Authors Note: So, here we are again... just the three of us.
Rotten Writer here again with chapter four of Soul Scars. Little more information, little look into some of the characters and how's Harry handling suddenly finding out he's bonded for the rest of his life to three attractive young witches? How's his first week at Hogwarts going to go?
You'll find out.
In the meantime I had a question for you lovely guys and gals out there. Eventually, Harry IS getting away from the Dursleys. I'm slightly stuck on which family to place him with. At the moment it's a toss up between Amelia Bones taking over his guardianship, or Augusta Longbottom. I see pros and cones to both. So give me your votes in the reviews and I'll tally them up before the end of the first year, that's when we'll know for sure where he's gonna go.
Disclaimer: I owns nothing, I be married.
Soul Scars
by,
Rtnwriter
At a touch past midnight, the common room was empty. Everyone else had long since found their beds except for three young girls and one boy. The girls were all sitting side by side on a small sofa, staring at the boy as he paced back and forth in front of the fire, his head down, right hand up by his jaw.
Harry stroked the scar behind his jaw with one finger, the action helping to soothe the whirlwind his mind had become after the unusual sorting they'd just experienced. Every time he turned, he saw them out of the corner of his eye, watching him expectantly. He had to say, he felt a rush of gratitude for them at that moment. They didn't push or pester him. Hell, he'd been pacing for nearly half an hour now and the three of them just sat there, patiently watching him, letting him work through things on his own.
Finally, he stopped, and threw himself into a plush armchair that he'd pulled over so it was close to the couch.
"Okay, what was all that about?" he demanded.
The girls exchanged a look between them and Hermione cleared her throat a moment later as some silent communication seemed to pass between them.
"Do you understand what the hat told us, Harry?" she asked, almost timidly.
He frowned, and then his scowl deepened as all three of them seemed to flinch, just slightly.
Were they afraid of him? He didn't like that idea. Harry Potter was intimately familiar with being afraid and he did not want anyone to be afraid of him unless there was a damn good reason for it. As far as he knew, he hadn't done anything that would make them fear him.
"You- you're not afraid of me, are you?"
A noticeable tension drained out of all three girls and Hermione leaned forward, placing one of her hands on his knee. "We're not afraid of you, Harry. We couldn't possibly be afraid of you, this bond we have sort of makes sure of it. But… well… we are a bit worried about how you're handling this. I can't imagine this is easy. I mean, we have all had years to get used to this idea that there was someone out there that was basically meant for us."
"Of course, this situation is a little more complicated than we'd thought," Susan said with a snort and the three of them exchanged a wry grin.
"You've just been thrown into this, though," Daphne said, her soft voice washing over them all. "No one could fault you for going off your nut a bit with all this."
He nodded and placed his hand on Hermione's where it still rested on his knee, giving it a soft squeeze before letting go and sitting back in the chair. Hermione sat back as well, taking her hand off of him and he immediately felt a sense of loss as she moved away.
"What I want to know is, why you didn't just tell me about this... whatever it is? It certainly doesn't look very good. Feels like you had ulterior motives in trying to get to know me. So, this whole friendship we had starting here was begun with a lie?" He didn't seem exceptionally angry, but he definitely wasn't happy either, and Susan and Hermione winced.
"We weren't lying," Hermione started, nervously. "I wasn't lying. I really did and do want to be friends, Harry. Yes, I was expecting to find the other side of this bond I learned about years ago, but I didn't know it was you. I was just trying to figure out who it was at first. Then I found you, right away, and then… what was I supposed to do? Just walk up and say, 'look, I know we've literally just met and you don't know anything about me, but we're soul mates. Just thought you should know,'?"
He considered that for a moment before glancing at Susan, who nodded.
"I was in pretty much the same boat. How do you really bring up something like that to a complete stranger? You were raised in the muggle world too. At least to people raised in our world we've heard of soul mates and soul bonds. It's rare, but not completely unheard of. To someone not raised in our world… it'd sound ridiculous, wouldn't it?"
"Okay," he said, conceding their point after a few moments and placed his right elbow into his left hand again, letting his finger brush that scar behind his jaw. "Let's take this one at a time, then. Hermione, could you tell me how you found out about all this?"
Hermione shifted in her seat, looking less than thrilled by the idea but she took a deep breath and spoke. "I think I was four, maybe five. Something happened, something… not great." She shrugged at the arched brow Harry gave her. "It's hard to describe without jumping into some things the hat told us we should keep quiet about for now."
"Okay, wait there." He held up a hand to stop her. "About that. There's information regarding this… bond, this situation we're in that the hat told all three of you to keep from me?"
They winced again but nodded and he frowned again.
"I really don't like it when people lie to me."
Hermione cringed at that and exchanged another look with the girls sitting on either side of her.
"Harry," Susan tried. "Did you know that we can feel you?"
He blinked, surprised for a moment before he cocked his head slightly to the side, regarding her questioningly.
She lifted her right hand and tapped her fingers against her chest, right over her heart. "In here," she said. "We can feel you. We can feel your emotions. Your joy, and fear, and anger. When it's strong, we can feel it. We have for years. At least I have, I can only imagine it was the same for them."
Harry's eyes widened and all three of them winced again when a shock of pure terror shot through their bodies and they suddenly lunged forward before he could leap to his feet and flee. Hermione landed on her knees in front of him, her arms holding his legs down, while Susan and Daphne wrapped themselves around his right and left arms respectively.
"No, Harry," Hermione practically shouted. "Please, don't run, just listen." He struggled briefly, but one malnourished eleven-year-old boy was never going to get the best of three healthy young girls. "Please, just listen to us," she begged and slowly, ever so slowly, he began to calm.
"Okay," he said after several minutes. "You can let go of me now, I promise I'll listen. But I'd like a good explanation why you've been spying on me." Now he was getting angry. If people knew what was happening to him why the hell didn't they do anything? How much did they actually know?
Slowly, hesitantly, they released him and moved back to sit on the sofa where Susan started talking again.
"Anyway," she said, "we can feel you. So we know, somewhat. I mean, we don't know. Obviously, we weren't there and we didn't know who you were or where you were or we would have gotten you out of there. But we know, Harry… that you've suffered a lot over the years. And dear Merlin, please," she murmured, tears stinging at her eyes as self-loathing and shame flooded her, "please don't blame yourself. We know that your home life was awful. We know it was terrible, for you. But the point I'm trying to make is that we don't know what actually happened. We don't know the details. And we wouldn't ask you to just come out and tell us. So there are some things, we just can't say yet, just like you couldn't just sit here and list off how things were where you were raised. Does that make sense? We're not lying by keeping things from you in regards to this. There are just some things we're not ready to talk about, yet."
He thought about it for a minute while they watched him, breath held in anticipation, until he finally nodded.
"I guess I can understand that," he mumbled. He wasn't sure he would ever be able to talk about what he experienced at the Dursely's, not without a very compelling reason. He glanced at Hermione and nodded for her to continue.
"So, something happened that got some muggle authorities attention when I was young. Anyway, they came to our house, my and my parents, and they wanted to take me away from them. I didn't want to go and I ended up doing the biggest bout of accidental magic I'd ever done." She chuckled quietly for a moment. "Tore the sitting room apart and blew out every window on the ground floor. An Auror showed up." Harry gave her a confused look and Susan spoke up.
"Magical Law Enforcement," she said and he nodded.
"Yeah, he showed up and my parents didn't understand what was happening. We didn't know I was a witch, yet. So he stunned the bobbies that were there and got us all sitting down and started explaining things. During that explanation he noticed something that made him think I had a soul bond, so he called Professor Dumbledore and he came to our house.
"He explained the bond. He even did this spell, so they could all see my soul and they saw the bit of you, right here." He hand touched her chest and he nodded again, thinking of the tugging and thud that he'd felt in his own chest with the girls. "The Headmaster explained it to them, that I was holding a part of someone else's soul and that when I ever met that person, I'd just know. I'd be able to recognize him. For the last few years I've just been getting used to the idea. I mean, it is kind of every girls fantasy. That there's someone out there that's just perfect for them."
"I'm not perfect," he muttered, breaking into her monologue. "I'm just Harry."
"But you're not," Susan said.
He didn't answer, staring down at his lap.
"Harry," she whispered, gently. "Look at me."
He shook his head.
"Please, just look at me."
Reluctantly, he raised his head, piercing green eyes meeting vibrant blue.
"You're broken, Harry," she whispered. "It's not your fault. But you are. And we," she gestured between herself and the two girls beside her, "we can help you. Between us, we can help you get better. We can help you get stronger, if you'll let us. You haven't had a lot of love in your life and we can help with that."
"What the hell do I know about love?" he snapped, suddenly feeling that anger that had been buried so deep down that it rarely showed its head. "What the hell do I know?" He looked at them now, his eyes moving from one girl to the next. "You're… dammit you're all so beautiful and…" I'm just a freak, he thought, but didn't voice the words. "Susan, I can already tell you're warm and funny and you're just a damn good person. Hermione, you're obviously smarter than the rest of us but you've got this determination I can just see, I can feel it." Without thinking his hand came to his chest and Hermione felt her breath catch in her throat but he'd already moved on. "And Daphne… we've spent the least time together but there's something about you. This core of solid steel. You're strong and lovely… and I think you're broken too."
Hermione and Susan turned, their eyes wide, to look at the third number in their midst.
"Not like you, Harry. But I have my own demons. We all do. And none of us are asking for a fairy tale romance here, hell we're only eleven. We know we're too young for that kind of thing but this bond… it will make sure that we're close. We're in a position to understand each other the way no one else ever could. We can sense each others feelings and if you'll let us, we can all four be the absolute best of friends first. We have plenty of time to decide what or if anything else happens."
"So you don't have a choice in the matter," he snarled, bitterly. "You're bonded to me against your will so you'll be friends with the poor freak."
"That's enough!"
He jumped at the sharp rebuke and turned wide eyes to Hermione.
"Harry James Potter… oooohhhhhhh this is why we wanted to spend some time just being friends before bringing the rest of this mess into it," she groaned and rubbed a hand over her face. "Look. You haven't gotten to know us but you've already pegged a few things pretty accurately. We've spent years, now, getting to know you to a degree. We've felt your emotions and I think we know you a bit better than you think we do.
"Yes, none of asked for this bond but it's not something that was done to us. You didn't do this to us. It's almost literally like the universe saying 'these people would do well together,' but we don't have to be friends. We don't have to even talk to you. But we want to. Well, I want to I can't speak for Susan and Daphne." Both girls mentioned nodded their heads in complete agreement with their bushy haired counterpart.
"Besides, you're kind of stuck with us, Harry. Not because we're being forced to be close to you, but because we want to be. You literally have a part of our souls. If we're all so well suited for each other that our souls are compatible… then we must all be worth getting to know better. I'll understand if it takes time to process. I'll understand if it takes time for you to come to grips with everything. I'm not expecting you to just decide 'oh everything is fine and dandy let's all be the best of friends right away'. But you might as well get used to the idea that I, for one, want to be your friend. I want to see where life takes us and from everything I've seen and felt today, and from the few things you've said, do you really want to turn away people that want to be your friend?"
It took a while, several minutes, where Harry just stared at them, his eyes moving back and forth from one to another before, finally, he shook his head, slowly.
"My turn then?" Susan asked and the others nodded. "I think it started earlier than Hermione or we understood what it meant earlier, at least. I was two or three when my Auntie noticed. Probably the same something that Auror noticed, with her."
"And you're not going to tell me what it is they noticed, are you?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
Susan shook her head. "Honestly, I don't completely agree with the reasoning for keeping it secret. But I can understand that this is all somewhat overwhelming and maybe it'd be best to leave that bit for now. Let us all get a little more used to each other."
Harry sighed and pushed his glasses up, pinching the bridge of his nose as if trying to stave off a headache. "Your Aunt was the woman we saw on the platform?"
"Yes, Amelia Bones. She just recently became Head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement. She's in charge of the Aurors. And…" she hesitated until Harry motioned for her to continue. "She asked me to write to her about you, Harry. We've been looking for you for years now, ever since she realized we had a bond and I could tell her some of what I was feeling, or what you were feeling. The fear and the pain… the hunger."
He paled at that one and the three of them almost made to dive at him again but he held a hand up, stopping them short. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths before he opened them again.
"Why?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly.
"She wants to get you out of there, Harry," Susan practically pleaded. "I'm sorry if you feel betrayed, or like I've been spying on you or something. All we knew is that someone connected to me was in pain. And we just wanted to make things better. My Aunt wanted to find you, whoever you were, and get you away from the situation that had you so scared and hurting so much, and just so damn hungry." Susan didn't even bother to hold back the tears. She just couldn't do it anymore. She was a true Hufflepuff at heart. Steadfast and loyal and the thought of someone she cared about being in pain hurt her like nothing else. "We don't want you to go back there. We don't want you to have anything to do with it, ever again. If I can write to her, let her know what's going on, she can look into what she can do, legally, to make sure you never have to go back there again."
She felt a hand on her cheek and gasped, eyes shooting open. She hadn't even realized she'd closed them. The brilliant, almost glowing green of Harry's eyes filled her vision and dimly she felt his thumb running across her cheek, wiping away her tears.
"Okay," he whispered so only she could hear him. "Write to your Aunt. Just… don't cry, anymore." I'm not worth your tears, he thought.
She couldn't help the beaming smile that split her face and before she even thought about it she launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him fiercely whispering thanks over and over into his ear.
He stiffened completely when she crashed into him. His muscles grew taught, arms held out from his sides. He didn't know what to do. This was the first time in his entire life that he could ever remember someone hugging him and he just didn't know what to do about it. Slowly, awkwardly he started to close his arms around her but before he could she had moved back to sitting on the sofa beside Hermione and he quickly gathered himself before rising up off his knees and returning to his chair.
"I guess that means it's my turn?" All eyes turned to Daphne and she sighed. "My story isn't too different from Susan's. My father noticed the same thing I imagine brought this to the attention of the other adults in question here and he was… less than pleased."
"Why?"
"Because of my family."
All three of them simply looked at her and she sighed again, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, hands clasped together in front of her.
"My family is pureblood. Has been for centuries. At first, father was cautiously thrilled, he figured I was bonded to some pure blood heir and set about trying to find out who my bonded was. I'm sure he wanted to arrange a betrothal contract. Eventually he worked his way through all of the known families and realized that I was bonded either to a half-blood or a muggle-born, and he wasn't exactly thrilled by that thought."
For a moment Daphne was taken aback by the anger she felt. She had thought that she had long ago gotten over the rage and unfairness of the situation and had moved on. Until she looked up and saw three hard faces regarding her carefully. Her eyes widened when she realized that it wasn't her anger she was feeling, but Harry's, Susan's, and Hermione's.
She gave them a weak smile, which did nothing to calm any of them. "It's all right," she said. "Well… no, it isn't. But it will be. I will be fine, I've got the three of you now, right?"
"Damn straight."
"Hermione, language," Harry said in a teasing voice as the girl blushed fiercely at what she'd said.
"Well, it's true," she defended herself. "We're all in this together. All four of us."
Harry and Susan nodded, each in complete agreement and Daphne smiled again, a real, happy smile for the first time in she couldn't remember how long.
"Thank you," she said and the other three could feel how strongly she meant it, which went a great way toward calming their anger. "Anyway, my father is… complicated. He isn't a cruel man, or a horrible father but… well, he's not very emotive either, and he expects very strict obedience. I know he loves me and my mother and my sister but he doesn't show it well, or often.
"After coming to the conclusion that whoever I was bonded to was not a pureblood that could help increase our Houses wealth or social status he decided to wait, see who it was I was actually bonded to and he would move from there. That's fairly standard for the Greengrass family, actually. We have a long history of being relatively neutral in all things, only acting once it was obvious which side was the winning side. That includes in politics, business, and during the war. The Greengrass family didn't side with You-Know-Who, but they didn't actively support the light, either."
She winced and gave Harry an apologetic look. "And I'll have to write to him too. He really wants to know who my bonded is but I fear he won't take this information well."
"So sure he's going to hate me?"
Daphne shook her head. "Exactly the opposite. My father has always been more concerned with politics and power than he was with family. And my being bonded to the Boy-Who-Lived… he'll see opportunity in that."
"Opportunity?"
She made a face. "Yes. My father is all about making alliances and in the wizarding world betrothal contracts are still used by some of the older pureblood families. He would see a chance to link our family to the famous Boy-Who-Lived as an opportunity worth taking."
Harry blinked. "Wouldn't that be seen as taking a side against Voldemort by his followers that are still out there?"
"With him gone, Father might see it as a chance worth taking."
"So, where does that put us, right now?" Harry asked after several silent minutes.
"Right now?" Hermione glanced at the girls to either side of her. "Right now we're friends. At least, I hope you consider us friends. We're going to go to school and deal with homework and tests and everything else that comes with it. And, hopefully, over time, you'll open up to us, and we can open up to you, and we just see where things take us."
Susan and Daphne nodded and Harry considered that for a few moments longer before nodding as well.
"Okay, I think I can get behind that." He leaned back in his chair and stretched, eyes squeezing shut with both arms reaching far over his head. The sleeves of his shirt fell and the girls stared as a few scars came into view, glimmering in the firelight before be dropped his arms again. He didn't notice their reactions.
"I'm exhausted," he said. "This… this has been a lot to take in. I think I'm going to go to bed." He hesitated for a second. "Did you all want to meet here in the morning? We can head down to breakfast together?"
The nodded. "That sounds good, Harry," Hermione said and he stood, giving them a small smile before he made his way to the stairs and up to the first year boys dorm.
As soon as he was gone Daphne and Susan spun in their seats until they were facing Hermione.
"The scars?" Daphne asked. "Is that how you two knew?"
Without saying anything Susan and Hermione drew back their left sleeves. Daphne did the same and all three looked at the identical scars marring their skin.
"I can't believe how strong he is. To survive all this and not be a complete and utter wreck?" Susan shook her head in wonder. "It's amazing. He's far more well adjusted than I thought he would be."
"I don't think he really is," Hermione disagreed. "I think he's just gotten really good at hiding it."
"Do we really want to keep hiding this?" Susan asked. "I mean, he's made it very clear he doesn't like people keeping things from him and this does directly affect him, and us."
"Except he's keeping things from us too. And your argument was solid, Susan. He wouldn't just come out and tell us all about what's happened to him at home. I'm sure he thinks he's ugly, deformed because of his scars, how do you think he'd feel if he found out we shared them? I'm pretty sure he'd blame himself. No. I don't like it much either but I think it's still for the best that we don't let him know about the scars. At least not yet."
"If I ever get my hands on the fuckers that did this to him," Daphne suddenly burst out, her pale face flushed with anger but she stamped down on it as hard as she could.
"I know," Susan muttered. "I can't imagine what kind of monster would do something like this to a child."
"Oh my god. You two don't know, do you?"
Daphne and Susan shared a look across Hermione before turning their eyes back to the girl between them. "Know what?" Daphne asked, a sense of dread growing in the pit of her stomach.
"God, I wanted to die when I saw this one," Hermione whispered, tracing the scar with the fingertips of her right hand. "Nobody did this one to him."
"What do you mean," Susan asked.
"Harry did this one himself. He did it to himself."
"What? Why would he do that?"
Hermione tried to blink back the tears, instead sending them spilling over to drip down her cheeks. "Whatever was happening to him where he lived. Whatever those monsters were doing to him. He must have thought this was his only way out."
"Merlins beard, Hermione would you please just tell us? Is this a muggle thing or what?" Daphne demanded.
"Look at the scar." Hermione traced her finger near her wrist. "Across the wrist, then up, along the arm." She looked up, both girls staring into her cinnamon eyes. "This scar. This was when it got to be too much. With this one, Harry was trying to kill himself to escape."
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After probably the most restful nights sleep that Harry could remember having, despite how short it was, he woke at seven the next morning and climbed out of the huge four poster bed to get ready for the day. Long since practiced at hiding, he avoided the other boys in his dorm and made his way into the showers.
He didn't look at the scars. He just went about cleaning himself, ignoring the stinging pain from the still unhealed wounds on his back, and dried as quickly as he could after turning off the water. Dressing just as quickly he didn't even try to deal with his hair, having given it up as a lost cause years before. He pulled his robes on over his school uniform, thrilled to be wearing new clothes that actually fit him for the first time in his life, and made his way downstairs.
He found Neville sitting in an armchair near the portrait hole but none of the girls were present yet so he went over to talk to his fellow first year.
"All right there, Nev?" he asked.
"Doing good, Harry." Neville looked up from his Herbology textbook and smiled at the raven haired boy. "Quite a light show you guys put on last night."
"Light show?"
"You didn't know? Oh, you guys were under the hat so you couldn't see. When you were all touching you started glowing. It was really beautiful, to be honest."
"Really?"
Neville nodded. "Oh yeah. Never seen anything like it before. Do you know what happened?" Harry hesitated for a second and Neville seemed to deflate a bit. "That's okay, if you don't want to tell me," he said. "It's none of my business."
"Woah, hold up Nev. Weren't you the one that told me Potters and Longbottoms stand together?" Neville nodded. "Well, I don't mind you knowing, not really. I'm still trying to process it all myself to be honest. You'd have to promise to keep it a secret, though, it's rather personal don't we don't want everyone knowing if we can help it, but it's not just my story to tell, right? There's three other people that were involved so I think I'd rather get their input before I went blabbing about what happened last night. Think you can be patient for a bit until I can talk to Hermione, Daphne, and Susan?"
Neville smiled and nodded. "That's fine Harry. And really, if they don't want me to know, that's cool too. It is your guy's business after all."
Harry smiled, relieved that Neville understood, and clapped the other boy on the shoulder. It looked like being friends was a lot more complicated than he thought it'd be. "You're a pal, Nev. I appreciate that." He dropped into a nearby chair and they spent a few minutes chatting about Herbology, a subject that Neville seemed to already have more than a passing understanding of before the girls join them, coming down from their dorm and honing in on Harry in no time.
"Morning, girls," Harry started to say before they stopped in front of him. He let out a startled squawk when Hermione grabbed the front of his robes in both hands and yanked him to his feet. Before he new it his vision was obscured by a mass of bushy brown hair and his nose was assaulted by the scents of vanilla and parchment as her arms were wrapped tightly around him in a rib creaking hug. He stiffened up on instinct but before he had a chance to react any more than that she had released him and he found his sight covered again by a soft cloud of vibrant red strands as Susan immediately replaced Hermione, her arms wrapping snugly around his body. He caught honeysuckle and… some kind of oil?
He did his best to hide the wince when her hand landed on one of the cuts on his back but they didn't seem to notice as suddenly, Susan stepped away and Daphne replaced her. The hug from Daphne was much softer, but her body was pressed tighter against him, if at all possible. Her straight blond strands didn't blind him, but her scents were even stronger. Pine and fresh strawberries.
When she was done, she stepped away, joining the other girls and leaving Harry, and Neville, for that matter, looking like they'd both been slapped in the face with a live trout. The former was also beet red in addition to absolutely gobsmacked.
Hermione giggled for a second before turning to the other two. "I think we broke him," she said and they all burst out laughing while Harry finally came back to himself and glared at them. He couldn't really feel too angry with them, though, so he let out a huge sigh and shot a look at Neville.
"Want to join us for breakfas,t Nev?" he asked and the other boy nodded before closing his book and slipping it into his bag. He climbed to his feet, slung his bag over his shoulder and led the way out of the common room and into the hall.
"Are you three okay?" he asked, noticing that all three of them looked rather tired.
"We're fine, Harry," Hermione said. "Thank you for asking. We're just a little tired, didn't manage to get much sleep last night."
He fidgeted slightly before sighing. "It's not my fault is it?"
"Not entirely, Harry. We were just comparing notes on those things that we can't really say to you yet and we realized how much worse things were than we'd thought. But don't worry." She placed a hand on his shoulder and stopped in the middle of the hall, turning him to look at her. "Please, don't worry about us with this. We're coming to terms with it and we'll be here to help you through everything you'll let us help you with, okay?"
He struggled with the desire to tell them he didn't need their help. He'd spent years relying on no one but himself so trying to accept that someone else, anyone else, actually wanted to help him was such an alien concept that he just didn't know what to do with it.
"You three are bonded to me, right?" he whispered, leaning closer so only she could hear him and once again vanilla filled his scences. She nodded, her hair tickling the side of his face and he leaned in even more. "There's no changing that?" She shook her head. "Then you're a part of me. And I'm a part of all of you. I haven't known you, any of you, for long, and I'm still not thrilled how this all came about but… there's no sense fighting something that can't be changed. So, don't think for a second I'll ever not worry about all three of you. You literally hold a part of my soul and you've trusted me with part of yours."
Hermione shivered as his breath brushed across her ear and Susan and Daphne could feel the same tremors running through their own bodies through the link that tied them all together.
"So we'll agree to worry about each other, then?" Hermione tried.
"I think I can live with that." Harry stepped back, smiling broadly at her and he turned and continued on his way, the girls following in his wake as he caught up to Neville.
"What was that about?' Daphne asked. Hermione quickly filled them in and the looks on the other girls faces had her cringing. "And he says he doesn't know anything about love. If you were older you'd have dragged that boy off to the nearest broom cupboard right then."
As Hermione attempted to imitate a tomato while spluttering and stammering denials Daphne and Susan both broke out into great peals of laughter. By the time they took their seats in the great hall, the girls had gotten themselves mostly under control, though Hermione's face was still a bit red and she flushed even harder when Harry sent her a questioning look.
She shook her head and he frowned for a moment. "Daphne and Susan were just poking some fun at my expense," she muttered. He arched a brow at her but shrugged before loading his plate and turning his attention back to Neville. Which reminded him. "Oh," he said, drawing their attention. "Neville asked about the sorting last night. Personally, I don't mind explaining it to him, later, when we can find somewhere quiet, but I'll leave it to you to decide if you mind him knowing what happened or not." They nodded and then all four of them got down to the serious business of eating breakfast.
"Easy, Harry," Hermione reminded him, leaning close to whisper to him when he started to load some rather heavy foods onto his plate. "Your stomach needs time to adjust, don't rush, okay?"
He flushed, shame running through him, but she simply laid her hand on his knee again and he nodded once before he settled in to eat.
As first weeks went, Harry couldn't really complain too much. Charms was easily one of his favorite classes and, if he hadn't been so embarrassed by the attention, he might have laughed when the diminutive Professor Flitwick fell off his stack of books after reading his name during roll. Defense Against the Dark Arts was less than inspiring with the stuttering Professor Quirell, plus the headache he found himself dealing with by the end of it. He'd brushed off the girls concern when they notice him rubbing his forehead after class.
It wasn't until Potions that Friday morning that he realized things weren't always going to be simple at Hogwarts.
The day had started out well enough. Harry received a letter from Hagrid that morning asking if he would come down to his cabin for some tea that afternoon, and after a quick discussion it was agreed they would all head down after lunch to visit him.
"Hagrid, he's that big man that led us in the boats, right?" Daphne asked as she gently stroked the soft feathers on Hedwig's chest while Susan gave her a piece of bacon.
"Yeah, he was the first person I ever met from the Wizarding world. Brought me my Hogwarts letter when Uncle Vernon was trying to keep them away from me and he bought me Hedwig too as a birthday present."
All three girls had quickly fallen in love with the gorgeous snowy owl that seemed to mother Harry as much as they wanted to, so, for that reason alone, they all decided, nearly in unison, that Hagrid was their new favorite person, after Harry.
"Here you go, girl," he said as he tied a quick response to Hagrid's letter to Hedwig's leg. Hedwig leapt up onto Harry's shoulder and rubbed her head against his cheek for a moment before nipping gently at his ear and a genuine smile split his face again. Hedwig launched herself into the air, spreading her broad wings and in moments she had disappeared out of an open window.
"All right, you lot." He stood and grabbed his book bag, slinging it over his shoulder with a look that encompassed all three girls and Neville. "Ready to get this over with?"
Together, they trooped down to the dungeons for probably the singularly most frustrating lesson that any of them had ever experienced.
Harry had just put his bag down at his seat, somewhere as close to having his back against a wall as he could find, when the door flew open with a loud bang. Harry jumped, nearly missing his chair when he went to sit down. Luckily he wasn't the only one that jumped at the mans' entrance, so he didn't draw much attention to himself with his own reaction, thank god.
"Harry Potter, our new celebrity."
Professor Snape was a sallow complexioned, bitter looking individual. His facial expressions seemed stuck between a sneer and a scowl of varying degrees and he seemed to take an immediate dislike of Harry from the first class.
"Potter, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel with an infusion of wormwood?"
Don't react, he thought. Harry considered the question, hands pressed flat against the desk in front of him. He'd had little to do during his time after getting his letter than to read and he'd made sure to stock up ahead of time on extra texts for each subject. "I believe those ingredients are part of a powerful sleeping draught," he said as Hermione practically bounced in her seat next to him, her arm raised to answer the question. "The name escapes me, however, Sir."
"Clearly, fame isn't everything," Snap said with a sneer firmly in place while pointedly ignoring Hermione and her raised hand. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
Snape glared while Harry thought to himself, don't react. He'll get bored if you don't react. "Under our current conditions? I would recommend the student pantry, Professor. Otherwise one can be found in the stomach of a goat and is a go to solution as an antidote for most poisons."
Harry's arms were beginning to tremble as he pressed his hands harder to the desk.
Snape glared at him, still choosing to ignore Hermione's hand raised beside Harry.
"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
That one caused Harry to consider for a moment as Hermione's hand shot into the air again, almost clipping his ear on the way by. "There isn't much of one," he said, finally. "If I remember correctly they're different names for the same plant, also known as aconite." Don't react. Don't react. Don't react. Don't react.
Snape glared at Harry for a moment and he thought he saw something glimmering in the depths of the older mans obsidian eyes.
Harry flinched.
"For your information, Potter, powdered root of asphodel and an infusion of wormwood are key ingredients in the Draught of Living Death." He paused and turned his glare on the rest of the class. "Well?" he snapped. "Why aren't you all writing this down?" There was a sudden rummaging for parchment and quills and over the noise Snape said, "And that will be a point from Gryffindor, Potter, for your cheek."
Things didn't improve at all during the rest of class for the Gryffindor students and by the end of it at least one cauldron had been melted and Snape was screaming at Harry for the mistake Neville made in brewing his potion.
"I'm sorry, Harry," Neville muttered, miserably, as Harry was helping him toward the hospital wing.
"What for, Nev?"
"For getting you in trouble."
"Why? Did you do it on purpose?"
"What? No, of course not!"
"Then you don't have anything to be sorry for. Accidents happens. Especially when you've got a great greasy git like Snape breathing down your neck, I'm surprised more people didn't mess up."
They were silent for a few more minutes. "You're a strange guy, ya know that, Harry?"
Harry suppressed a smirk and nodded. "So I've been told, Nev. So I've been told."
#####
How had they missed it? How had no one noticed? Why hadn't he said anything to a teacher at his school? Or had he? From all accounts Vernon Dursley was a well respected pillar of the community. Much like Lucius Malfoy he somehow managed to commit unspeakable acts of evil but the public could find no fault with him.
Dumbledore wasn't able to even summon a small smirk at the thought of how incensed the Head of House Malfoy would be to be compared to a common muggle. He sat behind his desk, fingers threaded together in front of his face as he thought over and over of the information he had received from Mrs. Figg the night before.
In all the years she'd been keeping an eye on young Mister Potter she claimed to never once have noticed anything out of sorts. Further research showed that no hospital had any record of Harry Potter ever being seen, and there were no records with child services of any complaints ever being made.
Was the fear generated by that overbearing walrus of a man truly so all encompassing?
The aged wizard shook himself and glanced at the time. Nearly time for dinner in the Great Hall. He had many a great many decisions to make, and he would need to tread carefully. If it became known that Harry Potter had been abused by his muggle relatives, then the blood-supremacist faction would have far more fertile ground to sow their seeds of bigotry and hatred. If it came out that the guardianship of Harry Potter was in question there would be dozens, hundreds of families lining up to take him in and a great many of them would probably see to it that the boy was either never heard from again or was indoctrinated in their pureblood ways.
It was an uncertain future that loomed ahead of them, but if there was one thing that Albus Dumbledore knew for sure, there was absolutely no way in hell that Mister Potter was ever going to darken the door of Number 4 Privet Drive, ever again. But to do so, to make it legal and to ensure that Harry lived with family that would help him, and not further hinder him, was going to take the cunning of a Slytherin and the sheer bullheaded bravery of a Gryffindor. And more than a healthy dose of luck as well.
To do so, he would need allies.
Decision made, he, once again, made his way to the fireplace and threw in a pinch of Floo powder, calling out, "Amelia Bones," before he knealt and stuck his head in the flames.
It was time to plan.
