CH.16

Harry supposed that he could forgive second year, as there had been a bit of evidence, no matter how circumstantial, that he could have been the Heir of Slytherin who was terrorising the school at the time, and he supposed he could overlook the Hufflepuffs' anger towards him at the beginning of the Tri-Wizard tournament as, despite not entering himself in the tournament, his involvement did kind-of overshadow the participation of Cedric Diggory, a popular student in Hufflepuff house. However, Harry was not disposed to be so understanding when it came to those badges. Had a Hufflepuff come up with the badges, fine, but those badges were made by school bully Draco Malfoy for no other reason than to torment Harry. That the Hufflepuffs also paid Malfoy for the badges just made it worse. That, Harry decided, would require a proper apology.

Harry reached his room and pushed open the door. Two House Elves were inside.

"Young Master," exclaimed one of the Elves "We is bringing your things from the home of your not magic family. We is testing it all for tracking spells and is taking them and putting them all on the bed at your not magic family's home."

"Great, thanks," said Harry, taking a seat on the bed "So which items had tracking charms on them?"

"Everything is having them, sir," replied the Elf.

"I don't suppose that there was any sign of my owl, Hedwig?" Harry asked.

The Elf shook his head sadly "No sir, we is seeing no owl. Only owl's cage."

Harry sighed and slumped back on the bed.

"Sir missed breakfast," said the second Elf "Would he be liking a snack?"

Harry felt his stomach growl and smiled ruefully. Now that he thought about it, apart from a couple of scones early yesterday afternoon he hadn't had a meal since breakfast the day before. And the few scraps he could get at the Dursleys' could hardly be counted as a proper meal.

"Sure," he replied "Could I get a sandwich?"

"Of course, young sir," replied the Elf "How will sir be taking his sandwich?"

"Ham, cheddar, lettuce and tomato on wholemeal bread please," requested Harry "Oh, and can I have a goblet of pumpkin juice as well?"

In answer the two House Elves both bowed low and then disappeared with simultaneous pops.

Harry leaned over to his trunk, opened it and took out his Defence Against the Dark Arts Textbook from the previous school year. He then swung his legs up onto the bed and began to read. His concentration was interrupted a couple of minutes later when one of the House Elves appeared to place a plate containing his sandwich and a goblet of pumpkin juice on top of the bedside table before vanishing once again.

Harry continued to read for the rest of the morning, revising the defence material he had gone over during the previous school year. At around half-past one, one of the House Elves came back to inform Harry that Healer Abbott had come back from collecting the potions that she wanted him to take.

Downstairs in the kitchen Harry was relieved to discover that Susan was absent.

"What have you got for me?" he asked, approaching the healer.

She handed him several phials of different coloured liquids.

"The green and purple ones are nutrient potions. Take a mouthful of each with breakfast, lunch and dinner. The blue one will help your poorly grown bones to correct themselves and the red one will heal your old breaks and fractures properly and the pink ones will reduce the appearance of most of your scars. Take a mouthful of each of those three potions before going to bed each night, along with two mouthfuls of the clear one which will prevent those three potions causing you pain."

Harry looked down at the collection of phials in his arms and then looked back up at the healer and asked "Any chance you could write all that down?"

With a roll of her eyes she again used her wand to conjure up an ink pot, a quill and a sheaf of parchment to begin writing out her instructions.

As she wrote she continued to speak "I managed to contact a specialist in dealing with dark magic. So long as Amelia consents to it, he'll be over tomorrow afternoon to take a proper look at that scar on your forehead."

"Alright," replied Harry "Does this guy have a name?"

"Cyrus Greengrass."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "Greengrass?" he asked

"Yeah, why? Is that a problem?"

"Well, aren't his family a bit… you know…"

"What?"

"Well… dark?"

"No, Harry. The Greengrass family is not now, nor has it ever been considered a dark family. What on earth made you think that?"

"Well, Daphne Greengrass is in my year at Hogwarts, and she's a Slytherin."

Sarah rolled up the piece of parchment and whacked Harry in the head with it "You need to stop thinking things like that Mr Potter. Just because someone is in the house of the serpents doesn't mean they are evil."

Harry shifted uncomfortably before commenting "Alright, so I don't really know whether or not that family is a dark one, but she is a bully."

"Is she?"

"Yeah. She's in Pansy Parkinson's gang. Pansy bullies, Daphne and the others laugh."

"And have you ever witnessed Daphne bullying without Pansy around?"

Harry thought for a moment before giving a shake of his head "No."

"Then there might be more to Daphne Greengrass than you think. The Parkinsons on the other hand, now that is a family to be careful around."

Sarah picked up her bag and made her way back towards the fireplace. Once there, she stopped and turned around to face Harry again.

"Is there any reason my daughter cannot stand to be in the same building as you?"

Harry shrugged "That is a complicated story, but the basics of it is that there are frequent rumours about me at Hogwarts. Your daughter is one of the worst of the Hufflepuffs for believing the rumour mill, despite who frequently the rumour mill is proved wrong."

Sarah nodded "I'll have a word with her. I must say I really don't like the idea of you two not getting along."

"Why?" asked Harry.

"Isn't it obvious, Harry? Had the Wizengamot ruled in favour of taking you away from your mother's sister, I was one of the leading candidates to take you in. You and Hannah would have grown up like brother and sister."

She offered him a reassuring smile and then exited through the floo network, leaving Harry behind with a thoughtful look on his face.

He would have liked to have had a sister whilst growing up.

Harry gathered up his potions and headed back upstairs, thinking on the unfairness of his childhood, wondering how many other people had the right to have raised him, and wondering if he had been as discriminating towards Daphne Greengrass as he suspected her of being towards Muggleborns.

.....

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