What to do?
by BEWD Sorcerer
Disclaimer: Not mine! If Harry Potter were mine, then first off it'd be a yaoi, second it would also be available in manga and anime form.
It's those times when you realize something and just after one slow blink it's like you're seeing things in a new way, never before seen by you. It's all new.
That's what it was like. Harry had been getting anonymous letters, but he should have known who they were from; it was so damn obvious: the spidery, thin letters in shimmering, green ink spelling out complex thought patterns, sarcastic musings, and most importantly the truth. That's the only thing it could be. The pieces of the puzzle Dumbledore refused to let him find to finally piece together the answers to all his questions. There it was, laid out plainly before him.
He should have known. No one else would know that kind of information... except Dumbledore but Dumbledore wouldn't tell him anything unless it was in person. The facts of his life were finally revealed to him, but it wasn't by his mentor who he thought of as his honorary grandfather. No, it was the villain. The villain in his life told him all the things he wanted to know. Things that had been unjustly hidden from him since he entered the wizarding world.
Now he could see, see clearly what had been hidden. He felt so foolish to not have seen it before, but as it's said 'hindsight is 20/20'.
Dumbledore had been playing him the entire time.
Harry Potter was an experiment. Raised in a very similar situation to Voldemort, he was studied carefully; left with uncaring, abusive muggles, he was never saved because Voldemort had never been saved. Brought in by a Gryffindor, he was introduced into the wizarding world at eleven years old and no earlier. The only difference was that Harry had chosen to make friends and then to stick with them while Voldemort had rejected them. Harry chose to forsake solitude to grasp at love and acceptance. Dumbledore had been ecstatic. He had molded Harry into Voldemort's opposite, his antithesis, his enemy.
Only now fifteen years later was Voldemort able to realize he had been duped. There was no prophesy. It was all a load of tripe thought up by a constantly sugar-high old coot that had been plotting his demise from the moment they met. That meddlesome old codger had been manipulating them from the very beginning. It was too late to undo the damage he had caused when trying to figure out the old bastard's plans. He had acknowledged that, apologizing only for having not figured it out sooner and promising to do something about it.
But what now? Could he forgive the snake and doom his mentor or should he thank the snake for telling him and continue as an experiment to the manipulative old man who was not the person Harry thought he was. He couldn't ask anyone, not Dumbledore obviously and any teacher was certainly out of the question along with anyone from the ministry, even any aurors or members of the Order of the Phoenix, including the adult Weasleys, Remus, and Snape. He couldn't talk to Ron, who would blab the whole thing to Hermione, his girlfriend and who had figured it all out in first year but had conveniently forgot to mention it once Harry had regained consciousness after the battle with Quirrell.
Sirius was dead, so that was completely out of the question even though... that last letter from Voldemort had hinted he had knowledge about the Department of Mysteries that even the Unspeakables did not, but where could he have gotten it? Surely there wasn't a book titled 'The Secrets of the Department of Mysteries Revealed!'; that's ridiculous... but what if he did have information about the Veil? Surely he had found out about the prophesy being held down there, so what if he had heard something about the Veil? His thoughts once again returned to the validity of Voldemort's statements.
Even if he did believe what he was being told what would happen next? Would he join Voldemort and fight against the rest of the wizarding world? Would he have to fight his friends on the battlefield? If Voldemort was right and he cut the puppet strings tying him to Dumbledore, what would he do then? Would he go live with Voldemort? Or would this all be a trap and he be killed? Voldemort was trying to recruit him, that was for sure. He didn't agree with senseless killing nor did he agree with the manipulation of his life by Dumbledore, but he couldn't stand the prejudices on either side.
Out. He wanted out. His friends had betrayed him and his enemy had comforted him and informed him of the real facts that his supposed friends had withheld from him. He was angry and hurting, but he had to do something. Neither side would very happy with him when they found he didn't want anything to do with either of them. No longer wanting to fight Voldemort would assure him a one-way ticket to Azkaban while ignoring the truth and continuing in the direction that Dumbledore led him would ensure his death at Voldemort's hand. He didn't want to die, but neither did he want to end up in Azkaban.
Why couldn't he just live in peace?
Voldemort had mentioned a way out as well, but what could that be? He'd have to owl back and ask. That's all he could do at this point. Owl back and hope to Merlin that once again he did not get caught and the way out was a good, secure route, otherwise he'd be on the way to Azkaban within the hour. He had better get to work on that letter soon.
AN: Eheh. This was not intended to be a multi-chaptered fic... but I guess it's going to be. Hell, it wasn't even supposed to be written. ... I'm sorry! pets plot bunny Shhhhh... it's alright. I may not have wanted you when you first attacked, but I want you now (sound so wrong) so I'll take really good care of you and maybe I might continue this pitiful fic.