Protective Custody

What Harry found in his room upon opening the door did make him make a loud noise, though.

And Grandpa George was there, just so, in pyjamas and bedhead, toting a pistol in a way that seemed to mean serious business.

He hurriedly closed his room’s door and stammered to the kindly old man that he was fine, and he had only been startled by his own shadow spilling in from the hallway.

Grandpa George narrowed his eyes to that, though, and Harry’s heart sank.

It sank further when the old man – the general – said shrewdly, “Harry, I am responsible for this place and everyone in it, just like I am responsible for the academy till next year, when I’ll get into retirement. Jenny and I are responsible for you till you are eighteen, too, and the girls till they are of the same age. So I need to know what made you so high-strung this last month, and what made you scream just now.”

`This last month.` Harry’s heart not only sank, but plopped right to his bare feet, it felt. `He watched.` It’s an alien concept for him, to be watched so closely during the summer, and apparently not for a malicious reason like what Aunt Petunia had used to do or to feed the rumour mills like the people at Hogwarts did. It’s a little intrusive for him despite the reason behind it, but, well, what could he do? He hadn’t been able to do what he wanted since… well, forever.

“Let me at least check the room, Harry,” the general finished, and the tone made the boy obey.

For a second, that was.

“Wait, Grandpa, please, no,” he begged the moment he realised, hurriedly returning to his post in front of the now-closed door, fending the general – who was about to come into the room pistol first – off with a faintly trembling hand. He still remembered how his unexpected, uninvited visitor – this visitor – had tried to “save” him from dangers, and he absolutely did not want this kindly old man to be some collateral damage. He didn’t want the visitor – however uninvited – to be accidentally shot in his defence, either. `Damn it, and I was having the best dream in my life, short of meeting my parents again in the flesh!`

The general’s eyes narrowed again with… suspicion? Concern?… and still did not back down, although the pistol had been aimed safely away from Harry the moment he’d positioned himself in front of the door.

“Explain,” was the old man’s curt demand, and Harry took a deep breath.

“What do you know of why I’m here?” he ask back, warily, trepidatiously. `Did the Muggle Ministry tell him about me being a wizard? Is Black the escape dangerous criminal actually a wizard? Aunt Petunia said my kind wanted me, but I was greeted by Muggles instead….`

“That you have been hunted by bad elements in your society since you were a baby,” the general said impatiently.

“My society,” Harry repeated before the general could follow the curt words with yet another demand to come in.

“The one they call ‘the Wizarding World’.” Oh, Harry could clearly see the air-quotes and the scepticism….

“It’s true, you know,” he murmured, looking away. “Not a code-word. I’m a wizard.”

“Then?” The impatience seemed to reach a new high, now, and the boy winced. Uncle Vernon would have exploded by now and it would have meant a world of hurt for him.

Thoughts of Uncle Vernon flew out of his mind, though, in the next second, when the general said in the same impatient tone, which made it all the more convincing, “Wizard or not, you’re still my grandson, and if you don’t step away right now, I won’t bring you to the academy until I have retired.”

Harry winced again. Grandpa George knew where to hit and apparently didn’t hesitate from applying the knowledge! He really didn’t want the threat to be true, but he also didn’t want anybody to end up hurt after this. So, “Grandpa, there’s my owl and… well, a little elf, inside. They’re my friends. Please don’t hurt them? They just startled me. I didn’t know they could come here or how they found me. But Hedwig could always find me so I guess Dobby just followed her. I just didn’t know they could travel across the ocean.” If they could, then witches and wizards could, most likely, but he’d worry about the latter later.

On Grandpa George’s questioning look, peeking through the palpable impatience, the increasingly nervous boy hastily explained, “Hedwig’s my owl, a snowy. Dobby’s a house-elf – green-skinned, three-foot-high, a former slave of a bad wizard.”

Judging by how the pistol’s safety pin was clicked on now – `I was right! Grandpa George was about to shoot them!` – the general was thankfully mollified.

Harry was still ordered to step aside, though.

And the moment they were inside – Grandpa George first, despite Harry’s protests – the general immediately went into… well, general-mode, despite Dobby’s looks and Hedwig perched upon the… blanket?… the house-elf used as a turban. Without allowing Harry to step away from behind him, he interrogated Dobby about who the latter was to Harry, where Dobby had met Hedwig, why they had come here, how they had tracked Harry down, if they had been spotted or tailed on their way here…. Harry tried to interrupt, several times, but got shushed each time.

He got to admit, though, this way, he got lots of potentially useful info, and he might just use these questions later on if he ever had need of them.

He listened interestedly as Dobby told a tale of what seemed to him quite an enviable adventure: Not finding any job as a free elf, Dobby had visited Hogwarts for employment, only to hear tell of the escape of the fearsome and insanely dangerous Sirius Black, a former good friend of the Potters and even Harry’s godfather. He had decided to try to protect “the Great Harry Potter Sir” instead, then, and had travelled to Privet Drive number four to make sure that his hero was safe, only to find the latter gone and irritated Hedwig making the occasional loops round the house. They had travelled together via “popping” and flying, afterwards, respectively, by unspoken agreement, until they had arrived to the edge of the Atlantic ocean. To go past this obstacle, they had hitchhiked on a liner headed to where Hedwig had indicated Harry was, and Dobby himself had felt it – which made Harry suspicious, but he wasn’t about to interrupt again, by this point. But then Hedwig had seemed to have sensed somebody wanting to send something for Harry for his birthday, so both owl and house-elf had travelled back the way they had come and gone to France to fetch the gift from Hermione. Dobby had wanted to come immediately to “the Great Harry Potter Sir’s new home,” but Hedwig had insisted on waiting for the proper time, and the proper time was apparently was on Harry’s birthday, which was today.

To think, Harry had done all he could to conceal this titbit of information from the Hammonds for their own protection….

“We’ll talk after this, grandson,” was Grandpa George’s only remark to the formerly hidden piece of info, delivered in a deceptively calm manner, and Harry winced yet again on that tone and the threat and disappointment contained within.

He all-out cringed when the general `yup, definitely the General.` – proceeded to demand an oath from Dobby to protect Harry to the house-elf’s best ability without harming either party if possible. Dobby needn’t that! And of course the house-elf eagerly swore the vow.

And then, both began to plan how to best keep Harry safe.

Harry could only stare wide-eyed at the broad back of his lunatic grandfather, all the while, and thought, `Damn, they should’ve never met! Dobby should’ve been just a dotty elf too intent on my safety in his own warped way and Grandpa should’ve been just some old Muggle! Somebody, please get me out of this weird dream!`