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A Thought or Two | ||||||
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Category: Pre-OotP, Alternate Universe Characters:Harry/Ginny Genres: Drama Warnings: Mental Abuse Story is Complete Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 87 Summary: Auror Spook Kitty Fawley thought the difficult part of her return to the UK would be getting Sirius out of prison and recovering Harry from his Muggle relatives. Turns out that was the easiest thing she would do. To help them, Kitty will delve into a mystery deeper than any she faced in the field. Hitcount: Story Total: 134246; Chapter Total: 3976 Awards: View Trophy Room Author's Notes: I'll be updating twice weekly now. Thanks to my dear beta (and best friend) Arnel. She rocks as does her story "A Time for Healing". Thanks for reading and for your reviews, MNF |
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Chapter 17: Precious Harry’s screams awoke Kitty from a sound sleep. Unlike at home, where Harry’s bedroom was between Kitty’s and Sirius’s, at Wych Elm Hill, he was a bit down the hall. When she reached him, he was sitting up in his bed, terrified and staring at something she couldn't see on the wall opposite. Sitting on his bed, she wrapped her arms around him and began to rock back and forth while quietly singing. Harry stopped screaming at her touch, but he was now crying and clinging to her. Soon he was in her lap, Kitty's gently swaying, and soft tones were enough to calm him. Ragged breaths became hiccups, which then faded into near-normal breathing. When she thought it was safe, Kitty reached for a tissue from the box on Harry's bedside table and cleaned off his face. She then gave him another one to blow his nose. Remus and Sirius, both having also been awakened, stood in the doorway watching the scene. “You couldn’t put more on?” Remus asked his mate, noticing he was wearing just his pants. “You’ve seen me in less,” Sirius retorted. They’d shared a bathroom at Hogwarts for seven years. Plus, Sirius was known for walking around naked for no good reason in their room in Gryffindor tower. He’d only stopped when Lily and Kitty had nearly seen everything. They catch his full moon as he dove under the covers, surprisingly embarrassed. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean Harry wants to see you that way.” “Oh, right.” Sirius turned and went back to his room and returned wearing a pair of pajama pants. “Thank you.” Harry was calmer now, so the men came in sat on his big bed too. The room was supposed to be a guest room, but it was Harry’s now, and they’d spent time each day redecorating it. The double bed had stayed. “Sweetheart, can you tell me what upset you?” Kitty softly asked. “There was a green flash, and Mummy screaming,” Harry explained even as he started to get upset again. “Then the voice said no one loved me.” Something registered a niggle in Sirius’ brain, but he couldn’t figure out what. He’d tried extremely hard not to think about James and Lily’s murders, ever. "Shh," Kitty whispered and began singing softly again. After a few minutes, Harry was slipping back into sleep, and none of the trio chose to break his relaxation. Five minutes and two Beatles songs later and Harry was dead weight and snoring lightly. Sirius helped Kitty slide the boy back between the sheets. They left his room, although none were prepared to return to their slumber. "Tea?" Remus suggested, and the other two nodded. Soon they were all in the sitting room, Rumple upstairs keeping watch over Harry. At the first sign of another nightmare, they would be alerted. “Two-seventeen,” Sirius said after blowing on his tea to cool it. “Not my usual time to rise.” The others agreed. “He mentioned the voice again,” Kitty said. “Any ideas what it is?” “Small children often have imaginary friends,” Remus suggested. “Harry’s life hasn’t been cheerful or easy, perhaps his imaginary friend is …” he trailed off. “Voldemort?” It was Sirius who had been the first to say it, although they each thought it. “Why would you think that?” Kitty asked. The couple sat on a couch together, Remus in a rocker across from them. Before Sirius could answer, he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her just a bit closer. “That night, the night they died, Lily was right in front of his cot. He saw Voldemort murder his mum. What he said up there, that no one loved him, Voldemort could have said something like that. I mean, he didn’t give a frig about anyone else, if he could murder in cold blood — like he did — being mean to a one-year-old isn't out of the question. “You know I met him, right?” Kitty looked at Sirius in shock, Remus just sadly nodded his head. "Darling, I had no…why, didn't you tell me?" "Katie, Luv, by the time we were together as a couple, it was like five years in my past," Sirius explained before kissing her forehead sweetly. "It was the spring of our fourth year, and I was at Grimmauld for Easter break. Father said we were expecting a distinguished guest for dinner, and we — Reg and me — weren't to embarrass him. When Voldemort arrived, I knew he was dangerous; I've never met someone who gave off such a creepy vibe. He didn't look quite human, you know, like us. His skin was incredibly pale, not English pale like you, my Katie, with perfectly blushed cheeks and deep red lips. He was like a paperwhite. His eyes were not entirely healthy, the colored part was missing, and they were red like he'd cried recently or was stoned. “My father took orders from no one, not even his father or uncle, but he bowed to Voldemort. He didn’t eat much food, but he did enjoy my father’s most expensive red wine. I’d learned enough on propriety from Monty to not make jokes at the table, but that night it didn't even cross my mind to act up. If I’m honest, Reg and I just wanted out of the room, and we didn’t agree on much of anything then. Didn’t happen though, because after the elves had cleared the table, Voldemort dismissed the women from the room. He then started talking about this grand plan of his — Pureblood nobles running the country, enslaving the Muggle population. He even suggested he’d make the Queen grovel at his feet. We’d have no Muggle protection laws, so he gleefully talked about Muggle Hunts, like they used to have in the Middle Ages. It was sick. "My father," Sirius spit the name out, "also promised me for his ranks on my sixteenth birthday. That was the day I knew I had to get out of there. Thankfully, Fee and Monty had an open-door policy about me being there." Kitty couldn’t find words, so she wrapped her arms around her lover. “You need to tell her the rest,” Remus urged. “You hid what you looked like when you came back to school from her.” “Remus, it was a long time ago, I don’t need to talk about it.” “What is Remus inferring to?” Kitty quietly asked. Sirius sighed heavily. “I must not have been perfect enough for my parents, because they both spent a fair bit of time hexing and cursing me after Voldemort left. Mother then threw me into the cellar and left me. Reg opened the door and let me out two days later. I got the Knight bus back to Hogsmeade and walked to Hogwarts.” “What? Is that all?” Sirius shrugged, but Kitty knew from his face he was still holding something back. She looked to Remus for clarification. “Kitty, what he won’t say is that his back was covered in boils, and his arms had cuts that had become infected. He walked back to school on a broken ankle. He had to stay in the hospital wing for the first two nights back, so Madame Pomfrey could heal him correctly.” “Oh, Merlin. How did I not know? You were still my best friend!” “I begged James not to let you know. I didn’t want the ugliness from my home —” “You keep using that word, ugly. There is nothing ugly about you. There should never have been ‘ugliness’ you hid from me. I..” Kitty lost the use of words and held Sirius tightly. After a moment’s lag, Remus looked at the clock and realized it was closing in on three. “So, back to Harry. Now it might not mean anything," he said, "but he's always talked about the voice in the present tense, not the past. Do you think there might be a connection between Harry and whoever or whatever it is that you're tracking for work, Kitty?" “Fuck!” Sirius said under his breath. “I don’t want to think about…” Kitty mused. “Would it even be possible?” “Not sure,” Remus confessed. “But we can certainly attempt to find out. Albus never thought Voldemort was gone for good.” “Well, I’m done sleeping for the night,” Kitty said. “I’m quite certain I can find a way to occupy our time until dawn,” Sirius said suggestively and then kissing Kitty behind the ear. “I’ll take that as my cue to leave. We can talk more after breakfast?” Remus asked as he stood. “I’ll ask Cheery to occupy Harry in the kitchen,” Kitty answered. “He seems to enjoy that.” Sirius had not let up on leaving lingering kisses along her neck. Remus left before anything more graphic occurred. A while later, the thoroughly satiated couple lay on the same sofa, a blanket casually covering their nakedness. Kitty lay between Sirius legs, her back, and head against his chest. She chose their lack of face to face interaction to pose a question to him. “Darling, why were sleeping on the floor when Harry awoke?” Sirius didn’t answer for a long moment. “Sometimes, the bed is just too soft,” he quietly explained. “I don't sleep through the night most of the time, and when I wake up, I find it's easier to get back to sleep on the floor. Tonight, when I woke up, I was in a particularly bad way. I was back in Azkaban. I had relived one of the worst of my early 'interrogations.'" Kitty remained quiet, her fingers stroking his forearms as they tightened around her. “It was before I knew to do push-ups every day, so my arms could withstand being chained to the wall without dislocating.” "I wondered why you're more fit now than you were before you went, but I didn't want to ask because I was afraid the answer was something like this," Kitty interjected. "I'm sorry." "You didn't do anything, my Katie," Sirius stated. "I'd been tortured from the day I arrived, hexes, curses, even fists were used on me. I was even whipped one day by a relative of mine." Kitty shuttered as he spoke. "Anyway, I'd been tortured, then chained to the wall for two days. My shoulder had dislocated, and the guards came in to give me the first of my tattoos — the letters on my fingers and wrist — the not eating curse. Whenever I'd had mine done, the artist put a charm on my skin to reduce the pain and prevent infection. I had no idea how much it would hurt. Add to that what they were inscribing, my inability to stand, and my good shoulder bearing all my weight…it was horrific. "When I woke up, it was just like I was there. I swear I could smell the odd mixture of rot, sea air, body odor, and desperation. I felt the stone wall and the shackles. My back and shoulder were screaming in pain and …" Sirius had become too emotional to finish. Kitty turned herself around and pulled his head to her shoulder. "No more, do you hear me? You will never again go through something like that without waking me up. I want to help scare those demons away and remind you that you are safe, innocent, and never going back there. I love you, no limits, no exceptions, no questions. Your hell is mine too.” Sirius had tears forming in the corners of his eyes at the power with which this witch loved him. He looked like he wanted to speak, but words were failing him. “Now, I think I know how to remind you that you’re alive and here with me.” She shifted so her knees were on either side of Sirius’ hips and her chest was in his face. “Oh, Luv, I know exactly where I am right now. It’s my favorite place to be,” Sirius said reverently before he pulled Kitty to him. Six days later, in a rather nondescript building in suburban London, Kitty, Healer Binoche, and Sirius sat behind the table with the attorney who was hired to work on Harry's abuse case and a member of the MLE Kitty didn’t know having seen her at the office when she’d visited lately. The couple looked like a Muggle power couple, he in an immaculate navy suit and tie, she in a designer dress. Unlike when she picked Harry up at the café, her jewelry was understated. Sirius had promised he would keep his tongue and let the courts do their job, but Kitty was concerned. Amelia was sitting as the judge. It resembled a Muggle courtroom, so the Dursleys would not know they were being judged by Wizarding folk. Healer Binoche testified first, relaying the extent of Harry’s abuse in clinical terms. Kitty followed, communicating the after-effects of the damage as they were building a family life. She was doing fine: calm, impenetrable, noble, and above the emotions which churned inside her. That ended, however, when prosecuting witch asked her about Harry’s current emotional state. "We think he's happy now, but there are times he is paralyzed by fear. Whenever there is an accident or makes a mistake, he is convinced that we will beat him or send him back. Sirius and I would never do that, he's the last, best part of James and Lily, and we could never… “He’s such a smart little boy — reads chapter books already — and he loves science,” she said through her tears. “How could you possibly see him for anything other than the precious little child he is?” she asked Vernon and Petunia. “I swear to you, I will undo every bit of abuse you heaped on him. He is loved now.” "You freaks can have him," Vernon burst out, and his attorney rushed to quiet him. "Nothing but a nuisance and expense he was to us." “And for us, he is the most important person in our lives, and there is no expense we wouldn’t pay to make to ensure his future,” Kitty said, her icy persona returned. Petunia was given twenty years for verbal abuse and gross neglect as the top charges. Vernon was given thirty for physical abuse, verbal abuse, and gross negligence. Dudley had been conveyed into Muggle care and was placed with a loving family in Durham; their convictions allowed him to be adopted. The Dursleys would not see freedom until both boys were adults and capable of choosing whether to know them or not. |
| Reviews 87 |
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