Chapter 2 Mrs. Figg
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they belong to J.K Rowling.
A/N Ok, sorry I think this chapter is a little boring, but it's necessary. I promise that this story will get more interesting, please just bare with me!
That was when he felt it; he could no longer breathe properly, it was suffocating him! He felt himself panicking, whilst desperately gasping for air. Calm down, he told his barely functioning mind. He concentrated, and remembered reading something about this in 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.' This is a Lethifold, he realized, the only way to defeat it is the Patronus. Summoning what felt like his last ounce of strength, he thought of one of the few happy thoughts he had, his best friends, and conjured a stag Patronus. At once he felt himself able to breathe again, and saw the Lethifold retreat out of his open window into the night…
Harry sat in a state of shock, gasping for breath as though he had been winded. He could not believe what had just happened. Part of him was convinced it had to have been part of his nightmare, but no; his terror and the danger he was in had been very real.
He couldn't understand it; what could a Lethifold have been doing there, in Privet drive? They weren't even native to this country, he remembered reading about a man from Britain who had had an encounter with one, but he had been on holiday at the time. If he, Harry, and been killed by one that night, no one would have known what had happened to him. To them it would have seemed like he just literally disappeared of the face of the earth. The thought made him shiver even more.
It had to have been Voldemort. How else could have he had been attacked by one? He felt a hot surge of anger flow through him, partly taking over his fear; So much for Dumbledore's protective wards. Wasn't he supposed to be safe here? Last year it was dementers, and this year Lethifolds. Where were the people who were supposed to be protecting him?
That's when he remembered about last summer when he'd used the same spell in self defence against the dementers. He would be receiving a letter from the ministry at any moment. Would he be expelled? Would they believe that he had been attacked by a Lethifold? He doubted it, but then again at least now they knew about the return of voldemort. Maybe this time they would be more open minded. He hoped.
What if he had to attend another hearing? The panic was again taking over him, as he sat up and climbed out of bed. Crossing to his window, he looked outside into the darkness, for the owl that would be soon arriving from the ministry. If only he could somehow contact a member of the order, maybe they could help explain what was going on, how this had happened in the first place. He couldn't even send a letter to Grimmauld place, the headquarters of the order, because his owl, Hedwig, was currently out hunting.
That's when he saw the owl approaching in this distance, and he opened his window so he could let it in hopefully without waking the Dursleys.
The tawny owl swooped into his bedroom and landed gracefully on the bed. With great trepidation he crossed over to it and relieved it of its post, and opened the official looking letter:
Dear Mr. Potter
We have received intelligence that a Patronus charm was performed at your place of residence at 2:32 AM on 21 July. As you know this is a breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, and because of your previous violations of this Decree, this would normally result in at least your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, the minister of magic himself informed us at the beginning of the school holidays that any defensive magic used at your place of residence should be properly investigated before any serious action is taken. Therefore Ministry Representatives will be arriving to speak with you at 10:00 AM later this morning. Please make sure that you are available to meet with them at this time.
Hoping you are well
Yours sincerely
Mafalda Hopkirk
Improper Use of Magic Office
Ministry Of Magic
Well, he thought, that's was unexpected to say the least. He supposed that Dumbledore had had a lot to do with what Fudge had told them at the improper use of magic office. Ever since the minister was proved wrong to the entire country by himself and Dumbledore, he apparently must have become much more cooperative.
He was very relieved, but his fears had not by any means been put completely to rest. Would the 'Ministry Representatives' really believe the truth? He hoped that someone from the order would be able to help him sort this mess out, it was after all not his fault he had been forced to fight for his life yet again. His best friend's, Ron Weasley's, father worked both for the ministry and the order, and would therefore hopefully get word to them.
In the meantime, what was he supposed to do now? There was no way he would feel safe going back to sleep, there's no way he would feel safe enough. It was bad enough before when he'd had dreams involving his godfather, and the terrifying recurring dreams he'd been having, but now he would probably have to cope with dreams of suffocating. Would he ever get any rest again?
No, instead now, all he could do was wait until it was late enough to show his face this morning without waking everyone in the house up. That's when it hit him; it wasn't true that he had no way to contact the order. Last summer he had found out that an old neighbour of his, Mrs. Figg knew the order. She wasn't a witch, but she was a squib and must be in contact with Dumbledore. Maybe she had some floo powder or something that he could use to contact someone who could explain to him what was going on.
But he couldn't exactly just sneak out of the house, and wake her up at 3 o'clock in the morning. He didn't appear to be in any immediate danger, (anymore) after all. He would have to wait a few hours, and go and see her, hopefully he would get back in time for 10, when the people from the ministry would be arriving.
With that thought, despite his situation, he almost laughed out loud for the first time weeks. Imagine the Dursley's faces when official members of the Ministry of Magic showed up on their doorstop at 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning!
Then he sighed. He was going to have a very long day.
Finally, after 4 hours of trying to distract himself in any way possible, (he even read his potions book for a while) in was 7AM, still very early for him, especially on a Sunday, but Mrs. Figg was most likely up, and the dursleys couldn't really get angry at him for leaving the house at that time. Not that he really cared what they thought anymore.
He left the house as quietly as possible, and, casting cautious glances around him as he was still very shaken from the events of the night before; first the dream, then the attack followed by hours of desperately trying to pass the time, he made his way to his neighbours house. He sincerely hoped that when he got there he would be able to speak to an order member, who had better give him a decent explanation to how he had been attacked by a Lethifold, in one of the few places he was supposed to be safe. He was tired of being left in the dark, and was more than ready for people to stop treating him like a child. He was the one who was constantly being targeted, and he was the one who would eventually decide the outcome of this war, even though he still found this idea very hard to take in, and as a result Dumbledore was going to have to start being more open with him.
He walked up the familiar driveway of Mrs. Figg's house. This place filled him with very bitter memories; he hadn't been here for almost 5 years, but it had been where the Dursley's always used to send him when they were taking Dudley out somewhere. He had had to cope in the cabbage smelling house with his old neighbour, looking at cat pictures and eating 10-year-old cake, while his cousin, Dudley was at theme parks, or zoos eating expensive ice creams. He couldn't wait until he could leave little whinging for ever, he'd never have to cope with the annoying neighbours and resentful 'family' ever again.
He knocked loudly on the door several times, before it was opened by the batty cat-obsessed Arabella Figg.
"Harry! I thought I might be seeing you sometime soon. Come in, come in," she said, ushering him into her kitchen.
Harry was relieved to hear that she had been expecting him; it meant that she must have been contacted by someone from the order.
"Arthur spoke to me early this morning," she told him, "he told me to tell you if you came to see me, that he will be one of the people coming to see you later today." That filled Harry with even more relief, if he had an order member coming, then maybe they would find a way to convince the ministry of the truth.
"What happened this morning? Why did you need a Patronus? There wasn't any dementers around was there? What were you doing outside at that time anyway?" She fired the questions at him in one breath.
"I wasn't outside, I was in my room. I needed to use the Patronus, but no, there weren't any dementers."
"What was it then?" she asked, clearly confused.
Harry hesitated before answering, she wasn't a witch, but as a squib she must have been born into a wizard family, so she would know some things about magical creatures, and she wasn't going to believe him easily. Then again, he reasoned, if he couldn't tell her, how was he going to tell the other people from the ministry in a few hours?
"I'll tell you, but you should know this is going to sound a little crazy," he warned her, and took a deep breath, "it was a Lethifold."
Her eyes widened, and she looked at him, a little disbelievingly. "Are you sure? How could there have been a Lethifold in Privet Drive? That's ridiculous."
"I know. It sounds completely crazy. But is it that hard to believe? There were dementers here last year, after all, and here is a long way from Azkaban. If they could get here, isn't it possible that someone might have somehow sent a Lethifold? If someone wanted to harm me all they would have to do is know the general area I lived in. You know Lethifolds prefer to feed on wizards, and it would have been able to find me easily. I have to be the only wizard around for miles, right?"
She now looked thoughtful, though still very sceptical. Harry sighed in frustration.
"Look, is there any way I can speak to someone from the order? Maybe they can help figure it out?" To his dismay, she shook her head, and answered,
"No, Arthur told me to tell you just to wait until he got here with the other ministry members. You shouldn't even really be out now; you should be at your Aunt and Uncle's house where it's safe. I'm sure Arthur will help sort this out. There has to be a good explanation for all this. I know you wouldn't just make all this up, but a Lethifold? There must be some kind of mistake."
Harry felt his anger start to build inside him, why did everyone have such trouble believing him? Why did they all think he was either after attention, or completely crazy?
"What else could it have been? It attacked me in the middle of night; I could feel it suffocating me! I didn't imagine that. I only just managed to get rid of it. Why else would I need to use a Patronus Charm in the middle of the night!"
She frowned at him, "I'm not saying you made it up! I just think there must be some other explanation for this," she snapped. Harry sighed in reply. This was getting him nowhere. And he had actually thought having someone at least related to his world nearby would have helped him somehow. Now he would just have to wait for the ministry members and Mr. Weasley to get there. Then of course, only Ron's dad would believe him at best. The others would think he was insane, or making up wild cover stories, as Fudge had probably convinced them last year.
"Alright. I guess I'll see you around sometime," he said to her as he left the house, adding silently to himself, 'thanks for nothing.' He couldn't believe this; the order had told her to tell him not to contact them. They wanted him to wait for the ministry to arrive.
Dumbledore couldn't possibly ignore this attack, could he? Could he really be planning on leaving in this place all summer? He probably would have done last year, if it hadn't been for the hearing he had had to attend. At the end of last year, Dumbledore had admitted to making many mistakes concerning him, but he hadn't seemed to change his ways very much.
Then again, he didn't actually know what had happened yet, and obviously Mr. Weasley would be telling him, so maybe he was being a bit unfair. He was just so frustrated, after all that had happened to him last year, to be back in this place with the family that treated him like filth for so long.
When he arrived back into the house, (he had never thought of Number 4 to be 'home') he entered the kitchen to get something to eat. He hadn't really felt like eating much the past few weeks, but he had had barely anything yesterday, and after yet another sleepless night, he was definitely ready for something to eat. Of course going into the kitchen meant he would have to see the Dursley's, but he would have to see them today eventually anyway.
No one looked up as he entered. His cousin was still not up, he had stayed out late last night, at 'his friend's house for tea.' Yeah right. Beating up some more 10-year-olds on street corners more like. His Aunt and Uncle were in there, but since the warning the order gave them at the end of last term, they had reverted to their old tactic of pretending that he was invisible. This suited him fine, and he just sat down at the table and helped himself to some toast.
