Chapter 2

Slowly and surely Remus climbed the stairs. Unfortunately his mind was racing, full of questions and worries. Sure he had been a teacher, but never had he dealt with anything like this. 'What would James do?' He followed that train of thought until the door jumped in front of him. 'Here goes nothing.'

Knock, knock. Remus heard a disgruntled groan from the other side of the door.

"Harry, can I come in?"

"Go ahead. No one else seems to care that I want to be alone, so why should you."

Remus opened the door. "It's not healthy to be alone for such a long time." He sat on the edge of Harry's bed. "All we want is to know 'why'."

"Because I feel miserable! That's why! If I rejoined the world I'll still feel miserable. Why let my emotions mess with others' emotions.

"Just because you lock yourself up here doesn't mean we don't worry about you, or feel some of your pain." He signed. "Your parents would hate to see you like this. Lily would drag your arse out of this attic and make you talk."

"Yeah, well, Mum's not here is she? She died. She died because of me. If I didn't exist, you would still have your best friends. How can you stand me?"

"Your parents would have fought Voldemort anyway. There's a strong possibility that they would be dead"

"But I wouldn't have been my fault!"

Remus was getting frustrated. "You know, you may have been through Hell, but all your doing is wallowing in self pity. You've brought this misery upon yourself." The door closed with an eerie calmness as the werewolf left.

"How aggravating is he?" Fred sighed frustratedly. Over the period of two months, the entire Weasley family and half of the Order had tried to get Harry to come out. So far they had only managed to piss everyone off.

"It's a lost case!" Ron piped up reluctant to give up on his friend.

"All I wanted to do was help him." Hermione's eyes welled up.

"Dammit!" Ginny stood up. "That's the last god damn fucking straw!"

Her root beer brown eyes darkened till they were almost black. The air around her seemed to crackle. She stormed upstairs, a path forming as fast as people could get out of her way. Noises of anger and frustration were heard throughout the house. The door whipped open and slammed shut, ripping it off its hinges.

"Maybe we should get out of here." Charlie suggested. He had handled dragons, but Hell hath no fury like his pissed off baby sister.

"Yeah…that might be a good idea." George was edging towards the door. Everyone in the house filed out quickly not wanting to witness the explosion.

Ginny ignored the broken door as she marched over to Harry. She slapped him. Hard.

"What the Hell was that for!" yelped Harry.

"For being a pompous, stuck-up, snot-nosed, English, giant, twerp, scumbag, fuck-face, dickhead, asshole!"

"Harry's jaw went slack. No one had every said anything like that to him before. At least not since the Dursley's and even they didn't go to that extreme.

"Oh don't look so shocked. Everyone in the house thinks this. I'm the only one with the balls to tell the fucking boy-who-fucking-lived."

"I've been through Hell, Ginevra. You try getting over something like that. Oh wait, you can't because you can't even fathom the pain I've been through!"

"Bullshit! I've been through just as much as you have. Everyone who was in the war went through fucking Hell. Fleur we through Hell when Bill died and left her to raise Teddy alone, and she has recovered. Remus was kidnapped and tortured plus he lost every best friend he had; yet he recovered. He's even found love. When he's with Tonks he's happier then I've ever seen him. Half of my class was killed and the other half has been emotionally scarred, but according to McGonagal all of the survivors are coming back to school this fall." Her voice was growing hoarse. "Then there's me, Harry. You said I haven't experienced pain like you have, but that's a bald-faced lie and you know it. I lost my mother. She was my best friend in some ways. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to be able to sob on her shoulder about some stupid boy, or wake up to the smell of her cooking. But even if Mum had lived I've still been through a lot. Tom Riddle was my best friend because no one else acknowledged my existence unless necessary. Even Ron, my closest brother who used to play with me and protect me from the twins only to get pranked instead, ignored me. He listened to my secrets and befriended me with his charm. He used me and betrayed me, Harry! You don't know what it's like to blackout then wake up somewhere else with blood covering your body. You knew what you were battling. I was fighting something I didn't know existed. And I was fighting it by myself. That was Hell too.

They were both crying.

"Harry, I know how you feel! You can't keep distancing yourself from people! You think you're helping us, but you're not. Ever since Cedric died you've pushed us away. First Ron and Hermione. Gradually you left us all, one by one. It was not your fight alone and this isn't either!" She closed her eyes and wiped her tears on her sleeve.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"You have to figure it out yourself. I'll be downstairs when you figure it out." She walked out the door.

His mind whirred with an overabundance of information. How could some one wrap their mind around a concept like that? In trying to be selfless he had been selfish! But isn't it the thought that counts? Then again he ended up doing exactly what he was trying to prevent!

"DAMMIT!" He yelled. Why hadn't anyone told him? And further more what was he going to do? He shouted this last internal question at the top of his lungs. Harry, being the strong man he is, was over taken by his tears of confusion, frustration and sorrow.

After a tedious half-hour and much more yelling, Harry heard the soft patter of slippers climbing the stairs. "Harry?" Ginny murmured. "Telephone." Since the fall of good ol' Tom, good muggle relations have been at an all time high, so almost all magical families have telephones.

Harry confusedly took the phone. "Hello?"

"Screaming about it won't help."

"What?" Harry asked, rhetorically.

"I said –"

Harry cut the strange American off, "Well, what do you suggest." It came out more bitter then he meant, but Harry wasn't exactly having a good day.

"No need to snipe!"

"Sorry." Harry muttered.

"It's ok. Anyway, the obvious thing to do is right in front of your face! Or to be more specifically down the stairs sitting on the couch." Harry had a look on his face of pure and utter confusion. The mysterious voice must have sensed this for it piped up and said, "Talk about it you dolt!" The voice hung up. Harry was so dazed at the incredible obviousness of the stranger's advice that he didn't turn off the phone. He was roused out of his stupor by the annoying sound phones make when they're left off the hook.

'Right then. I'll do it!' He thought to himself. 'After I take a shower.' For the second time since the summer started, Harry ventured downstairs.

A/N: And now, the brand new thank yous!

Been: Thanks, I'll try to get more diligent and update more often

JerryGirl: 'Twas me on the phone. I know, very Mary-Sue-ish.

Silver Warrior: They don't call me a drama queen for nothing!

Catchy Pen Name: Really? Well, I try.

Panda Slippers: You are the first review next to my beta, but she's insane. Of course it's not a one-shot.

Miss Effie: I do so much for you. Thanks for all the morale boosting, not that my ego needs to be bigger.