--Disclaimer: Everything you recognise belongs to J.K. Rowling. The rest belongs to me--
--- Chapter 4: Harry the Squib ---
Three weeks had passed since Harry had gone missing and still there was no news. Dumbledore sat in his office and stared at the 3D Harry in his penseive - something he had found himself doing alot lately, fully believing that he would now never see Harry again. The school was locked up for the holidays, Dumbledore and a couple of house elves where the only ones there. Dumbledore had put his holiday off, staying stationed there for any news, but none had come. Every other teacher at the school was out looking for Harry.
"No news is bad news", Dumbledore whispered to himself glaring at the revolving Harry.
"He is dead then", he said again, but not whispering this time. His eyes had a dead look in them and he was just turning his gaze to the floor when there came a very loud tap on the window that made him jump.
Sitting outside the window was an extremely large green parrot. Dumbledore could not recall seeing one like that before. He approached the window with his wand ready incase it was vicious and opened it, letting it fly in and perch on his desk.
It seemed quite as friendly as an owl so Dumbledore took the letter off its leg and noted that it had been sent from New Zealand.. and it was from "A Cloric", Dumbledore exclaimed.
He ripped open the envelope and sat down at his desk, but almost immediately he was standing again with shock. Harry was alive. Dumbledore would never had thought to send anyone to look for Harry in New Zealand, how he came to end up there, he had no idea.
Dumbledore took some parchment and wrote a letter to Artemis Cloric asking him to personally bring Harry all the way back to Hogwarts by the most direct route possible.. if possible a port key. Also not to tell anyone outside his family about Harrys travelling arrangements, or even that Harry was with them, if he hadn't told anyone that already.
Dumbledore felt a great surge of relief go through him as he tied the parchment to the green parrot and let it fly away. If there was one foreign wizard that Dumbledore didn't know well, but was asked to trust with his life, it would be Artemis Cloric. He had met him briefly at the International Wizarding Conference 2 years ago, and he had seemed level-headed and was almost as esteemed among his peers, as Dumbledore was among his own in the U.K.
Artemis Cloric, like Dumbledore was also well known for his eccentricities, and Dumbledore respected him all the more after hearing at the conference from another (slightly shocked wizard) that he had stood up for his daughter who had wanted to live a muggles life as a doctor, when she was the most magically gifted of all his children.
Next Dumbledore wrote to Mr Weasley, whom he instructed to tell the other wizards at the ministry including Fudge that Harry had been found. After that letter was sent, Dumbledore sent letters to all the teachers who had left to look for Harry and told them that they could resume their holidays once again. The school holidays this year would be a week longer than usual, so that the teachers would still get the time on holiday written into their contracts, starting back on September the 8th. As Dumbledore posted the last letter to Prof. Sprout, the sun began to come up, and a spark that had definitely not been there before, was now clearly visible once more in Dumbledores light blue eyes.
Over two weeks had gone by since Harry had woken up that afternoon at the Clorics, and he was now good friends with all the Cloric children and several of their school friends that they had brought home. They seemed to be a very sociable bunch and there wasn't a night when Neolyte or Trinity didn't invite some of their friends home for dinner.
Artemis had been slightly upset when he had come home from the school that first afternoon to find Harry playing Snowditch with his children and some of the local children. Apparently he had wanted it keep reasonably quiet that Harry was staying there, but like Neo said.. they never played Snowditch after school against wizards who weren't their friends and trustworthy anyway.
Harry had also found out during the two weeks, that in New Zealand, since it has a day school, underage wizards are allowed to practice magic at home. So Harry was starting to sorely miss his wand which Voldemort had destroyed. That night, Claire had come back from the muggle hospital with a large packet of candy a patient had given her, and Claire had now given it to Neo.
"Hey Harry!", Neo shouted, waving the packet of candy at him from across the room, "Want to duel for it?".
"I haven't got a wand", said Harry gloomily.
"Here, you can borrow mine", suggested Mike, "It's Redwood, Unicorn hair, 9 inches". Mike then handed Harry his wand. It was red in colour and looked very very old and scratched.
"Thanks", said Harry, and stood up and followed Neo outside.
Mike held the bag of sweets between them, and instructed them to stand a yard away from it on each side. "On the count of three you can start", he said.
"One"
Harry raised his wand and pointed it at the bag Mike was holding,
"Two", Mike said, there was a pause and then - "Three" as Mike let go of the bag.
"ACCIO!", Harry and Neo both yelled at the same time. The bag immediately shot over to Neo and hit him hard in the chest.
"Are you sure you said it right?", asked Mike looking at him suspiciously. "The bag didn't even pause for a millisecond..".
Harry had a nasty feeling that Mikes wand he was holding may as well have been a twig off the ground. Perhaps it was going to be like this with every wand he tried when he went back to Mr Ollivanders shop in Diagon alley. He may as well start introducing himself as a squib..
"It's probably just the wand", Neo said trying to reassure Harry, but doing the complete opposite.
"Here, have a lolly", Neo said ripping the bag open and chucking one at Harry and one at Mike, and then one at Saul who came racing outside.
That evening, they sat around in the living room, Neo and Trinity doing their homework, Saul building a tower of constantly transfiguring blocks on the floor (transfiguring blocks are a popular wizard childs toy in New Zealand, Neo had explained to Harry earlier in the week) and Harry and Mike playing a game of wizards chess with Luis helping Harry. This didn't seem to help his game much since Mike was better at chess than even Ron was. Claire was sitting in a chair reading a book and Artemis was preparing a lesson for his 7th years while Mrs Cloric was doing a jigsaw.
Suddenly, in a whirl of wings, a very large green parrot swooped into the room through an open window and landed on Artemis's desk.
"Quintius!", exclaimed Luis.
"It looks like Dumbledore has replied, Harry", said Artemis ripping the letter from Quintius's outstretched leg.
"Squark.. He's Reallllllly old!!", said Quintius the Kea.
"Hey!", said Harry, "He can talk!".
"Yes", said Artemis, "Most parrots can, Keas especially are very clever. Quintius knows not to talk to any wizards outside the family though".
Artemis unfolded the letter and read it. "Ahh", he said.
"Dumbledore wants me to take you back to Hogwarts as soon as possible myself. I aren't to tell anyone about how you are to get there, so that rules out taking you up to the Wellington office of the Ministry of Magic, and arranging a trans-antlantic floo journey with them. He suggests a Portkey might be appropriate."
"Well that sounds alright", said Mrs Cloric. "Don't they have a room full of portkeys down at the school? You are bound to find one there that goes to the United Kingdom".
"Yes, I think that would be the logical choice", confirmed Artemis. "Tomorrow morning which is a Saturday, Harry and I will go down to the school and take a portkey to the U.K. If all goes well I will be back by Monday and Harry will be home safely".
"But dad", cut in Neo, "You don't actually own the portkeys, Headmaster Crabnott does, won't he be upset?".
"Well it is Harry Potter!", Artemis said. "If he can't understand how important Harry is then he's much stupider than I already give him credit for being".
There was a bit of a stunned silence, which Trinity finally broke by giggling.
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-Thanks for all the reviews everyone :D
--- Chapter 4: Harry the Squib ---
Three weeks had passed since Harry had gone missing and still there was no news. Dumbledore sat in his office and stared at the 3D Harry in his penseive - something he had found himself doing alot lately, fully believing that he would now never see Harry again. The school was locked up for the holidays, Dumbledore and a couple of house elves where the only ones there. Dumbledore had put his holiday off, staying stationed there for any news, but none had come. Every other teacher at the school was out looking for Harry.
"No news is bad news", Dumbledore whispered to himself glaring at the revolving Harry.
"He is dead then", he said again, but not whispering this time. His eyes had a dead look in them and he was just turning his gaze to the floor when there came a very loud tap on the window that made him jump.
Sitting outside the window was an extremely large green parrot. Dumbledore could not recall seeing one like that before. He approached the window with his wand ready incase it was vicious and opened it, letting it fly in and perch on his desk.
It seemed quite as friendly as an owl so Dumbledore took the letter off its leg and noted that it had been sent from New Zealand.. and it was from "A Cloric", Dumbledore exclaimed.
He ripped open the envelope and sat down at his desk, but almost immediately he was standing again with shock. Harry was alive. Dumbledore would never had thought to send anyone to look for Harry in New Zealand, how he came to end up there, he had no idea.
Dumbledore took some parchment and wrote a letter to Artemis Cloric asking him to personally bring Harry all the way back to Hogwarts by the most direct route possible.. if possible a port key. Also not to tell anyone outside his family about Harrys travelling arrangements, or even that Harry was with them, if he hadn't told anyone that already.
Dumbledore felt a great surge of relief go through him as he tied the parchment to the green parrot and let it fly away. If there was one foreign wizard that Dumbledore didn't know well, but was asked to trust with his life, it would be Artemis Cloric. He had met him briefly at the International Wizarding Conference 2 years ago, and he had seemed level-headed and was almost as esteemed among his peers, as Dumbledore was among his own in the U.K.
Artemis Cloric, like Dumbledore was also well known for his eccentricities, and Dumbledore respected him all the more after hearing at the conference from another (slightly shocked wizard) that he had stood up for his daughter who had wanted to live a muggles life as a doctor, when she was the most magically gifted of all his children.
Next Dumbledore wrote to Mr Weasley, whom he instructed to tell the other wizards at the ministry including Fudge that Harry had been found. After that letter was sent, Dumbledore sent letters to all the teachers who had left to look for Harry and told them that they could resume their holidays once again. The school holidays this year would be a week longer than usual, so that the teachers would still get the time on holiday written into their contracts, starting back on September the 8th. As Dumbledore posted the last letter to Prof. Sprout, the sun began to come up, and a spark that had definitely not been there before, was now clearly visible once more in Dumbledores light blue eyes.
Over two weeks had gone by since Harry had woken up that afternoon at the Clorics, and he was now good friends with all the Cloric children and several of their school friends that they had brought home. They seemed to be a very sociable bunch and there wasn't a night when Neolyte or Trinity didn't invite some of their friends home for dinner.
Artemis had been slightly upset when he had come home from the school that first afternoon to find Harry playing Snowditch with his children and some of the local children. Apparently he had wanted it keep reasonably quiet that Harry was staying there, but like Neo said.. they never played Snowditch after school against wizards who weren't their friends and trustworthy anyway.
Harry had also found out during the two weeks, that in New Zealand, since it has a day school, underage wizards are allowed to practice magic at home. So Harry was starting to sorely miss his wand which Voldemort had destroyed. That night, Claire had come back from the muggle hospital with a large packet of candy a patient had given her, and Claire had now given it to Neo.
"Hey Harry!", Neo shouted, waving the packet of candy at him from across the room, "Want to duel for it?".
"I haven't got a wand", said Harry gloomily.
"Here, you can borrow mine", suggested Mike, "It's Redwood, Unicorn hair, 9 inches". Mike then handed Harry his wand. It was red in colour and looked very very old and scratched.
"Thanks", said Harry, and stood up and followed Neo outside.
Mike held the bag of sweets between them, and instructed them to stand a yard away from it on each side. "On the count of three you can start", he said.
"One"
Harry raised his wand and pointed it at the bag Mike was holding,
"Two", Mike said, there was a pause and then - "Three" as Mike let go of the bag.
"ACCIO!", Harry and Neo both yelled at the same time. The bag immediately shot over to Neo and hit him hard in the chest.
"Are you sure you said it right?", asked Mike looking at him suspiciously. "The bag didn't even pause for a millisecond..".
Harry had a nasty feeling that Mikes wand he was holding may as well have been a twig off the ground. Perhaps it was going to be like this with every wand he tried when he went back to Mr Ollivanders shop in Diagon alley. He may as well start introducing himself as a squib..
"It's probably just the wand", Neo said trying to reassure Harry, but doing the complete opposite.
"Here, have a lolly", Neo said ripping the bag open and chucking one at Harry and one at Mike, and then one at Saul who came racing outside.
That evening, they sat around in the living room, Neo and Trinity doing their homework, Saul building a tower of constantly transfiguring blocks on the floor (transfiguring blocks are a popular wizard childs toy in New Zealand, Neo had explained to Harry earlier in the week) and Harry and Mike playing a game of wizards chess with Luis helping Harry. This didn't seem to help his game much since Mike was better at chess than even Ron was. Claire was sitting in a chair reading a book and Artemis was preparing a lesson for his 7th years while Mrs Cloric was doing a jigsaw.
Suddenly, in a whirl of wings, a very large green parrot swooped into the room through an open window and landed on Artemis's desk.
"Quintius!", exclaimed Luis.
"It looks like Dumbledore has replied, Harry", said Artemis ripping the letter from Quintius's outstretched leg.
"Squark.. He's Reallllllly old!!", said Quintius the Kea.
"Hey!", said Harry, "He can talk!".
"Yes", said Artemis, "Most parrots can, Keas especially are very clever. Quintius knows not to talk to any wizards outside the family though".
Artemis unfolded the letter and read it. "Ahh", he said.
"Dumbledore wants me to take you back to Hogwarts as soon as possible myself. I aren't to tell anyone about how you are to get there, so that rules out taking you up to the Wellington office of the Ministry of Magic, and arranging a trans-antlantic floo journey with them. He suggests a Portkey might be appropriate."
"Well that sounds alright", said Mrs Cloric. "Don't they have a room full of portkeys down at the school? You are bound to find one there that goes to the United Kingdom".
"Yes, I think that would be the logical choice", confirmed Artemis. "Tomorrow morning which is a Saturday, Harry and I will go down to the school and take a portkey to the U.K. If all goes well I will be back by Monday and Harry will be home safely".
"But dad", cut in Neo, "You don't actually own the portkeys, Headmaster Crabnott does, won't he be upset?".
"Well it is Harry Potter!", Artemis said. "If he can't understand how important Harry is then he's much stupider than I already give him credit for being".
There was a bit of a stunned silence, which Trinity finally broke by giggling.
----------------------------------------------------
-Thanks for all the reviews everyone :D
