It's My Life
The adults sat with surprise, minus Remus and Sirius, who were proud of what they saw Harry do. A boy, just fifteen years old, proving a ministry official wrong and putting the nightmare in her place. Sure, it landed Harry detention for seventeen days, but he stood strong and never gave the woman the satisfaction of knowing she was hurting him. A carved sentence into his hands didn't prove she had won; it showed she lost because Harry never gave into her. Harry would not be beaten by some chick on a power trip.
"Best burn I've ever seen. Go you, Harry," Theodore grinned.
"You realize you could have been expelled for that…" Severus asked.
"No. I wouldn't have been. Albus has let me get away with basically murder at Hogwarts. How many other times have I done something that should have gotten me expelled?" Harry questioned. "Albus won't because I'm prophesied to defeat Voldemort and he knows it. Manipulative, lying old fool…He'll get what's coming to him, I'll personally see to it."
"I love how dark you are." Draco put his arm around Harry's shoulder.
"Definitely a snake," Pansy smirked.
"Albus won't get rid of me because he knows I'm the only one who can apparently get rid of Voldemort. But that's my up factor; he doesn't know I know all this thanks to Severus telling me on Christmas about the prophecy. He wants me under his control to reveal that prophecy, mold me to his champion and the world's savior. He doesn't like me in Slytherin because he knows none of the snakes will do his bidding to get him information." The teen shrugged.
" He knows the snakes aren't loyal to him and he can't manipulate them." Harry remarked. "He wants to be remembered as the wizard who was Harry Potter's mentor. He wants the fame, the glory…Hell, it might not be so wrong in the paper that he wants Fudge's job; he wants to be in charge and in control of everything." He added.
"You're brave to speak his name," Molly stated.
"I didn't get where I am today by being afraid, Mrs. Weasley. I had to grow up at the age of five, learning how to cook, clean, and garden without magic. I made the meals that fed the Dursley's and I only ate if there were leftovers and only those of dinner, which there rarely were. If I didn't do something to their expectations, I was not only beaten but wouldn't eat that day. Sometimes, it was two or three days." He remarked.
"When work was done, I stayed in a cupboard under the stairs. I only moved to a bedroom, the smallest with a cot, nightstand, and one lamp after my first year. My summer work was never done for the new year because they locked my things away in the cupboard. I did what I could on the train." Harry informed.
"I wore clothes three sizes too big for me because they were my cousin's hand-me-downs. I was beaten up by my cousin and his friends in a game they invented called Harry Hunting. I've dealt with the dark lord every single year to date, except third. But that still involved my parents because the traitor was revealed. I was forced into the Tri-Wizard Tournament. My entire life has been lived on the will of someone else."
"Dumbledore put me there, forced me to stay there. You say I'm just a boy, but to me that's just a gender when I had to be an adult so young. It was expected of me and still is. I'm not afraid of anything, not without the amount of times I've faced death. If saying his name brings him out of hiding to fight…So be it. I'll call him out from the rooftops. I'd be thrilled to put him out of his misery and have this senseless battle over with." Harry remarked.
"We all want a piece of him, Harry…" Sirius assured. "Do not worry, when you fight him…We all will."
"You will stay out of the battle, Sirius. You're technically still a felon…And I won't have anyone there he can use against me. It's between me and him. He started it fourteen years ago…I'll finish it next time he shows his face, unless he wants to run like a coward again." Harry remarked. "I won't lose anyone else to him, or I might just lose what's left of my sanity." He paused. "Now, shall we get back to having a good time?"
"But-," Some began.
"Absolutely!" Severus cut off those who were going to question Harry. "Go on and have fun, Harry."
Harry nodded with a smile and walked off with his friends. "What are you doing?" Sirius asked Severus. "Surely, as a guardian, you can't be okay with how he's talking!" He whispered.
"I'm not, but it won't help him any to stay on the matter." Severus stated. "Your godson suffers from serious depression, Black. He admitted it to me, how he truly feels with the literal weight of the world on his shoulders. He's told me he has wanted to die in the past. Do you not see it? How the entire situation of his life has affected him."
"The truth of the matter is that he is afraid. Scared he's not enough to defeat the dark lord. Scared that he'll fail and someone will end up dead because of it. You didn't see how Cedric Diggory's death almost pushed him over the edge after already knowing his parents died to protect him. Learning that Pettigrew betrayed them." The potions master told them.
"He just said he wasn't afraid." Arthur enlightened.
"Not of the dark lord, but he's afraid of failing. He doesn't want to fail and lose people. He doesn't want to be the reason people end up dying. That's why he's so determined to fight the dark lord, end it before anyone dies to get to Harry." Narcissa frowned. "He's not afraid for his life, he's scared for the lives of the people he could lose."
"Staying on the serious topics is not going to improve his mental state. He's right, he was forced to grow up and now bears a tremendous burden…But moments like these; he can relax and have fun. He can forget about what he's prophesied to do," Severus paused. "And get to be a kid who hangs with his friends." The potions master sat back, arms folded and looked at Harry.
"That's all he wants. Not being the boy who lived, not the one prophesied to defeat the dark lord. He just wants to be just Harry Potter. A student, a wizard in training at school with friends. He wants what every other kid gets. I told him to go have fun because right now, he gets to have a shred of that normalcy. You heard what he said about his sanity, his own admittance that there isn't much left. This keeps him happy, Sirius. Don't take that away from him." The man informed.
Harry had been looking at Severus ever since he overheard the man talking about moments like these where Harry could be a kid and forget about his duty in destroying Voldemort. Harry's eyes met Severus's, and mouthed a thank you to him as Severus replied with a subtle head nod. Harry did have the music going again and he had Dobby put away the pensive. The time continued to 11:00 pm as most everyone was just sitting around now, having a good time talking. In thirty minutes, 1995 would end and 1996 would begin. More to that, there was now only six months left of the student's fifth year of school. Well, for Luna and Ginny, it would be the end of their fourth year.
"Hey, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, Hermione?" Harry replied.
"Do you still play your guitar?" Hermione wondered.
"Only when I'm here." Harry responded. "Why?"
"Well, we were thinking it would be nice to hear that song you did in fourth year. Well, after everyone got over their spat about you ending up in the tournament." Hermione smiled.
"Don't remind me…" Harry muttered. He hated everything about fourth year about as much as he was hating almost everything from this year.
"I know, sorry. But can you? It's been a wonderful night and I think that song fits the moment." Hermione hoped.
"Fine…" Harry left the room, but returned about five minutes later holding the object and taking his seat again.
"That was your father's…" Sirius mentioned. "I thought he'd taken it with him when they moved to Godric's Hollow to go into hiding."
"He must not have wanted anything to happen to it, and left it here. Where was it, Harry?" Remus questioned.
"Up in the master bedroom, which is now mine." Harry informed as he got the strap over his head and set the instrument properly on one of his knees. Harry started strumming as the others began with a light sound from their lips. Sirius and Remus just sat back with smiles. "I've seen this perfect picture in my head. And after driving all night, now here it is. I can finally feel the sun kissing my skin. And I just wanna take it in. Yeah, I just wanna take it in." Harry started.
"Oooo." The others hummed.
"Breathe it in and out…" Harry sang.
"Oooo…"
"This is what it's all about…" Harry looked at his friends. "These are the moments, the moment we live for. Once in a lifetime, everything we want and more. This is the start of a new day, the good life. Ooh. These are the moments we live for!"
"I thought Harry said he couldn't sing when the music was playing in the hall." Pansy mentioned.
"Actually, he said I don't sing, not that he couldn't…" Draco reminded. "And he definitely can."
"We'll be the place where the ocean meets the sky. We'll soak it up and have the time of our lives. We'll make these memories out on hall of fame. 'Cause we just wanna take it in. Yeah, we just wanna take it in." Harry sang with Luna, Hermione, Dean, and Seamus.
"Yeah! These are the moments, the moments we live for. Once in a lifetime, everything we want and more. This is the start of a new day, the good life. Ooh. These are the moments we live for! These are the moments we live for! These are the moment we live for…" The strumming came slower.
"Breathing in and out. This is what life's all about. Yeah, breathe it in and out. And this is what it's all about!" Harry sang, the music lifting once more. "These are the moments, the moments we live for…"
"The moments we live for." Luna, Hermione, Dean, and Seamus continued.
"Once in a lifetime, everything we want and more. Oh! This is the start of a new day, the good life. Ooh. These are the moments we live for." Harry smiled.
"The moments we live for…"
"These are the moments we live for." Harry repeated.
"The moments we live for…"
"These are the moments we live for…" Harry finished with his friends and stopped strumming the strings of his acoustic guitar.
"That was lovely!" Molly joyfully clapped.
"I'm usually more of just instruments, but that was enjoyable." Narcissa agreed. "You're a talented young man, Harry Potter."
"When did you teach yourself to play, pup?" Sirius asked.
"One of the Gryffindor students had one a couple years back and left it behind after graduation. Harry learned from him and then while we've left the guitar in the tower, but Harry was the only one who ever played." Hermione informed.
"It makes him happy," Luna added. "But everyone has something they do that makes them happy. Some draw, some read or write. Playing music is one of life's best things because it's therapeutic and inspirational. Music says so much if you listen to the story within the lyrics." She added.
"You have a good voice, why didn't you sing with the others back at school?" Blaise wondered.
"Because Umbridge is looking for a reason to punish me. If I join in, she'll think I'm rising against her." Harry stated. "And I promised Professor Snape that I wouldn't purposely antagonize her by keeping my mouth shut and only speaking when spoken too. He went to bat for me to get me out of her consecutive detentions, so I'm not going to disobey him."
"Was brilliant," Theodore added. "He told her right off about staying away from Harry."
"Did you really?" Arthur asked.
"I told her I supported what Harry said to her about the ministry failing its residents and even now not taking the situation seriously with the dark lord rising once more." Severus remarked. "I mentioned that she should keep her hands to herself with Harry, or she would deal with me. And by me, I would go right to the press with how she was treating students and Fudge would deny knowing to save his own rear."
"And we can all be grateful none of the teachers in that position lasted more than a year. She'll be gone by the time we start sixth, thank Merlin…" Hermione sighed.
"I'm hoping she takes Dumbledore with her. He's the problem, not the school. It's the person running the school…" Harry muttered. "Sending children to do the protecting…Rather, just sending me because I'm the chosen one or whatever…"
"Professor McGonagall does a better job of being concerned for the students as Deputy Headmistress," Dean agreed.
"Why would you send an eleven year old off to face his parents' murderer, who happened to be attached to your teacher's head? Like, honestly…" Hermione sighed.
"And the comment he made to Harry and me when Mr. Malfoy had Dumbledore removed from the school for students being petrified? Practically sending us down into the chamber." Ron added. "He knew if we dealt with the Basilisk, the school wouldn't be closed and he'd be allowed back…"
"Don't you find it odd that every year was something to do with Voldemort? And it was Dumbledore who inadvertently sent us on the path, but it was always Harry who ended up alone to face the danger?" Hermione mentioned. "In first year, Harry had to face Professor Quirrell alone and Voldemort was on the back of his head. Second year was Harry facing the Basilisk and destroying Tom Riddle, who was Voldemort before he was Voldemort…"
"Wait…What?" Arthur questioned. "Who is this Tom Riddle fellow. I was told Voldemort possessed my daughter,"
"He did, but before he was Voldemort, he went by Tom Marvolo Riddle…" Harry informed. The male sighed as he grabbed his wand. "Tom Riddle is literally Voldemort, with rearranged letters of his own name…" He wrote out Tom Marvolo Riddle in the air with fire letters, then swiped his wand to reveal them rearranged as I Am Lord Voldemort.
"That's what he showed me when I told him he shouldn't care how I escaped the dark lord as a baby when Voldemort was after Riddle's time. He said Voldemort was his past, present, and future. Tom left behind a diary, which ended up with Ginny, and it possessed her. He had preserved a memory of himself within the pages. So when Ginny started writing in it; he wrote back and possessed her."
"Didn't you write in the diary too?" Ron asked. "How come it didn't possess you?"
"No idea, but he did take be back fifty years prior to show me when Hagrid got expelled because Tom had framed him as the one who set the Basilisk free on the muggle-borns." Harry stated.
"You wrote in a diary that wrote back to you?" Severus arched a brow. "You really do know how to get yourself into trouble, Potter…"
"I wanted to know why an ordinary diary belonging to Tom Marvolo Riddle ended up thrown at Myrtle in the second floor girl's bathroom." Harry stated. "He claimed down in the chamber that he didn't care about targeting muggle-borns anymore, his new target for many months had been me…He wanted to meet the child who survived the dark lord and only escaped with the scar. Then he sent that Basilisk after me…Had it not been for Fawkes, I'd have died down there with Ginny."
"Dumbledore's bird?" Lucius asked.
"When I stabbed the Basilisk through the head, one of its fangs pierced my arm and I had about a minute left to live with the venom coursing through my veins. I stabbed the diary with the fang that pierced me, destroyed the diary version of him, then Fawkes came; his tears healed me." Harry shrugged.
"Then third year may not have had Voldemort physically there to fight, but Sirius escaped prison to find me. Which I still don't know why you waited until then to break out, Uncle Siri…" Harry remarked.
"I saw the front page of the paper, Pettigrew was with the Weasley's in Egypt. After twelve years, the coward showed his face…So I broke out to protect you, and kill him…Not that things went down that way." Sirius muttered.
"If you had killed him, you'd have gone right back to Azkaban for an actual murder…Alive, he can be turned over and clear your name. I told you why I spared him…" Harry sighed.
"Yeah and he got away again!" Sirius huffed.
"He's with Voldemort. I saw him in fourth year…He's the one who killed Cedric, on Voldemort's orders…" Harry muttered. "Which brings us back to how I ended up alone in fourth year…Someone put my name in the goblet to ensure I'd compete…And Crouch Jr ensured I survived all the tasks to get to the cup, which was a portkey right to the graveyard where the bloody bastard returned to his physical body…" He remarked, unconsciously rubbing his arm where the scar from when Pettigrew cut into him was. "I'm still waiting to find out what happens this year."
"Nothing will happen because I am protecting you…" Severus reminded.
"You protected me all the other years too, Professor…But let's face facts. Something happens every single end of school year. I don't know what, but something will happen…" Harry told him. "I meant what I said…I hope Umbridge leaves at the end of the year and takes Dumbledore with her. The old fool purposely puts the students in danger, me especially and it's just a theory…But I think he does it on purpose. I think he's trying to kill me because it'll affect Voldemort due to the connection we have. He's just trying to kill me without getting his hands dirty."
"That's a pretty serious accusation, Harry…" Seamus said.
"But it's something to consider when the evidence is stacked against him. He doesn't remove me from the danger, he puts me front and center of it…" Harry informed.
"Final countdown to the new year!" Ginny exclaimed.
It was too. There was one minute left in 1995. The time ticked away to the last ten seconds. "Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One! Happy New Year!" The kids cheered, hugging one another and laughing. Though, the males would shake hands and chest bump one another. Harry and Draco did share a hug as fireworks were going off outside. The two pulled away and ended up staring at one another, smiling lightly before rejoining the celebration. Despite the seriousness, this was a great night that no one would soon forget. It was the start of a new year and who knew, maybe the start of something more for some.