A/N: I'm not making any money from this. This is J.K.'s world, I'm just playing in it.
Alexandra woke up with a groan, and sat up in bed. One of the elves had clearly been in her room at some point during the night, and swapped her suit to a tank top and shorts. Swinging her legs out of the bed, she looked around the room, appraising it.
The colour scheme was dove grey and white with dark wood, and there was a tall window on the right of the bed, a few meters away. Two mahogany bedside tables stood either side of the bed with lamps on, and opposite the foot of the bed was a vanity complete with mirror, chair and drawers. A full length mirror stood next to the window, with another tall window on its other side. On the right of the bed between the window and the bedside table was a door that presumably led to her bathroom, considering there was another door opposite it that was cracked open and she could see that one of the elves had put away her clothes, which she had opened for them during the tour. Her wand had been placed on the table nearest to her.
She shuffled into the shower, washing her body quickly and then changed into denim shorts and a loose white shirt, sticking her wand in her back pocket. As she walked downstairs, she pulled her black locks into a top knot on her head, and she stifled a yawn when she entered the kitchen. Missy was cleaning one of the surfaces when she walked in and sat at one of the stools at the island.
"Good morning, Mistress! What can Missy be cooking for you?" squeaked the house-elf, bowing to the sleepy witch.
"Morning, Missy. Can I have a mocha coffee, fresh fruit and scrambled eggs?" she asked, spinning the stool so she could stretch her back.
"Right away, Mistress!" said Missy, and happily went about cracking eggs and chopping fruit.
Alexandra spied a copy of the Prophet lying on the worktop and began flicking through the day's issue. As soon as breakfast was ready she thanked Missy and headed up to the library with the food and coffee.
The library was easily her favourite room in the Manor- every wall was covered in books stacked on deep coloured wooden shelves. There was a balcony that provided access to the top six shelves on the left side of the room and along the left wall were tall windows that were spaced out by bookshelves. The central area of the room had various sofas, armchairs and research stations, and there was even a grand piano in the corner.
The evening before, Poky had explained that there was a ledger that recorded all the books in the Manor Library and where they were. For example, if you wrote animagi on the ledger, it would show you a list of all the books on animagi in the library.
Alexandra picked up the quill that lay on the lectern next to the ancient tome, and scrawled mind projection on the parchment. It was simple enough to collect the three titles, and by the time Harry had come looking for her, she was sipping coffee and reading the third book.
Harry's hair was all over the place, and the pyjama pants the elves had changed him into were hanging low on his hips. As he walked over to her desk he rubbed his eyes and pushed his glasses back up his nose.
"Morning, Lexa. What'cha doin'?" he asked sleepily, leaning on her chair and peering at the books. "Mind projection? What's that for?"
Alexandra smiled at him, and gestured for him to pull up a seat. It's only been a day and he's already given me a nickname. "Well, I'm setting up the blood wards this morning and I wanted you to be able to see what I'm doing, so this spell, projekti mia menso, will allow me to show you." She explained, pointing to the introductory paragraph. "The rest of it just explains the workings of the spell and how to use it in tandem with what you're doing in your mind."
"That's so cool! Wait, how do you know how to put up blood wards? Is it a pureblood thing?" Harry's eyes brightened in curiosity as he devoured the information on the page, looking up at her eagerly.
"When I left Hogwarts, I took up the offer of a two year long cursebreaker apprenticeship in France. Normally apprenticeships last closer to five years, but my Master, Sebastien Martinez, had been following my Hogwarts achievements since fourth year, and believed I could do it in two. So he taught me a lot about wards- putting them up as well as taking them down. The blood wards he taught me were much more complicated and secure than the ones a pureblood child would learn." As she talked, she and Harry stood and began making their way downstairs and out of the Manor.
The grass was cool beneath her feet as they made their way to the edge of the wards. The Manor owned the five kilometres around it, so as they walked she decided to broach the subject of Dumbledore. Better now than late, I guess.
"Harry, I need you to be very honest with me now. How do you feel about Professor Dumbledore?" she asked, watching his face carefully for any emotions. Unfortunately Harry had learnt to conceal his feelings very well while at the Dursley's, so she couldn't tell what he was going to say, if he would speak at all.
After a long lapse in conversation, Harry began to reply. "I always wondered why he left me with them all those years. No one ever came to check up on me until I didn't reply to my Hogwarts letter, and even then, my first letter was addressed to the cupboard under the stairs. I just figured he didn't care a whole lot. Then when I came to Hogwarts, he put me in a lot of danger. I mean, it's stupid to tell a school not to go to a certain room, because obviously people will. And Hermione could open the door with alohomora, which is a first year spell, and we got through the traps fairly quickly, considering they were supposed to hold back Voldemort. After I…killed Quirrell, he wouldn't tell me how I could burn him with my hands…well, he said it was love. Like that's going to help me kill a man?
"Second year was worse. He wouldn't close down the school even though there was a basilisk on the loose, and I don't believe that he didn't know: there're only a few things powerful enough to petrify a ghost. He let the whole school isolate me when they thought I was the Heir of Slytherin… it just seems like me as a person isn't his first priority."
Alexandra blinked in surprise. I thought that showing him the truth about Dumbledore would be much harder than this, but he's already figured most of it out! Merlin…
"I'm sorry Harry. I'm so sorry that I wasn't here when you started Hogwarts, and I'm sorry that I didn't claim guardianship sooner… I had no idea James and Lily had even named me in their wills. You were never supposed to go to Petunia- your parents had a whole list of people you would have lived with had Dumbledore not sealed their wills. Harry, Dumbledore's been stealing money from you. Your trust vault held 50, 000 Galleons when you were born, and now holds 35, 900. He puts some every two years into his own vaults, and for the past two years he's been paying some of the Weasleys."
Harry's face paled and his eyes darkened as she continued, and he clenched his jaw. She reached out and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. It wasn't fair that he had to find out his first friend was paid to get close to him, and the woman whom he thought cared for him like a son was manipulating him into marrying her daughter for his money and fame.
"What do you mean, paying some of the Weasleys? Who?" Harry's voice was low and full of rage, and she could sense his magic bubbling to the surface in response to his emotions.
"Dumbledore paid Ronald, Ginevra and Molly Weasley to befriend you and bring you under their control. Ginevra was to begin seducing you when you were in fourth year, and Ronald would begin dosing you with potions brewed by Molly if that didn't work. They want your money and the lifestyle it could bring them, Harry. I'm so sorry." She said, as a tear slipped out from his eye. Alexandra stopped walking and pulled him into a tight hug.
His arms went about her waist and his head fitted into the junction between neck and shoulder, and she whispered soothing French words that she didn't know before as she let him cry.
"Ssshhh, ca va etre bien, mon lapin, je suis ici…"
A few minutes passed, and Harry's tears dried up, and they loosened their embrace. His eyes had hardened again with a maturity that had not been there before their hug, and she felt a little piece of her heart break as she mourned the loss of his childhood.
"What do we do now?" he asked quietly, not meeting her eyes, but still standing close to her. She hooked a finger under his chin, and lifted his head to meet her firm gaze.
"We fight. We take down Voldemort and Dumbledore, and then we live happy, normal lives. I'm not going anywhere, I swear it. So now, this summer, we train. You're going to learn everything you could ever need to take down Voldemort, but I want you to understand that I'll be doing a bit more than you will. Some things I don't want you to have a part of, but you will know everything that I know. Is that okay?" she asked.
He nodded, and gave her a weak smile, and they began walking again. Harry knew on one level that she wouldn't leave him, and for some reason he seemed to trust her explicitly, but he knew it would take a bit of time before he could accept that he wouldn't be abandoned again.