Chapter Three
Harry felt his world spin for a second before he clutched at a wall.
"Harry? What happened?" Severus asked, pulling Harry into a hug.
"We'll explain in a moment." Lily said, "Kreacher please take Danica and the shopping into the kitchen and put everything away. Harry has asked for tacos for his birthday dinner by the way."
Kreacher shuffled his feet, "Kreacher doesn'ts wants to go intos the kitchen right nows."
Lily took a deep breath, "I know, but the shopping has to go away."
Kreacher muttered something under his breath and took the shopping bags, "Fine. But Missy Danica doesn't come intos the kitchen."
"Oh My Goodness! What happened to you, you poor dear!" Molly Weasley cried, bustling into the hallway.
"On seconds thoughts kitchen sounds greats." Kreacher said, leading Danica into the kitchen and locking the door behind them.
Severus moved in front of Harry slightly, "He'll be fine, Molly. I'm sure."
"Well what happened? This is terrible! He's bleeding!" Molly said.
"Dining room." Nikka said, pointing the way, and gesturing for them to go though.
Harry let his mother and father lead him into the neat dinning room and sat him down at the head of the table. Sirius and Nikka followed them in, Nikka shutting the door before Molly could come in, before sitting around the table.
"This looks very nasty." Severus said, he flicked his wand and summoned an old box made out of several different types of wood. He placed his thumb on the latch and it sprung open, revealing a large selection of potion vials.
He pulled out a pale pink coloured potion and handed it to Harry, "Drink it all down."
Harry did as he was asked and drank the strangely chocolatey flavoured potion. He felt immediately better, his head fog clearing and the feeling like he was about to throw up leaving him quickly.
"That's better, thank you." Harry said, rubbing his head.
Lily sighed at the sight of the locked door that led towards the kitchen, "I was going to ask Kreacher to fix this, he would have done the neatest job."
"You could always order him out of there." Sirius suggested.
Lily shook her head, "No, it's fine. He's been a little stressed since… our guests moved in."
Harry couldn't argue there. Kreacher hadn't been stressed at all when they first arrived, he'd cooked a large welcome meal and set the table with all the best china. It was when Molly started complaining about the state of the house and making suggestions with his cooking that his stress levels had started to climb.
Lily had always insisted that Harry and Danica help out with jobs around the house and learned to cook, she believed it was a skill they would need one day so it wasn't the help that Kreacher objected to, it had just been a long time sine anyone had told him he had done it all wrong and not said thank you for his help.
"I'll do it." Nikka smiled, "Being a fully qualified and employed Auror, we do a medical section for field work."
She moved over to Harry and raised her wand over his head. Harry felt a slight warmth on his head for a few moments before it vanished and he was left with no pain. He felt the familiar brush of a cleaning spell over the area.
"There you go." Nikka said, "As good as new."
Harry reached up and felt over the now fully healed tiny scar on the back of his head, "Thanks."
"Is he all right?" Molly asked, coming into the room and gently pushing passed everyone till she could see Harry.
"I'm fine." Harry said, forcing a smile.
Molly Weasley pulled him into a hug, "I'm so glad. Now I thought I would make a lovely pot roast for your birthday? It's in a couple of days isn't it?"
"Umm three, yeah." Harry said, "But I think Kreacher was planning on making me ta-"
"Oh I'm happy to do it! There's a brilliant new beef gravy, as part of the 'Mrs Marie Hughes special sauces', I think it'll work wonderfully." Molly beamed.
"Really Molly, that's very kind." Lily said, "But Harry really likes Kreacher's cooking and Kreacher was looking forward to it. Plus I don't think we've got enough in for everyone to have a pot roast."
Molly waved her hand dismissively, "I'll talk to Kreacher. And don't worry about the ingredients, I'm very good at replicating so it's not a worry."
There was a loud pop in the room causing everyone to jump.
"Hi Harry!" Fred beamed.
"Heard you got a knock on your head, you OK?" George asked.
Harry smirked, "Yeah I'm fine. No getting rid of me just yet."
"Will you two stop using magic for everything?" Molly snapped, "Just because you can now doesn't mean that you should!"
She shooed them out of the room and Sirius quickly and quietly closed the door behind her. He took a deep breath and grinned, pulling out a chair and sitting down next to Harry.
"So?" he asked, "How did you injure yourself this time?"
Harry took a deep breath and filled them in on what had happened in the park, ratted Danica out about sneaking books that were really a bit too old for her, and then what happened with the Dementors and the attack.
He looked around at the shocked faces. He felt almost guilty for landing this on them, not that it was his fault but there was still a part of him that felt like it was something they shouldn't have to be dealing with.
"Harry… I… are you sure?" Sirius asked, "I mean, of course you are but are you sure it wasn't a boggart?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah, yeah I'm sure. And they were there after me, I mean they didn't even look at..."
Lily leaned forwards, "Harry? What is it?"
Harry hadn't thought about the people around him when he'd pulled his wand out and cast the spell to get rid of the attacking Dementors.
"There were muggles on the street, not many, just a couple and I don't know how much they saw, I wasn't really looking. Muggles can't see Dementors can they?" Harry asked, he could feel his heart sinking even further.
Nikka shook her head, "No, Dementors are invisible to non-magic folk."
Severus opened his mouth to say something when there was a timid knock at the door. Sirius stood up and opened it, Ginny was standing there, holding a letter.
"Sorry to disturb you," she said, looking worriedly at Severus, "But this arrived and Mum said I should take it straight to you."
Sirius took the smooth parchment letter and thanked her, closing the door, "It's for you Harry."
Harry reached out a hand, annoyed that it was shaking. He slit it open and took out the letter. It was on thick, smooth paper, not like the thin stuff that he and his friends used to write quickly to each other, it also looked very formal before he'd even opened it.
Harry took a deep breath and unfolded the paper,
" 'Dear Mr Potter,
We have received intelligence that you performed the Patronus Charm at forty-two minutes passed five this evening in a muggle-inhabited area and in the presence of two muggles. The severity of this breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery has resulted in your expulsio…' "
Harry felt all the breath leave him, this couldn't possibly be right, it wasn't his fault. Nikka reached over and took the letter from him.
" 'resulted in your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ministry representatives will be calling at your place of residence shortly to destroy you wand. As you have already received an official warning for a previous offence under Section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy, we regret to inform you that your presence is required at a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic at 9 am on the twelfth of August. Hoping you are well, yours sincerely, Mafalda Hopkirk, Improper Use of Magic Office, Ministry of Magic.' Well fuck." Nikka said, flopping down into a chair.
"Lock the door." Lily said, not moving.
"Lily, they won't be able to find us anyway." Sirius pointed out, "Yesterday, maybe but not today, not after we've boosted the charm."
Lily nodded, she stood up and started to pace, slowly up and down the room, "Right, call them all in here. Kreacher!"
There was a click as the kitchen door was unlocked and Kreacher poked his nose round, "Yes Missy Lily?"
Lily forced a smile, "We've had some rather bad news, don't let anyone in the house for a while, until we say, and could you please take Danica upstairs?"
Kreacher nodded and led Danica out the kitchen. Severus returned after a few moments with Molly Weasley and Fleur Delacour, she'd gotten a job at Gringotts and was staying with them until she could find somewhere she liked.
Truth be told Lily was more than happy to have her around, having another fully trained and battle ready witch around was always reassuring but she was also someone around who didn't have bright red hair. Danica loved her, she would cuddle on her lap, head buried in Fleur's long, platinum blonde hair as Fleur read to her.
Molly and Ginny were not so fond of her, but they didn't say anything, at least not to her face.
"Where is everyone else?" Sirius asked.
"Well Arthur is at work, you know that." Molly said, taking a seat around the table.
Sirius frowned, "Yeah, but the kids are all here aren't they?"
Molly glared at him, "They are far too young to be included in meetings Sirius, I've told you that already."
Nikka forced a smile and put a hand on Sirius's shoulder to stop him from snapping back at her, "This isn't a normal meeting." she explained.
"I would not like my Gabrielle to be involved with t'is sort of thing." Fleur said, smiling at Molly.
Molly forced a small smile at her, "That's your sister, not your child. You wouldn't understand."
Lily rolled her eyes, "Well, I would like it if you could tell your children not to go out for a while, as you know, Harry was attacked today by a Dementor. As a result he had to use a Patronus Charm to protect himself and Danica. The ministry have seen fit to expel him, there is someone on the way to destroy his wand."
"They can not get in 'ough, 'an zay?" Fleur said, "We made up the protection spell, zay can not get through the Fidelius Charm?"
"Well, I don't know how it is back home," Molly said, "but here, our Ministry is very powerful."
"No, they can't get in." Severus reassured her, "Not unless the secret keeper tells them where the house is, and they wont."
Molly let out a disapproving sniff, "I still think you made a mistake picking him."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nikka asked sharply.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Molly, we trust Dimitri. He's Nikka's brother. He's not going to betray us."
Molly smiled, rather forcedly, "I know, I know. And you're lovely dear, it's just, well, you haven't known them for very long. Arthur said he would do it for you." she pointed out.
Lily took a deep breath, "Yes, you're right, we haven't known them long and yet, we'd known Peter for years. We trust Nikka, and we trust her family."
"Besides, the more the secret keeper stays at the place they are protecting the quicker the Fidelius Charm will fail." Severus pointed out, "Dimitri lives nearby so he won't ever need to stay here."
Molly said nothing but picked at the edge of her sleeve for a second, "Yes, you're right, you're right of course. What's that?"
She stood up and walked over to the window, letting in a small Little owl. It gave her a note and she breathed a sigh of relief, reading over it.
"Good news?" Lily asked.
Molly smiled, "Yes. Harry, Dumbledore is at the Ministry now, he's going to sort everything out! They're not even sending anyone to take your wand any more, isn't that brilliant?!"
Harry forced a smile, "Yeah, that's great. Really good of him." he didn't feel any better. The pit in his stomach was still there, he wasn't so confident that everything could be sorted out so quickly and easily.
"Oh, and Arthur has asked that I make his favourite chicken dish tonight." Molly smiled.
Harry needed a rest, he couldn't deal with this right now, "I'm going to my room." he didn't wait for anyone to say anything, he just got up, the chair making a loud scratching noise against the floor, and left the room.
His head was hurting, it never seemed to stop hurting any more, not really. He was also tired, it had been a long day and now he had to face the idea that he was never going back to Hogwarts. He knew why the Ministry was so against him, the whole world seemed to be against him at the moment.
He reached under his bed and pulled out the latest copy of the Daily Prophet. Molly had tried to hide if from him over breakfast but Sirius thought he had a right to know what was being said about him.
It wasn't nice. It hadn't been nice for weeks now; ever since the final task of the Triwizard Tournament there hadn't been a single favourable thing written about Harry. It was all the same, that he was insane, attention starved, one or two articles saying he had tried to kill Danica to make himself the only child again, three or four saying it was probably him who'd killed Cedric.
He had been horrified to start with, that people could write those things, but he had bigger things to worry about currently, including the fact he was being called into the ministry of magic to stand trial.