Petunia is the one who opened the door for them. She wasn't happy to see them but knew that it would be the last time she ever had to take Harry in so she let them in, trying to hide her shock at Rose's appearance which reminded her a lot of her deceased sister.
"We'll come back in a week, just like Dumbledore warned you. Don't worry, we'll make it look normal, Harry told us how important it was to you." Remus assured Petunia, trying to act as nice as possible.
"Fine." Petunia nodded.
She obviously like that they both made the effort to dress like "normal" people.
"Now Harry, Rose, be careful. Always keep an eye open and remember what Mad Eye Moody always says." Sirius told them.
"Constant Vigilance." Harry nodded.
"You know how to contact us if anything happens." Sirius reminded them before the two adults hugged the two teenagers and left.
"Aunt Petunia, this is Rose. Rose, this is our Aunt Petunia." Harry awkwardly introduced.
"Nice to meet you Aunt Petunia. Thank you for allowing me to stay here a few days." Rose greeted, trying to be as nice as possible.
"Yes, well, I have things to do. Harry will show you where to settle, I've added a mattress in the room." The woman replied before she walked in the kitchen, closing the door behind her.
On their way to their small bedroom, they crossed Dudley. Once again, Harry did the introductions and the only answer they got was a small nod from Dudley before he left the house to meet with his friends.
"Do you think we're allowed to leave the house?" She asked him once they had settled their bags in the small bedroom.
"Of course, they might even prefer it. I'll show you around." Harry nodded.
On their way out, he showed her the cupboard under the stairs where he spent so much time when he was a kid. It made Rose angry to see how truly small this place was but she did her best to hide it. She couldn't do anything about it now and she knew that anger was a very negative emotion that could lead to turning evil if not controlled.
.
The next morning, when Harry and Rose received the Daily Prophet, they discovered that their entire story was written there.
"It's not from Rita Skeeter. Who else uncovers secrets like this?" Rose wondered.
"Rita Skeeter won't write for a while. Hermione discovered that she was an unregistered animagus and threatened her. She's not the one behind this. Her last article was the one about Voldemort's return when she wrote about everything I told Dumbledore from the moment Cedric died to the moment I escaped with Peter and was taken aside by Crouch charrading as Moody." Harry told her.
"Oh look, it's written here that it's an exclusive interview from the kidnapper. I guess she wanted people to talk about her." Rose pointed out.
"It's all here, everything from how she took you away from mom in the hospital room to how Dumbledore found her and got her arrested. She even wrote details about how she took care of you, grew to hate you as she realized you looked like Lilly and wouldn't change anymore, and how she grew to love punishing you because she felt like she was punishing Lilly through you for taking James away, she held our mother responsible for Dad's death apparently... Wow, not the healthiest woman in her head! She probably didn't have anything to lose anymore…" Harry declared when he quickly read over the article.
"Anything else in here that we should know? Voldemort?" Rose asked her brother, thinking that she'd read the article later, when she was ready.
"They arrested a few of the Death Eater I mentioned, the ones they could find and who couldn't prove they weren't there anyway. But they still haven't taken the dementors away from Azkaban, it probably won't take long for them to escape. Dumbledore says that the dementors will join Voldemort as soon as he asks them to. Malfoy was among the ones who were arrested! It's good to have some good news once in a while. It's good that Malfoy and his father got knocked down their high horse." Harry replied.
"Why do you think he keeps so quiet?"
"I don't know. Maybe he's trying to plan something big for later or maybe he thinks that if he stays in the shadows, people won't believe me when I say that he's back. He didn't expect thing to go this wrong for him, I was supposed to die, Peter was supposed to stay by his side. Nobody was supposed to know that he was back. I guess he probably needs to regroup, reorganize and recruit." Harry replied.
"Well, either way, we should enjoy the quiet while it lasts and plan for the storm to come." She told him.
"True." Harry nodded before they each took turn in the bathroom and, after a quick breakfast, they went out.
They wandered off until mid afternoon when they sat in a nearby park and practiced closing their minds. Rose did her best to explain to Harry how to close his mind and a few relaxation methods. They did that every day so far and Harry was starting to understand how to proceed, even if it wasn't very easy.
Harry could see that controlling his emotions would be beneficial to him, not only when facing Voldemort, but also in everyday life. Maybe Snape would give him less detentions and take less points from him if he managed to control his emotions and stay calm in all circumstances.
They also took the time to visit Misses Figgs, who happily invited them for tea before Harry even told her that he knew about everything.
.
"Night's falling, Harry. Maybe we should go back. Your, I mean our, Aunt and Uncle don't want us to come home after Dudley." Rose warned her brother as their cousin said goodbye to his friends.
"You're right, we better catch up to him." Harry nodded and they both ran toward their cousin.
"Hey Dudley, wait up" Rose called out.
"Oh, I didn't see you two." He frowned.
Dudley had been much less rude since the beginning of the week, maybe because of Rose's presence, maybe because he was growing up. He had tried not to argue with Harry, preferring to stay away from him rather than tempting him.
"We figured we'd walk home with you, if you don't mind." Rose told her new cousin who simply nodded.
They walked for about ten minutes in relative silence when Rose and Harry stopped, forcing Dudley to stop as well by holding unto his arms.
"What is it? I'm hungry, I need to get home. Why is it so cold? What did you do to me?" Dudley complained, looking at his cousins.
"The mirror Harry, call Sirius." Rose exclaimed, recognizing the cold and sad feeling that was all around them.
"What would dementors be doing here?" Harry asked as he got his two way mirror out and screamed 'Sirius Black' at it.
"Harry, what is it?" Sirius asked him, immediately knowing that if he called, there was trouble.
They could see people behind them, lots of red hair but also blond and brown.
"Dementors, here. Dementors are here." Harry yelled at the mirror urgently.
"Harry, get your wand out, I can see four of them but I don't know, maybe more are coming. Dudley, don't move." Rose yelled before she screamed the right spell and managed to get a beautiful silver doe out of her wand.
Now she was glad that she had practiced casting a patronus when Harry told her that he was learning in their shared dreams.
Harry placed the mirror back in his pocket before he cast his Patronus as well.
"Keep your mouth close Dudley and stay between us. You can't see them but they're here and they're extremely dangerous." Rose told Dudley urgently while both Harry and she did their best to keep the dementors at bay.
Surprisingly, Dudley listened to them and stuck between the two of them, resisting hardly his urge to run away, or to cry, even though he was very afraid. He couldn't see the danger, but Dudley could very well feel that something was wrong. He felt colder than ever, a cold that seemed to come from within him. He felt like he'd never be happy again but was confident that his two cousins would do their best to protect him as long as he did what they told him. For a second, Dudley wondered if Harry would have been more motivated to protect him if he had been nicer to him over the years but obviously it didn't matter to Harry because he seemed to be fighting very hard.
"Maybe we should just run. I really don't like this!" Dudley suggested in a whimper.
"No, it would be too dangerous. Stay here, don't move and try to think about happy things, it could help." Harry replied and Dudley nodded.
Suddenly, a few loud 'cracks' were heard around them and several more Patronus joined their two. Soon, the dementors were gone.
"Are you kids okay?" Sirius and Remus asked as they joined them.
They had the real Alastor Moody with them with Arthur and Bill Weasley along with two people they didn't know.
"Lupin, Black, you stay with them, get them home and make sure they're fine. We'll go back to the headquarters and fill Dumbledore in, he must have just arrived. He'll want to go to the Ministry to explain what's happened and make sure these two don't get in trouble for doing magic outside of school. Then I'll have a word with Mondingus about the reason he left his spot without warning anyone." Moody declared before he left with the two other people.
"Dudley, are you okay?" Rose asked her cousin, who had a hard time standing up and couldn't even answer her.
"The dementors affects them worst than us, we should get him home and give him some chocolate." Remus told them and they all started to walk back to the Dursley's house as quickly as possible.
"What were they doing here? Did Voldemort take control of the Ministry or something?" Harry asked his godfather.
"I don't think so. We came as soon as you called with the people that were at the Headquarters, they'll inform Dumbledore of what happened and he'll look into it, make sure that the ministry still has control over the dementors and that they don't expel you for defending yourselves." Sirius replied.
"Don't worry, we'll tell you as soon as we know who was behind this. It could be a hostile takeover of the Ministry or of Azkaban just like it could be an isolated action from an inside man." Remus added.
When they finally arrived at the house, Remus explained to Petunia what had happened, that Harry and Rose had saved Dudley's life and that he'd be fine, after eating some chocolate and resting. She rushed to get some of the best chocolate she kept for big occasions and gave it to her son.
"Aren't they supposed to keep your prison?" Petunia asked them in a shaking voice.
"How do you know this?" Harry asked her while Remus nodded.
"I heard, him, tell Lilly, all these years ago." Petunia replied.
"If by Him you mean my dad, you can say his name." Harry protested.
"I'm not speaking about your father. That arrogant man is not the one who took Lilly away from me. That other boy did, long before she even met your father." Petunia spat her answer.
"What other boy?" Sirius asked her while Harry looked at her, confused.
"I don't want to talk about it. I'll go and take care of Dudley." She replied, shaking her head.
"We'll still be taking them tomorrow afternoon. Around 5pm." Remus warned her and she nodded, having no reasons to protest.
I'll have Rose read and comment on her kidnapper's interview later.
Review please, I always answer them and it motivates me to write and update faster
Lorelei Candice Black