Chapter Three
Natalia raised an eyebrow at the boy who opened the door. She had heard the Dursley men were on the bigger side of things, but this was slightly ridiculous. Slightly. Feeling the bond between herself and James tighten, she reminded herself to relax - Anything she felt, he did too; both a blessing and a curse.
The boy who answered the door was an overweight lad with a nasty sneer on his face. Greasy brown hair swept across his face, and he was still chewing his food when he burped. Small particles of pancake flew from his mouth, aimed at the stranger in front of him, and Natalia quickly vanished the soggy bits before they could land on her clothes. Her new cotton green shirt was very comfortable, and it'd be a shame if it were ruined due to the whale in front of her.
"Yes? What do you-" Dudley began before belching again. "What do you want?"
Natalia gave a fake smile before answering. "I'm assuming you are not Harry Potter?"
Dudley's beady eyes widened, and he hollered into the house.
"Da-a-ad! Someone's here to see the freak!"
Natalia pushed him into the home before quickly following, shutting and locking the door behind her. Dudley gave a quiet "eep" before lumbering into the kitchen. Quietly examining the home, Natalia activated the wards she placed around the home before even walking up the pathway. Number Four Privet Drive was normal and clean; too clean. A home with two boys should almost never look this pristine. Twirling her ring around her finger twice, Natalia began casting a series of observation charms, ones for recording conversations, activities in the home, and tracking the occupants of the home. Wandering down the hallway, she tuned into the shouts of the Dursleys from the kitchen, pleased to hear them panic at the lack of working phones or exits. Of course, they wouldn't work. She was a freak, after all.
The charm she used to track the family showed something weird; three members were huddled in the kitchen, and one was in the cupboard directly next to her. The spell was a Russian variation, fine-tuned by the magical portion of the KGB, meaning it couldn't be incorrect. And somehow, she doubted that it would be her ever so lovely Aunt in the cupboard. Natalia pursed her lips, and walked past it, knowing she needed to scare the Dursleys before she could make contact with her brother.
Her boots clicked softly on the laminated kitchen floor as she walked in, soft red hair bouncing softly on her shoulders. Her hands were empty, barring her magical ring, and she gave a soft look of youthful innocence, despite her age of 15. Turning the corner, she finally saw her estranged family for the first time in over a decade and thanked whatever deity was listening she didn't grow up with the Dursleys.
Harry, was not as lucky as Natalia. He had no chance to be spared of their neglectfulness or abuse. The damage the Dursley's had done to her brother was irreparable, and once Natalia found out, she would make them pay for every second of pain they caused her beloved brother. (Despite only knowing of him through a file, Natalia knew she could not think of Harry any other way.)
Petunia was the first to screech at the girl, high pitched words that meant nothing to her. Promises that they wouldn't call for help once she was gone, or that she should take her freakishness and leave - oh yes, she would leave. She just had a very important task to do first.
"This won't take long, Mrs. Dursley," Natalia smiled softly and flicked her middle finger against her thumb ring. What looked like wandless magic caused all four chairs from the dining room table to be pulled back, and another flick of her finger caused the family to sit down collectively against their will. Vernon Dursley's face began to turn into an awful shade of puce, and the syrup on Dudley's stood out against his pale fear-stricken cheeks. She stared at them for a moment before gracefully gliding forward and joining them at the table.
Vernon blubbered for a minute before his words formed any clarity. "- now you listen hear you no good freak! If you don't get your freakishness out of my home, I will-!"
A quick turn of the finger caused a silencing spell to be put on Vernon's mouth, and as an afterthought, Petunias and Dudleys too. If given the chance, the woman would shriek like bloody hell.
"Now that I have your attention, I would like to talk to all three of you without any interruptions. I have decided this was the burst course of action instead of, let's say, dose you with potions into making you docile, wouldn't you agree?"
Vernon alarmingly turned starch white, his eyebrows high in fear. Natalia smiled a little too primly to be friendly.
"Now, let's begin. First, I have to thank you, Mrs. Dursley. The Red Room is the best thing that could have ever happened to me." She tilted her head at her aunt, cackling internally when Petunia finally made the connection to the redhead.
"You knew me as Natasha at one point in time, but I now go as Natalia. You may call me Miss Romanov if needed. If you need to say something helpful, or genuinely contributing, raise your index finger and I'll let you talk. Abuse this privilege, and I'll just start giving you my….. favourite potions. Deal?"
All three Dursley's enthusiastically nodded out of fear. Natalia smoothed her face into a mask before continuing.
"Excellent. On to why I'm here then. I'm here to take my brother back into the wizarding world - our world. He starts Hogwarts in a few months or so, and needs to get ready. Eleven is a very important age in our world, and he needs to be able to flourish. I know he won't here." Natalia tapped against the table slowly, causing the cupboard door under the stairs to open while she was talking.
Harry had watched as the strange woman walked into the home, and could hear faint yells, but couldn't make out why the door to his bedroom swung open with no one on the other side. He felt compelled to walk out into the dining room and crept around the corner. Red hair was the only thing he could see again of the strange woman, and he knew that she was speaking from the lack of mouth movements on the other three. He was focussing too hard on the strange woman to not notice when he had moved, and quickly enough he was right next to her. Something inside him made him believe that he felt safe next to this stranger.
Suddenly, the girl turned around and smiled blindingly, speaking to him.
"Harry, I'm your sister. Would you like to come with me?"
Having been unprepared, Harry couldn't read her lips, and dumbly asked "What?" To her.
She brushed it off as just being taken off guard, but repeated her words. His eyes traced her mouth as she spoke each word, and she brushed against his mind as she realized why he spoke so brutish just now. He couldn't hear her.
Harry, brother, take a seat and listen, Natalia planted in his mind, standing up and ushering him into her seat. Do you know how to read?
He scowled at her. "Of course I know how to read, I'm not stupid."
Suddenly, a piece of paper appeared in front of him, words appearing as she talks.
"Does this work for you then?" Does this work for you then? echoed in red loopy handwriting across the top of the page. Grinning, Harry nodded furiously as he grabbed it and watched the charmed paper work. Speaking a few random words, they played with the paper, and quickly Natalia came to rest her hand on his bony shoulder.
"How does this work?" He asked questioningly. Natalia copied his grin, and breathed out her favourite word.
"Magic."
Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and Natalia scowled as Vernon interrupted them with his repeated finger tapping. Sighing, she canceled the silencing spell on him, and stared him down as he exploded.
"We swore when we took him in that we'd stamp that- that freakishness out of him!" He bellowed, the shade of puce across his face highlighting the vein on the top of his forehead. "We put up with that boy at the request of the headmaster, but he never said how we could deal with him!"
Natalia slapped the spell back onto Vernon and tossed her hair back, well aware Harry was watching her.
"Well now you don't have to, quote, deal with him. He is my brother, and as such is my very wanted responsibility. If you happen to see him after this day, you will treat him with respect, or face me and my decisions. If you could be so kind, Mrs. Dursley, as to collect anything belonging to Harry. We'll be getting out of your hair soon." She cast a Russian spell similar to the unforgivable Imperius curse. The Russian variant would ensure that she couldn't be traced back to the scene of the crime, but even if she were caught, she doubted she would be penalized for it considering it was only done on muggles. Magical Britain is not known for its equality or attempts at it.
Petunia's face smoothed out into a relaxed smile, and she gracefully stood up from her seat and left the room silently. The trace Natalia put on her showed which rooms she visited quickly - bedroom, attic, cupboard. Everything Harry owned was quickly placed onto the table in less than two minutes, and the meager stash was almost worth the pain of paperwork if she were to torture the muggles. But, family comes first, and Natalia knew she needed to get Harry out of here. With the snap of her fingers, Natalia did a spell on his belongings, banishing them to the Red Room almost immediately. Harry's face dropped, jaw wide open as he became gobsmacked at the blatant use of actual obvious magic. Turning to her, he stared. He was fascinated by his sister, and eager to learn how she did magic, hoping that maybe he could do it too.
"Careful Harry," she ruffled his hair. "You'll break the paper."
Harry turned beet red and lowered his gaze to the paper, tired of reading lips. Maybe there was a magical solution to his hearing loss?
"Now that we have that sorted out, we should go. Harry, I'll meet you by the front door, understood?"
He nodded and scrambled off the chair, taking the paper with him.
"Perfect. Now listen here, you filthy muggles," Natalia snarled at them, her pleasant facade dropping once Harry left the room. She flicked her fingers at them again, multiple spells enchanting the small family. "This spell is a curse designed to slowly ruin your reputation. This one encourages hair loss, and this one is joint pain. This spell is a memory reducing charm, meaning the older you get, the worse your memory is. Good luck remembering Dudley here in twenty years. And this one is a memory extraction charm, where when I say the special word, you will forget all about Harry, and so will everyone that has met him in the last three years. You'll never get him back, no matter what. This next one is the one I already cast on loving Mrs. Dursley here, a bit of a mind control one. Whenever you hear our names, you will feel fear and dread, and will quickly excuse yourself from the conversation that brought us up. And finally, this is a cancelling charm that can only be done by me, and a tracking charm as well. Be glad these are the only ones you will be gifted with today." Natalia casted a tempus, and swore in Russian at the time.
"If I find out from Harry about anything I didn't already know, I promise, that I will hunt you down." Natalia excused herself from the head of the table and canceled the sticking and silencing charms she placed on them. Even the arrogant toe-rag Vernon kept his mouth shut as they all sat in fear. She turned to leave the dining room, and walked out, pausing before she went down the hall.
"Bloody, beautiful magic," she called out the secret code and left to join Harry. Ushering him on the porch, she closed and locked the door behind them, smiling at her younger brother as he watched on curiously. Completing the task at hand, she felt the magic in the home swell as the spells engaged with the home and its occupants. She disabled the wards from the porch of the house and grabbed Harry's hand as they both felt the broken magic fall around them. She looked down at him and squeezed his bony fingers, happiness bubbling in her chest as their matching eyes connected. Harry's tired, excited eyes were hidden behind a pair of awful glasses, dirty and broken, and she knew what to do next.
"You ready to go shopping?"
Together, Natalia and Harry spent the afternoon together in different magical neighbourhoods. They quickly popped into Diagon Alley to visit Gringotts where they both discovered their trust vaults and familial vaults. Natalia was quickly given an heiress ring for the house of Potter and scowled as she skimmed through the papers she was given on their estates. She swore to come back at a different time, as for today Harry was her top priority. After Gringotts, the two siblings quickly spun around the magical alley's and gathered new things for Harry - things like robes, clothes, boots, books, and as a present, an owl. While Harry was being measured for his robes, Natalia snuck off to the Magical Menagerie and bought a beautiful snowy white owl for him. The storekeeper practically threw her out of the store with the owl once the transaction was complete, ecstatic that he had finally sold that beast of an owl.
"No returns or exchanges!" He had cried as he ushered them out. "Final sale on all owls!"
Harry had been ecstatic and knew the perfect name for her once he saw her. He promptly named her Hedwig, the patron saint of orphans, and Natalia tried to get him to change his mind before giving up. No matter how cheesy or meaningful the name was to him, she just didn't like it and gave up to appease her brother. She didn't want their first fight to be so soon.
Natalia apparated them to St. Mungos, where Harry's hearing issue was temporarily fixed for a day or two before they got to Russia.
Following that, they quickly portkeyed to Poland, where they continued their shopping. More robes, books, and interesting supplies were bought. Harry got an earring that would directly give translations of whatever language was being spoken into his ear, and bought a tongue ring for the future. Natalia said it would be better to buy it now and do it in two years then to look in two years and not find it. With the earring, he also got an extendable satchel with a matching extendable coin purse, which Natalia promised she'd make undetectable in the next week or so, a perch for Hedwig as a well as some treats, a cool book about Parseltongue they found in a thrift shop, and a hand knitted jumper Harry wanted to match with Natalia. In the end, they both had dark oceanic blue cable knit sweaters, which Harry promptly declared he loved them. Natalia rolled her eyes at this, but smiled nonetheless. The only thing they had left to buy was his wand, but that wouldn't be bought for another month or two. Being muggle raised meant he was at a serious disadvantage against those who were magically raised, and he needed to be taught basics and then some to make sure he could handle the responsibility well enough.
Natalia knew exactly who would be the best one to teach her brother magic.
With everything shrunken down and placed in her jacket, Natalia and Harry embraced each other in a twisting hug and disappeared from Europe. Together, they landed in the better home of the siblings. Snow was everywhere, frozen together in a solid block of statuesque slosh. Natalia immediately placed a warming charm on Harry, who was nowhere near prepared enough for March in Northern Russia. Harry didn't even notice the temperature go sporadic for a minute as he looked around in wonder.
Frozen icicles hanging off coniferous trees, a small trail teasing them into the snowy woods, an aweing building directly off to the right of where they stood. Harry bent down and pushed his fingers through the deep and fresh snow, fingers growing red the longer he stuck them down deep in the ground. He pulled them out and stared in wonderment as his hands tingled with warmth, barely bothered at all to the just below freezing weather. Cool sleet blew around them, causing a bit of static in Harry's vision, but he paid no attention to anything around him as the gravity of his day finally hit him. He was free. Finally free. He felt like he could cry.
Natalia watched her brother silently, reading his mind to understand his thought process. She felt Jamie walk up behind them to escort them inside, and immediately reached behind her with her left hand to grab his human hand. Flesh met flesh as she pulled him in, and they leaned on each other while watching Harry bow down to the forest in thanks to his freedom. The intimidating soldier almost asked Natalia a question out loud but quickly stopped once she began her own mind meld to her soulmate. Staring through each other's eyes, they missed the moment Harry turned around and dropped his jaw at the newcomer.
"Hey, I know you!" Broke through their silent reunion, instantly jarring the world of the two assassins.
