Uncle Vernon driving in the front row, his face turning a saucy purple, his pair of small eyes peeking at Harry and Sirius in the back row with the help of the small mirror in the car.
Harry could not believe his good fortune, even though he was a little embarrassed to be caught lying by his godfather, but he was now filled with happy emotions. A few minutes before he got off the train, he felt depressed about the fact that he would have to stay with the Dursleys for at least six weeks. He could imagine what it would be like – he’d stay up for two days with a blank look, then the next night he’d open the cupboard downstairs to do his summer homework.
After that it would be a matter of counting the days one day at a time, hoping that the Weasleys would take him out of his misery, and it would be nice if someone sent him a letter in the meantime; he is almost certain that Ron, Hermione, Dobby, and Sirius will at least sent him a birthday card. He even began to calculate in his head that the Dursleys were in Surrey, while the Burrow is in Devon, and Hermione is in London, so if the Granger family have no plans of travelling abroad, perhaps they will meet during the summer …
Sirius’s words interrupted a dazed Harry: “I have a birthday present for you that you’ll love.”
“What is it?”
“I can’t say, I’ve been keeping it from you for a long time, but I can tell you it is perfect and James would have loved it …”
Uncle Vernon turned around a corner, his hand stiffening a bit as his mind wandered through various thoughts: a hippie wizard who didn’t look much different, or even better, from how he had seen him a dozen years ago, he didn’t plan to stay in his house, did he?
He didn’t have the habit of helping his poor relatives, besides he’s a murderer, and even if he isn’t, he’s been in jail, hasn’t he!
“Bang!”
The car’s tire suddenly blew out with a loud bang, and the people inside the car got thrown to the side by inertia, “Watch out Harry!” “Ouch!” “Damn!”
Uncle Vernon slammed the break, and the three remaining intact tires locked tight, rubbing out a trail of sparks on the ground. And the car came to a halt. Uncle Vernon couldn’t hold back any longer, his saliva spewed out as he blurted out a string of swears, Harry looked at him blankly, his mind on the verge of smoking by this point, maybe in the next two days it would die down from an overuse?
Until Sirius said with a black face: “If you don’t shut up, or I’ll glue your mouth shut.” Only then did Uncle Vernon shut up, but after two or three seconds, he muttered in a small voice: “You’re not a murderer, you said so yourself.”
“Don’t need to remind me! Want to show you the stuff I learned in Azkaban?” Sirius growled, but his threats didn’t yield good results because Uncle Vernon didn’t know what that place is, so Harry reminded him in a whisper that it is a wizard prison, to which his little carrot-like fingers twitched, and he finally became quiet.
Uncle Vernon opened the car door with difficulty and got out of the car because he could not squat down, he could only lie on the ground, as he cursed: “The front wheel is flat, there is still halfway from home, to call a tow truck will cost a … a lot of money … ”
Sirius stepped out of the car, his hippie costume attracted a lot of curious eyes, Uncle Vernon yelled at him, “Can’t you just sit back quietly! I’ll call the tow truck in case anyone questions you …”
Sirius pulled out the wand that is pinned to his jeans and used Uncle Vernon’s massive size as a shield to block himself: “Excuse me, help me block the way.” A tiny light flashed, and the car tire immediately became intact.
Uncle Vernon froze and wiped his eyes in disbelief as he growled, “Magic!” His voice was so loud that it sounded like a firecracker that had been lit, but he quickly noticed the anomaly and swallowed his voice as his small eyes darted around.
“You think I’d appreciate that! Freaks, maggots in the gutter! Same as that little monster-”
Sirius moved his wand towards Uncle Vernon’s triple chin and said coldly, “I can already imagine what you did to Harry.”
The rest of the journey went silent for everyone, until the car approached the Privet Drive, when a question suddenly occurred to Uncle Vernon about how he should drive this nuisance out without drawing any attention to himself.
Harry felt it is no longer considered driving, he walked faster than this, the car is completely moving forward little by little.
Sirius also realized that he is not welcomed, maybe from the beginning he knew, but he wanted to see how Harry is getting by. For this reason, he suppressed his temper, but now he is on the verge of an outburst.
“Stop the car.” Sirius said. The car stopped immediately.
He handed Harry a mirror: “This is a two-way mirror, there are two, I have the other one in my hand. If you want to find me, just call me through it, then you will appear in my mirror, and I will appear in your mirror, so we can talk using it. In the past, when James has been away from me, we’ve used this to connect.”
He then looked at Uncle Vernon, “You’re not going to try to stop it, are you?”
“Of course … won’t.”
Harry took the mirror and checked it out, it looked a bit like the Weasley twins’ couple mirror, which he had secretly bought with the intention of giving it to some people he knew, but the twins insisted on not charging for it, and he was too embarrassed to take more.
Harry whispered, “Are you leaving?”
“Yeah, I know this place, 4 Privet Drive.” Sirius said, Uncle Vernon’s body shuddered, Sirius did not pay attention to him, as he continued: “Dumbledore told me that your aunt’s house is enchanted to protect you from the prying eyes of people with a vested interest …”
He turned to Uncle Vernon and said coldly, “It is also protecting you, and you should know that.”
“Enchanted?” “What you have done to my home!”
Sirius said: “Dumbledore did not elaborate, I guess it would be some kind of powerful protective magic, perhaps something like the fidelius charm? I’m not sure …” He hastily changed the subject.
Sirius lied, he and Dumbledore had a heated argument about Harry’s custody, and in order to appease him, Dumbledore revealed more inside information to him.
A total of two layers of protection existed around Harry’s house, one from his mother.
That is ancient magic, the preparation time is extremely long, it belongs to the same kind as a powerful curse as it uses strong emotion like resentment and love to mobilize the magic, but the first is more difficult, need to be filled with full of love to form the power of guardianship, it is prepared by Lily Evans for her unborn child.
But this is only the first step of this magic. Using the bloodline connection as a bond to cast the spell is not uncommon in the wizarding world, what is rare is that there is a follow-up to this ancient magic, where the blood relative who casts the spell voluntarily chooses to sacrifice themselves to greatly enhance the power of this magic, so any spell that harbours malicious intent will automatically bounce off.
“This magic protected Harry once and should have expired at that point, it was I who extended its effect. I was faced with a choice: to target a group of people, or a particular one? What was there to hesitate about? Although Voldemort had disappeared, yes, I admit that he just disappeared, five years, ten years, twenty years … he will definitely return. At that time I had to make a decision, when the others were still celebrating the hard-earned victory, I had begun to think about Voldemort’s return.
So I made the logical choice, and it was the strongest protection I could offer Harry – as long as he still has a place to call home in which he has a relative with the same blood as his mother, he will not be exposed and harmed by Voldemort.”
“For that reason, he has to go back at least once a year and stay for a while.”
The second layer of protection was from Dumbledore, who used layers of magic to cover up 4 Privet Drive. However, it could not be completely closed, for which he set a condition: anyone from the wizarding world with malicious intent would not find this place, even if the address accidentally leaked, the most they could do would be locking an area nearby, like a headless fly trying their chances, and long before that, Dumbledore would be informed.
This is to prevent the remnants of the then Death Eaters from seeking revenge, both for Harry’s protection and the Dursleys’ protection.
“I left this information in Harry’s swaddling clothes, explaining everything, and left reassured when I was sure they had accepted Harry. The future looked promising. I knew the Dursleys weren’t exactly friendly, but it was what I needed at the same time, I didn’t want Harry to grow up in a spoiled environment or be overwhelmed by glory for things he didn’t remember at all.”
“Sirius, I want you to fulfil your godfather’s duties and bring more love to Harry, but at the same time, you must be careful with your words …”
…
Sirius left, and when he left he said to the unhappy Harry: “I’m going to rent a room nearby, you can come over anytime. You can do whatever you want, except you can’t spend the night!”
———-
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