Summary: Harry had always been their strength. When they found out how Dumbledore had been hurting him, they decided to be Harry's strength too. Even if they had to abandon everything to do it. Time Travel
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Categories: Time Travel, Abuse, Slash, Het
Chapter Summary: When Neville told them about Harry, George wanted to jump in right away. Fred wasn't so sure.
Chapter 9: Their Investigation
"Why not?" George asked, hiding his frustration from Neville.
The younger boy looked down, his hands worrying at the edges of his sleeve. "I shouldn't have followed them. B-being there with them…it's like e-eavesdroping on something I shouldn't know about."
"And what's wrong with that? We all just want to see that he's alright. Didn't you say that he looked worse off than before? If that git is hurting him, we're the only ones who can do something to help him! You have to bring us there."
Neville flinched and fell into a one-armed hug, and Fred wanted to grimace at his brother's tactlessness. Snape was Neville's worst fear, so of course he wouldn't want to upset the man by bringing them to Harry.
Calm down, he's scared. Fred warned when he saw George's fingertips twitch with nervous energy.
Harry matters more than Neville right now! We need to make sure he's okay. George shot back.
Fred hopped off of the newly-sanded countertop and walked over to the shelves where Neville had been looking at their products. He always looked uncomfortable when they started talking in their heads, and Fred supposed that it was a bad habit to exclude other people like that. It was just that, because it was so easy for them to communicate mind to mind, they often forgot they weren't talking out loud.
"Why don't you start from the beginning? Tell us exactly what you saw while you were with them." He suggested, keeping his voice light to put Neville at ease.
He told them how Harry was stealing and broke his arm, how Snape tended to him perfectly, and how the man hugged Harry but the hero didn't seem to think he was safe. He told them how frightening it was when Harry woke up and talked about killing himself like he was intimately familiar with the idea.
"You're not supposed to touch rape victims." Fred murmured, tapping his lips thoughtfully.
They were both unnerved by the thought of Harry contemplating death, and flashed back to fourth year when Harry came back from Voldemort, dazed at the crowds of people around him because he hadn't expected to still be alive. Shortly after that, he'd handed them all of his compensation on the train, his eyes still baggy and haunted as he made it clear that he couldn't bear keeping anything that reminded him of that night.
George spoke up, and though his face was unexpressive, Fred could hear his twin's heart pounding in both their ears. "Snape's a professor, so he should have had training to deal with things like this. If he's touching Harry, then —"
"He's not trying to make Harry better. Maybe Dumbledore wasn't the one —"
"That's not it." Neville whispered, and Fred stopped short despite his rage at the thought of the bat touching Harry, because Neville never interrupted people. "I know you want to believe in him, but Dumbledore's definitely the one who did it." There was tightly coiled rage in Neville's voice and a sheen of memory over his eyes as he relived whatever evidence made him so certain.
He's hiding something. Fred warned his brother, observing Neville closely.
"How do you know for sure?" George wondered, watching him just as keenly.
Neville's eyes shifted under their attention until they focused straight down at the floor. He didn't say anything, just gripped his arm more tightly as if preparing to resist an interrogation. He was clearly used to verbal attacks, because he lit up whenever they paid him the slightest compliment. He always slumped back down moments later, clearly twisting the praise into an insult in his mind. The twins knew what it was like for the world to be against them, so they complimented him again and again, hoping that he would eventually believe them. But it hadn't worked yet.
The shelf was smooth as Fred set his hand down beside the extendable ears, picking one up and pretending to look at it instead of Neville. "The headmaster did lie to the ministry." Fred mused, and Neville's head shot up, gratitude on his face.
Then that bastard was probably working with him. George thought, and began to speak: "But —"
"But that doesn't mean Snape's innocent either." Fred interrupted, knowing that his brother was too upset to word things tactfully. The younger twin shot him a petulant frown, annoyed at being interrupted. Fred just stuck out his tongue.
"He is." Neville insisted, not offering a reason for it.
"Look," Fred offered, "If Snape's threatened you, we can help. Just apparate us to where they are and hide, and we'll take care of the rest."
"He wouldn't!" the black-haired boy shouted suddenly, anger twisting his eyebrows at the ends. "Snape's not like that. He's helping Harry get better."
Sounds like wishful thinking. George suggested.
Yeah, but he'll just sink in his teeth if we insist.
The last-resort listener it is then. Out of Neville's sight, George slipped a small, translucent circle of paper from a box and set it on the tip of his finger, where it wrinkled like a flower petal until he whispered the activation spell. The paper hardened as if it were metal before it rose off of his finger and glided over to Neville, not so fast that it risked cutting him with its sharpened edges, but at least as fast as a snitch. It landed on his sleeve, softening into paper again as it pressed itself into the fabric until it was indiscernible to the naked eye.
They'd made the listener to eavesdrop on a long-term basis, mostly for amusement, but they also understood the dangerous possibilities of their invention. It would stick to a target and camouflage itself against whatever surface it landed on, transmitting sound back to a receiver that would record every noise its target encountered. It was fun to play with, but the consequences of Voldemort or their mom getting one were so frightening that they had meant to destroy them. They had saved two, one for themselves and another for Harry, who they thought could benefit from the invention. It was only fitting that they were now using it to help him, because he was the one who had funded their research in the first place.
Still, it felt wrong. Nobody deserved to have their privacy violated so mercilessly. Neville especially didn't deserve to have people trick him; he already thought that nobody cared about him, and finding out that they were using him would likely upset him. But Harry was the one who had made all of their dreams come true, who encouraged them to profit from his suffering and bring a little more happiness into the world. They owed him this much.
"Alright, Neville. We'll leave it for now." Fred told him. Neville relaxed, the muscles he had clenched bulging outward before tightening again.
"But tell us what happens next time you see them." George added, and Neville nodded before he pushed through the door.
It was a shame, Fred mused, that Neville never relaxed around them. He acted as if they knew everything about the world, as if their insignificant opinions of him where the sole determiners of his value. Back when he was a first year, Neville had been bullied, but he'd seemed happy enough. Fred and George had played some unkind pranks on him, but they had always done so with the amusement of children who poked at a bee to see how long it would take to get stung. Fred wondered whether they'd simply missed the warning signs of an inferiority complex or whether — he prayed to Merlin it wasn't so — they had helped cause it. They were never alone because they could talk to each other without sound, but Neville was so afraid that people would tease him that he let himself be pushed around. He hid everything about himself so that he didn't seem to have a personality at all.
That was why the twins had been so surprised when Neville turned out to be a brilliant information hunter. He'd discovered Snape's address and analyzed the situation, understanding implications of the ministry hunt that the twins would never have thought of. Even George, who had a tendency to worry over every possible outcome of a situation, hadn't thought about how, without a house, Snape would take Harry somewhere strange.
Fred almost wished they'd never thought of that possibility, because as soon as he realized that Harry would be alone with Snape, that the big-hearted boy was alone with a man who would taunt and degrade him until he hated himself, he'd been petrified. And now it sounded like Snape was hurting Harry, and Fred needed to find him, to find the first person who'd ever done something so special just for them and make sure that he wasn't lost somewhere in the world without anyone to do the same thing for him. Fred took the receiver from George's hands and activated it, determined to keep it with him and stay awake until he'd heard Harry's voice for himself.
Fred. George thought warmly. There was no need to speak out loud when they were alone together. Let me take a turn too. It wouldn't do anyone any good for you to run without any rest. Besides, you have to talk with the contractors tomorrow about overcharging us. You know I'm terrible with negotiations.
Don't undervalue yourself. Fred ignored the rest of his twin's request. Without you, we would never have found such good contractors in the first place. Just because you're too obvious with people —
Obvious! George glared at him, and Fred's lips curled into a lazy smirk. I'm just as good with people as you are. I'll do the negotiations tomorrow and prove it. I don't know why people always listen to you more than me, but it's certainly not because I'm obvious.
Fred snorted, rolling his eyes at his overworked brother. And telling Neville that a man he, for whatever reason, believes in so much that he's willing to argue for him is abusing Harry shows how good with people you are.
He is abusing him! Nothing else makes sense.
I agree. But Neville believes in him. And Harry's in more danger, but Neville's fragile too, so we shouldn't just stomp all over his beliefs when he decides to grow a backbone for them. Especially if we're the ones who helped make him such a coward.
Right. George consented, We've got to look out for him. He paused. But you haven't slept in over a day anyway, because you spent all night messing around in the potions lab downstairs.
And you spent all night in the alley hoping Snape or Harry would show up.
But I'm clearly too obvious with people to do the negotiations tomorrow. So you should sleep and let me take the first night shift.
"…Fine." Fred consented, handing the listener back to George. "Wake me up if anything urgent happens." Or even if you get too tired. This isn't one of those stories about the heroes who have to suffer alone to help a damsel. There are two of us, so don't go about proving how heroic you are by depriving yourself of sleep.
George just grinned at him victoriously as he went into the back to take a nap.
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Fred finished negotiations and returned triumphantly, insisting that he take a turn with the listener, though Neville had not yet done anything but speak passingly to his Grandmother. It was actually unnerving how rarely the other boy talked to people on a day-to-day basis. The older twin was locked in a room downstairs, listening carefully for Harry or Snape to turn up, leaving George to entertain Ron and Hermione when they stopped by to visit.
"Harry's the one who brought us together." Ron told him morosely, sipping on a can of their color-changing cola and ignoring the fluctuation of hues across his skin. "And now Snape's gone and kidnapped him, and the only thing we have to talk about is Harry, like always. Hermione's got a plan for breaking into the ministry search records, so we'll know where not to look. But we're going to find him."
"Why can't you just let the ministry search?" George asked, hating that he couldn't just tell them where to find the pair. Ron was slumped behind the front desk next to him, swishing the can in his hands as if Harry would suddenly pop out of it.
"Because searching for Harry is the only thing that's keeping us going." Ron whispered, his eyes dimming as he grimaced. "Hermione's the one that always encourages Harry and me to try our hardest. There were lots of times when we'd have never made up if she hadn't been there. So both of them, Harry and Hermione, are the ones who do all the work in our friendship. If I weren't here, it wouldn't matter."
"Ron…that's freaking depressing." There were no better words for it than that. Harry's absence was bringing out all sorts of inferiority complexes, and apparently Ron wasn't any more resistant to the loss than Neville was.
"Yeah." Ron agreed, looking over to the covered bench where Hermione sat examining books about the ministry that she'd collected. "But look at her. She's working so hard for this, and I can't do anything but keep her company while she does it. But I'm good at strategizing. If she gets the information, I can use it. Maybe I can finally pull my own weight, and we can get Harry back, and everything will go back to normal."
"Even if you get him back, Ron, he'll never be normal after what he's been through."
Crap. George thought as his brother looked up at him sharply, setting the can down with a thunk and squeezing it until the metal crinkled.
"What do you know?" Ron demanded, his face changing from blue to red.
"Nothing for sure." George murmured. "But if he's been kidnapped by that guy, don't you think he'll be hurt? Snape'll probably be a thousand times worse than when he's at Hogwarts. And what if he takes him to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? He won't come out of that the same."
"Harry always comes out the same." Ron told his brother seriously. "He has terrible nightmares and he's always too tired but he still smiles because he's Harry and he just wants everything to be normal. Everyone always tries to act like his nightmares mean there's something wrong with him, but that messes him up more than V-Voldemort does."
"Ron…" George said wonderingly.
"Yeah, I said it! Because Harry always says it, and he's right. He may be scared because of Voldemort, but what makes him sad is everyone else. He hates it when people make his perfectly-understandable nightmares into such a big fucking deal and act like it's the end of the world if he's a little sad on Halloween, or angry when someone insults his parents or calls him a liar. That's normal; he's a Gryffindor. He can handle the nightmares and the fights because he has us with him, but he can't handle it when the people he's supposed to be helping act like they want him to be messed up, because then he's alone. That's when he starts getting messed up like they want him to."
"Ron…"
"But now he's even more alone. When he starts getting like that, feeling bad about himself the way he probably will when he's with Snape, Hermione steps in. She does this girl thing where she looks like she's about to cry and she hugs you and tells you that the rest of the world is stupid. Imagine that! It's so ridiculous, because who is she to judge the rest of the world, really? But when she says it you believe her, and everything gets better. So…he'll be fine. We just have to find him. Then he and Hermione'll put us back together again."
"But it's different this time." George insisted, unable to resist talking when his brother looked so desperate. His eyes were wide, and he was gripping the can in his hand as if he would throw it the minute George suggested everything wouldn't be exactly the way it was before. He looked ready to stab anyone, even himself.
"How do you know?" Ron growled this time, and George gave in, just a little.
"Listen. I can't…but you've gotta listen to me on this one. Harry's in worse shape than you know. I think Snape's doing something really badto him, and he's been doing it for longer than any of us realized."
"What? But —"
"At Hogwarts, yeah. Harry's been suffering for a long time. I want to tell you more, but I can't right now."
"Why?" Ron whispered, suddenly looking like the vulnerable 4-year-old he'd once been, close to tears because his new robes were all hand-me-downs and he didn't think he was special enough.
Because Fred thinks Snape's threatening Neville. George longed to say. "Because then Snape might hurt Harry worse."
Strangely, that was enough for Ron. He gulped, prying his fist from the can on the counter before he got to his feet. George followed his example, reaching out and pulling Ron into his arms, trying to pass some strength onto him.
"Will you tell me when you can?" Ron asked, voice muffled against George's shirt.
"As soon as I can." George confirmed.
"Is there anything else that we should know?" Ron mumbled, and George realized that everything related to Harry that Ron found out would go straight to Hermione too.
George! Fred called to him. It's happening, get down here!
"Only that…you do more than you think for Harry, Ron. You know what makes him happy, what upsets him. You can do more than just wait for Hermione to get that information." George sighed. "Now go. Fred needs help with a potion."
Ron nodded and pulled away, not questioning how George knew that Fred needed him. His face was composed, and George knew that he wouldn't hear from Ron again until he and Hermione had accomplished something in their search.
As soon as the pair left, George whirled and charged down the stairs to the basement lab, nearly tripping into the door as he fumbled to open it. He entered the room quietly, not at all cheered by the rainbow paint splattering the walls as he slipped into the chair beside Fred's. They were at a table in the center of the room, surrounded by tubes and supplies pressed against the walls, which apparently created an echo. The voices from the listener were easy to hear throughout the whole room.
"When, sir?" Neville's voice was as clear as if he were in the room with them.
"We'll have dinner soon. You can talk with him then." Snape's voice was calm, but George frowned at the control implied in that statement. Just what was Snape having Harry do that prevented talking?
They were talking about Neville seeing Harry do something when he talks to him. They said something about stopping him. Fred didn't look away from the glowing green orb as he filled George in on what he'd missed.
"Is it r-really that bad?" Neville asked.
"He's losing his mind." Snape confirmed, and the twins started, not expecting something like that. "I'm trying to nurse some anger from him, but he's getting resistant to everything I try. His mood swings are getting worse."
Neville didn't say anything, and about a minute later, they heard crunching footsteps. "Harry." Neville greeted.
Harry didn't say anything, but the sounds that followed suggested that they had begun to eat. "Surprised?" Snape drawled. "Longbottom decided that he should supply the food if he was eating with us."
"It's good, sir." Harry answered, and there was more silence.
"Is that all you're eating, Harry?" Neville asked. "There's plenty."
"I…haven't eaten anything this rich in a while." Harry responded, his voice dipping submissively. He sounded unsure, and it sounded wrong on him.
"Oh." Neville murmured. "S-should I bring more food for you?"
"No thank you." Harry responded tightly, and Neville sighed.
"That might not be a bad idea, Longbottom." Snape responded after Harry. "He needs better nutrition with all the training he's doing. More than what we've been getting."
"I don't need any help!" Harry snapped.
"I'm not trying to control you, Harry. It's for your own good." Snape barked impatiently.
"I know, sir." Harry responded, voice sinking again.
He really is moody. George noted.
I wouldn't argue with the guy raping me either. Fred retorted.
"Do you n-not like this food, Harry? I-I can bring something else for you!" Neville's voice was earnest.
"It's great, Neville!" Harry assured him. "I'm sorry my stomach's so weak. I'm wasting your food."
"No you're not!" Neville insisted. "You need more of it! Look how skinny you are."
George noted with surprise that the boy's stutter was gone.
Hadn't you noticed? Fred wondered. He doesn't stutter when he's doing something on behalf of someone else. Only when he's talking about himself, or else when he's afraid of being looked down on.
"Wisdom from a Gryffindor. Imagine that." Snape snarked. "I'll leave the two of you alone for a bit. Longbottom, do me a favor and make sure he doesn't cast any spells down his throat while I'm gone."
"I'm never going to live that down, am I?" Harry asked quietly once Snape left.
"It w-was a little scary." Neville confessed. "T-to hear you talking like that. I n-never thought I'd hear something like that from you."
"Sorry. I know I'm a bit of a mess right now. I'll try not to talk like that in front of you."
"You shouldn't think like that at all!" Neville's voice shook as he spoke. "Why would you ever want to hurt yourself so badly?"
"…How much do you know about what happened to me?"
"Dumbledore was hurting you. I saw what kind of wounds you had when you left."
"Dumbledore was teaching me." Harry said, voice low and secretive as if he knew he was being listened in on. "So that I can take as much pain as possible when I fight Voldemort, so that I can be strong. I'm really weak, and I have all sorts of bad things inside me, desires and evils that I got with this scar. But now there's no way to keep training, because Snape hates Dumbledore, so he took me away from him."
"Harry, do you really believe that?" Neville asked gently.
"Uh…no, of course not." He sounded like he thought he had said to much and was trying to take it back. "That's just what I thought. In the past, you know. Snape told me that I'm not the only person Dumbledore's hurt, that he was just using me. I'm just used to being hurt, you know? It's weird to be without that kind of training for so long."
"Harry…do you miss it?"
What a strange thing to ask. Why would he…
"A little." Harry sighed, and George felt tears welling in his eyes. "Everything was so simple before. Now there's Snape and he's training me too, like Dumbledore, except he's not hurting me. I feel like I'm cheating my way out of something."
"Out of pain?" Neville wondered. "But why should you expect to go through that kind of thing? You mentioned some kind of evil in you?"
"Exactly." Harry confirmed. "I didn't always enjoy what Dumbledore did, but there were parts that felt good too. I always knew that he was making me better. He was prepared to do anything short of killing me to suppress the bad things. Now there's nothing to stop me from thinking about it, and it's terrifying to think of how messed up I'm going to get without him."
"But…what's wrong with you? Why can't you ask Snape to help you with it?"
Harry didn't answer.
"Snape wants to help you, Harry. You don't believe me, but he does."
"He's just pretending!" Harry insisted. "It's a mind game, I think. He's just pretending that he's helping me, but he'll want to use me soon too."
"Harry…didn't you just say Dumbledore was helping you, not using you?"
"Just like Snape!" The boy agreed, and the twins looked at each other in confusion. Losing his mind…? George wondered. "He's making me strong so that I can kill Dumbledore, but the only way to make me strong is to hurt me until the evil goes away, so he'll do that soon."
"W-why do you look so happy about that?" Neville's voice was careful, almost afraid.
"Because then I won't have to worry when he's going to start hurting me anymore. Now, I'm constantly waiting for it, and he taunts me by touching me sometimes, but he hasn't attacked yet. Once he does, I can relax because I won't have to pretend that I think he's helping me anymore."
"So he's not helping you?"
"No, he is. He's just pretending that he's not."
George was crying openly now, though not sobbing. Harry was really losing his mind.
He's confusing words. Fred corrected. He's getting helping and hurting mixed up because Dumbledore always told him that he was helping him when he hurt him. It seems like he's confused because Snape is helping him, and he expects helping to involve pain. He's not crazy at all. He's just really, really scared of whatever Dumbledore said was wrong with him, but he's also scared of the pain he thinks he deserves.
No wonder he sounds so crazy. George realized, sensing the truth of his brother's words. Apparently Snape's not hurting him, though I'm a little concerned about the touching Harry mentioned. No matter what happens, whether someone hurts him or not, he thinks he's going to suffer. I'd be scared to trust anyone too, if I was in that situation.
"And he wants you to kill Dumbledore…?"
"No, Voldemort." Harry corrected cheerfully. "Well, I think so at least. Dumbledore, Voldemort, what's the difference?
See? He's even getting names confused, because people aren't being clear about what they want from him.
But why does he sound so cheerful about it all? George wondered.
That's what Harry usually sounds like. Maybe…is he trying to comfort Neville?
"Harry, I'm going to kill Dumbledore for you, so don't worry about it, okay?" Fred grinned at Neville's declaration. It was mildly disturbing for him to think about Neville killing someone, but the sentiment was right.
"No, don't!" Harry yelled, and Neville yelped, followed quickly by a thud. "You can't, Neville." Harry insisted, his voice low but loud, indicating that it was somewhere very close to Neville. "Dumbledore's really strong and he'll hurt you if you try to kill him. I don't…want him to do that to you. Please, don't! You can't, you can't, you can't…"
Definitely trying to comfort him.
Harry continued muttering frantically under his breath, but Neville seemed to handle it well. "Thanks for caring about me, Harry. I've never met anyone as kind as you are."
"Me?" Harry asked. "No, I'm evil."
"No!" Neville insisted. "Dumbledore's evil. Dumbledore's the bad one, and he's gone and messed you up a lot, Harry. You're…I'm not sure you're acting right, and it scares me. But you're not bad. Never."
He and Snape don't understand what's going on! George realized. They really think he's going crazy because he's jumping around so much. We've got to tell them what's really happening to Harry.
"Dumbledore hurts, Neville." Harry informed his friend nervously. "Please don't try to go after him."
"Okay, Harry. If I go after him, I'll do it with you and Snape, and only if we're sure we can win. I promise."
"Goodgoodgood." Harry breathed. "But there's no way to beat him. We've thought about it. That's why we ran away. Everyone likes him, so nobody will believe us. He's gotten too much power since my parents died. Maybe, if someone then had known what he was like, someone other than Snape when he was my age and all alone, then they could've stopped him. But not now."
"Then we'll go back in time!" Neville insisted. "Whatever it takes. We'll find a way to make him pay for what he's done!"
"Neville, that's impossible. You're crazy."
Neville sobbed once, likely thinking that Harry was the crazy one. But he was wrong. "Time travel is, yes. But not stopping Dumbledore. I'll find a way."
"But you won't try to fight him, right?" Harry asked.
"Right." Neville answered firmly.
"Good." Harry repeated. "I like talking to you, Neville, but Snape'll come back soon and I want to practice magic some more before he makes me go to sleep. I have to practice as much as I can while he's still being nice to me."
"Alright, Harry." Neville responded. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Fred and George looked at each other for a moment, then stood up to get their coats. They were going to pay a visit to Longbottom manor, and then they'd see Harry tomorrow too, and make sure everyone understood that he was perfectly sane.
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Okay, so I'm not sure exactly where this came from, but whatever! I like writing drabbles for reviewers, because they help me get my ideas flowing in small bursts. This chapter was easier to write because it has so much dialogue. Fred and George are just talkers whereas Snape, Harry, and Neville are introverts, I guess. I'm really excited about how things are going, and I hope you are too!
Review and let me know! And just like last chapter, if you review and specifically request a drabble with a topic (related to this story) of your choice, I'll be happy to write it for you!
