Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the associated characters. Given the average common-sense quota of some of them, I'm not sure I'd want to.
Summary: See previous Chapters.
CHAPTER NINE
Given the incident at the zoo a few weeks ago, Natasja had honestly never expected to see the Dursleys again.
The Primary School that the children attended was having a collective trip to the zoo, where Dudley Dursley and his Gang had attempted to take Dennis's money in the reptile house. Hermione, Harry and Colin, seldom far away and then-currently visiting the boa constrictor, had intervened, somehow resulting in the glass vanishing, which in turn resulted in the snake getting loose and chasing Dudley.
Once back at the school, there had been a quiet but fierce confrontation between the sets of parents, where none of them came out very happy.
As such, Natasja had been very surprised to see Petunia Dursley on her doorstep a week before Harry's birthday, as the two women tended to avoid each other. She was even more surprised to see the state the woman was in.
Petunia was shaking, and clutching a parchment envelope, looking so upset that despite her first instinct, Natasja invited her inside, sat her town with a nice cup of tea and asked what had her so upset.
After listening to Mrs Dursley explain that a similar letter had arrived many years ago for her sister, and one had now come for her nephew, whom Petunia had never even laid eyes upon, but had recalled that Harry's birth name was Potter, that he was adopted, and that he had recently proven that he could do magic. Since Petunia wanted as little to do with 'that sort of nonsense' as possible, she had forced herself to visit to find out the truth.
The two women sat down to write a reply, saying that Harry Potter did not live with his Aunt, that she had never met him, and to please check their sources before they went around bothering decent, normal folk with their nonsense.
Natasja offered to look up the address of the school, as Petunia looked like she could use a rest. Mrs Dursley was all too glad to accept, and returned to her home, leaving Natasja to quietly pass the letter off to her husband, who would make sure that it got to Hogwarts.
A second acceptance letter to 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry' had arrived, this time to the right address, but it contained very little information aside from a supply list. Natasja had sent a blistering reply, wanting to know why she would send her adopted son to a place that she knew nothing about, especially when the headmaster was guilty of child endangerment.
A somewhat indignant response came the next day, insisting that his name had been down since birth. Henry had stopped his wife from doing something regrettable, wrestled the quill out of her hand, and replied that they needed to do better than that to convince the Irons', who had, in the meantime, come up with several other potential schools that would love to have Harry as a student, prior placement or not.
Hagrid might have been loyal to Dumbledore, but in the Irons Household, that wasn't necessarily a good thing, and when he tried to curse Natasja for calling the Headmaster a 'Pot so cracked it's being held together with sticky-tape and a prayer', Henry cursed him first and called the Aurors.
They took the precaution of making Harry wear a bandana when they went shopping for school supplies, making a day of it with Neville, Dean, Mrs Thomas, the Creevy children and the Grangers. Everyone expected Harry Potter to be accompanied by a guard, not in a group of kids and parents, and they all had a good laugh over the stories Hermione found about the Boy-Who-Lived.
There had been an outburst at Longbottom Manor when they picked Neville up. Apparently, one of his extended relatives had been going on about the shame of having a Squib in the family, and Neville had thought it would serve them right to panic for a bit over the possibility, and therefore hadn't mentioned it when the letter came. As such, Mrs Longbottom hadn't known about it until the group appeared to pick Neville up.
When told about Neville's deception, Natasja had been unable to resist feigning surprise when Mrs Longbottom demanded an answer from them. "Oh, Neville's been doing some very impressive magic since he was seven. You mean you didn't know?"
No, Mrs Longbottom hadn't known, and looked ready to curse her, but Neville intervened. "Gran, I didn't tell you because you always said my parents would be ashamed of having a Squib for a son. I didn't want you to know because I wanted to see if you would be able to accept me without magic, and it didn't look like it."
His grandmother stood speechless, apparently not having ever considered the effect her loud opinions would have on her grandchild. Henry cut in before things could turn nasty. "We're going to Diagon Alley for school supplies. You can discuss this with Neville when he gets back."
The adults bought Neville his new wand as a collective early birthday present, after he mumbled something about his grandmother probably wanting him to use his father's old one, and Ollivander was very lucky that there was nothing for Natasja to conveniently throw at him when he started going on about Harry's new wand being connected to Voldemort.
Knowing that Harry would ask about it in his own time, Natasja and Henry left him in Madam Malkin's shop and went to the pet store for Harry's early birthday present. Mrs Thomas went with them, while the Grangers left to look at setting up an account in the bookstore. Natasja had the feeling that they would need it.
When Draco Malfoy asked if Harry's parents were wizards, Harry icily replied that his mother was a Muggle, and he thought that with the rising number of pureblood squibs, a proven fact from a study from one of his father's friends, that was probably a good thing. Yes, he knew Quidditch, and supported the Holyhead Harpies, because kick-ass women were awesome. Oh, and weren't the Malfoys that pureblood family who made several large charity donations right before they were cleared of being Death Eaters?
"Mum?"
Natasja looked up from mixing the ravioli filling. "Yes, Harry?"
Harry looked very troubled, more than either parent had ever seen him. "Ollivander said that my wand was the brother to Voldemort, and that we were both destined for Great Things. Does that mean I'm going to become like him?"
Natasja turned off the stove and sat down, pulling Harry close. He snuggled in, like he had done when he was still small enough to actually fit on her lap. "Everyone makes their own choices, my darling. Voldemort chose to be evil, to terrorize others. You won't become evil unless you choose to be evil, and I don't think you will."
Harry smiled. "That's what Dean and Neville said. Hermione huffed and told me not to be absurd." He quickly changed the subject. "Can I help with dinner?"
Natasja laughed. "I certainly don't think Voldemort ever held the brother rolling pin to yours, if that's what you mean. You can roll and cut out the pasta."
Arthur Weasley had managed to get the morning off so that he could accompany his family to Kings Cross and the Hogwarts Express. When Mrs Weasley's loud complaint about the station being 'packed with Muggles' was met with an equally loud remark concerning people with no grasp of secrecy and mouths bigger than their brains, he encountered the Irons' for a second time.
Mr Weasley was about to try to interrogate Mrs Irons for the second time, but she decked him before he could reach for the mobile phone she was carrying. Harry recognized him as the man who had barged into their home a little before his fifth birthday, fiddling around and breaking things, and even made his mother cry (Natasja hadn't been the only one traumatized by that day, and children could put an elephant's memory to shame, when they wanted to), and made a note to avoid the Weasley's like the plague.
When the Sorting Hat asked him what House he wanted to be in, Harry hesitated. His father had been in Slytherin and frequently said that his mother probably would have been, too, but Draco Malfoy was there, while Neville and Hermione were already in Gryffindor.
Funnily enough, he got more questions and fan-worship when people asked why he had a second last name than he did when they asked if he remembered what happened that night. If Lily Potter was famous for sacrificing herself for her son, Natasja Irons was famous for being the Muggle who took down Bellatrix LeStrange, and that was something Harry did remember.
The Half-blood and Muggleborn students thought taking a witch down with cooking implements was the coolest thing ever. Neville made the mistake of saying that Natasja had taught them how, and found himself swamped with lesson requests.
Harry knew that his parents wouldn't like getting a report that he had been flying unsupervised on a rickety broom, and that given the choice between a lost rememberall and an expelled friend, Neville would probably prefer that Harry stay in Hogwarts, but Malfoy had been getting on his last nerve for days. Harry mounted a broom and flew after him.
The next morning, he received a stern letter that his mother had half a mind to refuse permission for him to play Quidditch, since he was only placed on the team after a stunt that could have seriously injured him, and when teachers told you not to do something, it was usually for a reason. However, since she didn't know the whole story, which she expected to hear about in his next letter, she would let it slide.
The letter was accompanied by a long box, containing the newest broom model and a note that they were both very proud of him for standing up for himself and his friends.
When Ron said that Hermione was a bossy know-it-all with no friends, Hermione pointed out that she had Neville, Dean and Harry, and was becoming friends with Seamus, while very few people seemed to want to be friends with Ron. Growing up without friends, it might have been a different story, but she had gained confidence from a babysitter who was proof that being a bookworm didn't mean you had to put up with being called names, and from being friends with boys who didn't mind being bossed around whenever Hermione did know best.
Most Muggleborn children grew up with the Disney version of fairy tales, but Natasja refused to let 'Cinderella' or 'Snow White' in the house, stating that no girl she had any influence over was going to grow up believing that she should sit around looking useless while waiting for a boy to rescue her. She had then placed 'Sleeping Beauty' back in Hermione's overnight bag, and pulled out a copy of 'Tatterhood' for story time.
Abandoning Disney in favour of 'Janet and Tamelin', 'Kate Crackernuts', 'Three Strong Women' and The Laird's Lass and the Gobha's Son' had taught Hermione that being a Mastermaid was much more fun than being a Rapunzel, and that being tough and doing things your way didn't make you unfeminine. Besides, unless the Hero had someone there to hold his hand or provide step-by-step instructions, he would almost certainly mess it up, and it was a lot less trouble to just do the job yourself.
Apparently, Hermione had not been the first person to get fed up with Ron's attitude, as Hermione's room-mates suddenly became a lot friendlier when she punched Ron in the nose. The fact that the boys didn't instantly leap to Ron's defence, or see anything unusual or bad about a girl fighting back, also raised their standing with the rest of the House, which was re-enforced when a Troll somehow got loose in the castle later that night.
Before she 'Officially' knew that underage students weren't allowed to practice magic at home, Natasja had convinced Henry to teach the children how to shrink and enlarge the skillet that was masquerading as a tiny charm on Hermione's bracelet. They had also learned the Feather-Light Charm, and a Troll Club wasn't that different from an oversized rolling-pin, nor did the Charm do anything to lessen the blunt-force-impact.
Despite having saved Gryffindor House, most of who were frozen in terror while they tried to think of what spell to use when they ran into the troll, Professor Snape still gave them detention for fighting the Troll instead of waiting to be splattered over the walls. Natasja's letter reassured them that he had probably just recognized Hermione's skillet as the one that had taken him down several years ago, resulting in burns, a broken wand, and a concussion.
By the way, she wasn't sure if this was the normal parchment, or the Howler-Enchanted paper, so apologies in advance.
It was the Howler-Enchanted paper.
Professor Snape was NOT happy. Harry and his friends thought that Natasja had probably 'not known' about the paper on purpose. Or at least, hadn't made a very large effort to find out if the paper wasn't going to shout the news all over the Great Hall.
When Dumbledore warned them that the Third-Floor Corridor was off-limits to anyone who didn't want to die a horrible death, Harry, Hermione, Neville and Dean were suspicious. When they got turned around one day and found a three-headed dog in said corridor, they all wrote home. Henry wrote to the other Magical Parents, while the Grangers had formed a kind of support group with other parents of Muggleborn children, and they all signed a petition which Natasja added to her letter to the school board, informing them of her intention to pull Harry out if she didn't get a satisfactory explanation.
What the explanation was, Harry never found out, but it had his mother in a blazing fury, ranting about senile old men playing chess with other people's lives, especially when saying 'don't do this or something bad will happen' was practically an invitation for most schoolchildren, and the Giant Dog in the Third Floor corridor was removed.
A few months later, the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor disappeared, and when his body was found, brought to the Hospital Wing while Parvati was there being treated for a Potions accident, rumours spread about him being the victim of a long-term possession.
Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup against Ravenclaw, but Harry had been accidentally rammed by one of the Ravenclaw players on the way down, shattering his left arm and necessitating a trip to the hospital wing.
The skele-gro woke him up in the middle of the night, to see his mother absent from where she had been sitting when he fell asleep, and facing off against Dumbledore, hissing at him in a quiet argument. It sounded like it wasn't the first time they had visited the topic. Actually, given the participants, it probably wasn't the first time they had visited the topic.
"I would appreciate if you would stop interfering in my plans for young Mr Potter."
Natasja raised an eyebrow, looking decidedly unimpressed. "I would appreciate it if you stopped harassing my family and left Harry out of your plans. He's as much my son as if I gave birth to him, and I won't have you put him in jeopardy for your amusement."
Dumbledore glared. "I regret the necessity, but Harry must play his part, for the greater good, lest we all are doomed."
Natasja glared back. "The 'Greater Good' can go screw itself, as can you. Now, my son needs rest, so get out of here before I call Madam Pomfrey and tell her that you're upsetting her charges."
She didn't fool herself into thinking that would be the end of it, but she hadn't given in to Dumbledore the first several times he tried to persuade her against Harry's best interest, and she didn't plan to start now.
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A/N: I don't plan on doing a whole new re-write of the series, but I couldn't leave Hogwarts out, so each year is just going to show the bits that would have been changed by Harry's upbringing. If you have suggestions for anything you'd like to throw in, feel free to put it in a message or a review.
Also, can someone recommend a fairy-tale where the Male Protagonist isn't blundering around without a clue until a magical being/old man/wise woman/the Damsel in Distress tells them what to do? Exceptions are made for stories where the Male Protagonist is the one in need of rescue in the first place, and tell the Female Protagonist what she has to do to rescue them.
Girls, go to a bookstore and find the book 'Tatterhood – and other tales'. I also highly recommend 'Fearless Girls, Wise Women and Beloved Sisters'. Guys, if your egos can handle books filled solely with female Heroes, where the men are often the ones in need of rescue,(my god-brothers couldn't, so no offence if you're made of stronger stuff) you should go read those books too.
Thanks, Nat.