Widow's Vengeance Chapter 10 - Always

Chapter 10 - Always

Harry was looking between Natasha and the floating pen with comically wide eyes, he blinked and shook his head before he got up and walked over. He waved his hand over the pen, under the pen and around the pen but he couldn't feel any strings or anything else that could hold it up.

"What?" Harry blinked again.

"It's cool, isn't it?" Natasha grinned as she let the pen drop.

"Nat...are you a Jedi?" Harry asked as he turned back and looked at her.

"Harry," Natasha rolled her eyes. "you haven't even watched Star Wars yet."

"Yeah but Clint told me about it," Harry replied. "so are you?" Harry asked.

"A Jedi? No, I'm not." Natasha shook her head. "Why don't you try and guess what I am?"

"Are...are you a superhero?" Harry asked.

"No," Natasha chuckled as she shook her head once more. "I'm not a superhero."

"Oh," Harry frowned. "well… I think you are."

"Really? Why?" Natasha asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well...you're...you have superpowers." Harry said as he gestured to the pen. "And you helped save me from the Dursley's, so you're like a hero. That's why I think you're a superhero." He shrugged, blushing slightly.

"Thank you," Natasha said with a genuine smile. "but I don't think I'm a superhero. I...I'm a witch, Harry."

"A witch?" Harry repeated.

"Yes," Natasha nodded. "I can do magic."

"But...but you're not old...or evil... or ugly." He added.

"I don't think all witches are old and ugly and evil, Harry." Natasha replied. "But I know that I'm a witch."

"Oh, does...do your parents know?" Harry asked.

"No, I don't think they do." Natasha answered.

"Oh, what about Clint? Does he know? Does he have powers...um...magic as well?"

"He knows," Natasha responded. "and yes he does, but we both actually think that you do as well."

"I beg your pardon?" Harry said, wondering if he had heard right.

"Yer a wizard, Harry." Natasha said in a very deep voice.

"I'm a what? And what happened to your voice?" Harry asked.

"Sorry, just trying something." She said in her regular voice. "But yeah, you and Clint are both wizards."

"I...I can't be a wizard, can I?" Harry said, disbelief evident in his voice.

"I think you can." Natasha said as she got up and went over and grabbed Harry's hand before she gently guided him back to the bed, once the two of them were sat down he continued speaking. "Think about it, have weird things ever happened around you and you can't explain why?" She asked in a knowing voice.

"I..." Harry was about to answer but trailed off as he thought about her words, things had in the past moved without him touching them, much like with Natasha and the pen. And he knew he had most definitely done a few 'freakish' things in the past that he could never explain, which would of course set the Dursley's off and make them start ranting about freakish behaviour and freaks and... "...was that why?" Harry muttered under his breath.

"Harry, are you okay?" Natasha asked in a concerned voice.

"W...when I was staying at the Dursley's they got angry when weird things would happen," Harry said in a quiet voice as he looked down. "they said it was 'freakish' and that I was a freak. And sometimes Uncle Vernon would say he was going to 'beat it' out of me, but I never knew what he meant by 'it'. Does...do you think they thought that I was magical? Is that what he was trying to beat out of me?" He asked.

"I think so." Natasha said in a soft voice as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a one armed hug. "Harry, that wasn't your fault, the Dursley's were..."

"Bad people, I know." Harry cut her off, shaking his head slightly. "So...you think I can do magic as well?"

"Yeah, I'm sure you can." Natasha nodded confidently.

"Hmm," Harry hummed, looking thoughtful. "what else can you do?" He asked.

"Um...only one other thing." Natasha admitted, she held out her right hand and a soft glow emitted out from her index finger.

"Cool," Harry breathed before he paused and looked at Natasha, she smirked before she let the light die down. "wait...is that it?" Harry asked after several moments of silence, doing his best to make sure he didn't sound too disappointed.

"It's not as easy as it looks, you know." Natasha huffed, she remembered being told that magic without a wand was extremely difficult but she had admittedly thought that the difficulty of it was exaggerated, turns out it wasn't. She supposed it was like trying to travel a very long distance without a vehicle of some sort, it was most definitely possible, just nowhere near as easy and took far longer. "Besides, Clint and I only started practising those two spells shortly before we met you here. We're not good enough with them yet, but we figured that we'd get better with practise. We can keep practising them until we get wands."

"Wands?" Harry echoed.

"Of course, wizards and witches need wands." Natasha said in a 'it's so obvious' voice.

"Hold on a sec," Harry said. "how do you know all about this?" He asked. Natasha was tempted to smile at him for starting to ask the right questions, even if he was a little late in asking them.

"Well, you know how I told you about meeting a friend of mine?" Natasha asked.

"Oh, he's the one who told you about all of this?" Harry guessed.

"Yep," Natasha fibbed. "you know how I said we could meet him tomorrow, if you want we can go and meet him right now."

"What? Really?" Harry blinked.

"Yeah, come on." Natasha said before she grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet before she pulled him out of her room.

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"So...we're supposed to meet your friend here?" Harry asked in a confused voice as the two were now standing behind a tree in their garden.

"Yep, just give me a sec." Natasha grinned before she whistled, she paused and whistled again a few seconds later. "He should be coming soon."

"Is it a dog?" Harry frowned, he really wasn't too fond of dogs, though in his defence the only dogs he really had any experiences with were his Aunt Marge's dogs and she liked to have them attack him.

"Nope." Natasha shook her head. "Guess again."

"A cat?" Harry asked.

"Not really a cat." Natasha shook her head once more. "Do you want to guess again?" She asked.

"No," Harry said with a small huff. "just tell me." He said.

"Just wait," Natasha replied. "he should be here soon." She said, Harry let out a small sigh before he did as Natasha said and waited. After twenty seconds or so of waiting he was about to say something but was cut off when 'Natasha's friend' arrived.

Knight the nightmare jumped over the fence and landed in front of them, Harry let out a small scream before he grabbed Natasha and pushed her behind himself, shielding her away. Harry stared at the tall horse with wide eyes, eyes that had at first been filled with fear but had slowly changed.

"Harry," Natasha said in a soft voice as she placed her hand in his hand. "don't be scared, he won't hurt you. He's..."

"I know you." Harry whispered, looking straight at the tall and quite frankly scary looking horse in front of him. "I...I know him." Harry whispered to Natasha.

"You do?" She asked, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice.

"Y...yeah, I see him sometimes when I have nightmares." Harry breathed, his eyes totally focused on Knight. "He stops the nightmares for me." He said, that was naturally new news to Natasha but she wasn't totally surprised by that, of course Knight wouldn't have totally stayed away from his beloved master.

"His name is Knight." Natasha told him.

"Night?" Harry asked, not looking away from Knight.

"Knight like the ones with swords," Natasha said. "he's a special magical creature called a 'nightmare'."

"Why are they called that?" Harry asked, looking at Knight who was staring back at him with an intimidating intensity.

"He can go in and out of nightmares," Natasha answered. "when you saw him in your nightmares he was probably actually in there to help you."

"You...you really think so?" Harry whispered.

"I do, try and touch him." Natasha said as she stepped away from him, letting go of his hand.

"What?!" Harry hissed, not looking away from Knight who was standing as still as a statue.

"Just try it." Natasha said. "Trust me."

Harry gulped, he didn't think he was the smartest person in the world but he could quite clearly tell that reaching out to touch a random animal was not a particularly smart thing to do, especially when smoke was shooting out of that animal and it had red eyes. But...he did trust Natasha and she was telling him to touch the nightmare.

Harry took a deep breath before he slowly raised his right hand, he could see that Knight's red eyes were focused on him and were now tracking his hand. When Harry's hand got close to Knight he hesitated, something Knight clearly didn't like as the big animal moved forwards and the next thing Harry knew he was sitting down on the floor with his back against the tree while Knight had placed his head on Harry's lap. It was most definitely an odd thing to see such a big and powerful animal lying down with its head resting on him.

Harry watched and felt Knight impatiently shake his head, Harry hesitated once again but powered on through and gently placed a hand on Knight's head, the second it happened Knight stilled and his entire body relaxed.

"That's amazing." Harry breathed as his hand moved up and down Knight's head, something which the nightmare clearly liked based on the noises that Harry was hearing from him, they sounded like happy noises.

"I told you." Natasha said in a sing song voice as she sat down next to him and gently started petting Knight. "He's your familiar." She told Harry.

"My what?"

"Familiar, it's like a pet but better. It means that he'll always be here for you, he'll be one of your best friends..." Natasha said, ignoring Knight snorting in a way that made her feel like he was insisting that he IS THE best friend. "...and he will always protect you."

"Protect me?" Harry asked, looking down at Knight. "He'll be my friend?"

"Always."

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The next day Professor Dumbledore arrived through silent apparition, landing in the street where he had managed to narrow down Harry's location to. He was quite happy at the moment, from here he should be able to find Harry quickly enough, and then once he evaluated Harry's physical and mental state, he could decide what to do with Harry. If at all possible he'd like to place Harry back with his aunt, if he did that then he would need to get her out of muggle prison. He didn't need to necessarily get Harry's muggle uncle out of prison but perhaps he could do that as a way to make them both grateful to him and as incentive to start treating Harry better.

Truthfully he also needed to check on the blood wards as well to see if they were still a viable option, but most of his focus had been on finding Harry. If the blood wards weren't an option then he would need to put Harry somewhere else but then that left the question of where he would put Harry, perhaps Hogwarts? No, the boy was too young to be exposed to magic, Albus didn't want him to grow too powerful too quickly. Perhaps Dumbledore could get one of his former Order members to take him in, perhaps the Weasley's. If that did happen then he would have to upgrade their wards and increase their security.

Professor Dumbledore looked around to make sure he hadn't been spotted, even if he had been he could have easily fixed the situation with magic, though he found it unlikely for himself to be spotted thanks to the spells that he had placed on himself before leaving which would mean that he wasn't likely to be spotted unless he actually tried to gain someone's attention. Before he had arrived Professor Dumbledore had also made sure to transfigure his wizarding world clothes into a green muggle suit, just in case he needed to talk to some muggles.

Professor Dumbledore moved forwards, he had barely taken seven steps before he found himself knocked over, he felt his body protest heavily as he landed on the hard and unforgiving concrete, one tiny stone dug into his left forearm. Suddenly Dumbledore felt something grab him and the next thing he knew he was being pulled away, it was not the same sensation as being pulled to a different location by a portkey (a magical device that transports a wizard or witch to another location), no, he was actually being dragged somewhere.

And he was being dragged quite fast judging by the way his body was in the air and the way he could feel the wind slapping against him, eventually whatever was dragging him had let go of him and Dumbledore found himself flying forwards before he landed harshly on a field of grass, Dumbledore ended up rolling a few times before he stopped moving. He let out a couple of coughs as he looked up, standing a short distance away was a very terrifying and very angry looking nightmare.