Harry Potter Goes Bonkers

Part One

Harry Potter had gone bonkers. At least that's what his friends were saying.

Ron was the first to notice. When Harry showed up after his annual stay with his relatives in the summer of his 16th year, it was quite plain.

Yes, everyone at the Burrow knew that Harry was dealing with the death of Sirius, and the injuries of his friends, in the disastrous invasion of the Department of Mysteries. Yes, Ron himself knew that Harry was more fragile emotionally than most people realized. Harry had only spoken to their professors of his nightmares about Voldemort. He had never mentioned the nightmares about his home life. And Ron never mentioned that Harry talked in his sleep during those nightmares, too.

But that had no bearing on Harry's behaviour now.

They expected Harry to have bouts of depression. They expected him to try to isolate himself away from everybody, and to try to shut them out so he didn't lead anyone else into harm's way. A few crying fits and shouting matches were also in the forecast for the rest of the summer. They were not upset when Harry lived up to those expectations.

But Harry also went on long walks with only Hedwig as his companion. Not too unexpected, unless you watched him and figured out he was having long 'conversations' with the stupid bird. You'd see Harry's mouth move, his arms wave frantically, and catch all of his glances in Hedwig's direction. Then you'd see him pause... and Hedwig's beak would open and close a few times. Her wings would flutter and rustle. Occasionally she would nuzzle his face, or snap at his ear.

And it wasn't only on long walks. You could also hear Harry's voice murmur through the door of Percy's room late at night, if you just happened to be making a late visit to the loo. A light under the door was never visible, but the soft clucking of Hedwig's replies confirmed that Harry was at least looking for the bend to go round.

Worse, he'd not deny it if you asked him about it. He'd give a short 'Yeah I talk to Hedwig, at least she lets me finish my thoughts' answer, then refuse to say anything about the the subject of his conversations with her. Instead he would hem and haw, try to get out of committing himself to an answer, and then finally say he was not permitted to talk about it. As if Hedwig would get upset if he told anyone else what they talked about!

Bonkers!

Another sign of his impending insanity was the conversations he had with real people. They started with the expected apologies for causing so much trouble. Promises that he wouldn't let anyone else get hurt soon followed. Again, nothing that wasn't already in other people's minds, and therefore not shocking when he brought them up.

But then he started talking about changing his approach to the War.

It started innocently enough. Harry was complaining bitterly about the way He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (by name of course!) leading him around by the nose. The constant traps and snares that the Dark Lord had all the time in the world to set for him. The unending supply of Death Eaters that jumped unquestioningly to fulfil every 'request' of his enemy. Not to mention the inability to tell friend from foe any time The-Boy-Who-Lived stepped out into the public's eye.

The Daily Prophet was invariably mentioned as part of the problem. Harry had decided, through some leap of muggle logic, that he was actually fighting this Wizarding war on several fronts, instead of just a battle of wits with an insane insurrectionist over life's natural order. No, this war also included a public opinion front, with the V-demon gaining ground all of the time. Negative stories about Harry had caused many good people to doubt his ability to fulfil their expectations of him. Doubters were not automatically followers of the Dark, but by not actively supporting the Light they certainly didn't slow the evil down.

Harry barely mentioned the obvious third front - the corruption of the Ministry of Magic that wanted to keep the War going so it could maintain power. That was a symptom, not a threat.

By the week before Harry's birthday the entire family had heard most of his views on the subject. Or so they thought. Hedwig continued to be a listening post for Harry's developing mental attitudes, and also provided a lot of privacy on what he was really thinking. After all, even if you cornered her and asked... who besides Harry understood owl-speak?

Around this time Hedwig started making a lot of trips. Ron and Ginny tried to casually find out who Harry was sending letters to; after all, besides the Weasleys and Hermione, who was Harry close enough to to have frequent owlposts with? Harry was definitely unresponsive in his answers. In fact he was so unresponsive, he was obviously evasive. After a week of trying to be casual Ron finally out right asked who Hedwig was taking messages to, only to be shocked when Harry out right answered.

It seems that Harry had been sending a lot of letters to old friends of his parents, trying to find out more about them. Since no one that he had frequent contact with would talk about his parents in front of him (including Molly and Arthur he pointed out) he had decided to contact people that knew them in school. All of the replies were sent to Neville Longbottom's house, and Nev bundled them together and forwarded them on to Harry. That covered the security issue over Hedwig's many trips to people that may or may not be under the influence of the Dark, at least in Harry's mind.

After some consideration, Ron agreed on the issue, but still questioned the surreptitious methods Harry was using, to which Harry replied that he had overheard the redhead's parents discussing what information Harry was to be given. He didn't want to be stopped before he had started, so he didn't discuss it.

Plain and simple, right? Not when Ron saw the next batch of packages that Hedwig delivered. He easily recognized the logo for Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. If Harry was trying to get information on his parents, why was Madam Malkin sending him packages? It didn't help that the green-eyed boy just blushed and hid the packages in his (temporary) room...

The next day Ron talked Harry into flying for the afternoon. On Ron's request, Ginny snuck into Percy's old room to snoop through Harry's things, to try to find out what was going on in his head. First to appear to her prying eyes was the stacks of letters on the desk. A quick glance confirmed that Harry had told the truth about contacting Lily and James' schoolmates. Then under the bed she found a box of animagus spell books. Pushing that aside as being outside her mission she opened the wardrobe. She found the package from Madam Malkin's and opened it carefully.

At supper that night Ginny stared at her plate and refused to talk to anyone. Molly sent her to bed since she seemed ill. She wasn't really ill. She was just in shock. She couldn't get her mind around that fact that the robes in the box were for a person Harry's height... and build... and female.

When she finally told her brother two days later, they both agreed...

BONKERS!