Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 6

Disclaimer:

I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.

Late Afternoon of December 6th - Ministry of Magic, Auror Headquarters:

Barty Crouch, Sr., current Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, though it was anyone's guess on how long he'd be allowed to remain such, was sitting in his office waiting for an update on the missing BWL case.

There was evidence of nine individuals in the muggle house on Privet Drive, which coincidentally, were the exact number of individuals that had a recent missing person's report filed on. There was evidence that all three muggles were killed with the killing curse, and the woman was tortured a fair bit before she was actually killed with the killing curse.

The puzzling part was there seemed to have been a small child living in the cupboard under the stairs who had at the very least been left there injured, yet no evidence that this child was actually the Boy-Who-Lived. It was according to Moody that Dumbledore confirmed it to have been the location where he left the child. With muggles! Really, what was that man thinking? How could he have believed that muggles were an appropriate placement for the Boy-Who-Lived?

And just how did the child escape? There was no sign of a struggle at the cupboard, but then again, he's a small child against adults, he likely couldn't have put up much of a struggle to begin with. There also seemed to be a faint sort of trace of one or two additional persons in the home, but nothing concrete. For all they knew at this point, that was just a faint trace from a past visitor.

He was just deciding what to order next for the investigation when there was a knock at the door, interrupting his thoughts. "Come in," he called. Upon hearing the permission, the door opened, revealing Auror Moody.

"I've got some interesting news for you, sir," Moody said. Crouch gestured for Moody to have a seat and indicated he should start. Moody cleared his throat and said, "There is a new Potter in town, named Harry."

Crouch raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked, "I thought there was but one Potter left, and he's a missing toddler?"

Moody shrugged and said, "He indicated he and his wife have been living out of the country the past several years. Said they arrived last night after receiving some sort of distress call from their son. He's capable of wandless magic, too, might make a good recruit for the aurors."

Crouch said, "I'll give it some thought." Then he asked thoughtfully, "Any news on the Boy-Who-Lived case?"

Moody said, "Not really. We seem to be hitting a brick wall. The only evidence that there may have been another child living in that house was that there was bedding in the cupboard under the stairs and a little bit of old blood, but muggles are so strange that for all we know, they allowed their child to play in there and he happened to cut himself while in there. It could have been like the kid's little hideaway."

Crouch said, "Yeah, that could be true, muggles are strange. Surely Dumbledore is mistaken in his old age to have thought that he had left the boy there."

Moody scratched his head, "But there is evidence of at least nine individuals there, of the use of dark magic, including the killing curse. There must have been some reason for them to have been there. Do you suppose they did take Harry and just disappeared?"

Crouch shrugged, "It's hard to say. That's the only sticking point. We can't find evidence of the child truly having been there, but at the same time what other reason would these wizards have had for killing and torturing the muggles? And Dumbledore does seem sure that's the place he left him."

Moody said, "What are the odds that the family got rid of Harry Potter, you know, gave him away to some other family before all this happened?"

Crouch appeared thoughtful, then shrugged. "I don't know what to think of it. I can't justify an extensive investigation into the death of some muggles, when we have no concrete proof that the Boy-Who-Lived actually lived there and was potentially a victim. All we have is Dumbledore's word that that is where he placed the child, but as you say, the muggles could have decided not to keep him."

Moody nodded and Crouch continued, "I say we close the investigation on the muggles, feed the muggle aurors some cock and bull story about a broken gas line that killed them in their sleep, and then move onto other things."

"What do you want me to do about the issue of the Potter boy?" Moody asked.

"Don't report him missing, it will just create chaos. Make sure your team knows to keep quiet and that the official assumption is that the boy was placed with another family that Dumbledore didn't know about." Crouch responded. Then he thought for a moment more and said, "I want you to unofficially keep your ear to the ground, and listen out for clues about the boy's whereabouts, but don't try to remove him - if you find him - unless he appears to be in apparent danger."

"Well," Moody said, "I haven't seen the child since just after he was born, so the only way I have of identifying him now would be the lightning bolt scar that is reported to be on his forehead. The Potter I met earlier commented that he wouldn't be surprised if there were a few muggle Harry Potters, so I guess I'll have to stick with finding that scar on his forehead, because the name may not be as unique as we thought." Moody scratched his chin in thought and said, "Hell, I think I heard that the Harry Potter I met in Diagon Alley also has a son named Harry, so I don't think I'm going to be able to rely on just following the name."

Crouch nodded and said, "Just do what you have to do and remember to keep it quiet. If there's nothing else you had to report, I've got a few more things to take care of before I leave for home."

Moody nodded and said, "No, sir. That was everything I had to report that was of note." Not bothering to pass on news of Dumbledore's humiliation, Crouch didn't appear to be in the mood to listen to that story, so Moody left, leaving Crouch to his thoughts.

Back at the Tent, Evening:

Harry finally came back home with all of his purchases. It had been a long day. After leaving Diagon Alley, he went shopping at Toys R Us and brought home quite a few toys that he was going to work on to animate. The Bristle Blocks, he was going to give to Little Harry as they were, but the rest he was going to work on some magical features, as soon as Little Harry went to sleep in his own room.

Merope heard Harry arrive and ran to greet him with a hug and kiss. "You were gone so long!" she said.

Harry said, "I know, I'm sorry. Dumbledore decided to try and start something with me in Diagon Alley, accusing me of wearing my father's face, though of course he actually accused me of polyjuice, since he doesn't know James was my father. So it took a bit of time straightening him out, I ended up wandlessly freezing him and levitating him out of my way because he wouldn't stop blocking my path." Which caused Merope to giggle a bit.

"How has Little Harry been today?" Harry asked.

Merope said, "Oh, he has been such a little sweetheart. He barely fussed when it was time for a nap. I can hardly believe how easy going you were as a child."

"Well," Harry said, "for my own experience, I learned very early on what the consequences of making a fuss at the Dursleys would be. If I wanted to eat or if I wanted to avoid being punished, I had to pretend as if I didn't exist."

Merope smiled at Harry sadly and said, "Well, we will make sure that Little Harry doesn't have to feel the way you did, though, I won't have him spoiled in compensation." she added with a wink.

Harry said seriously, even though he knew that last part was said in jest, "Of course, he won't be spoiled. We didn't raise Edward to be spoiled. We plan to raise Little Harry as our own; therefore, he will not be spoiled either, but he will know love, which is something I never had as a child after my parents died."

Merope gave him another hug and a kiss and said, "Well, you have no shortage of love now. Little Harry will have so much love he won't know what to do with it." Kissing Harry again, Merope said, "I know I've told you in the past, but you were such a wonderful father to Edward and I know that you'll be just as wonderful a father to Little Harry."

Harry looked over at Little Harry and smiled, he was sitting there quietly playing with some little animals that Merope must have transfigured for him. There was a hippogriff, a griffin, a thestral, and a unicorn. He was so focused on playing that he never noticed Harry had come back home.

Returning his attention back to Merope, Harry said, "We should consider calling him by another name, we won't be able to call him Little Harry all of his life, and it might get a little annoying later on. What do you think about calling him Jamie?"

Merope thought about it and said, "Perhaps. We could test it out and see how he reacts. Worse comes to worse, we can just call him Harry and I'll start calling you Hadrian or Evan." Harry nodded thoughtfully, then his stomach growled loudly, causing Merope to raise an eyebrow.

"I may have been a little too excited to shop at Toys R Us to stop for lunch," Harry said sheepishly.

Merope rolled her eyes and said, "Well, it's nearly time for supper, so why don't you go get cleaned up, while I get something started." Harry nodded and left to obey.

After getting cleaned up and changed, Harry began unloading all the items from his shopping trip, making sure to hide away the toy broom for Christmas. He planned to save most of the muggle toys for Christmas, too, but he needed to enchant them first, so he hid them away until he had the chance to work on them. He held back a couple of the picture books to save for Christmas as well. He set aside the Bristle Blocks to give to Little Harry after supper, along with the remaining picture books he had gotten from Flourish and Blotts.

Harry made a mental note to get over to Godric's Hollow to pick up Little Harry's own toys after he took care of all the horcruxes, which he planned to take care of tomorrow, assuming that all of the horcruxes were where they were supposed to be, starting with Little Harry's scar. His hope was that they would be able to remove the parasite soon enough that it won't leave a scar as it had with himself.

Harry heard Merope announcing supper was ready, just as he finished putting all the new clothes for Little Harry in the laundry area to be washed before he wore them. So Harry stored the Bristle Blocks and the picture books in one of his expanded pockets and returned to the main area of the tent.

When Harry entered, Little Harry noticed him and squealed in happiness, quickly making his way over to be picked up. "Daddy!" he said excitedly, and then proceeded to hug Harry very tightly.

"Oh, hello there, Harry, did you miss me?" Harry asked.

Little Harry nodded into Harry's shoulder and confirmed, "Missed Daddy."

"Well, I missed you, too. And I brought you home some surprises after we have eaten our supper." Harry announced. At that announcement, Little Harry wiggled to be put down on the floor, and grabbed Harry's hand to walk to the dining room table.

Harry helped Little Harry to sit in his transfigured high chair. That was something else Harry needed to get from Godric's Hollow, all of the undamaged baby furniture and all of the pictures, that way Little Harry would still remember James and Lily.

Merope had made a delicious shepherd's pie, which Harry made sure to compliment her on. It was much better than Molly Weasley's, in Harry's expert opinion, and it seemed as if Little Harry liked it just as much, considering the way that he was enthusiastically trying to fill up his mouth with it.

After they had all eaten and Little Harry had been helped down from the high chair and cleaned up, he toddled over to Harry and looked up, then asked, "Sup'ise, Daddy?" Harry bent down and scooped him up, tickling him playfully, making Little Harry squeal in delight.

"Yeah, all right," Harry said. "Now, sit down here and close your eyes, " Harry instructed. Little Harry did so, as Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out the Bristle Blocks and picture books. When Little Harry was settled down, Harry said, "Okay, Harry, you can open your eyes, " and Harry levitated them down and Little Harry watched on in awe. Reaching over to touch the Bristle Blocks, he looked over them in concentration as if wondering how to play with them. Harry took two of them and pressed them together to show how they worked, which delighted Little Harry so much, he forgot about seeing the picture books until it was almost bedtime.

While Little Harry was distracted playing with the new toys, Harry offered to go clean up the kitchen and dining room area, but Merope said she had already taken care of that. So they just sat there together, enjoying the moment they had to spend together as a family, until it was time to get Little Harry put to bed.

They read the story of Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump, and Little Harry just loved and giggled at the moving animations that were shown on the pages. Finally, he yawned a really big yawn and kissed Harry and Merope good night, then fell asleep very quickly. Harry placed a monitoring charm on Little Harry so he would know if Little Harry woke in the middle of the night and needed help going back to sleep, and then Harry and Merope quietly left the room.

When Harry and Merope returned to their room, Harry showed Merope all of the extra things he bought and intended to save for Christmas, quickly enchanting them as he showed them to her.

There was a Mr. Potato Head, which Harry enchanted to make all the parts animated, and upon remembering the Toy Story movie that was yet to come out, he enchanted the toy to be able to talk and behave just like the Mr. Potato Head in the movie. He then, of course, had to box it back up and place locking and silencing charms on the box, so the toy could not make noises or escape.

Next were some RC motorcycles, cars, and trucks that he enchanted to have motor sounds while in movement, and the ability to drive themselves for short distances.

There were some Star Wars and Star Trek action figures that he enchanted to be able to walk around and do fighting stances, including using the lightsabers, with regard to the Star Wars figures. Harry thought Little Harry might like the Wookie the best, which he enchanted to imitate Wookie speech.

And lastly, he bought Wolfman, Dracula, and Godzilla action figures, enchanting them as follows: Wolfman was enchanted with the ability to transform between the wolfman form and a man, and to be able growl and snarl when in its wolfman form. Dracula was enchanted to be able to transform between a bat and vampire. Then Godzilla was enchanted to be able roar and stomp around.

When he was done showing them, and his other purchases, off to Merope and had put them away securely in his backpack, he noticed Merope was just looking at him with a sweet and sappy look on her face. And when he looked at her questioningly, she just said softly, "You're such a good and thoughtful daddy, and I just absolutely love you more and more every day."

In answer, Harry reached over and took her hand, pulling her closer to him, then he kissed her softly on the lips and said, "You know, I expect Little Harry will be sleeping for a good few hours. What do you think about trying out that hot tub now?"

Merope leaned into another kiss and whispered, "I would love to."