Harry stumbles towards the door late at night after wishing all the snakes goodnight – each and every one of the now forty-six reptiles because they get upset if Harry doesn't and will invade his bed.
So Harry is tired and sleepy and honestly forgot he agreed to take on another kid. He reaches the door and something tells him to stop. He pauses, wondering who would be knocking at his door this late, instead of barging in like the Unspeakable normally does.
Harry waits just in front of the door for a long moment, tense for a reason he doesn't quite understand. What's wrong? Something is wrong.
"It's me," Albus calls out softly. "Harry, what you're feeling, please try to ignore it."
Harry fingers twitch but he makes the conscious decision to not summon the elder wand. He pulls open the door and -forgetting he agreed to take another kid- just kind of stares at Albus while holding the door open.
There's a boy standing beside the Dark Lord, head tilted down and shoulders hunched. The same size as Tom and Gellert but with none of the overwhelming confidence so he seems much smaller. The boy's straight hair looks black but he moves his head slightly and the light from the house catches, turns the colour a deep russet. He peeks up at Harry through a thick fringe, with big and blank grey eyes.
"This is Credence," Albus introduces, head high and expression closed off. He blinks and finally seems to realise he's talking to Harry, turning apologetic as his posture relaxes. "Sorry for the late hour, this is rather urgent."
"I wasn't doing anything," Harry reassures, stepping back and ushering them through. "Just goodnight kisses."
Albus raises an eyebrow. "For the boys?"
"The snakes," Harry sighs and looks past the two as they file into the house. Harry scans the street, still isn't sure why he feels so sick. "Why do I-"
Credence walks past, ushered in front of Albus, and Harry breathing stutters – choking him.
"Stay further away, it's bleeding through," Albus murmurs. "I need to put up proper wards, as soon as possible."
"Is it a curse?" Harry asks, not understanding but closing the door and shooing them upstairs.
"It's-" Albus looks down at Credence, who curls in on himself more. "I'll explain later."
When they get to the second floor landing, Albus pulls out his wand and the house unfurls like a blooming flower, pulling out corners it should not have and walls that couldn't have possibly fit. A third floor forms and Albus pushes Credence up the last set of stairs and into a bedroom where he forms furniture from dust.
A massive circular ward is carved into the bare walls, crawls up to the ceiling, spills across the floor. Albus pulls out a bag of something, tucks it away into a corner and the divots blaze red before settling into a faint glow, before being covered entirely by a layer of plaster and paint.
Harry waits by the door, his arms crossed, doesn't realise he's scratching his own wrist until he feels the wet blood start to seep under his nails. He takes a calming breath and turns to the boy. "Credence?" Harry tilts his body sideways, trying to see under the fringe. "I'm Harry, I guess you're bunking with me for a while."
Credence turns to look at Harry's feet but doesn't respond.
"I gave it a calming potion," Albus cuts in. "It's – Credence is responding oddly to it."
"Do you need anything?" Harry asks worriedly. "I can wake Gellert, he's well into his potions phase and so he knows everything – about everything."
"That might just make it worse," Albus sighs and hovers a hand over Credence's shoulders. "Credence? Go to bed please."
The boy doesn't move for a long moment and then walks to the large bed and climbs into it – still fully dressed.
Harry darts a glance at Albus who is putting up extra wards just in case. He moves over to the bed and smiles down at Credence. "I'm sure you'll feel better in the morning."
Credence turns slightly, staring blankly in Harry's direction, and his fringe falls back. Dim green runes are flaking off his skin, dissolving, sputtering under another power.
"Harry," Albus calls.
Harry hesitates and his hand trembles because he just feels so- but he brushes his fingers through Credence' fringe, hopes it's reassuring, even a little bit. "It's nice to meet you, Credence. Sweet dreams."
Back downstairs, Harry and Albus sit together on the couch, tea set up on the low table in front of them.
"The curse?" Harry prompts when Albus does nothing but cradle his tea cup.
Albus shakes his head, stroking a hand over his short beard. "No. No, Credence isn't…he isn't cursed."
"Why do you make that sound like it's a bad thing..."
Albus looks up. "I found Credence only recently, a few months back, after watching you with your boys and thinking maybe I had more family out there. He's a distant relative, an orphan now, and he didn't grow up in the best environment."
Albus takes a deep breath. "I never met him properly, never got close enough to feel… They attacked him because of me and I only now found out that Credence is an Obscurus."
"And I don't know what that is," Harry admits.
"When a young child supresses their magic -usually seen when living in difficult muggle homes like Credence- they develop an Obscurus. It's a…" Albus pauses here and chooses his words wisely. "A representation of the child's magic, of the rejection, of how they tore it out of themselves. The child -called an Obscurial- is no longer in control of the magic, and in later stages the magic breaks free entirely."
"So Credence is an Obscurial?" Harry confirms. "And he's sick?"
"Not quite," Albus sighs heavily. "It – he's no longer sick. He's not an Obscurial any longer."
"He's recovering?" Harry wonders.
"I'm still looking at options," is Albus says and seems reticent to explain further. Albus places his tea cup down and pulls out his wand instead. "That feeling you get around it -around Credence- is the abnormal magic reacting with your own and its instinct to…feel upset around it." Albus raises his wand and a lamp flickers off and bleeds into the air, flows to Albus who makes it shift into recoiling, flaking mist. "This is an Obscurus."
Harry watches the dust and remembers his cupboard under the stairs. He remembers feeling dizzy and half awake, for days. He remembers the mist, the dust bleeding from his chest, his hands disintegrating.
Harry remembers vomiting shadows that scraped his throat raw, that clung to the inside of his mouth and choked him. He remembers screaming, trying to scream, trying to hold himself together as he fell apart and coalesced and broke and reformed and shattered and
don't leave me alone
thesesmallmiracles
thiscomfortingmagic
Idon'twanttobealone
Harry flinches from a touch on his shoulder.
Albus is watching him, hand half outstretched but not attempting to touch him again. "Harry."
"Are you staying the night?" Harry asks.
Albus shakes his head. "I need to go back and take care of some things. I'll return in the morning if possible, afternoon at the latest." He pauses. "Try to keep Credence in the room upstairs. It's safer if it's in there."
What Albus did not tell Harry is that an Obscuro is magic detached from a child. 'Credence' is not a child, it is not human. 'Credence' is broken, warped magic and it should not have a consciousness – it should not have a mind at all.
Whatever it is that has taken the form of a boy, it's not a creature or a being, it is a rotten thing. It is an abomination to magic, and the parasite devoured the real Credence – mind, body and soul.
It thinks it is Credence.
The Obscuro is playing pretend.
But Harry does not know this. He feels bad in the presence of the fake child but thinks it's just guilt or sorrow at the thought of a young child suffering, that maybe it's the detached magic like Albus told him.
Harry clearly isn't expecting everyone else to also feel bad.
In the morning, Credence wakes in a strange bed with only vague memories of people trying to hurt him and after (after the screaming) the red haired man leading him here and a man with green, green eyes wishing him a good sleep, a comforting hand on his head.
Credence hesitantly ventures out from his strongly warded bedroom on the newly made third floor. He tip-toes downstairs, not knowing where he is exactly but his relative -Albus Dumbledore- promised it would be a safe and good place.
Tom shivers and grips the dining table. Gellert looks out to the hallway.
Mooney slams himself against the backdoor, only able to fit his giant head inside, snarling and thrashing, almost frothing at the mouth. The walls strain, claws tearing through dirt and wood.
Harry flinches back hard, dropping a pot of soup, and wandlessly throws a shield over the two boys at the breakfast table on autopilot.
Gellert is out of his chair already, wand raised and prepared for an attack. Tom ducks behind the table for a physical barrier, trying to ask the snakes what's wrong, but they all rapidly retreat backwards, some of the more aggressive species rearing back to strike, all looking towards the hallway leading to the stairs.
"Credence," Harry gasps, thinking someone might be trying to hurt the boy. He leaps over snakes and bursts out of the kitchen, skidding down the hallway and grabbing the end of the railing to swing himself around and look up the stairs.
Credence is crouched on the second floor landing, hands to his ears to block out the overlapping snarling and roars mixed with vicious hissing.
Harry darts upstairs and snatches the boy up onto a hip, hurrying back to the third floor Albus set up. Harry sees a blur from the corner of his eye coming out of a hidey-hole on the wall and snatches the striking cobra out of the air with well-trained seeker skills, tossing it sideways into Gellert's room where it bounces on the bed.
"Oh, they're just playing," Harry laughs nervously, patting Credence on the back to soothe him as Harry rushes upstairs. He skids into Credence's room and slams the door shut.
Tom and Gellert stay in the kitchen, gripping their wands. After a brief moment, the animals settle down, still eying the upstairs rooms but no longer so violent.
"That must be Credence," Gellert says pleasantly. "What an...interesting boy."
"We need to kill it," Tom decides. He shudders, unable to shake the feeling of Credence's aura off him. "I hate it. It's wrong."
"Harry will be very upset," Gellert warns but does not disagree. He looks to the third boy, still sitting at the table. "And you?"
Death waves a dismissive hand. "What do I care? It will decay, and I will claim it in the end. All is well." Death pauses and looks up, immediately locating Harry's exact position. "On second thought..."
Upstairs, Harry shushes Credence gently, rubbing circles on his back. "It's okay. Everything is okay, I've got you." Harry turns his head to look out of the window and winces when his muscles pull strangely.
Credence's face settles back into a human shape, the dust absorbed back into its false skin. He blinks and sees blood is soaking the shoulder of Harry's jumper, the top layer of skin along his neck and collar flayed off by the particles of ash.
Credence hiccups, eyes tearing up.
"Oh, poor thing," Harry coos. He lowers Credence to the ground so they can talk face to face (and Harry can finally introduce himself properly) but his words stutter when he sees blood on the boy's chest. "Are you hurt? Credence? Did a snake get you?"
Credence shakes his head and backs away, shoulders hunching.
Harry only now realises that there's no way a crying boy can soak through his jumper that fast. Harry pulls at his clothes, sees what is definitely not Gryffindor red, and hesitantly puts a hand to the side of his neck. It comes away dripping with blood.
"Oh," Harry says and sits on the floor before he passes out from blood loss. "Credence, can you call Tom for me? Don't – don't leave the room though, don't leave Albus' wards." The walls spin and Harry puts a hand down to brace himself when he sways. His entire arm is wet, there's a puddle on the carpet. "Just – just call Tom, he's ironically really good at - at healing."
The last thing Harry's sees is Credence reaching out for him.
.
A/N: I'll make Credence the most terrifying yet cuddly person in this family, just you wait.
I'm playing fast and loose with canon so yeah, Credence now has red hair like Albus, and he's basically just a straight up monster. Tom and Gellert are going to teach him to eat their enemies and Credence is just going to be so happy to help.
Things I laughed at so hard I was crying while typing; Harry catching a cobra, Credence thinking he's a real boy, and despite living with Harry so long Tom's first instinct is still to just kill it.