Chapter 7 The Start of Vengeance

Harry spent the first week home from the hospital exploring the house and yard and having lessons. The only time he was left alone was at night when he went to bed. At first he took several naps each day but as physical strength returned he could go for longer stretches of time without napping.

It was during this first week that Harry was introduced to the extended family he had been adopted into as different family members made it a point to visit every day. He found out that he had an older brother named Trask who was 36 years old and two older sisters. The eldest was named Florin and she was 39 years old and the youngest till he came along was named Riena. She was 26 years old and was in an apprenticeship to become a legal enforcer which from what Harry could understand about it meant a barrister of some sort. He also met cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. It was a bit humbling to have come from a family of five, four of which hated his guts and the fifth being himself to this family of well over 100 members who all seemed more than willing to accept him and accept him they did. It seemed like everyone wanted to bring him gifts, hug him, kiss him or sometimes just hold him. Talk about embarrassing!

Dreamer told him she was impressed with his ability to learn the language and he had a working vocabulary of about 600 words. Often he had trouble saying what he wanted to say and had to rely on Dreamer to translate for him or sometimes just to supply a word that he didn't know but now he could hold conversations with the others if the pace of the conversation was kept slow enough for him to translate in his head what was said and if the topic was simple enough for him to follow.

Harry spent a lot of time outside and although he couldn't get past the wards he found that he didn't mind too much. He guessed that his complicity was a combination of not having the strength yet for some serious exploring and the fact that he figured out that the wards were for his protection. Besides mothers gardens had a lot of things in them that caught his attention without having to expand his horizon at this time.

The two robins had been released in the garden and he found it enjoyable to sit by the stream and watch them build a nest for their young. He also enjoyed watching the strange creatures called Pseudo Dragons at play. Mother had told him that they were very intelligent creatures and that sometimes a young one would bond with a human. The two he saw all the time weren't babies and although father had told him that they had a set of young Harry had never seen them yet.

The Pseudo Dragons had a body that was reminiscent of a dragon but the wings more closely resembled the wings of a dragonfly. They were gossamer and tenuous and didn't really look like they could support the little creatures. Harry loved watching them harvest insects with their little front paws and whenever a tray of cut up fruit was left out for them they would land right in the middle of it and dig through the pieces till they found just the right ones to take away with them. Because the bigger ones ate at the tray he supposed that the selected pieces of fruit was being taken back to their young ones.

Sometimes before Harry was taken upstairs for bed several relatives would come over to talk to his parents about the quads that were being formed for something or another. When he asked his parents about it he was told that each quad consisted of four people. A seeker, a hunter, an enforcer and a counselor and those quads were the method that Titans used to deal with serious family issues. He wondered what type of issues were considered serious family issues and asked his parents about that as well. What he got for that effort was his father ruffling his hair and being told that in a family this size there was always some issue that someone thought was serious and part of his duty as head of family was to insure that the quads were ready to deal with them.

That was another thing that was totally weird about his life now. If he was curious about anything at all he was encouraged to ask questions. His father told him that sometimes he wouldn't get an answer to his question but he would always get something and that was proving to be true. Most questions were answered but sometimes he was told that he was too young for the answer and twice he was told that he was not ready to understand the answer to his questions but he was never ignored and he was never lied to.

At the end of the first week he was taken back to the hospital and given another exam and Lish pronounced him "Much improved" What that meant was that his father woke him up every day at 06:00 A.M. and made him take a walk with him all the way around the perimeter of the property. The first couple of times he had to stop and rest several times and by the time the walk was finished he was huffing and puffing like he had run 10 miles. By the end of the second week he could make the complete walk without resting although he always felt like his legs were made of rubber when it was over.

Another noteworthy thing to happen was about the middle of the second week the appearance of the two young pseudo dragons. A little orange female with brown blotches that he named Tiger Lily because she reminded him of one and a little male that he called Royal because of the royal purple color of his hide. Harry had taken to eating his breakfast outside and the two little ones had taken to joining him for that breakfast. Their parents would bring them insects to eat and they would help themselves to fruit from the tray that was always set out for them. Sometimes after they finished their breakfast the two little ones would curl up on Harry's lap and go to sleep for a short nap although they always left when Dreamer came outside to give him his language lessons.

In addition to the language lessons with Dreamer and the meditation lessons with his mother he was also taking health lessons from his father. He was learning what the medical problems he had were and how he got them in addition to what was being done to treat them.

He found out that he had damage from long term deficiencies of vitamin A which was part of the reason his muscle mass wasn't where it should be and why he couldn't see in the dark very well even with the new glasses he had been given.

Thiamine which caused him to have short term memory loss and some nerve damage. Apparently he didn't feel the crucio as badly as others would because he enough damage to his nerves that pain wasn't that big of an issue. Well who knew? Harry smiled at the thought that if Voldermort had known he would be pissed off.

He also had rickets from not drinking enough milk as a child. Well duhh on that. He didn't think he had ever even had any milk till he went to Hogwarts.

The good news was that the 4 potions he took every day were slowly correcting these problems. Well, except for the nerve damage. That one would require more surgery but according to father it would be a long drawn out process because each nerve found to be damaged would have to be replaced. The thought of that was kinda cool because he knew muggles science couldn't do that and he didn't even think magic could.

His lessons with his mother were proceeding well. He could now relax his mind and blank it without any problem and now she was teaching him how to do things like feel his heart beat and blood run through his veins. She said that once he knew and understood his body then he could learn to find and use his inner magic. It was strange but before he would have said that he knew his body but no longer. It seemed like the more he learned about his own body and how it worked the less he found out that he really knew after all.

By the end of the second week he was once again taken to the hospital for an exam and this time Lish told his father it was time to start correcting some of the other things that were wrong with him. His parents were to bring him back in three days for corrective surgery on his eyes.

The way it was explained to him he had something called Retinopathy of the vitreous body which was slowly causing him to go blind. Surprisingly this condition wasn't caused by poor diet. It was caused by being born premature although the poor nutrition he had as a child had accentuated the problem. After he had been told that he was really surprised because apparently Neville really was supposed to be the one in the prophecy and not him. Lish told him he should have been born at the end of August and not in July at all. Go figure. He gets born to early just so a psychopath could try to kill him. Only Harry Potter right?

That surgery went off without a hitch although he had his eyes bandaged for two days after and then he had some drops that had to be put in his eyes about every hour till his tear ducts started working again. At night his father had to put this stuff that looked like a jelly in his eyes and in the morning his eyes were all gummed up and he couldn't open them to see till someone would help him wash off the crusty stuff from them. But everyday after the bandages came off, everyday he could see a little bit better, a little bit clearer…

At the end of the third week he had a working vocabulary of about a thousand words and he could find his magic.

He didn't think he would ever forget the incredible feeling he got the day he finally found his magic. At first he wasn't really sure what it was because he couldn't see it. He could feel it though. He could feel it reaching out to all parts of his body and sometimes he could feel it reaching out beyond his body. When he held the young Pseudo Dragons, or when someone else preformed magic around him it would stretch out trying to connect but not quite able to. He tried to explain the feeling to his mother but lacked the words. He wondered if there even were words to describe what he felt. It was wonderful and somehow invigorating. It also generated a feeling of calm within himself.

It turned out that he had no need to explain the feeling to his mother. She understood because she had felt it herself. They all had when they learned to access their magic but she couldn't describe the feeling any better than he could. Oh well, some things just could never be explained and he guessed this was going to be one of them.

It was the next morning at breakfast that his father came to him in the garden to talk about his past.

"Harry, how you are feeling today?" Father asked him

Harry smiled shyly at his father, "Good, well I guess better than good really. How are you feeling today father?"

Kestral picked up a piece of toast and spread some jam on it before taking a big bite. "I wanted to talk to you about your life before I found you. Do you think you can do that this morning?"

Harry paled a bit before looking down. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything, anything. I want to know why you were hurt; I want to know who it was that did the hurting. I want to know who helped you, I want to know why?" Kestral reached out and cupped his hand under Harry's jaw and lifted his head so that he was looking at his father. "Why were you so unhappy that afternoon?"

"My godfather" Harry pulled his head away and averted his eyes. "My godfather was killed a few weeks before you found me. It was my fault." Harry shut his eyes as a tear ran down his cheek. "You didn't get a very good bargain when you took me you know? People that get close to me tend to die. My parents, my friend in school, my godfather. They all died and it was because of me."

Kestral could feel the sadness begin to grow once again around the boy. "How did they die Harry? Why do you think it's your fault?"

"Vol-Voldermort, He's a madman who wants to rule my world but he also wants to kill off all of the muggles and muggle born. There was a prophecy made before I was born about how he would mark a child born as the seventh month died…"

Slowly the story of his parent's betrayal came out. Their deaths, being sent to live with his aunt, uncle and cousin, Hogwarts, his friends, the tribulations he had faced year after year as Voldermort did his best to kill the boy. The feelings of betrayal as he figured out that the headmaster was not looking out for his best interest. The pain of watching his friends being hurt because of his mistakes. The death of his beloved godfather. Feelings of being abandoned and betrayed by the adults in his life that should have looked after him, that should have loved him. The tears he shed curled up on his fathers lap was almost like a catalyst for releasing the pain, confusion, anger and despair he had been carrying around within himself.

After he talked and cried himself out he slept safe in the arms of the man he was beginning to trust would never betray him. If he had been able to look at what was going on in his life in a more analytical manor he would have been amazed at how fast trust was growing within himself for he had learned over the years to be selfish with his trust because people betrayed that trust to often. If he understood the family bond his father's love had help erect between all of the family and himself or the parental bond that had started to grow when Kestral had first seen him he would have never been afraid of what was happening to himself at all.

That night after he was tucked up in his bed sleeping a sleep that only an innocent could sleep his father and mother met with the 8 quads that had been formed.

The first list that father gave to them contained the names Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, George Weasley, Fred Weasley, Hermiony Granger, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood. "These are his friends. Each has been hurt in some way because of my son's enemies. Treat them gently and give them any help and support they need for past support to Harry." Kestral said. "They are all children and my son thinks very highly of their parents. Offer what support to the parents that you can. I understand that this world is engaged in a war. Keep these safe."

The next list was much shorter. Petunia Dursley, Vernon Dursley, Marge Dursley and Dudley Dursley. "The last is a child who has been much abused although in a different way than my son. Bring him here for healing. The others? Investigate them and decide what if any punishment is needed than administer it."

The next list he passed out contained the names Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Remus Lupen, Cornelius Fudge, Deloris Umbridge, Rita Skeeter and Percy Weasley. "This list is incomplete. Flesh it out and then investigate them. My son is very confused about those on this list. Use careful judgment for each presently on the list and the ones you add to this list. If after judgment punishment is needed administer it and if counsel is needed then administer that."

The last list would have sent chills down any light or even gray witch or wizard. Voldermort, Bellatrix Lestrange, Wormtail, Avery, Lucius Malfoy, Macnair, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott. "This list is also incomplete. I understand that the group as a whole calls themselves Death Eaters and that there are many more than my son knows the names of. Find them all and kill them. I also understand from my son that there are many children associated with these animals. Bring them here for healing."

Kestral smiled at his family members. "One thing more, this world has Soul Ravers on it. They are associated with a place called Azkaban. Find them and destroy them."

At these words many took on a look of hatred and anger. Jeris's face twisted into an ugly grimace. "How," he spat "did Soul Ravers happen to be on this world. I had thought they had all been destroyed long ago."

"I have no clue how they got there. I know that the lawful government uses them for something. Something no doubt vile and evil." Kestral shuddered at the thought of the unclean abominations. "Just purge them from that place whatever they do and wherever they are I don't care. I only care that they are gone."

At the last of these words the quads vanished without another word spoken. They would not fail in their quest to gain vengeance for a small child who had been so badly abused.