The Fright of Days
Chapter One
Mr. Vernon Dursley hated Grumpig. He also loaded Escavalier, Skuntank, and Pachirisu, but Grumpig gave him particular disgust and caused him to want to kick a Tauros till it was full of lesions and blisters on its calves.
He worked for a company called Team Shorelet's Bandwagons, and he packaged Excadrill to be sent to the people on Panem to help them with gardening. Occasssionally he got an order form the Southern Isles near Norway. That made him pleased. But usally he wasn't happy if he didn't ave 152 people to yell at in the packing warehouse.
The number 152 meant a lot to Mr. Dursley. It represented the number of Pokemon native to Kanto. All of them, including the second clone of that elusive pink Jade-of-all-trades, Mew.
Jade-of-all-Trades was an old phrase from long before Vernon's day. It had something to do with an extraordinary girl who became a marvelous young woman. Whoever she was…
The thing Vernon didn't like seeing was the Espurr looking at a map it must've stolen from a Cartographer. Espurr could call things to them Psychically. In some ways, Vernon thought that Pokemon were as horrendous as wizards. Ugh. Wizards! You couldn't walk in the streets without bumping shoulders with half a dozen of them.
And today it was worse than usual. They were out in droves, wearing funny-colored robes, with a handsome blond man in lilac waving at Vernon, as if he thought they could be friends! What did that bloke think he was, Mahatma Gandhi?
Vernon was unnerved for more reasons than just hordes of people and a Beedrill that came within six inches from stinging his arm, ripping right through skin and bone and injecting him with venom. He had heard that the wizard that others called You-Know-Who had been defeated. The Prime Minister had come on national television with his Mankey to warn people that wizards would be paradaing that day, "Because You-Know-Who is no more." That was all dandy for wizards, but what bothered Vernon was that he heard people saying that James and Lily Potter and had been murdered. This was a doubleworry because a Pumpkaboo was supposed to have been guarding their home. :They were killed on Halloween night, when Pumpkaboo are supposed to be at their greatest strength.
Oh, Vernon didn't care that the Potters were dead. The fewer wizards alive, the better. But they had a brat called Henry or Harvey or something, and Vernon was worried that the boy would be foisted upon him, somehow. It didn't seem likely. But Vernon kept his fingers crossed, even as he stuffed a pair of Excadrill into a crate…
He drove home at the usual time, and that Espurr was still there. Kicking at it as he went toward the door, he went inside to a bottle of brandy and quaffed all its contents. Then he settled into an armchair and hoped that his fears were just paranoia.
The Espurr outside turned into a woman with horn-rimmed glasses. She tapped her foot against the driveway as the sun set. Still hours went by. And at last the streetlamps started going out.
But no matter what the man with long, silver hair thought, there was no way to put out the fire the Lampent nearby gave off.
"Hello, Minerva," said the elderly gentleman.
"Albus, I heard that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is gone. Is this a certainty?"
"Yes, Minerva, I dare say it is. Though I think a Clauncher is watching us. Stand back."
The old man, Albus Dumbledore by name, pointed with his wand and said, "UnveiloPokemagius."
There was a blue claw, which quickly turned into a white arm. A man with no nose lay on the earth there. One of his legs was missing too, replaced with a wooden rod.
"Evening, Albus," said the man.
"Alastor. It's not wise to eavesdrop."
"Don't I know it," said Alastor.
"Well, stand up like a good man so we can discuss Harry Potter coming into the care of his aunt and uncle."
"Er, Albus…you don't mean the people who live in that house there, do you?" Minerva asked. "They're not sane. I saw the little boy step on a Rattat's tail and laugh. And the mother just watched without scolding him or anything. Harry Potter will be treated very negligently if he was raised here."
"This is the only family's he's got left, Minerva. And so here he must stay."
There was a roar of an engine followed by a squawk of Spearow scrambling away from the cacophonous emissions of a rather large flying motorcycle, which landed haphazardly near them. Out of it stepped a giant man who was near twelve feet tall and three times as broad. He pulled a basket out of the sidecar of the motorcycle, where a very young boy was dozing, a plush Bunneary in his arms.
"He'll be a fine lad," Moody said. "Funny that the Dark Lord was taken out by an infant."
A Dunsparace crawled out of the motorcycle toward the basket, peering at the infant over the shoulder of the giant, who was called Rubeus Hagrid.
"Isn't it dangerous for Pokemon to be near him this soon?" McGonagell asked.
"Dunsparace won't hurt a Beautifly, let alone a baby boy," Hagrid said.
"Well, just hand him to me, Hagrid," said Dumbledore, "and I'll be sure he gets found by his new caretakers."
"Couldn't I raise him?" Hagrid asked. "I'd treat him right, yer know I would."
"I don't doubt that, Hagrid. But he must live here. It's only right."
The giant reluctantly handed the basket over. Dunsparce leaped on the ground and followed Dumbledore with its eyes.
"It'll be all right," McGonagell said. "At least, it'd better be."
"They'll watch over and care for Harry," Dumbledore said.
"And what about You-Know-Who?" Alastor asked. "I wouldn't count on him being gone."
"He might return, and for that we must be prepared," said Dumbledore. "It couild be tomorrow, or a decade from now. But the likelihood of Voldemort being gone from us forever, is quite slim."
Hagrid, McGonagell, and Moody and shivered at the mention of the fearsome wizard's name. Dumbledore acted as if he didn't notice their intimidation. Being afraid of a name was only letting something eat at you that you could fight better if you put on a brave face. Which is what they had to do, even with the evidence that Voldemort had currently been dealt with by such extraordinary means.
Twenty minutes later, Dumbledore left the dozing infant on the doorstep of Number Four, Privet Drive, with a note telling the folks there that they'd been blessed with the p[leasure of raising their nephew. Dunsparce continued to watch over the baby, though when the first rays of sunlight poured through in the morning, it dispersed to the garden to dig holes in the lot where Petunia kept her hydrangeas. And then three hours later, when Aunt Petunia came to put out milk for the Purrloin that often came near the Dursley's house, she found the infant, and very disgruntledly brought him in. His cousin Dudley kicked him as a means of greeting, and pinched him several tijmes in succession. Aunt Petunia did nothing to prevent this. And then Dudley did a most unfriendly thing…he ripped off the head of the Bunneary plush, letting Harry know that in future, all interactions between them would be of that nature, that of bully and victim, Dudley existing to vanquish any possible light Harry could find in this world, as soon as he discovered that anything at all could bring his cousin happiness.