Chapter 6: A Child named Aerie
“Afraid we’ve hit a bit of a snag in regards to getting you out of that house permanently,” Mrs Robbins offered after a week had passed. “As awkward as this whole situation is, there is no clear and present danger towards yourself. You now have a bedroom, and the Dursleys have had it made clear that they will not lock you up in the cupboard or deny you food as punishment.”
“I don’t really mind being locked in there,” Nova offered. “It actually makes it easier to sneak out.”
“Well, you shouldn't have to sneak out just to go to school,” Dugan growled.
“I wouldn't normally go to such lengths to help those who are assigned to me, but I simply could not sit idly by and watch that family destroy any chance you might have at a decent life,” Mrs Robbins offered.
“And I am most grateful,” Nova replied with honest cheer. Nova would find out later through Lavender that someone had used the Imperius curse on the judge who’d signed the order to put Aerie back into the custody of the Dursleys. Fearing someone might go after Mrs Robbins and Sargent Dugan, Nova advised them to wait for another opportunity. And if events happened as the books said they would, she would have her opportunity.
Nova continued getting rides to and from school until it was time for the summer break. Every morning she would get up early, make breakfast, and go to school. At least she did until there was no school to go to. Nova had never dreaded a Summer break more in her life.
“Not going anywhere, are we?” Vernon asked derisively.
“Summer holidays,” Nova replied.
“Which means I don’t have to let you go anywhere.”
“Which also means you have to keep an eye on me,” Nova pointed out.
The room fell silent. Sure, Nova was being cheeky, but she also had a valid point.
“Fine then, see what I care. Get out and don’t come back until dinner.” Vernon was obviously not happy. Granted that he’d plenty of reasons. The news that the police had raided his home and the accusations of child neglect had tarnished his reputation considerably. And Dudley… Dudley had found himself the new friendless at school. The reason being they all thought him a brazen coward when the true culprit had been the chocolate. He’d been found in the school’s toilet extremely dehydrated several hours later.
Nova took the first opportunity to get out of the house and while on her way to the Underground came across Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon. All Dudley’s former friends. They were all big, and I don’t mean just large for their age, but big and a little on the slow side like they might have some Diamond Dog ancestry and had been imbibing a little too much on the kibble.
“We aren’t going to have another repeat of the last time we met are we?” Nova asked. She’d stopped a few paces back.
“No, no, we were just waiting for Dudley.” Piers offered as he stepped aside.
Nova moved forward cautiously. When she passed the boys she said, “don’t be too hard on him. He didn’t run away because he is a coward, he ran away because he wouldn't accept we have no chocolate chips for the pancakes as a valid excuse. The chocolate I gave him came out of the medicine cabinet.”
“And now I know why dad says girls are scary,” Gordon said softly, letting out a whistle followed by the group busting into laughter.
Nova was in London, she had a transit pass, and she was now relatively free to roam about the city. She also wanted to meet up with her friends. Together they would explore the sights of London. Sometimes with a chaperone, and sometimes without. Mostly without. Nova was there for the celebration parties for Lavender, Parvati, and Padma when they got their letters. And she was there for Hermoine’s tea party when Hermione’s letter arrived.
“Hermione, it’s Professor McGonagall,” Lavender announced excitedly. Naturally, all five girls knew exactly what that meant.
“Aerie, when do you get your letter?” Hermione asked as she watched in the direction of the entry of her family’s flat. When McGonagall came into view it wasn’t her likeness to the actors who played the role that struck Nova, but her hopelessly out-of-date fashion. Rarity would have a fit.
“Not until the end of July, I’d imagine.”
“Hello, Professor McGonagall,” Lavender offered. “Would you like some tea?”
“Lavender Brown? Parvati and Padma Patil?” McGonagall said in mild shock and perhaps a touch of delight. “This is a surprise.”
“Is that my letter?” Hermione asked.
“We had to tell her. She thought she was going crazy,” Nova explained.
“We haven't said anything to my parents yet,” Hermione offered.
“We thought it’d be best. Kind of pushing it as is.” Lavender explained.
“Well, that means that this will make things a little easier,” McGonagall said with a smile on her face. She turned to Hermione, “You are Hermione I gather.” She then turned her eyes to Aerie. “I don’t believe I know you?”
“Aerie, but I’ll not tell you my surname because I’m not supposed to be here. My present guardians tend to be rather opinionated.”
“I see,” McGonagall replied. “Old family, is it?”
“My birth family was wiped out in the war save for my squib Aunt who married a muggle, and he is a muggle’s muggle. And together they produced an even muglier muggle. The very word magic is forbidden in the house and they can be quite unreasonable. So you can see why I’d want to keep my activities under the counter so to speak. I managed to get out of that house. I mean out of their custody. I was taken in by a good family, but someone thought otherwise and I went right back to the Dursleys. Best I not go into details.”
“I see…” McGonagall was taken aback, she knew of a family of Dursleys. Aerie... Aerie, a child named Aerie living with a family named Dursley... Was Dursley a common name? Something just wasn't adding up. McGonagall wanted to ask Aerie more questions, but decided to forge on. Hermione’s parents were invited in to have tea and McGonagall explained to them just how special Hermione was.
“Magic,” Nova said at one point during the explanation, and summoned a tea cake to her hand to demonstrate, it zipping through the air.
“When do you think you’ll get your letter?” Hermione asked as McGonagall gave Nova-Aerie, a rather inquisitive look. And then she realized the other girls were doing it too. Any time something was just out of reach, it would just come to them. This wasn’t accidental magic, this was deliberate, calculated, wandless magic.
Later that afternoon found Professor McGonagall at the Ministry of Magic just outside Dumbledore’s office.
“Professor Dumbledore, I can’t just let it slide,” came the voice of Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. McGonagall stopped right where she was, wondering if she should continue on in or wait outside. “Mundungus Fletcher is guilty of using the imperious curse. It doesn’t matter that it was on a muggle, it’s still against the law.”
“They were trying to move Harry!” Dumbledore protested. “He has to stay with the Dursleys.”
“Well, he’s buggered it up big time then. That’s not Harry Potter in that house.”
“What?” Two people said at once.
“Nonsense,” Dumbledore stated. After all, according to his spells keeping track of the boy, Harry was very much in that house… save for during the day when Harry would head into the city. Not that it much mattered to him so long as Harry was properly worn down and ready for his hands to mold him into the tool he wanted of the boy.
McGonagall knowing just how stubborn Professor Dumbledore could be, decided to stay right where she was to see where this was headed.
“Professor, according to our investigators, short of Harry having gone all posh and Zanie Lacy, that’s a girl living with the Dursleys.”
“Poppycock. Even so… Mundungus may have been overzealous, but he was acting on my orders to see to it that no one take the Potter child away from the Dursleys. It’s for the child’s own good. It is for the greater good that Potter remains with the Dursleys.”
“Fine. I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not making any promises. If there is another incident, I’m not going to help you get out of the hole you’ve dug for yourself.”
McGonagall hung back and waited for Amelia Bones to come out. She stepped back an additional pace at the stern look on the woman’s face. Amelia stopped for a moment and then motioned for McGonagall to follow.
“You heard?” Amelia asked after they were well out of earshot of Dumbledore’s office.
“I heard enough.… and as a matter of fact, I think I may have just met the girl in question.”
“Did you now?” Her tone only showed mild curiosity.
“Striking resemblance to Lily Potter, Evans, at that age save for a couple of color streaks right above a lightning-shaped scar. She is knowledgeable of the wizarding world, complained bitterly about having been taken from a good home, and described the Dursleys to a tea. She didn’t say who she was other than her first name and didn’t wish her identity confirmed for fear people would find out that she sneaks out.”
“Right now I’d be inclined to think it’s Dumbledore she fears if I were to assume she has found out what’s been going on. She just might be far more resourceful than Dumbledore can imagine.”
“It would suggest that her location is not unknown either, otherwise how did she become so knowledgeable short of the girls she fell in with spilled the beans.”
“There was an incident where a group of boys just shy of a dozen confronted her, and we confirmed that it was Aerie, spelled with an a-e and not how Hagrid says, Harry. Assuming he hasn’t been saying the name right all along. She has finally had enough and cleaned their clocks and I can only guess she was using magic to do it. The Muggle authorities then did what I considered a rather sensible thing, and that was to get her out of that house and into a good home.”
“You aren’t suggesting that Harry may have been Aerie all along are you?”
Amelia Bones stopped walking, forcing McGonagall to pull up fast.
“The Potters went into hiding because they feared for their safety and we only had second-hand word about the baby. What with the way some slur the name Harry making it sound more like Aerie… It really is looking like Harry Potter was a girl all along and that damn prophesy had absolutely nothing to do with the Potters.
“And Dumbledore let it happen. Encouraged it even.” Amelia continued. “Nobody gets their name entered in the Hogwarts book of Admittance when they are a toddler. The book rejects the name until the child is of sufficient age.”
“Harry Potter got added to the book.”
“Only it’s looking like Harry is actually Aerie and there have been shenanigans to get that name into the book. It is well known that a mother’s magic lingers with a baby for quite a while. If the book allowed babies' names to be entered even up to the age of four, there would be squibs at Hogwarts.”
“Eques will take squibs.”
“They have set up special programs and are extremely picky about which squibs. They’ll take muggle born ahead of purebloods in a heartbeat. They also teach a considerably wider range of studies with many of their students going into muggle career fields. Quite frankly, I think they are packing strategic positions with their graduates. Genius if you ask me. They will be able to effect muggle policies and opinions across the board. Meanwhile, we continue to do the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome. As for Aerie, we’ve tracked her movements due to her indiscriminate use of magic. The girl has no discipline, but then she’s not been to Hogwarts to learn how to control that. That said, she’s already been to Diagon Alley.”
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At least two adults have their heads on straight. I hope they actually talk to Hagrid to see just what he knows.
i love it.. keep blowing holes in Dumbledore's plans.
i so love how this is all playing out.
Actually considering the Wizarding world seems to be stuck at least a century in the past. She might of called him a dandy
11335986
A dandy is someone who is flamboyant. Not a person who cross-dresses.
11336032 True but not only has the word drifted in meaning over the years you have a group that is not only behind the times but doesn't understand them either..
anyways I am enjoying this story
11336064
The drifting in meanings was my primary motivation to come up with something completely different. After all, if the wizards are still using Victorian terms then gay just means happy. Meanwhile, far too many innocent terms have picked up a lot of negative baggage. Subsequently, I wanted to avoid anything that was going to have modern negative terms. Sure, zany can mean someone's a little crazy, but so far as I'm aware it doesn't have any truly negative connotations.
11336107
Well they are getting modern Children who go to school at ten they aren't completely ignorant of the non magic world but they are very close to it though.