Revelations
Chapter 3
"Ready?" Astrid asked with a reassuring smile.
Harry tried smiling back but it was kinda hard to do while he was laying on a table half-naked.
"Don't worry, I'm just gonna run a few diagnostic spells that will tell me what I need to do next."
"Alright."
Harry's eyes fell to the side where his godfather was standing fidgeting beside Remus. His eyes fell on him as he smiled reassuringly at Harry.
Harry smiled back before turning back to watch the ceiling as tendrils of silver magic escaped from Astrid moving over his body before submerging in him.
The magic felt warm and comforting, relaxing him completely. His eyes closed of their own accord as Astrid hummed softly as she worked. Just as slowly as the magic spread in him, it left just as quickly. His eyes fluttered open to watch a quizzical look on Astrid's face. Her eyes skimmed over the parchment on which the results arrived, the further her eyes traveled, the quizzical look gave way to anger and finally horror.
Sirius and Remus moved towards her, dread filling their stomachs at her changing expressions as Harry sat up and pulled his shirt over his head.
"That meddling old bastard!" Astrid cried out in anger as a wave of magic blasted off the windows in the room and the paper in her hands shook.
"Astrid!" Sirius cried out as he launched onto his cousin, his hands claiming hers to get her back into control.
Remus stood beside Harry, his hand holding Harry's in a death grip as the man went pale, dreading the worst news.
"Astrid, Astrid what's wrong? What's wrong with my godson?" Sirius demanded, panic and worry overshadowing his voice. This seemed to snap her out of her stupor.
"Nothing that I can't fix. I just...Sorry, Harry I just need to ask you a few questions."
"Um...Sure." Harry replied worriedly.
"Siri, Rem sit down with him, and please please stay calm till we're done, I don't want to add bailing you guys out of jail to our plan."
" First, how many times a day did you eat while at your aunt and uncles?"
Harry shifted uncomfortably.
"Enough." He replied evasively.
Astrid's eyes narrowed at his answer, just as she opened her mouth to retort to it, Remus caught her eye, shaking his head, signaling her to not speak.
Remus and Sirius looked at each other for a few minutes, a few minute head nods and eye movements giving away the silent conversation they were having before both turned towards Harry.
Harry still sat with his head down, refusing to look at anyone, his cheeks burning.
"Harry, we won't force you to talk if you don't want to. It's completely your decision, but please just remember that all we want to do is help you." Sirius spoke softly.
Harry just nodded his head, not wanting to lift his head and let the adults see the flaming blush on his cheeks.
"Would you be okay with listening to Astrid's results or do you want to leave?" Remus asked.
Harry cleared his throat before speaking, "I'd like to stay if that's alright."
The three adults nodded before Astrid conjured a chair and fell back into it before speaking.
"Well, let's start with the simplest before building up okay? First of all, your results show a severe nutrient deficiency, vitamin deficiency, and calcium deficiency, though one of your arms' bones looks newly regrown? Almost a year ago?"
"Uh..yeah, I broke my arm in a quidditch match, and Lockhart insisted he could fix it and then vanished all the bones in my hand."
"What?" Sirius cried out in outrage.
"Remind me to vanish that idiot's whole arm, not just the bones," Remus muttered under his breath.
Harry's lips twitched in amusement.
"Alright, murderous thoughts aside, let's move on shall we?" Astrid said.
"Now, I will be starting you on a strict regime of potions and protein-rich food, which is similar to Sirius's so, Remus can monitor you both and see that you both adhere to it strictly. And don't make that face both of you." She finished with a glare when both Sirius and Harry made similar grimaces at the thought of diet.
"Honestly, the standards at Hogwarts and the ministry must be failing, how didn't the WOO or the school nurse not notice your health I will never understand."
"What's WOO?" Harry asked.
Surprise flitted onto the faces of all of them.
"Harry, WOO is the Wizards Ophan Office, you know the one where someone comes by yearly to check on you and make sure your foster home is good?" Remus said hesitantly.
An ill-feeling began premating in Astrid's stomach as her conscience whispered to her to block all exits from the room. Silently she raised the wards around the house.
"No one ever came to check on me. Maybe it's because Professor Dumbledore hid me away?"
Sirius's eyes which till now were blank flashed dangerously.
"Harry, Dumbledore had no right to hide you away, he wasn't even on the list of your guardians, did he at least even come to visit you and check on you even once?"
Harry's heart thudded at the implications of what was about to happen. He shook his head in negative to reply to what Sirius said.
"Do you know how you came to be at your Aunt's?" Sirius asked.
Astrid and Remus glanced at each other worriedly.
He hesitated before answering.
"I overheard them talking once, apparently I was left on their doorstep with a letter."
Silence permeated his statement, before a rumbling began, shaking all the windows as a terrible wind whipped around them, the shelf of potions began to shake and almost fell before Astrid stabilized them.
Remus moved to Sirius's side, holding his friend close and whispering in his ears, after a few minutes the rumblings seized.
"How about we take a break for now? We'll continue later."
"No. No. I want to know everything now." Harry said.
He didn't know why he was insisting but he felt that it would be better to just get it over with rather than dragging it out.
Astrid hesitated for a moment, but not feeling any indication that this was wrong looked to Sirius and Remus asking if it was alright.
Both of them moved closer to Harry, Sirius hesitating for a moment before putting his hand around Harry's shoulder. Harry tensed for a minute and just as Sirius was about to retract his hand, he relaxed against his godfather. Sirius nodded to Astrid to continue, his hand tightening around Harry's shoulder in anticipation of what was about to come.
"Now there are two more problems here, one is easily solvable, the other is a bit tricky and has a bit of a good news-bad news situation. The second problem would take me a while to come with a solution, so I can just tell you the first one now and the second one when I have a ready solution, or do you prefer to know both now?"
"Well, what do you wanna do pup?" Sirius asked Harry.
"You're giving the choice to me?" Harry asked hesitantly wondering if Sirius was going to laugh and say that no he has to follow what he says.
"Of course, this is about you and we will respect whatever you want." Sirius replied.
Harry's heart warmed at the fact that at least these people were letting him make his own decisions.
"I'd like to know both. At least that way I won't be worrying over it."
"Alright." Astrid said before taking a deep breath, this was very sensitive information she was about to impart.
"First and foremost, I need to tell you that this cannot go further than us, not even your friends Harry, I know that you trust them, but at the end of the day you and your friends are still only 13, I know in the past that all the adults in your life have been incompetent at helping you but now you have us." Astrid held up a hand when Harry began to protest this.
"Don't protest Harry, you and I both know it's true." Harry's mouth closed as he swallowed his words, it was true, neither Dumbledore nor the Weasley's had helped him despite their claims that they cared about him.
"Please Harry, I need you all to make an oath that you won't repeat what has been said here to anyone."
The seriousness of her voice claimed all their consciousness before they agreed to take the vow.
"Now, first the fact that you want to know both problems makes this easier to explain."
"Siri, do you remember those books Auntie Cassie made us read? About Herpo the foul?"
A disgusted look crossed Sirius's face. That book had given him nightmares for months and had been one of the main reasons he had turned away from the dark arts.
"Do you remember that bit about Horcruxes and how they are formed?"
"Yes, I do, that blasted book was horrible, but what does that have to do with this?"
"What's a Horcrux?" Remus intervened.
"A Horcrux is the most horrible and darkest of magic ever created. It was created first by Herpo the foul, a Horcrux is a way to split the soul into parts which are then stored in another vessel as a way to achieve immortality. Horcruxes are made when someone murders with the sole intent of splitting their soul. I will not go into the whole process of it, it is truly a dark ritual that must be forgotten. The most common way to destroy one is to destroy the vessel completely using fiendfyre or basilisk venom"
Bile rose in Harry's throat at this description even as a terrible feeling developed in his brain at the words basilisk venom.
"Alright, so they're loathsome artifacts but what does this have to do with Harry?" Remus asked tensed.
"Voldemort made one didn't he?" Harry asked in a whisper.
"That's why you are talking about this."
Astrid winced at the way the kid had grasped this.
"This is the good news-bad news situation I was talking about." She stated, she hesitated for a second before speaking again.
"Okay, so bad news first, I don't think he necessarily made only one."
Stony silence followed her statement as Sirius's grip on Harry increased, even Remus had clutched Harry's arm in desperation, fear of what was to follow her statement clawing at him.
"And you are sure of this how?" Remus finally questioned when he realized none of the others were going to speak.
"There is a tiny, very tiny piece of his soul latched onto Harry in his scar." Astrid said quietly.
"No." Remus snarled, a part of Moony coming to the forefront.
Harry felt coldness gnawing at him, everything in him going silent, he could feel his heart thudding loudly, if he had a part of Voldemort in him what did that mean for him, hid friend, his godfather, how could people even be near him anymore. He had to leave, get away from here. He had to protect Sirius and Remus and Astrid, if he had a part of him in him, then how could he be sure he wouldn't hurt people around him. Bile rose in his throat as a clammy coldness spread over his skin. His breath turned into pants, his nose unable to keep up and provide the necessary oxygen his body needed. Stars swam in his eyes, his eyesight darkening. Faintly he could hear someone calling his name, warm hands held onto him, pulling him into someone as his vision returned, a blurry shape with long black hair slowly focusing into his Godfather.
"Hey, Harry, Harry, pup, come back to me, it's okay, it's alright prongslet." He heard Sirius's reassuring tone help gound him further, Sirius's hands were holding his arms, helping ground him further as he felt someone's warm hands on his back, rubbing soothing circles. Remus, he realized. Astrid came striding back into the room holding a small vial in one hand and a glass in another. When had she left the room? he wondered.
Sirius took the vial from Astrid before holding it out to him, coaxing him to drink it. The potion slid down his throat slowly, the effect almost instantaneous as he felt himself calm down.
"What happened?" he asked still slightly dazed.
"You panicked love, though I don't blame you after all that happened." Astrid replied calmly.
"Let's take a break shall we?" Astrid said.
"No!" Harry shouted.
"I mean, no. No, I need to know, where can I go?"
"Go? Go where?" Sirius asked taken aback.
"Go, away, I can't...I can't be near you, what if I- what if he hurts you?" he asked, his green eyes swimming with anguish and pain.
"Harry, first of all, I know you would never deliberately hurt me or anyone here." Sirius replied patiently.
"Secondly, I am never letting go of you again, okay pup? I made a huge mistake 12 years ago when I let Hagrid take you away from me, and I'm so sorry for that, but never again okay prongslet?"
"Also, if I'm not mistaken, Astrid said she had good news, which means all she must have a way to remove it right?" Remus said turning around to look at Astrid almost pleading with his eyes to say she did know how to cure him, he didn't think he could bear it if she said she didn't.
Astrid scoffed. "Of course I do, what did you take me for? "
Harry felt hope flare in his heart but refused to acknowledge it until he was sure he could get that thing away from him.
"Now, sit down all of you." Astrid said as waved her hand and a blackboard appeared with a piece of chalk.
"Now, let's consider that a whole soul is 100%. How a Horcrux is created is that the soul in your body is split into two equal parts, so let's suppose Voldemort already made a Horcrux, so the soul in him is currently at 50% capacity, so the second Horcrux would take again half of it which is 25% and so on and so forth, by my calculations the piece of soul in Harry is approximately 0.78%, literally a silver of it, we keep multiplying it until we get a 100 and oh my god."
Astrid felt a chilling cold seep into her bones.
"Eight, he made eight including the peice in him." Remus whispered horrified.
"But, why eight?" Harry questioned.
"No, not eight." Sirius said softly.
"He wanted to make seven, I think, I think that Harry's was an accidental one. By that point, his soul would have been very fragile and the night he tried to kill you but failed his soul split again."
Astrid swallowed thickly. "Your right. Luckily for us, this works in our favor, since it is just silver, we should be able to remove it easily and we will as soon as we deal with the other problem first."
"What other problem?" Sirius asked sharply. His mind was still reeling from all this, his godson had had to go through so much, and now this. He swallowed thickly, tears burning his eyes. James and Lilly would hate him, for leaving their boy alone for so long. He closed his eyes and willed the unshed tears back, now was not the time, he needed to concentrate, to save Harry, he could cry later.
"Well first can you tell me how many incidents of accidental magic Harry showcased when he was younger?"
"Almost daily as far as I can remember." Remus said with his eyebrows furrowed.
"Yeah, he was a pretty powerful kid, remember when he accidentally produced antlers and a dog tail after seeing me and prongs?" Sirius asked with a soft smile.
"That was hilarious, Lilly would vanish them and he would simply just get them back saying he wanted to be like pafoo and dada." Remus replied, reminiscing.
Harry looked at them in awe, this nugget of his childhood warming his heart.
Astrid too had an amused smile listening to his antics.
"Now, Harry can you remember how many times you did accidental magic when at your aunt and uncles?"
"I'm not sure, but it was very rare, I remember I turned a teacher's wig blue and vanished a glass in the zoo."
Astrid nodded hearing this as if she expected it.
"Now, tell me how does a kid who did accidental magic almost every day when he was a child, suddenly have very rare instances of it? This is well in part to how your relatives treated you and also the fact that your core was bound."
"What!" Remus exclaimed shocked. Binding someone's core, especially a child was very dangerous, it was borderline illegal because it could very well kill a person!
"Let me guess, by Albus bloody Dumbledore." Sirius replied coldly.
Astrid just nodded, she knew how much shock her cousin and friend were feeling today, this was almost unheard of.
"I don't get it, what does that mean and why is it such a big deal?"
"Harry, binding someone's core, especially a child's is very detrimental to one's health, our core, our magic is what protects us, especially children from common colds and infections, very rarely do wizards and witches get severely sick. To bind someone's core, especially when yours hadn't even matured, he could have very well killed you." Remus explained. His trust in his former headmaster was severely waning as time moved on.
"But why would Dumbledore do that? He's the leader of the light isn't he?" Harry asked feeling betrayed, Dumbledore had always been a mentor figure to him, to do this to him, he felt his trust in his headmaster breaking.
Astrid laughed harshly.
"Trust me, Harry, the one's who proclaim to be the most innocent are the ones with the most skeletons in their closet."
"Luckily, even this can be solved easily, but before we attempt, you need to be healthy, properly not borderline. Trust me, one week of the followed diet and we can solve all this alright?"
Harry nodded his head, some of the tension leaving his shoulders, he was still very hurt and had a million questions but for now, he would keep them aside to spend time with his godfather and friends and trust that they would take care of it, and for the first time he believed it, that there were finally adults who would listen to him and would help him. Looking forward to what he was sure to be the best summer of his life, Harry left the room to finally have food and whatever tonics Astrid deemed necessary.