Chapter Two
Dante took Harry back to his hotel room and said "Ok, now I know you have a lot of questions, ask away."
Harry hesitated, he had always been told not to ask questions but now Dante was telling him to ask questions…he didn't know what he should do.
Seeing the confusion on Harry's face, Dante knelt down and said gently "Harry, I want you to understand that being curious about the world around is only natural…I will never punish you for asking a question."
"You remember that thing you did back in the park, where you made the boys leave?" Harry asked nervously
Dante nodded
"How did you do that?"
"I used a Seeker power called simple mind." Dante said
"Seeker power?" Harry questioned
"Yes, that is what I was talking about when I said that I would be taking you on as my apprentice." Dante began "I am a Seeker and you are one too. That's how you are able to summon Perseus."
Harry's hand drifted involuntarily to the necklace he always wore
"Perseus is a titan, a creature from another world known as Huntik. Titans are mindless by themselves, so they form bonds with strong-willed humans, these humans are Seekers and as Seekers we have some powers of our own. I want to teach how to use and control your gift."
"Really, that's awesome! I'm not a freak, I'm a Seeker" Harry exclaimed
"That's right Harry you are not a freak, the Dursleys are the real freaks." Dante said
Harry cocked his head, now he was confused
"Only a freak would treat any child the way that they treated you and it takes an even bigger freak to do it to a child that they are related to and supposed to be caring for." Dante declared
"…but I'm bad, I didn't die with my parents the way I should have-"Harry started but Dante cut him off
"Don't you ever say that!" he yelled
Harry blinked
"Don't you EVER say that you should be dead ever again under any circumstances, understand?!" Dante shouted
Harry began to tremble "I'm sorry sir I'm sorry, please don't hurt me!"
Perseus feeling his partner's fear emerged from his amulet
Dante raised his hands in an attempt to show Perseus that he was not a threat and he then forced himself to calm down "Harry, I'm sorry I yelled at you, I wasn't angry with you, I am furious with the Dursleys for telling you such a horrible lie."
"That's a lie?" Harry asked
"Absolutely, it is. Harry" Dante knelt down so he was at eye level with Harry "you are a good kid; you don't deserve to die, ok?"
Harry nodded knowing that it was expected of him but not sure he actually believed what Dante was saying.
"Good" Dante said. He knew that it would take more than one conversation to undo the damage that the Dursleys had done but at least the boy was thinking that was a good sign.
"Now, let's get some rest, we have to get up bright and early tomorrow morning." Dante said
"Why, what are we doing tomorrow?" Harry asked before he thought
"Well, first we have to go see a lawyer about me getting custody of you instead of the Dursleys, after that we have to get you some clothes that actually fit you; those look far too big for you."
"…they used to be Dudley's" Harry admitted
Dante had surmised as much but he did not say so out loud.
Rather belatedly Harry said "Perseus, come back" and Perseus returned to his amulet.
Then they did what Dante had said and turned in for the night.
The next morning, Dante woke Harry up at 7:00am
"Harry" Dante said shaking him just a little
"Mmm?" Harry murmured sleepily
"Time to get up" Dante said
Once they had gotten up and brushed their hair and teeth etc. Harry's stomach growled Dante had taken him to dinner at the hotel's restaurant as soon as they had arrived but he had been too nervous and excited to eat very much.
Dante chuckled slightly "the hotel offers a free continental breakfast to all its' guests, we'll head down there and eat before we go" (AN: I'm an American, I've never been to England, though I hope to someday, and have no idea if that kind of thing exists there but since I know very little about England or its' customs so rather than offend people by making things up I am sticking with American ones that I know)
Harry smiled a little at that.
"But first I need to finish packing."
"We're… not coming back here?" Harry asked somewhat nervous, despite Dante's assurances he was not comfortable with asking questions
"Hopefully we won't have to" Dante began "My flight leaves at 6:00 tonight, but depending on how the custody thing goes we may end up having to stay here in London for a little bit but we'll see."
Harry hung his head, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were right; he was nothing but a burden, he should go back to them instead of bothering somebody as nice and good as Dante.
Dante guessing what direction Harry's thoughts were headed in knelt down so he was at eye level with Harry. "Harry, listen to me, you are not a burden, and you are not a freak. You are a good kid who has been badly mistreated and I want to change that, if that means staying in London longer than I originally intended than I'm fine with that, you ARE worth it, Harry."
"But why do you care?' Harry protested "I'm not related to you, you don't me at all, why do you care what happens to me?!" the words burst out of Harry with more passion than either he or Dante knew he had.
"I care because I have seen kids in your situation go down the wrong path without someone to guide them toward the right one, I care because no child deserves to suffer the way you have, and I care because I was taught to live by the golden rule."
Harry cocked his head slightly and asked "the golden rule?"
"Yes" Dante nodded "it says treat others the way that you want to be treated. I know if I had been abused as a child the way you were, I would have wanted someone to help me so I will help you."
Harry's stomach growled again
"All right, let's go eat." Dante said.
Harry nodded
After breakfast they walked a couple of blocks to offices of Warren and William (AN: I made up that law firm).
When they arrived the secretary greeted them "How may I help you?" she asked
"Hi, is John Elliot available?" Dante asked. John Elliot was not a Seeker but his father and younger sister were, as such John Elliot had offered his services to the Huntik Foundation although if the foundation didn't have any cases for him to work on he was willing to take cases for other people as well.
"I'll check" she typed some things on her computer "According the schedule he is free until 9:30 this morning. If you give me your name, I can call and see if he is willing to talk to you." She said
"Of course, my name is Dante Vale" Dante replied
"Just a minute" the secretary said and then she picked up her phone and pressed a button on it.
"Hi John, there's a Dante Vale here to see you, shall I send him on up?"
The reply was unintelligible
"Very good" the secretary said and then she hung up
"He says he'll see you. Go down the hall to the elevator and take it to the third floor and it's the first door on your left."
"Thank you kindly" Dante said and then he headed down the hallway with Harry following close behind.
When they got to John Elliot's office, John got up from his desk and said "Dante, nice to see you" as he walked over "how have you been?" He and Dante shook hands
Harry blinked; John Elliot was not at all what he had been expecting. He had been expecting someone like Uncle Vernon's lawyer, a stuffy bald old guy with no sense of humor. John Elliot however was relatively young, somewhere his thirties Harry suspected, blonde haired, and friendly.
"Good to see you too John, you seem to be doing pretty well for yourself" Dante replied
"Yeah, things are going great. Come in, come in"
Harry and Dante did. John closed the door behind them so they could have some privacy and then he sat back down at his desk
"Now, I assume this isn't a social call, what do you need…you haven't gone and gotten Scotland Yard after you again, have you?"
"No, not this time" Dante said, knowing that John would never let him live that incident down even though it had happened nearly ten years ago now "It's actually about young Harry here" Dante said motioning to the young kid next to him
"Oh" John blinked, the kid had been so quiet that he hadn't even noticed him "hi there, little guy, the name's John Elliot, attorney at law, nice to meet you" he said holding his hand out to the kid, the kid looked at it confused, no one had ever offered to shake his hand before. Slowly, hesitantly, Harry reached up and took it.
John, wanting to move past the awkward moment looked at Dante, hoping he would explain.
Dante did, he told John everything
"Hmm, I see" John said his voice grave "well…I'm afraid that pressing charges will be difficult without proof, right now all we have is his word, I have a friend on the force, I can probably get him to investigate if you like."
"No," Harry blurted
Both men looked at him
Harry quickly hung his head "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have interrupted."
"No, Harry, this is about you, if you have something you want to say, you have the right to say it." Dante said
"He's right" John agreed "we're here to help you, but we can't do that if you don't talk to us."
"Well…I don't want my aunt and uncle to get in trouble; I just don't want them to hurt me anymore." Harry said softy
"Ok, Harry" Dante said softly "if that's what you want"
"Well, that shouldn't be hard" John said "the easiest way to do that is to just have them sign a contract stating they willingly and permanently agree to forfeit any rights and/or responsibilities in regards to young Harry, including but not limited to financial obligations, parental rights, etc. I can work up such a contract right here, right now if you like."
"Do we have to have the Dursleys here too?" Dante asked
"No" John shook his head "I can write up the custody agreement, have you sign it, notarize the signature and have them sign it later and once it's been signed I can send a copy to you."
"That would be great, thank you John." Dante agreed
They sat there for a bit while John typed up the agreement and then he printed it out and handed it over to Dante. Dante read over the contract and said
"It looks good" then he signed it and John signed as well then Harry popped up
"What's notarize mean?"
"It means that I verify that Dante is who he says he is and that I witnessed him sign the document that's all." John explained
"Oh" Harry said
"Do you need anything else from us, John?" Dante asked
"No, I think I'm all set, I won't be able to get anything done on it until this afternoon." John said
"That's fine" Dante assured him "In that case, we are off and running
After that, the two went clothes shopping at a local strip mall. Harry was having a hard time getting used to clothes that were actually his size instead of being several times bigger. Dante then made a brief stop at the local salvation army to donate Dudley's old cast offs since Harry would no longer be wearing them. Once that was taken care of they still had a few hours until they had to leave for Italy. So Dante spent those last few hours showing Harry some of the sights of London.
Meanwhile
John Elliot headed for Privet Drive around 1 in the afternoon. Once he found number four (it was a little difficult since every house looked exactly the same as every other house on the street) he rang the doorbell
"Yes?" Petunia asked when she answered
"Good afternoon madam" John Elliot began formally "my name is John Elliot, I am a lawyer, I represent Dante Vale-"
"What does that freak want now?!" Petunia shrieked "we already gave him the brat!"
"I have a contract here; it states that you willingly forfeit all rights and responsibilities regarding one, Harry James Potter, all I need is for you and your husband to sign it, is he home?"
"Yes" Petunia answered, Vernon had been so thrilled at the idea of getting rid of the freakish brat that he had taken a rare personal day to celebrate. "Come in, quick and let's get this over with." Then she stepped back so John could enter
As soon as he stepped inside John starting feeling even more uncomfortable, it was just too clean, it didn't have that lived in feeling you expected when you walked into someone's house.
"Petunia, what's this about?" Vernon demanded, he didn't like being interrupted, when he was drinking, which he was at that moment, he had a glass of wine in his hand.
John introduced himself once again and explained why he was there
"So let me guess this straight, we sign this ruddy contract of yours, and we never have to hear about the freak or the brat ever again?' Vernon asked
"Yes, that's correct" John said, he was liking these people less and less every second….Dante seriously owed him one for this.
"Give it over here" Vernon growled as he snatched the papers from John's hand. He quickly signed them without even bothering to glance at any of the actual text. Once he had signed he handed them over to Petunia who quickly added her own name.
"Is that everything Mr. Elliot?" Petunia asked hastily as she handed the papers back to John. She was trying to alleviate some of the strongly negative impression Vernon had given. Vernon was too drunk and annoyed to care about things like that at the moment. Petunia's attempts were however, not only failing completely but also having the opposite effect.
"I need to see some proof of ID, since I do not know either of you; I need to verify that you are in fact, Vernon and Petunia Dursley." John told her
Petunia rushed over to her purse, she pulled out her wallet, took out her driver's license and handed it to John. John made a show of examining it closely and then handed it back to her and said "Thank you, Mrs. Dursley. Mr. Dursley, I need to see an ID from you as well."
Vernon grumpily reached into his pocket and pulled out his own wallet. He took his Driver's License out of it, got of his chair and literally shoved it, in John's face as he shouted "HERE, HERE, HERE! I AM Vernon Dursley and I don't want anything to do with the freakish brat, his new freak friend or you, ever again! NOW GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
John was taken aback, he hadn't been expecting a pleasant reception and yet he hadn't been expecting such a hostile reaction either. However he had gotten what he wanted so he was only too happy to beat a hasty retreat.
Only when he was safely in his car did he sign the contract as well, notarizing the event.
A few months later
Arabella Figg was beginning to get worried; she hadn't seen any sign of Harry Potter in months. Much as she detested the Dursleys, she decided that she was going to have to try talking to them. Reluctantly she picked up her phone and dialed the Dursleys' number.
"Dursley residence, Petunia speaking." Petunia's voice said over the phone
"Hi Petunia, its Arabella" Arabella began
"Oh, hello Arabella, how are you?" Petunia said
"All right and yourself?" Arabella responded politely
"Very well, thank you."
"Petunia, I have a slight problem" Arabella said, she knew that she needed a reason for calling besides Harry "My kitchen sink just sprung a leak, do you know where I can find a decent plumber?"
"Oh, that's awful. That happened to us not too long ago. An acquaintance of Vernon's gave us the name and number of a plumber and he did a pretty good job, would you like me to get it for you?"
"Yes, please" Arabella said
There was some shuffling as Petunia searched for the name and number of that plumber. While she was doing that Arabella asked trying very hard to make sure that her voice sounded casual
"Say Petunia, I haven't seen your nephew around lately…is he all right?"
"Oh yes, he's fine, I assume" Petunia said simply "he's not with us anymore, some guy came over and wanted to adopt him and a good thing too because he was getting to be a real handful-"
"What guy?" Arabella blurted out
"Oh" Petunia said with feigned nonchalance, she REALLY didn't want to remember neither the brat nor the freak who took him away "I'm afraid I don't remember very much about him. He had reddish hair and his name was rather odd Dan-something or other, some nasty foreign name."
"Anything else you can tell me about him?" Arabella pressed
"I don't really remember anything else…why do you care so much anyway?" Petunia said
Arabella however had hung up the phone as soon as Petunia had said that she didn't remember the man who had taken her nephew. After a moment or two Petunia said
"Hello Arabella, are you still there?" in response however Petunia could hear nothing but the dial tone so she hung up.
Since Arabella was a squib living in a muggle neighborhood her house was not connected to the floo network so the only way she knew of to contact Albus Dumbledore was via owl post. Luckily she had an owl and one did not need to be a wizard in order to use owl post. So she went up to her bedroom and grabbed some parchment and a pen, that was one muggle alternative she greatly preferred over the standard wizard implement. Quickly she wrote
Albus,
HARRY POTTER IS MISSING! I hadn't seen him for a while so I contacted Petunia Dursley; she told me that Harry had been adopted months ago by some man with reddish hair, that's all I know regarding Harry.
Arabella Figg
Albus Dumbledore was in his office examining some memories through a pensive, he had deduced that Voldemort was not gone forever, he knew that Tom had made at least two horcruxes (counting Harry) but he suspected it was more than that, he was in the process of trying to figure out how many horcruxes there were and where they were hidden when a tawny owl arrived and perched on the windowsill.
He put down his pensive and moved over to the windowsill He carefully removed the owl's letter and the bird promptly flew off again. Dumbledore opened the letter and realized immediately it was from Arabella Figg because he recognized her handwriting. He read the letter quickly, alarmed at the implications, he had several devices monitoring Harry, those devices should have alerted him had any dark wizard set foot on Privet Drive or if Harry had either renounced Privet Drive as his home or been kidnapped against his will. He had to get to the bottom of this; he dropped the letter and raced out of his office. Not even the headmaster of Hogwarts could apparate inside the school grounds, it was annoying but there was nothing Dumbledore could do about it.
As soon as he was outside of the school gates and the anti-apparation wards, he apparated right to Privet Drive. Luckily for him, no muggles happened to be out and about so Albus didn't have to oblievate anyone. Albus quickly raced up the walkway to number four and rang the doorbell.
Petunia was in the middle of dusting the living room when she heard the doorbell ring. She stopped dusting and walked over to the door, she looked through the peephole and saw an old man in a grey cloak, and he was clearly yet another freak. Petunia's first instinct was to ignore the doorbell and pretend that there was no one home, but then she began to worry what the neighbors would think if they saw the freak standing on their doorstep so she reluctantly opened the door.
"Hello Mrs. Dursley" Dumbledore greeted politely "may I come in?"
"Yes, hurry, before someone sees you." Petunia hissed at him. Once the old freak was inside she demanded bluntly "What are you doing here?"
"My name is Albus Dumbledore" the old guy said, Petunia recognized that name, it was the one that had been on the letter that had been dropped on their doorstep along with the freak, back when they had been a nice, normal, British family and they would have gone back to being that…if only these freaks would stop showing up!
"I understand your nephew Harry has been adopted." Dumbledore continued "I need you to tell me who it was that took him."
"He was one of you…I don't really remember" Petunia claimed. She had no idea that Dumbledore was using legimenacy on her. Since she was thinking about it, Dumbledore was able to find the memory he was searching for pretty quickly.
The memory however confused him a great deal. Dante Vale, the name meant nothing to Dumbledore, he had been dressed in muggle clothes though he seemed to be a wizard although the spell he had used was vastly different from anything Dumbledore had ever seen. Wandless magic was rare but not unheard of. In Western cultures Latin was the language of choice for most spell work, Dumbledore knew that other cultures used other languages but he did not know of any that used English as the root for spell work and Touch Ram was definitely English. He strongly suspected however, that Dante Vale was not a British Wizard which would make finding him and more importantly finding Harry difficult, although Dumbledore was the head of the International Confederation of Wizards his reach outside of Britain was fairly limited.
"I am deeply disappointed in you Petunia, I had hoped that love and family would overcome your jealously, clearly I was mistaken. I should also tell you that the magic that has been protecting you all this time will fail very soon since Harry no longer calls this place home, dark wizards will be able to find you and torture you and your family." Dumbledore told her
"Well, then you find the freak and bring him back!" Petunia demanded
"I will look for Harry, but with the very little information I have to go on, I suspect finding him to be very difficult if not impossible." Dumbledore turned to leave
"The lawyer!" Petunia exclaimed
Dumbledore stopped and turned back to face Petunia again
"The guy who has Harry, his lawyer came over and had us sign some papers, he may know where to find the boy." Petunia said
"I see what was his name?" Dumbledore asked
"It was..ugh, I can't remember!" Petunia shouted frustrated with herself
Again Dumbledore tried using Legimency but this time Petunia was telling the truth, she honestly did not remember the lawyer's name, but she did remember what he looked like. Still a young blonde lawyer from somewhere in Britain was not a lot to go on but Dumbledore did have a few contacts among the legal offices of Britain maybe one of them would have an idea.
"I see, thank you for your help." Then Dumbledore apparated back to Hogwarts to begin his covert (he didn't want the wizarding world to panic because their savior was missing) search for Harry Potter.
AN: the next chapter will contain a time skip