Chapter 2 Version 2

The days following Harry’s arrival passed relatively uneventfully. While he occasionally heard other voices downstairs from the various Order members coming and going he didn’t really care to go down and talk to them. He had started to eat again, coming down from his room only for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yet his depression seemed to get worse daily, it wasn’t so much sorrow anymore but deep-rooted anxiety. How on earth am I supposed to fight him, let alone win? Why did I even get picked, I mean what if it was Neville. I would give anything for a normal life right now. In-between his daydreams and bouts of zombie-like mindlessness Harry read some of the other letters that he’d stuffed into his trunk. Most were just Ron and Hermione repeating mostly what they said in their first ones only they were growing more frantic as he continued to not reply. One letter stood out among the others however, this one had been on his bedroom table for several days, finally he managed to decide to open the letter from Ginny.

Dear Harry,
I know you don’t know me as well as you do Ron or even Fred and George, I’ve just always been “Ron’s-little-sister-who-had-a-crush-on-you,” but I’ve always wanted to get to know you better; even just as friends. That’s why I asked you to write me on the train ride. I know what it feels like to loose someone close to you, my cousin, who was also my best friend, died from a fever when she was 9. I was so upset I cried for weeks. Now I know I’m probably just saying the same stuff Hermione is, but I want to tell you it’s alright, you need to cry to let out all your emotions. It isn’t healthy to stay bottled up like you do. You’re going to have to forgive yourself, we came with you, by choice, and the only person to blame is Voldemort. We all are worried about you, especially mum, she’s going nutters.

Love,
Ginny

Harry unconsciously let out a breath of relief. For some reason he couldn’t exactly place he was most worried about Ginny’s reaction to what had happened that night. Although it was essentially the same stuff that Hermione and the others were saying when it came from Ginny it had a different sense to it, he couldn’t exactly place it but as he re-read the note he felt a slight glimmer spark in his chest, a spark he recognized to be hope. However brief it was it certainly was refreshing, and although he did once again have the strange dream about the small glass box that evening he did not feel as tense as he usually did when he awoke.

As Harry’s mind would wander over the prophecy he would watch the street in front of headquarters from above. While there wasn’t much interesting going on this dead-end street one person had caught his attention. For the past few days he’d seen a young black haired girl playing with some of the other kids that were out of school. While at first nothing immediately struck him about the girl, as the days went by he started to notice that she was not really fitting in with the rest of the group. She would play tag, or ball with the others but would always be picked last or always get ganged up on. Harry felt a pang of sorrow for the little girl, it started to remind him of his childhood, of being teased or ganged up on by the school bullies or jocks.
As more and more days went by with the same sort of things happening to this little girl Harry’s conscience kept jabbing at him harder and harder to do something. Just a week after seeing the little girl Harry was trying to do some of his summer potions work when he heard laughing from outside. He set his quill down thankful for the distraction from the mind numbing work. Outside was the usual group of kids yet this time instead of playing they were just grouped in a circle laughing and pointing at something in the middle. He couldn’t make out what exactly it was at first but when one of the boys shifted a little bit Harry’s stomach dropped. Right there, lying on the pavement was the girl, only now she was obviously crying and strangely had bright blue hair. Harry’s muscles tensed as his anger flared, he grabbed his wand, and headed downstairs to help her. As he came stomping down the stairs Tonks came out of the hallway.
“Oy, Harry, whotcher up to?” She asked, sipping on some tea, then she saw his expression as he marched towards the door, “Blimey Harry what’s wrong? I know my food isn’t good but don’t get angry about it” She tried to joke as she chased after him.
“Don’t worry Tonks it’s nothing, I’m just going to check on something…” Harry said before slamming the door shut.

Outside the groups was still surrounding the little girl. The largest boy in the group, a blonde haired, podgy boy, that reminded Harry of his cousin, seemed to be leading the group. He walked up closer to them feeling like he could break it up pretty quickly seeing that they were all at least three years younger than him.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Harry asked, pretending to be genuinely curious.
The group stopped and turned to face the young wizard. The weeks without eating and the grief had carved out a new, rather gaunt face for Harry, one that seemed to scare the kids. The kid he had assumed was the leader stepped forward, “nothing to see, we’re just dealing with a freak.”
Harry stepped closer, finally managing to get another view of the girl who was now curled up crying. He moved to take another step towards the big brute when Tonks grabbed him by the shoulder and swung him around.
“What in Merlin’s name are you doing Harry? You know how dangerous it is being outside these days. Come on get inside before anyone sees us” she tried to drag him away but instead he just turned the other way. Pushing aside the people in the group he knelt down by the girl. When Tonk’s saw the state of the young girl she rushed to follow him. “You lot best get out of here sharpish, next time I see you around here I’m calling the police!” With that and a menacing look Tonks managed to disperse the group of kids.
The little girl looked up at Harry. She had steel grey eyes that were bloodshot from crying, pale skin covered in freckles, and somehow had foot long shocking blue hair in place of her normal black hair. The anger Harry had originally felt was now replaced with a deep sense of compassion. This little girl was going through the same thing that he had to deal with as a child. “Hey, my name’s Harry Potter, and this is Tonks. You don’t have to worry anymore; we got rid of those other kids. What’s your name?” Harry asked as gently as possible.
She stared into his eyes for quite a while, for some reason he felt the same tension build as when he would look into the Headmaster’s eyes. Finally, after what must have been careful deliberation she whispered, “my name’s Emma Massey.”
“Well Emma, it’s very nice to meet you. Why don’t you get up and we’ll sit on the bench over here.” Harry said holding out a hand to the little girl. Only when she reached for his hand did they see the rather large scrape that went down her entire left arm. Tonks gasped, “okay, lets get you situated and I’ll be back in just a second, I have some stuff to fix your arm up in just a second. Harry if anything happens get inside house ASAP.” Waiting until Harry acknowledged that she then turned and jogged back to the house.
Harry turned back around to see the little girl quietly crying to herself. Harry suddenly felt very out of place, he’d only been around one other crying girl, and that was with Cho Chang; he had no real idea about what to do to comfort the girl so he just tried to talk to her hoping to distract her. “So Emma, I like the blue hair, do you think that I should dye mine a colour? How about pink, it’d match with my friend Tonks’ hair.”
She looked up at him, “You should dye it green, it would match your eyes.” She looked shocked at herself for saying something so bold and instantly looked down again. Harry had to laugh, “well I guess green would work. I think my friends would think I was off my rocker though if I showed up with green hair.” Harry chuckled, “so why did you dye it?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know how I did it, we were just playing tag when Cody pushed me, that’s how I got this, and when I stood up again everyone just started laughing at me. They think I’m a freak, they think that because weird stuff happens to me I’m cursed, or something.” She finished sadly, delicately plucking pieces of gravel out of the cut.
“Don’t listen to them, they’re just a bunch of brutes. You know what? I was the same way when I was your age. Weird things happened to me all the time, and I would always get picked on by my cousin and his bullies. Who cares really if you have blue hair, or…”
“…can make things disappear. If I get upset sometimes I make things just disappear. I once made Jonny Templeton’s chair move out form under him after he threw a spit ball at me too.” She added, smiling slightly at the memory. Harry stopped, not believing what he had just heard, did she just admit to making things disappear and move? That’s impossible! Not for a witch… his inner monologue responded. “Hey Emma, how old are you?”
“I’m going to turn eleven in a month! My mum said that she’s going to take me to go pick out a dress for the party we’re having.” Emma replied happily, forgetting the tears that had so consumed her.
“That’s great, well if I don’t see you before then Happy Birthday!” That means she’ll probably be getting her letter from McGonagall sometime soon if she really is a witch. “Well I wouldn’t worry about getting pushed around anymore, they just need a good scare. Oh looks like Tonks is coming back.”
Tonks, it turned out, was a skilled healer and soon had Emma’s arm cleaned and patched up; Harry even saw her slip in a few drops of some healing potions. “Well there we are! All cleaned up in tip-top shape, just make sure you change the bandage tomorrow okay? If you ever need help or just want to talk feel free to stop by…” Tonks paused remembering the fidelius charm placed on the Order’s headquarters. “…well if you see us around come and say hi.”
“Can I visit your house sometime? It looks really cool, I like how it’s bent around the other buildings.” Emma asked.
Harry looked nervously over at Tonks who just shook her head slightly, “You like the house? What do you think of the front doors?”
“They’re okay, sort of creepy though. What does toejures pure mean?” she asked wrinkling her brow as she tried to pronounce the Latin word.
Tonks smile faltered just momentarily as she realized that the girl really and truly could see the headquarters, inscription and all. Harry was first to respond, “Its Latin for always pure, it’s our family’s motto.”
“Cool, well thanks for helping me Harry and Tonks. It’s almost time for dinner though so I’m going to go home before my mum gets mad at me.” She hopped off the bench and started to run home then paused, a moment later she turned back and gave Tonks and Harry a quick hug and said “thanks” again before running off her blue hair flapping behind her.
As Harry and Tonks headed back to headquarters they discussed the ramifications of that little girl being able to see the house. “Well we know that she’s a witch, or at least a squib, I was talking to her when you were gone and she said that weird things happened to her. She’s made things disappear, or that’s why her hair changed too. If she can see it does that mean the fidelius charm is broken?”
“I’m not sure Harry,” she mumbled as she opened the door, “but I think we better floo the headmaster.”