Harry Potter & the Journey Into Isolation

By The Short Fat Fag

Chapter Eighteen – Secrets That Lay Naked

The next morning Dumbledore called Harry to his office early. The Headmaster was sitting at his desk reading his latest correspondence from the Ministry of Magic when he heard a knock on his door.

"Ah Harry, so glad to see you this morning, I trust you are feeling well today."

"I suppose," Harry replies with Dobby standing behind his leg cautiously looking between them.

Seeing the look of apprehension on his student's face, Dumbledore decides that the direct course may be the best way to go this morning. "Harry, why don't you have a seat while was talk about what happened last night. I know it must have been a shock to you to discover that Wymer Toft was one of your captors, but I wanted to let you know that he has been taken from the castle early this morning after a thorough interrogation by myself, Professor Snape and other members of the Order."

"That's nice, I suppose."

Both Dumbledore and Dobby shot Harry looks of concern at his lack of emotion this morning.

"Harry?" asked Dumbledore tenderly.

"It doesn't matter, I didn't like him anyway, he wasn't a very good teacher," Harry said in a monotone. "I guess this means that I have to go and see Healer Lennox this morning also?"

"Actually, I don't believe that would be in everyone's best interests just yet, Harry."

Harry actually looked stunned and was beginning to show some form of emotion now. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you see," the Headmaster began slowly, not really wanting to explain, but knowing he had to, "A few hours ago, we learned that you are not the only student that Wymer Toft has abused and I've asked Healer Lennox to attend to them first and he agreed."

"How many others?" asked Harry with concern written on his face, which pleased Dumbledore greatly as he was seeing a glimmer of the Harry Potter he remembered.

"Two other students, a sixth year boy and a third year boy," Dumbledore replied. "Luckily for Mr. Haslet that Dobby decided to punish Wymer Toft when he did, or else the damage to him may have been severe. Luckily, he hadn't done much more than try to seduce the poor boy."

Dobby looked ashamed of what he had done and hid behind Harry's chair so that he could purposefully stub his toes into the floor, trying to punish himself.

"Dobby, please stop that," Harry admonished. "I told you already that you did the right thing last night."

"Yes, Harry Potter," the elf replied and stopped his self punishment.

Twinkling, the Headmaster continued, "Well, I see that you both quite protective of each other."

Harry just shrugged and asked, "So what happened to the other boy?"

"He refuses to admit that anything wrong was done to him, which concerns me greatly, as I could tell that he was in a great deal of physical discomfort when I spoke to him earlier this morning. So I've asked Poppy to give him a thorough examination today. However, from the extensive details that we extracted from Wymer Toft about what he did to both you and him, his abuse rivals your own."

Harry sighed. 'Someone went through what I did,' Harry though bitterly to himself.

Sensing what he was thinking, Dumbledore says, "I do not believe that you and he shared the exact same experiences. From what we gathered last night, you fought against your torture and refused to become broken by it, even when your body was responding, your spirit was still defiant. However, the other boy allowed himself to indulge in the pleasures that the curses brought. His reactions to the pleasure curse where the ones your captors wanted you to go through and as a result, we are afraid he has become addicted to the curse."

"How do you know that I'm not addicted to it as well?" asked the raven haired Gryffindor, not really wanting to know the reason why, but felt he should.

"Have you cast the Exoplasitus curse on yourself or asked anyone else to cast it on you?"

Harry shuddered at the sound of the curse briefly and then shook his head, 'no.'

Smiling, Professor Dumbledore says, "That's how I know."

Harry begins to say something, but the Headmaster cut him off, changing the subject, "Now it seems that we are once again without a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I am becoming concerned that maybe the post is jinxed after all, as I can't even keep it filled for half a term." Then smiling and with a twinkle in his eye, he continues, "You wouldn't happen to know of anyone who could fill the position do you?"

"Why are you asking me sir?"

"Well, according to Minerva, you have decided to not become an Auror after all and that does leave the career possibilities open for you doesn't it?"

"They won't take me anyway, not like I am now," Harry muttered under his breath.

"Harry," Dumbledore says fatherly, "any organization in the world would be proud to have you as a member. You have much to offer and to contribute. The Aurors would be foolish to turn down your application."

"But …"

"Many Aurors have gone through worse than you Harry and others have gone though quite a bit less. I think that you would fit in there quite well."

"I still need potions and I will not go near Snape again," Harry said defiantly.

"Professor Snape," the Headmaster quietly correctly.

"Don't correct me, he gets what he deserves and has earned."

Sighing Dumbledore continues, "Severus was working on my orders Harry, if your going to be angry with anyone then it should be me."

"I am angry with you," Harry said as a matter of fact. "However, you never answered my question."

"Which question was that?"

"Why were you asking my opinion about the Defense Against the Dark Arts post?"

Smiling once again, the Headmaster replies, "Well Harry, I was wondering if you would like to be the temporary teacher while I look for someone else to cover the position."

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"Mr. Creevey," Healer Lennox says as he bumped into him in the hallway, "I've been looking for you this morning."

"You have sir?"

"Yes, Headmaster Dumbledore informed me this morning that Professor Toft was apprehended last night for abusing students and he asked me to set an appointment to talk to you about it."

"That's okay, sir, I think you may have the wrong student."

"No, I do not believe so," Healer Lennox said with a slight sneer on his face. "Professor McGonagall has excused you from classes today and you are to come to my office after breakfast so that we can discuss the abuse you went through with Professor Toft."

Then Healer Lennox strode away leaving Colin to his thoughts.

'Why did they have to take him away from me?' thought Colin Creevey with a hint of despair. 'He was the only man who ever loved me.'

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Sitting in his wing back chair, Lord Voldemort opens the morning edition of the Daily Prophet and looks at the morning headline, 'Hogwarts Teacher in Azkaban for the Brutal Rape of Harry Potter!'

"Well, Bellatrix my dear," hissed the dark wizard, "It seems we now know who attacked Harry Potter this summer and the fools have placed him in the one place where it would be the easiest for me to reach out and take him."

Looking for her beloved master's shoulder Bellatrix LeStrange read the headline and smirked, "Wee baby Potter, finally got what was coming to him." Then the cold hearted witched laughed mercilessly. "Perhaps, he is even broken now having the world knows his shame."

"Perhaps, Bella, perhaps," hissed Voldemort, "However with Potter, that which does not destroy him, only serves to make him stronger and I do not want him becoming stronger."

"But surely my lord, this can't possibly make that brat any stronger than he thinks he is already?"

"I wonder," the dark lord began, but was cut off when waves of pain struck him and he fell out of his chair unto the floor screaming in agony.

"MY LORD?" screamed Bellatrix in concern.

"Not to worry Bella, it seems Harry Potter just read the morning edition."

"Is there anything I may do for you my lord?"

"Yes, bring me Wormtail, I have a job for him."

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In the Great Hall of Hogwarts, students were sitting at the house tables eating breakfast. Well everyone that is except for Harry Potter, he had put a little bit of food on his plate, but Hermione has once again taken it from him and began to pile it full of food.

"You know Hermione, I am able to fill my own plate with food in the mornings," Harry said irritably.

"Really? I have yet to see you do it all term," she replied smugly and continued to pile food in.

Ron, Neville and Ginny sniggered at him as the Head Girl set the plate back down in front of him.

"You know mate," Ron said sagely, "it's best to not argue with her."

Rolling his eyes, Harry mutters, "I know."

"Where were you this morning Harry?" Ginny asks. "We went by the infirmary to walk with you, but you weren't there."

"I had a meeting with Professor Dumbledore this morning, about last night."

"And …" Hermione said, as the others sat stock still waiting for the response.

"Well, he thinks that I shouldn't give up on being an Auror."

"Well, he's right you know. You make a good one, so I think you should go to Professor Snape and ask to be let back into the class," the Head Girl said quite bossily.

"Hermione, give it a rest, he doesn't want to have classes with Snape," Ron said in his defense.

"Well, I could do that," Harry said slyly. "However, I don't think I could handle that if I decide to start teaching the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes."

"What?" the other four Gryffindors said together.

It was about this time when the post owls arrived with their daily mail. Everyone looked up including Harry. Not that he had been expecting anyone to write him a letter, but he was expecting Hedwig to come down and visit him. She often did that in the morning to make sure he was alright. However, this morning she is no where to be seen and Harry returns to his breakfast when an owl lands in front of him with the morning edition of the Daily Prophet. After paying the bird a knut it takes off again and Harry takes a drink of his orange juice before opening the paper to read it.

Hermione, who had already opened her copy of the paper, gasps loudly and spits her juice all over the front page.

"Harry mate, mind if I have a look at your paper?" Ron asks. "Gee thanks," he continues before Harry could reply and snatches the paper away.

"What's wrong?" demands Harry and tries to get his paper back so he can look at it, however, Ron keeps it out of his reach. Giving up on his taller mate, Harry switches to Hermione, "What does the paper say Hermione?"

"You know I think that we should go somewhere else and discuss this Harry," Hermione says quickly and tries to pull him from the Great Hall with Ron's help.

However, before anyone could get up from the Gryffindor table, Pansy Parkinson, from the Slytherin table, stands up and screeches, "So Potter, I see from the headlines in the Prophet that you like it rough. Tied up in leather and pretending to be raped and tortured."

Harry blanched and froze in mid action as still as the grave. 'She did not say that,' he thought madly. 'How would she know about that?'

However, Pansy continued, "Yeah Potter, it says that you spent all of August learning to be a proper little bitch to Toft and his friends. Who knew that the Boy-Who-Lived would love being such a bottom?"

Harry stood there and began shaking as memories of his captivity began to flood his mind and it became all he could do not to fall to the ground and weep. However, when he felt someone touch his arm to support him, his body reacted to the touch in a physical manner and feeling his penis stiffen, Harry becomes frightened and deeply humiliated.

"Harry," Ron began, but before he could say another thing, Harry wrenched himself out of everyone's grasp and bolted from the Great Hall wildly, with Pansy Parkinson's screeching laugh filling the corridors. Then without a moment's hesitation, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville run after him from the Gryffindor table along with Luna Lovegood from the Ravenclaw table.

As Pansy stood there laughing herself silly, she failed to notice over half of the teachers at the head table staring daggers at her, nor all of the members of the D. A. and a very large number of students of Gryffindor House, Hufflepuff House and Ravenclaw House staring at her with loathing nor worst of all, Draco Malfoy seething with pure hatred as he stared at her.

No, Pansy Parkinson missed all of that, but not for long.

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"Harry!" Hermione called after him as they chased after him. However, he didn't seem to hear them.

"Harry, wait up mate," bellowed Ron to his best friend. "We only want to help."

However, Harry didn't seem to hear them. Either that or he was ignoring them. In any event Harry Potter was tearing through the corridors of the castle heading for one place and one place only, the infirmary.

Ron and Neville soon outdistanced the girls; they each had grown up and were both tall young men with long legs. Unfortunately when they could finally catch up to Harry, he was already in the infirmary and had just closed the door to his private room when they reached it.

"Damn it," swore Ron when he tried to open the door and it wouldn't budge.

"What's going on here?" demanded Madame Pomfrey. "Why are you all running in my infirmary?"

Just then Hermione, Ginny and Luna reached the outer doors to the hospital wing huffing and puffing from their run and Hermione had a hand to her side trying to sooth out a stitch.

"Did (huff) you (huff) read (huff) the prophet (huff) this morning?" asked Hermione in between gasps for breath.

"No, I haven't yet," answered the school nurse. "Why?"

Ginny continued at this point, being more athletic than the Head Girl was more used to physical exertions, "The front page was a huge article about what happened to Harry his summer, in full detail."

"Oh dear," whispered Madame Pomfrey, then she called for "Dobby!" However, when the house elf failed to appear before her, she thought, 'He must be in with Potter already.'

Moments later, Professor Dumbledore, McGonagall and Flitwick came bursting into the room.

"Poppy, how is Harry?"

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"Oh Pansy?" drawled Draco in a sing song voice that would have rivaled Luna Lovegood any day of the week.

Turning to him, Pansy took on an overly girly tone and replied, "Yes, Drakie Poo?" and then took hold of him arm possessively.

"That was quite a performance this morning wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was wasn't it? Did you like it Drakie?"

Smirking, Draco replied, "Actually no, I didn't."

Shocked, Pansy says, "But why not Drakie? Potter has it coming thinking that he is so high and mighty and better then we are."

"Do you know what you just did?" asked Draco with a cold stare in his eyes. "In one moment you've ruined all the work I put into Potter, to get him to open up to me so I could get his secrets for the Dark Lord."

"But it was all in the papers this morning Drakie, you don't have to fool with him any longer."

Sighing at her sheer stupidity, Draco replies, "Did you hear the Dark Lord say that Pansy?"

"Well … no, I didn't."

"Do you think he'll take that for an excuse as to why my work for him has been delayed? 'Pansy said I shouldn't fool with him anymore?' What do you think he'd say to that?"

Pansy gulped loudly and looked stricken. What had she done?

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Sitting in the corner of his room, Harry Potter was slowly crawling into the back of his own mind. The brave Gryffindor in him was slowly being conquered by his suddenly growing need to not be seen by others and to pretend that no one in the world knew the things he wished kept secret.

'They had no right to put that in the prophet,' thought Harry bitterly. 'Why do they always have to pry into my personal life?'

Harry was brought out of his musings for a moment why the pounding of his door. However, it was not enough to keep him from them. All he had left was his thoughts now, or so he led himself to believe and paranoia is not the best of company when one is hurting.

"Harry? Can you hear us? Let us in," came a muffled cry from outside his door.

Whether or not Harry heard this plea for admittance is not known, as he had already fallen into the darkness that only despair can bring.

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"Oh I just can't stand this," Hermione said as she stamped her foot in frustration. "Is there no way to open that door?"

"We are trying Miss Granger," the Headmaster replied sadly.

"You know Albus, I think that Potter has used a locking charm with a cascading sequence," squeaked Professor Flitwick excitedly. "I must remember to award Gryffindor House points for this. This is very remarkable magic."

"Filius, as much as I would like to see my house gain points, how does this help us get to Potter?" asked Professor McGonagall impatiently.

"It doesn't actually Minerva, buy understanding the problem, will help us solve it," explained the Charms teacher. "It seems that Potter has used a series of locking charms, but he has somehow added the cascading effect that I mentioned earlier."

"What does that mean Filius?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"It means that we have to figure out which charm was used in which sequence in order to unlock the door."

"And if we should perform a counter charm out of sequence?" the Headmaster asked with interest.

"Then the sequence resets itself and the order of the locking charms is scrambled and we have to start all over again," explained the tiny professor excitedly.

"You see Hermione, Harry and I do listen in class," Ron said in mock triumph, trying to alleviate his and Hermione's worries.

"Well, Harry does at any rate," the Head Girl replied scathingly. "How does that help us now?"

Before anyone could answer her question, Neville, who was getting tired of this debate, especially as Harry could be doing something drastic to himself again, pulls out his wand from it's holster and calmly says, "Everyone, move! NOW!"

The group turns to look at the Gryffindor with wide eyes and then as one moves out of the way and Neville performs the blasting curse on the door.

However, when the spell hits the door, it shimmers and bends to the force of the magic, but soon rebounds with a snap sending the blasting curse right back at Neville. Thinking quickly the boy jumps aside to the floor and the spell hit the wall behind him, shattering the stone and leaving a gaping hole to the morning sky.

"Well, Longbottom," sneered Draco Malfoy from the double doors leading to the corridor, "that was unexpected. Well, at least from you."

To Be Continued … Please Read and Review

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I wanted to thank the following people for reading and reviewing my chapter, I really appreciate it.

Anna-PotterFan, Bluetattingman, creaturesmint, Defi, Draconis Harold Weasley, Malach, Monica85, Rane, Separatrix, Sydney107, texasjeanette and Wren Truesong