The Price of Wizarding Fear

Harry Potter and The Price of Wizarding Fear

By zelgadisgreywood

zelgadisgreywood@chez-vrolet.net

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters belong to JKR.

Disclaimer II: Mr. Vincent Price belonged to no one but himself, his dear friends and family, and his adoring fans. While I normally have qualms against using real people in my fics, Mr. Price happily inserted himself into his own series of adventures ("The Price of Fear" which is where this fic gets its name.)

Warning: Mention of character death.

Summary: In his final year at Hogwarts, Harry begins to notice something very odd about the photos in his family album.

Archive: If you want to.


The Price of Wizarding Fear
By zelgadisgreywood


-Chapter One-

For the first time in his life, Harry Potter's aunt and uncle were celebrating his birthday.

Aunt Petunia had roused him in the normal way and he had walked right past his gifts before he realized what they were.

"Are you feeling all right?" he asked. "Can I get you a doctor? Perhaps you'd care to lie down?"

"Come on, boy." Uncle Vernon urged. "Open your gifts."

Harry opened a set of luggage, a week's worth of new clothes and a set of cardboard boxes.

"They're from your aunt." His uncle told him. "I wouldn't have bought you a paper bag."

"Hang on," he said, realizing where this was leading. "You promised..."

Aunt Petunia dragged Harry into the kitchen. "Your uncle and I are getting a divorce." she explained.

"Why?" Harry asked.

Aunt Petunia glared at him. "Don't ask questions."

She went into her and Vernon's room and packed her things.

"Lets go."

Aunt Petunia led Harry past the play park. Dudley's gang had torn down the last swing a month earlier, on the day before fate had caught up with him and he'd been killed in a drive-by shooting.

They made there way into London where they managed a find a landlady who still rented by the month.

That night, Harry was looking through his albums when he noticed that there were no pictures of his maternal great grandfather.

Tomorrow he'd be going back to school. Then he could ask Dumbledore about it.



-Chapter 2-

"I thought I'd go to Diagon Alley," Harry told Aunt Petunia after he'd finished the dishes the next morning.

"Will your friends be there?" Aunt Petunia asked.

"I imagine so." Harry replied. He wasn't sure why her attitude toward him had changed. Perhaps Dudley's death had something to do with it? "Well, I suppose I'll see you later, then."

"I'm coming with you." Aunt Petunia told him.

Harry blinked in confusion. "Aunt Petunia?"

His aunt, however, was not in a chatty mood at the moment, so he led her into Diagon Alley.

He expected her to scoff and ridicule. But to his astonishment, she asked about everything. And when Molly Weasley approached her, Aunt Petunia told Harry to run off with Ron and Ginny while the two of them chatted.

"Come on," Ron said. "Let's head over to Fred and George's shop. They've working on some new word balloons."

"Word balloons," Harry asked as he walked into the shop.

"Yeah, brilliant they are." George grinned.

"Just speak into the pipe before you close it up and when you open the balloon..." Fred announced as George demonstrated.

The reopened balloon announced. "Psst, Fred.our fly is down."

"I know." Fred shrugged "Bit of a bother that, I mean what do you get to cheer up a depressed bug?"

"I just wish I knew what Aunt Petunia was up to." Harry explained everything he could, starting with Dudley's death and ending when Aunt Petunia had sent him off so she could talk with Mrs. Weasley.

"How far along you reckon, Fred?"

"Still pretty early, George." Fred replied.

"Excuse me?" Harry asked. "Are you telling me that my aunt is pregnant?"

"We know the signs quite well." Fred told him.

"Having seen our own mum go through it with Ron and Ginny." George added.

Harry lie in bed that night with a lot on his mind.

Would Aunt Petunia go back to Uncle Vernon if the baby wasn't a witch or wizard?

Would she be able to cope with living in the wizarding world?

And then there was his family album. Why could he not see his maternal great grandfather?



-Chapter 3-

It felt strange to Harry to be waving to his Aunt as the train left the platform. Until that year neither she nor her soon-to-be ex-husband had wanted anything to do with the wizarding world.

But that had changed when Aunt Petunia had learned that she was going to have a baby. Her mutterings that night as she lie alone in bed, that if Vernon wanted her to kill her baby he could take a walk off the top of Big Ben had confirmed the Twins' suspicions.

He took out the album and watched the photos, peering cloself at the spots where he was sure his mother's grandfather was meant to be.

It was a full two minutes before he realized Hermione and Ron were sitting opposite him.

"Hermione," he handed her the book, "have a look at this. My mother's grandfather is missing from these photographs. I'm sure he's supposed to be in them. But its like he either won't or can't get into the frame."

Hermione studied the album quietly. "You're right, Harry. There's a powerful magic at work here."

"Maybe he's just shy?" Ron offered.

"Maybe. But somehow I don't think so." Hermione shook her head.

The train pulled to a stop and the students climbed out. Someone jostled Harry as he was collecting his trunk and the album fell out from under his arm.

"Sorry," Neville apologized.

"Its okay." Harry said as he bent to retrieve the album.

It was not there!

Harry looked around to see it the album had been kicked away, but it was nowhere to be found. He had to find it. He wanted Dumbledore to see the photos. He had to know if the Headmaster could help him find out why his mother's grandfather wasn't in any of the pictures.

"Come on, Harry, or we'll be late for the feast." Hermione urged.

"My album's missing." Harry told her. "We have to find it."

"If someone picked it up, I'm sure they'll give it to you in the Great Hall." Hermione told him as she dragged him into the castle.



-Chapter Four-

Hermione was staring at the teacher's table with her mouth hanging open.

"I don't believe it." she said, her eyes focused on the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

He was an older gentleman. Thin, but not unpleasantly so. He still had most of his hair, some of which was still dark. His eyes twinkled with cultured merriment and his smiling lips were traced by a well-groomed moustache.

"Do you know him?" Ron asked.

"Hermione?" Harry frowned.

"Its Vincent Price." Hermione whispered.

"Who?" Harry asked.

Hermione ran down a list of movies Vincent Price had starred in. They were precisely the type of movies the Dursleys avoided watching.

"He's also said to be one of the finest chefs in the world." Hermione added. "I do hope he visits the kitchens. I've always wanted to experience his cooking."

*****

Draco lie in bed that evening looking through Harry's family album. He flipped the pages quickly and gave a bored yawn. He had better things to do than stare at Harry Potter's relatives.

One caught his eye, however, and he turned the page back to get another look. With a longing sigh, he gazed at the album until he fell sound asleep.



-Chapter 5-

"Good morning, class." Professor Price said as he produced a small cage. "This morning we will be starting a week-long discussion on the Old Ones. Now, how many of you are familiar with C'thulhu?"

Hermione's hand shot up. "Although muggles believe him to be a sea monster from the beginning of time, C'thulhu was in fact a wizard. He attended Hogwarts during its inaugural year. Although his attitude made him an ideal candidate for Slytherin, he was sorted into Ravenclaw because of his thirst for knowledge."

"Well done." Professor Price smiled as he strolled over to the desk where Draco was sleeping. "Ten points to Gryffindor." He dropped the book he'd been carrying deliberately hard on the desk.

Draco jumped out of his chair. "Huh?"

Everyone laughed.

"Silence." Price waved his arm. He looked down at Draco. "I suggest you revise your personal time to permit yourself a bit more sleep" he said.

"Whatever," Draco grumbled.



-Chapter 6-

"Look," Ron said as he, Harry and Hermione drank tea in Hagrid's hut. "We all know Draco has Harry's book. I mean he's the biggest klepto in this school."

"You'd think his father didn't pay him any attention."

"Well, seeing as Lucius Malfoy isn't really Draco's dad to begin with." Hagrid went red. Clearly he'd let something slip.

"What?" was all Harry could ask.

"Oh he wanted a son enough," Hagrid told them. "But for the longest time, nothing happened. Then he comes into work all happy and smiles telling everyone that his wife's going to have a kid. We was happy for him, though most of us felt sorry for the kid. I mean with a dad like that. Then one morning he comes around all badtempered and we learn the baby died. If ya ask, he killed it. Found his wife was cheatin' and took it out on the kid. That was right around the time you were born, Harry. I guess Dumbledore was worried that you might get stolen, 'cause he put a charm on you the minute you popped out. About that time Lucius Malfoy shows up with this kid and tells everyone its his."

"Didn't the Ministry try to find the real parents?" Hermione asked.

"Couldn't find a soul." Hagrid replied. "Its as if he popped up out of nowhere."

Hermione frowned. Something nagged at the back of her mind, but she wasn't quite sure what.



-Chapter 7-

Draco sat thoughtfully under a tree and took out the photo album. He quickly found the picture he had stumbled upon that first night.

"Beautiful." he sighed, tracing the woman's face with his the tip of his index finger.

"Hey!" Harry Potter's angry shout shook Draco out of his daydreams. "That's mine!"

Slipping the photo out of the album, Draco tossed the book to Harry.

Hermione's frown deepened. She decided the only course of action was to pay a visit to Professor Price.

The Professor was preparing his notes for his next class when he heard her at the door.

"Miss Granger," he said "delighted as I am that you wish to visit, I am afraid that my time at the moment is not my own. In fact, if you'll pardon my saying so, I believe that there are far too many people dealing with this problem."

Hermione nodded, then departed. She was halfway to her next class when the pieces fell into place, causing her to stop dead in her tracks.

"Merlin's beard." she whispered.



-Chapter 8-

"Give it back, Malfoy." Harry warned, aiming his wand at Draco, his other hand still clutching the album.

"I still can't believe anyone as pathetic as you is related to this woman," Draco glanced at the photo, then slipped it back into his pocket. "Pity I wasn't born in her time. She's far better than anything this sorry generation has to offer. In fact, I rather fancy her."

"Keep my family out of your sick fantasies!" Harry shouted, raising his wand to strike.

"Retournent a temps!(1)" Hermione shouted, waving her wand. A light lept from her wand and enveloped Draco who vanished before their eyes.

Harry stood there, not paying attention as the album fell from its grasp.

Hermione picked it up and leafed through it, smiling.

"Sir," Harry told Dumbledore, who was approaching, "It wasn't Hermione's fault. Malfoy..."

"Draco Malfoy is fine, Harry," Dumbledore said, taking the album and selecting a page. "See for yourself."

Harry frowned in puzzlement as he took the album from Dumbledore.

The page was one of those in which Harry's great grandmother on his mother's side had been standing alone. Only now a well-dressed wizard stood at her side. He looked about five years older. He bore a fair countenance and his silver eyes twinkled with affection for the woman at his side. But there was no doubt in Harry's mind that the man in those photographs was Draco Malfoy.


END