The Unwanted House
by Dark Moon
Disclaimers: They are not mine. J.K Rowling has the pleasure of owning those great characters. I'm just borrowing them temporarily.
Author's Note: This took longer than I thought to write. But at least it's finished and I can start with going to the others point of view. Thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoy reading this. There is language and violence in this one so be warned.
Part 5
He climbed a flight of stairs and saw another door at the top. As he opened it, the smell of stale clothing and mothballs was so powerful Harry was almost knocked over. He tried to find a light switch and his hand brushed something hairy that scuttled away from his touch. Suppressing a shiver, Harry found the switch and soon dim light filled the room.
Taking a look around, Harry lifted an eyebrow as he saw that except for a few boxes and chests the room was empty. It was dirty though, he couldn't even tell if the floor was wood or not since it was covered in a thick sheen of gray dust. Spider webs hung everywhere with the round hairy insects resting in the middle of them. Looking for something to start cleaning with he saw an old broom and bucket, along with a rusted sink and what looked to be a ragged cloth laying on the rim.
"I'm finding a window first. It's too stuffy in here," Harry said to himself, moving deeper into the room to find a window or at least a vent to get some air.
As he went deeper into the room, Harry saw something move in the shadows and it was coming towards him. Thinking it was a Bogart, he pictured the piggy tail on Dudley, Snape dressed up as Neville's gran, and a lot of other silly thoughts that made him laugh hoping it would keep it away until he could figure out a better way to get rid of it. The thing in the shadows was not swayed by the laughter and seemed to be drawn by it as well. It sped up still staying in the darkest corners and was soon waiting in the shadows were he had stopped in fright.
"Don't come any closer or I'll....I'll..." Harry looked around him in search of some type of weapon to defend himself with. He saw an old bludger bat leaning against one of the dustier chests to his right and leapt for it.
He aimed the bat at the shadows and told whatever was out there to come out. Seconds later, a furry light brown paw, followed by a short furry body with the largest chocolate brown eyes he had ever seen. It was almost the size of a puppy but a little bigger and it had six legs instead of the known four. It had a small black nose and its long hair covered its floppy ears and he could see tiny teeth poking out from a small mouth. The creature hesitantly shuffled towards Harry but he still didn't know if it was friendly or not so he kept the bat ready incase it attacked. Stopping a few feet from him, Harry could see that it must have been up in the attic for a long time because he could see the tiny skeleton of the thing poking through it's matted and shaggy fur. When the eyes never left his face Harry could see the pleading in them and with a sigh bent down and called it to him.
"Come on little guy, I'm not going to hurt you." Holding out his hand, Harry kept his voice calm and soothing as it slowly crawled to his hand and after sniffing it for a few minutes let him pet its head, making a crooning sort of noise.
"Well you're not such a bad guy after all are you?" Harry asked, putting the bat down and taking it into his arms.
It just burrowed deeper into his chest and nuzzled him.
"I guess you can help me clean up in here. It's not like there's much else to do until breakfast." he told it, then found a window and propped it open, glad to smell the fresh morning air. He put his new friend on the floor and got the broom, starting on the floor.
Two hours passed, Harry and Dusty, "You almost blend with the dust on the floor, I think I'll call you Dusty." were finishing with the last of the chests when he saw Dusty stiffen in his spot on the floor.
The large eyes glared at the shifting shadows, as the meager light in the room started flickering. He quickly searched for his weapon knowing it would be needed soon. As he picked up the bat, Harry felt the stench of rancid meat on his neck and blindly swung out in back of him. He heard a howl of outrage and a thump as something hard hit the floor. Dusty was growling somewhere and clothe could be heard tearing as Dusty attacked.
Turning Harry saw that it was a Bogart that looked like a very pathetic Voldemort.
"Oh come on! I know you can do better than that! Even the Dementor I saw in class was more scarier." Harry said out loud, giving the Bogart a very sad look.
"Mr. Potter, I suggest you give Bo some credit. He has been weak for a couple days and was just now able to get out of the shadows for a stretch. Breakfast is ready, go clean up and come down to eat." Sherry said in a stern voice, helping the whimpering Bogart to its feet and taking him down the stairs.
Harry stared after the retreating pair in confusion and shock. Dusty looked up at his friend, wondering what was wrong when Harry shook out of it and picked him up.
"Come on Dusty, might as well go see what's for breakfast." Harry then got a whiff of Dusty and held him out at arms length.
"But first you're getting a bath. You stink!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Why that one, Master? Could we not have let him befriend Amos or Ulysses?" Sherry asked at the doorway.
"I have my reasons. Now makes sure Harry eats something. I have arranged a little surprise for him in the library." came Andrew's voice, a hint of sadistic humor making her shiver.
"Yes, Master." Sherry bowed and walked away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"That was good, wasn't it?" Harry asked him, as Sherry lead them to the library. Dusty yipped in agreement, clean and full for the first time in its life. His fur was actually a glossy milk chocolate and when combed it laid straight and soft on his body.
"This is the library. I don't want to find any ripped pages or scratched bindings." Sherry said, giving Dusty a pointed look making the small creature whimper and hide behind Harry. She opened the doors and showed him in.
"Oh boy." Harry muttered, seeing the half empty shelves and the stacks of books on the floor. It wasn't an overly large room, about the size of his dorm room at Hogwarts where ten shelves stood against the wall from floor to ceiling, two of those ten were filled with books and the rest were empty and covered in cobwebs.
"There is already a list of what needs to be where on the table and most of the shelves have already been done." Sherry turned to leave, "Oh and one more thing, you are not to read or open any of the books in here. Just alphabetize them and put them up. You know what will happen if you disobey." Sherry then left Harry staring opened mouthed in the room.
Composing himself, Harry looked down at Dusty who was staring up at him, concerned.
"At least it doesn't stink in here like the attic." he said, trying to lighten the mood but something about the room didn't feel right and as Harry began his chore he felt a menacing presence from within the room.
"Okay Dusty, you climb up there on the top shelves and clean 'em off for me while I try it figure out what book goes where." Harry told his companion walking over to the ladder attached to the shelves to carry him up. Dusty just yipped happily and without help crawled up the wall to the first empty shelf.
"Didn't know you could do that. Could have helped when I was trying to get the webs from the roof back there." Harry murmured, watching as Dusty used himself to wipe the dust away.
With a shrug of his shoulders, Harry climbed down and went to the list on the table and was relieved to see that all he had to do was find the stack with the already alphabetized books and put them in order.
Harry talked to Dusty as they worked in the library, telling him all about his life at the Dursley's and his friends at Hogwarts. Dusty would respond with happy purring like noises.
"Hagrid would really like you. He's interested in all types of creatures." Harry was saying, reaching up to put a book on magical history on the top shelf that Dusty had just cleaned.
Dusty smiled happily with his big eyes, speckles of dust and spider webs all over his used to be clean fur. Harry smiled back and continued with putting the books up, wiping a hand over his forehead as he finished with the second to last shelf in the room and moved to start on the last one.
'Hey these chores aren't half bad. They take a lot of work but the foods good and I don't have to put up with Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia telling me I'm not doing it right.' Harry thought, waiting for Dusty to climb up the shelf and start cleaning. When that didn't happen he looked down to see Dusty glaring at something from across the room, his body stiff and teeth bared.
The feeling of dread he had since stepping into the room flared full force as Harry slowly turned around to see what was causing his friend to get defensive. Standing next to the table, was a beast about six feet in height, it was black with green spots of fur all over it and really thin. Its arms were muscular though, reaching the ground were three-inch sharp claws played with the carpeting of the floor. Long skinny legs moved with deliberate steps towards them, gaunt green eyes looking menacingly from Harry to Dusty and back again liking it's overly large lips with a black tongue.
"A Ryper." Harry whispered, as he remembered seeing one in his Care of Magical Creatures book. "Um, did you want to get a book from the library?" Harry asked, eyes widening in panic.
The Ryper shook its head, taking in the sweat beading across Harry's forehead. Harry couldn't move since he already had his back to the bookshelf. Looking left and right, he couldn't find anything to defend himself with except for the books and he knew those wouldn't do any damage. Then his eyes saw the ladder he used to get the books on the high shelf.
'If I can distract it long enough to throw the ladder at it, I could knock it unconscious and call for help.' Harry thought, edging away from the books to put a hand on the wood of the ladder.
He didn't get too far when the creature rushed at him raising its large arms to slash at him. Harry dodged out of the way at time, but saw blue liquid arch in the air and heard a small-terrified yip.
"No!" Harry turned to see Dusty lying still on the ground, a thin cut along his small body, his blue blood trickling out of the wound.
The Ryper made a weird noise that sounded like laughter. Enraged, Harry's emotions made the table lift up from behind the creature and slam into its head. The force of the blow knocked it over, scattering a stack of books. Then the ladder was floating in the air and as the Ryper was getting to his feet, beat him repeatedly over the head until it was sprawled on the ground unconscious.
Harry ran to Dusty's side, staying as far from the thing as possible and was relieved to see Dusty's wounds healing. In seconds, Dusty was happily licking Harry's face while being held in his arms. Harry looked around the room and saw that only the books, table and ladder suffered any damage. Then he had to remember that there was a large and probably heavy creature like thing passed out on the floor.
"Why me?" Harry said, looking up at the ceiling.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The hours wore on and although it wasn't as clean as he would have liked, Harry was glad that it was over. Dusty was guarding the Ryper who was still unconscious and that he had trouble dragged to the corner of the room.
"Lunch is ready Mr. Potter. I suggest you don't be late." Sherry said, walking into the room and nonchalantly summoning a stretcher and lifting the Ryper on to it.
"That thing attacked me! How am I supposed to get my chores done if I'm getting assaulted all the time," Harry shouted, following Sherry out of the room.
"That is none of my concern. If you cannot handle a few simple distractions then you are not at all what my Master thought you were."
"Yeah well your Master's a sick bastard," Harry grumbled under his breath.
"I heard that and I'm sure he did too. You'll just have more to explain when you have dinner with him tonight." Sherry said, smirking at the horrified look on Harry's face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After lunch Harry and Dusty went down to the basement and saw that it was almost as empty as the attic.
"Don't know why I have to clean it. All it needs is a good dusting and some light." Harry murmured, then sneezed.
But Harry found out the basement was going to give him more trouble than the attic for instead of a Bogart there was a full grown Grindylow in there.
"Damn it! Stupid thing won't stop moving." Harry said, holding a broken broom in his hands, the sharp point aimed at the hard shell. His baggy clothing was torn when the Grindylow had surprised them from behind. The wounds on his back were bleeding a little but he took no notice as he watched Dusty.
Dusty was running around the room, keeping it occupied while Harry looked for a way to get under it and stab the soft stomach. When the Grindylow lifted a leg to stomp on Dusty, Harry moved as fast as he could and rolled under it, thrusting the tip into its belly and rolling back out. Shrill screaming filled the air as the Grindylow tried to pull the broom from its stomach. With one last cry it collapsed on the ground, writhing for a few minutes before stopping, dead.
Harry sighed and bent to pick Dusty up only to hiss in pain when the cuts on his back decided to want attention. Dusty looked up and saw pain flash before Harry's eyes, concerned he rubbed his head against Harry's leg hoping to get some sign that he was alright.
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Harry said, hearing the concerned whimpers from Dusty.
"Mr. Potter. I see that you have managed to get rid of the slight pest problem in the basement. Go clean up for dinner. Don't be late, Master Andrew can be quite...displeased by that." Sherry said from the top of the staircase, but instead of the wistful expression there was grim satisfaction.
Harry groaned only just managing to curb the sarcastic remark from slipping from his lips. Deciding a bath was in order he let Dusty crawl up his leg and settle on his head before leaving the basement and going towards his room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quick note: I'm not sure if I want Dumbledore to send Snape or to have him send someone else. Your comments are greatly appreciated. Review please!
by Dark Moon
Disclaimers: They are not mine. J.K Rowling has the pleasure of owning those great characters. I'm just borrowing them temporarily.
Author's Note: This took longer than I thought to write. But at least it's finished and I can start with going to the others point of view. Thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoy reading this. There is language and violence in this one so be warned.
Part 5
He climbed a flight of stairs and saw another door at the top. As he opened it, the smell of stale clothing and mothballs was so powerful Harry was almost knocked over. He tried to find a light switch and his hand brushed something hairy that scuttled away from his touch. Suppressing a shiver, Harry found the switch and soon dim light filled the room.
Taking a look around, Harry lifted an eyebrow as he saw that except for a few boxes and chests the room was empty. It was dirty though, he couldn't even tell if the floor was wood or not since it was covered in a thick sheen of gray dust. Spider webs hung everywhere with the round hairy insects resting in the middle of them. Looking for something to start cleaning with he saw an old broom and bucket, along with a rusted sink and what looked to be a ragged cloth laying on the rim.
"I'm finding a window first. It's too stuffy in here," Harry said to himself, moving deeper into the room to find a window or at least a vent to get some air.
As he went deeper into the room, Harry saw something move in the shadows and it was coming towards him. Thinking it was a Bogart, he pictured the piggy tail on Dudley, Snape dressed up as Neville's gran, and a lot of other silly thoughts that made him laugh hoping it would keep it away until he could figure out a better way to get rid of it. The thing in the shadows was not swayed by the laughter and seemed to be drawn by it as well. It sped up still staying in the darkest corners and was soon waiting in the shadows were he had stopped in fright.
"Don't come any closer or I'll....I'll..." Harry looked around him in search of some type of weapon to defend himself with. He saw an old bludger bat leaning against one of the dustier chests to his right and leapt for it.
He aimed the bat at the shadows and told whatever was out there to come out. Seconds later, a furry light brown paw, followed by a short furry body with the largest chocolate brown eyes he had ever seen. It was almost the size of a puppy but a little bigger and it had six legs instead of the known four. It had a small black nose and its long hair covered its floppy ears and he could see tiny teeth poking out from a small mouth. The creature hesitantly shuffled towards Harry but he still didn't know if it was friendly or not so he kept the bat ready incase it attacked. Stopping a few feet from him, Harry could see that it must have been up in the attic for a long time because he could see the tiny skeleton of the thing poking through it's matted and shaggy fur. When the eyes never left his face Harry could see the pleading in them and with a sigh bent down and called it to him.
"Come on little guy, I'm not going to hurt you." Holding out his hand, Harry kept his voice calm and soothing as it slowly crawled to his hand and after sniffing it for a few minutes let him pet its head, making a crooning sort of noise.
"Well you're not such a bad guy after all are you?" Harry asked, putting the bat down and taking it into his arms.
It just burrowed deeper into his chest and nuzzled him.
"I guess you can help me clean up in here. It's not like there's much else to do until breakfast." he told it, then found a window and propped it open, glad to smell the fresh morning air. He put his new friend on the floor and got the broom, starting on the floor.
Two hours passed, Harry and Dusty, "You almost blend with the dust on the floor, I think I'll call you Dusty." were finishing with the last of the chests when he saw Dusty stiffen in his spot on the floor.
The large eyes glared at the shifting shadows, as the meager light in the room started flickering. He quickly searched for his weapon knowing it would be needed soon. As he picked up the bat, Harry felt the stench of rancid meat on his neck and blindly swung out in back of him. He heard a howl of outrage and a thump as something hard hit the floor. Dusty was growling somewhere and clothe could be heard tearing as Dusty attacked.
Turning Harry saw that it was a Bogart that looked like a very pathetic Voldemort.
"Oh come on! I know you can do better than that! Even the Dementor I saw in class was more scarier." Harry said out loud, giving the Bogart a very sad look.
"Mr. Potter, I suggest you give Bo some credit. He has been weak for a couple days and was just now able to get out of the shadows for a stretch. Breakfast is ready, go clean up and come down to eat." Sherry said in a stern voice, helping the whimpering Bogart to its feet and taking him down the stairs.
Harry stared after the retreating pair in confusion and shock. Dusty looked up at his friend, wondering what was wrong when Harry shook out of it and picked him up.
"Come on Dusty, might as well go see what's for breakfast." Harry then got a whiff of Dusty and held him out at arms length.
"But first you're getting a bath. You stink!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Why that one, Master? Could we not have let him befriend Amos or Ulysses?" Sherry asked at the doorway.
"I have my reasons. Now makes sure Harry eats something. I have arranged a little surprise for him in the library." came Andrew's voice, a hint of sadistic humor making her shiver.
"Yes, Master." Sherry bowed and walked away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"That was good, wasn't it?" Harry asked him, as Sherry lead them to the library. Dusty yipped in agreement, clean and full for the first time in its life. His fur was actually a glossy milk chocolate and when combed it laid straight and soft on his body.
"This is the library. I don't want to find any ripped pages or scratched bindings." Sherry said, giving Dusty a pointed look making the small creature whimper and hide behind Harry. She opened the doors and showed him in.
"Oh boy." Harry muttered, seeing the half empty shelves and the stacks of books on the floor. It wasn't an overly large room, about the size of his dorm room at Hogwarts where ten shelves stood against the wall from floor to ceiling, two of those ten were filled with books and the rest were empty and covered in cobwebs.
"There is already a list of what needs to be where on the table and most of the shelves have already been done." Sherry turned to leave, "Oh and one more thing, you are not to read or open any of the books in here. Just alphabetize them and put them up. You know what will happen if you disobey." Sherry then left Harry staring opened mouthed in the room.
Composing himself, Harry looked down at Dusty who was staring up at him, concerned.
"At least it doesn't stink in here like the attic." he said, trying to lighten the mood but something about the room didn't feel right and as Harry began his chore he felt a menacing presence from within the room.
"Okay Dusty, you climb up there on the top shelves and clean 'em off for me while I try it figure out what book goes where." Harry told his companion walking over to the ladder attached to the shelves to carry him up. Dusty just yipped happily and without help crawled up the wall to the first empty shelf.
"Didn't know you could do that. Could have helped when I was trying to get the webs from the roof back there." Harry murmured, watching as Dusty used himself to wipe the dust away.
With a shrug of his shoulders, Harry climbed down and went to the list on the table and was relieved to see that all he had to do was find the stack with the already alphabetized books and put them in order.
Harry talked to Dusty as they worked in the library, telling him all about his life at the Dursley's and his friends at Hogwarts. Dusty would respond with happy purring like noises.
"Hagrid would really like you. He's interested in all types of creatures." Harry was saying, reaching up to put a book on magical history on the top shelf that Dusty had just cleaned.
Dusty smiled happily with his big eyes, speckles of dust and spider webs all over his used to be clean fur. Harry smiled back and continued with putting the books up, wiping a hand over his forehead as he finished with the second to last shelf in the room and moved to start on the last one.
'Hey these chores aren't half bad. They take a lot of work but the foods good and I don't have to put up with Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia telling me I'm not doing it right.' Harry thought, waiting for Dusty to climb up the shelf and start cleaning. When that didn't happen he looked down to see Dusty glaring at something from across the room, his body stiff and teeth bared.
The feeling of dread he had since stepping into the room flared full force as Harry slowly turned around to see what was causing his friend to get defensive. Standing next to the table, was a beast about six feet in height, it was black with green spots of fur all over it and really thin. Its arms were muscular though, reaching the ground were three-inch sharp claws played with the carpeting of the floor. Long skinny legs moved with deliberate steps towards them, gaunt green eyes looking menacingly from Harry to Dusty and back again liking it's overly large lips with a black tongue.
"A Ryper." Harry whispered, as he remembered seeing one in his Care of Magical Creatures book. "Um, did you want to get a book from the library?" Harry asked, eyes widening in panic.
The Ryper shook its head, taking in the sweat beading across Harry's forehead. Harry couldn't move since he already had his back to the bookshelf. Looking left and right, he couldn't find anything to defend himself with except for the books and he knew those wouldn't do any damage. Then his eyes saw the ladder he used to get the books on the high shelf.
'If I can distract it long enough to throw the ladder at it, I could knock it unconscious and call for help.' Harry thought, edging away from the books to put a hand on the wood of the ladder.
He didn't get too far when the creature rushed at him raising its large arms to slash at him. Harry dodged out of the way at time, but saw blue liquid arch in the air and heard a small-terrified yip.
"No!" Harry turned to see Dusty lying still on the ground, a thin cut along his small body, his blue blood trickling out of the wound.
The Ryper made a weird noise that sounded like laughter. Enraged, Harry's emotions made the table lift up from behind the creature and slam into its head. The force of the blow knocked it over, scattering a stack of books. Then the ladder was floating in the air and as the Ryper was getting to his feet, beat him repeatedly over the head until it was sprawled on the ground unconscious.
Harry ran to Dusty's side, staying as far from the thing as possible and was relieved to see Dusty's wounds healing. In seconds, Dusty was happily licking Harry's face while being held in his arms. Harry looked around the room and saw that only the books, table and ladder suffered any damage. Then he had to remember that there was a large and probably heavy creature like thing passed out on the floor.
"Why me?" Harry said, looking up at the ceiling.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The hours wore on and although it wasn't as clean as he would have liked, Harry was glad that it was over. Dusty was guarding the Ryper who was still unconscious and that he had trouble dragged to the corner of the room.
"Lunch is ready Mr. Potter. I suggest you don't be late." Sherry said, walking into the room and nonchalantly summoning a stretcher and lifting the Ryper on to it.
"That thing attacked me! How am I supposed to get my chores done if I'm getting assaulted all the time," Harry shouted, following Sherry out of the room.
"That is none of my concern. If you cannot handle a few simple distractions then you are not at all what my Master thought you were."
"Yeah well your Master's a sick bastard," Harry grumbled under his breath.
"I heard that and I'm sure he did too. You'll just have more to explain when you have dinner with him tonight." Sherry said, smirking at the horrified look on Harry's face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After lunch Harry and Dusty went down to the basement and saw that it was almost as empty as the attic.
"Don't know why I have to clean it. All it needs is a good dusting and some light." Harry murmured, then sneezed.
But Harry found out the basement was going to give him more trouble than the attic for instead of a Bogart there was a full grown Grindylow in there.
"Damn it! Stupid thing won't stop moving." Harry said, holding a broken broom in his hands, the sharp point aimed at the hard shell. His baggy clothing was torn when the Grindylow had surprised them from behind. The wounds on his back were bleeding a little but he took no notice as he watched Dusty.
Dusty was running around the room, keeping it occupied while Harry looked for a way to get under it and stab the soft stomach. When the Grindylow lifted a leg to stomp on Dusty, Harry moved as fast as he could and rolled under it, thrusting the tip into its belly and rolling back out. Shrill screaming filled the air as the Grindylow tried to pull the broom from its stomach. With one last cry it collapsed on the ground, writhing for a few minutes before stopping, dead.
Harry sighed and bent to pick Dusty up only to hiss in pain when the cuts on his back decided to want attention. Dusty looked up and saw pain flash before Harry's eyes, concerned he rubbed his head against Harry's leg hoping to get some sign that he was alright.
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Harry said, hearing the concerned whimpers from Dusty.
"Mr. Potter. I see that you have managed to get rid of the slight pest problem in the basement. Go clean up for dinner. Don't be late, Master Andrew can be quite...displeased by that." Sherry said from the top of the staircase, but instead of the wistful expression there was grim satisfaction.
Harry groaned only just managing to curb the sarcastic remark from slipping from his lips. Deciding a bath was in order he let Dusty crawl up his leg and settle on his head before leaving the basement and going towards his room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quick note: I'm not sure if I want Dumbledore to send Snape or to have him send someone else. Your comments are greatly appreciated. Review please!