Disclaimer: J.K. owns it all
When Nightmares Are A Good ThingChapter 18: A Secret Revealed
"Good morning, Harry!"
With a start, Harry's head jerked toward the door to see Remus Lupin standing there with a tray full of phials.
"Morning," he replied.
Silently Remus began handing Harry his potions in the correct order. Harry swallowed each in one go and tried to school his face into one that did not show just how disgusting the tastes actually were.
Remus chuckled lightly when Harry drank the nutrient potion and, yet again, was unable to keep his mask in place.
"That bad?"
" 's worse than anything I've ever tasted before and that includes Skelegro and the Polyjuice potion," Harry sputtered.
"When did you take Polyjuice?!"
Harry had the grace to blush in embarrassment when he realized he had let that information slip.
"Oh, err, it was in second year."
"Second year?"
"Yeah. We brewed it in Moaning Myrtle's lavatory so that he could take the appearance of some of Malfoy's cronies to interrogate him about the heir of Slytherin and the Chamber of Secrets."
The look on Remus's face was part shock part eagerness. It seemed that he wanted to chastise Harry for breaking that many rules and what not, but his curiosity won out.
"How did you manage that? The Polyjuice potion is one of the most difficult, most complex potions ever! I doubt half the Order could make it properly," Remus questioned.
"Well, most of it was Hermione to tell the truth. She's the brain; Ron and me did what she said while contributing freely once in a while. " admitted Harry.
"Well, it seems you are better at breaking rules and causing mischief than I previously thought," smiled Remus.
"Only when there's a purpose behind it that I believe in."
"Like getting pissed?"
"What?!"
"I know that you obtained alcohol at one point this summer. Drinking it with a stomach ulcer was probably one the most foolish things you could have done, Harry." There was a pause in which the amber eyed man let loose a sigh before continuing. "I'm not going to lecture you because that would be rather rich of me as I was once in the exact same place save that I didn't have a gap in my stomach lining at the time."
Harry managed a sheepish grin. "I didn't allow myself to get completely drunk. I mean-"
"It's alright, I'll let you off the hook just this once. I am, however, curious as to how the alcohol came to be in your possession in the first place..."
Harry nodded his head as he sat up on his bed further. The chair Dumbledore had occupied not long before was still there next to his bedside. Something the Headmaster said echoed in his head.
"He was quite worried about you. He nearly went ill himself with concern..."
"Um...Remus?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you."
"Whatever for?"
"Dumbledore said that you were concerned about me. So... thanks."
Once again, Harry found himself in tight embrace that he submitted to almost instantly. It seemed that Harry was becoming comfortable with physical reinforcement these days.
"Harry you don't have to thank me for caring about you! I would do it not matter what. I am really sorry though that I never let you know it sooner. I should have told you exactly who I was from the get go, back in your third year instead of keeping you at arms length. I really am sorry about that."
To say that Harry was surprised at the apology would an understatement. He hadn't expected Remus to feel sorry about anything. It was true that Harry had often wondered why Remus had hid behind that wall of security but he had never held it against the man. Harry just figured that it was too painful for Remus to be around a James look alike, for that's what he was.
"It's no big deal, Moony." Harry muttered against the man's shoulder. These hugs that were being bestowed upon him as of late were like an addictive medicine to Harry, who squeezed Remus closer for a moment before releasing him.
It was quiet for a few seconds before Remus asked, "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
Harry knew exactly what he was asking so he did not ask for an elaboration. Remus wanted to know why he hid his sickness.
"I didn't want to be a bother. Also, I hate pity."
Remus nodded his head to say that he accepted Harry's answer.
"You do know that you'll never be a bother to me, don't you? I would actually like it if, instead of hiding things, you were to tell someone so that it doesn't get this bad. That is unless you really are looking for ways for Poppy to visit you..."
Harry grinned widely. "I knew when I said it, she'd be embarrassed enough to forget the question she asked me but I had no clue that it fluster her so much!"
"It was a stroke of pure genius. "
The two of them sat together enjoying the lull in the conversation for a few moments. The mutual satisfaction was broken when Remus said, "You know this used to be Sirius's room when he was a kid?" whilst looking around the room.
With a gulp Harry replied, "I assumed it, yes. I do wonder how he got his parents to agree to the color scheme."
Remus gave a hearty chuckle. "They didn't. During the Christmas break of his first year; Sirius changed the color from green and silver to red and gold along with a really strong curse jinx so that the color couldn't be changed. They didn't even notice till the middle of his fifth year. Needed something from his room while he was away and went ballistic when they saw. Sent a howler not five minuets later. They weren't exactly the best parents in the world. To never even look in on your child when they've been in their room for a long time... It's no wonder he was able to run away so easily." Remus finished with a cavillous look towards Sirius's room.
"Well Harry, I think I shall leave you alone so that you can change your pajamas. I'll send Ron and Hermione up to see you."
After picking up the empty phials, Remus headed to the door.
"Thanks, Moony."
"Anytime Harry."
"What in the world are those?!" Harry exclaimed.
"Well mate, this is a burlap sack that happens to be chock full of fan mail!" Ron said brightly.
A large brown sack made of itchy looking material was slung over one of Ron's broad shoulders. Ron strode over to the chair seated next to Harry and dropped the sack roughly into the chair. A few yellowish brown parchments spilled through the top to litter the floor. Harry could count at least fifteen letters on the floor. A feeling of misery overcame Harry as he realized that the amount of letter spilled was only one percent of the entire sack.
A sound in the hallway caught Harry's attention. Hermione appeared in the doorway dragging a sack almost identical to the one Ron had carried in. An enormous sigh rose up in his chest as he noticed that Hermione's sack was just as big.
"And that?" Harry asked, warily pointing to Ginny's hands in false hope of distracting himself.
"Oh, well Mum sent up breakfast for you," Ginny explained.
"BREAKFAST!" Harry shouted in horror, "That's not breakfast! That's a feast for the entirety of Hogwarts!"
Ron started sniggering as he could, no doubt, eat all of the servings that Ginny was carrying and still have room left. Ginny smiled at his indignation but Hermione did not find it funny at all.
"Really, Harry, you're being a bit dramatic, don't you think?"
A glare at Hermione stalled anymore voiced thoughts on his melodramatics.
"I can't eat all of that!" said Harry, who was now slightly panicky. After eating practically nothing for the past month, his stomach was clenching at the thought of actually eating something.
Never the less, Ginny placed the food like mountain in his lap before sitting on the bed, facing him.
Ginny smiled. "You'd best get started, Harry. Mum made me promise to force-feed you if you refused.
That was all the motivation that Harry needed. Fork in hand; he slowly began his working his way through the double portions of bangers, pancakes, eggs and toast.
After three bites a loud sigh came from Hermione, who had moved the sack of letters and settled herself in Harry's desk chair, that Harry interpreted as her annoyance at his slow food poking eating style.
"Look, I'm eating the most I can. My appetite isn't what it used to be, alright."
Nothing was said and Harry pointedly ignored her look of pity while trying to eat some more of his humongous meal without getting sick again. His stomach did not seem queasy in the least, just extremely full.
"That's all I can eat," he said finally, throwing his napkin down on the tray next to his plate.
Ron looked at the remnants of Harry's breakfast with a raised eyebrow. It seemed that he would have liked to comment on how much of the mountain was still actually in tact, but did not in fear of peeving his friend.
"So!" breathed Ginny in an attempt at a fresh change of topic.
Ron grinned at him from the bit of wall he was leaning against. When Harry gave him a look of confusion, Ron jerked his thump at the two bags full of mail. A groan escaped Harry's throat as he thought of the types of letters the burlap material most likely contained.
"Aww, come on Harry! It's not going to be that bad," Hermione reasoned.
Harry snorted. "Easy for you to say. None of you three have the experience of helping Lockhart with his mail." Remembering all the middle aged witches who wrote to that git; Harry shuddered to think of the types of letters he was likely to receive.
"I'll make you a deal, Ron." Said Harry with a sudden solution. "I'll pay you a galleon an hour to sort through those letters and throw out the rubbish."
Harry knew it was a chance, mentioning pay around Ron as he was very sensitive where gold was concerned, but he was desperate enough to take the risk of enraging Ron if it meant that Harry himself would be spared the torture of reading parchment after perfumed parchment from hags who adored him saying they believed him about Voldemort all along.
"Make it two and I'll do it."
Harry looked at Ron and surprise. "You want two galleons! Just to read a bunch of rubbish for me?" he asked hoping Ron didn't call him on his false indignation.
"Well, yeah. Unless you'd rather do it yourself."
The raven haired boy took a deep breath and looked away from Ron, trying hard to look as if it pained him to think about giving his best mate two galleons an hour to read his disgusting fan mail.
"All right," Harry said in a reluctant voice, while ignoring the gleeful look that took over Ron's face, who no doubt thought that he was getting the best end of the deal.
Watching from the bed, it was very amusing to see his red-haired friend untie the twine from the sack closest to him and pull out a wad of parchment to get started on.
"What all do want me to do? Read them all?"
"No, just the ones that are anonymous or from someone I don't know. If the sender is a friend or something, leave it for me to open. You can automatically place any letters that go on about how I'm a right little hero in the rubbish pile. If there are any interesting letters that come from someone unknown to me, then you can put it in my "read pile". I'll trust your judgment on that one."
Ron was able to read exactly three parchments before he began roaring with laughter at the fourth sparkling pink, perfume scented love letter, which he promptly placed in it's own pile claiming that Harry just had to read it himself.
Hermione gave Harry a questioning look when he said nothing about Ron's judgment on the letters he had to read.
"I trust him, Mione. If it's that funny to him, I think I'll manage a small laugh. Why? Are you jealous of his job? I'll pay you two to help him out if you like."
"WHAT? ARE YOU NUTTERS?"
"NOOO THANK YOU!"
"All right, I was just offering," Harry grinned.
Harry climbed off his bed.
"Where do you think you're going?" Hermione bossed.
A flush faded in and out of Harry smooth cheeks.
"The err little boy's room. Want to join me, Herms?"
Hermione stammered an embarrassed "No."
When the Harry returned to his room, he found Ron's rubbish pile had increased tremendously. Reading the scowl on Ron's face as he determined the letter he was currently reading as rubbish, Harry decided to attempt offering Ron a bonus when all of his post had been sorted through.
Ginny and Hermione were now seated on Harry's bed with their heads together. Both were examining Harry with two very powerful looks of calculation.
"Fess up."
"I beg your pardon?" Harry couldn't understand what it was that he was supposed to admit to. There were a hundred things weaving in and out of his head, each only surfacing briefly before swirling into a new one.
"Tell us how you did it."
"Did what, exactly?"
A sigh came from Hermione. "How you hid the changes in your appearance."
Harry moaned, "Oh, that."
Ginny's eyes rolled dramatically as she mocked his answer by saying, "Yes, that."
"It's... complicated. Only Dumbledore knows," Harry said hastening to add, "so far."
Ron had looked up from his "job" to give Harry's answer his full attention.
When none of his friends offered to let him keep his secret, Harry stated, "I'm a metamorphmagus," in an indifferent voice.
The result was a gasp from Ginny in surprise, the widening of Hermione's eyes in sudden understanding, and the narrowing of Ron's eyes, who Harry had been hoping would be able to keep his patience.
"How did you find out?" Hermione asked curiously.
So Harry spent a few minuets telling them about how he made the discovery and of how he altered his skin color and a few other details about his body.
"-but I think I'm a really weak metamorphmagus. I can't do anything outrageous like Tonks, just the normal stuff like hair length, hair growth speed, skin paleness..."
"Wow," Ron breathed.
All in all, Harry was very proud of his best mate. Not once had he claimed Harry to have everything nor had he shown any signs of jealousy. Yet.
"So you can adjust the length of your hair and color of your skin as long as you opt to change it to one of your own natural tones?" Hermione asked. She obviously had to know everything about it from Harry that she could.
"Yes," Harry answered. "Sometimes I can coax my features to shift a bit, but they never change enough to look completely different. I tried to make my hair turn colors like Tonks, but I couldn't. I can only get it to lighten up a bit."
"Ohh, show us!" Ginny squealed with excitement.
"Alright," Harry agreed.
He concentrated very hard, closing his eyes and visualizing what his hair would look like if it were red and about two inches shorter than it currently was. When opened his eyes he saw Ginny, Hermione, and Ron, who had now taken a seat on the bed along with the girls, had left their mouths open in an abandoned manner.
Curious at what was so amazing, Harry carefully stood up and walked over to the full-length mirror in the corner of his room. His hair was now the same length as Ron's, but had retained its same dark messiness but with a tint of red hue woven in.
Harry turned back around and shrugged his shoulders.
"What were you aiming for?"
"I was trying to mimic Ron's hair but..."
Laughter erupted from Hermione as Ron sputtered with indignation at Harry's poor imitation.
"Yeah, well if you're going to try and take on the Weasley's good look traits you'll need to ditch your 'I just rolled out of bed with someone else's girl' hair-do."
Hermione instantly sobered and shrieked, "RONALD WEASLEY!" in shock that he, her teenage best friend could possibly think it appropriate to tease someone else in such a crude way. Ginny, however, had rolled off the bed in a fit of giggles. Even Harry started to smile and laugh after his mock glare had no effect on Ron.
"Well, Harry, I think it is a wonderful talent and I promise to keep it under wraps if you want me to. I assume you did want it to be a secret as you weren't exactly making announcements and all." It seemed that Hermione had become impatient with waiting for the three of them to stop giggling and proceeded on to change the subject.
She understood. Hermione knew that being able to alter his appearance was a tool; a weapon, if kept secret from those who he intended on using it against.
"Yes, I do want to keep it a secret if you don't mind."
"Sure," Ginny agreed.
Ron merely snorted and nodded his head while making no further attempt to quell his overlapping mirth from the joke he had made earlier.
"If you feel well enough Harry, I think we all ought to head downstairs for lunch," suggested Ginny.
Ron's suddenly looked as if he remembered something important while he rubbed his stomach. "That sounds like good idea."
Hermione rolled her eyes in a way that made Harry suspect that she wasn't really annoyed at his fetish with eating.
"I'll even take some letters with me to sort through while I eat. I didn't quite get a full hour in before be started talking."
With that, the group of four teenagers made their way down the creepy hallway of Grimmauld place with the kitchen in mind.