The Young Ones
Chapter 6: Talking with Dumbledore
Harry stumbled out of the floo and into Dumbledore's office, his stomach churning. Tears were still pouring down his face as he looked at a shocked Dumbledore.
"Harry. You came back," Dumbledore muttered.
"Just to talk," Harry said.
"Why are you crying? Are you okay? Have they hurt you?"
"No, they haven't hurt me. I just found out some news about the future. The future that will come if we don't sort this situation out,"
"I thought you wanted your children with Tom,"
"Yes, I want my children. But I don't want them to be tortured or killed by your followers. As is apparently what happened in the future," Harry thought he was going to choke on more sobs but he somehow managed to cover them up.
"My followers wouldn't torture or kill anyone, especially children," Dumbledore said, a weird look in his eyes.
"Well, according to my children, and my future self who gave Salazar a pensieve memory for us to watch, Ron Weasley and various other supporters of yourself kidnapped me, and four of my children, when I was pregnant with Lyra. You see, there were meant to be five of them, Regulus being the oldest, but Regulus was killed by Ron Weasley when Tom, mum, and others came to save us. Whilst we were there the kids were tortured, and I was tortured so bad I went into labour early, I had to hold my oldest son in my arms whilst he died and whilst I was in labour. I watched it happen in the pensieve. Then Lyra was born, and she couldn't breathe, and had seizures because of the cruciatus curse. I saw it, and I can't let it happen again,"
"How can you be sure they are telling the truth?"
"Why the bloody hell would my future self send me fake memories?"
"To take you further from the Light than you already are,"
"No, you did that yourself with what you have done to me. I was already considering leaving, along with my true friends, before the children arrived. This just provided me with the opportunity to it now,"
"You've gone Dark?"
"No. I just don't think the Light is particularly Light,"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you kidnapped me from my actual mother and made him believe me to be dead for starters. That isn't a particularly 'Light' thing to do now is it? Then, of course, there is paying people to be friends with me, with my own money. Just so you would have some spies. Sending me, and Tom, and my mum back to abusive homes isn't particularly Light either. Did you ever care about me? Or was it all just an act?"
"Of course I care about you," Harry scoffed, he could tell that Dumbledore was lying and it hurt more than he wanted to admit to himself.
"I cared for you, you know. Before I found out what you were trying to do to me. I loved you. I still do despite everything. Somewhere in me I still love you because you were like a grandfather to me, even though it was all just an act to get me to trust you and do what you want me to do. Why couldn't I just be myself? That is why I was so excited to start at Hogwarts. Because I didn't have Dudley here. I could be myself. My true self. But then I meet Ron and I have to hide my eagerness to learn and be smart. I meet Hermione and I have to hide that too. I have to hide the parts of myself that they won't like. That you won't like. I just want to be me, for once in my life. Is that too much to ask? I don't want to fight. I don't want a war. I don't want to kill,"
"And you think being on Voldemort's side will allow you to be yourself? You think being on his side will mean you don't have to kill people, torture people?"
"Well, I haven't had to hide any parts of myself so far. I have been my true self, though I have been quite emotional due to certain revelations about the future. I also haven't been told to hurt or kill anyone. In fact, there hasn't been any torturing or killing, at all. By anyone,"
"That will change,"
"Why? Why will that change? Because you know Tom so very well," Harry scoffed, "You are the one that turned him away. Refused to help him. Because he could talk to snakes. Do you hate me because I can talk to snakes?"
"No, Harry. I could sense his darkness, even then. It wasn't because he could talk to snakes,"
"Don't lie to me. I am very good at telling when people lie to me,"
"Why are you here, Harry?"
"To save my children. I can't… I can't live through that," his voice cracked, "I can't live through what I just saw. I can't lose a child. I can't watch them be hurt. I can't… I just want this war, this fighting to end. Please, make it end,"
"And do you really think that Tom will stop fighting?"
"Merlin, you haven't seen him these last few days. He is so good with the kids. He loves them so much already, I can see it in his eyes. I can feel it. I saw him cry as we witnessed the son we don't know dying in my arms. He will do anything to ensure the safety of our children,"
"He can't love,"
"Yes, he can. Do you honestly think I would ever marry or have children with someone who wasn't capable of loving us? I have seen with my own eyes that he is capable of loving. I can show you the memories if you want to see them. Just please, I am begging you, please stop this bloody war. I can't lose my baby. I can't watch my babies be hurt. Please, help me. If you ever really cared about me, please stop this war," Harry was sobbing again. He couldn't hold them back. Everything just hurt.
"Harry, I can't just forgive him for all that he's done,"
"I'm not asking you to forgive him. I'm asking you to stop the fighting. He's sane now. Help me keep my family safe, please. Please help me save my children,"
"I can't just let him get away with what he's done,"
"And what about what you've done? You kidnapped me from my mother. You replaced me with a dead baby. You stole my money to pay people to be friends with me. You have been testing me every year, in ways which have put me, and other children, in danger. And some of those children, including myself, have either almost died, or actually died. Yes Cedric was a legal adult, but he was still a teenager. He was still young. I am sure you could have gotten me out of the tournament somehow. You send children back to their abusive homes instead of helping them. You use Legilimency on children without their guardian's consent, or their own consent for that matter. And who knows what else. Do you honestly think you should get away with any of that? You allow people to get hurt. You allow people to think their child is dead. I don't know Regulus yet, but I know how much it hurt watching him die,"
"It is all for-"
"No. You can't keep using that excuse. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, gives you the right to take people's children away from them and make them believe their child is dead. Nothing gives you the right to take someone's money and pay people to be their friends with it. Nothing gives you the right to send children back to their abusive homes. How many children have died or been seriously injured because you have sent them back to the place, to the people that hurt them? How many children have been hurt because you have been testing me? What makes you think that anyone should forgive you for what you have done? You aren't some sort of God. You are a human being. You can't dictate everyone's life. You can't hurt people. And yet you have caused, and will cause, more hurt than you could possibly imagine. So, if you want me to not release information, because I do have a lot of information about you that the public deserve to hear, then you will bloody well help me save my children by ending this war,"
Dumbledore looked so very disappointed in him. And it hurt.
"Please. I don't want my baby to die. You can't let my baby die,"
Harry didn't see it coming. He didn't see Dumbledore's new wand slipping out of his sleeve until the spell was already too close.
Harry fell to the floor in shock. Barely feeling the pain over how shocked he was that someone he loved had actually hurt him.
He was in so much shock that he barely remembered the necklace. The portkey.
"Home," he hissed in parseltongue.
He felt a tug at his navel just as he saw another spell coming his way.
The pain in his chest was beyond anything he had ever felt, probably because the transportation flared it up.
He could see and feel blood as he lay on the floor of the entrance hall, tears leaking out of his eyes.
He heard people but he could barely understand what they were saying.
The pain, all of it, was just too much.
He saw faces but he couldn't concentrate on them enough to know who they were.
It was all just too much.
He needed rest.
He needed sleep.
He needed everything to just go away.
He welcomed the blackness that overtook like an old friend.
Hiya, I hope you are all well!
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Sorry for the wait but things are a bit crazy at the moment. Hopefully things will calm down again though so I can start posting more regularly. Also, it is my 24th birthday today (I feel so much older though, haha.)
I have a Facebook Group called Maraudering_Paige where we can talk about Harry Potter, fanfiction, life, share memes and such. I am more that happy to accept any of you into the group if you are interested. When I am a bit more organised, hopefully soon, I will also be sharing some kind of update schedule and such on the group so I can keep track of what I want to update and when, etc. It is also where I just like to share updates on what I am working on and such.
Also, I am opening a crystal shop tomorrow so if you like crystals feel free to join the Facebook group because I will be sharing the link to it on there (because why not) and you can take a look. But also, if you have a small business, fanfictions, or actual books, and you want to do some occasional (not too often) promoting of them, then feel free to join the group for those purposes. I would love to see what you all do.
I hope you are all having a wonderful day! xx