Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 5

Disclaimer:

I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.

Dumbledore was frustrated. He had been standing in the lobby of Gringotts for several hours, having heard rumors that there was a James Potter lookalike speaking privately with the goblins, but the goblins would tell him nothing! Finally, after several hours of waiting, he cursed his luck that it seemed as if the Potter lookalike managed to slip past him and finally decided to leave. Perhaps he could put out a proximity ward around the cottage at Godric's Hollow, in case this new person showed up there, but perhaps he should stop by Ollivander's while he was here and see if Garrick will be able to take a look at his wand, it didn't seem to be functioning at its normal strength this morning.

At the tent:

While Harry was shopping and Dumbledore was fuming, Merope was taking care of Little Harry at the tent. Oh, how sweet the little guy was! Of course, he made the typical mess that all babies make when they eat and she had to clean him back up after breakfast and transfigure new clothes for him. Little Harry was very fascinated by the process of turning one thing into another.

When Merope decided to transfigure some little stones into some animals for Little Harry to play with, he looked at them in concentration and then looked at Merope and asked, "Mummy, where Paddy and Moony?"

Merope said, "Oh, sweetie, Daddy is going to find them for you. I promise we're going to do everything we can to find Padfoot and Moony so they can be together with you again."

Little Harry scrunched up his nose and said, "No Wormy. No like Wormy."

Merope reached over and ran her hand through Little Harry's hair and said, "No, we will keep Wormtail away, we don't like him either." Which caused Little Harry to smile in relief.

Then Merope said, "I'd better tell Daddy to get you a few picture books while he is out shopping for you. So she concentrated for a moment and then silently sent her patronus on its way.

A few moments later, Harry's stag patronus returned saying, "Yes, dear, I'll pick up some picture books for Little Harry. Your patronus started a few people in Diagon Alley, and may have caused my notice-me-not and aversion charms to stop working for a few minutes, as everyone was able to focus on the patronus approaching me. I may need to take time to charm some mirrors that we can communicate with long distance, since cell phones are not quite available at this time, yet. I miss you both, too, and I'll be home soon." With that, the stag patronus faded out.

Merope said, "Oops."

Little Harry was smiling and said, "Daddy stag."

Merope wasn't sure if Little Harry was referring to the resemblance to James Potter's animagus form, or stating the obvious that the stag patronus was Daddy Harry, but she just smiled and said, "Yes, Daddy's stag." Then noticing it was nearing time for lunch Merope said, "It's time to get ready to eat again, and then it's time to lay down for a nap."

Little Harry nodded his head once and said, "O-tay."

Diagon Alley:

Harry heard a few surprised gasps from the nearby crowds, as he was shopping for children's clothes and toys. It had been many years since he had had to do this chore, so he needed to take a few moments to get his bearings before he started.

At the sound of the gasps, Harry looked up and noticed some of the crowd appeared to be frightened and looking for the dementors that a patronus is known for countering, The remaining crowd watched in interest as the doe patronus approached Harry and said, "Harry, you probably have already planned to, but I think you should pick up some a few picture books for Little Harry. Also, he's very interested in transfiguration, see if you can find some toys that can change their shapes for him, or something similar. Thanks darling! Hurry home soon, we miss you."

Harry took a moment to notice the crowd watching him and knew it was pointless to renew his charms at that point. After having delivered the message and nudging Harry on the cheek in a goodbye greeting, the doe faded away, then Harry concentrated for a moment and sent his return patronus message, hearing more gasps as his stag patronus silently left his wand.

He gave a shy smile and returned to his shopping, attempting to ignore the onlookers. He overheard whispers of, "Looks just like James…" "James wore glasses, he doesn't…" "The doe said his name was Harry…" "What are the odds of two or three Harry Potters? You heard that doe call him Harry and mentioned a little Harry, and they are obviously Potters by the look of him…"

Harry hadn't heard any whispers about the missing Boy-Who-Lived, so he continued with his shopping and chose to ignore the whispering.

Unfortunately, Dumbledore saw both patronuses and heard the whispers and immediately changed his direction from leaving to go to Godric's Hollow, to meddling with this new Potter. He had been disturbed by what Ollivander had to say about the Elder Wand, something about its master taking its power back, but Dumbledore was its master. He just couldn't understand. And now he was hearing whispers about an adult Potter named Harry, and something about a child called Little Harry. He didn't know what was going on, but he vowed to get to the bottom of it. His plans had been ruined enough with the Boy-Who-Lived gone missing.

Having finished purchasing his selections of toddler clothing, Harry decided he would run over to Flourish and Blotts to choose from their selection of picture books, and then see the toy selection at Quality Quidditch Supplies for the toddler brooms. He had decided that he would go into the muggle world to Toys R Us, he could very easily enchant something for Little Harry that would transform into different animals and shapes for him from what he found there.

He was exiting the children's clothing shop when he was stopped suddenly by the appearance of Dumbledore, who seemed to have made it his mission to stand in Harry's way and move directly in front of Harry every time Harry attempted to step to the side to go around.

Finally, having had enough, Harry said, "Sir, please move out of my path and allow me to continue on my day, my wife and child are expecting me home soon and I need to finish my shopping."

Dumbledore said loudly, so as to draw a crowd, "I'm sorry, but that's impossible. As you are clearly using polyjuice in the appearance of a war hero, and I demand to know who you think you are to go about in his image." Causing the crowd to gasp, because if Albus Dumbledore says something, it must be true.

"Hmm. So that's how he wants to play it," Harry thought to himself. He tilted his head calmly to the side and asked aloud, "Just who exactly is it that you're accusing me of impersonating? I can assure you that the goblins would not have allowed me to speak to them if I had been using polyjuice and I was speaking with them for many hours to take care of some business, including drinking tea provided by them and observed by them the entire time."

Ignoring the bit about the goblins, Dumbledore said, "Well, obviously you're impersonating James Potter, who died a war hero defending his family against Lord Voldemort." Observers flinched at the name, but Dumbledore was surprised when Harry did not.

"Do you often go about accusing complete strangers of impersonating a relative, Mister - I do believe you failed to introduce yourself before you accosted me." Harry responded.

Dumbledore sputtered a little. How did this person not know who he was? He was famous the world over! The onlookers were curious about that, too.

Harry was much amused by Dumbledore's antics, but didn't show it.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and said, "I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Chief of the Wizengamot. Supreme Mugwump of the ICW. Now, I demand to know who you are."

Harry responded back calmly and said, "First off, even with all of your many titles, you have no authority to make such demands of me. "Secondly, half of the folks here in the street can tell you that they heard the messenger patronus arrive from my wife calling me Harry, so clearly I am not going about pretending to be James, may he rest in peace. Thirdly, I've wasted enough of my time with you, so I will ask you one more time to move from my path, before I make you."

The onlookers were riveted with the drama unfolding in front of them. Rita Skeeter was among them and it was like Christmas had come early for her. Dumbledore was seething at this man's insolence and refused to move.

Harry shook his head, noticing Rita Skeeter with an eye roll and sent out a wandless and undetectable hex that would prevent her from remembering anything that she heard while in her beetle form. Satisfied with that he returned his attention back to Dumbledore, assessed the situation and decided the heck with it, he won't bother trying to hide his abilities.

So with a wave of his hand, he froze Dumbledore and levitated him out of the way - much to the shock of the onlookers - then set him back down, still frozen. Then Harry said to Dumbledore, loud enough for the crowd to hear, "You need to stop meddling in affairs that don't concern you Dumbledore. My life and the lives of my family do not concern you. If you attempt to crossover the line again, I will do more than just humiliate you in a crowd. It will be one hour before my little freezing charm wears off, and I seriously doubt anyone present or the aurors that may be called will be able to release you before I've set it to dissipate, so you had better think long and hard about where you go from here, because I do not take kindly to strangers blocking my movements in the street, demanding answers."

And with that, Harry reapplied his notice-me-not and aversion charms and made his way to Flourish and Blotts, dispelling the charms only when he was ready to make his purchases (startling the clerk briefly) and then reapplying them.

On his way to Quality Quidditch Supplies, Harry passed by Dumbledore still frozen in the crowd, surrounded by aurors attempting to remove the charm. Unfortunately, one of the aurors was Mad-Eye Moody and Harry had not applied his charms with the intent to keep Moody's eye from seeing him as he walked past.

Moody was standing there puzzled as to what in the blazes had happened and how Dumbledore had found himself frozen in the middle of the street. He was in the middle of questioning the witnesses when his "eye" noticed a person resembling James Potter strolling past with notice-me-not and aversion charms applied. By all accounts, this was the person who had supposedly wandlessly frozen Albus Dumbledore, levitated him, and then left him frozen, boasting that not even the aurors would be able to remove the charm before the time was up.

So with his "eye" firmly fixed on Harry, Mad-Eye strolled over to walk in front of Harry to make him stop, concentrating on using his "eye" so that the aversion charm would not make him want to move out of the way. Moody noticed the way Harry seemed unsurprised when he stopped.

"How can I help you, sir?" Harry asked.

Moody said, "You don't seem surprised that I could see past your charms, would you like to tell me why?"

Harry said, "Well, I have extra abilities, plus, I have the added bonus of having prior knowledge of that marvelous eye of yours, Mad-Eye Moody."

Moody raised his eyebrows at that and said, "I see my reputation precedes me. Might I know what your name is?"

Harry smiled and said, "Harry Potter."

Moody blinked, "The only Harry Potter I know of is a one-and-a-half-year-old."

"Perhaps," Harry said, "but you can hardly be expected to know every Harry Potter. I expect there are at least a few more Harry Potters who are muggles."

Moody nodded in consideration, he felt like he was missing something. Giving up on that topic, he said nonchalantly, "So, I find it interesting that you've heard of me. I wonder why that is, when word on the street is that you didn't know Dumbledore?"

"Well, sir," Harry said loudly enough for Dumbledore and the onlookers could hear, having allowed his charms to drop once more, "Dumbledore thought he would accuse me of going around with James Potter's face using polyjuice, in front of the whole of Diagon Alley, mind you, and block my way from being able to leave the storefront and move on to my next destination."

Eyeing Dumbledore Harry resumed, "So while I did recognize him, I didn't feel he deserved any sort of respect that my knowing him by reputation would show, because regardless of whether or not I knew who he was, he was still a stranger that has never met me and was blocking my path and accusing me of wearing a dead man's face."

Moody nodded at this new information, and said, "While I can see the resemblance to James Potter, I knew him well enough to see the differences. He wore glasses and had hazel eyes; you, obviously, don't wear glasses and have green eyes. So it is obvious that you are not James Potter, but the resemblance is striking." Looking at Harry questioningly.

"Well, the Potter gene is strong." Harry said nodding. "My wife and I arrived last night, responding to a distress call from our son. Our family has lived away these past few years and I'm not surprised that everyone is shocked to realize there was another Potter, as we have stayed to ourselves the last several years."

"Yeah,we sure could have used you here," Moody said, "if the amount of power you displayed was not exaggerated."

Harry raised an eyebrow and said, "No, unfortunately, circumstances prevented me from being here during the war."

Moody grunted and asked, "Well, do you think you can let Dumbledore loose now? I think perhaps he's learned his lesson."

Harry said, "I very much doubt that. But I'll make you a compromise, you allow me to do my shopping at Quality Quidditch Supplies, and I'll set the charm to release as soon as I have physically left the Alley."

Moody looked at Harry curiously and asked, "You can make it that exact?"

Harry regarded him and said, "I can make it down to the very second."

Moody said, "This I have to see. Deal," and shook Harry's hand. Harry nodded and then made his way to the quidditch shop, the crowd parting for him in fascination.

After spending a few minutes inside, Harry considered leaving with a bit of flare, but ultimately decided against it, and headed to the apparition point after finishing up his purchases. Next stop, the muggle store, Toys R Us. Harry made eye contact with Moody, looked at his watch, then silently disappeared.

Moody had his "eye" on Dumbledore at the same time and damned if the wizard didn't actually pull off what he said he could.

Moody walked over to Dumbledore, whose face was darkened in embarrassment and anger. Looking around, Moody cast a privacy charm and asked, "Well, I see you can't seem to keep your nose where it doesn't belong. What were you trying to accomplish Dumbledore?"

Dumbledore did not want to answer, it would lead to even more dicey questions. Dumbledore said, "Well, I felt for sure he was an imposter. Surely, James would have told us about another Potter, especially one that powerful, he would have convinced him to help us in the war. It might have been over sooner if it had."

Moody didn't quite believe him, but didn't want to argue. He just nodded and said, "If I were you, I'd back off. There are more important things to think about other than a new Potter come to town."

Dumbledore asked, "Did something happen, Alastor?"

"Not unless you don't count all the missing persons reports filed this morning, all of them the DEs that claimed imperius," said Moody. "I find it rather interesting that they all went missing on the night that young Harry Potter's home was attacked."

When Dumbledore started to speak, Moody held up his hand and said, "I'm only telling you this much as a courtesy, I'm not going to tell you the results of that investigation. It's been difficult enough keeping it from the press."

Dumbledore nodded in agreement, but Moody knew that he would still manage to find a way to put his nose in it. The man was slippery as an eel and had too many contacts that owed him favors. Thankfully, he himself didn't owe the man any more favors.

Moody removed the privacy charm to address his team of aurors and said, "Well, looks like we've cleared everything up. Let's go fill out the paperwork, lads." Moody gave a final nod to Dumbledore, then he and the other aurors left Diagon Alley, leaving Dumbledore in the middle of the crowd trying to figure out just where he went wrong.