Hermione shook her head, trying to control the thoughts coming from her husband, "I'm sorry Miss Green, my husband was just wishing he had been sent here in stead of his aunt's. A person only has to walk the corridors to feel the love you and your staff have for these children, Harry was nearly twelve before he got his first hug and that was from me. He's only known about being Lord Potter for a short while and he has spent that time trying to help people, how could anyone not love him?"
Emma hugged her daughter from behind while Jillian struggled with the idea that Harry Potter would rather have come here, she watched him as he charmed all the children.
Harry noticed a young girl who looked afraid to approach him, she had a rolled up sheet of paper and he was quite sure he knew what it was so waved her over.
Eight-year-old Joan forced herself to go over to her hero and couldn't even speak, she just handed him the poster.
Harry unrolled it to find it matched the rest of the orphanage, worn and frayed around the edges but treated with love and care. "What's your name?" Harry asked.
He received a muffled 'Joan' before he reached out and lifted her chin so she was looking at him, "Joan, you and every one here are invited to my house for a holiday while we get a new building ready for you to live in. While you're there we can get our photograph taken together and I'll sign that for you, 'to my friend Joan – love Harry' – will that do?"
She managed to nod her head before bursting into tears and launching herself into Harry's arms, he stood with Joan in his arms just before the rest of the children all joined the rapidly expanding group hug.
Harry noticed Emma and Jillian were crying but the look Hermione was giving him lifted his heart into the stratosphere and confirmed he was right to do this, he could have given his wife the British Crown Jewels and not got this reaction.
When the kids had calmed down the reality that they would be going on holiday kicked in and Jillian had forty-two hyper orphans on her hands, they had very little idea where Italy was but a swimming poll and private beach needed no explanation. Harry had left her a thousand galleons to 'tide them over to Saturday' and told her not to worry about clothes for the children, they would be taking them shopping when the got there.
Harry's comments before he left raised her opinion of him even more.
"Since making the discovery I was famous I can honestly say I've hated every part of my fame, watching Joan treat a poster of me like her greatest treasure was a truly humbling experience. If she can draw any semblance of comfort from it, then who am I to say that it's wrong and better that than a poster of Voldemort!"
....
Connie Hammer sat in the boat more convinced than ever that she really needed to control her temper or learn not to speak when angry. She thought back to what caused her present predicament and still found she wouldn't have changed a thing, calling the then minister Cornelius Fudge a 'bumbling arsehole' to his face when they received word that dementors had boarded the Hogwarts express was one of the defining moments of her life.
Unfortunately Fudge didn't take to kindly to the truth and thought it was perfectly acceptable to place those monsters around a school full of children, he was also a small, petty man and only her friend Amelia Bones had saved her job though could do nothing about the demotion. Only the promotion of his nephew to her old job appeased the arsehole enough for her to remain an auror, Amelia had then rightly torn a strip off her for being so bloody stupid and assigned her to the junior arsehole's squad hoping to try and limit the damage he could do.
....
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