The Wraith of Hogwarts
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
While Harry anxiously looked from one to the other but remained quiet, Misty continued, "I suggest that Cicero takes you to Master Severus and Mistress Minerva. I believe that they're really worried about you."
"Especially Mistress Minerva," Malcolm threw in, firmly. "I know for a fact that she has always thought of Harry as of a grandson. Harry, she often baby-sat you, when your mother was still alive."
"Won't the Headmaster send me away?" Harry asked, frightened, remembering all too well what the old wizard had said on the previous evening.
"No sweetie, apparently he agreed that you may stay at Hogwarts and made Master Severus and Mistress Minerva your guardians," Misty explained for the umpteenth time, understanding that the matter did not easily penetrate an abused five-year-old's mind.
"Maybe we should teach Harry how to pop," Malcolm suggested, "seeing that he can already turn invisible and silent like an elf. If anyone wanted to harm him, he could just pop himself back here to one of us."
"That's a wonderful idea," Misty agreed. "If you have time now, I'd appreciate if you could teach the little one, as I need to check on my patients, and I'm sure that Mistress Poppy is going to call me soon."
"I shall teach Harry," Cicero offered and asked Malcolm to inform the boy's guardians that he was safe with the elves and that the elves would take him to see them both after the end of the afternoon classes.
HP
During the following hour, Cicero taught Harry how to pop himself through the castle and to make himself visible or invisible with the elves' method. Seeing that Harry cast him a questioning look, he explained, "You can try which way is easier for you, but I suppose that making yourself visible or invisible the elves' way doesn't afford as much magic as you need if you use wish magic, although you must keep in mind that you'll still be visible to all elves if you use our method."
'Oh all right,' Harry thought. The five-year-old had already noticed several times that he felt incredulously tired after wishing something. He followed Cicero's advice only to realise that the elves' way was indeed easier. 'Thank you so much,' he thought to the elf, casting him a genuine smile. 'It's so cool that someone takes time just for me to teach me something,' he mused, feeling happier than ever before.
When he voiced his thoughts, telepathically, upon the elf's questioning look, Cicero suggested, "Perhaps we can ask Master Severus if you may attend classes together with the elf children until you're old enough to attend Hogwarts as a student. Shall we go and speak with him about it later on?"
'Yes please,' Harry replied immediately. 'I'd so much like to learn something, but the Dursleys never sent me to playschool because I'm too stupid.'
Cicero looked at the child in shock. "Master Harry, you're not stupid at all. On the contrary, you're a very bright and powerful little wizard," he comforted the child, before he suggested returning to the elves' quarters for lunch. "I'll introduce you to the elf children. If you feel comfortable with them, you might want to think about making you visible for them, so that you can play together."
'I'd like that, if they don't mind me being there,' Harry thought back, feeling slightly unsure about making himself visible to multiple people.
"They won't," Cicero reassured him, smiling, before he let out a long sigh. "Harry, Master Severus told me what you relayed to him about your relatives and what they said to you." Seeing that Harry cast him an anxious look, he continued in a soft voice, "Everyone here at Hogwarts is different from your relatives. We're all magical like you, and please believe me when I say that the elves children will be very happy to see you, speak with you and play together."
'Then I'll just use the elves' method,' Harry replied, returning a small smile. 'I can always make myself completely invisible,' he thought, feeling very reassured by the fact.
"Now pop yourself back to the elves' quarters," Cicero instructed him, and Harry obeyed immediately.
'Popping is easy,' he thought. 'That's good, then I can simply get away from the Headmaster if necessary. And being invisible and silent like an elf is great too,' he mused, feeling very grateful towards the kind elf, who had taught him so much.
Harry hesitantly followed Cicero into the elves' kitchen, where a group of children was just sitting down for lunch. He shyly tried to hide behind Cicero.
"Hello little ones," Cicero addressed the group, gently pulling Harry from behind himself, so that he came to stand in front of himself. "This is Harry. He's five, and he's going to live in the main part of the castle with Master Severus and Mistress Minerva. He'd like to study and play together with you all, and I want you all to be very nice to him and accept him as one of us, even if he looks differently. Can you do this?"
A multiple, loud "YES" penetrated Harry's ears, and before he knew what happened, a girl and a boy of about his age came and pulled him over to one of the tables.
"Come Harry, you sits with us. I is Nina, and this is Tony. We is both five too," the girl informed him on the way, smiling broadly.
HP
Harry could not remember having so much fun ever before in his life. The meal was better than anything that he had tasted before, and he was allowed to sit at the table together with the elf children, who urged him to eat as much as he wanted. They were all very funny and seemed to not mind that he looked differently from everyone else. 'I'm so happy,' he thought, as he allowed Nina to pull him with her to the playroom right after lunch.
"We plays for an hour and some others sleeps, but then the afternoon classes wills begin," the small elf girl informed him. "Will yous attends class with us?"
Harry shrugged, thinking that he had to ask Cicero. In fact, he had expected the elf to collect him again after lunch; however, none of the elves whom he knew could be seen anywhere.
"Harry, yous cans not talks?" Tony queried, giving him a concerned look.
"But I like yous, even if yous don't talks," Nina said warmly, lightly laying an arm around Harry, who was glad that he managed to not flinch back.
'It seems as if they wanted me to speak,' he thought; however, as friendly as the elf children were, he felt too uncertain to suddenly begin to speak after getting used to being quiet for more than two years.
HP
Unbeknownst to Harry and his new friends, Misty, Cicero and Malcolm were standing in a corner of the room, watching the scene.
"He'll have to overcome this by himself," Malcolm whispered to the others.
"That won't be a problem. He'll manage. He's a very intelligent boy," Cicero threw in, observing the small boy in apparent amusement.
"But I'll try to speak with him, before you take him to Master Severus," Misty announced. "He needs to be reassured. Plus he needs some more of my healing magic."
Cicero stepped over to the trio of five-year-olds. "Harry," he addressed the boy, who gave him a frightened look. "Don't worry," he reassured him, smiling. "I didn't come to pull you away from your playmates. I have spoken with Master Severus, and he agreed that you may stay with the elves' children and also join their classes, while he's busy teaching his own classes - if that's what you want."
Seeing Harry nod and smile happily, Nina and Tony each grabbed one of his hands and pulled him out of the room. "Let's go classes," Nina informed him and babbled away, "We's happy that you're with us, Harry. There's many childrens of every ages, but we's the only five-year-olds, so now we's three of us."
"Yes, that's great," Tony agreed, smiling.
HP
Suddenly, the voice of the professor in the black robes penetrated his mind. 'Harry,' the professor addressed him in a soft voice. 'Is everything all right?'
'Yes sir. I am with the elves. I like it here,' Harry thought back, smiling, before he added, 'Thank you for asking sir.'
'No need to thank me, child. I'll see you later in the afternoon,' the professor replied. 'Cicero will bring you to me. Don't worry; everything will be all right.'
'I hope so,' Harry thought, feeling very comforted by the kind elves and people who surrounded him. 'They're all freaks like myself,' he contemplated, happily.
HP
While during the mornings, all elf children from the age of three to eight were taught together, in the afternoons, they were divided by the age. The small children still had to learn to make themselves invisible or pop, and the older children followed their mentor elves in order to learn about the work, which the elves had to do after finishing their schooling.
In the mornings, Twinkle, the Headmaster's personal elf, was teaching the children, while in the afternoon, the five-year-olds were taught by random elves, who had time to teach them. On most days, the elves who were working for one specific professor were available, since their masters were still in class.
On this day, Cicero joined the trio and took them outside to play on an area within the grounds that was invisible and inaccessible for the human residents of Hogwarts. They played various games, and Harry enjoyed himself greatly. However, he could not bring himself to speak and was happy that the others hadn't questioned him about it again. When Cicero decided to take the children inside again, knowing that Harry's health condition was still not all right, he asked the three what they wanted to do during the last thirty minutes of their class.
"Let's draws a picture," Nina shouted in apparent excitement.
"Yes okay," Tony agreed immediately, giving Harry a questioning look.
'We may draw pictures?' Harry thought in disbelief, looking from Nina to Tony and Cicero, before a huge smile spread over his face and he nodded eagerly.
An instant later, parchment and crayons appeared on the round, wooden table in front of him, and Harry hesitantly followed Nina's and Tony's example, taking a green crayon into his hand. 'I'm going to get to draw like Dudley,' he thought, excitedly, staring at the crayon in his hand in awe. He completely lost himself in happy thoughts.
His mind turned back to reality, when Nina suddenly asked, "Is you not goings to draws, Harry?"
Only now did he notice that the others were already engrossed in their drawings, and he hurried to make his first drawing ever. Just on time for the end of the class, he was finished and happily looked at his painting. There were three elf children on the grass, playing with a red ball like they had done earlier. The children were labelled 'Nina', 'Toni', 'Hari', and above their heads was a writing 'frends'. Realising that his new and first friends ever seemed to like his picture and hearing their reassurance that they were of course friends, Harry intensely stared at the ball that now began to jump from one child to the next to make the scene more realistic.
"You did that very well," Cicero commended the three small artists, before he told them that the class was over and he had to take Harry to Master Severus.
"You wills comes back tomorrow, won't you?" Nina queried, giving him a sharp look.
"Yes come back, we's friends now," Tony agreed with her.
Harry nodded eagerly, before he obediently followed Cicero to see Misty, before Cicero was going to take him to see his guardians in the main part of the castle.
tbc...
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