-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter Three ----------------------
Alan was worried; they had been gone for nearly three hours, but even with bad traffic they should have been back an hour ago. He had never gone to see the boy, but what his wife had told him broke his heart.
With Rita's interference, they hadn't had kids, and now might never have them.
Why was it taking so long?
At the hospital, Rita took one look at Potter—no, Harry, and cried. A voice said "bug" and on instinct she transformed. "Thanks, I don't think I should be in that form much longer." She held out a book. "I got this to read to him; I heard coma patients sometime say they heard a voice when they come out of it."
The duty nurse smiled. "Black Beauty, one of my favorites." She went over to the child and said in an almost-impossible to hear tone, "Come on, son, get well. The book's good, but you should see a real horse. It makes the book so much better." She turned away and put her hand on Rebecca's shoulder. "A good book shouldn't be rushed. Take your time. "
The social worker looked up at her. "If I have my way, he won't just look at a horse, he'll be riding one." The duty nurse was about to leave when she heard: "Thank you. Please let me know when he come around,
won't you?" She knew it wasn't by rote but an automatic response to a need to know about the child.
"I will, Love, I will." She walked away.
Rebecca sat down and this time, she really did read from were she had left off. A bug crawled up onto Harry Potter's shoulder and started to rub its wings. Half an hour later, they left; twenty minutes after that,
they returned to the house and went in. Rita transformed.
"Any change?" came Alan's voice from the kitchen.
"None. I read most of the book to him; I think I'll have to take him another one soon." Rita looked at her sister with a fire in her eyes.
"I don't want a truce." Her sister looked up fast. "I want my sister back." She got up and knelt in front of her. "I, the dumb one, humbly ask the wise, all-knowing sister one a simple question."
"What?" Alan looked confused.
"When we were kids and I found out I was a witch, we both read fables and all sorts. My sister liked the sphinx and other intelligent creatures and we used to call her the oracle, as she could help me and remember facts better than me."
A small smile played on Rita's mouth as her eyes suddenly focused onto what she had lost.
"How can I help?" Her sister got the glazed look she got often when given a hard problem to solve.
"You can't," Rita said. "Not till he awakens. But you can help me. Find all you can about his friends and that school; maybe then a plan will come to mind." She looked hard at her sister as Rebecca nodded.
"The oracle has spoken." She tapped Rita on the head.
As Rita stood, Alan's wife called to him: "Get dinner ready and the wine—I need it. And I think Rita does as well."
Alan looked stunned. "OK, who are you, and were is my wife? A minute ago you were ready kill her, and now you want to drink together? No way."
"Love, she gave a Witch's Oath. It means if she lies or does anything to hurt me, or you, she drops dead in best case, and in the worst, she dies a slow and very painful death. She also gave her oath to help Harry; she isn't trustworthy at all, but she can't break this oath, so why worry about it?"
Rita looked at her sister. "Can I call you Sissy again?"
"No, but I will let you call me Rebecca. It will take time before you get to even call me Becca, let alone Sissy."
Rita bowed her head. "OK, Rebecca. I shall earn it, even if it takes me the rest of my life."
Rebecca nodded. "I really could use that drink, Love," she called to her husband. Alan handed it to her and watched as his wife swallowed nearly the whole glass in one gulp. Rita took her glass and emptied it in one gulp as well; the two sisters looked at each other.
"Harry Potter shall be victorious over the world." Alan had a bemused expression on his face as they shared a true laugh. "Don't worry, Love"
Rebecca said, "it's an old promise we made that if ever we found a prince worthy of us, we would help him all we could and live in castles with all sorts of magical animals, and help him rule the world."
"Hum, OK. Where do I fit into this, then?"
"Hum, stable hand, maybe?" she pondered. "Not sure yet, I'll work it out. I usually do"
"For some reason, that doesn't inspire confidence in me."
Rita got up. "I've got work to do; it's a shame, Alan and I need take a week or two off to care for you, isn't it, Rebecca?"
"No, see, it's comments like that that prove I've got the brains. We hate each other; why would you take a week off to help me?"
"Continue normal life and see me this weekend if nothing comes up before then. We need spy work, then we need him awake. They will suffer and we will rule the world."
Alan was now very worried. Rita left.
Each day, Rebecca went to see Harry and read him a bit of a book. Each weekend, her sister kept her informed of this and that going on in the wizarding world. Dumbledore wasn't happy Harry Potter had been missing for three months now, and on top of that, it had come to light that he wasn't supposed to go to the Dursleys under any circumstances. To make it worse, in the Potters' will, it was stated that Peter Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper and that if they were found dead, a bounty was to be placed on his head. In his rush to control Harry, Dumbledore never allowed the will to be properly read; it was easy with their old friends Sirius Black in jail and Remus Lupin a werewolf. It turned out Black was Harry's godfather but not his legal guardian; *[*it seemed his legal protector was the Tonks Andromeda and Ted Tonks lawyers at worse and also parents to an Auror.*] I have no idea what this sentence means.*
They had already found out Dumbledore had been dipping into Harry's trust fund to pay those bastards, the Dursleys, and now he had to pay every Knut back.
As Black had been cleared, he sued Dumbledore for failing to disclose vital evidence proving his innocence and the Ministry for keeping an innocent man imprisoned for over 50 million galleons. The fact that his and the Potters' votes had been illegally used meant Albus was lucky he was headmaster, but was no longer Head Mugwump; only his Order of Merlin kept him from jail.
Black had paid his fines and now he had to find Harry, as rumours in the Daily Profit said that maybe Dumbledore didn't want Potter found.
"Albus, would you care to give me an interview, please?" Bugger. Every time he went anywhere, Skeeter was there.
"I am off to see Minister Fudge. I am sorry, but this is important." Off he ran. Rita allowed herself a small smile; she was just about to walk off when something slapped her thigh. She twirled around, but no one was there; she looked down and found nothing.
Later that day, when she got home, she started to get undressed and saw a small handprint visible on her thigh. "What the hell?" She pulled her clothes back on and flooed her sister. Alan answered.
"Hi, Rita, Rebecca's at the hospital. What's up?" Rita thought about it,
then decided her sister should be told immediately, so she told Alan what had happened and the hand print.
"OK, it seems unimportant, but Becky ought to be told. We will floo when you can come over."
Rita went to their house immediately. Some two hours later, she was telling her sister what had happened.
"Have you checked your pockets?" Rebecca asked. Rita had. "Was Dumbledore near you, or did he have his wand out?" Again a negative. "So it either a child with an invisibility cloak, someone really fast, or a prank."
"House elves are fast, and Harry was suppose to have a weird one; a free elf, if you can believe it. Now what was his name…."
"Dobby," Rebecca said. There was a loud crack and a house elf appeared in front of the startled group. There were socks on his ears, feet, and hands; warm, maybe, but all were different colours.
"You called Dobby."
Alan jumped back but Rebecca said, "Yes, Dobby. Why did you want to see us?"
The house elf started to move to a wall and head butt it. "Bad Dobby,
bad Dobby. Dobby want help Harry Potter, Harry Potter is the greatest wizard ever."
"Yes, but why did you come to us, Dobby? And why did you slap Rita?"
"Dobby not slap Rita, he passed Rita a note, and Dobby knows the smell of Harry Potter. He knows when people have been near him. Dobby watched;
he has seen the Skeeter woman and that she talks to Harry Potter. Dobby watched for long time and decided he wants to help."
They looked stunned. "What can you do to help Harry?" Rita asked.
Dobby sighed. "I don't know. Bonded house elves might help, but he wanted a friend, not a slave or a bonded elf." He broke down in tears.
Rita Skeeter, liar, busybody, and general pain in butt did something that she would never quite understand. She knelt down and pulled the distraught house elf toward herself.
"Shush, it's OK, it's OK. It will get better. Shush there, stop crying"
She didn't know it, but seeing Harry and this elf had snapped something in her brain; all of a sudden, her maternal instincts had kicked in a major way. Her sister looked at her with a small smile on her face, but when Rita turned to her, she nearly stepped back. This wasn't the pain-in-arse Rita or the hard bitch reporter Rita; this was a mother dragon protecting its nest.
"We'll cure him, we'll train him, we'll protect him," Rita said. "He is mine. No more pain, no more suffering. Even if we have to take over the world and have everything crushed under our feet. Harry Potter will live and he will have a life, a family, and happiness. So mote it be!" A blinding flash, and all realised she had taken another Witch's Oath, but more than that. Rebecca realised she had done it with no wand in her hand and the shear power of it had left dots and flashes in her eyes.
"What just happened? Did you make another Oath, Rita?" One look at Rita's shocked face showed she hadn't, or at least hadn't intended to.
"What, what happened?" The small house elf looked stunned.
"I don't know, I don't know."
A small, squeaky voice piped up. "I bounded, I bounded!" Tears ran down Dobby's face. "I bounded, I am not free elf."
A look of horror crossed Rita's face. "Please say you didn't bond to me or any of us here. Please."
The elf cocked his head to one side, then the other. "Missy, I don't know what or who I bounded to. This doesn't feel right."
Alan decided to say something. "Dobby, when did you meet Harry?"
Dobby went on to tell them all about the diary and the Chamber of Secrets. At the mention of a Basilisk, Rita and her sister went white;
after they showed Alan a description of a Basilisk in a book, he went white as well.
"How big was it?"
Dobby explained that it could stretch from the wall to the far end of the back garden and was as wide as sofa across its head. If he hadn't been sitting down, Alan would have fallen down. "90 to 100 feet long and nine feet across its head," Dobby said.
Rita looked up. "How old was it, Dobby? I never heard of one that big."
Dobby made a humming noise before he answered. "Well, Salazar Slytherin put it in there, so as old as the school, plus however old it was when Salazar put it in there."
"In the book of things you never want to meet," Rita said, "the top ones are He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, a nundu ,a Basilisk, a Dementor, and a dragon guarding its young."
"Well, nundu and dragon and Dementors are left, then the boy has the set," Alan joked.
"No sir, he faced Dementors," Dobby said. They all turned to him.
"Oh yes," Rita said, "when on Hogwarts Express, they were looking for Sirius Black."
Dobby looked worried. "Dobby, when else did he see them?" asked Rebecca.
"Well, he saw two on the train, as Missy said. He saw four at his Quidditch game. Plus when he discovered Sirius Black was innocent and Peter Pettigrew was alive, he fought 150 with his Patronus." It was to much for Rita; her eyes rolled up and she passed out.
Alan looked at his wife and asked what happened. "Rita's seen one Dementor when she went to try get interview with Black," Rebecca explained. "She's had nightmares about it for years."
Alan looked at the book again. Dementors cannot be killed, he read as Rita started to come back around. They drain all happiness and emotion from a victim; no wizard has ever faced more than four at one time and lived. No one can overcome the total feeling of despair created when they flock together. Evan in Azkaban, no more than ten Dementors are kept in the place at once.
Dobby started to rock himself, tears spilling from his eyes. "Dobby is worried. Only nundu and dragon are left, will they come now?"
Rita shushed him and held him gently in her arms. "No. With He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named dead and—" She stopped. "Dobby, what do you mean, he fought the Basilisk and the evil man?"
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was in chamber when they fought," Dobby said.
Rita shot up, nearly dislodging Dobby.
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back? He's supposed to be dead."
"No, Missy, in Harry Potter's first year he fought He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The evil man had one of his Death Eaters,
Professor Quirrell, absorb him, and they drank unicorn blood so they both lived. Harry Potter killed Quirrell and shoved the evil man's soul out of him, then in his second year the evil man drained Ginny Weasley of her magic and soul and while Harry Potter fought the Basilisk, he got a body back again, but Harry Potter with Gryffindor's sword killed the Basilisk and the evil man and saved Ginny Weasley."
The word "stunned" did not fit Rita's reaction. If He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was back and around, Dumbledore had kept it quiet; that meant no defense had been launched against him. Rebecca got up and went out the front door. Fifteen minutes later, she came back.
Her husband and sister hadn't moved. She went into the kitchen and came back with three glasses and poured three very large brandies. They all drank at once; she refilled the glasses and they downed them again.
"No fucking wonder the poor kid's gone nuts," Alan said. "This is the top magical school in England and one of the best in world we talking about, isn't it?" He looked at his wife. "Honey, if we have magical kids, no fucking way are they going to Hogwarts."
She only nodded her head. Dobby looked up. "I got to go, I'm being called."
Albus wasn't happy. All his plans and esteem had gone down the drain and only one person was to blame: Harry bloody Potter. All he had do was stay at Privet Drive, come to school, and do as he was told. No, he had to disappear, clear his godfather's name, cost him Albus position as High Mugwump and have the teaching staff turn away from him. When Harry had gone missing and after a huge search, the staff had found the Dursleys; after a quick Legilimency reading, they found out the Dursleys had been treating Harry very badly.
That was bad. But it was Nymphadora Tonks who had found it out; she had also found out that Sirius was innocent, and on top of that, she had uncovered Dumbledore's work. She had convinced Sirius to come in and go straight to Amelia Bones where, under Veratiserum, he swore he not killed Peter Pettigrew and that he wasn't the Potters' Secret Keeper.
The simple questions "If everyone knew I was the Secret Keeper, then what the point in me being a Secret Keeper? And who said I was a Secret Keeper in the first place?" seemed to smash into Amelia and Tonks with astonishing force. They knew a set up when they saw one.
A quick trip to the Prophet and then Gringotts, and the Blacks—Narcissa and Bellatrix—were disinherited, and Andromeda was brought back into the family. When the Aurors went over the Potters' accounts and saw how much the Dursleys were paid to look after Harry, and then how much Dumbledore had removed, a cover-up wasn't all they smelled.
This was when it went really bad. The Potters' will showed that Dumbledore had no rights to Harry. The passage that read "Peter Pettigrew is our Secret Keeper and if you are reading this then he a traitor" was even worse. The fact Dumbledore had skipped the will reading, and the goblin in charge had allowed it, cost that goblin his life and half of his holdings. Gringotts managers did not look kindly on this sort of behaviour, and it was only some old laws that stopped them chopping Dumbledore's head off and sticking it in the front door.
Another old law stopped his Order of Merlin, First Class being stripped from him. Rita bloody Skeeter was a constant pain in his side. The school governors were after him being sacked, and if they found out anymore of his secrets, he would be in Azkaban.
Dumbledore wasn't delusional, but he had a blind spot to his own faults.
His plan was simple: find Harry, regain control of him, get himself made Harry's guardian, and after Harry killed Riddle, then let the lad have a nice life. Now as more time passed, it was looking like Harry and Riddle would kill each other after Potter made him the main beneficiary.
A pop sounded and the bloody annoying house elf stood there. "Has Headmaster found Harry Potter?" Dobby asked.
Dumbledore shook his head. "I am so sorry, but we looked at all his relatives and friends and we have searched high and low. I was hoping you might have some news."
Dobby could barely contain himself. Family? The great Dumbledore had called them bastards! Harry Potter's family? What a wanker.
"Dobby will tell you as soon as he has something he thinks you should know. Any small thing that might help. Can Dobby carry on looking?" By this time, he was bouncing on his toes as if he was a small child wanting the toilet. The headmaster waved him off.
It was then that a strange Harry Potter-type coincidence happened. Dobby popped, but didn't leave the room; he hid in it. He wanted to know what the wanker was up to.
"Dumbledore, I told you to keep a tight reign on that child, not to strangle him." If Dobby could have gone white, he would have.
"Why did you set him against Riddle so soon? He had no training, and—"
" I know," spoke up Dumbledore, "but the prophecy states—"
"We told you to tell him of the prophecy," a new voice cut in. "Have you?"
A "No" from Dumbledore was all it took. Dobby left, and this time he made no noise. Most would be surprised, but elves had decided not to let wizards know how they went from place to place and as wizards made a noise when they Apparated, so did elves. As wizards didn't know silent Apparition, the elves decided not to tell them. He went to the oldest house elf in Hogwarts. He knelt before him.
"What do you want?" came the caustic tone. No house elf liked Dobby, as he was free.
"Sir, you are bonded to the school, not to a person within it. I wish to speak and the headmaster must not know of it."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to beta Lanie McCoy