In Every Darkness
Chapter Eleven: Dinner with the Dursley's
16.7.1996
Ron was still in a state of shock over hearing about Tatsu Kendo being at Privet Drive. It seemed to define possibility. The Wizarding world had thought the man dead …
Ron shook his head to clear it. He was writing a letter to Harry, knowing that in two days time he would be able to send it with Fawkes.
Dumbledore had warned Ron and Hermione not to mention Tatsu in their letters. If Tatsu wanted Harry to know who – and what – he was, they he would tell the boy himself.
Tatsu wouldn't appreciate anyone else meddling in that.
***
Both people that Ron was thinking about at the time were jogging down Magnolia Creasant, on their way back to Privet Drive.
"I think my aunt and uncle will invite you over to dinner some time soon," Harry told Tatsu. "They like to know all of the people around here, and my aunt loves gossiping."
"You sound like you don't particularly like them," Tatsu remarked.
"We don't really get on. My aunt never liked her sister – my mother – and when mum died she was very bitter about having to look after me," Harry replied, giving a slightly modified version of the truth. "But things have been better this year – an organisation has been watching them, so they are pretending to like me."
"I see," Tatsu remarked. "Does your family know that you are helping me?"
"No. My aunt would be green with jealousy if she did," Harry replied, grinning.
"Well, if I come to dinner, I suppose we'd have to tell them?" Harry looked back at Tatsu, to see the other man's eyes glinting with mischief.
"I suppose we would," Harry agreed, smiling.
"We'll have to plan it then," smirked Tatsu, and Harry was glad that the other man loved mischief and laughter as much as Harry usually did.
"So we will. You'll be invited in the next few days, I'm sure. I doubt that my aunt will be able to deal with not knowing anything about you for much longer," Harry grinned.
"Well, we'll start planning today while we fix up the kitchen and the dining room," Tatsu decided, as they headed the back way into Privet Drive and snuck swiftly into Tatsu's house.
"Here," Tatsu handed Harry a glass of iced water. "To mischief!"
"To mischief!" Harry agreed, and they clinked glasses while Tatsu looked around the kitchen, as if deciding how to organise things.
Once they'd finished drinking, Tatsu and Harry set to work, their first job being to move the fridge and stove around until Tatsu was pleased with it. "There isn't much to do in the kitchen quite yet. I'll be putting some shelves up soon, but that can wait until after I've decided if I'm going to paint."
In the dining room there was more to do. Tatsu had a very low to the ground table, which he and Harry moved to the exact centre of the room, placing woven mats around it. "I prefer to kneel by the table," Tatsu explained to Harry. "I've gotten used to it."
"Oh," Harry said, though he'd asked not question, he had been thinking of it.
They finished the dining room quite quickly and moved on to the sitting room. They hadn't quite finished it when both Tatsu and Harry decided that they didn't feel like doing any more moving things for that day.
Harry bid Tatsu a quick goodbye and slipped over to number four for lunch.
He took his plate of food up to his room so that he could eat as he practiced. He was getting better at aiming, but he still took too long to do so.
Taking out his wand and swiftly performing the spell to prevent people entering or seeing into his room, Harry got ready for an afternoon of practice.
Taking out his wand, he aimed and cried "stupefy!" he hit the 'target' and tried again. Each time fast and faster. Soon he was spinning around, aiming and using whatever spell he chose.
He didn't get it often enough to be elated, but he was happy. He was definitely getting better. Going through his rather large bank of curses, hexes and jinxes, Harry took the occasional break to eat some food.
He was happy – this was what he wanted to be doing. He would be ready when he came upon the Death Eaters next time. He was too late to save Sirius, but he would not be too late to save others.
This time when he went down to the kitchen for dinner, he was not as tired at he'd been the night before.
"We are going to invite the new neighbour to dinner the night after tomorrow," his aunt informed him, glaring at Harry's clothes. He had been wearing them for days now, and she still looked offended by the mere sight of them.
"I'll come. And I'll wear what I like, so don't tell me not to," Harry said, sighing.
He knew that this was not what his 'family' wanted, but that didn't matter. It was what he and Tatsu had planned over the morning.
Harry went upstairs and practiced spells for another hour or so before picking up The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in the Lord of the Rings series to read for a while before he fell asleep.
Hobbits, rings, dragons and dark lords chased each other round in circles in Harry's dreams, but they were normal dreams, not real nightmares.
Harry woke, smiling and happy, despite the fact that his godfather had not come to him that night. "Hey Hedwig," Harry greeted his owl, refilling her food and water containers.
The owl hooted softly and Harry smiled at her. "I suppose you'll want to go out again this afternoon? I'm going to be doing a lot of magic," Harry warned her.
Hedwig only hooted again, this time in agreement.
"Ok, I'll see you went I come back then, I'm going to be helping Tatsu Kendo again," he told her, heading out of room, locking the door with magic behind him.
He was wearing loose black, full length pants today, as it was fairly cool, as well as a black t-shirt and a hooded, long-sleeved, light jumper.
He tucked his wand into a pocket and headed out to wait for Tatsu to join him.
Today they moved on to bedrooms at Tatsu's house, and this would be the last of the deciding where to put things. They would be painting the rooms, if Tatsu decided to, and putting in the finishing touches (carpets, pictures, ect).
There were only three bedrooms in number six, for which Harry was grateful. One of which would be used as a storing room.
"My aunt and uncle are inviting you to dinner tomorrow night," Harry remarked.
"Good-oh! Ready to surprise them?"
"Hell yeah!" Harry grinned.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. "That's probably them now," Harry remarked. "I'll stay upstairs, if you want to go and talk to them."
Tatsu smiled. "Right, I'll be back up when they've left."
Soon after Tatsu returned. "It seems we're on for dinner tomorrow night," the man said, and laughed as Harry whooped in delight.
"I'll see you then – I don't think I'll need your help tomorrow morning, I'm going to start painting the kitchen, if you like, you can help the day after."
"Yeah, that would be good," Harry responded, smiling at Tatsu.
The next morning Harry didn't leave number four for his usual jog, but rather came downstairs when the Dursley's did, before heading back up to his room.
Settling on the bed, Harry picked up a book on Charms, because he'd been focusing so much on Defence Against the Dark Arts over the last few days, and he thought that it would be a good idea to get some practices with the other parts of magic.
It wasn't long before he threw the Charms book down in disgust. It didn't work at all without Flitwick or Hermione there to tell him exactly how to do something.
He looked around his room and eventually found the first and second year charm books. With a sigh, he flipped the first year book open.
"Ok," he muttered to himself. "You can do this stuff! Wingardium Leviosa … I remember that – Ron used it to knock out that troll …" Harry picked up his wand and set the book down on the bed. Pointing his wand at the book, Harry flicked his wand, "Wingardium Leviosa!" he whispered.
The book shuddered for a moment, and Harry felt, for a moment, that the spell wasn't going to work, then it lifted into the air. Harry smiled in relief. He wasn't completely stupid then.
Then he blinked. He could do the Patronus Charm easily. Heaps easily. So why couldn't he do this stuff? Must be because he practiced the Patronus so often, and it had been drummed into his head.
Well, he would just have drill the rest of them into his head, then!
Determined, Harry settled down with his five Charms books spread open on the bed around him, and got to work.
He didn't notice the minutes and hours ticking away until the alarm went off on his watch, make him start. Looking down at the clock face, he gaped.
Four hours! He'd been sitting here for four hours? It was incredible! Shaking his head he got up and looked around his room. It was a mess.
He hadn't really noticed, or cared. The walls had black patches where Harry had missed his target, books and dirty clothes were strewn over the floor.
With a sigh, Harry bent to pick up some of the books, the grinned, he could do this with magic now. "Accio books!" he said clearly, all of the books on the floor, book and bed and sped over to him, landing beside him and forming a neat pile.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he cried, lifting the pile of books and directing them to his desk. Using a quick cleaning charm that they'd learned in third year, Harry cleaned his desk and turned to the floor.
"Accio dirty clothes!" he commanded, and all of the clothes on the floor sped over to him. His mind flicked to the spell that he'd been learning just a moment before. "Abluo!" Harry stated, feeling a little nervous.
But he needn't have, as his clothes were all suddenly in perfect condition, as if they had only just been removed from the shop shelves.
He smiled and performed the spell on the clothes he was wearing now. He felt a pleasant tingle run over his skin, and when he looked down his clothes and shoes were clean again.
Then he turned to the walls, sighing. He knew the spell of this also, but it was a difficult one that he'd not really mastered last year. Concentrating extremely hard, Harry focused his will on making the walls the clean.
When he opened his eyes, he gaped in amazement. It was as if his whole room had only just been painted, everything was bright and clean, even the curtains and the glass in the window. The glass light bulb was the same.
Harry laughed in delight once he'd gotten over his initial shock, and quickly put his clothes away, this time by hand, deciding that he might as well continue to do what he could with his hands not magic. After all, nearly every time people were given detentions with Filch at Hogwarts, it was cleaning things with no magic.
Harry then took his floorboard down from the wall, gathered all of his magical things, including Hedwig's cage, and shrunk them, before placing them in the hole under his bed and placed the floorboard over it. "Reparo!" he whispered, and was delighted when the spell worked.
After that he lay on his bed and read some more of The Fellowship of the Rings while he waited until it was time to finish getting ready and then go downstairs to welcome Tatsu.
Finally it was nearly time. Harry walked out of his room and into the bathroom for a quick shower, and he also brushed his teeth, tucking his wand into a large pocket of his jeans.
Walking downstairs, he grinned as he anticipated Aunt Petunia's response to his dress. He had changed his hooded jumper for a slightly baggy leather jacket, but otherwise was wearing the same clothes as the day before.
"Boy! What are you wearing?" Shrieked his aunt as he stepped into the kitchen where she was finishing an extravagant dinner and desert.
"Clothes," Harry replied, smirking.
"You abnormal brat!" Snarled his aunt. "Go back upstairs and change into something decent!"
"No," Harry replied, sitting down and glaring back at his aunt.
"Do it or …"
"Or what? It'll be time to contact the Order tomorrow," Harry replied, eyes glinting dangerously.
Immediately his aunt turned around and said no more to him. Harry smiled to himself. It had been pretty much a life-long dream to talk back to the relatives without getting trouble.
Uncle Vernon and Dudley came downstairs wearing suits, Dudley looking very uncomfortable, and shooting his cousin a jealous look. Harry only smirked in response.
Suddenly the doorbell rang, Harry smiled slightly – Tatsu had arrived.
The four of them walked over the front door. "Well!" his aunt snapped at him. "Open it!"
Harry shrugged and opened the door.
On the front step stood Tatsu, but he was wearing a neat suit, his blonde hair brushed away from his sharp, aristocratic face. For a moment, Harry could have sworn it was Lucius Malfoy standing there.
Then Tatsu smiled. "Harry! Nice to see you again! I didn't realise you lived here!" he cried out.
Immediately the vision of 'Lucius Malfoy' dissapeared. No Malfoy ever smiled like that. Like they were happy.
"Tatsu!" Harry grinned back. "How's moving coming along?"
"Pretty good, thanks to you," Tatsu walked inside, gripping Harry's hand in greeting. "You'll be back tomorrow morning?"
"Yeah, sure. You're painting now, aren't you?" Harry asked curiously.
"Yes, I started today, but it really isn't a one person job. Oh hello! V … Vernon, wasn't it? And Petunia?" Tatsu started, as if only now noticing Harry's aunt, uncle and cousin. "And your son … You mentioned his name, I think, but I'm afraid it's completely slipped my mind."
"Dudley," Harry told his friend, smiling.
"Ah, yes! I remember now! Well, Dudley, how are you?"
The Dursley's managed to stop gaping. "I'm sorry, our nephew didn't mention that he knew you," Aunt Petunia said, her voice sugary.
"Oh, he's been helping me move in! He's a great helper! I'm surprised he didn't mention it, actually," Tatsu said, still going along by the play that he and Harry had figured out.
"I'm sorry, it completely slipped my mind," Harry said, eyes wide and innocent.
Tatsu laughed, it was a jolly sound. The Dursley's were still watching Harry angrily. The boy had stolen a march on them, and they did not like it, at all.
Harry kept mostly quiet through dinner, watching as his aunt and uncle interrogated Tatsu.
The man looked very relieved when dinner was over, and just as Aunt Petunia was about to suggest having desert in the living room, a phone rang.
Tatsu hurriedly dragged a mobile phone out of a pocket and clicked it on. "Hello?" he asked. "Who is this?"
Then he paled.
"I'm sorry," he said, standing up and stuffing the –now off – mobile phone into his pocket. "My mother had a bad fall and has just been taken to the hospital. I have to go and make sure everything's alright …" he started towards the door.
"Are we still on for tomorrow, Tatsu?" Harry asked curiously, knowing that they were, since the phone call had been a complete fake.
"We should be. Come around at the usual time, if I'm there, I'm there, if not, it's worse than the doctors think," Tatsu responded.
"I hope your mother is alright," Harry said, sounding sincere, though in reality he was trying not to laugh at the disappointed expressions on the Dursley's faces.
Harry left Tatsu bidding the Dursley's a hasty goodbye, while he himself headed back upstairs. He hadn't gotten a chance to show Tatsu his room, but oh well.
As he settled on his bed, he heard a slight scuffle outside, and looked out to see Tatsu's face in the window. Stifling his laughter, Harry walked over and threw the window open. "Tatsu! How did you get up here?" Harry asked, looking down at the brick wall that led into the alleyway beside his bedroom window.
"I can do things most British people can't," Tatsu replied, pulling himself into the room, with a little bit of help from Harry.
****
You'll find out some of Tatsu's secrets next chapter. Maybe. If I feel nice. If you used to get an email telling you when this has been updated, and aren't now, this is because you haven't reviewed with an email address – I've gone through and deleted my group for reviewers and put in all of the emails from people who'd reviewed this story only. If you want to get an email when I update, either send me an email (wolfmoon44@hotmail.com) or review and leave your email address.
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~WolfMoon~