Chapter 3 – More truths? More secrets? Or more lies?

adenoide: I like your train of thought…This story may be somewhat like that…you'll just have to wait and see… ;)

hwyla: I've already updated the previous chapter to your suggestion, thank you :)

Linda: I had thought about doing that but most stories usually have that plot so I thought about changing it a bit… Worry not, as something good will happen to Harry. Although it will happen after a lot of bad things….

Tammywammy9: It's similar to what you've suggested…Once he saw Slytherin he didn't bother reading the rest of it… If he had…well, things would have been cleared up much faster… I thought you guys would enjoy a kind of alive Hogwarts; it just means that she's more aware of what's going on and that she'll help him when he really needs it, and I think that having Hogwarts help him would be much better than an army at his disposal

Phobbers: Shut up, Phoebe! Nah, I don't mean it because after all… I am a millipede and I am amazing…. Thanks for the lovely comment, brah.

Most of you guys are probably very confused right now… don't worry, I am too! OKAY, now, onto the story…

Harry had taken to tallying days on his wall near his bed. He didn't have a calendar and he didn't dare ask for one as he knew he would just be belittled and that his uncle would probably hit him for his 'audacity' at wanting something. He didn't think he would be able to remember which day or what the day I was if he didn't draw a tally every day; after all, he had so many chores that would exhaust him until he could barely sit without falling asleep and he had his uncle and cousin to deal with. His aunt ignored him as much as she could but she didn't stop hitting him with her favourite Harry-Swatting frying pan. He knew that if she kept slamming the frying pan into his head for a long period of time that he could even before deaf or blind! So, his attempt to stop her from hitting him was to do all his chores perfectly, but deep down he knew that even if he did them perfectly that they would still convey their 'gratefulness' by allowing him to keep his room. He had hear his uncle and aunt discussing him, a few days ago, and found out that his uncle wanted to put him back in his cupboard. Harry didn't mind that, not really, he liked his cupboard but he knew that if he ended up in his cupboards now that he probably wouldn't have enough space to stretch his legs, let alone be able to move inside of it. But his aunt had reminded him that they kept his trunk there and that she dint want Dudleys second room to be contaminated with even more freakishness especially since he was already using the room. Before this summer, Harry would have definitely wanted the summer to go as fast as it could but now he had mixed feelings. He wanted the summer to end quickly so that he wouldn't have to go through his family's abuse for much longer but, then again, he didn't want to go back to Hogwarts and have to deal with 'people' and their treachery. He knew that by now they had learnt that he had changed the locks of his vaults and that they weren't getting anymore of his money, and he wasn't sure how he would react to them moaning to him about how they hadn't known that the money was his or that his parents and Sirius would want him to help them. He resigned in the fact that after he had gone back to Hogwarts when he became Lord Potter-Black that Griphook gave him a copy of his parents' and Sirius' wills and that he knew that only Remus was allowed to take money from the Potter and Black vaults because his parent and Sirius wrote it down that he could. He knew that Remus had been given one of Sirius' vaults and he didn't mind that one but. Now that he knew he had 7 potter vaults he didn't mind if the twins or Remus needed to use Black money. Anyway, it was clear that the poor werewolf needed some money since nobody wanted to hire a 'dangerous monster that could kill anyone in sight' as Rita Skeeter had written in one of her articles about Remus in his 3rd year. Merlin, how he hated that woman! After he resigned his post as the D.A.D.A teacher he hadn't been able to find a job and harry felt bad for the man. He was also overjoyed at the fact that the twins had been his friends because they wanted to be and that as soon as they learnt about what their sister, brother and mother had done, they had stopped talking to them and started living in the room above their store together. They had talked to him when they came off from the Hogwarts Express and told him what their family had done and that they hoped that they would remain friends. Harry had started to cry as they revealed that they were still his friends and they had share a 'group' hug, which he had to admit made him feel even more happy as he had realised that he could always count on them. The twins had told him that Bill and Charlie also found out what their family did and had stopped talking to them as well; Percy was another matter entirely and he hadn't wanted to upset the twins after thy had been so kind to him so he didn't ask about him.

He wasn't able to owl the twins as he had let Hedwig out of her cage at King's Cross Station so that his uncle couldn't lock her up again. This way it meant that she count hunt and fly outside and not be stuck I his 'prison' with him. She wasn't able to come through his window as his uncle had barred it again. However, this time he had installed heavier and thicker bars that criss-crossed each other and only allowed small patches of light to go through into his room. It had annoyed him but he kept his thoughts to himself knowing that his treatment would only get worse if he protested at how horrible they were to him.

Harry counted the tally marks; 21. He had finished his 5th year on the 12th of June and had been at the Dursleys for 9 days already and they had been the worst he had ever experienced with them. His uncle had found out about Sirius, like he feared he would, and started beating him again; but now he much crueller as he taunted him about his godfathers' death and how it had been his fault that he died. Sometimes Dudley would join his uncle at verbally abusing him and had taken to saying that Harry had just made everything up and that he had never had a godfather in the first place. How he wished he could retaliate and give Dudley his tail back but his uncle had taken his wand from his as well. It didn't particularly bother Harry as he knew that he could sometimes perform wandless magic. When he had ben small he used to conjure ball of light from his hand so that he could see his cupboard and read books that he would bring from his school library. He knew that he had done more wandless and non-verbal magic than just apparating to his school roof when he was seven, or turning is teachers' wig blue in primary school and the balls of light in his cupboard…he just couldn't remember….He had recently noticed he had some moments where he couldn't recall certain events or even a few days clearly and everything seemed jumbled up. He briefly wondered if this was because of his occlumency lessons with Snape; when the older wizard had constantly kept breaking into his mind with such a force that he kept getting migraines after each lesson with him. 'No, that can't be it. I know that Snape hates me but I don't think that he would purposely damage me…' Harry kept analysing his memories and trying to come up with perfectly reasonable answers but he kept coming up blank (literally).

There had been something else that he had found out, but he kept it secret. He had a deep dark secret and if it came to light, then Dumbledore would surely kill him. He thought that if he stopped thinking about it that he could just ignore it but he knew that one way or another he would end up thinking about it. It had all started when he had come back from Gringotts and had fallen asleep. When he had fallen asleep, he had dreamt of a forest that was incredibly alike the forbidden forest. In his dream, he had walked inside the forest and instead of feeling 'creeped out' or scared he had continued on navigating through the dark forest until he had come across a lonely figure that stood among fog at the centre of it. He wasn't sure if the fog was created by the man to keep himself hidden or if the fog had already been there and the man had decided on standing amongst it. He remembered wishing for the man to not be able to see him, and to his amazement, when he had walked in front of the man, the man hadn't reacted. This led to Harry waving his hand in front of the man's face before making faces at him but when he realised how childish he was being he stopped and finally looked at the man in front of him. The man had short black hair that reached the middle of his ears and it was neat, unlike Harrys' mop of hair that was constantly messy even after combing it thoroughly. The man had bright electric blue eyes that complement his features and were very hard not to look at. Harry felt that if he didn't stop gazing into his eyes, he would be sucked into them. The man had high cheekbones that reminded Harry of what Purebloods looked like, or how at least Lucius Malfoy looked like. Harry noticed that the man's lips were also alike purebloods' and were nice and elegant and desirable. He reached his hand towards the man and his hand met the mans' cheek for a small fraction of time before the man jumped from his touch, looked around in a circle before he addressed the world around him.

"Who's there?" He demanded. His voice was smooth and icy cold as if it could cut through steel. Something about the man was familiar but he didn't know what. Harry didn't know that he had used his wish magic that had been locked away when he came to Hogwarts. He decided on not telling the man who he was as his dream felt like more than a dream…

"Hello, my name is Onyx, and who are you?" He spoke softly. He didn't want the man to think of him as a threat and if he wanted to know more about the man he couldn't be his enemy. The man looked around, his eyes wide and…feral? Not unlike a predator searching for his prey. He narrowed his eyes and responded.

"My name is…Tom. Where are you? Why can't I see you?" Tom replied smoothly. Harry could have hit himself at that moment. He realised quickly why he knew the man; he had fought him many times. In front of him stood Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort and his parents' murderer. This set Harry on edge. He wanted to attack the man, to kill him but something didn't feel right. He decided on playing ignorant. To pretend that he didn't know who was in front of him and that he wasn't his mortal enemy.

"I'm in front of you," he started; he thought that it would be best if Tom saw him but didn't see him so he wished really hard, like he did when he wanted to be invisible, and before he knew it he had become smaller, "can you see me now?" he questioned. Harry had wished to not seem threatening; if he looked threatening or powerful or like himself then Tom might attack him. He realised that everything was bigger around him so he wished for a mirror and again his wish came true. In front of him a thin mirror appeared, like a thin layer of ice and it was floating near him. When Harry looked at the mirror he wasn't sure on whether to laugh or to cry. He had turned into a KITTEN! He wasn't even a cat—he was a kitten, a baby and he was tiny, he was small enough to fit perfectly into an adults' hand. His…fur, for lack of a better word, was black and white and he had kept his bright, emerald eyes which he was glad for. He turned his body to inspect it further and found a soft and fluffy tail on his…backside… He reluctantly admitted that he looked quite cute, though if anyone asked he would most definitely deny that accusation. He saw Toms' eye widen once more and felt like laughing. Big, bad Lord Voldemort was taken-aback by the sight of a mere kitten.

"You—you're a cat! How can you talk?" Harry saw Toms' eyes retreat back into their normal state before he eyed him suspiciously. 'Damn, I hadn't thought of that!' Knowing that if he took any longer to answer that Tom would get suspicious he didn't say anything he came up with an answer that he hoped would satisfy him.

"I don't know? One moment I was trying to fall asleep on my bed and the next I'm here with you and I was a kitten" He tried to incorporate as much of the truth as possible, without making too suspicious and think he was lying. Toms' eyes narrowed as he inspected the small kitten in front of him. He had to admit, that the small cat in front of him was pretty cute—NO! He was Tom Marvollo Riddle and he did not find anything to be cute. His mind sneered at that last word. Harry was so focused on making sure that his voice did not waver or crack that when he noticed a hand coming to grab him he was too late to try to escape from it.

"There, there…you little thing…don't be frightened" Tom continued to whisper soft words to the small kitten and when he started scratching behind hits ears, Harry thought he was in Heaven. And that's when he heard it. A low sound emanating from his throat—he was purring! He was purring at his enemy, a mass murderer but as he recalled Toms' soft caresses and quiet whispers he couldn't bring himself to attack him. The gain, as a kitten what was the worse he could do? Scratch him to death? So Harry just stood perfectly still in the mans' hands and allowed himself to be petted by his mortal enemy. Harry wished he could remain there in his quiet forest or the rest of his life. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt so calm. Just as Harry was falling asleep he felt a pull in his stomach and looked up at Tom. It seemed that he had felt it too, and just as he was about to ask Tom what it was, he found himself back at Hogwarts, sitting up in his bed panting heavily as if woken from a nightmare instead.

The picture that I'm using as the cover is what Harry looks like as a kitten...