Unlikely Mentor
Chapter 9
Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.
Upon entering his bedroom, Harry shut the door and then threw himself on the bed, heedless of the protesting springs as they creaked loudly under his weight. He stared moodily at the ceiling. Dobby hesitantly asked, "Does you need anything, Harry Potter?"
Harry lifted his head off the pillow and turned to look at the house-elf. "Nothing, Dobby. Do what you need to do, all right?"
Dobby popped away, leaving Harry to fume in a brown study for a while. On the one hand, Figg's admission had genuinely upset and annoyed him, being as this meant Headmaster Dumbledore had to be somewhat aware of what went on at the Dursleys prior to going to Hogwarts. On the other, though, he was a little bit surprised at himself at how easily his anger seemed to just overwhelm him at times. He hadn't needed to slam the teacup down on the table and practically shout the roof off to get his point across to Mrs Figg, and with Hestia Jones right there, too?
It actually embarrassed him a little bit.
After all, he'd seen Aunt Petunia purposely talk down to neighbours she didn't like in front of other neighbours she wanted to curry favour with. It seemed to him that while Aunt Petunia's habit of malicious gossip wasn't at all like his episode with Mrs Figg, it was true he had no cause to yell at her in front of a stranger who didn't need to hear it or be a part of it, just like Aunt Petunia had no business trying to use gossip as a way to snidely cut down someone else as part of a conversation with a third party.
Well, he imagined, the Headmaster would hear about it one way or the other so there wasn't any point wondering if he should write a letter to Dumbledore. So Harry lay back, staring at the ceiling in his room wondering just why Dumbledore was taking so much interest in extra help for him and yet insisting on keeping him around relatives who barely tolerated his presence.
/\/\/\/\
Arabella Figg's head showing up in the Floo in the Headmaster's Office startled Dumbledore, but he quickly rallied and rushed to kneel next to the fireplace. "Yes, Mrs Figg?"
She was clearly agitated and rushed through her words as she spoke. "Headmaster! Oh, for Heaven's sake, Headmaster, why did Harry have to find out this way? The boy was upset and he had every right to be and I couldn't say anything to make him feel better!"
Albus put up his hand and said, "Please slow down, Arabella. Now, what has happened?"
She closed her eyes and sighed, then opened her eyes again. "Harry found out I'm a Squib you put here to watch over him. He's not very happy with the way I felt I had to distance myself from him to keep his relatives from catching on that I was more than I seemed." She gathered herself and said firmly, "It's time. You need to tell him everything, Headmaster."
A weight seemed to settle in Dumbledore's stomach as he realised he couldn't put the matter off any longer. A quick check with surface Legilimency confirmed the matter, as he picked up from Arabella's thoughts the gist of the bruising meeting Harry had stormed out of earlier that day. He said in a low voice, "Thank you. I will be in touch later."
The flames died out and Figg's face faded away. Albus wearily got up to his feet and looked up at Fawkes, who trilled neutrally. "It's time, my friend. I will be asking you to take a note to Harry shortly. Will that be fine?"
Fawkes perked up noticeably and chirped. That, at least, seemed encouraging. Fawkes had always had something of a special connection to Harry since the day he had saved Harry's life in the Chamber of Secrets, and this connection might well help Harry in the days ahead. But for now, the letter; Albus wrote out a short request for a meeting and gave it to Fawkes, who flashed away brightly.
While he waited for Harry's reply, he considered whether it might be useful to accelerate matters and have Harry taken to Grimmauld Place and meet Horace there to begin the next phase of Occlumency training. And the meeting prior to that move would give him the chance to tell Harry what he needed to know before he started finding out half-heard half-truths behind locked doors of the meetings of the Order of the Phoenix.
Fawkes flashed back, with a scrawled reply from Harry: "Yes."
/\/\/\/\
Fawkes's presence in his room had rather startled Harry out of his funk. Knowing that Dumbledore would likely visit soon after his affirmative reply, he sat up on his bed, waiting for… well, something.
The ringing of the doorbell soon answered that question, and he rushed down the stairs only to nearly crash into Aunt Petunia. She scowled at him, then opened the door. As soon as she saw Dumbledore, she gasped and stumbled backwards. "You!" she hissed.
Albus Dumbledore looked for all the world like a nineteenth-century Headmaster of an exclusive school in Great Britain: he wore a tuxedo complete with a white shirt and a bow tie, half-hidden by his large beard. The only concession to his magical nature was the almost-undetectable whirling stars and whizzing comets Harry could see on the old man's belt and belt buckle.
The old Headmaster inclined his head and said evenly, "Me." After a moment, he stepped inside the house and closed the door behind him. "However, Mrs Dursley, I am not here to have a discussion with you today. Harry here, as I'm sure you are aware, is rather important in our world and my discussion with him today is somewhat overdue."
Aunt Petunia, having recovered some of her equilibrium, sniffed sharply and said, "Then get on with it, already!"
Without a further word, Harry and Dumbledore ascended the stairs and entered his bedroom. Harry said, "I'd offer you a seat but there's really not much to pick from."
"Being me," quipped Dumbledore, "has its advantages."
And so saying, he waved his wand, conjuring up two comfortable chairs, facing each other in the previously unoccupied central area of Harry's bedroom. Reluctantly impressed with Dumbledore's wandwork, he sat down in the chair that faced the small window in his room.
As the Headmaster sat in the other chair, Harry said, "Why could you cast a spell in here? Hestia Jones said she didn't dare risk it or it'd set off my Trace."
"That is part of a much longer story, Harry." Dumbledore's expression became grave. "To take you back to when you were not much more than a year old, there was magic Lily – your mother – had somehow invoked when a rather peculiar set of circumstances all happened to align to assure your fortuitous survival. The end result was that I found a way to anchor that protective magic which hung over you after your mother died, as long as you could live with someone else of your mother's bloodline. Thus, your aunt Petunia continues that protection which will keep you alive and safe here in this house, proof against any wizard with malicious intent, and because I cast the initial spell, I can cast any subsequent ones or give authorisation to do such casting."
Harry snorted. "There's an obvious flaw in your notion of protection. Didn't it ever occur to you that my own so-called family could hurt me? I've lost count of the number of times Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia looked the other way while Dudley and his friends decided to make sport of me. And then there's at least one time Aunt Petunia chucked that frying pan at me! If I hadn't ducked in time, you'd be minus one savior of the wizarding world!"
Dumbledore seemed to deflate. He nodded wearily and said, "I didn't want to know details. To me, it mattered far more that you, the Boy-Who-Lived, the savior of our world, would be kept hidden and when the time was right, you would be brought back to our world. I justified it to myself: what did it matter that even Minerva McGonagall had warned me against placing you with your relatives when I could secure for you a protective enchantment the likes not even Voldemort could penetrate? For it was engendered by love – that emotion which is still embodied in the protection that burned him in your first year."
Harry couldn't contain himself any longer. He leaped out of his chair and snarled, "I can't believe this! You saw how Aunt Petunia reacted to you. She'd have bent over backward to treat me properly if it meant making sure you didn't darken her doorstep again. One word, Headmaster – one word! That would've been all it took to get those sorry excuses for relatives to straighten up their act!
"Love, Headmaster? Love? Excuse me if I point out the slight contradiction between making an entire bubble of protection over this place out of my mother's love for me when my aunt and uncle don't even seem to know what to do with the word when it comes to me!"
Harry began pacing back and forth in the confined space – all of five feet of walking space – between the back of his conjured chair and the wall. Moodily, he stepped back and forth, wishing with all his will he wasn't hearing this from the Headmaster – the same Headmaster who'd taken a kindly interest in him and had seemed the personification of all that was great and good in the wizarding world.
"Harry?" Dumbledore's quiet voice broke in on Harry's thoughts. He looked up. Dumbledore's expression was somber. "I have failed you, Harry. I owe you a tremendous apology, and I hope you will one day forgive me. I would only impose once more upon you this summer and ask that you be ready to move to your godfather's residence some time this week."
Harry grimaced. It felt too much like a bribe or being fobbed off, being removed from the Dursleys at this point. Yet, he had no real desire to stay in Number Four Privet Drive just to prove a point to Dumbledore, so he settled for a muttered, "All right, then," as he sat down on his bed, pointedly ignoring the comfortable chair Dumbledore had conjured. He huffed and said, "Can we talk about any other important stuff later? I just want to be alone right now and think."
The Headmaster stood, and with a muffled pop the chairs disappeared, followed by, "Fawkes?"
Two flashes later, Harry Potter sat alone.
Author Notes: Not moving the plot much here, I'm afraid. But yet it moves. :) Also, anyone who'd like to beta this, please let me know :)
