a/n: Here are some replies!
alen: I understand where you're coming from, but with all the memories that he received and all the new information that he had to process, it just didn't seem that important to him. It will eventually come out though.
faeryears: Tell me what doesn't make sense, because I probably haven't even noticed if I left some loose ends. Haha, I'm glad you like Molls, she's definitely the coolest of them all, that's why… well, you'll see!
psychiclunar: Yeah, Harry was kinda vague in explaining the dream, but that part just hadn't come out as important to him, he didn't make the connection of Alphard's brief mentioning of Sirius being traitor to the conversation in the dream. It will come out though!
spacecatdet: It'll eventually come out, like I told some of the others, it just didn't stick out to Harry's seven year old brain that the name Peter might be important. But Harry will eventually figure it out.
CharmsCharlie: Does he seem Gryffindorish to you now? Haha, well, it seems to me what made him not want to be Slytherin in the books was how naïve he was, he didn't understand the goings-on of the wizarding world in the real book, so when Ron told him that Slytherin was the house of all "bad wizards" he believed him. He won't be so blindly trusting here!
WSX: I didn't really consider it important to hide the location of the factory, just because the gang members are all muggles and Dumbledore wouldn't pull anything there.
Thankyou as well to: Chayia, lady sakura cosmos, shazia Born confused, Bobboky, Anime Monster, and Manny2003.
I noticed a lot of people mention Sirius here, I promise, his innocence will be revealed!
Chapter Four:
"Dodge!" Came Alphard's voice. "Move, damnit!"
Harry gasped as a curse went whizzing by his ear, having moved just in time. He fired back a few more, until he had to defend himself again. Sweat was beginning to drop down the side of his face, but he kept moving and kept sending spells.
"Alright, enough," Alphard finally announced; he had been losing, but he wasn't about to tell Harry that. Some of the spells Harry sent were so abstract that he didn't even know what they were.
Harry grabbed a towel to wipe off his face. He was now ten years old and probably knew as much magic as Albus Dumbledore. But Alphard insisted that he still had to go to school.
Harry now lived with Alphard full time. It had been hard to tell his friends that he was leaving them, but it was what he needed to do…
Harry walked back through London, exhausted from hours of training. He felt like he was going to collapse in the street. He had decided the week before that he needed to change something. He was too magically drained to apparate, if he tried he would probably splinch himself. He discussed the matter with Alphard the other day, and it was decided that Harry would come live with him. It hadn't been an easy decision, but it was necessary.
After making it back to the factory, the others were waiting again, trying to pry out what he was doing.
"Guys," Harry began slowly. "We need to talk…"
He told them about the wizarding world. It took a while to get everyone to believe him, a few demonstrations were necessary. He left out the less important bits—him being the boy-who-lived, Voldemort, things that he didn't think they needed to hear.
As soon as the story went over, he tried to explain why he needed to leave. That didn't go over so well.
"You what!" Molls snapped.
Eric looked down at the ground and walked away wordlessly. Pete kept asking him why. The younger ones were in awe of the magic, but didn't know what to say. It was Jon's reaction that hurt Harry the most. Jon looked at Harry with betrayed eyes, shook his head, and muttered that he should have known; Jon walked out of the factory that night, and didn't come back until after Harry left.
The whole time Harry was trying to pack his measly possessions Molls was begging him to reconsider; telling him that if this magic was so great, he should be able to find a different solution. But it was useless. Harry left the following morning, with empty promises of coming to visit. Harry knew visiting would be too hard. He couldn't face Jon again. They would be better off without him, he decided.
If Alphard noticed Harry's momentary state of reverie, he didn't mention it.
"Harry, lad," Alphard spoke, knocking Harry back into reality. "We should get your school equipment."
Harry nodded, "what do I need?"
"I got a copy of the list from a friend, but I can't get you a ticket, you'll just have to sneak on the train, I suppose."
"That shouldn't be hard," Harry replied, leaning to the side, eyes glimmering with the prospect of tricking the headmaster. He could just imagine his entrance. Well, sort of, Dumbledore would probably get word of him being on the train if any students noticed him, but he could disguise himself… Harry kept thinking of the possibilities.
"Come on, lad," Alphard said, smiling at the boy who had almost become like a son. Of course, he had once thought that of Sirius…
He was shocked, after hearing at the hospital that Harry had a vision of his parent's death. He was upset too, for Harry, for a loss of innocence at such a young age.
Harry hadn't realized the importance of the dream. He knew, subconsciously, that it was Peter who did it, but he hadn't thought it important at the time. He had been in too much confusion from watching his parents die to truly realize the importance. So an innocent man stayed locked away, while a guilty one continued to hide, the rat that he was.
Harry and Alphard traipsed around Diagon Alley, going from the book store to the apothecary. Finally, the list only said one more thing: a wand.
"Fancy having a second wand, lad?" Alphard asked, somewhat amused. "I don't suppose you'd like to wave that one around; it might rattle a few people.
Harry smiled, "rattle people? They'd be quaking in their boots! Two wands… imagine what I could do with two. You'd never be able to disarm me again!"
"Not that it matters if I disarm you, eh, lad?" Alphard chuckled back. "You'd just tackle me down for it."
"I've been working on trying to summon it back," Harry wheedled, "but grabbing it from you is so much faster."
Alphard smiled at Harry's antics, "watch out, lad, someday this old back won't be able to take your beatings."
They walked inside Ollivander's. It was a musty shop, but a far cry different from Moyora's workshop. If Ollivander made his wands here, it didn't show; all there was to see was boxes full of wands.
"Ah, Alphard Black," came a soft spoken voice from behind shelves of wands. "I must say, I never expected to see you again."
Alphard didn't reply to Ollivander, he just pushed Harry forward a little.
"And who might this be?" Ollivander asked, peering at Harry and seeing only a brown haired boy with grey eyes and no scar. Glamour charms worked wonders.
"My nephew," Alphard replied, not offering a name.
Ollivander smiled at the boy and asked which arm was his wand arm.
"I'm ambidextrous," Harry answered; years of using dual knives made his left hand just as efficient as his right.
Ollivander didn't show any emotion, though he was surprised, he simply began measuring. Measuring arm length, finger length, hand length, nail length… it went on for ages until Ollivander walked back and plucked the measuring tape away from Harry.
"Well, let's see…" Ollivander began to pluck boxes off the shelves and carry them up towards the desk.
"Ash, unicorn hair, 9 inches, rather flexible," Ollivander declared.
Harry grabbed it and swished it around, but there was nothing. Ollivander snatched it back.
"How about this one? Rosewood, dragon heartstring, 11 inches."
Harry tried waving this one around too, and again, nothing.
This process went on leaving a few broken windows, rattled shelves, and dented floors in its wake. Finally Ollivander relinquished the phoenix feather wand for Harry to try. A wind gathered up around Harry, spinning like a tornado and he was the heart of it. Black and grey sparks shrouded him.
When the spectacle stopped, Harry looked into the astonished face of Ollivander.
"Oh, how frightfully curious," he barely whispered. "The brother wand… and the same reaction…"
Ollivander finally shook himself out of it and told them the total. Harry muttered something about old men who are off their rockers and don't know when to retire, and he and Alphard went back home.
On the morning of September the first, Harry woke up feeling surprisingly nervous. No, he wasn't scared of trying to sneak places—that was his life. He just didn't know what to expect. It all seemed so final; he was leaving for a boarding school. He wouldn't even have the option to visit the gang if he finally got up the courage to do so. Courage? Harry laughed to himself. He was being a coward.
Harry checked the clock to find out that it was only five thirty in the morning. He decided to prove that he had some courage, once and for all.
He quickly checked that Alphard was still sleeping and he apparated to a secluded point outside of the factory. He walked inside nervously; he didn't know how they would react to seeing him now, after all that time. It had been years since he left them. Harry looked around. Everything looked normal; the cots were in their place, most unmade, there were a few things lying around. The only suspicious part was that everything was coated with dust. What had happened? If they had moved, they certainly would have cleared everything out and taken their things with them, but this… Harry didn't understand.
Harry walked around, poking at things to make sure they were really there. He wiped the dust off of Jon's cot. It was Jon he had needed to see, he needed to apologize. He needed to make it up to Molls. All of them had placed their faith in him as a friend and he had failed them. Now, when he finally found it in him to try to make amends, they were gone.
Harry's attention was caught by some hissing in the area of where his cot was. He was momentarily surprised that they hadn't gotten rid of it. On his bed was a very large snake. Harry took a step back out of shock. The snake flicked its tongue out, tasting the air.
"This was your nest?" It hissed at him.
Harry was startled, "yes, that was where I slept."
"I mean you no harm, child," the snake spoke back.
Harry, in the meantime, had never spoken to a snake before. But when he thought about it, he realized that Voldemort could speak to Nagini, so the ability must have been passed on, along with everything else.
"What…" Harry tried to ask, "What happened here?"
"You mean to the rest of the fledglings that lived here?"
Harry nodded, no longer trusting his voice.
"They all left in a hurry," the snake tried to explain, though he understood little of the situation. "They grabbed their sharp things, and their big wooden things, and they left."
Sharp things…? Harry thought to himself about it. So they ran off with their knives and bats.
"I'm sorry," Harry shook his shaggy head. "I need to go for a walk and think about this."
Harry started to leave, only to hear the snake tell him that he was coming too. The snake slid its way up around Harry's neck. Harry tried to ignore the added weight and walked out of the factory.
He walked down the empty, rundown streets, not knowing or caring where he was going. He had to think about this new information. They were in some sort of fight, obviously, but with whom? And why? Harry knew other gangs liked to start fights, sometimes over nothing at all, but wouldn't they know better than to get involved? Harry ended up in the alley that Vernon had left him in all those years ago. He slumped against the dumpster, trying to keep his mind from thinking of the worst.
He was snapped out of his pessimistic thinking when he heard a groan coming from inside the dumpster. He jumped to his feet and stared at the dumpster. Again, the groan came. Harry cautiously pulled open the lid and was met by an extremely unpleasant smell. Harry peered into the dumpster and saw the battered body of what looked like a teenage girl.
Harry, the nice person that he was, reached inside and hefted the girl out of the dumpster and laid her on the ground. Checking that no one was coming, he healed the girl with his illegal wand. The other wand had all of the registrations done on it, and if he were to use it, the ministry of magic would swarm him.
After the girl was healed, she blinked her eyes in confusion.
"I thought I was dead," the voice was familiar.
"Molls!" Harry gasped.
Her eyes finally focused and she stared at him with an extreme intensity.
"'Arry," she breathed. "It's been a while."
"Molls, what happened?"
"Ah," she winced a bit at the memory. "It was those dolts from downtown."
"A fight?" Harry probed.
She nodded weakly, "there was nothing we could do, we 'ad to fight them. Eric 'n Pete tried to defend the younger ones. They never did 'ave the knack for fighting that you did at that age… but…" she shook her head. "It was carnage, we were so outnumbered, and well, we never were much of a fighting group. The police showed up. By then, the other gang had pretty much won, Pete and Eric were down… dead, I guess. Those…" she tried to think of a word to aptly describe what she thought of the other gang, "They killed everyone! It was just Jon and me left, I—I had been in shock, y'see, they 'ad just stabbed Angel in the back, those lowdown, two-faced, pieces of… ergh! They started beating me up afterwards, and then the cops came, and… oh 'Arry, they saw Jon hit the other gang's leader in the 'ead, and… they shot 'im!"
Molls seemed hysterical by this point and she could no longer go on with the story. Harry just hugged her and told her that everything would be fine. Molls eventually insisted she was fine and said she was going back to the factory to collect her things. She told him she had an Uncle who she thought might take her in as long as she made herself useful.
"Molls," Harry sounded sad. "I promise you that I'll see you again, I'll visit you, I swear."
"Don't feel bad, 'Arry," she sounded regretful. "I know it's botherin' you, what 'appened to Jon, but 'Arry… he cared for you. He missed you. It was 'cos of 'im that we kept your cot. He'd sit there, thinkin' to 'imself. There were no 'ard feelin's."
Harry didn't know what to say.
"He was like the brother I never had," Harry smiled bitterly. "He had every right to get angry the way he did, I, I abandoned him."
"No, 'Arry," she protested firmly. "You did what you 'ad to do, Jon understood that, he just didn' want to admit it."
Harry shook his head, "I'll never know, will I?"
Molls did what any sensible person would do in this situation: she hit Harry upside the head.
"Stop mopin'," she finally told him. "Get on with your life, it's what 'e'd want."
Harry laughed, "I'll miss you, Molls."
"Yeah, yeah," she smiled back at him. "You just remember your promise; I expect my visits. Oi, don't forget Christmas presents, and birthday presents too!"
Checking the watch that Alphard insisted he keep on at all times, he saw that it was 10:50. Harry was most definitely in trouble if he didn't hurry.
