Disclaimer-Read the first one
St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries
Harry threw off the Invisibility Cloak as he heard the bustle of a hospital. Hermione was still clinging to his torso.
He jogged towards the receptionist's counter, Hermione limping on her good leg.
"Miss!" Harry yelled, stopping in front of the counter. "Miss, my friend, she needs to get to the fourth floor."
"Another for the fourth floor!" the witch said, indignant. "We've had quite a time of it, getting enough stretchers! What have you been doing?"
"You don't wanna know," Harry said, as two floating witches carried a stretcher into the lobby.
"Harry, please don't leave me, I don't wanna be alone, Harry, please!" Hermione begged.
"Hermione, Hermione, listen, listen. Shhh." He shook her gently. "I'm going to stay in St. Mungo's. I promise I will not leave this building. And I'll see you as soon as I can. All right?"
"Promise me?"
"On my mother's grave," Harry said.
Hermione's eye filled with tears. "All…all right."
She allowed the two witches to help her on the stretcher, and then she disappeared behind the revolving doors.
"She fancies you, apparently," Petunia said quietly.
Harry whipped around. "And you! You, with your magical stirring spoon and you knowing about the Floo Network and you saying you won't let them kill me! What are you playing at?!"
"Harry, shut up, don't cause a disturbance!"
"That's all I ever do, isn't it?! Cause a disturbance! I've been a nuisance to you since you took me in! If you hated me that much, why didn't you just throw me out?!"
"Harry, I don't hate you."
"Yeah? Well, you've done a pretty good impersonation of it these past 15 years!"
Petunia opened her mouth, but was cut off.
"Just forget it! Just leave me alone! I hate you!"
There was complete silence. Petunia stared at Harry with wide, flabbergasted eyes and he stared back at her, his green eyes cold with fury and hate.
"Just forget it! Just leave me alone! I hate you!"
"Petunia, come on, honey, just go back to your dorm, Amelia will look after you—"
"No! Stay away from me! I never want to see you again!"
"Petunia!"
"GO AWAY!"
"Do you want to know why my stirring spoon did magic, Harry?" Petunia asked quietly.
Harry didn't say anything, just stared at her with cold hatred.
"Because, Harry, like Lily, I am…a witch."
"I was wondering if you were ever going to tell him, Petunia," an old, raspy voice said from nowhere.
"Dumbledore!" Harry and Petunia yelped as one.
"How'd you get here?" Harry demanded.
"Fred sent me an owl," Dumbledore said. "I arrived as soon as Alastor Moody would let me go."
"Moody's been with you?" Harry asked.
"Yes." Dumbledore turned his eyes to Petunia. "Now, Petunia, I believe you were about to give Harry an epiphany."
"Yes, sir," Petunia said. She turned back to face Harry.
"I don't know why you both are messing with me like this, but I'm not going to put up with—"
"Shut up, Harry, and give me two minutes," Petunia said, with such force that Harry did shut up. "My stirring spoon did magic because my old wand is the stem. I threw out everything wizardesque when I left Hogwarts except my wand. I thought I might need it."
"You told me that you were never magical, and you would've killed yourself if you were!"
"I lied, Harry. I've been lying to you since you were dropped on my doorstep." Petunia grimaced. "I never wanted to do magic again after I left Hogwarts."
"Wait, wait, just hold on," Harry said. "Go back to Hogwarts."
"My mother and father were Squibs, Harry, but Lily and I were both sent letters. We're twins, which I'm sure you never knew, so we started our first year together. She, Amelia Bones, Marlene McKinnon, Emmeline Vance, Hestia and Diana Jones, Alice Gunther, Molly Caleb, and I were the best of friends, and inseparable. Molly Caleb is your friend Ron's mother, Alice Gunther married Frank Longbottom, and Diana Jones married some Apollo Lovegood person, I believe. Emmeline and Hestia were together, but I don't know what came out of it. All of us were so close, it was scary."
"Well, if you had such a wonderful time then, why'd you leave?" Harry shot at her.
Petunia winced. "There were—circumstances, ones that I couldn't get past, so I left the school at the end of 7th year. Lily wanted me to stay, so we wound up having a huge argument. I told her she didn't understand, and if she wasn't going to understand, she wouldn't be my sister. I left it like that with her. I didn't watch her graduate, I didn't go to her wedding, and I wasn't there when you were born. She wrote to me, but I never wrote back."
"And what were these "circumstances" that made you disown my mother?" Harry asked angrily.
"That, Harry, is not your business," Petunia said stiffly.
"Oh, and you going to Hogwarts wasn't my business?!"
"I told you, I gave up magic when I left. I found a man who was as unlike magic as possible and married him, had his child, and settled down. The last I ever heard of Lily was the letter Dumbledore left me when you were brought to my door."
"Letter? What letter?" Harry looked suspiciously from Dumbledore to Petunia.
"I wrote a letter to your aunt and uncle, explaining what had happened," Dumbledore said. "In the letter, I asked that she take you in for your own protection, as I explained to you in June. I also told her that Lily had listed her as the godmother."
"Even though I hadn't spoken to her for years," Petunia said wistfully.
"And what about what you've been putting me through?" Harry yelled. "You and Dudley and Uncle Vernon, you've been practically ABUSING me for 15 years!"
"That…that I have no excuses for. Just an explanation. You were a reminder of the circumstances that I left the school because of, and the reminder of the sister I disowned. I suppose I thought…if I could make you hurt…my hurt would go away."
"THAT'S—"
"I know that's no excuse, and I swear I'm not proud of what I've done. The number of times I could hear Lily yelling at me for it!"
"And Uncle Vernon? Doe he know about this?"
"No, and neither does Dudley. I wouldn't dream of telling either of them."
Harry looked like he wanted to say something to her, but turned to Dumbledore. "And you didn't tell me this because?"
"It was your aunt's decision. And, up until now, it wasn't relevant."
"What do you mean, "up until now"?"
"Well, seeing as Petunia has used magic, she will have to return to Hogwarts and finish out her education."
"WHAT?!" Harry shrieked.
"In that letter I left, I held Petunia to a promise. If she ever used magic again, she would need to become a fully-fledged witch again. Knowing her reasons, I told her to use magic only in the most dire situations."
"Like Voldemort's return," Harry said slowly.
"Yes, and we need all the help we can get. Petunia wrote back, swearing to that promise. That's an unbreakable charm."
"Like so many other things," Harry muttered.
"Harry, I know this is a lot to swallow—"
"Yeah, it is. Listen, I'm just going up to the top floor, okay? I want to think."
"I understand."
"Send Fred or George up to tell me when everyone wakes up, all right?"
"Of course."
Harry wandered aimlessly around the gift shop, looking at the bright, cheery colors. But his mind was once again within himself.
'My aunt's a witch. My aunt's a witch,' he kept saying in his head. 'She's been bashing magic for 15 years, but she's been a witch all along—'
"Hello! Can I help you!" a bright, bubbly voice said.
Harry looked up to face a witch slightly taller than himself. She had long, black hair, a friendly smile that held some mystery and mischeif despite her obvious many years, and absolutely sparkling blue eyes, sapphire in color and diamond in shine.
"Hello! Can I help you!" she repeated, in the exact same tone.
"Um, no thanks."
"Hello! Can I help you!"
"Oleta!"
Another witch came out from a different aisle. "Oleta, don't bother customers, dear. Here, go look after aisle 12."
"Okay!" Oleta bounced away.
"Poor, poor Oleta," the witch said, shaking her head. She seemed unaware that she was talking. "She was a Ravenclaw in her day, I hear, a brilliant mind. Could've been in Gryffindor, too, she was brave enough. She was one of the best teachers at Hogwarts ever, too. Well, she must've been brave and smart, to make a good match with old Dumbledore."
"WHAT?!"
"You didn't know?" the witch said, looking appalled. "Albus Dumbledore and Oleta Clark. They were practically joined at the hip in their Hogwarts years. And when they were teaching, too, always subbing for the other when one was sick. Oh, it's such a shame. You-Know-Who got her one day. Used an Unforgivable on her, but Dumbledore got there before he could kill her and drove him away. But poor Oleta, her mind was damaged. She lives here now, and we let her roam the gift shop since she's harmless. Dumbledore's always here in the summer—except for lately. Must have to do with You-Know-Who, now that he's back." There was a loud crash. "Oh, Oleta!" The witch ran towards the sound. "Oleta, don't touch anything!" She disappeared.
Harry stared. Oleta had had those same blank, confused eyes that Frank and Alice Longbottom had, albeit they were still beautiful. Oleta must have been here for over a decade and a half, seeing as she wasn't in the picture Moody had shown him. Imagine, Albus Dumbledore's wife, a brilliant Ravenclaw, roaming in St. Mungo's gift shop, not knowing where or even who she was!
'That must be why Dumbledore always looks so sad,' Harry thought suddenly, thinking that Dumbledore's face was always long and drawn, even when he smiled. 'And why he hates Voldemort so much."
Harry felt another rush of anger. Voldemort was the cause of all this, Voldemort was why he didn't have parents, Voldemort was why Hermione didn't have parents, Voldemort was why Oleta Dumbledore and the Longbottoms were here, Vodemort was why the family he loved best was suffering on the 4th floor, Voldemort was the cause of almost everything.
If Voldemort had been there right then, Harry would have throttled him.
"Hey, Harry!" someone called, and he looked up to see George standing at the hall.
Harry's stomach dissolved. "Are they—?"
"No! No one's dead! Ron and Dad are pulling through just fine, and Mum's slowly coming back to reality."
"What about Ginny and Hermione?"
"I don't know about Ginny yet, but Hermione's all right. She's awake and says she wants to see you."
"I'm there," Harry said, running after George as he made his way back towards the stairs.
