AN: I don't own anything! No character that you recognize, and no songs. Just the idea. Hello it's me! Enjoy!
Normally, I don't update this fast, it's usually every ten days so I can better juggle my stories, but, I can't get this story outta my head. Oh, and, River and the Doctor are Lily and James, so mostly, that's what they'll be called. Plus, I have decided that this fic is one where I'm not so fond of Dumbledore. Sorry to those of you who like him, I really am. But hey, it's still worth reading, right?
Now, the Dursleys' comeuppance has begun! May the odds be never in their favor! But remember, it's only the beginning for them.
Question though: What do you guys think of Sirius/Remus, and Severus/OC? I NEED TO KNOW!
Though first, I have some replies for you:
little-bast: No, no it's not wrong at all. And yes, yes they will.
To those who take the time to review, and especially those who review repeatedly, I love y'all! Y'all are amazing! I hug you all!
AAAAANNNNNDDDDD... If you can find the quote/reference, you can have an idea put into the story, or can help create Snape's OC. You know, whatever pleases you. You don't have to be first, just right. There are two this time. It will always be HP or DW related. I've never done it before, and thought it would be fun to see other people's ideas.
Oh and, who can find the hidden wizard? An HP character decided out of nowhere to just go rogue.
PREVIOUSLY:
SMELTINGS:
"Hey Dudley, ain't this you and tour family?" Dudley looked up at the shout, and saw one of the upper classmen holding the Londen Times. He snatched it away and read through it as best he could, getting madder and more humiliated with each sentence he stumbled through.
GRUNNINGS:
A tall, well built man in a polo and blue jeans sat at his desk, reading his morning paper. Suddenly he got up from his seat and jerked open his door.
"Meena, I need you to get Dursley up to my office, ASAP, can you do that for me?"
"Sure thing, Boss." A well-dressed, dark haired woman picked up the phone and dialed Dursley's office.
CH: 7
SMELTINGS:
Dudley Dursley was having the worst day of his life. Kids kept whispering, pointing, and snickering at him. They didn't even do it behind his back, they did it right out in the open. Kids walked up to him and mocked him, and nowhere was safe. Some of the older jocks had even decided to beat him up and call him names to 'give him a taste of his own medicine' all because of that stupid article. For the first time, he finally had an inkling of how Harry felt. He had honestly tried started trying to change, but this entire day just strengthened his resolve, but he was afraid for his parents. He knew they would end up in jail. What would happen to him?
GRUNNINGS:
When Vernon Dursley's secretary knocked on his door and interrupted his snack while he watched the news, he had to stop himself from biting the woman's head off. After all, he didn't want to go through the bother of finding another assistant again. So he smiled pleasantly as she informed him that the boss wanted to see him. Inside he was grinning smugly. He was getting a promotion! He hadn't bothered to put in for one, after all, everyone could see that he was far superior to those that did apply.
Vernon took his sweet time getting to his boss' office, partly because he was incapable of any type of speed, and partly because he was arrogant enough to believe that he was better than everyone. He had no idea what was waiting for him, as he hadn't had the chance to read the paper that morning. When he ambled over to the secretary's desk, she didn't look up, just waved him through, which irritated him. He was more important than her, and she was brushing him off? Fuming, he stomped into his boss' office.
"Ah, Mr. Dursley, come in and shut the door," his boss ordered, not even glancing up from his paper. This rankled Vernon even further, but he did as he was told. "Take a seat, Mr. Dursley."
When Vernon complied, the boss finally looked up from his paper. "Well, Mr. Dursley, certain things have come to my attention, and I cannot ignore them." Vernon smiled smugly. This was it! "Would you care to explain this?"
Vernon's smile disappeared rapidly as his boss slapped the paper down between them, front page up. He tried his best to lie his way out of it. "Well, you see, my wife's sister had a mental break when she was a child, she used to believe she was magic you see, and Pet was always patient with her, but when their parents died, she had the girl committed. Really, she had no other choice. Poor girl nearly went psychotic with grief. A few years later, the hospital gives us poor Lily's baby, saying that Lily had gotten pregnant with another patient, and the baby had a calming effect on her, so they didn't remove it, but Lily and the Father escaped one night, and we were told that they were dead. They showed up out of the blue, and it was obvious that the years had taken their toll on their minds and that they had dragged poor Harry down with them. It truly is a shame."
He affected a sorrowful manner, and hopped that this wouldn't effect his promotion. "Really? Is that the truth?"
"Yes Sir, nothing truer than that." He boss looked thoughtful.
"You see, that really is a surprise, seeing as I am good friends with Lord and Lady Potter. You see, some years ago, Lord Potter's late parents gave Grunnings their start, and funded them completely for a full year. So imagine my surprise when I hear that not only were you raising their heir, but you were doing it both illegally, and rather pathetically poorly. And imagine my deep shock when I find that two of my best friends who often had me for dinner, and whom I often hosted, were actually delusional psychopaths locked away in a mental institution!"
In that moment, Vernon knew he was in trouble. So he said the only thing that mattered to him in that moment. "So is this going to effect my promotion? Because if it's not, I'd like to start moving my office-"
"Promotion?" His boss stared at him incredulously.
"Well, yes. I mean, I am one of your best," he boasted proudly. The boss actually started to laugh.
"Vernon Dursley, you are one of the worst employees we have. We haven't fired you yet because we knew you were 'raising' two young boys. But we've been seriously considering it for awhile now. And now, I'm officially doing it. You're fired!"
"WHAT? BUT TED! YOU CAN'T JUST-"
"DO NOT CALL ME TED! I have never given you permission to treat me in any other manner than your superior, and you will address me as Mr. Tonks, and nothing else. Now clear out your office. I want you gone by the en of the day. Oh, and, by the way? That opening? It was for your job anyway. You just sped the process a little." Vernon numbly got up and headed to his office. His thoughts were slowly turning to revenge. That freak would pay.
4PRIVETDRIVE:
Petunia was miserable. her house had been egged three times, the car had been keyed, hooligans had been playing ding-dong ditch all day, the neighbors had stared, pointed, and whispered, not bothering to be discreet, and when she ran to the grocery store, she was sneered at, cursed at, ignored, and then the cashier took five minutes before 'realizing' she was there and ringing her up. It was all because of that garbage, lying, cursed article!
HPOV:
We went down to our vaults after I managed to stop laughing, where we could talk without being disturbed, and where Mom and Dad could grab a few things. Mom went down after us to set up the horcrux removal and to arrange three credit cards that linked to our vault that worked in both the muggle and the magical world. I didn't mind, because there was something I wanted to ask Dad, and I had a feeling he wouldn't answer if Mom was here.
"Dad," I asked when we settled into a set of large, comfy chairs.
"Yes, Harry?"
"Why do you look so sad sometimes, when you look at Mom?" He stared at me quietly for a long moment.
"Shoulda' known you'd catch that, huh?" he said ruefully, with a bitter grin. "Harry, this isn't something I ever wanted to tell you."
"I don't care," I said stubbornly, crossing my arms. "I want to know. I need to know."
"No Harry."
"Please."
"Harry, please, don't make me do this," he begged. There were tears in his eyes, and he blinked them back, which only strengthened my resolve to know. I had to know what could hurt my Dad so badly.
"I'm sorry. But I need to know. I have to understand." I stared at him as firmly and stubbornly as I could.
"I don't think I can, don't think I can tell you." he suddenly looked to be on the verge of breaking down, and I rushed over to hug him.
"What about a penseive then?" he stared at me incredulously before getting up and rummaging around for a minute. When he came back, he was clutching a rather large pensieve, which he then placed on a nearby table. "Alright Harry, but you must swear to me that you will never tell your mother. I'm sorry, but she cannot know."
I looked him in the eye. "I swear."
He nodded after a moment, then closed his eyes and placed his wand tip to his temple. When he pulled it away, a long shining strand of silver clung to it, and he guided it into the pensieve. "Take my hand Harry, and we'll go in together."
I took it, and we both bowed until our faces touched the stuff, and then we were sucked in. When the mist settled, I saw my a man in a trench coat and a redheaded woman in a huge library. "That's me and my honorary sister, Donna Noble."
I nodded, and then I watched as Mom arrived in a space suit, hiding grimaces whenever she had to look at her helmet, or another suited person. I watched as Mom blinked back tears when she realized that Dad hadn't met her yet. I watched her team die, getting glimpses into this mainframe thing, and then of this little girl. I watched as Mom knocked dad out. And then, I watched her die.
I couldn't look away, but I was sobbing, and I didn't even realize that we'd let the pensieve until I felt Dad's arms around me, crushing me to his chest as he whispered, "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, I'm sorry Harry, I'm sorry River, I'm so sorry," over and over again into my hair, where his cheek was pressed, his own body wracked with sobs.
By the time the sobbing eased into teary gasps for air, I had wound my arms around him, and whispered reassurances through my tears. "Harry, it's not ok. Your mother, she's going to die, and I can't do a thing about it."
"I know Dad. But everybody knows that everybody dies," I said trying to comfort him. He looked at me.
"But it still hurts," he whispered. I nodded slowly. "I know, harry, I know how it hurts. But the hurt, it can actually be a good thing," he murmured, trying to comfort me. "Do you know why?"
I shook my head.
"Because it means that you care. It means that, that you care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it," he hugged me close again. "And that is a good thing, Son. Because that means that between the two of us, we have a pretty good shot at finding a way to save her." I stared at him, not daring to hope that we could, but he looked dead serious. I flung my arms around him.
"Don't worry, Daddy. We'll save her." A moment later, Mom walked in, and then immediately hurried over to us.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt? What happened? Who did it, and where are they?" She demanded as she tried to check us over.
"River," Dad said soothingly, stroking her once again blonde curls away from her face. "We just had a rather emotional father-son bonding moment."
She stared at him a moment, before sighing and wrapping us into a tight hug. "My boys. You've got to stop doing this to me. You two will be the death of me, making me worry like this." Dad winced, but hid it from her, and both our arms tightened around her.
"Mama don't say that, please," I whispered, and she pulled back a little to look down at me.
"I'm sorry Baby, I didn't think. I forgot about that, I suppose, now that I have you back." I nodded and curled up against her tighter. Honestly, so had I. At first, I was afraid that they'd disappear again, or that I'd wake up and find out that it was all just a dream. But yesterday, I relaxed, starting to believe that they were really here, and here to stay. But when Mom said that, it all just came crashing back. Yeah, they came back, but they died, and Mom was going to die again. I didn't know when, but it was going to happen.
RPOV:
When I saw Harry crying, I immediately started to worry, but when I saw my husband crying as well, it erupted into full-blown panic. I calmed down when they reassured me that it was just bonding. I didn't believe that that was all there was to it by any means, but I let it go for the moment, soothing them, and hugging them closely. I grabbed a trunk, a jewelry box, and a large leather bag. When I bent over to get the chest, my shirt must've ridden up, because Harry gasped and said, "Mom! Are you ok? What happened?"
Belatedly I remembered that I had shucked my robe so it wouldn't get in the way while I got everything. Which meant that a good chunk of scars were on display. "Harry, it's nothing really, I'm fine," I soothed, smoothing my hands through his hair, kissing his head.
We all settled into the chairs, and Harry immediately started bombarding us with questions. We explained to him all about regeneration, basic time travel, the laws of time, Time Lord biology, and so on. He had a relentless stream of questions, and it was a lucky thing I thought to pack lunch, because he wasn't satisfied until around three. And then it was only because he made the mistake of asking his father to teach him to play chess properly, which sparked a long rambling speech, that I cut off with a kiss. Harry looked so relieved, I had to laugh.
We rose, and gathered the few things we'd gathered, and stepped outside. Immediately there was a cart waiting for us to climb in. We all loved the speed as we whipped around turns, flew down the hills, and rocketed up. Three laughing, windswept Potters tumbled from the cart and were quickly shown to the bathrooms so we could straighten our appearances. I did swing by Flourish and Blotts so I could get a few books to occupy me tonight while Harry slept, but then we headed back to Hogwarts.
I sent the Doctor off to go play, and he immediately decided to play keep away with the Whomping Willow. I rolled my eyes and shook my head fondly. "Harry, would you like to walk with me? Just around the lake?"
He readily agreed, so I shouted where we were going to Theta, and he nodded absently as he jumped over a branch and narrowly missed being smacked in the head by another. Bless.
Harry and I chatted about nothing as we headed down, waving to Sprout and her class. But once we were far enough away from everyone, I sat down, and tugged him down beside me. "Harry."
"Yeah Mom?"
"I wanted to talk to you. about the Dursleys," he stiffened beside me, but I kept going. "I know that it's the last thing that you wanted to talk about. Believe me, I know. But I want to make you a deal."
He was silent a moment. "What kind of deal? And how could you possibly know?"
"Because, Sweetheart. That's actually part of the deal. You see Harry, I grew up a lot like you did. And even though I don't remember most of it," I sat up and took a deep breath. "I remember enough. But I've never been able to tell anyone. Your grandparents tried to get me to talk, but I never could. Eventually they understood that I needed time. Your father has given me nothing but time, pushing me a little, but knowing not to push too hard. and I know that you don't want to talk about it, especially not to your Mom. Which is why I'm going to make a deal with you: when you come to me to talk, I won't be your mom unless you need me to. Instead, I'll just be someone who can understand, someone who'll tell their story as well. We can do it with or without your father, whichever way you want."
Harry had sat up while I talked, and considered me for a minute. "So, basically what your saying is, I talk, you talk?"
I nodded, and he considered it for a while before sticking out his hand. He balled it into a fist, with only his pinky sticking out. "Deal."
I laughed and twined mine around his, shaking it once. "Deal. Now come on, let's head back so we'll be there before lunch. And so we can make sure your father hasn't gotten himself killed yet."
He hesitated. "Mom? First, could you, I dunno, sing or something? I dunno, I just, I wanna hear you sing, 'cause I kinda remember it, but not really," he said shyly, and I smiled. I pulled him over so he was sitting in my lap so I could hug him tightly.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You never know, dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamt I held you in my arms
When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head, and I cried
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You never know, dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
Please don't take my sunshine away."
I finished softly and realized two things. A, I was rocking him like I had fourteen years ago, when he was still a baby, and b, he was sound asleep. I smiled and scooped him up, walking back to the castle the long way so that I could keep this moment with him a little longer.
Theta joined us about halfway, and he reached for harry, silently asking. I held him tighter for a second, before I allowed him to be taken from my arms. Theta held him close, smoothly shifting to James, and we were nearly to the greenhouses when Harry woke again.
"Mom? Dad?" He murmured, half-asleep.
"Hey Sleepy-head, welcome back to the land of the living," I teased, and he looked around. He realized he was being carried and he blushed, quietly asking to be put down, and James reluctantly complied. I changed my appearance back to redheaded as we walked up to the castle for dinner, because we still had a good hour to kill, and to be honest, my hair was better behaved that way.
When we walked into the Entry Hall, we were immediately swamped by Ravenclaws demanding information. We tried to escape, but it was useless.
We were trapped.
D/JPOV:
I managed not to give anything away when River walked in on us, and by the time we left, the aching in my chest had once again eased to something more bearable. I held her as much as possible for my own comfort, but when we got back to Hogwarts, they decided to walk the lake, and I decided to mess with my favorite tree.
I knew why she invited Harry for that walk, and I knew that he would agree. There was only so long you could keep the pain bottled up inside.
I watched as they came back around, puzzled for a moment that I only saw River's petite frame and wild curls approaching, but that cleared as I managed to make out Harry's sleeping form held tightly in her arms. I hurried to them, letting myself go back to James, as, when we were around magic it was like our bodies wanted to be as they were. River reverted back to redhead as she reluctantly let me take him from her, but he soon woke up.
When we made it back into the castle, there was a moment of pace before Ravenclaws of every age started streaming out of every nook and cranny, swarming us. In moments there was a rabid horde of students demanding information from us, on the vortex manipulator, on the TARDIS, on our two hearts, on how we changed appearances, on Lily's gun, on everything they could think of. All three of us searched for a gap in the crowd, but came up empty.
There was no escape.
AN: Hope you didn't hate it, your friendly neighborhood Renegade. - RebelUp