A/N: Okay, the next chapter is up! Just to let you all know, there are nine chapters total to this story, and there is, as I mentioned, a sequel as well. So for all of you that like this story, you've still got quite a ways to go.

Disclaimer: I do own copies of the Harry Potter books, but I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books. Quite depressing, really...

Chapter 2

Harry looked up to see Ron and Hermione standing in his doorway, both of their eyes shocked, Hermione's mouth still open from the last words that she had tried to say. Harry's eyes were also wide. He could only imagine what he looked like; his eyes were full of tears that were falling down his cheeks with sweat; red smears on his forehead; his shoulder still damp, but yet hard from the dried blood on it; his robes red and drooping with the liquid; and his wrists – his wrists he knew were what were the worst.

He looked down at them himself, trying not to make eye contact with the two, and saw the deep gash that he had made there. Blood was still pouring from the cut, making his clothes and the floor continually more wet. The blood had turned from a bright red to a darker maroon, and he was feeling slightly light-headed.

He looked back up at Ron and Hermione, and all of his memories started flooding back, as quickly and as smoothly as the blood flowing from his wrist. He wanted to cut himself again, to forget, but the looks Ron and Hermione were giving him now made him reconsider. He was just staring up at them, waiting for them to do something. Apparently, they were waiting for the same thing from him.

Harry heard sudden, quick footsteps pounding up the stairs behind them, and soon saw Lupin and Snape standing there. They walked in the room, and Lupin was about to say something, when he spotted Harry. His eyes grew as round as Ron and Hermione's, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Snape seemed to do the same thing.

Harry couldn't stand to meet any of their gazes, so he just looked down at the glass in his hand. This didn't help, however, as the need to cut himself just grew more with every glare the mirror gave off in the light. Lupin must have sensed this, for he finally spoke up, although he wasn't at all comforting.

"What in Merlin's name do you think you're doing, Harry?" he said, his voice breaking, though still very stern. His eyes had almost a pleading look to them, and Harry felt a pang of guilt. He had never seen Lupin loose his composure like this before; he had always been calm, even after Sirius' death. Harry didn't know what to say to him, so he just diverted his gaze back to his wrists again. This wasn't good enough for Lupin, however.

"Harry James Potter, look at me when I'm talking to you!" he yelled, and Harry instantly looked up. No one ever used his full name, and when Lupin said it, he felt slightly scared. Lupin almost glared at him.

"What in Merlin's name were you doing?" he asked again. "Do you have any idea what it is you're really doing to yourself?"

Looking back down at his hands, Harry nodded. He heard his friends gasp, and heard the faint sound of Hermione's hand cupping over her mouth.

"You know what it is you're doing?" Lupin asked him, the worry still etched into his voice. Again, Harry just nodded. The mirror was looking ever more pleasing, and it was taking all of his self-control to restrain himself from cutting his wrist again.

"Harry, why?" came Hermione's shaking voice from the door. Harry reluctantly looked up at her, and said, "Because."

"Because why, Harry?" Lupin asked him. Harry looked down at his hands again.

"Because, that's why," he told them all.

"Potter, don't be so arrogant," Snape suddenly spat. Harry looked up at him with more hatred than before, and he felt like he wanted to take the blade in his hand and chuck it at Snape's pale, greasy face.

"Shut up!" he told Snape, and everyone in the room gasped. "I've had enough of your shit, and I don't need anymore of it - especially not now!"

As he finished his sentence, he looked back at his hands for what seemed like the thousandth time, and tears suddenly started to pour from his eyes again. They were like rushing waterfalls that were quickly cascading over his cheeks.

Although he wasn't looking at them, he could feel everyone's eyes on him, and since they weren't doing anything to help him, he raised the shard in his hand again and violently swiped it across his wrist, almost feeling the bone beneath it.

Hermione screamed – Ron yelled – Snape gasped in shock – and Lupin ran forward and seized the small blade out of Harry's hands. Harry struggled to get it back.

"Give me it!" he screamed, reaching for the glittering object that Lupin was holding back from him.

"No!" Lupin yelled, and he flung it to the other side of the room. Harry made to get up and scramble after it, but Lupin grabbed him around the waist and held him back

"Let go of me!" Harry yelled, trying to break free of his hold. Lupin just held tighter. Harry thrashed around in his arms, until a sudden feeling of déjà vu came over him. He was suddenly reminded of that night in the Department of Mysteries, when Sirius had gone through the veil and Lupin had restrained him.

Harry softly slumped to the ground, still in Lupin's arms, and started to sob uncontrollably again. Lupin's strong hold became a soft embrace, and Harry just leaned into him, his dead weight pressed against Lupin's chest, his hands clinging to his old robes.

His wrist stung, and blood was still pouring freely from it. The thick, crimson liquid was seeping through his already wet robes, and was making its way to Lupin's tattered ones, staining them with the deep, rich color. Lupin placed his cheek gently on Harry's head, rubbing his back with his hands. A soft drop of water found its way through Harry's hair to his scalp, and he knew that Lupin was gently crying as well.

Harry heard a loud sob that wasn't his own, and then felt another pair of arms around his shaking body. He opened his eyes just a small bit, and saw Hermione's tear-struck face, her arms around him. He also saw Ron sitting next to him on the floor, his face as red as his hair, and his right hand gently resting on Harry's arm. Then Harry looked up at Snape, who was still standing in the same place that he had been when Harry had yelled at him.

He was looking down at Harry in complete shock; Harry wouldn't have been surprised if he had been petrified. His sallow skin had gone from its normal milky white to almost a deathly white. However, as soon as he saw that Harry was looking at him, he quickly glared again, and turned to leave the room. He clearly wasn't comfortable staying with Harry in a state like this, especially with three people hugging him.

"I'm going to go get Dumbledore," Snape muttered softly, to which Harry suddenly sat up bolt right, knocking Lupin's face off of his head and startling both Hermione and Ron.

"Ouch! Harry, what are you doing?" Lupin asked him, rubbing his chin where Harry had hit him. But Harry wasn't listening. He was staring at Snape, who had stopped in the doorway and was facing him, clearly waiting to see why he had made the sudden movement

"D-Dumbledore?" Harry stuttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes, Potter, Dumbledore," Snape said softly, his voice still a little menacing.

Harry just continued staring up at him, his eyes wide. "But, why? Why do you need to get him?" Harry asked him, his voice still barely above a whisper.

"Well, you'll obviously need to be healed from these – err, cuts," he said, emphasizing the cut part. "And he'll also need to be informed of this."

"No!" Harry said, his voice suddenly quite loud compared to the volume it had been before.

Snape looked at him with his eyebrows lowered. "What do you mean no, Potter? Of course he'll have to see you! Precious little Potter is in a delicate condition, and he'll want to know about it."

Suddenly, Harry was on his feet again, and he had his wand out in front of him, pointing at Snape, who looked surprised and a little alarmed. You didn't want to have someone like The-Boy-Who-Lived, who had faced the Dark Lord on five different occasions, and lived each time, pointing his wand at you – especially if he was capable of using the Cruciatus Curse.

Harry was staring daggers at Snape, and he was overwhelmed with such hatred toward him at the moment that he thought that, if he had tried it, he could have used the Killing Curse on Snape, and the Potion's Master would have been laying dead on the floor.

"Don't you make fun of me ever again!" he shouted at him, and Snape actually backed up a few steps. "I've had to live with five years of your shit, and up until now, I've taken it with few remarks to you. But now, you've gone too far!"

Snape, for the first time in Harry's life, actually looked quite alarmed. This made Harry feel slightly bolder, and he pressed on.

"Do you have any idea what I've been going through?" he asked Snape. "Do you?" When Snape refused to answer the question, Harry continued and answered it himself.

"Well, since you obviously don't, let me tell you," he said, his voice low and menacing, just like Snape's usually was, his eyes alight with malice. He began his story.

"Ever since I was one year old, I've always had a shitty life," he said. "My parents died when I was a year old, forcing me to live with my poor excuses for relatives, who made me cook and clean, and sleep in a cupboard for the first eleven years of my life. Then, I got accepted to Hogwarts. I thought that my life would be wonderful now, but it was far from that. In my first year, I faced Voldemort alone and had to keep him from getting the Sorcerer's Stone. In my second year, I not only had to face him again, but I also found out that I was a Parseltounge and had to live with the whole school hating me for the year." He paused to take a breath here before plowing on.

"In my third year, a murderer was supposedly after me, so I was forbidden to do almost everything – even go into Hogsmeade. I also had to face the Dementors, which tormented me horribly, because guess what? Every time I heard them, I heard Voldemort murdering my parents. I could here my mum screaming, pleading with him to let me live, my father telling her to run while Voldemort killed him. And I could hear Voldemort laughing."

Harry heard a soft noise behind him, and knew that it was Lupin, who had heard this before. However, Harry hadn't gone into as much detail then, and he didn't think that it was very pleasing for him to hear this. However, he knew he had to continue, so he did.

"Then, at the end of the year, I found out that this man who was trying to kill me was my godfather, and that he really wasn't the bad guy after all – it was really one of my parents other best friends. So I was offered the chance to live with my godfather. However, that was taken away from me, and I had to go back and live with the Dursley's that summer."

"Then the following year, I was entered into the Triwizard Tournament against my will, and had to go through all of that, as well as having the whole school hate me again. And then at the end of the year, I saw Cedric die, and Voldemort return."

Tears were now starting to pour down his cheeks again at the memory of Cedric, and Harry was having difficulty speaking. Snape was still looking at him with a bit of alarm in his face.

"And if that wasn't bad enough, the summer after I had dreams where I would see Cedric dying over and over again, and I couldn't do anything to stop it. Plus, I had a friendly visit from a few of my Dementor friends, who almost killed both myself and my cousin, and who almost got me expelled from Hogwarts. And even after school started, things still didn't get better. I was banned from Quidditch, I was entering Voldemort's mind as well as having him enter mine, I had almost the whole school scared of me again, and I had to go to detentions with Umbridge where my hand was cut open every single night."

"Your hand was what?" Lupin asked suddenly, and Harry remembered that the only people who knew this were Ron and Hermione. But, Harry just held up a hand to silence him and went on. He knew he had said the majority of this to Ron and Hermione last year, but he wanted Snape to know exactly how much hell his life was made of.

"Yes, I had my hand cut open every detention. Anyway, at the end of the year, to top everything off, Sirius was taken from me, and I couldn't even perform a decent Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix."

Here, Ron, Hermione and Lupin gasped while more tears spilled over Harry's eyelids – Dumbledore, Bellatrix ,Voldemort, and Snape as of a few hours ago, were the only ones who knew about him performing the pain inflicting curse.

"Oh, and I was possessed by Voldemort, and ever since that night, I've been having dreams about Sirius falling through the veil over and over again. Not to mention the fact that I now know that there is a Prophecy about myself and Voldemort, that states one of us will either kill or be killed by the other. So, as you can see, 'Perfect Potter's' life isn't so perfect after all. In fact, it sucks, and I'd give anything to trade it in for a new one. And you're shit that you always give me never helps any of this – it just makes it worse! And this time, you went too far with it!"

Snape looked very shocked and alarmed with all of the information that he had just heard, especially the last part of it. He looked absolutely frightened then when Harry steadied his wand and glared at him, and his mouth opened and he yelled, "Crucio!"

Snape winced, and opened his mouth to scream. But before anything could come out, he heard someone else's screams, and he realized that he didn't feel any pain. Then he heard Hermione scream Harry's name, and he opened his eyes. There on the ground, was Harry, writhing in pain, feeling the full affects of the Cruciatus Curse that he had just used on himself.

A/N2: Harry, Harry, Harry... you'll never learn, will you? lol. Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it! Please review this chapter, and thanks to those of you who reviewed the first one: FroBoy, yellowpages, aieltinker, Heathz, and Malfoy vs Potter. You all rock my face off! Major kudos to you!

Best,
SiriusBlack4Ever