(iii) Feisty Family

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. All rights are reserved to JK Rowling and Warner Bros.

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Chapter 3

Feisty Family

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Family…

With His mind in constant turmoil. Harry couldn't sleep. Even after laying on the oh so comfortable bed of his— that he could essentially only dream of owning before.

He still, couldn't sleep.

A constant myriad of things swirled inside his mind, forming a tornado of unending heaviness. It wasn't a good feeling and he quite knew the reason behind it.

Family…

Back in his own world, Hermione, Ron, the Weasleys had been the only people he could call his family. They had been there for him when he needed them for the most part, and now he was not there, but here. Here with people who had faces both familiar and unfamiliar, who were his supposed family.

'His' family? He had practically stolen them from the Harry of this world hadn't he? He still wasn't sure as to whether he had possessed the dead body of this Harry, or had they both exchanged bodies but it still bothered him a great deal.

He wondered how Hermione and others would react to finding him either dead or a completely different person. Definitely not good, that's for sure.

And it was still a very poignant feeling that took over him upon the thought that he will possibly never meet them, his friends— his real family ever again.

He hoped that their counterparts - if they existed - would be like them. Perhaps then he could try to start a friendship with them yet again. Obviously, there was still a real possibility that he was friends with them in this world too. Who knows? He will have to figure a lot of things out, his relations included.

The prospect of travelling back to his own world was not lost on him, but seemed very unlikely for the foreseeable future as back in his own world, there wasn't as much as a mention of such a thing actually occurring, even on the magical side.

Sigh

Harry yet again glanced around the room, his gaze slowly drifted towards one of the bookshelves lying attached to the wall. It was filled to the utmost brim with books which were also organised neatly into individual categories based on the different branches of magic.

He walked to it and took a book out from the shelf designated 'the DADA section'. The book's cover was decorated with a myriad of 'Dark Creatures' as the ministry and other pure-blood bigots often put it. Centaurs, Werewolves, Merfolk along with some anthropomorphic birds? He didn't recognise those. The title of the book was much tamer than he had expected, it read 'A Simple and Brief Guide to the World of Intelligent Magical Creatures'.

'Woo! That was a mouthful.' The author didn't seem to be that good of a 'Titlist'(?) it seemed. Below the needlessly long title was the name of the author of the book, 'Timothy Smith' . With that surname the author probably was muggleborn - likely why it wasn't named Dark creatures something.

Upon opening the book the first few pages contained the usual introductory note and the index. A quick glance on it lead Harry flipping pages to the section concerning werewolves. The book contained quite a lengthy amount of information on the said topic, more than Harry had seen before at least. History, notable figures, biology, effects of magic, and even something about a sort of proto-religion that some werewolves followed.

All very interesting but right now just wasn't the time for him to read anything this detailed. 'Perhaps another time' he thought.

Putting the book back to its place, Harry looked at the table beside it. A study table he presumed, there was a candle holder on it, some ink and quills, and a 'wand holster..'.

That jumped his memory.

Right, where was his wand? And as soon as he asked the question to himself he answered it. Back in his home world, obviously. The real question was where was this Harry's wand. And was it the same as his? Or was it different and would it even work for him.

No benefit in just thinking about it, he might as well start looking for it, perhaps it was in the room itself. The first thing he checked was obviously the holster, but much to his dismay it wasn't there. This followed an extensive search of every nook and cranny of his room.

In the process he found something, alright, but it wasn't the wand. It was the knowledge that this Harry was disgustingly and disturbingly a very dirty guy. And by dirty he meant in the literal sense. For everything breathing and living magic, who in their right mind puts dirty! Dirty socks! In the wardrobe. It also seemed very apparent by the amount of dust he found in the room that this guy did not even bother with a simple Scourgify let alone cleaning by normal methods.

That's something that was obviously going to change but putting disgusting habits aside, where was the wand? The most apparent answer seemed to be either with his aunt and uncle or Gellert and all of them were currently downstairs, chatting if Gellert's parting words were to hold true.

So onwards he went, perhaps he could explore the house a bit too along the way.

-0-

Gellert traced his steps back downstairs, preparing with each step, for what he knew was about to come. Petunia was not going to be happy about the fact that he told Harry about the incident, which they were very oddly for whatever reasons trying to hide from him.

It was quite a bizarre occurrence, but one that he was unfortunately used to. Petunia and Virtus had a tendency to hide very important information that they deemed too 'adult'— whatever that meant, from Harry. They often excused it by saying that 'He is too young for such things' or 'Let's let him live a normal childhood'. Which to Gellert seemed rather redundant excuses.

Call him old-minded but he liked to leave things unfiltered when it came to raising kids. One could argue that he did not know what he was talking about because he never had any kids, but he believed that he, in fact, knew what he was talking about.

Several decades of teaching children, young and old, tended to teach one a thing or two.

He had seen a little too many of his students who were sheltered by their parents, not being able to cope out in the world.

He would definitely like to prevent anything like that happening to Harry.

Though, now that he thought about it, telling a 14 year old about the unforgivables might have been surfeit.

Gellert adjusted his cufflinks. They shined a bright gold in the brightly lit halls of the Reson home.

'Wonder if Harry would like a pair?' He did give him a suit this year. Perhaps a pair of cufflinks matching his own would be an affectionate gesture.

'Hmm, that could be a start.' He needed to show the kid that he actually cared. Negligence would not do anymore.

-0-

Gellert arrived at Petunia and Virtus' room after a short moment.

"Ah, Gellert! How did the talk go with Harry?" Virtus asked. He was sitting beside Petunia and had his arms around her shoulders. She was most presumptively crying before he came. Petunia was like that, getting emotional over the smallest things regarding Harry.

Though this time was obviously different as the severity of the situation was very much enough to cause such a reaction from anyone.

Even he admitted to getting emotional upon seeing Harry's state.

Moving inside the room he took a seat on one of the chairs near them, "It went better than I had expected considering that he does not remember me. We - and I am saying we, but it was mostly me who was talking - talked. He was very incredibly quiet and nervous, anything but like the Harry we know."

"Yes, you're right about him being incredibly quiet, it was wholly unusual to us too. Though I suspect not remembering us might've to do something with it."

"Indeed. But I suggest we look into the brighter side of things too, at the very least he survived. There has been not a single recorded case of this spell where the victim was left intact to the point of what Harry has. He still remembers some things, you said he recognised you Petunia?"

"Hmm, H-He did but he was spouting nonsense like 'You hate magic!' I don't know what else he 'recalls' of me, but from what I've heard, I don't know if I can bear with what he would 'remember' next… Oh Virtus! What if— what if he hates me? What if he remembers me as an abusive bitch!?" Petunia said sniffling.

"No dear, don't think of the worst. You have cared and loved him since he was a little baby, all that love and care can't just disappear into nothingness," Virtus cradled Petunia in his arms, comforting her yet again, "And if— and I'm saying if, he thinks of you as you put, then you'll just have to show him how much you care for him. I'm certain that he will understand," he raised her head to look into her eyes. Teardrops were trickling down her cheeks, "It's Harry after all."

Petunia spoke whilst cleaning away her tears with her handkerchief, "Ye-Yes, I know. It's just- it's just even the thought breaks me down this much, I-I don't know if I will be able to handle it if something like that happens."

Virtus gave her a gentle smile, "It's something we are all bound to face Pet. And I think it would make us all feel better if we all faced it together, yes?"

Petunia looked at Virtus and nodded. Her gaze lingered on his for a little while.

"Ahem. I don't mean to ruin the moment for you both, but I have something I would like to inform you about."

Virtus' hands left there place on Petunia's shoulders and Petunia tinted a hue. "Ye-Yes, sorry, what is it, Gellert?" Virtus asked.

Gellert simply smiled and said, "Ah, it pleases me to see your love still lingers as closely as it used to. It's a lovely thing you know, love. I had a friend who used to say that 'Love is the greatest magic of them all' . I don't know about magic, but I believe it's the greatest emotion at the very least. And emotions, emotions can move even the mightiest of mountains," he chuckled lowly and continued, "Anyways, sorry where was I?— ah, something to inform. Hm, you see Petunia and Virtus, I told Harry about the reality of his accident."

After Gellert spoke the last syllables, silence washed over the room, although it was short-lived as Petunia soon expressed her distress, "WHAT?! You told Harry about Draco?! Merlin! I knew it Virtus! We shouldn't have left him with Harry alone. It never goes well! What were we expecting this time?!"

Virtus' reaction was quieter than that of Petunia but nevertheless was still questioning, "Yes Gellert, why did you tell him about it? He is still very young, that kind of emotional baggage shouldn't be his to hold. And even if we ignore his age, he had just woken up from a three-day coma! We don't know what sort of consequences will be on his mental state if we subject him to such thoughts."

"Well first of all calm down Petunia, I do not believe I did anything wrong by stating just the truth. And to answer you Virtus, I have seen numerous accounts of trauma on people over my many-many years on the warfront, and as an educator and overseer- you would not believe the sheer amount of students that have suffered accidents of unspeakable nature over the years in Durmstrang," Gellert paused then continued, "And from what I have observed from Harry's behaviour during our talk, he seems to be in a relatively optimal condition for such news."

Petunia stared at Gellert's face, which remained ever so still and then broke into a mocking chuckle, "Here he goes again! Flaunting how much more he knows about everything because he is old. Do you realise Gellert that Virtus is almost 40 and an accomplished healer, and I'm well above the criterion of being taught how to raise a child properly!"

Gellert was taken aback by Petunia's extreme words, but before he could reply the sound of the door opening caught his along with the other two occupant's attention.

"Uh- um, am I interrupting?" Harry inquired with only his head peeking through the door.

Before anyone could reply, Petunia being Petunia shouted, "Harry! What are you doing out of bed?! Didn't Virtus and I make it clear that you still need rest?"

"Now now, you should not be using such a brazen tone with Harry, Petunia. I am certain th-" Gellert tried to calm Petunia but was instead interrupted.

"Don't you get in my family's matter again Gellert! I'm w-" Petunia too got interrupted because Virtus pulled her to his side.

"Petunia dear, why don't you calm down, yes? I'm sure you wouldn't like Harry to see you in such an agitating state. We are not really aware of what's going inside his mind right now, you wouldn't want him too see you as a control freak right?" Virtus reasoned with her in quiet whispers. Petunia after a second just nodded reluctantly and silenced.

Seeing this as an opportunity of rare peace, Gellert spoke to Harry, "Ahem. Now as I was saying before I was interrupted, I am certain you were feeling well that's why you left your bed. Is that right Harry?"

Harry who was just meekly observing till now took a second to realise the question, "Yes. I'm feeling loads better than before."

"Wonderful. Now, what was the reason that you came seeking us?"

"Uhm," Ignoring the obvious hateful gaze that aunt Petunia was giving Gellert - it seemed apparent to Harry that there was some bad blood between Gellert and Petunia - he continued, "I was actually looking for my wand, I could not seem to be able to find it in my room so I figured aunt or uncle might have it. I am sorry for interrupting."

Gellert gave him a smile and gently, "You need not apologise, a witch or wizard - as unfortunate as it might be - is completely dependent on their wands. I am sure Virtus has it, don't you Virtus?"

Virtus, who was still holding Petunia, left her side and came closer to Harry, "Ah yes your wand, I have kept it on me since the.. Incident," He gave Gellert a side glance and continued, "Here, I should've given it to you the moment you woke up, sorry about that, I seemed to have forgotten it during the excitement of the situation."

Harry just nodded and accepted the wand that was given to him. Just a look at it confirmed his suspiciousness, it was not even remotely close to his familiar Holly and Phoenix feather wand. It's colouration was a very pale white and the length was also longer.

It just.. didn't feel right, resting on his palm.

"Try casting a spell dear!" Petunia encouraged Harry excitedly.

Harry didn't say anything, instead he immediately started focusing his magic onto his wand. But as he continued to do so, his palm holding the wand was becoming exceedingly warmer and warmer and then, "Aaaah!" He moaned out in pain. The wand had burned his palm instead of casting the lumos he was thinking about.

'What the hell?'

"Harry!" all three of them almost shouted in unison, "Are you ok?! What happened?" it was Virtus who spoke as he took a closer look at Harry's palm. There were several mild burns, "Sana ardeat" he muttered, taking out his wand. Petunia was soon on Harry's side, holding his untouched hand.

While those two were busy with Harry, Gellert kneeled down to look at the wand that was the culprit in the current situation. It itself was intact - if you choose to ignore the smoke coming out of it. "Harry, what spell were you trying to cast?"

Although he was getting healed as they spoke, Harry was still feeling pained from the burns that the damned wand had caused him, "I-I was just getting ready to cast a lumos, nothing else. I don't know why it caused such a reaction."

Gellert hummed in response. It was always something unusual with Harry, he pondered. First surviving cerebrum mortuus and now this whole wand situation which, if he was being honest, even he had not heard much about something like this occurring with anyone. There were some incidents that mentioned such a thing, but most of them included something common that Harry's case lacked.

That something was the fact that in all cases the spell caster had not been the wand's original owner.

"What is it, Gellert?. A wand rejecting their owner so fiercely is unheard of!" Virtus questioned, he had healed Harry and now was standing next to Petunia, all three together really seemed like a family.

"I am not certain myself, to be frank. But one thing is sure that Harry needs a new wand, this one won't do any more - unless of course if Harry is up to trying again."

'Definitely. Bloody. Not.'

"No! Definitely not. Why would you even mention the possibility?" Petunia expressed her dismay much to Harry's relief.

"I will apologise, but let me be clear that it wasn't a suggestion in the first place. I was trying to humour but it seems like the joke did not quite land."

Virtus cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and possibly stop another bout happening between the jolly-good duo, "So Ollivander's? I reckon his shop might be open by now."

"That should be true. But if I may interject there for a moment?"

"hah, What is it now Gellert? Can nothing be ever simple with you?" Petunia sagged, tired from Gellert's constant interjections.

Gellert in response just smiled, "Things are always simple with me Petunia. You just choose to be difficult and make matters complicated. Anyways, as I was saying, I think you two have forgotten the little agreement we had about Harry's wand around about 5 years ago I believe?"

At first confusion was apparent on both Virtus and Petunia's faces but after a moment of internal deliberation, Virtus' eyes widened with a sudden hit of realisation, "Oh! That.. agreement - yes yes I remember now," by now Petunia had realised it too and her face morphed into something ugly, "Well Harry, it seems like the plans have changed, you will be going with Gellert to get your wand." Virtus continued looking down at Harry now.

Harry had many questions in his mind at that point of time, but he shut them down. They will most probably tell him about this 'agreement' eventually, and if they didn't then Gellert would surely.

Plus, he wasn't aware about any other wandmakers other than Ollivander's - not that he was a fool and believed that every magical got their wands from a single shop, but since his introduction to the magical world 3 years ago, nobody had ever mentioned any other wandmakers to him, so going with Gellert might turn out to be an interesting experience.

"Okay." he replied, and with that the assemblage of the four people disbanded. Petunia after checking on Harry, went to the kitchen to prepare some breakfast for him - which to Harry was just so.. Off from the 'normal' that he was used to. From what he had seen of this aunt Petunia, he was better off not helping her in the kitchen, she would most presumptively just shake him off by saying that he was still not fully healthy. And it was very much probable that the Harry of this world was not as apt in cooking as he was.

Lost memories could be explained by the accident - even his overreaction to aunt Petunia offering him potions could be just explained away by the fact that he had woken up from a coma and his mind wasn't in the right frame of mind. But suddenly knowing a full set of new skills would probably raise their suspiciousness, if they had any, concerning him.

Virtus had just given him a 'go to your room and rest' and Gellert had quickly left the house after telling them that he had to make some preparation considering his wand. So, with nothing else to do, he walked back to his room.

Who knows? Maybe the bookshelf had history books he could glance through, because as much as he detest the subject, some history would be very helpful in his situation. He didn't want to be going out and about, speaking praise of the wrong person or condemning the wrong person. Dumbledore and Grindelwald proved to be good examples.

-0-

It turned out that he was, in fact, right. The bookshelf did have some books concerning magical history, albeit sparse they served what he was looking for.

Taking the stack of books he had picked out, Harry sat on his table and started to go through them. Sometime in between, aunt Petunia had came into the room with breakfast which he took nervously - he was still getting used to a nice aunt Petunia - and ate it in silence, focusing on the history book than he had ever before in his life - it didn't help that Binns was his history teacher, so his interest in the subject was always a bit… lacking.

.

.

.

It took him a few hours to go through the 5 or so books as briefly as possible and by then it was already around 3 O' clock so he decided to stop.

As anyone would have predicted, his lacking interest in the history of his original world rendered him quite lacking in distinguishing between any minor differences he might've picked otherwise too. He pondered the question, 'Is this different or the same?' quite frequently. But either way, in the end, he had known the bigger - world-changing events so he had a general timeline of differences between the two worlds.

The first, and the most relieving difference was the fact that there was no Voldemort in this world, and along with it, the blood-war or the civil-war between the blood factions, never happened. Another major difference was that the wars ignited by Grindelwald never happened as, well the Grindelwald of this world was a respectable and law abiding and enforcing - normal (As normal as one could get while being the supreme mugwump of the ICW and a Headmaster of a big institution.) wizard.

From what he had seen of Gellert by himself, he seemed to be an eccentric all the while a nice guy.

The same could not be said for Albus Dumbledore, however. He is known as the Dark Lord Dumbledore here and is a thorough anti-muggle contemporary, he supports magical-supremacy and preaches that muggles are the 'inferior' race and are to be put at their place. He also has a group of like-minded individuals known as the Order of the Crows, who (supposedly) carry out whatever he plans. Although the aforementioned is common knowledge among everyone, not a single crime was ever able to be traced back to him specifically so he was never prosecuted, and he still roams as a free man.

Despite the lack of legal action against him, every single respectable institution - ever since the association between him and OoC became public - has refused to hire him or associate with him in any shape or form. These 'respectable institutions' also include the Hogwarts school of witchcraft and Wizardry, who promptly sacked him from his transfiguration position after learning of the aforementioned.

Harry was left with a sour taste in his mouth after reading about him in the 'Controversial Figures of the 20th Century' a book that also contained Gellert. Although his section was a lot less filled with outrageous ideologies and evil orders. He was mainly in it due to his association with both the Durmstrang Institute and the ICW. The whole tolerance of dark arts at Durmstrang made him a scornful figure from the perspective of the light side.

Either way, he was happy that Gellert wasn't anything remotely close to how he was in his world (he wasn't fully sure of that fact obviously, didn't know much about the Gellert of his own world to begin with).

But Dumbledore being a Dark Lord and a magical-supremacist, who had supposedly killed his parents - if he were to believe what Virtus had told him - and was never put on trial on top of that had hit Harry harder. Dumbledore had always been like a sturdy standing pillar in his life. Always unmoving and staying the same towards him despite the situation, but this was as far as he could've imagined the beacon of light of his world.

'Hah, another thing to get used to.' He supposed.

He also read 'Hogwarts: A History' (Hermione would be proud!) Although just about the current status of the school and not the actual history (Actually she would be disappointed). Through it he found out that the current headmaster was somebody named Pollux Black, obviously related to Sirius, but how, he didn't know.

All in due time he supposed.

There were a few staff changes too like the divination teacher was not the barmy Trelawney but somebody named Cassandra Vablatsky, the Potions teacher was not Snape (Hooray!) But somebody named Horace Slughorn and DADA was still filled by Remus, along with that was the surprising change of the magical history teacher from Binns to a Bathilda Bagshot. He was sure he had heard the last name somewhere but he couldn't quite place it until he had closed the book he was reading and found it to be the author!

The other books contained similar information to the previous books he had read, so he skimmed through them.

After that whole thing was done, Harry simply idled around the house, taking in the new environment he had found himself in all of a sudden. Gellert had come back sometime in between and informed him that he would pick him up tomorrow at 11 O' clock sharp to get his wand, just before he stormed off again. Aunt Petunia had muttered something along the line of him being 'Too damn excited.' Uncle Virtus had just chuckled.

At the end of the day with the sun almost over the horizon, Harry had found himself leaning on a window in the hallway outside his room as his room didn't have any. The outside view was very obviously of a village covered in snow. He had briefly wondered if he was in Godric's Hollow but just shrugged it. He had never been there so he wasn't sure. He would've to ask his aunt or uncle for his whereabouts, he supposed.

"Harry! Come down! Dinner is served!" The voice of his aunt calling him downstairs disrupted his musings. It still was weird but he would've to just get used to it.

Harry just hoped when he slept, he would not wake up the next day to find out that it had all been a dream.

Because that would be cruel, even for Harry.