Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 34
Disclaimer:
I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.
Note: I have rewritten this chapter a few times because the first few times just didn't feel quite right, but hopefully this version will work.
It had been quite a few months since the article in the Daily Prophet had revealed Little Harry's identity. The Potters and friends had celebrated Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year's, when the news and excitement seemed to have died down just a little bit, but even still, their mail they had redirected to a secondary location was still accumulating quite a bit. In order to give Kreacher something more to do, Walburga had given him permission to help sort through all the mail. Not that Harry and Merope couldn't handle whatever was sent through, it was just that Kreacher's house-elf magic worked in ways that made mail sorting more precise and took less time.
March 1983:
While Harry was still a somewhat frequent visitor of the Ministry and other area related to Magical Britain due to his work as a freelance investigator, the Potters rarely ever saw the need to go to Diagon Alley, as they had plenty of food supplies, they had access to a variety of fruits and potions ingredients on their island, and they generally lived very simply and had very few needs, and what needs they did have was taken care of in the muggle world.
It was Walburga, who made a point to stay abreast of the gossip she heard when visiting Diagon Alley and spending time with Alastor Moody. It was also Walburga who suggested it was probably time to start bringing Little Harry to Diagon Alley more frequently.
It was a bit surprising when Walburga had informed the family that she and Mad-Eye had begun seeing each other romantically. After having become acquainted during Sirius' trial, they had kept in touch sporadically throughout the year, and finally Moody felt confident enough that there was a mutual attraction and he respectfully asked her on a date, which she quickly accepted, and they had been seeing each other ever since.
Among the reasons Walburga had brought up for taking Little Harry out to visit Diagon Alley more often was so that the people could become used to seeing him out and about, which would hopefully make some of the newness and novelty wear off by the time he was eleven and ready to start school at Hogwarts. Additionally, it would be good for him to get used to being around new people, as he very rarely left the island, except for the occasional trip to the theaters or zoo in the muggle world.
When Harry and Merope had discussed it among themselves after Walburga had returned home to Grimmauld Place, they knew and understood what it was like to grow up sheltered and isolated and they didn't want Little Harry to grow up too sheltered and afraid of crowds; on the other hand, they didn't want him to be overwhelmed with all the attention he was bound to receive and he was a bit too young to fully comprehend his popularity, no matter how intelligent he was for his age. So it was a matter of trying to find a balance between their two sets of feelings and come up with a strategy that would make them feel better about the situation.
At first they were concerned for Little Harry's talent for wandless magic, but, luckily, Little Harry seemed to understand instinctively that it should not be done when out in the muggle world, and they felt pretty confident that they could brush off any use of it in the magical world as accidental magic, though, it had stopped being accidental magic around the time he had turned two years old. While Harry and Merope were thrilled at his ability to use magic, it was something that they preferred to keep secret from the general population, as one never knows when that kind of surprise could come in handy.
The topic of Basil came up when Merope said, "Dear, you know that Harry is going to want to take Basil with him when we go. They have been nearly inseparable from the moment he found her here on the island."
Nodding, Harry said, "Yes, I do realize he would probably expect to be able to bring Basil along, but how are we going to explain that parseltongue is not highly thought of and will cause strangers to be afraid of him? That he should hide his ability? That's something that we don't have experience with, because there had been no terrible dark lords in our last timeline to give parselmouths the bad name that Voldemort had in my time."
Merope tilted her head in thought, tapping her finger on her chin as she went over everything in her head. Finally, she said, "Firstly, we should decide how to handle it if it is, in fact, discovered during our trip to Diagon Alley. We may be worrying about nothing. It's not as if Basil will deliberately allow herself to be seen, if we had previously asked her to remain hidden under Harry's cloak." Harry nodded in agreement and gestured for her to continue.
"If Basil is noticed and the reaction is bad, we have enough power individually and together to freeze everyone present in the Alley and modify their memories. I'm not fond of that idea, but if it's needed to protect Harry from a mob of frightened sheeple, then I'll do it." finished Merope with a nod of finality.
Before Harry could respond, Remus poked his head through the door and said, "I think it would be funny if you charmed her with a translation spell that way anyone else would just believe that was the only way Little Harry can talk to a snake is if it's been charmed."
Harry shook his head and said, "Don't you think if that were possible there would be more people with talking snakes, especially anyone who was sorted into Slytherin?"
Remus shrugged and rested his shoulder on the doorframe, "I don't know. You do impossible stuff all the time. I figured if anyone could do it, it would be you."
Harry just rolled his eyes and said, "Basil may not even want to leave the warmth of the island and we're worrying over nothing."
Merope said, "You know, looking into a translation spell for Basil is not really a bad idea because, if it works, it will help other magicals be less afraid of snakes, as they'd be able to understand what they say for themselves; however, it's going to take a bit more research and experimentation than just a few days we have before our plan to go shopping. Right now we can't even be sure that the translation spell would allow for a two-way conversation or if it would only work one-way."
Remus nodded and said, "You are absolutely correct, Mary. I hadn't even thought about whether a snake might understand English back."
A few days later found the Potters in Diagon Alley, along with Sirius and Remus. Walburga had been invited along, but had a date planned with Moody, so she declined.
The shopping party arrived through the muggle entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, because Potter's Refuge was not connected to the Floo Network and Harry never intended for it to be. Little Harry was carried in Harry's arms, although he was big enough to walk by himself, and Basil was wrapped around his waist under his shirt and cloak. Harry intended to let Little Harry walk between him and Merope after they got through the entrance and into Diagon Alley, if the crowds were not bad.
Their appearance almost went almost unnoticed until someone asked rather loudly, "Hey, isn't that the Potters?" causing the pub to suddenly go silent, before excited chatter began anew. Thankfully, no one attempted to approach them, although everyone's eyes remained on their party, and they were able to make their way through to the entrance to Diagon Alley without much difficulty.
Harry squeezed Little Harry in comfort and asked, "Are you alright, son?"
Little Harry looked at him wide-eyed and asked, "Why they so happy to see us?"
Harry said, "I'll tell you the story one day, but our family name is famous and even though some of them have seen me fairly frequently, they haven't seen our whole family in public in a long time." Little Harry seemed satisfied enough with that answer, even if he didn't fully understand it, and they all continued fully into Diagon Alley to start their shopping. The rest of the shopping trip was fairly uneventful until they happened upon a family of redheads.
The once loud and boisterous family did their best to remain inconspicuous and draw as little attention to themselves as they could. Ginny was asleep in a cloth carrier that Molly had magicked to herself with a sticking charm, Ron was holding onto her left hand, while one of the twins was holding her right hand. The other twin was between Charlie and Percy holding their hands.
Molly wouldn't have even bothered bringing the children shopping with her, if she had had any other choice. She was desperate and had gotten her hands on Auntie Muriel's tiara and was trying to decide the best place to sell it at. She really wanted to save it for Ginevra's wedding to the Potter boy, but she had finally started having her doubts that that would ever happen now. Plus, they desperately needed the money. They were not getting nearly enough money to survive, especially after Arthur's demotion. Regardless of how much overtime the man tried to get, he could never seem to bring home enough; the man was run ragged and rarely home anymore.
"It's all the Potters' fault," Molly mumbled to herself. "It's all their fault that we have become so desperate that I'm having to consider selling off family heirlooms that I haven't even inherited yet."
She stopped abruptly, causing the children that had been trailing behind her to run into the back of her. In front of her were the Potters, eating ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, appearing for all the world oblivious to all of the harm they had caused to her family by adopting the Boy-Who-Lived, with them was that werewolf Lupin and the convict Black, he would always be a convict in her eyes, Dumbledore had sent him to Azkaban for a reason after all. As if her thoughts had alerted him, Hadrian Potter looked up from his ice cream and met her eye, causing her to turn red in the face.
Fred, noticing the look on his mother's face meant that he was going to start yelling, let go of her hand and started creeping back towards his twin and older brothers, who had also noticed the signs of a temper. Ron remained oblivious and continued to hold her hand as if there was nothing wrong.
Harry noticed the signs, too, and exchanged a look with Merope, who then took in the appearance of the children and felt saddened by the state of their clothing, as it reminded her of how poor she once was when she had lived with her father and brother. They made a silent agreement that they would try to help the children in whatever way they could, even if the parents deserved all the scorn they had received.
Before Molly could open her mouth to scream as she had probably intended, Harry placed a Muffliato around Little Harry, who was happily eating his ice cream, then he turned to Molly and spoke in a polite tone, "Mrs. Weasley, I presume?"
Molly scowled and said sharply, "Of course. Who else would I be?"
"Considering the fact that I've never met you, I couldn't say," responded Harry. "Did you know that your children appear to be very frightened behind you and are trying to back away?"
"How ridiculous, my children have no reason to be afraid," said Molly in a scathing tone. Then she turned to look behind her and frowned, seeing that Potter was correct. Once she saw that it appeared her children would not stray too far away, she turned her attention back to Potter and said, "I hope you're feeling very proud of yourself."
Harry frowned at her and said, "Well, I make it a habit to not allow myself to be too prideful, but I can't deny that I have accomplished much in my life. Is there something specific that I should be particularly proud of?"
Molly growled and said, "You ruined our lives!"
Merope decided to say something at that point. "Pardon me, ma'am. In what way did we ruin your lives? We have had no contact with you. We had no involvement whatsoever in the Ministry's investigation of you after what was discovered after Dumbledore's death." Merope then narrowed her gaze as she looked at Molly, "So again I ask, in what way did we ruin your lives?"
Molly sputtered, and then gritted her teeth and said, "If you had never arrived here, our lives would not have been ruined."
Merope wiped the corner of her mouth with her napkin and said calmly, "Well, perhaps not. But if we had not arrived here, then our adopted son's life would have been ruined or even taken from him by your family or Dumbledore." Before Molly could respond, Merope asked, "Did it never occur to you that you could be caught? Did you never feel guilty for plotting to essentially steal from an orphan whose parents ultimately died protecting him and saving this community at the same time? One could argue that your lives would have been just fine if you had not gotten greedy and agreed to whatever Dumbledore wanted you to do."
Molly was about to give her best scathing response when she noticed the crowd that had gathered around them to listen, with a few of the crowd having positioned themselves between herself and her children, with the exception of Ron and Ginny, the former was still holding her hand and the latter was just waking up in her carrier.
Molly, thinking that she didn't have much to lose at this point and thinking that she was pretty much guaranteed temporary safety with a child strapped to her chest, thanking Merlin that Ron was not holding onto her wand hand.
Harry continued to watch her with a polite expression on his face, all the while trying to figure out what might be passing through the mind of the woman he once looked to as a mother in his other life. Then he noticed she had drawn her wand and his eyes widened when she suddenly flung the killing curse at Little Harry.
It all happened in a split second, but it seemed to happen in slow motion. There were screams coming from the crowd watching. Remus and Sirius watched with mouths open in shock. There was no time for either Harry or Merope to move Little Harry out of the way, but Harry was not the youngest seeker in a century for no reason. He shot out his hand and caught the green light just before it would have reached Little Harry's face, closing his fist around it tightly before he drew it towards him as he rolled it around in his hand as if it were a piece of putty before it slowly dissipated.
He looked up to see everyone except Merope staring at him in wide-eyed shock. Molly opened and closed her mouth, as if she had lost the ability of speech. After a beat Merope said, "Well, I do believe someone should restrain Molly Weasley and call the aurors," causing all the onlookers to break out of their trances, excited murmurs could be heard everywhere.
Merope looked at Harry and said, "Well, I guess it's too much to ask Fate to allow us a low profile for long." Harry just nodded in answer and sent a patronus for Moody.
Merope nodded towards the frightened Weasley children and said, "I'll go gather them up and get them some ice cream while we wait for all of this mess to get straightened out and calmed down." Harry nodded and turned his attention to Little Harry.
THE DAILY PROPHET
POTTER CATCHES KILLING CURSE
By: Rita Skeeter
Dear readers, yes, you read that headline correctly, Hadrian Potter caught a killing curse in his hand and lived! It seems our Boy-Who-Lived may now have to share his title; although, his adopted father is hardly a mere boy.
The Potters were minding their own business in Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour when Molly Weasley approached their table. After a brief conversation, Molly Weasley drew her wand and cast the killing curse at the Boy-Who-Lived! Onlookers thought for sure the Boy-Who-Lived was doomed when Hadrian Potter reached out his hand and caught the curse and he didn't die!
Sirius Black, who was present with the Potters, had this to say, "I've never seen anything like it. Hadrian just threw out his hand as if he were catching a snitch and not our world's deadliest curse, and then he rubbed it in his hand until it just disappeared. It was amazing."
Molly Weasley has been arrested and taken to the Ministry holding cells to await trial. Arthur Weasley was unable to be reached for comment or to take custody of his children. The Potters have graciously agreed to accept them into their home, until Arthur Weasley can be found or other relatives agree to take the children on.
Bill Weasley put the newspaper down with shaking hands, revealing a pale face. He looked up to find the eyes of all the other students on him in the Great Hall. He got up and ran out of the Great Hall with the intention of sending an owl to his Uncle Bilius, thankfully, no one tried to follow him.