A Soulless Angel

"Is this manor anything like the one in England?" Miranda Potter asked Harry curiously.

Harry took his time answering the question as he considered the answer while he went with Miranda and explored the manor. The American Potters had left Britain in the 17th century or so, and they had taken with them a large portion of their family's wealth. The Potters, historically, had made their money through real estate, although they actually got it through other venues, such as new potions and spells they patented, while others simply worked for others, including MACUSA itself.

That was not going to change just because some of them had moved, and others joined them over the decades; the greatest influx of family members had come during the Grindelwald war, because many of them hadn't wanted to get involved, but more followed when Voldemort began attacking them out of revenge for the Potters who'd served in the Ministry and on the Wizengamot for defying him.

The Potters at the time had underestimated just how powerful Lord Voldemort was, and they were taken by surprise by his savagery and cruelty. It was tragic because while Tom Marvolo Riddle had wanted to truly take power, even in his psychopathy he hadn't seen the point in just mindlessly destroying so many families, and many of his early aims had won so much support, but as he created his Horcruxes, and his madness grew, he began to become someone else.

A large chunk of the Potters, among others, had escaped to other countries, and when they came to America, sponsored by their relatives here, they found more than enough places to live in, and they found work. The Potters historically in the MACUSA had used Abraham Potter's position of authority as an Auror as help to create new homes in different parts of the country, and they became responsible for a vast chunk of the magical exploration (and exploitation) of America. The homes and even villages that had been in the possession of many families in the MACUSA, many of them were built by the Potters, and buildings for business had expanded their portfolio considerably, but it was clear to him that the Potters changed with the times.

The manor Miranda lived in with Isaac was, in a word, beautiful.

There was nothing ostentatious about the manor; it was decorated in a mixture of styles from 1920s Art Deco to more modern styles. Someone in the MACUSA Potter branch had clearly been a lover of Asian design philosophies, because some of the rooms were decorated red, with moving gold/silver dragons on the walls, while there were sliding Japanese doors and carpeted floors which meant you had to go barefoot, and it had been left like that for good. The manor was only slightly bigger than the one Harry was more familiar with, but aside from a vast ballroom which was decorated in a style Harry had only seen in a movie he'd seen lately, there were dozens of rooms which were sized like a regular home's rooms.

Harry had already seen the kitchen and the dining room where an army of House Elves kept everything in order, and they had passed several House Elves working in other parts of the building, and on the grounds, which were actually fairly normal-sized, lounges, a library, a potions lab, an impressive duelling room. The bedrooms weren't ostentatious but were nicely sized with ensuite bathrooms on the upper floor.

When Miranda had shown him the nursery, he had been hit by a fantasy where he had been raised here, and it would have happened had Dumbledore not interfered.

As they had gone through the manor, Miranda being an amazing tour guide, watched and greeted by several Potter ancestors, passing various decorations, and souvenirs from the Potters who had been in Thunderbird House when they'd attended Ilvermorny; some of them had been curse breakers, and had brought back ancient artefacts, pieces of object d'art, old books, while there were awards and collections of books and articles written by Potters who had gone into all Houses of Ilvermorny, nestled in between holiday snapshots over the decades, which showed the Potters loved the members of their vast family equally, which was a far cry from what he had endured himself, and had seen the vast Quidditch pitch which dominated the manor outside, near an enormous swimming pool, Miranda had voiced the question.

"Mm, its similar," Harry replied, thinking about his visits to his branch's ancestral home. "I was amazed when I saw the rooms in this manor and the one I'm used to; I've been in the magical world long enough to know rich families, especially back in Britain, prefer their homes to be enormous with every room being the same surface area of a house, just to show off their wealth, but here and there, the Potter manors are just essentially massive houses with dozens of small rooms.

"But answering your question, this house is different and amazing. I loved the art deco and the Asian styles," Harry finished.

Miranda chuckled. "Yeah, that was Kerr Potter's contribution to the family home; his parents wanted him to get a more varied magical education than others."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Miranda nodded, "Kerr spent his education being moved from school to school; he attended Uagadou in Africa for two years, before he was moved to Castelobruxo in Brazil, and spent a year there before he went to Beauxbatons, but he loved Mahoutokoro so much he spent three years there."

Harry did the mental calculation quickly. "So he spent seven years away from America?" He asked. "Why's that?"

Miranda chuckled. "Potter family tradition," she explained, "while branch families attend the school in that country; your family go to Hogwarts, ours to Ilvermorny, occasionally we decide to send a few to other countries so then we get some variety."

"How did those different schools go for him?" Harry asked.

"Well, Kerr was a bit of a delinquent and he caused a few problems, but he was a good student. When he came home, he not only brought back with him a collection of books and art and dozens of stories, but he also had expertise in alchemy and wandless magic, he came back with stories of working with Caipora; they're spirit beings that look after Castelobruxo, and riding on petrels," Miranda said.

Harry tried to imagine spending years away from home and his own family, or having the kind of diversity Kerr Potter had clearly enjoyed, but he found trouble with it since he had been forced to go to Hogwarts.

"It just sounds amazing," Harry said.

"It was," Miranda said.

"How long ago was this?"

"About five years ago," Miranda chuckled. "Kerr is the son of Isaac and Jasper's brother. He works as a potions teacher at Ilvermorny, working part-time, but he is a travelling magizoologist, and he also has an alchemy and runes business, where he makes ward stones and clusters."

Cursing Dumbledore's need to have him under tight control and limiting his education, although he wondered if he should change his plans once more so then he could enjoy something like that, Harry changed the subject. "So what's going to happen while I'm here?" He asked, hoping he had worded his question out politely.

Miranda blinked at his question. "Well, tonight there's going to be a welcome to MACUSA dinner for you," she said, suddenly seeing that Harry flinched and bit his lip uncertainly. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm not one for parties," Harry said, knowing he had told a half-truth. When he had been going out with Sally-Anne, he had enjoyed going to the parties there, but those were parties where he'd gone with people whom he hadn't known. But here, he would be with people who were his cousins and relatives. And that was scary. He had always hated the Dursleys, and so he had coloured all of his relatives the same way before he had even known he had relatives in America, and in other countries. "But," he went on, deciding to be honest, "when I was living with the No Majs Dumbledore forced me with, they went out of their way to treat me like dirt," he knew he was being polite, but he wasn't. He was being diplomatic, "I'm just worried about what might happen."

"And you think we would be like those abusive monsters?" Miranda was horrified. "Harry, we've wanted you in the MACUSA for years. We just want you to be happy."

"I know, I'm sorry," the only thing making him say those words was his desire for this to work, "it's just…I don't want anything to go wrong."

Miranda bit her lip for a moment. She was furious inwardly, not with Harry, but with those incompetents in the British Ministry of Magic. What in the name of Merlin and Isolt Sayre were they thinking when they had allowed Dumbledore to have too much power, so much so in fact they let him dictate how a child lived to the point they refused to even check on him?

Miranda worked as a Healer. Ever since the 1920s, the MACUSA had gone out of its way to prevent magical children living on American soil from becoming obscurials. They never wanted another similar incident like the one where Grindelwald nearly used Credence Barebone, a young wizard who was so powerful he had managed to hold on despite being an obscurial and hated himself so much due to the abuse his filthy non-magical family meted out on him, to destroy New York.

For fuck's sake, it was amazing this boy hadn't died!

What the hell was wrong with the British?

"Harry, is it okay if I hug you?" She whispered.

Harry jumped at the question. He hated being touched, but this woman was so nice and while he was more guarded than ever, being with Sally-Anne made him more accepting of such things.

"Er, okay," he said hesitantly.

Miranda moved slowly, knowing he could lash out violently if he wanted to, physically and magically. She wrapped her arms around him. He was stiff, and tense at first, but he eased himself into the hug. Hesitantly he wrapped his arms around her. Miranda smiled into the hug, but while she was expecting him to cry into her shoulder, he didn't.

And that made her considerably more sadder than before.