CHAPTER TWO PART ONE:
Previously….
"I will Albus" Minerva said levitating the book towards her. "The Vanishing Glass…"
Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their niece on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.
"Well how fun…." Oliver snorted
The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets
"why would they dress up a beach ball?" Colin Creavy asked confused looking towards Harry who looked at him and shrugged. Even though she knew what the picture was.
- but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby,
The hall burst into laughter. "Oh I feel sorry for that child" Molly giggled
and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another child lived in the house, too.
"Maybe we collected her?" Sirius asked confused looking towards his friends who shrugged but looked hopeful
Yet Harriet Potter was still there,
"Maybe not"Peter said looking a little put out
asleep at the moment, but not for long. Her Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.
"Up! Get up! Now!"
"that's not how you wake a child!" Molly snapped, Harry glared at the plump woman
Harriet woke with a start. Her aunt rapped on the door again.
"Up!" she screeched, before whispering through the door "Harriet dear wake up before Vernon comes"
"Why what would Vernon do?" James asked confused looking towards his daughter
"He would get me up" Harry said blankly
Harriet heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. She rolled onto her back, wincing slightly as she knocked her sore ribs.
"Why are your ribs sore Harry?" Angela asked her friend.
"I was doing some chores and I fell over, bruising my side" Harry told them, putting off the truth until necessary.
She tried to remember the dream she had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. She had a funny feeling she'd had the same dream before.
"That's because it wasn't a dream pup" Sirius grinned
"I didn't know that then" she replied
Her aunt was back outside the door.
"Are you up yet?" she demanded.
"what a horrid person" Molly sniffed. Harry glared and hissed "don't you dare talk about Aunt Tuney like that" shocking the hall
"Nearly," said Harriet.
"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."
"they made you cook?" Katie gasped. Looking at her teammate in shock.
"I enjoyed it, so I offered" Harry told them
Harriet groaned.
"What did you say?" her aunt snapped through the door. "Nothing, nothing..."
Dudley's birthday - how could she have forgotten? Harriet got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. She found a pair under her bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on.
"Why would their be spiders in your room? Tuney is a neat freak she wouldn't let that happen"
Harry was getting tired of the questions and decided to ignore them
Harriet was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them,
"What's that got to do with anything?" Draco asked confused getting a bad feeling
and that was where she slept.
The hall was deadly silent before everyone started screaming and yelling.
"Why would she be sleeping in a cupboard Dumbledore!" Minerva snapped
"Why wasn't anyone checking on her!" Lily glared her face turning the same colour as her hair. It took 10 minutes for everyone to calm down. Tom was shocked that a little girl was treated like a house elf and she was still defending the woman she called family. He noticed that since she came back into the room she had been keeping to herself. He knew something was wrong and he hoped that it wasn't what he thought it was.
When she was dressed she went down the hall, finding a small package outside her cupboard door. Aunt Tuney must of left it there to give to Dudley, Harriet let a small smile grace her face before making her way into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.
"why would he need a second television?" Hermione asked
"Because what Dudley wants Dudley gets" Harry replied
"What's a television?" Draco asked, Hermione sighed and turned towards him " I will write a list of the muggle thing you don't under stand and when we finished the book we will go through them." Draco nodded in thanks
"That's a good idea Miss Granger, well done" the muggle studies teacher nodded toward Hermione
Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody.
"Let me guess…. It's you?" Tom sighed. Hating the fact that this girl was growing up in the same kind of environment as he did himself. He was confused as to why he was feeling sorry for a girl that destroys him in the future but he didn't want her to be hurt.
"It better not be!" James growled
Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harriet, but he couldn't often catch her. Harry didn't look it, but she was very fast.
The tension in the hall was getting too much and they hadn't heard the worst of it yet. Harry was wondering how they would react when her uncle would probably come into the story.
Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harriet had always been small and skinny for her age.
"Don't worry about it cub. Your mum and dad were tiny when they were that age" Lupin told her making her look up at him with a small smile even though it didn't reach her eyes.
She looked even smaller and skinnier than she really was because all she had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than she was.
"They made you wear boys hand me downs?" Lily whispered calmly making the marauders flinch.
"Aunt Tuney convinced Uncle Vernon to get me some clothes for when we go out. I only wore Dudley's clothes around the house." Harry lied. She always wore Dudley's clothes, she didn't want to ruin her nice clothes
Harriet had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes. She wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched her on the nose.
"I would punch him on the nose to make him know what it feels like" George growled, Fred nodding in agreement a scowl set on his face.
Umbridge was getting nervous, these books were supposed to get everyone to see Potter for her lies not make them feel sorry for her.
The only thing Harriet liked about her own appearance was a very thin scar on her forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.
"You liked that?" Ron asked shocked
"I didn't know what it meant then. Plus it was something that Dudley couldn't take away from me" he was told
She had had it as long as she could remember, and the first question she could ever remember asking her Aunt Petunia was how she had gotten it. Uncle Vernon walked in to the room and sat at the table. Petunia looked down at Harriet sadly before snapping.
"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions." Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harriet was turning over the bacon. "Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. Harriet flinched and nodded quickly
"Why would you flinch Miss Potter" Professor Snape asked raising his eyebrow slowly
"I don't like loud unexpected noises" she replied
About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harriet needed a haircut. Harriet must have had more haircuts than the rest of the girls in her class put together, but it made no difference, her hair simply grew that way - all over the place.
"So you have Lily's length and James style" Sirius chuckled
Harriet was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon.
"So he looked like a tub of lard?" Hermione questioned making Harry smile slightly.
"What a beautiful tub of lard he was as well, isn't that right George?" Fred said clutching his heart dramatically
"Indeed he was, my dear brother, the best tub of lard there is ever to exist" George said whiling away an imaginary tear. Harry let a little giggle escape her lips
He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.
"Attractive" Tom snorted
Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel – Harriet often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.
The hall erupted into laughter at Harry's statement.
"Haz thats hilarious, why don't you say shit like that when you're with us?" Fred laughed, Harry shrugged
Harriet put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.
"What could possibly be wrong now?" Daphne snapped getting rather annoyed with the family
"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."
"Oh what a shame! Even Lucy here doesn't have that many! And he's a spoiled git!" Sirius said dramatically pointing at Lucius, who playfully glared in reply.
"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."
"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.
"that's disgusting, I would tell him to shove it and be thankful for what he's got!" Bella snapped
Harriet, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down her bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.
"Be careful you don't choke sweetie" Lily told her daughter. Molly who was about to say the same thing looked a little lost
Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right''
"that's not how you defuse the situation" Alice glared at the book
Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty..."
"sweet merlin the boy can't even count! That's simple maths" Lucius groaned
"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.
"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."
Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.
"someone get me a gun. I can't read this anymore" Angela said seriously, Katie rolled her eyes and punched her friends shoulder
At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harriet and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.
"Don't even ask Malfoy I'm writing them down now" hermione cut Draco off before he could ask.
He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.
"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take her." She jerked her head in Harriet's direction.
Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harriet's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harriet was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harriet hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made her look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.
"Harriet don't be disrespectful! That woman takes time out of her day to look after you!" Molly snapped, Harry looked like she'd been slapped around the face, her eyes started to water but she nodded and looked down. Her movements were robotic and her face was blank. Everyone looked at Molly shocked, even Molly looked shocked at what she had said.
"What the fuck Mum!" Charlie said angrily, he moved to sit over by Harry but she shrugged him off and moved to sit on her own at the end of the hall away from everyone.
"Why would you say that Mrs Weasley?" Katie asked "Harry is one of the most respectful girls ever"
"Just so you know we are her parents, as in Lily and myself. Not you. You have no right to say something like that to our child" James said dangerously
"like you've done such a fantastic job! You haven't even been there for her when she need you! I have! Where were you?" Molly snapped back. Most of the hall gasped. Harry's head snapped up, she calmly walked up to the plump woman.
"Their dead. And so are you, to me at least" she said blankly before walking out once again.
"As my daughter said we died! Thanks for the reminder Weasley but here's the thing. We died to protect her from harm so she wouldn't have to grow up in a place like us! It may not have happened yet but I can sure as hell justify my future actions. If you ever say a word against my child again with out there being a true purpose I will make sure that your time during this reading is hell!" Lily growled before sitting down by James
"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harriet as though she'd planned this. Harriet knew she ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when she reminded herself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.
"I don't blame her thoughts there" Sirius shivered at the thought of cats.
"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. "Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the girl."
"It's a two way street" Hermione giggled thinking about what Harry did in third year.
The Dursleys often spoke about Harriet like this, as though she wasn't there - or rather, as though she was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.
Tom shook his head in disgust and stood. "I need a piss and then I'm going to get something to eat" he told them before walking out.
" oh I didn't realise it was that time already!" Dumbledore said looking at the time "it seems Mr Riddle was right, time for lunch. We shall carry on after.
…..
Tom walked in to the bathroom looking around. He stopped when he heard soft cries and whimpers, he walked towards her crouching beside her careful not to touch her.
"The abused you didn't they." He whispered
"How?" She asked still not looking towards him.
"I recognise the signs. Not letting people touch you unless you make the first move. Staying to yourself. Avoiding the questions that you don't feel comfortable with. I went through it as well Potter." She turned to look at him his eyes widened slightly.
"Why have you come to me. You know what I do to you in your future."
"You never asked for this Potter, any of it. Sure I was pissed but I looked at you and saw me, we're not so different. When I realised what those muggles did to you and I got angry. I don't know why, I just did. I want to protect you. You intrigue me"
"Aunt Tuney never did anything. I swear. She was punished if Uncle Vernon saw she was being nice to me." Harry sobbed "Everything is my fault"
"I'm sure it's not"
"It is! Even Mrs Weasley thinks bad of me! I'm a good for nothing Freak!" Toms eyes widened. Harry broke down sobbing again. This time Tom held her while she cried, she didn't push him away. She needed the comfort. Even if it was from the wizard that killed her parents.
"your not a freak" Tom said simply
"Please don't leave, you understand. I don't think I could go out there when they haven't even heard the worse of it yet" Harry begged "I know you hate me and I should you but I don't want to be alone. My aunt isn't here so I can't go to her for comfort…. Merlin what am I even saying? Never mind." She looked down. Tom took her chin gently making her look at him.
" I won't leave you. Don't worry" he gave her a small smile and she gave him a quick hug. And murmured thank you into his chest "do you want to get something to eat? Are you hungry?" Harry nodded and Tom helped her up.
"I just need to clear my face" she told him turning to the mirror casting a quick facial cleansing charm and turned back to Tom, he looked her up and down. Her face was no longer red and blotchy and her eyes weren't as red but her expression and posture could tell you what she was feeling. Tom held the doors open for her as she walked out to face the truth. They walked silently beside each other. When they got to the Gryffindor table Harry stopped, uncertainty looking at Tom. He saw her expression and and took a seat at the red and gold table. She sighed in relief and sat down beside him, everyone was watching the two with wide eyes.
"What would you like Harry?" Tom asked pointing towards the food, she glanced at the food and mumbled "Jam sandwich and water please"
"Is that all?" Tom asked placing the food in front of her, she nodded and nibbled on the corner.
"H-harry? You do know who this is right?" Ginny stuttered, Tom looked at her curiously before turning back to the food, filling his plate.
"Of course" Harry muttered sipping her water. Tom started eating his chicken wing looking at the two girls. Ginny flinched slightly while Harry just stared blankly at the table.
"I'm done" she whispered to Tom who looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure? You've only eaten half of half a sandwich" she looked up at him "I'm done" she repeated, Tom sighed and nodded.
"Nonsense girl!" Molly snapped making Harriet flinch, filling her plate "you're a growing girl. You need your food!" Harry looked down and nodded shakily taking a small piece of toast just as she was going to take a bite A hand stopped her. She looked up and saw Tom glaring at Molly.
"Excuse me. But if she says she is done then let her be. Don't force food down her throat." He snapped "I'm pretty sure you are the last person at the moment she wants to look after her"
"How are you any better?" Molly snapped.
"I'm probably not but at least I went to check on her after YOU verbally abused her parents. Where were you?" Tom replied blankly while Molly stuttered for an answer. "thought so"
"Shall we start the reading again?" Dumbledore asked trying to defuse the tension, the hall murmured yes
Thanks for reading parts one of chapter two, tell me what you think.
R&R
GOLDENHAIREDPRONGSLET
xXx