Disclaimer: I hold no rights to anything of the 'Harry Potter' universe. I make no money writing about it… I just enjoy playing with the characters.
A/N: I've taken the advice of a wise reviewer and decided not to use a beta reader. Obviously, there will be some errors as I write this, so I'm counting on all of you keen readers to keep me straight. If you see that I messed up somewhere, drop me a review and point out how clueless I am about my own story and I'll fix it post-haste. I had some spare time this week, so I was able to get this update out quicker than I normally would have. I planned on putting something in between Harry's birthday and the meeting with our favorite muggleborn witch, but decided it would best be told after the initial meeting. Don't be angry with me about the meeting… things will change by the time they go to Hogwarts. Sit back and enjoy the show! (Word Count: 4772)
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Chapter 7: The Impossible Friendship
Saturday, June 4th, 1988 5:20 PM
"This is fascinating!" said the diminutive professor, "In all my years, I've never come across a more complex and detailed charm! I'm sure that the people in the Department of Mysteries would love to get their hands on this!"
Filius Flitwick was standing on a stack of books and looking down at the tome resting on the desk before him while his young former student stood patiently nearby. He had been working for over two hours with very little progress made in revealing what was written in the strange book.
"See? I've been able get to the point where the ink that was used is revealed…" said Flitwick as he drew his wand over a page in the book. For a brief moment, words appeared on the leaf, but even in the short time they were visible, it was obvious that the letters were scrambled, making the text impossible to comprehend, "but that just triggered an ingrained Confundus hex to the page… at least it appears to be a Confundus hex, but the properties of the magic are slightly different. It doesn't affect the reader, but the page itself. If it were a true Confundus, even the person who was intended to read it would see the jumbled words. I also believe that it's keyed to a particular magical signature… the person would have to be holding the book in order to read it. In other words, he couldn't set the book down and read it without touching it."
"I was looking over his shoulder when he was reading, and the pages still looked blank to me."
"That's not surprising, considering the level of magic on this book. The security, privacy, and secrecy enchantments aren't just overlapping, but magically entwined together, interwoven in such a way so that they reinforce each other. I've determined that the purpose of the enchantments is to prevent anyone from reading the book other than the person who wrote it himself."
"Could someone other than the author have put those spells on the book?" asked Jaana.
"No, the person writing the book had to have been the one to create the enchantments, of that I'm positive."
"Could it have been accidental? I mean, the only one who can read this is quite young… could he have done it himself without realizing…"
"Impossible!" exclaimed Flitwick, "This was most certainly done intentionally."
Jaana looked down at the book and asked, "Well, is there anything dangerous about this book?"
"The book itself? I don't believe so. From what I can tell, the magic is purely passive, but we have no way of knowing whether the information contained within is dangerous or not." Flitwick cast a critical eye at Jaana and said, "It could possibly help if you were to tell me who this curious book belongs to. The magic involved here is quite advanced, and I'd love to discuss…"
"I have to go," interrupted Jaana quickly as she scooped the book up from the desk, "Thank you for your time, Professor, and I appreciate that you will keep this under your hat."
"Pity… pity…" sighed Flitwick, "Well, it was good to see you again, Miss Figg. Do stop by for another visit when you have the chance."
Flitwick was still looking at the door long after Jaana had already left. With a resigned sigh, he plucked a roll of parchment from the pile on his desk and returned to grading the Charms essays that he was working on before Jaana's unexpected arrival.
The busy Charms professor failed to notice the figure of Phineas Nigellus resting beneath a tree in the background of a picturesque landscape portrait on the wall behind his desk. Once the former student had left, the painted figure rose from the grass and brushed the loose blades from his trousers. He then calmly strode across the painting with a sly smile on his face, being careful to stay within the shadows of the dense trees before he disappeared off the edge.
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Sunday, July 31st, 1988 9:01 AM
Harry grumbled as he took his pillow from beneath his head and placed it firmly over his face, but it did very little to dull the scratching and tapping sounds that had just roused him from his sleep. He wasn't sure what the noise was or where it was coming from, but it was Sunday, dammit! It was his only day to sleep in without having to deal with the daily lessons he was getting from Jaana.
'Tap, tap… scratch… tap tap tap…'
"Arrgh!" exclaimed Harry as he removed the pillow from over his face and sat up straight in his bed.
Harry looked over towards where the noise was originating from and saw a fat gray owl rapping and clawing insistently at his bedroom window. The owl had a large parchment envelope tied to its leg. Harry glanced at the clock and saw that it was a bit past nine in the morning, roughly two hours later than his usual waking time on Sundays. He briefly wondered why Glyph didn't wake him for breakfast as he climbed out from under the covers and walked towards the window.
As soon as the window was opened, the impatient owl hopped inside and lifted its burdened leg towards Harry. Just as he was untying the string to retrieve the letter, a second owl lit on the window sill and also stuck its leg out in Harry's direction.
"Wait a moment, girl, I'll get that one after I… huh?"
Harry suddenly noticed that there were about a hundred owls of various colours and breeds perched upon the numerous branches of the old Elm tree that sat in the yard just outside of his bedroom window. As if on cue, the parliament of owls alit from the branches of the tree and began swarming in through the now open window.
Harry let out a surprised yelp and fell backwards away from the opening as the steady stream of owls came through the window, dropped whatever they were carrying and swooped back out. Whatever owls had their burdens attached to their legs all found a place to land in his bedroom and waited for him with their legs held out for him.
Harry didn't know whether to be frightened or delighted. He knew of owl post, but before this day he had yet to receive anything from anyone using this particular delivery method. He quickly shook off his shock and began moving from owl to owl, relieving each of their burdens in turn. As soon as he untied an envelope from a particular bird, the owl would immediately take off and zoom out through the window.
An hour later, Harry was still untying the cords from owl's legs and tossing whatever they were delivering into an ever growing pile upon his bed. The stack of letters and packages was growing so large that some were sliding from the pile onto the floor, and still there were new owls arriving nearly as quickly as the older ones were being released.
"Well, someone's starting their birthday off right!" came a cheerful voice from the doorway. Harry quickly spun around, causing the owl who had landed on his shoulder to flap his wings agitatedly as he waited for Harry to relieve him of his letter. Standing in the open doorway was Jaana, who had one hand placed cockily on her hip and her other arm resting upon the jamb.
"It's… it's my birthday?" asked Harry as he wiped the sweat from his brow, "How did you know? I never told you… I never told anyone!"
"Oh, come on!" said Jaana with a smile, "Everyone knows your birthday! Surely, you must be used to this by now," she said as she waved her hand towards the ever-growing pile of letters, cards, and gifts on and around his bed.
Harry was still fumbling with a cord around an owl's leg as he answered, "Well, no… I never got any birthday gifts before."
Jaana sighed and said, "It's, 'I have never gotten any gifts… wait… you've never gotten any birthday presents before? Ever?"
Harry shook his head and said, "No cards or letters, either. My cousin always got loads on his birthday, but my relatives treated my birthday like any other day… and this is the first owl post I've ever received, too… it's quite exciting, really and… and…"
Harry paused when he saw the shocked look on Jaana's face. For a moment, he thought he was in trouble when she quickly walked towards him with an odd, almost angry look on her face. He stiffened as she wrapped her arms around him in what turned out to be a big hug. He knew he wasn't in trouble when he heard her let out a quiet sob as she tightly held him.
"It was never a big deal," lied Harry, "I never really cared that I never got any birthday or Christmas presents. For the longest time, I never even knew I was supposed to get any until I heard some kids talking about their presents at school. I just thought the Dursleys were being nice to Dudley."
Jaana instantly knew that Dumbledore had magically re-directed the boy's owl post from his muggle household. That could be the only explanation for him never getting any post at all throughout the years. She pulled back and wiped her glistening eyes on her shirtsleeve and said, "Now I know why you never answered any of the letters I sent to you on your birthdays… well, you're not with the Dursleys any more. You're with someone who cares about you, and you're going to have the best birthday that anyone has ever had!"
Harry couldn't stop the smile that broke out on his face, but it quickly disappeared as the owl on his shoulder impatiently nipped at his ear.
Jaana laughed and said, "It looks like we'll be spending the rest of the morning sorting out all of this!"
At noontime Jaana had tried to talk Harry into leaving the pile of letters for a while to have lunch, but he was so engrossed with his first real taste of a truly happy birthday that she had to settle for Glyph bringing them a platter of sandwiches and pumpkin juice while they sorted through the correspondence. Harry still couldn't get over the fact that people he never even met were sending him cards and presents.
Even after the first onslaught of owls had been relieved of their deliveries, there was a steady trickle of new owls throughout the early afternoon as Harry and Jaana sorted out his mail. It was a little after two in the afternoon when they had finally separated his post into three piles… cards from an adoring wizarding population wishing him a happy birthday, letters from an adoring wizarding population wishing him a happy birthday, and gifts from an adoring wizarding population wishing him a happy birthday.
"Here's one from the gamekeeper at Hogwarts!" exclaimed Jaana as she handed a poorly handwritten card to Harry, "He's a bit scary, but a really kind soul… and here's one from…"
Harry took the card and saw the name on the card, 'Rubeus Hagrid,' but then noticed the change in Jaana's expression and asked, "From…?"
Jaana briefly thought about hiding the letter away and destroying it later, but she knew that she couldn't protect the boy from the harsh realities that came with being 'Harry Potter.' With an apologetic look on her face, she said, "Well… this is from Azkaban, the Wizarding prison. It's from the man who betrayed your pa…"
"Sirius!" exclaimed Harry as he quickly snatched the letter from Jaana's hands.
"Harry, he's…"
"Innocent!" exclaimed Harry, interrupting whatever Jaana was going to say about his godfather.
As Harry opened the letter, a wave of guilt overcame him. If truth be told, he had forgotten all about the fact that he had a godfather who was wrongly imprisoned… it was only mentioned once in the beginning of the book he was studying, and there was so much more in the book that seemed more important.
"Harry, no matter what he says in that letter, you must remember that he was working for 'He Who Must Not Be Named…' He's an evil man who…"
"NO!" exclaimed Harry vehemently, "He wasn't the one who told the Dark Lord where I was, it was Peter Pettigrew!"
"Peter Pettigrew is dead, Harry," said Jaana in a soft voice as she tried to calm Harry down, "Black was the one who killed him."
"Okay," said Harry calmly as he set Sirius's letter aside and silently returned to the card from Hagrid.
Jaana studied Harry for a few moments, wondering what was going through his mind when he so abruptly dropped the subject, but he seemed to content with reading the other cards and letters that he had received from the other admirers… or he was simply ignoring her. Jaana mentally shrugged it off and picked up another envelope and opened it for him.
"Ooh, this one is from a girl, and I think she really likes you…" giggled Jaana, "She says she already has the flowers picked out for your wedding!"
Harry's eyes widened as he repeated, "Wedding?"
Jaana barely maintained her serious expression as she said, "Yes! White carnations along with pink roses… Oh, and she already has the names of your children picked out!"
In a panic, Harry snatched the letter away from Jaana, but quickly found out that that what she was telling him was true… the girl sending the letter really had picked out the date for the wedding, the flowers, their children's names, and even where they were going to live. Harry scanned down to the bottom of the letter and read the girl's name, 'Ginerva Weasley.' He instantly recognized the name of his supposed 'future' wife.
A cloud passed over Harry's eyes as he read the name, which didn't go unnoticed by Jaana. The only thought that passed through Harry's head as he read the name was how his older self was betrayed by that woman who supposedly loved him.
"What's wrong? Getting cold feet already?" asked Jaana with a slight laugh in her voice, although she was guessing that it was something else entirely that had the boy spooked.
"She's six years old and has a wedding planned? She sounds a bit of a nutter to me," said Harry casually as he tossed the letter onto the rubbish pile. He smiled as he considered that phrasing… the 'trash' pile… 'how very fitting,' he thought to himself.
It was nearly five o'clock when they finally managed to sort through the post from all of Harry's well-wishers. Harry couldn't help but to think how jealous Dudley would be if he saw the huge pile of sweets and toys that Harry had received… probably more than all the toys Dudley had received in his entire life, and that was saying something.
"Your birthday isn't over yet," said Jaana with a smile as she waved her wand and drew a huge, colourfully wrapped package from thin air and hovered it in front of Harry, "There's still one present for you to open."
Without hesitating, Harry wrapped Jaana in a tight hug, almost causing her to drop the bulky package, "I knew you wouldn't forget."
"Wait until you open it," whispered Jaana playfully. She really, really didn't want to give Harry this particular present, but with his daily pleading and her own conscience working against her common sense, she had finally given in. It's not as if breaking yet another wizarding law would get her into any more trouble than she was already in. It wasn't really 'breaking' the law, but bending it quite a bit. She had made the decision a few weeks earlier, but figured that his birthday would be the best time to spring the surprise.
Harry finished tearing the wrapping paper from the large, deep box. He quickly lifted the lid, looked inside, and yelled, "YES!"
Inside of the box was a premium number 2, cast iron cauldron, along with a wide variety of potions ingredients that easily surpassed the standard potions kit that the first-year Hogwarts students were required to obtain.
For the past month Harry had been begging Jaana to train him in magic, but with the constant monitoring of magical energy emissions performed by the Ministry since Harry's disappearance, the performance of magic by underage wizards was much more readily detectable. She couldn't take the chance of getting him a wand, which was what he really wanted, so she did the next best thing.
Even in their 'technically' abandoned magical house, magical activity was being closely monitored, as it was in all registered magical houses. This change in Ministry policy had caused an uproar in the pureblood magical community. The original intent was to detect and recover Harry Potter. The unintentional effect was much more widespread and catastrophic to the pureblooded magical community, due to the fact that underage magic was now meticulously monitored inside of pureblood homes as well as muggleborn households, compromising the inherent advantage the pureblood children had over their muggleborn counterparts when it came to familiarity with magic.
The pureblood parents could no longer covertly train their children to make it appear that they were more magically adept than the 'inferior' classes of magicals. With the ingrained magical advantage removed, the new students entering Hogwarts would be on more of an equal footing as far as practical magical experience goes. The purebloods still had the advantage of 'knowing' about magic, but the lack of practical experience would ultimately make a marked impact on the future of the wizarding world.
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Monday, September 19th, 1988 12:27 PM
Harry watched nervously as he observed the trio of girls playing jump rope in the schoolyard. He reached under his jacket for the seventeenth time to make sure that the package was still safely tucked beneath his clothing. He knew he shouldn't be anxious, but the thought of finally meeting the person that was going to be his best friend was sending his nerves into chaos.
He had been watching the other children since they were let out for lunch. He narrowed his choices down to just a few girls who were playing in the schoolyard. The book described Hermione as an attractive girl with thick, curly brown hair, bright, intense brown eyes, and a poised and sophisticated, yet elegant demeanor about her.
A short, blonde girl was swinging one end of the rope while a rather plump, auburn-haired girl twirled the other. Jumping in the middle was a very attractive girl who fit his older self's description perfectly. She had long, flowing brown hair that bounced playfully with every jump, a long, narrow face with full red lips, gleaming brown eyes and an absolutely adorable button nose. They were all wearing the standard uniform for that public school, a warm maroon jumper covering a plain white, button-down shirt along with the standard knee-length, plaid skirt, knee stockings and mary-janes. He was sure that this pretty, brown-haired girl was the one destined to be his best friend.
He stood up from the wall he was leaning on and walked over to the playing girls in what he hoped was a 'cool' manner. Harry waited a few moments until he caught the attention of the pretty, rope-skipping, brown-haired girl and confidently asked, "Hi, are you Hermione Granger?"
The reaction was immediate.
The short, thin blonde girl seemed to forget that she was holding the end of a jump rope as she placed both of her hands over her mouth in a futile attempt to stop the gasp that escaped her throat. The plump, auburn-haired girl didn't drop her end of the rope, but she did freeze in position, causing the other, newly-released, plastic-coated end of the jump rope to whip wildly upwards, catching the stunned brown-haired girl square in the mouth. The girl didn't seem to immediately notice the split lip she had just received, mainly because her ankles had become entangled in the slackened rope, which summarily caused her to fall forwards onto the pavement. The pretty, brown-haired girl let out a scream of agony as both her knees became skinned and the palms of her hands became scraped from the contact with the hard pavement of the schoolyard.
The short blonde was the first to recover her senses as she removed a hand from over her mouth, pointed a threatening finger at Harry and said through her fingers, "How dare you!"
The chubby, auburn-haired girl was staring at Harry with an open-mouthed glare as the girl on the ground rolled over and placed her bleeding hands on her bleeding knees. The brown haired girl said through gritted teeth, "I am certainly not that stuck-up harpy! What on earth made you think that I was that socially retarded minger with delusions of adequacy? I've a right mind to kick you in the yarbles, you wanker!"
With that the two other girls helped the foul-mouthed, brown-haired girl up from the ground and began walking the heavily limping student towards the school. The short blonde looked back at Harry and sent him a rude, two-fingered hand gesture before they disappeared into the doorway.
By that time a small crowd of curious spectators had accumulated around the commotion. A younger boy who had heard the entire exchange walked up to Harry and said, "The girl you're looking for is over there."
The boy was pointing to the far corner of the schoolyard where a single student was sitting at a picnic table with her back turned towards the other playing students. Now that he had noticed her, he could see that she did indeed have quite a lot of long, messy brown hair bunched around her shoulders, forced down around her collar by the short, black stocking cap she was wearing. Harry politely thanked the boy and began walking towards the girl.
"You're really going to talk to her, mate?" said the boy, not really as a question but as a slightly incredulous statement.
Harry paused, looked back and asked, "Why shouldn't I?"
The boy shrugged and said, "Hey, it's your funeral."
As Harry neared the solitary figure, he saw that she wasn't exactly what you'd call 'thin.' Her thickness certainly couldn't be blamed on the oversized jumper she was wearing. He also noticed through the visible tangled mass of hair, a thin metal strap that was wrapped around the back of her head.
When he walked up to the girl, she apparently heard his approaching footsteps because he saw her shoulders tense up and her back stiffen rigidly. Harry made to circle around the table, intending to sit on the opposite bench, when the girl growled out in a snide, derisive tone, "What do you want?"
Harry turned to face her. He had been practicing what he was going to say to her for over a month, but when he looked at her face, every thought he had in his head seemed to leak out of his ears.
The first thing he noticed, and it was impossible to miss, was the purpose of the silvery band that was around the back of her wild, tangled hair. It was a large metal retainer, wrapped tightly around her head and affixed firmly to her very buck teeth. The complexion on her puffy pink cheeks seemed irritated and oily, and there were indentations along the sides of her face from where the retainer rubbed against her skin up until it disappeared under her cap. She also had thick, unkempt eyebrows that almost joined above the bridge of her nose. Harry would have never guessed that this was the 'pretty' best friend that his older self had referred to.
Her brown eyes were narrowed dangerously as she looked everywhere but at Harry. Hesitantly, he spoke, "Hi, Hermione Granger? I'm Harry Po…"
"What do they have planned thish time?" the girl interrupted rudely, slamming the opened book she was reading down on the table as she scanned the area. It was apparent that the large, cumbersome retainer was making her slur her speech. The metal and elastics that adorned her teeth seemed to draw his focus onto her mouth as she spoke, which seemed to annoy the girl even more.
"P-planned?" stammered Harry nervously, "Nothing, I suppose, I just wanted to…"
"I shaw you talking with Kate Shpooner and her two gormlessh, fluffed-up tartsh. Did they run out of berksh in this shchool and had to shend out for shomeone new to torture me?"
"No one sent me over, I came because…"
"I know, I know… it'sh the shame thing every day. Well, you can jusht shave it for shomeone elsh. I've honeshtly had enough pranksh pulled on me to lasht a lifetime. Jusht because I'm shmarter than the lot of you combined ish no reashon to harassh me on a daily bashish."
The girl then looked directly at him for the first time and said, "Lisshen, I'd hate to have you kicked out of shchool on shuch a nish day. You sheem like a nish enough bloke… jusht walk away and I won't tell a teasher how you shtuck your hand up my shkirt and pulled down my knickersh."
"Wait a minute, I didn't…"
"And I'm not going to shtand up and give you the opportunity to do it!" she said in a dangerous hiss, "That'sh been done too many timesh before, and I'm wishe to it all… sho jusht walk away…"
The girl hastily picked up her book and began to actively ignore the stunned boy. Harry could see that she was keeping a suspicious eye on him as she pretended to read. Harry stood there in shock for a few moments before he reached under his jumper and pulled out a plainly wrapped package and set it down on the table beside her.
"Happy birthday," Harry simply said before he turned and morosely walked towards the gate that led from the schoolyard.
Hermione kept her eyes on the retreating back of the strange boy who she had just rudely sent away. She was still looking at the gate long after the boy had disappeared beyond it. She dropped her eyes to the package lying on the table beside her. It was wrapped in plain brown paper and tied together with a string. Tucked beneath the string was a yellowed parchment envelope with the words, 'Happy Birthday, Hermione' written on it in light blue ink.
Hermione's brows knit together as she pondered the strange package. It was roughly the size and shape of a rather large book. Anyone that knew her would know that a book would be a simply irresistible temptation to her, but she has had way too many cruel tricks played upon her to seriously think that there was a simple book wrapped within the paper. She gingerly poked at the package with a pencil, almost expecting it to explode or something.
Just as the pencil made contact with the package, the bell that was mounted on the wall just over her head rang, causing her to comically jump in alarm. She heard a few laughs from behind her, telling her that some of the other students had been watching the exchange she had with the odd, skinny boy.
The bell, of course, was the first warning bell announcing the end of the lunch period. Hermione waited until most of the other children in the schoolyard had entered the building before she tucked the book she was reading back into her book bag, stood up from the picnic table, and then picked up the package that the boy had left for her.
She walked to the entrance to the school. Just beside the door was a rubbish bin.
'I'm no fool!' she thought to herself.
She held the curious package out over the bin, ready to drop it in, but she paused.
With a sigh, she placed the package in her bookbag and entered the school.
'Yes, I am a fool when it comes to books.'
She would wait until she got home to have one of her parents open the package. That way she'd have witnesses that would actually stick up for her if something happened.
Just before she closed the door, she glanced across the schoolyard and looked critically at the gate.
'He said his name was Harry…' she thought to herself as she let the door close and made her way to her first afternoon lesson.
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