Disclaimer: I don't own it; just having a go at fanfiction to see if I can em-provvvee my Eeng-lish.
Dreamer's Note: No, I won't call myself an author. Every half an hour before I sleep, I'll have some idea popped up in my mind before I drift away in my slumber. Sometimes, I wrote and deleted paragraphs after paragraphs just to suit my plot in the future of the story. I'm not very good at writing a poem or such thing, so mostly when witchcraft is mentioned in my story, I'll just say, some verses were chanted or the incantation was there, but not the thing itself. Bear with me.
The True Journey of Harry Potter
Chapter 5 – Petunia's Secret
"Boy! Wake up this instant and come cook breakfast," the voice from outside of his cupboard awoke the poor boy. Not that he had not expected it, but been sleeping peacefully and wake up on his own for seven months in Avalon really made Harry regretted leaving the place. There was a few banging on the door and with a 'humph', his aunt walked away, presuming to the kitchen.
Harry put on his glasses and walked out to use the toilet and went directly to the kitchen. He cooked breakfast for his relative silently with his aunt hovering behind. She criticized every bit of his job; the bacon was too crispy and burnt, the egg was too dry, the sausage was not well-fried and so on. The yesterday Harry would just do it without any problem, but today, the Harry Petunia had known was not as naïve as he used to be. Harry tried to keep his cool and keep the anger that built up in the back of his mind and continued cooking.
Once the males of the house minus Harry were stomping down to the kitchen, all was done. Uncle Vernon spent a few minutes verbally harassing Harry before started attacking his plate. Dudley was quiet though as most mornings in the household, he was not awakening enough yet, but soon he would be.
"Pet, dear," Vernon started talking sipping his tea while another hand reached out for his morning paper.
"Yes, honey?" Petunia replied questioningly.
"Have you decided about the school yet?" the Dursley patriarch asked. It was a conversation they had the day before about the schooling of the boys. Vernon had a plan for his own son to attend the local school and later on to Smelting, his alma mater. Anyhow, he had demanded that the freak nephew of her would not join the same program as Dudley.
Petunia smiled sweetly, "of course, I have. You go on with the registration for Dudley and I shall see about the boy here."
Hearing this, both boys at the table stopped eating and watched the adults. Dudley started to whine that he did not want to go to school. It was a short whining though, after his father promised more gifts for Christmas and his birthday. Harry, for his part, just sat there watching the matter with neutral face.
Once they were done, Vernon called Dudley to spend the day out at his office and promised a visit to the mall somewhere near London. It was an agreement Vernon made with Petunia. His wife had asked him for the day to talk with the boy alone.
Petunia was considering her choices. There were chances that her nephew would be magical just like his parents, no, it happened to be a fact since she had noticed several mishap the boy had done. While the boy was clearing the table, Petunia was pondering the subject in her mind.
There was something odd about her nephew today. Early this morning, she felt guilty and regret for what she had done to him, but once she walked down stairs, the feeling was gone and she started having dark thought about him. How could he get healed over night was one thing she wonder. Not that she cared that much, it had to do with his unnatural gift, no, curse. However though, it was not only that he was healed, but he seemed changed.
Truth be told, Petunia did not hold any grudge over her nephew at all until one day when the boy was around two and half that that thing happened. From then on, she started to feel angry every time there was any mishap in her normal life. She always put the blame on the boy. It was foolish, she knew, but she could not give any reason why she thought that. She knew her anger was a bit over the top, sometimes even unreasonable, but she could not control herself. Just like yesterday, was it too harsh? She never knew since her mind stop thinking rationally and at the time, she was just so angry that she wanted only to beat the boy.
"Aunt Petunia," the boy's voice startled her. Out of her musing, Petunia scowled and spat, "What?"
"I'm wondering if there is anything you want me to do today," Harry watched his aunt with interest. There was something in her mind and he was not ready to talk to her yet until he did something about the charm around the house.
Petunia frowned before shaking her head. "I want to talk to you about something later, but I'm going out for a while," she said turning to walk upstairs. A few minutes later, she came down dressed quite formally and turned to him before opened the front door. "I want you to be in the house, not muddling around and when I come back, I want to see you in the cupboard, not outside. No TV, no nothing. Do you understand?"
Harry nodded and his aunt was out of the house in a swish followed by the lock clicked from outside of the house. Harry sighed and looked around. He had no chore for today, which suited him just fine, but at least he wanted to try something.
Pushing the thought of the Odium jinx aside for a moment, Harry started drawing runic symbols in the air. He concentrated on each rune he drew and once it was completed, he pushed his magic into the runes to fuse the power together and in a flash, the runes vanished from sight and the house was trembling for a while. The boy walked over the sink and watched as a few plates he left unwashed intentionally was wiped clean and started to float to its rinsing rack. Harry was glad the magic worked and he started going around the house looking at several spots he knew it was dusty or needed to be cleaned. He even went upstairs to check the 3 bedrooms in the house and the bathroom. Seeing that all were cleaned as it should be with the magic his just used, Harry walked down to check his cupboard. It was magically spotless.
Now, Harry deemed it was time to take care of the jinx placed in the house. He did not know who was responsible for it, but he could be careless about it. Thinking of the options he had, a few seemed to be unfitting. He could destroy the damn things completely, but that would risk the person who set them up aware that something was amiss. So, he decided to just leave them in places with a few layer of masks. An invisible magic mask would do its job to cover the item of the jinxes and completely be ineffective. If the one who put them up checked, they would find them working normally. He knew he would have to make the mask undetectable, but that was not something hard to do.
As he did not have his wand to do the job and regular wandless magic would not suffix his intent, Harry decided the long lost knowledge of Runic Magic would do the job. He drew some runes in the air again and this time he waited until those runes were glowing with his magic and floating in the air around him. Then, he casted a wandless detection spell to see all of the items lurking around the house glowed. Once he was sure all items showed itself, he pushed his magic out to the runes. A bright light was flashing and all the glowing items in the house were covering with blue lights until it became white globes with the items inside them before fading transparent. Harry felt some strings detached from his body, or was it his magic. He smiled seeing job well-done and sat in chair at the table in the kitchen. Now, he was ready for a talk with his aunt. Harry tried listing some question in his head, meanwhile wondering what his aunt was going to talk with him about.
Petunia was in the local school principal's office. She had requested to get all available information about home-schooling a child. The principal was quite unsettled; he did not like the idea of losing a student to attend his academy. His guest's reason was, to say the least, unnerving. The boy was not very bright and had a tendency of wreaking havoc wherever he went. That was ridiculous – a four years old boy, for heaven's sake – but since he could not do anything about it as she was the boy's guardian, he had to let it be. He supplied all of required papers for home-schooling and made sure his guest understood the procedures she had to follow. As Petunia was leaving the office, she felt something. It felt like some kind of strings was being pulled off her and then she felt lighter and her thought about her nephew changed. She started to ponder while she walked to front gate of the school. Was it something to do with magic? But what could it be. She hailed a taxi to take her home.
Once in the taxi, she started to think about her life, something she had not touched in many years. It seemed the pull she felt was bringing back something she had not thought about and to some extent forgotten. What did this mean? Why she suddenly remember them? However, it was not really that disturbing. She did not felt apprehensive as she used to be while thinking about her sister or magic anymore. There must be something, and Petunia Dursely, nee Evans, was going to find out.
The taxi stopped in front of No. 4 Private Drive and Petunia got off. She walked swiftly to the house. Once the door was opened, she halted. The house seemed different, it was too clean. She knew the boy had done something, but did not feel angry like she always did. Frowning deeply, she walked to the kitchen and saw the boy was napping. She studied her nephew closely and felt a pang of guilt built up. Tears were starting to well up, her breathe became harsh and heavy.
Harry had been waiting for an hour before he got bored and the exhaustion after using magic was starting to come to him. He decided to bend down and took a nap right there. He did not hear the sound of the front door opened, but soon he felt someone closed by. He opened his eyes without moving and saw his aunt stood there crying. He sat up and that caused their eyes met. Petunia felt the green eyes watching her so intense like it looked deep to her soul. She knew the answer to her question right then.
"Har… Harry?" she called his name and broke down. She did not know why she was crying like a girl, but it felt right. She did not know what to do. It seemed all of things she did to her own nephew started to replay itself in her mind and she saw all foul moments and started to feel guilty. "I'm sorry, oh dear, I'm so sorry."
Harry did not expect this. He knew it was the backlash of the jinx, but what could he do to comfort his aunt. The boy walked up his aunt, seeing how pathetic she seemed to be, he hugged her. "It's alright, Aunt Petunia. It's alright. Everything's going to be fine now."
It took a while for Petunia to calm herself enough to talk. She looked up at her nephew once and looked around the house. "You did something to the house," she said airily.
Harry first thought was his aunt was accusing him to use magic, but she did not seem upset about it. So he nodded. "I have something to tell you and some questions to ask."
Hearing that, Petunia stood up and motioned him to sit. She went to the refrigerator and took out a jug of orange juice and brought two glasses to the table. Serving the juice to herself and nephew, she asked, "What is it?"
"Are you aware of the thing I've done?" Harry asked testing the water.
Petunia nodded. It seemed right to admit it now and she did not even feel uncomfortable with it. Harry, in his part, sighed heavily before recounting yesterday event to her. Seeing his aunt frowned, he assured her that he was alright now. He omitted the part about Avalon since he did not want to tell her yet, but told her that he had a dream about two older couple.
"Merlin and Morgana?" Petunia blurted out.
Harry raised his eyebrows. "How do you know, Aunt Petunia?"
Petunia sighed; so it seems I have to be opened with him after all, she thought.
"Before we start, Harry, I want you to know that I resent magic several years ago after… after your grandparents were killed," she spoke looking at him. Harry, to her relief, just nodded and did not say anything.
"My reason of the resent was that magic caused the pain I felt. I was not and still am not jealous of your mother's gift. We, Evans, knew full well of magic, being squib and all." At that, her nephew's eyes grew. "A squib is…"
"I know, Aunt Petunia," Harry cut her off, "I understand all terms about magic and blood status. I'll tell you more after you finished your story."
Petunia was surprised wondering how her nephew would know of these things. However, she continued.
"Squibs have their own society, which would have a gathering once or twice a year. No wizard or witch knows about it though. Even your mother did not know it; after all she was a witch, the first one in the family for a very long time, that is. I was told about the society once I was fifteen, even went to the gathering a few times. But after my parents were killed by some death eaters on a raid, I was so angry that I stopped attending and resented magic. I don't know how, but it hasn't come up to my mind again after that until today. The knowledge of the squibs' society and the oath I swore, all magic I had seen and such; these things was long forgotten and I remembered only the part that my sister was a witch and my parents were killed.
Today, something happened on the way home. I felt some strings pulled off my body and the knowledge came back to me. Actually, my oath should prevent me telling you about the society, but I feel like I can tell you, no, I felt like I should tell you. Whatever it is, I am grateful it happens. My instinct tells me I have to do this lest the Evans line would lose forever."
Harry smiled. He listened carefully and thought that it was time he should tell his aunt. With the pause in her story, he held his hand up to stop her before she continued. He stood up and drew a runic symbol in the air. Petunia watched with wide eyes; she had not thought her nephew would know about it at all, but it seemed her assumption was wrong. A few moments later, Harry waved his hand over the rune and it glowed then vanished. He turned to his aunt and smiled.
"Now, I can tell you everything. What I just did is called 'runic magic'. It is a long forgotten way of magic that today magical folks don't know available. Some of them might know it, but without proper instructions or books, they won't be able to do it," he told her smiling, "and it is also our family's secret, isn't it, Aunt Petunia?"
Petunia was dumbstruck.
The Evans family as a descendant of Merlin and Morgana was the only family in Britain that practiced the path of witchcraft. The modern magic was wizardry as they called it and later on combined the two magic together. Hogwarts once thought both wizardry and witchcraft, hence the name; however, it was not practical anymore. The Evans, though squibs, were able to call for ambient magic to comply their wishes, but only if the intent was good. Their magical channels might not be big enough to use magic itself, but it was enough for supplying them to use runic magic with good intent and will. Every Evans would start their magical trainings once they were fifteen, believed to be the perfect time that the channel was developed enough by then.
How could Harry do it so young? Petunia thought curiously. Then it struck her. Her nephew was a wizard, therefore, his magical channel was big enough already for him to do it. But… where did he learn it? Who taught him? And when did he learn it?
Seeing his aunt having a trance-like look, Harry smiled. When she suddenly snapped out of her muse and looked at him again. Harry smiled wider, "so, when are you going to train me, Aunt Petunia?"
Petunia's face brightened, "do I still need to teach you more, Harry? Seeing that you knew it already, you probably know more than me."
Harry shook his head. "No, my dear Auntie, I know only the runes system and its magic. I know nothing about the other way of witchcraft. Grandmother, I mean, Morgana, said that I should learn from you and she would review them with me once I visit them again."
"What do you mean visit them again?" Petunia asked.
Harry recounted the visit he made last night. The story of 7 months in Avalon really appealed his aunt. She asked several questions, which he answered them wholeheartedly. In the end, just before the time Vernon would be arrived home, they decided to keep it secret and continued their talk about Harry's home-schooling. The idea of study at home really intrigued the boy. His aunt explained that her husband was thinking it best not to leave the freak – the word became quite a joke between them – wandering outside the house and do his freakish thing. They agreed that it would be best for Harry as Petunia would be able to teach Harry about witchcraft then.
Anyhow, once Harry told her about the Odium jinx, Petunia was ready to kill and the boy has to calm her. They started planning about their schedules over the next few years until the Hogwarts letter would come.
That evening, Harry was lying on his cot in the cupboard feeling content. He insisted to stay in here when his aunt asked if he would like to move Dudley's toys room. It would be best not to let Vernon suspected anything. They would still act as though they disliked each other until further matters came up.
