Harry Potter and the Secret Nurse

Harry Potter and the Secret Nurse

Chapter One
Damage control

It was a hot summer night on Privet Drive. Typing away on his computer past one AM,
Dudley had just entered the last name he could try into the Yahoo search engine when he
heard a noise outside. Leaning towards the open window, he could see it was Harry,
coming home staggering drunk and throwing up in the driveway.

"Damn, I knew I shouldn't have lent him that money," Dudley cursed to himself.

Quickly he put on his jacket and tried to make his way inconspicuously past his parent's
bedroom door. For years he had the creaky boards in the floor memorized from sneaking
out before, but tipping the scales at close to 300 pounds meant the house tended to creak
no matter where he stepped. Once outside he saw Harry slumped over the family car
looking green but conscious. A trail of vomit leading back to the street shown Harry had
been busy throwing up all the way home.

"Are you done?" asked Dudley.

With his face covered in mess, Harry looked up and smirked a bit. His eyes were glazed
over and he tried to stand up on his feet. Dudley couldn't help but wonder if he looked
that foolish when trying to fake sobriety after being caught on a bender himself. There
was a garden hose near the driveway and Dudley unravelled it to hose the vomit off the
car, then he handed it to Harry to spray ois ois own face a little. For a moment he
fumbled with his glasses as he cleaned himself.

"Do you think you can make it up the stairs?" asked Dudley.

Harry dropped the hose and righted himself like he was being indignant over the
question. Of course he could make it upstairs, his body language tried to say, but his
body promptly fell onto the lawn after Harry managed two steps. Shaking his head in
disgust, Dudley bent over to pick Harry up. He took Harry's hand and as he pulled it up
the sleeve pulled back, and Dudley could clearly see Harry's forearm was covered in razor
blade cuts. Holding up the arm like it was part of a rag doll, Dudley examined it and said
to himself;

"Great, just great."

For a moment Dudley looked around to the neighbours and wondered if any of them saw
Harry staggering his way home. None of them were as nosey as his own mother, but there
were plenty of gossipy old betties about that would love to harp on about Harry's
scandalous condition, like no one had ever seen a drunk teenager before. With the
experience of carrying his own drunken friends back to the dormitory after a weekend
binge, Dudley hoisted thin Harry over his shoulder and walked up the stairs with little
physical effort.
Again Dudleyred red around the hallway to make sure his parents didn't see him. He
didn't want to go through awkward explanations or see his father go on another tear. He
was so tired of that. Once inside Harry's bedroom Dudley dropped Harry onto the
mattress making sure he was on his side so he wouldn't choke on his own vomit in case
he got sick and passed out again. Just on his way out Dudley noticed tharryarry's owl
was back, asleep on his perch. There was a new piece of mail on the floor. This one he
hadn't seen before and he picked it up and read it.

"Hermione Granger," Dudley said to himself, "Well, it's worth a try."

Dudley took the letter back to his own room, and carefully checked the spelling as he
entered the name into the Yahoo Personals search engine. Wizards probably didn't hang
out around the internet, a "muggle" environment, but Dudley was trying every name he
found in Harry's bedroom hoping he would strike lucky. A few seconds after Dudley hit
enter, a result came up.

Hermione Granger
Female 16
England
ICQ Number

Finally, thought Dudley, one of these mad asses had an ICQ number. The ICQ program
was already running in another window and Dudley cut and paste that number into his
search. Hermione, alias "The Silver Mage" was online. Dudley sent a message at once.

"Are you Hermione Granger?"

"Yes, who R U?"

"Are you a friend of Harry Potter?"

"WHO R U?????"

"I'm Dudley, Harry's cousin. Trace my IP, it's from Surrey. We need to talk RL
ASAP."

"About what?"

"If you care about Harry, you better get down here. He's messed up."

"What's wrong with him?"

"He keeps getting drunk, and other stuff. We should speak of it in RL."

"Not E Z. I don't live very close to Surrey."

"I know you wizards have all sorts of mad ways to travel great distances, work it out."

"Friday, 7 pm. Should I worry about your parents when I get there?"

"You should worry about Harry. Come at 8 pm. My parents R taking off 4 the weekend
to visit Aunt Marge. They should B gone by then."

"Y R U doing this? Why do U care?"

"I owe him. Leave it at that, K?"

Dudligneigned off, hoping that would settle it. Friday was two days away. Two days he
had to keep Harry's mind off of this wizarding world that was making him mad.
Whatever was eating Harry up inside, Dudley hoped these wizard people better have a
way to make him right or they wouldn't have Harry attending his next year. Angrily he
figured they better make a better effort than just making threats to be good to Harry over
the summer or they just may be attending his wake, and Dudley felt he would be damned
if his family would take the blame for it.

.

Harry waited for the bully to take a swing at him, hoping the moment of unconsciousness
would beacatacation from the pain. The drinking did not deaden the ache of his scar
anymore. A swing did come, but it didn't make contact with Harry's head. It removed
the bully right clear from his field of vision. Harry had to turn to his left to see the punk
tumble over the hood of a parked car, then he turned to his right to look at his very
unlikely rescuer.

"Leave him alone," said Dudley in a threatening mature voice Harry never heard from
Dudley before.

This was not the "ickle" Dudley that Harry was familiar with at all. This was a
threatening hulk that looked perfectly comfortable with taking on three young men in
punk leathers without crying back to daddy at all, unless he was hoping Harry would
help. That wasn't going to happen, but Harry realized it didn't need to. Dudley removed
his jacket to expose a pair of arms that looked as thick as Harry's waist. There was this
freaky shape in the upper arms that definitely showed under at least some amount of fat,
there was an immense amount of muscle. The kind Harry was only used to seeing on
professional athletes on TV.
The punks left making jeering remarks and threats they would fetch some friends to come
back and make more trouble for Harry and Dudley.

"Do I honestly look like I need to be concerned about that?" challenged Dudley.

For a moment Harry looked at Dudley like he was a stranger, then he thought he had
Dudley figured out.

"I bet that felt good," said Harry.

"It did," said Dudley, "You should put on some weight and try it yourself."

"You think I can't defend myself without my wand?" asked Harry.

"Did you even bring it with you tonight?" asked Dudley.

For a second Harry checked his pants, and then thought it was odd he didn't. Then he
remembered why and cursed Dudley in his head for bringing it up. Dudley had offered to
drive Harry to the local mall to visit an electronic store, probably just to show off he had
a brand new driver's license and money to buy stuff. That's what Harry figured what the
punk bashing show was all about, just more showing off.
With a canter of just forgetting the whole incident like they never ran into a potential
mugging, Dudley beckoned Harry to join him inside the electronic store. Harry
considered the world of muggle shopping to be quite amusing. This place was bigger
than he imagined, and as the muggle world was becoming a foreign sight to him it was
almost as shocking as Diagon Alley. While looking at the latest technologies people put
in their homes, Harry realized he was out of touch with the muggle world. Flat screen
plasma televisions looked so amazing they were like something from the magic world.
Whatever wizard thought the muggle world also meant "mundane" should have
paid a visit to this place. Mr. Weasley would have had a fit trying to make sense of all
the gadgets. Harry only had a basic grasp of video games, VCR's, and computers when
he first left for the magical world. Whenever anything new came along, he always
ignored it out of jealousy because it was usually a present to Dudley. Harry was in the
movie section for ten minutes before he realized they obviously did not sell movies on
tape anymore, they were all on DVD. He figured the next time he paid a visit to Diagon
Alley, Harry would have toe soe some money out of Gringott's Bank to buy one of his
own. Or maybe he could grab one Dudley was tired of, as long as it wasn't busted from
him having a tantrum.

"H com come here for a minute," said Dudley.

Dudley led Harry towards the computer section. He probably wanted to show off
whatever new toy he was getting. For a moment Dudley pointed to a computer with a flat
screen monitor and said his parents bought for his birthday, and he was waiting for them
to install a more RAM and an accelerator card. Harry was accusing Dudley off showing
off, but Dudley cut him off.

"That's not what I wanted to show you," said Dudley, "Look at this."

A less expensive computer with an old style monitor on it was turned on as a
demonstration model.

"This computer is about the same performance as the old one in my room," said Dudley,
"With a computer like this, you can get on the internet just min mine."

"Isn't this slower than yours?" asked Harry.

"You wizards don't know much about computers, do you?" asked Dudley, "When
computers get this fast, it doesn't really make any difference at all when you get on the
internet with a DHS connection."

"What that?" asked Harry.

"That's the fastest way to get on the internet from home," said Dudley.

Harry pointed to the new computer and asked, "So what's the difference between a 2.5
gigahertz computer and a 1.9?"

Dudley smiled and shook his head, "Practically nothing. Unless you're playing video
games or something. If you had this computer in your room you could surf the net just as
fast as any new one."

"You want to give me your old computer?" asked Harry, "Why?"

"Either that or we give it away," said Dudley, "It's your choice. We can't sell it. New
computers are so cheap nobody bothers shopping for used ones anymore."

"Uncle wouldn't pay for two internet connections," said Harry.

"He doesn't have to," said Dudley as he pointed to a switch box, "Look, I got one of
these in my room. With the cable deal we have we can have up to two computers hooked
into the internet at once, but the only computer hooked up is the one in my room. We can
drill a whole in the wall between our bedrooms, run an RJ 45 cable jack through it, plug
into the ethernet card on the old computer and run that line into the switch box in my
room. Then that's it, you're on the internet."

"Why would I want to get on the internet?" asked Harry, "I don't have any friends on the
internet."

"Well, you do, actually," said Dudley, "I ran into your friend Hermione in a chat room. I
think she's been on the net for years."

"How did you run into Hermione?" asked Harry.

Counting on Harry's ignorance of technology, Dudley explained, "Harry, you can find
ANYONE on the internet, as long as they're online."

Suddenly Harry was a lot more interested in computers.

"How do I learn?" asked Harry.

"That won't be a problem," said Dudley, "I've got a tutorial disk at home. Follow that
for two hours and you'll know everything you need to get started."

Harry was sold. Within an hour Uncle Vernon was greeted with the sound of someone
using one of his drills when he came home from work. After rushing up the stairs he
came upon one of the most unlikely sights in his life, Harry and his son working together.
It was uncomfortably suspicious.

"What are you two up to?" asked Vernon.

Without looking up, Dudley spoke from under a desk, "I'm giving Harry my old
computer."

Vernon was caught a little off guard, then asked, "You're... but you're not getting your
new one until we get back. What will you do without a computer for a whole weekend?"

"I'm busy re-arranging my room,id Did Dudley, "I wanted the space, that's why I'm
giving Harry my old desk. I'm heading down to Henley's this weekend and pick up one
of his big drafting tables and put that in my room. He said I could have one since he's
closing down his office. Oh! I'll need the car if that's okay."

"Is Harry helping you?" asked Vernon.

"Yes," said Harry.

"Right then," said Vernon, "I'll take a company car tomorrow to your Aunt's place. I
hope you appreciate what Dudley's doing for you, Harry."

"Yes, Uncle Vernon," said Harry.

That sounded a lot more sincere than usual to Uncle Vernon. Dudley got up to see if he
successfully pushed the line through to his own room, as he did his father caught up with
him.

"Do you think it's a good idea giving him a computer?" asked Vernon.

Dudley pulled his father aside as though to whisper something in private.

"It'll take him all weekend to figure out how to use it," said Dudley, "As long as he's in
there, he's out of sight and out of trouble doing something that has absolutely nothing to
do with magic."

Dudley winked at his old man, as his father was almost too impressed with his son's
cleverness.

"Good boy," said Vernon as he smiled and patted his son on his massive back.

As he walked away, Vernon felt his hand as he was shocked at what his son's back felt
like.

"Good lord, he's a rock," Vernon whispered to himself.

Dudley's scheming was not untrue to his father, his plan was to get Harry's mind away
from magic. The only time Harry seemed to be normal was when he was distracted, and
a computer could distract Harry for at least a whole summer, he hoped. Later that night
after supper, Harry rushed his way through the dishes to get his hands on this fascinating
new machine in his room. Aunt Petunia dropped off a few dishes in the sink for Harry to
scrub.

"Why are you always wearing long sleeve shirts all summer?" asked Petunia.

Harry was at a loss for words. Stepping in, Dudley dropped some cutlery into the
dishwater.

"Wizards are sensitive to sunlight," Dudley cut off, "Why else would they wear those
robes all the time?"

"Well you should get some bloody sun," said Vernon as he fetched a liquor glass from a
cabinet, "You're as pale as a vampire."

"Uhm, I could dig something up in the garden this weekend," said Harry, trying to keep
the subject off his shirt.

"Too bloody right you are," said Vernon, "That yucca plant is going to have to go. Sorry,
Petunia, you did you're best but it's a sickly looking unsightly thing."

"It'll be gone by the time you come back," promised Harry.

"It better be," said Vernon, "Or I'll... well.. you just get it done like you promised."

Vernon was often caught in mid sentence, changing his mind with making threats as heemememembered the send off from those magical folk he ran into. Harry was feeling a
relieved, but at the same time suspicious. He just couldn't figure did Dudley just cover
for him? With his hands in the dishwater, Harry kept his sleeves rolled down, letting
them get wet.
Fifteen minutes later, Dudley was in Harry's room showing him how to use a mouse and
CD ROM on his new computer. Right in the middle of explaining the difference between
serial pin serial ports, and USB ports, Harry was getting curious.

"Why are you doing this?" asked Harry.

"Get you something to do, that's all," said Dudley.

"You mean besides thinking of way to curse you?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"Something like that," said Dudley.

Harry still couldn't figure Dudley out.

"You've changed, you know," said Harry, "I don't just mean the weightlifting or losing
the gut. You've changed since last year. What happened to you?"

"I had a lot of growing up over the past school year," said Dudley, "I was thinking about
last year, about that thing with those Dementors. Mother explained them to me, she
explained you couldn't have conjured those things up. That thing they tried to do to me."

"The kiss," said Harry.

"It's a fate worse than death, she told me," said Dudley, "I've had a lot of time to think
about it, and I can't help but think I owe you. Not just for that but for all the shit I've put
you through. There's no way I can ever repay you, but at least I can share the wealth."

"Something else happened to you, during the school year, didn't it?" asked Harry.

"A lot happened to me," said Dudley, "Nothing like what you went through, I'm sure.
Maybe when you chip in for the beers for a change I'll tell you about it."

Harry smirked and wondered if he should ever tell Dudley he actually had access to a
vast fortune. For the time being he felt he should just let on he was the same old
penniless Harry. Dudley successfully rebooted the computer to make sure everything
was hooked up properly.

"Right then, I'm off to the gym," said Dudley, "If you run across any disasters let me
know when I come back. If nothing is working just hit that button to reboot and start
over. And, Harry, this machine is a pretty sensitive to electrical surges so-"

"No magicking around the bloody thing, I get it," said Harry, "Don't worry about that."

Dudley was a little worried about how that sounded. Years ago he would have been
delighted at the prospect of Harry abandoning magic, but now it just seemed downright
unnatural. Harry was the magical part of the family, Dudley had grown used to and
accepted that, now it seemed Harry was turning into a troubled "muggle" again. It was
disturbing. Harry may have been a great wizard, but his coping skills as a muggle were
tragically lacking.
Later that when Dudley came home from the gym he saw Harry busy clicking away at the
computer. Like most people getting affiliated with Windows for the first time Harry was
busy with a game of solitaire. Dudley smirked and thought that should keep Harry busy
for hours. Dudley went to sleep.
Hours later when he woke up to use the bathroom he noticed there was no light coming
from under Harry's door. The owl was hooting in it's cage like it was upset. This
seemed odd to Dudley as he figured something like a new computer would keep Harry up
all night. Carefully Dudley peered inside to see Harry's room was empty. He didn't
even go through the trouble of faking his bed to look like he was still in it.

"Dammit," Dudley cursed.

Minutes later Dudley was in his clothes and shoes with no socks on running outside,
looking around the street. At least Harry didn't swipe his bike, maybe he couldn't get
far, but with Harry's magical abilities Dudley had no idea how far Harry could have
gotten. That broom of his was still in his room. Inspired with an idea, Dudley headed for
the alley way where they both ran into those Dementors last year. As he approached it he
could hear someone talking loudly, he recognized it as Harry's voice.
Rounding the corner to the alley Dudley could see some strange light at the far end of it.
It was a misty ethereal light that was familiar, and definitely not natural. Carefully
Dudley got closer, not wanting to jump in on anything Harry could be cursing around.
There was something Harry was repeating over and over, and it seemed to be frustrating
him greatly. Dudley thought Harry picked a hell of a time and place to suddenly start
practicing magic again, then just as he could see Harry clearly, he could hear exactly
what Harry was saying.

"Expecto Patronum!" said Harry.

"Oh SHIT!" said Dudley.

Instantly Dudley remembered the spell. It was the same one Harry used to combat those
Dementors. Something was not right. With a panic Dudley looked around but there was
nothing like a Dementor in sight, and there was definitely not that feeling he remembered
that was in the air when they came near. There was simply nothing around of a
perceivable threat. Maybe Harry was using the spell to attack something he couldn't see,
but that just didn't seem right to Dudley.
Closer he got to Harry as he could see tears streaking down Harry's cheeks. Again and
again he worked his wand and spell, only managing a strange glowing mist out of the end
of it that got weaker and weaker with each attempt. Finally Harry gave up and collapsed
to the ground, crying.

"Harry?" Dudley asked as he carefully stepped in view of Harry.

"I can't do it anymore," Harry cried out in desperation.

When Harry raised his hands to his face, Dudley could see Harry's wrists covered in
blood. Showing no shame at all, Harry cried openly.

"You think those Dementors will come back?" asked Dudley as he looked around.

"I wish they would," cried Harry, "I wish they would come here right now, give me that
damn kiss and suck my soul out into nothingness! I'm tired of feeling this shit all the
time! I want it gone! I want to die! I don't want to feel anymore!"

Dudley squatted down next to Harry, and as much as he dared he tried to comfort him.
Harry looked like such a small, broken and pitiful sight to him it almost made him sick.

"Is that why you came out here?" asked Dudley, "To find those Dementors to finish you
off?"

"He wouldn't send them," said Harry, "Not if he knew how badly I wanted to die. He'd
gladly watch me suffer like this rather than finish me off like he easily could."

"Who?" asked Dudley.

Harry paused for a moment, like he was getting ready to spit up and said, "Voldemort."

"He's the one who killed your parents and did all this to you?" asked Dudley.

Harry shook his head while gritting his teeth.

"You have these powers, why don't you kill him?" asked Dudley.

"Could you?" asked Harry.

"Hell yes," said Dudley, "Someone who fucked up my life that much, I couldn't imagine
it being a problem. I'd go after anyone who murdered my family, magic or not."

"You wouldn't know how to kill someone like Voldemort," said Harry.

"I don't," said Dudley, "But you do. If I were in your shoes, I'd be looking for the
bastard instead of just sitting around and giving him a free shot at me."

"They wouldn't let me," said Harry, "I'm being watched. Dumbledore and the others
would stop me."

"If they're so powerful they can stop you from doing anything, why can't they find and
finish this Voldemort character?" asked Dudley.

"I don't know," said Harry, "He's too powerful, he's protected, he has a big gang called
the Death Eaters. I wouldn't stand a chance."

"Look, I'm not suggesting that you take off tonight and try for him yourself," said
Dudley, "You might as well throw yourself in front of a bus. I'm saying you, and a
bunch of wizards like you, form you're own secret gang to find a way to use magic to
plan a way to off him. People as powerful as you who may have the same motives, you
have friends like that?"

Harry shook his head.

"One or two."

"When you get back to school this year, you start thinking of a way to form your own
gang," said Dudley, "But people you trust, Harry, only people you know want this as bad
as you do, and are willing to go as far as you to do it. If you want to do it right, you only
choose people who have been hurt badly by this Voldemort character."

"You have a little experience at this, don't you?" asked Harry.

"A little," said Dudley, "Like I said, you buy the beers and maybe I'll tell you about it."

Harry let Hedwig out to hunt for mice. All night long, Harry lay in his bed with his
muddy clothes still on, wondering who could he trust to go on a mission to actually kill
Voldemort. It was disturbing to him that this list excluded two of his best friends. Ron
wouldn't be up for a task of murder, and Hermione would certainly be against the whole
venture. Most likely she would turn them in to save them from killing themselves. This
was too important to run to the adults over, this was revenge, this was self-defence, this
was right.
Who could he trust? If it was as simple as pulling a trigger, who would he freely do it in
front of? Neville Longbottom came to mind. He was an unlikely accomplice to murder,
but Longbottom had his motives certainly to see Voldemort dead, and he was committed
enough to risk his own life to face him. Ginny Weasley, she had her mind and body
violated by Voldemort, she was a powerful wizard, as her brothers commented, and there
was something about her that had a dark side. Something that convinced Harry she could
see it through. Fred and George Weasley, a convincing pair of shady characters who
easily compromised the morals of their family to suit their ends. They had connections,
they could keep secrets and certainly would not be against seeing Voldemort killed. Cho
Chang. Her lover slain by Voldemort and she never got over it. Harry's failed romance
with Cho and the problem of trust as Cho's best friend turning them in to the Grand
Inquisitor last year was an issue of going to her, but a mission of murder had a certain
focus that may get around those problems.
Something else was needed. Something brilliant. An ace in the hole. Something that
Harry's friends or supervising meddling adult wizards could never anticipate or interfere
with. It was madness to consider it, but he wasn't the first. It was complicated and risky,
but the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters had already considered it. Harry had
the opportunity to make his own effort to have an ally that if ever came face to face with
Voldemort may certainly overcome his magic and kill him. That ally would have the
least trouble of all in actually doing it.
It felt good to focus his mind on this. It fascinated his mind as parts and pieces came
together into play. This would work, if everyone kept their mouth shut and did their part,
this could really work. No interfering wizard could stop it any more than they could stop
him from being Harry Potter. Voldemort wanted Harry dead, and by the end of this plan,
they both may get exactly what they want.