Minerva makes a difference.
Chapter 2. Harry's new family.
I don't own the Harry Potter verse. Just playing.
Summary: Professor Minerva McGonagall had been asked by her favourite student, Lily, to watch her sister's home if anything was to happen to them as she feared that the headmaster was planning something for her son. After seeing the Dursleys, Minerva knew she couldn't allow the headmaster to condemn Lily's son to ten dark and difficult years.
And that changes Everything!
HHr MOF Dumbledore.
24/11/20 Beta by alix33. Thank you.
- Minerva makes a difference. -
Hermione read a couple of storybooks to Harry. Well, she was well on her way to being able to read the actual words on the pages but since she was a gifted child, she had already memorised all the words on each page of all of her books and had no problem reciting from memory exactly as her parents read the stories to her with the same expressions, tone and funny voices as Harry smiled and giggled as he turned the pages.
Seeing that Harry was enjoying the stories, Hermione asked. "Do you have any favourite stories, Harry?"
Harry nodded.
"Do you see any of them here?"
Harry shook his head and then called out. "Dobby?"
With a faint pop, a little creature appeared before Harry, much to Hermione's surprise. It had large, bat-like ears, bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls and a long, thin nose, and was dressed in nice clean boy's clothes. The pointed ears made it look like some sort of elf from her storybooks.
"Master Harry is alive and has called Dobby?" The little creature said excitedly as Harry hugged him.
"Where has Dobby been?" Harry asked as he missed his elf.
"White Whiskers had blocked Dobby and Dobby couldn't find Master Harry. Even now, Dobby can feel some of White Whiskers' magic nearby." He sadly explained as he fearfully glanced towards Number Four, next door. "Dobby has been trying to find Master Harry since Master Harry left home. Now Dobby has found Master Harry."
"Dobby, this is my friend, Hermione." Harry introduced. "Hermione, this is my elf, Dobby."
Hermione looked in wonder at the small friendly elf. "Hello, Dobby, how do you do?"
"Dobby does well friend Hermi, Hermione." Dobby said with a bow just as Mistress Lily had taught him. He saw Hermione smile as he had tried to pronounce her name correctly.
"Dobby, could you fetch my storybooks, please?" Harry asked nicely and Dobby popped away and soon returned with three books and another elf.
"Winky!" Harry cried as he hugged the little elf. "Winky, this is my friend, Hermione. Hermione, this is Winky."
"Hello, Winky, how do you do?" Hermione greeted the elf.
"Winky does well friend Hermione." Winky said with a curtsey just as Mistress Lily had taught her. She turned to Harry. "Winky has been so worried about Master Harry."
"I am okay, Winky, Hermione has been looking after me." Harry replied.
Winky turned to Hermione. "Winky thanks Mistress Hermione for looking after Master Harry." She turned to Harry. "Would Master Harry like his morning hot chocolate or his breakfast?"
Harry looked at Hermione and had a silent conversation with one glance of her eyes. "Go for hot chocolate as we are waiting for Hermione's parents to wake up."
Winky popped away as Dobby showed Harry the books he had brought.
Harry read out the titles from memory as he was a gifted child of two brilliant parents. "The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Winnie The Pooh & The Blustery Day, and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too. Thank you, Dobby." Harry picked out Winnie The Pooh & The Blustery Day and turned to Hermione. "This is my favourite one."
"Oh, I had that one too, but my cousin said she needed it more than me." Hermione said a little sadly.
"Oh, we can read this together." Harry said as he sat next to Hermione on the bed as Dobby sat next to Harry. He loved the stories too as did Winky. She had returned with four mugs of hot chocolate and marshmallows on a tray. She served the mugs and then sat next to Hermione as Harry opened the book.
"Oh? The pictures move! And they speak!" A surprised Hermione said as she heard the cheerful vibrant voice of Harry's young mother start to read the words on the page and encouraged her to read along.
"Yeah, my mummy did that so I could read the story if they were busy." Harry replied. "That's my mummy speaking. When you hear the chime, we turn the page."
Hermione watched and listen in wonder as she turned the page and the music started as Lily's beautiful sweet voice sang and read to them as Winnie the Pooh, and his friends presented the story of their adventure on The Blustery Day, with Lily doing a different voice for each character based on her friends. Hermione smiled as she heard Lily mimic the voice of a male adult trying to mimic the voice of a teddy bear for Pooh.
"That's my daddy." Harry explained.
Lily mimicked a timid voice for Piglet.
"That's Moony."
Lily mimicked a pompous grandfather figure voice for Owl.
"That's White Whiskers." Harry explained sadly.
"He sounds a little overbearing." Hermione replied.
"Overbearing?" Harry questioned.
"Bossy." Hermione explained.
"Oh, that's him. Mummy said he is an arrogant manipulative authoritarian, and not to be trusted." Harry agreed.
"Dobby no like White Whiskers."
"White Whiskers tried to trap Dobby." Winky said fearfully.
"Oh?" Harry and Hermione wondered as they listened together while the story continued.
Lily mimicked a depressed voice for Eeyore.
"That's Snivy." Harry giggled.
Lily mimicked a carefree cheerful bouncy voice for Tigger.
"That's Padfoo."
"Oh, he sounds very nice, happy and friendly." Hermione replied.
Lily mimicked a little boy voice for Christopher Robin, and Harry and Hermione said at the same time. "That's you / me!"
Hermione hugged Harry with joy as they laugh together at the amazing book and the beautiful magic Harry's mother has woven into it.
After the storybook finished, Winky announced. "It is time for your bath, Master Harry."
"Aw, Winky, I had one yesterday." Harry protested.
"No, Master Harry no fool Winky. Master Harry stinks!" Winky said pointing her finger at Harry.
Harry saw that Hermione's bedroom door was open a little, and he turned to look into Hermione's eyes.
Hermione saw the smiling excitement in those bright emerald green eyes that spoke of fun, mischievous adventure, friendship and dare she say it, love. And she was in. She would follow this boy to hell and back.
Hermione reached out as Harry grabbed her hand as they tried to bolt as fast as their short little legs could run with a cry of. "Freedom!"
But Winky was a house-elf, and was far quicker. She popped in front of Harry and Hermione to block their gleeful digression, caught their linked hands, and popped the escaping duo directly into the largest tub in the main bathroom of Potter Manor. Hermione giggled as she had never seen such a large bath tub full of warm soapy water and big colourful bubbles as Winky and Dobby scrubbed Hermione and Harry clean and washed their hair.
The little elves wrapped Harry and Hermione up in large fluffy towels as Dobby popped Harry to his bedroom at Potter Manor for fresh clean clothes, and Winky popped Hermione back to her own bedroom so she could decide what to wear.
Dobby popped a fresh clean Harry back to Hermione's bedroom and found that Hermione was trying to brush her bushy hair but was quickly becoming frustrated as her hair became more bushy with each brush. Until Harry stepped in and saved the hair brush from imminent destruction. He had brushed his mother's hair, so he had an idea of what to do and quickly smoothed out Hermione's bushy hair, brushing out all of the knots as Hermione calmed down, and her beautiful hair settled into waves with body and bounce. She loved how it moved in her reflection in the mirror and gave Harry his most crushing hug yet. She thought it was the start of a beautiful friendship.
Harry and Hermione came down the stairs holding hands with the biggest Cheshire Grins ever, as they had just successfully completed their first exciting adventure together, the Mysterious Case of the Giant Bubble Bath, all before breakfast. The pair looked so cute that Emma just had to take a photo.
"What did you do to your hair?" Emma asked.
"Harry brushed it." Hermione beamed as she twirled around and her hair fanned out. "I love it."
"I love it too, Hermione. Thank you Harry." Emma replied and then noticed the storybook in Hermione's hand. "Winnie The Pooh & The Blustery Day. You have found your book?"
Hermione shook her head. "No, this is Harry's book." She placed on the table as they sat down, and pushed it in front of her mother. "Open it."
Emma opened the storybook and heard the voice.
"Eek!"
She shut it quickly as Hermione and Harry burst out giggling.
Suspicious, Dan reached over and opened the storybook again, and marvelled at the cheerful vibrant voice as a young mother started to read the words on the page and encouraged them to read along and to turn the page when they heard the chimes.
"Oh? The pictures move! And they speak!"
"Yeah, my mummy did that so I could read the story if they were busy." Harry replied. "That's my mummy speaking. When you hear the chime, you turn the page."
Dan and Emma looked at each other and silently decided to watch and listen in wonder as he turned the page and the music started as Lily's beautiful sweet voice sang and read to them as Winnie the Pooh and his friends performed the story of their adventure on The Blustery Day. Harry identified each voice with terms like mummy, daddy, Padfoo, Moony, Snivy and White Whiskers.
The book gave Dan an opportunity as he gently asked Harry about his parents.
"A bad wizard with red eyes pointed his wand and hit mummy with a green light and then went boom." Harry said. "Then the rat came and took the bad wizard's wand and left. Then Snivy came, hugged mummy, but mummy not wake up. Unca Padfoo came and hugged me. Daddy not wake up. Haggy came."
"Oh? I am so sorry, Harry." Dan said as Hermione hugged Harry while Emma gave Dan a questioning look to not to follow up on the terms wizard, wands and green lights just yet.
"Do you have anyone else, dear?" Emma asked.
"There is Unca Padfoo and Moony." Harry replied. "Dobby?"
With a faint pop, a little creature appeared before Harry, much to Dan and Emma's surprise. They looked in wonder at its had large, bat-like ears, bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls and a long, thin nose, and the little boy's clothes it wore. The pointed ears made it look like some sort of elf from their childhood storybooks. Especially, Lord of the Rings.
"Master Harry has called Dobby?"
"Dobby, fetch Padfoo!" Harry asked nicely as the little creature gave an impish grin and popped away. Harry turned to Hermione with a mischievous giggle. "Padfoo hates it when I send Dobby after him."
"Who and what is Dobby?" Emma asked.
"Dobby is Harry's elf." Hermione said as if that explained everything as the childhood storybooks her parents read to her were full of elves and other sorts of creatures.
"Oh?"
Dobby returned moments later with a loud pop and a dishevelled wizard.
"Dobby! What are you doing? I almost had the rat!" The man in dirty robes yelled at Dobby.
"Master Harry said fetch Padfoo! Now stay! Bad doggy!" Dobby ordered as he pointed to the floor in front of Padfoot and then popped away again.
"Padfoo!" Harry cried as he jumped up to hug his dogfather.
"Harry!" Padfoot cried as he hugged Harry as he started to take in his surroundings and noticed that he was in a nice small neat Muggle home with a surprised little girl and her parents. "Um. Who are you?"
"We be the Grangers, I am Dan and this is Emma and Hermione." Dan explained and then added. "Hermione found Harry on our doorstep last night."
"I wished for him!" Hermione proudly added. "He is mine!"
"Last night? But I gave Harry to Hagrid along with my motorbike to use on Halloween?" Padfoot questioned while he would save the little girl's comments for another time.
"So that was your noisy bike last night that woke us up?" Emma shot back.
"Eh, yeah." Sirius said as he was quite proud of the cool sound his motorbike made.
While Hermione added what she saw. "I woke up before that as I felt all tingly. There were three of them. The nice cat turned into a lady and Merlin was there. He had long white whiskers." Hermione paused as she realised who Merlin was and then continued. "White Whiskers turned the streetlights off before this really big hairy man flew in on a motorbike. They left Harry on our doorstep. I could see them from my window."
"Oh? Tingly?" Sirius said as he wondered out loud. "White Whiskers or as we adults call him, Dumbledore. He must have cast the Homenum Revelio charm over the house to detect the presence people and you felt that with your magical core. But why would Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid come here?"
"Don't know, but who are you and how did you appeared in our home?" Dan asked as Emma saved up the question about her daughter having a magical core.
"Oh? Sorry. I am Sirius Black at your service." Sirius replied with a bow. "And I am also known as Padfoot, Harry's dogfather."
"Oh?" Emma said. "But how did you appear here in our home?"
"Oh, that." Sirius gave her his winning smile. "I am a wizard."
"Oh? Are you really?" Emma asked not sounding as impressed as Sirius thought she should have been.
"But Magic is real!" Sirius said to impress.
Dan shrugged his shoulders. "Hermione preformed an exorcism on Harry last night."
"What? An exorcism?" Sirius wondered.
"Hermione kissed Harry's scar better, and it popped opened, and this black mist came out screaming as it tried to form a shape, she waved it away with her hand and it burnt up like tissue paper." Dan explained as Sirius looked closer to examine Harry's face. "You can just see the faint scar shaped like a bolt of lightning."
Sirius waved his wand over the faint scar and detected vague residue of darkness. "Whatever was there is gone now. Why didn't Dumbledore remove that yesterday?"
Dobby popped back with another dishevelled wizard who landed heavily on the floor with a thud.
The dishevelled wizard looked around for a moment before he shrunk down into a rat with a loud squeak.
Sirius whipped his wand around and stunned the rat with a red flash before it could run, and then casually used the wand to clean himself up, while the Grangers watched the magical display.
"Thank you, Dobby." Sirius said as he wondered why Dumbledore had left Harry here. "Where are we?"
"This is Little Whinging." Dan replied.
"Little Whinging?" Sirius questioned. "You wouldn't happen to know the Dursleys, would you?"
"Unfortunately they live next door." Emma said sadly.
"What the hell is Dumbledore playing at? He knows Lily refused to let her sister, Tunie, be involved. He knows that they hate magic."
"They hate a lot of things." Dan explained.
"They are the reason why we are moving." Emma added.
"Their little monster hurts Hermione all the time."
"Their little monster hurts and destroys everything he touches."
"Oh? Well it might be a good idea to move right now before Dumbledore comes back." Sirius said.
Dan was concerned. "Why? Who is this Dumbledore?"
Sirius turned to Dan. "Long story short. The Magical World has been in a civil war with this dark wizard called Voldemort. He was winning until he attacked the Potters on Halloween, and was destroyed somehow. Only Harry survived the attack. But Voldemort has his Death Eaters, a mob of vicious cold-blooded killers that are still active and will be looking for their master and Harry. Which begs the question why Dumbledore is hiding Harry here? As for Dumbledore, he looks and acts like he is modern day Merlin, and is regarded as the most powerful wizard in Britain for the last fifty years. He has three powerful positions in the Magical World, and formed his own militia to lead the fight against Voldemort. We had been holding our own until recently when we started to lose friends, and that rat explains why. He betrayed us." Sirius pointed to the rat. "So I suggest we all go to a safe house and work out what is going on."
Dan looked sceptical.
Sirius continued. "I know it is a lot to accept but we better move now while we have the chance, and ask your questions later."
Dan looked at Emma and they silently communicated before they agreed. "Okay, let's go, but be prepared for a lot of questions."
"Questions I don't mind, but I have always found that answers could be more difficult." Sirius smiled as used his wand to turn a bowl into a Portkey and then he grabbed the rat. "Dobby, take Harry and Hermione to Potter Manor and then bring back some elves to pack up the Grangers' things. Dan and Emma, can you please touch this bowl and don't let go."
Dobby took hold of Harry and Hermione's hands and popped away while Dan and Emma followed their instructions and touched to bowl as Sirius activated his Portkey. They landed gently in the large entrance hall of Potter Manor. A moment later their furniture started to pop into the hall next to them but the hall was big enough to hold all their things including their two cars.
"Welcome to Potter Manor." Sirius said. "We will be safe here while we try and work out what Dumbledore is up to."
Then the Grangers' dinning room table and chairs popped in next to them still set with their untouched breakfast. Harry and Hermione sat together as she prepared breakfast for them, while Dan and Emma sat down and picked up their still hot coffee mugs as they looked for something stronger.
They knew that this would be a long day.
- Minerva makes a difference. -
Thank you for reading.