Chapter 37
Harry sat in shock. Six Ministries were fighting over him? It was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard. So absurd he started chuckling, which escalated into loud laughter. Tears of mirth were flowing down his face.
He was laughing so hard, he didn't notice the fourteen people staring at him as if he were insane.
Kingsley smiled. This wasn't quite the reaction he was expecting when he head Percy's statement, but it was a lot more appreciated.
"I'm sorry, but you all are arguing over who gets me to come fight your dark wizards for you?" Harry finally asked, a wide-eyed, dumbfounded look on his face.
"Mr. Potter, we are prepared to pay you a handsome amount of money to move to America and fight Alan Isaacs for us. We will provide lodgings, food, a vehicle, anything you ask will be yours," Tissy said. Cries of outrage, at missing the opportunity to be the first to lay out their offer, came from the other Ministers who all started shouting at Tissy who gave them all smug looks.
Harry stared in disbelief.
"No," he said, slightly quieter than the din of voices and shaking his head. No one heard him except Kingsley and Percy who were sitting next to him. Kingsley smiled and sat back. He'd been working with Harry twice a week for two months now outside the Auror program, and he knew that when Harry was angry with someone, it was best to just sit back and watch.
"NO!" Harry shouted as he stood up and banged his fists into the table, making everyone jump and stop yelling. Finally, he'd gotten the attention of the six Ministers. He scanned the table slowly as they all stared at him.
"Now that you've all stopped shouting…You all have a lot of nerve to come here to our country and fight over me. So, I'll be clear from the start. I am not now, nor ever, going to be moving to a different country to fight your problems for you! So you should probably just leave now." He sat down. They all stared at Harry for several moments before everyone started shouting over one another to be heard again.
Kingsley raised his hands and everyone quieted.
"Now, I know you all came a long way to be heard, obviously, but if I had known why you all wanted to come and meet Harry Potter, I wouldn't have agreed to this meeting. Harry is a human being, who just got done fighting a war at age seventeen. He is not for sale by our government, not available for loan, you cannot bribe him to come fight for you, or guilt him by telling him your sad stories.
"I'd like to remind you all, that Harry fought Voldemort, not because he had too, but because he was forced to. When an evil wizard marks you and your only choices are to run or fight, but you have no where to run to, you fight. He made a difficult choice, and came out on top. Now is his time to enjoy his life, not be bought and juggled between countries. You should all be ashamed of yourselves," he finished and sat back.
"You do not know anything," said Kebasso, the Indian Minister. "You are just an Auror put into the position you are in now. You do not know what it's like to run a country ravaged by dark wizards, to tell your people to not worry, the Ministry has it under control. Do not try to patronize us by shaming us, you incompetent buffoon."
Harry and Percy raised their eyebrows. Kingsley just smiled. He opened his mouth to speak but someone else beat him to it.
"Kingsley may not know what it's like running a country ravaged by bad people, but he was out there fighting them. He knows what your Auror's are going through. Percy and I know what your countries people are going through. But you know what? We didn't just sit and complain, or ask others to fight for us. We got up off out arses and did it ourselves. For once, this country is being run by the common people, the people who know what they need, not just saying what the people want to hear, but actually doing it.
"Think about what your people need right now, not about how it will make you look. Stop being the typical politician and actually do something for your people. Earn the titles you hold!" Harry said vehemently. Percy looked at Harry in surprise and smiled. Kingsley nodded his head in thanks for standing up for him. He saw at least one other person smiling also.
"You are just a child, you know nothing about politics, so you should bite your tongue," said Kebasso angrily.
"I may be just a kid, but I'm still a kid you wanted to hire a few minutes ago, you arse," said Harry scathingly. Kebasso had the decency to look abashed when he realized what he said. Mori, the Japanese Minister, snorted.
Harry had watched the elderly Japanese wizard several times when he was telling his story. Mori didn't give Harry the feeling like he was here for the same reason as the others. He sat calmly and observed. While the others were all shouting he sat back and allowed his assistant to shout for him. Harry assumed this was because he was old and didn't have much of a voice for yelling. Harry realized the only thing Mori had said so far was greeting Kingsley and Harry and a few words with his assistant.
"Like I said before, there's nothing you can offer me, that will make me want to leave my friends and family here to go and fight another dark wizard. Fight you're your own damn battles," said Harry before standing up.
"Kingsley, I'll make sure we're all at the press release this afternoon early like you asked. We'll meet at the Academy entrance, okay?" he asked. Kingsley nodded before Harry stormed out of the room.
Harry arrived at home in the kitchen and paced the room, fuming at the mornings activities. Finally, his stomach rumbled, reminding him that he'd only had a couple cups of cold or lukewarm tea and two doughnuts all day.
He walked over to the stove and slammed a heavy iron pan onto the top and tore open the ice box, pulled out a package of eggs and bacon, and slammed the door closed. Eggs and Bacon fixed everything.
He was cracking open a third egg and dropping into the sizzling pan, the smell of cooking bacon had filled the room in a matter of moments, when the door to the kitchen opened.
"Harry? What are you doing home so early?" asked his mother.
"Oh, mum, I…kinda forgot you guys were here. Sorry, I just had a very frustrating morning and then got here and realized I was starving. Would you like some bacon and eggs?" he asked.
"Bacon and eggs fix everything don't they?" she asked with a grin.
Harry gaped at her.
"What?" she asked after seeing his expression.
"I…was just…What did you say?" he asked.
"Bacon and eggs fix everything? My mum used to say that to me and my sister if we were ill, or had a bad day when we were younger. Why?" she said with a smile.
"Oh…Aunt Petunia says that to her son, Dudley, all the time. I guess I must have picked I up too. I was just thinking it when you came in and said my exact thoughts. Shook me up a bit, I guess." He was staring at her and then broke into a smile.
"Definitely helped me forget about this morning for a moment." He scrambled the eggs while she reached into a cupboard to get plates and silverware out.
Once they were both dished up they sat at the table and both reached for the syrup.
"Oh sorry, go ahead," he said. She smiled and took the syrup and poured it onto her eggs. When she was done he took the syrup and did the same thing. They both chuckled at the idiosyncrasies they shared and tucked in.
They ate in an awkward silence for a few minutes.
"So, you said you had a bad morning? Do you want to talk about it?" she asked him suddenly. He thought for a moment.
"Sure, yeah, okay. Um, well, did Hermione tell you…where is everyone by the way?" he asked suddenly.
"Oh, when your father and Sirius found out you'd be gone all day, they decided to check out Godrics Hallow from the outside, see what would need to be fixed and how bad it looks after seventeen years of neglect. They'll be coming here before we leave. Ron and Hermione both went to visit the Weasley house, they said they'd meet us at the Ministry, and I stayed here to think quietly. A lot's been going through my mind and some quiet time was just what I needed. Then I heard a bang down here and came to see who came home," she said.
"Oh, okay. Well, I guess…so did Hermione tell you about why I was going to the Ministry today?" he asked. He was feeling very nervous at the moment. This was the first time being completely alone with his mother and he realized that he didn't know how to act with her. He settled for acting like she was a mix between Hermione and Molly. Ask her a question and she seemed to talk for a while if you let her, but show her the respect she deserves.
"Yes, I don't understand why they didn't just read a newspaper about it all. But then again I don't know what exactly happened, so I assumed there was a different reason for you being there you didn't know about," she said. He snorted and rolled his eyes.
"You can say that again," he said cryptically. "They were all fighting over which country would get to buy my dark-wizard-fighting services. The American Minister actually said they would buy me a house, a car, and my food, and pay me 'a handsome fee' for fighting this dark wizard for them. I mean, seriously, can't they just fight their own battles? It's bad enough I spent almost ten months running from the government, and every other human being it seems, fighting to destroy Voldemort, but now all these other people want me to do it again? In a different country even? Leave my friends and family and go somewhere else? Seriously, how daft can you be?" Harry ranted. Lily was watching him with wide eyes.
Once he finished he stabbed a piece of bacon and swirled it in his syrup and shoved some egg on the end before shoving the whole thing in his mouth and chewing furiously, glaring at the table top.
A smile began to creep on her face and it wasn't long before she was fighting the laugh from escaping. Harry went through the bacon stabbing motion again, which made her loose it, and she burst out laughing. Harry flinched and looked up at her aghast.
"I'm sorry, Harry. I just…you acted just like your father when you stabbed that poor bacon and drowned it in eggs and syrup before eating it so angrily," she broke off to giggle. "I just can't believe the nerve of those other Ministers. But your reaction to it is so like James, I can't help but laugh. He acted the same way when I would tell him I wouldn't date him. He'd get all sulky and angry at the world. In one moment you do the same thing as me and drench your food in syrup then act just like James while you eat it." She smiled at him sadly.
"We missed so much. I'm so sorry, Harry." Harry looked at her and smiled.
"Yeah we missed a lot of family moments, but now that we're all here and together, we should make the most of it by not thinking about all we missed but think about all we can do together now that Voldemort is gone," he said.
"You're so smart, Harry." She paused for a moment before speaking again. "So what did you say to the Ministers?"
Harry spent the next hour talking with his mum about his morning. They laughed together, and had a fun time. He watched his mother's physical movements and saw little things that he did the same way, like how she scratched her nose. She didn't rub with the top of her finger, she actually used her finger nail and scratched the tip of her nose. She also shook her head to move her bangs out of her eyes like he did.
For the first time since Harry found the letter from his mother in Sirius's old room, he felt connected to her. He may not have grown up with her, but she really did live on in him.
Harry smiled at his mum and asked her to tell him about her school years while they waited for everyone to return.
A/N: AWE! Such a touching moment between mummy and her son. i loved writing this scene, it's been in my mind for almost...three days now! LOL, not really, i wanted a cute scene with Lily and Harry where they were getting along and doing the same things unconsciously. I just decided to do it after the Ministers scene. So how did my sub-plot come out? Did anyone guess that's what they wanted? i got a few guesses saying that they wanted Harry to chair the ICW, after Dumbledore, but while those were really good ideas...really good ones...I stuck with my plan. One of the Ministers will be in the next chapter still, but it's a good one. As always, Let me know what you think! i won't be updating until after Monday for sure. i have a US History midterm on Monday, so i'm spending the weekend studying like crazy. I hate history...always puts me to sleep, so...i have a 12 pack of mountain dew that won't last the weekend!
Please review! i know many of you probably couldn't for the last one since you reviewed my post, then couldn't review the chapter...so make it good for this one! Thanks!