A/N: Thank you all for the reviews I always enjoy the moment I get them.
Harry Potter is not mine this is a story from a fan.
A helping hand.
C 26 The truth is hard to swallow part 2.
Minerva and Andrea were sitting at the breakfast table as they heard the front door shut. Amelia had just gone to the police station and left them behind to tell Harry about magic.
Minerva gave a deep sigh and pulled her wand, gave it a flick and the table was cleared of all the food and dishes.
Harry sat in front of her with his mouth hanging open. He saw it with his little eyes but could not believe it. His little mouth opened and closed but there was no sound.
It was after a minute that Andrea took pity on him. "Harry" she started slowly. "Magic is real. I know that it is quite a shock for you but whatever your aunt and uncle told you have been lies. Magic is real".
Harry looked in her eyes and was searing for anything that told him that it was a joke. Magic wasn't real, it was freakish and he was a freak.
"Harry" Minerva called him and made him look at her. "This is a wand" and she placed her wand on the table in front of him. "This is what we use to make magic. Some can do it with their hands but most of us use a stick like this".
Harry gazed at the wand and reached out his little hand.
Normally Minerva would snap it away because nobody could touch her wand, but for Harry, she made an Exception.
His little hand touched the wand and red sparks flew out of the tip.
Andrea let out a yelp of surprise but Harry looked at the sparks and his eyes started to fill up with tears. "Magic is real, you are a witch and I'm not a freak".
Andrea pulled him into a hug and whispered softly, "You were never a freak Harry; you are a wonderful boy and a real wizard".
Minerva looked at it for a moment and got out of her chair. She could clearly see that the walls of little Harry were crumbling before her eyes. Her niece was probably the first one to tell him he wasn't a freak. So she bent down and whispered in the ear of her niece. "I'm going to Hogwarts, we will tell him later about the rest of it".
Andrea nodded as she held Harry a little closer.
It was thirty minutes later that Andrea placed a sleeping Harry back into his bed. It freaked her out a little because she should not have been able to do it so easily. He was eight years old and weighed no more than a child of five. It was then that she decided that she had enough of the school she worked at and called the headmistress.
"Andrea why are you calling me this early, you know that the school has been closed today due to an investigation of a gas leak or something".
Andrea thought about it and knew that Amelia had something to do about it and wordlessly she thanked her in her mind. "I'm calling to tell you I quit. I found out that it has been much worse for Harry and I do blame you for a fair bit of it. As a headmistress, you should have seen it and acted accordingly. You didn't and it sickens me a lot. So I will not be coming back and neither will Mr. Potter. I don't know if I will be his guardian but I assure you he will not be getting back in that school of yours and further more I don't think Dudley will be returning either" and she hung up the phone.
*#*
A silver cat rushed into the apartment of Andrea and sent Harry fleeing to Andrea. When the voice of Minerva sounded through the kitchen he looked very confused at her.
"Andrea I don't know where you are but the school is closed and I'm now going to your apartment. I will meet you there".
Andrea bent down and came at eye level with Harry. "Harry, this is a Patronus. It's a charm to do something very special but also to send a message to someone else, like this" and she pointed at the spot the cat had been.
*#*
Two hours later they found themselves in the courtroom looking at a very old judge. It was only moments later that a police officer brought in the two Dursleys and one Marge Dursley who had been picked up that morning. They didn't have a lawyer because Vernon had been positive that they were innocent.
Harry was looking around and saw Dudley sitting on the other side of the courtroom next to this Mr. Malfoy and was blubbering like a fool. In the back of the courtroom, he saw the same old man with the long white beard. That man scared him a little. As he gazed on he even saw the woman who helped him and this Minerva person who he really liked.
"We are here to see if we can settle this without a court case that could take up to months. You have been accused of the abuse of Harry James Potter" the Judge started while he made Harry jump a little in fright.
"That freak, we never wanted him" Vernon bellowed loudly.
Harry was shocked when his uncle started to scream and almost tried to run out of the courtroom but Andrea kept him in his seat as she laid her hand around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug.
The judge had heard about the temper of Vernon Dursley and wasn't really faced about it but it did give him an opening to ask his question because Vernon was really open and honest. He gave a sharp look at Amelia and knew that she had given them some Veritaserum. He couldn't tell her he liked it but it did make his job easier but for a Muggle, it would work for more than a day. "Mr. Dursley what did you mean, with, you never wanted him," the judge asked.
Vernon was about to answer but it was Petunia who did it for him. "The freak was left at our doorstep in the middle of the night with only a letter touch to it. It told that my sister had died and we had to take care of it. It went on to say that there was a spell to protect us all if we kept him under our roof. So we did, never want him, but kept him for our safety".
"So you didn't want him but you did use him. So if you didn't want him why did you not bring him to an orphanage if you didn't want him" the judge asked as he just went with what came to him.
"If we did that we would not be protected and I know enough of that freak sister of mine that Magic was real and I had to protect myself from it".
"I can understand that" the judge answered slowly.
And almost everyone looked at the judge as if he was growing a second head.
"I would choose the protection too. Still, you could have taken better care of him than you did".
This time it was Vernon who was answering the question. "We did take care of him, we gave him the food he needed the clothes he is wearing and a place to sleep".
The judge gave Harry a look and saw his oversize clothes that seemed more like extensive cloths hanging around his thin frame. He could also see from the thickness of his face that he was way too thin. "From the looks of it, you gave him enough to live on but not enough".
"It was more than enough an all he needed" Petunia snapped.
The Judge didn't react and started his next question. "So you did give him a room".
"Yes, he was sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs. I think that was good enough for him" Vernon told as if it was the right thing to do.
"Why did you make him do all the chores why your own child didn't do any of it".
"Why would we let my little Dudders get all tired and sweaty like that?"
"And yet you let a kid from four years old to now eight years old do it all on his own, you even made him prepare your dinner while you gave him none of it".
"Well, he had to earn his keep. He was costing us a lot of money just to give him what he needed, And I had to train him in the early years it wasn't until he was six years old he could do it himself you know" Petunia said hotly.
It was now that the judge got a little angry. "You got paid for him. More than any other would ever give you. Still, you choose to give that money to your son while you let your nephew do all the work. You neglected him and humiliated him on every chance you got. It sounds like me that he was treated more as a pet to you than a boy. Did you ever love him"?
"LOVE, that FREAK, NEVER" Petunia screamed.
Harry started to sniffle as Andrea took him outside and sat him down on the bench in the hallway as she took a seat next to him.
In the courtroom, Minerva watched as her niece took Harry outside and also how Dumbledore was hanging his head in shame.
It was now that the judge turned his head to Marge Dursley. "I know those two were guilty of abuse to a certain degree. I might not like it but they gave them everything he needed. Food, clothing and even a place to sleep, don't get me wrong they did everything to make him feel unwanted and unloved. You" and he pointed to Marge Dursley. "You, on the other hand, are somebody I can't understand at all. He was a kid and you made him look like a chew toy for your dogs. How do you plead?"
"I'm not guilty, that freak should have never been there and with a bitch of a mother like that he deserved it. He would never become a good boy anyhow. His parents were probably drunks and addicts who got them self-killed. My brother got him and in the goodness of his heart he took him in. he would have been better off left in the gutter where he belonged" Marge Dursley told the judge as if it was nothing.
Minerva got up from her chair and was starting to pull her wand, Albus who was in the back waved his hand and brought her back down into the chair while he stuck her to it.
The judge saw the frustration and made his decision. "I think we can all do with a rest. I will also appoint you a Lawyer to discuss the case with you three. I'm not sure what I will decide but rest assure whatever punishment I will give you now will be better than when it comes to a full court case. So we will take an hour. No, it's almost noon so make it two, grab a bite to eat and be back here at one forty-five, or for the readers when the next chapter is uploaded. Officers take those three away".
This was it again for this week; see you all in the next chapter.
Gr. Winmau.