8 Cunning Manipulation

Harry saw that she had taken the bait. While it was the complete truth, he would use this to his advantage.

The most pressing matter at hand was the Dursleys screwing him up. Once they realized that he would get magical training.

His name was Voldemort. But most people don't like to say or even hear the name. Even after ten years the fear is rooted very deeply in the people." She answered.

"I see." Harry said.

Then their food and drinks came and they ate in silence for a while. For a boy who was obviously neglected by his family, Harry had impeccable manners she noticed.

So somebody had taken the time to teach him something. When they finished, she turned to Harry, trying to ease him into telling about his home life.

"You wrote in your letter that you had offers for scholarships to several muggle schools, Mr Potter. How did you get them, if you don't mind me asking." She started.

"No, I don't mind. I got them for my skills in playing football, a popular muggle sport and my high grades. If my relatives had agreed, I would already attend secondary school. I was offered to skip a year when I was nine."

"But they refused and as my guardians they had to give permission for me to be advanced to a higher class. I was the top student of my year at my old primary school." He said with a hint of pride.

'He inherited his parents' intelligence then.' Professor McGonagall thought smiling.

"As football is so popular, the most popular sport in the world in fact, and I soon found out that I was good at playing it, I trained when I wasn't studying at my school's library or the town library."

"Those were some of the few places where my cousin wouldn't get me. He is a fat brute if you wonder. Until I had this one outburst where I paralysed Vernon for four hours one evening when he tried to beat me with his belt, Dudley regularly beat me up with his gang of bullies."

"After that the Dursleys were too afraid what I could also do and stopped the physical punishments. Dudley is stupid and would never voluntarily enter a library. He also hates exercise. So me training at the field behind the school, where teachers could see me from the teachers' lounge, or being in the library gave me some security."

Professor McGonagall was enraged. That horrible muggle had beaten a child with a belt? She would make sure that Harry was taken away from there immediately. This would not continue. And if Dumbledore tried to interfere he would be introduced to her fury again.

"When I finally realized that the Dursleys would never change their opinion of me, I tried for years to get them to like me, but it didn't work, I decided that they didn't matter to me."

"I couldn't care less what they wanted. I stopped holding back at school to not make Dudley look worse than me."

"I stopped doing the chores they demanded I did except a few that were okay for a child my age to do. What could they do? Punishing me? They already did that."

"If they overdid it, others would notice and they would be arrested for child abuse and be seen as the freaks they are."

"As I said, they are obsessed with normalcy. I got punished for outdoing Dudley, but nothing more than being locked up in my cupboard for a week.'

'And as it was during the school year that only meant the early evenings till the mornings. And going without dinner for a week was nothing new to me. I made sure to eat more at the canteen though."

They could perhaps try something more radical. He didn't put murder beyond them if they could make it look like an accident.

"Mr Potter, I will make sure that you will be relocated. This won't continue. No child should grow up in an environment like that. By the way, what did you mean with your cupboard?" She asked.

"That's my so called bedroom. I know that they are guilty of child abuse, but none of the anonymous letters I sent to the police worked. Either Vernon talked them out of their suspicions or they didn't even investigate." He said.

Professor McGonagall pondered about the reason for that. "Why wouldn't the muggle aurors even investigate a case of child abuse? That didn't sound right."

"Could it be that somebody had interfered? She would find out. But if what she thought was true, Poppy or a healer at St. Mungo's needed to examine the boy as soon as possible if there were lasting problems from the abuse."

"Didn't any of the muggle healers get suspicious of your injuries?" She asked disbelievingly.

"You don't really think I ever was taken to one? No, that would have been a waste of money on a freak like me." He answered.

"You aren't a freak, never say that." She protested.

"That is what I was called my whole life there. I only found out my name a day before Dudley and I were to start at school. After all, they couldn't risk me not reacting to my name, could they?" He asked sarcastically.