IngloriousMe
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The-Headlines-They-Read [Chapter 55]
🕑 Added 2023-02-01 17:40:56 +0000 UTC~~Jacklyn’s Pad~~ (July 13th, 1994)
It has been two days since Harry and Jacklyn returned from Spain after finishing their shopping trip and Harry ended up buying a lot of stuff from Spain even though he was expecting to go on a shopping spree. He had to pay 250 Galleons for the eye-fixing Potion, which would have made him cry in blood if the results were worth it…
~~Flashback Starts~~
“I think it will be better if I am here when you take the Potion. My friend told me that her experience was …rather painful” Jacklyn added after a small pause.
As expected, Harry was quite excited about the Potion. He wanted to fix his eyes as soon as possible even though he was somewhat disturbed by the Potion at the beginning. Jacklyn also knew that he was excited about the Potion so she decided to follow him back to his apartment. According to Jacklyn, he will be experiencing a lot of pain after drinking the Potion, but he wasn't a stranger to pain.
"Okay… Let me get changed and you can ask Norton to make something for you while you wait" Harry agreed with her since he didn't mind her presence.
"Sure" Jacklyn said with a grin as she plopped down on one of the chairs. Meanwhile, Harry simply grabbed some casual clothes from his wardrobe and entered the bathroom to get changed.
After a couple of minutes, Harry walked out of the bathroom only to find Jacklyn sipping coffee with a pleased look on her face. Harry grabbed the Potion vial and sat down on the floor. He uncorked the Potion vial and grimaced at the horrible stench.
Harry couldn't handle the stench and pinched his nose with his other hand… "Here goes nothing!" Harry declared with a disgusted look on his face and downed the Potion in one go…
The taste was so horrible that he barely held himself back from puking out his guts. Potions are always horrible, but this Potion was probably the most horrible Potion he ever took. Thankfully, he wouldn't need to drink this Potion ever again… For the next few seconds, nothing happened and Harry was about to open his mouth to call it a dud, but that is when the Potion kicked in.
He accidentally bit his tongue when his eyes started to burn… He felt like his eyes were melting and he wouldn't be surprised if he was already bleeding from his eyes… He was in so much pain that he started to scream at the top of his lungs but he didn't even notice… His mind finally started to blank out… He also wanted to pass out to escape the pain, but at the same time, he couldn't pass out due to the pain…
Harry didn't know how much time had passed, but the pain finally started to subside, leaving a stinging pain in his eyes… He coughed and started to open his eyes and immediately snapped his eyes close as the stinging pain intensified when the light entered his eyes… He hissed in pain as once again he tried to open his eyes, but this time, he was being slow and careful…
Harry opened his eyes and noticed that everything was blurry… He could barely see anything even with his glasses but his vision was slowly getting clear… “You better take off those glasses or you might go blind once again…” He heard Jacklyn’s voice, but he noticed that there was a weird raspiness in her voice. He still listened to her advice and took off his glasses.
His vision continued to improve and the stinging pain he was feeling in his eyes finally started to disappear… “I can see… I can finally see without my glasses” Harry mumbled in awe as he looked around… His vision was finally crystal clear and he realized that he couldn’t see this well even with his new glasses. He looked around his room in complete awe… He felt like he was seeing the world for the first time.
He slowly turned toward Jacklyn to thank her, but he started to frown when he noticed her scrunching her face in disgust… “That’s fucking gross, kiddo! Go and wash your face… I will clean the floor” Jacklyn huffed looking a bit green and Harry finally looked down to see that apparently, he was bleeding on the floor. He touched his face and realized that his suspicion was right. He had been bleeding from his eyes.
“Thanks, Jacky, I will be back in a second” Harry declared as he walked away to wash the blood on his body. Harry arrived inside the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror… His eyes seemed to be much brighter than before and Jacklyn was also right. He was looking gross… He turned on the water and started to wash his face.
|Your eyes are more radiant than before… I like them| Lily breathed out slowly, making Harry freeze for a second. There was just something in her voice, but Harry couldn’t place his finger on it.
|Thanks, mom| Harry mumbled a thanks in a low tone as he finally finished washing his face. He wiped his face with the towel and nodded his head in satisfaction… Yes, he looked much better without his glasses. He pulled out his Wand and flicked it in front of his shirt and the blood stains on his shirt disappeared.
By the time Harry finally walked out of the bathroom, the floor was completely clean, thanks to Jacklyn. “How are you feeling, kiddo?” Jacklyn asked with a smug grin on her face, but instead of answering her question, he simply pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly.
After some time, Harry finally released her from his arms and stared at her gratefully. “Thank you, Jacky… This means a lot to me” Harry said in a grateful tone while staring straight into Jacklyn’s eyes.
Jacklyn beamed at him and ruffled his hair… “You don’t have to thank me… You didn’t even let me pay for the Potion, so you don't have to thank me for anything” Jacklyn said as she lowered her hand to pat his shoulder. “So, how are you feeling? Your reaction is enough for me to know that the Potion worked” Jacklyn asked curiously.
“...I feel great… I feel like I am seeing everything for the first time. My vision wasn’t this clear even with my glasses” Harry answered with a grin. He was already loving his repaired vision…
“Well… That’s good. So, do you want to see my house?” Jacklyn asked and after thinking for a bit, Harry agreed with her offer even though he wanted to dive straight into the books he bought from Spain…
~~Flashback Ends~~
Since then, he has been staying over in Jacklyn’s new house and helping her around the house… He also brought along Norton so he could extend his help to Morsi, who was Jacklyn’s house elf. Norton and Morsi have been working around the house, moving the furniture while Harry and Jacklyn have been training most of the time…
Even the lack of Wards didn’t bother the duo since there was nobody around them. Yes, Jacklyn’s new house was right in the middle of nowhere… Thankfully, her house was already connected to the Floor network…
“So, is there a reason you are studying Soul Magic?” Jacklyn asked with a hiss as she applied some burn salve on her right calf… Harry got her good with the flame whip.
“This is something I found interesting so I decided to grab it…” Harry answered dismissively. He saw a set of books dedicated to Soul Magic back in one of the bookshops in Spain and decided to buy the whole thing. There were mainly two reasons why Harry decided to buy the books…
First of all, he wanted to build a new body for his mom, who was currently trapped inside his scar or somewhere else on his body in the Soul form and since he needed to transfer her Soul into the new body, he needed to learn everything he could about Soul Magic… Secondly, Voldemort was still out there somewhere and his mom believed that he had used some sort of Soul Magic to survive…
“Oh well, as long as you are happy…” Jacklyn shrugged and went back to what she had been doing.
“By the way, when are you going to place the Wards?” Harry asked curiously without looking away from his book.
“...I don’t know. I have ordered a Ward Stone, but it is yet to arrive, but the goblins assured me that they are trying their best and the Ward Stone will arrive within this week” Jacklyn answered sourly after thinking for a bit. “Greedy little fuckers!” Jacklyn cursed in exasperation.
“You contracted the goblins?” Harry asked as he finally turned away from his book to look at Jacklyn.
“Yes, they might be greedy little fuckers, but they are the best in business” Jacklyn admitted grudgingly.
Harry opened his mouth to ask how much the goblins were asking for the Wards, but before he could speak up, the Floo flared up and Brittany's face appeared in the fireplace. “Harry! Harry! Are you there?!” Brittany called out frantically and Harry immediately closed his book and shot up from his chair. He placed the book on the chair and rushed toward the Floo…
Something serious must have happened or Brittany wouldn’t be acting so frantic… “Yeah, I am here. What happened?” Harry asked as he stopped in front of Floo.
“Harry, you need to see this” Brittany said and her face disappeared from the fireplace. Harry started to wonder what could be so urgent that she didn’t even bother to warn him to step back. He stepped back and moments later, the Floo flared up and Brittany walked out of the Floo with an edition of the New York Ghost. She didn’t even bother to say anything and simply handed him the paper…
Harry raised his eyebrows in question, but he still accepted the paper… “What happened?” Jacklyn asked curiously as she stepped behind Harry so that she could also read the paper.
Harry opened the paper and he immediately froze in shock and surprise as soon as he read the Headlines…
<SIRIUS BLACK, INNOCENT!!!>
<THE DEFEATER OF GRINDELWALD CAPTURES THE REAL TRAITOR!>
<THE AUROR DEPARTMENT FAILS SPECTACULARLY!>
<PETER PETTIGREW ESCAPES! CONSPIRACY OR INCOMPETENCE?!>
Harry slowly closed his eyes and opened them after taking a deep breath, but the Headlines were still there, glaring at him… He realized that he was going to have an extremely long and tiring day right in front of him…
|Motherfucker…| Lily didn’t even notice as the curse left her mouth.
“Fuuuuck!” Jacklyn hissed as she also read the Headlines from the back.
“Yeah… Fuck indeed” Harry mumbled absentmindedly as continued to stare at the Headlines. Either Lily was so lost that she didn’t hear him curse or she simply decided to ignore it thanks to the situation…
