Chapter 22 - A Swamped Start to Summer
The next day I woke up feeling lighter, all the challenges of this school year were now behind me. And now, I didn't have to worry about Voldemort being in the castle anymore, his constant presence always made me slightly unsettled, throughout the year.
During breakfast, Dumbledore's absence was noted by everyone considering it was the last full day of the year. He was probably resting any injuries Fluffy gave him after I left. I knew he wouldn't want to harm Fluffy, considering how close Hagrid was to the dog, so he was at a disadvantage in the fight. And only, Hagrid would be able to calm him down, so Dumbledore had his hands full.
During all the final classes, they gave us material to review over the summer, to prepare for the second year. However, none of it was going to be marked so I didn't expect many of the students to bother doing it considering it was all theory work. Since, underage students weren't allowed to perform magic outside of school. Thankfully, that didn't apply to me and considering all the years I spent learning theory before Hogwarts, the review was useless for me.
The final Quidditch game was held right after all the classes were done. The result wasn't a surprise for anyone. Though the score ended up being our largest of the year, since the snitch stayed out of my sensing range for awhile and because the Ravenclaw seeker couldn't find it either. As a result, the game continued on for some time and we ended up winning 500-50. With our dominance in Quidditch, plus Hermione constantly getting house points in class with some points from Neville and I, once in a while; we ended up winning the House Cup without needing the blatant favouritism.
It was presented the day of the Leaving Feast and this time; Dumbledore was in attendance to give it to Gryffindor. I know I shouldn't care because it won't matter in the long run, but it still felt good knowing we won without relying on last-minute technicalities.
As for Dumbledore, he looked completely fine but I could tell he was hiding a lot of discomfort and I'd noticed his left wrist was bandaged up as well. Quirrell's absence was explained away with a cover story about him going off to explore more vampire nests. And that he would not be returning next year as his trip would take a long time. I saw some students around the Great Hall look skeptical at that, but nobody could question him on it, or would dare to.
We left Hogwarts about 2 hours after the Leaving Feast. Hermione, Neville and I discussed our plans for the summer, during the ride. Hermione and her parents were going to Italy for the summer. Since canonically, I knew they would be going to France the following summer, it seemed travelling was a yearly activity for the Grangers. Neville was going to be spending the summer at one of the Longbottom's estates, also located out of the country. Though Neville didn't know where, his grandmother remaining tight lipped about it. As for me, I told them I'd be playing tourist in London, with Sirius, since neither of us had the opportunity to explore it much.
When the train arrived in London, they wished me well for the summer, and then grabbed their stuff and went out to meet their relatives. I closed the blinds after they left and called Tipsy to take me back to the Manor.
Now just before we left Hogwarts, the twins told me they had received letters that said some emergency had come up so they had to leave immediately after arriving at the station. So, they would have to postpone meeting Padfoot. I didn't remember anything from canon being relevant but I didn't press them since they wouldn't have been vague, unless it was very personal, they were very open with everyone that way. So instead, told them I'd make sure to get in touch with them during the summer, to reschedule the meet. They left without actually giving me a way to reach them, they had faith that I would be able to get in touch with them regardless or else I would have asked before they left.
That's why elves are the best, they know instinctively where they need to go. They told me once, it was because of their innate connection to magic. Although, it's not like I won't be able to do the same…eventually. The Wand of Watoomb, in the comics, had the ability to scry whatever the wielder wanted. If that is true for my wand, then it might be something I could do in the future. Although, I'm not sure how strong I would have to get before I was able to do that. But there was no point thinking about it now, I had other things to work on at the moment. I'd slowly uncover all the abilities of my wand, there was no rush.
When I landed in the Manor, I was immediately whisked into a hug by Sirius.
"Harry! I missed you so much!" He said, smothering me into his chest.
I mumbled out my response, and that's when he realised how suffocated I was. He quickly let go and apologized before laughing and pulling me into another hug, albeit a lighter one. He dragged me into the dinning area right after, where the elves had prepared a Welcome Home Feast.
Now I had eaten a lot during the feast at Hogwarts, but I was a growing adult after all. Besides, I could make up for it, during tomorrow's work out. With that thought, I joined Sirius and the elves and we all proceeded to stuff ourselves.
When there was no more food left, we all had food-comas. Even the elves were too lethargic to begin cleaning right away, for the first time since I had come to live with them. It was tiresome but we all managed to move to the sofas and then passed out…I don't know when but at some point, the elves woke up and moved Sirius and I to bed. I wasn't sure about Sirius, but I know I didn't wake up till the following day.
Even though it was summer break, I didn't let that disrupt my routine. I woke up early as usual, but my workout was a lot more intense. Had to make up for yesterday, since I was still feeling a little stuffed. Only had a light breakfast because of it, the same went for Sirius as well, who had woken up while I was working out. He came down for breakfast, just as I sat down...
"So, while you were off lolling around Hogwarts, I was busy taking care of all our legal problems." Sirius said with a smug expression as we sat down on the sofas, after finishing our breakfast.
"Oh really? Please enlighten me" I said with sarcasm. I was suspicious of Sirius being able to figure out all the legal proceeding of the normal world so quickly.
"Do you know who Andromeda Tonks is?" He continued on when I agreed with a nod. "Well, she's my older cousin, in case you didn't know that, Mr. Know-it-all. The two of us used to be the outliers of the Black family. And we both ended up getting kicked out the house too, so we were always close because of that. She came by to apologize for not trying harder to get me out when I was first arrested. This whole time she thought I at least got a trial; however bad it may have been. It was only after reading the Prophet when I was released did, she realize the truth."
"Why did she wait till now to come see you, you've been released for a few months now?" I asked curiously.
"Tt was because she was feeling guilty and needed to work up the courage, is what she said. I wish you were here Harry; I drove her mad. Almost got tears too, until I started laughing. Well worth the few hexes I got."
I shook my head in faux disappointment. I knew the nature Sirius had, so I'm sure he pretended to have been very hurt by her inaction, all this time. The hexes probably came as comeuppance after Andromeda realized he was just messing with her.
Sirius and I had talked about this before, and the only people he really blamed were Pettigrew, Voldemort, and partially Dumbledore. As he should have at least made sure Sirius got a trial.
"I'm glad you had fun ruining, what was probably a difficult apology for her, but I still don't see how-" I asked when I got myself out of my musings, or tried to before he interrupted me.
"I was getting there, but very well, if you want to be serious:" He, said twisting his expression into what he called his serious expression. I had to stop myself from laughing out, I couldn't lose. It was game we often played; him trying to break my composure, while I tried to keep us on point.
"When we started talking about everything, we ended up opening some old wounds we shared with the family. It helped us make amends, as it were. Eventually, got around to telling her that I found out I was never actually disowned from the family. And I'm now the Head of the Black family, allowing me to welcome her back in, if she wanted." He explained with his mock serious face.
"And did she accept?" I asked curiously, forgetting the original point of our conversation for a second.
"Well, she said no initially, felt it wasn't something she needed anymore. But I told her not to do it out of spite of our families but instead do it, so years from now, the Blacks are remembered because of us and our children, instead of our parents. We could control how the future Blacks would grow up. She readily agreed after that" He answered.
"Wow, that was actually some sound piece of advice." I gave him a backhanded compliment and then got back on point. "So, I'm guessing after that conversation, you two eventually started discussing a little bit of my circumstance with the Dursleys. And then she told you that she knows someone who could probably help us get sorted out…Am I right?"
Well actually, her husband Ted does" He, said slightly gloating at the fact that I wasn't exactly right in my guess. "He's a muggle-born actually, the reason why Dromeda got kicked out of the family. But anyway, he's really good friends with a solicitor working in the muggle world who helps other muggle-borns establish a life back in the old world, after spending so much time away from it. She said she will get in touch with this solicitor and let us know when we can meet him"
I nodded my head to show my agreement but said "So what I'm getting is that, Andromeda and Ted Tonks are the ones, who are getting it sorted for us. All you did was basically ask your older cousin for help."
"You cheeky bugger!" He then stated while laughing and lunging at me, trying to trap me into a head-lock.
We somehow got into a spontaneous duel in the main room. All friendly spells, but it was an intense duel nonetheless. The close quarters of the room made for quick exchanges between both of us firing spells when peeking over whatever cover we had, like the sofas, or the tea tables.
We went on for about an hour, only used basic spells but it was still a lot of fun. I asked him to join my trainings whenever he could, his keen insights from his experiences would be very helpful in refining my overall usage of magic. He agreed but only on certain days, I woke up too early for him to want to join regularly.
We had the elves prepare us a quick lunch and after wolfing it down, we set off for 12 Grimmauld Place. The place looked exactly as I had thought. Visible dust layers were present all around the house. The floors, tables, chairs, portraits, everything was covered in dust. A few seconds after we landed at Grimmauld Place, it's caretaker came to rudely greet us.
Kreacher and Sirius traded insults for a few seconds before I got annoyed of it quickly. It was entertaining for just a short time. I told Sirius to go with Sebas and check out the house, while I toured with Kreacher. He was wary of my idea, but agreed when I passionately stated I was here to explore Grimmauld Place, not watch Kreacher and him fight it out.
So as Sebas and Sirius toured the house, I went along with Kreacher. He tried to hurl insults at me but I was barely paying attention to him. I just wanted to get far enough away from Sirius so I could ask Kreacher about the locket. And when I thought we were far enough away, I cast a wandless Muffliato, just to be safe. Kreacher who had continued to insult me stopped when I cast the spell, wary of what I was going to do.
"Kreacher, what we are going to discuss now, must not be shared with anyone else, understand!" I stated grimly.
"And why would Kreacher listen to the traitor's disgusting friend?"He asked condescendingly
"Because I will help you complete the task your previous master, Regulus, gave you." I answered confidently.
"You! What! How do you know about that, Kreacher has never told anybody about it?" He asked in rage.
"Well, Kreacher, I can tell you how I know this or I can help you destroy it, your , I know you are a good elf Kreacher, and you feel guilty for failing the last task your master left to you so I want to help you." I was laying it on thick, but I wanted to make sure I secured getting that locket when I got to Hogwarts. I wanted to destroy 3 horcruxes this year, if I could; the diary, the locket and the diadem.
"You're lying, Kreacher has tried many times to destroy it. But Kreacher has failed every time…" Kreacher continued to rage out at me.
"I know you've tried your best Kreacher, but that locket is special. To destroy the locket, you need very special objects. I know you don't know me, so it's hard for you to trust me. But I promise you, give me a few months and I'll have the way to destroy the locket." I tried to console him.
"How does the traitor's filthy blooded friend know this method?" He inquired, rage dripping off every word.
"I know because there are other objects just the same as this one, that need to be destroyed. I learned of them at the same time as learning how they can be destroyed." I told him.
"What? There are others…Kreacher has failed Master Regulus so much!" he yelled out again. If I hadn't cast the Muffliato spell, Sirius and Sebas would have definitely heard him this time.
"It's okay Kreacher, like I alluded to before, I know of them all. And in a few months, when I get back to Hogwarts, I'll be able to destroy 3 of them, including the locket you have been keeping safe for all these years." I tried convincing him further.
He took on a pensive expression before agreeing but very reluctantly. I thanked him for it and reminded him to keep it a secret from Sirius. He answered in confirmation just as I sensed Sirius and Sebas approaching. I cancelled the Muffliato spell before they realized it was active.
For the rest of our time at Grimmauld Place, Kreacher was more behaved with me. He still treated Sirius like dirt but was better with me. He didn't acknowledge me or anything but he stopped throwing insults my way. I guess he would wait to see if I followed through on my promise, before actually opening up to me. Sirius was too pre-occupied with insulting Kreacher to notice his change in behaviour.
We ended up staying till the evening, Sebas taking note of everything that would need to be cleaned, repaired, replaced or thrown out before the place could be used. Sirius wasn't going to be moving in, instead we were looking at remodelling it to be our headquarters for our business that we would be starting up very soon.
We had already begun discussing some of my ideas yesterday. The first project we would be working on would be turning board games played in the normal world to magical equivalents; Monopoly, Risk, Uno, Scrabble were all on our list.
Starting the project was going to be great, because it would involve teaching Sirius to play the games, so it was work and pleasure. And considering his prankful and child-like nature, he would have great suggestions for the games once he figured out the rules.
Working on the board games, would also allow Sirius and I to review Runes together. While I had done a lot of self-studying before Hogwarts, with Sirius, I would be able to fill holes in my knowledge that I didn't know I had. Self-learning can be dangerous because if you don't know where you missed important details, and proceed ahead before you are ready, it can lead to some bad results.
Sebas took Sirius and I back to the Potter Manor just as the moon rose in the sky. Kreacher opted to remain at Grimmauld Place, to the relief of Sirius but the disappointment of Sebas and I. I knew why Kreacher's mental state had deteriorated so much, as for Sebas, he knew all too well the tragedies of being house elves for wizards.
The following day started off just as relaxed as the previous day. The difference today was that after breakfast we left to meet the Tonks' and their friend. We ended up travelling via the Floo, it being my first time. Unlike canon Harry though, I didn't stumble or trip using it, remembering the trick to it.
When I saw Andromeda Tonks for the first time, I could understand why the book Harry attempted to attack her the first time he saw her. She did look a lot like Bellatrix Lestrange albeit more sane, calmer and way less intense looking. Her husband, Ted looked a lot like Peter Burke from White Collar, not sure how accurate that was to canon. I didn't remember how the books had described him, while the movies had excluded Andromeda and him all together. Nymphadora, AKA Tonks, was not at the house unfortunately, I was looking forward to meeting her, she was one of my favourites characters.
The friend, Randal Willow, was not a character from canon, at least not one that I knew. He had graduated from Hogwarts the same year as Ted and we didn't know much about Ted, so it made sense. Randall faced a lot of difficulty getting a job in the wizarding world. So, he ended up re-joining the normal world again, choosing to become a lawyer so he can help other wizards in the same situation he was in.
After talking to him, everything became a lot easier at least, in terms of creating a paper trail. Turns out Hogwarts was actually a registered private school in the normal world. It was created to make it easier to enroll students in case authorities got involved for any reason. It was officially run by a revolving panel of alumni muggle-borns. Randall said all Sirius and I had to do was send him our school records and he would do the needful. In my case, I would have to send it to him yearly. I also discussed getting adoption papers for Sirius and I, which he said would be no problem. And as I wanted, he could also get it backdated. Turns out there were many muggle-borns wizards who couldn't get jobs and turn back to the normal world and they all help each other whenever possible for things like this.
With the pleasantries out of the way, I then asked what needed to be done to get the Dursleys arrested. The Tonks, and Randall, were surprised, not expecting that particular request. I only had to explain a little bit to help them understand, all three were intelligent enough to read between the lines. I saw it on their expressions when they realized that I was alluding to child abuse. They didn't ask any details at all, but voiced their support in any way possible.
It was Andromeda who came up with having Sirius himself go to the authorities, once both of our paper records came in. It was a little risky, but we also didn't have too many other options, the main issue of explaining my time at Potter Manor.
The play was to have it seem like Sirius Black, a widowed reclusive, adopted a missing child he found passed out on the side of a road that he took to the nearest hospital. The only thing the child remembered was his first name, Harry. He explained that was only because he remembered coming to a similar hospital before and heard his uncle tell the nurse that his name. That piece of information was to point the authorities directly towards my older hospital records, which I hoped still existed and weren't lost because of some fire or what not.
Now with nobody being able to find any information on Harry's relatives, Sirius took it upon himself to care for Harry. Eventually, enrolling him at his former institute, a boarding school called Hogwarts. And it was there that Harry would get recognized by an old teacher at the school who taught Harry's mother, Lily Potter, Lily Evans at the time she was a student. The green eyes he had being particularly distinctive, instantly reminding her of her favourite student. That teacher informed Sirius of that information, who then used the mother's maiden name to find Harry's relatives. He would tell authorities that he discovered that Lily and her husband died in a car accident leaving their son orphaned, in the care of Lily's sister Petunia Dursley, previously Petunia Evans.
Hopefully, the authorities would then take a look into the life of Harry Potter since he started living with the Dursleys until he supposedly ended up living with Sirius Black. If the authorities asked to speak to the teacher, Andromeda would take the part, relying on magic to advance her age to make it believable. However, we would have to wait at least a month before Sirius could go to the authorities and start the plan, it was the minimum time Randal said it would take to make sure our cover stories were seamlessly inserted into the normal world. We didn't want anyone find any holes in them ,after all.
I told him the timeframe was more than acceptable, Sirius and I had plenty to busy ourselves with over the summer. I had to slap my hand over Sirius' mouth before he blabbed out the current project we were working on. I wanted the few families that I knew of to be the first beta testers of our games, so I wanted it to be a surprise for them, especially for Ted. And Randall, I would be giving him the games we created for his family too. Sirius and I then bid the three of them farewell and returned back to Potter Manor; it was dinner time by the time we made it back.
Chapter 23 - Still a Swamped Summer
It was a bright and sunny day, when I had to arrive at the train station to Hogwarts. I found myself waiting for Hermione and Neville once again, reflecting on all that happened over the summer. It was only a 2 months vacation but I made the most out of it. Though it did end up becoming quite a hectic summer.
The task that took up most of my time was establishing the business I was starting with Sirius. We were still finalizing a name for it, but at the moment we had tentatively decided on Marauders' Inc. We had decided to start small, converting just 2 games to their magical equivalents. We decided on Scrabble and Monopoly; renamed as Quibble and Empire, respectively. The name change was made so that wizards wouldn't discriminate against the games, if they ended up recognizing the original names somehow. Scrabble was selected as it was one of the easiest ones to convert. As for Monopoly, I was hoping the popularity of the game in the normal world would also be replicated in the wizarding world.
In terms of the actual conversion, we started with Scrabble first, or Quibble as it were. We began by placing multiple runes and charms on all the pieces of the board. They would now gather and shuffle by themselves, given a specific command. The wording of that command was made to be customizable, as well. The pieces would also now change colour to represent different players, the colours changing based on the number of players in the game. To keep track of the players, we charmed a self-tabulating points parchment to be included. Based on how many players were put on the parchment, the colours of all the pieces would change accordingly. The parchment could be reset after each game, as well. In terms of the rules of the game, we didn't really change much, as they were already very simple. The only noticeable change was the extra points awarded for any spells, charms or curses placed on the board.
In terms of carrying out the actual work, pulling off the charms was not difficult at all, the main aspect being precision and control. And I had practised that in abundance over the years. The tricky part was the Runes that needed to be added to each piece and the board. I was very textbook in my usage of Runes, trying to implement them exactly as I learned from the books. But because of the size of the game pieces, I had a lot of difficulty placing the Runes. It was Sirius who taught me to be less rigid with my use of them. He taught me different combinations that were better suited than the longer approach I was taking. It was similar to a solving a math question; one student may take 6 steps to solve a question but another might take 3 steps because that student understood where certain steps can be skipped or done at the same time as other steps.
As for Monopoly, or Empire, we had changed the entire aesthetic of the board. The game pieces were changed to; a Wand, a Broom, a Potions Flask, a Witch's Hat, a Snitch, and a few assortments of magical creatures; a dragon, a phoenix, a nundu… All the locations had been changed to that of Wizarding Britain; Hogwarts, Gringotts, the Ministry, Hogsmeade…Jail now became Azkaban. We had also decided on making multiple versions for wizards all around the world. But the other versions would have to wait until we saw how well the game did in Britain first.
Continuing the changes to the game, the Chance cards became Felicis cards, while the Community Chest cards became Treasure Vault cards. The money for the game was replaced with Knuts, Sickles, and Galleons. We used coins, instead of bills, as we didn't want to take the chance that wizards would find the bills too bizarre. The buildings that you could place on owned locations had been changed from, Houses and Hotels to Manors and Castles. And finally, just like Quibble, all the pieces for Empire had been made to gather by themselves, eliminating the clean up time after the game is over.
We also charmed a parchment to be included, that would require players to input their initials and game piece, based on the order they were going to play the game. The parchment would be updated throughout the game with each player's current accumulated wealth so players wouldn't have to guess who is winning. It was also charmed to the actual board, as well. This was because we took out the physical dice and instead created a push down button that sat in the middle of the board. When pushed, a projection of two dices rolling was displayed. Their piece would then move according to the result of the dice, without any need for the players to actually move them. The piece that would move was determined by the order of players written on the parchment.
Currently we were on pace to have a few working versions to give everyone to test out by Christmas of this year. And by the end of the school year, we would have a store in Diagon Alley ready to sell our games.
Over the summer, I had also become very close to the Tonks family. Sirius, the elves and I would spend almost every other evening at their house. Andromeda and Ted became the de facto guardians for Sirius, Nymphadora and I. Nymphadora, Dora as I called her, had become like an older sister to me. S was just as outgoing, playful and clumsy as I expected her to be. She never treated me like a kid, something that always annoyed me about adults, so it was very easy for us to get along. Her and I had began training regularly after she learned of my magical capabilities. We would critique each other after the duels, to improve the other's performance for the next time. I also shared with her a few spells and charms that I found in the Potter Manor to increase her repertoire. And she shared with me any tips she learned from training as Auror under Moody. I had asked her about him, and she described him to be a tough and strict teacher but it was worth the improvements she was making under him. She also joined Sirius and I, on our adventures through London. With nobody responsible to stop us, we wreaked havoc around London all summer.
We would go to Carnivals that were in the city and cleaned out as many of the games as we could. The people manning the games were left speechless, as they had to hand top prize after top prize to the three of us. We handed them out to any kids that we passed by, it was a little like Robin Hood robbing the rich, to give to the poor. Okay maybe not at all like that, but that's how I imagined it. We also took to roaming around bars late at night, looking for anybody we could pull pranks on. Specifically, any obnoxious drunks that were making other people uncomfortable. The best prank had to be when we convinced one particularly aggressive drunk that werewolves had begun taking over the world. Sirius' Animagus ability and Dora's Metamorphmagus ability had made it easy to pull it off.
Now while I knew Sirius was having a lot of fun spending time with Dora and I, it was also very clear that he missed his last remaining best friend, Remus Lupin. I thought that once Sirius' release was made public, he would turn up. But months had now passed and there was no sign of the werewolf. I couldn't tell Sirius to ask Dumbledore because I wasn't supposed to know that Dumbledore knew Remus' whereabouts. So unfortunately, I had to watch Sirius lament over Remus' whereabouts. Hopefully, Dumbledore would still ask Remus to teach DADA for the third year.
I didn't let any of the fun I was having with Sirius and Dora or the ongoing work on the board games, stop me from continuing my training. My wind magic had improved by leaps and bounds. I could now summon wind magic without calling my wand to my hand, or having it out in front of me. Though, I still had some way to go before I could make wind tornadoes and hurricanes. The next element I started working on was fire, which was infinitely harder to work with than wind. Fire, by nature was destructive, so any mishaps could result in a lot of damage. For this reason, I had to take each step slowly and so I worked with candles in the beginning to reduce the damage I might cause. I would start by changing the size of the flame, making it larger or smaller. And then eventually trying to take the flame off the actual candle wax, while keeping it burning. Then I added another candle to mix, then another, and so on…
In addition to practising with the wand, I also prepared for the fight that was awaiting me at Hogwarts this year. I had chosen to not visit the Chamber of Secrets last year, as I only had one Horcrux to destroy, and I didn't want to face a Basilisk just for the one Horcrux. But this year I would have three Horcruxes I could destroy so I prepared to fight the obnoxiously giant snake. I put blinder on my eyes so I couldn't see at all with them, and instead called on my Magical Perception spell. I had improved to the point that it could act like my eyes for me, it was as if a mental blueprint of my location was created in my mind, every time the spell was activated. I could now move about without issue, even when blindfolded. I made sure to test my skill in all different types of environments, like the Tonks house, the field behind Potter Manor and so on…
During my preparation for the second year, I was visited by another who was preparing his own plans to keep me safe, of course, I was talking about Dobby. Tipsy had caught him trying to alter the wards of the Manor. He was extremely apologetic when he was caught but was insistent on the danger I would be facing at Hogwarts. I tried convincing him that I would be fine but he was very adamant so I had to reveal that I knew of the diary and the danger it represented. Maybe that was a mistake, as his admiration for me rose to an exponential level after that. He began calling me "the Great Harry Potter, the All-Knowing wizard" and it was made worse because Tipsy had also started calling me that from time to time.
Now while all of those activities and tasks had made the summer very enjoyable, the most satisfying had to be seeing Petunia and Vernon get their comeuppance. The start of it came about a month after the talk with Randall. He had flawlessly created paper trails for Sirius and I, as he said he would be able to. Once it was confirmed, Sirius went to the authorities with the story we had come up with. And 3 days after that, we were called to the station so I could answer some questions. I made sure to answer every question with as much detail as possible, ensuring to highlight the days I was forgotten after being locked in the cupboard, not given food or water. I made sure to allude to the hospital visit so they could follow up on that. And five days later they informed us, they had brought the Dursley for questioning and I asked to be present at the interrogation. They didn't want to say yes, but I made sure to take advantage of my young age and gave them a heart-wrenching, pleading expression that they couldn't say no to. I was told the Dursleys had not been made aware as to why they were brought in. It explained why they didn't ask for a lawyer to be present. Big Mistake!
"For the record, this is a joint interrogation of Vernon Dursley and Petunia Dursley. Investigators Dai Thomas and Garcia Spencer will be performing the interrogation. For the record, both Vernon and Petunia have declined their right to have an attorney present." The investigator, Dai Thomas said to the recorder on the table. Dai had spent quite a few years as an officer, you could see it on his face. The toll of all the horrors he had seen, was visible in the hard and grim expression he looked at you with. His partner Garcia was a younger officer, much younger that Dai. She was most likely partnered with Dai, so she could learn from him. But I didn't ask to confirm, just let it be a theory in my head.
"Alright to start off, I want you two to explain the current whereabouts of your nephew, Harry James Potter." It was Dai, who began the questioning.
The Dursleys, who had been unaware of the reason they were brought in, were caught off guard by the question. They didn't answer the questions, instead looked towards each other in confusion.
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, can you tell us the current whereabouts of your nephew Harry Potter?" Dai asked again when they didn't reply.
"…He...He's with my sister." Vernon stuttered out the first answer he could think of.
"With your sister? Mr. Dursley, we have already spoken with your sister and she claimed he's been at a boarding school. So, which is it? Is he at a boarding school or living with your sister?" Garcia asked this time.
"Oh yeah… the boarding school, that's where he is!" Vernon acted like he forgot and tried to backtrack his answer.
"Okay, what is the name of this school?" Garcia challenged him.
"Hogwards, the name is Hogwards." It was Petunia who answered, when Vernon couldn't come up with an answer. So close Petunia, so close. You should have paid more attention to your sister's life. It wouldn't have helped her situation knowing Hogwarts correct name but at least get your lies in order.
"Well, could you give the contact information for the school and the address? Garcia challenged Petunia, this time.
"Okay fine! The fr- boy doesn't live with us anymore." Vernon answered testily. I could tell he wanted to leave as soon as possible; beads of sweat had started showing on his forehead.
"Doesn't live with you? You are his guardians; how could he not live with you?" Dai took the lead this time.
"Because, we didn't feel like we could give him the care he needed, so we gave him up to be adopted." Petunia explained trying to sound disappointed at herself.
"The lies you are giving us, are getting more and more convoluted. Now I believe you, when you said you couldn't give your nephew the care that he needed but as for your story of adoption, well…"Dai replied, placing a folder on the table. "The records in this folder show that you have collected child benefits from being Harry Potter's guardian for 11 years now. If he had been adopted as you claim, they would have gone to the new guardian."
Neither Vernon or Petunia responded, unsure of how to answer the unasked question. The investigators let the silence hang in the air for a minute or two.
"Alright, since there is a lot of uncertainty of your nephew's current whereabouts, let's switch focus to when he was living with you. Can you tell us how you cared for your nephew?" Garcia eventually broke the silence.
"Car- Care? What do you mean?" Vernon asked with a visible gulp.
"I mean how did you go about providing care to your nephew. What meals did you make for him? What were his favourites? Where was his daycare? You have a son, right? How did Harry and your son get along?" Dai clarified for them.
"We, um, we gave him the best care possible. We would make his favourite food often, and always made sure he had enough toys to play with, and…" Petunia took the reigns to answer the question but was interrupted.
"Let me stop you right there Mrs. Dursley. We need to show you some photos. They are of a particular cupboard in your house that was chained up. When we were able to open it up, we could tell that it had not been opened in years. But what got our attention was the old tattered mattress, and the thin blanket on it…We've already seen your son's two rooms, and your room, so we have to wonder; Who used to sleep in the cupboard?" Garcia asked the last question rhetorically. By this point the Dursleys knew they were in trouble but where Petunia was getting more and more worried, Vernon looked to be getting angrier.
"We also have hospital records from when Harry was younger, indicating he had to be brought to the hospital after suffering severe malnourishment. If you were making your nephew's favourite meals all the time, as you said, then how did he end up at the hospital with malnourishment?" Dai continued right after Garcia without missing a beat. I knew investigators would practise their questioning tactics, but still the rapport between the was impressive, despite the age difference.
"You don't understand, we had to." Vernon replied tersely.
"Had to, what do you mean you had to? You starved an innocent child, kept him locked in a cupboard and now you're saying it was something you had to do. You're right, we don't understand, how two parents could do that to a boy the same age as their own child?" Garcia asked, angered at Vernon's response.
"Because he's not a boy! He's a FREAK! We had to make sure his freakishness didn't infect our Dudders, that's why we kept him locked in the cupboard. That's why we didn't feed him! We couldn't have his freakishness grow strong enough to taint us. You d-"Vernon exploded on the investigators after he couldn't hold back anymore. But stopped when he saw the investigators disgusted expressions. It was then he was hit with the realization of what he just said, and so without saying anything else, he sat back down as he gave one long look to Petunia.
The rest of the interview was straight forward after his angered confession. They ended up admitting to all the abuse when Dai mentioned that it may help reduce their sentence. They even admitted to not reporting me missing, so they could claim the benefits without having to care for me. After their questions were done, they left the room and entered to where Sirius and I were watching the interrogation from. They tried not to, but the pity they felt for me was fully evident on their faces. Taking advantage of it, I asked for some alone time with the Dursleys which they only gave after Sirius confirmed he would in the room with me.
"You!" Petunia and Dursley exclaimed, standing to their feet, when they saw Sirius and I enter the room.
"Of course, it's me. Were you hoping I'd died?" I asked with humor in my voice.
"You freak! How dare you do this us, after we took you in? After all that we did for you?" Dursley questioned angrily, his face turning tomato red.
"You're right! You did take me in, you didn't have to, but you did. And that's why, I did all this for you two. Since you gave me the "best care" you could, I thought you deserved the same. Now you two will also be locked in a small room, only allowed to eat, to bathe, to go outside on the whims of someone else. Hopefully you come to enjoy your new home, at least more than I did." I said with mocking care and comfort in my voice.
That's all I wanted to say to them and so left the room with Sirius right after, the Dursleys were screaming numerous expletives as we left. I wanted them to know that it was me who put them in there. I took satisfaction at the thought that they would soon be forced to contemplate of how terribly the treated me because the would be getting a similar treatment in jail.
The investigators later told me that there will be a sentencing hearing in the next year or so. I will have to be present at the hearing, and that I may be asked if I wanted to speak. It wasn't necessary but it was something they wanted me to think about starting now, rather than making me stress about it closer to the hearing. Just before we left, I asked them what would happen to Dudley, and they informed me that most likely Vernon's sister would take him in. I didn't know how I felt about that, unsure of how she would raise him, but that was not my problem anymore. I could now, figuratively, close this chapter of my life. I would still struggle from time to time, with the nightmares from my time with the Dursleys, but I would be able to sleep a little easier now.
While this summer had been packed and hectic, it didn't stop me from making new plans for the coming Winter Break, more like one plan, actually. This one came about from my last outing to London with Dora and Sirius. While we were walking about an area we hadn't been to before, I had my Magic Perception spell activated. It was to practise differentiating all the various objects caught in my range. And that's when I sensed a building that radiated a large and dense amount of magic. I had to bite the insides of my cheeks to keep from screaming out from shock.
The building itself looked like any old townhouse but that was just a veil that hid the true size of it. Similar to the veil put on the Leaky Cauldron or on Grimmauld Place. The difference though, was I could tell the magic used to hide the building was not wizard magic. It most likely home to someone practising in a form magic found in the Marvel world. And the power that was emanating from the building indicated that it was a very powerful magic user. He or she was definitely stronger than Voldemort or Dumbledore, but I couldn't remember which powerful magic user lived in London, England. Dr. Strange lived in New York, the Ancient One is somewhere in the Himalayas probably, Agatha Harkness should be somewhere in America. I just couldn't figure out who it was. And since it was the last day of the summer, I had to postpone finding out who lived there until the Winter Break. Hence, I now had the first task to do for the holidays. Hopefully, whoever it was, would be willing to help me deal with Voldemort. It would be a nice to know I had such a powerful person in my corner.
It was Neville who came first and stopped me from my reflections. As we waited for Hermione to join us, we caught up on each other's summer. I told him about; meeting the Tonks, getting Sirius certified as my guardian in the normal world and about some of the adventures, Dora, Sirius and I went on, through London. I kept the work on the games a secret, to surprise Neville and Hermione later in the year. After I was done telling him of my summer, he told me of the estate that he went to. It was apparently where his grandfather had grown up, but had become abandoned over the years. Neville's grandmother, who had been very impressed with his improvements in magic, had decided to give the estate to Neville as a graduation present, when he finished Hogwarts. She took him to the estate now so that Neville could point out any changes he wanted made. He had tried to deny it, thinking he didn't deserve it but his grandmother had insisted. Saying it was also a form of apology for the way she behaved with him before Hogwarts. He didn't really explain what she meant by that, but he didn't have to.
Just as Neville was finishing his recount of the summer, Hermione walked in, looking a little tanner than before. She explained that she had spent a lot time travelling around Italy, exploring all the wonders she could. She even had the chance to look around Italy's version of Diagon Alley. She described it to be livelier, and more vibrant. The shops had more variety and diversity than the ones in Diagon Alley. After she was finished her recap, Neville and I both took turns recounting our summer for her. And it was only when the train left the station that I realized the scandal of the flying car would never come to be. A very good thing, as I knew SHIELD would have immediately jumped on the story if it had happened.
The Welcome Feast this year was fairly uneventful, no surprises from any of the Sorting's. The only thing that I really cared about was that Ginny Weasley had indeed joined Hogwarts this year and was sorted in Gryffindor. All the pieces were lining up, now all I needed to do was confirm the diary was in her possession. If possible, I wanted to get the diary before it has a chance to take over her mind. I also had the elves decide on a rotation to keep watch over the 2nd floor washroom if I couldn't get it before hand. I knew Halloween would be the day when the first petrification happened but I didn't know if Ginny had been to the chamber before that. I wanted to be prepared for all eventualities as this year would be the first real step I took, in my fight against Voldemort.