Harry and the Grangers had arrived at the Leaky Cauldron about 5 minutes before they were due to meet the Longbottoms, but Neville was already waiting for them, His gran had arranged to use one of the private dining rooms for the lunch. Neville lead them to the room, looking rather dejected as he did so. It was this mood of Neville's that put Harry on edge, just how bad was the information he was about to be told.
The dining room was nice enough, it had one large table that was big enough for them all to sit around, with even a couple of spaces to spare. They exchanged pleasantries and made small talk while they waited for their food to arrive. When Harry was just about to tuck into his lunch; a bacon, spinach and cheese quiche served with a sundried tomato salad, the first of the bombshells hit.
"Harry...Bellatrix LeStrange is going to try and kill you", as bombshells went this one was a little underwhelming, at least for Harry. He nodded, "I suspected as much when you confirmed she was one of…his followers", he had almost used Voldemort's name but they were just starting on their food and Harry felt he should be nice. He tried a bit of his quiche, it needed a bit more salt which he added.
"Honestly I don't know how to feel about this one. She isn't the only one out to kill me." Madam Longbottom gave Harry an odd look, "Harry. Bellatrix is not like the other Death Eaters..." Harry interrupted, "Death Eaters?" Madam Longbottom frowned at the interruption, "It was the name of You-Know-Who's followers. As I was saying Bellatrix is not like the other Death Eaters. Normally they wore heavy robes and masks, and used magic to disguise who they were. That was part of why everyone was so afraid, you didn't know who was with him. It was possible for your own brother to turn on you. Bellatrix, however, was one of his most fanatical, she rarely, if ever, bothered to hide who she was. She stood openly by You-Know-Who's side whenever he took the field. And despite everyone knowing who she was working for, she was never captured or taken in while you know who was alive. And believe me, they tried. Bellatrix LeStrange was personally responsible for the death of over fifteen fully trained aurors during the blood war."
That was a resume that Harry sat up and listened to. Yes, he had fought for his life before, but never against someone like that at full power. Every time he had fought Voldemort he had been diminished, and was, in some way, a shade of his former self. Harry almost lost control at his terrible pun but was able to keep a straight face, "If she was so dangerous how did they catch her in the end?"
It was an innocent question that came up naturally in the conversation, but the sudden shift in the Longbottoms was horrible. Harry felt as guilty as if he had plunged a knife into their hearts. And it looked like his question had hurt them that much. "It was my son and his wife, Neville's parents. Bellatrix came after them after You-Know-Who died. Before Bellatrix and a group of Death Eaters were able to break in Frank was able to send a message to the Ministry asking for help." Madam Longbottom's voice got weaker and weaker, as each word looked to be ripping open her heart a little more. Neville took over, "The Ministry aurors showed up in time to catch those who did it...but not in time to save my parents."
The room fell silent as the words hit the Grangers and Harry. And Harry felt them, hard.
If anyone could sympathise with someone who had had their parents murdered by a psychotic maniac, it was The-Boy-Who-lived. Harry realised that LeStrange was like the Longbottom's personal Voldemort. And now Neville had to deal with having the person who killed his parents being on the loose.
"Nev...I don't know what to say, man...I know how much it sucks to grow up without your parents", the words that Harry had meant to be comforting hit Neville like a physical blow, making him flinch back, he looked like he was about to be sick. Mr. Granger spoke up quickly, upon seeing Neville's shaky physical state, "This topic is clearly causing more than a little distress," he looked at Harry and the Longbottoms, both looked devastated. Not that his wife and daughter looked particularly happy.
"Maybe it's best if we put this off to another time?" Madam Longbottom steeled herself and then shook her head, "No, Harry needs to know this. His magical guardian should have told him this stuff bit by bit as he grew up, now, however, we have got to the point where we need to 'rip off the Aid-Band', I believe this is a muggle term?"
"Rip off the Band-Aid" corrected Mrs. Granger. Madam Longbottom nodded her thanks in return. "What's a magical guardian and who is mine?" asked Harry. He was still woefully oblivious to some things in the wizarding world. Hermione spoke up first, "A magical guardian is a witch or wizard who takes responsibility for muggle raised children when it is impossible for their muggle relatives to do so. This can be a witch or wizard that the parents know if they happen to know any. But if none is chosen, then once a child attends Hogwarts, their Head of House has that responsibility. So mine and yours is Professor McGonagall."
Madam Longbottom took a good look at Hermione and nodded in approval, "A good summary that is mostly right. And the part you got wrong is a good lead into what Harry needs to know. Harry...Professor McGonagall is not your magical guardian. You see, while you grew up in the muggle world, you were not born there. Your parents had another option open to them. You have godparents." Harry was a little taken aback by this, if he had godparents, why on Earth was he raised by the Dursleys? "In fact my daughter-in-law Alice is your godmother. She and your mother where at school together and both found themselves pregnant with you and Neville at the same time. You probably know that your Birthdays' are only a day apart." Harry hadn't known their Birthdays' were so close but he had known Neville had his Birthday in the summer holidays as well.
"Well this lead to the two becoming very close and they each named each other the godmother to their son almost as soon as you were born." Harry stared at Neville incredulously. If their mothers had lived, the two of them would have known each other their entire life. "After you stopped you-know-who, you were hidden from the magical world to keep you safe. Bellatrix LeStrange thought that if she killed you she could take control of his followers and lead them herself. Somehow LeStrange found out about our Alice, LeStrange assumed that your godmother knew where you were. Sh… she... she tortured my son and his wife looking to kill you, Harry. She tortured them until their minds' broke. They are at St Mungo's now, still alive...but their minds are gone."
The Grangers were stunned. None of them knew what to say. In truth, there was nothing to say. The words to bring comfort to people who reveal a story like that just didn't exist. For a few minutes, the only sound was the drip of freely flowing tears that each of the Hogwarts students were shedding. The adult Granger looked like theirs could start at any moment. Madam Longbottom, however, looked the worst for wear, as though she'd already shed all of her tears long ago and didn't have any more left.
"Before Alice was hospitalized she was trying to find you. She fully intended to raise you with Neville as she had promised your mother. But she couldn't find you. After Bellatrix, it took me some time to pull myself together. When I did I tried to get custody of you. I wanted to honour what Alice and my Frank tried to do. But when I petitioned the wizengamot I was informed that you were already assigned a magical guardian and that the matter was closed. I never found out who it was but Minerva McGonagall, she's an old friend of mine I would know if it was her."
That was a lot for Harry to take in. On top of everything else that he had learned. There was some unknown person whom he didn't know about who could decide things in his life. It was creepy to think some unknown person was watching him and worse to know that whoever it was they never stopped the Dursleys.
"Harry", he focused on Madam Longbottom, "I want you to make me a promise. I want you to promise me and Neville that you will stay away from LeStrange. After what my son and Neville's mother gave up to keep her from you. Promise us you'll stay safe. Please." It was a blatant manipulation and everyone in the room knew it, even Harry. That didn't make the words any less true however. And everyone knew it was to keep Harry safe. "I… I promise. I will try to stay away from Bellatrix LeStrange as much as I can", by this point Harry was openly weeping.
No one had eaten much of their food. Everyone lost their appetite quite early on in the conversation. Now all there was an uncomfortable silence. Harry, looking at his lap, finally broke the oppressive quiet after a few minutes, that felt like a few weeks. "Neville?" The Longbottom teen looked up, "Do you hate me?" then the silence was back. "Sometimes," Neville looked down at his plate. "sometimes."
--- ϟϟϟ ---
The next few days passed in a fog for Harry. It was one thing to know his own parents had given their lives for him, but to learn that Neville was without parents as well, because of him, that was something else. No wonder Neville hated him. He should. It seemed that he was a curse on families. His family, Neville's family, maybe the Dursleys would have been good people if it weren't for him. He wondered how long it would be until the Grangers' were hit by the curse of Harry.
One of the downsides of having a girlfriend with cat ears is that if you are talking to your owl about stuff like that, and said girlfriend is in the next room, that conversation you thought was private is, in fact, not. The upside to it all turned out to be good. As Harry wondered if it would be better to leave Hermione and let her have a normal life, said girlfriend decided to slap some sense into him, literally. As he exited his room after his 'private' conversation with Hedwig, Hermione came and started walloping his arm, ranting at him;
"Harry James Potter, If you think that I am going to let you run off and leave because of a stupid idea like that one, you have got another thing coming!"
That had been two days ago now, the lecture from Hermione that had followed was only topped by the one he had gotten from Mrs. Granger after she'd overheard Hermione sternly 'talking' to Harry. Mrs. Granger thought that Harry was suffering from something called 'survivor's guilt', she had gone out of her way to tell Harry that such a thing was normal, that just because he felt that he was to blame didn't make it so. She had gotten him a book on overcoming such guilt, telling him that if he had any questions or just needed to talk then she was available any time.
Harry was now packing his new trunk with his school things and his books proved to be no problem. His summer homework slipped in the covers of each subject's book. His clothes had presented the first problem. His new trunk wardrobe was split into drawers and hanging space that perfectly suited his needs. Except for one little problem, Harry didn't have any hangers. He felt like an idiot but he had to ask Hermione where he could get some. That had lead to a trip to a local pound shop with her, as she also needed some hair ties and clips as well as a few things for Crookshanks.
Now armed with hangers, Harry put all his new clothes in the trunk, the wardrobe only contained his quidditch robes and two Weasley jumpers from his old clothes. The rest of the old clothes were disposed of. He then had to go through the rest of the stuff in his old trunk, a lot of which was junk. A collection of mostly empty ink bottles were combined, giving Harry one and a half-full ones. Random quills were inspected to see if they were worth keeping, he saved the luxury eagle-feather quill that Hermione had given him for Christmas, just hours before the Polyjuice Potion incident. Stuff like that. He spent an hour going over his old classwork and homework assignments, deciding what he would keep as revision notes and what would be burned (The Statute of Secrecy making it illegal to just bin magical notes in the muggle world).
Then onto the items Harry really cared about, the handsome, leather-covered photo album filled with the only images he had of his parents, he got lost looking at one of his favourites for 20 minutes. It was one where he was being held by his mum, they were both smiling at each other. The album was a present from Hagrid that he'd given him at the end of his first year; the flute that Hagrid had given him that same year; his Nimbus 2000 that his Head of House Professor McGonagall had gotten him after she had pushed him onto the Gryffindor quidditch team; the Servicing kit that Hermione had given him for his birthday; and lastly, his invisibility cloak. The cloak was probably the most important to him. It was the only thing he had, apart from the contents of his Gringotts vault, that had actually belonged to one of his parents. And the only thing he owned that was truly irreplaceable.
He was just about to close up his trunk ready for the express tomorrow when his eyes landed on the stack of newspapers. They weren't regular newspapers, for one the events depicted in their stories would have seemed fanciful and impossible to most people. Then there was the fact that unlike muggle newspapers the black and white photos in this paper moved.
After Harry and the Grangers had found out about LeStrange from the Longbottoms, Harry had been in too much of a state to think of anything. Hermione, however, had rushed back into Diagon Alley almost as soon as the lunch was finished. Harry hadn't found out until the next day when the stack of papers had been delivered by a trio of particularly grumpy screech owls, that she had made the trip to the Daily Prophet main office in Diagon Alley. She had ordered copies of backdated papers that had articles with anything to do with the breakout.
The newspapers had painted a grim picture. They described LeStrange and her crimes. They recounted all the crimes she had been sentenced for, ranging from muggle baiting (pranking/harassing muggles with magic) to mass murder and the torture of numerous people, both magic and muggle. They didn't particularly portray a picture of a sane or stable person. No, it was clear that the people writing the articles thought that LeStrange was a bloody lunatic, with an extra emphasis on bloody.
The story of her escape was also mentioned. It seems that LeStrange took advantage of a hole in the security that was created for specifically her. Someone, who was currently unknown but was suspected of being a Death Eater that was never caught, had obliviated Director Amelia Bones before she could submit some required paperwork to rotate the guards at the wizard prison. Harry had been rather upset after hearing about Director Bones, he'd feared that she had ended up like Lockhart, only far less deserving.
As it turned out, Director Bones had only lost about a day of memories. After the escape of LeStrange the problem had been traced back to Bones' office and within a few days, the Director had been put straight onto 'administrative leave', which from what Harry could tell was a fancy way of saying suspended.
The most recent papers had talked about the discovery that Director Bones was the victim of obliviation and that only a free Death Eater would have the motive to attack the Head of the DMLE to leave a hole in the security of Azkaban, just for Bellatrix LeStrange as well.
He decided that he was best taking the newspapers with him. He doubted that this would be the last he heard of Bellatrix LeStrange...
--- ϟϟϟ ---
1st September
Hermione and Harry were relaxing. It was their last night in the muggle world and the two of them were spending this final night with Hermione's parents. It was surprisingly new for him to spend an evening relaxing, even with the Grangers'. Normally the two would find their evening full either going over homework, discussing LeStrange, the Dursleys or just going for a walk in the park, which Hermione had shown Harry a few days after he had awoken here, telling him that she liked to walk there often to clear her head and get some fresh air.
However, with the prospect of not seeing her parents again for almost four months, Hermione had gotten a little desperate to spend as much time with them as she possibly could. Harry, who would have given almost anything he had for just one night like that with his parents, understood and tried to leave the Grangers' to it, to let them have the night as a family. Hermione had a different idea as she had dragged him into the family room with her and her parents.
So the two of them were cuddled up on the Granger's sofa, Hermione had pulled Harry's arm around herself and wrapped her tail around him. Even Crookshanks had joined them, curling up on Hermione's lap as he again did his impersonation of an idling motorbike; Harry just sat there enjoying having Hermione so close, listening to the Granger's chat about anything and everything.
As the night went on things settled into a comfortable quiet as the four of them watched a bit of muggle TV. Harry began to realize he didn't feel out of place or unwanted, something that he could only remember feeling before at Hogwarts. It was why he always felt more at home at Hogwarts than anywhere else. As he sat there contemplating just how amazing it was to feel as though the people around him truly wanted him there, he was struck by a thought 'is this what it feels like to have a real family?'
Unwilling to pursue that line of thought further he pulled Hermione in a little closer and lost himself in the feeling of her cuddling into him as they let the rest of the night drift by.