"But she didn't," Dudley gulped. "I mean, the bank owned most of it. Mortgage."
"Mortgage," Draco blankly repeated.
"They borrowed money to buy the house," Harry explained.
Draco's expression adopted a faintly sneering superior air, as if he was thinking, Borrowing money, how very vulgar.
"If your aunt could ward a place she didn't literally own, then Dudley's lack of ownership here can't be at issue," Snape mused out loud, his black eyes calculating possibilities. "And with the physical presence of his blood bonded to the spells, his lack of residence shouldn't be the problem, either. So why did the spell fail?"
Dudley suddenly laughed, a smile breaking out on his fat face as he stared at the three puzzled wizards. "It's him," he announced, pointing a pudgy finger at Harry. "He's the difference between that situation and this one. Isn't it obvious?"
Snape glanced at Harry, who only shrugged. "Yes?" the Potions Master prompted.
Dudley leaned his elbows on the table. "Of course your spells wouldn't work," he explained. "Harry was supposed to be living on Privet Drive. We were his family, bad as we were at it. And the spell is a family thing, isn't it, his mother's blood and all that? Harry belonged with us, had a right to be with us. This place is just a set of rooms to him. The blood dripped straight through that gooey magic thing because it saw that he doesn't have any real right to live here!"
Snape stared at Harry for a long moment, his gaze piercing as he considered that argument. Then, without any warning, he shoved his chair back and strode for the Floo, his robes billowing. Curious, the three boys stood and followed.
Snape threw a handful of powder into the fireplace, called for the headmaster, and waited until the man's head appeared in the flames. Then, he had just one question.
"Albus, if you bring your considerable influence to bear, how soon can I be signing adoption papers on Harry Potter?"
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Coming Soon in A Year Like None Other:
Chapter Thirty-Nine: Paradigm Shift
Comments very welcome,
Aspen in the Sunlight
Chapter 39: Paradigm Shift
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=5036&chapter=39
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A Year Like None Other
by Aspen in the Sunlight
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Chapter Thirty-Nine: Paradigm Shift
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Silence, absolute dead silence after the startling question Snape had tossed forth.
And then, several noises at once.
A thud, as Harry's legs buckled and he sat straight down on the dungeon floor.
Draco, snarling something foul as he stalked to the bedroom door and slammed it with so much force that the sound echoed across the stone rooms.
And Dumbledore, his head still in the fireplace, calmly saying, "Severus, perhaps we should discuss this in my office. Would you Floo up here straight away, please?" With that, he vanished from sight.
Snape turned to Harry, who stared back up at him with shocked green eyes. For a moment that seemed to stretch out into infinity, the Potions Master just looked at him. Waiting for him to speak? Harry didn't know. Besides, he didn't think he could speak, or even croak. Not one word.
"Severus," an impatient, disembodied voice beckoned from the Floo.
That broke Snape out of his contemplation... or whatever it was. "Are you going to be all right?" he asked Harry, bending down to pull the boy to his feet.
Harry nodded, a little surprised that his legs were able to support him. Then he shook his head. Then he shrugged. Actually, he wasn't sure what he felt, or even what the question meant... Sure, he was going to be all right as far as say, not fainting dead away on the spot. No, he wasn't going to be all right with being adopted just so that some stupid spell could work! Of course, as spells went, he supposed that this one wasn't so very stupid. It could keep him alive... not that Voldemort likely to come bursting right into the Hogwarts dungeons... still, Riddle had invaded the place before, hadn't he? And sent his minions in as well.
All right, so the spell wasn't stupid at all.
Feeling like he was a rubber band being pulled in about six directions at once, Harry just shrugged again.
"We'll talk when I return," Snape promised, then stepped into the Floo and disappeared in a blazing emerald bonfire.
"Wow," Dudley said, his eyes about as wide as Harry's, though for different reasons. "He just went up in a pillar of flame. Can you do that, too?"
Harry winced, and found he had a voice after all. "I used to be able to."
Dudley nodded, reasoning as he went, "So he went off to talk to that other man? It's a way to travel? Wow. That's really weird. Er... will your teacher be all right?"
That time it was Harry nodding. It felt like his head was too heavy for his shoulders. Exhausted, he sank down onto the couch and leaned his neck back against the cushions. "He won't get burned or anything, Dudley. It's just a way wizards get around. Um, you did see me do it, once, remember?" Harry groaned then, remembering something himself. Dudley had been rather preoccupied the only time Harry had Flooed in front of him. Ton tongue toffee... And it wasn't like he'd seen the Weasleys arrive in the fireplace, either, what with that whole disaster of it having been bricked up.
Dudley smiled, his features relaxing. Harry didn't know what that meant. He was pretty sure his cousin hadn't actually forgotten the horrible incident with the twins' candies.
As it turned out, the smile meant that Dudley's thoughts had moved past that to something far more important. It also meant that he couldn't sense the tension in Harry's frame, because what he said was, "That's really great, though, Harry. I'm happy for you."
Obviously excited, he plopped down on the other end of the couch and sort of bounced as he sat there.
Harry looked up through eyes that felt somehow dry and tight. Or maybe the feeling was in his throat; he couldn't really tell. "Oh, that... I... er, I'm not even sure what he meant by that, really."
Dudley stared at him like he'd grown an extra ear. "Seemed clear enough to me. I guess you're just shocked, huh? 'Bout time you had a dad of your own, if you ask me."
Dad? Harry's stomach did a flip inside him. Then it started twisting like it had the time he'd added too much dragonwort to his Sneezing Syrup. The feeling was awful, just awful. "Dudley..." Sighing, Harry lifted his head so he could look at his cousin. An ache started deep in his temples and radiated out to wrap around his head as he tried to find the words that would make Dudley understand. "Don't say anything like that again, all right? Especially not once Professor Snape gets back here. Because... well, assuming he even really meant what he seemed to, he's really not the... um, dad type, all right?"
Dudley was shaking his head, a stubborn look on his face.
"It's just for the spell," Harry explained. "It's... a legality. A technicality. It doesn't mean anything, Dudley!"
His cousin started babbling something, but Harry couldn't hear what, because Draco was storming back out, slamming his wooden door into the stone wall as he flung it open, his voice about as irate as Harry had ever heard it. "You ungrateful little brat!" he flung at Harry. "Doesn't mean anything, eh? Yeah, well when I needed help Severus sure as shite didn't come up with a plan like that for me, did he?"