Harry Potter and the Death Eater Trials

Chapter 4

The Strange and the Unexpected

Harry apparated on Privit Drive a short way down the street. The night was quiet and cool for late spring. There was a change in the air. It was less foggy and far less gloomy. Where ever the Dementors were, they weren't here. He pulled off the invisibility cloak and stuffed it in the bag Kreacher packed for him then made his way up the street. He thought about the family he grew up with. He imagined Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon the same as they always been. But he was more interested in his cousin, Dudley. What was it exactly that had made Dudley want to take the Ministry's offer to protect them? Harry was sure that it was him that convinced Vernon and Petunia to go. Clearly, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were not 100% convinced of the dire warnings from Kingsley Shacklebolt or Mr. Weasley. But Dudley was the last person Harry would have thought to step up and make the decision to go. What was it that convinced him? Harry realized he may never find out, but decided that if the subject was ever brought up he would ask. Harry was relieved that they had made the wise decision to leave because he was sure the Ministry or the Order would have been prepared to force them into hiding.

When he reached Mrs. Figg's house, he realized how nervous he was to be back. Taking a breath before knocking, he raised his hand. But before he could knock, the door was thrust open by Mrs. Figg standing there looking exasperated. She was as he remembered her, small and disheveled. Her cat, Mr. Tibbles, made a break for the door and was out and gone before she could stop him. She briefly watched him and Harry could sense that she didn't blame the cat at all and wished she go with him. She turned her exasperation on Harry. "What took you so long, Harry? She said opening the door wide for hir them to step through. Not waiting for him to respond, "Come in. Come in" she said. Harry muttered an apology. "They're in the sitting room, waiting. Bloody well been waiting a day and a half." She led Harry through the small kitchen and into the sitting room. Before he saw them, he heard them and caught Uncle Vernon saying "Ruddy well time!" A smile spread over Harry's face as he saw there was no need to worry.

Uncle Vernon saw this "Just tell me what's so funny, boy." But as he said it, he paused as though seeing him for the first time. This was not missed by Harry who seen him momentarily stunned by his presence. Just what had caused this Harry did not know. But Vernon recovered to what ever come over him. "Well, what's so funny? We've been sitting here for two days waiting for someone from your lot to take us home", he continued not waiting for him to answer.

"Sorry." He apologized again but Vernon was not listening. He continued muttering to himself and passing out bags for Petunia and Dudley to carry home. "Finally going home. No more blasted running from place to place."

Harry turned quickly to look at Dudley but only saw him shake his head.

"Well, what are you waiting for, boy? Let's go!" Harry picked up the remaining bag and followed his Aunt, Uncle and cousin out of the house. As he walked out the door he thanked Mrs. Figg but she looked as happy to see them leave as Uncle Vernon.

As they walked back to the house under the cover of darkness, Vernon muttered almost all the way there. They were almost there when Petunia stopped suddenly. Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. "Something's wrong, Vernon." She said. "Something's wrong."

"What are you talking about, Petunia." Vernon said as he turned around to face her. "Nothing's wrong. We're almost there."

But Petunia wasn't listening as she continued to look at the house as if seeing something the others couldn't. Harry looked at the house too, sensing the magic around it. But what did Aunt Petunia sense? Harry could see there was definately something bothering her. Could she sense the magic too? Or was she more perceptive then Harry gave her credit for. Whatever it was, they walked on a bit more cautiously. Harry walked ahead of them, wand at hand. It was hard to see though the darkness, but he could tell that something was wrong. As they walked closer to the house, it appeared intact; the house, dark and quiet. But when they reached the door to open it, the magic faded away. Inside the house, they were met with a shambled wreck. They silently peered around taking in the damage they could see in the dark. Aunt Petunia gasped but Vernon was first to find his voice. "Potter!" Vernon roared. "What the bloody hell happened to my house?" The living room was torn apart, lamps and tables broken and turned over, all the windows were blown out. Aunt Petunia's knick knacks were thrown all over the floor, the television was on the floor where it had fallen, all broken. The living room furniture broken in pieces everywhere in the room. The walls were covered in epithets warning Harry not to return. He could only guess what more he would find in the other rooms.

"You and your lot will put this house to rights!"

"I can do that, Uncle Vernon, just calm down." Harry said

"Don't tell me to calm down, boy!" Vernon said stepping closer to Harry shaking his fist dangerously. Harry instantly raised his wand. He pointed it at Vernon who stopped in his tracks. Vernon knew all too well that Harry was of age and could do anything he wanted now with that wand. Harry could tell Vernon was thinking this as he stopped and lowered his fist. But it was his temper Vernon had trouble controlling, "My house is ruined!"

"I can fix this, Uncle Vernon, just calm down." Harry then turned his wand on the fallen lamp. "Reparo." Before their eyes the lamp repaired itself and Harry turned it on and then wished he hadn't. The mess was worse in the light, reigniting Aunt Petunia's and Uncle Vernon's outrage. While they ventured through the house Harry continued fixing up the living room. Every once in a while he heard Uncle Vernon yelling out a curse word or two. It wasn't long before the living room was back in order. Harry decided to repair whatever damage there was in the bedrooms first, so that he can work while they slept. The damage to the bedrooms was minimal. And in no time Vernon and Petunia closed their door with warnings that there had better be noticeable improvements. He moved on to Dudley's room, but Dudley was not there. Curiously he went back down stairs and saw the kitchen light on.

There was Dudley seated at the table, he had made himself a drink. "Would you like one, Harry?" He asked.

"Sure." Harry said, not sure about what he was drinking but wanting to turn down his hospitality. Dudley got up and went to the cupboard nearest to the refrigerator. From the top shelf, he reached in and pulled down a bottle of mead from Vernon's stash. He turned and grinned as he handed Harry the bottle. "I used to knick a few and blame you when Dad noticed." Dudley laughed amusingly and Harry couldn't help but laugh too assuming Vernon had added alcoholism as another one of Harry's many delinquencies. Dudley offered his bottle to cheers and Harry obliged.

"So what happened to you?" They both said at the same time as Dudley sat down opposite of Harry.

"You first." Harry said.

Dudley settled into his chair and took another drink from his bottle. "That day when we left with that Dingle bloke, we drove to Glastonbury. They left us in the home of Agnes McNaughton. It wasn't too bad. Mum and Dad didn't think so. We were there only for a little while then in the middle of the night someone from your lot woke us up and told us your Ministry had fallen. After that we were never in one place for too long. We heard things that were happening, people being murdered or disappearing. Nobody really knew where you were or if you were even alive. Then just the other night some awful old woman named Longbottom burst through the door and told us they were fighting at your school. We didn't hear anything after that, until your letter came. What happened, Harry? What were you doing all year?"

Harry took a deep breath putting his thoughts together not really knowing how to answer Dudley's question in a way that will any sense to him. "I was looking for magical objects that had a connection to Voldemort making him impossible to kill. It wasn't easy, I had some clues, I knew some of the objects but I had to figure out the others and then figure out how to destroy them. When I had all the objects destroyed, all that was left was Voldemort ."

"Did you kill him?" Dudley said hanging on to every word.

"Yes." It sounded so wonderfully easy. Break a few objects, wave your wand and there you are. How was Dudley to understand? How was he to understand just how perilously close they all came to complete downfall. Harry knew that Dudley, his Aunt and Uncle and every other muggle in the world would suffer the most at Voldemort's hand. It angered Harry that they would never know what was sacrificed for them. That they would never know how many good people died for them.

"Bloody hell. What was it like?" This was something that hadn't occurred to Harry until now.

"I didn't have time to think about anything except what I had to do." Harry said. "People I knew were being killed, tortured or blackmailed to do his biding." He was getting angry now but he couldn't help it. He saw Dobby dying in his arms. He saw Xenophilius Lovegood blackmailed by Death Eaters. He heard Hermionie's torturous screams. He saw Fred, Collin, Remus and Tonks. He saw the nightmarish stares of the students fighting at Hogwarts realizing the dire situation they were really in. "It wasn't just my world being threatened, your world would have been next. Can you guess what would have happened if we failed?"

"That's what's different about you." Dudley said.

This shocked Harry. "What do you mean, different?"

"I saw it the moment I saw you at Mrs. Figg's house. You look harder, edgy-er. "

Yes, he knew he was no longer that meek little boy he was long ago. Harry was a different person now fully capable of taking care of himself. What was surprising is that Dudley knew this too.

"You were such a pathetic blighter, Harry. I could do anything to you and you did nothing to defend yourself." Various images flashed through Harry's mind depicting the torturous things done to him by Dudley. "That's what irritated me so much about you."

"I have ways of defending myself now." Dudley immediately glanced nervously at Harry's wand resting on the table. He couldn't blame Dudley for feeling that way about anything magical. His experience with anything from Harry's world weren't exactly positive. Dudley had seen things a wand could do. He could only imagine what kinds of things could be done in the hands of someone wanting to do more than play tricks.

"So, now what are your plans?" Dudley asked. Harry could sense he didn't want to dwell on the subject.

Harry shrugged his shoulders and took another drink from the bottle. "I still have one more year of school. After that I want to train to be an Auror, a dark wizard catcher."

Just then there was a small crash in the living room. They got up to see what happened. It was a lamp that had fallen and lying among the pieces was a letter with the Ministry seal. Harry picked up the letter and opened it.

"Harry" he read aloud. "A team of Ministry officials will be arriving tomorrow at noon to brief the Dursley's on the agreements made last year. Please inform them of our arrival. Also, I request to meet you at your earliest convenience. Kindest regards, Kingsley Shacklebolt. Minister of Magic. "What agreements?" Harry asked.

"They made some arrangements for dad to go back to work and me to go to school." It was a night for surprises, thought Harry.

With just a flick of the wrist, the lamp was repaired again. With that they went back to the kitchen. "I had no idea the Ministry was going to do this for you. Lucky for you, we won the war."

"Yeah, we weren't sure a few times last year. I'm just glad it over." Dudley hesitated. "It is over, isn't it?"

"Well," Harry said as he and Dudley sat back into their chairs in the kitchen. "Voldemort's dead, that's for sure. His followers are being captured as we speak. There'll be a trial, of course. But it doesn't mean there will never be another dark wizard out there looking for trouble." Harry finished his mead and as he sat the bottle down he thought about this peculiar scene he was apart of. If anyone would have told him he would be sharing a drink and pleasant company with his cousin he would have thought them crazy. Yet here they were; sitting in his Aunt's kitchen conversing over a bottle of mead. This is mad, Harry thought.

"I reckon it was a good idea to leave town." Dudley said.

"We weren't sure what was going to happen. If you would have been there when the Death Eaters came..." They both looked at each other finishing the thought. Dudley didn't need to be told how bad it would have been. "What convinced you to go? Uncle Vernon couldn't make up his mind."

"You. You saved me from those Dementor things. Harry, I thought I was going to die. They made me see things. You could have left me, but you saved me." Dudley's voice was low and Harry had to listen hard to hear him. "I know we've never got on very well, but when you warned us of what that Voldemort bloke might do, Harry I knew you were serious. Turns out you were right about everything." Harry realized just then he was holding his breath and needed to breathe. This was it, Dudley's explaination and he was hanging on to his every word. "I don't know what's going to happen between us. I can't say that we will be friends now. But I can appreciate what you've done."

There it was. Blimey, Harry thought. He didn't come right out and say it, but Harry knew it was there. They were silent for a moment and the air between them turned awkward.

"I better get some sleep." Dudley said reaching for the empty bottles.

"Me, too." Harry said and they both got up, pushed in their chairs. Dudley threw the bottles in the trash and followed Harry upstairs.

What a strange night, thought Harry as he entered his bedroom after wishing his cousin good night. The room was exactly the way he left it. His bag sat on the bed and he opened it, curious of what Kreacher had packed for him. There inside were his pajamas. Harry pulled them out and set them on the bed. Still rummaging through the bag, he found fresh changes of clothes, some gold and the Elder Wand. He had forgotten all about it. He pulled it out and carefully examined the most powerful wand in the world. It didn't look so special. The dark wood not so polished. But the wand felt differrent in his hand, not quite familiar. He knew he was now the master of this wand and it would do his bidding as he wished. But it was also tainted with something else that couldn't be wiped away. Harry knew he could never truly own this wand. He knew the true master of this wand was gone from this world and the only thing he could do was to ensure it never fell into the wrong hands again. But how to do that. He knew he needed help but was unsure who to ask. Harry dressed into his pajamas and crawled into bed. If he ordered Kreacher to keep his secret, Kreacher may help him hide it. Perhaps Kreacher had a secret hiding place or knew some magic to hide it that was unknown to wizards. He made up his mind to go back to Grimmauld place and with that solved he fell asleep.