First Bite

Cassia slowly leaned her head against Vernon’s shoulder while they both listened to their boys colouring in their new colouring book in the room beside theirs. The day had been long, so very long. She couldn’t believe that it wasn’t actually over yet. It had become evening by now, true, but they still had to eat dinner and tell Vernon and Dudley about what had happened at Gringotts’ and what would happen the next day.

What had happened that day at Gringotts, had truly been an historic event. At no time in the history where goblins dealt with humans had a contract been broken to such a horrendous degree that it brought shame over the whole of the Goblin Horde. Going into the bank, she had been aware that it was bad; she had just not been aware of how bad it had been. She had believed that the Potter’s Account Manager could do what was necessary to help them and to right the wrong, to heal the Magical Contract, so to speak. But only moments after the Account Manager had touched the Broken Contract, and somehow she just knew that it deserved capital letters, the Goblin King and his entire Court had entered the office. A contract break like this was unheard of, and given the fortune James had paid the goblins to make sure Harry was safe and given everything he needed, physically, mentally and emotionally, while growing up, the goblins now owed Heir Potter that same fortune, with interest dating back to the day the Contract had been Broken. So at least they knew that the Contract Break had happened in May of 1982. At least she knew that she had been able to be there for Harry in his first horrible months as an orphan, that she had been able to hold him and care for him and soothe him through the first and worst of his trauma.

It didn’t help her much, given that she knew what had come afterwards.

In other words, the Goblin Horde owed Harry a debt so massive that while they could pay it in gold, every single one of them would feel it for centuries to come. Cassia had asked Harry to give her leave to negotiate how the goblins would be paying him back, and the boy had nodded amiably and told her to make certain that the whole of their family was safe and healthy and well informed, exactly what Cassia had already asked of the Account Manager.

In the end, the goblins would pay the original sum back to the Potter accounts, but all the interests would be paid for in services. Services that would have been expensive for Cassia to pay for, certainly, but nothing even close to what the original sum in interests had been. In addition to that, Harry and his family would only pay a third of the price for any services from the goblins for the next decade. First, the King had offered that provision only until Harry became an adult at seventeen, but Cassia had reminded him that the Broken Contract went back eleven years, so when she set the date for ten years, she was already being kind.

There was a reason, a very good reason, that the Goblin Horde would go to war on the party, or parties, unknown, that had made them break a contract in such a manner.  

“How did it go here while we were gone?” she whispered.

“Dudley had a rage fit not long after you left,” Vernon whispered back. “Not about anything in particular, I think he was just completely overwhelmed, and I certainly don’t blame him. This day … Gods, Cass … This day, I swear …” He gave a heavy sigh. “After he was done screaming and cursing up a blue streak, we both cried for a bit. I think it actually helped, both of us. Then he asked what he could do for Harry, so we went out and found a suitable suitcase for Harry.”

He pointed at a big suitcase with wheels, standing in the corner of the room. It was black and there was a big, golden and green snake coiling itself around it, seemingly trying to crush it.

“I have the receipt, of course, if Harry doesn’t like the snake, but it was the best I could come up with that Harry could need and to keep Dudley occupied and distracted for a little while. I believe Dudley is swimming in guilt in regard to Harry and everything that happened there. I know I am. Whatever personality our boy has, after all that manipulation, I don’t believe it’s a forceful one, not in any aggressive sense of the word, anyway. That, too, might be because of the manipulation and might change, but despite the rage fit, he has been very well behaved, and as mentioned, such a fit did not come as a surprise at all.”

Cassia nodded. It really didn’t. Dudley had never been allowed to be who he actually was. He had never been allowed to develop his own personality, and now he suddenly was free of the curse that had moulded him, free of any such constraints. She assumed it would take him a while, years even, to figure himself out. All that on top of the usual puberty angst and problems. Her poor boy. At least, Vernon and she had had fully developed personalities to begin with, before the curse; something they could fall back on now.

“He was calm and amiable as a child, when he wasn’t sick,” she noted.

“That he was.” Vernon gave a small sigh. “We did talk about how to behave around Harry, like you asked me. He even commented that he would try his best not to have a rage fit in front of Harry, but that he felt so much anger and so many other feelings that he didn’t know what to do with it. That was when he began to cry for the second time. He agreed to do his best to not shout, suddenly move towards Harry, harm him in any way, also with words, and so on. I don’t think he will do any of it on purpose, to be honest, but Cass …”

“Yes, I know, he has never acted in any other way before, and he can only remember us acting in a similar and despicable way. We can do nothing but try our very best. At least he knows that it’s wrong now.”

“Oh, blimey, that’s a cool snake! I want to colour that one!” Dudley shouted and Cassia stiffened, that was Dudley’s ‘I want to do this, and you will not stop me’ voice.

“Uhm, if I get to colour that one, you get to choose two others before I get to choose one again?” Dudley continued after a moment’s hesitation.

They both almost held their breath while the sound of turning pages reached them.

“I would like the lion,” Harry said so hesitantly that it broke her heart, “and the … the dragon …?”

“Oh.” In that one sound, she could hear how much Dudley wanted to have the dragon, too. “Yeah, sure, Harry. Would you like me to take them out of the book, or should I remove the snake?”

“Let’s take all of them out, so we can put them up on the wall later?”

Like Vernon and she had done with Dudley’s drawings while they grew up, and like they had never done with any of Harry’s, she realised.

“I will do that … oh, oh, Harry, Dad and I went out shopping while you were at the bank …!”

They could hear Dudley getting up and hurry towards their open door before he came through it, waddling. And oh, that hurt, knowing that her darling boy had become so big that he couldn’t walk normally. That hurt so much. Much more than her own aching joints or the sudden stab of pain she felt sometimes that she suspected had something to do with her wasted organs.

“Dad, may I give it to Harry now?” Dudley asked his father, pointing at the suitcase.

“Of course, son.”

“Harry, come look at what we got you!” Dudley raised his voice eagerly, but not to a shout.

Harry entered the room very hesitantly. He had been played for a fool before, so many times. He had been promised things, clothes, food, a gift, and then been punished for even hoping for some human kindness.

Dudley rolled the suitcase closer to Harry. “It’s for all your new clothes and stuff. I chose it!” He puffed up. “It’s so cool with that snake, isn’t it?!” He grinned while Harry slowly got closer and then touched the head of the snake, a bit like he couldn’t believe his own eyes. “Dad says that you can get something else, if you don’t like it. There were lots of others too, but you can talk to snakes, and snakes are so cool …”

“It’s brilliant, Dudley!” Harry breathed and Dudley puffed up even more. “Thanks! Thank you, Uncle Vernon!” He looked at Vernon.

Vernon nodded. “You are very welcome, Harry. Now, why don’t you take the suitcase into your room and then get back here so we can order something for dinner from room service. I don’t feel like going out tonight.”

Harry nodded eagerly and the two boys rolled the suitcase over into their room.

“I think we know what Dudley wants for his birthday,” Cassia noted dryly. “And I wouldn’t mind getting his old one. Mine is pastel pink at the moment, Vernon, pink!”

Vernon chuckled. “A sound plan, Cass. He liked that one for Harry, but there was one with a tiger he positively drooled over. Even if he didn’t ask if he could get it, much less demanded it, like he would have done yesterday.” He got up to find the room service menu and in turn everyone decided on what they wanted for dinner.

“Can the food get in here without you doing anything to the … the stones?” Vernon asked after he had ordered for them on the hotel phone.

“The rune stones,” Cassia said, “and yes, the food can, if we are the ones who bring it inside the room. The goblins told me that nothing and no one can get inside these rooms now that I have put out the protective rune stones, absolutely nothing. Not even house elves or phoenixes, and they can normally get in almost everywhere.”

That was only one of many, many concessions Ragnok, the King of the Goblins, had given them to uphold their part of the bargain. The rune stones would keep them safe while they stayed at the hotel.

There was a knock on the door and Cassia let Vernon open the door while she kept a hand on her gun and babbled away at the server to distract him from the fact that Vernon very slowly and very carefully brought one and one dish over the ward line and into the room. When Vernon was done, he tipped the server and closed the door. Cassia relaxed again. She truly didn’t know when she would ever be able to breathe freely again.

Someone had hurt her family. Someone had cursed them. Cursed them into being the worst of the worst of human beings. Cursed them to use and abuse her little nephew. She wouldn’t be able to truly calm down before they were found and annihilated.

They ate in almost silence after Cassia had reminded Harry that he shouldn’t eat more than he felt comfortable with and that they could keep some leftovers in the fridge so he could eat more later and that they already had some fruit, nuts, cereal bars and sandwiches in the little fridge. It was better that he ate a bit every other hour, than that he tried to stuff himself a few times a day. That was what she herself would be doing, after all. 

Harry ate almost half of the dinner, but frowned at the food when he had to give up eating more.

“It’s not so long ago since I ate more than this each meal, and then I was eating a lot between meals too. I was hungry all the time,” he answered when Dudley asked what was wrong.

Dudley shrugged. “You are some kind of vampire, right? Vampires need blood, and you drank some earlier today. Now that you have had blood, you might not need as much food anymore. Have you been hungry all the time after you drank the blood?”

“No,” Harry admitted, while gazing big eyed at Dudley.

“But you were hungry all the time before, even when you could eat as much as you wanted and needed?”

“Yes, yes, I was. All the time.”

Dudley nodded, as if that confirmed it, and maybe it did, Cassia thought.

“Then it’s probably the blood. Maybe it always will be like that now. You drink some blood and eat some food. Or, since you are a child, maybe you will drink more and more blood and eat less and less food the older you become. I guess we will find out.”

Harry looked at Cassia with big, shiny eyes, full of uncertainty and fear.

“We will find out, dear, don’t worry. You are not alone anymore. I promise.”

“People don’t like vampires, I think,” Harry whispered.

Dudley grimaced. “They don’t get a say; I like you. You are my cousin. You should have been my brother. The rest can go hang.”

Vernon nodded, and as Cassia swore far too much herself, at least when she was herself, so she couldn’t really reprimand anyone, not even her son, for saying something like that. Besides, she agreed. Everyone else could go hang; Harry was theirs.

Then they talked about the day and especially their visit to Gringotts and what would happen when they all went back the day after. She knew from Lily that Gringotts was a nation, not just a bank, and that if you knew the right people, had done the right things, or had enough money, preferably all three, there was very little the goblins wouldn’t or couldn’t do. Not everyone could ask for their specialised healing, nor their extremely powerful warding or their almost magical method of dealing with paperwork. Almost none could. Or, at least, they couldn’t ask and get a favourable answer.

The Dursley family and Hadrian Nalin Iacomus Potter-Black would get that help from the goblins in the coming days, weeks and years.

She also made sure to tell Dudley and Vernon Harry’s full name, and reiterated to Harry that Harry would get to choose what he wanted to be called. If he wanted to be Harry to his friends and Hadrian to acquaintances, that was fine. If he wanted to be Hadrian or Nalin or Iacomus to everyone, that was also fine. He got to decide on his own name. As far as Cassia could remember, only his close family had called her nephew for Harry when he was a baby, everyone else had called him Hadrian. Which made her a smidge irritated that everyone knew him as Harry now. Had he grown up with Lily and James, his public name would not have been Harry, and certainly not Harry Potter. Harry Potter-Black, maybe, but she didn’t think so. Hadrian Potter-Black was much more likely. She made sure to mention all this as well, just in case Harry wished to know. He deserved to know as much as she was able to share about his parents and his life with them when they were alive.

It was late, but Cassia let the boys’ colour just a bit more to calm down before she shooed them to bed. It had been a long and very eventful day. They needed as much calm as they could get.

“There was this woman, witch, at Diagon Alley,” Cassia whispered to Vernon after the boys had gone to bed and they again sat side by side on the sofa. “Blonde, beautiful, impeccably dressed and styled and most likely from a Noble House, like James was. She sat down close by us when we stopped for a treat after the very long and tiring meeting at the bank. I know she was listening to us talk, even if she was very discreet about it. Very discreet indeed.”

Vernon made a questioning noise.

“Harry watched her, from the moment she sat down to the moment we left,” Cassia admitted. “I doubt she noticed it at all, he was far more subtle than her, and honestly Vernon, I doubt Harry noticed that he did it. But he did. He watched her very closely. Knowing that he is a vampire, or half-vampire or something similar, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was his instincts kicking in. I think … I suspect … that on some level, he was hunting her. He didn’t react like that towards anyone else, and that was the only strange action I picked up on. But he did hunt her. There were several other people around us, but he only showed that kind of interest in her.”

“Should we ask if he wants blood before leaving tomorrow?”

“No, not this time. Hopefully the goblins will be able to tell us more about what kind of vampire he is and what he needs to be healthy, safe and happy. I know so little about James’ family, the origin for this must be with them, that is the only answer.” She gave a sigh.

“That, or that blasted school of his. Dark Lord’s and basilisks, Cassia, basilisks! And it sounded like they pretty much condemned him completely for being a Parselmouth! Even the professors! That’s not on, not on at all!”

“It really isn’t. I will have to get a meeting with both his Head of House and the Board of Governors before he goes back. Our parents could do little when Lily encountered problems at that school, but I’m Regent Potter, Muggle or not, and I have the goblins of Gringotts at my back. Let them try to turn me away now!”

Vernon chuckled and kissed her cheek. “That’s my bloodthirsty wife, that’s my Cass! You will show them who the Queen is on this board.” He got up and held out a hand. “Let’s go to bed, my love. Today has been long and hard, and tomorrow will be even longer.”

They went to bed.

Cassia wasn’t the least surprised when she was woken some hours later by Dudley having a screaming nightmare, nor when he woke her again an hour after that, nor when two hours later he stood by her bed and whispered that Harry had a nightmare and was crying in his sleep.

Harry was terrified when Cassia woke him from that nightmare. First from the basilisk he had been running from in his sleep, and then from the fact that he had awoken his family and disturbed their sleep. It took her a while to get him to calm down and reassure him that not only was he safe now, but no one was angry at him for having a nightmare. When he finally calmed down, Dudley had fallen asleep on her side of the bed she shared with Vernon, so she took Dudley’s bed for the rest of the night and let Vernon deal with Dudley’s third nightmare while she handled Harry’s second.

By Harry’s third nightmare she suggested getting up and he was only too happy to get up and try his new toiletries in the shower and get dressed in a set of clothes from his new wardrobe. She had to remind him to put on the deodorant, and while he blushed before he went back into the bathroom, he didn’t seem chastised, and that was good.  

They went out to eat breakfast. After a slight discussion, Vernon and Dudley went with an English breakfast each. The portion was smaller than usual and there was less meat, more grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms and beans and brown bread for toast as well as scrambled eggs. They also got one bowl of fruit each, for the vitamins and to fill them up properly. Vernon chose to use artificial sweetener in his tea, but Dudley decided against tea if he couldn’t get his four teaspoons of sugar and asked for an orange juice instead.

All in all, Cassia was impressed by Dudley’s calm attitude to his change of diet. She didn’t actually believe it would last for weeks and months, but it felt good with such a relaxed start. Of course, they had talked about it the evening before, so Dudley had been warned about his changing diet. Yesterday had been the last day without diet plans for any of them, even if Cassia didn’t yet know exactly what was right for all of them. Less sugar and fat could not hurt her husband and son, she was certain.

Harry and Cassia herself went with simple sandwiches and tea with honey, in addition to sharing a fruit bowl for the vitamins. Harry beamed when he got served his egg and bacon sandwich. It was only his third proper meal after leaving his school. She had chosen an egg salad sandwich, even if she knew she wouldn’t be able to eat it all, she would do her best. For her boys. For her husband. For her family. She would heal, and she would be there for them, and be there with them. She was absolutely determined.