Will you Kidnap me?
Helen had taken her daughter to Diagon Alley for yet another load of books and where on their way back to the car park when they happened upon a most curious sight, a young child struggling with a trunk, clearly too heavy to lift for someone so small, and a beautiful snowy white owl in a cage far too small for such a majestic creature. Coming to a quick decision, she altered course and approached the raggedly dressed kid she estimated by size to be somewhere around seven or eight years old.
"Exc…" Helen started to address the messy, black haired youth.
Suddenly the child stomped a foot and angrily said, "Fucking Bastard!"
"'Cuse me?" she finished just as her daughter said, "Language!"
The child turned startled, and startling, bright eyes of the deepest and most unique green Helen has ever seen, like the richest of emeralds shot through with shifting sunlight from a forest canopy and seeming to glow from within, to gaze upon the approaching mother/daughter pair. With a deep sigh and quickly averted eyes, the small figure shuddered slightly with hunched shoulders, as if expecting to be hit, and whispered, "I'm sorry."
"While I would appreciate you refraining from using such impolite language," Helen knelt before the obviously scared young person to be perceived as at least slightly less threatening, ignoring how the damp sidewalk would leave a mark on her beige slacks, "we came over to see if you needed any help with your things."
In response, she received a quick glance and a muttered, "I'm fine." Her daughter's gasp however drew both of their attention.
"You… you're, Harry Potter!"
"You know me?"
"I've read all about you, you're in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, and Modern Magical History!" The bushy haired girl gushed.
"I am?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Hermione, dear," Helen said grabbing her daughter's attention, "remember what your new books said about the 'W' and 'M' words?" Having read her daughter's new books, she now knew at least a little about the child they had come across on a damp London street. "Harry?" she asked gaining the boy's attention, "This is my daughter Hermione," she said indicated the blushing girl beside her, "and I'm Dr. Helen Granger, and part of my job is to help young people that need it."
"What's a doctor?" Harry asked quietly, then suddenly stiffened, once again acting like he was about to be hit.
'Oh, dear!' Helen thought, once more glancing at the terribly over-sized clothing to the red, jagged, and inflamed looking jagged scar on the forehead of the ELEVEN year old in front of her, 'this could be very, very bad.' "Well, my specialty is fixing people's teeth mostly, but there are others that help fix anything that might hurt." She said doing her best to keep her dark thoughts from seeping into the tone of her voice. "Why are you out here alone?"
"Mr. Hagrid just… he handed me my ticket and then just… disappeared…"
A quick glance at her shocked daughter let her know why Hermione wasn't spouting off a million questions as was her normal want, "Oh! Well, that wasn't very nice of him. Tell you what… Hermione and I were on our way home, would you like a lift? Where do you live?"
"I live with the Dursleys, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey." Harry said, then muttered, "Not that they want me there…"
"So, the Dursleys are your family?" Helen asked quietly.
Harry shook his head, "They always said freaks like me don't deserve family."
"You could come home with us!" Hermione suddenly blurted out.
"Why would you want such a burden?" he asked dejectedly.
Helen shook her head, "You wouldn't be a burden, Harry."
"Oh… well… you seem nice. Will you kidnap me? Uncle Vernon always said I should go with someone that would kidnap me."
"He did?!" Helen and Hermione asked in unison.
"He didn't like Mr. Hagrid much, but didn't really try to stop him from taking me when we left them this morning."
"Well, at this point I'm certainly willing to… but we have to do this the right way."
"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed in a sudden eureka moment, "It's your birthday, isn't it! Happy Birthday, Harry!" she suddenly enveloped him is a fierce hug. And while Helen noted that Harry stiffened again at the unexpected contact, he seemed to melt into the embrace.
"Yes, Happy Birthday, Harry. Perhaps we should stop off and pick you up a present on the way home too."
