Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and I don't intend to earn any profit out of this story.
Author's Note: This fan-fiction story starts at the middle of Harry's 5th year, after his detention with Umbridge. What if Harry had confronted Dumbledore about the older wizard's refusal to meet his eyes? This will be a smart, intelligent, eventually powerful and grey Harry. There might be mild bashing of some characters but I will do my best to minimize it. This story will be an Alternate Universe(AU) story with major divergence from canon. Right now, I am not sure whether to go with a single Harry or a partnered one. I will decide that once the story progresses. And, while I have enjoyed many Harem stories, I am sorry to say that this won't be one.
It was Friday evening. Harry was returning from his last detention with Umbridge. She had given him a week's worth of detentions, simply because he spoke the truth about Voldemort's return. His hand was bleeding badly because of that quill which she made him use. He had to write the lines "I must not tell lies" with that quill for nearly 4 hours all the while enduring the sickly smile on that woman's face. Slowly, he picked up a bottle of "Essence of murtlap" from his pocket, and applied it on his bleeding hand. Immediately, he felt a soothing sensation on that area where the bleeding was concentrated.
As soon as he felt better, instead of walking back towards his dormitory, he started walking towards the headmaster's office. This year, things had gone quite bad enough for him. This was the worst year for him ever since he stepped foot at Hogwarts. He had tolerated Umbridge for quite long. He wanted some answers and it was finally time to set aside his ego and pay the headmaster a visit.
As soon as Harry reached outside the headmaster's office, he heard a voice "Enter"
Harry entered the office. Dumbledore was seated behind his desk looking at a pice of parchment in his hand. The portraits of the previous headmasters and headmistresses were pretending to sleep and Fawkes was sitting majestically in his perch.
"Hello Fawkes" said Harry warmly.
Fawkes gave a welcoming trill in response which soothed his nerves.
"Harry, to what reason do I owe this late night visit?" said Dumbledore, looking down at his parchment.
Harry felt a spark of irritation when Dumbledore refused to meet his eyes.
"Sir, there are many things that I wanted to ask you, and they are very important for me" said Harry firmly
"I understand your curiosity but I am afraid you have to wait Harry. This is not the right time for that. Perhaps, it would be better if you went back to your dorms. After all, it is quite late now and the curfew is about to start in a few minutes" said Dumbledore dismissively still not meeting his gaze.
Harry grew furious on hearing Dumbledore's words.
"No Sir, this cannot wait any longer. I am tired of you ignoring me and avoiding my gaze. I don't understand why you are doing this. You had no problem in looking at me for the past 4 years. Is it because you think that I am being possessed by Voldemort? Because I assure you sir, that I am not. During Christmas, my friends had convinced me that there is no way that Voldemort could have possessed me. Do you think otherwise?" asked Harry with a bit of heat.
Dumbledore rubbed his temples tiredly and spoke calmly "I assure you Harry that you will get to know my reasons very soon. As soon as you master your Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape, I will have a long discussion with you. Until then, you have to wait patiently" said Dumbledore still refusing to meet his gaze.
Harry grew angrier on hearing his hated professor's name.
"Snape? I have not learnt anything worthwhile from him for the past 2 months. All that he tells me is to close my mind, but I don't understand how. And why should I stop these visions from coming? Didn't my vision that night save Mr Weasley's life? Can't we use those visions to find out Voldemort's current and future plans?" asked Harry.
"First of all, call him Professor Snape Harry. And Harry, it is imperative that you stop seeing further visions from Voldemort, because there is a high probability that he could lure you with a false vision and lay a trap for you" said Dumbledore sternly.
"I have seen no evidence of that yet Sir. Sir, I don't like the fact that you are probably keeping a lot of secrets from me, many of which involve me heavily. I am tired of all your riddles and pseudo wisdom. Snape's occlumency classes are useless and I will not be attending them anymore and there is nothing that you can do about it without attracting ministry's attention" said Harry defiantly before turning back. He started walking back when Dumbledore suddenly shouted his name.
"Mr Potter, you must attend those occlumency lessons with Professor Snape" shouted Dumbledore angrily. Harry turned back to see that Dumbledore was finally looking at him, albeit angrily. Dumbledore's expression was abnormally furious, and there was no twinkle in his eyes. He was no longer the odd eccentric headmaster, but the defeater of Grindelwald and the only person that Voldemort ever feared.
But at that instant, Harry's scar gave a sudden surge at pain and he felt irrationally angry at Dumbledore. A voice inside him was telling him to kill Dumbledore after making him suffer endless pain, and he was vaguely tempted to do exactly that. It seemed as if Dumbledore too knew about the voice inside Harry's head as the older wizard readied himself in a combative position.
"Fight your inner demon Harry or else I am afraid, I will be forced to hurt you" said Dumbledore sternly
Before anything else happened, Fawkes flew to Harry, sat on Harry's shoulder and began to trill a melodious tune that was immensely soothing to both wizards in the room. Harry got some inner strength to say no to that voice. As Fawkes looked into Harry's eyes, a series of images began appearing in Harry's mind showing earlier memories of his Mom and Dad coddling him, his Godfather hugging him and his friends interacting cheerily with him.
Fawkes's message was clear to Harry. He began concentrating on those images which Fawkes sent him, all of which showing him the love and affection that he had ever received. As Harry began to bask in the warmth of Fawkes's melodious trill and the wonderful images, he heard a distinct scream inside his head which was not his and the pain slowly started receding away.
Bolstered by this, Harry increased his efforts to banish that inner voice from his head, aided by Fawkes but the inner demon was still putting up a good fight to possess Harry. Fawkes immediately flew to the sorting hat and placed it on Dumbledore's hand all the while maintaining that soothing trill which was helping Harry to fight off the possession.
Dumbledore was left speechless at this sudden turn of events and the behavior of his familiar. He was even more appalled and dumbfounded when Fawkes looked at his eye and sent him a series of images regarding what he was supposed to do.
"Are you sure about this Fawkes?" asked Dumbledore in uncertainty. It was a big risk that he was about to take now which could endanger Harry's life.
Fawkes gave a short trill in response, which Dumbledore meant as a Yes.
Dumbledore placed the sorting hat on his head and after a short conversation drew the shining sword of Godric Gryffindor from it.
Meanwhile, Harry had closed his eyes as he was still struggling with pain in his scar as Voldemort was still putting up a good fight to possess him from within.
Dumbledore slowly moved close to Harry with trembling hands, and taking a deep breath, placed the tip of the sword on Harry's forehead directly over his scar for 2 seconds before withdrawing it quickly.
As soon as the sword's tip made contact with the scar, an unholy scream of pain issued from the voice inside Harry's head and that pain was shared by Harry who began convulsing on the ground with pain. Dumbledore watched helplessly as he was unable to do anything to help Harry except watch tensely in anticipation.
Very soon, a black mist began pouring out of Harry's scar which briefly took the shape of Voldemort that issued a death threat to Dumbledore before disappearing into oblivion.
As soon as the black mist disappeared, Fawkes immediately went close to Harry and started crying over his scar, which had by now become a faint, barely visible line.
Fawkes's tears helped neutralize the basilisk venom which was checked from spreading further. It also completely removed Harry's fatigue.
Harry slowly stood up, his vision slightly blurred. He wasn't able to see anything properly. He removed his glasses to wipe them off, but as soon as he removed them, he could see properly.
He looked at Dumbledore who was looking at him with twinkling eyes and tears of joy. The immense relief on the face of the older wizard was quite obvious.
"Sir, what just happened now?" asked Harry confused. "I felt as if Voldemort was trying to possess me and instructing me to kill you" said Harry.
In response, Dumbledore just smiled merrily at Harry and replied "Yes Harry my boy, Voldemort did indeed try to possess you but he will never be able to do it again. And, I have so many secrets to share with you now, which I have unfortunately been unable to do so till now. But that will not be a problem any longer. The good news for you Harry, is that you will not have to take Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape again. I will inform Severus about that" said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling merrily.
Harry was bewildered by Dumbledore's sudden shift. But, he was immensely glad anyway that he wouldn't have to continue those occlumency lessons. They were a complete fiasco.
"Please have a seat Harry. We have so many things to discuss" said Dumbledore as he beckoned Harry to his seat.
Author's Note: That ends the first chapter. I hope it was satisfactory.