Tyrant
by Methinks
Chapter 3
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"Hello Harry," the old man said with a cordial smile. "Can I assume the rest of my people are in a similar condition?"
John nodded curtly without moving his eyes off the man. "They're all out cold. Next time, you might want to tell pink hair that bright colors don't do well for camouflage."
His smile didn't waver. "I'll be sure to pass your message along. I must say, it is good to see you doing so well."
"I wish I could say the same," John said without feeling. "But I'd rather just ask you to take your people and leave. You're trespassing."
"I'm afraid I can't do that Harry," the man said, holding up his free hand when both John and the Doctor raised their weapons. "At least not until we get a chance to sit down and have a little chat."
John risked a quick moment to glance over at the Doctor who gave him a curt nod. "Alright then. Drop the stick on the ground and back away from it." The man did as he was told and John swept over and picked it up.
The Doc motioned with the shotgun. "Come on. Into the house." As the elder man began to obey, the Doc's eyes darted to John and he nodded to the woods, a dark look in his eyes. "You go take care of the others."
The unspoken promise in his voice seemed to unsettle the man. "By take care of, you mean..."
"Frisk them for weapons and tie them up."
The man gave a soft sigh of relief that John, with his advanced hearing, was barely able to pick up. "Do you really believe that's necessary? I promise you we mean no harm."
John gave a derisive snort at that. "Yeah, I'm sure innocent people everywhere regularly decide to take walks through the ass end of nowhere and knock on random houses while extra people hide in wait in the bushes to jump them."
The man seemed to color slightly at that. "Yes well..." He coughed. "I will admit that perhaps that was not the best way of going about things. However we could not be certain as to how well we would be received."
Nobody said anything else and after a few seconds the Doctor gestured again with the shotgun. "Inside."
As the two of them disappeared into the lodge, John began dragging his first two victims out of the bushes. Upon finding out that they both had other clothing on underneath the robes they were wearing, he divested them of the heavy garments, making it far easier to search them. A search which revealed absolutely nothing. No wallets or ID, no cell phones, not even a crumpled up receipt or two. Except for their sticks, the two were carrying absolutely nothing.
The sallow man had a bit more on him in that he had an extra stick strapped to his lower leg in an odd sort of holster. John removed it and bundled all the sticks together, tucking them into his jeans' pocket for the time being. He took one last moment to slam their heads back against the ground, ensuring that they remained out for the time being, before he began dragging the bodies inside the lodge.
The Doc and their visitor were currently occupying the only two chairs in the small living room, the Doc with a bundle of wrap-ties in his lap. He tossed them to John. "Here, tie their hands together and then tie them to the legs of the kitchen table. That way we can keep an eye on them."
John did as he was told, tying their hands behind their back and then using an additional tie to secure the first back up against the table legs. That done, he used two of the remaining ties to bind their sticks together before going and storing them in a filing cabinet inside the lab, which he then proceeded to lock. It made no sense to leave them easy access to their weapons, after all, in the unlikely event that he and the Doc were overcome.
Finally he went back to the living room and, grabbing a chair from the kitchen table, proceeded to join the Doc and their guest. The Doc looked at John. "You got them tied up good and tight?"
He nodded. "The ties might be cutting into their wrists slightly, but I can guarantee that they're not getting out of them."
"Good," Dr. Matthews said with a note of satisfaction. He then gestured at their visitor with the shotgun. "Now I think its time that you start talking. Who the hell are you and why are you here?"
The man cleared his throat before beginning, "I wasn't lying when I told you about who I was or why I was here. Perhaps I did leave a few things out but..." When he saw that neither the Doctor nor John, who was playing absentmindedly with the large kitchen knife, looked amused he cleared his throat again. "Very well, my name is Albus Dumbledore and I did in fact come here because of an attack last night. An attack I know happened because I currently have the attacker lying in the Medical Wing of the school I preside over."
John stopped playing with the knife and tightened his grip on the hilt. "I think you had better explain yourself," the Doctor said coldly.
"Have you ever heard of werewolves?" Dumbledore asked.
The two of them nodded. "The only place werewolves exist are in B-rate horror flicks," the Doctor said disdainfully. "Perhaps you should start taking this more seriously. I assure you, in this neck of the mountains, nobody would ever find your bodies."
The old man paled slightly, but continued on. "I assure you that I am being completely honest. Werewolves do in fact exist and, sadly, are all to common in our world. It is a disease you see, one that is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and is, to date, completely incurable." The skin around the Doctor's eyes tightened but he didn't say anything. "The disease causes the Werewolf to loose control of their mind and transform into a wolf-like creature every full moon. Which, if you may recall, was last night.
The old man continued on. "The man who attacked Harry over here," he gestured to John, "was currently working for me on a diplomatic project in this area. Usually, he takes extra pains to imprison himself on the night of the full Moon. However, last night he managed to escape his confines and ran off into the forest where he eventually happened upon Harry. Now, part of the horror of the werewolf transformation is that while you are unable to control yourself, you still witness everything you do while transformed. And so, while the man was able to recognize Harry, he was unable to prevent himself from attacking him.
Dumbledore paused and his brow furrowed slightly, "I have received his testimony of the attack and everything he said had seemed to be completely genuine. However if it weren't for the fact that the wounds we treated corresponded with how he claimed the attack went and that we did actually find Harry here, I would find myself completely in doubt that the attack ever occurred. I've never seen anyone recover from an attack so quickly before." He turned to look at John. "What exactly did happen last night?"
John ignored him, instead exchanging a glance with the Doctor. He took a hint from the look in the Doc's eyes and remained silent, letting the scientist continue his questioning. "As you can obviously see," the Doc said gesturing to John, "your man had to be mistaken. There has been no attack, we are all quite obviously in perfect health, and there is no one here by the name of Harry."
Dumbledore gave another slight cough, interrupting him. "I assure you, I am not mistaken. That boy sitting there is in fact Harry James Potter, born July 31, 1980, in Godric's Hollow, England to Lily and James Potter."
Finally John had to interrupt, to the ire of Dr. Matthews. "So you know who I am then?"
Dumbledore couldn't stop his look of surprised "You mean you don't remember?" He glanced curiously at the Doctor to see him grudgingly shaking his head.
"John – Harry – and I met a year and a half ago and has no memories of anything before that."
Dumbledore sat back in his chair. "Well, that does explain some things," he said finally. "Can I assume that means you don't remember anything of Hogwarts or the Dursleys?"
"The Dursleys?" John repeated, the name ringing a bell somewhere. Suddenly it clicked, the kidnapping dream. "You mean the fat man? The one who kept me in the cupboard?"
Dumbledore paled dangerously. "I don't know anything about a cupboard, but Vernon Dursley was indeed... abnormally large."
John snorted. "He was a fucking whale. And I only have one memory of the Dursleys and nothing about this Hogwarts."
"May I ask what this memory is?" Dumbledore inquired.
John knew better than to answer that. The Doc would have his hide if he revealed any more information than necessary. If it hadn't been for the fact that he had to know who he was, John would never have mentioned a thing about his amnesia. "You can but I'm just going to tell you to..."
"What is this Hogwarts you're talking about?" the Doc cut in before Harry could say anything else.
"Hogwarts is a boarding school for gifted young people," Dumbledore replied, a hint of pride in his voice. "One of the premiere schools in the world as a matter of fact."
"If it's a school for gifted students," asked the Doctor, not at all impressed by the older man's admission, "how is it that when I found - Harry- he had no more schooling than a ten year old?"
Dumbledore hesitated before continuing, "Hogwarts is not exactly a normal school. Just as werewolves exist, so does magic. Hogwarts is one of many institutions for the instruction of children in the various magical arts."
The stoic Doctor scoffed at that, no doubt finding all these stories of magic and Werewolves absolutely ludicrous. John knew it was only the attack last night and the presence of that strange infection in his side that he was even considering any of it. No matter what the Doc said, he knew what he'd seen and that was no regular wolf. Fortunately – or unfortunately, Harry wasn't quite sure which – Dumbledore didn't seem quite ready to give up. "Those sticks you found us with, those are our wands. They allow us to use our magic to cast spells. If you will return mine I will gladly show you a few things so as to assure you of my honesty."
Both John and the Doctor scoffed at this. "No?" Dumbledore sighed, "I suppose that would be rather foolish from your perspective. Still, I am capable of a few simple wandless spells, so if you'll allow me..."
The Doctor waved his hand to indicate assent and then leaned back in his charm with the barest of smirks on his face. No doubt he expected for the old man to either fail entirely or perform a few slight of hand tricks the Doc would be able to see through.
So the look of surprise on the Doctor's face as his chair began to float up into the air was absolutely priceless. The man nearly fell out of the large armchair in shock, before waving his hands all around it to look for invisible wires or some other such trick. Dumbledore seemed to be enjoying the Doctor's reaction almost as much as Harry but soon lowered the chair back to the ground, much to Harry's regret.
"That spell is the Levitation Charm, one of the first things our students learn. I can also perform a few other tricks - some slight transfiguration and conjuration spells amongst them." He changed a nearby book that John had left out into a goblet and then a pitcher of water appeared out of thin air which he used to fill it. He held the goblet out in obvious offering, but John grabbed the cup before the Doctor could. He knew the Doctor would be unhappy, but if it was some sort of poison, it was far better that he drink it than the Doctor did. Not only would the Doctor be better able to treat him but his system was far better equipped to handle the effects than the Doctor's would be.
However, it seemed to genuinely be water and surprisingly cool water at that. He gave the Doctor a nod. "Alright," the scientist said finally, no small amount of reticence in his voice. "Let's say this magic does exist. How did you let Harry," – the Doc didn't stumble over the name this time – "disappear and why couldn't you find him afterward? Don't you have some sort of spell for tracking people?"
Dumbledore nodded sadly, "We do and I am still unsure as to why it didn't work. As to how he disappeared- Well, Hogwarts is only open nine months out of the year. For three months every summer all students return home to stay with their families. As far as we were able to determine, shortly after Harry arrived at the Dursleys during the summer after his first year, they were all taken from the house and brought somewhere. And we have been completely unable to find any of them since.
"Until now, that is," Dumbledore clarified a moment later.
The three sat in silence for a few moments while John – no Harry, he reminded himself – and the Doc absorbed everything. This simply wasn't his day, he mused. First the morning's revelations regarding Lisa and his infection, and now all this crap about magic and Hogwarts. It seemed fate was really out to get him today. He idly wondered what he'd done to piss her off.
He was broken out of his thoughts by someone groaning from the direction of the kitchen table. All three men looked over to see Pink Hair beginning to stir. "Oh, Merlin..." she moaned as she slowly cracked open her eyes. "Did anyone get the name of the Hippogriff that ran over me?"
Harry could see the exact moment her situation hit her as she tried to stand up and was jerked back down against the table leg. Looking around worriedly, she spotted the three men looking at her and noticed to her obvious relief that one of them was Dumbledore. "Uh... Headmaster? What's going on here?"
Dumbledore didn't answer immediately, but instead turned back to Harry and the Doc. "Gentlemen, let me introduce you to Nymphadora Tonks. She's another trusted associate of mine and what we call in the Wizarding World, an Auror. Its our police force, if you will."
The two men nodded, but didn't say anything. She took advantage of the momentary silence to interject, "I don't suppose someone could come untie me over here?" The Doc gave her a scathing look. "Had to ask," she muttered as she looked away, a slight blush on her face.
"If we can return to our previous topic, his amnesia does bring up a slight issue." Dumbledore ventured. "Harry needs to come back to where he belongs. While I admittedly don't know all of the circumstances, it may be the only way to help him regain all of his memories."
"John," the Doctor emphasized, evidently through humoring the old man, "Doesn't need to go anywhere unless he wants to."
"Harry," Dumbledore emphasized right back, "has many friends in our world that miss him greatly. And while he does not have any remaining family members, he has a godfather that wants very much to take him in."
Neither the Doctor or Harry said anything. Finally, the Doctor said, "You wait there. Harry and I need to discuss this. And I better not see you move an inch unless you'd like to get shot."
Harry and the Doctor moved off to the side and began talking in hushed tones, Harry with his back to the group and the Doctor far enough behind him so that he could watch their guests whilst his lips remained concealed. "What should we do?" Harry asked.
The Doctor sighed. "I have no idea. No doubt with them having discovered you, if any of this magic nonsense is actually true they'll be able to track you again. And they do seem to truly know some details about your past. I suppose it's really up to you."
Harry thought about this for a minute. "What about you? If I go with them, what will you do?"
The Doctor answered immediately, "I'll be coming with you. You still need someone to monitor your infection. Besides," the Doctor gave a wry grin, "I've become rather attached to having such a good student after all this time. And if your former education is anything to go by, you'll need a halfway decent teacher."
Harry smiled back, despite their troubles this morning he did like the Doctor and was grateful for everything he had done for him. "Good because I've become rather attached too. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I had to wake up in the morning and not be treated like a lab rat for several hours."
"Perhaps they'll be able to better hide us from Umbrella, as well." The Doctor sighed again, "Looks like we're already moving again." He looked around the lodge wistfully, "And I rather liked this place too."
Harry grinned, somewhat excited in spite of himself. "They're the ones who want us to move. I say we make them buy the new house and we go ahead and keep this one."
Dr. Matthews gave him a small grin back. "You know, that doesn't sound like a half bad idea."
"So we're going?"
The Doctor groaned. "Looks like it."
The two of them went back to the living room proper to find their other two captives had come to as well and were all engaged in a quiet discussion. No doubt discussing escape plans, Harry thought. He grinned, that sallow looking bastard was going to get a nasty surprise if he was depending on his spare - wand?- to help him.
The Doctor looked at Dumbledore calmly and stated, "Very well. We've discussed it and we've decided to go ahead and go with you. I'm assuming this is on a permanent basis?"
The old man nodded, a pleased smile on his face, but the sallow man immediately began to yell. "Absolutely not. There's no way that we could possibly take a Muggle back with us to Hogwarts!"
Harry calmly walked over and crouched down beside him before patting his cheek with the flat of the knife. "I think you're forgetting just who exactly has the power in this deal of ours. I think we just demonstrated exactly how poorly equipped you are for dealing with us." Then his eyes narrowed dangerously and his voice grew cold. "Dr. Matthews comes with me or I don't go anywhere. And the next time you send people after us, I won't simply knock them out and tie them up." Harry straightened and looked straight at Dumbledore. "I'll kill them."
He looked back at the sallow man. "So that's your choice and you can either take it or leave it. But the Doctor and I are a package deal and that's simply non-negotiable."
Dumbledore stepped in before things could escalate any further. "We can make arrangements to take Dr. Matthews with us. I would like for us to go back tonight if at all possible." He looked at the Doctor who shook his head.
"Not possible. If Harry and I are coming with you we need time to pack up our lab. I assume that you have something in mind for lodgings?"
Dumbledore took a moment to think about that. "I think that I can assume that you are going to insist on staying close by to Harry?" The Doctor nodded, "Then it may take me a few days, but I shall make the necessary arrangements. There is a small town within walking distance of Hogwarts. I will rent a small cottage there for you."
The Doctor thought about that for a moment. "I believe that will be acceptable. Provided," he amended, "Harry be allowed to visit for a few hours every day."
Dumbledore paused. "Can I be correct in assuming that is also non-negotiable?"
The Doctor nodded firmly. "Yes, it is."
"Very well. That also can be arranged."
The Doctor nodded again, pleased with how things were going. "If you are looking for expediency here, then you will have to furnish the cottage yourself. If we are forced to move all our furniture from here it will take as much as a week longer to move to England."
"I assure you, moving the furniture would not be a problem. However," Dumbledore gave a knowing smile, "I assume that you would rather not abandon the lodge here?"
It was only because Harry had known the Doctor for so long that he was able to notice the small blush that appeared on his ears at being caught out. "It would be preferable."
"We can arrange for the cottage to be furnished before your arrival."
"I will need a room left empty for my equipment." Dumbledore nodded. "I don't suppose you also have some way of avoiding customs? Otherwise I will need to take a few days to call in a few favors. Some of the equipment is- frowned upon for private ownership."
Dumbledore nodded again. "I will need 24 hours, but I can make the necessary arrangements for you."
"Very well," the Doctor assented. "We will begin packing up the equipment immediately and should be ready to move it by sometime tomorrow afternoon. If you will send somebody to inform us of the travel arrangements, we will attempt to get there as soon as possible."
"Then if you will release my colleagues and return our wands, we will leave and begin to make arrangements on our end."
The Doctor nodded to Harry, who began to cut the three- wizards?- free, saving the sallow man for last and making sure to put some unnecessary pressure on his wounded arm. Harry didn't know what exactly it was about the man, but something about him simply rubbed Harry the wrong way. With the three of them free and rubbing the circulation back into their hands, he went and retrieved their wands from the filing cabinet.
When he got back, the Doctor was making the necessary farewells. He handed the bundle of wands to the Doc who handed it to Dumbledore in turn. "I suppose that we shall see each other soon."
"Until then," Dumbledore responded and turned to Harry with a smile, "And let me be the first to say that it will be good to have you back with us Harry."
Harry didn't say anything, but gave him a polite smile and a nod. With them armed again, he wasn't about to give them any chance to try and pull something at the last minute. But his worries proved unfounded and they left without incident. As the Doctor locked the door behind them, they looked at each other. "Things are about to get complicated, aren't they?"
The Doctor collapsed back against the door and sighed. "I'm afraid so. This is hardly what I signed up for when I took you in," he said, his small grin taking the sting out of the words. "Werewolves and magic. And here I was thinking I had seen it all."
He sighed again. "Regardless, it looks like we have some packing to do and I want to run a few final tests on you to make sure that your infection has completely consumed this Werewolf disease completely before we put them away."
Harry groaned.
--
As soon as they had gotten a respectable distance away from the lodge, Dumbledore and the two Aurors disapparated back to Grimmauld Place while Severus went back to Hogwarts to get Madame Pomfrey to treat his broken nose and wounded arm. Upon arriving at the Manor Dumbledore was immediately set upon by a worried Sirius. "Did you find him? How is he? He's not infected is he?"
Dumbledore gave him a calming smile. "Settle down Sirius. Did the Order members arrive like I had asked?"
The anxious man nodded. "We were all waiting on you to get back."
"Good, good. Then I suppose we had best not keep them waiting any longer." As soon as the Order members saw him stride into the room they had gathered in they immediately descended into complete chaos, each clamoring to ask their questions first. Dumbledore remained silent, inwardly counting down the seconds until...
"Quiet!" shouted Mad-Eye. "You might actually learn something if you let the man speak!"
Dumbledore smiled. As reliable as clockwork, Mad-Eye Moody was. "Thank you Alastor. Now, as I'm sure you all have heard by now, I called this emergency meeting of the Order for one reason: we have managed to locate Harry Potter."
Dumbledore paused to arrange his thoughts before speaking. "He has been living in a hunting lodge buried in the mountains in Eastern France with a Muggle doctor."
Sirius interrupted at this point, unable to control himself any longer. "What about the attack though? Is Harry alright?"
Dumbledore smiled. "Not only was he alright, but it seemed like he survived the attack completely uninjured."
The crowd burst out in questions at that, but it was Emmeline Vance who voiced the main question everybody wanted to know loud enough to be heard. "He survived a werewolf attack completely uninjured? That's impossible!"
"I assure you my girl that not only did Harry survive unscathed, he was well enough to put Nymphadora, Kingsley, and Severus all out of commission with nothing more than a kitchen knife."
Both Kingsley and Tonks couldn't help but blush at the reminder of their failure. "It's true," Kingsley admitted. "We all woke up bound to their kitchen table with our hands tied behind our backs. Not only that, but he had both broken Severus' nose and put that knife of his through the Professor's shoulder."
Dumbledore frowned slightly as Sirius burst out into raucous laughter. A number of other chuckles echoed from around the table, the majority coming from former students of Snape's.
"Still," Dumbledore said continuing to frown, though this time in thought. "When I viewed Remus' penseive memory, I distinctly saw several very nasty gashes along his side. Even with magic, Werewolf inflicted wounds are impossible to heal overnight, much less with Muggle methods. Also, Harry looks much older than a sixteen year old should.
"Most importantly however," Dumbledore continued, "Harry seems to be suffering from complete amnesia. He remembers nothing until a year and a half ago when he apparently showed up on the doctor's doorstep."
The Order went silent at that, each pondering the possible implications. Dumbledore took advantage of the silence, "Fortunately, in spite of the less than auspicious start, we have made arrangements for Harry to come to Hogwarts. However he has insisted that his doctor come to Scotland with him."
The Order broke back into discussion at this and Dumbledore waited for it to calm down before he continued, "They insisted he be kept close to the school and that Harry be allowed to spend several hours a day with him, so I have agreed to set him up with a cottage in Hogsmeade..."
There was absolute chaos at this announcement. Dumbledore sat back and waited for Moody to take control of the crowd once more. Sure enough, he stepped in, quickly silencing the rowdy Order members. "Yes, I am aware that this could prove quite problematic. However, this doctor appears to be quite flexible and with some basic instruction could easily pass himself off as a squib. I shall simply have to place a few charms on him that will allow him to avoid all the usual anti-Muggle charms."
"Why didn't you just obliviate the Muggle and take Harry anyways?" somebody asked.
"Because," Dumbledore responded calmly, "by that point Harry had already taken all of our wands. So that would not have been an option even if we had wanted to consider it.
"Furthermore, Harry made it quite clear that if the Doctor did not come with him than he would not be coming peaceably. That if we tried to remove him away by force, he would respond with lethal action."
The Order erupted once more and this time Dumbledore let it. Something was very worrisome about the whole situation, he thought to himself. Harry had been wounded, Dumbledore had no doubt about that, and should not have been able to recover from those injuries so easily. And that speed he had moved at while taking down Severus...
He had a distinct feeling that before the end having the doctor there may be a very good thing after all.
*****
Author's Notes:
Again, I'm well aware that it's not my usual update day, but I've had the past couple of days off work and the boredom drove me to put all the finishing touches on this far earlier than I had to. Hope ya'll enjoyed it. As far as the next chapter goes, it's possible it might come out this Friday but to be perfectly honest, it's far more likely to be next Friday. I do have other stories I need to be working on as well. We'll see though...
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Published: 04.18.10
Updated: