...What is this? An update within days? You may take a minute if needed... Done? Good, cause you need to read this thing. I got excited, cause I GOT INTO POTTERMORE! Yes! I almost flipped out... at 6 in the morning in a sleeping house:) Anyway, I though I would spread the cheer. I also forgot to with Harry and Jo Happy Birthday in my last update (note, I didn't forget, just to mention it in my update, cause it was my FB status), so to, not only Jo, and Harry, but also Neville, the most badass underdog Hogwarts has ever seen: Happy Belated Birthday:)
Harry sat up and stretch as the movie ended. Kelly stood up and walked to the TV. She started to rewind the movie, and turned back to him.
"So, what do you think?" she asked him.
"That was really good," he replied. "I loved the fight after the shooting contest, it was really funny. But my favorite part was when they thought Robin was dead, but he wasn't"
"I liked that one too, but I really liked when Robin and Main Marian got married," Kelly told him.
Harry made a face, and Kelly laughed.
"Do you want to watch another? We have a ton of Disney films," she said as she put 'Robin Hood' away.
"You have to get ready for bed first, missy," another voice said from the doorway.
The pair turned to see Shannon watching them.
"Come on, Kelly," she said.
Kelly sighed and walked out with her mom. Harry looked around the room for a second before picking the picture of Kelly's parents up from the tea table.
"That was before we had Kelly," a voice almost made him drop the picture.
He looked up to see Gibbs standing where Shannon had been standing. The man walked into the room, and sat next to Harry.
"At that point in my life, I thought I would never be happier," Gibbs laughed and grabbed another picture from the tea table. "That changed when we had Kelly."
He handed the picture to Harry. The boy took it, and stared at it. It was of Kelly. She was wearing a white sun dress and Gibbs cover. She was laughing at the camera.
"Now, when Kelly is happy, I'm happy," Gibbs continued. "When we first moved here, she wasn't very happy. She had lived in the United States her entire life, and left everything behind: her school, her friends, her grandparents. Then, she came home from school one day, and was happier than she had been since we moved here."
Harry's gazed moved from the picture to Gibbs. The man was watching him.
"She was hurt, but told us she had a new friend," Gibbs paused.
"Me," Harry spoke up. Gibbs smiles slightly.
"Yeah, you," Gibbs sighed before pausing again.
Harry looked back at the picture. A spark of jealousy ignited in his brain. He wished he could have smiled like that.
"Do you want me to stay away from her, sir?" he quietly asked.
Gibbs stared at the small boy. His eyes narrowed. Why would the boy immediately jump to that thought?
"Why would I do something that would make my daughter unhappy?" he asked Harry.
Harry looked back up at him, his eyes full of curiosity.
"Nobody should try to make a child unhappy," Gibbs continued.
Harry instantly looked at his lap. Gibbs sighed. He reached out, and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. Harry flinched under his touch, and Gibbs heart sank.
"I'm not going to hurt you, Harry," he softly said, pulling the boy into a hug.
At first Harry was stiff, almost as if expecting Gibbs to change his mind. After a few seconds, however, he gripped Gibbs shirt, and buried his face into his chest.
Harry tried to hold the tears back as he held onto Gibbs. However, they eventually made their way out. In a way, it felt good. If he ever cried at the Dursley's, and Dudley found out, the other boy would have started to laugh, and wail on him. It felt good to just be able to cry without that fear.
He felt Gibbs pull him back after a while. Harry looked up at him through his tears.
"Have they ever hurt you, Harry?" Gibbs quietly asked.
Harry stared into his eyes for a few seconds before nodding slightly.
Gibbs pulled the boy back into a hug.
Shannon stood behind her daughter. She was brushing the girl's hair in front of the mirror, but her mind was downstairs with Jethro and Harry.
She hoped with all of her heart that she was wrong about Harry's family hurting him, but she couldn't think of any other reasons for the boy to be so small and pale. Not to mention the bruise.
"What's wrong, Mommy?" Kelly asked suddenly.
Shannon looked into the mirror to see her daughter watching her. She must have been more distracted than she realized.
"Nothing, honey, just go brush your teeth," she told the girl.
Kelly turned around to look at her before running towards the bathroom.
Shannon slowly put the brush onto Kelly's dresser. How she hoped she was wrong.
"I'm not going to let them hurt you anymore, Harry. Do you trust me?" Gibbs said.
Harry lifted his head away from the man's chest, and stared into his eyes. Part of his mind told him not to trust the man; had he ever been able to trust anyone? But another part told him that he could trust Gibbs. He had just met the man, and he had already taken better care of Harry than the Dursley's ever had.
Something in the man's eyes convinced the skeptical part of his mind. He instinctually knew he could trust the man.
Slowly, he nodded, and laid his head back down.
Gibbs sighed. Harry trusted him. That was good.
"I need you to tell me what they have done to you," he softly told the boy.
Harry seemed to ignore him this time, and Gibbs vaguely wondered if he had pushed too hard. After all, Harry was just a boy. A boy who had most likely just found people he could trust.
It took a few more moments, but eventually, Harry spoke.
"I never knew my mum or dad; they died when I was just a year old. There was a car crash, and only I survived," he began. The boy's voice was shaky and muffled through Gibbs shirt. "I was left with my aunt and uncle after the crash. They didn't have to take me in, they could have left me at an orphanage, but they did. They took me in, and raised me. They gave me a place to sleep, and food, and clothes, but they didn't have to. They didn't have to."
Gibbs listened to the boy silently. He hated what he was hearing. Even though his family had hurt him, Harry still felt like he should thank them. It sickened Gibbs; no child should feel that way.
He looked down at the boy. Harry was still hiding against his chest. He could feel the dampness from Harry's tears soak his shirt, and he started to rub his back.
"Have they ever hit you?" he quietly asked.
Harry didn't reply verbally, but he nodded slightly.
"They hit you?" a soft voice asked.
Harry pulled away from Gibbs to see Kelly watching him.
Kelly stared at her friend. She couldn't understand how anyone could hurt her friend. He was nice and fun. He had never been mean since she had met him.
She slowly walked towards him. He seemed to shrink away from her, back into the couch. She climbed into the couch next to him, and wrapped her arms around him.
"You could of told me," she whispered.
Harry didn't reply. Instead, he returned the embrace, and the tears started to fall free.
Gibbs slowly lifted himself off of the couch, and pulled Shannon into the kitchen.
"He cannot go back there," he told her.
"He won't," she reassured him. "But how are we going to keep them from taking him back?"
"Leave that to me," he told her.
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She rested her head on his shoulder, and she softly kissed her hair.
He pulled her back towards the door, and listened to the conversation Harry and Kelly had started.
"If I had told you, Dudley would have hurt you worse," Harry softly said.
"So? He has no right to hurt you, none of them do," Kelly replied.
"It's not regular," Harry protested. "I can normally avoid Dudley; I am faster than him. And Uncle Vernon only does it when he gets really mad."
"That doesn't make it any better," Kelly told him.
"It's really not that bad, he normally just throws me in my cupboard."
Gibbs felt his heart skip a beat at the words.
"You're cupboard?" he spoke up.
The kids spun around, surprised to see him and Shannon in the room. Shannon quickly walked towards Harry and crouched in from of him.
"Harry, what do you mean by 'your cupboard'?" Shannon asked him.
Harry's eyes were wide with fear. He pushed himself back into the couch, but Shannon grabbed one of his hands with both of hers.
"What do you mean by 'your cupboard'?" she repeated softly.
"It's where I live, in the cupboard under the stairs," he whispered.
Gibbs swore under his breath. They made a child sleep under the stairs? In a space that was most likely too small for the boy.
A loud ring suddenly filled the house. Both of the kids jumped at the noise, Harry's face paled in the process, while Gibbs and Shannon glanced at each other.
"I'll get it," Shannon said before Gibbs had a chance to speak.
She quickly stood up, and made her way through the house. As she walked closer to the door, she could see a large figure through the curtained window. The bell rang again right before she opened the door.
"Hello," she said to the person on the other side.
"I'm here to pick up Harry," the man said.
Vernon quickly made his way towards his car, and slid inside.
"Where's the boy?" Petunia asked once he started driving.
"Feel asleep, they thought it would be best if they drop him off tomorrow," he explained.
"Do you think he will tell them anything?" she whispered.
"He better not," he replied.
"Leave it to a foreigner to make us come out of our way for nothing," she sniffed.
Shannon sighed as she closed the door. The man was walking down the path, towards his car. She was glad to see him go, and was glad she had convinced him to let Harry just stay the night. With any luck, the boy would never go back with them.
She made her way back to the living room, only to find Gibbs in the kitchen, waiting for her.
"I told him Harry had fallen asleep, and that we would drop him off at their house tomorrow," she answered his questioning look.
"He is not going back there," Gibbs said.
"No, he isn't," she agreed.
"We'll take him to the cops tomorrow; they cannot keep custody of him."
"They still in there?"
"Yeah, Kelly put another movie in."
Kelly wrapped her arms around her friend. She didn't understand how anyone could hurt him. But it didn't matter anymore; she was going to protect him.
Before long, the thoughts of Harry's relatives were pushed from her mind as she watched the movie. The two kids sat and watched as the puppies were taken by 'the bad men.'
Part way through the movie, her mom came into the room with two bowls of ice cream. The joy on Harry's face made her smile. While Kelly was soon finished with her dessert, Harry seemed to savor every bite.
Gibbs leaned against the wall as watched the kids sleep.
Kelly was taking up two of the cushions on the couch, with her head propped up on one of the armrests. Harry had curled up into a ball on the third cushion. His arms were folded under his head for support.
The glow of the TV turned their faces different colors. The third movie of the night was just finishing, but he didn't think either of them had made it very far into the film.
Quietly, he walked across the room and started to rewind the tape. About a minute later, he ejected it, and put it away. He turned the TV off, and put a blanket over the sleepers before leaving the room.
Done, now I want to say somethings.
First: I want to keep this as canon as possible: Harry will go to Hogwarts, he will be friends with Ron and Hermione etc. but one question keeps coming up in reviews: Will I kill Kelly and Shannon? I don't know yet, but I want your input. I have a poll on my profile, go vote, but read my little blurb first under it.
Second: Gibbs adopting Harry, I'm also not sure here, I feel like that's where it may be going now, but if it isn't, they will stay in touch.
Third: The length, I am trying to make each chap longer than the last until I find a good length to keep them at, so bear with me.
Fourth: I love you guys! Other than hits, this is my most popular story, and the only story with more hits has been up for years and has 45 chaps! It also feels good to update after midnight in my time, and still get multiple reviews almost instantly, it makes me feel good inside, so thank you. Also, to the people who have disabled PMs, I can't reply to your reviews, so I hope I answered your questions, and I thank you as well :D
I am done for now. Review, please:) and more will be up soon:)