Prologue
The book lying under the hedge that caught the young boy's attention was a torn, shredded thing that someone had discarded. Most of the cover was missing, as were many of the pages, but the brightly-coloured pages called to the five-year-old boy. With a quick glance to see that he was not being watched, the boy grabbed the book and shoved it into his schoolbag, then scurried to catch up to his aunt and cousin as they reached the gates of the school.
"Your first day of school, Duddikins. I know you'll do brilliantly." The woman smiled at her son, then sniffed at the smaller boy. "I don't know why we have to waste education on you, boy, but it gets you out of the house, at least."
Boy didn't bother to react, but simply followed his cousin through the gates.
.
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"…never been so embarrassed…" Petunia growled as she stormed home, dragging the smaller boy by his arm while Dudley followed behind, confused about what was happening. "At least you had the sense to say your name was boy rather than freak but… how could you do that to me?!"
"I didn't know my name was Harry!" The newly-renamed boy managed as he half-stumbled, being kept from falling only by the grip his aunt had on his arm. "You never told me!"
"Shut up!" Petunia growled as she stormed up the path to the house. Using her free hand to unlock the door, she pulled Harry inside and pushed him forwards. "Get in your room! Now!"
Harry ducked into the cupboard and Petunia slammed the door closed, then dropped something on the carpet, blocking the sparse illumination that came in underneath the door.
"And you can stay there until morning!" Petunia finished ranting. "If only Vernon wasn't away on business right now… Come on, Duddikins, let's get you something to eat and you can tell me how your day went."
Harry reached up and, after a moment of fumbling, switched on the small light, illuminating his so-called room. Shifting so that he was no longer half-lying on his bag, he opened it and rummaged in it, finally pulling out the book that he had found. Opening it, he stared at the bright pictures, then his eyes widened as he saw one of the people on the page vanish in a cloud of smoke, only to reappear on the other side of the room in a similar cloud, letting him punch a huge man in a red outfit.
Harry grinned, imagining himself being able to do something like that and hit his bigger cousin, then get away before he could be hit in return.
Leafing through the tattered pages, Harry paid the most attention to the one who could move from one place to another. The words meant nothing to him and he couldn't follow the plot, but the blue-skinned being with the tail he could hang by was something he had never imagined before and his mind whirled at the possibilities.
A sudden banging jolted him out of his daydreams and he quickly stuffed the book underneath the bag, managing to do so just before the door was pulled open.
"Get to the bathroom." Petunia ordered. "Go to the loo, then clean your teeth and have a quick shower. I won't have you stinking up the house and Duddiekins wants a bath."
Harry nodded as he scrambled out and headed up the stairs. While the pre-bed routine was familiar to him, it was earlier than normal.
Not that he minded. He wanted to get back to the book.
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Accidental Magic is something that is ill-understood, mainly because there is no real way to research it. Observations and assumptions exist about it, though, and generations of Witches and Wizards have come to accept that Accidental Magic falls into two general categories, defence/survival and emotion-driven.
This is true, as far as it goes, but it is merely the reflection of the deeper truths. Accidental Magic does not follow the same path of resonating with natural magic that Intentional Magic does. Instead, Accidental Magic is purely from within. This means that it cannot be directly blocked and its unstructured nature makes it almost impossible to analyse, although the effects can be observed and reverse-engineered. The reason why Accidental Magic is quickly replaced by Intentional Magic as soon as possible is that Accidental Magic is incredibly draining. A single spell can easily tire the caster and several in quick succession can push them into a near-coma of exhaustion.
This state of affairs has an exception, however, one so rare that it is unknown save by those who have delved into the deepest secrets of magery. It is also why the tradition of not linking children to the magical defences of a home until after they had bonded to a Wand arose, an UnWanded child so linked may accidently drain the entire array of defensive spells as they try to achieve something.
The spells placed around Number 4 Privet Drive were powerful, but with only one magical to protect and a lack of familial love for that person, the spells had failed to seat themselves properly and were far more fragile than they had been intended to be. Normally, this would not matter in the long run, but as he fell asleep, Harry made a wish to be as the one in the book he had been reading. Without the knowledge of the limitations that most magical children are raised to believe are there, his desires resonated with his own magic and through it, the spells intended to protect him, draining them to fuel the change that he was undergoing.
The protective nature of the spells, especially how they had been tuned specifically against the one who had orphaned Harry due to the way that Lily Potter had cast them on her son and then Albus had attempted (with only partial success) to modify them to cover the entire household, had an unexpected effect. In addition to the physical changes, the spells, as they gave of themselves in accordance to Harry's desires, also completed the task that Lily Potter had hoped for.
The portion of Voldemort's soul that had been prevented from possessing the young toddler was shredded by the sudden magical flux, its remains evaporating back into the ether and the scar that it had been trapped in finally healing without a trace.
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Harry's first indication that something was different was when he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, only for the sensation to be different enough that he snapped to full wakefulness. Reaching up, he managed to find and switch on the dangling light, only to freeze as he saw that his hands had two less fingers than they had when he had fallen asleep. Not only that, they were covered in a thin layer of blue fur.
Quickly, he checked himself over, noting that his feet seemed similar to his reshaped hands and that he now had a tail with a tip he could curl in a way that would let him grip things. With a grin, he concentrated on an image of the local park and vanished with a cloud of smoke that leaked out around the door, causing his Aunt, who had just descended the stairs, to scream in shock. By the time she recovered and yanked open the cupboard door, her nephew was long gone.
Unaware of the shock he had just caused his aunt, Harry looked round at the park, then he leapt onto the climbing frame, his newly-prehensile feet letting him cling on. Dangling upside-down by one foot, he laughed in joy, then clambered up one of the support poles, perching on the top with an ease that he had never-before, then jumping between the bars as he tested his agility and balance.
His joyful exploration of his new skills was interrupted by a cracking noise and he jolted round, just as a red flash of light flickered through the space he had been occupying. An instant later, he was in the branches of a tree, peering through the leaves at the distant figure of a dark-clad person looking round before vanishing with another crack.
With the newfound knowledge that someone had just tried something against him, Harry looked round and spotted a large articulated lorry trundling past. A moment's concentration placed him in the gap between the cabin and the trailer and he crouched down against the cab, ready to ride to wherever the vehicle was going so long as it was not Privet Drive.
.
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Albus Dumbledore stared at the instruments that had stopped moving overnight. Rather than emitting occasional puffs of silvery smoke, it was motionless and, when he used an analysis spell on it, the results indicated that the device (and the spell it was linked to) had been drained.
Which was impossible.
A brief wave of his wand sent a silvery bird flying through a wall of his office, then he sorted through the other devices, his hands trembling as he extracted half a dozen motionless objects, all of whom had been enchanted to keep track of the same person.
Arranging them on his desk, Albus hit each one with a spell, his worry increasing as each device read the same way – completely drained of their magical potential.
"You summoned me?"
"Severus." Albus didn't look up from his examination of the once-active objects. "Something has happened and I do not know what. I am due to head to the ICW in just ten minutes so I must ask you to do this. Travel to Little Whinging where the Dursleys live and look around. I fear that something has happened to young Harry Potter."
"The Dursleys… You sent him to live with Petunia?" Severus asked, his voice a mixture of horror and disgust.
"It was the only way to prevent him from being slain by those who followed your old Master." Albus replied sadly and Severus nodded unwillingly. "Sadly, those protections seem to be no more. If you can find him, bring him here. If you cannot, check to see if anything is obviously wrong. I shall return this evening and head out then to examine the scene myself."
Severus nodded, then turned and half-stalked/half-ran out of the office, his cloak flaring behind him. Albus took one more long look at the silvery items on his desk, then sighed and moved towards the other door to his office.
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With a relatively quiet crack of displaced air, Severus Snape materialised in a shaded area of Privet Drive. Moving towards one house that was far more illuminated than the others, he paused long enough to transfigure his robes into a dark suit and long coat, then pressed the doorbell. A gasp sounded from within, then Snape heard the jangling of a chain being unhooked before the door opened.
"Petunia. It has been a while."
The white-faced woman stared at him for a moment, then her face turned red with anger.
"You! Are you here to tell me that you lot have finally decided to take him back? Well, you're late! Someone already took him!"
Severus frowned. "Who? Who took him?"
"How should I know? I never wanted that thing here anyway!"
Severus' frown deepened and his hand twitched, but he refrained from drawing his wand and cursing the sister of the woman he had once been in love with. Instead, he reached out and lightly touched her mind, looking for anywhere that young Harry enjoyed being.
There was only one place in her memories associated with both Harry and a smile.
"Albus will want to talk to you later." Snape half-growled. "Think carefully about what you will tell him."
Turning on his heel, Severus strode down the path and onto the pavement, turning to exit the cul-de-sac. As soon as he got round the corner, he vanished in a crack of imploding air.
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As he reappeared at the park that had been in Petunias memories, Severus' gaze instantly settled on something that was bouncing around the playground equipment. While it was moving fast enough that he had trouble making out details, he knew that it did not belong there. Nothing with blue skin and a tail qualified as Muggle, so he pulled out his wand and fired a stunner at it, a levitation spell ready on his lips as he waited for it to fall. Instead, it managed to dodge the stunner before vanishing into a cloud of dark smoke that was whipped away by the dawn breeze to reveal that whatever it had been, it was no longer there.
"Odd…" Snape mused, then he gave a mental shrug. Whatever it had been, it was probably unrelated to the mystery of the disappearence of The-Boy-Who-Lived. Snape cast a few more detection spells and then vanished once more, his destination this time being Hogwarts.
Once he had compiled a report to be sent to Albus, he still had work to do to prepare for his acceptance of the position of Head of Slytherin, including sorting out the mess of files that Horace Slughorn had left behind. Whatever filing system the older Potions Master had used, it wasn't one that Severus could even begin to decode…
.
.
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Discovery
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"Mum! Mum! Look at this!"
Pandora Lovegood rose from the picnic rug at Luna's call and strolled over to the hedge where her daughter had found something. Her long blond hair rippled in the gentle breeze as she waded through the knee-high field of rain-dampened flowers to where her daughter was halfway through the hedge.
"What have you found, little moon?" She asked, bending to look over her daughter's shoulder, then her breath caught as she saw what her daughter had found. In the narrow gap at the bottom of the hedge, a small figure was curled up, clad in ripped and torn clothes through which blue fur showed, covering what was the body of a half-starved child. Her wand almost flew into her hand as she began casting diagnostic spells. A moment later, she waved her wand in a different pattern and the young boy rose slightly off the ground and then started to float towards the picnic rug, Luna almost orbiting him as Pandora gently levitated him. As he slid onto the rug, Pandora cast another few diagnostic spells, frowning in concentration.
"Mum?" Luna asked, crouching down for a closer look. "Who is he?"
"I… don't know." Pandora admitted. "He's human… but the magic that changed him, I've never seen anything like it before. I can understand bits of it, but…"
"He's so skinny." Luna bent closer to look at the mysterious boy's ribs, then something else caught her attention. "Oh! He has a tail! Can I have one?"
"I don't know how to do that." Pandora smiled slightly at her daughter's innocent curiosity even as she contemplated the enigma that Luna had found for her. "I think we may need to take the picnic back home, our unexpected guest is in need of some nutrition potions at the very least."
Luna nodded almost absently as she reached out to lightly stroke the tousled black hair that adorned the head of the otherwise-blue child before her. "Can we keep him?"
Pandora blinked, then sighed. "I don't even want to think about what the Department of Mysteries would to to someone as changed as he is… we'll see."
"Will he be my brother?"
"We'll see."
.
Harry slowly drifted to wakefulness and frowned in confusion. He had managed to find a semi-sheltered hollow to sleep in, trying to ignore his stomach's complaints, but where he was now did not feel like that hollow. Rather than lying on a scraped-together pad of sticks, soil and leaves, he was instead on what had to be a soft mattress with sheets covering him up to his chin. His head was almost enfolded in a huge pillow while his stomach, rather than grumbling and aching with emptiness, seemed to be surprisingly full.
Tensing slightly, Harry opened one eye slightly and glanced round, then his other eye opened as he took in his surroundings. For a moment, his eyes refused to focus, then the wooden beams of the ceiling semeed to snap into being, reaching across to connect to a curved wall with a single window in it. The room itself seemed to be a bit less than half a circle, but one the inner walls was a large curtain which followed one of the ceiling beams to near the middle, where it met a second curtain that bulged outwards like it was part of a circle and then continued at a slight angle to the larger portion until it met a wall that continued to the curved outer wall. Where the curtain ended, a small girl was standing, watching him with wide, silvery eyes and a huge smile.
"You've woken up! Mum! He's woken up!"
"Coming!" Another voice called and the girl scurried forwards, leaning over the edge of his bed.
"You have green eyes! They're very nice."
"…thanks?" Harry managed, unsure of how to respond and the girl half-jumped, half-scrambled onto the edge of the bed, still smiling.
"I'm Luna. Luna Lovegood. I found you and mummy brought you back and healed you up!"
"Not that I did much more than get some water and nutrition potions into you." The other voice noted as the speaker swept in through the gap in the curtains. Harry blinked as he quickly compared the new arrival with the girl perched on his bed, noting that the two certainly looked similar. "Good afternoon. Luna has been on tenterhooks waiting for you to wake up so that we can learn your name."
"…harry."
"Harry." The woman repeated. "Well, my name is Pandora and this is my daughter, Luna. My husband Xenophilius is currently downstairs working on his newspaper. Now, you must have some questions, but first…"
Producing a wooden stick, Pandora waved it and a red robe decorated with odd animals in silver thread floated over to land beside him. Harry's eyes widened in shock and he stared at Pandora, then at the robe.
"…how?" He asked, disbelief and hope warring in his voice and Pandora gave him a gentle smile as she chivvied Luna off the bed.
"Magic, young Harry. Magic. Now, put the robe on and join us downstairs, if you would."
With that, Pandora stepped through the curtains, allowing them to close behind her even as Luna waved with her free hand before being pulled out of the room. Harry sat up, shifting slightly as his tail tingled from the restored bloodflow, then paused, looking down at himself.
"…where are my clothes?"
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The gap between the curtain and the wall led to an area with a wrought-iron staircase opposite a door set in a short, curved wall. A quick peek through the gap in the curtains on the other side revealed a room that looked very lived-in with several items of clothing on the floor and a bed tucked underneath a window, a large multi-colored rug on the floor beside it. One of the items of clothing caught his eye, it being a pale blue jumper with what he recognised as the letter L on it from when Petunia had been trying to teach Dudley his ABC's to help him get ahead of everyone else in school.
A glance through the door beside him showed that it opened into a bathroom.
His curiosity momentarily sated, Harry returned to the stairs and slowly descended them. As he did so, the sounds of voices drifted up, then Luna called to him.
"Hello again! We're down here! Daddy wants to meet you!"
"Did you like your room?" The third person called up to him from where he was mostly-hidden behind a desk and a flock of flying sheets of parchment. "Our little moon didn't mind giving up part of hers for you, we just added some extra curtains and a bed."
"I… um… thank you?"
Xenophilius waved at him, then vanished back behind the fluttering pages while Pandora gave her husband an exasperated but loving look before waving her wand, causing a pair of curtains that Harry hadn't noticed to extend out from where they had been hanging against the wall, following the ceiling beams to the stairs and then curling round to enclose Xenophilius' workspace.
"He's just finishing up, then he'll start printing." Pandora explained as Luna giggled. "The curtains have one-way silencing charms on them, he can still hear us, but it'll let us talk without shouting."
"I heard that!" Xenophilius stuck his head out through a gap in the curtains just long enough to declaim, then he vanished back to his work. Pandora shook her head, then motioned towards an empty chair. Harry moved to it and clambered onto it, making sure that the robe was tucked tightly around his legs as he did so.
"Once we've talked, I'll go out and get some clothes for you." Pandora noted. "I have your sizes and I'll see if I can adjust them for your tail once I get back with them. If I can't, I have a friend who can."
"I want a tail." Luna pouted and Pandora laughed.
"We'll see. I don't think I can give you one as useful as Harry's but I'll see what I can do."
"Yay!" Luna cheered as she threw her hands up into the air and Pandora tapped her chin thoughtfully.
"I think I need to see about enchanting something to make you look normal to those without magic… and probably those with as well. I think a medallion may work, or I have a bracer left over from when I was trying to duplicate the enchantments on the armour from Hogwarts…"
"What's a bracer?"
"Muggles use them to hold their trousers up!" Xenophilius stuck his head through the curtain just long enough to supply and Pandora shook her head.
"That was Braces, dear. A Bracer is a piece of armour worn on the arm between the elbow and wrist." Pandora paused, looking at her own arm. "Hmmm, I might as well save time and include a Wand Holster in it too. It'll be a few years before you need it, but it'll let me see if I can do one that works with other spells…"
"Can I have one too?" Luna asked and Pandora laughed.
"Of course you can. In fact, I think I remember two of the Gryffindors talking about connecting mirrors, maybe if I…"
"Mum does this." Luna confided as Pandora started muttering to herself. "She keeps getting ideas. Mum, can we eat now?"
Pandora paused, then nodded. "It is almost time for lunch. Alright, I'll get some food together. Do you want to help?"
Luna bounced off the sofa she had been perched on and dashed to the central staircase in a whirl of limbs, slamming to a stop just before she reached it and stepping down carefully. Pandora followed and Harry wriggled off the seat before making his way towards the stairs, the hem of his robe brushing against his ankles as he walked.
Carefully descending the spiral staircase, he found himself in another circular room, this one boasting a kitchen area where both Luna and Pandora were starting to prepare something and a large oval table with a half-dozen seats around it. The last third of the circular room was taken up with a couple of chairs and shelving units flanking a large doorway.
"That's the front door to the garden." Pandora called as she placed some salad in a colander and began rinsing it. "Downstairs is my work-room while my bedroom is on the floor above your bedroom."
"…my bedroom?" Harry repeated, unsure of how to react.
"Yours." Pandora nodded as she shook the salad dry and dumped it in a large wooden bowl. "I hope it isn't too small for you…"
"It's fine." Harry quickly replied. "Way better than my old cupboard."
The way that Pandora froze for a moment made him think that he had said something wrong, but then she took a deep breath and turned her attention to chopping cheese into chunks while Luna, perched on a stepstool, pulled bread rolls out of a woven basket and dropped them onto a platter.
"Why not get your dad, little moon?"
"Okay!" Luna chirped and jumped back down from the stool before dashing to and up the stairs, a yell of "Daa-aaaddyyyy!" echoing as she vanished.
"Take a seat, Harry." Pandora waved at one of the chairs and Harry carefully climbed into it as Pandora started placing the bowls and platters of food on the table. Footsteps down the staircase announced the arrival of the other two and, for the first time in memory, Harry found himself sitting at a table with a family. A plate slid in front of him and he watched as the others started to help themselves.
"Not hungry?" Xenophilius asked curiously and Harry looked down.
"I… I don't know…"
"Let me." Pandora snagged his plate and, with brisk and efficient motions, put some of everything on it before returning it to in front of him. "Here, try it and see what you like."
Waiting for a moment to check that she meant what she had said, Harry followed Luna's example by picking up a fork and spearing a piece of cheese with it.
.
Feeling full for the first time that he could remember, Harry followed Luna across the grassy lawn surrounding the Lovegood Tower (which according to Xenophilius was called the Rookery, a claim which had Pandora sighing and rolling her eyes while Luna giggled), looking at the unusual plants that Luna was pointing out to him.
"…and this is the diri… diriggi… dirigible plum tree." Luna motioned at a tree which had fruits that were, in all defiance of common sense, growing above the branches in a manner that suggested that, should they detach, they would float away on the breeze. "Mommy makes plum juice from it. She also makes another drink she and daddy like, but she says I'm not old enough for it yet."
Harry nodded, amazed at both the semi-overgrown-yet-well-loved garden he was touring and the way that Luna was chatting so much that he was wondering if she had even taken a breath yet.
As Luna continued to chatter about the things in the garden, Harry flexed his toes, enjoying the way that the grass tickled his feet.
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Harry stared at the pile of fabric spread on his bed, then flinched as Luna darted past him to start picking up various items.
"Nice jacket! Harry'll look amazing in this coat… hey!"
Laughing, Pandora plucked the coat from Luna's hands, then gently pushed her out of the bedroom, pulling the curtain closed behind her. "Go help your dad with his paper."
"Okay!"
As Luna thundered down the stairs, Pandora turned back and smiled at Harry.
"Well, let's get these clothes adjusted for you. Don't worry, I'm good at transfiguration and once we get something that works, I can adjust the other clothes… or get them adjusted."
"Trans-what?" Harry asked in confusion and Pandora shook her head.
"Never mind. Let's start with underwear. You must be feeling rather drafty…"
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Settling
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"Thanks for helping, Molly." Pandora smiled as she accepted the bag of clothes from the red-haired woman. "Permanently adjusting clothes is… not among my strong points."
"Whereas I have plenty of practice." Molly laughed, then her smile shifted into a look of concern. "How is the boy adjusting to his new tail?"
"He's using it like it's another hand." Pandora smiled wryly. "This morning, he used it to pass a couple of pencils to Luna while I was running them through their ABC's and counting. Luna's really jealous of his tail and keeps asking if I can get one for her."
Molly chuckled. "Children adapt to things quickly. Any idea what caused it?"
"Not really." Pandora admitted. "Everything points to Accidental Magic, but the amount of magic needed to do a change as complete as that… even Merlin reborn would have failed at his age."
"And you said his name was Harry? Like Harry Potter?"
Pandora shook her head. "No. He mentioned being made to sleep in a cupboard by his relatives. I cannot conceive of The-Boy-Who-Lived being made to sleep in a cupboard. No, he just happens to share his first name and once I get his bracer working, Xeno and I will be adopting him."
"Luna could use a sibling." Molly smiled. "I know you and Xeno only really wanted a single child, but having more makes a family feel more warm somehow."
"Luna's certainly more energetic." Pandora agreed as she hefted the bag in her hand. "Once I get him looking more normal, do you want to come over with your kids for a while?"
Molly opened her mouth to answer, then a scream echoed down the stairs and she sighed.
"Sorry, I need to see what the twins have done this time."
"Of course." Pandora nodded and stepped through the door, pulling it closed behind her. Once she heard the latch clicking into position, she turned on the spot and vanished.
.
"Okay, let's try it now." Pandora said as she passed the carved piece of metal to Harry. With the ease of someone who had done it many times before (which he had), Harry slid the bracer onto his right arm, allowing the elasticated straps to settle into position, then he tapped the piece of quartz in the middle of the bracer. For a couple of seconds, nothing seemed to happen, then he shimmered as his blue fur was replaced by healthy skin. Luna gasped and reached out to touch his face, then frowned.
"Huh?"
"It's only an illusion, Luna, and it works based on the body's memory of that their parents looked like, which would explain the red hair, although I can change it if you want." Pandora explained as Harry slowly turned so that she could check that it was working as intended. "You'll need to keep your tail tucked in while you're using the bracer, but it seems to be working well."
"Can I be blond? Like you?"
"I can add a few extra runes to let you switch colours…" Pandora mused. "I'll test it on the spare bracer first."
Harry grinned, then turned to look in the mirror that Pandora had levitated down from her bedroom. Holding up his hand, he flexed it a couple of times, then spread his fingers.
"Live long and prosper." Pandora giggled, then gave a slight shrug as both children stared at her in confusion. "It's from something that one of my muggleborn friends showed me. Don't worry about it."
Harry and Luna exchanged glances, then Harry continued to flex his fingers before running his hands over his new clothes.
"Like them?" Pandora asked and he nodded.
"I love them! They actually fit!"
Once again, Pandora paused, then she motioned at the rags that Harry had been wearing. "Those can't really be saved… want to burn them?"
"Awesome!" Harry breathed. "Really?"
"Really."
.
Harry watched in fascination as the last remains of his old life went up in smoke, the flames dancing as they converted his cousin's castoffs into airborne ash. Pandora had let him and Luna help build the bonfire and place the rags on it, then she had picked up a long stick, ignited the end of it and helped Harry to use it to kindle the waiting sticks and fabric into a small but warm fire.
Luna rejoined them with a large bag. Reaching in, she handed him a soft thing he'd never seen before, then pulled out one of her own and stuck it on the end of a long stick. Harry accepted a similar stick from Pandora and followed Luna's example in hilding it over, but close to the flames until it started to char, then he took a small nibble.
"Mmmm! Nice!" He managed. "What is it?"
"Marshmallows." Pandora laughed as she used her wand to levitate one to her, then impaled it on the end of a stick.
"Tasty!" Luna giggled and Harry nodded in agreement.
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"Aunt Molly!"
Molly smiled as Luna dashed across to greet her. Chivvying her two youngest through the gate, Molly closed it behind her to prevent anyone from running off and then laughed as Luna glomped Ginny, causing the younger red-headed female to stagger as she tried not to fall over.
"Ginny!"
"Luna!"
"…girls." Ron muttered as he looked away, then he paused. "…who?"
"That's Harry, Luna's cousin." Pandora supplied as she joined them. "His parents died a while back and we've taken him in. We added a thick curtain to split Luna's room so that they can have some privacy…"
"Why not a wall?" Molly asked before she could stop herself and Pandora shrugged.
"This way, it can be opened to let more light through and give them more play-space during the day. It's charmed to be soundproof and is attached to the wall so that there shouldn't be any problems as they grow up."
Molly nodded in understanding. "Does Luna approve?"
"She keeps asking if we're keeping him and noting that she loves having a brother." Pandora replied. "Harry's settling in nicely and in another month or so, Xeno and I will be officially adopting him. We're letting him settle in first, his previous guardians were… not very nice."
Molly blinked at the anger hiding in Pandora's last statement, then the blond woman re-focused.
"So, I'm starting to teach my two numbers and the alphabet, do you want me to teach your youngest two as well?"
Molly glanced over to where Ron was approaching Harry, who was hanging upside-down from one of the branches of the Dirigible Plum tree. "…it might be a good idea. Merlin knows I have my hands full with Fred and George, it's hard to keep them from acting up when I also have to look after these two as well. Don't get me wrong, I do love them, but…"
"You're outnumbered five to one whenever Arthur's at work." Pandora stated knowingly, causing Molly to nod. "At least Percy doesn't act up."
"He keeps trying to keep the twins under control." Molly sighed. "I know he's trying to help but… at least it helps him learn responsibility."
Both women exchanged commiserating looks, then turned to watch Ron being pulled up into the tree by Harry and Luna as Ginny bounced up and down, eager for her turn.
"I've layered some cushioning and softening charms underneath the tree." Pandora half-whispered before Molly could do more than tense. "If they fall, the worst that will happen is a minor bruise. If that."
Molly nodded, then smiled as Ginny was hoisted into the tree, squealing with excitement.
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Harry pulled the youngest red-head up into the tree, holding her arm long enough for her to grab a branch with her other hand and plant her feet securely. Once he was sure that she wasn't going to immediately fall, he swung himself up to where Ron was trying to traverse two of the branches.
"How?" Ron asked as Harry balanced on a single branch before leaping across and swinging to a new perch next to Luna.
"It's what he does." Luna shrugged with far more gravitas than her four (almost five!) years, then she grinned. "My brother's awesome!"
"Hey, I have awesome brothers too!" Ron protested as Harry grabbed his arm to stop him falling. "Thanks."
Harry grinned, then swung back to help Luna shift to a new branch.
.
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Harry lay in his bed, the morning light leaking through the curtains and simply let the feeling of safety wash through him.
Quiet noises echoed down from upstairs as his parents-to-be got up and began doing whatever parents did in the mornings and Harry stretched, then rolled out of bed. Moving to the wall-mounted hook at the foot of his bed, he unhooked his dressing gown and wrapped it around himself before moving to the end of the curtain that acted as his door and tapped the embroidered tag that caused the curtain to pull back enough to let him through. As it slid aside, Harry found himself being glomped.
"Morning!"
"Morning Luna." Harry hugged his sister-to-be back and from the steps above them, Pandora watched their interactions with a gentle smile, the proof that Harry was healing warming her heart.
.
.
Pandora walked into Gringotts and joined the shortest queue. After several minutes (and a rather amusing argument on the next kiosk about vault-charges and how Gringotts had missapplied them), then she stepped up to the front of the queue.
"Pandora Lovegood to adjust Vault permissions and add to listings." She declared as she held her key out along with a piece of parchment. The goblin behind the counter squinted at the key, then nodded and accepted the parchment.
"Hmmm, Harry Lovegood… adoption form… blood print…" The goblin stiffened as he looked at the reddish-brown thumbprint, then reached under his desk. Pulling out what appeared to be a magnifying glass, he used it to examine the mark before frowning.
"This is beyond my paygrade. Wait over there, a Vault Manager will be with you shortly."
Reclaiming the parchment and tucking her key back under her robe, Pandora stepped away from the desk and moved over to the stone bench that the teller had indicated. Sitting down on the solid-stone bench, she mentally gave thanks for her forethought in applying a cushioning charm to the rear of her robes.
It took almost quarter of an hour before a new goblin appeared, this one wearing a suit of far finer cut and materials than those of the tellers. As the goblin approached, Pandora rose to her feet and gave a slight nod of acknowledgement. The goblin nodded back and motioned for her to follow him.
Knowing that trying to discuss the situation before reaching the privacy of an office would be pointless, Pandora followed the goblin through a set of large, golden doors and into a long corridor. Doors were set into small recesses on either side, each door bearing an inscription in the language of the goblins and her guide homed in on one of the doors, opening it with a wave of his hand and leading her into the office. Curtly motioning for her to take the seat in front of the desk, the goblin moved round, climbing up several steps in the process, and sat down behind the desk, placing his head slightly above hers in what Pandora recognised as a subtle piece of intimidation that would be more effective if she hadn't noticed it. His opening statement, however, caught her somewhat off guard.
"So, you wish to adopt Harry Potter."
"I wish to adopt a boy that I found abandoned and starved, a boy named Harry, Mr…?" Pandora managed to reply, trailing off questioningly.
"Longblade. Vault Manager Longblade" The now-identified goblin supplied.
"Vault Manager." Pandora gave a slight shrug as she tried to hide her consternation at the situation she had found herself in. "While I had only a slight suspicions that he was indeed Harry Potter, it seemed extremely unlikely. It doesn't really matter to me that he is, he is a young boy who had no home before my daughter found him and the two of them have become very close already."
"You are not looking for a marriage option?" Longblade probed and Pandora shook her head.
"No. Nor do I wish for access to any vaults the Potters may have left him unless required to ensure that he inherits what is his once he comes of age."
Longblade's expression shifted slightly and Pandora mentally cursed the lack of literature on goblin culture and how to interact with them.
"I see." He mused. "Very well. Gringotts sees no issues with this, although he will need a new key as you have indicated that he does not have his current one."
Pandora blinked. When had she done that?
"So bring him in and we'll create a new key for him."
"Ah." Pandora's mind raced as she tried to work out how to explain the situation. "Harry… had an odd magical accident which… physically changed him. His skin is blue fur, for one thing. I've created a disguise-bracer for him to wear to make him look normal but…"
"Interesting." Longblade mused. "Very well, Gringotts shall make a one-off exception to our regulations regarding disguises for him, you may bring him in while he is disguised, but I will need to see his true form for myself. When can you bring him in?"
"This afternoon, if you are available." Pandora replied. "He's currently studying at the Burrow, Molly agreed to teach them numbers and counting today."
"Acceptable." Longblade nodded firmly. "Bring him in and ask at one of the counters for me."
"Is two in the afternoon a good time?" Pandora offered and Longblade nodded.
"It is. You can go now."
.
"Did you know that Harry can Apparate?"
Pandora blinked at Molly's opening question. "What?"
"Did you know that Harry can Apparate?" Molly repeated, her face an unusual mix of several emotions, although amusement seemed to be the dominant one. "It isn't normal Apparition, he vanishes in a cloud of smoke, but he can Apparate. He used it when Fred and George tried to prank him, grabbed them and vanished outside to drop them in the pond, then back inside as if nothing had happened."
Molly started to giggle. "I've never seen Ron so amazed, he's asked if we can have him over more often?"
"I… what?" Pandora shook her head. "He can Apparate?"
"It's not really Apparition, but… pretty much. The twins have been on their best behaviour ever since I dried them off. I don't think they'll be trying to prank him again for quite a while."
Pandora made a mental note as to have a long discussion with Harry about any other skills he might have that she wasn't aware of, then another thought prodded her for attention.
"I thought you had an Anti-Dissapparition Jynx over the Burrow?"
"I do." Molly nodded. "That's one reason how I know it wasn't normal Apparition. The Jynx didn't react at all."
Pandora made another mental note to find out just how Harry's Apparition worked.
"It also left behind a small cloud of smoke, a bit like Combat Apparition, but without indicating the direction of movement."
Pandora thought about what she had just been told. Combat Apparition was in many ways a far inferior version of normal Apparition that was shorter-ranged, slower and could be tracked by anyone with magic. However, the advantages were that the user retained awareness of their surroundings, could alter their destination multiple times mid-transit and were effectively immune to spells until they ended the technique.
But if Harry could do something somewhere between the two…
…testing was certainly called for. And soon.
After all, if anyone else worked out how it was done, than that person might be able to bypass even the most formidable of defences, such as that of Gringotts…
…or Hogwarts.
Pandora gave a mental nod as she decided what her next project would be. Someone else could deal with the possibilities of merging Space Expansion and Switching Cabinet spells.
.
.
In a secret room within Hogwarts, a long-bearded man clad in eye-wateringly-bright robes frowned in thought as he perused a book, glancing occassionally at the quill that kept twitching in its inkwell.
"His name is on here so he is still alive, but the surname… it is changing."
With a sigh, the man stepped back. "At least he lives, though I know not where."
.
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The longer version of this plot bunny can be found on my AO3 account.
