Chapter Two
Harry, Lily and Danica landed in a filthy ally not far from home. Lily managed to stop Danica from jumping in the muddy puddles that were more thick mud that water as they went out into the sunshine.
Harry put his hand up to shield his eyes from the glare. He knew where they were. It was near a big Tesco that was also near a large park. Lily, Severus and Sirius had taken him to this park since he was tiny. They would go shopping, normally with a detailed list from Kreacher, and then they would get to go to the park, it made shopping more bearable for him when he was little.
On hot summer days they would get to go to the park first, and then they would take Harry for ice cream or an ice lolly. Today, it seemed, was too hot for many children to be playing in the park, the grass had grown dry and dusty from the lack of rain, most children were in the new, nearby pool rather than the park.
Lily grabbed a shopping trolley and pulled out the list. Written in big neat letters over the top was 'Harry's birthday food!'.
They made their way through the isles, Harry grabbing things when he was asked and putting them neatly in the trolley.
"Danica, rice pudding rice." Lily said, "Harry, do you want wraps with your tacos?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah, why not." he smiled.
Lily smiled, "Your wish is my command. Danica stop trying to take the book out of my bag."
"Mummy I'm bored!" Danica said, "It's too hot in here."
Lily sighed, she couldn't argue there. She pulled a couple of pounds out of her bag and handed them to Harry, "Could you go and get some ice creams and then wait in the park for me? How does that sound?"
Danica's face lit up, "Yes please Mummy."
Lily gave her a tight squeeze and handed the money to Harry. He took Danica's hand and led her quickly to the freezer section.
"So what do you want?" he asked.
Danica picked out a box of strawberry splits. They paid for them and went over to the park. Harry helped Danica onto the swing and then sat down next to her, handing her an ice lolly.
"You know I used to love twisting round on these and then it spins you back really really fast. It's good fun." Harry grinned.
Danica smiled, "Can I ask you something?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah of course."
Danica pushed at the ground with the toe of her shoe, "Something bad is going to happen, isn't it?"
Harry looked down at the ground, "What do you mean?"
Danica shrugged, "I don't know, it's just… it's like there is something bad going to happen. There are always people coming to the house now and talking in whispers, I'm six, but I've got a good brain in my head! It works and everything!"
Harry let out a laugh, he couldn't help it, "No, no you are anything but stupid, your brain works very well. And yes, something bad is coming but you don't have to worry about that."
"What?" Danica asked, "What's coming?"
Harry didn't want to tell her, he took a bite of his ice cream to buy himself sometime.
"There was once someone very bad…" Harry started.
"Like the Evil Queen? From Snow White?" Danica asked.
Harry grinned, "Yeah, a lot like the Evil Queen. The difference is that they want to be the most powerful in all the land, rather than the prettiest."
"So they killed James?" Danica asked, "Your Daddy?"
Harry looked at her wide eyed, "How did you…?"
Danica shrugged, "Mum always said it was a bad man who killed James and you said that this was a bad person like the evil queen."
Harry frowned, they were going to need to be even more careful than before about what they said around Danica; she was putting things together way too quickly.
"Smarty pants." Harry grinned.
Danica smiled, "You know it's going to be OK? Snow White wins, so you and Mummy and Daddy will win. And then you can make the bad person dance to death in white hot shoes too!."
Harry spat out his ice cream in shock, "What books have you been reading?"
Danica smiled evilly, "Mummy said I could always read fairy stories… she didn't say they had to come from my bookshelf."
"I'm telling." Harry said.
Danica laughed. She looked at her ice cream, "Do you want the rest of this. It's too cold."
"It's ice cream." Harry smirked, rolling his eyes, "It's meant to be cold, just eat it slower so it doesn't hurt your head."
Danica rolled her eyes at him and sighed, "No, I meant it's getting too cold out here."
Harry looked around; it was getting cold, very cold in fact and they were now the only ones here; everyone else had left. Even the sky was getting darker now.
"I don't feel so good." Danica mumbled, wrapping her arms around her chest and dropping her ice cream to the floor.
Harry felt his heart racing. He jumped up and pulled Danica off the swing, and pulled out his wand.
"We need to get back to Mum." Harry said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice, "Now."
"Is this the bad man?" Danica asked, her eyes growing wide.
Harry shook his head, "I… I don't think so but we need to get to Mum."
Danica nodded and held tightly to Harry's hand as he led them out the park, the sky growing darker and colder with every step they took. Harry could feel every hair on the back of his neck stand on end and felt himself grow more and more miserable.
He had to keep moving, they had to keep moving. They were at the end of the street now, just cross over the road and then they would be at the shop. It would be two minutes.
Harry felt the first Dementor slam into him, knocking him to the ground. He let go of Danica's hand, and she stumbled forward. She turned round to see what happened to Harry and screamed at the sight of the hooded, black, Dementor towering over Harry.
Danica felt the scream leave her throat, "HARRY!"
Harry pushed himself to a sitting position and grabbed his wand, "Run! Danica Run to Mum! NOW!"
Danica didn't want to leave Harry alone, she couldn't think straight she was so scared.
"Danica run!" Harry screamed.
Danica nodded and ran off towards the shop.
Harry saw a second Dementor swooping after her. He thought of a happy moment, forced himself to let it fill every corner of his mind and pointed his wand at the Dementor chasing Danica.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry yelled.
The stag burst from the end of her wand and chased down the Dementor, sending it flying away from Danica, who let out another scream but kept running. The stag turned and started to run back, to help Harry when the Dementor over him knocked his head back, clutching at his neck, sucking at his happiness.
Harry felt himself grow cold, the thing moving closer and closer to him, leaning in towards his mouth. The Dementor pulled back his hood, it's scaly, black mouth moving in towards Harry's face.
A small part of Harry's brain was yelling at him to fight back, to protect himself. He felt his brain clouding over, it would be so much easier to just give up…
Harry forced himself to raise his wand and a faint wispy shield managed to push the Dementor off him. He fell backwards, hitting his head off the ground.
"Ex… Expecto Patronum!" He yelled, with as much force as he could. His stage burst from the tip of his wand again and charged the Dementor away.
Harry flopped back down, his head was hurting, both from where he'd hit it and from his scar, he was completely exhausted. He lay there, for what felt like hours before he heard footsteps running towards him.
"Harry! HARRY!" Lily screamed, skidding to a stop and dropping to her knees next to him, "What.. what happened? Harry you're bleeding!"
Harry felt her grip his arms and sit him up. She pressed something against the back of his head, it sent a sharp stab of pain shooting through to his eyes.
"There was… a Dementor…" Harry mumbled, trying to think.
"A Dementor? Here?" Lily gasped.
Harry nodded, "Two of them."
He could feel his mother start to worry; Dementor attacks like this were unheard of, at least now. Back during the war they had been more common. This was not a good sign.
"Do you think it was him?" Harry asked, "Voldemort? He said that the Dementors would go to him."
Lily shook her head, "No… no it's too soon, it's not been long enough for him to gather that sort of support."
"Danica?" Harry asked, trying to look around.
Lily held him tightly, "She's fine. She found me, I'd just finished paying for the shopping when she ran in. I came as soon as I could."
Harry nodded, struggling to think straight and leant against her chest, listening to her comforting heartbeat.
"Do you think you can stand?" Lily asked.
"Yeah. Yeah I think so." Harry said, letting Lily pull him to his feet.
He was woozy, the world spinning around him Harry had no choice but to lean heavily on his mother. They walked as quickly as Harry could manage towards the Tesco. The security guard looked worriedly at Harry and lead them to a quiet office room.
Danica was waiting just inside the door, holding a mostly full carton of juice, surrounded by shopping bags. Two security guards were standing nearby. She was white faced, the two security guards kept trying to talk to her but she just looked down at her feet and ignored them.
Danica caught sight of him and jumped up, "HARRY!"
Harry managed to force a smile, "I'm OK."
"Your boy OK?" the nearest security guard asked.
Lily nodded, "He will be. He hit his head pretty badly when he… when he fell."
Harry wasn't really listening, the adrenaline was wearing off now and all he could really think about was how much his head was hurting and how much he wanted to go home.
Both of the security guards looked rather worriedly at him,
"Do you want us to call you an ambulance?"
Lily shook her head, "No, thank you. I think I'd best just get him home, do you have a medical kit so I could dress this?" she asked, pointing to his head.
They nodded and helped Harry, to a chair and grabbed the medical box that hung on the wall.
"Do you need anything?" The security guards asked.
"No, thank you. We'll let ourselves out once I've got him a little cleaned up." Lily informed them.
They smiled and nodded to her, closing the door behind them.
"This isn't as bad as it looks." She reassured him, "Head wounds always bleed more than they should."
Harry trusted she knew what she was talking about, and sat still while she dressed his head and cleaned away most of the blood.
"I'll do a better job when we get home, Severus can give you a potion to stop the concussion and Kreacher is better at the healing spells, it'll leave less of a scar. You ready to travel?" Lily asked.
Harry nodded, and then regretted it as his head felt like it was about to fall off and another bolt of pain shot through his scar. He slowly reached down and grabbed a couple of the shopping bags.
"Just leave it, Harry." Lily said, smiling softly.
Harry grinned, "Nope. I want my tacos after all this."
Lily sighed and smiled at her son's stubbornness, "Fine."
She grabbed the rest of the shopping and led them out the shop, pausing to say thank you to the security guards for looking after Danica for her.
It wasn't a long walk to the back ally where they could apparate home but it felt like at least ten miles to Harry. He was determined that he was going to make it though and leaned heavily on the damp and dirty wall when they made it to the ally.
Lily slipped her wrist through the shopping bag loops so that she could hold onto Harry and Danica's out stretched hands. One quick turn later and Harry felt the warming smells of home appear around him.