Now that J.K. has put down her dollies, can I have them? Please? No? Oh darn. They'll get dusty in her toy box though...

Chapter Eleven: Protecting Myself

As James had hoped, lots of people were still mingling around and many were talking quietly to the Malfoys when he burst through the double doors leading to the foyer. He walked straight up to the Malfoy patriarch and glared down his nose at him.

"I don't know what little joke you are trying to pull sir, by selling me this defective elf but I can assure you, I am not amused."

Lucius Malfoy, the normally cool, composed pure-blood, blanched. "Defective? What do you mean?"

"I mean the blasted spell you put on him to make him tell you my secrets! I guard my secrets just as closely as the rest of you. If I didn't know better, I'd think you wanted the elf to spy on his new owner. Perhaps you did intend the elf to go to Lord Greengrass? I wonder what all you could have found out."

A rather heavy set man that reminded James just a bit too much of his overly large uncle turned fuchsia.

"Now see here Lucius, if that's what you intended, then you can just forget about our many years of friendship. Lord Potter is correct. We all guard our secrets closely. Even if this was just an oversight, it's a grave one indeed!"

Malfoy had resumed his cool appearance but his eyes looked frantic.

"I assure you, Lord Potter, this was simply an oversight. You have my most sincere apologies for this slight, no matter how unintended it might be. Please allow me some privacy to take the spell off the elf and I will bring him right back to you."

James stepped forward to block the older man from his small friend and shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I'm in a bit of a hurry and would appreciate it if you just did it here and now. Besides, I've already had to heal Dobby once. Having to do so again would simply annoy me more I'm afraid."

Malfoy clapped a very false understanding smile on his face and nodded. "Of course I'll do it now. I'm afraid the elf was in the company of the goblins a little too long and they were a bit rough on him isn't that right Dobby?"

James looked the elf in the eye. "I order you to always tell me the truth."

Dobby looked ready to faint. "M-master Malfoy ordered Dobby to punish himself. Dobby was following master's orders."

James stepped further in front of the elf. "Take the spell off now, sir."

With a smile that had become an ugly grimace, the spell was taken off. "Elf, who is known as Dobby, I release you from all your duties to the Malfoy family and myself. Obey your new master with all your loyalty."

James smiled. "Thank you sir. We will be taking our leave now. I wish you all the rewards you so richly deserve." With a final bow, James pulled the elf to him and both disappeared in a flash of a portkey.

They landed on a beach. Dobby looked around in wonder. He had never seen anything so beautiful! In the distance there was a cozy looking house. He wondered if this was where master lived.

James smiled down at the awed little elf. "Welcome home. A few reminders, I will not tolerate you punishing yourself if I catch you doing it I'll do something you won't like at all. You won't have to do everything around the place either and there will be a few rooms I don't want you to enter. I'll take care of those. Also, I do enjoy cooking and I'm trying to teach my ward so once a week, we will cook dinner. Also, you will be given one day off a month. I'm sure you have some relations somewhere, go and see them. You're to let me know if anyone mistreats you here. Consider all of that an order." He grinned. "Now for the secrets. Inside that house over there is Harry Potter." He chuckled when the elf's mouth dropped. "Yes, the boy-who-lived is my ward. He's five and quite a normal little child. He doesn't know he's famous and I don't want him to know for a while yet. However, because of his… unique circumstances, he is in quite a bit more danger than the average child. Don't ask me how, but I know you are a very good elf. I know that you care about him and I charge you to assist in his protection. Do nothing to harm him, however temporary while trying to protect him. Also, he is perfectly safe with me. I'll explain the logistics of it all later." He looked down at the wide-eyed little creature. "Get ready for a shock."

Of course, Harry was more than delighted with the elf and had insisted on helping to decorate his little room right next to the laundry. For Dobby, it was love at first sight towards the child and for the first few days, the house-elf was one step from falling to his knees and worshiping the small boy. Remus and Sirius, especially Remus, treated the little elf with respect and quickly got used to the unorthodox little customs James had when it came to elves. James had conjured a third child-sized chair and insisted that Dobby eat meals with the family.

Things seemed to be settling down when Remus finally received an owl. The bird seemed to be trained for violence, seeing as it attacked the poor man the second it saw him. Remus seemed pleased enough to see it though.

"It's from my great aunt Mariel."

With eager fingers, he detached the missive from the owl and broke open the seal. As he read the letter, his smile took a decidedly downward slope but after finishing, he nodded, folded the letter carefully and tucked it into his pocket.

"I'll tell you later."

James just nodded and went back to helping Harry make mini vegetable pizzas; it was Dobby's night off.

Later that evening, after Harry had been safely tucked into bed, Remus brought out the letter.

Dear Creature,

How dare you disturb my house-hold with your inane ramblings about protecting a child. Who in their right minds would trust you with the welfare of a minor? It's probably just as freakish as you are.

However, because of your mother, God rest her poor soul, I will answer your question. The spell you asked about was never mine. I borrowed the manuscript from your great uncle. I, of course, returned it to him as soon as the spell was placed on your sister.

If you remember anything what-so-ever of what it's like to be a part of the noble Hargraves clan you will never attempt to contact me again. Now that your alliance with the Potter clan is dissolved, the Hargraves family and yourself have no further reason to communicate do we?

Sincerely,

Mariel W. Hargraves

Upon finishing the letter, James looked over at Remus and shook his head. "Why is it we all have horrible relatives?"

"I dunno. Maybe it's a marauder curse or something."

Sirius snorted and looked over at Moony. "So who's this uncle of yours and why haven't I ever heard of him?"

"Because he's completely insane! We never know what the man will do next! He's an avid collector of spell books and has a record of all the 'lost' spells. I'm sure he has a lot to do with them staying lost. The man's been around forever, or so it seems. There's not one member of the family that can remember him as a young man, much less as a child."

James, who had been growing more and more alarmed as Remus spoke and was sporting a look of dread on his face asked, "What's his name?"

"Well, I don't know his real name. Formally he's known as lord Hargraves but informally he's known as Ivan the insane."

James sighed and began massaging his temples. "Damn, I was afraid you were talking about him. Do you have any idea just how much of a nut-cake that man truly is?!"

Remus just looked at James for a moment and blinked. "How in Merlin's name do you know my uncle?"

James shook his head in disbelief; he still wasn't quite over the shock. "Believe it or not, Moony, he's the one that taught me to destroy horcrux."

Remus stood up, shocked. "How, in Merlin's name, does he know how to do that!?"

"Very simple answer, my dear Moony, he has one of his own. From what he told me, in his youth, he had one mortal enemy. According to him, this fellow was a really bad sort, made him out to be even worse than Voldemort. He killed him in cold blood and made a horcrux. He told me that this man was the worst of the worst and that he did the world a favor by killing him. Why not use the death to his advantage?" James snorted. "Never mind that he was using the darkest magic in all existence to make the thing."

"One more question, how did you convince him to teach you?"

James shuddered and cast his haunted looking gaze over to Remus. "Don't. ask. It wasn't pleasant. Anyway, I want to leave as soon as possible. The sooner we get that spell the better I'll feel about Harry."

When Harry awoke the next morning, he expected to have yet another semi-quiet day with his papa and uncles. He did not expect Remus to be kneeling down next to his bottom dresser drawer packing some of his day clothes into a medium sized duffle bag.

Harry sat up and blinked in confusion. Uncle Moony didn't seem upset, in fact, he was humming a little tune under his breath as he moved on from day clothes and selected two semi-formal outfits.

"Uncle Moony?"

Remus looked over and smiled at the child.

"Good morning Harry! We found that spell of protection we were looking for. Isn't that great? I'm afraid we'll have to go on a little trip though, that's why I'm packing your things."

Harry perked up at this, "Yay a trip! Where are we going?"

Remus looked uncomfortable for a moment.

"Sorry sweet-heart, but you're going to be staying with the Grangers. The place we're going is not exactly kid friendly." James had suddenly appeared in the room, leaning casually against the door frame, startling Remus almost out of his wits.

He shot James a disparaging look. "Do that again and I'm gonna start calling you cat-boy."

"Sure thing, dog-breath."

The excitement had quickly melted off Harry's face when he had been told he couldn't come and he was quickly approaching tears.

"You're leaving me! You promised you wouldn't ever!"

James shot Remus a look that any grown-up would know to be, uh oh.

"No, no little one. We'd never leave you!" He quickly scooped up the upset child. "We're just going on a little trip to get that spell we need and it would be more than a little bit dangerous for you to come with us this time."

Harry sniffed, getting nearer to tears by the second. "But wouldn't it be dangwus for you too?"

James gently rubbed the child's back. "Nah, I'm a fully qualified wizard. You've seen what I can do. You, on the other hand are just a sweet little boy that bad people would just love to gobble up. I know one day you'll be strong, maybe even stronger than me and I promise to teach you but for now, this trip is too dangerous for you."

"Noo, Papa please, I want to stay with you! You can protect me! You've done it before!"

"Yes, and you came out of the experience hurt and traumatized. I've no wish to repeat that." He shifted Harry in his arms and gave him a very stern look. "No arguments Harry, no buts. I won't be changing my mind. You're going to the Grangers. I'm sure you and Mione will-"

"No! I won't go! You can't make me! I'll… I'll sneak into your suitcase! You won't be able to bandon me then!"

James made a slight oof sound as the child threw himself into his chest and clutched as tight as he could to his Papa. "Harry, I'm not going to abandon you. We are going on this trip so that we canprotect you and we will be back in a few days. We all love you very, very much and we would never ever leave you. Please believe me."

Harry just tried to clutch tighter and shook his head. "Nuh uh."

Seven hours later, a very unhappy group of wizards appeared at the Grangers doorstep. Harry had spent all day shifting between an angry five-year old, prone to tantrums and an especially clingy little boy, scared to death he was about to be abandoned. He had made packing much more of a chore than it should have been and had, on more than one occasion, dumped out an almost packed suitcase onto the floor and tried to stuff himself inside. Finally, James had lost his temper and yelled at the boy to "making a bloody nuisance of himself and go to the corner". Harry had burst into tears, claimed that his Papa didn't love him anymore and stalked off to his room. James had found him half an hour later slumped over in the corner asleep, cheeks tearstained. He had woken up as soon as James picked him up, threw his arms around his neck and begun to cry once more begging him not to leave him. After James had gently tried to explain again, pleading with the child to understand, Harry had grown silent. He hadn't said a word since, nor had he eaten all day, he had refused to. The child was convinced he was being abandoned and nothing any of them could do would convince him otherwise.

James gently shifted the upset child in his arms enough to ring the doorbell. Harry had gone past hysterical ten minutes ago and was hiccupping badly as he pressed himself as hard as he could against his Papa.

Sirius had already popped by to see Helen and Dan to make sure it wasn't an inconvenience on them to have Harry stay over a few days.

James gently ran his fingers through the boy's baby soft hair. "Harry please calm down. I'll be back before you know it and you'll be able to talk to me every night and you can call me whenever you need me."

The little child sniffled and looked up for a moment. "I can? But you don't have a phone."

James dug in his pocket and slipped the child a shiny mirror. "No, but we have something better. This is a magic mirror and I'm gonna have the other one. Whenever you need to talk to me, just call out for me and I'll hear you. I really don't know what I'm getting into here going to see this guy so there might be times I can't answer right away but as soon as I can, I will just call for you through the mirror and you'll hear me. When we talk, the mirrors will be like tiny tellies and you will be able to see me too. I didn't want to mention it earlier because I only got the things working a very few minutes before we left."

Harry looked up at his papa and with a tiny nod, slipped the mirror into his pocket. "I can call you every night?"

"If you want, I'll even tell you bed-time stories."

The child nodded and leaned his head against his guardian's shoulder, crying all day had made him tired. "And you won't be gone long; you'll come back?"

James hugged the child tight. "Wild dragons couldn't keep me away. I'll be back the very soonest I can."

"Pinky swear?" The child held out his tiny hand and extended his smallest finger.

James chuckled softly. "Pinky swear." In the ancient tradition of children all around the world, he intertwined his pinky with the child's and they shook on it.

"I did plan on something fun for you and the Grangers to do while I'm gone. Do you remember when we went to Babbacombe, the place where everything was tiny?"

Harry nodded.

"Well, I have some tickets for everyone, except you, you get in free, and I received a letter the other day saying that your figurine was ready to be visited. I thought you might want to go see yourself." James just couldn't resist a chuckle at the irony.

All in all, it was a not entirely miserable little boy that hugged his papa and uncles goodbye and collected quite a few good-night kisses and just because hugs and kisses as his little family prepared to leave. James did have one final surprise and had called Dobby to the Grangers to be Harry's special bodyguard. The little house-elf was quite capable of making himself invisible and had very powerful magic all his own. Also, Harry liked the little guy a lot. The little boy did start crying as soon as his family popped out of sight and for a while, couldn't be consoled. Hermione, especially was upset that her bestest friend was so very sad and she stayed by him trying to make him feel better.

The only thing that James could think or say upon arriving at Ivan Hargrave's gothic castle was, "Cliché much?" He wasn't wrong, the place was the classic representation of Dracula's castle.

"At least it isn't storming, then it would really be ridiculous."

The three friends had appeared at the border of the apperation and portkey boundaries and so had a long hike ahead of them up the mountain. To break up the monotony, James kept humming, "The song that never ends." Padfoot and Moony were about ready to AK him by the time they had reached the castle. He had annoyed them with that tune before.

In reality, James was dreading returning to the castle. While it was true, that the man had taught him literally everything he knew about the creation and destruction of horcrux, he had demanded what he thought would be a heavy price and ultimately, turned out to be his worst enemy, aside from Voldemort, of course. He would never forget what that man had done, no matter how much he tried.

Remus was looking up at the intimidating and massive doors and wasn't a bit surprised when lightning flashed overhead. "Uncle really knows how to make a house inviting looking too. Shall we knock?"

James, who's eyes had gone a dark, focused looking green that the Marauders had rarely seen, nodded and took a very small mallet from a hook in the door. He reared back and with all his strength, slammed the head of the mallet to a very small metal plate imbedded in the door. The sound it produced was almost deafening and reverberated around the castle and the small valley beyond. James ignored his wide-eyed compatriots and placed the slightly bent mallet back into its' holder. "He can't say I didn't knock loud enough this time."

The first time James had visited Ivan he had stood outside in the rain and the chill for three hours repeatedly 'knocking'. James had no intention of letting the old man get the upper hand this time.

Sure enough, as the tone faded, the three friends could hear something grinding as the doors opened the barest crack.

"Do you have to knock down my castle knocking on my door? My ears will still be ringing next week!"

Motioning for the older men to be silent, James stepped forward. "You have my apologies, I was told that should I wish to gain your attention, I needed to be very direct with my intentions."

"There's direct and then there's command; which one did you intend?"

"I come to ask for your assistance, thus, it would be unwise of me to command you in any fashion. My name is James Potter; these are my friends and trusted allies, Remus Lupin, your erstwhile nephew, and Sirius Black."

The grinding sound returned and the great doors opened just wide enough for a lovely young lady to slip through. She was very small and delicate looking, her hair was blonde and very long; she wore a white robe that came down to trail on the ground and set off her pale, almost translucent skin and her eyes were the deepest blue, only with no pupils. She peered at them through sightless eyes then nodded to the party.

"You have many secrets and all of you have protected your thoughts from me. What boon do you ask of me?"

James nudged Remus and nodded. "We ask only for the spell that my mother used to protect my sister from my newly changed werewolf form. We need the spell for a young child that has come into our care."

"For Harry Potter you mean?" She paused while an astonished look appeared on the older Marauders' faces and the barest look of amusement came over her. "Enter then lord Black, disgraced Hargraves and he who is not James Potter. Welcome to my home."

It was only James' hard-eyed looks towards the other two that kept them from asking questions.

Silence fell as the young woman led them through a virtual maze of passage ways, up and down grand staircases and finally into a great hall of sorts where a small, slightly oily looking man with a face as stiff looking as plastic sat in a throne-like chair. As soon as the companions came within sight of the man, the young woman gave a shudder then a sigh as she slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Remus just couldn't help it; he had to know. "Just what's up with that girl?"

Lord Hargraves smiled, it had the effect of making him look just a bit mad. "Oh that? That's one of the lost spells. It did so much evil that the memory of it was purged from the wizarding world. The few wizards that did remember, made the Imperious curse in an attempt to replicate the effects of that spell. There is no fighting against that one, no chance of escaping. It allows complete control over the slave, as you saw, one may even speak and see through the victim. Right now, I have no need of it so I'll just put her away till later. I shouldn't like to appear a messy host because I didn't put my toy away." As he said this, the girl woke, arose and silently padded to over to a single shelf. She lifted herself onto the shelf then collapsed, like a puppet who's strings had been cut.

"Don't worry about it; it has no will of its' own. It's a living doll that just happens to have memories. I really don't know why my toys unsettle my guests so." He shrugged, as if truly perplexed. "I must admit I find your request fascinating. It's not so often I get guest with such interesting histories:" He turned to Sirius. "a man falsely convicted by his own government and managed to come out of the worst of Azkaban with his sanity intact, to Remus, an actual blood relative that I don't instantly hate, a rarity indeed, to James, and finally, a man who claims to be James Potter but truly has the strangest fate I've ever seen. Are you aware that you live outside of fate, that time herself can't bear to look at you? Your story, I must know."

"I'm afraid that won't happen, lord Hargraves. My memories and my history remains my own. I won't share it with anyone."

"I think you will change your mind soon. Oh! But where are my manners? You must be tired and hungry from your journey. Please, rest and eat; in the morning we can haggle over the price of information."

They watched as the girl gave a little shudder, hopped off the shelf and padded over to them. "This doll will take you to your room you will be served in whatever way you desire while here."

James bowed respectfully. "Then we shall partake of your hospitality and trust you to provide us with safe lodgings."

The little man twitched while the girl crumpled to the floor. "Who told you to say that?" He didn't look angry but there was a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"Just a friend my lord."

The girl rose to her feet once more. "If you wish to be that way, fine, your safety is assured. Please, let me show you to your rooms."

They were given three large bedrooms with a sort of common room connecting them. Once the door had closed and the poor girl had left, the older Marauders rounded on James.

"You could have warned us about him you know!"

"Hush! Don't say another word yet." He withdrew his wand and shot a bright purple spell at each of the paintings in the room then after a long series of chants, a set of dark crimson runes soaked into the wall.

"Now you can talk. I didn't warn you about him because I don't even like thinking of the git. Yes, he's just as bad as you think he is and insane to boot. Luckily, he's perfectly happy kidnapping young girls from time to time from different local villages and staying put in his castle. I did tell you to let me take the lead and thank you for listening. That spell is worse than you know, he had a brown haired girl when I was here and she literally broke from the spell. It takes an extra toll on the body with it being controlled and tortured like that. Most can only survive for five years at the most before they die; that's what he told me anyway.

I'm telling you two right now, do not say anything that's supposed to be secret out of these rooms and if we leave, not until I've re-set the wards in here. Try to let me do most of the talking. The less he even notices you lot are here the better for you. Don't be alone anywhere. I'm clearing a space later on and moving the beds in here. It's fine to use the loo in these rooms but otherwise… no. Whatever you do, whatever you say, never, ever mention that you want something from him. He's like those evil genies from the legends. He loves granting wishes but if you ask him for something, unless you're really clever or lucky, he could end up having your soul in exchange. If he wanted to, this guy could have made Voldemort look like a little girl in pigtails taking ballet lessons."

AN: I am sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out. The truth is... it took me a while to figure out just want I wanted to do here. I must thank my good friend and sounding board, K-chan for her advice and rather devious ideas; without her, Ivan Hargraves would possibly never have popped into my twisted little head. Once I (finally) got around to writing about the guy, he proceeded to attempt a hostile take-over. I'd have to write three more chapters than I had planned just to get all my ideas out. I think we came to a good compromise. Odds are, after I finish this story, I will do a shortish side-story detailing 17 year old Harry Potter's first dealings with the man. I really, really like this character even though he is making me add an extra chapter. We shall finish with him for, this story, in the next chapter, Fighting for Myself, the new one that Ivan Hargraves forced me to come up with.

Yes, I did give a nod to another fandom in this chapter. A nice cuddly chibi-Hary hug to those of you that guess correctly.

Answers to your questions:

Marquerida... please excuse me while I go scream. I knew it happened in the early eighties I just didn't remember when. In 1986 I was five so I hope I can be excused. Also, I tend to forget that Harry is six months and some change older than me. Ya caught me.

Bill: I've seen that method used before but I really wanted to do what I did in this chapter. I love crazy evil guys!

ReadingRed: Siri and Remus are the same age as in cannon and 'James' (older Harry) is 23.

wolfmasterz: The diary horcrux is distroyed. James will probably try to do something about the giant snake though...

I do run everything through a spell check and I am working on editing all my existing chapters and re-posting them on After I am done with Tcoms, I will upload my corrections.

Dawg,: There are a few, very few, other stories out there with the same idea as I had but they are either unfinshed, have gone soo far an away from cannon (Harry is evil) it's ludicrious, or are fraught with the world against Dumbledore plots, that or it's just plain bad writing. I tend to satisfy myself with the all too cute, Snape or Sirius raises Harry stories. There are a number of good ones on my C2. The only one that might be what you are looking for is Harry Potter and the Dance of the Thestral by Hudly. It's a little hard to get into but it is definatly the closest one to mine I have found. She has cool ideas too.

Shadow Weaver 11: Neville will be appearing soon.

Once again I thank all my readers and reviewers for their kind support. Everytime I check my story page and have a new review it makes me smile. I should have the next chapter out much sooner than I had this one. After this next chapter, I have good chunks of the others written and the entire last chapter done.

Fic Rec:

I have quite a few this time, most of them being humor.

First of all, Reactions to the Legend by Amber-chick is quite funny and worth a look.

DisobedienceWriter has become one of my most favorite authors; stories like Marauders Blessing, Bad Week at the Wizamagot and others have made me laugh louder and longer than a full DVD of my favorite comedian. This guy has tallent!

Coven of the Rose by C. Rose is another funny one. Kudos to the author for the Sluggy nod.

And finally, Whelp I&II are just too cute not to mention. This is a Snape raises Harry story and my favorite since Mine was written.

Sara out!