As ever, standard disclaimers apply.
Sorry about delay in posting this and the other story, but it's been a hectic week, and there was a small flood...
Dinner was finished, though Octavius hadn't shown up for it. Rather, he'd gone to wait outside Mr Potter's office door. He told himself that he wasn't hungry. He was, but nervousness efficiently squelched hunger. He knew the man was going to ask those questions he did not want to answer. And Professor Vector had said something about discussing his anger too. His face twisted into an expression of combined anger and dismay, staying that way as frightening thoughts thundered in all directions.
At last the rushed tapping of hurried footsteps broke his wild reverie and, almost startled, he looked up to see the Counselor striding down the hallway. The man smiled engagingly, almost catching the child off guard. But almost was not enough. Octavius clenched his jaw tight and did not return the friendly expression. He did, however, pull himself up from his slouch against the stone wall and politely greet the man with a quiet, "Good evening sir."
Mr Potter was not easily swayed by the forced gloom of the boy. "Good evening Mr Lestrange. We missed you at dinner."
Octavius kept quiet, watching Mr Potter's eyebrows inch up his forehead as the silence between them lengthened.
"Well, then..." Harry muttered a quiet password and the door to his office opened. He strode in and with a wave of his wand, caused the wall sconces to brighten. "We need to talk about your uncontrolled magic, Octavius."
"I know. I hurt the other students at my table." At Mr Potter's inviting gesture, he sat down on the comfortable chair in front of the man's desk. "My father says it proves I am not quite a Squib." He didn't include the rest of what his father had said though.
"You are hardly a Squib, Octavius," Harry smiled as he took his own place behind the desk. "But you do need to learn control."
"Yes, sir."
"A more fitting wand would be helpful."
Octavius cringed at the statement. There was no way his father would get him another wand. "Couldn't I just learn wandless magic, sir?"
Harry almost smiled at the suggestion. "Not at first, Octavius. One begins by learning how to control magic through one's wand."
Octavius sighed deeply. "Then I may as well give up now. My wand hates me."
"I don't think you really want to give up, do you?"
Octavius shrugged. He looked despondent, broken; resigned to whatever fate waited to doom him. But his mind was working furiously. Maybe he could just run away and live in the Forbidden Forest. Students weren't allowed in there and teachers didn't seem over fond of the place.
"Octavius?"
The boy's head snapped up and Harry had to wonder at his inability to pay attention. "Sir?"
"Your wand... I suggest we have Mr Ollivander have a look at it. Perhaps it merely needs an... an adjustment."
"My father didn't give me any money sir."
"Don't worry about that. If the wand is a danger to the school, it must be taken care of." At the child's unconscious look of horror, he added, "I'll pay for it, if there's any fee."
Octavius nodded silently, but he was still worried.
"Now, let's talk about your anger. What made you angry this morning?"
"They laughed at me," the boy mumbled in a small voice that was already becoming something of a growl.
"Who laughed at you? What do you think they thought was funny?"
"My own House laughed at me! I don't know why!" And he didn't, really. He'd meant to sound aloof and fearsome. He felt suddenly overheated.
"What are you thinking, Octavius?"
"They're all idiots! Dunderheads! The lot of them!"
Harry jerked at one of the adjectives the child had gasped out. But he dismissed it as a distraction. "Because they laughed at you," he managed to grind out gently.
"Yes!" the boy hissed back. "And that Gryffindor too!"
"A Gryffindor also laughed at you?"
"No, she was earlier. She--" He broke off.
"What?"
"I was practicing and she interrupted."
"How does that make her stupid, Octavius? Look, you don't have to worry about being punished for anything you say to me here." He locked his own green eyes to the child's dark brown ones. But he did no more than that. It would not be right to invade this child's mind with a legilimens spell.
"I was practicing outside and she made me stop, that's all."
Harry stared at the boy, willing him to hear his own words and see how unconvincing they were.
Apparently it worked because very shortly the boy sighed. "She twisted my arm and took away my wand and wouldn't give it back."
"How did you get it back then?"
"She made me promise not to practice any more."
"And Slytherins always keep their promises?" Harry's right eyebrow quirked upwards.
"She made me swear a Wizard's Oath and said that I would break out in hives otherwise. I looked it up. She wasn't lying." The boy looked quite put out but the effect was not quite as dramatic when he crossed his arms over his chest and pouted.
"I see. What were you practicing that made her feel she had to extract this promise from you."
"Cutting Spell."
Harry gave the boy a curious look.
The boy sighed. "I was using a beetle."
Harry sighed. "It's wrong to hurt other creatures, like that, Octavius."
"Why?"
"Was it hurting anything?"
"I don't think so. I was outside."
"That's its home, then, isn't it?"
"I suppose."
Harry said nothing for a moment, just looked at the boy who slowly began to squirm under this scrutiny. "Have you done this sort of practicing often?"
"On Tuesdays. Other days I'm supposed to practice other things."
"While you are here at Hogwarts, Octavius, you will only practice what your teachers assign. Not what other tutors or your father assigned. Do you understand?"
The boy nodded with only mild uncertainty expressed in his features.
"Did you enjoy making the beetle suffer?"
Octavius winced. He had long since taught himself not to see any suffering in any of his victims reactions. They were insects and rodents and didn't think anyway! But... the mice did seem to cry.
"Octavius?"
"No sir. But bugs don't feel anything anyway, do they?"
"It doesn't matter. You should feel for them even if they can't."
"Why?"
"Because far too often feeling nothing for even the smallest creatures inspires us to forget that larger creatures, other people even, also feel." Harry took a deep breath. "It hurt when the others laughed at you."
"Yes."
"So you were the beetle for their amusement."
Octavius winced.
"They should not have laughed at you and you should not be torturing others either. Now let's get back to seeing about controlling your anger."
"I shouldn't get angry."
"No, that's not right. Everyone gets angry. But you need to learn not to react without thinking things through. Especially since your magic is so strong."
Now the child looked surprised.
"My magic is strong?"
"I'd say so, Octavius. You shattered every glass in a radius of several meters."
"Oh no..."
"It's all right, you aren't in trouble. But you do see why I want to understand what is going on in your head that makes it so hard for you to control yourself."
"I don't know, sir. Everything goes away." At the older wizard's look of incredulity he tried to explain, "I can't really see anything anymore. I explode."
Harry nodded, "I see. Well." he made a thoughtful face. "Whenever you begin to feel angry, I want you to take a deep breath and hold it for a moment and then slowly let it out counting ever more slowly to ten. While doing that, imagine all the anger and tension flowing out with it. It might not work completely at first but after a while it should. don't wait for the anger to build up. The idea is to catch it early and small."
Octavius nodded.
"I also want you to get away from the situation as quickly as you can."
Octavius nodded again.
"All right then. What say we forage a snack from the kitchens?"
Octavius blinked in confusion.
"I'm hungry and I bet you are too." He smiled.
A small, tentative, smile grew on Octavius' face.
--
Two days later found Harry and Ginny sitting comfortably in Hermoine and Ron's sitting room at their small cottage near Ottery St Catchpole. Stars were shining outside, for the night was clear and unseasonably warm. Ron poured some more tea and sighed contently. "That was a grand dinner," he said already waxing nostalgic.
Ginny laughed. Ron and Hermoine merely shook their heads.
"So what about this boy you said you wanted to discuss with us?" Hermoine changed the subject, letting her curiosity come out to play.
Ginny gave a pained sigh and set her teacup back into its saucer with a soft clink. "He reminds Harry of Snape--" She broke off when Ron seemed to choke on his tea. "Oh Ron don't be stupid."
"Stupid? Merlin, I haven't thought of that greasy old git in years! Thanks so much for the reminder on my anniversary!"
Ginny giggled despite herself.
Hermoine rolled her eyes and sighed. "Our anniversary and if I'm not upset why should you be? Anyway, how does he remind you of Professor Snape, Harry?"
"And why should we care?" muttered Ron, still wallowing in his ill humor.
Harry sighed. "The boy has certain mannerisms... A way of looking at one... That's not what is important. What matters is that the child is abused and I want to get him away from his father."
"Well what about his mother--?"
"He is Rodolphus Lestrange's son." Harry interrupted in a quiet voice.
"Lestrange?" Ron didn't choke this time but his eyes were bulging. "Another baby Dark Eater. Just what the world needs."
"The child's name is Octavius. Would you care to hear why he has that name?"
"Erm--"
Harry didn't wait for a decision, "Because he is only a number to that man; the eighth child born."
"What happened to the other seven?" Hermoine asked with great reticence.
"They died. All before the age of nine." Harry's angry visage pierced her horrified one. "I've no doubt Lestrange killed them."
"Harry, you can't prove it!" Ginny reminded him.
"The boy told you this?" Ron asked, no longer playing a game. Rather as concerned as the others for an endangered child.
"Not directly. He won't will he? He thinks he needs to prove himself to this monster of a father."
"The boy told Harry that his father said he would be the last even if he failed." Ginny murmured.
She winced as Harry added, "the direct quote is 'He says it's not worth finding a suitable wife and he'll be damned if he's going to sire a bastard heir.'"
"But Bellatrix died during the final battle with Voldemort!" Hermoine pointed out.
"All that means is that she's not the boy's mother." Ron shrugged. "So, what happened to the first seven children?"
Hermoine blanched. "I don't think I want to know." Then she sighed again, "But I suppose I'm going to have to find out. You want to have the child removed from Rodolphus' stewardship, don't you, Harry." It wasn't a question.
"Yes! Merlin! You should see him! No child should be so abused. What other chance is he going to have? It's our duty to save him from this nightmare."
"What does Minerva say?"
"She agrees of course!"
"I'll find out what I can. At least he's safe at Hogwarts for the time being." She cast a look at Ron and he nodded his support.