Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or any recognizable characters. They belong to J.K. Rowling.
Summary: This is AU where Harry actually ended up getting expelled during the whole DA incident during fifth year. So now he's back to living with the Dursleys full time, trying to come to terms with his own personal worst case scenario come true. But some strange new neighbors show up and Harry questions whether or not his expulsion was really the end of the world -- maybe just the beginning of a new one.
Wounds of the Heart
Chapter 1: Another Way of Doing Things
"Hello." Harry looked up to see a girl around his age watching him curiously from a few feet away. She motioned towards the swing next to him. "Can I sit?" Harry shrugged, not really caring -- about anything really. The girl hesitated a moment before sitting quickly and decisively beside him.
"Everyone's been telling me not to talk to you." she said clearly, carefully, "They said that you're dangerous, that you go to that St. Brutus's school, and you cause trouble. Your family came by the day after we came here to talk to my parents about you. Your aunt and uncle, right?" Harry nodded, still not quite understanding what she was on about. "Well it was them that told us to stay away from you."
"So why don't you?" Harry asked, getting impatient.
"I don't know." she murmured, mostly to herself it seemed. She waited a while before going on, "I guess, I just don't think it's right. The way they spoke of you, your aunt and uncle I mean. They sounded like..." she frowned "... like it gave them satisfaction to make you out to be some criminal, bully or whatever." Harry stared down at his feet, confused. All his life, no one had ever questioned the Dursleys' judgement of him; all of them seemed content to take their word for it and never dig deeper, never bother to actually get to know him. It was beyond strange to have this muggle girl come in to try and change things.
"So I thought -- and my parents agreed with me -- that it wouldn't be right to make judgments so easily. I don't think anybody here really knows you at all, and I suppose that someone should. I mean, you don't seem dangerous to me -- just a little sad maybe." Harry turned and looked at her, really looked, for the first time. Her rich, chocolate brown hair cascaded down her shoulders in smooth waves and wide ringlets, long bangs falling over amber colored eyes.
"What's your name?" he asked at last. She smiled at him and said, "Arianna Niall, and you're Harry?"
"Yeah -- Harry Potter. That's me."
"You really miss it, don't you." She didn't make the words sound like a question, watching him with, not sympathy, but understanding.
"Miss what?"
"The magic school you used to go to." Harry stared.
"So you're a witch then?" he asked uncertainly.
"I don't think I'm the kind of witch you're thinking of."
"Were you expelled too?"
"Not me. My great-great-great grandmother was though, quite a while ago. No one in my family has been part of the wizarding world since."
Harry didn't know what to make of this new information, it made no sense. "So, what, do you just not use magic then?" Arianna didn't answer him, just stared and held the silence for a while.
"You hungry?" she asked after a few minutes. Harry looked around and saw that the sun was much higher in the sky than it was when he had first sat down in the park. His stomach gave an angry rumble.
"I guess I am. I'd better get home..."
"Don't be silly! You can eat at my house -- my parents will want to meet you."
"Don't worry about it, I'll -- " But Arianna had already grabbed him by the arm and was towing him out of the park and down the street. She lived just a couple houses away from Number 4. Arianna burst into the house and dragged Harry with her enthusiastically. A woman stood in the kitchen chopping vegetables at the sink. She glanced up and smiled warmly upon their entry.
"So you're Harry. Why don't you make yourself comfortable while I finish cooking these up."
"Er... look, I really should -- " but Harry faultered at the look Arianna's mother gave him just then, full of warmth and... something else that he couldn't quite decipher. She seemed so utterly pleasant and welcoming -- it was bizzare. And it reminded him of Mrs. Weasley, which reminded him of Ron, which reminded him of Ron, Hermione, and him spending the evenings in the common room together while Hermione read through their essays, and -- no! He couldn't think about that, just couldn't. Those memories were over!
"You alright, Harry?" Arianna asked, watching him with those eyes.
"Yeah, 'm fine. I should get home: the Dursleys." Mrs. Niall looked up at him sharply, startling him a little.
"Their son is allowed to roam around the neighborhood freely enough, whenever he wants. Why should you be any different?"
"I dunno, really, but I -- "
"Nonsense! I'm cooking you a nice lunch here, and the polite thing to do would be to eat it." She smiled at him jokingly and resumed her chopping. "Arianna, could you get the meat cooking for me, dear?"
"Sure, Mum." she sighed, walking around to the stove. "Harry, you can do whatever you want -- relax, read, help, whatever. Lunch'll be ready in a bit."
"I'll help," Harry said quickly, "What do you need me to do?"
Mrs. Niall set them about cooking and setting the table, pausing in her work only when Arianna's father walked in to give the man a peck on the cheek. Harry felt infinitely more comfortable like this, cooking, chopping, cleaning... that all was second nature, and he needed to be doing something with his hands anyway.
"So you're Harry, aren't you lad?" Mr. Niall asked suddenly from the table.
"Er, yeah, I am." Strange little day this was turning out to be. Apparently, the new neighbors had conspired to bring him over to their house for lunch so they could get to know him, based purely on what his aunt and uncle had said about him. Harry wondered how Uncle Vernon would react to the family once he knew how badly his little plan had turned out: Say a few nasty things about his useless, freakish nephew and they'd ignore him like the rest of the neighborhood -- not exactly.
"Seth, I really wish you wouldn't take that thing out. You know how I feel about that sort of magic." Mrs. Niall chided tiredly. The issue had apparently come up before.
"Miranda, it's just a wand! You knew I was a wizard when you married me and I, in turn, accepted your... way of doing things. We have a guest, for Christ's sake!" Mrs. Niall looked around at Harry who had frozen in the act of rinsing off some lettuce. What on earth were they talking about? There wasn't any other 'way of doing things' was there? Why else would wizards bother with wands if they didn't need them?
But Harry still couldn't suppress the bubble of hope that grew inside his chest.