Chapter 3
Frustration mounted as the young savior tried more and more to have a say in his wardrobe until Harry relented and told Draco and Madame Malkin to just make 'whatever clothes they want' so the group could get on their day. Once the apparel mess was finished, and everyone's arms had been loaded with bags, Harry unlocked the doors which led them back out to the street where a crowd had formed to peer into the windows in hopes of seeing what the savior had bought. As promised, he gave his praise for the store upon his exit. "Well Mr. Malfoy, you were right. Madame Malkin's did have the best service. I love it, thanks." His voice called, just loud enough to be heard by nearby witches and wizards.
Expectations were met as the store immediately filled with witches and wizards who wanted to buy Malkin's clothes for themselves, their friends, and their family. Harry, Severus, and Draco squeezed past the crowd and ducked into an alley. "Can we go home now?" Harry groaned.
Severus had moved all of the bags to his left arm. "No food at home… Elves aren't expecting… until tomorrow…" Severus informed them. The man took in a ragged breath to start again but fell into a short coughing fit. He pushed a concerned Draco's arm away from him and righted himself once more. "Seeing as Hogwarts will be… Closing for staff tomorrow… We should head back to… The manor, but first we… need to find supper."
Murmurs of agreement came from both Harry and Draco. An idea struck Harry. "I know this great muggle diner just down the block from the Leaky." He offered.
Yellowed fingers pinched the black robes that hung off of the Potion Master. "I'm not changing… No muggle places." Severus informed the young man.
With a sigh Harry put his weight against the wall behind him and glanced to the sky. "Fine, let's just buy a loaf of bread and transfigure it into something better." He suggested.
"I'd rather eat real food." Draco muttered as he glanced to the side. Across the street there was a restaurant. "Why don't we just eat there?" He suggested as he pointed to the place.
A thoughtful frown encompassed Harry's face as he looked towards the eatery. "Farcey's?" Harry asked and he received a nod from Draco. "Let's go put this stuff up at the house first, then maybe by the time we get back all the people will be gone and I can eat in peace."
Nods of agreement came from his current companions, and soon the three were off to put up the excess of clothing that Harry had been pushed to buy. House elves gathered around them when they appeared and they took the bags from the group. Severus informed them of the new living situation and asked them to prepare a room for Harry and also to ensure that the clothing had been put into Harry's new room. His last note was a request to shop for food tonight rather than tomorrow as they would be home that evening. The wizards cleaned themselves up a bit and soon went back to Farcey's on Diagon Alley for their meal.
As they entered the muggle-born run and muggle-style establishment meant exclusively for witches and wizards to get a taste of muggle life without having left Wizarding London, the hostess gasped and pointed towards the group. "The Death Eaters kidnapped Harry Potter!"
Severus and Draco glared at the scene she'd just caused - though thankfully there wasn't much of one as they were the only customers there aside from an elderly couple off in the corner. Harry sighed and once more slipped into the lecture he'd seemed to have given so much lately. "They are not Death Eaters. They were spies for Albus Dumbledore, and I am treating them to dinner for their bravery." He schooled his face to appear as serious as he could muster. "It would behoove you to treat these heroes with the respect they deserve."
Red tinged on the hostess' face and she gave a quick nod before she turned tail and walked onward to show them to their booth. Before they'd even been seated, a waitress came around to take their drink order. Soon she left and it was less than a minute when she came back with their drinks only to leave again after she dropped them off.
Suspicion arose in Draco's face as his brows knitted together. "Why do you keep doing that?"
"Mmm?" Harry looked to the young man as he took a seat at the booth. "Doing what?"
"Taking up for us, we're not 'good guys' you know. We've both done some pretty awful things." Draco slipped into the booth and he leaned against the wall.
With a shake of his head Harry silenced the young man. "But here's the thing, you are the good guys. Even if for you it was only for a year, you both made alliances with Dumbledore, you both gathered information from Voldemort and reported it back to Dumbledore, and without you two, especially Snape, there's no way we would have won this quickly. Don't get me wrong, you're both assholes, particularly cruel when you want to be, and although it doesn't excuse your behavior in the past, the facts are that you were both put in lifetimes of servitude. For Snape it was to Voldemort, and for you it was to parents who think like Voldemort. Your cruelty may not be forgiven, but it is explained through that. Now since Voldemort is dead and you don't have to act the part of scary bad Death Eater, it's up to you both whether or not you actually want to be good guys I know you can be." The young man picked up his menu and proceeded to browse the selection for the meal he wanted.
The silence broke as Severus grunted. "Potter, your reasoning… is astounding… and foolishly optimistic… Good people… do bad things… and bad people… do good things… bear that in mind… as you become accustomed… to our way of life." Soon the waitress arrived and the group ordered their meals. After she'd left, Snape started again. "We need to cover rules... for you staying at the Manor." He stated as he motioned towards the blonde. "Let's see if you... remember them all."
With a roll of his eyes, Draco spoke as though he were reading a grocery list. "No loud music, unless it's a preapproved party, no inviting friends over, unless it's approved by Uncle Severus at least 3 days beforehand, no pets, as there's already a snake living there and Uncle Severus doesn't want Serenity to get indigestion from eating whatever riff-raff we might bring in, and no 'flings' are to take place under his roof- If you find a person you like, date them like a proper gentleman, and try to keep them as far away from the manor as possible."
A rough snort came from Harry as he shook his head. "I doubt that last one will be a problem."
"Why, the ladies getting tired of flinging themselves at the Boy-Who-Lived?" Draco teased with a smirk on his face.
Green eyes darted down to Harry's dirty fingernails. "No, they still continue to fling themselves at me in droves, men are too. I just don't fancy dating any of them." He looked back up to Draco and heaved a sigh. "Most of them think they're being sly, but I can see right through them. Some want my money, others want my fame, and still others just want me to father their children. And don't get me started on Ginny- I thought she was perfect, had a plan to settle down with her and everything, but it's like the older we got, the more she only cared about me displaying my affection for her in public. It was like she had to prove to everyone that she 'owned' me, and then she started demanding I ask her to marry me. She even openly admitted that I bored her, and the only reason she was with me was because I'm Harry Freakin' Potter!" His hands flew into the air as he let out a groan of frustration. "Nope- screw that. Not dating anyone for the time being, especially not some stranger."
"Heh." Severus snickered to himself. "Mr. Potter your new… outlook on life is… rather refreshing. Better than that… simpering child you've… been for so long." He mused. "What changed?"
"I chose to stop listening to everyone else and become my own person. I've been a molded pawn all my life, well now that I'm no longer needed, the rest of the wizarding world can go bugger off and I will mold myself into whatever the hell I want to be. I mourned the deaths of people close to me who shouldn't have died in the first place. I realized I needed to step up and do what was best for me as a person. To do that I had to kill Voldemort and get him off my case so the rest of the world would get off my case as well and leave me alone to figure out who I want to be." He sighed. "Now, it seems as though the rest of the world is going to ride me harder."
Savory scents wafted through the air which garnered the group's attention; the waitress had arrived with their orders. She apologized for her coworker's earlier accusation earlier as she sat the scrumptious meals down in front of each person. Mere seconds after she moved out of sight, the trio set in on their food like ravenous beasts.
Sunbeams peeked in through the slits of the heavy curtain that hung over the guest room's only window and came to rest on Harry's face. With a groggy groan the young man turned away and buried his face into the pillow beneath him. Much to his frustration, he had already been stirred and would no longer be able to return to his sweet slumber, or the lovely dream about cloud people he'd awoken from.
Thunks sounded off as Harry swung his legs over the side of his bed and his feet hit the wooden floor. The young man stood and yawned while he stretched towards the ceiling, then he made his way to the en-suite bathroom. Unfortunately for his toe, he'd accidentally kicked a box filled with what was left of his personal objects along the way. It didn't take him long to shower and shave, and once he'd finished he was off downstairs to join the rest of the living. Along the way a house elf came to him and asked if he wanted anything, to which he requested a cup of coffee. In a flash the little elf was gone and back again with his drink, then he was off once more.
Soft classical music emanated from the main living area, and Severus could be seen from a chair with his eyes closed. "You really should have mentioned… the state of your mail." The man said as his lids raised and he glanced to Potter from the side.
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked as he sipped his cup gingerly to avoid the heat.
Draco sat on the couch with his legs up over a rather large bag. A perfectly coiffed bundle of blonde hair rose up beyond the back of the couch. "Come and see for yourself, it's ridiculous. The Ministry rerouted your mail today and this thing came for you."
"With instructions to check every parcel…" Severus' intake of breath sounded much less pained than it had been for the last couple of days. "-for hexes, spells, jinxes, and the like." He told the young man. "Apparently they had already… removed some twenty letters… meant to poison or kill you."
A heavy resigned groan came from Harry as the young man approached the couch and took in the sheer size of the massive bag of letters that Draco lay on. "There must be a thousand letters there!" He complained before he drank down the brown goodness inside of his mug. "I'll pay you each five galleons an hour if you help me go through it."
Money symbols flashed in Draco's mind and the young man readily agreed, however Severus denied on the grounds that he simply didn't want to.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as they tackled the mundane task to read and sort through every last letter. Draco had made the piles, and Harry would hand the letters he'd sorted through to Malfoy with a quick summary of what they detailed. Luckily for him, most of the letters beared a resemblance to one another and they were able to narrow down the number of piles based on three categories. By the time they had finished nearly four hours later Draco fell back onto the ground and let out a frustrated groan. He held out his hand towards Harry. "Give me the money and I'll tell you which piles are what."
Harry rolled his eyes and rummaged around his money pouch. He poured the galleons onto the floor in front of him and counted out twenty, which he then handed to Draco.
The blonde sat back up and recounted them to ensure the accuracy, then he shoved them into his pocket. "Right, this pile is people asking for your hand in marriage, to have your babies, and to be their best man at their weddings."
Disgust flickered across Harry's face. "Burn it with fire."
With an amused snort from Severus, Draco nodded and cast an Incendio upon the pile. When it was naught but ash, he brushed the mess into the fireplace and returned to the letters. "This one is will statements. People proclaiming that they've added you into their wills, actual wills from the deceased who are giving you things, and the like. Basically you're at least two hundred peoples' heir now."
With a nod, Harry pulled the pile towards him, neatly stacked them, and banished them off to his room. "I'll go through them more personally later when I can muster the attention."
"Lastly, this is a bunch of people claiming to be your relatives. Some are demanding money, some are requesting to come and see you, and some are giving sob stories on their state of life in hopes that you will give them money without them outright asking." Draco informed him.
Anger flashed on Harry's face and the young man shook his head. "No, if they were my relatives they'd have come out much sooner than now. Burn it."
Draco readied his wand but stopped and lowered it. "Actually… there is one I believe might truly be a relative of yours." He said as he thumbed through the paper to find the single note written on white paper with blue lines and strange holes on the side. "I think it's a muggle."
Harry snatched the paper and let his eyes graze over it. The young man slumped back and leaned against the couch as he read.
Harry,
Hey, it's Dudley. You prolly don't know it yet, but Daddy died. Mummy said she still wants nothing to do with you.
Hey wanna know something weird? I thought to myself 'I wish I could get a letter to Harry' and some random owl started knocking at my window. I figured I'd try it out since that's how I saw you get letters before, so here's hoping this letter actually gets to you. Dunno how fast they go though, hopefully you'll get it in time for the funeral, if you even wanna come. Funeral's on Saturday by the way.
Look, I wanted to tell you something… I wanna say I'm sorry. We were horrible to you. I realized that last year. When we were kids, I thought what I was doing was right, I thought that since my mum and dad encouraged it, that you really were deserving of it all. I started therapy for anger management last year, and when we got around to talking about you, I learned a lot of things. And now because I wanted to apologize to you and I tried to get mummy to apologize, she's disowned me for taking your side.
Anyways, I wanted to write you originally because you left one of your notebooks at home with some of your clothes. When Mummy went to burn your things, I found the notebook, and kept it for you so she couldn't destroy it. I still live at Privet Drive, but Mummy's moved out, said she couldn't bear to stay because Daddy died here, so it's safe to send a reply.
By the way, two people came by today looking for you. They were dressed in those weird robes and said they couldn't find you at that school. They didn't give me their names, but one of them I remember from that flying car back when we were 12. I think he had a twin? The other one had the same red hair, but it was curly and he was annoying. I thought you might want to know. I told them I hadn't seen you since last summer.
Harry, I really need to talk you, face to face. I found something else, something in the attic a few weeks back that I think you should have. Plus I need to return that notebook to you. See me when you can.
-Dudley
He read and reread the letter. Harry's shoulders slumped and the young man stared at the paper before him, the words muddled together in his mind. "Yeah, this one's real." He said in a hoarse whisper. Finally the young man's green eyes peered up to the other two. "I'm going to see him. Immediately. If you're coming, wear muggle-passing clothes. I need to see if this notebook is real or not.
Severus nodded his agreement and went to change into something more appropriate. Even though he did dislike the young man, he wouldn't pass up this opportunity to peer into Harry's past. Draco agreed as well since everyone else was, and they all met back in the sitting room once they'd put on muggle-appropriate clothes.
"Grab on." Harry said as he held out his arms. "We're apparating to the shed."
