-II-

Christmas Eve was fast approaching and the Leaky Cauldron was doing brisk business that Saturday night. The cold has driven those lonely witches and wizards with no place better to be to gather round on its benches and soak up the heat and camaraderie of the ageless, sooty tavern before they returned home from their Christmas shopping. And of course, the celebrations of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's defeat were still ongoing.

"A toast to Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, our hero!" a staunch elderly witch declared from her lonely spot all of a sudden.

"Hear, hear!" everybody replied. Old Tom, the bartender, got starry eyed and gave everybody a free drink declaring "Never was there a better boy in all of Britain. May he fare well and prosper."

Everybody cheered up at that declaration (and were happy to imbibe their free drinks of course) but suddenly they could hear someone bawling, crying "that poor boy, that poor poor precious boy!" from one of the corner tables.

It was none other than Minerva McGonagall, sitting alone in her corner table and staring disconsolately at the depths of her pewter mug. She was near done with her third bottle of Fire-Whiskey already. Tom shook his head. "What's troubling you, lass?" He stopped for a moment before continuing. "We all mourn the death of brave Harry Potter's valiant parents and share his grief but the boy is young and will forget the tragedy that has befallen him. Whoever taking care of him now will make sure he's safe from now on and happy as can be."

Minerva began crying all the harder, saying "if only it was so!" from time to time.

The first witch went over to her. Gwendolyn Goodfellow knew Minerva of old. They had gone to school together and still kept in touch. "Don't cry Minerva." She patted her old friend. "What's the matter? A trouble shared is a trouble lightened."

Minerva stared at them bleary eyed. "If only I could tell you. Oh, the horrors I could tell you!"

By now everyone was staring at the professor curiously. "Tell us," Gwen commanded but old Minerva shook her head. "You're among friends," she added and pushed her cup at the disconsolate woman.

Taking a fortifying gulp, Minerva caved in. "Oh, to hell with it. I can't keep quiet about this a minute longer. I'd burst if I did. It's Harry Potter. He's been given to these horrible relatives of his. Horrible. Do you know what they did to him? They locked him in a padded closet full of spiders. They keep him there every night and most days and I heard them planning on doing worse. Oh, the things I've seen. Those horrid people. I've told Albus not to give him to them. I knew from the start that there was something wrong with them but he wouldn't listen to me. He wouldn't. And the reality is so much worse than anything I could imagine. I should have obeyed him and never returned. I cannot unsee what I've seen. I cannot!"

Shocked silence fell on the crowd. Finally Gwen grasped her hand "This is monstrous! Why is nothing done about it? Did you tell Professor Dumbledore what's happening?"

Minerva's mouth twisted around some unsaid utterances. She snorted between hiccups and cries until she had to wipe her nose with one of the handkerchiefs offered by the surrounding wizards. "Did I tell Professor Dumbledore what is happening?" she repeated slowly, mockingly. "Of course I bloody well told him what was going on. I by damn screeched it in his stuffy ears, I tried to threaten him with it, I begged him... but it's no use. He won't budge no matter what I say. He won't budge," she repeated the words heavily and tried to pour herself another glass with shaking hands.

Gwen grasped her hands firmly in her own. "But why, Minny? Why would he let this go on if he knows? It makes no sense."

"Maybe what they say about him is true. Maybe he really is senile," one middle aged wizard opined. "I always had my doubts about him." This started the usual argument but Minerva's harsh laughter stopped it all.

"Oh, he has his reasons." she emptied her cup in one gulp. At the disbelieving gazes they all gave her she cleared her throat and blinked several times at the rest of them before letting her head fall into her hands. "No, I can't say any more about this. If I did, I really would break my word to Professor Dumbledore. No matter what I think of them." She started sobbing, heavily, hopelessly.

The middle aged wizard, Sortes Sabian or Sor as he liked to be called, finally opined "Well if there really is a good reason to keep the boy there, than that's that. But! We could still help Harry. We are wizards and witches, and other things," he added as an afterthought nodding to the hag and the four goblins. "We have our magic, don't we? What is magic good for if we can't help a babe in need with it? He deserves it! With our magic we can coerce those monsters to treat our hero better than that. We can show them what happens to those who treat our Harry so shoddily!"

The crowd cheered. Even Minerva started smiling.

Jean Drigbe looked about him nervously and started sidling to the doorway. He was no hero and this whole business sounded dangerous but Tom caught him before he even reach the door. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked him suspiciously. Everyone turned to stare at him and the gaunt wizard shrank away from them.

"I, I don't know about all of this. I don't want the Dumbledore mad at me or nothing. I'm not a shinywand like the Mugwump Dumbledore or you professor McGonagall. Me mom always told me 'don't go messing in the affairs of silver haired warlocks', that me mom did. I just trying to get by and hurt nobody, you know?"

Tom banged his hand on a table. "You were happy enough to enjoy Harry's peace, you came here every evening, drank your fill and laughed your heart away, weren't you? And now, that Harry needs you to pay back some of your debt to him, you try to weasel your way out of it like a stinking flobberworm! Well, I won't let you. If you ever want to show your ugly face in my establishment again, you'll stay right there and join the rest of us in helping Harry Potter."

"Yes Mister Tom, all right, I'll help out. I wasn't going to tattle tale on anyone or nothing." Giving the rest of the group a suspicious eye, he added, "We should make a pact, t' make sure nobody does. I don't want news about me reaching Dumbledore's ears... or worse. I know some good spells, yes I do."

It was decided that indeed Dumbledore didn't need to know and a pact was a good way to make sure of it and so a powerful pact was made over a few bottles of Old Ogdens' best to prevent anyone from harming Harry Potter or tattle-telling to anyone be it a Death-Eater or Dumbledore himself about their business. They were thirteen in number, all told counting the goblins and the hag: Minerva, Gwendolyn, Sor of course, the reluctant Drigbe, two brothers by the names of Hugh and Cree Jigger, a podgy wizard by the name of Senex Crepo, Anis Craig the hag, the goblins whose leader was called Nagnok and finally Tom the bartender. The hag and goblins joined more for the chance to hex these relatives and some gave doubtful stares to Anis but they didn't want to turn them away.

Before too long they were all standing in the middle of Privet Drive st., looking at an overly neat and magicless house.

"So... they're muggles?" Gwen asked her friend.

"Yes. They're called the Dursleys," Minerva muttered. She was starting to get a hangover but still she was in high spirits. She was doing something! "The woman's Lilly's sister. He doesn't have any other close relatives. But I wouldn't complain about them just for being muggles." she added quickly.

"Of course not, of course not," Gwen reassured her rattled friend, "you told us how they locked him in a cupboard and tried to feed him to their pet spiders."

"Er, yes," Minerva replied.

"Well, I say we should get started," Anis the hag butted in, "if they're just muggles it should be easy as pigeon pie to hex them. We wouldn't even have to worry about them undoing any of it."

Tom nodded. "Yes, lets not dawdle. I still need to tidy the shop for tomorrow's customers."

"Don't be such a self centered prat, Tom," Crepo wheezed. "if Harry needs our help we're going to give it our all, time be damned and," he added to Anis, "don't any of you do shoddy work just because they're muggles. What good will our work be if they call Dumbledore first thing tomorrow morning and have it all undone, eh?"

"Easy for you to say, you don't have a place to run."

"Pipe down, you two." Minerva ordered the two wizards, using her teacher's voice. "We should begin before anyone notices us."

The hag smiled toothily and waving a crooked wand intoned, "Let warts and all sorts of other disfigurements grow upon these here Dursleys any time they try to harm the child."

Gwen chanted thoughtfully, "Let their dishes stay empty and their mouths fill with swamp muck until the child has been fed properly."

Minerva nodded stoutly in approval and added, "Let his sleeping place be soft as down to his touch and filled with soft witchlight to his eyes and roomy as need be. And, and let the spiders protect and serve him as though they were his own acromantula guard."

Hugh and Cree whispered a moment between themselves before finally intoning with raised wands, "Let all who see the child's visage be gladdened."

Drigbe made a face, "Let his hands be nimble, let his legs be quick, let his eyes be keen and his tongue be silver."

Sor intoned grandly, "Let good fortune be with him always!"

The goblins stepped forward as one and Nagnok growled menacingly from their midst, "Let the gold of these Dursleys flow between their fingers and be lost to them as they stint in their duties toward Harry Potter. So says Nagnok the goblin and so it shall be."

Tom hummed for a bit before finally saying, "Let Harry Potter be welcome in the Leaky Cauldron, free of charge any time he comes in." At the others reproachful glances he added, "What, I couldn't come up with anything better after everything the rest of you already blessed him with. Well, how about... Let his stomach be as strong as a leaky cauldron and drinking will never give him pains or aches."

Crepo snorted, "That was lame, Tom, but I suppose I could expect no better from a tavern owner. None of you covered the chance of Dumbledore interfering and undoing all our work."

Drigbe bristled, "Our incantations were good, damn good."

"But Dumbledore's better. Hold your abraxans, everybody, no need to get shrill. I'll handle this myself. I still haven't blessed Harry with anything. Lets see. Lets see. Let the Dursleys lose all contacts with magic folk, save Harry, of course, and let no magic folk find them either. Dumbledore may send him his Hogwarts acceptance letter when the time is due but he will not find him sooner."

The others tried to interrupt him several times but he wouldn't let them cut him off and then it was too late. Their eyes grew fuzzy every time they tried to see the Dursley home. They wouldn't be able to find it after this.

"You fool!" Gwen shrieked, "You big bumbling fool, you, you-"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think it'd include us as well,"

"Of course it did. Now what will we do?"

"I was just trying to help,"

"Help?! Why, you-"

Sortes interjected philosophically, "He is still better off now then he was before we intervened. We just have to trust that we did right by him. There's nothing more we can do for him now except to hope for the best and, to believe in him!"

The others quieted down finally. They returned to the Leaky Cauldron. Crepo apologized several times until everyone was sick of hearing it and told him it was alright. Instead they started speculating how their blessing would shape Harry's future and frowns and angry voices turned into grins starry eyes. The Leaky Cauldron did very brisk business that night indeed.

Author's Note - Slytherin66, queenforbes, thanks for the reviews. Sorry for the long wait. Minerva and her group won't be around to help Harry on a daily basis but they've done their part as the good fairies to alter the course of events and create a different childhood than Harry had.