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"Ready?" Astrid asked with a reassuring smile.

Harry tried smiling back but it was kinda hard to do while he was laying on a table half-naked.

"Don't worry, I'm just gonna run a few diagnostic spells that will tell me what I need to do next."

"Alright."

Harry's eyes fell to the side where his godfather was standing fidgeting beside Remus. His eyes fell on him as he smiled reassuringly at Harry.

Harry smiled back before turning back to watch the ceiling as tendrils of silver magic escaped from Astrid's wand moving over his body before submerging in him.

The magic felt warm and comforting, relaxing him completely. His eyes closed of their own accord as Astrid hummed softly as she worked. Just as slowly as the magic spread in him, it left just as quickly. His eyes fluttered open to watch a quizzical look on Astrid's face. Her eyes skimmed over the parchment on which the results arrived, the further her eyes traveled, the more confusion and anger spread in her.

Sirius and Remus moved towards her, dread filling their stomachs at her changing expressions as Harry sat up and pulled his shirt over his head.

Astrid suddenly cried out in horror as a wave of magic blasted off the windows in the room and the paper in her hands shook.

"Astrid!" Sirius cried out as he launched onto his cousin, his hands claiming hers to get her back into control.

Remus stood beside Harry, his hand holding Harry's in a death grip as the man went pale, dreading the worst news.

"Astrid, Astrid what's wrong? What's wrong with my godson?" Sirius demanded, panic and worry overshadowing his voice. This seemed to snap her out of her stupor.

"Nothing that I can't fix. I just...Sorry, Harry I just need to ask you a few questions."

"Um...Sure." Harry replied worriedly.

"Siri, Rem sit down with him, and please please stay calm till we're done, I don't want to add bailing you guys out of jail to our plan."

" First, how many times a day did you eat while at your aunt and uncles?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably.

"Enough." He replied evasively.

Astrid's eyes narrowed at his answer, just as she opened her mouth to retort to it, Remus caught her eye, shaking his head, signalling her to not speak.

Remus and Sirius looked at each other for a few minutes, a few minute head nods and eye movements giving away the silent conversation they were having before both turned towards Harry.

Harry still sat with his head down, refusing to look at anyone, his cheeks burning.

"Harry, we won't force you to talk if you don't want to. It's completely your decision, but please just remember that all we want to do is help you." Sirius spoke softly.

Harry just nodded his head, not wanting to lift his head and let the adults see the flaming blush on his cheeks.

"Would you be okay with listening to Astrid's results or do you want to leave?" Remus asked.

Harry cleared his throat before speaking, "I'd like to stay if that's alright."

The three adults nodded before Astrid continued reading her notes. "Well, let's start with the simplest before building up okay? First of all, your results show severe nutrient deficiency, vitamin deficiency, and calcium deficiency, though one of your arms' bones looks newly regrown. Almost a year ago?"

"Uh..yeah, I broke my arm in a quidditch match, and Lockhart insisted he could fix it and then vanished all the bones in my hand."

"What?" Sirius cried out in outrage.

"Remind me to vanish that idiot's whole arm, not just the bones," Remus muttered under his breath.

Harry's lips twitched in amusement.

"Alright, murderous thoughts aside, let's move on shall we?" Astrid said.

"Now, I will be starting you on a strict regime of potions and protein-rich food, which is similar to Sirius's so, Remus can monitor you both and see that you both adhere to it strictly. And don't make that face both of you." She finished with a glare when both Sirius and Harry made similar grimaces at the thought of diet.

"Honestly, the standards at Hogwarts and the ministry must be failing, how didn't the WOO or the school nurse notice your health I will never understand."

"What's WOO?" Harry asked.

Surprise flitted onto the faces of all of them.

"Harry, WOO is the Wizarding Orphan Offices, you know the one where someone comes by yearly to check on you and make sure your foster home is good?" Remus said hesitantly.

An ill-feeling began premating in Astrid's stomach as her conscience whispered to her to block all exits from the room. Silently she raised the wards around the house.

"No one ever came to check on me. Maybe it's because Professor Dumbledore hid me away?"

Sirius's eyes which till now were blank flashed dangerously.

"Harry, Dumbledore had no right to hide you away, he wasn't even on the list of your guardians, did he at least even come to visit you and check on you even once?"

Harry's heart thudded at the implications of that, that there was supposed to be a whole committee dedicated to looking after orphans yet not even one of them ever noticed how he was treated. He shook his head in negative to reply to what Sirius said.

"Do you know how you came to be at your Aunt's?" Sirius asked.

Astrid and Remus glanced at each other worriedly.

He hesitated before answering.

"I overheard them talking once, apparently I was left on their doorstep with a letter."

Silence permeated his statement, before a rumbling began, shaking all the windows as a terrible wind whipped around them, the shelf of potions began to shake and almost fell before Astrid stabilized them.

Remus moved to Sirius's side, holding his friend close and whispering in his ears, after a few minutes the rumblings seized.

"How about we take a break for now? We'll continue later."

"No. No. I want to know everything now." Harry said.

He didn't know why he was insisting but he felt that it would be better to just get it over with rather than dragging it out.

Astrid hesitated for a moment, but not feeling any indication that this was wrong looked to Sirius and Remus asking if it was right.

Both of them moved closer to Harry, Sirius hesitating for a moment before putting his hand around Harry's shoulder who immediately relaxed a little. Sirius nodded to Astrid to continue, his hand tightening around Harry's shoulder in anticipation of what was about to come.

"Now there are two problems here, one is that there seems to be a mass of some residual magic in his scar, possibly from that night. It's not hurting him right now, but I do want to look at it more in-depth and have it removed, and the other is a bit tricky. The second problem is not something I am telling you lightly, but first and foremost, I need to tell you that this cannot go further than us, not even your friends Harry, I know that you trust them, but in the end of the day you and your friends are still only 13, I know in the past that all the adults in your life have been incompetent at helping you but now you have us." Astrid held up a hand when Harry began to protest this.

"Don't protest Harry, you and I both know it's true." Harry's mouth closed as he swallowed his words, it was true, neither Dumbledore nor the Weasley's had helped him despite their claims that they cared about him.

"Please Harry, I need you to understand that this is very important, they cannot know until I finish a few more tests."

The seriousness of her voice claimed his consciousness before he agreed to not tell anyone.

"Now, first the fact that you want to know both problems makes this easier to explain. First, can you tell me how many incidents of accidental magic Harry showcased when he was younger?"

"Almost daily as far as I can remember." Remus said with his eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, he was a pretty powerful kid, remember when he accidentally produced antlers and a dog tail after seeing me and prongs?" Sirius asked with a soft smile.

"That was hilarious, Lily would vanish them and he would simply just get them back saying he wanted to be like pafoo and dada." Remus replied, reminiscing.

Harry looked at them in awe, this nugget of his childhood warming his heart. Astrid too had an amused smile listening to his antics.

"Now, Harry can you remember how many times you did accidental magic when at your aunt and uncles?"

"I'm not sure, but it was very rare, I remember I turned a teacher's wig blue and vanished a glass in the zoo."

Astrid nodded hearing this, her face set in consternation.

"Now, tell me how does a kid who did accidental magic almost every day when he was a child, suddenly have very rare instances of it? This is well in part to how your relatives treated you and also the fact that your core has been bound for almost a decade looking at the signs."

"What!" Remus exclaimed shocked. Binding someone's core, especially a child was very dangerous, it was borderline illegal because it could very well kill a person!

"I don't get it, what does that mean and why is it such a big deal?" Harry asked in confusion and trepidation.

"Harry, binding someone's core, especially a child's is very detrimental to one's health, our core, our magic is what protects us, especially children from common colds and infections, very rarely do wizards and witches get severely sick. To bind someone's core, especially when yours hadn't even matured, they could have very well killed you." Remus explained illease swimming in his stomach.

"Wait what? But..why? Who would, who would do that?" Harry felt like throwing up. He had been rationalising all that had happened to him till now as just Very Bad Luck. But this? Someone had actively done this. Actively planned and executed something to try to kill him.

"You understand what I am saying, Sirius?" Astrid asked, her violet eyes boring into Sirius's grey.

"A decade, so almost a year after Harry came to live here?" Sirius's mind raced over the words and the possibilities of this. Of what it could mean. Someone, someone had tried to kill him. Had tried to murder Harry, murder him when he was just a toddler. Anger and disgust roiled in his stomach. He wanted to scream, he wanted to rage, he wanted to hide away Harry, his prongslet, James and Lily's boy.

"Sirius." Harry whispered scared, he didn't want to think about this. That within two years of his life, people had tried to kill him twice. Tension screwed his frame into a statue.

Immediately Sirius's attention turned back to Harry. His hands clutched at Harry's shoulders bringing the teen's eyes to his. "You are fine. You will be fine prongslet. You understand? Nothing and no one is going to harm you anymore."

"But why-who-why would-I didn't-I was- I was a baby! I didn't- I didn't even, I didn't even do- I was a baby! Why would? Why? What did I do?" Harry's voice broke on his words. He didn't understand. All he had wanted. All he had ever wanted was to just be, to just be normal, to just, to just have a normal life. To be just Harry. He had thought, he had thought that his Hogwarts years were just bad luck, but now, he finds out that people had been conspiring to kill him since he was a baby. People other than Voldemort.

Maybe, maybe this was a sign that he had been meant to die that night with his parents. At least then, he would have been with them. He wouldn't have had to live with the Dursleys, he wouldn't have had to be hurt repeatedly at Hogwarts.

Someone was calling his name. Sirius. Harry could see his mouth moving, although it was rather blurry. Why was it blurry? He felt something cold along his cheeks. He wiped his face and pulled his fingers to see droplets on water on his cheeks.

Huh. Had someone dumped water over his head? But no that didn't-that didn't feel right. One drop made it's way into his mouth.

Salty. He noted distantly.

Tears. His mind whispered.

That was funny. He hadn't cried in years. Not since, not since, when was the last time he cried? He couldn't even remember. No one had ever wiped his tears, no one had ever held him as he cried. Tears had bought him nothing but more derision. There had been no point in crying. No one would comfort him. No one cared to. And so he had just stopped. He had stopped crying to the point that it had taken him a minute to recognise he had been crying. A giggle escaped him at that. A bubble of hysterical laughter.

He had forgotten how to cry. Wasn't that just so hilarious? More laughter. His head was thrown back, hysterical, manic, crazy, sad laughter pouring out of him. He could feel someone shaking him, someone was calling his name again. Right, Sirius.

He blinked his eyes, trying to clear them a bit. He could see a panic-stricken Sirius with tears in his own eyes looking at him, Sirius's hands still clutched his shoulders. His laughter cut off abruptly at that. Why was, why was Sirius looking so sad?

Awareness crept into Harry's eyes. Seeing that Harry was back with him, a bit of panic left Sirius's eyes. His hands came up to brush the tears off of Harry's face.

"What's wrong?"

Sirius looked incredibly sad at that. "I should be asking you that prongslet." He whispered in a choked voice. Harry tilted his head and was surprised to see that he was being held by Remus, who was trying to crush Harry to his side. When had that happened?

Remus's hand left his shoulder, combing his hair in a soothing motion. He had been scared. So scared. He and Sirius both, it had seemed that for a few minutes, nothing they did could reach Harry.

"Harry I know that you are scared, but trust us, we won't let anything happen to you, not anymore," Remus said in a soothing tone, hoping to alleviate Harry's fear.

"I'm not-" Harry's throat hurt as he tried to speak, a frown marring his face as he couldn't understand why that was. Sirius handed him a glass of water, laced with a mild calming potion that Astrid had left before leaving the room.

Harry could feel some tension leave him as he drank the water, tension he hadn't been aware was in him. "Why does my throat hurt so much?" He asked.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other, before Sirius took his Harry's hands in his, turning Harry's attention to him. "You had a panic attack. It is understandable, you just got a huge shock." He spoke slowly so as to not spook Harry.

For his part, Harry just looked confused. He had been in dangerous situations before, he had almost died so many times in his short, short, short life. He hadn't realised how little he had lived. A fitting life for someone who barely lives. He didn't have an answer to that and just nodded to show he understood.

"Harry." Sirius pulled Harry's attention back to him. "Harry, I need you to listen to me. Nothing, I mean nothing is going to happen to you alright? I won't let it, Remus won't let it. I know we weren't here till now and we are so so sorry, but we are here now and I promise you that nothing, not even the fires of hell can drag me away from you understand? There is no reason to be scared-" That was as far as Sirius got before Harry interrupted him.

"I'm not scared." At the two men's incredulous looks, Harry elaborated. "I have been facing one dangerous situation after another for the past three years, trust me, this doesn't scare me at all." Harry insisted.

"Would you mind telling us what you were thinking then?" Remus asked gently.

Harry opened his mouth to answer.

Maybe I'm not meant to be alive, maybe I should have died that night with my parents, or when I was five and Dudley pushed me down the stairs, or when I was nine and they left me in the cupboard for two weeks with just water or in the first year when I faced Voldemort, or in the second year with the basilisk, or last year with the dementors, or, or, maybe when I was three and someone bound my magic, or maybe the hundreds of other deaths I just managed to escape.

"I don't know. I don't remember." He lied.