SORRY ITS BEEN FOREVER!

CHAPTER FOUR

Lucinda Jones was perfectly normal, thank you very much. She had a beautiful house, a beautiful husband, and two beautiful children. Her husband worked a successful job in retail while she stayed home with her youngest child. Her eldest child, bless her little heart, was in primary school. The neighborhood where they lived, she felt, was a safe environment for her kids to grow up in, not much happened around it. That is why, when she smelt the smoke, she was greatly alarmed.

Walking quickly outside to find the source she was met with the shock of her life. The house across the street from her was on fire! Smoke was billowing out of the windows as the flames licked the roof. She was so enraptured by the flames she had almost missed the figure standing outside the house in the front yard. He was an averagely tall man with bright red hair, just standing there, watching the house burn with grim expressions, and then he was gone, like he was never even there in the first place.

Lucinda ran into her house and called the police and then the rest of the Privet Drive.

…

The halls of Hogwarts where eerie. It had only been a day ago, when Headmaster Dumbledore pulled Harry Potter out of the Black Lake, and yet the castle and its inhabitants had so greatly changed. The portraits weren't speaking, children weren't running and fighting in the halls, and the world just seemed darker at the moment.

Ron and Hermione were currently sitting outside the Hospital Wing, waiting for permission to enter. They had tried several times, only to be chased out by the terrifying Madame Pomfrey. The first try was when Harry was brought in, they had stayed barricaded at the foot of his bed. It took three stinging hexes, two soap-in-the-mouth charms, and a levitation charm that told the dio that she meant business.

It was actually Ron who thought of Harry's invisibility cloak first. Both of them excitedly ran up to the boys dormitory to get the cloak from Harry's trunk. The plan took to an abrupt end however, when they started digging through his trunk, and saw the blood stained rags that were his clothes. Neither one of them wanted to continue on after the realization of how serious situation really was. It was one thing to hear about the abuse, but the sight of the clothes, and the blood stains was almost too much for them to bare.

They went to their beds after that and decided to visit Harry first thing in the morning.

After a restless night of nightmares and concern, they each found themselves in the common room at four in the morning. Thinking that the formidable witch of the hospital wing would be asleep, they decided to go for their second try of sneaking in.

The plan was a failure. Madame Pomfrey was in fact sleeping, that was until Ron and Hermione set of the blaring alarms by opening the door. And to make matters worse, Snape was the healer in charge so Madame Pomfrey could get some rest. Both were not happy with them to say the least.

The next attempt was a horrible idea to begin with. It was Ron of course that proposed they take one of the twins inventions that would make them violently sick for a short period of time. The staff had seen through that before they had even entered the infirmary.

Now, at 5:30 in the morning, they sat outside of the hospital wing, under the direct supervision of Professor McGonagall. Neither one of them said a word as they stared at the doors. Each slowly going more and more insane with each passing moment. Professor McGonagall had tried to make them feel better by fake assurances which sound pathetic even to her. When that didn't work, she tried to drown them with tea and biscuits. Ron looked sick when he saw the food and said he lost his appetite. Hermione started crying when she realized they were Harry's favorite biscuits. The Professor decided then to just sit there with them in silence. Wherever the Dursley's were at the moment, she hoped they were burning in hell.

…..

Sirius and Molly were sitting in the kitchen sulking. They had both been told, multiple times, by multiple people, that they were not able to go see Harry until they knew what his mental state was. Originally they were furious, but they understood with much lecture and the fierce glare Dumbledore gave them. While both of them were extremely upset with Dumbledore at the moment, they knew that they could not win against him, and that at the moment he was doing the best he could for Harry. So they sat in the kitchen, waiting for any news, both tired and emotionally drained.

A loud bang erupted from upstairs causing both the inhabitants in the kitchen to wince. Sirius had never seen Arthur Weasley mad, he always seemed so calm and level headed compared to the rest of his fiery family.

Another crash came from upstairs, and Sirius was sure that he was not going to have anything left in his house if the Weasleys got anymore bad news. It had not been 30 minutes ago when he witnessed the most amazing fight of his life. Sirius and Molly were both screaming at Albus when Arthur entered the house. Apparently when Arthur read the paper he went straight to Molly and then left to find the Dursley's. Molly and Sirius had not seen Arthur all day and all night, until he entered the house that morning. The best way Sirius could compare the look on Arthurs face was an enraged dragon breathing fire through his nose.

Without even looking at his wife or Sirius, he went straight for Dumbledore. Sirius had never seen the man move so fast. One second he was stepping out of the fireplace, the next he he had Dumbledore against the wall with his wand pointed against the old man's neck. Dumbledore, stunned with surprise, never even had a chance to grab his wand in defense. Sirius wasn't sure if at that moment he was jealous of Arthur for doing what he wanted to do as soon as Albus entered the room, or just amazed.

Arthur was yelling at Albus, accusing him of leaving Harry in that god-forsaken hell hole, and demanding for adoption papers by the end of the day. When Dumbledore tried to reason with head of the Weasley family, Arthur blew a hole in the ceiling to let Dumbledore know he meant business. If Molly hadn't intervened, Sirius was sure that Arthur would have greatly injured Dumbledore.

It took a good 20 minutes for Molly to coax Arthur to leave the room to cool down. Once her husband left the room Molly had started in on Dumbledore again, demanding to see Harry. Dumbledore, while shaken, wouldn't budge, and it was Sirius who told Dumbledore to leave and not come back until Harry was awake and able to see them. It killed Sirius to agree with Albus, but he knew the child needed time to cope before he was swarmed with people trying to coddle him. If anyone had any experience with abuse it was Sirius. He knew what it was like to have a family that hated him, that wanted to hurt him, and while it was nowhere near what Harry had to go through according to the paper, Sirius knew that he needed time. So Sirius would let Harry know that he understood, that he was here for him, and that he loved him no matter what, and hope that it was enough. For now Sirius sat in the kitchen, drinking a cup of tea mixed with a calming draught, and stared at the hole in the ceiling.

…..

The entire Slytherin house was in their common room and Draco Malfoy was sitting in the middle. Although the room was quiet and seemed orderly, in truth it was otter chaos. Each and every mind was going warp speed trying to figure out what their next move and stance should be.

"Any word from your father?" Blaise whispered to Draco.

Draco looked at his hands. He knew that Blaise was really asking what His reaction was, not Draco's father.

"No word." Draco mumbled back. Blaise simply just nodded his head.

"So what are we going to do?" he asked.

All whispered conversations ended as the Slytherin house listened to what the leader of Slytherin had to say.

Draco leaned back in his chair, his hands rubbing his temples. Blasted Potter! He thought to himself, constantly messing up everything.

It was suppose to be an easy decision. He was suppose to pick the Dark Lord, because it's what his father wanted him to do, but now. Now things had changed.

Child abuse was the greatest crime in the wizarding world. A magical child is a treasure, and any harm inflicted on that treasure results in a lifetime stay in Azkaban. Abused magical children often either lose their magic, or it become uncontrollable and it ends up killing them.

So many agreed with the Dark Lord because he never trusted muggles with magical children. It was a true statistic that muggles were often the abusers. Supporting the Dark Lord was suppose to be the choice because he wanted to preserve the true wizarding family, and pureblood traditions.

But know that he was thinking about it the Dark Lord wasn't preserving a magical child's happiness by killing its parents and then trying to kill the child itself. How can he support the monster that tried to kill a magical baby? How can he support a man that is trying to kill a poor abused child because he survived?

Draco knew he was a right foul git to Potter, and it killed him to realize his jabs at Potter's family were true. He thought for sure Potter was even more spoiled than he was. Now, as he looked back at all his observations of Potter, he realized that Potter was truly a hero. He did everything in his power to help those who needed it. Personally Draco didn't agree with Potter or even really like him, but Potter had something about him that made people want to follow his lead. For once in his life though, Potter needed somebody to save him, to show him that the wizarding world does care.

Draco leaned forward in his chair and looked at all the people who were ready to follow his lead and wondered if Potter dealt with this pressure all the time.

"We are Hogwarts students," Draco said clearly. "We protect our own. Hogwarts is our home, is our family. Somebody hurt our family member, we must protect him. Don't do anything drastic, just observe and run defense if needed. Be silent support."

The general mass of Slytherin were nodding, and Draco felt relieved.

"But what about the Dark Lord?" A voice cried out.

Draco sighed, " I, personally, will not help the Dark Lord kill an innocent abuse victim. As much as I don't like Potter, he is one of us."

"I agree with Draco," Pansy said from behind him, and Draco was never so happy to hear her. After that the whole house came to a consensus to follow Draco's plan. When Potter leaves the infirmary, the Slytherin house was behind him.

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