DISCLAIMER- I don't own the creations of JK Rowling
Chapter-4
(This chapter turned out sloppy, but next one will have better writing and a 11-year old Harry)
Harry was hoping to meet this Mr Prince again, but the man did not appear again at the park for a few days. When he met the man, he was really happy. He ran upto this total stranger, he again got a visit to the candy store and a sweet. Prince asked him to sit down at the bus stop and asked about his cousin.
Within ten minutes of talking with Prince, Harry suddenly realized that he was being very silly when he got beaten by Dudley and his gang. There was a pattern there, Harry had never realized it before though seeing it all times- Prince pointed that out to him.
Dudley and his two friends were fat and slow, it was usually the job of Piers Polkiss to chase Harry and hold him down. Also, the most favourite time for Dudley to engage in Harry hunting was on the way back from school, only a few times during lunch break.
Prince showed him the map of Little Whinging that was put up at the stop. He asked Harry to spot the school and the house on the map. Within a few minutes, Harry already mapped out three alternate routes to the house, making a note to walk through all of them.
Prince also told him to observe Dudley's gang, which paid good returns. He could keep an eye on them at times, they would put their heads together and glance in his direction, that was a huge clue. As a result, the favourite sport of Dudley suffered a serious setback within a short time.
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The doorbell rang at five thirty, Petunia spoke to Harry "Your uncle must be home a little early, go and open the door, boy." She however, glanced at the door from the dining table.
Harry opened the door to find that Vernon was not standing there. Instead, there was a tall, pale woman with her long curly hair tied in a ponytail. Her dress was somewhat formal in nature, a long black coat and a grey loose trouser reaching upto the ankles. The woman was clutching a leather-bound file under her right arm. She smiled at Harry "Good afternoon, is there anyone grown-up at home, kid?"
Petunia had seen the woman too, she came forward with a questioning look on her face. The woman spotted her and smiled "Good afternoon, madam. I am Ursula Black from the British Department of Health and Social Care. I have a few questions to ask you, so may I come in?"
Petunia had a tense look in her face, but nodded "All right, come in. May I offer you anything?"
The woman was shown to the living room, she strode over to a table and opened the file. Dudley glanced at the woman for a moment and then lost any interest.
"Oh thanks, just a simple glass of water would do."
Petunia shot a glance at Harry and Dudley eating scones at the table, then got a glass of water herself for the woman. She then cleared her throat and said "So, you would state the purpose."
"Yes, I am coming to that. As I told you, I am from the Social Services and the ministry is conducting a survey regarding healthcare penetration. These two boys, are they your sons?"
"The smaller one is my sister's son, she died years ago." Her face was very pale.
"So," said Ursula, taking out two leaves of paper "can you tell me the names of these two boys?"
"This is Dudley Dursley, my nephew is Harry Potter."
"Allright" said the woman, scribbling at the two sheets "Now tell me their date of birth."
It was right there that the talk came to an end. Dudley suddenly threw a tantrum 'Mommy, I want to go out and play." Petunia snapped "Later, diddy." But that got the situation only worse.
Dudley took up the enormous softball that was lying by his side and hurled it at his favourite target, Harry. Harry was quick enough to duck out of the way, the ball sailed over and hit the glass of water on the table. Harry's eyes followed the falling glass of water to see something extraordinary.
The glass was falling to the carpet, but suddenly seemed to stop in mid-air. Then, incredibly, the motion reversed, with the glass moving back to the table, with the water going back inside. Harry then watched what caused the thing, Ursula was gesturing at the glass with her fingers.
The room went silent for a moment. Harry stared at the woman seeing an impossible thing, Aunt Petunia suddenly went red, Dudley's eyes were wide as saucers and the woman herself was shocked.
Petunia broke the silence with a screech "Freak! get out of my house right now."
Ursula looked at Petunia and said "Guess your spoilt son ruined the game. So, let me talk straight."
"I DON'T WANT A SINGLE WORD. GET OUT RIGHT NOW!"
The reply was in a voice of steel "You know what I can do, right?" and while talking, Ursula had taken out a wooden stick from somewhere in her coat and pointed it at Petunia.
Petunia gasped like a punctured balloon and said "What do you want from me? I never wanted him."
"I just want a little talk. So, would you kindly co-operate?"
"Okay, so sit down. Boy, stay here. DUDLEY, GO TO YOUR ROOM."
Dudley was surprised at his mother's behaviour but did not dare walk away when the woman spoke "No, he needs to stay here. I will make a clean job of it."
At the same time, she was holding a coin in her left hand. A man in a long black coat, black hair and goatee entered the house from the front door and pointed a stick at Dudley, the fat boy immediately rolled up his eyes and fell down to sleep on a sofa.
The man looked at a shocked Petunia and said "See, under control. The boy will have no memory. You may know who I am, I will not change your memory."
"So, you may take him and go, whatever your real name is. You don't want my son, right?"
The woman smiled at Harry and gently touched his forehead with her right hand. Harry's eyes suddenly grew heavy; he sat down on the easy chair and fell to a deep sleep.
"My real maiden name is Andromeda Ursula Black and we are not here to take the boy permanently. We want to take him for a health check-up right now and bring him back within an hour. You need not inform your husband of a trivial thing, right? It will complicate matters."
Petunia nodded vigorously, Andromeda continued "so, both the boys will not have any memory of this incident. I expect sensible behavior from you, right?"
Petunia again nodded and Andromeda packed up the wooden stick and file. She walked to the back door and walked out two steps, then vanished into thin air in front of Petunia's eyes.
The man also picked up a sleeping Harry and followed the woman.
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Snape had observed Vernon and knew where to hit.
Vernon was washing his face at a sink in the spacious bathroom when a man materialized out of thin air just behind him. He screamed in terror and tried to run out, but the knob refused to turn.
He turned to the man, a pale young man in a black dress, with long raven hair. He knew what type of man he was but bellowed "You want a nasty business, I can give you one with my fists. Care for a man to man fight instead of anything freakish?"
The man smirked "I don't need my hands or magic to deal with you. I will just meet your wife and tell her that Vernon Dursley does like Soho walk-in girls visiting the office now and then."
"Hey, they are professionals. I will not leave my wife and son for them."
"So, may I tell that to your wife, Vernon?" the man was amused by the reply.
Vernon gasped like a wounded bull "What do you want?"
"That's what I like. I want to tell you that your wife may behave oddly within a short time, just don't do anything on your part. None of your business, I may add. Else, I will tell all to her, I may even supply some photographs to back up my claims."
Vernon nodded mutely and the man vanished the next moment. He found that he could open the door once more, so he almost ran to his room and collapsed on the chair.
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Snape and Andromeda took Harry directly to Gringotts via a port key provided by the goblins and they performed a full-body scan on the boy for a price of six galleons, against five for St Mungos.
The goblins did not ask questions when the patient was supposed to be a Potter scion. Also, there was unlikely for Dumbledore to have a contact inside the colony and provide any information.
A goblin handed them the report "There are the results, you two see it. Any questions?"
Snape spoke "Mrs Tonks, if your husband sees the malnutrition and recommend potions, I can see to it. This tracking and mage aversion charm is interesting, so is the bind on the boy's core. What is the unusual thing about the boy's scar? You cannot understand it, goblin?"
"Mr Snape, we can treat it. Our healer said the ritual is to be undertaken when the boy turns 11 and the magical core fully stabilizes. We would contact our branch in Egypt by then for best results."
Snape and Andromeda then parted ways after taking a tea together.
"Severus, I will send you an owl with my husband's recommendations. You can take the boy back?"
"Be assured, I have some words and hypnotism for dear Tuney. Thank fate it worked out fine, else I would have contacted Rita Skeeter and blew up the whole thing."
"You would be using magic on her and escape detection?"
"No, a little hypnotism and suggestions. If someone calls in the services, their image will be hit badly, the neighbours will talk bad about them. I may also say that our people will not react well when they hear the news. The ministry will not get a good trace on wands."
The idea of monitoring wands was amusing to Snape. Apart from wands, various types of magic is performed by rituals, hand and finger gestures, staff, athame daggers and mind magic can be performed by a competent master by eye contact only.
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Harry did not know why, but his aunt's behavior changed within a week. She did not treat him like Dudley, but things changed a lot, for the better. Vernon simply ignored it and after Dudley threw a few unheeded tantrums, he did not react either.
Harry was moved out of the cupboard into the spare bedroom. Petunia let Dudley keep all the big toys that he was fond of, managed to sell off the broken ones for scrap and let Harry have all the rest- books, puzzles and the smaller toys. He did not wear hand-me-down clothes but Petunia managed to buy clothes fit for his size at garage sales. She even bought him glasses at a proper shop in time.
She continued to provide Dudley with special things, but always gave a small bit to Harry.
Vernon was suspicious of his wife's behavior but after asking a few questions in bed, he was sure that Petunia was not changed with an impostor, so he kept quiet too.
Dudley got a rude shock while trying to beat Harry at school, after failing to do so on the way home. The boy ran very fast, while every other children present gathered and mobbed them. The sport of Harry hunting stopped soon afterwards in the school too.
Snape had taken a risk, by disillusioning himself, going to Harry's school and casting compulsion charms on the children, but it was worth for Lily's son. The spoilt bully and his gang was taught a lesson, they stopped bullying the other children too.
Harry had a few friends at school, they were good company. After Dudley's gang got lynched, they kept mostly to themselves. He felt better at school than at home, which was not really his own house.
"Mr Prince" did meet Harry in the park a few times. He did not buy Harry sweets but gave him odd-coloured drinks to eat, which was bland but he liked those afterwards nonetheless. He also taught Harry how to meditate and exercise, the boy got much better in both body and mind.
Prince also taught him some words to use on Dudley. When the fat boy was complaining about food one day at the table, Harry had remarked "Food tastes better to me because I do housework."
The boy was surprised at the words, but tried to do some chores himself when he found his cousin was speaking the truth, lessening the load on Harry by atleast doing some of the chores.
The man had vanished after six months, but Harry could never forget his lessons and kindness. He was also surprised at the change in the behavior of the Dursleys. Though Vernon and Petunia continued to brood over their son, Harry's life became much better. He suspected whether the meeting with Prince were mere co-incidences, but had no evidence.