Chapter 10: You can't handle the truth.
WARNING Child abuse! Both cannon and taken to an extreme. Please skip if you have issues. Trust me I had issues writing it, but I felt it was needed to explain things in the future.
Again, Can I just say I don't like having to try and type for the actual language that Hagrid mispronounces all the time. Grammar too. My computer screen is full of red squiggles.
Don't own, no money, just love for the characters. Please R&R, I do not have a beta so all mistakes are my own, and if pointed out I will attempt to correct them, or anything that seems unclear. The characters like to play around in my head, so I know what is going on but may not explain it well. Oh, shut up Dumbledore this whole chapter is your mess. Bad wizard no biscuit.
September 21th 1990
Across town, Hagrid flew Sirius old motorbike to the small suburb of Little Whinging. It had been almost ten years since he came here on Dumbledore's orders to drop off baby Harry. The Dursley's neighbor Mrs. Figg had finally convinced Dumbledore to intervene on the boy's behalf. For the past several years she knew the boy had been badly abused by his relatives. If the beating she had witnessed the beginnings of were half as bad as what it looked, the poor boy could use saving. Hopefully his uncle would not have beaten him to an early grave. She had overheard many times Vernon and Petunia talking about beating the devil out of the boy every time his freakish behavior showed back up.
Arabella had taken her complaints to the muggle police, only to find out that Dursley was friends with the officer who was placed in charge of the case. She had tried other avenues, but the people she spoke with also found themselves being transferred to a different department or fired altogether. She had an awful feeling that it may be more than just the Dursley's themselves behind all the roadblocks she had encountered. There was also apparently a school nurse and teacher at his primary school who, when they reported as required, disappeared; their bodies were found months later in the Thames.
Both Vernon and Petunia maintained a façade of perfect upper middle class respectable neighbors. Arabella in all her snooping knew different. Vernon was one of the directors of the company he worked for, yet funnily enough if you went to any shop, you would not be able to locate a drill by the name of Grunnings. Makita, Milwaukee, DeWalt, Black & Decker, even Ryobi could be easily found, but never a Grunnings. She even tried to find any information on the company that the local library kept they had nothing on the company either. So, if they didn't really make drills then what did they make and ship out in all those large boxes? Her imagination always quickly went to shady backroom dealings, perhaps with the mafia, or a drug cartel. After all what normal manager was a big and beefy as he was. Oh, sure he dressed to make himself look overweight, but his walk did not have the same movement that she expected and had seen on other people who had desk jobs and had let themselves go at middle age. It had to be that, or else she watched too much telly, or perhaps needed to stop going to gangster movies when they came out.
And that wife of his. Petunia was one of the strangest women that she had ever met, if she was to tell the truth. She was tall, had a long neck, and a long face. She always kept her strawberry blonde hair up in an intricate, almost matronly, updo. But Arabella had seen her a time or two out jogging very early in the morning. Her hair was quite long when only held up in a ponytail, and truthfully, she was leggier than anything. All you had to do was take away the frumpy, matronly suits and put her in something that the other posh women of the neighborhood wore and she looked young, and well, frankly stunning.
It was as if they went out of their way as a family to be unnoticeable. Then again, she also went out of her way to look like a little old lady who had too many cats and perhaps was a bit mad. Who was she to judge the real reasons behind appearances. Even for a squib, fifty wasn't that old, nor was it truly for a muggle, but if you dress like you are in your seventies people don't ask questions. They were often put off at the thought of dealing with the spinster cat lady, and because of this she saw everything that happened in the neighborhood. She knew everyone's little secrets, from the gentleman who was having an affair in number seven, or the goings on in number twelve.
Their son now, there was no other way to say it, but he was a fat, stupid, little bully who went out of his way to torment the other children in the neighborhood and hurt animals that had the bad luck of being where he could see them. She had long suspected him of being behind the cause of several of her older cat's disappearances as of late, as well as other pets in the neighborhood. Oh, and how his parents did pamper their not so little prince. Even a hundred years ago they would have had a proper name for what their nephew was to them. It was just no longer polite to point out that he was in fact their psychopathic son's whipping boy.
It had been three days since she had last seen the boy this time. She put down her omnioculars and went out into her backyard to wave Hagrid over in attempt to have him park in front of her home. Thankfully it was just before dawn. That man didn't have the braincells it seemed to realize that he would have been better landing in the country and riding the bike in like any sane person would. "Hagrid. How many times to I have to tell you, no flying in town? The invisibility booster is broken because it wasn't designed with you in mind. You are just far too large for the bike to handle." She stood with her hands on her hips looking at the motorbike had been landed in her prize-winning dahlias.
"Er… Yeh, 'ocourse Mrs Figg. Sorry bout tha. Buh Dumbledore told me to get here as fast as possible. An we both know that following the streets is just barmy when yah can go as the dragon flies."
"I don't want to hear your excuses young man. Now, what did he say about getting the boy this time?"
"Well, er see, um he… he don't wanna remove him from the house."
Arabella interrupted the half giant. "Don't want to remove him? What kind of nonsense is that old man peddling now?" She threw up her arms in aggravation.
"Well, now see. He don't wanna, but Perfesser McGonagall, an Flitwick well, well they saw yer letter to him when it was delivered by owl yesterday mornin. They's the ones that told me ta come and remove the boy. They threatened the headmaster with aurors ya see. An well, they may still go to the DMLE and Child Services, if I'm not back in a couple o'hours."
"If you don't take him for medical help, so help me I will, and you can tell Albus that this is not a threat, it is a promise." She shook her finger at him, and Hagrid backed down submissively. "Now, take that monstrosity you call a motorbike out of my garden and put it on the side of the road where it belongs."
Hagrid quickly followed the older woman's orders. He may have been three times her size, and a wizard to boot, but he knew the feisty old lady had other ways of reducing him to a shivering and broken mess.
She went across the street ahead of him. She knew that the Dursleys were out again. Normally she would have watched the young lad, but this time felt much different in how they acted. She looked in the window and noticed that most of the living room knickknacks had been boxed up. "Just break the door down Hagrid. No one is home."
Hagrid stood on the stoop and kicked the door in with a resounding thud. As the door hit the front entrance floor, they could both smell blood and the reek of an unwashed body. "Hagrid, look in the basement for any sign of the boy, I will take the upstairs. Once we get done with those you look in the garden and garage, I will take the first floor, and kitchen."
"Er, yeah, buh what about that?" He pointed to a small cupboard under the stairs kept for cleaning tools and chemicals. There were several small grubby handprints on it, one even looked like it could have been blood. They both walked over and could hear a rattled, and wheezing breath coming from behind the door. The stench was stronger here, "er. Mrs. Figg could ya stand back aways. The door is padlocked in a few places."'
"Please, and hurry." She stepped back from him, as the half giant ripped the door and part of the staircase away. There, much to both their horrors, was little Harry Potter. He had several welts that could be seen, quite a few open sores, a black eye, and was so thin that you could easily count his ribs. "Hagrid send a patronus, oh don't look at me like that I know you have your umbrella in that coat of yours. Tell Poppy she needs to be here now."
Hagrid nodded as the elderly woman knelt and gently stirred the young boy awake.
~ooOoo~
It was only minutes after the acromantula patronus vanished, but it felt like hours to Arabella before she heard the a crack of apparition. Seeing the door open, Poppy Pomfey ran into the house and found Arabella and Hagrid trying to clean off the poor boy. "Stop," she called. "They need to see him," she struggled with the sight in front of her and her voice cracked, "They will need to see things before we clean him and treat him." She sent off a bright flashing Eurasian badger patronus that healers had been taught when they needed aurors to document a crime.
"Mr Potter," Arabella gave him a slight shake. "Harry?" The boy blinked up at her and smiled. "Please don't move too much. We have people on the way, and I brought a healer."
"Th…thank you Mrs… F..figg." Harry's voice was raw from screaming. He saw a bunch of people that he didn't know in his aunt and uncle's entryway. He was about to comment on not wanting to go back into the closet, or apologize for not being a good boy, when he saw the upstairs railing above him, and not the stairs he expected. He exhaled knowing that either the Dursleys were going to actually kill him this time for the mess their home was in, or that he would never have to sleep in the closet again.
There were several pops of apparition on the front lawn. Three people entered the now crowded hallway. "Poppy," a tall, elegant man with long white, blonde, hair stood next to two women. One woman had steel gray hair, and a stern countenance, and the other who was smaller, and had a head of dark hair in an elegant updo, with a pug nose. All three of their faces went from curious to various levels of outrage and fury. "Hagrid," the man said, would you please go and help the aurors outside. Let's give the ladies some room to work with shall we." His tone would have been imperious if it were not for the undercurrent of distress that could easily be heard.
"O'course, Mr. Malfoy Sir." Hagrid Made his way to go out the back door and not make the others move when he stopped. "Er… Mr. Malfoy Sir? We are gonna need some o'those aurors fer the backyard, sir."
Abraxas looked up from the poor child; he stood and walked into the lounge. What he saw out through the dining room windows stopped him cold. He quickly summoned his bull shark patronus and sent it off to get more assistance for the crime scene, as well as one to alert his son to the situation. "We need to get him moved; the muggle police will have to take care of the back yard. I'm not even sure if the Dursleys are still alive. Don't..." Poppy had tried to peer around the large frame of Hagrid and see what the two gentlemen saw. "Don't look, Arabella since they are your neighbors, you will need to stick around, I can join you and take Hagrid's place. Ladies, please move for a moment and let the man through. Madam Bones, you will want to look at this." He ushered the woman with the steel gray hair into the lounge and around, while the others let Hagrid by before moving back to assist Harry.
"Hagrid, you will be taken down to the DMLE for questioning, and a statement. We know you are not likely the one who did this but given a few of the more unlikely aspects of the backyard, we will need your memories to rule you out," Amelia snapped.
"O'cours Ma'am, o'course." Hagrid looked defeated. "Should I tell Dumbledore?"
"No. This is an ongoing investigation, and as such you are sworn to secrecy. Given your problems holding your tongue in situations like this, should we find out that you let any detail of this slip to anyone," she put her hand up effectively silencing the half giant before he could get a word in edgewise. "As I was saying, should any of these details get out, you will be considered the primary source, and sentenced to at least one year in Azkaban while you await your trial, as well as for the investigation of the leak to be completed. Do you understand."
"Buh…"
"Do. You. Understand."
"Er, yesm. I understand Ma'am."
"Good. Kingsley, take him back to my office."
A tall, bald man, with skin as dark as night, snapped his head up and looked at the woman in charge when he heard his name called. "Come on Hagrid, after this we can go get a pint, and watch a football match. I hear that Manchester is playing Liverpool. Gonna be a good one. Mackintosh has a bet going with me that the USA will make it to the Cup this year. I keep telling him that England is going to slaughter them before they even get near to it." The dark man laughed. "Silly MACUSA officer, at least now he knows what proper football is." Hagrid laughed as he was side-along apparated away.
~ooOoo~
It had taken several minutes to get Mr. Potter into a state that Poppy agreed to let him be moved in. She had answered every single one of Peony Parkinson's questions. Peony as the head in charge of the Department of Child Protection Services was having Mr. Potter stay in Abraxas' home while he recuperated. None of the department heads felt safe in letting him into Mungo's for treatment currently. Poppy would call in and get the head of pediatrics to come take over the healings that were needed from there so she could get back to her hospital wing back at Hogwarts. Before leaving she extracted the memory of the morning from the point in which she received Hagrid patronus, till she was leaving. She would also for securities sake make a copy of her memories every hour from the point in time that she returned to Hogwarts for the rest of the day. It seemed Hagrid was not the only one being watched for a leak after all. "Alright, Mr. Potter is as stable as I can make him. I don't want to give him anymore pain potions as he needs significant nutrient draughts and preferably food. That is if his stomach will accept food."
"Thank you, Poppy," Peony had a quiet bell like voice, "That is all I need for my reports, from you. Now to get him to a proper magical family that can take care of him. I fear he may also need the services of a mind healer. If Severus isn't too busy, I know that he and the Potters were… well at least he was friendly with Mrs. Potter. If he isn't too busy, tell him to stop by Brax's home this evening."
"Of course, Peony. You know one of these times that we get together should be for dinner and drinks and not a situation like this."
"Too right you are my dear." She smiled and waved as Poppy took off.
Peony needed to keep the old goat from sticking his overly long beard and broken nose in this mess. The man loved to meddle with her department, claiming that since they were all down to attend Hogwarts, it was within his purview to do random inspections. It was now just her, Abraxas, Amelia Bones, and Mrs Figg, who had looked out into the back garden and promptly passed out.
There was a pop from the front lawn. "Father," Lucius strode in, and looked over at the man that was his twin in every way save for the age difference. "I am going to take him home to Cissy. Between her and Andromeda, they will get Mr. Potter back on his feet again in no time. I will see you at home then soon?" Abraxas made a non-comital noise. "Very well I will keep the phone hooked up for when you need to be bailed out." His father scoffed and shook his head. The morning had begun weighing on them all.
"Peony?"
"Yes Lucius?"
"Please stick around with father and if they question you being here just drop my name. Since I still have an office at number ten Downing, they should respect you as being a member of whatever protective services that you say." He gently picked up Harry and apparated back to Malfoy Manor.
Ameliea nodded, "I'm pulling my team out, we have all the information we can get from here. Best to let the muggles take over."
"Alright, I will give you a floo call when I am home."
"Thank you Brax. Arabella, I'm so, so sorry that you had to find this, and that Dumbledore had not responded to your earlier reports."
"It's alright Amelia, at least we have him now." Arabella's voice faltered; she was leaning onto the first few steps of the stairs. "I'll, I'll just give a call on Petunia and Dudley then." Arabella stood and walked into the kitchen to call the local police station. "Hello, I am calling to report a murder. Yes, that's right. Number four privet drive, Little Whinging."