Everyone turned around to stare at Minerva, having not noticed her arrival only moments ago. She looked as stern as ever, hands on her hips and fixing Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia with a sharp glare that would make any sane person cower. Dudley’s eyes grew wide, giggles subsiding entirely as he gaped up at the formidable witch with her neat black bun, thin spectacles and narrowed dark eyes. She moved over to Hari, still standing frozen as he had been ducking away from Uncle Vernon, and plucked the envelope from his hands. She tucked it away into an inside pocket of her robes and glared back at the gaping Dursleys once again.

“If I ever see or hear you raising a hand to Hari again, you will regret the moment for the rest of your sad existence, do you understand me?” Minerva glared at Uncle Vernon, eyes blazing for a fight and her hand in her pocket where Hari knew she kept her wand. “Hari, please go upstairs and collect the things you brought. I will meet you in the front garden in two minutes,” Minerva said, still keeping her eyes on the Dursleys.

Hari bowed his head and walked up the stairs, careful not to get any more frosting or crumbs on the carpet or the walls. Thankfully, having only been meant to stay at the Dursleys for two nights, Hari only brought a small backpack with a few changes of clothes, pyjamas and a book he was halfway through reading. Hari collected the pile of letters he dropped when going to sprint after Dobby and stuck them inside a front compartment of his bag, fastening it shut and carrying it down the stairs again. He could hear Minerva talking firmly to the Dursleys from the other side of the kitchen door and ignored them, opening the front door and stepping out into the cool evening air.

“Bye, Hari.”

Hari turned abruptly to find Dudley standing on the front porch, bow tie now undone and hanging loosely around his neck. “I’m sorry about my Dad. He… he didn’t mean it…”

“Didn’t mean to try to slap me in the face?”

Dudley flushed and nodded slowly. He paused, frozen before saying, “I don’t know. I’m still sorry it almost happened.” And then Dudley hurried away inside, leaving Hari alone on the front path, looking out onto the empty and dimly lit streets of Privet Drive.

In the silence of waiting in the cool, dark Muggle street, Hari felt himself being washed over by dread at the memory of the letter giving him a formal warning for using magic, even though he had left his wand back in his room on the other side of the country. What was Minerva going to say about how he had betrayed her yet again, but this time because he had almost gotten expelled? He thought it hurt enough when he simply was out of bed in the middle of the night, so how was he supposed to handle what she thought of him when he got himself in trouble with the Ministry for being wrongfully blamed for doing underaged magic outside of school?

The front door opened finally behind him and Minerva stepped outside, looking upset, shoulders stiff and eyebrows furrowed. She clutched Hari’s shoulder and led him down the path silently, walking with him into a nearby alleyway before she quietly Apparated with him.

They appeared in the middle of a small field where Minerva silently Vanished the mess of cake covering his clothes and guided him across the field until a small cottage seemed to appear out of nowhere, as though it had simply burst into existence. The magic of the Fidelius Charm made the house virtually non-existent to any outsiders and no one except the Secret Keeper, Minerva, knew exactly where it was.

Nivelles Cottage was a small, two story stone cottage in the middle of Caithness, in the Highlands of Scotland. It had a large garden around it with various types of trees and slightly overgrown grass and plants both Muggle and magic. It didn’t immediately jump out as particularly magical, but it almost seemed to radiate a sort of friendly magic, as though spells and charms were bursting from between the haphazard stones and the bright maroon front door and the small line of laundry swaying in the cool breeze. Sheer wizardry was written in the ivy growing up one side of the house, buzzing with fireflies and fairies and shining in the moonlight.

Minerva opened the small wooden gate in front of the house and gestured for Hari to go ahead of her. He walked up the stone path to the front door and heard the lock click before he even reached for it, turning the old handle and stepping inside the cottage. Minerva stepped inside after him and turned the lights on, hanging her long black outer cloak on the coat rack on the wall. Hari did the same, putting his bag on the floor and hanging up his navy blue coat.

Hari took off his shoes on the mat and reached down to pick up his bag and take it upstairs but Minerva stopped him with her hand and said, “I need to speak with you in the kitchen, please.”

Hari dropped his bag on the floor and walked away into the kitchen, Minerva following close behind. He sat down silently in his usual chair at the kitchen table and Minerva moved over to the kitchen counter to start making them both tea. “Did you have any dinner?” she asked over her shoulder, pouring boiling water out of a kettle into two mugs.

“Er, no. I made myself some toast for lunch and had cereal for breakfast, though,” Hari replied. Minerva tutted, levitating the steaming mugs of tea onto the table and going about cooking Hari some sort of dinner, muttering under her breath to herself. Hari could only assume she was muttering about the Dursleys.

She made Hari dinner in silence while he sipped his tea until finally, she levitated a hot plate of rice and curry in front of him and sat down in the chair diagonal to his, at the head of the table. For a moment, no one spoke, the silence cut off only by the sounds of Hari blowing on the steam radiating off his food and the sound of Minerva’s nails clicking against the table.

After a few minutes, Hari snapped, unable to stand the silence anymore. “Are you disappointed in me for the magic? Because I swear it wasn’t me, Minnie. My wand is upstairs, you can check.”

Minerva paused halfway between lifting her mug to her lips to take a sip of tea. “I beg your pardon?” she asked, putting the mug on the table and blinking at Hari. “I was already aware of your wand being upstairs in your room. Why would I be disappointed?”

“Because I got a formal warning from the Ministry for using magic,” Hari replied to the table, fiddling with his fork on his plate. “But I swear it wasn’t me. It was a house elf!” Hari delved into the story about coming upstairs to find Dobby sitting on his bed, the warnings he had given Hari and the letters he had kept him from getting all summer.

When he finished his story, Minerva hummed thoughtfully and took a long sip of tea. “That is rather peculiar,” she said, “I’m not sure why someone’s house elf would be coming to tell you that you’ll be in danger at Hogwarts, but it is probably simply someone’s cruel idea of a joke on you. Hogwarts remains one of the safest places for you, Hari. The idea of a house elf that has probably been told to lie to you and steal your letters because of dangers is preposterous.”

“So you believe there was a house elf at Privet Drive?”

“Would you prefer it if I thought you were lying?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. Hari flushed, stuffing a bit of food in his mouth to keep from having to reply. “Hari, no matter how odd the story is, you have no need to lie to me and nor do I assume you can perform wandless magic that successfully hovers a cake high enough to get it everywhere. If it wasn’t you, it makes sense that a house elf with more magic would be able to do so.”

Hari heaved a sigh of relief, shutting his eyes. He had been terrified of disappointing her or getting into trouble if she didn’t believe he was telling the truth. He finished the rest of his supper and his cup of tea in silence, thinking about the unread letters in his bag. Once he finished eating, Minerva let Hari excuse himself to get ready for bed. He grabbed his bag on his way past and hurried up the stairs, dropping the letters onto his bed and quickly getting dressed into his pyjamas so that he could read through every letter.

Minerva came in a little while later to find Hari in bed, hunched over one of the letters from Ron, lips moving as he read over the messy writing. Minerva leaned against the door frame, smiling fondly at the scene in front of her. “Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t getting your letters? I could have looked into it for you,” she said, getting Hari’s attention.

Hari looked up from his letters and put them aside. Deliberating her question, he toyed with the fluffy ear of his stuffed stag. “I don’t know. I guess I just worried that I’d just find out that I really didn’t have any friends after all…” Hari let out a heavy sigh, finally voicing the one thing he had feared most over the last few weeks since leaving school. He felt much better now that he got back the letters from his friends, but he still couldn’t quite get rid of the lump in his chest at the memory.

Minerva sat down next to Hari, nudging him sideways to move over. “I have watched all four of you this last year and I have rarely seen closer friends than you four,” Minerva said certainly, “And I have watched you and Draco and Neville growing up together and particularly Draco, you absolutely have very good friends, Hari. Do not forget that.”

“I won’t,” Hari replied, “Or at least I’ll try.”

Minerva smoothed Hari’s curly hair down as she often did. “Regardless, I hope you know you are my priority always and whatever troubles you is my problem as well,” she said, still smoothing down his hair.

“I know. You looked murderous in the Dursleys’ kitchen earlier,” Hari replied, smirking.

“I felt close to that, too. It took every energy not to hex their whole house down.”

“That would have been a sight to see, though.”

Minerva sighed, bumping her shoulder against his. “Yes, I’m sure the Muggles in the street would have enjoyed being woken up to their next door neighbour’s house being blown up.”

Hari shrugged. “It would be something interesting for once.”

“Alright, I think that’s time for you to go to bed,” Minerva announced, getting up from the bed again. “No more thinking about blowing up your mother’s family.”

Minerva collected Hari’s letters from the blankets, being careful not to mess them up and put them on his desk while Hari got under the covers. He grabbed Prongs from near his feet and shuffled under the covers further. He knew he was probably a bit old for a soft toy still, but the little stuffed deer Remus got him a few years ago just gave him immense comfort for some reason he couldn’t explain.

“Good night, Harry,” Minerva said, turning the light off so that only a bit of the moonlight from outside flooded in slightly over Hari like a second blanket.

“Good night, Minnie.”

¤¤¤

Hari was glad to be back home in Caithness again, even after only a couple days away. The return to normality was easy, waking up in the mornings and going downstairs for breakfast and spending most of his days either in the garden or working on his summer homework, often with the help from Minerva. Hari grew accustomed to keeping out of Minerva’s way both at Hogwarts and at Nivelles Cottage, keeping himself occupied with reading or playing by himself. It was an easy routine, foolproof and balanced effortlessly between them since Hari had lived there.

Hari was currently upstairs in his bedroom, reading Bridge to Terabithia with his feet up on the desk and the window wide open to let inside a cool breeze. The sun was shining down onto him, warming his brown skin pleasantly despite the cool Scottish breeze. He paused his reading at the sounds of voices carrying up the stairs, putting a scrap of parchment in between the pages and getting up to press his ear against the door. He could hear Minerva’s voice clear as day and was shocked to hear Severus Snape’s familiar drawl as well.

Cracking the door open to hear better, Hari strained his ears to hear the conversation going on downstairs. Neither of them sounded particularly happy, though they also didn’t appear to be arguing.

“-absolutely ridiculous. I don’t know what Albus is thinking,” Minerva was saying, footsteps moving back and forth across the wooden floor to suggest to Hari that she was ranting and pacing, as he had often seen her do when in a bad mood. Funnily enough, Dumbledore was a frequent cause of this.

“I agree, Minerva. Surely he does not believe that man has any real credentials,” Severus replied.

“I suppose he does have all those books, but I can’t imagine how many of them are actually true.”

Hari heard Severus sigh heavily, followed by the sound of a liquid being poured into a glass. “I assume Hari has returned by now,” Severus said after a silence.

More pouring of a liquid into a glass. Hari could vividly imagine a glass of red wine being poured. “Yes, I collected him from that awful family last night. Exactly how Lily was related to any of them, I will never understand,” Minerva replied exasperatedly.

“Yes… Petunia was very different from Lily when they were growing up,” Severus replied slowly, “Do you remember my concerns back when he was first placed in their company eleven years ago?”

“Yes, I remember,” she said, “You were right, of course. And last night, I arrived at just the right moment after getting word about the official warning. Vernon was… well, he was about to hit him, clearly. I thought I was going to be sick.”

“And Albus still believes that it would be safer for Hari with them? As opposed to yourself?”

Minerva was quiet for a long minute. Hari couldn’t tell if she was sitting in thought or doing something, still hidden away in his room, listening in on the conversation. “Albus tells me he has his reasons, but they are flawed at best. They’re truly awful people, those Dursleys.”

“So, you believe Hari’s story about this house elf then?” Hari sat up straighter at this, trying to figure out whether Severus would be trying to talk Minerva out of believing him.

Minerva sighed heavily and Hari heard the sound of something being placed down on the coffee table. “As strange as it seems, yes. I seriously doubt he is capable of wandless magic at the age of eleven, especially when his wand was all the way back here, in his room.” Hari sighed in relief that she still believed him.

“But a house elf? In Muggle suburban England?”

“Far stranger things have happened, Severus. You know that.”

There was another long silence in which Hari strained further to hear what they were saying, but still could hear nothing. He was about to give up and go back to his desk to continue reading when there was a sharp knock at his door. Hari jumped back in surprise, just in time for his bedroom door to open to show Severus standing outside his door, looking unimpressed.

“Enjoying eavesdropping, are we?” he drawled, looking down at Hari over his sharp nose, dark eyes narrowed.

Hari’s cheeks burned. “I wasn’t— I was just…” He struggled to come up with an excuse, knowing that Severus would see right through him.

“You are not as good at hiding as you may think, Mr. Potter,” said Severus coolly. “It is… impolite to listen in on conversations you are not a part of. Surely Minerva will have taught you that much.”

Hari swallowed, mouth dry. “Well, it was just that I wanted to see who Minerva was talking to, but then I wanted to know who you were both complaining about and it turned to talking about me…”

Severus’ lips curled, eyes still narrowed at Hari. “So, nosy as well as arrogant.” Hari scowled, stomach twisting.

“Nosy is perhaps right, but I wouldn’t suggest Hari is arrogant, Severus.” Hari jumped again, not noticing Minerva appearing beside Severus as he had been staring at Severus. She gave Severus a look Hari couldn’t quite read and then they both retreated down the stairs again. “You’re allowed to come down, Hari. I already know you’ll listen in, anyway,” Minerva called after her.

Face burning again, Hari lifted his book off his desk and wandered down the stairs after the adults. He could hear them talking once again in the living room and paused momentarily in time to hear Minerva muttering, “—not his father.” Unsure about what Minerva was meaning, Hari stepped inside the living room.

Minerva was sitting in her usual arm chair, holding the very glass of red wine he had imagined, while Severus was sitting on the couch with his own glass of wine sitting in front of him on the coffee table. Hari perched on the end of the couch next to Severus, holding tightly to his book.

“How’s the book coming along now, Hari?” Minerva asked, indicating the book in his hands. She took a sip of wine and placed it on the table beside her.

“What are you reading?” Severus asked, peering sideways, unable to keep the curiosity off his face.

Hari held up the cover. “I found it in a bookshelf in the hall upstairs and thought it sounded interesting. I’m over halfway through and it’s quite entertaining so far. I like Leslie more, but Jesse is pretty cool, too.”

Severus leaned over to get a sip of wine. “Yes, I vaguely remember seeing Lily reading that book around the time it came out. I have not read it, but I believe it was supposed to be good.”

As Severus and Minerva fell back into casual conversation, Hari went back to reading his book. He didn’t pay much attention to what they were saying, letting their words act as more of a distant white noise, occasionally catching names he recognised or fragments of sentences. He finished another section of his book and marked the page with the same scrap of paper he usually used, turning to the two adults. They appeared to have reached a natural lull in the conversation, both finished with several glasses of wine now.

“Excuse me,” Hari chimed, making them both turn his way. “Who were you complaining about earlier when I was upstairs? Someone you don’t think has enough credentials?”

Minerva opened her mouth to reply but Severus beat her to it. “And why do you think you are entitled to know this, just because you eavesdropped on a conversation?” he asked coolly.

“Severus, leave the boy alone,” Minerva chastised, glaring at Severus momentarily. “We were merely showing our… less than positive views on the new appointment for the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher,” she explained, pouring another glass of wine.

Hari brightened, interest spiking. “Who is it? I promise I won’t tell anyone what you said about them,” he replied, giving Minerva his usual look to get what he wanted. She often told him in the past that this was a very Slytherin move of his, but he didn’t mind so long as it worked. Which it usually did.

Minerva sighed, glancing at Severus’ tight lipped expression. “Albus has decided to appoint Gilderoy Lockhart as the new Defence teacher this year,” she replied.

“Isn’t that the annoying blond bloke that said he banished a banshee or something?” Hari asked, tilting his head. He certainly recognised the name, but surely it wasn’t the same person Hari was thinking of. Dumbledore couldn’t have thought he would be a good teacher.

Hari saw Severus and Minerva glance at each other, a smile tugging on both of their lips. That answered his question. “Yes, Hari, it is that one you are thinking about,” Minerva replied, clearly struggling to keep her composure. Hari had spent enough of his childhood around adults that all seemed to want to pretend they were boring to know she was barely keeping herself from laughing. “Albus insists he’ll do the job well enough, but I'm still not so sure I agree."

“Why is he hiring Lockhart when surely there’s got to be other people that are better suited to the job?” Hari asked.

“Well, because no one else is willing to take up the job post,” Minerva replied, putting her empty glass on the table. “People think the Defence post is cursed because no one has lasted more than a school year since the 1970s, so no one wants to take their chances.”

Severus rolled his eyes and turned his scowl towards Minerva. “I have been trying to get the job for years, Minerva. You know this,” he said coolly, tilting the red liquid inside his glass in the light coming from through the window.

Minerva eyed Hari for a moment before replying, “Yes and you know perfectly well why Albus has refused your offers.” She got up from her armchair and picked up the empty bottle of wine and her glass, looking down at Hari over her spectacles. “I’m making dinner now, if anybody is interested in assisting me?” Hari caught her tone and nodded, getting up from the couch and making his way into the kitchen to help Minerva with the manual tasks of making dinner.

As he used a knife to carefully chop up some vegetables for Minerva to add to the stove where she had rice beside him, Hari pondered why Dumbledore kept refusing to give Severus the DADA position at Hogwarts. He knew Dumbledore trusted Severus not to be a Death Eater anymore since he hired him at all, but was his trust perhaps still wavering as he still did not give Severus the position he wanted? Or perhaps he wanted him working at Hogwarts long term and didn’t want to risk losing him by allowing him to work in a cursed job post?

Hari had no idea what to think, but he decided not to worry about it as he continued to help Minerva and Severus silently cooking dinner.