Ok everyone, here's chapter 6, I don't own anything as usual. Read and review please.
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Harry Potter and the Lion's Roar
Chapter 6: Memories and Minor Slips
* * * * * Grimmauld Place * * * * *
Harry's mind was whirling with thoughts about the talk he was about to have with his parents as he climbed the steps to his room, his schoolbooks slung over his shoulder. Almost as soon as everyone stepped through the Floo into the house, the three new arrivals hit him with pointed looks, clearly showing they all thought they'd waited long enough for an explanation. Harry promised to meet them all in the drawing room after taking care of his books.
Now as he climbed the steps, all sorts of questions and insecurities about revealing his past to his parents were reaping havoc on his mind. What would they say? Would they be disappointed in him? How exactly was he going to explain his life to someone? He couldn't even explain most of it to himself, let alone others!
Seeing her friend's obvious turmoil over the matter, Hermione, who was walking up the stairs next to him, offered to help him in his explanation. Harry almost declined; it really was something he should do himself but, thinking twice, he resolved it might be easier to have a friend there just for support, really, considering reliving some things was going to be painful to him since the wounds were still raw.
Hermione reassured him with a small smile, and, after squeezing his arm briefly before running ahead, arranged to meet him and the other three in the group in the drawing room in 10 minutes.
Not feeling much in the mood to rush into the conversation, Harry leisurely walked the rest of the distance to his room, trying to formulate some sort of plan on home exactly to break everything to them. But before he knew it, he found himself entering the drawing room to find that everyone had, in fact, beat him there.
Harry took a deep breath and shut the door, locking it behind him and discretely placing a silencing charm on the room in case things got out of hand. It was an action not missed by any of the other occupants of the room, but everyone decided not to comment.
Harry crossed the room and noticed for the first time since his entrance that on the ancient mahogany table around which everyone was seated, was an ornate stone bowl, one which Harry recognized instantly as a Pensive. Noticing his confused look, Hermione bit her lip.
"I thought...that maybe your birthday present from me would make this go a bit smoother. Maybe showing them what happened rather than telling will give everyone a clearer picture," she mumbled nervously, her brown eyes shining with an odd mix of anxiety and hope that he'd like the gift. Harry stared at the large bowl a moment before grinning slightly, leaning over and wrapping Hermione into a tight hug.
"Thanks 'Mione, it's great," he replied honestly, before taking a seat on the couch next to her. Hermione let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and broke into a smile.
"Good I was worried you wouldn't like it, but I thought since the Occlumency lessons didn't go so well-"
Harry snorted at this, but chose not to comment, so Hermione continued.
"I thought somewhere where you can put your thoughts to clear your head would be nice," she said.
Harry grinned at his best friend, quietly noting how adorable she looked when she was nervous, but reluctantly, he pulled himself out of his musings and forced himself to focus back to the task at hand. He turned his attention to the three sitting on the couch opposite to them, and sighed.
"Alright, well, where would you like to start?" he asked seriously.
"I find the beginning usually helps, Harry" Sirius remarked, for once, his playful demeanor seemed to have taken the back seat for this talk. Harry smirked and nodded, looking between his mother and father for this part.
"As I told you this morning, you already know that it was Pettigrew who betrayed you… sold you to Voldemort-"
Neither of his parents flinched at the name, though they may have had a brief look of pride in him for saying it.
"-When he came after us that night, you both died trying to protect me, and, in the end, your sacrifice saved my life as it turns out," he said, his emerald eyes meeting his mother's own, and held her gaze for a moment before going on.
"When you died, mum, trying to put yourself in my place, you placed a protection over me--a blood protection. When our dear friend Tom tried to kill me, he failed. His purpose was to, obviously, get rid of any problems in the future. "
Lily and James' expressions changed, now both held confusion.
"Failed?" James questioned.
Hermione nodded and decided to pick up for her friend. "Harry is the first person ever to survive the Avada Kedarva curse," she spoked softly.
Both of the Potters' looked completely floored. Harry chuckled at their faces and lifted the inky fringe falling on his forehead, revealing the scar that he so hated to them.
"This is all I have as a remembrance to that night, after the curse backfired, Voldemort virtually lost all power and was reduced to a spirit. He fled, and I was sent to the only relatives I had left with your blood, mum," he went on.
"My blood? Why? Why would Albus send you to such a horrible place?" she asked, a hint of pain leaking into her voice, and James wrapped an arm tightly around her waist.
Harry smiled, a bitter smile, before saying, "Because the same protection that saved me also doomed me to living under someone's roof; someone with that same blood so that the protection could continue to work.
"So, I lived with Aunt Petunia until I was 11, never knowing what magic was or anything about my past. I was simply told that you two had died in a car accident and that I was taken in out of the kindness of their hearts-"
"So that's the rubbish they gave you to justify making you live like a house elf?" Sirius remarked sarcastically, the spite dripping off his words. "Always wondered how they got themselves to sleep at night."
Harry could see his parents beginning to get angry at the mention of his treatment, and held up a hand to calm them.
"There's nothing that can be done about it now. I'm alive, and, if I have nothing else to be grateful to them for, it's giving me somewhere to stay until I was 11 and during the summers," he said with finality, silencing anyone else's remarks, which everyone seemed poised to give. They all resigned themselves to keeping quiet, and listened to him continue.
"So, now that we got that out of the way, I'd rather show you the rest," he said, pulling out his wand an extracting a series of memories and putting them all into vials Hermione bought with the Pensive.
For the next few hours Harry and 4 of the most important people in his life, went through the strands he took out; the memories of his first encounter with Voldemort, the Chamber of Secrets, the night Sirius returned in third year, the Triwizard Tournament, the Department of Mysteries and the night last June that seemed to pierce everyone's heart. He was careful, however, not to reveal the Horcruxes, as much as he may have want to. Harry decided that, for the moment, to at least keep that to himself.
After each memory, Harry would stop and explain what was going on, as well as a quick summary of his year that year. He introduced the youngest Weasleys to James and Lily, as well as pointing out some other friends of his whose parents they may be familiar with, and telling them anything he thought they should know.
After all that, his parents merely sat in silence, staring at him with looks of dumbstruck awe, mixed with so many more emotions. Lily looked as if she was mere moments away from bursting into tears, and James was simply giving him a strong look. Harry's heart swelled as he recognized the pride his eyes held for him. Sirius was busy muttering obscenities about Snape and what fait awaited him if he ever met the greasy git again.
Harry chanced a look at Hermione, who was looking at him with a small smile as she reached out and laced her fingers with his, giving him a comforting squeeze, and Harry immediately felt like a weight hand been lifted from his shoulders. Before he could allow his thoughts to drift back to the lovely girl next to him, he turned his attention back to the three sitting quietly on the other side of the table. He cleared his throat and looked at them all sincerely.
"I know it's a lot to swallow at one time, but you deserved to know. I've been through a lot, and I'm not going to lie, it wasn't easy…it's probably why I have so many insecurities about losing people I love and probably other things. But I did make it through, and I'm better for it now that I look back, I think. I would never have wanted some of the things to turn out the ways they did, but that's life, and I hope that it gives you both a better understanding of how I got to be who I am now," he said simply.
He and Hermione stood up and quietly left the room, leaving the three to their own thoughts and devices. They silently walked out to the back deck and settled down next to each other on the stairs. Harry put his head in his hands, rubbing his face as the mental and physical strain of the past few days started to catch up with him. Hermione merely sat with him for moral support, knowing he'd open up to her eventually; pushing him wasn't going to give him any more incentive to talk.
"That was surprisingly easier than I was anticipating," he said quietly, after a moment.
Hermione smirked at him, her eyes twinkling coyly. "Well, my Boy-Who-Lived, glad to hear that you can get through a chat with your parents," she goaded.
Harry glared at her. "Oi, Granger, are you mocking me?"
Hermione giggled, and nodded vehemently. Harry grinned predatorily and Hermione knew she was toast; before she could even react he'd pounced on her and started mercilessly tickling her sides.
"HARRY! ... Please...stop!" she managed to choke out between her laughter and gasping for breath.
Harry merely grinned. "Sorry, what was that?" he played.
"Please stop!" she squealed. Harry took pity on her and stopped, but did not move from his position of hovering above her, his wicked grin of triumph threatening to crack his face in half. Hermione smiled up at him from her comfortably spot on the floor.
"That wasn't fair," she whined, pulling a pout face. "You're bigger than me, you brute."
Harry chuckled. "Well, you deserved it 'Mione! Imagine the nerve of you mocking me, the Boy-Who-Lived! Such cheek should be punished," he joked. They both shared a good laugh before Harry spoke again.
"Thanks 'Mione, for today. I really needed someone there for me," he said sincerely.
Hermione smiled, her heart melting at hearing his words.
"It was nothing. Any friend would be there for you when you needed them," she replied modestly.
Harry shook his head. "No, they wouldn't, and you did, so I just wanted to tell you how much it means to me that you care," he replied in almost a whisper.
It was then that he realized the close proximity to her, and from the look that flashed through her eyes, she had noticed too. The internal battle that had been raging in him since he first saw her when she picked him up flared once again. Unconsciously he bent lower toward her…he could feel her breath on his face…their noses almost touching…
Just as he was about to pass the point of no return, reality came flying back at him. The realization of what he was about to do hit him like a kick to the groin and he immediately jumped off of her, flushing as red as one the Weasleys. Hermione seemed to have the same thoughts because she, too, jumped off the deck and flushed crimson.
"I....uh, we-" Harry stuttered, trying to give an explanation for what he'd just done, or well, almost done. Cursing his teenage hormones, he shut his mouth quickly before he had a chance to make a bigger fool of himself. After a moment of silence, Hermione cleared her throat, straightening her shirt and smiling at him as if nothing had happened.
"Well, I have some summer homework to finish up. I'll see you at dinner, Harry," she said smoothly, not even a hint of what just occurred between the two of them slipped into her voice. It was as if it never happened and in that moment, Harry was immensely grateful.
After she disappeared through the door, Harry decided he could get in a bit of flying before dinner which, to him, was a way to wind down and relax after the long and stressful day…and a wonderful opportunity to clear his head.
He Accio'ed his broom, since he didn't really have the mental strength to run into anyone if he walked to get it, and a few seconds later it slipped out through the open window in his room, landing about a foot away. He mounted it and was off in his own little world-- one where there was no Voldemort, no worries about what tomorrow brought, no girl problems. Just the wind in his face and the various loops and rolls he pulled as he flew.
Once he felt he'd successfully cleared his head, he released his practice Snitch from a box he'd summoned from his room. It was an attempt to get some practice in before going back to school. He had managed to catch it a total of 5 times in before he noticed someone was on the ground watching him. Judging by the messy mop of hair on said person, there was really no guessing who it was. He turned and dove down almost right on top of his father, before barrel rolling into a sloth grip at the last second and catching the Snitch from right on top of James' head a final time. Then he easily touched down to the ground and dismounted.
James looked at him with a mixture of amusement and pride as he watched him put the Snitch back in its box.
"Good to see you got the Quidditch genetics from me! Your mother can't stand flying," he joked. Harry smiled; a brief thought of the similarities between his mother and Hermione crossed his mind before he nodded.
"Youngest Seeker in a century," he replied with a hint of pride.
James smirked, and motioned that they should both sit. Harry complied with his wish, sighing slightly as he plopped onto the grass. The two Potter men sat in silence for a moment before either spoke.
"Your mother is a bit shaken up," James remarked quietly. Harry winced visibly.
"I didn't mean to scare her," he said earnestly. "I just thought you guys deserved to know what I'm getting into."
James nodded. "I know, and she does too, and she'll come around after she has some time to let it sink in. She's just having some trouble grasping all that has happened to her little boy I suppose," James replied, looking at Harry much the same as he had felt inside-- with mixed emotions.
The truth was, he, too, was having trouble grasping the concept that his son-- the little baby who he'd vowed to love and protect from the moment he first held him in his arms, the young man so like himself sitting next to him now--was had gone through everything he'd just watched.
Harry seemed to notice his look. "I know it's a lot to take in, and I know that you will probably have some trouble accepting it. Hell, I know I did, but in the end, it comes down to the fact that it's him or me, there's nothing anyone can do to change it. Now, I don't have any plan of rolling over and letting him win; I plan on fighting like hell for the people I love, the people who were taken from me and my friends, and all the innocent people who will die if I fail. But there's a reality that I might fail, he is the greatest dark wizard in a hundred years, it's not going to be a cakewalk. But if I do have to die doing this, I don't want people to worry about me, especially not you and not mum."
"You both mean too much to me to have you upset over something no one can change. I missed out on too much with the two to waste the time I have with you in case I do fail. I just want you to know that; don't think about what could happen or what has happened to me, because I don't want it. All I want from you and from her, are to know you, for once in my life, to get a chance to love you the way I have since I knew you existed," he said quietly. The two men stared at each other for a moment, hazel eyes boring into emerald, until finally James nodded, pulling his son into a hug on the lawn.
"We loved you too Harry, and I promise, we'll do anything we can to help you beat the bastard," he whispered, his voice choking a bit as he fought off tears of pride for the great man his son had turned into.
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Ok first off I am the one who is responsible for this chapter being so late, im sorry guys. (And of course my beta Jacqueline had nothing to do with my lateness and is in no way shape or form responsible for it, nor did she force me to write a note like this at the end.) =) Well I know it's a bit short, and a bit boring, but it's just a filler so look forward to a more exciting chapter coming up. I thank Jacqueline once again, without her this would surely but a pretty crappy story.