Dear all,
Have fun reading my new chapter.
James stepped into the dusty fireplace at the Grimmauld Place. James had hoped that he could avoided Lily. He knew how Lily would fuss over child despite him warning her, but James hope got shattered as soon as he flooed into his wife's office. Not only Lily was there, but also Severus and Phemie.
"James, Merlin, what happened." Lily screamed as James stepped out of the fireplace.
"The boy tried to use a cooking spoon as a wand. It exploded in his hand." James explained briefly. Lily ran over to them and examined the boys bleeding hand.
"Who is he, mummy?" Phemie wanted to know. She was glaring at the blood which was now all over James' shirt."
"A boy James and Sirius are currently taking care of." Lily said softly, but her face showed worry.
"Come on, Phemie, how about we go see the owlery?" Snape offered to the little girl. Although Severus was a big part of Lily's life James still couldn't shake off the weird feeling when the man was around his kids. Still, James had to admit that he was quite good with Phemie. Not so much with Caspian though. Phemie didn't seem to want to leave, but Severus had her already in her arms and walked out of the room.
Sirius flooed in as well. "Hey, Lils" He greeted quickly. "Is Poppy there?"
"Yes, and you should really hurry up. He is losing too much blood."
The men nodded and started running towards the hospital wings followed by Lily.
"What is going on?" Poppy shouted as James entered the room with the unconscious boy.
"The kid tried to use a spoon as a wand. He severed three of his fingers." James summarised quickly.
"Why didn't you bring him to St Mungo's?" Poppy asked exasperated.
"Order business." James answered shortly. Poppy only bristled in anger.
"Alright, put him on that bed. I hope you brought the severed fingers as well?"
Sirius nodded and gave a bloodied handkerchief to the school matron.
"For Merlin's sake, have you men learned nothing in your auror training? That is not how you transport amputations." Poppy scolded them but took the handkerchief anyway and walked over to the boy.
"Will he be alright?" Lily asked worried. She brushed through the boy's hair.
"I don't know. Who of you idiots had stunned him?" Poppy wanted to know after checking the child's pulse.
"Me." Sirius confessed, "But he was trying to blast through the barrier of my house. I had to act before he hurt himself even more."
"What? He tried to blast through the barrier with a wooden spoon?" Lily asked unbelievingly.
"Actually, with my wand. He had stolen it." James admitted.
"How could you let that happen!" Lily berated her husband. "He is a child and you are an experienced auror."
"Well," Sirius started defending his friend, "after the attack we've just seen." Sirius stopped for a moment and frowned while studying the unconscious boy, "I kind of believe that the disguised Death Eater theory is getting more and more likely. He blasted through a wall and put my kitchen on fire. Wordlessly."
At that Lily paled a bit and stepped away from the boy.
"I talked to Petunia and we couldn't find his relatives online or in the phone book." James explained.
"That doesn't mean anything." Lily tried to argue but she looked doubtfully at the boy.
"Lily, he can do wandless magic like its child's play. And he claims to be Muggle-raised. I would say that is highly unlikely."
"Who put this on him?" Poppy disrupted them. She pointed at the acri-bracelet.
"Me. And if you don't want him to destruct the whole hospital wing, you should keep it on him."
"It will slow down the healing process." Poppy explained. She had cleaned the wound by now and was now trying to hex the fingers to the hand again.
"How long will it take to heal then?" Sirius wanted to know.
"The fingers had been severed of with magic. I can't just bind them together with magic again. It will take at least two weeks until he has full mobility again. If you keep that bracelet on him it will take more like three weeks."
James nodded. "We don't know who he is. You have to understand that we need to be cautious."
"Well, nevertheless, he will have to stay here for at least five days. He had lost a lot of blood and he severely underweight. I would keep him even longer, but I know that you will probably protest.
"Five days? But Hogwarts starts on Monday." James complained.
"I don't see why that is problem." Poppy responded.
"He is potentially dangerous." James argued.
Poppy glared at him. "Potentially dangerous? I doubt that he will be able to get up in the next five days."
"But, Poppy, you have school children coming soon…" James started, but got interrupted by Poppy.
"School children? As far as I know he is a child too. Do you have any proof that he is not?"
James shook his head. "But…" He wanted to protest. Again, Poppy didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence, "This war is going on for too long. People are getting paranoid. Good men hexing children out of fear? What is the world becoming into?"
"Look, Poppy, we have to be careful. He can't stay here, when Hogwarts starts."
"You mean, he can't be here, where he could be a danger to your son."
"Well, yes." James admitted.
"So then, you and Sirius stay here and make sure that the boy doesn't destroy Hogwarts. I will make sure that he will not die from blood loss or an infection in the meantime."
Harry woke up feeling fuzzy. There was a dull ache in his hand. He lifted his arm and saw that his hand was wrapped in a tight, thick bandage. Harry tried to feel if he still had all his fingers, but it was impossible to tell. On his other hand was the bracelet again. Of course, it was burning hot. His stupid magic.
His eyes wandered through the room. He was in some kind of hospital. Immediately he noticed James in the corner of the room rocking his chair on two legs and reading a book.
Harry suppressed wincing in pain as the bracelet got even hotter and burned through his skin. Sirius had told him that he should keep calm if he wanted to avoid pain. Harry gritted his teeth and tried to calm down. Unsuccessfully.
"Oh, you are awake." James said and stood up. He walked towards Harry. The boy jumped out of his bed, but his legs felt too wobbly and he crashed to the floor. Promptly James was at his side and roughly pulled him up and pushed him back on the bed.
"How do you feel? Should I get Poppy?" James asked. "Poppy is the school matron. You are in Hogwarts."
Hogwarts? The magic school? Harry remembered that Sirius had briefly mentioned it.
"I asked you a question." James said impatiently. "How do you feel? Poppy is brewing some potions right now. She didn't think you would wake up for the rest of the day. Should I fetch her?"
Harry blinked at the man. Harry's hand was throbbing, that was probably what woke him up. Still, he shook his head. "I'm fine. You don't need to fetch her."
James mustered him suspiciously. "Alright, if you say so.". He sat back on a chair next to Harry's bed. Why couldn't the man go back into the corner, where he had sat before? Harry felt very uncomfortable with him so close. There were a lot of questions burning on Harry's mind. But he knew better than to ask James anything. If Harry had learned anything from Vernon was, that asking things made adults angry.
Harry leaned back in his bed and tried to disappear into his pillow. He hid his hand with the bracelet under his blanket. He knew that his skin was already getting red from the heat and that there would soon be burn blisters. He tried not to think about his situation too much. Obviously, there was nothing he could do. He didn't know where this Hogwarts school even was and without his magic he couldn't go anywhere anyway. While Sirius had started to be nice to Harry, James apparently thought differently about the twelve-year old. James reminded Harry of Vernon, - maybe even scarier than Vernon since James was a wizard and his accidental magic wouldn't be able to save Harry.
Without even noticing it Harry started crying as he his mind wandered to some of his worst memories of his life trying to compare James to Vernon. He remembered his last weeks at the Dursley's, where he had been shoved around, threatened and beaten. Harry remembered, how Vernon once tried to drown Harry in the sink with dirty dishes and soapy water. Maybe he would have died, if Harry hadn't suddenly found that he could breathe under water. This man, however, was a much greater danger than Vernon. His magic probably couldn't protect him from a wizard.
"Could you please stop that?" James requested unnerved. Startled Harry looked up.
"Sorry, what?" Harry asked weakly.
"Crying, boy. It won't help." James answered harshly. Harry nodded quickly and wiped his tears away. Vernon had hated when he cried too. Usually crying made all of his punishments worse. Early in his life Harry had learned to suppress his tears until he was alone. At least James didn't seem like he was going to strike Harry. He just stared at Harry, studying him with a frown.
James couldn't really focus on his book with the boy next him. There was tension in the room and he was sure that only the bracelet prevented a bigger disaster between the man and the boy.
At first James had tried to ignore the boy's silent sobs, but he got angrier and at the end he couldn't control his temper anymore. To James' surprise as soon as he asked the boy to stop crying, the boy's face froze. All his emotions got concealed under a perfect poker face. James knew that asking a child to stop crying usually wouldn't do the trick. Caspian and Phemie would usually just sob more loudly, if James got angry at them for crying. This boy however stopped crying on cue. He just couldn't be a real child, James thought.
Still, the boy's green eyes were watery. It hurt to see his wife's and daughter's eyes with that expression. Silently James tried to use Legilimency on the boy. He had tried it several times before but had never succeeded. Maybe this time he would since the boy was so emotional right now. James supressed a smile in victory as he entered the boy's mind. Quickly found the most recent thoughts of the boy and almost instantly all feelings of victory or happiness vanished.
The boy seemed to be thinking a lot about a very obese man with a red, angry face. The boy was apparently comparing this man to James.
"I saw you do that!" The man yelled at Harry, who hardly looked older than six. His hair was as messy as today and his clothes looked barely better than they had the day he had found him dying in the streets. The boy was standing on a chair washing the dishes.
"But I didn't do anything, uncle." The boy argued.
"Yes, you did! I saw that you made the plates fly into the cupboards, freak." The large man shouted, and he grabbed the boy by the collar.
"I'm sorry. I just can't reach the upper cupboards yet and aunt Petunia gets angry if I put them on the wrong shelfs." Harry explained himself.
"Didn't I forbid you any freakish things in this house? I give you food and clothes and roof over your head and you can't even follow one simple rule." By now the boy was barely able to breath as the man wrapped his fist tighter around the boy's collar.
"But it isn't just one rule!" The boy fought back. "It's not fair. Why doesn't Dudley have to do any chores! He just playing video games on the computer the whole day."
"Because Dudley is my son and you are not. If your drunk-ass parents haven't killed themselves, maybe you would be someone's son too. Blame them. They had made you a burden on my family." The man spat into the Harry's face. Suddenly all the dishes exploded in the kitchen and even some cupboards with glass doors. All the dishes and glasses fell apart in million small pieces. Clearly the boy had displayed powerful accidental magic even at such a young age. The man's face got even redder if that was even possible. He looked like he would have a stroke any moment. He pulled the boy up and pushed the boy's head into the sink full hot soapy water and dirty dishes. Probably the only dishes which had survived the boy's outburst a moment ago.
At first the boy struggled with all his strength. He was kicking and scratching, but nothing helped. This man was easily ten times as heavy as the child and the kid would have no chance of fighting him. After what seemed to be minutes the boy stopped struggling and the child arms and legs were going limb.
"Vernon!", a woman squeaked. She ran over to the sink and pushed the man away. The boy fell to floor coughing water out. "Vernon, you can't kill the boy. They will know and who knows what they will do." She scolded the man, ignorant to the boy's struggles to breath.
"He destroyed our kitchen, Petunia. I don't see why we have to keep him."
"Do I have to reread you Dumbledore's letter? He has to stay."
"He is fine, I just roughened him up a bit. I don't see why you are getting so worked up." Vernon argued. "Boy, you can forget any food for the rest of the week." The man said to the kid, who was still trying to catch his breath. Then he left the kitchen.
The women threw a kitchen towel at the boy. "Dry yourself. I expect this mess to be cleaned before lunch. Dudley's friends are coming over."
The woman also left the kitchen. For a few more minutes the boy simply focused on breathing, before he shakenly tried to get up. Only his third try was successful. Then he went over to one of the cupboards and took out cleaning supplies obeying his aunt's order.
As the memory ended James got shoved out of the boy's thoughts by force. The boy was in tears again. "How did you do that?" The boy asked accusingly.
"Legilimency." James replied shortly. "Were that your aunt and uncle?"
James felt sick after seeing the memory. Harry must have been younger than Phemie was now. Was this memory real? It was part of the auror training to learn to recognize fake memories. And Legilimency had been one of James' best subjects. If he hadn't been so shitty at Occlumency he would have chosen to be a specialist on Legilimency. This memory didn't seem to be unreal at all. But there was the possibility that it was the real memory of a grown man, who hid as child right now.
The boy didn't answer James question.
"What is Legilmancy?" He struggled to ask the auror his voice unsure and stuttering.
"Legilimency. It's basically mind reading. But don't worry, most of the time your thoughts are pretty much bottled up. So, tell me was this your family?"
Shyly the boy nodded.
James swung his wand swiftly and stood up. The boy's eyes widened in fear again.
"I need some fresh air. I just bound you to the bed, don't even try to get up. I will lift the bound when I come back. Just don't try anything for once." James explained and left the room in a hurry, ignoring the scared look on the Harry's face.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next update will also be tomorrow, although later than this weekend (CET)
Please review!