Next Time Around

The orphanage

She ran towards it, checking the temperature of the babe. What if the poor tyke had gotten a cold? Whoever would leave such a vulnerable small child out in the cold like that? Happily, it seemed like the cot and the child within were still at a reasonable temperature, and the matron took the baby inside to see what to do with him.

Meanwhile, Harry had woken up and was thinking frantically about what he was missing about the whole "I was abandoned" look he had going on.

Of course... a letter. He quickly started focusing on all the information needed and conjured a letter. He would have rather transfigured something, as conjurations only lasted for a maximum of about five days, but so be it.

He was carried into what he thought was the meeting room for all of the people working in the orphanage, and put, cot and all, on a cozy looking couch. Another couple of startled gasps were heard as other workers within the orphanage spotted him as they walked in to what Harry thought was a daily meeting.

The person who had brought him inside started the meeting.

'As you can all see, we have a... a new addition to the group, I think. I found him on the stairs to the front door. I... he...' she sighed. 'I really don't know what to do with this. Who dumps a child on the stairs to an orphanage, for God's sake.'

She was quite shaken up. In all of her six years of underpaid working here, there had never been a case like this one.

A male worker, a cook, Harry thought, spoke up after a short silence.

'There's a letter in his blankets I believe. Shall I just... shall I take it? Read it I mean?'

After some positive mumbling, the man went to grab for the letter in between the off white sheets Harry was wrapped up in. Harry was still pretending to be asleep, and was consequently not responsive. The man opened the letter. He read the contents, of which Harry was quite proud, out loud. For about five minutes of work, it was certainly not bad.

'Hello sir or miss,

With this letter is my brother. He is one. His birthday is on the 31st of July. His name is Hadrian. Hadrian Potter. Mummy doesn't like him much. She yells a lot. Not to me though, but she says that Hadrian's daddy was very mean and that he would be mean too. And freakish. And she said all kinds of bad words. So I thought she would be happier if Hadrian was somewhere else, and mummy was talking about Wool's being a place for kiddies with no daddy or mummy. So Hadrian can go here.

Hadrian's brother'

It was complete crap of course, but Harry thought it sounded believable enough. There were a lot of Potters, so tracing down his family would be very hard, and all of the important stuff was in the letter anyways.

Meanwhile in the room it was silent. Everyone was shocked and most people were just looking around at each other, exchanging looks of pity and sympathy for the small child, who definitely didn't deserve such a rough start to life. The poor child, so young and already in such a bad situation.

Someone cleared their throat. 'The mother. Was she... was she raped, you think?'

The cook nodded his head slowly. 'Yes. I do think so.' He whispered in a scratchy voice.

Another woman, stout with slightly beady eyes, coughed once. Immediately, all eyes were on her. Harry suspected that she was either the director or simply an incredibly domineering figure in the hierarchy of the orphanage.

'Well why don't we give the child a room and put him in the system, hmm? What it done is done, and no one has ever gained anything with procrastination.' When no one really moved, she added a small hand gesture and said in a shrill voice: 'Chop chop now, we don't have all day.'