Mentions of abuse, and violence.
"There you guys are!" Jasper exclaimed as he climbed the steps to the Owlery with Christopher in tow.
Harry turned, and so did Anthony. "Hey." Harry said. He walked over to Jasper, and they climbed down the steps to give the brothers a bit more privacy. "Is everything okay now?"
"Uh yeah." Jasper said. It definitely wasn't, but Jasper had a feeling the brother's relationship would be better from now on – well that was the hope. The problem now was their situation. Jasper needed to figure out how to get Child Protective Services involved, but ensure they would stay together. He was holding on to the hope that the Wizarding CPS (if there was one) had a better system. He needed to do some research about it first, and then talk to the two of them. He just needed Christopher to explain the situation, and what they were doing to his brother. He looked at Harry. "Everything will be."
A few minutes later Anthony, and Christopher appeared, and Jasper asked, "You both okay now?"
They both shared a look, and Anthony said, "We will be, but...I get it now, I do. Dad never has never really liked us ever sin–"
"That's putting it mildly." Christopher murmured.
Anthony nodded. "Yes, but I get it." He looked scared, Jasper could not blame him. "But you'll help us?" He asked Jasper. "You'll think you can get us out of the house?"
Jasper replied, "That's the hope."
Harry looked confused. "I'm sorry, what are we talking about?" He looked at the three of them in turn. "Is he getting kicked out or what?"
Jasper looked at Christopher. "You don't have to tell him if you don't want to."
Christopher shrugged. "If he keeps his mouth shut, we won't have a problem."
Harry looked at him confused, and Jasper said, "You can't tell anyone okay? Promise."
Harry nodded slowly. "Well...okay. I promise."
Christopher stared at him, still a bit sceptical, but said, "Odair is going to somehow, I don't know how, get me, and Anthony out of our house. Get CPS involved with...our family situation."
Harry stared at Christopher for a long moment. He turned to Anthony. "When - when you said your dad didn't like you - you meant..." His voice trailed off.
Anthony nodded. "He has some issues..."
"That is no excuse to hurt someone, especially your own kid." Harry said, upset. He could not believe some people were that cruel. "We need to tell someone."
Harry was about to leave, but Jasper stopped him. "No, not yet."
Harry made a face. "Why not? They need to get to safety."
Christopher sighed. "This was a bad idea."
"He just doesn't understand." Jasper said to Christopher. He turned to Harry. "We need proof first, otherwise CPS won't do anything, sometimes even with proof they do nothing."
Harry looked upset. "How do you know all this?"
Jasper shrugged. "Research." He turned to the other two. "So, Harry, and I will see if there is any Wizarding CPS while you both just...relax? We will talk more about it when we are somewhere more private. It has been quite a day, so just...both of you...relax."
Christopher slowly nodded, and Anthony said, "Thanks, Jasper."
Jasper smiled. "No problem."
Anthony hugged him, but quickly let go. "Sorry, that may be weird now since you know–"
Jasper shook his head. 'No, it is okay, I don't mind."
Anthony hugged him again, and Jasper hugged him back. "Thanks so much, for everything."
"It is no problem." Jasper said. "We'll get you both out of there."
Christopher tapped Anthony's shoulder. Anthony let go of Jasper, and turned to her brother. "Okay let's go." Christopher said. Jasper, and Harry could both tell Christopher was still a bit uncomfortable about his brother's sexuality. Anthony nodded, and waved to the both of them as they headed down the stairs.
Everything that had been revealed about the Goldsparks family situation made Jasper think of his brothers, so he quickly wrote a letter to them. So far everything has seemed fine. Toby had been keeping him updated. Edgar had been acting out as Toby worded it. He kept breaking things. They would find glass in front of him, so Jasper was very stressed about that, but the others had said they had fixed it before anything too bad happened.
He watched the owl fly off, thinking. He wondered if there was a wizard CPS that could help his situation, but he needed to do a lot more research before he ever tried to do that. There was the issue that they may not all be wizards. If his siblings were just muggles, it wasn't like wizard CPS (if there was such a thing) could do anything, and the muggle CPS would just separate them all. This is why Jasper had a bit more confidence with the Goldsparks brothers. One, there could be a different better system for wizards, and there were only two of them. There could be a chance there would be a positive outcome for the two of them.
Harry tapped him, and Jasper turned. "How will we be able to help them? Will CPS listen to kids?"
Jasper said, "It depends, but we aren't dealing with muggle CPS, we would be dealing with the wizard CPS, right? So, we need to research to see if there is such a thing, or something that helps magical kids in that situation. There must be something."
Harry nodded. "I'll get my books." A pause. A longer one. "I can't believe some people are like that, hurting your own kids, it's so disgusting." He looked at Jasper, and shook his head. "Some people shouldn't be parents if they're going to do things like that."
Jasper nodded. "Yeah..." He sighed, wishing he didn't relate to this. "I know."
During the duration of March, they focused on trying to help Christopher, and Anthony with their situation, and also did their classes, along with a lot of studying as exams were approaching.
Harry had decided to start a study group because he felt the other Hufflepuffs were not studying enough, so they would have a session every Friday at the end of the day which actually did show to help each of them. An example was, Maryrose, who was having problems with Transfiguration, finally transformed a rat into a teacup.
Harry was also still continuing to teach the other Hufflepuff purebloods in muggle school, and Marty was very fascinated by gravity.
"So how can we fly?" She asked.
"Well..." Harry said. "Magic kind of messes with science a bit. Gravity is an attraction between all matter."
"I love matter." Jonathan said.
"You can't even get through a day without calling an object matter anymore." Gifford remarked, annoyed. "You don't call everything matter."
"I know that." Jonathan said. "But everything is matter!"
"But you don't call everything matter!!" Gifford yelled.
"I do not!"
"You called Professor Virindi matter yesterday!"
Maryrose laughed at that. "That was so funny."
"I just want to blow things up." Dorothy put in.
A lot of the classes went like this. The twins would fight about something (usually regarding matter), Marty, and Maryrose would pay attention, and Dorothy would say how she can not wait to get to the unit where you mix a bunch of liquids together to make a reaction, and of course, she wanted an explosive one.
Now in April, after another muggle lesson was done, the others went down to the common room to tell the older students what they had learned, and Jasper came into the dorm. He did not stay for these lessons as he did not want to hear the twins fight over something or the other. He hopped on his bed with a book.
Harry looked over. It was just the two of them. "What do you have there?"
"I am trying to find a wizard CPS, but nothing." Jasper sighed. "I talked to Christopher, he is doing the same, and said he'll update me soon. Anthony is helping him."
"I don't even think there is a wizard CPS." Harry told him as he had been looking through how kids in need cases were handled in the past. There was never an organisation ever listed like the muggle Child Protective Services. "I think there are adults who help, like the Ministry, or Dumbledore, but there isn't a..." Harry stopped. "Wait, we should ask Dumbledore! He will help!"
Jasper jumped up. "Why didn't we think of that from the get-go? He is like a really important wizard, right? One of the most powerful, I am sure he will be able to help, and I am sure he has connections to the government."
Harry jumped up too. "Exactly!! It is a good idea, so let's go now–"
"Wait." Jasper said. "We still need proof, and we need to inform Anthony, and Christopher, it is their business, we can't go tell people without their permission, it is not right."
Harry nodded. "Well, okay." He sat back down on his bed, as did Jasper. "I have a question."
Jasper looked up from the book. "Yeah?"
Harry bit his lip. "Do you like Anthony? I mean more than a friend?" Jasper opened his mouth to answer, but Harry continued, "Because if you do that is okay! Like, I will still be your friend, because it doesn't matter, I will always support you, and–"
"Harry." Jasper stopped him. "I don't like Anthony like that, I don't like anyone like that right now...but thanks."
Harry nodded. "Okay, just wanted to ask, because I am not sure if the others would be cool with it." Harry told him referring to the twins.
"I think they would be fine." Jasper said. "I mean I don't know much about Christianity, but isn't everyone accepting of everyone?"
Harry shrugged. "You're supposed to be, doesn't mean you are." He went to his trunk, and pulled out a religious book. It was the Bible.
Jasper chuckled. "You have every book under the sun in there, don't you?"
"Maybe..."
A week passed, and Jasper informed Anthony, and Christopher about their idea to go to Dumbledore. Christopher was hesitant, and said to wait until they had done more research on how these cases were done, which Jasper agreed to.
Between studying, teaching muggle school, and helping the Goldsparks with their situation, Harry had also been having dreams about that kid again, and it was very infuriating as it just brought up the memory that this kid hated him for his blood status. He had to have left for a reason right?
Usually, Harry didn't let blood purists get under his skin for their stupid hatred of him, but for some reason, this kid leaving with zero explanation still hurt after all these years.
Due to these weird dreams, well memories, he had been sleeping less, so he was more tired, and a bit less focused on where he was going, (he was going to Ravenclaw tower to meet up with Jasper, and the Goldsparks) so he bumped right into someone, making him drop his book.
"Sorry." Harry said, as he picked up his book. He looked up.
It was Theodore Jackson.
Couldn't he just leave him alone?
"Watch where you're going, mudblood." Theodore said angrily.
Harry rolled his eyes. "It's muggleborn."
Theodore rolled his eyes. "Don't care, watch where you are going next time."
"Sorry." Harry said. Why was he apologising? "I am just a bit tired."
"Awwwww." Theodore said in a baby voice. "Dreaming about your boyfriend?"
"I don't like boys." Harry said. "And I don't like you, so goodbye." He started to walk off.
All of a sudden, Theodore grabbed him, and pushed him against the wall, which frightened Harry quite a bit. "Honestly, you're annoying me now."
"I was just leaving." Harry said. He tried to get out of Theodore's tight grasp, but he couldn't. He did not like this, it reminded him of school, but now he was getting cornered for his blood status, and he just could not win. "Let me go, please."
"Oh so now you're scared?" Theodore laughed. "Not so brave now, huh?" He took out his wand. "Pungus."
Harry felt his nose break, god that hurt.
Theodore laughed as he saw blood. This guy was insane. Harry concluded, feeling blood drip from his nose. He hoped he would never ever have to meet the rest of his messed up family.
"I could do so much worse." Theodore told him. "We are alone, I could do anything I want. I was getting pretty bored around here, so thanks for showing up. You'll be fun to mess around with."
Harry was squirming, trying to get out of his grasp. He coughed, there was a bit of blood, he could taste it. "Please - let - me - go."
"No." Theodore said. "You know...my father, and uncle said I should practice the torture curse, do you think I should practice on you?"
Harry froze at that. He wouldn't actually do it, would he?
Jasper was in Ravenclaw Tower with Anthony, and Christopher. The common room as empty as most of the Ravenclaws preferred to study or do homework in the library. They were discussing cases they had finally found about magical kids in their situation, and how it was dealt with. Christopher had also told Jasper what their father was like.
Jasper was looking over these pages, while listening to the brothers. "So he is a drunk?"
"Well, he sometimes drinks too much." Anthony said quietly.
"Oh, of course, he does." Jasper murmured.
Christopher, and Anthony shared a look.
Jasper continued to look through these pages. "So, it states that when a magical child is in a situation like yours, they put up some sort of notice – to see if a family would be willing to take the kid as their own. Like adoption, I guess. That is what the magical authorities do first, and if that ends up not going anywhere, there are magical homes."
Christopher sighed. "I don't know if this is going to work. Will Dumbledore even believe us?"
"Well, I found a book that mentioned how Dumbledore once helped a kid get a new home after their family was killed." Anthony said. "It's not the same thing, but Dumbledore does have a lot of power, and I don't think he would just ignore the claims of a kid saying their home isn't safe."
"I guess so..."
Jasper was still looking at the page, but then looked up to the Goldsparks. "Well, it is entirely up to you two. Do you want to tell Dumbledore the situation, and get your names out there or stay quiet about it? I don't know if there will be any legal issues – like if your dad fights for you in court or anything, but since you are magical children you are under the magical government so they would have to deal with that so...I am not sure. Let's say, no one is willing to take you two in, how do you both feel about the magical children's home option?"
"Well, will we stay together?" Anthony asked.
"I would believe so as there are only two of you, it isn't like there are five...or six or even four of you, there are only two." Jasper said. "Even in muggle CPS most cases with two siblings in foster care stay together, unlike children with many siblings. They always end up getting separated. The question is do you want to go to Dumbledore, and start this process?"
Anthony, and Christopher both looked at each other. "What do you think?" Anthony asked.
Christopher chewed his lower lip. A decision like this would change everything, their whole lives. Whether it be with a new family or in a home, it would change so much. He was still extremely worried at the idea that they would end up getting separated, but he did need to think about his brother. If their father ever did find out it would be bad, and Christopher was not going to take any risk.
"I think we should give it a try." Christopher said, quietly. "With everything you said Odair, I don't think there is a high risk of us being separated, but..." He sighed. "I'm still nervous."
"Yeah, it is going to be a big cha–"
The Ravenclaw common room door opened, and in came Harry.
"Bloody hell." Jasper stood up as soon as he saw him.
Harry had a black eye, his nose was broken, his eyes were red as had been crying, and he still was. He looked awful, and was stumbling, and they all knew he must have been in a lot of pain.
"I - I am okay.' Harry said, staggering in. "I - I - I am...I am okay." He coughed blood up, and all their eyes widened. "I - I just had a run-in with a - a Slytherin, you know...but - but I am...okay..."
He passed out.