In Another Life | By : Alana_Rickman Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Snape Views: 2720 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2 |
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Chapter 2
It was a very busy summer for Harry Potter. As he sat on the train that took him back to his aunt and uncle for the final time Harry came to several conclusions. The first of which was the way his so called relatives treated him. During one of their trips to Diagon Alley Hermione, Ron and he had stopped by Gringotts Wizarding Bank. He picked up a sizable amount of muggle currency. He intended to have a very serious talk with his family about their treatment of him and they would come to an agreement about the remainder of his stay with them, there were no other alternatives. He intended to compensate them for room and board and he would no longer be forced into the manual labor they were not willing to do themselves.They also paid a visit to Madame Malkins so that Harry could pick up a new pair of socks for his eccentric house elf friend, Dobby. The Madame happened to be out on the floor and commented on Harry’s baggy clothes being a fad of his generation which got the trio talking about why Harry continued to wear his cousin Dudley’s cast offs and ultimately leading to Hermione and the shop owner coaxing him into buying a few new things which eventually led to Harry leaving with a fully stocked wardrobe shrunken in his robe pocket.
Harry smiled fondly at the memory of Hermione and Madame Malkin gushing over which colors would go best with his eyes and telling him to turn this way and that while they dressed him like a doll. They even got Ron in on it and before he knew it his best friend was shoving several shirts with witty sayings on them into his arms.
As he looked out at the quickly passing country side from the train window, he sighed as he leaned on his hand. He couldn’t keep the things that were weighing on his mind from his best friends for much longer and honestly he didn’t want to. Gone was the naive little boy who knew nothing other than trying to live up to the expectations that the wizarding world had set for him since before he knew that he was a wizard. This summer he would prepare because next year he fully intended to show who he really was next year.
“Alright there mate?” asked Ron. He happened to glance over at Harry while he was talking to Hermione about what his family had planned for the summer. He had noticed that his best friend had been getting more and more pensive the past couple of weeks but had decided to wait until he worked it out for himself and then he would tell the rest of the group if he wanted to.
With another sigh, this time to fortify himself, Harry turned from the window to face his friends. Now he had the attention of both of his friends.
“Actually, yeah guys I think it’s time that we had talk. If I’m honest it’s probably long overdue.”
“Just a moment Harry.” Hermione interrupted. Standing up she faced the door to their train car and with a murmured incantation and flick of her wand she sat back down.
“There you are Harry. Wouldn’t want anyone ease dropping would we?”
“No. Thank you Mione.” Harry said with smile towards Hermione. He knew that she would always have his back. It was his red haired friend that still had to be tried.
“Anytime, Harry. Now what is it you want to talk about?” She asked as she sat back down in her seat next to Ron.
This was it. He would show his friends his true self and it was his deepest hope that they wouldn’t abandon him for it. With his head tilted down he took a breath and as he did he exhaled Harry Potter the boy who lived and as he inhaled he seemed to build himself up from the inside out. His slouch disappeared and his shoulders straightened out and his expression lost the ‘anyone can approach me’ boyishness and hardened into that of a young man that would soon be a general in a war.
“There are some things I need to tell you all. I am going to be making some changes in the upcoming year and I need to know where you stand. So, I thought we could have a tete-a-tete so to speak. I’ll tell you everything, we’ll take a break so you can truly think of the things I am about to tell you and then we’ll come back and go from there. Sound fair?”
The two nodded their heads in agreement and waited for their friend to say what he needed to say.
“Alright then. You all have noticed that I have been withdrawn since the incident at the Ministry and Sirius fell into the veil?”
They nodded their agreement but made no further move to speak.
“I wanted to thank you for allowing me my time to grieve without and during that time I have done some thinking. This war is not my fault. Voldemort rose to power at least 20 years before I was ever a twinkle in my fathers’ eye. I hate that my life seems to be dictated according to a so called prophecy that caused a lunatic to murder my parents before I could ever know what it was like to truly have a family. I hate that the wizarding world is so fickle and are so easily swayed by the rubbish printed in the news and how each of them feel like they are entitled to a personal say in my life.”
While Harry was speaking the other two occupants of the coach could practically feel the discontent radiate from the other boy making the air crackle with pent up energy.
In a more level voice Harry continued. “I grew up with my relatives who despised everything magic and locked me in a cupboard for most of my life with little food and was only let out to cook and clean. Why? Why was I just left on a door step with nothing more than a vague letter proving my identity? Why were they never told about the role I am supposed to play? Why did no one ever check on me? Why did no one ever come when I was beaten into unconsciousness and starved to the point that it stunted my growth? Why is it that I was never told about the wizarding world before Hagrid came to take me to Hogwarts? Why did the prophecy target me and not Neville?”
Harry crossed his legs and leaned back in his seat. “As children why were we allowed to go on such dangerous adventures with hardly any opposition? I mean given even if we were cleaver and determined shouldn’t there have been some kind of spell in place to prevent us from doing certain things or at the least alerted the teachers?”
At this Harry looked up and stared deeply into each of his friends eyes and said, “I fully intend to get the answer to all of my questions. More and more I cannot shake the feeling that everything in my life has been a huge manipulation and it stops now.” He scooted forward so that he was sitting on the edge of his seat and that much closer to his friends. “I need your help. Hermione no one is as brilliant as you at getting information and making connections and you Ron, you’re brilliant when it comes to strategy so having your say on what you would do if you were pulling the strings to this puppet show is going to be invaluable but before I let you in any further there are a few things we need to clear up.” He turned to focus his attention on Hermione. “Hermione, I love you as the sister I never had. You’re always there for us and I can’t count the times that you’ve made a connection that Ron and I had overlooked and saved us. I want you to know that I appreciate you and I never want you to stop being brainy, bossy, caring wonderful you but I need you to understand some things. When I begin to dig for those answers I was talking about earlier it might not shine such a flattering light on some of the people you hold in high regard. I have begun to realize that the world is not so two sided as we were led to believe. There is more than just light and dark or good and evil and more than anything I need you to realize it too.”
Now he turned to regard Ron. He knew that this would be the more difficult of the conversations for him so he took a moment to gather his thoughts. He took a breath and began, “Ron, you were my first friend ever and your family took me in as one of their own and that is something that I will never forget. What I want you to understand is this… My mum and dad were murdered and since then I have been a so called celebrity but if it were not for the album Hagrid gave me I wouldn’t even remember what they look like. They come from old lines and yes they left me a fortune several times over and only Merlin knows what else I’ll find out about when I come of age. Just when I thought that I might finally be able to have just a bit of the love and that I see so freely given in your family with Sirius he was taken from me. Yes, he also made me his heir and left me an inheritance. I’m not telling you this to rub anything in your face mate but more than anything I want you to see that I would give it all up, down to the last knut, for brothers who tease me and use me for pranks, to have a hug every morning from my mum or to have my dad put his hand on my shoulder and tell me that he was proud of me or a little sister that asks my advice about Quiddich and looks up to me. Our friendship has been plagued by your jealousy of my so called celebrity almost since the very beginning. You turn on me almost as much as the wizarding world at large but it hurts that much more because you more than most should know how hard this is. You know that I am not an attention seeker or any of those things the press makes me out to be. I need you to think about if you want to continue being my friend. You act without thinking things through and it…hurts me Ron. I’m not asking for heartfelt conversations and hugs but I am asking for you to understand how the way you treat me makes me feel. I mean it. I won’t tolerate the way you treat me when your emotions get the better of you anymore. ”
“Okay.” Harry said looking between Hermione and Ron. “This is where we take a break and see where we go from here.”
To Harry’s relief the trio came out of that conversation all the stronger for it. After apologies from Ron and tearful hugs from Hermione they sat back in their seats.“Well, now that we have that sorted.” Hermione said. Her voice still a bit raspy from her earlier bout of tears. “Here I bought these for us earlier this year when we went to Hogsmeade. Since it sounds like we’re going to have a lot to talk about over the hols I might as well give them to you now.” She pulled out three beautiful leather bound journals. “It took me awhile to find the right charms but now we can use these to talk to each other over the summer. They’re spelled so that once they have our magical signatures no one else will be able to read them. They are completely private and very nearly indestructible.”
“Wow, Mione.” Ron said impressed as he held his own journal turning it over and leafing through its’ pages.
“How do they get our magical signatures?” Harry asked doing the same thing to his journal as Ron.
“Hold your journal in front of you,” she said, demonstrating by putting her own in her lap. “And aim a spell at it.”
They looked at each other and each gave a nod. “Alright then, on three.” Harrt said.
“One.” Said Ron.
“Two.” Chimed Hermione.
“Three.” Voiced Harry.
“Alohamora!”
“Winguardium Leviosa!”
“Expecto Patronum!”
All three books began to glow with a white light that disappeared as suddenly as it came.
“I really don’t know why I am still shocked at what you’re capable of Mione.” Harry said in a hushed voice as he tenderly ran his hands over his journal. It had changed colors from the dark brown it originally was to a deep emerald green with miniature version of a Basalisk slithering around a saying at that had engraved itself into the bottom right on the front cover.
“Bloody Hell.” was all Ron could get out as he looked at his own journal. It was a rich red with a lion laying on what appeared to be the same saying as the other journals.
Hermione looked at her own with a satisfied smile. The leather on her journal had faded to the color of old parchment and it had script written in elegant calligraphy moving across the cover with the same saying as the others in the bottom right corner except the last letter of hers was connected to a quill as if it had just finished writing the words.
“I guess they match our personalities,” she said.
“It looks like the all have the same saying.” Ron noticed and read them out loud. “Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc.” The three friends grinned at each other knowing the words to be true.
“Right now all we have to do to make them private is to tap the figure with the tip of your wand and tell it your password.” The three decided to wait until they were alone to complete the final step.
“Now when one of us writes in it the other journals will glow the color of the journal of the writer but only we will be able to see it. If you ever want to make an entry and use it as a regular journal before you write just tap twice with your wand to close the connection and three times to open it again. ”
“Wow.” “Brilliant.” The two boys said in chorus.
The rest of the train ride was spent discussing their plans for the summer and making plans for the upcoming year.
The summer was full of preparation for the trio that made regular use of their new journals. Harrys’ relatives accepted the money he offered them for room and board and grudgingly agreed to leave him to his own devices leaving Harry free to actually do his homework without the cloak of night to conceal his activities. With all his free time he reread his old school books gleaning information he wasn’t able to pick up the first time around. He found that he actually enjoyed reading books, much to Hermiones’ delight who sent him at least one book on every subject she could get her hands on. Harry even had a secret stash of romance novels. He was very fond of the ones where the hero was often dark, brooding and misunderstood.
His birthday came and went with the usual wishes and presents. Socks from Dobby the house elf, an eye correction potion from Hermione, a new wand holder from Ron, rock cakes from Hagrid and an assortment of pies and cakes from the Weasleys. Dumbledore had also written to tell him that due to the recent spike in Death Eat attacks he could not go to the Weasleys this year. This bothered Harry in more ways than one. He made frequent use of his journal to try and decipher his feelings for the potions master and in fact determine when he began to develop more than a grudging respect for the man. All he had come up with so far was that he felt drawn to the man and strangely enough he felt no great need to fight against the pull.
The close of summer found the friends once again on the train speeding away from the platform to take them to begin another year of school. The friends caught up on things that they hadn’t communicated in their journals and reaffirmed things that they had. They discussed how they would act mostly the same but that Harry would show his more serious side and he would not cater to the public. Ron and Hermione soon left to perform their prefect duties leaving Harry alone to wonder about if the Death Eater raids were taking a toll on a certain dungeon dweller.
After making their rounds on the train the Hermione and Ron told Harry about the subdued atmosphere and the mood of the other students. They decided to use one of the more positive aspects of their popularity and go on as usual. They knew that the others took their cue from them for the most part so they would act as normal and upbeat as possible to try and dispel the tension. They agreed that as children the occupants of the school, not directly involved in the war efforts, should be free to carry on as normally as possible for as long as possible.
The friends walked confidently into the Great Hall for the welcome feast as if they didn’t have a care in the world and continued talking and laughing as if they didn’t notice the silence that swept the room. Harry’s attention however was drawn to the head table and held by none other than the resident potions master.
Harry had his answer as to the effect of the raids on the man. He looked like he hadn’t slept a combined 24 hours the whole of the summer. To him the professor looked on the verge of collapse and it made his heart ache for the man that he was beginnig to develope more than just a passing infatuation for. With a firm nod of acknoledgement in regards to his sacrifice Harry took his customary seat at the Gryffindor table.TBC…
Alrighty then! I have to confess I enjoy reading fics more than writing them. Whew! This is tiring but satisfying to see my daydreams on the screen. Another chapter done. I’d love to know what you all think so far. Deb thanks for the review and I hope I keep your interest. Let me know what you think of the chapter.While AFF and its agents attempt to remove all illegal works from the site as quickly and thoroughly as possible, there is always the possibility that some submissions may be overlooked or dismissed in error. The AFF system includes a rigorous and complex abuse control system in order to prevent improper use of the AFF service, and we hope that its deployment indicates a good-faith effort to eliminate any illegal material on the site in a fair and unbiased manner. This abuse control system is run in accordance with the strict guidelines specified above.
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