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Little Whinging
–Albus Dumbledore–
His vision was tinged with the fires of a Phoenix for a moment before it cleared up to show an ordinary suburban street, for the muggles anyway.
The Fires of a Phoenix. A marvellous phenomenon, definitely worthy of a deep study, and yet, no way to do so. Phoenixes were very intelligent creatures, on top of being highly attuned with magic.
Sufficiently powerful wizards had their magic interwoven with their actions, thoughts and emotions. Something that a Phoenix can easily pick up, and thus, whenever someone wants to conduct any kind of research on those marvellous creatures, they get away.
Due to their unique abilities, getting any one of them to participate in any forceful manner was impossible, resulting in a lack of information on any Phoenix.
Fawkes was rare, a contracted Phoenix, and yet, even he knew that should he push, Fawkes would leave him in a heartbeat. Something in their innate instincts to protect themselves from being studied in any manner.
Fawkes disappeared a moment later, as he looked at the ordinary house with one of their so-called cars parked outside. He had purposely chosen a day when Vernon Dursley would be working, but had come at a time when the kids were done with their schools.
Muggle schools were inadequately equipped to deal with Muggleborn wizards, especially those of Harry's calibre, but circumstances forced him to have Harry placed in those schools, until he was ready to be called back into the wizarding world. He had naive hopes that a month's worth of remedial studies could act as a replacement for never having grown up in a magical household, but it was the best he could do at the time, with his trust having been broken by Sirius.
He simply could not find it in himself to trust anyone with Harry. The future of the wizarding world could not be endangered, which is why he went ahead and placed Harry with people who were simply unaware of the turmoil that the wizarding world had gone through.
Shaking his head, he banished those thoughts, a habit he had unfortunately picked up from being alone with his thoughts most of the time, and began walking to the house. He only had a small window of time before Vernon came home and he would like to make his decision clear before approaching the muggle man, interacting with whom was… unpleasant at best.
Ideally, getting a report from Figgs before approaching the house should have taken precedence but he had a nagging feeling that they were fast approaching out of time, and he needed to see things with his own eyes to make the decision easier.
As he crossed the road, his clothes shimmered before they began changing. By the time he rang the bell, he was dressed in a three piece suit, with a cane in his hand, and a rather dashing hat on his head, with his beard neatly trimmed and braided, courtesy of yet another relic from the Ancient Ruins.
A rather useful trinket that allowed one to save, for lack of a better term, an avatar, a get up, an outfit, and with a mental flick, the relic would transfigure the current outfit into the saved one, instantly.
All stuff that most wizards could do with ease, but having the ability to switch between multiple saved outfits at a thought did have its use, especially for someone who had to blend in between multiple muggle crowds and then wizards as well.
He waited patiently outside, noting the sound of feet thumping on stairs as a muffled "I got it!" reached his ears before the door swung open and he was greeted with a rather healthy child, not obese but very close to it, who looked up at him with beady eyes, "Yes?"
He smiled at the child he hoped would be the Dursley child, "Hello, I am Albus Dumbledore. I hoped to meet Harry Potter. Is he home?"
"Harry?" The child mumbled before shaking his head, "Harry is not home. Mom has gone to pick him up. They should be home soon. You should wait here." Saying so, the child closed the door on him, quite rudely at that.
He smiled wryly at himself at the sound of additional locks being engaged behind the door. It would seem that the child did not trust him. He wondered why. His outfit was immaculate, and he was only polite in their interaction.
Still, it would be beneath him to cast magic on a child, just to force his way in. So, he just turned around and did as instructed.
Pick Harry up, huh? He wondered why that was necessary. Clearly, not from the Muggle school, since the young Dursley was already at home.
As he was seated on the stairs of the Dursley house, his eyes slid over seemingly nothing, but he was not seeing with his eyes at the moment. He was sensing the Blood Wards with his magic and to his relief, nothing of note had happened.
Aside from that incident more than two years ago, something that the Unspeakables told him to stop looking into, there had thankfully been no issue with the Blood Wards. Obviously, he had not given up on that incident, and as a direct response, had implanted even better surveillance in this area, allowing him to track even the slightest hint of magic.
Unfortunately, that single incident seems to have been a one time issue because other than that, he had not been able to detect even a single wizard coming in this area, which was expected since this was a suburban area with a dead end. There were no other wizards who lived here anyway and he had tuned it to ignore Arabella Figgs, since she was a squib who had trace amounts of magic in them.
He looked up as the sound of the car reached his ears, seeing a blue vehicle come towards the house. He stood up, noting the reaction of Petunia, as the doors of the car flung open and Harry–
His thoughts stuttered to a halt as he saw Harry coming out of the car, smiling, happy, and looking healthy, but dressed in a black and white outfit, something he had not seen so far.
Harry was about to run forward to the house, but Petunia, held him back, as Harry looked confused at being held back. Petunia whispered something to Harry as Harry looked at him with a narrowed gaze before taking a bag too big for his size out of the car and running to the back of the house, presumably to enter the house through the back door.
Petunia, then, approached him with a nervous smile. He resisted the urge to read her thoughts as he greeted her with a smile, "Good evening, Petunia. I thought Harry's schooling would be done for the day. Where did you pick him up from?"
Petunia looked nervous before she replied, "He has martial arts training in the evening, after school. I pick him up every day at the same time. I thought you knew," The accusation was clear in her tone.
His smile dimmed as he realised that he had not kept a close enough watch on Harry. Martial Arts training? That sounded dangerous.
He wondered why they enrolled him in something like that. It had been quite clear to him over the years that the Dursleys only put in the bare minimum effort required to raise Harry, something that bugged him but not something he could do anything about, not without using questionable mind magic anyway.
He smiled as he said, "I think it's nice that Harry has hobbies of his own, and you are supporting them. I would love to talk more about it."
She smiled nervously, a tremble flickering through her hands before she controlled it, nodding as she went into the house.
___xx___
–Damian Hawthorne–
He smiled as he saw Vernon receive a letter on his desk at work, the man paling in fright, his thick neck twisting to look at his surroundings before slumping in defeat and opening the letter with an air of resignation.
He was in Vernon's current office building, watching the man through the small window on his corner office, the man having received quite a promotion when his previous company was bought by the current one.
Magic, some meta knowledge, and a little bit of common sense went a long way in securing quite a bit of assets in the non magical world, even with the world's governments being aware of the wizarding issue.
As long as he did not overtly use mind magic to just drive a company into the ground, interfere with money to the tune of billions, or take control of companies that controlled sensitive stuff like private defense, he had free rein with the corporate world.
He did exactly that and used a small company to buy out Vernon's company and then gave the man a job that sounded fancy but was functionally useless. All Vernon had to do was come to the office every day, sign where his assistant told him, attend a meeting once a month, and go home.
A six figure paycheck in return for doing essentially nothing, which sounds like a dream come true for many people, but not so much in the case of Vernon Dursley here.
See, he knew about the Blood Wards and Dumbledore's anal obsession with Harry and any other wizard coming near him, which is why he'd hired a Private Investigator to conduct a thorough review of Harry's living conditions.
The results of which infuriated and relieved him in equal measure. There was no outright abuse involved. He had ample space to live, and enough clothes, and essentials, along with ample food, if a bit unhealthy.
Aside from that, there was nothing else. Harry did all the chores, got none of the gifts, had to stay home for days on end when the Durslets went out for vacation, and got no pocket money in return.
The PI told him that it was neglect as well, just not something that would be physically visible. It would still fall under abuse and would have Harry taken from the Dursleys, something that he wanted to avoid.
So, he did this.
Forced Vernon into a job where he could not grow, would not find any meaningful experience and for someone of his age, finding a job with the same title and salary was something that required great effort, effort that Vernon, at his age, was not inclined to exert.
Ergo, he owned Vernon.
He smiled as Vernon received the instructions, along with a periodic reminder of who owned his ass, before the letter burst into flames. He had already charmed the letter with a mild Notice me Not that would activate as soon as Vernon himself would touch the letter, creating a nice demonstration of magic to Vernon, which terrified him whilst also stopping anyone from noticing any magic.
He turned around and disappeared from the office, satisfied with knowing that Vernon knew his place, appearing back in his London hideout. He had some supplies that were supposed to be delivered a day ago at a specific address in London.
A magical delivery, to be made at a specific place at a specific time, something that he gave a great deal of money for. Since he did not receive that delivery, it meant something had gone wrong.
Now, even he, with his advanced understanding of magic and enchantment, could not do all on his own. He needed stuff-books, materials, potions, blood, and more from the magical markets, and for that, he had developed a persona.
A ruthless persona, dealing exclusively with the dark underbelly of the wizarding world, something that Master Corven heavily frowned upon, but since it was quite literally out of his hands, as long as he did not do something stupid like hurting innocents or outing himself as a wizard in public, he was fine.
Now, time for the Giant Killer to reappear in Knockturn Alley, after 6 months.
It would seem people had assumptions about his disappearance. They probably mistook it for a sign of weakness.
Time to remind them why he was given that name in the first place.
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A/N - A recurring criticism about the chapter length has me writing chapters that are all 2k+ now. The entire Patreon backlog now also reflects that.
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