legend The Weird Sisters. Next to Tonks was Lupin, his face pale, his hair greying, a long and threadbare overcoat covering a shabby jumper and trousers. At the front of the group stood Mr and Mrs Weasley, dressed in their Muggle best, and Fred and George, who were both wearing brand-new jackets in some lurid green, scaly material.
"Ron, Ginny!" called Mrs Weasley, hurrying forwards and hugging her children tightly. ('See Ron, you wave what I will never have again, a mother's love') "Oh and Harry dear - how are you?"
"Fine," lied Harry, as she pulled him into a tight embrace. Over her shoulder he saw Ron goggling at the twins' new clothes.
"What are they supposed to be?" he asked, pointing at the jackets. ('Jealous prat')
"Finest Dragonskin, little bro," said Fred, giving the zip a little tweak. "Business is booming and we thought we'd treat ourselves." ('good to hear they're doing so well')
"Hello, Harry," said Lupin with a slight smile, "we thought we might have a little chat with your aunt and uncle before letting them take you home." ('he doesn't blame me, thank god')
"I dunno if that's a good idea," said Harry at once. ('yeah I don't think it's a good idea, do you have any idea how hard you're about to make my life, or at least you would be if I weren't a natural animagus')
"Oh, I think it is," growled Moody, who had limped a little closer. "That'll be them will it Potter?" ('of coarse no one listens to the kid')
He pointed his thumb over his shoulder; his magical eye was evidently peering through the back of his head and his bowler hat. Harry leaned over an inch or so to the left to see where Mad-eye was pointing and there, sure enough, were the three Dursleys, who looked positively appalled to see Harry's reception committee. ('bloody hell these a good people, most of them anyway, and you lot are treating them like lepers')
"Ah, Harry!" said Mr Weasley, turning from Hermione's parents, who he had just greeted enthusiastically, and who were now taking it in turns to hug Hermione. "Well - shall we do this then?"
"Yeah, I reckon so, Arthur," said Moody
He and Mr Weasley took the lead across the station towards the place where the Dursleys stood, apparently rooted to the spot. Hermione disengaged herself gently from her mother to join the group.
"Good afternoon," said Mr. Weasley pleasantly to Uncle Vernon, coming to a halt right in front of him. "You might remember me, my name's Arthur Weasley."
As Mr. Weasley had single handedly demolished most of the Dursleys' living room two years previously, Harry would have been very surprised if Uncle Vernon had forgotten him. Sure enough, Uncle Vernon turned a deeper shade of puce and glared at Mr. Weasley, but chose not to say anything, partly, perhaps, because the Dursleys were outnumbered two to one. Aunt Petunia looked both frightened and embarrassed. She kept glancing around, as though terrified somebody she knew would see her in such company. Dudley, meanwhile, seemed to be trying to look small and insignificant, a feat at which he was failing extravagantly.
"We thought we'd just have a few words with you about Harry," said Mr. Weasley, still smiling.
"Yeah," growled Moody. "About how he's treaded when he's at your place." ('really bad choice of words')
Uncle Vernon's moustache seemed to bristle with indignation. Possibly because the bowler hat gave him the entirely mistaken impression that he was dealing with a kindred spirit, he addressed himself to Moody.
"I am not aware that it is any of your business what goes on in my house – "
"I expect what you're not aware of would fill several books, Dursley," growled Moody.
"Anyway, that's not the point," interjected Tonks, whose pink hair seemed to offend Aunt Petunia more than all the rest put together, for she closed her eyes rather than look at her. "The point is, if we find out you've been horrible to Harry – " ('Geez Tonks couldn't you have picked a different hair colour are you trying to get me killed')
"-And make no mistake, we'll hear about it," added Lupin pleasantly.
"Yes," said Mr. Weasley, "even if you won't let Harry use the fellytone – "
"Telephone," whispered Hermione.
"Yeah, if we get any hint that Potter's been mistreated in any way, you'll have us to answer to," said Moody.
Uncle Vernon swelled ominously. His sense of outrage seemed to outweigh even his fear of this bunch of oddballs.
"Are you threatening me, sir?" he said, so loudly that passers-by actually turned to stare.
"Yes, I am," said Mad-Eye, who seemed rather pleased that Uncle Vernon had grasped this fact so quickly.
"And do I look like the kind of man who can be intimidated?" barked Uncle Vernon.
"Well…" ('here it comes') said Moody, pushing back his bowler hat to reveal his sinisterly revolving magical eye. Uncle Vernon leapt backward in horror and collided painfully with a luggage trolley. "Yes, I'd have to say you do, Dursley."
He turned away from Uncle Vernon to survey Harry.
"So, Potter… give us a shout if you need us. If we don't hear from you for three days in a row, we'll send someone along…."
Aunt Petunia whimpered piteously. It could not have been plainer that she was thinking of what the neighbours would say if they caught sight of these people marching up the garden path.
"'Bye, then, Potter," said Moody, grasping Harry's shoulder for a moment with a gnarled hand.
"Take care, Harry," said Lupin quietly. "Keep in touch."
"Harry, we'll have you away from there as soon as we can," Mrs. Weasley whispered, hugging him again.
"We'll see you soon, mate," said Ron anxiously, shaking Harry's hand. ('Bastard, you won't give me a second thought')
"Really soon, Harry," said Hermione earnestly. "We promise." ('Don't make promises you have no intention of keeping')
Harry nodded. He somehow could not find words to tell them what it meant to him, to see them all ranged there, on his side. Instead he smiled, raised a hand in farewell, turned around, and led the way out of the station toward the sunlit street, with Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley hurrying along in his wake. ('even though they just threw me to the wolves it is nice to see how many people actually appreciate me, were it not for Dumbledore and his meddling the twins, Remus, Tonks, Mr and Mrs Weasley and Moody would surely fight on my side. But, as it is, this is the end of the boy-who-lived and the beginning of a new hero, a lone wolf, powers born of darkness and yet a guardian against evil, betrayed by those he had considered friends, and too much of a target to make new ones, I will need allies but that can wait I have supplies to gather, training to do, and a reputation to build, beware Tom Marvolo Riddle, for next time we meet I will meet you as an equal, I am destined to be either your victim or your executioner. Let the war between Lord Voldemort, last of the Slytherin Line and The Hell Hound, chosen of Prophecy begin.')