AN- Hey guys! Sorry for the massive delay but I've been working through some stuff, though hopefully now I'm ready to write some more. This chapter was a long time coming but once I got into it it seemed to write itself!
I have to thank all of you for the wonderful reviews you've sent me but specifically Lizzybear54 who helped give the motivation to continue writing this!
Comments, reviews and criticism - whether constructive or not - would be wonderful and really help me.
Thanks for waiting, and I hope you enjoy it!
All the Best, ChrysosArgentum!
Chapter 3 - Daniel
The room was silent in the face of Cobra's final remark. Lupin knew he needed to take control of things now before the room descended into absolute madness. The werewolf had always had a closer relationship with the muggle world than the average wizard due to his lycanthropy. After the death of his closest friends and the betrayal of another he had abandoned the magical world altogether, spending months living alone in great forests where Moony tore apart trees in his rage and hunger, before finally settling in a small flat and private tutoring several young adults.
This was what helped him to have a greater understanding of the situation than the other members of the Order, as the wizarding world had always seen mental illness as little more than an odd quirk in some cases, or complete and total death of the mind in others. His time in the muggle world had opened his eyes to the different ways in which the mind could be injured and the many complex and varying disorders of the mind.
Harry's miraculous change into 'Cobra' was far out of his admittedly limited expertize, however he did at least understand that Harry appeared to have suffered from an extreme identity disorder for most of his life. Lupin pushed away the ocean of guilt he felt over the abandonment of the child who must have suffered a thousand tortures to destroy his mind to the level it appeared, he would grieve later.
He turned to his adopted cub, seeing the eyes of a dangerous individual shining through the face of a young, lost child.
"You made a deal," Lupin said, "I want to speak to the other one… Daniel was it?"
The Slytherin appraised him, and Remus waited patiently for his verdict. He could tell Cobra was deciding whether to trust him, and allow the deal to go through, or to fight it, doubtlessly finding several loopholes to exploit. Finally he smiled in a chilling lipless way, before nodding once and closing his eyes. Harry's whole demeanour changed in the few seconds his eyes were closed, and when they flickered open he appeared a different person in the same body.
The teenager now appeared relaxed and his face was less closed off. He looked ready for Lupin's questions, but also undeniably confident in the subtle way some people are. He smiled reflexively as though that was a common expression for him and ran his hand through his hair, pulling it away from his face and drawing attention the bright green eyes and making the boy look carelessly handsome.
"Hello." he remarked casually, looking around the room. His expression did not falter though he clearly looked Kingsley, Bill and the twins up and down in a way that made Nymphadora smirk and Hermione and Ginny giggle helplessly. "It's nice to finally meet you Remus," the teenager asked as he dragged his eyes back to the werewolf seated across from him. "I should probably say that you're one of the few people that all of us trust, and you've helped Harry with so much that I have to thank you."
Lupin's smiled at the boy, seeing bits of what Harry would become when he was an adult and feeling unspeakably proud of him already. "You don't need to thank me. I'd do anything for Harry." He said plainly. "I must admit that my knowledge of his, of your condition is little and I am no expert in disorders of the mind in general but I will do everything I can to help you all."
It was here that someone finally broke the tense silence that had taken over the room. McGonagall appeared to be the first to comeback to herself.
"May I interrupt for a moment Remus?" the transfiguration professor asked. "I confess myself very out of depth but might I suggest someone calls the Headmaster here?" Remus considered this for a moment. He knew that Dumbledore was their leader but he also knew their leader was as flawed as any man. Sirius' wrongful incarceration had taught him that and if his conclusions about the reason for Harry's mental illness were even half right then the headmaster had made some serious mistakes. None the less he knew that Dumbledore would never realise the true extent of Harry's problems unless he saw it for himself. The werewolf was confident that if the worst came to it, the unexpected ally in Severus would give him and undoubtedly Sirius also enough to get Harry away somewhere to heal.
Speaking of Sirius, the animagus was still stunned and quiet from Cobra's rather sharp comment earlier but he seemed to be aware that something was very wrong and knew that anger wouldn't help now. Molly Weasley however, appeared to be less understanding of the situation.
"I think it's time for the children to go to bed now isn't it?" She said "Chop, chop! Boys, Hermione Ginny up you go." She didn't speak especially loudly but Daniel flinched and had to shut his eyes, taking deep breaths for a moment. When he opened the once more he appeared shaken and was biting his lips.
"Could you be quite… quiet, Mrs Weasley?" he asked, "It's getting harder to stay out for long and there's only so much I can hold them back through." The Weasley matriarch looked shocked and nodded for a moment before turning back to the children who looked outraged at her dismissal but were keeping from shouting out due to Daniel's warning.
"I think it is better they stay, actually Molly dear." Remarked Arthur. The wizard had been looking at Harry's form before turning to his wife. "They know Harry better than anyone, and they may have some have a better view of the situation than the rest of us. I'll get the headmaster shall I?" Mr Weasley directed his final question at Remus who nodded in agreement. Mrs Weasley looked for a moment as though she was going to fight back before sitting back down, looking very much as though she didn't agree.
Whilst Arthur quickly floo'd out, Remus turned back to the alter. "Am I correct in calling you Daniel?" he asked.
"Dan's fine, actually." The teenager replied. He had been watching Molly carefully as though to step in himself but now turned back to his ex-professor. "I will answer the best I can, but I hope you understand that I can't give everything away. Some of Harry's psyche is damaged beyond what you can imagine and until we know we can trust everyone in this room – as much as I would like to give you all the benefit of the doubt – some of this will have remain secret."
"Damaged? How damaged? What's wrong?" Sirius appeared to have reached the point where he could no longer cope with the new information. "Remus, what is it?"
Lupin turned to his friend, with a grim look. "I'm not so sure myself yet Padfoot, wait for the headmaster to get here and then we'll find out."
Dan turned to the Azkaban escapee with a hesitant smile. "I'm sorry for what Cobra said earlier," the teen remarked. "He's always been… difficult with emotions and he tends to cut people with his words before he'd say a nice thing."
"That's… okay." Sirius replied. He looked as though he didn't know how to talk to his version of Harry, and relief broke over his face when a distraction appeared in the form of Arthur arriving with Dumbledore.
The headmaster was dressed in lilac robes, dotted with golden suns. He surveyed the room with twinkling eyes but stopped abruptly on the form of Harry. "Ah." He said. Clearly Mr Weasley had told him some of the situation because the headmaster was looking at the Gryffindor child with an especially intense look. "Arthur did explain some of the situation," he said looking at Remus, "What appears to be the problem?" he asked. Dan frowned at the fact Dumbledore had spoken over him but seemed resigned more than anything.
"I'm just about to ask, headmaster, but from what we already know Harry has been hiding exactly how much," the werewolf paused, "…Some things have affected him." The elderly wizard nodded quietly looking at the boy shrewdly. Finally he settled himself at the end of the table with Kingsley and Arthur, taking a several sherbet lemons out from his robe and pulling them apart. The Weasley children, Hermione and Nymphadora were seated by Harry, Lupin and Sirius around the middle with Molly, Bill and McGonagall at the other end. Mad-eye Moody was still standing in the corner, though he had at least lowered his wand from where it was earlier pointed at Cobra's back.
Lupin turned back to Dan. "As far as I understand Harry's suffering from some kind of identity disorder. Could you elaborate on that? And maybe explain it to those that don't understand?"
The teenager smiled with a flash of teeth before looking a little more serious. "Harry's mind split into several distinct personalities to deal with how his relatives treat him. The earlier alters are much less developed but as his mind got more used to breaking under pressure it began to crack all over allowing some of the break to happen more slowly. From what Alex understands the longer it takes for the personality to spilt off the more emotionally developed it is, and the closer to Harry's real self it is. I myself seemed to break off very slowly over the course of a year and possibly longer which means I'm probably the most in touch with my emotions and a fairly good example for what Harry could have grown up to be. Cobra on the other hand broke off in the time it took Harry to be sorted and so he's noticeably stunted."
"What do you mean, how his relatives treat him?" Professor McGonagall asked in a strangled voice before turning to Albus. "I told you!" she snapped. Molly looked horrified at confirmation of what she had long suspected whereas Kingsley and Nymphadora looked confused as they had believe Harry's relatives to be strange; but overall normal for muggles.
"Cobra mentioned there were 8 of you but he didn't go into much more detail, could you tell us about them?" Lupin continued questioning regardless.
The teen seemed to look inwardly for a moment, before replying. "We think Boy was first, as he'd the youngest and doesn't seem to age with Harry as some of the older alters do. From what we can tell Harry reached a point where he understood that his relatives weren't supposed to treat him the way they do, and couldn't cope with the idea that his Uncle specifically hated him enough to beat him for it. This conflict lead to the first 'break' in his personality so that Harry didn't have to know how much his last remaining family dislikes him, and to protect him from the fact he is abused on a regular basis when he stays with them."
Dan was straight and to the point with his description of the younger alter but it was clear to see from his description that the thought of this part of Harry was painful for him. The members of the Order looked shocked at this revelation, although the children seemed as though their suspicions were correct. Molly let out a choked sob at the news that Harry was physically abused and Professor McGonagall was white as she held a shaking hand to her mouth. Sirius looked angry more than anything but there was guilt in his eyes, no doubt that he had run off after Wormtail rather than stayed with Harry on that night so long ago. Remus looked over at Daniel to prompt him to move on before Sirius fell into a full pool of self-loathing for his actions
The alter took a moment to collect himself before continuing. "Boy seems to be permanently stuck at 4 years old, whereas the next of us, Missy is stuck at 5 years old, although she does have some characteristics that are higher developed for her age."
"Her?" Hermione asked, speaking up for the first time. The bookworm appeared to be trying to take in all the information and forget for now that this was her friend. "There are female alters?"
Daniel smiled fondly at the girl. "Yes. Alex says that everyone's personalities contains small parts that could manifest as either gender, and some have characteristics that are fully based as more masculine or in this case feminine than there true gender. In Harry's case, because one of these parts broke off it took on a female form so we see it more outwardly displayed than it would be in another person." Hermione nodded understandingly but Ron spoke up loudly.
"I don't have any female bits in me!" he said with all the outrage of a pubescent boy defending his masculinity.
"Honestly Ronald, grow up!" Hermione scolded, "It wasn't meant as a strike against you personally, and besides Dan has already asked us to keep quiet and shouting isn't going to help." She looked over at Dan once more who had stiffened at Ron exclamation. "Are you alright?" she asked the alter with concern. This seemed to aggravate Ron all the more, and he looked ready to explode with jealousy.
Dan gave his hosts young best friend a considering look, before deciding to deal with that later. He continued. "Missy is born female because a part of Harry looked up to his aunt as a role model and when she began to give him chores around the house he took it as a chance to impress her. But Petunia would never give Harry an ounce of praise and continued to spew vitriol at every chance to hurt Harry, which eventually lead to Missy breaking off so that she could look up to her aunt without Harry feeling conflicted in his dislike for her. Missy herself seems to have a closer connection to Harry than Boy because he can remember the chores that she has done.
"The next alter Is Harder to explain." Dan looked hesitantly around the room at them all as if he was judging them for trustworthiness. He stopped on Lupin for the longest appraising the man in a startlingly similar manner to Cobra. It was easy to see that for all of the alters caring and respectful attitude he was quite grown up and wouldn't trust blindly. He finally seemed to come to a decision, and leaned back in his chair.
"Even having spent most of the last 4 years searching we've found no reference to just how different we are to the average wizard. The next bit might be hard to believe but you have to trust me, even though I have no way to prove this too you. The alter who holds most of Harry's magical ability is different from the rest of us and possibly the most damaged." He paused.
"Freak is too scared to prove this too you, but he was born from something that happened the night Harry turned 6. You have to understand that the majority of Harry's magic is hidden behind the persona of Freak who lets our host access only the smallest amount at any time. How much more impressive is everything Harry has achieved if you take into account he's done it with little more magic than the average squib. Freak was so terrified to how his relatives reacted that he may never heal if you react in a similar way. You have to understand the trust I'm putting in all of you telling you this, but it's a risk we have to take if any of you have any knowledge of this, even rumours."
The teenager took a deep breath. The kitchen of Number 12, Grimmauld Place frozen, waiting for the boy to speak.
"Harry has wings."
AN- I hope you guys enjoyed it!
I'll get right on to the next one I promise and I hope to work on my other stories aswell.
Reviews would be lovely guys, and thank you for reading!
All the best, C.A. xxx