Chapter 7-Awaking the Truth
Once he had felt himself beginning to relax, Harry was able to focus on the words that were being spoken very close to him, and for the first time in longer than he could remember, there was no evil or hate passed through the voice, instead, he couldn't place just what the emotion was that he was hearing, or who the voice belonged to for that matter. Concentrating every ounce of energy he possessed on deciphering just what the words he was hearing meant, but try as he might, he couldn't distinguish anything except for the tone of the words, and due to this, he tried even harder to fully awaken, for he realized that it was concern that laced that still unidentified voice.
Putting forth a final burst of strength, he was just able to pry his eyes opened, and the images that flooded his brain made him wish that he hadn't. Even though it was the middle of the night, and therefore completely dark outside the building he was in, that particular room was blazing with light given off by the blurry forms of the torches that were lining the walls, one directly above the bed he was lying on. The second thing that made him regret his decision, and perhaps the worst of the two, was the fact that despite the bright light he was seeing, he was only seeing it on the left side of his body, everything on the right was still shrouded in complete darkness. Moaning softly, he turned his face toward the sound of the voice which was still persistently speaking from his right side so that he could properly see the person addressing him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After several minutes of gentle coaxing, Sirius was relieved to see the boy's eyes forced open, but his relief only lasted an instant. The child's right eye, the only one he could see from his position at the bedside, was a murky, milky white color, and the sight of it rendered him speechless for a moment before a nudge in his back by the mediwitch urged him to continue speaking.
"Harry, can you hear me? Let me know if you know what I'm saying" he said softly and thankfully, with a soft moan, the boy's head turned to him and fixed him with an emerald gaze, but what Sirius saw in that gaze drained all relief from him, and judging by the gasp from behind him, Poppy was affected as well.
The gaze that had used to hold suck a bright spark of life, always strong and ready for anything, was dull, almost lifeless, much as that of the imposters had been. In the instant that he saw that defeated look in the teens fixed gaze, Sirius knew that the road in front of him was going to be long and painful, and he swore to himself right then that he wouldn't be traveling it alone, never again, but a spark of hope was ignited in his heart when he heard his godson's voice speaking to him, a voice he had never admitted that he had missed desperately.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Once he had caught sight of the person next to him, a flood of memories assailed Harry's brain. Event though the image was slightly blurry due to his lack of glasses, he knew that the man was familiar, and images began to play across his thoughts, a bedraggled shack covered in dust with a gaunt and haggard man sitting on a shredded bed, pleading for the truth to be understood; a great black dog chasing after the distant form of a gray wolf during a full moon; the same haggard man unconscious on the floor of a forest while floating black shapes surrounded him; a black haired man flying off into the moonlight astride a giant creature, half horse and half bird; a dark cave littered with rat bones; all of these images brought forth the same feeling as the words that were being spoken now, concern, and love, from this man to him. Suddenly, the pictures ended and left Harry with the thought 'Sirius.Padfoot.Snuffles.Godfather, it's him, he's here, I know him! It's Sirius' he thought triumphantly and despite the rawness of his throat and the stiffness of his muscles, he felt his lips turn upwards ever so slightly before he managed to choke out a mere three words, three words that brought tears to his godfathers eyes "Sirius, you came" and with that, he felt consciousness leaving him once again as exhaustion overtook him.
Once they were certain that he was asleep again, Sirius and the mediwitch moved a few meters from the bed and began a hushed conversation.
"Will he be ok?" asked the man immediately, almost afraid of the answer that he would receive.
"Physically, I think he will be fine in time. I should be able to heal most, of his scars, but you need to remember that he has been through a lot. It will take quite a bit of time for him to recover his strength. I doubt that I will be able to heal his vision in the injured eye though, it has been too long" she said with regret, and hearing this, Sirius nodded in understanding, and when the woman didn't continue on her own, he prompted her for the answer to the question he was most worried about.
"What about mentally? Will he ever be the same?" he asked quietly as his eyes sought out the sleeping boy
"I don't know" she answered honestly "You saw his reaction just like I did. We have no idea just what he's gone through, and until he's ready to tell us, there is nothing we can do to help him, if we can at all" she said as her eyes too traveled to the figure on the bed.
"How can I tell him the truth about what happened?" asked Sirius after several minutes of silence, and upon seeing the bewildered look of the healer, he elaborated "How do I tell him that we thought he had changed sides? That we never even knew he was missing?" but he wasn't surprised when he received no answer, for there was none.
Twenty minutes later, the hospital wing door opened and Albus Dumbledore and Remus Lupin entered. Upon seeing them, Poppy informed them about the change in his condition, so it was with smiles on their faces that they joined Sirius beside the bed.
"Padfoot, Poppy told us the news, it's great!" said Remus enthusiastically as he placed a hand on his friends shoulder
"Yes, this is indeed very good news" added the headmaster, and if one were to look closely enough, they would notice that his eyes held a slight twinkle, the likes of which had not been seen for many years from the old man.
Sirius mutely nodded in agreement as he felt his own smile pass across his features for a fleeting moment before his mind turned back to the conversation he had had with the mediwitch earlier in the evening and the smile fell off his face once again.
"Sirius, what's wrong? I thought you would be thrilled" said Remus when he noticed his friends expression
"Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be happier that Harry is getting better" he said quickly
"So what's the problem then?" asked the werewolf
"I just hope he'll be all right after everything that has happened" he answered quietly, and behind his back, the headmaster and Remus met each others eyes and both instantly knew what the real problem was and their good moods dissipated as well and they sat heavily in the other two chairs.
The three men were silent for nearly three hours, each lost in their own thoughts. As the sun began to rise over the distant mountains and forest, Albus stood and moved to stand beside the bed, aware of the two men watching him curiously.
He silently watched the boy's sleep, and a few minutes later, he was joined by Sirius and Remus.
"What are you doing?" asked Sirius quietly after waiting for the man to speak on his own
"He's having a vision" said Dumbledore bluntly, and the others dropped their jaws as their eyes went wide and they looked to Harry in alarm.
As far as they could tell, Harry was just sleeping, albeit a little restlessly. His brow was furrowed ever so slightly, and his forehead had a very faint layer of sweat visible on the pale skin, and his hands were twitching minutely, but other than these things, he looked just the same as he had for the past weeks.
"What makes you think that, sir?" asked Remus, truly confused, but before he got an answer, something else changed, but this change was much more apparent. Harry's scar had begun to bleed. Not a lot of blood, just enough to cover the old injury, and when they saw this, Sirius reached out to wake him up, but his hand was stilled before he touched the boy.
"No, if you wake him, the vision will not be complete, and we have no idea what would happen because of it" said the headmaster quietly without taking his eyes from the child.
After another couple of minutes, the vision appeared to have ended as Harry weakly opened his eyes. Blinking rapidly several times in the now bright sunlight coming from outside, he was finally able to tell that there were three people standing over him. His breath immediately hitched in his throat and he felt his muscles tense involuntarily, especially when one of the people standing over him leaned closer. But despite his greatest efforts, he was unable to move away from the figures, so he clenched his eyes shut and waited for the curse or blow, whichever came first, but much to his astonishment, neither came. Instead, he felt cold metal touching his face, and after nothing painful happened, he chanced opening his eyes again, and much to his amazement, the surroundings were in focus thanks to the glasses he now wore, and after tentatively looking to his right, he was relieved that the three men standing over him didn't have their wands drawn, and none of them were wearing masks, instead, all three looked concerned.
"Harry?" asked one of them, a man with long white hair and a full beard
It took a minute, but he finally realized that they were speaking to him, he was Harry, and once this realization struck him, he nodded his head ever so slightly and all three men smiled widely.
"Oh, Merlin, it's so good to see you awake!" exclaimed a man with brown hair with streaks of gray and golden eyes "How are you feeling?" he asked as the smile began to diminish from his face to be replaced by a look of concern
Again, Harry nodded without saying a word and slowly moved his head so that he caught the eyes of his godfather. He was very thirsty, and even though the other two men were very familiar to him, he couldn't place them right then, so he decided to make his requests to his godfather. "Thirsty" he finally managed to whisper and instantly, Sirius leaned over and grabbed a glass of water from the bedside table. He gently sat on the edge of the bed and slid an arm behind his godson's shoulders to help him sit up before lifting the glass to his lips, knowing the other was to weak to hold it himself. After a few small swallows, he removed the glass and replaced his arm with several pillows just as Poppy entered joined the group.
"Good, you're awake" she said happily as she began to make a quick examination. While she was working, the headmaster walked closer to the bed and looked thoughtfully down on the young ward, apparently thinking of something before he broke the silence.
"Poppy, could you please give our young friend here an energy boosting potion?" and at her outraged look, he elaborated "I'm afraid there are several questions that need to be answered as soon as possible, time is of the essence" he finished
"Sir, this boy has been through a lot, and he just awoke a few hours ago. What he needs now is rest, not an interrogation" she said brazenly, and then she seemed to realize just who she was speaking too, and her face flushed in embarrassment
"I understand your concerns, Poppy, but this is of utmost importance" he said in a commanding tone, and she obediently nodded her head and left to retrieve the requested potion.
During the entire exchange, Sirius had remained seated with Harry on the bed, and upon hearing the request of the headmaster, he felt the boy tense, and looking down in concern, he saw that his eyes were focused straight ahead, a look of dread etched onto his features. Before Sirius could say anything, though, Pomfrey had returned and approached the bed.
She reached the vile toward Harry's mouth, but the boy quickly buried his head in Sirius' robes, his frail form now trembling.
"Let me" said Sirius quietly, and Poppy handed him the purple potion before leaving to return to her office, clearly not happy about what was about to happen to her patient "Harry" Sirius said quietly, and a moment later, he was met with a steady gaze, one eye emerald green, the other milky white "Harry, I need you to drink this. Don't worry, we're just going to try and figure out what happened, and maybe answer some of your questions too" he said in a reassuring tone, and after several minutes of thought, Harry finally agreed by nodding his head. Again, Sirius helped him to swallow the goblet, and after a few moments of waiting, his eyes became more focused and it felt as though his mind was finally up to speed with the surrounding world.
"Do you feel better?" asked Dumbledore calmly as he again took his seat next to the bed
"Yes, sir" said Harry, his voice still soft, but strong now
"Good, now I am going to ask you a few questions, and I would like you to answer them as honestly and completely as you can, ok?"
"Yes sir" repeated Harry
"Very good, now what is your name?"
"Harry Potter" he responded quickly
"Ok, Harry, why were you in the fortress of Azkaban?"
"Because Voldemort sent me there" he answered
"Why?"
"Because the Riddle house had been taken by the ministry"
"Did he get angry with you when they took his family home?"
"What do you mean, sir?"
"Is that why he sent you to the prison? Because you allowed his home to be taken?"
"No, he sent me to Azkaban because it was the only other place he could send me where I wouldn't be found" said Harry, slight confusion evident on his features
"Who was he hiding you from?" asked Albus
"The ministry, the order, all but the most loyal death eaters, everyone"
"Where were you kept while you were at the Riddle house?"
"In the basement, in a small closet, bound and gagged so no one would know I was there" he answered in an expressionless tone, completely oblivious to the tension that was building in the room.
"What did he do to you there?"
"Cursed me, beat me, everything" he whispered
"How long were you at the mansion before you were moved to Azkaban?"
"I don't know"
"How long were you in Azkaban?"
"I don't know" he repeated
"When were you taken to the Riddle House?"
"Right after the third task" he responded, deaf to the gasps that were uttered by the three men
"What happened the night of the third task, Harry?"
"After Cedric and I touched the cup, we were taken to a grave yard, Wormtail killed Cedric and tied me to a tombstone. He made a potion and Voldemort was reborn. I dueled with him, and then my wand did something strange, I ran and was about to grab the cup again, I was only a step from it with Cedric, and I was hit with a cruciatus curse. I guess I blacked out because when I woke up, I was tied in the basement"
"What happened after that?"
"They would come down every couple of hours it seemed, and wither beat me or curse me, and every so often, they would force me to drink a potion, I think they said it was a nutrition potion so that I couldn't die, they said I had to stay alive for some reason. I don't know when, but quite a while after I was taken there, I heard shouting coming from inside the house, and loud bangs and thumping from upstairs. Someone ran through the basement and I heard them say that the ministry and order were attacking. I tried to yell, but no one heard me, I was too weak. A couple of minutes later, Voldemort came down and cast the cruciatus on me again until I passed out, and when I woke up, I was in a hidden cell in Azkaban. It was pretty much the same thing there, but this time, when no death eaters were around, there were four dementors standing guard over me. I don't know how long I was there, but one day, I woke up and everyone was gone, it was completely silent except for the house elf that would bring the potion every couple of days until he too was gone one day and I saw no one or heard anything. I guess it was only a couple of days later when I woke up and saw Sirius and Remus there, and you know the rest" he finished in a voice just a quiet as the rest of his tale had been
"What about the visions, how long have you been having them?"
"The entire time" he answered bluntly
"Thank you for your honesty, now I guess we could probably answer some questions for you" said the old man after several silent minutes
"What's been happening while I've been gone? I know about everything Voldemort's side has done, but I only see things through his eyes, not what is happening in the rest of the world"
"Well, to put it bluntly, we are at war, a war that I am afraid we are slowly loosing unless something changes things to our side fast" answered the old man heavily
"How many people have died?" he asked hesitantly
"Too many, Percy and Charlie Weasley, the Dursley's, Minister Fudge, and more than I can recall right now"
"What about Ron and Hermione?" he asked, scared of the answer he would receive
"Both are still fighting, both members of the order and very accomplished aurors now" he answered proudly, but his pride diminished when he saw the pained look on Harry's face "What's wrong?"
"They really think it was me, don't they. They don't know it was someone else with my face" he said quietly, and the three men looked to one another in shock before Sirius answered
"They thought it was you, but now that we know the truth, they'll be here as soon as they can, happy that it wasn't" he said gently, but another look of confusion had become fixed to the boy's face.
"You said they were aurors and order members?" he asked the headmaster
"Yes" he answered quietly
"How? Did they leave school early?" he asked in confusion
"No, Harry, they graduated" he answered
"How long was I gone?" he demanded after this thought had had a chance to sink in "I thought it had been a year, perhaps two at the most, but I still had three years of school left when I was captured and you said Ron and Hermione have graduated, how long was I gone!?" he demanded almost frantically, his hands shaking again
"A little over five years, Harry, you are nineteen now. You were kept at the Riddle house for a year and a half and in Azkaban for four years" he almost whispered
"F.fi.five years" he stuttered out, his eyes pained and looking at the wall "It took you five years to realize it was someone else trying to impersonate me?" he asked in disbelief
"I am so sorry, Harry, but we didn't know" said Sirius as he tried to pull his godson in a hug
"NO, Get off of me, leave me ALONE! My own family, and best friends couldn't tell that it was some death eater who came back from that graveyard and not me!" he yelled almost frantically "Leave me alone! All of you! You should have just left me there if this is what you were going to tell me as soon as I got back! Sorry, Harry, we thought you had become Voldemort's murdering right hand man, we actually thought you would do that! Well, I don't accept your apologies! You should have known better! You should have known me better! You shouldn't have left me there for five years!" he yelled, bordering on hysterical now as his entire body shook with rage until the headmaster pulled his wand and cast a strong sleeping spell on him, causing his form to drop back to the bed and his breathing to even out ever so slowly.
"I had to do it, he would have caused himself more harm if he continued in that manner" he said quietly
"He's right, you know, we should have known" said Sirius as he buried his face in his hands, and just as Remus was about to comfort his best friend, a voice from behind him stopped him.
"Bloody hell, what is he doing here!" and as one, the three men turned around to see a furious Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and a shocked Ginny Weasley standing just inside the curtained off area, all looking in shock to the now sleeping form on the bed.
Once he had felt himself beginning to relax, Harry was able to focus on the words that were being spoken very close to him, and for the first time in longer than he could remember, there was no evil or hate passed through the voice, instead, he couldn't place just what the emotion was that he was hearing, or who the voice belonged to for that matter. Concentrating every ounce of energy he possessed on deciphering just what the words he was hearing meant, but try as he might, he couldn't distinguish anything except for the tone of the words, and due to this, he tried even harder to fully awaken, for he realized that it was concern that laced that still unidentified voice.
Putting forth a final burst of strength, he was just able to pry his eyes opened, and the images that flooded his brain made him wish that he hadn't. Even though it was the middle of the night, and therefore completely dark outside the building he was in, that particular room was blazing with light given off by the blurry forms of the torches that were lining the walls, one directly above the bed he was lying on. The second thing that made him regret his decision, and perhaps the worst of the two, was the fact that despite the bright light he was seeing, he was only seeing it on the left side of his body, everything on the right was still shrouded in complete darkness. Moaning softly, he turned his face toward the sound of the voice which was still persistently speaking from his right side so that he could properly see the person addressing him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After several minutes of gentle coaxing, Sirius was relieved to see the boy's eyes forced open, but his relief only lasted an instant. The child's right eye, the only one he could see from his position at the bedside, was a murky, milky white color, and the sight of it rendered him speechless for a moment before a nudge in his back by the mediwitch urged him to continue speaking.
"Harry, can you hear me? Let me know if you know what I'm saying" he said softly and thankfully, with a soft moan, the boy's head turned to him and fixed him with an emerald gaze, but what Sirius saw in that gaze drained all relief from him, and judging by the gasp from behind him, Poppy was affected as well.
The gaze that had used to hold suck a bright spark of life, always strong and ready for anything, was dull, almost lifeless, much as that of the imposters had been. In the instant that he saw that defeated look in the teens fixed gaze, Sirius knew that the road in front of him was going to be long and painful, and he swore to himself right then that he wouldn't be traveling it alone, never again, but a spark of hope was ignited in his heart when he heard his godson's voice speaking to him, a voice he had never admitted that he had missed desperately.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Once he had caught sight of the person next to him, a flood of memories assailed Harry's brain. Event though the image was slightly blurry due to his lack of glasses, he knew that the man was familiar, and images began to play across his thoughts, a bedraggled shack covered in dust with a gaunt and haggard man sitting on a shredded bed, pleading for the truth to be understood; a great black dog chasing after the distant form of a gray wolf during a full moon; the same haggard man unconscious on the floor of a forest while floating black shapes surrounded him; a black haired man flying off into the moonlight astride a giant creature, half horse and half bird; a dark cave littered with rat bones; all of these images brought forth the same feeling as the words that were being spoken now, concern, and love, from this man to him. Suddenly, the pictures ended and left Harry with the thought 'Sirius.Padfoot.Snuffles.Godfather, it's him, he's here, I know him! It's Sirius' he thought triumphantly and despite the rawness of his throat and the stiffness of his muscles, he felt his lips turn upwards ever so slightly before he managed to choke out a mere three words, three words that brought tears to his godfathers eyes "Sirius, you came" and with that, he felt consciousness leaving him once again as exhaustion overtook him.
Once they were certain that he was asleep again, Sirius and the mediwitch moved a few meters from the bed and began a hushed conversation.
"Will he be ok?" asked the man immediately, almost afraid of the answer that he would receive.
"Physically, I think he will be fine in time. I should be able to heal most, of his scars, but you need to remember that he has been through a lot. It will take quite a bit of time for him to recover his strength. I doubt that I will be able to heal his vision in the injured eye though, it has been too long" she said with regret, and hearing this, Sirius nodded in understanding, and when the woman didn't continue on her own, he prompted her for the answer to the question he was most worried about.
"What about mentally? Will he ever be the same?" he asked quietly as his eyes sought out the sleeping boy
"I don't know" she answered honestly "You saw his reaction just like I did. We have no idea just what he's gone through, and until he's ready to tell us, there is nothing we can do to help him, if we can at all" she said as her eyes too traveled to the figure on the bed.
"How can I tell him the truth about what happened?" asked Sirius after several minutes of silence, and upon seeing the bewildered look of the healer, he elaborated "How do I tell him that we thought he had changed sides? That we never even knew he was missing?" but he wasn't surprised when he received no answer, for there was none.
Twenty minutes later, the hospital wing door opened and Albus Dumbledore and Remus Lupin entered. Upon seeing them, Poppy informed them about the change in his condition, so it was with smiles on their faces that they joined Sirius beside the bed.
"Padfoot, Poppy told us the news, it's great!" said Remus enthusiastically as he placed a hand on his friends shoulder
"Yes, this is indeed very good news" added the headmaster, and if one were to look closely enough, they would notice that his eyes held a slight twinkle, the likes of which had not been seen for many years from the old man.
Sirius mutely nodded in agreement as he felt his own smile pass across his features for a fleeting moment before his mind turned back to the conversation he had had with the mediwitch earlier in the evening and the smile fell off his face once again.
"Sirius, what's wrong? I thought you would be thrilled" said Remus when he noticed his friends expression
"Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be happier that Harry is getting better" he said quickly
"So what's the problem then?" asked the werewolf
"I just hope he'll be all right after everything that has happened" he answered quietly, and behind his back, the headmaster and Remus met each others eyes and both instantly knew what the real problem was and their good moods dissipated as well and they sat heavily in the other two chairs.
The three men were silent for nearly three hours, each lost in their own thoughts. As the sun began to rise over the distant mountains and forest, Albus stood and moved to stand beside the bed, aware of the two men watching him curiously.
He silently watched the boy's sleep, and a few minutes later, he was joined by Sirius and Remus.
"What are you doing?" asked Sirius quietly after waiting for the man to speak on his own
"He's having a vision" said Dumbledore bluntly, and the others dropped their jaws as their eyes went wide and they looked to Harry in alarm.
As far as they could tell, Harry was just sleeping, albeit a little restlessly. His brow was furrowed ever so slightly, and his forehead had a very faint layer of sweat visible on the pale skin, and his hands were twitching minutely, but other than these things, he looked just the same as he had for the past weeks.
"What makes you think that, sir?" asked Remus, truly confused, but before he got an answer, something else changed, but this change was much more apparent. Harry's scar had begun to bleed. Not a lot of blood, just enough to cover the old injury, and when they saw this, Sirius reached out to wake him up, but his hand was stilled before he touched the boy.
"No, if you wake him, the vision will not be complete, and we have no idea what would happen because of it" said the headmaster quietly without taking his eyes from the child.
After another couple of minutes, the vision appeared to have ended as Harry weakly opened his eyes. Blinking rapidly several times in the now bright sunlight coming from outside, he was finally able to tell that there were three people standing over him. His breath immediately hitched in his throat and he felt his muscles tense involuntarily, especially when one of the people standing over him leaned closer. But despite his greatest efforts, he was unable to move away from the figures, so he clenched his eyes shut and waited for the curse or blow, whichever came first, but much to his astonishment, neither came. Instead, he felt cold metal touching his face, and after nothing painful happened, he chanced opening his eyes again, and much to his amazement, the surroundings were in focus thanks to the glasses he now wore, and after tentatively looking to his right, he was relieved that the three men standing over him didn't have their wands drawn, and none of them were wearing masks, instead, all three looked concerned.
"Harry?" asked one of them, a man with long white hair and a full beard
It took a minute, but he finally realized that they were speaking to him, he was Harry, and once this realization struck him, he nodded his head ever so slightly and all three men smiled widely.
"Oh, Merlin, it's so good to see you awake!" exclaimed a man with brown hair with streaks of gray and golden eyes "How are you feeling?" he asked as the smile began to diminish from his face to be replaced by a look of concern
Again, Harry nodded without saying a word and slowly moved his head so that he caught the eyes of his godfather. He was very thirsty, and even though the other two men were very familiar to him, he couldn't place them right then, so he decided to make his requests to his godfather. "Thirsty" he finally managed to whisper and instantly, Sirius leaned over and grabbed a glass of water from the bedside table. He gently sat on the edge of the bed and slid an arm behind his godson's shoulders to help him sit up before lifting the glass to his lips, knowing the other was to weak to hold it himself. After a few small swallows, he removed the glass and replaced his arm with several pillows just as Poppy entered joined the group.
"Good, you're awake" she said happily as she began to make a quick examination. While she was working, the headmaster walked closer to the bed and looked thoughtfully down on the young ward, apparently thinking of something before he broke the silence.
"Poppy, could you please give our young friend here an energy boosting potion?" and at her outraged look, he elaborated "I'm afraid there are several questions that need to be answered as soon as possible, time is of the essence" he finished
"Sir, this boy has been through a lot, and he just awoke a few hours ago. What he needs now is rest, not an interrogation" she said brazenly, and then she seemed to realize just who she was speaking too, and her face flushed in embarrassment
"I understand your concerns, Poppy, but this is of utmost importance" he said in a commanding tone, and she obediently nodded her head and left to retrieve the requested potion.
During the entire exchange, Sirius had remained seated with Harry on the bed, and upon hearing the request of the headmaster, he felt the boy tense, and looking down in concern, he saw that his eyes were focused straight ahead, a look of dread etched onto his features. Before Sirius could say anything, though, Pomfrey had returned and approached the bed.
She reached the vile toward Harry's mouth, but the boy quickly buried his head in Sirius' robes, his frail form now trembling.
"Let me" said Sirius quietly, and Poppy handed him the purple potion before leaving to return to her office, clearly not happy about what was about to happen to her patient "Harry" Sirius said quietly, and a moment later, he was met with a steady gaze, one eye emerald green, the other milky white "Harry, I need you to drink this. Don't worry, we're just going to try and figure out what happened, and maybe answer some of your questions too" he said in a reassuring tone, and after several minutes of thought, Harry finally agreed by nodding his head. Again, Sirius helped him to swallow the goblet, and after a few moments of waiting, his eyes became more focused and it felt as though his mind was finally up to speed with the surrounding world.
"Do you feel better?" asked Dumbledore calmly as he again took his seat next to the bed
"Yes, sir" said Harry, his voice still soft, but strong now
"Good, now I am going to ask you a few questions, and I would like you to answer them as honestly and completely as you can, ok?"
"Yes sir" repeated Harry
"Very good, now what is your name?"
"Harry Potter" he responded quickly
"Ok, Harry, why were you in the fortress of Azkaban?"
"Because Voldemort sent me there" he answered
"Why?"
"Because the Riddle house had been taken by the ministry"
"Did he get angry with you when they took his family home?"
"What do you mean, sir?"
"Is that why he sent you to the prison? Because you allowed his home to be taken?"
"No, he sent me to Azkaban because it was the only other place he could send me where I wouldn't be found" said Harry, slight confusion evident on his features
"Who was he hiding you from?" asked Albus
"The ministry, the order, all but the most loyal death eaters, everyone"
"Where were you kept while you were at the Riddle house?"
"In the basement, in a small closet, bound and gagged so no one would know I was there" he answered in an expressionless tone, completely oblivious to the tension that was building in the room.
"What did he do to you there?"
"Cursed me, beat me, everything" he whispered
"How long were you at the mansion before you were moved to Azkaban?"
"I don't know"
"How long were you in Azkaban?"
"I don't know" he repeated
"When were you taken to the Riddle House?"
"Right after the third task" he responded, deaf to the gasps that were uttered by the three men
"What happened the night of the third task, Harry?"
"After Cedric and I touched the cup, we were taken to a grave yard, Wormtail killed Cedric and tied me to a tombstone. He made a potion and Voldemort was reborn. I dueled with him, and then my wand did something strange, I ran and was about to grab the cup again, I was only a step from it with Cedric, and I was hit with a cruciatus curse. I guess I blacked out because when I woke up, I was tied in the basement"
"What happened after that?"
"They would come down every couple of hours it seemed, and wither beat me or curse me, and every so often, they would force me to drink a potion, I think they said it was a nutrition potion so that I couldn't die, they said I had to stay alive for some reason. I don't know when, but quite a while after I was taken there, I heard shouting coming from inside the house, and loud bangs and thumping from upstairs. Someone ran through the basement and I heard them say that the ministry and order were attacking. I tried to yell, but no one heard me, I was too weak. A couple of minutes later, Voldemort came down and cast the cruciatus on me again until I passed out, and when I woke up, I was in a hidden cell in Azkaban. It was pretty much the same thing there, but this time, when no death eaters were around, there were four dementors standing guard over me. I don't know how long I was there, but one day, I woke up and everyone was gone, it was completely silent except for the house elf that would bring the potion every couple of days until he too was gone one day and I saw no one or heard anything. I guess it was only a couple of days later when I woke up and saw Sirius and Remus there, and you know the rest" he finished in a voice just a quiet as the rest of his tale had been
"What about the visions, how long have you been having them?"
"The entire time" he answered bluntly
"Thank you for your honesty, now I guess we could probably answer some questions for you" said the old man after several silent minutes
"What's been happening while I've been gone? I know about everything Voldemort's side has done, but I only see things through his eyes, not what is happening in the rest of the world"
"Well, to put it bluntly, we are at war, a war that I am afraid we are slowly loosing unless something changes things to our side fast" answered the old man heavily
"How many people have died?" he asked hesitantly
"Too many, Percy and Charlie Weasley, the Dursley's, Minister Fudge, and more than I can recall right now"
"What about Ron and Hermione?" he asked, scared of the answer he would receive
"Both are still fighting, both members of the order and very accomplished aurors now" he answered proudly, but his pride diminished when he saw the pained look on Harry's face "What's wrong?"
"They really think it was me, don't they. They don't know it was someone else with my face" he said quietly, and the three men looked to one another in shock before Sirius answered
"They thought it was you, but now that we know the truth, they'll be here as soon as they can, happy that it wasn't" he said gently, but another look of confusion had become fixed to the boy's face.
"You said they were aurors and order members?" he asked the headmaster
"Yes" he answered quietly
"How? Did they leave school early?" he asked in confusion
"No, Harry, they graduated" he answered
"How long was I gone?" he demanded after this thought had had a chance to sink in "I thought it had been a year, perhaps two at the most, but I still had three years of school left when I was captured and you said Ron and Hermione have graduated, how long was I gone!?" he demanded almost frantically, his hands shaking again
"A little over five years, Harry, you are nineteen now. You were kept at the Riddle house for a year and a half and in Azkaban for four years" he almost whispered
"F.fi.five years" he stuttered out, his eyes pained and looking at the wall "It took you five years to realize it was someone else trying to impersonate me?" he asked in disbelief
"I am so sorry, Harry, but we didn't know" said Sirius as he tried to pull his godson in a hug
"NO, Get off of me, leave me ALONE! My own family, and best friends couldn't tell that it was some death eater who came back from that graveyard and not me!" he yelled almost frantically "Leave me alone! All of you! You should have just left me there if this is what you were going to tell me as soon as I got back! Sorry, Harry, we thought you had become Voldemort's murdering right hand man, we actually thought you would do that! Well, I don't accept your apologies! You should have known better! You should have known me better! You shouldn't have left me there for five years!" he yelled, bordering on hysterical now as his entire body shook with rage until the headmaster pulled his wand and cast a strong sleeping spell on him, causing his form to drop back to the bed and his breathing to even out ever so slowly.
"I had to do it, he would have caused himself more harm if he continued in that manner" he said quietly
"He's right, you know, we should have known" said Sirius as he buried his face in his hands, and just as Remus was about to comfort his best friend, a voice from behind him stopped him.
"Bloody hell, what is he doing here!" and as one, the three men turned around to see a furious Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and a shocked Ginny Weasley standing just inside the curtained off area, all looking in shock to the now sleeping form on the bed.
