Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 2

Disclaimer:

I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.

December 1981, Little Whinging, Surrey

Little Harry Potter lay in his cupboard and he quietly cried for his mummy. He had learned just in his first week that things here were different. Magic was not celebrated, it was punished. Boo-boos were not kissed, they were put there on purpose. His mummy used to call him her sweet darling, Harry, but these new people that he was to call Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon (names he couldn't even pronounce) called him a stupid, worthless little freak.

Harry lay there quietly thinking to himself that this wasn't a home. He didn't want it to be his home. He wanted his mummy and daddy, and Paddy and Moony. Not Wormy, no, he didn't like Wormy. Wormy was twitchy and nervous and not fun at all.

Why didn't Mummy wake up after that green light? That's what Harry wanted to know. The green light hit Harry, too, but here he is. He wanted Mummy to come get him, she would set Aunt Tuney straight.

As Harry silently cried himself to sleep, he whispered, "Dis no me home," so softly that even the spiders couldn't have heard it, but it wasn't the spiders that needed to hear.

And just like that, the "love-based" wards of 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, fell. There was not enough love to keep them going without Petunia Dursley freely loving her nephew unconditionally. Then again, if she had loved her nephew as she should have, he wouldn't have been living in the cupboard under the stairs, he would have had his own room and own toys, and would have been content to call this place home.

Petunia's selfishness, jealousy, and disdain for all things magical was the cause of their downfall. An hour after the wards had fallen, they were attacked by surviving Death Eaters, but at least in the end she had the decency to not tell them, even after torture, where he was sleeping.

Little Harry woke up to the commotion and smartly realized he needed to stay as silent and small as possible. As if sensing the danger he was in, his magic began to wrap itself around him in a little cocoon to keep him safe.

The DEs knew the Boy-Who-Lived was somewhere in this house, but they couldn't find him. They even tried homenum revelio and found nothing. The only child they had been able to find in the house was a fat muggle baby, which they took care of very quickly with an avada kedavra.

The DEs were just discussing burning the place down with fiendfyre and be done with it when they were all frozen in their tracks, literally and figuratively. There were two strangers in hoods that had shown up, and they emitted a nearly blinding aura that seemed to have lit up the entire street. One was taller than the other and they seemed to be a man and a woman. The taller of the two spoke, confirming himself to be male, "Well, it seems we got here right on time."

Just earlier:

Harry and Merope had arrived in the middle of a dark and cold night. Still in stealth mode, Harry cast a tempus and the date displayed said December 5, 1981. Then Harry and Merope looked around at their surroundings and Harry recognized the neighborhood with dread. They were silent as Harry led the way to 4 Privet Drive, where they saw the Death Eaters in a debate about using fiendfyre because they couldn't find the child.

Harry looked at Merope and said, "I think we've left the regular time flow and was pulled to a sort of mirror or parallel world, because the wards here have fallen and I can only sense one living presence in that house, which obviously never happened in my original time."

Merope nodded and said, "Well, let's take care of the scum and rescue baby Harry, then we can determine how different this world may be from your original."

Harry nodded. "Time to make a light show." With that said, Harry and Merope became visible and sent out a freezing spell to catch everyone en masse. Harry spoke saying, "Well, it seems we got here right on time." Then he slowly walked toward the DEs, who were staring at them all wide-eyed, but of course couldn't move a muscle.

Harry walked over and began removing masks saying, Well, well, well, we have Malfoy, Yaxley, Macnair, both Carrows, Avery, Crabbe, Nott, and Goyle." Harry tapped his finger to his chin, in a show of over exaggerating deep thought. "Wasn't it just last month that you were all claiming to have only been following Lord What's-His-Name due to the imperius curse?" If the DEs had been able to answer, they probably would have come up with something very stupid to say.

Harry continued, "And yet here you are, having just slaughtered the family of the Boy-Who-Lived. You know, for someone who had been supposedly under the imperius curse against their will, one would think you would be thankful for the downfall of He-Who-Made-Up-His-Name and not set yourselves out to attempt to kill the same toddler that became his downfall."

During his speech, Harry summoned all their wands, and spare wands, and portkeys, catching them all in a conjured bag, much to their shock, that they still weren't able to show.

Harry turned to Merope and said, "Mary," she nodded to him in answer and he continued, "be a dear and go in and get Harry. While you're taking care of him, I'll get rid of the scum. I'm thinking that a certain cave with a lake would be the perfect place for these fools, assuming it still exists."

Merope sent him a satisfied grin and said, "Oh, yes, that is definitely a fitting end for all of them, that way the world won't suffer from all their hatred and prejudice and continued bribes to keep Sirius Black from receiving a trial. But most of all, perhaps with them out of the way so soon, their children will actually have the chance to grow into acceptable human beings." With that, Merope made her way into 4 Privet Drive to retreat little Harry from his hiding place.

Harry said to the DEs, "You're in for a real treat, let me tell you. It's the perfect little vacation get away. It's a seaside cliff that has a cave with a lake, you might even be able to find some treasure." Harry conjured a rope that he then tied everyone to, they were in shock that they still couldn't move.

They were in even more shock when Harry proceeded to apparate with all of them, bypassing the wards and landing silently, directly on the island in the middle of the lake inside the cave. They were too shocked, at first, to notice the freezing charm had been removed. They did notice a chest on a pedestal filled with potion and a necklace at the bottom of it.

Then Harry cleared his throat and said, "I'm feeling pretty generous right now, so I won't throw you directly into the lake with the inferi." The DEs gave a collective sharp intake of breath at that announcement.

Harry continued, "You see, your Lord-Who-is-too-Stupid-to-Have-a-Better-Name, created this little vacation spot to protect one of his precious treasures, not knowing that one of his follwers found it and replaced it." The DEs were in too much shock to bristle at the way Harry spoke of their master and listened in rapt attention.

"And since I'm feeling a tad generous, I'm going to leave you all one last meal, and I'll leave you one torch, so that you can see to eat. Oh, and a word of warning, I would not touch the water if I were you. I don't think your Dark Marks will protect you from the inferi." And with that, Harry disappeared with his stealth mode and added his own wards to prevent escape, including house-elf rescue, should any of them actually be smart enough to figure out they could call one.

Harry thought briefly about the alarms that Dumbledore surely had on the wards at Privet Drive, and decided it was important to get back to Merope and help her with Harry before the aurors showed up to investigate the magic that had been cast by the DEs. Then he apparated back to Surrey, leaving the DEs to their fate.