The Longest Year
by Antea-Aevum
A/N: Thanks for all reviews! As for "threatening to withhold fic if certain amount of reviews are not achieved", please be assured that I will update this every week (on a Tuesday, usually, take or give one), whether I have 1 review or a 100 reviews unless I broke all my fingers or stopped breathing. It's just that some times I finish ahead of my one week schedule and more reviews will persuade me to update it earlier instead of waiting until the week ends. That's all.
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Chapter 3: Settling In
"Blue," Dudley commanded.
Harry sighed, waved his wand and performed the colour charm on Dudley's green shirt. It coloured a light green before turning to a pale blue. It was early morning. Between Dudley's snores and his self-condemning thoughts wandering beyond control, Harry hadn't managed to sleep a wink last night.
"I don't want those coconuts on the trees," Dudley continued.
Harry peered closely at the Hawaiian print on the shirt Aunt Marge had gave Dudley on his twelfth birthday. "But they aren't noticeable."
"Well, I noticed it," Dudley snapped.
Harry rolled his eyes before stabbing his wand at the shirt again. The tiny coconuts disappeared. "You liked this shirt very much, you know."
"Well, things have changed!" Dudley snarled. He snatched the shirt from Harry and brought it close to his face, squinting. He threw the shirt back to Harry. "It looks better with coconuts."
Harry was about to snap 'you have coconuts for brains' but sudden fluttering of wings interrupted him. He looked up to see Hedwig's snowy body glide around his head twice before perching on his shoulder, hooting gleefully. "Hedwig! How did you find me down here?" Harry cried happily.
Hedwig nibbled his ear fondly in response. Harry grinned, running his hand over Hedwig's soft head.
"Eew!" Dudley complained in disgust. "Dad said he would get rid of that dratted bird!" He turned his back to Harry and picked up a comic book.
Harry ignored Dudley continuing to play with Hedwig. He missed his owl terribly. She was what made his previous summers bearable but when Uncle Vernon had shown up this year with a "look" that Harry recognized as a very bad one, he let loose Hedwig when his uncle's back was turned, telling Hedwig to go find Ron. When his white owl took off into the sky, Harry had felt truly alone.
A sharp knock and the door opened. Professor Snape kicked the door wide open, crossing his arms over his chest. "I shall not tolerate laziness nor slacking in his house. Neither am I happy when both of you are doing things I do not know about. Therefore, we need to have a schedule."
He looked at Dudley then to Harry. He scowled at the owl. "If I find a single bird dropping, she goes straight into the nearest cauldron."
"Yes, sir."
Hedwig gave an angry hoot. Dudley looked pleased.
"For today, you shall study," Snape continued. "Potter, I trust you haven't completed your homework yet. Mr. Dursley, the Headmaster has expressed his wishes that your...muggle studies must not be neglected. He has taken the liberty to bring you a few books on your next year's syllabus. I expect you to read through them and do some exercises." When neither of them moved, Snape barked. "Now!"
Both Harry and Dudley jumped and Harry turned to his trunk, throwing the lid open and started clawing out his unfinished assignments. Dudley looked around, despairingly until Harry motioned to his suitcase. "I brought some stationary for you."
Under Snape's glare, Dudley didn't protest and got the pencils and paper from his suitcase. When they were ready, Snape stalked out of the room with Dudley and Harry trailing after his meekly. Hedwig remained in the room, perched on Harry's bedpost with her head under a wing.
Snape led them to a new table parked beside the stairway. "You shall do your studies here. Do not disturb me unless you are are being burned alive by the Floo." He left the two boys standing beside the mahagony table.
Harry piled his books, scrolls, quills and ink bottles on the table. Dudley pushed him. "I want this side."
"Dudley, you are being difficult," Harry said, irked. But he moved anyway.
Dudley scowled at the books stacked neatly at the center of the table. He picked one up. "I hate Chemistry," he complained. He threw it down and picked up the next one. "I hate Math." He looked at the next book. "I hate Physics!"
"You hate everything," Harry mumbled. He settled down and unrolled an empty parchment.
"What do you have to do?" Dudley asked, sounding a little annoyed and curious at the same time.
"Mind your own business, Dudley," Harry answered.
Dudley reached for his Defense text. Harry had his wand out in a flash and smacked the back of Dudley's hand with it.
"Hey!" Dudley yelled, rubbing his stinging hand.
"Don't think about it!" Harry snapped. He'd spent three hours compiling the torn pages before he could perform the charm last night. He wasn't about to do it again.
Dudley grumbled under his breath and sat down in the chair in a huff. He crossed his arms and glared at Harry.
"Professor Snape wouldn't like it if he finds out that you have no intention to do what he says," Harry told his cousin without looking up from his book.
"Oh and you would know it how?" Dudley snapped but he was reaching for his books.
Harry looked up and raised an eyebrow, imitating Snape. "Do you really want me to answer that?"
Dudley scowled and opened the Math book, grasping a pencil in his pudgy fist.
They worked in silence for the next two hours before Dudley threw his pencil down in frustration. "I can't do it!"
Harry glanced at Dudley's book. Page 3. He looked at Dudley whose face was red in anger and frustration. Somehow, he knew it wasn't all because of the Trigonometry. He set down his quill on his third essay.
"You know, Dudley," he said quietly. "I know its hard but it's not good to...bottle it up. It's okay to cry. I mean, really cry."
Dudley looked as if the sky had suddenly opened and sprayed candy floss over Snape. "Don't be ridiculous, Potter."
"Suits yourself," Harry said picking up his quill again. "And you got a mistake in line fourteen. You substracted the answer instead of multiplying."
"I know that!" Dudley said hotly.
Another 20 minutes passed with Dudley scratching furiously on the paper and Harry finishing up his Defense essay. Then Dudley snatched Harry's quill.
"Listen to me!" Dudley shouted. "You just...stop doing what you are doing!"
Harry looked at his cousin, not saying anything.
"You...you..." Dudley spluttered. Then he threw the quill back at Harry. "I...hate you! Those people that killed mum and dad...they were your kind weren't they? Dad always said that you would be the death of us one day. He was right!" He pushed away from the table, getting up and pacing back and forth. "You knew how to save them, didn't you? You just didn't want to! You just...sat back...and watched them die," tears were streaming down Dudley's face. "A wizard," he scoffed. "Instead of letting mum bleed to death you could just wave that...that...stupid stick of yours and give her a leg couldn't you!"
He stabbed a finger at Harry. "You probably think that they are not worth saving, that they are not your kind! They were your relatives for God's sake! How could you be so selfish? They...they l-l-loved you!" Then he exploded. "Don't you dare say they didn't! Every night Dad tried to beat the freakiness out of you but you just kept going back to this stupid school! If you had just stayed behind, everything would be okay!" Finally out of steam, Dudley sat down on the floor and sobbed loudly. "E-Everything w-w-will be..." His next words were drowned in his cacophony.
Harry felt tears prickling the back of his eyes and refused to look up, staring stubbornly at his clenched fists. Dudley's wails continued to penetrate the still air of the dungeons.
"Enough, Mr. Dursley," Snape's cold voice interrupted Dudley's bawling. "You have said and done enough. Go and wash your face and stay in your room for the rest of the day."
"Y-You can't m-make m-me do it!" Dudley yelled between hiccups and sobs. "I would not b-bend to your kind!"
"I am addressing you as an adult and you as an unruly adolescent," Snape countered. "Now get up!"
Dudley picked up on Snape's dangerous tone and got up, running up the stairs, still howling at the top of his voice. A moment later, the door slammed, the sound echoeing throughout the dungeons.
"You should have let him cry," Harry said quietly, his eyes still glued to his fists. "I think it helps."
"I will not tolerate shouting in my dungeons," Snape snarled. "Nor blubbering."
Harry nodded then picked up his quill on the floor, smoothing out the bents in the feathers. He dipped it in the ink bottle, refusing to look up.
Snape came closer to the table. "You are behaving more like a Hufflepuff than a Gryffindor."
Harry continued writing.
Snape leaned his palms on the table. "You know what he said was untrue."
"Really."
"You are not a trained mediwizard, you could have done nothing to help your aunt. And the attack was not..."
"Could you stop it!" Harry shouted, finally looking up to glare at his professor. "Just stop, alright? I don't need your sympathy!"
"I'm not sympathizing with you, Potter," Snape snapped back.
"Then why are you suddenly being so nice?" Harry shot back. "You don't have to do what Professor Dumbledore tells you to, you know!" He began to arrange his books and parchments in a stack rather violently. He screwed the cap back on his ink bottle angrily and dumped his quills on top of the stack. He got up and pushed the chair back roughly.
"I'm not doing it because Albus told me to," Snape said silently.
"Then stop doing it for whatever insane reasons because it's driving me crazy trying to figure out why!" Harry grabbed all his stuff and marched up the staircase. He stopped when he reached the landing. "But I appreciate it." He vanished quickly into his room.
Snape sat down on the couch, suddenly tired. Try as he might, he could never forget that night where he lay petrified on the ground after Potter had whacked the curse back to him, at an angle where he could see right through the car and the door into the house. He had watched, unable to move, as Harry tried to staunch his aunt's wound, reassure his howling cousin, ignoring his own wounds and exhaustion. It wouldn't have been significant if Snape didn't know about Harry's childhood, the memories he had ripped from the boy during their Occlumency lessons. Watching Harry tend selflessly to his abusive family, he had developed a newfound respect for a Harry Potter and a feeling of shame for himself. If Harry could treat the son of the man who abused him ever since he was a small kid as he would his own brother regardless of what his father had done to him, why couldn't Snape do the same? See his enemy's son through new eyes and not ones filled with petty thoughts of revenge and spite?
Harry still didn't know he had watched him for more than an hour, unable to move, before the blasted Aurors and Dumbledore dragged their asses out there. Harry also probably didn't know that he hadn't stunned everyone. Anyone that was already under a spell or curse was somehow not affected by Harry's powerful spell. For the same reason, Lucius who was anonymously cursed by Snape with the strength sapping curse earlier for he knew the older Malfoy was the cruelest Death Eater amongst them, had managed to grab his Portkey and disappear from the scene. Bellatrix and a few others who had cursed each other accidentally before (or perhaps not) in the hubbub had also apparated away, fearing the arrivals of the Aurors - their attack had been over the time limit set, impended by various unexpected problems, mainly Harry Potter himself.
The fireplace exploded into green flames and Snape sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees as Dumbledore's head poked out. "Afternoon, dear Severus, could you so kindly step over with Harry? We have some things to iron out."
"We will be there shortly." Snape answered.
Dumbledore nodded, then paused, unsure whether to ask. "How is Mr. Dursley doing?"
Snape sneered. "Coping."
Dumbledore sighed. "He is also one of the problems we have to sort out. Come quick, Severus, I would like to get this over with."
Severus nodded then swept up the staircase, coming to Harry's and Dudley's door, rapping smartly on the lovely honey-coloured wood. Harry opened the door. Dudley was sulking on the bed, a comic book in hand. Snape noticed torn pages of the Muggle books he had brought for Dudley and suppressed a sigh.
"The Headmaster would like to see you now," Snape said.
Harry looked back at Dudley. "Uh..."
"He will be safe. And so will everything in the dungeons," Snape said pointedly. "Anything destroyed without your name on it, Mr. Dursley, and you will not like the consequences. Am I understood?"
Dudley ignored him.
"Am. I. Understood." Snape said, his voice low and threatening.
"Yes," Dudley answered grumpily.
Snape took Harry by the elbow and led him to the fireplace. He kept a hand on the boy's arm as he threw in the Floo powder and shouted, "Headmaster's Office!"
Only Snape's grip kept Harry from tumbling to the ground. He had never really mastered the ability to walk out casually like his friends and all the rest of the Wizarding community. It was as if he was doomed to be a klutz when it came to the Floo.
"Afternoon, Harry," Dumbledore beamed at the pair. "Now, now, Severus, don't ruin the lovely afternoon with that scowl of yours."
Severus' scowl grew wider.
"Have a seat," Dumbledore wiped his moon-shaped glasses on his robes and placed them on again. "We have quite a few dilemmas here, but first..." He opened his desk drawer and drew out Harry's wand. The well-cared for wand refracted light off it's smooth, polished surface. He handed it to Harry.
"Thank you, sir," Harry took the wand, the familiar weight putting him at ease. He reached into the back of his jeans and slid the borrowed wand out, giving it to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore took it, using it to draw up two chairs directly behind Snape and Harry. "Sit," he said. "It's tiring having to look up all the time."
Snape and Harry obediently sat, Snape's scowl manifesting itself into an unpleasant expression.
"Did you use the stunning curse on everyone?" Dumbledore started, getting straight to the point, reclining comfortably in his chair.
"Yes, sir. But I didn't really mean to stun everyone, just the three Death Eaters blocking my door and I..."
Dumbledore leaned forward. "Are you absolutely certain you performed that spell?"
Harry looked nervous. "Yes, sir."
"By yourself?"
"Yes."
Dumbledore sat back again. "Nymphadora came to see me this morning. It seems that the Aurors were very perplexed."
"About what, sir?"
"It happens that your wand did not register a spell that powerful. Minor stunning curses, yes. But not one of such magnitude." Dumbledore peered over his glasses, studying Harry.
"Er, yes. That would be it." Harry looked very nervous.
"What is it, Harry," Dumbledore asked. "Whose wand did you use?"
Harry sucked in a long breath. "I didn't do it with a wand."
Dumbledore frowned.
"I, uh...wandless magic."
Snape breathed in sharply. Dumbledore briefly registered shock then quickly recovered. "Wandless magic?"
"Yes, sir. I, uh..."
Dumbledore sat forward, held out his hand. "Give me your wrist, Harry."
Harry extended his arm slowly. Dumbledore grasped his wrist, just below his palm then paused, as if listening for something. He released Harry's wrist after a moment. "Yes. I feel it. Your power is growing." He looked at Harry, a mixture of pride and worry. "You will need to train it as it grows." He nodded, sadly. "Your parents was very powerful, Harry. You have inherited as much."
Harry didn't say anything.
"About you performing underage magic, the Ministry has reached a decision."
Harry looked up.
"Fudge has insisted that rules be rules, no exceptions made. You are expelled." Dumbledore held out a hand to ward off Harry's protests. "But you will be staying here, not as an official student but as an invited novice. You will have to seek the consent of your teachers to let you in the class, but I believe that will be of little problems."
"Thank you, sir."
Dumbledore smiled. "As you are not an official student, you belong to no house."
Harry looked like he wanted to protest but he clamped his mouth shut.
"But if Minerva will let you," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "You can continue to stay at the Gryffindor tower."
At those words, the small black cloud mentally hanging over Harry's head vanished and he felt like he could get up and hug Snape immediately. He felt a grin forming, tried to harness it but the grin refused to be tamed.
"Your house crest will be replaced with the Hogwarts' crest and points earned and taken will be awarded and deducted from all houses. Do you have a problem, Harry?"
"No, sir," Harry smiled.
"Headmaster..." started Snape, horrified at the idea of his usual points-from-Gryffindor-Potter quota affecting his own house.
Dumbledore silenced him with a look.
"Um, sir? What about Quidditch?"
"I'm certain it can be arranged for you to play for Gryffindor," Dumbledore replied. "Although you can also play for the other houses." He smiled at the face Harry pulled, the thought of presenting 150 points to Slytherin enough to make him drop Quidditch entirely.
"Thank you very much, Professor," Harry said.
"No, this was not your fault," Dumbledore said silently. "It shouldn't have come to this." He turned to Snape before the mood could get sombre.
"I'm very happy to see that you haven't killed Harry for petrifying you," Dumbledore said lightly, attempting to create a short break from serious matters.
"It was you?" Harry said incredulously.
"Yes, it was me," Snape snapped. "And I haven't killed you yet because I don't want to deal with your cousin myself."
"You were trying to petrify me, what was I supposed to do?" Harry snapped back.
"I was trying to save you," Snape said testily.
"By petrifying me?" Harry retorted. "Neat plan!"
"Boys, boys!" Dumbledore said, both his arms out between Snape and Harry, looking very much like a referee.
An unwanted referee.
Snape reared up. "Since you were behaving like the expected hysterical you, I couldn't get you still enough to listen to me and touch the Portkey, could I?"
"You looked like any other Death Eater! I wasn't about to let you petrify me! And what were you doing there anyway! If you knew there was an attack, why didn't you alert the Ministry?"
"The Dark Lord told us at the eleventh hour, we weren't given time to prepare, it was wands out, and Portkey to Privet Drive! And why the hell am I even bothering to explain it to you, who obviously haven't enough brains to figure it out yourself?"
"Yes, that would be very simple to figure out, I'm shocked that I never thought of it!"
"Glad you think that way too."
"Stop it, both of you!" Dumbledore barked, mentally reminding himself not to say anything without thinking of 50 different ways it could turn out as. "We are not here to blame anyone."
Harry and Snape glared at each other before they settled down.
"Sorry, Professor," said Harry grudgingly.
Snape sniffed, crossing his arms.
"Now, Harry, can I have your permission to withdraw your memory of the previous night into the pensieve?" Dumbledore said before Snape made a comeback.
"Why?" Harry asked puzzled. Usually Dumbledore just asked him to tell him the story again and again until he was sure he hadn't left out any details.
"I'm very sure you will be tired of reciting your story a few times," Dumbledore said kindly. "Furthermore, your cousin is er, well, destructive when left for long."
"What do you mean by destructive?" Snape demanded in a threatening voice.
"Oh, yes," Harry nodded quickly. "I would really like to not...er, repeat myself."
Dumbledore smiled, purposely ignoring Snape. "Very good." He stood up, turned to a cupboard behind him and removed a stone basin. It was a small one and the stone was polished smooth with use. The shimmering liquid refracted, absorbed and reflected different sparkles of light. At Harry's confirmation, Dumbledore touched the tip of his wand to Harry's forehead and withdrew a silvery strand of memory. He let it slide into the pensieve.
"Thank you, Harry." Dumbledore waved his wand and the pensieve returned to the cupboard, the doors closing with a soft click. "Lastly, your cousin."
"What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"Your Aunt Margeret is...reluctant to take Mr. Dursley into her care," Dumbledore said.
"Why?" Harry spluttered, shocked. "She dotes on him all the time!"
"Apparently it's different seeing him once every summer and seeing him every hour." Dumbledore pulled out a sheaf of papers and adjusted his glasses. "She 'will not take care of that pig lard anymore than she would plant coconut trees in her garden'," he quoted.
"But she has coconut trees in her garden!" Harry cried.
Dumbledore peered at the papers. "My mistake, 'she would plant authentic coconut trees in her garden'."
"Dudley's her only nephew!"
"The situation is stretched very thin, Harry. I'm afraid that next to using magic, there is no other choice and I'm reserved to using magic for it is not very ethical to do so on an unsuspecting Muggle. I wanted you to try to talk to your Aunt."
"She would sooner uproot all her stupid fake coconut trees than talk to me," Harry mumbled.
"Please do try. If it fails, I suppose we'll have to give her some time," Dumbledore said.
"The time shall not be at my expense," Snape interrupted.
"Oh, Severus..."
"Shall not be at my expense," Snape repeated.
"We'll have a talk about that," Dumbledore said. He sighed and scratched at a piece of yellowed parchement. "So many things to talk about."
He looked at Harry. "Can you do this for me?"
Harry nodded. "But I'm telling you..."
"No matter, there's no harm done," Dumbledore removed a telephone from under his desk, getting tangled in the wires. "Oh, dear..." He waved his wand absently and the wires vanished.
He set the telephone on the desk top in front of Harry. He tapped it with his wand. "Here."
Harry picked up the receiver reluctantly. There was a ringing tone and he looked up. Dumbledore nodded. Harry waited until Aunt Marge's sharp voice answered. "Hello."
"Ah...Aunt Marge..."
"Who is this?" She barked. "Who are you calling an Aunt?"
"This is Harry, Harry Potter, I..."
She shrieked, the sound vibrating through Harry's ears and he tore the receiver from his ear. She continued to scream, Dumbledore wincing as her voice reached new heights, audible to all in the room. Snape shook his head in disgust. Then abruptly, she stopped and cut off the line, a loud slam before the busy tone set in.
"Maybe I shouldn't have said my name," Harry said weakly.
Dumbledore sighed, writing on his parchment again. "One more problem..."
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Comments welcome :) Please review! Don't flame or I'll get all defensive and you'll get all worked up and I'll get aggressive then we'll just have to fight. And I think we both have better things to do.
Thanks for all the kind reviews! School recently started for me and I think the next one will take about one to two weeks, but fear not! It will come :) Can't say when I'll finish the next one so no hostage situations, lol. But please, review! (I'm contradicting myself aren't I?)