The Kemmynadow Betrayal
by Jardyn39
AN: Two Chapters posted at once. Did you skip Chapter 10? (Clever Isn't She?)
Chapter 11 - Miss Teacher
The next morning, Harry and Ron were sitting alone at the Burrow's breakfast table; neither quite awake yet.
"I should have stayed in bed," said Ron weakly, fumbling for a piece of toast.
Harry snorted and opened his eyes.
"What time did you get up, anyway?" asked Ron.
"Around four."
"Four! Are you mad?"
"Hermione is the mad one. She was rather keen that I unlock Dumbledore's book for her."
"Oh, right. She still there?"
"Yes. She packed me off back here. I think my snoring was annoying her."
Ron laughed. Harry had told Ron about the book before they went to bed the night before. He had also begun to tell him about the Kemmynadow, but both of them were too tired to finish their conversation.
"I suppose I should go and check on the Dursleys this morning," said Harry miserably. "Later, though. I couldn't cope with them just yet."
"Harry, just leave them be. They have Dobby and Kreacher to look after them."
"I'm responsible for them. All of them."
The kitchen fire flared up and Hermione stepped out and brushed herself down.
"Good morning," she said brightly.
"Morning, Hermione," said Ron. "Can you please not sound so bright and breezy? Some of us haven't woken up yet."
"Come and have some breakfast," suggested Harry.
"No thanks," she replied sitting down. "The Room of Requirement provided. Anyway, I've selected five new defensive spells for us to learn today. Ron, have you got a chalkboard?"
"Hermione!" Ron cried. "We're not at school now!"
"I just thought it would help, that's all."
"Well, Miss Teacher, should I find you a hand bell too?"
Harry snorted but Hermione just raised her eyebrows and said, "Actually, I thought Harry would be teaching us. Well, if he wakes up, that is."
Harry smiled as Hermione handed him her notes and poured them all some coffee.
"I already know three of these," said Harry. "They were in the books Sirius and Lupin gave me."
"So, you have been doing some extra curricular defence practise?" she asked lightly as Ron studied the list.
"Hardly any, really."
"Harry said he was going to check on the Dursleys," said Ron. "We can practise these after he gets back."
"No," said Harry at once. "Let's practise first. Any excuse not to go will do."
*
Harry Apparated into the dark shadows under the largest tree in the square opposite Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. He looked around carefully, concealed under his invisibility cloak.
Satisfied that there was no one watching, he walked towards the front door. They had practised until well after lunchtime at the Burrow, so he was much later arriving than he had intended.
As usual as he approached, the house appeared out of thin air and pushed the neighbouring houses apart to make room.
He was about halfway up the steps when with a thrill of horror, he realised that the front door was ajar. As far as he was aware, only Hermione, Ron and he could now unlock the charms on the door from the outside. If the door was open; if the door had been forced, then surely that could only mean one thing.
Harry hurried up the steps and went inside.
He pushed the door closed and then silently relocked the door. If the intruders were still here, he wasn't going to make it easy for them to leave.
He listened intently.
There was no noise and no sign of a struggle.
Harry threw off his cloak and hastily stuffed it into a pocket.
He was about to venture downstairs when he heard laughter. He was sure that was Uncle Vernon.
Harry walked towards the sitting room and paused before the closed door. He could here indistinct voices from inside, but he was sure nothing threatening was being said.
Wand in hand, Harry opened the door.
He found Uncle Vernon looking at him furiously, having just had his Japanese Golfer story interrupted. Harry just ignored him. He also ignored Dudley, who was sitting grinning stupidly.
Harry walked into the middle of the room, both angry and more than a little confused.
Aunt Petunia intercepted him, saying, "Please, Harry. Don't be angry."
Harry side stepped her and walked right up to the suited man sitting on his settee.
"May I ask who you are and what you think you are doing in my house?"
Up close, Harry could see that he wore expensive tailored clothes. A heavy gold bracelet was glimpsed when he took off his gold framed reading glasses and looked up at him enquiringly. On his lap was a notepad upon which he had been making extensive notes.
He looked enquiringly at Uncle Vernon.
"Mr Dursley, is this someone you'd like to introduce me to?"
"He's nobody. Just ignore him."
The man frowned slightly and clearly didn't think this was the right thing to do. He stood and held out his hand.
"My name is Gavin Taylor. I'm from Taylor and Gilbert. We have an office a couple of streets away."
Harry, having stuffed his wand in his back pocket, shook his hand and said, "Hello, Mr Taylor. My name is Harry Potter. May I ask you what you are doing here?"
"Certainly," Taylor replied smiling. "I was invited here by Mr Dursley. We are hoping that he will agree to give us sole Agent rights."
"Sole Agent rights for what?"
"Well, the sale of this property, of course."
"Mr Taylor, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but this property is not for sale. You see, I am the current owner."
Before Taylor could argue, Harry pulled out his wand and hit him with a strong confundus charm. He sat back onto the settee with a glazed but otherwise happy expression.
Harry grabbed the notebook and looked through it. All he could see were notes on room sizes and finishings descriptions, but Harry was convinced.
"You are lucky," he said, vanishing the notebook with a flick of his wand. "I think he is genuine."
"Well, of course he is genuine. What did you expect?" asked Uncle Vernon.
"I expected anyone getting into this house to have murderous intent. How on earth did you get him in here?"
"With some difficulty," Vernon admitted. "I had to drag him inside. He kept insisting there was no Number Twelve. Ha! I showed him!"
"How did you even get the front door open?"
"Dudders worked it out," he said proudly.
Harry looked over at Dudley. He wasn't smiling now, presumably having seen Harry working with his wand.
"You can show me how you did it later," said Harry, reaching for Taylor's case.
"Hey, you can't go rifling through a chap's briefcase!"
Harry ignored him. He pulled out Taylor's diary and checked his appointments for that day.
The entry read, "Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Dursley. He's mad. Charge double."
Harry snorted before erasing the entry.
"Isn't there a pub near here?" he asked absently. "Hang on while a dump our Mr Taylor in the beer garden."
He quickly grabbed hold of Taylor and his briefcase and Disapparated. He had to guess where he was going, but was lucky enough to Apparate behind a stack of old crates. Only the Publican's enormous dog had seen them.
Harry didn't think he needed to arrange for Taylor's memory to be modified. He would remain in his confused state for several hours, and even after he wouldn't be able to find the house again. No, the only risk was him recognising the Dursleys again.
He smiled remembering the astute, "He's mad," comment and Disapparated.
Uncle Vernon jumped almost a foot in the air when Harry Apparated right in front of him.
"Time for explanations," said Harry angrily. "Now!"
*
Aunt Petunia looked close to tears and Dudley was looking shell-shocked. Only Uncle Vernon managed to remain defiant as Harry raged.
"How could you?!" he shouted.
Behind him, most of the furniture had landed again after several laps around the room. Only a single chair remained spinning in the air now, a fraught looking Dobby dancing under waiting to catch it.
"It's no use you shouting boy," said Uncle Vernon, smiling. "As the law stands, you cannot own property at your age. I am your legal guardian, and I'm legally entitled to do whatever I think is for the best."
"That's not entirely true," said Hermione, coming into the room, "is it, Mr Dursley?"
Harry turned to see Ron follow her into the room, immediately pointing his wand up at the chair and bringing it down gently.
"How about some tea, Dobby," asked Ron. "That might calm everyone down."
"Oh, yes, Sir," said Dobby with relief. "Dobby would like a little calm."
Harry wasn't quite ready to calm down yet though.
"I invited you here, to the only place you will be safe, and you try to sell my property from under my nose?"
"I'm entitled," repeated Uncle Vernon, apparently enjoying having managed to make Harry so angry.
"Tell me why I shouldn't just," began Harry, levelling his wand directly at Uncle Vernon. Hermione reached out and gently pushed Harry's arm down again.
"Mr Dursley, as Harry's Muggle Guardians, it is true that you are entitled to manage his finances until he is of age," said Hermione coolly. "However, that does not entitle you to squander his inheritance, nor may you gain personally from anything that is Harry's."
"I don't agree," said Uncle Vernon. "We are legally entitled to claim against what he's cost us to house, clothe and feed him."
"Yeah, and how much was that?" Harry asked derisively.
"Vernon," said Aunt Petunia.
Harry looked at her and she looked back at him.
"This was actually all settled ages ago," she said. "When Vernon found out about your inheritance, he made enquiries with our Solicitor. He said exactly what your friend said, except he did add that the reasonable cost of bringing you up could be deducted. However, he stressed that as you were almost Eighteen, the courts wouldn't allow your assets to be liquidated unless we could prove you were currently costing us. Of course, we haven't incurred any of your school fees and the like, so it was rather difficult.
"However, Vernon thought it was worthwhile to pursue. You must understand, this was all long before you paid for us to go away. By the time you came back, I'd almost forgotten about it."
"So what was Mr Taylor doing here?"
"Well, I think the temptation was too much. We've been sneaking out for walks, and we often went past their offices. The prices for properties in this area are rather high at the moment."
Harry was about to interrupt when she added, "Harry, you won. We petitioned the court to clarify the legal position, but they found in favour of you. They said you would be old enough to decide for yourself in a few months anyway, so it would not be right."
"Mrs Dursley, didn't the courts want to know about Harry's circumstances?"
"No, not at all. They weren't being asked to judge if Harry was mentally incapable, or anything like that. Not even his name appeared in any of the court papers."
A burning smell appeared to distract Hermione and she noticed that Harry was burning the carpet without realising it.
"Harry, watch what you're doing," she said.
Harry jumped and looked down before sheepishly repairing the carpet. This distraction appeared to be enough to end his bad temper.
"Do you want to stay or not?" he asked, this time not shouting. "If you are going to stay I want each of you to promise me that you will never again try to bring anyone inside the house."
"We promise, Harry," said Aunt Petunia, although the other two remained silent.
"As for going outside," continued Harry. "I can't say I entirely blame you for wanting to go out. The thing is, you must understand how dangerous it is."
"How about if we organised some protection for you?" suggested Hermione.
*
Harry was down in the kitchen late that evening. He didn't particularly want to be down there, but it was a Dursley free zone.
Having completed several laps of the kitchen table, he decided to make himself a hot drink. He just got over to the stove when he realised with a start that Kreacher had been sitting under the table watching him.
"Hello, Kreacher," said Harry, as civilly as he could. "Would you like a drink? I'm making myself something."
"If Master wishes."
"What would you like to drink?"
Harry waited while Kreacher did his customary gurgle and dance before answering honestly, "Hot chocolate."
Harry made two large mugs and carried them over to the table.
To his mild surprise, Kreacher sat down at the table without being ordered. They sat in silence for a while, sipping their hot drinks.
"Dobby told Kreacher that the Muggles upstairs used to treat Master little better than a house elf."
Harry smiled and said, "No, they never treated me that badly. They did make me unhappy sometimes, though."
"Kreacher wonders why Master keeps them in his house."
"I'm convinced they would never survive otherwise."
"But they are a risk to Master. They brought a Muggle in who could have attacked Master."
"True."
"Most of the previous owners of Master's house would just have killed them."
"I couldn't allow that."
"Why doesn't Master punish Kreacher? Kreacher has been forbidden from punishing himself."
"What do you want to be punished for?"
"Kreacher knew the Dudley wanted to open the door. Kreacher lied to the Dudley, fooling him that it was he who opened it. Kreacher wanted Master to be angry."
"I know, Kreacher," Harry said gently. "Thanks for telling me, though."
"Kreacher should be punished."
"No, not this time. So what did Dudley think he had to do to get the door open?"
Kreacher grinned.
"Kreacher told the Dudley he had to do a magical dance to appease the gods of the doorframe. It took him a while to perfect the steps."
Harry laughed and got Kreacher to tell him every detail of the elaborate dance.
AN:
Sorry, but there may be a short delay with the next update as I'm planning on upgrading my computer this evening. That couldn't go wrong, could it? Mind you, I did spend twenty minutes this morning trying to wedge a big square fan into a small round housing…