Cornelius Fudge could honestly say this was his hardest year in office. First, there was all that trouble at Hogwarts, then Sirius Black escaped Azkaban, and now this Potter mess. He wished he could sweep it all under the rug and pretend it wasn't real but it was all too public for that. No, he would follow Amelia's advice and try to get ahead of things so he could direct all of the public's ire at the appropriate people when they came knocking.

Speaking of knocking, there was barely one before Amelia came through the door and swung it shut before Dolores could stop her.

"Sorry for barging in Minister but I just got through with Potter's relatives and unfortunately they are still breathing. Those people are the equivalent to blood purists. They absolutely hate anything/anyone different from them. The uncle was perfectly happy to tell me all about Potter's freakishness yesterday, but a night in jail loosened the aunt's tongue. She went on a long tirade about how much she hated her "perfect" sister, and how Lily got what was coming to her, but of course she couldn't die properly and take her son with her. So they were burdened with their freak of a nephew. To make up for this they used him as their personal house elf from the age of 3, and later a stress relief and took their anger out on him for every life frustration they had. Cornelius, they worked the child to the bone, beat him when it suited them, starved him, and then threw him into a cupboard so they could pretend they were normal people and forget about all the evil they were doing." Amelia ended with a slight tremor in her voice that he was going to politely ignore.

"What would you suggest we do next Amelia?" Things just kept getting worse and worse. He wished he could hand this mess off to Dumbledore but the possibility of him getting blamed for them was too great. Dumbledore had enough good will and power to wiggle his way out of this, him not so much.

"We should let whoever is looking after Potter know that they will need to keep him for the rest of the summer, if possible. I would like to bring charges against the Dursleys and have them tried in front of the Wizengamot. Originally, I was going to collect all of the evidence and hand them over to the muggles but after that confession, I want them to rot in Azkaban!" She all but shouted.

Oh shit! "Umm… about that. Dumbledore arranged for Potter to stay at the Leakey Cauldron for the rest of the summer. The owner agreed to keep an eye on him and report to us if there was any trouble." Fudge admitted thinking this was exactly the kind of blowback he was trying to avoid.

"You left a 13-year-old to stay at the Leaky Cauldron for weeks by themselves with barely any supervision. You realize that he is going to be wandering around muggle London and Diagon Alley without any protection, and if anything happens to him you will get the blame since you were seen leaving him there?" She asked looking unimpressed and maybe a little disgusted. Hell, he was feeling disgusted with himself for allowing Dumbledore to use him like that.

"Yes, on a closer review, that was not a wise decision. Should I find someone to house him for the rest of the summer?" He asked already adding another item to his list of things to do.

Amelia considered the matter for a few moments before speaking. "Since that situation is already set up and we are currently looking for suitable guardians, I think it might be better to let him stay at the Cauldron for now, and just assign him some protection. With Sirius Black roaming around a little extra security around the Alley would not be amiss. I think assigning an auror to follow Potter and another to patrol the alley will kill two birds with one stone."

"Yes, I think that is an excellent suggestion!" And having the aurors in the Alley will make people feel safer and see that the Ministry is doing something about Black. Amelia was turning out to be a great advisor.

"I will set up a meeting with Potter tomorrow to explain the situation with his relatives and the auror protection," Amelia said wrapping up.

As she started to stand there was a rapid knock on the door before it was pushed open again. This time to admit Glenda with Dolores right behind her.

"You can't just barge into the Minister's office!" Dolores shouted. Turning towards him she continued. "I tried to stop her Minister, but when I told her you were in a meeting with Madam Bones she decided she was invited to the meeting as well. I will contact the aurors and have her arrested." She said with a strange little smile. Maybe he should have gone with another option, Dolores was getting to be a bit over-enthusiastic.

"Thank you Dolores, but that will be unnecessary. I believe Glenda has some information Amelia and I asked her to look into for us." He explained and dismissed her with a wave of her hand.

"You won't believe what I just found out about the Potter will." Glenda jumped right into explaining.

"Glenda!" Amelia exclaimed and then looked at Dolores who was still standing in the doorway. The three watched her until the door was fully closed and the privacy wards activated. "You need to be more careful, Glenda. If the wrong information gets out before we are ready, the fallout might cost some of us our jobs." Amelia warned with a pointed look at the other woman.

"You're right Amelia I just … did you know that the Potter's will was sealed and never went through probate?" And the punches just kept on coming.

HP-HP-HP

Harry was starting to think he should have waited to see Madam Pomfrey. The female goblin that Goldfeather had introduced as his healer might just be the scariest goblin he had met thus far.

Goldfeather had led Harry down two more levels of the bank before they got to the medical level. The layout of this floor was different from the others. As soon as you entered the floor you were greeted by a guard with a silver helmet and red spikes along the top. Harry hadn't seen a helmet like that before and wondered if it was an indication of rank or that he was assigned to the medical floor.

After Goldfeather explained the reason for their visit, Harry was shown into an office towards the end of the hall.

He barely got through his introduction before being kicked out of the room. Healer Aurora didn't waste time on bedside manners and immediately demanded Harry lay down on the cot while she placed stones, or crystals maybe, around him. As she started chanting, Harry took the time to observe the room.

Harry was amused to note the similarities between goblin and wizarding medical facilities. Both smelled like a mixture of sage and lavender and favored the colors white and silver. It was actually kind of calming being surrounded by the familiar scent of the hospital wing.

Healer Aurora's chanting got louder and the crystals started to glow. This was very different from anything Madam Pomfrey had ever done to him. He wondered what she was saying and how it differed from wizarding magic. Was this a type of magic he could learn? Would he be able to heal himself at the Dursleys without getting in trouble with the ministry? God knows he was going to need some kind of healing when Vernon got through with him next summer.

The chanting stopped so abruptly it was a little shocking. Turning his focus back to the healer, Harry watched as she walked around him and the still glowing crystals. As she moved around she seemed to become increasingly agitated. Every once in a while she would stop and mutter a few words in her own language. By the time she reached the other side of him, Harry thought she was going to blow her top. Vernon would look like that right before he would … well it's best not to think of that right now with another angry being standing next to him. Harry couldn't think of what he could have done to make her so mad.

"Who has done this to you child?" Aurora asked in a tone much too gentle for the anger he could sense coming from her.

"Did what?" Harry asked uncertainly.

The question snapped her out of whatever mood she was in and she returned to the stoic goblin he had first met. "Mr. Potter, your body is malnourished. That means that your body isn't getting enough nutrients. My evaluation shows that this is not a recent occurrence. Although this could occur if you have certain kinds of diseases I did not find any of them in you. Because of the malnutrition, you are severely underweight and underheight. Not only are your bones not growing properly, they are not as strong as they should be. Brittle bones may not be a problem now, but as you age they will be. Your organs are also functioning overtime to sustain you. Honestly, if you didn't have so much magic, you wouldn't be able to function the way you do. A good bit of your magic is being used to keep your body performing."

His body wasn't working right! All those years of missed meals could have done him in if it weren't for his magic. Did they know that when they were starving him? He knew they didn't like him and didn't care if he was hurt. Hell, most of the time they were the ones causing the injuries, but were they trying to kill him? Did "stamping the magic out" include killing him in the process? Harry thought he had gotten over their hatred of him. But the thought that his aunt might have been trying to kill him brought new pain.

"Mr. Potter," the healer said using that gentle tone again. "This damage had to have occurred over a long period of time. I also found many indications of fractured and broken bones that were not healed properly. If you had gone to a muggle healer they would not have been fully healed but they would be set properly. These injuries were not and your magic fused the bones together in an effort to keep you going. This all points to child abuse. Maybe in another child this might be explainable but your guardians had access to quite a bit of money to feed you. Then there are the injuries… Those damnable wizards should have kept an eye on you!" She snarled out at the end.

He wasn't sure if it was someone actually calling it abuse or someone getting angry on his behalf, but his emotions started to overwhelm him. Tears started to well up in his eyes and he quickly looked away. He needed to stop! He was the boy-who-lived and a Gryffindor, not some little kid. He needed to pull himself together.

Trying to calm himself down with slow deep breaths he was startled when he felt a light pressure on his back. Aurora's hand slowly started to move in gentle circles and Harry became aware of a low hum coming from the healer. This new situation had distracted him from his tears. He had seen Petunia do something similar with Dudley when he got upset, but he had never had it done to him before. It was nice, calming. Feeling more in control he turned back to the healer.

"Although the damage is severe, it is not untreatable" She began again in that gentle tone while continuing to rub slow circles onto his back. "With potions and a little magic we can undo a good bit of the damage. Unfortunately, that is not the end of things. Your magic has also been attacked."

"What's wrong with my magic?" Harry almost shouted. He was used to being hurt physically but his magic … what would he do if they somehow hurt his magic? It was his only way out. He couldn't take it if they had succeeded in stomping his magic out. If he had to give up the magical world after everything he wouldn't be able to survive.

"Calm yourself child. It was caught soon enough that we should be able to undo most of it." She said adding more pressure to her circles. "You have had a magical suppressor placed on you. It has limited the amount of access you have to your magical core. It is a form of old magic that wizards used to use as punishment before there was Azkaban. Those who used their magic to do harm were stripped of said magic and forced to live as muggles. Your suppressor is slightly modified so you still have access to your magic but it is limited."

"Oh" was all Harry managed to get out. Somebody had put some kind of prison punishment spell on him that had stopped him from using all of his magic. That was scary but at least he still had his magic and wouldn't have to stay in the muggle world. "Maybe one of the Slytherins did it at the end of the year. I haven't felt any different but I also haven't been using my magic since school ended."

"Oh child, this wasn't done to you by another student. You have not felt the difference because this was done to you at a young age. Think of your magical core as a lake. At a young age, somebody built a dam to block off ⅔ of your magic. However, at that age your core is still developing and thankfully is more malleable. As you grow your core gets bigger, and like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets. In most children, magic is allowed to flow freely from their core through their magical channels. This is how accidental magic happens. The core expands and magic is able to flow around the body and escape if it is too much."

"However, in your case, as your core expanded most of it was behind the dam and was not able to flow properly and the pressure was not released. Some of it was able to escape the dam and join your available magic. Under that situation, you might have been able to function as a below-average wizard until your magical majority. That's when you would have run into problems but by then it would have been too late." The healer explained.

Harry wasn't sure he fully understood what she was saying but he got the gist of it. His magic was a dammed-up lake that was going to explode someday.

Watching him process that bombshell she seemed to come to some kind of decision and stepped away. "Now that we know what is wrong we can fix it. Let me summon Goldfeather and we can discuss treatment options."

I appreciate all the reviews and follows! I wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year!

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