Harry Potter and the American Curse
'Its getting late in the day, Where is that American? He was supposed to arrive here hours ago.' Harry Potter was awaiting the arrival of a new student for Hogwarts from America. He guessed that since Voldemort was defeated earlier over the summer, Dumbledore had guess it was safe to allow students from other countries to be allowed to enter the school, but it was only a guess that he had. As Harry continued to wait in his room, he heard his Uncle Vernon ranting and raving about how he was sick of being pushed around by people that had no right to push him around.
Harry walked over to his mirror that hung above his dresser and again examined his features to make sure he wouldn't look like an idiot in front of his new roommate. As Harry was looking in the mirror, he saw a picture of him from the first year he was at Hogwarts on his dresser. 'Wow I have changed a lot' He picked up the picture and looked at it then looked in the mirror. It was true he had changed a lot. His frame had expanded to fit his lean, yet muscular body. Harry had also grown upward quite a few inches, so much in the past few years that he had to get new robes every new school year.
As he was examining himself, he looked at the picture again and noticed how different Hermione looked when he first met her. Now instead of a short know-it-all girl, Hermione had grown into a beautiful woman, a beautiful woman who still acted like a know-it-all. Harry like Hermione a lot but Harry had no particular interest in her emotionally, except as a friend. Part of the reason was the simple fact of Ron. Ron was deeply infatuated with her, but Hermione didn't seem to share the same feelings for him. Hermione, in fact, had told Harry on several occasions that since they had literally known each other for years it would become way to uncomfortable to be involved with someone that she considered a brother. She just never had the heart to tell Ron this because she didn't want to hurt his feelings.
Harry snapped out of his thoughts suddenly as the doorbell rang alerting the household of a guest. Harry grinned to no one in particular 'He's here'. He knew very little about the American teenager except his name, AJ Michaels. Harry bolted out of his room and bounded down the stairs as his Uncle opened the door. Standing there was a tall boy; Harry guessed that he was a towering six foot eight. The teen didn't look like a typical American teen, shoulder length brown hair tied up in a ponytail behind his head along with a black T-shirt and a pair of dirty blue jeans. Harry concealed a laugh as he noticed the boy was wearing a dark pair of sunglasses and had a lit smoke hanging out of his mouth and he was blowing the smoke right into the face of his Uncle.
"Let me guess, you must be that Michaels boy that the freaks sent to us." Uncle Vernon was turning purple at the audacity of the teenager smoking right in front of him and blowing the smoke in his face. "I suppose that by freaks you mean wizards, am I right. Well in that case, yes I am 'that Michaels boy'. Andrew James Michaels is my full name, you can just call me AJ for short." The teen put out the cigarette on the bottom of his shoe as he picked up his trunk and entered the house. "Well I'm Vernon Dursley as I'm sure you've guessed. My wife Petunia and my son Dudley are on Vacation in France currently so you won't be getting the chance to meet them just yet." Vernon said with contempt dripping off his voice. At this point, Harry decided to make his presence known so he could prevent a possible confrontation, "Hi, I'm Harry Potter. Nice to meet you AJ." Harry extended his hand to AJ who took Harry's hand and shook it firmly. "Here let me show you where you can put you thing and where you'll be sleeping." Aj nodded as he picked up trunk and followed Harry past the seething Vernon, up the stairs, and into his room.
"Nice room, small, compact, boring." AJ was unimpressed by Harry's set up. Harry, without batting an eye, smiled, "Well, It's not much, but during these horrible summers it's what I call home." Harry picked up Aj's trunk and dragged it over to the corner of the room. AJ looked around a bit taking off his sunglasses showing off his amber colored eyes. Then AJ got a sly grin on his face that supported his devilishly good looks, "Harry, I've got an idea. Why don't you go run downstairs' and rustle up some grab while I liven up this room a bit." Harry hiked an eyebrow as he shook his head and left to go downstairs.
A few minutes later Harry re-entered the room with a couple turkey sandwiches and saw a shocking change in everything. The room went from a dull boring room to a considerably larger room with a stereo system, TV, a couple Lazy-boys, and a couple plush beds set next to each other at the end of the room. "How did you do this?" "A few simple spells here and there, nothing serious just unpacking in a sense." Aj answered Harry's inquiry from a hammock that Harry hadn't noticed at the first glance. Harry laughed to himself as he handed Aj his sandwich and went over to his bed.
"So, Harry what's your story? What makes you tick?" Aj asked through a mouthful of turkey and bread. Harry then proceeded to tell his life story to AJ. Aj listened the whole time intently seemingly absorbing all the information that Harry was giving. Roughly, an hour and a half later Harry finished off his story by telling Aj about his final battle with Voldemort. Aj seemed impressed with the story, "Well Harry, I can see why wherever you go you are treated like a walking god. I could almost say that I'm jealous but the whole popularity thing killed it all for me." Aj and Harry shared a good laugh that was interrupted by Uncle Vernon yelling for them from downstairs.
The two teens got downstairs and they swore that they were seeing double. Vernon was standing in the kitchen next to a man that had a shocking resemblance to him. "Boys, this is Harry's Uncle Demone. He is going to be helping me handle you two hellions for the next week till you are going to leave for that freak town." Harry rolled his eyes as Vernon sneered and went on. "Now since I am working this week he will be watching you. I expect that you will give him the proper respect. If you don't I swear that I will make your lives a living hell." Aj smiled to himself as he walked past the two men that resembled adult hippopotamuses and started to scrounging through the cupboards for some food. "You there, boy. What do you think your doing?" Aj straightened up as the man introduced as Demone snapped at him. Aj turned to face the larger man as he continued to speak, "Did you ask permission to eat any food in Vernon's kitchen?" Harry looked on in disbelief, as AJ held is hands up signaling surrender. "Well now that we understand each other get upstairs to your room and sleep. Tomorrow and the following days this week you are going to have a busy days."
Six days later Aj and Harry were laying on their individual beds in utter exhaustion. The past six day had been full of mindless chores and labor that ranged from digging rocks out of a dirt pit to building a storage shed and tearing it down minutes later because it was four inches too short. Harry could tell Aj's patience was wearing thin for this dictatorship like rule. "Our letters are supposed to be arriving any second now right?" Aj couldn't wait for the letters to arrive. He wanted to leave the hellhole known as number four, Privet Drive. They had just finished their last chore of the day, painting the house. "Hey, you two pathetic excuses for boys! Get your worthless asses down here right now!" Aj and Harry pulled their sore and worn out bodies off their beds and proceeded downstairs to the awaiting Demone Dursley.
"Do you two call that work? It's a horrible color, why did you choose to paint it anyway?" Harry squeezed his eye's shut as Aj gritted his teeth and tried to breath normally. "Now what I want you to do in repaint it back to it's normal color. And I want it redone right this time." Harry turned to leave but AJ stood there boring holes into the head off Uncle Demone with his eyes. "Well boy, don't just stand there. You think staying here as a guest id free? Get to work now." Demone's tone of voice turned icy and dangerous. Aj's tone of voice became just as cold as the older man's, "No. Screw you and screw your work. All we have been doing is your dirty work because yours and Vernon's fat asses are to lazy to do it yourself."
Demone's eyes flashed dangerously as he took a couple pieces of paper out of his pocket. "I found this on the floor of your room, do you know what they are? These just happen to be your stupid letters from your freakish school. Now I'm not going to give these up unless you finish the painting. So I suggest that you go, now." Aj's eyes suddenly blazed with violence and a hatred that Harry hadn't seen before. Demone saw it too and took a step back from the enraged wizard. Aj didn't give any warning when he suddenly sprang at Demon and took him down to the ground by his throat. Harry dove at Aj, tried to pry his hands off the older man's throat but Aj just over powered Harry, and shrugged him off. Harry went to go after him again but the front door opened and there stood Petunia, Dudley, and Vernon with their mouths hanging open.
Before anyone could react, Aj's stood up with the letters in hand and his wand pointed at Demone's heart, "Back off muggles!" Aj's voice had changed into something Harry had expected to hear coming from a vicious monster. Aj looked over at Harry, "Go grab our trunks and bring them down here, now" Harry didn't argue, he just ran upstairs and quickly loaded both of their trunks. Before Harry could get their belongings downstairs, he heard numerous crashes and he heard someone distinctly yell Expelliarmus. Harry disregarded the trunk sand hurried downstairs to find the Dursleys against the wall and Aj surrounded by a group of ministry officials. Aj had a feral grin on his face as he continued to deflect numerous stunning and disarming spells. The officials eventually caught Aj off-guard and caught him with the full Body-Bind spell.
A couple hours later Harry found himself at the ministry headquarters, more specifically in the Minister of Magic's office. Cornelius Fudge was sitting across from Harry with a bewildered look on his face. "Well Harry I don't know what say or do in this situation. I don't think we have ever had to deal with a psychotic American before. This is definitely a situation that I could use some advice on." Like it was a cue, Albus Dumbledore opened the door to the office, walked up to the Minister of magic, and started to have a quiet, private conversation with him. Harry started to listen in but Fudge leaned over his desk, "Harry why don't you bring this release paper to the temporary holding cells down below to release Aj. When he is done processing, you both can continue ahead to The Leaky Cauldron and get set up. You will be staying there for the next few weeks until September First when you both will be escorted to platform nine and three quarters."
Harry got up ready to leave when Dumbledore stopped him, "Harry, I would like you, Mrs. Granger, and the two younger Weasley children to help teach young Mr. Michaels so of the finer points in magic. He knows a considerable amount already but he needs to perfect his skills so he can be at the same level as the rest of the seventh years." Harry stopped for a second and turned back to Dumbledore. "Excuse me, sir. Two questions, first, are Hermione and the others already here? And second, what do we do if he gets like he was again?" Dumbledore smiled, "Your friends already have rooms at the Leaky Cauldron, and Hermione already has been taught the sedative charm to keep him calm. Well Harry, does that cover all your questions for now?" Harry nodded and took the release papers down to the temporary holding cell.
When Dumbledore said a sedative charm Harry had no idea on how strong the charm was. Harry first saw Aj and immediately felt bad for Aj. The guards watching over Aj assisted Harry in taking Aj safely to the Leaky Cauldron. Once Harry got himself situated Aj started to wake from his sedated condition and surprisingly enough knew exactly what had gone on. Harry was confused and voiced his questions, "Harry, it's simple. I'm the one who created the spell to keep myself under control when I turn into my evil persona. But since I made it I developed it enough so that I would be completely numbed up but I can see and hear everything as clearly as if I were awake." Harry was about to respond but a knock at the door stopped the both of them. The door opened up and before either of the guys could react, Hermione and Ginny came in and all started hugging, talking, and introducing themselves all at once. "Woah, woah, WOAH!!" Aj had to yell to get the excited girls quiet for a brief second. "Okay girls, I'm sorry I have never seen either of you. So why don't we start with some introductions and the from there we will get on with the details."
After Hermione and Ginny got done introducing themselves, Harry asked where his red haired counterpart was. "Well Ron had to get to Fred and George's Joke shop because they just got a rush of customers. He said he would try to make it back here after a few hours." Hermione said to Harry as Aj got up and made his was into the bathroom for a shower and a change of clothes. Twenty minutes later, Hermione and Ginny were playing a game of Wizard Chess while Harry was reading through some parchments that Hermione wrote up for History of Magic. Aj walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and water still dripping off his hair. He went over to his trunk and saw Hermione staring at him. Aj grabbed a set of clothes and sent Hermione and smile and a wink as he headed back into the bathroom to get dressed. Hermione got a small grin on her face as she moved her chess piece up a few spots. Ginny saw the slight grin on Hermione's face, "Busted." Ginny muttered under her breath so only Hermione could hear. Hermione started blushing a deep red that rivaled Ginny's hair color.
Aj stepped out of the bathroom with a black t-shirt and baggy pair of blue jeans. He had donned leather coat and an amber pendant that really set off his eyes. He hopped onto his bed next to the girls who were intently playing there game. Aj started to examine the girls while they were playing. Aj had seen pictures of both girls from Ginny's third year, and man had they changed. Hermione, instead of the bushy hair she had straightened it out and given it a slight curl at the bottom. She had grow taller and was surprisingly enough much more attractive. Ginny obviously grew up idolizing Hermione. she had her red hair done up the same way, her body was built the same way just a bit smaller. One thing that separated them was the way they held themselves. Hermione had a confidence that made her quite attractive, Ginny on the other hand seemed to have a feistiness to her that gave her a image that said 'wild child'. The only other thing that really made it clear that they weren't sisters was their way of dress. Hermione had a smart sexy look to her, but Ginny had a roguish or tomboyish look to her.
The girls continued to play their game as Aj walked out onto our balcony and lit up a cigarette. Halfway through the cigarette, Harry walked out onto the balcony and leaned with his back to the rail. He turned to me, "Hey Aj, You got a thing for Hermione or something?" I got a wide smile on my face as I attempted to take another drag without laughing. Harry shook his head and again looked at me, "Just so you know, I've only seen Hermione look at one other person like the way she's looking at you right now." I silently laughed to myself as I realized I was getting to the end of the tobacco in the cigarette. "Damn it." Harry looked over at me, "What?" I started acting all depressed, "my cigarette is almost gone." Harry rolled his eyes, "Aj, get over it. I'm going inside to hang with the girls." Aj pulled out his pack of smokes again and realized he was out of smokes.
He followed Harry inside and almost dove into his trunk rummaging around for another pack. "Have a problem Aj?" Aj sat up fast and smacked the back of his head violently into the lid of his trunk. Hermione leaned over him with a look of concern on her face. "Hey are you ok, Aj?" Aj sat up and winced as he checked for blood, "No, I'm not okay." He paused for a second, "I'm out of cigarettes." Hermione laughed and helped Aj to his feet. Hermione then started to pull Aj out of the room. "Hey, Hermione, uh, where are you taking me?" Hermione pushed him out into the hallway then she leaned back into the room, " Hey, you two, I wanna go out to dinner tonight. You two wanna come?" Harry and Ginny both agreed to it, "Great we'll have a double date then." Before Harry or Ginny could respond, Hermione closed the door and led Aj downstairs to Diagon Alley.
Harry joined Ginny on the bed once Hermione and Aj had left the room. They were both silent for a while until Ginny finally broke the silence, " So Harry, what do you think about Aj and Hermione?" Harry leaned back on the bed and grinned, "I think its funny how fast they started to like each other." Harry rolled onto his stomach and closed his eyes. "Harry, I just thought of something. What's gonna happen when Ron finds out about those two?" Harry raised his eyebrow with his eyes still closed. Ginny leaned onto Harry's back. Harry lifted her head up and rolled over onto his back, and then he put her head back down onto his abdomen, "Ron's gonna more likely than not flip out and attempt to win Hermione's heart. Unfortunately for him Hermione won't go out with him either way." Ginny just sighed, "I feel kind of bad for him, He tries so hard to get her but he is so blind he doesn't see that she doesn't like him like that." Harry started to feel bad for his long time friend. Ron just needed to get a clue though; Harry just hoped that it wouldn't get in the way of everyone's friendship. But knowing Ron, this would turn into a big deal.