The Most Beautiful Witch Chapter 32

“What the hell are you doing back here?” Vernon roared as he gestured to Harry with a gravy-soaked fork. “Get out! All of you! We won’t tolerate this freakishness!”

Harry could see that everyone else in his group looked utterly stunned. Sirius was torn between surprised disbelief and wanting to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation while Anastasia and Cyrus both looked confused at the reception they were receiving.

Daphne and Astoria were the two who recovered fastest though. They were both familiar enough with the Dursleys through the few stories that Harry told them to know that they were awful people who hated Harry and wanted nothing to do with him, but it was clear that they hadn’t necessarily expected Vernon to be so blunt with his words.

“We’re staying here for a few days,” Harry told him firmly. “Didn’t Dumbledore contact you?”

“Who?” Vernon asked.

“He most certainly did not,” Petunia said as she peered around Vernon’s wide back. She had a pinched expression on her face that looked like she was squinting at them. “And if he had, we would not have allowed you back here. You did us a blessing by not coming back last summer. We’ve had enough of you.”

“That’s right!” Vernon agreed emphatically. “Now leave quickly before the neighbours can see you!”

Harry crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at his relatives. Once upon a time, he’d been terrified of them. His aunt would also yell at him in that shrill voice of hers and demand he do the majority of the housework, threatening to lock him up in the cupboard under the stairs if he refused. His uncle was worse. Vernon threatened physical violence more often than he doled it out, but there were a few instances where he shoved, hit, kicked, and even hit Harry with his belt. It was Dudley who was the truly violent one who enjoyed tormenting Harry on a daily basis.

Now, after facing down so much in the past year and a half, Harry didn’t have a single niggle of fear in his heart.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Harry replied, taking a confident step forward. As a child, his uncle had towered over him. Now, Harry was just a hair taller. “I understand that you can’t imagine anything of importance going on in the world beyond what’s happening in your truly pathetic lives, but we need a place to stay. I figure you owe me enough for all you did over the years to deal with this.”

“Owe you?!” Vernon raged, throwing up his arms in astonishment. “We’re the ones who took you in and fed you and clothed you without being given so much as a single pence to help out! If anything, you owe us for the years we spent raising you!”

“I worked for my stay,” Harry argued back. “Ever since I turned three, you gave me work to do around here. And don’t act like you were doing me any favours. You gave me hand-me-downs to wear, scraps off of your table to keep me from starving, and stuffed me in a spider-filled cupboard under the stairs so that you could pretend like I didn’t exist!” His voice was growing louder the more he spoke.

“They did what?!” Sirius shouted at the top of his lungs, lunging forward like he was going to wring Vernon’s fat neck.

Harry stuck an arm out to hold Sirius back as he continued to stare down his uncle. “If anything, I owe you a broken jaw and permanent limp for what you put me through. Now, unless you want things to get worse, you’ll shut up, go back to your supper, and let us figure out where in this bloody house we’re sleeping.”

Vernon’s face turned a deep shade of red. “Like hell you freaks will be spending another minute in my home! Petunia, ring up the police and let them know—”

“Darling,” Petunia’s shaky voice interjected. “Maybe we should talk about this.”

“What’s there to talk about?” Vernon exclaimed loudly. “These… these…”

“Witches and wizards,” Daphne finished for him coldly.

Petunia squeaked at those words, and Vernon’s face only went more red. “You keep your mouth shut or—”

Harry’s wand was in his hand faster than Vernon could blink. He pressed the tip of it against Vernon’s chin, and suddenly a flicker of fear shot across Vernon’s face.

“Go on, say it,” Harry told Vernon encouragingly in a dark tone. “Finish your sentence. ‘You keep your mouth shut or’… what?”

Vernon kept his lips sealed perfectly tight. After a moment, Harry pulled back his wand.

“Let me make it clear,” he began slowly. “You three have no choice in the matter of whether or not we stay here. We are going to be here for a few days, a week at most I assume, and then we will be gone. If you think for a single moment that you can do anything to get us to leave, then you’re sorely mistaken. If you go to the police or try anything else foolish like that, I can promise you that you will sorely regret it. Now, sit back down and finish your supper. This is your last chance to do things the nice way.”

Petunia tugged at Vernon’s arms, whispering gentle words to try to coax him back down into his seat. Harry could see the cogs in Vernon’s brain turning as he tried to decide if it was better to go along with what Harry said or if he should test him again.

Eventually, it was Dudley who won Vernon over. The sound of his chair scraping against the floor as he went to sit down drew Vernon’s attention. He watched his son sit with his head down low and pick his fork back up and start to pick at his food. Petunia sat down next, and seeing that none of his family were willing to fight alongside him, Vernon finally caved.

“Fine,” Vernon muttered bitterly. “Just be quiet about it.”

He always had to have the last word in. Always.

Harry sincerely thought about challenging him on that too, but he figured it was best to just leave it be. They’d already been through so much today; they didn’t need to deal with any more fighting.

Letting out a breath, Harry turned back to his real family and gave them a weak smile. “There’s a room upstairs that we can use. Some Undetectable Extension Charms on a few trunks will give us enough temporary space to share.”

“Those are illegal to cast without Ministry approval,” Cyrus said nervously.

“I think we’re well beyond the point of caring what the Ministry thinks,” Anastasia snorted. “I know how to perform the charm.”

Harry guided them upstairs to the smallest bedroom that had once been his. Upon entering it, Harry saw that Dudley had taken it over again as a place to stow his things. Some simple household charms helped to push them all back out into the hallways, leaving the room with plenty of floor space for their trunks to sit.

Anastasia dutifully cast the extension charms upon three trunks. “Be careful climbing in,” she warned them.

She and Cyrus entered theirs first. The moment their heads disappeared, Sirius cleared his throat.

“Was… err…” he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Everything you said about what the Dursleys put you through… I’m sorry that I wasn’t around to stop that.”

“It’s in the past,” Harry brushed off the apology. “I’m happier now than I ever was around them. That’s what’s important.”

“That doesn’t mean that you need to ignore the past,” Astoria said gently.

“I’m fine, really,” Harry insisted. “I don’t care about what happened anymore.”

“Really?” Daphne raised an eyebrow at him. “Because it certainly didn’t sound like you didn’t care about it when we were downstairs.”

Harry bit the frustrated reply he was about to say. “I wasn’t lying,” he lied.

Daphne didn’t press the issue, but he could see that she wanted to. Thankfully, Astoria lifted the lid to their trunk and gestured that they should head in. Before they did though, Harry locked the door to the bedroom and cast an alarm spell to warn him if anyone tried to enter the room.

The room-sized interior of the trunk was as much of a blank canvas as one could imagine. All of the surfaces were covered in a soft Gryffindor-red fabric. There was nothing else inside except for a wooden ladder that allowed access back out to the trapdoor-style exit in the ceiling above. Just as the trapdoor closed itself up, Harry illuminated the tip of his wand so that they weren’t plunged into darkness.

“Who’s best at conjuration magic?” Astoria asked aloud.

It took the better part of an hour to get everything just right inside of the trunk. Even though they would only be sleeping in here for a few days, Daphne and Astoria both insisted on making it cosy and feel less like they were sleeping inside of a box. They did quite well to conjure a large four-poster bed that resembled a larger version of what they had back at Hogwarts, a thick and fluffy mattress, several plush pillows, and a couple of warm duvets. They had bluebell flames floating inside of jars that dangled from the ceiling to provide a warm glow, and they’d even gone so far as to conjure a basic set of furniture to make the room feel less empty. Truthfully, all it was missing were a few plants and a fake window or two to make it just right. A couple of other charms took care of issues such as ventilation and temperature adjustments, leaving them quite content with the space as a whole.

When it was all completed, Harry collapsed back onto the huge bed with a sigh. He was tired. Tired of fighting. Tired of dealing with all of these things that he’d never asked for. All he really wanted was a nice, quiet, peaceful life with Astoria and Daphne at his side. They could move into a nice cottage somewhere—Harry could never see himself living in a massive manor that he’d only ever use a small fraction of—and live out their days until they started a family. Maybe then they could move into a bit of a larger house, something like a less-cramped version of the Burrow with a Quidditch Pitch out back and plenty of land for them to roam around on.

Astoria and Daphne both laid down next to him, snuggling up against him.

“I’m so sorry that you two are caught up in all of this because of me,” Harry murmured sincerely.

“You haven’t done anything to be sorry about,” Astoria told him.

“And even if you had, the fact that Voldemort is after you isn’t your fault,” Daphne added. “It was that stupid prophecy, and the fact that Voldemort chose to believe in it. There are countless books filled with tales of fools who tried too hard to fulfil a prophecy only for it to be their own undoing.”

“Surely there’s a few who fulfilled it properly though,” Harry said.

“I suppose,” Daphne agreed.

“Voldemort is arrogant enough to believe that he’d be one of them. Not one of the failures.”

“Until we know the contents of the prophecy, we can’t know what Voldemort’s thoughts were on the matter,” Astoria reminded them. “Besides, regardless of why he believes in the prophecy, what matters is that he thinks it’s true and is coming after all of us. We need to figure out our next steps.”

“Finding somewhere permanent to stay would be best,” Harry said. “I don’t know how long staying at the Dursleys is going to work before someone starts a fight.”

“But even then, what do we do?” Astoria asked. “It’s not like we can go back to Hogwarts or any other school for that matter. The Ministry is bound to be after us.”

“There’s only one thing we can do,” Harry sighed as he sat up. He twisted around so that he could face both Astoria and Daphne and let them see the gravity of his words play out across his face. “We need to kill Voldemort. Until he’s gone, I’ll never live in peace. And so long as you two are still committed to me—”

“You couldn’t get rid of us if you tried,” Daphne smirked.

“Then he’ll come after both of you as well. Your parents, Sirius, our friends, all of them will be potential targets,” Harry stressed. “He’ll do anything he can to try to break us so that he can get to me to fulfil this prophecy. I’m done sitting around and waiting for things to happen to us. It’s time for us to go on the offensive all across Britain. We’ll put a stop to him.”

“We could start by looking at the pure-blood families who support him,” Astoria suggested. “Voldemort is still in hiding; most of Britain doesn’t know that he’s back. One of his followers is bound to know where he’s at.”

“As much as I hate to suggest this, Dumbledore might have a few ideas that are worth considering,” Daphne said tentatively. “I don’t know about trusting him entirely or letting him give us orders or anything like that, but he might have some useful insights that could help us. Dumbledore is the only wizard that Voldemort was ever said to be fearful of.”

Although Harry wasn’t keen on dealing with Dumbledore very much, he knew that he couldn’t be so arrogant as to dismiss the wise wizard’s information, if he had any to share that was.

“We can ask him when he comes to take us to our new residence,” Harry said. “Sirius and your parents might have other ideas; we should talk to them in the morning.”

The three of them agreed and exited the trunk so that they could take turns showering off the grime that’d accumulated through this brutal day. Harry cringed each time he found another bit of Draco’s dried blood on his skin and scrubbed it off promptly.

It wasn’t until all of them were back in Harry’s old bedroom that he heard the Dursleys finally creep upstairs and make their way into their own bedrooms. Harry locked up again and then descended back into the trunk to go to bed.

Sleep came surprisingly easy. He attributed it to having Astoria and Daphne both by his side. Their mere presence was comforting enough to lull him into a peaceful sleep.

PAGE BREAK

Breakfast had barely been served before the first gaff took place.

“I’m with Harry,” Astoria’s amused voice rang out from the kitchen, carrying through to the living room where Harry, Sirius, Anastasia, and Cyrus were sitting around the large coffee table discussing their plans.

“Yeah, I know, but it’s not like you’re dating that twat, are you?” Dudley chuckled in blissfully-ignorant confidence.

“I am,” Astoria replied cheerfully. “And call him a twat again and I’ll turn you into a pebble and toss you into the bottom of the sea where you’ll never be found again.”

There was a beat of silence as everyone in the living room perked up and really listened.

“Err, what about you?” Dudley asked.

“What about me?” Daphne’s equally entertained voice said.

“I can show you a good time, take you out and—”

“I’ll stop you right there. I’m dating Harry,” Daphne interjected.

Another beat of silence.

“But… she’s dating Harry,” Dudley pointed out.

“And?” Daphne asked, her voice dripping with annoyance. “Honestly, do I need to carve open the top of your skull to see if you have any brains left in there?”

“She… you…” Dudley trailed off.

“We’re both dating Harry,” Astoria finally said, taking pity on Dudley.

There was a choked sound that didn’t come from any of the three of them. Harry figured that Vernon must’ve overheard the conversation too.

“But… but he’s…” Dudley stammered.

“Remember, bottom of the ocean and all that,” Astoria said. You could practically hear the smile in her voice.

Sirius turned to Cyrus and Anastasia. “Your daughters are brilliant. Terrifying, but brilliant. Has anyone ever told you that?”

The two women came back into the living room carrying a couple trays of food and drinks. They set them down on the coffee table just as a loud hoot was heard from the front window.

“Ah, the Daily Prophet,” Cyrus said as he fumbled for a Knut within his robes. He plucked out the coin and opened the window. The owl hopped onto the back of one of the Dursleys’ chairs and stuck out its leg with the coin pouch for the payment. As soon as Cyrus deposited the Knut, the owl released the Daily Prophet paper clutched in its talons and swiftly flew back out of the home.

Cyrus’ eyes widened as he read the front page. Before he could say anything, he slapped it down on the centre of the table.

“Dumbledore Defiant: Hogwarts Noncompliant With Ministry’s Orders,” Sirius read aloud with a long sigh at the end. “Bloody hell, I didn’t expect that.”

Neither did Harry. Dumbledore had been so passive for so long with the attacks against Harry, Astoria, and Daphne, but now he was finally standing up for Harry. Why couldn’t he have done it sooner before Harry was forced to kill Draco?

“At least he’s doing something,” Daphne muttered with a hint of approval in her voice.

“Well, what’s the article say?” Astoria asked.

Sirius went on to read the article aloud to them. It quickly became clear that it was little more than a hit piece designed to paint Harry and Dumbledore in the worst light possible. It began with a false retelling of what led to last night’s events. According to countless witnesses, all of them Slytherin, Harry had grown unhinged this year. The wild rumours that he was somehow behind part of the attack against Greengrass Manor was repeated. Then came the discussion of the night itself.

Apparently, the Ministry argued that Harry had been harassing Draco for months and that last night, Harry finally killed Draco in a heated rage while Draco’s friends tried to stop him. They spoke about the anger in Harry’s eyes and cruel punishments he inflicted on others. There were quotes from healing staff from St Mungo’s that Millicent Bulstrode’s disintegrated leg would take weeks to repair, and even then it’d never be the same. There was a tearful message from her parents who were overwhelmingly distraught at the violence inflicted upon their innocent daughter.

Worst of all came the words from Lucius Malfoy. He had an entire section of the article just dedicated to him, and his words made Harry’s blood boil.

“My son was a kind-hearted, loving, innocent soul who was tragically taken from this world by a blood-thirsty monster. Mr Potter’s parents would be ashamed of him were they alive today. His actions at Hogwarts were always excused by the other professors, and any attempt on my part to cause him to take accountability always led to interference from the Headmaster,” Sirius read aloud. “We’ve all heard the stories about Mr Potter through the Daily Prophet and various rumours over the years, but I can tell everyone that they do not even begin to cover the surface of the various infractions Mr Potter has committed.

“Until he is met with swift justice, no one will be safe. And that includes all of the students still at Hogwarts. On the night of my son’s murder, Professor Minerva McGonagall prevented me from taking Mr Potter to the Aurors. She attacked me and allowed him to escape. I have no doubts in my mind that the Headmaster aided in Mr Potter’s escape past our fine Aurors.”

“People can’t really believe this, can they?” Astoria asked everyone. “I mean, everyone at Hogwarts knows how much of a prat Draco is… was.”

“More people will believe it than not, I’m afraid,” Anastasia sighed. “You wouldn’t believe how many people see the Daily Prophet as the arbiter of truth in this country.”

The article then moved onto the subject of Dumbledore himself. Apparently, after the Aurors realised that Harry was gone from the castle, they tried to bring in Dumbledore and McGonagall for questioning. When Dumbledore refused, they decided to arrest them. That led to Dumbledore triggering the ancient wards that protected the castle, magically forcing out all of the Aurors and locking down the school so that no invader could penetrate it.

Dumbledore has been summoned to the Ministry to answer for this as well as Harry’s actions. As of yet, there was no response from the castle.

The article ended with more wild speculation about Harry and Dumbledore’s motivations, but they were relatively brief. However, at the bottom of the page, there was a list of eleven separate articles within today’s issue of the paper that discussed various parts about the main article and other related topics.

Harry didn’t bother reading them. He could already feel his annoyance and frustration bubbling up inside of him at these obscene lies. He didn’t even bother to stay for the discussion; he simply retreated back up to his trunk and climbed into bed for a long rest.

He feared that it would be a while before he had another chance at getting one.

PAGE BREAK

It took three more days for Dumbledore to arrive. In that time, the Dursleys had continued to pretend like none of their visitors existed, and in exchange, they did the same.

The late afternoon sun was shining so brightly over the fence that Harry nearly missed seeing Dumbledore apparate into the Dursley’s back garden. The old wizard had these hideous mud-brown and golden robes on and a serene smile on his lips as he approached the back door. Daphne quickly opened it for him and ushered the man inside.

“Thank you,” Dumbledore dipped his chin. “It is so lovely to see the three of you again.”

“What’s going on, Professor?” Harry couldn’t help but ask. “Are you really fighting back against the Ministry?”

“In a sense,” Dumbledore replied. “Although, there isn’t any actual fighting being done, other than on the part of the Aurors trying to break through the castle’s wards. I fear that they will be at it for some years before they manage to find a big-enough crack to break through.”

“We heard that you began releasing the students who wished to return home,” Astoria said.

“Releasing is a questionable word given the circumstances,” Dumbledore corrected her gently. “The morning after that dark night, I spoke to all of the students in the Great Hall and informed them that any who wished to leave could. The Ministry is already trying to discredit the school through the I.C.W. and prevent us from operating and holding our normal exams. It is true that we won’t be able to get any examiners from the British Ministry, but the I.C.W. has agreed to send in their own examiners so that the students at Hogwarts may complete their year of schooling should they choose to remain. I have taken on the role of Potions Professor to replace Professor Malfoy, who was the first one to leave the castle after the Aurors did. I believe that less than a tenth of our students have chosen to leave thus far, and I will not prevent any others from leaving should they choose to do so.”

“I know it’s still January, but what are you going to do after the exam period is over?” Daphne asked. “I doubt that the Ministry will allow students to return to Hogwarts.”

“I, unfortunately, must agree with your assessment, Miss Greengrass,” Dumbledore grimaced. “But that is a problem for me to worry about, not you. Today, all that you need to be concerned with is your new home.”

“You’ve found us a place to stay?” Harry smiled. He would be glad to be gone from the Dursleys. It held too many bad memories for him.

“Indeed I have,” Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled. “It is a place that Sirius is quite familiar with in fact. It took quite a bit of cleaning to make the home livable again, but I expect that you will be quite pleased with the results.”

“Where is it?” Astoria asked.

“It is right here,” Dumbledore said, pulling out a piece of parchment. He placed it down on the kitchen counter for the three of them to read.

12 Grimmauld Place.

The moment the three of them had read the words, Dumbledore snatched the parchment away and stuffed it into his robes.

“It’s under a Fidelius Charm?” Astoria gasped, immediately picking up on what was going on.

“It is indeed,” Dumbledore smiled. “I established the charm with myself as the secret keeper.”

“Smart,” Astoria smiled in reply. At Harry’s confused look, she explained to him. “Only the secret keeper can willingly divulge the hidden location. It’s usually obvious to look at whoever is hiding in that place as being the secret keeper. Making it someone else can make it tricky for anyone to track down who holds the secret. And even if anyone found out that it was Dumbledore who was the secret keeper, it’s not like they could somehow convince him to give us up.”

“I promise you that it will never come to that,” Dumbledore assured them. “No one could ever compel me to betray your trust.”

Somehow, Harry believed him.

“You should collect your things and prepare to leave immediately, I—” Dumbledore trailed off as the front door opened and the Dursleys stepped inside.

“You!” Petunia shrieked in fright.

Vernon stormed forward. “Another one of you freaks in my house?! I’ve had enough! All of you get out!”

“We will in a few moments—” Dumbledore began calmly.

“Right now!” Vernon shouted at the top of his lungs.

Suddenly, Vernon was bound with thick red ropes and levitated over onto one of the chairs. Harry looked over his shoulder to see Astoria’s wand slipping back within her robes.

“Let me go!” Vernon snapped, his eyes filled with fear.

Harry felt no sympathy for the man. Part of him wanted to lash out for the years of punishment the Dursleys had dolled out to him. The other part wanted to simply move on. But with Dumbledore here watching over him, one part won out over the other.

“Let’s go,” Harry said to Daphne and Astoria. “We’ll be back down with everyone else and our trunks in a few minutes.”

Vernon was still hollering to be released as they headed for the bottom of the stairs. Petunia had made herself as small as possible in the corner between the wall and the door while Dudley looked on at everything with an odd expression on his face. He was slightly blocking their path up the stairs, so as they neared, Harry raised an eyebrow at him.

“Err,” Dudley said awkwardly, shuffling his feet back and forth like a kid who was in trouble. “I guess you’re leaving then. Again.”

“I am,” Harry confirmed.

Dudley nodded, not quite meeting Harry’s eyes. “I read a bit of that paper you lot left out. Seemed like a pile of rubbish. I… uh, just don’t get hurt or nothing, yeah?”

Harry blinked in surprise. Was Dudley showing concern over Harry? Or was Harry just misinterpreting him?

“I won’t,” Harry said slowly, still unsure about what was going on. This situation felt so terribly odd and uncomfortable in ways that he couldn’t verbalise.

Dudley took a step back, granting them passage upstairs.

After gathering Sirius, Anastasia, and Cyrus from their trunks, they removed the spells they’d put upon them and shrunk the trunks down so that they’d be easier to carry. When they went back downstairs, Dudley and Petunia were sitting with Vernon at the kitchen table. The bonds had been removed from Vernon’s body, and the angry expression had been replaced with something akin to fear.

“Again, I implore you all to leave,” Dumbledore said to the three of them. “The protections that once guarded this house are no longer in place.”

“We… we understand,” Petunia managed to get out.

“Good,” Dumbledore said before he turned to the group. He pulled out a portkey from within his robes—a stuffed lion—and set it down upon the counter top. “Are you all ready to leave?”

“Yes,” Harry said.

Dumbledore quickly shared the secret with Sirius, Anastasia, and Cyrus before burning the parchment to a crisp. Once he was satisfied that no one would be able to recreate the parchment from the ashes, he gestured for everyone to grab hold of the portkey.

The moment that all of them did, they were whisked away to a dark house.