Chapter 12 – Silence Isn't Golden
What if Harry wasn't willing to forgive everyone's silence the summer after the Tri-Wizard Tournament?
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Harry James Potter was a very angry teenager. He had endured traumatic year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that included being forced into a deadly tournament with students much older than him simply because someone else entered his name. The majority of the school turned their backs to him and considered him a liar and a cheater for entering the tournament, including his once best friend, Ron Weasley. While his other best friend, Hermione Granger, had helped him study to survive the Tournament, she still didn't trust him enough to tell him who had invited her to the Yule Ball. It turned out to be the famous Quidditch player and Durmstrang student, Victor Krum.
"She knows how much I hate my fame," Harry thought to himself even as his hands automatically pulled weeds in the summer heat. "Why did she think she couldn't trust me with who her date was? Did she think I was going to run around the school gossiping? Did she think I would run to the Press with it? Does she really know me so little?"
That was only one of the questions that kept running through the dark-haired teen's mind as he worked hour after hour in his relatives' yard during the summer break. When those questions weren't occupying his attention, the horrors he had experienced filled his thoughts. The Tournament had included three terrifying and deadly tasks. At the end of the last one, he and another student, Cedric Diggory, were kidnapped and Harry watched in dismay as the other teen was callously murdered simply for being unnecessary to his kidnappers. Harry was stunned unconscious and later used in a necromantic ritual to bring the wraith of the dark wizard Voldemort back to life and in a full-sized body.
The resurrected wizard tortured him under the Cruciatus curse, one of the three curses so horrendous they earned the name of "Unforgiveables". One of the most evil spells known, the Cruciatus curse inflicts excruciating pain on the victim, causing every single nerve in the body to burn with unbearable agony. Voldemort cast it on him twice and then the dark wizard demanded that Harry duel him in front of his cheering followers. Harry barely had four years of training while the dark wizard had approximately seventy years to hone his spell repertoire. It was only sheer luck that Harry escaped with his life and was able to return to Hogwarts, risking his life to bring Cedric's body back. He told everyone what had happened, but the Minister of Magic refused to believe him. Since then, the wizard paper known as the Daily Prophet, had begun to vilify him as a delusional attention-seeking liar.
"After everything that happened, they dumped me back at my magic-hating relatives, who despise me. Hardly any letters are sent to me, and those I do get don't even bother to warn me about what the Prophet is saying. Not one word about seeing Cedric murdered. Where is my help in coping? Apparently, I'm not worth the effort. These are my best friends?"
Harry's nights were filled with nightmares, as he relived the horror in the cemetery.
"On three, right?"
"Kill the spare."
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Crucio!"
"Imperio! Bow to death, Harry!"
It was after yet another day of these thoughts running through his head, wondering why he was being punished with absolute silence when he needed help so desperately, that his grief over Cedric's murder and the subsequent trauma he had undergone slowly morphed from helplessness to anger. A very cold and ruthless fury. He was treated like a hero one day only to be vilified the next by the school, the teachers, and the general public. Enough was enough!
As he thought about everything that happened, the teen began to draft a plan of action. He wrote to his godfather, Sirius, and asked how the Mauraders had put a password on a certain map. While Sirius followed Dumbledore in many areas, sharing this wasn't in the list of prohibited activities or information, and he gladly shared the information using Kreacher to deliver a letter asking what Harry was planning.
Harry shared a few details of his idea, but not everything, leaving Sirius to think Harry was planning a prank. He enthusiastically shared his knowledge and even looked up spells in the Black library that might be helpful. He also shared how the wards around the Black townhouse prevented the Ministry from knowing about under aged magic, so Harry could practice once he arrived. In the meantime, Harry practiced using a pencil, memorizing the appropriate movements until he could perform them rapidly and flawlessly.
While his plan diverted him most of the time, when Harry wasn't focused on the scheme, his anger rose again at being callously abandoned by his so-called friends and the adults in his life. It was while he was in the throes of that rage, when the Dursleys were away from the house leaving him locked in his room, that Harry heard a loud crash. He moved to the corner of the room, half hidden by a bureau and pointed his wand at the door. The door unlocked and slowly opened, only to reveal his former professor and friend of his father, Remus Lupin. At the man's urging, Harry packed his trunk, made sure his wand was secured in his wrist holster and then headed downstairs. He was shocked to find a small crowd of witches and wizards at the bottom of the stairs. A few minutes later he exclaimed, "Are you insane? You want ten of us to fly broomsticks to London?"
Remus Lupin appeared slightly shocked at Harry's comments. "It will be safe, Harry. We will be protecting you and taking you to Sirius' house."
Harry pinched the bridge of his nose at the sheer idiocy. "Then call a cab or make a port key. There's no way in hell that ten witches and wizards flying together on brooms are going to be overlooked. Are you trying to violate the Statute of Secrecy?"
While most of the witches and wizards now mirrored Lupin's shock at Harry's rebellion, a grizzled old man laughed out loud. "You tell them, Potter! Stupidest idea I've heard in years myself. Took Albus a long time to convince me. Even disillusioned, we could be hit by birds in the air or caught in the draft of one of those muggle flying contraptions. If you're not all right with it, I'll back you up. Constant vigilance!"
It took a while longer, but Moody eventually created a portkey from one of the ten brooms. With all of them touching it, they were transported away, leaving the Dursley house now quiet and barren.
Harry stumbled and would have fallen when they landed, if Lupin hadn't grabbed his elbow to steady him. Harry looked around and found they were in a run-down looking neighborhood. Moody stepped towards Harry and held out a piece of paper. "Read and memorize that," he instructed the teen.
Harry read, "The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London," To his surprise, as soon as he read it, the houses in front of him seemed to jump apart, and another house wedged its way in between the others.
"Come on, Harry," Lupin urged. He and the others rushed Harry into Number 12. He paused a few steps into the place. It was dark, the carpet was threadbare and the wallpaper was peeling off the walls. He quickly stepped to one side, drew his wand, and hissed the two planned spells pushing as much magic as he could into the incantations. Lupin, who was nearest the teen, looked at him in confusion, but didn't say anything as the teen only seemed to be hissing.
The teenager had no more than tucked his wand away before Ron's mother, Mrs. Weasley, emerged from a door and hurried toward them. She pulled Harry into a crushing hug. "It's good to see you, Harry," she said with a bright smile. "Now you go upstairs. You'll be rooming with Ron, of course. Ron and Hermione are both up there, and will fill you in." She tried to tug the teen towards the stairs.
From the room she had come from, Harry saw his godfather sitting at a table surrounded by a crowd of other people, including the Hogwarts Headmaster. The group that came with him moved around the teen and the Weasley matriarch and joined the others in what he now realized was a large kitchen.
"In a few minutes, Mrs. Weasley," he said with as much civility as he could muster. "I need to have a few words with everyone first, including Ron and Hermione."
"Now Harry," began the middle-aged redhead sternly, "this isn't the appropriate time...".
However, Headmaster Dumbledore looked at the teen, smiled benevolently and interrupted the woman. "That's all right, Molly. Let's allow young Mr. Potter a few minutes." The other adults grumbled, but subsided when Dumbledore arranged himself to listen politely.
"Children," yelled Molly Weasley at the foot of the stairs. "Come down for a few minutes. Harry is here."
The sound of five teenagers banging down the stairs caused most of the adults to grumble.
"Harry!" exclaimed Hermione as she moved forward to hug the teen. Harry held out a hand to stop her and nodded towards the larger group of adults. "Later Hermione," he said quietly.
As the newly arrived teens quieted, Harry looked around the room at the waiting assembly. Dumbledore wore his grandfatherly look, most of the adults appeared a bit disgruntled to have to listen to the teen, while Snape sneered from a shadowed corner of the room. Sirius was grinning at his godson, hoping to see a great prank play out.
"Thank you, Headmaster," Harry began calmly. "I would like to take a few minutes of your time to discuss the last ten months. It started when I was illegally entered into a deadly Tournament and forced to participate by the adults responsible for the safety of the students. My supposed best friend called me a liar and a cheat and spent weeks insulting me to my face and behind my back." The Weasley parents appeared surprised. Apparently Ron hadn't shared that with them, Harry thought. Ron's ears began to redden as he looked both embarrassed and angry at being called out.
"I had to face a very large, very angry nesting mother dragon; the most dangerous dragon that was brought. It took more than half a dozen adult dragon handlers to move her into the arena, yet all the responsible adults involved decided that the event was appropriate for individual school-aged students. Apparently, Bill Weasley knew about the Tournament, because he made subtle mention of it at the station on September 1st. Mr. Weasley is a department head at the Ministry, so one assumes he wasn't totally in the dark about the dragons, yet once my name was drawn, neither of them decided that it was important to mention to a boy with only three years of education just what he would be facing so that he could prepare." Arthur Weasley looked both surprised and then slightly ashamed at those comments.
"When Charlie arrived in Hogsmeade, did he never meet with the twins, Ron or Ginny? And yet not one of them said anything to me about dragons. I learned about them a mere two days before the event; an event in which I nearly died." The twins, Ron and Ginny all squirmed uncomfortably. "Interestingly, the Champions of the other schools knew about the dragons in advance." He looked at the Headmaster, who didn't change his expression.
"I nearly drowned in the next so-called 'task'. Apparently no one realized or cared that not all of the contestants could swim, much less swim in frigid water. In the third task, I was already injured and poisoned before I was kidnapped. I saw a classmate murdered, was stunned and captured, stabbed, used in a necromantic ritual, tortured repeatedly with the cruciatus curse and finally was nearly murdered by Voldemort as his minions watched with delight and cheered him on." He turned to a now wide-eyed Molly Weasley and asked, "Mrs. Weasley, after Ginny was possessed and nearly died, why wasn't she sent to her Aunt Muriel away from the rest of the family to recuperate?"
Molly was appalled at the very concept of the non-sequitur. "Harry, Ginny needed the love and support of her family after such a traumatic event; she needed us! Why would we send her away?" Hermione's eyes widened and she moved her hand over her mouth. Slowly a few of the adults in the room began to realize Harry's intent.
He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of every witch and wizard there. "I was forced into a Tournament by the Hogwarts staff. Not one of them helped or supported me. In fact, I received more help from the Death Eater trying to kill me than any Hogwarts professor." He let his eyes rest on Minerva McGonagall for a moment. "The majority of the school turned on me, publicly accused me of being a liar and a cheater, and not a single staff member said anything. Students proudly wore badges that proclaimed "Potter stinks" and not a single staff member opposed that harassment; in fact, some of the staff," he paused to look at Snape who sneered back at him, "encouraged and participated in the bullying. After being forced against my will into a deadly competition, after being bullied by the school, abandoned and belittled by my supposed best friend, I was then kidnapped, watched as a classmate was murdered, then I was stabbed, and tortured. What happened after that? I was forced back to the magic-hating relatives that despise me. Where was my help and support, Mrs. Weasley?" The older woman now had a horrified look on her face. The other adults, with the exception of the Potions Master, looked uncomfortable, while Sirius and Remus appeared a combination of shocked, outraged and contrite.
Harry looked at Hermione, who now had guilty tears slowly rolling down her cheeks. "I was only eleven years old when I jumped on the back of a twelve foot troll to save your life, Hermione. If you had only been kidnapped or merely hit once with the cruciatus, I would have walked barefoot from Little Whinging to Crawley to make sure that you were all right. Where were you?"
Hermione whispered, "Professor Dumbledore said it was too dangerous to write and information could be intercepted…"
Harry shook his head in disgust. "From what my 'escort' said, there were people from this little group around my house all summer. Why didn't you give them a letter to deliver? Surely if they were trustworthy enough to be here they could be trusted to give me a letter? If not, you have a Ministry department head here. Surely Mr. Weasley knows how to keep a letter confidential? And if he didn't know, there were aurors in my escort. I'll bet one of them knows how to keep the contents of a document secret, considering that they have to keep information confidential on a regular basis." Harry rubbed his chin and added thoughtfully, "I suppose getting their time might have been difficult. Well, it's a shame that there aren't a couple of people here who you have successfully kept a document private through a password." He pointedly looked at Sirius and Lupin before returning his cold glare on her. "No? Then do you really think the Death Eaters were watching the millions of pieces of Muggle mail in the hopes of finding something addressed to Harry Potter? I repeat, where were you, Hermione?" Hermione drooped further with each option he suggested and finally covered her face with her hands as she sobbed at how she never even gave a thought to ways to communicate with him and give him the support he obviously needed.
"The adults in this room have proven that they can't be trusted with my well-being and they certainly haven't earned my respect. My one-time friends have proven that they are only fair-weather acquaintances; they are my mates only when it's easy and convenient for them. The time when I desperately needed help, after being kidnapped and tortured, I had nothing. From anyone."
He looked around the room. "I consider no one in this room my friend or ally. As a result, no one in this room has my permission to use my given name. I expect everyone to call me Mr. Potter or simply Potter from here forward."
Hermione immediately responded disbelievingly "Harry..."
"Miss Granger," Harry interrupted her coldly, "you are not stupid. I am certain you understood what I just said. Refusing to give me that courtesy is stubbornness, not friendship."
"Harry…ouch!" She brought her hand to her cheek as her eyes widened in shock.
"You were asked once and warned once. Anyone who uses my given name will find that a stinging hex will be cast at a random part of their body. The more often they make the attempt, the stronger the hex will become." Sirius' eyes widened as he realized just how Harry had used the information he had sent.
Dumbledore gave a loud sigh of disappointment and said, "There is no need for that, Harry." He drew his wand and cast a strong "finite incantatem" at the teen. He shook his head and said in a said voice, "Now Harry, my dear b…" and then jumped and looked at the teenager in shock as he felt a sharp sting. Gasps were heard as the group realized the Headmaster had been hexed.
"The spell is password secured, Headmaster," Harry said in response to the surprised look on the elderly wizard's face. "It can't be dispelled. And I have no intention of dropping it. I made a reasonable request to be treated formally as I am not friends with anyone in this room. There is nothing wrong with that. And it is customary and expected for the staff at Hogwarts to call students by their surnames."
Dumbledore looked at Harry with profound disappointment, and then attempted to scan the young man's thoughts to learn the password to remove the spell. Harry briefly glowed a bright yellow, which stopped abruptly. "And that, ladies and gentleman, was the Headmaster deliberately attempting to rape my mind to steal the password because he doesn't believe I have the right to privacy or to be treated with courtesy or respect. Any time someone uses Legilmens on me from now on, it will be readily apparent, as I will glow brightly…for the first few attempts. Hopefully, you will never find what happens if someone repeatedly attempts to violate my mind. Let's just say it won't be pleasant...for them."
Harry's eyes turned cold and his face impassive as he looked at each person briefly, then stated icily, "You have all either been actively involved with child abuse or you stood by and passively accepted it and are therefore complicit in it. To be honest, I find you all beneath contempt."
He turned and left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him. Voices broke out a few seconds later, but he turned and went to the library, again shutting the door.
A scant minute later, Sirius Black hesitantly entered the library, looking at the teen with haunted eyes. "Pup…I don't know what to say. You are absolutely right. I have no excuse for leaving you alone after such a harrowing series of events. I didn't even realize just how unbearable it was. I..I'm so very sorry." The older man's voice broke with his remorse.
Harry's impassive face relaxed just a bit. "You were the only person that had a chance at forgiveness, Sirius. You spent over a decade with dementors, so I can understand you not thinking things through. Besides, you helped me with the spell research. And you may call me Harry." The two glowed briefly as the spell's exception took effect.
Sirius held out his arms and Harry stepped into them, shuddering slightly at all the emotions and adrenalin rushing through his system after the confrontation. He felt Sirius trembling as well. "I may have failed miserably before," his godfather declared, "but I refuse to continue stand by and do nothing. If you find the people in this house contemptible, then I refuse to give them refuge in the House of Black." Harry leaned back and looked up at him inquiringly with a raised eyebrow.
Sirius gave him a sad half-smile and which quickly took on a slightly roguish look. He let the family wand he had found in storage at the house drop into his hand and raised it above his head. "I, Sirius Black, Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Black, hereby disallow entry to this House except for me and Harry Potter. Every other witch or wizard is hereby forbidden access." There was a number of small booms heard from outside the library as air rushed into the space previously occupied by the people in the kitchen.
Harry's eyes widened in shock. He honestly didn't think Sirius would take such immediate and decisive action. Sirius tightened his arms in response and hugged his godson tenderly. After several long moments, he leaned back and called "Kreacher!"
To Harry's surprise, an old and dirty house elf appeared in front of his godfather, scowling at the two wizards.
"Nasty blood traitor master calls and Kreacher must respond. What does nasty master want from Kreacher," the house elf spat in disgust.
"All of the traitors have been ejected from the House. I want you to pack up their items and only the items that they brought and put them across the street. Be sure they don't have anything belonging to the House mixed in with their possessions."
Kreacher's already large eyes opened impossibly wide. "Nasty master ejected the revolting blood traitors and Kreacher can throw out their dirty items?" The house elf nearly danced in happiness. "Yes Master. Kreacher does so immediately." He popped away.
Sirius wrapped an around his godson's shoulders, turning him towards the sofa. "OK, Harry, let's talk."
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While Sirius led Harry through a more detailed discussion of the last year, members of the Order of the Phoenix found themselves across the street from the house, many of them tumbling to the ground if they had been sitting when expelled.
"What the…"
"What happened?"
"How are we outside?"
"Albus, what's going on?"
Albus Dumbledore held up a hand against the rush of exclamations and examined the small crowd. The elderly wizard felt a small chill as he realized that only Sirius Black and Harry Potter were missing. "I think Sirius found young Mr. Potter's allegations entirely too believable and turned the wards against us," he replied, making sure his disappointment in both Harry's and Sirius' actions were heard in his voice.
"Can you blame him," asked Fred Weasley.
"Every one of us has hurt or ignored his godson," added George, his twin.
"Why would he give us guest privileges when we didn't make any attempt to treat his godson with compassion or respect," Fred finished, ignoring Snape's snort of derision.
"We can't leave the two of them in there alone," cried Molly Weasley. "Sirius isn't fit company for that poor boy. He needs someone who loves and understands him!"
"Like you, Mum," asked George, raising an eyebrow.
"Exactly," she responded, striding across the street intending to pound on the door and demand re-admittance. However, as soon as she touched the door, she was abruptly blown across the street, only being kept from injury by Arthur's hastily cast cushioning charm. Molly took a deep breath and then screeched "That proves it! He's not fit to take care of a teenaged boy. He's dangerous and reckless!"
"On the contrary," responded the quiet voice of Remus Lupin, who stared sorrowfully at the house. "He's acting exactly as a concerned godfather should act. He's removed the people that have either actively endangered his godson or stood by passively and allowed him to be injured. It seems like a very reasonable and measured response to me." The werewolf was deeply ashamed that he had allowed himself to be persuaded by the Headmaster to comply with the imposed communication ban on the teenager, especially when it was obvious just how badly the boy needed help after the traumatic experiences of the past year.
"I've never hurt Harry," began the Weasley matriarch, only to be interrupted by the twins.
"Really Mum? You said Ginny needed the love and support of her family to get through the trauma of her first year at Hogwarts, but did absolutely nothing when Harry repeatedly sent Hedwig and asked for help. You wouldn't send Ginny to Aunt Muriel to recover, but you did nothing when Harry was sent to the people who keep him locked up and hungry. Inaction can be just as hurtful as a deliberate injury."
Their mother looked stunned for a few moments before the image of the small thin teen returning covered in blood, clutching both Cedric Diggory's body and the Tournament cup, his voice hoarse as he frantically yelled for help filled her mind. "Oh. Oh dear." She looked at her husband with shame. "Oh Arthur, what have we done?"
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