Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 9
Disclaimer:
I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.
Merope had just gotten Little Harry into his highchair for lunch when Harry walked back in, causing Little Harry to squeal in delight, but obediently remain in his chair. Harry reached over and ruffled Little Harry's hair in greeting and then grabbed Merope to pull her into a hug and a kiss, which she returned eagerly, but modestly, being mindful of the little eyes.
When they stepped back, Merope asked quietly, "So I take it everything went well?"
Harry nodded in confirmation and said, "Yes, the only one that tried to put up a fight was the locket, but I took care of it." Merope nodded in response. "After Little Harry lays down for a nap, I want to tell you about my visit to the Black house and get started on our plans for freeing Sirius. I think Walburga might actually be a help to us, and based on what I overheard while I was there she might actually welcome being able to help."
"Of course, dear," Merope responded, "we'll talk all about it after lunch and after Little Harry goes down for his nap. Although, with as much rest as he's already gotten this morning, I'm not positive that he will need a nap this afternoon."
Harry shrugged and said, "Well, we'll see. If he doesn't go down for a nap, I suppose we can always use a privacy charm to talk about it while he's playing." Then Harry got lost in thought for a couple of minutes as he went over in his head what they still planned to accomplish before moving Little Harry to a more permanent residence. "Have we really only been here for three days?" Harry asked. "It's already starting to feel as if it's been a month."
Merope just smiled and said, "Well, they have been a very busy three days, and well, not even technically three days. We arrived in the middle of the night on Saturday, December the 5th, and today is Monday, December 7th, and we are only halfway through it. I think we've been able to accomplish a lot in the short time that we've been here. Now, enough talk about that, come sit down and eat before Little Harry starts levitating the food in his impatience to eat." Which made Harry smile in amusement at what would probably have been a very apt description in about another five minutes.
They enjoyed a lunch of roast beef, steamed carrots, and diced garlic potatoes. Little Harry looked at the carrots in doubt, but tried them after he saw Harry eat them without spitting them out. Then he enthusiastically finished everything on his plate and wanted more carrots.
They spoke softly as they ate and Harry decided now might be a good time to bring up the name thing. "Harry," he said, "since we are both called Harry, mummy and I were thinking we would call you Jamie, after your first daddy and for your middle name, James. What do you think?" Harry tried to keep the question and explanation simple, but he felt confident that if Harry could understand the deep discussion they had had this morning before removing the horcrux, surely he would be able to understand this.
Little Harry seemed to give it some serious thought. "Me like Harry," he finally said after a long pause and then said with a nod of finality, "Mummy call me Harry. Me like Harry."
Well, Harry could understand that. "That's okay, son. We will keep calling you Harry." Which seemed to satisfy Little Harry, and he returned to eating his second helping of the carrots.
After lunch, Harry cleaned up the dining area and the kitchen, while Merope got Little Harry all cleaned up. After the clean-up, they all sat down together in the living area of the tent, and seeing how wide awake Little Harry seemed to be, Harry suggested to Merope that perhaps they should take him to play at a muggle playground for a few hours so he could work off some of his energy.
As they were getting ready to go, Harry started to conjure temporary sandbox toys for Little Harry to play with, along with a netted bag to carry them in, and then it dawned on him that going to a muggle playground in the month of December might not be the best of ideas. While they could very easily cast warming charms to keep from being cold, their lack of reaction to the cold might draw them attention.
Harry had automatically been weaving the weather control charms into his wards around either his home or his tent for so many years, that he had completely forgotten what the weather was like when he made his suggestion, even though he had been out and about for half the day taking care of horcruxes, it simply never dawned on him. He was going to have to get used to thinking about these sorts of things again. It's amazing how fast one stops thinking about mundane things when one is immortal, as the last several years in their previous timeline, they had stayed near the manor and spent most of their time with their family and didn't go out quite as much.
He promised himself he would try to do better, otherwise the next time they traveled, there would be absolutely no hope of either of them blending in and fixing things from the shadows. They may very well appear with wands blazing and making demands and say the heck with trying to be subtle. He absently wondered what they would do when there were no more times or universes that needed fixing. Will they just pretend to make a philosopher's stone and appear to be immortal from the elixir of life?
Merope noticed Harry had paused his actions as if in mid-thought and asked, "What's wrong dear? Are we going to find a playground or did you change your mind?" Harry shook his head and explained the dilemma he had just realized.
Merope just shook her head in amusement and said, "Darling, we're magical. It's easy to dismiss the weather when we can so easily remedy it with charms to repel rain, heat, and cold, etc. All that means is that we need to spend more time in the muggle world to help us be more aware. And the only situation I can think of where we would appear with wands blazing and making demands would be if for some unimaginable reason we appeared in the middle of a battle."
Harry considered what Merope said for a moment and relaxed, he was overthinking it that was all. Then he made the suggestion that they pack up the tent and stay in a muggle hotel for a few days and perhaps take Little Harry to the zoo this afternoon and find an ice skating rink that catered to families the next day or so.
Merope agreed with staying at a muggle hotel, then they could enjoy the experience of dining out, and thought Little Harry would enjoy the zoo, but felt he was probably a little too young to try out an ice rink. When Harry started to make another suggestion, Merope raised her hand and said, "What about we go find our hotel and get checked in and go from there?" Which caused Harry to close his mouth with an audible pop, and Merope giggled.
Thankfully, Harry still had all that muggle money left over from the first time he time traveled, and he had added to it over the years. They had decided against opening a muggle bank account, as their backpacks were more secure than the banks, and making large deposits in the muggle world would draw them unwanted attention.
Merope chose to keep a small amount of muggle money with her, just in case something caught her eye, a small amount to her was still a lot in the eyes of the muggles; however, she preferred to let Harry store all of the excess muggle money.
So they packed everything, Harry picked up Little Harry, wrapped his other arm around Merope, made sure that everyone was cloaked in stealth mode, and then apparated everyone away.
They arrived in a little used alley in the middle of London near a muggle hotel that Harry had stayed in from time to time throughout his years. And before Harry could remove their stealth mode, Merope reminded him that he needed to conjure up some luggage for them to use when checking into the hotel.
Once done conjuring some luggage, Harry dropped their stealth mode, but applied a notice-me-not charm set to gradually fade as they reached the sidewalk leading to the front door to the hotel. As they were arriving at the front door, Harry noticed a familiar looking man wearing a threadbare robe seated on the bench a few feet past the front doors to the hotel. He seemed to be a mixture of grieving and drunk, clutching a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag. Before he could place why the man was so familiar, Little Harry clapped and squealed, "Moony!" Which caused Harry and Moony to simultaneously say, "Yeah, that's who it is," and, "James!"
Remus Lupin had been wandering around muggle London for nearly a month and a half, lost in grief and his inability to find where Dumbledore had stashed Harry. Most of the muggles ignored him, believing him to be homeless, and therefore not worth paying any particular attention to. He had only returned to his home once in November to be confined for the full moon, in order to prevent infecting others, and he would need to return again for the full moon on Friday.
It was only due to Remus' strong desire to not infect anyone else with this awful condition that he was able to keep up with the phases of the moon. He knew he wasn't going to be able to stay almost drunk for much longer, he was nearly out of muggle money and his condition made him burn through muggle alcohol much faster than, say, firewhiskey.
He had just been sitting here on this bench, wallowing in his grief and riding out his alcohol induced stupor, when he heard that sweet little voice he thought he would never hear again when he heard, "Moony!" It cleared the fog out of his brain faster than the Hogwarts Express clearing the station and he jerked up in surprise. He almost fainted when he thought he saw James, and called his name in shock.
They stood there staring at each other for a moment when Merope cleared her throat and said, "While this is a most fortuitous reunion, perhaps we should get out of the cold weather and make room reservations." Looking specifically at Harry, Merope said, "Harry, I do believe you need to reserve a suite that has a kitchen, sitting room, and spare bedroom. I'll hold Little Harry while you take care of that, and wait in the lobby with Mr. Lupin. Okay?"
Harry nodded in agreement and said, "All right, Harry, you stay here with mummy and Moony, while daddy gets us all a room and then we can try to explain some things to Moony, if Moony is not too far in his cups to have a conversation." He said that last part while eyeing Remus, who was holding the brown paper bag wrapped bottle loosely in his grasp.
Remus blinked a bit in confusion. He could have sworn that it was James, but that was definitely not Lily with him, but she had called him Harry, but they also had Harry. He was very confused at this point and was starting to think that the muggle alcohol had affected him far more than he thought it did.
Little Harry reached out to Merope's out-stretched arms and cuddled up to her, while watching Moony silently and intently. Merope, upon seeing the confusion on Remus' face said, "Mr. Lupin, I promise that we will explain everything that we can, after my husband reserves us all a suite."
Remus responded stupidly, "James married Lily. You're not Lily."
Merope said, "My husband's name is Harry." When Remus looked as if he was going to say something else, Merope said sternly, "I promise you will have everything explained to you, but not in the middle of a hotel lobby in the middle of London. Have I made myself clear, Mr. Lupin?"
Remus cleared his throat and said, "Yes, ma'am. I will do my best to wait, but I am most anxious to find out what the devil is going on."
Harry had returned at that point and said, "All right. I've got our suite keys, let's head on up before we start getting stared at." Turning to Remus, Harry said, "Really, Moony, I know you're grieving, but you could have at least gone home long enough to bathe every other day, I'm nearly in shock that the hotel staff took my word for allowing you to share the suite with us. You will definitely be getting a bath before we sit down to talk."
Before Remus could respond, as he was too busy opening and closing his mouth in shock, Harry said, "We had intended on taking Little Harry to the zoo this afternoon, but running into you is much more important than doing that, so we'll plan to do that tomorrow, and you can come with us. We have plans to make Moony, and we're going to need all of your Marauder know-how to pull it off.
Author's notes:
Briefly as a reminder so no one gets confused, Merope's identity is Mary in this story and will be called Mary when there is dialogue, but still referred to as Merope outside of dialogue. I'm considering writing LH instead of Little Harry every single time unless it's used in dialogue, because it's starting to feel redundant, but maybe that's just me.