Reworked 5-24-24 for story additions, grammar, and spelling. (I really need a laptop.)
Okay, I have my brand-new S24 Ultra, so hopefully, I can improve my writing even more now that I can type and see what I'm writing simultaneously.
I apologize for the wait. Not that I think anyone's day is ruined if I don't post, but what was left of my phone finally broke, so I could do nothing at all for the past week.
Some of my followers may have noticed that I posted a new chapter between chapters 6 and 8. I had no idea it existed. It was meant to be the beginning of chapter 8, which is why it's so short.
Rate, like, follow, and review. I want to hear your thoughts on my story. I can't improve in an echo chamber.
Anyway, my lovely readers, I'm going to stop talking now and get back to writing.
Harry was hot; his aunt had ordered him to weed the flower bed. It was his most hated chore, but he had two consolations that made it far more bearable this time. One was that with any luck he'd never have to do it again. The other was that Harry's best friend, Hermione, would be home from her holiday trip later that day. He felt odd; he should have been excited to hear from his other friend, Ron Weasley, but after he had written a letter to Ron about all that he had been through lately (at the same time he had written to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to see if they would endorse his emancipation), he had received a one-paragraph response ignoring ninety-five percent of Harry's stories. Three days later, his parents (whom had never met Harry) responded with well wishes and commiseration that they did not feel comfortable endorsing a twelve-year-old to live by himself.
"Hey Harry, mate. Sorry about your uncle. Try to come around to the Burrow this summer. -Ron"
Harry had decided to just catch up with Ron in person, supposing he wasn't much for writing letters.
As Harry continued to weed the flower beds, lamenting the clear, shiny blue sky and its unfiltered heat, he heard the now-familiar pop of Apparition in the back garden. Harry turned excitedly, expecting Mr. Tonks to have come with some news or update about the hearing in two days. What he had not expected was the tall, slender shape and long white hair and beard of Headmaster Dumbledore.
The aged wizard was standing in the back garden, and gone was the kindly grandfather he had appeared to be to the students. Gone was the eccentric headmaster who began speeches with odd, random words, and gone was the wise old wizard who had so jovially explained how an enchanted mirror worked in the dead of night. the man now present was, for the first time in Harry's view, the man that every one native to the wizarding world respected and feared.
His face was a storm, his eyes narrowed and brow wrinkled. Harry couldn't see the man's lips through the beard and mustache, but he could tell that they too were turned down in a direction that did not indicate happiness at all. His posture was stiff, and Harry could tell that he was gnashing his teeth in anger. So readily, Harry recognized these because they reflected the stance Uncle Vernon took when Harry came home from school with an event he couldn't explain. So primed was Harry to that look that he readied himself for the strikes that came with it. Flashes of sensation ripped across Harry's back, preparing him for the fight to come.
But Harry had an immediate thought.
He didn't have his wand.
"Harry," the headmaster said in a flat voice,
"I need you to accompany me to the Ministry. We're short on time, and you need to have your lawyer cancel this farce of a hearing." The old man said this while turning completely to face Harry. The headmaster's wand was in his hand, held loosely at his side, but Harry knew the old wizard could spring into action in a fraction of a second.
""No, sir, I'm afraid I can't do that. I've put up with these people's abuse every day since I can remember. Being at Hogwarts showed me just how I should be living, and I won't accept anything less from anyone or anything in my life. So I'm afraid I won't cancel anything, nor will I come with you." From behind the headmaster, he sees a slight movement in the grass and knew it was Smara coming to his aid. Harry quickly hisses out, "DON'T KILL HIM!" He was able to pass it off as a hiss of pain as Dumbledore's eyes contracted at the noise in curiosity, but Harry kicked away a small tilling tool, acting as if he stepped on it. But Dumbledore seemed to take this as an invitation to attack, and he sent an oddly colored gray spell at Harry, who dodged it by the skin of his teeth by diving and rolling. At this, Smara also sprang into action, lunging from the grass and causing the old man to stumble back. Three quick strikes and three dodges allowed Harry to reach the back door and open it quickly and enter, still running. Not having time to explain anything to his aunt, who had been watching television, seemingly oblivious to the shouts and bangs in her back garden. At the bang of the door closing, she ran into the hallway just in time to see Harry tackle the door to the cupboard under the stairs, not having time to unlock and open it, grab his wand that had been sitting ontop of his school trunck for the past month, and run back out, blood now running freely down his head from an injury somewhere on Harry's scalp.
Harry ran out of the house just in time to see Dumbledore conjure six silver javelins from thin air and send them barreling toward his snake friend. He sent a blast of magic from his wand that deflected three of them, but two hit Smara, bouncing off her scales, and she batted the third one out of the way with a flick of her tail. At Harry's reappearance, the snake lunged into the air, growing and becoming fifteen feet long and a foot thick. She coiled around her partner and hissed at the old headmaster. Harry leveled his wand at the headmaster, knowing he stood no chance of actually defeating the ancient wizard in a duel. Harry knew he was powerful, but he only knew a few spells, and almost none of them were of much use in a fight, the arcane bolt he had used being the only one that could be of any use in combat, and even that he knew Dumbledore could easily dodge or block.
He cast several cutting charms into the ground, not even eliciting a responding flinch from the headmaster, who stared at the snake coiled around Harry, replacing his inability to use shield charms with her naturally armored body.
"Harry, you must step away from that beast at once! Have you any idea what that thing is?"
"Of course I do. I may not be the smartest student, but I'm not an idiot. Smaragaid here is as intelligent as any human. In fact, she's probably more intelligent than most people. I may not have a hope of defeating you in a duel, Headmaster, but with Smaragaid with me, we can at least keep you at a standstill."
The old headmaster stared at Harry for a long minute and lowered his chilling-looking wand. "Harry, you must listen to me and do what you are told. This defiance only serves to hinder the work I do to protect you."
Smara hissed at that. "Foolish geriatric!"
The headmaster then sent an Immobilus Curse at Smara, who took the spell in full and shrugged it off like a fly buzzing on her brow. And Harry responded with three Wide Band Severing Charms, casting the spell not by pointing but by waving his arms in wide arcs. "DEFENDO! DEFENDO! DEFENDO!" each casually deflected by the headmaster with lazy flicks of his wand.
"These attacks are futile, Harry. You know you stand no chance. Surrender. I fail to comprehend why you persist in this rebellious behavior."
Harry laughed for the first time at the enormity of that lie, overriding his sense of caution.
"You don't, do you, Headmaster? Were you expecting me to be a quiet and respectful good little boy who did as he was told? Well, I have news for you: those days are gone. Mr. Tonks took me to St. Mungo's and had several tests done for the hearing you seem to fear so greatly. And they removed all the potions, all the spells, all the compulsions. I won't follow orders. I don't damn well want to anymore. And no one can order me around unless I let them.
And of course, those attacks have a purpose.
I am, after all, a minor in a Muggle area with a wand." Harry smiled at the headmaster as insolently as possible just as no fewer than six cracks filled the air—the Aurors had arrived, wands drawn, two on Harry and four on Dumbledore. A seventh and eighth crack filled the air, and Amelia Bones and none other than Ted Tonks arrived, both with wands drawn on Dumbledore.
"Dumbledore! Stand down! Now!" shouted Amelia Bones. "We have been trying to find you since we got word you left the ICW conference. I just didn't think you'd show up here after all; you've never checked on the poor boy before have you?"
"Mr. Dumbledore," Ted Tonks began, his lawyer's voice in full throttle. "Due to an injunction against you filed by my client, you are hereby prohibited from contacting or approaching my client, Harry Potter, in any way from the time of this notice until the end of the hearing set for two days hence. Since you contacted and approached Harry Potter before you were legally notified, you will not be charged further. However, any future contact will be met with further legal action." Mr. Tonks read this from a scroll of parchment and then forced it into Dumbledores hand.
"Harry, do you wish to press charges against Mr. Dumbledore for this... (madame bones paused here as if searching for a polite word) incident?"
Harry's stilted nod sent her into action.
"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, you are hereby charged with first-degree assault of a minor. You are under arrest and will remain in custody until the hearing date to prevent any further altercations. Aurors Tonks and Moody, please escort the Chief Mugwump to the nicest holding cell you can find."
At the name Tonks, Harry looked around and saw his new cousin, Dora. He smiled and waved.
Dumbledore seemed to know when not to cause a scene. He went voluntarily with his Auror escort and disappeared with a pop as the older Auror Apparated himself and Dumbledore away.
Harry collapsed to the ground, all tension leaving him at once. He looked at Madam Bones, breathing heavily and shaking fiercely, and asked, "Are you s-s-sure you can c-c-charge him with a-assault?"
"Hmm, well, I can charge him with anything I want to, really, but if you're asking if I have the evidence that will make it stick, then yes, I believe I do." At this, she gestures to the javelins that another Auror is examining with magic.
"But he didn't use those against me! It was Smara he flung those at."
"Oh!" interjected Ted. "Here, Harry was able to secure this just this morning with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. It's your dangerous familiar registration and license. It makes it official that Smara—" (At the sound of her name, all the adults looked at the giant serpent and shivered, much to the snake's apparent amusement. She made an odd skittering sound that Harry translated as laughter.) "—is your familiar, and to answer for Madam Bones, an attack on a person's familiar is registered as an attack on the person, which makes it even worse when a familiar is sentient. That won't look good for Dumbledore."
"Are you all right, Mr. Potter?" asked Madam Bones.
"Yes, ma'am. I'm just a bit winded, that's all."
"Very well, if you're sure?" She looks at Mrs. Tonks for confirmation, who nods once, and Madam Bones looks back at Harry. "I'll send an Auror here to keep watch for now. Dumbledore is usually an honorable man, but he seems oddly fixated on you, so there's no telling if he'll come back when he's not supposed to."
Madam Bones and Mr. Tonks Disapparated away, followed shortly after by the other Aurors after they had finished examining the scene and, at Harry's request, fixed the cupboard door. In the midst of all this, Uncle Vernon came home and upon Aunt Petunia telling him what had happened that day, went into a near-blind rage.
To tell you the truth, Harry didn't really remember much. Harry had been up in his room when his uncle had barged in. Smara was asleep near comatose really. The magic of resizing burned out her energy stores so completely he had fed her again and she promptly went tonsleep under the sunlight streaming thriugh his window.
his uncle commenced to doing something he hadnt done to harry since he had been found on the school roof he started to beat harry he opened up with 4 strikes from a cricket bat to harries ankle,leg,knee, and ribs before some force ripped bat away from his hand by the third punch to the face, Harry had tried to run being so pumped up be adrenaline he hadnt known how bad his leg was and and gotten 4 steps into the hall and right at the top of the stairs before something clicked and he fell head-long down the stairscrashing hard into the wall on the small landing. It didn't knock him out, but it did disorient Harry enough that he could not defend himself nor feel what his uncle had done. He knew it went on for a while, and covered most of his body but seemed focused on his head his vision swung back and forth so much at one point harry was sure his uncle was using his head to hammer down a lose floor board. blood was flying the wound from earlier on his halead had reopened along with a litteny of other wounds.
there was a space of time how long harry had no idea that Harry experienced an episode of sensory deprivation so complete it was like he was swimming in an empty void his only companion was a warm presence among the cold emptiness and a womans gentle humming a sound he had heard before but couldnt place. it eased him and he drifted peacefully there with nothing but that tune for company for what felt like eons.
When Harry regained consciousness, he found himself back in his bed, his entire body aching. His head felt dizzy, and his vision swam in the darkness of his room. The pain in his chest indicated that he was in rough shape. The fact that he couldn't breathe or catch his breath should have alarmed him, but he was too exhausted to fully register the taste of copper on his breath. So he slowly crawled down the stairs. Only one leg and one arm were functioning enough to move, and he moved slowly to the cupboard under the stairs where his school trunk was. He knew he had to get there, but his vision was fading. His breath was no longer coming as it should; each breath was a monumental effort.
By the time he got midway down the hallway, he could only see out of one eye, and things looked blurry and fogged as he got to the door. The thing popped open of its own accord, and he knocked over his trunk, pried open his potion kit with his one poorly functioning hand, and without even stopping to consider what would happen, smashed open two glass vials with blue cork tops that he knew contained healing ingredients. He ate the leaves that one contained and scooped up the glutinous liquid from the other and began eating it as well.
Both tasted foul, but almost immediately his pains started to recede. He sat against the hallway wall, taking deep breaths and rubbing the remaining murtlap essence into the skin of his face and over his eyes, which he assumed were very bruised. After a time, his head was feeling much clearer, so he slowly made his way to the kitchen and, uncaring, went to sit against the oven, gazing out at the digital display on the microwave, trying desperately to ignore the pain it caused him to sit up and the nausea now spreading through his gut as the world spun around him. He focused with great effort on the microwave clock, shocked to find that it was only 2:30. He thought it would be much later.
A few minutes later, Dora strode into the house as if she owned the place. She sat across from him and stared at him with an unsmiling face.
"Watcher, Harry."
"Hey, Tonks," Harry spoke in a flat voice, still completely out of it and very sleepy
"I just received word that you performed an illegal unlocking charm. It wouldn't have been a false flag, would it? The air is charged with magic after everything today, and it does tend to mess with the trace."
"Oh." Harry, once again speaking in a flat voice, leans his head back to look at the unlocked cupboard door. "I needed my potions' ingredients." He points to the shredded leaves and busted jar of murtlap. "Whatever could you need those for?" Noticing what they are, Tonks stops short. "Harry, what could you have needed these for? You said Dumbledore didn't hurt you."
"He didn't, but then my uncle isn't Dumbledore, is he?"
"Shite, hold still. deprende saltutis!" Tonks quickly paled as the charm displayed a status report. "Harry, did you eat Murtlap essence?" At Harry's confused, "Yes," Tonks reached across the table, grabbed his arms, and Apparated straight into St Mungo's.
"Poison cart, now! My idiot cousin ate murtlap to help a damn headache!" The healers moved in, pulled a stone from her pocket, shoved it in Harry's mouth, and cast a spell that forced him to swallow it. As they walked to a room, he began ti feel worse and worse he broke free from tonks grip and collapsed to the ground vomiting a bright red liquid that smellled like iron his senses were gone his reasoning skills were overloaded and after he wiped the blood from his mouth looked at tonks."whaaat." before he collapsed and started convulsing the healer was barking orders for potions, spells, and diagnostics. the healer who looked very familiar to harry cast a petrifying charm on him and force him drink a purging potion at once upon entering a private room he was levitated and put facedown so he could throw up into a bucket that was placed under him and while he was throwing his innards out, he heard the healers telling Tonks what the scans had shown her. after that he knew no more back he sank into that cool nothing surounded by a warm tune a sleepy tune
a cradle song.
Multiple broken bones, cracked ribs, a fractured skull, multiple internal hemorrhages, and torn muscles. A brain bleed and swelling of his spinal cord, both lungs punctured, and oxygen deprivation. The dittany Harry ate (a near-lethal dose) had been numbing him, and that allowed him to function somewhat. The healers admitted to Tonks that if Harry hadn't ingested the dittany and murtlap, although they did poison him, he probably would have died much faster. They both actively tried to heal the damage while simultaneously trying to overload his internal organs and kill him.
It was several hours later, and Harry was awake now. The healer, who was revealed to be Andromeda, had yelled at him for being a blithering idiot. before having to clock out and be with harry as a decision maker and not a healer.
Harry was lying on the bed when another bottle was placed in his hands. He drank it without question, and within seconds, the pain stopped. He lay there, trembling in the aftermath of the pain.
"Harry, I need you to tell me how this happened. How did you get into this state?" a new healer asked hurriedly.
"fell down the stairs. I remember falling, fighting with Uncle Vernon, and then falling. I'm sorry, but I don't remember anything else. I'm sorry."
the Tonks and the healer looked at each other.
"It's your decision, Andi. We can't get in touch with any guardians for him other than Dumbledore, and a no-contact order is in place there. You're his next of kin, for now."
"There's already a case open. Call them and tell them to bring memory extraction equipment. He will. I need it."
Several hours passed with hours of questions, exams, visitations including the WCPO and the DMLE—not the Aurors this time, but he got to meet the wizard equivalent of a regular police officer, a pair of peacekeepers as they're called from the law enforcement patrol—and visits from Ted Tonks and Neville Longbottom who had already been in the hospital and had apparently run into Andy and Tonks and had heard them talking and asked if he could visit. It was quickly determined that Harry should not return to the Dursley house for Harry's own safety, which led to a short argument about where Harry would stay. Andromeda volunteered, of course, but Harry had said that he had plans to spend all of tomorrow and tomorrow night with the Grangers and that he would like to ask if he could just come over tonight as well. He did not want to stay in the hospital any longer than necessary. The peacekeepers set off at once to the Grangers' known address and returned within the hour, saying that they had informed the Granger parents of the situation and asked if Harry could stay there tonight, which the two had agreed to immediately. It was with great relief that a fully healed Harry was discharged and began the walk with the Tonks family to the Leaky Cauldron, where Hermione and her parents would be waiting.
It took nearly an hour to walk from St Mungo's to the Leaky Cauldron, which suited Harry just fine. It let him stretch his legs and take his time; his body was still sort of tender, but after being cooped up in the hospital until 7 at night, it was nice to be allowed to walk.
It also stretched the time before he came face-to-face with Hermione and her parents. Oddly enough, he had longed for her company every day for the past six weeks, and now that she was almost in front of him, he was nervous, especially about meeting her parents—especially now that they knew he came from an abusive home.
He didn't know how to take that, but he knew he would not accept pity. As he stepped onto the street the Leaky Cauldron was on, his stomach knotted. When the sign came into view, his mouth went dry, and when he stood in front of the door, his feet were like lead. He didn't think he could keep walking. Maybe going back to the Dursleys was a great idea after all, or the Tonkses' house, or a hotel even. But just as he was about to insist they leave the door open, a great bushy brown blur came and tackled him in a hug so tight it nearly cracked his newly healed ribs. All the dread, all the nerves, and all the doubt were washed away like dried leaves in an autumn storm. As he felt Hermione's arms wrap around him in the tightest hug he had ever received, all he could think was that he was a fool for thinking Hermione would think less of him for what he had been through or that he would look into her eyes and see nothing but pity. There was pity, but there was far more affection in her gaze, as well as worry and relief. "Uhh, Hermione? Not that I mind the hug or anything, but do you think we can stand up? I don't think you treating me like a chair is appropriate public behavior."
"Oh!" Hermione blushed and got off of him, standing up and offering her hand to help him stand. He took it and, with a slight stiffness or soreness, stood up and took in his friend for the first time in proper Muggle clothes. She wore acid-wash jeans, white Converse sneakers, and a light blue casual blouse. Her hair was its usual untamable bushy nest, but she covered it up with a puffy kind of cap like an old newsboy from the '20s, a few shades darker than her blouse. The whole outfit looked great and brought out the green highlights in her hazel eyes.
"It's great to see you, Hermione. You look great, by the way—very ...tan."
Hermione let out a slight giggle. "Well, being in southern France and having your parents ban you from your books will do that to a person. You look terrible, Harry—no offense intended. I know you've been through a lot today, of course."
"True enough, I suppose I wouldn't know. I've never been banned from reading my books while in the South of France." Harry looked around and, remembering the Tonkses behind him, stood to the side so they could see each other.
"Hermione, I'd like you to meet my cousin Andromeda, who is a healer at St. Mungo's, her husband, Ted Tonks, who is my lawyer in that hearing I've written to you about, and my other cousin, their daughter, Nymp-" (Tonks put her hand over his mouth, silencing him. He looked at the young Auror and nodded, causing her to let go—Dora Tonks, who is an Auror and prefers to go by her surname only. "The next time you cover my mouth, Tonks, I'll bite your fingers off." Everyone, this is Hermione Granger—a world-class academic, the brightest witch of the age, and my best friend.
"Oooh, Harry, you shouldn't say things like that. There are women who are much more intelligent than I am." Despite her words, Hermione couldn't help but smile at Harry's praise. Hermione moved closer to her parents, causing Harry and the Tonkses to follow.
"Harry, these are my parents, Doctors Daniel and Emma Granger. Mum, Dad, this is Harry Potter, the greatest wizard of our generation, my only academic rival in Gryffindor, and my best friend."
"It's lovely to meet you, Harry. Hermione speaks very highly of you, and I, for one, can't wait to have you over to the house. It seemed to Harry that much like her daughter, Emma Granger was a very nice and highly affectionate woman."
"We were about to sit down for dinner here, since it's so late. Why don't you join us, and you can tell us all about what's been going on? Your boboes could tell us much, other than that it would be prudent for you not to return to your guardian's house. Which, in the non-magical world, really only indicates one thing." Daniel Granger spoke in a deep, calming baritone and gestured to a large booth situated in a corner of the pub.
The Grangers sat on one side of the booth, the Tonkses on the other, with the two preteens in the middle. "Why don't you tell us what's been happening, Harry? Keep in mind that we are on your side. We all want what is best for you," Emma spoke in a measured and reassuring manner that spoke of a deep-seated love and affection for the children under her charge. And Harry spoke. Of loneliness, of pain, of torment, of nights spent crying in his cupboard as silently as he could because of the pain, either physical or emotional. He spoke of growing up without comprehending why his family hated him. He spoke of his life for close to two hours, more clearly and completely than he did with Mr. Tonks, and he was able to do this because of Hermione's presence, the constant warm hand squeezing his, the tears glinting in her eyes that she stubbornly refused to let fall. When he finally fell silent, the other adults remained silent. No one knew what to say or how to say it if they did.
Harry let out a huge yawn. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm bloody knackered."
"Language, Harry," both kids looked at each other and grinned.
"I have had the worst Wednesday ever. The only good part was Dumbledore being arrested."
"Well," Emma spoke up, "it is close to eleven. We should get the kids home and asleep. I suspect today will be busy as well."
As they parted, each of the Tonkses gave Harry a big hug, and Tonks reminded him to drink the potions the healer had given him to help him sleep that night. The Grangers and Harry left the pub and made the fifteen-minute drive to their condo in London. Harry sat on the couch in the living room as he listened to Emma explain the layout of the house. When she and Daniel came to show Harry to the guest room, they found Harry and Hermione asleep on the couch, hand in hand, her head resting against his shoulder. Harry's dreamless sleep potion lay forgotten on the coffee table. The two parents stilled and, smiling at each other, left the two to sleep. They had never seen their daughter so peaceful in sleep and wouldn't disturb her now that she had found it.
update 5-24-24 im going through these chapters that my phone was screwed up and fixing them and adding to them most likely so ide gove it a re-read if your up to date on the story.
okay everyone thats my latest chapter i posted it earlier but realized i forgot to proof read it
im using the s24 ultras new a.i. writing tools to help my spell and grammar check so do me a favor and let me know just how well its doing.
ok love ya on to the next one one more day of fun with hermione before harry has to go through the hearing and the possibilities of his entire life changing.
