Chapter 2 – Hiding

Holly slept only a few hours, still feeling way too alert to sleep all that well. Brownies didn't need as much sleep as humans anyways, especially sworn ones like her. She woke up after just a few hours' sleep and enchanted herself so she wouldn't make any noise while she cleaned. She had a lot of work to do if she wanted to make the house somewhat livable before Harry woke up.

First, she summoned up a broom and dustpan from the servant's pantry and spelled it to sweep the whole house room by room. She floated the dishes and cutlery out from the cabinets and spelled them to wash themselves. The cupboards had already been emptied after Charlus and Dorea died so there was nothing in them or the kitchen itself to vanish except some pest excrement and cobwebs.

Harry's most immediate needs would be for breakfast, but going back to Godric's Hollow wasn't an option right now. It would be crawling with wizards. If she were to appear at Godric's Hollow and not submit to be taken to court, then they would realize that Harry had survived. After Peter's betrayal, she couldn't risk trusting anyone with the knowledge that Harry was still alive.

Gringotts, however, had no qualms about going behind wizards' backs.

She poked her head in the sitting room to check on Harry and set a few wards around him first before popping over to Diagon Alley.

Everyone was crowded around holding copies of this morning's paper. The entire front page was taken up by a story titled "You-Know-Who is dead! The Story of the Boy Who Lived!"

Some were celebrating and shooting fireworks into the air, some were crying, and others were just staring blankly in disbelief.

They all know now. Harry is famous. You-Know-Who's death eaters will be after him.

She took a copy of the paper off the stand at the Daily Prophet building and left two knuts in the machine for it. Nobody thought anything of it, since it wasn't unusual to see a house elf run errands in the morning before their family woke up.

She had a coin purse full of galleons with which to spend on errands for the Potters tied at the sash on her dress. It was set to come out of the Potter vault automatically and would continue to do so until either Harry changed the terms or either he or she passed away.

The wizards will know that Harry lived if Gringotts gives them records. Does Albus Dumbledore being the executor of the Potter estate mean he can ask for bank records?

It was unprecedented, having someone who wasn't the head of the Potter family be the executor of the estate for a Potter who had just passed away.

Once at Gringotts, she had Griphook take her down to the Potter family vault and withdraw a few things for her to put in the other pouch on her sash to take back to the old Potter house. She would be taking Charlus' old wand, the painting of Lily and James Potter, and a lot of the old Potter nursery furniture, toys, and clothes. Charlus and Dorea had it all put away when James was still a boy and Lily hadn't used any of it. Her mother had sent along gifts for Harry's nursery so it ended up being almost entirely muggle.

Holly will have to retrieve those as well after the Potters' will is read. But that could easily take weeks.

The next several stops she made were all right there on Diagon Alley and Horizont Alley. She had to visit the market, the greengrocer, the butcher, Madam Malkin's, and the apothecary. Harry needed food to eat and clothes to wear and a fully stocked potions cupboard to help wave away headaches, toothaches, and nightmares. She also needed lots of doxycide and insecticide if she was going to clear out all the pests that had infested the old house.

It was nearly dawn by the time she got home and started disinfecting the house. At least the whole house was swept and dusted and all the dishes and cutlery were freshly cleaned. She put the groceries on the counter in the kitchen in the basement where house elves were meant to reside and to work under a stasis so they wouldn't spoil.

She got rid of all the pests in the whole basement with the new bottles of doxycide and insecticide and then hurried to work on Harry's breakfast. He would be awake soon, and she hadn't even got it started let alone set up his new nursery.

She had barely got the mixing bowl going for pancakes when she heard Harry scream from the upstairs sitting room.

"Mum-mummy!" he screamed. It was a gut-wrenching sound, to hear a fifteen-month-old baby so genuinely afraid.

Immediately, she apparated to his side and held him and rubbed circles on his back, humming the same lullaby Lily did to calm him.

"Mummy nigh-nigh Howwy. G'een. G'een." He said when he had calmed down enough to talk.

With a sinking feeling she realized that he was trying to tell her about when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named killed his mum.

"You saw the whole thing, didn't you?" she replied. "Yes, mummy went night-night and bye-bye."

Harry sniffled and started crying again even harder.

"Mummy daddy home!" he exclaimed.

She wished she could just snap her fingers or wave her hand and fulfill his request, but not even brownie magic powered by swearing on your magic could revive the dead.

"Holly is so sorry, Harry. She is."

They sat like that for a long while.

Eventually, he calmed down enough to start talking again.

"Howwy home?" he asked.

This is what he called it when she watched him whenever his mum was brewing potions and his dad was out on jobs for the Order.

"Yes, Holly is home. Let's get you changed." She said, floating him so he laid down.

She took off his onesie so she could vanish the mess in his cloth diaper and clean both it and him with another spell.

Once he was all done, she buttoned him back up and let him sit up on his own.

"Let's get you breakfast." She said, taking him by the hand and walking him down the hall and up the stairs to James' old nursery.

She hadn't had the chance to get it ready yet, so while she still held his hand in the doorway she summoned the necessary furniture and set it up. A toddler-sized bed, a rocking chair, an ornately carved wooden chest with lions all over it filled with toys, a small bookshelf filled with books, a low table suitable for eating at and playing on, and a large comfy rug to go under it all.

Harry gave a small smile at the familiar sight of magic, even as he looked around uncertainly. Neither his nursery or the sitting room at Godric's Hollow had looked anything like a normal wizarding nursery.

"This is your new nursery, Harry." She explained, leading him slowly inside.

"Nur'sy?" he repeated, sounding out the unfamiliar word.

"Yes, this is your nursery. Would you like breakfast?" she asked, summoning up the finished plate of pancakes, a clean plate, and a fresh banana from the house elves' basement.

Harry smiled when he saw the tall stack of pancakes.

"Cake!" he exclaimed.

She made him a plate at the low table and served him a single pancake and a banana, both all cut up and ready to eat, and summoned up a small wooden fork from the drawer down in the basement. A baby bottle full of pumpkin juice fresh from the store on Horizont appeared beside his plate at her bidding, and Harry looked at it confused before taking it. Lily had gotten him used to muggle sippy cups when he was being weaned.

It was a fairly normal day for just the two of them. For Harry, she thought he probably didn't realize his mum and dad weren't just busy but gone forever. He was uncomfortable in the new home and still settling in, but he still asked her to play after breakfast and so they spent the whole day playing in between snacks and lunch and the occassional diaper change.

Harry had found his father's racing broom in the toy box a few hours after lunch and had been thrilled to see it.

"P'ay seeker!" he exclaimed.

He was quickly disappointed.

"Howwy, 'paro!" he demanded, trying to hand James' old toddler racing broom to her. He very upset with the fact that it was just sputtering along slowly down the hallway.

He held out the broom to her with a very stubborn look on his face.

"Holly is sorry, Harry, but this cannot be fixed. No reparo." She replied.

As a general rule, it was difficult to fix something with magic that had been crafted with magic especially when it's main function was still intact, just dulled. Even moreso with something as intricate as James' toddler broom.

"No! Paro, Howwy." He insisted, forcing the broom into her hands.

"Howwy, paro!" he said, his voice raising into a wail as he started crying when she still did nothing with the broom in her hands.

She vanished it back to the toy box, which just made him cry even more, and took him to the rocking chair and let him cry it out.

"Mu-mummy d-daddy ho-home?" he asked, still sniffling and stumbling over his words.

She had never watched him for this long at a time, before.

"Mummy and daddy is gone bye-bye forever, Harry." She said.

It would be a long time before he understood.


Author's note: Sorry for such a boring chapter. I'm tired but I wanted to get another chapter out, cause I've had the beginning written since I posted chapter one.