AN:
"Hello" - normal talking.
'Hello' - thoughts.
Chapter 2 - Coerced
"Where am I?" Harry asked himself with a groan as he tried to lift himself in a sitting position.
He was exhausted. He could not remember ever feeling as tired as he was at that moment. It was the first time Harry was experiencing magical exhaustion. Fortunately, it was not a severe case of it. In a few days, with enough rest and nutritional food, he would be as good as new. After asking himself that question, Harry glanced around himself, trying to understand his situation.
'I'm still alive. Not chained either.'
He was in a large room, with a high ceiling and rather tall and wide windows that was making it easy for the rays of the sun to light up the place. Despite that outside were over 35 Celsius degrees, the temperature inside was cool - just the ideal room temperature, around 20 degrees. Single-person beds with curtains hanging from above and white bedsheets were lined up on each side of the room and a particular smell lingered in the air.
'Am I in a hospital?'
He'd never been hospitalized before but, when he was younger, the orphanage would bring them every year to make some health tests. It was a smell that he could recognize anywhere. Furthermore, he was not restrained with cuffs and there were no bars securing the large windows either. It did not look like a prison cell.
'What are they playing at?'
He did not know what to think of the situation. When his mind went back to the events from before, his confusion only increased because he was realizing now the oddity of the old man's behaviour.
'Now that I think about it, he didn't attack me at all. He just waited for me to exhaust myself.'
When he reached that conclusion, another thought popped in his mind:
'What if he's actually one of the good guys? Like professor Xavier and his X-men?'
He became excited. But the more rational side of him immediately shot that excitement down. He was torn between continuing to be very cautious and the hope that things were actually not as bleak as he had thought them to be in the beginning. While he kept pondering on those things, Dumbledore received madam Pomfrey's notice that he woke up. The old wizard had asked her to tell him directly because he understood that Harry was more than a little suspicious about the entire situation. He believed that it was better if Harry did not have to deal with too many new faces for the moment.
§§§§§
"I see you're up. It looks like a good night of sleep did a great deal in calming you." Dumbledore said with a hint of amusement in his voice when he arrived at the infirmary.
Although he tensed at the old wizard's arrival, Harry still had the decency to look to the side with a hint of awkwardness. Indeed, now that Harry thought about it better, in his panicked state, he had not even given the old man a chance to introduce himself, immediately proceeding to hurl slabs of concrete at him.
"My name is Albus Dumbledore and I'm the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Dumbledore began introducing himself.
"Witchcraft and Wizardry?" Harry asked with a wry smile. "If you told me you were Santa Clauss I'd be more tempted to believe you."
Dumbledore frowned slightly at the boy's sarcasm but decided to not say anything for the moment, opting instead for a different approach.
"Then what do you call the things you've done if they are not magic?"
"It's simple," Harry replied. "I'm a mutant. One of the few people in this world whose genes have evolved and granted them superhuman abilities. I have yet to meet anyone like me – aside from you – but I know every mutant has a special superhuman power. I have the power of telekinesis. And you have the power to make things disappear."
"I think it's time you got serious and told me why you kidnapped me, mister." Harry said, a faint hint of hostility leaking from his voice.
Dumbledore narrowed his eyes at him.
"I did not kidnap you. What I did was-"
"Pursuing me for miles through the city and then bringing me to this unknown place by force. That's an abduction in my books, no matter how I look at it!"
As he said those words, Harry tried to leave his bed but he had not expected the weakness of his body to be so severe. Before he knew what was happening, he fell into a heap on the floor.
Dumbledore pointed his gnarly wand at him and silently levitated him back on the bed.
"Nobody wants to harm you here, Harry. And I did not kidnap you. You attacked me first and then you fell unconscious. I could not just leave you there in the middle of the streets now, could I?"
Harry just looked at him quietly as he understood his reasoning.
"I was not lying about myself being a Wizard. You are a wizard as well. Your abilities are thanks to your magic. Mutants, as you put it, do not exist. I think you have read too many Muggle comics for your own good."
Seeing the boy wanting to protest, Dumbledore merely picked up his wand and with a slight movement, a 2 feet wide floating ball of blue flames was conjured in the air. With another flick of his wand, the flame instantly froze, transforming into ice. Then, he transfigured the block of ice into a flock of canaries that began to chirp and fly around the room, with one of the birds actually stopping atop of Dumbledore's hat.
"Can one of the 'mutants' you talk about do these things?" Dumbledore asked secretly enjoying the sight of the awe-struck look in the boy's eyes. He smiled at him knowingly while taking the chance to further solidify his argument.
"Mutants are works of fiction – at least the ones you are talking about. However, people with supernatural powers do exist. What you have seen me doing moments before, can be accomplished by any wizard and witch that puts in enough time and effort. Magic exists and it silently influences our life, regardless of our choice of admitting it or not. Magic is - ...well, I'd better not start giving you a lecture about magic right now." said Dumbledore chuckling softly at himself.
"People that have the ability to use magic are called wizards and witches. Wizards have been existing amongst ordinary humans since forever. But, ever since the Witches Hunts during the Middle Ages, the wizarding population across the world decided to 'disappear'. As time went by, for the non-magical folk, wizards became nothing but a fairy tale. However, the magical people have organized themselves in secret communities and continued to live in relative peace without interfering in the non-magical world's affairs. Nowadays every country has a Ministry of Magic which has the purpose to keep the laws and to ensure that the Wizarding World remains a secret for the nonmagical people."
"The United Kingdom has a Ministry of Magic as well and, even more than that, there is also an institution of magical education, Hogwarts, which I dare say is one of the finest in the world."
Harry listened seemingly enraptured by Dumbledore's explanation, making the old wizards believe that he was stunned speechless by the revelations. And that was not far from the truth: while Harry had already been fully aware of the existence of supernatural abilities since he, himself, had been actively using them for years, Dumbledore's impressive display of magic and his explanations about the Wizarding World expanded Harry's horizons even more... But once the marvel brought by the new information faded away, Harry's silence continued to persist for a completely different reason - he started thinking about where was this new development leaving him.
In the meantime, Dumbledore took a small pause as well, pondering on how to proceed in order for Harry to accept his guidance – given his rebellious nature, Dumbledore suspected that if he forced him to attend Hogwarts without giving him a good reason for doing so, he would cause an endless stream of problems. Still, he could not let this at Harry's free choice either since he knew that Harry was too distrustful of everyone, including him. That's why he decided to approach him in a more delicate manner, by shifting the boy's focus to the consequences of choosing or not choosing to attend Hogwarts.
"Now there are two options in front of you: you can either decide to attend Hogwarts or not. It's up to you." Dumbledore said and Harry's face almost broke into a smile – "However!" Dumbledore exclaimed as to make Harry understand that he was not finished "There are a number of consequences that will follow each one of your choices." finished the old wizard, making the happy expression on Harry's face disappear in an almost comical fashion.
"Understand that there is an international Statute of Secrecy. If you refuse the offer of receiving magical education and abide the Wizarding World's laws, in order to keep the Status of Secrecy, the Ministry of Magic will be obligated to wipe off your memories in regards to it. Everything, including what you know of your powers. You will be placed under surveillance and your memories will continue to be wiped every time you start to get closer to relearning how to use your magic again."
"But, if you accept our terms, you'll be given a free scholarship at Hogwarts and even a legal guardian if you wish for it. You would be instructed and trained to use your magic and you'll receive guidance regarding your future career and personal development. You'll also get the chance to discover more about your family, your heritage..."
If the first series of consequences made Harry inwardly angry, the second one almost made his displeasure become visible on his face.
'Basically, if I play like he says, we'll become best friends. If not, I'll have my memory wiped and continue to live on the streets, like a homeless and now even without my powers.'
Moreover, Dumbledore pushing his 'heritage' in front of his eyes, made Harry even more sure that the old wizard had some sort of hidden agenda. That was because mentioning family to an orphaned young teenager was like a killing move that would make 9 out 10 individuals listen to him without no questions asked.
'I don't like this. He's way too accommodating just to make me, a random boy, attend this school of his.'
Most teenagers are angsty and the orphaned ones are even more than so. Dumbledore was firmly convinced that Harry's hesitation would vanish the moment he would be given the chance to learn about his parents. Unfortunately for his plans, however, Harry Potter was not as similar to other orphans as Dumbledore believed him to be.
Ever since he ran away from the orphanage and had to survive by himself, Hary was forced to become strong, to develop a powerful will. There had been no place in Harry's life for sentimentalism or for playing the victim of the unfairness of the world after becoming a runaway. In order to survive another day Harry had had to be pragmatic and rational because hardly anyone ever gave him anything for free. Everything he needed, he had to procure it with his own two hands. While he had also thought about how life would have been had he had parents like other ordinary children, he had never mulled over it for too long. He did not have that luxury because there were always other more important things that he had to think about: like finding food or a place to sleep during a cold January night without the risk of dying from the cold.
That said, Dumbledore tempting him with information about his family did not move his heart as the old wizard had hoped. Instead, what made Harry incapable of refusing his offer to attend Hogwarts was the consequences of doing that. Harry did not want to imagine how would his life become like if he were to be deprived of what he had thought until then as being his 'mutant powers'. He was revolted just at the thought of becoming once again ordinary and powerless like 3 years ago after he just left the orphanage and could not control his powers at will.
'This kind of blackmailing is the worst type there is: forcing someone to do your bidding while pretending to leave it at their choice...' Harry thought and his small hand clenched into a fist.
After Dumbledore mentioned Harry's parents, he expected him to show some signs of excitement and immediately accept the conditions whole-heartedly. The scene he was experiencing, however, made goosebumps appear on his skin for a few moments. Harry was looking at him blankly, as though he did not even hear his words. He couldn't read any type of emotion on his face but then, Dumbledore noticed his clenched fist. While Harry managed to stop his emotions from showing on his face, he was nowhere near skilful or conscious enough to control all of his reactions. His body's language betrayed him.
Even then, as Dumbledore looked at him, a feeling of uneasiness settled in his mind.
'That's not how an eleven-year-old boy is supposed to act.'
He did not particularly enjoy what he was about to do, but he felt an unstoppable urge to uncover the boy's real thoughts. He did not like the idea that a boy so young was already capable of hiding his real thought from showing on his face. In the next moment, when their eyes locked together, Dumbledore's pupils become slightly dilated. Then, a voice sounded in the old wizards' head. It was what Harry was thinking at that moment:
'Wiping the memory of my powers...my magic? Making me powerless and weak again? Death is better than that!'
And that was all Dumbledore managed to hear from Harry's thoughts before a bout of acute pain assaulted his mind, forcing him to close his eyes and break the eye contact thereby severing their mental connection.
"You did something... what did you do?" Harry suddenly asked when he felt the pendant hanging from his neck heating up, followed by seeing Dumbledore starting to rub at his temples.
When Dumbledore did not reply right away, Harry said, his voice betraying his agitation:
"Was that your magical version of telepathy? What are you trying to do to me?!"
It was one thing to read about that in comics and an entirely different thing to see that it actually existed in real life. He had never expected magic to be capable of doing even that! He was terrified especially because he understood how dangerous such an ability was. To be able to see one's thoughts, to manipulate their memories, to erase their personality and to even bend their will - that's what a telepath could do in the comics. Harry was scared by the possibility of being in the presence of a person with that kind of abilities.
Although he felt weak and drained of power, the magic that was still left in his body responded to his emotional distress. The furniture and the beds in the room began to shake as though there was an earthquake and a glass of water that had been on top of the nightstand next to him fell on the floor, breaking into pieces and spilling its contents everywhere.
Dumbledore immediately sat up from his stool and distanced himself away from Harry's bed. He knew better than to underestimate how dangerous a child's bouts of accidental magic could be.
"Trust me, Harry, I-"
Dumbledore tried to say, but Harry was too distressed to listen to his reasoning.
"You want me to trust you? After you pull this kind of bullshit?!"
The magical phenomenon, however, did not last long. The furniture in the room stopped shaking when, completely drained of energy, Harry fell back with his head on the pillow, his eyes fighting a losing battle against the sleepness that was about to ensnare him.
§§§§§
It was into the wee hours of the morning yet Dumbledore had not closed an eye the entire night. He could still not find a plausible explanation for the incident from the previous day.
'How could he have detected it? How did he even push me away from his mind?!' the old wizards asked himself for what felt like the hundredth time.
It was just a passive Legilimency probe. Any skilled Legilimens could perform it and most of the people that were not trained in the art of defending their minds would not suspect anything because it just picked up the thoughts at the front of their mind. Dumbledore had no clue that it was not Harry himself that had repelled him, but the mysterious pendant hanging from his neck.
Dumbledore sat up from his bed and went to his desk, letting himself fall on the cushions of his comfortable chair. With his elbows now on the desk, he bent and rested his head on his palms. From its perch next to him, a fiery red bird took its head out of its wing and looked at him with its glittery eyes. A quiet trill sounded in the silence of the night.
"Yes, I also think blew it this time, Fawkes." Dumbledore said as though he was replying to something that his familiar told him first.
Not finding a plausible explanation for the incident, Dumbledore focused his attention to the glimpse he had managed to take into his mind: 'Wiping the memory of my powers...my magic? Making me powerless and weak again? Death is better than that!'
He could not help but compare Harry Potter with a particularly similar boy that he had met a few decades before. A boy that had grown up to become one of the most feared wizards of all times.
'Tom Marvolo Riddle and Harry James Potter. Both orphaned, both growing up in an orphanage. They both have a frightening degree of control over their magic even before acquiring a wand. They both showed intelligence and resourcefulness not normal for their respective ages and -' Dumbledore interlocked his fingers while his train of thought continued '- the worst is that they are similar in the way that Harry also has little no moral standards and values: while Tom terrorized the ones that had tried to bully him and had stolen their most prized possessions afterwards, on the other hand, Harry has been living for years by using his magic to pickpocket from others. He's also shown no signs of hesitation whatsoever when he attacked me. He was fully committed to injuring or even crippling me.'
'They hate the thought of being weak and ordinary. They both wanted to have control over their own lives...'
The similarities between the young Tom Riddle and Harry Potter appeared to be glaringly obvious in Dumbledore's eyes.
'Am I witnessing the rise of second Voldemort?'
The thought of a second, even more talented Voldemort rising to power while not even the first one has been completely killed yet, was horrifying.
When Dumbledore's thoughts looked like they were about to head into a dark direction, another melodious trill came from Fawkes, his familiar. The Phoenix jumped from its perch on the desk and hopped until it came next to him. Another trill came from the bird as it nuzzled with his head into Dumbledore's long beard making him chuckle.
"Stop that! Don't forget how you set my beard on fire a few weeks ago."
The Phoenix tweeted at him in what sounded like indignation and lightly pecked him from the hand. Dumbledore's face seemed to become younger when he gazed at his familiar and a smile lighted up his face as he softly caressed its neck.
"Don't worry, Fawkes." Dumbledore said, "It is not going to be like with Tom. Unlike so many decades ago, now I can see the signs and I can take steps in leading him on the right path. I will make it my mission that young Harry Potter will not follow on his footsteps. No matter the cost."
§§§§§
A few days later, a tall and rather severe-looking woman entered the infirmary. She had a very stern face and the square glasses she was wearing did nothing to soften up that impression. She was dressed in long, emerald robes, her black hair was drawn into a tight bun and on top of her head and she was wearing a pointed black hat on top of it. If Harry had ever imagined how a witch looked like, Minerva McGonagall fit the picture from his mind perfectly.
Although she was obviously around 70 years old and despite her weird choice of clothes (though not as weird as Dumbledore's), her demeanour and the presence she exuded warned Harry that she was someone he should be wary of crossing.
"Good afternoon, Mr Potter! My name is Minerva McGonagall and I'm Deputy Headmistress of this fine institution."
"Good afternoon, ma'am." Harry replied trying to return her greeting politely.
Professor McGonagall nodded curtly and said as she turned her back and headed towards the door:
"Follow me closely, please."
Harry immediately tensed an asked a little more hotly than he had intended:
"Where are you taking me?"
After Dumbledore tried to 'read' his mind, Harry could not allow himself to relax for even a moment. McGonagall turned her face towards him and threw a searching glance at him as if she was trying to read him. She had been warned beforehand by Dumbledore that young Mr Potter had some serious trust issues, but she did not expect him to actually act like that.
"It's noon, and you have not eaten anything yet. Now that Madam Pomfrey discharged you from the Hospital Wing, you will have to serve your meals inside the Great Hall."
Then, as though she did not care whether he was going to follow her or not, she added:
"You'd do well to not fall behind me as the castle can be quite dangerous for those not aware of its secrets"
'Castle?!' Harry wondered. 'Just what kind of school is this?' But he did not tarry behind and started following her as told.
Although he had expected to see grandiose architecture and beautiful sculptures along the halls as he had always imagined that castles looked like, the sight that met his eyes on the way to the Great Hall left him completely mesmerized. He had never imagined such a strange and crazy-looking place. The castle had a medieval appearance, but what really startled was that everything in the castle seemed to be alive: the tens of stairs were changing their positions by themselves and he had almost mistaken the first portrait he had seen with the screen of TV: the beautiful lady painted on it was moving, talking and she even winked at him! Besides that, Harry had also had a 'special' encounter, an encounter which put him on edge, seeing as the one that he met was a ghost. Moreover, he had also had the misfortune to meet the scariest-looking ghost that was currently residing in the castle. Said ghost was pearly-white and slightly transparent, it had wide, staring, black lack eyes and a gaunt face. It sported a curly wig and It was dressed in robes covered in silver bloodstains.
After a few more minutes of walking through the castle, the two finally arrived at the Great Hall. Normally, they should have gotten there in less than five minutes seeing as the Hospital Wing was on the first floor, but Harry would realise later on that professor McGonagall purposely took him on a mini tour of the castle.
Upon seeing the Great Hall, Harry was not disappointed: the charmed ceiling, the way the food appeared on the plates just for the five people that were seated at one of the four tables (it was the beginning of August, most of the teachers were also spending their holiday outside the school) and the event of the three owls bringing Dumbledore the mail, all of that gave Harry a surreal feeling.
As if warned by Dumbledore, the other two teachers seated at the table beside him and his deputy did not try to be overly friendly with Harry. The old man understood that unlike other eleven years old children, Harry did not seem to like basking in other people's attention, regardless of their status as professors. Furthermore, after the incident from the Hospital Wing, Dumbledore decided to be very thorough in his actions as he was dead-serious about grooming Harry. He planned on paying attention to every little detail to make sure that he would shape and change Harry's personality into what he envisioned as a good man and a powerful wizard. Therefore, after introducing themselves as Pomona Sprout, professor of Herbology and the Head of the House of Hufflepuff and Septima Vector professor of Arthimancy, the two witches started chatting amongst themselves, leaving Harry to his own devices.
When they ended their lunch, everyone but the Deputy Headmistress left to their own business. After Harry looked questionably at her, McGonagall told him:
"Since you'll attend Hogwarts starting with the 1st of September, you have to buy yourself the necessary of books, robes and other consumables. And don't worry about the money, as the Headmaster said, all your needs will be covered by the school."
Harry narrowed his eyes at her.
'I never said I'm gonna attend this school tho?' were his thoughts but he did not voice them out. He knew he did not have a choice. It frustrated him to not have control over his decision, over his life.
'It's like being back to the orphanage where those damned nuns dictated everything in my life.'
Even as he took the tick and heavy envelope that she handed it to him, he smiled, making the old witch think he's excited about what was written in it. She had no idea what was really going through his mind, the Vow that he made to himself at that moment:
'I will become powerful! I will take control of my life...something like this will never happen again!'
As he thought of that, he looked over the yellowish parchment of the envelope. On it, written in emerald-green ink were the address and his name.
Mr H. Potter
The Great Hall
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Turning the envelope over, Harry noticed a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms with a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. Upon opening it, Harry read on the first page:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr Potter,
[...]
Faced with that list, Harry stared at it dumbly for a few good seconds after finishing reading. It took him longer to finish reading it than someone his age would need because he had dropped out of school when he was 8. But even then, he could still read most of the words and he felt like the one that had written the letter was messing with him, especially when he thought about the names of the potions ingredients. Although he felt an itch on the tip of his tongue to say something sarcastic at all the weird stuff that appeared in there, Harry fought against the temptation, managing to croak a question:
"Where do we get this ... erm ... this stuff?"
It wasn't the first time the Transfiguration teacher dealt with Muggleborns or muggle-raised new students, so she more or less knew what was going on through Harry's mind at that moment. That didn't mean though, that she was not amused at him not finding his words upon reading the letter.
"Why, of course, on Diagon Alley!" said McGonagall with her usual voice, but Harry was sure she was having fun at his expense.
AN: I hope you enjoyed it. I will most likely post another 2 or even 3 chapters next week. Look forward to it.
(Not an English native and I have no beta either. Sorry for any mistakes I may have made.)
