Thanks a lot to my beta-reader, Emma, for correcting my mistakes.

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.

A great thank you to my moti-betas as well.

I'm not a native speaker of English!

Dear readers,

I'm sorry but the next chapter will need some time. I'm currently not writing fanfiction because I write on my real book. I will constantly uploading HahnF 2 and final Breeze 2 as I have those stories finished. I promise to start writng on MR when I uploaded the last chapter of HahnF 2, no matter if I finished my real book or not. The story will be finished. I promise you this! Please be patient and if yyou want read HahnF meanwhile as it is similar to this story.

So please forgive me. I hope this chapter will cheer you up a bit!

Sunny

Chapter 5 - Monsters

-II-

"Albus, he is eight," Poppy protested.

"Still he needs to learn that he is in danger to know that he needs protection and can't move around as easily as others. He needs to know that there could be children of Death Eaters in his class when he goes to pre-school."

"Death Eaters?" Harry whispered, scared.

"The followers of the dark wizard Professor Dumbledore just told you about, are called that," James explained and stroked his hand through Harry's hair.

"And they want to kill me?" Harry asked James.

James didn't answer immediately, but eventually he replied, "Yes, I fear so, Harry, but we will do everything to keep you safe."

-II-

Feeling groggy, Harry wondered if it came from the odd drink Clara and James had given him before they had tucked him in. They really had tucked him in. It was so great. He even got a kiss from both of them on his forehead. Taylor only got one from Clara and a hair ruffle from James.

Harry stumbled out of his bed and over to Taylor who snored, his face in his pillow. "Taylor?"

The older boy didn't move.

"Taylor." Harry shook his new brother's shoulder.

"What is it, Harry?"

"When do we have to get up?"

"There is an alarm clock on my night table," the brown-haired boy said half asleep.

"I know, but when do we have to get up to prepare breakfast?"

"It's not time for breakfast, Harry. Go to bed."

"Taylor," Harry whined, shaking Taylor's shoulder hard. "I don't want to get in trouble on my first day here. When do I have to start cooking?"

"Harry, you are talking nonsense. You must still be half asleep. Go to bed and sleep." With that Taylor pulled the pillow over his head and, shortly after, started to snore again.

Harry sighed. Taylor was no help, but Harry didn't want to get in trouble. So he sneaked out of the room. He knew he was upstairs and needed to go downstairs. The kitchen was most certainly close to the living room which was near the basement.

After trying some doors, which were what seemed to be an office, a library and a storeroom, Harry finally found the kitchen. It was a weird kitchen. There was something that looked like an alien cooker, but there were no buttons to use it. There also was no fridge and the kitchen was so tiny. If there hadn't been the cooker and the big sink where some pots were placed into, Harry would have never guessed this was the kitchen.

Movement from a small cupboard made Harry turn and then scream like hell when two sets of big bulgy eyes were staring at him. Immediately the odd bulgy eyed creatures started screaming in a high pitched way alongside Harrys. Harry couldn't stop screaming while he stared in horror at the small ugly creatures with big ears and what seemed like pillow covers as clothes.

The screams were so loud they could surely be heard in the hall, outside in the garden and most likely in the whole town. For sure it was heard in the bedrooms of the house, so soon the whole family stormed into the kitchen, their wands raised—except Emily—and in various states of dress. James and Taylor were in pajamas and barefoot. Clara had found the time to throw a bathrobe around her. Emily looked still half asleep and like a princess in her pink nightshirt.

Observing the scene, James sighed and placed his wand in his pajama bottoms. "Whimsy, Timsy, stop screaming."

Immediately the creatures stopped screaming, but their eyes and their mouths remained wide open as if still screaming.

When the creatures stopped, Harry also stopped screaming.

"Why are you out of bed at this time, Harry?" James asked and sneaked closer. He placed his hand on Harry's forehead, feeling if the boy was running a fever.

"I... I.. wanted to cook."

"Cook at five o'clock? Are you even awake, Harry?" James asked and knelt down to look Harry in his eyes.

"Oh, damn, he muttered something about having to prepare breakfast to not get in trouble. I thought he was dreaming and sent him back to bed, Dad," Taylor explained.

"It's all right, Taylor," James assured his son, knowing how fast the boy felt responsible for things he couldn't even prevent.

"Come on, Harry, back to bed with you."

"But the monsters?" Harry whimpered and hid behind James legs peeking around them at the two big-eyed creatures.

"Those are Whimsy and his wife Timsy. They are our house-elves, Harry. They help us cooking and they keep the house clean."

"Elves?"

"House-elves. Many wizards have them for help."

"Whimsy and Timsy are very nice house-elves," Clara said and knelt down beside the creatures and closed their mouth with a gentle move with her fingers under their chins. "That is Harry. He is our new son. He will live with us."

"A new little master, Madam Smith?" Whimsy asked, excited.

"Yes, a new little master, Whimsy." Clara smiled as the expression of her house-elves changed immediately.

Harry stared in shock as the two creatures started to bounce and clap their hands happily about the news that he will stay here. Why were they so excited?

"Yeah," Emily screamed, ran over to Whimsy and Timsy and bounced and clapped with them.

Clara sighed. "Great now our little princess is fully awake." She smiled at James who chuckled. "I will try my best to get her to sleep a few more hours." Clara scooped the little girl up who protested that her dance with the house-elves had been interrupted. "We have still two and a half hours to sleep, princess. Harry was a bit confused and woke too early." With that she carried Emily out of the kitchen.

"I will bring him back to bed, Dad," Taylor offered and held his hand out to Harry.

"Thanks. Tell your mother I will hop over to the clinic to arrange to take a day off."

"I can watch him, Dad."

"No, not the first days, Taylor. We don't know how many incidents will happen now where he is in a magical surrounding. We will speak about how to arrange things later."

Taylor knew it was useless to argue with his Dad even though he felt totally capable to watch Harry.

Harry took Taylor's hand and let himself being led to his bed. "Try to sleep some more, Harry."

"But what about breakfast?"

"The house-elves do the breakfast and any other meal. You don't have to cook or clean or whatever your relatives made you do. Okay you need to clean your room and keep the bathroom tidy, but others than that you won't have chores if you stay out of trouble and don't get punishments."

"Punishments?"

"Yeah, garden work, cleaning something or worst a grounding from flying or a total grounding where you aren't allowed to see your friends and have to stay inside."

"I don't have friends."

"You will find some soon. I'm sure you will like Charlie's brother Ron and maybe you will even like Fred and George, his twin brothers who made the potion joke. They are ten."

"Potion joke?"

"The poisoning of the Muggles."

"Muggles?"

"People like your relatives. People without magic."

"You think killing people is fun?" Harry looked shocked at Taylor.

"They just wanted to change the hair color of the Muggles to lilac. We grow up hardly learning anything about Muggles. So they didn't know that potions have a different effect on Muggles than on wizards as you have to have magic to activate the potion. They are harmless little potion brewing geniuses. Uncle Sev, okay he isn't really my uncle, but Emily calls him this all the time and it rubbed off on me. He doesn't like it so don't call him that, at least not the first few times."

"Uncle Sev?"

"Oh yeah, ehm... he is the Potions Master at Hogwarts and Em's and Fred and George's godfather. They learned everything about potions from him, and I bet they are in big trouble with him now. He was at school with your parents. Maybe he can tell you something about them. Mum and Dad are too old to know them from school."

"You think he would tell me something about them?" Harry sat up in his bed. "When can I see him?"

"Like I said, he is Em's godfather and often comes over. He lives at Hogwarts with his adoptive son. He likes to escape Hogwarts as often as possible, and he is a patient of Dad. That's how they got to know each other. Sev fought in the battle against Voldemort as a spy. Damn I can still remember what that evil freak has done to him while he still thought he was one of his Death Eaters. That arsehole was a real bastard with a crazy mind."

"Voldemort," Harry led the name run over his tongue. He had killed that wizard even though he couldn't remember.

"Uncle Sev is often grumpy, but don't let this upset you. He is just playing it. In reality he is soft like a bunny. You should see him with Em. He calls her his little princess and he plants the idea in her mind that she would learn to become a Potions Mistress under him." Taylor snorted. "If she would know what a bastard he is in class, she would not speak non-stop of not being able to wait for learning potions from him."

"What if he doesn't like me?. Maybe he will tell the other Death Eaters where I am?"

"He was my age when he joined Voldemort and turned spy as soon as he realized what a freak Voldemort was. He went to Headmaster Dumbledore to make him put him to Azkaban our prison. The headmaster offered him the job as potions master and ask him to spy on Voldemort for him. So he did and suffered things under that which made Dad and Mum not very fond of the old man. That's how Professor Snape became Uncle Sev to us. He had his own room in the house while I was small, but now he only seldom comes here to get help from Dad. I don't really know what's wrong with him, but I guess some of the things he saw or had to undergo left lasting effects that Dad still has to treat."

"That's horrible."

"Yes, it is, but he is a damn genius and out of school even, a great teacher for many things. He often helps me with my homework. I'm sure you will like Draco, his adoptive son. He took him in when his mother died and his father was placed into Azkaban because he was a Death Eater. He is Ron's friend."

Harry sighed sadly.

"What?" Taylor asked.

"Then he won't be interested in becoming my friend."

"Why so?"

"Because he already has a friend."

"You can never have enough friends, Harry. I'm sure you will become friends to both. Maybe you will be in the same class with them in pre-school."

"Maybe," Harry said not very convinced.

X-X

"And?" Clara asked when James crawled back in their bed.

"I took the day off."

"You won't do something stupid with Alastor, will you?"

"Of course not, sweetie."

"James?" Clara asked, knowing her husband well.

"We talked about taking Kingsley with us."

"That sounds reasonable, so I don't have to fear I have to visit you in Azkaban with the kids for murdering the horrible people. You won't do anything illegal, right?"

"Lets sleep a bit more." James snuggled closer to her.

"James!" Clara said, alarmed.

James sighed. "You don't want to know."

"Yes, I do."

"Alastor said it's better to not tell you."

"I bet he did, but you will tell me this moment."

"We will go over and tell them that they have to sign our adoption papers. We cannot make charges against them for abusing Harry as we removed him from the Muggle world with this adoption. We have to let them off the hook, but we will inform them that they have to pay a charge for it. I know that's not really legal, but it will be for a good cause. We will donate all the money to a project for orphans. Then I will leave with Kingsley."

Clara bumped her elbow into James stomach. "You will not, James. I didn't forget that Alastor was with you in this little story."

He hated that he could never keep any secrets from his wife. "You don't want me to stay while he tells them what he thinks about them."

"No, I don't want that. I want you to take him with you."

"He is an adult."

"You will bring him back here and won't let him scare the shit out of those people."

"They deserve it, Clara. You should have seen them."

"I saw Harry and that's enough for me to know how horrible they are, but I don't want Alastor to go so low. He is Taylor's godfather and he adores him. I don't want him to get the idea illegal things like this and paying things back an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth are the way to solve problems."

James groaned. "Clara, Alastor has done things much more illegal than frightening a few Muggles who deserve much worse."

"I won't discuss this anymore." Clara got out of the bed angrily. "If I find out you left him there alone, you can sleep on the couch from now on."

"Fantastic," James said and threw himself on his back on the bed. "Why do I get punished for my brother in law's actions?"

X-X

"You let your little wife treat you like that?" Alastor asked, amused. "Too bad that I won't listen to you."

"Alastor, please. She will find out and will have my head."

"Your problem, James. Sneak some calming draught into her tea. My wife does this all the time with me."

"My wife is a healer and as soon as she takes a sip of it, she would know I mixed something in."

"You should have thought about this before you married her, dunderhead."

James rolled his eye. "Kingsley?" He looked help-seeking at the black, bald man in the black Auror uniform.

"He ranks above me," Kingsley said.

Alastor chuckled. "Poor Jamie-boy doesn't get any help. His little wifey will make him sleep on the couch now."

James hated that Alastor rubbed their thirteen year age difference in his face whenever possible. Alastor was thirteen years older than James and often treated him as if he was his son and not his brother in law. Normally James liked it, but sometimes it was really annoying especially when Alastor use it to mock him. "I shouldn't have told you."

Alastor laughed a rich laugh. "I would have found out anyway, boy."

Boy, oh yeah sure. James looked grumpily at him. He was thirty seven which was far from being a boy in James eyes.

Alastor stepped over to the fireplace and threw some Floo powder into it. "Potions Master Severus Snape, Hogwart." The fireplace flared green until it changed into yellow, made a ringing sound, and then turned green again. "Sev, get your arse over at James' house."

"Would you refrain from calling me that stupid nickname, Alastor?" the black clad, thin man of twenty-eight years said after stepping out of the fire place.

"Ah Sevy-poo doesn't like big bad Alastor calling him by his pet name." Alastor took Severus in a headlock while the younger man was occupied with getting rid of the ash from his cloak. "Constant vigilance, Sev." Alastor ruffled Severus' hair.

Severus kicked Alastor in his stomach with his elbow. "Damn, what did you give the old man, James."

"Nothing. I'm just happy that I will punish some abusive arseholes." Alastor smashed his fist in his palm and rubbed it around.

"Ah, so we are talking about Potter, I guess? Albus told me about it. So how is the boy?"

"Better than he should be after what that bastards did to him. The problem is that our friend here got cold feet, so I need a new partner in crime."

"Alastor, please see reason. You can't pull Severus in this. He will be in trouble. The Ministry still is watching him, and if he attacks Muggles, he will be in Azkaban faster than—"

"I'm from the Ministry, James. So calm down," Alastor said to interrupt James.

"Listen to my advice, Sev. Never take a woman in. See what happened with poor James here. She will cut your balls off."

James rolled his eyes. "Please don't listen to him, Severus."

"Can someone tell me what you all planned?" Severus asked and sat down.

"I would say slow torture. You will hold them while I poke their eyes out."

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