Sirius and Mrs Weasley were fighting. This was oddly reassuring. It helped Harry feel as though nothing had changed that much.

Suddenly, Harry heard his name.

"Harry!" Sirius was calling, "Come to the kitchen."

Harry's breath caught in his throat. He knew logically that Sirius wouldn't hurt him, but that tone of voice sent something in him spiralling a little.

He tried to block it out, and just went to the kitchen.

Mrs Weasley looked furious, a fire of life, she seemed to try to pull herself together, "Harry dear, do you understand why we can't tell you about what Dumbledore told us today."

Harry understood why. He knew that probably, he would be happier if he didn't know, nothing weighing on him.

Instead he spat out, "Because you can't see that I've done more growing than half the people in your group of 'adults'."

Mrs Weasley tried to remain calm, "We don't want to hurt you anymore that you've already been hurt."

"I've already been hurt. You said it. Isn't it better that you foster my deep hatred of Voldemort so I can do your "adult" job for you and kill the mass murderer?"

Sirius looked worried, "No, that's not why we want to tell you. But you deserve to have all the information. We can't protect you from the horrors of the world only to dump you into the flames. You have to make the decision."

Harry growled, "What, by filling me up with horror stories until I feel morally obligated to save the world?"

And then,vfear flooded his body. Not because he didn't believe what he had said, but because the two adults looked furious, and Mrs Weasley's hand had clenched. So his hand flung to his mouth, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm So-"

He fell to the floor regret filling his body. Oh god, what has he said, oh god, oh god, and then-

Sirius' hand held Harry's gently, "You don't have to save the world Prongslet. You can make the choice to destroy a man for the people you love, for your life to be your own, but you don't have to fix the world."

Harry looked up, gazing vaguely in his direction, eyes blurry, "And who else is going to?"

Harry sat there for a while clenching Sirius' hand. Then he stood up, eyes clear, legs still trembling, "Tell me what happened."

Mrs Weasley said, "No."

Sirius looked at him in the eye, "He flayed two muggle children, put their skin in their school, hung it on display."

Harry choked, then he breathed, he said, "Oh. You know, this is totally manipulating me."

And then he left.

He left with magic swirling around him, ready to burst, with his breaths shallow. Mrs Weasley started dinner, Sirius looked at the dark blue that coated the room, that leaked out of his godson, and he ran after Harry.

He got to him when Harry was almost at his bedroom, "Your magic's changed, it's dark blue now." Sirius breathed out, "Magic isn't supposed to change like that, but your seems more real somehow."

Harry looked back, alarm flickering in his gaze, "Fuck!"

Sirius didn't seem to understand, "What? I thought you said you were fine with dark magic."

Harry leaned forward, unstable, back and forth, bath and forth, his magic was still wild, "I said I am."

Sirius winced, "Ron."

Harry nodded,"How did this even happen?"

Sirius sifted through knowledge, "You could have had something cloaking your magic, or something was infecting you."

Confusion cloaked Harry's horror, "But wouldn't that dark magic just make my magic darker, not lighter."

Sirius groaned, "You really need to go to that orientation. Prongslet, that kind of spell isn't exclusively dark, and even if it was dark, most dark magicians make sure their magic doesn't look or feel too dark."

That didn't exactly answer Harry's question, Voldemort wasn't doing anything conscious when he put part of his soul into Harry's forehead.

Anyway, Sirius was just looking a bit worried.

"Look, why don't we go ask McGonagall about that orientation."

Harry winced and said, "Great. I'm going to be in a class with first years. Joy."

"I think they'll probably set you up for private lessons."

Sirius gave Harry a quick hug before running off, calling, "I'm gonna go get an owl."

Harry sat there alone for a few minutes, then he wandered back into the kitchen. As he got closer, he heard two voices nagging Mrs Weasley.

"Come on, can we go to Diagon?"

"We got our Hogwarts letter."

He giggled at the sight of Ron and Hermione, dragging attention to him.

PRon looked desperately at Harry, "Come back us up here, we're 15."

Harry smothered a laugh, "Yeah, can we?"

Mrs Weasley looked like someone had pulled out her soul, "We're going as a group."

Harry wasn't sure what had sparked this, but he honestly didn't care that much. He was just looking at his friends, not hurt by the world, eyes sparkling.

Mrs Weasley left the room.

Ron looked at the two of them, "We're going anyway right."

Hermione didn't seem sure until she looked at Harry's face, brightened for what seemed like the first time since he had arrived at Grimmauld place, and she grudgingly said, "Fine, let's go. The floo powder should be on the mantle."

Ron grinned, "Harry, don't say Knockturn Alley again."

"Let that go! I don't know how it happened anyway, Knockturn sounds nothing like Diagon."

Hermione snickered as they ran to the fireplace. They threw floo powder in. Harry choked. He appeared in Borgin and Burkes.

Fuck.