The Magical World Exposed
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: COMPLETELY AU! If you don't like this, just stop reading and write your own story more to your liking.
Together with David, Ginny and Neville, Harry and Hermione walked to Hogsmeade, where they separated from the others to wait for the Grangers in front of the fireplace at The Three Broomsticks.
The Grangers arrived punctually, and, glancing at her wristwatch, Hermione suggested, "Shall we go to the bookshop for a while? We still have thirty minutes before our meeting with Dumbledore."
Everyone agreed, and Harry and Hermione led the Muggles through the small town that was full with students on this beautiful autumn day.
Just when they arrived in front of the bookshop, Harry heard a voice that made his blood curl. He recognised it immediately. It was the voice of the most unpleasant wizard whom he had ever met.
"Ah, if it's not the mudblood together with muggles," Lucius Malfoy shouted, causing several students to flee the area.
"Leave us in peace," Hermione replied in a firm voice, while Harry immediately pushed the Grangers behind his back.
"I won't have a filthy mudblood tell me what to do," Malfoy sneered, haughtily, disgust clearly written in his face, as he pointed his cane at Hermione.
Harry could barely hear the whispered words that accompanied the curse, however, he instinctively jumped in front of Hermione, right before the killing curse made contact with his ring that absorbed it, flaring green as the unforgivable curse vanished into thin air.
'Thank you Harry. You shouldn't have done that. Are you all right?' Hermione frantically thought to him, reaching for his hand.
'I'm still alive,' Harry thought in surprise, giving Hermione an unobtrusive nod, just when Malfoy readied his cane again in apparent anger.
However, before he could cast another curse, a loud voice cut through the air.
"How dare you attack my great granddaughter and her husband? Lady Potter is not muggleborn. She's the heir of the ancient houses of Dumbledore and Merlin. As soon as she reaches her magical majority, she'll be the most powerful witch alive."
With a flick of the old wizard's wand, the blonde wizard was hovering in the air, several inches above their heads, where he was unwillingly turning around himself like a circus acrobat. A huge circle of students now joined the small group, laughing at the evil wizard's misery.
Harry did not hear a word, when Dumbledore summoned Malfoy's cane, mere instants, before Tonks and Shacklebolt arrived, having been alerted to the incident by the professors on duty. Unfortunately, Malfoy was able to get away through the crowd, unwillingly leaving his cane with the Aurors.
Dumbledore turned to Harry and the Grangers. "Are you all unharmed?"
"Yes sir," Hermione replied, seemingly shaken. 'Let's go to Potter Manor,' she thought to Harry, who immediately agreed. "Professor, can Fawkes perhaps take us away from here?" she asked, fingering in her inner robe pocket for a small parchment, which she handed to the old wizard.
"Of course," Dumbledore replied, returning the parchment in understanding, before he summoned Fawkes and instructed the phoenix to take the Potters and the Grangers to Potter Manor. As soon as everyone began to grab Fawkes' tail feathers, he transformed into his own phoenix form and left after his familiar.
HP
'It's really time I manage to transform into a dog, so I can begin practising the transformation into a phoenix,' Harry thought, feeling very grateful to the old wizard for saving them from whatever fate they could have expected otherwise. 'Maybe I can convince Hermione to practise with me. If she's the most powerful witch in the world, she should be able to have two Animagus forms as well.'
"Thanks Great granddad and Harry for saving us from Malfoy," Hermione blurted out when they reached the dining room, where Gina just served refreshments.
"It's all right dear, nothing happened," Harry said, soothingly, gently wiping a couple of tears from her cheek.
"Only because of our rings, otherwise, you'd be dead," Hermione replied, seemingly horrified. "And Malfoy will come back for us, now that he managed to get away."
"That's for sure," Harry agreed. "We just have to be very careful, love."
"That you must do," Dumbledore confirmed, nodding gravely, before he efficiently changed the topic and informed the Grangers about their relationship.
"Excuse me sir," Mr. Granger finally spoke up, questioningly, "is there a reason why you only tell us this now? We'd have appreciated this information, when Hermione first began to display magic, of which we didn't even know that it was magic until Professor O'Brien told us as much."
Dumbledore thoughtfully stroked his beard, before he replied, slowly, "It was too dangerous with Voldemort alive. You'd have been in incredible danger had he known about our relationship."
"That's true," James spoke up from his portrait, taking the old wizard's side, while his wife nodded in confirmation.
The Grangers and their old ancestor spent the next few hours animatedly talking, until it was time for Hermione and Harry to return to Hogwarts. Not wanting to floo right into the headmistress' office, they used the fireplace of The Three Broomsticks and walked up to the castle together with many other students who were just on their way home from the Hogsmeade visit.
HP
In the morning, the picture of Lucius Malfoy hovering in the air like a marionette made the front page of the Daily Prohpet.
'Lucius Malfoy insults heir of Merlin' the headline screamed.
'By Rita Skeeter'
'Lucius Malfoy saw fit to misuse the Hogwarts students' Hogsmeade day to violently attack Hermione Granger, calling her Mudblood and casting the killing curse at her, which her husband, Harry Potter O'Brien managed to dodge by whatever means. Lady Potter-Gryffindor-Ravenclaw-Slytherin-Hufflepuff is not muggleborn like Albus Dumbledore alerted the public right after the attack. In fact, she is the heir of Merlin and Dumbledore and as such to be expected the most powerful witch alive. Aurors have confirmed that Lucius indeed cast the killing curse and is now wanted by the Ministry of Magic to receive a trial and hopefully be sent to Azkaban forever. Read more about the connection between Dumbledore and Lord and Lady Potter on page 5.'
'We shouldn't participate in the Hogsmeade visits anymore, as long as Lucius isn't caught,' Harry thought to Hermione, who unconditionally agreed.
'We'd only endanger everyone else,' she added. 'It's not worth it.'
The idea 'Malfoy doesn't need us to go to Hogsmeade; he can as well come to Hogwarts to meet us' crossed Harry's mind, however, he refrained from relenting his thoughts to his wife, knowing that she was still shaken from the attack on the previous day.
HP
One evening, after spending some time alone without their three usually inseparable friends, Hermione and Harry separated in the entrance hall shortly before curfew. While Hermione walked back to Ravenclaw, Harry returned to his parents' quarters, when all of a sudden, Draco Malfoy stepped into his way.
"Draco," Harry spoke up in surprise. So far, the two boys had barely ever spoken together, due to being in different houses and not even having classes together apart from the occasional exception. 'I hope he's not going to try to harass me because of what Dumbledore did to his father,' he thought, giving the other boy a sharp look.
"Potter, or O'Brien if you prefer that," Draco spoke up, surprisingly friendly.
"I'm just Harry," Harry replied, offering the blonde a smile.
"Okay, I'm Draco," Draco stated, returning a hesitant smile. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm not my father. My father and most of my housemates of course assume that I'm on his side, but I have no intention of following his footpath. I just wanted to let you know." He unsurely glanced into Harry's face.
Harry smiled. "Thanks Draco for letting me know. I'm glad that you're not like your father." He held out his right hand, asking, "Friends?"
Draco agreed, just when Sirius came from behind, stopping dead in his tracks upon seeing the two third-years.
"What's happening here?" he asked, sharply, eyeing the Slytherin in clear distrust.
"Nothing Professor," Harry replied, quickly. "Draco just told me that he's not on his father's side, and we decided to become friends. I'm sorry that it became so late. We're going to return to our rooms now."
"All right, since it's the first time, I'm not going to take points... yet," Sirius informed them and watched the boys say good night to each other.
"Thanks," Draco mouthed, causing Harry to nod and smile, before Harry turned around and strode towards their private quarters, closely followed by a grinning Sirius.
HP
"Maybe we should tell Severus of this," Remus said, pensively, after hearing from Harry and Sirius what Draco had told Harry. "If his housemates get to know that Draco opposes his father, he might get into quite some trouble."
"That's true. Shall I ask him if he has time to come over for a moment?" Harry suggested and, seeing his parents nod, leaned into the fireplace to call the Potions Master, whom he had got to know well by now after regularly brewing together on most weekends for more than a year.
HP
The Slytherin head remained pensive for a moment, before he spoke up. "Thank you Harry, for informing me of this. I appreciate Draco's decision very much. He must be very careful though to not let his father know about this. I'll speak with Draco about the matter."
"Professor, do you think Malfoy will try to attack us again, perhaps even here at Hogwarts?" Harry asked in a small voice.
Snape gave him a thoughtful look. "That may very well be," he finally said. "Lucius Malfoy won't take the article in the Daily Prophet well, and he might want to get his revenge. If he really comes to Hogwarts to attack you, however, he should be aware that there are more than enough wizards and witches capable to defend you in the castle. Above that, Minerva and I have recently adjusted the wards, so that no one will be able to cast unforgivable curses within the school nor on the grounds."
"Ah, thank you sir, that's good to know," Harry replied, feeling somehow relieved by the professors' thoughtfulness.
"Severus, why don't you come over and have some butterbeer with us?" Sirius suddenly shouted from where the adults were sitting together.
Harry said good night to the adults and together with David headed to their room, hearing on the way how Minerva told her colleagues that Neville Longbottom seemed to fancy Susan Bones.
'That's great,' Harry thought. 'Susan is really nice, and it'll be good for Neville to have a girlfriend as well. He must feel alone considering that he's always together with Hermione and me and David and Ginny outside of class.'
HP
During the following days, Harry encouraged Neville to bring Susan along, and a few weeks later, she was already a firm member of Harry's best friends. By the time the Christmas holidays began and everyone headed home to Potter Manor, even her aunt Amelia followed their enlarged family's invitation and spent the holidays together with her niece, the O'Briens, the Grangers, the Longbottoms, the Weasleys as well as Sirius, Severus, Remus, Tonks and Albus Dumbledore.
'Thank Merlin that the manor is so big,' Harry thought to Hermione, chuckling, when the newest member of the enlarged family, Felix Longbottom, was born and inherited the room that had once been Harry's nursery on the second floor.
'We need one more member though,' Hermione thought back, smirking. Seeing Harry cast her a questioning look, she explained, 'Now that Remus and Tonks are going out and Severus seems to have taken a liking to Amelia, we need someone to pair Sirius.'
'Severus and Amelia?' Harry queried, quirking an eyebrow at his wife in disbelief. 'I'd never thought he'd ever fancy a woman,' he added, pensively.
Hermione shrugged. 'Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so,' she replied, sighing. 'I don't know anyone who'd be adequate for Sirius though. All the adults we know are much too old for him.'
HP
Only six months later, Harry realised that Hermione had been right - as usual - when Remus and Tonks and Severus and Amelia announced their double wedding for the end of the holidays, as soon as everyone had arrived back from Hogwarts and were having their first dinner at home.
"That was a good ending to the school year," Hermione said later on, when she and Harry were sitting on the balcony belonging to the master suite of the manor.
"That's true. I'm really happy for them," Harry added, smiling.
"Me too," Hermione agreed, before she added, pensively, "It was a great school year, too. At the beginning, I was really scared, thinking that Malfoy would try to get to us again, but..." She slowly trailed off.
Harry let out a deep sigh. "Yes, that's true, although I wonder why he didn't do anything else. Maybe he's waiting for the Triwizard Tournament to attack us, considering that he couldn't get us at Hogsmeade anymore."
"We'll see," Hermione replied in a soothing voice, calmingly laying her hand on Harry's arm. "Don't worry about that now, love."
tbc...