"Fancy seeing you here Professor McGonagall," Albus Dumbledore called out as he looked towards a small black cat that sat on the wall overlooking number 4 Privet Drive.
Of course the cat didn't stay a cat for long, there was no way she would when he was literally talking to her in the middle of a perfectly normal street halfway through the night.
Then again, as a wizard it really didn't matter that much to him that he was not welcome in this part of the city, he simply went wherever he wanted under notice-me-not charms… not that it would do much good given how many people had been celebrating what had happened not that long ago.
"How did you know it was me?" Minerva McGonagall was one of the strictest and most focused witches he had ever seen… not that it was a bad thing, it simply made her quite the disciplinarian at Hogwarts.
"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly," he made the statement in a joking manner however the response he got in return was not what he was expecting.
"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," he almost blinked at that, he had not expected her to do such a thing, especially not at this point in time.
"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here," it wasn't a lie either, pretty much every wizard in Britain was celebrating the events that had occurred just a short day ago.
"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she definitely sounded unhappy, "you'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no... even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news, I heard it, flocks of owls… shooting stars…. Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent… I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle, he never had much sense."
Her tirade eventually ended and he honestly understood exactly what she was saying and where she was coming from… too many people were close to breaking the statute of secrecy as it was… however…
"You can't blame them," he said as gently as he could, hoping to calm the younger woman down a little, "we've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."
"I know that," she still sounded irritated, "but that's no reason to lose our heads. People are downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumours."
It was clear from the way she was looking at him that she was waiting for him to say something, however he decided instead to keep quiet.
"A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really hasgone, Dumbledore?" she sounded almost desperate and he understood why.
"It certainly seems so," he admitted, though he also left his dark suspicions to himself, "we have much to be thankful for… would you care for a Sherbet Lemon?"
"A what?" she sounded confused and he internally smiled at the fact his ploy of diverting her attention had worked so easily.
"A Sherbet Lemon. They're a kind of muggle sweet I'm rather fond of," he admitted, honestly he simply loved sweets in general, though the lemon ones were always his favourites.
"No thank you," her voice was cold, then again, she was always all business, sometimes he wished she would learn how to relax a little, "as I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone-"
She didn't get to finish as he interrupted.
"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name?" he was honestly irritated by every ones fear of using the man's name, it wasn't like the name was tabooed… honestly doing that would be pointless in the end, as everyone that wasn't a Death Eater was an enemy of the very person they were afraid of saying the name of, "all this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense, for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name, 'Voldemort'," he chose to ignore her flinch at his mention of the name as he unstuck a couple of Sherbet Lemons from their wrappers, "it all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who', I have never seen the reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."
"I know you haven't but you're different," oh here it comes… "everyone knows you're the only one You-Know-oh all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."
"You flatter me," he admitted, "Voldemort had powers I will never have," or want for that matter.
"Only because you're too.. well, noble to use them," once again she spoke of him with such high praises and he found himself growing slight exasperated, though he wouldn't show it.
"It's lucky it's dark, I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs," he was certainly joking but then again, it was one way of stopping her from continuing to praise him meaninglessly.
"The owls are nothing to the rumours that are flying around," he knew where this was going, "you know what everyone's saying? About why he disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"
Of course he knew, he had been studying everything he could since the incident after all. However he wasn't going to say anything yet.
"What they're saying," she proceeded to try and press further, "is that last night, Voldemort turned up at Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters… the rumour is that Lily and James are… are… that they're dead."
He bowed his head, knowing just how heartbroken it would make her to know that two of her favourite students of all time were no longer among the living.
"Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… oh Albus…" he proceeded to pat her on the shoulder, unfortunately they had been in the middle of a war and casualties were to be expected, it was just such a shame that such wonderful people had to perish so early.
"I know, I know," it was times like this that he truly felt his age.
Her voice trembled but her words carried through anyway, "that's not all, they're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, but… he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke… and that's why he's gone."
He nodded, knowing that even he wasn't completely sure what happened.
"It's… it's true?" she faltered at the revelation, then again, he couldn't blame her, "after all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"
"We can only guess, we may never know," it was true as well, while he had a couple of guesses, it didn't change the fact that he had a working theory that was supported by the evidence.
Eventually though, he pulled out his favourite watch, sure it needed an in depth knowledge of astronomy to understand but he had plenty of that.
"Hagrid's late," he muttered upon noting the time, "I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"
He wasn't surprised, Hagrid had never been good at keeping his mouth closed.
"Yes," she admitted, simply confirming his beliefs, "and I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here of all places?"
"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle," he stated easily.
"You don't mean… you can'tmean the people who live here?" she sounded outraged at his claim, "Dumbledore, you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son… I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter, come and live here!"
He felt his mind conflict. He knew that Harry needed to be kept out of the spot light, but also that he needed to stay under blood wards if he wanted the boy to be truly safe.
Which meant there was another option… however that option would have its own issue.
"There is one other option," he admitted, causing her to turn on him quickly.
"Then use that one! Don't leave him with those people!" she sounded rather passionate about that situation but then again, he understood her concern.
"The problem is that if we choose this other option… he may never come to Hogwarts," that seemed to freeze his deputy in her tracks, "in order to keep him safe from Voldemort's supporters, he needs to be kept under blood wards but there are only two adults that share his blood now."
"Then choose the other option!" she demanded and he knew he wouldn't have any more choice here.
In some respects he was both relieved that Minerva had been so stubborn about this, it meant she wasn't blindly following him just because of his reputation… however he needed Harry to study at Hogwarts so he could teach him everything he needed to defeat Voldemort when he inevitably returned.
But in the end, he would just have to be careful to explain enough of the situation for the other option to comply with his plans.
He just hoped she wasn't going to be too difficult.
XXX XXX XXX
Minegishi Rose had to admit that finding a baby on her doorstep was not one of the things she had ever expected to deal with… honestly it seemed like something out of a fantasy novel… which made her mind instantly jump to a single conclusion.
Those people that had taken her little sister had something to do with it.
It had been a while since she had last needed to speak or read English but she was more than capable of remembering her native tongue as she read the letter that explained everything to her.
By the end of it she found herself shedding tears at the knowledge she had been greeted by.
Her little sister was dead.
Lily was dead.
She found herself cursing these so called Wizards for dragging her into their war but in the end, what mattered right now was the fact that she was being lumbered with a fifteen month old child.
Honestly, she didn't mind, the kid was her little half-sister's son so he was family… plus he would be mostly out of the whole crying all night phase by now so that would mean her job wouldn't be interrupted by having to raise the kid.
"Rose-chan? What's wrong? What's going on?" her husband asked upon finally arriving at the table for breakfast and finding her with tears in her eyes and a baby at the table… but despite that she was still amused by how he still couldn't pronounce her name right.
"I just found out my youngest sister and her husband died a couple of days ago," she admitted, "this child is Harry, her son."
"Hari?" he sounded confused and she wondered if he was going to end up pronouncing the child's name incorrectly for the rest of his life as well… sure it was only a minor fault but it was still there to someone who was used to both languages, "who brought him here?"
Her expression must have soured given what she was going to be saying, she could tell by the look on her husband's face.
"A wizard," she spat out the word. Being Lily's big sister and one of her role models had meant that she hadn't suffered from the same divide that occurred between Lily and Petunia… however she was not happy at the fact the wizarding world and basically abducted Lily for most of her life and prevented her from interacting with… what was that word they used again? … oh yeah, muggles.
To top it off, she had now found out that her little sister had died because of these people's damned war and they didn't even have the decency of meeting her face to face to tell her the news, instead relaying it through a letter that could be summed up as 'your sister is dead, look after her son'.
Sometimes she just wanted these people to be discovered and shot for all the trouble they caused the average person.
"I see," her husband, Minegishi Takerou, responded calmly. Since he was married to someone that was related to a witch he was fully aware of the existence of magic despite being uninvolved in it just like her, "what do you plan on doing?"
"I'm going to see about getting time off to travel back to Britain for the funeral… after that, all I can really do is keep Harry safe," she admitted to the man she had ended up marrying.
And she did plan on keeping the toddler safe… because when the time came for him to go to a magic school, she would reject it, she would not allow him to get himself involved in the affairs of the very community that had caused her little sister's death.
"We'll need to tell Naoya," Takerou stated simply as he prepared some toast for the morning.
"I know," she wasn't looking forward to that, the young boy had only met Lily once but she had been one of the few people capable of having a conversation on the boy's level... honestly that boy was sometimes too smart for his own good.
But in the end, they had a child to take care of and Naoya would need to grow used to having his cousin live with them, because she sure as hell wasn't going to let the wizards have the boy back.
XXX XXX XXX
Rose couldn't stop the tears from falling at the funeral procession, she hadn't thought she would be attending her little sisters funeral… well, at least not for another several decades at least.
She was just happy that Naoya had accepted the young Harry as easily as he did.
In the end she was given the time off work to return to Britain and attend the funeral, though given how she didn't want Harry to step one foot on the same country as the people that had taken his mother from him, she chose to come alone, leaving Naoya and Takerou behind to make sure the boy was looked after properly.
However that didn't change the sense of hate she was currently feeling, a hate that manifested despite her grief due to the absence of her other sister and the stupid number of people wearing robes and carrying sticks that were attending the funeral.
Of course she knew that Lily and her husband lived in that world, but seeing them there was not what she wanted, not when it was their private war that got her sister killed.
In the end though, she held her tongue, she didn't let her anger boil over and she wasn't going to do something stupid like lash out at them… she knew they wouldn't consider what she said worth listening to, they were all bigots from what she had managed to hear from her sister before her death, even those who accepted non-magical people as people still thought of them as being stupid and inconsequential, with their reasoning for the secrecy surrounding their existence being that if 'muggles' ever found out about magic, they would look for a magical solution for everything.
She hated that view… it was that very view that had started the 'war' that had she only knew of now that one of her sisters was dead because of it.
Why couldn't they have informed the government and had military operations to deal with the terrorists that had caused so much trouble? Because they didn't think they were worth anything.
"Hello Rose," a voice cut in as the procession ended and she found herself having to stop herself from lashing out at the very person she knew had inspired her sister to take up arms against the magical terrorist, "I am sorry about what happened to your sister… she was an incredible person."
She had to bite her tongue to stop herself from pointing out that it was his fault she was dead in the first place.
"I know it is a lot to ask, however I do hope you can take care of Harry until it is time for him to come back to our world," she couldn't stop herself from snarling at that claim.
"Why?!" it wasn't normal for her to snap like that, however in her grief and anger it was only natural, "so you can lead him to his death too?!"
The shock that appeared on the old man's face was clear as the procession ground to a halt at her raised voice.
"Wh-what? Rose, please be reasonable," the old man asked but she found herself snarling at him as he tried to calm her down.
"Be reasonable?! Is it reasonable that you people keep normal people ignorant of your bloody wars?!" she probably would've felt bad about shouting at an old man like that, however she knew that this wasn't just some old man, but basically the modern Merlin so that discomfort did not manifest, "is it reasonable that my sister died because you people took her as a child?!"
She could see that he was shocked but she decided it was time to tell him the simple truth.
"I will not let Harry follow you to his death," she stated venomously, "I will notlet him get involved with you people... do you understand Albus Dumbledore?!"
He seemed to get over his shock after a couple of seconds before a disappointed expression adorned his face.
"I'm sorry Rose, but he has a role to fulfil here, so he will have to return," the old man claimed and she found her anger rising again as she grabbed the front of his robes and pulled him towards her.
"I… Don't… Care… he is my family and I will not let you take him, end of story!" and with that she pushed, knocking the old man back several steps, though he managed to regain his balance.
She ignored him and instead walked away from the gathering… she needed time alone to calm down… Takerou could have helped if he was there but she knew it was her choice to keep him in Nippon and looking after Harry despite knowing that this was a distinct possibility.
She just needed to calm down before her flight tomorrow, then everything would be better.
XXX XXX XXX
Naoya couldn't stop himself from smiling down at the one year old boy that his parents had introduced him to as his cousin Harry.
The kid was just over a year old, making him about seven years younger than him… honestly it was a dream come true for him, he had always wanted to get his little brother back after all.
"Dad, is he really going to be my brother?" he asked, knowing that the boy was what he had been searching for for so long and he wouldn't let anything come between them again.
"Yes, I'm just dealing with the paperwork now," he found himself smiling at that claim, everything was working out smoothly without him having to do anything, "when your mother gets home we will officially adopt him under our family name."
He felt his expression soften as he thought of that..
His little brother.
Minegishi Hari.
He would learn his realname soon enough, but for now, simply having the same last name would make the revelations easier for the younger boy to digest.
XXX XXX XXX
Minegishi Hari found himself shooting up right as that dream came to an end.
He knew it wasn't really a dream, the scream of a woman and a flash of green light… he knew those were the memories that plagued him from when he was one year old and saw his mother get murdered before his eyes.
It wasn't strange for this to happen, though at the same time it was also something that happened too often, just a couple of times a month now.
He also knew from experience that waking up like that would mean he wouldn't be capable of getting back to sleep anytime soon.
05:24
He released a sigh of exasperation as he noted the time, he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep before his usual time so he decided to just shake his head and make his way out of his bedroom and get some breakfast.
He was nearly silent as he snuck into the kitchen and pulled out a bowl of cereal and a glass for some orange juice, his aunt and uncle were more than happy to leave the things needed for such a breakfast within his reach… they knew that if he woke up from the memories he wouldn't be capable of getting back to sleep and they were more than sympathetic to his situation.
Time passed slowly as he ate his breakfast, knowing that his parents would probably wake up in about thirty minutes to half an hour for work… so he just waited.
"Good morning Hari-kun," he felt his mind relax as his uncle Takerou's voice called out, "the memories again?"
"Yeah," he admitted, he knew that some people might consider it embarrassing but his family was always supportive of him and never made fun of the fact he would sometimes wake up and be unable to get back to sleep.
The older man simply started to prepare his own breakfast of some toast and eggs with a cup of coffee, to prepare him to take on the day.
Originally he made it clear that he could wake him and his aunt up if he ever had the nightmares, however, in the end he found himself preferring to let them spend more time asleep, especially given everything they gave him.
"Are you going to be doing anything today?" it was the summer holidays and Hari found himself letting out a smile.
"Yeah, me, Atsuro and Yuzu were going to go to Shibuya with Naoya," he admitted with a smile.
Naoya was always taking care of him and helping him out even when he didn't ask him to, he was honestly the best 'brother' he could have asked for.
It didn't hurt that his two best friends liked him as well.
As for his friends… well, many people had the impression that there was something weird about the company he kept. He was the top of his class, the first person anyone picked when choosing teams for sports, he was tall compared to the other kids his age and also considered slightly mysterious.
The mysterious part was something he could probably stop, however sometimes he simply found himself hesitating over certain subjects, namely due to him knowing some things that other people generally didn't.
Like how he knew magic was real and practiced in hidden societies.
His friends however, were not the type that people like him usually spent lots of time around, what with Atsuro being the slacker that spent all his time playing video games and watching TV while Yuzu… well, she had some clear confidence issues and a hair-trigger temper concerning certain subjects.
In the end though, he simply found himself getting along with those two pretty easily, so he just ignored what everyone else thought and spent time with them.
Eventually though, his aunt Rose and Naoya finally woke up, he knew his aunt would have to go to work like his uncle, however Naoya was on holiday as well, so they would go to Shibuya once they were ready and had their meeting with Atsuro and Yuzu arranged.
"So Hari-kun, is there anything in particular you want today?" Naoya asked easily, earning a shake of his head.
"No, it's just fun to spend time with you, Atsuro and Yuzu," he responded easily, earning a small smile off his brother figure.
"Well, remember to tell me if you see anything you want," the boy that he was pretty sure was now eighteen years old stated easily.
"Yeah," he knew that Naoya wouldn't say no unless he absolutely couldn't do something but in the end, he didn't really feel the need to take advantage of that.
He soon found himself noting the sound of post dropping from the front door, noting that it sounded like something heavy had been delivered.
"I'll get it," he stated easily before heading to the front door and noting the pile of letters and a single parcel addressed to Naoya.
Though he would admit that the package was really strange given the number of zero's and one's that littered the front.
01001111 01110000 01100101 01101110 00100000 01001001 01101110
00100000 01010000 01110010 01101001 01110110 01100001 01110100 01100101
"Naoya, you've got a weird parcel," he stated as he returned to the table and gave the package to his cousin who looked at the object before getting up from his seat.
"Thank you Hari-kun, I'll take this to my room," the older boy stated before leaving the kitchen.
"Huh?" he shrugged off his cousin's strange behaviour, it wasn't the first time he had taken something to his room to open in private after all… what confused him was actually the letter that was addressed to him.
Or more specifically, his birth name.
That wasn't the only thing that stood out though, what really stood out was that it completely ignored the Japanese standards for addressing their letters.
He chose to open it… mainly because he had a sneaking suspicion of what it was about.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
He released an exasperated sigh upon reading the English letter. Since his aunt was English, he was raised to have a thorough grasp of the language, speaking and reading both it and Japanese fluently.
He had once asked how she came to live in Japan and she had told him that she was his mother's sister from a different mother and had travelled the world when she was younger and met his uncle when she visited the country… they exchanged contact information and the rest was history.
However the fact remained that both he and Naoya were fluent speakers of English and he currently had an English letter informing him he was accepted into Hogwarts.
He just wanted the letter to burst into flames, he tried to will it but clearly his accidental magic wasn't prepared to co-operate today and he found the letter being busy not burning.
"What's that you have?" his aunt asked with clear confusion as he put the letter down.
"Hogwarts," he spat out. He knew of the school of course, it was the very school that destroyed the relationship between his aunt Petunia and his mother, the school that had essentially indoctrinated his mother into dying for a society that kept looking down on others without the same ability they had.
And he wanted nothing to do with them.
"You have another letter," his uncle stated before passing him another letter, this one was pretty standard for a Japanese letter so he opened it…
Before willing it to burn and finding it not burning just like the Hogwarts letter.
"What is it?" uncle Takerou asked suspiciously.
"The Mahoutokoro School of Magic," he spat out that name just like he did the name of the British school… the Japanese magical society wasn't any better than the British after all.
He noted the way his aunt sank at that admission, clearly she knew this day was coming but was now having to steel herself for the inevitable representatives that would come to see him.
He honestly hoped she did like Ichigo from Bleach and kicked them in the face.
They would probably deserve it.
XXX XXX XXX
It was on Hari's eleventh birthday that he met his first wizard and he had to admit that his prediction of what they would be like was pretty much spot on.
Unfortunately they weren't kicked in the face.
"I'm sorry, did you just say you aren't letting him attend the school his parents wanted him to go to?" the strict looking woman named Minerva McGonagall (he would admit that he had trouble getting his head around that particular name) asked with a serious expression.
"That is correct," his aunt Rose stated firmly, "he is not going to be going to a school that doesn't function in proper society."
He could tell the… visitor, wasn't happy with that claim, however she appeared to simply bite down whatever issues she had and instead asked another question.
"And what does Harry have to say about that decision?" she turned to face him and he found himself narrowing his own eyes in response.
"If my magic had been more co-operative then that letter would've burned," he stated bluntly before noting his aunt face him with a look of chastisement on her face.
"Hari! You didn't really try to burn something in the house?!" he found himself looking away nervously at that question.
"Y-yeah…" he admitted to the crime, knowing that he was probably going to get a small punishment for risking setting the house on fire but he guessed he deserved it.
"Mr Potter!" the representative from Britain sounded outraged by his admittance.
"That isn't my name anymore," he stated firmly, causing the Scottish witch to blink in surprise, "my name is Minegishi Hari and I want nothing to do with you people."
His aunt never let him forget his old name but he had been officially adopted into the Minegishi family not even one month after he had been dropped off on their front door.
So he considered that his real name.
Of course the shock that appeared on the representative's face was clear to him.
"You can't just change your name like that!" she sounded incredibly offended, "the Potters are a long line of wizards and you are the last of them! You can't just ignore that history!"
"I told you, I want nothing to do with you people so your history means nothing to me," he stated bluntly.
"You heard him, he does not want to go to your school," it was clear that this British woman was still shocked but his aunt simply decided to give a simple command, "now, please leave."
"W-what?" once more the woman that he had heard normally looked incredibly stern seemed caught off guard.
"I said, please leave, Hari doesn't want to go to your school and you are not welcome here," he felt a small smile tug at his lips at his aunt's blunt statement.
"Isn't there any way I can change your mind?" the older woman asked, earning a shake of denial from his aunt, "I see… then I wish you well and pray you have a good life."
And with that, Minerva McGonagall left the building, clearly less than happy with the result.
"Now what was that about trying to burn the letters in the house?" and with that, Harry found himself releasing a sigh of defeat as he admitted to risking the house just to try and burn a couple of letters.
XXX XXX XXX
Hari dropped into his bed as the day ended… apparently the representative from the Mahoutokoro School of Magic also decided to arrive that very day.
The difference in his aunt's attitude between the two was rather staggering.
While she was outright hostile towards the Hogwarts staff, she was impersonal towards the teacher from the Japanese school… even going so far as to ask about private tutors that would allow him to have a wand and a magical education without being taken out of modern society.
It was pretty obvious to him that the representative didn't like that desire, however upon having the situation explained to them they softened slightly and accepted his aunts desire to both keep him away from their society but also knowledgeable of magic.
What with the way magical society had fractured her family before, killed her sister and was now likely trying to hunt him down to kill.
The representative had left to speak with the government office in charge of such things to see about arranging a tutor to teach him magic during the summer holidays.
Of course they hadn't returned yet but he didn't really care that much about how long it took.
So in the end, he simply let sleep take him for the night, knowing that he would have a trying time dealing with the magical society of Japan soon.
