The Founding of Happiness
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.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC! Time travel!
It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse. Thank you very much for the kind reviews for the previous chapter!
Harry tumbled down toward the ground thinking desperately, 'I don't want to die, have to fly,' and in front of the whole school his small body transformed into the form of a phoenix. It was light brown with rainbow coloured back wings, and everyone stared at the beautiful bird in awe. It made a soft landing on the ground, where he automatically changed back into the child's form.
'That's strange; it felt like I was a birdie,' Harry thought confused, while Helga and Rowena approached him worriedly.
"Harry, are you all right? What happened?" Helga asked, waving her wand over the child.
"I'm fine," Harry replied, yawning. "Must catch Nitch," he suddenly remembered and tried to scramble to his feet but felt himself being pushed to lay down on the ground again.
"You will not fly again today, Leofost. You are going to take a nap at once," Helga told the child firmly, giving Rowena an enquiring look.
Rowena picked Harry up and sat down on one of the benches that they had put around the new Quidditch pitch, looking at the child in her arms and saw that he was already fast asleep.
ハリーと幸せの願い
Harry was a bit sad when all of the students left for their homes as soon as the summer holidays started. Only himself, the four teachers, as well as the house-elves remained in the huge castle. At lunchtime, he sat in his child seat in the Great Hall, cuddling his green stuffed dragon that Rowena had conjured for him a few months ago, with a very sad expression on his face.
"Oh, don't look so sad, Leo. Soon it will be your birthday, and you will be three and a big boy," Godric told him, watching the boy play with his food.
"I don' haf baafday," Harry answered, shaking his head in confusion. 'No, I'm sure that I don't have a birthday, only Dudley had one,' Harry remembered. He was sure because Dudley had gotten an absolutely cool, shiny red tricycle and Harry had hoped to get something similar, but Uncle Vernon had made sure Harry knew that freaks didn't get presents.
"Of course you will have your birthday and it's not far off until then. Do you have a wish for your birthday, Leofost?" Helga asked gently.
"A wed twicyce," Harry replied automatically, however in a very silent voice, raising both eyebrows at the kind woman. 'Oh no, what did I say now? I know that I can't get presents, and now they'll be angry at me because I'm so ungrateful,' he thought desperately.
"A what?" Godric blurted out, glancing curiously at the boy.
Salazar gave Harry a close look and asked softly, "Will you show Daddy Salazar what you mean, Thunderbolt?"
Harry gave him a short nod and looked straight into his new Dad's eyes, thinking of Dudley's last birthday. 'I wonder if I perhaps will get a tricycle for my birthday,' Harry thought hesitantly, but he didn't dare hope that it wasn't only a nice dream. 'No birthday presents for freaks,' he remembered sadly.
Salazar put the memory he had seen in Harry's mind into Godric's newly developed Pensieve and showed it to the others as soon as Harry was in bed that evening. "Will we be able to produce such a thing?" he asked, glancing at his wife and friends.
"Let's try anyway," Godric replied eagerly rubbing his hands together in an excited manner, and his friends noticed a merry twinkle in his eyes, promising that he wouldn't rest until he had found a way to accomplish his goal of making his little Leo happy.
Rowena sighed in dismay of many days of expected absence of her husband as well as of lots of fights between Godric and Salazar, who just couldn't properly work together without fighting. "I will help to Charm the tricycle to move, but I tell thee now behave like men and not like toddlers and stop fighting for the lytling's sake."
During the weeks until Harry's birthday, Godric and Salazar were very busy trying to figure out how to make the tricycle Harry wanted. Their studies were accompanied by many fights, and their wives often had to keep the two at bay so that they wouldn't hex each other. Finally, Rowena was so fed up with them that she studied the picture of the tricycle in the Pensieve in detail and transfigured a rock into a tricycle.
"Shut thy mouth, Salazar. I always told thee that my wife is the most brilliant witch of our time," Godric told his colleague, who was looking at the tricycle in awe. He gave Rowena a proud glance. "Will that thing really work then?" he asked doubtfully, earning a laugh of the women.
"Why don't you just try it out and see?" Helga asked, laughing even more when Godric tried to mount the small toy.
ハリーと幸せの願い
The morning of Harry's third birthday, Helga and Harry entered the Great Hall, seeing that it was beautifully decorated with many large trees as in a jungle. In the trees there were many exotic birds trilling and flying around, and the trees had broad steps attached so that even a small child could safely climb them all the way to the top. Harry looked in awe at the Great Hall that was turned into a playground, and an excited, "Oh!" escaped his mouth, a huge smile playing on his lips.
"Happy Birthday, Leofost! This is a playground for you to play in for the day!" Helga told him, pulling him in a bear hug.
"You are three today and already a big boy, Lufu," Rowena added, pulling the child over to the breakfast table that was covered by a huge cake in form of the castle with three big candles on top of the towers.
"Happy birthday, son," Godric said and waved his hand at the candles that immediately lit.
"And do you think you'll get a present?" Salazar asked in a teasing way without thinking further about the experiences of the child's past.
Harry gave him a frightened look before he averted his eyes to the floor. "No sir," he then answered in a very small voice, only audible to Salazar, who was standing right in front of the child.
Salazar picked Harry up and looked straight into his eyes. "Thunderbolt, first of all, I'm not a 'sir', I'm your Daddy Salazar. And secondly, of course you will receive a present, and I know that you'll like it very much. But first you have to eat your breakfast, is that a deal?"
Harry returned the look, obviously very astonished, and answered, "Awigh, fanku, Daddy Salaza," a small smile playing on his lips. He sat down on his chair and let the others teach him how to blow out the candles before he happily munched on his piece of cake. "Whewe dis?" he suddenly asked, giving his four parents a curious glance.
"That's a part of Daddy Godric's office," Helga explained patiently, noticing that the child gave Godric an amused look and then was eagerly munching away without abandon.
Finally, breakfast was finished, and suddenly several colourfully wrapped presents appeared on the table as soon as the plates were cleared. 'Are these presents for me? But there must be some kind of mistake,' he thought anxiously, while Helga and Rowena tried to coax him into opening the first present. It was a red and yellow ball, and Harry happily pulled it close, looking amazed at his new treasure. He also received a few children's books and was very happy. 'This is the happiest day of my life,' Harry thought blissfully, when Godric told him to put the book aside that he was just looking at and ushered him out of the Great Hall and onto the grounds. The first thing Harry saw was "A twicyce!" he shouted excitedly, running over to the beautiful red toy.
Helga quickly ran after the child in order to prevent him from falling off. However, Harry was already sitting on the tricycle when she caught up to him, eagerly trying to move it forward. "Twicyce no go," he told her, throwing his new toy an accusing look, and his lower lip started to quiver dangerously.
"Now now, Leofost; let me show you how to ride that," Helga told him firmly and showed him how to move his legs, glad that the smile immediately returned to the child's face as soon as understanding showed in his eyes.
During the next few weeks, Harry became so proficient at riding the tricycle that Rowena transfigured it to a bicycle. At the same time, she transfigured another rock to an adult's bicycle, so that one of the teachers could always accompany Harry around the grounds when he managed to learn to ride the bicycle and would be faster than they could follow on foot, making it easier for them to keep up with the energetic lytling.
ハリーと幸せの願い
One Sunday afternoon in early December, Harry rode on his bicycle while Salazar accompanied the child on his broom, flying very low. 'I really like my bicycle,' Harry suddenly thought, 'but flying is so much more fun!' He concentrated on his bicycle and on his idea of flying to catch the Snitch, and suddenly he noticed that his right arm became very tingly, and the bicycle started to fly. Harry laughed happily and flew next to his Daddy around the grounds.
Suddenly however, Helga came out of the castle in order to see what her husband and son were doing and received a huge fright when she saw the child flying on his bicycle in the same height and speed as Salazar flew on his broom. "Harry!" she gasped, a horrified expression on her face that only intensified tenfold when the child turned his head down to her and fell down two meters onto the ground along with his bike.
Harry was enjoying flying on his bicycle a lot. When he heard his Mummy Helga's voice, he turned his head and before he knew what happened he crashed into the ground. He could only think, 'It hurts,' before everything went dark around him. Only minutes later, he regained consciousness, noticing that his head hurt a lot and that he couldn't untangle his limbs from the bicycle. From far away, he could hear Helga's voice telling Salazar that he had to make some kind of potion because his arm was broken and he had a concussion 'whatever that is'. Then he felt himself being separated from his bicycle and picked up by his Mummy Helga's caring hands.
Harry hesitantly opened his eyes but felt his stomach churn as he did so and closed his eyes again instantly. A few minutes later, he felt himself being laid down in a bed and knew without even opening his eyes that he was in his own bed in Helga's bedroom. "Can you open your eyes for me, Leofost?" Helga asked softly.
Harry slightly shook his head, wincing at the pain coming with the small movement. "No Mummy, hurts," he whispered back. He felt something cold pressed against his lips and quickly gulped down the cool potion, relaxing when the pain in his head and his left arm faded to a dull ache.
Helga made him drink another potion before she told him, "Now you should be able to open your eyes, Leofost."
Harry anxiously opened his eyes just a little bit and relaxed when nothing happened. Helga put her wand away and placed a cool cloth on his forehead before she sat down on the edge of his bed. "Leofost, do you remember what you did out on the grounds?"
Harry averted his eyes to one of the small dragons on his bedcovers. "Yes, I made my bicycle fly wif my arm all tingly. And den, I falled down to de gwound."
"Yes, sweetie, you did something very dangerous. A bicycle is not made for flying, only for riding on the ground. As you have seen, magic is not only good but can be very dangerous. Please don't ever do that again. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, I'm sowwy," Harry replied in a hardly audible voice, his lips moving ever so slightly.
大丈夫
Two days later, Harry was completely recovered but the shock still remained. 'That was so horrible,' he thought again and again, promising himself, 'I will never fly with my bicycle again.' He also felt very bad for Daddy Salazar because he had been scolded for something that had not been his fault. Nevertheless he couldn't help giggling when he remembered the dressing-down his Daddy Salazar had received from Mummy Helga, who had called him an irresponsible idiot.
自分の部屋
The weeks passed quickly, and soon the summer holidays started again. One day, Harry and his four parents sat together in Godric's and Rowena's living room when Godric turned to Harry. "Now Leo, you're such a big boy now, what do you think about having your own room?"
Harry looked from Godric to Rowena frightened. 'What does he mean with own room? They won't lock me into a cupboard, will they?' he worried, nervously biting his lower lip until it started to bleed.
"Oh, my poor Leofost, you don't have to be frightened," Helga told him gently. "We're not going to abandon you. We just thought it might be nice for you to have your own room where you can sleep and play comfortably. Your room will have a connecting door to our rooms of course."
Harry gave her a questioning look. "Why don't we just go and have a look?" Rowena suggested. "Godric asked the house elves to fix the room specifically for you weeks ago, and they have also made the connecting doors."
Harry anxiously followed the teachers up into the small common room in front of the entrances to his parents' quarters. Just in between the door to Helga's and Salazar's room and the door to Rowena's and Godric's room a third door had appeared, and Harry hesitantly entered the room after Rowena. As soon as he was able to look into the room, he stopped dead in his tracks. 'It's beautiful,' he thought, looking around the room in awe.
The room held a huge bed with dark blue curtains around it, light stars all over the blue cloth. Next to the bed was a wardrobe, on the opposite wall Harry saw a desk with a chair in front of it. A bookshelf stood next to the desk, and on the far wall was a huge window, obviously charmed to overlook the lake that Harry loved so much. Apart from the door leading to the common room, the room held three other doors, one of them leading to a small bathroom, the others to each of his parents' bedrooms.
Harry turned to his four parents. "This is brilliant! Thank you so much!" he said enthusiastically, his eyes twinkling happily.
"You can still come to our rooms anytime, Leofost," Helga told the child sternly. "Whenever you have a bad dream, feel frightened or lonely, or have any other problems, you can come over to each of our rooms and sleep in our bed with us."
"We will also hear you when you call us, Lufu, and we will always leave the door slightly ajar," Rowena added to her friend's words, pulling Harry close.
慣れにくい
It took Harry some time to get used to living in his own room although in fact he wasn't much further away from his parents than before, and the teachers, noticing how anxious Harry was to stay on his own, even left the connecting door to the quarters where they spent the evening open every evening so that Harry knew where to find them and left the door to at least one of their own bedrooms wide open at night. Harry slept through the night most of the time without any problems. During the six months until Christmas, he only toddled over to Helga's or Rowena's bed three times, twice after having horrible nightmares, about his stay at the Dursleys and the night when his parents died, and once when his belly ached during the night.
One night, however, a few days before Christmas, Harry was pulled out of his sleep by something jumping onto his bed in a small flash of sand. He woke up crying and coughing up small bits of sand. Unfortunately, it was still early in the evening, so that his parents weren't in the next room and didn't hear him. However, the lights in his room that were charmed to flare whenever Harry said something in the dark flared up, and Harry could see a phoenix sitting on his stomach that looked straight into his eyes.
#I'm sorry, I didn't intend to wake you up and frighten you# the bird spoke up, softly adding, #I'm your future self. Don't be afraid when I transform back, ok?#
Harry glanced at the bird suspiciously and gave a small nod. 'He looks a bit like Fawkes, although the colours are completely different. He is very pretty though,' he mused while the phoenix jumped onto the floor and transformed into an older version of himself.
"You are me?" Harry asked hesitantly, looking at the older boy in awe.
"Yes, I'm you. I'm sorry, I made a mistake," the older Harry answered, slightly shivering. "I must see Mummy Helga. Sleep well, and I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"All right," Harry replied, snuggling deeper into his bedcovers while the older boy left the room through the connecting door to Helga's and Salazar's bedroom.
tbc...
Thank you so much for your kind reviews!
