After the Second Rise
By: Red
Disclaimer: I do not own rights to the story or characters of Harry Potter.
A Golden Gaze
"How about if we split the temporary guardianship." Mrs. Jane Granger sat with her husband, Edward, and daughter, Hermione, around Harry's hospital bed the next afternoon.
The Weasley parents sat across from them with their son Ron and Daughter Ginny as the adults tried to make sense of Harry's custody problems. Sirius and Remus both sat to either side of Harry and Albus Dumbledore sat at the end of the bed between the three families watching the proceedings in silence.
"That could work but it might be difficult for Harry to adjust to two different homes." Remus stated holding a book on the legal rules of child custody in the Wizarding and the Muggle communities.
He was fingering through the pages of both books trying to find a past case that involved temporary guardianship.
Harry shook his head in contradiction to Remus's statement, "I really wouldn't mind either way Remus," Harry muttered, "But I don't want to make things difficult to either family. I've all ready received a great deal of kindness from both…And I'm not helping right now am I?"
Hermione smiled and Ginny smirked, "No," She grinned, "You're not."
Harry smiled sheepishly and looked to his silent God Father, "I guess I should just keep my mouth shut then huh?"
"No," Molly Weasley smiled, "You're opinion is the most important at the moment Harry. Now, we really wouldn't mind having you stay at our house, as we all ready have so many children at home, what's one more?"
Ed Granger shook his head, "But Molly, Arthur," He nodded to both heads of the Weasley household, "I know how much Harry means to you, how he means to all of us but…how will having another boy in the house, especially one with special medical needs, effect the houses income?"
"Well," Arthur Weasley looked at his wife and took her hand, "We'll manage…we all ways do."
"Mr. Weasley," Harry stated quietly, "I accept you're generosity and I am very grateful to you and Molly for always treating me as another son…but medical bills…" He sighed worried, "I don't want to put that financial strain on you."
"That's actually why I felt a shared guardianship might work." Jane intervened, "That way the financial expenses will be split evenly between our two families.
"I will pay for the medical expenses." Sirius intervened, "I have more money then I know what to do with…and even with a temporary guardianship in place, Harry is still my Godson. I should have the right to help out in some way."
The Weasleys and Grangers agreed to Sirius's offer.
"I have an idea…but I'm not sure how you, as adults, will like it." Hermione quietly voiced, "Remus may I have those books for a minute?"
Remus handed Hermione the legal books without question and she immediately began to thumb through them until she reached whatever it was she was looking for. She skimmed through the words and nodded to herself before turning around the wizard book and pointing to a specific paragraph.
"In the Wizard law book there is a case where an orphaned boy was able to gain a sponsored emancipation." Hermione stated, "It means he was receiving an income from an outside source so that he could live comfortably and still focus on schooling until he was of age to inherit his family's fortune." Hermione frowned, "Of course he was a pure blood heir as well but so is Harry, technically."
"That's right," Sirius smiled, "When he is of age he will inherit not only the Potter fortune but the Potter magic and title of 'Lord' as well."
Harry's eyes were wide when he heard this and Sirius smirked at his godson, "What?" He asked grinning, "You didn't honestly think being the last of the Potter clan meant you got nothing but that small vault you're parents left aside for you're schooling did you?" Sirius gained a contemplative look and regarded Harry carefully, "Actually," He muttered, "If I remember correctly there was more to that title then what I can fully recall…" He shook his head, "No matter, the point I am trying to make is that you are a pure-blood heir and that you could be eligible for a sponsored emancipation."
"I don't know…" Remus said quietly, "Harry, you've been through a lot and you grew up very independently if what you told me about the…Dursleys," He snarled the name before continuing, "is true. You would most certainly be a good candidate for emancipation…but I wonder if you are able to take care of yourself because of such abuse."
Harry looked at Remus in silence, "I'm not entirely sure I can live under someone else's rules to tell you the truth." Harry stated, "I'm a little weary of being told what to do and when to do it. I spent most of this summer only relying on myself…I don't know if I can go back to having an adult supervise where I go and when."
He looked at the people present, "I hope I'm not offending anyone when I say that it's just…I think I'd feel a little trapped."
"But you've been in the hospital under the supervision of adults…" Ron stated, "You haven't felt trapped here have you?"
"Well," Harry smiled, "I haven't really had a chance to feel trapped yet because it's not like I can go anywhere but…it's not really the same is it? I see different doctors and healers every day here…It's not like a parent or guardian is it?"
"I guess you have a point." Jane Granger nodded, "So here's what well do," She leaned forward in her chair and placed her elbows on her knees looking at Harry more fully in the eyes, "We'll split the guardianship the first year at least. Sirius will pay for any medical bills that come up and both the Weasleys and Ed and I will take care of you together. This on its own will give you more freedom then if just one of us decided to take you in. As you will have two guardians we will have to be more lenient on some of the rules, especially if we want to prepare you for life on your own. If at the end of the year, which means one year from today, we feel you are ready, we will sponsor you're emancipation."
The brown haired woman looked around the room in confirmation and slowly everyone in the room agreed. Dumbledore smiled and left to get the legal paper work and a signature from the Dursleys while the adults discussed when Harry was going to be with whom. It was decided that Holidays would be spent at the Burrow with both families celebrating together. The first half of the summer Harry would be at the Grangers and the second half would be spent at the Burrow. Sirius and Remus were invited during the holidays and to visit either home whenever it suited them to do so.
Dumbledore came back into the room that evening when the rest of the Weasleys had arrived and everyone was eating some good old fashioned Muggle fast food for dinner. He dragged in Harry's trunk and told Harry Hedwig was spending the rest of the summer at the Hogwarts Owlry. Harry thanked Dumbledore, (he had been worried about his owl), and then he and Hermione sat down to go through his trunk to get rid of the things he wouldn't need and keep the things he'd definitely need for school that next year.
Hermione pulled out some of his clothing and held them up to inspect them. She wrinkled her nose at the too-large size and the state of disrepair that most of his clothing was in. She looked at Harry disapprovingly as he fished out the silent sneakscope from a pair of incredibly large muddy colored socks. Hermione put the shirt down and pulled out a pair of boxers that had far too many holes in it to be considered wearable any longer.
"What do you do to you're clothing Harry?" Hermione asked alerting the other females in the room.
Harry glanced at the boxers she was holding, "I don't wear those anymore."
"Than what are they doing in you're trunk?" Hermione asked.
"I forgot to throw them away?" Harry wondered absently as he staked his fourth year books.
Hermione shot a helpless look towards Ginny and she in turn looked at the only other females in the room with the same expression. Molly, Jane and Ginny immediately put their food down to help Hermione inspect Harry's limited wardrobe. They all looked at Harry incredulously.
"You've been wearing these for how long?" Ginny asked.
Harry shrugged, "Since they were thrown at me by my Aunt whenever Dudley outgrew them?"
Fred held up a shirt that Harry normally tucked in and grimaced.
"Mate," he shook his head, "You could carry a bloody circus in this rag."
Harry frowned, "Well that's how all of them are."
"All of them?" Ginny asked incredulously.
She began pulling things out at random and found that Harry was right. She absently wondered how she'd never noticed it before. Ginny looked at Harry critically and realized that this was why he had always seemed so scrawny before. He was taller then she was but he'd always seemed much shorter in his clothing.
Ron shrugged, answering Ginny's question, "Yeah, he's always dressed in that shite."
"Ron!" Mrs. Weasley cried, "Don't curse!"
"What Mum?" Ron asked defensively, "It's true, don't you remember whenever he'd come over for the Holidays? Harry's clothes have always been too big for him."
"And they've never really been mine either." Harry stated, "Sometimes Dudley would come in and reclaim some of the more wearable clothes as his. I couldn't argue it because the Dursleys always reminded me that they weren't mine to begin with."
Shocked silence met his statement and Jane looked at Molly with determination.
"Tomorrow." She stated, "We are getting Harry new clothes."
"Preferably clothing that fits him." Molly Weasley agreed.
"And we're going with you." Ginny gestured to herself and Hermione.
"As are we." The twins agreed.
Silence met their statement as everyone stared at the two tricksters in bemusement.
"What?" Fred asked defensively, "We can't trust a bunch of women to pick out tasteful clothing for a teenage boy now can we?"
"No indeed," George agreed, "It would be travesty to leave this up to any female. They'll only make him look queer."
Said women were beginning to bristle at the twins insensitive statements.
"It's up to us to make sure he gains a manly style that still holds the hint of sophistication that begets a young boy to live up to his image." Fred stated passionately.
"Oh and I'm sure you know all about that." Ginny deadpanned.
"Actually dear sister," George placed an arm around Ginny and smirked, "you're esteemed elder brothers know quite a bit about what makes a man look good and how doing so will not only boost a man's ego but how it will also adhere to a lady's eye."
"Although there's not much we can do about you're scars…" Fred frowned, "Sorry mate."
Harry shrugged amused at the banter he was witnessing, "Not a big deal, believe me."
George regarded Harry critically, "No, I think we can find a way to make the scars work for him brother."
"Hmmm?" Fred asked and scrutinized Harry who by this point was wondering whether or not to be worried by their stares, "Ah, I see what you mean George…"
Both twins fell into silence and planned while the women of the room rolled their eyes and shot worried glances toward the duo.
"Well," Hermione stated holding up one of Harry's less wearable t-shirts and brining the attention back to the wardrobe, "that only leaves the question about what we're going to do about these." She grinned and the other children present grinned devilishly back at her.
"Professor," Ron asked Dumbledore, "Could we take Harry up to the roof so that he could practice a bit of control over his new fire abilities?"
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and he looked at Molly Weasley, "Well Mrs. Weasley? Do you have any objections?"
Mrs. Weasley frowned, "Not if an adult wizard or witch accompanied you."
"What about a former fire man?" Jane granger asked wagging her eyes at her husband who frowned.
"I'm not a fire-fighter any more Jane." He stated.
"No Ed," Jane smiled, "But I'm sure you remember how to handle fire safely."
"How about you and I go." Remus smiled at Ed Granger, "That way if anything gets out of hand there will be a trained fire-fighter and a fully trained wizard on ready."
Ed frowned but nodded. Mrs. Weasley nodded to her children and they helped Harry into his wheel chair enthusiastically. So a troop of red heads, a Werewolf, a fireman-turned dentist, a cripple in a wheel chair and one frizzy haired brunette ventured up to the roof carefully avoiding any hospital personnel. When they finally reached the roof George pulled out the over-large remnants of Harry's broken childhood and placed all articles of clothing in a pile on the floor of the flat roof.
Remus placed an anti-burn charm underneath the pile and gestured to Harry as everyone stepped back. Harry closed his eyes searching for the heat he knew was inside of him carefully pushing the feeling of heat from his chest to his right arm. He slowly pulled his arm up and held it out toward the pile, his right hand clenched into a fist. He opened his eyes and watched in fascination as fire gently rose out of his skin, dancing along the lines of scars that made hatch marks across his arm. The flames slowly moved toward his clenched fist and built up around it to form a flaming ball around his hand.
Harry smirked at the fire and it responded to him flickering towards the pile of cloth that sat on the middle of the roof. He looked at the awed faces of his friends and smiled reassuringly. He remembered this feeling, he'd done this before…all he had to do was to throw the fire at the pile of clothing and the fire would leave him for a short time before it built up again.
So Harry grinned at the clothing that represented his childhood and brought his arm back bracing himself.
"This is to you Dudykins." Harry whispered as he flung his arm outward toward the rags of clothing.
The ball of fire flew toward the cloth and fell on it consuming the clothing hungrily. Hermione and the other red-heads cheered. Edward Granger whooped in amazement and Remus smiled as Harry shot his fire free fist into the air yelling in triumph.
"Ha!" Ron yelled, "Harry that was brilliant!"
"Yeah!" Harry laughed, "Now if only I could control it on a smaller scale!"
"We'll work on that!" Hermione grinned as the Twins and Ginny began to chant and dance around the burning clothes, "To Dudykins! To Dudykins! To Dudykins! Ha ha ha!"
They fooled around until the last strand of fabric vanished into the wind as ash and then took Harry back down to his room laughing and replaying what they saw verbally to Harry. Harry smiled and replayed the feeling of building the fire within his mind. He was secretly amazed he'd been able to control it to such an extent. He went to sleep content with the knowledge that he could control the fire if he really needed to.
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The next morning Harry woke up to the physical therapist shoving some vitamins and his breakfast onto his bed. After he ate she drilled him rigorously in his exercises and left just as frustrated by his lack of progress as he was. After she left Harry's main Doctor and main Healer walked in with the two fidgety nurses. They nodded to Harry and began to methodically unwrap the Bandage on Harry's head. They told him the healing magic in the cloth should be finished working on his eye.
"Now Mr. Evans," The Healer stated, "There is no guarantee that you're eye will ever be able to see again, even with all of the healing we have implemented into it. I don't want to get you're hopes up about such an extreme injury."
Harry fidgeted with a mixture of worry and excitement as they unwrapped one layer after another from his skull. For the first time in over a month Harry felt cool air kiss the skin of the left side of his face, and he closed his green eye in anticipation.
"All right Mr. Evans." The doctor muttered as he pulled the stitches they had been forced to use on his eyelid out of his skin, "After I finish taking these out and you're Healer seals the skin the stitches were in I am going to ask you to try to open you're right eye. Leave the left eye closed please."
"All right." Harry agreed too afraid to move his head for fear of messing the doctor up.
Harry felt the odd pull from doctor as he carefully cut and pulled out the stitches. Warmth caressed his right eye as the healer used her wand to seal the holes left by the stitches and when the warmth dissipated she asked him to open the eye.
At first Harry feared he couldn't do it, the newly healed muscles that allowed him to move his eyelid were stiff with lack of use. But slowly Harry was able to pull the lid upward and blink. The Healer and Doctor gasped when they witnessed the bright golden color of his iris. It appeared as though molten gold metal swirled around his eye in bright metallic golds to deep equally metallic oranges. The middle of his iris was not black either but a deep red that at first glance could pass for a warm ebon.
Colors flooded Harry's vision. Dancing colors that permeated the air and swirled around the healer and her wand filled his eyesight. He couldn't make out the details of the faces of the men and women in front of him but he could see each of their individual colors pulsing from inside of them out into the air.
Harry quickly opened his other eye and blinked several times. The colors he saw from his right eye merged with the normal vision of his left and Harry felt as though a pair of 3-D glasses had been placed over his eyes. The depth he now saw in the world around him was astounding. Harry could see the magic he had only just felt before. The sparkling dust that hovered and danced in the air gave everything an ethereal quality and the auras of the human beings in front of him were more prominent and strangely connected to each other.
The world had changed for Harry and it was more beautiful then he had ever given credit to it for. Harry didn't ever want to close his eyes again.
"Mr. Evans," The Medi-Witch asked cautiously, "Can you see?"
Harry focused on her but found his right eye would only focus on the magic within her. So to the witch it appeared as though his left eye had lost most of it's visibility.
He nodded to the woman, "Yes," He said slowly, "I can see…sort of."
"What do you mean…sort of?" The doctor asked.
"Well," Harry said his voice quiet because he was still in awe at his new find, "It's hard to explain…"
So Harry tried to explain it to the two medical professionals. The Doctor was confused and the Medi-Witch was skeptical so she conjured a small blue ball and held it out to Harry. Harry took it into his hands and examined the small object carefully.
"What color is that ball Mr. Evans?" The witch asked.
"Blue…no…yellow…wait," Harry squinted at the ball carefully with both eyes and then looked up at the witch, "It's blue, but it's surrounded by a sphere of tiny yellow runes. The same yellow that surrounds you madam."
The witch looked at him astounded and banished the ball in a flash of fair yellow light, "I don't believe it." She said, "It takes years of practice for a wizard to be able to see the individual magic of each witch or wizard."
"Is that what I'm seeing?" Harry asked.
"Yes." The Healer breathed, "I don't know what spell hit you're eye, but you can be sure that you now have a very useful gift."
"Have both of you're eyes always been that peculiar shade of green?" The Muggle doctor asked.
"Yeah," Harry nodded, "Always."
"Hmmmm…"the Doctor contemplated looking to the healer, "Is it normal for the eye to change in color like it has when hit with a curse?"
Harry looked at the doctor startled as the Healer answered, "No," She shook her head, "Normally the eye will no longer function or else it is lost. This is a very unusual case."
"Wait a minute," Harry stated, "My eye is a different color?"
The two medical professionals looked at each other uneasily, "Well…" The doctor began, "Yes, it is."
A nurse wordlessly handed Harry a mirror and Harry stared first at the massive scar that ran from the top of his right forehead to the middle of his neck. The scar went through his right golden eye. Harry stared at the unusual color noticing his own fiery aura dance around him like the flames that Harry could call around him. Harry noticed the red in the middle of his iris instead of black and flinched remembering another cold red eye. Harry didn't recognize his face at all, and if it weren't for the fact that his left eye was still the vivid green he remembered, he would have called the Muggle nurse beside him false.
Harry thanked the nurse quietly and handed the mirror back to her with shaky hands. His own image haunted his thoughts as he stared at his nearly unresponsive legs. For one frightening moment, Harry's scar throbbed…but after checking the wards Dumbledore placed on his mind Harry sighed. He bet Voldemort would find great pleasure in his scarred face.
"Mr. Evans?" The Doctor asked.
Harry smiled the lop-sided grin he had become accustomed to using at the Muggle man, "Could we put the bandage back?" He asked jokingly.
The Medi-Witch looked at him startled, "Mr. Evans, do you know how much of a miracle you're eye is?"
"Yes," Harry said, "I mean…maybe." He sighed, "I guess I'm just getting tired of healing…I didn't expect…" Harry smiled, "I guess I'm not really sure what I expected." He took the Witches hand and shook it sincerely, "Thank you. I mean it." He shook the hand of the Muggle Doctor, "Thanks to both of you. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am. Thank you."
As the Doctor and Healer tested Harry, the boy watched the swirling dust around him as it danced serenely and wondered. Why had his eye changed color as it had? Could it possibly have something to do with how he was stabbed with his own wand? Perhaps it had something to do with his new fire affinity?
Harry didn't know and frankly, he wasn't sure he wanted to. Voldemort's red eyes haunted Harry and Harry's red pupil worried him…Although, Harry smiled, he wouldn't give up his new sight for the world. If a red pupil was the price to pay for seeing the world as he did now…? Harry would learn to deal with it. He guessed the thing that made him the saddest was that his right eye was no longer his mother's gift. He'd never hear people tell him his eyes were like hers again.
Harry answered all of the questions the Doctor and Healer asked him as they tested his right eye's vision. Apparently Harry's depth perception was pretty off which Harry could attest to. Everything looked like it had so much more to it; the length of an object in front of Harry had grown and shortened at the same time. Looking around was both beautiful and incredibly dizzying. Harry purposely kept his gaze steady only staring in one direction at a time.
What was frustrating about his right eye was that it wouldn't focus like it used to. It wouldn't focus on the object that he was looking at. It would only focus on the aura each object emitted.
That was another question Harry now had…how did everything have an aura? Or was it really an aura like what Harry saw with living beings? Was it just energy building up around each object? And why were there pockets of more dense dust in random spots in the air?
Harry closed his eyes and thanked the doctors as they left. His mind was swirling with thoughts and questions that he would have to ask and think on as he awaited Hermione and Ron's arrival. He grinned imagining their reactions to his newest features.
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Thus, the end of this chapter. Has anyone else ever put on 3-D glasses and had difficulty walking strait? Or is that just me… I do hope I have portrayed his eye sight as I imagined it. If it is too confusing to anyone I would appreciate it if you let me know. I will continue to try to make it clearer.
I'd like to stress that I have appreciated all the input that I have gotten. I wo7uld like to try to answer be a few questions pertaining to Harry's willingness to open up to his loved ones and how he reacts when confonted with the abuse issue. It is in my limited experience that some times (and I'd like to really stress that 'sometimes') abuse victims don't feel they are actually being abused. This would be Harry's case. He had never experienced anything better before leaving on the train for Hogwarts so he didn't feel it was unusual. Unfair maybe, but not really unusual. I'm not sure how to really explain it. I feel Harry probably didn't ever question the Dursley's treatment of him until meeting Ron's family.
It's not that the Dursleys didn't abuse him, because they did. In more then one way and on more then one account…It's just Harry has been through so much within the past summer that he doesn't see what the Dursleys did to him as anything important. I have met people who believe that if a hand is not raised against a child…they are not abusing said kid. It makes me sad that some people believe that.
Child abuse is a sensitive subject and I hope that I have not offended anyone in brining it up. Everyone has different reactions to these situations, Harry reacts by clinging to those he loves and talking to the people he respects. Not everyone dose this.
Also, please keep in mind that Harry, Hermione and Ron really are only fifteen. They're at that age where they are going to mess around and find stupid, childish things as they're own personal inside jokes. I know a lot of their actions and the situations they are constantly thrown into make them seem older…but I hoped to remind people of their ages through their banter.
I hope I have answered some questions. And I do hope you all continue sending me more. I really do appreciate questions and especially constructive criticism. Thank you for reading and sending me you're thoughts.
-Red