Pamela Potter – The Darkness Returns

This is Book 3 of the Pamela Potter series.

Summary: An idle threat puts Pamela on edge as she has to deal with a potential murderer and soul sucking demons. Join her as she is forced to face certain truths about herself.

This story will contain some mature themes you are forewarned.

For those who followed my previous two books and for the new fans thank you for reading.

Thank you for TheoIsTrash who reviewed the last book through the guest review system and Kain129 who disabled PM, your reviews are greatly appreciated.

Muggles

The day after Pamela arrived back home she went to Gringott's. In the books the goblins gave her she had read that anything made by goblins was only rented for that lifetime. Once the person dies, the commissioned work has to be returned to the goblins as a show of good fate. Magical people however view the ownership a bit differently.

As Pamela waited for the goblin in charge of commissioned goods, Defender Turnstab, she added all her memories to date into a viewing orb. She had bought one just before going into the bank. They were relatively cheap too, only nine Knuts. She however found that there was a limit to what she could place inside the orb. With a sigh she decided to study the magic used to create it and make her own.

"You wished to speak to me, Ms. Potter?"

"Defender Turnstab, while I was down in the Chamber of Secrets I was presented with the goblin made sword of Gryffindor. It came out of the Sorting Hat. I read that a commissioned work like this only belongs to the one who commissioned it until they cast their dying breath."

"Indeed, do you wish to rent the sword?" Pamela thought about it.

"No, but I do believe that there is a spell on it, to present it to a worthy Gryffindor. May I suggest adding a spell to return it to the goblins, should the task the sword was summoned to do be completed?"

"That is a good idea, I know the family who crafted this blade and I will have them add the runic cluster to it. We won't remove the spell that calls it to a worthy Gryffindor though. As payment we will accept the return of the sword for that."

"May your enemies fall before your gate, Defender Turnstab," Pamela bowed to the goblin.

"And may your endeavors always succeed, Ms. Potter." The goblin bowed back.

Pamela went back home towards her shop when she suddenly remembered about the scruffy dog that she kinda accepted into her life the previous day. She took a detour to the shopping district of Diagon Alley and bought a few packets of meat. Sure she and Tonks never touched the vile stuff, but a dog is mostly carnivore.

Sitting on the dandelion sofa she looked the dog straight in the eyes. To his credit he didn't waver much. This was how Tonks found them when she got home. She asked about the meeting with the goblins and opened the ice box and saw the meat.

"Why'd you get dead animals?" she asked eyeing the frozen meat curiously.

"It's for Snuffles. He looks way too thin to exist. We both know that as a dog, he can't survive on just vegetables and fruit."

"True, but who's going to cook the meat?"

"Dobby?" Pamela shrugged.

"The House elf who –" there was a sudden pop and there stood Dobby, his ears sticking out of the legs of the panty Pamela used to free him.

"Dobby, have you bonded with me?" Dobby nodded. "Fine, can you cook?" Dobby nodded again. "Can House Elves wear a uniform? Clothing that remains the property of the house but is worn by the House Elf?"

"If the clothes is not belonging to the elf, he or she cans wear it without being set free." Dobby answered.

I will have your uniform ready in the morning, and please don't wear that underwear on your head, it looks perverted." Pamela nodded to herself. "Your only task is to cook meat for Snuffles. Tonks and I don't like touching it. Tonks is a vegetarian and I can't eat meat because of my unique body chemistry."

"You is calling the doggy Snuffles?" Dobby asked. "He is looking more like a Blackie." Dobby shared a look with the dog.

====PPTDR====

Life inside The Little Shop of Horrors was peaceful for the first few weeks back. It was around the end of June that there was any indication that things were changing. The owls came and brought with them some good and some bad news. The good news was that the third years were allowed to visit the village of Hogsmead. Andromeda Tonks, having accepted the role of Magical guardian, signed the permission form instantly, something about not wanting a Nymphadora sized tantrum, again.

The bad news was that Pamela didn't think she wanted to go, anymore. Azkaban, the prison for magical law-breakers, had an annual inspection, and one of the cells was found empty. It was the cell that had the most Dementor guards, which made it a big deal, apparently. Sirius Black had escaped and no one knew it until the previous night. Pamela rolled her eyes.

Dropping the newspaper, Snuffles looked over it and growled at the front page. Pamela had learned that the dog sometimes stared at the news paper as if he could read it. On the front page there was a picture of the Weasley family in Egypt.

"Don't growl at them, I'll let you know that at least three of them have good manners." Pamela looked at where the slobber fell. "Is that a rat? Who in their right mind has a rat as a pet?"

Snuffles barked.

"It's the rat you growled at?" Snuffles barked in confirmation. "Do you know the rat?" another bark. "Did you go to school with it?" Snuffles barked again. "You don't understand a thing I just said, do you?" Again Snuffles barked.

There was a sudden tuck from the shop and with a thought Pamela had Snuffles in a flower cage and bolted down to the stairs and scanned for irregularities in the shop. The sun loving plants were quietly enjoying the morning sun. The plants that loved a bit of shade were blooming nicely. The Bleeding Heart Lilies caught a girl and has her hanging over the Dionaea Calico. The mandrakes are mooning her. Wait! Go Back.

"Give me a good reason not to feed you to my plants?" Pamela demanded of the girl.

"Because you're the cutest girl my age I have ever seen?" Pamela admired her sense of self-preservation. She had the palest skin Pamela has ever seen and the beginnings of what could be a killer body. And her accent was to die for.

"Are you some kind of harlequin trying to make me laugh? You do realize that it is only because of my concentration that you haven't been dropped into Hades yet?"

"Okay, my name is Harleen Quinzel. I kinda stumbled into this place and was running away from someone down the side alley when I dodged into this shop."

"I don't recognize the name. What is your opinion on magic?"

"It makes a story or comic more interesting, why do you ask?"

"No real reason, where are you from?"

"Brooklyn, New York." Pamela nodded towards the plants and they dropped the Harleen gently on the ground.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley, London, England, you are a far way from home." Pamela gestured to the door and sat down on one of the flower chairs. "My name is Pamela Potter."

"I was actually in London with my father, I kinda ran away while he was getting drunk, no way am I gonna get slapped around again. He's meeting with some fat hippo from a company called Grunnings."

"Does this fat hippo happen to have five chins, blond hair and with a walrus moustache?" Pamela queried.

"Are you some kind of mind reader?"

"No that would be illegal without consent." Tonks said from the door way.

"Tonks, Harleen needs to crash here tonight, her father is getting drunk with Vernon Dursley and I shiver at the thought of what they could discuss."

"Yeah I heard, her father has some loose hands, Vernon has to lose his jinglies." Tonks shrugged. "She's bunking with you."

====PPTDR====

Harleen ended up staying a few more days. Both Tonks and Pamela kept magic to a minimal while she was there and when Tonks escorted Harleen back to her father she cast a simple memory modification charm on her before giving her the charm bracelet that Pamela had the goblins enchant. It would discourage her father from hurting her in any way, since Harleen refused to leave the only family she had, even if he threw her around regularly.

The Hogwarts letters arrived on Pamela's birthday along with a few gifts. From Fay down under, she received seeds of almost all the magical plants from the continent. Pansy sent her a book on Occlumency and a bracelet to test the mental barriers. The letter accompanying it said that if Pamela could wear the bracelet without feeling a mental tuck then her barriers would be set properly.

Hermione hasn't send Pamela anything, but that wasn't surprising considering neither of them owned an owl. However the biggest gift that Pamela received was Hermione herself at around teatime. Hermione gave Pamela her gift anyway, a guide to non magical plants from the Amazon Rainforest.

There was another surprise as the girls did their shopping. Hagrid had gifted them both a copy of the Monster Book of Monsters, the owner of Flourish & Blotts was so relieved that he didn't have to get more books out of the pile he gave them a galleon off their purchase. Outside the door was none other than the first year, well now second year, John Constantine escorted by Alfred Pennyworth and his non magical charge, Bruce Wayne.

"Mr. Pennyworth, nice to see you again." Pamela gave the balding man a curtsy.

"Indeed it is," he noticed the arched brow. "Bruce has discovered that John has magical abilities and insisted on accompanying him to purchase his school supplies."

"Has this been cleared by the Auror department?" Hermione asked, she still remembered the amount of paperwork her own parents had to go through, for her cousin, which she has yet to reveal.

"On a single condition, we were not allowed to point out the location of the no-maj, sorry muggle-side entrance. Bruce was able to see it after a bit, so here we are."

"You were looking at getting some rare ingredients last time, if I remember overhearing correctly." Pamela asked.

"Yes, but unfortunately the florist around the bend is still closed." Alfred shook his head.

"What exactly do you need, I can owl it to you. I know the people who live there." Hermione caught on that Pamela wanted to keep it a secret.

"Their daughter goes to Hogwarts with us." Hermione added. The suspicion in Alfred's eyes dissipated. Alfred jotted down what he needed and handed it to Pamela before bidding them a farewell.

"Looks like this summer every American is discovering our little magical district."

"I doubt that Bruce and Selina count as everyone." Hermione countered. She realized what she said and decided to just roll with it.

"Selina?" Pamela arched her brow. "Who is that, an older sister?"

"My cousin, her father was sent to prison for a hundred life sentences and her mother, my mother's sister, died before school ended for us. Since we are her only family she came to us. She can be a handful, she is a kleptomaniac."

"Remind me to hide the good china when she comes for tea then." Hermione knew that Pamela would understand, she didn't know why she kept it hidden.

"So if you didn't talk about Selina, what other muggle American found their way into our neck of the woods?"

Pamela told Hermione about Harleen and the troubles she faced with her father. She also explained her reasoning on why she allowed Harleen to go back and the extra protection she gave the girl. Hermione accepted the explanation of family being important, she just didn't need to like it.

Knowing that Pamela wouldn't mind, Hermione invited her cousin around for tea one afternoon. The very afternoon also happened to be Ginny Weasley's birthday. Pamela had gotten the younger red head a Nimbus 2000. The excuse they gave Mrs. Weasley was that Pamela would be training Ginny as a replacement seeker, should she find herself unable to play. The truth however was that Ginny was feeling guilty that she was manipulated by Voldemort throughout the previous year, the quite expensive broom was Pamela's way of saying she didn't have any hard feelings towards the girl.

Selina was an odd character, Pamela had to admit, but there was something about the girl that Pamela liked. Even though the girl was non magical, she had all the hallmarks of a cat, almost like she was an Animagus, like McGonagall. McGonagall had revealed, when Pamela first met her officially, that she had slight kleptomania, she had learned to school her mind so strictly that that demeanor shown through, suppressing the cat within. Pamela had told Hermione that and together they decided to ask McGonagall if a non magical could exhibit those strong traits.

Too soon it was time to return to Hogwarts, yet Pamela was looking forward to it. She had grown a new set of Bleeding Heart Lilies, specifically for the seventh year students. She was looking forward to seeing what they made of the new batch. The last set had some interesting results, according to Sprout, when one of the seventh year boys stupidly smelled the flower, some of the pollen entered his system and he was a mindless drone for the rest of the day. The new batch had more toxins in and stronger pollen.

====PPTDR====

The first chapter of book three is done, hope you like it.

Please review, I love reading what you guys think.