Jamie had just come out of the shower when he saw the bat-earred creature wearing what appeared to be a pillow slip. Aside from what appeared to be the worst case of hero worship he had ever seen and a rather bad case of masochism (at least he hoped that was what it was...the other option would have made him much more blood thirsty) it was rather intelligent.
He did feel sorry for Dobby though, which was why he promptly dragged the poor thing to the medical bay to be treated, despite several attempts to leave.
Apparently he wasn't used to people actually caring about his injuries.
Still, he did get his missing mail (some from Neville, among others) so it wasn't a total loss.
And he was keeping his promise to Dobby that the great 'Harry Potter' wouldn't be attending Hogwarts this year.
No one told the poor creature that he went by Jamie, and had been since primary school.
So Jamie got ready for another year at Hogwarts, once again loading up Scruffy into his modified dog house built inside Jamie's trunk.
Sprout had given him special permission to keep the dog, seeing as how it never attacked students and was house trained.
Neville had his own pass too, since Jamie had given him Dudley's Labrador for his birthday. Petunia had been so relieved to be rid of the animal that she even paid for the carrier and up-to-date shots.
Jamie was going to help Neville train it properly, since the Dursley's had allowed it to get some bad habits. Like jumping on people...
The dog had been renamed Marley after the book Jamie gave the boy for Christmas (along with a mundane gardening catalog with an order form for seeds).
Jamie's eyes went up when he found a familiar name on one of the envelopes.
He honestly had no idea Derrick knew about magic.
Well, at least now they had things to talk about other than military life.
He noticed that Derrick even included his e-mail address, and promptly wrote a letter to him explaining about the odd elf that showed up in the barracks.
IamNOTaSquid would like to chat.
RAF_or_BUST: Hello Derrick. I had no idea you knew about magic too!
IamNOTaSquid: yeah, sorry I couldn't say anything. But then again, you never mentioned you were Harry Potter either.
RAF_or_Bust: I haven't gone by that name since my parents were alive. Grandpa called me James when I was old enough to understand, so everyone I know called me Jamie.
IamNOTaSquid: makes sense, after all your middle name is James.
RAF_or_Bust: so what have you been up to?
IamNOTaSquid: been bored, actually. After all that trouble on the ship, the academy has been boring me to tears. Mostly because of this total hard-ass who seems to think that I didn't get into enough trouble when my parents learned about the whole attacking a 'superior' officer incident.
RAF_or_Bust: ouch. Well, maybe Gramps can help. He did open a base to heal PTSD victims. Plus three Pure Bloods are actually learning mundane subjects while earning a bit of cash on the side.
IamNOTaSquid: honestly, working at a base that treats veterans sounds much better than being here. What are the rules?
RAF_or_Bust: avoid certain hangers (they treat those suffering flashbacks in there) no alcohol unless it's in the bar, and you have to join the runners at six. Oh, and if you do come here, you have to keep up your grades. Percy nearly got sent back because he had trouble with regular homework.
IamNOTaSquid: Percy?
RAF_or_Bust: Weasley. Three of the Weasley family decided to work on the base for a little extra spending money, while their youngest son was shanghaied and dropped off on the ship for the summer. Apparently that was his punishment for nearly getting a girl killed by a troll.
IamNOTaSquid: oh yeah, I've heard of them. Light oriented family aren't they? So do you go to Hogwarts?
RAF_or_Bust: yeah, dead boring though. The only exercise I get is taking Scruffy on runs.
IamNOTaSquid: Sounds worse than Salem. At least there we get to play American Football.
RAF_or_Bust: so what's with the username IamNOTaSquid?
IamNOTaSquid: my uncles thought I was a squib until I got my letter, and since I was really young I always thought they were saying 'squid'. Wasn't till someone figured out what I was really asking that I learned what squib meant. Either way my nickname among my cousins is Squid the Squib.
Jamie couldn't help his reaction. He started laughing.
RAF_or_Bust: that is HILARIOUS!
IamNOTaSquid: laugh it up. So do you think your granddad can help me out?
RAF_or_Bust: I'll go ask him. BRB
Jamie came back ten minutes later.
RAF_or_Bust: he said yes. Since they have teachers here, you can ask to be transferred to Pegasus Air Base instead of the Academy. Just be warned, if someone comes out of the hangers with a paintball gun, don't stand there, run and get help.
IamNOTaSquid: why?
RAF_or_Bust: that means that one of the patients escaped from the hanger again, and most of those people can kill without any weapons. Last time it happened, we had to set off some magical fireworks in order to get them to drop down long enough to stun them. Most of the real weapons are locked up and only known to those who aren't suffering from PTSD, but it's still a security risk.
IamNOTaSquid: thanks for the warning.
Jamie took one look at who was in the bookstore, and immediately walked out. He dragged Hermione with him, despite some minor efforts to go in there.
"But Jamie!" whined Hermione.
"No buts. I am not going in there with that fake inside. Besides, I know another magical shopping area where the prices are much lower and where they have a larger book selection."
"How large we talking about. And don't think of lying to me Jamie," she said immediately. Books were her biggest weakness.
Jamie immediately pulled out a catalog that had seen better days. It had several titles circles.
"This is their catalog. And this is from last year."
"Where is it, and take me there now!" growled Hermione.
"Gringotts first, prevention of maiming after," said Jamie quickly. No way was he going to his favorite bookstore without a full pouch of galleons.
Hermione was on cloud nine. Every book in that store had been triple checked by known experts (except the manga and fiction, but that was acceptable) and they didn't bother with the whole light/dark issue like in Diagon.
She completely ignored the fact that since Jamie brought her, he got a five percent discount on his purchases today.
She soon had over thirty books in her bag, and it was only Jamie dragging her to the counter that kept it from going even larger.
"Why didn't you tell me about this place sooner?" she asked with stars in her eyes. It was kinda freaky to be honest.
"I usually hit this place during summer break and get all my supplies in one go. Besides, this is one of the only magical bookstores that keeps up with the latest manga volumes," shrugged Jamie.
He had stumbled upon it one day by accident while on a field trip and since returning to the magical world had been using the Knight Bus to come back.
Luckily the place allowed Owl Orders.
"Never again," said Jamie, collapsing on his bed.
"Never what?" asked Charlie.
"Book shopping with Granger. That was hell!" said Jamie fervently as he passed out. Charlie walked outside to the dining room of the cauldron...they were staying with the Weasleys for the moment since the boys had been reunited with their parents.
Ron had learned some hard lessons at sea, and was slightly more mature.
Being able to purchase his own wand had done a lot to boost his meager confidence.
Fred and George had grown up slightly as well, though it didn't show. They had also grown five inches from the healthy eating and actual exercise. Still near impossible to tell one from the other though.
Percy had the most dramatic change. He no longer had any body fat showing, he stood much straighter, and to the relief of his siblings, he was less of a pompous windbag. It didn't hurt that he had to have Jamie's help with a lot of the homework he had.
The money sent back by the twins, Percy and Ron had been a boon to the Weasley family. So much so that Arthur was seriously considering letting them go back again.
Jamie was woken up by an unexpected source.
Marley was licking his face while Neville snickered behind him.
"Low blow Nev, low blow," said Jamie.
Neville looked much healthier than he did last year. All that hard work on the ship did the boy good, as he had lost most of the pudginess. He looked happier too, since his grandmother hadn't been comparing him to his father all the time. Marley was just icing on the cake, as now he had a companion who would actually play with him when he was lonely.
"You might want to get downstairs...Gran's about to geld your grandfather," said Neville amused.
He had accidentally let it slip that Charlie had kidnapped his parents and knew where they were. Augusta had been less than pleased by this news.
Jamie paled, got dressed rather quickly and raced down the stairs.
Charlie was behind a table and hiding from Augusta Longbottom, who had her wand out and looked hex happy.
"DAMMIT POTTER, GET UP HERE AND TAKE YOUR DUE LIKE A MAN!" she shouted.
"NOT WHILE YOU HAVE YOUR WAND OUT! I'M OLD, NOT SENILE WOMAN!" shouted Charlie back. No way in hell was he dealing with an angry woman, he remembered all too clearly what Dorea used to do when he left the seat up!
Jamie had a rather...evil idea.
"Will both of you knock it off! You sound like an old married couple!" he shot down the stairs. He ducked behind the wall as Madame Longbottom shot a stinging hex his way for the comment. Her attention successfully diverted, Charlie made a break for it. He wasn't a fool after all.
He was caught at the last chance for freedom by Augusta who had him hanging from the ceiling by his ankle.
"Dangnabit!"
Charlie didn't like swearing in front of women unless the situation called for it. Hence the baby swear word. Jamie was still upstairs laughing his ass off that his grandfather had been caught.
Augusta's reunion with her son (more or less healed) and daughter -in-law wasn't a tear jerker.
Her shocked face to find that Frank could actually recognize her and Neville had been worth kidnapping him for.
"We knew what we were doing Augusta. PTSD is a common, but difficult to treat issue. While he doesn't remember the attack, he can't retake his position as an Auror. Not without having a relapse," said Charlie sourly.
"And yet you had them here using force!" she turned at him.
"I said he couldn't be an Auror. Never said a thing about being a soldier again. He can still fight, he just can't use magic to do it without the possibility of the attack coming back. We had to have the memory of the curse and that night removed for him to be able to make this much progress. Alice was the same. They remember everything up to that night, and we've walked them through all the most important changes since then. But under no circumstances are they to be reminded of what happened," said Charlie.
"How? How were you able to heal them?"
"Like I said, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a fairly common issue. It's just a nightmare to treat. The main issue that kept them locked up was that memories of the attack kept coming back, paralyzing them. Being around magic wasn't helping, not one bit. Healers and Medi-Wizards might be good for most magical treatments, but in some cases mundane methods are far more effective," said Charlie bluntly.
"What is PTSD?" asked Augusta, being lead into the main hall.
"PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is when a person is put through a very traumatic, often life-changing event, and is stuck reliving it repeatedly. This is fairly common in soldiers coming home from battlefronts, where they were forced to take lives. Often times it will wake them in the middle of the night and they will see the event replay in their minds. It makes it very difficult for the soldier to reintegrate with civilian society," said a woman behind them.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. My name is Lieutenant Grace. I'm the main medic here at the base," said Grace. She was wearing a normal doctor's coat, and had a stethoscope around her neck. Her hair was cut short, mostly because she didn't want a patient to try and grab it while in the throws of a flashback. On her arm was a wand-holster, which put Augusta at ease, somewhat. Her shoes were sensible and made for walking.
She looked to be around thirty.
"What school did you graduate?" asked Augusta.
"Beauxbatons. When I went to the mundane world to learn muggle medicine, I found a lot of doors closed, despite already having my Medi-Witch license. They claimed they didn't want someone 'infected with muggle ideas' in their hospitals. So when Charlie gave me a chance to practice magic and medicine at the same time...well, I jumped at the offer. Fortunately I specialized in psychology and the mind at school," said Grace easily.
Satisfied with that answer, Augusta turned to Charlie.
"You know if we tag team against the council, we might be able to make it easier to add mundane techniques to our standards," she said.
"It would mostly be you though... Could never stand politics, even when I was still Lord Potter..." he said with a shrug.
"You do realize that you're still Lord Potter, as the eldest member of your house?" she asked.
"How do you think I managed to lock Dumbledore and retrieve all the gold he spent from the vaults? Stupid fool thought he could get away with being a clumsy thief," said Charlie.
Jamie saddled up next to Neville.
"You know at the rate this is going, those two might end up together," said Jamie.
"Gran could use someone to debate with..." said Neville.
"What are you two scheming back there?" said Charlie loudly.
"Nothing!" came the duo responses.