Chapter 7 "fragments"
by Lia Tween

Remus licked his lower lip as he stared at the mess on the floor. He flicked his wand at the glass shards, and they didn't budge. He frowned slightly, tapping his wand. He picked up a bowl off the ledge and threw it at the ground. It smashed with a resounding clatter. He flicked his wand at it, and the pieces flew up into the wastebasket. He frowned. Well, he'd just have to clean up the old fashioned way.

He conjured up a bucket and soapy water with a few sponges. A little elbow grease never hurt. He began scrubbing up the blood that had spattered on the floor. As he scrubbed, he brushed the larger pieces of glass out of the way, to be swept up later. As he moved a large one aside, he noticed it was an odd color. He picked it up and nearly dropped it in surprise. It was like that muggle contraption. The telly. A moving picture flowed across the glass.

"No! Don't!" Harry cried. He must have been about 12. "please." He begged, cowering on the floor as a man towered over him, fist raised menacingly.

The scene replayed itself over and over again, and Remus gingerly set it back down and picked up another.

"Hey Snivilus! What's cracking'?" Sirius called joyfully, followed by the Mauderers. "Shut up, pretty boy." Snape snapped, shutting his book quickly. "What are you reading? Another book on how to blow everyone to pieces?" "I'd like to blow you to pieces, you stupid jerk." Snape muttered, turning around.

Remus picked up another, determined to see every one.

"Please Aunt Petunia, I've been in here for over a week, I need to eat. I can't live on water for more than 10 days, you now that!" "Don't give me ideas, boy." "Come on Aunt Petunia, I know you don't like washing the dishes yourself. Let me out."

Harry acted like he was begging for an ice cream or a new toy. Remus realized that this must have been normal procedure to him; he probably didn't know how awful it was. He looked older in that one; it was recent.

"Severus, come in here." Snape stood meekly at the door, a scrawny, ugly child of 10. "Yes Father?" "I want you to try out a new hex today." "Why don't I ever get to learn potions? Or at least Counter-Curses! I'm good at counter curses!" His Father let out an evil laugh. "You'd better be good at Counter-Curses…you refuse to learn any hexes…when it comes to a duel you'll be doing all defense." "I learn what you make me learn." Snape said through clenched teeth. "Then come learn. NOW!" the boy flinched at the violent temper.

"Oh no." Remus whispered. "Oh, this is bad. SEVERUS!" he bellowed. There was no answer. "Oh this is very, very bad." He stood up. "House elf! Oh, I don't know your bloody name. House elf!" He called, and a green head poked around the corner. "Can I be helping you sir?"

Remus nodded. "Please, put all the glass shards in a pile and leave them there, and clean up the blood stains please. Can you tell me where Severus has gone?" He asked the creature.

"He is gone to the lab room with the potions. I is not allowed in there, I isn't. It's below the kitchen." Remus rushed off.

He arrived in the lab entrance, panting. "Severus, you have to see this. It's bad. Oh this is horrible."

Snape looked up from his work. "You'll have to wait Remus. I have to get the boy stabilized."

Harry lay on the table, eyes open but unseeing. "He's not doing well. He seems terrorized and so full of pain. I don't really understand…" Severus mused.

"If you would LISTEN you would understand more. Can you leave him for a few minutes without him getting worse?"

Snape sighed heavily. "Very well." He bustled off after Remus.

Harry's mind was racing, frantically trying to make sense of all the new information. Two parents who smiled. Two parents who hate me. They don't want me. Mother died. Then both smiley parents died. Green light. Left with Father. Left with Aunt and Uncle too. Aunt and Uncle hate me they lock me up and starve me and hit me. Father hits me too, but he makes me practice bad things. I hate when he makes me learn bad spells. I want to learn how to defend myself, or make potions to make all the hurt go away. Then letter comes. I'm happy to be away from my houses. I make two new friends. Ron and Hermione. They're nice. But James and Sirius and Peter and Remus are bad. They're bad to me. I hate them so much. And I hate me because I'm like James. And I like looking at Dark Curses to get back at my Father. Bad father. I'm joining with Voldemort. But I have to kill Voldemort. I'm so glad Sirius is dead because he was bad to me. But I'm sad for him.

Pain. Lots of pain. Harry opened his eyes. It was nice and dark in the room, but he was kind of cold. His brain registered that he recognized everything in the room, even though it wasn't his. He racked his brain, trying to remember why he was in Snape's lab. Or even how he knew it was his, er SNAPE's, lab.

Suddenly, it seemed like he was hit by a truck. With a cry of anguish, he curled up in a ball; hit was a load of self loathing, hurt and anger that was so foreign to him.

"Look at these. The pieces from the pensieve show you what he put in there, and what YOU put in there. We can see what is going through his mind right now. All this is now in him."

Snape sat down and studied several pieces of glass. "What about the glass from the mirror?" he asked no one in particular.

"It appears that they have morphed into pensieve glass. That's why it got all liquidly."

"What are you talking about?" Snape snapped.

"You didn't hear Harry muttering when we entered the room? He was saying something about the puddle in the mirror. The pensieve spilled on the mirror, creating a world where all the memories, you're and his, were real. If he had gone through the mirror he would have been stuck there forever to suffer."

"Surely he has SOME happy memories!" Snape objected.

"Anything happy was taken away from him Severus. But even though the glass shattered before he could enter the mirror land, his head went through, giving him many of the memories there. Plus the pieces that entered his brain gave him some as well. So now instead of having memories in the mirror land, he has them here. You see Severus, now everything that you felt, he feels. Your past is now his past. So he has an abusive aunt and uncle as well as a controlling father who thought about nothing but himself. And now, because you hate James and Sirius and I, he hates us, but he knows that he cares for us, so he's going to be confused. And because you hate him, he will hate himself, and that's a lot of turmoil for one little boy."

Snape glared angrily at Remus. "You act like this is my fault! I can't help it that the stupid boy was so foolish!"

Remus shook his head. "That's the attitude that got Harry in this mess in the first place. We need to help him. Because you've unintentionally turned him against me…Severus…you is the only one who can help him distinguish his own memories."

Severus shook his head. "I don't know if I can."

They froze, both noticing the object on the floor at the exact same time. The object that had caused Harry to trip.