A/N: I promised some of you I'd update today, so here it is! Though I'll try to update semi-weekly from now on (Wednesdays & Sundays). Thank you so much to The Elo, Irunin, Doclover and ILikeComps for reviewing!
Irunin: I promise I won't abandon this, I've finished almost the entire story, so it would be kinda pointless anyway. Thanks for your review!
Disclaimer: some of the dialogue and descriptions come straight from the book, and of course Harry Potter belongs to JKR (too bad... I wouldn't've let Fred die ^^)
Enjoy y'all!
Chapter 4
After I saw Dumbledore leave, and I'd talked to Harry, I made my way to the headmaster's office. You'd think that a 29-year-old wouldn't feel like a naughty child for being called to the principle's office anymore, but with Dumbledore, even an old grandma would feel like a child when looking in his eyes, if he wanted you to. Squaring my shoulders and telling myself I had no reason to feel this way, it wasn't like he could expel me anyway.
I was about to knock on his door when he bid me to enter, and I quietly agreed with Harry. How did he manage to do that?
Shrugging, I entered and sat down in the same chair I had occupied the previous day. "So what did you want to talk about?" I asked curiously. I still wanted to scold him, but I figured that could wait for a later date.
"I believe the reason you came back here is so you could take custody of Harry?" he asked, for once not speaking in riddles, and not running circles around the point for ages.
"Yes," I replied simply, I figured he'd explain himself soon enough.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," he said softly.
"And why not? He's mine by right. A magical child with a living, not imprisoned, magical relative is automatically transferred to their custody. I studied this before I came here, you know," I said defensively.
"But, for one thing, you are not officially alive yet."
"Something I will correct when I leave tonight. I'm going to get Potter manor ready to be used again, and I'll go to the ministry to get myself declared alive again," I explained carefully, stomping down on the anger I felt coming back to the surface.
"For another thing, you'd hurt Harry more than you'd help him by taking him away from his relatives-"
I interrupted him. "Excuse me? I'm his family, Lily's sister never even wanted to admit she still had a sister, never mind caring for her son! Have you ever bothered to ask Harry is he was happy there? Because he told me he isn't. They might not have beaten him, but they neglected him to the point of near-starvation. Why do you think he's so small?" I was shouting now, having gotten up from my chair.
Dumbledore seemed shocked for about a tenth of a second, before he composed himself. "Please, sit down, miss Potter, I was talking about the blood protection wards around his house."
"Don't even try to use that against me, you know as well as I do that Potter manor is unplottable, and has some of the strongest wards available, and I'm the only secret-keeper. He'd be safe there, and he'd be able to actually contact his friends and have a semi-normal life, which is al he wants."
Dumbledore folded his hands and leaned his elbows on his desk. He seemed to be thinking everything over.
"The way things are going right now, Harry will never be able to do what he is meant to do. He needs to be self-confident, and he needs to learn more than you can legally teach him at this school," I reasoned, sitting back down. "And, quite frankly, I think he needs someone to spoil him a little, and to love him like his parent's would've. Sirius and I were his godparents, and since Sirius can't really take care of him for obvious reasons, I should get him. Please, Albus," I begged, using his first name on purpose. "Think about Harry. I know you care about him."
Dumbledore looked up at me, and I could see the conflict in his eyes. He still thought Harry would be safer with Lily's family, but he knew he'd be happier with me. Finally, he sighed in defeat. "I should've known you wouldn't give in that easily, and you're right, it is only your right to take Harry away."
I smiled. "I'm taking Harry out for lunch, is that okay?" I asked, hoping he'd let me.
"Naturally, where do you plan to go?"
"I think I'm just going to take him out in London and then walk around Diagon alley for a while, you know, bonding."
Dumbledore nodded, and I stood up, getting ready to leave. "Miss Potter?"
"Please, professor, call me Emma, you make me feel old, calling me that."
He smiled. "Then you may call me Albus."
"What did you want to tell me?"
"Just be careful, and remember that Sirius Black is still on the loose," he cautioned me.
I nodded. "Of course, pr- I mean Albus. I'll have him back by three… ish," I corrected myself with a grin, knowing myself, we'd probably be later than that anyway. "Oh, and can we use the fireplace in the kitchens?" I asked.
Dumbledore gave me permission, and I went to get Harry, it would be a fun afternoon.
/*/
"No, really? You actually drove a flying car to school?" I asked incredulously as we ate our Sundaes at Florian's. Harry' seemed to be friendly with the proprietor, and I was addicted to ice cream, so we'd decided to get some desert.
"Yeah, we nearly crashed into the train as well, and then when we finally got to school, we hit the Whomping Willow, and barely escaped with our lives. I think the car still lives in the forest, to be honest," he said, a huge grin on his face. I was glad he was having a good time, and he was doing a good job of ignoring the stares the few shoppers here gave us. Grimly, I realized it must be experience.
After sitting in a comfortable silence for a few seconds, I decided to brooch the subject I had been wanting to tell him about.
"So living with the Dursleys is not too much fun, huh?" I asked casually.
"Not really, every summer I look forward to spending a month at the burrow with Ron and Hermione."
"What if I told you you'll never have to go back there again?" I asked seriously, putting down my spoon.
He stared at me for a second. "You mean…"
I smiled and nodded. "If you want to, of course."
"Yes!" he shouted, probably not even caring that he did. "I wasn't sure that- but yes, definitely!" he said, and I beamed at him. It would be good for the both of us not to be alone anymore.
After that we walked around Diagon Alley some more, and drooled over some of the Quidditch supplies at Quality Quidditch Supplies, which lead to Harry telling me he'd gotten a Firebolt from someone, but that McGonagall had taken it away to make sure it wasn't cursed. I grinned at him sullen tone and lead him inside the shop.
"I'd like the latest Nimbus model, please," I told the clerk behind the counter. He looked at my small stature sceptically, but complied with my request. I signed what amounted to a wizarding check and walked out of the shop with my new broom.
Harry, along with a lot of small kids that had been gawking at the Firebolt, was staring at me. "You bought me a new broom?" he asked incredulously.
I rolled my eyes, he was James' son, alright. "No, I bought me a new broom. I'm just lending it to you until you can get that Firebolt back. There's one condition, though," I said, handing him the broom.
He took it from me warily. "What?"
"I get to ride it over the summer too, and we'll see who the better seeker is, deal?" I asked, grinning broadly.
He grinned right back. "Deal," he said and shook my hand.
We walked back to the Leaky cauldron in relative silence, Harry revelling over his Nimbus 2002 like he'd never seen one before. He probably needed some time to wrap his mind around the fact that he had a family member no one had ever told him about, who was about to take him away from his horrible relatives.
When we got there, I told him he wouldn't see me for a while because I had to get myself declared alive again, but that he could always send Hedwig with a letter, or even just a short note. "I expect to be kept up to date about your schoolwork, or I'll write Hermione. And if there's anything, and I do mean anything, you can tell me, even if it sounds silly. We're family Harry, and I'm here for you to whine to about unfair professors and too much homework and stupid Slytherins, and this bloody cold that won't go away, got it?" I asked, lightly pushing at his shoulder.
He smiled at me, but there was something behind it, like he was holding back tears or just really touched. I couldn't stop myself, I pulled him into a hug, and, though he stiffened at first, he quickly relaxed and returned the hug, if a little uncertainly.
I sent Harry back on his way to Hogwarts and went to the nearest apparating spot myself. I felt good. Harry was a great kid, and not spoiled at all. He was smart and easy to talk to, he definitely resembled his father, but there was plenty of Lily in him too, a little more, personality wise, I thought.
I apparated right outside the Potter property, and walked over to the wrought iron fence. It seemed like it guarded an empty field, but as I stepped through the gate the mansion became visible. It looked like it grew out of the ground, and I couldn't help but smile. I remembered being awed every time I saw it happening when I was young.
The mansion wasn't huge, but it wasn't small enough to be called a house either. Aside from the ground floor, it had only one more storey on top, which is where most of the bedrooms where. The ground floor had an entrance hall, a kitchen, dining room, library, my father's old study, a living room and a music room, a building at the back of the house held an indoor swimming pool and indoor Quidditch pitch. James had loved that building even more than he loved his room (which was far larger than mine, I might add).
I unlocked the front door, and grinned at the irony. The mansion had five different wards, and a fidelius charm placed on it, and my father had still insisted on normal, muggle locks. He always lost his keys, though, and then had to use his wand to open it, which I thought was just the funniest thing when I was a teenager. As I opened the door and stepped into the marble hall, I was suddenly overwhelmed with a feeling of homesickness and grief over their deaths. Mum and dad had died in the space of eight months of each other when I was thirteen. Dad died of some form of cancer, and mum had just willowed away. I remembered James being so angry with her for not caring anymore.
I'd been reading a book in a corner in the library with a flashlight when mum and James had walked in – or, rather, James had walked in and had dragged mum with him. He had then proceeded to yell at her for not caring about me anymore, for giving up. He was just seventeen at that point, and was about to start his auror training. I had closed my book to listen, careful not to make any noise. She had whispered something back, but I hadn't understood. "She's twelve, mum, she needs you! She all she's got, I'm only seventeen, Lily and I aren't ready to take care of a child. What am I supposed to do?" He had sounded so desperate I'd been tempted to crawl out of hidey hole and give him a hug, but I stayed where I was.
"You'll be fine, James, you're a good person, and Emma is strong, she'll survive this, and she'll be all the stronger for it." I could barely remember a time that my mother's voice hadn't sounded feeble, even when dad was still alive and battling with the disease, she'd receded into herself.
"Mum!"
"I've provided for both of you, and arranged all my business, James, there is nothing left for me here, you don't need me-"
"But your daughter does! She's just a child!"
"James," she admonished, and for a second, she had sounded like she had before. "I meant that you don't need me to tell you how to live your life, and I'm confident that you'll take care of your sister."
"Maybe if you'd let me send her to Hogwarts…"
"No! She wouldn't be safe, swear to me you'll keep your sister safe, James."
James had sworn that he would and had sent me off to the Salem Witches' Institute in Massachusetts, USA. That was the main reason I fled there after I faked my death, I still had some friends there who I could stay with the first few months. During the summers of my school career, I went back home, and spent them mostly with Lily and Alice.
I sighed as I continued on in the house. I'd have to get a house elf eventually, there was no way I could maintain a house this big by myself. I couldn't cook anyway, or not very good.
I started out by just walking through the house. Most of the furniture was covered with white sheets, which gave the place an abandoned feeling, but I could still remember arguing with James in the kitchen, playing tag with my brother, opening Christmas presents in the living room, tasting my first champagne in the dining room, painstakingly learning how to play the piano in the music room… Eventually, I ended up in the library, and found what I'd most looked forward to see. "Hello mum, dad," I said to the painting.
A/N: Review! Btw, what do you think about the slight changes I made in Harry's personality?
