Title: Child of Hogwarts
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: None. Things will be different from the get go.
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: After seeing baby Harry interact with a Student after the death of his Parents, Dumbledore has a better idea of where Harry should be raised. Inside the halls of Hogwarts.
Mafalda looked up from her desk as a new memo landed on her desk. Monitoring Underage Magic was not her dream job, even as second in charge of the department, but she was satisfied for the moment as it was a stepping stone on her career. Another five or so years of hard work could get her a job as second in charge in a much better department like Treasury or maybe even DMLE. Only an Auror could be Head Auror but in DMLE head office you did not need to be an Auror to succeed.
Picking up the memo she unfolded it and scanned the words, paused and then re-read it before her vision went red.
All Ministry employees, especially those in Law Enforcement and related departments, are to be on the lookout for evidence, through any means necessary, of wilful criminal and subversive behaviour from all individuals within the education system, in particular those of dubious backgrounds or have undue influence and views that may be contrary to the best interests of the Ministry.
Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, Dolores Umbridge.
On second thought, fuck the move to a better department. In fact, fuck her career ambitions, this would not stand. The meaning of the message was clear. The 'dubious background' was obviously Muggleborns, clear to anyone who had even heard of Umbridge, but the 'undue influence' was as obviously directed at her, no longer so little, little man. The Bitch was going after Harry. And the 'any means necessary' translated to 'find evidence if you can, if you can't then fabricate it'.
Taking a deep breath to calm down, Mafalda then pulled out a few sheets of parchment. Nicole. Stephanie. Carol. Tina. Those were the best placed and most senior of Harry's Big Sisters in the Ministry. She would start spreading the word and laying the foundation work to protect Harry and bring down the Bitch. No one messes with their Little Brother.
The four notes she sent out were seemingly innocuous, asking some friends out for lunch to chat about common activities, but they would get the message. None of them were close friends and the only thing they had in common was Harry.
Harry sat on the counter of the closed Custom Wand shop, watching as Triela as she was finishing getting ready to take him to King's Cross and the Hogwarts Express. Mummy M, as always, had to be up at the Castle hours before the students in order to get everything ready for the student's arrival, but had wanted Harry to experience travelling to the School on the Express like all other students, so Triela had volunteered to take him, as the First of September was the slowest day of the year for Diagon Alley.
Triela adjusted her tie and then did up the buttons of her vest, this time a charcoal pinstripe pants and vest set over her usual long-sleeved white button up shirt. Over the vest, she put on a leather shoulder holster with a pistol under one arm and spare magazines under the other. After the shoulder holster rig, Triela put on black leather gloves and then a long tan trench coat. Once the trench coat was settled and she had made sure her two long pigtails were not caught in the coat, she picked up a small plastic folder which went into her inside coat pocket. That folder held her firearm licence and concealed carrying permit.
Harry had always been fascinated by the precision and methodical way Triela went about every task, from getting dressed to doing homework. Even the way she handled the pistol, and the shotgun located under the cash register, were efficiently beautiful. The only thing she had said about the guns was she had learnt to use them in Italy and they had saved her life.
Triela reached out her hand to Harry and he jumped down from the counter and took her hand, her grabbing his trunk and empty Owl Cage with the other hand. As second later she Apperated and they found themselves in a small room in King's Cross station. Triela led the way out of the small room, which was spelled to be ignored by Non-Magicals and they joined the tail end of the morning business rush of commuters, it being just after ten in the morning, with Harry pushing a cart carrying his trunk that had been in the small room.
"Harry!" a voice called out from the crowd.
Triela's hand immediately went under her trench coat until she saw who was approaching and relaxed. Hermione and her parents were walking over, Hermione slightly in the lead, pushing her own cart with her Trunk.
Triela and Harry exchanged greetings with the Grangers and they made their way to the barrier that led to Platform 9 ¾. Harry went through the barrier first, followed by Hermione. Triela placed her hands on Mister and Misses Granger's shoulder and led them through as well. Like the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, Muggles could pass the entrance to Platform 9 ¾ so long as they were in physical contact with a Magical.
The Platform itself was bustling with activity. Families saying goodbye, friends reuniting. And almost everyone knew Harry. He saw a few current and former Big Sisters around the platform. All of the former Big Sisters had younger siblings heading off to Hogwarts, except one small group. In that group there were three Big Sisters, Stephanie; Josephine and Beth; who were facing off against Lina's father and brother, with Lina herself, in her Seventh Year in Slytherin House, huddled behind them. Stephanie was an Auror and lived in a share house with Josephine, Beth and four other Former Big Sisters. All of the Big Sisters in that share house, and Harry presumed Lina would be joining them at the end of the year, were estranged from their Families for 'differing world views', be they political or personal. Stephanie had almost been forced to kill Beth's father in the line of duty when Beth had come out as a Lesbian to her family and her Father had attacked his own daughter in public. Good thing no one besides Harry and the Big Sisters close to Beth knew that Beth's Girlfriend was in fact Stephanie herself.
The students on the platform were separated into five broad groups in their interactions with Harry. First was of course the Big Sisters, the current Sixth and Seventh Year Girls. Second were the Sixth and Seventh Year Boys, who generally got on well with Harry but were neither close nor distant to him but were always unfailingly polite, lest they incur the wrath of girlfriends amongst his Big Sisters. The third group were the Fourth and Fifth Years, who as a group were generally indifferent to Harry, being too young to have any role in helping raise him but saw themselves as too old to be friends with him, with a few individual exceptions. The fourth group were the Second and Third Years, who generally saw him as similar enough in age to treat him like a peer, and he had a fair few friends in those years.
The last group were, naturally, the new First Years who, except for Hermione and a few who were younger siblings of Big Sisters, didn't know Harry from a bar of soap except for the stories about him. Though most of those stories came from Big Sisters and thus were complementary, there were a number of negative stories that came from 'Anonymous Sources', which Mafalda said meant they came from the high ups in the Ministry who saw Harry as some kind of threat to their power.
A few of the Big Sisters or younger students waved at him as the group passed, with a three Grangers staring around in… not wonder exactly… fascination maybe. Hermione said goodbye to her parents, giving them a big hug, and Harry even managed to get a hug out of Triela, before the pair climbed onto the train and found an empty compartment, where Hermione listened with rapt attention as Harry told some stories from growing up a Hogwarts.
Twenty minutes after the train departed, while Harry was in the middle of a funny story about 'Uncle' Hagrid and some Nifflers, the door to the compartment slid open to reveal three First Year Boys, one a slight boy with bleached blond hair and the other two larger boys with big muscles for their age and vacant expressions.
"I hear Potter is in this compartment. You him?" The blond demanded in a pompous voice.
"Maybe. What's it to you?" Harry replied.
"You have the great pleasure to be in the presence of Draco Malfoy. Play your cards right and… Owww!"
The blond boy's little monologue was cut off when he was grabbed by the ear and pulled to his tiptoes. The one who had grabbed him was a Fourth Year Slytherin Girl with long platinum blonde hair, which looked much more natural than the boys, in a braid down her back.
"I told you this morning, Draco." The girl growled. "You keep your head down, your mouth shut and if you bring any negative attention down on House Malfoy I will tan your hide worse than mother did last year."
"I was simply…." Draco began but cut off when the girl hauled him out of the doorway by his ear and pushed him down the corridor.
The two larger boys dumbly followed Draco while the girl turned back to the compartment and nodded to the two occupants.
"Mister Potter. Miss." The girls said.
"Miss Malfoy." Harry replied, returning the nod.
The girl closed the door to the compartment and through the window they saw her follow after Draco.
"What was that about?" Hermione asked.
"The annoying one was Draco Malfoy. Him and his father are… not nice people and extremely rude about it." Harry explained. "The girl was Primrose Malfoy, Draco's older sister and is much more like her mother. They may not like me, or you, but they will always be polite and proper."
"Why wouldn't they like me?" Hermione asked.
"They are blood purists." Harry replied. "They think Magic should be kept in all magical families. You are sub-human to them and I am a dirty half-breed, because my mother was like you. A small but vocal minority, but a rich minority as well so they can't be totally ignored."
"They sound like Nazi's." Hermione said.
"Not far off." Harry admitted.
TBC….
A/N: At one point I did consider having Harry be friends with Primrose, but decided against it. She is still a Malfoy, with all the privilege and prejudice that entails, but I see her as listening more to Narcissa than Lucius, so being more a politically savvy Black than a pompous hothead Malfoy like her father and brother.