Dinner was a tense affair as always, and since she and her family had moved to make this house their home, partly for its protection, partly because they wanted to do everything they could to support Dumbledore, and her mother thought that keeping the house and restoring headquarters was a "basic, but essential task", the house still felt drab and unwelcome and she wanted to go home.

She stole another look at him again. He was laughing politely to Fred and George's jokes, but he appeared so constrained, every action he seemed to carefully weigh and consider, as if he was simultaneously quite unsure of himself but also confident enough for restraint. He had changed, he was different. Colder, more intelligent, not as much zest and enthusiasm as she remembered. She didn't know, a different kind of hero perhaps?

And Hermione had noticed it too, she was fairly certain. The way she looked at him with new uncertainty, like never before. Hermione had been whispering to Ron all through the meal, and Ron was trying to reassure her. They were getting closer by the day, the two of them, even though they still quarrelled. Hermione since coming to live with them a couple of weeks ago, had been unfailingly polite since she was a guest. Then Ginny had a thought that she and her family had essentially taken over the house even though it was meant for headquarters, especially since Sirius spent most of his time shut up in his old room with Buckbeak…

But Hermione still seemed unnerved and she was eating faster than usual, nearly as quick as Ron whom she often chided when Mrs. Weasley was not on hand to do so. Her eyes darted around the table and she wasn't saying much, and only occasionally she would look at Harry again meaningfully as if trying to gauge him, like he was a puzzle to be solved. Her mind was churning away furiously, if her eyes gave any indication, she was unsettled even as Ron was whispering next to her, "Knock it off 'mione, the bloke's changed from last year, well what do you expect? He saw You-Know-Who come back, he saw him murder. Plus you know, even I've changed, cause you know, people grow up…" He had heard her conversing with Lupin earlier, when Harry was out of earshot, asking him whether he had properly vetted him…

Dinner was a pleasant affair as far as Ron was concerned since his mother was by far the best cook in the whole, wide world. The twins were at it again with their jokes and he was sometimes tempted to throw a knife at them knowing they could use magic, just to get the satisfaction of provoking a reaction from them for once. Meanwhile, Hermione was being quite paranoid again, neurotic even, and he knew she was probably irked by him, the way she was sitting, forehead in hand, her brows knitted together in concentration. She had been observing him all dinner and evidently not liking what she had seen, well her badgering was to be expected…

But not the way she was fidgeting now, as if itching to use magic, she hadn't exchanged a word with Harry since the first ten minutes of dinner. Partly embarrassed, partly curious, partly afraid… She didn't know what to think of him, for the first time she felt like she didn't know him very well at all, which was disturbing. From her estimation, no one changed so abruptly in the space of weeks, not even after trauma, and she had seen how he was after Cedric's death last year. This wasn't normal at all, and she knew an explanation had to be forthcoming; no he wasn't an impersonation because an impersonator would clearly do a better job than he was. So then what had happened to him after the dementor attack that he had been hinting at?

When he learned that his uncle and aunt were dead, his eyes became cold and he seemed faraway, he kept doing that every once in a while, breaking off conversation and completely unable to continue, he would draw in a quick breath as if he was reliving a memory, and it would take a few seconds for full recovery. This wasn't normal behaviour either, in her understanding only amnesiacs who were remembering their lost memories ever acted in such a way… And what had he meant by saying that he had changed? The attack had changed him… it had to be connected somehow to the oddities that she now saw in him…

From Lupin he had learned, the Dursleys were dead and he knew and he felt responsible, though he didn't show it. Emmeline Vance had been sent to reason with them, they had refused to leave before Dudley's funeral and his being buried and Death Eaters had struck immediately, even Voldemort had turned up. The Dursleys were tortured and killed, not having any information of where he had gone. So that was that…

He hadn't been sure of his real motivations for leaving after all, sure the Dursleys didn't want him to stay, but he certainly had the power to do so against their wishes. He could have restrained them with magic, so was the dark spot in his mind right, that he had left to exact revenge upon them? Knowing they would not take his advice? Or could he simply not stand their presence anymore after ingesting these memories? Or did he feel too guilty to remain? The problem with all these new memories of course was that he could no longer remember distinctly how he had felt in any past situation, he only knew how he felt about them now…

"So I was just saying, I remember when James and I, we got obsessed with muggle motorbikes you know. So we led a few death eaters one time on a great chase through the alleys, disguised as muggles to ambush them!"

Sirius let out a great bark of laughter and Harry smiled while sipping his butterbeer. He was too uncertain himself to respond, whether he should have told him prior to dinner before everyone else was still weighing on his mind as he wondered how Sirius would react. If he was convinced for example that Harry was turning into a Tom Riddle…

"Anyways, that massive bruise on the side of your head looks as bad as a bludger injury, did your cousin…"

He grimaced, "yeah Dudley hit me hard enough that I couldn't defend us against the dementors…"

"But you have still no idea how you survived?"

"I'll talk to Dumbledore about it," Harry said earnestly. Moody who was sitting nearly opposite him, and who had been silent since he had been persuaded to stay for dinner piped up, "You survived a Dementor's attack without a Patronus, eh Potter?"

He nodded and Moody went on.

"Extremely rare thing, in my experience," he grunted. "Course they could just not have been hungry enough, but then at least one of them was, and dementors hunt in packs of at least two usually." He surveyed Harry closely again, his magical eye swirling in its socket madly. "Are you sure then, that the dementor was trying to take your soul?"

"It was over me and yeah it had its hood lowered, I saw its lips," he said cooly and suppressed a shudder. Moody only gave a small, somewhat maniacal grin and laughed.

"Well at the very least we can all say you're the Boy-Who-Lived twice over now!"

Mrs. Weasley who had been following the conversation from the other side of the room decided to intervene harshly, "For heaven's sake Mad Eye, don't go around glorifying him just for managing to survive," she said. "I honestly can't believe you lot would bring it up, as if he wanted to talk about it," she glared at them sternly and fixed them both with a stern eye. Sirius made a diffident, apologetic gesture than returned to attacking his stew while Mad Eye merely grunted again.

"But still, the Ministry will use your survival to deny you were even present during the dementor attack," Moody continued in a matter-of-fact way and took another swig of firewhiskey. Harry who had already eaten half a supper at the Leaky Cauldron politely declined another helping of stew that a very sympathetic Mrs. Weasley proffered.

Lupin who had also stayed for dinner uncharacteristically was pushing his spoon around looking pale and glum as he had no idea how he was to inform Harry after he had received an owl from Dumbledore. He decided obviously he had to save it for after dinner, and anyway hadn't Harry told him he wanted a conversation with him and Sirius? Something about the dementor attack that he wasn't willing to publicly share…

Sirius groaned and pushed himself back in his chair, feeling his waist. It was warm, the food was good, and the atmosphere was making him sleepy but he still had to make an attempt for Harry's sake whom he felt had no right to be left out of the Order's proceedings. He was just wondering how he was to go about introducing the topic when Harry caught his eye and almost without realizing it he gave his head an involuntary shake.

No?

Harry looked at him, his eyes were sharp and intense, and then he blinked. He seemed lost for a moment; Sirius had noticed multiple times through dinner which he thought was the aftermath of trauma from a dementor attack. Suddenly realizing himself again, he shook his head as if to recover.

Harry knew legilimency? No that was just impossible. He had decent occlumency shields in any case, but they had been lowered just now as he had been meditating on his supper…

It had to have been a coincidence. He looked at Harry again and he gave a weak smile and said quietly, "it's okay Sirius, I'll explain it upstairs after dinner. You don't have to ask them on my behalf." Sirius shrugged then took another slice of kidney pie but his mind was worked up in confusion.

Just who had taught Harry the mind arts? And how had he become a master; as far as he knew, few wizards possessed the ability to read skimming thoughts of the mind with just the briefest eye contact. Dumbledore for one could do it. And there was Voldemort of course…

.

After dinner and a lengthy conversation about more pleasant topics, they all arose yawning and stretching. Dinner had been late this evening to accommodate both Harry's arrival and the Order meeting. Harry rose to retire and gave Ron and Hermione meaningful looks and they trooped after him, speaking in ushered silence. Sirius and Lupin followed behind and they entered into one of the spare bedrooms, Sirius again was astonished that Harry knew the House so well.

Closing the door behind them, Harry cast the most advanced wards and charms that Voldemort even knew. These were so powerful that it would give a skilled wizard difficulty to even detect let alone try and break it. If they tried it would take a lengthy period of time and Harry knew Voldemort was confident that even Dumbledore could not break them without alerting him well beforehand. Sure enough, neither Lupin nor Sirius could detect that he had done anything.

He took a deep breath and wondered where to begin, before Lupin interrupted him with an awkward cough.

"I should tell you Harry beforehand, well it would be remiss to withhold... you're aunt and uncle are dead."

That news of course did not surprise Harry in the slightest. Even before accidentally unleashing legilimency, he knew from Voldemort's memories that he would definitely have gone after them. In reality, deep down he knew that in leaving them, he was essentially sentencing them to their deaths. Of course it wasn't like they would welcome him sticking around after what had happened…

Perhaps it was the lack of emotion on his features that perturbed Ron and Hermione. Harry did not speak, and then he made a gesture that they should move on and he did not seem to react to the news at all.

"First I want magical oaths from all of you," he said, "that nothing that is said in this room at this hour leaves this circle without my permission and that you will never betray me willingly in this regard." They all looked puzzled at the seriousness of the situation but they did not question him when they saw his determination. When they had sworn, Harry faced them again.

"Well to break it out, after the Dementor went for my soul, I lost consciousness. When I awoke however," and here he paused, "when I awoke I was possessed with someone else's memories."

They were all flabbergasted and Harry ignored their reactions as he wanted to finish quickly. "They were Voldemort's memories. All his memories in fact, I suspect, up to the point when he attacked my parents at Godric's Hallow and tried to kill me. Now obviously I haven't relived them all, but the more I encounter the more recollections are brought back up, and that's continuing up to this very second," he said this very quickly.

"Harry," Hermione said very softly and uncertainly, "are you sure…"

He turned to her and realized from Voldemort's legilimency skills that she was deeply skeptical and thought him touched in the head after the dementor attack. He also picked up that she would be extremely difficult to convince.

To save time he said simply, "Duel me."

Sirius and Lupin both perked up at this, Sirius looked a bit more convinced, though he was very shaken and uncertain by the revelations and they were both too dumbfounded to speak. Harry knew Sirius at least had known when he accidentally employed legilimency. Lupin also realized that based on how odd he had been acting, that it did explain things. Either that or Harry had changed immensely from puberty…

"I'm sorry, but…"

"You and Ron together," Harry said. "Well, I suppose I also want to experiment… I want to see how many more memories will resurface if I actually engaged in a duel."

Ron looked at Sirius and Lupin open-mouthed in shock, mouthing has he gone mad? Harry merely picked up his wand from his pocket and assumed a duelling stance.

It was never a stance that Hermione had seen him employ before. It was distinctly odd…

"Are you serious about this mate," Ron said somewhat hoarsely, "me and Hermione together you said?"

He merely nodded and then assumed an impatient tone, "It doesn't matter about the Statute, no one will check as we're in a wizarding home. Come on, let's go."

Ron sent an uncertain stunner at him which he sidestepped and instantly his mind remembered. All the moves, tactics, knowledge, and experience, it was all coming back to him quickly on an instinct, too fast for Harry to even be conscious of it. He was not even momentarily disorientated as it seemed he knew it all by instinct and Harry realized that Voldemort would not have structured his knowledge and memories to allow himself to be distracted in a duel. Just about everything was different now, wand movements to even how he gripped it…

Hermione while reluctant at first, had been encouraged by a nod from Lupin. Rather impressed with his reflexes which seemed even sharper than normal considering how relatively confined they were in the room, she sent a full body bind and Harry put up a shield immediately, barely moving his wand in the process. Then she realized with shock that he was employing silent casting which she could barely do…

Ron sent a few more spells but they failed to make even a dent and he was staring at everyone with bewilderment.

Harry lowered the shield and grinned in a satisfied way. He now understood just what Voldemort must have felt, a master among mortals.

Ron and Hermione began to cast a flurry of spells, their best combinations, shouting themselves hoarsely almost to death. It wasn't just their incantations that betrayed them, Harry could see in every split second exactly which spell they intended to use and how they would use it with his latent legilimency.

He never felt so comfortable in a duel, where everything he did was effortless and he was perfectly composed, there was never a second where he felt a hint of danger or fear. Every move was telegraphed to him beforehand and instantly his mind conceived at least seven counters to everything they did, and he could pick and choose any one of them at his leisure.

He fought not to win, but merely to test his defensive abilities, all that Voldemort knew and he was teasing out more and more memories every second this duel lasted…

Sirius and Lupin then both suddenly jumped in the attack and he was fighting four at once. This gave him a second of surprise, and then he realized he could deal with all of them handily. Except for his initial dodge of Ron's stunner, he hadn't moved an inch as he battered away their attacks effortlessly. He then felt a surge of contempt for their abilities, Voldemort's judgement, and he suppressed it.

He decided to end things quickly now. With a single spell he sent Ron staggering where he collapsed unconscious. Warding off both Sirius and Lupin at once he send a wandless expelliarmus that caught Hermione off-guard as she hadn't expected him to use wandless magic.

Against the two Marauders who fought well as a pair, Harry realized he couldn't employ legilimency as the two men had been well-trained. Harry felt a surge of adrenaline as the irresistible sensations raced through his mind and body as he was enjoying this fight. There were a number of ways he could end this duel quickly, a few would result in the destruction of this room. A few more were just… brutal and dark.

He opted for the cleanest way, he conjured a couple of non-lethal snakes. He tried to tell them to distract but not to bite. But then he realized he couldn't speak to them and thrown off balance, he was almost struck by a stray curse from Sirius, as he realized he had lost the ability to speak to snakes automatically.

He vanished them both hissing fruitlessly. But both Harry Potter and Voldemort could speak it, so what had changed? Harry reviewed his memories as he continued the duel almost mechanically. Both of his opponents were rapidly running out of stamina. He found he could still understand the Parselmouth that he recalled from Voldemort's memories, his conversations with Nagini and the basilisk. And with Morfin Gaunt… Interesting. But he had apparently lost the innate ability to speak it now.

He flicked his wand again, and with a flash both Sirius and Lupin were thrown back, stunned. It was a few seconds before they could recover. He pocketed his wand and reviewed all that he had learnt, or rather remembered.

Hermione revived the others from their stupor but neither Ron and Hermione were looking at him. It took him a few seconds before he could realize what was wrong. They were both afraid of him.

"Now," he said in a deliberately warmer tone as he surveyed them all breathing heavily while he was completely unaffected and at ease. "You believe me."

"Unbelievable," Sirius said picking himself off the ground, "think about it Moony, this is what it feels to take on Voldemort himself." Lupin just looked shaken and frightened at the display. Harry suppressed an urge to tell his godfather that he had been holding back the whole time as he was aiming to recover memories, get a better grasp of what Voldemort could do, and that there was still much he couldn't remember and had to work out by himself.

"Look at me," he said to Ron and Hermione in a more commanding tone than he expected. "I'm still Harry you hear, changed for sure. But I still remember all the things we did together okay? I still love flying, which Voldemort hated, I still hate Snape, speaking of Snape, well I'm glad he didn't stay for dinner… Anyways you two should relax, well think about it this way, at the very least you won't have to worry about me anymore…"

Hermione finally cracked a smile while Ron was looking at him very oddly indeed with raised eyebrows. Then he came forward and shook his hand while Hermione hugged him again. At the very least he was learning how not to use legilimency at every moment like Voldemort did, so he could actually have a normal conversation like he used to.

"I've been thinking," Lupin said thoughtfully but he too was composed now, "maybe we should talk to Professor Dumbledore…"

"I will tell him for sure. I have a lot of information now that will destroy Voldemort. I guarantee it." They all smiled in unison.

"But Harry after this, after all that, the war and everything," Sirius said looking a bit anxious not knowing how to proceed, "Are you sure you want to keep all those memories, everything that Voldemort did…"

"You're thinking I could erase the more traumatic parts while preserving the useful ones," Harry said thinking to himself while again reviewing everything Voldemort knew about the mind which was considerable. "Based on, well his memories, it would be impossible to erase certain memories without that affecting others which means we might miss crucial information that I haven't yet recovered. In addition, I suspect using my intuition now, that my own memories have already been too deeply interwoven to his by now. Which means many of my memories would have to be deleted too, or else I could recall them… It's complicated, but I don't think it can be easily done."

"We both suspected something was wrong," Lupin said, "both Sirius and I were talking about it before dinner. I actually thought you were a death eater at first who had taken, well Harry's memories and I was a second from pulling out my wand…"

"You were so calm through everything and so unemotional, and…" here Sirius laughed, "well so mature for your age! I thought it was the puberty in all honesty…"

"Yeah, mate," Ron said relaxing now, "totally changed. I mean totally off, that's what I thought about you. I thought it was the dementors… turns out I was half right…"

"I suppose the reason I'm not more shocked and appalled by this is that you seemed very… well confident, assured, knowledgeable than from before and I mean no offence of course" Hermione said quickly.

"I was trying to avoid giving that impression, but I was constantly distracted by new memories."

She nodded understandingly and Harry turned now finally to Lupin again. "Well I wanted to get that out of the way before anything else, so tell me about my aunt and uncle. How did they die exactly?"

They all turned sombre and Lupin reported, "Less than 24 hours ago, Death Eaters attacked Four Privet Drive. Emmeline Vance was unsuccessful in convincing them to flee; they… wanted to bury their son first. Well, Voldemort may have made an appearance. Vance was forced to leave, the bodies of the Dursleys were found later, the Muggle news mentioned it actually. We think they were tortured first, but evidently they didn't know where you were."

"How did the Ministry come to realize what happened so quickly?"

"We think Lucius Malfoy or another Death eater working undercover tipped off Fudge and he sent the oblivators to wipe Mrs. Figg's memory," Ron said. Then realizing what he had done, he blurted, "Oops. I mean Fred and George…" But Sirius just smirked at that while Hermione seemed reproachful.

Both Ron and Hermione expressed their condolences about his relatives which he accepted with good grace. Of course none of them were particularly sincere as they knew or suspected at least that they were very unpleasant people who had mistreated him all his life. Sirius in particular was still grudging as he recounted that he should have been the one to provide for Harry and keep him safe.

"Well they weren't the best of people, I'll admit," Harry said. "But I am sorry they're now gone especially since it's also partly due to me that they're dead." The party then broke into an awkward silence as no one knew how to exactly respond to that.

Finally it was Hermione that broke through their silence to wonder about the exact nature of how Harry had acquired those memories, simply from a Dementor's attack. While Harry only had unsatisfying answers to give, admitting that he had no idea how he had obtained them. He could only suspect that Voldemort had given him some of his power, as Dumbledore had claimed, after failing to kill him and it was unlocked somehow by the Dementor trying to take his soul? None of it made sense of course. But it was the best thing he could come up with; there was also the added mystery of why he could no longer talk to snakes when Voldemort's powers had just been unlocked to him.

Ultimately as it was getting late and Mrs. Weasley was due to make her rounds to ensure they were going to bed, the party broke up and Sirius, Ron, and Hermione agreed to meet later again with Harry to participate in more memory experiments. Lupin left the house, puzzling over all that he had heard. He desperately wanted to owl Dumbledore to get some of his thoughts on the matter, but he had given his word. The house, viewed from the outside was cloaked in shadow now as the streetlights made an impression on its walls before the space closed up again. Lupin had in mind so many questions, and it was agonizing that he had received comparatively few answers and so he resolved to visit again in a few days time.