Slytherin Attitude

Chapter 3

World discovery – June 30, 1996

The sun was high and, for once, shining over this part of England. It was the start of the summer but it was still a weekday and Privet Drive had been fairly active that morning.

'257' thought Harry Potter adding another passing car to his tally.

Harry Potter was idly staring at the street from his bedroom's window. 257 cars had rolled in front of his eyes since he had woken up that night at four. He hadn't really watched them. He didn't know why he was still counting. He just knew that the counting kept him from thinking. He didn't want to think about his life. Abuse, hunger, death, prophecy, danger… anywhere he directed his thought, he was always reminded of what he had already lost and what fate seemingly had in store for him.

Harry was so focused on not thinking that he didn't even hear the door to his room opening. A gnarled wizard entered slowly and looked at the room. It was almost bare. The walls seemed not to have been painted since the building of the house and were now a dull grey. There was almost no furniture: a rickety bed, one chair, one opened trunk and that was all. No books, no clothes, but for a few opened letters next to the bed head there was nothing to indicate that anyone lived in this room. It reminded Moody of a prison cell.

"Stupefy"

Harry didn't even hear the spell. One moment he was sitting on his chair, counting the passing cars, the next he was sprawled on his back, a really pissed Alastor Moody yelling in his face.

"Potter, what did I tell you about 'Constant Vigilance'? You need to be aware of your surroundings at all time. You can't let yourself be stupefied that easily. Why didn't you hear me coming in? For that matter, where is your wand?"

"Go away Moody! Leave me alone!" answered an irritated Harry. He hadn't heard Mad-eye enter that was true, but he couldn't let himself care. What was the point anyway?

"Sorry kid! I can't do that. It seems you are stuck with me for the rest of the summer." said calmly Moody.

"What? I don't need a minder, Moody. You can go back to Dumbledore and tell him get out of my life. He has done enough as it is. He is even worse than the Dursleys" yelled a really peeved Harry.

"I am not going to be your minder, Harry. I am going to be your trainer." continued Moody seemingly unconcerned

"My trainer?" snorted Harry "Trainer for what? So that I can get more people killed? Just leave me alone … please?" Harry finished somewhat plaintively.

Seeing that Moody wasn't willing to leave, Harry got up and lay down on his bed. He turned his back to Moody, decided to ignore him until he left.

Moody looked at he teenager's back, sighed and went to pick up the lone chair. After bringing it near Harry's bed, he sat and said softly "So Severus was right after all, you are a whining brat…"

As much as he wanted to ignore the old Auror, Harry couldn't let that pass. He didn't move but it seemed that his mouth ran off alone. "Snape doesn't know anything about my life. He is convinced I had the perfect upbringing… plump pillows and everything." Harry suddenly faced Moody and fixed him challengingly.

"Does it look like I am pampered? Does it?" Harry asked, rather rhetorically.

Moody looked at Harry for a few seconds before answering. "Actually, it's not that bad…"

"What?" Harry was stumped. He didn't expect that answer at all. He didn't have time to react further before Mad-eye continued.

"The way I see it, kid, you got two problems. One you have a guilt complex the size of Hogwarts. You got suckered to the Ministry and Sirius died. Voldemort tricked you. You are neither the first… nor the last. He is an expert at these mind games. You can either roll over and wait to die or you can learn from it and train to fight; That's your choice …" Before going further, Moody paused to study Harry's reaction.

Harry stayed silent, looking stubbornly at the floor. He didn't want to think about Sirius. He didn't want to reflect on Moody's speech. The pain was too fresh. So, he waited for Moody to continue.

Realizing that Harry was not ready for this discussion, Moody decided to continue his baiting on another axis.

"But your most important problem is that you have lived an incredibly sheltered life. You don't realize how lucky and blessed you are…"

That was two much for Harry. He exploded. He stood up and got real close from Moody, he started yelling in his face "What? What do you mean lucky? I lost my parents at one. You have been living with the Dursleys for fifteen years. They hate me. They barely feed me. I have been beaten by my uncle and my cousin. I had to leave in the bloody cupboard until I was eleven. My room is a dump. Do you call that lucky?"

Moody looked unmoved by Harry's outburst and said in a flat tone "Yes… and I can prove it to you in less than four hours … if you are adult enough to accept proof that you may be wrong."

Harry was at a loss. Moody looked dead serious. He had challenged Harry's outlook on life and Harry did not know how to react. A small part of him wanted to crawl back in bed and pull the sheets on top of his head… but the rest of him, the largest component wanted to understand how Moody could say such … idiocy so persuasively"

"You … You are serious?" stuttered Harry

"Deadly… Dare to try?" said Moody. A small glimpse of triumph crossing his eyes, he drew his wand from his forearm holster. Taking a small multicoloured cube from his pocket, he signalled Harry to touch it.

As Harry complied, Moody tapped the cube with his wand and they both felt the familiar pull of a Portkey.

The first things Harry noticed were the oppressing heat and the humidity. A thin cover of perspiration seemed to have materialized instantly on his skin. More surprising was that it seemed to be late afternoon. Harry looked at Moody quizzically.

"What was that Portkey?" he asked.

Moody looked at the cube in his hand and handed it to Harry while answering

"Oh! The multi-site Portkey? It allows you to select your destination by changing the patterns on the cube. It's a very nifty invention by a Hungarian Auror called Rubik. I understand it even wormed its way in the Muggle way as a kid's puzzle."

"No! I mean where are we? And why is the sun setting?" asked a puzzled Harry.

"I guess you have never left England before. Ever heard of time zones, kid?"

As Harry nodded, Moody continued. "Well, that's something at least. We are in Thailand. In Pattaya, to be more precise, a celebrated tourist haven …"

As he heard Moody, Harry started to look around. They were in a small darkened street. It was obvious now that they were not in England. The odours were different. The buildings were different. He looked at Moody who was waving his wand toward his legs and blurted the first that came into his mind.

"Aren't there supposed to be customs or something?"

After Moody finished his spell, he looked back at Harry and smiled "There are. But I didn't think we wanted to advertise to the world that you were travelling. Don't forget I have been an Auror for over eighty years and over that time I have learned to travel incognito."

Harry was surprised at the new look Moody was sporting. His magical eye looked … normal and his wooden leg was hidden by loose fitting khakis and boat shoes. But for his mangled nose, he looked the perfect image of an affluent elderly tourist.

"Let's transfigure your clothes so that you look the part, Harry" Moody said as he muttered another spell. One by one Harry's clothes morphed into something similar to Moody's clothes. Harry was more and more confused. He looked at Moody and blurted "Why are we here?"

"Come with me and you'll see soon enough!" With that, Moody started walking and Harry had no real choice but to follow him.

After maybe fifteen minutes, Moody mumbled "Here we go!" Harry had not really paid attention to where they were going. He was too busy gawking around, taking in the people, the stores, the street merchants. Everything was so unlike what he was used to that he felt like in a dream with a strong sense of unreality. He realized suddenly that Moody had been talking to him. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said" sighed Moody "that I wanted you to follow my lead. I need you to not act surprised or shocked by what's going on. Can you do that?"

Not feeling sure of himself, Harry nodded and followed Moody in the seedy looking bar in front of which they had been standing. As soon as he had entered, Harry felt himself blush from head to toe. The bar was full of girls. He couldn't help but notice that they were all pretty Asian girls. But what had him blushing was that they were all very much nude.

Suddenly, Harry felt himself pulled forward by a chuckling Moody. He realized that he had been staring around for a minute. After they had sat themselves in a corner, Harry turned to Moody and whispered "What in Hell are we doing here?"

Moody looked at him and the grin slipped from his face. "I have been told that you wanted to be an Auror. So watch and learn. Forget about the girls and tell me what you see."

Harry mumbled "Easy for you to say… What do I see? Lots and lots of very pretty and very nude girls…"

"And …" pushed Moody

"And a lots of guys leering at them"

"Good. Now we are getting somewhere. Notice something about the guys?"

"Yeah! Almost none of them are Asian and they all look fairly old. Moody! What is this place?"

"A brothel Harry. I assume you are familiar with the name"

Harry felt himself blush anew. He was feeling so stupid. Sex was one of the topics which seemed reserved to late night discussions in the boys' dormitories. He had heard of places such as this one from some older students. When in fourth year, he had heard a seventh year brag that he actually had been in one. But this place didn't look like what the boy had described. The room looked dirty with ratty old Muggle movie posters on the walls, and the girls seemed much too young for … that. Harry's thoughts stopped when he saw one of the girls coming toward them. All he could do was stare at her face, forcing himself not to look at her body. A stray thought crossed his mind 'Her face looks a lot like Cho. Merlin she is beautiful. I wonder…' His eyes wandered downward for a moment. The girl had no pubic hair whatsoever and he felt himself growing hotter. The girl arrived in front of them and without hesitation, just sat on Moody's lap. She said in a very accented English. "Want to have a good time?"

Moody grabbed her waist and brought her closer. He murmured something in her hear that Harry couldn't catch then gently pushed her back. The girl pouted but didn't insist. She stood up, walked back toward the bar and started talking to one of the only Thaïs in the room.

"What did you say to her?"

Moody turned toward Harry and said "I told her that she was too old"

"What do you mean old? She must be at most seventeen." Harry said, his eyes flickering to the girl. He was so surprised he had almost forgotten she was nude.

"… and that I wanted to see the younger ones."

"What?" repeated Harry, feeling rather overwhelmed. It was going too fast for him but he didn't have time to reflect further as the Thaï was coming toward them.

The guy just said "Follow me!" before walking toward the exit. Moody complied, Harry in his wake. They tagged along and soon after they were standing in front of the steel door of a nondescript building. Video cameras were tracking them. Forty seconds after their guide had knocked, the door opened and they were ushered inside a darkened hallway. They followed a veiled woman along a long corridor. After going down a few steps, they entered a brightly coloured room. Harry stopped breathing. Inside the 500 square feet room were maybe fifteen scantily clothed kids, boys and girls, aged between eight and thirteen at most. As they entered they could see the back of another "customer" exiting the room with a girl and a boy of maybe ten in his wake.

Like in a dream, Harry watched the kids. They seemed to be kept in good health but their eyes were vacant. They did not play like kids their age but staid put either lying on one of the three couches which adorned the room or sitting directly on the floor. They looked at them with no sense of curiosity or dread. Harry felt strangely ashamed at being in this place. While he looked at the kids, he could see peripherally Moody engaging in a discussion with the veiled woman. At least, Moody shook his head and Harry felt relieved when he heard Moody telling him "Let's go kid!"

When they finally exited, Moody grabbed Harry by the arm and without a word, led him at a fast pace in a backstreet. He then let him go and almost shouted at him "So Harry, tell me? Have you ever been sexually abused, raped?"

"What? No! Of course not" answered Harry, spluttering in indignation.

"Well! Lucky you! These kids you saw. Their bodies are sold probably once a day to tourists in search of excitement. The girl who proposed to us has probably been a prostitute since she was ten or twelve. The younger ones don't survive very long that kind of abuse."

Harry couldn't believe what he had just heard. If he hadn't seen it with his eyes he would have sworn Moody was lying. "But why are the police not doing anything? And what about the kids' parents?" he asked in indignation.

Moody sighed. He had obviously been shaken as well by their ordeal. "It's a complex problem Harry, both in the Muggle and Wizarding world. About the Muggle Police, a simple answer is corruption. It's a simplification but the country is so poor. They don't want to scare the tourists who bring in a lot of cash so… and as for the kids… well… some of them have been sold by their own parents but most of them are orphans…"

Harry shuddered at the thought as it reminded him of his dead parents. He didn't have too much time too think on it as Moody started to bend over and took off his shoes, signalling Harry to do the same.

"Let's discuss this later if you don't mind. I want you to see a few other things and we can't stay out of your aunt's house for more than a few hours." said Moody.

As soon as Harry had his shoes off, Moody brought out his Rubik's cube as Harry thought of it and with both hands touching it they were propelled to a new location.

They arrived in a small alcove in a large red stone building. The temperature was even hotter than in Pattaya but much drier. Moody didn't waste time and soon they were walking out of the building shoes in hand. Harry gasped. The sight that greeted him was incredible. A huge white building with a large onion-shape domes and four flanking towers. Harry had never seen anything so magnificent.

"Welcome to the Taj Mahal, kid. Definitely a magical place … even if it's been built by Muggles." said softly Moody from behind him. Harry was speechless. Even Hogwarts couldn't compare to the splendour of this monument.

"Put your shoes back on, kid and let's go." Harry heard Moody telling him.

Shaking himself, Harry bowed down to comply and while tying his shoes on, he couldn't stop himself to ask. "Why did we have to take the shoes off?"

Moody chuckled and answered immediately as if he had waited for the question. "Well, as we arrived in a small mosque, it seemed rather a good idea."

Harry looked around and indeed all the people entering or exiting the building were shoeless. As soon as Harry's shoes were on, Moody started off toward the exit. Once out of the complex, they were immediately crowded by a number of small kids, each begging for something different. Harry didn't know which one to look at. His hears were resonating with cries and yells of "Rupees, Mister", "A Pen? A pen?" or "A sweet?".

He looked at Moody with near panic in his eyes and heard him saying "Just ignore them!" as he walked on. Not knowing what to do, Harry strengthened his resolve and pushed through the numerous young beggars and jogged to catch up with Mad-Eye.

"Can't we give them anything?" asked Harry. To what Moody simply answered "Which one?" Harry was speechless. He just had nothing to answer back so he just followed the old Auror.

They walked for maybe half an hour, wandering the streets of the city, Agra in India, had Harry been told. It seemed to Harry that they were walking aimlessly. Harry continued to gawk around. That city was so different from Pattaya or anything he had seen in England. He was fascinated. Often he saw tourists bending down to give money to a sitting beggar. He was struck by the numbers of vagrants in the streets. Suddenly, he felt Moody drape an arm across his shoulders.

"Now I want you to look" Moody said in a whisper looking to his right. Harry followed his gaze. He closed his eyes almost immediately wishing never to have to see That again.

"OK! Can we go now?" Harry whimpered trying to get away.

Moody's arm was still across his shoulders and his hand was crushing Harry's shoulder in a grip of steel. Harshly, he said to Harry "Open your eyes! And watch!"

Hoping he had been hallucinating, Harry reluctantly opened his eyes, and looked at Him. Him, a boy of indefinable age, maybe nine maybe twelve, was lying on the pavement. He had only a loincloth on and he was incredibly thin. But what had caused Harry's shock were his limbs, or more exactly his lack of limbs. The kid was left with only a small wooden bowl near his head in which were a few coins. He had neither arms, nor legs. A couple of flies were sitting near his mouth which he couldn't dislodge. His eyes met Harry met his eyes and gasped. There was nothing there. This kid was as good as dead.

"Moody?" pleaded Harry.

After a few more seconds, Moody finally let him go. Harry stumbled forward. He didn't know where he was going but he walked on blindly, his mind a jumble of thoughts. After a few minutes, he found himself in a small park and suddenly his stomach heaved. He just felt on his knees and threw up. After having emptied himself, he felt weak. Someone passed him a water bottle and he mechanically took a swallow. At last, he looked around him. He saw that Moody had followed him and was looking at him without seeming concern.

"Before you ask, this kid has probably had his arms and legs hacked off by his owner when he was very young. That makes him the ideal beggar as he can't fight it and is utterly dependant. It goes without saying that in the states he is in brings quite a lot of cash from the tourists which pity him"

"Is that why you didn't give anything?" asked a very subdued Harry.

"Yes. Most of the young beggars belong to organized gangs. Giving only promotes more begging. Are you feeling better? Ready for our next stop?"

"Not really" muttered Harry.

"This one could be dangerous. I don't want us to be mobbed so we are going to wear an invisibility cloak. I reckon you are familiar with them?' said Moody with a smirk while he took a large cloak from a formerly invisible backpack. He didn't seem to want to acknowledge Harry's turmoil. He wrapped the cloak around the both of them and Harry was surprised that the feeling was very different from his father's invisibility cloak. He didn't feel constrained like when he was sharing his cloak with Ron and Hermione. Moody produced his Portkey and soon they were on their way.

"Where are we, now?" as soon as they arrived. They seemed to be on a vast deserted plain. The ground was mostly sand. There were a few gnarled trees scattered around. This time they were not in a city as they couldn't see a building or even a road around. The sun was still high. 'We must have moved west' thought Harry.

"We are in the eastern part of Africa, in Somalia, north of the capital, Mogadiscio. The country has been in an overt civil war for the past five years when their president left with what was left of the country's cash reserves in a bloody Tank. We need to go over this dune… and you'll see what can be the result of a protracted war"

After a ten minutes walk, they had the camp in view. It was one more shock for Harry. He had never imagined people could live like that. As far as the eye could see thousands of people were living in hastily made huts made of grass, tree branches, cardboard or whatever they had been able to salvage. The people surviving in this camp –it was impossible to call it living- had nothing — no food, water, clothing, health services, electricity, or basic services.

The most revolting was the state the children were in. Most of them were all bones, as if their flesh had evaporated from their bodies. But some others had protruding bellies. "Moody, why do some of these kids have bellies so … big".

"That's a sign of one form of malnutrition caused by a protein deficiency. It's called Kwashiorkor." Moody was very sombre and didn't elaborate. Harry didn't know what to say. He didn't want to dwell on what had happened to these people. So they continued to wander around the camp, careful to avoid the few people walking around.

Harry didn't really grasp that he was walking in one of the most miserable place on earth but he felt ashamed of walking among these people, he felt ashamed of having clothes even if they were too big. He felt ashamed of always having been fed enough, even if he didn't think he could survive on it at the time. After maybe half an hour, he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Can we go now, please?" he asked tentatively.

Moody stopped and bent down under the cloak so that their eyes were at the same level. "So you still feel you have been underfed Harry?" asked Moody with a smirk.

The voice was soft but Harry could hear the contempt in it. His eyes turned downward. He couldn't meet the old Auror's gaze. "I get the point, Moody. I get the point…"

"One more stop, kid and then I'll bring you back. This one is the most dangerous. We dare not be detected so we will stay only for a very short time, a few minutes at most. So let me tell you a bit about it. We are going to Liberia in Western Africa, one more of those godforsaken countries which have been in a civil war for almost ten years. More precisely, we are going to a military training camp in Liberia."

"Why there?"

Moody hesitated a moment before answering. He shrugged and said "You'll understand as soon as we have arrived."

Once more, Moody produced his multicoloured Portkey and after a few rotations and a tap of the wand they were on their way again.

They arrived behind a wooden barrack and were immediately greeted by the staccato of automatic firearms. In the blink of an eye, Moody had produced a magic shield around them but they soon realized that it had been totally unnecessary. The shooting was not aimed at them.

Looking around, they could see a shooting range about a hundred yards from where they were standing. They walked slowly toward the range and immediately Harry understood why Moody had brought him to this camp. All the shooters were children. From what he could see, they were ranging between ten and fifteen years old. They were dressed in rags but if they were thin, they still seemed to have been fed correctly. They seemed very proficient with their weapons.

Moody bent down and whispered in his ear. "There are around fifteen thousand kids under arms in Liberia. Some of the factions 'armies' are constituted by as much as forty percent of children. Most of them were forcibly recruited. For the past three years, many faction commanders have targeted children in recruitment drives, prompted by heavy losses on the battlefield. These children were often forced to witness the beating, killing or rape of a family and were told that they would be killed if they didn't join. Others, once captured or arrested were forced to commit an atrocity that would sever ties with their community. They were told that refusal would be met with death. Bottom line, they didn't even get the choice to fight."

After he finished his explanation, he didn't move, he staid there watching the kids at the shooting range training for a war which wasn't theirs. Harry was lost in thoughts. At last, he turned to Moody, put his hands on the cube and simply said "I need to think."

When they materialized back in his room, Harry was surprised to see that they had only been gone for a few hours. It seemed to him he had been gone an eternity. He sat on his bed while Moody put away his invisibility cloak. He suddenly felt extremely tied. "Moody, can we talk about it tomorrow?"

Moody looked at him for long time, not unkindly and finally said "I'll be there at eight, kid"

"And stop calling me kid! The name is Harry!" asked him sleepily.

"We'll see. We'll see" answered Mad-eye. And then he was gone.