Prognosis and Plans:
After Priya had settled down for the evening, she began to review the findings of the bracelet. She was shocked to see how much damage had been done to the boy. He currently suffered from many smaller bone fractures and a rib cage that had been cracked in multiple places. Many areas were full of internal bleeding and heavy bruises were present on his skin. But he looked normal in class how could this…
Glamour. He had unconsciously summoned a glamour.
Otherwise, the previous teacher would have noticed. Some of the ligaments were partially torn too. Malnutrition was present and there was also a trace of some kind of curse that had been broken – it was dark magic. This was all bad news. Poor Harry possessed a high pain tolerance if he was managing to get by. He was a literal upright corpse!
Priya decided to look at a diagnostic of his magical core. That was when she found herself surprised. She considered the timestamps and realised that his magical activity had peaked while she had been doing certain activities, throughout the day. Harry was using his magic to learn - It was no longer a suspicion, it was now confirmed. Was that even possible?
She had heard that Occlumency could give a person complete crystal recall when practised at a veteran level. She did not know for sure – she had not explored the practice. Perhaps she would have to talk to Lorna who practised the skill occasionally. After preparing for the next day's lessons, she decided the best way to deal with Harry was to personally correct the bones the hard way with SkeleGro over many weekends. The rest of the issues, she could treat with potions and her new suite of spells that she had designed. Her new spells were a risk, but she had developed them around the careful analysis of many anatomical systems. She hoped that these spells would fix every aspect of his body because carrying him to St. Mungo's while he was under glamour, was a risk she didn't want to take. Lorna then called on cue, as Priya pondered her situation.
"Hey you! Been busy girlie?" Priya questioned.
"You askin answers good looking, you know I am working hard for that grub." Lorna impishly replied. "Lemme come over." The phone call then ended.
Lorna popped into the living room, with apparently a hastily drawn diagram full of cartoonish stick people contrasted by aristocratic handwriting. And as soon as Amba Singh, Priya's ever astute mother, heard the boisterous girl she laughed and yelled in a thick Indian accent "I will make some tea for you. Have fun. Getting married anytime soon?"
Lorna replied "As soon as a find a handsome dashing one. The pickings aint great these days. Generally, choices include a pack of low-grade morons. You know, I see the value in the whole arranged marriage thing you know...it saves us time from all the hard work. You know any handsome boys who don't mind a redhead like me?"
Amba knew that Lorna was not serious, but she laughed anyway as she spoke: "Priya has no interest in giving me a grandchild. Proud of her – good girl. Bright and knows how to run a house too, with her wand! But disappointing in this one way." Amba Singh replied cantankerously. Both friends giggled for at least ten minutes. It was obvious that Amba had never been serious. Or was she serious?
Priya deliberated to herself on how to get her parents involved. She decided that 'the good ole cold turkey method' would suffice for the situation at hand. Harry Potter did not have the luxury of time.
"Maa, call pappa and come. I need to talk to both of you. Like next half hour?"
Amba nodded and Lorna proceeded to stick the odd-looking chart on the wall, before taking on the persona of a business executive doing an important company presentation.
"Good evening – actually morning, welcome to our MagicPoint Presentation. On the agenda today is the placement of the 'boy who lived' into the end ass of nowhere of the muggle world. Our presentation will be broken into three parts:
· Reasoning for placement
· Known Parties
· Course of action
So my dears, onward with the reasoning for placement:
The news in the magical world is that nobody knows Harry Potter's location. Fudge has asked Dumbledore many times for Harry's location, but Dumbledork refused. Dumbledork insisted that the boy was safe and that he was healthy. A follow up with a Slytherin Emmeline Vance, who worked with Dumbledore's Order of the Fried Chicken revealed that the boy was possibly placed with muggle relatives. This was a conversation that was overheard by her and it occurred between Mad-eye Moody and Dumbledore when the Potters were discovered murdered. Nobody knows if Lilly or James Potter had family in the muggle world.
All we do know is that the bearded menace desired for Harry to have a noooorrrmaaaalll childhood."
Lorna paused and Priya recapped the information presented so far:
"Right so you are telling me that nobody is none the wiser. I find it strange Albus Dumbledore did not consider a method to monitor his welfare Lorna, I don't get it?"
"Well Pri, maybe it was not a concern? The idea that an old quenk like him would be responsible for a young man is severely disturbing. Anyway, onwards to…"
The paper abruptly cleared as animated stick clowns began to jump around:
"Known Parties:
It was mentioned that Lady Greengrass reached out to request information because Ophelia Greengrass nee. Pinegrew had been a good friend of Lilly. They went by the name 'The Rune Witch Squad' in Hogwarts, after working with each other for five consecutive years. Only a few other muggleborn witches and some of the neutral purebloods witches in Slytherin knew about the relationship, and they agreed to keep it secret because it would have caused trouble for her. Or maybe Cyrus had threatened them? Nobody knows and now the relationship has mostly faded away from everybody's mind. After Lilly's death, she continued to look for Harry. She was willing to offer a reward for any information regarding the boy and was willing to adopt him. She never succeeded.
Ophelia Greengrass is party No. 1
Besides her, and more interesting, the transfer of the baby happened right away when the Potters were found dead. Dumbledore had some way of knowing that the family had been attacked. Some people have noted that Dumbledore has always been manipulative. After he won the war against Grindelwald, he has been elevated to near deity status in the Wizarding world. The most insidious thing about Dumbledore is that he isn't genuinely a bad person. Rather, he probably wants to do the right thing but always gets a case of tunnel vision. His way or the highway, and that has done the most damage to individuals who had dealings with him.
Albus Dumbledore is party No. 2
Remus Lupin is a known member of James Potter's little group of pranksters at Hogwarts. He would have been a candidate for adopting Harry, but the rumours are that he is a werewolf. It isn't known if was in league with the Dark Lord. However, there was a disagreement late into the last war. He is supposedly abroad.
Remus Lupin is party No. 3
There. I am thirsty." complained Lorna. Amba arrived with the tea almost simultaneously and informed the girls that she would fetch her husband in 15 minutes. The girls drank their tea and Lorna resumed her presentation:
"Always loved your mum's bomb-ass tea. Has to be the motherly love she put in it.
Now for part 3 - The course of action.
Considering that most Muggleborns eventually get a rather abrupt introduction to the Magical world with a letter followed by a visit from a Hogwarts faculty member, Harry Potter as a muggleborn raised half-blood might as well get the same treatment. Some of my girls mentioned that many people had sent Harry gifts when he killed the Dark Lord. Harry is after all essentially the Head of House Potter. Most other magicals would assume that etiquette and politics would be a part of his upbringing. You and I know that he is unaware of these things. He should ideally be given an entire primer by somebody who received that type of cultural perspective.
"So, get him out of wherever he is, make him aware of who he is and then we begin to train him up, right Lorna?"
"Exactly. As for training him, there is something that I never mentioned. As a muggleborn Slytherin, I believe that you must use whatever tools that are available to you to accomplish your goals. After hearing that purebloods essentially use an entire line of special textbooks that are designed to truly teach magical theory and offer superior instructions, I began to collect a personal library. Naturally, these books have anti-copying and anti-vandalism charms. Guess what I used?"
Lorna sat down grinning. Priya raised her shoulders and expressed an "I don't know?" expression.
"A photocopier. Worked at a stationary store during the holidays. Traded for the books from some of the neutral Purebloods by providing them Cigarettes, Coca-Cola, Beer, Potato Chips and Luxury Chocolates. And the guys in particular? Playboy magazines. Oh boy, I got any kind of book I wanted from those guys who just wanted wanking material!"
Priya fell off the homely couch, doubling over with laughter. Lorna was truly very sly. Priya was glad that the Scottish witch was in her corner. Lorna continued:
" I have thirty high-quality textbooks that teach you the fine application of the magical curriculum. The idea is that the purebloods would understand the theory and then passively use the theory to develop new magic that would stay within their House as family magic. They doctored the curriculum. I have them all in binders. Sure, I could not photocopy the animations, but that is an acceptable price to pay."
"That is why you offered me books for so many years! I always wondered where you got them from? Sometimes I felt like the Hogwarts textbooks were missing something." Priya replied.
"Exactly. Those books are good extra reading and the material is not testable in terms of taking exams. But for personal understating? People who have house magic to call upon will truly benefit from those books. That isn't us, but that is definitely Harry."
Lorna gulped down her tea and after catching her breath went on:
"So yes, getting Harry to Gringotts would be the next thing. Normally, he should have only a trust vault and he only gets access to the main vault when he comes of age. However, he might be able to get a lot of nice things with the money and gifts that were left to him. Many people who had no heirs or lost loved ones to the Death Eaters gave him alot of things for killing Voldemort. I think some people were too hurt. Maybe some people could have had more children, but I don't think many wanted to try again.
Also, he might have a house-elf available to him, or more than one if people bequeathed their house-elves to him. The best course of action with the Goblins is to be dead honest with them – let Harry express his grievances to the Goblins, as they do not like Dumbledore or child abuse. You have to let them know that you are working secretly behind Dumbledore's back and for Harry's benefit. The Goblins admire honour in protecting the vulnerable. And this...is the end of my MagicPoint Presentation!"
At this point, Priya's parents had arrived. Priya's parents were already aware of some of the issues that were present in the Wizarding world. But now it was time to get them up to speed about who would be coming for a weekend visit. Over the next two hours, Priya and Lorna explained the Dark Lord, the Death Eaters, the pureblood supremacy, magical England being stuck in the Victorian era, and then the legend of Harry Potter. Priya went on to explain what she knew of Lilly Potter and how she was a legend to muggleborn witches. Priya's Father, Ved Singh confirmed his understanding by asking,
"So if Harry Potter had not made the terrorist disappear, they probably would have come for you eventually?"
Priya nodded.
Ved who was curious, asked a rather controversial question "So what if the Queen had gotten involved?"
"I dread to think about what would happen if the Queen got involved – they would launch an all-out war on the Wizards. I believe that is why if we don't get our issues sorted, it will eventually get bad" said Lorna with finality.
"So that was nice to know. Sometimes I wonder if you should have joined the magical world Priya. But then I don't have arthritis anymore and I enjoy all my teeth. Something for something. Where is Harry Potter now?" Priya's father questioned.
"Oh, in my class at St. Grogory's Primary."
Priya's father's eyes bulged out of his head.
"So wait, how does this involve us? You only call us (Priya's father looked to his wife) to talk when we have to help." Priya's father looked on expectantly, waiting for an explanation.
"So, the boy has been abused. His bones are fractured, and they are set in the wrong place. He has general malnutrition problems. He has poor eyesight, and it only gets worse. Torn tendons and he is probably full of bruises. He is running an unconscious alternate appearance and hiding his scuffed up face and whatnot. He could pass for an upright walking corpse! Normal medicine can't fix those issues without invasive surgery.
The usual thing would be to get Social Services to deal with the problem. We are trying to keep this hush-hush. He is essentially wizarding royalty, and he knows nothing at all. It could only go bad for him. The idea is that he spends the weekends here while I fix him up brand new. And I.."
To which Lorna cut in "And I too, lassie…" Priya then continued from the interruption:
"Both of us can teach him magic. Remember that Medi-Bracelet I tested on you and mum? It works perfectly. I have reason to suspect that the boy can use his magic to accelerate learning. He soaks up information like a sponge. He could do both primary and secondary courses of study in probably four years if the improvement I saw today happens to be consistent?"
"How is that even possible?" Amba questioned.
"One of the things I learned in my education program was that curriculums are set up with what is called the spiral method. The spiral method essentially revisits the same topics with increasing complexity as the years progress. The idea is to create a minimum standard of competence and you are forced to remember. Imagine if you had perfect recall - being able to see a page out of a textbook without effort? For some odd reason, Harry is doing all those things with his magic. All he needed was someone to give him a compliment and a hug. Just a hug! He got his first hug in his life from me this morning and he sobbed."
And before she could continue any more, Amba looked at her husband with an absolutely distraught look and put on a tone of voice that she rarely ever used.
"Bring him. He will spend time with us. We will help."
When her Husband heard the tone, he understood that his job was only to nod. While muggles generally used the expression 'angry as a dragon' without ever having seen one, Ved Singh understood that he did not want to anger his wife. But truthfully, after hearing a child had cried after a hug, he realised that while all this seemed dangerous, he would participate fully.
After all, the family was a Hindu family. His Dharma – his duty demanded this. To protect the vulnerable. He looked upon his own life and while his father was not a cruel man, he had been very rough around the edges. Sure, there was no physical abuse, but there were harsh words and too much pressure. Priya's father had remained estranged from Priya's Grandfather until his passing. Ved had promised that he would do differently with his daughter. This boy was even worse off – the boy who had indirectly saved his two daughters, in a manner of speaking had broken bones and was being injured.
"I was reluctant for us to get involved but I don't think Bhagavan would be pleased if we ran away from our duty. And if we should meet trouble, Lord Hanuman will protect us. Jai Shree Ram, let him come." he answered, as Ved realised that perhaps this was the right thing to do - he was being tested by God, and he would follow through, even if it was difficult.
Amba nodded at her husband appreciatively.
"Good, I knew you were a keeper when our parents arranged us. You still know how to win a woman over then."
Lorna began to giggle as she always enjoyed looking on at the family antics ever so often.
As the decision had been made, Amba naturally went off to the kitchen to cook something. Lorna was going to demolish the Garlic Naan and the Lahori Chicken Curry, before washing the entire affair down with even more hot chai tea. Until the late-night meal came, both spent the night shopping online and just being young women who were going to catch up. They talked and giggled the night away.
Lady Magic laughed at the spectacle. To herself, she smiled and commented "So Ved and Amba did not get a son. But they are getting a grandson. Grandparents, check!" Then she returned to her current task which was the creation of a sentient worm-like civilisation on the edge of the galaxy.