Saturday Dinner:
For the next two days, Harry continued to soak up information like a sponge. Priya projected at this rate he could finish primary level education in approximately one year – and that was not merely with an average proficiency. He would easily be within the 100 percentile, with total eidetic recall. Using his magic to learn was very beneficial. Harry was easily outputting about three times the work volume of the average student. The question was if he would continue at this intensity as she only had been teaching him a week. Only time would tell if both Harry and his classmates would continue to show improvements.
Priya was supervising an advanced class, inside her paid job as a teacher. Harry was capable of going to any Grammar school of his choice if he could sustain the effort as a magical child. Would Harry take to magic with this type of talent? Maybe that was what the world needed – a magical genius Harry Potter, not the Harry Potter in those nonsense books that were popular best sellers in Diagon alley. Even more heart-warming, amongst all the rapid changes, was when Hermione came to see him at recess and lunch. He put down his pencil and sat with her at the back of the class and talked. They talked about books and what they liked to study. Harry wasted no time in telling her about the novels he had read, which covered many of the video games and other movies that he was interested in playing or seeing for himself. He thought that Commander Shepard was the most hardcore guy in the galaxy from the Drew Karpyshyn Novels, Dune was the most politically complex novel he had ever read, that the Hyperion Cantos left him scratching his head sometimes, and that Warhammer 40K had the scariest reality of any science fiction. Hermione naturally questioned him nonstop about magic and the magical world, but he suggested that it be left for Saturday. When Hermione also noticed that Harry seemed to get uncomfortable about speaking about what he did at home, she decided for the first time in her life to drop the questioning. It made Hermione a nervous wreck, but she reasoned that at least having Harry to talk to was worth the cost.
For the remainder of the week, Harry had explained to Grace that 'apparition' was too risky and they could not afford to expose the magical world. Grace was unpleased, but shook her head in understanding, with a whimpering that almost sounded like a sad puppy. Grace loved to use her lightning and fly around the neighbourhood, so the sedentary arrangements displeased her. Harry also had to readjust the Dursley's routine during the week - he compelled Petunia and Vernon to give Dudley most of the chores, and not to ask any questions as he needed more time to study and fix his mind fortress. Harry continued to examine the dome and all he could surmise was that the magic acted like a shield. Perhaps it was Dumbledore's enchantment?
Friday at lunchtime, Priya explained how she planned to deal with his health issues. She would fix his bones over two months with special types of 'potions' and some brand new 'spells' that she had invented. It was a risk, but Harry trusted his teacher. The agreed routine for the regimen was that every weekend, Harry would spend time at the Singh home. This week, they would visit Gringotts and try to get him settled. From the following week, Priya would begin to reset his bones, his eyes and anything that had been damaged with some 'potion' called 'SkeleGro'. She would rebuild him piece by piece. He would have to spend most of the Saturday in the bed as they did small amounts of work, gradually. Long term fixing of the fractures would be done slowly over each month.
On Sunday, he would get some basic spell demonstrations and copies of Hogwarts material for his magical preparation. He would continue his studies personally, whether they were magical or non-magical and work towards learning as much as he could. He would need to increase his food intake and drink potions every day from Monday to Friday to fix the less serious issues, while he resided at the Dursleys. On the weekends, he would eat regular small meals as his body would require the extra nourishment.
Harry at this point, began to see Priya as his mother. Priya who had not ever thought about children began to fuss after Harry like he was her flesh and blood. Lorna enjoyed the role of being the cantankerous aunt – she thought that if Harry ever needed advice on the ladies, why should he bypass her winning advice? No, she was Harry's matchmaker! Lorna was also a pretty good potioneer, and she naturally began preparations to use not only popular potions but some more unknown recipes that came from her store of pureblood textbooks.
Saturday evening arrived, and it was showtime.
Harry compelled the Dursleys and clarified their objectives and sat himself down in Priya's wagon. When they arrived at Priya's house, Harry admired how charming the property looked. It was well maintained and possessed an almost ethereal character to it, as he could sense the wholesomeness of the place. Parked behind the gate was a very fancy car Harry reasoned to be Hermione's vehicle. He was ushered inside Priya's house only to meet an entirely new set of faces. Priya made the introductions after Harry squeaked nervously "Good Evening?" almost like an unsure question, rather than a greeting.
"Don't be shy Harry and Hermione, I would like you to meet my parental unit. This is Ved Singh my father, and this lovely lady is Amba Singh, my mother. The redhead over there is my best friend and tactical strategist, the one and only Lorna Findlay, who has been plotting all of this."
"Now you lot over here Mum, Dad and you bestie" she paused "this is my student, Harry Potter. And this pretty girl is Hermione Granger, Harry's recently acquired friend. Finally, we have Hermione's parents Dr William Granger and Dr Jean Granger, both dentists by trade."
"We should sit at the table. From what I know first hand, Mr and Mrs Granger, your world is going to be turned upside down like ours was fourteen years ago." Amba explained gently.
Amba was ecstatic that the crowd today included four extra individuals. She never had any guests over, as her entire family lived in India in any case. As far as Lorna was concerned, she was a regular. So with the opportunity to cook for others, she had planned a feast fit for a king. Perhaps too – she only ever made food for her family and she often felt that she was losing her touch with the items that she had no reason to prepare too regularly. This was the evening to sharpen the old rusty skills, and she was thankful for it.
Naturally, Hermione's parents were not ignorant of Indian food, but this was no suspicious takeout made with shortened methods and components that had been prepared beforehand. Everything was made from scratch. Everyone at the table could tell that they were in for something truly special as the aroma wafted through the living room. After Amba had passed around the table and fussed over everyone incessantly, Priya looked at Lorna and she nodded. The meaning of the non-verbal expressions was quite obvious to everyone.
Time for the difficult part of this evening.
Lorna began:
"Well, Mr and Ms Granger let us start at the beginning. We are doing it this way because the best that we both got (pointing to herself and Priya) was "You are a witch. Congratulations."
Since the beginning of time, a small group of humans have possessed the ability to manipulate reality with their minds. I am not joking, and this is no prank. These people and normal humans used to live together. When religion was established, at least for 'magical' folks in Europe things became terrible. Christianity at the time was concerned with burning and killing anything that didn't fit in with how they understood the world. They persecuted the magicals. Witch Hunts and burning the demon at the stake were very common at that time. This is where the entire modern wizarding culture begins, particularly in England. Sure, there is history from before that, but most predominantly is this idea that we the magicals (wizards) cannot coexist with non-magicals (muggles). Yes, Hermione, Science is definitely at work"
Hermione nodded, riveted by Lorna's oral prowess in storytelling. She had not expected Lorna to accurately guess her question, from her facial expressions.
"These events drove the separation of the magical community from the non-magicals or 'the muggles' as they call it. This separation means that there is a small hidden group where people with these gifts are serviced by unique institutions and infrastructure. Magicals possess their own education system, a system of government, a financial system and related businesses all hidden away, in the United Kingdom. At this point it sounds nice – surely, they don't get up to any trouble, right? Our neighbourhood friendly magicals?"
"Haha I wish!" replied Priya sarcastically. Lorna continued after she evaluated that Hermione's parents had caught on sufficiently.
"What comes packaged with the existence of magical society is essentially the same problems you see in the non-magical world. Politics, Bigotry and the whole can of worms. Some would say that it is better not to join the wizarding world if you happen to be magical like either myself, Pri, Harry or Hermione. There is a problematic issue, however. There have been a lot of documented cases where magicals that aren't trained to control their magic cause horrific environmental accidents. I am talking about explosions, by the way. If you did not want to be part of our world, you could have your magic bound as a child and the memory of our world removed. However, you will never live up to your full potential as a muggle. The process damages the brain.
So now we are at this point: The magical word exists, it is not perfect and yet magical children have little choice to attend. Let us talk about the bigotry as that sets the stage for the more horrendous events. Bigotry exists because of how people are socially classified. You see, like in the case of Hermione or Harry's mother, Lilly Potter, sometimes a witch or wizard can appear in a family that never had a history with magic. Or perhaps the family was magical many generations back and the name of the family changed. All of us here, except Harry as magicals, are people like this. We are called 'Muggleborns'. With me so far?"
The Grangers nodded. Lorna nodded and continued:
"Otherwise, magical children can also come from relationships where both parents are known magicals that have a type of pedigree. These are 'Purebloods'. Generally, these people consider themselves royalty and they don't consider it wise to mix with the rest. They are not too dissimilar to the peerage folks that currently exist in muggle England. We also have 'Halfbloods' – not an uncommon thing where one person comes from Wizarding heritage and the other a muggleborn. Harry is a half-blood.
When it comes to our Purebloods, they come in different predispositions. We have the Pureblood Supremacists – People who live totally in the magical world with absolutely no link to our world. They don't consider anything muggles do of value. If they could have their way, they would eliminate everyone else. The justifications are similar to Hitler's rhetoric. It is all the fault of the mudbloods, the mudbloods are the problem, bla bla, etc. Their views are rather simple – Eliminate the Mudbloods or the Muggleborns and the Half-Bloods because they are only capable of damaging the Magical traditions and polluting the gene pool.
Naturally, there is no evidence for these claims. Sadly, Pureblood Supremacists have the most power in our world. The Wizarding political system is a direct copy of the Victorian House of Lords system of government. The idea of Democracy is also not present one bit. You can be born into a hereditary position which is equivalent to a Victorian Lord of a House and then you get to make policy in the magical parliament, or the Wizengamot. The other individuals not born into royalty get no say and hardly any opportunity. Harry over here will be Lord Potter at the age of 17."
"Would you prefer to eat? The food is finished?" Amba interjected.
"I think so. I think we are all hungry now if we were not hungry before" Lorna joked.
It was at this point that everyone decided to take a little break. The food was on the table and Harry proceeded to eat along with everyone else. William who was thinking about what he had been told, decided to volunteer his tidbit of information.
"Ms Singh and Ms Findley, I certainly believe you. We have a story in the S.A.S about a rookie unit that ran into some people in Germany. A town. Those people had to be wizards. They subdued the Allied and Nazi soldiers and converted their weapons into rubber ducky necklaces."
"Yes correct, that is what we call Transfiguration. You are former military? S.A.S?" Priya asked.
"Yes. I am on the reserve list. Civilian life is better for me now. Met my beautiful wife at medical school, can't complain." He replied ruefully. Jean Granger proceeded to lightly tap William's shoulder.
"That is good to know. Now we are going to take our wands out and perform magic. Please do not be alarmed. We assure you, we are very normal – just with extra icing on the cake"
Priya took out her wand and demonstrated many first and second year charms minus the jinxes and combat-oriented spells. William Granger nodded and understood exactly what had happened in the story that had been passed on to him.
Jean Granger exclaimed "So our Hermione is magical? She used to change my hair colour a lot and I thought I was seeing things. She also pulls down books from the library shelf."
Priya replied "That means Hermione is powerful. You can think about wizards as batteries. Some have more power than others. Lorna and I have never done anything like that. We did things like making vegetables disappear from our plate"
"I still have to punish you for that" Priya's father answered, with a hint of a smile on his face.
The eating continued until everyone was full. Priya had specifically requested that ice cream be present for this evening's discussion. The information she had to reveal now? Anything that could make the situation less distasteful was appreciated. Priya decided that she was the best option to speak about Harry Potter's plight as this would certainly make the boy less distraught. Priya then began:
"Well, I happen to be a teacher, as we already know. I am qualified to talk about education, as it is my job after all. So, about Wizarding Education - Wizarding studies take place so a wizard or witch can get a job in the Wizarding world. However, those jobs were never for muggleborns and half-bloods. I was supposed to start my healer internship, but bureaucracy got in my way. I had to start over from basic secondary school studies and work my way up until I got my degree in Education. Lorna here is also working on her A levels and is looking to start Law as a career. She is also doing Wizarding Law, apart from several smaller side hustles. Essentially, we would advise both of you to continue in some core subject competencies so you can work in the Muggle world. Hogwarts is amazing but the system stinks. So don't think for a moment I am encouraging both of you to ignore your studies. I can already tell both of you are S.T.E.M folks, so I expect to see excellence in all your subjects, non-magical and magical."
"I think that is indeed a good middle ground and it is something that I would support. I still want Hermione to cash in on a good education at a distinguished University. I think if you and Ms Findley can do it, certainly our two children here can do it." replied Jean.
Harry smiled a little. He liked the idea of Jean Granger being a motherly figure in his life, very much. Harry then observed the sad look that Priya's face expressed, and he steeled himself for what would be revealed….
"And now I am afraid we have to get to the difficult part of tonight. From this moment on, this discussion becomes about Harry. Essentially what we discussed before – many of the Purebloods decided to act upon their sentiments, once a figure had come forward to provide them with an excuse for their behaviour. A terrorist named the Dark Lord came forth and spearheaded a civil war within Magical England, approximately twelve years ago. His ideology was simple.
Take Hitler exactly as he is, and replace "Jew" with "Muggleborn/Half-Blood" and you get where I am going with this. His followers, called the Death Eaters essentially drove Magical England into submission. He killed and he killed – and many times the killing spilt over into the non-magical world. His followers specialised in torture, and rape particularly of women. Damage control was done, and the memories were removed from the public and whatnot. Some of the Mugglebornslike us who knew about the Queen, well…we wondered if the Queen of England would bomb us to kingdom come. But she didn't. She spared us once and it may not happen again. And this is where Harry comes in."
Harry was now listening very intently.
"Voldemort went after your parents. Nobody knows why. Lord Voldemort killed both your parents." And Priya leaned over and hugged Harry tight. She continued softly, "and then he tried to kill Harry. For some reason, the Avada Kedavra or the killing curse which had never failed to kill ever in the history of the Magical world supposedly bounced back off Harry and killed the Dark Lord."
And the room went silent. But Harry did not cry or shudder. He drank some orange juice, and he began, a bit unsure of himself.
"I went through an accident recently. I don't want to talk about it. But I managed to see it when it happened. I don't know if magic caused it. But I saw my mum die from…his…eyes"
Jean Granger began to cry and William had to cover his eyes with his fingers. But Hermione began to realise what a heavy burden Harry carried. She ran around the table like a blur and hugged Harry. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she simply refused to let go. After the emotions had cooled, Priya still crying for her student motioned to Lorna to finish. Lorna got up and brought a stack of books to the table. Lorna continued:
"And on July 31st, 2000 after you lost your parents, the Wizarding World celebrated. Harry Potter became the saviour of the wizarding world. He was a child who lived in a floating castle, and had a flying hippogriff – it's a cross between a horse and a bird, don't ask. He has a whole harem of beautiful witches and lives in a fairy tale. All these books Harry are all merchandise and material that is commonly sold in the Wizarding World."
Harry grabbed the books and quickly skimmed the contents. He dropped them after two minutes. The atmosphere in the room changed as Harry's rage summoned a maelstrom of magic. His eyes positively glowed and his orange juice glass began to shake. Lorna and Priya began to realise that perhaps, the reason why the boy had been targeted was that he was powerful. How could he make objects shake in the environment? Priya understanding how angry he was rubbed his back slowly and whispered in the kindest most motherly voice she could muster:
"I know that Harry doesn't exist. I know the real Harry. The boy who continued to beat back circumstances. The boy who doesn't need nancy stories to tell him how great he is. He has the greatest mind I have ever seen. Bright, hardworking, a big heart, talented and he makes the best flowers for his favourite teacher."
And the glass gradually stopped twitching but his eyes continued to glow. He looked almost as if a tempest had been summoned and he was just holding it in with pure willpower. He looked at all of them in with a protective gaze and began to speak with an utterly imperious voice with crystal clear pronunciation. Lorna suspected that this was ancient House magic being summoned.
"Thank you for being nice to me. I feel loved and safe right now. I will tell you this…"
His eyes took on an almost greenish-bluish glow. A small crack was heard outside. Priya, understanding what happened said.
"Mum, open the window, please. Harry has a lovely bird that is his magical familiar. Her name is Grace. Let her in."
Amba complied with the request and Grace came through and settled on Harry's shoulder. He did not look like a weak little boy. He looked powerful and ancient. This was a defining moment for the boy and Hermione's parents began to appreciate the power that lay latent in their child. Magic dripped from Harry's voice as he made a vow…
"I want vengeance for what was done to me. But I will not do it on their terms. I will do it on mine. I will storm Wizarding England with the pinnacle of magic, science and technology behind my back.
Harry Potter has a flying castle? I will design my own airborne frigate, even if I have to become an engineer. They will meet a flying fortress that will signal their doom. I will fight them with what they fear most – I will fight them with assault rifles and pistols. When it is time to smite them, I will pound them into utter submission with plasma and laser cannons. I will tear them apart with grenades. I will make the finest armour. The Dark Lord and his Death Eaters will be made to contend with energy shields and powered exoskeletons.
When it is time to reign magic down on them, I will conjure magic in such a way that the very environment and the elements will work against them. I will create and use A.I. to the fullest of my ability. When it is time to finish them, they will meet their end on the edge of my energy weapons. I will build what I need. I will train mercilessly and dedicate myself to my craft. I will protect the weak and the vulnerable. I will never hurt the innocent. But the guilty?
They will be purged. Permanently. With extreme prejudice."
And his eyes returned back to their normal state. His phoenix nodded with approval and somewhere in the Gringotts bank, the Peverell magic – the magic of the artificers began to wake up.
The Peverell heir had been found. The magic had judged him worthy to wield it.
The Dark Lord, the Death Eaters and his co-conspirators would be made to kneel before Peverell might. The power of the Roman Legions was going to make a return to Wizarding England.
William Granger who had lost some of his squad members to terrorists in Iraq nodded at Harry and told him "I will provide you with physical training. Your physical conditioning will occur both on your own and in my presence. This for now is what I can offer. This is so much to consider, but if you say our Hermione will get involved, I suppose I will have to do, what I need to do. "
Jean silently nodded as if she said "and I will give my support in full."
Priya and Lorna realising the winds of change were blowing in the living room said "We will help you with your education – both muggle and magical. What we don't know, we will get help. We will try to get you to people who were supporters of your parents"
Amba and Ved looked at the boy and realised they had an honest to God hero sitting in their living room. Amba commented
"My husband and I, we are not bright or talented like the rest here. We know you have suffered. We will feed you, hug you and love you like you were our grandson. I wanted a boy too you know, but I was happy with Priya. You will never feel lonely in this house, grandson."
Suddenly Harry's face broke into one of the biggest smiles. His pale cheeks became tomato red and he blushed. He scratched his head for a bit, a little confused. At this moment, everyone in the room realised Harry still had a soul – he wanted to do what was right. He was certainly born a Potter but as far as Ved was concerned, he was a Singh now. Ved, a deeply religious man thought upon the old Hindu epics that he enjoyed regularly. Only one thought manifested in his mind.
Arjuna would hold Gandiva again. The boy would battle injustice, in the name of his parents who had been taken away from him, as was his right. Hermione looked at Harry and whispered "I will keep you organised. You are a messy worker. Your handwriting, when you get excited looks like morse code."
The whole room erupted into peals of laughter.
Lorna, curious about the magnificent bird went over to her and exclaimed "Well Harry you certainly have the branding already. An honest to God phoenix. It has to be a female – she is so elegant looking. Always thought that Dumbledore's phoenix looked like a schizophrenic turkey."
Grace trilled and proceeded to nuzzle Lorna.
While nobody made mention of Harry's display of magic, everyone was aware that the boy had decided on a singular crusade for justice. Hermione sat next to Harry and held his hand as they just talked about random things. Harry was quite aware that Hermione was trying to keep his mind off things and truthfully, he appreciated it.
The plates left the table as Jean volunteered to help Amba wash the dishes. Lorna was sending Hermione home with her Hogwarts trunk and Harry would use Priya's trunk respectively. They would coordinate their reading and discuss what they had learnt regularly. Priya and Lorna would work towards making a timetable where William would physically condition them.
After the house had been squared away, Hermione and her parents left after Lorna gave them a quick primer on the Statue of International Secrecy. Hermione could not cast spells as she did not have a wand, but Lorna believed that the usage of her books still fell under the Statute. As the family bade everyone goodbye, Harry began to walk around the house, curious to see all of it.
Harry had made his arrangements to spend the night, as he began to unpack his clothes and other important bits. Harry would be sleeping in a spare room at the Singh Residence. Of course, Priya had visited the green-eyed boy before his bedtime. She had explained that she was going to perform some "emergency spell work" to patch his ligaments and badly fractured bones. This would allow him to move about without unnecessary pain. Harry then felt his body slowly come together and he consciously decreased his active pain suppression.
He closed his eyes and went into his mind fortress. He checked in on his body stats. The puncture wounds were gone, the muscle had stitched back together and the internal bleeding was gone. But his body showed no improvement from being malnourished. Many of his bones were still fractured. He decided he would continue modifications to the mind-fortress later on. He exited his mindscape, drank a sleeping draught potion and slept into the night.
Lilly and James who had been looking on thanked Lady Magic for looking after their boy. Today was the first time that Harry had truly received love and acceptance from a family. Lilly laughed at how serendipity played out – a random witch she had met in the library had ended up taking her son in when she had passed on from the world. James and Lilly looked on in satisfaction from beyond the veil as their son slept for the first time, peacefully.