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The days went past and Susan continued to worry about Harry, he seemed to be working from before she woke up in the morning until evening with barely a break. When she asked him if they could meet he admitted that he couldn't leave until his chores were all done but that he expected that his Aunt would run out of jobs beyond the regular cleaning and garden maintenance in another week or so. Susan asked him why he stayed there if he was treated like this every summer and Harry explained about the blood wards protecting him and his relatives while he was there.
"They don't bloody deserve your protection, after treating you like that. You don't owe them a bloody thing," Susan yelled.
"It protects me as well," Harry replied.
Susan blew her top. "It's not protecting you from them, or if it is it's doing a bloody poor job of it. And it isn't protecting you from being attacked by the Dark Wanker during the year. How many times have you nearly died at Hogwarts?"
"Dumbledore said that the wards help maintain my mother's protection, that's what saved me at the end of first year," Harry replied.
"Well we both know that he's a manipulative liar who would say whatever he thought would get you to do what he wanted you to do," Susan retorted. "Wards on a house you hadn't been in for more than nine months couldn't have done a damn thing to save you."
"But why would he want me to stay here if it the wards weren't keeping me safe?" Harry asked.
"I have no idea," Susan said blankly. "I could say he wants you to think that your relatives are keeping you safe or making a sacrifice to have you but it's pretty clear they benefit from your presence in their home more than you do. Ae you sure he knows how they treat you?"
"Yes, he has people watching me," Harry replied.
"Why?" Susan asked suspiciously.
"He said it was to keep me safe," Harry said slowly.
"Which would be unnecessary if the wards worked the way he said they do. Would these people watching stop you from leaving?" Susan retorted.
"They don't stop me from leaving the house, but they follow me when I go to the shops or the park," Harry replied.
"Would they stop someone from visiting you?" Susan asked.
"Nobody ever has visited me here, except the Weasleys when they came to pick me up to stay with them before second year and third year," Harry replied.
"Have any of your friends tried?" Susan asked.
"I don't think so," Harry said. "Hermione only lives about 30 mile from here but you've got to go almost to Diagon Alley then back out to get to her house by public transport, and she seems happy to write letters, she's never even tried to call on the telephone. Even when Dumbledore said she couldn't write to me because of the risk of someone following the owl she never tried to call or send me a muggle letter."
"Why did Dumbledore stop your friends from writing to you? What right did he have to do that? Are they writing to you this summer?" Susan asked horrified.
"That's odd, I would have thought she'd want to visit, she goes to stay with the Weasleys when you do," Susan commented.
"It is, she never writes about friends in the muggle world, but she and her parents spend three or four weeks in Europe most summers and then a couple of weeks at the Weasleys, it doesn't leave a lot of time for visiting me after she does her reading and homework," Harry said dismissively.
"Okay, so that's not suspicious, what does Dumbledore gain from keeping you there that's important enough that he has you guarded rather than letting you stay somewhere like the Weasleys or Longbottom Hall," Susan said. "He's cutting you off from the wizarding world, but it must be more than that."
"I don't know, Susan. If he wants me to like muggle's he's failing miserably," Harry said.
"But if he wants to make sure you don't think that muggles need protecting… No that doesn't make sense, he's pro muggles," Susan said frowning in confusion.
"He's supposedly pro rights for muggleborns and werewolves and other beings but he has a lot of influence and held two important posts in our government for years but nothing has changed for the better," Harry pointed out.
Susan frowned. "Okay. I think we've established that Dumbledore is a lying liar who lies. So why are you still at the Dursleys? The way your relatives treat you is criminal."
"Where else would I go? The Weasleys invite me to stay at the end of the summer but not until Dumbledore says they can. My godfather offered me a home but he died at the end of fifth year, no one else has invited me to stay with them. If the Dursley's are arrested I could end up in a muggle orphanage who wouldn't let me come back to Hogwarts or I'd be at the mercy of whoever the ministry decided to place me with. It could be a lot worse than this," Harry said bluntly.
"I'd definitely offer, but my Aunt wouldn't let me have a boy stay and until this summer I've spent a lot of time staying with the Abbott's because Aunty had to work late into the night," Susan said sighing.
Susan felt bad that she couldn't get Harry a place to stay where he would be treated decently or at least do something about the way his relatives treated him. He tried to console her that she'd done more than anyone else ever had. At least now he had enough to eat. Melly reported that she took him food at least three times a day and left snacks in stasis hidden in the secret place in his room for him and hidden in the garden shed so he would always have access to fresh wholesome food and drink as well as the desserts Susan chose for him. She really appreciated the way he opened their connection and made sure it was open on her end too before he ate them.
She also opened the connection between them and spoke to him, or read aloud while he worked whenever they were both alone, and they started completing their homework together in the evenings while the Dursleys were downstairs out of earshot. As a result their friendship deepened and they grew to know and understand each other better and Harry found he enjoyed doing homework more with her than he ever had with Ron and Hermione or even Neville. Their summer homework was also more well done than either had done before because they were sharing ideas and putting the effort in to be as helpful to the other as possible.
Susan also found that it helped Harry for her to be cool while he was working in the sun during the heat. So she tried to always go swimming or take a cool shower while he was mowing lawns, cleaning gutters or painting the exterior of the house. She was aware that Harry also tried to be looking through her eyes as she walked back into the house through the glass doors while wearing her swimming costume, and tended to wait until Harry was on the ground and not doing something he needed to concentrate on for his own safety and then let the coverup slip open or off one shoulder as she approached the door. She noticed that once she was in her room or stepped out of the cool shower, Harry always closed the connection to give her privacy to get dressed.
"You know that you could have stayed and watched," she said when she felt him return one day. "I would have shut down the connection if I didn't want you to look. There's nothing that you haven't already seen in person."
She could feel the heat in his cheeks as Harry agreed. "I needed to be able to concentrate on what I'm doing on the ladder but if you invite me to stay next time I will stay and watch."
Floor length mirrors, or mirrors that reflected any part of the bathroom where you showered or got in and out of the shower weren't part of the wizarding world where most mirrors had a personality and gave decided opinions on what they were reflecting most people avoided being naked in front of them so he wouldn't see much unless she deliberately walked out in front of the mirror and she really didn't want to share that sort of moment with Harry with anyone else, even a mirror. The glass in her bedroom and bathroom windows did not reflect the room, a side effect of the spell not to allow outsiders to look in. That meant the only way to have a reflective surface to show Harry would be to cast a reflective charm deliberately and she wasn't sure she was ready to be so brazen, Harry would have to make do with the glimpses he'd get as she looked down to wash herself.
Harry enjoyed Susan's shower as much as he usually enjoyed his own, and a few nights later when the Dursleys were out for dinner he was able to shower at the same time and showed her exactly how much he was enjoying feeling her touching herself to wash.
-o0o-
Harry felt a sharp feeling of fear spike through him as he finished washing the dishes one evening shortly after arriving back at the Dursleys. He made sure he was alone then quickly connected with Susan, looking through her eyes for the threat. He could see her Aunt looking casting spells at three masked Death Eaters.
'They'll break through the wards any minute, the floo isn't working and we can't apparate or portkey out, we can't even call for help,' Susan thought at him desperately.
Hurriedly disconnecting just enough to be able to pay attention to his own surroundings as well, he raced outside hoping that his guard for the evening was actually someone useful who would be prepared to listen to him.
"Madam Bones and Susan are under attack in their home, they need urgent help," he yelled as soon as he opened the door.
Luckily it was Tonks. "How do you know?" She demanded.
"There's no time to explain! Unless you want your boss to die while you stand there asking me questions, you need to send them help now!" Harry urged pulling out his wand.
"Put that away. I'm not taking you anywhere," Tonks snapped.
"Send a patronus to get help for them now. Or I will," Harry yelled at her fiercely.
Tonks sent her patronus to Kingsley telling him that Amelia Bones was under attack at her home, and a shining white wolf leapt away. She turned to demand answers from Harry but he'd slipped back inside, locking the door as soon as he knew help was on the way.
Harry didn't waste time going upstairs to his room. Instead, he snuck into his old cupboard pulling the door shut so wouldn't be found and interrupted and collapsed onto his old mattress dropping his wand. He reconnected with Susan and told her help was on the way. She and her Aunt were still fighting there best but Harry could see that they both were beginning to tire. They needed help right now.
"Wide angle cutting spell aim below the knees. Don't hold back," he urged his secret girlfriend, willing his magic to help her.
The next spell she cast cut her opponent off at the knee, his cry of pain drawing the attention of one of her Aunt's attackers who moved towards Susan and was cut in half as well, enabling Amelia Bones to get the upper hand and disarm, stun and incarcerate her remaining opponents.
Just as they were about to breathe a sigh of relief, things went from bad to worse. Voldemort appeared, flanked by his favourite followers Lucius Malfoy, and the three Lestranges.
Harry's blood started to boil with anger and before he knew he was in control, Susan's wand spat out the cutting hex invented by 'the Half-blood Prince' removing Bellatrix's head from her shoulders, the 'tail' of the curse also killing her husband and hitting her brother-in-law and deeply scarring Malfoy's formerly pretty face forever.
Amelia attacked Voldemort desperately, she was convinced she was going to die and her niece as well, but she'd be damned if she didn't go down fighting to protect Susan with everything she had.
In spite of the curse that had taken out his followers, Voldemort ignored the teenage girl and concentrated on the woman he perceived to be the biggest threat, as well as the barrier to his taking control of the ministry of magic. Lucius was trying to kill the brat who cursed him. He recognised the curse and in the small part of his mind that remained rational, Lucius knew that he was losing blood and would soon have to either retreat and risk the dark Lord's wrath for abandoning him, or risk dying of blood loss before he could be healed, but he was determined to punish the bitch who had disfigured him. 'Snape is going to regret the day he taught her that' he vowed.
But Harry and Susan hadn't finished. As soon as Malfoy dropped his shield and pointed his wand at Susan with the killing curse on his lips Harry reacted, lightening quick, blasting him to smithereens, showering Voldemort and Amelia with his blood and flesh. Susan absently noted that the effects were even more gory and frightening with a human target than the so called realistic training dummies, but even as she thought that he wand was sending curses towards Voldemort, trying to save her Aunt.
Harry's/Susan's next curse was batted away by Voldemort but his shock at the strength required to do so left him vulnerable. Only for an instant but it was enough for Amelia's next spell, a bone exploding hex to the pelvis to almost get through his shields.
His shield took the brunt of the curse but it was enough to fracture the neck of his femur and make Voldemort stumble out of the area he was shielding, right into Harry/Susan's next cutting curse severing his wand arm at the elbow.
He tried to apparate away but Susan/Harry were too quick for him. They cast again, this time hitting his shoulder and cutting into his neck, nicking the carotid artery.
The battle was over, just in time for the Auror team led by Kingsley Shacklebolt to arrive.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.
