Hey! Thanks for all the reviews! Always appreciated. So now I'm going to address an issue that has been brought in your reviews: Tess. Yes, I know a lot of you hate her, and I guess I can see why, but I don't. I see her in the way you look at a girl who has a friend who's destroying himself and doesn't know what to do. She tries to get adults involved because she's just a teenager. Yes, Tess gives away a lot about Harry too easily, but she does it with good intentions. She isn't feeding the information to Death Eaters. She's giving it to people who can help Harry, like Dumbledore, or who will care, like Sirius. That being said, this chapter will focus on the backlash of Tess giving away Harry's secret. Yes, Harry will probably yell at Tess, but promise me you won't enjoy it too much. Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If I did, I wouldn't live in the most boring state in the U.S.

October came and went, Halloween passing around with little to no fuss. Harry's mood worsened, but all of his friends expected it to, and he didn't get into any more fights so nothing was said. Tess and Delia held their breaths, hoping that nothing bad would happen. And, as November went on, nothing did. Harry went to class, ate meals, and laughed when he was supposed to, but there something missing, a kind of awareness that only exists when you care. Harry wasn't all there. Sometimes he'd get this restless look, like he wanted to hop on his Harley and never look back, but he never did. It was worrying, not to be able to know what Harry was going to do.

Harry's mood brightened when Remus and Sirius came to visit one Hogsmeade weekend mid-November. Though he would never admit, being the hardened cynic he was, Harry had grown fond of the two older men. He had never really met anyone who had known his parents before except for Fiona and Phin, and that had been different. These men had been his dad's best friends, knew the stupid little details about his parents that Fiona hadn't. Harry had always tried to find out all he could about them. He never could figure out why he tried so hard to.

The three of them sat in the Hog's Head, drinking butterbeer and firewhiskey respectively. Remus had wanted to go to the Three Broomsticks, but Harry vetoed it, claiming that he wanted a break from people staring at him like an animal at the zoo. Sirius, familiar with the sentiment after his release from Azakban, agreed. Sirius was telling the story of some great prank they pulled on McGonogall, Harry listening with interest.

Remus, on the other hand, was simply watching Harry, thinking. Sirius was reluctant to bring it up, but they needed to talk to Harry about the Dursleys. They knew a little about Harry's childhood from his friend Tess's memories, but they didn't know anything before he was eight years old. Harry wasn't very forthcoming with that kind of information, and the people that had it were either dead or not likely to tell them.

Sirius finished up his story, and there was an awkward silence. Remus decided this was the perfect opportunity to speak up. "Harry," he said. "What did the Dursleys do to you?" Harry narrowed his eyes, and it was clear Remus was entering a danger zone. "We know they weren't kind to you, but..."

Harry laughed, a hard and bitter sound that made his honorary uncles cringe. "I guess you could say that." In a monotone tone, he listed all the things he could remember that the Dursleys did to him. "Broke my arm, locked me in a cupboard for days on end, starved me, called me a freak, stuck my hand on the stove..."

Both men were horrified, if not with the extensive list than with Harry's unfeeling recitation of it. Harry either didn't notice their reaction or just didn't care because he didn't say anything to comfort them.

Sirius asked the stupidest question he could possibly could. "What about the girl?"

Harry stared at Sirius. "What girl?" he asked suspiciously.

"The one in the memory," Remus said quietly.

Harry's eyes darkened. "What memory?"

"The one Tess showed us," Remus said. He had not finished saying the word showed before Harry was storming out of the Hog's Head.

Harry was fuming as he left Hogsmeade and headed back to the castle. What right did Tess have to show them memories? What right did she have to tell them about Bea? Logically, Harry knew she was doing this to help him. Tess wasn't the backstabbing type, never had been, but this was hard to remember when steam was coming out of his ears. It was more of the questions that had pissed Harry off. The Dursleys hadn't treated him nicely? That was an understatement if there ever was one. They had tortured him, plain and simple. They had been trying to kill him, or at least that's what Bea had thought.

*flashback*

Harry was clutching his burnt hand lightly, waiting for Bea behind their tree. It had not been a good day. Bea had not been able to come earlier today; her parents had been invited to an important party and brought both their daughters to show off. Bea had left him a book behind, however, and Harry delved into it. He was half-way through it when he heard a car pulling in a driveway. He looked up only to see it was his uncle. Harry ran like a bat out of hell to the backdoor of the kitchen. He turned on the stove and put a pan on the stove, grabbing the ingredients out of the refrigerator. This was not enough to please his uncle. Angry that his lunch was not ready, he grabbed Harry's hand and pressed it onto the now hot stove. Harry screamed, prompting Vernon to kick him to the floor and then take him by the back of his shirt and throw him in the cupboard. Once his relatives had gone to sleep, Harry had picked the lock on the cupboard and headed out to the tree.

"Harry?" He turned around to see Bea, looking at him worriedly. Noticing him clutching his hand, she asked, "What did the walrus do now?" Harry showed her his hand, and she gasped. The skin was red and burnt. She touched it gently, not wanting to hurt him. Surprisingly, the burned look started to fade as she touched it, only looking very red.

Once Bea had wrapped Harry's hand, the two leaned up against their tree, looking up at the sky. "Harry," she said. "You know he's trying to kill you, right?"

Harry's voice was quiet as he answered. "Yeah, I know."

"I don't want you to die," Bea whispered, her eyes filled with worry.

He smiled. "I'm not going to die," he promised. "I'll be gone before Uncle Vernon can kill me."

"Where will you go?"

Harry shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe London. I've been stealing part of Dudley's pocket change."

Bea smiled. "Take me with you?"

Harry nodded, not taking his eyes of the skies. Like he would go anywhere without Bea anyway...

Harry had managed to get into the castle and the Gryffindor common room without realizing it. Tess and Delia were sitting on the couch, a magazine between them. Daisy was sitting on the floor, playing with a tiny tea set McGonagall had given her. Sean had gone out with some of the guys to the Three Broomsticks. Harry had seen a glimpse of him in his furious march back to the castle. He was sure Sean had called something out to him, but he hadn't been listening in his rage-induced state.

"Hey," Delia said brightly when she saw that Harry had entered the room. Her greeting faded when she saw the look of absolute fury on his face. She hadn't seen that look since Sean had been thrown into Azakban.

Harry stared at Tess until she looked up. She raised an eyebrow at him, not intimidated by the look. "What's up?" she asked.

"I just want to know something," he said coolly. "Are my secrets up for sale, or is it a free sample sort of thing? Do you have a waiting list of people wanting dirt on the great Boy-Who-Lived."

Tess looked like she had been slapped. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Harry narrowed his eyes. "The memories," he stated. Tess's eyes widened.

"I was just trying to..." she started to explain. Harry cut her off.

"I don't care what you were trying to do!" he shouted. "You had no right!"

"No right?" Tess repeated. "They were my memories!"

Harry's voice was quiet but steely as he answered, "But they don't belong to you."

Tess didn't understand what Harry was trying to say in the moment. Her response was, "Go to hell."

Harry smiled sardonically. "Gladly," he said. "I just have to get my keys." Quickly summoning his keys, he left the common room.

It wasn't until Harry had been gone at least an hour before Tess truly understood what Harry was getting at. He hadn't been so mad about the people viewing the memory or the fact that she had did it. It was the content of one of the memories he opposed to. Tess knew he had just come from a meeting with Sirius and Remus. She grabbed her coat. Delia looked at her. "I'm going to find Sirius and Remus," she explained. Something one of them had said set Harry off, and she was going to find out what.