Saturday, July 31, 1995 – Morning
The sky was blue, the sand was bright white, warm gentle waves washed onto the beach.
“You know, I could get used to this.”
“We have, we are staying here for a long time.”
“It is good that you are here with us at last Sirius, you are not as annoying as you were when you were alive.”
“Thank you, Lily. I think.”
“Lily and I love what you did for Harry.”
“I couldn’t help him in the end, James.”
“You showed him that you loved him. That counts for more than anything.”
They walked on, listening to the sea.
“Where are we anyway?”
“This is somewhere like Potter Cay in the Bahamas. That is one of the Potter holiday homes that we never got to spend time at.”
“How long will it be before we can talk to Harry again?”
“It will be a wizard’s lifetime and hardly any time at all. Time does not matter that much here.”
“Thank you again, Lily.”
--ooOOoo—
“This morning I went to St Bridget’s and spoke to the healers. They are still assessing Harry. One thing that they did say is that when he wakes up, he may be a very different person.“ Professor Dawes was speaking to Merlin House at lunch.
“I know this has been a while, and it is very worrying. We have all been to visit him and it has been tough just watching him sleep and never wake up.”
“Can we do anything to help? What if he is just lying there listening to us? Maybe he can’t answer.” Susan asked.
“You are right Susan. Harry’s healers and I want to start behaving towards Harry as though he is listening to everything we say. If we have a conversation in his room, we are to talk to him as well. I will put together a reading list of every sort of book that Harry would like, and I want you all to put yourself on a roster to sit and read to him.”
Professor Dawes paused. “We will start when we go to see him this afternoon. We are here for his birthday, and we will have a party in his new room.”
“That sounds better. It will seem like Harry is making progress.” Hannah looked hopeful.
“I won’t kid you. Other people who have been held under multiple Cruciatus curses have never recovered. Harry might be better off than the worst cases we know of. The healing that Nagini gave Harry has restored his brain in a wonderful way. There are billions of tiny connections in our brains which interconnect in complex way. Those interconnections give us our mind, our personality, and our values. They also give us our connections to the outside world, that is our senses. Our learned skills are also in there in those interconnections. The Cruciatus curse disrupted a lot of those connections. Nagini healed his brain but that means that some of those interconnections that are not in Harry’s original brain will have to be interconnected again.”
Professor Dawes waited.
“We think that he can start again.”
Tracey gasped. “Start again! What do you mean? What does he have to do?”
“He has to start again. He has to learn to crawl, learn to walk, learn to say simple words.”
“Like a baby!” Su Li yelled.
“His progress will be different. He will still be Harry. There will be enough of the old Harry left to make up a new Harry who will perhaps even be improved. The new improved Harry. Like he called himself after the scar was fixed.”
“Don’t try to be funny about this! This is horrible.” Susan was angry.
“The worst part will be that most of his memories will be scrambled or gone. He almost certainly will not remember the last year. Probably, he won’t remember his years at Hogwarts. He might not remember any of us.”
--ooOOoo—
“Lord Greengrass, I need to have a private conversation with you.” Dumbledore blocked the exit out of the meeting room.
“Chief Warlock! I will be happy to meet with you. Please make an appointment with my office.”
“I mean sometime before next year Lord Greengrass. You must tell me where Harry Potter is.”
“Chief Warlock, you know that I cannot give you any such information. Harry is under the official protection of the French Ministry of Magic. If you wish to know anything about him, you will have to ask the French Ministry.” Lord Greengrass smiled happily.
The Mister of Magic and his Senior Undersecretary closed in. Cyrus Greengrass stifled the desire to groan loudly.
“Greengrass! You have been warned! You must surrender Potter to the DMLE immediately. I have personally signed orders for him to be imprisoned in Azkaban. There are too many unanswered questions about the disaster during the third task. So many prominent citizens dead; killed by muggle weapons. I am not satisfied with any of the stories that Director Bones has been told. You must surrender Potter.”
“Minister, I have no authority to give you anything. As far as I know Harry is in hospital, somewhere in France. He is under the protection of the French Ministry.” Lord Greengrass gave his official polite smile.
Dolores Umbridge smirked, “Hem, hem, the so-called Potter School of Magic has been abolished. If you want your daughters to receive a proper education, they must return to Hogwarts in September. You don’t want there to be any problems for them, do you?”
Lord Greengrass glared at the three of them.
“I am very busy today. Goodbye!”
--ooOOoo—
Cyrus Greengrass entered Olivia’s private study and flopped down into her visitor’s chair.
“How was the Ministry today?”
“Alternately smarmy, smirking, and threatening. Fudge has kept up his demands for Harry to be arrested. Amelia is ignoring him. She can only do that for a while. The Wizengamot is confused and frightened, and of course a fraction of its previous size. Fudge still has support, mainly because The Daily Prophet is printing its usual fiction.” Cyrus sighed.
Olivia looked at him and folded her hands together. “It seems that the worst forecasts about Harry are right. He has lost most of his everyday abilities. He will have to learn to walk and speak all over again. Miriam and the girls are organizing themselves to read to him and talk to him to stimulate his speech recognition.”
Olivia opened her journal, “Luna has sent me a private message. She wants us both to visit L’École together. We can both go to Harry’s party and see Luna afterwards.”
Cyrus nodded. “With pleasure!”
--ooOOoo—
The little party for Harry’s fifteenth birthday was a surprisingly happy celebration. The road ahead for Harry would be long and difficult, but there was a road to follow.
The Greengrass family met Luna in a small sitting room at L’École.
When they were alone Luna gave a parchment to Lord Greengrass.
“I have received this from Apollo. It appears that Hades has dug up the wizard who cast the inherited curse on your family. Hades says ‘dug up’ because he had this wizard buried in an ant nest for hundreds of years. Hades extracted the exact wording of the original curse and the counter-curse from him. This is the curse and the counter-curse.”
“All the Greengrass Head of House has to do is invoke the counter-curse.” Luna smiled dreamily.
Lord Greengrass drew his wand and held it straight up. He spoke the words of the counter-curse. His wand gave off a beautiful blue light.
Astoria gasped. “What just happened? Some weight just went off me.”
Olivia reacted. She cast diagnostic spells over Astoria.
“It’s gone! The malediction is gone; the disease and the curse!”
Olivia cast a revealing charm over Daphne.
“It’s gone! The curse is gone! Our girls, and their children are free!”
Cyrus Greengrass gathered his daughters to him and sank down to his knees. He began to cry. He was crying with great sobs.
Daphne and Astoria were alarmed.
“Don’t worry girls!”
“Your father has carried this burden all his life. He has searched, like his father and the Greengrass fathers before him, for the way to break the curse.”
Olivia knelt beside Cyrus and embraced him.
“The Gods of Olympus are a scary bunch; but it looks like dealing with them is not all bad.”
--ooOOoo—
Saturday, August 7, 1995 - Afternoon
“When Harry starts talking again, we need be able to find out how much he remembers and what the gaps are. We need the story of Harry’s school years, with as much detail that we can get. When we compare what Harry remembers with our history, I hope that it will not be all gaps.” Miriam was meeting Eric and Mary Davis in her sitting room at École.
“We will need the proper story of his life anyway. The next generation will need to know the truth, not what their scatterbrained parents read in The Daily Prophet.” Mary added.
“I will start by getting the Merlin House girls to record every story and bit of information that they know of. We can then classify the pieces as true, half true, unfounded gossip, whatever.” Miriam wrote on a list.
“Then we can do the same for any reliable Gryffindors we can get access to; the Quidditch team, George and Fred Weasley, and Neville Longbottom.” Miriam wrote more names on her list.
“How about the teachers; Remus Lupin was a Marauder. We have to get him to talk.” Miriam wrote again.
“He was also close to Dumbledore. If we are careful, we might be able to get access to whatever Dumbledore had about Harry. That will be tricky. We have to try. So that’s the teachers and Remus.” Miriam wrote more names.
“We can make it a formal research project. The Potter Holdings board can hire a recognized historian to write the modern Potter family history. That will give us all the information and a reliable history book at the end of the project.” Miriam wrote more onto the list.
“We will then have an excuse to be as nosey as we like about Harry’s life.” They all smiled.
--ooOOoo—
Thursday, August 19, 1995 - Morning
“Remus, how good of you to come to visit. Care for a lemon drop?”
“No, thank you, Albus.”
“You said in your note that you had a paying job. What is it that you are doing now?” Dumbledore twinkled away at Remus.
“I have been asked to write a history of the modern Potter family, grandparents, parents and Harry.” Remus carefully replied.
“Who has commissioned you to do this?” Dumbledore twinkled less happily.
“A small academic publisher based in Rome, Black Publishing.” Remus smiled.
“Never heard of them, what have they published?” Dumbledore had ceased twinkling.
“Mostly biographies and histories; they have been mainly working in Continental countries. This might be their first British work.” Remus smiled.
Dumbledore scowled. “How can I help you?”
“Well, I would like access to any material at Hogwarts which can be published concerning the Potter family.” Remus smiled.
“I’m afraid there would be almost nothing that I could do for you, Remus. Officially I am Harry’s magical guardian but that doesn’t give me the right to release any of information about him.” Dumbledore’s scowl deepened.
“There have been the oddest stories about Harry and Lord Voldemort. It was never officially released but it has been said that Voldemort was found dead at the place where all those Death Eaters were found. What is your opinion about Voldemort being dead?” Remus asked.
“He is not dead. This is for your information only, Remus. Voldemort will return. He has made soul anchors. They have not been destroyed.” Dumbledore had an odd, almost triumphant look.
“You know, Albus, I have heard stories about them as well. Have you found out why The Gods of Olympus set up Merlin House?” Remus was now grim faced.
“That was a work of mischief. At first, I thought that the Edicts were genuine, but nothing supernatural happened to prove any direct intervention by the claimed Gods of Olympus.” Dumbledore smirked.
“Albus, what if I can show you where the remains of Tom Riddles soul anchors are? Would that convince you that Harry and his people were directed by the Gods.”
“What are you talking about, Remus?”
“They are sitting in The Chamber of Secrets. They will stay there; they are locked into a set of transparent but very strong enclosures. The Chamber has been set up as a secret museum of Harry’s victories.”
Dumbledore stared at Remus but said nothing.
“You can visit there if you want to. Any Hogwarts house-elf will apparate you there. I have seen it myself; very impressive!” Remus smiled again.
Dumbledore was reduced to silence.
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