Harry Potter: Don't touch

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Time went by fast. Too fast. If the first day Harry Potter spent in his new home could still be considered a full day, then the next four flashed by in an instant. Just as Harry was putting his things in their places, Tonks arrived. She brought a bunch of unnecessary things to his room for Potter to take "anything he liked." He liked a lot of things: a harmoscope, more than a dozen fantasy books whose authors were both Muggle and wizard, an old pink reading lamp, a scroll of parchment, and a quaffle that had come from nowhere. By the way, Tonks herself liked the old pink lamp - she said that she used to read various books with it before her first year at Hogwarts, but then it disappeared somewhere and was never found. Harry didn't want to give up the lamp, he liked its colour and appearance, and Nymphadora shrugged and gave in.

Tonks then gave him forty galleons, repeating once more that they should be treated with care, and together with Harry went to a nearby Muggle bookshop. She bought two love novels and offered Potter something to choose from. Harry opted for a four hundred page detective story with a skull on the cover.

The next day Tonks, who was apparently determined to keep him from getting bored, took him to play snowballs with the neighbourhood children. They were all older than Harry, and he was a little wary of them at first, but Nymphadora seemed to have authority here, and everyone knew her, so Potter soon forgot all his troubles and was running around the large field of snow with them. The gloves, which were supposed to protect him from other people's touches, provided excellent protection from the cold and came in handy for making snowballs painlessly.

When Tonks returned home with Potter, she got a scolding from Andromeda - it turned out they had been playing for so long that they had missed lunch. Nymphadora had promised honestly that it wouldn't happen again, but Harry wouldn't have much confidence in that sincerity, as right after her excuses she winked slyly and suggested that they leave tomorrow and not come back at all for the whole day.On Wednesday, they headed to the Muggle amusement park. It had been Harry's dream to go to it before he went to school, and indeed afterwards. Nymphadora had used Potter's familiar Confundus spell on the cashier and was given a lot of tokens that allowed them to ride the rides for the entire first half of the day. Harry wasn't allowed on some of them because he was too young, but Confundus, which seemed to be the key to all the doors in the Muggle world, helped them here as well. A simple magical formula and Harry and Tonks boarded the roller coaster. After riding the ride, a screaming Harry quickly lost interest in extreme entertainment and told a pale Tonks that he wouldn't go on any more rides where he wouldn't be allowed because of his age, to which she replied that she wasn't going on any more rides.

In the afternoon they headed over to the underground magical duels. Tonks asked Harry not to say anything to his parents about where they were or what they were doing. She said it wasn't the first time she had come here to learn how to fight. Nymphadora used her metamorphic powers and turned into a small dwarf (she later said it was harder to get into her that way) and fought four magical duels. Even though she lost them all, she still wasn't upset, telling Potter that she was making progress and would soon start winning them all. Harry nodded silently. He wasn't much good at it, among all the spells Harry used, he only knew the recently learnt Protego. This led him to think that he needed to learn more spells in order to fight like this.

But he didn't have enough time, not to learn spells, but even to do his homework he couldn't, or rather didn't want to, spare a minute. Well, how could he? Who needs these boring and stupid tasks when there is so much entertainment here. But after thinking about it, Potter decided that it was terribly stupid to drop out of his first year. Especially when there were so many interesting subjects. He decided to overpower himself and set aside a couple of days to thoroughly complete his Potions assignments, since Professor Dumbledore, who helped him so often, was now in charge of it, and Spells, since it was a very interesting and necessary subject, and Harry also wanted to brag to Flitwick that he had already learnt the Protego spell in his first year. The rest of the 'uninteresting' subjects, such as History of Magic or Astronomy, would not be forgotten either, but their study would not be as thorough.

It was deep night when Harry and Nymphadora returned home. They had skipped lunch and dinner, and had not told anyone where they were. Potter felt awkward in front of his guardians because of this, but Tonks, who had returned to her original appearance, was calm and even a little cheerful. So this mood was passed on to Harry, and he treated the 'triumphant' homecoming as just another adventure. Nymphadora asked him to keep quiet, suggested that he go to his rooms quietly, and that he could justify himself in the morning.

However, her plan had failed miserably. As soon as Tonks entered the hallway, she immediately knocked over the coat rack with all her belongings with a loud clatter. She quickly put it back in place and ran into the room, but tripped on the first rung of the stairs and sprawled on the floor with an even greater thunderous crash. For some reason, however, Mr and Mrs Tonks did not come out of their bedroom, and there was no scandal the next morning; they simply pretended as if nothing much had happened.

Harry soon realised the reason for the unusual behaviour of the guardians. They were simply trying not to quarrel. Andromeda spoke to Nymphadora in the most unquestionably polite manner, and the latter answered her in much the same way. They never once raised the subject of Nymphadora's hobbies or Mad-Eye's imminent arrival, only Ted once remarked that Christmas would be marred by an unpleasant visit. And immediately after this remark Andromeda looked menacingly at her husband, and the latter immediately spoke of the weather. It was as if the Tonks were trying to show Potter that they had a strong and friendly family.

And they were doing a great job of it. Despite Ted's assurances about the conflicts between mother and daughter, the atmosphere in the family was just great. Harry hadn't seen a single conflict or argument in all this time. And his experience with the Dursleys told him that such a thing simply could not happen. Even when he'd been in the closet for weeks, he'd heard Dudley arguing with his parents twice a day. Only occasionally did Ted Tonks come up to Nymphadora and whisper some sort of admonishment in her ear. Such was the case after the night's arrival.

Luckily for Harry, Mr and Mrs Tonks didn't ask him how he was getting on with his lessons, apparently they thought he was big enough to do his assignments on his own. Harry didn't really talk to his guardians much, not really. Ted sometimes came up to Potter and asked if he liked everything and what he was doing, and once he asked about the summer incident with Dennis. Andromeda, on the other hand, chose a different tactic - she did her best to pretend that Potter was an established member of the family and had been living here for a while. And Harry was grateful for that. If he had been explained to like a little kid, or worse, fiddled with like Dudley, he would have been terribly embarrassed. As it was, he felt at ease. What the Dursleys hadn't managed in ten years, the Tonks had managed in a week. Harry was pretty sure he'd made the right choice of guardians.

They celebrated the new year of one thousand nine hundred and ninety-two quietly, with their family. Ted had cut down a fir tree and put it in the living room. Andromeda waved her wand and coloured shiny balls and other Christmas decorations appeared on the tree out of nowhere.

And that's what happens when everything around you is going well, then time rushes by like crazy. Harry Potter is just putting his things on the shelves of the wardrobe, and now it's the fifth of January and there are only four days left till the end of the holidays. And on Christmas Eve(1), the seventh of January, Mad-Eye was due to arrive. Ted had suggested that Harry go to the old car museum that day, and Potter had happily agreed. But these plans were not destined to come true.

On the fifth of January, the Elemental returned. Harry was trying to build a snowman outside at the time and was very excited about his owl, he took her into the house and fed her a small piece of sausage he found in the fridge. Only then he noticed a small white envelope with three red stamps on it. Before he printed it out, Potter closed the kitchen window, with the snow falling directly in his face, and looked at the name of the recipient. It was neatly written on the envelope:

TO WHOM: Harry Potter to his new home.

FROM WHO: A friend from Little Winging.

It was only then that Harry was finally convinced that the letter was really for him. He felt a thrill of anticipation. Of course, it wasn't the first letter he had received, there had been a letter from Hogwarts, but then Uncle Vernon had said he had only received it by mistake. Potter had believed it then without hesitation, after all, no one could have written to him. He forgot about the incident almost immediately and didn't notice the Dursleys' strange behaviour until there were so many envelopes that he didn't think he was being written to by some maniac worse than Piers. When Harry had heard from Hagrid that there were no maniacs or mistakes, he hadn't cared about that, his thoughts had been consumed by the new magical world. And now the letter was definitely meant for him, and from some friend in Little Winging.

Harry was pretty sure that he had never had any friends during his time at the Dursleys', so he was wildly curious as to who it was that was calling himself his friend. And how the Elemental had found this 'new home', Harry preferred not to even think about. There were so many incomprehensible things going on in the magical world that it was much easier not to think about a logical interpretation and explain everything with one simple word - "Magic". Harry opened the sealed envelope, pulled out a piece of paper from there and began to read:

"Hello Harry Potter, if you think that moving to another house will get rid of me, you are very much mistaken. I'm bound to find you, it's only a matter of time, and then...' Well, I think you know what will happen then. So I'd advise you to keep your eyes open. Because sooner or later, I'm gonna be right behind you. Or maybe I'm already here.

I look forward to seeing you soon,

Pierce Polkiss.

30 December 1991."

Harry finished reading this letter in a completely different mood. There was no trace of the excitement of anticipation left. It was as if he was back in his childhood, hiding in the bushes from Dudley and his gang. But this time Potter managed to take control of his emotions. Potter decided that with his constant involvement in incidents, he should stop being afraid of every shadow. Harry was surprised to realise that he could easily calm himself down. Who was Piers? No one! He's just as childish and just throwing around empty threats. Not only will he never be able to do anything about it, but he'll never even be able to find him.

Harry stroked the top of his head at the Elemental. The history of magic books said that in ancient times some wizards killed owls delivering bad news. What silly people! It wasn't the animals' fault, and they can't read, so according to their view of the world they just carry some papers with incomprehensible scribbles on them. Harry went to his room and showed the owl where her cage was now.

It was then that he realised. He had forgotten the letter on the kitchen table. God forbid anyone else read it! There would be unpleasant questions he would be forced to answer. Harry went down to the kitchen and threw the letter into the rubbish bin. Despite his apparent calmness, there was a traitorous thought in Harry's mind that he stubbornly chose to ignore: "Piers never threw words to the wind."Suddenly, Potter heard a quiet rustle behind him. Harry turned around sharply, his heart racing at a frantic pace. There was no one behind him. Potter mentally berated himself for taking Pierce's threats seriously, despite all the assurances of common sense. To justify his abrupt turn in front of him, Harry walked over and closed the window.

Potter finally calmed down and only now noticed a slight oddity. The window! He had just closed it a few minutes ago! There was a small patch of mud just below the window. Harry could have sworn it hadn't been here a minute ago. Potter quickly ran through his head of all the possible people that could have been in the house.

Tonks had gone out with her friends earlier in the morning, Ted and Andromeda had gone shopping just ten minutes ago, and Mad-Eye was a whole two days away. There can only be one person. Pierce! He had found him.

Harry froze, he slowly raised his wand, despite his heart beating wildly he managed to keep his composure. Yes, he didn't know any attack spells, but he could use a defence spell and run away. Running away was what he was always best at. With so much practice, he could easily become a world champion runner in the future. Now all he needed to do was find Pierce and figure out which way to run. Harry listened... He thought he heard someone's hoarse breathing next to a patch of dirt. He looked round the kitchen once more. No-one was there. And then the tip of a wand appeared on his left, straight out of the void.

- Protego! - Harry shrieked in horror.

A red flash flashed, and he and his collapsed magic shield were blown away by some incredible force. Harry was slammed very hard against the wall, but the Protego spell saved him from the worst of it. Potter didn't care much about his condition though, he wasn't even now bothered by questions about how Piers had found him or how he'd learnt to do witchcraft. No, he was overcome with a wild fear and without letting go of his wand he jumped up and ran as fast as he could towards his room. He climbed the stairs incredibly fast, jumping over three steps at once. He could hear loud stomping behind him, so he didn't dare look back.

When Harry reached his room, there was a loud shout behind him:

- Stupefy!

Harry decided not to test the effects of this spell on himself. He dropped to the floor, intending to avoid being hit. He succeeded: the red beam of the spell hit the wall above his head. Potter jumped up and made it to his room in two leaps. In spite of the fear overwhelming his mind, Harry began to look for possible escape options from the situation as quickly as possible. It didn't take a second to think about it.

Potter slammed the door behind him in one motion, raised his wand and exclaimed:

- Colloportus!

Immediately after uttering this spell, a hefty body slammed into the door. And immediately following that came a scream:

- Alohomora.

It was a spell Harry knew. It could be used to open any door! He panicked. It was as if time had slowed down for him. During this time, Potter quickly went through all the spells he knew in his head and realised that he didn't know of any spell that could lock a door so that it couldn't be opened with Alohomora. So he thought of nothing better than to point his wand at the door once more and cast the same spell:

- Colloportus!

There was a very hard bang on the door, Piers clearly didn't expect Harry to use the same spell immediately after "Alohomora" and flew through the door with all his might. There was a loud cry of pain, a remonstrance from Merlin, followed by an exclamation:

- "You sly little bugger! Well, I'm going to get you!

The hoarse, scary voice, which didn't even closely resemble Pierce, made Harry panic.

He pointed his wand at the only window in his room and yelled loudly:

- Diffindo!

The glass shattered and Harry leapt from the first floor. He grouped himself perfectly and immediately after landing, he ran into the small woods, not making any sense of the road. Potter didn't think about the rightness of his action, he just moved his feet as fast as he could and got further and further away from Pierce with the scary voice and the new house. He wanted to find a Burrow, burrow deep into it, and never come out.

Not a minute into his run, a tall man with a face disfigured by numerous scars and a rapidly spinning magical eye appeared right in front of him. He flung Harry to the ground, pointed his wand and exclaimed:

- Stupefy!

The red beam of the spell hit Harry Potter squarely in the chest and he was plunged into darkness.