Chapter 13
Summary: Harry explains his history and hopes that it wouldn't come back to bite him in the arse.
Notes: Sorry this chapter took so long, I really had no life between the end-of-year school work, the edits and the karate (I received my yellow belt, and yesterday I was informed that it is the last class for the year so I plan on trying to practice the three katas and then learn the fourth kata on my own in preparation for next year. School is still on until Friday the 2nd of December, though I still have to work Monday and maybe even Tuesday and then the holiday begins. I will then be able to finally finish this story and also be able to finish and publish some of the other stories I have been working on.
Harry
Harry motioned to the couches in the room when he noticed that no one moved and soon found himself squished between Nich and Sean for some reason.
He absolutely, completely, chose to ignore the knowing looks that Monroe and Rosalee shared and he also ignored the smug look that Rosalee directed his way while he was at it.
As always, his mind seemed to jump to wondering how long they would stay when they got to know the real him, but then he remembered Hermione's words and he was pretty sure that some of his old friends had sacrificed the chance of a second life to stay with him.
The thought gave him the strength to start with his story…after he also conjured up glasses of fire whisky and laughed at the faces Sean, Nick, and Monroe pulled. Rosalee was smart enough to decline until she saw the effects and decided she may need a glass after all, just for the heck of it.
"Firstly, I will tell you about my past. I know it won't make much sense right now, but I promise that it might make more sense once you know all of the facts." He took a deep breath as a slight, yet familiar, pressure built in the middle of his chest. But it was too late to back out now.
"My parents were James Potter and Lily Evans. They were quite young when I was born, but in the middle of a war it didn't really matter and my people had the tendency of wanting to leave a legacy behind if something were to happen to them. A prophecy was made that stated that a baby would be born with the power and destiny to stop the leader of the opposite faction, who had named himself the Dark Lord, and, naturally, he couldn't allow this." He took another sip of his whisky to steady himself before he went on.
"Two babies were born on the night that the prophecy stated, but the Dark Lord chose to go after one most similar to himself. I was one when the Dark Lord decided that I had to die." He ignored Rosalee's gasp even as he felt both Sean and Nick reach out and gripped his hands.
It was slightly awkward because he was sure that both men could see that the other had done the same, but it seemed as if they didn't care at the moment and that their main goal was to comfort him. He pushed on, "My father was killed without a second thought, but my mother was given three chances to stand aside. I later learned that this was because my mother's childhood friend had begged for her life to be spared, but I will get to that later."
His chest ached more at the memory of Severus, but he pushed on, "My mother still refused and the Dark Lord killed her, not knowing that she had enacted an ancient rite of sacrifice, which ensured that it was the Dark Lord that perished when he tried to kill me with the death curse instead."
Harry glared at the glass on the table as the memory of the next few years hit him, "I was sent to my mother's sister against the wishes of their wills, though no one but an old fool had known about it at the time, and I spent ten years as a convenient slave while shut off from a world that revered me as a hero for something I hadn't done."
A mirror shattered and Harry's head whipped around, hoping that he hadn't hurt anyone, but it hadn't been his magic that had caused it and his head snapped to Sean, who was looking at the shattered mirror in surprise while his eyes still glowed with a certain power. Harry gave a weak smile, "Don't worry, I can teach you how to control it."
He waved his hand to fix the glass, completely ignoring the surprised faces around him, and continued, "One day woke up and I was told that I would be going to the zoo with them because my babysitter was sick. They wouldn't usually take me so, naturally, I was extremely excited. While we were there I realized that one of the snakes could understand me and I ended up accidentally setting it free when my cousin pushed me over and I vanished the glass. My uncle knew what I had done and I was punished once more, but I was used to it at the time."
He expected to see judgment in their eyes, but when he looked around, he was surprised to see that most of them seemed pleased that his cousin had been taught a lesson, but they weren't happy when he mentioned the punishment. "Just before my eleventh birthday, I started receiving letters. But these letters were delivered by owls instead of postmen and my uncle tore every single one that we received or used them as kindle on the colder days. They couldn't stand it when something disrupted their 'normal' lives. Eventually, it became so bad that a literal tidal wave of letters came down the chimney and my uncle decided that we would be moving far away where 'they' can't find us."
He received looks of confusion at this, but simply shook his head and smiled fondly at the memory, "I didn't know who 'they' were, but we ended up at a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere. I have turned eleven when the lighthouse door was ripped off of its hinges and a literal half-giant came through the door. Naturally, I hid, but the man seemed cheery enough after he called my uncle a prune while bending up the end of my uncle's shotgun with a single hand. I decided he couldn't be too bad if he disliked my uncle so I revealed myself, only to be told that I was a wizard."
Gasps of shock echoed around the room, along with frowns of confusion, but no one interrupted him, "The man took me to collect my things for the school I had apparently been down to attend ever since the day I was born, and I was confused when people seemed all too happy to see me. Only to be told that I was 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' and that I had saved the Wizarding World from the Dark Lord."
Sean let out a choked sound at this and it seemed as if he couldn't keep his silence anymore, "You were eleven, and they…" He cut himself off and shook his head even as Harry nodded in confirmation.
"I was eleven, and after 10 years of 'servitude', I found out I was a hero in another world. I don't know what they expected, but I tried to play my part as best I could. In the end ,it led to me facing a shade of Voldemort, as the Dark Lord was known, but no one seemed to know the true story because it had been covered up again. But I didn't want any more attention so I kept quiet."
Rosalee frowned, "What school allows their students to walk right into danger?!" Harry simply smiled and shook his head, and Rosalee paled, "There is more, isn't there?"
Harry became serious and nodded, "I almost didn't make it to school in my second year because someone did everything they could to keep me from going back. They kept the letters from my friends and dropped a cake on my uncle's boss' head."
Nick squeezed his hand as he frowned, "They did what?!"
Harry smiled fondly as he remembered Dobby, "He went against his master's orders at the time to try and keep me from the danger that would happen at the school, but he was slightly crazy so he kind of went a little overboard, leaving my friends to break me out of the house with a flying car. A car we also used to get to Hogwarts when we couldn't get to the train. Which, naturally, we also got into trouble for."
Everyone seemed concerned, but then Harry turned serious, "He may have placed me in a few bad spots, but his heart had been in the right place. He saved my life quite a few times despite the trouble he initially caused. And he was right to try to keep me away, because I had to fight a giant basilisk with a sword at the end of my year after many beings had been petrified, luckily not killed."
Both men's bodies stiffened next to him and he was surprised when they moved even closer, almost instinctively boxing him in. It was Nick that spoke this time though, "When you say, giant…?"
Harry frowned as he wondered whether he should reveal it or not, but then he resigned himself to his fate, secretly enjoying the fact that they were listening and actually worrying about him, "I mean a basilisk about 15 to 18 meters long. Forgive me if I didn't stop to try and measure it."
His humor was met with deadly stares, though, for once, he didn't shrink away because he knew they were simply worried about his lack of care. Soon enough it became too much and he tried to avert their attention with the most likely topic possible, "In my third year I was met with the news that my godfather was a convict that had escaped the worst prison in existence and that he might be after my head after selling my parents out to the Dark Lord…"
He didn't allow them to say anything as he met them with a serious stare, "He was innocent of the charges. The night he was arrested they believed him to be guilty because he blamed himself for shifting the role of secret keeper to someone that he thought would never betray my family."
He saw their look of confusion and softly sighed, "A secret keeper is meant to keep the location of a place secret until their death, and he would've happily died for my parents, not that I would have wanted him to, but he decided that everyone would know that he was the secret-keeper and when the government arrested him, the man responsible for my placement at my mother's sister kept quiet that he was innocent, thus leaving him in a prison where creatures constantly sucked out your best memories and replaced them with your worst ones."
No one tried to interrupt as he continued, "He gave me the offer to live with him after we both escaped certain death…" He was about to skim over the rest when a light weight settled on his shoulder and he turned with widened eyes as he noticed Reaper-Hermione with her arms crossed. She must have cast some kind of spell because everyone could clearly understand her as she scolded him, "You mean that we rushed in and you managed to save yourself and Sirius from certain death when you managed to chase away hundreds of dementors…"
A figure materialized on his other shoulder and Harry's eyes widened before he froze in shock at seeing an awkward mini-reaper version of Sirius standing on his other shoulder, "I know I should've come to greet you sooner cub, but I couldn't protect you and the home that I promised you never happened…"
Harry didn't allow him to get any further as he shrugged off the men at his side in favor of carefully hugging his godfather once more, even if he was being more careful due to Sirius now being a mini version of himself.
He completely missed the soft looks from the men on each side of him and the bewildered, yet caring looks he received from Rosalee and Monroe. Hermione was simply being her smug self because she dragged Sirius out in the open, kicking and screaming one might say.
