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Merlin’s Familiar by Hammer31
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Merlin’s Familiar

Hammer31

A/N - Thank you for all of your patience with me. I am in the process of moving and working 2 jobs so things have gotten really weird. I want to also thank Mabel and John, my Beta readers. They keep me from making too many glaring mistakes.

Merlin's Familiar

Chapter 3

Introductions

July 30th

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Surrey Police Station

Harry was awakened in the morning by a guard. He got up and walked with the guard back to the interrogation room. The same detective was there along with his clothes. The detective started in rather embarrassed rush.

"Mr. Potter. It seems that the information that we got from your uncle was incorrect. We caught your cousin and some of his friends using some of the stolen property to destroy a small playground a couple of blocks from your house. After processing the items that we recovered from your room, we discovered that your prints did not match, but your cousin and aunt's did. I am sorry that we put you through yesterday but I have been authorized to release you immediately. Get dressed and you will be released. Please accept my sincerest apologies; someone is here to escort you home." The detective then left the room and closed the door behind him.

Harry, emotionally exhausted from the last couple of months and especially from the last 24 hours, mechanically gathered up his clothing and began to dress. As he was finishing, a female constable came into the room. She guided him out of the interrogation room and to the Sergeant's desk. Waiting at the desk was Prof. McGonnagal.

"Professor?" Harry asked.

"Silence, Mr. Potter," she replied imperiously. "Follow me."

They walked out of the police station and went around the corner into an alley before stopping behind a dumpster. Out of her bag, she pulled a small scroll that she handed to Harry.

"Mr. Potter…Harry" she said kindly, "This is a summons to the Ministry. I do not know what it is, but we need to go right now."

"How do we get there?" Harry asked.

"The scroll is a portkey. Take my hand and then speak your name and we shall go."

Nodding, he took her hand and said his name before he felt the familiar pull on his navel and they were gone.

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The Granger House

The next morning, Hermione got up and tossed on her robe. Alex and her were supposed to go shopping. Unfortunately, they could not go to Diagon alley as neither of her parents could spend the day with them so they would have to go to the local mall. It should be safer than Diagon alley due to the still heavily enforced laws about underage magic.

She went down to the kitchen, where both her parents were up and dressed for the day at the office. Both sipping their coffee, her dad reading the paper and her mom reading a dental journal on the use of lasers in dental care.

Hermione gave both of them kisses and went over to pour herself some juice. She then joined them at the table.

"So," her Dad asked from behind his paper, "Did you contact the school?"

"I sent the owl off last night." She replied sipping her orange juice. "I should have an answer today."

"Don't forget your medicine, dear." Her mom added distractedly, while highlighting a passage in her dental journal. They could both hear her grumbling about `proof reading' and `bone-headed editors' under her breath.

Both Hermione and her dad shared a look and grin at her mother's apparent distraction.

"I can hear you thinking, dear." Jane replied to her husband who quickly dropped his smile and busied himself behind his paper. She looked up with a smile for her husband.

"Who? Me?" Roger responded from behind his paper. He was trying for innocence but failed miserably.

"You are playing against a stacked deck dear. I am a mother so I have eyes in the back of my head and women are proven to be better at multi-tasking, whereas men are better at…" she trailed off.

"Killing spiders and moving heavy objects?" Hermione added into the normal morning banter at the Granger table.

"Oh, I like that one." Jane added, grinning at her daughter.

Roger, finally getting fed up and dropped his paper to the table top and scrunched his eyebrows into a single line over his eyes and tensed all of his facial muscles into what he used to call his "caveman" face.

"Ugh, me man. Me move heavy objects. Ugh Ugh."

This set both women off into a spate of giggles. He got up from the table and walked like a gorilla over behind his wife. He wiggled his eyebrows as he snuggled his face into his wife's neck.

"Me also have other uses. Ugh." He mumbled into her neck. Jane squeaked and half-heartedly tried to get away from Roger.

"Please get a room you two." Hermione added, amused by the utter normalcy of another morning at home. As she got older, she noticed how her parents acted around each other. They still held hands as they walked in public. They were never shy in teasing each other no matter where they were.

Most of her other friends parents (what few she had) never seemed to do this. Even Ron's parents never seemed to be into holding hands. Then again, Molly and Arthur always seemed to be trying to run herd on all the kids in the clan. Maybe since she was an only child and was almost 17, her parents did not need to hold her hand and they could hold each other.

`I wonder if, after 20 years, Harry will still…' Hermione rapidly put the brakes on that train of thought. Taking a drink from her glass, Hermione tried to calm her racing thoughts.

`Settle down Granger. Harry is a friend, a great friend but not a boyfriend. Just because of his quidditch trained muscles (and those uniforms!), his unruly raven hair and that special look that can melt your insides. WHOA GIRL!'

"Are you alright, dear" her mother asked as Hermione coughed a bit as orange juice went down the wrong pipe. Hermione, still coughing, waved to her mom, telling her she was all right. Her dad, with his face right by Jane's ear whispered "emeralds." to which Jane just nodded.

Hermione caught the exchange and started blushing even before her coughing fit had ended. Roger stood up and trailed his finger up Jane's neck as he headed back to the master bedroom. She shivered a little in response. He just grinned as she responded with an amused/indignant "Roger!"

"That man," Jane grumbled as she tried to find the passage she was reading in her journal "is going to drive me spare someday." Her smile showed that she really did not mean it.

"Ah, mom."

"Yes dear."

"Your journal would be easier to read if it wasn't upside down."

Letting out a deep sigh, Jane shook her head and closed her journal. She got up from the table, grabbed hers and Roger's cups and walked to the sink to wash them. Hermione got up, and without asking helped her mother by drying the cups and two plates that her parents had used this morning.

"Mom, can I ask you something?"

"Sure dear." Jane replied while her hands were immersed in the wash water.

"How do you know you are in love?"

Jane's hands stilled while rinsing one of the cups. She then continued to moving her hands, but much slower, as if she was gathering her thoughts. She finally answered after she handed the cup to Hermione.

"I would guess that it is different for everyone." Turning her gaze on her daughter, she fired off her own question. "Why do you ask?"

Now it was Hermione's turn to pay way too much attention to the cup she was drying. She tried to think of a response. In an almost clinical tone, Hermione finally replied.

"Well, Ron's parents seem to bicker, in a playful way, but still bicker. They never seem to hold hands like you and Dad or show much affection in public. There are times when you catch one of them looking at the other with this expression and you know the love is there."

"Dear, everyone displays their affection in different ways. Your father and I are a little unique in that we still act like newlyweds even though we have been married for nearly 20 years. When you are in love, you will know."

"How did you know with Dad?"

As they were talking, they both finished the dishes and moved back to the table. Jane sat and got a dreamy and far away look to her face as she peered back through time to the first day in university.

"I remember seeing your father for the first time in my first class at university. All I remember is that they must have been hurting for students because they are letting anyone in. He just looked like he was uncomfortable in class and was not paying attention. I imagined that he was a lager swilling Neanderthal that the college had brought in under scholarship to bring up the rugby team. He was a very imposing looking guy complete with the military haircut and huge hands. My second thought after I took a look at him is there was no way he was going to be able to operate inside someone's mouth with hands that big."

Jane stopped for a second to re-live some of those old, good times.

"I saw him around the campus for the next three years but we never really ran into each other. I figured he was out with the other jocks, swilling themselves under the bar each night and crawling into class the next day. I spent most of my time in the library, studying and helping out those who asked. I even placed my name in the tutor pools."

"So, one night I am sitting in the library and this rather nice looking bloke, named Tom comes up to where I was sitting and asks for me by name. I checked my watch and I was scheduled to meet someone that evening but Tom was about 15 minutes early. So we introduced ourselves and we started to work on his essay on complex extractions. I had to get up and go back into the stacks to get a reference book after about 10 minutes into the session. As I was climbing down off the ladder to get the book off the top shelf, this guy walked into the row where I was but I let him know that I had the book and we could head back out to the table. It seemed that he had other ideas."

"He backed me into the stack and I hit him with the book in my hand. All it did was anger him. He tried to kiss me and when all he could get was the side of my face he reared his hand back to slap me."

Hermione had never heard this before from her mother. She was at once disgusted that her mother was attacked and yet she was on the edge of her seat.

"About that time a shadow fell over us and this huge man grabbed Tom's hand and held it in mid stroke. He brought his other hand and grabbed this guy by the front of his jumper and lifted him away from me and brought him nose to nose. Your father just asked me "Problem, ma'am?" all the while glaring at Tom. I do not think I said anything coherent but that Tom wheezed something about his girlfriend liking it rough. I could shake my head and did so. That is all that was needed and your father seemed to disappear with the bloke still suspended in mid-air by the front of his jumper."

"What happened to him?"

"I explained to him the difference between `No' and `Yes' in a very distinct way." Her father replied from the door to the kitchen. Her dad walked over and seated himself at the table.

"After my explanation I called the police and the ambulance had to treat the guy there before the police arrested us both. We were charged with disorderly conduct, fined by the judge that night and released. I spent the next day in the dean's office while he got the report on what happened. The other guy was expelled from the university and I was about to get expelled when this crazy little bird darn near kicks the door in and convinces the dean that I was defending his fiancé and that she would make his remaining time at the university a living hell. The dean did the only thing he could and lifted my expulsion, wished us luck on our marriage and sent us on our way."

Hermione looked from her mother to her father, fascinated by their story. While not up to the level of her adventures at Hogwarts, it was an incredible glimpse into a life she never even imagined that her parents had. Jane took her husband's hand and continued the story.

"I finally pulled myself together about 20 minutes and ran outside just in time to see your father and this other guy being put into the cars by the constables. I sat up the entire night with some girlfriends and skipped class the next day. I then hung out at the administration building until I figured out what was happening. When I heard that they were both getting expelled, I ran over to the Dean's office and was able to convince him that what your father had done was for my benefit. Since the Dean knew me, he was a little taken aback that I was engaged but he accepted my story and wished us luck. So I took your fathers hand and led him out of administration building. As soon as we got out of the building, he said…"

"I seemed to have forgotten the marriage license, honey. What was your name again?" Roger stated. Both of her parents broke out into laughter and Hermione finally got the joke and broke into laughter herself.

"And things have gone down hill from there." Roger stated, which earned him a swat in the arm from Jane.

"Hey!" He stated rubbing his arm as if in pain.

"Wimp."

"Actually, have you seen my watch? I thought I left it on the dresser." Roger asked as he got up from the table.

"Look behind the dresser. I think Crookshanks might have been up there and knocked it off." Jane replied. Roger kissed Jane and went back to look for his watch.

"So is that when you knew you loved Dad?" Hermione prompted.

"What? Oh no, that was about a week later. We had just finished studying oral surgery when I caught myself looking at the one other couple in our study group and how they seemed to hold hands all the time and I wondered if your Dad would do the same thing with me in a few years. It was like a part of my sub-conscious broke through and intruded into my day. I ignored it for a couple of weeks and then your Dad proposed. It seemed that he had felt the same way and I accepted. It just felt right. I do not know how to explain it. It is like being struck by lightning, you can not deny it and everyone around you usually knows way before you do."

"The hardest thing for me to do was to follow my heart and not my head. My head knew that it would never work out as we had only really known each other for a couple of weeks and we seemed to be opposites. I was a bookworm and he seemed to be an average student but mostly spent time by himself. My head said it was a mistake, my family said it was a mistake but I ignored them all. I am glad that I did."

"So am I Mom."

Jane seemed to gather herself mentally and got up from the table. As she was heading back to the master bedroom, she called over her shoulder.

"Be a dear and wake Alex up. We want to go over some ground rules before we head to work."

Hermione walked up to the spare bedroom and knocked on the door.

"Alex?" she called. There was no answer.

She knocked again and called out to him. Still, no answer. Hermione debated with herself for a few seconds and then turned the doorknob and peeked in. Alex was not there. His coat was hung up on the chair by the desk. Some books were spread about the desk and Alex's trunk was sitting at the foot of the bed, locked. The bed looked like it had been slept in but that was the only sign that he had been there.

Hermione entered the room and walked over to the desk to look at the title of the books. `Wards, Traps And Devious Devices; Detection And Safeing by Lefty Jacobs' and `Wondrous Healing With Potions by Jacob Pomfrey' were open but the one that really caught her eye was `Distractions And Illusions For Fun And Profit by Alan Smithe'.

`Interesting.' She thought to herself as she paged through the illusions book. Inside there were some simple spells to entertain people with small magical balls and also how to cast glamour on one's self and others. The more disturbing entry was the detailed instructions in creating a semi-permanent glamour spell that is enchanted to an object that the recipient wore. It would give the recipient the look of someone else for a short period of time or could be used to subtly change his or her own appearance for longer periods of time.

And while the book warned about using the enchantment to break the law, Hermione could immediately see the possibilities and dangers that such an enchanted device could bring.

"That is a good book but the enchantments for that talisman are way off base."

Hermione slammed the book closed and spun around to face Alex who was leaning against the doorframe. He was dressed in trainers, shorts and a t-shirt and it looked like he had just finished working out as he was still perspiring. Alex pushed off the doorframe and walked to her, favoring his left leg a bit with his hand outstretched.

"Do you mind if I get that back?" he asked in a neutral tone. Hermione guiltily handed it over.

"Alex, I am so sorry. I wanted to wake you up and then you were not here and.." She said in a rush, embarrassed by her snooping through his room.

"You saw that book and could not help yourself?" He added for her in a more friendly tone of voice. He finally cracked a grin at her. "Your Dad warned me last night that you were a bookworm. Don't worry about it. So am I."

Realizing she had been let off the hook, Hermione visibly relaxed. She handed the book to Alex who looked at it, shrugged and handed it back.

"Here, you can borrow it as I am almost done with it anyways." Alex went to his trunk and started opening it and started to get out some clothes for the day. As he leaned over to get into the trunk, Hermione heard his knee crack and Alex grunted.

"Alex, are you alright?"

Wincing a bit, Alex pulled out two small vials from the lid of his trunk.

"I will be in a bit." He replied through gritted teeth. He quickly uncapped the vial with a purple colored liquid in it and downed it in one gulp. After he swallowed it he made a face.

"Blargh. Wonderful stuff." He stated as he uncorked the final vial with a clear liquid inside and up-ended the vial into his mouth. He sloshed the liquid around in his mouth before swallowing it. He locked his trunk and stood up and popped his back.

"The first potion was a pain killer but what was the second potion?" Hermione asked.

"A very diluted version of Skele-Gro and strengthening potion for my leg." Alex replied while gathering his clothes and heading towards the guest bathroom.

Hermione was about to ask him something else when they heard her parents calling from the kitchen.

"Hermione, Alex! Could you two come to the kitchen?" Roger called out

Hermione and Alex both walked into the kitchen. She sat at the table with her parents while he propped himself up against the doorframe.

"Come sit down at the table, son." Rodger directed.

"If it is all the same to you, sir, I would like to stand here. I am still cooling off from my run." Alex replied politely. Rodger nodded in response.

After a quick discussion about the ground rules (mostly for Alex) from her parents, Hermione walked her parents to the door and saw them off to work while Alex went to take a shower.

"Are you going to be OK today dear?" Jane asked Hermione.

"No worries Mom." She replied giving her mom a kiss on the cheek. "We will be at the Mall all day and you will be back before us."

"Even so," her father said, as he got into the car, "Call us if anything happens."

"I will Dad." Hermione said as they started the car and headed to work. Hermione walked back into the house and she heard the shower running in the upstairs bathroom. Hermione went to her room to get dressed for the day.

After getting ready for the day, Hermione went back to the kitchen to take her potions and maybe get something substantial to eat before they left for the day. Alex was already sitting at the table, drinking a glass of water and looking over her father's paper.

Hermione opened up a cabinet and got the three vials out that she needed to take this morning. She had started with 5 different potions in the morning but her body was healing and she had been cut down to just three of them to ensure that the organ damage was repaired. She carried the vials to the table put them down and then went to make herself some toast.

"You know that you are supposed to take at least one of these on an empty stomach?" Alex asked.

Not turning around from the toast she was buttering, Hermione replied.

"I tired that but then I was not able to eat the rest of the day. If I eat something first, it makes them easier to take."

"Liver, lung and kidney damage? What did you do? Troll wrestling?" Alex replied as he identified the potions.

Hermione sat down at the table and started to eat her toast. She also started to tell him some of what happened a couple of weeks ago at the end of the school year. Alex just sat mesmerized by her re-telling of the fight at the Ministry.

"After that, you will have to ask Harry or Neville as I was out for the rest of the fight." She finished nonchalantly. Alex looked visibly stunned.

" Wow. I must be leading a really sheltered life. I have nothing to compare to that."

"Be thankful." Hermione replied. "Adventure may be fun, but this is almost a war." Hermione shook herself a bit and then decided to change the topic.

"I noticed that you don't seem to be tongue-tied around me anymore. You could hardly form a sentence yesterday at the airport." Hermione observed with a grin.

"Well, you caught me when my body thought it was about 2:00 AM and it was a bit unexpected." Alex studied his glass a little more than before. "When I saw you, all I could think is that there was no way I was going to be that lucky to be hosted by a beautiful girl and her family for the summer."

Hermione was a little taken aback by Alex's comments. They both sat there for a few seconds when Alex finally got up from the table, breaking the tension. He walked over to the sink and deposited his glass into it.

"I am going to go find my shoes and such. When do we catch the bus?"

The comments snapped Hermione back to the here and now.

"The bus stop is just 2 blocks over and it will be here at 9:15."

Alex pointed at the kitchen clock.

"That only gives us about 20 minutes."

Hermione squeaked when she realized that there was very little time left. While she gunned down her potions, Alex retreated to his room to get ready for the day. As soon as Hermione finished her medicine, she placed her plate in the sink and she bolted to her room to finish getting ready.

Hermione quickly brushed through her wild hair a couple of times before she bolted out the door of her room and she and Alex jogged all the way to the bus stop. They arrived with 20 seconds to spare.

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The Ministry of Magic

Professor McGonnagal and Harry arrived inside the reception area for the Wizengamot. They discovered that Harry still had thirty minutes or so before he was called before the court.

"Professor, do you have any idea why I got the summons?"

"I am sorry Harry. I have no idea." She replied sadly. "Wait here and I will see what I can find out."

Professor McGonnagal got up and went into the court clerk's office to try to get some answers, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts. As he sat there, outside the court, he noticed that the foot traffic had picked up some. More and more people were coming by but he did not think of it until he started to hear snippets of comments made by some of them.

"It's the Chosen One."

"Mad as a hatter, that one."

"I heard that he was being committed today…"

"The Minister said that he might be working with You-Know-Who…"

Their comments started to make him uncomfortable but it was when someone snapped his picture that he had enough. Harry got up from the bench and tried to get into the clerk's office but the door was barred. All that happened when he jiggled the handle was that the comments questioning his mental state picked up in frequency. Feeling like he was starting to loose his temper, Harry stalked off down the corridor.

He did not care really where he went, as long as it was away from the courtroom and all the people starring at him like a novel new animal at the zoo. He had never asked for notoriety and he cursed the day when a madman, bent on gaining power, had interfered with his life. If people could really know what it was like to have lost your entire family and have the ones that you care for the most be injured and killed, notoriety and fame would soon lose it's luster.

Tom Riddle had cost him a childhood, his mother and father and now his godfather. He caused Harry to have to stay with his only other blood relatives, who had despised him for what his parents were and heaped abuse and indignity upon him from the very start. He would gladly trade all the gold in Gringott's to have his parents back and be done with Tom and his minions. He would even give up magic for some peace.

The few things that he had that were good were his friends, Ron and Hermione.

Ron, steadfast and reliable. His brother in all that counted but blood. The one person who he could rely on to help him through his dark days with a smile or a swift kick in the pants, as needed. Emotional range of a teaspoon or not, Ron was the one that pulled him through some tight spots. Solid as a rock came to his mind as Harry rounded another corner in the ministry. As long as spiders were not involved.

Hermione, with her smarts and determination, she had kept him from failing out of school. First it was with bullying but it had started to change last year and he had needed less prompting to get the schoolwork done. He did not want to disappoint her. He could not stand to see her disappointed with him.

She was the only witch or wizard that he had ever met that could make up enchantments and spells on the fly. Not even Professor Dumbledore had shown that ability. What had Ron called Hermione that first year? `Scary, brilliant but scary.' Gaining her ire was something most people avoided. Those that did tried to not do it again.

Something had changed last year though. Something subtle and unexpected. He felt the change between the three of them last year, as if the tension was slowly ramping up. Whatever it was, he could not be bothered because of all the other things going on in his life, but it did make him uneasy. There was only one time that it was brought to the fore and that was during the disastrous fight at the ministry.

Harry had reached the atrium by this time and while the foot traffic was greater, people seemed to be in a greater hurry and seemed to be less inclined to paying attention to a young wizard, sitting by the enchanted fountain. So he took a seat on its rim to gather his thoughts. Memories of the fight here in the ministry seemed to take on a life of it's own and he started to relive portions of the fight.

Getting into the ministry had been easy, way too easy. Ron had looked like he had wanted to say something about it but Harry would not hear of it. Harry was like a runaway locomotive, barreling down the tracks and taking everyone with him. He was focused on only one thing and that was saving Sirius, all other considerations be damned. It had almost cost them dearly. Unnoticed by Harry, his respiration had picked up and beads of sweat were forming on his forehead.

After grabbing the prophecy, things had come totally apart. Hermione had kept her head and had once again thought of a way out. Harry had blazed the way once the path had become clear and Ron had covered their escape with Luna. After that things were a blur of images and half remembered spells. People dodging spells and hexes, the room with the planets, which Luna blew up with a well executed Reducto.

Ron being attacked by the floating brains, laughing all the wile until the brain had a good hold of him. His pleading eyes on Harry as the battle swept them apart, unable to help his friend. If anything, that was the start of his nightmares, being within 10 feet of his friend and not being able to help him, to save him. It infuriated Harry to think he was such a powerful wizard but he had been powerless to help when it counted.

Harry snarled to himself and slammed his fist down on the rim of the fountain with the memory. The rim of the fountain, 4" think marble, cracked under the blow. A wizard passing nearby noticed Harry's snarl and made a hissing sound as he went by, but the masses seemed to not notice anything different.

Even with Ron being injured, or possibly killed, Harry continued to fight on. His thoughts had been with his friend but he had been able to continue on. It was when Hermione had been brought down that he had lost what was left of his composure. Until Neville had been able to find her pulse, his life with her had flashed before his eyes and he had lost all ability to concentrate.

Then Sirius went through the veil. Harry struggled to keep the tears at bay as he remembered his godfather's expression as he was hit and fell back through the veil. He remembered freezing as he watched the scene again, in his mind. There must have been something that he could have done to prevent it.

He was the all-powerful Harry Potter. The Chosen One. Surely he could have used something, cast some spell that would have pulled Sirius away from the veil. He slammed his hand down again on the rim of the fountain, this time a shard of marble fell away from the inner face of the fountain and slid to the bottom of the pool.

He remembered running after Lestrange with murder in his heart. She was going to pay. She was going to pay for all of the horrors in his life. He remembered being so enraged that he actually cast an Unforgivable curse and hit her with it. Her response was like getting hit with a bucket of cold water.

"The Crucio, baby Potter? You really have to mean it to make that work. You have to enjoy giving pain. Shall I demonstrate?" She had said.

She had been right. All that held him back was his own conscious. He would not become another Tom Riddle. That included not killing those who would think nothing of doing the same to him or those he would call friends and family. He did not want to disappoint Hermione… and Ron.

When Professor McGonnagal came out of the clerk's office and was unable to find Harry, she quickly sought out whomever she could trust to help her look for him. One of those she found was Remus Lupin. After a quick conversation, Professor McGonnagal agreed to stay by the courtroom and Remus would search the public places for Harry.

Remus almost missed him in the hustle and bustle of the Atrium. He had already passed the fountain when he glanced over his shoulder and saw him sitting there. He turned around and walked against the flow of traffic to get to Harry.

Remus slowed as he got near Harry. As he got closer, Remus could see that Harry's right hand was balled into a fist and it looked like he had cracked the rim of the fountain with it. Harry was breathing rapidly and sweat was pouring off him, as if he was running a race and not sitting quietly with his eyes closed. Remus stopped an arm length away and kneeled down right in front of him.

"Harry? Are you alright?" Remus asked in a soothing voice. Harry continued to sit quietly with his eyes closed. He showed no sign of hearing Remus at all.

"Harry." Remus called in a more normal voice. Still no response. Harry was still lost in thought. Remus sighed and decided to try something a little more direct.

"Potter! Pay Attention!" Remus barked out. That broke through to Harry and Remus had to stifle his reaction to scramble back away from him. Where his normally vivid green eyes were, two red glowing coals sat. Not unlike Voldemort in their appearance. Remus almost thought that Voldemort had triumphed and had taken possession of Harry. Slowly they faded back to normal and Harry greeted his former professor. His respiration also slowed down to a more normal rate and sweat no longer seemed to be running down his face as fast.

"Hello Professor Lupin."

"Harry, are you OK? You look a little pale."

Harry shook himself a bit and wiped his hand across his brow, it came away wet. His hand was also shaking a bit.

"I am not feeling my best right now, but I will be OK. Are you here to take me to court?"

Remus was a little taken aback but he just improvised.

"Yes. We do have to go as I believe that you are a little late." Both Remus and Harry got up from the fountain and walked towards the passageway leading to the courtroom. Remus put his left arm around Harry's shoulder and guided him. It broke Remus's heart to feel Harry shaking like a leaf.

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High Street, Winchester

Hermione and Alex got off bus #7 on High Street. Alex looked around a bit, just taking in the scenery. The bus let them off on the northern area of the High Street shopping area. Stretched out before them was a large pedestrian area with brightly painted shops on either side of the street. The sun was finally peeking its head out of the high clouds and the day promised to be warm and comfortable.

"God, this is a wonderful area. I would love to play tourist today." He said while stretching his arms out wide.

Hermione looked around. It was home to her but she supposed that to someone new to the area, it did look inviting. Familiarity had muted its impact on her.

"We have a couple of options. We could shop High Street or we can go over one block and go to Brooks Center, the local indoor mall."

"Well, what would you suggest?" Alex asked.

Alex was pretty well prepared for the upcoming school year but Hermione needed some various sundries.

`Socks, underwear, a new dress for Harry's party', she thought. Thinking of Harry brought a smile to her face.

"I think we need to head to Brooks. It has a wonderful book store and the owner knows my family well."

At the mention of a bookstore, Alex's eyes lit up.

"Bookstore! Well lead on!"

Hermione and Alex arrived at Brooks Centre and he held the door open for her. He was trying to be a perfect gentleman, "of the old school" as he called it. They talked and wandered about the mall. Most of the time windows shopping but sometimes stopping in shops to take a closer look at things.

The bookstore was a big hit for each of them. Hermione was a well-known patron and the storeowner greeted her by name. Introductions were made and Alex wandered off to the Science Fiction section while Hermione wandered over to the mysteries. When she thought that Alex was not looking she did nip on over to the romance section and pick up some books there. They both laughed at some of the fantasy books. Together, they both bought about a dozen books between themselves and spent over an hour in that store alone.

After the bookstore, the two teens made their way over to a restaurant and they sat down and ate lunch. Alex found himself on the receiving end of Hermione's questing nature and most of the time they talked about him and his friends from the states. She found out that his best friend, Jerry Graybear, invited him to become an honorary member of the Swinomish tribe in Washington. Jerry was supposed to be going to Hogwarts this year, but he didn't know what family he would be staying with.

He tried to teach her some simple words in Jerry's native language but she decided that it was not a good time to take up that type of project. She had messed a simple greeting phrase with a phrase that asked if the person would like to wear a salmon. Hermione blushed over that while Alex had a good laugh.

"Don't worry about it." Alex said. "Even after two years, Jerry has to translate some of the things that Grandfather says."

Hermione tried to teach Alex what little French she knew, with similar results.

They finished their lunch and as they exited the restaurant, Hermione noticed a group of teens hanging out near the entrance of the restaurant. She noticed that while a couple of them were leering at her, a couple had more calculating looks. Their entire demeanor gave her the creeps. Alex sensed something also and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and shot a nasty look at the group.

As they continued walking Hermione asked quietly, "Are they following us?"

Alex, nonchalantly replied, "Nope. That is the second time I have seen those guys but I think it is just bad luck running into them twice. We should be OK because you would have to be really dense to start something out here in public." Alex removed his arm from her shoulder, after giving it a quick squeeze.

"Just relax. You do what you do best and let me do what I do best. We should be just fine." Hermione thought that was a little strange to say.

The next store that they stopped at, Hermione had to get some things in the Lingerie section. Alex, blushing, offered to wait outside on a bench. Smiling, she took him up on the offer. She noticed that at times he was bold as hell and at others, he seemed to be painfully shy.

After picking up her items, Hermione went back outside and joined Alex. As they continued down the mall she finally came to the clothing store that she liked and she was picking out a dress for Harry's birthday party. Alex was not much of a help as he had the "fashion sense of a house elf". She did know she had a winner when she finally settled on a cotton dress that Alex said some guy was going be very lucky seeing her in.

He did seem a little distracted and she followed his gaze and she thought she caught sight of one of the boys in that group that were looking them over earlier. When she asked him, he just said he thought he had seen someone but he was mistaken. He did suggest that they should probably head back to the bus stop so that they could get back home, on time.

On the way out, they didn't see the group of boys. She had to go to the loo and he said that he had to go as well. They found the closest one to the door they needed to go out to the bus stop and decided to use it, even though it was down about a 20' hall way.

After splitting up and completing her business she walked out and right into the same group of boys that were following her. She tried to re-enter the bathroom but one of them blocked her path.

"Hey cutie," the apparent leader said. "What do you have in the bag?"

Deciding to bull her way out, she replied hauntingly, "Nothing for you, now I need to go catch my bus."

"Not so fast, you might have something else that we might like," he said while making a show of looking at her from head to toe. The other four just chuckled.

"You had better get out of my way before my friend comes back," she was starting to get worried. She was even thinking of a spell that she could use to defend herself with even though it was against wizarding law.

"Are you talking about the gimp? Some of the boys are speaking to him right now." More chuckles from the goon squad.

The leader started to approach her and when he laid his hands on her shoulders her left knee ran up into his crotch. He folded immediately and she tried to run past them but they grabbed her and covered her mouth.

"Cunt," the leader wheezed from the ground as he slowly stood up. "You are really going to regret that." He pulled a switchblade from out of his pocket and approached her again.

"We call that a bad career move from where I am from." said a voice from behind the leader. The leader of the group looked over his shoulder.

Standing about fifteen feet away was Alex. He was standing very relaxed, but also very focused on the proceedings. Alex took in the scene in front of him.

The leader was holding a small knife towards Hermione in a threatening manner and she was being held by another teen with pockmarks on his nose. Alex labeled him Pitts and the leader, Dolt. The other three he labeled Muscles (The biggest of the bunch), Lefty and Righty (due to where they were standing around Muscles).

"Go away. We're having some fun"

Taking a step closer to the group, Alex closed his eyes and took in a large lungful of air and evenly released it. With that, his entire carriage changed. Gone was the small limp and his eyes and face lost all expression. The first thing that came to Hermione's mind was that he looked like a shark, just before it struck its victim. The next thing he said, and the way he said it, brought chills to her spine.

"Put the knife away, let her go and you can walk away. That is your only warning." It was not given in the bluster of a threat or the hope of a promise. It was said as if it was written in stone.

Some of the group started to waver until the leader spoke up.

"Come on, he's only one guy. Go get him," leader said.

Lefty, Righty and Muscles left the circle around Hermione and approached Alex.

"You're outnumbered little man. Run home now," Muscles opinioned. As he flexed his large muscular shoulders, in an overly theatrical way that had intimidated many before Alex.

Alex continued to stand stock still at the comment.

Muscles stopped within striking distance of Alex and decided to silence the `little man' in front of him. As soon as he had brought his hand up to strike, Alex's right hand stuck out like a snake and hit Muscles in the shoulder. His arm instantly went numb. Before he could readjust to his arm's apparent lack of control, Alex's other hand struck again to the goon's other shoulder. With both arms out of the fight the goon tried to back off but Alex tripped him with a quick foot hook. All of this happened so fast that Hermione only saw the goon moving his arms slowly up and then he was falling backwards.

The movement stopped the other two goons as they tried to re-adjust their tactics, but by that time, Alex exploded into action. Alex downed Lefty with a quick jab to the solar plexus. Righty tried to punch Alex in the head but Alex seized his hand and spun him into the wall, where the Righty left a small trail of blood from his broken nose. He did not seem inclined to get back up again.

Alex started to walk towards the Dolt and the Pitts holding Hermione. Dolt surveyed the scene behind Alex and knew he should have never accepted this deal. His main 3 fighters lay bleeding or gasping for breath behind the little limping man that was slowly walking towards him.

Dolt wavered and then made the wrong decision, he decided to step up. He took two steps towards Alex and swung the knife towards his face. Instead of falling back, Alex blocked the goon's knife hand with his forearm, forcing Dolt to take a step back.

The leader lunged at Alex again. This time, Alex stepped to the left and tripped him. Dolt sprawled on the floor and lost his knife. He scrambled over to it.

Snarling, he picked himself off the ground and lunged again. This time Alex didn't try to get out of his way. Alex grabbed the Dolt's knife arm and it looked like he folded over backwards and the goon was lifted off his feet and ran head first into the wall behind Alex.

Alex then turned back to where Pitts was holding Hermione, but he was nursing a bloody nose from Hermione's palm strike. Nodding to her, he turned back to the leader and got his attention by stepping on his knife hand. Alex pocketed the said knife and then leaned down to be closer to his head.

The leader still tried to talk tough. Since he had just ran head first into a wall, all he got out were some things that a drunk might make. Alex quieted him with a backhand. He leaned down towards the leader's face and said something that Hermione could not hear. What ever it was made the leader's face pale and all he could do was nod.

The leader whimpered and nodded. Alex got up and walked over to where Hermione was standing, still in a bit of a daze. A wand fight was really different from a street fight.

"Ready to go home?" Alex asked in his dead voice while picking up her bags.

"Yes, lets go!" she replied a little shakily. Both teens walked out the door and caught their bus. The timing was perfect as they did not need to even wait 10 seconds before they were off.

As the bunch of goons picked themselves off the floor, one of them commented. "This was supposed to be easy."

On the bus, Alex got Hermione seated beside the window while he took the aisle seat.

"Hermione, are you OK?" Alex asked. His tone of voice coming back to normal.

"Yes." She replied shakily. Gathering herself she replied with a more substantial "I am fine."

"Good. Now if you don't mind, I am going to pass out." Alex placed his head down between his knees and took several deep breaths, trying to save himself from falling out in the aisle of the bus.

Hermione was not sure what to do so she just placed her hand on his back and rubbed it in small circles. Her shaking hand showed how bothered she was by the attack but someone else needed help so she put her feelings aside.

----------------------------------------

The Ministry of Magic

With a sense of foreboding, Harry slowly walked into the courtroom. Remus Lupin had to wait outside. Inside, only Amelia Bones was in attendance with a scribe. The scribe and Judge Bones sat at a table on the other side of the gallery rail. She beckoned Harry down to the table. He sat down on the opposite side of the judge and scribe.

"Mr. Potter," Judge Bones said, "The court has asked for your presence today to right a wrong that was committed in this very courtroom nearly 16 years ago."

Reaching into her robes, the Judge Bones produced a rolled piece of parchment and handed it to Harry.

"This is an official pardon and apology from the court for the charges against your godfather. I know this is a little late in coming but it was all that we could do." She said with some sympathy.

Looking over the scroll, Harry noticed that Percy Weasly and not the minister himself signed the line for the Ministry of Magic. He questioned the judge about this.

"Minister Fudge had his aide sign in his stead." Judge Bones explained. She then started to write on a piece of parchment that was in place in front of her.

"Cornelius is a friggin idiot. This young man is going to kick him into next week if he pulls anymore crap." Harry heard from Judge Bones. Harry was a little taken aback. He could not believe that a judge had just said that in front of the scribe or himself.

"Your Honor?" Judge Bones looked up from a piece of parchment that she was annotating.

"Yes Mr. Potter."

"What did you just say?" Judge Bones looked at the scribe, who just shrugged.

"I said that the Minister had his aide sign the pardon in his place." She eyed him a little strangely.

"No, after that."

"I have not said anything else, Mr. Potter. Are you feeling alright?"

Harry scoured his face with his hands. Replacing his glasses, he said, "I thought you said the Minister was an idiot." Judge Bones started at that and then continued in a more stern tone.

"I would never say anything like that Mr. Potter. I hold the Minister of Magic in great esteem and I will ask you to not put words into my mouth."

"Poor young fool has gone nutters. Delores will want to hear about this." Harry heard this from the scribe, but since he was looking at him, he knew that the scribe's mouth did not move. This was starting to unsettle Harry.

`What the hell is going on?' Harry thought to himself. It was starting to bother him and he was getting fed up with all of the mysteries in his life. It was starting to piss him off. He clamped down on his anger as hard as he could as Judge Bones pulled out an envelope that she handed to Harry.

"Mr. Potter, this is a notice about your Godfather's will. I am told that it will be read at Gringott's on the 2nd of August. You are invited along with some others."

"Mr. Potter, I would also like to pass on the congratulations and thanks of all of the court to you and your friends in facing the Death Eaters here in the Ministry. At the next full meeting, we anticipate a special commendation being awarded to all of the those who participated that night." Standing up, the judge bid Harry goodbye and walked out with the scribe in tow.

Harry sat at the witness table for several minutes, completely stunned. He was emotionally overwhelmed. When he took stock, he was surprised that he had maintained some sense of sanity. Cedric's death at the end of his fourth year, being the target of the Ministry's official and unofficial smear campaign to discredit him, Sirius's death at the Department of Mysteries and his inability to exact vengeance against his murder, his false arrest and incarceration for crimes that his cousin and his friends committed, having to deal with his remaining family for the last two months, along with the various nightmares since his godfather's death was just too much. And now this. He had to be strong his entire life and he was reaching the end of his rope.

In a sudden fit of rage that surprised even him, Harry grabbed the table in front of him and up-ended it. He then threw the chair he was sitting on against the wall. It only fueled his rage when the chair hit and didn't break. Running over to the chair, he seized it again and hurled it at the opposite wall. This time he made sure it broke.

Totally in the grip of his rage and pain, he then seized the table and started to lift it over his head. Small sounds filled his ears, but all that mattered to him was to destroy a little part of the world that seemed to be doing its level best to destroy him. He didn't notice that he had an audience even when a stunner hit him on his left shoulder blade. He was still able to pick the table up and throw it towards the observer gallery. The table broke the railing there with a satisfying crack. Harry was then hit with a second stunner and finally collapsed; not from the spells but from his rage being sated for the time being.

Harry lay on the floor of the court chambers and his last memory in the courtroom was of Professor McGonnagal and Remus Lupin looking down at him with concern and not a small amount of apprehension.


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