1,228Welcome to part three of the Heir of the Hunt Series I started only six months ago, which is a crazy fucking thought to me. Anyway, This is the Heir and the Champions, in which we see the Heir of the hunt faces an old demon in his head, meet new friends and old ones, get a few gifts from his mortal parents and some from his immortal family, he gets a girlfriend much to the annoyance to Artemis, he gets some help from a lion and a witch, the Hunt and another predator circle one another, a dark lord raises, the Heir embraces his destiny as his eyes reflect back at him in the black ones that haunt him.
Now Ladies and gentlemen, say it with me…
On with the show!
Excerpt from the Daily Prophet, August 19th, 1994.
Scenes of Terror at the Quidditch World Cup and The Boy Who Killed!
By Rita Skeeter
It was in the after-hours of the World Cup and the Ireland victory that they struck, It was early in the morning when they struck, It was when security, whom the Ministry of Magic had sworn was there had slacked off with drinks and parties, that they struck. Men in dark robes and silver masks marched through the tents burning and cursing everyone and anyone in their way be they native or foreigner, muggleborn or pure-blood, it did not matter to them. To most of the natives of the Wixen islands, this sight brought up nightmares of the recent past as with the rise of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Name and his reign of terror from the late 70s to the early 80s, back when his followers did the same thing. Miraculously, there have been no reports of any civilian deaths, even the Muggles caught in the crossfire of these heinous actions are reported to make a full recovery, and other than a few minor injuries, there was no one majorly hurt and the mob of masked and robed individuals were sent running from the campgrounds shortly after they began their attack. "But, Rita, how were they stopped? Did the Aurors show up in time?" I can hear you ask my dear reader, but like always the Aurors were always a step behind and far too slow. With such lax security, the dark mob marched unopposed in what has to be the biggest national disgrace since the scandalous trials of the early 80s that saw how close You-Know-Who was to winning, but the mob was stopped, and while most of the culprits were not apprehended, three were found dead and another unconscious.
While the names of the deceased and the one unconscious culprit have yet to be released due to it being an ongoing investigation, we do however have the name of the one responsible for stopping the culprits. For when the Aurors had finally shown up(Late, as they always are,) they found one, Harry James Potter(Age: 14) standing amongst the bodies and the bloodshed, that's right my dear readers, our very own Boy Who Lived was the one responsible for stopping the march of terror. Harry Potter was found with a weapon in hand, and it wasn't a wand, but a Muggle Bow that brought down these mask madmen. Questions abounded surrounding the event: Why did Harry Potter use a Muggle weapon in the brutal killings? Where was event security during this attack? Were the men responsible old followers of the Dark Lord? What will happen to Harry Potter now? All these questions and more, along with the identities of the dead at Mister Potter's hands will be answered in due time, so stay tuned my lovely reads for all these answers and more.
Harry Potter
Harry had been stuck in the same room for the last four hours, if it wasn't for the fact he was used to being stuck in one room for hours on end, he would probably be crawling the walls in boredom. After he had surrendered his bow and wand, the Aurors had slapped iron cuffs on him and apperated him to the Ministry,(an experience Harry wasn't sure he wanted to do again) before they had left he had heard one of them asking to be dismissed due to a conflict of interest, it was the one that Identified him. they had dragged him into a tiny room with three chairs and a table before affixing his cuffs the table. They had told him to sit and wait, that someone was going to be in soon to talk to him, Harry hadn't said a thing through the whole thing and had shrugged and sat down to wait. Once again that was four hours ago, he knew this thanks to a clock on the wall ticking away.
Harry's foot tapped away as he looked at the opposite wall with a blank face, he hoped someone had told Mister Weasley about what had happened, he hope Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny all got to the forest okay and that Bill and Charlie didn't get hurt. He had thought about praying to Artemis for help, but immediately dismissed it, the Wild Hunt aside, he was pretty sure Artemis would start hunting down everyone in the Ministry to get him free, if she didn't already know due to it being a full moon. He wondered who would be the new Minister if she did, or if there would be a Ministry left standing.
After the fifth hour mark, the door behind Harry finally opens, and in walks two men, one man Harry knew, the other one he didn't. The first man, the man he knew, was the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore in his purple robes once again, he smiles at Harry but there was no twinkle in his eye nor did the smile quite reach his eyes. The other man was shorter than the Headmaster, with graying fair hair and a receding hairline, laugh lines lined his green eyes and mouth, and he had a slightly big nose, a clean shave, and a large belly. He wore a black muggle suit with a black and yellow tie with dancing badgers on it with a dark blue robe that looked quickly thrown over the suit, he had a black leather briefcase in hand, and in the other hand, he had a take-out box with a large smile on his face.
"Harry, my boy, even if it's under the current circumstances, it's always good to see you," the Headmaster says before drawing his wand and flicking it through the air at the cuffs and vanishing them.
"Ah, thank you, sir," Harry says rubbing his wrists, "But what, ah, are you doing h-here?" He asks, looking at the man in question.
"Well, when an ICW event comes under attack by a group of unidentified mask individuals, it tends to call for an emergency meeting of the Wizengamot," Dumbledore informs Harry, "The meeting however has been set back a few hours thanks to the fact that quite a few members from prominent pure-blood families are ill and had to choose proxies for the meeting," Dumbledore says, giving Harry a knowing look.
Harry shrugs, "Probably the Acromantula venom," He mummers looking away from the headmaster's eyes, he was probably disappointed in him for doing what he did. Harry logically knew that killing another human being was wrong and that he should feel horrible about it, but he didn't. It was like with the centaur, every time he tried to grasp at the feeling, it would be like grabbing mist or smoke, he couldn't hold onto it before it vanished entirely. He didn't feel bad about it, because to Harry it had just felt like another hunt, and his kills fed the hunt, it had felt normal to him; it had felt right. besides, they were hurting innocent people, and they were nothing more than mad dogs to be put down.
"Harry," Dumbledore says, placing a hand on his shoulder, causing Harry to look back up at him, "I am not angry or disappointed in what you did, for what you did was put yourself in harm's way to save those who could not defend themselves, and that is why you will always have my respect," he tells Harry, and the boy nods, "However, I am disappointed for the fact that you did not listen to Arthur when he told you to run from them," the headmaster says and Harry opens his mouth retort but Dumbledore holds up his hand to stop him, "I know that you couldn't ignore it, the call you feel must be a hard one to resist, but you were put with the Weasleys in the hope you would listen to them, and when Arthur had told you to run, you did, right into the path of the thing he was trying to protect you from," Dumbledore says looking down at him with sad eyes.
"I know you are not used to having adults trying to look out for you and your best interests, my boy, but I assure you, we are," the Headmaster says as he removes his hand from his shoulder, and Harry looks down at his feet, not sure how to feel.
"But we will talk more about that another time, for now, I think it is about time I introduce this fine gentleman here," The Headmaster says, gesturing to the man who he walked in with.
"No need Albus, I think I've got that covered," the man says before turning to Harry, "Edward Tonks," The man, Edward says while setting down the take-out box and briefcase on the table before extending his hand in greeting, "though, you can call me Ted if Ya like," His easy smile finds a place on his face as Harry takes his hand and shakes it.
"Um, nice to, ah, meet you, sir, Er, T-Ted," Harry says, uncomfortable with meeting new people, but the man just chuckles and sits down in one of the two remaining seats before looking up at the Headmaster.
"I think I've got it from here, Albus," Ted says, "But thank you for the introduction nonetheless," he tells Dumbledore with a smile before the Headmaster nods.
"As you wish, Edward," Albus says to Ted before turning back to Harry, "I will talk to you again soon, Harry, but for now I must go deal with the bane of every good man, Politics," before nodding his head to Harry as he was taking his leave, leaving Harry with this Ted person.
"Well," Ted says, "Always nice to see the Headmaster, the current situation aside," he says, the smile never leaving his as he pushes the takeout box towards Harry, "Here, stopped by a diner and grabbed you some breakfast, thought you might be hungry," he says as Harry politely thanks him before opening the box, it wasn't fancy, just some eggs, sausage, and some pancakes soaked in syrup. Harry picks up the plastic fork in the box before digging in, eating quickly, and quietly, his eyes flick to Ted every once in a while wondering what he was doing here. The man himself had opened his briefcase and was pulling out a pad of muggle paper and a fountain pen and setting them aside before leaning back in his chair, arms crossed over his stomach, he looked relaxed and content on letting Harry eat in silence.
Before long Harry is done eating and he pushes the take-out box away before Ted takes out his wand and flicks it at the trash, vanishing it before tucking his wand away and looking back at Harry.
"I'm going to go ahead and guess you have no clue who I am, do you?" Ted asks Harry with a lopsided grin, and Harry just shrugs and mumbles a sorry out, "It's quite alright, Harry, I've been informed about a few things about you by Sirius," the man says and Harry's head snaps up to look at him.
"You know Sirius?" Harry asks, a bit surprised.
Ted chuckles, "I do indeed, Harry," Ted says, "I was his solicitor during his trial, and he is my wife's favorite cousin, but from what Sirius has told me about you, I know you have ADHA and one of the side effects is having trouble remembering names," he tells Harry seeing the confused look on the boys face, "My wife's name is Andromeda Tonks," Ted says and Harry finally connects the dots.
"Oh!" Harry exclaims, "She was one of the people who wanted to take me in this summer!" Harry says, relaxing a bit, "oh, um, sorry about that," He says with a grimace, but Ted just waves it off.
"Don't worry about it, Harry," Ted says, "Dromada offered knowing full well that you weren't likely to take up the offer, but she still felt the need to when you help free her cousin," Ted says, his smile never leaving his face, and Harry shuffles in his seat and nods his head.
"Now, I think we should move on to more business-related matters, like why you are here," Ted says, his smile dropping for the first time, and he adopts a more serious expression, "I was contacted last night by my Daughter who was one of the first Aurors on the scene, she had told me you were in some big trouble but thanks to her oaths she made when she took up the red cloak, she couldn't tell me what it was as it was an ongoing investigation," Ted says as he begins to write on the notepad he had taken out, "I had to talk to Sirius to get permission from him to act in parentis loco and then talk him out of heading here himself to get you-" Ted says but Harry cuts him off.
"Is he okay? He-He di-didn't do an-any l-like that, di-did he?" Harry asks, his worry over Sirius and the age-old rule of don't ask questions warring in his head, he drops his eyes to the table as his body jerks and twitches as if he was physically fighting it.
Edward narrows his eyes at how the boy was acting, but he doesn't say anything about it, he does, however, answer Harry's questions.
"It took the better part of an hour and a half but me, Dramada, and Remus were able to talk him out of it," Ted says in a comforting voice as he watches the boy nod and pulls his jacket tighter over his body, as if he was trying to seek protection from all within it.
Harry takes a deep breath and looks up at Ted who smiles at him, "Now, as I was saying, I'll be acting in place of Sirius and acting as your solicitor during the next few steps," Ted tells Harry, "The Ministry is working pretty fast to try and sweep this under the rug which is gonna work in our favor, they have already agreed to not go to trial and if they do move forward with any charges you'll be tried as a Minor, which means no Azkaban at the very least," Ted says, going back to writing, "Though both Albus and Sirius said the same comment of you not staying in Azkaban for long if that was the case, though what they meant by that, I'm sure neither of us knows," the man looks up with a sly grin at Harry.
Artemis was Harry's first thought, even if he wasn't one hundred percent sure she would come, but he was sure she would send her hunters. Or Sirius would come to bust him out, actually, come to think of it, it would probably be both Sirius and the hunters teaming up to do that, and that thought had brought a smile to Harry's face.
"So, w-what hap-happens from here?" Harry asks.
"Well, like I said the Ministry doesn't want to move to trial, they're more than ready to cover all this up, what going to happen in the next hour is simple, the head Auror and the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement will be joining us as soon as we are ready, you will give your statement and everything that happened from your point of view, then you walk out a free boy," Ted says with a smile.
"That's it?" Harry asked, shocked.
"That's it," Ted says, Harry looks away from him, his brow scrunched in confusion and anger, and Ted sighs before speaking again, "Harry, you have to understand, the three men you killed were cleared Death Eaters by the Ministry they got off by saying that the Dark Lord had bewitched them, that and a mountain of gold they paid to the Ministry to avoid Azkaban," Ted tells him and Harry's confusion starts to twist into anger as Ted talks, "and not only did you do what the Aurors couldn't but also showed the world that the Ministry had let the people they swore to punish, go because they were able to buy their way out of trouble, you embarrassed them quite thoroughly so they are more than happy to sweep all of this under the rug and be done with it before it even starts," Ted says as Harry's face twists in anger.
"How are they going to explain the dead guys, what about the guy I knocked out? Are they just going to let him off?" Harry asks, his tone edging on disbelief.
"They'll more than likely say the four men were under the Imperious Curse and were forced to do this, you might get a little blame for killing them instead of knocking them out so they could find out who had cursed them, but they'll spin it as a good thing in the end," Ted says watching the rage grow on Harry's face, "and the one you knocked out will be let go with an apology-" Ted says but Harry cuts them off again.
"Bullshit!" Harry screams, the chair he was sitting in flies backwards and slams into the wall, "He was chasing someone into the tents, he was threatening to hurt her, to rape her! Calling her a mudblood cunt! And they're just gonna let him off!?" Harry yells, his voice echoing around the room, and Ted's lips press into a thin line before he nods, setting Harry to pace, clenching and unclenching his hands, "I should have killed him," Harry mutters under his breath as he can feel the Hunt begin to crawl under his skin and whispering into his ear to finish the hunt.
Ted watches the boy pace with worried eyes, "We can't prove they weren't doing this under their own free will, Harry, the Imperious Curse is a pretty convenient piece of magic when you want to say it wasn't you doing something," The Solicitor says as he hears Harry growls, he raises an eyebrow at that.
"I don't even know what the fuck that is, the curse," Harry admits as he continues to pace.
"It's a curse and known as one of the three unforgivable curses," Ted tells him, "It's essentially mind control, whoever cast it on another person has complete and total control over the subject," the solicitor tells Harry as he continues to pace.
"Can it control emotions?" Harry asks, a grim look set upon his face.
"I…Don't know," Ted admits, Defense against the dark arts wasn't an area of expertise for him, "Why do you ask?" He asks curiously, for it was an odd question to ask, for most witches and wizards it didn't matter, the control of the spell that had the power to control someone like a puppet was the worst thing about it.
"Because they were enjoying it," Harry hisses through clenched teeth, "They were torturing a little girl, and they were laughing at it, I saw it with my own eyes," Harry says as he stops his pacing to glare at a random spot at the wall before he mutters under his breath once more, "I should have killed him,"
Ted sighs, he would leave his worries about Harry with someone more qualified to deal with it, namely his wife, he would focus on his job and get Harry out of any trouble the boy found himself in.
"Putting that aside, for now, Harry, let's focus on what I'm here to do, namely keeping you out of Azkaban, and not prosecuting some blood purest on the Ministry's behalf," Ted says as he rubs his eyes in exhaustion.
It takes a moment as Harry closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths, getting himself under control, forcing what little of the Hunt had leaked into him back that whispered sweet nothings to him about completing his hunt. He grabs the chair that flew across the room when he stood up and sits back down at the table telling Ted "Fine," before looking at the man.
"Good," says Ted as he puts his pen back on his pad of paper, "Now, I'm going to take your statement first, tell me everything that last night and leave nothing out, then we're gonna go over it together before calling the Head Auror and the Head of DMLE, after that, you'll be remanded to my custody and we'll go back to my home," Ted explains before a sharp jolt runs through Harry as he feels his great starting to race.
"I'm-I'm not going back to the Weasleys?" Harry questions, panic leaking back into his voice as Ted looks at him making a face of concern.
"No, you're not," Ted says with a sigh, "Sirius is throwing his weight around now, he was…upset when he couldn't get ahold of you or someone who knew what had happened," Ted tells him, watering down what Sirius' frantic mood swings were.
"But I was arrested, it wasn't Weasley's fault," Harry argues back before Ted raises his hand to stop him.
"I know, Harry, I know," Ted tells him, putting his hand back down, "But Sirius wants you with people he can get a hold of quickly if a reason comes up, and the floo in his room at Saint Mungo's is only connected to our floo," Ted explains as Harry looks down at the table, his lips pressed into a thin line with wild panic in his eyes.
"Harry," Ted says, getting the young man to look back at him, "I understand that you feel uncomfortable with it, and that's fine, but this is what Sirius wants, you'll be staying in our guestroom, and I'm not going to say no to you having a few friends over, okay?" Ted says but Harry doesn't relax one bit, "Besides it's only for two weeks, and we plan on visiting Sirius before you leave for Hogwarts," Ted says, looking at Harry as the boy fidgets in his seat.
"I-I get to s-see Sirius?" Harry asks, unsure of the offer, but Ted smiles and nods.
"Remus too, you'll be our guest, Harry, and if Sirius has anything to say about it, family as well," the older man says with a soft smile, "If you'll let us that is,"
Harry is quiet for a moment, he didn't like it, he didn't like the idea of staying with strangers, what if they were like the Dursleys? But Sirius trusted them enough to ask, and he would get to see him again; that alone made the offer appealing, so Harry just nodded his head in acceptance.
"Okay, good," Ted says with a nod of his head before turning back to the pad of paper, "Now, tell me what happened this morning?" He asks Harry, and Harry starts to tell Ted what had happened after waking up from what he was sure was a strange dream.
The-Den-on-the-Hill, Andromeda Tonks
Andromeda Tonks nèè Black was standing in her kitchen at an hour far too early for any human to be decent, sipping her third cup of coffee, trying to figure out where the snow-white owl, currently sitting on her refrigerator looking back at her with the most unnerving stare, had come from. The owl wasn't there when her daughter, (Don't call me) Nymphadora came screaming through the house at three thirty in the morning screaming about how Harry Potter had just been arrested for murder. That had been one hell of a wake-up call, after she had calmed down Nymphadora she had floo called Molly to inform her of what was going on before contacting Remus who proceed to curse up a storm before heading over to Saint Mungo's, Sirius had floo called her not thirty minutes later. It took her, Ted, and Remus a better part of an hour and a half to calm him down before he started a one-man war with the Auror department before Ted and Nymphadora had left to go to the Ministry to try and figure out what all was going on.
She had finally gone through her morning routine before Ted had floo called her from the Ministry, he had worked something out to get the boy off the hook, but the caveat was that Harry had to come to stay with them for the last few weeks of summer vacation. Ted, being the Saint of a man he was, had already contacted Molly to inform her of the situation, apparently, Arthur had made it home by then, along with two of Harry's friends. Andromeda hated drama, she grew up around it, was raised in it, and had to sit through it, and when she finally left her twisted family and eloped with Edward, she stayed out of it as much as possible. So, dealing with two hysterical teenagers wasn't something she wanted to do, and was grateful to Molly for handling them. She became a healer for Saint Mungo's and never looked back from the happy life she had built with her husband so she didn't have to deal with it all, though she did miss her sisters from time to time, even Bella, as insane as she turned out to be.
So, when the fireplace roared to life with Molly calling out and asking if she could come through, Andromeda wasn't all surprised and called out an affirmative before she starts placing a kettle on the hob, the upcoming conversation wasn't going to be a pleasant one, to say the least, and it was going to need some tea for Molly and some more coffee for her.
The fireplace flares out in green flame as Molly Weasley steps through, waving her wand to vanish the soot and ash as she does, "Andy dear, so good to see you," Molly says walking into the kitchen and hugging Andromeda.
"Good to see you as well, Molly," Andromeda says, hugging the woman back with a smile, she really did like Molly, her mother-hen attitude included, they knew one another from when Charlie and Nymphadora were dating when they were going to Hogwarts, "Tea?" Andromeda asks after they break apart.
"Yes, please, I've had quite the mor-" Molly begins to say as she turns to go sit down at the kitchen table before stopping as she sees Andromeda's other guest, "Hedwig! This is where you've been? I've been looking for you for the last hour, you silly owl," Molly tells the owl on top of the refrigerator as it hoots down at her.
"Oh, you know who that owl belongs to?" Andromeda asks, "I've been trying to figure it out for half the morning, she showed up about an hour after Edward left," she says as she prepares Molly's tea and refills her coffee.
"She's Harry's owl," Molly says, getting Andromeda to turn to her with a raised brow, "Well, I say she belongs to Harry, but half the time it seems like Harry belongs to her, She's a smart bird and very protective over the boy," she says with a sigh and a smile as the owl barks and preens as if she was agreeing with the second half of Molly's statement.
"Never heard of an owl showing up before its owner like this," Andromeda says as she makes it to the table herself and sits down with the drinks.
"Like I said, she's a pretty smart owl, loyal to only Harry," Molly says as she sits down as well, accepting the tea with a smile and a thank you, "Won't even let you touch her unless Harry says it's okay," she says with a shake of her head before taking a sip of her tea.
"Speaking of Harry, Edward said he told you what Sirius wanted?" Andromeda asks, and Molly sighs before nodding her head as she takes another sip of tea, "Don't like it I take it?" Andromeda asks.
"I don't mean to offend, Andy," Molly says, looking across the table at her, "I just don't think it's a good idea, Harry just isn't, …too keen on meeting strangers," Molly says with a grimace as she says the words, "Mother Magic knows it took me almost a month and a half to get him to even say a single word to me, not counting the yes ma'ams or no ma'ams when I asked him a question," Molly says with a shake of her head.
Andromeda takes a sip of her coffee as she listens to Molly, and decides that she had too little sleep to beat around the bush about the boy, "Molly," Andromeda says, looking her friend in the eyes, "How bad is he?" She asks, knowing Molly knew what she was talking about when the woman looked up at the owl and sighs.
"How much do you know?" Molly asks, in a softer tone.
"Not much," Andromeda admits, "Sirius has hinted at that the boy-" as far as Andromeda gets before an angry bark fills the house and she turns to look at Hedwig with a curious look.
"Oh, don't call Harry that where Hedwig can hear you, she gets rather angry at it," Molly says before taking a sip of her tea like it was normal.
"Right, …" Andromeda says looking away from the owl who was far too smart to be normal, "Sirius hinted at Harry not having the…best childhood," she says trying to be offensive to the woman in front of her, but to Andromeda's surprise, Molly scoffs at her wording.
"That's putting it mildly," Molly says harshly as anger enters her eyes as she looks off out the window to her left, "If I thought I could get away with it I would have strangled Albus with his own beard by now for what he decided to do," Molly says, once again surprising Andromeda, Molly was normally an ardent supporter of Dumbledore and his policies, never having a bad word to say about the man. Personally, Andromeda could argue with the old man about some of the things he had chosen to do over the years and his policies, but he wasn't all that bad, but to hear Molly of all people say something like that about Albus, just how bad was Harry?
Andromeda takes a sip of her coffee and listens as Molly begins to talk, "I first met Harry briefly outside of the entrance to platform nine and three-quarters, I had thought that he was just a lost muggleborn not know how to get onto the platform, then a week later Ron writes telling me about his first week and how he had met him on the train, all he said about Harry was that he was quiet and he was sorted into Gryffindor," Molly says still looking out the window, "Then a few months later Ron tells me he had become friends with Harry and Hermione, that's when he started to notice things about Harry, things that set off warning charms in my head," Molly says with a shake of her head and sip of her coffee.
"What things?" Andromeda asks, bracing herself for the worst but Molly is quiet for a long moment as she lets the memories wash over her.
"He didn't eat a lot, barely anything unless he was told it was okay then he would clean the plate of food quicker than any of my boys, he couldn't read, or at least, read for a long time or it would give him a headache, how he wouldn't do anything unless he was told to, how quiet he seemed," Molly shakes her head, "How Harry would wake everyone in the dormitory late at night screaming himself out of a nightmare, I should have known then, I should have gone to Dumbledore, hell, I should have gone to the Prophet, but I didn't," Molly says before turning back to Andromeda with a sigh.
"Why not?" Andromeda asks before taking a sip of her coffee.
"I don't know, I thought Ron was just seeing things wrong, or making them out worse than they appeared, I asked Percy, but he said he hadn't noticed anything like that," Molly takes a sip of her tea before looking back out the window, "I didn't know how bad it was until he showed up at The Barrow halfway through the following summer," Molly's face twisted in anger and sadness at the memory, "He was so thin," she whispers, "His cheeks were hollow and he looked like he hadn't slept in days with how sunken in his eyes were he was dirty and wearing hand me downs that he was swimming in, and his eyes, Witchfather, his eyes were the worst part," Molly says, as she places down her tea, and pressing her hands into her face and rubbing it before looking back up.
"I don't even know if words could do it justice," Molly says, "They looked so, …broken, like everything in him was rung out of him, no joy or child-like wonder, just an empty and broken soul who had lost all hope, he had the look of someone fresh out of Azkaban, eyes that no child should ever have," Molly's voice hitches with emotion as she talked about the Harry she had met fresh out of a hell that could barely be put into words, let alone imagined.
"I had pulled Ron and the twins aside and got the story out of them," Molly says, the look of sadness deepening on her face, "Bars on his window, a cat flap on the door that was locked from the outside, I can't even begin to imagine what Harry had suffered with them," she shakes her head, taking a breath that hitches, "I went to Dumbledore after that and yelled myself hoarse, I begged him, pleaded with him to let Harry come live with us till I was red in the face, I would do anything to get the poor dear out of that house," Molly says, because it was never a home to Harry, "In the end, he refused me, said he would go speak to them himself, and he did from what I'm able to gather," Molly pauses to calm herself down while drinking some of her tea.
"Then that whole mess with Sirius happened, but that is a whole other cauldron I don't want to get into," Molly says as she places her mug down, "Then, then Harry came to stay with us just last month, and I barely recognized him, Andy," she says looking up to Andromeda, "For the first time since I met him, he seemed…happy, like he had found hope again, his eyes still looked haunted but there was something else in there, I don't know if it was Sirius or something else, but something has changed in him, he stood taller, smiled more, he had…hope," Molly says with a soft, sad smile as a soft hoot of an owl agreeing with Molly fills the kitchen.
"You weren't surprised when we told you what happened happen, were you?" Andromeda asks and Molly shakes her head.
"No, not really," Molly says as she drains the last of her tea, "It's like those rubber bands that Arthur likes to play with, you can only stretch one so far till it snaps back, and you best not be surprised if it hurts someone," she says with a sigh, "at least it was against some pureblooded bigoted knob, no offense dear," Molly says knowing of Andromeda's own family history.
"None take blood traitor," Andromeda says with a smirk, and both women share a laugh.
Molly sighs, "Don't yell," she says to Andromeda's confusion, "With Harry, don't yell, it causes a reaction, if he breaks something or there's some accident, talk to him softly because he'll be in the middle of an attack, tell him it's okay, that he did nothing wrong, that you're not mad," Molly says as she stands before pulling out the shrunken trunk and cage before placing them on the table and stands, "keep him busy, chores, homework, doesn't matter what so long as he's busy or else he'll just sit somewhere out of the way being quiet waiting to do something, he likes to cook with his hands, so let him help with breakfast or dinner," she says as Andromeda stands with her and they walk over to the fireplace, Andromeda nodding her head along with what Molly was saying.
"And if he, Mother Magic and Witchfather forbid, has an attack, and you'll know he's having one, just let it play out, he'll find some closet or cupboard to hide in for a while and just…turn off," Molly says with a sigh as she grabs a pinch of floo powder, as if she's seen it before, "When he does come out, just either tell him that he's not in trouble or just pretend nothing happened, Okay?" Molly says, turning to Andromeda who nods.
"Okay," Andromeda says, "Give me a few days to get him settled in, then you can send his friends over," she says leaning against the mantel.
"Hermione isn't going to like that, but alright, same rules as with Charlie and Nymphadora?" Molly asks before Andromeda nods, "Alright, I'll talk to you soon Andy, and good luck," Molly says before taking her leave through the flow.
Andromeda sighs and turns back to the kitchen, intent on getting another cup of coffee before starting on lunch before the heavily abused child comes and stays with her for the next few weeks, the things she does for family.
Hedwig hooted from the top of the fridge in thanks.
I told myself I was gonna take a break, and I lied because ADHD hyperfocus is a thing and I hate it.
The good news is, that my DnD group is back together after an almost six-month break.
This chapter was a fun one to write, the aftermath of what happened at the QWC followed up by a person who has seen Harry's transformation from the outside looking in, Molly is 100% sure that Ron hasn't told her everything about what happened last year and she right, but she doesn't want to pry because whatever happened was rather personal between the three kids and being a good mother she respects that. I have no idea why Molly Weasley gets so much hate, all she wanted to do was give an abused child a family and protect him because he's, you know, a child.
and to the people who are no doubt going to point out the hypocrisy in Dumbledore's words, keep in mind he doesn't know Harry is a horcrux yet, he learns it in the fifth book(i think).
But I have a few fun things to do before getting to Hogwarts, maybe five chapters worth, then a time skip to the other schools showing up, Halloween, and learning some fun things about the unforgivables I have planned.
Kingsaxcul, Out!