DISCLAIMER: HARRY POTTER IS THE PROPERTY OF JKR, I'M ONLY BORROWING HIM FOR AWHILE.
THE WANDERER AND THE RUNAWAY
Chapter 4
When they got back to Harry's home Dobby ran inside and did an expanding charm to the interior of the house. He added a soft couch against one of the walls. Harry, still gently carrying Luna, came inside and laid her down on it. When Harry attempted to get up she frantically held onto him.
"Please don't leave me. Please Harry, don't let go of me." She whimpered. Harry nodded and lay down next to her, just holding her in his arms. A short time later he nodded off.
Four hours later Harry woke with a start. For a minute he was confused as to why he was lying down on a nice soft couch he was sure he hadn't had the day before. After a few minutes, he remembered it all then turned his head to softly watch the sleeping form of his good friend. Luna lay there in an exhausted slumber. Her face was soft in repose while her body betrayed the depth of the hell she'd endured as it continued to twitch and jerk through the after effects of that awful curse.
Harry, ever so slowly, extracted himself from Luna's death grip. He went to a closet, pulled out a light blanket, and draped it over her. He then quietly made his way to the kitchen, and after putting a one way silencing charm on the room, started to make some tea and some homemade lentil the soup was simmering, he stepped out onto the front porch to have a puff of his pipe and to talk to Dobby.
"Dobby, I was wondering if you would be willing to do me a favor." Dobby stepped forward and very solemnly asked him
" What favor can Dobby do for the great Harry Potter sir?" Harry gently smiled at his little friend
"Dobby, how many times must I ask you to just call me Harry?" Dobby just smiled and said
"Well, I is a free elf, I is free to show the great Harry Potter sir how much I does respect and revere him." Harry, with a long suffering sigh and a great deal of eye ball rolling, said
"Oh, very well Dobby. Since you aren't going to change, I might as well accept that this is one battle I can't win."
Dobby let out a little chuckle, then asked Harry what the favour was that wanted done. Harry asked Dobby if he'd be willing to stay and watch Luna while he took a port key to the Australian branch of Gringots bank to take care of some personal banking. Harry told Dobby that he would most probably be about five or six hours and then he would return.
Harry gave Dobby the authority to use whatever elf magic it took to keep her safe. Harry then told him that if it looked like she was going to be in any kind of trouble, he was to bring her to him immediately. Harry also said that under no circumstance was she to try standing on her own; if she had to move, he was to levitate her.
Dobby stood as tall as his three foot frame could stand, puffed out his chest and stated in a monotone elf voice
"By your command." Dobby had once, while he was watching over Harry at the Dursley's, seen an old episode of Battle Star Galactica and had thought the Cylons were cool.
Harry tried very hard not to burst out laughing as he knew that would insult his little friend and said, "Yeah ooooookay, Dobby, I'm off."
As soon as Harry was gone Dobby did a quick patrol of the property within the wards. Not finding anything of note he went back inside to keep watch over Luna.
About an hour later Luna, while shifting in her sleep, bumped her injured leg. The resulting twinge of pain caused her to wake up. With effort she slowly opened her eyes. Seeing the unfamiliar room she was in caused her to abruptly sit up, or, should I say, attempt to sit up. The resulting wave of nausea forced her head back down onto the pillow.
Luna, after a few minutes, again slowly opened her eyes. This time she just moved her head to get a better look at the room she was was then that she saw Dobby looking at her with a big smile.
"Dobby," she whispered with a raspy voice, "where are we? What are are you doing here?"
Dobby smiled at Luna and stated
"We's at the home of the great Harry Potter Sir, he has asked Dobby to take care of missy Luna while he is away." Luna quickly looked around, again to her dismay; she found the world spinning around and slowly lowered her head back down onto the pillow. Dobby slowly approached her and quietly asked her if she wanted anything to eat or drink. Luna asked for a glass of water. Dobby, snapping his fingers, produced a glass of clear cold water for her.
Luna slowly took a small sip, and then drank a bit more, the cold water being a balm on her sore throat.
When she'd finished the glass of water, she gave a little sigh, closed her eyes and fell back to sleep.
HLHLHLHLHLHLHL
Harry arrived at Gringots bank and after telling the nearest Goblin who he was, he asked to see Goblin who was in charge of his account. In short order another Goblin approached him. Bowing, he introduced himself as Snarkhark and asked Harry what he could do for him. Harry informed him that due to a situation that had just developed, he wanted to have a couple of goblin ward experts to put up the best wards that money could buy around his property. Snarkhark excused himself and left the room.
Snarkhark returned about 5 minutes later with two of the biggest Goblin Harry'd ever seen. Snarkhark introduced Bloodbeard and his younger brother Gutslasher, who were revered in their world as the two best warders in the magical world. Harry told them Galleons were not object.
Harry told them to start where he was currently living.
The next order of business that Harry wanted to discuss was regarding Luna's husband, while Harry was all for laying a little Crucioon old Martins arse, his first concern was Luna's safety and well being. Harry asked Snarkhark to employ one of their best spies to keep an eye on the scumbag and report on his movement, and again; Galleons were not object. Snarkhark again left the room, returning a few minutes later with another of his brethren called Shadow. Harry briefed Shadow on what had occurred who he wanted watched. Shadow took the contract at the usual rate rather than asking more because he knew who Harry was to the Goblin war and sensed how important Luna was to Harry.
With the business done, Snarkhark offered to seal both deals with some Goblin ale. Harry, never one to insult, accepted, but asked if they had slightly less potent ale, because as he abused alcohol before, he didn't want to take a chance on any repeat occurrences. Snarkhark, bowing, said
"It is a strong and wise individual who can refuse what he craves the most." Harry bowed in acknowledgement of the Goblin compliment.
Snarkhark then, with a slight smirk, asked him if he was off tea as well are you, Harry gave a light laugh "No Snarkhark, I'm most defiantly not off tea." They shared a quiet chuckle and a minute later, a small Goblin entered the office with a tray of tea.
Goblin and wizard shared a minute of quiet contemplation and a nice cup of tea to gather before he bade Snarkhark goodbye.
"May your enemies fall before your blade and may your vaults run to over flowing with their gold." Snarkhark replied in kind.
With the pleasantries taken care of, Harry port-keyed home.
HLHLHLHLHLHLHL
When Harry returned home, he immediately went to check on Luna. He slowly approached her sleeping form and stood there observing her, noting her angelic features; the way the midday sunlight accented her almost white hair. He noted her pert little nose and her soft mouth, her chin; her womanly form. For the first time in ages, Harry felt the slightest need to hold and be held by another human being.
Harry sighed, mentally shook himself, and left her to her slumber.
Stepping outside, he decided to have a smoke and reflect on the day's events. Luna was going to need a lot of tender loving care and he wondered if he was up to the task.
Harry knew he'd been nothing more than a weapon to defeat Voldemort; nothing more, nothing less, so this situation was totally foreign to him and he was scared. What if he said or did something that set her off? What if he didn't do or say something that she needed said or done? He was getting stressed just thinking of all the things that could go wrong.
Harry knew he needed help with this, but at the same time, he didn't want anyone from his old life entering his new one.
Harry had never been a religious person, but he suddenly felt very overwhelmed by everything. Looking into the sky, he whispered;
"If anyone's up there, please, I need your help. I can't handle this by myself; I don't know what to do, please..."
Harry waited, and when he heard nothing said:
"Oh, who am I kidding? There's no one up there. Damn I must be really losing it." Taking another puff of his pipe, he knocked the embers out and went back inside to tend to the soup and wait for Luna to wake up.
HLHLHLHLHLHLHLHLHL
Meanwhile at the Burnadopolou residence the family house elf, who had been tending the expansive lawn on the property when he'd heard the window smash and had seen his master being blasted out and fall to the ground below was so shocked he didn't even think to try and rescue his master from the fall. He apparated next to Martin, and, seeing that he was grievously hurt, grabbed him by the arm and brought him to Athena Magical Hospital.
When the first Healer saw the house elf with an unconscious male lying in the middle of the emergency room, he shouted for assistance before levitating Martin onto a gurney.
The Healer, after asking the house elf what had occurred and being told what little he knew, cast a Petrificus Totalus on Martin to keep his body still as he did a complete medi-scan.
What the scan revealed a lot of internal injuries. The most serious was the broken back just at the C7-C8 vertebrae; the Healer wasn't able to determine whether the spinal cord was damaged or if it was only the vertebrae.
The Healer decided to use a muggle apparatus called the X-Ray machine, he had Martin moved into to X-Ray room and prepped him for the examination.
While Martin was being tended to, the house elf decided to get the patriarch of House Burnadopolou and disapparated away to get him.
A few minutes later, Gregor Burnadopolou showed up, shouting and cursing at the medical staff and demanding to know where his son was and what was being done to cure him.
The head Healer attended the emergency room, guided him to an empty anti-room. The head Healer told Gregor to calm down. When he started getting wound up to a higher level of agitation, the Healer fired off a mild stunner which needless to say got Gregors attention.
When Gregor saw the medi wand pointed at his forehead he finally got the message and started to calm down.
The head Healer, seeing that he had Burnadopolous' attention, put his wand away and indicated for Gregor to sit down. As soon as Burnadopolous was seated, the head Healer called in the attending Healer to tell them what the extents of Martin's injuries were.
The Healer explained that they'd taken a number of X-Ray pictures of Martins back, the resulting photos showed that there was indeed spinal cord damage and that Martin would lose total use of his body and legs but that he would have full head and neck movement with good muscle strength and good shoulder movement. It was also explained that he would have partial finger movement, full elbow extension and flexion, and full wrist extension and flexion.
While Martins injuries were being told to Gregor, he'd just sat there, stunned, realizing that his only son and heir was now going to be a burden on the family as well as not being able to sire any children to carry on the family name, with that realization, came the over whelming need to try and produce another son to take Martins place.
Gregors wife was past child bearing years, so he would have to find another family of similar social status and try to set up a marriage contract with them. With a bit of luck, he would be married and have a son on the way by this time next year.
With all this going through Gregors mind, he stopped paying any further attention to what the Healer was saying, got up and left the room.
Gregor stopped at the doorway to his son's room and said one of the most feared sentences a magical person can ever expect to hear. Gregor pointed his wand at his son and uttered the sentence: "Vos es haud diutius of meus cruor, vos es nemo."(You are no longer of my blood, you are no one.)
There appeared a blue glow around Martin which flared briefly then disappeared. Gregor, seeing that the incantation had cast Martin from his family, turned around and left the building; abandoning his former son to the tender mercies of the local magical government medi-care system.
