CHAPTER WARNING:
Please be aware that this chapter details further abuse and abuse of a sexual nature.
Harriet and Daphne arrived into the main hallway still hand in hand. Nance, Hew and Cossima were all standing near the floo and talking quietly. Harriet's appearance drew an excited reaction from Nance and a smile from Hew.
"Oh Harriet!" Nance, the nurse exclaimed, "don't you look fab? Does that feel better?"
The nurse was standing in front of the fireplace with Cossima looking at her with distrust and dread.
"Oh yes," Harriet said with a big nod, "so much better!"
"Yes yes," the Father said offhandedly, "now Harr… Harriet, I have some news that may not be very good but I shall explain it all to you nonetheless so that you know the reasons for it," he looked at Harriet questioningly, "yes?"
"Yes," Harriet responded simply.
"For the moment, you will have to return to your muggle guardians," Hew told her, and she felt her heart drop, "I had to be quite careful of who to reveal your identity to because if I spoke the wrong word to the wrong person then the wrong people would have got their hands on you. There are people out in the world Harriet, who would kill you given the chance, but do not worry; there are many of us who do not want that to happen. Now then, the plan is for Nance to report your treatment to the muggle authorities. They will send somebody around to investigate and you may be taken away from your relatives but the Department of Magical Law Enforcement will be the ones to collect you. We don't know exactly when that will be happening, but it may not be until tomorrow. Without mentioning exactly who you are, we have offered to have you live here with us if that is acceptable?"
Would that be acceptable? 'Of course it would!' Harriet longed to shout. Anywhere would be better than the Dursley's and to live here with Daphne? That sounded like a dream come true!
"Yes sir!" She replied instead, nodding eagerly, "that would be acceptable."
"Very good!" Hew said with a clap and Harriet felt Daphne squeeze her hand tighter with excitement, "Nance will take you back to the Leaky Cauldron and then back to your school. You will have to return to your muggle relatives for tonight but hopefully your aurors…"
"Police," Nance offered.
"Po...lice," Hew corrected, sounding out the unfamiliar word, "will be around very soon to fix things along with our Aurors. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement have agreed to allow you to live here, but as soon as anybody discovers who you are, that would likely end. There are some things that we can do to make it permanent but we can discuss that once you are back here. The important thing is to not let any of the aurors that come with the… Po-lice see your scar, alright? Don't let them see that scar."
"Yes sir," Harriet agreed, using one hand to flatten her fringe over the right side of her forehead.
"Okay then," Hew said, "back to the Leaky Cauldron with you two. Take a pinch of floo powder here Harriet," he held out a bowl of what appeared to be ashes that had been resting on top of the mantle piece, "throw it into the fireplace and say loudly 'The Leaky Cauldron'."
Harriet did not hold out much hope that everything would happen as planned and remained prepared to spend the rest of a short life at the Dursley's… but there was hope there. A small flame fanned on by one single family despite the experience of years of abuse at the hands of muggles.
Harriet did as he instructed, throwing the floo powder into the fireplace and said "The Leaky Cauldron," clearly.
The flames shot up emerald green and Harriet looked at Daphne with a smile as they let go of each other's hands, "I'll see you soon… I hope."
Daphne returned her smile, "I'll see you soon Harriet, good luck."
Harriet looked at Hew and said quietly, "thank-you," before she stepped into the emerald flames and disappeared with a whoosh.
"I suppose you'll be wanting to visit more often to check up on Harriet?" Hew reluctantly asked Nance once Harriet had disappeared.
Nance glanced at Daphne and Cossima, "if that's alright?"
Hew looked torn for a moment, but nodded reluctantly. Cossima looked at Nance darkly and stormed out of the hallway while Daphne just stood near the floo looking confused.
"I'd better catch up to Harriet," Nance said, quickly taking some floo powder and departing with a quickly regretful look at Daphne and Hew, but not another word.
When Harriet arrived in the Leaky Cauldron's common room, very few paid her any attention and once Nance appeared behind her they were able to leave the pub without anybody even noticing that the girl dressed as a pureblood princess was previously dressed like a muggle and identifying herself in a name extremely similar to that belonging to The Boy Who Lived.
As they drove back out of London and towards Surrey, Nance and Harriet talked about what would likely happen from Nance's side of things. The nurse wanted Harriet to be prepared for what was coming and desperately hoped that she would be safe until the police arrived. She wished more than anything else that she could just take Harriet away without the delay, but knew that she would have to abide by the law or risk her entire career.
They arrived just as school was letting out and Nance dropped Harriet off at the school gate.
"I'll see you soon Harriet," she told the young girl, "remember, if anything happens you can call nine nine nine. The aurors won't be able to come straight away in that case, but we will still find you later."
Harriet nodded, "yes, I'll call nine nine nine if anything happens. I'll see you soon."
Harriet thankfully managed to avoid her cousin on the way into her class to fetch her school bag, but did cross over with some of the girls in her class who were already on their way out. They all surrounded Harriet excitedly and gushed over her new dress. With each compliment Harriet's heart swelled and a feeling of happiness welled up inside her. One of the girls apologised to her, for calling her a boy; their teacher had apparently explained things to the class while Harriet was out and all of the other girls echoed her apology. It was an extremely validating experience that buoyed her spirits just as much as her brief visit with the Greengrasses had. But they all had to go and Harriet had to fetch her bag from her classroom. She still managed to avoid Dudley and just as importantly; Dudley's friends, who would be just as likely to beat her up. Aunt Petunia would always drive Dudley to and from school, but Harriet always had to walk. According to Uncle Vernon, Harriet's extra weight would use too much petrol.
Because of this, the first sight any of her relatives had of Harriet was when she walked into the sitting room of 4 Privet Drive; rather than somewhere more… public.
Dudley spotted her first and his eyes bulged at the same time his brows furrowed in an expression of confusion that would be humorous were it not for the inherent feeling of danger that surrounded him.
"Mum!" the pig screamed, "Mum! The freak is wearing a dress!"
Petunia came out of the kitchen and just stood staring at Harriet. It was a testament to the stupidity of the Dursleys that none of them managed to think about where such an expensive dress may have come from, but instead their bigotry and blind hatred was focussed on the existing of the dress on Harriet in the first instance. Petunia took a firm hold of Harriet's wrist and without a word, the young girl was dragged to her cupboard's door. This door was slammed open by her horse faced aunt and Harriet was thrown into the cupboard, her shoulder hitting the door frame with enough force to spin her around completely before she slammed face-first into the wall opposite. White hot pain blossomed in her shoulder and pins and needles spread all down her arm. In the darkness, she felt wetness on her upper lip and quickly pressed the corner of her sheet to her nose to prevent getting blood on her dress. In the darkness she lay there, crying quietly (because loud crying would result in more pain) and wondering how she was supposed to get to a phone when she was locked in her cupboard.
It was usually Uncle Vernon that was physically violent towards Harriet, but not unknown; Aunt Petunia had hit her with a frying pan once when she dropped an egg on the floor.
When the sound of Uncle Vernon's car arriving reverberated through the cupboard, Harriet stopped crying. She didn't know exactly what was coming, but she knew that it would be many many times worse than what Aunt Petunia had already delivered.
The door opened and Uncle Vernon's voice rumbled from the doorway, "I'm home Pet!"
The thud of his footsteps disappeared down the hallway and Harriet could vaguely make out whispered conversation. The smaller, partially lighter thuds of Dudley's feet travelled up the stairs at a trot and Harriet waited with calm detachment.
THUD THUD THUD THUD, stormed Uncle Vernon's footsteps once more and the cupboard door slammed open. Light streamed in around his walrus sized silhouette. Harriet blinked and the silhouette slowly filled in with more detail and colour. She wished that it hadn't, for Uncle Vernon's face was twisted grotesquely in a horrifying caricature of flushed rage. His meaty hand came into the dark cupboard and took a hold of the front of her dress, lifting her bodily out of the cupboard only to be slammed into the hallway wall opposite. She collapsed onto her knees and felt Uncle Vernon reach down to take a hold of the dress and RIIIIIIIIIP. The flesh in Harriet's arms was pinched as the man physically tore her dress in half, flinging pieces of cloth away and leaving her just in her underwear and dress sleeves. It was here that Vernon paused in confusion and Harriet froze when she felt his hand maul between her legs, his fingers digging into the gusset of her underwear and fingernails digging channels through the sensitive skin in her thighs. He pulled them off her, tearing them in the process.
It was then that she was flung away, as if he had been physically burned and he stared at her with such fear and disgust as she had never ever seen on his face. Weakly, she tried to stand but this just snapped him out of his distraction. A fist to the side of her face cracked her head back into the wall and Uncle Vernon's hand grasped her arm with such a violent grip that she heard the snap a heartbeat before an intense pain shot down her arm from her shoulder to her finger tips. She was flung back into the cupboard with such force that she was knocked unconscious and everything went blissfully dark.
AUTHORS NOTES:
Thanks for the story favourites/follows: Runedragon98, diddyk2345, goodwin761, DraconisRose18, Dantheline, Lolzalla, Enache Paul Lulian,
Thanks for the author favourites/follows: Siddarth1998m, Lolzalla,
Enache Paul Lulian: In fairness, Headmaster Dippet was the headmaster of hogwarts when Tom went there. Dumbles only became headmaster after Tom had graduated and worked for a while.
Inumiru: All will be revealed later, but Nance is not Daphne's aunt :) I had a think about what sort of toys a pureblood 'darkish' family might have that would be semi educational and that's what I came up with. It teaches young girls simple household charms (even if they can't perform the magic themselves just yet) and provides a warning not to go into places that they shouldn't. The face melting curse only applies to the dolls of course, but guess what would happen if you tried to break into Hew's study?
Archer1Eye: That's true… very few mentions of her. As for this chapter… Sorry! Things WILL get better in the next one, I promise! More about Nance will come in the next chapter as well. As for muggle hating, If it weren't for the girl's apology and attention she may have written off muggles entirely after this chapter.