Chapter 2 – – In plain site and no scar
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Professor McGonagall soon realized as Harry was turning eight years old that he would soon be getting his letter to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Certain adjustments had to be made and soon. Professor McGonagall had no idea what Dumbledore was up to but she was not ready to let him get his hands on Harry Potter. The best place to hide something is in plain sight so… Professor McGonagall turned to her old schoolmate Jaclyn Greengrass who had a daughter the same age as Harry.
Somewhere several entries were made in a ledger. If one was eavesdropping they would hear the scratching of the quill and soft giggling of someone enjoying what they were doing. The last erasure insured that the remnants of Harry's scar would be gone in a few months.
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"Jackie were going to have to sit down with Harry and explain why he's now going to live with you and his having a new name, that is if he wants to attend Hogwarts."
"You think he's old enough to understand what were doing and why?" Jaclyn Greengrass asked doubting that this would work. Her husband would do as he was told but how do you control a child?
"Jackie the kid is very smart and I've even seen him doing some serious magic. If he can do that kind of magic without a wand he definitely has control and dedication. I think he can handle it just fine."
/Scene Break/
Somewhere, unbeknownst to us, a check is made in the ledger and another erasure is made as the two women sat down with me. They started by explaining that there were good men and that there were bad men.
"Harry one of the bad men in your life took your parents lives. You have seen some of the books about how famous Harry Potter is for getting rid of that bad man. Unfortunately there is number of other bad men out there who would like to hurt you so here's what were planning on doing."
"But you're going to still be my Aunt Mini?" I was hoping she was not giving me away.
"Absolutely Harry but for next couple of years you going to be living with your Aunt Jackie. You are going to be known as Harold J. Kelly whose parents work in Anguilla. They want you to come to Hogwarts to maintain your English heritage and roots."
"What about Twinkles?"
"I'm afraid Twinkles must stay in my sister's place, but you're going to have two new sisters to play with and help you learn to be a pureblood in England society."
"So I'm going with Aunt Jackie to learn how to be Harold Kelly so I don't make any mistakes so that the bad men can't get me?"
"Aunt Mini was right you're a very bright boy."
"So when will I be going to Aunt Jackie's house?"
"You be going next week. Right now I've got to go talk with the goblins about establishing a trust fault for Harold J. Kelly. Oh! If you want to be called Harry as a nickname it will be perfectly all right."
/Scene Break/
The great Albus Dumbledore sat behind his desk in his office at Hogwarts. He let out a large sigh as he massaged his temples. He felt like this was the first time that he had a chance to relax in a very long time. At first it had been the trials of all the Death Eaters, and with him being the Chief Warlock, the trials seemed to last forever. Then there was the big shakeup at the Ministry over Barty Crouch's son being a Death Eater. Then there was the ICW sticking their nose into his business which had him having to run a campaign. Being the head of the ICW was the only way to squash their inquiries.
He had put a person on Privet Drive to monitor Harry Potter but by the time he got around to checking on her the Potter brat was gone. The fact that the Muggle slob refused to return the money he had been paying each month and the Muggle had the gall to laugh in his, Albus Dumbledore's face, Albus smiled as he thought of the number of curses he had applied to that house. Dumbledore even felt someone was laughing in the end, a very weird and sobering almost maniacal laugh.
/Scene Break/
I had a nice talk with Twinkles while Aunt Minnie was off talking to the goblins. Twinkles had a lot of information for me since we were the best of pals. It started off with bad sounding information like who was this Voldemort and how he was defeated but that he was still half alive and half dead. Before we were done we were both laying on the floor laughing. It seems that Twinkles was in contact with other elves and was able to explain about the nasty people like the Nott, Malfoy, and other dark families. What was funny was that elf was required to obey an order but not required to tell nasty owners of mistakes they were about to make. I was also informed about the staff at Hogwarts and the not so light grandfatherly Albus Dumbledore. It seemed that the elves spent a lot of time being invisible and in the same room with those that they served so they could anticipate what their masters required. While the elves would never divulge their masters secrets to other humans there was an elf rumor mill not to mention an elf counsel. The rumors however usually were more fact than fiction.
/Scene Break/
"I don't give a flubber worms fart what Albus too many name Dumbledore has told you but that paper in your hand makes it extremely clear. That copy of James and Lily's will makes me Harry Potter's godmother and legal guardian. I'll be taken this up to Ragnot if you're not doing what I tell you as Harry Potter's legal magical guardian."
"You do seem to have the proper legal documents so what do you wish Gringotts to do?"
"First off I'll be wanting a trust vault established in the name of Harold J Kelly. I want two thousand galleons initially taken from the Potter vaults and deposited in this new Kelly vault. The Kelly vault will be refilled every six months to a maximum of 1000 galleons. As per law I demanded all access to the Potter vaults be terminated to everyone except his magical guardian. I'd also like a full accounting of all transactions that have been done since James and Lily's death. Also I do not want any of this information leaked out to anyone especially bloody Albus Dumbledore."
/Scene Break/
Aunt Jackie was introducing me to Daphne as Harold Kelly. I found Daphne's sister Astoria was still a baby in her mothers arms. Daphne had jet black hair which matches mine but hers flowed nicely over her head and not a messy mop like mine.
"Daphne, Harry needs to learn all about pure blood etiquette and he will be joining you in your studies in the library. Is that clear young lady?" Aunt Jackie was laying down the law and I recognized that it also applied to me; we were to study and learn.
Actually Daphne did teach me a lot of boring stuff but in no time we soon became inseparable and devious. She was studying with me but after a while… "Harry this is getting really boring we need to have some fun."
"Daphne if you don't tell anybody and you get your elf to help cover where we really are, I know how to sneak away."
"Harry we can get into so much trouble sneaking away but it could be so much fun, let's do it!"
And so we started:
We used the library with the Greengrass elf providing cover and its using misdirection. Sometimes we would haul some books up to one of our bedrooms pretending to study. Either way we would escape from the house.
I thought not much about it as I popped Daphne and myself to visit Twinkles. Daphne was shocked at first to find out who I really was but then wanted to learn elf magic. Unfortunately she had already practice wizard magic with her mother's wand and couldn't pick up elf magic. While that was a disappointment that didn't slow down our enthusiasm for sneaking around.
Aunt Mini stopped by to given me my trust vault key and a long lecture on financial responsibility, so it wasn't long before we had to POP to Gringotts. Flourish & Blott's didn't give their books away for free after all.
"Harry I think it's more than enough to have the first two years of Hogwarts books to study but why the extra defense against the dark arts books?"
I was told by Twinkles and Aunt Mini that bad men were looking for me so I want to be prepared. Aunt Mini had said that since my scar was gone that I was fairly safe but Twinkles is not so sure. Say Daphne, is that not an ice cream parlor across the street?
/Scene Break/
Not that we really paid much attention but time marched on and suddenly I had to use the pureblood etiquette that Daf had instructed me on in the library. The Malfoy's had invited the Greengrass family to some kind of social event. So while the adults were basically having fun the kids were off to the side supposedly having fun. That's when I met the Malfoy's, the Notts and the Parkinson's along with dozens of other pure blood family children. Draco was a snot with arrogant parents. The Nott's were just nasty mean while the Parkinson's were social climbers of the worst order. The Crabbe and Goyle families were as thick as a messed up potion. This called for more trips to Diagon alley for some books on pranking.
/Scene Break/
Why we never got caught I will never understand but our excursions to Diagon alley and Hogsmeade village gained us much fun and information. So far there weren't any distances that I couldn't POP with Daphne.
"So that's the famous shrieking shack, wonder what it looks like inside?" Daphne hadn't but finished the question when…
POP!
"Looks like somebody had some real fun in here. They had just about destroyed everything." While Daphne was commenting I wasn't about to say but I did see some very nasty scratch marks on one wall.
"Harry! Come-on over here! Look! Wonder where this leads?" Daphne had found what looked like a tunnel just right for inquisitive kids.
"Harry that's Hogwarts we best leave for we get trouble."
"Daphne, come on, let's look around for a little bit and see what we can see."
We weren't stupid enough to try to enter the castle but we wandered around outside until… "Dumb humans; come closer so I can bite you."
"Why aren't you a pretty little thing, you wouldn't bite a little girl like me would you?" Daphne suddenly slapped her hand over her mouth and looked at me with fear in her eyes.
"I turned to the snake and said, "If you bite my girlfriend I will put you in a bag of ice for the rest your life."
"Harry you speak parseltongue?" Daphne asked.
"If that's what you call what you're using, yes."
This of course got me an education from Daphne on how parseltongue was considered dark and we couldn't use it in public. This got the snake to argue that it was a highly respected and noble language. And, Daphne ended up with a familiar.
"Come on Harry we best get back to the shrieking shack and home. Harry what's wrong?"
"I don't know it's like I feel somebody…but it's much like it's trying to talk to me in my head."
"Oi! Who be you two? What you two doing here?" Boomed a voice across the grounds.
We turned and saw a humongous man charging toward us, he had a wild beard and hair which didn't make him look too friendly. We dashed into the forest and all the large man heard was… "POP".
The Adder, now called Tootsie, was now wrapped around Daphne's arm to keep warm. Daphne however had a couple of other things on her mind.
"Harry you said today in the forest that I was your girlfriend. How did you mean that?"
Here I just turned eleven years old and already I was having girl troubles. "Err, how would you like me to mean that?" I know I was weaseling but…
"I asked you first Harry J. Kelly!"
"Honestly… I don't think of you as my sister but I think a lot more of you than being just a friend. Okay it's your turn!"
"I would mind being your girlfriend if you want one."
The next day we all headed over to Diagon alley for a ring and live food for Tootsie. However things didn't quite work out like we planned. I figured the promise ring would be on the top of the agenda but I had read something in a book. My reading cause us to end up on the upper level of Knockturn alley after questioning a few shop proprietors if such a place existed for such an item. We also made the front page of the Dailey Profit the next morning.
Knockturn alley was not for many people especially children. Some of the "nasties" within the alley attempted to stand between me and Daphne's promise ring, I'm sure they regretted that action but then again I'm not anything but a kid controlling some serious elf magic. This was not to say that Daphne was happy as they were stopping her from getting her promise ring. While I knew their magic was dangerous I just send their spells up into the sky. Of course a number of them were now dressed as clowns and hanging from torch brackets on some of the shop walls. One nasty hag was last seen in a tutu twirling down towards the lower-level street but that was Daphne's fault. She had secretly borrowed her mother's wand for this trip and she was determined to get her promise ring.
On our way out of the alley with Daphne's ring, which was wrapped around her dainty finger, the residence of Knockturn alley were now giving a wide berth to us poor innocent children.
"Harry, where did you send that last guy?"
I believe at this time he's taking a swim in the Thames River."
"So were to now Harry?"
"Back to Gringotts for some more money than of course to get Tootsie some snacks."
We got the snacks are right but I also picked up this beautiful white owl that I just had to call Hedwig. Now the problem was how to explain that to Aunt Jackie. Today we were studying in Daphne's room, or were we? Since we couldn't come up with a big enough lie, Hedwig snuck in my bedroom window later that evening.
The next mornings the Dailey Profit told the tale of two children terrorizing Knockturn alley. Luckily they had no pictures and their description was off enough that Aunt Jackie would never become curious. Besides Daphne and I were sitting, like little angels at the table, as the Daily Profit was being discussed.
Daphne started training with her new promise ring which was also a focus ring. All of Daphne's extra studying was really paying off in her ability to do complicated spells.
Hedwig was explained away by us as the next days purchase when Aunt Jackie took us to Diagon alley to get our school supplies. Daphne got her wand and I got nothing, not a wand in all of Olivander's shop would work for me. I would now have two explain it off as wandless magic taught to me in Anguilla.
Aunt Mini almost had a meltdown when she got the news that no wand work for me. While I was loved and paid attention to my family they had to work so the only saw me doing accidental magic, at least that's what they thought. Aunt Mini and Aunt Jackie, knowing that I was Harry Potter, assumed my magic was accidental and now wandless and I was not in a hurry to correct any of their assumptions.
Meanwhile at Hogwarts Professor McGonagall was breaking the news to headmaster Dumbledore. "Albus we have not received a reply or tuition for Harry Potter. Being headmaster and his guardian I thought you might want to know."
Professor McGonagall always had a stern face to present to her students to keep them in line while performing the dangerous art of transfiguration. Behind her façade today she was laughing hysterically because in fact she had not told a half-truth or a lie to the old goat.