Exploring Harry Potter's life
Chapter 21
Previous Chapter Next ChapterThey landed in the middle of the Dursley's living room and judging from the outside, it was in the middle of the afternoon. They heard some noise coming from the kitchen and they all started to move towards the sounds.
They saw Harry, standing on a small little step stool and reaching for little jars and small canisters of spices, he had to stand on tiptoe just to reach the things he needed. He was shaking a canister of spice over a boiling pot when they heard the doorbell ring.
"BOY! GET THE DOOR!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the living room, which was, maybe, ten feet away from the aforementioned door. Harry turned the stove off, placed a lid on top and wandered out to the front door.
They followed him, so far this wasn't so bad, was this really a bad memory? Harry opened the door to find a much younger Dr. Clark he had reddened eyes. The present day Dr. Clark's hand flew to his mouth.
"I know what day this is. Oh...Harry..." said Dr. Clark weakly.
"How do you know?" asked Ron worriedly.
"This is the only time I came for Harry, alone." said Dr. Clark.
"Hello, Dr. Clark! What can I do for you?" said Harry brightly.
"Take them outside!" shouted Uncle Vernon, not knowing it was only Dr. Clark. "I don't want them in here!"
"Yes, sir." said Harry, he shut the door behind himself and The Watchers found themselves outside.
"What is it, Dr. Clark?" said Harry happily.
"Harry...um...let's...let's go for a ride." said Dr. Clark finally, his throat seemed to be constricted by something. He picked the smiling young boy up and took him to his car.
The scene shifted forward and they found themselves in a park. They watched as Dr. Clark, with Harry in his arms, came walking towards the bench The Watchers were standing in front of.
They watched as Dr. Clark sit Harry on his lap. Dr. Clark looked tired, and very upset, while Harry was bouncing around, excited to get out of Privet Drive.
"Harry I need to talk to you, about something." said Dr. Clark.
"What is it? Is Officer McFinn and Mrs. McFinn coming? Are we going somewhere?" said Harry excitedly.
"No, Harry, James and Holly aren't coming. I need to tell you something, very important."
"What is it?" smiled Harry.
"Dear God, I can't watch this." said the older Dr. Clark. He turned his whole body to face away from his past self, and little Harry. But he slowly turned back to face the scene before his eyes.
"Harry, I'm...Off..." he stammered, he looked up into the sky and tears began to well in his eyes. He was used to telling people bad news, but to someone he knew, and loved, it was very difficult.
"Harry...you know...uh...how...Officer McFinn had to...w-work today?" said Dr. Clark thickly.
"Yes, sir." said Harry nodding eagerly.
"W-well Of-Officer McFinn got called to a store today, and...well...he was met with some very bad people. They were taking things that didn't b-belong to them, and they were using guns to try and hu-hurt people..." said Dr. Clark, trying to explain to Harry what was wrong. He had to be very careful about how he put things, but he wasn't too sure how to go about it.
"And Officer McFinn got them no problem!" yelled Harry happily throwing his arms into the air in victory.
"There was a problem, Harry." said Dr. Clark sadly, Harry's hand's slowly lowered. "They came out shooting their guns at anything and everything. There was...a little boy in the street, Officer McFinn saw him and tr...tried to get him out of there. Officer McFinn got hurt, very badly. They had to bring him to the hospital."
Harry had a look of the utmost horror. "Officer..." he hopped off Dr. Clark's lap and wanted to run back to the car and go to the hospital. But Dr. Clark caught him before he could touch the ground.
"Let me go! I wanna see him, LET ME GO!" yelled Harry, kicking in the air.
"Oh, Harry!" moaned Mrs. Weasely.
"Harry," said Dr. Clark, he grabbed Harry's legs and cradled the little boy. "Harry, I'm sorry, we didn't want to tell you, until we had no choice, Officer McFinn is...he's...gone..." he said, stray tears falling from his eyes.
Harry stared at him, it was several minutes before Harry even moved. He started to shake his head, "No...he can't...he..." Harry started to cry, uncontrollably. Dr. Clark hugged him tightly, Harry screamed and pounded his small fists against the man's chest. Passersby were standing around staring, some were even dialing 999* to get the police to come and get the boy away from the man, they suspected, was hurting him.
Several minutes later, police officers came out to the park and saw who it was, and who he was consoling. The officers reassured the people around that Dr. Clark was breaking really bad news to the little boy. Some people weren't convinced, especially when Harry gave a soul-wrenching scream.
When Dumbledore and all the other Watchers heard the scream, they all flinched, and covered their ears. Almost all the adults wanted to just pick Harry up and hold him tightly, whisper to him that everything is going to be alright, but they knew they couldn't.
Harry couldn't be consoled by anybody, he cried, screamed, and beat his small fists into Dr. Clark for twenty minutes more, until finally and unwillingly, he cried himself to sleep. Dr. Clark continued to hug him tightly and rock him back and forth gently. He looked up to the one of the officers that stayed behind.
"I'm going to take him to Holly's, don't know if that will help, but she wanted to see him." he said standing up.
"Okay, you want me to drive you? So you don't need to put the little guy down?" asked the officer.
"No, I'm fine. Thank you for coming by." said Dr. Clark standing up carefully.
The scene shifted forward once more and they found themselves in a very nice and tidy little house. They saw Harry laying on a sofa and the same lovely woman that was at the Track races. Instead of smiling and laughing, she was crying into Dr. Clark's shoulder.
"Oh...Sam...what am I going to do? He was my world, my best friend!" she cried.
"I know Holly, he was great man. God!" he said bitterly. "I can't believe it, I still can't believe it!"
"Do you know if he was in any pain?" she asked after a half an hour of crying. "I don't think I can.."
"No, he didn't feel a thing, it went straight through his spine. Do you need help with any arrangements, Holly?" asked Dr. Clark carefully.
"No, no, Chief Harrison and his wife are helping me take care of things. I would like some help with Harry though." she said looking back towards the small figure on her couch.
"You've got it, I could never abandon him now." said Dr. Clark sadly.
"How did he take it?" she asked, walking over to him and brushing the bangs out of his tear-laden eyes, and throwing a fluffy blanket over top of him. She gently pulled the thumb out of his mouth.
"Really, really bad. The way he screamed, it tore my heart right out of my chest. Little guy's been through hell, and he's being thrown into a repeat performance. I don't know who has it in for this kid, but whoever it is, demon or human, they'll have me to deal with." said Dr. Clark, sitting beside the couch and rubbing Harry's little head.
Harry whimpered and opened his eyes, he looked at Mrs. McFinn, who still had some evidence of crying, then he started crying again. She sat one the couch and pulled him into a comforting embrace.
The scene shifted once more and they were now standing in a church cemetery. Harry, Dr. Clark, and Holly were standing in front of a large crowd and facing towards a dark brown casket. They saw Harry, dressed in a little blue suit and holding a lily, while Dr. Clark and Mrs. McFinn held a rose, each. Harry walked up and placed the lily on the casket and backed up slowly, not taking his eyes off the coffin, tears still flowing from them. The Watchers stared in amazement, as people walked past and give Mrs. McFinn hugs and reassuring words of sympathy, the Queen herself, came and placed a blue rose on the casket offered her condolences to Holly, taking her by the hand, and giving her a medal, in honor of Officer McFinn for saving the little boy. She then went over to little Harry and gave him a hug, wiping his eyes with her own handkerchief.
"Why was the Queen there?" asked Hermione, dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief.
"She sort of took to Harry after the garden party I told you about." said Dr. Clark sadly.
Once again, the scene shifted and they saw, Harry, it was the same day, but his clothes were once again the same oversized ones he normally wore around the Dursleys. He was carrying pots and pans from the sink to the cabinets, when Dudley shoved him roughly into the stove.
"Oi!" shouted Ron moving forward, but Hermione held him back.
"You can't do anything remember?" she reminded him.
"Dad says that police officer won't come by anymore. Says that he got shot." said Dudley with a wicked grin. Harry looked down in grief.
Uncle Vernon then came in the kitchen, with a broad, demonic grin.
"See, boy? See, what happens? You're jinxed, anyone that even remotely cares about you, dies. Your parent's died in a car crash, now your precious Officer McFinn was gunned down."
Harry fell to his knees and cried, Uncle Vernon pulled him off the floor by his arm, dragged him to the cupboard under the stairs picked him up and threw him inside the cupboard, like bag of unwanted rubbish.
The scene rushed once more this time, it looked like a few more months had past. They were back in Mrs. McFinn's living room, only this time, it was a sort of party. A giant banner was draped across the southern most wall. "COME HOME SOON!" There were several people that the Watchers didn't recognize, but they saw Dr. Clark in full ceremonial military apparel.
"This was the farewell party for me." said Dr. Clark sadly.
Holly McFinn was walking around with a tray of drinks, the Watchers tried to find Harry but they couldn't. Then Harry came out with a freshly baked pizza. People turned to look at Harry and then they noticed the pizza.
It was a very large pizza, with a golden crust. It's cheese was still bubbling a little bit and steam rose languidly from the pizza. Ron started to drool when he saw it.
"That is one tasty looking pizza, Harry! I've never a pizza with actual meatballs on it though, what do you call it?" said Dr. Clark, throwing an arm around Harry's shoulders.
"Italian Night Pizza," said Harry quietly, he didn't look as happy as some of the other people. "It's got meatballs, pepperoni, mozzarella, parmesan, and asiago cheese, marinara sauce drizzled on top." said Harry just as quietly as before.
Dr. Clark took a slice of the pizza and smiled broadly as the cheese stringed itself between the liberated slice and the rest of pizza that was woefully left behind.
"Looks like the pizza's you see on television commercials." said one of the partiers excitedly.
Harry moved away from the table of food and went to go sit on the sofa. Dr. Clark noticed this and went to go sit on the sofa with him, he continued feasting on the slice of pizza.
"What's up, bud?" asked Dr. Clark. "Normally you're prouder than a peacock when you bring out something you cook."
Harry, leaning back into the sofa, heaved a sigh, "Now you're going away, Officer McFinn is gone, now you are going away too." tears began to form in his eyes.
Dr. Clark put the pizza down on the nearby table and brought him into a large hug. "I won't be gone for long. I'm just going to be gone till they get more doctor's in the area, I'm going to. I'm only going to be gone for a year, I promise, I'll come home, I'll be back by your birthday."
"I didn't keep that promise," moaned Dr. Clark woefully.
"You didn't have much choice, Dr. Clark. You would have, had you of been able to." said Lionus helpfully.
The scene shifted once more to a bawling Harry seated in Mrs. McFinn's house once more and a highly decorated military officer was looking down at them, Harry was being consoled by Mrs. McFinn.
"That was when he was told you were missing, most likely." said Lionus. Dr. Clark placed a tightened fist on his chest and grimaced in pain. The darkness ebbed away and they all found themselves back in the Great Hall.
"That was horrible." said Dr. Clark faintly.
"The first one was much worse." said Bill he then added. "No offense."
"I didn't know." said Dumbledore quietly.
Suddenly, the table of food came back and there was dozens of the same pizzas from the Recollection Scroll and other tasty dinner entrees. People didn't want to eat, not so soon after hearing Harry's scream like he did, and seeing Harry so upset. But the aroma of the pizza's was just too overpowering, Ron was the first one to go over and take a piece of pizza.
"The cheese's just as stringy as it was in the scroll!" he said loudly. He took a bite of the pizza. "Mmmmm...this...is...really, REALLY good!"
People slowly made their way to the table and they helped themselves to a piece of the pizza. Harry came back to the Great Hall, after everyone had one piece at least. Dr. Clark and Ron each had three pieces to themselves.
"What did you think about the pizza's?" said Harry brightly.
Dr. Clark put his piece of pizza down and walked over to Harry and held onto him tightly.
"What the...what's wrong?" said Harry wonderingly, when he felt tears start to soak his shirt, he began to pat Dr. Clark on the back. "What is it? Can't you tell me?"
"We...we saw..." choked Dr. Clark.
"Was it another one of those scroll things? Good or bad?" asked Harry over to Dumbledore.
"It was a bad one. You just found out that Officer McFinn was gone and that Dr. Clark was going away." said Charlie quickly.
"Good thing I missed it, then." said Harry calmly.
One of the Unspeakables had a sudden thought, but he decided to let it go, for now. He would wait till he had some more evidence.
*See! I do learn!
Next Chapter: Chapter 22 Estimated time remaining: 26 Hours, 37 Minutes