DISCLAIMER: do i put this here? oh well, I DONT OWN HARRY POTTER and this is NOT FOR PROFIT :)
(A.N) By the way guys, how long do you think each chapter should be, because im flying blind at the moment, and any help would be great!
A firm hand shook Harry awake from his fretful sleep full of flying motorbikes and flashing green lights. His bright greens eyes flew open, glancing fearfully around. The old man who ran the bus was leaning over Harry, with a look of great disinterest on his face.
"Yeh might want teh wake up, child. We're almost at thee Leakeh Cauldron," he wheezed at Harry, before wobbling away, smashing into a sleepy woman as the bus turned a corner.
Harry sat up, gathering himself from his rest, and looked out the window. It was still night, and they were whizzing through the streets of London. Sitting up straight with anticipation, Harry looked out the window. He was immediately taken with how quickly the bus was moving. He'd never been on a bus before, but he was fairly certain the outside world should be more distinguishable then coloured blurs. No matter, he picked up his tattered school bad (Dudley's hand me down, of course), and put it on. This was Harry's first time in London, and he had high expectations. He had heard great things about the big city, and honestly, anything was better than the Dursleys. He now had a more detailed plan than his previous plan, and it was basically, find a nice looking shop, and ask for a place to stay in exchange for work. He could pretend he was older than he was, if they said he was too young.
A voice called out through the bus,
"Next stop: Leaky Cauldron."
Taking this as his cue to get up, Harry made his way to the front of the bus, falling over three times as the bus turned. Holding onto a metal bar, he held on for dear life, until the bus suddenly screeched to a halt, and he was flung into the plastic pane behind the driver's seat. Picking himself up again, he nodded self-consciously at the old man, who was laughing at him, and left through the open bus doors. As the doors closed behind him, he could hear the man's laughing turn into coughing, and the bus drive away. The bus had dropped him off in front of what looked like a stingy old pub. Harry wouldn't have even noticed the pub if he hadn't stared right at it, it was so small. A dirty sign hung above the door, saying 'The Leaky Cauldron', with a picture of a bubbling cauldron.
'Huh, cool special effects,' Harry though, looking at the picture moving. 'Who actually uses the word 'cauldron' though, that is so… medieval. Let me go prepare my cauldron of evil witch hunting juices, mwa ha ha. Oh well, I might as well start off here.' Harry decided.
Brushing his fringe over his scar and tightening his backpack straps, he pushed open the bar door. There were several people inside, and the lights were dim. The place looked as though it hadn't been properly cleaned in several years, but it had a very well-worn feel about it. Being Harry's first time in a pub, he was quite nervous. None of the customers paid him any attention, for which Harry was glad of. They were all wearing the weird cloaks too, and one of them looked kind of like a hag.
'Must be a late Halloween party' he thought to himself. He walked up to what he assumed was the bar, and hopped up on a stool. The man behind the bar was cleaning a glass with a dirty rag, and turned around to face him. He had a friendly looking face, with not much hair.
"Hello there little fella? How can I help you this fine evening?" the man said good-naturedly, putting down the glass and the rag. Harry noticed that at least this man wasn't wearing a cloak, but rather, an apron and some clothes that looked like they were from at least 30 years ago.
Gulping, Harry said to the man, "Hello there, my name's Harry, and I have a proposal to make to you." This was said a lot more confidently than Harry felt, and it was quite obvious through his body language. He was positively shaking with nervousness!
The man barked a loud friendly laugh, and sat down on the other side of the bar. "Harry, is it? Well, my name is Tom, and I would love to hear your proposal." Tom had a wide grin on his face, and gave Harry his full attention.
"Alright Mr Tom, here it goes. I would like to propose that in return for my working for you-" Harry started, only to be interrupted by two very loud people walking into the bar. It was a tall woman, with a shorter but more heavily built man. The woman was grumbling about something, shaking her lengthy pale blond hair as she did, and the man was emitting strange gurgling sounds. Apparently he was laughing.
"Even if you could afford a griffon, I don't think he would want to be purple Tee, be reasonable..." the tall woman grumbled loudly, earning another bout of strange gurgling noises. The pair navigated their way over to the bar, and the tall woman's eyes flicked up, making eye contact with Harry's emerald eyes. They were the palest blue eyes harry had ever seen, and he made a small noise in shock. The woman's eye widened in realisation, and quickly composed herself into a motherly form.
"HARRY, MY CHILD, WHEREVER HAVE YOU BEEN?" she cried, flinging her hands into the air and simultaneously whacking Tee on the side of the head. She rushed over to the bar and immediately crushed Harry into a tight embrace, pressing his face against her bosom. The boy in question, unused to physical contact other than being beaten up, started squirming and making loud squealing noises.
Still with harry in her arms, the lady started to make a scene, while Tee was standing on the side admiring her work.
"WHY DID YOU RUN AWAY MY CHILD, WE WERE EVER SO CONCERNED FOR YOUR WELLBEING,' she kissed his forehead, leaving a glossy mark from her lipstick. All the bar's occupants were now watching the ordeal. "My son, don't ever do that again,' *kiss*, "Alright?"
Tee wandered over to assist with the presentation.
"Tom,' he said to the confused barman, "I would like to introduce you to our child, Harry Lemon," using the predetermined procedure for taking Harry in a public place." The poor thing ran away last night, and had us in quite a tiffy looking for him." He added with a forced chuckle. "I'm sure you remember my wife, Celia?" he asked, indicating to the woman who was still grasping at the struggling Harry. Tom nodded in recognition, earning a large grin from Tee.
Tom chuckled nervously.
"Children, such trouble makers aren't they?" he offered, picking up a glass. "Would you like the usual?" he said, picking up a bottle of amber liquid.
Shaking his head, Tee supplied, "No thank you, my friend, I have business that needs attending to," looking over at Harry.
"Ah my child, you caused me grief last night, did you kno-" Celia started in a dreamy voice, patting his hair softly.
"LEMME GO" Harry burst, doubling his efforts to escape. He tried hitting the woman, but she simply ignored this.
Tee whipped out his wand and cast a quick spell on Harry, rendering him into a dreamlike state of cooperation.
"That is NO way to treat your mother Harry." Tee said firmly, as Celia started kissing Harry's forehead again. "Heh, as you can see, we have much to talk about," Tee said, addressing the whole bar now. He received a few amused laughs in reply, and seemed to deem it an appropriate answer. "Well, we must be off. Have to get back to the manor, don't we love?" He sighed, pulling Celia and the charmed boy with him. They walked out of the pub and popped away, leaving the bartender a little bit dazed and confused. The rest of the bar occupants just went back to whatever they were doing, but Tom was left thinking,
'Haven't I seen that boy somewhere before? And were those belt marks on his face?'
Obviously, nothing came to mind when questioning himself, so Tom just went back to cleaning his glasses, and for some reason, the memory of the event disappeared from his mind.
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In a small suburban house, in Brackley, a loud pop emanated from the living room. The old couple who lived in the house, were thankfully asleep upstairs, and werent woken by the noise.
Two adults and a seemingly sedated child appeared almost on the coffee table. As soon as they appeared, they both pulled out their wands and sent stunners at him. He collapsed on the nearby couch. The woman proceeded to start warding the room with muggle repelling charms, silencing wards, notice me not, and charms that stopped anyone else from knowing their location. The shorter man went and sat down next to Harry, pushing his hair out of his eyes, revealing the lightning scar.
"It really is him, Celia,' he whispered, drawing her attention. "It's their boy, the one who can save us all."
Celia put her wand away and sat down on the other side of Harry.
"It is, Tee, it truly is. Although you do need to stop referring to him as an object. At this point in time, he's just Harry, and we need to look after him until he can do what he needs to. Until then, we are just his guardians, who love him. I hope we can do him well," she said softly.
Harry moaned softly in his sleep, his eyes fluttering open momentarily, revealing his emerald irises. Tee gasped, and looked up at Celia.
"He's even got her eyes, love!" Said the shorter man, clutching at his chest.
"Yes, you can see both of them in him, and let's do our best to honour them." Tee nodded in response, and conjured a warm blanket to cover Harry.
"Let's let him rest the night, he must be tired." Both agreeing to this, they made their own sleeping arrangements and settled down for the night.
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As the next morning dawned, a small nine year old child, Harry Potter, awoke to find himself covered in a thick woollen blanket. Not complaining, since it was the warmest things he'd ever had in his life, he sat up and put the blanket to the side. Looking around, he noticed that he was in a small living room that was apparently furnished by an old couple who had never heard of interior design.
"what..?" Harry pondered out loud. He had no idea how he got here, and had no idea who the people he just noticed on the floor were. The increasingly alarming situation was suddenly cleared up when the memories of last night flooded Harry's mind. He still had no idea who the two people were, but that could be quickly fixed.
Even at age 9, Harry had endured a lot more than some adults could say. He had endured enough abuse to develop a sort of survival technique that he could use in situations he was unsure about, such as this one. His technique included working out the surroundings and possible threats, and then working out how to get out of said situation. As Harry was inspecting his current location, he also checked out the two people sleeping on the floor.
Sharing the same inflated mattress, Celia and Tee, were kinda locked in a half cuddle-half fighting position. Tee, Harry saw, was shorter than the woman, but looked like he was better at close combat, and Harry was wary of him. He had curly chocolatey brown hair that reached his eyebrows and his irises were a sad grey colour that made you want to hug him until he felt happy. Harry got the impression, though, that the man was a charismatic fellow, and wasnt much of a threat. He moved on.
Celia, on the other hand, was tall and lovely. She was the kind of woman that made you look twice in the street. Her hair was like the pale moonlight shining on a yellow flower, and was softly curled, even without using products or magic. Her eyes were also pale and striking, being the palest blue Harry had ever seen. Her light skin combined with her other startling features made Harry think that she was some sort of ethreal creature who had come and whisped him away. Harry was too captured by her beauty to think she was a threat (even though in nature, a lot of animals or plants use awesome appearances to either warn other creatures of their dangerous potential, or entice them to come to them, so that they can be killed).
Shaking his head to get out of his reverie, Harry moved away, having decided that these people were no more a threat to him, than your usual kidnappers. Phase two of his survival technique was the next bit. Harry needed to get away, as quickly and quietly as possible. Grabbing his backpack, he moved towards the door and grasped the handled, to turn it, only to suddenly feel an immense burning feeling in his hand.
"OUCH, WHAT THE HECK?" He screamed, letting go of the handle and clutching his hand to his chest in pain.
Both the adults bolted awake up off the floor, with their wands out. They had defensive stances on, and Harry instantly felt threatened.
"Harry!" Celia cried in exasperation, lowering her wand. "Dont scare us like that, we thought you were an intruder!" Tee lowered his wand too, and started packing up the mattress as Celia moved to embrace Harry.
Backing away quickly, Harry grabbed the nearest object to him as a potential weapon. The tissue box in his hand was not intimidating in the slightest to Celia, who looked at him suspiciously.
"Harry, please, be polite, we are only trying to help you," she reprimanded.
"Who are you? And why did you capture me? WHERE AM I?" Harry yelled, his voice breaking at the last bit.
Celia and Tee stepped back, looking at him critically.
"My child, we-" She started,
"STOP CALLING ME THAT"
Sighing, she started again,
"Alright, Harry,' Celia patiently said, "We are here to help you. I apologise for how we acted last night, but it was neccessary to get you away before anyone recognised you and told someone."
Tee took over, feeling that they should just get straight into it.
"Harry, we were friends of your parents... Lily and James?" he asked, hopefully. He was trying to see how much harry knew, and how much he and Celia had to work with.
"My parents didnt HAVE any friends!" Harry said, waving the tissue box threateningly. "Uncle Vernon said they were no good drunks, who lived on drugs and alcohol! They were NO GOOD FREAKS"
This statement caused Celia and Tee to both gasp, in surprise and regret. Tee made to move closer to Harry, to inspect the red welt mark on his cheek, but Harry seeing this as a move to hurt him, threw the tissue box at him.
"HARRY!" Celia yelled, "PLEASE JUST LISTEN TO US!"
Harry thought about it for a second, and seeing that this situation couldnt get too much worse, nodded in submission. He really did want to know what the hell was going on.
"Okay, thats better!" Tee sighed in relief, and sitting down on the couch, gesturing for the others to join him. He conjured up a tray of tea and biscuits, causing Harry to scream in surprise, and Celia to make a disapproving noise. Tee decided to address the elephant in the room, and tell Harry about the world.
"Okay, first things first. What do you know about magic?"
A.N: I dont really want to repeat the whole magic introductory speech, because they occur in EVERY fanfiction, so lets just pretend that the whole YER A WIZARD HARREH thing has just happened.
Tee sipped his tea (heheheh puns), and motioned for Celia to continue the conversation. She turned to face the dumbstruck boy, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Harry, we know this is hard to believe, and that you are only nine, but everything we've just told you is true. Magic DOES exist, in its good and bad forms, and there ARE bad people out there, who will use it against you. We," she said, pointing to the man who had just scalded his tongue on burning liquids, "hope to be able to help you in a way so that you are prepared to face these dangerous people, and inevitably change the wizarding world as we know it."
This was quite a full on sentence, and Harry had loads of questions.
"What do you mean there are bad people? And what do you mean you'll help me? How do i 'change the wizarding world'?"
Celia leaned back, taking her hand off of him, and counted off her fingers.
"One, there are people who use magic for their own personal gain, even if it means harming and destroying the livelihoods of others. We can teach you about these people if you want.
Two, there is a lot that a young learning wizard needs to know before he can face the world. YOU, have been thrust into it blind, and it is OUR duty to train you up so that you dont embarrass yourself when you get to Hogwarts. When we say training, we mean like, teaching you the social norms of wizarding life, training you the basics of offensive, defensive, and just general spells, and why not a bit of theory. This is all very necessary Harry. We know what you did to your family," she said, earning a guilty gulp from Harry and an appreciative smirk from Tee, "and I can tell you right now, that most nine year olds arent able to do accidental magic that can freeze a family of three AND the occupants of the two houses next door for over 12 hours." She looked at Harry, almost impressed.
"You will be a very powerful wizard one day Harry. Celia and I just want you.. give you a little boost on the way," Tee said, smiling warmly at Harry. Having calmed down, Harry was processing this all nodded in appreciation.
"Okay, i think i get that all. What did you mean though, when you said i could change the wizarding world?" he asked, looking at Celia curiously.
Looking a little uncomfortable, she launched into the story about Lord Voldemort and how his hold on the world was dictating everything. About how his lackies, the Death Eaters, had killed many a family, and were destroying everything. She explained their hate for muggles and sometimes even half bloods, and would often enjoy killing them as a sport. By the end of the little speech, Harry was dry retching a little bit.
"How can I do anything about that?" He cried incredulously.
Tee decided to tell Harry this time.
"Harry, there is a prophecy. And it is a very important prophecy. Its about you, and Lord Voldemort." he made a noise of distaste at the mention of that man.
"This prophecy tells of a child, born under the exact same situations that you were, who has the power to take down the dark lord, and essentially save us all. THis is going to sound a little tough to hear, but its true. The prophecy also says, that none shall live while the other survives, or something like that. Harry, you NEED to believe us when we tell you this, you are the only one who can finish him." he said grimly.
Celia interrupted,
"Harry, we dont want to have to thrust this upon a nine year old, but theres really nothing we can do to change it, apart from guide and help you as much as possible. We can teach you old magics, and train you to do things beyond your imagination. All we need is your trust and willingness." She took Tee's hand and looked Harry in the eyes, capturing his gaze.
There was a moment of silence, before Harry said,
"Please, I need all the help I can get."