Nagini slithered across the wool rug in the front sitting room. Voldemort, himself, slouched somewhat sideways in the chair nearest the fireplace. It was preferable to be close to an exit in almost every case.
Lucius Malfoy strode into the room, quietly. His failures were accumulating, and disturbing the Dark Lord during his meditations could be deadly. Still, he had a report to deliver, fresh from Draco's owl,
"My Lord," Lucius bowed, "my son has sent us another report."
"Is this mysterious Muggle making trouble for your son again? Draco finds him belligerent, perhaps?" Voldemort barely raised his eyes to Malfoy's face. "Or is this more of a...familial matter?"
"The Muggle, My Lord. News of the Muggle." Lucius shifted on the balls of his feet. "According to Draco's letter, the man declared himself Potter's protector yesterday morning."
Voldemort's head turned with a disturbing fluid motion. Nagini's head did much the same. Two sets of predatory eyes burned holes in Lucius' composure.
"What?" Voldemort hissed.
"Yes. This man, Frank Stewart, claims to be immune to magic as well. He stated it in his proclamation."
"Lucius, your son sends you preposterous stories. I assume you informed him to be wary of rumors. I despair for the next generation of wizards."
"Draco is not given to lies my Lord. He quotes the Muggle's speech."
"So, amuse me with this madman's statement."
Malfoy read it, and Voldemort laughed.
"How droll. How very droll. We need more Muggles like him."
Lucius blinked and asked, "Whatever for, my Lord?"
Voldemort sat up straight and steepled his fingers together. "If there are more, as insane as he, they will destroy themselves and save us the trouble."
"I do worry, Lord." Lucius shuddered. He was near to disagreeing with Voldemort, a very unsafe thing to do. "Draco reports that Hogwarts validated the promise. The walls shook."
"What? Give me the letter!"
Lucius approached just close enough to pass the parchment to Voldemort's skeletal fingers. The Dark Lord read the letter, hissing all the while.
"Incendio!"
Draco's letter flashed into flames.
"Send me Karnak, Lucius. I would have eyes I trust report to me of these unsavory goings on."
"At once, my Lord."
Lucius Malfoy escaped with his life again. One day, he wouldn't be so lucky.
-**HPDEB**-
Late Friday afternoon in the courtyard, Harry found himself face to face with a group of Slytherins, led by Draco Malfoy.
"The dread Muggle will appear if anyone accosts you, Potter? Isn't that what he said?" Draco sneered. "Where is he now?"
Safe in the knowledge that Frank would be able to get to him easily, Harry could treat Malfoy with the disdain he deserved. "Draco, you're not accosting me at the moment." Harry adjusted his glasses.
Malfoy turned to his little gang and shouted, "Well, accost him you idiots!"
Four of them separated from the group and moved towards Harry. Their wands weren't out, and their demeanor suggested that they'd try to pummel him, rather than use their wands.
"Stopping now might be a good idea," Harry told them, completely unperturbed. "I really think so."
"Why Potter? He hasn't appeared yet." Draco looked smug, it was a talent of his.
Harry pointed up, over Draco's shoulder. "He will in a moment."
All of the Slytherin students stopped dead in their tracks when they heard something hit the ground behind Draco.
"Hello," Frank said, brushing the dust from his new robes. "I saw you bothering my charge and thought I'd drop in. That's a pun, you know."
Draco seemed to try to hide his fear by not turning around, but he couldn't keep the quaver from his voice.
"Is that you, Muggle?"
"Yes, my little blond darling." Frank messed up his hair."Child, what do you use to keep your hair so stiff? Are you hiding a receding hairline?"
To his credit, Harry didn't guffaw or titter, but it was terribly hard not to.
"Hello. What's this then?" Neville asked.
Harry turned around to see that a crowd of his fellow Gryffindors had walked over. He felt terrible for Malfoy, but only for a second, knowing that his humiliation had so many witnesses.
"Hey! Ron! Hermione! Neville! Lavender! And the rest of my favorite House!"
"Good afternoon Mister Stewart!" They chorused.
"Did you see Draco and his friends being insufferable prigs?"
"Yes, Sir!" They cried.
Suddenly, the heir to Malfoy was alone. His friends had fled, just in case Stewart singled them out for correction.
Frank spun Draco around and stared down at his burning cheeks.
"You and I don't get along, son. We have deep differences of opinion." Frank spoke with a very even tone. "Test my commitment to Potter one more time and I will break both your legs. If Professor Snape cares to express his displeasure, I am at his convenience."
"My father…"
"Will hear of this. Yes, yes, I've heard it all before. Get out of here and don't let me see your face again until I have to."
Malfoy ran away.
"Thank you again Frank," said Harry. "I'm still amazed at how quickly you can show up."
Frank smiled at him, but didn't say anything. Harry noticed most of the Gryffindors nodding to his statement. Hermione, however, only had eyes for Frank. Harry hadn't quite figured out why her attention shifted so dramatically when Frank was around...but he had a theory.
"Oh, Harry," Frank said, "do you have time for a walk and chat? I'd like to continue our afternoon conversations."
"Of course we have time!" Hermione burst into the conversation.
"Actually, and no offense, I meant Harry and me."
"I've got some of time." Harry said. "Let's go!"
His bodyguard nodded, and they started walking towards the main gate. Frank was well aware that half of the Gryffindor crowd was trying to follow them as covertly as possible. He was also aware that they were well out of earshot.
"We're being followed, aren't we?" Harry asked.
"Yep!"
"What do they think we're going to talk about? Girls? Quidditch?"
"Harry, we can talk about anything and everything."
Harry nodded, nearly dislodging the glasses that seemed to have a perpetually precarious hold on his nose.
"I have been wondering about something, speaking of girls."
Frank couldn't help but smile, Harry was a nice, honest young man.
"Hermione seems to," Harry rolled some words around in his brain, "like you quite a bit. You know, a little like Lavender likes Ron."
"Hm, I've noticed that, too." Frank was playing nonchalant to the hilt. They knew it would only be a matter of time before someone had questions. "Have you asked her about it?"
"Are you kidding? You've seen what she's like when she's angry. I like my trousers where they are, thank you very much."
They reached the end of the bridge. Frank pointed to rock, large enough to sit on, on the side of the road to Hogsmeade. Harry nodded and followed along.
"Yeah, Hermione is one of a kind. Strong and fragile at the same time. She was seriously pissed off at me for not telling you guys what I was going to do. Thank goodness magic doesn't work on me!" Frank paused for a moment, and asked him, "So, do you like Hermione?"
Harry looked aghast for a moment before he protested that he likes her, but doesn't LIKE her.
"More like a sister than a love interest?" Frank asked.
"Exactly! I'm not really good at, you know, girls."
"I wasn't successful in that subject for many years."
Harry looked strangely serious when he asked, "When did it change?"
It was Frank's turn to look uncomfortable.
"Eh, I'm not entirely sure it ever has. I met quite a few really great women, but none of them seemed to want to stick around. Of course, then the world fell apart and love was hardly on anyone's mind." He deliberately didn't go into aspects of his past that Hermione was aware of.
"Hm. I'd kind of like to meet someone and have a nice relationship, like Dean and Ginny seem to."
"The adorable little redhead? She's Ron's sister, isn't she?"
"Yes."
"The red hair runs strong in his family," Frank grinned, "and I think she'll be even lovelier when she grows up."
"Oh, the whole Weasley family has red hair. Dad. Mum. Ginny. Bill. Charlie. Ron. Percy. Fred and George: they're twins. Graduated last year. They opened up a joke and prank store in Diagon Alley."
"Are they all wizards?" Frank asked Harry.
"Every one of them. That's not uncommon." Harry picked up a pebble and rolled it around in his fingers. "Hermione and Dean are the unusual ones. Neither of their parents are Wizards. Sometimes you see a Wizard who has one parent who's a Muggle, like my mum and dad."
The breeze picked up, and Harry was glad to be wearing his scarf. Frank, he noticed, never really reacted to changes in temperature. Another strange thing about what had happened to him, Harry guessed.
"You wanted to talk about more than girls, didn't you, Harry?"
Harry looked up at the clouds, and felt no small measure of concern that he would anger the man who'd sworn to protect him. Frank Stewart could be terrifying.
"Hermione told me she yelled at you the other morning for not telling her about your plan. She told me that you explained yourself, and that she trusted you." Harry stopped for a moment because he was feeling unusual emotions. "We did talk with Professor Dumbledore, and he explained, but I don't understand why you agreed to help me."
"Oh," Frank nodded, "Hermione didn't tell you everything then. I think I was pretty forthcoming with her."
"I did ask, but she told me that it was your story to tell, not hers."
"That's fair," Frank said, and stood up. "The professor told me about you, that you're the 'boy who lived,' and it hit me square in my heart. I know about your parents, your Uncle, Voldemort, and what your destiny is."
"All of that?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Oh, yes. I identify with you, and I want to help you do what you need to do, even if I have to hold Voldemort still while you do him in."
"You're a power that the Dark Lord knows not." Harry whispered the words. The thought had just come to him; Voldemort would never be able to understand or accept that someone like Frank exists. On top of that, simply, Voldemort has never met him.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing really. Go on." Harry lied, of course. He was almost shaking in his shoes. He almost wanted to ask when Frank's birthday was.
"You can have Hermione tell you what I told her. I don't feel like dwelling on my past when I want to help you secure your future."
"I've never...Forgive me. No one but my friends and Dumbledore have been this kind to me. I'm not really used to it."
"Maybe you need that, too." Frank turned and called out, "Ron, you can come out of the bushes now. Neville, climbing trees doesn't suit you."
"I'm not sure I can get down, Sir!"
Frank sighed and walked over to a nearby pine tree.
"Let go Neville. I'll catch you."
"But!"
"Boy, don't make me climb up there and get you," Frank threatened.
Neville let go, and landed in the arms of the nicest terrifying person he'd ever met. Ron had an easier time, he just stood up.
"You being able to find us is very unsettling!" Ron complained.
Frank put Neville down and replied, "Get used to it Ginger! I'm surprised Hermione isn't with you two."
"Nah," Neville shook his head, "Parvati, Padma and Lavender took her off somewhere."
"Well, maybe that will give me a rest from her piercing little eyes," Frank said with illustrative pinching gestures.
The boys laughed. It was a good thing.
On the walk back, Harry tried something, knowing that Frank's hearing is above average
He whispered, "Did they hear everything we were saying?"
His bodyguard didn't seem to notice, but he did say something to his classmates.
"You guys were slow, you know?"
"Wha?" Ron asked.
"Harry and I had a full five minutes together before you two arrived. You didn't get to hear everything." Frank laughed at them. "That means that my charge and I have our secrets!"
Frank looked down at Harry and explained that to complete the moment, they needed to have an evil laugh together.
"Come on, let's make it count! Yar-har-har-har-haaaaaaa!"
Harry joined in with his own, "Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-heeeee!"
"Can't we do the evil laughs too?" Neville sounded quite sad.
"Sure, but they won't mean anything," answered Frank.
"Blimey," Ron groaned, "that's harsh."
"Let's hurry," Harry said, "they'll be serving dinner soon!"