-Summer house-
After feeding a very content but incredibly tired child dinner, Dumbledore and Harry went upstairs to put him to bed.
They quickly washed him, changed him into his pyjamas and tucked him in. He looked up at them sleepily.
"Thank you for today," he said sincerely, "it was great."
They sat on either side of his bed, and smiled.
Dumbledore leaned forward to kiss his forehead, and Harry retrieved the stuffed toy they had bought him and that he insisted on sleeping with.
"Night, kiddo," Harry whispered, feeling only a slight pang in his heart at using the endearment Sirius had used for him.
The boy was nearly asleep already. "Are you coming tomorrow?" he murmured to Dumbledore, who hesitated and looked at Harry.
Harry patted the child's hand. "He will have to, you have draw our day out, don't you?"
Severus nodded happily, put his thumb in his mouth and his arm around his toy, and was asleep before they had left the room.
"Let's go to the upstairs library," Harry suggested, "Hermione is in the one downstairs, of course."
The young witch had been so excited when she discovered the house had not one, but two libraries that she had hardly eaten for a day, scanning all the books available.
Once in the library, and doing a quick search to make sure none of the other boys had decided to spend the evening studying, Dumbledore put silencing charms on the room and an outside lock.
"You can walk out, but no one can walk in," he explained to Harry, who understood the courtesy and nodded.
Dumbledore sat down, suddenly looking old, very nerveus and more than a little guilty.
Harry sighed. He had wanted to continue his rage at this man for so long, and now that he could, the words just wouldn't come.
He started to think about what he wanted to throw at the man.
The Dursleys.
Sending him back there.
Keeping him away from his friends when he needed them the most.
Not telling him anything, which in effect had caused Sirius's death.
But most of all, allowing Sevvy to be hurt as a child. Allowing his own father to abuse a fellow student like that. Ignoring the trauma of the Shrieking Shack.
To his horror, he felt his eyes mist over and a choked sob escaped his lips.
Through the mist, he could just barely see Dumbledore stand up, and before he knew what was happening, he was pulled into a tight embrace.
"I hated you," he whispered, his cheek against the soft cloth of the headmaster's robes, "you left me there, and you never checked up on me. And you sent me back, every single year."
He pulled back a bit.
"You let them! You let them treat me like that! Allowed them to tell me I am nothing…nothing…"
Dumbledore ran his hand through the black hair. "You aren't 'nothing', Harry."
Harry snorted, and pushed away.
"Then what am I? For years I was told I'm worthless, and then I come here, in the Wizarding world, to find out I'm some kind of hero. And that I'm expected to do it again. I WAS ELEVEN!" he yelled, "I WASN'T SOME HERO! I WAS JUST A BOY!"
Taking a deep shuddering breath, he stared at the headmaster. "You knew all along. The Prophesy. You allowed the whole stupid wizarding world to lay their expectations on MY shoulders. YOU defeated Grindelwald! When you were over a 100 already! How am I supposed to do the same when I'm not even of age?"
Harry clung to the headmaster suddenly, tears running down his face.
"I don't want to have to fight him, I don't want to see my friends die in battle, I'm not a brave Gryffindor, I'm scared…"
Dumbledore murmured soothingly into his hair, but Harry wasn't done raging yet.
"And Severus! He was a total bastard to me! You never did ANYTHING to keep him from that. He is Neville's greatest fear, for Merlin's sake! You hurt Severus even more than me. I know what my father and Sirius were like, and I know quite a bit about what Sevvy's home life was like. And you never helped him! Not until it was too late and he joined Voldemort!"
Dumbledore bit his lip. "Severus loves me," he said slowly, "he forgave me a long time ago."
"Did he? Then why did he remind you of how Sirius tried to kill him in my third year? He didn't sound like he had forgotten and forgiven then. But you shut him up again. You gave him a second chance, a chance to redeem himself from the stupidity of joining Voldemort. He feels he owes you."
Harry suddenly stopped. "But I guess a lot of that is between him and you. He does love you, I can see that. I just…just don't want him to get hurt again. I don't want to get hurt again."
"Oh, Harry," the old wizard whispered, "I'm so very sorry."
Wiping angrily at his face, ashamed of his tears, the raven boy turned around, his back to the headmaster.
"Now that you are better…when you were ill…was that why you sent me back? Would you send me back to the Dursleys now if you could?"
"NO!" Dumbledore said, "No, never. I want to help you, Harry. Truly. I will regret the mistakes I made to the end of my days. Please. Just give me a chance to make up for what I did."
Harry turned to face him again, his eyes full of sadness. "How do you make up for a childhood of neglect and pain, headmaster? Can you give me back Sirius?"
He saw the headmaster swallow hard.
"No, I can't," the old man admitted, "I can't do any of that. But I can help you get emancipated. That way no one is allowed to do that to you anymore. I want to try and help you, so that you are ready when Voldemort comes. I should have helped you train years and years ago, Harry. If…if anything…if you get…if something happens to you…I'll never forgive myself."
Harry watched in shock as the headmaster sank down on the couch, his face in his hands, and tears ran betweeen the fingers into the long beard.
Then he sat down next to him.
"I had a harder time than Severus, accepting you were ill," he confessed, "because I wanted to be angry. At everything and everyone. The adults around me have always seen fit to decide what I could or couldn't do without ever listening to me. A lot of times those decisions hurt me. I have a hard time letting go. But if this is the real you, the real Dumbledore without the pretending and neglect, then I think you are someone I'd like to get to know better."
-Later-
When Dumbledore and Harry came downstairs, they found the Weasley brothers had returned, all looking a bit the worse for wear.
"How did it go?" Harry asked.
Ron handed him something. Circe.
"They brought her, to give her back. I'm afraid we've lost our spy now, but I think we don't really have anything to fear from them at the moment."
Harry happily hissed a 'welcome back' at the snake.
"Ah…so this is your little informant," Dumbledore smiled.
"Yes. I've devised a way to communicate with her over long distances, and Sevvy agreed for her to spy. She's his, you see."
Dumbledore carefully took the small snake from Harry.
"You'll love it here," he said.
The twins and Ron had gotten drinks, and Hermione was even persuaded to leave the library. She shot a glance at Harry and Dumbledore, both of whom had red rimmed eyes still. Harry gave her a small nod that reassured her that all was well.
"Well, we arrived at the shop…"
The shop was empty, since it was closed for the day. Fred and George had hired help for the summer so they could spend more time at the summer house, but it was the girl's day off.
"Do you think Mum will yell?" Ron asked.
"Does Mum ever NOT yell?" his brothers responded, handing him a chocolate bean.
"What's this?"
"Our latest invention. Emergency Apparating. Swallow the bean, and it Apparates you to the place you wish to be. Works only once, but very useful as a means of escape. The Order already ordered boxes full of them.If Mum and Dad prove to be trouble, we need a quick way out."
"Too bad we couldn't have send a few to Harry before."
"We didn't invent them until afterwards, for precisely that reason," George said, staring out into the street.
"There they are!"
Molly and Arthur entered the shop, eyes widening when they saw their sons.
"FRED! GEORGE! RON!" Molly yelled, "What did you think you were doing, running off like that?"
The boys looked at each other, wondering if they should take those beans now.
Then their father stepped forward, his solemn eyes locking into theirs.
Suddenly he grabbed all three of them in a bear hug.
"We've missed you," he said softly, "we were so worried."
"It's my fault," Molly said sadly, hugging her sons when her husband released them to her.
"Yes it is," Ron said, still angry, "we only agreed to help you find Harry because we were worried he might be in trouble. But then, even after Dudley's speech and your promise, you couldn't wait to break it as soon as you found out where he was."
Molly tried to respond, but Ron was on a rant.
"And then you AMBUSH him in his own house and lay SIEGE. Of course they ran; you would either have stormed the house or you would've waited until they were forced out by lack of food."
"Your father didn't do that," Molly responded, "the others were there for Severus."
"But they didn't object, did they?" Fred interrupted.
"After hearing what the two of them went through, you STILL thought it a good idea to do that to them. You just don't listen, do you? Do you even care for those two, or do you only care about getting your own way? How can you know what's best for Harry if you never even asked him?"
"We do care for him! We took him in…"
"AFTER we rescued him from starving in a room with bars on his window," George yelled, "which we had to do since all of YOU refused to simply check on him. Apparating there and back to assess the situation would have taken ten minutes at most, but none of you could be bothered!"
Arthur sighed.
"Boys…we know we were wrong. We do. Please, allow us to show you we are serious."
Molly carefully took out a small snake and gave it to Ron.
"We found it here," she said, "we guessed it belonged to Harry, so we took good care of it."
Ron groaned. He couldn't refuse to take the snake, but if he took it, they'd have lost their spy. Fred nodded at him. They might as well take it back. It would make Sevvy happy, at the least.
"She's Sevvy's," Ron said, as the snake curled around his wrist, "he'll be pleased."
Arthur cleared his throat. "Yes. About Severus…"
"…and then he told us professors McGonagall and Flitwick have developed a countercurse! They want us to go to Hogwarts as soon as we can to perform it."
"And what did you say?" Harry asked, subdued.
"That we would discuss it with you, and with Sevvy, of course."
Harry sighed. "I guess. We will have to go to Hogwarts in the morning. But just to hear what they have found! I will not allow Sevvy to go through something that could be dangerous to him. Not to mention that Sevvy will have a say in this as well."
All thoughts turned to the little boy, fast asleep in his bed.