Hello dear readers, and welcome to this new story.
I haven't forgot DwS – DwF second story. But I wanted to change a bit and write about something that was running in my head for a while.
Obviously, any character you may recognize from the HP universe belongs to J. K. Rowling. Lacerta is however an OC I created.
Enjoy!
Lacerta – Meeting Harry
7th August 1991
Lacerta sighed as she closed yet another book and put it down on the bench she sat on. It was the third one she had finished this week. And still no sign of her "target".
She had looked at every child who went in front of her, in the street between Gringrotts and Ollivander. He didn't have a chance, he had to go past the little park with its statue made of bronze and its three benches.
It was almost noon. She was about to grab her sandwich when a huge figure went by, followed by a scrawny boy who had to make four steps for everyone Hagrid made. The half-giant stopped and began to discuss with the black-haired boy.
Lacerta frowned. Could this be … no, he was too small. She opened her mouth to bit into her sandwich and she began chewing, all the while keeping her eyes on the odd pair. She was about to swallow her mouthful when the boy turned and the scar on his forehead drew her attention.
Her mouthful almost went down the wrong way. It was him. Harry Potter. Her 'target'.
She forced herself to stay put and took another mouthful of her sandwich, a smaller one however, this time. At the same time, she put her book away and got ready to follow Harry and Hagrid.
Why was it the Keeper of keys and grounds from Hogwarts who was taking the Boy-Who-Lived through his first trip in the wizarding world – because the boy's amazed face almost screamed "Muggleborn" to anyone with functioning eyes.
At last, they kept walking towards Ollivander. Lacerta followed them from afar. She had to stop but they came to a halt at a bifurcation. Hagrid showed the wand-maker shop to Harry and they split up. Naturally, she went after the eleven years old boy until he went into the shop. She passed in front of the store and came to a halt three buildings further. And she waited.
The day went on. She followed the odd pair until they both stepped in the Leaky Cauldron at the end of the day. Lacerta was now sure it was Harry's first trip into the wizarding world. They had bought everything that was on the first year's list. Any child raised in their world would at least already have some of the items needed.
She was also quite sure that several things were wrong with the boy. He was far too scrawny and he always looked around him with watchful eyes. She was positive he had spotted her. His clothes were rags five size too big for him. And last but not least, no scar should be this red after eleven years.
A lot of people wanted to shake the boy's hand in the pub. Lacerta followed the difficult crossing of the inn for Harry who was almost hyperventilating – any eleven years old at the centre of attention of such a crowd would. Finally, they exited the pub and parted way after Hagrid escorted the famous wizard to the nearest underground entrance.
She quickly followed him and lowered her head when she went in front of Hagrid, then went down the stairs four at a time and saw him buying a ticket. When he was done and just before he used the turnstile, she called out to him.
"Excuse me, would you be Harry?"
The small boy looked at her, uncertain, without answering. He was a bit afraid and visibly exhausted. The white owl in her cage hooted warmly, drawing a lot of attention from the passengers.
After several more seconds of looking at her, he finally nodded, but didn't answer.
Suddenly, she felt less sure of herself. It was happening. She was at long last able to begin her true mission.
"Great" she said, smiling. She extended her hand to shake his: "My name is Lacerta. Lacerta Grey. With a "c" and without "h", but pronounced the Italian way. We will be in the same school in September. It's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, Ma'am." He answered, although a bit reluctantly and shook her hand.
"Harry… I know you saw me earlier… back in the Alley. I followed you. Do you know why?"
He looked straight into her eyes and she had to restraint herself to not lower her gaze, such was the intensity of his eyes. But she wanted to earn his trust and everything in him screamed "abused". She knew she needed to prove he could trust her.
"I noticed you, that's right. But no, I don't know why, Ma'am." He tensed, as if he was readying himself to run or be hit.
"Do you know the Black family, Harry?" she had to be sure.
He thought about it a bit, never losing his tensed poise, before answering.
"No, I'm sorry, Ma'am. Should I?"
This confirmed it. He had been raised by muggles. Any wizard in Great Britain knew about this particular family. Maybe Arcturus had been right after all and Harry Potter had been placed by his maternal aunt. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
"Your paternal grandmother was née Black. Although I don't bear their name, I'm related to them too. We are distant cousins, Harry."
Harry's eyes flew wide open. Even without reading his mind, she saw in them hope, fear and betrayal in the span of half a second.
Lacerta quickly added: "I've been waiting for this day for years, Harry, to finally meet you. It would be my pleasure if you would accept an invitation to my flat. It would be far more enjoyable to discuss with you in front of a cup of tea." She smiled warmly at him.
The small boy looked several seconds at the … witch standing before him. The black-haired young woman seemed nice enough but he had learnt long ago not to judge a book by its cover.
He had dreamed so many times about this: meeting some family member outside of his relatives. Someone who would smile at him, not sneer.
He had noticed her following him and Hagrid from afar. He had developed a sixth sense when it came to watching his surroundings. His instinct told him she was… not ill-meaning. Her handshake had been firm, not assertive or floppy. Her hands had some callouses but were in good shape. Harry had learnt to watch people hands. They often display a window into one's state of mind.
Harry really didn't look forward going to the Dursley – he never used the word 'home' in his mind while thinking of Privet Drive – because it wasn't his home.
As much as his logical side told him that it was really unusual to invite someone you had just met, someone who openly admitted to having followed you the whole afternoon, the young wizard nodded his assent by nodding his head while looking at his snowy owl – he feared Vernon's reaction regarding her.
"Great! My flat is half an hour of walk away. Or we could take the tube if you prefer?"
They took the tube in an uncomfortable silence, the passengers looking hard at his owl.
Finally, they arrived in front of a relatively modern building. Lacerta led him to the fourth floor. Before opening the door, she warned him:
"You might feel uneasy when you cross the threshold. There are strong wards protecting the flat. I'll need to take your hand when you enter."
They did just that. Harry felt indeed something cold and oily wash over him the moment he entered the flat, then it was gone.
"Make yourself comfortable Harry. I'll make us some tea. You can wait in the dining room and take your owl out of her cage. There is a perch by the window with some water. My familiar is away for now."
Harry followed her instructions and walked on the wooden floor to a shoulder-high post with four horizontal wooden branch and he opened the latch of the owl's cage.
The white owl hooted as it immediately sought to exit its metal coop and flew in three flutters to the lowest perch.
Harry used the time to pet his owl – he would have to find her a name. The beard of prey looked at him the whole time, as if trying to know him better. It was a bit weird.
"Tea is ready" announced Lacerta as she came with a tray with a kettle of tea, two cups and shortbread biscuits that she put down on a wooden table that could host four people.
They sat in silence and Harry felt better drinking some tea and eating several biscuits – he hadn't eaten this morning and only had the little patisserie with Hagrid for noon. The young woman went to the kitchen to retrieve more biscuits wordlessly as well as a photo album that was put down beside her cup. She then sat again in front of him without breaking the
Harry looked around him. The flat was nice but contained very little furniture.
Lacerta was the first to speak, not wanting Harry to feel awkward.
"You probably have dozens of questions, Harry. Would you like to begin?"
The young wizard didn't know how to behave. Everything was new to him. At least, at Privet Drive, he knew what to expect from the Dursley. Here… he was lost. He didn't know what to say or what to do and he was afraid to vex her with some of his questions.
"It's a nice flat. Are you parents mu-muggles?" Some words were still new to him.
Lacerta looked him strait in the eyes, her smiled disappeared.
"My parents were indeed non-magical. They died a year ago in an … accident. They are a … sensitive subject."
Great, he thought. First question and he had already messed it up.
"Sorry, I didn't know."
Lacerta closed her eyes for several seconds before she answered in a softer voice than before.
"You couldn't have known, Harry. No harm done. Beside… my father wasn't my biological's."
Seeing his befuddled expression, she went on.
"It's a dark story, Harry, and not one I normally disclose to anyone. But you, you are family."
She took another sip of tea and took her cup in both hands to warm her hands. While she drank, Harry felt for the first time something warm and enjoyable stir inside his chest at the word "family".
"When I was five, I started having magical accidents whenever I was angry and scared. Then it became worst as I started hearing things I shouldn't have. One thing led to another and one day, an old man came knocking at our door. He introduced himself as Patrocus Macmillan, Arcturus Black's lawyer. He wanted me to meet his client to whom he said I was related. He then told my parents who Arcturus was: a Head of House and a wizard."
Lacerta looked at him over her cup of tea that she was still holding in both of her hands.
"You can imagine the reaction he got from my mother and my father. But he then proceeded to show us several magical spells. When it was clear that he was not lying about being a wizard, we asked him who this Arcturus Black was, why he would send us his lawyer and how we were related."
Harry could see it pained her to tell him this. But she went forth, opening the photo album to a page containing two black and white moving pictures. The first contained a serious, non-nonsense looking man in the middle, around fifty, with eyes that seemed to look through you and assess your worth. He was surrounded by several other people Harry assumed to be family members. Except two children, none were smiling. The atmosphere of the picture was tensed.
The second picture had colours and was more recent. It was of another family and here the mood was totally different. Young and adults were smiling. Harry recognized the same – but older - serious man, this one smiling, albeit just a bit, standing beside two happy couples and two other adults. Harry felt again something twinge in his chest at the sight of the younger man. Could it be…?
"Patroclus showed us these two pictures from Arcturus, the man you see here and here" she indicated with her figure pointing at the serious man.
Harry gasped when he saw the personage wave at him as in a very short video.
"Wizard's pictures are like short videos where the people in it repeat the same action again and again every five seconds approximately" explained the teenage girl to Harry when she saw him surprised by the unexpected feature.
"The lawyer mentioned our eyes' iris, which are grey – she pointed to the second picture where the colour of his eyes where the same as hers – "as well as a birthmark I have on my left shoulder, in the abstract form of a raven. There wasn't any way he should have known about it – at least where I'm concerned."
Lacerta removed the second picture with the smaller, smiling family and held it out to him. Harry took it carefully, not wanting to stain the picture that he felt in his heart of hearts was held what he had be yearning for since he could recall being with the Dursley.
"Long story short, I am the bastard daughter of one of his great-nephews. Cygnus Black had been a follower of You-Know-Who. Hating muggles didn't prevent them from raping muggle women before obliviating them. At least, it is what Arcturus thought might have happen."
Harry saw the beginning of a tear forming at the corner of her eye, but Lacerta quickly wiped it away before going on with her explanation.
"The woman on your picture, to Arcturus's right, was his beloved sister, Dorea Potter, née Black. She was your grandmother, Harry."
The young wizard stared at the picture, lost in the feeling it was procuring him. Love, loss, hope, distress. His family. Next to Dorea, his grandmother, a man stood proudly - he had unruly black hair not unlike his own. His eyes had the same jagged feeling of men who saw the worse mankind can offer but at the same time believe in those they deem worthy.
To the right of the man who could only be his grandfather stood a very young man who looked almost like him with higher cheekbones. His hair was a complete mess. He was dressed smartly and wore a mile-wide smile.
He held in his arms lovingly a magnificent young woman, dressed in white.
"Not Harry! Please! Take me, but not Harry"
"Harry? Harry? Are you alright?"
Harry shook his head from the frightened voice he sometimes heard during his worst nightmare.
"Sorry, I was … somewhere else. Is that …?" he didn't dare say aloud what he hoped this was.
"Yes, Harry, this picture was taken for your parents' wedding day."
The young pre-teen looked at the picture, not wanting to ever forget how his parents looked, to etch their smiling faces in his memory, in his heart, in his soul.
After several minutes of silence, he asked, stammering.
"Wh- what were their na-names?"
Lacerta almost started at the question but managed to almost conceal her surprise – this was worse than she had imagined!
"Your grandfather's name was Charlus. Your parents, James" she indicated with her finger unnecessarily the young groom and bride "and Lily. Her maiden's name was Evans. And the two people here were their witnesses. Sirius Black, who despite the age difference, was your cousin and your godfather. And here is Alice Longbottom, she was your godmother before she and her husband were savagely attacked a few days after You-Know-Who was defeated."
Silence reclaimed the flat. After some time, Lacerta went without a word to the kitchen to prepare again some tea, leaving Harry at the table, lost in his thoughts.
Lacerta came back and poured Harry and herself some more tea – Harry's had been left untouched and was by now cold.
The atmosphere had become quite gloomy. The past and its ghosts were weighting a lot on this summer evening. As if reading his mind, Lacerta went to the window and opened it. The fresh air was a godsent.
"You are probably wandering why I'm telling you this, Harry." Said Lacerta, still facing the outside, her back turned to him.
The young woman turned towards him when he didn't answer. She waited to see him node before continuing.
"You are a celebrity in the wizarding world. A lot of people will want to befriend you. Some because they like you… but most just to use you."
She saw him furrow his brows just a bit, acknowledging her words.
"I was lucky that Lord Black, Arcturus, wanted to help me. Without him, I would probably not have had an easy time when I started Hogwarts. It's … a new universe. Another culture, with its advantages and its drawbacks.
When I met Arcturus Black, he was very sick and knew he would die soon. He had been sick for years. Discovering he had another estranged grandniece helped him, however. It gave him a purpose – and a way to redeem what his family had taken part in. He died two years ago, despite the healers having told him he hadn't more than a few months, back when I met him.
Now, I just want to give you the same chance I had and let you know that you can ask me any question you have regarding the wizarding world. I'll try to help you to the best of my capacities."
They stood silent for a long time. Harry needed it to process everything he had just been told and Lacerta was going over what she had just said again in her head, before telling Harry.
"I won't pry into your life, Harry, but I can tell it hasn't been easy so far. No, let me finish, please" she said, seeing him about to deny it.
"I'm training to become a healer and I can recognize the signs of child abuse. You have every one of them: you flinch whenever something unexpected happen, you are wary, you look malnourished and you are too small for your age… . I can't undo what they did to you. Know, however, that you are welcome to stay here for however long you want and that I would gladly help you. We are family, Harry, and family's members stand for each other."
She fell silent under Harry's stare.
Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta
8th August 1991
Harry awoke with a start, not understanding immediately where he was, why his bed was so comfortable or why the noises he was hearing were unfamiliar to him. He kept his eyes closed.
Yesterday's events came back like a whip. Hagrid, the purchases in Diagon Alley, his wand, Hagrid's gifting him the splendid white owl and then meeting Lacerta on the subway platform before coming to her place … and learning that she was family, that she wanted to help him.
He felt again the warm feeling that word carried yesterday evening, for the first time: family.
Harry remembered the moving picture of his parent's wedding day.
He hesitated before he opened his eyes, afraid all this had only be a dream and he would be back in the cupboard under the stairs. But Lacerta's words through the door made the need to take a decision unnecessary.
"Harry? Breakfast is ready."
Lacerta soft voice reached him, together with the tantalising scent of warm bread and hot chocolate.
For the first time in as long he could remember, Harry got to his feet with a smile on his face, his eyes falling on the wedding picture of his parents – he had fallen asleep looking at it.
A new, better, period of his life had just started.
Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta ¤¤ Lacerta
Hope you liked the first chapter! Don't hesitate to leave a review!