873Everything is Relative
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable Harry Potter characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am merely borrowing the characters to play with them.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC.
- Riddle Manor, 1955 -
Tom Riddle was sitting at the kitchen table, deeply engrossed in an old tome. 'Squibs,' he thought in disgust. 'But still… they're the rightful heirs of the great Salazar, while my line only goes back to his brother Severus.' While he pondered the matter of the Slytherin family, slowly, a plan developed in his mind.
Forty years later…
'I really don't want to go back to that hellhole,' Harry thought, as the Hogwarts Express pulled into platform nine and three quarters.
"Take care of yourself," Hermione told him, pulling him into a bear's hug. "And don't forget to write."
"All right. Will do," Harry replied, tiredly. Ever since those fateful hours at the graveyard, nightmares plagued him. Almost every night, he ended up seeing scenes of Cedric dying, his friends whispering 'murderer' and his professors giving him disappointed looks. During the last few weeks, he had spent every free minute secretly practising a wandless silencing charm, which he intended to place around himself before going to bed at his relatives' place.
He grudgingly descended onto the platform that was annoyingly swamped with cheering parents and younger siblings of the Hogwarts students. However, his mood lightened somewhat, when he spotted Sirius on the platform. He noticed that his godfather was looking much better than when he had seen him last, and he was grinning broadly.
"Why are you here?" he whispered, urgently. "People will see you."
"They won't," Sirius replied, pleasantly. "I'm under a charm that makes me look like someone else to everyone but you and your relatives. I have a surprise for you, by the way."
"What is it?" Harry enquired, unable to feign much interest, considering that a boring summer at his relatives' place with chores similar to those of a house-elf was lying ahead of him.
"You told me that Voldemort received your blood during the ritual in the graveyard, didn't you?" Sirius asked, before he swiftly shrank Harry's luggage, pocketed it and pulled Harry into the muggle part of the station.
"Yes," Harry confirmed, unconsciously rubbing his arm, as he remembered how Wormtail had applied the large cut without any carefulness.
"That means that the blood wards around the Dursleys' home aren't worth anything anymore," Sirius stated in a firm voice.
"Oh," Harry replied, staring at his godfather, startled. 'That's probably true,' he thought, his interest in the conversation slowly increasing.
"As your blood is running through his veins, the blood wards won't keep him away any longer," Sirius explained, giving him a sharp look. "Therefore, during the last few weeks, I went to the Dursleys' residence and completely destroyed the wards. Dumbledore must have spent hours and hours working on them. I can't recall how many layers there were, and in fact, I wasn't able to remove them all by my own."
Harry let out a loud gasp. "But no one is supposed…"
"I know, I know; easy Harry," Sirius interrupted him in a hushed voice. "Amelia Bones and Unspeakable Raros helped me. We assume that Dumbledore also applied confounding charms of all sorts into the wards."
"What?" Harry gasped in anger.
"Yes," Sirius confirmed, grimly. "After the three of us managed to take off all the wards and charms, we waited two days and then went to speak with your aunt. You must know, we Marauders knew her well, because she was quite close to your mother. Although her magic barely exceeded that of a Squib, she was very interested in magic, and she loved you dearly. As babies, you and your cousin Dudley were best friends. However, apparently that ended abruptly, when they had to take you in after your parents' death."
"What?" Harry asked, incredulously, trying to comprehend everything that Sirius had told him during the last minute in obvious excitement.
"Yes," Sirius replied, matter-of-factly. "I can show you memories of the two of you playing together in the house in Godric's Hollow and even in the park of Potter Manor," he added, letting out a deep sigh. "I was even sure that Dudley was a wizard."
"No." Harry shook his head. "They absolutely detest magic as well as wizards and witches. Neither Aunt Petunia nor Dudley are magical. They always told me that there was no such thing as magic."
"No," Sirius replied, grinning nonchalantly. "They don't hate you, and they're definitely magical. When I went to speak with Petunia, she was almost back to her former, pleasant self. Even her exterior has slightly changed back to the features she had in her youth. She's the spitting image of your mother and late grandmother. Even your uncle and cousin look different from how you know them, and they're looking forward to having you there over the summer."
"Sirius," Harry spoke up in a quiet voice. "Are you feeling all right? Are you drunk, having a fever, maybe hallucinating? Are you Voldemort under Polyjuice potion?" 'Perhaps I should ask him something that only Sirius knows,' he thought, however, could not come up with an adequate question, before the older wizard spoke again.
"Haha Harry, no, neither of these," Sirius replied, grinning. "Now let's go. Are you ready to apparate?"
Harry nodded and firmly held on to his godfather's arm, before the older wizard apparated them to Little Whinging.
HP
Harry curiously looked around, realising that they found themselves right behind the Dursleys' garage. Nothing seemed to have changed since the previous summer. They quickly walked around to the front door. Harry let out a deep sigh, however, felt very much reassured, when Sirius firmly remained at his side, as he rang the bell.
When his aunt opened the door, he could not help staring at her. In spite of what his godfather had told him, he had not believed her to look like his mother did on the few photographs he possessed. She had still kept some of her features, however, if he had simply met her on a random street in London, he would not have recognised her.
"Harry," she greeted him, gently, holding out her hands to hug him.
Harry quickly took a step backwards.
"Slowly, Tunia, Harry isn't used to your new self yet," Sirius quipped, causing Petunia to nod in understanding.
"I'm sorry, Harry, for everything," she immediately began to apologize.
Harry shrugged, feeling slightly overwhelmed at the unexpected situation. "It's all right. I heard that it wasn't your fault," he replied, emotionlessly.
"It wasn't," Petunia confirmed. "But well, let's head inside and then talk," she added and led them into the kitchen, motioning them to take a seat.
Harry gingerly sat on the chair next to Sirius, recalling that he had never before been allowed to sit on these chairs. Wide-eyed, he observed how his aunt served tea for the two of them.
"Apparently," Petunia continued to speak, "it was Albus Dumbledore who did this to us. Turning to Sirius, she added, "This morning, Amelia Bones visited me together with Healer O'Brian, the head healer of St. Mungo's. Healer O'Brian checked on Dudley and me and found out that someone had cast spells at both of us. I didn't even know that Dumbledore did such a thing. Provided that it was him," she added as an afterthought.
"It certainly was," Sirius said, grimly. "The old coot."
"Aunt Petunia, what spells were they?" Harry enquired, giving his aunt a concerned look.
Petunia let out a long sigh. "It's not as easy as that," she replied, shaking her head. "Dudley had his magic bound by one powerful person, which Amelia and the healer supposed was Dumbledore. However," she continued in a grave voice, "they found several layers of magical restrictions on my person, which seem to have been applied by at least two different persons and at various times. In fact, they could not take all the charms off, because they are too powerful even for the two of them together. Healer O'Brian told me to come to St. Mungo's on Friday. He said one of you would help me get there?" she added, giving Sirius and Harry a questioning look.
"Of course," Sirius reassured her, nodding his head in confirmation.
"Excuse me," Harry spoke up with a combination of confusion and disbelief. "Dudley has magic?"
Petunia nodded, smiling. "Yes, Harry, he's a wizard just like you. I finally remember how the two of you played together, when you were just a year old, outdoing each other by the display of accidental magic."
Harry shook his head in confusion, the words 'You're a freak. There is no such thing as magic,' still ringing in his head.
"I told you, Harry," Sirius said, matter-of-factly.
"Amelia remembered it as well," Petunia added, smiling. "That's why she came together with the healer. She was suspicious that Dumbledore or someone else had cast spells at us in addition to the strange wards."
"Meli was my fiancée, before I was thrown into Azkaban," Sirius explained to Harry. "She knew Lily and Tunia quite well."
"She was also your colleague, wasn't she?" Petunia recalled, causing Harry to stare at his aunt in disbelief.
"Yes, but she's the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement now, which means that she shouldn't know about my whereabouts at all," Sirius replied, letting out a deep sigh. "Nevertheless, she felt inclined to help me for Harry's sake and even promised to see to it that I get a trial to prove my innocence as soon as possible, which might be difficult, as long as Fudge the idiot is still the minister."
"Oh, that's brilliant," Harry replied, just when his uncle and Dudley entered the house, causing him to cringe. 'I just hope they'll take it well that Dudley suddenly is a wizard,' he thought with some kind of foreboding.
However, when Vernon and Dudley entered the kitchen, they were as friendly as Petunia. Somehow, Harry got the impression as if he was in a wrong film. 'This seems too unreal to be true,' he thought, as his uncle and cousin spoke to him as if he were a normal person and not their unwanted freak.
"Harry, will you teach me magic?" Dudley asked, once they had greeted each other.
Harry shrugged. "Sure," he replied, readily. "I can only teach you wandless magic though, as I'm not allowed to use my wand during school holidays."
"Whatever magic it is," Dudley replied with apparent eagerness. "I just want to learn to do funny things."
"We'll both teach you," Sirius promised, "and we should teach you as well, Tunia. I know that you can do it."
"If Vernon doesn't mind?" Petunia replied, hesitantly glancing at her husband.
However, Vernon gave her a reassuring nod. "Of course, if you can do it, you should both learn how to do it," he replied, smiling. Turning to Harry, he added, "I'm sorry, Harry, how we behaved towards you. You must understand that we couldn't help it."
"I know," Harry replied in a soft voice. "It was Dumbledore's fault."
"The problem is," Sirius spoke up, "that Dumbledore will surely try to place new wards, as soon as he notices that the old ones are gone. Shouldn't we place the house under the Fidelius charm?"
"What is the Fidelius charm?" Vernon enquired with apparent interest.
"The same charm Lily's and James' house was under," Sirius explained, causing Petunia to scoff.
"That really helped them," she replied, sighing.
"That was because Peter was the Secret Keeper and a traitor. I'd use Harry or Dudley as the Secret Keeper."
"Ahh, use Harry please. I don't have a clue about magic," Dudley spoke up, only to add, "yet."
"All right," Harry agreed, before Sirius beckoned all of them to follow him into the front garden.
He waved his wand at the house and Harry in a complicated looking motion, before he searched his robe pockets for a piece of parchment and a quill, completely ignoring the Dursleys' gasp, as their home vanished in front of their noses.
"It's all right," Harry informed them. "Just wait a moment, please."
"Here Harry, write the address on this parchment," Sirius instructed him, and Harry instantly obeyed, before he showed the parchment to Petunia, Vernon, Dudley and Sirius, causing the Dursleys to let out sighs of relief.
"Thank you, Sirius and Harry," Vernon said in apparent gratefulness, as they returned back into the kitchen. "Am I right if I assume that Dumbledore won't be able to see our house let alone harm us again?"
"Exactly," Sirius confirmed, grinning.
"The question is," Petunia added, thoughtfully, "why in the world Dumbledore did such a thing, considering that according to Healer O'Brian he or someone else even bound my magic at a much earlier time than these blood wards."
tbc...? (only if there is interest)
