Chapter 22 – Atlas

As Dumbledore stood in front of the Great Hall delivering a heartfelt service in memory of Cedric, Harry could help but notice the similarities between the end of this year and he last. Feeling alone during the farewell feast after another stressful year, last year because of his curse and this year because of Voldemort's return.

He hoped that maybe next year wouldn't be nearly as difficult as the last two years were, but Harry knew that he shouldn't hold his breath. The fall out of Cedric's murder brought about a number of life changing events. Easily the most evident of these came when he was awoken in the hospital wing the morning after the task…

Flashback

As Harry started to rouse from his sleep, he became aware of a commotion going on in his room. His first instinct was to open his eyes and investigate the disturbance, but he thought better of it when it became clear that the conversation that woke him wasn't a very controlled one.

"Now see here Dumbledore… you've given me no evidence to prove your suspicions. I will not be plunging our world back into chaos over something such as rumor and here say."

"Cornelius, it is clear that something happened last night. Something that would be foolish for us to ignore."

The voices were getting louder, meaning either the conversation was getting more heated or they were getting closer. Harry was able to deduce that if the Minister and Dumbledore were getting closer, they would obviously want to ask questions.

"I sent Aurors to investigate the area where you found the boy and the search turned brought about nothing."

"Only because you waited to send your Aurors until an hour after Harry was recovered."

"Are you trying to imply anything Dumbledore?!"

"No minister. I'm simply saying that if you would've been prompt with the investigation-"

"Based only on the word of a fourteen year old boy who is a known-"

"Is something wrong Minister?"

Harry's sudden entrance into the conversation surprised both men, but Fudge managed to school his face despite himself.

"Harry m'boy! The Headmaster and I have a few questions regarding what happened in the maze last night."

Thus Harry recounted everything he could remember from when he and Fleur grabbed the cup until his return back to Hogwarts. Throughout the tale, the Minister's face was slowly changing to one of annoyance. To him the story seemed outrageous, You-Know-Who was dead so he couldn't possibly be responsible for what happened.

"Professor? What I don't understand is what Krum and Professor Moody have to do with this."

"First of Harry, the man you knew as Professor Moody was in fact not him," a look of shame crossed the old wizards face. Inside he knew that his failure to spot the imposter was the reason for Harry's capture," The man you knew was Barty Crouch Jr. who imprisoned Alastor in a trunk all year so that he could Polyjuice as him. He's the one who placed the cup within the maze, allowing him to change the destination of the portkey and lead you to Voldemort." If Dumbledore saw that the annoyed look of Fudge's face had returned, he didn't acknowledge it. "From there he recruited Krum and Imperiused Mr. Diggory in an effort to make sure you made it to the cup."

Fudge decided now that it was his turn to step forward and voice his opinion on the events of the previous night.

"See there Harry. It was those two who were responsible for what happened to you, not You-Know-Who. You had to deal with a great bit of trauma last night, so you only thought that you saw him. Stress can cause the mind to see very strange things after all."

"But I did fight him Minister. How else would I get all these injuries if it wasn't him?"

"The task itself was very dangerous. It's more likely that you encountered some beast than fought the Dark Lord."

"I saw him! He's back! And his followers had returned to him. Lucius Malfoy was there. So was Nott, Crabbe, Goyle-"

This brought out the Minister's fury. "Now see here Mr. Potter, all those men are upstanding citizens. You can't simply go throwing around accusations like that without proof."

Fudge's mind was whirling. Somewhere deep down he feared that maybe the boy was right but he simply refused to believe. He searched for any other alternative until he seemingly put two and two together.

"I see what you're doing. You're trying to destroy the names of our society's finest citizens. You want to topple our very way of life. I should say I'm not surprised, given…what you are. Either way I won't stand for any of this." He turned and seemed ready to leave but stopped after only a few steps. He begrudgingly turned around and pulled a sack of coins from his robes. "Oh yes, here's your winnings Mr. Potter." Without another word he strolled purposefully from the Hospital Wing.

Harry couldn't believe what he just heard. That man was willing to hide his head in the sand than accept the truth that Voldemort had returned. One thing he said did cause Harry some concern.

"What did he mean by 'what I am' Professor?"

Dumbledore seemed to shrink even more within himself at these words. Grappling with the best way to handle the situation, he simply motioned to a copy of the Daily Prophet which sat at Harry's bedside. Picking up the paper, another of Harry's wort fears was realized. Atop the paper in bold letters, read the headline:

Harry Potter Revealed As A Werewolf!

Flashback End

The entire school seemed to be avoiding him like the plague, as if all of a sudden he was going to lose it and attack them. Never mind that he had now lived with them for four years without any sort of thing happening. What bothered him more was that it seemed like all eyes were on him, even more so than usual. Most wizards were brought up raised that werewolves were nothing but mindless animals that would bite you as soon as look at you.

Sighing heavily to himself, Harry excused himself quickly from the hall once Dumbledore had finished the eulogy. He needed fresh air, so he decided that a short walk out on the grounds would do him good. It didn't help any that he could smell the apprehension and fear on every to the point that it was nauseating.

He began to cross the grounds towards his usual spot along the Black Lake, underneath a lone tree, when he heard a voice behind him.

"It's difficult, non?"

He turned around to find Fleur approaching him. Even though he had expressed his desire to be alone, he couldn't help but feel relief at her presence.

"It's not the stares that bother me, I've dealt with that my entire time in school. It's the emotion behind those stares. Everyone is either afraid of me or disgusted by what I am."

"'Arry. You still 'ave people who look past what you are. Ron, Neville, many of the teachers…, 'Ermione."

Harry noticed the pause at Hermione's name but decided that it wasn't important enough to question. He knew that he still had a lot of people who supported him, but it didn't diminish the fact that the overwhelming majority of students now saw him as some kind of dark creature.

"How do you deal with it Fleur?"

"Moi? I simply ignore all zose bigots. I prove to zem zat I am better than zeir prejudices."

"If only it were that easy."

An awkward silence settled between them, Fleur sensing that her words did little to help and Harry not wanting to go any further.

"I will be leaving shortly after ze feast." Harry finally looked up and met her eyes and for the first time he noticed how entrancing her deep blue eyes truly were. "I will miss you 'Arry."

"I'll miss you too Fleur."

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend, in truth he was the first real friend that she had gained outside anyone from her immediate family. Disengaging her arms so she could pull back to look back in his eyes, Harry noticed that she seemed to be pondering something.

"It seems zat I 'aven't zanked you for saving my life once again."

"It was nothing Fleur. Really. There's no need to thank me."

Instead of trying to argue with him over his heroics, she leaned forward a place a brief, chaste kiss on his lips.

"Au revior "Arry." She turned and began to head towards the Beauxbatons carriage, leaving Harry with a goofy grin on his face. Maybe his future didn't look so bad after all.

The future.

His smile disappeared instantly as another memory from earlier that morning was brought back to the forefront,

Flashback

After finding out that his secret was out in the open, Dumbledore had Harry released from the Hospital Wing and brought to his office. Judging by the look on Dumbledore's face, he wasn't going to give good news in this meeting.

When they entered the office, both were surprised to see a large black dog waiting on them.

"Sirius, I thought I had instructed you to make arrangements ready for the old crowd. What are you doing here?"

"You tell me that you have to tell Harry something that is important for him to fight Voldemort and you expect me to just leave?"

"You're leaving Padfoot?"

Sirius' conflicting emotions were evident on his face. He didn't want to abandon Harry but Dumbledore convinced him that it was necessary.

"I'd never abandon you Harry. I'm sorry that I haven't been around but I promise we'll see each other soon."

Harry nodded, even though deep down, he was truly hurt over the whole thing. He felt a little better that Sirius stuck around long enough to support him now, but it was a hollow feeling. Sensing defeat, Dumbledore figured that Sirius would learn about this conversation soon enough and decided to continue.

"I'm sorry for what you had to go through last night Harry. You must've no doubt been very brave to confront the Dark Lord. I had hoped that we would have at least another few years before we would have to have this conversation. With Voldemort's return already a burden on you…I am sorry Harry."

"Sorry for what sir?"

"For placing on you, the greatest of burdens."

With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore's pensieve flew from one of the cabinets onto his desk. Bringing the tip of his wand to his forehead, he pulled out a silvery strand and placed it into the basin.

Dumbledore then began to recount the tale of how he had stumbled upon a prophecy while interviewing an applicant for a Divination Professor. With another wave of his wand, the form of a younger Professor Trelawney rose out of the pensieve and recited the prophecy.

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...

Harry wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about all of this. How could a supposed prophecy from someone he considered a fraud be the reason for most of the hardship in his life.

"So what you're saying is that Voldemort wants to kill me because one of us has to kill the other?" At Dumbledore's no, he thought about what he had just heard further. If the prophecy was given to Dumbledore, then…

"How did Voldemort find out about the prophecy sir?"

"It was overheard by a young Death Eater. Thankfully Voldemort only heard the first part and has never heard the whole thing."

Harry looked over at Sirius, his godfather was at a loss of words. What was just revealed made him even more ashamed for not being there for his godson, his eyes tearing up at the thought. Harry wasn't fairing much better, but he needed to know the answer to what he considered to be the most important question.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Dumbledore seemed defeated by this. In all of his time of knowing the Headmaster, Harry had never seen him so broken down. The guilt of failing to protect James and Lily and his continual failure at protecting Harry had begun to eat away at him.

"I couldn't. I wanted you to have the time to be happy and live out a normal life." Dumbledore tried to quickly compose himself, he needed to be strong, not for the whole of the wizarding world, but for the young man in front of him. "It seems though, that time has never been on our side."

-HP-

The train ride was a somber one for much of the Hogwarts students. The laughter and merry making that usually accompanied the end of the year was now replaced with a deafening silence. It was a very similar feeling to when the Dementors were around the year prior, and even then the mood managed to improve after they left. Even Malfoy hadn't made an appearance, which under any other circumstances would've been cause for alarm.

For Hermione, her thoughts were focused on that of her best friend. Ever since he was released from the Hospital earlier that day, he was very subdued, almost depressed. She knew that Harry would brood after Cedric's death but even this was startlingly low for Harry. He had barely said two words to anybody all day.

Right before they had left in the carriages to go to Hogsmeade station, Hermione had sought out Dumbledore and asked him if Harry could stay with her family at some point over the summer. She knew that him being alone was the worst thing for him and hoped to help him break out of his funk.

Dumbledore though, thought it was best if she stayed at some pace he called headquarters. When asked about it, he informed her that that was all he could say. She then asked if Harry would be there, the Headmaster's only responded cryptically with, "You'll see him in due time."

The train began to slow to a stop and shortly after, all the students began filing out to meet up with their families. Once outside the barrier, Hermione began to make her way towards her parents before turning around to talk to Harry.

She found him looking over dejectedly towards his aunt and uncle who hadn't seemed to notice him quite yet. Her heart went out to him, his misery was palpable and evident on his face. Without another word, she stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

"Don't wprry Harry. Hopefully Dumbledore will come get you in just a couple of days." She pulled back and was relieved to see a small smile on his face. She returned it, before deciding to do something she'd never done before. She stretched up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. "Keep in touch, will you."

She then turned and began to make her way back to her parents, if she had bothered to turn around, she would've noticed brief smile followed by a look of confusion on Harry's face as he touched where she had kissed him.

Hopefully, this summer would be a quick one.

Author's Note:

Alright! We finally finished fourth year. Now I said that fifth year would be where the story starts to go more AU but a few canon events will still be happening, just with a twist to it. Now that Harry's secret is out, it's gonna shake things up in his life quite a bit.

I'm going to take a break from this story for a while, so that A. I can get a few ideas on where the next couplf of chapters will go and B. to start up another story or two. I haven't decided if the story should continue on in additional chapter or f I should start and fic. Feel free to PM me or comment in a review what you think would work best. I have a lot of other story ideas so I might make a poll to see what you guys would want to see.

As Always, thanks for reading!