Later in the evening, 1st August
Harry was nervous. He was sitting at the Grangers' dining room table with both of the adult Grangers. Across from him was someone from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Only, they hadn't sent a regular enforcement officer, or even an Auror. No, across from Harry sat the head of the DMLE, Director Bones. As for what that meant for this interview, it could either be very good or very bad. With Harry's luck, he wasn't betting on good.
Director Bones was a stern looking middle aged witch who wore a Monocle. She had arrived at the Grangers about ten minutes ago. They had decided to use the Grangers' dining room for the interview. Harry had been asked if he wanted the Dr's. Granger to remain, as his own guardians could not be present. He had agreed that he wanted them to stay. He wanted Hermione to stay as well, but Director Bones had said that there were rules against it, as she was not of age.
Director Bones had then read him something off a card asking if Harry understood. He hadn't, but Mr. Granger explained it to him, "Harry, it means that you only have to tell her what you want to tell her. You can choose not to speak about something if you want to. She also can't use magic to compel answers from you or to force you to tell the truth. You can, however, volunteer to allow such magic to be used on you, but that you need to be careful as such magic will force the truth to any questions you are asked." He turned to Director Bones, "Did I miss anything?" Director Bones shook her head "No, that was a rather good summary."
During Mr. Granger's explanation, the Director Bones had set a folder on the table in front of her and what looked like a small writing desk to her right. The desk had an ink well, a long roll of parchment and an electric blue quill.
Director Bones turned back to Harry, and after confirming that he now understood his rights, started with the interview. "This is a DMLE dicta-quill Harry, it will write out what we say during the interview. In a moment I will start it writing, then I will introduce myself to it as your interviewer. You will then introduce yourself as the interviewee. Then Mr. Granger, you will need to do the same as Harry's temporary guardian, then Mrs. Granger the same. Any questions?" There weren't any. Director Bones tapped the writing desk and just as she said, the quill sprung to life.
"I am Director Amelia Bones, representing the DMLE in the interview of Harry James Potter." Director Bones then gestured to Harry, indicating his turn;
"I am Harry James Potter, interviewee."
"I am Daniel Granger, temporary guardian of Harry James Potter."
"I am Emma Jean Granger temporary guardian of Harry James Potter."
Director Bones then had them each say a test phase to check the link. Every word was written out by the blue quill, exactly as it had been said. With an indication of who said what. Director Bones then spoke to the dicta-quill for about a minute, adding some data to the parchment. Date, time, case number, the usual for government documents. Then she started the interview.
"Okay, Mr. Potter, I want you to tell me in your own words what happened on the night of the 31st of August." Harry was just about to start speaking when Mr. Granger interrupted, "Harry, I think you should start from being picked up from King's Cross. Everything you told us earlier. Apologies Director Bones, but I think you need to understand the lead up to that day to fully grasp what happened." Director Bones frowned slightly at the interruption, but nodded for Harry to go on. The whole point of a guardian for a minor was that they could make decisions like that. Minors just answered the questions asked, adults knew when to add context.
As the interview went on Director Bones's face changed from friendly to stern to blood freezing. She listened as Harry described acts that ranged from petty to outright torture. And, the more he spoke the more Director Bones was aware that the boy in front of her was only talking about the last two weeks. She studied the boy in front of her. He was small, too small. While she hadn't been the best of friends with Lily and James, she had gone to school with them. Neither were as small as Harry, and she thought about his 'family' withholding food and got a suspicion of just how long that had been going on.
Once Harry finished his recollections, Director Bones had started asking questions. First about aunt Marge's glass; "I need to ask, Mr. Potter, did you explode the glass your aunt was holding?" Harry shook his head, "No, Director Bones, I don't think so. I didn't feel the release of magic. I think she just gripped the glass too tight. I also think it may have been intentional, so she could get at Hedwig while I cleaned up the broken glass." All the adults gasped at this. Harry hadn't included this speculation during his recounting, this was only an opinion. An opinion that fit the facts way too well for everyone in the room to dismiss.
Director Bones asked him about each bit of magic he had admitted to; throwing off his uncle, blasting the door, killing the dog. Harry felt a little bad about that one. Then Director Bones asked about how Harry had got to the Grangers. Harry explained that he didn't remember, but that Mrs. Granger had told him he just appeared out of thin air. Director Bones explained apparation and how dangerous it could be. She put a lot of emphasis on how lucky he was not to get splinched. Harry shuddered at the idea of leaving part of himself behind. Then she asked the question that stumped Harry.
"Okay, Harry, now I want you to explain what happened when you stuck your aunt to the ceiling." Harry was baffled at this, "What do you mean Director? Which of my aunts was stuck to the ceiling?" Director Bones checked the file to make sure that she had the right information. "Miss Marge Dursley was found stuck to the ceiling of the area above the stairs with a permanent sticking charm." Harry was dumbfounded, "I don't know what to say Director. I don't remember doing it", Director Bones fixed him with a stare, "None of it? You don't remember pointing your wand at her? You don't remember floating her up to the ceiling or casting the permanent sticking charm? Nothing at all?"
"Um...Director, I didn't use my wand. It hadn't left my holster since I left the Express, till Hermione uh...confiscated it last night while I was...sleeping." This shocked Director Bones; accidental magic was fairly common before a child left for Hogwarts and not uncommon for a few years after. But wandless magic like that was terribly inefficient. Most people would get two, maybe three, spells before collapsing. Harry, however, had managed seven. It was astonishing, it was almost unbelievable.
"You really didn't use your wand?" Harry looked her straight in the eye, no glint of uncertainty or lies, "No, I just lost control and my magic acted on its own." Director Bones corrected him, "No, Harry, not on its own. Remember your first lessons in magic, what did you learn?" Harry's eyes widened, "Raw magic is tied to desire. It reshapes the world around us based on what we feel. The wand is the tool of will so that we choose the magic we cast", Director Bones nodded, "exactly, if you never used your wand, you only felt the need to defend yourself. You never choose to act. It is a fine line, but an important one in the law."
She turned to the Grangers, "would it be possible for one of you to retrieve his wand, please? I can check his wand with a few simple charms to see what spells he used with it recently." Mr. Granger nodded and went to retrieve the wand from his daughter. Once Director Bones had Harry's wand she explained the charms she was about to cast. The first was a simple charm that produced a coloured mist of light to flow from the tip of the wand. The mist was ranged from red to blue. The redder the mist, the more recently the wand had been used, with the deepest blue being 4 weeks or longer. The second was 'Priori Incantatem', which was apparently the reverse spell effect. This charm created a 'spell ghost' for a few moments.
Director Bones held his wand in her left hand and her own in her right. She pointed her wand at his, giving her wand a weird jerking motion, "Reliqutemoles*." A solidly purple glowing mist started to flow from the tip of Harry's wand. Director Bones spoke to the quill, "Let the record show the Reliqutemole charm results are consistent with Mr. Potter's statement of approximately two weeks without using his wand." The dicta-quill scratched her words into the parchment. Resetting the wands the next spell was cast on his wand; "Prior Incantato!"
A grey mist flowed from Harry's wand forming miniature ghost of Harry's school trunk with wings. Harry sighed as he assumed this was the wingardium leviosa charm he remembered casting on his trunk as he boarded the Hogwarts Express at the Hogsmeade train station.
Director Bones recorded the results of that charm as well and began going through the folder in front of her, checking it's content and comparing it to the statement Harry had given. She closed the folder and looked at Harry, and handed him his wand. Harry couldn't express the relief he felt when he had his wand back in his hand, his magic reaching out and rejoining with the wand's core. The closest he could come to describing it was that it was similar to not being in pain anymore, an intense feeling of relief as you are finally able to relax.
"Okay, Mr. Potter." Director Bones pulled his attention back to her, "Firstly, I have more than enough evidence to drop the charges of underage magic, muggle beating and breaking the international Statute of Secrecy. Your actions all fall under the self-defence clause. But I do need to remind you that the Statute of Secretary is our world's most important law. While you had good reason this time, don't think you can get away with doing magic outside of school again unless you are in another emergency. As I feel that you returning to the home of your relatives is likely to result in a repeat of these circumstances, I am going to have to do a couple of things."
"First I am putting a temporary relocation order on you. You are not permitted to return to the Dursleys', at least not until I have completed my second task. Harry, I am going to open an investigation on how the Dursleys treated you. If everything goes well you will never have to see them again." Harry was stunned. He had been afraid that this meeting would go so much worse. He truly expected to be sent back to the Dursleys' at best, maybe even with his wand snapped. But he was being kept from the Dursleys to preserve the Statute of Secrecy. He just didn't know what to do.
Mrs. Granger, however, seemed to have an idea,"Director, where will Harry stay in the meantime? Harry was with 'them people' because he has no other family, right? Would it help if we volunteered to keep him here?" Director Bones looked relieved. "Honestly it would. If I placed Mr. Potter with a magical family there would be a fight over who took him in, and not every member of our society have the best interest of The-Boy-Who-Lived in mind." Harry winced at the epithet.
"The-Boy-Who-Lived? What?" Mr. Granger hadn't heard the nickname for Harry before, as he didn't know magical gossip. "It's what they call me. After Voldemort-" Director Bones flinched at the use of his name, "tried to kill me but failed. I hate the epithet but there's nothing I can do to stop people using it. Every time I hear it all I can think is why didn't I save my parents." Director Bones looked like someone had slapped her, while Mrs. Granger seemed like she wanted to hug him. Director Bones recovered first, "My apologies Mr. Potter." Harry waved his hand dismissively, "I'm used to it." It didn't escape anyone's notice that Harry hadn't actually accepted the apology. "I never thought about how that title would affect you. I will never use it again. You have my word."
Not wanting to get too far off-topic, Director bones moved them back, "If you are agreeable to hosting Mr. Potter it would mean a lot less paperwork, and as Mr. Potter came here himself I feel he would be looked after here." The two Grangers went to the other side of the room for a few minutes to hold a whispered conversation. They came back to the table, and instead of turning to Director Bones as Harry expected, they instead spoke to him, "Harry what do you want?" Mr. Granger asked him gently. The question caught him off guard. In Harry's experience, adults didn't ask him what he wanted. At least not about anything more important than how many sugars Harry wanted in his tea. Adults told you what they expected you to do.
This was new to him. What did he want? He wanted to not go back to Privet Drive, but that looked sorted. He liked the idea of spending the summer with Hermione. Yet Mr. and Mrs. Granger were so nice, he didn't want to be a burden on them. But, Director Bones seemed to be pretty good too, stern but nice. Like a younger Professor McGonagall. He didn't want to cause her any extra work either. "I… I don't want to be a burden on anyone. But I don't know anyone else." Mrs. Granger spoke to Harry "Harry, If you want to stay, trust me, you would not be a burden. Honestly. Plus, I think Hermione would be happier if you were to stay where she can see you for a while. It's your choice, would you like to stay?"
The relief was evident to the adults in the room as soon as Harry spoke, "Yes...Thank you!" "We do have some concerns though", the three of them turned back to Director Bones, "Harry will need his possessions; his school robes, his books, stuff like that. All he has right now is his wand and his owl." Director Bones thought about it, "I will need to go back there tomorrow anyway. I need to return Marge Dursley from St. Mungo's and modify her memory. I will collect Mr. Potter's belongings myself at the same time." The Grangers shuddered at the mention of memory modification. They had been told about it before when McGonagall had explained the consequence of trying to tell others of magic.
"What is St. Mungo's? And what will you replace her memory with?" Harry's curiosity got the better of him. Director Bones replied coolly, unfazed by his questions, "St. Mungo's is Britain's only magical hospital. Your aunt is there regrowing some skin from the removal of the permanent sticking charm. As for her memories, we need to account for her dog and you no longer being there. It's also better to keep the new memory as close to the truth as possible. So she will remember her dog attacking you, which lead to police involvement and her dog being put to sleep. You are recovering with a school friend."
She then looked at her watch, checking the time, "Harry, that just about covers our interview, I just have one more thing to ask of you. Can I please take a few pictures of your injuries?" Harry really did not want to show anyone the injuries and the thought of someone taking pictures was slightly overwhelming, but with advice and encouragement from the Grangers, he allowed the pictures. Because as much as he hated the photos, he would do anything in his power to stop himself going back to the Dursleys', he wasn't sure he could survive if he was sent back there again.
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The same day, but a few hours later
"You know Harry, you shouldn't let my daughter corrupt you too much. While her study habits are excellent, she and her mother have some habits that are just wrong. Almost blasphemous." Mr. Granger was trying to sway Harry's opinion.
"Dad, give it a break will you. Harry can make his own choice. It's not like it hurts anyone." Despite the bickering, the two of them looked like they were having fun. Mr. Granger pouted like a small child, a grin playing on his face, "But people will be hurt. I will be hurt. It damages my very soul."
Harry thought it was time to find out what he thought about it one way or the other. He bit into the slice of pizza Hermione had recommended, "Wow, fresh pizza is amazing!"
It had started about an hour ago; after Director Bones left no-one had felt like cooking, so Mrs. Granger had decided to phone in an order to a local pizza place. When Hermione had asked Harry what his favourite toppings were, Harry had admitted, much to the dismay of everyone else, that he had no clue. He had only ever tried cold pizza the day after the Dursleys' had had it. And only then if there were leftovers.
This had turned into an animated debate between Hermione and her dad over the ethics of pineapple on pizza, the two of them each lobbying for their own preference. Hermione favoured a combination of ham, mushrooms, pineapple and prawns, whereas Mr. Granger proclaimed the superiority of chicken, green bell-peppers and garlic. This went on for a while as Mrs. Granger made the order.
Once the pizzas were delivered, Harry was served a slice of each so that he could make up his mind. His first taste of the hot fresh pizza was completely different from the cold pizza he had had a few times in his life, and the toppings were delicious as well, for both pizzas. The two lobbyists watched him try both flavours as they enjoyed their own. Mrs. Granger looked like she was trying not to smile too much, else she, god forbid, might encourage her husband and daughter further.
"I like both, so I guess I come down as pro pineapple on pizza." Hermione cheered as Mr. Granger shook his head, overacting his disappointment, trying to get the two teens to laugh. As the meal progressed Harry finished his two slices of pizza; a rather large portion for him after being starved for so long by the Dursleys. But he found fresh warm pizza to be almost irresistible.
Almost any food was irresistible when you had barely eaten in the last 3 days