The dog shivered as the freezing cold aura of the Dementors was extruded from the monstrous beings. The dog, in actual fact the prisoner called Sirius Black in his Animagus form, was not affected as badly as when he was human by the Dementors due to the less complex emotions of a dog, but the effects were bad enough after almost twelve years of constant exposure to them. Within his mind, he chanted several things like a protective mantra. 'I'm innocent, I'm innocent…Peter's the traitor, not me…Protect Harry…I'm innocent, I'm innocent…' The dog whined as the two Dementors right outside its cell were joined by a further two, increasing the frozen sensation of their aura even more. 'I'm innocent…I'm innocent...I'M INNOCENT!' Sirius chanted frantically in his mind as his personal hell redoubled in its efforts to break his mind. Living Room, Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Winging, Surrey Albus Dumbledore sat on the squashy armchair he had conjured -much to the homeowner's fury- and gazed solemnly at the three members of the Dursley Family. Vernon Dursley was a man verging on life-threatening obesity, with almost no neck, small piggy blue eyes and red hair that was fading into grey. He was currently glaring at Dumbledore with intense dislike. Petunia, his wife, was a stick-thin woman with an extra long neck and a great resemblance to a horse when she pursed her lips, as she was currently doing. She was fiddling with her blond hair and her watery green eyes betrayed worry for her family. Dudley Dursley was almost a carbon copy of his father, with his mother's blond hair. He was currently sitting as far away as was physically possible from Dumbledore, a terrified look on his face and he was, for some odd reason, clasping his bottom tightly with both hands as if he were afraid someone would steal it or something. "I am very disappointed in you, Petunia." Dumbledore spoke for the first time since he entered the house, sorrow in his voice. "We took in that…Freak!…just as you asked us to!" Vernon answered for his wife, an ugly sneer crossing his face. "I ask you to take him into your home, yes, but I also asked you to treat him as your own." Dumbledore replied coldly. "He's nothing like my Dudley!" Vernon said vehemently, "No freakish whelp is like Dudley!" "That is very much beside the point, Mr Dursley." Dumbledore said severely, "Regardless of your feeling towards Harry, you have treated him like a bonded servant or slave, making do all of the household chores whilst he grew up and quashed any spurts of imagination he possessed. The first time I met Harry at my school, I knew all this and more had been done to him." Dumbledore's pale blue eyes lost their usual grandfatherly twinkle and became cold chips of ice that bore into the Dursley family like lasers as he spoke. "Now I find out that he was thrown into a cupboard for the first decade of his life and, just to top it off, that you imprisoned him in his new room -full of barely intact third-hand furniture no less- and fed him substandard food in inadequate amounts. Were it not for the fact Harry needs to live here for the Bond of Blood Charm I cast on him after his mother's sacrifice to work, I would remove him from here post-haste and have you all sent to prison for child abuse." This broke Vernon out of his paralysis. "For what?! He's a freak!" "He is a young boy who has endured much in his young life." Dumbledore replied firmly, "Had his friends not effected his escape, he might have starved to death or, at the very least, been forced to recover at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries for an extended period of time. That is extreme child abuse in the eyes of the law, regardless of your opinion in the matter." Vernon Dursley's face had been a brilliant puce at the start of the conversation, but the blood drained from his face very rapidly at the end of Dumbledore's lecture, giving him a complexion rather like badly mixed raspberry ripple ice cream. "What do you want us to do?" Petunia asked quietly, making Vernon and Dumbledore look at her in amazement, "I told you that it was a bad idea Vernon. The Boy didn't have his…wand…when the pudding floated. I'm all for punishing him when he does something wrong or uses his freakishness, but he wasn't even halfway down the stairs when the pudding was floating in midair and most of…his kind…need to see something in order to affect it." "Quite so." Dumbledore agreed, "Even accidental magic, the entirely unintentional magic performed by children, almost always takes place in the child's immediate vicinity and within their line of sight. Besides, I have the evidence proving Harry wasn't the actual individual responsible and will be clearing him of this offence at the Ministry after this meeting. To answer your question, Petunia, I would like it if you would remove the locks on Harry's door. He is not to be a prisoner again. Next, it would be appreciated by my staff if you could allow him to have access to his schoolbooks as he does have summer homework to be doing while he is here." "Fine." Vernon ground out, "Anything else?" "I am going upstairs in a moment to transfigure Harry some better furniture. Do not throw it out, destroy it or give it to your son." Dumbledore said with a pleasant smile that didn't extend to his eyes, "Harry is to fed a decent amount of food at least three times a day and you will not attempt to physically assault him. This last condition applies especially to your son. Any breech of these conditions will be discovered swiftly and then, charm or no charm, I will carry out my previous threat. Am I understood?" "Not like we have much of a choice, do we?" Vernon grumbled.
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