Ner words in this chapter: 2,387
"Talking"
'Thinking'
{Talking on the phone/Floocall/through two-way-mirror}
{Text message}
Thinking in 3rd person POV/Dream/Memory/Flashback/Others
Letter/Journal/Book/Newspaper
Time change/Date of time
Change of POV
Chapter XI
–Look Outside the Box–
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
HL's POV
Hannibal helped Harry to walk out the car into Will's house. It was best not to make the hour drive away to Baltimore yet for the boy, even if Hannibal was doing it for work. Only for them to be met by the pregnant teenage girl they'd helped last week. She smiled back.
"Mr Graham told me which one was your room and I cleaned it up for you when I heard you were coming." She offered.
"Why are you here?" Harry asked as the dogs hurried to his side and several even offered their bodies for him to lean onto as he walked.
"Mr Graham asked me to dogsit and in trade he put me on his insurance." She offered as she opened the door to let them in. "Thank you for helping me."
Hannibal nodded and helped Harry to the couch. As the teen girl moved to the kitchen where Hannibal could see her serve the dogs, he looked at Harry who had a sad look.
"Harry?" He asked quietly.
"Teenage brunette?" The boy asked back and Hannibal hummed affirmatively. "When I was in the in-between when I touched the other soul walking into the next life I saw a pregnant woman... on both times." Hannibal looked up at the female going upstairs with Hedwig on her shoulder to go feed the owl. "Tom's mother died giving birth to him at an orphanage. For all I know he also could have been upside down."
Hannibal sat down besides Harry.
"Did his mother have help?" Harry shook his head. "And we already changed this boy's life. For all we know he will know a happy life this time around."
The relieved breath on the teenage told Hannibal that this worried him beyond reason. One thing was to know that people get reborn, another is to actually meet their reborn version and know that they are the reborn-version.
Hannibal wondered, as he looked at Harry, who Harry and Will used to be before they were reborn. Were they like that or were they turned like that in just this life?
The girl returned, nodded back and left to go to wherever her home was.
–BT–
Monday, 7 October 2013
HJP-L's POV
"Harry!" Harry smiled as he left Professor Graham's car and heard the running. He opened his arms and in no time he was being hugged close by the woman. "It's so good to see you awake."
"It was worth getting into a coma just for this." Harry teased back and even Professor Graham laughed as the woman obviously blushed and released him. "Father is making a dinner party. I want to invite you, Agent Katz."
"Invite me?" She asked surprised as she accompanied them inside Professor Graham's classroom.
"I don't know many people in the States." Harry argued as they entered the classroom. "Father is finally going to finish my adoption paperwork and to formally change my name into a Lecter."
"You aren't a Lecter?"
"Potter. Doctor Lecter was my psychiatrist and won my guardianship when my relatives died, but I was still refusing the adoption. I said father when speaking of him to Professor Graham because it was easier to explain than to call Doctor Lecter to my own Guardian. And he started introducing us as father and son to everyone he knew. But I'm not legally a Lecter yet."
Agent Katz helped Harry to a seat and sat him down.
"And are you certain this is what you want?" She asked.
"My parents died when I was a baby. My relatives treated me like trash, they wouldn't have cared if I had died under Voldemort or not... I Am Lord Voldemort is an anagram for Tom Marvolo Riddle. He hated his name so he changed to one people would've fear." He explained at feeling the two get ready to interrupt. "Father was more to me than anyone else ever was."
The woman leaned down to be at his height in his seat.
"It's a pleasure to be invited to this special moment." She offered and there was a smile on her voice.
Harry nodded and she walked out the classroom. Harry leaned against the seat and then Professor Graham approached.
"Harry, you don't need to keep calling me Professor Graham, you know? Not even my students call me that."
"I was taught to call people by their title before the name. Aunt was always Aunt Petunia, never just Aunt or just Petunia." Harry argued. "It's not proper to just call you Graham and..."
"What about Will instead?" Professor Graham argued and Harry frowned confused. "You know that your father is interested in me." Harry nodded. "Your almost death approached us."
Harry frowned as he tried to understand what that meant and then he felt Professor Graham show him a memory of him and Father holding hands as Harry was being checked by the doctors when Harry had first woken up.
"You mean that you two are...?" Harry started to ask and Professor Graham leaned down on his heels before Harry's table and grabbed Harry's hands over the table.
"Hannibal has been courting me since you first introduced us." He agreed. "And he has been using you and Snuffles as a courtship devise."
"But..." Father was the Copycat Killer that Professor Graham was trying to arrest! "Do you like Father like that?" He asked instead.
"I'm starting to." The Muggle agreed. "Principally when he stops pretending to have all the cards on his hands."
When his mask falls off...
"Would you still like him if he was one of your killers?" Harry asked instead.
The man stayed quiet obviously trying to understand where Harry was going.
"I'm sure that Hannibal would have a real good reason if that was the case." He finally agreed.
"Would've you arrest him even if he had real good reasons?" Harry wondered.
"Would've you?" Professor Graham asked.
"No." Harry argued. "I wouldn't. Does that make me a bad person for it?"
"Are you trying to tell me something with this, Harry?"
"Am I?" Harry retorted back.
There's a long silence which was only interrupted by the students starting to arrive. Professor Graham stood and moved to the front. Today's class was on Voldemort. How he killed his father and grandparents and plenty other people along the decades and was never found, because it was 'just' a heart attack. As Professor Graham was obviously showing the slide on Voldemort's death, Harry could hear him stop.
"Why an eye?" One of the students asked. "Why did the Copycat Killer turn him into an eye?"
Harry's eyes grew.
"There's one person who has become immune to his strike. So, Riddle blinded this person instead. The Copycat Killer decided to return the favour." Professor Graham finally replied. "Did Riddle deserve to go out like this? Or should he have been arrested? That is where you need to cross the line and decide."
The bell rang and Harry heard several students claim that it made no sense the eye. Harry stood and took hold of a cloth.
"Hey, what are you...?"
"An eye, right? Green irises?" Harry asked.
"Of course, can't you see?"
Harry released him and took out his glasses.
"No, I cannot. My Killer blinded me when he realized I was immune to his poison. He tracked me down into America and then suffocated me to death."
"Harry!" Professor Graham called.
Harry put his glasses back on, then opened his walking stick and descended the stairs to approach Professor Graham's table.
"Sir, is this true? Is this the boy who is immune to Riddle's poison?"
"Yes. And it was thanks to Riddle tracking him down that he was caught."
Harry stayed quiet as the students left, eventually Professor Graham set a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"My apologies for speaking out of tone." Harry put in.
"Were they arguing over how someone managed to kill people for decades with just a poison?" The Muggle asked and Harry nodded. "If instead of people refusing to believe, they accepted it he would never have last long enough to blind you." The Professor grumbled. "This is why me and Jack decided to give a class on him. To show that just because it seems highly unbelievable, it is still possible." Harry nodded. "It takes at the least two hours from my house here and back." Professor Graham put in and Harry hummed. "Between you going to the hospital and me driving here Riddle was caught by the Copycat Killer and brought here. During that time I left Hannibal in the hospital. And he stayed there with Abigail." Harry nodded amused. "You know what I'm not saying. It's physically impossible for Hannibal to have done this, Harry. You need to understand that."
"What happened before you arrived then?" Harry argued and could feel the Muggle staring back. "Sometimes you need to look outside the box."
"There's no box, Harry."
Harry stopped on his return to the student table, then raised his hand and the entire tables staircase was struck with Harry's pure magic. Being struck against the opposite wall and then fell down in a heap. There's a long silence.
"There's always a bigger box." Harry argued. "Accio." Harry's bag flew into his open hand and he pulled it over his back. "Dobby" the usual pop was heard, "can you fix the mess I made? I lost control of my emotions accidentally." He lied.
"Dobby will clean mess Young Master Harry James Lecter did, right away." Dobby agreed and Harry heard the tables and chairs starting to mend themselves and return to their locations. "Young Master Harry James Lecter want anything else of Dobby?"
"No. Thanks, Dobby." Harry argued.
Dobby popped away and Harry approached Professor Graham.
"That..."
"Is called a house-elf." Harry agreed. "A Creature whose whole job in its life is to serve, but me and Father pay our own."
There's a long moment and then a laughter.
"I thought I was going mad. There's no way Hannibal could be in any of those places unless..."
"Unless magic was involved." Harry offered.
An arm showed besides Harry, who took it out of practice confused.
"You know... even if I could find the physical proof that Hannibal was the one to do it... all I'd prove was that he fought Riddle before he threw him away from you." Harry frowned. "Unless you out to the whole world about your inner abilities? I will forever be Hannibal's own alibi."
Harry hummed as they walked outside the office.
"Will you keep trying to find him?" He asked.
"There was no DNA in the body, not even yours." Harry frowned at the reply and then his eyes grew. "How can I catch someone who can do something as easy as erase all DNA?"
Harry scoffed.
–BT–
Monday, 7 October 2013
HJP-L's POV
Harry accepted the juice bottle from Professor Graham.
"It's pumpkin. I found this store that makes it homemade. I tried it and thought that you might like it."
Harry smiled thankfully and walked with the bottle to the kitchen. The bottle was taken from him by Father.
"Your boyfriend arrived." Harry put in and heard Abigail snort by the side.
"I better go thank him properly." Father agreed amused and walked out the kitchen.
"One dollar that Professor Graham is the one to kiss first." Harry offered.
Abigail scoffed.
"Deal." She agreed and approached to look for him.
They waited and then she gasped.
"You have to translate, Abigail."
The girl moved around and then a bill was set on Harry's hand, making him grin.
"How do you always know?"
"He sounded like he wanted to surprise Father." Harry offered. "Why do you think I called him Father's boyfriend instead?"
Abigail snorted.
"One of these times you'll be wrong." She argued and left the kitchen.
Harry stayed quiet and then a pop was heard besides him. He gave the bill and let Dobby return the money to Abigail's wallet.
"Young Master want something else out of Dobby?"
"Where's Snuffles? Professor Graham would like to see him."
"In his room." Dobby replied. "Young Master wants Dobby to go fetch him?"
"I will." Harry argued and left the kitchen.
Dobby popped away and Harry walked down the corridor and into the room that Father had designed the dog room. He opened the door and approached the mattress on the floor, kneeled down and set a hand on Snuffles' body. The dog moved and then his head was over Harry's hand.
"How is he?" Will asked from the doorway.
"The vet said he could come home, but he hasn't left his room since he returned. He barely eats, barely moves. I know he is an old dog, but I don't want to lose him not even half a year after getting him."
"Let me see." Will offered and approached.
Harry moved back and let the older look around his familiar, touching around and feeling for anything out of place.
"Harry? Will?" Father asked from the doorway.
"Would you mind if I brought Snuffles to my place for a while? See how he reacts alongside the dogs?" Will asked Harry, who shook his head. "I don't feel anything broken, I believe that it's more his spirit because he failed at protecting you than anything else."
Harry frowned.
"My guide-dog needs a shrink?" He asked and the two adults laughed.
"Something like that." Will agreed. "It happens most of the time to the army dogs. Like humans they see too much and most likely this house is not helping. His tremors that you feel is not of pain. Hopefully it's not the rabies, if it is then I fear that he will be beyond saving."
"Why?" Harry asked.
"He'll stop seeing the difference between friend and foe." Will explained.
Harry nodded in tears. Will stood and approached Harry, helping him out the room.
(TBC)