:julieta0121: I'm not going to lie; I sometimes forget what I write and forget to cross-check things,
but I feel it's essential to establish the Grangers as a family and as individuals. They will be somewhat recurring characters from now on.
I still can't believe how many people have liked and favorited this story. It touches the black spot where the heart should be. It does.
Harry's nose itched, or rather, something was itching Harry's nose—a new sensation that began drawing on his awareness. Coupled with the warm and welcoming scent that filled his nostrils and the slight weight that pressed on his torso finally registering through his semi-conscious mind, Harry was jolted to awareness, causing both himself and—he realized mid-action—Hermione to fall to the ground, forcing a loud scream from his throat and an ear-splitting screech from Hermione. Harry's fight-or-flight response had been triggered, and he felt for his wand, seeing in the back of his mind a horrible wraith cloaked in the ashes of a professor hurtling at him, about to envelop him—and he had no wand to—
HARRY POTTER!
He froze mid-action, mid-thought, and his clouded eyes seemed to sharpen as he looked at Hermione.
"Hermione, how?" Harry whispered, looking around, breathing hard, and jumping slightly as he felt a gentle arm on his shoulder.
"Harry, it's okay. We're the only ones here now. No one can hurt you while I'm around." The ash wraith collapsed back into the shadows of Harry's mind, causing Harry to look around wildly, convinced of the entity's authenticity, of the threat that surrounded him and his friend.
"Hermione..." Harry sank to his knees, his breath heavy and ragged. "What? Where?" Harry looked around, his eyes blank. It was at that point that Hermione realized that Harry wasn't conscious; somewhere in that turmoil, his brain had shut off. With great difficulty, she dragged him back onto the couch, wrapped her arms around the troubled young man, and held him, crooning a soft tune her mother had sung to her when she was a little girl scared of the summer storms—a soft lullaby, a cradle song. When she noticed that her best friend had released his tension and finally fallen back into a full sleep, she allowed her eyes to close again, her last glimpse at the clock on the wall reading 4:43. She fell back into a peaceful doze with her Harry still by her side.
It was several hours later that Harry woke up without any recollection of the previous night's events. He felt a weight on his chest and a familiar and pleasant scent in his nose. He opened his eyes and finally remembered. Hermione. They had been talking late into the night and must have fallen asleep against each other.
"Hermione, hey, Hermione," he nudged her a few times.
The girl in question grumbled a few times and swatted his hand away.
"Hermione, I don't exactly mind being used as a pillow, but if you don't get up, we're both going to have a problem neither one of us wants to clean up." (more grumbles) "Come on, I have to use the loo!"
The girl in question groaned sadly and sat up.
"Fine, but you'd better get back here fast. You were comfortable here."
"Oh, no need for that," called Emma Granger from the kitchen. "You children will only get away with things like that on rare occasions. You may not be teenagers yet, but Harry is still a boy, and there is to be decorum in this house. You have years and years yet to sneak around and cuddle with boys, Hermione." Harry grew a fantastic shade of scarlet as he left the room in the direction of where the Grangers had said the toilet was the previous night. When Harry returned, Hermione was nowhere to be seen, so uneasy in an unfamiliar place, he went to where he knew someone at least was: the kitchen. Upon entering, he saw Emma Granger working away at the stove. She turned then and looked his way. "Hello, Harry, how did you sleep?"
"As well as I normally do. I'm not a fan of strange places, but having Hermione probably helped. I don't really remember falling asleep."
"We didn't think you would hear us. We were talking to you, giving you a rundown of the house, and we came in, and you and Hermione were both asleep."
"Where?"
"Is Hermione? She's in the upstairs bathroom going through her own morning routine. No doubt she'll be back down shortly." Sure enough, it wasn't 20 minutes later that Hermione came down dressed in comfortable clothes. Harry had noticed that Hermione tended to wear shades and tints of blue outside of Hogwarts. "You know, Hermione, blue is definitely your color. It just works with you," Harry said, smiling widely and blushing fiercely.
Hermione blushed back and thanked him quietly.
"What a charmer! I wish the boys were brave enough to speak like that to me when I was your age," Hermione's mother said with a wistful smile on her face while serving up breakfast: a portion of porridge with fruit and a side of bacon and sausage.
"Well, no one is braver than Harry, always the first to stick his nose where it doesn't belong to help someone out." Hermione said this, smiling broadly and proudly, yet Harry just shrugged and focused on his breakfast, the two Granger women laughing at his embarrassment.
"So, er, where is Mr. Granger?" Harry looks around the dining room as if the older man might be hiding underneath the table. "Oh," said Emma brightly. "He went to the practice. We have been gone a month, you know. We decided that for Hermione's summer holidays that we would take alternating days off to spend quality time with her while he's home and then on the weekends we'll go out and do something as a family. We're going to the British Museum this weekend. You're more than welcome to come along no matter what happens tomorrow. And on that note, Harry, I need to know. Have you put any thought as to where you're going to stay if you get your independence? You'll need a place immediately. You can't live on the streets during the holidays."
"Oh, well, Mr. Tonks said that the Wizengamot will, if and when they grant me 'partial majority,' pretty much give me a court order to give the bank that will give me access to 25 percent of the Potter estate, including properties. They'll give me a list, and I'll be able to pick one to live in."
"One estate?" Emma hesitantly asked.
"Yeah, apparently my family is quite wealthy," Harry said, shrugging his shoulders and speaking in an indifferent tone.
"How wealthy are you, if you don't mind me asking?" Emma asked with interest.
"I'm not sure, but Mr. Tonks has been working for me full-time for a while now, and he hasn't brought up payment once. So, I guess he's wealthy. I'm eleven, so the bank won't give me bank statements until I'm at least fourteen, and then only with the permission of my magical guardian."
I can tell you that my trust vault has about fifty thousand galleons in it, which is," Harry paused here, thinking.
"Roughly two point five million galleons," Hermione interjected. "It seems an outrageous amount of money until you realize there are school books that cost twelve galleons, which seems trivial compared to Harry's wealth, but that's a week's pay for most people. It's why second-hand shops are so popular in the wizarding world. A new copy of Advanced Potions books can cost eight to twelve galleons, but a used one might be two or three. Sure, it's slightly stained, but you can still afford food."
"Err, I hadn't thought of that. I don't really have a concept of money. The Dursleys never exactly gave me pocket money or let me buy anything. I never realized how expensive the wizarding world is."
"That's because it's not, if you're from the wizarding world. But Muggle-born wizards and witches get the brunt of the effects between the fees for changing Muggle money to wizarding money. Mum and Dad figured I'd be going to law school, so they saved up a pretty good college fund for me already. But every time they go to add to the Gringotts vault that they transferred it to, there's still a five percent charge on any money changed." Hermione was sounding more and more indignant with every word she spoke.
"Unfortunately, Hermione is speaking the truth. If we didn't have the practice, I don't think we could afford to send her to Hogwarts," Emma Granger said, sounding very morose but brightening up immediately. "But we're not complaining. Always the very best for our Hermione, and they say Hogwarts is the very best school in Europe."
Err... well, after tomorrow, how about we all go and talk to Mr. Tonks? I know of at least two families interested in sponsoring you, Hermione.
At this, Hermione went red and with a confused and elated expression, said very quickly, "Really, me? Who? Why? Oh my god, an actual pureblood sponsor! That is incredibly rare. Who are they, Harry?"
"Well, me for one, and the other is Cyrus Greengrass, Daphne Greengrass's father. He mentioned it at dinner the other night, something about sponsoring you being 'profitable.' I gathered he wasn't talking about money either, but he's a good man, not like Malfoy, you know."
Hermione sat thinking slowly, eating her breakfast. Which passed in relative silence after that, except for the scrape of spoon on bowl as Mrs. Granger stood and collected the dishes and began to wash them.
"So, what do you have planned for the day, kids?" Emma Granger asked curiously.
"Well," said Hermione. "I know Harry has never been around London at any length. His relatives used to just leave him home alone or with a neighbor, so I thought we'd just walk around, show him some places, maybe do a bit of shopping, and make our way over to Diagon Alley."
Harry nods at that. "That sounds good. While we're there, I can pop into Mr. Tonks' office and see if he has any last-minute developments before tomorrow." A tapping at the window interrupted Harry as all three inhabitants of the kitchen turned to see an austere-looking gray barn owl waiting there, an impatient look about itself with a small scroll in the bird's beak. Harry leapt up and crossed the kitchen faster than Hermione or her mother could react, opening the window and taking the note in his hand. The owl flew off almost as soon as Harry touched the scroll of parchment.
Harry, recognizing Mr. Tonks's handwriting, unfurled the scroll immediately and read.
"Dursleys arrested, will face Ministry"
"Please come to my office ASAP so we can discuss this development."
-Ted Tonks
Harry looked up and read the note aloud to the two women in the room, an ecstatic, almost euphoric, grin on his face.
"It looks like we have our first stop for the day."
And so it was that one hour later, Emma, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter strolled through the doors of Phisk/Tonks Law Office. Harry noted that the energy of the place seemed even more dull and depressing at nine-thirty in the morning than it did in the afternoon, likely because the entire office was preternaturally still. The last time he was there, legal aides and workers were bustling through the quiet atmosphere, so even if everything was hushed, there was still an air of activity. This early, though, it seemed the thrum of life had not yet seeped into the bones of the workers who were gathered in various morning meetings. It all unnerved Harry to the extreme; his teeth were immediately on edge as he traversed the cubicles, offices, and meeting rooms that stood between him and "Executive Office B." Once he had crossed the room, he stood in front of a door with a fogged glass window and large gold-painted letters that read:
"EXECUTIVE OFFICE"
"THEODORE T. TONKS."
Harry walked into the hushed office, only to stop, nonplussed, as he saw his lawyer and uncle nonchalantly talking to a man sitting in his office's small fireplace. Harry felt two independent small bumps as the two Grangers made to follow him but stopped after he did, and they all stared at this very strange sight.
The older man, noticing the movement, looked over and saw them. He held his hand up, forestalling any speech from the small group.
The head was speaking rather hurriedly. "And I told her, 'You can't expect us to fall into step just because you work for Fudge. That was illegal, what she wanted us to do. How that foul toad got anywhere near the position she has is beyond me.'"
"Alright, Mr. Borgin, that's all I need for now. Thank you. You'll have to back out now, as another client came in." And with that, the head seemed to get smaller before a soft pop announced its departure.
"My apologies, Harry. I've been in the middle of investigating reports of ministerial corruption for two years now."
"Well, I hope you get whatever you're going after. Now, what did you want to discuss? Them being arrested seems pretty straightforward, but I don't see how it happened. I never reported them."
"Well, you didn't. But my daughter did. She's been hounding Madam Bones for days, but I think that last instance convinced her. Harry, they're being tried before the Wizengamot. The full Wizengamot. The same day as your hearing."
"But they're not magical!"
"I know something like this has only happened three times before; the last one happened in 1691, two years before the Statute of Secrecy came into full effect. I was researching this to find out how best to punish the Dursleys for their treatment of you. During that time, the Wizarding Council, which was in the middle of its reformation into the Wizengamot, was in the throes of setting precedence in its procedures. It came to be set that if a magical child was shown great bodily harm and outrageous neglect (what nowadays we can interpret as child abuse) by their parent or guardian who are not magical (i.e., are Muggles), then the A parent or guardian shall, in the very nature of being aware of the magical community, be tried in the magical community under magical law for it was a magical that was injured, and they, being the parents or guardians of a magical child, should be aware of magical law. Pretty much because the Dursleys abused you because of your magic, then they themselves submitted themselves to be tried and punished by magic. It's one of the few times that the Wizengamot has passed a law or precedent to protect Muggle-borns.
"So, what does this mean for my hearing?" asked Harry.
Ted smiled. "I'm happy to say that this will make getting you away from them relatively easy. Only a Sith deals in absolutes, but I will say that it is most assuredly a certainty that they will be barred from having custody of you, no matter what the old meddler says or does." But convincing the Wizengamot to grant an eleven-year-old emancipation is still not likely to be easy. In that regard, you'll be happy to hear that Cyrus Greengrass has given his backing to your request, despite the rather unfortunate dinner party." Ted gestures to an open letter bearing a green wax seal.
Harry was nearly jumping with joy. "Has Gringotts gotten back to you with that list of Potter properties yet, now that Herm—" Harry stops here mid-sentence, and his vision cycles between Hermione, her mother, and Mr. Tonks.
"Damn! I'm sorry, Ted. I've been reading that etiquette book you gave me, and I've just done something very rude. Ted Tonks, this is Hermione and Emma Granger. Hermione, Mrs. Granger, this is Ted Tonks, my solicitor and distant cousin."."
"A pleasure," all three said at the same time, then turned to Harry for him to continue."Well...errr...like I was saying, I'd like Hermione and her mother's opinions since they're here."
"Unfortunately, Gringotts will not release that list until after the judgment has been made. You will, however, find it interesting that Gringotts has voluntarily released the Potter family financial records to the court for your hearing. This is a rare occurrence; they usually have to be subpoenaed to release that kind of thing. I imagine Dumbledore has recently offended them. But that is only speculation on my part; I will not claim to be an expert in dealing with that lot. Now, Harry, as good as it is to see you happy and safe with your friend here, I have work to do, and you have a childhood that need not be spent watching an old fogey potter away with his pens while preparing for your hearing tomorrow. Go, leave, have fun. Tomorrow will be an emotional and dull day for us all, I am sure..
And so it was, an hour and a half later, that Harry, Hermione, and Emma Granger found themselves in Florian Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, surrounded by the two women's magical shopping bags (Harry's treat, yes, he was sure). They were eating the most amazing ice cream any of them had ever tasted. Hermione had settled for Vapor Viper Vanilla, a flavor that made your breath billow out in thick smoke that smelled like the richest vanilla flavor ever. Emma had decided on the house favorite, Fortescue's Fantastic Fudge Feasts and Where to Find Them (complete with an interactive world map and a list of some 30 animals). This flavor causes the person who eats it to shout out random animal noises (also includes authentic Honeydukes fudge). It's a favorite of small children. And Harry had bravely decided on Damon's Demonic Delights, Miniature. cherry cordials in dark chocolate shells in dark chocolate ice cream. They couldn't decide what this flavor did for a while until Harry looked up after Hermione offered him a bite of her own ice cream, and she saw that the whites of his eyes were pitch black, which made the emerald color of his irises seem to glow. It was so shocking that Hermione and her mother had screamed, which caused Harry to scream, which revealed his now-pointed teeth, which renewed the screaming and caused the whole restaurant/ice cream parlor to break out in laughter..
It turned out the Leaky Cauldron offered house-elf delivery for a small fee, so Harry paid the fee plus a tip, and a house-elf, nearly apoplectic with joy at helping "the Harry Potter, sir," tapped Hermione Granger on the forehead, straightened up with as much dignity as his pillowcase would allow, and snapped both fingers. Suddenly, the elf and all the bags (mainly of heavy books and some clothes) were gone with a sharp CRACK! Then, with another crack, the elf was back, and he bowed to them before continuing to scrub the floor as he had been before. Being approached. Some 15 minutes later, he saw the small group in the heart of London. Harry had no idea which street he was on, only that it was very near King's Cross and he was in line to see the latest Disney movie to be released, "Beauty and the Beast." Hermione and Emma had raved over the title and persuaded Harry that they should watch it. He had never been in a movie theater before, so he couldn't think of a reason not to and readily agreed. He followed the two women to get soda and popcorn and to find a spot in the near-empty dark theater (the movie had been out for quite some time, Emma had explained). And settled down to watch his first film in a theater. At some point, he had found himself absentmindedly holding Hermione's hand, humming a tune from the movie. After the film ended, the group decided to head back to the Granger's house. By the time they got there, Mr. Granger would be home from work, Emma had explained. On the drive back, Harry's eyes had grown heavy, and the young man drifted off to a quiet nap, surrounded by his friends, the warmth of family, and peace of mind for the first time ever during the summer holiday. With an absent smile, the boy drifted away into the realm of dreams, where he found himself dancing with Hermione, both looking just as regal as the two characters from the movie.
BY ALL THE GODS ABOVE AND BELOW
i keep surprising myself with the length on these chapters and just how long it takes me to actually do them. How is everyone enjoying it so far?
I hope all is well for everybody
