How is This my Life?

by FMPtrumpets

Harry and Ron were in the middle of a rescue when they suddenly found themselves in a room full of loved ones, the Dursley's, and a few who were supposed to be dead. All to read a few books about him. Can't his life ever be normal? And why is Snape here! Great. slight Dumbledore bashing. (Re-titled; formerly 'reading Harry Potter')

20. the Man with Two Faces

Those from the past with an older self. Everybody else.

Parselmouth

Sign language

Sadly neither Harry Potter, nor any of his friends and companions belong to me. I really wish it were different, but it is not and likely never will be.

---

"That's it?" Fred asked after a moment of silence, where everyone was on the edge of their seats in anticipation.

"That's the end of the chapter." Filius said, checking the book.

"Did it have to end on a cliffhanger?" George whined, he wanted to know who it was!

"We are going to continue reading as soon as you stop whining." Severus said dryly.

The Twins stopped and blinked at Severus for a moment before zeroing their attention on the book, eager to hear the rest of it.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other in confusion. Didn't the Twins already know most of what happened next?

Chapter seventeen: The Man with Two Faces

Everyone was confused when the screen came on, and Filius stopped the book after the chapter title was read out. They were all confused about what it meant by 'two faces'.

(It was Quirrell.)

The reaction was almost comical from those who hadn't been putting the pieces together or listening in on the Trio's conversations throughout the book.

"Quirrell?" Ginny gasped in shock. "But, I thought he was useless! Percy did nothing but complain when he got home about how little he learned from him, and he's the bad guy?" Percy shrugged when a few others glanced at him. It was true, he couldn't understand a word Quirrell said in class through that stupid stutter of his.

Hermione's jaw dropped. She'd been defending him and his speech impairment to the others in the room, and he was a teacher! Why would he be trying to steal the Stone?

"Yeah, well, Quirrell had a lot of people fooled." Harry said bitterly. This was the first time a teacher tried to kill him, after all. After this, it became almost expected. Severus leaned forward, wanting to know just how close he came to losing his life after his actions of unknowingly stopping the Dark Lord from getting the Stone throughout the year.

("You!" gasped Harry... you here, Potter.")

More jaws dropped when they heard him talk, and those who'd had him all shouted indignantly.

"That whole time, he was faking?!" Percy shouted, jumping up out of his seat and starting to pace while he muttered about how his score in his Defense OWL was damaged because of the poor teaching quality that year, due to the fact nobody could understand what the teacher was saying. Minerva listened to him rant to himself before marking it down on her parchment.

She knew that the students OWL and NEWT scores were affected by the poor teaching in Defense, but none of the students ever vocalized it, at least not to this extent.

("But I thought- Snape-")

Severus sighed, resigned, but he was also relieved that his name was about to be officially cleared. No matter what Harry said on the matter, he had been getting suspicious looks once in a while, though mostly just when something was brought up in the book that implicated him.

The looks were getting old.

("Severus?" Quirrell... type, doesn't he?)

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco demanded, offended on his godfather's behalf. He didn't like Quirrell's mocking tone when he spoke about his Uncle Severus.

"Dragon." Severus said softly, putting a hand on his knee, "Calm yourself. This is over and done, he is dead." Truthfully, he was slightly amused to hear the boy yelling at a screen on the wall, which was technically controlled by a room. Besides, he had done a good job with his reputation... perhaps too good a job.

Draco grimaced at him while a few others laughed quietly or gaped at his outburst.

(So useful to have... P-Professor Quirrell?")

"Ugh, you had to listen to that all year?" Bill asked in disgust. This was the first time any of them were actually hearing the stutter, after all.

"It was so annoying!" All those subjected to the Stutter whined.

"It worked, though. We never even began to suspect him. We thought he was a victim in all this!" Harry burst out, still disgusted with how easily they were all tricked that year.

(Harry couldn't take... to kill me!")

"If I wanted you dead, you would have been dead, and nobody would have known it was me." Severus grumbled under his breath. Remus and Sirius glared hard, but everyone else was oblivious to his quiet mutterings.

"No..." Hermione sighed. "We just didn't have all the information." She shook her head. How could she have been so stupid to see a few things and just assume she knew the whole picture?

("No, no, no... that Quidditch match.)

"Luckily she did, or she would have killed you." Severus said silkily, glaring at the girl in question at the reminder. His counter-curse was the only thing letting Harry stay on that broom for as long as he did. Otherwise, the broom's bucking would have been much, much more violent.

Although, he had to admit that she knocked Quirrell over at a good time, much longer and he wouldn't have been able to counter it any more, the Dark Lord was just too strong, not that he knew it was the Dark Lord at the time...

"That's why we don't assume without finding out the rest of the facts." Pomona said wisely, giving both girls a pointed look. She knew Hermione tended to do that, just look at S.P.E.W.! The girl clearly hadn't bothered to get all the facts before starting that one.

(She broke my... off that broom.)

Severus nodded his agreement with that, to everybodies surprise.

(I'd have managed... to save me?")

"Which I still don't understand." Hermione said, frustrated. When everyone looked at her, she huffed and elaborated. "Look at how Professor Snape treated him. He clearly hated the very air he breathed, and yet he was always saving his life? I don't get it, over the years I would have said that Professor Snape would happily watch Harry walk right off a cliff." It just didn't add up!

Harry stayed silent. He wasn't going to share the little he did know, which was that Snape grew up with his mother, and that they were the best of friends until the incident at the end of their fifth year. He never really learned more than that, so he couldn't say.

"That is my personal business." Severus said quietly and slowly, choosing each word deliberately. "Although I'm sure it will all be revealed in these books." He grumbled under his breath.

("Of course," said... next match?)

"All that was to protect Harry?" Fred asked, shocked.

Severus nodded. And, of course, he couldn't resist trying to make Gryffindor lose while he was up there, he quite liked having the trophy in his office, after all. One thing one could never accuse him of being, and that was fair towards Gryffindor. "When Albus showed up at the game anyway, though, all the whining and threats from the rest of the staff about being fair were all for nothing." He scowled.

Minerva winced. "Sorry, Severus." She apologized, only to be waved off.

(He was trying... himself unpopular...)

Severus scowled at the reminder of that, none of the others spoke to him for weeks afterward. Which was fine, he was reclusive anyway, and half the time wished they would stop talking to him, but still.

Especially Minerva... he'd missed their chats by the fire, with either tea or something a little stronger... mostly they complained about the students, or something that Albus was up to. It had taken a while before she told him, in no uncertain terms, to be in her quarters for tea after curfew for the students.

(and what a... kill you tonight.")

"No you're not-" Sirius snarled, only to be silenced by Remus before he could continue. That didn't stop him from ranting silently, making all the appropriately rude hand gestures towards the screen that made everyone glad Remus silenced the oncoming rant.

Harry glanced at the others, who just shrugged at him. "Siri?" He asked, hesitant. Sirius immediately stopped his ranting and wild hand gestures to pull Harry onto his lap and cling to him, tightly. His mouth was still moving, though, so he was still ranting under his breath.

"Why don't we continue? He'll be like this for a while." Remus suggested. He recognized what was going on from when Sirius escaped Azkaban. His emotions were all over the place, even though almost a year had gone by by the time Remus was helping him. Sometimes he wouldn't react to something at all, while the next time his reaction to the exact same thing would be over-the-top.

Although he didn't really see this as an overreaction... much. Considering Harry obviously survived.

(Quirrell snapped his... tightly around Harry.)

There were a few yells towards the screen, and a few cries of shock. "Harry!" The Twins yelled, concerned.

"Don't worry, I made it out alright." He reassured everybody gasping slightly when Sirius' arms tightened painfully. "Need to breathe, Siri." He gasped out lightly, and the arms around his midsection immediately loosened, but didn't go away. Instead, Harry was picked up by Remus and planted in between the two men, with Remus sitting close.

"Yeah, if you count being unconscious for three days as 'being alright'." Pomphrey muttered sourly with a glare in his direction. He just shrugged and patted Sirius' arm.

("You're too nosy)

"I'll agree with that." Severus snorted derisively. "You're always getting into things you have no business being into."

Harry shrugged. "I don't like not knowing what's happening around me." He said simply. And, if in the process he learned something and saw that the adults weren't doing anything about it, like usual, then well... what else was he supposed to do, just sit back and let people get hurt? Besides that, not knowing what was happening usually ended in him being hurt in some way.

"He wouldn't need to get into things, if the adults would do their jobs." Ron shot back, with Hermione's silent agreement (to everybodies shock).

(to live, Potter... guarding the Stone.")

"Nope, only saw Professor Snape!" Harry said, mock cheerfully. And, of course, that was what convinced him that Professor Snape was the one trying to steal what Fluffy was guarding.

("You let the troll... gift with trolls-)

"And none of you found it at all suspicious that he was so terrified of that troll on Halloween? When he used a troll as his contribution to the trap?" Remus deadpanned.

"It seemed so obvious after this night... not that we were told much." Minerva grimaced before it turned into a glare aimed at Dumbledore. He never told them what was going on, not even after the fact.

(you must have seen... to head me off-)

"Why didn't you tell Albus your suspicions? Why let somebody working for Voldemort remain in the school?" Remus demanded, incredulous.

"I did. My concerns were dismissed." Severus said blankly, glaring at Dumbledore. He did not appreciate being dismissed like that, not when it came to the safety of his students.

Dumbledore sank back into his seat at the glares and incredulous looks he was currently getting. He was sure his other self was watching closely, he would have acted at the first sign of his students being in danger.

(and not only did... leg off properly.")

Severus scowled and rubbed his leg where the scar was. Since he hadn't gone to Poppy, and mostly treated himself, it scarred, and he'd never bothered with scar cream. It made for a good reminder of his idiocy that day for letting his guard down and not watching all the heads.

("Now, wait quietly... interesting mirror.")

That was the moment everybody's attention was drawn to the mirror standing in the background. Until that point, all their attention was on the confrontation between Harry and the professor, they hadn't bothered to really look at the surroundings.

"Is that...?" Remus asked, studying it while Sirius went red.

"That's the Mirror of Erised." Sirius confirmed, finally able to speak again, and angry. So, this was Dumbledore's idea of keeping it safe and out of reach from those who might use it? Using it as part of a trap?

"It's a beautiful mirror." Hermione said. "Too bad it's so dangerous." Sirius hummed noncommittally.

"How did you keep students from being enthralled?" Severus asked the Weasley twins. They'd made money off letting students come down there, after all.

"We just covered it up." Fred shrugged.

"We noticed how dangerous it was the first time we saw it..."

"... and did some research."

"So we knew it wasn't something others should be exposed to." George finished. Lee had actually been the one to mention it when he noticed that the two of them were actually starting to become a bit obsessed with it, and they were fighting with each other more, usually over the mirror. They'd had to really work at not thinking about it or going to find it again, then they covered it up and made sure nobody could get curious and uncover it again.

The only thing running through Sirius' mind at that moment, was 'why was it in an abandoned classroom, where Harry could find it, over the Christmas break, and not down here?'.

(It was only then... he gets back...")

"He should never have stayed away anyway, as soon as he realized that he wasn't actually needed, he should have gone straight back to the school." Remus growled, his wolf wanting to rip apart the man on the screen, the man who was currently holding his cub captive.

"Calm down, Moony, he's dead now. He'll never hurt me again." Harry murmured from his place being crushed by Sirius.

Funnily enough, his statement didn't help Remus calm down.

(All Harry could... he blurted out.)

"What are you doing? Don't try to keep his attention on you, use his lack of attention to escape the ropes and get away!" Charlie exclaimed.

Harry got a stubborn glint in his eye. "I was down there to keep him from getting the Stone. The best way to do that right then, was by stalling for time until somebody else arrived, which meant I couldn't give him a chance to find the Stone."

There was silence for a moment. "It's a good plan..." Remus muttered reluctantly.

"Except for the part where he's trying to keep one of Voldemort's lackey's attention on him." Sirius muttered back, and tried to squeeze Harry to death again.

("Yes," said Quirrell... on my side...")

Severus tried not to look too offended by that. He knew that when it came to striking terror in people, he couldn't even begin to compare to the Dark Lord, regardless of what some of his students might say, but still! He liked to think that he was very intimidating.

Draco caught the expression on his godfather's face and hid his mouth behind his hand, trying not to laugh.

"You're not going to get his attention off that mirror, lad. He's too focused on his task." Moody advised.

(Quirrell came back... but where is it?")

"Good question. He must have been there for hours at this point, and he still doesn't have it?" Draco questioned suddenly. He hadn't said anything earlier, when they were talking about how the three of them were between the thief and the exit, but there was every chance that the thief was already gone before they ever went through the trap door. That he was still here...

"I think this was the real trap." Harry said after a few moments of thinking. "Not that it was the best..." He muttered under his breath.

(Harry struggled against... loathed each other.)

"Except that I am not my father, and have never even met my father." Harry said bitterly, glaring at Snape at the reminder of just why it was Snape hated him from the very moment Harry stepped foot in Hogwarts, without even giving him a chance.

Severus winced slightly, only enough for his godsons to notice, but didn't say anything or otherwise react. He... definitely deserved that one.

Sirius and Remus glared or growled at him for the reminder.

(But he never wanted you dead.")

Severus didn't grace that with a response either. Because, truth be told, at least in the beginning... he had wanted Harry Potter dead. After all, his survival was just a reminder of what he could have had, a reminder that Lily was dead. But at the same time, if Harry died, it would mean Lily died for nothing...

("But I heard you... and I am weak-")

"That makes it sound like..." Minerva started in horror. Everyone else's eyes widened at the implication.

"I'll agree with this guy being weak." Dudley muttered to his younger self, who nodded in agreement.

("You mean he... Harry gasped.)

The room filled with horrified gasps, while Albus' eyes widened.

He'd just thought Tom was there for the Welcome Feast, but if he stayed around all year... just what had he been teaching the students?

("He is with me... how wrong I was.)

"It sounds like he didn't start serving him willingly... perhaps tortured until he started to cave?" Sirius mused, tilting his head to the side.

"Possible." Moody muttered, frowning. They'd seen it before, especially among the Dark Lords forces. A good wizard, somebody everybody else would claim to never hurt a fly, would go missing for a few days, then reappear with a complete personality switch. Spouting the Dark agenda, using dark spells, etc. With Muggles, that kind of conditioning may take weeks, but with magic...

(There is no good... weak to seek it...)

Harry frowned. Back then, he hadn't really put much stock in that, only seeing the world in light and dark, but now... he knew that Quirrellmort was partially correct.

There was no good or evil, at least, not with magic itself. It was how people used it that made it good or bad...

(Since then, I have... forgive mistakes easily.)

Severus and Draco shuddered in remembered pain and fear.

If he was displeased with you, you would be lucky to leave alive. Those were the times when it was best for you to have skills that he found to be irreplaceable, like Severus and his potions. The Malfoy families only really use, was their deep Gringotts vaults, otherwise the Dark Lord would have done away with them long ago, considering how much Lucius had failed in recent years.

(When I failed to... watch on me...")

"Just how close a watch are we talking here?" Pomona asked suspiciously. They'd already established that You-Know-Who had been in the castle, but...

"Extremely." Harry muttered with a scowl. They'd all been in the same room as the Dark Lord Voldemort for hours at a time for an entire year. The only thing he could safely say was that Voldemort wasn't riding the back of his head when they'd first met in Diagon Alley.

(Quirrell's voice trailed... Leaky Cauldron.)

"What was that?" Somebody asked when the image suddenly changed to show when Harry first met Quirrell in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Harry..." Hermione started slowly, frowning. "Your not blaming yourself for this, are you? Because there was absolutely no way you could have known back then." Sirius' eyes widened and he inhaled sharply.

Harry was silent, but to everybody else that silence spoke volumes.

"Harry..." Remus sighed. "You'd just met the guy, why would you expect to look at a person and say, 'he's going to rob a bank today'?" He asked, reasonably. Again, Harry didn't say anything.

Sirius laid his forehead against Harry's shoulder, and squeezed his arms tighter, but was just as silent. He made a note to himself to start working on this with Harry, because this was something he shouldn't be blaming himself for, at all. Nothing about this was his fault.

(Quirrell cursed under his breath.)

"Language, young man." Molly muttered, more out of habit from raising six boys, than anything else. She flushed slightly when she realized what she did, and shoved Arthur's shoulder when she caught sight of his grinning face. "Oh, be quiet, you." She scowled, but it was ruined by her twitching lips.

("I don't understand... I break it?")

"Please don't, that is a priceless artifact." Sirius said dryly. Although, he honestly didn't care if it was broken or not, all things considered, but it was still his.

It was the principle of the thing.

(Harry's mind was racing... to edge to the left,)

"What are you up to?" Arabella asked when they noticed what he was doing.

"I was trying to see into the mirror so I could try and find out where the Stone was, that way I could... I don't know, try and distract him away from it, or get to it first, or something." Harry explained.

(to get in front of... Help me, Master!")

"I got a bad feeling about this." Fred muttered to his brother, who nodded, watching the screen intently.

(And to Harry's horror... Use the boy...)

The teachers (not Severus), Remus, Sirius, the Weasleys, pretty much everyone who did not already know the story, gasped in horror. "Voldemort is in the room with you. He was there..." Minerva said faintly. Albus frowned. That... was unexpected.

He was really going to have to check with his contacts in Albania. Tom was a wraith right now... was he possessing Quirrell? He knew Tom was strong enough to possess small animals and such, but a fully qualified wizard?

Severus was starting to shake at hearing that voice so unexpectedly, and coming from such an unexpected source. When he confronted Quirrell during the year, several times in fact, the Dark Lord had been there the whole time. They'd said it earlier, but he hadn't quite processed just what that meant until hearing the voice coming from under the turban.

(Quirrell rounded on Harry... what you see.")

"Well... at least you won't have to try and do this unnoticed." Sirius said weakly, while inwardly he was screaming for that piece of scum to get away from his godson, and mentally ordering Harry to stay back, and not go closer.

"Yeah... but then the Dark Lord will know it as well." Remus muttered.

(Harry walked toward... I see, that's all.)

A few people blinked, surprised, when Harry's thoughts sounded faintly.

"That will not work, the Dark Lord is a Master Legilimens." Severus warned. He himself counted himself very lucky that he could count himself as one of the strongest Occlumens in the world. Which reminded him, he was going to start teaching Harry Occlumency, and he was going to do it right this time, like he didn't do with the older Potter. He should probably go ahead and start teaching the older Potter as well, to try and undo the damage he caused the first time.

Harry made a face. "It's like I knew mind-reading was even a thing at the time." He said dryly, and grinned at the glare Severus shot him for calling it 'mind reading' again, after he'd already explained that the mind was so much more complex and could not simply be read like a book.

The worry in the room ramped up to higher levels, and the iron grip Sirius' arms had around his godson tightened.

(Quirrell moved close... smiled at him.)

"Wait, what?" Fred questioned what they were seeing now.

"Why is his reflection smiling at him?" Charlie questioned. Even in the wizarding world, this wasn't exactly normal...

"The Mirror." Sirius muttered, worried.

(It put its hand... blood-red stone.)

"Is that...?" Neville asked, awed.

"That's the Stone." Remus murmured, shocked. What in Merlin's name...?

"How?" Draco breathed, shocked.

(It winked and... his real pocket.)

Only Moody caught it, the sudden bulge in screen-Harry's pocket, and the way his pants suddenly sagged minutely as they were weighed down by something. "What just dropped into your pocket?" He asked, suspicious. He had a feeling he knew what Albus had done, now, and felt like strangling his old friend because of it.

It may be a complicated enchantment, but it was also incredibly simple to get around if somebody stopped to think, or if they fit the right 'criteria'.

Harry wasn't surprised that Moody was the one to catch that, while everyone else was straining to see what Mad-eye had seen. "The Stone." He said simply.

"How..." Harry shrugged and pointed at Dumbledore. He didn't know how the enchantment worked, he'd tried looking it up, but hadn't been able to find it.

"As soon as the Dark Lord gets a direct line of sight on you, he's going to know you have it." Severus warned grimly. "He will do everything possible to get it from you, now that it's no longer in its hiding place." Sirius' already tight grip on his godson got impossibly tighter.

(Somehow- incredibly... "What do you see?")

"Do not tell him the truth." Nearly everybody said at once, half-terrified for Harry.

Harry just shot them all a dirty look before he started grumbling under his breath in Parsel about idiots and 'who do they think I am'? Sirius muffled his snorts in Harry's shoulder.

(Harry screwed up... cup for Gryffindor.")

"Nice. Believable."

"Should work." The Twins said, nodded their heads in thought.

"It did... for a few moments." Harry grimaced. Quirrell bought it, Voldemort... not so much. He got a few alarmed looks, but nobody said anything.

(Quirrell cursed again... a break for it?)

"Now's your chance to get away." Sirius said, still holding onto Harry rather tightly, although Remus was doing the same with Harry.

"But where's he going to go? The flames are still up in the doorway." Charlie countered. "The potion will have worn off by now."

"... I forgot all about that." Harry said, looking stumped. Although, it wasn't like he could have done anything even if he had remembered that little detail.

(But he hadn't...

"He lies... He lies... ")

Everybody froze in shock. "Who just said that?" Ginny asked slowly.

"There's only one other person it could be." Severus said, opening his eyes after he realized he'd closed them in his shock and horror at hearing the Dark Lord's voice in there.

"But where is he?" Fred asked. They didn't see any kind of wraith or ghost anywhere in there, so where was he?

"And how did he know Harry was lying?" George looked around, hoping somebody would answer.

"Legilimency." Severus said simply.

Harry snorted suddenly and seemed to be more interested in watching the Twins right then, than he was in the screen.

("Potter, come back... face-to-face...")

"'Let me speak to him'?" George parroted, surprised and suspicious of the way that was worded.

"Just where is he that he can't just come out and confront Harry?" Ginny asked, worried.

Dumbledore sat forward, worried. All his sources said Tom was weak, but...

("Master, you... strong enough!")

Dumbledore sat back again, relieved. Harry should be fine, Tom was still weak. Tom wouldn't be able to really do anything to truly harm the boy. Of course, there was still Quirrell, but... if he was right, there was nothing he could do, either.

"I guess that's some relief." Charlie muttered.

"I suppose a weak Voldemort is the best case scenario." Bill agreed.

("I have strength... to unwrap his turban.)

"The turban?" Was repeated in confusion.

"What does the turban have to do with anything?" Fred asked, confused.

"A lot." Harry said simply, still watching the Twins.

"Hey Freddie?" George whispered to his brother.

"Yeah?"

"Remember how they reacted during the Christmas chapters? After we read about our enchanted snowballs?"

"Yup."

"You getting a bad feeling, too?"

"Yup." The Twins glanced at each other in trepidation.

(What was going... turban fell away.)

A few people's eyes widened as they caught sight of the back of Quirrell's head in the mirror. Nobody else seemed to have really noticed because they were paying more attention to Quirrell himself and screen-Harry.

(Quirrell's head... like a snake.)

Everyone stared in horror. "He was on the back of Quirrell's head." Fred said faintly.

"Underneath the turban."

"The entire time."

"Even during Christmas when we." George whimpered.

"You hit You-Know-Who in the face with snowballs." Bill said blankly, while Molly gasped and whimpered in horror.

(None of the Weasley brothers noticed the click or flash of a camera, or the camera that was quickly tucked away underneath the couch being shared by Sirius, Remus, and two Harry's.)

Slowly, Fred and George turned to face each other. "We pelted You-Know-Who with snowballs." Fred repeated, a grin slowly forming over his face.

"Awesome." They breathed.

"Not awesome!" Molly yelled. "That's You-Know-Who! You're lucky he didn't come kill you in your sleep for that!" Her eyes were wide and she was hyperventilating.

"Molly, Molly you need to calm down." Arthur was alarmed. She was starting to gasp for breath, and there were tears rolling down her cheeks. He hadn't seen her this worked up since the day she was told her brothers had been killed. "Madam Pomphrey!" He called her over.

The first thing she did was shove one of the Calming Draughts down the distraught mothers throat before leading her to another room to calm down, with Arthur following with a reassuring look towards his children and the rest of the room.

The Twins stared after their parents, shaken by their mothers breakdown. Truthfully, they were well aware of the possible consequences, but if they let themselves think about it, they might be the ones having to be led out of the room to calm down.

("Harry Potter..."... have become?")

"Yeah... he's become nothing." Draco said, slightly disgusted with the sight in front of him. Unfortunately, he's seen worse in the few years since the Dark Lord returned.

"That's just disgusting." Hermione said, matter-of-fact.

"That explains a few things you said at night." Ron looked just as disturbed. They knew about it, of course, Harry had told them. But to actually see it...

(the face said... share another's body...)

"Before this, though, I thought he was only strong enough to inhabit the bodies of animals." Albus said with a frown. And even then, it was only small animals.

Minerva looked at him in disbelief. "We are going to have a talk, Albus Dumbledore, about the amount of information shared by you." She glared at him. She was fairly certain that the only reason things got as bad as they did, was because Albus never told them what they needed to know, when they needed to know it.

(but there have... these past weeks...)

"I wonder if the curse from drinking Unicorn blood would affect him, too, since he's just a spirit..." Bill muttered, eyes narrowed as he thought about it.

"I wouldn't think so..." Filius said slowly. "After all, You-Know-Who is currently a spirit, there is no physical body for the curse to latch onto."

"Yeah, but the curse latches onto their magic, too. He wouldn't need a physical body." Bill countered.

"Does he even have much magic available to him right now? If all he could do before this was possess animals?" Filius questioned.

Bill sighed in frustration. "I can't think of any precedent for this." He shook his head. "I don't think anything like this has ever been recorded before." Coming from somebody who had full access to the Goblin's library and records, that was saying something.

Filius nodded in agreement. "We will have to make note of it, we can mention it to the Nation when this is all over." He suggested, and Bill nodded as he wrote it down.

"Can we continue the curse-breaking debate later?" Minerva asked in amusement. She was pleased, though, to see that Bill clearly loved the career he'd chosen. She'd worried when he was in his fifth year, because he had no idea what he wanted to do.

(you saw faithful... body of my own...)

"That's actually debatable." Bill muttered, still mentally debating with himself over whether or not wraith-Voldemort would have been affected by the Unicorn blood's curse.

"He cannot get his hands on that Stone." Severus said grimly.

"He didn't." Harry muttered.

(Now... why don't... your pocket?")

Everyone sucked in a shocked breath. "How did he..."

"He's using Legilimency, still." Moody said grimly. "Potter had no mental shields to speak of. Still doesn't..." He frowned, looking at Harry and using a bit of Legilimency himself. Well... he kind of had shields, but...

Harry glared lightly, giving a mental warning as best as he could to get out of his head, but didn't say anything.

Severus cleared his throat. "I tried to teach him Occlumency in the boys fifth year... I'm afraid I did not try as hard to teach him properly as I should have." He admitted. "That will be rectified while we are here." He promised, and ignored Harry's groan.

(So he knew. The... me for mercy...")

"LIAR!" Nearly everybody in that room who ever cared about James or Lily Potter yelled at once, even those who never met the couple, but they knew Harry. And they knew the stories James, Sirius, and the Weasley parents had to share about them.

"That little... let me up, Harry... gonna tear him... begging for... Remus, let me up!" Sirius was struggling against both Harry and Remus' hold, wanting to get up and go after the one who dared call James a coward.

"Sirius, you have to calm down. This is Voldemort we're talking about, you know he's just trying to get a rise out of Harry." Remus muttered in his ear, and Harry just held him and whispered nothings in his other ear until he stopped fighting them, then Remus simply put Harry back where he was on Remus lap, and sat closer to Sirius, but that was the only indication that anything had happened.

("LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly.)

"You tell him, Harry!" A few people cheered, even though they were absolutely terrified of seeing the Dark Lord himself on the screen, as disembodied as he was.

"Careful." Severus warned. "He may be weakened, but that is still the Dark Lord."

(Quirrell was walking... was now smiling.)

"That's a disturbing sight." Ginny grimaced. A disembodied snake-like face smiling like that cat that caught the canary?

Not something she ever wanted to see again.

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

("How touching..."... value bravery...)

Severus snorted incredulously. Since when? The only things he valued were power, loyalty, and competency!

He'd heard the Dark Lord refer to bravery, numerous times, as unnecessary foolishness. It was certainly not something he'd ever valued. He barely even respected his opponents for what they (usually) were, competent fighters and strong witches and wizards.

(Yes, boy, your... a courageous fight...)

"He didn't even have his wand on him." Harry said quietly, frowning.

"How do you know that?" Sirius asked slowly, stiff as a board. It was true, though. When he'd arrived at the house, he'd found James dead in the front hall, and he'd spotted his wand tossed carelessly on the couch. He hadn't had a chance to grab it before he was killed.

Harry pursed his lips. "A vision. On Christmas, we went to Godric's Hollow to look around... we found his snake instead. Some stuff happened, and I was in his head for a little while going through memories." Most of them were of that night, though." He said after a moment.

Hermione snorted. "You were unconscious for hours." She said softly. It certainly gave her plenty of time to read through that book about Dumbledore.

Sirius and Remus were both pale, with green tinges to their skin. He'd seen the night his parents were murdered, from the killers own point of view? Sirius grip tightened even more, wracked with grief and sorrow for everything his godson had been through. And where had he been through all of this?

Not there, that was for sure.

Everyone else was silent at the horrible details they were learning, most of them for the first time.

Finally, Severus spoke. "He tried to defend his family from the Dark Lord, unarmed and unprepared." For the first time in his life, he felt a sliver of respect for James Potter. No matter what else the man may have been, there was no doubt he was a good husband and father, who loved his family.

(but your mother... died in vain.")

"Give him that Stone, and she really would have died in vain." Minerva said grimly, struggling with her emotions. Lily had died to protect her son, so he could live. If Voldemort had come back then... at least Harry'd had four years of magical education behind him when it finally happened, so he wasn't completely unprepared, not like he would have been as a first year.

"He would have tried to kill me either way, no matter if I gave him the Stone or not." Harry said quietly.

("NEVER!")

"Yeah, you keep telling him, Harry!" The Twins took the chance to relieve some of the somber air in the room after the revelations about the night the Potters died.

They got a few chuckles and a couple of grateful looks for their troubles, so mission accomplished!

(Harry sprang toward... close on his wrist.)

"Get away from Harry!" Most everybody in the room yelled, angry that this man would even dare touch their friend/brother/godson/cub, and everything else they might consider Harry to be to them.

Harry, however, rubbed at his scar in remembered pain. This was just the first of many instances, where his head felt like it was splitting open.

"Harry?" Sirius asked, and Harry sighed before informing the room of just how much this hurt, even though all Quirrell was doing at that moment was holding his wrist.

Ron snorted. "You didn't see it, mate. Pomphrey had it healed by the time you woke up, but I'm pretty sure your wrist wasn't supposed to have been so flat." He deadpanned. Quirrell had just about crushed Harry's wrist during this, even during the short time Quirrell held onto him.

(At once, a needle... go of him.)

"Why did he just let go?" Moody watched with narrowed eyes. Harry hadn't been struggling all that hard, all things considered, so Quirrell should have been able to hold on easily. And why was he hunched over like that?

"This is your chance to run." A few people warned Harry.

Charlie snorted. "Where is he going to go?" He asked rhetorically. There was a wall of fire behind him, and a madman in front of him.

(The pain in his... before his eyes.)

As the screen focused slightly on Quirrell's hands, everyone's eyes widened.

"It's one thing to hear about it..." Ron muttered in disbelief as he stared at the sight.

"How did that happen?" Bill muttered, his Curse-breaking instincts rearing up, curious. That could be accidental magic... it could also be the soul-piece in Harry's scar protecting it's container.

Albus narrowed his eyes at the sight. Was this...?

("Seize him! SEIZE... howling in agony.)

Everybody jumped. "Wha-"

"Why is he the one in pain?" The Twins asked, shocked and surprised.

Harry watched the screen with a pained expression on his face. He'd killed Quirrell that day... at the age of eleven he'd killed somebody.

("Master, I cannot... red, and shiny.)

Dumbledore sat back, satisfied that he'd been right. Now, even though he knew that Harry would never be going back to the Dursleys (he was fairly certain he would be dead if he kept trying), he could at least justify leaving him there in the first place to Minerva and the others.

"Whoa..." The Twins muttered, eyeing the damage.

"Harry, mate."

"Remind us to never make you really mad." They both said solemnly. They didn't count the prank wars the three of them occasionally got into, there was no way Harry would seriously injure them over something like that.

Harry just snorted.

("Then kill him... screeched Voldemort.)

Severus winced. He didn't know what the original plan had been going into this, but he knew it wouldn't have included Quirrell being the one to kill Potter.

The Dark Lord had made it clear more than once that the Potter boy was his to kill.

"He's losing his temper." He muttered, and Draco bodily flinched beside him.

The tension in the rest of the room was thick, Sirius was almost vibrating in place, wanting to get up and pace, but at the same time, not wanting to let go of Harry.

(Quirrell raised his hand)

"Wait a minute." Filius said suddenly. "Where's his wand?" He asked, suddenly realizing that they hadn't seen Quirrell draw his wand during this entire thing, either, just like Harry hadn't.

"He hasn't used it at all." Moody realized, and cursed himself for not noticing that neither person in that room was armed.

"You-Know-Who is weakened, right, so he wouldn't be able to muster up the power to use wandless magic? And Quirrell's reserves must have been drained after having a leech like that on him for roughly a year, even with the Unicorn blood. So where is the power for that coming from?" Bill asked, frowning.

Then again, so far he'd only used the one spell that they knew of, and it was a simple rope binding spell, although who knew what he did to get this far.

Looking around, nobody had any answers to that.

(to perform a deadly... Quirrell's face-)

"What are you doing, get away from him!" Remus yelped, shocked to see screen-Harry lunging at the madman trying to kill him, instead of trying to find cover or something.

"And draw your wand, boy!" Moody barked, annoyed that Harry hadn't drawn his wand once in the entire time he'd been in that room. Honestly, what was the boy thinking!

Harry winced. Yeah... he was an idiot for not going into this with his wand out. Not that it would have done him much good, of course... "I don't know why I did that, though." He muttered, head tilted to the side while his hands stroked or touched every part of Sirius that he could reach from his current position as 'teddy bear with the stuffings hugged out of it', trying to comfort his godfather and remind him that he was right here, he was safe. "I just... there was some part of me that knew, keeping hold of Quirrell was my only chance of getting out of there alive and keeping them away from the Stone." He told the room slowly, trying to put his thoughts into an understandable string of words. "Does that make any sense?" He asked.

Moody nodded slowly. "That's a survival instinct. Good, maybe there is hope for you, yet." He grinned. However, why was Harry's touch burning the other wizard? Accidental magic, maybe... this was a highly stressful situation the boy was in, and he was still at that age where it happened, especially for one so powerful. No... this wasn't accidental. But he also didn't quite buy the theory Albus was trying to sell about it, either.

("AAAARGH!")

"He can't touch you." Fred breathed. Well now, this was an interesting development. It also gave him an idea for their self-defense line.

(Quirrell rolled off... tight as he could.)

"What were you doing?" A couple of people yelped.

Harry shrugged, uncomfortable with what happened here. "He couldn't touch me without feeling severe pain. If he was in too much pain to think, he couldn't try to hurt me... and since Voldemort was just a spirit, I didn't think he could really do too much to hurt me, either."

"This is awful." Hermione murmured to Neville, who nodded, looking a little green. Both of them were shooting Harry worried looks. Harry had left out quite a few details when he'd told Ron and Hermione what happened in that room.

(Quirrell screamed and... "Harry! Harry!")

"That sounds like Albus." Minerva said slowly, listening carefully to the voice yelling Harry's name.

Harry turned slightly red. "I didn't find out until later, but he showed up at the last minute and pulled Quirrellmort off me." He shrugged. And, of course, as grateful as he was that Dumbledore showed up, why did it take him so long?

Hermione had tears rolling down her face watching and hearing everything Harry had gone through. She should have thought about the potion vial being refillable! She should have gone with him!

(He felt Quirrell's... down... down...)

As screen-Harry fell unconscious, the screen went black, and didn't turn on again. Filius waited for a few moments before turning back to the book, just to be sure, but when it stayed dark, he found approximately where the screen had left off in the narration, and restarted the book.

While he did that, Arthur came back in with Molly and Poppy. "She's alright." He reassured his sons while getting her settled, and Minerva quickly shared what they'd missed.

"Wait... what happened to Quirrell?" Sirius suddenly asked, frowning. There had been hints, and insinuations that the guy was dead now, but... nobody had outright said it, or how he died.

Harry was quiet for a few minutes, before Minerva finally answered. "There was nothing left of him but ash." She said quietly. She'd gone down there after finding out Harry and his friends had gone down, but ashes was all she found. Albus told her it was like that when he got there, too, although now she wasn't sure how true that bit was.

"I see... and just how did he die?" Sirius asked tightly, tightening his grip on Harry.

"As far as I was told, he burned to death." Minerva said simply. "But, knowing now that Voldemort was 'sharing' his body with him, he would have been dead anyway, as soon as Voldemort stopped 'sharing' his body."

"No matter what could have happened when the two of them separated bodies, or whatever, I still killed him." Harry said, coldly.

Sirius went cold as he realized that nobody had talked to Harry afterwards. His arms tightened even more and he leaned his forehead against the back of Harry's neck. "Please tell me you were able to talk to somebody about this." He begged quietly. Harry twisted around to give him a strange look, as if the concept of talking to somebody about something as traumatic as killing somebody at the age of eleven was completely foreign.

He let out a tortured sounding moan, making a few people look at him in worry.

(Something gold... The Snitch!)

"Wha-" Somebody asked, and Harry turned red.

"I think this is when I was waking up in the Hospital Wing." Harry muttered, he hadn't really been all there for a few moments.

(He tried to... were too heavy.)

"Ingrained response, for sure." Charlie laughed. See something gold and vaguely round, try to catch it. That was how Seekers worked.

"Especially with somebody like Oliver Wood as your captain." Harry huffed. The Twins nodded in agreement.

(He blinked. It... pair of glasses.)

"A gold piece of glasses?" Ginny muttered.

"I wonder who that could be." Neville deadpanned.

"It's taking you a while to wake up enough to even recognize the Headmaster." Hermione snorted. Was this how it was for them every morning? Harry shrugged.

(How strange... said Dumbledore.)

"How much later is this?" Arthur asked, frowning.

"He was unconscious for three days." Poppy answered, frowning at nothing, just remembering the condition the boy had been brought to her in.

Everyone else murmured or glanced at Harry in concern.

(Harry stared at him... Stone! Sir, quick-")

"I think Albus would have been well aware by now." Minerva gave a small smile at her Lion, who smiled sheepishly back.

"I didn't know that." He shrugged.

"Talk about a one-track mind." Charlie muttered, making Ron and Hermione nod in complete agreement.

"It was the last thing he was doing that he remembers, protecting the Stone, so of course it would be the first thing on his mind." Sirius said calmly. It had happened to him many, many times over the years.

("Calm yourself... does? Sir, I-")

"Hopefully, the Stone has already been sent back to its rightful owner." Sirius stared Albus down, already knowing that the man seemed to have sticky fingers when it came to other people's rare magical artifacts.

"We will see." Albus said, gazing back evenly. He was sure he could convince Nicolas to give it up, one way or the other.

("Harry, please... me thrown out.")

"Of course I would." She announced. The last thing her patients needed, especially one who was so close to core depletion as Harry was, was too much excitement. He needed rest.

Everyone who'd ever spent a large amount of time in her hospital wing made a face, remembering the times when all they wanted was somebody to talk to. She rarely even let them read even their textbooks while in her domain. She seemed to think that they would be doing nothing but sleep. Well, there was only so much sleeping you could do before you just couldn't sleep anymore.

(Harry swallowed... hospital wing.)

"Surprisingly enough, that was the first time I'd ever woken up in there." Harry said proudly.

"Wow." Hermione said in realization. "He went a year without needing the Hospital Wing." Her and Ron looked at each other in amazement. Was such a thing even possible? Harry scowled at them while everyone else laughed.

(He was lying in... the candy shop.)

"No... more like three-fourths of it, I think." Harry said thoughtfully, tilting his head to the side. "Now that I've actually been to Honeydukes, and all." He nodded his head.

"Is that where all that came from?" Neville asked, blinking. Harry had come back from the Hospital Wing carting a load of candy. He left some out for his dorm mates to share, but the rest of the load went into his trunk. It was still a great deal though, even after sharing with the other four boys, especially when Ron was involved.

Harry and Ron huffed.

"I still had that load when I came back to Hogwarts." Harry commented. Of course, that was mostly because it had been in his trunk, which was in his cupboard, and he hadn't learned how to pick the lock yet.

"Really?" Ron asked, surprised. He hadn't known Harry had all that laying around when he was at the Burrow. Harry flashed him a smirk.

("Tokens from... and admirers,")

Harry snorted. 'Friends and admirers', yeah right. A few nights before this, they were all cursing or hexing him over fifty house points. Now all of a sudden, he's the school hero again.

Ron and Hermione frowned. "How many of those 'friends and admirers' were the same people who were cursing you in the halls, or glaring because you and two others lost a bunch of house points?" Hermione scoffed.

"Considering just how many people were involved in that, probably all of them." Ron rolled his eyes.

"Guys. I'm used to it." Harry reminded them. It didn't calm them down like he was going for, though. No, it just made them even more angry. Severus gave him a considering look, wondering just how much he missed over the years, just how much did he blind himself?

Hermione frowned then. "Just out of curiosity, but did anybody bother to test any of that?" She asked, thinking back to sixth year and the incident with spiked cauldron cakes that ended with Ron being poisoned.

Minerva and Poppy both blinked at her, surprised. "You know, I don't think I did." Poppy said after a moment, taken aback.

The three boys glanced at each other, concerned. "None of us started acting strange that I can remember..." Neville said slowly. Of course, they'd only been there for a few more days before going home, so...

(said Dumbledore... whole school knows.)

Everyone started laughing while Dudley looked confused. Harry snorted. "Nothing stays secret in Hogwarts." He informed his cousin. Somebody probably saw Dumbledore carrying him to the Hospital Wing from the third floor, and started drawing all the right conclusions, especially since the older students knew of the traps.

"Well..." Hermione said, mischief in her voice. Ron grinned, and Harry smirked back, but neither said anything else. Unless it was the three of them, of course. They'd found and kept many secrets over the years.

"There's nothing faster than the Hogwarts rumor mill." Fred said fondly. Of course, it had impeded their revenge pranking many, many times over the years, but still. They'd long ago learned how to keep their next target a secret until it was over.

The teachers shook their heads fondly.

(I believe your friends... you a toilet seat.)

"Fred! George!" Molly said sharply. She recalled telling them not to blow up a toilet seat!

"We didn't blow it up!" Fred said, indignant.

"We just removed it from it's place of rest." George added. That wasn't blowing it up. They were quite proud of it, though. She glared at them, but sighed. Because she hadn't said anything about not handling the toilet seats at all for anything but there intended use.

(No doubt they... and confiscated it.")

"Aww!"

"Poppy! Why?" The twins whined, slumping down in disappointment.

She smirked, and shook her head. Those two, honestly.

("How long have... extremely worried.")

All the teachers who'd been there snorted at the same time. "That's a massive understatement." Poppy muttered. How many times had she had those two at her doors trying to sneak in to sit with Harry? How many times did she consider dosing Hermione with a Calming Draught?

"Those two were almost hysterical." Minerva rolled her eyes.

"You would be too." Ron muttered, ears pink.

("But sir, the Stone-")

"I know we've said this before..." Fred started.

"But you just do not let it go, do you?" George finished.

Harry turned red, but didn't say anything. "Nope."

"He's like a dog with a bone." Ron snorted. "A very large, very juicy bone." Harry rolled his eyes.

("I see you are... I must say.")

"Doing very we- he just killed a person! At the age of eleven! Your not even going to ask if he's alright?! Not going to make sure he's handling it well, instead your praising him?!" Sirius screeched, sounding eerily like a mixture between his mother and Molly Weasley for a moment there.

"Your pleased. Your happy that he killed Quirrellmort, and defeated Voldy again." Remus said in stunned realization.

One of Sirius' hands shot out and clamped down (firmly, but not enough to hurt) onto Harry's arm, while his other arm wrapped tighter around Harry's waist. "You will stay away from my godson." He commanded, voice hard. He couldn't believe this, he'd trusted Albus to take care of his godson when he was thrown in prison, and now not only did he find out that Albus didn't, but now Albus was leading his godson around by the nose to kill people!

Dumbledore frowned. "Now, Sirius-" He started.

"Don't you 'now Sirius' me, Albus Dumbledore. You will stay away from my godson!" He said sharply, having heard that tone plenty of times to know exactly what the old man was going to say next.

Dumbledore's frown deepened. "We will discuss this later." He decided.

"There's nothing to discuss." Remus said, voice hard with a hint of growl in it.

Harry chose not to say anything, after all, hadn't the Headmaster done worse at the end of the third task? He'd been injured, poisoned by an Acromantula, just witnessed the murder of a friend, and been part of the resurrection of Voldemort in an extremely dark ritual, and so exhausted he could barely remember what way was up... and yet the Headmaster refused to let him go to the Hospital Wing until he learned every single detail of that night.

("You got there?... I had just left.)

Minerva frowned in suspicion. "You were gone far longer than it took to simply fly there, turn around and fly back. For that matter, I am still confused on why you flew at all, if the matter was supposedly so urgent!" She berated him, while everyone else eyed him in equal amounts of suspicion.

"Minerva, I do not know, this hasn't happened yet for me." He raised his hands, trying to sooth the ruffled fur of his second. He was pretty sure he did know, but he wasn't about to tell her that. She kept eyeing him suspiciously while Remus' eyes started flickering between his usual brown to amber.

(I arrived just... be too late.")

"You almost were." Poppy muttered with a frown. She'd had to fight for several hours to 'kickstart' the boys magical network, he was that exhausted.

("You nearly were... much longer-")

Harry yelped when he felt a hand swat the back of his head. "Hey!" He protested, twisting around to see the disapproving face of his godfather. He gulped lightly.

"Who cares about the Stone? Forget about it, and focus on yourself for a change." Sirius said sternly, staring his godson down. Inside, he was terrified at the fact that his godson didn't seem to care for his own well-being.

Harry ducked his head and leaned into him more, while Ron and Hermione shot each other surprised and grateful looks. Finally, somebody besides them to try and get Harry to see his own self-worth.

("Not the Stone... has been destroyed.")

Moody narrowed his eyes while Dumbledore sat back, frowning. Now, he highly doubted that he would actually destroy it, he would rather study it. Oh, he didn't want to live forever, oh no. He had no interest in that. But the chance to study the Stone for himself... he'd never had a chance to before, Nicolas would never allow it. He suspected that he would have waited until after the trap was sprung, though, so that he didn't risk Tom going for it, and it not being there.

Moody, meanwhile, made a note to himself to speak with Nicolas himself about that Stone of his.

("Destroyed?" said... properly, didn't you?)

"Wait." Sirius said suddenly, and slowly. The Trio glanced at each other, and decided not to interfere in anything that might happen in the next little bit.

"We might actually get answers while we're here to a lot of our questions." Harry signed to the other two, who nodded in agreement.

"'You did do the thing properly'?" Sirius repeated, turning to Albus, looking thunderous.

"You set that whole thing up, you wanted Harry down there." Remus growled, his amber eyes starting to glow as the werewolf came closer to the surface in his anger at the threat this old man, once a mentor, now posed to his cub.

Dumbledore swallowed heavily, eyeing the enraged werewolf warily. He knew that the truth right now would probably see him torn apart, while he was sure Remus would probably be able to smell if he was lying. Severus would certainly be able to tell from the minute reactions of his body, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. "Now, I'm sure I didn't mean it like that. I have no intention of letting one of my students come face to face with Tom." He said evenly.

Remus narrowed his amber eyes, but didn't say anything else. His eyes, though, didn't leave Albus'. Only Harry's weight in his lap kept him sitting, when all he wanted to do was lunge across the room at the old man he once looked up to and respected.

(Well, Nicolas and... for the best.")

Moody frowned. He supposed that Nicolas and his wife had lived a long time, and they'd probably seen it all by this point, but... to just agree to end it all, just like that.

He really needed to get in touch with them and let them know what Dumbledore was up to with the Stone, and make sure they even knew Dumbledore had the Stone.

("But that means... on Harry's face.)

"I just couldn't imagine it." Harry admitted. He still couldn't really understand it, they were just... giving up. They knew that without that Elixir they would die, and yet... they were willing to give up their only source of it? He just didn't understand it.

"Once you reach a great age, I'm sure you will understand better." Albus chuckled a little, taking a chance on speaking right now.

("To one as young... next great adventure.)

The younger crowd looked around at each other in confusion. "That doesn't even make any sense." Dudley muttered.

"He's insane." Petunia told Vernon with her lip curled. The other two with her nodded in agreement. That old man was clearly not mentally-sound.

"I don't get it." Neville muttered, frowning.

Albus chuckled a little more, knowing that they would understand in time. This was one of those things that couldn't really be understood by the young. After all, they were young, they had their entire lives ahead of them. They would understand when they were older, and had their lives behind them.

(You know, the... worst for them.")

"People are rather stubborn that way." Albus said wisely. Speaking from experience, of course.

"People are rather stupid that way." Harry muttered.

(Harry lay there... the thing itself.")

"We should have known Dumbledore encouraged him." Ron muttered, flopping back into his seat dramatically.

"That's all well and good, but when the person in question puts a Gaes on his name, that leads the Death Eaters straight to whoever is foolish enough to speak that name, well..." Hermione deadpanned.

"People have a good reason to be afraid of speaking the name." Severus said, glaring at Dumbledore. How many people had died because Albus Dumbledore encouraged them to say his name without fear?

Albus just looked stubborn about it.

"That's actually an idea..." Harry said slowly.

"Uh-oh." Ron said, looking wary all of a sudden. "Hermione..."

"I see it..." She said, inching away from the suddenly plotting Boy-Who-Lived.

"Make them come to us." He said suddenly, looking at his friends. "We were caught off guard, but if we were ready for them, and said the name..."

"That's... actually not a bad idea." Hermione said after a moment, shocked. "But what would we do with them afterwards? It's not like we can march them into the Ministry and turn them in. They work for the Ministry. Not to mention, Undesirable no. 1." She pointed out. They weren't exactly in any position to deal with prisoners.

Harry bit his lip in thought. "What if... what if we tried to get in touch with somebody else? France, or... America, or something?" He asked.

"How?"

"I don't know... here. Feed them a bunch of Draught of Living Death and store them away in a cave somewhere." Harry finally decided, nodding once.

"And where are we going to get that? Or the ingredients to make it?"

"We stay in forests, I'm sure we can find what we need... mostly." Harry shrugged, and Hermione threw her hands up in exasperation. Everyone else that watched the conversation decided not to draw attention to themselves, although Moody approved of the plan, as rough as it was.

("Yes, sir. Well... gone, has he?")

"Unfortunately." Harry scowled.

("No, Harry, he... as his enemies.)

Severus swallowed. "He shows his enemies more mercy than he does his followers." Especially if they 'failed' in a task, or didn't complete it to his specifications or standards.

(Nevertheless, Harry... battle next time-)

"Let me guess, that someone's name is 'Harry'." Ron muttered, frowning. It did always seem to be Harry, after all.

"I'm the one he wants." Harry shrugged tiredly.

"That doesn't mean that everybody else can just sit on their butts and do nothing!" Hermione snapped, angry.

(and if he is... return to power.")

"There's only so many times somebody can block somebody from doing something, before they eventually succeed." Arthur said wisely.

"The person blocking will eventually get tired, or overlook something." Moody narrowed his eye.

(Harry nodded, but... his head hurt.)

Sirius frowned, three days unconscious, and he was still hurting? That wasn't good... just how bad was he when he came in?

He wasn't sure if he actually wanted to know, especially given the comments earlier from both Albus and Poppy.

(Then he said, "Sir... with great caution.)

"The truth is always best, though. No matter how terrible it might be, no matter how much it might hurt." Molly reminded the room, looking at her boys and girl. She'd taught them to always tell the truth, to be honest and hardworking.

Of course, once she found out about some of the things the Twins used for their product, or how they got them...

(However, I shall... in the first place?")

Albus sighed. The first thing he asked, was the one thing that Albus didn't think the young boy was ready for.

Sirius pursed his lips. He knew exactly why it was. James had told him everything he knew. He wasn't sure if he wanted book-Harry to know it just yet, but he did know that the boy would need to know sooner, rather than later. Teenagers had a habit of searching for the answers to their questions, no matter what. And who knew what Voldemort would try to tell the boy in the meantime, or what happened when Harry went looking for his answers.

Remus, on the other hand, turned slightly red. Dumbledore refused to tell Harry anything even when he was older and could understand it better. And as a result, Harry was unprepared when Voldemort sent him a vision that lured him out, and ended in Sirius' death.

Luckily, Harry would go into his school years knowing everything, and that wouldn't happen again.

(Dumbledore sighed... you will know.")

"Sometimes, it's safer to tell somebody something, whether you think they're ready to hear it or not. Otherwise, they might go to find their answers somewhere else, and walk right into a trap." Harry said, staring hard at Dumbledore, who frowned.

Everybody else who remembered Albus' reasons for not telling Harry anything frowned, too. They remembered how badly Harry had taken it when Sirius died.

(And Harry knew... Quirrell touch me?")

A few leaned forward, interested in hearing what Albus had to say about it.

Albus had never really given anybody an explanation for that, no matter how much people asked, or who asked.

("Your mother died to save you.)

"What does that have to do with why Quirrell couldn't touch him?" Charlie asked, confused, but Bill thought he knew where this was going.

"There is an ancient ritual that requires a mothers sacrifice, but..." He frowned and shrugged. He supposed she could have read about it from the Potter library, it was rumored that the Potter family had one of the largest, and oldest libraries in the world, older even than Hogwarts.

(If there is one... some protection forever.)

"That's only half the explanation!" Bill complained. He glared at Albus, his pride as a Curse-breaker was very much hurt right now just by listening to that. "You are going to get people killed believing that kind of drivel." He said sharply.

"Love is a very powerful-" Albus started.

"Yes, yes it is a very powerful thing." Bill interrupted. "But if what you are describing were possible, then every child whose mother ever died for them would be protected, and that's not the case, now is it?" He asked, sarcastically. "There is, however, a protective blood-ritual that requires the willing sacrifice of a blood-relative. It doesn't have to be a parent, it could be a sibling or other close relation like aunt, uncle, or cousin, but the closer the relation, the better." He informed the room, his voice taking on a 'lecturing' tone.

Albus scowled. "Such magics are extremely dark and-"

"No, they are not. It is just England and our close-mindedness that labels them so." Bill interrupted with a glare. He was a Curse-breaker, he knew plenty of things that would get him thrown in Azkaban if the Ministry knew that he knew about them. Luckily, his employee contract and oaths of secrecy between him and his employers protected him. "Anyway, it's that very ritual that would have protected Harry, so who cares what the Ministry thinks about it?" He scowled at the old Headmaster, and was surprised his mother was keeping her mouth shut on the matter.

As much as she didn't like Dark magic, even she could appreciate a sacrificial ritual that protected ones children.

(It is in your... something so good.")

"Stop filling the kids head with lies! That's not the way it works! It was because Harry's life was in danger, not because of Quirrell's own darkness." Bill scowled. Of course, the soul-piece probably helped defend him, too.

But they wouldn't know that, an accidental Horcrux like Harry was, was unprecedented, too, after all.

(Dumbledore now became... my possession,)

"Liar." Sirius and Remus said at the same time.

"I believe we already covered this earlier." Sirius continued mildly, glaring.

"James would have never given that away to anybody." Remus growled.

"Albus, honestly! What is with you and ancient artifacts?" Minerva asked in annoyance. First the Cloak, then the Mirror, and now the Stone? She was sure there were more instances over the years, too, that she didn't know about.

(and I thought... he was here.")

Sirius and Remus coughed, slightly amused and (on Remus' part) uncomfortable. "That's not quite true, either." Sirius muttered, reminiscing a bit.

"We used it for a lot more than getting food." Remus added.

"And is it really stealing when they practically throw it at you?" Harry asked, laughing at the concept of stealing food from the kitchens.

("And there's...

"Yes, him-)

Severus scowled at the disrespect, while most others snickered over the way Harry dismissed the Headmasters words about their least-liked professor.

(Quirrell said he... Is that true?")

"That's probably one of the only true things Quirrell said down there." Sirius grimaced.

"The feelings were mostly mutual, of course... at least until James finally got Lily to agree to go out with him and then went and grew up." Remus grinned. He'd been so relieved when James finally grew up. Remus had a partner in Lily, she helped him keep the other two in line.

Severus, for his part, said nothing.

("Well, they did... and Mr. Malfoy.)

"Actually, I'm pretty sure most of that is really between Ron and Malfoy." Neville pointed out again, emphasizing Ron's name.

"Yeah, everything that happens where the Trio and Malfoy are involved, is usually started by Ron or Malfoy in some way." Ginny laughed. Harry never started it that she knew of.

(And then, your...

"He saved his life.")

"Wait, what?"

"It'll be explained... partially." Harry scowled. Dumbledore had a bad habit of telling him half-truths or stories.

"There was much more to it than that." Severus sneered, glaring at Sirius, who only looked slightly apologetic, and it was mostly aimed at Remus, whose face was stony at that moment.

("What?"

"Yes..." said... father's debt...)

While that little bit about not wanting to be in James Potter's debt was true, it was not the reason he protected the boy.

(I do believe he... your father even.)

"That is not true." Severus snarled, glaring at Dumbledore for the lie he just told, again. "That is not true and you know it." He spat. His protecting the boy had absolutely nothing to do with the boys father. In fact, James Potter had told him, years ago, that as far as he was concerned, there was no life debt.

It was the closest Potter had ever come to apologizing for his part in that night.

How dare Albus Dumbledore completely disregard everything Lily ever was to him like that! How dare he, once again, turn the conversation back around to James Potter?!

Harry said nothing, knowing full well what really happened that night, and he was never sure if his father wouldn't have let Snape die if it weren't for the fact Remus would have been killed over it.

(Then he could... memory in peace...")

"I never stopped hating his memory in peace." Severus deadpanned, still angry with the way Albus turned even this around onto James Potter.

Why did everyone seem so content to forget Lily and what an amazing woman she was?

(Harry tried to... one more thing...")

"Just one?" Ron asked, teasingly. Harry stuck out his tongue and signed something that made Hermione start laughing.

"What did you just say?" Neville asked, suspicious of anything that could make Hermione Granger start laughing like that.

"Nothing." Harry grinned innocently.

("Just the one?"... of the mirror?")

"An ancient enchantment that has so many loopholes that can be exploited, it's ridiculous." Bill scoffed. It was a very powerful enchantment, and it was very effective. But that loophole was so easily exploited, even by accident.

Albus frowned at him, not quite sure what he meant. He hadn't found any loophole when he researched it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have used it.

"You know a lot about old rituals and enchantments." Draco noted, eyeing Bill Weasley with no small amount of awe.

Bill smirked a little and shrugged. "I do most of my work in Ancient Egyptian tombs. It comes with the territory." He sounded slightly embarrassed, while the other Weasley's puffed up in pride for the oldest son.

("Ah, now, I'm... saying something.)

Minerva snorted and ignored Albus' betrayed look.

(You see, only... on these sweets.)

Poppy sighed and shook her head. When would he understand that those weren't healthy? She was always getting on him for how many lemon drops he ate on a regular basis. She suspected that he spiked them with Calming Draught.

He shot her a grin, knowing what she was thinking, trying to look innocent.

(Ah! Bettie Bott's... vomit flavored one,)

"There are some things that just shouldn't be made." Hermione was absolutely disgusted.

"I don't think I've ever been that unlucky." Sirius tilted his head. "Luckily." He made a face.

"Lucky you." Harry grimaced. He'd gotten one of those. It was absolutely disgusting.

(and since then... toffee, don't you?")

"If you get one that's actually toffee." Remus said in amusement.

"I think those ones are toffee or ear wax." Sirius said in thought. He was pretty sure that he'd had every flavor but vomit, actually.

(He smiled and... "Alas! Ear wax!")

"Gross." Dudley deadpanned after a moment's silence.

"Why would anybody even make something taste like that?" Dudley demanded, disgusted.

"It's part of the fun of Bertie Bott's." Charlie grinned at the other boy cheerfully. Although, he himself didn't care for half of those flavors himself.

"Ok, but ear wax?" Dudley demanded, and the wizards only smirked.

(Madam Pomfrey... but very strict.)

She snorted. "I have to be, I work in a school full of magical teenagers that seem to think they can just power through an injury." She glared at the main culprits of recent years. Harry, Remus, and Sirius.

Teenagers always seemed to think themselves invincible.

("Just five minutes," Harry pleaded.)

"Five minutes for what?" Fred asked, curious.

"Probably for Ron and Hermione." George reasoned.

("Absolutely not."... Dumbledore in...")

"He's the Headmaster. He also has a bad habit of completely ignoring my expert medical opinion." She glared at the Headmaster as she said it, remembering all the times the Headmaster kicked her out so he could interrogate a patient, even when they weren't ready to talk about it. Or kept a student in his office to interrogate them, when he should have sent them straight to her.

"It needs to be discussed when it's still fresh in their minds." He defended calmly.

"As Headmaster, your first priority should be their health and safety, not getting answers for whatever crusade you are on at the time!" She yelled at him, not even sure why she bothered. He had very selective hearing, and was certainly a stubborn old man.

("Well, of course... quite different.)

"And, he pushed past me when I tried to stop him." She added under her breath. She didn't say it any louder, though, not liking to admit that she was so powerless when it came to her own domain, and patients.

(You need rest."... Madam Pomfrey...")

"Muggle doctors have found that patients actually recover better if they're in better moods, or something like that. They have a saying, that laughter is the best medicine." Hermione said.

"Basically, people who are bored and depressed, won't recover as quickly, because they don't want to get better?" Harry picked up with his limited understanding of it.

Sirius barked out a laugh. "From what they're saying, it sounds like limiting visiting hours as much as you do, in the interest of them resting actually hinders their recovery." He smirked, remembering all the times she'd kicked them out from seeing Moony, citing those same reasons.

She frowned at them, but didn't say anything. She wanted to see those doctors findings for herself before she changed how she ran her hospital wing.

("Oh, very well,"... still very sore.)

"Thanks for that!" Harry chimed. She snorted and bumped her shoulder with his as best as she could considering his position still on Sirius' lap.

"It was very hard to resist." She admitted. Seeing him carried out of that room like that... she'd been terrified. Her mind had jumped straight to the worst case scenario, and she started blaming herself for leaving him like that, even though he'd told her to...

("Oh, Harry, we... "What really happened?")

"The rumors had nothing on what really happened." Fred snorted.

"No, it didn't." Harry muttered. He'd overheard the rumors after getting out of the Hospital Wing, and some people had come up to him to ask him to clarify. He'd just given them all a strange look and walked away. Later on, he heard those same people telling their friends that he confirmed whatever their version of events was.

It was a little pathetic if you asked him.

(It was one of... them everything:)

"No you didn't." Ron and Hermione said at the same time, highly annoyed by that fact.

Harry blinked at them. "I told you the important parts?" He questioned.

They both glared while everyone else snickered.

(Quirrell; the mirror... good audience;)

Ron and Hermione glanced at him, raised eyebrows. "Really?" She asked, amused.

Harry nodded, serious. They had been an excellent audience.

(they gasped in... screamed out loud.)

"Is that what was going on?" Poppy muttered. She'd wondered what that was all about. When she'd glanced out of her office, she hadn't seen anything wrong, so she'd gone back in to let them talk in private.

Hermione winced. "Sorry if we disturbed you." She apologized. She was waved off by the medi-witch.

("So the Stone's... going to die?")

"Depending on just how much Elixir he has stored up, he might be around for a while yet." Bill shrugged.

("That's what I... next great adventure.'")

"Barmy, is what it is." Neville muttered, grimacing.

Albus merely chuckled, along with Ollivander. They were easily the oldest people in the room.

("I always said... his hero was.)

Ron scowled. He wasn't sure if Dumbledore could be called his hero anymore, not with everything Albus Dumbledore had done to, for, or because of his best friend.

("So what happened to you two?" said Harry.)

"That's what I want to know." Molly muttered, looking concerned.

("Well, I got... that took a while-)

"How long is a while?" Molly asked, worried for her son.

"It probably felt like longer than it really was." Hermione said, looking apologetic. "I wasn't really paying attention to the time, it was probably just a couple of minutes." She honestly didn't know. She was just glad it hadn't taken him a couple of hours or something to come around, he'd been hit pretty hard, after all.

"From the amount of damage, it would have only been about ten to twenty minutes." Poppy confirmed.

(and we were dashing... he already knew-)

"You bas-" Sirius snarled, and made to lunge forwards, only Harry's weight keeping him seated. Harry jumped and twisted around to grab his godfather and keep him in place. Remus Silenced him as soon as the word started to leave his mouth, with a glance at the younger kids in the room.

"You knew the entire time. This was some sort of sick test for Harry!" Remus growled, latching onto the boy in his lip so he wouldn't try to tear Albus Dumbledore apart with his bare hands.

Molly had no such inhibitions, she was in front of Dumbledore with her hands on her hips, yelling and lecturing him about what it meant to protect a student, and not set them up to face the man who killed their parents and wanted to kill him, too.

Neither Harry heard any of it, though, they were focusing on keeping Sirius and Remus calm. They couldn't get up to drag them out of the room, otherwise they risked the men getting loose and attacking, but they also didn't want to stay in here.

After ten minutes of Molly ranting, Dumbledore was looking smaller and smaller in his seat, Arthur finally stood up and gently guided his wife back to their seats.

"Don't think this is over." Remus warned the old man, eyes glowing amber, as he finally managed to calm himself down enough.

(he just said, 'Harry's... to the third floor.")

Remus' growl deepened, and Dumbledore yelped when he found himself sprouting antlers, his clothes were transfigured into something plain and ordinary, and his hair and beard were missing while his head itself was flashing different colors.

"He knew." Sirius growled again when Harry looked at him suspiciously. All that was certainly much kinder than he wanted to do to the old man.

Harry sighed, but didn't say anything.

"I have only ever acted for the Greater Good." Dumbledore said calmly, with a hint of strain to his voice as he looked at the mundane appearance to his robes and the missing hair.

"What you should be acting for is the well-being of your students." Molly scoffed, glaring.

("D'you think he... have been killed.")

"Precisely." Molly hissed, glaring daggers at the man she'd always defended or held on a pedestal to her children as somebody who was great and trustworthy.

"Now I wish I hadn't brushed it off like I did back then." Harry mumbled, thinking.

("No, it isn't,"... me a chance.)

"That is not something an eleven year old should be doing, no matter how much you seem to think that it's your job to deal with that madman!" Molly snapped. She'd been fighting for the last three years to keep Harry out of anything at all to do with the war, no matter how much Harry himself fought her on it. It didn't help when everybody else around them seemed to support the idea that Harry was the only chance they had of ever stopping You-Know-Who.

She didn't realize that all Harry had ever wanted, was to know what was going on. Even if he didn't fight himself, he just wanted to know what was happening.

She truly detested the idea of Harry having been turned into some kind of child-soldier. She hated that the younger generation had to deal with any of this, when it was the older generations problem in the first place.

(I think he knows... here, you know.)

"Not quite." Sirius muttered, a secretive smile on his face. After all, Albus Dumbledore never knew he had three illegal Animagi running around his school for three years.

"He just wants you to think that." Neville added with a shrug. He was pretty sure that if anybody knew everything that happened, it was students like him and Harry, who could blend into the background and observe.

(I reckon he... enough to help.)

"Taught- he didn't teach you anything!" Molly yelled, angry. "He left a trail of breadcrumbs that never should have been in a school, and sat back to see what happened. Nothing more, nothing less. None of that should have happened." She snapped, not happy with Harry's attitude about this.

Harry sighed and sat back. "I know." He said quietly. He'd had a lot of time to think while he was in that tent with Ron and Hermione. There were a lot of things he was not happy with Dumbledore about, although that wasn't to say that the rest of the adults were clean in everything that happened.

(I don't think... if I could...")

"Whether you did or not, does not dismiss the fact that you were an eleven year old boy who had no business going anywhere near a madman. His job as the Headmaster was to make sure situations like this didn't happen, not make them happen." Molly snapped.

Arthur sighed. "Molly, dear, we know none of this should have happened. Alright? We know. But you need to calm down, now. It happened, it's done. It will never happen again." He nodded towards Sirius and Harry. At Moody and the large amount of parchment in front of him as he took notes on what was going on that was wrong, and made his to-do list. "Ok? It won't." She took a deep breath and nodded, acknowledging his words, even though everybody there knew she wasn't going to be able to keep quiet, no matter how much she knew that what he was saying was true.

("Yeah, Dumbledore's... Ron proudly.)

"I don't think that's something to be proud about." Luna tilted her head to the side in thought.

("Listen, you've... won, of course-)

Moody grunted in appreciation, while Severus and Draco smirked, until they both remembered what happened at the Feast, and glared between the ones who got the points, and Dumbledore. That had been a dirty trick, one that he had no business making on a bunch of children.

(you missed the... without you-)

The Twins flinched at the memory of how badly that game went.

Charlie frowned. "What happened? Even if you didn't have a Seeker, you still could have won if you kept them behind enough on points." He pointed out.

Fred nodded slowly. "Yeah... but they saw their chance without Harry and took it. Their Seeker made sure to find the Snitch before the points difference could be too much." He explained, while George sat there with a scowl on his face. "I don't know what was up with their Chasers, either, it was like somebody lit a fire under them. Normally, our girls are unstoppable, but they couldn't get the Quaffle and keep it for longer than it took to make a goal, and then they couldn't get it again until after four goals on their side."

"Sorry." Harry apologized, still blaming himself for that.

"What have we said?" Fred and George demanded, narrowing their eyes at him.

"That it wasn't my fault." Harry mumbled.

"And it still wasn't your fault." Fred said, sharply.

(but the food'll be... OUT" she said firmly.)

"Wow."

"Fifteen minutes?"

"When she said five?"

"She must really like you."

Everybody was looking between Poppy and Harry, absolutely amazed. Harry shrugged. He hadn't been complaining, that was for sure. It was so boring after they left! Especially since Hermione hadn't even brought him something to read, which had been shocking.

(After a good night's... feasts could be.)

She snorted, knowing full well that anything could happen anywhere, at any time, especially in a castle like theirs. "I didn't appreciate him overriding my authority over one of my patients." She shot Albus a glare. Especially a patient she'd had to work so hard to save, due to the extreme level of exhaustion.

("And you have... as he spoke.)

"Ah, I was wondering when Hagrid would wander in." Minerva said with a small, amused smile. She knew how fond and protective of Harry Hagrid was. He was almost more defensive of Harry than he was of Albus.

In fact, she was very surprised Hagrid hadn't said or done anything yet to the aged Headmaster.

She didn't know that Hagrid was biding his time in a very rare move of cunning and patience.

(As usual when... burst into tears.)

Everyone who's spent longer than a few hours with Hagrid winced. They all knew how emotional he could get. "Oh, dear." Minerva murmured while Hagrid shifted.

The Dursley's gave him a strange look, very much put out by the huge, fierce man blubbering like a simpleton.

("It's- all- my... ter get past Fluffy!)

"Aw, Hagrid."

"You know he could have found out on his own."

"It was him who decided to go and make it complicated." The Twins reminded the half-giant, who nodded morosely. That may be true, but he was still the one to tell him, still the one to open up his mouth, again, and say something he shouldn't have.

(I told him! It... live as a Muggle!")

There were a few snickers at the mental image that presented, but everybody privately thought that Hagrid would never survive as a Muggle. Even if he couldn't use magic, he still lived in the magical world all his life with no contact with Muggles. Just look at how he behaved when he went to take Harry school shopping for the first time!

("Hagrid!" said Harry... into his beard.)

"I knew he was big-hearted and mostly gentle, but to see such a large man breaking down like that is rather... odd." Harry settled for. He felt like it was a massive understatement, but he also couldn't think of anything else to say about it.

Hagrid turned red under his beard, but smiled at what Hermione signed to him, and made his fingers sign it back. He hadn't needed to sign in almost a year now, he was a little rusty.

("Hagrid, he'd have... hadn't told him.")

Everyone who cared shot Hagrid a Look.

They didn't like it when he blamed himself for things that would have happened regardless.

("Yeh could've died!"... he stopped crying.)

"That's one way to do it." Neville snorted.

"Scare him into calming down?" Remus laughed, grinning. Harry nodded happily. That hadn't been the plan, but it worked.

"Huh." Hermione said, tilting her head to the side. "I think I like using the barrel better." She decided, making Ron and Harry roll their eyes while Hagrid turned even more red from the comments.

"The barrel?" Sirius asked, not sure if he wanted to know, but also having an idea.

"Yeah. The barrel of water Hagrid keeps by his door? It's really handy for getting him to sober up or calm down." The girl said, pleased with herself.

"Sober up?" Molly repeated, sounding dangerous. When was he drunk around students?

"It was only the once, and right after Buckbeak was declared dangerous and his execution announced." Hermione said calmly, shooting a glare at Draco, who shrank back.

("I've met him... I've got loads...")

"How many is 'loads'?" Arabella asked, curious.

"Um... five large boxes, which are twenty-five count each. Ten medium, which are fifteen, and a few small, which are five apiece." He included how many were in each box for Dudley's sake, since he wouldn't know the significance of the box sizes. "Plus a bunch of loose ones that didn't come in a box, somebody probably only had one or two left and decided to give them to me." Harry said, remembering back. He smirked at the dumbstruck looks on people's faces, and the glazed, dreamy eyed expression on Remus' face. "Like I said, I had roughly three-quarters of a candy store." He shrugged.

"I think there were two more large boxes worth of loose frogs." Ron chimed in, thinking back.

"He shared one of the large boxes with us in his dorm." Neville chimed in, smirking at the Twins expression. Clearly they wanted to know why they hadn't even known Harry had that much chocolate.

(Hagrid wiped his... yeh a present.")

"How did being offered a chocolate frog remind you that you got him something?" Ginny asked, tilting her head to the side.

"He was being given something?" Fred shrugged at his sister, who shrugged back.

("It's not a stoat... a weak chuckle.)

Everybody laughed, knowing how awful Hagrid's cooking was. Although, stoat sandwiches were one of his better cooking attempts.

"Hey, it got him to finish calming down." Harry shrugged.

("Nah. Dumbledore... sacked me instead-)

Albus sighed. He didn't know why Hagrid was always saying things like that. Every time something happened that wasn't good, and he had some kind of passing connection to, he was always saying that he should just be fired. Ok, Hagrid shouldn't have been talking about Fluffy in the bar, no matter what the other guy was offering, but the kids were right. It wasn't like Quirrell couldn't have looked Cerberus up to find out how to get past the animal.

"Hagrid." Minerva sighed. "You didn't do anything wrong, alright?" She fixed him with a hard stare, practically forcing him to accept what she was saying.

(anyway, got yeh this..."... mother and father.)

Sirius and Remus sucked in a breath. "That's what you wanted those pictures for." Remus murmured quietly to himself.

"Thank you, Hagrid." Sirius said quietly, holding his boys close. He'd seen the album the other day, when Harry took it out to show his younger self, it was clear that Harry looked at it a lot, even without taking into account that he'd been adding to it over the years with pictures of himself with his friends.

Hagrid waved off their gratitude. He was just glad Harry had liked it. He'd been worried before giving it to him if he even should, or if it might not have been too much for the boy.

("Sent owls off... d'yeh like it?")

"I loved it." Harry smiled softly at his large friend, who beamed back. He'd been pleased when he saw Harry with it a few times over the years.

Bill tilted his head to the side. "You know, Remus has already said that he's written, and sent presents. But what about the rest of James and Lily's school friends? If they were around to send pictures to Hagrid, then clearly they're alive and can answer an owl. Why haven't they tried to contact Harry? I don't think I've ever heard anything about them." He remembered a few people from when the couple were still alive, his mom had insisted on throwing Lily and Alice's baby showers (a joint one since those two seemed to do everything together, even get pregnant at the same time) and of course he was roped into helping, he remembered quite a few people being there.

Not one of them tried to stay in touch with or see the little boy that shower had been for?

Remus frowned and shifted uncomfortably. "Truthfully, I haven't seen any of them, either. After James and Lily died... it was like they all forgot about anything that had to do with them. After I got myself back together again, I sent owls asking if they wanted to meet or something, or if they'd seen Harry or anything, nobody would write back." Not even those survivors of the original Order. "I'm surprised they were willing to dig through their pictures." He rolled his eyes.

Sirius' expression darkened. Some friends they all turned out to be. None of them came forward to protest his going to Azkaban, despite the 'evidence', they should have known something was off. None of them were there for Remus. And now none of them were there for his pup? When he was cleared, they better stay away if they knew what was good for them.

(Harry couldn't speak... year in a row.)

Minerva scowled at the reminder of the winning streak, while Severus smirked at her. The smirk faded though, when he thought about what happened this year.

(A huge banner... the High Table.)

Charlie grimaced at the familiar picture that made. Somebody else other than Slytherin only won in his first three years there, after that it was always Slytherin.

(When Harry walked... loudly at once.)

"Which is very, very annoying." Harry said conversationally.

"Tell me about it." Ron grumbled. When Harry looked at him in surprise, he grimaced, but didn't say anything else. Harry's lips twitched into a grin before he turned away.

"It's like they think that if they talk loud enough, you will magically hear them and go to set the record straight." Hermione scowled.

(He slipped into... to look at him.)

"It's like I hadn't been there for them to stare at all year." Harry mock cheered.

"That is... disturbing. What were they waiting for? You to start doing tricks or something?" Sirius sneered, wanting all those kids to leave his godson alone and mind their own business. Harry looked green at the thought of that happening to him.

"Probably." Harry shrugged.

(Fortunately, Dumbledore... year it has been!)

"Tell me about it." Harry muttered.

"They don't even know the half of it." Hermione scoffed, rolling her eyes.

(Hopefully your... next year starts...)

The teachers gave him a dirty look for that comment, while Hermione looked horrified.

("Now, as I understand... and twelve points;)

Bill and Charlie winced at how badly they did. Even if they didn't win, Gryffindor was usually at least in the four hundreds, and they couldn't even remember the last time they came in last.

They didn't notice the strange expressions on everyone's faces who were there.

(in third, Hufflepuff... and seventy-two.")

"Congratulations." Moody grunted at his fellow Slytherins, who nodded in acknowledgement.

Fury was burning in their eyes, though, making him curious.

(A storm of... taken into account.")

Severus and Draco's faces turned stony. Moody's eye widened in shocked realization.

Sirius and Remus glanced at them, confused, before turning to Dumbledore with understanding in their eyes. "You didn't." Remus breathed.

"Of all the things to do." Sirius said, incredulous. Not even he and James would have ever gone so far as to rip one of the Slytherin's achievements away from them! They won the Cup, that was their win! It just meant Gryffindor would have to try harder next year. And now he was...

Harry looked at Sirius, a little surprised by his reaction to the cup being stolen from Slytherin like this.

"As this has not yet happened, I can not say either way what I have or have not done." Albus said serenely, although he already had a pretty good idea of what they were talking about.

(The room went... faded a little.)

"We had a feeling about what was coming next." Draco said, bitterly glaring at Dumbledore. The older students had warned the younger years that Albus Dumbledore, while not outright sabotaging their efforts at winning, was never exactly... pleased, to award them the cup. So for him to say that, with all the rumors going around the school about Potter and friends saving some ancient artifact from being stolen...

"I'm sorry." Harry said suddenly, looking straight at the three of them. "I got caught up in the moment at the time, but this... this was wrong." The others echoed him with their own apologies. Severus and Draco nodded in gratitude for the apology, while Draco looked between the two of them, confused.

("Ahem," said Dumbledore... Let me see. Yes...)

"Of all the dirty, rotten tricks." Remus stared at Dumbledore in disbelief, along with everybody else.

The Gryffindor's who were there looked at each other uneasily. They may have been caught in the moment and celebrating at the time, but... taking away their victory after already giving it to them?

They didn't earn it, and they knew it.

("First - to Mr... with a bad sunburn.)

"That's an interesting image." Everyone gave Harry a weird look for it.

"I don't think I want to know." Hermione muttered. Ron completely agreed.

"What are you getting points for? I mean, yeah, you went down and helped, but..." Arthur asked, confused.

("... for the best-played... house fifty points.")

Jaws dropped. "Fifty points for playing chess?" Molly asked faintly.

"Can he even do that? That has nothing to do with academics, or good behavior." Hermione looked around. "In fact, they shouldn't have even been down there in the first place!" She exclaimed.

"She has a point. He awarded them for breaking the rules, and being in a forbidden area." Pomona looked at her fellow Heads of House after a moment of silence, thinking about that.

"No wonder they thought themselves above the rules." Severus spat in disgust. If the Headmaster rewarded them like this everytime they were doing something they shouldn't have been... no wonder they thought they could do anything with impunity.

"That's actually a little more impressive now that I actually know what happened." Draco muttered to his godfather, who raised an eyebrow at him, but said nothing.

"This isn't right." Remus muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

(Gryffindor cheers nearly... giant chess set!")

Percy was pale. "I didn't know the full story." He shook his head. "If I had..." He trailed off and shook his head again.

(At last there was... house fifty points.")

"That is not worth that many points." Hermione whispered to herself, angry with not seeing what was going on at the time, if she had, she would have protested this.

(Hermione buried... burst into tears.)

Hermione turned red. "I did." She admitted. It was just too much after the week she'd had.

(Gryffindors up... house sixty points.")

"That's it?" Remus asked, confused. "That's all your going to say about what he did? About why those points are, unfairly, being awarded." At least he gave a solid reason for Ron, and sort of for Hermione. But that was all he was saying about Harry?

"You didn't get attacked before getting on the train, did you?" Sirius asked Harry, concerned. He knew what teenagers with a grudge were capable of, he was one of those usually carrying the grudge for some perceived wrong.

"Nobody got a chance to." He said quietly.

"Oh, I bet people were angry." Bill breathed, sitting back and shaking his head.

"We were." Draco said dryly. "So were the 'Puffs. They got knocked down to last." He added. He'd seen their faces. He knew. No House wanted to finish the year last, it more or less determined the students pecking order for the next year.

(The din was deafening... just one more point.)

Those who weren't there were confused, and a little surprised. There hadn't been a tie in centuries.

Somehow, they knew Dumbledore wasn't going to leave it at a tie.

"Who else is there to give points to, that were involved?" Molly asked in confusion. She couldn't believe this was happening right now, he was stealing the cup away from the children that earned it, while at the same time, rewarding three students for being where they shouldn't have been, and almost getting themselves killed.

She felt like she never knew Albus Dumbledore at all.

"Neville." Luna suddenly said, looking at Molly. "Neville is the only one left who was involved."

(Dumbledore raised... kinds of courage,")

"Indeed there are." Minerva said, taking a moment to smile proudly at her Lions, past and present. The rest of the school never understood that.

(said Dumbledore... Neville Longbottom.")

"That one was actually earned. He wasn't out-of-bounds, and he showed the core values of his House. That was earned, the other three, you rewarded for breaking every rule put in place to keep them safe, and almost getting themselves killed!" Molly yelled, glaring.

"Again, why weren't those points awarded in the three days Harry was unconscious? Or even the day he woke up, there would have still been plenty of time before the Feast, without getting the Snakes hopes up and then trampling all over them." Remus continued muttering to himself, disgusted with what was happening right now.

"We can tell who his favorites are." Arabella said with a grimace.

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked her.

"He gives the other three fifty, and sixty unearned points for such vague reasons, and the only one of the four of them who we could say actually earned those points, only got ten?" She pointed out.

Harry snorted. "Perks of being the precious savior." He laughed bitterly. Especially when Albus didn't even try denying anything she said.

(Someone standing... the Gryffindor table.)

"Thank goodness for silencing charms." Draco muttered. And for quick older students. Otherwise, he was fairly certain they would have all been deafened.

"That was loud." Pomona agreed with a grimace.

(Harry, Ron, and... Gryffindor before.)

"Not even in Herbology?" Sirius asked in surprise. He hadn't really spoken with the shy Gryffindor all that much, but even he knew that the boy enjoyed his plants, and was perhaps the best Herbology student in the school.

Neville turned red. "Well, I did get points in Herbology, but I never had a chance to answer questions, even if I did want to raise my hand, because Hermione is always there with her hand up, and she sometimes blurts out the answer before the Professor can call on another student. So... there's no point in trying to answer questions." He finished, not looking at Hermione, who was staring at him in horror.

Pomona sighed. "This is what I was talking about." She whispered to Hermione, who looked stricken that she was really doing that.

(Harry, still cheering... Curse put on him.)

Those who were celebrating looked even more ashamed of themselves now. "We're sorry." They apologized again.

Molly and Arthur were staring at Dumbledore in horror. How could he do something like that to those students?

("Which means," Dumbledore... change of decoration.")

Everyone could only sit there in shock.

"Harry was unconscious for three days. That's three days in which you could have announced the point change. Three days before announcing that Slytherin had already won, before you ripped that away from them!" Remus exclaimed. "As if their achievement in winning the House Cup meant nothing!"

"None of this has happened yet." He tried to defend himself.

"And it never will." Sirius snapped. No wonder the rivalry was so bad, if the Headmaster pulled stunts like this!

(He clapped his... forced smile.)

"Neither of us were any happier about it." Minerva gestured between herself and Severus. "In fact, neither of us had any idea he planned on doing that. If we had..." She took a deep breath.

"Do you have any idea how many heart-broken students I had to deal with that night?" Severus asked icily, glaring at the Headmaster, still angry over this whole thing, coupled with finding out that the old man trivialized everything Lily was. "A great deal of the younger students were crying all night long, unable to believe that somebody who seemed so kind, could be so cruel." His glare darkened, going from a level six, straight to a level ten death glare.

It was actions like this one, that pushed students towards the Dark Lord, believing him to be a much better option than Albus Dumbledore ever could be.

Dumbledore looked annoyed at the insinuation that he was cruel. He cared for all his students safety, but what was wrong with awarding those four for the good they had done, and the service Harry had done for both the school, and the British wizarding community as a whole? He'd stopped Tom's return! That deserved to be awarded.

(He caught Harry's... changed one jot.)

"If anything, they'd probably worsened with this little stunt of the Headmasters." Bill snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Hmm." Severus grunted.

(This didn't worry... was at Hogwarts.)

Fred snorted. "Normal?"

"Sounds boring!" George chimed in.

(It was the best... but come they did.)

"It's so easy to forget those." Ron shook his head.

"Well, we usually have other things to worry about." Hermione reasoned, to everybodies surprise.

"Like surviving?" Harry deadpanned.

"Like surviving." Hermione sighed. How did this become her life?

(To their great... with good marks;)

"Why was that such a surprise?" Filius asked, confused. After all, they had both done well. Ron's could have been better, of course, but they passed with fairly decent marks.

"I wasn't really paying too much attention to the exam... I was too busy waiting for Voldy to come through the door." Harry deadpanned.

"Oh, right. I suppose that would serve as a good distraction from the test." Filius grimaced.

"I wonder how we could do if we didn't have You-Know-Who to worry about." Ron mused, thoughtful. Harry shrugged while Hermione sighed.

(Hermione, of course... had passed, too.)

"Goyle is actually pretty smart. He just doesn't ever act like it." Draco informed the room. They could have some good conversations when it was a topic Goyle knew a lot about. Admittedly those topics weren't many, but still.

"Really?" Harry asked, surprised. After all, the other boy never did much more than grunt or crack his knuckles around them. Draco nodded.

(It was a shame... everything in life.)

"Sadly." Harry mumbled.

Then again, if you could have everything in life, he would have grown up with his parents, and Voldemort wouldn't try to kill him all the time.

(And suddenly, their... of the toilets;)

"That toad needs a tracker or something." Harry grumbled.

"No kidding." Ron agreed. Somehow it was always the four of them roped into helping Neville find him.

"He likes to explore." Luna said again, defending the toad.

(notes were handed... Fred Weasley sadly);)

Minerva snorted. "Sorry." She smirked.

"Not that that ever stops you." Molly muttered, remembering the many times she'd caught them using magic. Because there's was a magical household, the Ministry couldn't track them like they could Muggleborn.

"The reason for the restriction is not only because of Secrecy." Poppy rolled her eyes. "It's also so you can rest, you're still growing, too much magic usage for too long could disrupt your core." She reminded the room.

(Hagrid was there... King's Cross Station.)

"Wow. Did nothing happen during that trip?" Bill asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope. Malfoy hadn't started his yearly visits yet, so it was a quiet ride." Harry smiled. That was the last quiet train ride they had...

(It took quite... off the platform.)

"And that's with most families using a family Portkey, Flooing, or side-apparating." Arthur grimaced.

"It's usually just the Muggleborn leaving through the barrier to find their families." Sirius agreed. Because while Muggles could get on the platform, it was only when their magical child was with them to 'open' the gate for them. Otherwise, they couldn't get through. Just like they needed their magical child with them to see the Leaky Cauldron to get in Diagon Alley.

(A wizened old... send you an owl.")

Harry sighed. "Dobby." He muttered darkly.

"Sorry, mate. I should have known something was off and come sooner." Ron apologized.

Harry looked at him in surprise, having no idea what he was talking about. "You have nothing to be sorry for. Dobby was the one blocking my mail." Ron shrugged.

"Dobby?" Draco asked, really confused about what Dobby had to do with Potter.

"Yeah... it'll be in the next book, most likely." Harry rolled his eyes fondly.

("Thanks," said Harry... grinning at him.)

"Unfortunately." Harry muttered darkly. Even now, he was sure there were people who would love nothing more to meet the famous Boy-Who-Lived. They were certainly doing a good job of 'supporting' him from the safety of their homes, far away from any potential fights.

"I don't even know who was yelling at me." Harry shrugged after a moment. He hadn't recognized their voices, or seen their faces.

("Not where I'm... he is, look!")

"Ugh! Great, a fan." Charlie groaned, not noticing Ginny's eyebrows furrow in thought before she turned a bright red. Harry caught her eye and smirked.

"How much of these books are going to end up being Harry dealing with fangirls?" Bill wondered.

"It could be a younger sibling pointing out their older sibling through the crowd." Sirius pointed out. Harry coughed, letting him know that wasn't the case at all.

(It was Ginny... pointing at Ron.)

"Don't tell me..." Percy groaned and hid his face in his hands, utterly ashamed of the way his little sister was about to behave. He could blame it on her young age, but he also knew that it never really went away.

("Harry Potter!"... I can see-")

The Weasley boys stared at the book, blank faced, while Ginny turned bright red and hid her face.

Hermione winced. "I'm so glad she outgrew that." She muttered to Harry, who agreed wholeheartedly.

So was he.

("Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point.")

"It's also rude to stare and ogle somebody like they're a piece of meat." Harry muttered. "That doesn't seem to stop them."

(Mrs. Weasley smiled... year?" she said.)

"Just a bit." She answered her own question in a somewhat hysterical tone. She had never known any of that happened, how could she not have known any of that happened? She could understand how Ronald might not have wanted to tell her, afraid of getting in trouble at the very least, but Percy? The Twins?

Not one of them had said a word about anything happening that shouldn't have.

("Very," said Harry... Mrs. Weasley.")

"The fudge was delicious as always, and the sweater was warm." Harry grinned at her. It was too bad he'd outgrown the first ones by now (they'd actually fit him to grow out of!), but he still had them. He still had everything non-edible given to him by the Weasley's over the years.

She beamed back, thrilled that he enjoyed her cooking and baking.

("Oh, it was nothing, dear.")

"It really wasn't." She assured him. Even though she'd had to throw his together almost last minute, because of the poor timing for when Ron wrote her that letter. She spent all year making their Yule gifts, she'd just finished the last of her children's, at the beginning of December, when Ron wrote to her that he was concerned about Harry not expecting gifts of his own.

She'd been happy to do it, though, even though she felt that it wasn't as good as she could usually make them, she'd tried not to rush and make mistakes, but...

("Ready, are you?"... of ordinary people.)

"Actually, I bet it was more the fact that he'd had to come get me at all." Harry said thoughtfully.

Vernon turned a very ugly shade of purple, but Sirius and Remus shot him a glare, making him snap his mouth shut. They weren't in the mood to hear from him. Sadly, the next book was sure to start at the Dursley's house.

(Behind him stood... said Mrs. Weasley.)

At the surprised looks, she huffed. "I was just trying to be friendly." She grumbled. It wasn't like she'd known at the time about the way they treated him!

("In a manner of... He walked away.)

"Rude!" A few people called.

"I don't have to be polite to a bunch of freaks!" Vernon hissed, drawing glares and hisses from the wizards in the room. And if they'd known that Figg woman was one of them, they never would have taken her offer of babysitting the brat!

(Harry hung back... be so unpleasant.)

"I'd expected him to be pleased to see his nephew again after not seeing him for a year." Hermione shrugged. It was her experience that other children were usually the unpleasant ones, while adults usually tried to help.

"Despite what little he'd told us?" Ron asked, surprised.

She shrugged helplessly. So she'd been a little... naive. She liked to think that she'd outgrown that, thank you very much.

("Oh, I will," said... Dudley this summer...)

"It was fun, too." Harry smirked briefly. Dudley scowled at him while Petunia glared.

"Brilliant!" The Twins called, laughing, while the adults clicked their tongues disapprovingly, but supposed that it might offer him a measure of protection from them if they thought he could freely use magic.

"Wait... wouldn't mom have known about that?" Dudley asked suddenly. After all, wouldn't the rules have been the same when his Aunt Lily had been in school?

Harry looked at him in surprise before turning his shocked gaze to his aunt. "I...didn't even consider that. But then..." He muttered, while Petunia refused to make eye contact with anybody.

"I think that's the end of the chapter... no. That's the end of the book." Filius said after a few moments of silence, getting up to check on the book when it didn't keep reading.