Harry Potter : In the shadow of divinity4.76%

Chapter - 4 : The Bond of Blood and Secrets part - 3

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(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)

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In the end, the meal turned out as near perfect as the eight year old could make it, and yet he still received only a dinner roll and half of a banana for his troubles before being unceremoniously shoved outside. Apparently Vernon had invited his coworker and his wife over for dinner at the very last minute, and, of course, they wanted to keep Harry completely out of sight.

He didn't mind being kicked out at least, for him it meant less time he had to spend locked in his cupboard. It was mid-spring, so it was still pleasantly cool despite the steadily setting sun, he might as well make the short trek over to the park and enjoy his dinner there. And so he did exactly that, working his way through the crumbling piece of bread and browning fruit while pushing himself back and forth on the swing. As far as things went, there were worse ways to be spending the night.

"I'll say, what are you doing out here all alone, young man? It's nearing dark, it's not safe for you to be here without your parents."

Harry startled and nearly toppled off of the swing set with how fast he twisted his body to face the street and the source of the unexpected voice. A man who looked to be in his late sixties with neatly combed, silver hair, impossibly long legs, and a surprisingly straight back for a man his age was watching him from just outside the park, waiting patiently for an answer to his questions.

Harry blinked several times, forcing himself to look past the man's outward appearance, searching for something deeper; it was all too easy to fool a man's eyes through careful trickery and disguise, what he was looking for was not so easily hidden. Harry had no word for it, though there were certainly many in existence, all that he knew was that, when he finally found the soft pulse that thrummed with an electric kind of energy and yet crackled with an ice cold calm, his heart sang. The energy belonged only to one being, his angel was back.

"It's you," he gasped, scrambling from the swing and hurrying to the silver haired man's side. "You're back."

For a moment, the man looked caught off guard. "Pardon? Have we met before?"

Harry nodded fervently, not allowing the innocent question to throw him off. His angel was only pretending not to know him after all. "Yes, we have. You take care of me and watch over me whenever Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon are mean to me. I know I'm not supposed to know who you are, but you've been gone for so long and I was worried."

"Know who I am…?" the man blinked rapidly. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Can we please just not pretend?" Harry begged. "Not today? Not after you've been gone so long. I swear I'll go back to pretending to not know who you are tomorrow, but can we just be ourselves tonight?"

The man's brow furrowed. "Who is that you think I am?"

Harry hesitated, suddenly reluctant to speak the truth aloud. But when the man gave him a curious look, clearly expecting some sort of answer from him, he gathered his resolve and spoke what he'd been dying to say for years. "My guardian angel."

"Is that so?" a contemplative frown furrowed his angel's brow as he moved to seat himself on one of the rusting swings. "I'm neither confirming nor denying your assumption, but how long have you been aware of my presence?"

Harry hurried to seat himself on the swing beside the angel. "For a few years now," he explained. "I think I've always been able to recognize you, but it wasn't until I was older that I really understand what it meant, or who you were."

"That being a guardian angel?"

Harry nodded.

"What led you to believe in such a thing? You don't strike me as the sort to believe in that kind of thing."

"I never really believed in the church stuff my aunt wanted me to, you know God and Satan and the like, but a guardian angel doesn't have to come specifically from heaven. You could be a regular human, born to earth and not heaven or whatever someone wants to believe in, but you're nice to me, you give me food when I'm hungry and gifts when I'm sad, that can count as a guardian angel if I want it to."

"That is….You are astoundingly astute for one so young."

"I'm not that young," Harry frowned. "I'll be nine in a few months, I'm almost a teenager."

Harry's angel looked vaguely unsettled by this for some reason. "Yes, I suppose you are," he murmured.

Harry idly pushed himself on his swing for a few minutes, slowly working up the courage to ask the question that had been nagging him since the very start of this encounter. "So are you?" he finally asked. "My guardian angel that is?"

"From what you said earlier, I think you've already got that decided."

"That's a yes then?"

The man hummed noncommittally.

Harry huffed in frustration, but let it go for the time being. "Why me?" he asked instead. "Why spend years looking out for a stranger without ever revealing who you were?"

"You are no stranger," the man said. "I've known you since you were a babe, I was…familiar with your parents, your mother specifically. When they passed, I wanted to keep a close eye on you."

"But why keep it a secret? Why go through the trouble of disguising yourself? And how were you able to disguise yourself so well for that matter?"

"Where I live, there is conflict between my family and myself. I did not wish to endanger you by coming to you while wearing my true face. As for how I was able to disguise myself," the man smiled mischievously, "magic."

Harry scoffed disbelievingly. "Magic doesn't exist."

"I'll have you known that it does indeed exist. Tell me, young Harry, how were you able to recognize me? It's been proven on many occasion that my disguises are near infallible."

"I don't know, it's a feeling I suppose." Harry shrugged. "Something about how you feel is different. I'm not explaining it very well."