Chapter 73: New home
Harry was given some time to gather his belongings, not that he needed all that long.
If Dudley's old shirt was good for something, it was storing Harry's belongings – there was enough of an excess to turn into a sizeable pouch.
Harry expected a long car ride to a small house with a sizeable yard at the end of the trip. Instead, they had driven just a few streets down to an empty parking lot and then the car stopped.
Irma spoke up: "Alright, Harry, that's our stop. Time to get out."
Harry found her words hard to believe. He said: "But there's nothing here! Do you live underground?"
Still, he did as he was asked, it was better that way. He didn't want the pretty lady to start yelling at him.
Once Harry had exited the car, Irma said: "Harry, there is something you need to know about yourself before we go any further."
"What is it?", Harry asked, not about what was going to happen next.
Irma made a very serious face as she asked: "Harry, do you know what a wizard is?"
Harry thought for a while, before he remembered something he'd read from a book, one that the Dursleys had forbidden him to read again once they discovered it, so he said: "A wizard is an old man who can use magic!"
Irma smiled, and said: "A wizard doesn't start off as an old man, just like a witch doesn't start off as an old hag. Witches and wizards start off as little girls and boys, Harry."
Harry was getting confused by her words hope, fear and uncertainty were rolling inside his head. He asked: "Why are you telling me this, Aunt Irma?"
Irma replied while looking Harry in his eyes: "Harry, you are one of those boys and girls. There is magic in you."
Harry, instead of feeling pleased and happy, thought that she had made a mistake. How could there possibly be any magic in him? If there was, would he still have been beaten up by Dudley and ordered around by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon? If he had magic, wouldn't he have just turned them into the pigs they are?
Harry said in a muted tone: "Aunt Irma, I think you've made a mistake. I don't think there is any magic in me at all."
To his surprise, Irma gave him a sad smile, one he couldn't quite understand. She said: "No magic? Have you never made things happen when you were scared or angry?"
Harry thought back. Things finally made sense – every time he did something that made Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon angry and lock him into his closet, it had happened when he was scared or angry. Most recently, Dudley had hit him and Harry had set the boa constrictor free!
Once it looked like Harry had come to a realization, Irma said: "We're ready for extraction."
Harry felt his hand get grabbed by a hand slightly bigger than his own and the next moment, he felt the world start to spin and himself be squeezed from all sides, as if he was being sucked through a straw.
The next instant, he was standing on the well-managed lawn of a two-story house.
"What was that? This was fun! Can we do this again?", Harry exclaimed.
But, to his disappointment, Aunt Irma said: "That was a house elf taking us where we need to go. They're busy most of the time, so let's not give them too much extra work. Instead, I'll introduce you to somebody."
Just as she was finished, a girl that looked just a bit bigger than Harry had jumped on Aunt Irma and hung from her neck. Harry had no idea where she'd come from. There wasn't anyone nearby a moment earlier.
"Mom, you're back!", she exclaimed, then asked looking at Harry, "Who's that?"
"That is Harry, a wizard. He'll be staying with us from now on."
Aunt Irma then looked at Harry, smiled her warm smile again and said: "Harry, this is Iris, my daughter, a witch. I hope you two will get along from now on."
Harry felt that something was odd about the little girl, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. The little girl, or Iris, looked at him and said: "Mom, is he a dragon or a night person? He only has two ears!"
Harry was puzzled, he asked: "What do you mean by dragon? Have you ever seen anyone with more than two ears?"
It was only then that he noticed what had been bugging him. Not only the little girl, but Irma too had two pairs of ears, one was in the normal place, a pair of perfectly regular human ears. However, above the normal pair, there was a pair of black, pointy and fluffy ears on Irma and a pair of grey, soft and even fluffier ears on Iris. He could've sworn Aunt Irma didn't have those ears a moment ago.
Harry blinked a few times, trying to make sure he was seeing it right, but the ears stayed right where they were.
In the end, his curiosity got the best of him, so he asked: "Aunt Irma, why do you and Iris have dog ears?"
Her reply left Harry even more perplexed, however: "Silly boy, those aren't dog ears. They are wolf ears. We have them because we're werewolves."
In Harry's opinion, that didn't make things clearer at all. He took the risk and asked again: "Aunt Irma, what are werewolves?"
"You'll find out soon enough. Now, let's go inside before the food gets cold."
Harry had never been told to come and eat so politely. In fact, if he still needed reminding to eat, the scraps were about to be thrown into the garbage.
Harry was showed inside and told he could wear socks. It turned out there weren't spare slippers available for him.
Once he was seated, he noticed another strange thing – the size of the portions was, to say the least, abnormally large.
The food in front of Aunt Irma and Iris was enough to feed three Dudleys and two Uncle Vernons!
Fortunately, the portion in front of Harry was relatively modest, about as big as what Aunt Petunia normally ate.
A few moments later, a large man walked in through the door.
However, he hadn't even sat down before Aunt Irma shouted: "Captain Carter Thomas Ross. Get back to the entryway and change your shoes. For dragging dirt onto my clean floors, you're on dishwashing duty for the rest of the day!"
Harry had heard a lot of yelling in his life, but nothing quite like that. It would've been unthinkable that Aunt Petunia would order Uncle Vernon around like this.
However, the man replied: "Yes, ma'am! Will do!"
Harry stopped staring with wide eyes only when Aunt Irma told him to close his mouth so his heart wouldn't cool off.
Once everyone was seated, they started eating, with Aunt Irma reminding to chew at least twenty times.
Harry did exactly that, and after a few bites, his eyes became moist.
After a while, Harry stopped eating, with tears flowing down his face.
Irma asked in a concerned tone: "What's wrong, Harry?"
"This is so good, but I can't eat anymore…", Harry replied. He couldn't push a single mouthful more down, he felt like his stomach was about to burst. All he could do was let the final spicy and juicy and just a little bit salty mouthful roll on his tongue, unwilling to let go of what was already his.
"Then I'll put it in the stabo for you, Iris will introduce you to the rest of her pack and once you get hungry again, you can finish it.", Aunt Irma said, taking the unfinished bowl of soup and placing it into cabinet with a seal on its door.
"Isn't that just a fridge?", Harry asked. In his mind, this family was certainly strange enough to rename a regular household appliance.
"A fridge? Those old dinosaurs? No-no, a stabo is twice, if not four times better. It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold, and the best part is, they can be put on the same shelf!", Aunt Irma explained.
Harry had no idea such a thing existed. He found that it was quite handy. He only wondered why the Dursleys never got one.
Before he knew it, Irma had already put a change of clothes on Harry, a set that fit a lot better and felt like a second skin. He was about to take a look at just what he had been dressed up in, but the next instant, he was pulled by hand. Iris was already beside him with a glint in her eyes and she said: "Come on, Harry, I'll show you to the others!"
Harry suddenly felt like he had turned into a new and interesting toy. He only hoped that the games would be different than those Dudley played with him, where Harry ended up as either prey or a punching bag.
---
Carter and Irma were finally left alone in the house.
Carter looked at Irma with the playful smile all but gone from his face, as he asked: "Who was that?"
Irma replied just as seriously: "That was our new assignment by – him.", putting a lot of emphasis on the last word. "Just earlier today, I was on a team to extract him from an abusive family. Ten missions had to be postponed to mobilize enough knights for a security perimeter around the key locations."
Carter thought for a long time, then said: "What's his angle with the boy? I don't believe he'd do something out of the kindness of his heart. With that many knights, the kid has to be important somehow."
Irma seemed to think of something as her face contorted in horror. She whispered: "If it's for one of his experiments, I swear-"
She was cut off by a loud knock.
"Speak of the devil.", Carter hissed through his teeth when he saw Gaude removing his shoes with a flick of his right wrist.
They were both perfectly unaware that the wrist and forearm were mere illusions. Gaude had removed the memory of his missing limb from Irma's mind along with all the others he considered disadvantageous to himself.
"What do you want?", Irma asked.
Gaude replied in a monotone voice: "It's not what I want, but what I came to give you.", he took out two phials with blood-red liquid inside.
"Take it."
Both Irma and Carter were familiar with similar phials, they had each taken quite a few of them already.
"What is this?", Carter asked, hoping to get an explanation of some kind. However, he was fated to be left in the dark.
"Are you trying to disobey a direct order from a superior?", Gaude asked. "It's nothing harmful.", he still supplied, only slightly reducing the couple's suspicions.
Finally, under Gaude's watchful eye, the two went bottoms-up on the two phials. Their eyes turned green for a moment before returning to their previous colors, the result of over a decade of practice in the Skinwalker arts.
"Excellent. Make sure to put the boy into the wizarding prep school by the manor. There might be only two months left, but it's best he goes to Hogwarts knowing at least the bare minimum.", Gaude said as he turned to leave. Irma looked out of the window, expecting to see Gaude walking away, but she saw nobody outside. At the same time, her senses no longer registered his presence nearby.
She looked at Carter and asked: "Is it just me or has he gotten creepier again?"
The two eventually returned to work, Carter to instruct the troops and Irma to take care of all the managerial paperwork. Having been put in charge with all the knights alongside Carter, she had chosen office work during her pregnancy and found it more suitable for her later.
A little before eight PM, Irma was the first to arrive home. She was soon followed by Harry, Iris and two more girls.
Instead of the worried look Harry had only a few hours ago, his face was flushed pink and he was panting slightly. There was an unmistakable smile on his face, much more fitting for a boy his age.
Irma could hear Iris saying: "You're lucky you're with us. All the dragons know is fighting all day and the night people don't even come out before it goes dark."
"What are night people?", Harry asked.
"They're smelly and-", Iris whispered the next bit, "if you leave your window open during the night, they sneak into your bedroom and drink your blood!"
"Iris!", Irma admonished, "you shouldn't spread rumors about other people behind their back. The night people as you kids call them, do not sneak into people's bedrooms to drink their blood. They have plenty of it in their stabos."
Harry wasn't sure which one was worse: people who would sneak in while you're sleeping to drink your blood, or those who had a fridge full of the stuff. It had to come from somewhere.
After a plentiful dinner, Irma said: "Harry, come along. I'll show you to your room."
Harry, used to following orders, did exactly that. He followed Irma up the stairs, down the corridor and into the third room on the right. He didn't have too many expectations for his room. He thought it would be nice if he could at least stretch himself properly again when he went to sleep.
Once the door opened and Harry saw what was inside, his eyes became as wide as saucers and he exclaimed: "Wow! This is much bigger than Dudley's!"
"I'm glad you like it," Irma replied, "because now we don't have any spare rooms left in the house."
Irma then opened a wardrobe and said: "Here are a few sets of clothes for you. They're stretchy, so they should be good enough to wear while you're here. If you still manage to grow out of them, we can just go and get you a new set."
Not only was he just given this huge room, he even had a closet full of clothes! Even better, all the clothes looked good on him, like they were made for him!
Harry's eyes became moist again as he mumbled 'thank you'.
Irma decided to give the kid the rest of the day to get familiar with the room. Seeing Harry so happy for so little, it made her feel like she was doing something right, regardless of the fact that she was under orders from Gaude.
Harry who had so far only been sleeping on a ragged baby mattress, launched onto the large bed.
He sunk in by half an inch immediately. He imagined lying down on a cloud should feel like this. He stretched himself, something he hadn't been able to do in the broom cabinet for a while, and in a few moments, he was already asleep.
---
Harry didn't dare to open his eyes the next morning. 'It was all a dream.', he thought to himself. Who would believe that somebody would actually come and bring him away? 'When I open my eyes, I'll be back under the stairs.'
Suddenly, he could hear knocking.
Harry's heart sank. Next, it would be Aunt Petunia telling him to get up.
Still, he didn't open his eyes. He wanted the dream to last just a little while longer.
But, his expectations weren't met. A girl's voice shouted from the other side: "Come on, Harry, get up! The breakfast is ready! We got to get to school in half an hour!"
Immediately, his eyes sprang open. Instead of the badly-lit cabinet, he found himself in the room from his dream. It wasn't Aunt Petunia knocking, but Iris!
"I'm coming, I'm coming!", Harry shouted, getting his feet stuck in the blanket and nearly falling to the floor face first. Why he was told to get ready for school, he didn't understand, but right now he didn't care! Even after sleeping and waking up, he was still in a place where he had made so many new friends!
He took a while to look for his glasses before fixing his clothes and opening the door. The door to his very own room.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
DemiLich
DemiLich I've decided to run two story lines in parallel during the second volume, one is Harry going for the canon, with some changes, the other is Gaude doing his thing. I think that by this point it's obvious that Gaude won't be going to Hogwarts to study magic.
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