Harry Potter and the Flip of a Niccal

By: KKM

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series or any associated characters. Harry Potter is © J. K. Rowling. I also do not own the Gorillaz or any associated characters/songs. Gorillaz are © Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett.

Comments:

nanoidManicist: Thank you for your comment. I hope that this continues to be an interesting read for you!

Last Time:

"And you can help me?" Harry asked in a tiny voice. It was clear that he still wasn't sure if he fully believed the older man or not.

"I can," Murdoc said, stretching a bit as he looked out over the desolate landscape. "But it will take time," he admitted.

"O-okay," Harry breathed, his emotions still feeling out of control as he tried to process all of this new information. His mind was so full he really didn't know what to think.

"Look kid, why don't yeh go ter your room fo' a bit and I'll tell the others we'll get yer shopping done later," Murdoc offered and Harry nodded gratefully still trembling a little. He watched as the small boy stood and made for the door that would lead him back to the lift.

"Thank you for telling the truth," Harry whispered, then he disappeared through the large door leaving Murdoc alone to his thoughts silently hoping he was doing the right thing.

Chapter 4: Letters from No One

Hardly any of the residents of Kong Studios would consider themselves to be morning people. Noodle was the only exception to the rule as sometimes she would be up around seven in the morning, but no one really counted that because she would spend the first two hours of her morning meditating and doing various yoga exercises to help herself get ready to face the day. The next up would be Russel, though most of the time not by choice. Around nine to ten his stomach would wake him with loud grumbling noises that would cause him to begrudgingly get out of bed, shower, and lumber off to the kitchens to start preparing for breakfast. After that, around eleven, the smell of delicious food drifting through the building would rouse 2D into wakefulness where he'd move in a clumsy trance in the direction of the lift. Often times more than not, he would be so loud that he would wake the resident Satanist from his hungover slumber and he would berate and cuss up a storm all the way up to join them.

But today was different.

Murdoc muttered a few choice words under his breath as he stumbled out of the lift and glared back at the offending contraption. Grumbling, he wiped at his bloodshot eyes and tried to ignore his protesting joints as he trudged into the livingroom and plopped down onto the worn couch with the air of a petulant child. "I mean, really. Who tha' hell'd wanna' be up this early?" he grouched, glaring at the rising sun through one of the dirty windows.

It hadn't been his choice to wake up at the un-godly hour of six in the morning. Someone had left the door open to the carpark again ("Fuckin' brainless, useless sack of-How many times do I hafta' tell tha' wanker!?") which of course led some of the undead on an excursion around his living quarters. He probably would've remained blissfully unaware if Cortez hadn't started squawking at one that had fallen over next to the Winnie. Murdoc had woken up with a start and grabbed his trusty baseball bat before taking his early-morning frustrations out on the mindless creature. How he hadn't woke 2D with all that racket was a mystery.

Of course he supposed you had to have a brain to realize you were in danger, but that was a different story.

So, there he sat picking at some dried zombie guts that had latched onto his favorite boots trying not to die of boredom. He glanced up when he heard a creaking sound near the front door followed by a rusty squeak as the day's post was shoved through the flap trap. For lack of anything better to do, he rolled his eyes moodily and got up to retrieve it.

"Bills, bills, bullshi', more bullshi'," he paused seeing 2D had received a letter from his mum. He quickly opened it and scanned the contents. She was begging him to come home again. Murdoc sneered at her shrill words and made a face of disgust before crumbling it into a ball and tossing it over his shoulder, "Pathetic." He never had liked 2D's mum. The feeling was quite mutual.

The rest of the mail was rather mundane and unimportant. That is, until he got to the very last letter in the stack. Emerald ink shined up at him in neatly penned letters.

Mr. H. Potter

2nd Bedroom to the Left

Kong Studios

Essex, United Kingdom

Murdoc barely noticed that his hands were trembling as he slowly flipped the envelope over and saw something that had haunted his dreams for over twenty years. It was so innocent and unassuming how the beautiful calligraphy of the H stood out surrounded by four vastly different beasts; a griffin, a snake, a raven, and a badger. A small banner was draped along the bottom of the elaborate design boldly stating, 'Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus.'

"Never tickle a sleeping dragon…" Murdoc's lips twitched in a parody of a smile. Last time he'd seen this kind of letter he'd had no idea what it had meant. He hadn't been able to understand the beauty of Latin back then. His eyes darkened as he thought back to a different time. He remembered how stupidly happy he'd been when he'd received a similar missive. How he'd longed to escape his father and brother only to be foiled before his journey had ever began. Instead it had all ended in pain and humiliation. He squeezed his eyes closed at the very memory and took a shaky breath to calm his anger.

He hadn't been prepared to deal with something like this so soon and yet he should have known it was coming. They would try to take Harry away from him; that much he knew. Ever since their talk on the roof a few days ago, Harry had been somewhat subdued. The older man hadn't had a chance to talk to him about the blood adoption yet. Wounds were still too raw and there hadn't been any time. But had time already gone astray?

Murdoc's mismatched eyes opened suddenly and he fixed the letter with a suspicious look. What would the school do with the boy once they had him? Would they send him back to those horrible monsters who'd kept him locked in a cupboard under the stairs? Murdoc couldn't allow that. He may have been a lot of things, but a child abuser wasn't one of them. One of the things that had appealed him to Satanism had been the tenant about never harming children. After the childhood he'd had, it was something he felt very strongly about.

Also, would they try to poison his mind against outcasts like himself and take away his ideas and freedom of thought? Hogwarts would undoubtedly be connected to some form of government… the Ministry of Magic he remembered it was called. Would they try and turn young, abused Harry into a puppet for political gain? Would the kid even get a chance to experience a normal childhood?

All of these thoughts and more began to swim through the older man's head. If he could get Harry to agree to stay with him instead of going with them he would not only revolutionize the boy's thinking but maybe give him a chance he wouldn't have had before. Free will and non-conformity could be just what the wizarding world needed in a savior, not that he was overly concerned with the affairs of others. But Harry was his now. As far as he was concerned both the Wizard and Muggle world had turned their back on the kid. It was up to Murdoc Niccals and his band of misfits now.

They didn't need a school to teach magic. Murdoc had his ways, he could find the necessary tools and tutors. He could be there for the kid in a way that no one had been there for him.

"Offer rejected," he hissed as he took out his trusty zippo and lit the corner of the missive on fire, watching in satisfaction as the paper curled under the heat. He tossed the remains in a nearby ashtray and gave a nod of approval. Maybe if no one answered, they'd leave the kid alone. He smirked in satisfaction and waltzed out of the room feeling much better.

Meanwhile, Harry too had woke with a start though his problem wasn't foolish zombies. He'd had another nightmare. His forehead was sweaty and he could feel a clamminess about him that came with the fears of his dreams. The visions were distorted to his memory but he could remember small snippets here and there. His uncle and aunt's voices had echoed through his mind reminding him that he was a freak and unwanted. He remembered headlights and a crash, only suddenly they weren't headlights at all but green flashes and a woman's scream. The man from Spinner's End was there too, chasing him with his switchblade screaming at him in his butchered cockney accent.

And then it had all stopped when a protector had stepped from the shadows blocking him from the loud noise and flashing lights. He remembered looking up and seeing Murdoc's smirking face looking all around at the chaos with his red eye glowing eerily in the darkness and feeling strangely comforted by such a terrifying sight. Then when everything seemed to reach a crescendo, he'd suddenly woke with a jerk.

"Meeeoooow," a low mew sounded from the end of his bed and Harry breathed a sigh of amused relief as he welcomed the distraction.

"You again?" he asked with a strained smile as he gave the fuzz creature a friendly chin scratch. "You'll have to be careful from now on. It doesn't sound like Murdoc cares for cats much, I'm afraid."

The tabby gave an almost sarcastic hiss and flicked her tail in the air with sass before purring and rubbing up against his chest. Then as if understanding that she couldn't stay long, she hopped up on his window seal again and hopped back out.

"Cats are weird," Harry muttered as he rolled out of bed and began to get dressed. After his talk on the roof with Murdoc he'd been too tired and overwhelmed to go shopping so Russel and the others had taken him the next morning instead. He'd never realized how nice it was to have clothes that actually fit. Against his protests that they were doing too much, they'd bought him several outfits and shoes. Harry had been both very embarrassed and very grateful. Today, he decided on a comfy pair of jeans and a red graphic t-shit that featured a silhouetted gargoyle with glowing aqua eyes.

Once he was properly dressed, he hurried on his way to the kitchen. Though he hadn't been given any chores to do, one of his favorite things was to try and beat Russel to the kitchen. He really loved the bigger man's cooking however at times Harry found himself restless and had always been fond of cooking even though he'd been forced to at the Dursley's. It had always given him a rare moment of relaxation in his otherwise hectic days. But here at Kong, it just gave him something to do.

Today was his day it seemed. As he neared the kitchen he didn't hear Russel's normal cheery clinging of various pots and pans as he worked on his craft. He couldn't smell anything yet either. Of course, now that he thought about it, it was a bit early. He wasn't even sure anyone was up yet.

"Oh, good morning!" Harry gasped as he entered what he thought would be an empty kitchen only to see Murdoc already seated at the table sipping on something in a mug that looked like it might've been a hot tea or coffee while he was glancing over a rumpled looking newspaper. A bottle of Kahlua was sitting out on the kitchen table in front of him.

Murdoc gave him a grunt of acknowledgement and continued reading. This suited Harry just fine. The boy still wasn't quite sure what to make of the other man. He was deeply grateful that the other man hadn't sugarcoated anything during their talk and had given him some real answers. But at the same time he felt unbalanced and off kilter because the discussion had shaken the very core of his beliefs which was now causing him to feel very lost.

Biting his lip nervously, Harry hurried over to the fridge and rifled through a few things before attacking the food pantry next as he gathered his ingredients. Today he was planning on making everyone French toast. As he started mixing the sweet sugary batter to dip the bread slices in, he didn't see that Murdoc's attention was no longer on the paper but on himself as he whistled pleasantly and continued to work.

"Wot in the blazes is tha'?" Murdoc asked gruffly, no longer able to hide his curiosity at the sticky looking mess Harry was dipping the bread in before frying it. Harry looked back at him for a moment before continuing his ministrations as he answered.

"French toast," he answered with a small smile. "My aunt found the recipe in the TV guide once. It's typically an American breakfast even though the name suggests otherwise," he informed him. "It was one of my favorites even though I rarely got to have any."

Murdoc visibly winced at the mentioning of his aunt and frowned. "You know ya' don't 'ave ter make us breakfast though, right?" he asked. "You could always tell Russ an' he'd make it for yeh."

"Yeeeah, I know," Harry sighed, still cooking diligently as turned the heat down a little. "But I kind of miss cooking in a weird way," he shrugged. "It was always the least demanding of all of my chores."

Murdoc stayed silent after that as he continued watching the boy with a small frown on his face. He was beginning to realize that his earlier contemplations had been fairly spot on if the kid thought cooking was fun just because it wasn't the worst. He made a mental note to talk to the others about this to broaden Harry's horizons a bit.

It seemed that Harry and Murdoc would not be the only early risers in the kitchen this morning. As Kong's halls began to fill with the sweet scent of charred sugar and cinnamon, the other residents trickled in and sat at their usual places around the table. Murdoc watched in amusement as 2D wiped at his bleary eyes and almost knocked over his orange juice.

Harry ignored them all as he continued to whistle a jaunty tune while he cooked. When he was done, he eagerly served them all big platefuls. Russel hummed in appreciation as he took his first bite.

"Mmmmmmn, this is almost as good as my Momma's," he praised, savoring each bite. Harry turned bright red and grinned around his own mouthful.

"Kono kyandīdesu ka? Sore wa kōseina tabemono no yō ni aji ga suru," Noodle mused, getting a wild gleam in her eyes that made the adults at the table sweat drop. Hopefully, her sugar high later wouldn't be too bad…

Not seeing the other's cautious looks Harry gave her a confused smile, understanding that she'd asked a question, but not quite sure what it was. Hoping he was on the right track, he tried to answer her. "It's French toast. You take cinnamon, sugar, eggs and milk," he paused seeing 2D start to turn green and corrected himself, "I used soy milk and no eggs for yours, sorry. Yours does have some flour just to thicken it a bit though. Anyway as I was saying, you mix all that up and then you fry it and put powdered sugar and more cinnamon on top."

"Well, I really li' it!" 2D praised, now that he was sure he hadn't accidentally compromised his beliefs by eating it. "We should 'ave this mo' often!"

"Thanks, I'm glad you all like it," Harry said honestly, his green eyes shining. All of the tension he'd had this morning seemed to melt away at their kind words.

He would have said more, but then of all things an owl flew through the window of the kitchen and dive-bombed the table. Russel let out a girly scream and threw his plate at the now screeching bird as it opened its wingspan in agitation and flapped at him indignantly. "Get that thing away from me. If this is one of yours Murdoc, I'm gonna-"

"Oh, shuddap Lards, it's no' mine!" Murdoc said rudely as he looked desperately around the table as if trying to find something. Then he tried to snatch at it, but the bird jumped and bit him on the hand. "OWWW! Get back 'ere you ruddy overgrown chicken!"

Harry was hiding behind Noodle trying very hard to decide if he should laugh or be somewhat horrified that his breakfast had been ruined by such a bazaar occurrence. Weirdly, the only person who wasn't panicking or cursing up a storm at the upset bird was 2D who was staring absently at the chaos in front of him. "Toochie?" Noodle tried to get his attention, also noticing how quiet the normally spastic singer was.

2D didn't answer right away, but did cock his head to the side curiously. "Wot's this?" he asked, reaching out to the owl who was too busy dodging an angry Murdoc and antagonizing a terrified Russel to pay attention to the lanky arm that was aimed for it. It let out a startled squawk and seemed to freeze as 2D plucked it easily from the table and ran his gentle fingers through the bird's feathers. "S'not at all li' Cortez," he smiled before fiddling with something that appeared to be tied around the creature's leg. "Go' it! Oh, It's for 'Arry."

"NO!" Murdoc shouted, making them all jump as he snatched the missive from 2D's hand and smacked him upside the head. "This is mine."

"Ow! Bu' it says 'Arry, Mudz!" 2D winced, cowering away from the green man as Noodle ran around the table trying to place herself between the two.

"I don' care who you think it's for, Faceache! This is my studio an' my band, so it's mine!" he growled menacingly, the owl quickly forgotten as it gave a hoot and retreated through the window.

"Mudz, what the hell man? Give the kid the letter!" Now that the crazy bird was gone, there was nothing keeping Russel from rising to his full intimidating height as he stood from the table. In all of the commotion, no one seemed to notice as Harry suddenly went very pale as he watched all of them bicker back and forth with each other.

His wide green eyes focused on Murdoc's angry form and his body began to involuntarily tremble as he slowly backed away from the growing fight. His heart lurched sharply in his chest at the thought that the older man was keeping something from him and had resorted to violence to keep it away. Was this not the very reason he had ran away from the Dursleys? To escape this kind of abuse? And here his savior was evoking the same kind of behavior. How long would it take before the easily angered man would turn his abuse on Harry like he had to the friendly dim-witted singer?

Harry suddenly felt extremely conflicted and on the verge of a panic attack as he suddenly turned from the room and bolted down the hallway to the relative safety of his room.

"Harry, wait!" Murdoc shouted, having looked up just in time to see the kid run.

"You've really done it now," Russ warned him, giving the bassist a disgusted look. "You heard the way he talked about those relatives of his. Did you really expect him not to take your bullshit the wrong way? You've probably scared the kid half to death."

"Plus e' really does 'ave a right teh see woteva that letta' is," 2D pointed out in a muffled voice as he cowered behind the protective drummer. "Its go' his name onnit."

"I fuckin' know that, you idiot," Murdoc sneered, glaring down at the crumpled missive in his hand. Russel saw the crest on the front and his eyes glowed with understanding.

"I warned you this would happen. You have to tell him. Don't start with secrets now that you've opened this can of worms," Russel said in a disapproving voice. "That little cracker deserves a lot better than this world has given him and you have a chance to make shit right. Don't fuck this up like you do everything else." He crossed his arms and watched as Murdoc's eyes flashed in obvious rage, but was surprised when the older man restrained himself from retaliating.

"Anata wa kore o tadashī mono ni suru hitsuyō ga arimasu!" Little Noodle fumed, kicking their leader hard in the shin causing him to yelp and curse at her. She easily jumped out of his reach though she knew he knew better than to extract revenge on her.

"FINE!" he hissed as he stalked out of the room with the letter still clutched tightly in his clawed hand. However as he moved further down the hall his steps grew less angry and more nervous than anything. He'd really fucked this one up. HE ran his empty hand through his greasy hair and sighed with somewhat slumped shoulders.

He felt even worse about the situation when he paused outside of Harry's door which hadn't been closed all the way so he could hear the upset sniffles on the other side of the door. What the hell was he supposed to do with this situation? He knew damn well he was no good and consoling tears and yet this was definitely his fault. If he ever wanted to have a chance to have the kid trust him again then he had to make this right.

Taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders and pushed open the door. He watched as the boy immediately tensed as he walked further into the room and had to hide a wince of his own as he was strongly reminded of the relationship between himself and his own father. He did not want his and Harry's relationship to be like that. If this was 2D, he would have solved the problem by picking a fight and shouting until they were both blue in the face. For some reason that always helped he and the lanky man settle their differences, but this time he knew he'd have to try something different.

Harry let out a surprised gasp and looked up as he felt the bed dip a little. He hadn't expected Murdoc to sit next to him. Most adults seemed to enjoy talking down on him so he felt a little off balance at the fact that the previously angry man now seemed to want to level with him. He stayed sitting with his arms curled around his knees, but his tear stained gaze didn't leave the green man's frowning face.

"W-why did you do t-that?" Harry asked shakily as he tried to control his breathing. The other man seemed pensive a moment before offering him a wry smile.

"Because I'm a shit person?" he offered sarcastically, then he held out the letter to him with an air of resignation. "Take it, kid. It's yours."

Harry bit his lip with uncertainty at the offer, but reached out and took the letter nonetheless. Murdoc watched as he eyed the front of the letter curiously and then turned it over running his fingers over the crest in fascination. "Hogwarts?" he mumbled curiously, wiping away his remaining tears before slowly ripping open the letter and looking over the contents. "But, this is a letter from a school… a wizarding school?" Harry asked in confusion, now very confused about why Murdoc had been so against him reading this. Was he like Aunt Petunia? Had he misunderstood the man's kindness? Maybe he really did think Harry was too much of a freak to deserve such a good opportunity.

As if reading the young boy's troubled thoughts, Murdoc scowled and shook his head. "It's no' wot you're thinking," he said, snorting a little when Harry gave him a disbelieving look. "I don't thin' you're not good enough or even that you wouldn' do great there. It's jus' that you need to understand tha' if you do choose to go there," he spat the word as if in disgust, "then they'll prolly try teh force you ter go back to your relatives an' I don't want ta' see that happen. You've been so 'appy the last couple o' days. I don't want teh see you throw all of it away."

Harry tensed a little beside him at the mention of his relatives and rested his chin against his knees in dismay. "But if I don't go, how will I ever learn about magic? I'm a wizard, what good is being one if I don't know anything? I mean, I guess if I had to-"

"No." Murdoc said firmly, causing Harry to jump at the conviction in his voice. His eye brows rose a little when he noticed that Murdoc's one red eye was glowing a bit. Harry was starting to realize that this happened when the older man was truly passionate about something he believed in. "If you wan' ter go ta' that school I won' stop yeh. But you'll no' go back ter those pathetic fucks!" he said firmly. "I won't allow it. As fer schooling, I know magic an' I didn't have teh go to no fancy private school ter learn it. I figured it ou' all by meself. But you've go' a lot mo' resources than I 'ad. I know wot you're getting into an' I could find you the righ' tutors," he offered.

"You'd do that for me? You wouldn't send me away?" Harry asked meekly, slowly sitting up and looking at the Satanist earnestly.

"No, I wouldn' send yeh away," Murdoc promised, secretly congratulating himself as Harry turned himself to face him more clearly.

"But how would you go about keeping me? If what you say is true then they already know I'm here and might try to send me back anyway," Harry pointed out logically.

"Oh, Ol' Mudsy has his ways," Murdoc smirked, giving Harry a calculating look. The young wizard got the idea that the older man already had something in mind and he wasn't disappointed when he was slyly asked, "Wot do you know 'bout blood adoptions?"

A/N: Finally! This chapter took forever to write! Sorry about that, lol.

OMG I GOT TO SEE THE HUMANZ TOUR AT SPRINT CENTER LAST FRIDAY! I was not disappointed! It was freaking awesome! I had the chills when he started with M1-A1 and I tell you it was quite the experience knowing every song by heart. I got a really neat video of the whole stadium singing Clint Eastwood together. The visuals were fantastic! He ended with Don't Get Lost in Heaven/Demon days and it was beautiful. I finally got to see the full music video to El Manana too and I'll tell ya, that one hits you right in the feels! On a funny note, in the beginning of the concert he paused after Rhinestone Eyes and was like, "I've never been to Kansas before." He was actually in KC, MO. Adorable man didn't know where he was! :3 It's okay, I forgive him. But omg I can't even describe how excellent that performance was. I will never forget it!

What is noodle saying!?

"Kono kyandīdesu ka? Sore wa kōseina tabemono no yō ni aji ga suru," – "What is this? This tastes like fair food." (Think fried sweet foods you see at fairgrounds kind of thing).

"Anata wa kore o tadashī mono ni suru hitsuyō ga arimasu!" – "You need to make this right/correct! (This translation goes either way).