"What have you done with Harry Potter?"
I laughed, loud, long and hard. The idea that I was worth replacing sickened me. I smirked, "if Tom knew about what I know, this would be a moot point."
Dumbledore still looked skeptical, I really couldn't blame him. I sat down, "I'll tell you what I know and why if you stop pointing that at me."
Dumbledore lowered his wand, not taking it off of me, but it was a start. "So, what do you know?"
I sighed and began at the beginning, telling him about the trial, his distancing himself from me, every detail save some personal ones. He listened quietly, and remained so afterwards. After a couple of minutes he said, "I understand now. How did you travel back in time, or did you live this in a dream?"
"I was on the way 'home' after all the events of the year, when I started wishing for a chance to fix things. I fell asleep and began dreaming a fox like creature was talking to me. Long story short, he offered to send me back in time up to a year in the past. I arrived back when I met Hermione, Ron and Ginny when I first came to Grimmauld Place."
"What happened to this creature?"
"Kyuubi, that's his name, has taken residence in my mind to protect it for outside assault."
"Who else have you told?"
"Sirius and Remus, and what I told them is between us." I stared at him, "Also, I'm not the frail child you think I am."
"I do not think of you as frail Harry."
I scoffed, "oh really? You told me that the reason you didn't make me a prefect was because you didn't want to add to my burden. That would mean that you believed I couldn't handle the stress, in other words frail."
Dumbledore began to try and placate me, "I would never say that you could not handle the burden, simply that I don't want to add to it."
"Isn't that a choice I should make? I understand if I'm not qualified, but I deserve to decide if I can handle the stress. You and Mrs. Weasley both are under the false assumption that I'm innocent and naïve. I'm not, I stopped being a child long before I ever came to Hogwarts."
Dumbledore hung his head in shame, "it was not my intention for you to grow up so quickly."
"I know for a fact that McGonagall warned you about the type of people my relatives were. Now you reap the whirlwind."
Dumbledore looked shocked, "I believe I told Minerva not to…"
"Tell me? She didn't, a side effect of having all my thoughts organized is that I can remember things that are usually forgotten. The bonus is that I can remember my life with my parents."
Dumbledore nodded and remained silent. I could tell he was trying to get the high ground back, but I have no intention of letting him. I smiled slightly and said, "I've already started to change things so I hope you don't intend to tell me not to make things better for myself."
Sighing heavily, Dumbledore nodded, "yes it is already to late to change your mind. I must insist that you agree to train your Occlumency skills with Professor Snape, in exchange I will keep my interference in your plans to a minimum."
'That's not much of a deal,' I thought to myself.
'Let him believe that you are weak to his deal, I can make sure this Snape is incapable to break in.'
'Better yet, can you create false memories?'
Kyuubi scoffed, 'of course.'
"It's a deal Professor." Dumbledore nodded and seemed satisfied with my concession. He would probably use it to get an advantage over me, conniving bastard.
We agreed to keep the mass majority to ourselves, which I intend to ignore as I knew he would. He dropped the privacy barrier and left without another word. Smirking to myself, I made my way to my next confrontation, Hermione. Sure Ron, Ginny and whoever else that were out of the loop would be there, but Hermione was the one I was most worried about. I wanted to tell her everything, as I always felt bad when I withheld anything from her, but I would have to wait until I could speak to her alone.
'You fancy her.'
'Shut up, you know nothing.'
'Tell me, how much merit do you give her opinion?"
'I trust it completely.'
'Even when you disagree?'
'Yes.'
'You fancy her, she would be an excellent ally.'
I sighed, he was right, I did have a small crush on her, but she would never feel that way about me.
'You don't know until you ask.'
Opening the door to my next battle, I was surprised to only find Ron and Hermione there. "I expect Fred and George are listening at the door?" They shook their heads.
"They promised not to," Hermione said.
"As much as that's worth," added Ron.
"Then I know they aren't," I finished. "I know those two listened when I was talking to you before I spoke to the headmaster, they understand better than most about the value of secrets."
"What makes you so sure," asked Ron.
"They're pranksters, the only way a prank can work is to keep the knowledge of it out of the hands of those who could or would stop it." From Ron's blank look, I could tell he didn't get it. Hermione on the other hand did. I sat next Hermione, and I noted that she smelled like soap and books.
"So what did Dumbledore have to say?"
"He wanted to make sure I understood what was going on. I wasn't told anything major, just a few things. He also wanted to know more about the dementors that attacked. He said something about using some resources to check into it."
Ron's eyes narrowed, "that's all? You were down there a long time."
I sighed, "Dumbledore wants me to take Occlumency lessons from Snape."
Hermione sat up, "Occlumency? Why on earth would you need Occlumency?"
I looked at her, "because Voldemort has a bad habit of coming after me and he's good at Legilimency."
Ron looked stumped, "what are you talking about?"
After a quick explanation from Hermione, he said, "and they want you to take it with Snape? That just seems wrong."
I nodded, "most likely he'll use it as an excuse to violate my mind."
Hermione looked affronted, "he wouldn't."
"He used Veritaserum on me last year," I replied. I waved my hand, "on a lighter note, Dumbledore hinted someone in this house might become a prefect."
Hermione looked thoughtful, "I wonder who?"
"Most likely you. After all you are the brightest witch of our year," Ron replied.
We spent some time speculating on who could it be, although I knew at least Hermione would be one.
Time flew by, soon enough me and Ron were downstairs playing chess. With Kyuubi's help, I actually had a chance to win. About two moves from Ron's surrender, two owls flew in the window and landed knocking over the chess pieces.
Everyone laughed at Ron's relief at not having been beaten. I grabbed the letter closest to me and started to open it. Figures he would-
"Hey mate that ones mine." Looking down I realized it was. Handing Ron his and receiving mine, I felt the extra weight in it. I felt my heart start pounding.
Inside was the standard letter that told us that we needed the grade 5 book of spells and Defensive Theory. I pulled out two more letters. One was from Dumbledore.
Dear Harry,
I took our conversation to heart, I will give you the choice. Here you go.
DumbledoreI up ended the envelope to find the prefect badge in my hand. At that point everyone who could see it fell silent. We all kind of sat there in stupor, in everyone's, including mine, it was pure shock that I had been given it.
Hermione came tearing in talking about how she had gotten to be prefect. She noticed that Ron, Fred George, and I was staring at the badge in my hand. Suddenly I felt something hit me hard enough to knock me out of my chair. "You did it Harry! You're a Prefect with me!"
I caught sight of Fred, he was struggling not to laugh. Both he and George ran out of the room before they could explode. I noticed Ron was staring at me as well. He seemed put out that I got it I suppose.
'You should get her off of you.'
'Why?'
'Because you have gained some of my traits. Which means you might start reacting to a female in such close proximity.' I could hear him chuckling.
"Hermione, not that I mind, but people will start talking if you don't get off me soon." This snapped her out of it, or maybe it was when Ron started howling with laughter. Hermione realized her position and quickly got up, her face redder than Ron's hair. Fred and George walked in with a camera.
"Oh we wanted to catch the two new prefects sharing such a important moment," George said sniffing theatrically.
"Oh yes," chimed in Fred, "please go back to what you were doing."
I rolled my eyes, "tough luck," I said with a smirk. Hermione was still blushing bright red. After awhile, we all sat down to lunch and began talking about what we would be doing this year. I was talking to Fred and George and the topic came to quidditch.
"We need to replace a keeper," George said.
"What you need to do is plan for when most of the team leaves in a couple of years," was my reply.
Fred looked at me oddly, "why plan so far ahead Harry?"
I looked sadly at them, "because I don't want to play anymore."
The shout they let out brought everyone's attention. After hearing why they yelled, a lot of people were trying to figure out why. I explained simply, "there are things I want to do, and I don't see myself playing Quidditch after school." Remus and Sirius looked at me sadly, they knew a lot of the things that were coming.
After fending off more questions about my leaving the team, I said, "my mind is made up. I will not be playing and you can't convince me otherwise." After I left I went to the study and sat there with my head in my hands.
"Harry," came Hermione's voice quietly. It amazes me how she can ask so many questions with one word.
"Come in Hermione."
I listened as she sat down, I knew she wanted to ask me why I had quit but didn't want to offend me.
"I'm sorry Hermione."
I could tell she was surprised as I had yet to look at her. "Sorry for what Harry?"
"For telling Hedwig to peck you."
"I thought you weren't sorry for that."
I smiled, "I wasn't sorry to Ron because he decided to complain. You didn't."
"I wanted to."
"I know." I looked at her. It suddenly hit me how pretty she was. I remember telling her I didn't think she was ugly, but I was being me at the time. I could see that she was uncomfortable with my staring so I looked away, I didn't want to but I did.
"Harry, why are you quitting quidditch? I thought you enjoyed it."
I smiled at her. Was she always this way? Why did I have to come back to realize it? "There are more important things."
She smirked, "I thought you and Ron thought quidditch was important."
I nodded, "it's one of those things that changed this summer." I hate this, I wish I could just tell her the truth.
"So what replace quidditch as important?"
I really wanted to say her, but for some reason it just felt corny. So I went even cornier. "There's this girl that has suddenly caught my attention. I don't know if she finds me attractive or not."
She seemed confused. "What girl wouldn't want to go out with Harry Potter?"
I frowned, I hoped she hadn't said that. "I'm sure plenty of girls would love to have a date with the boy-who-lived. That doesn't help me any though."
She nodded. "Because they only see the fame."
I looked into her eyes, "Hermione, when you first met me, what did you think?"
She shrugged, "you didn't match up to the heroic image I thought you would be. I was surprised when you told me who you were. I thought that it couldn't be, this is the savior of the wizard world and here he is dressed in clothes too big for him."
I nodded indicating to continue.
"I watched you from afar, and I admit I was smitten with your fame. But after the incident with the troll, I realized that you were far greater than the image that was made for you. The more I learned about you, the more I realized that you weren't the same type of person I thought you would be. You were something much greater."
I smiled, "you had a crush on me? I'm flattered that you held me in such a good light."
She rolled her eyes, "I was eleven and I was amazed."
"Darn, I missed my chance."
"What chance," she asked quietly. I could hear her heart rate go up.
I waved my hand, dismissing it. "Doesn't matter, I can't change things." I watched her very closely. Why did it suddenly matter what she thought of me? What was going on?
I heard a knock at the door. "Cub, you ready to start again?"
I looked at Hermione and I almost said no. Hermione said goodbye and left though. Remus walked in, looked at me and looked at the retreating form of Hermione and asked, "did you two fight?"
I shook my head, "no, but I think I embarrassed her."
He cocked his head, "how so?" I explained the conversation we had, while being thankful it was Remus not Sirius. After I finished he looked thoughtful for awhile. "When I ask you to describe her, tell me what you first think of her."
"Brave, caring, intelligent, a joy to be around, trustworthy," I said before he cut me off.
"Do you find her attractive?"
I shrugged, "not the last time, why?"
Remus shook his head, "I don't know. It could be the events you witnessed put everything in a different perspective, or it could be the fox that changed your view."
'Is that true,' I thought at him.
'I don't think so. I could be altering the way your body responds, but I doubt I could change your mind's perspective already,' was his reply.
'So what caused the change?'I could feel him shrug. 'I don't think anything. You can't see the hidden mind that all creatures have. I will show you what I saw later.'
I turned back to Remus, should we get back to studying now?" He nodded, obviously surprised that I was tabling the topic.
After a few hours, Hermione came and asked us what we were spending so much time on. Remus looked at me, obviously not sure what she knew. "We're studying Hermione. Remus is helping me to reach your level of skill." I could tell I flattered her. I was definitely going to have to talk to him about this.
"Could I join you," came a surprisingly timid request from Hermione. I nodded, mostly because I had never heard her sound timid about a lesson before.
The rest of the holidays were spent with Hermione and me studying under Remus and Sirius. Ron was annoyed that I spent all my time studying, but got over it. The day before we were supposed to leave I took Sirius aside.
"Padfoot, do you have a way I can get in contact with you other than an owl?" Sirius looked at me for a moment before retrieving the mirror.
"Just call my name into this, I'll have the other half with me." I nodded and packed it away. Tomorrow we would be going to Hogwarts, and all the problems it holds.
A/n: Sorry for the delay, I scraped a part of this chap because it was overly fluffy. Thank you for the reviews! My beta's not available right now, when they are I will post this.
Questions:
Ebony River: I can't make all the changes at once.
Ricardo: Some of Kyuubi's powers are transferred. How much? You'll see.Snape won't appear for a few chaps. The fight with Dumbledore isn't over yet.