July to September 1993, summer before and 3rd year
Meeting Susan's family had gone rather well, all things considered. Harry had not expected to learn that her grandparents, as well as her uncle, his wife and their children had all been murdered by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. (Who really mustn't be named for an actual reason people either didn't talk about, had forgotten about, or didn't question in the first place – namely, the Taboo Jinx that had been active on the Dark Lord's name during the war). It had been a bit awkward at first, because Harry was the Boy-Who-Lived, Vanquisher of the Dark Lord, Hero since Infancy, et cetera, et cetera. But Susan's parents and aunt had quickly gotten over that and had overall been a warm and welcoming family.
Harry was glad he had only been there for two days and a night. One Susan was more than enough. Although, he supposed, he would have been able to tolerate her aunt, at least, for a few more days. The woman was no less open and friendly than the rest of the family, but more serious and less prone to sudden hugs and hair ruffling.
Looking at their respective family backgrounds, Harry could clearly see where all the differences between Theodore and Susan stemmed from. Looking at his own family, Harry could not see how he had turned out the way he was, at all. To be fair, he had no memories of his own parents and could only base this off of what others had told him about them. But the ones that had raised him … Then again, he could hardly call the Dursleys 'his family' and claiming they had raised him was stretching the truth quite a bit, so there was that.
The Dursleys were currently watching the news on the television. During breakfast. The Dursleys were watching television a lot. A lot a lot. All day, in fact. The thing only got turned off when they were either sleeping or leaving the house. What was so fascinating about trashy shows and watching the same news over and over again, Harry couldn't begin to fathom.
The mass murderer was still on the news. He was 'armed and extremely dangerous', they said. They had even set up a special hotline for sightings and other information about the man's whereabouts. 'Armed', in this case, meant 'in possession of a wand' and 'extremely dangerous' meant 'capable of performing deadly magic' and the special hotline had probably been set up to make it easier for the Muggles to communicate with the magical world.
Sirius Black was all over the magical world's news as well. Harry had been rather surprised to see him in the Muggle news the first time, but then the Ministry of Magic had published a statement explaining why they had felt it necessary to inform the Muggles – Black was apparently that dangerous. Considering he had been imprisoned for murdering twelve Muggles and a wizard in the middle of the street, during the day, in full view of whatever unfortunate soul was just passing by, they were probably justified in their decision.
Harry had taken note of this, because the man had escaped Azkaban and no one had ever achieved that before – and because he literally had to see his face multiple times every single day. That would stop soon, of course, because Harry wasn't planning on staying around for much longer and the Daily Prophet was only delivered once a day. Hogwarts was slacking off again this year and Harry was seriously contemplating not waiting around for the damn letter just because the old headmaster might pay attention to the address written on the envelope. His uncle's sister was coming over in a few days and there was no way Harry was going to stay around for that disaster. He had already purchased the train tickets to London.
The question was – would he return after his uncle's sister had left? Was it worth the hassle? Maybe the letter would arrive during his stay at Diagon Alley and then Harry could go to Theodore's without worry.
Yes, that would be ideal, he thought. Only to then receive the thing that very same day.
o
"It is unsettling to know what you are really like under that sweet and kind façade."
"Susan said the same thing," Harry replied casually, watching Theodore's face carefully for the almost imperceptible narrowing of his eyes. Looping a dark curl around his fingers and lowering his chin to bat his eyelashes at the other boy, he continued, "Don't I make an adorable little girl?"
The disguise he had used the year before still worked out perfectly. He had had to renew the eye colour changing enchantment on the glasses and buy new dresses, because he had outgrown the ones he had used last time, but the rest had been a piece of cake.
"That makes it all the more unsettling," Theodore said.
"Oh, Theo," Harry simpered, sidling up close to his friend. "Are you embarrassed to be seen walking around with a girl? Are you afraid our classmates might make fun of you?"
Theodore only sighed. He didn't push Harry away.
"It's a good disguise," he said eventually.
"It is," Harry agreed. "I wouldn't make so much use of it, if it wasn't so easy and effective. Although I suppose it will be a bit harder to maintain when puberty hits – I'll have to take care my features and my voice won't give me away, then."
"You could always use Polyjuice Potion," Theodore pointed out.
"Pah," Harry said. "Why the effort? A little bit of magic and – tada! Everyone will take me for a girl again."
"Why a girl, though?"
Harry tilted his head innocently. "Why not?"
"What if people find out?"
"No one will find out. That's the whole point."
"But what if?"
Harry shrugged. "Then so be it. I'll need to come up with a new disguise, I guess. But otherwise? Let them think whatever they want to think. Let them talk all they want."
Theodore sighed. "And what else have you been up to?"
"Oh, this and that," he said, fluttering his hands through the air. "Talking to garden snakes – they had some rather interesting stories to tell about our neighbours, I should talk to them more often – faking my aunt's signature, getting more books." Theodore raised an eyebrow at the second one, so Harry elaborated, "I forgot to show her the permission slip for Hogsmeade before I left and thought it would be too bothersome to send it to her – she does so hate owl post, you know? So I signed it, myself. Should someone ask, I'm sure aunt Petunia will tell them that she was indeed the one who signed it."
"I see."
"I'm running out of books to read, by the way. There's only so many historical and fictional books one can read until it gets too much." He never found the Hogwarts Library wanting, though, so he was at least looking forward to having access to it again when the new term started. "And it's not like a lifetime is enough to actually read every single book, anyway. I'm this close to just move on to Arithmancy and Ancient Runes."
"You will ruin the new subjects," Theodore said in a bland tone.
"I know," Harry whined. "I chose them because they seemed the most interesting and challenging, after all. It's so hard not to go ahead and gain all the knowledge I can immediately. Classes will be too slow for me, too boring – I just know it!"
"How you managed to not land in Ravenclaw is beyond me."
"The hat told me I 'made a compelling argument for Ravenclaw', actually. And then it cut my time to examine it short and put me in Slytherin, the rude thing."
"Ravenclaw."
"Aren't you glad I ended up in the same house as you, though?"
For a moment, Harry thought he would deny it, or deflect the question, but then Theodore surprised him when he said, softly, "I am."
"Slytherin is far better suited for me, anyway," Harry said, ignoring the strange feeling blooming in his chest. "There are rules. Everyone knows to leave me alone. No one expects me to be a good little saviour with bright morals and a hero complex. It's nice."
Theodore gave him an odd look.
"What? You know it's true. You didn't think I was disguising myself for fun, did you?"
An exasperated sigh, then, "You are definitely doing it for fun. Not being recognized and therefore left in peace is just an added bonus."
Harry felt his lips twitch. "Let's just go and buy your supplies, shall we? The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go to your house and I can change back."
Harry, himself, had already done all the necessary shopping for his school supplies. He had been smart enough to avoid being spotted as Harry-Potter-disguised-as-a-girl – it was surprising how little people paid attention, he hadn't changed that much, after all – and steered clear of all his classmates wandering around Diagon Alley. The first week right after the Hogwarts Letters went out was always a bit mad. Theodore had been wise enough to wait for several days. Susan, on the other hand, had even enjoyed the crowds.
Harry didn't enjoy the crowds, but he did enjoy the devastated look on the shop assistant's face when Theodore told him he needed a copy of The Monster Book of Monsters. Over the past week, Harry had been fortunate enough to witness just how many times a person could be bitten by books of all things. As Harry was basically a permanent resident of all of Diagon Alley's bookshops by now, the shop assistant had long since caught him trying to smother his gleeful snickers, which was why Harry didn't even bother hiding them this time.
Theodore did not find the scene as funny and was more disturbed with the prospect of having to handle such a ferocious book for his school work. Harry couldn't really blame him.
"Here," he said and took the tightly wrapped book from his friend. "You just need to give it some soothing magic and it instantly becomes pliant under your hands."
"Soothing magic," Theodore replied flatly. "Right."
Harry smirked. "Or you could stroke its spine. But why go the easy way?"
"Ah, yes, the boring solution."
Harry snickered. "Precisely. Was that the last item on the list? Can we go now? Or maybe we could make a detour down Knockturn Alley?"
Theodore sighed. "Let's go home."
They went to the shop's assistant to ask for permission to use their fireplace, but Theodore stopped right before throwing the Floo Powder into the fire.
"Harry."
"Hm?"
"You still look like a girl."
o
While Harry had not bothered to keep up with the topic of mass murderer Sirius Black any more after leaving the Dursleys, Susan very much had. It was only to be expected, of course, since her aunt was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
"Sirius Black might be after you, Harry," Susan said.
"Yeah, I know."
"My aunt told me – You know?"
"I read about him before" Harry shrugged. "He's one of the prime examples of a bad wizard that wasn't in Slytherin. He was friends with my parents and then he betrayed them. He was also, apparently, quite mad. His mind most likely deteriorated even further during his time in Azkaban. Of course someone like that would be after my life."
"And you are not worried?"
Hidden behind his book, Theodore smiled. Susan wouldn't be able to see it, but Harry was sitting right next to Theodore and also knew all his tells.
"Why would I be worried? Black will have a hard time entering Hogwarts and it's not like I'm completely defenceless."
"Are you sure? He managed to break out of Azkaban – and no one has ever managed to do that before. And he killed all those people …"
"I'll be fine, Susan, don't worry."
Susan bit her lip. "If you say so."
As their train ride went steadily onwards, the weather outside worsened significantly. Thick clouds darkened the sky and heavy rain began pelting down until it was so dark outside that the lamps inside the train had to be turned on.
The miserable weather was one thing, but stopping in the middle of nowhere was another.
"What's going on?" Susan asked in a worried tone. "Why are we –" And then all the lights went out at once.
Harry opened his hand and a small orb of light came to life in his palm.
People were moving out in the corridor, stumbling around, talking all over each other. Some peeked into their apartment but no one entered. Not until the Dementor came. Harry had never encountered a Dementor before – how could he have? – but it was hard to miss the cold and dread the cloaked figure emanated. It drew a long, rattling breath and the last warmth left Harry's body. The icy cold pierced his heart, made the intake of every single breath hurt and he –
"Enough!"
The first wave of magic sent the Dementor back outside, into the corridor. The second had the creature let out a high-pitched screech and before the third could hit, it had already fled and left Harry standing there, breathing heavily.
"Oh my god," Susan said. "Oh my god! Harry, Theo, are you alright? A Dementor – there was a Dementor – oh my god, a Dementor!"
"Breathe, Susan. Calm down. It's gone. Deep breaths." Harry, himself, had to stop himself from frantically gulping down air. First, he had to sit down again. Theodore immediately grabbed his hand and squeezed, hard.
"Merlin's beard! Harry, how did you –"
The compartment door slid open again. Harry hadn't even noticed it closing.
"Everyone alright in here?"
The person standing in the doorway was not a student, but an adult man with shaggy clothes, grey-streaked, mousy hair and a lot of silvery scars marring his skin. He didn't seem physically old, but quite exhausted, as if something had robbed him of all his life force. What an odd man.
"I've got some chocolate here," he continued, his eyes lingering on Harry.
"We're fine, thank you." Theodore said, strained.
The man hesitated, before nodding and disappearing again.
"Theo," Susan scolded, her confident tone betrayed by her shivering body. "That was rude. We could have at least accepted his chocolate. I, for one, could really use some right now."
Theodore visibly stopped himself from rolling his eyes and then pulled a bar of chocolate out of his robes. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to accept sweets from strangers?"
"I'm pretty sure that was our new Defence Professor," Harry remarked.
"Still a stranger," Theodore replied, breaking off a large piece for Harry and then a more moderate-sized one for Susan.
"Thank you," Susan said quietly.
By then the train was moving again.
"How did you do that?" Susan asked, after finishing her chocolate.
"Drive the Dementor out?" Harry asked, glancing at Theodore, who was watching him with an intense look in his eyes. Harry shrugged. "I mostly acted on instinct. Threw raw magic at it. Next time I'm going to use a more effective method – preferably something permanent."
"Permanent," Susan repeated. "You don't mean – you want to kill a Dementor? Are you mad?!"
Harry quirked his lips upwards. "Funny you would think of that first. 'Something permanent' could be anything – a ward of some kind, for example, some kind of protective barrier to keep them away. But yes, the next Dementor that dares to coming close to me or mine is going to be destroyed on sight."
"That's barbaric."
"Aw, Susan, Dementors aren't living, breathing beings with feelings that could get hurt – ah, well, I suppose they are breathing, but that's beside the point. You really don't need to feel sorry for any Dementor potentially facing its doom."
Susan huffed. "It's not the Dementors I'm concerned about."
"It will be fine. We'll probably never come this close to one again. Not while we're at Hogwarts. The teachers would never allow it. But if we do …" Harry shrugged. "Better them than us. Right, Theo?"
"Mhn."
They reached Hogsmeade Station soon after. It was still raining heavily, so Harry used his Gift to keep them all dry and warm on their way to the carriages.
Harry noticed the Dementors floating all around the wall that surrounded the Hogwarts grounds immediately and later, between the Sorting and the Feast, Headmaster Dumbledore confirmed that they were stationed there on the Ministry's orders, to look out for Sirius Black.
Harry wondered if, maybe, he was wrong after all and the chance to destroy one or two Dementors would present itself to him sooner rather than later. Having Dementors hovering all around the school really just asking for trouble.
AN
There's art accompanying this chapter, you might recognise it from the cover:
something-rotten tumblr com/post/684256527553576960/harry-and-his-disguise-from-chapters-7-and-10-of
Harry disguised as a girl is something I drew a while ago, actually. I could have already posted it with chapter 7, when he first uses the disguise - but it was only mentioned in passing, then, so I thought it more fitting for this one.