Don't Wake the Boy Who Lived

Don’t Wake the Boy Who Lived (or Don’t Wake the Baby – Part 2)

Harry Potter became quite famous after he defeated Voldemort as a baby. His parents tried to keep the craziness to a minimum but given how terrible Voldemort was and the silliness of many magicals, he became well-known and celebrated all over the world as the Boy Who Lived.

His father, James Potter, reported what happened to the ministry the next day and from there the word spread. The Daily Prophet printed the good news and even how little baby Harry took him down, going into detail about how powerful Harry was for such a young child.

Harry did a lot of magic as he grew up and most of it was quite spectacular.

His mother, Lily, had an idea of how to make money to improve the Potter’s financial position. They were not a member of the Sacred 28, nor were they one of the ancient and richest families. That’s not to say they had done badly over the years. The Potters had actually managed their finances fairly well.

The Potters originated in the twelfth century from a wizard by the name of Linfred of Stinchcombe who was locally well-loved but thought eccentric. He was nicknamed ‘the Potterer,’ which after some time became Potter. He healed his Muggle neighbors of many maladies and developed many remedies that are still used today in the magical world. Two of those remedies later became Skele-gro and Pepperup Potion.

These concoctions of his made a pile of gold to start the Potters off well but when he died it had to be divided amongst his seven children.

Several other Potters through the ages have done well with increasing the Potter gold, but it wasn’t until Harry’s grandfather came along that the gold was increased significantly.

Fleamont Potter, James Potter’s father, and son of Henry Potter, invented Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion mostly due to the crazy hair of the Potter men. However, he ended up quadrupling the Potter gold with that invention. He then sold the company for a huge profit when he retired.

So the Potter family was not poor but that didn’t mean they should rest on their laurels. Lily was not working again yet since she wanted to continue to take care of her baby at home. James was an auror with his best friend Sirius by his side. An auror was like a magical Detective Sergeant or Detective Inspector in the Muggle world, only an auror was paid better and made decent money. It was enough for their family to live on without having to touch the family gold.

However, they wanted to leave more for their son and his progeny so the idea that Lily came up with was to write children’s stories using her son Harry as her muse. Every time he did some spectacular magic for such a young child she would use that as a basis for a new adventure. The child star of her stories, named Harry Potter, got into all kinds of stuff and dealt with all kinds of magical animals in his grand adventures.

The stories were sold as fiction but many children grew up falsely believing they were real because they heard so much from their parents and older siblings how Harry Potter defeated the dark lord Voldemort at the mere age of one. They had put him up on a pedestal in their minds.

Of course, if he could do that then riding on dragons and fighting giants was not too farfetched when he was a little older. Plus, the books were written by his mother, Lily Potter. Surely she would know what her son has been up to, they reasoned.

She started to write the stories and not use her son’s name at all, but James and Lily discussed it and they knew that his name would sell the books better because he was already famous and celebrated as the Boy Who Lived. So it basically became a business decision. She also thought selling them as fiction would explain it well enough so people would realize none of it was actually real.

Clearly she underestimated the magical people’s penchant to believe whatever they wanted to believe. This is not unlike the issue with many people who suffer from this malady. This has been a constant issue since people first appeared on the earth.

Lily became a celebrated children’s book author and succeeded in making lots of galleons, even in the millions, due to the book sales all over the world. However, she unwittingly made her son even more famous for things he never did. In fact, even though she was the author, Harry was the main character and star. He was recognized more than she was for the books, mostly by the younger generation.

They kept Harry out of sight as much as possible so when he showed up in Diagon Alley at the age of eleven to get his supplies for his first year at Hogwarts, he had guards to escort him. The full guard included Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and two hit wizards who were friends with James and Sirius. They volunteered to help out that day. There were many close calls with rabid fans so his escorts were kept busy.

Ever since he had come out in the open for the world to see him, Harry had grown quite tired of explaining to so many that they evidently didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘fiction.’ Most of those stupid questions came about once he was on the train.

His parents considered taking him to Hogwarts instead of having him ride the train, but Harry just wanted to be treated like a normal kid. Plus, he didn’t want to miss out on a tradition. It was his first year at Hogwarts after all.

He managed to get sorted into Gryffindor and settled in at the school with classes, etc. However, when he showed how good he was on a broom, even an old beat up school one, McGonagall insisted he be put on the Gryffindor quidditch team at once, even though first years typically were never allowed. They weren’t even allowed to bring their booms until second year.

Harry soon found out that Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor quidditch captain, was a bit of a fanatic when it came to the game. Their long evening practices after classes proved that point quite well. Then he had to do his homework and lots of reading for his classes. He ended up staying up late most of the time.

However, the weekend was coming up and Harry was anxious to catch up on some sleep. He still liked his sleep a lot and always felt better after a good night’s rest.

“Did anyone hear what happened to Wood?” asked Marcus Flint in the middle of the Slytherin common room on a Sunday evening.

All he got was shrugs back from his fellow Slytherins. He thought maybe at least one of them had put Oliver Wood in the hospital since the quidditch game between Slytherin and Gryffindor was going to be the first game of the season.

It was not beyond the scope of Slytherin tactics to do such a thing even though most all the dark families told their children to toe the line while at Hogwarts. Ever since the dark lord was killed by Harry Potter, they all decided to keep a low profile. They were trying not to draw any unnecessary attention to themselves.

There was little doubt Wood was probably the best Keeper at Hogwarts and also the Gryffindor quidditch captain. If he has to spend time in the hospital then it will cut down on the Gryffindor practice times before the big game.

Not getting any answers, he decided he would go visit Wood in the hospital the next day after classes, assuming he would still be there. They weren’t friends by any means but his curiosity was getting the better of him and he was trying to put forth a better image for all those paying attention. He was certain Wood would be on a professional team after Hogwarts because he was that dedicated and that good. He just wanted to make sure his injury was not a threat to his career.

As much as it was distasteful for his Slytherin team to lose to the Gryffindors, as another quidditch captain with great appreciation for the game, Flint could truly enjoy watching Wood play his position. The boy was very gifted as a keeper. As a chaser himself, Flint knew the difficulties of trying to get the quaffle past him and into a hoop.

During meals and classes, Flint would pose his question to different people but no one really knew what caused Wood his stay in the hospital. Flint knew the rumor mill had a life of its own at Hogwarts so found it odd that there weren’t stories already floating around and blowing everything out of proportion like normal. The lack of it was disturbing in its own way. Maybe it was just a minor accident after all and he was going to be released soon.

It was Monday and evidently whatever happened to Wood, it occurred over the weekend. That rules out a problem in one of his classes. A potion accident would be most likely but unless Wood was brewing over the weekend, that could not be the issue either. Plus, Wood would more likely be working on quidditch over the weekend.

He was without a doubt fanatical about the game.

Did he fall? Maybe, but someone surely would have known about that. Wood usually has practice extremely early on the weekends so his team would have been with him and witnessed it.

“Odd, very odd,” he mumbled.

The day continued on without any additional info added to his queries. It wasn’t until he spoke to Angelina Johnson, a Gryffindor chaser, after dinner that Monday that he received additional information, even though it still wasn’t much.

Angelina told him that the only thing anyone knew was that Harry Potter had taken Ollie to Madam Pomphrey very early on Saturday morning. She thought Wood had plans for an early practice that morning but they had to cancel due to Ollie’s injury.

“What was his injury?” asked Flint.

“I assumed some of your Slytherins attacked him so you would know better than me,” she replied.

“I asked and no one in Slytherin confessed up to doing anything and they normally would, even if just to brag about it. Most weren’t even aware he was in the hospital wing. I really don’t know what happened to him.”

“That’s the weird thing. Nobody apparently knows and Potter isn’t talking.”

Flint looked around for Potter but evidently he had already headed off to his common room. Nothing left to do but go check on Wood, he decided.

“I’m going to go to the hospital wing and see if I can find out what happened. Your welcome to go with me. In fact, having one of his team mates with me will make it less suspicious I think.”

Angelina gave him a cautious look while her friend Alicia Spinnet who waited with her did the same.

“I swear!” Flint promised. “I really just want to know what happened. Normally it would be all over the school and mutated into all kinds of different crazy things. There’s been nothing at all. That’s just weird, so I want to know.”

“You’re right. That is very weird for this place. Let’s go.”

They both started walking toward the hospital wing as Alicia left her friend Angelina and went back to the Gryffindor common room to work on some homework she had to do.

When they reached Madam Pomfrey’s domain, the matron came out wondering what was wrong with them.

“What’s happened now?” she asked.

“We’re fine, Madam Pomfrey,” replied Angelina. “We’re here to check on Oliver. Can we see him?”

“Yes, that’s him over there,” she said pointing. “Don’t stay too long though, he will need to go to sleep again soon.”

“What exactly happened to him?” asked Flint.

“I promised Mr. Wood I would not say anything so if you need an answer to that question, he will have to agree to tell you. The only other one who knows is Mr. Potter, who floated him here for treatment. Mr. Potter has also agreed to not say anything to anyone.”

“Very well, Madam Pomfrey, we’ll just see what Wood has to say about it,” Flint told her.

As they neared Oliver in the hospital bed they noted that he seemed to be very uncomfortable as he laid there. They had to get right up to his bed before he took note of them at all.

“Ollie?” Angelina asked.

“Wood?” Flint asked right behind her.

Oliver turned his pained expression toward his visitors.

“What in Merlin’s name happened to you, Ollie?” asked Angelina concerned.

“I wouldn’t mind knowing that myself, Wood,” added Flint.

“Well,” he said painfully. “All the bones below my waist were broken. Many were basically turned to powder so had to be vanished. This includes my hips and pelvic bone, all the way down to my toes.”

Both Angelina and Flint’s mouths opened in shock at the news.

“Madam Pomfrey has had me taking several doses of Skele-gro since Saturday morning,” Oliver continued with a wince. “It’s very painful to regrow bones and Skele-gro is the worst tasting potion ever. It’s best to be put to sleep while it does its work.

“I can’t be put back to sleep again until tonight when she should be giving me my final big dose of Skele-gro and some Dreamless Sleep potion.”

“How did this happen?” asked Angelina as Flint nodded.

Oliver started thinking really hard about whether or not he should tell them how he got in this condition. It was very embarrassing but in the end, for safety’s sake, he knew he should warn them so they too didn’t fall victim to the same type of thing.

“It’s quite embarrassing which is why I wanted it kept quiet but I feel I should probably warn you. You see, this was done to me by an eleven year old, a first year.” He saw their eyes widen in surprise. “Yes, it was Harry Potter. We’ve all heard he’s powerful, but he’s still just eleven years old,” he said exasperated.

“You’re saying, our new seeker, Harry Potter did this to you?” she asked unbelieving.

Oliver nodded.

“Harry Potter’s your new seeker?” asked Flint. “But he’s a first year!”

“That was supposed to be a surprise for the game, Angelina, but I suppose it’s no big deal now,” Oliver told her.

“Sorry, Ollie.”

“Harry was given special permission to play by the headmaster and deputy headmistress,” Oliver told Flint. “Besides, we didn’t even have a seeker until he showed up.”

“Is he any good?” Flint asked.

“You will just have to wait and see, Flint. I’m not given out any additional information that will come to light on game day.”

They both just stared at each other.

“You know, I don’t have a hard time believing Harry’s powerful,” Angelina said to get them back on track. “I mean, he took out the dark lord when he was just one year old after all. It’s the fact that it was Harry who did this. He’s one of the sweetest kids I’ve ever met.”

“I don’t know Potter personally,” Flint chimed in breaking out of his staring contest with Wood, “but I’ve heard he’s very powerful for his age.”

“Oh, he’s powerful alright,” Oliver insisted.

“But …but …how …how did …Harry manage to do this to you?” Angelina asked confused, looking at Oliver’s condition.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning, Wood?” asked Flint. “I have a feeling this is going to be one for the ages.”

“Alright,” he replied.

“You know how I like to get my team up early on Saturday mornings so we can get in extra practice before other teams start vying for the pitch?”

They both nodded.

“Well, I usually go to wake up the guys on the team and Angelina helps with the girls so we get all of them up and to practice. Since Harry is new to this, I thought I should wake him up first and explain the need for the practice. I forgot to mention at the last practice that we needed to meet early Saturday morning and I think when I reminded the team in the common room Friday night about it, Harry had gone up to bed already.

“Saturday, at five in the morning, I walked into the first year’s dorm room and spotted his bed with the drapes closed. I went over and opened the drapes on one side. I then leaned over and nudged his shoulder while I called his name quietly so I wouldn’t disturb the other boys.

“His bright green eyes popped open suddenly and I think they were glowing. He then narrowed them at me and I swear I only saw him move his fingers, just a twitch of two of them. The next thing I know, I’m upside down in the air and the drapes have come alive. They wrapped tightly around the lower half of my body.

“The crunch and pops of all my bones breaking, plus the silent scream I was emitting from the shock and pain caused him to wake further to the point he realized it was me. He cancelled the animated drapes and caught me with his wandless magic before I could fall.

“He then laid me on his bed and cast another wandless spell that removed the pain. I then waited while he put on some clothes. When he was dressed he wandlessly floated me all the way to here and turned me over to Madam Pomfrey. He didn’t even look tired from the effort. Harry told her what happened and when I asked why he did it, he said that he killed Voldemort when he was a baby because that stupid wizard woke him up.

“He then told me that he still liked his sleep and left after he promised me not to speak about it to anyone. He indicated he was going back to bed.”

Flint and Angelina were flabbergasted and couldn’t believe an eleven year old could do all that, especially wandlessly. He wrapped the drapes around so tightly that it broke all those bones?

“I learned my lesson. So, what’s the one thing the two of you should take from this?” Oliver asked.

They turned back to Oliver and were now paying close attention to what he wanted to say to them. He said it slowly with emphasis.

“You. should. never, ever, …and I. mean. never …wake the Boy Who Lived!

The End