Dis and Frerin are Dwarf names from the appendix of” The Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien.
The chapter title and other help from FriendofMolly, my faithful Beta.
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Raising Albus | ||||||
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Category: Post-Hogwarts Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Drama, General Warnings: Death, Violence Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 94 Summary: Raising Albus is turning out to be a challenge. Raising a child that is extraordinarily magically talented is difficult enough, but when the child is the subject of several prophesies the task can be daunting. Harry feels it may have been easier being a child subject to prophesies than raising one. Teddy wants to be an Auror, not the safest occupation. James and Lily pose their own challenges. This story will take us up to Albus and Rose train ride to Hogwarts. Hitcount: Story Total: 95372; Chapter Total: 2679 Author's Notes: |
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Harry was very glad he was very involved with the International Aurors Association. They were tracking the people who were trying to kill Albus. It seemed that the same people were beginning to focus on Cleopatra as well, and Harry was worried. He asked Narcissa to come to the Ministry the first of November. “We are hearing threats on the life of Cleo,” Harry said. “I would like you to tell us when you are taking Cleo out of the Malfoy Manor area. I have already added to the number of Aurors guarding the Manor.” “I had another visit from Cleopatra’s grandmother,” Narcissa said. “These meetings have gotten tenser and nastier. She and her mother really want us to employ the worst of the Pure Blooded teachers. Since we are not doing what they want, could Cleo’s family want her dead?” “I don’t know,” Harry said. “I think it is more likely to be the Lord of the Dementors, but I do not have any idea if the two of them communicate, or if they want anything close to the same thing.” “I will tell you if we are leaving Malfoy Manor,” Narcissa said. Two weeks later Narcissa took Cleopatra shopping, and Harry had two Aurors follow them. The Aurors detected four individuals who seemed to be following Narcissa and Cleo, and asked for one of the Aurors who could make a quick map to identify the Magi. When Narcissa and Cleo were safely back at Malfoy Manor one of the Aurors, Max Maximillian, told Harry, “As soon as we thought there were people following Cleo we increased the obvious protection, with four clearly visible Aurors and another four hidden. Two of the Magi left, and the other two did not get too close.” “Do you know who the Magi were?” Harry asked “No,” Max said. “From the names they seemed to be Oriental, but I cannot be sure they are Chinese. They were not common Chinese names.” Harry said, “I think we are going to have to get both Albus and Cleopatra more protection.” Max said, “Dobedo does a pretty good job of terrifying most Magi who would want to attack you. Maybe you can get each of them an Elf.” Harry said, “I still want Aurors shadowing each of them when they are out of safe space, but an Elf shadow cannot hurt.” Harry thought that maybe shadows would also help to keep Albus and Cleopatra apart. That evening, after dinner, Harry was again talking to Solon. After the normal business was done Harry asked, “Do you think we can find a pair of Elves to shadow Albus and Cleopatra Smith. I think the same people are after both of them, and I want extra protection. I also want to keep them from meeting for as long as we can. If they both go to Hogwarts I expect they will meet.” Solon asked, “What are you going to do then?” Harry said, “I have no idea. I think some of the decisions will be out of my hands, and it terrifies me. I never want anyone to have to go through what I did.” A week later Solon was again meeting with Harry, and he said, “I have a brother and sister from Hong Kong who should be ideal. They are twenty years older than Al and Cleo, but are still very young for Elves. The female elf is named Dis, and the male elf is Frerin Harry said, “I thought the attack at Vernon Dursley’s funeral was the last gasp of the death eaters and pure blood fanatics in England. Because we caught almost all of the attackers they were able to find out whom they were, who their friends and associates were, and clean up the remnants of the Magi who wanted to harm me and my family. “Now we seem to have a totally new problem, with Magi from outside England and even outside of Europe trying to kill Albus, and maybe Cleo too. I would like to meet, and if we all agree, hire, Frerin and Dis.” A week later Harry, Ginny and Narcissa met in a hidden room at The Leaky Cauldron. After they were in the room Solon appeared, and with him appeared two reasonably large Elves. You could almost mistake them for Goblins. Dis was dressed in a female Malfoy house elf dress, and Frerin was dressed in a Potter/Weasley outfit, one that looked very much like the one Dobedo usually wore. Harry said, “You know you are to protect your charges. Dis, you need to make sure Cleopatra is not attacked, and if she is defend her. Frerin, your job is to do the same for Albus. It is better to grab them and apparate away from a fight than to risk your charges life fighting.” “We understand,” the brother and sister said together. “Albus and Cleopatra are subjects of prophesies, and because of that we want you to help us keep them from meeting,” Harry said. Frerin asked, “How are we going to do that if they both go to Hogwarts?” “That is probably not going to happen,” Harry said. “There is probably not much you can do, but do what you can, and let us know what is happening.” About a week later, after dinner, Harry was down in the basement with Albus, and he said, “We have rounding up a lot of individuals that were Death Eaters or other supporters of Tom Riddle. We have also rounded up many common criminals. Many of them are now on probation, or are going on probation soon. I wondered if any of them had anything to do with the attack at the ICWW. “I wish we had something like the bracelet connected to the GSP system that some Muggle police agencies use. The mapping programs can keep track of people. I just wish I could put some sort of alarm on it.” “What do you want to do?” asked Albus. “Have an area that a person had to stay in, with an alarm ringing if they moved outside of the restricted area.” “Like make sure Lily stayed in her room if she was sent there?” asked Albus. “Something like that,” said Harry. “Can you get your map of the house dad, please?” said Albus. He went upstairs and got Lily. “Help us develop a spell, Lily,” said Al. “Why?” said Lily. “It is fun,” said Albus. “Plus dad needs the help, and it may help us stay safe so you won’t have to have someone watching over you all the time.” “What do I have to do?” asked Lily. “Come down stairs,” said Albus. Lily came down, a little unsure of what was happening. Harry had the map of the houses. Albus looked at the map. He touched Lily and said a form of sticking spell, and some other stuff, and touched the map at Lily’s spot. The spot turned red. Then he drew a red line around the basement room, and said another spell. He then asked Lily to go upstairs. Lily went to the door of the room, and as she stepped over the threshold of the room the map went “zzzzzzzzzzzzzz” and something on Lily went “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz” , “STOP IT, ALBUS!!” said Lily. She went back into the potions room, put her pointer finger right on Al’s chest, and said “YOU TAKE THAT CURSE OFF ME THIS INSTANT!” Albus looked at Lily and his father and said, “I probably should have figured out how to get rid of the buzzing before trying this out.” “I CAN’T LEAVE THIS ROOM? ALBUS, YOU IDIOT!” Lily was stomping around, waving her hands, and getting red in the face. Albus erased the red line. Lily’s spot was still red. “That should work,” said Albus. Lily left and stomped upstairs. She went into the drawing room where her mother and James were. “Let’s see if I can confine her to the drawing room,” said Albus. He drew the red line around the drawing room. Harry called Ginny and said, “Can you send Lily back down here, please. Stay on the phone while you are doing it.” They heard Ginny and Lily talking, and Lily stomping out of the room. As soon as her dot crossed the boundary that Albus had drawn Harry and Albus heard the “zzzzzzzz” on the map and on the phone, then “ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER, YOU TAKE THIS BUZZING OFF ME THIS INSTANT OR I WILL WRING YOUR NECK.” Albus removed the line again. Lily came stomping back into the Potions room. Albus touched Lily with the wand and said something, and then, “Thank you for your help, Lily.” Harry said, “Thank you for helping, Lily. Tell mother that Al and I will be down here for at most another hour.” Lily stomped out of the room, and Al and Harry went over what Al had done several times. Before they left the potions room Harry said, “It would be real handy if you had a map that buzzed if anyone crossed a boundary or got too close.” “It sure would be handy to have a map like that,” said Al. Harry was reasonably sure Al did have a map like that, and developing that map helped Al with the confinement map. Over the next weeks Harry and Hermione further developed the spell. It was released only to law enforcement departments, and you had to get special permission to teach someone about it. The confinement spell was one more tool that Harry and the worldwide Aurors and other law enforcement personnel used to make the world of the Magi safer. Harry would have liked to give Albus some of the credit for developing the spell, but to do that he would have to reveal that Albus was good at wand work at just 7 years old. The whole issue of the awards for Albus was put on hold, both because of his age, and because Albus was very reluctant to get the awards. One of the times Cleo got to leave Malfoy Manor was before Christmas. Narcissa took her Christmas shopping, so she could get a present for Scorpius. It was also a chance for her to visit the Magical Musical Menagerie. Narcissa told Harry when they were going to be going. That evening Harry said, “Narcissa is taking Cleo to Diagon Alley tomorrow, for much of the morning. Dis the house elf will be with them, and I have a couple of Aurors that will also be close.” “I was going to take Albus tomorrow,” Ginny said. “Do you think I should reschedule our trip?” “Do you want Albus and Cleopatra to meet, and have her move into his room before they get to Hogwarts?” Harry asked. “Bollox and Boggarts,” Ginny said. “NO. I will suddenly have to work on my Quidditch Column for next week, and will postpone our shopping trip.” Ginny had to call Hermione and Jean Granger and explain the situation. They knew about Albus and Cleopatra, and were glad to cooperate. The day after Cleo was at Diagon Alley Ginny went with Harry and the three children, plus the house elf guards and again a couple of Auror guards. Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes was close to being a toy store as in Diagon Alley, and they had a much larger store, and a wider selection of just plain toys, than when they first started. This year they even had a Santa the children could visit. Harry and Albus were in the back room of the store talking to George and Freddy when the Santa came in for a break. Harry knew the Santa, a retired DMLE officer who was heavy enough, and had a white enough beard, to be a natural Santa. “Do you have a domestic violence unit yet?” the Santa asked. “Arthur has one witch who works on that type of case,” Harry said. “We could use three more.” “Are you aware of the Colburn family?” he said. “Phil beats his wife, and we are worried about their daughter,” Harry said. “The little girl, she can barely talk, ask if I could make Daddy stop hurting Mommy and her.” “I will let Arthur know,” Harry said. “I wish we had better laws about domestic abuse, and more staff to handle it. Most Magi just pretend that it doesn’t happen.” “The wife is pregnant again, due this winter from the looks of it,” Santa said. “What can you do, Dad,” asked Albus. “I wish I knew, Al,” Harry said. “Aunt Hermione and I are working on changing some laws, and adding staff, but there are a lot of Magi who think we should never interfere in family things, no matter what is going on.” “Even when bad things happen?” Al asked. “The problem is that frequently we get called only after a really bad thing has happened,” Harry said. “You have met a couple of children at the annual After Christmas Party who were taken away from parents after horrendous abuse, either by one of the parents towards the other, or the parent abusing the child. I just wish we could intervene earlier.” Harry again worked Christmas Eve, in fact sixteen hour days the two days before Christmas Eve and until seven on Christmas Eve, before coming home and going to an eight PM Christmas Eve service at the local Wizarding Christian Church they attended. Christmas morning, the entire family, as usual, showed up between eight and nine for the usual breakfast. Rose was as excited as Harry and Ginny had ever seen her. “I got a doll house!” Rose said. “You should see the magic doll house I got! I can decorate the doll house! It’s like our house, and I can make it pretty!” The whole conversation was so unlike the Rose that Harry knew that he asked Ginny, “Is that Rose? Home decorating?” Ginny grinned. “Rose is not her mother. Rose has asked me about decorating Grimmauld Place and Potter’s New Burrow.” “She’s interested in home decorating?” asked Harry. “Ron and Hermione’s house is sort of plain,” Ginny said. “Neither Hermione nor Ron are all that interested in making their house look pretty. I don’t think Hermione has done anything to the house, except for furnishing the children’s rooms, since they move in. She just buys more books.” At breakfast, because of the size of the family, the children ate at one table and the adults at another. Harry and Ginny were sitting next to each other and right across from Ron and Hermione, so Harry asked Ron, “Are you going to tell me about this doll house, Ron? Or am I going to have to ask Hermione?” “I never thought I’d spend so much money on a bloody doll house!” Ron explained. “Why?” asked Harry. “Bloody duplicate of our house, with a wand that will allow an underage witch to ‘decorate’ it. Change the bloody furniture and walls and stuff. All kinds of stuff.” “Your house is sort of plain,” Ginny butted in with. “There’s nothing on the walls. It’s sort of institutional.” “I really should have done more to make it look pretty,” Hermione said, “But somehow I was always too busy. Rose finally told me that our house looked like a dentist office! She saw some photographs of Mum and Dad’s old dentist office, and said our house looked like a dentist’s office, but plainer.” “So you bought her this fancy doll house?” asked Harry. “Well, we went over to Tabitha’s Terrific Toys, because Rose wanted a doll house,” Hermione said. “I thought that maybe if Rose had a doll house she could decorate she’d leave me alone. We saw all these doll houses, and finally there was one that had a special limited purpose wand, and you could change the style and color of all the furniture, and change wall colors. They even had wallpaper samples, and you could touch the wall paper and then walls and put the pattern on the walls. Really fantastic! It’s excellent practice magic, real interesting.” “It was bloody expensive!” Ron said. “Expensive enough that the owners came over.” Hermione said. “The shop is now owned by Merlin and Miranda Merryweather. Miranda is the granddaughter of the owner who sold both of Ginny’s doll houses. Merlin was Merlin Greengrass, Astoria’s brother. Merlin said that the Greengrass name was associated with dark magic, and he did not want Tabitha’s Terrific Toys to be associated with the Greengrass name, so he changed his last name. Besides he is estranged from his family.” “I hope it wasn’t just sales talk,” Ron said, “but Merlin doesn’t think much of his sister Astoria. I know Hermione feels the same way.” “It doesn’t take much to get Ron mad at the Malfoy family,” Hermione said. “SOB should never have been allowed to go free,” Ron said. “Whole family is bad news. Draco should have been sent to Azkaban, like his dad.” “The doll house, Hermione,” said Harry. “You could not believe how excited Rose is with the doll house,” Hermione said. “‘Oh Mum, if it was only our house,’ she said. Of course Merlin said, ‘That can be arraigned too,’ so we ended up getting a duplicate of our house for Rose to play with.” “Yea, for twice as much money. Rose is worth every Galleon, but I can’t believe we spent all that money on a doll house! And now Rose can tell us we ought to spend more money on our house!” Ron exclaimed. “It’s going to be the most expensive bloody present ever.” “Ron!” Harry called out, “Stop moaning about the cost. You can afford it. If it makes Rose happy, that’s all that matters, you git.” “Do you need a piano?” Ron asked Harry and Ginny. “Rose has stopped taking lessons. She never got any good, unlike Albus. She is good enough at drawing and visual things, but it was painful listening to her practice.” Ginny asked Albus, “Would you like it if we had a piano in the Drawing room?” Albus said, “That would be great! Now I only need that girl who played keyboards with me at the Magic Musical Menagerie.” Ginny kept her mouth shut, but inside there was more than a little panic. Periodically Albus would mention the girl that played the organ, like she was someone special. Harry prayed a lot about Albus, about his whole family really, worried about their safety. Ginny was worried enough, even though she was not really interested in religion, she started to pray too. . |
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