A/N - Hello everyone. Before we get into this week's chapter I have to make the following announcement: I've been able to update this story on a weekly basis because I had a whole bunch of chapters written in advance. Part 1 came out of me very quickly and that's why all of it got posted on schedule. Part 2, as I said when I began posting it, has been much harder to write and I warned you all that it was very likely that all of Part 2 would not get out on schedule. Unfortunately we may have reached that time. This chapter is the last completed one that I have so far. I can't guarantee that the next chapter will be out on schedule. Maybe it will but if it isn't don't be surprised.
Actually I'm surprised that this schedule slippage didn't happen much sooner and that I've gotten this far into the story already. It's too bad if it happens now because we're really not that far from the end. We'll see but I thought I should let you know about this if the next chapter is late.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
Quotes taken from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
39) RETURN TO PRIVET DRIVE
Time moved on as it almost always does. Before long April gave way to May and Spring was in full swing. The date of third task was less than two months away now but Harry knew that important things would happen before then.
It started in mid-April right after Neville's parents were healed. The first event was that Neville had to get a new wand. After the war council in Dumbledore's office was over McGonagall contacted Madame Longbottom and the two women took him to Ollivander's where he finally got a wand of his own made of Cherry wood with a Unicorn hair as its core. The difference in his spell casting was immediately apparent and it quickly became clear that, far from being almost a squib he was actually a powerful wizard. This development along with his mutant powers did wonders for Neville's self-confidence. Soon not even the Slytherins who used to bully him could say anything about him being weak.
He learned something at the X-Mansion that helped him a lot in the days that followed. Professor Xavier had instructed Neville to meditate once a day every day either before he went to bed or right after getting up in the morning. Neville began meditating before going to bed and it was very beneficial for him. It helped him center himself and begin to get a better grip on both his magic and his mutant power. Lastly it helped him to easily fall asleep at night and wake up refreshed in the morning.
Shortly after Neville got his new wand Sirius told Harry that the Dursleys had missed their monthly payment.
"They must have less money than we thought" said Harry, "the payments aren't unreasonably large."
"Maybe" said Sirius, "or maybe they're not paying out of spite, which would be very stupid of them since just one missed payment leaves them vulnerable to us swooping in and taking everything. We can do that now. All you have to do is give the word."
"Give them one more month" said Harry, "in case they're just late, but if they miss it again screw 'em."
Over the next month Harry largely forgot about the Dursleys as he was very busy with school, the X-Men, spending time with Ororo, and preparing for the third task.
In mid-May Harry received a note from Dumbledore telling him that he needed to be at Hogwarts on the evening of Saturday, May 27th to receive important information about the third task. Right after that Sirius told him that the Dursleys had missed another payment. This time Harry gave the green light for "Operation Screw the Dursleys" to go forward but he made one request.
"I want to see them before they're forced out of Privet Drive" he said.
"Okay pup, but why?" asked Sirius, "do you think they'll have learned anything?"
"No" said Harry, "but I could be wrong. This is more about closure than anything else."
Sirius nodded. It was decided that they would visit the Dursleys after lunch on the 27th before Harry had to go to Hogwarts. Harry reminded Sirius that he owned a flat in London that they could stay at while they were in the U.K. and Sirius agreed as he didn't want to spend time at 12 Grimmauld Place if he could help it.
On Friday, May 26th Harry and Sirius took a portkey to the U.K. and went to the Potter flat in Central London. It wasn't far from Charing Cross which meant it wasn't far from Diagon Alley. This made sense for a residence that magicals lived in. It was a large flat with four bedrooms, a livingroom, diningroom, kitchen, study, potions lab, and training room. The whole thing was kept in pristine condition by stasis spells and was very comfortable.
"I remember this flat" said Sirius looking around it, "James lived here after graduating from Hogwarts and I lived here with him. After he married your mother they both lived here for a while. I moved out so they'd have some privacy."
"Was I born here?" asked Harry.
"No" said Sirius smiling at the memory, "you were actually born in New Zealand while your parents were living there after leaving here. I remember that place. It was a house right by the beach. You could open the back door and head right down to the sand."
"Oh yes" said Harry, "I saw that house on the list of my properties. It sounds wonderful. Why did my parents leave it?"
"The war was still going strong" said Sirius, "your parents felt that they should be helping rather than leaving their friends to face all of the Death Eaters while they relaxed at the beach. They came back in the spring of '81 and the rest is history, unfortunately."
"Well maybe once Voldemort's gone we can stay there for a while" said Harry.
"That would be nice" said Sirius, "I'm sure Ororo would like it too. You should take her there after you get married."
"Whoa!" said Harry, "who said anything about us getting married?"
"Potter men always know who their mates are early on" said Sirius with a grin, "James declared he would marry Lily early in first year and he did. Your grandparents, James' parents, knew each other all their lives and they knew early on that they would be together. Now it's your turn."
Harry reflected on this for a few moments.
"Well" he finally said, "I could see that. Yes, I definitely could see that. I wonder if she feels the same way?"
"She will" said Sirius, "of that I have no doubt. The fact that she's a princess might complicate things a bit but I'm sure you can work everything out when the time comes."
They didn't stay up very late that evening as Saturday would be a long day.
The residents of Privet Drive got an unusual sight the next day when a black stretch limousine pulled up in front of Number 4 and came to a stop. Sirius had decided that they should arrive in style and had rented the vehicle for the day. Remus had apparated down from Hogwarts to join them just before lunch and to drive down to Little Whinging with them.
"These things really are great" said Sirius as they were driven toward their destination, "muggles do know how to travel in style."
"Yeah" said Harry, "if you're rich."
"Which you are" shot back Sirius.
"Point" said Harry, "I wonder if I own one of these?"
"Maybe cub" said Remus, "your parents did own several cars. They're all in storage somewhere."
"Probably at Potter Castle" said Sirius, "your grandfather had a garage built on the grounds to house several cars and I know James added at least one or two more. There'll also be a car at the New Zealand house and another at the Beverly Hills mansion."
"There's one at the Valdez house" put in Remus.
"And I think there's a jeep at the Tanzania bungalow" said Sirius, "it's been a long time since we've been to any of those places though."
"I really need to go see all of my properties" said Harry, "so far I've only seen the London flat and the New York penthouse, at least as far as I remember."
"Once the tournament is over" said Sirius, "and Voldemort is dealt with for good you'll have time to do some traveling."
They arrived in Little Whinging shortly after that and soon the limo pulled up outside of number 4. Harry got out of the vehicle and looked around at the neighborhood. Nothing whatever had changed. It looked exactly the same as it always did. Harry knew that some people would find that to be comforting but he found it to be a bit depressing.
There were some residents out and about and most of them stopped and stared at the limousine. Harry recognized a few faces as neighbors of the Dursleys from when he'd lived there. None of them had ever helped him. They'd all believed the Dursleys' lies about Harry being a delinquent troublemaker and they'd all looked down on him. Some of them were now looking at him in amazement as he got out of the limousine although it might just have been because he, Sirius, and Remus had arrived in one to begin with. Harry looked very different from the last time he'd been in Little Whinging and it was very possible that the neighbors didn't recognize him.
The Dursleys knew that Harry and his companions were coming and they weren't happy about it one bit. Petunia opened the door of the house after Sirius rang the bell and ordered all three of them to get inside as fast as they could. Before she closed the door, however, she looked at the limousine for a moment with both disbelief and envy.
Once the visitors were inside Petunia led them into the livingroom. Vernon and Dudley were already there waiting for them. Vernon looked especially angry. Dudley just looked puzzled. He didn't really understand what was happening to his family, just that it was bad and it was somehow related to his cousin. Of course that wasn't anything new. His parents had told him constantly that every bad thing that ever happened in his life was related to Harry. Most recently it was because of Harry that Dudley wasn't at Smeltings anymore but was now at Stonewall High instead.
Although none of them showed it all three of the Dursleys were actually quite surprised at Harry's appearance. It was closing in on three years since any of them had seen him (so they thought) and he had changed almost out of all recognition from the short, scrawny kid they remembered into this tall, well-built and frankly good looking teenager who now stood before them. Dudley wouldn't admit it but he felt envious of how Harry looked.
Harry looked around the livingroom. It hadn't changed. Same chairs, same sofa, same tables, same pictures of Dudley and his parents on the mantlepiece – actually there were more of those than since he had last been here but there still weren't any pictures of him to show any sign that he had ever lived here.
Actually that wasn't entirely correct, As Harry looked at the pictures he saw that there were two pictures that he was in and they had a pride of place in the center of the mantlepiece. It was ironic that the Dursleys didn't know this because these were the pictures that had been taken of him on a trip to London while he was Lightning. They showed him with Dudley and Piers Polkiss on either side of him. One had all of the X-Men in the picture, and one had just him with Dudley and Piers. Harry smirked a little to himself. Oh if they only knew. Then he frowned a little. It was quite possible that they would know before the meeting was over. It probably all depended on whether everyone could keep their tempers. He'd talked over that possibility with Sirius and Professor Xavier and they'd settled on what to do if Harry became Lightning at the meeting.
"Hello Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, Dudley" said Harry. None of his relatives said anything. They just looked at him and his companions with loathing.
"Well?" asked Sirius, "aren't you going to ask us to sit down and offer us some refreshment?"
"Why are you here boy?" said Vernon abruptly, "did you come to gloat over us?"
"Not really" said Harry, "maybe a little. I feel I have the right. I know that if our positions were reversed you definitely would be rubbing it in my face."
Uncle Vernon made to get up.
"Stay you where you are uncle" said Harry.
"Make me freak" said Uncle Vernon as he stood up fully, "You can't use magic outside of school."
"No, but we can" said Sirius pointing his wand at Vernon, "get back in your seat unless you want to get hurt. Just give me a reason."
"Wait a minute" gasped Petunia, "you're that man, that murderer that was on the news nearly two years ago! They still haven't caught you?"
"You're behind the times Petunia" said Sirius, "I was officially exonerated a year and a half ago when the real murderer was caught. Try to keep up."
"Why did you come here?" Petunia asked Harry.
"I'm not quite sure" he said, "I thought I might get closure since we'll probably never see each other again after today. That's something that I'm sure we'll all be glad about. Or in light of what's you happening to you I was hoping that maybe you'd done some reflecting over how you treated me and learned a thing or two. It doesn't look like any of that's happened and judging by your attitudes today nothing has changed. In that case I might as well let your past come home to roost. How does it feel Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, to finally have the tables turned on you by your despised freak of a nephew?"
"How dare you do this to good, hard working, honest, normal people like us!" yelled Vernon.
"Normal?" Harry said looking at Vernon like he was crazy, "you actually think you're normal? Tell me Uncle in what world is child abuse considered normal? By any normal standard of civilization you're the freaks, not me."
"How dare you boy – "
"Oh shut up blubber butt!" said Sirius pointing his wand at Vernon who immediately shut his mouth. Remus looked at Sirius.
"Blubber butt?" he said to his fellow marauder, "really?"
"It fits him" Sirius groused.
"As for being honest" Harry was talking again, "don't make me laugh. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, have either of you ever read the Bible?"
"What does that have to do with – " Petunia began but Harry cut her off. He would have never have dared to do that in the past. It was a sign of how much he had changed that he did so now.
"I believe that one of the Ten Commandments is 'Thou shalt not steal'" he said, "but you did, didn't you? And not just a small amount either but over 150,000 pounds from my family estate."
"What?" asked Dudley in surprise as he sat up.
"Why Dudley" said Harry turning to him now, "didn't your loving mummy and daddy ever tell you? All those presents you got? Your toys growing up? Your TV and video game system, your computer, and so much more? It was all paid for with my family's money. Not bad for someone whose parents were supposedly irresponsible unemployed drunken layabouts who died in a car crash."
"Harry!" said Sirius, shocked.
"That's what they always told me until it came out that I was a wizard" said Harry to Sirius before turning back to Dudley, "tell me ickle Duddykins, what do you call an estate that can afford to send payments of 1,000 pounds a month to anyone for almost thirteen years?"
"Uh, it would have to be pretty big?" guessed Dudley.
"You have no idea how right you are" said Harry, "not too long ago I was informed of my family's full worth – well my full worth now because it all belongs to me – and I am extremely rich. I'm one of the richest people in the world on par with the likes of Tony Stark and Bill Gates."
"Liar!" Petunia yelled.
"You wish" said Harry, "and you know something? If you had only been nice to me when I lived here, if you had only been kind and treated me with love like family should I would have happily shared some of it with you. But you didn't and now you'll never see so much as one more penny of it ever again."
"We'll sue you!" yelled Petunia, "we deserved to be paid for taking you in. We deserved that money!"
"By all means" said Harry with a smirk, "please sue me. I'd love to see you try to justify yourselves in court. Especially when all of the abuse you heaped on me comes out. And believe me, if you try to sue me it will come out."
That shut Petunia up. Harry turned to look at Vernon.
"Uncle Vernon you know about stocks and shares, right? If someone owns more than 50 percent of a company they have control of that company, right?"
Vernon nodded, not sure where this was heading.
"I own stock in a lot of companies" continued Harry, "some of them are very big ones. I own ten percent of Stark Industries for instance, and seven percent of Worthington Industries." Harry inwardly smirked as he saw the look on Vernon's face at this revelation.
"But there's so much more" said Harry, "there's one company in particular that might interest you. It's a U.K. company that I happen to own 64 percent of. Do you know what it's called?"
All three of the Dursleys shook their heads.
"Then I will tell you" said Harry looking squarely at Vernon, "it's a company you know, or rather knew, quite well. Grunnings Drills."
"You?"Vernon demanded, his face turning redder, "you were the one who had me fired?"
"No" said Sirius, "actually that was me. Harry's still underage right now so I've been acting as his proxy. Originally we were okay with keeping you in your job since you were pretty good at it but we started to get the reports of how you were treating some of your underlings and that was followed by what you did to your secretary. After that we knew you had to go. There's no room at Grunning for someone who mistreats people.
"Which brings us to why we're here today. Because of your job loss you have finally missed your first payment. You know what the goblins and the Potter lawyer said. You miss one payment and your house and other assets would be seized."
"You would ruin us boy?" Vernon yelled as he jumped to his feet again and clenching his fists – only to find Remus' wand in his face.
"Stop it Mr. Dursley" said the werewolf in a soft yet stern voice, "Harry let you miss two payments. He gave you an extra chance that you didn't deserve. Now sit down!" With a huge scowl on his face Vernon complied.
"First of all" said Harry to his aunt and uncle, "my name isn't 'Boy' or 'Freak.' It's 'Harry.' Use it. Secondly did you really think that after abusing me for so many years that it wouldn't come back to bite you some day? I'm a wizard. I can use magic. You both know that and you knew it the whole time I was living here. Maybe I can't use magic outside of school right now because I'm still underage but I won't always be underage. Did it never occur to you that when I finally was of age and could use magic freely that I might come back seeking revenge? Did you really never think of that?"
Harry gave his aunt and uncle a long, searching look. It seemed that they really hadn't thought that someday he might return wanting payback. Harry shook his head. For all of their vaunted 'normalness' his aunt and uncle were very stupid sometimes. It wasn't that surprising though considering how dumb Dudley was. He had to get the 'stupidity gene' from somewhere.
"One more thing" said Harry speaking to Petunia this time, "if you and Vernon had died instead of my parents and they had taken in Dudley, do you think they would have treated him the same way that you treated me?"
He received no answer to this question either but he didn't think he needed one. From what he knew about his parents he knew the answer to his question would have been "no" and Dudley would have grown up in the Potter house treated far better than he had ever been treated in the Dursley house. This hardened his resolve.
"Okay" he said, "here's how it's going to be. Your bank accounts are going to be seized and this house is going to be sold. If that pays off all of the debt then good. If there's anything left over beyond that it'll be returned to you. If all of that doesn't cover the debt than you'll still have to pay back whatever is left. Uncle Vernon you asked if I would ruin you? No, I wouldn't. If you had shown even one ounce of remorse or regret over how you treated me we could have worked out some other arrangement. But even now you still think you didn't do anything wrong. Because of that you'll get no mercy from me – just like I never got any from you. You don't like it? Too bad."
Harry turned to Sirius and Remus.
"We're done here" he said to them.
"Right pup" said Sirius before turning to the Dursleys, "you have 7 days to get out. And if you damage the property in any way the cost of the damage will be added to the amount you already owe Harry."
The three magicals began to turn away. Before they had moved from where they were they heard a roar of fury. Turning back Harry saw his Uncle Vernon on his feet.
"You ungrateful freak!" Vernon was yelling, "you should have died when your parents did!"
Vernon ran across the livingroom with arms out and hands open as if he would grab Harry by the neck and strangle him. There was no time for Sirius and Remus to get their wands up to stop him but Uncle Vernon never reached his nephew. Harry reacted on pure instinct and the next thing anyone knew Vernon was flying back across the room and impacting against the wall hard. He slid down the wall to the floor and stared at Harry with angry and fearful eyes. Petunia shrieked and moved over to Vernon to see how badly he was hurt. Dudley just stared.
"You're done it now boy" Vernon said weakly from the floor, "they'll throw you out of that freak school." Harry just stared at him. He hadn't meant to do that to Uncle Vernon and he knew he'd better leave quickly and calm himself down before the situation escalated even more.
"No they won't" said Harry, "I didn't use magic."
"What are you talking about" demanded Petunia, "we just saw you."
"Did you see a wand in my hand?" asked Harry, "there are other powers in the world you know." He turned to Sirius.
"Since it's gone this far it might as well go all the way" he said to his Godfather.
"Are you sure about this pup?" asked Sirius.
"No" said Harry, "but I need to calm down and flying is by far the best way for me."
"All right" said Sirius as he raised his wand and did a switching spell. Harry Potter was gone and Lightning the X-Man stood in his place. The mouths of all three Dursleys dropped open.
"I can't stay here" said Lightning to Remus and Sirius, "or I'll do something worse. The two of you will take care of things here?"
"Yes Lightning we will" said Sirius.
"Okay" said Lightning, "I'll meet you at the park in a bit." Lightning turned away and headed for the back door of the house. He didn't see Remus raise his wand and obliviate first Vernon and then Petunia.
When Lightning reached the back door and opened it he heard someone call his name behind him. He turned around and saw that Dudley had followed him and was now staring at him in complete disbelief.
"Yes Dudley, what is it?" asked Lightning trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.
"It's true?" Dudley asked, "you're really Lightning?"
Lightning sighed and faced Dudley. He held out his right hand with his palm facing up and soon little lightning bolts were dancing on his hand. Dudley stared at this as if mesmerized.
"Yes Dudley" said Lightning as he dispelled the electricity from his hand, "I'm really Lightning of the X-Men. As I recall the last time we met you said you wanted to be just like me." Lightning stepped out of the house and took off. Dudley followed him outside and watched him as he climbed high into the air and flew away. Dudley stepped back into the house looking devastated.
"No" he said in denial over learning that his cousin, whom he'd always looked down on and bullied while they were growing up, was actually his favorite member of the X-Men, "it's not true. It can't be true. He can't be Lightning. It's not fair! IT'S NOT FAIR!"
Dudley looked like he was about to throw a royal sized tantrum and he didn't notice Sirius walking up behind him and pointing his wand at his head.
"Obliviate" said Sirius and Dudley's face went blank for a moment before he shook his head.
"What was I doing?" he asked himself in an uncertain manner.
"You were about to get me a glass of water" said Sirius as Dudley turned hearing his voice.
"Oh, right" said Dudley who got a glass out of a cabinet, filled it with water and handed it to Sirius.
"Thank you" said Sirius politely.
None of the Dursleys would remember that Harry was Lightning. Later on Professor Xavier would check their minds and make sure that the knowledge that Harry was an X-Man had been completely removed from their memories. This was done more for Dudley's sake than anyone else's. Harry didn't hold Dudley completely responsible for his actions while Harry lived with him as he felt that his cousin mainly acted under the influence of his parents. Harry saw no reason to take away Dudley's illusions regarding Lightning's identity. It was one of the few mercies Harry gave him. The other one was to make sure that Dudley's future schooling was paid for to give him one more chance to turn his life around.
A little while later the limousine stopped off at the local park. Sirius got out and walked into the forest area where he found Lightning waiting for him. After a quick switching spell to get him into his regular clothes again Harry joined his Godfather and honorary uncle in the back of the limousine. As they headed back to London they talked over what had happened.
"Do you feel better now?" asked Sirius.
"A bit I guess" said Harry, "I'm glad to be done with them for good. There'll probably always be a small part of me that wished things could have been different but what can you do about it?"
They spent the afternoon at Harry's flat. When it got close to dinnertime Harry decided he'd join his friends at Hogwarts for the meal. He'd been asked to come to the school after dinner for his briefing but decided to go early so he could see his friends. Harry had asked Neville to tell Ron, Hermione, the twins, and Ginny about Malfoy's letter and impressed on them that this information had to remain secret both for their sakes and Malfoy's too. Ron was going to argue that "who cared about Malfoy?" until he was reminded about the great risk Malfoy had taken in sending Professor X that letter in the first place. After that Ron grudgingly agreed that Malfoy had been brave to send it.
Dinner with his friends was pleasant, almost like he'd never left Hogwarts. During the meal he noticed Snape staring at him from the staff table with an unreadable expression although it didn't seem malicious. Harry wondered if Snape had taken his talk with Lightning to heart but the Potions Master made no move to approach him.
The briefing about the third task was set to be held at the Quidditch pitch. When the time came Harry left his friends and headed down there. In the school entrance hall he met Cedric and the two walked down to the pitch together while discussing what the task might be.
"What d'you reckon it's going to be?" [Cedric] asked Harry as they went together down the stone steps, out into the cloudy night. "Fleur keeps going on about underground tunnels; she reckons we've got to find treasure."
"That wouldn't be too bad," said Harry.
They walked down the dark lawn to the Quidditch stadium, turned through a gap in the stands, and walked out onto the field.
"What've they done to it?" Cedric said indignantly, stopping dead.
The Quidditch field was no longer smooth and flat. It looked as though somebody had been building long, low walls all over it that twisted and crisscrossed in every direction.
"They're hedges!" said Harry, bending to examine the nearest one.
"Hello there!" called a cheery voice.
Ludo Bagman was standing in the middle of the field with Krum and Fleur. Harry and Cedric made their way toward them, climbing over the hedges. The four champions all took a few moments to greet each other. Even though they were opponents in this tournament they all got along quite well and were becoming good friends, even Harry who wasn't around the others all that much.
"Well, what d'you think?" said Bagman happily..."growing nicely, aren't they? Give them a month and Hagrid'll have them twenty feet high. Don't worry," he added, grinning, spotting the less-than-happy expression on Cedric's face, "you'll have your Quidditch field back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we're making here?"
No one spoke for a moment. Then -
"Maze," grunted Krum.
"That's right!" said Bagman. "A maze. The third task's really very straightforward. The Triwizard Cup will be placed in the center of the maze. The first champion to touch it will receive full marks."
"We seemply 'ave to get through the maze?" said Fleur.
"There will be obstacles," said Bagman happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Hagrid is providing a number of creatures . . . then there will be spells that must be broken ... all that sort of thing, you know. Now, the champion who [is] leading on points will get a head start into the maze." Bagman grinned at Harry..."But you'll all be in with a fighting chance, depending how well you get past the obstacles. Should be fun, eh?"
Harry, who knew only too well the kind of creatures that Hagrid was likely to provide for an event like this, thought it was unlikely to be any fun at all. However, he nodded politely like the other champions.
"That's everything unless anyone has a question?" said Bagman but no one did, "all right you have a month to get ready before the action happens. Use it well."
'The action will happen much sooner than that' Harry thought to himself as he headed back to the castle to floo back to his flat. He knew that the next time he came to Hogwarts he'd be wearing his X-Man uniform again. If he survived the coming battle the third task, no matter how exciting it might be in and of itself, would be an anti-climax.
(To Be Continued)
A/N - That's it for now. Just a reminder that the next chapter might not be out on time next week, although I'll do my best.
As usual please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always stay safe and well everyone.
